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London neighbours got involved in spy thriller: BBC One's Informer
Posted on 10th October 2018 by FilmFixer
The BBC’s new character-driven thriller centres around Raza, an everyday, young second generation British-Pakistani man from London who is coerced into informing on his friends, neighbours and members of his community.
Neal Street Productions, who make Informer, did a fantastic job of involving neighbours in the filming process – with around 70 residents at Thamesmead in Bexley offered roles in front of and behind the cameras.
It stars Paddy Considine as Gabe a counter-terrorism offer who recruits Nabhaan Rizwan, playing Raza as an informer. Take a look at the trailer here.
The series will air on BBC One on 16th October at 9pm.
FilmFixer manages the film office service for Peabody Estates, which looks after Thamesmead. We also run the film office service for Bexley, Bromley, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Islington and Kingston Councils – all of which hosted filming for the series.
FilmFixer CEO Karen Everett says, “The production worked so well with Thamesmead residents that they opened their doors to allow cables to be plugged in, if need be, or have cast and crew use their place as a green room, and made all sorts of other offers to help.
“Producer Julian Stevens is heading back to Thamesmead to give a special free preview screening of the show, and a talk. Everyone who took part in the local filming, the local culture group, young ambassadors group, and other residents have been invited along. We’re really grateful to Julian and director Jonny Campbell for this and all their positive engagement.”
Julian and Karen spoke a little about resident engagement during filming on the estate in January this year. Take a look here.
Karen Everett continues, “We had about 20 locals as extras in the show, a local young person helped out with stunt ideas, it was great.”
Peabody’s Cultural Programme Coordinator for Thamesmead Lisa Drew added, “Thamesmead is celebrating its 50th birthday this year and has a rich history of filming. It was the main filming location for Misfits, and most recently featured in Sam Smith’s music video and the current PUMA fashion ad. We get a lot of filming requests and for us it is important that residents are welcomed in to the process – invited to take part in filming going on at their doorstep. This becomes a great opportunity to put their interest in film and TV into practice. We were delighted that this production was so open to including Thamesmead locals. Furthermore the production also helped us establish the 50th community fund, a fund that is made up of all filming fees made through filming in Thamesmead. It is for local people to help fund community projects. For more information.
Of the filming, producer Julian Stevens has said, “The story being set in London was one of the key things that appealed to me… I wanted to see my city shown in a way that it often isn’t… the less sexy, less glamorous locations go unnoticed. It’s in those hidden corners and in the shadows that this story comes alive. There are all shades of life, joy and happiness happening in London and we had a chance to go into those places and tell a compelling story. London’s a unique city, it has people from all walks of life, all cultures, all races and I think this show does too.
“It’s a big city to get around, it’s congested and noisy and not cheap but our team rose to the challenge… It helped that we had knowledge of the challenges that London can present. We filmed in quite dense housing areas where there are a lot of people who don’t want to be disturbed. We reached out to locals early on to try to and involve them. We sat down with residents from Thamesmead in South East London and listened to their concerns. They didn’t want to be taken for granted and wanted to be engaged in the process. We came out of that with some brilliant supporting artists and really friendly local residents who let us use their houses as holding and rest areas.
“… It’s also interesting to see Raza’s character going to the hipster flat in episode one and interviewing for a loft in a place that he’s been living in his entire life. These people have only been living there for a couple of years and the scenario is quite common to London now. People come in and make an area their own but that in turn pushes people out. Raza moves through those worlds and adapts himself to them every day. He rubs shoulders with members of his local communities and the newcomers.”
Karen Everett continues, “On Thamemead some of the most dramatic scenes were filmed but we don’t want to give anything away. Less dramatic scenes include Jin getting up and heading to work, Akash fixing his car by the garages, and Nasir and David meeting.
“Scenes on the fictional estate were shot across a range of locations including the Silverlock in Southwark as well as Thamesmead.
“Peckham residents welcomed the production into Birch Close and there was a generous donation to the Atwell Estate tenants and residents association by way of thanks. These were tense scenes involving the surveillance of suspected terrorists and later a raid involving ambulance and police cars.
“Still In Southwark, there’s a scene in the clothes shop Traid on Rye Lane where a couple of characters are trying on clothes. The K-I salon on Rye Lane features, and they filmed along the Thames Path by Greenland Surrey Quays Pier.
“The yard at Floyds Builders Merchants on Ilderton Road in Southwark was used.
“There’s a big scene at Nunhead Cemetery set among rows of modest tombstones where a coffin is carried through a crowd of mourners and Raza is clocked among crowd.
“Inside THRDS studio on Latona Rd, 60 cast and crew shot scenes set inside police cars.
“At the Ark Walworth Academy School, there’s a scene of children and parents heading out of the school gates. And Printworks nightclub on Surrey Quays Road plays a Deportation Centre.
“In Lambeth, the M&A Hand Car Wash on Hinton Road saw a white van pulling in, with a man tied up in the back. Further along Hinton Road at Jet Petrol Station two old friends bump into each other at the pumps, and chat after not seeing each other for a while.
“In Lewisham on Lindal Road two cars pull up next to each other. The Rivoli Ballroom on Brockley Road hosted two days of filming.
“Under cover police drop in to Luggage & Mobile Accessories on Deptford High Street. The character Dadir follows Raza along Comet Street, revealing an Zastava M57 in his waistband to show he means business.
“The Family Halal butcher on Deptford High Street features, as well as the Albany Arts Centre.
“A detached home on Luxted Road in Bromley played a country house estate, hosting a wedding reception.
“In Orpington, Bromley, a home on Fairbank Avenue was filmed over three days, including scenes of a woman escaping through a window.
“Kington’s privately run Surrey County Council welcomed filming over three days. And Islington’s Mildmay Club hosted interior filming as well.”
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Marching altogether? Football fans taking a stand against racism
An article written by a co-founder of Leeds Fans United Against Racism and Fascism about their campaign to rid fascist and racist activity at Elland Road with their fanzine 'Marching Altogether'.
This chapter focuses on an anti-racism campaign by a group of fans at one particular English football club, Leeds United, and the cultural change it helped to bring about amongst the club’s match-going fans. In describing the campaign and highlighting some of the key issues involved , it hopes to suggest points for consideration, not only by those working against racism across a variety of sporting situations, but also for anti-racism generally. In doing so, the chapter is not offering the Leeds Fans campaign as a ‘model’ of good practice, as there were plenty of limitations and mistakes involved. Nevertheless, it was one of the pioneering, locally-based initiatives that have helped transform English football over the past twenty years from perhaps the most public manifestation of endemic racism in Britain to a situation where, whilst there is still much to do as the work of the Kick it Out Campaign shows, many of the more positive facets of multicultural Britain are now on display in the stands as well as on the pitch. The author does not subscribe to the view that the sharp decline of racist behaviour in and around English football grounds was an inevitable result of the increasingly multicultural make-up both of teams and of the society as a whole; the significant lurch towards xenophobic intolerance in previously liberal states such as the Netherlands and Denmark argues against the cosy inevitability of anti-racist success. The real progress against racism in English football has been hard-won, sometimes through struggle and conflict, and the aim here is to identify key components and issues within that progress at one particular football club. To do this, the chapter first provides some background detail of Leeds United and of the Leeds Fans United against Racism campaign, before discussing key themes and
issues.
Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!
Few teams polarise opinion amongst English football fans more than Leeds United, yet until the early 1960s, Leeds had never been a significant force. In a city arguably dominated by Rugby League, United had mostly bumbled along in the English second division. This all changed when Don Revie became manager, and within 10 years of their promotion to the top division in 1964, Leeds had become the most famous and arguably loathed team in the land. Two league championships and three other cup triumphs hardly told the story, as Leeds finished League runner-up five times, mostly when they should have won, and lost a number of high profile cup finals and semi-finals. The most famous of these defeats came in the European Cup Final of 1975 against Bayern Munich, when blatant refereeing injustices led to defeat and to fans’ rioting that resulted in a European ban. Many neutrals rejoiced in these defeats, as Leeds were seen as the epitome of the ruthless and hard-faced new era of professional football. The catchphrase ‘dirty, dirty Leeds’ stuck, as highlighted in the recent feature film adaptation of David Peace’s powerful novel, ‘The Damned United’, but many others also acknowledged that Leeds, with their stable team nurtured by Revie and their fierce collective spirit, played some of the best football seen in England in the post-war period. Just as the team rose, so it fell, with the departure of Revie to the England job, and retirement of the key personnel leading to a decline culminating in relegation in 1982.
Leeds also polarised opinion off the pitch, with the 1970s being the highpoint of English football hooliganism, and Leeds were also top contenders there. Additionally, as the 1970’s went on, racism and fascist agitation became an increasingly overt element of English fan behaviour, reflecting wider social issues and conflicts (Solomos, 2003; Gilroy, 2002). Large-scale racist chanting inside the ground and fascist paper sales outside the ground became a regular feature at Leeds United’s Elland Road ground in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as it did at many other English football clubs. Anti-racist campaigners such as the AntiNazi League attempted to respond, but this racist reality continued unabated at Elland Road throughout the 1980s.Former Guardian sports journalist Nick Varley was a Leeds fan at the time, and in ‘Park Life’ (1999), his excellent analysis of the state of English football in the 1990’s, he recalled the racist reality of his trips to Elland Road as a young fan in the 1980s:
The most shocking aspect was really just the fact of it, the unashamed, unpunished, almost unremarkable mass public display. And the revelling in it.
(Varley, 1999: 136).
Varley goes on to describe in detail the vicious racist abuse directed at Mickey Brown, a young Black player for Shrewsbury in a game in the 1986/7 season. At that time, the then-dominant fascist organisation, the National Front had a visible presence at Elland Road and at many other football grounds, selling their newspaper and youth magazine, ‘Bulldog’. In this pre-fanzine era, Bulldog was arguably a (racist) trailblazer for later (non/anti-racist) fanzines in its jokey and foul-mouthed style, with the ‘Racist League’ being a particularly popular feature amongst racist football fans. Here, racist fans at different clubs attempted to move up the ‘league’ through overt, regular racist chants and taunts. Leeds were always near the top, competing with Newcastle, Aston Villa, Chelsea and West Ham. Our campaign regularly witnessed such magazines sold in their dozens, and sometimes hundreds at Elland Road in the mid-late 1980s. Whilst organised racist chanting and fascist agitation was more obvious at some clubs than others, racism was rife across English football, reflecting the reality of day-to-day- popular racism, whereby the tabloid newspapers had spent the 1970s creating a moral panic around ‘Black Muggers’ (Hall et al, 1978), and where Mrs Thatcher had ridden to power talking about people feeling ‘rather swamped’ by ‘coloured immigration’ (Solomos, 2003). Alongside this was the issue of local histories and cultures, as Dave Hill’s (2001) examination of the racialised context of Merseyside that set the scene for John Barnes’s high profile move to Liverpool in the 1980s illustrates. Leeds has a long history of racial tension and fascist agitation, going back to the significant Jewish immigration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the attempt of Mosley’s fascist Black Shirts to exploit it ending in violent disturbances close to the Elland Road ground in September 1936, just weeks before the seminal ‘Battle of Cable Street’. Modern fascist groups also attempted to exploit tension around the significant Asian and African –Caribbean immigration to Leeds and Yorkshire from the 1950’s onwards. In football, as in society, far-right groups were not causing racism, but in football, and especially at clubs like Leeds United, they were very actively fuelling and encouraging racist behaviour, providing a real focus and identification for some young working class men, as the graffiti common in West Yorkshire in the 1970s and 80s, ‘Leeds Utd- NF’, illustrated.
It was in this context that a new, fan-led anti-racist initiative commenced in 1987, kicked off by match-going Leeds fans who were also involved in wider anti-racist work and who were sick of the racist atmosphere at Elland Road on a Saturday. Firstly a loose collection of fans uniting under the banner of the Leeds Trades Union Council, and subsequently as Leeds Fans United against Racism and Fascism, the campaign aimed to decisively change the culture at Elland Road through overtly challenging both racist behaviour amongst fans and the ongoing fascist political agitation in and around the ground. This was done initially through distribution of anti-racist stickers, leaflets and fixture calendars, and subsequently through the regular anti-racist fanzine ‘Marching Altogether’, which was published several times a season. The campaign continued until 1995, when it was judged to have done its job. Subsequently, a number of the key activists have been involved in the national Football Supporters Association and particularly in its International work which has attempted to combat racism and xenophobia and create a more positive and inclusive atmosphere around England International games. The years that the campaign did operate in were tumultuous, with campaign members assaulted and threatened by fascist activists in the early stages, but decisive victory in our own terms achieved. Similarly, on the pitch, Leeds United went from the bottom of the second division in 1988 to being Champions of England in 1992. Dull, it wasn’t!
The reality of conflict
The universal English disgust at the racist abuse faced by England’s Black players during the November 2004 friendly international in Spain, and the support from all part of the English game for Kick It Out’s annual anti-racist events suggests that that progress to anti-racist consensus has been smooth and conflict-free for English football. The experience of our campaign at Leeds was that this was far from the case, as the people and the institutions holding the real power over the experiences of ordinary football fans had to be dragged kicking and screaming towards progress. Arguably this has been, and possibly still continues to be, the case in English football more generally.
The Introduction outlined the grim, racist reality that had prevailed at Elland Road for a decade or more prior to our campaign starting in 1987, yet the people under pressure were us, the anti-racist fans who wanted to change things for the better. Having given West Yorkshire Police polite notice that a group of anti-racist fans would be handing out leaflets in a peaceful and organised manner at a future match, the Police themselves, the club and the local media all immediately swung in to action to dissuade us, and to portray the anti-racists as the troublemakers. Such attitudes were graphically illustrated by a story titled ‘Political violence feared at matches’ in the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) in late September, as the campaign prepared for the first leaflet session in October. Superintendent Jack Clapham, the officer responsible for match-day policing at Elland Road where racism and fascist organisation had been a reality for many years was quoted as saying:
My worry would be that the actions of this group will provoke a reaction from the National Front. It could prove a busy day for us when we are keeping rival fans apart.
(YEP, 26th September 1987).
This attitude that talking about racism is a much greater problem than racism itself was clearly shared by Leeds United itself, as following a highly successful first leafleting session , with a positive reaction from fans, the club secretary was quoted as saying that he had ‘no idea’ who was behind the leaflet (YEP 26/10/87) and threatening legal action for our use of the club badge on the leaflet, even though pirate merchandisers had been selling material with the same badge with impunity for years. They also refused to meet to discuss the issue, only agreeing after considerable political pressure from the late Labour MP for Leeds Central, Derek Fatchett. Astonishingly, Leeds United questioned our analysis of a major problem and challenged us to produce evidence, in what proved to be a crass error of judgement. The fact that in a FA Cup tie against Aston Villa shortly beforehand, several of Villa’s Black players were pelted with bananas in the pre-match warm up only made us more determined to make the club face reality. The result was the publication of our report ‘Terror on our Terraces’ (Leeds Trades Council, 1988) in March 1988, which received substantial coverage in national media (‘Fascist racist and violent – club branded a breeding ground for the NF thugs’ – Daily Mirror, 29/3/88). The national media coverage was fiercely critical of the raciest reality of Elland Road and the lack of action against it, ‘Exactly the widespread and critical publicity the club was anxious to avoid. They conspiracy of silence was completely broken’ (Varley,
1999:149).
As Leeds fans, we had no wish to drag our club trough the mud, or to confirm the lazy stereotypes outsiders held about Leeds United or its city, but the club had given us no choice through their refusal to recognise reality, or to show any sort of moral courage. This was emphasised by the fact that none of the evidence contained in ‘Terror on our Terraces’ was new, and had all been culled from previous media reports. That included the findings of the Popplewell Enquiry in to rioting at the Birmingham City against Leeds match in May 1985 where a teenage boy died after a wall collapsed. Popplewell identified racist behaviour and fascist organisation as key elements of the very serious and prolonged disorder, including whole groups of Leeds hooligans parading in Nazi arm bands, but this evidence had been over-looked by the attention given to the Bradford City football ground fire where over 50 people died. The fire occurred the same day as the Birmingham riot, was also covered by Popplewell, and understandably received all the media attention. The ‘Terror on our Terraces’ evidence also included details of several racist attacks, clearly highlighting the use of match days as a contact hub for fascist agitators. This was illustrated by an earlier, undercover investigation of Leeds National Front by YEP reporters who first made contact with the fascists at Elland Road.
Coupled with details from ‘participant observation’ of racist chanting, and of regular fascist paper-sales and recruitment at match days, the ‘Terror on Our Terraces’ report proved to be a tackle that the club couldn’t ride, and they knew it. At the preceding and subsequent matches, Club anti-racist leaflets signed by the manager Billy Bremner and all the players were waiting for fans at the turnstiles, and it was clear that a watershed had been reached – the club had been forced to reconsider their position through an overt external challenge, with change coming through conflict rather than through consensus. The overtly political approach of our campaign also included meetings with key councillors within the Labour-controlled Leeds City Council. Leeds Council actually owned the Elland Road ground, having bailed the football club out earlier in the decade, and as local residents we wanted to know why they weren’t taking action against racism in the ground. The support of the Local Trades Union Council and local MPs meant that we were soon talking to the Deputy Council Leader and that the local councillors on the Club’s board who hadn’t previously seemed to notice the racism were suddenly threatening to ban racists from all council facilities! Similarly, the Police Commander so critical of our initiative suddenly ‘moved on to other duties’ and was replaced with a new commander who immediately held a long and constructive meeting with the campaign, leading to a significantly changed police attitude on match days in the following seasons.
The further development of the Leeds Fans campaign and its effects are explored below, but there is a clear conclusion here about the need for hardnosed organisation and the willingness of fans to engage in overtly ‘political’ campaigning if necessary. Indeed, there is arguably a clear parallel between our local campaign at Leeds and the wider national initiative ‘Kick Racism out of Football’ (now Kick It Out), which has developed to the point where English football is rightly seen as a model of good anti-racist practice by other European football authorities. The Kick Racism out of Football campaign was established in 1993 during the initial season of the re-branded Premier League and the associated Sky pay TV deal, making it arguably part of the modern re-making of football that has brought a mixture of positive and negatives in the eyes of most match-going fans. A key issue is that the Kick Racism campaign was notinitiated by the Football Association or the other professional football bodies. Instead, it was a campaign aimed at those bodies by outsiders, including the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the government quango charged with enforcing legislation against racial discrimination and with promoting good race relations. The then Chair of the CRE (and now Lord) Herman Ouseley put considerable effort behind the campaign and continues today as the Chair of Kick It Out. This has been a consistent effort from the outside to persuade football to change. The other key players in the founding of Kick Racism were the Professional Footballers Association, the ‘Trade Union’ of professional footballers. The PFA, under the clear and positive leadership of Gordon Taylor, Garth Crooks and Brendan Batson (the latter two showing how political involvement by Black footballers themselves has been a vital component), were no longer prepared to see their members racially abused on a routine basis, and have played a vital role over more than 15 years in persuading high profile footballers and managers of all ethnic backgrounds to take clear public anti-racist stands in support of the campaign. From the start, Kick Racism out of Football was about using a mixture of public events and private meetings to persuade, or even force, the world of football to change its stance and to take meaningful actions against racism. Whilst space here does not permit a full analysis (see Back, Crabbe and Solomos, 2001 for more on this), its clear from the past decade and a half of the campaign that getting governing bodies and individual clubs to genuinely engage has been a long and painful process, involving conflict and the use of the media to ‘pressure’ them, a larger-scale parallel with the experience of our campaign at Leeds United. Nationally, this job is clearly far from complete, given the mishandling of the launch event for England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup (‘World Cup 2018 Bid in crisis talks to defuse race row’, Guardian, 20th May, 2009), where not a single ethnic minority speaker was scheduled, despite the multicultural reality of the national game, and the fact that ethnic diversity had been one of the key factors in clinching the 2012 Olympics for Britain.
Reclaiming our club
The description above of the depth and scale of the racist reality at Leeds United by the mid 1980s does suggest that the characterisation of Leeds by some outsiders as a ‘racist club’ with ‘racist fans’ was accurate. As match-going fans, we were well aware of the problems but didn’t accept the generalisation about our fans, or about their club and city. In starting our campaign, we believed that that the clear majority of Leeds fans were against racism and intolerance but didn’t currently feel able to do anything about the racism all around them on match days, beyond keep their heads down and try to blot it out. Our overriding aim of ‘reclaiming our club’ goes, I would suggest ,to the heart of effective antiracist strategies, both in sport and in wider society, in what it assumes about people and how it approaches ‘community’.
Ours was not the first attempt to overtly tackle racist behaviour and fascist organisation at Elland Road. The national growth of the National Front and their increasingly assertive presence at Leeds United on match days in the mid to late 1970s was met by regular leafleting by the Anti Nazi League, a coalition largely organised by the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party but containing wellintentioned anti-racists of all backgrounds. Nationally, the ANL and the parallel organisation Rock Against Racism played important roles in combating the surge of popular support for the NF (Gilroy, 2002). RAR, in particular, in its live music events provided ‘spaces’ for young people of different ethnic backgrounds to come together and experience both anti-racist unity and some cultural synthesis (Gilroy, 2002), and the movement was certainly a formative anti-racist experience for the author and many of his generation. There was, however, never a parallel national movement aimed at football, although individual managers like Brian Clough and Jack Charlton gave messages of support to the ANL. The result was that at Elland Road, the well-meaning ANL leafletters were largely outsiders, not Leeds, or even football, fans, and they were not familiar or comfortable with the culture and history of the club and place. This was reflected in their literature, with wide generalisation about ‘racists’ and ‘nazis’, and somewhat problematic assertions about ‘kicking the racists out of football’ when the anti-racists clearly weren’t part of football themselves. This limited the impact they could have, and they also faced real intimidation from far-right activists and racist fans. Additionally, the NF showed real doggedness , consistently leafleting and selling papers year after year, whereas the national decision of the SWP to downgrade the ANL in favour of other ‘struggles’ handed the initiative to the fascists. The implicit message here, rightly or wrongly, was that Leeds fans were not a ‘community’ that the anti-racists were truly part of or felt long-term attachment to. The perception on both sides was that the far right had ‘won’ at Elland Road, leaving many anti-racists to fear or even demonise Leeds United and their fans, sometimes with good reason, given the use of Elland Road to recruit hooligans for involvement in racist and fascist activity. Many anti-racist fans stayed away from the ground, and I was often viewed with frank surprise in the late 1980s when telling people that I went to Leeds games. This concept of having ‘lost’ could be applied to the city as a whole, with NF paper sales taking place every Saturday morning in the very centre of Leeds, and the NF having office premises.
This experience left some clear lessons for the Leeds Fans United against Racism and Fascism campaign to learn. Some of these were applied in the early leafleting sessions of the 1987/88 season. The very first appearance at the ground involved us taking almost one hundred campaign supporters in an organised convoy and leafleting in a disciplined and stewarded line. Many of these people were not Leeds fans, but rather committed anti-racists. Our intention in recruiting them for this activity was straight-forward – we were not going to be intimidated or even attacked in the way ANL leafletters were in the 1970s, as we knew such a setback would strangle the campaign at birth. These numbers had a positive effect on our own confidence and a real effect on fans – one teenage fan wandered past saying, ‘**** me, seen how many anti-racists there are!’ The size of our anti-racist contingent clearly encouraged many ordinary fans, with countless coming up to take leaflets and thank us for doing it, whilst visibly agitating the much small group of fascist paper sellers. Another key point was that, although many of our campaign leafleters were active in different political groups, we made a strict condition of participation that no other political literature whatsoever should be displayed or distributed; instead the focus was just on our leaflets, which were addressed to Leeds fans in accessible anti-racist language, with reference to recent team events and no concern with any wider political agendas. Interestingly, the Leeds SWP refused to participate in the campaign because they couldn’t sell their own political newspapers.
Whilst this approach was highly successful, limitations soon became apparent, as a minority of Leeds fans questioned the credibility of some leafletters. Watching one fan press a clearly uncomfortable non-Leeds supporting leafleter by asking ‘So, who plays left-back for us then? You don’t know do you? Do you know the names of anyone in our team??’ convinced us that we couldn’t go any further on that basis without falling in to the same trap as the ANL of the 1970s. From then, only genuine Leeds fans took part in leafleting sessions, and we launched our fanzine ‘Marching Altogether’, a free magazine clearly written by and for genuine fans. The facts that the content of the fanzine could only have been written by regular match-goers, that the same people were seen outside the ground distributing it time after time, and that we could then be seen inside the ground were all crucial to the credibility we developed over time. The contrary fact that NF paper sellers did not go to the games, instead packing up and leaving before kick-off, was something that we noticed and highlighted to fans consistently. This coupled with the evidence in the ‘Terror on our Terraces’ report helped us to plant and promote the idea with fans that the National Front, and implicitly, the ideas they stood for, were ‘outsiders’ with no interest in or commitment to Leeds United, and who were doing nothing but giving ‘us ‘ a bad reputation. We knew we were making progress on this strategy when we observed fans going out of their way to approach NF papersellers and say things along the lines of, ‘**** off, Hitler lovers!!’. Phil Cohen (1988) has identified how racism has often been deployed in close-knit British working class areas as a form of defence for a quasi-biological ‘community’ against ‘outsiders’ but that local identity has also been a real block historically to the spread of fascist political influence. Cohen identifies how such understandings of local autonomy and pride were deployed in East London in the 1930s to counter Mosley’s Black Shirts. Our campaign had a similar experience as we managed to portray fascist agitators and, by association, vocal racists, as ‘outsiders’ indifferent to the image and pride of ‘our’ club. Leeds fans have always had an ‘us against the world’ mentality, and our success in portraying racists and fascists as part of ‘them’ who wanted to damage Leeds and its fans was crucial to our overall success. Here, we squarely aimed at changing the ‘Leeds Utd. NF’ reflex of many young fans in to a contrary ‘Leeds Utd. against NF’ position. The fact that we, and hence Leeds fans, received complimentary media coverage in a BBCTV ‘Sports Night’ piece and a Channel Four documentary ‘Great Britain United’ all helped to accentuate the positiveness of our campaign to the club, at a time when the team’s fortunes were also steadily improving. This was re-enforced by dogged leafleting and fanzine production, financed only by donations from fans, season after season. The contrast with previous and unsuccessful approaches was highlighted around the end of our campaign in 1995/96, when the SWP had decided nationally to resuscitate the ANL as a ‘front’ campaign for their far-left political party. ANL activists, led by a coordinator wearing an Arsenal baseball cap (we were playing Newcastle that day) appeared at our pub and asked us the way to the ground so they could go and leaflet! When they did find their way there, they received an extremely negative reception from fans as they’d appeared out of nowhere and their leaflets had nothing to do with Leeds United or football, instead berating people about ‘racists’. The contrast was instructive.
A related issue here is obviously the personal motivation of fans leading an antiracist campaign. As regular fans and season ticket holders, we regarded the club and fellow fans as a ‘community’ we were part of, not as something to be picked up and put down again when we fancied. Leeds United was and remains a big part of our lives. Whilst we held great empathy and anger about the abuse Black players and fans had been forced to endure at Elland Road, our motivation was more personal than that. Indeed, at a public meeting in Manchester to launch the Kick Racism out of Football campaign, PFA Deputy Chairman Brendan Batson commented that, whilst he appreciated fans campaigns, he ‘didn’t need other peoples’ help’. Having been a pioneer on the field in the 1970s, Batson's views are understandable, but we weren’t carrying out our campaign to ‘help’ Brendan or other Black players. Our motivation was that our own values meant that we couldn’t and wouldn’t stand on the terraces and accept racism all around us, we weren’t prepared to go home after games feeling dirty by association, and we weren’t prepared to be driven away from somewhere we were profoundly attached to.
Starting where we were at
A frequent, and often justified, criticism of anti-racism is that it pays too much attention to fascist and organised racist groups, rather than the deeper and ‘taken for granted’ everyday reality of racism (Hall et al, 1978). Additionally, in a football context there has been concern that racism and hooliganism have been portrayed as synomanous in that racists and violent hooligans have been seen as one and the same as deviant ‘others’. Indeed, in discussing our campaign, Back, Crabbe and Solomos (2001) suggest that: In order to mobilise support against a readily recognisable foe and win support from the authorities the report ‘Terror on our Terraces’ unconsciously helped to establish the parameters of debate within the confines of the racist-hooligan couplet (p.188). They do go on to acknowledge why this approach may well have been needed, but whilst I don’t agree, their thrust is understandable. The ‘Terror on Our Terraces’ report and the associated media coverage described above was a calculated move to force Leeds United into acknowledgement of the problem and action. This meant that, to a certain extent, we were tactically using the role of fascist groups within football violence to provoke more widespread anti-racist actions. Similarly, it is clear that media portrayal of the rioting that forced the abandonment of the 1995 Ireland – England friendly international match in Dublin as inspired by far-right group Combat 18 both forced and enabled the Football Association to strengthen its commitment to the fledging Kick Racism campaign. Our subsequent priority as a campaign was not on the club and its actions, but on fan culture, believing that this was the only thing we could directly influence and change as fellow fans.
Here, our significant focus on fascist groups, their impact on racist behaviour and their links to violence around Leeds United in our fanzine and leaflets was because of the historic reality outlined above. The racism of wider British society, arguably directly connected to colonialism and empire (Gilroy, 2002), provided the origins of the blatant racist behaviour at Elland Road, but the long-term presence of groups like the NF was both an accelerant and a symbol, with that presence making many ethnic minority and anti-racist white fans feel that they could not go to Leeds United whilst fascists were there. Similarly, the violence quoted in ‘Terror on Our Terraces’ was not the sort of pre-planned meet-up between consenting groups of rival hooligans that predominates today (Varley, 1999) but blatant and violent racial assaults, sometimes on entire groups or communities. For all these reasons, we had to focus on fascist groups, both because of their real impact, and because of the wider cultural battle that they had come to symbolise.
In doing so, we were well aware of the need to engage with day to day racism of ‘law-abiding’ ordinary fans, with a number of us closely involved in anti-racist educational practice as teachers or youth and community workers. Close examination of the twenty-something issues of ‘Marching Altogether’ suggests that there was indeed a clear engagement with mundane racial prejudice and discrimination. For instance, Issue no. 1 of September 1988 had an article detailing the British birth and education of many Black players of the time, directly engaging with popular prejudices about ‘foreigners’ and immigration (‘This...clearly shows that all this ‘send them back’ stuff is a complete load of crap’), whilst later issues focussed on racist comments, such as the statement by Crystal Palace Chairman Ron Noades that Black players couldn’t be relied on in the winter - he’d clearly never met our very ‘robust’ Black defender Noel Blake! In focussing on our current Black players, and past Leeds heroes such as Albert Johanesson, the South African winger who was the first Black player to play in an a FA Cup Final in 1965, we were able to debate the stupidity and hypocrisy of racially abusing opposition Black players. In producing our popular annual fixture calendars (which always had multiracial images), we invited fans to put up overt pro- Leeds/anti-racist material at home and in their workplaces. As fans , we knew the impact that such debates in the fanzine provoked, not only through the letters we received and the fans who came to talk to us outside the ground, but because we could over hear conversations on the terraces. A frequently overheard conversation in the early stages was along the lines of ‘you can’t say that any more...’. In fact, it would be years before the club took such proactive measures; instead, such conversations represented the self-adjustment to fan cultures and assumptions that we’d helped to provoke.
In trying to change the norms of fan culture from within, we were, and identified ourselves as being, part of a wider fan’s movement. We drew support and inspiration from an informal, fledgling network of fan’s anti-racist campaigns, such as the ‘Geordies are Black and White’ campaign at Newcastle United and the ‘Foxes against Racism’ initiative at Leicester City. The wider ‘fanzine’ movement was growing rapidly across the country at the same time, with many fanzines taking overt positions against racism and fascism. The term ‘fanzine’ may not be recognisable internationally (cartoonist Big Dave, who was starting to learn French, explained our fanzine as ‘c'est un magasin de fanatiques!’ to a clearly bemused Eric Cantona at the party to celebrate our 1992 League Championship triumph), but fanzines were and are strictly unofficial magazines, written by and for ordinary fans, and reflecting the robust wit, wisdom and language of the terraces. ‘When Saturday Comes’ emerged as a progressive national fanzine at a time when much national newspaper football coverage was poor and sometimes racist, whilst fanzines bloomed at every club. In establishing our fanzine ‘Marching Altogether’, we were part of that movement. What made us unique was two things; firstly that we were the only fanzine nationally established to promote anti-racism; secondly, our fanzine was free! Our thinking here was that we knew some fans would buy it, but we wanted to communicate with fans less likely to buy fanzines, especially younger fans who had been attracted to racist literature in the past. As a result, we produced several thousand copies of each issue of our fanzine and distributed them outside the ground, using them as a tool for conversation with fans. This idea of the free fanzine provided the inspiration for the ‘Free Lions’ fanzine , produced for all England International Games by the Football Supporters Federation (formerly the FSA) International group (Miles, 2000). From the first issue of ‘Marching Altogether’, copies went quickly, with fans pleading for copies when we’d already run out!
Within the fanzine, we overtly made connections with wider fan’s issues. This wasn’t a tactic to ingratiate ourselves, but because we saw anti-racism as part of a wider perspective on the rights and responsibilities of football fans generally at a time when they were treated like scum by the Police, football clubs and politicians – these were the people who gave us the appalling conditions and treatment that culminated in the Hillsborough disaster, then tried to blame fans themselves for it. Yes, there was unacceptable hooliganism in the perod, but collective punishment seemed to be the order of the day, and in those conditions all sort of anti-social behaviour, including racism, was likely to flourish. This feeling was two-way, with the Football Supporter’s Association making us one of the first recipients of their ‘Services to Soccer’ Award, a huge boost to our confidence. We petitioned Leeds fans against the Identity cards for football fans proposed by Mrs Thatcher, we publicised the Hillsborough 96 Justice campaign and the culpability of South Yorkshire Police in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, and we highlighted the ‘safe standing’ campaign. In doing this, we were prepared to be overtly critical of the football authorities and our own club at the same time as pressuring them to do more about racism. These fan’s issues weren’t an add-on to campaigning against racism, they were part of a wider perspective that demanded dignity, equality and respect for all football fans and participants, and our credibility with fans grew because were genuinely just as concerned with those issues as our core, founding issue.
Trusting the fans
Both racism and wider fan’s issues were discussed in our fanzine in robust and irreverent ways, in keeping with the approach and appeal of fanzines generally. This included a great deal of humour, with one of our most effective and popular anti-racist features being the regular cartoon-strip ‘One Hundred and One things to do with a Nazi skinhead’ (unsurprisingly, things never turned out well for the aforementioned racist…). We also had a ‘Crap Haircuts’ cartoon, and regularly selected the ‘Football ugly eleven’! Our belief was that we were more likely to change people’s thinking through making them laugh, particularly if we were mocking racism and intolerance, rather than lecturing them in ‘heavy’ language. We saw this as a contrast to the leaflets and newspapers of many anti-racist campaigns and political parties that are often turgid and hectoring. As discussed above, we were well aware of the dangers of focussing on overt fascist groups (Back, Crabbe and Solomos, 2001), but these cartoon strips were responding to concrete realities within our fans. For a while, the cartoon became ‘One hundred and one things to do with a Ku Klux Klansman’ because at the crucial away game in Bournemouth at which promotion back to the top division was clinched in May 1990 there was considerable violence, some of it overtly racist in character, and the ring leaders of the latter were a significant number of fans dressed in KKK gear. The cartoon was aimed at isolating them and the ‘taken for granted’ racism that they traded on. The cartoon had originally been focused on ‘Nazi Skinheads’ because that’s who we had outside the ground selling racist newspapers on a regular basis! At one game against Chelsea in 1988, we had almost 30 Skinhead and Casual Nazis leafleting at the ground, a hugely intimidating reality for many ordinary fans, and that’s why we used crude but effective humour to isolate and ridicule them. In doing this, we had twin aims of avoiding ‘preaching’ or lecturing and of appealing to what we firmly believed was the majority of ‘ordinary decent fans’ (a phrase we used consistently), both of which raise wider issues around how to develop a anti-racism that is genuinely effective, both in sport and wider society. As highlighted above, a number of the key campaign personnel were involved in anti-racist educational activity in their day jobs, part of a movement that has had a real impact on attitudes and cultural practice in society.
However, anti-racism has also had limitations and problematic features. This has been particularly evident when it has focussed on white working class young people and their communities, with some analysts detecting a ‘white backlash’ (Hewitt, 2005) from such communities. The evidence here is that significant numbers of white working class young people felt that they were being judged negatively and treated partially by anti-racist policies in schools, youth clubs and other settings that saw much of their language and behaviour as ‘racist’, and so punished it, whilst not applying the same scrutiny to people of different ethnic or social backgrounds. For instance, confrontations between young people of different ethnic backgrounds were seen as inevitably ‘racist’ on the part of the white young people, who were judged accordingly, rather than a more complex understanding of motivation applied. At the same time, anti-racism and multiculturalism appeared to ‘celebrate’ different ethnic minority cultures and religions whilst having nothing but criticism for traditions and norms of old established white working class communities (Hewitt, 2005). Much of this appeared to be as much a class-based condemnation, with middle class professionals quick to seize on the ‘racism’ of working class communities before retreating to their largely monocultural suburban enclaves. We were determined as a campaign not to appear to be judging or condemning ordinary, fans, or be dismissive of the wider fan culture at Elland Road of which racism was currently a part. That explains why, contrary to critiques (Back, Crabbe and Solomos, 2001), we didn’t link racism and hooliganism, or have a problem with aggression towards the opposition, as we highlighted in our response to anti-semitic chanting in match at Tottenham during the championship-winning 1991-92 season:
Hate Spurs because they are flash, niggly, time-wasting Cockney bastards, but leave this Jewish shit out... That’s what Belsen means – millions of innocent people dead.
(Marching Altogether, No.14, 1992)
That also explains why we prioritised the wider fan’s issues ( I and thousands of other Leeds fans still don’t sit down at games to this day, even when ‘ordered’ to do so by jobsworth stewards).
An associated criticism of ‘anti-racism’ was that, with its simplistic dichotomy of White= powerful, Black = oppressed, all white people were seen as inherently racist, ignorant and guilty (with the opposite implicitly implied for all non-white people) (Bhavnani, 2001).As a campaign, we rejected this view as wrong and unnecessarily pessimistic. Instead, we believed (and continue to believe) that the majority of ordinary decent people are fair-minded and not sympathetic to crass racist prejudices. Our approach was to appeal to them and empower them, both by ridiculing and culturally isolating the blatant racists, but also by subtly and steadily influencing thinking and assumptions through fanzine content that didn’t preach but instead made people both laugh and think. From that perspective, even fans who had engaged in racist chanting or comments on the terraces in the past, should not necessarily be quickly condemned as ‘racists’. Indeed, in the early years of the campaign, we had a steady stream of fans coming up to us to say that they had joined in like sheep in the past and now realised that it was hurtful, stupid and wrong. We are all products of out cultural surroundings, and we were trying to nudge the cultural norm at Elland Road from an open acceptance of racism to the opposite. Just as we did not accept the simplistic notion of ‘racist’ fans, so we were not under any illusions that fans were now ‘anti-racist’. Here, helping to create a norm of non-racist behaviour, and selfpolicing of it, amongst fans was our realistic goal within the context of a problematic wider society. Self-policing was a key value for our campaign and the wider fan’s movement that it was part of, and we had concrete evidence of it developing around racism. In the years following the campaign’s end, we witnessed a number of incidents where racist comments or confrontations amongst fans were met on each occasion by a number of different fans telling the racist/s to shut up in no uncertain terms, as well as making formal complaints. The fact that Leeds United followed up with firm and effective action against the racists (I had personal experience of a racist I confronted and complained about having his season ticket cancelled) was a bonus, with both aspects demonstrating the huge cultural change that had taken place at Elland Road over a decade.
One of the limitations for anti-racism in wider society has been how it has been perceived as yet another way in which people in power such as teachers tell working class people what to do, think and how to behave, with this limiting its effectiveness (Cohen,1988). For that reason, whilst firm action by clubs against racist behaviour is to be welcomed, there is the danger that ‘official’ anti-racism can be seen as another way of clubs telling fans what to do, so inviting some fans to test ‘authority’: attempts to impose further external controls on fan racism can all too easily be read as part of a perceived strategy to change the match ay atmosphere (Back, Crabbe and Solomos, 2001: 198). We had a illustration of this in the early part of this century at a time when we were flying high in the Premier League with a vibrant , multicultural team and a positive fan atmosphere, with a clumsy and heavy-handed ‘Kick Racism’ video shown on the big screen every half-time to a mixture of profound indifference and bemusement. Similarly, the parade of anti-racist banners at Elland Road and other grounds as part of the annual ‘Kick Racism out of Football’ week is greeted by some polite applause but also with a ‘whatever’ attitude from some people as it’s the club telling them what to think, totally unconnected with the actual local situation.
The danger of clumsy anti-racism that is trying to impose an agenda, rather than responding to real issues amongst fans was shown at Leeds by the Bowyer/Woodgate affair. In early 2000, just as Leeds United were making an audacious bid for the Premiership title and European glory, key young players Jonathon Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were involved in a violent assault on a young Asian student. It was clear that a vicious attack had taken place, but was it a racist assault? The fact that Bowyer had a previous racially-aggravated conviction meant that campaigners like the National Campaign for Civil Rights were talking about a ‘racial attack’ long before prosecutors had even considered the evidence. In a febrile atmosphere, Leeds fans divided. A small minority expressed their stupidity, and possibly racism, by lauding Bowyer at every opportunity; another minority booed, and the large majority said nothing, failing to clap Bowyer but keeping their counsel until they knew the real facts. In this context, we were urged by national football campaigners to resurrect our campaign and leaflet ‘against racism’, but our response was that we didn’t know the facts about whether it was ‘racist’ or not, there had not been a racist response at the ground and that any leaflet would be counterproductive. Predictability, the ambulance-chasing SWP turned up at the ground and received an overwhelmingly hostile response from fans. In fact, prosecutors did not bring racially-aggravated charges, Woodgate was convicted and Bowyer was cleared. Whether racism really was a factor or not, both had clearly played a role in a cowardly attack, and most Leeds fans were glad to see the back of the pair of them when they moved on.
Conclusion: Where we are now
As a season ticket holder watching Leeds United play in the third division in 2009/10, the campaign described above feels like it’s from another time in another country. It’s some years since there were any reports of racist chanting amongst Leeds fans. There is no guarantee that an occasional match-goer would not find themselves sat next to a racist, but my experience is that any complaints about racist comments are dealt with promptly and seriously. Ironically, this changed atmosphere has not affected the open homophobia, with chanting regularly marring matches against Brighton, which is perceived to be a ‘gay’ town, a problem finally being recognised nationally by the Football Authorities (‘Kick Homophobia out of Football’, The Guardian, 18th August 2009)). The ex-Leeds player celebrated most regularly is the Black South African defender and all-round hero Lucas Radebe. Leeds United does reflect the ongoing national problems of continued ethnic minority under- representation generally in the stands and lack of Asian presence on the pitch (Bains and Johal, 1998), although the emergence of a young, Leeds born Asian player, Harpal Singh, a few years ago created genuine excitement amongst many Leeds fans. His failure to break through didn’t alter the fact that many fans are keen to see Asian players at a time when Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah and Monty Panesar are part of the England cricket squad. The culture of English football, of which racism was once a part, has changed, largely for the better. Some of this is because some working class young men have been priced out, but racism has largely disappeared because fans and society have changed, and fans campaigns like ours at Leeds have played a positive role in that process.
Dr. Paul Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Youth and Community Work at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Paul’s PhD was on Community Cohesion work with young people, and current research focuses on multiculturalism and identity. A season-ticket holder at Leeds United football club for over twenty years, Paul was a co-founder of the Leeds Fans United Against Racism and Fascism campaign and was later Chair of the International Committee of the national Football Supporters Association.
Back, L., Crabbe, T. and Solomos, J. (2001) The Changing face of football: racism, identity and multiculture in the English game, Oxford: Berg.
Bains, J. and Johal, S. (1998) Corner Flags and Corner Shops: The Asian football experience, London: Victor Gollancz
Bhavnani, R. (2001) Rethinking interventions in racism, Stoke-on –Trent: Trentham Books
Cohen, P. (1988) ‘The perversions of inheritance’ in P.Cohen and H.S. Bains (eds.) Multi-Racist Britain, London: Macmillan
Gilroy (2002) (3rd edition with new introduction) There ain’t no Black in the Union Jack, London: Routledge
Hall, S. et al (1978) Policing the Crisis, London: MacMillan
Hewitt, R. (2005) White Backlash: The Politics of Multiculturalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hill, Dave (2001) (2nd Edition) Out of his Skin: The John Barnes Phenomenon, London: WSC Books
Leeds Trades Council (1988) Terror on our Terraces, Leeds: Leeds TUC
Leeds Fans United against Racism and Fascism (1988-1995) Marching Altogether fanzine, Leeds: LFUARAF
Miles, K. (2000) An England Fan Abroad: Euro 200 and Beyond, Edinburgh: Canongate
Thomas, P. (1995) ‘Kicking racism out of football: a supporter’s view’, Race and Class, 36:4, pp.95-100
Varley, N. (1999) Park Life, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Original article can be found here http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/9287/
Marching Altogether? Football Fans Taking a Stand Against Racism PDF 188.68 KB
Feb 18 2012 04:25
Leeds Fans United Against Racism and Fascism
The culture of English football, of which racism was once a part, has changed, largely for the better. Some of this is because some working class young men have been priced out, but racism has largely disappeared because fans and society have changed.
Marching Altogether? Football Fans Taking a Stand Against Racism PDF (188.68 KB)
The Black Footballer’s Dilemma
Clark Carlisle looks back at the challenges black players faced at a time when racist abuse from the terraces and insults in the dressing room were a regular occurrence.
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Welcome Alexis Weiss
April 21, 2020 April 21, 2020 by John Jackson
Please join us in welcoming Alexis Weiss to the William H. Hannon Library! Alexis is our new Reference & Instruction Librarian for Theology.
Prior to coming to LMU in mid-March, Alexis was the director of library services at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona and before that, Director for Library and Archives at Naropa University. She also has experience as an indexer-editor at ATLA Religion Database. Alexis earned her Master of Library Science from Texas Woman’s University with a focus on academic libraries. She holds an Master of Arts in the History of Religion from Naropa University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, with a minor in Religious Studies, from Hendrix College.
In order to get to know Alexis a little better, we asked her a few questions about coming to LMU:
What drew you to the world of libraries?
“I stared working in libraries as a grad student in Buddhist Studies and it really just suited me, so I stuck with it. I get to focus on my academic field and teach others how to find information on it. What really inspired me is seeing people get really excited about the research that they are doing; seeing the joy that comes in finding those perfect nuggets of knowledge and truth on the faces of others is inspiring. I’m also a bit of a book dragon (a collector of books), so getting to be around huge collections and especially rare books is both exciting and comforting.”
What goals/hopes do you have for this year as our new Theology Librarian?
“I think in my first year my biggest priority is to build relationships with faculty and students. I believe that it is the relationships we make that inspire and change lives. I want to reach out as much as possible while we are in the digital realm so that students feel that they can come to me, even when we are at a distance and I am excited at the chance to work with everyone in person when the time comes. There is great joy in serving others.”
How has your prior experience prepared you for this role at the William H. Hannon Library?
“I was an Indexer/Analyst for the Atla Religion Database for five years as well as the editor for the Research in Ministry database. I think that this work rounded me out well in the myriad of subjects surrounding religion and theology, as my academic background is heavily weighted in the religions of India. It also means I know the back end of that system, which is quite helpful. I also was an Atla member for seven years and have extensive work collaborating with librarians at other theological schools. After a few years away I am looking forward to seeing my colleagues again. Finally, I have been the director of a small library for the last eight years, so I have learned to do some of everything (reference, management, cataloging, etc.).”
What projects will you be tackling first?
“With such amazing predecessors I think that my biggest project is filling their shoes. I want to be sure I am of service first; major project thinking will wait until we are back in the physical space.”
What are you currently reading, watching, or listening to?
“My preferences tend to be a little out there. For books I am currently rereading Clive Barker’s Imajica, listening to the audiobook of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, and rereading an old one I’ve had since undergrad: B. Alan Wallace’s Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind. Music today was a collection of European metal bands (Finntroll, Eths, Dark Oath); tomorrow it might be reggae or ambient Tibetan chant.”
We are delighted to have Alexis on our staff at the William H. Hannon Library. Please join us in welcoming her to our campus community!
Ten Movies to Describe Your Life: Quarantine Edition
National Poetry Month 2020: LMU Librarians’ Recommendations
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Gov. Sisolak issues stay-at-home order, activates state National Guard
CARSON CITY — Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a statewide stay-at-home order for Nevada’s 3 million residents Wednesday, joining 37 other states and several of America’s biggest cities in enacting a coronavirus quarantine that now extends to more than three-quarters of the U.S. population.
The governor late in the day also activated the Nevada National Guard, a move that enables the state to seek federal assistance to support the guard’s activities. Those activities include logistics around supply delivery and distribution.
The stay-at-home directive came as confirmed coronavirus cases in Nevada closed in on 1,300 with 32 deaths, with the rate of growth following the exponential path health experts have warned about. The order will be in effect until at least April 30. It also extends the previously mandated closure of schools, casinos and nonessential businesses by two weeks, to at least April 30.
Building on previous directives
Sisolak’s 10th directive under the state of emergency he declared March 12 flatly states that “all Nevadans are ordered to stay in their residences” but provides limited exceptions for essential activities. Gatherings outside the home are also prohibited, subject to the same exceptions.
The new directive “strengthens the imperative that Nevadans must not leave their homes for nonessential activities in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Sisolak said in a statement. “This directive builds on previous directives around school closures, social distancing, closure of nonessential businesses, and bans on public gatherings of 10 or more people by requiring you stay at home unless leaving is absolutely necessary.”
Later, at a press conference in the state Capitol where he announced the National Guard activation and other measures, the governor added: “Some people just wanted us to say it’s a stay-at-home order, and that’s what we’re doing now, so that’s got us to today.”
Nevada National Guard Maj. Gen. Ondra Berry, who spoke at the briefing, said the activation order “has just aligned us with what is already around the country.” He added that no first responders, medical personnel or anyone else with “a critical job right now will be taken away” from those jobs.
“Probably the biggest thing that will be important is the logistics standpoint,” Berry said. “There are so many people who are providing supplies, (personal protective equipment), giving us support, and so we will help with that.”
He added that guard members “also have the ability to work alongside some of the critical care workers if needed.”
The governor also announced a directive aimed at rapidly expanding the state’s health care workforce by waiving certain requirements to allow “certain doctors, nurses, EMTs and even medical students to go to work right now,” along with health care professionals from out of state and abroad. It also permits those who have retired “to come back into practice without leaping over hurdles.”
Stay-at-home exceptions
Exceptions to the stay-at-home order are carried over from the governor’s earlier directives and permit trips to buy groceries, visit doctors or engage in outdoor recreation, provided that people keep 6 feet away from others and “do not congregate in groups beyond their household members.” The order also does not prevent people from leaving their homes to pick up food from restaurants on a curbside pickup or drive-thru basis or to work for businesses exempt from mandatory closure. It also exempts homeless people.
Sisolak’s latest directive follows orders that closed schools, then casinos and finally all nonessential business in the state to keep people at a distance from one another and stem the spread of infection. It comes a day after the governor issued an urgent request that travelers visiting or returning to Nevada quarantine themselves for up to 14 days.
Nevada reported its first COVID-19 case on March 5. As of Wednesday afternoon, the state’s reported case total was 1,279, nearly triple the number from a week ago. The Southern Nevada Health District reported eight additional deaths from the virus on Tuesday alone, the highest single-day number yet reported.
The latest mandate adds weight to the governor’s earlier calls for people to stay at home wherever possible.
Sisolak said as recently as last Thursday that a stay-at-home order was still on the table for Nevada. During a news conference last week, he expressed frustration that some people in the state were not taking social distancing and self-isolation seriously.
Asked if violations of the order risked sanctions, including possible arrest, Sisolak said such penalties enacted in other states have proved “difficult to enforce” and that he did not “feel the time is appropriate” for such enforcement.
“We’re asking our citizens to cooperate,” he said. “You’ve seen it before. I’ve had to ask, and then I’ve had to direct. You know, I am asking people to stay home for Nevada. Our law enforcement officers are busy dealing with everything that we’ve put in place.”
Governor frustrated
Asked later about dire projections for the disease’s impact on the state and its residents, the governor said he was focused exclusively “on suppressing the curve and doing everything we can to practice social distancing to get people to understand what’s going on.
“It’s frustrating,” he added, “when I drive around town, whether it’s up here or in Southern Nevada, and I see 10 kids at a basketball court.”
In addition to Nevada, 37 other states have issued stay-at-home orders affecting at least 270 million Americans. Other counties and cities have local orders in place. Only five states — North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas — have no standing order from the state or any local governments urging residents to stay home.
Since the first U.S. case was reported in Washington on Jan. 20, followed by the first U.S. death there on Feb. 29, the U.S. case total has surpassed that of any other country. As of Wednesday morning, the U.S. had more than 190,000 reported cases, nearly 40 percent of them in New York. The virus has caused more than 4,000 deaths nationwide.
As he closed the 35-minute briefing, Sisolak again made an impassioned plea for people to stay home, invoking the sacrifice that everyday Nevadans — grocery clerks, delivery drivers, doctors, nurses and emergency responders — were making to help others.
“These first responders, these truck drivers that are delivering this stuff to the stores, grocery store clerks, they never thought they’d be putting themselves in the line of danger when they got a job as a grocery store stocker,” he said. “They are stepping up to help our state, and I am asking every single Nevadan … to step up for Nevada.”
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643 F. 2d 195 - Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation Adams Extract Co Cfs v. Pleasure Hours Inc U S Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation Adams Extract Co Cfs
643 F2d 195 Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation Adams Extract Co Cfs v. Pleasure Hours Inc U S Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation Adams Extract Co Cfs
1981-1 Trade Cases 63,966
In re CORRUGATED CONTAINER ANTITRUST LITIGATION.
ADAMS EXTRACT CO., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
Great Northern Packaging Corp., et al., CFS Continental,
Inc., et al., Rossville Packing Co., et al., Andre-Boudin
Bakeries, Inc., et al., Townhouse Furniture, et al., Denver
Meat Co., et al., Carron Manufacturing Co., Ilikon Corp.,
Wittek Golf Supply Co., Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants-Appellees,
PLEASURE HOURS, INC., et al., St. Joe Paper Co., The
Continental Group, Olinkraft, Inc., Container Corporation of
America, The Chesapeake Corporation of Virginia,
Owens-Illinois, Inc., MacMillan Bloedel, Inc., Inland
Container Corp., Menasha Corp., U. S. Corrugated Fibre-Box
Co., Stone Container Corp., Defendants- Appellants-Appellees.
CFS Continental, Inc., et al., Townhouse Furniture, et al.,
Rossville Packing Co., et al., Denver Meat Co., et al.,
Carron Manufacturing Co., Andre-Boudin Bakeries, Inc.,
Ilikon Corp., Great Northern Packaging Corp., et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants-Appellees,
Pleasure Hours, Inc., et al., London Dry Ltd., et al.,
Plaintiffs- Objectors-Appellants-Appellees,
The CHESAPEAKE CORPORATION OF VIRGINIA, et al., Stone
Container Corp., Defendants-Appellants-Appellees.
Nos. 80-1018 and 80-1103
Fifth Circuit.
Aram A. Hartunian, Marshall Patner, Pressman & Hartunian, Chtd., Chicago, Ill., Michael Perrin, Wayne Fisher, Fisher, Rock & Gallagher, Houston, Tex., for Great Northern Packaging Corp.
Granvil I. Specks, Perry Goldberg, Gary L. Specks, Specks & Goldberg, Chicago, Ill., for CFS Continental, Inc. et al.
Michael J. Freed, Joseph A. Ginsburg, Levin, Ginsburg & Novoselsky, Lawrence H. Eiger, Muchy, Shelist, Freed, Denenberg, Ament & Eiger, Chicago, Ill., for Rossville Packaging Co., et al.
R. Clifford Potter, Dennis P.W. Johnson, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, Chicago, Ill., for Boise Cascade Corp.
James B. Sloan, Michael P. Connelly, Sloan & Connelly, Chicago, Ill., for Ilikon Corp.
Phillip C. Goldstick, Goldstick & Smith, Chicago, Ill., for Wittek Golf Supply Co.
Fletcher H. Etheridge, Houston, Tex., for Alton Box Board Co., et al.
Richard N. Carrell, Houston, Tex., for St. Joe Paper Co.
Bader & Bader, White Plains, N. Y., for London Dry Ltd. and Pleasure Hours, Inc., et al.
Guido Saveri, Saveri & Saveri, San Francisco, Cal., for Andre-Boudin Bakeries, Inc. et al.
Ellis Sostrin, Sostrin & Walner, Chicago, Ill., for Townhouse Furniture et al.
Robert H. Weir, San Jose, Cal., for Denver Meat Co., et al.
Lawrence Walner, Chicago, Ill., Leonard Barrack, Barrack, Rodos & McMahon, Philadelphia, Pa., for Carron Mfg. Co.
W. Donald McSweeney, Thomas P. Luning, Janet M. Koran, Schiff, Hardin & Waite, Chicago, Ill., for Continental Group, Inc.
C. Kenneth Shank, Jr., New York City, for Olinkraft, Inc.
David E. Bennett, Chicago, Ill., for Container Corp. of America.
Thomas G. Slater, Jr., Ray V. Hartwell, III, Douglas W. Kenyon, Richmond, Va., John D. Roady, Houston, Tex., for Chesapeake Corp. of Va.
John D. Roady, Lynda M. Jenkins, Hutcheson & Grundy, Houston, Tex., for Owens-Illinois, Inc.
MacDonald Flinn, New York City, for MacMillan Bloedel, Inc.
David T. Hedges, Jr., Houston, Tex., for Inland Container Corp.
Stephen D. Susman, Susman & McGowan, Houston, Tex., Vance K. Opperman, McGovern, Opperman & Paquin, Minneapolis, Minn., Allen D. Black, Fine, Kaplan and Black, Philadelphia, Pa., Jerry S. Cohen, Kohn, Milstein & Cohen, Washington, D.C., H. Laddie Montague, Jr., Berger & Montague, P.C., Philadelphia, Pa., Charles D. Kipple, Saccomanno, Clegg, Martin & Kipple, Houston, Tex., Kenton C. Granger, Anderson, Granger, Nagels & Lastelic, Overland Park, Kan., Lowell E. Sachnoff, Sachnoff, Schrager, Jones, Weaver & Rubenstein, Ltd., Jack Corinblit, Corinblit, Shapero & Seltzer, Los Angeles, Cal., Lawrence J. Hayes, Maun, Green, Hayes, Simon, Aretz and Murray, St. Paul, Minn., for Adams Extract Co., et al.
Henry L. King, Davis, Polk & Wardwell, New York City, for International Paper Co.
William A. Stearns, Milwaukee, Wis., for Menasha Corp.
David Bland, Houston, Tex., for U. S. Corrugated Fibre-Box Co.
Robert J. Malinak, Houston, Tex., Gottlieb & Schwartz, Chicago, Ill., for Stone Container Corp.
John H. Morrison, Jeffery M. Cross, G. Christian Kronberg, Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, Ill., for Weyerhaeuser Co.
Thomas P. Hanrahan, Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, Ill., for Willamette Industries, Inc.
Michael H. King, Alexander R. Domanskis, Eric S. Palles, Ross, Hardies, O'Keefe, Babcock & Parsons, Chicago, Ill., for Cons. Packaging Corp.
Kael B. Kennedy, Arthur W. Hahn, Lee Ann Watson, Katten, Muchin, Gitles, Zavis, Pearl & Galler, Chicago, Ill., for Interstate Container Corp.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Before TJOFLAT, FAY and FRANK M. JOHNSON, Jr., Circuit Judges.
TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:
The appellate saga of the Corrugated Container antitrust litigation continues.1 In this chapter, we consider two district court orders approving settlements between plaintiff-class representatives and twenty-four of the thirty-seven defendants.2 The appellants in this appeal include two groups of dissident plaintiffs who argue that the settlements are invalid and must be set aside, and that even if they are valid, the formula by which they are to be distributed must be modified; a third group of plaintiffs who ask us to void those parts of the settlement that prevent them from pursuing state law remedies based on the same operative facts that underlie the settled federal claims; a fourth group of plaintiffs (comprised of one of the first two groups and the third group) who claim the notice informing the class of the settlement was defective; and various defendants who ask that we delay either approval of the settlements or distribution of the settlement proceeds3 until there is final judicial clarification of the rights of non-settling defendants to bring actions for contribution against the settling defendants.4 None of these arguments persuades us that the settlements must be set aside or modified; we are, however, in agreement with certain objectors that the district court's findings are insufficiently detailed to allow us to determine whether the district court abused its discretion in concluding that the terms of the settlements, and the plan to distribute the settlement proceeds to class members, are fair, reasonable and adequate.5 We therefore remand the case to the district court for more detailed findings explaining its approval of the settlements. We retain jurisdiction during this limited remand.
* The Facts
We begin with a description of this litigation's general history. In 1976, the government convened a grand jury to investigate possible criminal antitrust violations occurring in the corrugated container industry. Several purchasers of corrugated containers and corrugated sheets subsequently filed treble damages actions against thirty-seven defendants under section 4 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 15 (1976). These cases, most of which were class actions, were consolidated in the Southern District of Texas in the fall of 1977. On December 6, 1977, the District Court ordered the formation of a plaintiffs' steering committee consisting of thirteen of the lawyers for plaintiffs in the consolidated actions. The district court order vested the committee with broad authority to control the continuing conduct of plaintiffs' cases; this authority included the power to enter into settlement discussions with interested defendants.
On January 25, 1978, the grand jury returned indictments against fourteen of the defendants. The indictments charged that these defendants (and several individuals who had been employed by the defendants) conspired to fix corrugated container and sheet prices between 1960 and 1974.
In addition to the consolidated antitrust actions described, a group of container purchasers filed a state-law antitrust action in the Court of Common Pleas for Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The defendants in this action were also defendants in the consolidated cases. The state-court plaintiffs in these actions resisted efforts to remove their case to federal court, where it would have been transferred to the Southern District of Texas for consolidation. After successfully resisting removal, the plaintiffs moved the South Carolina court to enjoin the defendants from entering a settlement with the federal plaintiffs that released the South Carolina claims. This motion was granted.
In March 1978, plaintiffs in forty of the pending consolidated cases filed a single complaint (in the suit now before us) on behalf of all purchasers of corrugated container and sheet products. Soon thereafter, a motion for certification of a class was filed. The motion had not been ruled upon when, on July 28, 1978, Great Northern Packaging Corporation (Great Northern) and Huron Packaging Corporation (Huron), purchasers of sheets, filed a separate antitrust class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas against the defendants named in the unified class action. The plaintiff class in this new suit, however, was definitionally limited to sheet plants, that is, sheet purchasers who fabricate containers from their purchases. According to Great Northern and Huron, container purchasers rather than sheet plants had filed, and were prosecuting, the earlier consolidated actions.
Here we digress to consider the differences between the two purported classes. To do this, we must first look at the corrugated container industry. There are three steps in the manufacture of corrugated containers. In the first step, wood pulp is converted into containerboard. In the second step, the containerboard is confected into corrugated sheets. And, finally, in the third step, the sheets are fabricated into containers. The defendants in this appeal perform all three of these functions; that is, they begin with wood pulp and wind up with corrugated boxes. They are thus fully integrated operations.
The defendants sell their finished corrugated boxes to purchasers ranging from "ma and pa" grocery stores to such multinational corporations as Xerox Corporation. This group of purchasers composes the class denominated as container purchasers.
The defendants also sell corrugated sheets to independent enterprises that fabricate and sell their own containers.6 These corrugated sheet purchasers comprise the sheet plant class. It should be noted that many container purchasers purchase some sheets, and, similarly, many sheet plants will purchase finished containers.
The various actions that had been consolidated, with one exception7, had been filed by container purchasers. Most of these actions, however, were class actions, and the class definitions were arguably broad enough to include sheet plants. In any event, the plaintiffs' steering committee that was formed pursuant to the district court's December 6, 1977, order was composed entirely of lawyers for container purchasers.
During the summer of 1978, and prior to class certification, the steering committee entered into settlement discussions with St. Regis Paper Corporation, which had not been indicted in the criminal case. These discussions culminated in St. Regis agreeing to pay $1.7 million, which represented $428,000 for each percentage point of the corrugated container market (market point) controlled by St. Regis, to settle the claims against it. St. Regis also made certain concessions and agreed, orally, to cooperate in plaintiffs' discovery effort.8 Later that summer, plaintiffs concluded a second settlement, with International Paper, which had been indicted in the criminal case. International Paper agreed to pay.$8.3 million, which reflected $1 million for each percentage point of the corrugated market controlled by the company.9
At the time the steering committee negotiated the aforementioned settlements, it had undertaken no discovery going to the merits of the case. (Such discovery was effectively precluded by restrictions imposed by the district court during the pendency of the criminal prosecution.) The steering committee had available to it certain information, however, which, according to the settlement proponents, was adequate for it to make an informed judgment concerning the value of the claims.10
On September 6, 1978, after the first two settlements had been concluded, the district court entered an order certifying a single class in the consolidated litigation. Great Northern believed the parameters of the class were imprecisely drawn and, in particular, ambiguous concerning whether sheet plants were included in the class. In response to these concerns, Great Northern, on October 6, 1978, filed a motion to clarify the class definition by excluding sheet plants, or, alternatively, to create a subclass for sheet plants. The court took this motion under advisement. Then, on October 26, 1978, without ruling on Great Northern's motion, the district court designated representatives of the class it had already certified. These class representatives included Atlas Container Corporation, which represented itself as a sheet plant.11
The class representatives immediately embarked on an exploration of further settlement possibilities. This led, in December, to settlements with seven additional unindicted defendants. These settlements ranged from $2 million per market point to $2.75 million. In addition, a misdemeanor indictee settled for $3.5 million per point, and a felony indictee for.$4.5 million.
On December 26, 1978, the district court responded to Great Northern's motion by certifying two subclasses, one of container purchasers and the other of sheet plants. The court named Great Northern as one representative of the sheet plant subclass; Atlas Container, which previously had been designated a class representative, was also named a sheet plant representative.12 With the exception of Atlas Container, the representatives of the container purchaser subclass were the plaintiffs who had been designated on October 26, 1978 to represent the initial unitary class. Also on December 26, the two subclasses declared moratoriums on further negotiations.
The container purchasers lifted their moratorium on January 5, 1979, and throughout the month conducted settlement discussions, but strictly on behalf of their subclass. This created a problem for defendants, who desired settlements that would release them from the claims of both subclasses. This problem was compounded by the container subclass's per-point dollar demands, which were in excess of what the single class had received in the December settlements. Defendants refused to negotiate on these terms, at least without the sheet plants' participation in the discussions.
The sheet plants, however, were unwilling to discuss settlement pending resolution of their investigation into damages suffered by their class. In order to break the resulting deadlock between the container class and defendants, a compromise was reached. The compromise was that a portion of any negotiated settlement would be available to the sheet class if the sheet class applied to participate in it, thus providing the defendants a possibility that the settlement they negotiated would release both subclasses' claims.13 Eleven settlements, ranging from $1.5 million to $4 million per point, were negotiated on these terms.14
Late in January, the two classes negotiated additional settlements with two defendants who claimed an inability to pay large amounts in settlement because of borderline solvency. The plaintiff classes retained two accounting firms to investigate these hardship claims. After the firms reported that the claims were founded in fact, the plaintiffs settled at rates lower than those used in earlier settlements.
The criminal trial immediately followed these settlements, and no further settlements were reached while the trial was in progress. In April, 1979, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty against the defendants who stood trial. (Several of the indicted defendants had previously pleaded nolo contendere.)
On April 16, 1979, the plaintiff class representatives filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlements. Several members of each of the two subclasses opposed the motion. Among the objections were that the settlements were contaminated by conflicts of interest; that the dollar amounts were inadequate; that even if the post-class certification settlements were adequate in amount, the pre-certification settlements with St. Regis and International Paper were clearly inadequate; that the negotiating attorneys lacked data necessary to evaluate the settlements; and that the objectors were denied the right to explore the settlement negotiations through discovery. By order dated May 30, 1979, the district court rejected these objections as obstacles to preliminary settlement approval, and held that "these settlements are within the range of possible approval and that notice of them should be given to the class members." In Re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 1979-1 Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 62,690 at 77,881 (S.D.Tex.1979).
The class representatives thereafter sent a single notice to the class members, advising them they were potential members of a class and that settlements with 24 of the defendants had been reached and preliminarily approved by the court. The notice indicated that the total value of the settlements was $300,000,000. Recipients of the notice were given options of participating, of opting out of the class, or of participating in the class but objecting to the settlements. The sheet plant and South Carolina objectors contended that the notice was defective because it omitted relevant information concerning the settlements and because separate notices should have been used to advise the class of the pendency of the actions and of the proposed settlements. In any event, the vast majority of potential class members chose to participate in the class, and only a very small percentage of the class members objected to the settlements.
The court, on December 3 and 4, 1979, presided over a hearing on whether final approval should be given to the settlements. At this hearing, the objections to the settlements raised at the preliminary approval stage were renewed. In addition, new objections were raised. Several defendants objected to approval of the settlements prior to final judicial resolution of the validity of the claims for contribution that certain non-settling defendants had raised against them; other defendants requested that the court approve the settlements, but delay distribution of the proceeds until judicial resolution of the contribution issue, thus preserving the assets until such time as a right of rescission might arise. The group of plaintiffs that had filed an antitrust action in South Carolina objected to a settlement provision releasing state law claims. Some sheet plants objected to the manner in which the proceeds were to be divided between the subclasses; some container purchasers made similar objections. The district court, nonetheless, approved the settlements and the objectors have brought this appeal.
We discuss these various objections in the following sections of this opinion. Before beginning this discussion we add, parenthetically, that since the district court's approval of these settlements, twelve of the then thirteen non-settling defendants settled their lawsuits. The plaintiffs proceeded against the thirteenth defendant, Mead Corporation, in a jury trial. The jury found that Mead had conspired to fix prices in the corrugated container industry with eighteen of the settling defendants.
Arguments that the District Court Abused Its Discretion in
Approving These Settlements
Rule 23(e) of the Rules of Civil Procedure requires that a settlement or compromise of a class action be approved by the district court. The district court below, in its 31st pretrial order, found the twenty-four settlements involved in this appeal to be fair, reasonable and adequate and, therefore, approved them. Two groups of plaintiffs, one comprised of certain members of the sheet subclass and the other of members of the container purchaser subclass, contend that the district court's findings and its concomitant approval of the settlements were erroneous. We are, accordingly, asked to set aside the court's approval.
The objecting plaintiff groups, between them, advance three reasons why the district court should not have given these settlements its imprimatur. The first two reasons do not relate directly to the terms of the settlement, but rather to the manner in which those terms were negotiated by the class representatives. Specifically, the objecting plaintiffs contend that the settlements should be set aside because they were negotiated by attorneys who (1) attempted to represent both subclasses as a single client, a representation that, because of the inherent conflicts between the subclasses, could not adequately be undertaken; and (2) lacked sufficient data to evaluate the settlement value of their cases against each of the defendants. We hold that neither of these objections provides grounds for reversing the district court's approval.
The dissident plaintiffs' third objection is to the adequacy of the terms of each of these settlements. The plaintiffs argue that on the record before us, we must find that the district court abused its discretion in holding that the settlements were adequate. We are unable to evaluate this contention, however, because the district court's findings and conclusions on adequacy were insufficiently detailed to inform us of why the court acted as it did. Although we are reluctant to delay further ultimate judgment on these settlements, we are, under these circumstances, compelled to remand to the district court for findings of fact sufficient for us to determine whether its approval of the settlements was a proper exercise of discretion. We will retain jurisdiction of this appeal during the limited remand.
The above-summarized holdings are discussed below.
Rule 23(e) provides no standard by which a court is to consider the settlement of a class action; rather, the rule states only that "(a) class action shall not be dismissed or compromised without the approval of the court ...." Decisional law, however, provides us with a general measuring rod for considering settlements:
In determining whether to approve a proposed settlement, the cardinal rule is that the District Court must find that the settlement is fair, adequate and reasonable....
Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d 1326, 1330 (5th Cir. 1977). See also: Young v. Katz, 447 F.2d 431 (5th Cir. 1971). Approval of a settlement under this standard is not to be upset unless "the trial court clearly abused its discretion." Young v. Katz, supra at 432. Thus, our appellate function respecting the various arguments presented on this appeal is a limited one, especially in light of the strong judicial policy favoring settlement of disputes. United States v. City of Miami, Florida, 614 F.2d 1322, 1344 (5th Cir. 1980).
We turn to the dissidents' first argument: that the district court should have disapproved these settlements because they were negotiated by attorneys with conflicts of interest that adversely affected their representation of one or both classes. As might be expected, the two classes have somewhat different views on which class was hurt and how the hurt was inflicted. The sheet plant dissidents argue that the pre-January 5, 1979, settlements, covering both classes, were negotiated by attorneys representing container purchasers only, and that those attorneys subordinated the interest of sheet plants to the interests of their clients. The container purchaser dissidents present a more subtle argument. They believe that the attempt to negotiate the pre-January 5 settlements on behalf of both subclasses, with their allegedly diverging and irreconcilable interests, made it impossible for negotiating counsel to "have represented the interests of both container purchasers and sheet plants adequately in settlement negotiations." Brief of Plaintiff-Appellant Container Purchasers, at 23. Moreover, the dissident container purchasers also challenge the post-January 5 settlements, arguing that the container purchasers' negotiation of a set-aside fund to be allocated among the sheet plants upon their application polluted those settlements with conflicts of interest.15
1. Pre-January 5 Settlements
We can assume, for purposes of considering the conflicts argument, that the two subclasses had significantly diverging interests and that an attorney could not adequately represent all these interests throughout the litigation.16 This does not mean that the settlements are necessarily void, however, because even "irregular settlement negotiations may ... form the basis for a judicially acceptable class action settlement ... if the record clearly indicates that representation of the class during the negotiations was adequate and that the settlement itself is fair." In Re General Motors Corp. Engine Interchange Litigation, 594 F.2d 1106, 1131-32 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 870, 100 S.Ct. 146, 62 L.Ed.2d 95 (1979) (emphasis supplied). The question of fairness of the settlement terms is considered in a separate section of this opinion. We consider, in this section, the question of adequacy of representation.
Recognizing that the allegedly differing interests of the two subclasses might have conflicted at some point in the litigation, we think the question before the district court was whether these interests conflicted at the point of settlement negotiation, and thus deprived either class of the vigorous and unqualified advocacy in settlement negotiations to which both were entitled. In deciding whether the settlements resulted from proper advocacy, we must inquire, first, whether the general interests of the subclasses respecting the settlements were the same and amenable to being achieved by unified representation; and, second, whether any specific features of the settlement sacrificed the interests of one class in favor of the interests of the other.
The way we have framed our first inquiry indicates our agreement with the district court that "so long as all class members are united in asserting a common right, such as achieving the maximum possible recovery for the class, the class interests are not antagonistic for representation purposes." In Re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 1980-1 Trade Reg. Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,788 n.10 (S.D.Tex.1979). We think it clear that the primary settlement goal of each class was to cause defendants to agree to pay substantial compensation in exchange for the most limited possible release from their obligations and potential liabilities as parties to the litigation.
We have carefully reviewed the objectors' appellate briefs, and their submissions to the district court in opposition to the settlements, and have not been pointed to anything suggesting that other significant subclasses' settlement interests existed.17 Neither has there been a suggestion that two sets of negotiators leading to two sets of settlements might have better achieved the common aims of the two subclasses. On the contrary, in these circumstances, logic dictates that one set of negotiators, with the authority to release defendants from all claims, would be in a better bargaining position than negotiators with authority to compromise only part of the action.
We next consider whether the negotiators, despite the uniformity of the two subclasses' settlement interests, somehow sacrificed, advertently or inadvertently, the interests of one subclass for those of the other. While objectors from each class argue that the dollar values of the settlements were inadequate, neither class suggests that this inadequacy resulted from a tradeoff of its rights in order to realize the interests of the other class. In fact, the only suggested illustration of potential class conflict evolving into actual prejudice concerns the settlement with St. Regis. The sheet-class objectors contend that this settlement should have been larger because St. Regis, while a small container manufacturer, is the nation's third largest manufacturer of corrugated sheets.18
To understand the problem the sheet plant objectors perceive, we must turn to the negotiating history of the settlements. The attorneys who negotiated the settlements believed a favorable psychological climate would be created by offering discounts to early settlors.19 The earliest settlor was St. Regis, which settled for $428,000 per market point, the market points representing combined sheet and container sales. This was at less than one tenth the rate of the last of the settlements being considered in this appeal. The question here, then, is whether the negotiation of an early and substantially discounted settlement with a defendant whose market share is significant with respect only to sheets is prejudicial to the sheet subclass.
On reflection, we think that it is not. In the first place, the settlement with St. Regis was only the first settlement in the steering committee's strategy of demanding successively higher payments for each settlement. There is no suggestion that the steering committee consciously embarked on a course of negotiating discounted settlements with defendants only if their market shares were disproportionately large with respect to sheets. Neither is there any suggestion that the steering committee attempted to negotiate early, heavily discounted settlements for both subclasses, but confined the benefits of later, more valuable settlements to the container class. Since the sheet subclass is to share in both early and later settlements on the same basis percentage of all sheet sales to all corrugated sales by all defendants we do not see how this was inherently unfair to the sheet subclass.
Moreover, at the time these settlements were negotiated, members of both subclasses, objectors and proponents alike, believed that all defendants were jointly and severally liable, see e. g., Beltz Travel Service, Inc. v. International Air Transport Association, 620 F.2d 1360, 1367 (9th Cir. 1980); State of Washington v. American Pipe & Construction Co., 280 F.Supp. 802, 804 (S.D.Cal.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 842, 89 S.Ct. 122, 21 L.Ed.2d 113 (1968), and that nonsettling defendants, if ultimately found to be liable at trial, would be responsible for the total galaxy of damages caused by all participants in the conspiracy. The only expected reduction in damages would have been for the actual amounts paid in settlement. See Brief of Class Plaintiffs-Appellees, at 21. This being the expectation, it is difficult to understand how the St. Regis settlement adversely affected the interests of the sheet subclass, since even a defendant with a small sheet market share would be liable for all damages. But even assuming a theory of liability under which non-settling defendants were liable only for their own market shares,20 the sheet plant subclass would be harmed vis-a-vis the container subclass only if the settling defendants' collective share of the sheet market was larger than their collective share of the container market. By isolating the St. Regis settlement for attack, the dissident sheet plaintiffs seek to ignore this fact.
In short, we hold for the reasons stated that conflicts of interest have not infected the settlement proceedings leading to the pre-January 5 settlements.
2. Post-January 5 Settlements
On December 26, 1978, the district court certified the sheet plant subclass. On the same date, and in apparent reaction to the subclass certification, both subclasses declared a moratorium on further negotiations. The container class resumed settlement talks on January 5, 1979; the sheet subclass did not, apparently deciding to seek further economic data first. This divergence in strategies produced a problem for the container class, since defendants were reluctant to settle at substantial dollar amounts for a release covering only one of the subclasses. To induce defendants to consider settlement on this basis, the container purchasers developed a novel approach. A portion of each settlement would be set aside for the sheet plant subclass, but only in the event the sheet plants applied to participate in these particular settlements. If the sheet plants decided not to participate, the entire amount paid by each settling defendant would inure to the exclusive benefit of the container purchasers.21 Moreover, the amount of the set-aside fund was to be a cap on the sheet plant subclass recovery; the sheet plants were to negotiate the actual dollar amount with the representatives of the container purchasers.
In all, eleven settlements were negotiated on this basis. The amount paid by each of these settling defendants was in excess of that paid by defendants who had earlier settled. The container-purchaser subclass contends that the set-aside fund strategem engaged the plaintiff representatives in conflicts that destroyed their ability to negotiate fairly. The sheet plant objectors' argument concerning these settlements is the subject of another appeal;22 on this appeal, only the container purchaser subclass arguments are before us.
The container class contends that the set-aside fund "is a unilateral unbargained for giveaway of monies properly belonging to container purchasers, and (therefore) further evidence of a conflict of interests and lack of adequate representation in settlement negotiations." See Brief of Plaintiff-Appellant Container Purchasers at 30. The logic of this position eludes us. By the time of these settlements, the container purchasers were grouped into a separate subclass and the negotiators after January 5 were negotiating for the container purchaser subclass only. When faced with the unwillingness of defendants to pay large sums of money to obtain a release from only one of the subclasses, the container purchasers agreed to earmark part of each settlement for possible allocation to the sheet plants. The position that defendants would have been willing to pay to the container purchasers an amount in excess of the total settlement less the set-aside fund, with no hope of binding the sheet plant subclass, is untenable; it is bereft of logical or factual support.
While it is true that the container-purchaser representatives could have waited until the sheet-plant subclass was ready to participate in negotiations, this would have meant delaying negotiations until after the criminal trial was underway or, more likely, until it had concluded. The container purchasers believed that the eve of trial was an opportune time to bargain, and the only way to bring defendants to the bargaining table appeared to be to offer to create the set-aside fund. Since the container-purchaser objectors do not challenge the wisdom of bargaining on the eve of trial, we see no argument that the decision to negotiate the set-aside fund damaged the container purchasers.
We point out that in finding that the container-purchasers' negotiators adequately represented the container-purchaser interests, we do not pass judgment on the sheet-plant dissidents' objections to the post-January 5 settlements.23C.
Lack of Discovery
The dissident sheet plant plaintiffs next contend that the settlements should be disapproved because they were negotiated prior to probing discovery. Plaintiffs' theory appears to be that representation in the settlement process is necessarily inadequate unless informed by the process of discovery. It is, in effect, argued that without discovery, the class representatives were not in a position of equality with negotiators for the defendants. From this we are asked to conclude that settlements resulting from this putative inequality of knowledge must be, as a matter of law, inadequate. We disagree.
Initially, we note that notwithstanding the status of discovery, plaintiffs' negotiators had access to a plethora of information regarding the facts of their case.24 In Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d 1326, 1332 (5th Cir. 1977), a case in which settlement was reached despite only slight formal discovery, we said the following:
It is true that very little formal discovery was conducted and that there is no voluminous record in the case. However, the lack of such does not compel the conclusion that insufficient discovery was conducted.
At the outset, we consider this an appropriate occasion to express our concern over the common belief held by many litigators that a great amount of formal discovery must be conducted in every case.
Thus, we are not compelled to hold that formal discovery was a necessary ticket to the bargaining table. Because the plaintiffs did have access to information, this case cannot be characterized as an instance of the unscrupulous leading the blind.
Even assuming there was an imbalance of information between the defendants and the plaintiffs at the bargaining table, this would not in itself invalidate the settlements. We think in a case such as this, the trial court may legitimately presume that counsel's judgment "that they had achieved the desired quantum of information necessary to achieve a settlement," id. at 1332, is reliable. Of course, if the record points unmistakably toward the conclusion that the settlement was the product of uneducated guesswork, a court may be acting within its discretion in disapproving the agreement without ever considering whether the agreement's terms are adequate. But since counsel had access to data, that is not our case.
In general, we think a settlement should stand or fall on the adequacy of its terms. In a very real sense, a review of the terms provides a check on counsel's evaluation of the sufficiency of his working knowledge. If the terms are fair, the court may reasonably conclude that counsel did perform adequately.25 We stress that this is not to say that a district court may approve a settlement whose adequacy is insufficiently documented at the settlement approval hearing. In fact, where it appears that counsel was relying on judgment bolstered by only a small amount of information, the district court should be especially thorough in its review of the fairness and adequacy of the settlement terms.
Adequacy of the Settlement Terms
The first two objections to the settlements were attacks on the adequacy of the lawyers who negotiated the settlement terms. As a matter of theory, these attacks presupposed that a settlement negotiated by inadequate representatives should not be approved because adequate representatives could have negotiated more favorable terms. The objectors' third contention, however, is that the actual terms of all but the "hardship" settlements26 are so inadequate in dollar amount that the district court abused its discretion in approving them. Having disposed of the objectors' first two arguments, we turn to a discussion of whether the settlement terms are fair, adequate and reasonable.
As we have suggested earlier in this opinion, the district court's most important function in reviewing compromises of class actions is its consideration of the settlement terms. See Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d at 1330. It is, ultimately, in the settlement terms that the class representatives' judgment and the adequacy of their representation is either vindicated or found wanting. If the terms themselves are fair, reasonable and adequate, the district court may fairly assume that they were negotiated by competent and adequate counsel; in such cases, whether another team of negotiators might have accomplished a better settlement is a matter equally comprised of conjecture and irrelevance. But all this, of course, begs the real question, which is how to determine whether the settlement terms are in fact adequate.
Case law provides us with general ground rules: "The settlement terms should be compared with the likely rewards the class would have received following a successful trial." Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d at 1330. And: "the strength of the case for plaintiffs (must be) balanced against the amount offered in settlement." West Virginia v. Chas. Pfizer & Co., 440 F.2d 1079, 1085 (2d Cir.) (quoting State of West Virginia v. Chas. Pfizer & Co., 314 F.Supp. 710, 740 (S.D.N.Y.1970), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 871, 92 S.Ct. 81, 30 L.Ed. 115 (1971). See also City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 495 F.2d 448, 455 (2d Cir. 1974). We think this requires a three-step process. First, the district court must evaluate the likelihood that plaintiffs would prevail at trial. Second, the district court must establish a range of possible recovery that plaintiffs would realize if they prevailed at trial. And third, guided by its findings on plaintiffs' likelihood of prevailing on the merits and such other factors as may be relevant, the district court must establish, in effect, the point on, or if appropriate, below, the range of possible recovery at which a settlement is fair and adequate.
We note that this type of evaluation is not and cannot involve a trial on the merits. "(T)he very uncertainty of outcome in litigation, as well as the avoidance of wasteful litigation and expense, lay behind the Congressional infusion of a power to compromise. This is a recognition of the policy of the law generally to encourage settlements. This could hardly be achieved if the test on hearing for approval meant establishing success or failure to a certainty." Florida Trailer & Equipment Co. v. Deal, 284 F.2d 567, 571 (5th Cir. 1960). Nor could it be achieved if the range of possible recovery had to be charted with precision. But the district court judge must "undertake an analysis of the facts and the law relevant to the proposed compromise," and he must "support his conclusions by memorandum." Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d at 1330. "A 'mere boiler-plate approval phrased in appropriate language but unsupported by evaluation of the facts or analysis of the law' will not suffice." Id. (quoting Protective Committee v. Anderson, 390 U.S. 414, 434, 88 S.Ct. 1157, 1168, 20 L.Ed.2d 1 (1968). This is because "(a)n appellate court ... must have a basis for judging the exercise of the trial judge's discretion." Id.
Thus, we begin our analysis by reviewing the district court's opinion to determine whether its approval of the settlements was based on adequate and careful analysis of "the facts of the case in relation to the relevant principles of applicable law..." Id. at 1331. Because we conclude that it was not, we must also determine whether, on the record before it, the district court, in the exercise of its discretion, was compelled to either approve or disapprove the settlements. After undertaking this review, we conclude that we must remand to the district court to prepare new findings; if necessary, to take new evidence; and if compelled to do so, to reach new conclusions.27
We turn to the specific reasons for our decision. As we have already indicated, the district court must establish the range of possible damages that could be recovered at trial, and, then, by evaluating the likelihood of prevailing at trial and other relevant factors, determine whether the settlement is pegged at a point in the range that is fair to the plaintiff settlors. In a case such as this, where there are objectors, the court is aided in its task; the proponents can be expected to present evidence and arguments suggesting that the settlements are within "a range of reasonableness" and the objectors will do the same for the contrary position. By weighing the competing evidence and evaluating the legal arguments, we think the court should be able to reach a just conclusion. It is for this reason that the court can generally fulfill its responsibilities by "examin(ing) the settlement(s) in light of the objections raised and (by) set(ting) forth on the record a reasoned response to the objections including findings of fact and conclusions of law necessary to support the response." Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d at 1331.
We will consider, then, each of the objectors' attacks on the settlement, and the court's resolution of them. Our initial discussion is broken down into three parts: one on the range of possible recovery, one on the likelihood of prevailing on the merits, and one on the court's exercise of discretion. We then proceed to explain why we think remand is necessary and what we think the court's task on remand is.
1. Damages
The plaintiff proponents of the settlement presented the affidavit of an economist, Richard Hoyt, that estimated that damages to the plaintiff class were between two hundred and eight hundred million dollars for the years 1972-1976, the four-year period not barred by the statute of limitations. It seems clear that the court regarded this range of damages as the benchmark of possible recovery at trial.28
At the settlement hearing, and on this appeal, the objectors attacked Hoyt's conclusions on two grounds. First, the sheet plant objectors contended that the period he selected to estimate damages should have been enlarged to reflect the entire period of overcharge since plaintiffs might have been able to establish that the defendants engaged in a pattern of fraudulent concealment, which would have tolled the statute of limitations. See In Re Beef Industry Antitrust Litigation, 600 F.2d 1148, 1169 (5th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 280, 66 L.Ed.2d 137 (1980); Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Burlington, 351 F.2d 762, 764 (D.C. Cir. 1965); Rinzler v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 333 F.2d 719 (5th Cir. 1964). Second, objectors from both the sheet-plant and container-purchaser subclasses, through affidavits of their economists, argued that Hoyt's methodology was defective and resulted in an estimate of damages that was far too low. The objectors urged the district court to accept their own estimates, which were substantially greater than Hoyt's, as providing an accurate range of possible recovery.
We consider first the argument that the court should have considered damages suffered in years prior to 1973. The proponents of the settlements argue that some courts have looked only to years within the statute of limitations to determine whether a settlement is reasonable. See, e. g., Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 495 F.2d 448, 460 (2d Cir. 1974); In re Anthracite Coal Antitrust Litigation, 79 F.R.D. 707, 714 (M.D.Pa.1978), modified sub nom. Colonial Fuel Co. v. Blue Coal Corp., 612 F.2d 571 (3d Cir. 1979). The objectors, however, counter that these courts were not confronted with strong arguments that the statute of limitations was tolled by defendants' fraudulent conduct. They argue that in the case before us, evidence of fraudulent concealment does exist, which means that damages should be measured from 1960, the beginning of the conspiracy.
The sheet-plant objectors are correct that the law does not limit the court to the four-year period within the statute of limitations in setting the range of possible damages recoverable after trial. The Grinnell case, relied upon by the proponents, explains that consideration of possibly time-barred years was inappropriate there because fraudulent concealment would not, on the facts alleged, extend the period for claims. Id., 495 F.2d at 461. Further, we have not been referred to any case suggesting that damages should, for settlement discussions, be confined to the statutory period in the face of a strong fraudulent concealment argument. We think that when objectors seek to include years outside the statute of limitations in the damage computation period, the court should evaluate the fraudulent concealment argument. It should also consider the extra problems of proving a price-fixing conspiracy for the longer period and the additional difficulties of proof in assessing damages. If the court finds the chances of substantial recovery for the added years to be insignificant, it may confine its consideration of damages to the non-time-barred years. If the district court concludes that the plaintiffs have a significant chance to recover substantial amounts for years outside the statute of limitations, it should refuse to approve a settlement until it is given some estimate of damages for that period, or at least an acceptable explanation why the estimate for the period within the statute of limitations is a fair measure of damages for both periods.29
Here the district court failed to explain why it only considered damages for the years within the statute of limitations. Its decision on this matter is an essential element of its overall decision to approve these settlements, but since the court has not provided us the benefit of its thinking, we are unable to review it.
The objectors' second concern is with the methodology Hoyt employed in estimating damages. The objectors argue that the best means of estimating damages in a price-fixing conspiracy is a before-and-after price comparison. Hoyt rejected this method, however, for several reasons, among them (1) that he would have to rely on industry-wide prices, which he perceived as undesirable because the conspirators comprised only part of the industry; (2) he believed that price information for the period before 1973 would be unavailable. In the place of the before-and-after price comparison, Hoyt believed a methodology based on excess profits. Using this approach, he computed the percentage of defendants' sales receipts that constituted profit for the conspiracy period (1972-1976) and a non-conspiracy period (1977-1978) and then compared the two figures. Hoyt believed that the amount by which the profits for the conspiracy years exceeded the profits for non-conspiracy years constituted an excess profit percentage. This figure, when applied to total sales, closely approximated the actual damages suffered.
The objectors believe this methodology is defective for several reasons, primarily the following two: (1) profits are affected by external facts that vary in impact from year to year; (2) costs during the conspiracy period would be higher since industries engaged in price-fixing are less cost-efficient than they would be during a non-conspiratorial period. The dissident plaintiffs also object to the years compared in Hoyt's model, claiming that the conspiratorial period 1973-1976 was a recessionary period in which profits were low, while the non-conspiratory period 1977-1978 was a period of economic expansion, in which profits were high. They also object that Hoyt's profit figures were derived from industry sources, without any significant check on their accuracy. The sheet objectors claim that Hoyt made no attempt to determine if their damages should be measured separately from those of the container purchasers. Finally, both sets of objectors take issue with proponents' assertion that the task of preparing a more traditional model based on prices rather than profits could not have been successfully undertaken.
The district court does not discuss these criticisms of the Hoyt study, nor does it explain why it found the Hoyt conclusions more accurate than those of the objectors' experts, who pegged damages at substantially higher levels. In fact, the court's only comment on the economic validity of the Hoyt analysis suggests that it perceived no challenge to the validity, or at least the utility, of the analysis.
Although there have been some assertions that damages are greater than proponents' expert estimates, no one has asserted that more money could have been or could now be obtained from the defendants....
In re Corrugated Container Litigation, (1980-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,788 n. 10. Objectors' challenges to the Hoyt analysis are implicitly tied to their belief that they could have negotiated better settlement terms. Even if the court is correct, however, that more money could not have been obtained, there is no reason to approve an otherwise inadequate settlement solely because it was the best offer defendants were willing to make.
Given the importance of the question of potential damages, the district court was compelled to consider the validity of the estimate on which it relied. If the court did find the estimate to be valid, it was bound to explain why. Thus, we must remand on this issue as well.30
Finally, we note that the district court, in passing on these settlements, considered them, for the most part, as a single settlement rather than as twenty-four separate agreements. The propriety of doing this is considered in the subsection on the court's exercise of discretion, but two observations concerning damages are appropriate here. First, because each defendant's liability, if any, would be joint and several, his potential liability is the total amount of damages, less any amounts already paid to the plaintiff class. This means, theoretically, that the plaintiffs could obtain the same amount from each defendant. Accordingly, a single computation of a range of possible recovery suffices for each defendant. The second observation, however, is that in determining the amount of damages actually, rather than theoretically, recoverable from a particular defendant, the question of that defendant's financial condition may become relevant. Except in the case of the hardship settlements, the district court has not made findings about the extent to which these defendants could afford to pay more than they did. We consider this point, too, in the subsection on the court's exercise of discretion.
2. Risks of Litigation
The objectors claim that the court incorrectly evaluated the strength of their case on the merits, overemphasizing the risks of litigation. The district court stated its findings and conclusions on the risks of litigation in its preliminary approval of the settlement:
There are many risks for plaintiffs in this litigation; the recent acquittal of all who went to trial in the cases brought by the United States serve (sic) to emphasize some of the problems, and there are others that apply peculiarly to those civil cases, such as class certification problems and the proposed Illinois Brick legislation. Plaintiffs' ultimate success is by no means assured.
In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, (1979-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 62,690 at 77,884.
The objectors contest the court's evaluation of litigation risks for three reasons. First, they claim that the court should not have relied on the criminal acquittals, since the standard of proof in the criminal trials was greater than it would be in the civil litigation. Second, they argue that the court's findings were insufficiently detailed, and conclusory, amounting to mere boiler-plate. Third, they claim that the court failed to explain its conclusion that the risks of litigation justified a settlement at the $300-million mark on Hoyt's $200-to-800 million range of possibilities.31
Turning to the first objection, the dissident plaintiffs argue that "a criminal acquittal has absolutely no tendency to make any contested fact in a subsequent civil proceeding more or less probable," and that "giving 'considerable weight' to the criminal acquittals ... resulted in a distortion of the settlement equation." Brief for Plaintiff-Appellant Container Purchasers at 58-59. If the objectors are contending that the district court should not have considered the acquittals at all, they are in conflict with the Manual For Complex Litigation, section 1.46, which states that the court should consider success or lack of success in a prior criminal prosecution. 1 Moore's Federal Practice § 1.46 n. 100 (2d ed. 1980). The Manual's position is sensible. A court may more safely predict that a civil litigant will prevail on the merits if there has been a successful criminal prosecution in a related matter than it could had there been no criminal trial, or, certainly, had there been an acquittal. This being so, a case in which defendants were acquitted has less settlement value than one in which convictions were obtained. Here the court drew from the acquittal only a single inference: "ultimate success is by no means assured." In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, (1979-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 62,690 at 77,884. This was entirely proper.
The objectors' second contention is that the court failed to evaluate the strength of plaintiffs' case on the merits. This simply is not true; as the quotation from the court's preliminary approval suggests, the court noted that the risks of class decertification, of Illinois Brick legislation, and the problems of proof suggested by the criminal acquittals combined to deprive the class of guaranteed ultimate success. In noting this, the district court said enough, though it certainly could and probably should have said considerably more. We hope that on the limited remand we order today, the district court will explain more completely how it evaluated the strength of plaintiffs' case on the merits. Particularly, the district court may wish to cite those portions of the record below, and, if applicable, the record of the related criminal proceedings, on which it relied.32
One final point must be made. The district court concluded that plaintiffs' ultimate victory on the merits is not assured. This conclusion, however, applies to the plaintiffs' case against all the defendants collectively rather than individually. In all probability, the plaintiffs' case is stronger against some defendants than others. Because the district court treated the settlements in the aggregate, it had no occasion to consider the strength of plaintiffs' case against individual defendants. As we explain in the next section, it may have been necessary for the court to consider, to some extent, the strength of plaintiffs' cases against individual settling defendants.33
3. Exercise of Discretion
We have outlined a three-step process for a district court to use in determining whether it should approve a settlement's terms as fair, reasonable and adequate. In the first two steps, which we have described above, the court must decide two key issues: the range of possible recovery if plaintiffs prevail on the merits and the likelihood that plaintiffs will, in fact, prevail. In the third step of the process, the court, in its discretion, must decide if the settlements are reasonable in light of these determinations. In doing this, the court is not confined to the mechanistic process of comparing the settlement to the estimated recovery times a multiplier derived from the likelihood of prevailing on the merits. The court should also be guided by other factors, the relevancy of which will vary from case to case. Some of the factors that may be relevant in a particular case are "the complexity, expense and likely duration of the litigation ...; the reaction of the class to the settlement; (and) the stage of the proceedings ...." City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 495 F.2d at 463 (2d Cir. 1974). After the court identifies these factors and explains their relevance to the settlement, it should proceed to explain why it is either approving or disapproving the settlement.
Here, the district court, in addition to its findings concerning damages and the likelihood of success, identified two factors that it felt bore on the reasonableness of the settlements. The first factor was that the trial would be long, complex and expensive. The court, however, offered little to indicate how this affected the reasonableness of the settlement. While the prospect of a long, complex and expensive trial militates in favor of settlement, virtually all class actions will result in long, complex and expensive trials. The question is whether the likelihood of an especially long and complex trial is enough in a particular case to warrant a substantial reduction in what the class might otherwise receive in settlement.34 The district court, however, said nothing to indicate why the prospect of a long trial had a particular impact on this case.
The district court also found that the number of objectors to the settlement and the number of opt-outs was insignificant; from this it concluded that there was great support for the settlements, which is certainly a factor favoring approval. But further explanation was required, for a low level of vociferous objection is not necessarily synonymous with jubilant support. In many class actions, the vast majority of class members lack the resources either to object to the settlement or to opt out of the class and litigate their individual cases. The Corrugated Container Litigation, however, includes many large corporations who were sufficiently endowed to opt out or object to the settlements if they chose to do so. If the numerically small group of objectors was comprised largely of such corporations, perhaps the court's finding of support was improperly predicated. Based on what the court has told us, however, we cannot say.
Thus, we must conclude that the court's findings on factors other than possible recovery and the likelihood of success were not detailed enough for us to review. In its conclusion, rather than explain why it approved the settlements, the court only recited a list of the findings it had made concerning the settlements.35 While an overall list of findings may be sufficient for review when a court has made detailed and careful explanations as it conducted its consideration of each factor affecting its exercise of discretion, this was not the case here.
One last point must be made. As we indicated earlier, the district court appears to have approved these settlements in the aggregate. Ordinarily, an individually negotiated settlement with one of many defendants in a case should be approved or disapproved as an individual settlement and not as part of a package. The package of settlements the district court approved includes early settlements negotiated at a fraction of the value of later settlements. Settlements early and late may both be reasonable, particularly if the district court finds, as it did, that early settlements were needed to induce other defendants to the bargaining table. But this does not excuse a settlement at an inadequate amount. The district court should have made some findings concerning why each individual settlement was reasonable, or at least explained why it was unnecessary to do so.
4. Task on Remand
Because the district judge has failed to support his approval of the settlements by adequate evaluation of the facts and analysis of the law, we lack a basis for reviewing his discretion. Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d at 1330. Thus, were we at this juncture to affirm the approval of the settlements, we would not be reviewing the district court's exercise of discretion but, rather, exercising our own discretion on the basis of the record before us. This is not our function, and we therefore must remand to the district court.
The remand is a limited one to allow the court better to explain why it approved the settlements. If the district court, after reviewing this opinion, believes its previous approval of the settlements cannot be justified under the applicable legal principles, it may petition this court to vacate its order approving the settlements and to remand the case for further proceedings on the settlements, and, if necessary, the merits of plaintiffs' claims.
Allocation of the Settlements
The sheet-plant and container-purchaser objectors contend that even if the settlements are fair, reasonable and adequate, the formula by which the pre-January 5, 1979, and the "hardship" settlements are to be distributed is not. The formula is a simple one: each class member will file a claim based on its purchases between 1960 and 1978 and "all allowed claims will be totalled and the sum divided into the total (settlement) fund (after deduction of fees and costs), and the quotient will be multiplied by each claimant's total allowed claim to determine his recovery." In re Corrugated Container Litigation, (1980-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,791. There are, before us, two specific objections to this formula. First, the sheet-plant and container purchasers argue that neither the court nor the subclass representatives had any economic data to justify equal, dollar-for-dollar treatment of container purchases and corrugated sheet purchases.36 Second, the sheet-plant objectors contend that claims based on purchases before 1973 the cut-off point under the statute of limitations should not have been treated on par with claims based on post-1972 purchases. We review each of these contentions below.
1. Allocation Between the Sheet Plant and Container Purchaser Subclasses.
The container and sheet-plant subclasses negotiated between themselves the inter-class allocation formula which treats sheet and container purchases in the same fashion. The settlement proponents represented that they reached the inter-class formula because "(b)oth sides recognized that there was no information available that conclusively demonstrated that the subclasses were injured in different degrees." Brief of Class Plaintiffs-Appellees at 54. Since "(t)here was evidence which indicated that the conspiracy was operative as to both sheets and containers and that both were affected by the conspiracy," id. at 54-55, the negotiators agreed that the "share-and-share-alike" allocation plan was fair. The district court accepted the allocation formula, but did not explain why it found it reasonable to treat container and sheet purchases in the same manner.
The objectors claim that it was error for the proponents to negotiate this allocation solution without benefit of an economic analysis of the comparative injuries suffered by each subclass and that it was reversible error for the district court to approve the allocation formula without the benefit of such an analysis. We disagree with the objectors to this extent: when there are subclasses, each independently represented, an allocation formula may be negotiated without each subclass undertaking extensive analysis of its relative damages if the available evidence is, at the time of the negotiations, insufficient to indicate a need for it.
Other courts have approved the practice of negotiating a formula for distributing settlement proceeds to subclasses. In re Equity Funding Corp. of America Securities Litigation, 603 F.2d 1353, 1365 (9th Cir. 1979); In re Gypsum Cases, 386 F.Supp. 959, 964-5 (N.D.Cal.1974) aff'd, 565 F.2d 1123 (9th Cir. 1977). This practice permits the court to avoid "the almost impossible task of determining the distribution of the settlement fund among the myriad claimants," Equity Funding Corp., 603 F.2d at 1365, and can be desirable if the respective subclass representatives have information sufficient to allow them to formulate a reasonable division.
Although the district court did not make findings on this issue, the record establishes that the subclass representatives in this case acted properly in reaching the allocation formula before completing extensive discovery. It must be remembered that the representatives needed to describe the allocation formula in the class notice. Assuming, as the district court was justified in doing, that it was desirable to present these settlements to the class before lengthy trial preparation began, we cannot say that notice should have been delayed until after discovery was completed and an exhaustive analysis of comparative damages made. At the time of the negotiations, the plaintiffs knew that all damages sheet and container resulted from a common conspiracy. The sheet plants apparently possessed documents suggesting that the overcharge for sheets might have been less than the overcharge for container. The objectors on this appeal advised their respective classes that they suffered greater damages than the other. Moreover, each class knew the other class was receiving similar counselling about why its damages were greater. Under these circumstances, the plaintiffs acted acceptably in agreeing to the share-and-share-alike distribution formula when they did. Further, the district court acted within its discretion when it approved the formula.37
2. Treatment of Pre-1973 Claims.
The sheet-plant objectors contend that if the adequacy of the settlement was dependent on a district court finding that the claims for pre-1973 purchases had no value, the settlement should have been distributed on the basis of claims relating to post-1972 purchases only. Their theory is that the settlement would otherwise satisfy nonvaluable claims based on pre-1973 purchases with dollars negotiated on the basis of viable claims based on post-1972 purchases. Because the district court failed in its memorandum to explain its findings on the adequacy of the settlement, we are unable to say whether it found the pre-1973 claims to be without value or of substantially less value than the post-1972 claims. If approval of the settlement was based on either proposition, the objectors may have a valid point.
It is self-evident that if the settlement's adequacy rests on the value of one set of claims, distribution of the settlement should be weighed heavily in favor of plaintiffs whose claims comprise that set. There might be circumstances in which this rule would not apply for example, if most of the plaintiffs had claims in both periods and the costs of devising and implementing a distribution formula based on relative claim value would be substantial, the distribution might be spread evenly across the board. The district court, however, has failed to provide persuasive reasons why an even spread is appropriate in this case. The court's sole reply to the objection that the claims period should be shortened was that "(t)o shorten the period would prejudice claimants who purchased for the full period, and a pilot study conducted by Arthur Anderson & Co. indicates that the savings in auditing would not be great enough to justify such a limitation." In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, (1980-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 63,163, at 77,791. This is not responsive to the substantial issues now raised by the sheet-plant objectors.
If the district court, on remand, explains that it based its estimate of what plaintiffs would recover on the value of the post-1972 claims alone, and if it fails to provide a reasoned explanation why a substantial portion of this money should be distributed to plaintiffs in satisfaction of their pre-1973 claims, the distribution formula cannot be approved, and that part of the order approving the settlement must be vacated. If this occurs, the district court might need to carve out additional subclasses to protect the varying plaintiff interests deriving from the periods in which individual class members made their purchases.38
State-Law Objectors
Pleasure Hours, Inc. and London Dry, Ltd. are members of the container-purchaser subclass. They are also the named plaintiffs in a South Carolina antitrust suit against the same defendants and based on the same operative facts as this federal antitrust action. According to Pleasure Hours and London Dry, South Carolina antitrust law equates damages with purchase price rather than overcharge and hence treats prevailing antitrust plaintiffs more favorably than federal law. Because of this alleged feature of South Carolina law, Pleasure Hours and London Dry are concerned with the provisions of the settlements that purport to release defendants from state as well as federal antitrust claims.
The state law objectors believe that the court should either modify the settlement to eliminate the state-claim releases or declare the releases unenforceable. If this cannot be done, they claim that the court should disapprove the settlements entirely. The objectors apparently base their position on five arguments, none of which has merit and all of which border on the frivolous.
The objectors first argue that because the district court did not have the state law claims before it39, it was without power to release those claims by approving a settlement. This is simply a misstatement of applicable legal principles, at least in cases such as this one in which class members were notified that their state law claims might be released before they had to decide whether to opt out of the class. The weight of authority establishes that in such a case, a court may release not only those claims alleged in the complaint and before the court, but also claims which "could have been alleged by reason of or in connection with any matter or fact set forth or referred to in" the complaint. Patterson v. Stovall, 528 F.2d 108, 110 n.2 (7th Cir. 1976). See also McDonald v. Chicago Milwaukee Corp., 565 F.2d 416, 435 (7th Cir. 1977). And it has been held that even when the court does not have power to adjudicate a claim, it may still "approve release of that claim as a condition of settlement of (an) action (before it)." Abramson v. Pennwood Investment Corp., 392 F.2d 759, 762 (2d Cir. 1968) (shareholder derivative action).40 Thus, the court had power to release the state claims even though those claims were not pending before it.
The objectors next contend that the settlements should be disapproved because the court did not consider whether the release of the claims rendered the settlement unreasonable. The district court's memorandum order finally approving the settlements, however, includes the following statement: "Such releases are reasonable and customary, and without them settlement of large antitrust actions would not be desirable ...." In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, (1980-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,789. We agree with the district court that releases from state claims are generally reasonable and the objectors have not pointed to any extraordinary factors dictating different treatment of the state-claim releases here.
A third argument seemingly, but inartfully, advanced by objectors is that the release of the state claims is unenforceable because of a state court injunction forbidding the state defendants to settle the state claims as part of a compromise of the federal action. In other words, the objectors are asking us, on appeal, to honor, indirectly, in these settlement proceedings a state court injunction they did not try to enforce directly in any court. Even were we to assume that the objectors could attack a settlement on the basis of an unenforced injunction either in the district court or on appeal, we would be compelled in this case to rule against them. Presumably, their argument is premised on the notion that the state-court injunctive order is a valid one, for certainly the district court cannot be expected to withhold approval of a settlement on the basis of an unenforceable injunction. In the instant case, the record on appeal does not indicate whether the state-law objectors submitted to the district court a copy of the injunction or whether they even requested a hearing to show that the injunction was enforceable. In these circumstances, the district court had no basis to consider the injunction's relevance to approval of the settlements, and neither do we.
The objectors next contend that the tenth amendment prevents the district court from approving settlements releasing state claims. The following passage from their brief summarizes this argument:
Since the primary forum for enforcement is the State Courts federal courts should be reluctant to enter into (state antitrust law) unless the State Courts agree to this. It is not necessary for (the objectors) to cite the numerous decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States expressing the same principle.
Brief for Plaintiff-Appellants Pleasure Hours, Inc., Etc. (sic) at 20. We disagree. Nothing in the tenth amendment or its accompanying case law mandates in every case judicial reluctance to enter the state antitrust area. The objectors' contention is frivolous.
The objectors' fifth and final objection is that counsel for the class, by negotiating settlements releasing state claims, rendered themselves inadequate representatives of that portion of the class with South Carolina claims. We think this is an implausible argument, at least in the circumstances of this case. Plaintiffs had an opportunity to opt out of the class and litigate their state claims in state court; more pertinent, they knew that settlements compromising class members' state claims had been negotiated before they were asked to opt out. Plaintiffs, however, wanted to participate in the class, share in the fruits of the class' settlement negotiations, and still be free to litigate their state claims. In short, the objectors felt entitled to the bird in the hand while pursuing the flock in the bush. See Richards Lumber & Supply Co. v. United States Gypsum Co., 545 F.2d 18 (7th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 1326, 51 L.Ed.2d 593 (1977). If the objectors felt they could do this, that was their prerogative but in so doing they accepted the risk that they would be precluded. At least in a situation like this in which the objectors had a pending state class action based on the same facts and theories as the federal class action41 objectors cannot complain that class counsel was inadequate for making, in effect, release of their state-law claims a condition for participation in the class.
The sheet plant and state law objectors argue that the notice apprising the class of the settlements was inadequate. Although the objectors do not specify what they believe the consequences of this inadequacy to be, we assume their position is that new notice must be accomplished, and, following such notice, a de novo hearing in the district court on whether the settlements finally should be approved. In all, these objectors advance four arguments why the notice was defective. None of these arguments convinces us that the notice was inadequate.
The first argument, advanced by the sheet plants, is that notice of the class action should not have been combined with notice of the settlements. This is because "(t)he practice of presenting class members with the ultimatum either to accept the settlement or get out of the class is contrary to fundamental fairness (and) evades the requirements of 23(c)(2) and 23(e) that there be separate notices, in two stages." This argument is specious. Rule 23 includes no language proscribing combined notice of a class action and a proposed settlement. Since there is no specific proscription, the sheet plant objectors are left only with their contention that the single-notice procedure was unfair. This position is incapable of withstanding analysis.
The sheet plants desire an initial notice of the class action and, then, after potential class members have decided whether to participate in the class, notice that the class representatives have reached settlements with certain defendants. At this point, of course, class members could object to the settlements, but if the district court, despite their objections, approved the settlements, all class members would be bound thereby. It thus seems evident that whether one or two notices are employed, a plaintiff will have three options: (1) he may participate in the class; (2) he may participate in the class, but object to the settlements; or (3) he may opt out of the class. Given this, there is only one difference between the scheme advocated by the sheet plants and that confected by the district court: in the latter scheme, the class member knows of the settlement at the time he must decide whether to opt out. Since we have previously held that "neutral information concerning plaintiffs proposed partial settlement ... should (be) included in the court's initial notice (to the class under Rule 23(c)(2))," In Re Nissan Motor Corp. Antitrust Litigation, 552 F.2d 1088, 1105 (5th Cir. 1977), the district court's scheme was certainly a permissible exercise of discretion.42
The remaining arguments relate to whether the notice disclosed sufficient information for individual class members to make informed choices about joining the class and accepting or objecting to the settlement. The first such argument is that the notice failed to provide "an estimated range of unitary recovery (e. g., amount per share, per unit, per dollar charged, and the like) that members of the class may expect to receive if the settlement is approved," as suggested by the Manual for Complex Litigation, section 1.46. 1 Moore's Federal Practice § 1.46 (2d ed. 1980). The second argument is that the notice should have informed the class that members of the sheet plant subclass objected to the settlements, and should have included a summary of their reasons for doing so. Similarly, the state-law objectors contend that the notice should have included space for them to explain the purported advantages to South Carolina plaintiffs of pursuing their state-law claims.
The sheet-plant arguments point out rather disturbing omissions in the notice. The Manual states that ordinarily a notice should provide estimates of unit recovery. Class members in this case might have benefitted from the knowledge that some class representatives thought the settlements were inadequate. Our review of the notice, however, is confined to a determination of whether the district court abused its discretion in approving the notice, and it is not clear that it did. The court may have decided that estimates of unit recovery were too unreliable to submit. Moreover, class members with large claims had the sophistication to estimate an approximate amount they would secure from the settlements. It is unlikely that the smaller class members would have objected to the settlement (or opted out of the class) on the basis of unit recovery figures since their claims were small.43 For these reasons, we do not believe the court abused its discretion by approving a notice without unit recovery figures. And while we think the notice would have been better had it included information that some class representatives thought the settlements inadequate, the failure to require such information was not an abuse of discretion.
Turning to the arguments that the notice should have summarized the opinions of the sheet-plant and state-law objectors, we agree with the settlement proponents that the district court then would have been bound to allow the proponents to respond. Inclusion of the objections and responses would have made the notice's neutrality difficult to maintain and may have become so detailed that the notice would "confuse class members and impermissibly encumber their rights to benefit from the action." In Re Nissan Motor Corp. Antitrust Litigation, 552 F.2d at 1104. Thus, we hold that the district court acted within the limits of its discretion in approving the notice of these settlements.
Defendants and Contribution
As recounted in the facts, Mead Corporation, the single non-settling defendant in this litigation, claims a right of contribution against the defendants who attempted to purchase their peace with the plaintiff classes. Two groups of defendants think this alleged right to contribution, if ultimately upheld, would entitle them to rescind their settlements under the doctrine of commercial frustration. Both groups of defendants believe this possible right to contribution was, at the time the court was considering final approval of the settlement, an interest the district court was duty-bound to protect. One group contends that the district court should have provided this protection by deferring final consideration of the settlements until the ultimate judicial pronouncement is made on Mead Corporation's right, if any, to contribution. See Brief for Certain Settling Defendants-Appellants (the Continental Group, Inc.) at 2. The second group believes the district court properly placed its final imprimatur on the settlements, but should have delayed distribution of the settlement proceeds until all issues concerning rights of recission were resolved. Brief for Settling Defendants-Appellants Owens-Illinois, Inc., etc. at 8. At this time, we hold only that the district court acted properly in deciding whether to approve the settlements when it did. We do not, in this opinion, reach the question whether the district court should have delayed distribution of the settlement proceeds, since this question will be mooted if the settlements are ultimately disapproved.44 Our retained jurisdiction will permit us to review the question of distribution when the district court, on limited remand, complies with our request as iterated in Part II, supra.
The argument that the district court should have delayed approving these settlements until the non-settling defendant's right of contribution is finally resolved is without merit. The district court's inherent power to manage the class action gives it the discretion to decide when to review the adequacy of a settlement. In exercising this discretion, the court's most important consideration is whether the proponents are ready to demonstrate that the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate. If they are, the district court should proceed to consider the settlement at an early date, particularly when approval or disapproval bears on the interests of other parties who are preparing for trial. Here, as in other contexts, justice unnecessarily delayed can be justice diminished.
The settling defendants, however, claim that the court could not determine whether the settlements were fair and reasonable as to them until the contribution claims were resolved. These defendants misconstrue the court's role in passing on the fairness, adequacy and reasonableness of a settlement. The reason the court is called on to review a settlement is to protect the rights of the many absent class members who were not involved in the negotiations leading to settlement. See Ace Heating & Plumbing Co. v. Crane Co., 453 F.2d 30, 33 (3d Cir. 1971). A defendant who negotiates a settlement, however, does not need the court to act in a fiduciary role to protect its interest. The law provides other remedies if the settlement is legally objectionable from the defendant's standpoint for instance, it can seek rescission.
Thus, defendants here, are wrong in claiming that the court abused its discretion in reviewing the settlements for final approval in December, 1979. If the defendants' interests in bringing a rescission action required protection, the court could have delayed distribution of the settlement proceeds. Whether the court had the duty to protect defendants' interests on rescission, and whether failing to exercise that duty was reversible error, is a question we reserve until the district court complies with out limited remand order.
We conclude by summarizing our holdings:
(1) We affirm the district court's holding that the plaintiff negotiators did not have conflicts of interest that rendered them inadequate representatives of the subclasses;
(2) We affirm the district court's holding that the lack of pre-settlement discovery does not in itself invalidate the settlements;
(3) We affirm the district court's holding that it had the power to approve settlements that release defendants from federal and state claims;
(4) We affirm the district court's approval of the notice to the subclasses;
(5) We affirm the district court's decision to consider the settlements for final approval prior to judicial resolution of whether the non-settling defendant has a right to bring a contribution action against the settling defendants;
(6) We remand to the district court to enter more detailed findings and conclusions concerning the adequacy of all but the two "hardship settlements";
(7) We remand to the district court to enter more detailed findings and conclusions concerning the reasonableness of the formula by which the settlement proceeds for the pre-January 5, 1979, and the hardship settlements are to be distributed to subclass members;(8) We reserve judgment on whether the district court should delay distribution of the settlement proceeds until there is judicial resolution of the non-settling defendant's right to bring a contribution action against the settling defendants;
(9) We retain jurisdiction of this appeal pending the district court's compliance with our limited remand.
REMANDED with instructions.
The district court proceedings have already generated the following decisions: In Re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 606 F.2d 319 (5th Cir. 1979) (appeal dismissed without published opinion); In Re Corrugated Antitrust Litigation, 611 F.2d 86 (5th Cir. 1980); In Re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 614 F.2d 958 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 244, 66 L.Ed.2d 114 (1980); In Re Corrugated Container Litigation, 620 F.2d 1086 (5th Cir. 1980)
Since the district court issued the orders involved in this appeal, twelve more defendants have settled. After this appeal was taken, the remaining defendant proceeded to trial before a jury and was found liable to plaintiffs
Amounts paid toward the settlement have been deposited in an escrow account pending resolution of this appeal
These settling defendants claim that in the event they are held liable for contribution, they could rescind the settlement under the doctrine of commercial frustration
We find the court's findings on matters other than the terms of the settlement adequate. Thus, we are able to affirm the court's rejection of settlement attacks premised upon attorney conflicts of interest or the lack of presettlement discovery
The container purchasers who buy from these independent fabricators are different from those that purchase from defendants, although there is some overlap between the two groups
After the initial consolidation of the various pending actions, and after the formation of the plaintiffs' steering committee, five container purchasers and one sheet plant, Atlas Container Corporation, filed still another federal antitrust suit against the defendants. This case was transferred to the Southern District of Texas to be consolidated with the other cases
At the time of the settlement, Congress was considering legislation that could have conferred standing on indirect purchasers to pursue price-fixing claims and, concomitantly, to permit defendants to assert a pass-through defense against price fixing claims waged by direct purchasers. Plaintiffs represented to the district court that St. Regis, in negotiations, sought to obtain the right to rescind the settlement if such legislation was enacted and exposed it to a possibility of double liability. The negotiated settlement, however, provides a right to rescission only if such legislation were to be enacted before December 31, 1978
A second concession was that St. Regis had no right of rescission in the event the class was not certified or, if certified, later decertified. The settlement was, however, contingent on the court's initial approval of a settlement class of plaintiffs.
The terms of International Paper's settlement were similar to those agreed to by St. Regis. See note 8, supra. The discovery concessions, however, were reduced to writing
In urging the district court to accept the settlements, the steering committee claimed it had had access to the following sources of information:
(a) The indictments and, in the case of International Paper, the extensive bill of particulars filed recently by the Government in the criminal case.
(b) Documents produced by defendants to the Houston Grand Jury.
(c) Extensive memoranda and affidavits submitted by defendants in response to plaintiffs' class action motion.
(d) Motions and memoranda filed by defendants in the criminal case.
(e) Statistics of the Fiber Box Association relating to sales of corrugated containers and sheets.
(f) Arthur Andersen reports relating to economic conditions in the corrugated products industry.
(g) The opinion and record in United States v. Container Corporation of America, 393 U.S. 333, 89 S.Ct. 510, 21 L.Ed.2d 526 (1969), and the opinion in United States v. Consolidated Packaging Corporation, 575 F.2d 117 (7th Cir. 1978).
Record Excerpts at 276 (footnote omitted).
See note 7, supra
The attorney for Atlas, who had also been representing five container purchasers, withdrew his representation of the container purchasers
If the sheet subclass elected not to participate, the container class would receive the entire settlement proceeds, even that portion earmarked for the sheet plants; the sheet plants could proceed to trial
The sheet plant subclass representatives voted two votes to one to participate in the settlements; after inter-class negotiation, it was agreed that $11 million would be earmarked for sheet plant claims. The sheet plant objectors challenge the sheet plant participation in these settlements in a separate appeal docketed at 80-1476, 80-1521. The briefing on that appeal was not completed until after the issues on this appeal had been briefed and orally argued
The sheet plant dissidents do not challenge the post-January 5 settlements on this appeal, but rather do so in related appeals. See note 14, supra
The district court, however, would dispute this. According to the court,
The order carving out a separate subclass of sheet plants was entered because there was some suggestion that a conflict could arise between the two groups, and because the court was not at that time familiar enough with the corrugated industry to be sure that such a conflict would not arise. It now appears clear that although differences may exist between the sheets plants and other corrugated purchasers, there are no inherent conflicts between them.
In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 1979-1 Trade Reg. Rep. (CCH) P 62,690 at 77,882 (S.D.Tex.1979).
The district court noted that the only benefit the sheet plants separate representation achieved was injunctive relief
The sheet plant objectors also allege that the settlement with International Paper illustrates the sacrifice of their interests for those of the container-purchaser subclass. The objectors, however, do not suggest that International Paper was a larger manufacturer of sheets than containers; neither do they offer another explanation of how this particular settlement subordinated their interests to those of the container purchaser subclass. We are therefore unable to perceive a basis for the sheet plant objectors' allegation that the International Paper settlement reflects the container purchaser representatives trading against the sheet plants' rights
This practice is considered in part D of this section
Mead Corporation apparently planned to make this argument at its trial. In Re Corrugated Container Litigation, (1980-1) Trade Reg. Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,790
There is a suggestion that one defendant had an agreement with the container purchasers that if the sheet plants elected not to participate in the settlement, the set-aside fund could be used toward any settlement with, or to satisfy any judgment in favor of, the sheet plant subclass
See nn. 14 & 15, supra
A final note concerning the conflicts of interest argument: The objectors had, two weeks before the preliminary hearing, requested an opportunity to take discovery relating to the manner in which the parties negotiated the settlements. The district court denied these requests because the discovery was not necessary and the request for it was not timely filed. Pretrial Order # 13, Record, vol. 6, at 1068. We are unable to tell from the brief of the objectors whether the district court's refusal to permit discovery is an issue on appeal. Neither the sheet plants nor the container purchaser dissidents identify it in their briefs as such an issue. Given our holding that joint sheet plant-container purchaser representation in the settlement-negotiation stage of this litigation did not create a conflict of interest, and since the objectors have never suggested that discovery was necessary to uncover instances of specific wrongdoing (aside from the general conflicts allegation), the discovery requests were irrelevant, and the court was acting within its discretion in denying them. See Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 576 F.2d 1157, 1218 n.76 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied 439 U.S. 1115, 99 S.Ct. 1020, 59 L.Ed.2d 74 (1979)
See note 10, supra
We hasten to add that the adequacy of settlement terms cannot ordinarily redeem a settlement that was bargained by a party who was in a conflict position. See, e. g., Clark v. Lomas & Nettleton Financial Corp., 625 F.2d 49 (5th Cir. 1980)
The objectors have not challenged the two "hardship" settlements for adequacy. They do, however, object to the formula by which these settlements are to be divided between the two classes. This is discussed in section III, infra
As is discussed in subsection D.4, infra, we are, at this juncture, remanding the case to the district court to allow it to explain in more detail the reasons it approved the settlements. If the court is unable to prepare such findings, we will vacate the order to allow the court to consider the issue anew with new evidentiary hearings and with the ability to reach different conclusions
The settlement proponents would dispute this. In their briefs, the proponents point to footnote 15, appearing in the district court's memorandum approving the settlements, which purports to find that if plaintiffs prevail at trial, "actual damages, if any are found, will be somewhere between (the proponents' lowest estimate ($700,000,000) and the objectors' highest estimate ($1.6 billion) of the damages for the four-year period)." In Re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, (1980-1) Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,790 n.15. We cannot accept this recital of the self-evident as a finding of fact supporting approval of the settlements or somehow excusing the court from considering the validity of the competing estimates
A troubling point is that apportionment of the settlement fund is to be based on the ratio of each class member's purchase dollars between 1960 and 1976 to the total dollar amount of claims submitted. This means, of course, that claims based outside the statutory period will be treated as equal in value to claims within the period. But if the district court finds the former claims to have only marginal settlement value, they should be worth less when the settlement funds are distributed than the latter claims. This problem is considered in section III, infra, which discusses allocation of the settlement proceeds
We are ultimately required to vacate the settlement approval order, the district court may wish to engage the services of a court-appointed expert to review the soundness of Hoyt's methodology. The Manual For Complex Litigation, section 1.46 recommends use of a special master in evaluating a settlement in particularly complicated cases. 1 Moore's Federal Practice §§ 1.46, 3.40 (2d ed. 1980). We endorse this recommendation. We must question whether the district judge or this panel has sufficient acumen in the field of economics to consider, unaided by objective independent expertise, the economic issues involved in this case
This last objection relates to our evaluation of the court's reasoning in reviewing its exercise of discretion, i. e., its determination that the probability of success and the range of possible recovery in the event of success justify settlement at a particular level. See subsection III D., infra
Proponents of the settlements have suggested that the district court's familiarity with the records in this case and with the criminal trial are adequate support for the court's approval of the settlements. While the district court's relationship with these cases may have provided it with knowledge about the strength of plaintiffs' civil action, we nonetheless are unable to review the approval without specific findings, supported by information in the record presented to us
The plaintiff class negotiators did consider the relative strength; they generally demanded higher settlements from indicted defendants than from defendants in the unindicted group
It must be remembered that the settling defendant is also spared the expense of trying the case
In In Re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 1980-1 Trade Reg.Rep. (CCH) P 63,163 at 77,791, the court stated:
The settlements offer many benefits to the class. They provide a very substantial recovery without giving up any claimed damages that may ultimately be proved. They provide for valuable discovery assistance, and they ensure against the many uncertainties of continuing litigation. They were negotiated before the evidence was presented and the defendants acquitted in the trial of those indicted; it would be a long, hard and expensive task to achieve equal concessions should the court disapprove these settlements and send the parties back to their negotiations. The law favors settlements, and certainly it should favor these.
The objectors, of course, have differing views on which subclass would benefit from the revised formula. Container purchasers contend that "Proponents' allocation plan unjustly enriched sheet plants at the expense of container purchasers." Reply Brief for Plaintiff-Appellant Container Purchasers at 21. But sheet plants contend that "Whereas for each expenditure of $110.00 a Container Purchaser sustained damage in the amount of $10.00, for each expenditure of $110.00 a Sheet Plant sustained damage in the amount of $15.71." Affidavit of Sam Peltzman, at p. 13, Appendix, Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants Great Northern Packaging Corporation, et. al
Even if the formula were based on unacceptable guesswork, we might, on the facts of this case, affirm the district court's approval of it. If we ultimately vacate the order approving the settlements, the district court may have to consider the impact of the jury verdict rendered in the trial of Mead Corporation in deciding whether to approve the settlements and the allocation formula. The jury found, albeit under instructions to which some container-purchaser plaintiffs took exception, that the overcharges for each subclass were five percent. This means that the ultimate fact-finder, on the basis of the fully developed facts of the case, concluded that each class was overcharged by the same percentage. In the face of this finding, the district court, if it were to consider the issue again, might well be abusing its discretion if it were to disapprove the "share-and-share-alike" inter-class allocation agreement
Possible subclasses are a class of plaintiffs all of whose claims are based on pre-1973 purchases; a class of plaintiffs all of whose claims are based on post-1972 purchases; and a third class whose claims are based on purchases during both periods
It is undisputed that the federal district court would have had pendent jurisdiction to try the state law claims as a part of the consolidated litigation
The objectors point to the Seventh Circuit decision in In Re General Motors Corp. Engine Interchange Litigation, 594 F.2d 1106 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 870, 100 S.Ct. 146, 62 L.Ed.2d 95 (1979), in support of their position. The objectors cite the following statement in the court's opinion: "The trial court, having declined jurisdiction over state claims, was without power to extinguish them (in settlement)." 594 F.2d at 1134 (emphasis added). Put into context, this statement does not mean what it might otherwise seem to suggest. In the General Motors case, each class member had the option to opt out of the settlement, even though they had previously let lapse their right to opt out of the class. Although the Seventh Circuit's opinion indicates that class notice included the information that General Motors and class representatives had negotiated a proposed settlement, 594 F.2d at 1116, the opinion does not indicate whether the notice informed class members that this settlement would release their state law claims, and we are unwilling to assume that it did. Given this, we read the opinion to hold that a court can approve a settlement extinguishing state claims not before it if the class members have been notified that their participation in the class or the settlement might result in release of their state claims. In the case before us, the class notice provided class members with the information that the court had preliminarily approved settlements releasing federal and state claims. Armed with that knowledge, the objectors opted to participate in the class. Thus, the district court's dismissal of the state claims is consistent with our reading of the General Motors case. We thus have no occasion to decide whether we agree with the Seventh Circuit that a federal court can be jurisdictionally barred in some circumstances from releasing state claims not before it
Objectors resisted consolidation of their state action with the federal class action
The South Carolina objectors claim that another aspect of the notice scheme prejudiced class members: the inclusion of a claims form with the notice. (The class members were asked to list their corrugated purchases on this form.) Completion of the form did not waive any rights to object to the settlement and we fail to see how inclusion of the form with the notice prejudiced any class member in any way
Their interests, it goes without saying, were to be scrupulously protected by the court at the settlement hearings
We consider whether the district court should have considered approving the settlements when it did because a negative answer to this question would require us to vacate the order approving the settlements
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200 - 250 out of 3,844 results
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Dental prostheses
A review on finite element method for machining of composite materials
Shetty, N., Shahabaz, S. M., Sharma, S. S. & Divakara Shetty, S., 15-09-2017, In: Composite Structures. 176, p. 790-802 13 p.
A review on the polymers for vegetarian soft gel capsule films
Verma, S. & Tippavajhala, V. K., 01-09-2017, In: Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 10, 9, p. 3217-3222 6 p.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
A review on violent behavior among patients admitted in psychiatric setting
Binil, V., Sudhakar, C., Hegde, S. & Ravishankar, N., 01-12-2017, In: Medico-Legal Update. 17, 2, p. 237-242 6 p.
A rising threat – Risk factors and outcomes related to infections with Acinetobacter species
Khurana, P., Baliga, S., Suchitra Shenoy, M. & Prasanna Mithra, P., 01-03-2017, In: Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research. 10, 3, p. 108-111 4 p.
Acinetobacter Infections
Acinetobacter
Arthroscopic Suture Pull-Out Fixation of Displaced Tibial Spine Avulsion Fracture
Pandey, V., Cps, S., Acharya, K. & Rao, S. K., 01-01-2017, In: Journal of Knee Surgery. 30, 1, p. 28-35 8 p.
Avulsion Fractures
Artificial intelligence to impart surveillance, tracking, & actuation on suspicious activities
Bhattacherjee, S. & Somashekhar, G. C., 12-07-2017, Proceedings - 7th IEEE International Advanced Computing Conference, IACC 2017. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., p. 1-5 5 p. 7976750
Telecommunication links
Roadsides
A simulator for nerve repair
Kamath, J., Jayasheelan, N. & Sujir, P., 01-11-2017, In: Journal of Hand Surgery: European Volume. 42, 9, p. 960-961 2 p.
A Single Arm, Monocentric, Prospective, Open Label Study to Evaluate Anti-Ageing Efficacy of Human Growth Factors and Cytokines Containing Cosmetic Skin Serum in Indian Female Population
N S, R., Sachdev, M., Chullikana, A., Shilpakar, R., R, S., Velugotla, K., Manjudar, A. & Gupta, P., 2017, In: Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications. 1, p. 118 132 p.
A specific absorbance to estimate a protein by lowry’s method
Ranjini, H. S., Padmanabha Udupa, E. G., Kamath, S. U., Setty, M. & Hadapad, B., 01-03-2017, In: Advanced Science Letters. 23, 3, p. 1889-1891 3 p.
Assessment of cardiac autonomic function by post exercise heart rate recovery in diabetics
Takkar, N., Takkar, J. P., Padmakumar, R., Patil, N. A., Rao, K. N. & Bhattacharje, D., 01-12-2017, In: Romanian Journal of Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases. 24, 4, p. 289-293 5 p.
Assessment of free radical scavenging and anti-proliferative activities of Tinospora cordifolia Miers (Willd)
Polu, P. R., Nayanbhirama, U., Khan, S. & Maheswari, R., 11-09-2017, In: BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 17, 1, 457.
Tinospora
1-Butanol
Assessment of in vitro anthelmintic activity of Heracleum afghanicum Kitamura leaves
Amini, M. H., Kalsi, V., Kaur, B., Lobo, R., Singh, G., Sharma, A., Vyas, M. & Suttee, A., 01-10-2017, In: International Journal of Green Pharmacy. 11, 4, p. 244-247 4 p.
Heracleum
Oligochaeta
Assessment of musculoskeletal strength and levels of fatigue during different phases of menstrual cycle in young adults
Pallavi, L. C., Souza, U. J. D. & Shivaprakash, G., 01-02-2017, In: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 11, 2, p. CC11-CC13
Fatigue of materials
Assessment of quality of life in type II diabetic patients using the modified diabetes quality of life (MDQOL)-17 questionnaire
Prajapati, V. B., Blake, R., Acharya, L. D. & Seshadri, S., 01-01-2017, In: Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 53, 4, e17144.
Assessment of risk of metabolic syndrome and cardio vascular diseases among medical students in India
Joseph, N., Chettuvatti, K., Yadav, H., Bharadwaj, H. & Kotian, S. M., 01-07-2017, In: Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research. 8, 3, p. 89-95 7 p.
Assessment of serum β-hCG and lipid profile in early second trimester as predictors of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
Revankar, V. M. & Narmada, L., 01-09-2017, In: International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. 138, 3, p. 331-334 4 p.
Second Pregnancy Trimester
Assessment of the level of knowledge and awareness of dental health care workers about hand Hygiene -A questionnaire based study
Jayaraman, A., Hegde, S., Shetty, N., Shenoy, R. & Baliga, S., 01-07-2017, In: Indian Journal of Public Health Research and Development. 8, 3, p. 200-205 6 p.
Health Personnel
Association between overweight, obesity in relation to serum Hs-CRP levels in adults 20-70 years
Lavanya, K., Ramamoorthi, K., Acharya, R. V. & Madhyastha, S. P., 01-12-2017, In: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 11, 12, p. OC32-OC35
Association between the weight loss and anxiety, depression after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty: A need for pre-discharged counseling
Shetty, P. N., Tom, D., Yeshwanth Rao, K., Singh, A. & Karim, H., 01-01-2017, In: Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research. 10, 8, p. 323-326 4 p.
Coronary Balloon Angioplasty
Association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and anthropometric measurements - A case control study in South India
Awasthi, A., Rao, C. R., Hegde, D. S. & Rao N, K., 01-01-2017, In: Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. 58, 1, p. E56-E62
Association of angiogenic cytokines (VEGF-A and VEGF-C) and clinical characteristic in women with unexplained recurrent miscarriage
Bagheri, A., Kumar, P., Kamath, A. & Rao, P., 2017, In: Bratislava Medical Journal. 118, 5, p. 258-264 7 p.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C
Association of HSD11B1 gene polymorphisms with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in South Indian population
Devang, N., Satyamoorthy, K., Rai, P. S., Nandini, M., Rao, S., Phani, N. M. & Adhikari, P., 01-09-2017, In: Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. 131, p. 142-148 7 p.
11-beta-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 1
Association of Interleukin-6 and Myeloperoxidase with Insulin Resistance in Impaired Fasting Glucose Subjects
Agarwal, A., Hegde, A., Yadav, C., Ahmad, A., Manjrekar, P. A. & Srikantiah, R. M., 01-03-2017, In: Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry. 32, 1, p. 33-38 6 p.
Peroxidase
Association of level of education and utilization of restorative dental care among rural women in India: Cross-sectional study
Shetty, N., Mala, K., Suprabha, B. & Shenoy, R., 01-11-2017, In: Indian Journal of Dental Research. 28, 6, p. 642-645 4 p.
Association of postprandial blood sugar with hypercoagulability in comparison to fasting blood sugars in diabetic and healthy patients: A cross-sectional study
Kadiyala, S. R., Rao, K., Rao, N. R., Bhat, R., Rao, J., Navin, P. & Balaji, O., 01-01-2017, In: Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research. 10, 7, p. 378-384 7 p.
Thrombophilia
Association of Preoperative Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio with Atrial Fibrillation after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery
Gungor, H., Babu, A. S., Zencir, C., Akpek, M., Selvi, M., Erkan, M. H. & Durmaz, S., 01-03-2017, In: Medical Principles and Practice. 26, 2, p. 164-168 5 p.
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Carbon Dioxide Uptake by Vegetation After Emissions Shutoff “Now”
Posted on July 8, 2020 by manuelgarciajr
If all carbon dioxide emissions were immediately and permanently shut off in the year 2020 (with 417ppm of CO2 presently in the atmosphere), when would the natural uptake of CO2 by Earth’s vegetation (primarily, at first) bring the CO2 concentration down to its “ancient” level of 280ppm?; and when would the average global surface temperature return to its 1910 level (the “ancient” level, with 0°C of global warming)?
By a series of inferences based on my previous calculations of global warming, I estimate that the answers to the above questions are:
1,354 years to reach 280ppm (after an abrupt CO2 shutoff in 2020);
even so, the global temperature will rise another +2.75°C by 300 years (year 2320), remain there for a century (till year 2420), then slowly reduce to the point of 0°C of global warming (the temperature in 1910, used as my baseline for “ancient” pre-warming conditions) in the year 3374.
Figure 1, below, summarizes these findings.
FIGURE 1: CO2ppm/100 and Relative Temperature after 2020 shutoff
What follows is an explanation of how I arrived at these conclusions. It is an exercise of inductive reasoning that I present in a detailed manner for the benefit of the reader’s understanding of my logic, and to give the reader every opportunity to challenge the arguments I advance.
I proceed by making inferences from incomplete data at my disposal, linked as necessary by physical assumptions that are clearly stated, to eventually arrive at projected histories of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, and the relative temperature (with respect to that of 1910), for the 1,354 years between 2020 and 3374.
Data on Earth’s Biomass
Humanity today comprises only 0.01% of all life on Planet Earth, but over the course of human history our species has destroyed 83% of wild mammal species. [1]
The world’s 7.6 billion people [in May 2018] represent just 0.01% of all living things. Yet since the dawn of civilization, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds. The new work cited is the first comprehensive estimate of the weight of every class of living creature and overturns some long-held assumptions. Bacteria are indeed a major life form – 13% of everything – but plants overshadow everything, representing 82% of all living matter. All other creatures, from insects to fungi, to fish and animals, make up just 5% of the world’s biomass. Farmed poultry today makes up 70% of all birds on the planet, with just 30% being wild. The picture is even more stark for mammals – 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock, mostly cattle and pigs, 36% are human and just 4% are wild animals. Where is all that life to be found?: 86% on land, 1% in the oceans, and 13% as deep subsurface bacteria. [2]
I assume that “today” 7.7 billion humans are 0.01% of Earth’s biomass, and that the “average” human weighs 65 kilograms (kg), which is equivalent to 143.4 pounds (lb).
From this, the mass of humanity is estimated to be 5.0×10^11 kg, and the totality of biomass is estimated to be 5.0×10^15 kg.
The estimated totality of biomass can also be stated as 5,000 giga-metric-tons. A metric ton (tonne) is equivalent to 1,000 kg.
The following table lists the quantitative estimates made from the data (above) regarding the Earth’s biomass (the NOTES column in the table indicate assumptions made). Yes, there are gaps and imperfections in the table, which reflect the incomplete knowledge I begin with.
Mass of CO2 in the Atmosphere
The mass of Earth’s atmosphere is 5.2×10^18 kg.
To a good approximation, Earth’s atmosphere is made up of diatomic nitrogen (N2), at 79%, and diatomic oxygen (O2) at 21%. The molecular weight of an N2 molecule is 28 (atomic mass units); and the molecular weight of an O2 molecule is 32 (atomic mass units). A conceptual “air” molecule is defined as having a molecular weight that is 79% that of N2 plus 21% that of O2; that value is 28.8 atomic mass units (AMU).
A carbon dioxide molecule has a molecular weight of 44 atomic mass units (the carbon atom contributes 12 AMU, the two oxygen atoms contribute 32 AMU, combined). So, a CO2 molecule is 1.526x heavier than an “air” molecule.
The concentration of CO2 in the “ancient” atmosphere was 280ppmv (parts per million by volume). The mass (weight) of that ancient (original or baseline) quantity of atmospheric CO2 is thus:
(280ppmv) x (5.2×10^18 kg) x (1.525) = 2.22×10^15 kg.
The mass (weight) of the CO2 presently in the atmosphere (417ppmv) is estimated by a simple ratio:
(417ppm/280ppm) x 2.22×10^15 kg = 3.31×10^15 kg.
The difference between the masses of CO2 today, and in the “ancient” (pre 1910) atmosphere, is the “excess” CO2 driving global warming. The quantity is:
(3.31×10^15 kg) – (2.22×10^15 kg) = 1.09×10^15 kg.
That is 1,090 giga-tonnes.
A second route to estimating the mass of CO2 in the atmosphere is as follows.
Modeling of the huge CO2 spike that occurred 55.5 million years ago and that produced the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was described in [2], drawing on work cited in [3] and [4].
5,000 billion tonnes of carbon were quickly injected into the model atmosphere, producing a concentration of 2,500ppmv of CO2. The modeling showed the excess CO2 being cleared from the atmosphere by a variety of processes, down to a level of about 280ppmv by 200,000 years.
I interpreted the statements about this modeling, in both [3] and [4], to mean that 5,000 billion metric tonnes of carbon (which happened to be bound in carbon dioxide molecules) — but not 5,000 gigatons carbon dioxide — were injected into the model atmosphere.
The ratio of the molecular weight of carbon dioxide, to the atomic weight of carbon is 44/12 = 3.667.
The quantity of injected CO2 (2,500ppmv) in that model is then:
(3.667) x (5,000×10^9 tonnes) x (1,000 kg/tonne) = 1.834×10^16 kg.
By simple ratios I estimate the masses of CO2 at both 280ppmv and 417ppmv:
(280ppmv/2500ppmv) x (1.834×10^16 kg) = 2.05×10^15 kg,
(417ppmv/2500ppmv) x (1.834×10^16 kg) = 3.06×10^15 kg.
Note that by the first method of estimating these masses I arrived at:
2.22×10^15 kg, at 280ppmv,
3.31×10^15 kg, at 417ppmv.
The agreement between the two methods is heartening. So, continue.
Notice that the mass of CO2 per ppm is:
1.834×10^16kg/2500ppm = 7.34×10^12kg/ppm; equivalently 7.34giga-tonne/ppm.
Lifetime of CO2 in the Atmosphere
The modeling of the PETM described in [2], [3] and [4] showed that after about 10,000 years after the “quick” CO2 injection, the concentration had been reduced to about 30% of its peak level, so to about 750ppm.
This means that the mass of atmospheric CO2 was reduced by 12,840 giga-tonnes (from 18,340 giga-tonnes to 5,500 giga-tonnes) over the course of 10,000 years.
Assuming that this reduction occurred at a uniform rate (linearly) implies that the rate was -1.284 giga-tonne/year, or -1.284×10^12 kg/yr.
The Earth during the PETM (55.5 million years ago) and the Eocene (between 56 and 35 million years ago) was ice-free. The Arctic was a swamp with ferns, Redwood trees and crocodiles; and the Antarctic was a tropical jungle. The quantity of vegetation over the surface of the Earth must certainly have been at a maximum.
Roughly half of the CO2 injected into the model of the PETM atmosphere (mentioned earlier) was drawn out by a combination of photosynthesis, uptake by the oceans, and some dissolution of seafloor sediments (chalk deposits), by 1,000 years. About 30% remained at 10,000 years, and that was further reduced (to about 280ppm, or 11% of the 2,500ppm peak) by 200,000 years by the processes of weathering of carbonate rocks, and then silicate rocks.
If the linear reduction rate of -1.284 giga-tonnes/year (estimated for the first 10,000 years of CO2 reduction during the PETM) were operative for the next millennia or two, the excess 1,090 giga-tonnes of CO2 presently in the atmosphere could be cleared down to 280ppm within:
(1,090 giga-tonnes)/(1.284 giga-tonne/year) = 849 years.
However, since 13 million years ago Antarctica has been in a deep deep freeze; and the Arctic has also been a region of deep cold, ice, and minimal vegetation. Also, “since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants.” [1]
So this combination of natural and anthropogenic reductions of Earth’s vegetation from it’s peak during the Eocene would mean that the process of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere by photosynthesis will be slower. For the moment, I assume at half the rate given earlier, or -0.642 giga-tonnes/year. At that rate, clearing the current CO2 excess (linearly) would take 1,698 years.
In [5] I described my model of how average global surface temperature can be influenced by the exponential decay of CO2 in the atmosphere, after an abrupt and permanent cessation of CO2 emissions. I call the time constant (parameter) used in the exponential function that models the longevity of CO2 in the atmosphere, it’s “lifetime.” In [5], I showed a number of post-shutoff temperature histories, each characterized by a specific value of the lifetime parameter, which in mathematical jargon is called the “e-folding time.” The exponential function is reduced to 36.79% of its peak value when the elapsed time is equal to the e-folding time (e^-1).
The case of the e-folding time being 10,000 years (in my model) has the excess CO2 cleared out of the atmosphere by 1,300 years after the abrupt shutoff of emissions (when global warming is at +1°C, as it is now). That “10,000 year case” is shown in Figure 3 of reference [5], and will be described further below.
It also happens that 10,000 years was found to be the time span required to reduce the CO2 concentration in the model PETM atmosphere to about 30% to 40% of its beginning peak value.
So, I infer that 10,000 years is a reasonable estimate of the lifetime parameter (e-folding time) for CO2 in the atmosphere, and that the present excess of CO2 in the atmosphere (417ppm – 280ppm = 137ppm) would be cleared — if there were an immediate and permanent cessation of emissions — within about 1,300 years, which is similar (in this speculative modeling) to the 1,698 years clearing time gotten by halving an estimated clearing rate during the PETM, above.
A linear rate of decrease of 137ppm over 1,300 years would be -0.11ppm/year (this number will be further refined below).
Reduction of excess CO2 concentration after Abrupt Shutoff
(given a 10,000 year e-folding parameter)
Using the “10,000 year case” post-shutoff temperature change history, just noted [5], the following is observed:
The global temperature relative to “now” (2020, at +1°C) is:
above +2.75°C, at 300 to 400 years (net >3.75°C),
above +2.4°C, at 212 to 550 years (net >3.4°C),
above +1.0°C, at 55 to 900 years (net >2°C),
above +0.5°C, at 30 to 1,100 years (net >1.5°C),
above +0°C, at 0 to 1,100 years (net >1°C).
200 years after the temperature overshoot dips below +0°C (below the 1°C of global warming above “ancient” we have now), further cooling returns the global temperature to its level in 1910 (“ancient,” as used here). This is the behavior, over a span of 1,300 years, of the “10,000 year case” calculated in reference [5].
So, I assume that a CO2 “lifetime” of 10,000 years (e-folding time parameter) would result in a reduction of the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from 417ppm (“now”) to 280ppm (“ancient”) in about 1,300 years. That would be a 32.8% reduction of concentration down to a level of 67.2% of the present peak; a linear rate of decrease of 137ppm/1,300years = 0.105ppm/yr (this number will be further refined, below).
Earlier (above) I had found that the mass of CO2 per ppm is:
7.34×10^12kg/ppm, equivalently 7.34giga-tonne/ppm.
If so, then the weight of CO2 removed per year (at -0.105ppm/yr) is:
7.71×10^11kg/yr, equivalently 0.771 giga-tonnes/yr.
The present excess of CO2 is 1,090 giga-tonnes. Clearing it in 1,300 years would imply a uniform (linear) removal rate of 0.839 giga-tonnes/yr.
I will average the two estimates just given for the CO2 removal rate, to settle on:
0.805 giga-tonnes/yr = 8.05×10^11kg/yr
as the CO2 removal rate.
Earlier (above) I found the mass of the present excess of CO2 in the atmosphere to be 1,090 giga-tonnes. It would take 1,354 years to clear away that excess, given a uniform removal rate of 0.805 giga-tonnes/yr.
That reduction of 137ppm over 1,354 years implies a uniform rate of -0.1012ppm/yr.
Earlier (above) I found the total mass of Earth’s plants to be 4,100 giga-tonnes, equivalently 4.10×10^15 kg. The present excess of atmospheric CO2 (1,090 giga-tonnes) is equivalent to 26.6% of the present cumulative mass of all of Earth’s vegetation (plants). The uptake per year is equivalent to 0.0196% of the current total mass of Earth’s plants.
CO2 uptake occurs within the continuing carbon cycle of:
– carbon dioxide absorbed by plant photosynthesis,
– plants consumed as food by animals (heterotrophs),
– organic solids and wastes absorbed by the soil (decay, nutrients, peat, oil, coal),
– carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans and used to make shells and corals,
– organic gases emitted to the atmosphere (like methane, CH4, which is soon oxidized to CO2 and water vapor),
– re-release of plant-bound carbon to the atmosphere by wildfires,
– mineralization of CO2 by the weathering of carbonate, and then silicate rocks
From “final” quantities and rates determined in all the above, the following projected histories of the reduction of CO2 concentration (in ppm), and global warming (average global temperature excursion above its level in 1910), after an abrupt cessation of CO2 emissions “now,” are determined and tabulated. This is my estimation of the 1,464 year global warming blip projected to occur between 1910 and 3374.
Figure 1, at the top of this report, is a graph of this table.
It is important to note that the conclusions of inductive reasoning — as is the case with this exercise — are viewed as supplying some evidence for the truth of the conclusion. They are not definitive as is the case with proofs by deductive reasoning.
In other words, I did the best I could with what I have. Only the unrolling of the future can supply us the definitive answers.
[1] Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-race-just-001-of-all-life-but-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study
[2] Ye Cannot Swerve Me: Moby-Dick and Climate Change
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2019/07/15/ye-cannot-swerve-me-moby-dick-and-climate-change/
[3] Global Warming 56 Million Years Ago, and What it Means For Us
Dr. Scott Wing, Curator of Fossil Plants,
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
[1:44:12]
https://youtu.be/81Zb0pJa3Hg
[4] CO2 “lifetime” in the atmosphere
National Research Council 2011. Understanding Earth’s Deep Past: Lessons for Our Climate Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Figure 3.5, page 93 of the PDF file, page numbered 78 in the text.
https://doi.org/10.17226/13111
[5] Global Warming and Cooling After CO2 Shutoff at +1.5°C
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2020/06/20/global-warming-and-cooling-after-co2-shutoff-at-1-5c/
This entry was posted in climate change, global warming, physics of nature, science and tagged "planting trees", abrupt CO2 emissions cessation, climate change, CO2 shutoff, CO2 uptake, global warming, global warming after CO2 shutoff, math, physics, science, temperature overshoot by manuelgarciajr. Bookmark the permalink.
4 thoughts on “Carbon Dioxide Uptake by Vegetation After Emissions Shutoff “Now””
manuelgarciajr on July 10, 2020 at 6:13 pm said:
Now at Counterpunch:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/10/124957/
Interesting report:
By 2025, carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere will be higher than at any time in the last 3.3 million years
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-carbon-dioxide-earth-atmosphere-higher.html
Global Warming Reports by MG,Jr., from July 2019 to July 2020.
Manuel García, Jr.
Over the last year, I have posted a series of reports on global warming climate change that address it in a quantitative physics, rather than qualitative and sociological manner. Those reports are listed below in chronological order. My estimation of what global warming “will look like” in the immediate and longer term future was refined over the course of producing these reports; but they are all of-a-piece on the topic.
The first report is primarily “data” for subsequent calculations (and very important). The two PDF reports are my mathematical physics notes on my calculations (the first of these being most significant). The other five are applications of the numerical results for descriptive purposes — to help the general reader understand the magnitude and duration of the global warming effect.
A number of these reports found their way onto Internet Magazines, most significantly Counterpunch, and Green Social Thought.
The versions on my blog have had minor numerical and/or typographical errors corrected (as I find them), and are followed by my comments of subsequent thoughts (with more physics) on them (just after they were posted).
My sociological recommendations about “what to do about climate change” are summarized in one brief paragraph at the end of “Biosphere Warming in Numbers.”
My purpose in doing this work should be obvious; first, for me to understand, quantitatively, the nature of global warming; and, secondly, to help “you” to understand it.
I welcome comments and questions on the topic; after all it was such inquiries that prompted me to look into this topic (scientifically) more deeply in the first place.
Please also note, I do NOT dispute the work of professional geophysics/climate change scientists, who work at climate change institutes of various kinds around the world (e.g., meteorological, geological, atmospheric physics and chemistry, oceanographic, biological/ecological/evolutionary sciences), and who use banks of supercomputers to model the many complexities of global warming and climate change (with numerous such complexities still beyond current science’s grasp).
Ye Cannot Swerve Me: Moby-Dick and Climate Change
A Simple Model of Global Warming
Click to access global-warming-model.pdf
Global Warming is Nuclear War
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2020/05/28/global-warming-is-nuclear-war/
Living With Global Warming
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2020/06/13/living-with-global-warming/
No emissions with exponential decay of CO2 concentration Model
Click to access global-warming-co2-shutoff.pdf
Global Warming and Cooling After CO2 Shutoff at +1.5°C
Biosphere Warming in Numbers
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2020/07/03/biosphere-warming-in-numbers/
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2020/07/08/carbon-dioxide-uptake-by-vegetation-after-emissions-shutoff-now/
Pingback: One Year of Global Warming Reports by MG,Jr | manuelgarciajr
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Tag: paper
Qing Ming Festival in Singapore
Learn about what binds us all together as human beings in my article for the April issue of the Singapore American Newspaper:
Across every culture, creed and continent, we human beings venerate and respect our dead. In hyper-modern Singapore, evidence of this is rarely on display amidst the mania for improving efficiency, the omnipresent internet that can fill every spare moment, and the competition for top positions in schools and companies. But several times a year, local families do take breaks from the nation’s frenetic pace to celebrate traditions that honor their departed loved ones. The most well-known of these is the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the souls of the dead are believed to roam the earth, much like Halloween. But also like Halloween, it has evolved from a somber memorializing ritual into a more lighthearted, commercialized event. The Qing Ming Festival, on the other hand, remains a low-key time for families to come together to pray at the graves of ancestors.
These visits can occur during the ten days before or after the Qing Ming Festival, which occurs about two weeks after the spring equinox (April 5 this year). In order to avoid traffic jams, large crowds and high temperatures during the day, many Singaporeans opt to go after dark or in the early morning. In addition to cleaning the gravesite, families light incense and candles, make offerings of food and drinks, and burn joss paper gifts. Taoist and Buddhist institutions observe the occasion with prayers and rituals performed on behalf of the deceased.
Known as Tomb Sweeping Day in English, Qing Ming’s origin is commonly traced back to Jie Zhitui, a 7th century Chinese nobleman who was revered as a model of self-sacrificing loyalty. Jie followed his wrongly-accused prince into exile and was by his side until the prince was installed as the duke of the state of Jin. The duke was generous to those who had helped him in adversity, but Jie was unfortunately overlooked and so withdrew to seclusion in the forests near Mount Mian. When Jie failed to reappear despite the duke’s attempts to lure him back, the duke ordered a forest fire to smoke Jie out of hiding but Jie was instead burnt alive. In remorse, the duke inaugurated the Cold Food Festival to memorialize him. This festival accrued the elements of ancestral veneration during the Tang Dynasty, and the present importance of Qing Ming is attributed to Emperor Xuanzong, who wanted to curb the excessive, ostentatious ceremonies wealthy citizens were holding to honor their ancestors. In AD732, he declared that respects could be formally paid just once a year, on Qing Ming.
As with most ancient traditions, Qing Ming has been adapted for the modern era. The variety of burnable paper offerings has expanded to include replicas of cars and Louis Vuitton handbags. Homage websites and online memorial halls have flourished in Mainland China. The biggest change in Singapore, however, is that a number of families now bring offerings to niches in columbariums where the ashes of their loved ones are stored. (In Chinese tradition, it’s terrible luck for the living and the dead to reside in the same space, so the ashes of the deceased are never stored in the home.) Due to scarcity of land and growth in population, by 1985 Singapore had reclaimed 21 cemeteries in order to repurpose the plots. Approximately 120,000 graves were exhumed and moved to columbariums. Today, the state-owned Choa Chu Kang cemetery is the only remaining place open for new burials, but with the caveat that the gravesite will be exhumed for cremation after 15 years. It is thus incredibly busy during Qing Ming.
While there is no universally accepted theory on the origins of our honoring the dead, the earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years. And there is some evidence that even hundreds of thousands of years earlier, Neanderthals were burying their deceased with precious items. It’s not surprising then that Qing Ming shares much in common with so many other countries’ practices: Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, Pchum Ben in Cambodia, Obon in Japan, Famadihana in Madagascar, Galungan in Bali, All Saints’ Day in Christian culture, and the list goes on. These rituals not only allow us to celebrate those who have come before us, they also illuminate how connected we the living are to one other.
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Label & Narrow Web
Vol. 15 Nbr. 8, November 2010
Middle East label markets: the region's sustained growth is fueled by a growing urban population and an increased demand for consumer goods.
Document Cited in Related
Author: Katz, Steve
There is no place on earth like the Middle East. Populated by diverse and sometimes polarizing cultures, the atmosphere is intense. Religion, politics and economics are always hot topics, and the region perpetually makes headlines. And when it comes to the label industry, the Middle East is emerging, like Latin America and Asia, yet also is somewhat insulated from the Western world. That is a differentiating factor, and perhaps one that fuels growth and protects the region from some of the economic problems that have confounded Europe and North America in recent years.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
According to Pira International, a strategic consulting firm for the global paper, packaging, printing and publishing industries, the label business in the Middle East has increased from about $150 million in 2000 to $225 million in 2009, and generally remained stable in the face of the global recession between 2008 and 2009. Regarding the label industry, Pira reports: "Continued growth is anticipated in the sector over the next five years with total expenditure expected to reach almost $340 million in 2015, measured at constant 2009 prices. Saudi Arabia will account for about half of this market."
In general, the firm says that demand for labels in the region is seeing sustained growth, fueled by a number of factors, including an increasingly urbanized population, and growing demand for processed foods. Also, "the ongoing modernization of traditional retailing and a number of government incentives to promote non-oil industries are in turn encouraging growth in the food and FMCG industries," states Pira International.
With the growing label market, there is also an increasing demand for higher quality graphics, the firm reports, which is not only to satisfy more discerning local consumers, but also in export markets where products compete for global shelf space in the world's supermarkets. "In this respect," Pira reports, "traditional print processes such as offset, gravure and flexography currently dominate the higher graphics end of the market, although advances in electrophotographic and inkjet technology will see this dominance eroded over the medium to long term."
Equipment and processes
Some suppliers, and even some of the region's converters, attest that specific areas of growth in the Middle East can be difficult to quantify. However, professionals within the region, as well as abroad, concur that the growth is real, and hard evidence can be found in equipment purchasing.
"The label market has been experiencing year over year growth and equipment sales have soared almost 100 percent," says Diana El Kara, press officer for Dynagraph, a printing equipment supplier headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She also notes that growth has taken place in countries where it was least expected, namely Jordan and Lebanon. "Dominant players in the Middle East are Mark Andy, Gallus and Nilpeter. Others are present, however, and their impact on the industry happens to be regional-for example, Gidue leads the Jordanian market with its Combat press."
Shyam Babu, managing director of Nilpeter Middle East, discusses the...
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Journal of Appellate Practice and Process
Vol. 19 Nbr. 1, March 2018
SLUMPING: THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT'S SUPREME COURT BATTING AVERAGE IN FEDERAL-SENTENCING CASES.
Document Cited authorities 57 Cited in Related
Author: Bennett, Mark W.
This article responds to the increasing interest in scholarly legal publications of empirical studies of federal judges, in general, and their reversal rates, in particular. While there is one prior published empirical study of the Eighth Circuit, it involved the Circuit's reversal rates for district judges. That study found that the Circuit reversed district judges who had prior affiliations with the Democratic party roughly one and a half times as often as those whose prior affiliations were with the Republican party. This article examines the top side of this issue: How well does the Eighth Circuit fare when its decisions and its positions are reviewed by the Supreme Court? The article compares the Eighth Circuit to its sister circuits, with a special emphasis on federal-sentencing decisions. The data indicate that the Eighth Circuit is reversed more often than the infamous Ninth. It may not be surprising that, in every sentencing decision of the Eighth Circuit reviewed by the Supreme Court over the past twelve years, the Eighth Circuit sided with the Department of Justice. What is surprising is that the Supreme Court reversed those decisions 100 percent of the time. The article also argues for greater transparency for reversal and affirmance rates throughout the federal judiciary.
Professor Steinbuch's empirical analysis of 2008 reversal rates for district judges in the Eighth Circuit appeared in 2009. (1)
Using logistic regression analysis, he concluded that the heavily Republican Eighth Circuit (2) reversed district judges affiliated with the Democratic Party one and a half times as often as it reversed those affiliated with the Republican Party. (3) This should not be too surprising. As Professor Steinbuch points out, "there is no evidence in this study to suggest that politics was a direct and nefarious cause of the higher reversal rate of Democratic judges." (4) Rather, he found "a latent but discernible correlation between a district court judge's political party affiliation and the propensity of the Eighth Circuit to reverse the judge's decisions." (5) While well beyond the scope of this article, I suggest this is likely due more to differing judicial philosophies than to political affiliation. (6)
Without addressing the political-affiliation issue, I look at the reverse top-side of this: How well does the Eighth Circuit fare when its decisions are reviewed by the Supreme Court, especially in the federal-sentencing area? In other words, what is that court's batting average in the Supreme Court? For a macro look, and to set a baseline, I compare the affirmance/reversal record--the batting average--of the Eighth Circuit over the decade from 2005 to 2015 with those of the other circuits on all merits cases decided by the Supreme Court. I then narrow the focus to take a more in-depth look at how the Eighth Circuit fared in its federal-sentencing decisions reviewed by the Supreme Court from 2005 to 2015. I chose this time frame because of the constitutional sea change in federal sentencing created by the Supreme Court's landmark decision declaring the Sentencing Guidelines advisory rather than mandatory in United States v. Booker. (7) This sea change generated many federal-sentencing issues for the Supreme Court to decide. For the same decade, I also compare the batting average of the Eighth Circuit in the Supreme Court on federal-sentencing issues decided by the high court in cases arising from circuits excluding the Eighth. (8) Finally, I determined the individual batting averages for each of the Eighth Circuit judges involved in federal-sentencing decisions during the decade both for the Supreme Court's review of those Eighth Circuit sentencing decisions directly--as well as for the Supreme Court's review of sentencing decisions decided from the other circuits--on which the Eighth Circuit had also opined.
Were there a World Series for the federal courts of appeals over the last decade, the Eighth Circuit franchise would not have been in it. They would not have even made the playoffs. Indeed, by every measure, including batting averages of individual Eighth Circuit judges and team batting averages of panels and the en banc court, the Eighth Circuit most resembled a perennial division cellar dweller--surpassing the infamous Ninth Circuit. (9) Indeed, as discussed in more detail to follow, on the seven at-bats in the Supreme Court on their own federal-sentencing decisions, the Eighth Circuit failed to get on base, striking out seven consecutive times.
Citation Studies
Before turning to the data on Team Eighth Circuit, a brief overview of empirical research on federal judges is in order. In recent years, the "most prominent approaches" (10) use databases of citations to reported opinions in an attempt to measure "influence," "prestige," or "quality of judges." (11) For example, one of the first empirical studies of judges, by Professors Landes, Lessig, and Solimine, used the citations to published opinions "to estimate empirically the influence of individual judges." (12) The authors conceded that using the number of citations was "at best a crude and rough proxy for measuring influence," (13) yet asserted that their quantitative analysis offers significant advantages over other approaches because it is less subjective and relies less on non-quantifiable factors. (14) Frustrated with the appointment process for Supreme Court
Justices, Professors Choi and Gulati followed that study with their recommendation for a Tournament of Judges using citation rates as one of several objective measures in a World Series Playoffs-like contest. (15) The "reward to the winner" was not an MVP selection or induction into the Hall of Fame, but "elevation to the Supreme Court." (16) In a follow-up study and article, Professors Choi and Gulati computed their Tournament of Judges to offer to the President and the public their view of the most objectively qualified federal appeals judges to be elevated to the Supreme Court. (17) The Tournament of Judges idea generated significant response, and a lot of Bronx cheers, (18) from the academy, resulting in a law-review symposium on the topic in 2005. (19) Another citation study that used both positive and negative citations to circuit judges' opinions to rank them on judicial quality concluded that a majority of the federal appellate judges "are indistinguishable from one another in terms of the quality of their work product." (20)
Reversal Rate Studies
In addition to citations, reversal rates are commonly used in empirical studies of various aspects of judicial decisionmaking. (21) Scholars have advocated the use of reversal rates as a measure of judicial quality and they are "commonly used to evaluate circuits." (22) Judge O'Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit has published two articles reflecting on how cases from the Ninth Circuit fared in the Supreme Court in the decade following October Term 2000. (23) He concluded about his own circuit that its decade record in the Supreme Court was "strikingly poor." (24) Judge O'Scannlain determined, in his review of Team Ninth Circuit's batting average in the Supreme Court from 2000 to 2010, that the Ninth Circuit was hitting below the Mendoza Line, (25) at a mere . 190. (26) One scholar has warned, however, that "commentators agree about what the Ninth Circuit's reversal rate is, but they have sharply differing views about its normative implications." (27)
These quantitative citation studies have revealed empirical information that is not well known in either the legal community or to the public at large, other than the general perception that the reversal record of the Ninth Circuit in the Supreme Court is higher than all other circuits (which is no longer true). (28) The individual batting averages of judges and the team batting averages of courts do not seem to be a matter of much public concern, nor are they readily available to the public. (29)
It has been observed that federal circuit judges have an "almost-groupie-like following and a set of statistical enthusiasts who take a back seat only to the zeal of sports statistical buffs." (30) Yet it is important to note that the issue of Supreme Court reversal rates for the circuits is "complex and nuanced." (31) Because the granting of review from the courts of appeals is almost always discretionary, and no reasons for the decision of four Justices to review a lower court decision are generally given, the decision to review a case is clouded in secrecy and not amenable to meaningful quantitative analysis. Thus, Senior Judge Edwards of the D.C. Circuit has warned that quantitative analysis of judicial decisionmaking "must be viewed with great caution." (32) One of Judge Edwards's caveats is that "[Regression analysis does not do well in capturing the nuances of human personalities and relationships, so empirical studies on judicial decision making that rely solely on this tool are inherently flawed." (33) Yet others defend the use of "reversal rates as performance indicators for circuit judges." (34) Professor Sisk has eloquently described the balance between empirical analysis and the more traditional theoretical and doctrinal approach:
Empirical study of the courts should remain a mainstay of legal scholarship: it reminds us of the reality of multifarious influences on judges, allows us to identify patterns that are not readily discernable in unsystematic reading of opinions, and offers us significant explanatory power in certain discrete categories of cases. However, theoretical and doctrinal work will never be supplanted. Judges have long insisted that the tools of the law--the text and structure of legal documents, procedural requirements, legal history, common-law reasoning, and precedent--remain essential elements to fully understanding and deciding a legal controversy. Because of difficulties in quantifying legal elements for empirical...
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PDF2 PDF |Add To My Favorites | Version: 01/17/20 - Introduced
AB-1948 Taxation: cannabis.(2019-2020)
Date Published: 01/17/2020 09:00 PM
AB1948:v99#DOCUMENT
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
Introduced by Assembly Members Bonta, Cooley, Jones-Sawyer, and Lackey
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Mark Stone)
An act to add Section 26019 to the Business and Professions Code, and to amend Sections 34011 and 34012 of, and to add Section 34017.5 to, the Revenue and Taxation Code, relating to taxation, to take effect immediately, tax levy.
AB 1948, as introduced, Bonta. Taxation: cannabis.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, and additionally amended by statute, imposes duties on the Bureau of Cannabis Control in the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the State Department of Public Health with respect to the creation, issuance, denial, suspension and revocation of commercial cannabis licenses, and imposes an excise tax commencing January 1, 2018, on the purchase of cannabis and cannabis products at the rate of 15% of the average market price of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer. Commencing January 1, 2018, AUMA also imposes a cultivation tax upon all cultivators on all harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market, at specified rates per dry-weight ounce of cannabis flowers and leaves. Existing law requires the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to administer those taxes, and requires the revenues from those taxes to be deposited into the California Cannabis Tax Fund and to be continuously appropriated for specified purposes pursuant to a specified schedule. AUMA requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2020, with recommendations for adjustments to the tax rate to achieve the goals of undercutting illicit market prices and discouraging use by persons younger than 21 years of age while ensuring sufficient revenues are generated for specified programs. AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend its provisions with a 2/3 vote of both houses to further its purposes and intent.
This bill would reduce that excise tax rate to 11% on and after the operative date of this bill until July 1, 2023, at which time the excise tax rate would revert back to 15%. The bill would suspend the imposition of the cultivation tax on and after the operative date of this bill until July 1, 2023. The bill would require the bureau, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to provide the Legislature with reports measuring the success of this bill, as specified.
This bill would make specified findings and declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the AUMA.
This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.
Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 64, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA). In its statement of purpose and intent, AUMA calls for regulating marijuana in a way to “prevent illegal production or distribution of marijuana,” “reduce barriers to entry into the legal, regulated market,” and “tax the growth and sale of marijuana in a way that drives out the illicit market for marijuana and discourages use by minors and abuse.”
(b) In 2017, the Legislature and the Governor passed Senate Bill 94 to merge the AUMA regulatory system with the state’s medical marijuana regulatory system known as the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act. Currently, taxes on legal cannabis products include a sales tax, a 15-percent excise tax, and a cultivation tax of $9.25 per ounce of flowers or $2.75 per ounce of leaves. The cumulative tax rate imposed by existing law is substantial and undermines the legal regulatory system if high taxes cause prices to far exceed those which are found on the illicit market.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that this act suspend the cultivation tax and reduce the rate of the excise tax for some of the first few years of that market as marijuana businesses come into that market.
(d) The primary goals of this act are to reduce the size of the state’s illicit cannabis market and to stimulate sales in the licensed, regulated, and taxed cannabis market. By temporarily reducing the tax burden on licensees, the act will encourage customers to continue to purchase cannabis and cannabis products from licensed businesses and will help ensure that the regulated cannabis market survives and thrives.
(e) Success for the act will be measured by the increase in the following metrics in the years after the provisions of this act take effect compared to those metrics in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 before the act took effect:
(1) The number of businesses that applied for licenses from the Bureau of Cannabis Control and the Department of Food and Agriculture.
(2) The number of businesses that were issued licenses by the Bureau of Cannabis Control and the Department of Food and Agriculture annually.
(3) The total annual and quarterly sales by retailers.
(4) The total annual and quarterly cannabis-specific state tax receipts.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that if the revenues collected from the excise tax on cannabis are projected to be insufficient to adequately fund the reasonable regulatory costs described in subdivision (a) of Section 34019 of the Revenue and Taxation Code as well as the program funding allocations described in subdivisions (b) to (d), inclusive, of Section 34019 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, the Legislature will consider enacting subsequent legislation restoring the cultivation tax and the excise tax at the rates that existed before this act.
Section 26019 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:
(a) To measure the success of the act adding this section, the licensing authorities shall report to the Legislature by August 1, 2023:
(1) The following metrics for the years 2018 to 2023, inclusive:
(A) The number of businesses that applied for licenses from the bureau and the Department of Food and Agriculture annually.
(B) The number of businesses that were issued licenses by the bureau and the Department of Food and Agriculture annually.
(2) A comparison of the metrics listed in paragraph (1) as follows:
(A) The number of businesses that applied for licenses from the bureau and the Department of Food and Agriculture in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 against those applied for in the years 2021 and 2022.
(B) The number of businesses that were issued licenses by the bureau and the Department of Food and Agriculture in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 against those issued in the years 2021 and 2022.
(b) The report to the Legislature required by subdivision (a) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
Section 34011 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is amended to read:
(a) (1) Effective January 1, 2018, On and after the operative date of the act amending this section, and before July 1, 2023, a cannabis excise tax shall be imposed upon purchasers of cannabis or cannabis products sold in this state at the rate of 15 11 percent of the average market price of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer. retailer, and at a rate of 15 percent on and after July 1, 2023. A purchaser’s liability for the cannabis excise tax is not extinguished until the cannabis excise tax has been paid to this state except that an invoice, receipt, or other document from a cannabis retailer given to the purchaser pursuant to this subdivision is sufficient to relieve the purchaser from further liability for the tax to which the invoice, receipt, or other document refers.
(2) Each cannabis retailer shall provide a purchaser with an invoice, receipt, or other document that includes a statement that reads: “The cannabis excise taxes are included in the total amount of this invoice.”
(3) The department may prescribe other means to display the cannabis excise tax on an invoice, receipt, or other document from a cannabis retailer given to the purchaser.
(b) (1) A distributor in an arm’s length transaction shall collect the cannabis excise tax from the cannabis retailer on or before 90 days after the sale or transfer of cannabis or cannabis product to the cannabis retailer. A distributor in a nonarm’s length transaction shall collect the cannabis excise tax from the cannabis retailer on or before 90 days after the sale or transfer of cannabis or cannabis product to the cannabis retailer, or at the time of retail sale by the cannabis retailer, whichever is earlier. A distributor shall report and remit the cannabis excise tax to the department pursuant to Section 34015. A cannabis retailer shall be responsible for collecting the cannabis excise tax from the purchaser and remitting the cannabis excise tax to the distributor in accordance with rules and procedures established under law and any regulations adopted by the department.
(2) A distributor shall provide an invoice, receipt, or other similar document to the cannabis retailer that identifies the licensee receiving the product, the distributor from which the product originates, including the associated unique identifier, the amount of cannabis excise tax, and any other information deemed necessary by the department. The department may authorize other forms of documentation under this paragraph.
(c) The excise tax imposed by this section shall be in addition to the sales and use tax imposed by the state and local governments.
(d) Gross receipts from the sale of cannabis or cannabis products for purposes of assessing the sales and use taxes tax under Part 1 (commencing with Section 6001) shall include the tax levied pursuant to this section.
(e) Cannabis or cannabis products shall not be sold to a purchaser unless the excise tax required by law has been paid by the purchaser at the time of sale.
(f) The sales and use taxes imposed by Part 1 (commencing with Section 6001) shall not apply to retail sales of medicinal cannabis, medicinal cannabis concentrate, edible medicinal cannabis products, or topical cannabis as those terms are defined in Division 10 (commencing with Section 26000) of the Business and Professions Code when a qualified patient or primary caregiver for a qualified patient provides their card issued under Section 11362.71 of the Health and Safety Code and a valid government-issued identification card.
(g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose an excise tax upon medicinal cannabis, or medicinal cannabis product, donated for no consideration to a medicinal cannabis patient pursuant to Section 26071 of the Business and Professions Code.
(a) Effective January 1, 2018, (1) On and after January 1, 2018, and before the operative date of the act amending this section, and on and after July 1, 2023, there is hereby imposed a cultivation tax on all harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market upon all cultivators. The tax shall be due after the cannabis is harvested and enters the commercial market. The amounts specified in paragraph (2) shall be adjusted by the department for inflation as specified in subdivision (k), including during the period on and after January 1, 2020, and before July 1, 2023.
(2) (A) The tax for cannabis flowers shall be nine dollars and twenty-five cents ($9.25) per dry-weight ounce.
(B) The tax for cannabis leaves shall be set at two dollars and seventy-five cents ($2.75) per dry-weight ounce.
(b) The department may adjust the tax rate for cannabis leaves annually to reflect fluctuations in the relative price of cannabis flowers to cannabis leaves.
(c) The department may from time to time establish other categories of harvested cannabis, categories for unprocessed or frozen cannabis or immature plants, or cannabis that is shipped directly to manufacturers. These categories shall be taxed at their relative value compared with cannabis flowers.
(d) The department may prescribe by regulation a method and manner for payment of the cultivation tax that utilizes tax stamps or state-issued product bags that indicate that all required tax has been paid on the product to which the tax stamp is affixed or in which the cannabis is packaged.
(e) The tax stamps and product bags shall be of the designs, specifications, and denominations as may be prescribed by the department and may be purchased by any licensee under Division 10 (commencing with Section 26000) of the Business and Professions Code.
(f) Subsequent to the establishment of a tax stamp program, the department may by regulation provide that cannabis shall not be removed from a licensed cultivation facility or transported on a public highway unless in a state-issued product bag bearing a tax stamp in the proper denomination.
(g) The tax stamps and product bags shall be capable of being read by a scanning or similar device and must be traceable utilizing the track and trace system pursuant to Section 26068 of the Business and Professions Code.
(h) Cultivators shall be responsible for payment of the tax pursuant to regulations adopted by the department. A cultivator’s liability for the tax is not extinguished until the tax has been paid to this state except that an invoice, receipt, or other document from a distributor or manufacturer given to the cultivator pursuant to paragraph (3) is sufficient to relieve the cultivator from further liability for the tax to which the invoice, receipt, or other document refers. Cannabis shall not be sold unless the tax has been paid as provided in this part.
(1) A distributor shall collect the cultivation tax from a cultivator on all harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market. This paragraph shall not apply where a cultivator is not required to send, and does not send, the harvested cannabis to a distributor.
(2) (A) A manufacturer shall collect the cultivation tax from a cultivator on the first sale or transfer of unprocessed cannabis by a cultivator to a manufacturer. The manufacturer shall remit the cultivation tax collected on the cannabis product sold or transferred to a distributor for quality assurance, inspection, and testing, as described in Section 26110 of the Business and Professions Code. This paragraph shall not apply where a distributor collects the cultivation tax from a cultivator pursuant to paragraph (1).
(B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), the department may prescribe a substitute method and manner for collection and remittance of the cultivation tax under this paragraph, including a method and manner for collection of the cultivation tax by a distributor.
(3) A distributor or manufacturer shall provide to the cultivator, and a distributor that collects the cultivation tax from a manufacturer pursuant to paragraph (2) shall provide to the manufacturer, an invoice, receipt, or other similar document that identifies the licensee receiving the product, the cultivator from which the product originates, including the associated unique identifier, the amount of cultivation tax, and any other information deemed necessary by the department. The department may authorize other forms of documentation under this paragraph.
(4) The department may adopt regulations prescribing procedures for the refund of cultivation tax collected on cannabis or a cannabis product that fails quality assurance, inspection, and testing as described in Section 26110 of the Business and Professions Code.
(i) All cannabis removed from a cultivator’s premises, except for plant waste or medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products designated for donation, shall be presumed to be sold and thereby taxable under this section.
(j) The tax imposed by this section shall be imposed on all cannabis cultivated in the state pursuant to rules and regulations promulgated by the department, but shall not apply to cannabis cultivated for personal use under Section 11362.1 of the Health and Safety Code or cultivated by a qualified patient or primary caregiver in accordance with the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Proposition 215), found in Section 11362.5 of the Health and Safety Code.
(k) Beginning January 1, 2020, the rates set forth in subdivisions (a), (b), and (c) shall be adjusted by the department annually thereafter for inflation.
(l) The Department of Food and Agriculture is not responsible for enforcing any provisions of the cultivation tax.
Section 34017.5 is added to the Revenue and Taxation Code, to read:
(a) To measure the success of the act adding this section, the department shall report to the Legislature by August 1, 2022, the following:
(1) The annual amount of total sales of cannabis and cannabis products by licensed retailers for the 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22 fiscal years.
(2) The quarterly amount of total sales of cannabis and cannabis products by licensed retailers for the 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22 fiscal years.
(3) The annual amount of state tax revenue from the cannabis cultivation and excise taxes for the 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22 fiscal years.
(4) The quarterly amounts of state tax revenue from the cannabis cultivation and excise taxes for the 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22 fiscal years.
(5) The comparative growth rates of sales and revenue from before and after the effective date of the act adding this section.
The Legislature finds and declares that this act furthers the purposes and intent of the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act.
This act provides for a tax levy within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. However, the provisions of this act shall become operative on the first day of the first calendar quarter commencing more than 30 days after the effective date of this act.
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Loggerhead Marinelife Center Volunteers Talk Trash
178 volunteers collect 334 pounds of trash from Juno Beach in August
Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s group of regular volunteers joined with others from all over the community to make a positive impact on area beaches, removing 334 pounds of trash from Juno Beach last month. Working with Loggerhead Marinelife Center and Jupiter Dive Center, a team of eight dive instructors and divemasters** removed 112 pounds of debris from a circumference of 100 feet of the Juno Beach Pier. The effort was part of a new collaboration between the two groups, who will work together to remove trash from the water surrounding the pier quarterly. The partnership is aimed at reducing the impacts of fisheries interactions with threatened and endangered sea turtles.
Carrie Southgate, Jupiter Dive Center divemaster, works with Loggerhead Marinelife Center to remove 112 pounds of debris from the water surrounding the Juno Beach Pier.
Earlier that week, an emergency beach cleanup was scheduled in response to Hurricane Irene. The severe weather churned up trash and blew around litter, making the beach unsafe for nesting sea turtles and hatchlings that use the area beach during nesting season through October 31st each year. With just 24 hours notice, 140 community members of all ages came together to collect 171 pounds of trash from Juno Beach. The hurricane cleanup was scheduled in addition to the organization’s regular monthly beach cleanup in which 51 pounds of trash were collected by 30 volunteers.
In total, volunteers removed 334 pounds of trash from the beach and the water, making Florida’s coastal ecosystems a safer place for sea turtles. The organization’s next beach cleanup will be held on September 17th at 8:00 a.m. in conjunction with the Ocean Conservancy’s 25th Anniversary International Coastal Cleanup. The cleanup is open to any community member of any age. The first 100 volunteers to arrive will receive a free commemorative t-shirt, and all volunteers will receive a light breakfast courtesy of Whole Foods Market. To register, email bluefriends@marinelife.org.
**Due to SCUBA certification restrictions and liability we are unable to accept volunteers wanting to assist with cleaning the Juno Beach Pier.
About Loggerhead Marinelife Center:
Loggerhead Marinelife Center, a non-profit organization, is committed to the conservation of Florida’s coastal ecosystems through public education, research and rehabilitation with a focus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. The center features an on-site campus hospital, learning exhibits and aquariums. Situated on the world’s most important sea turtle nesting beach, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is open daily and plays host to over 200,000 visitors each year. For more information, visit www.marinelife.org or call 561-627-8280.
About Jupiter Dive Center:
For more information, visit www.jupiterdivecenter.com or call 561-745-7807.
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Thirty Years Later: Maryknoll Sisters in American Samoa...
Maryknoll Sisters Stamp Art
International Mission Photography Archive USC Digital L...
Researcher Information
Archives Illuminated
Bishop James A. Walsh
Father Thomas F. Price
Mother Mary Joseph Rogers
Brother Thomas McCann
Dr. Harry P. Blaber
Deceased Fathers and Brothers
Deceased Sisters
Sister M. William Duffy, MM
Born: February 1, 1898
Entered: September 21, 1923
Died: April 19, 1986
Our Liturgy this morning celebrates the entrance into eternal life of our Sister Mary William Duffy in this beautiful season of spring and Eastertide. After a long illness, Sister died peacefully on Saturday afternoon, April 19th, 1986 in the Maryknoll Nursing Home.
A native of Fall River, Massachusetts, Mary C. Duffy was one of four children, two daughters and two sons, born to William J. and Catherine Madden Duffy who were both devout Catholics. From her birth on February 1st, 1898 through her growing-up years, Mary was surrounded by her loving and very religious family. She attended Sacred Heart Grammar School, graduating in June, 1912.
Mary started working at age fifteen at the American Print Factory. During this time she continued her schooling at night, at a Technical High School and at Herrick Institute, where she completed a one-year business course in June, 1917. Mary continued her business career for several more years doing clerical work at the U.S. Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island before joining Maryknoll in 1923 on September 21st. Her older sister, Annie (later our Sister Mary Assumpta), had already entered Maryknoll a year earlier. At Reception time Mary was given her Religious Name: Sister Mary William. She worked in the Seminary kitchen and at The Field Afar Office until her First Profession on April 30, 1926. She pronounced her Final Vows three years later.
For a few months after first profession, Sister Mary William was Guest Mistress at Bethany House. Then in November, 1926, her cherished dream of serving in the foreign missions cane true with the announcement of her assignment to Korea. During the next sixteen years Sister William’s life was characterized with a fervent missionary zeal and single-mindedness in wanting the Korean people to know and love Christ. Her letters joyfully recount many stories of conversions and the number of baptisms taking place each year. In addition to her full-time catechetical and parish ministries, Sister Mary William had also been given the Community responsibility of Superior from 1935 to 1941 at the Gishu, Kirimni and Shingishu houses.
When World War II broke out, Sister Mary William was among those interned in Shingishu by the Japanese. Her sister, Sister Mary Assumpta, shared the same experience at Los Banos in the Philippines. Sister Mary William was one of the last ten religious to leave North Korea for repatriation. “We had to go,” she remarked. She arrived in the United States on the M.S. Gripsholm on August 25, 1942. Her joy of being home did not become complete until April, 1945 when Sister Mary Assumpta also returned safely. Both of them had a happy reunion with their family.
In the succeeding years Sister Mary’s many talents and skills were put to good use in the office, in the sewing room and the sacristy at Monrovia, CA and at the Maryknoll Junior Seminary at Mountain View, CA. Wherever she was sent and whatever the task might be Sister Mary William always responded with a consistent spirit of obedience and fidelity. Before her transfer to Mountain View in 1955, she wrote to Mother Mary Columba, “…the one thing that matters – and which I desire – is to be where God wants me.”
Although she was not assigned back to Korea, her ministry to the Korean people continued on the West Coast. In 1966 she became involved in catechetical work with the Koreans in Los Angeles. To recall the Korean language after 24 years was difficult but she wrote for prayer books, bibles and hymnals from Korea, determined to conquer the odds. Sister Mary William was also instrumental in establishing the Korean Catholic Association of Southern California in 1968. This group holds Church activities monthly and publishes a Korean weekly newspaper.
From 1971 until her return to the Center in 1976, Sister Mary William helped with the secretarial work in Maryknoll School in Los Angeles, while continuing contact with the Koreans in the Parish. Sister Mary Assumpta’s death in 1977 caused Sister Mary William great sadness and her health started declining. In February 1978 she was transferred to Bethany and later to Maryknoll Nursing Hone for full-time care. During this period, as was true in all her 63 years as a Maryknoll Sister, Sister Mary William lived her life of fidelity to God and to her religious missionary vocation.
We are certain that Sister Mary William was ready when Our Lord called to her:
“Come, blessed of my father, receive for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34-35.)
We welcome and extend our sympathy to Sister’s family and friends. We know we are all united in spirit as together we join Maryknoll Father Charles Huegelmeyer in offering this Eucharistic Celebration of love and remembrance.
A collaborative project of the
Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers,
Maryknoll Sisters,
and Maryknoll Lay Missioners.
Maryknoll, NY 10545-0305
T: (914) 941-7636 x2500
Email: archives@maryknoll.org
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VideoLifehacker Originals
How to Stream Every Star Trek TV Series and Film
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, and whether you’re waxing nostalgic for the old animated series or you’re curious to finally check out that season of Voyager you missed, every major Star Trek film and TV series is available for streaming somewhere. Here’s where to find it all.
Happy 50th Anniversary, Star Trek
On September 8, 1966, exactly 50 years ago today, the very first episode of Star Trek aired on…
With the exception of a few of the films only being available as streaming rentals, just about everything in the Star Trek universe is on a streaming subscription service. If you don’t subscribe to one of these services, nearly all of these are also on their respective stores (Amazon/iTunes/Google Play) if you’d prefer to purchase them. If you’re not sure where exactly to start, a few years ago our friends over at io9 tallied up the 100 best episodes.
The Top 100 Star Trek Episodes Of All Time!
Star Trek gave us six TV series, spanning over 700 episodes, because it's such a rich universe. And
Star Trek (Original Series)
Star Trek: The Animated Series
The Motion Picture
The Wrath of Khan
The Search for Spock
iTunes/Amazon/Google Play ($3.99/rental)
The Undiscovered Country
Amazon/Google Play ($2.99/rental)
Into Darkness
Amazon/iTunes/Google Play ($3.99/rental)
gerrrg
I’m just curious: Now that Hulu has moved away from the free, ad-supported model, has anyone quit?
I just quit my Hulu account this morning, seeing as my Netflix streaming is more valuable -- to me -- than the price of admission to Hulu, and I’m not about to pay twice for access to content that either overlaps or covered by Yahoo View.
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On the transformation of everyday culture in an era of liquid modernity
the liquidculture notebook
Archive for the ‘economy’ Category
Conflict, Critique, Summation
The one-sided assumptions in the Pirate Bay ruling
In BitTorrent, copyright, cultural industries, economy, file-sharing, law, media ecology, p2p, politics, Sweden on November 30, 2010 at 8:03 pm
This is a translation of an article that I wrote in Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on Nov 27th, following the verdict from the Swedish Court of Appeal in the famous Pirate Bay copyright infringement case.
According to the current ruling in the Pirate Bay trial, the Court of Appeal makes a very interesting comparison between The Pirate Bay and services like Google and YouTube, which also distribute copyrighted material:
“If the nature of a search service is such that it primarily is a valuable tool in lawful activities, and of general benefit to society, if this legitimate use predominates, but the distribution or transmission of illegal material in spite of precautions cannot be ruled out, the operation of such a service should be considered as legitimate.” [emphasis added]
In fact, the ruling depends on whether one sees file-sharing as a fundamentally good thing for society, or as a public hazard. Once again, the saga of The Pirate Bay shows that the law is eminently political.
Overview, Technocultural analysis
A new, yet formalised way forward
In copyright, cultural industries, economy, file-sharing, media ecology, music, p2p, politics on March 19, 2010 at 10:47 am
Bennett Lincoff, former Director of Legal Affairs for New Media at ASCAP, was in Sweden recently. Although he is not an outright opponent of the current copyright system, he has a radical proposal of how copyright law should work online. The recording industry still bases their entire business model on selling copies; a retrograde strategy, he argues. Instead, he proposes a digital transmission right for the Internet. He argues that the Net is fundamentally incompatible with the old business model of selling individual copies of popular culture.
This is a new type of license, a digital transmission license to replace all other rights on the Internet. In his proposal, anyone who wants to transfer copyrighted material digitally would have to buy such a transmission license: websites that broadcast music, namely Internet radio or other types of streaming media, but also individual file sharers who know that they share large amounts of copyrighted music. Read the rest of this entry »
aesthetics, review
Avatar 3D as cinematic milestone
In aesthetics, economy, media history, movies, philosophy, politics, review on January 7, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Good action movies tend to put their CGI-generated finger on some sort of zeitgeist. James Cameron’s Avatar does, as it not only currently makes the prime example of 3D cinema as media technology, but also contains some telling clues to current philosophical, economic and political debates.
In terms of media history, 3D cinema will probably entail a rebirth of the whole Hollywood experience; particularly the screening as an event, a unique experience. This will especially come to show later in 2010, when Alice in Wonderland premieres as a Tim Burton-directed 3D movie.
The big 3D premiere of 2009, James Cameron’s Avatar, was in some ways a brilliant experience. Sure, we were expecting critical doses of trustafarian cod-spiritualism and new age (similar to the Matrix trilogy’s “Zion”). We were expecting overly evident metaphors and a lot of Messianic hubris – but so is the nature of the genre. Those things aside, it is as driven and inspired a story as Terminator 2 or the first Matrix movie ever were. Read the rest of this entry »
Liquidculture is part of a wider discourse on the transformation of everyday culture in an era of liquid modernity. The main author of this blog is Jonas Andersson, who holds a Ph.D. from the department of media and communications, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently living in Stockholm, Sweden.
file-sharing
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COVID In Minnesota: Virus Death Toll Surpasses 4,000
It took 71 days to record the first 1,000 deaths in Minnesota, but only 19 days to go from 3,000 to over 4,000 deaths.By WCCO-TV December 7, 2020 at 11:11 am
Filed Under:Coronavirus In Minnesota, Local TV, Minnesota Department Of Health, Minnesota News
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Minnesota passed another grim milestone on Monday, surpassing 4,000 deaths due to COVID.
With the additional 21 deaths reported by the Minnesota Department of Health, 4,005 people have died in the state since March. It took 71 days to record the first 1,000 deaths in Minnesota, but only 19 days to go from 3,000 to over 4,000 deaths.
Credit: Minnesota Department of Health
Health officials also added 5,296 cases to the state’s tally, bringing the total to 356,152. Over 310,000 of those people no longer need to self-isolate.
There are currently 1,567 people in Minnesota hospitals, with 362 in the ICU. Roughly 88% of ICU beds are currently in use, and only 4.5% of non-ICU beds are available in the metro area.
However, some numbers show a glimmer of hope; new cases per 100,000 residents has fallen from a high of 123.1 on Nov. 11 to 90.4 on Nov. 26. Hospitalizations have also fallen from 36.2 per 100,000 residents on Nov. 19 to 30.2 on Nov. 26. At the same time, the percentage of cases with no known exposure is at an all-time high of 37.6%. The seven-day rolling average positivity rate has ticked up again to 11.2%, after falling to 10.7% on Nov. 25.
Health experts are saying they are expecting an increase in cases and hospitalizations stemming from travel around the Thanksgiving holiday.
In the past 24 hours, labs across the state have processed over 63,000 COVID tests. More than 2.6 million Minnesotans have been tested for the virus so far. Testing is one of the main ways the state fights against COVID, and free community testing continues.
MORE: Order An At-Home COVID Test
Gov. Tim Walz is expected to provide an update on the state’s COVID-19 response at 2 p.m. on Monday. You can watch it live on CBSN Minnesota.
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Professor Emeritus Jay W. Forrester, digital computing and system dynamics pioneer, dies at 98
Zach Church
MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Jay W. Forrester, SM ’45, the founder of the field of system dynamics and a pioneer of digital computing, died Nov. 16. He was 98.
Forrester’s time at MIT was rife with invention. He was a key figure in the development of digital computing, the national air defense system, and MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. He developed servomechanisms (feedback-based controls for mechanical devices), radar controls, and flight-training computers for the U.S. Navy. He led Project Whirlwind, an early MIT digital computing project. It was his work on Whirlwind that led him to invent magnetic core memory, an early form of RAM for which he holds the patent, in 1949.
MIT Sloan Professor John Sterman, a student, friend, and colleague of Forrester’s since the 1970s, points to a 2003 photo of Forrester on a Segway as an illustration of his work’s lasting impact.
“He really is standing on top of the fruits of his many careers,” Sterman said. “He’s standing on a device that integrates servomechanisms, digital controllers, and a sophisticated feedback control system.”
“From the air traffic control system to 3-D printers, from the software companies use to manage their supply chains to the simulations nations use to understand climate change, the world in which we live today was made possible by Jay’s work,” he said.
In system dynamics, a new view of management and the world It was after turning his attention to management in the mid-1950s that Forrester developed system dynamics—a model-based approach to analyzing complex organizations and systems—while studying a General Electric appliance factory. An MIT Technology Review article tells how he sought to combat the factory’s boom-and-bust cycle by examining its “weekly orders, inventory, production rate, and employees.” He then developed a computer simulation of the GE supply chain to show how management practices, not market forces, were causing the cycle.
The operations center for Whirlwind I, the early computer project Forrester oversaw at MIT, circa 1951. Forrester is second from left.
Credit: MIT Museum
Forrester’s "Industrial Dynamics" was published in 1961. The field expanded to chart the complexities of economies, supply chains, and organizations. Later, he cast the principles of system dynamics on global issues in "Urban Dynamics," published in 1969, and "World Dynamics," published in 1971. The latter was an integrated simulation model of population, resources, and economic growth. Forrester became a critic of growth, a position that earned him few friends.“Many businesses, government officials, and academics hated it,” Sterman said, “yet today, the collision between the finite resources of our planet and population and economic growth drives issues from climate change to deforestation, collapsing fisheries, resource conflict, and mass migrations.” Four of Forrester’s students would rely on his ideas to write "The Limits to Growth" in 1972, a book that helped to launch the field of global modeling and the sustainability movement around the world.
In many ways, system dynamics stands in opposition to the idea that a charismatic or talented leader can steer a wayward firm to success, a tension Forrester explained to MIT Technology Review.
“Very often people are just role players within a [company’s] system,” he said. “They are not running it; they are acting within it. This has not been a popular idea with people who think they are in charge … but in fact, unless they are knowledgeable in systems, they will fall into a pattern of doing what the system dictates. If they understand the system, they can alter that behavior.”
At MIT Sloan, Forrester created the Refrigerator Game, a supply chain simulation that teaches the principles of system dynamics. It was later dubbed the Beer Game and remains a popular exercise during student orientation.
“What made Jay so special is because of his background in digital computing, he saw, with the advent of the digital computer, the ability to do simulations that were both large-scale and practical,” said MIT Sloan Professor Nelson Repenning. “He appreciated that far before anyone.”
All this from a boy who grew up working the family ranch.
“I’ve had several careers,” he told MIT Technology Review. “Starting with ranch hand.”
Forrester was born July 14, 1918 in Nebraska. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1939. He arrived at MIT the same year as a graduate student in the School of Engineering. He joined what would become the MIT Sloan faculty in 1956 and retired in 1989.
“To me, Jay was MIT,” Repenning said. “He showed up to work on gunsights and radar mounts for the U.S. military, ended up playing a pioneering role in digital computing, and suddenly became a social scientist. I can’t imagine that happening anywhere else. It was the perfect match of a unique person [and institution].”
Sterman said Forrester had high standards as a teacher, but that submitting work to his rigorous inspection was rewarding.
“It was a great experience to have Jay mark up one of your papers with his red pen,” he said. “The way to learn the most from Jay was first of all to recognize that he was probably right and you were wrong, and secondly, to just be grateful for the gift of all that criticism, because everything you did after that was better.”
Forrester was married for 64 years to Susan (Swett) Forrester, who died in 2010. He is survived by a daughter, Judith; two sons, Nathan and Ned; four grandchildren, Matthew, Julia, Neil, and Katherine; and two great grandchildren, Everett and Faraday.
Ideas Made to Matter 6 strategy insights from MIT Sloan Management Review
Ideas Made to Matter 18 quotes for business and management from 2020
Ideas Made to Matter MIT Sloan expert insights: 4 books from 2020
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jello Biafra (born Eric Reed Boucher; June 17, 1958) is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. After his time with the band concluded, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word art, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and actively supports various political causes. He ran for the party's Presidential nomination in 2000, finishing second to Ralph Nader. He is an anarchist who advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jello Biafra, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Starring Jello Biafra on Plex
Death and Texas
Prison spokesman
Tapeheads
FBI Man
2019 The Last Black Man in San Francisco as Tour Guide
2004 Death and Texas as Prison spokesmanWatch Free
1991 Highway 61 as Customs Agent #1
1988 Tapeheads as FBI ManWatch Free
Himself (7 Credits)
2018 Bathtubs Over Broadway as Himself
2010 William S. Burroughs: A Man Within as Self
2007 American Drug War: The Last White Hope as Himself - Activist
2007 Punk's Not Dead as Himself
2005 Punk: Attitude as Himself
2005 We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen as Himself
1981 Urgh! A Music War as Himself
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MEDICALMARIJUANAVAILVALLEY.COM
weed legal in north korea
Cannabis in North Korea – Laws, Use, and History
North Korea is largely closed off to the rest of the world and is regarded as an illiberal country. In the past, experts have claimed that cannabis is not viewed as a ‘hard drug’ in the eyes of the law, and can be smoked, owned and even sold freely. However, the truth is a little less clear-cut – and hard to uncover in the ‘hermit kingdom’.
not clear
Cannabis laws in North Korea
Can you possess and use cannabis in Korea?
North Korea is often regarded as a conservative country, with harsh laws against many offences. Although hard drugs such as heroin are illegal there, some experts claim that cannabis is not. Reports have even gone as far as to say that it can be freely smoked and even sold, without prosecution.
For example, in 2013, Vice News reported that cannabis was widely smoked as ‘ip dambae’; a cheap alternative to tobacco.
However, it’s difficult to establish the truth of the situation, as few people visit the country. Torkel Stiernlof, a Swedish diplomat who lives there, states that cannabis is an illegal substance, and is classified as harmful as cocaine and heroin.
He told the Associated Press that: “There should be no doubt that drugs, including marijuana, are illegal here. One can’t buy it legally and it would be a criminal offence to smoke it.”
Generally speaking, the law in North Korea is strict, with the death penalty in place for serious crimes. According to Cornell University’s Death Penalty Worldwide database, regular executions are carried out in secret; and some are for drugs-related offences. However, as the outside world isn’t granted access to specific legislation, it’s difficult to draw any conclusions.
Can you sell cannabis in North Korea?
It’s ambiguous whether it’s legal to sell or supply cannabis in north Korea, and conflicting reports make it hard to get to the truth of the matter. For example, Radio Free Asia (which is funded by the US government) released a story in 2018, stating that North Koreans were selling cannabis to Chinese and Russian tourists – from the special economic zone of Rason.
It’s thought that this cannabis was actually hemp, which doesn’t contain enough THC to achieve a high. Troy Collings, the MD of Young Pioneer Tours, commented: “I’ve seen and even purchased hemp, it doesn’t contain any THC and is just sold as a cheap substitute for tobacco … it doesn’t get you high no matter how much you smoke.”
Can you grow cannabis in North Korea?
Without any official legislation to refer to, it’s difficult to say whether cultivation is legal in North Korea or not – though based on the limited evidence available, it’s probable that cannabis cultivation is a prosecutable offence.
However, cannabis grows in the wild in North Korea; particularly in the mountainous northern regions. There have also been reports of people cultivating cannabis in their gardens, though there is no official evidence to back this up.
Is CBD legal in North Korea?
Again, this is ambiguous. Although CBD contains low levels of THC (and therefore cannot provide a ‘high’), North Korea’s other drugs laws are strict, and may extend to the use or sale of CBD oil.
Can cannabis seeds be sent to North Korea?
Without official legislation, it’s safer to presume that the sale and purchase of cannabis seeds is illegal in North Korea. This is also the case for sending them into the country by post.
Medicinal cannabis in North Korea
Unlike South Korea, which has recently stated its intention to legalise cannabis for medicinal use, North Korea shows no signs of doing the same.
Industrial hemp in North Korea
North Korea has an active hemp industry, as companies such as the Pyongyang Hemp Processing Factory can testify. They make a range of environmentally friendly products from hemp. An official from the company informed the Associated Press that there are several varieties of hemp grown in the country; all of which contain very low levels of THC.
“No-one smokes this in our country,” she emphasised. “It’s only used for making things.”
According to a recent report, North Korea has one of the largest hemp cultivation areas in the world, with an estimated 27,500 hectares dedicated to growing the plant in 2004. Also in 2004, the country reportedly produced 12,800 metric tonnes of hemp, making it the globe’s third largest producer. Only China (38,000 metric tonnes) and Spain (15,000 metric tonnes) produced more.
Hemp is cultivated across North Korea, with key growing areas located in North Pyongan, South and North Hamgyong, and Ryanggang. These are all northern provinces, and all share a border with China.
In 2008, North Korea’s government forcibly seized hemp sacks from farmers in North Pyongan and limited each person to a maximum of three hemp sacks each, which sparked ill-feeling among the community. This illustrates how important hemp is to the rural communities of this country.
If you are travelling to North Korea (or currently live there), you may be interested to know the following:
The goddess Mago / Magu was traditionally worshipped in North Korea. She was usually associated with the hemp plant, taking her name from the Chinese word for cannabis – ‘ma’.
It’s believed that some North Koreans choose to smoke cannabis as an alternative to tobacco. Cannabis grows widely and is cheap, while cigarettes are expensive.
According to The Bohemian Blog (written by the British travel writer and photographer Darmon Richter) it’s easy to purchase cannabis in North Korea, and smoke it in public without prosecution. However, this is just one person’s experiences and should not be taken as evidence that the North Korean authorities permit this.
History of cannabis in North Korea
Cannabis grows wild in North Korea and has done for centuries. It’s believed that it was first cultivated by farmers in 6,000 BC, though evidence to support this is scarce. However, findings in nearby China and Japan date hemp use back to 5,500 – 4,000BC and 4,000 – 2,500BC respectively, so it seems probable that it was also being used in North Korea.
A piece of hemp thread strung through a needle was found in the north of the country in 1979. It’s thought to date back to 4,000 – 2,000BC, to the Chulmun / Jeulmun Period. The Ye-Maek people that lived on North Korea’s east coast were also believed to have cultivated hemp, and near Pyongyang, the Painted Basket Tomb revealed fragments of hemp textiles.
Judging by the evidence found by archaeologists, hemp use continued uninterrupted over the years. In 1998, experts discovered a 16 th century tomb in South Korea, which had a pair of hemp-bark sandals inside. It seems likely that both North and South Koreans never stopped using this plant, and continue to do so today.
Prior to World War II (and the creation of North and South Korea), the region had an active hemp trade with Japan. However, after the war, hemp was banned in Japan, and trading ceased accordingly.
The media portrays North Korea as being a ‘cannabis-smoker’s paradise, which goes against the country’s popular image. Here’s more information.
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Written by Administrator | 3rd December 2007
A native of Brooklyn NY, Dr Kurtzman received his BA with honors from Williams College in 1957 and his MD from New York Medical College in 1961. His internship was served at the Guthrie Clinic and Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre PA. He trained in internal medicine at the Ohio State University Hospital and at William Beaumont General Hospital, El Paso TX where he was chief medical resident. From 1966 to 68 he was a nephrology fellow at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas under the direction of Donald Seldin and Floyd Rector.
Following his fellowship he was assigned to the US Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio. Less than a year later he was appointed chief of the institute’s metabolic branch and chief of nephrology at Brooke Army Medical Center. Under his direction the nephrology division at Brooke started the army’s first nephrology fellowship and its first chronic dialysis program. During his stay in the army he received an early promotion to major for merit and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1970. He also served as the institute’s deputy commander and director.
In 1972 at the age of 35 he was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and professor of physiology at its graduate college, bypassing all other academic ranks. He was also appointed chief of the section of nephrology at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago. As Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine from 1985 to 1998 at the Texas Tech University School of Medicine he was responsible for all the school’s programs in internal medicine at its four campuses. From 1985 to 1994 he also served as chief of the section of nephrology. Over the years he has trained hundreds of medical residents and more than 100 nephrology fellows, many of whom have achieved great distinction both in academia and practice.
Dr Kurtzman is internationally known for his research on kidney function and disease; most notable is his work on the kidney’s regulation of acid excretion. He is the author of two books, more than 300 scientific papers, and approximately 340 abstracts. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Veterans Administration, the American Heart Association, and the National Kidney Foundation. He has been elected to every important society in academic internal medicine including the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He has been a visiting professor at virtually every medical school in the US and at scores of medical schools outside the country.
A fellow of the American College of Physicians, he served three years as its director for the Northwest District of Texas. He is a member of the national medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha, and served as the AOA councilor at the University of Illinois for seven years and at Texas Tech for 17 years. His students have elected him the outstanding teacher of the year five times. He is also a member of the national research honor society, Sigma Xi.
In 1993 he received the Alumnus Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement from New York Medical College. His biography has appeared in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in Medicine and Health Care, and Who’s Who in American Education.
He was editor of Seminars in Nephrology from its founding in 1981 until the end of 2006. He has served as the Associate Editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Nephrology and has served on the editorial boards of 10 other journals including the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Kidney International. He has served as an editorial referee for 15 additional journals. He was a member of the NIH’s General Medicine B study section and was the Chairman of the Veteran’s Administration’s Merit Review Board in Nephrology. He was the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF).
In 1992 Dr Kurtzman was elected to a two-year term as president of the NKF. The NKF is the largest volunteer organization in the country dealing with all aspects of kidney and related diseases. Through its 52 affiliates it supports research, training, and patient care to meet its mission, which is the cure or prevention of renal disease. The president is responsible for all the foundation’s professional activities.
On February 1, 1996 Dr Kurtzman received the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation Founder’s Medal, the society’s highest award. The Founder’s Medal is presented annually to a society member who has made distinguished contributions to the conduct or furtherance of clinical investigation. On November 1st of the same year, he received the Texas Academy Chapter of the American College of Physicians’ Laureate Award for outstanding contributions to Texas medicine.
On January 1, 1997 Dr Kurtzman assumed the editorship of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation, for a five year term. He served as one of 15 founding members of the National Advisory Council to the President of New York Medical College. In the Fall of 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for “pioneering studies on renal acidification mechanisms.”
On November 6, 1999 Dr Kurtzman received the David M Hume Award from the National Kidney Foundation. The award is the highest professional honor given by the NKF. On November 17, 1999 he received the title of University Distinguished Professor, the first time this honor has been given by the institution, in recognition of his achievements in teaching, research, and service to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the School of Medicine.
In 2000 Dr Kurtzman published his first novel, a darkly humorous examination of the making of a doctor, Doing Nothing. He received the Headliner Award from the School of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University on April 15, 2003. In 2004 he was granted the Grover E Murray Professorship by the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents. It is “granted to professors in recognition of the attainment of national and/or international distinction for outstanding research or other creative scholarly achievements.” He was the first faculty member at Texas Tech to hold both the University Distinguished and the Grover E Murray professorships.
In addition to his many scientific presentations and publications he has lectured (in the US, Europe, and at sea) and written extensively on opera. He has published more than 1100 articles since December 2007 on his website medicine-opera.com.
Last reply was November 16, 2011
bill birdsong
Good friends from the Dyess AFB years, Dr Vernon Farthing and his wife Chris, sent me your book Doing Nothing. Wow! I graduated from Emory School of Medicine and had a career as an Air Force Ob-Gyn, then faculty U Cal, Davis. I have read House of God, Intern by Doctor X, and all those books by the surgeon, Dr Nolen. All were good but none brought back the joy, fear, and a host of other emotions of your book. The head of Cardiology at Emory during the 70s was Dr Walker! No one will forget his Grand Rounds. I am now fully retired and my wife and I devote most of our time as docents, boad members, and lecturers at the Ameilia Island Museum of History (I have a MA in Anthropology, U of Hawaii, ’70), something we always wanted to do. Thanks so much for your book….I hope there is another in the wings.
Sylvia Burrage
View April 5, 2009
So when do you sleep??
jeffrey dach md
View October 12, 2009
Hi Dr Kurtzman,
I was one of your medical students in the 70’s at University of Illionois Medical School. You were my research advisor and co-author on the paper,
Dach, J Kurtzman Neil, A scanning electron microscopic study of the glycerol model of acute renal failure.”Laboratory investigation; a journal of technical methods and pathology” Lab Invest.1976 Apr;34(4):406-14.
Here is my latest article on PSA Screening for Prostate Cancer:
Although PSA screening eradicated advanced prostate cancer from the population, there was a downside.
According to Welch’s report in August JNCI, one million men were overdiagnosed and overtreated for prostate cancer over the last twenty years.
Why was PSA Screening for Prostate Cancer, a 20 year failed Medical Experiment ? Get the whole story here…
http://jeffreydach.com/2009/10/01/psa-testing-the-failed-medical-experiment-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx
I appreciate our mutual adoration for the art of Pippo DiStefano, however, kindly credit my photo
of him, in the red sweater, which is dated 1966. Many thanks.
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T32 PIRE Eligible Mentors
Stephen Tomlinson, Ph.D. (Program Director)
Professor & Vice Chair for Research & Faculty Development, Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Dr. Tomlinson studies the biology of the complement system, with a focus on the role of complement in the pathophysiology of inflammation, as well as how inflammation modulates adaptive immunity. Specific areas of interest include immunopathologic mechanisms involved in graft injury following transplantation such as ischemia reperfusion injury, graft immunogenicity and alloresponsiveness. He also has an active neuroimmunology program with a focus on how complement and other components of the innate immune system modulate injury and recovery in stroke, spinal cord injury and, more recently, traumatic brain injury.
Finally, Dr. Tomlinson is investigating how complement activation products modulate anti-tumor immunity via interaction with complement receptors on antigen-presenting cells and T cells. He also has developed a considerable toolbox of complement inhibitors and related reagents that have been utilized to investigate complement-dependent pathogenesis in clinically relevant model systems. Dr. Tomlinson’s research has been the foundation for 25 invention disclosures and 132 patent applications in more than 50 countries, with 53 patents issued.
He has been involved in numerous commercial successes through licensing of drug candidates to the pharmaceutical industry. The genesis of this was through the formation of Taligen Therapeutics Inc. (in collaboration with Drs. Gilkeson and Rohrer and external advisor, Dr. Holers), which was ultimately acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $111 million upfront with additional trailing milestones that are based on clinical success.
He is currently involved in a new commercialization effort with the formation of AdMIRx, for which intellectual property rights have been secured. Sanderling Ventures has an option to license the technology and has committed funds to patent protection and potentially commercialization. Dr. Tomlinson was the 2014 MUSC Innovator of the Year, and was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2015.
Collaborations: Co-authorship with Gilkeson, Rohrer, Atkinson, Li, Liu, Paulos; Grant applications with Atkinson, Gilkeson, Li, Kirkwood, Rohrer, Yu; Additional collaborations with Guo, Paulos.
Current Postdocs: Frank Wang, Xiaofeng Yang, and Chaowen Zheng
Raymond Dubois, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor & Dean of College of Medicine
Dr. Dubois maintains an active research program in 2 areas.
One focus is the study of how chronic inflammation contributes to colorectal cancer initiation, progression and metastasis. He is investigating how the chemokine receptor, CXCR2, modulates infiltration of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) to inflamed colonic mucosa and colitis-associated tumors and how CXCR2-expressing MDSCs contribute to chronic inflammation and tumor growth in the colon via modulation of Th17 cells and colonic CD8+ T cell cytotoxic activity. He also is investigating how a nuclear receptor, PPARd, connects chronic inflammation and tumorigenesis.
A second focus is to understand how PGE2 promotes colorectal cancer formation, progression and metastasis, and how PGE2 promotes tumor growth and progression by induction of tumor epithelial cell proliferation, survival and migration/invasion.
Dr. Dubois has an issued patent on a method to identify and prevent cellular genes needed for viral growth and cellular genes that function as tumor suppressors.
Before joining MUSC, he was on the board of the Arizona Bioindustry Association and Executive Director of the Arizona Biodesign Institute. Dr. Dubois is still in the process of setting up his laboratory at MUSC and, as such, has not yet established MUSC collaborations.
Gary Gilkeson, M.D.
Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology & Immunology, & Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs & Faculty Development, College of Medicine
Dr. Gilkeson’s research interests focus on the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus, SLE), with special emphasis on factors impacting ethnic disparities in outcomes of lupus nephritis. His studies span from basic immunology, inflammation and genetics to population-based studies. He established the SLEIGH (SLE in Gullah Health) study to identify genetic and environmental factors that result in this disparity. He also studies how oxidative stress affects lupus patients and animal models of lupus, the role of the complement system in lupus, and the role of estrogen receptors and genetic factors involved in immunoglobulin class switch recombination.
Dr. Gilkeson has been involved in the development of several new therapies for human immune-mediated diseases. He has active collaborations with 3 biotech/pharma companies related to development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic products. He was directly involved in the startup company Taligen Therapeutics (along with Drs. Tomlinson and Rohrer and external advisor Dr. Holers) that was ultimately acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $111 million. He has been involved in multiple clinical trials. His research has been the foundation for 8 invention disclosures and 6 patent applications in more than 10 countries, with 6 patents issued. Several patents are licensed.
Collaborations: Co-authorship with Atkinson, Huang, Li, Rohrer, Tomlinson, Tsao; Grant applications with Atkinson, Li, Liu, Paulos, Rohrer, Tomlinson, Tsao, Wu; Additional collaborations with Yu.
Current Postdocs:
Philip H. Howe, Ph.D.
Professor & Chair, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dr. Howe is investigating signaling pathways and immune modulation mediated by transforming growth factor (TGFβ1) and Wnt, and cross-talk in models of differentiation and cancer. A current focus is TGFβ1 modulation of B cell development and apoptosis, and how Dab2 serves as a molecular switch to control whether cells undergo apoptosis or autophagy in response to TGFβ. He is investigating how this switch may underlie chemosensitivity and acquired-resistance during tumorigenesis. A further line of investigation is how TGFβ regulation of hnRNP E1 phosphorylation not only regulates translational silencing of select mRNAs involved in EMT/metastasis but also of lncRNAs that may also contribute to tumor progression.
Collaborations: Grant applications with Li; Additional collaborations with Kirkwood, Paulos, Wu, Yu.
Current Postdocs: Annamarie Dalton, Simon Grelet, Breege Howley
Yan Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Medical Genetics
Dr. Huang’s research interest is the effect of diabetes-associated factors such as dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia on toll-like receptor (TLR) 4-mediated innate immune responses. His laboratory has utilized several animal models for human diabetes and atherosclerosis. Dr. Huang’s laboratory also is investigating the molecular and signaling mechanisms involved in upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6 by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), high glucose and high saturated fatty acids, and is investigating LPS-triggered TLR4 inflammatory signaling in macrophages. Dr. Huang has 3 invention disclosures in the area of atherosclerosis and diabetes treatment.
Collaborations: Co-authorship with Gilkeson, Kirkwood, Rohrer; Grant applications with Kirkwood, Rohrer.
Wei Jiang, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Clinical and translational immunopathogenesis research in HIV and lupus, B and T cell dysfunction, gut mucosal function, and innate immune activation
Current Postdocs: Zhenwu Luo
Meenal Mehrotra, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Dr. Mehrotra’s research interests focus on a debilitating pediatric bone disease, Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), which is the most common hereditary bone disease, characterized by reduction in quality of bone matrix that leads to repeated fractures and bone deformity. Immune cells such as T cells have been shown to play an important role in bone formation and turnover rates. However, whether T cells play a role in OI, a disease with high turnover and high fracture rates, has never been investigated before. Dr. Mehrotra’s lab is focused on characterizing the T cells specifically T regulatory cells (Tregs) in mice models of OI and their cross talk with the osteoblasts and osteoclasts. An understanding of the contribution of Tregs to bone healing in OI could help to develop new avenues of therapy for OI through the use of Tregs and its factors, thereby providing potential new translational approaches in the treatment of OI.
Another project in the Mehrotra lab focusses on the primary bone cancer, osteosarcoma. The objective of the proposal is to identify SphK1/S1P/S1PR1 axis as the main mechanism regulating the cross talk between non-malignant osteoblasts and osteosarcoma cells, in the microenvironment, which causes the progression of osteosarcoma. These studies are significant and innovative as they establish a unique role of osteoblasts in osteosarcoma microenvironment, which can be targeted to suppress its progression through lipid metabolism and signaling. These findings, thus, have the potential to be translated to the clinics by developing potential anti-tumor therapies.
Collaborations: Dr. Shikhar Mehrotra, Dr. Besim Ogretmen.
Current Postdocs: In-Hong Kang
Sophie Paczesny, MD, PhD
Professor & Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Pediatrics & Co-Leader, Cancer Immunology Program
Dr. Paczesny is Professor and the Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and is the Hollings Cancer Center Cancer Immunology Program co-leader. Her laboratory is nationally, as well as internationally, recognized for its expertise and achievements in the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation field of biomedical research. She has pioneered the study of biomarkers for complications post allogeneic stem cell transplantation and is now transitioning the laboratory work into clinical practice. She has extensive expertise in proteomics/biomarkers, T lymphocyte biology and mechanisms of immunity and tolerance as well as translating novel drug-targetable biomarkers to treatment. She has also a long track-record of mentoring and has supervised more than 50 postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, medical students, PhD students, and undergrad students. She is currently funded by 1 NIH U01 grant, 2 NIH R01 grant, 1 NIH R21 grant, and 1 NIH U54 grant. She has published 113 scientific manuscripts in top tier medical journals. She has collaborated with several industry partners as well as many collaborators at other large institutions.
Current Postdocs: John Jiang, Jaden Fu
Baerbel Rohrer, Ph.D.
Professor & Endowed Chair, Department of Ophthalmology
Dr. Rohrer is studying the role of innate immune effector mechanisms and angiogenesis in age-related macular degeneration, and mechanisms of degeneration and neuroprotection in retinitis pigmentosa. Over the past 10 years, the number of genes associated with photoreceptor dystrophies has almost doubled from ~100 to almost 200 genes. Two key clusters include genes involved in complement activation/neuroinflammation and in energy metabolism, areas of study in Dr. Rohrer’s laboratory. She is utilizing cytotoxicity models of retinal degeneration and different in vivo models to investigate the roles of complement-mediated inflammatory mechanisms, immune changes and the role of antibodies associated with pathogenesis, oxidative stress and angiogenesis (and their interplay) in macular degeneration.
Dr. Rohrer also is a leading innovator at MUSC. She has filed 18 invention disclosures, 23 US and 81 international patent applications, and has 5 US and 51 international patents issued. Her IP contributed to the foundation of 3 startup companies, one of which she co-founded. Additional patents are licensed.
She is on the scientific advisory boards of 2 companies and was previously a consultant for Genentech. Dr. Rohrer also was directly involved with Drs. Tomlinson and Gilkeson and external advisor, Dr. Holers, in the formation of Taligen Therapeutics, which was subsequently acquired by a pharmaceutical company. She has received SBIR funding, was MUSC Innovator of the Year Award in 2013 and elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014.
Collaborations: Co-authorship with Atkinson, Gilkeson, Huang, Li, Paulos, Tomlinson; Grant applications with Atkinson, Gilkeson, Huang, Tomlinson; Additional collaborations with Liu.
Current Postdocs: Masa Ishii, Navjot Shah
Jessica Thaxton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics and Physical Medicine
The long-term goal of the Thaxton lab is to create and implement novel immune-based strategies that advance care for sarcoma, head and neck, and metastatic bone disease cancer patients. As an academic lab it is essential to undertake research that is basic in nature yet has direct clinical implication. For this reason the Thaxton lab works with clinicians to determine important clinical problems and design research to address the basic science mechanisms that may enable better clinical care.
Research in the Thaxton lab is focused on overcoming the cell stress response induced by solid tumors in immune cells. The lab has discovered that the cell stress response, orchestrated by endoplasmic reticulum stress sensors (ER), determines immune cell fate decisions through programming activation, metabolism, protein synthesis, and cell death. The ER contains multiple unique and unexplored therapeutic targets to repair dysregulation programs in immune cells in tumor to invigorate responses to immunotherapy to benefit cancer patients.
Dr. Thaxton has collaborated with companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and TEVA Pharmaceuticals to test new combinatorial strategies for cancer immunotherapy. She has a filed patent surrounding ER stress targets in cancer immunotherapy and aims to establish a small business to develop novel therapeutics.
Betty Tsao, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology & Immunology
Dr. Tsao joined MUSC in December 2015 from UCLA. Her work focuses on identification of genetic risk factors for disease manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic, debilitating autoimmune disease that mainly affects women with features of autoantibody production, immune complex deposition and multiple target organ damage.
Using collected DNA samples and linked clinical and demographic information from thousands of SLE patients and controls, she has contributed to the identification of greater than 80 loci predisposing to SLE. She is now investigating how the underlying risk variants perturb the immune system resulting in systemic autoimmunity and tissue injury.
Dr. Tsao has a strong record of faculty development and mentorship. Dr. Tsao has 1 patent, is collaborating with the biotechnology company Amgen on clinical investigations on lupus through a company funded grant, and has been engaged in clinical trials.
Collaborations: Co-authorship with Gilkeson; Grant application in process with Gilkeson (she has recently joined MUSC).
XueZhong Yu, M.D., MS
Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology & Distinguished Endowed Chair, SmartState Cancer Stem Cell Biology Program
Dr. Yu’s research focuses on the biology of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The ultimate goal of these studies is to prevent or treat GVHD while preserving GVL effect, which could greatly enhance the therapeutic potential of HSCT. The major lines of work in Dr. Yu’s laboratory include:
T-cell differentiation and GVHD development
Biology of regulatory T cells and their potential application in the control of GVHD
Understanding how micro-RNAs regulate T and B cell responses after allogeneic HSCT
Evaluation of metabolic pathways or intermediates as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in GVHD and leukemia relapse.
Dr. Yu has collaborated with companies such as Novartis, Rigel and CTI BioPharma in evaluating new drugs in translational studies. He has 1 invention disclosure and is in the process of filing a patent with Dr. Tomlinson and searching for a commercial partner to develop a complement inhibitor to treat GVHD.
Collaborations: Co-authorship with Atkinson, Bartee, Liu, Paulos, Tomlinson, Wu; Grant applications with Atkinson, Bartee, Paulos, Guo, Liu, Paulos, Tomlinson, Wu; Additional collaborations with Gilkeson, Howe, Li, Yang.
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Czech Republic Payroll Outsourcing & HR Insights
Global Payroll Team
Czech Republic Payroll Outsourcing and PEO/GEO Services Leader Publishes Payroll & HR Insights for Czech Republic
Mercans, a leading Czech Republic payroll outsourcing, PEO/GEO, employee leasing, recruitment and BPO services provider, has published its most recent Payroll & HR Insights for Czech Republic. These insights provide an invaluable overview of the information every Payroll & HR specialist should know before setting up their HR and payroll functions in Czech Republic or signing up with a payroll outsourcing or PEO/GEO services provider. Mercans’ summary of labor laws, tax and social security regulations in Czech Republic allow you to navigate the local complexities and avoid pitfalls.
Mercans’ Czech Republic Payroll Outsourcing Solutions
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We use our proprietary Czech Republic payroll outsourcing software platform, that has been specifically designed to handle the complexities and requirements of Czech Republic labor regulations.
Your data is always be secure with Mercans – Mercans is the only Czech Republic payroll outsourcing provider with ISO 9001, 20000 and 27001 certifications; has passed SOC 1 and 2 (both Type 1 and 2) audits; is GDPR compliant and has successfully completed OWASP Type 3.0 penetration tests.
Mercans’ Czech Republic payroll outsourcing software platform can be easily integrated with any global HRMS systems; i.e. Workday, SAP, SuccessFactors, Oracle, Dynamics, etc.
Mercans’ Czech Republic payroll outsourcing fees are transparent and competitive – you will save 30-50% over the service fees of any other comparative Czech Republic payroll outsourcing provider.
Mercans’ Czech Republic PEO/GEO Services
If you are already too busy to deal with another country or do not have a local legal entity in Czech Republic and need to hire staff there, then Mercans’ PEO/GEO services in Czech Republic are the right solution for you. We will employ the staff on your behalf in Czech Republic and will ensure the full compliance with the local regulations throughout the hire-to-retire cycle in Czech Republic. Mercans’ recruitment and immigration specialists will even help you to find the right staff and complete their immigration process in the matter of days.
Mercans does not use any subcontractor’s to deliver Czech Republic PEO/GEO Services. This ensures that your employees receive the highest quality support in Czech Republic and our service fees are unbeatable.
Czech Republic – The Heart of Europe.
The Czech economy continues to grow on the back of strong fundamentals: strong domestic demand, sustained job creation and growing tax revenues and exports. However, slowing global trade dynamics, particularly in Czech export markets, alongside a shortage of workforce continued to weigh on growth, which was expected to fall to 2.6 % in 2019 from 2.8 % a year earlier. Government spending and household demand on the back of rising revenues should support economic activity in the near term. According to the updated IMF forecasts from April 14th 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, GDP growth is expected to fall to -6.5 % in 2020 and pick up to 7.5 % in 2021, subject to the post-pandemic global economic recovery.
The agricultural sector went through a serious crisis in the 1990s and remains highly subsidized. In 2019, it accounted for 2 % of the country’s GDP and employed 2.8 % of the labor force. The main agricultural products are sugar beet, potatoes, wheat, barley and poultry.
Industry accounts for 32.2 % of GDP and employs 37.7 % of the labor force. Growth in performance has been accompanied by an increase in the productivity of the labor force. The automotive sector is by far the largest industry, with companies like Skoda (owned by Volkswagen). Since 2005, foreign investors such as Toyota and PSA have also started producing cars in the Czech Republic. Czech cars are also the backbone of exports, which comprise as much as 80 % of the total.
Services contribute to 54.2 % of the GDP and employ nearly 60 % of the active population. The tourism sector maintains its pace of sustained growth, with the number of international arrivals to Prague rising to 5.07 million in January-September 2019 (up by 1.7 % on the year).
Unemployment rate was estimated to have fallen to a near record low of 2 % in 2019; however, labor shortages put constraints on future growth. However, the IMF expects this trend to be heavily affected by the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate being currently estimated to increase to 7.5 % in 2020 and decrease slightly to 6 % in 2021. Czech population is ageing and declining; however, the share of high-skilled workers in the labor force is rapidly rising.
Doing Business in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a Central European state bordered by Germany (west), Austria (south), Slovakia (east) and Poland (northeast). The state system is a multi-party parliamentary representative democracy with the Prime Minister as the head of government. The President as the formal head of state with some limited executive powers, is directly voted by general elections. The Parliament is bicameral with the Chamber of Deputies (200 members) and the Senate (81 members). The Czech Republic is a member of many international organizations such as United Nations (1993), NATO (1999), European Union (2004) etc.
Main industries of the Czech Republic are engineering (mainly automotive), chemical industry, food industry, metallurgical industry, energy industry and construction industry. The country’s economic policy is consistent and predictable. A strong and independent central bank (the Czech National Bank) has maintained an extraordinary degree of currency stability since 1991. The Czech koruna is fully convertible at an exchange rate of approx. 26.50 CZK/EUR as of July 2020.
The Czech Republic has concluded agreements for the avoidance of double taxation. No limitations exist concerning the distribution and expatriation of profits by Czech subsidiaries to their foreign parent companies.
An open investment climate has been a key element of the Czech Republic’s economic transition. The country’s investment grade ratings from international credit-rating agencies and its early membership in the OECD testify to its positive economic fundamentals.
Entity Registration & Incorporation Requirements
Establishing Business Presence
Foreign legal entities may conduct trade activities under the same conditions and to the same extent as Czech entrepreneurs. They are allowed to become founders or co-founders of a company, or may join an existing Czech company. Foreign companies may operate in the Czech Republic either by establishing a Czech company or by establishing a branch. The speed with which one can establish a business presence in the Czech Republic has increased in the recent years. Incorporating a simple limited liability company or a branch of a foreign company (which are usually the two most standard forms to start a business here) takes about a month or less. A company is established by drawing up a notarial deed or signing a memorandum of association, which states the name of the new company, its seat, business activities, executive directors and the details of its founders and their capital contributions. A company starts to exist on the date of its registration into the Commercial Register (usually completed in 5-10 days of filing). All acts undertaken between the moment of establishment of the company and its registration (official start of its existence) need to be retroactively approved by the general meeting of the company (or its (sole) founder(s)). The registration in the Commercial Register is carried out by a court if the all statutory requirements for the formation the new company have been met (validly executed deed of foundation, payment of registered capital, legal title to use its registered office, and others). As there are no general restrictions on foreign investment, foreign persons can operate a business under the same conditions and in the same extent as Czech persons (with a few exemptions in sectors such as banking or trading in military equipment).
Business Setup Steps Checklist
Check the uniqueness of the company’s name in the database of the Ministry of Justice’s Website (justice.cz). Agency – Ministry of Justice
Notarize Articles of Association and Lease Agreement: The notary prepares the articles of association according to the founders’ requirements, and the notary is responsible for the compliance of the contents of the company’s articles of association with Czech law. Notaries require (1) an affidavit from the company managers (2) building lease agreement, or ownership extract from the Real Estate Register, for the premises of the company’s headquarters before executing the articles of association. Agency – Public Notary
Obtain confirmation of the administrator of the capital contribution of the company, along with the confirmation of the bank that the capital contribution is held in the company’s special bank account. Until the company is registered, the paid-in capital is blocked in the special bank account. Banks typically require notarized articles of association to open a corporate bank account. Agency – Bank
Register with the Trade Licensing Office and obtain extract of the trade license. Required for registration is (1) application (2) memorandum of association if the company has been founded but not yet established (i.e. registered with the Commercial Register) (3) proof of legal use of premises (i.e. a notarized copy of the premises lease agreement) (4) proof of payment of the administrative fee. http://www.rzp.cz/elpod.html. The Trade License Office must complete the registration process within 5 working days from the day when all required documents were submitted, and typically does so in 1-2 days. After the completion of the registration process, the Trade License Office issues the excerpt of the trade license register which is either picked-up personally by the applicant at the Trade License Office, delivered by post mail, or delivered to an electronic data box. Agency – Trade License Office
Register in the Business Registry of the Regional Commercial Court through a notary by submitting (1) application (2) notarized articles of association (3) notarized lease of the premises in which company headquarters are located (4) a confirmation from the administrator of the contributions into the company’s registered capital confirming that each founder paid up at least 30 % of his or her monetary capital contribution and that the total paid up capital contribution is at least CZK 1 (5) a confirmation from the relevant bank that the capital contributions are held in the company’s special bank account for the registered capital (6) biographic data on the company managers/executive, to the relevant court administering the register. This can be done in person or through a notary. Agency – Business (Commercial) Registry of the Regional Commercial Court
Register for income tax and VAT: The deadline for income tax registration is 15 days from the company incorporation. Other deadlines are (1) Withholding tax and payroll tax registration: 8 days (2) VAT obligatory registration: 15 days following the end of month in which the conditions are met, or in certain cases, within 15 days following the date when the company automatically becomes a VAT payer (3) VAT voluntary registration: submit the registration at any time. Upon submitting the application for income tax registration, the company receives a tax identification number (same number as for the VAT and the income tax). Agency – Tax Office
Register beneficial owners with the local registry court. As of 1 January 2018, a limited liability company has to register its beneficial owner in the respective registration court. The application has to be filed with a specific form. It can either be submitted in electronic form, or it can be printed and sent to the Registry Court in paper form. After filling in and saving the form, the user also gets a unique identifier for the real owner. The completed form must be addressed to the local court of registry – in which district the registered entity is located. The court has a time limit of 5 business days for the registration. Until the end of year 2018, there was no administrative / court registration fee; however, since 2019 the registration for legal entities that are registered in the commercial register is subject to administrative registration fee of CZK 1,000. For other entities and trusts, the registration is free. More information is accessible through: https://issm.justice.cz/
The company must register for the social security registration (which is referred to in Czech law as “the Register of Employers”) within 8 days of the date when the first employee starts work. Application for the Register of Employers may be submitted either online through a data box or in person. After the registration is completed, most of the further documents which are required by the Social Security administration may be submitted online through a data box or a different online platform. The application form is available on the following website: http://www.cssz.cz/cz/tiskopisy/nemocenske-pojisteni.htm
The company must register for the health insurance registration within 8 days of the date when the first employee starts work. It is possible to do so online, although each health insurance company has its own website. Applications can be submitted through the data box, or in person. the most common (state-owned) Health Insurance Provide in the Czech Republic: http://www.vzp.cz/platci/tiskopisy/prihlaska-a-evidencni-list-zamestnavatele http://www.vzp.cz/platci/tiskopisy/hromadne-oznameni-zamestnavatele
Forms of Legal Entities
The Czech Act on Business Corporations, recognizes the following legal entities:
For limited liability companies and joint-stock companies the emphasis is on capital wh12/22/2020ilst for limited partnerships and an unlimited partnerships the emphasis is on the role of the partners. General partners have unlimited liability for the partnership’s obligations whilst special partners have limited liability to the extent of their unpaid contribution. The cooperative is also a recognized type of corporation.
Besides these legal entities, investors may also choose to undertake business as tradesmen (acting under trade licenses issued to them) or to participate in business activities of another in the form of a silent partnership (contractual arrangement). Finally, also the European forms of legal entities may operate in the Czech Republic, i.e. a European Economic Interest Grouping, a European Company (Societas Europea) and a European Cooperative Society.
A branch office of a foreign company is not a Czech legal entity, but functions as the representative of a foreign company and incurs obligations on the foreign company’s behalf. Branches of foreign businesses may conduct business activities in the Czech Republic provided that they obtain a business license and mostly also their registration in the Commercial Register is required. (This rule applies with some exemptions in behalf of the companies from EU member states, e.g. banks having their registered office in an EEA member state may operate in the Czech Republic without establishing a branch, under the single license principle, provided that the performance of such activities does not have the character of permanent economic activity).
A branch establishment is effected by a simple resolution made by the founder, including details about the founder, the branch’s location in the Czech Republic, the scope of its business activities, and the appointment of its head (branch manager).
The branch must obtain a business license from the Trade Licensing Office for its Czech business.
Branch offices are only allowed to engage in business activities which correspond to those of the founder.
The law under which the branch’s parent entity was founded also apply to the branch’s internal dealings as the branch office itself is not considered to be a separate legal entity and all liabilities incurred through the branch office are the liabilities of the “parent” entity.
From January 2002, there is no restriction on acquisition of real estate through branch offices of foreign companies in the Czech Republic.
A branch is subject to corporate income tax on its Czech-generated income.
Limited Liability Company (s.r.o.)
This is the most common legal form of company for small and medium-sized businesses and subsidiaries of foreign parent companies. Corporate governance is much simpler than of a joint stock company: the s.r.o. does not have a separate board of directors as a collective body, and decision-making powers may be delegated to one or more designated persons – executive directors – by the members. The company may be founded either by means of a founder’s deed by one entity (whether an individual or a legal entity) or a memorandum of association concluded by several entities or individuals. Such founder’s deed or memorandum of association must be executed in the form of a notarial deed. Under the Act on Business Corporations, each member (whether a legal entity or a natural individual) participates in the company through his “ownership interest” corresponding to proportion of member’s contribution to the company’s total registered capital. This rule may be modified by a memorandum of association.
A limited liability company may have more than one type of ownership interest, to which different rights and obligations attach. A shareholder may hold more than one ownership interest (provided that the founder’s deed or the memorandum of association allows it). A limited liability company does not issue shares. However, the company may issue specific certificated securities representing ownership interest called common shares (kmenový list) in respect of ownership interests whose transfer is not restricted or conditional. Common shares may be transferred to a third party, but not offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market.
A member can transfer his/her ownership interest in the company to another member, without the approval of the general meeting, unless the memorandum of association or the deed of incorporation state that such approval is necessary. A member can transfer his/her ownership interest to a person who is not a member only with the approval of the general meeting. The memorandum of association or deed of incorporation may stipulate otherwise. If a company has a sole member, the ownership interest is always transferable to a third party. The transfer of an ownership interest becomes effective for the contracting parties, upon execution of the contract (but not before the consent was given, if needed), and for the company, on the day an effective transfer agreement with officially verified signatures is delivered to it. The ownership interest may also be divided, unless the memorandum of association or the deed of incorporation states otherwise.
Company exists independently of its members (owners), who are not liable for the debts and obligations of the company (its members are liable one and all for the debts and obligations of the company in the amount of total unpaid contributions as recorded in the Commercial Register).
List of members, amount of each member’s investment contribution, and the names of the supervisory board (if established) members must be registered in the Commercial Register as well.
The registered capital of a company is composed of the contributions made by the members. Each member must contribute at least CZK 1. No reserve fund must be created.
A Supervisory Board is only necessary if required by the memorandum of association (i.e. its appointment is at the discretion of the founder(s)).
General meeting appoints executive directors to act as the statutory body of the company and to run the company.
No need to appoint auditor unless at least two of the following criteria have been met in the given accounting period and the accounting period directly preceding: (1) yearly turnover exceeds CZK 80 Mio, (2) total assets exceed CZK 40 Mio, (3) at least 50 employees in average per year.
Annual financial statements must be published in the Collection of documents of the Commercial Register.
Joint-Stock Company (a.s.)
The legal form of a joint-stock company is usually used for establishing of large companies. A joint-stock company is a capital corporation, the running of which involves the shareholders to a minimal extent. Shareholders of a joint-stock company may be legal entities and/or natural individuals. There is no maximum number of shareholders. The registered capital of the company is divided into a certain number of shares; either into a fixed number of shares with a fixed nominal value, or into shares which value differs from the number of issued shares.
Shares may be registered shares (issued to a named shareholder) or bearer shares. Shares may be “certificated” (i.e. physical share certificates are issued either to the bearer or to a registered shareholder). They may also be in de-materialized form, uncertificated (book-entered) shares registered on the shareholder’s account at the Central Securities Depository (a special legal entity), for which physical share certificates are not issued. As of January 1, 2014, certificated bearer shares are no longer allowed and existing certificated bearer shares must be either immobilized (physically deposited) in a bank or exchanged for uncertificated (book-entered) shares.
In contrast to the other types of companies a share in a joint stock company is, as a general rule, freely transferable. Any shareholder can usually therefore freely transfer his/her/its share to any person or entity, without the consent of the other shareholders. Nevertheless, the articles of association may restrict, but not exclude, the transfer of registered shares, (e.g. by making the transfer subject to the approval of one of the company’s bodies).
The company exists independently of its shareholders, who are not liable for the debts and obligations of the company.
The amount of a registered capital and extent to which it was paid up, the number, class, type and nominal value of shares, restrictions applying to transferability of shares registered in name, the names and residential addresses of members of both the board of directors and the supervisory board must be registered in the Commercial Register.
The registered capital must be at least CZK 2 Mio or EUR 80,000 (for companies which are allowed by a special law to keep their accounts in EUR).
A reserve fund does not have to be created in principle.
Annual financial statements must be audited, if reaches at least one of the above criteria mentioned within the limited liability company section, and published.
A joint-stock company does have a Supervisory Board and a Board of Directors, or alternatively, it can have an Administrative Board and a single director. The choice lies on the articles of association.
The right to receive a dividend, the pre-emptive right to a share and interchangeable and prior-lien bonds subscription, the right to receive a liquidation share and other similar rights provided by the articles of association may be transferred separately from the share to which the rights are attached.
A share‘s issue price may not be lower than its nominal value.
Partnerships (k.s. and v.o.s.)
Limited partnerships (k.s.) and unlimited partnership (v.o.s.) are formed in a similar fashion as other business corporations. An unlimited partnership is a company whose partners are personally jointly and severally liable for the company’s obligations in full. A limited partnership is a company in which two types of members participate; i.e. limited partners (komanditisté) and unlimited partners (komplementáři). Each limited partner is jointly and severally liable for the obligations of the company up to the unpaid amount of his/her capital contribution, as registered in the Commercial Register. Unlimited partners are personally jointly and severally liable for the company’s obligations in full. As these legal forms of companies are seldom used by incoming investors into the Czech Republic their particulars are not discussed within the limited space of this brief summary.
Trade Licensing
In order to be registered in the Commercial Register all types of the companies are required to obtain a trade license from a wide variety of trade licenses that are granted and operable on the basis of a simple notification-only license. The Trade Licensing Act distinguishes between two forms of activities:
Notification-only business. A notification-only business must be notified to the business license department of any municipal office in the Czech Republic (the “Trade Licensing Office”) which issues an appropriate certificate (a “živnostenský list“) confirming that the stipulated conditions for the issue for the trade license have been met. Business activities classified as “notification-only business” are the following types:
unqualified trades (production, trade and services other than those listed in Annexes 1 to 3 of the Trade Licensing Act – e.g. consulting services);
craft trades (e.g. foundry, blacksmithing, grinding and etching of glass, leatherworking); and
regulated trades – necessary professional qualifications (e.g. geological work, accounting consultancy, engineering etc.).
Licensed business. Licensed businesses are those, which require a formal trade license to trade (in Czech: “koncesní listina“), and the founders of the proposed business must submit an application to the Trade Licensing Office. This Office then commences a procedure to grant or refuse a license.
Except for the unqualified trades a trade must be carried out by a qualified person possessing certain educational and practice requirements depending on the type of the trade. In the case of a legal person, it shall appoint its so-called “responsible representative” who is responsible for the due carrying out of a trade and fulfilling trade license regulations.
Data Mailboxes
Each company registered in the Commercial Register has a data mailbox which is an electronic storage space created by operation of law. The system of data mailboxes is operated by the state. Once the data mailbox has been created, access data are generated and delivered to the authorized person (e.g. statutory body of a company). Its purpose is to enable the official electronic delivery of documents, particularly from the public authorities to the entrepreneurs and vice versa. It is important for a company to log in to its data mailbox regularly as a message is deemed to have been delivered to it after 10 days from the day on which such message was placed in the data mailbox by the relevant public authority.
The obligation to keep accounts in line with Czech accounting legislation applies to accounting units, as legal entities having a registered office in the Czech Republic, foreign entities, if they are doing business in the Czech Republic or carrying on another activity under specific legislation, physical persons – entrepreneurs specified in the law, trust funds and other investment funds.
The entities with securities traded on a regulated market within the European Union must use International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU (IFRS) for bookkeeping and the preparation of financial statements instead of Czech accounting rules. Consolidating entities and their subsidiaries can voluntarily use IFRS for bookkeeping and the preparation of their individual and consolidated financial statements.
The Czech accounting system is based on the double-entry bookkeeping and is largely consistent with the International Financial Reporting Standards with certain minor difference regarding, for example, financial leasing and depreciation of fixed assets.
The amendment to the Accounting Act effective from January 1st 2016 introduces a new division of accounting units into micro, small, medium and large accounting units. This division has an impact on the different obligations when maintaining the accounting, preparing the financial statements or publishing financial information.
The methodology of statutory audits is governed by the Business Corporations Act No.90/2012 Coll., as amended, Act No. 563/1991 Coll. on Accounting, as amended, and Act No. 93/2009 on Auditors, as amended. A statutory audit includes the audit of the financial statements for a particular accounting period. This is usually a calendar year. A statutory audit is always required for large and medium companies. Small companies qualify for the statutory audit based on the following criteria:
legal form of joint-stock company and at least one of the below criteria is fulfilled as at the balance sheet day of the current and immediately preceding accounting period
other small companies if at least two of three of the below criteria are fulfilled as at the balance sheet day of the current and immediately preceding accounting period.
net assets CZK 40 Mio
net turnover CZK 80 Mio
employees headcount 50
Companies that have issued securities traded on regulated stock exchanges in EU member states (e.g., shares, bonds) should apply the International Financial Reporting Standards when preparing their annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements. However, for calculation of corporate income tax, the accounting result must be calculated based on the Czech Accounting Standards and unaffected by the International Financial Reporting Standards.
Financial statements under Czech accounting regulations are compiled at the balance sheet date, which could be the calendar or business year, and consist of:
notes explaining and supplementing the information contained in the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement
medium and large entities must also include a cash-flow statement and statement of changes in equity.
Accounting units that are obliged to have their accounts verified by an auditor must also prepare an annual report.
Please see Chapter Employment Law, Section Employment Contracts.
The Czech Republic is bound to adopt the euro in the future and to join the Eurozone once it has satisfied the euro convergence criteria by the Treaty of Accession since it joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. The Czech National Bank, a member of the European System of Central Banks, regulates the Czech koruna and does not participate in European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II). The Exchange rate remains stable with approx. 26.50 CZK/EUR as of July 2020. Normal banking hours are from 09:00 until 17:00, though this can vary a lot between banks and different parts of the country, Monday through Friday.
The Czech Republic has a five-day standard working week (Monday – Friday). Normal business hours are between 8 am and 6 pm, and work between 10 pm and 6 am is considered night work. Maximum working hours cannot exceed 40 hours per week. An employee is entitled to a daily rest break of at least 30 minutes after six hours of continuous work, an uninterrupted rest period of 11 hours between two consecutive work days, and an uninterrupted rest period of 35 hours in a week. Hours worked in excess of the normal working hours count as overtime, which cannot exceed 8 hours in a week and 150 hours in a year.
The Czech Labor Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll. (“Code”) effective as of January 1st 2007, is the principal legislative act governing employment relations in the Czech Republic. The Code reflects the achieved level of social and economic relationships in the Czech Republic and corresponds to international trends of employment law developments, including various concepts existing under EU labor law related Directives. Other relevant legislative acts include, in particular, the Act on Employment (Act No. 435/2004 Coll. As amended), the Act on Collective Bargaining (Act No. 2/1991 Coll. as amended) and a number of Decrees relating to the Code. The Czech Civil Code, Act No. 89/2012 Coll. (“Civil Code”), effective as of January 1st 2014, is also generally applicable to labor-law relationships.
Tax & Social Security
The system of taxation described below is derived from the Czech tax legislation effective on January 1st 2020. The legislation is subject to frequent amendments and changes. Taxpayers in the Czech Republic are subject to the following taxes in 2020:
All Czech tax residents are subject to income taxes on their worldwide income, while Czech tax non-residents are taxed only on their income from Czech sources.
An individual is a Czech tax resident if he/she has his/her permanent address in the Czech Republic (i.e., a place where an individual has his/her home and circumstances indicate his/her intention to dwell there permanently) or has “a usual residence” in the Czech Republic (i.e., the individual’s total number of days spent in the Czech Republic is equal to or greater than 183 days per calendar year).
A legal entity is tax resident of the Czech Republic if its registered office or place of effective management is in the Czech Republic.
In general, taxation legislation is subject to frequent changes as the development of economy warrants. The corporate income tax is set at rate of 19 % for calendar year 2020 (the same rate is applicable since 2010). For certain types of legal entities specified in the income tax legislation (investment funds, pension funds), special 5 % or 0 % corporate income tax rate applies. Tax residency of a legal entity is determined by its registered office (the seat of the company) or the place where it is effectively managed from in the Czech Republic. Czech tax residents are subject to taxes on their worldwide income. Czech tax non-residents are subject to tax generated on income in the Czech Republic. A tax residency arises also, besides forming a legal entity under the Czech law or establishing a branch of a foreign entity, via the so-called ‘permanent establishments’; it is a taxable presence of a foreign entity trading, or rendering services in the Czech Republic, arising on the basis of assignment of an employee or permanent representative in the Czech Republic for at least six months in any 12 consecutive calendar months, or by setting up an office, workshop, sales outlet – in general any fixed place of business – regardless of the six-month condition.
The tax base of the corporate income tax is generally calculated as the difference between income and expenses according to Czech accounting rules, with further adjustments for tax purposes by non-deductible costs and non-taxable revenues and other non-accounting adjustments. In general, all expenses incurred to generate, ensure and maintain taxable income are deductible if documented by the taxpayer, subject to limits specified in the corporate income tax law and in special legislation.
Tax deductible items typically include: operating expenses, salary costs, tax depreciation, tax deductible reserves and provisions, interest (maybe subject also to special rules), royalties and management service fees, etc. Tax non-deductible items typically include: entertainment expenses, gifts and donations, fees paid to members of company statutory and other bodies, non-contractual fines and penalties, interest on credits and loans under thin capitalization rules etc.
The tax depreciation may be applied for tangible fixed assets valued at more than CZK 40,000 and for intangible fixed assets valued at more than CZK 60,000, if it has an operational life of more than one year. Assets may be depreciated for income tax purpose either under the linear or accelerated depreciation method. Once a method is chosen, it must be applied over the entire life of the asset. Some assets (such as plots of land, artwork, etc.) are not eligible for depreciation.
Tax losses may be carried forward for maximum of 5 years. The carry-back of losses is not permitted. Losses cannot be offset against the profits of another group company. Several anti-abuse provisions govern the utilization of tax losses; for example loss relief may be restricted where there has been a significant change (more than 25 %) in the ownership structure of persons or entities directly participating in the equity/share capital of the control of the loss making company or if a merger was carried out. A taxpayer can ask the tax authorities to confirm the applicability of the losses carried forward.
More information in Section Corporate Income Tax Detail
Individuals with a permanent address in the Czech Republic, or physically present in the Czech Republic for more than 183 days during a particular calendar year, are deemed to be Czech tax residents and are taxed on their worldwide income in the Czech Republic (tax relief under the double tax treaties by tax credit or exemption may apply).
Taxable income includes earnings from dependent activities including benefits in-kind, income from business activities, and income from capital, rent and other sources. In general, taxable income consists of all income regardless of whether it is monetary or non-monetary. General taxable income is defined as the difference between actual gross income and allowable expenses incurred in obtaining the income. The current fixed flat rate is 15 % for calendar year 2020. Employees are subject to automatic tax withholdings from the start of their employment. The employment tax base is increased by the actual or hypothetical mandatory social security and health insurance contributions paid by the employer. Thus, the effective tax rate is actually higher than the nominal 15 % flat rate. An employee’s social security and health insurance contributions are calculated as 11 % of his or her gross salary. An employer pays additional 33.8 % of the employee’s gross salary to the Czech social security and health insurance authorities.
Generally, income from dependent activities paid by a foreign employer to a Czech tax non-resident is tax-exempt if the time spent on such activities does not exceed 183 days in any 12 consecutive calendar months. This tax exemption shall not apply to income from an activity performed via a permanent establishment. In case of expatriates, i.e. those who are not directly employed by a Czech legal entity, who are assigned to carry out a dependent activity under a service agreement, these must be registered as individual taxpayers with the local Tax Office.
Income is declared through a personal income tax return that is to be filed with the local Tax Office within 3 months after the end of the tax period (i.e. at the latest by end of March), or six months if filed by certified tax advisor.
In 2013, a solidarity contribution was introduced. It applies only to high-earning individuals and only on employment income and self-employment tax base. The solidarity contribution represents a contribution amounting to 7 % of the employment income or self-employment tax base over the range exceeding 48 times the average salary within the calendar year (CZK 1,672,080 for 2020).
Deductions are granted for mortgage interest, life and supplementary pension insurance and gifts. Personal allowances are available to the taxpayer, his/her spouse and children; nevertheless, there are limitations if the lump-sum expense option is applied or in the case of pensioners.
The Czech value added tax complies with the relevant EU VAT directives and is imposed on all taxable supplies within the Czech Republic and goods imported or acquired in the Czech Republic.
Taxable supplies within the Czech Republic include provision of services; delivery of goods; transfer and use of rights and transfer of real estate, buildings and structures; acquisition of goods from other EU member states, etc. Businesses are obliged to account for VAT on the import of goods from third countries. However, there is an entitlement to reclaim such input VAT connected with the import of goods. Businesses are also obliged to account for VAT upon acquisition of goods from other EU member states. Certain domestic services are VAT exempt without entitlement to reclaim input VAT (e.g., financial services, insurance services, rent paid to entities not registered for VAT purposes, etc.). Export of goods is VAT exempt. Generally, services provided to an entity subject to tax with its place of establishment in another EU member state, or third country, are not taxable in the Czech Republic. The recipient of the services is obliged to account for VAT in the country of its establishment and there is also an entitlement to reclaim such input VAT connected with such services. On the other hand, businesses are obliged to account for VAT in terms of the reverse-charge principle once they acquire a service from a provider in another EU member state or third country.
Presently, there are two VAT rates: 21 % applicable to most of the goods and services, and 15 % or 10 % to certain selected goods and services (including essential food, books, special healthcare products, medical and social care, certain buildings for residential living, etc.).
All entities (legal and natural) become obliged to register for VAT upon exceeding CZK 1 Mio turnover in immediately preceding consecutive 12 months period. The registration application must be submitted within 15 days after the month during which the turnover was exceeded. For non-resident businesses, there is no registration threshold, but they must register as a VAT payer if they either make any supply subject to Czech VAT (unless the liability to declare and pay VAT is shifted to the recipient of the supply), or supply goods from the Czech Republic to another EU member state. Voluntary registration is possible if a company renders (or will render) taxable supplies in the Czech Republic. Foreign entities or individuals who do not have a registered office, place of business or fixed establishment in the Czech Republic are obliged to register with immediate effect for Czech VAT if they make a taxable supply within the Czech Republic subject to Czech VAT. The return must be filed and the tax paid within 25 days after the end of the taxable period. The taxable period is primarily a calendar month; however, the taxpayer may apply for calendar quarter depending particularly on his taxpayer’s turnover for the previous calendar year.
As of January 1st 2016 the VAT payers have to submit a VAT-Control-Statement. It has to be submitted monthly (in some cases quarterly) and, similar to tax returns, electronically on an e-form. Transactions which shall be declared in the VAT-Control-Statement are domestic taxable supplies or receipt of advance payment, domestic acquisition of goods/services or providing of advance payment and some transactions with investment gold. If none of these transactions is carried out in the respective period, VAT-Control-Statement shall not be submitted. Nevertheless the obligation to submit a VAT return is not affected. Failure to submit the VAT-Control-Statement is subject to a fine imposed by the tax administrator. (For more details please see: http://www.financnisprava.cz/en/taxes/VAT-Control-Statement).
Consumer/Excise Tax
This tax applies to mineral oils (including fuels and lubricants), spirits and distilled liquors, beer, wine and its intermediate products, tobacco products, heated tobacco products and raw tobacco that are produced in or imported to the Czech Republic. The tax is calculated as a fixed amount per unit of the product concerned and is levied on the producer (importer). Tax levied on tobacco products is calculated as a combination of a fixed amount and a percentage of the selling price.
Energy Tax
The tax reform that came into effect on January 1st 2008 introduced a new type of indirect (environmental) taxes implementing the relevant EU directives in the area of energy taxes. These taxes are levied on supplies of electricity, natural gas and certain other gases, and solid fuels (hereinafter referred to collectively as “energy”). The payers of energy tax are either suppliers of energy in the Czech Republic selling energy to end-users or operators of distribution or transmission systems. The tax on electricity is levied at the rate of CZK 28.30 per MWh. The tax on gas is levied at rates varying from CZK 0/MWh to CZK 264.80/MWh, depending on the type of gas, the purpose of its use and the date when the tax liability arises. The tax on solid fuels is levied at the rate of CZK 8.50/GJ.
Road tax is imposed on entities that use vehicles. Road tax is payable on vehicles registered and operated for business purposes in the Czech Republic. The tax is calculated on an annual basis according to engine size for passenger cars or weight and number of axles for other commercial vehicles. The rates range from CZK 1,200 (on vehicles with engines up to 800 cm³) to CZK 50,400 (on heavy-duty vehicles over 36 tons). The tax rate may be reduced or increased depending on the date of initial registration of a vehicle. Freight vehicles weighing up to 12 tons with an electric or hybrid engine, or running on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), CNG (compressed natural gas), or E85 are exempt from the road tax. The tax return must be filed by January 31st of the next year.
Real estate tax comprises a tax on land (land tax) and a tax on structures (building tax). Real estate tax is generally payable on an annual basis by the registered owner of the land or building(s) based on the situation as of 1 January of the relevant tax year, although in very specific cases the user or the lessee is the payer. All property owners must file tax returns with the relevant Tax Office by January 31st of the relevant tax period only for the first tax period (calendar year) and later only when the conditions relevant to tax assessment change. The tax is calculated taking into account the type, location and purpose of use of the real estate and various other factors. Generally, real estate taxes are calculated according to size of the property rather than based on its market value. Agricultural land is taxed based on its value. Consequently, real estate taxes in the Czech Republic are not as significant as they may be in other countries. The rate of land tax is CZK 0.2 per square meter, subject to building plots for which it differs from CZK 2 to CZK 10 per square meter depending on the location of the real estate (i.e. the rate of CZK 2 is further multiplied by coefficients determined by the municipalities). However, from January 1st 2012, paved areas (generally, land covered by a flat structure) used for business is subject to increased tax rate of CZK 1 per square meter (agriculture) or CZK 5 per square meter (other business activities). This applies to e.g. parking lots, platforms, certain roads, etc. Building and unit tax is calculated according to the registered built area.
Real Estate Acquisition Tax
Unless a tax exemption applies, real estate acquisition tax is charged at a uniform rate of 4 % either of the sale price of a property or of 75 % of the comparative tax value (usual market price determined by a statutory expert or calculated based on guidelines, taking into account the location, size and type of real estate), whichever is higher. The tax is payable by the transferee (buyer). Certain transactions are exempt from real estate acquisition tax; namely mergers and demergers, transfers of property from the state and first transfers of newly constructed buildings, etc. The transfer tax return must be delivered to the Tax Administration Office and the payment of the transfer tax must be made within three months of the registration of the transfer in the Land Register (the month in which the registration is completed is not included in this three-month period).
Under the Czech taxation system, withholding tax does not represent a special type of tax, but rather a manner of its collection. Actually it is an income tax levied on certain types of payments such as operating lease payments, copyright fees, dividends, royalties, profit shares and other related distributions. Withholding tax rate ranges from 5 % to 35 % depending on the type of income and residency of the recipient. The payer of withholding tax is the payer of the income which is subject to the withholding tax. Dividends, royalties or interest paid to a company seated within the EU can be exempt from withholding tax according to the implemented EU directives. Withholding tax rate may be reduced under a double taxation treaty concluded between the Czech Republic and the country where the recipient of the payment is a tax resident. As of July 2020, the Czech Republic has concluded double-taxation treaties with more than 80 countries. The exemption under the treaty applies automatically and it is not subject to notification or approval of tax authorities.
The Inheritance and Gift Taxes are abolished as of January 1st 2014. The income from inheritance and/or donations is subject to income tax. Inheritance is broadly tax exempt. Gifts are exempt if donated between certain family members.
No local taxes have been introduced in the Czech Republic to date, however a municipality may introduce some local fees (e.g. fee for disposal of municipal waste, fee for special use of public spaces, spa, recreational stay or accommodation capacity fee, etc.).
Corporate Income Tax Detail
Corporate income tax is levied on income from the worldwide operations of Czech tax residents and on Czech-source income of Czech tax non-residents. Czech tax residents are considered to be entities with their registered office or place of effective management in the Czech Republic. The tax base is calculated from the accounting profit/loss shown on the relevant financial statements prepared according to the Czech Accounting Act and Czech accounting standards and is further adjusted by non-deductible costs and non-taxable revenues and other non-accounting adjustments. The accounting period/tax period can be either calendar year or fiscal year.
The standard rate of corporate income tax is 19 %. For basic investment funds special 5 % corporate income tax rate applies; for pension funds 0 % corporate income tax rate applies.
Tax-Deductible Costs
The list of tax-deductible costs is similar to those common in other countries. Generally, costs are tax-deductible if incurred in order to generate, assure and maintain taxable income (for instance, tax depreciation of assets, purchased material and services, wages and salaries including social security and health insurance contributions paid by the employer, etc.).
In the case of some costs, there are further conditions stipulated by the Czech Income Tax Act limiting their deductibility; for example, some costs are deductible only when paid by the end of the relevant tax period (e.g. contractual penalties). Some other costs are tax deductible only up to the related revenues (e.g. assignment of receivables).
Depreciation of Fixed Assets
Tax depreciation is different for tangible and intangible assets. The Czech Income Tax Act sets forth the definition of tangible assets and intangible assets.
Tangible assets are any buildings/constructions and movable assets with an input price above CZK 40,000 whose useful life exceeds one year (moveable assets). Land is not depreciated for tax purposes. Tangible assets are divided into six depreciation categories with different depreciation periods. Examples of the classification of tangible assets by depreciation category is shown in the following table.
Intangible assets with an acquisition price above CZK 60,000 and with an expected useful life longer than one year are also a subject to tax depreciation.
If the purchase agreement stipulates a period during which the intangible assets can be utilized, the annual tax depreciation is calculated as the input price divided by the period agreed in the contract. In other cases, straight-line monthly depreciation is applied for the following periods:
Audio-visual works are depreciated over at least 18 months.
Software and results of research and development are depreciated over at least 36 months.
Other intangible fixed assets are depreciated over at least 72 months.
EU Directives
Four EU directives have been implemented in Czech income-tax law (parent/subsidiary directive, merger directive, royalties/interest directive and savings directive).
Participation Exemption
Capital gains or dividends derived from qualifying subsidiaries are tax exempt. 10 % participation in capital and 12-month holding test applies. Other specific conditions set by the law also have to be met.
Certain types of payments such as dividends, interest or royalties are subject to withholding tax. Withholding tax rate ranges from 5 % to 35 % depending on the type of income. The payer of withholding tax is the person/entity that pays the income which is subject to the withholding tax. The list below gives examples of income that is subject to the withholding tax.
Dividends, interest or royalties paid to qualifying EU/EEA/Swiss company are exempt from the withholding tax (specific rules apply).
Furthermore, the withholding-tax rate can also be reduced under a double taxation treaty concluded between the Czech Republic and the country where the recipient of the payment is a tax resident. As of January 1st 2016, the Czech Republic has concluded double-taxation treaties with 84 countries.
Tax-Deductible Allowances
Research and development cost allowance: Up to 100% or 110 % of costs associated with the projects of research and development and incurred in a given tax year can be deducted from the tax base as a special tax allowance (this means that these costs are in fact deducted twice for tax purposes – once as a normal tax-deductible cost and then as a special tax allowance). The following costs can be included in the tax allowance:
Direct costs (e.g. personnel costs of research and development engineers, consumed material, etc.)
Tax depreciation of fixed assets used for R&D activities
Other operating costs directly related to realization of R&D activities (telecommunications fees, electricity, water, gas, etc.)
This allowance does not apply to the costs of purchased services. Costs already supported from other public sources are also not eligible for this tax allowance.
The non-utilized allowance (e.g., due to tax loss in current year) can be carried forward for three subsequent years.
Accumulated tax losses carried forward from previous years: Losses incurred in the tax period can be carried forward for five subsequent tax periods. There are additional restrictions for utilization of accumulated tax losses if the company’s ownership structure changes by more than 25 % or the company is merged or subject to another type of restructuring. In such case, the “same business” test applies which compares the activities of the company before the change of control or the merger and the activities generating revenues after the change of control or the merger. In case of doubts, the taxpayer may apply the Tax Office for a binding ruling whether the tax loss may be utilized in given year.
Charitable donations: The tax base may be decreased by gifts donated for specific purposes set forth by the Income Tax Act (social, health, education, etc.). The maximum reduction is 10 % of the tax base reduced by deductible allowances, the R&D allowance and utilized tax losses.
Investment incentive tax-relief: Companies that have received a Decision to Grant Investment Incentives can claim tax relief up to the maximum amount of state aid (i.e., the specific percentage of state aid is applied to the total amount of eligible investments. The maximum level of permissible state aid is 25 % in all regions in the Czech Republic except Prague (with permissible state aid 0 %).
Investors may receive either partial (for investors who expand their existing business activities in the Czech Republic) or full tax relief (for investors who are newly commencing their business activities in the Czech Republic). Both kinds of tax relief can be utilized during ten consecutive tax periods.
Full tax relief is almost equal to the value of the tax liability for the relevant tax period (tax relief does not cover tax derived from interest income). The aim of partial tax relief (i.e., for expansion projects) is to offset the tax above the “base tax”. Partial tax relief in the relevant tax period is equal to the difference between the tax liability for the period for which tax relief will be claimed (adjusted by certain items and interest income) and the “base tax” liability (“base tax” is adjusted by the sector price-inflation index). The “base tax” liability is the higher tax liability shown in one of two tax periods immediately preceding the tax period for which tax relief may be claimed for the first time, i.e., in which general and special conditions were fulfilled. The “base tax” liability is calculated using the tax rate valid in the taxable period of the tax-relief calculation.
Strategic Investor (high-volume investment projects) can receive cash subsidy for acquisition of long-term tangible and intangible assets.
Transfer Pricing Rules
Czech tax legislation contains the general arm’s length principle. It is compatible with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines.
A taxpayer can apply with the respective Tax Office for a binding advance pricing agreement (APA).
The Czech tax legislation does not prescribe any obligation to maintain any transfer pricing documentation. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended that the documentation is prepared as it can be used as a valuable evidence during a tax audit.
The Czech legal entities which participate in transactions with related parties are obliged to file a separate disclosure form on “Overview of Transactions with Related Parties” together with the corporate income tax return.
Generally, taxpayers must file tax returns within three months following the end of the tax period. Czech legal entities that are required to prepare audited financial statements or whose tax return is signed by a registered tax advisor must file their tax returns within six months following the end of the tax period. In certain cases (e.g., a merger), the statutory period for submission of the tax return is reduced.
Corporate income-tax liability (i.e., the difference between the sum of the advance tax payments paid during the relevant tax period and the total tax liability) is payable by the deadline for submission of the tax return. If the reported tax liability exceeds the statutory threshold, the taxpayer is obliged to pay advance tax payments on a quarterly (if the last known corporate income tax liability exceeded CZK 150,000) or half-yearly basis (if the last known corporate income tax liability was between CZK 30,000 and CZK 150,000). If the last known corporate income tax liability is less than CZK 30,000, no advance payments are required.
If the tax is not reported and paid correctly and the Tax Office discovers this during a tax audit, then the Tax Office assess additional due tax (or lower tax loss) and levy a penalty (fine) and a late-payment interest to the taxpayer. The penalty is calculated as 20 % of the additionally assessed tax or 1 % of a reduced tax loss, and the late-payment interest is calculated as the repo rate of the Czech National Bank effective as of the first day of each half year increased by 14 %.
The income of an employee is subject to the Czech mandatory social security and health insurance contributions (both employee and employers parts) unless otherwise exempt according to EU regulations or bilateral social security treaties (e.g. granting of an A1 certificate/certificate of coverage).
The amount of social security and health insurance contributions is determined on the basis of the wages paid to employees and is divided into an overall employer (33.8 %) and employee (11.0 %) part and calculated from the same assessment base. The employer must always withhold the social security and health insurance contributions from the wage upon each payment of salary. The employer is responsible for payment of both the social security and health insurance contributions, as well as responsible for giving notification of paid salaries to the health insurance and social security authorities.
The health insurance contribution is divided into an employer (9.0 %) and employee (4.5 %) part and calculated from the same assessment base.
The pension insurance contribution is divided into an employer (21.5 %) and employee (6.5 %) part and calculated from the same assessment base.
The unemployment insurance contribution is paid only by the employer and is 1.2 % of the assessment base.
Sickness/Accident Insurance
Employers must register in the employer registry and provide notifications on the hire or termination of employees. This is done by filing a “Registering an employer in the employer register” form with the DSSA, within eight days of commencing commercial activities. Employers must also notify the DSSA of new starters and leavers within eight days of starting or leaving.
Employers must at least pay wages in monthly installments. Shorter frequencies are allowed, but not less frequently. Employers must provide all employees with a statement indicating the pay rate, grade and pay date, on an employees’ hire date and whenever their pay changes. They must provide employees with pay slips monthly, which will itemize wages and deductions. Wages must be made in legal tender and must be rounded up. In the absence of an agreement, wages must be paid at the workplace during working hours.
The Czech Labor Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll. (“Code”) effective as of January 1st 2007, is the principal legislative act governing employment relations in the Czech Republic. The Code reflects the achieved level of social and economic relationships in the Czech Republic and corresponds to international trends of employment law developments, including various concepts existing under EU labor law related Directives. Other relevant legislative acts include, in particular, the Act on Employment (Act No. 435/2004 Coll. As amended), the Act on Collective Bargaining (Act No. 2/1991 Coll. as amended) and a number of Decrees relating to the Code. The Czech Civil Code, Act No. 89/2012 Coll. (“Civil Code”), effective as of 1 January 2014, is also generally applicable to labor-law relationships.
The main sources of the labor law are three acts:
Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labor Code, as amended (“as a.”)
Act No. 2/1991 Coll., the Collective Bargaining Act, as a.
No. 435/2004 Coll., the Employment Act, as a.
However, the area of labor law is governed by other important regulations, such as:
Act No. 309/2006 Coll., the Act Stipulating Further Requirements for Health and Safety at Work, as a.
No. 251/2005 Coll., the Labor Inspection Act, as a.
No. 73/2011 Coll., the Labor Office Act, as a.
Act No. 187/2006 Coll., the Sickness Insurance Act, as a.
Act No. 329/2011 Coll., on benefits for people with disabilities, as a.
Act No. 589/1992 Coll., on social security insurance and state employment policy, as a.
Act No. 48/1997 Coll., on public health insurance, as a.
Act No. 592/1992 Coll., on premiums for general health insurance, as a.
Act No. 326/1999 Coll., on the Residence of Aliens in the Territory of the Czech Republic, as a.
Act No. 118/
Entitlement to Work
For residents no employment permission is needed. For non-residents the following applies:
foreigners from EU, Switzerland and EEA and their family members do not need the Employment permit neither the Residence permit
foreigners from third parties (except some special categories of employees) need:
Work Permit – in cases of seasonal work, for holders of a long-term residency permit for the purpose of business or applicants for international protection etc.
Employee Card – for long-term residence in the territory of the Czech Republic where the purpose of the foreign national stay (longer than 3 months) is employment
Blue Card – for a long-term stay involving the performance of a highly skilled job
Employment contracts must be concluded in writing with the following minimum mandatory content:
starting date of employment
Employees have to be informed in writing about their duties and rights, such as holiday entitlement, wage and payment dates, working hours, job description, notice period, information about collective agreements, etc., within one month after concluding an employment contract if such information is not stated in the contract.
Regular Employment
There are two types of regular employment contracts in the Czech Republic:
Employment Contract for a definite period – generally, it can be concluded for a maximum of 3 years and it is possible to conclude only 3 such contracts in a row (3×3 years)
Employment Contract for an indefinite period – an employment relationship shall last for an indefinite period unless a definite period has been expressly agreed
Work Outside Employment Relationship
Furthermore, an employee may perform work outside employment relationship on the ground of two agreements:
Agreement to complete a job/Agreement on work activity – the scope of work for which an agreement is concluded may not exceed 300 hours in one calendar year. Employees are social and health insurance payers if their income exceeds CZK 2,500 per month.
Agreement to perform work/Agreement on work performance – the scope of work shall not exceed a maximum of one half of determined weekly working hours (20 hours). Employees are social and health insurance payers only if their income exceeds CZK 10,000 per month.
In both of the above described contract types the employer is not obliged to schedule the working hours and the contracts have to be executed in writing.
In regular Czech employment contracts, the probationary period, with the maximum of 3 consecutive months for regular employees and up to 6 consecutive months for chief officers, may be concluded. A probationary period may not be longer than one half of the agreed period of the employment relationship and must be agreed in writing on the day of commencement of employment at the latest.
Employment relationship may be terminated with the Czech employee:
by agreement between the parties in writing
by notice of termination
the notice of termination shall be made in writing and delivered to other party
the employee may give his employer notice of termination for any reason or without stating a reason
the employer must specify the reason based on a list of reasons provided by the law
Czech law prohibits giving notice to an employee during the protection period (while the female employee is pregnant or is on maternity leave, the employee is unfit for work, the employee is released to exercise a public office, etc., given that other conditions are met)
by immediate termination only for reasons specified in Labor Code
by termination within a probationary period
on the expiry of agreed period in case of employment contract for a definite period
upon death of the employee
In some specific cases, an employee is entitled to severance pay upon termination of employment.
Notice period: Where notice of termination has been given, the employment relationship will come to an end upon the expiry of the notice period. The notice period must be the same for both the employer and the employee, shall be at least 2 months and can be extended only by agreement between the employer and the employee in writing. The notice period shall start to run on the first day of the calendar month following delivery of the notice.
An employer may serve a notice only from the reasons stipulated in the Labor Code (Labor code in English – http://www.mpsv.cz/files/clanky/3221/Labour_Code_2012.pdf). An employee whose employment relationship is terminated by notice given by his/her employer for one of the reasons given by law – section 52 a) to c) of the Labor Code or by agreement for the same – organizational – reasons is entitled to receive the severance payment depending on the length of employment (one, two or three average monthly earnings depending on whether employment has lasted less than 1 year, from 1 to 2 years or more than 2 years). An employee whose employment relationship is terminated by notice given by his/her employer for the reasons stated in section 52 d) of the Labor Code or by agreement is entitled to receive severance pay in the amount of at least twelve times his/her average monthly earnings.
The length of standard weekly working hours shall be 40 hours per week. As a rule, working hours are distributed over the five-day working week. The length of a shift may not exceed 12 hours.
The maximum weekly working time is 40 hours (without overtime work).
The maximum weekly working time of employees who work underground or in a three-shift or non-stop operation is 37.5 hours (without overtime work).
The maximum weekly working time of employees who work in a two-shift operation is 38.75 hours (without overtime work).
The maximum weekly working time of employees under age 18 is 40 hours within all labor law relationships (max. 8 hours per day).
The employer decides on work schedules after consulting the competent trade-union organization. As a rule, working time shall be scheduled over five working days per week.
Regardless whether the working time is evenly or unevenly scheduled, the length of one shift (without overtime work) should not exceed 12 hours. The same applies to a flexible schedule of working time.
The employer shall schedule working time in such a manner that the employee has one uninterrupted rest period of a minimum of 35 hours during each week (employees under 18 have a minimum rest of 48 hours). For employees over 18 years of age, the rest period may be reduced to a minimum of 24 hours under condition that in the period of 2 weeks the total rest period will be 70 hours.
In practice, employers tend to allow their employees greater flexibility for organizing their own working time by introducing forms of flexible working hours, which could prove to be a significant motivating factor. Flexible working hours may be set up as a flexible working day, week or maximum twenty six-week balancing period (within this period, an employee should reach his/her standard weekly working time, e.g. 40 hours, in average). Only the relevant collective agreement may extend such period to a maximum period of 52 consecutive weeks.
In case of the uneven schedule of working time, the length of one shift may not exceed 12 hours. Employees are obliged to be at their workplace at the beginning of their working time and to leave the workplace only after their working has ended. Labor Code, Sec 79-87
Overtime Work
Overtime work may be performed only exceptionally. Outside the frame of normal weekly working hours, an employer may order no more than 8 hours of overtime work within an individual week and 150 hours of overtime work within 1 calendar year.
For overtime work, an employee is entitled to his or her salary for work done (attained salary) and to a premium of at least 25 % of his or her average earnings, unless the employer and the employee have agreed that instead of the premium for overtime work the employee will take compensatory time off (i.e., time off in lieu of premium pay) for the overtime hours worked.
If the employer does not give the employee the compensatory time off within 3 months after performing the overtime work, or within another agreed period, the employee is entitled to the premium mentioned above, in addition to his or her regular salary.
Average weekly overtime may not exceed 8 hours in a period that may not exceed 26 consecutive weeks. It can be increased to 52 consecutive weeks based on CBA. Labor Code Sec 93.
Night work means work performed during night time. Nighttime is the time between 10 pm and 6 am. An employee doing night work is entitled to the wages and a premium in the amount of at least 10 % of the average earnings for his work at night.
Working Time at night may not exceed 8 hours in a period of 24 consecutive hours; if this is not possible, the employer is required to schedule weekly work time in such manner that the average length of shift does not exceed 8 hours in a maximum period of 6 consecutive calendar months. This is with regards to 5 days work week. Labor Code Sec 94.
Employees are entitled to a break of at least 30 minutes for lunch and rest after six hours of continuous work. A work break for meal and rest shall not be provided at the start and the end of working hours. Breaks for meal and rest breaks (i.e. work breaks) shall not be included in the working hours.
Daily Rest time may be reduced to up to 8 hours within 24 hours of successive employees, provided that the subsequent rest is extended by the period of reduction of such rest in continuous operations, uneven working hours and overtime.
In such a case of reduction, the employer may only schedule the working hours of employees so that the continuous weekly rest period is at least 24 hours; a continuous weekly rest period of at least 70 hours shall be granted over a period of 2 weeks. Labor Code Sec 88.
Daily Rest: Rest of at least 11 hours between the end of one shift and the beginning of the next shift. Labor Code Sec 90.
Weekly Rest: An employer is required to provide at least 35 consecutive hours of rest between shifts. If work permits, a continuous rest of the week shall be determined for all employees on the same day and so that it falls on Sunday. In the case of technological processes that cannot be interrupted, the employer may only schedule the working hours of employees so that the continuous weekly rest period is at least 24 hours; a continuous weekly rest period of at least 70 hours shall be granted over a period of 2 weeks. Labor Code Sec 92.
The Czech Republic currently has 12 statutory public holidays, which are not included in the minimum holiday entitlement, including:
January 1st : New Year’s Day (Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State)
Easter Monday (floating holiday)
May 1st : Labor Day
May 8th : Liberation Day
July 5th : Day of Slavonic Apostles Cyril and Methodius
July 6th : Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Jan Hus
September 28th : Day of Czech Statehood
October 28th : Day of Founding the Independent Czechoslovak State
November 17th : Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy
December 24th : Christmas Eve
December 25th : 1st Christmas Day
December 26th : 2nd Christmas Day
Where an employee performs work on a public holiday, he shall be entitled to his normal wage plus compensatory rest or an additional pay corresponding to the 100 % of his average earnings. The compensatory time off to be availed latest by the end of the third calendar month after the public holiday on which the employee worked, or within another agreed period. Upon availing compensatory time off, the employee is entitled to compensatory wage in the number of his average earnings. Act on National Holidays, No. 245/2000 (as amended); Labor Code, No. 262/2006 (as amended).
Each employee is entitled to a minimum of four weeks’ holiday per the calendar year. The employee is entitled to a proportional part of annual leave for every month of his employment with the same employer and this proportional part equals one-twelfth of annual leave for every calendar month of employment
The employee who under his continuous employment with the same employer performed work for this employer for at least 60 days in one calendar year is entitled to leave per such calendar year, or to its proportional part in the case that his employment did not last continuously for the entire calendar year.
If an employee is granted leave in several parts, at least one part must be at least 2 weeks in total, unless the employee and the employer agree on a different length of the leave taken.
Leave should be availed in the same year in which it is accrued. Where leave cannot be taken in the year in which it has been accrued, the leave can be availed latest by the end of the subsequent calendar year. Employees are entitled to compensation of wages or salary for untaken leave only in the case of termination of employment.
If the employee falls on a holiday during a holiday on a day that is otherwise his / her normal working day, he/she is not included in the holiday. If the employer has determined compensatory time off for overtime work or a public holiday so that it would fall within the period of leave, the employer is obliged to determine compensatory time off for another day. Labor Code Sec 212-223.
Parental leave must be granted to employees on request. Parental leave can be taken at any time from the end of maternity leave (for mothers) or the date of birth (for fathers). It can last at a maximum until the child reaches three years of age. Labor Code, No. 262/2006 (as amended).
Female employees are entitled to 28 weeks’ maternity leave (37 weeks for multiple births). A female employee shall go on her maternity leave, as a rule, at the beginning of the sixth week before the expected childbirth (confinement), but no earlier than the beginning of the eighth week before the expected confinement. If a female employee has taken less than six weeks of maternity leave before the childbirth because the child was born earlier than the date determined by her doctor, she is entitled to her maternity leave as of the day when she started to take it until the expiry of the period as stated. If a female employee has had less than six weeks of maternity leave before her confinement for some other reason, she shall be entitled to 22 weeks of maternity leave as of the childbirth, or to 31 weeks if she gives birth to two or more children at the same time. If a child is stillborn, the female employee is entitled to maternity leave of 14 weeks. Labor Code, No. 262/2006 (as amended). Labor Code, No. 262/2006 (as amended).
Czech law does not contain any specific right to paternity leave. Fathers are entitled to take parental leave from the date of birth of the child. In some cases, they are entitled to receive maternity benefits, if they care for the child and those benefits are not paid to the mother. Fathers are also entitled to an optional leave of 10 consecutive or non-consecutive working days, at the same time that the mother is taking her initial parental leave. Labor Code, No. 262/2006 (as amended).
An employee can be absent from work for caring for a child younger than ten years of age and for providing care to a sick family member. Further, if an employee caring for a child under 15 years of age, or another dependent person, requests shorter working hours or some other reasonable adjustment to the weekly working hours, the employer must comply with the request, unless serious operational reasons prevent it from doing so. Labor Code, No. 262/2006 (as amended).
Maternity and Parental Leave for Foster Parents
The right to maternity or parental leave and related payments applies to female or male employees if these employees have taken a child into their care and are in the position of substituting parental care (including adoption, child custody, and guardianship). A female employee is granted maternity leave of 22 weeks from the day she takes a child into her care (31 weeks for two or more children), though this leave cannot extend beyond the child’s first birthday. Parental leave is the same as for birthparents.
Employees are entitled to leave during their military training. The leave is paid by the military. Because military service is not compulsory in the Czech Republic, this provision only applies to persons who volunteer for the military training, and its practical impact is marginal.
Election to Office Leave
When an employee is elected to public office, the employer is required to permit the employee to assume public office and grant him or her unpaid leave not exceeding 20 days per year.
Personal Leave
Governmental Decree No. 590/2006 Coll. sets out a list of events for which an employee must be granted time off. These include medical examinations, weddings and the birth of a child, as well as deaths and funerals within the immediate family. In addition, employers must grant their employees leave for the performance of work at a public office and other duties of public interest if employees cannot perform these activities outside working hours.
If an employee becomes incapable of work due to sickness or injury, the employer must pay sickness benefits from the fourth to the 14th day of work incapacity (employees are not entitled to benefits for the first three days). The sickness benefit is equal to 60 % of the employee’s average wage. During the first 14 days of an employee’s inability to work, employers are permitted to check that the worker is following a physician’s instructions. If employees violate the prescribed regimen, employers can reduce sick benefits or, in the case of a gross breach, refuse to pay them at all. The government pays sick benefits from the 15th day of work incapacity.
An employee is entitled to his/her wages and a premium (bonus) payment of at least 25 % of average earnings for overtime work (or unpaid time off in lieu of such premium payment). The Labor Code allows to take into account, when negotiating salary, an agreed scope of overtime for all employees. Such agreed salary may reflect overtime work in a maximum scope of 150 hours of overtime per calendar year for ordinary employees and for managerial staff within the total scope of overtime work (roughly 416 hours a year).
An employee is entitled to his/her wages and paid time off (one hour of work on a holiday = one hour of time off) for his/her work on a public holiday. If an employee and his/her employer so agree, instead of time off such employee may receive (in addition to his/her wages) a premium (bonus) payment for work on a public holiday in the amount of at least his/her average earnings (100 %). There are currently 13 public holidays in the Czech Republic which are paid with standard wages if a public holiday falls on a working day and an employee does not work).
The premium (bonus) payment for work on Saturdays and Sundays and for work at night is 10 % of average earnings unless agreed otherwise.
The premium (bonus) payment for work in arduous and hazardous conditions is 10 % of minimum rates (see the next point below).
Czech Republic rises the national minimum monthly wage from January 1st 2020 by CZK 1,250 to CZK 14,600, which means increase by 9.37 %. Czech Republic has minimum wage, determined by a governmental decree and no worker in Czech Republic should be paid less then this minimum pay rate. The governmental decree defines 8 work groups, which are set up based on complexity, liability and strenuous of work and have different level of minimum hourly and monthly wage. The highest minimum Czech wage rate applies for example in administrative, economic, operational and administrative activities for the following scope of work “determining the business, business and financial strategy of an organization, conducting financial operations on the financial and capital markets, coordinating financial and other activities, and balancing the resources and needs of the organization.”
Work group 1: Kitchen assistant, seamstress, warehouseman – handling of goods up to 15 kg, shop assistant, cleaning lady, parcel delivery and other unskilled work.
Work group 2: Craftsman or worker on site, warehouse worker – handling of objects over 15 kg, garbage or ambulance, tobacconist, caretaker or janitor and security guard, car driver, simple food cook, maid, inspector and sorter in packing centers, packing line operator, etc.
Work group 3: Bricklayer or plumber, plumber and heating engineer – easier work, electric or heat appliance repairman, barber and hairdresser, salesman, cook – common types of hot meals, cashier, waiter or bartender, computer worker – database, tables etc., accountant, invoice – simpler work, car mechanic, metro driver, car driver over 9 seats or over 3.5 t, nurse, dental instrument, butcher at slaughterhouse, etc.
Work group 4: General nurse, midwife, plumber, heating engineer – more complicated work, guide – interpreter, organizer, negotiation with foreign partners, accountant – all agenda about wages, handyman of simple equipment and buildings, chef specialist – demanding menu, tailors in model and custom production , car mechanic – diagnostics and elimination of defects in electronics, drivers on side lines, etc. Seventh and eighth grade of employees in the public sphere.
Work group 5: Bus driver for more than 16 persons, master, dispatcher, paramedic, personnel and payroll accountant – providing agenda, market researcher, tax expert – dealing with tax office, calculation, large property manager, programmer, IT manager, support for company employees, teacher in kindergarten, instructor in driving school, designer of buildings or simple assemblies, etc.
Work group 6: Sales Officer – international business relations, pricing, sales organization, programmer (development, system component design) and network administrator (more demanding tasks), IT system designer, independent designer of large and demanding buildings, etc.
Work group 7: Financial expert, marketing expert, IT expert, programmer – development of new programs and systems, teaching at university, doctor, dentist, pharmacist etc.
Work group 8: Financial and sales director, financial and capital market broker, demanding creative system work, etc.
The Czech Republic operates on the principle of free establishment and competition of trade unions. Establishment of a trade union is not mandatory in companies. The minimum number of employees needed to establish a trade union is three. The role of trade unions in the Czech Republic is still largely perceived as social – there is no history of large-scale strikes or lockouts. The number of registered union members is steadily decreasing.
For citizens outside the EU the following visas are required:
Short-term Visa
Schengen visa for transit or stay in the Schengen area.
Airport transit visa (visa “A”) allows its holder passing through the transit areas of the airport during a stop-over or transfer.
Short-term visa for stay up to 90 days (visa “C”), e.g. for the purpose of
tourism, health & spa tourism, medical treatment
business journey, conference, cultural or sport event
employment or other profit-generating activity
study, internship or scientific research, training
a visit (based on an official invitation verified by an Alien Police Inspectorate)
official/political purpose
A short-term (Schengen) visa is issued by a diplomatic mission of the Czech Republic or of another Schengen state and entitles its holder to stay in the territory of the Czech Republic/Schengen area for the period indicated in the visa. Usually uniform visas are issued, allowing the holder to circulate in the entire Schengen area (whereas visas with limited territorial validity are issued exceptionally).
According to the so-called “90/180 rule,” an alien can stay in the Czech Republic/Schengen area for a maximum of 90 days within any period of 180 days immediately preceding each day of stay. After a 90 days long stay, it is necessary to travel out of the Czech Republic/Schengen area. This rule does not pertain to aliens who: (1) are citizens of those countries with which the Czech Republic has concluded a bilateral visa free agreement before its entry into the EU (i.e. Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Israel, Malaysia, Panama, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Uruguay) – these aliens however need to travel out of the Schengen area after a 90 days long stay at least for one day; (2) stayed in the Czech Republic/Schengen area based on a Schengen visa and their subsequent stay will be based on a Czech national visa (these visas are issued only in exceptional cases); (3) will stay in the Czech Republic based on a long-term visa or long-term residency permit.
In addition to the above, special short-term visas for seasonal work are issued by a diplomatic mission of the Czech Republic. Visas for seasonal work may be issued with validity for the entire Schengen Area or with limited territorial validity for selected member states. However, such visas do not constitute the right to work on the territory of the Czech Republic. That is why when applying for short-term visa for seasonal work a foreigner is among others obliged to attach already issued employment permit to his application for visa or to refer to reference number of his application for employment permit already submitted.
Long-term Visa
Long-term visa is issued as national visa with Schengen visa properties (i.e. grants a possibility of stay in the
Schengen area for a maximum of 90 days within any 180 days). The long-term visa (visa “D”) is a national visa for a stay over 90 days.
Visa for a stay over 90 days is issued to an alien for a purpose requiring a stay of more than 3 months, e.g. for the purpose of:
entrepreneurship, investment and creating new jobs;
study, internship, pedagogic activity;
family reunification (till long-term residence permit is granted);
sport, culture;
medical treatment;
official/political purpose;
seasonal work;
a visit (invitation); or
other (except employment, since that is subject to Employee Cards and Blue Cards) and is granted for the validity period stipulated, but for not more than 1 year.
Furthermore, a visa for a stay over 90 days is issued to an alien for the purpose of collecting a respective residence permit (such as Blue Card, Employee Card, long-term residence permit for different purposes such as family reunification, study or scientific research), or for the purpose of submission of the application for a long-term residence permit granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The visa for a stay over 90 days referred to in this paragraph is granted for 6 months and for the period of stay in the territory of the Czech Republic not exceeding 60 days or 30 working days in case of a stay for the purpose of submission of the application for a long-term residence permit granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A visa for a stay over 90 days – type D allows its holder during its validity a free movement around all states of the Schengen Area, including the Czech Republic. The entire period spent on the territory of Schengen states other than the territory of the permit issuing state shall not exceed 90 days within any period of 180 days.
An application for a visa for a stay over 90 days (category D) may be filed solely at a diplomatic mission of the Czech Republic abroad. The diplomatic mission does not decide on the issue or refusal to issue the visa for a stay over 90 days. The visa for a stay over 90 days is issued by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, based upon the application of an alien who wishes to stay in the territory of the Czech Republic for a purpose requiring the stay in the territory of the Czech Republic for a period longer than 3 months. The visa for a stay over 90 days is affixed to the alien’s travel document by the diplomatic mission based on the instructions of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic.
An applicant for a long-term visa is obliged to undergo an interview if the diplomatic mission calls him/her to it. In the case an alien is applying for a long-term visa for the purpose of conducting business, he/she must always attend the interview.
An application for a visa for a stay over 90 days shall be processed by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic within 90 days, in exceptionally complicated cases within 120 days of the submission date of the application. An application for a visa for a stay over 90 days for the purpose of study or a pedagogic activity or for the purpose of scientific research or seasonal work shall be processed within 60 days of the submission date of the application.
Particulars of a visa application may not be older than 180 days, except for the alien’s travel document, civil register documents and photograph corresponding to his actual appearance, unless stipulated otherwise. All particulars, except for the travel document, must be in the Czech language (either in the Czech language or in a foreign language accompanied with a certified translation into the Czech language).
Residency & Work Permit
Travel to and business in the Czech Republic presents almost no difficulties for EU member states’ citizens. Since December 21st 2007, the Czech Republic is a member of the Schengen Agreement, which ensures cross-border movement of visitors without the need for additional visas or authorization, once initial entry has been made. Employees from these countries do not require work permits, provided they have a travel document or an identity card. The EU principles of free movement apply also to their family members. Citizens of countries outside of EU are required to apply for work permits, such as so called “Employee Cards” or “Blue Cards” or “Intra-Company Employee Transfer Cards”, or visas to enter and stay in the Czech Republic.
A Blue Card is a residence and working permit and enables the holder to reside in the territory of the Czech Republic on a long-term basis for the purpose of employment in a position requiring a high level of professional skill.
An Employee Card is a new type of long-term residence permit for the purpose of employment and replaces the visa for a stay of over 90 days for the purpose of employment as well as the long-term residence permit for the purpose of employment and a Green Card, which is no longer issued. An Employee Card is most often issued for the duration of the employer-employee relationship but not for more than 2 years, with an option to repeatedly extend its validity.
An Intra-Company Employee Transfer Card is a new type of long-term residence permit as well. An Intra-Company Employee Transfer Card is an authorization where the purpose of residence of the foreign national is to perform work in the position of manager, specialist or employed intern to which the foreign national has been transferred. The Intra-Company Employee Transfer Card is issued for the duration of transfer to the territory of the Czech Republic, but only to a maximum of 3 years for a manager and specialist and for 1 year for an employed intern. For purposes of an Intra-Company Employee Transfer Card an intra-company transfer has the meaning of the temporary transfer of an employee of a multinational company from a functioning section of a multinational company in a country that is not a member state of the European Union to a functioning section of the company located in the Czech Republic.
For the purposes of employment or entrepreneurial activities a foreigner will be required to seek a work permit or a trade license operate as a self-employed entrepreneur. An application for residence permit for the purpose of conducting business shall be submitted also by an alien willing to stay in the territory of the Czech Republic as a statutory body or a member of the statutory body of a business corporation. These permits for non-EU residents are tied to the issue of long-term visas, and once the visa has been granted the relevant applications and processes do not represent a major obstacle.
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Illinois Age of Consent Lawyer
Statutory Rape: The Age of Consent
What is the Legal Age of Consent to Have Sexual Intercourse in Oklahoma?
Statutory Rape Defense
I’m 18, She’s 15; We’re Dating; Is that a Problem? Illegal?
France, Where Age of Consent Is Up for Debate
Texas state laws minors dating
Is it Statutory Rape When Two Minors Have Sex? (PC 261.5)
California Upholds ‘Right’ For Pedophiles To Marry 10 Year Old Kids
When it comes to protecting minors from sexual activity, the law determines the age of consent — i. If an adult engages in any form of sexual activity with someone below the legal age, it is statutory rape, even if the younger party gave their consent. This age varies across states, which all have their own laws on the subject. According to both Penal Code Section Once that person turns 17, they can give consent and can legally have sex with someone the same age or older. A violation of the age of consent happens when a legal adult has any form of sexual intercourse or interaction with someone below the age of Even if the younger person consents, Texas law does not consider anyone 16 or younger sufficiently mature to consent to sexual activity.
If you have sex with someone underage or against their will it is a serious crime, called a sexual offence. The law sets clear age limits for having sex. The age limits are designed to protect young people from being taken advantage of by older people. There are also special rules about people responsible for young people, including teachers and youth workers.
In Washington, it is illegal for an adult (someone 18 or older) to have sex with a minor Statutory rape laws are premised on the assumption that minors are.
We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Every year thousands of adults sexually exploit teenagers — though rarely do these predators receive the notoriety that Roy Moore has achieved. We can also use that understanding to improve our laws protecting teenagers from sexual abuse.
In particular, I think sexual consent laws would benefit from a concept used in contract law involving underage consumers and citizens. Such a system would put an extra onus on adults to make sure that they are not taking advantage of a younger person, strengthening the disincentive to troll malls and sweet-talk people just above the current age of consent. There is a scientific argument for modifying consent laws. Though laws placing minimum ages on contracts, and sexual consent, were created before we knew that science, lawmakers intuitively if inconsistently recognized that teenagers do not make decisions in the same way adults do.
We now know that the teenage brain does not finish maturing until sometime in the mids. The first thing we can say, therefore, is that age-of-consent laws that draw a bright line of sexual maturity at 18 or younger fail to consider the scientific data.
Statutory rape is a criminal charge related to sexual activity in which one person is below the age of legal consent. The age of consent ranges from 16 to 18 in U. In Louisiana, law enforcement is typically alerted to the sexual activity by a relative, friend, instructor or employer of the so-called victim. However, someone with close ties to the offender — such as an ex-wife or girlfriend — also may bring the relationship to the attention of police.
Thus, a year-old could be prosecuted for having consensual sex with a year-old, even if they dated in high school and planned to marry. A conviction cannot be set aside, dismissed or expunged by the courts.
The critical law to understanding the gravity of the danger is to understand that a As mentioned above, a minor’s consent to sexual contact is irrelevant in the eyes Our advice to any adult, including someone who is 18, who seeks to date a.
The purpose of these guidelines is solely to protect young people aged 13, 14 and 15 from harm. The question of compliance with the law is a separate issue and is not addressed by these guidelines. There are some points where the two issues are likely to coincide; for example, where a young person is at risk of harm as a result of sexual abuse.
There are other points where they do not coincide; for example, where young people are involved in consensual sexual relationships and are not at risk of harm. The law changed on 1st December when the new Sexual Offences Act came into force. Under the new Act:. Civil law is just as important as criminal law, sometimes more so.
The Human Rights Act would not, for example, support a universal policy that allowed confidentiality to be breached simply because a young person was under sixteen and sexually active. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives children and young people the right to make their views heard and be involved in any decisions which affect them.
The UK is a signatory to this convention. Sex, young people and the law.
Statutory rape is a strict liability crime, meaning that the consent of the younger person or mistake about their age is not a defense. For example, a state might set the age of consent at In these states, such as Texas, the age of consent is determined by age differentials between the two persons and limited by a minimum age. If you need a quick guide for each state, a chart is provided below.
Be aware that the law may be more complex than the chart shows and that the information given is subject to change.
This is the age that criminal law recognizes the legal capacity of a young It does not matter if the person is your spouse, your common law partner or your date. “Bodily harm” means any injury that affects your health and comfort and is more than temporary or minor in nature. The photos can be of a child or an adult.
Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Award Recipient. Other Information. Criminal Defense Articles. The following question is often asked of our office. It also may be quite a bit more, including all forms of sex.
It is probably wise to have the parents of the young man and the young woman aware of the relationship and in approval of it. More shocking is the potential for the year-old, once the relationship ends, to contact the police and, emotionally claim that she was forcibly raped by the year-old, perhaps multiple times.
The laws about sexual matters set clear limits for having sex. If police want to question you about an offence, see a lawyer as soon as possible. In Western Australia, people under 16 years old cannot legally consent to having sex, even if they said ‘yes’ at the time. An example of this is the relationship between a teacher and a student, or a sports coach and a team member.
Other states have changed their laws to differentiate consensual sex from predatory crimes. Florida adopted a “Romeo and Juliet” law in
Call Now. Romeo and Juliet laws are statutes that provide certain protection from the harsh penalties of a sex-crime conviction for a consensual relationship when the participants involved are close in age, specifically minors. In most states, sex-crime laws have always been written stating that if a high school student engaged in consensual sexual activity with another of similar age, they could face a criminal conviction.
The provisions are also meant to prevent a sexual act occurring between partners with a few years age gap from being considered a criminal offense, thereby reducing the severity of penalties or punishments for the same. In the United States, the minimum age at which a person is considered old enough legally to consent to involvement in sexual activity is known as the age of consent; which is specifically 18 years for any kind of sexual relationships in the state of Virginia.
According to Virginia law, an individual who is 18 years or older could be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor if engaging in sexual intercourse with a 15, 16 or year old. Basically, a consensual sexual relationship between two minors aged 15, 16 or 17 is legal, and only becomes illegal if one of the individuals involved is 18 or older.
The statute includes an additional exception stating that if two individuals are married, they cannot be convicted of breaking this particular law, even if one party is 18 years of age or older. The severity of this offense depends upon the age of the offender. However, if the accused is under 18 years of age as well, but is at least 3 years older than the alleged victim, then the charge may be reduced to a Class 6 felony.
Samuel Benda, now 21, was charged in with possession of child pornography for having a nude photo of his year-old high school girlfriend on his cellphone, taken on the night of their prom. The charge was dismissed in July after he successfully completed two years of probation. Such a legal arrangement is called a stay of adjudication.
Once the conditions are satisfied, a judge will clear the defendant of the charges and dismiss the case.
Thus, if an adult has sex with a minor below the age of consent, the adult may be charged with statutory rape. In Arkansas, a person must be at least 16 years old.
In the age of cell phones, texting has become ubiquitous. Everywhere you go, someone is on their phone texting someone. Some are even sexting, which involves sending sexually explicit messages and photos to others. Sexting is used to flirt with others and is especially common among high school and college students. Sexting among adults is not illegal, but there is some gray area when the sexting occurs between minors and adults.
A person can unknowingly be charged with child pornography , which refers to the possession of photographic images of minors—those under the age of However, in Florida, the law allows someone as old as 23 an adult to date someone as young as 16 a minor , so you can see where the laws can get confusing. Read on to learn more about Florida laws regarding sexting and child pornography. In Florida, the age of consent is 18 years old. However, under Florida Statute This allows a minor who is age 16 or 17 to legally consent to sexual activity with someone between the ages of 16 and In these cases, an adult can legally have sex with a minor.
While it is legal for a year-old to have sexual contact with a or year-old, being in possession of nude images of the minor constitutes child pornography.
A case involving an year-old girl has sparked a moment of moral and legal reckoning. O n April 24, , a year-old-man met an year-old girl in a park in Montmagny, just north of Paris, after which, he took her home where he had oral and vaginal sex with her. When it was over, the girl called her mother and described what had happened, and her mother called the police.
The accusations were of an adult raping a child—a crime that, in France, can lead to a year prison sentence for the perpetrator when the victim is 15 or younger.
year old girlfriend began dating when Jeff was a junior in high school. He and his It is the basis for the laws that even if minors consent, adults cannot engage.
You can also see our Privacy Policy. Interested in blogging for timesofindia. We will be happy to have you on board as a blogger, if you have the knack for writing. Just drop in a mail at toiblogs timesinternet. Age of consent is defined as the age at which one is considered legally competent to consent for sexual activity. Owing to their immaturity of age and understanding, minors are considered incapable of understanding nature as well as consequences of their actions.
However, whether consent was obtained is a murky issue, and age has a lot to do with whether consent can even be given. In Virginia, when an accused — regardless of his or her own age — has sex with a minor who is 12 years old or younger, they are facing some of the most stringent punishments in Virginia. Things get more complicated in terms of the age of consent between the ages of 13 and 17 when no force is used i.
If an adult someone who is 18 years old or older has consensual intercourse of any kind with a child who is 13 or 14 years old, they have committed a Class 4 felony. On the other hand, if the accused is also a minor e. To determine what class of offense will apply in the preceding situation, the court must look to the ages of the accused and the consenting minor.
The question of compliance with the law is a separate issue and is not addressed by Rights Act, young people are entitled to similar levels of privacy as adults.
Under the age of 14, children cannot give their legal consent to sexual penetration Criminal Code art. A sexual activity with a person, who is not yet 18 years old and was not voluntarily involved, can be punished with prison. Who commits and act in order to arouse or satisfy a sexual desire without a copulation regarding a person who has not accomplished 14 years of age shall be punished for fornication by imprisonment of up to six years. Who copulates with a person who has not accomplished 14 years of age, inasmuch as the act does not constitute a crime according to art.
The law seeks to protect children and teenagers from sexual abuse by an older person. The law protects children and young people against seduction by an older person. Sexual intercourse with a child or adolescent under 15 is punishable with a prison sentence of up to 6 years. If the child is younger than 12 years, the penalty can be up to 10 years. Sexual contact with persons under the age of 14 are considered as child sexual abuse and punished.
This means anyone younger than 17 years of age cannot lawfully consent to any type of sex act involving sexual conduct. Sexual conduct is the touching of any sex organ of another. To be blunt, a 17 year old boyfriend who touches, for his sexual gratification , the breasts of his 16 year old girlfriend has committed a sex crime, which could put him on the Illinois sex offender registration list.
The reason statutory rape is a crime is because California law does not give minors the intercourse are both under the age of 18 and cases involving one minor and one adult. Grown men should grow up and date and marry grown ladies.
When can I… in relationships? When can I have sex? Is it a crime to have consensual homosexual sex? Is it a crime if I have sex with my boyfriend or girlfriend who is under 16 years old? Someone complained to the police about my partner and I having underage sex, will I get in trouble? I had sex with someone under 16, but I thought they were 16 or older — what could happen to me?
What is the law for minors dating adults in pa?
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Q&A: Stephen Thompson on His New BBC Drama, Racism and Hope
6/9/2020 by Anne McCarthy
Actor Patrick Robinson plays Stephen’s brother, Anthony Bryan, on the new BBC drama, “Sitting in Limbo.” (Left Bank Pictures/BBC One, Des Willie)
Born to Jamaican parents and raised in London, writer Stephen Thompson knows firsthand the insidiousness and pervasiveness of racism.
Following his brother’s wrongful detainment by the U.K. government in 2018 during the Windrush Scandal, Thompson set out to tell his brother’s story. His script grabbed the attention of the BBC, and contracts were quickly inked. The show is being heralded in the U.K. as a show that “needs to be seen by white people.”
Thompson’s drama, Sitting in Limbo, premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Monday, June 8.
Ms. writer Anne McCarthy spoke with Thompson via phone from his flat in England.
Anne McCarthy: How would you describe Sitting in Limbo in one sentence?
Stephen Thompson: It’s a story about a man who finds himself threatened with deportation from his own country.
AM: The drama is based on the 2018 Windrush Scandal in the U.K. What was it?
ST: The word “Windrush” refers to the SS Empire Windrush, which was a steamship that brought the first wave of West Indian migrants to the U.K. in 1948. Onboard were mostly Jamaicans. They were asked to come to the U.K. to help rebuild after the War. Of course, Jamaica and those other West Indian countries were part of the British Empire.
Those people came and settled in the U.K., most in London. They had children, and those children were called “children of the Windrush generation.” The scandal affected those people who came here, but for whatever reason didn’t have any documentation; people like my brother. When they would try to leave the country and try to get a passport under the racist, right-wing policies, they found they couldn’t get a passport.
And, in actual fact, the government was asking these people: “How is it that you live here and you don’t have any documentation to prove you’re a British citizen?”
The government wrongfully detained Black British people—children of the Windrush generation—denied their legal rights, and threatened to deport them and send them back to Jamaica. It was wrong, and it never should’ve happened.
AM: On the heels of the George Floyd protests, Sitting in Limbo is especially timely. As a Black British man, what do you think when you see what’s happening in the U.S.?
ST: I’m astounded. It’s putting me in mind of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. I never thought I’d actually see anything like that in America again. As depressing as the incident [of Floyd’s murder] was, that can’t be the endpoint. It should just be the beginning.
It has echoes and similarities with the Me Too movement; it seems there’s a shift in consciousness. What I see on the news is a lot of agitated, primarily young, ethnically diverse Americans who say: “We’re not having it anymore, and until things fundamentally change, we’re going to stand out here.”
It has a whiff of an uprising, and it spread coast to coast, and around the world! Paris, London, Amsterdam… I’m absolutely amazed. Depressing as the story is that led up to it, actually I’m quite encouraged by it.
(@ajplus / Twitter)
AM: Your brother, Anthony Bryan, was a central figure in the Windrush Scandal and is depicted in the BBC drama. Was it difficult writing a narrative that hit so close to home?
ST: Yeah, it was difficult for me and for him; for him primarily because he had to relive a traumatic experience. And for me, having to see him relive it. So that’s the emotional, familial challenge.
And I was nervous about other members of my family as well—some who wanted to be depicted, some who wanted to remain anonymous. That’s difficult even in the best of times; when it’s your own family, you have to tread even more lightly.
AM: How did this project come together?
ST: That was a process. My brother and I first discussed it in 2018. We discussed doing it as a book, as a memoir we’d write together. We discussed how effective that’d be in terms of reaching a wide audience. So I was talking to my film agent and he said, “What about turning it into a TV drama?” You know, it’s all about timing. There was an urgency on everyone’s part. We didn’t want to miss the moment. At that time, the Windrush Scandal was the biggest story in our country, coming on the back of Brexit as well.
A scene from the new BBC drama, “Sitting in Limbo.” (Left Bank Pictures/BBC One, Des Willie)
AM: You’ve been a professional writer for decades, penning multiple critically acclaimed novels, like No More Heroes. How different is the scriptwriting approach?
ST: I definitely see the influence of my prose writing in my scripts; I tend to be quite descriptive. I’m learning to get the balance right between prose and dialogue. The turnaround time is much quicker, particularly in TV. Writing books can be quite a leisurely process that can take years. Scriptwriting is much more technical; all the drafts and remembering what each early draft was like, and trying to hold to your vision is the major challenge. But we managed to hold the vision on this project.
AM: What was it like collaborating with an institution like the BBC?
ST: It’s one of the pillars of our culture. And it’s on the threat; there are lots of hostile forces trying to dismantle it. It’s the model that everyone follows; there are very few institutions like the BBC anywhere in the world.
You know, when you’re a kid, you grow up watching the BBC—all these iconic faces and stars—and then you find yourself working with them. You have to kind of step back and remember: “It’s just a broadcaster, it’s just a film.” But there’s also the sense of the enormity of it and the imperative to get it right, because it’s the BBC. They showed a lot of faith in me. Someone had to take a chance on the script and they did.
AM: What did you learn about yourself from writing Sitting in Limbo?
ST: I feel more confident in calling myself a screenwriter. This was my first TV script; I’ve always known that I can do it, and can do it well. From this, I’ve learned I can actually do it. That’s been an important confirmation for me. I came out of this thinking: “Oh, I can do this.”
Tagged: Black Lives Matter, Film, Film and TV Reviews, q&a, Racial Justice, The Ms. Q&A
About Anne McCarthy
Anne McCarthy is a writer and editor based in Manhattan. She’s a contributing writer to the BBC, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, IndieWire, and more. She is a graduate of the Yale Writers Workshop and she has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster in London.
The Children are Watching and Learning. Let’s Govern Like We Care.
Jhumpa Bhattacharya
Looking Back on 2020: The Status of Black Women Then, Now and Beyond
Mariah A. Lindsay
The Weekly Pulse: “A Superspreader Event on Top of a Domestic Terrorist Attack”; Biden’s Vaccine Rollout
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ACTION ALERT: Medicare O&P Patient Centered Care Act Introduced!
ATTENTION ALL NAAOP MEMBERS AND FRIENDS:
We need your help now! Please take a moment today or over the next week to contact your Member of Congress and urge them to support H.R. 5262, the Medicare Orthotic and Prosthetic Patient-Centered Care Act.
On November 22, 2019, the Medicare Orthotic and Prosthetic Patient-Centered Care Act (H.R. 5262) was formally introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA), Glenn Thompson (R-PA), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), and Brett Guthrie (R-KY). AOPA has taken the lead on this important legislation while NAAOP and the other O&P Alliance partners have been working to support the bill. This legislation has been under development all year long and we are very pleased with its formal introduction. The bill was referred to the House Ways & Means and Energy & Commerce Committees.
The bill text has not yet been released, but will be available here in the next few days. NAAOP, AOPA, and the rest of the Alliance organizations are conducting a widespread grassroots campaign to garner additional congressional support for the bill. We strongly urge you to participate.
The Medicare O&P Patient-Centered Care Act would:
Distinguish in statute the clinical, service-oriented nature of O&P from the commodity-based nature of the Durable Medical Equipment benefit;
Restore the intended meaning of “off-the-shelf” (OTS) orthotics to limit competitive bidding only to those that truly require minimal self-adjustment by the patient only;
Exempt certified and/or licensed orthotists and prosthetists from the requirement to have a competitive bidding contract to provide OTS orthoses; and,
Ban drop shipping to patients’ homes of all prosthetic limbs and orthotic braces that do not fit the bill’s new definition of “off-the-shelf” orthotics.
These provisions would protect patient access to the clinical expertise needed to achieve the full therapeutic value of pre-fabricated or custom-fit orthoses and prostheses, while saving the Medicare program significant dollars by reducing waste, fraud, and abuse. The bill would also separate in statute the O&P benefit from the commodity-based DME benefit.
We look forward to working with our membership, as well as AOPA and our Alliance partners, to push towards enactment of this House bill and to introduce a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
To CONTACT YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS, go to www.naaop.org and click on the “Congressional Action Center.” Follow the directions to send a personalized email to your Member of Congress. Take the further step of posting to your social media. Thank you.
Written by NAAOP in Action Alert
← Life in the Fast Lane of Washington, DC: Lessons and Experiences from the 2019 NAAOP Fellows
NAAOP Announces 2020 Fellowships on Public Policy and Advocacy →
NAAOP celebrates 34 years of education and advocacy in O&P healthcare legislation and regulation.
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Chief of Navy - Garden Island and cruise ships
The article “Garden Island Get Out for RAN”, which was printed in the 17 July 2012 edition of the Daily Telegraph, selectively reported from a message I sent to Navy personnel on 16 July 2012.
In order to correct the record, the text of that message is detailed below:
“No doubt many of you would have seen media reporting yesterday and today regarding enhanced access for cruise ships to Fleet Base East following the Prime Minister’s speech to the NSW Labor Party conference. The purpose of this message is to advise you of what the Prime Minister announced in that speech so you can understand the facts.
The Prime Minister’s speech included the following section relating to cruise ships.
“…and today, I've announced new plans for harbour tourism. When the Queen Mary II, the worlds biggest cruise ship, came to Sydney in March it brought 2500 visitors to the city on its own. With a guarantee of expanded capacity, we could see a visit of that kind every month in summer. That's why we're expanding the number of guaranteed berths for the biggest visiting cruise vessels - ensuring three visits this coming cruise season and another three the next. And we'll prepare a plan to meet the long-term needs of our cruise industry.”
This announcement has two components, firstly, three cruise ships visits to Fleet Base East during the 2012-13 cruise season and another three visits in the 2013-14 season. The second component is the intention to develop a longer term plan relating to the needs of the cruise industry. As you all know berthing space at Fleet Base East will be at a premium once the LHDs arrive commencing in 2014, this is why there is a need, as the Prime Minister announced, for a longer term plan, one that accommodates other interests but does not compromise the primary purpose of Fleet Base East and Garden Island.
The media reporting that has occurred since the announcement has, as you can see, misrepresented what was actually announced by the Prime Minister. Navy will continue to work collaboratively on this significant policy issue. What has been agreed and announced does not adversely impact our ability to operate at Fleet Base East and Garden Island. I do not want any public commentary on this issue from Navy people, like other policy issues with significant public interest; I am the only authorised spokesperson in Navy on the matter.”
Issued by Ministerial and Executive Coordination and Communication,
Department of Defence,
Other On the record content
International military training resuming in 2021
Statement from Chief of Navy - Submarine safety
Statement - Royal Australian Navy hosts French vessels in Western Australia
Statement - DST workforce
Statement - Australian Joint Task Group transit in South China Sea
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General Biz News
Board to finish review of gov’t Fiscal Plan by Jan. 31
PRMA President Rodrigo Masses presents the trade group's opinions on the Fiscal Plan during Friday's Oversight Board meeting.
PRMA President Rodrigo Masses presents the trade group’s opinions on the Fiscal Plan during Friday’s Oversight Board meeting.
The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico is reviewing the government’s proposed Fiscal and Economic Growth Plan — which on Friday was met with criticism by a cross-section of the island’s business community — and should be finished by Jan. 31.
The opinions came from representatives of the island’s education, health and third sectors, professional and trade associations, local and stateside economists and local bondholders who offered the Oversight Board their comments regarding the blueprint Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla presented to the Board on Oct. 14.
Most of the stakeholders who responded were in consensus on the shortcomings of the proposed Fiscal Plan.
The majority believed that the Plan did not meet the requirements of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), needed a more balanced approach between structural reforms, fiscal consolidation and debt restructuring and required more structural reforms and better financial controls.
“Puerto Rico faces a massive budget and cash cliff and significant reforms are needed even without bond payments,” said Board Chairman José B. Carrión.
“There are no quick fixes or near term promises of substantial, additional federal help. The consensus among stakeholders is consistent with the Board’s assessment: more needs to be done to restore growth and opportunity,” he said.
“The Board is committed to work with the government of Puerto Rico to restore opportunity for its people. Tough choices and hard work ahead can pave the way to a stronger Puerto Rico,” said Carrión.
PRMA, Chamber, CPAs testify
During his testimony, Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association President Rodrigo Masses said the trade group believes the fiscal Plan “must be redefined now that certain assumptions of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the White House are definitely going to change,” in the wake of the recent elections in which Republican Donald Trump won the presidency.
“We also believe that the Commonwealth government has taken appropriate steps to control its expenditures, improve budgetary controls and financial transparency, improving labor force participation and promoting energy reform,” he said.
“However, there are still many things to be done to ensure the economic stability of Puerto Rico,” he said.
He said the Fiscal Plan assumes that $1.5 billion will be assigned for Medicaid parity — something that must be ascertained before considering approval of the plan.
Further, 21 percent of the Commonwealth’s revenues are dependent on taxes paid by a small group of companies through Act 154’s excise tax.
“The Fiscal Plan assumes continued collections with an extension of this tax for a number of years, even under a new Tax Incentives Act. A reform of tax policy is urgent and we have stressed that careful consideration must be given to any modification of what is today Puerto Rico’s industrial incentive model for both local and multinational manufacturers in the island,” Masses said.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce President-Elect Alicia Lamboy told Board members that upon reviewing the Fiscal Plan, the trade group believes the sources for obtaining the necessary funds for its implementation were omitted. If these funds are unavailable, it might jeopardize essential services and certain obligations. The Chamber recommended that:
40 percent of the government actions that could be taken by the Plan should be allocated to structural reform for improving the long-term growth potential of the Puerto Rican economy;
40 percent of the government actions that could be taken by the Plan should be allocated to fiscal adjustment for promoting more sustainable government budgets; and,
20 percent of the actions that could be taken by the Plan should be allocated to debt restructuring.
Regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the Plan, the Chamber believes its strong points are that it does not consider an increase in corporate taxes, it tries to protect weak economic sectors, and relies on public-private partnership initiatives. However, the Plan falls short because it does not prioritize government expenditures and obligations, it is not very specific on the sources to replace the 154 excise elimination and includes a “very vague” labor law reform.
“One of the most relevant items found was that the economic assumptions presented by the government are incorrect,” Lamboy said.
“In addition, the Chamber is of the opinion that the Plan will not be sufficient to attaining the objectives to stabilize the current economic, demographic, and financial situation, as well as other matters necessary to restore opportunity for the people of Puerto Rico,” she said.
During Friday’s lengthy third meeting, the Oversight Board also received a presentation from Commonwealth consultants Conway MacKenzie on the present state of the Government’s cash flow position.
The presentation showed that even without any bond payments there is a budgetary and fiscal cliff coming at the beginning of the year, which will make government operations tough, participants said.
“Puerto Rico’s fiscal problem require the implementation of immediate measures to reduce the cost of operating the government, allow for the collection of all income that the government is entitled to and maximize the current limited resources,” said Edna Jiménez, executive director of the Puerto Rico CPA Society.
“It is evident that the quality of the work and job performance in the government must be raised and that effective controls…must be imposed,” she said.
The CPAs said although some of the recommendations they presented would require major reforms, the vast majority of them just need the establishment of a clear public policy, followed by the implementation of controls, guidelines, and parameters of execution for which there must be accountability subject to reasonable and adequate consequences for noncompliance or failure to execute.
“The absence of adequate controls and impunity in the mismanagement of public administration has no room in a Puerto Rico of progress,” she said.
Board set to announce outside consultants
At the meeting, Carrión announced that the Board had received final recommendations from its selection committees regarding the selection of the strategic consultant and outside legal counsel, including local (Puerto Rico) legal counsel.
Carrión confirmed that the Board is finalizing the engagement of the selected firms and will make a public announcement shortly. Both engagements were the subject of Requests for Proposals issued by the Board on Oct. 20, 2016.
fiscal plan
PRMA
Evertec gets nod for support to P.R. businesses after Hurricane María
Michelle Kantrow June 28, 2018
CofC opens collections center at its OSJ HQs thru Sept. 14
Molina Healthcare gets Chamber of Commerce top honor
CofC proposes ‘P.R. Empresa’ to spur jobs, economy
Michelle Kantrow-Vázquez September 1, 2016
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Hurricane María
Retailers: Normalcy returning 6 mo.’s after Hurricane María disruption
Michelle Kantrow-Vázquez March 20, 2018
The study showed a drop in the use of manufacturers coupons could be another factor that validates that Puerto Ricans are not reducing their spending on food.
Activity has picked up at grocery stores, six months after Hurricane María caused significant disruptions in the supply chain.
Representatives from Puerto Rico’s retail sector confirmed activity is near normalcy six months after Hurricane María generated product shortages and problems at the ports during the first few weeks after the storm.
“María created a definite distortion in the area of retail sales,” said Economist Antonio Rosado, speaking on behalf of the Puerto Rico Retail Association.
“Some stores were severely destroyed and had to rebuild completely. Others were able to survive and repair quickly to reopen. The sector began its recovery as electricity was restored,” he said.
Citing figures provided by Puerto Rico Trade and Export, Rosado said by December, 12 percent of small retailers and 30 percent of large stores had reopened for business.
Now, a number of factors have positively affected the sector, driven by federal aid that has flowed into consumer pockets, who have generated “good movement for companies.”
Last month, the trade group unveiled a study that Rosado conducted, which predicted that hurricane-related retail sales losses could reach $3.2 billion because of María. However, sales have been recovering quickly and it is expected that by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, the retail sector should see positive results instead, the economist noted.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico Chamber of Food Marketing, Industry and Distribution Vice President Manuel Reyes said although traffic at the ports is not quite back to normal for a number of different reasons – last week’s rough waves, capacity limitations from transporters stateside — generally speaking, sales are growing for the majority of larger retailers.
“Initially after the hurricane, not all products were available, so people were buying anything they could get,” he said, on behalf of the organization known as MIDA. “Now, there are additional resources, and more money available, specifically for participants of the Nutritional Assistance Program, which nearly doubled the funding assigned to Puerto Rico.”
He also said retailers that were insured have been able to get back to business, “but for retailers that were not insured well, the reality is quite different.”
Reyes said MIDA is putting together a report to outline the best practices for retailers to be better prepared in case of similar future emergencies.
For one, retailers have to work on having redundant energy and telecommunications systems, as well as greater diesel storage capacity.
“Retailers can no longer count on just a power generator. They also have to look for redundant telecom systems, and some retailers have already moved to having landline and satellite systems available. They have made different investments to be better prepared,” Reyes said.
Reyes and Rosado concurred that a significant lesson learned in the wake of the storm is the need to eliminate taxes levied on inventories, so that retailers are in a better position to have enough products on hand on-site or in local warehouses.
“We went through problems and needs after the hurricane because decisions weren’t made on time,” he said.
Rosado, meanwhile, said eliminating taxes on inventories stimulates businesses to build larger warehouses to have more products in Puerto Rico, and even export to other Caribbean islands.
“Placing a tax on business inventories is barbaric, especially for us as an island that needs to have greater inventories available,” Rosado said. “There has to be a policy in place to stimulate companies to have their stockpiles. This island does exactly the opposite of what makes sense.”
In response to the growing claim for change, a bill is currently under scrutiny at the Legislature. Today, the Government Commission and the House Finance Commission will hold a joint hearing on House Bill 1411, which aims to eliminate taxes on inventories and increase municipal taxes.
Several public hearings have already taken place, during which different trade groups have testified. Today, the CPA Society, the Puerto Rico Builders Association and the Puerto Rico Restaurants Association will offer their opinions on the bill.
“The bill isn’t perfect, we’re recommending amendments. But the pursuit of perfection can’t stand in the way of having something in place,” Reyes said. MIDA has been lobbying for the elimination of inventory taxes for years.
“For many years, the CPA’s have advocated for the elimination of property taxes on inventories, as well as other taxes that make the productive businesses activity more expensive, such as sales and use tax between businesses. After the passage of Hurricane María, we experienced what we had anticipated, the lack of essential products and materials, and parts necessary for the operation and reconstruction of homes and businesses,” said CPA Society President Ramón Ponte.
Puerto Rico’s economic activity down 1.8% in September
Contributor October 31, 2014
Puerto Rico’s Econ. Activity index -5.2% YOY in Dec.
Michelle Kantrow-Vázquez February 11, 2014
Caguas, Triple-S Salud holding ‘Play Streets’ event
Economic Activity Index stays on positive ground in July
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Kleinberg to Serve as Center for Humanities Director
by Bill Holder • December 2, 2011
Ethan Kleinberg
Ethan Kleinberg, professor of history and letters, will serve as the next director of the Center for Humanities (CHUM), beginning July 1, 2012.
Rob Rosenthal, provost, vice president for Academic Affairs, John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, made the announcement in Novemeber.
Kleinberg has served Wesleyan as director of the College of Letters and director of the Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris. He is currently associate editor of History & Theory and will be assuming the role of executive editor in the coming year.
Kleinberg’s wide-ranging scholarly work spans across the fields of history, philosophy, comparative literature and religion. His current research interests include European intellectual history, critical theory, educational structures, post-colonialism and the philosophy of history. He is the author of Generation Existential: Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy in France, 1927-61, which was awarded the 2006 Morris D. Forkosch prize for the best book in intellectual history, by the Journal of the History of Ideas. Kleinberg is presently in the process of completing his second book, The Myth of Emmanuel Levinas, on the Talmudic Lectures the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas presented in Paris between 1960 and 1990, as well as an edited volume comprised of interdisciplinary scholarship on the theme of “Presence.”
While Director of COL, Kleinberg’s research into the origins of Wesleyan’s 1959 “College Plan” led him to author a piece on the challenges facing interdisciplinary programs and departments in the 21st century, published in the Winter 2008 issue of AACU’s Liberal Education. As befitting someone set to take over the leadership of the Center for Humanities, Kleinberg’s own scholarship is deliberately defined by interdisciplinary intellectual inquiry across the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
Kleinberg will be taking over the reigns from Jill Morawski, who is stepping aside after six years leading the center. During her directorship, Wesleyan was awarded a $2 million endowment challenge grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the Center for the Humanities. This award secures the center’s financial future and will allow for increased engagement with the undergraduate curriculum and expanded engagement with scholars and organizations outside Wesleyan.
“I wish to extend my thanks to the many faculty members who spoke with me throughout this process,” Rosenthal said in an all-campus announcement. “Widespread faculty interest in and support of CHUM and its mission are certain to be a boon to Ethan as he takes over leadership of the Center for the Humanities.”
William L. Holder ’75 served as editor of Wesleyan from 1994 until he retired in 2018. View all posts by Bill Holder →
Tags:Center for the Humanities Kleinberg
← Milch, Alonzo, Dagnall, Gagnon, Hodge, Hamill New at Wesleyan
Wesleyan Installs Solar Panels at Freeman Athletic Center →
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5 Smart, Sustainable Innovations Ready to Take Over the Developing World
A few creative, tenacious souls who have been tinkering away at monumental global challenges—clean water, sanitation, access to toilets, energy—are getting their moment in the spotlight.
This August, they flew from around the globe to California to see if their innovations can scale. Since 2003, Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society has invited about 20 social enterprises to its campus every year. The companies and nonprofits don’t receive money; instead, they get 10 months of mentoring from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs on how to scale their innovations.
It’s fruitful not just for the fellows selected but also for the mentors, says Brian Haas, vice president of semiconductor company KLA-Tencor.
“It’s both exhilarating and humbling to work side by side with these entrepreneurs,” he tells TakePart. “We look forward immensely every year to meeting these amazing and talented social entrepreneurs, whose businesses face challenges unheard of in Silicon Valley.”
Companies must be in operation for more than three years to qualify and the focus is on scaling an existing idea to make it more impactful. To date, the center has worked with more than 400 social entrepreneurs from more than 60 countries.
Below, five noteworthy innovations from this year’s cohort:
Source: Take Part (link opens in a new window)
Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
Base of the Pyramid, entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social impact, venture capital
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Georgia Storm Scammers
On March 3rd, tornadoes touched down in Alabama and central Georgia. These tornadoes caused the injuries of many people in the area. This is being said to be the deadliest tornado outbreak since 2013....
Alabama Sweeps Last-Minute Victory Against Georgia in SEC Championship Game: An Analysis Based on Past History
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Georgia Governor Race and Why Results Are Taking so Long
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“What If It’s Us” Release Event at Milton Public Library
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“YA” Cannot Wait to Hear about Decatur Book Festival 2018
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Raider Representation in the Governor’s Honors Program
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Georgia’s 2016 Ballot Decisions
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The Truth of Amendment I: Looking Between the Lines
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Vols Vanquish Dawgs
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Never Quitting is in Nick Chubb’s Blood
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A Walk Through the Booth Museum
In the heart of Cartersville, Georgia, the Booth Western Art Museum makes its home. This museum is highly recommended by those who have visited it, and it is considered an alternative to the High Museum...
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Home » Hollywood » This Article
Honda and Honda Center’s Management Extend Naming Rights Pact for 10 Years
Posted by Contributing Editor on February 25, 2020 in Hollywood | Leave a response
Honda and Anaheim Arena Management Tuesday announced a 10-Year naming rights extension of Honda Center through 2031.
The extension adds 10 years to the existing 15-year partnership that began in October 2006 between Honda, which last year marked its 60th anniversary in America, and Orange County’s premier sports and entertainment venue.
“We are proud to continue our partnership through the next decade and beyond with Honda,” said Honda Center President/CEO, Tim Ryan. “They are a driving force behind the Anaheim Ducks and Honda Center, and we are grateful to have a long-standing partner whose idea of ‘The Power of Dreams’ and commitment to the community align with our own. Together, Honda, the Anaheim Ducks, and Honda Center will continue to make dreams a reality in the years to come in Anaheim.”
AAM manages Honda Center, which is by the city.
Highlights of the partnership include Honda Center exterior signage, freeway marquee placement, integration throughout all forms of media, car displays on two exterior corners of the arena, and the continuation of the annual Anaheim Ducks Fan Appreciation Night sweepstakes where one Ducks’ fan takes home a new Honda vehicle.
“We are thrilled to extend our partnership with Honda Center for another 10 years. We’ve been partners with the arena and Anaheim Ducks for over 13 years and are pleased to support the vision and financial resources that Henry and Susan Samueli invest in the building to maintain it as a state-of-the-art facility,” said Jay Joseph, vice president of the Marketing Division of Automobile Sales at American Honda Motor Co.
“For over 60 years Honda has been proud to partner with high-profile events and facilities in Southern California, including the Rose Parade, the Aquarium of the Pacific, Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and Disneyland Resort. We view the Honda Center as one of these essential SoCal institutions we are pleased to support and help grow.”
Through the support of Honda and their presenting sponsorships of the Anaheim Ducks Golf Classic and Dux in Tux, the Anaheim Ducks Foundation has helped raise over $4.5 million since the start of the Honda partnership in 2006. Those funds support the mission of the Anaheim Ducks Foundation to facilitate and support programs that produce positive change for children and families throughout Southern California by providing educational opportunities, broadening access to the sport of hockey, and addressing the health and wellness needs of our community. Honda’s support directly impacts the Anaheim Ducks Foundation and its community programs such as Ducks S.C.O.R.E., Learn to Play and Top Flight, which have served over 300,000 local youth since the partnership began.
Honda and Honda Center’s Management Extend Naming Rights Pact for 10 Years was last modified: February 25th, 2020 by Contributing Editor
Posted in Hollywood | Tagged centers, extend, Honda, management, naming, Pact, rights, Years
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Ole Miss Student Indicted On Civil Rights Charges After Tying Noose Around James Meredith Statue
Written By Lynette Holloway
Source: (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
Graeme Phillip Harris, a student at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, has been charged with federal civil rights crimes for engaging in threatening conduct directed at African-American students and employees, according to a news release Friday from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Harris was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students because of their race or color during a Feb. 16, 2014. incident.
He allegedly conspired with others to hang a rope and an outdated version of the Georgia state flag, which prominently depicts the Confederate battle flag, around the neck of the James Meredith statue on the campus of the University of Mississippi, “with the intent to threaten and intimidate African-American students and employees at the university,” the release states. Meredith was the first Black student to enroll in the Southern college that was all-White at the time.
“This shameful and ignorant act is an insult to all Americans and a violation of our most strongly-held values,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in the statement. “No one should ever be made to feel threatened or intimidated because of what they look like or who they are. By taking appropriate action to hold wrongdoers accountable, the Department of Justice is sending a clear message that flagrant infringements of our historic civil rights will not go unnoticed or unpunished.”
Shortly after the incident, the Ole Miss chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon was closed after members were accused of tying a noose around the neck of a statue, NewsOne reported earlier. It’s unclear if Harris was part of the group or a member of the fraternity.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Jackson, Mississippi Division’s Oxford Resident Agency and the University of Mississippi Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Mississippi.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
Fraternity Shuts Ole Miss Branch After James Meredith Statue Noose Tying
Ole Miss Student Indicted On Civil Rights Charges After Tying Noose Around James Meredith Statue was originally published on newsone.com
discrimination , DOJ Civil Rights , Eric Holder , FBI Special Agent in Charge Donald Alway , Felicity C. Adams , Graeme Phillip Harris , James Meredith , James Meredith statue defaced , Northern District of Miss. , racism , University of Mississippi
Also On MyPraise 102.5, Atlanta, Inspiration, Gospel, Radio, WPZE:
Stellar Awards 2017 Red Carpet Photos
Graeme Phillip Harris, a student at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, has been charged with federal civil rights crimes…
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Bantry Bay – After Action Report
Words by Alistair
FRENCH INVASION PLANS OF IRELAND GO AHEAD
In 1796 the war was turning dramatically in favour of the French government. Royalist rebellions had been crushed, Spain and Holland were set to become allies, the war in Germany had stabilised and General Bonaparte was enjoying success in Italy. Plans to invade England could be taken seriously. However, the Treasury could not support such a vast undertaking and it was decided to launch an invasion of Ireland instead. The republican government offered to send 25,000 men but the Irish in exile in Paris were satisfied with 15,000. The invasion fleet consisted of the second-rate eighty-gun Indomptable, sixteen 74-gun ships of the line, 13 frigates, six brigs, seven transports and a “powder vessel.”
The French main fleet arrives, but are they too late to save the day?
A “What if……” scenario set in 23rd December 1796 was refought on Sunday. Here the Royal Navy’s Channel Fleet with one first-rate, the King George, a second-rate and five ships of the line were pitted against fifteen ships of the line and six frigates. Their object was to sink the French transports anchored in Bantry Bay.
The Refight
Fortune did not favour the red ensign. The British charged eagerly but were foiled by the early intervention of two squadrons of the French with a favourable wind on their quarter. They were able to quickly shut off the inlet to most of the Royal Navy fleet. Two frigates that penetrated were quickly mopped up by French frigates that guarded the transports. Having damaged the British ships considerably, the wind turned 180° to the French advantage as it doubled back along the British line.
The action reached a crisis when the British admiral on the King George and two of his ships nearby tried to knock out the French flagship, the Indomptable, and her companion vessel, the Fougeux, by boarding them. But they shrugged off three attempts and turned on their would-be captors, taking them as prizes. This almost emulated Nelson’s exploit with his “patented boarding bridge” at the later battle of St Vincent, using one prize to board another.
It was definitely “one in the eye” for the British! Leaderless, damaged but not entirely defeated, they limped home to fight another day.
April 15, 2013 oldmeldrumwargamesgroup
« “Nightmare on the Berezina” – After Action Report
Club Night – Tuesday 16th April, 2013 »
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London Statues Wear Couture Hats for Olympics
By Sonia van Gilder Cooke Aug. 01, 2012
James Warren / UPPA / ZUMAPRESS
In this Aug. 1, 2012 photo, the General Sir Charles James Napier's statue in Trafalgar Square in London, is wearing a hat Hat designed by Sophie Beale as part of the visual spectacular that is HATWALK, commissioned by the Mayor of London.
In London‘s famed Trafalgar Square, the pigeons are pecking, tourists are clicking, and atop Nelson’s column, the Admiral is wearing a couture hat. Lord Nelson’s new accessory — a 5-foot Union Jack-themed bicorn — is just one of 21 adorning the heads of statues across central London.
The 4-day project, entitled Hatwalk, is the brainchild of London mayor Boris Johnson. It’s part of a group of works, including a life-size inflatable Stonehenge, he’s dreamed up to encourage Londoners and visitors to “look at and experience the city in a different way.” Hatwalk was curated by celebrity milliners Philip Treacy (the man responsible for Princess Beatrice’s “pretzel” hat at the royal wedding) and Stephen Jones, best known for his work with Versace and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Treacy and Jones built hats for the project and rounded up other British milliners to join in. The other London statues to receive a fancy chapeau include Winston Churchill, Sir Arthur Sullivan, notorious dandy Beau Brummell and anti-slavery campaigner Charles James Fox, who’s swapped pigeon poo for a big bonnet by milliner Pip Hackett.
(PHOTOS: Are These Photos of Olympics Table Tennis or Telekinesis? You Decide.)
Lord Nelson’s hat, which was hoisted 169 feet in the air with a crane and plonked into place in the dead of night (to preserve the surprise) was designed by the same firm, Lock & Co., that created his headgear 200 years ago. With a total of six hats on display in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square, the area is the epicenter of Mayor Boris’ inventive little prank.
Some in the square had come especially to look at the hats and approved of the project. Alan and Christina Holmes, a middle-aged couple from Lincolnshire who are in London to watch the Olympic ladies’ hockey, plan to see all the hats dotted across the city. They have stopped to take a picture of Sir Charles Napier, a Victorian sea captain, wearing a translucent creation meant to represent his galleon tossed on the high seas. Mr. Holmes says the project is “typical” of Mayor Johnson’s style. “He’s not frightened to do something outlandish.”
(MORE: London: Very Open for Business as Olympics Sap Tourist Numbers)
Lord Nelson’s patriotic hat also seems to meet with approval, with a patrolling policeman saying that that he would swap it with his helmet. “He has a thing for three corner hats,” explains a fellow officer. A visitor decked out in head-to-toe Olympic garb, Londoner Mary Oatey, says she prefers Nelson’s gear because it features the Olympic torch.
Others, however, are not as impressed by the millinery offerings. A group of four young Danish men visiting London for the Games describe Philip Treacy’s iridescent disc on Sir Henry Havelock’s head as “rubbish.” “It looks like a satellite dish,” says Thomas Vestergaard.
A group of visiting American evangelists also have reservations about the project. “I think it’s tacky,” says Texan Dorothy Boyett, who is visiting London with fellow believers to preach in the street during the Olympics. “It looks like something some college students did.” Boyett had been ministering to the crowd through a loudspeaker earlier in the day and had taken a break to look at the hats. “It doesn’t look dignified,” she says. “It would look much better if Princess Beatrice or Eugenie were to wear them.”
(MORE: The Quirky Art of Britain’s Cultural Olympiad)
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More Than $5.2 Million Raised at NYU Langone Medical Center’s 2017 Violet Ball
Nearly 550 Guests Honor Thomas S. Murphy
NYU Langone Medical Center raised over $5.2 million at its annual Violet Ball, held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City on the evening of May 11. Thomas S. Murphy, former chairman and CEO of Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., was honored during the event for his nearly 50-year commitment to NYU Langone. Robert I. Grossman, MD, the Saul J. Farber Dean and CEO of NYU Langone, was also recognized for his upcoming 10-year anniversary in his role as Dean and CEO this July.
Proceeds raised at the Gala will be used to attract and retain brilliant young minds through scholarships, advance the Medical Center’s bold vision, and strengthen the Medical Center’s role as a resource for the diverse communities of New York and beyond.
Addressing an audience of nearly 550 guests, Dr. Grossman said, “Thomas Murphy has been a mainstay of our community for nearly half a century, and has made an indelible imprint on who we are, and who we strive to be. Tonight, it’s only fitting that we honor him and his unwavering commitment to the many causes he has served.”
“I am grateful for my years on the board, where I have worked with people I respect and admire,” said Mr. Murphy in his remarks, who has been a trustee of NYU Langone since 1972, was chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1984 to 1997, and is a life trustee and honorary vice chair at NYU. “I consider it an honor to be involved with this great institution and in the important work it does saving lives. One special joy of serving on the board has been interacting with the staff and doctors, who are a magnificent group. I thank you for the honor you have bestowed on me tonight.”
Laurence D. Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Inc. and co-chair of the Board of Trustees of NYU Langone, introduced part of the program, which included a video tribute to Mr. Murphy. “He’s taught me so much about life and how to live,” said Warren Buffet, business magnate and close friend to Mr. Murphy. “I’ve never known anybody that’s had a transaction with Tom Murphy—whether it is financial, business, personal, whatever it might be—who years later is not singing his praises. Now, that’s remarkable in business.” Other friends of Mr. Murphy, including Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, and Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, were also featured in the video tribute.
Guests included Marjorie and Walter Buckley; Susan Block Casdin; Elisabeth J. Cohen, MD; CNBC’s Jim Cramer; Lisa Detwiler; Adriana and Luiz Fraga; Lucyna and Arminio Fraga; Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert Gottesman; Marjorie and Josh Harris; Ruth and Sidney Lapidus; Lori and Al Leiter; Kelly Kennedy Mack and Stephen Mack; Thomas Murphy, Jr.; Klara and Larry Silverstein; Brett and Dan Sundheim; Allen Thorpe; Alice Tisch; and Beatrice and Anthony Welters.
Kenneth G. Langone, chair of the Board of Trustees at NYU Langone, served as Gala Chair, and Dr. Grossman was the Physician Committee Chair.
Kate Malenczak
kate.malenczak@nyumc.org
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NYU Langone has opened its first outpatient orthopedic practice on Staten Island.
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Tag Archives: America’s future in space
Capturing the Unobservable: The Future of Space Exploration
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, via National Science Foundation
After years of analyzing data, a planet-sized network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope used radio waves to assemble the first image of a black hole. This remarkable accomplishment sets a new precedent for the future of space exploration. Our reports support these endeavors by providing recommended research priorities and strategies.
A Midterm Assessment of Implementation of the Decadal Survey on Life and Physical Sciences Research at NASA
The 2011 National Research Council decadal survey on biological and physical sciences in space, Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era, was written during a critical period in the …
Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era
More than four decades have passed since a human first set foot on the Moon. Great strides have been made in our understanding of what is required to support an enduring human presence in space, as evidenced by progressively more advanced …
NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA’s Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space
NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) has begun to rebuild the advanced space technology program in the agency with plans laid out in 14 draft technology roadmaps. It has been years since NASA has had a vigorous, broad-based program in …
NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities Revisited
Historically, the United States has been a world leader in aerospace endeavors in both the government and commercial sectors. A key factor in aerospace leadership is continuous development of advanced technology, which is critical to U.S. …
Space Studies Board Annual Report 2017
The original charter of the Space Science Board was established in June 1958, three months before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) opened its doors. The Space Science Board and its successor, the Space Studies Board (SSB), …
The Space Science Decadal Surveys: Lessons Learned and Best Practices
The National Research Council has conducted 11 decadal surveys in the Earth and space sciences since 1964 and released the latest four surveys in the past 8 years. The decadal surveys are notable in their ability to sample thoroughly the …
This entry was posted in General Topics and tagged America's future in space, black hole, NASA, space, space exploration, Telescope on April 11, 2019 by Hannah Kenton.
Physics for the Future
Find out what matters most in the field of physics today with the latest titles in physics research and technology from the National Academy of Sciences. Whether you want to engage students in deeper learning, meet academic and professional challenges, advance your career, or aid in policy decisions, these reports provide the most authoritative and reliable advice, solutions, and information in the field.
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society454 pages | Paperback | Price: $60.30From the interior of the Sun, to the upper atmosphere and near-space environment of Earth, and outward to a region far beyond Pluto where the Sun’s influence wanes, advances during the past decade in space physics and solar physics–the disciplines NASA… [more]
Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter259 pages | Paperback | Price: $57.60The principal goals of the study were to articulate the scientific rationale and objectives of the field and then to take a long-term strategic view of U.S. nuclear science in the global context for setting future directions for the field. Nuclear Physics:… [more]
Research for a Future in Space: The Role of Life and Physical Sciences32 pages | Paperback | Price: $0.90During its more than 50-year history, NASA’s success in human space exploration has depended on the agency’s ability to effectively address a wide range of biomedical, engineering, physical sciences, and related obstacles. This achievement is made possible by… [more]
Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era442 pages | Paperback | Price: $77.17More than four decades have passed since a human first set foot on the Moon. Great strides have been made in our understanding of what is required to support an enduring human presence in space, as evidenced by progressively more advanced orbiting human… [more]
Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences124 pages | Paperback | Price: $28.80Traditionally, the natural sciences have been divided into two branches: the biological sciences and the physical sciences. Today, an increasing number of scientists are addressing problems lying at the intersection of the two. These problems are most often… [more]
Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: The Science of the World Around Us284 pages | Paperback | Price: $46.80The development of transistors, the integrated circuit, liquid-crystal displays, and even DVD players can be traced back to fundamental research pioneered in the field of condensed-matter and materials physics (CMPP). The United States has been a leader in the… [more]
This entry was posted in Science Resources and tagged America's future in space, nuclear physics, physics, physics research, space exploration, space physics on March 20, 2013 by Hannah Kenton.
New Planets, New Possibilities in Space Research
On Monday a team of NASA astronomers announced the discovery of the first rocky planet orbiting a star outside our solar system. The discovery of the planet, named Kepler-10b, was the result of data collected by the Kepler spacecraft, launched by NASA in March 2009.
Remember when grade school astronomy consisted mainly of knowing the names of the nine planets in order from the sun? We have come a long way from the astronomy taught to us even 10 years ago. In recent decades, significant progress in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics has brought about a revolution in understanding of the origins and nature of our universe. Hundreds of planets of startling diversity have been discovered orbiting distant suns. Black holes, once viewed as exotic theoretical possibilities, are now known to be present at the center of most galaxies, including our own. Precision measurements of the primordial radiation left by the big bang have enabled astronomers to determine the age, size, and shape of the universe. Recent discoveries, powerful new ways to observe the universe, and bold new ideas to understand it have created unprecedented scientific opportunities.
So how can we make the most of these opportunities to better understand our universe? New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, a new book from the National Research Council, outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the coming decade. This book, based on comprehensive input from the astronomy and astrophysics community, presents exciting yet realistic recommendations.
A companion volume, Panel Reports–New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics features a collection of reports on various sub-areas of astronomy and astrophysics. Each of these reports played an important role in setting overall priorities.
These titles and others can guide future research and decision making.
New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically over the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to…
Panel Reports–New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Every ten years the National Research Council releases a survey of astronomy and astrophysics outlining priorities for the coming decade. The most recent survey, entitled New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, provides overall…
Report of the Panel on Implementing Recommendations from the New Worlds, New Horizons Decadal Survey
The 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey report, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics (NWNH), outlines a scientifically exciting and programmatically integrated plan for both ground- and space-based astronomy and astrophysics in…
Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era of Space Exploration: An Interim Report
In response to requests from Congress, NASA asked the National Research Council to undertake a decadal survey of life and physical sciences in microgravity. Developed in consultation with members of the life and physical sciences communities, the guiding…
Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies
The United States spends approximately $4 million each year searching for near-Earth objects (NEOs). The objective is to detect those that may collide with Earth. The majority of this funding supports the operation of several observatories that scan the sky…
An Enabling Foundation for NASA’s Space and Earth Science Missions
NASA’s space and Earth science program is composed of two principal components: spaceflight projects and mission-enabling activities. Most of the budget of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is applied to spaceflight missions, but NASA identifies nearly…
Revitalizing NASA’s Suborbital Program: Advancing Science, Driving Innovation, and Developing a Workforce
Suborbital flight activities, including the use of sounding rockets, aircraft, and high-altitude balloons, and suborbital reusable launch vehicles, offer valuable opportunities to advance science, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and…
America’s Future in Space: Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs
As civil space policies and programs have evolved, the geopolitical environment has changed dramatically. Although the U.S. space program was originally driven in large part by competition with the Soviet Union, the nation now finds itself in a post-Cold War…
Radioisotope Power Systems: An Imperative for Maintaining U.S. Leadership in Space Exploration
Spacecraft require electrical energy. This energy must be available in the outer reaches of the solar system where sunlight is very faint. It must be available through lunar nights that last for 14 days, through long periods of dark and cold at the higher…
Approaches to Future Space Cooperation and Competition in a Globalizing World: Summary of a Workshop
Numerous countries and regions now have very active space programs, and the number is increasing. These maturing capabilities around the world create a plethora of potential partners for cooperative space endeavors, while at the same time heightening…
This entry was posted in Science Resources and tagged America's future in space, astronomy, astrophysics, NASA, near-earth objects, space, space exploration, space research on January 11, 2011 by Barb Murphy.
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Tag Archives: Japan
“Embracing Defeat”, by John W. Dower, and “Exorcising Hitler”, by Frederick Taylor
The Great Leveler starts its chapter on war by describing the American occupation of Japan after World War II; for Scheidel it’s the central example of how a mobilizing war influenced egalitarian policies in the following decades. For me, it was a shock mostly because it got me thinking about a time and place I hadn’t thought about much before. My thoughts were something like, “We defeated Japan and then forced them to adopt democracy at gunpoint, and it worked. How crazy is that?”
Certainly one lesson many drew from the Iraq War was that you can’t impose democracy at gunpoint. But clearly you can, some of the time; what are the conditions that make it possible? And to expand on a theme I mentioned near the end of the previous book review: Is high modernism and top-down planning really as uniformly bad as its critics say? With these questions in mind, I read John W. Dower’s Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II and Frederick Taylor’s Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany.
This review, and even the readings, are a bit of an experiment for me: Social science is my thing, and while the books I read are often cite historical incidents, they’re usually about some generalized form of human behavior, not straightforward accounts of what happened in certain times and places.
Were these democratic transitions actually a big deal?
I want to touch briefly on a topic neither of the books I read spends much time on: The political systems of Germany and Japan just before World War II. Both Germany’s Weimar Republic and Japan’s lesser-known Taishō Democracy were more-or-less functional constitutional democracies. Given that, you might think nothing special happened in Japan or Germany after the War; they simply resumed democracy after an interlude of totalitarian insanity.
That’s a very misleading view: Democracy often takes many years and multiple tries before it sticks, and both the Weimar Republic and the Taishō Democracy were fighting for their lives from the moment they were born. Common words to describe them include “fledgling”, “failed”, and “unstable.” The Taishō Democracy, in particular, never had full civilian control of the military. A return to “normalcy” for Japan or Germany could have just as easily meant a return to non-totalitarian military dictatorships, so the question of why post-War democracy took hold and survived in the long term is a real and important one.
Post-War Germany
There are two really important things to understand about Germany immediately after the War:
It was divided into four zones, controlled by the Americans, British, French, and Soviets. The Cold War hadn’t quite started yet, but it was about to.
It was a huge mess, lots of war crimes were committed against Germans (especially by the Russians, who had been abused quite horribly by the Nazis during the War), and everyone was starving.
In the interest of not totally glossing over all the suffering and human rights abuses, I’ll at least provide links that describe two of the more notable events of the era: The ethnic cleansing of Germans from Eastern Europe and the neglect and starvation of German P.O.W.s. But ultimately the “four zones” thing, and especially the rivalry between the Western Powers and the Soviets, was more relevant to the reestablishment of democracy.
The Soviets were strikingly efficient about setting up an occupation government, compared to the Western Powers; the Communist Party of Germany, controlled by Comintern, provided a ready-made party structure and a network of activists with knowledge of local conditions and politics. And the Soviets suffered no doubts as to what exactly they wanted to do in Germany: Rebuild it as a Communist state controlled by Stalin.
The Western Powers, on the other hand, began the occupation with no clear plan other than not letting Germany rearm and start World War III. The early Morgenthau Plan even proposed that Germany be permanently deindustrialized, allowed only an agrarian economy. The political disputes around the plan are a bit hard for me to follow, but in general it seems that Roosevelt was quite sympathetic to the plan, very much to the objection of Churchill and to his own State Department. Whatever the case, Roosevelt died before the end of the war, and the United States instead eventually implemented the Marshall Plan, which funded large-scale economic recovery programs aimed at strengthening Western European industry and rebuilding West Germany as bulwark against Communism.
Post-War Japan
The Japanese occupation, in contrast, was run by the United States alone, dominated by the personality of General Douglas MacArthur, who pretty much seems to have been the Team America: World Police song in human form. Unlike his counterparts in Germany, MacArthur knew exactly what he wanted to do in Japan: Rebuild it as a liberal democracy.
Occupation and democratization in Japan seems to have had more than a hint of The White Man’s Burden to it. Whereas everyone seemed to assume that democracy was the default state Germany would return to, many doubted whether the Japanese people were ready for it. I’m not sure how ironic I should find that:
On one hand, Germany and Japan each had just over a decade’s prrior experience with democracy; the Weimar Republic and the Taishō Democracy could be seen as parallel first steps toward democracy by previously militaristic societies. So why should anyone have expected Germany to be better at democracy than Japan?
On the other hand, it seems to me that despite superficial similarities, the Weimar Republic really was more democratic than the Taishō Democracy; Japan was still formally a monarchy and it it’s possible that democracy sprouted there only because Emperor Taishō had cerebral meningitis and couldn’t do much to stop it.
Whatever the case, MacArthur centered his strategy around the belief that it was necessary to keep Emperor Hirohito on the throne, as a defanged symbol of continuity between old and new Japan. MacArthur essentially promised that the United States would play along with the ruse that Hirohito had been dragged into war unwillingly by his military advisors, so long as Hirohito consistently said nice things to the Japanese people about democracy and the United States.
The Japanese constitution is perhaps the most shocking example of how ambitious and high-handed the occupation was. MacArthur’s office called upon Prime Minister Shidehara to draft a new constitution; Shidehara’s appointees suggested keeping the Meiji Constitution in place with only minor changes. MacArthur rejected their proposal outright and instead assigned the task to…well, two dozen Americans who weren’t too busy that week. And I do mean a literal, singular week — at less than 5000 words the Japanese constitution is one of the shortest in the world in part because the drafters simply didn’t have time to write anything longer. None of the committee members knew anything about constitutional law, though several were lawyers and they did most of the writing; the only member who spoke decent Japanese or knew anything about Japanese culture was Beate Sirota, who had no specific formal qualifications but was well-educated and grew up in Japan. The constitution was then presented to what Dower describes as “the completely unsuspecting Japanese government” for minor revisions.
Exorcising Hitler?
Even though “denazification” is in the title of Taylor’s book, he really doesn’t have all that much to say about it. And perhaps that’s because there wasn’t all that much to say; denazification was generally a lackluster affair. The top surviving Nazis in Germany and the highest-ranking militarists in Japan were tried, convicted, and executed, with the notable exceptions of Hirohito and his family. A few thousand other Nazis and militarists were convicted of various war crimes and human rights violations; a vastly larger number were not tried or convicted for their crimes, and overall the process seems to have been pretty arbitrary.
A much larger number of people associated with the military regimes were banned from holding political office. So far as I can tell these bans were temporary in Japan, but in theory tens of thousands of former Nazis were banned for life from holding office in Germany. In practice, those bans don’t seem to have been enforced consistently. I will note that most democratic transitions don’t involve this sort of ban — in Guatemala, for example, the former dictator’s party actively participated in democratic politics, and in Nicaragua, the former Sandinista dictator is now the elected president. A similar and very controversial policy was implemented in Iraq. Of course, one could argue that since these dictatorship never committed atrocities on the scale of the World War II totalitarian states, there was less justification for banning former officials from power.
I was a little disappointed by Taylor’s coverage of denazification — again, given that it’s mentioned in the title of the book — but he did clarify something that I had been confused about: Did Germans begin reckoning seriously with the Holocaust immediately after the War? The short answer is that they didn’t. The common German attitude after the war was firmly in “Hitler had some good ideas” territory; it wasn’t until more than a decade later, beginning with the Ulm Einsatzkommando trial and continuing with the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, that Germans began to adopt the attitude of penitence we are familiar with today.
Are there lessons here?
As I mentioned, I mostly read and review books about social science and policy. As such, I’m inevitably tempted to try to draw lessons from this sample of two, about what made the “democracy from above” a success in Germany and Japan but a failure in Iraq. It’s probably a futile effort, but here are some disorganized thoughts:
On one hand, it’s clear that a country can successfully transition from totalitarianism to democracy with very little in the way of honest reckoning or consistent justice. Germany took a long time to do that, and Japan has never really done it; both are considered full democracies.
On the other hand, banning high-ranking members of the old regime from participation in democratic governance might be a part of the recipe for success.
The Allied occupiers after World War II had almost unlimited legitimacy throughout the world, other than disagreements between Communism and the Western Powers. This probably gave them freedom to implement controversial policies that the United States did not have while occupyingIraq.
Neither Germany nor Japan had a long history of democracy before the War; however, they did have long histories of centralized, effective state control, and neither suffered from major ethnic strife (other than Germans versus Jews, I suppose.) Iraq, in contrast, had a relatively weak state and high levels of ethnic conflict. One could argue, in fact, that democracy per se in Iraq has done just fine, and the main problem is that Iraq has not been able to achieve law and order.
Leave a comment Posted in Blog Post Tagged book review, democracy, Germany, history, Japan
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Virgil Films To Release New ‘Back To The Future’ Documentary Next Month
Courtesy: Virgil Films
Universal’s Back To The Future trilogy is one of the most famous and beloved franchises in Hollywood’s history. More than thirty years after the trilogy’s first film debuted, the BTTF franchise is still beloved among audiences of all ages. It has been released and re-issued on home video and digital platforms more than once, and even spawned a short-lived animated series, which itself finally received the home video treatment for the first time ever in 2015. Some audiences have even tried to recreate the series’ iconic time traveling auto, a Delorean as part of their fandom. One would think that with the popularity of the franchise, and the iconic car at the center of the series, that the car would always have its own special place in the halls of Hollywood’s auto history. Sadly that wasn’t originally the case. And in Virgil Films’ new documentary OUTATIME: Saving The Delorean Time Machine, audiences will discover the story of the “timeless” car and the efforts to save it for themselves.
OUTATIME: Saving The Delorean Time Machine will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital platforms Tuesday, July 19th. It follows the efforts by Universal Studios and Back To The Future co-creator and producer Bob Gale to bring Doc Brown’s (Christopher Lloyd) famed four-wheeled time machine back to its one-time glory. Directed by Steve Concotelli, the documentary is presented in the vein of Top Gear, Counting Cars, and American Chopper. It includes full-length commentary by Concotelli and Joe Walser, who headed up the Delorean’s restoration as a special bonus feature along with deleted scenes, footage from the documentary’s world premiere, a restoration photo gallery, and much more. Audiences can order OUTATIME: Saving The Delorean Time Machine now via Amazon. More information on this and other titles from Virgil Films is available online now at:
Website: http://www.virgilfilmsent.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VirgilFilms
Twitter: http://twitter.com/virgilfilms
To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it. Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.
This entry was posted in Celebrities, DvD's and blu-rays, Internet, Movies and tagged Amazon, American Chopper, Back To The Future, Bob Gale, celebrities, Christopher Lloyd, Counting Cars, Delorean, entertainment, facebook, History Channel, internet, Joe Walser, Micheal J. Fox, movies, Phils Picks, Steve Concotelli, Top Gear, Twitter, Universal Pictures, Universal Studios, Wordpress by philspicks. Bookmark the permalink.
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Researchers develop one-way street for electrons
by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In an ultra-small geometry under the right conditions, electrons can be treated like particles bouncing off a wall. If the electrons are contained in a wire and symmetry is broken, the electrons can be preferentially funneled in one direction and blocked in the other, creating an electrical diode. Credit: J. Custer
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made a one-way street for electrons that may unlock the ability for devices to process ultra-high-speed wireless data and simultaneously harvest energy for power. The researchers did this by shaping silicon on a microscopic scale to create a funnel, or "ratchet," for electrons.
This method overcomes the speed limitations of prior technologies by removing interfaces that tend to slow down devices."This work is exciting because it could enable a future where things like low-power smartwatches are wirelessly charged from the data they already receive without ever needing to a leave a person's wrist," said James Custer Jr., a doctoral student in UNC-Chapel Hill's College of Arts & Sciences.
The findings were published April 10 in the journal Science. Custer is lead author. He worked with collaborators at Duke and Vanderbilt universities.
Electrons carry electrical current, and they typically don't care about the shape of the wire in which the current flows. Yet, when things get very small, shape begins to matter. The funnels here are ultra-small, more than a million times smaller than a typical electrical wire. As a result, the electrons inside behave like billiard balls—bouncing freely off of surfaces. The asymmetric funnel shape then causes the electrons to bounce preferentially in one direction. In effect, the electrons are forced to follow a one-way street.
Under a direct current (DC) voltage, the funnel makes it easier for current to flow in a forward direction than reverse direction, creating an electrical diode. When alternating current (AC) is applied, the structure still only allows current to flow in one direction, behaving as a ratchet and causing electrons to build up on one side. This process is like a socket wrench, which ratchets force to produce physical motion in only one direction.
The work has shown that these electron ratchets create "geometric diodes" that operate at room temperature and may unlock unprecedented abilities in the illusive terahertz regime.
"Electrical diodes are a basic component of electronics, and our results suggest there could be a completely different paradigm for the design of diodes that operate at very high frequencies," said James Cahoon, an associate professor of chemistry. Cahoon is corresponding author and led the study's research group. "The results are possible because we grow the structures from the bottom up, using a synthetic process that yields geometrically precise, single-crystalline materials."
The electron ratchets are created by a process previously developed in the Cahoon group called ENGRAVE, which stands for "Encoded Nanowire Growth and Appearance through VLS and Etching." ENGRAVE uses a vapor-liquid-solid process to chemically grow single-crystal cylinders of silicon, called nanowires, with precisely defined geometry.
"A lot of the work in this field has previously been done with expensive materials at cryogenic temperatures, but our work highlights that geometric diodes made with relatively cheap silicon can function at room temperature, which even surprised us at first," Custer said. "We hope our results spark a surge of interest in geometric diodes."
Diodes are the backbone for all technology; they allow computers to process data by encoding signals as 1s and 0s. Traditionally, diodes require interfaces between materials, such as between n-type and p-type semiconductors or between semiconductors and metals. By contrast, geometric diodes are made of a single material and simply use shape to direct charges preferentially in one direction.
With continued development, nanowire electron ratchets promise to pave a high-speed, one-way road to new technologies.
Energy-harvesting design aims to turn Wi-Fi signals into usable power
More information: "Ratcheting quasi-ballistic electrons in silicon geometric diodes at room temperature" Science (2020). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.aay8663
Provided by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Citation: Researchers develop one-way street for electrons (2020, April 9) retrieved 16 January 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2020-04-one-way-street-electrons.html
The Simulation Theory and the dangers of pop-science
Purposes of physics
The sources of error in a diffraction grating experiment
Spectrum of laser light absorbed and re-emitted by a white object
Water pressure affects air pressure
Is time a true variable in the scheme of things?
More from Other Physics Topics
Surfing the waves: Electrons break law to go with the flow
Researchers enable transmission of specific colors of light over long distances
Laser diode emits deep UV light
Molecular electronics scientists shatter 'impossible' record
GaN diodes with high current operations and a low turn-on voltage
A new way to look for gravitational waves
Physical virology shows the dynamics of virus reproduction
How aerosols are formed
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January 2, 2020 July 1, 2020 robbadart
Coventry 2021 – The City of Homelessness?
A memorial project to Rob Windsor: An injury to one is an injury to all.
I am really pleased to announce the start of a new community participation monument art project. The object of this project for me is very clear. It is to politicise the events around Coventry – City of Culture 2021 while making a memorial sculpture to the ideas, methods and personality of my dear friend and socialist activist Rob Windsor.
As with other Community participation monuments I have been involved with the idea will be to get the community to design and build a sculpture. In this case I want those affected by homelessness to be the key creators. Rob Windsor championed this cause and it seems truly fitting to make it central.
At the beginning of January 2020 around the 8th anniversary of Robs untimely death at age of 47 the process of networking all those who loved and respected Rob started to come together. If you want to be involved please get in contact.
#THISISCOVENTRY
Coventry – City of culture or homelessness?
Since hearing about Coventry selection to be the 2021 city of culture I realised this was the moment to put together my ideas I have had for some time in planning to create a memorial for Rob Windsor. The fundamentals of Rob’s approach was always to be political, to draw out reality from what was happening in a situation and then act on it. So that’s how I want to try and create a memorial in his honour.
Recently, after many years away, I spent time wandering around Coventry thinking on this project. I noticed much had changed in the city but unfortunately somethings were tragically the same, like serious homelessness, the problem literally stood out on every street corner.
My fear for Coventry City of Culture 2021 is that there would be an attempt to pay lip service to the problem but in reality push homelessness and other social questions under the carpet. Many cultural industry development programmes mean well by trying to encourage cultural investment for the city. The problem is they often only have gentrification as their solution, and social problems are moved to unseen places. I look forward to being proved wrong this time but I don’t think its an option to wait and find out. It’s been over 20 years since I left the Coventry and Warwickshire area. Since then despite much hard work from local charities the issue continues, or it seems according to local press reports, gets worse…
“The number of homeless households in temporary accommodation has increased by 186 per cent in Coventry since 2015/16….” according to Coventry Telegraph newspaper.
And then in 2018
“A family became homeless every 10 hours in Coventry last year” Coventry Telegraph newspaper.
So key to this intervention into the Coventry City of Culture 2021 will be to say why homelessness is still such issue and what we need to do to really end homelessness. The way to do that in my opinion is not to ask a politician, policy maker or even an artist but to mobilise people affected to stand up for themselves, to inspire people as Rob Windsor would have done, to clearly point out the social reasons and the necessary conclusions. In the process of designing and building the sculpture we organise, we learn what Rob stood for and create pubic art collectively to our own working class hero.
Rob Windsor an inspiration
Rob worked and politically struggled constantly against homelessness, its causes and the fight for a socialist solution. He was maybe best known for leading the fight against the Poll tax, where his razor wit and attention to detail proved invaluable to bringing down Thatcher. He was also known as a fighting socialist councillor for two terms between 2000-2010. His struggle for the homeless was honoured by Coventry Cyrenians, the homelessness charity, which named a charity and coffee shop after him. In future articles I will expand on my memories of Rob, his ideas and his important personal touch. I hope others will join me.
Windsors & Refreshed Charity and Coffee Shop
I am also inspired to do this project in the memory of Kevin Hickey. I met Kevin at similar time to Rob. Kevin was homeless when I met him. He was struggling with his own demons. Kevin joined politically and socially with me and Rob. In those days we became very close. Over the years I lost contact with Kevin only to find he had succumbed to his troubles and committed suicide. I carry this sadness but unfortunately young suicide is more common than many people realise. It’s yet another reason to inspire today’s youth with ideas and creativity.
What Coventry culture and art means to me.
For me to return to Coventry to celebrate its culture heritage in 2021 is important, and if possible I can give something back. Coventry is where I started my artistic career as a young unemployed drummer in a band in 1989, we were based in Hillfields where Rob also lived. We were nurtured by the then Depot Studios which was situated behind the Belgrade theatre. This resource was invaluable to us giving us as unemployed young men access to learn about videos, poster art, organising events, and even a failed attempt at a cultural magazine. This for me was a first step of a long career in the creative industry.
How the project will be done
This article is just an opener and a conceptional idea, not the finished plan. The meeting on the 14th January will be the next step, hopefully from there the ideas will grow and we can develop a committee to direct the project. What is needed is your participation, your ideas and your energy. How big this project gets will depend on you and others who believe in it. These projects take time to grow and are as much about the process as the finished product. The previous community participation projects have focused on young people and the wider community being involved in educational workshops and activities. Held in community centres, schools, festivals and on the street. I think it’s an ideal time to mark Rob Windsor’s contribution to the city of Coventry; if you agree with me get involved.
P.S. If you can’t come on 14th January or you’re not in Coventry but want to help, then just send me a message or email. My number is 07835788919. At some point we will have to fundraise, and anyone who can’t wait to donate can pay at Rob007mac@gmail.com
For more info on Rob MacDonald, see my Facebook page or website www.outa-space-com.
Homelessness charities in Coventry
http://www.coventrycyrenians.co.uk/
https://www.crisis.org.uk/get-help/coventry/
https://stbasils.org.uk/
Tributes to Rob
https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/13507 by Dave Griffiths
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/ex-coventry-city-councillor-rob-windsor-3031275
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/hundreds-turn-out-cathedral-funeral-3029909
The feature photo of this article is Rob outside council house burning poll tax bills. This is a work inspired by that picture. The work was dropped and broken and remade as best it could be. It originally had “an injury to one is a injury to all”. Breaking this work made me sick to the stomach and I left it undone for 6 years. Only recently I had the courage to make the most of it as I knew I would be attempting to create something better in Rob’s memory
Tagged #thisiscoventry
Happy Birthday Mr Lenin
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North americaCanonFashionSportsSurfUnderwater
Matt is originally from New Jersey, USA. His father was an avid traveler, fisherman and amateur photographer and one of the main factors that led Matt into photography and the ocean.
Growing up at the beach Matt taught himself how to surf. A good friend of his ended up on a world surfing circuit and they teamed up to create an international surf/bodyboard video around the turn of the millennium. This project and its travels brought Matt to California, Mexico and to Hawaii in search of waves and kickstarted his journey in ocean visuals.
From 2000-2004 Matt attended Wake Forest University and Lehigh University in pursuit of a BS in business. He graduated with honors and took employment as financial consultant in 2005 for a year before transitioning to remote role for the next 6 years into 2012. His flexible work situation allowed him to live anywhere in the world with access to the Internet and helped fund Matt’s passion for ocean and surf photography. Matt acted as an artist and part-time freelance photographer and chased surf in countries all over the globe during this period from shooting WQS and WCT events in Australia to working on non-profit projects in Peru.
Matt began shooting on 35mm film, Super8mm, and analog video in the late 90s and eventually moved into digital photography around 2004. He continues to shoot on all mediums and is currently focusing on cinematography and motion projects.
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pl - en
Lola García-Ajofrín
Asia, China
Paying for Fried Chicken with the Face: A Journey around the Biometric Landscape in China
A customer orders crispy fried chicken using one of the screens at a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Shenzhen. At the digital menu, there are pictures of the products and pricing information: a lip-smacking chicken bucket for 39 yuan (almost 5 euro), two chicken burgers plus a chicken bucket for 69 yuan (8.7 euro). After a couple of clicks, the consumer chooses his meal and pays for it. Most of the clients at this establishment use Wechat or AliPay, the two main Apps for mobile payments in China [Read: Inside a Cashless Society (Almost)]. There is a third way: paying with your face.
China has already become the largest force in mobile payments (11 times the transaction value of the United States) and now it wants to lead the facial recognition market. It is a sweet market. It is expected to grow from $ 4.05 billion (3,5 billion euros) in 2017 to $ 14.95 billion (13,2 billion euros) by 2026, according to Stratistics MRC. In China, the market size of the facial recognition industry exceeded 1 billion yuan (127 million euros) in 2016, and it is estimated to reach 5.1 billion yuan by 2021, according to a market research firm, Qianzhan.
IN THE RESTAURANT, SAY: “CHEEEESE”
On September 1, 2017, eleven days before that iPhone X was announced at Steve Job Theater in Cupertino, California, on the other side of the world, in Hangzhou, a land of lakes and green hills and today a busy city that is home to the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, it was the first time in the world that facial recognition was used for payment in a physical store. It was at a KFC restaurant.
Yum China, which holds the rights to KFC in China, introduced Alibaba’s facial recognition software, called “Smile-to-Pay”. Until then facial recognition had already been used regarding security and personal identification in applications and mobile phones. There are already 300 KFC restaurants across China where you can already pay for fried chicken with your face, according to the company. Outriders have visited some locations in Shanghai, Xi’an, Jinan and Shenzhen. All of them offered the option of facial recognition – few people used it.
The total process only lasts a few seconds. “Choose your meal, then select the form of payment (facial recognition), look at the camera for a moment and confirm the purchase with your phone number”, a waitress explains in a KFC restaurant in Shenzhen. The system scans the face and matches it with photo ID that has previously stored. She says, “until now customers prefer mobile payments”. “But I have seen some clients using it”, she adds. McDonald’s in China has also integrated biometric payments in some of its stores. “Paying with the face is faster, you take a photo, you type the last four digit of your phone, and it is done”, says a customer of the fast-food burger restaurant in Shenzhen.
Retailers are increasingly scanning faces and privacy around the world. In Japan, NEC Corporation has been conducting trials for cashless payment services with some employees since 2016. In Korea, convenience store chain GS25 has opened a location using facial recognition. In Finland, OP Financial Group has announced a pilot program at the company’s staff restaurant in Helsinki. Mastercard has announced that biometric identification will be made available for all its users by April 2019 and Spain-based bank BBVA and the startup Veridas are testing a facial recognition payment system in its corporate headquarters’ restaurants.
A few meters from Hubei subway station in Shenzhen, convenience store 7-Eleven has a self-serve kiosk with facial recognition to expedite orders. It uses the same procedure by Alipay: to click, to smile and to confirm with the phone number. Last March, 7-Eleven introduced facial recognition to all its 11,000 stores in Thailand.
Contactless. Staffless. Privacyless.
IN AIRPORTS AND TRAIN STATIONS
Biometric technology is becoming common in a new way of security in China. Facial recognition is already used: to locate criminals at train stations and 62 airports, to catch jaywalkers on public roads or to detect marathon cheaters as it happened recently in Shenzhen and Kunming. AFP reports that there is a surveillance tech scenario exploring robotic bird drones, called “Doves”.
At the checkpoint between Hong Kong and Mainland China, “now we use facial recognition to pass the control together with a fingerprint”, Wang, a 30 years old computer scientist who has just come back from Hong Kong to Shanghai, explains. He admits that he has never withdrawn money from ATM neither paid with his face “but for privacy reasons, I would not mind.” “However, I would say it might be slower than a traditional card,” he adds.
MORE DATA, LESS PRIVACY IN THE METRO
In Shopping Park station in Shenzhen subway, hurried travellers go through electronic arcs that include facial recognition, before passing their belongings through the scanner. Two cameras on the sides watch the passengers. Last August, Shenzhen Metro Group along with Tencent –Wechat developer based in Shenzhen— and GRG Banking unveiled their latest Metro ticket solution that will combine facial recognition and credit payment. The passengers will not need to buy a ticket, use their cards or mobile. They will just go through the turnstile in the process of only 0.33 seconds. The facial recognition metro ticket is already working in some stations in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. To use it passengers must register in the Metro App, enter their personal details and upload a photo.
Shenzhen metro station ( Lola García-Ajofrín)
HI-TECH HOSPITALITY
In each hotel in China, there is a screen over the counter equipped with a webcam, which photographs the guests. To check-in in China, it is mandatory to show the passport and to be photographed. Now some hotels are streamlining the check-in process with facial recognition. It is the case of Marriott International Hotels. They have partnered with Alibaba to use their Fliggy digital travel service platform.
“Chinese guests simply need to read and confirm the customer terms of service, scan their Chinese ID cards, pause for a photo and input contact details into a self-service machine”, a Marriot International spokesperson says. She explains, “the information is transmitted to the local police in real-time, which digitalises the traditional check-in process and guests” and once the identity and booking information is verified, “the intelligent device will dispense the room key cards.” Currently, two Marriott Hotels provide facial recognition check-in services in Hangzhou and Dadonghai Bay. The spokesperson says they will wait to see how customers react before expanding it to other locations.
SMART CITIES ARE WATCHING YOU
“This is what we imagined what future would be like,” explains a Yitu Technology spokesperson, a Chinese AI startup based in Shanghai, which has gained recognition for its Dragonfly Eye System platform. It allows facial scanning to identify a person in a few seconds from a database of at least two billion people.
Yitu representative refers to the AI city model that Yitu created in Fuzhou last June. “It can be described as the first AI city model in the world,” she explains. “Yitu helped the government set up an ‘AI City’ model for the First Digital China Summit providing AI services based on facial recognition technology in a range of scenarios: like the welcoming system at the airport and train stations, the self-check-in system at the hotel, at the summit venue entrance and self-service stores.” Founded in 2012, Yitu has received special recognition for its ability to recognise human faces and vehicles.
A robot at the information desk at Jinan Railway Station in Shangdong Province (Lola García-Ajofrín)
FROM ATMs TO HOSPITALS
If citizens can pay money with their face, now they can take out money also. An option called “Withdraw cash by face” is offered at some ATMs in China, along with the options: withdraw cash by Apple Pay, Huawei Pay, Samsung Pay, credit card and others. Yitu has deployed a facial recognition system in over 20,000 ATMs in China.
The “smartization” is coming to every field, even healthcare or what Yitu calls: “intelligent hospitals.” In a country of 1.4 billion, “the medical resources are not enough to meet with the demand and most of the resources are provided in big cities”, the spokeswoman of Yitu explains. She gives an example: in some hospitals, a senior doctor has a daily workload of 200 patients, and for each patient, he has 200 CT images for the scan. “It is 40,000 images to read for a doctor a day.” Yitu technology, she says, “can dramatically decrease the diagnosis and takes less than 5 seconds.” Her latest release is an Intelligent 4D Imaging System called CARE.AITM for cancer screening.
FACES BEHIND FACIAL PAYMENT
Other two Chinese AI start-up in the scene are becoming some of the most powerful in the world: SenseTime and Megvii. Hong Kong-based SenseTime describes itself as “the most valuable artificial intelligence startup in the world”. Its co-founder and CEO, Li Xu, 36, is one of the members of Fortune’s list of 40 Under 40. It has recently raised $600 million from Alibaba Group.
Beijing-based Megvii is a developer of Face++ system. The company was founded in 2012, and now it has over 1,500 employees. Its founder, Yin Qi, was included this year at MIT Technology Review’s annual list of Innovators Under 35. In 2016, when he was 28, it appeared on the ‘30 under 30’ list by Forbes. Alibaba is now the investor in both: it invested in Megvii, and it invested in SenseTime.
Self checkout kiosks at Hema supermarket in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. (Lola García-Ajofrín)
FROM ONLINE TO OFFLINE (AND VICE VERSA)
The revolution is here, and it is two-way. While traditional services become smart, online companies go offline. Amazon Go, the new retail store in New York, opened by the online shopping giant, is an example. In China, Hema supermarkets by Alibaba is other.
It’s a Saturday afternoon, and Hema in Xi’an is full of couples with children and single customers who go shopping. Under the symbol of a hippopotamus, the futuristic stores combine technology with a traditional market that offers fresh products. When the consumer downloads Hema App, he can scan the codes of each product and know their characteristics or the potential recipes. Another possibility is to choose the product to cook, for example, a crab, and eat it on the spot. Customers line up at the digital kiosks to pay. One of the payment options, of course, is facial recognition, using Alipay.
Next to Hema superstore in Xi’an, its competitor, JD.com, Inc., one of the largest Chinese e-commerce companies, has installed facial monitors on the street. JD operates over 20 unmanned stores across China, according to the company. The clients can simply pick up whatever they want and walk straight out of the store. Every item in the store contains an RFID tag and customers are identified using facial-recognition technology. They only need to access JD.com App, and it generates a locate QR code.
The Alibaba and JD.com’s strategic movement not only allows them to reach consumers who still prefer to buy in the physical store in China. Its strategy also lets them know consumers taste and anticipate future purchases.
Is the real world stop being real? An anecdote can shed some light on the issue. At the end of November, in Ningbo, near Shanghai, the face of a famous Chinese businesswoman appeared on the screens dedicated to detecting and shame jaywalkers in China. However, at that time, Dong Mingzhu, president of China’s biggest air conditioning maker, was not crossing the red light. She was not crossing the street either. The smart camera just captured her face in an advertisement on the side of a bus that was driving through the intersection.
40 years later – from “Made in China” to Makers Land
December 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of Chinese reforms and opening-up policy that transformed the country forever. Shenzhen city was China’s reform pioneer. We travelled to once a fishing town that gave birth to Huawei and other technological giants. We talked about urbanism, electric vehicles, “Maker” Movement, education and ‘shanzhai’, a neologism for “fake” that […]
China Is Using Facial Recognition To Catch Jaywalkers
On Huaihai Street, a large shopping street in downtown Shanghai, a large LED screen on the sidewalk displays the image of a motorist who has skipped the red traffic light. There are four stripes on the screen, as if it were a comic, with the precise moment of the infraction and the extended image of […]
Inside a Cashless Society (almost)
In China, a pan, the energy bill or a kiwi from a street vendor are paid with the mobile phone. Over half a billion Chinese use the smartphone for their daily purchases.
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Owner and Designer, Rebecca Minkoff
An industry leader in accessible luxury handbags, accessories, footwear and apparel, Rebecca Minkoff’s playful and subtly edgy designs can be spotted around the world on young women and celebrities alike.
After developing an affinity for design while in the costume department in high school, Rebecca Minkoff moved to New York City at only 18 years old to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer.
In 2001, Rebecca designed a version of the “I Love New York” t-shirt as part of a five-piece capsule collection, which appeared on The Tonight Show and became an overnight sensation.
In 2005, Rebecca designed her first handbag, which she soon dubbed the “Morning After Bag,” a.k.a. the “M.A.B.” This iconic bag ignited Rebecca’s career as a handbag designer and inspired her edgy, feminine creations in the years to come. Rebecca’s success was further enhanced by the support of her brother and the company’s CEO and co-founder, Uri Minkoff, who helped usher in and pioneer the company’s industry-leading social media efforts.
After four years of designing statement-making handbags and accessories with her trademark leathers, studs and hardware, Rebecca returned to her roots of apparel design and introduced her first ready-to-wear collection in 2009.
Today, Rebecca Minkoff is a global brand with a wide range of apparel, handbags, footwear, jewelry and accessories (including tech) as well as men’s accessories under the label Uri Minkoff. In the spring of 2017, Rebecca Minkoff Watches was launched, reimagining the category through their decidedly downtown, Rock and Roll aesthetic. Uri Minkoff also introduced its own distinct line of menswear timepieces.
The brand has four domestic retail stores, eight international locations, and is distributed in over 900 stores worldwide. In 2011, Rebecca won industry recognition when she was awarded the Breakthrough Designer Award from the Accessories Council. She is an active member of the CFDA and supports multiple philanthropies including Jessica Seinfeld’s non-profit, Baby Buggy. In August of 2017, she was announced as a member of the first-ever New York State Council on Women and Girls, in the company of other female industry leaders including Refinery29 founder Christene Barberich, SoulCycle CEO Melanie Whelan and Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert. Rebecca is dedicated to bringing women together to enact positive change.
In September of 2018, she established the Female Founder Collective, a network of businesses led by women that invests in women’s financial power across the socio-economic spectrum by enabling and empowering female-owned businesses.
Rebecca is married to actor and director Gavin Bellour and they reside in Brooklyn with their three children.
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539 U.S. 510 - Wiggins v. Smith Warden
the United States Reports
539 US 510 Wiggins v. Smith Warden
SMITH, WARDEN, et al.
No. 02-311.
Supreme Court of United States.
Argued March 24, 2003.
Decided June 26, 2003.
In 1989, petitioner Wiggins was convicted of capital murder by a Maryland judge and subsequently elected to be sentenced by a jury. His public defenders, Schlaich and Nethercott, moved to bifurcate the sentencing, representing that they planned to prove that Wiggins did not kill the victim by his own hand and then, if necessary, to present a mitigation case. The court denied the motion. At sentencing, Nethercott told the jury in her opening statement that they would hear, among other things, about Wiggins' difficult life, but such evidence was never introduced. Before closing arguments and outside the presence of the jury, Schlaich made a proffer to the court to preserve the bifurcation issue for appeal, detailing the mitigation case counsel would have presented. Schlaich never mentioned Wiggins' life history or family background. The jury sentenced Wiggins to death, and the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed. Represented by new counsel, Wiggins sought postconviction relief, arguing that his trial counsel had rendered ineffective assistance by failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence of his dysfunctional background. He presented expert testimony by a forensic social worker about the severe physical and sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of his mother and while under the care of a series of foster parents. Schlaich testified that he did not remember retaining a forensic social worker to prepare a social history before sentencing, even though state funds were available for that purpose, and explained that he and Nethercott had decided to focus on retrying the factual case and disputing Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder. The trial court denied the petition, and the State Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that trial counsel had made a reasoned choice to proceed with what they considered their best defense. Subsequently, the Federal District Court granted Wiggins relief on his federal habeas petition, holding that the Maryland courts' rejection of his ineffective assistance claim involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. In reversing, the Fourth Circuit found trial counsel's strategic decision to focus on Wiggins' direct responsibility to be reasonable.
Held: The performance of Wiggins' attorneys at sentencing violated his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. Pp. 519-538.
(a) A federal writ can be granted only if a state court decision "was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established" precedents of this Court. 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1). This "unreasonable application" prong permits the writ to be granted when a state court identifies the correct governing legal principle but unreasonably applies it to the facts of a petitioner's case. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 413. For this standard to be satisfied, the state court decision must have been "objectively unreasonable," id., at 409, not just incorrect or erroneous. An ineffective assistance claim has two components: A petitioner must show that counsel's performance was deficient, and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 687. Performance is deficient if it falls below an objective standard of reasonableness, which is defined in terms of prevailing professional norms. Id., at 688. Here, as in Strickland, counsel claim that their limited investigation into petitioner's background reflected a tactical judgment not to present mitigating evidence and to pursue an alternative strategy instead. In evaluating petitioner's claim, this Court's principal concern is not whether counsel should have presented a mitigation case, but whether the investigation supporting their decision not to introduce mitigating evidence of Wiggins' background was itself reasonable. The Court thus conducts an objective review of their performance, measured for reasonableness under prevailing professional norms, including a context-dependent consideration of the challenged conduct as seen from counsel's perspective at the time of that conduct. Id., at 688, 689. Pp. 519-523.
(b) Counsel did not conduct a reasonable investigation. Their decision not to expand their investigation beyond a presentence investigation (PSI) report and Baltimore City Department of Social Services (DSS) records fell short of the professional standards prevailing in Maryland in 1989. Standard practice in Maryland capital cases at that time included the preparation of a social history report. Although there were funds to retain a forensic social worker, counsel chose not to commission a report. Their conduct similarly fell short of the American Bar Association's capital defense work standards. Moreover, in light of the facts counsel discovered in the DSS records concerning Wiggins' alcoholic mother and his problems in foster care, counsel's decision to cease investigating when they did was unreasonable. Any reasonably competent attorney would have realized that pursuing such leads was necessary to making an informed choice among possible defenses, particularly given the apparent absence of aggravating factors from Wiggins' background. Indeed, counsel discovered no evidence to suggest that a mitigation case would have been counterproductive or that further investigation would have been fruitless, thus distinguishing this case from precedents in which this Court has found limited investigations into mitigating evidence to be reasonable. The record of the sentencing proceedings underscores the unreasonableness of counsel's conduct by suggesting that their failure to investigate thoroughly stemmed from inattention, not strategic judgment. Until the trial court denied their bifurcation motion, they had had every reason to develop the most powerful mitigation case possible. During the sentencing process itself, counsel did not focus exclusively on Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder; rather they put on a halfhearted mitigation case instead. The Maryland Court of Appeals' assumption that counsel's investigation was adequate reflected an unreasonable application of Strickland. In deferring to counsel's decision not to present every conceivable mitigation defense despite the fact that counsel based their alleged choice on an inadequate investigation, the Maryland Court of Appeals further unreasonably applied Strickland. And the court's conclusion that the social services records revealed incidences of sexual abuse, when they in fact did not, reflects "an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding," 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(2). Contrary to the State's and the United States' contention, the record as a whole does not support the conclusion that counsel conducted a more thorough investigation than the one this Court describes. Ultimately, this Court's conclusion that counsel's investigation was inadequate does not mean that Strickland requires counsel to investigate every conceivable line of mitigating evidence no matter how unlikely the effort would be to assist the defendant at sentencing. Nor does Strickland require counsel to present such evidence at sentencing in every case. Rather, the conclusion is based on the much more limited principle that "strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable" only to the extent that "reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation." Strickland, supra, at 690-691. Pp. 523-534.
(c) Counsel's failures prejudiced Wiggins' defense. To establish prejudice, a defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the proceeding's result would have been different. Strickland, supra, at 694. This Court assesses prejudice by reweighing the aggravating evidence against the totality of the mitigating evidence adduced both at trial and in the habeas proceedings. Williams v. Taylor, supra, at 397-398. The mitigating evidence counsel failed to discover and present here is powerful. Wiggins experienced severe privation and abuse while in the custody of his alcoholic, absentee mother and physical torment, sexual molestation, and repeated rape while in foster care. His time spent homeless and his diminished mental capacities further augment his mitigation case. He thus has the kind of troubled history relevant to assessing a defendant's moral culpability. Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U. S. 302, 319. Given the nature and extent of the abuse, there is a reasonable probability that a competent attorney, aware of this history, would have introduced it at sentencing, and that a jury confronted with such mitigating evidence would have returned with a different sentence. The only significant mitigating factor the jury heard was that Wiggins had no prior convictions. Had it been able to place his excruciating life history on the mitigating side of the scale, there is a reasonable probability that at least one juror would have struck a different balance. Wiggins had no record of violent conduct that the State could have introduced to offset this powerful mitigating narrative. Thus, the available mitigating evidence, taken as a whole, might well have influenced the jury's appraisal of his moral culpability. Pp. 534-538.
288 F. 3d 629, reversed and remanded.
O'CONNOR, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and STEVENS, KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS, J., joined, post, p. 538.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT.
Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Ian Heath Gershengorn and Lara M. Flint.
Gary E. Bair, Solicitor General of Maryland, argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, and Kathryn Grill Graeff and Ann N. Bosse, Assistant Attorneys General.
Dan Himmelfarb argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging affirmance. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Olson, Assistant Attorney General Chertoff, Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben, and Robert J. Erickson.*
JUSTICE O'CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioner, Kevin Wiggins, argues that his attorneys' failure to investigate his background and present mitigating evidence of his unfortunate life history at his capital sentencing proceedings violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. In this case, we consider whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit erred in upholding the Maryland Court of Appeals' rejection of this claim.
* A
On September 17, 1988, police discovered 77-year-old Florence Lacs drowned in the bathtub of her ransacked apartment in Woodlawn, Maryland. Wiggins v. State, 352 Md. 580, 585, 724 A. 2d 1, 5 (1999). The State indicted petitioner for the crime on October 20, 1988, and later filed a notice of intention to seek the death penalty. Two Baltimore County public defenders, Carl Schlaich and Michelle Nethercott, assumed responsibility for Wiggins' case. In July 1989, petitioner elected to be tried before a judge in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Ibid. On August 4, after a 4-day trial, the court found petitioner guilty of first-degree murder, robbery, and two counts of theft. App. 32.
After his conviction, Wiggins elected to be sentenced by a jury, and the trial court scheduled the proceedings to begin on October 11, 1989. On September 11, counsel filed a motion for bifurcation of sentencing in hopes of presenting Wiggins' case in two phases. Id., at 34. Counsel intended first to prove that Wiggins did not act as a "principal in the first degree," ibid.—i. e., that he did not kill the victim by his own hand. See Md. Ann. Code, Art. 27, § 413 (1996) (requiring proof of direct responsibility for death eligibility). Counsel then intended, if necessary, to present a mitigation case. In the memorandum in support of their motion, counsel argued that bifurcation would enable them to present each case in its best light; separating the two cases would prevent the introduction of mitigating evidence from diluting their claim that Wiggins was not directly responsible for the murder. App. 36-42, 37.
On October 12, the court denied the bifurcation motion, and sentencing proceedings commenced immediately thereafter. In her opening statement, Nethercott told the jurors they would hear evidence suggesting that someone other than Wiggins actually killed Lacs. Id., at 70-71. Counsel then explained that the judge would instruct them to weigh Wiggins' clean record as a factor against a death sentence. She concluded: "`You're going to hear that Kevin Wiggins has had a difficult life. It has not been easy for him. But he's worked. He's tried to be a productive citizen, and he's reached the age of 27 with no convictions for prior crimes of violence and no convictions, period.. . . I think that's an important thing for you to consider.'" Id., at 72. During the proceedings themselves, however, counsel introduced no evidence of Wiggins' life history.
Before closing arguments, Schlaich made a proffer to the court, outside the presence of the jury, to preserve bifurcation as an issue for appeal. He detailed the mitigation case counsel would have presented had the court granted their bifurcation motion. He explained that they would have introduced psychological reports and expert testimony demonstrating Wiggins' limited intellectual capacities and childlike emotional state on the one hand, and the absence of aggressive patterns in his behavior, his capacity for empathy, and his desire to function in the world on the other. See id., at 349-351. At no point did Schlaich proffer any evidence of petitioner's life history or family background. On October 18, the court instructed the jury on the sentencing task before it, and later that afternoon, the jury returned with a sentence of death. Id., at 409-410. A divided Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed. Wiggins v. State, 324 Md. 551, 597 A. 2d 1359 (1991), cert. denied, 503 U. S. 1007 (1992).
In 1993, Wiggins sought postconviction relief in Baltimore County Circuit Court. With new counsel, he challenged the adequacy of his representation at sentencing, arguing that his attorneys had rendered constitutionally defective assistance by failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence of his dysfunctional background. App. to Pet. for Cert. 132a. To support his claim, petitioner presented testimony by Hans Selvog, a licensed social worker certified as an expert by the court. App. 419. Selvog testified concerning an elaborate social history report he had prepared containing evidence of the severe physical and sexual abuse petitioner suffered at the hands of his mother and while in the care of a series of foster parents. Relying on state social services, medical, and school records, as well as interviews with petitioner and numerous family members, Selvog chronicled petitioner's bleak life history. App. to Pet. for Cert. 163a.
According to Selvog's report, petitioner's mother, a chronic alcoholic, frequently left Wiggins and his siblings home alone for days, forcing them to beg for food and to eat paint chips and garbage. Id., at 166a-167a. Mrs. Wiggins' abusive behavior included beating the children for breaking into the kitchen, which she often kept locked. She had sex with men while her children slept in the same bed and, on one occasion, forced petitioner's hand against a hot stove burner—an incident that led to petitioner's hospitalization. Id., at 167a-171a. At the age of six, the State placed Wiggins in foster care. Petitioner's first and second foster mothers abused him physically, id., at 175a-176a, and, as petitioner explained to Selvog, the father in his second foster home repeatedly molested and raped him. Id., at 176a-179a. At age 16, petitioner ran away from his foster home and began living on the streets. He returned intermittently to additional foster homes, including one in which the foster mother's sons allegedly gang-raped him on more than one occasion. Id., at 190a. After leaving the foster care system, Wiggins entered a Job Corps program and was allegedly sexually abused by his supervisor. Id., at 192a.
During the postconviction proceedings, Schlaich testified that he did not remember retaining a forensic social worker to prepare a social history, even though the State made funds available for that purpose. App. 487-488. He explained that he and Nethercott, well in advance of trial, decided to focus their efforts on "`retry[ing] the factual case'" and disputing Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder. Id., at 485-486. In April 1994, at the close of the proceedings, the judge observed from the bench that he could not remember a capital case in which counsel had not compiled a social history of the defendant, explaining, "`[n]ot to do a social history, at least to see what you have got, to me is absolute error. I just—I would be flabbergasted if the Court of Appeals said anything else.'" Id., at 605. In October 1997, however, the trial court denied Wiggins' petition for postconviction relief. The court concluded that "when the decision not to investigate . . . is a matter of trial tactics, there is no ineffective assistance of counsel." App. to Pet. for Cert. 155a-156a.
The Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of relief, concluding that trial counsel had made "a deliberate, tactical decision to concentrate their effort at convincing the jury" that appellant was not directly responsible for the murder. Wiggins v. State, 352 Md., at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15. The court observed that counsel knew of Wiggins' unfortunate childhood. They had available to them both the presentence investigation (PSI) report prepared by the Division of Parole and Probation, as required by Maryland law, Md. Ann. Code, Art. 41, § 4-609(d) (1988), as well as "more detailed social service records that recorded incidences of physical and sexual abuse, an alcoholic mother, placements in foster care, and borderline retardation." 352 Md., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15. The court acknowledged that this evidence was neither as detailed nor as graphic as the history elaborated in the Selvog report but emphasized that "counsel did investigate and were aware of appellant's background." Id., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16 (emphasis in original). Counsel knew that at least one uncontested mitigating factor—Wiggins' lack of prior convictions—would be before the jury should their attempt to disprove Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder fail. As a result, the court concluded, Schlaich and Nethercott "made a reasoned choice to proceed with what they thought was their best defense." Id., at 611-612, 724 A. 2d, at 17.
In September 2001, Wiggins filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in Federal District Court. The trial court granted him relief, holding that the Maryland courts' rejection of his ineffective assistance claim "involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law." Wiggins v. Corcoran, 164 F. Supp. 2d 538, 557 (2001) (citing Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362 (2000)). The court rejected the State's defense of counsel's "tactical" decision to "`retry guilt,'" concluding that for a strategic decision to be reasonable, it must be "based upon information the attorney has made after conducting a reasonable investigation." 164 F. Supp. 2d, at 558. The court found that though counsel were aware of some aspects of Wiggins' background, that knowledge did not excuse them from their duty to make a "fully informed and deliberate decision" about whether to present a mitigation case. In fact, the court concluded, their knowledge triggered an obligation to look further. Id., at 559.
Reviewing the District Court's decision de novo, the Fourth Circuit reversed, holding that counsel had made a reasonable strategic decision to focus on petitioner's direct responsibility. Wiggins v. Corcoran, 288 F. 3d 629, 639-640 (2002). The court contrasted counsel's complete failure to investigate potential mitigating evidence in Williams, 288 F. 3d, at 640, with the fact that Schlaich and Nethercott knew at least some details of Wiggins' childhood from the PSI and social services records, id., at 641. The court acknowledged that counsel likely knew further investigation "would have resulted in more sordid details surfacing," but agreed with the Maryland Court of Appeals that counsel's knowledge of the avenues of mitigation available to them "was sufficient to make an informed strategic choice" to challenge petitioner's direct responsibility for the murder. Id., at 641-642. The court emphasized that conflicting medical testimony with respect to the time of death, the absence of direct evidence against Wiggins, and unexplained forensic evidence at the crime scene supported counsel's strategy. Id., at 641.
We granted certiorari, 537 U. S. 1027 (2002), and now reverse.
* Petitioner renews his contention that his attorneys' performance at sentencing violated his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. The amendments to 28 U. S. C. § 2254, enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), circumscribe our consideration of Wiggins' claim and require us to limit our analysis to the law as it was "clearly established" by our precedents at the time of the state court's decision. Section 2254 provides:
"(d) An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim—
"(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or
"(2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding."
We have made clear that the "unreasonable application" prong of § 2254(d)(1) permits a federal habeas court to "grant the writ if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from this Court's decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts" of petitioner's case. Williams v. Taylor, supra, at 413; see also Bell v. Cone, 535 U. S. 685, 694 (2002). In other words, a federal court may grant relief when a state court has misapplied a "governing legal principle" to "a set of facts different from those of the case in which the principle was announced." Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U. S. 63, 76 (2003) (citing Williams v. Taylor, supra, at 407). In order for a federal court to find a state court's application of our precedent "unreasonable," the state court's decision must have been more than incorrect or erroneous. See Lockyer, supra, at 75. The state court's application must have been "objectively unreasonable." See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S., at 409.
We established the legal principles that govern claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984). An ineffective assistance claim has two components: A petitioner must show that counsel's performance was deficient, and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense. Id., at 687. To establish deficient performance, a petitioner must demonstrate that counsel's representation "fell below an objective standard of reasonableness." Id., at 688. We have declined to articulate specific guidelines for appropriate attorney conduct and instead have emphasized that "[t]he proper measure of attorney performance remains simply reasonableness under prevailing professional norms." Ibid.
In this case, as in Strickland, petitioner's claim stems from counsel's decision to limit the scope of their investigation into potential mitigating evidence. Id., at 673. Here, as in Strickland, counsel attempt to justify their limited investigation as reflecting a tactical judgment not to present mitigating evidence at sentencing and to pursue an alternative strategy instead. In rejecting the respondent's claim, we defined the deference owed such strategic judgments in terms of the adequacy of the investigations supporting those judgments:
"[S]trategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable; and strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation. In other words, counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary. In any ineffectiveness case, a particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel's judgments." Id., at 690-691.
Our opinion in Williams v. Taylor is illustrative of the proper application of these standards. In finding Williams' ineffectiveness claim meritorious, we applied Strickland and concluded that counsel's failure to uncover and present voluminous mitigating evidence at sentencing could not be justified as a tactical decision to focus on Williams' voluntary confessions, because counsel had not "fulfill[ed] their obligation to conduct a thorough investigation of the defendant's background." 529 U. S., at 396 (citing 1 ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 4-4.1, commentary, p. 4-55 (2d ed. 1980)). While Williams had not yet been decided at the time the Maryland Court of Appeals rendered the decision at issue in this case, cf. post, at 542 (Scalia, J., dissenting), Williams' case was before us on habeas review. Contrary to the dissent's contention, post, at 543, we therefore made no new law in resolving Williams' ineffectiveness claim. See Williams, 529 U. S., at 390 (noting that the merits of Williams' claim "are squarely governed by our holding in Strickland"); see also id., at 395 (noting that the trial court correctly applied both components of the Strickland standard to petitioner's claim and proceeding to discuss counsel's failure to investigate as a violation of Strickland's performance prong). In highlighting counsel's duty to investigate, and in referring to the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice as guides, we applied the same "clearly established" precedent of Strickland we apply today. Cf. 466 U. S., at 690-691 (establishing that "thorough investigation[s]" are "virtually unchallengeable" and underscoring that "counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations"); see also id., at 688-689 ("Prevailing norms of practice as reflected in American Bar Association standards and the like.. . are guides to determining what is reasonable").
In light of these standards, our principal concern in deciding whether Schlaich and Nethercott exercised "reasonable professional judgmen[t]," id., at 691, is not whether counsel should have presented a mitigation case. Rather, we focus on whether the investigation supporting counsel's decision not to introduce mitigating evidence of Wiggins' background was itself reasonable. Ibid. Cf. Williams v. Taylor, supra, at 415 (O'Connor, J., concurring) (noting counsel's duty to conduct the "requisite, diligent" investigation into his client's background). In assessing counsel's investigation, we must conduct an objective review of their performance, measured for "reasonableness under prevailing professional norms," Strickland, 466 U. S., at 688, which includes a context-dependent consideration of the challenged conduct as seen "from counsel's perspective at the time," id., at 689 ("[E]very effort [must] be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight").
* The record demonstrates that counsel's investigation drew from three sources. App. 490-491. Counsel arranged for William Stejskal, a psychologist, to conduct a number of tests on petitioner. Stejskal concluded that petitioner had an IQ of 79, had difficulty coping with demanding situations, and exhibited features of a personality disorder. Id., at 44-45, 349-351. These reports revealed nothing, however, of petitioner's life history. Tr. of Oral Arg. 24-25.
With respect to that history, counsel had available to them the written PSI, which included a one-page account of Wiggins' "personal history" noting his "misery as a youth," quoting his description of his own background as "`disgusting,'" and observing that he spent most of his life in foster care. App. 20-21. Counsel also "tracked down" records kept by the Baltimore City Department of Social Services (DSS) documenting petitioner's various placements in the State's foster care system. Id., at 490; Lodging of Petitioner. In describing the scope of counsel's investigation into petitioner's life history, both the Fourth Circuit and the Maryland Court of Appeals referred only to these two sources of information. See 288 F. 3d, at 640-641; Wiggins v. State, 352 Md., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15.
Counsel's decision not to expand their investigation beyond the PSI and the DSS records fell short of the professional standards that prevailed in Maryland in 1989. As Schlaich acknowledged, standard practice in Maryland in capital cases at the time of Wiggins' trial included the preparation of a social history report. App. 488. Despite the fact that the Public Defender's office made funds available for the retention of a forensic social worker, counsel chose not to commission such a report. Id., at 487. Counsel's conduct similarly fell short of the standards for capital defense work articulated by the American Bar Association (ABA)—standards to which we long have referred as "guides to determining what is reasonable." Strickland, supra, at 688; Williams v. Taylor, supra, at 396. The ABA Guidelines provide that investigations into mitigating evidence "should comprise efforts to discover all reasonably available mitigating evidence and evidence to rebut any aggravating evidence that may be introduced by the prosecutor." ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases 11.4.1(C), p. 93 (1989) (emphasis added). Despite these well-defined norms, however, counsel abandoned their investigation of petitioner's background after having acquired only rudimentary knowledge of his history from a narrow set of sources. Cf. id., 11.8.6, p. 133 (noting that among the topics counsel should consider presenting are medical history, educational history, employment and training history, family and social history, prior adult and juvenile correctional experience, and religious and cultural influences (emphasis added)); 1 ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 4-4.1, commentary, p. 4-55 (2d ed. 1982) ("The lawyer also has a substantial and important role to perform in raising mitigating factors both to the prosecutor initially and to the court at sentencing. . . . Investigation is essential to fulfillment of these functions").
The scope of their investigation was also unreasonable in light of what counsel actually discovered in the DSS records. The records revealed several facts: Petitioner's mother was a chronic alcoholic; Wiggins was shuttled from foster home to foster home and displayed some emotional difficulties while there; he had frequent, lengthy absences from school; and, on at least one occasion, his mother left him and his siblings alone for days without food. See Lodging of Petitioner 54-95, 126, 131-136, 140, 147, 159-176. As the Federal District Court emphasized, any reasonably competent attorney would have realized that pursuing these leads was necessary to making an informed choice among possible defenses, particularly given the apparent absence of any aggravating factors in petitioner's background. 164 F. Supp. 2d, at 559. Indeed, counsel uncovered no evidence in their investigation to suggest that a mitigation case, in its own right, would have been counterproductive, or that further investigation would have been fruitless; this case is therefore distinguishable from our precedents in which we have found limited investigations into mitigating evidence to be reasonable. See, e. g., Strickland, supra, at 699 (concluding that counsel could "reasonably surmise . . . that character and psychological evidence would be of little help"); Burger v. Kemp, 483 U. S. 776, 794 (1987) (concluding counsel's limited investigation was reasonable because he interviewed all witnesses brought to his attention, discovering little that was helpful and much that was harmful); Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 168, 186 (1986) (concluding that counsel engaged in extensive preparation and that the decision to present a mitigation case would have resulted in the jury hearing evidence that petitioner had been convicted of violent crimes and spent much of his life in jail). Had counsel investigated further, they might well have discovered the sexual abuse later revealed during state postconviction proceedings.
The record of the actual sentencing proceedings underscores the unreasonableness of counsel's conduct by suggesting that their failure to investigate thoroughly resulted from inattention, not reasoned strategic judgment. Counsel sought, until the day before sentencing, to have the proceedings bifurcated into a retrial of guilt and a mitigation stage. See supra, at 515. On the eve of sentencing, counsel represented to the court that they were prepared to come forward with mitigating evidence, App. 45, and that they intended to present such evidence in the event the court granted their motion to bifurcate. In other words, prior to sentencing, counsel never actually abandoned the possibility that they would present a mitigation defense. Until the court denied their motion, then, they had every reason to develop the most powerful mitigation case possible.
What is more, during the sentencing proceeding itself, counsel did not focus exclusively on Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder. After introducing that issue in her opening statement, id., at 70-71, Nethercott entreated the jury to consider not just what Wiggins "is found to have done," but also "who [he] is." Id., at 70. Though she told the jury it would "hear that Kevin Wiggins has had a difficult life," id., at 72, counsel never followed up on that suggestion with details of Wiggins' history. At the same time, counsel called a criminologist to testify that inmates serving life sentences tend to adjust well and refrain from further violence in prison—testimony with no bearing on whether petitioner committed the murder by his own hand. Id., at 311-312. Far from focusing exclusively on petitioner's direct responsibility, then, counsel put on a halfhearted mitigation case, taking precisely the type of "`shotgun'" approach the Maryland Court of Appeals concluded counsel sought to avoid. Wiggins v. State, 352 Md., at 609, 724 A. 2d, at 15. When viewed in this light, the "strategic decision" the state courts and respondents all invoke to justify counsel's limited pursuit of mitigating evidence resembles more a post hoc rationalization of counsel's conduct than an accurate description of their deliberations prior to sentencing.
In rejecting petitioner's ineffective assistance claim, the Maryland Court of Appeals appears to have assumed that because counsel had some information with respect to petitioner's background—the information in the PSI and the DSS records—they were in a position to make a tactical choice not to present a mitigation defense. Id., at 611-612, 724 A. 2d, at 17 (citing federal and state precedents finding ineffective assistance in cases in which counsel failed to conduct an investigation of any kind). In assessing the reasonableness of an attorney's investigation, however, a court must consider not only the quantum of evidence already known to counsel, but also whether the known evidence would lead a reasonable attorney to investigate further. Even assuming Schlaich and Nethercott limited the scope of their investigation for strategic reasons, Strickland does not establish that a cursory investigation automatically justifies a tactical decision with respect to sentencing strategy. Rather, a reviewing court must consider the reasonableness of the investigation said to support that strategy. 466 U. S., at 691.
The Maryland Court of Appeals' application of Strickland's governing legal principles was objectively unreasonable. Though the state court acknowledged petitioner's claim that counsel's failure to prepare a social history "did not meet the minimum standards of the profession," the court did not conduct an assessment of whether the decision to cease all investigation upon obtaining the PSI and the DSS records actually demonstrated reasonable professional judgment. Wiggins v. State, 352 Md., at 609, 724 A. 2d, at 16. The state court merely assumed that the investigation was adequate. In light of what the PSI and the DSS records actually revealed, however, counsel chose to abandon their investigation at an unreasonable juncture, making a fully informed decision with respect to sentencing strategy impossible. The Court of Appeals' assumption that the investigation was adequate, ibid., thus reflected an unreasonable application of Strickland. 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1). As a result, the court's subsequent deference to counsel's strategic decision not "to present every conceivable mitigation defense," 352 Md., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16, despite the fact that counsel based this alleged choice on what we have made clear was an unreasonable investigation, was also objectively unreasonable. As we established in Strickland, "strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation." 466 U. S., at 690-691.
Additionally, the court based its conclusion, in part, on a clear factual error—that the "social service records . . . recorded incidences of . . . sexual abuse." 352 Md., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15. As the State and the United States now concede, the records contain no mention of sexual abuse, much less of the repeated molestations and rapes of petitioner detailed in the Selvog report. Brief for Respondents 22; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 26; App. to Pet. for Cert. 175a-179a, 190a. The state court's assumption that the records documented instances of this abuse has been shown to be incorrect by "clear and convincing evidence," 28 U. S. C. § 2254(e)(1), and reflects "an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding," § 2254(d)(2). This partial reliance on an erroneous factual finding further highlights the unreasonableness of the state court's decision.
The dissent insists that this Court's hands are tied, under § 2254(d), "by the state court's factual determinations that Wiggins' trial counsel `did investigate and were aware of [Wiggins'] background,'" post, at 550. But as we have made clear, the Maryland Court of Appeals' conclusion that the scope of counsel's investigation into petitioner's background met the legal standards set in Strickland represented an objectively unreasonable application of our precedent. § 2254(d)(1). Moreover, the court's assumption that counsel learned of a major aspect of Wiggins' background, i. e., the sexual abuse, from the DSS records was clearly erroneous. The requirements of § 2254(d) thus pose no bar to granting petitioner habeas relief.
In their briefs to this Court, the State and the United States contend that counsel, in fact, conducted a more thorough investigation than the one we have just described. This conclusion, they explain, follows from Schlaich's post-conviction testimony that he knew of the sexual abuse Wiggins suffered, as well as of the hand-burning incident. According to the State and its amicus, the fact that counsel claimed to be aware of this evidence, which was not in the social services records, coupled with Schlaich's statement that he knew what was in "other people's reports," App. 490-491, suggests that counsel's investigation must have extended beyond the social services records. Tr. of Oral Arg. 31-36; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 26-27, n. 4; Brief for Respondents 35. Schlaich simply "was not asked to and did not reveal the source of his knowledge" of the abuse. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 27, n. 4.
In considering this reading of the state postconviction record, we note preliminarily that the Maryland Court of Appeals clearly assumed both that counsel's investigation began and ended with the PSI and the DSS records and that this investigation was sufficient in scope to satisfy Strickland's reasonableness requirement. See Wiggins v. State, 352 Md., at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15. The court also assumed, erroneously, that the social services records cited incidences of sexual abuse. See id., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15. Respondents' interpretation of Schlaich's postconviction testimony therefore has no bearing on whether the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision reflected an objectively unreasonable application of Strickland.
In its assessment of the Maryland Court of Appeals' opinion, the dissent apparently does not dispute that if counsel's investigation in this case had consisted exclusively of the PSI and the DSS records, the court's decision would have constituted an unreasonable application of Strickland. See post, at 543-544. Of necessity, then, the dissent's primary contention is that the Maryland Court of Appeals did decide that Wiggins' counsel looked beyond the PSI and the DSS records and that we must therefore defer to that finding under § 2254(e)(1). See post, at 544-551. Had the court found that counsel's investigation extended beyond the PSI and the DSS records, the dissent, of course, would be correct that § 2254(e) would require that we defer to that finding. But the state court made no such finding.
The dissent bases its conclusion on the Maryland Court of Appeals' statements that "`[c]ounsel were aware that appellant had a most unfortunate childhood,'" and that "`counsel did investigate and were aware of appellant's background.'" See post, at 540, 545 (quoting Wiggins v. State, supra, at 608, 610, 724 A. 2d, at 15, 16). But the state court's description of how counsel learned of petitioner's childhood speaks for itself. The court explained: "Counsel were aware that appellant had a most unfortunate childhood. Mr. Schlaich had available to him not only the pre-sentence investigation report . . . but also more detailed social service records." See 352 Md., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15. This construction reflects the state court's understanding that the investigation consisted of the two sources the court mentions. Indeed, when describing counsel's investigation into petitioner's background, the court never so much as implies that counsel uncovered any source other than the PSI and the DSS records. The court's conclusion that counsel were aware of "incidences of . . . sexual abuse" does not suggest otherwise, cf. supra, at 518, because the court assumed that counsel learned of such incidents from the social services records. Wiggins v. State, 352 Md., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15.
The court's subsequent statement that, "as noted, counsel did investigate and were aware of appellant's background," underscores our conclusion that the Maryland Court of Appeals assumed counsel's investigation into Wiggins' childhood consisted of the PSI and the DSS records. The court's use of the phrase "as noted," which the dissent ignores, further confirms that counsel's investigation consisted of the sources previously described, i. e., the PSI and the DSS records. It is the dissent, therefore, that "rests upon a fundamental fallacy," post, at 544-that the Maryland Court of Appeals determined that Schlaich's investigation extended beyond the PSI and the DSS records.
We therefore must determine, de novo, whether counsel reached beyond the PSI and the DSS records in their investigation of petitioner's background. The record as a whole does not support the conclusion that counsel conducted a more thorough investigation than the one we have described. The dissent, like the State and the United States, relies primarily on Schlaich's postconviction testimony to establish that counsel investigated more extensively. But the questions put to Schlaich during his postconviction testimony all referred to what he knew from the social services records; the line of questioning, after all, first directed him to his discovery of those documents. His subsequent reference to "other people's reports," made in direct response to a question concerning petitioner's mental retardation, appears to be an acknowledgment of the psychologist's reports we know counsel commissioned—reports that also revealed nothing of the sexual abuse Wiggins experienced. App. 349. As the state trial judge who heard this testimony concluded at the close of the proceedings, there is "no reason to believe that [counsel] did have all of this information." Id., at 606 (emphasis added).
The State maintained at oral argument that Schlaich's reference to "other people's reports" indicated that counsel learned of the sexual abuse from sources other than the PSI and the DSS records. Tr. of Oral Arg. 31, 33, 35. But when pressed repeatedly to identify the sources counsel might have consulted, the State acknowledged that no written reports documented the sexual abuse and speculated that counsel must have learned of it through "[o]ral reports" from Wiggins himself. Id., at 36. Not only would the phrase "other people's reports" have been an unusual way for counsel to refer to conversations with his client, but the record contains no evidence that counsel ever pursued this line of questioning with Wiggins. See id., at 24-25. For its part, the United States emphasized counsel's retention of the psychologist. Id., at 51; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 27. But again, counsel's decision to hire a psychologist sheds no light on the extent of their investigation into petitioner's social background. Though Stejskal based his conclusions on clinical interviews with Wiggins, as well as meetings with Wiggins' family members, Lodging of Petitioner, his final report discussed only petitioner's mental capacities and attributed nothing of what he learned to Wiggins' social history.
To further underscore that counsel did not know, prior to sentencing, of the sexual abuse, as well as of the other incidents not recorded in the DSS records, petitioner directs us to the content of counsel's October 17, 1989, proffer. Before closing statements and outside the presence of the jury, Schlaich proffered to the court the mitigation case counsel would have introduced had the court granted their motion to bifurcate. App. 349-351. In his statement, Schlaich referred only to the results of the psychologist's test and mentioned nothing of Wiggins' troubled background. Given that the purpose of the proffer was to preserve their pursuit of bifurcation as an issue for appeal, they had every incentive to make their mitigation case seem as strong as possible. Counsel's failure to include in the proffer the powerful evidence of repeated sexual abuse is therefore explicable only if we assume that counsel had no knowledge of the abuse.
Contrary to the dissent's claim, see post, at 547, we are not accusing Schlaich of lying. His statements at the postconviction proceedings that he knew of this abuse, as well as of the hand-burning incident, may simply reflect a mistaken memory shaped by the passage of time. After all, the state postconviction proceedings took place over four years after Wiggins' sentencing. Ultimately, given counsel's likely ignorance of the history of sexual abuse at the time of sentencing, we cannot infer from Schlaich's postconviction testimony that counsel looked further than the PSI and the DSS records in investigating petitioner's background. Indeed, the record contains no mention of sources other than those it is undisputed counsel possessed, see supra, at 523-524. We therefore conclude that counsel's investigation of petitioner's background was limited to the PSI and the DSS records.
In finding that Schlaich and Nethercott's investigation did not meet Strickland's performance standards, we emphasize that Strickland does not require counsel to investigate every conceivable line of mitigating evidence no matter how unlikely the effort would be to assist the defendant at sentencing. Nor does Strickland require defense counsel to present mitigating evidence at sentencing in every case. Both conclusions would interfere with the "constitutionally protected independence of counsel" at the heart of Strickland. 466 U. S., at 689. We base our conclusion on the much more limited principle that "strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable" only to the extent that "reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation." Id., at 690-691. A decision not to investigate thus "must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances." Id., at 691.
Counsel's investigation into Wiggins' background did not reflect reasonable professional judgment. Their decision to end their investigation when they did was neither consistent with the professional standards that prevailed in 1989, nor reasonable in light of the evidence counsel uncovered in the social services records—evidence that would have led a reasonably competent attorney to investigate further. Counsel's pursuit of bifurcation until the eve of sentencing and their partial presentation of a mitigation case suggest that their incomplete investigation was the result of inattention, not reasoned strategic judgment. In deferring to counsel's decision not to pursue a mitigation case despite their unreasonable investigation, the Maryland Court of Appeals unreasonably applied Strickland. Furthermore, the court partially relied on an erroneous factual assumption. The requirements for habeas relief established by 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d) are thus satisfied.
In order for counsel's inadequate performance to constitute a Sixth Amendment violation, petitioner must show that counsel's failures prejudiced his defense. Strickland, 466 U. S., at 692. In Strickland, we made clear that, to establish prejudice, a "defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome." Id., at 694. In assessing prejudice, we reweigh the evidence in aggravation against the totality of available mitigating evidence. In this case, our review is not circumscribed by a state court conclusion with respect to prejudice, as neither of the state courts below reached this prong of the Strickland analysis.
The mitigating evidence counsel failed to discover and present in this case is powerful. As Selvog reported based on his conversations with Wiggins and members of his family, see Reply Brief for Petitioner 18-19, Wiggins experienced severe privation and abuse in the first six years of his life while in the custody of his alcoholic, absentee mother. He suffered physical torment, sexual molestation, and repeated rape during his subsequent years in foster care. The time Wiggins spent homeless, along with his diminished mental capacities, further augment his mitigation case. Petitioner thus has the kind of troubled history we have declared relevant to assessing a defendant's moral culpability. Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U. S. 302, 319 (1989) ("`[E]vidence about the defendant's background and character is relevant because of the belief, long held by this society, that defendants who commit criminal acts that are attributable to a disadvantaged background . . . may be less culpable than defendants who have no such excuse'"); see also Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U. S. 104, 112 (1982) (noting that consideration of the offender's life history is a "`part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death'"); Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586, 604 (1978) (invalidating Ohio law that did not permit consideration of aspects of a defendant's background).
Given both the nature and the extent of the abuse petitioner suffered, we find there to be a reasonable probability that a competent attorney, aware of this history, would have introduced it at sentencing in an admissible form. While it may well have been strategically defensible upon a reasonably thorough investigation to focus on Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder, the two sentencing strategies are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Moreover, given the strength of the available evidence, a reasonable attorney might well have chosen to prioritize the mitigation case over the direct responsibility challenge, particularly given that Wiggins' history contained little of the double edge we have found to justify limited investigations in other cases. Cf. Burger v. Kemp, 483 U. S. 776 (1987); Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 168 (1986).
The dissent nevertheless maintains that Wiggins' counsel would not have altered their chosen strategy of focusing exclusively on Wiggins' direct responsibility for the murder. See post, at 553-554. But as we have made clear, counsel were not in a position to make a reasonable strategic choice as to whether to focus on Wiggins' direct responsibility, the sordid details of his life history, or both, because the investigation supporting their choice was unreasonable. See supra, at 524-527. Moreover, as we have noted, see supra, at 526, Wiggins' counsel did not focus solely on Wiggins' direct responsibility. Counsel told the sentencing jury "[y]ou're going to hear that Kevin Wiggins has had a difficult life," App. 72, but never followed up on this suggestion.
We further find that had the jury been confronted with this considerable mitigating evidence, there is a reasonable probability that it would have returned with a different sentence. In reaching this conclusion, we need not, as the dissent suggests, post, at 554-556, make the state-law evidentiary findings that would have been at issue at sentencing. Rather, we evaluate the totality of the evidence—"both that adduced at trial, and the evidence adduced in the habeas proceeding[s]." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S., at 397-398 (emphasis added).
In any event, contrary to the dissent's assertion, it appears that Selvog's report may have been admissible under Maryland law. In Whittlesey v. State, 340 Md. 30, 665 A. 2d 223 (1995), the Maryland Court of Appeals vacated a trial court decision excluding, on hearsay grounds, testimony by Selvog himself. The court instructed the trial judge to exercise its discretion to admit "any relevant and reliable mitigating evidence, including hearsay evidence that might not be admissible in the guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial." Id., at 73, 665 A. 2d, at 244. This "relaxed standard," the court observed, would provide the factfinder with "the opportunity to consider `any aspect of a defendant's character or record . . . that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death.'" Ibid. See also Ball v. State, 347 Md. 156, 172-173, 699 A. 2d 1170, 1177 (1997) (noting that the trial judge had admitted Selvog's social history report on the defendant). While the dissent dismisses the contents of the social history report, calling Wiggins a "liar" and his claims of sexual abuse "uncorroborated gossip," post, at 554, 555, Maryland appears to consider this type of evidence relevant at sentencing, see Whittlesey, supra, at 71, 665 A. 2d, at 243 ("The reasons for relaxing the rules of evidence apply with particular force in the death penalty context"). Not even the State contests that Wiggins suffered from the various types of abuse and neglect detailed in the PSI, the DSS records, and Selvog's social history report.
Wiggins' sentencing jury heard only one significant mitigating factor—that Wiggins had no prior convictions. Had the jury been able to place petitioner's excruciating life history on the mitigating side of the scale, there is a reasonable probability that at least one juror would have struck a different balance. Cf. Borchardt v. State, 367 Md. 91, 139-140, 786 A. 2d 631, 660 (2001) (noting that as long as a single juror concludes that mitigating evidence outweighs aggravating evidence, the death penalty cannot be imposed); App. 369 (instructing the jury: "If you unanimously find that the State has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the aggravating circumstance does outweigh the mitigating circumstances, then consider whether death is the appropriate sentence").
Moreover, in contrast to the petitioner in Williams v. Taylor, supra, Wiggins does not have a record of violent conduct that could have been introduced by the State to offset this powerful mitigating narrative. Cf. id., at 418 (Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting) (noting that Williams had savagely beaten an elderly woman, stolen two cars, set fire to a home, stabbed a man during a robbery, and confessed to choking two inmates and breaking a fellow prisoner's jaw). As the Federal District Court found, the mitigating evidence in this case is stronger, and the State's evidence in support of the death penalty far weaker, than in Williams, where we found prejudice as the result of counsel's failure to investigate and present mitigating evidence. Id., at 399. We thus conclude that the available mitigating evidence, taken as a whole, "might well have influenced the jury's appraisal" of Wiggins' moral culpability. Id., at 398. Accordingly, the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Briefs ofamici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Bar Association by Alfred P. Carlton, Lawrence J. Fox, David J. Kessler, and Robin M. Maher; for the Constitution Project by Virginia E. Sloan and Stephen F. Hanlon; for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers et al. by David A. Reiser, Eleanor H. Smith, and Lisa B. Kemler; for the National Association of Social Workers et al. by Thomas C. Goldstein and Amy Howe; and for Janet F. Reno et al. by Robert S. Litt, Kathleen A. Behan, and John A. Freedman.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the State of California et al. by Bill Lockyer, Attorney General of California, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Kristofer Jorstad, A. Scott Hayward, and Donald E. De Nicola, Deputy Attorneys General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: William H. Pryor, Jr., of Alabama, Terry Goddard of Arizona, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Thurbert E. Baker of Georgia, Lisa Madigan of Illinois, Steve Carter of Indiana, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, Mike McGrath of Montana, Jon Bruning of Nebraska, Brian Sandoval of Nevada, Jim Petro of Ohio, W. A. Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma, D. Michael Fisher of Pennsylvania, Larry Long of South Dakota, Mark L. Shurtleff of Utah, Jerry W. Kilgore of Virginia, and Christine O. Gregoire of Washington; and for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation by Kent S. Scheidegger.
JUSTICE SCALIA, with whom JUSTICE THOMAS joins, dissenting.
The Court today vacates Kevin Wiggins' death sentence on the ground that his trial counsel's investigation of potential mitigating evidence was "incomplete." Ante, at 534. Wiggins' trial counsel testified under oath, however, that he was aware of the basic features of Wiggins' troubled childhood that the Court claims he overlooked. App. 490-491. The Court chooses to disbelieve this testimony for reasons that do not withstand analysis. Moreover, even if this disbelief could plausibly be entertained, that would certainly not establish (as 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d) requires) that the Maryland Court of Appeals was unreasonable in believing it, and in therefore concluding that counsel adequately investigated Wiggins' background. The Court also fails to observe § 2254(e)(1)'s requirement that federal habeas courts respect state-court factual determinations not rebutted by "clear and convincing evidence." The decision sets at naught the statutory scheme we once described as a "highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings," Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U. S. 320, 333, n. 7 (1997). I respectfully dissent.
* Wiggins claims that his death sentence violates Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984), because his trial attorneys, had they further investigated his background, would have learned—and could have presented to the jury—the following evidence: (1) According to family members, Wiggins' mother was an alcoholic who neglected her children and failed to feed them properly, App. to Pet. for Cert. 165a-169a; (2) according to Wiggins and his sister India, Wiggins' mother intentionally burned 5-year-old Wiggins' hands on a kitchen stove as punishment for playing with matches, id., at 169a-171a; (3) Wiggins was placed in foster care at age six because of his mother's neglect, and was moved in and out of various foster families, id., at 173a-192a; (4) according to Wiggins, one of his foster parents sexually abused him "`two or three times a week, sometimes everyday,'" when he was eight years old, id., at 177a-179a; (5) according to Wiggins, at age 16 he was knocked unconscious and raped by two of his foster mother's teenage children, id., at 190a; (6) according to Wiggins, when he joined the Job Corps at age 18 a Job Corps administrator "made sexual advances . . . and they became sexually involved," id., at 192a-193a (later, according to Wiggins, the Job Corps supervisor drugged him and when Wiggins woke up, he "knew he had been anally penetrated," id., at 193a); and (7) Wiggins is "`borderline'" mentally retarded, id., at 193a-194a. All this information is contained in a "social history" report prepared by social worker Hans Selvog for use in the state postconviction proceedings.
In those proceedings, Carl Schlaich (one of Wiggins' two trial attorneys) testified that, although he did not retain a social worker to assemble a "social history" report, he nevertheless had detailed knowledge of Wiggins' background:
"`Q But you knew that Mr. Wiggins, Kevin Wiggins, had been removed from his natural mother as a result of a finding of neglect and abuse when he was six years old, is that correct?
"`A I believe that we tracked all of that down.
"`Q You got the Social Service records?
"`A That is what I recall.
"`Q That was in the Social Service records?
"`A Yes.
"`Q So you knew that?
"`Q You also knew that where [sic] were reports of sexual abuse at one of his foster homes?
"`Q Okay. You also knew that he had had his hands burned as a child as a result of his mother's abuse of him?
"`Q You also knew about homosexual overtures made toward him by his Job Corp supervisor?
"`Q And you also knew that he was borderline mentally retarded?
"`Q You knew all—
"`A At least I knew that as it was reported in other people's reports, yes.
"`Q But you knew it?
"`A Yes.'" App. 490-491.
In light of this testimony, the Maryland Court of Appeals found that "counsel did investigate and were aware of [Wiggins'] background," Wiggins v. State, 352 Md. 580, 610, 724 A. 2d, 1, 16 (1999) (emphasis in original), and, specifically, that "[c]ounsel were aware that [Wiggins] had a most unfortunate childhood," id., at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15. These state-court determinations of factual issues are binding on federal habeas courts, including this Court, unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence.1 Relying on these factual findings, the Maryland Court of Appeals rejected Wiggins' claim that his trial attorneys failed adequately to investigate potential mitigating evidence. Wiggins' trial counsel, it said, "did not have as detailed or graphic a history as was prepared by Mr. Selvog, but that is not a Constitutional deficiency. See Gilliam v. State, 331 Md. 651, 680-82, 629 A. 2d 685, 700-02 (1993), cert. denied, 510 U. S. 1077 . . . (1994); Burger v. Kemp, 483 U. S. 776, 788-96 . . . (1987)." Id., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16.
The state court having adjudicated Wiggins' Sixth Amendment claim on the merits, 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d) bars habeas relief unless the state-court decision "was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," § 2254(d)(1), or "was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding," § 2254(d)(2). The Court concludes without foundation that the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision failed both these tests. I shall discuss each in turn.
* In concluding that the Maryland Court of Appeals unreasonably applied our clearly established precedents, the Court disregards § 2254(d)(1)'s command that only "clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," be used in assessing the reasonableness of state-court decisions. Further, the Court misdescribes the state court's opinion while ignoring § 2254(e)(1)'s requirement that federal habeas courts respect state-court factual determinations.
* We have defined "clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," to encompass "the holdings . . . of this Court's decisions as of the time of the relevant state-court decision." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 412 (2000) (emphasis added). Yet in discussing what our precedents have "clearly established" with respect to ineffectiveness claims, the Court relies upon a case—Williams v. Taylor, supra—that postdates the Maryland court's decision rejecting Wiggins' Sixth Amendment claim. See ante, at 522. The Court concedes that Williams was not "clearly established Federal law" at the time of the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision, ante, at 522, yet believes that it may ignore § 2254(d)'s strictures on the ground that "Williams' case was before us on habeas review[, and] we therefore made no new law in resolving [his] ineffectiveness claim," ibid. The Court is wrong—in both its premise and its conclusion.
Although Williams was a habeas case, we reviewed the first prong of the habeas petitioner's Strickland claim— the inadequate-performance question—de novo. Williams had surmounted § 2254(d)'s bar to habeas relief because we held that the Virginia Supreme Court's analysis with respect to Strickland's second prong—the prejudice prong—was both "contrary to," and "an unreasonable application of," our clearly established precedents. See Williams, supra, at 393-394, 397. That left us free to provide habeas relief— and since the State had not raised a Teague defense, see Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989), we proceeded to analyze the inadequate-performance contention de novo, rather than under "clearly established" law. That is clear from the fact that we cited no cases in our discussion of the inadequate-performance question, see 529 U. S., at 395-396. The Court is mistaken to assert that this discussion "made no new law," ante, at 522. There was nothing in Strickland, or in any of our "clearly established" precedents at the time of the Virginia Supreme Court's decision, to support Williams' statement that trial counsel had an "obligation to conduct a thorough investigation of the defendant's background," 529 U. S., at 396. That is why the citation supporting the statement is not one of our opinions, but rather standards promulgated by the American Bar Association, ibid. (citing 1 ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 4-4.1, commentary, p. 4-55 (2d ed. 1980)). Insofar as this Court's cases were concerned, Burger v. Kemp, 483 U. S. 776, 794 (1987), had rejected an ineffective-assistance claim even though acknowledging that trial counsel "could well have made a more thorough investigation than he did." And Strickland had eschewed the imposition of such "rules" on counsel, 466 U. S., at 688-689, specifically stating that the very ABA standards upon which Williams later relied "are guides to determining what is reasonable, but they are only guides." 466 U. S., at 688 (emphasis added). Williams did make new law—law that was not "clearly established" at the time of the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision.
But even if the Court were correct in its characterization of Williams, that still cannot justify its decision to ignore an Act of Congress. Whether Williams "made new law" or not, what Williams held was not clearly established Supreme Court precedent as of the time of the state court's decision, and cannot be used to find fault in the state-court opinion. Section 2254(d)(1) means what it says, and the Court simply defies the congressionally imposed limits on federal habeas review.
The Court concludes that Strickland was applied unreasonably (and § 2254(d)(1) thereby satisfied) because the Maryland Court of Appeals' conclusion that trial counsel adequately investigated Wiggins' background, see Wiggins, 352 Md., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16, was unreasonable. That assessment cannot possibly be sustained, particularly in light of the state court's factual determinations that bind this Court under § 2254(e)(1). The Court's analysis of this point rests upon a fundamental fallacy: that the state court "clearly assumed that counsel's investigation began and ended with the PSI and the DSS records," ante, at 529. That is demonstrably not so. The state court did observe that Wiggins' trial attorneys "had available" the presentence investigation (PSI) report and the Maryland Department of Social Services (DSS) reports, Wiggins, supra, at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15-16, but there is absolutely nothing in the state-court opinion that says (or assumes) that these were the only sources on which counsel relied. It is rather this Court that makes such an assumption—or rather, such a bald assertion, see ante, at 527 (asserting that counsel "cease[d] all investigation" upon receipt of the PSI and DSS reports); ante, at 524 (referring to "[c]ounsel's decision not to expand their investigation beyond the PSI and DSS records").
Nor could the Maryland Court of Appeals have "assumed" that Wiggins' trial counsel looked no further than the PSI and DSS reports, because the state-court record is clear that Wiggins' trial attorneys had investigated well beyond these sources. Public-defender investigators interviewed Wiggins' family members, see Defendant's Supplemental Answer to State's Discovery Request filed in No. 88-CR-5464 (Cir. Ct. Baltimore Cty., Md., Sept. 18, 1989), Lodging of Respondents, and Wiggins' trial attorneys hired a psychologist, Dr. William Stejskal (who reviewed the DSS records, conducted clinical interviews, and performed six different psychological tests of Wiggins, ibid.; App. 349-351), and a criminologist, Dr. Robert Johnson (who interviewed Wiggins and testified that Wiggins would adjust adequately to life in prison, id., at 319-321). Schlaich also testified in the state postconviction proceedings that he knew information about Wiggins' background that was not contained in the DSS or PSI reports—such as the allegation that Wiggins' mother burned his hands as a child, id., at 490—so Schlaich must have investigated sources beyond these reports.
As the Court notes, ante, at 529-530, the Maryland Court of Appeals did not expressly state that counsel's investigation extended beyond the PSI and DSS records. There was no reason whatever to do so, since it had found that "counsel did investigate and were aware of appellant's background," Wiggins, supra, at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16, and since that finding was based on a state-court record that clearly demonstrates investigation beyond the PSI and DSS reports. The court's failure to recite what is obvious from the record surely provides no basis for believing that it stupidly "assumed" the opposite of what is obvious from the record.
Once one eliminates the Court's mischaracterization of the state-court opinion—which did not and could not have "assumed" that Wiggins' counsel knew only what was contained in the DSS and PSI reports—there is no basis for finding it "unreasonable" to believe that counsel's investigation was adequate. As noted earlier, Schlaich testified in the state postconviction proceedings that he was aware of the essential items contained in the later-prepared "social history" report. He knew that Wiggins was subjected to neglect and abuse from his mother, App. 490, that there were reports of sexual abuse at one of his foster homes, ibid., that his mother had burned his hands as a child, ibid., that a Job Corps supervisor had made homosexual overtures toward him, id., at 490-491, and that Wiggins was "`borderline'" mentally retarded, id., at 491.2 Schlaich explained that, although he was aware of all this potential mitigating evidence, he chose not to present it to the jury for a strategic reason—namely, that it would conflict with his efforts to persuade the jury that Wiggins was not a "`principal'" in Mrs. Lacs's murder (i. e., that he did not kill Lacs by his own hand). Id., at 504-505.
There are only two possible responses to this testimony that might salvage Wiggins' ineffective-assistance claim. The first would be to declare that Schlaich had an inescapable duty to hire a social worker to construct a so-called "social history" report, regardless of Schlaich's pre-existing knowledge of Wiggins' background. Petitioner makes this suggestion, see Brief for Petitioner 32, n. 8 (asserting that it was "`a normative standard'" at the time of Wiggins' case for capital defense lawyers in Maryland to obtain a social history); and the Court flirts with accepting it, see ante, at 524 ("[P]rofessional standards that prevailed in Maryland . . . at the time of Wiggins' trial" included, for defense of capital cases, "the preparation of a social history report"); ibid. (citing ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases 11.8.6, p. 133 (1989) (hereinafter ABA Guidelines), which says that counsel should make efforts "`to discover all reasonably available mitigating evidence'" (emphasis added by the Court)). To think that the requirement of a "social history" was part of "clearly established Federal law" (which is what § 2254(d) requires) when the events here occurred would be absurd. Nothing in our clearly established precedents requires counsel to retain a social worker when he is already largely aware of his client's background. To the contrary, Strickland emphasizes that "[t]here are countless ways to provide effective assistance in any given case," 466 U. S., at 689, and further states that "[p]revailing norms of practice as reflected in American Bar Association standards and the like . . . are guides to determining what is reasonable, but they are only guides," id., at 688. Cf. ante, at 524 (treating the ABA Guidelines as "well-defined norms"). It is inconceivable that Schlaich, assuming he testified truthfully regarding his detailed knowledge of Wiggins' troubled childhood, App. 490-491, would need to hire a social worker to comport with Strickland's competence standards. And it certainly would not have been unreasonable for the Maryland Court of Appeals to conclude otherwise.
The second possible response to Schlaich's testimony about his extensive awareness of Wiggins' background is to assert that Schlaich lied. The Court assumes sub silentio throughout its opinion that Schlaich was not telling the truth when he testified that he knew of reports of sexual abuse in one of Wiggins' foster homes, see, e. g., ante, at 525 ("Had counsel investigated further, they might well have discovered the sexual abuse later revealed during state postconviction proceedings"), and eventually declares straight-out that it disbelieves Schlaich, ante, at 531-533. This conclusion rests upon a blatant mischaracterization of the record, and an improper shifting of the burden of proof to the State to demonstrate Schlaich's awareness of Wiggins' background, rather than requiring Wiggins to prove Schlaich's ignorance of it. But, more importantly, it is simply not enough for the Court to conclude, ante, at 533, that it "cannot infer from Schlaich's postconviction testimony that counsel looked further than the PSI and DSS reports in investigating petitioner's background." If it is at least reasonable to believe Schlaich told the truth, then it could not have been unreasonable for the Maryland Court of Appeals to conclude that Wiggins' trial attorneys conducted an adequate investigation into his background. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1).
Schlaich's testimony must have been false, the Court insists, because the social services records do not contain any evidence of sexual abuse, and "the questions put to Schlaich during his postconviction testimony all referred to what he knew from the social services records." Ante, at 531. That is not true. Schlaich was never asked "what he knew from the social services records." With regard to the alleged sexual abuse in particular, Schlaich answered "`[y]es'" to the following question: "`You also knew that where [sic] were reports of sexual abuse at one of his foster homes?' " This question did not "refe[r] to what [Schlaich] knew from the social services records," as the Court declares; and neither, by the way, did any of the other questions put to Schlaich regarding his knowledge of Wiggins' background. See App. 490-491. Wiggins' postconviction counsel simply never asked Schlaich to reveal the source of his knowledge.
Schlaich's most likely source of knowledge of the alleged sexual abuse was Wiggins himself; even Hans Selvog's extensive "social history" report unearthed no documentation or corroborating witnesses with respect to that claim. Id., at 464; see App. to Pet. for Cert. 177a, 193a. The Court, however, dismisses this possibility for two reasons. First, because "the record contains no evidence that counsel ever pursued this line of questioning with Wiggins." Ante, at 532. This statement calls for a timeout to get our bearings: The burden of proof here is on Wiggins to show that counsel made their decision without adequate knowledge. See Strickland, 466 U. S., at 687. And when counsel has testified, under oath, that he did have particular knowledge, the burden is not on counsel to show how he obtained it, but on Wiggins (if he wishes to impeach that testimony) to show that counsel could not have obtained it. Thus, the absence of evidence in the record as to whether or not Schlaich pursued this line of questioning with Wiggins dooms, rather than fortifies, Wiggins' ineffective-assistance claim. Wiggins has produced no evidence that anything in Hans Selvog's "social history" report was unknown to Schlaich, and no evidence that any source on which Selvog relied was not used by Schlaich.
The Court's second reason for rejecting the possibility that Schlaich learned of the alleged sexual abuse from Wiggins is even more incomprehensible. The Court claims that "the phrase `other people's reports' [would] have been an unusual way for counsel to refer to conversations with his client." Ante, at 532. But Schlaich never used the phrase "other people's reports" in describing how he learned of the alleged sexual abuse in Wiggins' foster homes. Schlaich testified only that he learned of Wiggins' borderline mental retardation as it was reported in "`other people's reports'":
"`A Yes.'" App. 490-491 (emphasis added).
It is clear that when Schlaich said, "`At least I knew that as it was reported in other people's reports,'" id., at 491 (emphasis added), the "`that'" to which he referred was the fact that Wiggins was borderline mentally retarded—not the other details of Wiggins' background which Schlaich had previously testified he knew.
The Court's final reason for disbelieving Schlaich's sworn testimony is his failure to mention the alleged sexual abuse in the proffer of mitigating evidence he would introduce if the trial court granted his motion to bifurcate. "Counsel's failure to include in the proffer the powerful evidence of repeated sexual abuse is . . . explicable only if we assume that counsel had no knowledge of the abuse." Ante, at 533. But because the only evidence of sexual abuse consisted of Wiggins' own assertions, see App. 464; App. to Pet. for Cert. 177a, 193a (evidence not exactly worthy of the Court's flattering description as "powerful"), there was nothing to proffer unless Schlaich declared an intent to put Wiggins on the stand. Given counsel's chosen trial strategy to prevent Wiggins from testifying during the sentencing proceedings, the decision not to mention sexual abuse in the proffer is perfectly consistent with counsel's claimed knowledge of the alleged abuse.
Of course these reasons the Court offers—which range from the incredible up to the feeble—are used only in support of the Court's conclusion that, in its independent judgment, Schlaich was lying. The Court does not even attempt to establish (as it must) that it was objectively unreasonable for the state court to believe Schlaich's testimony and therefore conclude that he conducted an adequate investigation of Wiggins' background. It could not possibly make this showing. Wiggins has not produced any direct evidence that his attorneys were uninformed with respect to anything in his background, and the Court can muster no circumstantial evidence beyond the powerfully unconvincing fact that Schlaich failed to mention the allegations of sexual abuse in his proffer. To make things worse, the Court is still bound (though one would not know it from the opinion) by the state court's factual determinations that Wiggins' trial counsel "did investigate and were aware of [Wiggins'] background," Wiggins, 352 Md., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16 (emphasis in original), and that "[c]ounsel were aware that [Wiggins] had a most unfortunate childhood," id., at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254(e)(1).3 Because it is at least reasonable to believe Schlaich's testimony, and because § 2254(e)(1) requires us to respect the state court's factual determination that Wiggins' trial attorneys were aware of Wiggins' background, the Maryland Court of Appeals' legal conclusion—that trial counsel "did not have as detailed or graphic a history as was prepared by Mr. Selvog, but that is not a Constitutional deficiency," Wiggins, supra, at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16 (emphasis added)—is unassailable under § 2254(d)(1).
The Court holds in the alternative that Wiggins has satisfied § 2254(d)(2), which allows a habeas petitioner to escape § 2254(d)'s bar to relief when the state court's adjudication of his claim "resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding." (Emphasis added.) This is so, the Court says, because the Maryland Court of Appeals wrongly claimed that Wiggins' social services records "recorded incidences of . . . sexual abuse." 352 Md., at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15.
That it made that claim is true enough. And I will concede that Wiggins has rebutted the presumption of correctness by the "clear and convincing evidence" that § 2254(e)(1) requires. It is both clear and convincing from reading the DSS records that they contain no evidence of sexual abuse. I will also assume, arguendo, that the state court's error was "unreasonable" in light of the evidence presented in the state-court proceeding.
Given all that, the Court's conclusion that a § 2254(d)(2) case has been made out still suffers from the irreparable defect that the Maryland Court of Appeals' decision was not "based on" this mistaken factual determination. What difference did it make whether the social services records contained evidence of sexual abuse? Even if they did not, the court's decision would have been the same in light of Schlaich's sworn testimony that he was aware of the alleged sexual abuse. The source of Schlaich's knowledge—whether he obtained it from the DSS reports or from Wiggins himself —was of no consequence. The only thing that mattered was that Schlaich knew, and testified under oath that he knew, enough about Wiggins' background to make it reasonable to proceed without a report by a social worker. The Court's opinion does not even discuss this requirement of § 2254(d)(2), that the unreasonable determination of facts be one on which the state-court decision was based.
The Court's indefensible holding that Wiggins has avoided § 2254(d)'s bar to relief is not alone enough to entitle Wiggins to habeas relief on his Sixth Amendment claim. Wiggins still must establish that he was "prejudiced" by his counsel's alleged "error." Strickland, 466 U. S., at 691-696. Specifically, Wiggins must demonstrate that, if his trial attorneys had retained a licensed social worker to assemble a "social history" of their client, there is a "reasonable probability" that (1) his attorneys would have chosen to present the social history evidence to the jury, and (2) upon hearing that evidence, the jury would have spared his life. The Court's analysis on these points continues its disregard for the record in a determined procession toward a seemingly preordained result.
There is no "reasonable probability" that a social-history investigation would have altered the chosen strategy of Wiggins' trial counsel. As noted earlier, Schlaich was well aware—without the benefit of a "social history" report—that Wiggins had a troubled childhood and background. And the Court remains bound, even after concluding that Wiggins has satisfied the standards of §§ 2254(d)(1) and (d)(2), by the state court's factual determination that Wiggins' trial attorneys "were aware of [Wiggins'] background," Wiggins, 352 Md., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16 (emphasis in original), and "were aware that [Wiggins] had a most unfortunate childhood," id., at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254(e)(1). Wiggins' trial attorneys chose, however, not to present evidence of Wiggins' background to the jury because of their "deliberate, tactical decision to concentrate their effort at convincing the jury that appellant was not a principal in the killing of Ms. Lacs." Wiggins, supra, at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15.
Wiggins has not shown that the incremental information in Hans Selvog's social-history report would have induced counsel to change this course. Schlaich testified under oath that presenting the type of evidence in Selvog's report would have conflicted with his chosen defense strategy to raise doubts as to Wiggins' role as a principal, and that he wanted to avoid a "shotgun approach" with the jury. App. 504-505.4 (This testimony is entirely unrefuted by the Court's statement that at the time of trial counsel "were not in a position to make a reasonable strategic choice," because of their alleged inadequate investigation, ante, at 536. Schlaich presented this testimony in state postconviction proceedings, when there was no doubt he was fully aware of the details of Wiggins' background. See App. 490-491.) It is irrelevant whether a hypothetical "reasonable attorney" might have introduced evidence of alleged sexual abuse, ante, at 535-536; Wiggins' attorneys would not have done so, and therefore Wiggins was not prejudiced by their allegedly inadequate investigation. There is simply nothing to show (and the Court does not even dare to assert) that there is a "reasonable probability" this evidence would have been introduced in this case. Ante, at 535-536.
What is more, almost all of Selvog's social-history evidence was inadmissible at the time of Wiggins' trial. Maryland law provides that evidence in a capital sentencing proceeding must be "reliable" to be admissible, see Whittlesey v. State, 340 Md. 30, 70, 665 A. 2d 223, 243 (1995), and many of the anecdotes regarding Wiggins' childhood consist of the baldest hearsay—statements that have been neither taken in court, nor given under oath, nor subjected to cross-examination, nor even submitted in the form of a signed affidavit. Consider, for example, the allegation that Wiggins' foster father sexually abused him "`two or three times a week, sometimes everyday,'" App. to Pet. for Cert. 177a. The only source of that information was Wiggins himself, in his unsworn and un-cross-examined interview with Hans Selvog. There is absolutely no documentation or corroboration of the claim, App. 464, and the allegedly abusive foster parent is apparently deceased, id., at 470. Wiggins was, however, examined by a pediatrician during the time that this supposed biweekly or daily sexual abuse occurred, and the pediatrician's report mentioned no signs of sexual abuse. App. to Pet. for Cert. 181a; App. 464.
Much of the other "evidence" in Selvog's report (including Wiggins' claim that he was drugged by his Job Corps supervisor and raped while unconscious, and that he was raped by the teenage sons at his fourth foster home) was also undocumented and based entirely on Wiggins' say-so. The Court treats all this uncorroborated gossip as established fact,5 ante, at 534-535—indeed, even refers to it as "powerful" evidence, ante, at 534—and assumes that Wiggins' lawyers could have simply handed Hans Selvog's report to the jury. Nothing could be further from the truth. As the State Circuit Court explained in rejecting Wiggins' Sixth Amendment claim, "Selvog's report would have had a great deal of difficulty in getting into evidence in Maryland. He was not licensed in Maryland, the report contains multiple instances of hearsay, it contains many opinions in the nature of diagnosis of a medical nature." App. to Pet. for Cert. 156a.
The Court contends that Selvog's report "may have been admissible," ante, at 536—relying for that contention upon Whittlesey v. State, supra. Whittlesey, however, merely vacated the trial judge's decision that a social-history report assembled by Selvog was per se inadmissible on hearsay grounds and remanded for a determination whether the hearsay evidence was "reliable." Id., at 71-72, 665 A. 2d, at 243. Thus, unless the Court is prepared to make the implausible contention that Wiggins' hearsay statements in Selvog's report are "reliable" under Maryland law, there is no basis for its conclusion that Maryland "consider[s] this type of evidence relevant at sentencing," ante, at 537. The State Circuit Court in the present case, in its decision that post-dated Whittlesey, certainly did not think Selvog's report met the standard of reliability, App. to Pet. for Cert. 156a, and that court's assessment was undoubtedly correct. Wiggins' accounts of his background, as reported by Selvog, are the hearsay statements of a convicted murderer and, as the trial testimony in this case demonstrates, a serial liar. Wiggins lied to Geraldine Armstrong when he told her that Mrs. Lacs's car belongs to "`a buddy of min[e],'" App. 179. He lied when he told the police that he had obtained Mrs. Lacs's car and credit cards on Friday in the afternoon, rather than Thursday, id., at 180. He lied to Armstrong about how he obtained Mrs. Lacs's ring, ibid. And, knowing that the information he provided to Selvog would be used to attack his death sentence, Wiggins had every incentive to lie again about the supposed abuse he suffered. The hearsay statements in Selvog's report pertaining to the alleged sexual abuse were of especially dubious reliability; Maryland courts have consistently refused to allow hearsay evidence regarding alleged sexual abuse, except for statements provided by the victim to a treating physician. See Bohnert v. State, 312 Md. 266, 276, 539 A. 2d 657, 662 (1988) (refusing to admit into evidence a social worker's opinion, based on a child's "unsubstantiated averments," that the child had been sexually abused); Nixon v. State, 140 Md. App. 170, 178-188, 780 A. 2d 344, 349-354 (2001) (child protective services agent's testimony that retarded teenager told agent she had been sexually abused was inadmissible hearsay); Low v. State, 119 Md. App. 413, 424-426, 705 A. 2d 67, 73-74 (1998) (refusing to admit into evidence examining physician's testimony regarding a child's statements of sexual abuse).
Given that the anecdotes in Selvog's report were unreliable, and therefore inadmissible, the only way Wiggins' trial attorneys could have presented these allegations to the jury would have been to place Wiggins on the witness stand. Wiggins has not established (and the Court does not assert) any "reasonable probability" that they would have done this, given the dangers they saw in exposing their client to cross-examination over a wide range of issues. See App. 353 (Wiggins' trial attorneys advising him in open court: "`Kevin, if you do take the witness stand, you must answer any question that's asked of you. If it is a question the judge rules is a permissible question, you would have to answer'"). Their perception of those dangers must surely have been heightened by their observation of Wiggins' volatile and obnoxious behavior throughout the trial. See, e. g., id., at 32 (Wiggins interrupting the judge's statement of the verdict to say: "`He can't tell me I did it. I'm going to go out. . . . I didn't do it. He can't tell me I did it'"); id., at 56 (Wiggins interrupting the prosecutor's opening argument to say: "`I'm not going to take that because I didn't kill that lady. I'm not going to sit there and take that'").
But even indulging, for the sake of argument, the Court's belief that Selvog's report "may" have been admissible, ante, at 536, the Court's prejudice discussion simply assumes without analysis that the sentencing jury would have believed the report's hearsay accounts of Wiggins' statements. Ante, at 536-537. Yet that same jury would have learned during the guilt phase of the trial that Wiggins is a proven liar, see App. 179-180, and Wiggins would not have aided his credibility with the jury by avoiding the witness stand and funneling his story through a social worker. I doubt very much that Wiggins' jury would have shared the Court's uncritical and wholesale acceptance of these hearsay claims.
Today's decision is extraordinary—even for our "`death-is-different'" jurisprudence. See Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154, 185 (1994) (Scalia, J., dissenting). It fails to give effect to § 2254(e)(1)'s requirement that state-court factual determinations be presumed correct, and disbelieves the sworn testimony of a member of the bar while treating hearsay accounts of statements of a convicted murderer as established fact. I dissent.
Title 28 U. S. C. § 2254(e)(1) provides:
"In a proceeding instituted by an application for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court, a determination of a factual issue made by a State court shall be presumed to be correct. The applicant shall have the burden of rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence."
The only incident contained in the "social history" report about which Schlaich did not confirm knowledge was the occurrence of sexual abuse inmore than one of Wiggins' foster homes. And that knowledge remained unconfirmed only because the question posed asked him whether he knew of reports of abuse at "`one'" of the foster homes. App. 490. The record does not show that Schlaich knew of all these incidents in the degree of detail contained in the "social history" report—but it does not show that he did not, either. In short, given Schlaich's testimony, there is no basis for finding that he was without knowledge of anything in the "social history" report.
The Court defends its refusal to adhere to these state-court factual determinations on the ground that "the Maryland Court of Appeals' conclusion that thescope of counsel's investigation . . . met the legal standards set forth in Strickland represented an objectively unreasonable application of our precedent." Ante, at 528-529. That is an inadequate response, for several reasons. First, because in the very course of determining what was the scope of counsel's investigation, the Court was bound to accept (as it did not) the Maryland Court of Appeals' factual findings that counsel knew of Wiggins' background, including his "most unfortunate childhood." And it is an inadequate response, secondly, because even after the Court concludes that the petitioner has avoided § 2254(d)'s bar to relief because of that misapplication of Strickland (or because of the alleged mistaken factual assumption "that counsel learned of . .. sexual abuse.. . from the DSS records," ante, at 529), it still must observe § 2254(e)(1)'s presumption of correctness in deciding the merits of the habeas question. See Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U. S. 322, 341, 348 (2003).
Introducing evidence that Wiggins suffered semiweekly (or perhaps daily) sexual abuse as a child, for example, could have led the jury to conclude that this horrible experience made Wiggins precisely the type of person who could perpetrate this bizarre crime—in which a 77-year-old woman was found drowned in the bathtub of her apartment, clothed but missing her underwear, and sprayed with Black Flag Ant and Roach Killer
Wiggins' postconviction lawyers could have increased the credibility of these anecdotes, and assisted this Court's prejudice determination, by at least having Wiggins testify under oath in the state postconviction proceedings as to his allegedly abusive childhood. They did not do that— perhaps anticipating, correctly alas, that they could succeed in getting this Court to vacate a jury verdict of death on the basis of rumor and innuendo in a "social history" report that would never be admissible in a court of law
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The Potential for Non-traumagenic Systems to be Diagnosed with DID/OSDD
A discussion of what it is like living as an endogenic system while having DID, from a community standpoint, and exploration of the perception that only traumagenic systems can be diagnosed with DID/OSDD.
Welcome to the second year of the Plural Positivity World Conference. We’re the Lunastus Collective (aka TLC), formerly known as the Trashcan Collective. We’re so honored to be back again to talk to you all about the importance of an inclusive community.
At last year’s conference, we wrote about how endogenic and traumagenic— as terms indicating how a system formed— came to be, and our journey as a system. We wrote about community history, how that and our experiences led us to the proposal of those terms, and the importance of community solidarity. Today, we come to you with an update of our journey, but the message remains the same— that unity in the plural community was, is, and always will be vital, especially if we ever hope to reach wider acceptance.
Just as a refresher, let’s go over what it means to be endogenic or traumagenic, and explain some of the newer terminology that evolved after the 2019 plural conference.
The terms traumagenic and endogenic, which are now often used to try and divide the community into “fake” and “real” systems, were never meant to be used as such. We proposed them, and a few other terms, back in mid 2014 just as a way for people to move away from medicalized terms, to help phase out the term “natural system”, and give non-medicalized systems words they could use to better describe their experiences.
Endogenic simply means, a system not formed from trauma or other negative life experiences. It doesn’t mean they never experienced trauma, just that it isn’t what formed them. It doesn’t mean “healthy” or “non-disordered”. Endogenic systems can and sometimes do experience amnesia, dissociation, distress, and dysfunction. There are quite a few hypotheses out there for how endogenic systems form, but in the end, we just don’t know how the brain works in regards to plurality. It could be psychologically, physiological, spiritual, who knows. The point is, endogenic systems exist and are a completely valid expression of plurality.
Traumagenic means a system that formed from trauma or other negative life experiences. That’s it, full stop. There are no criteria besides that, there are no age limits. If it happened at five, twenty five, or fifty five, that’s all acceptable and valid. Traumagenic is not a synonym for “DID system” or “OSDD system”; DID and OSDD are medicalized terms for how a system functions, or doesn’t function, not terms for how the system itself formed. There are traumagenic systems that do not have DID or OSDD, and just as there are endogenic systems that do experience amnesia and distress, there are traumagenic systems that do not.
There are other terms used within in the plural community-- parogenic, protogenic, and quoiogenic are other "-genic" origin labels. Emmengard and some of their friends proposed five terms as well, as more inclusive alternatives. In April of 2019, we corresponded with Emmengard to help promote those terms:
Adaptive, meaning systems formed through negative life experiences, becoming plural in order to adapt and survive. It replaces traumagenic, which has fallen out of favor for a few reasons, including that it places too much emphasis on trauma. Spontaneous, meaning systems formed on their own without any known traumatic event to cause it. Created, meaning systems intentionally or unintentionally created-- this can include tulpas, soulbonds, characters that take on a life of their own, etc. Unknown, meaning systems who don't know their origins. Mixed, meaning a system that may have more than one origin, complex origins, or system members with various origins.
We worked with Emmengard to create a new version of the interlocking ring symbol, which is a popular symbol for the plural community, with a ring and a color dedicated to each system origin. Yellow for unknown systems, green for adaptive systems, blue for spontaneous systems, and red for created systems. The middle, a swirl of all four colors, represented mixed systems. Seeing as how the rainbow is also a vivid symbol of pride within the queer community, it felt right.
As Emmengard wrote when they announced the new terms, and the symbol design:
"Wouldn't it be nice if new systems were greeted gently and told not to worry, they were already a part of our symbol, a part of our flag, a part of our community, by default? Wouldn't it be nice if they were told that it is simply okay to not know, and if they change how they identified later it was okay too? Wouldn't it be nice to give them that moment to allow their own system, their own truth, to unfold to them in its own time?"
We supported, and still fully support, this message. It's good and right to acknowledge the pitfalls of terminology, especially as time goes on and the community evolves. It's important to lift up the concept of community solidarity, and encourage inclusiveness through improved terminology. Now more than ever, all marginalized communities, including the plural community, need to stand strong together in demanding acceptance, accurate representation, and improved standards of care for our most vulnerable members. This often starts with the language we use for ourselves and each other, and making sure that our community embraces diversity in our experiences. This includes systems that may have origins outside of trauma, systems who are unsure of their origins, and systems who's understanding of their existence changes over time.
Our journey falls into the latter category, though at the time of the first conference, we had no idea that would be the case.
The first plural conference took place in March 2019, and we identified as endogenic. We’d been plural since our first memories, before any memorable trauma, and our secondary original was firm that she had been here with our primary original since birth; it's what made sense to us. Although we had been told by a therapist a couple years prior that we had DID, we rejected the idea for quite some time. We had been taught that having DID meant that your system as a whole must be adaptive, and that was how it had been since the late 90s and early 2000s. The popular 1980s and early 1990s image of DID was a weak, tormented cisgender woman who had been abused until her psyche had shattered; she was ignorant of her "multiple personalities" and the chaos they were inflicting on her life. That didn't jive with who we were, and are.
There was a push for "empowered multiplicity" at the time we first entered the community in the late 90s. It hadn't been that long since plurality had been considered "hysterical neurosis" (up to 1980) and the first monographs on DID (known then as MPD) had only started appearing in 1986. "Interpersonality amnesia" had been removed in 1987. The DSM-4 had changed criteria yet again in 1994, and MPD was renamed DID. The movies Primal Fear (1996) and Fight Club (1999) were still fresh in the public eye, with the movie Identity (2003) lurking in the near future. It was a scary, tumultuous time. The online communities were fairly new, small; a lot of it was limited to webrings, newsgroups, IRC chatrooms, personal webpages, and text-based forums like Yahoo Groups. A lot of systems were tired of being called fake, "hysterical", brainwashed, or having to be at the mercy of psychologists who often insisted on "putting them back together again". (By force, if necessary.) Empowered multiplicity arose from a desire to shrug off the idea that systems needed a diagnosis to be plural, and a desire to prove that plurality didn't have to be disordered or a nightmare. Integration was often regarded with discomfort, and the concepts of cooperation and improved communication were held as superior options.
The movement welcomed non-adaptive systems, median systems (often called "midcontinuum" back then), systems with spiritual explanations for their systems, and soulbonders. Even though we weren't quite ready to admit we were plural at the time, it was still a lovely and mostly-welcoming community. But even as systems rejected medicalization and railed against dangerous stereotypes, it was still a common assumption that DID/OSDD was caused by trauma, so that meant the system with DID/OSDD must also be caused by trauma.
Now, as a disclaimer, in case we weren't clear already-- we don't believe that you need trauma to be plural. We don't think you need a diagnosis to be plural. We don't think adaptive systems need to have a diagnosis or even be disordered to be adaptive. The choice to seek a DID/OSDD diagnosis or not is entirely up to each individual system, based on their experiences and any troubles they may be having. The ability to be diagnosed professionally is also a privilege that not everyone can afford; we were lucky to be in therapy already when we were diagnosed.
We don't blame the systems we met back in those days for the fact that DID and OSDD were (and still are) considered synonymous with adaptive plurality. It seems natural to assume that the trauma that caused DID/OSDD would be the same trauma that caused the system. And at the time, for us, what did it matter? DID and OSDD aren't required to be plural. Plurality doesn't have to be disordered, and although we did have some problems, endogenic systems sometimes do. Still, it was something that gnawed at us. For us, personally, it was less about having a diagnosis and more about what having a diagnosis could mean, and how it related to our origin as a system.
On top of all that, the community that had cropped up between when we first discovered the community and when we got diagnosed was full of exclusionists insisting that in order to "really" have DID, you had to be this way or this way, that if you did that or that you were fake, and we couldn't handle it. We were already struggling to come to terms with being plural, the loss of our primary original in 2012, and the abuse we were still going through. The idea of trying to untangle a mess of a DID diagnosis and what it meant for us as a system was too much, especially with so many people insisting that systems with DID or OSDD fit into a very rigid box with strict rules, and a tendency to look down on-- if not outright harass-- anyone who didn't fit.
As we got more involved with the inclusive plural community around the time of the conference, we learned more about what the DSM-5 says, what it doesn't say, and various hypotheses surrounding how DID/OSDD works. We learned that the DSM-- besides being flawed in general-- doesn't demand trauma for a system to exist. Here are the diagnostic criteria for DID, according to the DSM-5:
A. Disruption of identity characterized by two or more distinct personality states, which may be described in some cultures as an experience of possession. The disruption of marked discontinuity in sense of self and sense of agency, accompanied by related alterations in affect, behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and/or sensory-motor functioning. These signs and symptoms may be observed by others or reported by the individual.
B. Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events that are inconsistent with ordinary forgetting.
C. The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
D. The disturbance is not a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice. Note: In children, the symptoms are not better explained by imaginary playmates or other fantasy play.
E. The symptoms are not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behavior during alcohol intoxication) or another medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures).
Essentially, the DSM-5 states that in order to qualify for a DID diagnosis-- without getting into the politics and gatekeeping around getting the diagnosis-- all that's required is plurality, some type of amnesia, and marked distress and/or dysfunction (but not necessarily both). It says nothing about what caused the plurality itself, it doesn't require system members not be aware of one another, and it actually allows for cultural and religious or spiritual plurality.
It is important to note that, stripped of the ongoing dialogue surrounding the disorder and hypotheses set aside, the criteria states exactly nowhere that the "personality states" must be caused by trauma. DID isn't defined by trauma, but by disorder and dysfunction. It is not a diagnostic label meant to indicate a system's origins, but a diagnostic label meant to declare that plurality is being experienced, and that the state of the system is disordered/dysfunctional. Much like how a car can be described as being in "fair condition", without saying where the car is from or how it was made, DID/OSDD describes the condition a system is in rather than how it came to exist to begin with.
With that in mind, it's easier to see how exclusive mindsets within the community can lead to confusion, as well as feelings of invalidation. If a system doesn't remember trauma causing their system, but they are disordered and need help, where are they to go? Is their suffering equally as valid as systems who do identify as adaptive? Do they deserve to be told that, because they weren't formed from trauma, that they haven't experienced trauma at all or don't belong in survivor spaces? And what of adaptive systems that don't experience disorder, and don't need nor want a diagnosis? Putting a professional diagnosis on a pedestal, and holding diagnostic manuals up to some golden standard of what plurality is or isn't, is troubling enough. Using them to attack other systems that don't fit is even worse. Using it to attack other systems, with wording and perimeters that aren't even part of the diagnostic criteria, is ridiculous.
Although a diagnosis, professional or self-given, isn't required to be part of the plural community, it's a fact that some systems find a benefit in it. Why? For validation reasons. To give a name to something they're struggling with. For health care reasons. To find community. To help explain what they are experiencing to other people. Regardless of why, a diagnosis can and sometimes does help disordered systems, and that shouldn't be taken from them because of overzealous, community-appointed rules that aren't even in the psychiatric "rulebook". For some it can be interesting to discuss and debate exactly how DID/OSDD works, but the criteria are what they are, outside of whatever the current hypothesis is.
This is especially vital for younger or newly awakened systems that are just finding their way to the plural community, often through the DID/OSDD side of things (as we did) because that is the form of plurality most visible and discussed in society. It is so important to not market DID/OSDD as the only form of plurality, both for very real non-adaptive and/or non-disordered systems, and for systems who may be adaptive and/or disordered but aren't ready to explore that yet.
We entered the plural community on Twitter December 2018 as an endogenic system who had faced trauma from-- we assumed at the time-- about five years old to the present, and had been rendered disordered because of it. We had a mostly spiritual stance regarding our plurality and how system members formed or arrived. We fought so hard against our DID diagnosis. Without the inclusive community, we never would have sat down and seriously taken another look at the literature available. The ability to relax, be ourselves, and explore our plurality without feeling forced to poke at trauma or label ourselves allowed us the time and freedom to get to a place-- mentally and emotionally-- where we could accept our DID diagnosis.
And what a revelation it felt like, too, to realize-- endogenic systems and other types of systems can also be diagnosed with DID/OSDD, or be disordered.
It wasn't a joyous realization. Contrary to what some exclusionists believe, no one *wants* to be disordered. It’s not some fun game, and systems of all origins know this. But it's infuriating to think that there are systems out there like us who need help, yet are too afraid to seek it because they've got it in their head that it's not possible, or that they'd be "stealing resources" from systems that "actually need it". It's baffling! Regardless of your system origins, or your beliefs on how your plurality works, if you're struggling and need help then you have every right to access it.
Similarly, it is sad to know that there are adaptive systems out there who, initially considering themselves endogenic, might pull away from adaptive spaces because they are told repeatedly-- sometimes violently-- that if they deviate in any sort of way from whatever the newest "standard" is that they aren't adaptive at best and should harm themselves at worst. Exclusionists often claim that endogenic systems keep adaptive systems from getting help, but remain silent on the fact that exclusionist attitudes silence large portions of the plural community, including adaptive and/or disordered systems that shy away after being told they don't belong.
Our journey could have easily taken that turn. Thankfully, we're 32 years old and have been around or directly in the community since the late 90s. We have our feet firmly under us, for the most part. Shortly after the 2019 conference, we embraced our DID diagnosis, though we still considered ourselves endogenic. Of course, there were a few folks who took issue with that. If we were younger, newer, less sure of ourselves, it could have done some serious harm to hear repeatedly that we were delusional, fake, spreading lies, etc. It helped that we had the more inclusive side of the plural community at our back; not only did systems there inspire us to accept the fact that we're disordered, they supported us and helped us when we came out with that fact. For every negative comment, there were more positive ones. We felt cared for, we felt uplifted, and we felt like we had the freedom to continue exploring our plurality without fear-- on our own time, without feeling anxious about having to reveal trauma that may or may not have been there.
The start of quarantine, early 2020, gave us time and space to focus more on what was happening in our head. We were stuck living with our abusive family, as we are disabled and had nowhere else to go. The abuse began to get worse again, since both of our abusers were around almost 24/7 for months on end. It made us remember more of our childhood, and reflect upon the timeline of our abuse; it also made us rethink the nature of our abusers in general. The end result, after doing some research and speaking with inclusive, accepting systems of all origins, was our system realizing that our trauma history began before we were even born. Studies have shown that a fetus exposed to stress, and to abuse happening outside the carrier's body, can be impacted negatively by it. While we'll never know for sure if that is absolutely where our system began, it does back up our primary and secondary originals who claimed they were born in the body together. That is something we still don't question. It is what it is, and we can't disprove it.
But the idea of it-- the fact that we're adaptive, not endogenic-- is something we're sure of now. We wish to reiterate that our journey is not the journey of any other system. Endogenic systems are real, and they matter. Not all endogenic systems will discover some pre-formation trauma. It is so, so important that the community doesn't take our story, and stories like ours, and use them to "prove" that endogenic systems are secretly adaptive. Even if that were somehow true, that journey is for each system to make on their own, and a belief in endogenic systems doesn't harm the plural community anyways. Systems have to come to their unique truth on their own time, without pressure or demands. And, for systems that have already arrived at their own truth, it is vital to leave room for things we-- as a society-- don't understand. Plurality is absolutely one of those things that isn't yet fully understood. It might never be.
We must resist the urge to rely too heavily on the models of plurality set up by psychiatry, and resist allowing those models to dictate how the plural community is shaped. While those models can be useful for some, they can also be used against systems. If we rely on doctors and therapists to define us, as a community, it opens us up to erasure and abuse. This isn't to say that therapy isn't useful, only that there is a major risk in allowing people outside the community to define those within it, especially if they are in positions of authority and power. If they decide tomorrow that plurality doesn't exist, and some already don't believe it exists, then what? If we defer to brain scans, while intriguing, what happens when those in charge declare "this brain isn't plural enough"? Or when they decide we're too dangerous, either to ourselves or others, to exist in society? It's a very real concern. Psychiatry, as an institution, has been steeped in racism, ableism, and other prejudices for as long as it has existed.
The danger is that, more so in recent years, those models and the toxic assumptions, prejudices, and removal of selves-determination that often come with them, have been seeping into the plural community— not through singlets, but systems. It can be so tempting to convince yourselves, and try to convince others around you, that if we just abide by the “rules” put out by various mental health manuals across the world that we will be accepted. That if we weed out the “weird” systems that don’t fit the medical models, that plurality will be more palatable, and finally we’ll be treated like real people. Tempting, yes, but wrong. There is no proof that only trauma causes plurality. There is no proof that all systems must be disordered to be real. A diagnosis will not save any system from a world that is overtly hostile to plurality. And systems coming up with senseless “checklists” to exclude other systems, such as “having fictives from recent media means you’re fake”, will never help, either.
The only thing that really will help, in the long term, is adopting an inclusive attitude towards systems. Regardless of origins, regardless of how systems function, regardless of diagnosis— by embracing one another and allowing all systems to label themselves, allowing them the room to explore their system and how it functions, and giving systems the space and the respect to come to their own conclusions. Whether they change labels or find buried trauma or not should be irrelevant. What matters more than the terms we use to define ourselves, is how we treat one another. Words and descriptions and terms change, but the acceptance or bigotry we direct at other systems leave lasting and sometimes deep impressions. As a community, it should be our pride and honor to be more welcoming, supportive, and affirming than those outside the community. It harms no one.
Acknowledging the reality of one another, and how we all describe our origins, experiences, and path forward, only serves to help the community and bring it together. As we did last year, we bring this talk to a close with a call for unity and understanding.
Singlets do not, and shouldn’t be allowed to, define plurality; the standards they make up to define systems are often used to hurt more than help, and foster rifts within the community due to hypotheses that are scientifically unproven. And, tomorrow, it could all just be gone anyways if those in charge decide it. Systems need to have control over how they define themselves, and the community needs to be as inclusive as possible to shelter systems regardless of how they define themselves. The exclusive attitudes of singlet authority figures can’t be allowed to flourish within our community. We, as a community, need to discuss our community’s issues, as well as concerns of individual systems, thoughtfully and with as much care as possible. We can’t hope to grow and learn otherwise, or foster an environment where systems actually feel safe to be systems.
We are a system that thought they were endogenic, and turned out to be adaptive instead. We are a system that has accepted the fact that they’re disordered, when they resisted the idea before. It’s not the journey of all systems, but there have been and will be others like us who will go through that difficult and sometimes heartbreaking process. The only thing that got us through that process was the support and love from the inclusive plural community, and the support and love of our non-traumagenic family. We likely never would have even explored our past and origins closer, had it not been for them, and for the inclusive community assuring us we could do so safely and at our own pace.
We won’t ever understand the arguments against an inclusive community, when the medicalized models are so overwhelmingly restrictive, hateful, and hostile to systems. What we do know is that those attitudes won’t win out, because a healthy, safe, informed, and strong community cannot be formed on exclusive attitudes. It’s our hope that, someday, all exclusionists will realize this. We hope they realize that non-adaptive systems, non-disordered systems of various origins, and those who support them, aren’t the enemy— and aren’t stealing anything, taking away resources, or furthering misinformation.
The thought that— no matter the terms we do or don’t use for ourselves, no matter our trauma history or lack thereof— there’s a community waiting to help lift us up and offer us support, to us, is a comfort. We only hope that more people see it the way we do— as a blessing— and choose to fight for its existence. All of our voices are needed, as always, if plurality is to make any sort of progress in gaining acceptance on a world-wide level.
Thank you for your time. Have a safe and happy Plural Pride Day, and please remember, you’re real, you’re valid, and your life matters.
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Pharmaceuticals/ prescribing/ cannabis/ marijuana/ drugs 14
topic:"Pharmaceuticals/ prescribing/ cannabis/ marijuana/ drugs"
Antibiotics for use in food animals
Pharmaceuticals/ prescribing/ cannabis/ marijuana/ drugs
GC13-97
The Canadian Medical Association supports the development of a national system to identify and report the identities and quantities of antibiotics acquired domestically or imported for use in food animals.
Policy resolution
Antibiotics for agricultural use
The Canadian Medical Association recommends that the Food and Drugs Act and its regulations be amended to close the "own use" provision for the unmanaged importation of antibiotics for agricultural use.
Antibiotics in animals
GC12-114
The Canadian Medical Association supports regulations to severely limit the use of medically important antibiotics on animals being raised for human consumption.
Vision for e-Prescribing: a joint statement by the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Pharmacists Association
Vision for e-Prescribing: a joint statement by the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Pharmacists Association By 2015, e-prescribing will be the means by which prescriptions are generated for Canadians. Definition e-Prescribing is the secure electronic creation and transmission of a prescription between an authorized prescriber and a patient's pharmacy of choice, using clinical Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and pharmacy management software. Background Health Information Technology (HIT) is an enabler to support clinicians in the delivery of health care services to patients. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) each have identified e-prescribing as a key tool to deliver better value to patients. The integration of HIT into clinics and health care facilities where physicians and pharmacists provide care is a priority for both associations1. As part of its Health Care Transformation initiative, the CMA highlighted the need to accelerate the introduction of e-prescribing in Canada to make it the main method of prescribing. In its policy on optimal prescribing the CMA noted that one of the key elements was the introduction of electronic prescribing. The CPhA, as part of its Blueprint for Pharmacy Implementation Plan, highlights information and communication technology, which includes e-prescribing, as one of five priority areas. We applaud the ongoing efforts of Canada Health Infoway, provinces and territories to establish Drug Information Systems (DIS) and the supporting infrastructure to enable e-prescribing. We urge governments to maintain e-prescribing as a priority and take additional measures to accelerate their investments in this area. It is our joint position that e-prescribing will improve patient care and safety. e-Prescribing, when integrated with DIS, supports enhanced clinical decision-making, prescribing and medication management, and integrates additional information available at the point of care into the clinical workflow. Principles The following principles should guide our collective efforts to build e-prescribing capability in all jurisdictions: * Patient confidentiality and security must be maintained * Patient choice must be protected * Clinicians must have access to best practice information and drug cost and formulary data * Work processes must be streamlined and e-prescribing systems must be able to integrate with clinical and practice management software and DIS * Guidelines must be in place for data sharing among health professionals and for any other use or disclosure of data * The authenticity and accuracy of the prescription must be verifiable * The process must prevent prescription forgeries and diversion * Pan-Canadian standards must be set for electronic signatures Benefits of e-Prescribing A number of these benefits will be realized when e-prescribing is integrated with jurisdictional Drug Information Systems (DIS). * Patients: o Improves patient safety and overall quality of care o Increases convenience for dispensing of new and refill prescriptions o Supports collaborative, team-based care * Providers: o Supports a safer and more efficient method of prescribing and authorizing refills by replacing outdated phone, fax and paper-based prescriptions o Eliminates re-transcription and decreases risk of errors and liability, as a prescription is written only once at the point-of-care o Supports electronic communications between providers and reduces phone calls and call-backs to/from pharmacies for clarification o Provides Warning and Alert systems at the point of prescribing, supporting clinician response to potential contraindications, drug interactions and allergies o Facilitates informed decision-making by making medication history, drug, therapeutic, formulary and cost information available at the point of prescribing * Health Care System: o Improves efficiency and safety of prescribing, dispensing and monitoring of medication therapy o Supports access to a common, comprehensive medication profile, enhancing clinical decision-making and patient adherence o Increases cost-effective medication use, through improved evidence-based prescribing, formulary adherence, awareness of drug costs and medication management o Improves reporting and drug use evaluation Challenges While evidence of the value of e-prescribing is established in the literature, its existence has not fostered broad implementation and adoption. In Canada, there are a number of common and inter-related challenges to e-prescribing's implementation and adoption. These include: * Improving access to relevant and complete information to support decision-making * Increasing the level of the adoption of technology at the point of care * Focusing on systems-based planning to ensure continuum-wide value * Integrating e-prescribing into work processes to gain support from physicians, pharmacists and other prescribers * Increasing leadership commitment to communicate the need for change, remove barriers and ensure progress * Updating legislation and regulation to support e-prescribing Enabling e-Prescribing in Canada CMA and CPhA believe that we can achieve the vision that is set out in this document and address the aforementioned challenges by working collectively on five fronts: * Health care leadership in all jurisdictions and clinical organizations must commit to make e-prescribing a reality by 2015 * Provinces and territories, with Canada Health Infoway, must complete the building blocks to support e-prescribing by increasing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption at the point of care, finishing the work on the Drug Information Systems (DIS) in all jurisdictions and building the connectivity among the points of care and the DIS systems * Pharmacist and medical organizations in conjunction with provinces, territories and Canada Health Infoway must identify clear benefits for clinicians (enhancing the effectiveness of care delivery and in efficiencies in changing workflows) to adopt e-prescribing and focus their efforts on achieving these benefits in the next three years * Provinces, territories and regulatory organizations must create a policy/regulatory environment that supports e-prescribing which facilitates the role of clinicians in providing health care to their patients * Provinces and territories must harmonize the business rules and e-health standards to simplify implementation and conformance by software vendors and allow more investment in innovation. 1 Health Care Transformation in Canada, Canadian Medical Association, June 2010; Blueprint for Pharmacy Implementation Plan, Canadian Pharmacists Association, September 2009
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Fey, Palin, McCain dominate list of top 10 quotes for '08
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/06/art.palin.snl.ap.jpg caption="Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was bested by Tina Fey for the No. 1 spot on the list of the top ten quotes for 2008, according to the Yale Book of Quotations.'"]
(CNN) – With less than three weeks left in the year, the Yale Book of Quotations is out with its list of the 10 quotes for 2008, and statements some politicians probably wish they could take back dominate this year’s list.
This year had “a particularly important and dramatic election,” said Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, about the fact that so many political quotations appeared on the 2008 list. “An election that had a cast of characters among the candidates,” Shapiro added
Indeed, Tina Fey’s “I can see Russia from my house” impersonation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took the No. 1 spot on the list.
Palin herself was not far behind at No. 2 with an answer during one of her interviews with Katie Couric. "All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years,” Palin told Couric when the CBS anchor asked the then-Republican vice presidential candidate what newspapers she read.
McCain economic adviser and former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm took third place for saying “we have sort of become a nation of whiners,” about the struggling economy in a July interview with the Washington Times.
Not to be outdone by Gramm or Palin, Sen. McCain took two spots on the top ten list: he scored fifth place for saying “the fundamentals of the American economy are strong” and the Arizona senator was also awarded seventh place for suggesting the U.S. troops might remain in Iraq for 100 years.
Quotes from Republicans take center stage in this year’s top ten because they were all potentially game changers that might have cost the GOP ticket the White House, according to Shapiro who also noted that McCain was potentially misunderstood in both of the quotes that made the list this year.
President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden had their own memorable quotes in 2008 that fell just shy of making the top ten. Shapiro cited Obama’s comment that rural Americans “cling” to guns and religion and Biden’s statement that leaders of other countries would test Obama if elected as statements that might have made the list in another year when there wasn’t a “super abundance” of political quotes from which Shapiro had to choose.
Celebutante Paris Hilton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. also made the list for their politically-oriented quotations.
Click here to read the entire list.
Updated: 3:15 p.m. with Shapiro quotes
Filed under: Jesse Jackson • John McCain • Phil Gramm • Popular Posts • Sarah Palin
Texas Teacher
If Sarah Palin is the first woman president, I will absolutely KNOW that the American Public has LOST its Collective MIND!
Get over it, Repubs.... you lost! Suck it up.... the Right Wing Fundamentalists have lost their hold over the majority of the American Public! You are on your way out.... you are NOT the majority, but the Minority.... and grow more so daily!
December 15, 2008 04:55 pm at 4:55 pm |
I like the quotes chosen. I can't wait to hear the entire list.
It amazes me how some people take a simple (non-partisan) article like this one and use it to trash the other side. If you are one of those people, I think you need to take a break from politics for a while. Seriously, behaving this way can't be healthy. Take a deep breath and come back in a month or two when you can express your views without all of the un-healthy and un-helpful negativity.
we are mavericks, should be number 1
@ LIP –
Sarah Palin was the VP pick. McCain, not Palin, received about 57 million votes to Obam's 65 million (53-46, which is pretty large in today's politics).
Clinton received 18 million votes – a record number – in the primaries where only limited numbers can vote due to party affiliation. You can't compare the two.
Nice try though.
"and lets not forget that Sarah Palin received 53,000,000 votes, losing by only a few million to Obama and when Hillary ran against Obama she received 18,000,000 votes…quite a contrast."
Joe the Troll
"I can see everything Obama says will become Bible, just like The Apsotle Paul's. "
Obama's might have something in it that's actually VERIFIABLE, unlike Paul's.
Ha ha, even John McCain said he wouldn't vote for Palin if she runs next time! That has got to be the worst VP pick ever! Cheney, while being pure evil, at least wasn't totally stupid.
But, of course, I am dumber than a pocketful of rocks and about as usefull.
KG, Twin Cities
As much as I loved Fey's impression and loathed Palin herself, it did bother me that people confused Fey's Russia spoof as being an actual quote. But, as the campaign went on, I valued it being mistaken as a real quote more and more. There was another skit that was almost verbatim to the Palin/Couric innterview. "It's all about job security."
What a poetic way to end 8 sorry years of leadership. Ducking flying shoes. File that under you ego Bush. They probably won't publish this but I don't care. I had the fun of writting it.
Who will SNL get to portray Obama once he starts screwing up? Oh wait, that's right, SNL and the rest of the libs will never admit to him screwing up. Besides, wouldn't it be blasphemy to ridicule the Messiah?
Missing – Tina Fey saying, "Are we not doin' the talent portion?" then playing the flute.
A Canuck
You have to include "that was a size 10 shoe" LOL !!!!!!!
Chi Town
Just quoting the Chicago Tribune, not the x-files... and the only fabrication that concerns me is Axlerod saying one thing and changing after the arrest... that and a half million in property
They couldn't use quotes from Biden, because he's prone to plagiarizing them. 😉
Ollama couldn't be quoted because he kept changing his quotes to match whatever people wanted.
And Fey, well we all know that her 15 minutes of fame is finally over. Anyone who thought she was even remotely funny has the same sort of taste that pushes movies like Beethoven 3 to the top of the box office.
Gawd
How about Nobama and his 57 states? oh yeah I forgot, shhhh. Might be called a racist if I talk about him............want some media bias with that?
bob in LA
I didn't support McCain but when is his quote on being in Iraq for 100 years goignt o be said correctly?
He was asked how long he thought we would be ther and said as long as it takes, evne 1 00years. Look how long we have been in Germany and Japan.
The implication that he menat fighting for 100 years is absurd.
Doc– your $100k in monopoly money is no good here. But Madoff can get you a sweet return on it.
Palin can.... now go back ..to her favorite trailer park...and
have her "Six Pack" of kids...!!!
LindaA1
Okay. So we've got the liberal Democrat's biased list, when do we see the conservative biased list – or, be still my heart, an objective list?
Still waiting for the clothing auction for charity...
redhead from Toronto
To Rob – Never, never never in a TRILLION years will she be president of anything, You can go back to your fantasy now.
Nutmegger
What about the promise that daughter Bristol will marry her baby-daddy? Is that still in the works?
BobC
When asked yesterday on ABC-TV's "This Week" whether he would support Palin for prez in 2012, John McCain said, "Oh no. There are so many other wonderful young governors." Even tho McCain said she energized his campaign, he knows (finally) what a mistake he made in choosing her for a running mate. No one could take her seriously.
I THINK FEY SHOULD GET LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of republicans whining, huh?
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Michelle Obama hosts White House talent show
CNN White House Producer Matthew Hoye
Washington (CNN) - Students participating in a White House talent show got a surprise visit Tuesday when President Barack Obama showed up at the end of their performance – and wondered why he wasn't part of the act.
"I've got talent, but I wasn't invited to participate,” Obama joked.
[twitter-follow screen_name='politicalticker'][twitter-follow screen_name='mattyhoyeCNN']
First lady Michelle Obama hosted the event, which was officially dubbed the "Turnaround Arts Talent Show."
As she welcomed her husband, a boy, apparently trying to get the President’s attention, reached up and pulled Obama closer to him by the left ear.
The program showcased primary school students who got the chance to play various musical numbers and read some poetry for the first lady and a room full of celebrities and family members.
The students were joined by actors and mentors Sarah Jessica Parker, Kal Penn and Alfre Woodard, among others, who introduced and performed with the kids who come from troubled schools in places like Montana, New Orleans and Massachusetts.
Mrs. Obama says the turnaround program encourages schools to integrate arts and music programs into their curriculums and gets, "students in these schools engaged in their education like never before. And that's what it's about."
The first lady cited one school in Boston that used to be one of the lowest scoring schools in the state. She said the Orchard Gardens school had, "six principals in seven years” and the teacher turnover rate was close to 50%.
"They had a principal who believed in the arts. He replaced all the security guards with five arts teachers,” Mrs. Obama said.
The school has since gone from what is called a level four school, to a level one school since the new principal began integrating arts into the core curriculum. To cheers, she added, "Oh yes we can."
Mrs. Obama said the point of the program was to get kids engaged and excited about coming to school – whether it was to work on an arts project or learn lines for a play, or practice music and she said, "Once you got those kids in the seat – then you teach them math and science."
Mrs. Obama also announced that the pilot program has been so successful that organizers are quadrupling its size.
She also said despite the program's success, much more needs to be done, adding that six million students in the U.S. still don’t have access to arts or music programs in their schools.
Rachel Goslins with the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which administers the program, said professional actors and artists team up with schools in different regions of the country to push for arts and music programs to be fully-funded and expanded. They visit the schools and work with the kids to encourage and mentor them.
Filed under: Michelle Obama • President Obama • White House
soundoff (5 Responses)
yes, you got the liar of the year award for 2013. you have a real penchant for lying.
S. B. Stein
It is good that this is being done. The problem is that we need children to have mentors of all kinds and people watching over them all the time. When there is proper adult involvement, then children can learn better.
May 20, 2014 11:11 pm at 11:11 pm |
When i grow up i want to be prez daddy ? No you dont ? Why ?
"Yes, you got an Award in 2013" said the school children. "Shame on you." The children weren't joking.
May 21, 2014 12:50 am at 12:50 am |
i wonder what kind of criticism the right and rush Limbaugh will come with this time. they always seems to find something if what the president is doing is not 100 percent perfect. lets wait and see what they come up with.
May 21, 2014 07:32 am at 7:32 am |
HHS Secretary Alex Azar complains of tarnished legacy in resignation letter to Trump January 16, 2021 04:36 am
Giuliani uses unfounded 'Antifa' argument to defend Trump January 16, 2021 04:33 am
Washington Post: Capitol Police intelligence report warned of violence targeting 'Congress itself' three days before attack January 16, 2021 03:22 am
MyPillow CEO hints at scrapped plan to replace CIA director with Trump loyalist January 16, 2021 02:57 am
Despite Trump administration promise, government has no more 'reserve' 2nd vaccine doses January 16, 2021 01:36 am
Pentagon authorizes 25,000 National Guard members for inauguration January 16, 2021 01:32 am
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EVERYDAY IS SELMA
April 30, 2015 /in 2015 Spring, Newsletter, Uncategorized /by ayinde
By Stephanie Guilloud, Co-Director
The 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act is August 6, 2015. The southern grassroots fight that led to this critical victory was commemorated on March 8. Project South and 15 other organizations from the Southern Movement Assembly joined together to participate in the 50th Commemoration of Bloody Sunday in Selma Alabama in March 7-9, 2015. Amidst hundreds of thousands of people, our international delegation of youth, elders, immigrants, and movement leaders participated in the Backwards March, led by Alabama anchor The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS). This delegation was the first major action of the Southern People’s Initiative, a two-year action plan launched on MLK Day by the Southern Movement Assembly.
Representing the rising tide of the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Movement, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow has organized a ‘Backwards March’ over the Edmund Pettus bridge since 2007, a week before the Jubilee Crossing to express the need for our movements to ‘go back, get it right, and go forward with everyone who has been forgotten or left behind.’
On March 8, 2015, under the gaze of a national spotlight, the Backwards March was the first to cross the bridge led by formerly incarcerated people, youth, elder movement veterans, international refugees, LGBTQ folks, and grassroots organizers. Those who fight on every frontline wore bright gold banners that read: “We are the Peoples Movement, Leadership from the Bottom-up.”
Project South founder Gwen Patton told us that in 1965, Tuskegee students paused at the apex of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and said a silent prayer for Willie Edwards, a 24 year-old Black man who had been thrown into the Alabama River by the Klan eight years before. Edmund Pettus, a Grand Dragon of the KKK, was also a Confederate soldier and paramilitary operative against indigenous tribes in California. In 2015, 50 years after police and state troopers attacked people of conscience and action on Bloody Sunday, it was the Southern Freedom Movement of the 21st century that reclaimed the bridge for the people, for our collective memories, and for the current frontline battles against state violence, economic displacement, mass incarceration, and injustice.
In March of 2015, a new generation of Southern freedom movement fighters walked that bridge in Selma and paused to remember the many lives that have been lost to racist state violence in the last few years – Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin, Mya Hall, Rekia Boyd. We remembered Ernesto Javier Canepa Diaz who was killed by police on the border in 2015 and the thousands more that have suffered from deportations, harassment in high schools, unsafe communities, and mass incarceration.
In 1965, community people from Alabama, young people in SNCC and local college students were at the forefront of building southern freedom movement force, making history in Selma and across Dallas, Lowndes, Perry, and Wilcox counties, Alabama. It was these ordinary people, often considered deviants in their own time, who pushed the ministers and other establishment leaders to either join with or get out of the way of a change they knew was possible.
The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS), a SMA anchor organization, has been working in Alabama for over a decade to expand voting rights and build political power for formerly incarcerated people. TOPS made the call for the SMA organizations to mobilize and converge in Alabama, and although we work on many different frontlines of struggle we all work in the spirit of the words Fannie Lou Hamer said, “Nobody is Free Until Everyone’s Free.” We met with local leaders in Selma and Alabama to recognize that the fight for voting rights is a fight for political power. The SMA united our fight on historic ground in Alabama to support the current struggles for political power and build movements to stop state sanctioned violence today.
We recognized the danger and strength of claiming our political power in a moment when institutions are telling us that murder, disenfranchisement, and economic displacement are allowable, legitimate, and justifiable. We named state violence as the cause of our people’s suffering through both neglect and direct proliferation.
Everyday is Bloody Sunday. Glory Kilanko, founder and director of Women Watch Afrika made that statement on a recent weekly call with Southern movement leaders. Our international delegation of 100 people from 15 organizations and 7 Southern states represented Black communities, youth, elders, families, Latinos, Muslim communities from Iran and Sudan, LGBTQ communities, and formerly incarcerated people.
On the 50th anniversary on this historic site, we remembered the massacres and the forced removal of indigenous Muscogee, Choctow, and Creek peoples from this land, we remembered Bloody Sunday, the March to Montgomery that followed, the powerful resistance of youth movements, and the legacy of ordinary people, then and now, fighting for extraordinary demands to live full, productive, and dignified lives. This memory is why we organize and how we know that together we will win.
Nobody is Free Until Everybody is Free.
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Congo Matters: Valuing Black Life in the Heart of Africa
April 30, 2015 /in 2015 Spring, Newsletter /by ayinde
By Maurice Carney, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Friends of the Congo
Maurice has worked with Congolese for over fifteen years in their struggle for peace, justice and human dignity.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is strategically located in the heart of Africa, straddling the equator. The country is the size of Western Europe with an estimated 70 million inhabitants. It is bordered by nine other African countries – the only country on the African continent to have that many countries bordering it. It is one of the largest countries in the world. On the African continent, it is second largest in size behind Algeria and fourth largest in population behind Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt.
Congo matters because Black lives matter. Since 1996, an estimated six million Congolese have perished in the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two in the DRC. Congo has experienced the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century, yet, very few people are aware of what has transpired in the heart of Africa. These lives have been erased from global consciousness, in large part because they are Black and African, hence less valued and not worthy of attention or focus.
A key reason for the conflict in the Congo is the global scramble for the country’s treasure trove of gold, diamonds, copper, tin, cobalt, uranium, iron and many other precious and strategic minerals such as coltan which is vital to the functioning of cell phones and a host of other technology and electronic devices and gadgets. Congo has enormous potential. It has an estimated $24 trillion in natural wealth (almost equivalent to the Gross National Product of the U.S. and European Union combined); the agricultural capacity to feed the entire world; a part of the second largest rainforest in the world, hence vital to the fight against climate changes; the hydroelectric potential to provide electricity for the entire African continent, southern Europe and the Middle East; the largest fresh water
reserves on the African continent; and most importantly a vibrant, young population with a median age of 17.
Congo is central to the advancement of Africa and by extension the African world. Frantz Fanon was not exaggerating when he noted that the “fate of all of us is at stake in the Congo.”1 Just as it was central to the carving up of the African continent at the 1884/85 Berlin Conference, Congo remains vital to the development and advancement of the African continent. It is the fulcrum on which the African continent swings. Che Guevara put it best when he noted that victory in the Congo “will be continental in in its reach and consequences and so would defeat.”
Many of the seeds of today’s challenges in the Congo were planted when the United States through its Central intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew, Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister and independence hero, Patrice Emery Lumumba in 1960. He was subsequently assassinated on January 17, 1961 with the complicity of the CIA. The magnitude of the overthrow of Lumumba is in league with the 1953 CIA overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh or the 1973 CIA backing of the overthrow of President Salvador Allende of Chile. Lumumba’s assassination is as significant as those of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. In speaking of the Congo crisis, Malcolm X astutely made the connection between the challenges of the Congo and those that Black people face in the United States. He said in a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in 1964 that “as long as we think – that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, you’ll never get Mississippi straightened out – not until you start realizing your connection with the Congo.”3 Malcolm reminds us that our fate is connected. We maintain as long as Black Lives are devalued anywhere in the world, they will be devalued everywhere in the world.
One way the devaluing of Black life is manifested around the Congo is the silence and lack of global outrage about the loss of millions of Black lives; in essence saying these lives are not worthy of attention or concern. In a similar fashion, Black lives are devalued in the U.S. when young Black women and men are gunned down in the streets by law enforcement officials and get away with killing while the victim receives no justice. In essence, American society in general and the legal system in particular send the message that Black lives are not worthy of justice. Youth have risen in Ferguson, Staten Island, Baltimore and in many other cities throughout the United States to resist, demonstrate and protest to demand justice and say that Black Lives Matter.
As youth are rising up throughout the United States to confront injustices and assert their value, young people are doing the same on the African continent. On both sides of the Atlantic, people of African ancestry, especially Black youth, are asserting the value of their lives through, resistance, protest, and organizing. When we say Black Lives Matter it is not limited to the political borders or confines of any one nation but rather it is a rallying cry for people of African ancestry throughout the globe and especially in the heart of the land of the origin of Black people (Africa).
Ultimately, until Black people on the motherland experience, peace, justice and human dignity, Black lives will continue to be devalued throughout the globe.
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It’s Not About a Wedding Cake: “Religious Freedom” Laws
April 15, 2015 /in Monthly Update, News /by jovan
By Stephanie Guilloud, featured on Truth-Out.org April 12, 2015
“Religious freedom laws are signals of two things: the rise of legal protections for social control and segregation practices, and the growing power of cross-community movement alliances.
Over the last few weeks, religious exclusion bills were introduced, debated, modified and either defeated or signed into law. Basketball fans wore rainbow flags in Indiana; lesbians got arrested on the Georgia Capitol steps; even big business challenged the exclusionary policies.
But these bills are not aberrations or flash-in-the-pan hate legislation. More than 20 states already have similar laws on the books (half of them Southern), and 12 states introduced versions this year, including Georgia. The Indiana and Arkansas bills expanded the legal parameters. The Hobby Lobby decision in 2014 led to these state-by-state bills. The strategy is to test the social and legislative climate for how far states are willing to recodify discriminatory, exclusive, segregationist and violent practices.
Religious freedom is being recodified to justify discrimination based on an individual’s beliefs.
At the height of Jim Crow segregation and violence, groups who were against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 argued that individual people, businesses and churches have the right to exclude and segregate particular groups of people based on religious liberty and individual freedom.
Fifty years later, those same arguments are being written into new drafts of old laws. The religious freedom bills sweeping across the South, Midwest and Southwest this year are about more than protecting gay people from mean bakers.”
Read the rest of this piece on Truth-Out.
https://i0.wp.com/projectsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wedding7.jpg?fit=590%2C723&ssl=1 723 590 jovan https://projectsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PS_Logo_Red_300x193_TransparentUpdate.png jovan2015-04-15 12:23:232015-05-19 01:08:15It's Not About a Wedding Cake: "Religious Freedom" Laws
Member Update : April 2015
April 9, 2015 /in Monthly Update /by jovan
From Selma to Charleston
Emery Wright and Ruben Solis are led by members of SpiritHouse and Women Watch Afrika during the Backwards March at the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Selma. Our gold sashes read: We are the people’s Movement, Leadership from the Bottom-Up #RememberResistance
A Southern Movement Assembly (SMA) delegation of almost 100 people from 7 states with international representation from Iraq, Sudan, and Nigeria converged in Selma, Alabama to exercise and build our collective power. View the report on our delegation Everyday Is Selma here in collaboration with the University Sin Fronteras and SpiritHouse in Durham, NC.
Greetings Project South Family,
Project South recognizes the injustice, rage, and grief surrounding the police murder of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina. At a time when every detail will be scrutinized and debated, we recognize and remember the painful history that leads up to this killing, and we are part of the resistance of communities and organizations who are rising up today to say: Enough is Enough.
We recognize the many people and family members in South Carolina who are impacted by this horrendous murder. We also recognize the people in every city and town in the U.S. who are impacted by the deaths we witness and by the murders that go unrecognized. We recognize and stand in solidarity with Black people, youth, families, trans-people, mothers, and friends who are frightened and feel terrorized in this moment. We also recognize the bravery and courage of young people and people in our communities who fight for justice in the immediate crises we face and who work together towards a long-term vision of a world where dignity and self-determination replaces violence and impunity.
Project South’s Regional Organizer, Ash-Lee Henderson will be in Charleston SC this weekend to work with local organizers, members, and Southern Movement Assembly participants who are fighting for justice on this frontline. Download a Project South historical timeline on policing and resistance in the U.S.
Liberation Spring continues Wednesday, April 15 6pm-8pm with Ruben Solis Garcia, founder and president
This semester continues looking at how we have been “Decolonizing the Fight to Power.” The past two courses were led by Jovan Julian, Jeanette Cuevas, and Sumi Dutta- all past students of UNSIF courses.
Though we are several classes into the semester, we encourage all interested, to attend class on April 15, for “Decolonizing the Fight Agaisnt Environmental Racism” led by Ruben Solis Garcia. As the founder and president of the UNSIF, Garcia will share history and experience from across the South, Southwest, and globally, as an organizer for over 40 years. Come out and bring a friend!
If you are interested in registering for the following course, please register here.
April Building-A-Movement Retreat
Join Community Organizers for the next monthly BAM, April 25th, 10am-4pm at the Project South offices, breakfast & lunch provided
This month our B-A-M retreat will be led by Project South and Hello Racism. Together we will engage participants in interactive sessions that connect popular & political education to organizing and cross-community work.
We are building off of the powerful energy created by the Youth Community Action Program who led the March B-A-M.
The B-A-M’s will continue to be held on the last Saturday of every month throughout the year and we encourage past and new participants to attend.
Please join us, bring a friend, and register here
Above: Youth Community Action Program (YCAP) leaders during the Youth-led BAM on March 28
Don’t forget to tune in Friday April 17 & May 1 at 7:30 PM to WRFG 89.3 to hear Youth Speak Truth (YST), highlighting the voices and experiences of member leaders from YCAP and Real Talk.
Project South on the Road
March 14-15 Strategy Meeting, Chicago, IL – Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Emery Wright participated in a meeting on Black leadership and state violence called by Barbara Ransby
April 6-8 Gulf Guardian Retreat, Gulf Shores, AL- Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Steph Guilloud met with Gulf Shores leaders and SMA Anchors to strategize and support the Gulf South Rising initiative, a year-long effort to connect communities to climate justice and to build towards a major convergence in New Orleans on the 10th Anniversary of Katrina, August 2015.
April 10-12 Civil Liberties Public Policy (CLPP) conference – Amherst MA: Youth Leader Shepilah Watts along with staff members Jeanette Cuevas, Collette Carter and Ashe Helm-Hernandez will be participating at CLPP. Ashe Helm-Hernandez will be doing two workshops; Trasforming Masculinty: Re-MIX,and Voter Supression and Reproductive Justice. Collette Carter will be doing a workshop on Fatphobia, Sizeism and Disability Justice.
April 23-25 Mobile Leadership Summit, Mobile, AL – Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Steph Guilloud will participate in the annual Leadership Summit and facilitate a workshop on Economic Justice organizing in the South.
Partners in Action
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers held a Fair Food Parade and Celebration on Saturday, March 21 with over 5,000 people in St. Petersburg, Florida. Jeanette Cuevas, Project South staff member, and her family particpated in the parade. Find out more about the Fair Food Program here.
The Black Workers for Justice Annual Banquet is April 11 in Raleigh, NC
Save the Date: Mayday (May 1) Day of Action with the Southwest Workers Union and the Southern Movement Assembly partners
YOUR SUPPORT MAKES MOVEMENT POSSIBLE!
Thank you for everything you do to grow strong movements in theSouth.
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Home Article I'm Dreaming of a White Senate.
I'm Dreaming of a White Senate.
by Jamelle Bouie
The United States Senate is about to become a whole lot whiter:
The Senate might not have any African-American members after the election, when Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), the only sitting black senator, vacates his seat.
Overall, the Senate has never had more than one black member at a time. Burris replaced President Obama in this distinction after filling his Illinois seat following the 2008 election. Before Obama, Carol Moseley Braun, also from Illinois, served from 1993 to 1999.
"In total," The Hill notes, "there have been six black senators since Reconstruction." This is terrible, but not as astounding as it sounds when you think about it. The states with large enough African American populations to support a black Senate candidate -- most of the Deep South -- are also the states where whites are strongly polarized against African Americans, and the Democratic Party by extension.
Indeed, at 15 percent, even Illinois might have "too many black people"; it's just that Carol Moseley Braun and Barack Obama had the good fortune to run in unusual elections. The former won in a three-way race that split the votes of moderate and conservative Democrats, and the latter -- a strong candidate in his own right -- benefited from the collapse of one Republican candidate, Jack Ryan, and the craziness of another, Alan Keyes.
Obviously, you can't know for sure, but my guess is that the next black senator comes from a mostly white state or a state where the largest minority population isn't African American.
-- Jamelle Bouie
Blog: TAPPED
Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect.
Read more by Jamelle Bouie
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Skip to the content of this page, the main menu, the secondary menu, the site search form, the site home page.
PhD in Community Health Sciences
PhD Degrees in Public Health
The PhD program in Community Health Sciences provides students with an understanding of a substantive area of public health knowledge, and advanced research and analytical skills within a public and community health context. Graduates are equipped with the conceptual, theoretical, and analytic tools to conduct cutting-edge research and translate knowledge into information and practice to improve health at the community level. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods, students explore a wide variety of public health issues across diverse populations and communities, with a focus on addressing healthcare disparities and the impact of these disparities on health status throughout the life course.
The division of Community Health Sciences offers its doctoral students the opportunity to engage with experts in their area of interest within the School of Public Health, the broader UI Health and UIC communities, Chicago, and abroad. Our Phd program graduates play leading roles in research conducted through myriad organizations such as the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, UIC Cancer Center, and the Institute for Health Research and Policy; and serve as faculty at a variety of institutions including the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Wayne State University College of Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, DePaul University, and Rush University.
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STAGES +
SET CONSTRUCTION
Fb Inst
Groundbreaking of new stages
With the groundbreaking ceremony on October 26th, Prague Studios begins construction of two new film stages on their backlot. Upon completion, there will be a total of five stages in the well-known Prague Studios, these newest two complementing three existing studio spaces. In addition, Prague Studios will be upgrading their current studio spaces and facilities and giving the grounds a facelift, making it an appealing environment for top-tier international productions. The new studios are slated to be finished by April 2018.
“Thanks to recent film incentives, the Czech Republic has reappeared on the film world map. Demand for stagespace is growing,“ stated producer Tomas Krejci, owner of Prague Studios. “We already have pencils for the new stages for 2018, for both films and TV serials,“ added Jindrich Guttner, General Manager.
The Prague Studios complex is built on the site of a former military aircraft factory. In 2001, three spacious hangars were converted into film stages. The most significant asset of these studios just 10 minutes from the center of Prague is that, from the very beginning, they were built “by filmmakers for filmmakers.“
Currently, the overall area covers 325,000 ft2 and includes Stage 1 (32,500 ft2), Stage 2 (27,000 ft2), Stage 5 (11,000 ft2) plus all appropriate facilities. The new stages, Stage 3 (14,000 ft2) and Stage 4 (14,000 ft2), will be inter-connectable and will include adjacent offices, makeup rooms, wardrobe spaces, catering, workshops and storage areas. Prague Studios will thus be able to comfortably accommodate any size of Hollywood film or TV production.
Productions from all over the world are heading to Prague Studios and many of those are returning customers. Visiting crews say they appreciate the full service and first-class conditions. As legendary Star Wars producer Rick McCallum put it: “We shot the Lucasfilm feature ‘Red Tails’ and the TV series ‘Britannia’ for Sky and Amazon in Prague Studios and it was a fantastic experience. It was very refreshing to work in a studio that really understood our needs and was able to adjust to them flexibly. The local team swiftly reacted to every request and was proactive in resolving problems. Prague Studios will always have a place in my heart.“ McCallum, who has shot in the studios several times in the past, has already booked them for his next project.
Prague Studios has seen many greats come through its doors including Children of Dune (2002), Van Helsing (2003), AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), Wanted (2007), Red Tails (2015), The Adventurers (2016), Underworld: Blood Wars (2016), Brittania (2017) and numerous other titles, not to mention dozens of commercial set builds created every year.
NextPrev October 26, 2017 Category: News Tags: czech, czech republic, europe, film, film studios, filming, movie, prague, shooting, studios
The Czech Film Industry Support Program (FISP) offers a 20% rebate on Czech spending and an additional 10% on qualifying international spending.
Toužimská 867, Prague, 199 00, Czech Republic
GPS Coordinates: 50.135102, 14.514267
© 2019 Prague Studios
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Back to the Future Parent Guide
Overall B-
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidentally time travels back to 1955, thanks to Dr. Emmett Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) souped-up DeLorean. Meeting up with his younger Mom and Dad (Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover), the teen desperately tries to get Back to the Future before his visit alters history permanently.
Sexual Content B-
Substance Use C-
Why is Back to the Future rated PG? The MPAA rated Back to the Future PG
Twenty-five years after it first released in theaters, Back to the Future blasts into home theaters on Blu-ray.
In the movie, Michael J. Fox stars as Marty McFly, the youngest son of an alcoholic mother (Lea Thompson) and a faint-hearted father (Crispin Glover) who is still browbeaten by an old high school classmate (Thomas F. Wilson). The teen has two older siblings, Linda (Wendie Jo Sperber) and Dave (Marc McClure), and a gorgeous girlfriend (Claudia Wells) that he plans to take on an intimate camping excursion.
But Marty’s best pal seems to be the eccentric Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd). The wild-eyed inventor has enough clout with the high school student to drag him out of bed in the middle of the night to help him test a new time traveling car in the parking lot of the local mall. Unfortunately the trial goes horribly wrong. Emmett, who apparently stole a supply of plutonium for his machine, is gunned down with an automatic rifle by some angry terrorists. In the chaos that follows, Marty jumps into the doctor-altered DeLorean and speeds away only to find he has time traveled back to 1955.
Trying to get his bearings in the unfamiliar decade, Marty accidently bumps into his future parents, Lorraine Baines and George McFly. The chance meeting alters the course of history and proves to be disastrous when Lorraine begins to fall in love with him instead of George. Evidence of this is found in a family photo Marty has in his pocket. As he watches, he and his siblings begin to fade away. Unless he can set things right, the change will be permanent. Tracking down a much younger Emmett Brown, Marty begs the doctor to help him find a way back to the future.
For anyone who lived through the 80s, this film, packed with references to cultural items like Pepsi Free, Darth Vader and a Walkman, becomes a nostalgic trip back in time. Other forgotten tidbits may be some of the content issues in Back to the Future. Profanities are prominent fillers in the script, which contains frequent expletives along with some racially derogatory terms and sexually suggestive dialogue. As well, Marty discovers his parents aren’t quite as pure and wholesome as they led him to believe. First he catches George hiding in a tree in order to watch Lorraine undress. And later his prospective mother tries to make out with him before a school dance.
While this anniversary release may be a journey down memory lane for many parents, some moms and dads might want to push pause when it comes to showing this classic to their children.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson. Running time: 116 minutes. Theatrical release July 3, 1985. Updated April 30, 2020
Why is Back to the Future rated PG? Back to the Future is rated PG by the MPAA
Violence: A boy runs into the street and is hit by a car. Foreigners gun down a man (though little blood is seen, the bullets impacting the body are shown) in a parking lot, then attempt to shoot another character. Teens and adults are bullied. A man cuts his hand and later it is seen with a bloody bandage.
Sexual Content: Teens and adults engage in sexually suggestive conversations. A teen couple plans to go on an intimate camping trip together. A boy uses binoculars to watch a girl undress in her bedroom. A teen makes sensual advances toward a boy. A teen boy takes a woman’s bra out of a laundry basket. Girls wear low cut gowns. A boy forcefully kisses a girl against her wishes. A boy has pictures of pin up girls on his bedroom walls. A teen couple kisses.
Language: Over three dozen profanities, terms of Deity and scatological slang are used in the script along with some sexually suggestive dialogue and derogatory racial terms.
Alcohol / Drug Use: A mother, who appears to be intoxicated, drinks at home. Teen characters drink from a flask and a girl smokes. References to illegal drugs are made and it is intimated that adult characters are smoking drugs.
Other: A mother fails to tell the truth about her teen years. Characters are covered by a load of manure.
Page last updated April 30, 2020
Back to the Future Parents' Guide
What impact does Marty have on the future when he goes back in time? What does he discover about his parents?
If you could change one thing in the past, what would it be? Would you want to know what happens in your future?
The most recent home video release of Back to the Future movie is February 10, 2009. Here are some details…
Back to the Future releases as part of a 25th Anniversary Trilogy on October 26, 2010. The package is available on DVD (plus Digital Copy) or Blu-ray (plus Digital Copy).
Along with his eccentric depiction of Dr. Emmett Brown, actor Christopher Lloyd portrays equally unconventional characters in Angels in the Outfield and My Favorite Martian. Michael J. Fox plays a former child star who runs a talent agency for youngsters in Life With Mickey.
Related news about Back to the Future
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Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999
BRENNAN, Sean
LVC06
Norfolk Island Act 1979
Online Text: 428399
Self determination
Election candidates
no.11 (1999/2000)
legislation/billsdgs/LVC06
Department of the
I N F O R M A T I O N A N D R E S E A R C H S E R V I C E S
Bills Digest No. 11 1999-2000
ï Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 1999
Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written consent of the Department of the Parliamentary Library, other than by Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament in the course of their official duties.
This paper has been prepared for general distribution to Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament. While great care is taken to ensure that the paper is accurate and balanced, the paper is written using information publicly available at the time of production. The views expressed are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Information and Research Services (IRS). Advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this paper is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This paper is not professional legal opinion. Readers are reminded that the paper is not an official parliamentary or Australian government document. IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents with Senators and Members and their staff but not with members of the public.
Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain further information from the Information and Research Services on (02) 6277 2476.
A full list of current Information and Research Services publications is available on the ISR of the Parliamentary database. On the Internet the Information and Research Services can be found at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/
A list of IRS publications may be obtained from the
IRS Publications Office Telephone: (02) 6277 2760
Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1999
Bills Digest
No. 11 1999-2000
Sean Brennan Law and Bills Digest Group 27 July 1999
Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 1
Background ................................................................................................................................ 1
A Complex Constitutional History ..................................................................................... 1
Partial Self Government Since 1979 ................................................................................... 2
Citizenship Statistics ........................................................................................................... 3
The National Firearms Program and Norfolk Island .......................................................... 4
Main Provisions ......................................................................................................................... 5
Deputy Administrator ......................................................................................................... 5
Citizenship as a Requirement of Holding Office ................................................................ 6
Citizenship and Residency as Requirements of the Right to Vote ..................................... 6
Firearms Legislation ........................................................................................................... 7
Other Amendments ............................................................................................................. 7
Concluding Comments............................................................................................................... 7
The Limits of Self Government .......................................................................................... 7
Firearms Legislation ......................................................................................................... 11
Appointment of the Deputy Administrator ....................................................................... 12
Residency and Citizenship and the Rights to Vote and Stand for Election ...................... 13 Technical Ambiguity ........................................................................................................ 17
Endnotes ................................................................................................................................... 17
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments.
This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the Bill.
Date Introduced: 31 March 1999
House: Senate
Portfolio: Regional Services, Territories and Local Government
Commencement: 28 days after Royal Assent
The Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999 ('the Bill') has 6 purposes:
ï· to require candidates for future elections to the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly to hold Australian citizenship,
ï· to add Australian citizenship to the requirements for future enrolments on the electoral roll, while relaxing the residency requirement
ï· to move 'firearms and ammunition' from Schedule 2 to Schedule 3 of the Norfolk Island Act 1979 ('the Principal Act'), thereby permitting the Commonwealth Minister to veto legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly about those matters
ï· to provide for the Deputy Administrator of Norfolk Island to be appointed by the Commonwealth Minister responsible for External Territories, rather than by the Governor-General
ï· to remove gender-specific language from the Principal Act
ï· to make minor grammatical amendments to the Principal Act.
A Complex Constitutional History Some on Norfolk Island dispute that it is part of the Commonwealth of Australia. The High Court found to the contrary in 1976,1 but the assertion persists in part because the constitutional status and history of the Island is complex and unusual.
2 Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999
In brief,2 the Island was unoccupied when mapped by Captain Cook in 1774, although evidence apparently exists of earlier Polynesian occupation. It was twice occupied by the British and used as a penal colony, in the periods 1788-1814 and 1825-1855. In 1856, descendants of Bounty mutineers who had intermarried with Polynesian islanders agreed with the British Government to move from Pitcairn Island to Norfolk Island. Between 1856 and 1897, Norfolk Island was a separate British colony with its own Governor, who was also the Governor of New South Wales. In 1897 the British Crown transferred administrative responsibility for Norfolk Island to the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, an arrangement continued in 1900 with the Governor of the new State of New South Wales. By combined British and Australian action in 1913 and 1914 the Island became a Territory under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia.
A distinct history combined with distance from the Australian mainland has generated a strong sense of local identity on the Island. Reaction to the Bill on Norfolk Island has been strong, most of it adverse and consistent with the Island's 'rich history of civilised disputation with faraway rulers'.3 While the Commonwealth has depicted the Bill as variously necessary or convenient from the national point of view, opponents on Norfolk Island have treated it as paternalistic and a threat to progress towards self-government. Much of the controversy over the Bill thus reflects the contested nature of Norfolk Island's relationship to the Commonwealth of Australia.
Partial Self Government Since 1979 In the mid-1970s the Commonwealth held a Royal Commission into the future status of Norfolk Island, chaired by Sir John Nimmo. The Fraser Government responded by committing itself to a form of self government for the Island and in 1979 the Principal Act was passed by the Commonwealth Parliament. The Principal Act functions as a quasi-constitutional document, setting out the institutions of legislative, executive and judicial power for the Island.
The Territory is administered by the Administrator, appointed by the Governor-General (effectively the Commonwealth Government). In forming certain opinions required under the Act, the Administrator must rely on his or her own judgement. In all other respects, the Administrator acts on advice. That advice comes from a variety of sources depending on the category of matter involved. In some instances, the Administrator is the senior representative of the Commonwealth on the Island, acting on the advice of the Minister for Territories. In other situations, the Administrator fills a role akin to the vice-regal function of a State Governor, acting on the advice of the Norfolk Island Executive Council or Legislative Assembly (both discussed immediately below). Finally, in some situations the Administrator refers matters to the Governor-General, who in turn acts on the advice of the Commonwealth Government.
The Principal Act creates an Executive Council 'to advise the Administrator on all matters relating to the government of the Territory'. Members of the executive are appointed from the Legislative Assembly by members of the Assembly, and have authority over matters
Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999 3
listed in Schedules 2 and 3 of the Principal Act. There are 4 Ministers of the Norfolk Island Government.
The Principal Act also invests the Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island with the power 'to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Territory', subject to assent by the Administrator or the Governor-General as the case may be. There are 9 members of the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly, elected from the Island voting as a single electorate numbering between 950 and 1200 people. Voting is compulsory and the franchise is available under a local law to those over 18 years old who meet a residency requirement, whether Australian citizens or not.4 While the right to vote is subject to local law, the right to stand for election is governed by Commonwealth legislation. Candidates for election to the Assembly must have been ordinarily resident on the Island for 5 years prior to nomination. Citizenship of Australia is not a requirement and it was recently suggested that 3 members of the current Assembly are not Australian citizens, including the Chief Minister.5 There are reportedly no formal party groupings in the Assembly.
The legislative power of the Assembly is plenary (with four defined exceptions),6 but the conditions attaching to assent as well as other forms of overriding legislative authority mean that the Commonwealth retains a significant influence over the laws enacted to apply in Norfolk Island. Laws about matters listed in Schedule 2 are at the heart of Norfolk Island self-government, because the Administrator assents or not to such laws on the advice of the Executive Council (the Norfolk Island Government). Schedule 3 to the Principal Act lists a smaller range of topics which in 1979 the Commonwealth Minister described as 'matters of particular sensitivity or national importance'.7 Regarding assent to Schedule 3 laws, the Administrator appears again to act on the advice of the Executive Council, but importantly is subject to over-riding instructions from the Commonwealth Minister. Where a law relates to a matter in neither Schedule 2 nor 3, the Administrator reserves the law for the attention of the Governor-General (who will act on the advice of the Commonwealth Government). The Governor-General also has the power to make ordinances for the Island and to introduce legislation into the Assembly, although apparently this power has not been exercised since 1979. Finally the Commonwealth Parliament has the power to make laws which apply in Norfolk Island, but only if an Act expressly says so.
The Principal Act preserved the already-established Supreme Court of Norfolk Island as the seat of judicial power on the Island.
Citizenship Statistics In its submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee (SLCLC) inquiry into the Bill, the Norfolk Island Government ('NIG') provided citizenship statistics from the Census of Population and Housing conducted by the Administration of Norfolk Island on 6 August 1996. It found that 81% of the permanently resident population held Australian citizenship, 16% held New Zealand citizenship and less than 2% each held UK and other citizenship respectively. Amongst the temporarily resident population it found a
higher proportion of New Zealanders (25%), with 68% holding Australian citizenship. The NIG submitted that up to 20% of Island residents of Pitcairn descent were born in New Zealand, 'for medical or other reasons'.8
The National Firearms Program and Norfolk Island Following the murder of 35 people by a lone gunman at Port Arthur, Tasmania a meeting of Commonwealth, State and Territory Police Ministers was held in May 1996. Agreement was reached on a national scheme for firearms ownership, use and storage, which included wide prohibitions and restrictions as well as national standards for licensing and registration.
The agreement also provided for an amnesty period and buyback scheme to encourage firearms owners and dealers to surrender prohibited weapons. The Commonwealth agreed to meet the costs of compensation and administration under the agreement, funded by a one-off increase in the Medicare levy. After May 1996, the Commonwealth, States and Territories proceeded to pass legislation and effect necessary administrative changes.
The National Firearms Program Implementation Act 1998 (Cth) extended the firearms buyback scheme to the External Territories of Norfolk Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island.
According to the submission made by the Norfolk Island Government ('NIG') to the SLCLC, a Firearms Bill was introduced into the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly in 1996 and then, after an election, it was reintroduced as the Firearms Bill 1997. Negotiations ensued between the Commonwealth and the NIG, and the Bill was assented to in October 1997, in circumstances described by the NIG in the following terms:
the NIG took the view, after consultation with the Administrator, that it would be irresponsible to permit the obsolete and grossly deficient 1958 legislation to remain in force indefinitely whilst fine-tuning of the 1997 Bill occurred, that the Bill (which was on the cusp of passage by the Assembly) should therefore be enacted, and that remaining divergences from the national scheme should be addressed afterwards. A further consideration was that semi-automatic firearms had been prohibited imports since as long ago as 1983, and remained so. The Bill was accordingly assented to in October 1997.9
An amending Bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly in 1998 following further discussions with the Commonwealth, but appears to have been initially defeated in November. In December 1998, regulations were made under the Firearms Act 1997 (Norfolk Island) and then in March 1999, amendments to the Act successfully passed the Assembly and were assented to on 25 March 1999. The Commonwealth Bill dealt with in this Digest was introduced into the Senate 6 days later.
One witness from Norfolk Island who supported the Bill asserted that there was the equivalent of one registered gun to each person on the Island and many more unregistered
firearms, although he said it was 'not possible to verify these figures'.10 A witness from the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department said she was aware:
that there would be anecdotally that level of gun ownership…There is at least one very large collection on the island…yes, I am aware that there is a high level of gun ownership.11
In October 1997 the responsible NIG Minister wrote to the Commonwealth and said:
There has not, to my knowledge, been a single incident since the Pitcairn Islanders arrived here in 1856, of violence or robbery involving use of a firearm. There is no ability to export semi-automatic rifles from Norfolk Island, nor to import them into Norfolk Island, nor to sell or transfer them in Norfolk Island.12
The witness for the Commonwealth quoted above conceded that:
there is no more concern about unlawful use of firearms on Norfolk Island than in any other Australian jurisdiction. In fact, I think that we have to put that in the context of what is really quite a low crime level on Norfolk Island.13
Main Provisions
The operative amendments are contained in Schedule 1 of the Bill, which contains amendments to the Principal Act.
Deputy Administrator The Deputy Administrator of Norfolk Island holds what is known as a 'dormant commission'. An individual, conventionally a relatively junior Commonwealth public servant, is appointed once to fill the position from time to time as the need arises, when necessary duties can be fulfilled neither by an Administrator nor by an Acting Administrator. At present, the Deputy Administrator is appointed by Commission by the Governor-General, thereby entailing the involvement of the Cabinet and Executive Council. Item 1 of Schedule 1 would permit instead the Commonwealth Minister to appoint the Deputy Administrator by written instrument.
The Deputy Administrator currently takes an oath or affirmation before any one of a defined list of individuals including the Governor-General or the Governor-General's appointee. That list will remain the same except that item 3 means that it will now include the Minister or the Minister's appointee, and not include the Governor-General and his or her appointee. Item 2 is consequential on item 3.
Citizenship as a Requirement of Holding Office Section 38 of the Principal Act presently sets out the eligibility requirements which candidates for election to the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly must meet at the time of nomination. In its original form, as passed in 1979, the Principal Act additionally required that candidates be an Australian citizen or otherwise have the status of a British subject. This additional requirement was removed by the Commonwealth Parliament by amendment in 1985. Item 5 will reintroduce a requirement that in future candidates be Australian citizens, although this time there is no additional eligibility as a British subject.
Once elected, a member of the Legislative Assembly is subject to disqualification on a number of grounds, which are set out in section 39 of the Principal Act. Consistent with the policy intent of item 5, item 7 will see a member's office become vacant if he or she ceases to be an Australian citizen.
Item 8 clarifies that item 7 will not prejudice a member's term of office already underway when item 7 commences, if they are not or cease to be an Australian citizen, but it will operate to disqualify members who are not Australian citizens from the next election onwards.
Citizenship and Residency as Requirements of the Right to Vote At present, the Principal Act does not prescribe the eligibility requirements for a person's name to be entered on the Norfolk Island electoral roll. Local legislation passed by the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly, the Legislative Assembly Act 1979 (Norfolk Island), requires a prescribed period of presence on the Island in the period leading up to attempted enrolment (and re-enrolment upon return to the Island after an absence or after serving a term of imprisonment). Item 9 (consisting of proposed sections 39A-39D) will incorporate but also to some extent contradict and over-rule that local legislation.
Proposed section 39A requires that a person seeking enrolment be at least 18, an Australian citizen and 'ordinarily resident' on Norfolk Island in the previous 6 months. Re-enrolment after an absence from the Island or imprisonment for at least a year is possible, if the person is an Australian citizen and was present on the Island for 150 of the last 240 days prior to enrolment. A person under imprisonment for one year or longer for a Commonwealth, State or Territory offence cannot enrol during their period of imprisonment. A person who ceases to be an Australian citizen after commencement of item 9 must be removed from the roll (see proposed section 39C).
Enrolment permits a person to vote at Legislative Assembly elections (see proposed section 39B).
The voting rights of those already on the roll (and who for example may not be Australian citizens) are preserved by item 10 which says the eligibility requirements will only apply to enrolment applications made after commencement of item 9. The effect of item 10 on proposed section 39C, however, is ambiguous. Will an Australian citizen already enrolled
when item 9 commences lose their enrolment if he or she subsequently ceases to be an Australian citizen?
Firearms Legislation As noted in the Background to this Digest, the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly was granted the power14 to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Norfolk Island subject to certain restrictions set out in the Principal Act. The conditional or partial form of self-government granted to Norfolk Island under the Principal Act found expression, amongst other things, in section 21 which sets out on whose advice and instructions the Administrator of Norfolk Island must act when considering whether to give assent to laws passed by the Legislative Assembly. If the law relates to a Schedule 2 matter, the Administrator must act on the advice of the Norfolk Island Government. If the law involves a Schedule 3 matter the Commonwealth Minister can issue over-riding instructions to the Administrator. Schedule 2 sets out a list of 93 matters (42 when the Principal Act was passed in 1979), while Schedule 3 lists 10 matters (up from 4 in 1979).
Items 11 and 12 remove 'firearms' and 'ammunition' from Schedule 2 and item 13 adds them to Schedule 3. This gives the Commonwealth Minister direct leverage over the laws passed by the Assembly dealing with firearms and ammunition, a matter which has assumed significance in the wake of the Port Arthur murders in April 1996 and consequent changes to Commonwealth legislation and policies designed to achieve uniform national standards.
There appears to be a difference of interpretation between the Commonwealth and the Norfolk Island Government as to whether, in the absence of instructions from the Commonwealth Minister about a Schedule 3 law, the Administrator simply acts on the advice of the Norfolk Island Government or must first seek instructions from the Commonwealth before assenting or withholding assent to legislation.15
Other Amendments Items 4 and 6 are minor grammatical amendments.
Items 14 to 17 replace the masculine pronoun with gender-neutral language.
Concluding Comments
The Limits of Self Government These Concluding Comments will deal in turn with the citizenship and residency proposals for enrolment and entitlement to stand as a candidate for the Legislative
Assembly, as well as the proposed changes regarding firearms legislation and the Deputy Administrator. The same vein of controversy, however, runs through each issue and it is that recurrent theme which is dealt with here first.
That theme can be summarised as a dispute over the boundary between local autonomy and national standards.16 Expressed that way, it is a well-recognised source of political argument in Australia, given its federal structure and extremely large landmass. Resentment at 'interference by Canberra' in 'the way things are done around here' is a familiar refrain, particularly the further one travels from the Australian Capital Territory. The same dispute frequently arises in indigenous affairs. The distinctive history of Norfolk Island, going right back to the mutiny on the Bounty, as well as its particular geographic isolation as an island 1500 kilometres from the east coast of the Australian mainland has contributed to a fairly intense localism evident in the NIG's dealings with the Commonwealth. Commonwealth agencies, themselves, seem quite ready to concede that Norfolk Island is appropriately described as 'unique'.17
Leaving aside an undercurrent of secessionist sentiment which has occasionally surfaced but which the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, for example, sought to downplay to the SLCLC as a minority view,18 the debate over the Bill so far has centred around the legitimate boundaries of self government for this unique polity within the context of a continuing constitutional relationship with Australia.
The NIG places heavy emphasis on the theme of continuous devolution and steady progress to full self government which it identifies as being at the heart of the Principal Act. For example, it points to Minister Ellicott's Second Reading Speech when the Principal Act was introduced into the Commonwealth Parliament in 1978:
This Bill…will confer on the Island residents the opportunity to become increasingly involved in their own affairs…The Government intends to review these arrangements over the next five years and to increase the scope of the Legislative Assembly's powers as may be appropriate.19
In its submission to the SLCLC, the NIG says that 65 years of Commonwealth administration left large areas of social policy untended (such as social security, workers' compensation, planning and environment regulation, revenue raising and criminal justice) whereas considerable progress has been made by the Legislative Assembly on all these fronts since 1979:
The Norfolk Island Government believes this shows that, by and large, self-government is likely to be good government. Certainly it is to be preferred to faltering attempts by the unelected to cope with complex issues by means of a form of remote control.20
Instead of progressive devolution, the NIG sees the Bill, however, as evidence of regression to central control, a 'confrontational and provocative'21 course of action pursued
by an administration in Canberra insensitive to the needs and aspirations of Norfolk Islanders:
The amendments, if passed, will damage self-government. They will adversely affect the Island's self-identity, and lead to a wholly unnecessary dispute over the Island's fundamental status. They will result in the disenfranchisement of a significant minority of the population. They will also achieve Departmental ideological and administrative objectives, which have been nursed in bureaucratic recesses over the years.22
As evidence of a shift away from devolution within the Commonwealth, the NIG asserts that:
ï· all electoral legislation (including the abolition of a citizenship requirement for enrolment in 1985) has either been introduced or assented to by successive Commonwealth Governments but features of the local franchise are now described as 'anomalies'
ï· the present Bill is 'the first occasion since 1979 on which unwanted, unwarranted and provocative amendments to the Island's governing instrument…have been introduced into the Federal Parliament',23 and
ï· the Commonwealth has shown summary disregard for successive results in referenda held on the Island regarding proposed electoral changes by the Commonwealth.
Attempts by the Commonwealth to justify measures by reference to other External Territories are typically regarded as a bureaucratic reflex response betraying an intolerance or disregard for relevant difference.
The NIG submission to the SLCLC goes beyond criticism of the Bill and proposes, instead, a strategy designed to achieve its objective of further devolution and enhanced self-government. It is also noteworthy that following the 12 May 1999 referendum on electoral changes which registered a 71% 'No' vote (discussed further below), the Senate called on the Government 'to enter into formal negotiations with the Government of Norfolk Island in view of the referendum result'.24
The issue of process has also attracted controversy. The NIG has referred to the 'antagonism' created by Commonwealth decisions to act without consultation.25 In particular, they said that despite extensive contact over other elements of the Bill there was no consultation over the proposal regarding the Deputy Administrator before the decision was announced in a letter sent the month before the Bill's introduction.26 Similarly, after the demise of an earlier proposal to include citizenship as a requirement of the franchise, there was no consultation prior to a Cabinet decision in 1998 to revive the measure. The Norfolk Island Government has commented:
Given the controversial previous history of the proposal, this is surprising.27
10 Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999
The Commonwealth Grants Commission, reporting on Norfolk Island in late 1997, acknowledged that:
In general, it can be said that, with the exception of the Territories Office, Commonwealth agencies do not give sufficient thought to Norfolk, the third self governing Territory in the Commonwealth, and it is often considered, if at all, either by implication or as an afterthought…
The Territories Office have little contact with the Members of the Norfolk Island Assembly and tend to work through the Administrator and a small number of Norfolk Island's senior public servants. While the Territories Office staff cannot always express a Commonwealth Government opinion, we think there would be benefits if they could have a more open approach in their dealings with the people on Norfolk Island. On the Island's part, there may well be unrealistic expectations of what is feasible or what degree of priority can be given by the Commonwealth to Norfolk Island issues. For whatever reason, there is evidently a fair amount of mistrust on both sides and it is making the administration of the Island more difficult than it need be.28
In its main findings, the Grants Commission noted the 'need for improved communication between the Commonwealth and Norfolk Island Governments'.29
The Commonwealth Government's position on the appropriate degree of self government for Norfolk Island is not dealt with in the Explanatory Memorandum, and is referred to only briefly in the Second Reading Speech where it says the Principal Act introduced 'a form of self-government' and:
By way of comparison, the Norfolk Island model of self-government is broadly similar to that of the Northern Territory.30
The most detailed exposition of the Commonwealth's position is found in the Minister's response to the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, where he made the following points:
ï· like other External and mainland Territories, Norfolk Island will remain an integral part of the Commonwealth of Australia
ï· the Commonwealth Government 'remains open to realistic proposals' from the NIG for the enhancement of internal self government, subject to improvements in revenue raising.31
A major pillar of the Commonwealth's argument for the citizenship requirement in relation to elections is equality across the Commonwealth. It has promoted the combined citizenship/residency proposal for the franchise as giving Australian citizens the same electoral rights they enjoy in every other jurisdiction, and justified the phasing out of non-citizen voting by asserting that Norfolk Island is the only State or Territory legislature where non-Australian citizens are entitled to vote and stand for election. In dismissing the relevance of local referenda on electoral changes, the Minister has said that:
Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999 11
The rights of Australian citizens are national issues for determination by the Federal Parliament, not the subject of local plebiscites by small community groupings, especially where (a) not all resident Australians are permitted to vote and (b) non citizen residents can vote on an essentially national issue.32
It may be noted that there is some support for the Commonwealth's proposals amongst Norfolk Island residents, and more generally shades of opinion which place much greater emphasis on the constitutional integration of the Island into the Commonwealth of Australia. One witness before the SLCLC inquiry suggested that hostility to 'Canberra' may stem from more than a hankering for political autonomy:
I wonder whether it was the independence movement or when the Commonwealth, and rightly so, stepped in and stopped the tax avoidance and the bottom-of-the-harbour schemes. We still have members who operated those schemes as residents on the island, and some of them are violently anti-Australian. As a matter of fact, some of them have been elected to the assembly over the years.33
Election results for the Legislative Assembly since 1979 and the outcomes of referenda on Commonwealth electoral proposals (despite some legitimate criticisms of the way questions have been framed) tend, however, to indicate that the preference for localism over centralism is quite widespread amongst long term Island residents.
This brief survey vindicates the NIG's submission that there exists 'a consistent tension between, on the one hand, a continuing Island effort to preserve the unique nature of the polity and, on the other, a continuing metropolitan endeavour to remove 'anomalies' by treating the Island as if it were an integral part of Australia'.34
Firearms Legislation Norfolk Island's compliance with the National Agreement on Firearms was canvassed at some length with witnesses appearing before the SLCLC inquiry into the Bill, but it is difficult to discern precisely where matters stand at present. The Norfolk Island Government asserted that the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department 'signed off' on the Island's amendments leaving 'a number of minor matters that still need to be included in the regulations to bring the current Norfolk Island legislation into line with the legislation as approved by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's (sic) in August 1998'. The NIG alleged that 'a raft of new issues' was then raised by the Commonwealth in April 1999 (after introduction of the Bill) which if they had been raised in April 1998 'would have been resolved by now'.35 The Deputy Speaker of the Island's Assembly said that 'there is really no dispute between the Norfolk Island government and the Australian government'.36
Representatives of the Commonwealth agreed that while some of the outstanding differences are 'significant in the sense that they are necessary':
In terms of what needs to be done to remedy it, I think I would agree that they are minor.37
Category C firearms - semiautomatic weapons, of which there are 'quite a number on Norfolk Island at the moment' according to the Commonwealth - are apparently the major outstanding issue.38 The responsible Commonwealth official asserted that the Act passed in March 1999 and the regulations made in December 1998 were not the same as the laws 'ticked off' by the Commonwealth but was not able to elaborate on the differences and the NIG appeared to contradict this evidence.39 The Commonwealth official disclaimed knowledge of why the two governments appeared to be in an impasse when the NIG had indicated a commitment to full compliance.40
In short, there appears to be some confusion over whether the remaining deficiencies in Norfolk Island firearms legislation had been brought to the NIG's attention before the Commonwealth signalled its intention on 25 March 1999 that the Bill would move firearms and ammunition to Schedule 3 of the Principal Act. If it had not, this would tend to undercut the Commonwealth's case for giving the Commonwealth Minister a direct veto over firearms legislation made on the Island and to vindicate the NIG's case that self government is being wound back. If it had, it would give some support to the Commonwealth's argument for greater leverage over this category of legislation.
It is worth noting that the firearms issue appears to have brought to the surface an important difference of opinion over the role of the NIG in relation to Schedule 3 matters. The Second Reading Speech to the Bill asserts that in considering assent to Schedule 3 laws, the Administrator must first obtain the instructions of the Commonwealth Minister for Territories.41 It may be that this goes too far, and that in light of sections 7 and 21, the Administrator must act on the advice of the Executive Council of Norfolk Island, subject to over-riding instructions from the Commonwealth Minister if any are forthcoming. The NIG objects to the assertion in the Second Reading Speech, but itself may go too far in insisting that contrary instructions must 'first' arrive from the Commonwealth Minister.42 The combined effect of sections 7 and 21 in relation to assent to Schedule 3 laws appears ambiguous.
Appointment of the Deputy Administrator By comparison with the detailed submission on this issue put to the SLCLC inquiry by the NIG, the Commonwealth has done little to set out on the public record the merits of its case for this proposal in the Bill. The Second Reading Speech and the Explanatory Memorandum make the same two points: 'the appointment of a comparatively junior Commonwealth officer to an essentially dormant commission does not warrant the attention of the Governor-General'43 and appointment by the Territories Minister is consistent with the situation in the other two major External Territories, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Island.
The NIG opposes the amendment on both technical and broader political grounds. It says that in practice Acting Administrators - next in the hierarchy below the Administrator - are rarely appointed, so that in the absence of the Administrator it will frequently be the Deputy Administrator who 'has and may exercise and perform all the powers and functions of the Administrator',44 and that on occasions this has been for as long as three and four month periods. Next, it says that the Administrator (and those acting in the position) must perform important functions, such as forming an opinion as to the characterisation of a law as coming within Schedule 2, 3 or neither. It thus questions what it sees as the implication by the Commonwealth that the office is of little significance.
The NIG challenges other aspects of the Commonwealth's case. It says no evidence of inconvenience arising from the appointment process has been demonstrated,45 and notes that as a 'dormant commission' the appointment procedures need only be operated once for an individual to hold the office, which can then be activated and returned to dormancy as required - that is, it is not a matter of troubling the Governor-General and Executive Council every time a Deputy Administrator is required to act. The NIG also demonstrates that there is no uniformity of practice across Australia's Territories and asserts that the argument for consistency is therefore 'both pointless…and baseless'.46 The NIG draws particular attention to the Northern Territory, which the Commonwealth itself has invoked as enjoying a broadly similar form of self government. The NIG says that the Northern Territory Government has a far greater say in the appointment of the Administrator and it is the Administrator who appoints the Deputy Administrator. It notes that the previous Commonwealth Government had foreshadowed a change to the Administrator's office including a greater local say over appointments.47 To the NIG, the assumption of Ministerial control over appointments to the Deputy Administrator's position is incompatible with 'the longer term aim that such appointments should be devolved to the Norfolk Island Government in the process to achieve self-government'.48 Finally the NIG notes that a precedent exists, in that consultation over Supreme Court judges takes place with the Executive Council by virtue of section 53 of the Principal Act.
The Commonwealth has indicated recently its view on the broader issues raised by the NIG submission:
Besides his vice regal activities the Administrator is the most senior Commonwealth representative in the Territory and discharges functions on behalf of the Commonwealth. It would be inappropriate for the Norfolk Island Government to participate directly in the appointment of the Norfolk Island Administrator.49
Residency and Citizenship and the Rights to Vote and Stand for Election
The electoral proposals in the Bill have generated the most controversy on Norfolk Island. In 1991 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs recommended that Australian citizenship be phased in as a requirement for voting
and standing for election to the Legislative Assembly. That Committee considered that the residency requirement imposed by local law 'should remain unchanged'.50 This Bill would propose the same form of phased-in citizenship requirements (the right to vote of currently enrolled non-Australian citizens to be preserved, with citizenship requirements for candidature to operate from the next election), but differs in that it would also significantly reduce and alter the residency requirement for enrolment.
The then Commonwealth Government pursued the citizenship issue with the NIG from October 1990 onwards, but it met vigorous opposition and the proposal did not proceed.51 The NIG has also drawn attention to the fact that it was Commonwealth legislation which abolished citizenship requirements for membership of the Assembly in 198552 when references to 'British subjects' were being removed from various statutes (a like amendment was made by the Assembly to the local law governing enrolment). The Commonwealth's position now appears to be that the 1985 changes overshot the mark and created 'anomalies'. The NIG demonstrated however that at the time the Commonwealth clearly considered the alternatives of requiring Australian citizenship or abolishing a citizenship requirement altogether, and noted that the latter option 'would be consistent with the practice generally for local government, and perhaps better suited to Island circumstances'.53 An adviser to the NIG put it this way:
The situation is that the Commonwealth has approved of every electoral law change in Norfolk Island that has ever been made. Not only that, it invited the present situation to come about in correspondence in 1984 and 1985 when it gave the very option to the Norfolk Island authorities, which was adopted, of the abolition of the citizenship requirement.54
The Main Arguments
The essence of the NIG argument is that a significant period of continuous residence on the Island is the appropriate threshold requirement, given Norfolk Island's distinctive character, and that Australian citizenship, given the long-term demographics of the Island, its geographical distance from the mainland and its highly developed form of self government, is not a relevant criterion. It also argues that the pool of eligible candidates for the Assembly, already small, will be significantly reduced. The NIG is also concerned that reducing the residency requirement for enrolment from 2 and a half years in the last 3, down to 6 months, will permit a number of transient Australian citizens to swamp a small electorate, as a constituency neither well versed in the distinctive ways of the Island nor committed to its long term interests.
The essence of the Commonwealth argument is one of equality across the Commonwealth. The Minister has written:
The aim of the legislation is to confer the same rights and responsibilities for voting on Australian citizens, ordinarily resident on Norfolk Island, as Australian citizens have elsewhere in Australia. While Norfolk Island enjoys a special role and form of
self-governance, there is no reason why voting and electoral eligibility should be different to the rest of the nation.55
The NIG has responded to the equality argument by asserting that the franchise in the Commonwealth of Australia, by requiring citizenship, necessitates a minimum 2 years residency in Australia in the last 5 years which it says is comparable to the Norfolk Island requirement of 2 years and 5 months in the last 4 years. In turn, the Commonwealth rejects this argument, arguing that it implies Australia is somehow a foreign country for citizenship purposes whereas the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 has applied in Norfolk Island since its commencement.
The other main argument put forward by the Commonwealth for the citizenship requirement is that it is 'a generally accepted tenet of representational government world wide, that the voters and elected representatives in a nation are citizens of the nation'.56 In evidence to the SLCLC the NIG disputed this contention, claiming that its research through the Inter-Parliamentary Union revealed that:
no less than 18 countries identified by the IPU do not require national citizenship as a precondition for voting in parliamentary elections. These countries include the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Argentina, Germany and Ireland.57
According to the NIG's submission on the Bill, the Commonwealth suggested in a letter in March 1998:
Any practical problems could be overcome by dual citizenship, '…since Australian law does not require a person to renounce any other citizenship on assuming Australian citizenship'. So far as New Zealanders were concerned, 'the New Zealand High Commission has confirmed that a New Zealand-born person who acquires Australian citizenship can retain his or her New Zealand citizenship'.58
The Minister had quoted, in the same letter, a Committee finding which talked, in the context of the Commonwealth Parliament of 'the need to ensure that the primary loyalty of a member…is to Australia and to prevent subversion by foreign governments'. The NIG has posed a powerful counter-argument to the suggested solution of taking out dual citizenship, which it said is 'contrary to the principles said to underly the measures proposed in the Bill':
if citizenship is required as a demonstration of commitment and allegiance, then what commitment is demonstrated by the holding of dual or multiple citizenship?59
In assessing the Norfolk Island Government's position on the citizenship issue, it is relevant that the current Chief Minister of the NIG is a New Zealand citizen, as are 2 of the other 8 Members of the Assembly, and, under the proposed changes, they would be ineligible for re-election unless they obtain Australian citizenship before the next poll. It is also relevant to note that the Chief Minister made no attempt to conceal this in evidence to the SLCLC and indeed volunteered the information.60
On the relaxation of the residency requirement for enrolment, the Commonwealth Minister has said that the qualifying period for enrolment on Norfolk Island 'far exceeds the one month that applies to the Commonwealth and in all States and Territories on the mainland. Tasmania has a qualifying period of 6 months'.61 The NIG's position is that only those with a demonstrable long-term commitment to the Island should participate in its governance. It also objected on technical grounds that the expression 'ordinarily resident' which appears in proposed paragraph 39A(1)(c) is 'notoriously slippery' and had been rejected in the past by the Legislative Assembly in favour of a quantitative formula.62
Opinion on Norfolk Island
One submission from the Island suggested there had been 'very few complaints' against the current electoral system.63 The 1991 report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs said that it had received 'some suggestions' that the qualifying period of residency was too long.64 A recent letter to the local newspaper, The Norfolk Islander, from a Norfolk Island resident of Pitcairn descent who spent 22 years on the mainland working for the Defence Forces supported the introduction of a citizenship requirement and called for the the qualifying period to be significantly reduced.65 One witness before the SLCLC inquiry, who was born on the Island in 1920 and supports the Bill, submitted that without a citizenship requirement, only two more non-citizen Members would create a majority of five who he claimed would:
have no allegiance whatsoever to Australia or are even perhaps hostile to Australia. Such a situation could have very serious repercussions in Australia as well as on Norfolk Island.66
The Chief Minister responded to this submission by saying that the movement for independence was not strong and the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly added that:
The vast majority of people in Norfolk Island want to do what we are doing now, and that is to move along this path to self government in which we look after own affairs and in which the Commonwealth does not conduct excursions such as the Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999 demonstrates…While these issues are around, they are not the main thrust.67
A number of individual submissions from the Island to the SLCLC inquiry echoed the NIG's opposition to the electoral measures, while two brief submissions were lodged, one with a number of signatories, in support of the Bill.
The NIG has been keen to stress that, while some support for the Bill exists on the Island, its own opposition to the Bill represents by far the weight of Island opinion. In particular it has stressed the outcome of successive referenda about electoral and constitutional issues conducted on the Island, twice in 1991 and then in August 1998 and May 1999. In the first three cases, what could loosely be called an anti-Commonwealth 'No' vote registered around 80%. Criticisms have been levelled at the way referendum questions have been
worded, and they have some validity. The most recent referendum in May this year posed a far more specific question:
"Do you agree with the Australian Federal Government's proposal to alter the Norfolk Island Act so that
(1) people who have been ordinarily resident in the island for 6 (six) months will in future be entitled to enrol on the electoral roll for Legislative Assembly elections; and
(2) Australian citizenship will in future be required as a qualification to be elected to the Assembly, and as a qualification for people who in future apply for enrolment on the electoral roll for Assembly elections".
Three things can be said about this referendum. First, the question still combined two elements in one question, restricting the options of those whose views may have differed between parts 1 and 2. Second, at a time when a more specific question was posed in more neutral language, support for what might loosely be called the 'anti-Commonwealth' position dropped by a noticeable margin. Thirdly, however, the 'No' vote still exceeded 70% of the vote.
Third Party Opinion
The President of the Law Society of New South Wales wrote a brief submission to the SLCLC inquiry, which conveyed comments from Society officers 'experienced in constitutional and international law'. It said that the citizenship and residency proposals appeared 'non-democratic in effect', apparently abridging minority rights at international law and diminishing the 'existing political and cultural rights of the Norfolk Islanders in seeking to preserve their heritage while striving to attain a sustainable form of self government'.68
Technical Ambiguity Attention is drawn in the Main Provisions section of this Digest to an apparent ambiguity in Item 10 which may require clarification by amendment. One effect of item 9 appears to be that if a person who is currently an Australian citizen ceases to be one, their name will be removed from the electoral roll. Item 10, however, states that item 9 applies to a person who seeks enrolment after commencement of this Act. This could be interpreted as preserving the enrolment of a currently enrolled Australian citizen who later loses or renounces that citizenship.
It is not clear which outcome is intended.
1 Berwick Ltd v Gray (1976) 133 CLR 603.
2 This section draws mostly on historical summaries found in Commonwealth Grants Commission, Report on Norfolk Island, AGPS, 1997, pp. 14-16 and House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Islands in the Sun. The Legal Regimes of Australia's External Territories and the Jervis Bay Territory, AGPS, 1991, section 7.3.
3 An article published in The Norfolk Islander of 24 April 1999 attributed this quote to 'a United Nations document more than 20 years ago'.
4 The qualifications for enrolment are set out in section 6 of the Legislative Assembly Act 1979 (Norfolk Island). The basic residency requirement is that a person has been present on the Island for 900 days in the last 4 years prior to seeking enrolment. For those seeking re-enrolment after disqualification (eg a period of absence from the Island), the requirement is 150 days in the previous 240.
5 Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, Proof Committee Hansard, 5 July 1999, p. 7.
6 Subsection 19(2) of the Principal Act states that the power of the Legislative Assembly does not extend to the making of laws authorising the acquisition of property on other than just terms, euthanasia, the coining of money or the raising of a defence force.
7 The Hon. Robert Ellicott MP, Debates, House of Representatives, 23 November 1978, p. 3312, Second Reading Speech.
8 The Government of Norfolk Island ('NIG'), Submission No. 15 to Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999, pp. 23-25.
9 Ibid., p. 47.
10 Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, Proof Committee Hansard, 5 July 1999, p. 12.
11 Ibid., p. 18.
12 NIG, op.cit., p. 48.
14 Section 19 of the Norfolk Island Act 1979 ('the Principal Act').
15 See text at endnotes 41-42.
16 After reviewing the Island's constitutional history the NIG said: 'The common thread in this historical process has been a dynamism, or tension, arising from the equivocal nature of the Island's status. In general, mainland authorities have tended to espouse integration with Australian political units, whereas Islanders have consistently resisted such an approach. NIG, op.cit., p. 16.
17 See Commonwealth Grants Commission, op.cit., p. xiii and The Hon Alex Somlyay MP, Our Pacific Territories: Coalition Election Statement, Media Release, 30 September 1998 which
both use the word 'unique'. See also House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, op.cit., para 1.4.32.
18 Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, Proof Committee Hansard, 5 July 1999, pp. 22-23.
19 The Hon. Robert Ellicott MP, Debates, House of Representatives, 23 November 1978, p. 3311, Second Reading Speech.
20 NIG, op.cit., p. 3.
21 See Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Ninth Report of 1999, 26 May 1999 which includes the text of representations from the NIG.
22 NIG, op.cit., p. iii.
24 Motion on Norfolk Island Referendum agreed to, Debates, Senate, 25 May 1999, p. 5306.
25 Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, Proof Committee Hansard, 5 July 1999, p. 8.
28 Commonwealth Grants Commission, op.cit., p. 183.
29 Ibid., p. xvi.
30 Senator the Hon. Ian Macdonald, Debates, Senate, 31 March 1999, p. 3549, Second Reading Speech.
31 Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, op.cit.
36 Ibid., p. 4.
39 Ibid., p. 19 and 24.
43 Explanatory Memorandum, p. 3.
44 Subsection 9(2) of the Principal Act.
49 Question No. 717, Debates, Senate, 21 June 1999, p. 5889.
50 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, op.cit., para 7.12.4.
51 NIG, op.cit., pp. 11-12.
52 Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (No. 1) 1985.
55 Australian Financial Review, 9 April 1999.
56 The Norfolk Islander, 8 May 1999.
63 Mr Geoff Bennett, Submission No. 10 to Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999, p. 2.
64 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, op.cit., p. 221.
65 The Norfolk Islander, 3 April 1999.
68 President of the Law Society of New South Wales, Submission No. 11 to Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Norfolk Island Amendment Bill 1999.
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Justia Patents US Patent Application for Conditioner, Apparatus and Method Patent Application (Application #20160281751)
Conditioner, Apparatus and Method
Jun 10, 2016 - Cameron International Corporation
A flow conditioner for displacing and mixing fluid flow to minimize the effects of thermal gradients on the accuracy of a transit time ultrasonic flowmeter having a first portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe and extending inward toward the center of the pipe in a downstream direction with respect to the fluid flow relative to the pipe's inner surface. The conditioner has a second portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe and in juxtaposition with the first portion. The second portion extending inward toward the center of the pipe in an upstream direction with respect to the fluid flow relative to the pipe's inner surface. An apparatus for determining fluid flow in a pipe having ultrasonic transducer sites. A method for determining fluid flow in a pipe. A method for affecting fluid flow in a pipe.
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This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/683,958 filed Apr. 10, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,366,274, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/734,705 filed Jan. 4, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,003,895, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/925,558 filed Oct. 25, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,347,733 issued Jan. 8, 2013, all of which are incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention is related to displacing and mixing a thermal boundary layer in fluid flowing in a pipe before a transducer site in the pipe in which a transducer of an ultrasonic flow meter is disposed. (As used herein, references to the “present invention” or “invention” relate to exemplary embodiments and not necessarily to every embodiment encompassed by the appended claims.) More specifically, the present invention is related to displacing and mixing a thermal boundary layer in a laminar fluid flow in a pipe before a transducer site in the pipe in which a transducer of an ultrasonic flow meter is disposed with a first ramp and at least a second ramp in juxtaposition with the first ramp.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention. The following discussion is intended to provide information to facilitate a better understanding of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that statements in the following discussion are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Transit time ultrasonic flowmeters are capable of high accuracy performance over a wide range of application conditions. This has led to their adoption in applications such as custody transfer of liquid hydrocarbons. In the majority of applications, the combination of velocity, pipe diameter and viscosity are such that the flow is turbulent. Turbulent flow is characterized by the presence of turbulent vortices or ‘eddies’ that provide cross-stream mixing of the flow.
In some applications, such as the production and transportation of ‘heavy oil’, the fluid viscosity is greater than normal, with the result that the flow may be in the transitional or laminar regimes. Transitional flows typically occur in the region where Reynolds number is between 2,000 and 10,000. Laminar flows typically occur at Reynolds numbers below 2,000. In laminar conditions the flow essentially travels parallel to the axis of the conduit, with no cross-stream mixing. In the transitional flow regime the flow essentially switches back and forth between laminar and turbulent conditions.
When flow is in the laminar regime, the lack of turbulent mixing means that temperature gradients can form in the fluid. If, for example, the fluid flow entering a section of pipe is at a higher temperature than the pipe itself, then the fluid directly next to the pipe wall will be cooled to the temperature of the pipe wall, and a temperature gradient will develop between the wall and the centre of the pipe. The form of the temperature gradient will vary depending on factors such as the flow velocity, the temperature differential, the thermal conductivity of the fluid and distance along the conduit. Typically, in the applications of interest, the temperature will change rapidly in a region close to the pipe wall.
Transit time ultrasonic flowmeters operate by estimating flow velocity, and hence volumetric flowrate, by measuring the flight time of ultrasonic pulses. For applications that demand high accuracy, normally the ultrasonic transducers are installed in a housing that is integrated into a pipe spool such that the face of the housing is at an angle (typically 45°) to the pipe axis. A further aspect of flow meter design typical for high-accuracy applications, is that the transducer housing will not protrude beyond the inside wall of the conduit. As such a cavity is formed in front of the housing, and the ultrasound passes through the fluid in this cavity before traversing the cross-section of the conduit and passing through a second cavity in front of the receiving transducer. When the fluid between the faces of the two transducer housings is homogenous and isothermal, the ultrasound essentially travels in a straight path. However, when thermal gradients exist in laminar flow conditions, the fluid trapped in the cavities will take on the pipe wall temperature. As the velocity of sound is a function of temperature, the result is that the ultrasound must now undergo refraction as it travels from one transducer to the other. This means that instead of traveling along a path that is straight and constant, the path taken by the ultrasound is now a function of the process fluid, temperature and flow conditions.
Even in the case where the transducers are mounted external to the conduit, such as in so called clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeters, the presence of a thermal gradient will result in additional refraction of the ultrasonic path such that it will be different from assumptions applied in the flow meter's calculation algorithm.
Fluid flow meters are often deployed with some form of upstream flow conditioning device. In general these are deployed in order to remove non-axial components of flow velocity and/or to reshape the velocity profile across the pipe. Examples are tube bundles (FIG. 1a) and vane-type conditioners (FIG. 1b) which predominately aim to remove non-axial flow components by subdividing the flow into channels which are longer in the direction of the pipe axis than they are in cross-section, thus breaking up large vortices and increasing the tendency of the flow to travel parallel to the pipe axis.
Perforated plate flow conditioners are designed with the intent of both removing non-axial flows and reshaping the axial velocity profile. This is achieved by using perforations in a plate that divide the flow into a series of jets as illustrated in FIG. 2. The flow is redistributed as a result of the pressure differential across the plate and turbulent mixing of the jets downstream of the plate produces a flow velocity distribution that is essentially uniform and free of bulk non-axial flow components.
Tab-type flow conditioners such as the proprietary Vortab device, use tabs 1 to generate large vortices that mix the flow, destroying any bulk non-axial flow components that exist upstream and redistributing the axial velocity profile. These vortices then dissipate downstream so that the velocity field presented to the meter is improved relative to disturbed conditions that may exist upstream of the device. An example of a tab type conditioner is shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b.
None of these devices were developed for application to laminar flow, or the particular problem of thermal gradients at the boundary. They are normally deployed in turbulent flow conditions, for the purposes described above, or sometimes for mixing. As such they are deficient in addressing the particular problem at hand. Tube bundle and vane conditioners are not designed to mix the flow or disturb the boundary layer, and hence have little impact on the thermal boundary layer as it passes through. In the case of plate and tab-type conditioners, although these can be used for mixing in turbulent flow conditions, they are ineffective at solving the problem of thermal gradients at the boundary in laminar flows. This is because (1) there are areas where the boundary layer flow can pass through relatively unaffected, and (2) in laminar flows when the boundary layer becomes separated from the wall, it tends to reattach in such a way that the thermal gradient is largely preserved.
This can be illustrated with reference to a tab-type conditioner. A conventional tab-type conditioner has a group of four tabs at each of a number of locations spaced along the axis of the conduit as illustrated in FIGS. 3a and 3b. Looking down the conduit, the tabs 1 from each group are aligned with one another as shown in FIG. 3a. Therefore, in the zones 2 between the tabs, the boundary layer at the wall can pass through undisturbed, as shown in FIG. 3a. Furthermore, when the laminar boundary layer 3 is forced off the wall by the presence of a tab, it reattaches downstream, creating a recirculation zone or dead zone 4 behind the tab. This is illustrated in FIG. 4 for a single tab in two-dimensional form. The fluid trapped in the zone behind the tab will take on the temperature of the boundary layer 3 and hence a thermal gradient will still be present in the reattached boundary layer 5.
Another related field is the mixing of two fluids or the homogenization of a single fluid in a conduit, the latter including application to temperature redistribution in heat exchangers. In laminar flow conditions, static mixers are known that are made up of arrays of planar or curved blades. These blades are combined in assemblies, with blades arranged alternatively in two or more planes, these planes typically being at 45° to the conduit axis and 90° to one another, as illustrated in FIGS. 5a and 5b. Additional planes of blades are often included in a single assembly as illustrated in FIG. 6. In a single assembly, all of the blades are parallel with respect to one another (e.g. horizontal or vertical). For more effective mixing, this type of mixer may be comprised of several sub-assemblies with the blades of one subassembly at a different angle to another subassembly as shown in FIGS. 7a and 7b. It is characteristic of these mixers that the blades extend completely across the conduit and when viewed looking down the axis of the conduit, they leave no unobstructed area for straight-through passage of laminar flow (e.g. FIG. 5a).
The invention described in this document is used to alter the flow conditions in a conduit such that an ultrasonic flow meter can perform more accurately in the laminar flow regime. The flow is conditioned by displacing and mixing the fluid at the periphery of the conduit such that a thermal gradient that exists directly next to the wall of the conduit is substantially eliminated. This in turn results in a more consistent relationship between the ultrasonic transit times measured by the flowmeter and actual rate of flow.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING
In the accompanying drawings, the preferred embodiment of the invention and preferred methods of practicing the invention are illustrated in which:
FIG. 1A shows a prior art tube bundle.
FIG. 1B shows a prior art vane straightener.
FIG. 2 shows a prior art perforated plate conditioner.
FIGS. 3A and 3B show a prior art tab type conditioner.
FIG. 4 shows a single tab and its effect on a laminar boundary layer in fluid flow.
FIGS. 5A and 5B show prior art plates of a static mixer.
FIG. 6 shows prior art blades of a static mixer with additional blades compared to FIG. 5.
FIGS. 7A and 7B show a static mixer of the prior art with several subassemblies with the blades of one subassembly in a different angle to another subassembly.
FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C and 8D show the effect of ramps on the boundary layer of fluid flow.
FIG. 9 shows a side view of a cross-section of an apparatus of the present invention.
FIGS. 10A, 10B, 10C show a transducer housing for transmitting ultrasound into a fluid.
FIGS. 11A and 11B show ramps forming different configurations.
FIG. 12 shows the effects of an outward sloping ramp and an inward sloping ramp on the fluid flow.
FIGS. 13A and 13B show ramps in juxtaposition to each other in different relationships.
FIG. 14 shows a first array of ramps and a second array of ramps downstream of the first array of ramps.
FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D show ramps extending up and down from a shared plateau.
FIGS. 16A, 16B and 16C show ramps that are supported by a central brace.
FIGS. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D, 17E and 17F show ramps of different cross-sections.
FIG. 18 shows ramps at multiple locations along a pipe's periphery.
FIG. 19 shows a photograph of a conditioner of the present invention.
FIG. 20 is a graph showing meter factor as a function of Reynolds number and temperature without the conditioner of the present invention.
FIG. 21 is a graph showing meter factor as a function of Reynolds number and temperature with the conditioner of the present invention.
FIG. 22 shows a conditioner of the present invention.
FIG. 23 shows a portion of a pipe with a conditioner of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to similar or identical parts throughout the several views, and more specifically to FIGS. 9, 13a and 13b thereof, there is shown a flow conditioner 10 for displacing and mixing fluid flow that defines an envelope 12 in a cross sectional direction in a pipe 14. The pipe may have transducer sites or recesses 24 for transducers of an ultrasonic flow meter 16, or the transducers may be external transducers such as used in clamp-on type meters disposed on the outside of the pipe 14, or transducers where the cavity is filled with another material. Alternatively, and more generally, the conditioner may be used with a pipe in applications that do not utilize flow meters.
The conditioner comprises a first ramp 18 adapted to be disposed in the pipe 14 and extending from the outside of the envelope 12 inward toward the center of the pipe 14 in a downstream direction with respect to the fluid flow and forming an angle between 0° and 90° relative to the pipe's inner surface 20. The conditioner comprises a second ramp 22 adapted to be disposed in the pipe 14 and in juxtaposition with the first ramp 18. The second ramp 22 extends from the outside of the envelope 12 inward toward the center of the pipe 14 in an upstream direction with respect to the fluid flow and forms an angle between 0° and 90° relative to the pipe's inner surface 20. The first and second ramps 18, 22 are adapted to be positioned upstream of one of the transducer sites 24, in applications where transducer sites are present.
The flow conditioner 10 may include a flange 26, as shown in FIG. 22, having a face 28 which attaches to the pipe 14 and an opening 30 in the face 28 defined by an area through which fluid in the pipe 14 flows. The first and second ramps 18, 22 are attached to and extend from the face 28. The flange 26 is attached to the pipe 14 upstream of the transducer sites 24. The flow conditioner 10 may include a third ramp 32 adapted to be disposed in the pipe 14 and extending from the outside of the envelope 12 inward toward the center of the pipe 14 in a downstream direction with respect to the fluid flow and forming an angle between 0° and 90° relative to the pipe's inner surface 20. The conditioner may include a fourth ramp 34 adapted to be disposed in the pipe 14 and in juxtaposition with the third ramp 32. The fourth ramp 34 extends from the outside of the envelope 12 inward toward the center of the pipe 14 in an upstream direction with respect to the fluid flow and forms an angle between 0° and 90° relative to the pipe's inner surface 20. The third and the fourth ramps 32, 34 are attached to and extending from the face 28. FIG. 23 shows the conditioner positioned in the pipe 14.
The first ramp 18 and the second ramp 22 may be in spaced relationship with the third ramp 32 and the fourth ramp 34, respectively. The flow conditioner 10 may include a strip 38 and a fifth ramp 36 attached to and extending from the strip 38. The first ramp 18 is attached to and extends from the strip 38 with the strip 38 disposed between the first ramp 18 and the fifth ramp 36. The first ramp 18 may be in series with the second ramp 22 and the third ramp 32 may be in series with the fourth ramp 34. The first, second, third and fourth ramps 18, 22, 32, 34 may extend essentially up to a height of about ⅕ of the diameter of the pipe 14 from the inner surface 20 of the pipe 14.
In one embodiment the first ramp 18 is positioned alongside and in parallel with the second ramp 22. In another embodiment, the first, second, third and fourth ramps 18, 22, 32, 34 have a surface 40 exposed to the fluid flow which is flat. In yet another embodiment the first, second, third and fourth ramps 18, 22, 32, 34 have a surface 40 exposed to the fluid flow which is not flat, as shown in FIG. 17a-17f.
With reference to FIGS. 13a, 13b, 14, 15a-15d and 22, the first ramp 18 may have the second ramp 22 directly behind it or offset behind it, for instance offset the distance of about the width of the ramp to the side. Additional ramps may be positioned in parallel with the first ramp 18 and with the second ramp 22 in alternating fashion so there is a space of about the width of the ramp between ramps next to each other, with the series of ramps behind the first set of ramps aligned with the spaces between the first set of ramps, as shown in FIG. 22. The first set of ramps may extend upwards from the inner surface of the pipe 14 or the flange 26 with the second set of ramps extending downward to the inner surface of the pipe 14 or flange 26, with the first set of ramps essentially forming the upward slope of a hill and the second set of ramps forming the downward slope of the hill in regard to the direction of flow. The second ramp 22 may extend continuously from the first ramp 18, have a strip 38 between them, or have a space of from about one to two inches to about 1, 2, 4 or even 6 feet depending on the boundary conditions and flow.
The present invention pertains to an apparatus 11 for determining fluid flow in a pipe 14. As mentioned above the pipe has transducer sites that may or may not have transducer recesses 24. The apparatus 11 comprises an ultrasonic flow meter 16 having transducers that communicate with the fluid flow in the pipe 14. In an embodiment where there are transducer recesses 24 present, the transducers communicate with the fluid flow through the transducer recesses 24. The apparatus 11 comprises a flow conditioner 10 for displacing and mixing the fluid flow that defines an envelope 12 in a cross-sectional direction having a first ramp 18 disposed in the pipe 14 and extending from the outside of the envelope 12 inward toward the center of the pipe 14 in a downstream direction with respect to the fluid flow and forming an angle between 0° and 90° relative to the pipe's inner surface 20. The flow conditioner 10 has a second ramp 22 adapted to be disposed in the pipe 14 and in juxtaposition with the first ramp 18. The second ramp 22 extends from the outside of the envelope 12 inward toward the center of the pipe 14 in an upstream direction with respect to the fluid flow and forms an angle between 0° and 90° relative to the pipe's inner surface 20.
In an embodiment where transducer sites are present, the first and second ramps 18, 22 are adapted to be positioned upstream of one of the transducer sites 24. The flow conditioner 10 would typically be disposed a distance between 5 and 15 diameters of the pipe 14 upstream from the transducer sites 24, although the distance may be longer or shorter than between 5 and 15 diameters of the pipe 14, depending on the circumstances.
The present invention pertains to a method for determining fluid flow in a pipe 14. The pipe 14 may have a plurality of transducer sites 24. The method comprises the steps of displacing a thermal boundary layer in the fluid flow in proximity to the pipe's inner surface 20 with a first ramp 18 extending at an angle between 0° and 90° from the pipe's inner surface 20. In an embodiment where transducer sites are present, the first ramp 18 is disposed upstream from one transducer site of the plurality of transducer sites 24. There is the step of sending an ultrasonic signal from the transducer of an ultrasonic flow meter 16 into the fluid flow. If transducer recesses 14 are present, the transducer communicates with the fluid flow through the one recess. There is the step of displacing the thermal boundary layer in the fluid flow in proximity to the pipe's inner surface with a second ramp extending at an angle between 0° and 90° from the pipe's inner surface and in juxtaposition with the first ramp. There is the step of calculating the flow from the signal with the flow meter 16. There may be the step of displacing the thermal boundary layer with a second ramp 22 extending at an angle between 0° and 90° from the pipe's inner surface 20 and disposed in juxtaposition with the first ramp 18 and upstream of the transducer site.
The present invention pertains to a method for determining fluid flow in a pipe 14. The method comprises the steps of displacing a thermal boundary layer in the fluid flow in proximity to the pipe's inner surface 20 with a first ramp 18 extending at an angle between 0° and 90° from the pipe's inner surface 20. There is the step of displacing the thermal boundary layer with a second ramp 22 extending at an angle between 0° and 90° from the pipe's inner surface 20 and disposed in juxtaposition with the first ramp 18. Essentially, the first ramp 18 could be considered as pushing the fluid out from the inner surface 20 of the pipe 14 and the second ramp 22 pushing the fluid in towards the inner surface 20 of the pipe.
In the operation of the invention, the present invention is directed to a flow conditioning device, designed to improve the performance of ultrasonic flowmeters in laminar flow conditions. The device conditions the flow stream with an assembly of ramps designed to create radial movement to displace and mix the fluid at the wall of the conduit. Relative to the direction of flow through the conduit, the ramps slope either in towards the centre of the conduit, or out towards the wall of the conduit. The inward sloping ramps force the fluid in the boundary layer in towards the centre of the pipe 14, whereas the outward sloping ramps force fluid towards the wall to displace and mix with the boundary layer, as illustrated in FIGS. 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d.
The method of use involves placing the conditioner in a conduit upstream of the flow meter 16 to displace and partially mix the flow in the boundary layer. The distance between the conditioner and the flow meter 16 is long enough to reduce the hydraulic disturbance observed at the location of the flowmeter, but short enough to ensure that significant thermal gradients are not reestablished at the pipe wall in the intervening section of conduit. The conduit surrounding the conditioner, the flow meter 16 itself, and the connecting conduit between the conditioner and the flowmeter would preferably be insulated such that heat transfer between the outside and the contents of the pipe 14 is minimized. An illustration of the method of use is shown in FIG. 9. If desired, thermal insulation 51 may be utilized.
FIGS. 10a, 10b and 10c represent a transducer housing for transmitting ultrasound into a fluid as part of an ultrasonic flowmeter. The representation here is in two dimensions only. In reality the three dimensional geometry is generally more complex, involving a cylindrical conduit wall and cylindrical transducer housing. However, the simplified two-dimensional case serves well to illustrate the nature of the problem. In FIG. 10a, the temperature of the fluid is homogenous, and the ultrasound travels in a direction that is perpendicular to the face 28 of the transducer housing. In FIG. 10b, the pipe wall is hotter or colder than the fluid in the centre of the conduit. Therefore there is a layer of fluid next to the pipe wall that has a higher or lower temperature than the fluid at the centre of the pipe 14. This in turn results in the fluid in the cavity in front of the transducer being at the same temperature as the layer of fluid next to the pipe wall. Consequentially, the velocity of sound along the path of travel of the ultrasound is not constant and the ultrasound will undergo refraction, causing a change in path angle. This can be illustrated further by example. In reality the change in sound velocity would be continuous but here for the sake of simplicity it can be assumed an abrupt change in sound velocity occurs at a short distance from the pipe wall as this serves to illustrate the principles at work. Assume that the ultrasound leaves the transducer housing at an angle of 45° to the axis of the conduit, that the sound velocity of the fluid in the cavity is 1470 m/s and the sound velocity of the fluid in the centre of the conduit is 1463 m/s. This would correspond to a difference of approximately 2° C. in fluid temperature. From Snell's law we can calculate that the angle with respect to the pipe 14 axis will change to approximately 45.27°. This change in angle is significant in terms of high accuracy ultrasonic transit time flow measurement.
Now consider the case where the thermal boundary layer is displaced from the wall by means of a ramp. If the layer of fluid that is at a different temperature from the core is prevented from reattaching to the wall, as illustrated in FIG. 10c, then the transfer of heat between that layer and the rest of the fluid will be increased. Furthermore, the detachment of the layer from the wall allows the fluid in the cavity to retain the same temperature as the fluid in the centre of the conduit. Therefore, even if there is a thin layer of fluid of different temperature present in the stream, when it the ultrasound crosses the layer refraction occurs twice, and the angle of travel is only changed within the layer, as illustrated in FIG. 10c.
The above description shows that it is not necessary for the conditioner to completely homogenize the temperature distribution, it is sufficient to displace the boundary layer close to the wall. This means that ramp elements used in the invention do not need to extend to the centre of the pipe 14, and would typically be no more than one fifth of the conduit width in height, as illustrated in FIGS. 11a and 11b. As the elements do not block the central passage of the conduit, this leads to less pressure loss when compared with laminar flow mixers that are designed for the separate purpose of mixing the entire cross-section of the flow. This aspect of the invention is particularly advantageous when the application conditions span a wide range of flowrate and/or Reynolds number.
In order that boundary layer reattachment is prevented from occurring as described above and presented in FIG. 10c, it is necessary that inward and outward sloping ramps are deployed in combination. When deployed in this fashion, the fluid displaced towards the pipe wall by the outward sloping ramp is then channeled to the rear side of the inward sloping ramp as illustrated in FIG. 12, where the flow is into the page. This requires either deploying the ramps overlapping as illustrated in FIG. 13a or with the inward sloping ramps placed a short distance upstream of the outward sloping ramps as illustrated in FIG. 13b. In addition to the intended displacement of the fluid from the boundary layer, this configuration of ramps will also partially mix the fluid by inducing turning motions in the flow.
In some situations one array of alternating inward and outward sloping ramps may suffice. However, in other situations, such as creeping flow at very low Reynolds numbers in the laminar regime, it will be advantageous to have additional arrays of ramps placed downstream of the first array. Additional arrays can be advantageously positioned such that a second array of inward sloping ramps is positioned downstream of the first array of inward sloping ramps, such that the fluid that is displaced towards the pipe wall by the first array of outward sloping ramps is then displaced outwards by the second array. This arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 14. The width and angle of the ramps may be varied within the scope of the invention.
In addition to the simple versions shown in FIGS. 13a and 13b, the ramps may be constructed differently to achieve the same end. Examples include ramps extending up and down from a shared plateau such as shown FIGS. 15a, 15b, 15c and 15d or ramps that are supported by a central brace as shown in FIGS. 16a, 16b and 15c. Furthermore, the cross-section of the ramps could be in the form of a rectangular, v-shaped or curved channel, as illustrated in FIG. 17a-17f.
In order for the conditioner to be effective, it should disrupt the boundary layer upstream of each of the transducer sites. Most high-accuracy transit time ultrasonic flowmeters are multipath devices with transducers at multiple locations on the periphery of the conduit, as illustrated in FIG. 18. Therefore ramps may be required at multiple locations. In practice however, it may be more convenient to have the ramps in a continuous array as illustrated in FIG. 11.
FIG. 19 shows a photograph of a boundary layer flow conditioner 10 that was constructed for experimental validation of the conditioner and method. A control experiment was first performed using an ultrasonic flowmeter with no flow conditioner 10 disposed upstream. Tests were carried out in the laminar regime with oil temperatures of 20, 30 and 40° C., and ambient temperature of around 20° C. As shown in FIG. 20, the meter factor, which is the ratio between the indicated and actual flowrates, is strongly dependent on temperature when no flow conditioning device is used. 150 mm glass mineral wool insulation 51 was wrapped around the end of the pipe where the conditioner was placed, the length of pipe between the conditioner and flowmeter, and around the flowmeter itself. The conditioner was placed approximately 10 the pipe diameters upstream of the transducer sites. A second set of tests were then conducted, again in the laminar regime, with similar temperature conditions as before. As shown in FIG. 21, it is apparent that the sensitivity of the meter factor to oil temperature is dramatically reduced when the conditioner is used.
In an example, a 6″ pipe 14 and meter were used. The conditioner consisted of two arrays of ramps welded on to each side of a flange 26 ring as shown in FIG. 26. The flange 26 ring was cut from a plate of ⅛″ thick steel with an outside diameter equal to the raised face 28 outside diameter of a 6″ pipe flange (8.5″) and an inside diameter of about 6 1/16″. The ramp arrays were made from thin wall (approx. 1/16″ thick) 5″ diameter steel tubing that were each cut to a length of 2¾″ and slotted on each end with 32 equally spaced longitudinal cuts, with a kerf of approx. 1/16″ resulting in 32 tabs, ½″ wide by 1″ long. These tabs were then bent at the roots inward and outward at angles of about 30° to the axis of the tube to form the ramps, resulting in an outside diameter about the same as the inside of the 6″ pipe 14 and an inside diameter of about 3¾″. One of the ramp arrays was then welded to one side of the flange 26 ring and the other ramp array was welded to the other side such that there are two ramps of the same type in series with respect to the direction of flow.
A minimum of two transducers should be used for transit time measurement. Both of these could be on the same side of the pipe 14 (same part of the circumference) but displaced from one another down the axis. In that case the ramps would have to cover only one location on the circumference upstream of the transducers. If many transducers are used, with transducer sites 24 at different locations around the pipe 14, then it is more practical to have a conditioner that extends around the entire periphery of the pipe 14, rather than just at specific locations. A minimum of two ramps should be positioned upstream for a single transducer site (one pushing fluid away from the wall, and the other towards). In practice, one pushing fluid away from the wall and one on either side of that pushing fluid toward the wall would be more effective (produces an effect that is symmetrical about the centre of the ramp assembly).
In order for the ramps to serve their purpose of moving fluid out from or in towards the wall, the angles of the ramps would typically lie between 15 and 75 degrees. Regarding the distance (or ‘height’) that the ramps extend from the pipe 14 wall, it should be around 0.16 pipe 14 diameters or less depending on the flow conditions (not the length of the tabs, but the ‘height’ into the flow; see FIG. 12). A limit of 0.2 pipe diameter (or 0.2 times the maximum internal dimension for a non-round conduit) would suffice in most applications. Regarding the length of the ramps, this is governed by their angle and the distance they extend from the wall. So for example, a ramp that is at an angle of 30 degrees to the wall and is to extend 0.2 diameters in towards the centre of the pipe 14 would be 0.4 diameters long (In one example, for a 6-inch pipe, each ‘ramp’ is made up of two tabs extending from the tube, about 1 inch long on either side).
With regard to the width of the ramps, they should be sufficiently wide so that their main action is to displace fluid radially, rather than having it ‘spill’ over the sides. In one example, for a 6-inch pipe, the ramps are about ½ an inch wide, equating to approximately 0.1 D. Making them less than say 0.05 D wide would result in approx 64 ramps round the circumference, and the ramps are becoming rather narrow. So a practical minimum width constraint could be stated as 0.05 times the maximum internal dimension (diameter, length of one side) of the conduit. At the other end of the scale, a width of 0.4 D would result in 8 ramps around the circumference. These represent practical guidelines, not absolute limits.
In general, the conditioner may be made by constructing an array of ramps from a tubular or flat piece of metal, though, it could be made from a different material such as plastic and still achieve the same end. It is also possible that it could be made by joining individual flat ramps together, say by welding.
The conditioner may be used by being sandwiched between pipe flanges. In another variant the ramps could be secured in the upstream section of an integrated flow conditioner and flow meter. Another variant would be a pipe spool with the ramps secured inside the spool.
The conditioner may be incorporated into the meter body, so when the meter is positioned with the pipe, the conditioner is already part of the meter assembly. The meter may be a reduced bore meter, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,810,401, incorporated by reference herein.
Although the invention has been described in detail in the foregoing embodiments for the purpose of illustration, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that variations can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention except as it may be described by the following claims.
1. A flow conditioner for displacing and mixing fluid flow that defines an envelope in a cross sectional direction in a pipe having transducer sites of an ultrasonic flow meter comprising:
a first portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe which displaces a thermal boundary layer from the pipewall; and
a second portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe and in juxtaposition with the first portion, the second portion prevents the thermal boundary layer from reattaching to the pipewall, the first and second portions adapted to be positioned upstream of one of the transducer sites, the first and second portions extend part ways up from the inner surface of the pipe so there is a clear unobstructed area for the fluid to flow through about the pipe's center.
2. The flow conditioner as described in claim 1 including a flange having a face which attaches to the pipe and an opening in the face defined by an area through which fluid in the pipe flows, the first and second portions attached to and extending from the face, the flange attached to the pipe upstream of the transducer sites.
3. The flow conditioner as described in claim 1 including a third portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe and a fourth portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe and in juxtaposition with the third portion.
4. The flow conditioner as described in claim 3 wherein the first portion and the second portion are in spaced relationship with the third portion and the fourth portion, respectively.
5. The flow conditioner as described in claim 4 including a strip and a fifth portion attached to and extending from the strip, the first portion attached to and extending from the strip with the strip disposed between the first portion and the fifth portion.
6. The flow conditioner as described in claim 4 wherein the first portion is in series with the second portion and the third portion is in series with the fourth portion.
7. The flow conditioner as described in claim 4 wherein the first, second, third and fourth portions extend essentially up to a height of about ⅕ of the diameter of the pipe from the inner surface of the pipe.
8. The flow conditioner as described in claim 4 wherein the first portion is positioned alongside and in parallel with the second portion.
9. The flow conditioner as described in claim 4 wherein the first, second, third and fourth portions have a surface exposed to the fluid flow which is flat.
10. The flow conditioner as described in claim 4 wherein the first, second, third and fourth portions have a surface exposed to the fluid flow which is not flat.
11. An apparatus for determining fluid flow in a pipe having transducer sites comprising:
an ultrasonic flow meter having transducers that communicate with the fluid flow in the pipe; and
a first portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe which displaces a thermal boundary layer from the pipewall; and a second portion adapted to be disposed in the pipe and in juxtaposition with the first portion, the second portion prevents the thermal boundary layer from reattaching to the pipewall, the first and second portions adapted to be positioned upstream of one of the transducer sites, the first and second portions extend part ways up from the inner surface of the pipe so there is a clear unobstructed area for the fluid to flow through about the pipe's center.
12. The apparatus as described in claim 11 wherein the flow conditioner is disposed a distance between 5 and 15 diameters of the pipe upstream from the transducer sites.
13. A method for determining fluid flow in a pipe having a plurality of transducer sites comprising the steps of:
displacing a thermal boundary layer in the fluid flow in proximity to the pipe's inner surface with a first portion and disposed upstream from one transducer site of the plurality of transducer sites;
preventing the thermal boundary layer with a second portion from reattaching to the pipe's inner surface disposed in juxtaposition with the first portion and upstream of the one transducer site, the first and second portions extend part ways up from the inner surface of the pipe so there is a clear unobstructed area for the fluid to flow through about the pipe's center;
sending an ultrasonic signal from a transducer of an ultrasonic flow meter into the fluid flow; and
calculating the flow from the signal with the flow meter.
14. A flow conditioner for displacing and mixing fluid flow that defines an envelope in a cross sectional direction in a pipe having transducer sites of an ultrasonic flow meter comprising:
a plurality of portions adapted to be disposed in the pipe and extending inward toward the center of the pipe in a downstream direction with respect to the fluid flow which displaces a thermal boundary layer from the pipe's inner surface, the plurality of portions adapted to be positioned upstream of one of the transducer sites, the plurality of portions extend part ways up from the inner surface of the pipe so there is a clear unobstructed area for the fluid to flow through between the portions about the pipe's center.
15. The flow conditioner as described in claim 1 including a flange having a face which attaches to the pipe and an opening in the face defined by an area through which fluid in the pipe flows, the plurality of portions attached to and extending from the face, the flange attached to the pipe upstream of the transducer sites.
Filed: Jun 10, 2016
Publication Date: Sep 29, 2016
Patent Grant number: 9926952
Applicant: Cameron International Corporation (Houston, TX)
Inventors: Christopher B. Laird (Erie, PA), Gregor Brown (Prestwick)
International Classification: F15D 1/02 (20060101); F15D 1/00 (20060101); F15D 1/06 (20060101); G01F 1/66 (20060101);
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A Tale of Six Cities
By Carletta Walker
As we enter 2017, it’s impossible to forget the lives lost in the black community, as well as the law enforcement community. According to the The Washington Post, 233 African-Americans were killed by police in 2016; however, it should be dually noted that law enforcement officers also were killed in the line of duty by gunfire. Recent events are forcing law enforcement managers and community leaders to have hard and necessary conversations regarding race, equality and justice.
To restore and strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities in which they serve, in 2015 the Department of Justice established the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. The program is coordinated by the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and partnered with Yale Law School, the Center for Policing Equity at John Jay College, UCLA and the Urban Institute. The six pilot sites for this study is Birmingham, AL; Ft Worth, TX; Gary, IN; Minneapolis, MN; Pittsburgh, PA; and Stockton, CA. By educating law enforcement officers and the community regarding root issues, the Department of Justice hopes to bridge the gap between minority groups and the community.
Three pillars build the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice:
Procedural Justice: Officers providing fair treatment and just outcomes of all people by providing citizens with a voice, neutrality and legitimacy.
Reducing Implicit Bias: Recognizing and eliminating stereotypes between members of minority groups and the impact it has in policing.
Fostering Reconciliation: Addressing historical tensions, mutual mistrust and eliminating the “us versus them” mentality.
As an officer in one of the six pilot cities, I was fortunate to receive procedural justice training. The first phase of the training emphasized giving the community a voice, employing neutral decision-making and increasing the department’s trustworthiness. The training was very informative and allowed officers and first line supervisors to voice their concerns regarding recent protest. Although the first phase of this training seemed to be helpful, will this training produce the results the community expects once an officer has left the classroom?
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
Having a multi-generational workforce in law enforcement could determine the type of officer you encounter. Baby Boomers in law enforcement were taught to “cuff em’ and stuff em”. The arrest of Rodney King is one of the most noted high profile cases of police brutality in the 90’s. “Back then, it was pulling out a baton and whacking people,” said Deputy Chief Bill Murphy, of Los Angeles Police Department. Generation Xer’s were trained to take no prisoners; or rather, all prisoners under zero-tolerance policing. Currently, millennials are being trained under the umbrella of community policing. It’s safe to say policing has seen its fair share of changes, from handling every dispute with a strike of a baton, to entering what’s being coined the “Ferguson Effect.” After the death of Michael Brown, and the shootings involving minorities thereafter, many officers are unsure how to police. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 86 percent of officers feel high profile incidents between police and the black community have made policing harder. Going backwards is certainly not the answer and where we are, is uncertain.
The Roadmap to Reconciliation
The project conducted by the Department of Justice is only one of many steps towards a new beginning to restoring community trust. Community leaders, mayors, police chiefs and members of the community will need to track and periodically re-evaluate progress. But what happens in the meantime can either moves us closer or further apart. Here’s what history has taught us about police reform:
1960s: Mapp v. Ohio would ultimately change how police would conduct searches; Civil Rights Movement stirred hostility and distrust between minorities and law enforcement.
1970s – 80s: Civilian review boards would serve to hold law enforcement officers accountable for their actions.
1990s – 2010: The 1994 Violent Control and Law Enforcement Act empowers the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to hold local law enforcement agencies accountable for abuse.
2010 – Current: De-escalation training is sought to resolve conflict by talk tactics and using the appropriate amount of force necessary.
Unfortunately, racial equality continues to be a major concern for the law enforcement community. Time will only tell if yet another reform such as the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice will prove to be a move in the right direction on the reformative timeline.
Author: Carletta Walker is a POSTC Certified Officer & Academy Instructor. She has a B.S. in Criminal Justice, M.P.A. She can be reached at [email protected].
What is the nickname for Florida referring to the state's sunny climate? Please capitalize the first letter of each word of the answer. (Required)
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YOU MUST CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK TO CREATE A LIST OF FAVOURITE PATIOS
Uncle Betty's Diner
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Covered Patio?
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Mon 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
Tues 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
Wed 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
Thurs 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
Fri 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
Sat 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
Sun 8:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
About this Patio
Uncle Betty's patio is family-central early on the weekends, but you'll find it evolves to an older crowd as the confines of brunch hour reach their end. This spot is lauded for its unique creation such as its eggs Benny on a doughnut and mac and cheese in a sandwich, which will undoubtedly solicit stares if you indulge out on the patio. A great spot for an ice cream, too.
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Nellie Peyton ’14 Reports Stories of Everyday Life in West Africa
By Francesca Billington ’19
Published online January 8, 2020
From her new home in Dakar, Senegal, Nellie Peyton ’14, right, has reported for Reuters and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Courtesy Nellie Peyton
In August, when Nellie Peyton ’14 flew to Sierra Leone to cover a story on female genital mutilation, she visited a local NGO that had convinced one village to tear down the shrine where it performed the ritual. The choice was symbolic of giving up a practice that, in many countries across West Africa, still represents a young woman’s rite of passage. She asked the village chief and women living there what compelled the community to stop. They answered simply: the money.
Peyton, at first, tried looking for the story she expected to find. “Now that you’ve given it up, do you think your girls will be protected?” she asked, hoping that they would cite information offered by the NGO about extreme health risks for women. But their answer was the same. The community would redirect the costs for ceremonial meals and dresses to pay for school fees and food. After looking back at her notes hours later, Peyton wrote that story instead.
For the past four years since moving to Dakar, Senegal, Peyton has been tasked with the challenge of explaining context and life to an audience continents away. Her job as a foreign correspondent for Thomson Reuters Foundation News isn’t far from the academic role she chose as a comparative literature student at Princeton. Namely, that of a translator.
Peyton, who specialized in post-colonial French literature, saw Senegal for the first time only months before moving there as an intern for Reuters. She didn’t know what to expect. Can most Americans visualize an African city? “I don’t think we get reporting from Africa on the normal things we get reporting on from Europe, like TV shows and restaurants,” she says. “But those things are all happening here.” Part of her goal soon became to tell stories about West Africa that moved beyond those about war and conflict. She wanted to tell the stories of everyday life.
Peyton spent the first year and a half reporting on basic news and politics in the region, which ranged from coverage on local elections to the cocoa market to terrorist attacks. This was before accepting a position as a correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charitable arm of Reuters focused on human rights stories. The Foundation let her report the stories that the mainstream media often leaves out: successful startups, urban development projects, transforming cities. Still, most of the news lies outside of Senegal, in countries painted with political upheaval and conflict.
Being a correspondent and expat at once meant learning about Dakar from two perspectives. Reporting gave her the broad context to understand political and economic dynamics in the area. But the stuff of day-to-day life, what people believe and how they act, emerges slowly. “I’m only ever going to be able to write about West Africa as an outsider,” she says. “And I wonder sometimes if a local were to write about some of the things I cover, how different would the story look?”
Peyton and her colleagues are sometimes frustrated by the industry of selling stories; not all news that feels important in West Africa will sell to European and American audiences. The trick, she says, is drawing connections between the news she reports and her readers abroad. She still studies the limitations of writing about a language and place not her own. For now, Peyton prefers it this way. Plus, American journalism is a beast she isn’t ready to meet. “That’s almost a whole different job,” she says. “Almost everything about my job here I think of as explaining a foreign place.” That’s what she likes about it.
Source URL: https://paw.princeton.edu/article/nellie-peyton-14-reports-stories-everyday-life-west-africa
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The GOP Is Continuing To Court The Black Vote — By Betsy Newmark
13 Oct, 2005 by John Hawkins
Howard Dean just doesn’t know the value of subtlety. Now, he’s criticizing Ken Mehlman for talking to the Connecticut NAACP.
“I’m shocked that he would have the nerve to show his face in front of any African American organization after the way they treated those people in New Orleans,” Dean said.
Let’s not even get back into the arguments about whose fault the delays after Katrina were. I personally think that people are beginning to get a fuller picture of who did and didn’t do what to help alleviate the effects of the hurricane. Only those most vicious race-baiters truly believe that there was some deliberate effort to harm people in New Orleans because of their race. But those are the people that Dean is playing to with his remarks. His attitude seems to be that the Democrats own the black vote and Mehlman is showing some nerve to try and speak to them. I suspect that there are some blacks who realize that it is to their benefit to listen to both sides and not be a total subsidiary of the Democratic Party.
Reaction was mixed.
Ursalene Taylor, a Democrat from Hamden, said, “I thought his points were excellent.”
Her husband, Walter Taylor, an unaffiliated voter, said he appreciated the Republican emphasis on jobs and economic development, as opposed to social programs that he sees as the bedrock of the Democratic Party.
“I work hard for what I get. I believe that’s the way it should be,” he said.
Joyce K. Jones, a Republican politician from the Waterbury suburb of Prospect, said Mehlman’s invitation for black people to explore the Republican record was “wonderful.”
“I am always going around trying to encourage my African American friends just to try it,” she said. “It’s so very important we always to try to have many points of view.”
But a man seated at a nearby table listened to Mehlman’s speech without applauding. Asked his reaction, he said, “No comment.”
Carolyn Nah, the president of the Bridgeport chapter of the NAACP, rolled her eyes at what she called the competing appeals of both parties to black voters: “The Republican doesn’t pay us any attention, and the Democrat takes us for granted.”
“We’ve known that for years. Somebody got to come here and tell you that?” she asked. “It’s b.s. It’s all b.s.”
Mehlman has been making strong efforts to chip away at this voting bloc that has voted overwhelmingly for Democrats since the New Deal. Republicans such as Bush have been criticized for avoiding the NAACP and now Mehlman is being criticized for going and speaking to them. Does the Connecticut NAACP, which invited Mehlman to speak, enjoy having a white Democratic politician express an opinion on who should and should not talk to them?
This content was used with the permission of Betsy’s Page
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Research Luxembourg
DISCOVER LUXEMBOURG
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Covid-19 taskforce
Large-scale testing operations: Conclusion of phase 1 and launch of phase 2
Post author By researchluxembourgEI
No Comments on Large-scale testing operations: Conclusion of phase 1 and launch of phase 2
Ministry of Health to lead the second phase as of mid-September.
On Monday, September 14th, the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Claude Meisch, the Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, and the Research Luxembourg (RL) COVID-19 Task Force held a press conference in Dudelange to officially conclude the first phase of the large-scale testing, led by the Luxembourg Institute of Health together with the Research Luxembourg community. The operations of the second phase have been handed over to the Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health and will start mid-September.
As part of the exit strategy, Luxembourg has implemented an extensive and unique nation-wide testing campaign, inviting its residents and cross-border workers to voluntarily get tested for COVID19. The aim of this large-scale testing (LST) initiative was to limit the spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus by identifying positive cases early, including among asymptomatic persons, thereby breaking infection chains. At the same time, LST aims to contribute to the close monitoring of the spread of the virus among our population.
The first phase of the LST, coordinated by the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), ran from 27 May until 27 July and relied on 16 ‘drive-through’ and 1 ‘walk-through’ test stations, with a maximum theoretical capacity of 20,000 tests per day. The population was divided into three main categories. The first category was composed of people exposed to a high infectious risk by their professional activity (such as healthcare professionals) whereas the second category consisted of those having resumed their professional activity or about to get back to work. The third category encompassed representative samples of the general population. The recurring testing of the contingents and the rigorous contact tracing not only aims at avoiding new infection chains but also at providing decision makers with evidence-based data.
An extension period prior to the beginning of Phase II was set up during the summer period until 15 September with the aim of monitoring the evolution of the epidemic also during the summer months with a particular accent on people coming back from holidays, those professions specifically linked to the holiday period (Horesca, seasonal workers) and the school start.
In total, 1,520,445 invitations to LST were sent, and 560,082 tests were conducted covering 307,751 Luxembourg residents, reflecting an overall participation rate of almost 50 % of the resident population.
The second phase of the LST will be coordinated by the Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health and is set to run between 16 September 2020 and March 2021, with a capacity of 53,000 tests per week. Building on the experience gained during the first phase, which showed a relatively low prevalence rate, the second phase of the strategy will narrow the focus of the tests and target specifically the population most exposed to the virus, while at the same time allowing for capacities to be adjusted in a timely manner to the evolution of the situation and over a longer period of time than the first phase. This nuanced approach will foster a more precise meshing of the population and a more efficient reactiveness. More detailed information as to this new phase of the LST will be provided by Health Minister Paulette Lenert during a press conference on 24 September.
The handover press conference, which took place at the premises of the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg (IBBL) in Dudelange in the presence of the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Claude Meisch and the Minister of Health Paulette Lenert, brought together all relevant stakeholders including the CEOs of Research Luxembourg-member institutions, the spokespersons of the RL Task Force, members of the LST scientific advisory board and representatives of Laboratoires Réunis.
“As the work of Research Luxembourg on the large-scale testing campaign draws to a close, we would like to sincerely thank all the partners who contributed to the success of this extraordinary effort, particularly Laboratoires Réunis and the staff of Research Luxembourg member institutes”
Prof Ulf Nehrbass, CEO of LIH and spokesman of the RL COVID-19 Task Force.
“This unparalleled initiative has been widely recognised at the international level, further strengthening the country’s reputation as a leader in public health and biomedical research”
Prof Paul Wilmes from the University of Luxembourg’s Luxembourg Centre of Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), deputy spokesman of the Task Force.
“The strength of our response to the pandemic lies in the tight connection between public health initiatives such as the large-scale testing and the outstanding research efforts of Luxembourg’s research institutions. This synergy plays a fundamental role in providing tangible solutions to societal issues”
Claude Meisch, Minister for Higher Education and Research.
“The large scale testing project has confirmed the high level of resilience, adaptability and reactiveness of our country as we face an unprecedented crisis of international dimension. It will reinforce our preparedness all along the evolution of the epidemic. The second phase will consolidate our position as a leader in large-scale testing and will be part of the government’s efforts to fight the virus, ideally until the crisis ends, while allowing for a particular attention to be put on specific target groups”
Paulette Lenert, Minister of Health.
Communicated by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of Health and the Luxembourg Institute of Health. Originally published on lih.lu
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Research Luxembourg is a joint initiative of the main actors in Luxembourg public research, with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research: Luxembourg Institute of Helath (LIH), Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), University of Luxembourg and Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).
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Artist bio: Geiko
Geiko on Spotify
Geiko is the edm project of Ámaris Wen. Geiko does no longer have its own webpage, but you can listen to the songs on Spotify and YouTube.
Ámaris started the dance floor project “Geiko- female electronic dance music” after leaving drama school, the first album of which was released in 2014, which was well received by critics. This was followed by 4 more albums, with “Neon Colours” and “Aquamarine” being less influenced by her former work. But fans were able to listen again to some Geiko work in 2019, when “The Force” was released exclusively on BandCamp. Ámaris’ most recent album “26” which was released in May 2019, featured a remade version of the song “Supernova”, formerly released in 2017.
Find press quotes on Geiko here
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Paul, Servant and Apostle – Romans 1:1
Paul describe himself with three “titles” in Romans 1:1. First, he is a a servant of Christ Jesus. The term “servant of Christ Jesus” should be understood in terms of Old Testament background rather than Greek/Roman culture (Cranfield, 50). On the other hand, James Dunn sees Paul drawing on his Jewish background in the phrase “servant of Christ Jesus.” Dunn suggests Paul has Isaiah 49:1-7 in mind here, since Jews naturally saw themselves as servants of God (Dunn, 6).
Second, Paul as called to be an apostle. The noun κλητός refers to an invitation, but here it has the sense of a “divine calling.” Paul’s divine appointment, however, is not simply to be a Christian, but to be an Apostle. This is a special commissioning that only was given to a few who were witnesses of the resurrection, and therefore carried a special authority. To be an apostle is to be an “authorized agent or representative” (Cranfield 52).
Third, Paul says he was set apart for the gospel of God. “Set apart” might refer to Paul’s separation from Judaism, or his missionary activity (Acts 13:2.) But it is more likely that the separation that Paul has in mind is his “consecration to a future task,” specifically the task of bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. The verb ἀφορίζω is used in the LXX for the setting aside the firstborn male animal to God (Numbers 15:20). But it is also used for consecrating Levites to God’s service (Numbers 8:11) and of God’s separating Israel from the nations to be his people (Lev. 20:26). The idea of separation for service to God seems to be Paul’s point here. When was Paul set apart by God? This could refer to his conversion on the Roman to Damascus, but Paul claims he was separated for his ministry before he was born (Gal 1:1:15).
Paul was separated to the gospel of God. Paul is separated to the gospel of God. This would resonate with both a Jewish the concept of Gospel as well as a pagan/Roman worldview (Cranfield 54-55). The Romans considered important events in the life of the Emperor as εὐαγγέλιον and celebrated them as “good news.” This is in contrast to the true good news of salvation. The early church would have understood the difference between the normally plural “good tidings” of the emperor cult and the singular εὐαγγέλιον (Dunn 10). The phrase may be based on Jesus’ own use in Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22.
Paul therefore begins this important letter with a declaration he is God’s servant and a chosen representative to present the good news, to declare what God is doing to redeem people in the present age.
Since Paul has not personally met the Roman churches who will read this letter, this opening line establishes Paul’s authority. Why do you think that was necessary at this point in Paul’s career? He writes this letter after establishing churches in Asian Minor and the eastern edge of Europe. It would seem as though he was well-known. Is there something else going on here in this opening address of the letter?
Paul, Romans
Paul, Pauline Theology, Romans
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13 thoughts on “Paul, Servant and Apostle – Romans 1:1”
athompson5970
I feel that the first part of the letter to the Romans is Paul’s way of telling the Romans that he is qualified to be telling them things. Which he then goes into a game plan as for what he wants to show the churches of Rome. Longenecker in TTP says that Paul gives a report in Romans 1:8-15 that, “sets the letter in the context of Paul’s desire that he and the Roman Jesus-followers be mutually edified” (TTP, 178). Paul plans on stopping in Rome on his way westward to Spain. He needs support, but realizes that the church in Rome needs warning before he gets to them and just asks for money. In stating that he is a servant of God, an apostle, and the he is set apart for spreading the Gospel, he is making it clear that he is on their side, and not just doing these actions that they have heard of him from to get their money and take it for his own use. Paul is claiming that he is only kingdom minded, traveling and spreading the Gospel on commission from God and the Holy Spirit.
I believe that Paul letters were written to all the people in Rome. Paul says “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people” (Romans 1:7). The members of the Rome church are the ones, who Paul is targeting. Paul wanted to visit the church in Rome, however his responsibility towards other churches have made it hard for him to do so. I believe that Paul purpose for his letter was to address two main things. First, Paul wanted to simply explain the gospel of grace to the members. Second, Paul also wanted to address the tensions which was occurring in the church between the Jews and the gentiles.
Jodi Timmer
I think that the way the beginning part of the letter was written to tell the Romans that he was qualified to be telling them the many things he was going to be telling him. I think that by opening the letter this way, Paul was communicating with those who he has not yet met that he is important enough for them to listen to. This will probably help with spreading the Gospel to the people of Rome.
lukemckian
The letters were written to all of Rome, and I feel like it was his way, in the beginning of them, of telling the people of Rome his qualifications. It is the members of the Roman church that Paul is trying to target. There are a few things that Paul had responsibilities towards the church first that made very difficult for Paul to visit the Roman church. So the purpose of the letters could be to talk about a couple of things that are of importance. The one thing is to tell them the gospel and that he is on the side of the Roman church, not against them. And another is telling them what is occurring between the Jews and the gentiles. He is only trying to spread the gospel as far as possible.
leovillas
First of, that greeting was necessary to introduce himself in a way that he would probably do if he was there in person. Because of the fact that he hasn’t met them in person, he felt the need to introduce his background as a way to clear any possible doubts of mistakes. Second the greeting was a way that he found to express his desire to be with them (Romans 1:11-13), before he get to the main issues that he wanted to approach. When asking the church’s assistance to his ministry in West Italy (Spain), I believe Paul was asking more than just financial assistance (which he didn’t ask specifically), he was also asking for prayer and moral support.
I agree with athompson and Jodi I think that Paul is stating that he really is qualified. He is saying he is a servant of Jesus. It shows humility (being a servant), but it also shows that Paul is working for Christ. He then says he is called to be an apostle. This invitation becomes important once scripture is canonized. If Paul was not an apostle his writings wouldn’t be considered scripture. One of the criteria of the letters found was that it needed to be written by an apostle or someone who witnessed Christ. The last part of the greeting is him saying it was God’s push that he is doing what he is doing. Paul seems to be making his case for why he’s writing and qualified to write. The citizens knew only skewed ideas of Paul. “Most of the Christians in Rome knew of Paul only by reputation (and a controversial one at that)” (TTP 178). Its not this is who I am and more of this is what God has called me to do.
chriscornelljr
The introduction of Paul’s letter to Rome is packed. His threefold identity statements are bold, and show his knowledge of where his actions and authority comes. “Servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…” He claims to act as a servant declaring what had been promised through the prophet’s of God. When he claims to be called, it is evident he is claiming to be called by God Himself. Not only that, but his description of Jesus is of utmost importance. “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:3) Paul is claiming the resurrection of Jesus the Christ as authority for his ministry, for without the resurrection, what would Jesus be? The angle I take is this: The message was heard by Romans who in no way wanted to be ‘servants’ because ‘servant’ meant ‘slave’ to them also. It took extreme humility for the Romans to accept this teaching. Paul was not the Messiah however, so converts could not only come to Christ, but continue in the ministry (Rom: 1:6)? If someone took on the lifestyle of a servant, imitated Christ, and sowed the Gospel wherever he or she went, despite his miraculous road to Damascus encounter, that person could serve Christ the same. Paul was, perhaps, divulging his identity and call to the Romans, because he had never visited them, but his culmination of asking for money. As Longenecker puts it, “Paul sends this letter to believers in Rome precisely because he has his eyes set on preaching the gospel in “Spain”… (TTP, p.168) He sought monetary supplement to continue his ministry, which is not a bad thing. But in doing so, he reveals a myriad of theological insight.
EMMANUEL RUEBEN
I love Paul Apostle so much.I love the way he was working for God.I pray one day I shud have a revelation about him.I want God Almighty to show how Paul was.
Anthony Kaminski
it really stuck out to me that it said Paul was not just called to be a Christian, but a “apostle” one that has a special call. that is to have a higher standard then just any regular person. this reminds me that we are also called to a higher standard and taking what Paul talked about into practice is a Vidal thing to do in our walk with Christ. I think we can read Paul’s writings and realize that we are called and set apart that we are servants of God ones who relay the message of the gospel to a broken word and Paul did just that to a confused and broken word and churches. this was a interesting post kind of of reaffirmed things I knew already but gave a good insight on Paul and what his is exactly called to. i could also see that the set apart could mean that he is set apart from the Jewish traditions and not meaning what we think because we tend to think he is set apart from the world but it could mean his people. but that is something that you would need to do extra research on and compare scriptures.
Benjamin Lorenz
“Why do you think that was necessary at this point in Paul’s career? He writes this letter after establishing churches in Asian Minor and the eastern edge of Europe. It would seem as though he was well-known. Is there something else going on here in this opening address of the letter?”
I believe that it was necessary for Paul to establish is authority and give his credentials at the beginning of his letter to the Romans for a few reasons. First, he didn’t start the Roman churches and he hasn’t visited them, so he is unknown to them. While it is possible his reputation may have reached the Roman churches, it is best for Paul himself to state his qualifications. Secondly, there may be some false rumors spreading (Moo, 47) about Paul and the gospel that he preaches. Thus, establishing his authority would allow him to fix any rumors. Thirdly, I believe it is similar to when someone meets a teacher in class for the first time and they often talk about their degrees and where they studied at. Since they are going to be teaching others, it is important that they are qualified and that the class knows their qualifications. Likewise Paul is going to be teaching his doctrines to these Roman churches and they need to trust who he is, and what authority he has to teach them. Fourthly, and this is something I can’t necessarily find proof of, but since Paul was a pharisee that persecuted Chrisitians and that was commonly known about him, he may be trying to establish authority to show he isn’t just a regular convert to Christianity, but he is an apostle and even more, he is personally called by God to preach the Gospel (Romans 1:1).
Charlie Furister
Paul was set apart in more than one way. Paul was a Pharisee before he was an apostle. The name Pharisee means “set apart”. We know from Scripture that Paul was a zealous Pharisee. After the stoning of Stephen, in Acts 7:54-8:1, Saul was determined to capture off those who followed the way and have them jailed. And while on his way to Damascus he had his “coming to God moment”. In which the Risen Christ appeared to Saul (Acts 9:4). God had told Ananias to “Go; this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel (Acts 9:15).” After that Ananias goes and cures Saul of his blindness. Saul then choses to follow God and changes his name from Saul to Paul.
He might be addressing the Roman church in a way that addresses his authority and reaffirms those claims. He also hasn’t been to the Roman church yet, so he might be trying to establish creditability with the church. He could also be writing so that people would know his name. But not in a way to achieve fame but rather that, when people speak of his name, they can easily identify him. And can be used as witnesses of his ministry work and journey.
I believe even though Paul might have been well known at the time he did the right thing by establishing exactly who he was and what he was about. I think that was important to do because if the church did read the letter without knowing who he was they would have no reason to believe or listen to what he has to say.I also Believe the reason for him doing so is to let them know that he is speaking on the behalf of himself but for God, which is very important seeing that he was writing to a church. That way they could know what his purpose is from Paul himself instead of through rumors.
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Investigations in South Carolina
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Why Romance Fraud is a Serious Matter
Leave a Comment / Background Checks / By pisghost
While not striking some as a serious concern, the victims in this article are proof that romance fraud can be both financially and psychologically debilitating.
Though this example is in the UK, it can, and does happen globally. Our client experience at Private Investigation Services Group in Bluffton, SC, suggests that early
suspicions regarding a budding romantic relationship, a business relationship, or family matters can often be effectively if addressed early in the relationship.
In this case, PISG would have conducted the appropriate background checks to confirm the true identity of the other party, and business due diligence to confirm the
“urgent” business matter that this supposed wealthy businessman that justified his request to the victim.
If you have any concerns regarding the integrity or identity of any of your business or personal relationships, seek out a professional, qualified, and licensed Private Investigator firm such as PISG. The costs are generally reasonable, the response time frame often short, and the peace of mind invaluable.
Romance fraudsters who pretended to be lovers with victims to persuade them to give them more than £240,000 have been jailed.
Using internet dating sites, the group hid behind false personas of “Kevin Churchill” and “Kevin Thompson”, pretending to be wealthy businessmen with international lifestyles to target women.
Over time, the fraudsters would get to know their victims and ask to borrow money to help pay for everything from veterinary bills, to legal fees and travel costs.
Believing they were in a loving relationship, two victims handed over £240,000 between 2016 and 2017.
The money was passed through various bank accounts.
Detective Constable Rebecca Mason, from Surrey Police’s economic crime unit, said: “This type of crime plays mercilessly on personal emotions.
“These women have gone from the high excitement of being in love to the extreme low of realising they have been victims of crime and their trust and generosity has been completely abused.
“I can’t emphasise enough, having got to know them throughout this case, that these are both intelligent, sensible women who were taken advantage of by a cunning, cruel and highly manipulative gang of fraudsters.”
The three ringleaders who were sentenced included Yaw Sarpong, 22, from Hampshire, who was given 15 months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.
Nicholas Adade, 23, from Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced to three years and seven months for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and money laundering, and 14 months for money laundering to run concurrently.
The third ringleader, Eric Ocansey, 35, from Birmingham, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, and 14 months for money laundering to run concurrently.
The other group members included Obed Addo, 37, from Roehampton, south-west London, who was jailed for 21 months for money laundering.
Daniel Keh, 25, from Enfield, north London, was jailed for 10 months for converting criminal property and supplying articles to be used in fraud, and six months for money laundering to run concurrently.
Makeda Stair, 23, from Enfield, will be sentenced on August 9.
In a statement, one of the victims named “Sharon”, a mother of two children, said: “I lost my sense of self-worth and my integrity, which through the help of victim support and the support of my children, I’ve managed to restore.
“There were some very black days and it’s been an uphill battle.
“Financially, I lost everything and this will continue throughout the rest of my life. I am systematically repaying those I borrowed from and I’ve had to get a flat share.
“I just manage to cover my share of the rent and bills, and have nothing left over.”
Bernadette Lawrie, Surrey Police’s financial safeguarding officer, a specialist role supporting vulnerable victims of fraud, said: “Fraudsters take money but they also take away their victims’ confidence and destroy lives.
“We do all we can to help and support romance fraud victims to move on from this and make sure they don’t become victims of this crime again.”
You can find the original article here: https://www.yahoo.com/news/gang-jailed-for-240000-online-dating-scam-which-saw-them-clean-out-victims-savings-103734606.html?.tsrc=fauxdal
Albany Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Connection with Romance Scams
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Avoid Becoming A Victim To Romance Scams
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Reading, Pennsylvania Police Set Up Safe Meet-Up Point For Online Sales
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Laurence Baker
Bing Professor of Human Biology and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Health Research & Policy
Professor, Health Research & Policy
Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)
Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (2015 - Present)
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (2002 - Present)
Director of the Scholarly Concentration Program, Stanford University (2007 - Present)
Fellow, Stanford Center for Health Policy (2000 - Present)
Department Chair, Department of Health Research and Policy (2015 - 2019)
Chief of Health Services Research, Department of Health Research and Policy (2001 - 2015)
Catherine R. Kennedy and Daniel L. Grossman Fellow in Human Biology, Human Biology Program (2016 - 2020)
Elected member, National Academy of Medicine (2020-)
ASHE Medal, American Society of Health Economists (2008)
Alice S. Hersh Young Investigator Award, Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy (2000)
NIHCM Research Award, National Institute for Health Care Management (1999)
Member, Board of Directors, American Society of Health Economists (2009 - 2017)
President, American Society of Health Economists (2018 - 2019)
Member, Board of Directors, International Health Economics Association (2010 - 2016)
Member, Board of Directors, AcademyHealth (2012 - Present)
PhD, Princeton University, Economics (1994)
MA, Princeton University, Economics (1994)
Laurence.Baker@stanford.edu
University - Faculty Department: Health Research and Policy - Health Services Research Position: Professor
615 CROTHERS WAY
Loren Baker
Much of my current research examines the impacts of changing financial incentives, regulations, and organizational structures on health care provision and costs. One aspect of work in this area involves studying impacts of managed care and related insurance arrangements on things like health care costs, the pricing of physician services, prices for health insurance, and the availability and utilization of medical technologies. Other work examines factors influencing the adoption and use of medical technologies more generally, including particular work on imaging equipment. I am also interested in a range of other questions about health care systems, physicians organizations, provider compensation, health care cost growth, and health care quality.
Environmental and Health Policy Analysis
HUMBIO 3B (Win)
The American Health Care System and Health Policy
HUMBIO 120B (Spr)
Medical Scholars Research (Away)
MED 370W (Sum)
OBGYN 370W (Sum)
OTOHNS 370W (Sum)
Second Year Health Policy PHD Tutorial
HRP 800 (Aut, Win, Spr)
HUMBIO 4B (Spr)
Med Scholar Project Advisor
Luke Pennington, Jessica Vernon
Alex Chan, Jasmin Moshfegh
Master's Program Advisor
Luqman Hodgkinson, Chris Magnani
Jack Ching, Marika Cusick, Suhani Jalota, Matt Kaufmann, Jonathan Lee, Marissa Reitsma, Tess Ryckman, Amanda Su, Tara Templin, Erik Wiesehan
ACA Marketplace Premiums and Competition Among Hospitals and Physician Practices AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE Polyakova, M., Bundorf, M., Kessler, D. P., Baker, L. C. 2018; 24 (2): 85-+
To examine the association between annual premiums for health plans available in Federally Facilitated Marketplaces (FFMs) and the extent of competition and integration among physicians and hospitals, as well as the number of insurers.We used observational data from the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight on the annual premiums and other characteristics of plans, matched to measures of physician, hospital, and insurer market competitiveness and other characteristics of 411 rating areas in the 37 FFMs.We estimated multivariate models of the relationship between annual premiums and Herfindahl-Hirschman indices of hospitals and physician practices, controlling for the number of insurers, the extent of physician-hospital integration, and other plan and rating area characteristics.Premiums for Marketplace plans were higher in rating areas in which physician, hospital, and insurance markets were less competitive. An increase from the 10th to the 90th percentile of physician concentration and hospital concentration was associated with increases of $393 and $189, respectively, in annual premiums for the Silver plan with the second lowest cost. A similar increase in the number of insurers was associated with a $421 decrease in premiums. Physician-hospital integration was not significantly associated with premiums.Premiums for FFM plans were higher in markets with greater concentrations of hospitals and physicians but fewer insurers. Higher premiums make health insurance less affordable for people purchasing unsubsidized coverage and raise the cost of Marketplace premium tax credits to the government.
The effect of hospital/physician integration on hospital choice JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2016; 50: 1-8
In this paper, we estimate how hospital ownership of physicians' practices affects their patients' hospital choices. We match data on the hospital admissions of Medicare beneficiaries, including the identity of their physician, with data on the identity of the owner of their physician's practice. We find that a hospital's ownership of a physician dramatically increases the probability that the physician's patients will choose the owning hospital. We also find that patients are more likely to choose a high-cost, low-quality hospital when their physician is owned by that hospital.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.08.006
Medicare Advantage Plans Pay Hospitals Less Than Traditional Medicare Pays. Health affairs Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Devlin, A. M., Kessler, D. P. 2016; 35 (8): 1444-1451
There is ongoing debate about how prices paid to providers by Medicare Advantage plans compare to prices paid by fee-for-service Medicare. We used data from Medicare and the Health Care Cost Institute to identify the prices paid for hospital services by fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans, and commercial insurers in 2009 and 2012. We calculated the average price per admission, and its trend over time, in each of the three types of insurance for fixed baskets of hospital admissions across metropolitan areas. After accounting for differences in hospital networks, geographic areas, and case-mix between Medicare Advantage and FFS Medicare, we found that Medicare Advantage plans paid 5.6 percent less for hospital services than FFS Medicare did. Without taking into account the narrower networks of Medicare Advantage, the program paid 8.0 percent less than FFS Medicare. We also found that the rates paid by commercial plans were much higher than those of either Medicare Advantage or FFS Medicare, and growing. At least some of this difference comes from the much higher prices that commercial plans pay for profitable service lines.
View details for DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1553
Less Physician Practice Competition Is Associated With Higher Prices Paid For Common Procedures. Health affairs Austin, D. R., Baker, L. C. 2015; 34 (10): 1753-1760
Concentration among physician groups has been steadily increasing, which may affect prices for physician services. We assessed the relationship in 2010 between physician competition and prices paid by private preferred provider organizations for fifteen common, high-cost procedures to understand whether higher concentration of physician practices and accompanying increased market power were associated with higher prices for services. Using county-level measures of the concentration of physician practices and county average prices, and statistically controlling for a range of other regional characteristics, we found that physician practice concentration and prices were significantly associated for twelve of the fifteen procedures we studied. For these procedures, counties with the highest average physician concentrations had prices 8-26 percent higher than prices in the lowest counties. We concluded that physician competition is frequently associated with prices. Policies that would influence physician practice organization should take this into consideration.
No Significant Association between Anesthesia Group Concentration and Private Insurer Payments in the United States ANESTHESIOLOGY Sun, E. C., Dexter, F., Macario, A., Miller, T. R., Baker, L. C. 2015; 123 (3): 507-514
Markets for physician services are becoming increasingly concentrated, with many areas being dominated by a few groups. Antitrust authorities are concerned that increasing concentration will lead to inappropriately high payments for physician services from private insurers. The authors examined the association between market concentration and private insurer payments for anesthesia services.The authors obtained data on average payments from private insurers for five commonly used anesthesia Current Procedure Terminology codes for physicians located in 229 counties in the United States between 2002 and 2010. The authors calculated a measure of market concentration (the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index [HHI]) for anesthesiologists in each county using Medicare claims data. The authors then estimated the association between market concentration and private insurer payments using a difference-in-differences approach to minimize confounding.Private insurer payments to anesthesiologists in more concentrated markets were not significantly different from payments in less concentrated markets. Compared with the 25% of counties with the least concentration (counties with an HHI in the 0th to 25th percentile), payments in counties in the 25th to 50th percentile of HHI were approximately 0.51% less (95% CI, -2.3 to 1.3%, P = 0.95), whereas payments in counties in the 50th to 75th percentile of HHI were approximately 2.8% less (95% CI, -6.7 to 1.4%, P = 0.41) and payments in counties in the 75th to 100th percentile were approximately 3.1% less (95% CI, -8.1 to 1.2%, P = 0.32).Increasing market concentration of anesthesia groups is not associated with significantly greater payments from private insurers.
View details for DOI 10.1097/ALN.0000000000000779
Concentration In Orthopedic Markets Was Associated With A 7 Percent Increase In Physician Fees For Total Knee Replacements HEALTH AFFAIRS Sun, E., Baker, L. C. 2015; 34 (6): 916-921
Physician groups are growing larger in size and fewer in number. Although this consolidation could result in improved patient care, the resulting increase in market concentration also could allow larger groups to negotiate higher physician fees from private insurers. We examined the association between market concentration and physician fees in the case of total knee arthroplasty by calculating market concentration for orthopedic groups practicing in a given market and by analyzing administrative claims data from Marketscan. In the period 2001-10 the average professional fee for total knee arthroplasty was $2,537. During this time, in markets that moved from the bottom quartile of concentration to the top quartile, physician fees paid by private payers increased by $168 per procedure. The increase nearly offset the $261 decline in fees that we observed, absent changes in market concentration. These findings suggest that caution should be used in implementing policies designed to encourage further group concentration, which could produce similar effects.
Does health plan generosity enhance hospital market power? Journal of health economics Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2015; 44: 54–62
We test whether the generosity of employer-sponsored health insurance facilitates the exercise of market power by hospitals. We construct indices of health plan generosity and the price and volume of hospital services using data from Truven MarketScan for 601 counties from 2001 to 2007. We use variation in the industry and union status of covered workers within a county over time to identify the causal effects of generosity. Although OLS estimates fail to reject the hypothesis that generosity facilitates the exercise of hospital market power, IV estimates show a statistically significant and economically important positive effect of plan generosity on hospital prices in uncompetitive markets, but not in competitive markets. Our results suggest that most of the aggregate effect of hospital market structure on prices found in previous work may be coming from areas with generous plans.
Physician Practice Competition and Prices Paid by Private Insurers for Office Visits JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Royalty, A. B., Levin, Z. 2014; 312 (16): 1653-1662
Physician practice consolidation could promote higher-quality care but may also create greater economic market power that could lead to higher prices for physician services.To assess the relationship between physician competition and prices paid by private preferred provider organizations (PPOs) for 10 types of office visits in 10 prominent specialties.Retrospective study in 1058 US counties in urbanized areas, representing all 50 states, examining the relationship between measured physician competition and prices paid for office visits in 2010 and the relationship between changes in competition and prices between 2003 and 2010, using regression analysis to control for possible confounding factors.Variation in the mean Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI) of physician practices within a county by specialty (HHIs range from 0, representing maximally competitive markets, to 10,000 in markets served by a single [monopoly] practice).Mean price paid by county to physicians in each specialty by private PPOs for intermediate office visits with established patients (Current Procedural Terminology [CPT] code 99213) and a price index measuring the county-weighted mean price for 10 types of office visits with new and established patients (CPT codes 99201-99205, 99211-99215) relative to national mean prices.In 2010, across all specialties studied, HHIs were 3 to 4 times higher in the 90th-percentile county than the 10th-percentile county (eg, for family practice: 10th percentile HHI = 1023 and 90th percentile HHI = 3629). Depending on specialty, mean price for a CPT code 99213 visit was between $70 and $75. After adjustment for potential confounders, depending on specialty, prices at the 90th-percentile HHI were between $5.85 (orthopedics; 95% CI, $3.46-$8.24) and $11.67 (internal medicine; 95% CI, $9.13-$14.21) higher than at the 10th percentile. Including all types of office visits, price indexes at the 90th-percentile HHI were 8.3% (orthopedics; 95% CI, 5.0%-11.6%) to 16.1% (internal medicine; 95% CI, 12.8%-19.5%) higher. Between 2003 and 2010, there were larger price increases in areas that were less competitive in 2002 than in initially more competitive areas.More competition among physicians is related to lower prices paid by private PPOs for office visits. These results may inform work on policies that influence practice competition.
View details for DOI 10.1001/jama.2014.10921
Patients' Preferences Explain A Small But Significant Share Of Regional Variation In Medicare Spending HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2014; 33 (6): 957-963
This study assessed the extent to which differences in patients' preferences across geographic areas explained differences in traditional fee-for-service Medicare spending across Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs). Preference measures were based on results of a survey that asked patients questions about their physicians, their own health status, and the care they would want in their last six months of life. We found that patients' preferences explained 5 percent of the variation across HRRs in total Medicare spending. In comparison, supply factors, such as the number of physicians, specialists, and hospital beds, explained 23 percent, and patients' health and income explained 12 percent. We also explored the relative importance of preferences in determining three components of total spending: spending at the end of life, inpatient spending, and spending on physician services. Relative to supply factors, health, and income, patients' preferences explained the largest share of variation in end-of-life spending and the smallest share of variation in spending on physician services. We conclude that variation in preferences contributes to differences across areas in Medicare spending. Medicare policy must consider both supply factors and patients' preferences in deciding how much to accommodate area variation in spending and the extent to which that variation should be subsidized by taxpayers.
Vertical integration: hospital ownership of physician practices is associated with higher prices and spending. Health affairs Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2014; 33 (5): 756-763
We examined the consequences of contractual or ownership relationships between hospitals and physician practices, often described as vertical integration. Such integration can reduce health spending and increase the quality of care by improving communication across care settings, but it can also increase providers' market power and facilitate the payment of what are effectively kickbacks for inappropriate referrals. We investigated the impact of vertical integration on hospital prices, volumes (admissions), and spending for privately insured patients. Using hospital claims from Truven Analytics MarketScan for the nonelderly privately insured in the period 2001-07, we constructed county-level indices of prices, volumes, and spending and adjusted them for enrollees' age and sex. We measured hospital-physician integration using information from the American Hospital Association on the types of relationships hospitals have with physicians. We found that an increase in the market share of hospitals with the tightest vertically integrated relationship with physicians--ownership of physician practices--was associated with higher hospital prices and spending. We found that an increase in contractual integration reduced the frequency of hospital admissions, but this effect was relatively small. Taken together, our results provide a mixed, although somewhat negative, picture of vertical integration from the perspective of the privately insured.
Private insurers' payments for routine physician office visits vary substantially across the United States. Health affairs Baker, L., Bundorf, M. K., Royalty, A. 2013; 32 (9): 1583-1590
Anecdotal reports suggest that substantial variation exists in private insurers' payments for physician services, but systematic evidence is lacking. Using a retrospective analysis of insurance claims for routine office visits, consultations, and preventive visits from more than forty million physician claims in 2007, we examined variations in private payments to physicians and the extent to which variation is explained by patients' and physicians' characteristics and by geographic region. We found much variation in payments for these routine evaluation and management services. Physicians at the high end of the payment distribution were generally paid more than twice what physicians at the low end were paid for the same service. Little variation was explained by patients' age or sex, physicians' specialty, place of service, whether the physician was a "network provider," or type of plan, although about one-third of the variation was associated with the geographic area of the practice. Interventions that promote more price-consciousness on the part of patients could help reduce health care spending, but more data on the specific causes of price variation are needed to determine appropriate policy responses.
The Relationship between Low Back Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Surgery, and Spending: Impact of Physician Self-Referral Status HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Shreibati, J. B., Baker, L. C. 2011; 46 (5): 1362-1381
To examine the relationship between use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and receipt of surgery for patients with low back pain.Medicare claims for a 20 percent sample of beneficiaries from 1998 to 2005.We identify nonradiologist physicians who appear to begin self-referral arrangements for MRI between 1999 and 2005, as well as their patients who have a new episode of low back pain care during this time. We focus on regression models that identify the relationship between receipt of MRI and subsequent use of back surgery and health care spending. Receipt of MRI may be endogenous, so we use physician acquisition of MRI as an instrument for receipt of MRI. The models adjust for demographic and socioeconomic covariates as well as month, year, and physician fixed effects.We include traditional, fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with a visit to an orthopedist or primary care physician for nonspecific low back pain, and no claims for low back pain in the year prior.In the first stage, acquisition of MRI equipment is a strongly correlated with patients receiving MRI scans. Among patients of orthopedists, receipt of an MRI scan increases the probability of having surgery by 34 percentage points. Among patients of primary care physicians, receiving a low back MRI is not statistically significantly associated with subsequent surgery receipt.Orthopedists and primary care physicians who begin billing for the performance of MRI procedures, rather than referring patients outside of their practice for MRI, appear to change their practice patterns such that they use more MRI for their patients with low back pain. These increases in MRI use appear to lead to increases in low back surgery receipt and health care spending among patients of orthopedic surgeons, but not of primary care physicians.
Acquisition Of MRI Equipment By Doctors Drives Up Imaging Use And Spending HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C. 2010; 29 (12): 2252-2259
Some orthopedists and neurologists acquired their own magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment during the early 2000s. This paper examines changes in imaging use and in overall spending by patients of orthopedists and neurologists who began billing for MRI scans between 1999 and 2005. Results show that physicians ordered substantially more scans once they began billing for MRI. For example, after orthopedists began billing for MRI, the number of MRI procedures used within thirty days of a first visit increased by about 38 percent. Not only did MRI spending increase for their patients, but spending for other aspects of care rose as well. Attention should be paid to ensuring that advanced medical equipment acquired in physician practices is used appropriately.
Real-world Evidence to Estimate Prostate Cancer Costs for First-line Treatment or Active Surveillance. European urology open science Magnani, C. J., Bievre, N., Baker, L. C., Brooks, J. D., Blayney, D. W., Hernandez-Boussard, T. 2021; 23: 20–29
Background: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Changes in screening guidelines, adoption of active surveillance (AS), and implementation of high-cost technologies have changed treatment costs. Traditional cost-effectiveness studies rely on clinical trial protocols unlikely to capture actual practice behavior, and existing studies use data predating new technologies. Real-world evidence reflecting these changes is lacking.Objective: To assess real-world costs of first-line prostate cancer management.Design setting and participants: We used clinical electronic health records for 2008-2018 linked with the California Cancer Registry and the Medicare Fee Schedule to assess costs over 24 or 60 mo following diagnosis. We identified surgery or radiation treatments with structured methods, while we used both structured data and natural language processing to identify AS.Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Our results are risk-stratified calculated cost per day (CCPD) for first-line management, which are independent of treatment duration. We used the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare unadjusted CCPD while analysis of covariance log-linear models adjusted estimates for age and Charlson comorbidity.Results and limitations: In 3433 patients, surgery (54.6%) was more common than radiation (22.3%) or AS (23.0%). Two years following diagnosis, AS ($2.97/d) was cheaper than surgery ($5.67/d) or radiation ($9.34/d) in favorable disease, while surgery ($7.17/d) was cheaper than radiation ($16.34/d) for unfavorable disease. At 5 yr, AS ($2.71/d) remained slightly cheaper than surgery ($2.87/d) and radiation ($4.36/d) in favorable disease, while for unfavorable disease surgery ($4.15/d) remained cheaper than radiation ($10.32/d). Study limitations include information derived from a single healthcare system and costs based on benchmark Medicare estimates rather than actual payment exchanges.Patient summary: Active surveillance was cheaper than surgery (-47.6%) and radiation (-68.2%) at 2 yr for favorable-risk disease, which decreased by 5 yr (-5.6% and -37.8%, respectively). Surgery was less costly than radiation for unfavorable risk for both intervals (-56.1% and -59.8%, respectively).
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.euros.2020.11.004
Are Changes in Medical Group Practice Characteristics Over Time Associated With Medicare Spending and Quality of Care? MEDICAL CARE RESEARCH AND REVIEW Baker, L. C., Pesko, M., Ramsay, P., Casalino, L. P., Shortell, S. M. 2020; 77 (5): 402–15
The Influence of Cost Information on Treatment Choice: A Mixed-Methods Study. The Journal of hand surgery Zhuang, T., Kortlever, J. T., Shapiro, L. M., Baker, L., Harris, A. H., Kamal, R. N. 2020
PURPOSE: To test the null hypothesis that exposure to societal cost information does not affect choice of treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).METHODS: We enrolled 304 participants using the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform to complete a survey in which participants were given the choice between carpal tunnel release (CTR) or a less-expensive option (orthosis wear) in a hypothetical mild CTS scenario. Patients were randomized to receive information about the societal cost of CTR (cost cohort) or no cost information (control). The primary outcome was the probability of choosing CTR measured on a 6-point ordinal scale. We employed qualitative content analysis to evaluate participants' rationale for their choice. We also explored agreement with various attitudes toward health care costs on an ordinal scale.RESULTS: Participants in the cost cohort exhibited a greater probability of choosing surgery than those in the control cohort. The relative risk of choosing surgery after exposure to societal cost information was 1.43 (95% confidence interval, 1.11-1.85). Among participants who had not previously been diagnosed with CTS (n= 232), the relative risk of choosing surgery after exposure to societal cost information was 1.55 (95% confidence interval, 1.17-2.06). Lack of personal monetary responsibility frequently emerged as a theme in those in the cost cohort who chose surgery. The majority (94%) of participants expressed at least some agreement that health care cost is a major problem whereas only 58% indicated that they consider the country's health care costs when making treatment decisions.CONCLUSIONS: Participants who received societal cost information were more likely to choose the more expensive treatment option (CTR) for mild CTS.CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Exposure to societal cost information may influence patient decision making in elective hand surgery. A complete understanding of this influence is required prior to implementing processes toward greater cost transparency for diagnostic/treatment options. Sharing out-of-pocket costs with patients may be a beneficial approach because discussing societal cost information alone will likely not improve value of care.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jhsa.2020.05.019
Analysis of Medicare Payments for Preoperative Imaging Before Carotid Endarterectomy Itoga, N. K., Martinez-Singh, K., Harris, J., Lee, J. T., Baker, L., Garcia-Toca, M. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2020: E17–E18
Does Multispecialty Practice Enhance Physician Market Power? AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M., Kessler, D. P. 2020; 6 (3): 324–47
MULTIPARAMETRIC MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING AND RECLASSIFICATION FROM ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE Magnani, C. J., Bievre, N., Erdogdu, B., Baker, L. C., Brooks, J. D., Hernandez-Boussard, T. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2020: E342–E343
Initial financial impact of office-based laboratories on Medicare payments for percutaneous interventions for peripheral artery disease. Journal of vascular surgery Itoga, N. K., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. 2020
Percutaneous interventions for peripheral artery disease (PAD) are transitioning away from hospital-based settings to office-based laboratories (OBLs). Those in favor of OBL use reference lower hospitalization rates and high efficiency; however, critics claim financial incentives may lead to multiple procedures and higher atherectomy use. We sought to determine how Medicare payments are affected by OBL use.We identified physicians performing percutaneous interventions for PAD from 2006 to 2013 in a 20% Medicare sample. Physicians performing a majority of interventions at OBLs were classified as high OBL users; control physicians performed interventions at hospital-based settings. The primary outcomes were total Medicare payments at 30 days and 1 year. Generalized log-gamma regression models were used to evaluate factors influencing payments reported as a percentage change and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). A secondary analysis was performed of physicians who transitioned from hospital-based settings to OBLs, "switch physicians." A multivariate model with difference-in-differences regression was used to evaluate the effects of transitioning to OBLs.A total of 89 high OBL users performed percutaneous interventions on 887 patients, and 3715 control physicians treated 54,213 patients during the time period. Payments for patients treated by high OBL users were significantly higher compared with control physicians at 30 days ($4465), 90 days ($8925), and 1 year ($27,436). Major factors increasing payments at 1 year were treatment by a high OBL user (49%; 95% CI, 42%-56%), hospital admissions (127%; 95% CI, 123%-131%), repeated lower extremity procedures (41%; 95% CI, 39%-43%), and lower extremity wound (20%; 95% CI,18%-22%). Factors decreasing payments at 1 year were living in a rural setting (8%; 95% CI, 7%-9%) and dementia (5%; 95% CI, 3%-7%). Analysis of 292 switch physicians identified 3888 patients treated before OBLs (pre-switch) and 3246 after OBLs (post-switch). Transitioning to OBLs was associated with higher payments at 30 days and 90 days, and this increase was higher compared with control physicians.These findings highlight that OBL use for PAD interventions significantly influences Medicare payments, and its widespread adaptation should be made with caution. The main factors driving payments were hospitalization admissions, repeated lower extremity procedures, and wound status. Further work is needed to evaluate the appropriate use of OBLs to optimize patient outcomes and resource allocations.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jvs.2019.09.064
Physical and Occupational Therapy Use and Cost After Common Hand Procedures. The Journal of hand surgery Shah, R. F., Zhang, S., Li, K., Baker, L., Sox-Harris, A., Kamal, R. N. 2019
PURPOSE: The use of routine physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) after certain hand procedures, such as carpal tunnel release, remains controversial. The objective of this study was to evaluate baseline use, the change in use, variation in prescribing patterns by region, and costs for PT/OT after common hand procedures.METHODS: Outpatient administrative claims data from patients who underwent procedures for carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, carpometacarpal arthritis, de Quervain tenosynovitis, wrist ganglion cyst, and distal radius fracture were abstracted from the Truven Health MarketScan database from 2007 to 2015. The incidence of therapy and total reimbursement of therapy per patient were collected for each procedure over a 90-day postoperative observational period. Trends in use of therapy over time were described with average compound annual growth rates (CAGRs), a way of quantifying average growth over a specified observation period. Variations in the incidence of PT/OT use across 4 census regions were assessed.RESULTS: The incidence of 90-day utilization of PT and OT after hand procedures was 14.0% and increased for all procedures during the observation period with an average CAGR of 8.3%. Cost per therapy visit was relatively stable when adjusted for inflation, with an average CAGR of 0.63%. Patients in the northeast had a significantly higher incidence of PT/OT use than those in the south and west for all procedures except carpometacarpal arthritis.CONCLUSIONS: Use of PT and OT has increased over time after common hand procedures. Geographical variation in the utilization rate of these services is substantial. Limiting unwarranted variation of care is a health policy strategy for increasing value of care.TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Outcomes Research II.
Why Don't Commercial Health Plans Use Prospective Payment? AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L., Bundorf, M., Devlin, A., Kessler, D. P. 2019; 5 (4): 465–80
View details for DOI 10.1162/ajhe_a_00127
The Usability and Feasibility of Conjoint Analysis to Elicit Preferences for DistalRadius Fractures in Patients 55Years andOlder. The Journal of hand surgery Shapiro, L. M., Eppler, S. L., Baker, L. C., Harris, A. S., Gardner, M. J., Kamal, R. N. 2019
PURPOSE: Eliciting patient preferences is one part of the shared decision-making process-a process of decision making focused on the values and preferences of the patient. We evaluated the usability and feasibility of a point-of-care conjoint analysis tool for preference elicitation for shared decision making in the treatment of distal radius fractures in patients over the age of 55 years.METHODS: Twenty-seven patients 55 years of age or older with a displaced distal radius fracture were recruited from a hand and upper extremity clinic. A conjoint analysis tool was created describing the attributes of care (eg, return of grip strength) of surgical and nonsurgical treatment. This tool was administered to patients to determine their preferences for the treatment attributes when choosing between surgical and nonsurgical treatment. Patients completed a System Usability Scale (SUS) to evaluate usability, and time to complete the tool was measured to evaluate feasibility.RESULTS: Patients considered the conjoint analysis tool to be usable (SUS, 91.4; SD, 10.9). Mean time to complete the tool was 5.1 minutes (SD, 1.4 minutes). The most important attributes driving the decision for surgical treatment were return of grip strength at 1 year and time spent in a cast or brace. The most important attributes driving the decision for nonsurgical treatment were use of anesthesia during treatment and return of grip strength at 1 year.CONCLUSIONS: A point-of-care conjoint analysis tool for distal radius fractures in patients 55 years and older can be used to elicit patient preferences to inform the shared decision-making process. Further investigation evaluating the effect of preference elicitation on treatment choice, involvement in decision making, and patient-reported outcomes are needed.CLINICAL RELEVANCE: A conjoint analysis tool is a simple, structured process physicians can use during shared decision making to highlight trade-offs between treatment options and elicit patient preferences to inform treatment choices.
Assessment of Out-of-Network Billing for Privately Insured Patients Receiving Care in In-Network Hospitals. JAMA internal medicine Sun, E. C., Mello, M. M., Moshfegh, J., Baker, L. C. 2019
Importance: Although surprise medical bills are receiving considerable attention from lawmakers and the news media, to date there has been little systematic study of the incidence and financial consequences of out-of-network billing.Objective: To examine out-of-network billing among privately insured patients with an inpatient admission or emergency department (ED) visit at in-network hospitals.Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective analysis using data from the Clinformatics Data Mart database (Optum), which includes health insurance claims for individuals from all 50 US states receiving private health insurance from a large commercial insurer was conducted of all inpatient admissions (n=5 457 981) and ED visits (n=13 579 006) at in-network hospitals between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2016. Data were collected and analyzed in March 2019.Exposures: Receipt of a bill for care from at least 1 out-of-network physician or medical transport service associated with patient admission or ED visit.Main Outcomes and Measures: The incidence of out-of-network billing and the potential amount of patients' financial liability associated with out-of-network bills from the admission or visit.Results: Of 5 457 981 inpatient admissions and 13 579 006 ED admissions between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of ED visits with an out-of-network bill increased from 32.3% to 42.8% (P<.001) during the study period, and the mean (SD) potential financial responsibility for these bills increased from $220 ($420) to $628 ($865) (P<.001; all dollar values in 2018 US$). Similarly, the percentage of inpatient admissions with an out-of-network bill increased from 26.3% to 42.0% (P<.001), and the mean (SD) potential financial responsibility increased from $804 ($2456) to $2040 ($4967) (P<.001).Conclusions and Relevance: Out-of-network billing appears to have become common for privately insured patients even when they seek treatment at in-network hospitals. The mean amounts billed appear to be sufficiently large that they may create financial strain for a substantial proportion of patients.
View details for DOI 10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.3451
Demographics, Usage Patterns, and Safety of Male Users of Clomiphene in the United States. The world journal of men's health Guo, D. P., Zlatev, D. V., Li, S., Baker, L. C., Eisenberg, M. L. 2019
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to characterize the demographics, usage patterns and complication rates of clomiphene use in male patients.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed male patients from ages 20 to 55 years old who were prescribed clomiphene citrate from 2001 to 2014 using the Truven Health MarketScan, a US claims database. We collected data regarding associated medical diagnoses, diagnostic testing, duration of use, and reported side effects including thrombotic events, vision problems, gynecomastia, mental disorders, liver disease, nausea, or skin problems.RESULTS: In total, 12,318 men took clomiphene and represented the primary study cohort, with a mean age of 37.8 years. The percentage of men prescribed clomiphene increased over the study period, as did the average age of clomiphene users. Associated diagnoses included male infertility (52.0%), testicular hypofunction (13.5%), erectile dysfunction (2.4%), and low libido (0.4%). Associated testing included semen analysis (43.7%), testosterone (23.5%), luteinizing hormone (19.3%), and follicle-stimulating hormone (21.1%) levels. The median time of clomiphene use was 3.6 months, with 63% of men stopping within 6 months. No increased risk of reported clomiphene side effects were apparent in men taking the medication.CONCLUSIONS: There is a rising prevalence of clomiphene usage without associated adverse side effects in the US. The variability in associated diagnoses, diagnostic testing, and duration of use suggest a need for greater awareness of the proper evaluation and treatment of the men who are prescribed clomiphene.
View details for DOI 10.5534/wjmh.190028
Managed Care, Information, and Diffusion: The Case of Treatment for Heart-Attack Patients. The American economic review Baker, L. C., Afendulis, C. C., Heidenreich, P. A. ; 94 (2): 347–51
Impact of office-based laboratories on physician practice patterns and outcomes after percutaneous vascular interventions for peripheral artery disease. Journal of vascular surgery Itoga, N. K., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. 2019
BACKGROUND: Percutaneous vascular interventions (PVIs) for peripheral artery disease have shifted from hospital-based facilities to office-based laboratories (OBLs). The transition to OBLs is due to a variety of factors such as technology advancement, increased efficiency, and financial incentives. We evaluated the impact of physicians switching to OBLs use from hospital-based facilities on procedure volume, procedure type, and patient outcomes.METHODS: We identified patients with PVI for lower extremity peripheral artery disease from 2006 to 2013 in a 20% Medicare sample and identified physicians who transitioned from predominantly hospital-based facilities to OBLs (switch physicians) and compared them with those who did not use OBLs (control physicians). The main outcomes investigated were average number of PVIs at 30days and 1year and atherectomy usage. Patient outcomes included above-ankle amputation, major adverse limb events, and death. We used a difference-in-difference model to control for time effects in a multivariate regression model, reported as an odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).RESULTS: The cohort comprised 292 switch physicians, who treated 7134 patients (3888 before OBL use and 3246 after transitioning to OBLs), and 3715 control physicians treating 54,213 patients (36,327 in the preperiod and 17,886 in the postperiod). Switch and control physicians both treated more patients with lower extremity wounds during the study period; however, this increase was greater for control physician (0.7% vs 5.5%, P< .001). On average, patients treated by switch physicians had 0.05 (95% CI, 0.03-0.07; P< .001) underwent more PVIs within 30days and 0.12 more PVIs (95% CI, 0.08-0.16; P< .001) within 1year of the initial revascularization procedure after the physician transitioned to an OBL. Similarly, patients treated by switch physicians underwent 0.02 (95% CI, 0.01-0.03; P= .002) more atherectomy procedures at 30days and 0.03 (95% CI, 0.01-0.05; P= .008) more atherectomy procedures at 1year. Transitioning to OBLs was also associated with a decreased risk in above-ankle amputation at 30days (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.38-0.97; P= .009) and 1year (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.60-0.95; P= .01). However, no statistical difference was observed for major adverse limb events and mortality rates at 30days and 1year because patients treated by switch and control physicians experienced similar decreases.CONCLUSIONS: Transitioning to OBLs was associated higher 30-day and 1-year PVI rates and atherectomy rates. Although transitioning to OBLs was associated with lower rates of above-ankle amputations, switch physicians treated a lower number of patients with lower extremity wounds.
Impact of Office-Based Laboratories on Medicare Payments for Percutaneous Interventions for Peripheral Artery Disease Itoga, N. K., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2019: E196–E197
Regional Anesthesia and Readmission Rates After Total Knee Arthroplasty Chi, D., Mariano, E. R., Memtsoudis, S. G., Baker, L. C., Sun, E. C. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2019: 1319–27
View details for DOI 10.1213/ANE.0000000000003830
The effects of medicare advantage on opioid use. Journal of health economics Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2019; 70: 102278
Despite a vast literature on the determinants of prescription opioid use, the role of health insurance plans has received little attention. We study how the form of Medicare beneficiaries' drug coverage affects the volume of opioids they consume. We find that enrollment in Medicare Advantage, which integrates drug coverage with other medical benefits, significantly reduces beneficiaries' likelihood of filling an opioid prescription, as compared to enrollment in a stand-alone drug plan. Approximately half of this effect was due to fewer fills from prescribers who write a very large number of opioid prescriptions.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102278
Competition in Outpatient Procedure Markets MEDICAL CARE Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2019; 57 (1): 36–41
View details for DOI 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001003
Regional Anesthesia and Readmission Rates After Total Knee Arthroplasty. Anesthesia and analgesia Chi, D., Mariano, E. R., Memtsoudis, S. G., Baker, L. C., Sun, E. C. 2019; 128 (6): 1319–27
Total knee arthroplasty is a commonly performed procedure and an important contributor to national health care spending. Reducing the incidence of readmission could have important consequences for patient well-being and relevant financial implications. Whether regional anesthesia techniques are associated with decreased readmission rates and costs among privately insured patients remains unknown.Using administrative claims data, we identified 138,362 privately insured patients 18-64 years of age who underwent total knee arthroplasty between 2002 and 2013. We then examined whether the use of a nerve block was associated with decreases in readmission rates and related costs during the 90 days after discharge. Our analyses were adjusted for potential confounding variables including medical comorbidities and previous use of opioids and other medications.After adjusting for patient demographics, comorbidities, and preoperative medication use, the adjusted 90-day readmission rate was 1.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.4) among patients who did not receive a block compared to 1.7% (95% CI, 1.1-2.4) among patients who did (odds ratio, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.91-1.09; P = .85). The adjusted readmission-related postoperative cost for patients who did not receive a block was $561 (95% CI, 502-619) and $574 (95% CI, 508-639) for patients who did (difference, $13; 95% CI, -75 to 102; P = .74). This lack of statistically significant differences held for subgroup and sensitivity analyses.Nerve blocks were not associated with improved measures of long-term postoperative resource use in this younger, privately insured study population.
Medical Group Characteristics and the Cost and Quality of Care for Medicare Beneficiaries. Health services research Casalino, L. P., Ramsay, P., Baker, L. C., Pesko, M. F., Shortell, S. M. 2018; 53 (6): 4970–96
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the relationship between outcomes of care and medical practices' structure and use of organized care improvement processes.DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: We linked Medicare claims data to our national survey of physician practices (2012-2013). Fifty percent response rate; 1,040 responding practices; 31,888 physicians; 868,213 attributed Medicare beneficiaries.STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational analysis of the relationship between practice characteristics and total spending, readmissions, and ambulatory care-sensitive admissions (ACSAs), for all beneficiaries and five categories of beneficiary defined by predicted need for care.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Practices with 100+ physicians and 50-99 physicians had, respectively, annual spending per high-need beneficiary that was $1,870 (12.5 percent) and $1,824 higher than practices with 1-2 physicians, and readmission rates 1.64 and 1.71 higher. ACSA rates did not vary significantly by practice size. Outcomes did not vary significantly by ownership or by practices' use of organized processes to improve care.CONCLUSIONS: Large practices had higher spending and readmission rates than the smallest practices, especially for high-need beneficiaries. There were no significant performance differences between physician-owned and hospital-owned practices. Policy makers should consider the effects of specific policies on provider organization, pending further research to learn which types of practice provide better care.
Competition in Outpatient Procedure Markets. Medical care Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2018
BACKGROUND: More than half of all medical procedures performed in the United States occur in an outpatient setting, yet few studies have explored how competition among ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and hospitals affects prices for commercially insured outpatient services.OBJECTIVES: We examined the association between prices for commercially insured outpatient procedures and competition among ASCs and hospitals.RESEARCH DESIGN: Using claims from the Health Care Cost Institute for 2008-2012, we constructed county-level price indices for outpatient procedures in hospital outpatient departments and ASCs. Using regression analysis, we estimated the association between prices and ASC availability, outpatient and inpatient hospital competition, hospital/physician integration, and several other hospital market characteristics. Our estimates were identified from changes within counties over time.RESULTS: First, ASC availability was associated with decreases in overall outpatient procedure prices, mostly due to reductions in the prices paid to hospital outpatient departments. Second, competition among hospitals was also associated with decreases in outpatient procedure prices-and had an effect more than twice as large as the effect of ASC availability. Third, competition among ASCs was also associated with reductions in the prices paid to other ASCs.CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that competition from ASCs benefits consumers through lower prices for outpatient procedures. Any conclusions about the broader welfare implications of the rise in ASCs, however, must balance the price reductions that we found with the volume increases found in previous work, particularly the volume increases at physician-owned ASCs.
Are Changes in Medical Group Practice Characteristics Over Time Associated With Medicare Spending and Quality of Care? Medical care research and review : MCRR Baker, L. C., Pesko, M., Ramsay, P., Casalino, L. P., Shortell, S. M. 2018: 1077558718812939
Physician practices have been growing in size, and becoming more commonly owned by hospitals, over time. We use survey data on physician practices surveyed at two points in time, linked to Medicare claims data, to investigate whether changes in practice size or ownership are associated with changes in the use of care management, health information technology (HIT), or quality improvement processes. We find that practice growth and becoming hospital-owned are associated with adoption of more quality improvement processes, but not with care management or HIT. We then investigate whether growth or becoming hospital-owned are associated with changes in Medicare spending, 30-day readmission rates, or ambulatory care sensitive admission rates. We find little evidence for associations with practice size and ownership, but the use of care management practices is associated with lower rates of ambulatory care sensitive admissions.
Anesthesia Care Team Composition and Surgical Outcomes ANESTHESIOLOGY Sun, E. C., Miller, T. R., Moshfegh, J., Baker, L. C. 2018; 129 (4): 700–709
With Roots In California, Managed Competition Still Aims To Reform Health Care. Health affairs (Project Hope) Enthoven, A. C., Baker, L. C. 2018; 37 (9): 1425–30
Managed competition is a concept that was born in California and has achieved a measure of acceptance there. As California and the United States as a whole continue to struggle with the challenge of providing high-quality health care at a manageable cost, it is worth asking whether managed competition-with its tools for harnessing market forces-continues to hold promise as a means of improving value in health care, and whether the standard conceptualization of managed competition should be modified in any way. In this article we reflect on four aspects of California's health care ecosystem that provide insights into these questions: integrated delivery systems, patients' choice of health plans, quality measurement, and new health care marketplace architectures such as Covered California and private insurance exchanges. Overall, while California's experience with managed competition has resulted in some challenges and adaptations, it also gives reason to believe that principles of managed competition continue to have the potential to be a powerful force toward creating a more efficient health care system.
With Roots In California, Managed Competition Still Aims To Reform Health Care HEALTH AFFAIRS Enthoven, A. C., Baker, L. C. 2018; 37 (9): 1425–30
The Affordable Care Act Decreased the Proportion of Uninsured Patients in a Safety Net Orthopaedic Clinic CLINICAL ORTHOPAEDICS AND RELATED RESEARCH Gil, J. A., Goodman, A. D., Kleiner, J., Kamal, R. N., Baker, L. C., Akelman, E. 2018; 476 (5): 925–31
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was approved in 2010, substantially altering the economics of providing and receiving healthcare services in the United States. One of the primary goals of this legislation was to expand insurance coverage for under- and uninsured residents. Our objective was to examine the effect of the ACA on the insurance status of patients at a safety net clinic. Our institution houses a safety net clinic that provides the dominant majority of orthopaedic care for uninsured patients in our state. Therefore, our study allows us to accurately examine the magnitude of the effect on insurance status in safety net orthopaedic clinics.(1) Did the ACA result in a decrease in the number of uninsured patients at a safety net orthopaedic clinic that provides the dominant majority of orthopaedic care for the uninsured in the state? (2) Did the proportion of patients insured after passage of the ACA differ across age or demographic groups in one state?We retrospectively examined our longitudinally maintained adult orthopaedic surgery clinic database from January 2009 to March 2015 and collected visit and demographic data, including zip code income quartile. Based on the data published by the Rhode Island Department of Health, our clinic provides the dominant majority of orthopaedic care for uninsured patients in our state. Therefore, examination of the changes in the proportion of insurance status in our clinic allows us to assess the effect of the ACA on the state level. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between demographic variables and insurance status. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% CIs were calculated for the proportion of uninsured visits. The proportion of uninsured visits before and after implementation of the ACA was evaluated with an interrupted time-series analysis. The reduction in the proportion of patients without insurance between demographic groups (ie, race, gender, language spoken, and income level) also was compared using an interrupted time-series design.There was a 36% absolute reduction (95% CI, 35%-38%; p < 0.001) in uninsured visits (73% relative reduction; 95% CI, 71%-75%; p < 0.001). There was an immediate 28% absolute reduction (95% CI, 21%-34%; p < 0.001) at the time of ACA implementation, which continued to decline thereafter. After controlling for potential confounding variables such as gender, race, age, and income level, we found that patients who were white, men, younger than 65 years, and seen after January 2014 were more likely to have insurance than patients of other races, women, older patients, and patients treated before January 2014.After the ACA was implemented, the proportion of patients with health insurance at our safety net adult orthopaedic surgery clinic increased substantially. The reduction in uninsured patients was not equal across genders, races, ages, and incomes. Future studies may benefit from identifying barriers to insurance acquisition in these subpopulations. The results of this study could affect orthopaedic practices in the United States by guiding policy decisions regarding health care.Level III, therapeutic study.
Anesthesia Care Team Composition and Surgical Outcomes. Anesthesiology Sun, E. C., Miller, T. R., Moshfegh, J., Baker, L. C. 2018
In the United States, anesthesia care can be provided by an anesthesia care team consisting of nonphysician providers (nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologist assistants) working under the supervision of a physician anesthesiologist. Nurse anesthetists may practice nationwide, whereas anesthesiologist assistants are restricted to 16 states. To inform policies concerning the expanded use of anesthesiologist assistants, the authors examined whether the specific anesthesia care team composition (physician anesthesiologist plus nurse anesthetist or anesthesiologist assistant) was associated with differences in perioperative outcomes.A retrospective analysis was performed of national claims data for 443,098 publicly insured elderly (ages 65 to 89 yr) patients who underwent inpatient surgery between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2011. The differences in inpatient mortality, spending, and length of stay between cases where an anesthesiologist supervised an anesthesiologist assistant compared to cases where an anesthesiologist supervised a nurse anesthetist were estimated. The approach used a quasirandomization technique known as instrumental variables to reduce confounding.The adjusted mortality for care teams with anesthesiologist assistants was 1.6% (95% CI, 1.4 to 1.8) versus 1.7% for care teams with nurse anesthetists (95% CI, 1.7 to 1.7; difference -0.08; 95% CI, -0.3 to 0.1; P = 0.47). Compared to care teams with nurse anesthetists, care teams with anesthesiologist assistants were associated with non-statistically significant decreases in length of stay (-0.009 days; 95% CI, -0.1 to 0.1; P = 0.89) and medical spending (-$56; 95% CI, -334 to 223; P = 0.70).The specific composition of the anesthesia care team was not associated with any significant differences in mortality, length of stay, or inpatient spending.
Regional Anesthesia and Readmission Rates After Total Knee Arthroplasty. Anesthesia and analgesia Chi, D., Mariano, E. R., Memtsoudis, S. G., Baker, L. C., Sun, E. C. 2018
Cost-minimization Analysis of the Management of Acute Achilles Tendon Rupture. journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Truntzer, J. N., Triana, B., Harris, A. H., Baker, L., Chou, L., Kamal, R. N. 2017; 25 (6): 449-457
Outcomes of nonsurgical management of acute Achilles tendon rupture have been demonstrated to be noninferior to those of surgical management. We performed a cost-minimization analysis of surgical and nonsurgical management of acute Achilles tendon rupture.We used a claims database to identify patients who underwent surgical (n = 1,979) and nonsurgical (n = 3,065) management of acute Achilles tendon rupture and compared overall costs of treatment (surgical procedure, follow-up care, physical therapy, and management of complications). Complication rates were also calculated. Patients were followed for 1 year after injury.Average treatment costs in the year after initial diagnosis were higher for patients who underwent initial surgical treatment than for patients who underwent nonsurgical treatment ($4,292 for surgical treatment versus $2,432 for nonsurgical treatment; P < 0.001). However, surgical treatment required fewer office visits (4.52 versus 10.98; P < 0.001) and less spending on physical therapy ($595 versus $928; P < 0.001). Rates of rerupture requiring subsequent treatment (2.1% versus 2.4%; P = 0.34) and additional costs ($2,950 versus $2,515; P = 0.34) were not significantly different regardless whether initial treatment was surgical or nonsurgical. In both cohorts, management of complications contributed to approximately 5% of the total cost.From the payer's perspective, the overall costs of nonsurgical management of acute Achilles tendon rupture were significantly lower than the overall costs of surgical management.III, Economic Decision Analysis.
View details for DOI 10.5435/JAAOS-D-16-00553
Under-Utilization of Routine Ultrasound Surveillance after Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair. Annals of vascular surgery Mell, M. W., Garg, T., Baker, L. C. 2017
Since 2009, the Society for Vascular Surgery has advocated annual surveillance imaging with ultrasound (US) after the first postoperative year for uncomplicated endovascular aneurysm repairs (EVARs). We sought to describe diffusion of US into long-term routine surveillance and to estimate potential cost savings among Medicare beneficiaries after EVAR.Using Medicare claims data, we identified patients receiving EVAR from 2002 to 2010 and included only those who did not subsequently have reinterventions, late aneurysm-related complications, or death. We collected all relevant postoperative imaging (computed tomography [CT] and US) through 2011. Patients with follow-up less than 1 year were excluded. We estimated cost savings with increased use of US after the first postoperative year.The cohort comprised 24,615 patients with a mean follow-up of 3.9 ± 2.3 years. Mean number of images decreased from 2.23 in the first postoperative year to 0.31 in the 10th year. Utilization of US at the first postoperative year remained low but increased from 15.2% in 2003 to 28.8% in 2011 (P < 0.001). By the 10th postoperative year, the proportion of patients receiving US increased from 8.2% to 37.8%, while use of CT only remained high but decreased from 60.8% to 42.1%. Mean cost of surveillance imaging was $2,132/CT and $234/US. Performing US in 50-75% of patients beginning 1 year after EVAR would decrease costs by 14-48%/year. This translates to a mean cost savings of $338-$1135 per imaged patient per year, with an estimated savings to Medicare of $155 million to $305 million over 10 years.CT remains the primary modality of surveillance for up to 10 years after EVAR for patients without reinterventions or aneurysm-related complications. Increasing the use of US and decreasing the use of CT would save cost without compromising outcomes.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.avsg.2017.03.203
Lack of Association Between the Use of Nerve Blockade and the Risk of Postoperative Chronic Opioid Use Among Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty: Evidence from the Marketscan Database. Anesthesia and analgesia Sun, E. C., Bateman, B. T., Memtsoudis, S. G., Neuman, M. D., Mariano, E. R., Baker, L. C. 2017
Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is associated with high rates of prolonged opioid use after surgery (10%-34%). By decreasing opioid use in the immediate postoperative period, perioperative nerve blockade has been hypothesized to decrease the risk of persistent opioid use.Using health care utilization data, we constructed a sample of 120,080 patients undergoing TKA between 2002 and 2012 and used billing data to identify the utilization of peripheral or neuraxial blockade. We then used a multivariable logistic regression to estimate the association between nerve blockade and the risk of chronic opioid use, defined as having filled ≥10 prescriptions or ≥120 days' supply for an opioid in the first postsurgical year. Our analyses were adjusted for an extensive set of potential confounding variables, including -medical comorbidities, previous opioid use, and previous use of other medications.We did not find an association between nerve blockade and the risk of postsurgical chronic opioid use across any of these 3 groups: adjusted relative risk (ARR) 0.984 for patients opioid-naïve in the year before surgery (98.3% confidence interval [CI], 0.870-1.12, P = .794), ARR 1.02 for intermittent opioid users (98.3% CI, 0.948-1.09, P = .617), and ARR 0.986 (98.3% CI, 0.963-1.01, P = .257) for chronic opioid users. Similar results held for alternative measures of postsurgical opioid use.Although the use of perioperative nerve blockade for TKA may improve short-term outcomes, the analyzed types of blocks do not appear to decrease the risk of persistent opioid use in the longer term.
Association between concurrent use of prescription opioids and benzodiazepines and overdose: retrospective analysis BMJ-BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL Sun, E. C., Dixit, A., Humphreys, K., Darnall, B. D., Baker, L. C., Mackey, S. 2017; 356
Objectives To identify trends in concurrent use of a benzodiazepine and an opioid and to identify the impact of these trends on admissions to hospital and emergency room visits for opioid overdose.Design Retrospective analysis of claims data, 2001-13.Setting Administrative health claims database.Participants 315 428 privately insured people aged 18-64 who were continuously enrolled in a health plan with medical and pharmacy benefits during the study period and who also filled at least one prescription for an opioid.Interventions Concurrent benzodiazepine/opioid use, defined as an overlap of at least one day in the time periods covered by prescriptions for each drug. Main outcome measures Annual percentage of opioid users with concurrent benzodiazepine use; annual incidence of visits to emergency room and inpatient admissions for opioid overdose.Results 9% of opioid users also used a benzodiazepine in 2001, increasing to 17% in 2013 (80% relative increase). This increase was driven mainly by increases among intermittent, as opposed to chronic, opioid users. Compared with opioid users who did not use benzodiazepines, concurrent use of both drugs was associated with an increased risk of an emergency room visit or inpatient admission for opioid overdose (adjusted odds ratio 2.14, 95% confidence interval 2.05 to 2.24; P<0.001) among all opioid users. The adjusted odds ratio for an emergency room visit or inpatient admission for opioid overdose was 1.42 (1.33 to 1.51; P<0.001) for intermittent opioid users and 1.81 (1.67 to 1.96; P<0.001) chronic opioid users. If this association is causal, elimination of concurrent benzodiazepine/opioid use could reduce the risk of emergency room visits related to opioid use and inpatient admissions for opioid overdose by an estimated 15% (95% confidence interval 14 to 16).Conclusions From 2001 to 2013, concurrent benzodiazepine/opioid use sharply increased in a large sample of privately insured patients in the US and significantly contributed to the overall population risk of opioid overdose.
View details for DOI 10.1136/bmj.j760
"Opt Out" and Access to Anesthesia Care for Elective and Urgent Surgeries among U.S. Medicare Beneficiaries. Anesthesiology Sun, E. C., Dexter, F., Miller, T. R., Baker, L. C. 2017; 126 (3): 461-471
In 2001, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a rule allowing U.S. states to "opt out" of the regulations requiring physician supervision of nurse anesthetists in an effort to increase access to anesthesia care. Whether "opt out" has successfully achieved this goal remains unknown.Using Medicare administrative claims data, we examined whether "opt out" reduced the distance traveled by patients, a common measure of access, for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, total hip arthroplasty, cataract surgery, colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy, esophagogastroduodenoscopy, appendectomy, or hip fracture repair. In addition, we examined whether "opt out" was associated with an increase in the use of anesthesia care for cataract surgery, colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy, or esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Our analysis used a difference-in-differences approach with a robust set of controls to minimize confounding."Opt out" did not reduce the percentage of patients who traveled outside of their home zip code except in the case of total hip arthroplasty (2.2% point reduction; P = 0.007). For patients travelling outside of their zip code, "opt out" had no significant effect on the distance traveled among any of the procedures we examined, with point estimates ranging from a 7.9-km decrease for appendectomy (95% CI, -19 to 3.4; P = 0.173) to a 1.6-km increase (95% CI, -5.1 to 8.2; P = 0.641) for total hip arthroplasty. There was also no significant effect on the use of anesthesia for esophagogastroduodenoscopy, appendectomy, or cataract surgery."Opt out" was associated with little or no increased access to anesthesia care for several common procedures.
In Response. Anesthesia and analgesia Sun, E. C., Bateman, B. T., Memtsoudis, S. G., Neuman, M. D., Mariano, E. R., Baker, L. C. 2017
Lack of Association Between the Use of Nerve Blockade and the Risk of Persistent Opioid Use Among Patients Undergoing Shoulder Arthroplasty: Evidence From the Marketscan Database. Anesthesia and analgesia Mueller, K. G., Memtsoudis, S. G., Mariano, E. R., Baker, L. C., Mackey, S., Sun, E. C. 2017
Persistent opioid use following surgery has received increasing attention from policymakers, researchers, and clinicians. Perioperative nerve blockade has been hypothesized to decrease the risk of persistent opioid use. We examined whether nerve blockade was associated with a decreased risk of persistent opioid use among patients undergoing shoulder arthroplasty, a procedure with high rates of persistent postoperative pain.Using health care claims data, we constructed a sample of 6695 patients undergoing shoulder arthroplasty between 2002 and 2012 and used billing data to identify the utilization of nerve blockade. We then used a multivariable logistic regression to estimate the association between nerve blockade and 2 measures of opioid use: having filled at least 1 prescription for an opioid between postoperative days (PODs) 0 and 90, and between POD 91 and 365. This regression adjusted for a variety of potential confounders, such as preoperative opioid use and medical history.There was no association between nerve blockade and our 2 measures of persistent opioid use: adjusted odds ratio, 1.12 (97.5% confidence interval, 0.939-1.34; P = .15) for opioid use between POD 0 and 90, and adjusted odds ratio, 0.997 (97.5% confidence interval, 0.875-1.14; P = .95) for opioid use between POD 91 and 365.Although the use of perioperative nerve blockade may offer short-term benefits, in this study, it was not associated with a reduction in the risk of persistent opioid use for patients undergoing shoulder arthroplasty.
Cost-Minimization Analysis of Open and Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release. journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume Zhang, S., Vora, M., Harris, A. H., Baker, L., Curtin, C., Kamal, R. N. 2016; 98 (23): 1970-1977
Carpal tunnel release is the most common upper-limb surgical procedure performed annually in the U.S. There are 2 surgical methods of carpal tunnel release: open or endoscopic. Currently, there is no clear clinical or economic evidence supporting the use of one procedure over the other. We completed a cost-minimization analysis of open and endoscopic carpal tunnel release, testing the null hypothesis that there is no difference between the procedures in terms of cost.We conducted a retrospective review using a private-payer and Medicare Advantage database composed of 16 million patient records from 2007 to 2014. The cohort consisted of records with an ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision) diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome and a CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) code for carpal tunnel release. Payer fees were used to define cost. We also assessed other associated costs of care, including those of electrodiagnostic studies and occupational therapy. Bivariate comparisons were performed using the chi-square test and the Student t test.Data showed that 86% of the patients underwent open carpal tunnel release. Reimbursement fees for endoscopic release were significantly higher than for open release. Facility fees were responsible for most of the difference between the procedures in reimbursement: facility fees averaged $1,884 for endoscopic release compared with $1,080 for open release (p < 0.0001). Endoscopic release also demonstrated significantly higher physician fees than open release (an average of $555 compared with $428; p < 0.0001). Occupational therapy fees associated with endoscopic release were less than those associated with open release (an average of $237 per session compared with $272; p = 0.07). The total average annual reimbursement per patient for endoscopic release (facility, surgeon, and occupational therapy fees) was significantly higher than for open release ($2,602 compared with $1,751; p < 0.0001).Our data showed that the total average fees per patient for endoscopic release were significantly higher than those for open release, although there currently is no strong evidence supporting better clinical outcomes of either technique.Value-based health-care models that favor delivering high-quality care and improving patient health, while also minimizing costs, may favor open carpal tunnel release.
Hospital Ownership of Physicians: Hospital Versus Physician Perspectives. Medical care research and review Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Devlin, A. M., Kessler, D. P. 2016
Although there has been significant interest from health services researchers and policy makers about recent trends in hospitals' ownership of physician practices, few studies have investigated the strengths and weaknesses of available data sources. In this article, we compare results from two national surveys that have been used to assess ownership patterns, one of hospitals (the American Hospital Association survey) and one of physicians (the SK&A survey). We find some areas of agreement, but also some disagreement, between the two surveys. We conclude that full understanding of the causes and consequences of hospital ownership of physicians requires data collected at the both the hospital and the physician level. The appropriate measure of integration depends on the research question being investigated.
Public Reporting of Hospital-Level Cancer Surgical Volumes in California: An Opportunity to Inform Decision Making and Improve Quality. Journal of oncology practice Clarke, C. A., Asch, S. M., Baker, L., Bilimoria, K., Dudley, R. A., Fong, N., Holliday-Hanson, M. L., Hopkins, D. S., Imholz, E. M., Malin, J., Moy, L., O'Sullivan, M., Parker, J. P., Saigal, C. S., Spurlock, B., Teleki, S., Zingmond, D., Lang, L. 2016
Most patients, providers, and payers make decisions about cancer hospitals without any objective data regarding quality or outcomes. We developed two online resources allowing users to search and compare timely data regarding hospital cancer surgery volumes.Hospital cancer surgery volumes for all California hospitals were calculated using ICD-9 coded hospital discharge summary data. Cancer surgeries included (bladder, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate, rectum, and stomach) were selected on the basis of a rigorous literature review to confirm sufficient evidence of a positive association between volume and mortality. The literature could not identify threshold numbers of surgeries associated with better or worse outcomes. A multidisciplinary working group oversaw the project and ensured sound methodology.In California in 2014, about 60% of surgeries were performed at top-quintile-volume hospitals, but the per-hospital median numbers of surgeries for esophageal, pancreatic, stomach, liver, or bladder cancer surgeries were four or fewer. At least 670 patients received cancer surgery at hospitals that performed only one or two surgeries for a particular cancer type; 72% of those patients lived within 50 miles of a top-quintile-volume hospital.There is clear potential for more readily available information about hospital volumes to help patient, providers, and payers choose cancer surgery hospitals. Our successful public reporting of hospital volumes in California represents an important first step toward making publicly available even more provider-specific data regarding cancer care quality, costs, and outcomes, so those data can inform decision-making and encourage quality improvement.
Incidence of and Risk Factors for Chronic Opioid Use Among Opioid-Naive Patients in the Postoperative Period. JAMA internal medicine Sun, E. C., Darnall, B. D., Baker, L. C., Mackey, S. 2016; 176 (9): 1286-1293
Chronic opioid use imposes a substantial burden in terms of morbidity and economic costs. Whether opioid-naive patients undergoing surgery are at increased risk for chronic opioid use is unknown, as are the potential risk factors for chronic opioid use following surgery.To characterize the risk of chronic opioid use among opioid-naive patients following 1 of 11 surgical procedures compared with nonsurgical patients.Retrospective analysis of administrative health claims to determine the association between chronic opioid use and surgery among privately insured patients between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2013. The data concluded 11 surgical procedures (total knee arthroplasty [TKA], total hip arthroplasty, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, open cholecystectomy, laparoscopic appendectomy, open appendectomy, cesarean delivery, functional endoscopic sinus surgery [FESS], cataract surgery, transurethral prostate resection [TURP], and simple mastectomy). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to control for possible confounders, including sex, age, preoperative history of depression, psychosis, drug or alcohol abuse, and preoperatice use of benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, and antidepressants.One of the 11 study surgical procedures.Chronic opioid use, defined as having filled 10 or more prescriptions or more than 120 days' supply of an opioid in the first year after surgery, excluding the first 90 postoperative days. For nonsurgical patients, chronic opioid use was defined as having filled 10 or more prescriptions or more than 120 days' supply following a randomly assigned "surgery date."The study included 641 941 opioid-naive surgical patients (169 666 men; mean [SD] age, 44.0 [12.8] years), and 18 011 137 opioid-naive nonsurgical patients (8 849 107 men; mean [SD] age, 42.4 [12.6] years). Among the surgical patients, the incidence of chronic opioid in the first preoperative year ranged from 0.119% for Cesarean delivery (95% CI, 0.104%-0.134%) to 1.41% for TKA (95% CI, 1.29%-1.53%) The baseline incidence of chronic opioid use among the nonsurgical patients was 0.136% (95% CI, 0.134%-0.137%). Except for cataract surgery, laparoscopic appendectomy, FESS, and TURP, all of the surgical procedures were associated with an increased risk of chronic opioid use, with odds ratios ranging from 1.28 (95% CI, 1.12-1.46) for cesarean delivery to 5.10 (95% CI, 4.67-5.58) for TKA. Male sex, age older than 50 years, and preoperative history of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, depression, benzodiazepine use, or antidepressant use were associated with chronic opioid use among surgical patients.In opioid-naive patients, many surgical procedures are associated with an increased risk of chronic opioid use in the postoperative period. A certain subset of patients (eg, men, elderly patients) may be particularly vulnerable.
VARICOCELES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED RISK OF CARDIAC DISEASE AND OTHER COMORBIDITIES: AN ANALYSIS OF US CLAIMS DATA. Dallas, K. B., Wang, N. N., Li, S., Baker, L. C., Eisenberg, M. ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. 2016: E1155
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.juro.2016.02.2593
INCREASED RISK OF AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS IN INFERTILE MEN: ANALYSIS OF US CLAIMS DATA Brubaker, W. D., Li, S., Baker, L. C., Eisenberg, M. L. ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. 2016: E1153–E1154
Increased risk of incident chronic medical conditions in infertile men: analysis of United States claims data FERTILITY AND STERILITY Eisenberg, M. L., Li, S., Cullen, M. R., Baker, L. C. 2016; 105 (3): 629-636
To determine the incidence of chronic medical conditions of men with infertility.Retrospective cohort study.Not applicable.Subjects contained within the Truven Health MarketScan claims database from 2001 to 2009.Not applicable.The development of chronic medical conditions including hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, renal disease, pulmonary disease, liver disease, depression, peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, injury, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder.In all, 13,027 men diagnosed with male factor infertility were identified with an additional 23,860 receiving only fertility testing. The average age was 33.1 years for men diagnosed with infertility and 32.8 years for men receiving testing alone. After adjusting for confounding factors, men diagnosed with male factor infertility had a higher risk of developing diabetes (hazard ratio [HR] 1.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10-1.53), ischemic heart disease (HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.19-1.84), alcohol abuse (HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.07-2.05), and drug abuse (1.67, 95% CI 1.06-2.63) compared with men who only received infertility testing. Similar patterns were identified when comparing those with male factor infertility to vasectomized men. The association between male factor infertility and later health outcomes were strongest for men with longer follow-up.In this cohort of patients in a national insurance database, men diagnosed with male factor infertility had a significantly higher risk of adverse health outcomes in the years after an infertility evaluation. These findings suggest the overall importance of men's reproductive health and warrant additional investigation to understand the association and identify interventions to improve outcomes for these patients.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.11.011
Creating an online resource providing hospital cancer surgery volumes in California. Clarke, C. A., Baker, L. C., Malin, J., Parker, J., Holliday-Hanson, M., Fong, N., Teleki, S., Lang, L., O'Sullivan, M. AMER SOC CLINICAL ONCOLOGY. 2016
View details for DOI 10.1200/jco.2016.34.7_suppl.172
Does health plan generosity enhance hospital market power? JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2015; 44: 54-62
Postoperative Surveillance and Long-term Outcomes After Endovascular Aneurysm Repair Among Medicare Beneficiaries JAMA SURGERY Garg, T., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. 2015; 150 (10): 957-963
The Society for Vascular Surgery recommends annual surveillance with computed tomography (CT) or ultrasonography after endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms. However, such lifelong surveillance may be unnecessary for most patients, thereby contributing to overuse of imaging services.To investigate whether nonadherence to Society for Vascular Surgery-recommended surveillance guidelines worsens long-term outcomes after EVAR among Medicare beneficiaries.We collected data from Medicare claims from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2011. A total of 9503 patients covered by fee-for-service Medicare who underwent EVAR from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2005, were categorized as receiving complete or incomplete surveillance. We performed logistic regressions controlling for patient demographic and hospital characteristics. Patients were then matched by propensity score with adjusting for all demographic variables, including age, sex, race, Medicaid eligibility, residential status, hospital volume, ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms, and all preexisting comorbidities. We then calculated differences in long-term outcomes after EVAR between adjusted groups. Data analysis was performed from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2011.Post-EVAR imaging modality, aneurysm-related mortality, late rupture, and complications.Median follow-up duration was 6.1 years. Incomplete surveillance was observed in 5526 of 9695 patients (57.0%) who survived the initial hospital stay at a mean (SD) of 5.2 (2.9) years after EVAR. After propensity matching, our cohort consisted of 7888 patients, among whom 3944 (50.0%) had incomplete surveillance. For those in the matched cohort, patients with incomplete surveillance had a lower incidence of late ruptures (26 of 3944 [0.7%] vs 57 of 3944 [1.4%]; P = .001) and major or minor reinterventions (46 of 3944 [1.2%] vs 246 of 3944 [6.2%]; P < .001) in unadjusted analysis. Aneurysm-related mortality was not statistically different between groups (13 of 3944 [0.3%] vs 24 of 3944 [0.6%]; P = .07). In adjusted analysis of postoperative outcomes controlling for all patient and hospital factors by the tenth postoperative year, patients in the incomplete surveillance group experienced lower rates of total complications (2.1% vs 14.0%; P < .001), late rupture (1.1% vs 5.3%; P < .001), major or minor reinterventions (1.4% vs 10.0%; P < .001), aneurysm-related mortality (0.4% vs 1.3%; P < .001), and all-cause mortality (30.9% vs 68.8%, P < .001).Nonadherence to the Society for Vascular Surgery guidelines for post-EVAR imaging was not associated with poor outcomes, suggesting that, in many patients, less frequent surveillance is not associated with worse outcomes. Improved criteria for defining optimal surveillance will achieve higher value in aneurysm care.
View details for DOI 10.1001/jamasurg.2015.1320
ANTITRUST FOR ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATIONS JOURNAL OF COMPETITION LAW & ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2015; 11 (2): 317-329
View details for DOI 10.1093/joclec/nhv002
Increased Risk of Cancer in Infertile Men: Analysis of US Claims Data JOURNAL OF UROLOGY Eisenberg, M. L., Li, S., Brooks, J. D., Cullen, M. R., Baker, L. C. 2015; 193 (5): 1596-1601
Aberrations in reproductive fitness may be a harbinger of medical diseases in men. Data suggest a higher risk of testicular cancer in infertile men. However, the relationship between infertility and other cancers remains uncertain.We analyzed subjects from the Truven Health MarketScan® claims database from 2001 to 2009. Infertile men were identified through diagnosis and treatment codes. Comparison groups were created of men who underwent vasectomy and a control cohort of men who were not infertile and had not undergone vasectomy. The incidence of cancer was compared to national U.S. estimates. Infertile men were also compared to men who underwent vasectomy and the control cohort using a Cox regression model.A total of 76,083 infertile men were identified with an average age of 35.1 years. Overall 112,655 men who underwent vasectomy and 760,830 control men were assembled. Compared to age adjusted national averages, infertile, vasectomy and control subjects in the study cohorts had higher rates of all cancers and many individual cancers. In time to event analysis, infertile men had a higher risk of cancer than those who underwent vasectomy or controls. Infertile men had a higher risk of testis cancer, nonHodgkin lymphoma and all cancers than the vasectomy and control groups.Consistent with prior reports, we identified an increased risk of testicular cancer in infertile men. The current data also suggest that infertile men are at a mildly increased risk of all cancers in the years after infertility evaluation. Future research should focus on confirming these associations and elucidating pathways between infertility and cancer.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.juro.2014.11.080
California Emergency Department Visit Rates For Medical Conditions Increased While Visit Rates For Injuries Fell, 2005-11 HEALTH AFFAIRS Hsia, R. Y., Nath, J. B., Baker, L. C. 2015; 34 (4): 621-626
The emergency department (ED) is the source of most hospital admissions; provides care for patients with no other point of access to the health care system; receives advanced care referrals from primary care physicians; and provides surveillance data on injuries, infectious diseases, violence, and adverse drug events. Understanding the changes in the profile of disease in the ED can inform emergency services administration and planning and can provide insight into the public's health. We analyzed the trends in the diagnoses seen in California EDs from 2005 to 2011, finding that while the ED visit rate for injuries decreased by 0.7 percent, the rate of ED visits for noninjury diagnoses rose 13.4 percent. We also found a rise in symptom-related diagnoses, such as abdominal pain, along with nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal disease, and mental illness. These trends point out the increasing importance of EDs in providing care for complex medical cases, as well as the changing nature of illness in the population needing immediate medical attention.
Impact of including readmissions for qualifying events in the patient safety indicators. American journal of medical quality Davies, S. M., Saynina, O., Baker, L. C., McDonald, K. M. 2015; 30 (2): 114-118
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) do not capture complications arising after discharge. This study sought to quantify the bias related to omission of readmissions for PSI-qualifying conditions. Using 2000-2009 California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Patient Discharge Data, the study team examined the change in PSI rates when including readmissions in the numerator, hospitals performing in the extreme deciles, and longitudinal performance. Including 7-day readmissions resulted in a 0.3% to 8.9% increase in average hospital PSI rates. Hospital PSI rates with and without PSI-qualifying 30-day readmissions were highly correlated for point estimates and within-hospital longitudinal change. Most hospitals remained in the same relative performance decile. Longer length of stay, public payer, and discharge to skilled nursing facilities were associated with a higher risk of readmission for a PSI-qualifying event. Failure to include readmissions in calculating PSIs is unlikely to lead to erroneous conclusions.
Treating age-related macular degeneration: comparing the use of two drugs among medicare and veterans affairs populations. Health affairs Pershing, S., Pal Chee, C., Asch, S. M., Baker, L. C., Boothroyd, D., Wagner, T. H., Bundorf, M. K. 2015; 34 (2): 229-238
While new biologics have revolutionized the treatment of age-related macular degeneration-the leading cause of severe vision loss among older adults-these new drugs have also raised concerns over the economic impact of medical innovation. The two leading agents are similar in effectiveness but vary greatly in price-up to $2,000 per injection for ranibizumab compared to $50 for bevacizumab. We examined the diffusion of these drugs in fee-for-service Medicare and Veterans Affairs (VA) systems during 2005-11, in part to assess the impact that differing financial incentives had on prescribing. Physicians treating Medicare patients have a direct financial incentive to prescribe the more expensive agent (ranibizumab), while VA physicians do not. Medicare injections of the more expensive ranibizumab peaked in 2007 at 47 percent. Beginning in 2009 the less expensive bevacizumab became the predominant therapy for Medicare patients, accounting for more than 60 percent of injections. For VA patients, the distribution of injections across the two drugs was relatively equal, particularly from 2009 to 2011. Our analysis indicates that there are opportunities in both the VA and Medicare to adopt more value-conscious treatment patterns and that multiple mechanisms exist to influence utilization.
Adherence to postoperative surveillance guidelines after endovascular aortic aneurysm repair among Medicare beneficiaries JOURNAL OF VASCULAR SURGERY Garg, T., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. 2015; 61 (1): 23-27
After endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR), the Society for Vascular Surgery recommends a computed tomography (CT) scan ≤30 days, followed by annual imaging. We sought to describe long-term adherence to surveillance guidelines among United States Medicare beneficiaries and determine patient and hospital factors associated with incomplete surveillance.We analyzed fee-for-service Medicare claims for patients receiving EVAR from 2002 to 2005 and collected all relevant postoperative imaging through 2011. Additional data included patient comorbidities and demographics, yearly hospital volume of abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, and Medicaid eligibility. Allowing a grace period of 3 months, complete surveillance was defined as at least one CT or ultrasound assessment every 15 months after EVAR. Incomplete surveillance was categorized as gaps for intervals >15 months between consecutive images as or lost to follow-up if >15 months elapsed after the last imaging.Our cohort comprised 9695 patients. Median follow-up duration was 6.1 years. A CT scan ≤30 days of EVAR was performed in 3085 (31.8%) patients and ≤60 days in 60.8%. The median time to the postoperative CT was 38 days (interquartile range, 25-98 days). Complete surveillance was observed in 4169 patients (43.0%). For this group, the mean follow-up time was shorter than for those with incomplete surveillance (3.4 ± 2.74 vs 6.5 ± 2.1 years; P < .001). Among those with incomplete surveillance, follow-up became incomplete at 3.3 ± 1.9 years, with 57.6% lost to follow-up, 64.1% with gaps in follow-up (mean gap length, 760 ± 325 days), and 37.6% with both. A multivariable analysis showed incomplete surveillance was independently associated with Medicaid eligibility (hazard ratio [HR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29-1.55; P < .001), low-volume hospitals (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.05-1.20; P < .001), and ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.24-1.84; P < .001).Postoperative imaging after EVAR is highly variable, and less than half of patients meet current surveillance guidelines. Additional studies are necessary to determine if variability in postoperative surveillance affects long-term outcomes.
Concentration In Orthopedic Markets Was Associated With A 7 Percent Increase In Physician Fees For Total Knee Replacements. Health affairs (Project Hope) Sun, E., Baker, L. C. 2015; 34 (6): 916–21
EXPANDING PATIENTS' PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THEIR MEDICAL RECORDS AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2015; 1 (1): 82-100
Impact of drug-eluting stents on the comparative effectiveness of coronary artery bypass surgery and percutaneous coronary intervention AMERICAN HEART JOURNAL Hlatky, M. A., Boothroyd, D. B., Baker, L. C., Go, A. S. 2015; 169 (1): 149-154
Drug-eluting stents (DES) have largely replaced bare-metal stents (BMS) for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). It is uncertain, however, whether introduction of DES had a significant impact on the comparative effectiveness of PCI versus coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) for death and myocardial infarction (MI).We identified Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥66 years who underwent multivessel CABG or multivessel PCI and matched PCI and CABG patients on propensity score. We defined the BMS era as January 1999 to April 2003 and the DES era as May 2003 to December 2006. We compared 5-year outcomes of CABG and PCI using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for baseline characteristics and year of procedure and tested for a statistically significant interaction (P(int)) of DES era with treatment (CABG or PCI).Five-year survival improved from the BMS era to the DES era by 1.2% for PCI and by 1.1% for CABG, and the CABG:PCI hazard ratio was unchanged (0.90 vs 0.90; P(int) = .96). Five-year MI-free survival improved by 1.4% for PCI and 1.1% for CABG, with no change in the CABG:PCI hazard ratio (0.81 vs 0.82; P(int) = .63). By contrast, survival-free of MI or repeat coronary revascularization improved from the BMS era to the DES era by 5.7% for PCI and 0.9% for CABG, and the CABG:PCI hazard ratio changed significantly (0.50 vs 0.57, P(int) ≤ .0001).The introduction of DES did not alter the comparative effectiveness of CABG and PCI with respect to hard cardiac outcomes.
Physician practice competition and prices paid by private insurers for office visits. JAMA Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Royalty, A. B., Levin, Z. 2014; 312 (16): 1653-1662
Emergency department visits by children, adolescents, and young adults in California by insurance status, 2005-2010. JAMA Hsia, R. Y., Nath, J. B., Baker, L. C. 2014; 312 (15): 1587-1588
View details for DOI 10.1001/jama.2014.9905
The Affordable Care Act reduces emergency department use by young adults: evidence from three States. Health affairs Hernandez-Boussard, T., Burns, C. S., Wang, N. E., Baker, L. C., Goldstein, B. A. 2014; 33 (9): 1648-1654
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended eligibility for health insurance for young adults ages 19-25. This extension may have affected how young adults use emergency department (ED) care and other health services. To test the impact of the ACA on how young adults used ED services, we used 2009-11 state administrative records from California, Florida, and New York to compare changes in ED use in young adults ages 19-25 before and after the ACA provision was implemented with changes in the same period for people ages 26-31 (the control group). Following implementation of the ACA provision, the younger group had a decrease of 2.7 ED visits per 1,000 people compared to the older group-a relative change of -2.1 percent. The largest relative decreases were found in women (-3.0 percent) and blacks (-3.4 percent). This relative decrease in ED use implies a total reduction of more than 60,000 visits from young adults ages 19-25 across the three states in 2011. When we compared the probability of ever using the ED before and after implementation of the ACA provision, we found a minimal decrease (-0.4 percent) among the younger group compared to the older group. This suggests that the change in the number of visits was driven by fewer visits among ED users, not by changes in the number of people who ever visited the ED.
The Affordable Care Act Reduces Emergency Department Use By Young Adults: Evidence From Three States HEALTH AFFAIRS Hernandez-Boussard, T., Burns, C. S., Wang, N. E., Baker, L. C., Goldstein, B. A. 2014; 33 (9): 1648-1654
Payer Status, Preoperative Surveillance, and Rupture of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms in the US Medicare Population. Annals of vascular surgery Mell, M. W., Baker, L. C. 2014; 28 (6): 1378-1383
To determine the factors contributing to increased rate of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) for elderly poor patients.Medicare claims were analyzed for patients who underwent AAA repair from 2006 to 2009 with preoperative abdominal imaging. Repair for ruptured versus intact AAAs was our primary outcome measure. We used logistic regression to determine the relationship between Medicaid eligibility and the risk of rupture, sequentially adding variables related to patient characteristics, socioeconomic status, receipt of preoperative AAA surveillance, and hospital AAA volume. We then estimated the proportional effect of each factor.No differences in rupture were observed in women based on payer status. Medicaid-eligible men were more likely to present with ruptured AAA (odds ratio [OR] 2.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.65-3.52). After adjusting for patient and hospital factors, the poor remained at higher risk for rupture (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.10-2.26). This disparate risk of rupture was more commonly observed in hospitals treating a higher proportion of Medicaid-eligible patients. We estimate that 36% of the observed disparity in rupture for the elderly poor is explained by patient factors, 27% by gaps in surveillance, 9% by hospital factors, and <1% by socioeconomic factors.Incomplete preoperative surveillance is a key contributor to increased rupture of AAA in the elderly poor. Efforts aimed at improving disparities must include consistent access to medical care.
Outcomes after coronary artery calcium and other cardiovascular biomarker testing among asymptomatic medicare beneficiaries. Circulation. Cardiovascular imaging Shreibati, J. B., Baker, L. C., McConnell, M. V., Hlatky, M. A. 2014; 7 (4): 655-662
Biomarkers improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction, but their comparative effectiveness in clinical practice is not known. We sought to compare the use, spending, and clinical outcomes in asymptomatic Medicare beneficiaries evaluated for CVD with coronary artery calcium (CAC) or other cardiovascular risk markers.We used a 20% sample of 2005 to 2011 Medicare claims to identify fee-for-service beneficiaries aged ≥65.5 years with no CVD claims in the previous 6 months. We matched patients with CAC with patients who received high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP; n=8358) or lipid screening (n=6250) using propensity-score methods. CAC was associated with increased noninvasive cardiac testing within 180 days (hazard ratio, 2.22, 95% confidence interval, 1.68-2.93, P<0.001, versus hs-CRP; hazard ratio, 4.30, 95% confidence interval, 3.04-6.06, P<0.001, versus lipid screening) and increased coronary angiography and revascularization. During 3-year follow-up, CAC was associated with higher CVD-related spending ($6525 versus $4432 for hs-CRP, P<0.001; and $6500 versus $3073 for lipid screening, P<0.001) and fewer CVD-related events when compared with hs-CRP (hazard ratio, 0.74, 95% confidence interval, 0.58-0.94, P=0.017) but not compared with lipid screening (hazard ratio, 0.84, 95% confidence interval, 0.64-1.11, P=0.23).CAC testing among asymptomatic Medicare beneficiaries was associated with increased use of cardiac tests and procedures, higher spending, and slightly improved clinical outcomes when compared with hs-CRP testing.
View details for DOI 10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.113.001869
The Association Between Community-level Insurance Coverage and Emergency Department Use MEDICAL CARE Baker, L. C., Hsia, R. Y. 2014; 52 (6): 535-540
Emergency departments (EDs) nationwide are key entry points into the health care system, and their use may reflect changes in access and need in their communities. However, no studies to date have empirically and longitudinally studied how changes in a community's level of insurance coverage, a key determinant of access, affect ED utilization.To determine the effects of changes in a community's rate of insurance coverage on its population's ED use.We conducted a longitudinal analysis of all California counties between 2005 and 2010 using comprehensive ED visit data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Using Poisson regression with county and year fixed effects, we determined how changes in the rate of insurance coverage within a given county affect ED visits per 1000 residents.We found that changes in the rate of insurance coverage within a county had a slight but significant inverse relationship with ED visits per 1000 residents for both adults and children. For example, if a county's rate of insurance coverage among adults jumped from the 10th (73.22%) to the 90th percentile (84.93%), an estimated 2 fewer ED visits would occur per 1000 adult residents.As the rate of insurance coverage increased within California counties, overall ED utilization declined only slightly. Thus, expanding insurance coverage may not lead to significant decreases in overall ED use.
Postoperative Surveillance and Long-term Outcomes After Endovascular Aneurysm Repair Among Medicare Beneficiaries Garg, T., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2014: 8S
National Trends of Operative Approach and Mortality for Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms from 2002 to 2011 Garg, T., Baker, L. C., Mell, M. W. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2014: 46S
Vertical Integration: Hospital Ownership Of Physician Practices Is Associated With Higher Prices And Spending HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2014; 33 (5): 756-763
Gaps in preoperative surveillance and rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms among Medicare beneficiaries. Journal of vascular surgery Mell, M. W., Baker, L. C., Dalman, R. L., Hlatky, M. A. 2014; 59 (3): 583-588
Screening and surveillance are recommended in the management of small abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). Gaps in surveillance after early diagnosis may lead to unrecognized AAA growth, rupture, and death. This study investigates the frequency and predictors of rupture of previously diagnosed AAAs.Data were extracted from Medicare claims for patients who underwent AAA repair between 2006 and 2009. Relevant preoperative abdominal imaging exams were tabulated up to 5 years prior to AAA repair. Repair for ruptured AAAs was compared with repair for intact AAAs for those with an early diagnosis of an AAA, defined as having received imaging at least 6 months prior to surgery. Gaps in surveillance were defined as no image within 1 year of surgery or no imaging for more than a 2-year time span after the initial image. Logistic regression was used to examine independent predictors of rupture despite early diagnosis.A total of 9298 patients had repair after early diagnosis, with rupture occurring in 441 (4.7%). Those with ruptured AAAs were older (80.2 ± 6.9 vs 77.6 ± 6.2 years; P < .001), received fewer images prior to repair (5.7 ± 4.1 vs 6.5 ± 3.5; P = .001), were less likely to be treated in a high-volume hospital (45.4% vs 59.5%; P < .001), and were more likely to have had gaps in surveillance (47.4% vs 11.8%; P < .001) compared with those receiving repair for intact AAAs. After adjusting for medical comorbidities, gaps in surveillance remained the largest predictor of rupture in a multivariate analysis (odds ratio, 5.82; 95% confidence interval, 4.64-7.31; P < .001).Despite previous diagnosis of AAA, many patients experience rupture prior to repair. Improved mechanisms for surveillance are needed to prevent rupture and ensure timely repair for patients with AAAs.
Adoption and Effectiveness of Internal Mammary Artery Grafting in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery Among Medicare Beneficiaries JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY Hlatky, M. A., Boothroyd, D. B., Reitz, B. A., Shilane, D. A., Baker, L. C., Go, A. S. 2014; 63 (1): 33-39
The aim of this study was to assess the pattern of the adoption of internal mammary artery (IMA) grafting in the United States, test its association with clinical outcomes, and assess whether its effectiveness differs in key clinical subgroups.The effect of IMA grafting on major clinical outcomes has never been tested in a large randomized trial, yet it is now a quality standard for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.We identified Medicare beneficiaries ≥66 years of age who underwent isolated multivessel CABG between 1988 and 2008, and we documented patterns of IMA use over time. We used a multivariable propensity score to match patients with and without an IMA and compared rates of death, myocardial infarction (MI), and repeat revascularization. We tested for variations in IMA effectiveness with treatment × covariate interaction tests.The IMA use in CABG rose slowly from 31% in 1988 to 91% in 2008, with persistent wide geographic variations. Among 60,896 propensity score-matched patients over a median 6.8-year follow-up, IMA use was associated with lower all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.77, p < 0.001), lower death or MI (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.77, p < 0.001), and fewer repeat revascularizations over 5 years (8% vs. 9%, p < 0.001). The association between IMA use and lower mortality was significantly weaker (p ≤ 0.008) for older patients, women, and patients with diabetes or peripheral arterial disease.Internal mammary artery grafting was adopted slowly and still shows substantial geographic variation. IMA use is associated with lower rates of death, MI, and repeat coronary revascularization.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jacc.2013.08.1632
Why Are Medicare and commercial insurance spending weakly correlated? American journal of managed care Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2014; 20 (1): e8-14
To investigate the source of the weak correlation across geographic areas between Medicare and private insurance spending.Retrospective, descriptive analysis.We obtained Medicare spending data at the hospital referral region (HRR) level for 2007 from the Dartmouth Atlas, and commercial claims from large employers for 2007 from the Truven MarketScan Database. We constructed county-level data on hospital market structure from Medicare patient flows and obtained county-level data on the Medicare wage index from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website. We aggregated these sources to the HRR level. We decomposed Medicare and private spending into 2 components: price and volume. We also decomposed Medicare and private prices into 2 components: a common measure of cost and a sector-specific markup. We computed correlations between Medicare and private prices and volumes, and the correlation of each sector’s price and volume with cost and markup.We found that Medicare and private prices are strongly positively correlated, largely because both are keyed off of common costs. Consistent with previous work, we found that Medicare and private volumes are strongly positively correlated as well.The weak correlation between Medicare and private spending is consistent with these 2 empirical regularities. It is mathematically due to negative correlations between each sector’s price and the other sector’s volume. In particular, we found that private prices have important spillover effects on Medicare volume. Future research on the effects of competition should take account of this phenomenon.
Patients' preferences explain a small but significant share of regional variation in medicare spending. Health affairs (Project Hope) Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2014; 33 (6): 957–63
Why Are Medicare and Commercial Insurance Spending Weakly Correlated? AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2014; 20 (1): E8-E14
Implications of Metric Choice for Common Applications of Readmission Metrics HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Davies, S., Saynina, O., Schultz, E., McDonald, K. M., Baker, L. C. 2013; 48 (6): 1978-1995
OBJECTIVE: To quantify the differential impact on hospital performance of three readmission metrics: all-cause readmission (ACR), 3M Potential Preventable Readmission (PPR), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 30-day readmission (CMS). DATA SOURCES: 2000-2009 California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Patient Discharge Data Nonpublic file. STUDY DESIGN: We calculated 30-day readmission rates using three metrics, for three disease groups: heart failure (HF), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and pneumonia. Using each metric, we calculated the absolute change and correlation between performance; the percent of hospitals remaining in extreme deciles and level of agreement; and differences in longitudinal performance. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Average hospital rates for HF patients and the CMS metric were generally higher than for other conditions and metrics. Correlations between the ACR and CMS metrics were highest (r = 0.67-0.84). Rates calculated using the PPR and either ACR or CMS metrics were moderately correlated (r = 0.50-0.67). Between 47 and 75 percent of hospitals in an extreme decile according to one metric remained when using a different metric. Correlations among metrics were modest when measuring hospital longitudinal change. CONCLUSIONS: Different approaches to computing readmissions can produce different hospital rankings and impact pay-for-performance. Careful consideration should be placed on readmission metric choice for these applications.
Limitations of using same-hospital readmission metrics INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE Davies, S. M., Saynina, O., McDonald, K. M., Baker, L. C. 2013; 25 (6): 633-639
To quantify the limitations associated with restricting readmission metrics to same-hospital only readmission.Using 2000-2009 California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Patient Discharge Data Nonpublic file, we identified the proportion of 7-, 15- and 30-day readmissions occurring to the same hospital as the initial admission using All-cause Readmission (ACR) and 3M Corporation Potentially Preventable Readmissions (PPR) Metric. We examined the correlation between performance using same and different hospital readmission, the percent of hospitals remaining in the extreme deciles when utilizing different metrics, agreement in identifying outliers and differences in longitudinal performance. Using logistic regression, we examined the factors associated with admission to the same hospital.68% of 30-day ACR and 70% of 30-day PPR occurred to the same hospital. Abdominopelvic procedures had higher proportions of same-hospital readmissions (87.4-88.9%), cardiac surgery had lower (72.5-74.9%) and medical DRGs were lower than surgical DRGs (67.1 vs. 71.1%). Correlation and agreement in identifying high- and low-performing hospitals was weak to moderate, except for 7-day metrics where agreement was stronger (r = 0.23-0.80, Kappa = 0.38-0.76). Agreement for within-hospital significant (P < 0.05) longitudinal change was weak (Kappa = 0.05-0.11). Beyond all patient refined-diagnostic related groups, payer was the most predictive factor with Medicare and MediCal patients having a higher likelihood of same-hospital readmission (OR 1.62, 1.73).Same-hospital readmission metrics are limited for all tested applications. Caution should be used when conducting research, quality improvement or comparative applications that do not account for readmissions to other hospitals.
View details for DOI 10.1093/intqhc/mzt068
Trends in Adult Emergency Department Visits in California by Insurance Status, 2005-2010 JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Hsia, R. Y., Brownell, J., Wilson, S., Gordon, N., Baker, L. C. 2013; 310 (11): 1181–83
View details for DOI 10.1001/jama.2013.228331
Effects of care management and telehealth: a longitudinal analysis using medicare data. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Baker, L. C., Macaulay, D. S., Sorg, R. A., Diener, M. D., Johnson, S. J., Birnbaum, H. G. 2013; 61 (9): 1560-1567
To evaluate mortality and healthcare utilization effects of an intervention that combined care management and telehealth, targeting individuals with congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or diabetes mellitus.Retrospective matched cohort study.Northwest United States.High-cost Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries (N = 1,767) enrolled in two Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services demonstration participating clinics and a propensity-score matched control group.The Health Buddy Program, which integrates a content-driven telehealth system with care management.Mortality, inpatient admissions, hospital days, and emergency department (ED) visits during the 2-year study period were measured. Cox-proportional hazard models and negative binomial regression models were used to assess the relationship between the intervention and survival and utilization, controlling for demographic and health characteristics that were statistically different between groups after matching.At 2 years, participants offered the Health Buddy Program had 15% lower risk-adjusted all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.74-0.98; P = .03) and had reductions in the number of quarterly inpatient admissions from baseline to the study period that were 18% greater than those of matched controls during this same time period (-0.035 vs -0.003; difference-in-differences = -0.032, 95% CI = -0.054 to -0.010, P = .005). No relationship was found between the Health Buddy Program and ED use or number of hospital days for participants who were hospitalized. The Health Buddy Program was most strongly associated with fewer admissions for individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mortality for those with congestive heart failure.Care management coupled with content-driven telehealth technology has potential to improve health outcomes in high-cost Medicare beneficiaries.
Effects of Care Management and Telehealth: A Longitudinal Analysis Using Medicare Data JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY Baker, L. C., Macaulay, D. S., Sorg, R. A., Diener, M. D., Johnson, S. J., Birnbaum, H. G. 2013; 61 (9): 1560-1567
Late diagnosis of abdominal aortic aneurysms substantiates underutilization of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening for Medicare beneficiaries. Journal of vascular surgery Mell, M. W., Hlatky, M. A., Shreibati, J. B., Dalman, R. L., Baker, L. C. 2013; 57 (6): 1519-1523 e1
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening remains largely underutilized in the U.S., and it is likely that the proportion of patients with aneurysms requiring prompt treatment is much higher compared with well-screened populations. The goals of this study were to determine the proportion of AAAs that required prompt repair after diagnostic abdominal imaging for U.S. Medicare beneficiaries and to identify patient and hospital factors contributing to early vs late diagnosis of AAA.Data were extracted from Medicare claims records for patients at least 65 years old with complete coverage for 2 years who underwent intact AAA repair from 2006 to 2009. Preoperative ultrasound and computed tomography was tabulated from 2002 to repair. We defined early diagnosis of AAA as a patient with a time interval of greater than 6 months between the first imaging examination and the index procedure, and late diagnosis as patients who underwent the index procedure within 6 months of the first imaging examination.Of 17,626 patients who underwent AAA repair, 14,948 met inclusion criteria. Mean age was 77.5 ± 6.1 years. Early diagnosis was identified for 60.6% of patients receiving AAA repair, whereas 39.4% were repaired after a late diagnosis. Early diagnosis rates increased from 2006 to 2009 (59.8% to 63.4%; P < .0001) and were more common for intact repair compared with repair after rupture (62.9% vs 35.1%; P < .0001) and for women compared with men (66.3% vs 59.0%; P < .0001). On multivariate analysis, repair of intact vs ruptured AAAs (odds ratio, 3.1; 95% confidence interval, 2.7-3.6) and female sex (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-1.5) remained the strongest predictors of surveillance. Although intact repairs were more likely to be diagnosed early, over one-third of patients undergoing repair for ruptured AAAs received diagnostic abdominal imaging greater than 6 months prior to surgery.Despite advances in screening practices, significant missed opportunities remain in the U.S. Medicare population for improving AAA care. It remains common for AAAs to be diagnosed when they are already at risk for rupture. In addition, a significant proportion of patients with early imaging rupture prior to repair. Our findings suggest that improved mechanisms for observational management are needed to ensure optimal preoperative care for patients with AAAs.
Comparative effectiveness of multivessel coronary bypass surgery and multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention: a cohort study. Annals of internal medicine Hlatky, M. A., Boothroyd, D. B., Baker, L., Kazi, D. S., Solomon, M. D., Chang, T. I., Shilane, D., Go, A. S. 2013; 158 (10): 727-734
Chinese translationRandomized trials of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) suggest that patient characteristics modify the effect of treatment on mortality.To assess whether clinical characteristics modify the comparative effectiveness of CABG versus PCI in an unselected, general patient population.Observational treatment comparison using propensity score matching and Cox proportional hazards models.United States, 1992 to 2008.Medicare beneficiaries aged 66 years or older.Multivessel CABG or multivessel PCI.The CABG-PCI hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality, with prespecified treatment-by-covariate interaction tests, and the absolute difference in life-years of survival in clinical subgroups after CABG or PCI, both over 5 years of follow-up.Among 105 156 propensity score-matched patients, CABG was associated with lower mortality than PCI (HR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.90 to 0.95]; P < 0.001). Association of CABG with lower mortality was significantly greater (interaction P ≤ 0.002 for each) among patients with diabetes (HR, 0.88), a history of tobacco use (HR, 0.82), heart failure (HR, 0.84), and peripheral arterial disease (HR, 0.85). The overall predicted difference in survival between CABG and PCI treatment over 5 years was 0.053 life-years (range, -0.017 to 0.579 life-years). Patients with diabetes, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, or tobacco use had the largest predicted differences in survival after CABG, whereas those with none of these factors had slightly better survival after PCI.Treatments were chosen by patients and physicians rather than being randomly assigned.Multivessel CABG is associated with lower long-term mortality than multivessel PCI in the community setting. This association is substantially modified by patient characteristics, with improvement in survival concentrated among patients with diabetes, tobacco use, heart failure, or peripheral arterial disease.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
View details for DOI 10.7326/0003-4819-158-10-201305210-00639
Impact of the Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently (SAAAVE) Act on Abdominal Ultrasonography Use Among Medicare Beneficiaries ARCHIVES OF INTERNAL MEDICINE Shreibati, J. B., Baker, L. C., Hlatky, M. A., Mell, M. W. 2012; 172 (19): 1456-1462
Since January 1, 2007, Medicare has covered abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening for new male enrollees with a history of smoking under the Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently (SAAAVE) Act. We examined the association between this program and abdominal ultrasonography for AAA screening, elective AAA repair, hospitalization for AAA rupture, and all-cause mortality.We used a 20% sample of traditional Medicare enrollees from 2004 to 2008 to identify 65-year-old men eligible for screening and 3 control groups not eligible for screening (70-year-old men, 76-year-old men, and 65-year-old women). We used logistic regression to examine the change in outcomes at 365 days for eligible vs ineligible beneficiaries before and after SAAAVE Act implementation, adjusting for comorbidities, state-level smoking prevalence, geographic variation, and time trends.Fewer than 3% of abdominal ultrasonography claims after 2007 were for SAAAVE-specific AAA screening. There was a significantly greater increase in abdominal ultrasonography use among SAAAVE-eligible beneficiaries (2.0 percentage points among 65-year-old men, from 7.6% in 2004 to 9.6% in 2008; 0.7 points [8.9% to 9.6%] among 70-year-old men; 0.7 points [10.8% to 11.5%] among 76-year-old men; and 0.9 points [7.5% to 8.4%] among 65-year-old women) (P < .001 for all comparisons with 65-year-old men). The SAAAVE Act was associated with increased use of abdominal ultrasonography in 65-year-old men compared with 70-year-old men (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.15; 95% CI, 1.11-1.19) (P < .001), and this increased use remained even when SAAAVE-specific AAA screening was excluded (AOR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.08-1.16) (P < .001). Implementation of the SAAAVE Act was not associated with changes in rates of AAA repair, AAA rupture, or all-cause mortality.The impact of the SAAAVE Act on AAA screening was modest and was based on abdominal ultrasonography use that it did not directly reimburse. The SAAAVE Act had no discernable effect on AAA rupture or all-cause morality.
View details for DOI 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.4268
Exposure to Ionizing Radiation and Estimate of Secondary Cancers in the Era of High-Speed CT Scanning: Projections From the Medicare Population JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RADIOLOGY Meer, A. B., Basu, P. A., Baker, L. C., Atlas, S. W. 2012; 9 (4): 245-250
The aims of this study were to analyze the distribution and amount of ionizing radiation delivered by CT scans in the modern era of high-speed CT and to estimate cancer risk in the elderly, the patient group most frequently imaged using CT scanning.A retrospective cohort study was conducted using Medicare claims spanning 8 years (1998-2005) to assess CT use. The data were analyzed in two 4-year cohorts, 1998 to 2001 (n = 5,267,230) and 2002 to 2005 (n = 5,555,345). The number and types of CT scans each patient received over the 4-year periods were analyzed to determine the percentage of patients exposed to threshold radiation of 50 to 100 mSv (defined as low) and >100 mSv (defined as high). The National Research Council's Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII models were used to estimate the number of radiation-induced cancers.CT scans of the head were the most common examinations in both Medicare cohorts, but abdominal imaging delivered the greatest proportion (43% in the first cohort and 40% in the second cohort) of radiation. In the 1998 to 2001 cohort, 42% of Medicare patients underwent CT scans, with 2.2% and 0.5% receiving radiation doses in the low and high ranges, respectively. In the 2002 to 2005 cohort, 50% of Medicare patients received CT scans, with 4.2% and 1.2% receiving doses in the low and high ranges. In the two populations, 1,659 (0.03%) and 2,185 (0.04%) cancers related to ionizing radiation were estimated, respectively.Although radiation doses have been increasing along with the increasing reliance on CT scans for diagnosis and therapy, using conservative estimates with worst-case scenario methodology, the authors found that the risk for secondary cancers is low in older adults, the group subjected to the most frequent CT scanning. Trends showing increasing use, however, underscore the importance of monitoring CT utilization and its consequences.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jacr.2011.12.007
Evaluation for Coronary Artery Disease and Medicare Spending Reply JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Shreibati, J., Baker, L. C., Hlatky, M. A. 2012; 307 (9): 912
View details for DOI 10.1001/jama.307.9.912-a
Association of Coronary CT Angiography or Stress Testing With Subsequent Utilization and Spending Among Medicare Beneficiaries JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Shreibati, J. B., Baker, L. C., Hlatky, M. A. 2011; 306 (19): 2128-2136
Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a new noninvasive diagnostic test for coronary artery disease (CAD), but its association with subsequent clinical management has not been established.To compare utilization and spending associated with functional (stress testing) and anatomical (CCTA) noninvasive cardiac testing in a Medicare population.Retrospective, observational cohort study using claims data from a 20% random sample of 2005-2008 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries 66 years or older with no claims for CAD in the preceding year, who received nonemergent, noninvasive testing for CAD (n = 282,830).Cardiac catheterization, coronary revascularization, acute myocardial infarction, all-cause mortality, and total and CAD-related Medicare spending over 180 days of follow-up.Compared with stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS), CCTA was associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent cardiac catheterization (22.9% vs 12.1%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.19 [95% CI, 2.08 to 2.32]; P < .001), percutaneous coronary intervention (7.8% vs 3.4%; AOR, 2.49 [2.28 to 2.72]; P < .001), and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (3.7% vs 1.3%; AOR, 3.00 [2.63 to 3.41]; P < .001). CCTA was also associated with higher total health care spending ($4200 [$3193 to $5267]; P < .001), which was almost entirely attributable to payments for any claims for CAD ($4007 [$3256 to $4835]; P < .001). Compared with MPS, there was lower associated spending with stress echocardiography (-$4981 [-$4991 to -$4969]; P < .001) and exercise electrocardiography (-$7449 [-$7452 to -$7444]; P < .001). At 180 days, CCTA was associated with a similar likelihood of all-cause mortality (1.05% vs 1.28%; AOR, 1.11 [0.88 to 1.38]; P = .32) and a slightly lower likelihood of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction (0.19% vs 0.43%; AOR, 0.60 [0.37 to 0.98]; P = .04).Medicare beneficiaries who underwent CCTA in a nonacute setting were more likely to undergo subsequent invasive cardiac procedures and have higher CAD-related spending than patients who underwent stress testing.
Integrated Telehealth And Care Management Program For Medicare Beneficiaries With Chronic Disease Linked To Savings HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Johnson, S. J., Macaulay, D., Birnbaum, H. 2011; 30 (9): 1689-1697
Treatment of chronically ill people constitutes nearly four-fifths of US health care spending, but it is hampered by a fragmented delivery system and discontinuities of care. We examined the impact of a care coordination approach called the Health Buddy Program, which integrates a telehealth tool with care management for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries. We evaluated the program's impact on spending for patients of two clinics in the US Northwest who were exposed to the intervention, and we compared their experience with that of matched controls. We found significant savings among patients who used the Health Buddy telehealth program, which was associated with spending reductions of approximately 7.7-13.3 percent ($312-$542) per person per quarter. These results suggest that carefully designed and implemented care management and telehealth programs can help reduce health care spending and that such programs merit continued attention by Medicare. Meanwhile, mortality differences in the treatment and control groups suggest that the intervention may have produced noticeable changes in health outcomes, but we leave it to future research to explore these effects fully.
Analyzing Self-Referral: The Author Replies HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C. 2011; 30 (6)
Weighing Costs, Benefits Of Imaging: Author Response HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C. 2011; 30 (3)
Assessing Cost-Effectiveness And Value As Imaging Grows: The Case Of Carotid Artery CT HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Afendulis, C. C., Atlas, S. W. 2010; 29 (12): 2260-2267
Computed tomographic (CT) angiography is an imaging test that is safer and less expensive than an older test in diagnosing narrowing of the carotid arteries-the most common cause of stroke in US adults. Our examination of Medicare data between 2001 and 2005 found that about 20 percent of the time this test was used, it substituted for the older test. The majority of new use, however, constituted "incremental" use, in cases where patients previously would not have received any test. We found no evidence that the growth in CT angiography led to more patients' being treated for carotid artery disease. The value of the test as a substitute for the older procedure may be enough to still justify expanding use. Tracking the uses of emerging technologies to encourage efficient use is essential, but it can be challenging in cases where new tools have multiple uses and information is incomplete.
Payment Reform HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Fraser, I., Encinosa, W., Baker, L. 2010; 45 (6): 1847-1853
HMO Coverage Reduces Variations In The Use Of Health Care Among Patients Under Age Sixty-Five HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Kessler, D. P. 2010; 29 (11): 2068-2074
Variation in the use of hospital and physician services among Medicare beneficiaries is well documented. However, less is known about the younger, commercially insured population. Using data from the Community Tracking Study to investigate this issue, we found significant variation in the use of both inpatient and outpatient services across twelve metropolitan areas. HMO insurance reduces, but does not eliminate, the extent of this variation. Our results suggest that health plan spending to better organize delivery systems and manage care may be efficient, and regulations that arbitrarily cap plans' spending on administration, such as minimum medical loss ratios, could undermine efforts to achieve better value in health care.
The contribution of health plans and provider organizations to variations in measured plan quality INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE Baker, L. C., Hopkins, D. S. 2010; 22 (3): 210-218
Some argue that health plans have minimal impacts on quality of care and that quality data collection should focus only on physician organizations. We investigate the relative impact of physician organizations and health plans on quality measures.Statistical analysis of data on 9 Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures from 6 health plans and 159 provider organizations. We use regression analyses to examine the amount of variation in HEDIS measures accounted for by variation across provider organizations, and whether accounting for health plans explains additional variation. We also examine whether accounting for provider organizations explains away variation in HEDIS scores across health plans.Six health plans and 159 contracted provider groups in California.Nine HEDIS scores.For all nine measures studied, variation across provider organizations explains much of the HEDIS score variation. But, after accounting for variation across providers, variation across plans statistically significantly explains additional variation. We also find statistically significant differences across health plans in HEDIS rates that are not substantially affected when we control for the provider organization that cared for the patient.On their face, these results suggest that plans can influence quality independent of the selection of physician organizations with which they contract, in contrast to hypotheses that plans are 'too far' from patients to have an influence. Continued attention to collecting plan-level data is warranted. Further work should address other possible sources of variations in HEDIS scores, such as variability in plan administrative databases.
View details for DOI 10.1093/intqhc/mzq011
Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Low Back Pain Care For Medicare Patients HEALTH AFFAIRS Baras, J. D., Baker, L. C. 2009; 28 (6): W1133-W1140
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technology frequently used to evaluate low back pain, despite evidence that challenges the usefulness of routine MRI and the surgical interventions it may trigger. We analyze the relationship between MRI supply and care for fee-for-service Medicare patients with low back pain. We find that increases in MRI supply are related to higher use of both low back MRI and surgery. This is worrisome, and careful attention should be paid to assessing the outcomes for patients.
View details for DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.w1133
Identifying organizational cultures that promote patient safety HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT REVIEW Singer, S. J., Falwell, A., Gaba, D. M., Meterko, M., Rosen, A., Hartmann, C. W., Baker, L. 2009; 34 (4): 300-311
Safety climate refers to shared perceptions of what an organization is like with regard to safety, whereas safety culture refers to employees' fundamental ideology and orientation and explains why safety is pursued in the manner exhibited within a particular organization. Although research has sought to identify opportunities for improving safety outcomes by studying patterns of variation in safety climate, few empirical studies have examined the impact of organizational characteristics such as culture on hospital safety climate.This study explored how aspects of general organizational culture relate to hospital patient safety climate.In a stratified sample of 92 U.S. hospitals, we sampled 100% of senior managers and physicians and 10% of other hospital workers. The Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations and the Zammuto and Krakower organizational culture surveys measured safety climate and group, entrepreneurial, hierarchical, and production orientation of hospitals' culture, respectively. We administered safety climate surveys to 18,361 personnel and organizational culture surveys to a 5,894 random subsample between March 2004 and May 2005. Secondary data came from the 2004 American Hospital Association Annual Hospital Survey and Dun & Bradstreet. Hierarchical linear regressions assessed relationships between organizational culture and safety climate measures.Aspects of general organizational culture were strongly related to safety climate. A higher level of group culture correlated with a higher level of safety climate, but more hierarchical culture was associated with lower safety climate. Aspects of organizational culture accounted for more than threefold improvement in measures of model fit compared with models with controls alone. A mix of culture types, emphasizing group culture, seemed optimal for safety climate.Safety climate and organizational culture are positively related. Results support strategies that promote group orientation and reduced hierarchy, including use of multidisciplinary team training, continuous quality improvement tools, and human resource practices and policies.
Health Care Cost Growth Among The Privately Insured HEALTH AFFAIRS Bundorf, M. K., Royalty, A., Baker, L. C. 2009; 28 (5): 1294-1304
Controlling health care cost growth remains a high priority for policymakers and private decisionmakers, yet little is known about sources of this growth. We examined spending growth among the privately insured between 2001 and 2006, separating the contributions of price changes from those driven by consumption. Most spending growth was driven by outpatient services and pharmaceuticals, with growth in quantities explaining the entire growth in outpatient spending and about three-quarters of growth in spending on prescription drugs. Rising prices played a greater role in growth in spending for brand-name than for generic drugs. These findings can inform efforts to control private- sector spending.
View details for DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.1294
Relationship of Safety Climate and Safety Performance in Hospitals HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Singer, S., Lin, S., Falwell, A., Gaba, D., Baker, L. 2009; 44 (2): 399-421
To examine the relationship between measures of hospital safety climate and hospital performance on selected Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs).Primary data from a 2004 survey of hospital personnel. Secondary data from the 2005 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review File and 2004 American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals.A cross-sectional study of 91 hospitals.Negative binomial regressions used an unweighted, risk-adjusted PSI composite as dependent variable and safety climate scores and controls as independent variables. Some specifications included interpersonal, work unit, and organizational safety climate dimensions. Others included separate measures for senior managers and frontline personnel's safety climate perceptions.Hospitals with better safety climate overall had lower relative incidence of PSIs, as did hospitals with better scores on safety climate dimensions measuring interpersonal beliefs regarding shame and blame. Frontline personnel's perceptions of better safety climate predicted lower risk of experiencing PSIs, but senior manager perceptions did not.The results link hospital safety climate to indicators of potential safety events. Some aspects of safety climate are more closely related to safety events than others. Perceptions about safety climate among some groups, such as frontline staff, are more closely related than perceptions in other groups.
Are American Physicians more Satisfied? - Results from an International Study of Physicians in University Hospitals GESUNDHEITSWESEN Janus, K., Amelung, V. E., Baker, L. C., GAITANIDES, M., Rundall, T. G., Schwartz, F. W. 2009; 71 (4): 210-217
Understanding the factors that affect physicians' job satisfaction is important not only to physicians themselves, but also to patients, health system managers, and policy makers. Physicians represent the crucial resource in health-care delivery. In order to enhance efficiency and quality in health care, it is indispensable to analyse and consider the motivators of physicians. Physician job satisfaction has significant effects on productivity, the quality of care, and the supply of physicians. The purpose of our study was to assess the associations between work-related monetary and non-monetary factors and physicians' work satisfaction as perceived by similar groups of physicians practicing at academic medical centres in Germany and the U.S.A., two countries that, in spite of differing health-care systems, simultaneously experience problems in maintaining their physician workforce. We used descriptive statistics, factor and correlation analyses to evaluate physicians' responses to a self-administered questionnaire. Our study revealed that overall German physicians were less satisfied than U.S. physicians. With respect to particular work-related predictors of job satisfaction we found that similar factors contributed to job satisfaction in both countries. To improve physicians' satisfaction with working conditions, our results call for the implementation of policies that reduce the time burden on physicians to allow more time for interaction with patients and colleagues, increase monetary incentives, and enhance physicians' participation in the development of care management processes and in managerial decisions that affect patient care.
Patient Safety Climate in 92 US Hospitals Differences by Work Area and Discipline MEDICAL CARE Singer, S. J., Gaba, D. M., Falwell, A., Lin, S., Hayes, J., Baker, L. 2009; 47 (1): 23-31
Concern about patient safety has promoted efforts to improve safety climate. A better understanding of how patient safety climate differs among distinct work areas and disciplines in hospitals would facilitate the design and implementation of interventions.To understand workers' perceptions of safety climate and ways in which climate varies among hospitals and by work area and discipline.We administered the Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations survey in 2004-2005 to personnel in a stratified random sample of 92 US hospitals.We sampled 100% of senior managers and physicians and 10% of all other workers. We received 18,361 completed surveys (52% response).The survey measured safety climate perceptions and worker and job characteristics of hospital personnel. We calculated and compared the percent of responses inconsistent with a climate of safety among hospitals, work areas, and disciplines.Overall, 17% of responses were inconsistent with a safety climate. Patient safety climate differed by hospital and among and within work areas and disciplines. Emergency department personnel perceived worse safety climate and personnel in nonclinical areas perceived better safety climate than workers in other areas. Nurses were more negative than physicians regarding their work unit's support and recognition of safety efforts, and physicians showed marginally more fear of shame than nurses. For other dimensions of safety climate, physician-nurse differences depended on their work area.Differences among and within hospitals suggest that strategies for improving safety climate and patient safety should be tailored for work areas and disciplines.
Job Satisfaction and Motivation among Physicians in Academic Medical Centers: Insights from a Cross-National Study JOURNAL OF HEALTH POLITICS POLICY AND LAW Janus, K., Amelung, V. E., Baker, L. C., Gaitanides, M., Schwartz, F. W., Rundall, T. G. 2008; 33 (6): 1133-1167
Our study assesses how work-related monetary and nonmonetary factors affect physicians' job satisfaction at three academic medical centers in Germany and the United States, two countries whose differing health care systems experience similar problems in maintaining their physician workforce. We used descriptive statistics and factor and correlation analyses to evaluate physicians' responses to a self-administered questionnaire. Our study revealed that German physician respondents were less satisfied overall than their U.S. counterparts. In both countries, participation in decision making that may affect physicians' work was an important correlate of satisfaction. In Germany other important factors were opportunities for continuing education, job security, extent of administrative work, collegial relationships, and access to specialized technology. In the U.S. sample, job security, financial incentives, interaction with colleagues, and cooperative working relationships with colleagues and management were important predictors of overall job satisfaction. The implications of these findings for the development of policies and management tactics to increase physician job satisfaction in German and U.S. academic medical centers are discussed.
View details for DOI 10.1215/03616878-2008-035
Patient Safety Climate in US Hospitals Variation by Management Level MEDICAL CARE Singer, S. J., Falwell, A., Gaba, D. M., Baker, L. C. 2008; 46 (11): 1149-1156
Strengthening hospital safety culture offers promise for reducing adverse events, but efforts to improve culture may not succeed if hospital managers perceive safety differently from frontline workers.To determine whether frontline workers and supervisors perceive a more negative patient safety climate (ie, surface features, reflective of the underlying safety culture) than senior managers in their institutions. To ascertain patterns of variation within management levels by professional discipline.A safety climate survey was administered from March 2004 to May 2005 in 92 US hospitals. Individual-level cross sectional comparisons related safety climate to management level. Hierarchical and hospital-fixed effects modeling tested differences in perceptions.Random sample of hospital personnel (18,361 respondents).Frequency of responses indicating absence of safety climate (percent problematic response) overall and for 8 survey dimensions.Frontline workers' safety climate perceptions were 4.8 percentage points (1.4 times) more problematic than were senior managers', and supervisors' perceptions were 3.1 percentage points (1.25 times) more problematic than were senior managers'. Differences were consistent among 7 safety climate dimensions. Differences by management level depended on discipline: senior manager versus frontline worker discrepancies were less pronounced for physicians and more pronounced for nurses, than they were for other disciplines.Senior managers perceived patient safety climate more positively than nonsenior managers overall and across 7 discrete safety climate domains. Patterns of variation by management level differed by professional discipline. Continuing efforts to improve patient safety should address perceptual differences, both among and within groups by management level.
Expanded Use Of Imaging Technology And The Challenge of Measuring Value HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Atlas, S. W., Afendulis, C. C. 2008; 27 (6): 1467-1478
The availability of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning has grown rapidly, but the value of increased availability is not clear. We document the relationship between CT and MRI availability and use, and we consider potentially important sources of benefits. We discuss key questions that need to be addressed if value is to be well understood. In an example we study, expanded imaging may be valuable because it provides quicker access to more precise diagnostic information, although evidence for improved health outcomes is limited. This may be a common situation; thus, a particularly important question is how non-health-outcome benefits of imaging can be quantified.
Health plan performance measurement: Does it affect quality of care for medicare managed care enrollees? INQUIRY-THE JOURNAL OF HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION PROVISION AND FINANCING Bundorf, M. K., Choudhry, K., Baker, L. 2008; 45 (2): 168-183
Although the objective of provider performance measurement is to improve quality of care, little evidence exists on whether it has this effect. This study examines the implementation of mandatory quality reporting for Medicare managed care (MMC) plans. We compare utilization rates of performance-measured services for Medicare beneficiaries who were and were not enrolled in these plans before and after the program's introduction. We find that the use of measured services increased among both MMC and fee-for-service beneficiaries after the adoption of performance measurement. Our results provide no evidence that performance measurement increased quality of care among MMC enrollees.
Trends in charges and payments for nonhospitalized emergency department pediatric visits, 1996-2003. Academic emergency medicine Hsia, R. Y., MacIsaac, D., Palm, E., Baker, L. C. 2008; 15 (4): 347-354
To compare charges and payments for outpatient pediatric emergency visits across payer groups to provide information on reimbursement trends.Total charges and payments for emergency department (ED) visits Medicaid/State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), privately insured, and uninsured pediatric patients from 1996 to 2003 using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Average charges per visit and average payments per visit were also tracked, using regression analysis to adjust for changes in patient characteristics.While charges for pediatric ED visits rose over time, payments did not keep pace. This led to a decrease in reimbursement rates from 63% in 1996 to 48% in 2003. For all years, Medicaid/SCHIP visits had the lowest reimbursement rates, reaching 35% in 2003. The proportion of visits from children insured by Medicaid/SCHIP also increased over the period examined. In 2003, after adjustment, charges were $792 per visit from children covered by Medicaid/SCHIP, $913 for visits from uninsured children, and $952 for visits from privately insured children.Reimbursements for outpatient ED visits in the pediatric population have decreased from the period of 1996 to 2003 in all payer groups: public (Medicaid/SCHIP), private, and the uninsured. Medicaid/SCHIP has consistently paid less per visit than the privately insured and the uninsured. Further research on the effects of these declining reimbursements on the financial viability of ED services for children is warranted.
Variations in hospital resource use for medicare and privately insured populations in California HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Fisher, E. S., Wennberg, J. E. 2008; 27 (2): W123-W134
The amount of resources used in the care of chronically ill Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patients varies widely across hospitals. We studied variations across California hospitals in hospital resource use for chronically ill patients covered by Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and private insurers and found substantial variation in all of the coverage groups studied. Resource-use measures based on Medicare FFS data often reflect patterns evident for other payers. Previous estimates of savings if the most resource-intensive hospitals more closely resembled less resource-intensive hospitals, based on just Medicare FFS spending, could underestimate possible savings when other payers are taken into account.
View details for DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.w123
Decreasing reimbursements for outpatient emergency department visits across payer groups from 1996 to 2004 Annual Meeting of the American-College-of-Emergency-Physicians Hsia, R. Y., MacIsaac, D., Baker, L. C. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2008: 265–74
There is increasing concern that decreasing reimbursements to emergency departments (EDs) will negatively affect their functioning, but little evidence has been published identifying trends in reimbursement rates. We seek to examine and document the trends in reimbursement for outpatient ED visits throughout the past decade.We use Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data covering a 9-year span from 1996 to 2004, using outpatient ED visits as the unit of analysis. Our primary outcome variables were total and per-visit charges and payments across insurance. Using regression analyses with a generalized linear models approach, we also derived the adjusted mean payment and mean charge for each ED visit, as well as the average payment ratio.Overall, adjusted mean charges for an outpatient ED visit increased from $713 (95% confidence interval [CI] $665 to $771) in 1996 to $1,390 (95% CI $1,317 to $1,462) in 2004. The adjusted mean payment also increased from $410 (95% CI $366 to $453) in 1996 to $592 (95% CI $551 to $634) in 2004. Because payments increased at a slower rate in all payer groups compared with charges, the overall share of charges that were paid decreased over time from 57% in 1996 (n=3,433) to 42% in 2004 (n=5,763; P<.001). The proportion of total charges paid in 2004 was highest for privately insured visits (56%; n=2,005) and lowest for Medicaid visits (33%; n=1,618). For visits by uninsured patients (n=996), 35% of charges were paid in 2004.The proportion of charges paid for outpatient ED visits from Medicaid, Medicare, and privately insured and uninsured patients persistently decreased from 1996 to 2004. These concerning decreases may threaten the survival of EDs and their ability to continue to provide care as safety nets in the US health care system.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2007.08.009
Ongoing physical activity advice by humans versus computers: The community health advice by telephone (CHAT) trial HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY King, A. C., Friedman, R., Marcus, B., Castro, C., Napolitano, M., Alm, D., Baker, L. 2007; 26 (6): 718-727
Given the prevalence of physical inactivity among American adults, convenient, low-cost interventions are strongly indicated. This study determined the 6- and 12-month effectiveness of telephone interventions delivered by health educators or by an automated computer system in promoting physical activity.Initially inactive men and women age 55 years and older (N = 218) in stable health participated. Participants were randomly assigned to human advice, automated advice, or health education control.The validated 7-day physical activity recall interview was used to estimate minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Physical activity differences by experimental arm were verified on a random subsample via accelerometry.Using intention-to-treat analysis, at 6 months, participants in both interventions, although not differing from one another, showed significant improvements in weekly physical activity compared with controls. These differences were generally maintained at 12 months, with both intervention arms remaining above the target of 150 min per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity on average.Automated telephone-linked delivery systems represent an effective alternative for delivering physical activity advice to inactive older adults.
View details for DOI 10.1037/0278-6133.26.6.718
Workforce perceptions of hospital safety culture: Development and validation of the patient safety climate in healthcare organizations survey HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Singer, S., Meterko, M., Baker, L., Gaba, D., Falwell, A., Rosen, A. 2007; 42 (5): 1999-2021
To describe the development of an instrument for assessing workforce perceptions of hospital safety culture and to assess its reliability and validity.Primary data collected between March 2004 and May 2005. Personnel from 105 U.S. hospitals completed a 38-item paper and pencil survey. We received 21,496 completed questionnaires, representing a 51 percent response rate.Based on review of existing safety climate surveys, we developed a list of key topics pertinent to maintaining a culture of safety in high-reliability organizations. We developed a draft questionnaire to address these topics and pilot tested it in four preliminary studies of hospital personnel. We modified the questionnaire based on experience and respondent feedback, and distributed the revised version to 42,249 hospital workers.We randomly divided respondents into derivation and validation samples. We applied exploratory factor analysis to responses in the derivation sample. We used those results to create scales in the validation sample, which we subjected to multitrait analysis (MTA).We identified nine constructs, three organizational factors, two unit factors, three individual factors, and one additional factor. Constructs demonstrated substantial convergent and discriminant validity in the MTA. Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.50 to 0.89.It is possible to measure key salient features of hospital safety climate using a valid and reliable 38-item survey and appropriate hospital sample sizes. This instrument may be used in further studies to better understand the impact of safety climate on patient safety outcomes.
Laws requiring health plans to provide direct access to obstetricians and gynecologists, and use of cancer screening by women HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Baker, L. C., Chan, J. 2007; 42 (3): 990-1007
Many states have passed legislation mandating that health plans provide direct access to obstetricians/gynecologists (hereinafter "ob/gyns") for women, limiting the ability of plans to require referrals or otherwise restrict access. One benefit of these laws may be improved preventive screening rates, but no literature has examined the relationship between ob/gyn direct access laws and use of breast cancer and cervical cancer screening.We use repeated cross-sections of privately insured women age 18-64 (Pap test) and 40-64 (mammography) from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 1996-2000, linked to data on the presence of ob/gyn direct access laws by state. Outcome measures are receipt of mammography and receipt of a Pap test within the past 2 years. Regression analyses are used to assess the relationship between the presence of ob/gyn direct access laws and screening, adjusting for a range of individual characteristics, fixed state characteristics, and time trends.We find no statistically significant relationships between the presence of an ob/gyn direct access law and receipt of either mammography or Pap test screening. We explore a range of alternate specifications and find none that yield clear evidence of a relationship.Laws requiring direct access to ob/gyns are not associated with large or consistent measurable impacts on use of cancer screening.
Level and volume of neonatal intensive care and mortality in very-low-birth-weight infants NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Phibbs, C. S., Baker, L. C., Caughey, A. B., Danielsen, B., Schmitt, S. K., Phibbs, R. H. 2007; 356 (21): 2165-2175
There has been a large increase in both the number of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in community hospitals and the complexity of the cases treated in these units. We examined differences in neonatal mortality among infants with very low birth weight (below 1500 g) among NICUs with various levels of care and different volumes of very-low-birth-weight infants.We linked birth certificates, hospital discharge abstracts (including interhospital transfers), and fetal and infant death certificates to assess neonatal mortality rates among 48,237 very-low-birth-weight infants who were born in California hospitals between 1991 and 2000.Mortality rates among very-low-birth-weight infants varied according to both the volume of patients and the level of care at the delivery hospital. The effect of volume also varied according to the level of care. As compared with a high level of care and a high volume of very-low-birth-weight infants (more than 100 per year), lower levels of care and lower volumes (except for those of two small groups of hospitals) were associated with significantly higher odds ratios for death, ranging from 1.19 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04 to 1.37) to 2.72 (95% CI, 2.37 to 3.12). Less than one quarter of very-low-birth-weight deliveries occurred in facilities with NICUs that offered a high level of care and had a high volume, but 92% of very-low-birth-weight deliveries occurred in urban areas with more than 100 such deliveries.Mortality among very-low-birth-weight infants was lowest for deliveries that occurred in hospitals with NICUs that had both a high level of care and a high volume of such patients. Our results suggest that increased use of such facilities might reduce mortality among very-low-birth-weight infants.
Proposition 71 and CIRM - assessing the return on investment NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY Longaker, M. T., Baker, L. C., Greely, H. T. 2007; 25 (5): 513-521
Given that Californian voters authorized state coffers to sell $3 billion in bonds to fund the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) with the expectation of health and financial benefits, what benchmarks should be used to measure the initiative's success?
Does quality improvement implementation affect hospital quality of care? Hospital topics Alexander, J. A., Weiner, B. J., Shortell, S. M., Baker, L. C. 2007; 85 (2): 3-12
The authors examined how the association between quality improvement (QI) implementation in hospitals and hospital clinical quality is moderated by hospital organizational and environmental context. The authors used Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis of 1,784 community hospitals to model seven quality indicators as a function of four measures of QI implementation and a variety of control variables. They found that forces that are external and internal to the hospital condition the impact of particular QI activities on quality indicators: specifically data use, statistical tool use, and organizational emphasis on Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Results supported the proposition that QI implementation is unlikely to improve quality of care in hospital settings without a commensurate fit with the financial, strategic, and market imperatives faced by the hospital.
Differences in neonatal mortality among whites and Asian American subgroups - Evidence from California ARCHIVES OF PEDIATRICS & ADOLESCENT MEDICINE Baker, L. C., Afendulis, C. C., Chandra, A., McConville, S., Phibbs, C. S., Fuentes-Afflick, E. 2007; 161 (1): 69-76
To obtain information about health outcomes in neonates in 9 subgroups of the Asian population in the United States.Cross-sectional comparison of outcomes for births to mothers of Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Thai, and Vietnamese origin and for births to non-Hispanic white mothers. Regression models were used to compare neonatal mortality across groups before and after controlling for various risk factors.All California births between January 1,1991, and December 31, 2001.More than 2.3 million newborn infants.Racial and ethnic groups.Neonatal mortality (death within 28 days of birth).The unadjusted mortality rate for births to non-Hispanic white mothers was 2.0 per 1000. The unadjusted mortality rate for births to Chinese and Japanese mothers was significantly lower (Chinese: 1.2 per 1000, P<.001; Japanese: 1.2 per 1000, P=.004), and for births to Korean mothers the rate was significantly higher (2.7 per 1000, P=.003). For infants of Chinese mothers, observed risk factors explain the differences observed in unadjusted data. For infants of Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, and Thai mothers, differences persist or widen after risk factors are considered. After risk adjustment, infants of Cambodian, Japanese, and Korean mothers have significantly lower neonatal mortality rates compared with infants born to non-Hispanic white mothers (adjusted odds ratios, 0.58 for infants of Cambodian mothers, 0.67 for infants of Japanese mothers, and 0.69 for infants of Korean mothers; all P<.05); infants of Thai mothers have higher neonatal mortality rates (adjusted odds ratio, 1.89; P<.05).There are significant variations in neonatal mortality between subgroups of the Asian American population that are not entirely explained by differences in observable risk factors. Efforts to improve clinical care that treat Asian Americans as a homogeneous group may miss important opportunities for improving infant health in specific subgroups.
Physician practice size and variations in treatments and outcomes: Evidence from medicare patients with AMI HEALTH AFFAIRS Ketcham, J. D., Baker, L. C., MacIsaac, D. 2007; 26 (1): 195-205
Little is known about the relationships between physician practice size and patient treatments or outcomes. We examined whether the practice size of attending physicians was related to within-hospital differences in care for Medicare patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We found that patients treated by solo physicians were less likely to receive cardiac catheterization and angioplasty within a day of admission and more likely to die than other patients in the same hospital, even after a number of patient and physician characteristics were taken into account. These differences suggest that solo practitioners are less likely to follow guidelines calling for quick use of angioplasty.
View details for DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.26.1.195
Effect of opening midlevel neonatal intensive care units on the location of low birth weight births in California PEDIATRICS Haberland, C. A., Phibbs, C. S., Baker, L. C. 2006; 118 (6): E1667-E1679
Despite evidence and recommendations encouraging the delivery of high-risk newborns in hospitals with subspecialty or high-level NICUs, increasing numbers are being delivered in other facilities. Causes for this are unknown. We sought to explore the impact of diffusion of specialty or midlevel NICUs on the types of hospitals in which low birth weight newborns are born.We used birth certificate, death certificate, and hospital discharge data for essentially all low birth weight, singleton California newborns born between 1993 and 2000. We identified areas likely to have been affected by the opening of a new nearby midlevel unit, analyzed changes over time in the share of births that took place in midlevel NICU hospitals, and compared patterns in areas that were and were not likely affected by the opening of a new midlevel unit. We also tracked the corresponding changes in the share of births in high-level hospitals and in those without NICU facilities (low-level).The probability of a 500- to 1499-g infant being born in a midlevel unit increased by 17 percentage points after the opening of a new nearby unit. More than three quarters of this increase was accounted for by reductions in the probability of birth in a hospital with a high-level unit (-15 points), and the other portion was resulting from reductions in the share of newborns delivered in hospitals with low-level centers (-2 points). Similar patterns were observed in 1500- to 2499-g newborns.The introduction of new midlevel units was associated with significant shifts of births from both high-level and low-level hospitals to midlevel hospitals. In areas in which new midlevel units opened, the majority of the increase in midlevel deliveries was attributable to shifts from high-level unit births. Continued proliferation of midlevel units should be carefully assessed.
Declining reimbursements for ED visits across payor groups from 1996-2003 Annual Meeting of the American-College-of-Emergency-Physicians Hsia, R., MacIsaac, D., Tsai, A. C., Baker, L. C. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2006: S117–S117
Do mandates requiring insurers to pay for emergency care influence the use of the emergency department? HEALTH AFFAIRS Hsia, R. Y., Chan, J., Baker, L. C. 2006; 25 (4): 1086-1094
Many states have "prudent layperson" mandates that require health plans to reimburse hospitals for emergency department (ED) care delivered to patients who believe that they have symptoms warranting emergency treatment. Increased, and possibly unnecessary, ED use has often been attributed to these policies. We use data from thirty-five states to study relationships between passage of prudent layperson policies in the late 1990s and ED use among the privately insured. None of the analyses show evidence that the mandates are associated with increased use. We conclude that prudent layperson mandates are not associated with increases in ED visits among privately insured patients.
Who searches the internet for health information? 4th World Conference of the International-Health-Economics-Association (iHEA) Bundorf, M. K., Wagner, T. H., Singer, S. J., Baker, L. C. WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC. 2006: 819–36
To determine what types of consumers use the Internet as a source of health information.A survey of consumer use of the Internet for health information conducted during December 2001 and January 2002.We estimated multivariate regression models to test hypotheses regarding the characteristics of consumers that affect information seeking behavior.Respondents were randomly sampled from an Internet-enabled panel of over 60,000 households. Our survey was sent to 12,878 panel members, and 69.4 percent of surveyed panel members responded. We collected information about respondents' use of the Internet to search for health information and to communicate about health care with others using the Internet or e-mail within the last year.Individuals with reported chronic conditions were more likely than those without to search for health information on the Internet. The uninsured, particularly those with a reported chronic condition, were more likely than the privately insured to search. Individuals with longer travel times for their usual source of care were more likely to use the Internet for health-related communication than those with shorter travel times.Populations with serious health needs and those facing significant barriers in accessing health care in traditional settings turn to the Internet for health information.
Quality improvement implementation and hospital performance on quality indicators HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Weiner, B. J., Alexander, J. A., Shortell, S. M., Baker, L. C., Becker, M., Geppert, J. J. 2006; 41 (2): 307-334
To examine the association between the scope of quality improvement (QI) implementation in hospitals and hospital performance on selected indicators of clinical quality.Secondary data from 1997 mailed survey of hospital QI practices, Medicare Inpatient Database, American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals, the Bureau of Health Professions' Area Resource File, and two proprietary data sets compiled by Solucient Inc. containing data on managed care penetration and hospital financial performance.Cross-sectional study of 1,784 community hospitals to assess relationship between QI implementation approach and six hospital-level quality indicators. DATA COLLECTION/ABSTRACTION METHODS: Two-stage instrumental variables estimation in which predicted values (instruments) of four QI scope variables and control (exogenous) variables used to estimate hospital-level quality indicators.Involvement by multiple hospital units in QI effort is associated with worse values on hospital-level quality indicators. Percentage of hospital staff and percentage of senior managers participating in formally organized QI teams are associated with better values on quality indicators. Percentage of physicians participating in QI teams is not associated with better values on the hospital-level quality indicators studied.Results supported the proposition that the scope of QI implementation in hospitals is significantly associated with hospital-level quality indicators. However, the direction of the association varied across different measures of QI implementation scope.
Quality improvement implementation and hospital performance on patient safety indicators MEDICAL CARE RESEARCH AND REVIEW Weiner, B. J., Alexander, J. A., Baker, L. C., Shortell, S. M., Becker, M. 2006; 63 (1): 29-57
This study examines the association between scope of Quality Improvement (QI) implementation in hospitals and hospital performance on patient safety indicators. Secondary data sources included a 1997 survey of hospital QI practices, Medicare Inpatient Database, American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals, the Bureau of Health Professions' Area Resource File, and two proprietary data sets. Using a sample of 1,784 community hospitals, the study employed two-stage instrumental variables estimation in which predicted values of four QI scope variables and control variables were used to estimate four patient safety indicators. Involvement by multiple hospital units in the QI effort is associated with worse values on all four patient safety indicators. Percentages of hospital staff and of senior managers participating in QI teams exhibited no statistically significant association with any patient safety indicator. Percentage of physicians participating in QI teams is associated with better values on two patient safety indicators.
Impact of instructional practices on student satisfaction with attendings' teaching in the inpatient component of internal medicine clerkships JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE Guarino, C. M., Ko, C. Y., Baker, L. C., KLEIN, D. J., Quiter, E. S., Escarce, J. J. 2006; 21 (1): 7-12
To determine the prevalence and influence of specific attending teaching practices on student evaluations of the quality of attendings' teaching in the inpatient component of Internal Medicine clerkships.Nationwide survey using a simple random sample. Setting: One hundred and twenty-one allopathic 4-year medical schools in the United States.A total of 2,250 fourth-year medical students.In the spring of 2002, student satisfaction with the overall quality of teaching by attendings in the inpatient component of Internal Medicine clerkships was measured on a 5-point scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied (survey response rate, 68.3%). Logistic regression was used to determine the association of specific teaching practices with student evaluations of the quality of their attendings' teaching. Attending physicians' teaching practices such as engaging students in substantive discussions (odds ratio (OR)=3.0), giving spontaneous talks and prepared presentations (OR=1.6 and 1.8), and seeing new patients with the team (OR=1.2) were strongly associated with higher student satisfaction, whereas seeming rushed and eager to finish rounds was associated with lower satisfaction (OR=0.6).Findings suggest that student satisfaction with attendings' teaching is high overall but there is room for improvement. Specific teaching behaviors used by attendings affect student satisfaction. These specific behaviors could be taught and modified for use by attendings and clerkship directors to enhance student experiences during clerkships.
View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2005.0253.x
Evaluating the efficiency of California providers in caring for patients with chronic illnesses HEALTH AFFAIRS Wennberg, J. E., Fisher, E. S., Baker, L., Sharp, S. M., Bronner, K. K. 2006; 25 (1): W5526-W5543
View details for DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.W5.526
The role of organizational infrastructure in implementation of hospitals' quality improvement. Hospital topics Alexander, J. A., Weiner, B. J., Shortell, S. M., Baker, L. C., Becker, M. P. 2006; 84 (1): 11-20
Quality improvement (QI) is an organized approach to planning and implementing continuous improvement in performance. Although QI holds promise for improving quality of care and patient safety, hospitals that adopt QI often struggle with its implementation. This article examines the role of organizational infrastructure in implementation of quality improvement practices and structures in hospitals. The authors focus specifically on four elements of hospital support and infrastructure for QI-integrated data systems, financial support for QI, clinical integration, and information system capability. These macrolevel factors provide consistent, ongoing support for the QI efforts of clinical teams engaging in direct patient care, thus promoting institutionalization of QI. Results from the multivariate analysis of 1997 survey data on 2350 hospitals provide strong support for the hypotheses. Results signal that organizations intent upon improving quality must attend to the context in which QI efforts are practiced, and that such efforts are unlikely to be effective unless appropriate support systems are in place to ensure full implementation.
Medicaid managed care and health care for children HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Baker, L. C., Afendulis, C. 2005; 40 (5): 1466-1488
Many states expanded their Medicaid managed care programs during the 1990s, causing concern about impacts on health care for affected populations. We investigate the relationship between Medicaid managed care enrollment and health care for children. DATA SOURCES AND MEASURES: Repeated cross-sections of Medicaid-covered children under 18 years of age from the 1996/1997 and 1998/1999 Community Tracking Study Household Surveys (n=2,602) matched to state-year CMS Medicaid managed care enrollment data. For each individual, we constructed measures of health care utilization (provider and emergency department visits, hospitalizations, surgeries); health care access (usual source of care, unmet medical needs, put-off needed care); and satisfaction (satisfaction overall, with doctor choice, and with last visit).Regression analysis of the relationship between within-state changes in Medicaid managed care enrollment rates and changes in mean utilization, access, and satisfaction measures for children covered by Medicaid, controlling for a range of potentially confounding factors.Increases in Medicaid health maintenance organization (HMO) enrollment are associated with less emergency room use, more outpatient visits, fewer hospitalizations, higher rates of reporting having put off care, and lower satisfaction with the most recent visit. Medicaid primary care case management (PCCM) plans are associated with increases in outpatient visits, but also with higher rates of reporting unmet medical needs, putting off care, and having no usual source of care.Both Medicaid HMO and PCCM plans can have important impacts on health care utilization, access, and satisfaction. Some impacts may be positive (e.g., less ED use and more outpatient provider use), although concern about increasing challenges in access to care and satisfaction is also warranted.
Internet use and stigmatized illness SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE Berger, M., Wagner, T. H., Baker, L. C. 2005; 61 (8): 1821-1827
People with stigmatized illnesses often avoid seeking health care and education. The internet may be a useful health education and outreach tool for this group. This study examined patterns of internet use for health information among those with and without stigmatized illnesses. A national survey of internet users in the USA was conducted. Respondents who self-reported a stigmatized condition-defined as anxiety, depression, herpes, or urinary incontinence-were compared to respondents who reported having at least one other chronic illness, such as cancer, heart problems, diabetes, and back pain. The analytical sample consisted of 7014 respondents. Cross-sectional associations between stigmatized illness and frequency of internet use for information about health care, use of the internet for communication about health, changes in health care utilization after internet use, and satisfaction with the internet were determined. After controlling for a number of potential confounders, those with stigmatized illnesses were significantly more likely to have used the internet for health information, to have communicated with clinicians about their condition using the internet, and to have increased utilization of health care based on information found on the internet, than those with non-stigmatized conditions. Length of time spent online, frequency of internet use, satisfaction with health information found on the internet, and discussion of internet findings with health care providers did not significantly differ between the two groups. Results from this survey suggest that the internet may be a valuable health communication and education tool for populations who are affected by stigmatized illnesses.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.socsimed.2005.03.025
Effect of an Internet-based system for doctor-patient communication on health care spending JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INFORMATICS ASSOCIATION Baker, L., Rideout, J., Gertler, P., Raube, K. 2005; 12 (5): 530-536
We studied the effect of a structured electronic communication service on health care spending, comparing doctor office and laboratory spending for a group of patients before and after the service became available to them relative to changes in a control group. In the treatment group, doctor office spending and laboratory spending fell in the period after the service became available, relative to the control group (p < 0.05). A rough estimate is that average doctor office spending per treatment group member per month fell $1.71 after availability of the service, and laboratory spending fell roughly $0.12. Spending associated with use of the electronic service was $0.29 per member per month. We conclude that use of structured electronic visits can reduce health care spending.
Has prudent layperson legislation achieved its goals of increasing access for emergency care? Scientific Assembly of the American-College-of-Emergency-Physicians Hsia, R. Y., Chan, J., Baker, L. C. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2005: S119–S119
Evaluating the efficiency of california providers in caring for patients with chronic illnesses. Health affairs Wennberg, J. E., Fisher, E. S., Baker, L., Sharp, S. M., Bronner, K. K. 2005: W5-526 43
In this paper we compare the relative efficiency of health care providers in managing patients with severe chronic illnesses over fixed periods of time. To minimize the contribution of differences in severity of illness to differences in care management, we evaluate performance over fixed intervals prior to death for patients who died during a five-year period, 1999-2003. Medicare spending, hospital bed and full-time equivalent (FTE) physician inputs, and utilization varied extensively between regions, among hospitals located within a given region, and among hospitals belonging to a given hospital system. The data point to important opportunities to improve efficiency.
Does Medicaid managed care affect access to care for the uninsured? Haberer, J. E., Garrett, B., Baker, L. C. PROJECT HOPE. 2005: 1095–1105
This study investigates whether the implementation of Medicaid managed care from 1994 to 2001 was associated with changes in access to care for the uninsured. We used regression analysis to examine relationships between changes in county-level Medicaid managed care activity over time and changes in four measures of perceived access to care. After we controlled for sex, race, ethnicity, poverty, age, health, and education and included county fixed effects to account for unobserved county characteristics that are potentially associated with the implementation of Medicaid managed care and outcome measures, we found that Medicaid managed care has had no consistent effect on access.
Free Internet access, the digital divide, and health information MEDICAL CARE Wagner, T. H., Bundorf, M. K., Singer, S. J., Baker, L. C. 2005; 43 (4): 415-420
The Internet has emerged as a valuable tool for health information. Half of the U.S. population lacked Internet access in 2001, creating concerns about those without access. Starting in 1999, a survey firm randomly invited individuals to join their research panel in return for free Internet access. This provides a unique setting to study the ways that people who had not previously obtained Internet access use the Internet when it becomes available to them.In 2001-2002, we surveyed 12,878 individuals 21 years of age and older on the research panel regarding use of the Internet for health; 8935 (69%) responded. We analyzed respondents who had no prior Internet access, and then compared this group to those who had prior Internet access.Among those newly provided free Internet access, 24% had used the Internet for health information in the past year, and users reported notable benefits, such as improved knowledge and self-care abilities. Not surprisingly, the no-prior-Internet group reported lower rates of using the Internet (24%) than the group that had obtained Internet access prior to joining the research panel (40%), but the 2 groups reported similar perceptions of the Internet and self-reported effects.Those who obtained Internet access for the first time by joining the panel used the Internet for health and appeared to benefit from it. Access helps explain the digital divide, although most people given free access do not use the Internet for health information.
Predictors of surgery resident satisfaction with teaching by attendings - A national survey ANNALS OF SURGERY Ko, C. Y., Escarce, J. J., Baker, L., Sharp, J., Guarino, C. 2005; 241 (2): 373-380
To identify factors that predict fourth- and fifth-year surgical resident satisfaction of attending teaching quality.With the training of surgical residents undergoing major changes, a key issue facing surgical educators is whether high-quality surgeons can still be produced. Innovative techniques (eg, computer simulation surgery) are being developed to substitute partially for conventional teaching methods. However, an aspect of training that cannot be so easily replaced is the faculty-resident interaction. This study investigates resident perceptions of attending teaching quality and the factors associated with this faculty-resident interaction to identify predictors of resident educational satisfaction.A national survey of clinical fourth- and fifth-year surgery residents in 125 academically affiliated general surgery training programs was performed. The survey contained 67 questions and addressed demographics, hospital, and service characteristics, as well as surgery, education, and clinical care-related factors. Univariate analyses were performed to describe the characteristics of the sample; multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the factors associated with resident educational satisfaction.The response rate was 61.5% (n = 756). Average age was 32 years; most were male (79%), white (72%), and married (69%); 42% had children. Ninety-five percent of respondents graduated from U.S. medical schools, and the average debt was $80,307. Of 20 potentially mutable factors, 6 variables had positive associations with resident education satisfaction and 7 had negative associations. Positive factors included the resident being the operating surgeon in major surgeries, substantial citing of evidence-based literature by the attending, attending physicians giving spontaneous or unplanned presentations, increasing the continuity of care, clinical teaching aimed at the chief resident level, and having clinical decisions made together by both the attending and resident. There were 7 negative factors such as overly supervising in surgery, being interrupted so much that teaching was ineffective, and attending physicians being rushed and/or eager to finish rounds.This study identifies several factors that were associated with resident educational satisfaction. It offers the perspective of the learners (ie, residents) and, importantly, highlights mutable factors that surgery faculty (and departments) may consider changing to improve surgery resident education and satisfaction. Improving such satisfaction may help to produce a better product.
View details for DOI 10.1097/01.sla.0000150257.04889.70
The relationship between SCHIP enrollment and hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions in California JOURNAL OF HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR AND UNDERSERVED Bermudez, D., Baker, L. 2005; 16 (1): 96-110
The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was implemented in 1998, providing new funds for states to cover uninsured children. This study examines the relationship between SCHIP implementation in California and hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), an indicator of primary care access and quality. We use administrative SCHIP enrollment records for urban California counties, linked with corresponding rates of hospitalization for seven ACSCs among children ages 1-18 for 1996-2000. Results from multivariate regression models indicate that increases of 1 percentage point in SCHIP enrollment are associated with reductions of 0.42 ACSC admissions per 100,000 children age 1-18 (p = 0.009). Models that use lagged effects of SCHIP enrollment indicate an even stronger relationship. These are population-level relationships, and translate to much larger effects on the specific population subset that enrolled in SCHIP. These results suggest a strong beneficial effect of SCHIP on primary care among the children covered.
Benefits of interoperability: a closer look at the estimates. Health affairs Baker, L. C. 2005: W5-22 W5 25
The paper by Jan Walker and colleagues provides an estimate of savings to be gained by increased health care information exchange and interoperability (HIEI). However, the assumptions on which their analysis was based seem very optimistic and could produce estimates that are not achievable. This commentary outlines some questions about their assumptions and suggests that less-aggressive assumptions could lead to more realistic expectations about the financial implications of achieving interoperability.
The effect of area HMO market share on cancer screening HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Baker, L. C., Phillips, K. A., Haas, J. S., Liang, S. Y., Sonneborn, D. 2004; 39 (6): 1751-1772
Managed care may have widespread impacts on health care delivery for all patients in the areas where they operate. We examine the relationship between area managed care activity and screening for breast, cervical, and prostate cancer among patients enrolled in more managed care plans and patients who are enrolled in less managed plans.Data on cancer screening from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) were linked to data on health maintenance organization (HMO) and preferred provider organization (PPO) market share and HMO competition at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between area managed care prevalence and the use of mammography, clinical breast examination, Pap smear, and prostate cancer screening in the past two years, controlling for important covariates.Among all patients, increases in area-level HMO market share are associated with increases in the appropriate use of mammography, clinical breast exam, and Pap smear (OR for high relative to low managed care areas are 1.75, p < .01, for mammography, 1.58, p < .05, for clinical breast exam, and 1.71, p < .01, for Pap smear). In analyses of subgroups, the relationship is significant only for individuals who are enrolled in the nonmanaged plans; there is no relationship for individuals in more managed plans. No relationship is observed between area HMO market share and prostate cancer screening in any analysis. Neither the level of competition between area HMOs nor area PPO market share is associated with screening rates.Area-level managed care activity can influence preventive care treatment patterns.
Use of the Internet for health information by the chronically ill. Preventing chronic disease Wagner, T. H., Baker, L. C., Bundorf, M. K., Singer, S. 2004; 1 (4): A13-?
Chronic conditions are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. The Internet is a source of health information and advice for individuals with chronic conditions and shows promise for helping individuals manage their conditions and improve their quality of life.We assessed Internet use for health information by people who had one or more of five common chronic conditions. We conducted a national survey of adults aged 21 and older, then analyzed data from 1980 respondents who had Internet access and who reported that they had hypertension, diabetes, cancer, heart problems, and/or depression.Adjusted rates for any Internet use for health information ranged from 33.8% (heart problems only) to 52.0% (diabetes only). A sizable minority of respondents - particularly individuals with diabetes - reported that the Internet helped them to manage their condition themselves, and 7.9% said information on the Internet led them to seek care from a different doctor.Use of the Internet for health information by chronically ill patients is moderate. Self-reported effects on choice of treatment or provider are small but noteworthy.
Consumers' use of the Internet for health insurance AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE Bundorf, M. K., Singer, S. J., Wagner, T. H., Baker, L. 2004; 10 (9): 609-616
We examined consumers' search for information about health insurance choices and their use of the Internet for that search and to manage health benefits.We surveyed a random sample of more than 4500 individuals aged 21 years and older who were members of a survey research panel during December 2001 and January 2002.The survey included questions about searching for health insurance information in 3 health insurance markets: Medicare, individual or nongroup, and employer-sponsored group. We also asked questions about use of the Internet to manage health benefits. We tabulated means of responses to each question by market and tested for independence across demographic groups using the Pearson chi-square test.We identified important differences across and within markets in the extent to which people look for information about health insurance alternatives and the role of the Internet in their search. Although many individuals were unaware of whether their employer or health plan provided a website to manage health benefits, those who used the sites generally evaluated them favorably.Our results suggest that the Internet is an important source of health insurance information, particularly for individuals purchasing coverage individually in the nongroup and Medicare markets relative to those obtaining coverage from an employer. In the case of Medicare coverage, studies focusing on beneficiaries' use of Internet resources may underestimate the Internet's importance by neglecting caregivers who use the Internet. Many individuals may be unaware of the valuable resources available through employers or health plans.
Predictors for medical students entering a general surgery residency: National survey results 65th Annual Meeting of the Society-of-University-Surgeons Ko, C. Y., Escarce, J. J., Baker, L., Klein, D., Guarino, C. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2004: 567–72
The number of general surgery (GS) residency applicants had been decreasing before 2003. This national survey of fourth-year medical students elucidates factors related to the basic surgery clerkship that are associated with the decision to enter a GS residency.A national sample of 2250 fourth-year medical students from all 4-year allopathic US medical schools was surveyed in spring 2002. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify mutable predictors for students entering GS.Data from 1531 fourth-year medical students from 121 different medical schools (response rate=68%) showed that 5.6% planned to enter GS. In multivariate analyses, the strongest predictor of entering GS was satisfaction with the quality of attending teaching (odds ratio 2.14, P <.01) in surgery clerkships. Several clerkship factors, such as frequency of call nights and total hours worked., were not as strongly associated with entering GS residency, Subsequent analyses showed that predictors of satisfaction with the quality of attending teaching included intraoperative activities (ie, suturing, cutting, and stapling), having attending-led rounds, and performing a history and physical with an attending. Significant negative predictors of satisfaction included observing or retracting only in surgery.In this national survey, factors are identified that are significantly associated with students entering a GS residency. Some of these mutable factors may increase the pool of GS residency applicants.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.surg.2004.05.021
Relationship between HMO market share and the diffusion and use of advanced MRI technologies. Journal of the American College of Radiology Baker, L. C., Atlas, S. W. 2004; 1 (7): 478-487
Financial incentives associated with managed care may shift incentives associated with the adoption of new medical technologies. This study examined whether managed-care activity was associated with the adoption rate of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment during the 1990s.Data from three nationwide "censuses" of MRI sites conducted in 1993, 1997, and 1999 were used. The number of MRI sites and magnets; magnet field strength; MRI procedures; the use of contrast media; and the presence of power injectors, echoplanar imaging, cardiac MRI, and interventional MRI were measured in each of 322 metropolitan statistical areas each year. Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between area MRI availability and overall area health maintenance organization (HMO) market share, controlling for potential confounders.Areas with higher HMO activity had markedly lower adoption and use of MRI. By 1999, high-HMO areas had about 40% fewer MRI scanners per 100,000 people than low-HMO areas (1.02 vs. 1.73, P < .01). High-HMO areas had fewer 1.5-T scanners than low areas in all 3 years and tended to use contrast media less often in 1993 and 1997 (all P < .01). There were statistically insignificant trends toward less availability of echoplanar imaging, cardiac MRI, and interventional MRI in high-HMO areas.The fact that managed care is associated with the slower adoption of MRI and less availability of some of the most advanced MRI equipment suggests the need for attention to the potential for managed care to have important effects on the quality of care and health care spending by influencing technology growth.
Variation in access to health care for different racial/ethnic groups by the racial/ethnic composition of an individual's county of residence MEDICAL CARE Haas, J. S., Phillips, K. A., Sonneborn, D., McCulloch, C. E., Baker, L. C., Kaplan, C. P., Perez-Stable, E. J., Liang, S. Y. 2004; 42 (7): 707-714
Although the majority of studies examining racial/ethnic disparities in health care have focused on the characteristics of the individual, more recently there has been growing attention to the notion that an individual's health practices could be influenced by the characteristics of the place where they reside.The objective of this study was to examine whether access to care for individuals of different racial/ethnic groups varies by the prevalence of blacks and the prevalence of Latinos in their county of residence.We conducted a cross-sectional cohort.Individuals from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a nationally representative sample of U.S. households, who described their race/ethnicity as white, black, or Latino, and who resided in 1 of 677 counties (n = 14740) were studied.Counties were assigned to 6 groups based on the prevalence of blacks and Latinos who resided there (<6% referred to as "low prevalence," 6-39% referred to as "midprevalence," >or=40% referred to as "high prevalence" separately for both blacks and Latinos). Outcomes included whether during the past year any family members: 1). experienced difficulty obtaining any type of health care, delayed obtaining care, or did not receive health care they thought they needed (referred to as "difficulty obtaining care"); or (2). did not receive a doctor's care or a prescription medication because the family needed money to buy food, clothing, or pay for housing (referred to as "financial barriers").After controlling for other individual and area-level covariates, blacks reported lower rates of both outcome variables when they lived in a county with a high prevalence of blacks compared with blacks who lived in a county with a low prevalence of blacks (difficulty obtaining care: 4.3% vs. 18.8%, P <0.005; financial barriers: 1.6% vs. 10.5%, P <0.005). There was a similar association for Latinos by the prevalence of Latinos in the county for difficulty obtaining care (high: 5.0% vs. low: 13.4%, P <0.05), but not the financial barriers outcome (high: 2.2% vs. low: 2.4%, P = 0.90). Whites who lived in an area with a high prevalence of Latinos were more likely to report both outcomes compared with whites who lived in a county with a low prevalence of Latinos (difficulty obtaining care: 17.7% vs. 9.4%, P <0.05; financial barriers: 8.5% vs. 3.2%, P <0.005) .Blacks and Latinos may perceive fewer barriers to care when they live in a county with a high prevalence of people of similar race/ethnicity. Conversely, whites may perceive more difficulty receiving care when they live in an area with a high prevalence of Latinos. Diminishing disparities in access to health care may require interventions that extend beyond the individual.
View details for DOI 10.1097/01.mlr.0000129906.95881.83
Managed care, information, and diffusion: The case of treatment for heart-attack patients Joint Meeting of the Society-of-Government-Economists/116th Annual Meeting of the American-Economic-Association Baker, L. C., Afendulis, C. C., Heidenreich, P. A. AMER ECONOMIC ASSOC. 2004: 347–51
Impact of new mid-level neonatal intensive care units on the level of care received by low-birthweight infants Annual Meeting of the Pediatric-Academic-Societies Haberland, C. A., Phibbs, C. S., Baker, L. C. NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. 2004: 517A–517A
Are gatekeeper requirements associated with cancer screening utilization? HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Phillips, K. A., Haas, J. S., Liang, S. Y., Baker, L. C., Tye, S., Kerlikowske, K., Sakowski, J., Spetz, A. 2004; 39 (1): 153-178
There is widespread debate over whether health plans should require enrollees to use "gatekeepers," which are primary care providers that coordinate care and control access to specialists. However, little is known about whether health plan gatekeeper requirements improve or reduce quality-of-care. Our objective was to examine whether gatekeeper requirements are associated with the utilization of cancer screening for breast, cervical, and prostate cancer.Three linked sources (N = 13,534): (1) 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Survey, a nationally representative, ongoing survey sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; (2) 1996 MEPS Health Insurance Plan Abstraction, which codes data from health plan booklets obtained from privately insured respondents, and (3) 1995 National Health Interview Survey.Cross-sectional, multivariate logistic regression analysis using secondary data.We found in multivariate analyses that women in gatekeeper plans were significantly more likely to obtain mammography screening (Odds Ratio [OR] = 1.22, 95 percent Confidence Interval [CI] 1.07-1.40), clinical breast examinations (OR = 1.39, 95 percent CI 1.23-1.57), and Pap smears (OR = 1.33, 95 percent CI 1.16-1.52) than women not in gatekeeper plans. In contrast, gatekeeper requirements were not associated with prostate cancer screening (OR = 1.11, 95 percent CI 0.93-1.33). We found no association between screening utilization and aggregate plan types (HMO, POS, PPO, FFS).Gatekeeper requirements are associated with higher utilization of widely recommended cancer screening procedures, but not with utilization of a less uniformly recommended cancer screening procedure. Researchers should consider the analysis of specific plan characteristics rather than aggregate plan types in conducting future research, and insurers and policymakers should consider the potential benefits of gatekeepers with respect to preventive care when designing health plans and legislation.
Do health plans influence quality of care? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE Baker, L. C., Hopkins, D., Dixon, R., Rideout, J., Geppert, J. 2004; 16 (1): 19-30
To investigate the relative impact of physician groups and health plans on quality of care measures.Secondary data analysis of receipt of preventive care services included in the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) among 10 758 patients representing 21 health maintenance organizations and 22 large provider groups in the San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, areas in 1997. Each patient was eligible for (at least) one of six HEDIS-measured services. Data identify whether or not the service was provided, the patient's health plan, and the provider group responsible for the care. We used logistic regression to examine variations across plans in HEDIS rates, and whether variations persist after controls for provider groups are included.Patients from 21 health maintenance organizations serving San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, in 1997.Breast cancer screening, childhood immunizations, cervical cancer screening, diabetic retinal exam, prenatal care in the first trimester, and check-ups after delivery among patients for whom these services are appropriate.There are statistically significant differences across health plans in utilization rates for the six services examined. These differences are not substantially affected when we control for the provider group that cared for the patient. That is, controlling for provider group does not explain variations across plans, consistent with the view that health plans have an impact on HEDIS quality measures independent of the providers that they contract with.There are activities that plans can undertake which influence their HEDIS scores. On the face of it, these results suggest that plans can independently improve quality, in contrast to hypotheses that plans would be "too far" from patients to have an influence. Continued attention to collecting plan-level data is warranted. Further work should address other possible sources of variations in HEDIS scores, such as variability in the quality of plan administrative databases.
View details for DOI 10.1093/intqhc/mzh003
Within-year variation in hospital utilization and its implications for hospital costs JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Phibbs, C. S., Guarino, C., Supina, D., Reynolds, J. L. 2004; 23 (1): 191-211
Variability in demand for hospital services may have important effects on hospital costs, but this has been difficult to examine because data on within-year variations in hospital use have not been available for large samples of hospitals. We measure daily occupancy in California hospitals and examine variation in hospital utilization at the daily level. We find substantial day-to-day variation in hospital utilization, and noticeable differences between hospitals in the amount of day-to-day variation in utilization. We examine the impact of variation on hospital costs, showing that increases in variance are associated with increases in hospital expenditures, but that the effects are qualitatively modest.
The relationship between technology availability and health care spending HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L., Birnbaum, H., Geppert, J., Mishol, D., Moyneur, E. 2003; 22 (6): W537-W551
The relationship between technology availability and health care spending. Health affairs Baker, L., Birnbaum, H., Geppert, J., Mishol, D., Moyneur, E. 2003: W3-537 51
We analyze the relationship between the supply of new technologies and health care utilization and spending, focusing on diagnostic imaging, cardiac, cancer, and newborn care technologies. As anticipated by previous research, increases in the supply of technology tend to be related to higher utilization and spending on the service in question. In some cases, notably diagnostic imaging, increases in availability appear associated with incremental utilization rather than substitution for other services. Policy efforts to assess and manage the availability of new technologies could benefit society where the additional spending produced by new services is not associated with strong quality improvements.
Use of the Internet and e-mail for health care information - Results from a national survey JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Baker, L., Wagner, T. H., Singer, S., Bundorf, M. K. 2003; 289 (18): 2400-2406
The Internet has attracted considerable attention as a means to improve health and health care delivery, but it is not clear how prevalent Internet use for health care really is or what impact it has on health care utilization. Available estimates of use and impact vary widely. Without accurate estimates of use and effects, it is difficult to focus policy discussions or design appropriate policy activities.To measure the extent of Internet use for health care among a representative sample of the US population, to examine the prevalence of e-mail use for health care, and to examine the effects that Internet and e-mail use has on users' knowledge about health care matters and their use of the health care system.Survey conducted in December 2001 and January 2002 among a sample drawn from a research panel of more than 60 000 US households developed and maintained by Knowledge Networks. Responses were analyzed from 4764 individuals aged 21 years or older who were self-reported Internet users.Self-reported rates in the past year of Internet and e-mail use to obtain information related to health, contact health care professionals, and obtain prescriptions; perceived effects of Internet and e-mail use on health care use.Approximately 40% of respondents with Internet access reported using the Internet to look for advice or information about health or health care in 2001. Six percent reported using e-mail to contact a physician or other health care professional. About one third of those using the Internet for health reported that using the Internet affected a decision about health or their health care, but very few reported impacts on measurable health care utilization; 94% said that Internet use had no effect on the number of physician visits they had and 93% said it had no effect on the number of telephone contacts. Five percent or less reported use of the Internet to obtain prescriptions or purchase pharmaceutical products.Although many people use the Internet for health information, use is not as common as is sometimes reported. Effects on actual health care utilization are also less substantial than some have claimed. Discussions of the role of the Internet in health care and the development of policies that might influence this role should not presume that use of the Internet for health information is universal or that the Internet strongly influences health care utilization.
Is the prevalence of gatekeeping in a community associated with individual trust in medical care? MEDICAL CARE Haas, J. S., Phillips, K. A., Baker, L. C., Sonneborn, D., McCulloch, C. E. 2003; 41 (5): 660-668
Consumer concerns about the restrictions of managed care may lead to distrust.To examine whether a community's level of gatekeeping activity is associated with an individual's trust in medical care.Cross-sectional cohort (N = 49,929).Participants in a nationally representative sample derived from the Community Tracking Survey who had health insurance, had a usual source of care, made at least 1 physician visit, and resided in one of the sampled metropolitan areas with corresponding community-level data, including the prevalence of gatekeeping activity.Four questions measuring trust in physician.Individuals from communities with a higher prevalence of gatekeeping activity report less trust than individuals from areas with a lower prevalence of gatekeeping activity, after adjusting for whether that individual had a health plan with a gatekeeper requirement. For example, in communities with the highest prevalence of gatekeeping activity relative to the lowest, the odds ratio for individuals to agree strongly that they trusted their doctor to put their medical needs above all other considerations was 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.71-0.84). Also, a higher prevalence of gatekeeping in the community was positively associated with the perception that a physician was strongly influenced by insurance company rules when making decisions about medical care. Conversely, a higher prevalence of gatekeeping in the community was negatively associated with the perception that a doctor might perform an unnecessary test or procedure and with concern about restricted referral for specialty care.Individuals' trust in their physicians may be influenced by wider contextual variables, like the prevalence of gatekeeping in the community.
The effects of NICU patient volume and NICU level at the hospital of birth on neonatal mortality over time for infants with a birth weight < 2000 g: California 1991-1999 Annual Meeting of the Pediatric-Academic-Societies/Society-for-Pediatric-Research Phibbs, C. S., Baker, L. C., Schmitt, S. K., Danielsen, B., Phibbs, R. H. NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. 2003: 442A–442A
Variation in access to care by the ethnic composition of an individual's county of residence. 26th Annual Meeting of the Society-of-General-Internal-Medicine Haas, J. S., Phillips, K., Sonneborn, D., McCulloch, C., Baker, L., Kaplan, C., Perez-Stable, E., Liang, S. SPRINGER. 2003: 174–175
The effects of NICU patient volume and NICU level at the hospital of birth on neonatal mortality overtime for infants with a birth weight < 2000g ; California 1991-1999. Western Regional Meeting of the American-Federation-for-Medical-Research Phibbs, C. S., Baker, L. C., Schmitt, S. K., Phibbs, R. H. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2003: S120–S120
Managed care spillover effects ANNUAL REVIEW OF PUBLIC HEALTH Baker, L. C. 2003; 24: 435-456
In addition to influencing care for patients enrolled in managed care plans, growth in managed care could lead to broad changes in the structure and functioning of the health care system that could ultimately influence care for all patients, even those not covered by managed care plans. This paper summarizes the mechanisms by which these effects could arise, including shifts in the types of services available in markets and changes in physician practice patterns. The paper summarizes available empirical evidence on broad-level effects of managed care, concluding that the literature supports the view that managed care can have generalized effects on health care spending, utilization patterns, and infrastructure, although existing literature has not clearly identified effects on health outcomes.
View details for DOI 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.24.100901.141000
Managed care, technology adoption, and health care: the adoption of neonatal intensive care Conference on the Industrial-Organization-of-Medical-Care Baker, L. C., Phibbs, C. S. BLACKWELL PUBLISHING. 2002: 524–48
Managed care may influence technology diffusion in health care. This article empirically examines the relationship between HMO market share and the diffusion of neonatal intensive care units. Higher HMO market share is associated with slower adoption of mid-level units, but not with adoption of the most advanced high-level units. Opposite the common supposition that slowing technology growth will harm patients, results suggest that health outcomes for seriously ill newborns are better in higher-level units and that reduced availability of mid-level units may increase their chance of receiving care in a high-level center, so that slower mid-level growth could have benefitted patients.
Management of ventricular arrhythmias in diverse populations in California AMERICAN HEART JOURNAL Alexander, M., Baker, L., Clark, C., McDonald, K. M., Rowell, R., Saynina, O., Hlatky, M. A. 2002; 144 (3): 431-439
The use of coronary angiography and revascularization is lower than expected among black patients. It is uncertain whether use of other cardiac procedures also varies according to race and ethnicity and whether outcomes are affected.We analyzed discharge abstracts from all nonfederal hospitals in California of patients hospitalized for a primary diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation between 1992 and 1994. We compared mortality rates and use of electrophysiologic study (EPS) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) procedures according to the race and ethnicity of the patient.Among 8713 patients admitted with ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, 29% (n = 2508) had a subsequent EPS procedure, and 9% (n = 818) had an ICD implanted. After controlling for potential confounding factors, we found that black patients were significantly less likely than white patients to undergo EPS (odds ratio 0.72, CI 0.56-0.92) or ICD implantation (odds ratio 0.39, CI 0.25-0.60). Blacks discharged alive from the initial hospital admission had higher mortality rates over the next year than white patients, even after controlling for multiple confounding risk factors (risk ratio 1.18, CI 1.03-1.36). The use of EPS and ICD procedures was also significantly affected by several other factors, most notably by on-site procedure availability but also by age, sex, and insurance status.In a large population of patients hospitalized for ventricular arrhythmia, blacks had significantly lower rates of utilization for EPS and ICD procedures and higher subsequent mortality rates.
View details for DOI 10.1067/mhj.2002.125500
Managed care, medical technology, and the well-being of society. Topics in magnetic resonance imaging Baker, L. 2002; 13 (2): 107-113
The growth of managed care could have widespread effects on the structure and functioning of the health care delivery system, potentially influencing all patients, even those not enrolled in managed care plans. One important mechanism by which managed care could have such broad effects is by influencing technology development and adoption. This article examines available literature on the effects of managed care activity on technology adoption and the implications of any effects on patient care, outcomes, and health care costs. Existing literature supports the view that managed care has contributed to slowing the adoption of new technologies, particularly the high-cost, high-profile technologies that have been the focus of the most attention. The literature outlining the effects of managed-care-induced changes in technology adoption on patient care and outcomes is not large, but what literature there is tends not to find negative effects on patient care and outcomes. Specific evidence about costs also is somewhat sparse, but it suggests that managed care has contributed to some reduction in health care spending, although the extent to which savings will persist over time is unclear. Although evidence thus far does not suggest important detrimental effects of managed care on care or outcomes and even indicates some benefit through savings, it should be noted that existing literature has only explored a small number of the many technologies and services that might have been influenced, and there remain issues for the future that deserve vigilance.
Effect of managed care on preventable hospitalization rates in California MEDICAL CARE Backus, L., Moron, M., Bacchetti, P., Baker, L. C., Bindman, A. B. 2002; 40 (4): 315-324
Hospitalization rates for ambulatory care-sensitive (ACS) conditions have emerged as a potential indicator of health care access and quality. The effect of managed care on reducing these potentially preventable hospitalizations is unknown.To ascertain whether increases in managed care penetration were associated with changes in hospitalization rates for ACS conditions.Longitudinal analysis between 1990 and 1997 of all California hospitalizations for ACS conditions aggregated to 394 small areas.Association of change in ACS hospitalization rate with change in managed care penetration.In unadjusted analysis there was no association between the change in managed care penetration and the change in hospitalization rates for ACS conditions over time. However, in a multivariate model that controlled for changes in area demographics and hospitalization rates for marker conditions that were assumed to be stable over time, the change in managed care penetration was negatively associated with a small but statistically significant change in the ACS hospitalization rate. Each 10-point increase in percentage private managed care penetration was associated with a 3.1% decrease in the ACS hospitalization rate (95% CI, -5.4% to -0.8%)Overall, in California, an increase in the penetration of private managed care in a community was associated with a decrease in ACS admission rates. Additional research is needed to determine if the observed association is causal, the mechanism of the effect and whether it represents an improvement in patients' health outcomes.
The burden of out-of-pocket payments for health care in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Skarbinski, J., Walker, H. K., Baker, L. C., Kobaladze, A., Kirtava, Z., Raffin, T. A. 2002; 287 (8): 1043-1049
In the 1990s, the Republic of Georgia instituted health care reforms to convert the centralized, state-operated health care system inherited from the Soviet Union to a decentralized, market-driven system of health care delivery. Under the new system, 87% of health care expenditures are financed through out-of-pocket payments at the point of service.To describe the effects of health care reforms on access to care and health care financing among ill residents of Tbilisi, Georgia.A probability-proportionate-to-size cluster survey conducted in 1999 of 248 households containing 306 household members who had been ill in the past 6 months in Tbilisi, Georgia.Reported health care utilization, out-of-pocket expenditures, and financing practices.Of sick household members, 51% used official health care services at hospitals and clinics; 49% did not use official services and sought advice from relatives or friends, used traditional medicines, or did nothing. Those with serious illness were more likely to seek care through official services (82%) than those with nonserious illness (27%). Ninety-three percent of respondents said costs were the major deterrent to obtaining health care. Ten percent of ill household members reported that they were unable to obtain health care because of high costs; 16% reported being unable to afford all the medications necessary to treat their illness. Sixty-one percent of ill household members used savings to pay for health care expenditures and 19% of those able to obtain care had to use strategies such as borrowing money or selling personal items to pay for health care. Total out-of-pocket health care expenditures (53%) were paid for by borrowing money or selling personal items. A significant portion of households with ill members (87%) reported an interest in purchasing health care insurance.Economic disruption and health care reforms have led to access problems and out-of-pocket financing strategies that include reliance on personal savings, selling personal items, and borrowing money. Future reforms should consider an appropriate system for health care insurance risk pooling for the population of Tbilisi, Georgia.
The relation between managed care market share and the treatment of elderly fee-for-service patients with myocardial infarction AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Heidenreich, P. A., McClellan, M., Frances, C., Baker, L. C. 2002; 112 (3): 176-182
To determine if greater managed care market share is associated with greater use of recommended therapies for fee-for-service patients with acute myocardial infarction.We examined the care of 112,900 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged > or = 65 years who resided in one of 320 metropolitan statistical areas and who were admitted with an acute myocardial infarction between February 1994 through July 1995. Use of recommended medical treatments and 30-day survival were determined for areas with low (<10%), medium (10% to 30%), and high (>30%) managed care market share.After adjustment for severity of illness, teaching status of the admission hospital, and area characteristics, areas with high levels of managed care had greater use of beta-blockers (relative risk [RR] for greater use = 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06 to 1.29) and aspirin at discharge (RR = 1.05; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.07), but less appropriate coronary angiography (RR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.86 to 1.01) and reperfusion (RR = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.85 to 1.03) when compared with areas with low levels of managed care.Medicare beneficiaries with fee-for-service insurance who resided in areas with high managed care activity were more likely to have received appropriate treatment with beta-blockers and aspirin, and less likely to have undergone coronary angiography following admission for myocardial infarction. Thus, the effects of managed care may not be limited to managed care enrollees.
Managed care, health care quality, and regulation Conference on the Regulation of Managed Care Organizations and the Doctor-Patient Relationship Baker, L. C., McClellan, M. B. UNIV CHICAGO PRESS. 2001: 715–41
Managed care and technology adoption in health care: evidence from magnetic resonance imaging JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C. 2001; 20 (3): 395-421
This paper empirically examines the relationship between HMO market share and the diffusion of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment. Across markets, increases in HMO market share are associated with slower diffusion of MRI into hospitals between 1983 and 1993, and with substantially lower overall MRI availability in the mid- and later 1990s. High managed care areas also had markedly lower rates of MRI procedure use. These results suggest that technology adoption in health care can respond to changes in financial and other incentives associated with managed care, which may have implications for health care costs and patient welfare.
Measuring competition in health care markets Conference on Data Needs for Studies of Competition in Market Ares Baker, L. C. WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC. 2001: 223–51
Measuring competition is increasingly important for analysis of health care markets and policies. Measurement of competition in health care is made complex by the breadth of potential issues under study, by the lack of necessary data, and by rapid changes in health care financing and delivery. This study reviews key issues in the measurement of competition and is designed to familiarize researchers and policymakers interested in competition measurement, but not steeped in its practice, with key concepts, data sources, and ways of adapting measures to fit ongoing changes in health care markets.Attention to several key issues will strengthen measurement. Important components of successful measurement are: careful identification of the products and market areas for study; selection of Herfindahl-Hirschman or other indices to fit the issues being considered; consideration of econometric problems, like endogeneity, with common measures; and attention to the ways that current marketplace changes, like growth in managed care, affect the performance of classic measures. Data needed for constructing measures are also frequently scarce, insufficient, or both. Measurement could be improved with access to better data.
The impact of practice setting on physician perceptions of the quality of practice and patient care in the managed care era ARCHIVES OF INTERNAL MEDICINE Chehab, E. L., Panicker, N., Alper, P. R., Baker, L. C., Wilson, S. R., Raffin, T. A. 2001; 161 (2): 202-211
Managed care is practiced in both traditional institutional health maintenance organization (HMO) settings and in a variety of complex and decentralized office-based arrangements. This study examines how practice setting affects physician perceptions of the quality of professional practice and patient care in a managed care environment.A survey was conducted in 1998 of 1081 physicians in San Mateo County, California, who practice in either a traditional staff group model HMO (SGM-HMO) (n = 113) or office-based independent practice (OBIP) (n = 250). Respondents were surveyed about current and past practice characteristics, income changes, current satisfaction with professional and patient care matters, utility of treatment guidelines and formularies, and general perceptions of managed care. Responses were compared between practice settings using bivariate comparisons and logistic regression analyses.Physicians in the SGM-HMO and those in OBIP reported similar hours worked per week, time spent with patients during office visits, and total patient encounters per week. Declining income was more frequent in OBIP (61% vs 47%) and relatively more substantial (27% with income declines >25% vs 4% in SGM-HMO). Adjusting for income changes, practice setting, years in practice, and sex, SGM-HMO physicians were significantly more satisfied with a variety of professional and quality of care issues (P<.001), viewed more favorably the utility of treatment guidelines and drug formularies (P<.001), and held more positive general perceptions of managed care (P<.001) than OBIP physicians.In a managed care environment, SGM-HMO physicians are significantly more satisfied with the quality of practice and patient care than physicians in OBIP. This study suggests that the myriad managed care contracts, formularies, and guidelines received by physicians in OBIPs may lead to more negative perceptions of the quality of professional practice and patient care.
Managed Care, Health Care Quality, and Regulation Journal of Legal Studies Baker LC, McClellan MB 2001; 30 (2, part 2): 715-742
The effect of passing an "anti-immigrant" ballot proposition on the use of prenatal care by foreign-born mothers in California. Journal of immigrant health Spetz, J., Baker, L., Phibbs, C., Pedersen, R., TAFOYA, S. 2000; 2 (4): 203-212
This study examines whether the passage of California's Proposition 187, a proposition designed to restrict undocumented immigrants from using public services, had a negative effect on the use of prenatal care and birth outcomes. Comparisons of prenatal care use and birth outcomes before and after the passage of the proposition are made between low-education foreign-born and U.S.-born mothers using California's Birth Public Use files. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions were used to control for regional and maternal characteristics. We find a significant but small decline in the use of prenatal care by low-education foreign-born women after Proposition 187 passed; however, there was no detectable deterioration of birth outcomes. Whether future reductions in the availability of prenatal care would damage the health of children is unclear.
HMO market penetration and costs of employer-sponsored health plans HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Cantor, J. C., Long, S. H., Marquis, M. S. 2000; 19 (5): 121-128
Using two employer surveys, we evaluate the role of increased health maintenance organization (HMO) market share in containing costs of employer-sponsored coverage. Total costs for employer health plans are about 10 percent lower in markets in which HMOs' market share is above 45 percent than they are in markets with HMO enrollments of below 25 percent. This is the result of lower premiums for HMOs than for non-HMO plans, as well as the competitive effect of HMOs that leads to lower non-HMO premiums for employers that continue to offer these benefits. Slower growth in premiums in areas with high HMO enrollments suggests that expanded HMO market share may also lower the long-run growth in costs.
Medicaid policy, physician behavior, and health care for the low-income population JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES Baker, L. C., Royalty, A. B. 2000; 35 (3): 480-502
Effect of managed care market share on treatment of fee-for service patients with myocardial infarction Heidenreich, P. A., McClellan, M., Frances, C. D., Baker, L. C. ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. 2000: 268A
'Competition' among employers offering health insurance JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Dranove, D., Spier, K. E., Baker, L. 2000; 19 (1): 121-140
Most employees contribute towards the cost of employer-sponsored insurance, despite tax laws that favor zero contributions. Contribution levels vary markedly across firms, and the average contribution (as a percentage of the premium) has increased over time. We offer a novel explanation for these facts: employers raise contribution levels to encourage their employees to obtain coverage from their spouses' employer. We develop a model to show how the employee contribution required by a given firm depends on characteristics of the firm and its work force, and find empirical support for many of the model's predictions.
Medicaid Policy, Physician Behavior, and Health Care for the Low-Income Population Journal of Human Resources Baker LC, Royalty AB 2000; 35 (3): 480-502
Physicians' perceptions of autonomy and satisfaction in California HEALTH AFFAIRS Burdi, M. D., Baker, L. C. 1999; 18 (4): 134-145
This study compares levels of satisfaction and autonomy among California physicians using data from a 1991 survey of physicians and a 1996 survey of California physicians. The surveys measured physicians' perceived freedom to undertake eight common activities that may be threatened by marketplace changes, satisfaction with current practice, and inclination to attend medical school again. Young physicians in 1996 were significantly less likely to report that they were able to spend enough time on the eight identified patient-care activities. They also were significantly less satisfied with their current practice and less likely to say that they would go to medical school again. Satisfaction also declined for older physicians between 1991 and 1996.
Managed care, consolidation among health care providers, and health care: evidence from mammography RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Brown, M. L. 1999; 30 (2): 351-U2
We discuss the effects of managed care on the structure of the health care delivery system, focusing on managed-care-induced consolidation among health care providers. We empirically investigate the relationship between HMO market share and mammography providers. We find evidence of consolidation: increases in HMO activity are associated with reductions in the number of mammography providers and with increases in the number of services produced by remaining providers. We also find that increases in HMO market share are associated with reductions in costs for mammography and with increases in waiting times for appointments, but not with worse health outcomes.
Association of managed care market share and health expenditures for fee-for-service Medicare patients JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Baker, L. C. 1999; 281 (5): 432-437
Managed care has the potential to transform fundamentally the structure and functioning of the entire health care system, including the care provided to patients who are not enrolled in managed care plans.To determine whether increasing health maintenance organization (HMO) market share is associated with decreased expenditures for the care of patients covered by Medicare's traditional fee-for-service plan, a group cared for well outside the boundaries of managed care.Data from the Health Care Financing Administration were used to compare expenditures for the care of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries for 802 market areas, representing the entire United States, for 1990 to 1994. These data were matched with data on system-wide (Medicare and non-Medicare) HMO market share in these areas.All fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries (1990-1994) except for those with end-stage renal disease.Average fee-for-service expenditure per fee-for-service Medicare beneficiary by market area.In a regression model, increases in system-wide HMO market share were associated with declines in both Part A and Part B fee-for-service expenditures per Medicare beneficiary (P<.001). Increases from 10% market share to 20% market share were associated with 2.0% decreases in Part A fee-for-service expenditures and 1.5% decreases in Part B fee-for-service expenditures.Managed care can have widespread effects on the health care system. Health care for individuals who are not covered by managed care organizations can be influenced by the presence of managed care. Lower expenditures in areas with high HMO market shares may indicate that traditional Medicare beneficiaries in areas with high market shares received fewer or less intensive services than traditional Medicare beneficiaries in other areas.
Effect of an intensive educational program for minority college students and recent graduates on the probability of acceptance to medical school JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Cantor, J. C., Bergeisen, L., Baker, L. C. 1998; 280 (9): 772-776
Increasing the number of minority physicians is a long-standing goal of professional associations and government.To determine the effectiveness of an intensive summer educational program for minority college students and recent graduates on the probability of acceptance to medical school.Nonconcurrent prospective cohort study based on data from medical school applications, Medical College Admission Tests, and the Association of American Medical Colleges Student and Applicant Information Management System.Eight US medical schools or consortia of medical schools.Underrepresented minority (black, Mexican American, mainland Puerto Rican, and American Indian) applicants to US allopathic medical schools in 1997 (N =3830), 1996 (N = 4654), and 1992 (N =3447).The Minority Medical Education Program (MMEP), a 6-week, residential summer educational program focused on training in the sciences and improvement of writing, verbal reasoning, studying, test taking, and presentation skills.Probability of acceptance to at least 1 medical school.In the 1997 medical school application cohort, 223 (49.3%) of 452 MMEP participants were accepted compared with 1406 (41.6%) of 3378 minority nonparticipants (P= .002). Positive and significant program effects were also found in the 1996 (P=.01) and 1992 (P=.005) cohorts and in multivariate analysis after adjusting for nonprogrammatic factors likely to influence acceptance (P<.001). Program effects were also observed in students who participated in the MMEP early in college as well as those who participated later and among those with relatively high as well as low grades and test scores.The MMEP enhanced the probability of medical school acceptance among its participants. Intensive summer education is a strategy that may help improve diversity in the physician workforce.
Managed care and technology diffusion: The case of MRI HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Wheeler, S. K. 1998; 17 (5): 195-207
A growing body of evidence suggests that managed care can reduce overall health care costs but provides little insight into how this could happen. One possibility is that managed care influences the adoption of new medical technologies. In examining the relationship between health maintenance organization (HMO) activity and market-level availability and use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we find that high HMO market share is associated with low levels of MRI availability and use. This suggests that managed care may be able to reduce health care costs by influencing the adoption and use of new medical equipment and technologies.
Factors associated with women's adherence to mammography screening guidelines HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH Phillips, K. A., Kerlikowske, K., Baker, L. C., Chang, S. W., Brown, M. L. 1998; 33 (1): 29-53
To examine individual and environmental factors associated with adherence to mammography screening guidelines.A unique data set that combines a national probability sample (1992 National Health Interview Survey); a national probability sample of mammography facility characteristics (1992 National Survey of Mammography Facilities); county-level data on 1990 HMO market share; and county-level data on the supply of primary care providers (1991 Area Resource File).The design was cross-sectional. DATA EXTRACTION/ANALYSIS: Data sets were linked to create an individual-level sample of women ages 50-74 (weighted n = 2,026). We used multipart, sequential logistic regression models to examine the predictors of having ever had mammography, having had recent mammography, and adherence to guidelines. We categorized women as adherent if they reported a lifetime number of exams appropriate for their age (based on screening every two years) and they reported having had an exam in the past two years.Only 27 percent of women had the age-appropriate number of screening exams (range 16 percent-37 percent), while 59 percent of women had been screened within two years. Women were significantly more likely to adhere to screening guidelines if they reported participating with their doctor in the decision to be screened; were younger; had smaller families, higher education and income, and a recent Pap smear; reported breast problems; and lived in an area with a higher percentage of mammography facilities with reminder systems, no shortage of primary care providers, higher HMO market share, and higher screening charges.A small percentage of women adhere to screening guidelines, suggesting that adherence needs to become a focus of clinical, programmatic, and policy efforts.
Can we explain the differences in neonatal mortality between patients insured by health maintenance organizations and patients insured by other private insurance in California? Phibbs, C. S., Baker, L. C., Wheeler, S. K., Phibbs, R. H. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 1998: 158A–158A
Factors associated with the perception that debt influences physicians' specialty choices ACADEMIC MEDICINE Baker, L. C., Barker, D. C. 1997; 72 (12): 1088-1096
To investigate the responses of individual physicians to educational debt.Data on 5,175 physicians were taken from the 1991 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Survey of Young Physicians, a nationally representative survey of physicians under age 45 who had had two to ten years of practice experience as of 1991. The physicians' overall perceptions about the extents to which debt had been an important determinant of specialty choice were explored using multivariate logistic regression analyses.Only 3.2% of the physicians indicated that debt had had a major influence on their specialty choices. About half (56%) of those who felt that debt had been a major influence indicated that they had foregone some training because of their debt levels. Controlling for debt level, the physicians who had had children during medical school and those whose parents had less education and lower incomes were more likely to say that debt had been an influence (p < .05). An examination of the specialties that the physicians reported having foregone because of debt indicated that these physicians had reacted to debt in different ways--some had chosen more specialized fields while others had chosen more generalized fields.While the overall effect of debt was small, some individuals were influenced by debt in a variety of ways. Paying attention to the effects of debt on this small population may improve training for some physicians and help better target programs that attempt to influence physicians by alleviating debt.
Market-level health maintenance organization activity and physician autonomy and satisfaction AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE Burdi, M. D., Baker, L. C. 1997; 3 (9): 1357-1366
Managed care is widely expected to affect physicians throughout the healthcare system. In this study, we examined the relationship between health maintenance organization (HMO) activity and the level of competition, autonomy, and satisfaction perceived by physicians who do not work for HMOs. We obtained data on physicians from the 1991 Survey of Young Physicians, which contains a nationally representative sample of physicians younger than age 45 who had 2 to 9 years of practice experience in 1991. We examined the relationships between HMO market share and perceived competition, autonomy, and satisfaction using multivariate logistic regression. The main outcome measures were perceived level of competition; several measures of physicians' freedom to undertake common tasks that might be threatened by managed care (e.g., hospitalizing patients, ordering tests and procedures); satisfaction with current practice situation; perceived ability to practice quality medicine; whether the physician would attend medical school again; and satisfaction with medicine as a career. We found that an increase of 10 percentage points in HMO market share was associated with a 28% increase in the probability that physicians will regard their practice situation as very competitive as opposed to somewhat or not competitive (P < 0.01). Examinations of the relationship between HMO market share and autonomy and satisfaction revealed few significant results. We found no evidence that increases in HMO activity adversely affect physician autonomy. Only a limited amount of evidence indicates that increases in HMO activity reduce the satisfaction of specialist physicians, and no evidence associates HMO activity with the satisfaction of generalists. Although physicians perceive HMOs as competitors, HMO activity has not had a strong negative effect on the autonomy and satisfaction of physicians.
View details for Web of Science ID A1997YJ15500008
The effect of HMOs on fee-for-service health care expenditures: Evidence from Medicare JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C. 1997; 16 (4): 453-481
This paper examines the relationship between HMO market share and fee-for-service health care expenditures using 1986-1990 county- and metropolitan statistical area-level data on Medicare expenditures and HMO market share. Fixed-effects estimates imply that fee-for-service expenditures are concave and decreasing in market share. Increases in market share from 20% to 30% are associated with 3-7% expenditure reductions. Instrumental variable estimates that exploit cross-sectional variation in HMO activity also indicate a concave relationship, with expenditures declining in market share for market shares above 15-18%, but imply larger expenditure responses to market share changes.
View details for Web of Science ID A1997XJ67900005
Physician service to the underserved: Implications for affirmative action in medical education INQUIRY-THE JOURNAL OF HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION PROVISION AND FINANCING Cantor, J. C., Miles, E. L., Baker, L. C., Barker, D. C. 1996; 33 (2): 167-180
Affirmative action is under increasing scrutiny. In medicine, the observation that minority physicians disproportionately serve minority patients has been one rationale for affirmative action. Using two large physician surveys, we find that minority and women physicians are much more likely to serve minority, poor, and Medicaid populations. Weaker, but significant association exists between physician and patient socioeconomic background. Service patterns are sustained over time and are generally consistent with physician career preferences. Ending affirmative action in medicine may imperil access to care. Results do not support affirmative action based on economic disadvantage instead of race, ethnicity, and sex.
View details for Web of Science ID A1996UW89300009
HMO penetration and the cost of health care: Market discipline or market segmentation? 108th Annual Meeting of the American-Economic-Association Baker, L. C., Corts, K. S. AMER ECONOMIC ASSOC. 1996: 389–94
Differences in earnings between male and female physicians NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Baker, L. C. 1996; 334 (15): 960-964
Male physicians have long earned more than female physicians, even after differences in the number of hours worked, specialty, practice setting, and other characteristics are taken into account. Whether earnings patterns have changed recently is not known.I examined data on earnings from the 1991 Survey of Young Physicians, a nationwide survey of physicians under 45 years of age with two to nine years of practice experience. The results were compared with data from the 1987 Survey of Young Physicians and with data on the earnings of physicians with 10 or more years of experience from the American Medical Association's 1991 Socioeconomic Monitoring System survey.In 1990, young male physicians earned 41 percent more per year than young female physicians (male:female earnings ratio, 1.41; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.34 to 1.49). Per hour, young men earned 14 percent more than young women (ratio, 1.14; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.09 to 1.20). However, after adjusting for differences in specialty, practice setting, and other characteristics, no earnings difference was evident (ratio, 1.00; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.96 to 1.04). In general practice and family practice, women earned more than men, after adjustment for differences in other characteristics (ratio, 0.87; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.78 to 0.97). In internal-medicine subspecialties and emergency medicine, men earned more than women (ratio, 1.26; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.10 to 1.44). Among physicians with 10 or more years of experience, men also earned more than women (ratio, 1.17; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.07 to 1.27).Young male and female physicians with similar characteristics earn equal amounts of money. However, differences in earnings between men and women remain among older physicians and in some specialties.
View details for Web of Science ID A1996UD59600006
Medical costs in workers' compensation insurance JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS Baker, L. C., Krueger, A. B. 1995; 14 (5): 531-549
We examine whether patients covered by workers' compensation insurance, which covers the cost of medical care for injured workers without cost sharing and with relatively little oversight, are charged more for treatment or receive more services than patients covered by traditional insurance. Our findings indicate that workers compensation recipients are charged more for treatment. This difference persists in individual services--workers' compensation recipients are charged more per X-ray and per examination than our patients. We consider different explanations and argue that price discrimination probably plays a role.
View details for Web of Science ID A1995TX26300002
Tracking the changes in physician practice settings. Archives of family medicine Hughes, R. G., Baker, L. C. 1995; 4 (9): 759-765
To describe the relationships among types of practice settings and physician characteristics and to document changes in these relationships over time.Two national telephone surveys of randomly selected young physicians were conducted in 1987 and 1991. The 1991 survey included reinterviews of 1987 respondents, providing both cohort and repeated cross-sectional data.The 1987 survey included data on 5312 physicians who had between 2 and 6 years of practice experience and were under age 41 years. The 1991 survey included data on 5002 physicians under age 45 years and in practice between 2 and 10 years, including 2151 reinterviews of 1987 respondents.Practice settings were classified as traditional, government, group, or managed, based on ownership, practice type, group size, and managed care contracts.Physician sex, race/ethnicity, specialty, and type of medical school were related to the type of practice setting. Young physicians were less likely to practice in traditional settings in 1991 than in 1987 and were more likely to practice in organized practice settings, especially in managed practices.Between 1987 and 1991, there was a significant shift away from traditional physician practice settings toward organized practice settings.
What makes young HMO physicians satisfied? HMO practice Baker, L. C., Cantor, J. C., Miles, E. L., Sandy, L. G. 1994; 8 (2): 53-57
While much attention has been paid to the effect of managed care on patient outcomes and health care costs, little attention has been focused on the ways in which managed care affects the satisfaction of physicians. Examination of the practice and career satisfaction of 189 young physicians practicing in group and staff model HMOs finds high levels of satisfaction. More than 82% are satisfied with their current practice. The most important factor influencing physician satisfaction appears to be the extent of perceived autonomy. Neither the number of hours worked per week nor yearly income were strongly associated with decreases in satisfaction. The fact that minority and female physicians report less satisfaction with some dimensions of practice raises important issues for HMO physicians and managers.
EXCESS COST OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT VISITS FOR NONURGENT CARE HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Baker, L. S. 1994; 13 (5): 162-171
After examining data for patients with selected conditions and statistically adjusting for patient, diagnosis, and treatment characteristics, this Data Watch finds that charges for emergency department visits were two to three times more than charges for visits in other settings. Large differences persist when conditions are examined individually and when total episode charges are examined. Based on our findings, a rough estimate of nationwide excess charges is $5-$7 billion for 1993.
View details for Web of Science ID A1994QB58700017
PREPAREDNESS FOR PRACTICE - YOUNG PHYSICIANS VIEWS OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL-EDUCATION JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Cantor, J. C., Baker, L. C., Hughes, R. G. 1993; 270 (9): 1035-1040
To describe the views of young physicians (younger than age 45 years) regarding the appropriateness of specific aspects of medical training that have often been criticized as inadequate.Proportional analysis of survey data, stratified by medical school type and graduate medical education specialty and adjusted for demographics.National sample of 4756 allopathic and osteopathic physicians trained in allopathic residencies representing a variety of practice settings. DEPENDENT VARIABLES: Overall satisfaction with medical training, including medical school through residency and fellowship; satisfaction with preparedness for five aspects of practice and six types of patients; and satisfaction with the amount of time spent in each of six training settings.Eighty percent of young physicians reported that their formal medical training did an excellent or good job of preparing them for medical practice. Much smaller proportions (21% to 78%) reported excellent or good preparation to treat specific conditions or types of patients, and few (3%) reported being well prepared to manage business aspects of practice. Large proportions (35% to 63%) would prefer to have received more training in settings outside of hospitals, including managed care settings (67%). Significant differences in preparedness were observed by type of training; those trained in general and family practice reported better preparedness along many dimensions than did those trained in general internal medicine.Young physicians generally confirm critiques of medical training noted by scholars and commissions. Health care reform is likely to increase the urgency for remedial action.
View details for Web of Science ID A1993LU51200002
PHYSICIAN SATISFACTION UNDER MANAGED CARE HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Cantor, J. C. 1993; 12: 258-270
Data from a survey of young physicians have been analyzed to study the relationship between practicing medicine under managed care and the levels of perceived professional autonomy, practice satisfaction, and career satisfaction. Although practicing under managed care is associated with lower levels of perceived autonomy in patient selection and time allocation, it is associated with higher levels of perceived autonomy in use of hospital care, tests, and procedures. Specialists associated with managed care perceive more autonomy than generalists. Analyses of physicians' satisfaction with their practices and careers show that practicing under managed care is not uniformly associated with lower levels of satisfaction. Overall, managed care does not seem to have had the deleterious impact on medical practice that was forecast for it.
View details for Web of Science ID A1993KT25500020
24-HOUR COVERAGE AND WORKERS COMPENSATION INSURANCE HEALTH AFFAIRS Baker, L. C., Krueger, A. B. 1993; 12: 271-281
Workers' compensation insurance provides cash benefits and health care for workers who are injured on the job. This DataWatch considers the costs and benefits of combining the health insurance component of workers' compensation with universal health insurance, creating a twenty-four-hour coverage plan. The paper documents a large potential savings from twenty-four-hour coverage: Workers' compensation medical charges are about twice as high as those for comparable off-work injuries. This disparity seems to result from price discrimination and lack of cost controls in workers' compensation. Twenty-four-hour coverage, however, may be difficult to implement.
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Bitter Cup O Joe ( bittercupojoe) wrote in roleplayers,
Bitter Cup O Joe
bittercupojoe
Submitted for amusement
"Whenever a hack writer wants to demonstrate that a person is a conspiracy nut (or just a nut), he has them mention Elvis being alive. This is an immediate tip-off that the write has no idea what he’s talking about, because those nuts don’t care about Elvis. These same types of writers will similarly try to shorthand “geek” by having the character mention or play Dungeons and Dragons (usually with large plastic models on a gameboard). Again, this reveals the writer’s poor hand, since geeks don’t play Dungeons and Dragons. They pride themselves on not playing it.
Obviously this is an exaggeration and some geeks play Dungeons and Dragons, because if they didn’t, then who is loudly declaiming the adventures of his warrior-thief in the game store right now? But they don’t play without some caveats. For example, no matter how long they’ve been playing or how much of it they’ve seen, they always hate the newest edition, which has always “dumbed down” the game and made it more “roll-play” instead of “role-play”. (Because mere dice are not enough to convey that their dark, haunted character is the most badass half-elf to ever wield dual scimitars.) Whatever the current version of the game is, it’s always a worthless disgrace when compared to either the previous edition (despite the geek initially declaring that edition a travesty) or, more frequently, whatever edition was current when the geek first started playing."
http://stuffgeekslove.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/not-playing-dungeons-and-dragons/
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Rotjoch was founded in 1978 by singer/songwriter Ronald "Rebel" Welgemoed. The band released its first single "Tomorrow" in 1981. It became a small hit in The Netherlands. Later that year they released a second single "Bad Boy" and an album with the same name. The album became a milestone in the powerpop genre. Although the single "Bad Boy" didn't sell many copies it became their most popular song after it was released on the album Powerpearls Volume 5 in 1999. In 1982 they released a third single "Baby Baby Baby" under the name Rebel on the French label VIP-Records. It didn't sell very well either but is now very popular amongst power pop collectors, due to its rarity. A short time later Rotjoch split. Ronald kept on performing as Rebel and released two albums, "You're Already Listening" in 1989 and "The Morning Sun" in 2007. In 2014 Rotjoch made a come back single called “Sexy” with a new line up existing of Ronald, Juan Gieling on guitar, Pim Meester on bassguitar and drummer Bryan Hahury. Bryan was later replaced by William van Veenendaal. They recorded some more songs in the Bandstart Studio that were released on an EP called "Nobody Knows”. Then they decided to record 12 new songs in the Dubcellar Studio with technician Robert Curiel. The songs are now on the album "Here To Stay" that was released in April 2019 by record company Helena Music Records. All the songs are mastered by Kevin Metcalfe, known for his work with Bowie, Queen, The Who and many others. Rotjoch recently released the (down-load only) single "The Only Lonely Boy In Town" which is the third single coming from the album "Here To Stay". The other two were “Stay” and “Night Winds”.
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Published On: Sat, Dec 31st, 2016
Business / Guanajuato State / Headlines / National / Querétaro | By sanmigueltimes
How much exactly will you be paying at the pump on 2017?
Prices for fuel in Mexico will be variable depending on the region
From January 1 to February 3, the national average price of gasoline will be 15.99 pesos per litre of Magna, 17.79 pesos for Premium and 17.05 pesos per diesel, reported the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.
The unit explained in a statement that these maximum prices represent increments of 14.2% for Magna gasoline, 20.1% for Premium and 16.5% for diesel compared to those observed in December 2016.
Maximum prices will differ between the different regions of the country. The difference in costs is due to the distance from each location to the Pemex refineries or the points of importation, as well as to the different types of infrastructure for transportation and fuel distribution. These costs, approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission, vary for each region.
The country will be divided into a total of 90 regions (7 at the border and 83 inland), which correspond to the areas that supply Pemex’s existing storage and distribution infrastructure.
There is no increase in taxes on fuels. These concepts are also common across regions.
In the seven border areas with the United States, the maximum price will be set to limit the difference between the Mexican city and the US city on the other side of the border, through adjustments in the corresponding taxes.
Source: http://www.mexiconewsnetwork.com/
Querétaro among the 10 safest cities in Mexico
Queretaro student awarded prestigious CFDA scholarship in the US
Shipment of dangerous drug fentanyl seized at the Querétaro airport
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Tag archive for ‘covid-19’
By sanmigueltimes On Monday, January 11th, 2021
A 56-year-old man who arrived in Matamoros via Mexico City was confirmed with the new strain of Covid-19. CIUDAD VICTORIA Tamaulipas (Times Media Mexico) – Gloria Molina Gamboa, Secretary of Health More...
By sanmigueltimes On Monday, January 4th, 2021
Americans have been escaping to Mexico to avoid COVID-19 restrictions back home
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have flocked to Mexico to vacation or to settle, according to multiple reports. In November, more than half a million Americans traveled to Mexico, The New York Times More...
By sanmigueltimes On Wednesday, December 9th, 2020
Private and public parties or events strictly forbidden in San Miguel
San Miguel de Allende (December 7, 2020).- Unanimously, the plenary session of the H. City Council approved the prohibition of public or private posada parties, as well as religious events or festivities of any More...
By sanmigueltimes On Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
CDC tells Americans to cancel vacations to Mexico
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called on Americans to cancel any plans to Mexico, as coronavirus cases surge amid an increase in travel bookings. Mexico was placed in More...
By sanmigueltimes On Monday, November 16th, 2020
Bars and stores closed down in SMA due to lack of sanitary measures
San Miguel de Allende.- Civil Protection closed 5 businesses due to lack of sanitary measures on Saturday, November 14th; including two Oxxo convenience stores, and three bars. In a routine tour part of the More...
By sanmigueltimes On Wednesday, September 9th, 2020
QUERÉTARO.- Don Juan is 106 years old and he is now a Covid-19 survivor. Don Juan is a man made from a different wood, he was capable of recovering from such a dangerous disease at the age of 106. Being More...
By sanmigueltimes On Tuesday, July 7th, 2020
These travel destinations require proof of negative COVID-19 test
Travel is Back But Some Restrictions Apply The world is gradually beginning to open back up in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic but many places are requiring visitors, including Americans, to show More...
By sanmigueltimes On Sunday, April 26th, 2020
COVID-19 in Mexico, more lethal than in the US and China (WHO)
The World Heath Organization (WHO), has noted that the global case fatality rate is 6.9 percent; however, 17 countries exceed this average of deaths per 100 infections… Mexico is amongst them. MEXICO CITY More...
Trump says he was being ‘sarcastic’ about injecting COVID-19 patients with disinfectant
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office after signing a $484 billion coronavirus relief package into law, President Trump was asked about the idea of injecting coronavirus patients with a disinfectant, something More...
By sanmigueltimes On Monday, April 6th, 2020
First confirmed coronavirus death in the state of Guanajuato
SALAMANCA, GTO. (APRIL 5, 2020) .- “At least one person has died in Salamanca, Guanajuato as a result of the COVID-19 Coronavirus”, state health secretary Daniel Alberto Díaz Martínez reported last More...
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Curmudgeon has a grand time getting the family van repaired
Even with gasoline over $4 a gallon, I sometimes need a car. This distinguishes me from my teenage Youngest Son and 21-year old Younger Daughter who always need a car.
Monday afternoon, I had a meeting in the western suburbs. Tuesday morning, I had court in Wheaton. After only modest wailing and gnashing of teeth, I successfully negotiated the use of the family van. Youngest Son and Younger Daughter had to double up Monday morning; this deprivation will someday enrich one or both of their therapists.
But it gets worse. The van was running rough Monday afternoon. The engine never died, and it never backfired, but it rocked and rolled at every stoplight; there was even some ominous shaking at cruising speed. Still, I made it home without incident.
The "check engine" light came on when I went to pick Youngest Son up at school.
Regular visitors will know that I am not mechanically inclined. I have changed the oil and even changed the spark plugs on cars, mostly on my parents' cars, though I recently came across a tool for setting the 'gap' on spark plugs in my basement. But I last worked on cars a generation ago. Cars changed.
About the only thing I can analogize this to is the difference between DOS and Windows. I could do things to computers, once upon a time, when DOS was the operating system. I could fix things, troubleshoot, diagnose. I was no expert, but I could even write simple programs in Basic and run them. Windows, in that sense, was inaptly named. It was more like an iron door slamming shut on the amateur.
So it was with cars: Electronic ignition, I believe, is the term that was used when it became literally impossible to change one's own spark plugs. I guess you might still change the oil on most cars, but you can't responsibly dispose of it anywhere, so it has become virtually mandatory to take the car in for almost any issue.
And so, when the check engine light clicked on, I was obliged to go to the dealer.
You'll notice that it was I who was obliged to make this trip, not Long Suffering Spouse. Long Suffering Spouse, you may recall, is a teacher. I am self-employed. That means, whenever something must be done during the business day, I have to do it. No one has to procure a substitute to take my place when these frolics and detours come up. Of course I broached the topic with her anyway; I have a million things to do just now and really could ill afford to be out of the office all day. But my protest was feeble -- only half-hearted.
I figured the van needed whatever the modern equivalent of a tune-up is. The place where I recently bought tires and had the brakes re-done could not provide this service.
Now the dealer that I went to is not the dealer from whom I bought the van. When the American auto industry collapsed, huge numbers of dealers were closed down by the shrinking car companies. The place where I bought the van did not survive the winnowing. I could have walked there. The dealer to whom service issues must be taken is in Skokie. I could walk there, too, I suppose, but it's about 14 miles away. I'm really not in shape for that, and wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase would only complicate the matter further.
Anyway, this 'new' dealer has no particular loyalty to me. I have not bought anything from it except service. It's not that the other dealer would have been any more loyal to me, or protective of my interests, merely that this 'new' dealer has less reason to pretend.
You've heard it said, I'm sure, that dogs can 'smell' fear. There are dogs being trained right now to 'smell' cancer; some research suggests that this will someday soon be an invaluable detection tool.
In general, people are not gifted with nearly so sophisticated an olfactory apparatus as our canine companions. But some rare people can smell automotive ignorance. These persons thrive as automobile service representatives. And it is in this sense, and I hope in no other, that I came into the service area at the dealership reeking like a wagon-load of Limburger early Monday afternoon.
I explained the problem as best I could to the service representative, thereby confirming his initial impression of my ignorance. He had me sign a consent to allow his mechanics to diagnose the trouble and directed me to a waiting room where I could sit on uncomfortable chairs and read old magazines while they figured out how to proceed.
You would probably like to believe that a mechanic thereafter hooked the car up to a diagnostic computer and otherwise investigated the problem. And, though I think that may also have happened, here is what else the dealer might have done:
First they looked up my FICO scores; they checked my Dun & Bradstreet. They looked at detailed credit reports on Equifax -- and maybe Trans Union or Experian besides. They looked up how many children I have, and who's still living at home; they checked the phase of the Moon and whether Sagittarius is rising. Their staff psychologist watched my anxious fidgeting in the waiting room. All this data and more was then considered by an algorithm in a sophisticated computer program -- credit scores here (oh my!), patience level there (oh dear!) -- and two numbers flashed on the screen. The first was the maximum amount the dealership could charge me without my immediately bursting a blood vessel; the second was the number of hours, days or minutes that I would tolerate waiting for the car to be returned.
After an hour and half, the service representative came and told me what it would take to get me back into the family van.
Monday night, after my request to have my wife go to the dealer in my stead was heard and summarily denied, I told her, "You realize that this is going to cost us a thousand dollars?"
"Why?" she asked. "What makes you so sure that you know what's wrong and know how much it will cost to fix it?"
"You know I don't have the faintest idea what's wrong," I whined. "I won't even be able to repeat half of what they eventually tell me is wrong. But it will cost a thousand dollars."
"You're imagining things," she said.
"Fine," I said. "You'll see. They take one look at me and figure the job will cost a thousand dollars."
"You're crazy."
"You'll see."
The good news was that the work was done by late afternoon. (My patience score must have been very low.) From the time I drove in the service entrance until the call came to pick up the car was barely 3½ hours. That includes 1½ hours I spent waiting for them to decide what they would tell me the trouble was.
I'd gotten Youngest Son to pick me up in the meantime. I needed to vamoose after getting the estimate, so I set off walking. Youngest Son, who'd already picked up his sister from summer school, met me en route.
And the other positive note is that the van seems to be running fine now.
But you're wondering -- I hope -- what the job cost.
Well, of course, Long Suffering Spouse was right, as she always is. The repairs did not cost a thousand bucks.
They cost $1,010.
Labels: Family, Personal, Technophobia
Left behind today's headlines -- Curmudgeon reviews the news
NEWS: The world did not end this weekend; atheists amused
Views:You'd think a preacher would know his Scripture better.
The Gospel of Matthew warns (at the end of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, ch. 25:13) that you do not know either the day or the hour of the Master's return. Luke 12:40 says, "You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."
However, there is some good that can come out of this failure -- if Harold Camping's erroneous prophecy reminds us to curb our wretched excesses, to behave better, and to live our lives as if the end may come at any time. Even the atheists, chortling about how silly these True Believers look after having not been assumed bodily into Heaven, should recognize the wisdom of this.
As for Camping's followers, they should go back and review Luke 21:8 and Matthew 24:5. There, Jesus warns that many will come in His name and warn of the end times. But, He says, don't fall for it.
(For the record, I stuck close to Long Suffering Spouse all weekend. If she started levitating, I told her, I was grabbing onto her ankles for dear life.)
NEWS: Gas prices allegedly falling in the United States
Views: Nationally, gasoline prices are supposedly below $4 a gallon, at $3.9074 per gallon. But Chicago continues to lead the nation, averaging $4.38 per gallon for self-serve unleaded gas. It's running around $4.45-4.49 in my neck of the woods; there are lower pump prices in the more distant suburbs.
In other news, oil company executives remain at large.
Does anyone ever listen to those Democratic and Republican broadcasts on the weekend? You can watch Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's address at this link; it was on the radio when I was getting dressed Saturday.
Her statement provides a good example of why I can never belong to either party. Sen. Hutchison makes sense when she says domestic energy production has to be increased to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. She may even have a point when she says that the Obama administration is hostile to increased energy production at home because of arguably overstated environmental concerns. We pay the price at the pump for the Obama administration's ideological purity.
However... the BP oil spill did happen. We can't turn the corporates loose on the land and sea unwatched -- as we seem to have done prior to that oil spill. (Disaster plans to protect walruses in the Gulf of Mexico didn't exactly impress me.) Maybe the Obama administration has overcorrected; maybe more permits for deepwater drilling should be issued.
But Sen. Hutchison did not call for repeal of the billions in tax breaks we give the oil companies. Instead, she warned "the Obama administration is seeking to impose more regulations and taxes on oil and gas companies." Repeal of subsidies would not be a tax increase for the oil companies; it would be an end of unwarranted special treatment. And given the billions in profits that the oil companies are reaping, it seems the very least we should do.
NEWS: President Obama visits "ancestral home" in Moneygall, Ireland
Mr. O'Bama (as he will be called more than once in the next day or two, even in respectable news sources) is a politician from the South Side of Chicago. Of course he has some Irish roots.
LinkedIn IPO finds Curmudgeon left behind
I don't know whether the Rapture will take place tomorrow as promised by Harold Camping, but I was definitely Left Behind by yesterday's LinkedIn IPO.
The fellow on the left is Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn; the fellow on the right is Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn's CEO. Mr. Weiner will presumably now be able to afford a decent shave, because, as I read in today's Chicago Sun-Times (from which the image is also taken), LinkedIn stock debuted yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange at $45 a share, soaring to $122.70 on frantic trading before closing at $94.25.
What is LinkedIn, you ask? Me too.
The linked article says that LinkedIn is a "trailblazer in the online networking craze." I haven't the foggiest notion as to what that might mean.
I've received invitations from people, from time to time, some of whom I actually have met, asking me to join -- or, as the gender neutral, automated email puts it -- "to become part of his or her professional network at LinkedIn." I don't know any of these individuals well enough, however, to ask just exactly what the heck LinkedIn is or is supposed to do.
Welcome to 21st Century America. We make "networks" that "link" people or businesses or sandwiches or coupons. These entities have weird names that trample accepted rules of spelling or punctuation. But, beyond that, exactly how do they innovate? For anything tangible, we still have to buy from the Chinese.
Labels: Social Media and Networking, Technophobia
Prom and the pursuit of "perfection"
One of my wife's colleagues at school has a daughter who is the same age as Youngest Son. She went to Youngest Son's prom this past weekend (and not with Youngest Son).
So my wife and her colleague had something to talk about over lunch yesterday.
"We saw your daughter and her boyfriend at Mass on Sunday," Long Suffering Spouse reported. "They looked pretty tired."
"Well, I'm not surprised. They were at a 'sleepover' at the Abbots' house." She made air quotes as she said "sleepover." (The Abbots are another family in the parish; they also have a son who is shortly to graduate from Youngest Son's high school.)
Long Suffering Spouse and her colleague compared notes: The "sleepovers" attended by the other teacher's daughter and by Youngest Son had about the same numbers of boys and girls. My wife's colleague was not thrilled about the arrangements, though she holds Mr. and Mrs. Abbot in high regard and was confident that they were properly vigilant. "I don't know why the kids were so insistent about turning this into such a big deal," my wife's colleague said. "After all --"
"It's just a dance!" Long Suffering Spouse chimed in simultaneously and they both laughed.
"And they're never satisfied," continued my wife's colleague. "The dress, the limo, the nails, the hair. Something. My daughter was complaining this morning that she hated her hair."
The discussion turned to the prom this Friday night. This one is for the girls' school that the daughter of Long Suffering Spouse's colleague attends. The other teacher reported that some of the her daughter's friends are taking two days off from school, one before and one after, one to prepare and one to accommodate a trip to the Wisconsin Dells after the event. "And they still won't be happy," my wife's colleague concluded.
"The problem," my wife said, "is expectations. No matter how nice things are, nothing can meet their unrealistic expectations. They want it all to be perfect."
"There will always be something to ruin everything!" said my wife's colleague, intentionally lapsing into teen-speak. They both laughed again.
The best times are usually had when least expected. Put another way, it's hard to plan to have a good time. Eventually, we learn that one can make plans for something pleasant, but we can't summon a good time any more than we can command that the skies clear and the sun shine. Meanwhile, until we learn that hard truth, human nature tends to freight all our plans with impossible hopes. The least important flaws -- the pimple that erupts on prom morning, the bangs that won't stay down -- are magnified wholly out of proportion.
Long Suffering Spouse wisely refrained from mentioning that the expectations problem gets even worse when planning a wedding. My wife's colleague's daughter is her oldest child; she'll find this out in her own good time.
Living in New Chicago... Day One
Richard J. Daley was Mayor of the City of Chicago when I was born. Dat's Da Mare, on the left, or, if you must, over by dere. Saying "Da Mare" or "Da Late Mare" can only refer to Chicago's Richard I.
I was at a prayer breakfast with Da Mare in December 1976, shortly before he died. (He died, you may recall, in his doctor's office. He dropped dead, the story goes, moments after being pronounced perfectly fit. Who would tell Himself different?)
But, anyway, as I was sayin', I was at this prayer breakfast with Da Mare -- me and about 2,500 other people -- and, the next thing you knew, he was gone.
But many people also knew, then, that there would be another Daley on the throne soon enough. "Little Richie," as he was then known, was safely installed in the State Senate at the time. While some people thought that Little Richie would be neutralized by the loss of his famous father, others saw the appointment of another Bridgeport native, Michael Bilandic, as more or less a regency.
And then it snowed.
When the Blizzard of 1979 melted, Jane Byrne was mayor and Michael Bilandic had to go over to the Appellate Court (and later the Supreme Court) to support his family. (He'd married late in life.)
Meanwhile, Little Richie settled for becoming State's Attorney.
Jane Byrne let The Blues Brothers be filmed in Chicago and gave us Chicagofest at Navy Pier... which has led to Taste of Chicago, all sorts of other various fests, and the renovation of Navy Pier. Our tourist industry owes a lot to Janie.
But she was... erratic... and she lasted only one term. Little Richie thought it was time for him to take the reins in 1983; that probably would have been the plan had Bilandic been reelected. But Janie didn't go quietly and she and Richie were both defeated in the primary by a Congressman from Chicago's South Side.
I refer to Harold Washington. Harold (he seemed to prefer being called by his first name) did a stretch in jail once for failing to file federal tax returns. His birthday was April 15.
Harold presided over a contentious City Council. The media called it "Council Wars." Chicago was called "Beirut on the Lake" in those days. But Harold did something Michael Bilandic and Jane Byrne couldn't do: He got reelected.
Then he, too, dropped dead.
David Orr -- now Cook County Clerk, but then the Alderman of the 49th Ward -- became acting mayor for six days before giving way to Alderman Eugene Sawyer. In 1989, Sawyer faced the voters -- and Richie Daley -- in the primary. You know the rest. Richard II would rule Chicago for the next 22 years.
Rahm Emanuel was sworn in yesterday as Mayor of the City of Chicago. There's talk, of course, that he's just a creature of the same Machine that spawned the Daleys; that he is indeed the Daleys' instrument; that he will serve only so long as it takes for Nora Daley Conroy, a daughter of Richard II, to be ready to take over the family business. On the other hand, there's also talk that Rahm's a real reformer and people who figured he was kidding will be pleasantly... or quite unpleasantly... surprised. Some believe Rahm knows the ways of power so well that he can root out entrenched, systemic corruption and install an efficient, cost-effective municipal government.
I am no prophet. I know that there's been a Daley on the fifth floor at City Hall for over three quarters of my life. If there really is another Daley waiting in the wings, he or she has not been publicly groomed for the office. So I think the day of the Daleys may be done here.
I know the City is in a bad way financially. All local governments have been hurting in this interminable recession, but Chicago is hurting more than most. I don't know why any honest person would want to be mayor at this time. Still, if Rahm's really on the level, I wish him only the best.
But, even though I'm from Chicago, not from Missouri, he's still going to have to show me.
Labels: Neighborhood
Promming around in the Curmudgeon family
There are things I will miss when Youngest Son (our youngest of all) graduates from high school in a couple of weeks. I'm going to miss those glorious Fall Friday nights, under the lights, when football was the most important thing in the universe. Of course, this being Chicago, we were only good for one such night a season, on average. The rest would be too hot, too cold, raining or snowing.
I'll miss the occasional instance where I can be helpful with homework, suggesting an essay topic, remembering some historical event. I remember I was even the first resource for computer questions, once upon a time. Even Oldest Son used to ask me computer questions -- until about his sophomore year in college, when he picked computer engineering as a major. Now I ask him questions.
But I won't miss proms. This is not a new opinion. I quote from my essay of March 7, 2008:
My kids have all attended Catholic high schools. Single gender Catholic high schools. Even so, they have not been entirely sheltered from the excesses of modern culture. (I have, on occasion, listened to the CD's Younger Daughter has made for the car that she forgets to remove on those rare days when I actually get to drive the vehicle.) My consolation is that my children may have been more sheltered from the common culture than would have been true had they attended a co-ed public high school.
Bad as the "dance" may be, it is the before and after prom activities that really turn prom into a festival of wretched excess. Somewhere, in a more innocent time, someone suggested that the gang all get together the day after the dance for a picnic.
Now, many parents book hotel rooms for their little darlings to do whatever they please after the prom. (No, we won't.) Limos -- or even buses -- are hired so the kids can drink without fear of a DUI arrest. The kids don't go home and then rendezvous the next day for the picnic -- they crash at the hotel and go out for breakfast. Maybe they make it home for dinner the following night.
Fortunately, my two older sons had baseball games on the day after their senior proms. I'm not even certain that Oldest Son went at all. Younger Daughter insists that we let Middle Son stay out all night after another prom that he attended -- and under the inflexible principles of stare decisis we must now agree, supposedly, to let Younger Daughter stay out all night also.
Older Daughter went to her prom. On a blind date. With some peculiar-looking boy whose first name was that of a cartoon character. I never learned his last name, or whether he in fact had one. Long Suffering Spouse thinks I was dispatched to pick them up from a post-prom restaurant after the promised limo failed to arrive. If this is true, I have suppressed the event entirely.
Somehow we got through Younger Daughter's many proms. In the peculiar etiquette of Chicago Catholic high schools, a boy will ask a girl to his prom; she will then invite him to hers. Middle Son and Younger Daughter had too many admirers to adhere to that rule. Older Daughter and Oldest Son had no one special to ask. Only Youngest Son is playing this hand according to Hoyle.
His prom was Saturday; hers is this coming Friday.
The hotel room idea was floated again this year -- hey, the argument goes, the dance is at the hotel anyway; we'll just get a room there. The notion was just as quickly vetoed this year as in prior years. I am ready to be a grandparent; I just want my grandchild to be born to one of my married children.
"It's a big group!" Youngest Son protested. "What can happen?"
"An orgy," I thought to myself. I used to have HBO. But all I said aloud was, "No."
This year I didn't even have a baseball practice early in the morning to rescue me from hard decisions. (If Middle Son did stay out all night for one of his proms, it was with baseball teammates because he had practice early the next morning. If anyone else was involved, I didn't know about it.)
Youngest Son was busy for a couple of weeks before his prom with plans and counter-plans and trial balloons. We shot every trial balloon down. "Are you just going to say 'no' to everything?" he asked at one point. "If you are, tell me."
Long Suffering Spouse and I insisted we would approve reasonable plans.
In the event, I'm not sure that we did.
Not knowing for certain that baseball practice would be cancelled on Sunday until Saturday afternoon, but knowing that three of the five boys in Youngest Son's group are on the baseball team, and after having Middle Son's precedent cited for the 1000th time, we somewhere along the way agreed in theory to the boys staying at someone's house overnight after the dance.
Our house was proposed as the venue, and we were prepared to agree, until we started asking questions about how the girls would get home.
I'm not certain that Youngest Son was in the vanguard of the stay out all night brigade. The real mover and shaker behind the let's-rent-a-hotel-suite movement was the girlfriend of one of Youngest Son's teammates. We'll call her Tess (because, of course, that is not her name). Tess and her boyfriend (let's call him Tim) have been going out for four years. In high school years, this is the equivalent of reaching one's Golden Anniversary, although without the arthritis.
Youngest Son explained, at one point, that even Tim was not that committed to Tess's hotel idea, but he more or less had to go along. "Why?" I asked. "Well, she is pretty good-looking," said Youngest Son, as if that explained everything. And, I guess, to an over-hormoned 18-year old, maybe it did.
Eventually, Tim's mother supplied a solution: Youngest Son said the boys would sleep over at her house.
Fast forward now to Saturday afternoon. Youngest Son returned home after shivering through a doubleheader (the temperature probably never got above 50 Saturday and it was windy and damp). He was excited to advise that there'd be no practice Sunday. "So now we can go to Brian's house in Wisconsin Sunday," suggested Youngest Son. Brian's summer home was one of the Saturday night destinations we'd previously vetoed. Even with no alcohol involved, driving in the wee small hours of the morning, across state lines, sounded to me like a recipe for disaster.
"We'd have to return the suits Sunday anyway," said Youngest Son. "So we'd go up after that."
"What's so great about Brian's place?"
"Fishing."
"Oh, come on now. Fishing?"
"Yeah. The house is on a lake."
"Don't you have school Monday?"
"Didn't I tell you?"
"Do you ever?"
"Oh. Well, school's cancelled for the seniors Monday. It's tradition. We'll have a game, but that won't be until later." He disappeared upstairs to shower and shave and don his tux.
Long Suffering Spouse and I discussed the matter while he was preparing. After some hand-wringing, we agreed, between ourselves, that we would approve this trip, under the stated circumstances.
We might have told Youngest Son this, too, only he came flying down the stairs just as Younger Daughter came bursting through the front door. She'd been working, but she hurried home because she didn't want to miss the picture-taking. A big sister has an important role to play in embarrassing her brother by taking all sorts of pictures on prom night.
Somewhere, in finding out that the pictures would be taken at Donny's house, and finding out where Donny's house was, we never did actually tell Youngest Son that he could go on the trip Sunday. Somehow he had managed, despite the chaos, to lighten my wallet, however.
Some of you will recall the recent Royal Wedding in England. The pageantry, the paparazzi, the horse-drawn phaeton between the church and the country club or wherever it was that they held the reception for Balding Billy and Bonnie Kate.
Well, except for the horses (usually), the picture-taking on prom night is much like this. Youngest Son led the way and Long Suffering Spouse, Younger Daughter and I followed behind in the family van. Long Suffering Spouse and Younger Daughter were both brandishing cameras.
Donny's house was a showplace. It didn't look that large from the street, but there was an enormous front hall inside, complete with a formal staircase on which all five couples could pose. There was a kitchen and great room beyond. In the kitchen was an enormous spread of sandwiches and chicken wings. "I got the chicken wings just for you," Donny's mom told Youngest Son as he dived into the spread with gusto. He certainly seemed at home there. Of course, Youngest Son spends far more time at his friends' houses these days than he does at our house -- at least time awake.
I was a little apprehensive about barbecue sauce staining the pink vest or tie (yes, his otherwise traditional black tux had pink accoutrements to match his date's gown) but Youngest Son had no difficulties. In this, at least, I have to hand it to the boy: If you can stay looking sharp and eat chicken wings, you've really got poise.
There were pictures in the great room. There were pictures of the boys. There were pictures of the girls. There were pictures of the girls pinning boutonnieres on the boys' lapels. There were pictures of each couple. Then there were pictures in the front hall, especially on the stairway. Tess seemed to be directing several of the photographers. I was trying to blend into any corner that would contain me.
Eventually, though, it looked like there might soon be an opportunity to escape this madness. So I grabbed Youngest Son and Long Suffering Spouse and I dragged him to a corner of the kitchen for final instructions. His date and her parents tagged along.
There was the usual: You can call for a ride if you need it. If you need to come home, at any point, the door will be unlocked. No booze. Text me when you get downtown.
"OK," I said, moving from the general to the specific, "you're staying at Tim's tonight, right?" The boy nodded. "Fine. Now, how is your date getting home?"
The boy's eyes widened. His date looked at her parents in confusion. "I'm coming home?"
Here is where I found out that Tim's parents had agreed to take in both the boys and the girls. Apparently, Tess insisted.
I have learned, finally, not to impose myself into others' parenting arrangements. I mean, what could I say? "Yes, you're going home, young lady. What would your parents think?" Not when her parents were standing right there clearly thinking that their daughter was staying the night at Tim's.
A few more questions revealed that the "fishing" trip Sunday would likewise be co-ed. Not all of the girls could stay Sunday night; the mother of my son's date was planning to pick up those who were coming home that night. I'll bet any sum you care to wager that Tess stayed up in Wisconsin last night.
Sometimes I think I must be hopelessly old-fashioned. Sometimes, like Saturday, I prove it.
The past intrudes on the present
Her husband and her sons loved her longer and they loved her more. They will bury her this weekend.
We were very young when I knew her. She was just starting college and I was finishing up, but we were only a few months distant in age. (I'd been double promoted early in my school days, and I was finishing college in three years.) She was beautiful. Short blond hair. Petite. Whip smart. I was 19 -- and I was smitten.
It had taken me nearly all 19 of those years to find the courage to talk to girls. I was a bit backward, I know, especially during the 1970s when the Sexual Revolution was supposedly in full flower. But I found the courage to talk to her. She thought I was funny. Sometimes I was trying to be.
We were a couple most of my senior year and into the summer after. I almost died driving home on the Tollway one night from her home. (I was living with my folks during the summer, a good 50 miles away.) I must have dozed behind the wheel. As I remember it, though, it was the guardrail that jumped in front of the car and tried to surround me.
I would have married her. I was ready (at least I thought I was).
She was not.
And, of course, she was right not to be rushed. She was just starting college; she had ambitions to become a doctor. Marriage -- even a really serious relationship -- would have been an impediment to those ambitions, perhaps an insurmountable one. She was right -- but it didn't stop me from trying to drown myself in alcohol during my entire first year of law school. I darn near succeeded a couple of times.
But, eventually, I moved on. I finished law school. I met Long Suffering Spouse.
A few years after we broke up, she was ready to settle down too. She married a doctor. She didn't get into medical school, but she became a dentist. We didn't see each other. In fact, I think the first time I saw her in 20 years was also the last time -- a few years back, at a party given by mutual friends on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary.
She was still beautiful. We had a nice chat. Long Suffering Spouse knew her husband from undergrad. They chatted with us. I bragged on my kids. She bragged on hers. We didn't pretend we were going to stay in touch. There was no reason to stay in touch.
Then, yesterday morning, I saw a posting on Facebook: My friend -- the one who'd had that 25th anniversary party -- wrote, "I really, really hate cancer."
This friend (Peg, we'll call her, because I'm afraid of getting lost among all the pronouns) is very social. Though her post had only been up a few hours there were all sorts of comments -- a lot of inquiries, mostly. And Peg answered that she and her husband were about to fly to Chicago (they live out East these days) to bury "a dear friend from college."
I thought about asking who died. I know a lot of Peg's college friends. And then I thought, I probably don't want to know. I signed off and went to work.
My friend Steve called mid-day. I've mentioned Steve before, but I may not have previously mentioned his daily habit of reading the obituaries. He did this on a daily basis even before he retired. Steve and I had other things to talk about. His son just graduated from college and Steve wanted to tell me about that. But then he told me what he'd read in the obituaries. And then I found out I definitely didn't want to know.
Peg's filled me in on the details since. It sounds like she had a horrible ordeal.
I'm so sorry for her husband and her children. But I'm feeling a little sorry for myself, too. I know that makes me sound selfish. Does that also make me sound unfaithful to my wife and family? I hope not. It's just -- well, she was very special to me... a long time ago. I moved on. She moved on. I think she did OK for herself. I know I've been fortunate. But we all hold memories locked away. Today some of my memories have been unlocked.
Grannies launch crime wave -- haven't we seen this somewhere before?
Oh, yes, now I remember... Monty Python had this bit somewhere around 40 years ago... but then it was ridiculous... absurd... even silly....
Is this really progress?
Labels: Decline and Fall of Western Civilization, Just for giggles
Tearing up today's headlines -- Curmudgeon reviews the news
NEWS: Northwestern cancels human sexuality class for the fall term.
Views: Now rich suburban kids will never learn all the deviant sex acts they could have performed with only minor modifications to power tools commonly found in their parents' homes.
NEWS: Illinois congressman does beefcake photo shoot for Men's Health magazine
Views: Peoria Republican Aaron Schock obviously thinks that posing shirtless for a magazine is a better career move than posing shirtless for Craigslist.
Or has Chris Lee already been forgotten?
I think that legislation is urgently needed to stem this tide of shirtless Republicans.
NEWS: Crude oil prices rise -- gasoline prices rise also. Crude oil prices fall -- gasoline prices rise anyway
Views: Instead of running around shirtless, perhaps our legislators could look into this? Gasoline in my neighborhood has been retailing at $4.65 a gallon for several days now.
NEWS: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announces presidential bid
Views: Barack Obama still running for reelection unopposed.
NEWS: Oprah's final show coming May 25.
Views: The world may not make it all the way to December 2012.
Curmudgeon notes how wedding showers have changed
Long Suffering Spouse and I went to a wedding shower Saturday evening; the groom is the son of friends we've known since college.
It's a typical May in the Curmudgeon household: We didn't know we'd be able to go until the last minute; our niece's Communion, originally scheduled for the 7th, was mysteriously moved to the 21st at the last moment. Embracing the new plan, however, we printed out the greed lists Saturday afternoon before deciding which store we'd hit to buy a present.
I've called wedding registries "greed lists" since before I was a blushing bridegroom, but these have certainly changed.
Computers, and the ability to get the lists at home instead of only in the store, are part of it, but only part. The real change seems to be what's included.
We decided which store to hit and went over there forthwith. We found a set of casserole dishes that was on the list right away, but I wanted to add a little something else to the gift bag. "How about a corkscrew?" I suggested.
"They have one on their list, but that's not the right model number," Long Suffering Spouse responded, and looked again at the sheaf of papers in her hand. "And, besides, it's been 'fulfilled.'"
"Fulfilled?"
"They got it already."
"Oh." I looked around a little more. "Here's something no married couple should be without -- a rolling pin."
"It's not maple."
"Maple?" I asked.
"Yes," Long Suffering Spouse answered, consulting the list, "and it's not the right brand."
Now I can see that one can not have guests picking out china or flatware randomly. The bride and the groom have to select a pattern that they like. I can even understand that the bride and groom would be less than thrilled with appliances in assorted colors. But does a balloon whisk really have to be made by Kitchen Wiz? Does it really matter that the egg slicer be stock no. 23541 -- even when it bears an uncanny resemblance to the egg slicer listed as stock no. 23542?
Computers have made it too easy to list all sorts of nitpicky things. The happy couple might not really care if the Acme brand rubber spatula is substituted for the Uberkitchen brand. But who wants to take the risk?
The reason young men put up with wedding showers in the first place is that these are heaven-sent opportunities to acquire a lot of the "stuff" that the youngsters took for granted in their parents' homes. When a kid takes a shower at home, there's a towel. When a kid goes to sleep at night (even twenty-somethings sleep eventually) there are sheets on the bed. When someone needs a dish to put the leftovers in, there's one in the cabinet.
Though wedding showers are heaven-sent opportunities for the kids, the groom often has to go through the Other Place to achieve it. My wife's family had a "traditional" wedding shower when I was the groom. This was the cucumber sandwich, women-only, lots-of-ribbons-and-don't-you-dare-cut-one sort. The groom is trundled out at the end of these proceedings, ostensibly to rescue his bride from the hen party, but really to be inspected and patted and judged by the assembled womenfolk, some of whom are seeing him for the first time. Older female relatives pinch cheeks.
Long Suffering Spouse didn't much care for these types of gatherings either. When Older Daughter and Oldest Son married, we sponsored 'couples' showers. There was pizza and wine and beer and not a crustless bread triangle with an orange, gooey filling in sight. Our college friends chose to have a couples shower for their son, too, which was why I was along for the ride Saturday.
There wasn't any pizza Saturday -- this close to Cinco de Mayo, there was plenty of Corona and a pretty tasty buffet from a local Mexican restaurant. The party was in our hosts' backyard -- it being May, most people would not worry about frostbite. Life-long Chicagoans know better, however, and our hosts had thoughtfully procured a large tent and heaters. Long Suffering Spouse and I gravitated to the heaters forthwith.
The gift table was in our corner of the tent, too, and we were making book at our table about whether any of the tissue paper in the gift bags in front of the blowers might catch fire before the gifts could be opened (fortunately, this did not happen).
The gifts were in bags from Macy's and Target and Crate and Barrel -- all the places where the happy couple had established greed lists -- and it looks like they did very well indeed.
But not all of their requests were "fulfilled." And it's no wonder: At least, I can't imagine anyone buying a Playstation 3 as a shower or wedding gift -- and, yet, there it was on one of the greed lists. These kinds of devices certainly weren't on greed lists when I got married. (And not just because these kinds of devices hadn't been invented. I mean... there were TVs when I got married, but I don't remember anyone ever putting a TV on a wedding registry.)
I've been mulling this over all weekend now. Clearly, a Playstation 3 is not something essential to setting up housekeeping. But, then, neither are 12 place-settings of fine china. Yet, china would have been a perfectly acceptable gift.
Obviously, one or both of the happy couple enjoys games on Playstation. But whatever machine they have access to now must belong to someone else -- a parent, a roommate, a sibling. It would probably be used more than the fancy china.
So... having initially decided it was ridiculous and inappropriate, I now find myself torn. Is it appropriate for the bride and groom to request a Playstation 3 (or Wii or Xbox or whatever) or not? Readers, what say ye?
Labels: Family Weddings, Unscientific Survey
Osama dead -- but his death raises troubling questions
It is a cliche in Western movies. Someone, the grizzled old prospector perhaps, or the comely schoolmarm, must absolve the hero for shooting the bad guy down like a dog.
"If ever a man needed killin', that one did," the character would intone, and, as the end credits roll, the hero would begin to come to grips with the idea that, if what he'd done was evil, it was a necessary one.
"If ever a man needed killin', that one did" is as fitting an epitaph as any for Osama bin Laden. But I think President Obama overstated the case last night when he said that "justice" has been done.
As a lawyer, I can never agree that "justice" can be done with helicopters and Navy SEALs and firefights. But I'm not unhappy that bin Laden is dead.
Osama bin Laden -- architect of, or at least the inspiration for, 9/11 -- and one-time friend and ally of the United States -- is dead.
Or had you forgotten about bin Laden's past as our pal? Remember how the Soviets invaded Afghanistan? The United States couldn't do much about it at the time. Jimmy Carter forbade the U.S. Olympics Team from going to the Moscow Games in 1980. And we also backed "freedom fighters," like young Osama, who swarmed into Afghanistan via Peshawar, Pakistan to make jihad on those godless communists.
We Americans are too friendly. We want everyone to like us, even young Osama. But he didn't really like us; he just liked our money and weapons. First chance he got, he turned on us. When his native Saudi Arabia allowed American troops to assemble in that country in preparation for the liberation of Kuwait, the die was cast. The first bombing of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Cole, the bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Al Qaeda, 9/11 all followed thereafter.
The circumstances of the weekend raid on Osama's secret fortress could make a thrilling adventure movie (though it probably will never be made because it is unlikely to do well overseas) but the raid itself carries serious implications for America's future.
Osama's secret hideaway was not in some remote mountain cave, either in Afghanistan or Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) or Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It was, we learn, only about 60 miles away from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, in
Abbottabad, a city of about 500,000, in a large and highly secured compound that, a resident of the city said, sits virtually adjacent to the grounds of a military academy. In an ironic twist, the academy was visited just last month by the Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, where he proclaimed that Pakistan had “cracked” the forces of terrorism, an assessment that was greeted with skepticism in Washington.
In addition, the city hosts numerous Pakistani forces — three different regiments, and a unit of the Army Medical Corps. According to some reports, the compound and its elaborate walls and security gates may have been built specifically for the Qaeda leader in 2005, hardly an obscure undertaking in a part of the city that the resident described as highly secure.
Jane Perlez's article in the New York Times, from which the preceding snippet is taken, adds that it is "too soon to say whether Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad reflected Pakistani complicity or incompetence."
NPR posts an AP article this morning in which Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, insists that the country's authorities were not aware of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad:
"Had we known it we would have done it ourselves," Hasan told the BBC. "The fact is that the Americans knew it and they carried out the operation themselves and they killed Osama bin Laden and then later our president of Pakistan was informed that the operation was successful, and that's it."
The United States launched a military operation on the sovereign territory of a nation which is a supposed friend and ally of the United States without prior permission?
Another AP article, by Kimberly Dozier and David Espo, posted this morning on Yahoo! News, stresses that, in his statement last night, President Obama said that "it was 'important to note that our counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.'" But, here again, Dozier and Espo note that President Obama called Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari after the raid.
This is troubling on at least two levels. First, friends don't invade friends. Sending military units into another country without the permission of that country's government is called an invasion. Maybe even a sneak attack.
Second, and also obviously, we must not think Pakistan is much of a friend. Clearly we didn't seek Pakistan's permission for the raid because we must have believed that someone high up in the Pakistani government would have warned Osama. Our dear friend would have told our most hated enemy that the heat was on.
On that level, it doesn't matter whether Pakistan was protecting Osama as a specific government policy or whether the Pakistani government is so impotent that it can't ferret out people high up in government circles who were shielding Osama: If we asked for permission, Osama would not have been there when we arrived.
Of course, on another level, it matters a lot whether the Pakistani government is duplicitous or merely weak: They have nuclear weapons.
I tried to explain all this to Youngest Son this morning. He's 18. There's a reason why every nation taps its 18-year olds to fight its wars: Everything is so black and white.
Youngest Son had no doubts about Osama's demise whatsoever. After I explained, he said, "What are you? Afraid that Al Qaeda will retaliate?"
"No," I said, sadly. "Although that will happen anyway." Our enemies will not be deterred by Osama's death, even if a few of the more self-aware ones will look over their shoulders nervously just a bit more today than yesterday. But what about everyone else?
Curmudgeon has a grand time getting the family van...
Left behind today's headlines -- Curmudgeon review...
Grannies launch crime wave -- haven't we seen this...
Tearing up today's headlines -- Curmudgeon reviews...
Osama dead -- but his death raises troubling quest...
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DIRECTV drops Sonic Tap, adds Music Choice
Thread: DIRECTV drops Sonic Tap, adds Music Choice
Joined: Oct 2017 Location: Glendale Posts: 9,017
In 2005, DIRECTV began carrying 72 XM music channels, starting at DIRECTV channel 801. In 2010, DIRECTV switched to DMX's Sonic Tap music channels. In July 2015, AT&T completed its $48.5 billion purchase of DIRECTV so it is not surprising that on February 6, 2018, when the agreement with Sonic Tap expired, DIRECTV began carrying the Music Choice channels that are part of AT&T's U-verse television service.
So how do the Music Choice channels compare with those of Sonic Tap? I'm glad I asked. To start with, Music Choice has fewer channels. The 1960s and 1970s channels don't play as many low-charting songs as Sonic Tap's '60s-70s channels. Sonic Tap's Malt Shop Oldies channel plays the usual 1954-to-1964 hits along with a lot of low-charting and non-charting songs and a few hits from 1966-67. Malt Shop Favorites, the Music Choice equivalent, is perhaps the only channel that is as good as its Sonic Tap counterpart. They play 1954 to 1969, a lot of low-charting songs and even some album tracks. Here is what was just played:
Come Rain Or Come Shine - Ray Charles (83/1960)
Dizzy - Tommy Roe (1/1969)
Feel So Fine - Johnny Preston (14/1960)
Get Out Of My Life Woman - Lee Dorsey (44/1966)
I Need Your Loving - Don Gardner/Dee Dee Ford (20/1962)
Long Live Our Love - Shangri-Las (33/1966)
See You Later Alligator - Bill Haley/Comets (6/1956)
Sexy Ways - Hank Ballard/Midnighters (--/1954)
Someone I Believe In - Brook Benton (LP/1960)
That's Why - Jackie Wilson (13/1959
The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Tokens (1/1961)
Tom Dooley - Kingston Trio (1/1958)
Walking Along - Diamonds (29/1958)
With This Ring - Platters (14/1967)
Ya Ya - Lee Dorsey (7/1961)
You've Been A Good Old Wagon - Dinah Washington (LP/1963)
Sonic Tap's Traditional Country channel plays country hits of the 1950s through the '80s, mostly top-ten songs. Music Choice's Classic Country channel emphasizes the biggest hits of the late 1970s and the 1980s. In other words, don't expect to hear much by Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Buck Owens, Bill Anderson, Sonny James, Don Gibson, Loretta Lynn, Freddie Hart, Ray Price or Porter Wagoner. Here is a nine-song sample -- and seven of these were number-one hits. Wooo!
A Country Boy Can Survive - Hank Williams Jr (2/1982)
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind - George Strait (1/1984)
Elvira - Oak Ridge Boys (1/1981)
I Wanna Dance With You - Eddie Rabbitt (1/1988)
I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool - Mandrell/Jones (1/1981)
I've Got A Winner In You - Don Williams (7/1978)
Modern Day Romance - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1/1985)
Straight Tequila Night - John Anderson (1/1991)
What I'd Say - Earl Thomas Conley (1/1988)
Music Choice has no adult standards channel like Sonic Tap's Rat Pack channel. Instead, they have Swing & Singers, which plays swing and big-band hits of the 1930s-40s-50s along with swing-style music by more recent bands. The dance channels aren't bad. Music Choice also has an Americana channel and a channel called Toddler Tunes. (Don't ask.)
So.....I would love to hear what other people think of Music Choice compared with Sonic Tap -- or compared with SiriusXM.
Joined: Nov 2017 Location: San Fernando Posts: 257
I have DirecTV and I just checked the music channels and most of them do not even have a name. It just says '70s, '80s, '90s, Folk, Bluegrass, Classic Rock, Gospel, etc. There is a Y2K channel like the Sirius Pop2K channel. It is pretty good and there is also a New Wave channel which is good. But there are not as many channels as Sonic Tap had.
Music Choice has a Honky Tonk channel (DIRECTV 811) which is pretty good. Here is a small sample:
Amarillo By Morning - George Strait (4/1983)
Drink In My Hand - Eric Church (1/2011)
Eight Second Ride - Jake Owen (11/2009)
Here's A Quarter - Travis Tritt (2/1991)
For Lovin' Me - Waylon Jennings (9/1966)
Here For A Good Time - George Strait (2/2011)
Hillbilly Deluxe - Brooks & Dunn (16/2006)
If I Could Make A Living - Clay Walker (1/1994)
Lovesick Blues - Hank Williams (1/1949)
Neon Light - Blake Shelton (3/2014)
Neon Moon - Brooks & Dunn (1/1992)
Okie From Muskogee - Merle Haggard (1/1969)
Pirate Flag - Kenny Chesney (7/2013)
Walking The Floor Over You - Ernest Tubb (1/1941)
Where I Come From - Alan Jackson (1/2000)
The Music Choice channels are bizarre. Some of them, especially the '60s channel and Classic Country, seem to have only 300 songs and they're played in the same order every day. There is a full-time Christmas music channel, All Xmas (DIRECTV 858). And the folk music channel just played A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash and Are The Good Times Really Over by Merle Haggard!
I complain frequently that SiriusXM has no 1950s-60s MOR hits channel. There are around 500 channels playing Billy Joel, Bob Seger, Eagles and Fleetwood Mac but no channel where we can hear hits by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Teresa Brewer, Percy Faith, Nat "King" Cole, the Four Lads, the Four Aces, the McGuire Sisters, et al. The closest we have is Siriusly Sinatra, which doesn't play very many songs that were hits but instead plays 50 different versions of Autumn Leaves, 50 different versions of Blue Skies, 50 different versions of Night & Day, 50 different versions of But Not For Me, 50 different versions of My Foolish Heart.......
Here is a small sample of the Music Choice "Singers & Swing" channel, which makes Siriusly Sinatra sound really good by comparison. The only surprise: Paul McCartney's version of It's Only A Paper Moon from his 2012 CD Kisses On The Bottom.
Music Choice Singers & Swing
DIRECTV Channel 807
A New Pair Of Shoes - Jimmy Palmer (LP/1961)
Ain't Love - Steve Lawrence/Eydie Gormé (B/1963)
Alice Blue Gown - Les Elgart (LP/1954)
Almost Like Being In Love - Natalie Cole (LP/1991)
Day Dream - Marlene Ver Planck (LP/2002)
Easy To Love - Maxine Sullivan (B/1937)
Flying Home - Lionel Hampton (--/1942)
Give A Little Whistle - June Christy (LP/1960)
Fun To Be Fooled - Anita Ellis (LP/1960)
Help A Good Girl Go Bad - Gail Pettis (LP/2007)
How Deep Is The Ocean - Tony Desare (LP/2007)
It's You Or No One - Bobby Darin (UR/1960, LP/1963)
Katherine The Great - Count Basie Orchestra (LP/1989)
Moonlight Serenade - Jan Savitt/Carlotta Dale (--/1939)
My Old Flame - Billie Holiday (--/1944)
Night & Day - John Pagano (LP/2008)
Nothing Ever Changes My Love - Marlene Ver Planck (LP/2005)
Riled Up - Gene Harris All Star Big Band (LP/1988)
The Gypsy - Frank Sinatra (LP/1962)
The Lamplighter - Lionel Hampton (--/1944)
The Very Thought Of You - Dick Haymes (LP/1955)
Undecided - Harry James (--/1944)
Ad Fairy Senior Member
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Transport, Airlines
Why Norwegian Air’s Argentinian Move Makes Sense
Patrick Whyte, Skift
- Feb 01, 2017 6:00 am
With so many new aircraft coming onboard, Norwegian was always going to have to cast its eyes further afield for new destinations. Air fares between Europe and South America tend to be on the pricey side, so Argentina is a sensible place to start shaking things up.
— Patrick Whyte
Having already taken on legacy carriers with its cheap flights between Europe and the U.S., Norwegian Air has now set its sights on a less well served market.
After a number of heavy hints in recent months, the airline has finally confirmed the establishment of a new operation in Argentina.
No details or routes have been revealed yet, but given the company’s determination to keep its airlines in the air for 18 hours a day, you would expect a mixture of long and short haul flights.
Currently Norwegian offers flights to several destinations in Mexico but only through charter arrangements with U.S. tour operators Funjet Vacations and Apple Vacations.
“As an ambitious airline with a huge aircraft order, we have made no secret of our plans to expand our operation to other parts of the world, including the South American market which is characterised by little competition and high prices,” a Norwegian spokesperson said.
“As part of this we can confirm that a new company, Norwegian Air Argentina, has been established to allow us to explore opportunities to enter the Argentinean market, though this is at a very early stage and no routes are confirmed at present.”
If Argentina proves a hit, expect other countries in the region to follow.
Room for growth
South America has long been tipped as a potential growth spot for aviation.
If you include the Caribbean and Central America, the region has been described as the most urbanized region in the world with 80 percent of its population living in cities.
The long-haul market is dominated by legacy carriers located in Western European countries with Iberia, Air France and TAP Portugal occupying the top three positions.
And although British Airways is languishing down in ninth position, it has expanded its offering in recent years, starting flights from London to both Lima and Santiago.
Bookings (Adjusted)
Iberia 1,766,227
Air France 1,681,390
TAP Portugal 1,624,151
KLM 1,215,463
Air Europa 1,058,919
Period covered: 12/15-11/16; Source: OAG
When it does enter the market Norwegian will be looking to undercut its new rivals.
Direct fares from Europe to the likes of Santiago, Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo, tend to be expensive. So unlike on some of Norwegian’s northern transatlantic routes, you’d expect to see a significant difference in pricing between the airline and its competitors.
“This is a natural expansion opportunity for the airline in a market where the potential for growth is quite significant in the coming years,” said John Grant, a senior analyst at OAG.
If Norwegian is to achieve its desired level of aircraft utilization, it would need to operate shorter flights in South America as well, something that would also help to shake-up the market.
Unlike say, Europe, the impact of low-cost carriers has been minimal. Journeys are much more expensive and much less frequent, meaning that bus travel is extremely popular. This could be about to change with new entrants in Peru, Argentina and Colombia offering up cheap flights.
Data collected by OAG also shows solid growth over the last six years. Across the peak summer period, the number of seats has grown by 40 percent to 89.7 million. Frequency has lagged slightly, increasing by 21 percent over the period.
Year (summer)
2012 717,074 64,037,927
Source: OAG
When Norwegian does start to offer flights to Argentina, it almost certainly won’t be the only low-cost airline doing so.
Just before Christmas, International Airlines Group announced it planned to setup a new low-cost, long-haul operation in June 2017, based out of Barcelona, Spain.
The group will use exiting low-cost airline Vueling to funnel passengers in from all over Europe before sending them off to destinations further afield.
Of the destinations under consideration, two of them – Santiago and Buenos Aires – are in mainland South America.
Now that Norwegian has proven that the low-cost long-haul model can work, the airline is going to have to deal with others trying to copy its model.
Grant added: “What with IAG via Vueling also reportedly about to announce services then Europe – South America capacity and subsequent demand may be about to enjoy a few years of strong growth as a mix of first time visitors and increased frequency of travel in the VFR market respond to the low cost opportunities.”
Another reason that Argentina and Southh America makes sense for Norwegian is that it has a large number of aircraft arriving in its fleet over the coming years.
By the end of the decade it will have a total of 42 Boeing 787 Dreamliners with South America being the likely home for at least some of them.
“They’ve got a large number of aircraft coming on order and almost all their eggs are in the North Atlantic basket at the moment, [with] a little bit of Asia,” said aviation consultant John Strickland.
“It’s wise to diversify and if you look at Europe – South America, then they are looking at market which is already sizeable and where there’s nothing like the liberalization or strength of competition that there is to North America.”
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Tags: low-cost carriers, norwegian air
Photo Credit: Norwegian Air CEO Bjørn Kjos in a Dreamliner. The airline is opening an operation in Argentina.
New Report: Five Trends That Will Transform Corporate Air Travel Retailing in 2021
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Dennis Schaal, Skift
Twitter | 38 mins ago
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Puerto Rico, a disaster lab: three research proposals
By: Robert Read Updated: October 2, 2018
On June 29th through July 1st, I had the pleasure of acting as professional mentor for the "Meshing with Data" Hackathon in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The purpose of the hackathon was to explore mesh radio systems as reliable alternatives to cellular data services, a need brought home by Hurricane Maria and made possible by recent technological advances, LoRa not being the least of them.
The hackathon was very successful as hackathons go, but any one-weekend event can only accomplish so much. During some downtime when none of the eight teams seemed to want my help, I sat down with some leaders of the Puerto Rico technical community to articulate unique "opportunities" that Puerto Rico has. Some of these are advantages, some of these are disadvantages. Having attempted a disaster relief mission to Puerto Rico 71 days after Hurricane Maria, I've witnessed firsthand the resilience and optimism of Puerto Ricans and their ability to deflect adversity or turn it to their advantage.
In this article, I summarize those unique characteristics and add my own ideas: three research projects in the Internet of Things (IoT) space that Puerto Rico is uniquely positioned to undertake. I place these ideas in the public domain — anyone may act on these ideas and even take the names I've assigned to them. Although Skylight would like to act on these ideas, we're unlikely to do so alone and proffer these ideas in hope that enough energy and interest will build around them for someone to, for example, write a grant to implement them.
Puerto Rico: a disaster lab
Our brainstorming included Ruth Silva, Froilan Irizarry, Javier Malavé, and Sasha Méndez. We later presented these ideas to Professors Eliana Valenzuela and Patricia Ordoñez, Jose Quinones, who hosted the hackathon, and Nel Hernandez.
Here was our original scribing:
I've interpreted this in text at the end of this article, but let me try to explain it in prose. I think it was Sasha Méndez who articulated the idea that Puerto Rico is a "Disaster Lab" — and she's right.
Puerto Rico's geography is in many ways an ideal laboratory for natural disasters. In the first place, it's a medium-sized island (3,515 square miles), which is neither too small nor too big. It's big enough that it has mountains, a dry forest, a rainforest, coastal regions, and beaches, but it's small enough that you can reach any point on the island with an SUV in two hours.
The mountains of Puerto Rico are very steep, rugged, and covered with dense vegetation making this terrain hard to cover with cell towers, or any other radio technology. However, a lot of people live in communities in these mountains, and so the need for telecommunications is great. This disadvantage is a perfect challenge for testing radio technology.
Puerto Rico, being in the Caribbean, is frequently struck by tropical storms and hurricanes, of which Hurricane Maria in 2017 was a catastrophic example. Additionally, Puerto Rico suffers from frequent landslides.
Puerto Rico has a well-developed startup culture and 24.6% of the population over 25 have a college degree. As an island, Puerto Ricans are "insular" — ideas don't cross the barrier into the island easily, but once there, they tend to spread quickly.
Politically, Puerto Rico is divided into 78 semi-autonomous and somewhat competitive municipalities. This means that it's quite possible to find a municipality incented to try a new idea.
The power infrastructure of Puerto Rico was severely damaged by Hurricane Maria and remains fragile and likely to be damaged in the future.
Additionally, Puerto Rico has double the US average of $0.12/kWh electricity costs at $0.24/kWh, which incentivizes research on renewables.
Puerto Rico has little public transport, so it's a very road-based region. Landslides are a common problem, which occasionally isolates small communities or individuals, creating a need for, for example, drone-based delivery or emergency supplies.
A proposal: project-based-research planning
In short, Puerto Rico is an ideal place for investigating and testing emergency- and resiliency-oriented radio and power technology.
By showing a small amount of technical and architectural leadership, we can capitalize on unique geographic, cultural, and structural opportunities that Puerto Rico has to focus its local talent and attract off-island sponsorship to research projects of global value.
I propose that we identify specific projects that can be the focus of research efforts, meaning specifically that someone should initiate and seek funding for these or similar projects. Skylight has published the story of it's attempt to get a DARPA grant focusing on LoRa technology. We're open to potentially partnering on these projects, but probably aren't going to execute them in the absence of energetic partners. An ideal partnership would include researchers living in Puerto Rico, grants from outside Puerto Rico, and collaborating leadership from both inside and outside Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican technological branding
In order to raise the profile of these three projects, I recommend branding them as "Puerto Rican" projects. This may motivate students to participate in small components, and may motivate sponsors and funding agencies to support these projects, all of which can be open-source projects reused nationally and internationally. However, each project may be of interest to Americans in general based on the famous catastrophe of Hurricane Maria, which creates a recognizable "Puerto Rican" brand. The brand should come to mean "expert in communication and power technology related to natural disasters."
A loose research program
Rather than execute another competitive hackathon, it might be possible to execute a subsequent cooperative "HackWeekend" or "CooperateAthon" organized around specific goals. With some work performed ahead of time to establish APIs, unit tests, and overall project organization, it might be possible to create a list of projects that would all build toward a unified goal. Possibly this preparation could challenge and bring together electrical engineers, biologists, data scientists, computer programmers, designers, and project managers. Such a HackWeekend could even include field work of some kind.
To prepare for such a HackWeekend, information architects and technical community leaders would seek to prepare ahead of time:
Formally-defined API declarations, which would structure and guide implementations.
Formally-defined automated tests based on "mock" implementations that would inform and guide implementations.
A breakdown of projects including a loose ranking of intellectual difficulty and level-of-effort to guide participants in selecting projects.
Publication mechanisms, such as open-source outlets, media coverage, and, not least, academic publications, which would be a target of the research project.
We've created an interactive map that represents our proposal graphically.
Three specific Puerto Rican-branded projects
The Puerto Rican Fast Map Project: crowdsourcing map-based data
The Puerto Rican Fast Map Project seeks to be the simplest possible way to crowdsource map-based data. It was born of the need for such data about power and drinking water availability after Hurricane Maria.
Draft project breakdown:
Create an API that extracts geolocation from photos automatically. (EXIF.js is a tool for this.) Offer this is as a free, PR-branded API to the world. This could be an exercise in API design and throttling. Possibly the mobile app "WhatsApp" could be used instead of extracting geolocation from an image.
Create an API that supports time-limited support for a dynamic geolocation database at zero cost.
Create a map visualization, using something like Leaflet, that can be integrated with the above two APIs to allow very easy construction of map visualizations that can be fed by simple cell-phone usages.
Create a paid service, possibly using Twilio, that offers phone number(s) that a message can be texted to. For example, an NGO could be pay $100 for a one-weekend use of such a phone number. All images texted to this phone number would be collected and added to the database, including with the geolocation.
Integrate this as an Ushahidi deployment or other commercial-off-the-shelf map software. That is, after a weekend of collecting data via the said system, the result is a permanent Ushahidi deployment that allows data analysis after-the-fact and permanently, even if the text number for data insertion has expired. This project may require a small extension to the open-source Ushahidi system; this extension would be contributed back to Ushahidi.
This project could be tested by integrating with a research project in the realm of zoology, botany, or geology, such as performing a species survey of a remote region of PR.
The Puerto Rican Boa Project: WiFi lifeline
The Puerto Rican Boa Project is named after the endemic Puerto Rican boa, a play on the fact that roads snake up into the mountains. It's based on the fundamental observation that restoring communication alongs roads is efficient and tends to reach large portions of the population in an rough terrain where people live along roads.
A high percentage of Puerto Ricans have smartphones. That means that providing WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity along a road, even if backed by a very low-bandwidth, text-only internet, would allow most people to transmit and receive critical emergency information in the absence of normal cellular service.
Assuming internet connectivity at only one endpoint, create an ability to cover a 10-mile stretch of mountainous road with a system that allows anyone along the road to connect their phone to the internet via WiFi. Possibly this could be done with very good WiFi antennas, or possibly with a LoRa radio system or with directionally beamed WiFi systems.
Demonstrate the ability of users to: (a) find and connect to the system; (b) use it for emergency purposes; (c) use it for non-emergency purposes, such as sending videos to loved ones or downloading videos; (d) measure the achieved bandwidth along the entire stretch of road; and (e) demonstrate this connectivity at every ½ mile interval along the road, no exceptions.
Demonstrate the ability to deploy this system within 6 hours.
Demonstrate the ability to retrieve this equipment within 6 hours.
The Llorosa (Puerto Rican Tanager) Project: tracking every fragile person
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria, people could not find their loved ones because the electronic communication networks were completely destroyed. The purpose of the Llorosa Project is to be able to find and track fragile persons under all circumstances, including the failure of major infrastructure. The Llorosa Project is named after the Puerto Rican Tanager, a small, fragile bird endemic to Puerto Rico.
This is a combined data science/computer science project. It involves both abstract algorithmics and practical mapping.
Suppose there's a network of nodes (llorosas) that all have positions. Each llorosa can report its position at particular point in time to a network it's part of it. One can imagine an initial state in which every llorosa is part of a single network.
Now, imagine that the network is attacked in some way, for example by being cut, forming two disconnected networks. In an extreme case, a single llorosa may be completely isolated from all others. The fundamental goal of the Llorosa Project is to keep all nodes connected to the net, so that all people have access to first responders.
When the network is divided, each connected net continues to be able to obtain updated information of its connected nodes, but loses contact with all others. A network is restored by taking a physical action in the real world. The last-known location of the other nodes provides a valuable guide to the restoration of the network. For example, a radio may be situated midway between the closest nodes of the two meshes, as computed from their last known locations.
Although there may be some graph-theoretic mathematics required in this project, it's more likely a research program of integrating technologies and techniques with software. Evolving radio technology may constantly change the best approach. Today, if the cellular data system fails or a llorosa node enters an area lacking cell service, LoRa technology may provide a low-bandwidth means of restoring connectivity. The GoTenna Mesh product could be used in planned forays into unconnected territory. In the future some new radio meshing technology, such as Bluetooth meshing, might be the fastest means of reconnection.
In terms of personae and use cases, we can easily imagine a personal situation that the Llorosa Project can improve. Imagine an elderly person who lives by herself in the mountains. Perhaps she has cell phone service most of the time, but a storm damages an antenna, cutting her from the main network. The Llorosa Project provides something we don't have today: an ability to identify that she, and possibly her neighbors, are now isolated from electronic communication with the main network of the island. Because the Llorosa Project uses a geographic information system (GIS) of some kind, it also provides guidance in how to fix the problem, possibly by providing a low-bandwidth solution until a higher bandwidth solution can be restored. The lowest bandwidth solution might be someone driving up to their community to check on them.
Research into previous studies on healing of geographic networks and graph theory.
Development of testable procedures for healing the network. This could be practiced by creating and artificially cutting GoTenna Mesh networks. Alternatively, LoRa radio meshes created using LoRa Gateways could be used.
Integration of dynamic data, including timestamps and health status, with a GIS, such as Ushahidi, or other systems.
Research and testing of integrating dual-technology networks, such as a LoRa network on the edge of normal cellular service.
Research into emergency management policies. For example, suppose a single Llorosa is lost from the net. What period of lost connectivity should be considered dangerous enough to be a high-priority? When a high-priority situation occurs, how should remediation resources be deployed? If a large number of high-priority situations occur at the same time, how should they be triaged?
Conclusions and a call to action
Although any company is welcome to take these proposals and build a product from them, in order to act on these proposals in an open, communal way, I recommend the following specific actions:
A cooperative, non-competitive hackathon hosted in Puerto Rico could connect students and Puerto Rican leaders with off-island technology providers and sponsors.
Preparation in the form of defining APIs, architecture, and a decomposition of the projects into implementable chunks would allow hackathon-sized teams to cooperate to significantly accomplish one of these projects in a single weekend.
A research grant could provide equipment and logistical support to undertake these with appropriate technology.
Finally, directly connecting leaders inside and outside Puerto Rico who are interested in these projects could nucleate the projects, bringing together commercial interests with humanitarian disaster relief interests.
At Skylight, we encourage our team members to pursue meaningful and impactful activities such as this. If you're interested in being part of our team, consider joining us.
people and culture internet of things robert read
Story of a DARPA proposal
Geoff Mulligan: Engineering open and interoperable IoT solutions
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Totemism
Totemism as a Religious Classification
Examples of Totemism in Human Culture
North American Aboriginals
Nor-Papua
Birhor
Significance of Totemism
Totemism is an aspect of religious belief centered upon the veneration of sacred objects called totems. Totemism is derived from the term “ototeman” in the Ojibwe language, meaning “brother-sister kin”. A totem is any animal, plant, or other object, natural or supernatural, which provides deeply symbolic meaning for a person or social group. In some cases, totems may imbue particular person with a feeling of power and energy. In other cases, a variety of totems can serve to demarcate particular groups or clans subsumed within larger tribes. Often, totems are seen as representative of desirable individual qualities, or the natural power from which a given social group has descended. Thus, totems help to explain the mythical origin of the clan while reinforcing clan identity and solidarity, and as such, killing, eating, and even touching a totem is often considered taboo.
This form of religious activity is most commonly found within tribal cultures and it is frequently associated with shamanistic religions and their rituals. It is important to note that the concept is generated in the academy by scholars imbued with a sense that European culture is “more civilized.” In fact all religions, including modern Christianity, have aspects to them that function precisely as do “totems” in what nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars called “primitive” societies.
Totem Pole Indian Native Culture Symbol Wood
Totemism played an active role in the development of nineteenth and early twentieth century theories of religion, initially spurring the interests of many thinkers who wanted to classify totemism as an early stage within an allegedly evolutionary progression of religion. John Ferguson McLennan (1827-1881), a Scottish ethnographer, argued that the entire human race had passed through a totemic stage at some point in the distant past in which they worshiped animals and plants. Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917), the famous anthropologist, expanded totemism beyond the worship of plants and animals, claiming that it was actually an early exercise in the instinct within humans to classify their surrounding world. Ethnologist Sir James G. Frazer (1854-1941) put forth the idea that totems bind people together in social groups, and serve as an impetus for the development of civilization. Further, he posited that totemic clans began as a means for explaining the process of conception and birth. Several years later, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud would place the totem at the incitation of human religiosity. For Freud, the totem was the projection of a hypothetical tribe’s Oedipal guilt for the murder of their patriarch, and subsequently the lynchpin for their systems of taboos and morality that allegedly developed in the aftermath.
Alexander A. Goldenweiser, a Russian-American ethnologist, provided one of the key criticisms against such evolutionary notions placing totemism at or near the beginning of human religious development. Goldenweiser called into question the notion that there was in fact a “psychic unity of mankind,” claiming that broad generalizations about the commonalities between cultures were unfounded, at best. Furthermore, he pointed out that there was not necessarily a connection between the use of totemic classifications, the existence of clans, and the relationships of human being to totems. These three phenomena, he claimed, coexisted only in the most rare occasions, and merging them together under the heading of “totemism” was an academic creation, rather than a description of actual phenomena. This critique created an attitude of skepticism concerning totemism in the span of human religious development. Regardless, additional evolutionary theories placing totemism at the initial stage of human development arose, such as those of Émile Durkheim.
No thinker discussed totemism as thoroughly as did Durkheim, who concentrated his study on supposedly “primitive” societies. Drawing on the identification of social group with spiritual totems in Australian aboriginal tribes, Durkheim theorized that all human religious expression was intrinsically founded in relationship to the group from which it emerges. While Tylor insisted that all religion arises from animism and Frazer put forth the view that religion spawns from an understanding of magic, Durkheim found these theories to be insufficient. Durkheim claimed that practitioners of totemism do not actually worship their chosen plant or animal totem. Instead, totems try to connect tribespeople with an impersonal force that holds enormous power over the solidarity of the clan. Durkheim calls this the “totemic principle,” which precedes belief in the supernatural. For Durkheim, totemism was also the rubric for dividing sacred from the profane. For example, Durkheim noted that animals other than the totem could be killed and eaten. However, the totemic animal has a sacred status above the others that creates the taboo against killing it. Since the clan itself is considered to be one with its totem, the clan itself is what is sacred. This reinforces the taboo against killing other people in the clan, as well as other social mores. Hence, when the tribe gathers to worship the emblem representing its chosen totem, it is actually worshiping the tribe itself. The totem is not only the symbol of the clan, but actually the clan itself, represented in the form of the arbitrary animal or plant. The totem god is, according to this theory, a projection of the clan, and devotion to the totem is devotion to the clan. Here, a society can ascertain the commitment of any individual through his or her veneration of the totem. Rituals performed to the totem, then, are performed to promote consciousness of the clan, reminding tribe members that they are committed to a real thing. According to Durkheim, it follows that belief in the soul is really just the implantation of the totemic principle into each individual.
Claude Lévi-Strauss reiterated Goldenweiser’s skepticism toward evolutionary theories of totemism, claiming totemism to be an erroneous and outdated ethnological construct. In his book-length essay Totemism Today (1963), Lévi-Strauss shows that human cognition, which is based on analogical thought, is independent of social context. For Lévi-Strauss, in contrast to the ideas functionalist anthropologist such as Sir Raymond Firth and Meyer Fortes, totems are not based on physical or psychological similarities between the clan and the totemic animal. Rather, totems are chosen arbitrarily for the sole purpose of making the physical world a comprehensive and coherent classificatory system. Lévi-Strauss argues that the use of physical analogies is not an indication of a more primitive mental capacity. On the contrary, it is actually a more efficient way to cope with this particular mode of tribal life in which abstractions are rare, and in which the physical environment is in direct friction with the society. The totemic classification system, he noted, was based on relationships of opposition between nature and culture. Dissimilarities among totemic creatures found in nature serve to differentiate otherwise indistinguishable human cultural units. For Lévi-Strauss, this precludes the possibility of any relationship between human social groups and their chosen totem based on analogy. Instead, totemism is simply another means by which groups of human beings classify the world around them. In The Savage Mind (1966) he put forth the theory that totemic classifications are part of a the science of the concrete, a proto-scientific classificatory system enabling tribal individuals to classify the world in a rational, coherent fashion. This connects with the human instinct for qualitative classification and as such, Lévi-Strauss considers it as neither more nor less a science than any other classificatory system in the Western world. The strength of Lévi-Strauss’ work has rendered somewhat obsolete the theories that implicate totemism in the earliest phases of all human religious development.
Totemism can be said to characterize the religious beliefs of most indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States. The Sauk and Osage peoples of the northeastern United States, for example, assigned qualities of their clan totems through names to individual members. It was expected that those in clan of the Black Bear or the Wolf, among others, would develop some of the desirable traits of those animals. Among the Ojibwa people, from whose language the concept of totemism originated, people were divided into a number of clans called doodem named for various animals. Of the various totemic groups, the crane totem was considered the most vocal. The bear, since it was the largest, was sub-divided into various body parts that also became totemic symbols. These totems were then grouped according to habitat of the given animal, whether it is earth, air or water—and served as a means for governing and dividing labor among the various clans.
Totem poles reflect the beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast; some religious studies scholars argue that the term “religion” is too Western-centric to encompass the beliefs and practices of communities such as these
In addition, North American native peoples provide one of the most recognizable examples of totemism in all of human culture—the totem pole. Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from great trees, typically Western Red cedar, by a number of indigenous peoples located along the Pacific northwest coast of North America. Some poles are erected to celebrate significant beliefs or events, while others are intended primarily for aesthetic presentation. Poles are also carved to illustrate stories, to commemorate historic persons, to represent shamanic powers, and to provide objects of public ridicule. Certain types of totem poles are part of mortuary structures incorporating grave boxes with carved supporting poles, or recessed backs in which grave boxes were placed. The totem poles of North America have many different designs featuring totemic animals such bears, birds, frogs, people, lizards, and often are endowed with arms, legs, and wings. Such designs themselves are generally considered to be the property of a particular clan or family group, and ownership is not transferable even if someone outside this clan or group possesses the pole. Despite common misconceptions, there has never been any ubiquitous meaning given to the vertical order of the images represented on the totem pole. On the contrary, many poles have significant figures on the top, while others place such figures bottom, or middle. While totem poles can be described as an example of totemism due to their representation of clan lineages, they were never used specifically as objects of worship. Hence, any associations made between “idol worship” and totem poles were introduced upon the arrival of Christian missionaries.
Among the Nor-Papua people, who live in the northern region of New Guinea, exogamous patrilineal groups are commonly associated with various species of fish. These totems have an unprecedented cultural presence and appear in numerous representations, including ceremonial flutes within which they take the form of spirit creatures, as well as sculpted figures that are present in every household. Individuals in the various groups are believed to be born from the fish totems. These children come from a holy place, the same holy place to which the totem fish are believed to bring the souls of the dead. Upon reaching responsible age, children are given the choice of whether they will accept the totem of their mother or father. Because of this immense totemic importance, numerous species of fish are classified as taboo for killing or eating.
In Zimbabwe, totems (mitupo) have been in use among the Shona people ever since the initial stages of their culture. The Shona use totems to identify the different clans that historically made up the ancient civilizations of the dynasties that ruled over them in the city of Great Zimbabwe, which was once the centre of the sprawling Munhumutapa Empire. Clans, which consist of a group of related kinsmen and women who trace their descent from a common founding ancestor, form the core of every Shona chiefdom. Totemic symbols chosen by these clans are primarily associated with animal names. The purposes of a totem are: 1) to guard against incestuous behavior, 2) to reinforce the social identity of the clan, and, 3) to provide praise to someone through recited poetry. In contemporary Shona society there are at least 25 identifiable totems with more than 60 principal names (zvidawo). Every Shona clan is identified by a particular totem (specified by the term mitupo) and principal praise name (chidawo). The principal praise name in this case is used to distinguish people who share the same totem but are from different clans. For example, clans that share the same totem Shumba (lion) will identify their different clansmanship by using a particular praise name like Murambwe, or Nyamuziwa. The foundations of the totems are inspired in rhymes that reference the history of the totem.
The Birhor tribe inhabits the jungle region of the northeastern corner of the Deccan province in India. The tribe is organized by way of exogamous groups that are traced through the patrilineal line and represented by totems based on animals, plants, or inanimate objects. Stories tracing the origin of the tribe suggest that the various totems are connected with the birth of distant ancestors. Totems are treated as if they were human beings and strict taboos forbid such acts as the killing or eating of a totem (if it is a plant or animal), or destroying a totem if it is an object. Such behavior represents a failure to conform to the normal rules of relations with ancestors. The consequences for such misappropriations are dire, and the Birhor believe that the subsistence of their people will be placed in jeopardy if transgressions against the totem occur. Furthermore, the Birhor have put elaborate protocol in place concerning reverence for deceased totemic animals.
The Iban tribes of Malaysia practice a form of individual totemism based on dreams. If a spirit of a dead ancestor in human form enters the dream of an individual and proceeds to offer protection in the name of an animal, the dreamer must then seek the named animal as their personal totem. The attainment of such a spirit animal is so important that young men will go to such measures as sleeping on graves or fasting in order to aid the dream state. If a dream involving animals has been experienced, then the chosen individual must observe the spirit animal in its natural environment and come to understand its behaviors. Subsequently, the individual will often carry a part (or parts) of their totem animal with them, which represents their protector spirit, and will present sacrificial offerings to its spirit. Strong taboos are placed upon the killing or the eating of the entire species of the spirit animal, which are passed along from the bearer of the spirit to their descendants.
The Maori, the aboriginal people of New Zealand, practice a form of religion that is generally classified as totemism. Maori religion conceives of everything, including natural elements, as connected by common descent through whakapapa (genealogy). Due to the importance of genealogy, ancestors, of both the mythical and actual variety, are of the utmost importance, serving as individual totems. People are thought to behave as they do because of the presence within them of ancestors. For instance, Rangi and Papa, the progenitor god and goddess of sky and the earth respectively, are seen not only as establishers of the sky and earth, but also as prototypes for the basic natures of men and women. In addition, Tane, the son of Rangi and Papa and creator of the world in the form we know it, provides an archetypal character for Maori males. Maoris also identify numerous animals, insects and natural forces as totems, including most importantly kangaroos, honey-ants, the sun and the rain. Maoris construct totem pole-like objects in honor of these totemic groups.
In modern times, some individuals not otherwise involved in the practice of a tribal religion have chosen to adopt animals which have some kind of special meaning to them as a personal totem. This practice is prevalent in, but not limited to, the New Age movement. Beliefs regarding totems can vary, from merely adopting one as a whim, to adopting an animal that a person sees representing favorable traits reflected in their own behavior or appearance. Some believe their totem functions as a literal spirit guide. Some Native Americans and other followers of tribal religions take a dim view of New Agers’ and others’ adoption of totemic animals, arguing that a non-adherent cannot truly understand totemism apart from its original cultural context, and that, at worst, such appropriation represents a commercialization of their religious beliefs. It also bears mentioning that totemistic sentiments exist within such modern activities as the naming of sports teams, and in the choosing national symbols, among other activities. In such cases, the character of the animal or natural force described in the name comes to have significance in symbolically bestowing desirable traits upon members of the given team, club or state.
A totem pole in Thunderbird Park, Victoria, British Columbia
While the works of ethnologists such as Goldenweiser and Lévi-Strauss have brought into question the importance and even the plausibility of totemism as an adequate classification in religious scholarship, the disposal of the concept altogether is hardly warranted. While it may not represent the base phase of human religiosity, as put forth by thinkers such as Durkheim and Freud, among others, it cannot be reduced merely to a mode of designation and nothing else. Undeniably, the urge to label various plants, animals, objects and forces of nature as totemic is a persistent one among human beings. Whether it is a tribal group labeling various clans by way of animals in their environment, or sports teams choosing powerful forces of nature for their insignias, the totemic reflex has remained a universal human activity until the present. As long as the surrounding environment provides a wellspring of imagery and symbolism for assisting humans in the act of summoning identity for their groups as well as their individual selves, the concept of the totem will continue to be important.
Adhikary, Ashim Kumar. “The Birhor Universe.” Primal Elements: The Oral Tradition. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
Garfield, Viola E. and Forrest, Linn A. The Wolf and the Raven: Totem poles of Southeastern Alaska. Revised edition. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1961. ISBN 0295739983
Goldenweiser, Alexander A. Early Civilization: An Introduction to Anthropology. Nabu Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1147025521
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Totemism. Rodney Needham, trans. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1971. ISBN 978-0807046715
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Savage Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. ISBN 978-0226474847
Malin, Edward. Totem poles of the Pacific Northwest coast. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 1986. ISBN 0881922951
Orbell, Margaret. A Concise Encyclopedia of Maori Myth and Legend. Christchurch, New Zealand: University of Canterbury Press, 1998.
Pals, Daniel L. Seven Theories of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0195087240
Stewart, Hillary. Looking at Totem Poles. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1993. ISBN 0295972599
“Systems of Religious and Spiritual Belief.” The New Encyclopedia Britannica: Volume 26 Macropaedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2002. 530-577.
Wagner, Roy. “Totemism.” Encyclopedia of Religion, Mercia Eliade, ed. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1987. 573-576.
Adapted from New World Encyclopedia
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Swansea University Student Accommodation
College / Universities in Swansea
Swansea University | VIEW & BOOK STUDENT ACCOMMODATION SWANSEA
Swansea University was established in 1920 and originally operated as part of the federal University of Wales, but broke away and became a university in its own right in 2007. It was rated as the 30th best UK university for 2019/20 by The Times/Sunday Times and offers places to around 20,000 students each year.
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As a result of this approach, you have the ability to explore a wider range of housing options, including properties in Sketty, Uplands, Brynmill and more. A smart search function then lets you quickly and easily sort these listings based on room style, distance from Swansea University itself, rent per week, and other parameters.
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Each and every advertised property is provided by a fully verified partner and meets strict quality, safety and security standards. For added peace of mind, all bookings are also subject to a 24-hour free cancellation policy. So why not join Student Pavilion for free today, find your ideal Swansea accommodation, and book it online?
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January 11, 2021 by BothEyesShut
HONOLULU, Hawaii, 2021-Jan-11 — /IMNN Network/ —
Indie label Beautiful Emergence one-two punches 2021 with dual January releases, “Enough Is Enough” by Brighter Side of Sol and “Breathe” by Illnomadic and Omni MC. Brighter Side of Sol’s “Enough Is Enough” dropped New Year’s Day 2021, while Illnomadic/Omni MC’s “Breathe” appears 23 Jan. Both have been proudly published as independent releases without the involvement of the corporate music industry on the Beautiful Emergence Records music label. Bringing ethno-cultural funk and modern soul in equal measure, respectively, “Enough Is Enough” by Brighter Side of Sol, and “Breathe” by Illnomadic/Omni MC are just the latest reasons to watch this exciting new label out of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Brighter Side of Sol (often billed as BSoS) have been described as “a power trio with multicultural band members growing up in different parts of the world.” Their debut album arrived in 2020 bearing lyrics in Tamil, English, and Bahasa Malaysia with music blending funk, blues, and rock. Comprised of veteran players, BSoS members have collectively toured in locales as disparate as the US, Czech Republik, Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey, Finland, Serbia, Tbilisi, and Japan; shared the stage with countless legends including Robert Plant, Black Eyed Peas, Ozomatli, Talib Kweli, and Mos Def; played for multinational corps such as Comedy Central, Amazon Studios and Netflix; and worked with local HI heroes like Jive Slinky, Samurai Funktion, The Maneki Nekos, 83 Groove Street, Hook and Line and JP Smoketrain.
Also weighing in at heavyweight status are Illnomadic and Omni MC, whose “Breathe” single is informed by modern soul singers such as Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, and Jean Grae. They are Navid Najafi (Illnomadic) and Geri Nicole Vanore (Omni MC).
Illnomadic is a two-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner (Hawaii Music Awards), first for Hip-Hop Album of the Year 2012 and then for “Live From Soul Sound” in 2013. Born in Tehran, Iran and immigrated to New York at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, Illnomadic found home at Hawaii at the age of 19. Today he is one of the most highly regarded emcees and hip-hop educators in the state and an outspoken ally of Native Hawaiians, Hawaiian Kingdom nationals, and indigenous peoples around the world. His 2019 solo album, “Second Language,” was also nominated for Hawaii Hip Hop Album of the Year.
Philadelphia native Omni MC is an award-winning choreographer, educator, entrepreneur, and founder of various community empowerment initiatives including Setu Tribe, a movement-centered women’s empowerment group which has grown to include men and children. Omni is also the creator and host of The Warm Up event in both Philly and Honolulu where these cities’ revered musical masters and fervent novices share the stage to create music together. Omni has studied at CAPA, PhilaDanco, University of the Arts, and Alvin Ailey. Her work includes collaboration with Cee Knowledge, (Doodlebug), Donn-T, Chuck Treece, and Ursula Rucker, and she has shared billing with popular acts such as G-Love & Special Sauce, Lyrics Born and Jedi Mind Tricks. Formerly known as Lady Omni, Omni MC has been an integral member of several projects, including the Femme-Mynistiques, Infinite Giants, and Global Local. Having worked in healing arts for over twenty years, Omni’s expressive mediums include music, dance, yoga, massage and energy work. Today she resides in Honolulu and continues to serve her Philadelphia community remotely.
“Enough Is Enough” by Brighter Side of Sol, and “Breathe” by Illnomadic/Omni MC are available from Beautiful Emergence Records label at over 500 quality digital music stores online worldwide now. Get in early, funk, soul, and modern Hawaiian music fans.
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“Enough Is Enough” by Brighter Side of Sol —
https://brightersideofsol.bandcamp.com/
“Breathe” by Illnomadic and Omni MC —
https://illnomadic-808.bandcamp.com/
Brighter Side of Sol Official —
https://www.facebook.com/brightersideofsol/
https://www.instagram.com/brightersideofsol/
Illnomadic, Omni MC Official —
https://www.facebook.com/illnomadic
https://www.instagram.com/illnomadic/
https://www.facebook.com/geriomni/
https://www.instagram.com/omni_mc/
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Sophienburg Museum and Archives > Blog > India
Felipe Delgado’s West End Park
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Felipe Delgado had a dream. It was during WWII when he was in the U.S. Army Air Corps stationed in India. He dreamed of home in New Braunfels and of creating a place of entertainment for the Hispanic people. He and his wife Elisa fulfilled
Locke nurseries business of the past
By Myra Lee Adams Goff When I think of Botanists in New Braunfels, I immediately think of Ferdinand Lindheimer. Lindheimer was given property on the Comal for his botanical garden. No doubt his accomplishments were many, but there were others in the field who contributed much to the beauty of
Your ticket for the: Felipe Delgado’s West End Park
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HomeOur SchoolFreedom of Information Request
The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) establishes a general right of access to records held by municipal government, local agencies, school boards and commissions, using these principles:
Any information held by government should, in general, be available to the public
Any exemptions from the right of access to information should be limited and specific
Any decisions relating to access to information can be reviewed by the independent Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario
Any person may make a request for information held by a government institution covered by the Act
How to obtain a copy of a request form?
A generic request form for filing a request for information can be obtained on the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario website at Request Form FIPPA/MFIPPA.
How much does a request cost?
There is a mandatory $5.00 application fee that must be paid when submitting a Freedom of Information request. Additional fees may be incurred under Section 45 of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Please be advised the $5.00 application fee cannot be waived and is non-refundable.
Additional costs for searching, photocopying, severing etc. may apply to a request.
What is the time frame for completing a request?
The Board responds to a request within 30 days of receiving the request and the $5.00 application fee. For requests that involve a large number of records, require an extensive search, or consultation with an external third party, the time limit can be extended.
Will I be notified of a time extension?
Where a request involves a large number of records or requires an extensive search for records, the Board will provide you with a time extension or a fee estimate based on the estimated number of hours it will take staff to search for the records.
Is there any way to expedite my request?
Unfortunately, there is no way to expedite a request. A note may be written on the request form that records are needed urgently, however, there are not guarantees a response will be made available before the 30-day time frame.
Making a Freedom of Information Request
Requests may be submitted in person or by mail at the school board's business office at:
650 Rossland Road West
Oshawa, ON L1J 7C4
Attention: Privacy Office
For more information, call the Board's Privacy Office at 905-576-6150 ext. 22317.
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This piece is written by Marley Shelby, one of Spicy‘s Guest Contributors. Marley is a journalism student at Fordham University. She’s originally from Austin, Texas and plan to pursue a career in fashion journalism.
One day, as some friends and I were driving through Brooklyn, up Lafayette Avenue, we passed a group of young white women entering a subway station and my friend said, “Do or die Bed-Stuy doesn’t mean anything anymore.” And the other friend shook his head in agreement and said, “Word.” Then they continued to talk about the way things used to be. I nodded my head, but didn’t say anything. Like my two friends, I am black, and I sympathize with their longing for the old Bed-Stuy that is depicted in Spike Lee joints and Jay-Z songs, but unlike the two of them who grew up in Brooklyn, I don’t personally know what it was like before gentrification began in neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant.
When I ask people in the neighborhood what comes to mind when they hear the word gentrification, many of them say “Change.” And while some long-time residents are happy with change and improvement in the neighborhood, they find that these changes are not for “us,” but are instead for the new, mainly white residents. Ebbie Newman, who has lived in Bed-Stuy since 1963 explained that he’s planning to sell his property and move soon, and he says that many of his neighbors are doing the same. “They’re trying to move us out of here,” he said, “and the ones that don’t see it and they don’t try to take advantage and do something about it, they’re gonna be lost.”
Another resident, Don Robinson, who has lived in the neighborhood for most of his life, about 50 years, explained to me some of the changes that he has noticed around his mother’s home on Stuyvesant Avenue. He said that the corner store where he used to get his breakfast growing up, is no longer there. And there are many other businesses in the area that have been replaced by new ones that primarily cater to the neighborhood’s new residents. He and other long-time residents told me that where there used to be bodegas, little restaurants, and small businesses, there are now juice bars, coffee shops, and yoga studios.
To me, gentrification has to do with privilege. Not just white privilege, which many of the gentrifiers exhibit, but a socioeconomic privilege.
Gentrification, which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents” is affecting Bed-Stuy. According to the article “An Economic Snapshot of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Neighborhood” from the New York State Comptroller (with census data from 2015), Bed-Stuy became one of New York City’s largest black communities in the 1930s and has remained as such. But the steady creep of gentrification in Brooklyn has had an impact on Bed-Stuy’s status as a black neighborhood.
The article states that between 2000 and 2015, the neighborhood’s black population decreased from three-quarters to about half. It goes on to report that by 2015 the average rent was about $1,230, a 77 percent increase from 2005, and the average household income for “new residents” was $50,200 and that of the “long-term residents” was $28,000.
Harron Walker, a freelance journalist who has lived in Bed-Stuy for about two years, said that she’s starting to understand gentrification as more of a systemic problem. “It’s the displacement of people a city doesn’t want to live somewhere anymore, so they can profit off of bringing in new people. And it’s the result of considered efforts politically and privately with developers,” she said.
Gentrification bears racial undertones when the low to middle income people being displaced are often people of color, while the higher-earning people replacing them are often white. Most of the new residents in Bed-Stuy are white. The New York State Comptroller article reports that they made up about one-quarter of the neighborhood’s population by 2015, and they are often the ones who are blamed for the neighborhood’s higher rents and less accessible business options.
Like many of Bed-Stuy’s gentrifiers, I grew up in a suburban, upper-middle class, predominantly white community in another state. But as a black person contributing to a system that is meant to get the people who look like me out of the neighborhood, I feel conflicted. To me, gentrification has to do with privilege. Not just white privilege, which many of the gentrifiers exhibit, but a socioeconomic privilege that allows someone like me, whose parents help out with the rent while I study at a private university in the city, to be able to live in this neighborhood, despite the fact that the rent in my building will continue to rise. Meanwhile, the people who were here before me are being forced to seek out more affordable neighborhoods. So I feel as if, with the privilege that I have to enjoy this historic neighborhood, I have to be aware of the fact that, while I am a part of the “us” to whom this neighborhood belongs, I am also a part of the “them” seen as creating the problem.
So I feel as if, with the privilege that I have to enjoy this historic neighborhood, I have to be aware of the fact that, while I am a part of the “us” to whom this neighborhood belongs, I am also a part of the “them” seen as creating the problem.
Last week I attended a meeting for the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network (BAN), which is a network run by people of color that works to combat the effects of gentrification in various neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Some of the network’s core goals, as stated on its website, include stabilization of rents, protection of small businesses, and the creation of more accessible affordable housing. Although the network is led by people of color, many of the meeting’s attendees were white people who feel torn as well.
Maya Martin-Udry, an activist who works with BAN and who has lived in Bed-Stuy for a little over a year, told me that she feels as if the struggle against gentrification is a losing battle, but she has to help fight it. “I am living in the only all-white building on a black block,” she said. “We’re all white, we’re all new, this building was recently flipped and there’s just no amount of talking to your neighbors that makes it okay.”
Many of the long-time residents say that a sense of community that was once here is slowly fading. Some say that they no longer see their neighbors who they used to see all the time, and their new neighbors are not as neighborly as the old ones. There seems to be a distinct difference between “us” and “them” on an interpersonal level.
“With the newcomers, there is a lack of humanity,” said Michael Adams who has lived in Bed-Stuy since 1986. “Making eye contact, socializing. When you see someone ten times in a week, say hello. And that part I haven’t seen.”
Adams said it appears to him that most new residents of color make an effort to be friendly to their neighbors because “they know.”
The cold behavior that Adams was referring to and that a few others whom I spoke with described as well, is what the hosts of National Public Radio’s Code Switch podcast call “acting like a gentrifier.” In an episode that I listened to a few months ago, the hosts discussed the topic of being a new resident of color in a gentrifying neighborhood. After going back and forth on the issue and discussing some of the feelings that they have had in that position, the hosts concluded that in order to not be a gentrifier, one must not “act like a gentrifier.” I heard this episode not long after I had moved into my apartment and I had been looking for answers as to how to reckon with my existence in this neighborhood and I felt that this could be one method.
Because I am a new black resident of Bed-Stuy I try to be a part of the neighborhood. I say hello to the man who lives across the street from me that I often see on my way to class, and I stop in the bodega near my building just to chat with the owner. I mostly shop at small, community-oriented businesses and I work at one of those businesses myself. While my actions alone will not alleviate the neighborhood of the effects of gentrification, or make other newcomers follow suit, I do feel as if I am a part of a community. And I have felt that sense of community since I first visited Bed-Stuy and stepped out of the train station on Nostrand Avenue and someone greeted me, “Hello, sister.”
Since living here, I have come to love Bed-Stuy, particularly the characters of the neighborhood themselves. There is the African woman who I see walking along Nostrand Avenue selling her homemade fried fish treats, the man who my boss and I call “the mayor” because he stopped in the store where I work almost every day over the summer to greet us. And there is the young Jamaican guy who works at the restaurant on Fulton Street that many of the girls who eat at the restaurant joke is their “boyfriend.”
Along with that, however, there is a coffee shop near my apartment in which I do not feel quite as welcome as some of the white customers from the neighborhood. And I think that some of the residents in my building, one of the newly renovated buildings with predominantly white tenants, hesitate to hold the door for me when I’m coming in. But I do think that some of the old Bed-Stuy is still here and there are remnants of the way things used to be.
Adams hopes that the character and “gamut” of people within Bed-Stuy won’t disappear as well. “It was…it was nothing but black people. And good, bad, or ugly—you had the good, the bad, and the ugly. And within that you found hope,” he said. “I mean, yeah, I’ve got a junkie that lives down the block. But I’ve also got a congresswoman that lives on my block.”
Those on the side in support of gentrification do not understand why people who have lived in neighborhoods that are being gentrified are resistant to change. They do not understand why residents do not want lower crime rates, better businesses, and cleaner streets. Most of the long-time residents that I talked to are glad that the neighborhood is improving. Still, some people, like Adams, worry how much the neighborhood will change.
“The house I live in used to be my grandparents’ I’ve got a lot of history there,” he said. “A lot of the people in the neighborhood, I no longer remember or recognize.”
Residents like Adams fear that what is happening in Harlem, another one of New York City’s quickly gentrifying neighborhoods, will happen in Bed-Stuy too. I have heard rumors and sources like Huffington Post and the New York Times have reported that there is talk of changing the name of Central Harlem to “SoHa,” which can be interpreted as either a marketing strategy to attract more hip, young people to the area, or it can be seen as an attempt to erase the history and significance that exists in Harlem.
While I am not certain that the old Bed-Stuy will still be here 15 years from now or that most of the changes will prove to be for the better or for the worse, I am glad that I have gotten the privilege to be a part of the legacy of Bed-Stuy as it is. And I hope that, over the next 15 years, that this legacy will remain.
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Crossing Borders 2002
Crossing Borders: Between countries and cultures, fact and fiction, information and experience
Documentary production in Latin America and Spain has never before shown such vitality and diversity, reflecting – in surprising ways perhaps – the moment of crisis and change on many fronts that these societies are facing. All manners of relations and limits are being redefined, as filmmakers cross the borders of convention and genre, challenging long-held beliefs about reality and fiction.
The films selected for this first Festival illustrate one of the latest developments in the genre: the personal investigation. These are films in which the story under investigation becomes inextricably mingled with the experience of the individual carrying out the investigation. At the same time, they are all meditations on the informational value of personal experience – that of the documentary subjects as much as that of the filmmakers.
By presenting these innovative cinematic practices, the Princeton Documentary Festival aims at contributing to a more comprehensive vision of the cultures of Latin America and Spain, steering clear of stereotypes and clichés. At the same time, it seeks to encourage a more informed debate on the specific topic addressed in each series, and on today’s documentary production in general.
Direction and Organization
General Coordinator: Ricardo Piglia
Festival Director: Andrés Di Tella
Program Coordinator: Lucía Melgar
Frist Performance Theater, Frist Campus Center, 3rd. floor
Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
The Princeton Documentary Festival was created to bring attention to the current creative explosion of documentary filmmaking in Latin America and Spain. Through public screenings, commentary and discussions, the festival provides its audience with exceptional, cutting-edge films that would not be otherwise available. The aim is to contribute to a more comprehensive vision of the cultures from which this work springs, while encouraging a more informed debate on the specific topic addressed in each series and on the current state of documentary production.
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Monica Reed is the new owner of Wild Rose
Home/News/Comings & Goings/Monica Reed is the new owner of Wild Rose
Monica Reed has gone from being an artist selling her creations at Wild Rose to being the new owner of the downtown shop, located at 115 N. Sixth St. in Springfield.
“I absolutely love the store,” said Reed, who explained that she had been helping with social media and other promotions for the store when she was asked to meet with the three owners. Reed said she was caught off guard when Clara O’Rourke, Sheila Kelly and Maureen Maloney offered her the opportunity to purchase the store from them.
“They asked me if I’d like to take over, and I was ecstatic. It was a dream come true,” said Reed. “It kind of fell in my lap.” However, Reed said her background in art, fundraising and event planning helped prepare her for running her own business, along with the fact that she had been an artist at the store herself.
“We have 30 wonderful artists who are all local,” said Reed, who said she doesn’t anticipate many changes to the store other than adding monthly events and having some of the artists teach classes in their specialty areas.
“I told them, let’s work together and make 2020 a good year for everybody here.”
An open house is planned for Saturday, Feb. 1 from 12-5 p.m. with a ribbon cutting at 1 p.m.
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Information Portal»Biography»Ali Wong
Ali Wong | Srivideo
Biography | Posted: Friday, 19th July
Last Edited:27-11-2020, 08:02 :
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Born: Alexandra Wong
Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, U.S.
Residence: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Zodiac or Birth Sign: Aries
Spouse: Justin Hakuta (m. 2014)
Children: 2 (Mari Hakuta, Name not Known)
Alma mater: University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation: Actress, comedian, writer
Father's Name: Adolphus Wong
Mother's Name: Tam "Tammy" Wong
Relatives: Ken Hakuta (father-in-law)
Alexandra Dawn "Ali" Wong (born April 19, 1982) is an American comedienne, actress and writer. She is noted for her Netflix stand-up specials Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, both of which received critical acclaim. She is also known for her leading film role in the 2019 film Always Be My Maybe, which she produced and wrote with her co-star Randall Park. She is currently a main cast member on the ABC television show American Housewife. Previously, she appeared on Are You There, Chelsea?, Inside Amy Schumer, and Black Box. She also wrote for the first three seasons of the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Wong voices title character Roberta "Bertie" Songthrush, a polite songbird and aspiring baker on the critically acclaimed animated series Tuca & Bertie and new student "Ali" on the hit series Big Mouth.
Wong is included in Time magazine 's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Wong was born in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, the youngest of four children. Her father, Adolphus Wong, was a Chinese-American anasthesiologist who worked for Kaiser Permanente for 30 years. Her mother, Tam "Tammy" Wong, immigrated in 1960 to the United States from Huế, South Vietnam and was a social worker.
In 2000, Wong graduated from San Francisco University High School, where she was student body class president. She enrolled at UCLA, where she majored in Asian American studies and discovered her love of performing as a member of the university's LCC Theatre Company, the country's largest and oldest Asian-American collegiate theater company. She spent a summer working at The Lair of the Golden Bear, a UC Berkeley alumni summer family camp and, during her junior year, spent time in Hanoi, Vietnam.
She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Asian American studies in 2005. After college, she studied in Vietnam as a Fulbright scholar.
2011–2013: Career beginnings
After graduating from college, 23-year-old Wong tried stand-up comedy at Brainwash Cafe. She soon moved to New York City to pursue comedy, and began to perform up to nine times a night.
In 2011, Variety named her one of the "10 Comics to Watch". Soon after, she appeared on The Tonight Show, John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show and Dave Attell's Comedy Underground Show. She was also cast as series regular in the NBC comedy series Are You There, Chelsea? and appeared on Chelsea Lately. After that, she was in VH1's Best Week Ever and MTV's Hey Girl in 2013. Additionally, she starred in Oliver Stone's Savages, opposite Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek, and as Kate in the film Dealin' with Idiots.
2014–present: Fresh off the Boat and Netflix
In 2014, Wong played Dr. Lina Lark in the ABC medical drama series Black Box, opposite Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave. Since then, she has guest-starred in several episodes of Inside Amy Schumer. Wong has been a writer on Fresh Off the Boat since 2014. Randall Park, who is on the main cast, had suggested Wong for the writing role.
On Mother's Day 2016, Netflix released a stand-up special called Baby Cobra; the special was filmed in September 2015, when Wong was seven months pregnant with her first child at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. According to New York Magazine, "The special's arrival on Netflix is the sort of star-making moment that unites the tastes of the unlikeliest fans." On September 11, 2016, Wong spoke at, and walked the runway during New York Fashion Week for Opening Ceremony's show. In October 2016, Wong began starring in the main cast of the ABC sitcom American Housewife. On May 13, 2018, Wong's second Netflix special, Hard Knock Wife, was released. It was filmed in late September 2017 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto when she was 7 months pregnant with her second child.
Wong starred with Randall Park in the 2019 Netflix film Always Be My Maybe, a film directed by Nahnatchka Khan, and written by Wong, Park, and Michael Golamco. Wong voiced the titular character Bertie in the Netflix animated show Tuca & Bertie. On October 15, 2019, Wong came out with a book entitled Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life. She dubs it as a life guide for her two daughters to read when they're adults.
Wong lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Justin Hakuta, the son of inventor and TV personality Ken Hakuta. and have two daughters. Wong has been open in her standup comedy and to the media about miscarrying twins prior to getting pregnant with her first daughter Mari. She said that joking about her miscarriage helped her cope.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Licensed under CC-BY-SA
Ali Wong Official Social Network Profile/Page/Account:
Today Birthday: Ali Wong wiki, Information of Ali Wong, Ali Wong Profile, Ali Wong Age, Ali Wong Real Life Family, Ali Wong Date Of birth, Ali Wong Birth Place, Ali Wong Personal Life, Ali Wong Biodata, Ali Wong on Social networks, Ali Wong (@aliwong)Instagram Profile/account, Ali Wong (@aliwong) Facebook Profile/page, Ali Wong (@Ali_Wong) twitter Profile/account, Ali Wong (@Ali_Wong) wikipedia page, Ali Wong Lifestyle, Ali Wong DOB, Biography of Ali Wong, Ali Wong family background/ mother/ father/ brother/ sister’s name, Ali Wong Birthday.
Links to Ali Wong:
Categories: 1982 births,21st-century American actresses,21st-century American comedians,Actresses from San Francisco,Actresses of Vietnamese descent,American actresses of Chinese descent,American film actresses,American stand-up comedians,American television actresses,American television writers,American women comedians,American women of Vietnamese descent,American writers of Chinese descent,American writers of Vietnamese descent,Comedians from California,University of California, Los Angeles alumni,Writers from San Francisco,Women television writers,Screenwriters from California
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Man Utd starlet backed to become one of the game’s leading players
Marcus Rashford is primed to star for England at the World Cup in Russia and will go on to great things, says his Old Trafford team-mate.
Ashley Young believes Manchester United teammate Rashford has the potential to “set the world alight” and will be a key player for England at the World Cup.
READ MORE: 5 reasons why Gareth Bale should join Man Utd
The forward heads to his second major tournament for his country following a difficult campaign at United under Jose Mourinho, who has been publicly critical of Rashford on a number of occasions, albeit without naming names (it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who Mourinho has been slating, with Anthony Martial also rollocked).
Rashford made 52 appearances in all competitions in 2017/18 but struggled to hold down a regular place in the starting line-up. He was heavily criticised by fans for his lackadaisical performance against Chelsea in the FA Cup final, which United lost 1-0.
Young, though, is confident Rashford can hit the ground running in Russia and become one of the game’s leading players.
“It’s the World Cup and it could be his stage to show everybody how far he’s come since his debut,” he told the press, as per the BBC.
“He produces at United and will be a major player for us at the World Cup. He’s going to cope really well.
“I’ve said it from the time I saw him in the youth team – he’s got a massive future ahead of him. He’s a fantastic player and if he keeps going the way he is, he’ll set the world alight.
“He has his feet firmly on the ground and he wants to learn every day. He’s one of them that the manager has to tell him ‘come inside’ because he wants to stay out and play non-stop.
“If you look at the goals he has scored on how many different debuts, it just shows he steps up in the big games.”
Young earned his spot back in the England squad after a strong season with United playing as a makeshift left-back. However, he is adamant that he’s still more of an attacking player.
“I don’t pretend, I still see myself as an attacker, especially the way that we play with the full-backs or wing-backs high up,” Young continued.
“Different managers play different formations. I think I am one of those players who has a good footballing brain. Wherever the manager calls on me to play I will give 100 percent for the England shirt and go to do as well as I can.”
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(Video) Donny van de Beek’s scores from glorious bending effort in Man Utd training
Why Sir Alex Ferguson decided against signing Jordan Henderson in 2011
January 16, 2021 9:54
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(702) 228-4411 | 9320 West Lake Mead Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89134
Spay / Neuter Services
Rate Our Clinic
Michael Knehr, DVM
Dr. Knehr graduated from Purdue University Veterinary School in 1993. His areas of interest in the veterinary field include orthopedic and soft tissue surgery, diagnostic ultrasound, pain management, and senior pet care.
Dr. Knehr loves to go fly fishing with his golden retriever named Sage, who is a great fishing partner. He also loves to go hiking and swimming with his boys and enjoys watching New York Yankee baseball as often as possible. He has two beautiful cats; A-Rod (yes, he is a really big Yankee fan) and Gronk (his wife is a big Patriots fan); and one feathered family member named Kiwi, an eclectus parrot.
Dr. Knehr’s goal as a veterinarian is to provide compassionate and knowledgeable veterinary care for pet family members and for the community. He invites you to visit the hospital and make Sun City part of your pet’s health care team.
Melissa Sigal, DVM
Dr. Sigal graduated from veterinary school at Louisiana State University in 2006. She has a Labrador mix named Wonka, and a cat named Voodoo. Her primary focus within the hospital is dentistry. Dr. Sigal adopted Voodoo as a kitten who needed full mouth extractions due to severe juvenile gingivitis. During her free time she likes spending as much time as she can with her family especially her son Sawyer.
Lisa Noworyta, DVM
Dr. Noworyta graduated from veterinary school at Purdue University. She was born and raised in Indiana and moved to sunny Las Vegas after the completion of her degree. Her veterinary interests include dermatology, internal medicine, and dentistry. Outside of work, her family keeps her busy. She is married to her husband, Mike and they have one son, Tyler, and one daughter, Khloe. Her animal family includes two dogs, a Beagle named Jake and a hound mix named Kaiya. She enjoys outdoor activities such as visiting our local parks and water park, going to baseball games, and traveling with her family.
Lauren Shamkhalov, DVM
Dr. Shamkhalov graduated from veterinary school at the University of Missouri. She was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and moved to Las Vegas after completion of her degree. Her veterinary interests include soft tissue surgery, dentistry, canine reproductive medicine, and small mammal exotic medicine.
Dr. Shamkhalov realized the importance of the human animal bond at a very young age and has since worked toward strengthening that bond between people and their animal companions. She and her husband, Eduard, have three schnauzers; Scruffers, Smore, and Shadow; and a ferret named Slinky. In her free time she loves to travel, hike, visit wineries, and try new restaurants.
Lauren McBride, DVM
Dr. McBride completed her veterinary degree at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Her veterinary interests include internal medicine, diagnostic imaging, ophthalmology, and soft tissue surgery.
During her time in Scotland, Dr. McBride discovered a love for exploring the rural countryside as well as developing experience in farm animal clinical medicine. Born and raised in Southern California, her childhood home was always full of dogs, cats, birds, and other species, and she has a passion for improving the welfare of all animals large and small. In her spare time she enjoys surfing, hiking, and reading.
Sureet Ghuman, DVM
Dr. Ghuman graduated from veterinary school at Iowa State University. She was raised in Las Vegas and could not wait to move back home to care for the animals in her community (and to escape the harsh Midwest winter!). She’s felt an immense connection to animals since her childhood and has a passion for their welfare. Dr. Ghuman enjoys the variety and excitement of general practice, but especially appreciates having the ability to develop strong relationships with her clients and patients. Her particular interests include dermatology, cardiology, and senior pet wellness.
She has a papillon named Scooby who has been with her for more than half her life! Together, they have traveled the country in pursuit of higher education, but both are happy to finally be home! In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and the occasional Netflix binge watching!
Sun City Animal Hospital
Phone: (702) 228-4411 Address: 9320 West Lake Mead Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89134
About Our Veterinary Hospital
Boarding in Las Vegas, NV
Dental Care in Las Vegas, NV
Spay / Neuter Services in Las Vegas, NV
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Tag: Hong Kong
Tsai’s Second Term and the Taiwan Strait: Greater Clarity, Same Challenges
9 June 2020 Editor
Written by J. Michael Cole. The first four years under the Tsai Ing-wen administration have brought greater clarity regarding Beijing’s attitude toward Taiwan and its democracy. Although in the months prior to her inauguration on May 20, 2016, it was still possible to imagine that the two sides could find a modus vivendi despite Beijing’s longstanding antipathy toward the Democratic Progressive Party, Beijing almost immediately adopted an unforgiving course of action which soon poisoned the relationship.
Dispelling the monolith: The geopolitics of language in Taiwan and Hong Kong
21 February 2020 Editor
Written by Justin Kwan. In an attempt to reach audiences in Taiwan and Hong Kong, China has attempted to use both Hokkien and Cantonese in its messaging through media and popular culture, eliciting mixed responses from locals in both places. In the case of Taiwan, Beijing resorted to a strategy of direct coercion in 2018, when it released a dubbed propaganda video in Hokkien titled ‘God of War’. The video featured bomber aircrafts flying around Taiwan, a warning from Beijing for the islands Taiwanese-speaking activists to curb their so-called ‘pro-independence’ activities.
The “Hong Kong factor” in the 2020 Taiwanese Presidential Election
21 January 2020 Editor
Written by Adrian Chiu. A large number of Hong Kong people travelled to Taiwan, personally covering experiences, just to share the sentimental moment of the Tsai’s predicted victory. Hong Kongers were present at electoral rallies in Taiwan, waving the anti-ELAB movement flag and slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times.” Although these Hong Kong people may not vote in Taiwan, they nevertheless all campaigned for Tsai.
Taiwan’s 2020 elections: Rallying around the flag
Written By Wen-Ti Sung. Taiwan hosted its quadrennial presidential and legislative elections on 11 January 2020. Shaping the contours of these critical elections is first and foremost the impending US-China strategic rivalry, as manifested in the Hong Kong crisis and the resultant prioritisation of national security above all other campaign issues on the part of the Taiwanese electorate.
2020 Perfect Vision: Taiwan’s Upcoming Presidential and Legislative Elections
9 December 2019 Editor
Written by Gerrit van der Wees. In Spring 2019, the political future did not look very rosy for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. She had to fight a fierce internal presidential primary battle against challenger Lai Ching-te, while her likely Kuomintang (KMT) opponent, Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu, was riding high on his “blue wave” popularity.
Hong Kong is a Mess for Beijing; Taiwan Would be a Nightmare
13 November 2019 Editor
Written by J. Michael Cole. Liberal democratic societies are simply incompatible with the increasingly authoritarian mindset that animates the CCP. The notion that their inhabitants — global, connected and proud of their liberties — would willingly cede their freedoms to Beijing is naive at best. Such illusions are being shattered in Hong Kong as we speak, and the idea that the Taiwanese would be any less committed to preserving their hard-earned democracy is preposterous. It says a lot about the CCP’s appeal that the only way it can quiet down discontent on its peripheries is through pacification.
China’s Intransigence Strengthens Hong Kong-Taiwan Ties
Written by J. Michael Cole. Rather than isolate Taiwan and Hong Kong, Beijing’s unwillingness to accommodate different political systems on its peripheries and its inability to do “soft power” effectively has had the opposite effect: more than ever, Taiwan and Hong Kong are joining hands in their opposition to the CCP.
Why Is Tsai Ing-wen’s Popularity Rising?
12 July 2019 Editor
Written by Dongtao Qi. Since the DPP was trounced by the KMT in the November 2018 nine-in-one local elections, most public opinion polls found that compared to other possible presidential candidates, popular support for president Tsai in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election was consistently the lowest. However, about six months before the 2020 presidential election, many polls showed a surprising turn…
Taiwan steps up its promotion of human rights and democracy
19 June 2019 Editor
Written by Benedict Rogers. On Radio Taiwan International I was asked if Xi’s China is night and Taiwan is day, what is Hong Kong? “Dusk”, I replied. I can only hope that the sun will rise again in Hong Kong, that daylight will emerge in mainland China, and that all of us who cherish freedom and democracy will defend Taiwan.
June 4th for a Hong Kong Eurasian: Our shared memory
Written by Evan Fowler. The Tiananmen massacre was a watershed that profoundly changed all our lives. After that day, the shadow of July 1st, 1997, the day Britain would hand Hong Kong over to the People’s Republic of China, hung over my family like a heavy, terrifying dark cloud of worry tinged with fear.
Hong Kong after 1997: The rise of the anti-mainland movement
20 March 2018 Editor
Written by Alvin Y. So. Hong Kong was a British colony for one-and-half century. After 1997, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of
China Goes OBOR: Can Taiwan Join?
1 November 2017 Editor
Written by Gerald Chan. In her maiden policy address on 11 October 2017, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special
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Home News App Updates
WhatsApp To Get These Two Extraordinary New Features
As many of you already know, since the last few years the developers of WhatsApp have worked very hard to bring the best features to the application. However, now according to the latest reports, the most used instant messaging application, of course, WhatsApp to get these two extraordinary new features.
The well-known and the most used instant messaging application, of course, WhatsApp is known for its millions of groups, including family, friends, college classmates and work. But if you want to make a group video call, the app will not allow. But, what if I say you all that now you can do so easily.
At the F8 conference, the social network giant Facebook announced that its most used instant messaging application, of course, WhatsApp will have group video calls “in the coming months.” They will run on smartphones and will have a maximum of four participants.
Since 2016, the most used instant messaging application, of course, WhatsApp allows you to make video calls, but only with another person. Meanwhile, Instagram has just announced that it will have video calls with one or more people.
In addition, the most used instant messaging application, of course, WhatsApp has confirmed that it will have “soon” stickers as well. We have already seen several signs that this would happen, but now it is official. In addition to the options created by the company itself, it will be possible to use third-party packs.
A few months ago, WABetaInfo showed what to expect from this feature, which is present in the Telegram since 2015:-
Finally, now the most used instant messaging application, of course, WhatsApp shared how many people are in Status, its Snapchat clone: there are 450 million users every day. This is the most popular Stories product in the world – more so than the Instagram Stories.
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Mudder You Need to Meet: Mark Webb
Author: Tough Mudder August 29, 2019
At Tough Mudder City – Bristol we met a team that embodied everything that Tough Mudder is about.
Mark Webb and his team, made up of friends and colleagues, were taking on the course to raise money for Shift.ms a charity that supports those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, but it wasn’t just the good cause that inspired us.
MEET MARK WEBB AND HIS TEAM
Mark Webb was first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2007. MS is an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system (the brain and the spinal cord) and it can lead to an array of potential symptoms including problems with vision, movement and balance. 107,000 people in the UK have MS and most of them will have been diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40. MS is a progressive disease, with no cure.
Unfortunately, Mark has many of the symptoms of MS, including very limited use of his lower limbs. However, this didn’t stop him from getting around the Tough Mudder 5K Urban course and taking on every single obstacle in his wheelchair, with the help of his team.
RAISING MONEY FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Mark and his team took on Tough Mudder 5K Urban to help raise money for Shift.MS, the global social network for those with MS. Shift.ms provide a great support network for MSers but especially for those who have been recently diagnosed. We’re happy to say that through taking on the course Mark and his team reached their fundraising target of £2.5k and have gone on to raise even more money for this important charity.
If you would like to find out more about Mark and his fundraising efforts then check out his JustGiving page.
Has this story inspired you to take part? Get your ticket today and run for your charity in 2021.
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Home » Tesla » 2018 Tesla Model S
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2018 Tesla Model S
October 11th, 2017 · 0 Comments · Tesla
The 2018 Tesla Model S is a luxury five-door luxury truck, manufactured by Tesla, Inc., and launched on June 22, 2012. 2018 Tesla S Model achieved a perfect 5.0 NHTSA car safety rating. The official EPA series for the 2017 S Model 100D, which is equipped with a 100 kWh (360 MJ) battery, is 335 miles (539 km) higher than any other electric car. The 2018 Model S became the first electric car to update the monthly ranking of new vehicle sales in any country, which resulted in Norway in September and December 2013 and also in Denmark in December 2015.
Sales of Global Model S exceeded the milestone of 150,000 units in November 2016, with the US. as the leading market with 57% of worldwide sales. Other major markets are Norway, China, Hong Kong, Holland, Canada, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. The Tesla S model was the world’s leading electric motor in 2015 and 2016. By the end of 2016, the second-car electric car was in the history of the Nissan Leaf.
2018 Tesla Model S Interior
2018 Tesla Model S P100d
Tesla 2018 Model S
Tesla Model S 2018 Interior
Tesla Model S 2018
The Tesla Model S was the World 2013 Green Car of the Year, 2013 Motor the Trend Car of the year, Automobile Magazine 2013 the car of the year, Time Magazine Top 25 Inventions of the year award 2012 and the best report engine of the consumer on their way. proof. By the year 2015, the car and driver named Model S called the car of the century. After the Model S was not recommended in 2015 because of its low reliability, Consumer Reports added the car to the recommended list a year later.
2018 Tesla Model S Design
The 2018 Tesla Model S consists of several versions, which differ in power capacity (battery size), power (size of the car) and equipment. Latest Tesla Model S 2018 is classified as a luxury car for adults in the US, or as a “large car” (120 cubic feet or more) or “luxury sedan” by the EPA. The Euro Car Segment classification is S-segment (Sports Car), or “High Class” in Germany.
2018 Tesla Model S Engine
The 2018 Model S P90D has a top speed of 155 mph (250 km / h) and accelerates from 0 to 60 miles per hour (0 to 97 km / h) in 2.8 seconds, despite the total lower engine power, in part thanks to the improved traction of the all-wheel-drive system. The Model S P85D, has a top speed of 155 km / h, and accelerates from 0 to 60 miles per hour (0 to 97 km / h) in 3.2 seconds (3.1 seconds to test ), under “insane mode”, with 1 g of gear.
Tesla initially reported total output on the P85D as the arithmetic addition of the maximum power of individual electric motors to 691 horsepower (515 kW), but later reported as 463 horsepower (345 kW) for the two cars at its maximum power does not give at the same time. From March 2017 on the P100D variant exercises the record of the fastest acceleration of any production car with an NHRA-start of 60 mph in the Motor Trend tests with 28.2 seconds ridiculously. Although other independent tests placed him behind the Porsche 918 Spyder. .
2018 Tesla Model S Charger
In all markets, the cargo door is behind a door in the left back light. During charging, the charging port presses green. The frequency at which the charge pulses from the charging port slow down will be brought fully close to the charging method. When charging is complete, stop the light with pulses and green. The Model S is equipped with another charger and connector in North America in front of other markets, derived from the differences in the local electrical networks.
2018 Tesla Model S Suspension
The 2018 S model has an independent four-wheel coil suspension, the front double leg, the virtual steering control arm and the rear independent multilink. As an additional cost option, the car is available with self-propelled, height-adjustable pneumatic suspension. This is achieved through driver-controlled Bilstein adjustable dampers. The car is meant to relieve the speed of the freeway and boost itself to cross steep ramps and rough terrain, despite the low 6-inch distance to the ground and a fairly long wheelbase of 116 inches.
2018 Tesla Model S Blue
Because, at Tesla, electronic systems can be upgraded by air discharge, instead of remembering, the suspension system has changed retrospectively on several occasions. During the 2013 fire investigation, the NHTSA asked Tesla to reduce the car’s ability to slow down to prevent ground clearance of fewer than 6 inches from causing batteries under the car to hit an obstacle. In September 2014, Tesla trained the height adjustment feature for 2018 Tesla Model S equipped with air suspension to remember places that require more space, such as those with bumps and steep roads, and adjust automatically
2015 Cadillac ELR
2015 Audi A3 Convertible
2014 Toyota Rav4 EV
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EP Review: Wilmette – Wilmette
Renette van der Merwe
Mutant League Records / Pop Punk / Wilmette
WIlmette have not been shy about sharing tracks from their self-titled EP, having put out three of six prior to the release date. Despite being able to guess what the final product would sound like based on those singles, listening to it as a whole confirmed our suspicions; this EP is killer and Wilmette are in for a bright future.
The Illinois-based band have only been at it for around two years, but during that time they have crafted a sound that pushes and pulls between pop punk similar to The Story So Far and Knuckle Puck and a post-hardcore alliegience to the likes of The Devil Wear Prada and Touche Amore. This creates moments of desperate emotional vulnerability hidden throughout songs bursting with effervescent energy and upbeat melodies, creating a unique space where it’s easy listening but with emotional depth.
‘Alchemy’ – our standout track – is a good starting point if you’re new to this band. As if genetically modified in a lab, it is the perfect product of an extremely talented band and showcases huge hooks, well placed riffs and great versatility from Aaron Hailey and Peyton Day on vocals.
Everything from the pacing to instrumentation and lyricism makes this one of our favourite EP’s of this year and Wilmette prove, without a doubt, that they are capable of great things.
Tags: Mutant League Records / Pop Punk / Wilmette
EP Review: Frank Iero and the future violence – heaven is a place, this is a place
In our first review of the new year, we’re extremely honoured for it to be about the legend that is, Frank Iero, and his newest material. Sticking to his Future Violents - although now technically spelt as Violence - the same members who brought you Barriers back in...
Lonely the brave release ‘keeper’ and accompanying documentary
Lonely The Brave have released the final single ahead of their much anticipated third album, The Hope List. But instead of releasing a music video, they've opted for something a little different, filming a quick documentary which takes a look at the realities of...
10 bands to watch 2021
FeatureFEATURE10 Bands to watch in 2021If you weren't able to tell from our most anticipated albums of 2021 post, we're looking forward to a new year filled with music from our favourite bands. But, we're not just excited for the established artists, we're also...
Proving it wasn’t just a phase,
The Alt Club explores the scene by talking to the hottest established and upcoming bands in punk, emo, post-hardcore and beyond.
Explore THE ALT CLUB
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Democracy and Media
Underground iron-ore mining in Kiruna. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
LKAB invests up to €39bn in massive transformation for carbon-free future
The north-Swedish iron-ore company takes the front seat in developing a new world standard for reducing carbon emissions from mining and industrial activity.
Read in Russian | Читать по-русски
The unprecedented plans, presented on Monday, should pave the way for global mining industry to help cut its carbon-footprints.
“This is the biggest transformation in the company’s 130-year history and could end up being the largest industrial investment ever made in Sweden. It creates unique opportunities to reduce the world’s carbon emissions and for Swedish industry to take the lead in a necessary global transformation,” said Jan Moström, President and CEO of LKAB at the presentation.
LKAB is Europe’s largest iron-ore mining company, operating at Kiruna and Malmfälten in northern Sweden.
Investments are in the order of 10 to 20 billion Swedish kroner per year over the next 15 to 20 years. In total that will be between 150 and 400 billion kroner (€15 to €39bn) before 2040.
LKAB’s investments have three main directions:
Set a new world standard for mining.
Sponge iron produced using green hydrogen to replace iron ore pellets which will open the way for a fossils-free iron and steel industry.
Using fossils-free technology to extract strategically important earth elements and phosphorous for mineral fertilizer from today’s mining waste.
“The market for iron and steel will grow, and at the same time the global economy is shifting towards a carbon-free future. Our carbon-free products will play an important part in the production of railways, wind farms, electric vehicles and industrial machinery. We will go from being part of the problem to being an important part of the solution,” said Jan Moström.
Iron and steel industry count for 7 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions globally. By transforming production of iron and steel from the ore produced by LKAB, the company estimates 35 million tons cut in global CO2 emissions. The corresponds to 2/3 of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, or 3 times as much effect as if all cars in Sweden were parked for good.
In 2011, the two foreign ministers of Sweden and Norway, Carl Bildt and Jonas Gahr Støre, met with LKAB in Kiruna to discuss how to produce iron and steel in a more climate friendly way. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
The initiative by the Swedish mining giant fits perfectly well with the European Union’s recently approved plans for a 60% cut in emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.
“Our transformation will dramatically improve Europe’s ability to achieve its climate goals. By reducing emissions primarily from our export business, we will achieve a reduction in global emissions that is equivalent to two-thirds of all Sweden’s carbon emissions. That’s three times greater than the effect of abandoning all cars in Sweden for good. It’s the biggest thing we in Sweden can do for the climate,” said Jan Moström.
From Kiruna, the iron-ore is sent by rail to the port Narvik of Narvik on Norway’s northern coast. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
LKAB is owned by the Swedish state which strongly supports the green push.
“Sweden will continue to take global leadership in the industry’s transformation and show that a fossil-free society is within our reach. By setting an ambitious climate agenda we can lay the best foundation for innovation and enhanced competitiveness, thereby creating sustainable jobs throughout the country,” said Isabella Lövin, Minister for the Environment and Climate.
Ibrahim Baylan, Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation said the move will create a new Swedish export industry which also will bring about positive change beyond the country’s borders.
“LKAB is a company of great significance both locally and for the whole of Sweden, and with this strategy will continue to play an important role in Sweden’s prosperity. Collaboration, innovation and technological development will enable LKAB to continue its operations and contribute to substantial reductions in carbon emissions as well as increased circularity,” Baylan said.
The investment phase will provide for about 3,000 jobs a year, LKAB estimates. That is a massive increase in work-force for the sparsely populated regions of northern Sweden.
Norrbotten county will become a hub in a green industrial transformation, the company stated when presenting the plans on Monday.
LKAB port facilities in Narvik, Norway. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
World’s first fossil-free steelmaking starts in northern Sweden
Earthquake rattles workers inside Kiruna iron mine
LKAB targets zero emission iron ore mining around 2030
Oslo fends off climate activists, offers oil companies 136 new oil block in northern waters
Tesla opens world’s northernmost Supercharger station
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Jessica Chastain Starring as Tammy Wynette in Upcoming TV Series
Jon Kopaloff, Getty Images / Tammy Wynette Official Website
Jessica Chastain has signed on to star as country legend Tammy Wynette in a limited series that is coming to television.
Deadline reports that Chastain will portray Wynette in an upcoming limited TV series titled George & Tammy for Spectrum Originals and Paramount Network. The show is based on a book titled The Three of Us: Growing Up With Tammy and George, which the couple’s daughter, Georgette Jones, published in 2013.
Wynette and Jones were married from 1969 until 1975, and their relationship inspired hit songs including "We're Gonna Hold On" and "Golden Rings." The upcoming show will depict the ups and downs of their relationship.
Chastain is best known for her roles in Zero Dark Thirty, The Help, The Martian, Molly's Game and more. She was previously slated to star opposite Josh Brolin in a movie based on the legendary country couple's marriage, according to the Wrap.
She is still confirmed to play Wynette in the limited series. It's not yet clear if Brolin is still attached to the project in the role of Jones, though he's still listed as an executive producer for the project alongside series creator Abe Sylvia, Andrew Lazar (American Sniper) and Chastain. David Glasser, David Hutkin and Bob Yari from 101 Studios will also serve as executive producers along with writer Bryan Goluboff.
"I am humbled to bring this incredible story to life with the breadth it deserves and that the Charter platforms allow," Abe Sylvia says in a statement. "Tammy Wynette is an American icon, and I can think of no one better to illuminate the woman behind the legend than Jessica Chastain. After having the honor of penning The Eyes of Tammy Faye for Freckle Films and Searchlight, I so look forward to another collaboration with her. This has indeed been a passion project for Andrew, Josh and me – and we are so grateful to our partners Katherine Pope, Keith Cox and David Glasser for tirelessly championing our labor of love."
The Wrap reports that George & Tammy will fist run on Spectrum, then run nine months later on both the upcoming ViacomCBS streaming service and the Paramount Network.
See Inside George Jones and Tammy Wynette's Legendary Estate
See Inside Tammy Wynette's Lavish Beachside Estate
Source: Jessica Chastain Starring as Tammy Wynette in Upcoming TV Series
Filed Under: tammy wynette
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©The Wire | 2018
Did the Union Cabinet Just Set the Stage for NRC by Pushing for 'Updated' NPR?
Two press releases by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 2014 had made direct links between NPR and NRC.
Students write posters against NPR, CAA and NRC in Kolkata. Photo: Reuters
The Wire Analysis
New Delhi: The Union cabinet on Tuesday cleared the way for updating the National Population Register (NPR) – a precursor process to the creation of the controversial National Register of Citizens – and allocated a budget of Rs 3,941 crore for this task. The government aims to finish the enumeration exercise between April 2020 and September 2020 in all states and Union Territories except Assam.
The NPR is a process, first mooted by the first National Democratic Alliance government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to collect basic demographic and biometric details for the creation of an identity database of every resident of the country. It will be conducted along with the house-listing exercise for Census 2021, for which the government allocated a separate amount of Rs 8,754 crore in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
What is the NPR?
In simple words, the NPR is a list of “usual residents” in the country – a term used for a person with regard to the particular area he or she is living in for the past six months or where he or she intends to live for the next six months or more.
The first NPR was conducted in 2010 and an updating of the register was done in 2015 through a door-to-door survey.
Though it is mandatory for every citizen to register themselves in the NPR, which will be conducted under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, it is not clear what the outcome of the earlier enumeration exercises was.
Whatever the government may say today to defuse the raging controversy over the Citizenship Amendment) Act and the NRC, it has in the past repeatedly stressed that the NPR and NRC are linked.
As the then minister of state for home affairs told the Rajya Sabha on November 26, 2014, “The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of all the usual residents which include citizens and non-citizens as well. The NPR is the first step towards creation of National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) by verifying the citizenship status of every usual resident.” (emphasis added)
According to the specified form during the first enumeration and updating exercise, the NPR collected 15 demographic details from each resident – name, date of birth, place of birth, address, relationship to head of household, sex, marital status, occupational activity, names of mother, father and spouse, nationality, educational qualification and duration of stay at current address and permanent address.
According to the Indian Express, the new form will require every resident to provide additional data points on pain of being fined: date and place of birth of parents, last place of residence, Permanent Account Number (PAN), Aadhaar (on a voluntary basis), voter ID card number, driving licence number and mobile number.
The requirement that every resident declare the date and place of their parents’ birth will not only be overly onerous but suggests the NRC – when it is eventually pursued – might use metrics beyond the simple test for determining citizenship that the Citizenship Act itself envisages.
Any individual born in India before July 1, 1987 is an Indian by birth regardless of the identity or age or place of birth of his or her parents. Children born in India after 2004 are Indians by birth only if at least one parent is Indian and the other is not an “illegal immigrant”.
Also read: NRC or No NRC: Who Is Lying, Narendra Modi or Amit Shah?
As protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the NRC have spread across the country, many state governments believe that the updating of the NPR is a prelude to the NRC. They have opposed it on the basis that the updated NPR may smoothen the process of the NRC, which the Union government plans to conduct to identify and then drive out “infiltrators”.
The NRC has become contentious as it may require Indian citizens to prove their citizenship through multiple documents, which the poor will struggle to produce. Following the CAA, which treats all non-Muslim undocumented migrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan as refugees and expedites the grant of Indian citizenship to them, the NRC is also now being seen as an exclusionary exercise that may empower the government to declare marginalised people, and especially Muslims, as “doubtful citizens” and then eventually as “infiltrators”.
Are NPR and NRC linked?
Though Union information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar insists the NPR and and the NRC have nothing to do with each other, the opposition parties insist there is a linkage.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a press statement said, “By the amendment of the Citizenship Act of 1955 and the rules notified on December 10, 2003 by the Vajpayee government, the National Population Register is the basis on which the National Register of Citizens is prepared. It is clear that the NPR is the first stage of the exercise to implement the NRC.”
It added that “this linkage was made clear as early as July 23, 2014, soon after the Modi government assumed office, in an answer to a question (starred question No. 229, Rajya Sabha) by the Minister of State for Home Affairs.”
The then junior home minister Kiren Rijiju, in a written reply to MP Asaduddin Owaisi in the Lok Sabha, had said, “The government has now decided to create the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) based on the information collected under the scheme of NPR by verifying the citizenship status of all individuals in the country.”
The government had a legal mandate to make that assertion since Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, provides for compulsory registration of every citizen and the issue of a “national identity card” to him or her. It also said that the Union government may maintain a “National Register of Indian Citizens”.
Although technically the NPR is a catalogue of ‘usual residents’ based on their place of residence while the NRC is a process to register Indian citizens with the objective of identifying “infiltrators,” the opposition parties believe the NPR at this stage can easily become a prelude to the divisive NRC to be carried out nationally.
This is because the 2003 Citizenship Act rules specifically envisage the creation of an NRC from the NPR master list.
The process is spelt out in the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003:
“For the purposes of preparation and inclusion in the Local Register of Indian Citizens, the particulars collected of every family and individual in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinised by the Local Registrar…
During the verification process, particulars of such individuals, whose Citizenship is doubtful, shall be entered by the Local Registrar with appropriate remark in the Population Register for further enquiry and in case of doubtful Citizenship, the individual or the family shall be informed in a specified proforma immediately after the verification process is over.” (emphasis added)
Against this backdrop, Union home minister Amit Shah’s assurance in an interview to ANI that the enumeration exercise being planned was only for the NPR and not the NRC seems disingenuous:
Home Minister Amit Shah to ANI: It is possible that some names are missed in the NPR, still their citizenship will not be revoked because this is not the process of NRC. The NRC is a different process. I want to make it clear that nobody will lose citizenship because of NPR. pic.twitter.com/JnSdPwIKxx
While Shah is right that “nobody will lose citizenship because of NPR”, the data collected during the exercise would very much become the basis for an individual to first be moved to the category of “doubtful citizen” and then declared an “illegal immigrant”, liable to detention.
Shah also attempted to parry queries on the purpose behind the building of detention centres by claiming the centres were for “illegal migrants” and were not connected to the NRC or CAA, ignoring the fact that the NRC process is intended to catch “illegal migrants” and lock them up pending deportation – a point he himself repeatedly made when he said “each and every infiltrator” would be rounded up and expelled.
Home Minister Amit Shah to ANI: There is no connection between detention center and NRC or CAA. The center has been there for years and is for illegal migrants. Misinformation is being spread on this. pic.twitter.com/OAHlt8V96e
NPR-NRC linkage first established by Union home ministry
While Union home minister Amit Shah continues to insist the NPR and NRC are not linked, two press releases by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 2014 made direct links between NPR and NRC.
The first was regarding the issue of an NPR smart card on July 15, 2014.
“The Citizenship Act, 1955 provides that the Central Government may compulsorily register every Citizen of India and issue National Identity Card to him. Accordingly, Government has decided to create National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) by verifying citizenship status of all persons in the National Population Register (NPR) and issue National Identity Cards to all the Citizens of India.”
The second press release by the MHA was issued on November 26, 2014 and admitted the link between them more clearly.
“The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of all the usual residents which include citizens and non-citizens as well. The NPR is the first step towards creation of National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) by verifying the citizenship status of every usual residents.”
Many at the time had questioned the necessity of an NPR updating exercise when similar details had already been collected by the UIDAI for Aadhaar. However, Rijiju in a written reply to MP T.N.Seema in the Rajya Sabha had clarified to say that NPR is a different process and that “there is no proposal to merge the existing Aadhar database to the NPR under consideration of the government.”
The Union cabinet’s decision to begin the NPR process may likely become another contentious issue against the current political backdrop. At least 12 chief ministers have already declared that they will not let the NRC be implemented in their respective states.
Only a week ago, Mamata Banerjee stayed all preparations for NPR updation in West Bengal. Her government sent a letter to all district magistrates ordering them to stop all activity regarding NPR in “in the interest of public order”. Responding to the decision, state’s BJP president Dilip Ghosh slammed the TMC government but not without making direct links between NPR and NRC.
“Mamata Banerjee has become so much dependent on Bangladeshi infiltrators that she has no option but to keep harming the interests of the country, come what may,” Ghosh, who is also the Lok Sabha MP from Midnapore said.
Terming the NPR as the “first step” to the NRC, even Kerala’s Left Front government stayed all activities related to the preparations for updating the NPR. “The government is duty-bound to continue its cooperation for the conduct of the Census as that exercise in an inevitable one. The decision to stay the NPR-related activities in the state was taken against the backdrop of the factors that the issue is before the Supreme Court and the amended citizenship Act has deviated from the Constitutional values,’’ the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office said in a statement.
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The Write Place (for me)
All the writings, all right here
A few thoughts about masks
July 4, 2020 / IlanaB / 1 Comment
TL;DR – Wear masks!
As a fan of Korean dramas, I noticed a lot of the big stars would wear cloth masks in public. Are they trying not to be noticed?
Screen grab from SOURCE, note that the date is 2019 (not coronatimes)
I also noticed Asian tourists in Israel wearing masks. They aren’t trying to keep a low profile in public.
I found out that in Korea specifically, but also in other Asian countries, the pollution is so bad they include fine dust warnings in their weather reports. People wear masks on particularly bad days. Masks also are a layer of protection against sun damage – the tourists were often wearing big sun hats and UV protective sleeves on their arms. For this post, I also did a little research about mask wearing in Asia and found an article from 2014 about the culture of wearing masks in Asia. In short, if someone is ill, they will wear a mask to protect others. Apparently this has been part of the culture since the flu pandemic of 1918. Today, it’s a fashion statement.
Coronatimes
Now we are in the middle of a pandemic that is not getting better. To update the numbers from last week: There are now 11.2 million cases – up 1.2 million since last week. Incidentally, May 27 was the first day there were more than 100,000 new cases and it’s been steadily going up to 200,000+ new cases every day. The death rate remains stable with 29,500 deaths this week putting the world on track to reach another 100,000 deaths within about 3 weeks.
Israel is officially in the second wave. We’ve doubled the new case rate this week with over 1,000 new cases reported in a single day. It’s directly tied to reopening and people ignoring warnings about how to reopen safely.
The best option for people is to not get exposed to the virus by staying home. That’s not a long term solution. So if we have to go out, we need to protect ourselves and others. That means masks.
My office sent this graphic.
A slightly more colorful comparison was making its way around Facebook.
Masks = Healthy society
I’ve been horrified by the public meltdowns in the US over wearing masks. I can’t understand how a matter of public health became a question of freedom.
I think one good example is smoking. A person is free to smoke as much as they want. That’s a choice they’ve made. Now that science has proven that second-hand smoke causes cancer and puts children in smoking households at a higher risk for respiratory illnesses like asthma, smokers may not like that they can no longer smoke in bars and other public places, but they tend to agree that they don’t have a right to blow smoke into people’s faces and potentially cause cancer or respiratory distress in other people.
What about speed limits and seatbelt laws? They are government-imposed laws for public safety. No one (that I know of) has tried to avoid paying the fines because they have a god-given right to pass other drivers like they’re standing still and smash through their own windshield when they slam on the breaks.
Now compound the danger by making smoking and bad driving contagious.
Yes, masks are uncomfortable. But surgeons and dentists haven’t thrown out sterilization procedures because they are uncomfortable. Coronavirus is also uncomfortable. Many of those who “recover” suffer as much as when they were sick and can’t return to normal life. That’s pretty uncomfortable. If an asymptomatic carrier turns into a super-spreader and people end up hospitalized or dead because they were near that person, that’s not comfortable for anyone.
Your freedom ends at my personal space. Wear a mask.
Corona Corner
June 27, 2020 / IlanaB / 1 Comment
With everything else in the news, you might have forgotten that there was a virus. I didn’t. I’ve been wearing my mask in public and socially distancing all the time. I think twice before taking a bus and use alcohol gel after each trip.
Israel is trying desperately to get back to normal with mixed results. Hundreds of new confirmed corona cases are showing up every day, but deaths remain in the single digits. Is this the dreaded “second wave”? Probably not; it’s just people thinking they don’t need to take precautions. The government doesn’t want to shut down the whole nation again, so they are enforcing targeted lockdowns.
Big-picture view
One statistic I followed – and I haven’t seen reported – is the time it takes to reach 100,000 deaths globally.
It took 77 days to reach the first 100,000 deaths (January 23-April 9).
It took 14 days for the next 100,000 (April 10-April 24).
It took 19 days for the next 100,000 (April 25-May 14).
It took 22 days for the next 100,000 (May 15-June 6).
We’re just about to reach the next 100,000 (probably today, June 27) and that took 21 days.
It seems to me that since April 25, the global death toll has been stable. If one country starts to lessen their death toll, another one steps up to take its place.
Is the US doing as badly as reported?
The big headline in the past few days has been Americans will not be allowed in EU countries because of their poor handling of the coronavirus. What’s left out of the headline is that the US is not targeted and is one of a number of countries (including Israel) that will not be allowed in the EU yet.
I’ve felt that perhaps the reporting on the US handling of the coronavirus has been a little bit skewed. The US has 50 states and 330 million people; it’s the third largest country in the world in terms of population. So I combined the 6 countries in Europe with the highest death rates (UK, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany) and found their total population is 335 million. Altogether, those 6 countries have 155,000 deaths (133 days) to the US’s 127,000 (119 days) (both numbers rounded as of this writing).
Brazil has the second most confirmed cases in the world (half of what the US has) and about two-thirds the population of the US. Since May 27, it averages about 1,000 deaths every day. From the first deaths on March 22, Brazil reached 56,000 deaths (rounded as of this writing) in 97 days.
For a closer-to-home comparison: Mexico has one-third the population of the US and 26,000 dead (85 days) with hundreds dying every day; Canada has 38 million people and 8,500 deaths (103 days) with not even dozens dying every day. Americans are allowed to travel to Mexico, but as yet are not allowed to travel to Canada.
Another statistic is that there are 10 million confirmed cases in the world and 2.5 million are in the US. Of the nearly 500,000 deaths, 127,000 are in the US. The US, a single country, represents 25% of both numbers. No other single country comes close.
Is the US doing badly? It depends.
Europe has many countries and many governments. Their policies are not entirely coordinated under the EU umbrella. Some countries do better. Some do worse – like the UK’s failed “herd immunity” policy and Sweden’s “just be responsible citizens” policy. In the US, some states are doing really well (Wyoming) and others are struggling (New York). It could be said that Europe and the US are sort of equal in numerical terms.
In general, the daily coronavirus death toll in the US is going down (see the daily deaths graph and the CDC’s excess death rate – the spike in 2018 was the flu). But it would be a stretch to say that the downward trend was a result of compassionate, logical, serious, unified leadership at the federal level.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
Is the US leading the world with a unified message on coronavirus? No. Once the US president was seen as someone who would bring nations together to solve global problems. The current president is not a voice of leadership for this global pandemic, and so, on the world stage, yes, the US is probably doing as badly as reported.
Don’t Panic, Pt. 6: Swedish factor
April 12, 2020 / IlanaB / Leave a comment
The days are all running together, but apparently we had Passover this week, and the Israeli government took the opportunity to temporarily but fully lock down the nation. I know that this is economically, psychologically, emotionally straining (I think the vernacular is “it’s a sh*tshow”), but for now I’m still okay with these extreme measures. The reason I’m okay is Sweden.
I’m trying to scroll less and take news breaks. I find the site that interests me most is featured on The Times of Israel related to the coronavirus.
9pm, Saturday night
See the Coronvirus Worldmeter? That’s my go-to site.
This week, I saw a little clip about Sweden’s policy of not closing down the nation and allowing people to “use their common sense.” Culturally, Swedes are quite fine with working from home, they aren’t overly social, they don’t have multiple generations living together. It’s not exactly a “herd immunity” argument, but it does suggest that healthy, younger, less-vulnerable people can go about their business as usual while vulnerable people should be isolated.
Sweden is of interest to me because they have a similar population to Israel: Sweden, 10.1 million; Israel, 8.6 million.
**Note: I’m not a statistician or an epidemiologist, and I know the comparisons below are not scientific.**
Israel and Sweden have a similar number of confirmed coronavirus cases. I tend not to follow that number because it’s based on testing capacity. You can see on the site that Israel is testing twice as much as Sweden is.
I follow the number of deaths (no, not because I’m morbid). This number is also a bit flawed. What if someone died but didn’t get tested for coronavirus? If they died of regular flu or pneumonia or didn’t get treatment in the ICU because it was crowded, is it counted in the corona deaths? I don’t think so, but these are the numbers we have.
As of this writing: Israel has a total of 97 deaths. Sweden has a total of 887.
Now one might argue that Scandinavia in general has more deaths. Nope. Finland has 49. Norway has 117. Denmark has 260. Lock down nations all, and their populations range from 5.4 to 5.7 million.
The main “herd immunity” experiment was in the UK (67.8 million people). They have since walked it back and locked down (mostly). They even had their prime minister in the ICU this week. How are they doing? 9,875 total deaths with around 900 per day most of this week.
Israel’s first death was March 20, and the “closed case” statistic is 93% recover, 7% die.
Sweden’s first death was March 11, and the “closed case” statistic is 30% recover, 70% die. I can’t even begin to speculate why there is such a huge difference.
Sweden’s death graph tends to be up and down (it’s reality, not a projection, after all). Most of this week saw 75-114 deaths per day, but only 17 so far today. It remains to be seen if in the long term Sweden’s strategy will work.
Israel was ranked number 1 in COVID-19 safety by Deep Knowledge Group. So even though we are going through something resembling a science fiction/dystopian future movie, I feel pretty good about how Israel is doing.
But I have some complaints.
Families around the nation were forbidden from meeting or traveling to other cities and even shut in their homes on the evening of the Seder, and yet somehow our president and prime minister managed to meet with their adult children. Way to lead by example, guys! At a minimum, they should be fined 5,000 NIS like others have been.
Flights were bringing Israelis home from around the world and passengers were not checked for the virus or put in quarantine. They just took taxis home. Way to be organized, guys! So Netanyahu cancelled all flights to Israel.
The government is not yet formed, and there is no exit strategy for the lock down. Way to put egos aside for the good of the country, guys!
I keep saying “guys,” not because I’m sloppily generalizing, I’m saying it because it’s mostly men in charge of this sh*tshow.
Even so, there are still glimmers of light in the darkness.
One of my best scrolling experiences this week comes from the Facebook group View from my window. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and it’s beautiful, inspiring, and reminds us that we are all in this together.
Speaking of sh*tshows, this is the meme that made me laugh the hardest this week (from The Language Nerds on Facebook).
Stay healthy! Stay home!
Stay sane! Stay safe!
Hey, is that an elephant in the room?
March 30, 2019 / IlanaB / 1 Comment
With all the fuss about William Barr’s 4-page summary of the Mueller report, I decided it might be worthwhile to read it.
The line that caught my attention and the line that no one seems to be talking about is:
The report outlines the Russian effort to influence the election and documents crimes committed by persons associated with the Russian government in connection with those efforts.
Russian meddling is not alleged or suspected. It is a verifiable fact.
Since I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere, I thought, “How often does a foreign power interfere with elections?” There’s a Wikipedia page about it.
There we find that in the 2016 US election, Russia intervened, Ukraine tried, and there’s some suspicion about Saudi Arabia.
Guess who interferes in elections more than any other government in the world, and by a large margin too?
The. United. States.
One study indicated that the country intervening in most foreign elections is the United States with 81 interventions, followed by Russia (including the former Soviet Union) with 36 interventions from 1946 to 2000 – an average of once in every nine competitive elections.
This study was done by Dov Levin, an Israeli scholar who started his academic career at Haifa University.
His research shows that the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia use covert or overt “partisan election interventions.” Influence tends to swing the vote by 2 to 3 percent. Sometimes that’s enough, sometimes not. (He published his academic article in February 2016.)
He notes that two things need to happen in order for intervention to take place – he calls them motive and opportunity – “a great power must perceive its interests as being endangered by a certain candidate or party within a democratic target … a significant domestic actor must consent to, and willingly cooperate with, a proposed electoral intervention by the great power.” The willing actor need not be the candidate.
In September 2016, Levin published an article in the Washington Post giving a synopsis of his research and said that the Soviet Union/Russia had meddled unsuccessfully in US elections two times previously (1948 and 1984). At the time, he said that Russian interference would likely be ineffective as the United States is a “hard target,” but Putin’s end goal would be “anyone but Hillary.”
In December 2018, Levin published an article stating that it would be unlikely for Mueller to prove that Trump colluded with Russia.
if possible collusion between the Trump camp and Russia occurred along the lines of past cases, the number of people who would know or who were involved in the collusion in the Trump campaign is probably quite small. Many senior members of the Trump campaign, including some of those personnel with ties to Russia, would likely have had no clue of such collusion going on. It may well be possible that even Trump was kept in the dark by those in his campaign who might have conspired with Russia.
Another obvious difficulty is that colluders are not taking notes and keeping records of their activities. Anyone who has seen even one episode of Law & Order knows that you can’t prosecute without hard evidence.
And then I started wondering about the numbers in the 2016 election. Did Russian meddling have an effect?
I’m not a statistician, but here are a few things I found interesting.
The trend in the 2016 election was for most states to shift toward the Republican side.
In many cases, the shift was not enough to swing a blue state to a red state.
In 4 states, the margin of victory was less than 1 percent. Together they equal 50 Electoral College votes (or enough to change the election result).
Compared with the 2012 election, only 1 state (29 EC votes) had a margin of victory of less than 1 percent, and in the 2008 election, it was 2 states (26 EC votes). In neither case was it enough to change the outcome of the election.
Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were blue states in the 2012 election, all shifted toward red, but only New Hampshire (4 EC votes) stayed blue.
Then I took an even closer look.
State Clinton Trump Other parties
Michigan 47.27% 47.5% 5.46%
Pennsylvania 47.46% 48.18% 5.08%
Wisconsin 46.45% 47.22% 7.09%
Neither major party got 50 percent of the vote, and the non-major parties got more than 3 percent of the vote (the number of votes Levin says a foreign power can influence). If Levin is correct and Putin wanted “anyone but Hillary” in office, these numbers seem to suggest that.
Let me add a few more statistics for comparison. These are popular vote percentages (due to rounding, they don’t always add up to exactly 100 percent).
Election Year Democrat Republican Other
2016 48.18% 46.09% 5.73%
2012 51.06% 47.2% 1.73%
2000 (Gore v. G.W. Bush) 47.87% 48.38% 3.75%
1992 (Clinton v. G.H.W. Bush v. Perot) 43.01% 37.45% 19.54%
I added the 2000 and 1992 elections to show that 3rd party candidates can have an influence on the elections – in 2000 in favor of the Republicans and in 1992 in favor of the Democrats, when a viable 3rd party candidate broke the Republican party.
I’m bothered that foreign interference in a sovereign country’s elections is treated as “business as usual.”
I wonder if the interference caused enough Americans to reject both parties, and it was a tossup whether it would favor the Democrats or the Republicans. In any case, the voting statistics show a divided nation with more people considering 3rd party candidates.
Maybe the strategy to determine how to tip the Electoral College was suggested by an entity that had a preferred outcome.
Did the United States get a taste of its own medicine in 2016? Is this a harbinger of a new world order?
We may never know everyone who colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, or at least we may not have enough solid evidence, but we do know Russia interfered and Putin got the result he wanted.
Israel’s election is coming up on April 9 and I’m feeling more cynical than ever.
December 31, 2018 / IlanaB / 3 Comments
~~ My computer is back! ~~
It’s good to take a minute and look back over the year.
My goals for this blog were to write about life in Israel and make a practice of showing up to the page. I can count this year as a success for both those goals. I wrote fewer words overall than in years past and fewer blog posts, but I hope that means my writing is becoming sharper and more concise (probably not always…).
People visited my page from 54 countries!
Leaving aside the United States (#1) and Israel (#2), the top 10 countries were:
Surprises further down the list:
Six people from United Arab Emirates visited.
Four people from Pakistan stopped by.
One person each came from Bangladesh, Gibraltar, and Fiji.
Overall, I had more visitors this year than in years past and I had the most visitors in September.
I’m hesitant to write resolutions for 2019 for this blog, but my hopes are to write about different things (life in Israel will still be the main topic), try some experimental posts (I’m not sure about this yet), and write more reviews of things I’m listening to, reading, and watching (I’ve had a lot of fun with those posts this year).
I know. Hopes won’t get you anywhere unless you have a plan. I’m working on it.
Wishing you all good things for 2019!
May it be the best year yet!
May 20, 2017 / IlanaB / 6 Comments
This is the 100th post on my blog.
When I started, I’m not sure that I imagined that I would consistently post every week and eventually get to a 3-digit number. But here we are!
People from 50 different countries have visited my blog (and thank you very much for dropping by!).
It’s no surprise that most of my visitors come from Israel and the US (in that order). Countries on the list that surprised me are Kenya, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan.
The top 10 countries are:
My most popular post was the one I wrote about Tai Chi in Israel. It was popular because my Tai Chi school posted it on their site and it got a lot of attention (compared to my other posts). It had 305 views from around the world.
The 100th post is a milestone that made me think about what I want to do with this site. Perhaps I should just close it. After all, I don’t get a lot of readership and I just write for myself really. But that line of thought didn’t feel right. I don’t want to get famous and have a viral blog. I do want to try to commit to writing more and about different things. So far this blog has been about life in Israel, but I have many other interests and I want to explore writing about those.
In honor of my 100th post and to symbolize my increased commitment, I’ve upgraded my blog to a WordPress “personal” blog, so that I could have my own domain name.
thewriteplaceforme.com!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll consider what it is that I want to accomplish with the next 100 posts and where I’d like to be at #200.
This blog started with emails to my friends and family about life in Israel and that primary mission won’t change, but I do want to expand my content a bit.
I have even considered going back and rewriting a few posts – although that may be just a writing exercise for myself and those revisions won’t show up here.
I have a lot to think about. The first step was just making the commitment and I’ve done it.
Follow The Write Place (for me) on WordPress.com
Don't Panic, Pt. 6: Swedish factor
Jerusalem scenes
Welcome to 2021 January 1, 2021
Same action, same result July 25, 2020
Up and Down. And Up Again? July 18, 2020
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Andy’s act is an upbeat blend of dazzling instrumental artistry, foot-tapping songs and bright and breezy humour.
Born in Lancashire to a musical family, Andy began performing at an early age, studying classical violin and piano. But he also developed a passion for jazz and popular music, and having taught himself ukulele he made history at Oxford University as the only musician ever to give his degree recital on the instrument! He is now considered one of the world’s foremost ukulele players and is proud to have contributed to its continuing popularity.
The great Ken Dodd gave Andy his break into theatre, and he made over 300 performances with the legendary comedian, as well as working alongside stars such as Max Bygraves, Joe Pasquale, Frank Skinner, Des O’Connor and Roy Hudd.
Andy’s one-man show is a popular attraction for cruise liners and corporate functions, and his tour schedule of major theatres and cabaret venues worldwide prompted The Stage to call him ‘the busiest man in showbusiness’. Audiences too have taken him to their hearts: two award-winning summer seasons in Blackpool have earned him the title of the resort’s ‘Top Solo Artist’.
Recently Andy has been portraying uke legend George Formby in the touring show We’ll Meet Again, and his festival appearances have taken him to Italy, Germany, The Czech Republic, Finland and Oklahoma City, USA. This year Andy stars in his own production Those Were The Days at theatres around Britain – find out more at: www.AndyEastwood.com
PreviousBad Mouse Orchestra
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INTERN - PUBLIC INFORMATION [Temporary]
Tags: Human Rights internship Covid-19 Law English language humanitarian law Environment
Added Date: Saturday, 17 October 2020
Deadline Date: Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
Post Level: I-1
Organization: UN Department of Global Communications
Added: Tuesday, 01 December 2020
Deadline: Sunday, 31 January 2021
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The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is seeking for qualified interns for a maximum internship of 6 months, depending on the needs of UNODA and the willingness of applicant.
The Office is mandated to provide objective, impartial and up-to-date information on disarmament issues and activities to Member States, States parties to multilateral agreements, intergovernmental organizations and institutions, departments and agencies of the United Nations system, research and educational institutions, civil society, especially non-governmental organizations, the media and the general public. For more information, please refer to: https:www.un.org/disarmament,
The internship is unpaid and full-time. Interns work five days per week (35 hours) under the supervision of a professional staff member in UNODA to whom they are assigned. The incumbent reports to the Chief of the Information and Outreach Branch.
- Review multiple news platforms for the creation of an integrated disarmament news summary to be shared with senior managers and others.
- Assist the Office with strategic communication and public outreach.
- Assist in developing media products for web and social networking platforms.
- Assist in developing content management and development of disarmament stories and information to increase awareness and understanding of the issues by key audiences through information posted on the Office’s website and through social media channels.
- Assist with drafting and editing publications (e.g. fact sheets, brochures, newsletters and donor-related updates) for internal and external sources.
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Professionalism: Knowledge of the full range of communications approaches, tools, and methodologies essential to planning and executing effective campaign strategies and programmes, e.g. campaign management, media operations, marketing and promotion, audience outreach, message targeting. Ability to rapidly analyze and integrate diverse information from varied sources. Ability to produce a variety of written communications products in a clear, concise style. Shows pride in work and in achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter. Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results. Is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns. Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges. Remains calm in stressful situations. Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.
Communication: Speaks and writes clearly and effectively. Listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately. Asks questions to clarify, and exhibits interest in having two-way communication. Tailors language, tone, style and format to match audience. Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
Planning& Organizing: Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies. Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required. Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work. Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning. Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary. Uses time efficiently.
Applicants to the United Nations Internship Programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:
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No working experience is required to apply for the United Nations Internship Programme. Your training, education, advance course work or skills should benefit the United Nations during your internship.
English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the post advertised, fluency in English (oral and written) is required. Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.
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In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, interns may be requested to undertake the internship remotely in view of constraints regarding visa issuance, international travel and access to UN premises. The intern must be willing and prepared to undertake the internship remotely for a part or the entirety of the internship. The work hours during the internship shall be determined based on individual discussion between the intern and the supervisor(s) taking into consideration the minimum requirements of the Organization and the time difference between the hosting office and the location of the intern.
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Due to the high volume of applications received, only successful candidates will be contacted.
United Nations Considerations
According to article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity. Candidates will not be considered for employment with the United Nations if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. The term “sexual exploitation” means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. The term “sexual abuse” means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. The term “sexual harassment” means any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offence or humiliation, when such conduct interferes with work, is made a condition of employment or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment, and when the gravity of the conduct warrants the termination of the perpetrator’s working relationship. Candidates who have committed crimes other than minor traffic offences may not be considered for employment.
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Edward B. Clark, MD
Dr. Clark is Associate Vice President for Clinical Affairs, President of the University of Utah Medical Group, and Professor, Department of Pediatrics of the University of Utah. He also holds adjunct professorships in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Bioengineering. Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Clark received his... Read More
Specialties: Pediatric Cardiology
Residency: University of Nebraska - Omaha
Fellowship: Johns Hopkins
Residency: Johns Hopkins
Medical School: Albany Medical College
Dayle Benson, DHA
Title: Chief of Staff of Clinical Affairs; Executive Director (Medical Group)
Dr. Dayle Benson is chief of staff of clinical affairs and executive director of the University of Utah Medical Group—a group of over 1,600 providers practicing throughout the Intermountain West. Dr. Benson facilitates clinical partnerships, explores new care delivery models, evaluates workforce needs, sponsors clinical innovations, and assists with communicating clinical vision and strategy. During her tenure, the Medical Group has grown to over a half a billion in clinical revenue and achieved best practice performance in finance, operations, and quality health care delivery. Prior to joining the University in 1998, Dr. Benson was executive director of business development for St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California. She is an active member of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Vizient, the Academic Medical Group Leadership Roundtable, and the American Medical Group Association. Ms. Benson holds a doctorate degree in health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina.
John F. Bohnsack, MD
John Bohnsack MD is Professor and Interim Chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics for the Clinical Enterprise. Dr. Bohnsack graduated from Yale College, and received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He trained in Pediatrics at the University of Washington, ... Read More
Specialties: Pediatric Immunology, Pediatric Rheumatology
Fellowship: National Institutes of Health
Fellowship: University of Washington
Residency: University of Washington
Medical School: University of Virginia
John W. Barrett, MD
Specialties: Family Medicine
50 N. Medical Drive SLC, UT 84132
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Archives and manuscripts (280)
Student dissertations (7)
3243 results for “"Asylums."”
Infectious diseases : weekly returns.
Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England)
Small pox daily returns.
Manual of regulations to be observed by the subordinate officials at the several fever and smallpox hospitals under the control of the board : revised to May, 1882.
Minutes of the proceedings of the Tuberculosis Committee / Metropolitan Asylums Board.
Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England). Tuberculosis Committee.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board and its work, 1867-1930 / compiled by Sir Allan Powell.
Report on the bacteriological diagnosis and the antitoxic serum treatment of cases admitted to the hospitals of the board during the years 1895 and 1896 / by G. Sims Woodhead.
Woodhead, G. Sims.
Reports for the year 1891 of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, also of the ambulance & training ship "Exmouth" committees (6th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.
Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England). Statistical Committee.
Reports for the year 1894 of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, also of the ambulance and training ship "Exmouth" committees (9th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.
Report on return cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria notified for the three years 1902, 1903 and 1904 / by F.M. Turner.
Turner, F. M., M.D.
Annual report of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1898 : (in two volumes).
Report of the medical superintendent to the Committee of Management of the Fulham Hospital, for the year 1882.
Fulham Hospital.
The care and cure of the insane : being the reports of the Lancet commission on lunatic asylums, 1875-6-7, for Middlesex, the city of London, and Surrey, (republished by permission) with a digest of the principal records extant, and a statistical review of the work of each asylum from the date of its opening to the end of 1875 / by J. Mortimer Granville etc.
Granville, J. Mortimer 1833-1900.
Report of the medical superintendent of the Deptford Hospital for the year 1880.
Deptford Hospital.
South Wharf Receiving Station Rotherhithe 1883 - 1940 : a year-by-year account of events at South Wharf in the form of summaries and excerpts from the original records of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, London County Council etc.
Surrey Docks Farm (Southwark, London, England)
State aid to institutions for imbeciles : report of deputation to the Lord President of the Council, at the Privy Council Office, Whitehall, on Wednesday, February 12th, 1890.
Asylums for Idiots and Imbeciles in England and Wales.
Report of a deputation : consisting of T. H. Jenkins, D. M. Cassidy, and Joseph Wiglesworth, appointed to visit asylums on the Continent, with recommendations regarding the building of a new (sixth) Lancashire asylum / [T. H. Jenkins].
Jenkins, T. H.
Report for the year 1897 of the statistical committee, with appendices : (12th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.
Reports for the year 1895 of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, also of the ambulance and training ship "Exmouth" committees (10th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.
Annual reports of the statistical committee and the medical superintendents of the infectious hospitals and imbecile asylums, for the year 1887 / Metropolitan Asylums' Board.
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States Are Suspending Public Records Access Due to COVID-19
There is little precedent for such action, even in an emergency By Colin Lecher
May 1, 2020 10:00 ET
Sam Morris and Getty Images
On March 4, Hawaii had no confirmed cases of COVID-19, but officials had started to take action in anticipation of an outbreak. Gov. David Ige declared a state of emergency, giving him the authority to “suspend any law that impedes … emergency functions.” By the 16th, the outbreak had arrived: The state had 10 confirmed cases, and Ige began to act on that declaration.
Among the statutes he suspended was Chapter 92F of something called “the uniform information practices act.” It was easy for a layperson to miss, but the change effectively blocked requests for public records in the state for the duration of the emergency.
The Markup Depends on You
Independent journalism isn't just the first rough draft of history, it's a blueprint for a better future.
Hawaii is among several jurisdictions around the country that have amended or suspended access to public records as the coronavirus spreads. Governors are taking emergency action in some states, ordering changes to public records compliance during the crisis. Other states and municipalities have made legislative changes to their laws. But government-transparency advocates argue that in a time of crisis, access to public records is even more important.
Officials say they need to take drastic actions to battle the pandemic. In New Jersey, where the state legislature amended its open records law, an analyst with an association of state municipalities told NJ.com that officials “need the flexibility during emergencies to be able to run government and respond to the emergency at hand.” A San Diego county spokesperson told the Voice of San Diego recently that “the public interest in receiving records at this time is outweighed by public interest in having county personnel free to handle this ongoing emergency.”
State and local jurisdictions aren’t the only ones making changes. At the federal level, government agencies are making their own decisions about how to process requests. But it’s clear those requests are facing heavy delays. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) recently found that several agencies were telling requesters to expect delays through the course of the crisis.
On March 27, a report from the Congressional Research Service explained some of the reasons for those delays. The report noted that in some cases employees working remotely wouldn’t be able to find documents that weren’t already digitized. The report found that some agencies said they would expedite critical information during the crisis, but some said other requesters would be left waiting.
… response to your public records request will be postponed indefinitely.
Hawaii State Department of Health
There’s little precedent for such sweeping changes, even in times of crisis. A month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft released a memo reminding federal agencies of their ability to block access to agency deliberations under the Freedom of Information Act. The memo said agencies should take “full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial, and personal privacy interests that could be implicated by disclosure of the information.” But the memo was only guidance.
At the state level, after Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey offered government agencies guidance on dealing with public records requests during an emergency, but the guidance clearly stated that the “right to access government records is not suspended” during a disaster.
After some California agencies said they would stop responding to public records requests because of COVID-19, transparency advocates including the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement that there was “no legal basis” for such an “extraordinary step.”
“The coronavirus pandemic is not California’s first major crisis,” a coalition of organizations wrote in the statement, “and the Legislature has never authorized the suspension of the California Public Records Act.”
The Markup has seen similar results of government reaction to the pandemic at the state level. We’ve filed records requests with all 50 states, New York City, and Washington, D.C., for their coronavirus testing algorithms. While many states have already complied with the request, and we have data on 24 jurisdictions so far, we’ve also seen delays—including some that may be indefinite.
In Hawaii, our request to the state health department was denied. After two weeks, officials returned a largely blank form with a bold, underscored line stating, “Pursuant to Governor David Ige’s Supplementary Proclamation, dated March 16, 2020, response to your public records request will be postponed indefinitely.”
Show Your WorkCoronavirus
How We Analyzed States’ Coronavirus Testing Plans
Washington, D.C., which has added COVID-19 office closure as an exception to the requirement to respond to public records requests within 15 days, acknowledged our request but said it would be delayed—three times. Emails from the city’s health department said the deadline for fulfilling our request would be moved from March to April, and then to May 15, and then to June 8, as the emergency was extended. The city ultimately provided some information on its policies at the end of April instead.
Pennsylvania responded to our request about a month after it was filed. An official acknowledged receipt of our request but said the health department’s public records office was closed for the duration of the emergency. “Requests will be processed upon resumption of business,” the official wrote in an email.
Unlike actions from governors, which put an end date on the emergency changes, New Jersey has amended its public records law directly to suspend the time required for a response during an emergency, effectively making the change permanent. Previously, officials faced a hard deadline of a week for responding to requests. Now, the state law says that, for the course of a declared emergency, “the custodian of a government record shall make a reasonable effort, as the circumstances permit, to respond to a request for access to a government record within seven business days or as soon as possible thereafter.”
“This is of course terribly concerning because they’ve taken their public records law and practically turned it into a mere suggestion,” said Gunita Singh, a legal fellow for RCFP.
“COVID-19 is no excuse to relax the fundamentals of open government and transparency,” Singh said.
From the series — Coronavirus
Colin Lecher Reporter
Ryan McLeod
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Newly-constructed library to open after spring break
By Nick McNamara
A construction worker fixes one of the 26 steps leading up to the front entrance on Feb. 21. Photo: Monica Salazar
The Library and Learning Crossroads (LLC) is set to open its doors to students as the new Pierce College library, with the move taking place throughout spring break, according to Library Department Chair Paula Paggi.
The building officially opens on April 10, with both libraries to be closed during spring break.
Library services will not be available to students for the day before the break, March 27, as well as two days after the break, April 8 and 9.
“We tried to make as little impact as possible,” Paggi said. “We sent an email out to all instructors and admin[istrators] about this to try and have people make their assignments due around that.”
Though the physical services the library provides will not be available, all online databases will still be operating, according to Paggi.
The bond to build the LLC was awarded on Jan. 15, 2010 to the amount of $40 million, according to BuildLACCD, the Los Angeles Community College District’s sustainable building program.
The 89,000-square-foot building was “designed and built to achieve high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality,” according to the Bernards, one of the architect firms that worked on the project.
Some of the sustainable features of the LLC include an underground storm water collection tank and skylights for natural lighting, according to Ed Cadena, project deputy director of the Swinerton Management Team.
The entrance to the building is at the top of a 26-step staircase, which also has some open space for students on spring break.
“You can contemplate a few students hanging around on these large steps here,” Cadena said. “Maybe not in the heat of the summer, but possibly on a cooler day.”
The top of the stairs gives students an “amazing view” of the campus, according to Cadena.
The inside of the LLC will contain twice the number of group study rooms–five of which will be reservable 24 hours in advance–twice the number of open access computers, 145 study carrels with working electrical outlets, Wi-Fi that works throughout the building and a classroom for library instruction separate from lab computers.
“Now [students] will be able to stay at the lab because we’ll have a classroom for all the instruction, which is really, really nice,” Paggi said.
The building will also have two copy tech rooms with color printers, 13 more toilets for men’s and women’s bathrooms and hold all the bookstacks on one floor rather than three.
“It’s going to be easy to sit and be near your stacks where you can access the information you want to look at,” Paggi said. “Right now you have to go down to horrible areas to find them.”
There will also be a special services room where resources for students with disabilities will be kept.
“I’m really excited about it,” Paggi said.
Additionally, a new employee will be joining the library staffs ranks.
“We’re quite thrilled with that because we’d like to get a digital librarian to help maintain for distance ed[ucation] and website upkeep,” Paggi said.
Aside from the new building, new parking will be available as construction on the LLC winds down.
“The area fenced off for the contractors [in parking lot 7] will be removed this week, and so that parking will be open next week,” Cadena said.
Only the Learning Crossroad’s second floor, which houses the library, and the courtyard will be open on April 10, with the rest of the building still to be completed.
The first floor is to contain the Center for Academic Success, Distance Education and Service Learning, the Faculty Staff Resource Center, and an open computing lab, according to a previous article by the Roundup news.
“Its being programmed for occupancy over the summer at this point,” Cadena said.
Also planned to be on the first floor will be the food court, which will also still be unfinished.
“The food court will not open at the same time [as the library],” Paggi said. “It will open soon, but not yet.”
With all the money that went into the library, Paggi hopes it is not abused by the student population
“I hope the students recognize that this is a place for them and treat it with respect,” Paggi said.
The hours for the LLC will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the same as the current library.
Learning Crossroads
Nick McNamara
Opinions Editor - Spring 2013 Program Director of KPCRadio.com - Fall 2013, Spring 2014 Managing Editor - Fall 2014
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