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‘100 Reasons To Give’
Renewing Harvard’s library system
Earlier this year, Grandma Moses (pictured) was rescued from a submerged cat carrier in the Charles River. She was cared for at the MSPCA-Angell before being adopted. Founded in 1868, MSPCA-Angell is the second-oldest humane society in the United States.
Photo courtesy of MSPCA-Angell
Giving Fair, new theme kick off Harvard Community Gifts
Date December 1, 2010 April 9, 2019
One hundred dollars may seem like a lot of money in these economic times, but broken down into increments — say, $5 per paycheck — and that’s like buying a coffee and a scone. Add it up over the course of a year and it shows how little by little the generosity of the Harvard community can have a big impact.
Thanks to Harvard’s annual Community Gifts campaign, donating to service agencies and charities has never been easier. This year, all faculty and staff received pledge cards featuring 50 favorite organizations from previous campaigns. (This list is provided as a convenience only; donations can be made to any nonprofit organization.) Staff and faculty may also participate via payroll deduction, with the additional option of donating a specified amount over the course of a year.
Pledges can also be made using an easy online form, which includes 100 organizations.
“This year’s theme, ‘100 Reasons To Give,’ reflects the many ways your contributions can make a difference, and we invite you to find the reasons that inspire you,” said Christine Heenan, vice president for public affairs and communications.
“The Harvard Community Gifts campaign welcomes donations at any level — when we give as a community, even a dollar or two or five from each paycheck can have a dramatic effect,” said Harvard President Drew Faust.
Not sure where to donate? Community Gifts is holding the first-ever Giving Fair on Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Radcliffe Gymnasium. There you can learn more about the important work and volunteer opportunities at charities serving people in need. You can also pick up or drop off pledge cards at the fair or use a convenient kiosk for making an online donation. Visit Harvard Community Gifts for more information.
Check out these worthy organizations below, and see what a $100 contribution can provide for them.
Breakthrough Cambridge
Founded in 1992 as Summerbridge Cambridge, Breakthrough Cambridge is the only year-round, tuition-free academic program in Cambridge that serves at-risk and underresourced middle and high school students. Breakthrough Cambridge is a six-year program composed of an academically intensive two-year middle school program and a high school support program that work with students until college matriculation. Unique to the program is the “students teaching students” model that inspires the next generation of educators by offering talented high school and college students the opportunity to teach. Following six years in the program, more than 90 percent of students enroll in four-year colleges. After working at Breakthrough, 72 percent of student teachers go on to pursue careers in education. Learn more at www.breakthroughcambridge.org.
$100 could buy Breakthrough Cambridge all this:
One day of a college student’s summer stipend as a Breakthrough Cambridge teacher
The SAT test prep book needed for each student in the College Access Program
Books such as “Othello” and “A Raisin in the Sun” for one student, who will read these in a summer literature class
MSPCA-Angell
The MSPCA-Angell is a national and international leader in animal protection and veterinary medicine and provides direct hands-on care for thousands of animals each year. Founded in 1868, it is the second-oldest humane society in the United States. Services include animal protection and adoption, advocacy, humane education, law enforcement, and world-class veterinary care. The MSPCA-Angell is a private, nonprofit organization located in Jamaica Plain, Mass. It does not receive any government funding nor is it funded or operated by any national humane organization. The MSPCA-Angell relies solely on the support and contributions of individuals who care about animals. Learn more at www.mspca.org.
$100 could buy MSPCA-Angell one of these:
Nearly 1,000 pounds of hay at Nevins Farm in Methuen, Mass., for homeless horses
Nearly 1,000 pounds of cat litter for the thousands of homeless felines annually
Various vaccinations, food, minor surgeries, and assisting with day-to-day care of animals
Professor David Lamberth (from left) and Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman discuss the future of the Harvard library system.
Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
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Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/tag/dementia/)
Dementia upswing linked to obesity rate, side effects
By reclaim | October 28, 2011
By COURTNEY CULEY
LANSING – The number of Michigan residents with dementia is on the rise and the state’s increasing obesity rate could be linked. Studies show that obesity in mid-life is among many risk factors for developing dementia later in life, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of Michigan residents with dementia increased 6 percent, according to the department. The numbers are expected to increase. In 2000, the Michigan obesity rate was 20 to 24 percent of adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Home » News » Grants » Morgan Receives $1 Million Gift from Bernard Osher Foundation
Morgan Receives $1 Million Gift from Bernard Osher Foundation
Morgan State U May 4, 2011
Morgan State University President David Wilson today announced a $1 million endowment gift from the Bernard Osher Foundation to support the MSU Center for Continuing and Professional Studies’ Osher Re-entry Scholarship Program. An additional $ 50,000 bridge grant award accompanied the endowment to provide financial assistance to nontraditional students enrolled in undergraduate degree programs beginning academic year 2011-2012.
“This endowment gift is a testament to the extraordinary work of Dr. Willie Bragg, Program Director of the Osher Re-entry Scholarship Program and our exceptional students,” said Dr. Wilson. “We value the collaborative partnership with the Bernard Osher Foundation and its support of this important initiative.”
The endowment gift is the first from the foundation awarded to Morgan providing support for a diverse population. According to Dr. Bragg, who also serves as Assistant Dean, School of Graduate Studies and Director of Continuing Studies, the endowment will aid in establishing sustainability of the Osher Re-entry Scholarship Program as well as meeting the academic needs of adult students.
The scholarship program targets Maryland residents who are nontraditional students ages 25 – 50, have experienced a gap in their educational career of five years or more and are pursuing undergraduate degrees at the university. Since its inception in 2008, the program has provided scholarships annually to more than a dozen students. Osher Re-entry scholarship recipients represent several academic disciplines which include architecture, social work, business administration, physics, engineering, sociology, elementary education, and finance.
Dr. David Wilson talks Morgan Momentum on MPT’s State Circle
National Institutes of Health Awards Morgan State University a Total of $35 Million in New Grant Funding for Research
The Challenges Facing HBCU Campuses
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Penn State online GIS program earns top national honor
University Park, Pa. -- When hurricanes, wildfires or other disasters strike, emergency services personnel frequently turn to geographic information systems (GIS) to help coordinate their response. Since GIS is a relatively young and rapidly evolving technology, many users learn on the job. Thanks to Penn State's online GIS programs, practitioners can advance their knowledge, skills and careers without putting their lives on hold. The Sloan Consortium recently recognized the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' Master of Geographic Information Systems program delivered through the World Campus as the 2009 Most Outstanding Online Teaching and Learning Program.
"Our online geographic information systems programs are designed to meet the education needs of working GIS professionals," said David DiBiase, faculty coordinator of the Department of Geography's GIS postbaccalaureate certificates and master's degree programs. "The Sloan Consortium award is a validation of our efforts to develop high-quality online education programs that enable these professionals to keep up with advances in this field," added DiBiase, who directs the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute in the College of Earth and Minerals Sciences.
Until the recent economic downturn, the number of professionals who used GIS as part of their jobs was 500,000 in the United States alone and growing at nearly 15 percent a year. Even as the U.S. economy has shed millions of jobs, more students seek GIS skills and a Penn State certificate or degree to better their chances of competing for rewarding careers. According to DiBiase, enrollments in the online GIS programs set all-time records this fall.
The Department of Geography within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences is the academic home of Penn State's GIS programs. To make this and other programs available online, the college partners with Penn State Outreach, which administers World Campus, Penn State's online campus for distance-based learners.
"The Sloan Consortium's recognition of Penn State's online Master of Geographic Information Systems program is an important indicator of the value of online education for working professionals," said Wayne D. Smutz, executive director of Penn State World Campus and associate vice president for Academic Outreach. "The flexibility of this learning environment makes it easier for these professionals to keep pace with the rapid changes in GIS technologies."
The Sloan Consortium, or Sloan-C, an association of accredited educational institutions offering online degree programs, honored the Department of Geography and Dutton e-Education Institute "for creating and sustaining the foremost online graduate program for current and aspiring geospatial professionals." The award will be presented Oct. 29 during the 15th Sloan-C International Conference in Orlando, Fla.
GIS professionals use computer technologies to visualize, analyze and display data. They work in local government, environmental engineering and resource management, utilities, transportation planning, emergency management and homeland security, and many other fields.
Since developing its first online GIS certificate program in 1999, the Department of Geography has expanded its GIS offerings to 26 online courses. Course ware modules used in many of these courses are open for inspection at http://open.ems.psu.edu/ online. To date, there have been nearly 9,000 online enrollments by students from every state and many countries in the combined Master of GIS and Postbaccalaureate Certificates in GIS and Geospatial Intelligence. The department has awarded nearly 1,300 GIS certificates and 55 Master of GIS degrees.
For more information about the Master of GIS, visit http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/MasterinGIS.shtml online.
Penn State World Campus specializes in adult online education, delivering 62 of Penn State's most highly regarded graduate, undergraduate and professional education programs through convenient online formats. Founded in 1998, Penn State World Campus serves more than 7,100 students in all 50 states and 62 countries. For more information, visit http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/ online. Penn State World Campus is part of Penn State Outreach, the largest unified outreach organization in American higher education, serving more than 5 million people each year, delivering more than 2,000 programs to people in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, all 50 states and 114 countries worldwide.
Deborah Benedetti
dab12@outreach.psu.edu
http://live.psu.edu/outreach
Mapping Your World
Rimland awarded scholarship for Emerging Leadership Institute
Penn State wins two national awards for online education
adult learners, Department of Geography, Geographic Information Systems, geography, online education, outreach, Sloan Consortium, World Campus
University Park, World Campus
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NFL Combine Drills 101: What Each Drill Measures
April 23, 2016Written by NFL Combine Results
The NFL Combine consists of several timed/scored physical drills that are designed to measure the various physical attributes of NFL prospects. Each drill measures different player abilities with sometimes enough overlap to confirm or call into question high or low scores in other drills. The combine attempts to measure speed, short area quickness (burst), lateral agility, upper body strength, lower body strength, explosiveness and other physical attributes through standardized physical drills. The drills are completed by players wearing track and field outfits as opposed to football pads and equipment, which has lead some scouts to nickname the combine “The Underwear Olympics.” When comparing scores and times amongst players of the same position, it is important to consider the context of how large the players are. When comparing players in general, remember that there are different standards for good scores for different positions.
The Forty Yard Dash as it’s name implies, involves a player running 40 yards as fast as possible. The clock starts on first movement, so players do not need to react to a gun. The forty yard dash simply measures sprinting speed over a Forty Yard distance and warrants little other explanation. Often the first 10 yards of the forty time are considered the most important – depending on position – as it helps to illustrate how quickly a player can accelerate to his full speed which can be more important than how fast he runs the next thirty yards. This is referred to as a “10 yard split.” A 20-yard split may also be used to measure how well a player can sustain his initial burst. The 40 yard dash should also be taken in the context of the size of a given player. A 6’4″ 220 lb player who runs a 4.40 is more impressive than a 5’9 170 lb player with the same forty time.
The Bench Press measures pure upper body strength and endurance. The NFL Combine version of the test involves the players bench pressing a 225lb barbell for as many reps as they can, until failure. The Bench Press score is listed as number of reps, which refers simply to the number of times the player was able to lift the 225lb weight. Like 40 time, the context of player size and position should also be taken into consideration when comparing Bench Press numbers. A 25 rep bench press score by a 350 lb lineman with is much less impressive than a 25 rep bench press score by a 225 lb wide receiver.
The Vertical Leap measures explosiveness and lower body strength. The drill is conducted simply by having the player leap from a stationary position and attempt to touch plastic flags at the top of a pole. Each player is given two opportunities to jump, with the highest point achieved counted as the measurement. Vertical leap translates nicely into a measure of how quickly an athlete can explode off the line of scrimmage from a motionless position. Vertical leap can also be used to confirm a fast 40 yard dash time or 10 yard split, as it involves many of the same muscle groups as sprinting. Like other drills, high vertical leap scores by heavier players are, relatively speaking, more impressive than their lighter counterparts.
The Broad Jump is another drill that measures an athletes lower body strength and explosiveness, but is also a good measure of balance. The drill is conducted with players standing behind a line with their feet and shoulders square to that line and in a stationary position. The player is allowed to swing their arms (while maintaining balance) and jumps forward with both feet to land as far as possible from the starting line. The athlete must show balance on the landing of the broad jump, as scores in which the athlete does not “stick the landing” are not counted.
The Three-Cone Drill measures many things including lateral quickness and change of direction ability, flexibility and body control and a bit of agility and speed. The drill involves 3 cones placed in a right-triangle formation with the cones placed 5 yards apart, forming the legs of the triangle. The athlete is asked to start from a 3-point stance and must react to a command to begin the drill. The player runs from the start to the first cone where he must touch the line, and then returns to the start where he must touch the line again. After the second line touch at the start, the athlete must run around the outside of the first cone, weave back inside and run around the second cone and then backtrack his steps to the finish line. The player is given two attempts at the 3-cone drill, one starting from each direction. This drill is a good measurement of skill-position change of direction explosiveness, but also a good measure of hip flexibility in pass rushers to show that they can bend sufficiently to get around the edge.
The 20-Yard Shuttle Drill is also known as the “5-10-5 drill,” the “pro agility shuttle” or the “short shuttle” drill. This drill measures short-area quickness, agility, flexibility and the speed at which a prospect can change direction. In addition to flexibility and athleticism, this drill gives scouts an idea of how well a prospect can sink their hips, keep a low center of gravity, and move laterally. This drill consists of three cones being placed 5 yards apart, with the player starting at the middle cone. The athlete begins the drill in response to a verbal “Go” queue, and chooses a direction to turn and run 5 yards to the cone. The player must touch the line, and then turns and runs to the other cone that is now 10 yards away. The player touches the line at the opposite cone, turns and runs the remaining 5 yards back to the original starting position. The time recorded is the total time taken to run between the cones in this manner. Athletes are given three opportunities to complete the drill, with the best time being recorded as their score.
The 60-Yard Shuttle Drill is also known as the “long shuttle” and is named for the total number of yards covered during the drill. The long shuttle measures speed, short area quickness, and the ability to change direction while sprinting at full speed. The drill consists of a starting line with three cones being placed 5, 10 and 15 yards from the starting line. The athlete must touch the line at each turn, and runs from the start to the 5 yard cone and back to the start (10 yards), to the 10 yard cone and back to the start (20 yards), and to the 15 yard cone and back to the start (30 yards). The sixty-yard shuttle is typically run by cover linebackers and defensive backs and offensive skill positions including tight end, but quarterbacks and offensive/defensive linemen typically do not participate in this drill.
Body measurements (Height, Weight, Hand Size, Arm Length) simply measure the size of an athlete’s body. These measurements are often important to give context on how athletic a player really is, as well as show whether or not a player is of sufficient size for his position. Height is usually considered most frequently when evaluating QBs, WRs, and CBs with Weight being more important when looking at Defensive Tackles. Arm Length is used primarily when evaluating Offensive and Defensive lineman, and Hand Size is often cited as an important metric for Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers.
The Cognitive Tests feature a Wonderlic test and a 60-minute aptitude test. The Wonderlic is a basic cognitive ability test consisting of 50 multiple-choice questions that must be answered within 12 minutes, with the score being the number of questions answered correctly within that period of time. According to Wonderlic, Inc. a score of 20 indicates average intelligence and a score of 10 indicates at least a basic level of literacy. The Wonderlic test is controversial in terms of it’s usefulness in determining actual intelligence, especially in the context of NFL football. Wonderlic scores are not officially reported by the NFL, but usually leak out to media during draft coverage. Little is known about the new cognitive aptitude test that the NFL introduced in 2013. It is known to be 60 minutes long and “impossible to study for,” and held in a fairly high level of confidentiality. It is speculated that the aptitude test is a hybrid of a personality test and an intelligence test, possibly helping teams evaluate whether a player is a fit for their coaching styles. Scores for the aptitude test have been rumored to be shared with only a few executives per team to maximize the security of that information.
What separates players by combine scores is not only the score itself, but typically what position they play. The size of the player, as mentioned above, is also a good indicator of how athletic a player is, as it’s more difficult to be fast when you are also big and tall. Context is always important when evaluating players based on combine data, but the combine does put players on an even playing field by standardizing the drills and measurements taken.
NFL Combine To Supplement Wonderlic With New Apitude Test
March 3, 2013Written by nflcombineresults
The 2013 NFL Combine will feature a new and improved non-physical aptitude test. Prior to 2013, the NFL issued a controversial Wonderlic exam to players to asses non-physical aptitude. In an effort to improve on the controversial practice – the results of which were declared confidential in 2008 – the NFL Combine will supplement the Wonderlic with additional testing.
NFL.com’s Albert Breer acquired the following memo describing the changes to the Wonderlic:
At this year’s combine we will introduce a new and expanded player assessment tool designed to offer a much more robust and comprehensive assessment of a player’s non-physical capabilities, aptitudes, and strengths. This tool was developed by Harold Goldstein, Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Baruch College, City University of NY. Professor Goldstein is an expert in industrial psychology who has designed employment tests in a variety of other industries and has worked closely with Cyrus Mehri of the Fritz Pollard Alliance.
The assessment tool being introduced at the Combine is not intended to displace anything currently in use or substitute for other tests that are given either at the Combine or by the clubs themselves. Rather, this new test measures a wide range of competencies, including learning styles, motivation, decision-making skills, responding to pressure or unexpected stimuli, and core intellect. It was developed after detailed discussions with current and former league executives, including Ernie Accorsi, Thomas Dimitroff, John Elway, and Jerry Reese, and was reviewed by members of the general managers Advisory Committee.
This is an exciting innovation that brings updated best practices from corporate America to the NFL football operations. By giving clubs new and more relevant information, it offers additional information to supplement your decision-making in the draft. One of the most interesting aspects is that new information on player learning styles can potentially help our coaches’ work more effectively with young players.
We look forward to reviewing and receiving your feedback later this year and incorporating it into future versions of this assessment tool.
Source: NFL.com
In working with Psychologists, the NFL is clearly making an effort to improve the amount of information that teams have access to regarding potential draft selections. The Wonderlic was often criticized as a sole means of judging the cognitive ability of a player, so there was certainly room for improvement in this area. The new aptitude test is reported to differ from the Wonderlic in that it is meant to judge specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses, rather than overall cognitive ability.
The NFL has also announced that this new aptitude test will be administered in a classroom, much like the Wonderlic. Also like the Wonderlic, the results will be confidential. To further protect confidentiality, Steve Wyche of NFL.com has reported that the results will only be shared with “one or two” team executives. Wyche also reports that the test will be 60 minutes long, and that there will be “no way” players will be able to study or prepare for the test. The NFL will work with psychologists to grade the tests, and the results may help to provide teams with a better idea of whether a player will fit into their organizations culture and with a particular coaching style.
From an NFL Combine Results perspective, we will have to wait and see what sort of information is released. From what we can gather, it sounds like the new aptitude test is somewhat of a hybrid between a personality test and an intelligence test that gauges different types of intelligence. If the test is effective, that information will likely be very valuable to NFL teams and possibly researchers as well.
2013 NFL Combine, News, NFL Combine 101
No Such Thing As An Official 40 Yard Dash Time
March 28, 2012Written by NFL Combine Results
When evaluating and comparing player speed based on 40 yard dash times, it is important to keep in mind that the 40 yard dash time recorded at scouting combine and pro day events is not truly “official” as in completely correct. Timing methods vary, but most involve at least one manual process performed by a human and thus prone to error. In addition to being slightly inaccurate because of human involvement, there is not an established standard on how 40 yard dash times at the NFL Combine are reported.
A popular belief held by many casual NFL fans is that players at the NFL Combine run the forty yard dash once, it is timed electronically, and since it was timed electronically then that 40 time can be regarded as official. All of these are misconceptions. The facts below describe in detail how the process of recording a 40 yard dash at the NFL Combine really works:
Each participant is given 2 attempts at the 40 yard dash and is timed with 3 different stopwatches on each run, however only one of those stopwatches is “electronic.”
The electronic timing is not fully electronic. The stopwatch is started by a human, and it is important to understand that it is started by human hands on the first movement of the 40 yard dash participant. That means that there is always room for human error, though less than if it were fully hand-timed.
Since each player runs the 40 twice, there would be no single “official” time even if only the electronic times are used.
You may notice that different sources of NFL Scouting Combine data report slightly different 40 yard dash times. For example, the NFL.com website combine data reports different 40 times than NFL Combine Results, which are both different from other sources providing 40 yard dash times. This discrepancy is because of the differences in how 40 yard dash times are reported.
The fact that each participant has 6 “officially” recorded 40 times (4 manual, 2 electronic) explains why reports of 40 times vary depending on which scouts you ask. Some scouts may use an average of all 6 times and report that. Other scouts may use an average of only the 2 electronic times, throw out the fastest and slowest time and average the remaining 4, or use a more complex method of coming to a single number. The point is that most scouts use different methods of arriving at a single 40 time, and that is responsible for the discrepancy amongst “official” 40 yard dash times.
As a result of all of these factors, it is very difficult to establish a consensus “official” 40 yard dash time for a particular player or for the sake of NFL Combine all-time records. NFL Combine Results believes that the most important thing for the sake of accurate comparison is to consistently use the same method of determining a single 40 time, and it is also our opinion that the best method of reaching a single 40 yard dash time is to take the average of the two electronic times as they are the most likely to be the most accurate.
Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test
March 4, 2012Written by NFL Combine Results
The Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test™ is used at the NFL Combine as a basic measure of a players ability to learn and solve problems. The test is composed of basic math, logic, vocabulary and English problems. The Wonderlic is comprised of 50 questions that must be completed within 12 minutes. Sample questions from Wonderlic exams can be found here, here, here, and here. Scores range from 50 (perfect score) to 0 (no questions answered correctly). A score of 20 represents average intelligence, or an IQ of around 100. Punter and Harvard Graduate Pat McInally is rumored to have scored a 50.
A list of the top Wonderlic scores can be found here.
Sample Wonderlic Exam From NFL Combine
December 20, 2011Written by NFL Combine Results
You have 5 minutes to complete the 20 question Sample.
1.) Lemonade sells for 17 cents per cup. What will 6 cups cost?
2.) What comes next in the following sequence:
29 28 26 23 19 ?
3.) RESENT, RECENT – Do these words:
a) have similar meanings
b) have contradictory meanings
c) mean neither the same nor opposite
4.) The seventh month of the year is:
a) July
b) August
c) October
d) September
e) May
5.) Which of the figures in the following drawing is most different from the others?
6.) A car travels 60 yards in ¼ of a second. At this speed, how many yards will the car travel in 5 seconds?
7.) “The boy plays basketball. All basketball players wear shoes. The boy wears shoes.” Assume the first two statements are true. The final statement is:
c) Not Certain
8.) A girl is 14 years old and her brother is twice as old. When the girl is 21 years old, how old will her brother be?
9.) Which letter is missing from the group below?
10.) How many of the five pairs of items listed below are exact duplicates?
11.) The hours of daylight and darkness in October are nearest equal to the hours of daylight and darkness in:
a) June
b) March
c) May
d) February
e) April
12.) “Chris said hello to Steve. Steve said hello to Laura. Chris did not say hello to Laura.” Assume the first two statements are true. The final statement is:
13.) Three investors form a partnership and agree to divide profits equally. Investor X invests $6,000, Investor Y invests $3,500, Investor Z invests $2,500. If the profits are $4,500, how much less does Investor X receive than if the profits were divided in proportion to the amount invested?
14.) If thread sells for $.10 per foot, how many feet of thread can you buy with $1.30?
15.) Which of the following numbers represents the smallest amount?
c) .33
16.) In printing an article of 48,000 words, a printer decides to use two sizes of type. Using the larger type, a printed page contains 1,800 words. Using smaller type, a page contains 2,400 words. The article is allotted 21 full pages in a magazine. How many pages must be in smaller type?
17.) PRINCIPAL, PRINCIPLE – Do these words:
18.) In a typical city in the Southern Hemisphere, which of the following months sees the most snowfall?
a) January
b) February
c) November
d) July
e) December
19.) What number comes next in the following sequence?
256 64 16 4 1 ¼ ?
20.) Which of the following numbers is least like the others?
ANSWERS BELOW
* Wonderlic is a trademark of Wonderlic, INC. All sample questions are unofficial.
$750 less
18 (it is even)
2021 NFL Combine Schedule Remains Pending
Large Data Update Complete
2020 NFL Combine Data Available Now
2020 NFL Combine Invitees
Large Data Update Complete – Pro Day data is now available
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MLN-TV.COM
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Federal Reserve chairman defends careful approach to lifting rates
Rising wages in the US do not suggest the country’s jobs market is overheating, the Federal Reserve chairman said, as he defended his careful approach to lifting interest rates.
Jay Powell cited the experience of the 1990s as he argued an acceleration of wage growth need not trigger too much inflation. The link between tight labour markets and inflation has been “greatly reduced”, although not eliminated, in recent decades, he said.
His arguments suggest the Fed will continue to tread carefully as it withdraws its post-crisis stimulus — even as the US economy gathers momentum and financial markets surge.
Last week Mr Powell presided over a third rate rise this year and teed up another one for December, but he insisted his colleagues’ forecasts were pointing to only modestly restrictive policy down the road.
Fed officials have been picking up increasing anecdotal evidence of shortages of available workers as the US unemployment rate hovers at 3.9 per cent, with further declines predicted in the coming months. Wage growth has accelerated to its quickest pace in nine years while the US economy expanded at an annualised pace of more than 4 per cent in the second quarter.
Despite this robust backdrop, the Fed has continued to stick with its “gradual” programme of rate rises while downplaying risks that inflation could get out of hand.
The late 1990s episode of low unemployment saw wages rise faster than inflation plus productivity growth without an appreciable rise in inflation
Mr Powell said in Boston that it was “reasonable” to ask if recent forecasts, which suggest sub-4 per cent unemployment and inflation sticking resolutely close to the Fed’s 2 per cent target, were too good to be true. But he argued that a host of factors, including more credible monetary policy, have muted the so-called Phillips curve, which posits a link between inflation and the unemployment rate.
“This historically rare pairing of steady, low inflation and very low unemployment is testament to the fact that we remain in extraordinary times,” Mr Powell said.
He argued most measures do now point to an economy that is operating with “limited slack”, but he pointed out that those indicators are near levels that prevailed in the late 1990s or early 2000s, when core inflation remained below 2 per cent.
“Our best estimates . . . suggest that so long as inflation expectations remain anchored, a modest steepening of the Phillips curve would be unlikely to cause a significant rise in inflation or demand a disruptive policy tightening,” Mr Powell said.
The Fed chairman said officials are watching a wide array of indicators to assess whether there is a danger of the “revenge of the Phillips curve”, but he suggested those risks are limited. He added that the Fed was ready to “act with authority” if there is any sign of inflation expectations drifting materially up or down.
“The rise in wages is broadly consistent with observed rates of price inflation and labour productivity growth and therefore does not point to an overheating labour market,” Mr Powell said. “Further, higher wage growth alone need not be inflationary. The late 1990s episode of low unemployment saw wages rise faster than inflation plus productivity growth without an appreciable rise in inflation.”
Analysis US interest rates
Fed’s light touch on interest rates may require a firmer hand
Mr Powell’s message chimes with a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in August, in which he downplayed worries that the US could be overheating and praised the “risk-management” approach of Alan Greenspan, Fed chairman in the 1990s. That period saw the Fed waiting for clear evidence of higher inflation before lifting rates, rather than being overly pre-emptive.
Some of Mr Powell’s Fed colleagues have sounded more anxious about the risks of overheating. Eric Rosengren, the Boston Fed president, told the Financial Times last month that financial stability could be threatened if the Fed keeps borrowing costs too low and allows an overheating jobs market to encourage excessive risk-taking. He noted that past “boom-bust cycles” in the labour market had ended badly in the US.
Federal Reserve VP Describes The Limits Of Cryptocurrency Partnerships
To help kick off the two-day event, Jim Cunha, vice president of treasury and financial services at the Boston Fed, joined cryptocurrency leaders from around the industry to talk about the influence blockchain is having on the way people think about money, and how to make it.
In the course of a 20-minute conversation, Cunha detailed some of the early-stage blockchain experiments a few members of his team of 200 have undertaken using ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. Cunha also explained how the branch of the U.S. central bank interacts with other currency issuers and startups to learn more about how blockchain works.
But the biggest obstacle Cunha says central banks face when it comes to embracing the speed and borderlessness of blockchain isn’t technological. Rather, the 30-year veteran of the Federal Reserve says that it's uncertainty about the security of the organizations building blockchain that has him most concerned.
“We use private companies all the time,” said Cunha, who has been at the central bank for more than 30 years. “I don’t know if we’ll ever do that with cryptocurrency.”
Many developers in the open-source blockchain ecosystem have opted to remain pseudonymous, and scams involving the technology have proved to be a successful way to make money on the technology. But for now Cunha is wasting no time exploring the technology from inside.
He mentioned several other projects, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Ubin and Clearmatics Technology's Utility Settlement Coin, as examples of how central banks are being influenced by the cryptocurrency world.
In spite of Cunha's cautious take on how third-party cryptocurrency companies might directly partner with central banks, he also listed multiple central bank efforts, including work being done in Sweden, as examples of what he believes could someday result in a state-controlled fiat currency issued on a blockchain.
“I give it five years,” Cunha said.
At first glance, the issuance of a cryptocrrency with some of the price controls implemented by central banks may seem like a lot of unnecessary work to fix a system that works pretty well for many people as is. But another speaker at the event, Circle Internet Financial founder Jeremy Allaire, thinks the integration of crypto and fiat could lay the groundwork for new kinds of markets.
Last week Allaire formally launched USD Coin, a cryptocurrency powered by the public ethereum blockchain and backed by the U.S. dollar. Allaire argued that by backing the tokens with a more stable currency, he could first enable off-hours trading and eventually jump-start trading between markets around the world that are normally isolated.
Lending support to Cunha’s concerns, however, was a panel on how to fix cryptocurrency’s broken reputation. Speakers including Jalak Jobanputra, founder Future Perfect Ventures, Yin Wu, founder of Dirt Protocol, and Will Warren, co-founder of 0X, talked about how the run up in the price of many cryptocurrencies in 2017 and a proliferation of poorly vetted projects led to a resurgence of skepticism.
But to hedge such concerns, the panelists also reflected on distrust they see in the traditional financial sector, especially among Millennials. While Allaire sought to earn that trust by integrating the new technology with some of the old stability, panelists on a second panel focused on other possible solutions.
Speaking on a panel about whether crytpocurrency would ever make a viable means of exchange, Neha Narula, MIT’s director of digital currency, joined Tadge Dryja, a co-creator of the Lightning Network for speeding up bitcoin transactions, and Linda Xie, the founder of crypto-token venture capital firm Scalar Capital, to argue that new technology, not traditional currency, was the best way to widespread use.
One thing the speakers all had in common though was a focus on reimagining what monetary systems can look like from the ground up.
Meltem Demirors, the chief strategy officer of London-based crypto investment research firm CoinShares, proposed considering unconventional variables of a monetary system such as fairness, social access and equality of the system when imagining new ways to move money.
“We now have to work together to define the future of who has the right to print money and who has the right to define for us individually and collectively what has value,” Demirors concluded.
Israel Considers Batman Cryptocurrency to Fight Crime
In an effort to crack down on money laundering and tax evasion, the Israeli government may soon launch a state-supported cryptocurrency. Additionally, other factors indicate that the time is right for a crypto-shekel coin. Israel is in the midst of a cryptocurrency boom, fueled by the country's high tech sector and its cutting-edge blockchain research.
The crypto-shekel movement has been advanced by the finance ministry and Israel's central bank. Rumors are that the value of the digital currency would be pegged to the physical shekel. And every transaction would be recorded to a mobile phone, permitting quicker transactions.
At present, it's estimated that 22 percent of Israel's GDP is composed of deals that are off the books, cash-on-the-barrelhead payments and sordid criminal activities. A couple of recent incidents may provide the impetus to launch Israel's state-sponsored cryptocurrency.
Hebron's cybercrime division recently handed down an indictment in Israel against Hilmi Git, alleging that Git laundered more than $8 million through Bitcoin transactions. About 1,000 Bitcoins were seized. Prosecutors warn that the Git indictment is but the tip of the iceberg, involving a sophisticated gang of cyber-criminals using credit cards and identity theft to launder millions.
Git was quite bold and ran a website that included instructions on stealing credit cards and how to conceal the theft of money. Prosecutors even quoted Git as stating that he would steal money from "wherever I can."
The Git case is significant because the seizure of Bitcoins marks the first time that Israeli officials seized a cryptocurrency in a criminal case. Governments have discovered that Bitcoins are the preferred choice of criminals to launder money. Thus, the case is providing impetus to launch a crypto-shekel.
Another case involved Bank Hapoalim. The bank is under investigation by the US Department of Justice for assisting American citizens in evading taxes. The bank told shareholders earlier this year that it had set aside another $75 million to meet a possible settlement with the justice department. That brought the total settlement sum to $343 million thus far. The bank warned shareholders that the amount could climb higher.
Bank Leumi has already paid a $400 million settlement to the US Justice Department for aiding tax evasion.
The Bank of Israel has been lobbying Israeli lawmakers to tighten up the anti-money laundering laws. The central bank believes these laws will also hinder terrorist financing.
Others in the digital cash movement make the argument that private companies should launch a cryptocurrency because these companies are well versed in the nuances of bitcoins and the blockchain it operates on.
Bank of Hapoalim recently struck a deal with Microsoft to handle digital cash via blockchain and the Azure cloud. In another action that bolsters the argument for a private sector cryptocurrency, the Supreme Court of Israel recently shot down Bank Leumi for trying to close accounts that transacted business in cryptocurrencies. Both of these actions speak well for creating a cryptocurrency in the private sector.
It's important to realize that creating and controlling cryptocurrencies is attractive to countries because sovereign nations could take a bite from the cryptocurrency apple in every transaction. Sovereign nations could also require cryptocurrency exchanges to report large deposits. This control and additional state revenue will inspire nations to fight hard to create cryptocurrencies.
The time appears right for Israel to launch a state-sponsored cryptocurrency. The country's high tech sector is hitting on all cylinders, and creating an Israeli digital coin will add fuel to the tank. A cryptocurrency launch could also bring to heel the criminal gangs who are feasting off the vulnerabilities of the unregulated bitcoin market.
AmerisourceBergen to pay $625 million in U.S. civil fraud settlement
AmerisourceBergen Corp, one of the largest U.S. drug wholesalers, will pay $625 million to resolve civil fraud charges over the sale of syringes containing drugs for cancer patients, double billing, and providing kickbacks to doctors.
The settlement announced on Monday by the U.S. Department of Justice boosts AmerisourceBergen’s total payout to $885 million over its repackaging and distribution of pre-filled syringes that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In September 2017, the company’s AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group unit pleaded guilty to a related misdemeanor, and paid $260 million of criminal fines and forfeitures.
The Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania-based company also entered a five-year corporate integrity agreement to ensure compliance with federal health care rules. It set aside money for the entire civil settlement in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2017.
AmerisourceBergen admitted that from January 2001 to January 2014, its Medical Initiatives Inc pharmacy unit in Alabama shipped millions of syringes for patients undergoing chemotherapy that contained drugs prepared in an unsterile environment.
Authorities said AmerisourceBergen would harvest “overfill” from the original vials of such drugs as Aloxi, Anzemet, Kytril and generic Kytril, Neupogen and Procrit used to combat side effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea and anemia.
That enabled the company to create more doses than it bought, and generate at least $99.6 million of extra profit, authorities said.
AmerisourceBergen was also accused of billing multiple doctors for individual vials, causing them to bill the government more than once, and paying kickbacks to induce doctors to buy drugs through the pre-filled syringe program.
“ABC placed corporate profits over patients’ needs, endangering the health of vulnerable cancer patients,” U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue in Brooklyn, New York said in a statement.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said $99.9 million of the payout will go to state Medicaid programs.
Four whistleblowers including Michael Mullen, a former chief operating officer at AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group, will share $99 million from the payout, lawyers for Mullen said.
AmerisourceBergen said in a statement that the settlement reflects its acknowledgment that some practices at the now-closed Medical Initiatives unit “were not consistent with AmerisourceBergen’s approach to corporate compliance.”
The company’s shares rose 57 cents to $92.79 on Monday.
Web Founder Launches Radical Startup to Take Back the Internet from Google & Facebook
“For people who want to make sure the Web serves humanity, we have to concern ourselves with what people are building on top of it,” Tim Berners-Lee told Vanity Fair last month. “I was devastated” he said while going through a litany of harmful and dangerous developments of the past three decades of the web.
That’s why “the Father of the World Wide Web” has launched a start-up that intends to end the dominance of Facebook, Google, and Amazon, while in the process letting individuals take back control of their own data.
Berners-Lee’s new online platform and company Inrupt is being described as a “personal online data store,” or pod, where everything from messages, music, contacts or other personal data will be stored in one place overseen by the user instead of an array of platforms and apps run by corporations seeking to profit off personal information. The project seeks “personal empowerment through data” and aims to “take back” the web, according to company statements.
The man who created the world wide web by implementing the first ever successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in 1989 lamented that his creation has been abused by powerful entities for everything mass surveillance to fake news to psychological manipulation to corporations commodifying individuals’ information.
But he’s long been at work on a new project to take the web back, described in depth by the business technology magazine Fast Company:
This week, Berners-Lee will launch, Inrupt, a startup that he has been building, in stealth mode, for the past nine months. Backed by Glasswing Ventures, its mission is to turbocharge a broader movement afoot, among developers around the world, to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it. In other words, it’s game on for Facebook, Google, Amazon.
“We have to do it now,” Berners-Lee said of the newly launched project. “It’s a historical moment.” He identified the main impetus behind his recent announcement that he’ll be going on sabbatical from his research professor post at MIT to work full-time on the project as the recent revelation that Facebook allowed political operatives to gain access to some 50 million users’ private data.
At MIT Berners-Lee has for years led a team on designing and building a decentralized web platform called ‘Solid’ — which will underlie the Inrupt platform. The Inrupt venture will serve as users’ first access to the new Solid decentralized web:
If all goes as planned, Inrupt will be to Solid what Netscape once was for many first-time users of the web: an easy way in. And like with Netscape, Berners-Lee hopes Inrupt will be just the first of many companies to emerge from Solid.
“I have been imagining this for a very long time,” says Berners-Lee.
As described on the Solid and Inrupt websites the new platform will allow users to have complete control over their information ‘pods’ (an acronym for “personal online data store”) — it is only they who will decide whether outside apps and sites will be granted access to it, and to what extent.
Unlike Facebook or Twitter where all user information ultimately resides in centralized data centers and servers under control of the companies, applications on Inrupt will compete for users based on the services they can offer, and only the users can grant these apps “views” into their data, making personal data instantly portable between similar applications.
“The main enhancement is that the web becomes a collaborative read-write space, passing control from owners of a server, to the users of that system. The Solid specification provides this functionality,” the Solid website says.
Berners-Lee explained to Fast Company one example currently under development that could radically changed a popular product that has been prone to overstepping privacy boundaries and compromising data:
For example, one idea Berners-Lee is currently working on is a way to create a decentralized version of Alexa, Amazon’s increasingly ubiquitous digital assistant. He calls it Charlie. Unlike with Alexa, on Charlie people would own all their data. That means they could trust Charlie with, for example, health records, children’s school events, or financial records. That is the kind of machine Berners-Lee hopes will spring up all over Solid to flip the power dynamics of the web from corporation to individuals.
With the weekend launch of Inrupt, developers across the globe this week will be invited to begin building their own decentralized apps through the Inrupt site. As its popularity grows the company will move forward to raise more funds, though it’s currently backed by a venture capital firm.
Yet as his latest interview notes, “his plans could impact billion-dollar business models that profit off of control over data. It’s not likely that the big powers of the web will give up control without a fight.”
When this major potential disruptor was noted, Berners-Lee shot back: “We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight. We are not asking their permission.”
The Federal Reserve Board has approved actions
The Federal Reserve Board has approved actions on Thursday by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Minneapolis, increasing the discount rate (the primary credit rate) at the Banks from 2-1/2 percent to 2-3/4 percent, effective immediately.
Federal Reserve Board announces termination
FINRA Files to Update CAB Rule
This is the second rule amendment FINRA has issued to conform with FinCEN's customer due diligence requirements.
FINRA building in New York. FINRA building in New York.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority filed another proposed rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend its Capital Acquisition Broker (CAB) rule, Rule 331, to reflect the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) adoption of a final rule on customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions.
This is the second rule amendment FINRA has issued to conform with FinCEN’s rule, which became effective on May 14.
The broker-dealer self-regulator amended Rule 3310, its Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Program rule, in May to reflect FinCEN’s adoption of its final CDD rule.
Regulatory Notice 18-19 alerted broker-dealers to ensure that their AML programs are updated, and applied to FINRA members that have not elected CAB status.
The new rule filing adds the CDD requirements to the CAB anti-money laundering rule.
Since CABs are subject to a separate rule set, FINRA needed to make an additional rule filing to conform the CAB anti-money laundering rule to FinCEN’s CDD requirements.
FINRA’s proposed amendments would require CABs’ anti-money laundering compliance programs to include risk-based procedures for conducting ongoing customer due diligence.
The ongoing customer due diligence element for AML programs includes understanding the nature and purpose of customer relationships for the purpose of developing a customer risk profile; conducting ongoing monitoring to identify and report suspicious transactions; and, on a risk basis, maintaining and updating customer information, according to FINRA.
Treasury’s FinCEN, which is responsible for administering the Bank Secrecy Act and its implementing regulations, issued the CDD Rule on May 11, 2016, to “clarify and strengthen customer due diligence for covered financial institutions, including broker-dealers.”
As Venezuelans go hungry, Trump targets food corruption
In this July 6, 2018 photo, employees of a government-supported cultural center receive boxes with subsided food distributed under a government program named "CLAP" in downtown Caracas, Venezuela. Some workers transfer the contents, cooking oil, flou
In this July 6, 2018 photo, employees of a government-supported cultural center receive boxes with subsided food distributed under a government program named "CLAP" in downtown Caracas, Venezuela. Some workers transfer the contents, cooking oil, flour, rice, canned tuna, to suitcases or backpacks for fear of becoming walking targets. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)more +
The June meeting was conducted behind closed doors far from the klieg-light attention normally focused on Venezuela.
Around a U-shaped table in a hotel towering above the Panama Canal, U.S. Treasury Department officials distributed a list of suspected shell companies that they believe senior Venezuelan officials have used across the globe to siphon off millions of dollars from food import contracts amid widespread starvation in the oil-rich nation.
The two-day meeting, and several others that have taken place since April, are part of a sustained campaign by the Trump administration to pressure President Nicolas Maduro by striking at the wallets of the top officials in his socialist administration.
"They know we're after them, and they know we're after them on a multinational basis because we're beginning to see the networks morph and new shell companies stand up and existing ones wound down," Marshall Billingslea, the assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing, said in an interview on the sidelines of the meeting.
At that gathering, financial forensic investigators from the U.S. and three conservative Latin American allies — Mexico, Panama and Colombia — traced transactions by companies believed to be controlled by a government-connected businessman, according to several participants who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private.
Since Donald Trump became president, dozens of senior Venezuelan officials, including Maduro himself, have been sanctioned by the Treasury Department over allegations of corruption, human rights abuses and drug trafficking.
Last year, Trump even threatened a "military option" to remove Maduro and, with senior aides and Latin American leaders, raised the possibility of invading the South American country. As the country's economic troubles mount, he has sought to rally regional pressure as well.
The focus on food is deliberate, said Billingslea, a key driver of U.S. policy toward Venezuela who led Trump's national security transition team.
A story published by the AP in 2016 revealed how senior Venezuelan officials and members of the military were enriching themselves by diverting money from food contracts. Since then, as hunger has spread, Maduro has moved to assert even greater control over food distribution, handing out monthly boxes of staples that critics label a form of dictatorial social control.
Maduro said he began distributing the so-called CLAP boxes — a Spanish acronym for Local Committees for Supply and Production — as a way to circumvent the "economic war" being waged by the U.S. and opponents seeking to oust him from power.
As Venezuela has fallen deeper into political and economic turmoil, the CLAP program has become a tenuous lifeline for millions of citizens suffering due to barren supermarket shelves and hyperinflation estimated by the International Monetary Fund to soon reach 1 million percent.
Critics say Maduro has essentially weaponized food, distributing the boxes primarily to government workers and supporters. According to an April survey by the local pollster Datanalisis, more than 60 percent of Venezuelan households said they received CLAP box in the previous three months — about the same percentage that helped re-elect the embattled leader in May presidential elections boycotted by the opposition.
The allegations are fueling calls from Latin American leaders, including the heads of Argentina, Colombia and Chile, for Maduro to be tried in an international court for crimes against humanity.
"This goes beyond just corruption," said Billingslea, who led the U.S. delegation to Panama with Kenneth Blanco, the director of the Treasury Department's financial crimes enforcement network. "This is literally looting the one social safety-net program left in Venezuela."
On a recent weeknight, word quickly spread among employees of a government-supported cultural center about the downtown Caracas location where they could collect their monthly CLAP ration. Within a few hours, everyone from museum curators to janitors waited in line to sign a clipboard before government loyalists slid a box across the table.
Once outside, some workers tore open the boxes, transferring the contents — cooking oil, flour, rice, canned tuna — to backpacks for fear of becoming walking targets in one of Latin America's most violent cities. Some said they planned to resell the food on the black market, where a single bag of sugar can easily fetch more than 100 times the heavily subsidized price of the entire CLAP box.
"When the food boxes first came out, we used to get a kilogram of meat or chicken, but we never saw that again," said Marcos Inojosa, an electrical technician who has been receiving the handout for about a year. "The president turns a blind eye and pretends that everything is working well. But everything is in the dumps."
Among those under scrutiny by the coalition of countries is an obscure Colombian businessman who struck gold selling to Maduro's government.
Alex Saab, from the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, was a major focus of the closed-door meetings in Panama City, the participants who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP. At one point they even studied the movements of a U.S.-registered private jet to identify his current whereabouts: Caracas, Paris, or Lebanon.
Saab gained some prominence in 2011 after signing an agreement to build social housing for the Venezuelan government on behalf of a Colombia-based construction company. He appeared on Venezuelan state television alongside Maduro, the late President Hugo Chavez and then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
Investigators say Saab entered the food business through a Hong Kong-based company, Group Grand Ltd., which they say bears the hallmarks of a shell company, including no known track record in the food business, a rudimentary webpage that is now inaccessible and an address in Caracas shared with Saab's construction company.
Group Grand has been awarded contracts to provide at least 11.5 million CLAP boxes, according to a Venezuelan Food Ministry spreadsheet obtained by the AP.
Luisa Ortega, who was ousted as Venezuela's chief prosecutor and exiled last year after breaking with Maduro, has called for an investigation into Saab, alleging — so far without evidence — that he and Group Grand are fronts for Maduro
Billingslea would not discuss specific individuals or entities on the task force's radar, but said going after what he believes is money stolen from food imports by Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores is a top priority.
Prosecutors in both Miami and Colombia have been investigating Saab for more than a year, four U.S. and Colombian officials with knowledge of those investigations told the AP. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive political nature of the ongoing probe.
Saab's Miami-based lawyer, Richard Diaz, rejected allegations of any wrongdoing, saying that Saab has been subjected to undue scrutiny and harsh media coverage because of false testimony leveled against him. He said that if the U.S. had cause to believe the allegations were possibly true, his client would have been charged long ago.
Saab said in a statement that he is being targeted by government opponents looking to sabotage the economy.
"Instead, they should be thankful that despite so much bad press and international blockade there are still businessmen willing to invest and believe in the country," he said.
The U.S. Treasury estimates that at least 70 percent of the CLAP program is being gutted by corruption, citing evidence of overbilling.
Among the transactions that have raised red flags is a September 2017 invoice presented to Venezuela's food ministry by Group Grand for $41 million worth of powdered milk at a price of $6,950 per metric ton, or more than double the market price at the time. A copy of the invoice was provided to the AP.
"Never have we seen prices that high, not even in times of crisis," said Roger Figueroa, president of the Venezuelan dairy industry's lobby group.
A study conducted by Figueroa's group also found that the powdered milk distributed in the CLAP boxes regularly contained a third of government-mandated protein levels and twice the level of recommended carbohydrates.
The investigative cooperation between the U.S. and other countries began about a year ago at the urging of Trump officials, and already has yielded some results.
On May 17, three days before Maduro was re-elected, then-Colombian President Santos, acting on information provided by the U.S., announced the seizure of 15 shipping containers filled with more than 25,000 CLAP boxes stamped with Chavez's image and containing beetle-infested rice and other spoiled food.
In testimony to police obtained by the AP, the owner of a Colombian company said he was hired by another firm to assemble and ship the boxes to Venezuela's Corporation of Foreign Trade, or Corpovex, which had for years been under the stewardship of an air force general.
A U.S. Treasury advisory last year warned American banks about the risks of doing business with Venezuelan clients, citing Corpovex as a vehicle frequently used by corrupt officials for embezzling state funds through shell companies.
The seized CLAP shipment, which was valued at over $500,000, was never sent. It spoiled sitting on the docks because the firm that ordered it, a Portuguese company called Agrovarius, said its bank accounts had been frozen and it could not pay its bills, according to the police testimony.
Little is known about Agrovarius, which is located behind a high white wall in a Lisbon suburb. One of the company's listed owners, Joao Rosa, denied having anything to do with the Colombian shipment and insisted all the company's vendors had been paid.
Agrovarius also was implicated in what has come to be called the so-called pork revolution, which took place last Christmas when angry Venezuelans took to the streets when Maduro failed to deliver on a promise to provide thousands of free hams to poor neighborhoods.
Maduro accused Portugal's government of "sabotaging" the holiday gift, but the long-established Portuguese meatpacker Raporal pinned the blame on Agrovarius, saying it was never paid the more than 6 million euros needed to supply Venezuela's government with the meat.
A spokesman for Raporal said the company is now suing Agrovarius for breach of contract. Rosa said Agrovarius had nothing to do with the botched Christmas ham shipment.
Billingslea, meanwhile, said that Maduro has repeatedly sought to deflect blame for his own mismanagement and refusal to address mounting hunger.
"If they really wanted to feed people, they'd let in the foreign aid that's been offered," he said.
German watchdog calls for Deutsche Bank to crack down on money laundering
Deutsche Bank has previously been hit with fines over failures in its anti-money laundering efforts (Source: Getty)
Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, has called on sector giant Deutsche Bank (DB) to take action against money laundering and terrorist financing, appointing a special auditor to monitor its progress.
In a statement, BaFin called on the bank to adopt “appropriate internal safeguards” and “comply with general due diligence obligations”. It said it had appointed a “special representative” to “report on the implementation progress and evaluate it”.
It is the first time a special auditor has been appointed to monitor a German lender. BaFin’s statement did not contain additional information about the timeframe for the process.
EU and state regulators monitor and develop legislation to try and prevent bank services being used for illegal activities, of which money laundering a terrorism financing are the most prominent. Know your customer (KYC) regulations are used by banks to verify customers as a measure against fraud and have become a core part of global anti-money laundering practices.
In August, Reuters reported that DB had uncovered shortcomings in its ability to fully identify clients and the source of their wealth, citing internal documents. In January 2017, the bank agreed to pay US and UK regulators $630m (£479.7m) over artificial trades that had been used to launder $10bn out of Russia. It was hit with a further $41m fine from the US Federal Reserve later that year over failings in its money-laundering detection services.
In a statement, DB said: “We have the strong commitment to operate within regulatory compliant practices for the identification of our clients (KYC). We are in agreement with the BaFin that we have to improve these processes in the Corporate & Investment Bank further. The bank will work together with the BaFin and the special auditor KPMG to fulfill the regulatory requirements as soon as possible and within the given time frame."
Nineteen people were arrested for allegedly distributing meth in the Waco area.
The Department of Justice said Thursday that nineteen people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the distribution of methamphetamine in the area.
Officials said that the suspects were believed to be responsible for the local distribution of large amounts of meth. They were all charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute.
Nine pounds of meth were seized during the investigation.
The Waco police, DEA, FBI, Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Marshal's Service and the McLennan County Sheriff's Office all assisted in the investigation and arrest.
The following individuals were arrested:
Rene Lopez, 42
Peter Nino, 34
Brandon Stout, 34
Lloyd Gatlin, 44
Justin Hernandez, 31
Cruz Oviedo, 26
Kyle Baker, 33
Juli Aleman, 41
Devito Dembinsky, 30
Benito Rodriguez, 37
Decedreon Miller, 38
Ricky Rivera, 43
Julian Rivera, 39
Shauna Gilstrap, 39
James McMillion, 54
Brent May, 55
Sandra Oviedo, 25
Jesus Lopez, 41
Nicholas Caufield, 43
U.S. Blockade Stalks Cuba Worldwide
United Nations, Sep 22. -The U.S. blockade to Cuba lurks today on anywhere in the world, warned the island's diplomatic mission to the UN in a press release, in which it exposes numerous financial obstacles.
For example, on February 12th, 2018, it was announced that five Indian banks refused to make a transfer from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Cuba to Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies LTD because of blockade regulations.
Also the same month, the Malaysian subsidiary of the U.S. Company ADT received instructions from its head office to refuse to renew the contract for security services to the Cuban embassy in that country, because the island is a territory under U.S. sanctions, according to the text.
In June 2017, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed a fine of 87,255 dollars on the American Honda Finance Corporation, due to the fact that one of its subsidiaries in Canada approved and financed 13 car leasing agreements between the Cuban embassy in that country and a Honda concessionaire in Ottawa.
Also, the press release states that OFAC prohibited in September 2017 a donation of medicines to the NGO 'Caritas in Cuba', because the ship carrying the cargo belonged to the U.S. Company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
Later, in November, OFAC fined BCC Corporate S.A., a Belgian subsidiary of the US Company Alpha Card Group, 291,825 dollars for selling credit cards from 2009 to 2014 used to make purchases in Cuba.
On December 27th, 2017, the Inter-American Development Bank blocked funds for an academic agreement between Cuba and the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo, Ecuador, also due to the U.S. blockade.
So far, the U.S. blockade is the most unjust, severe and prolonged system of unilateral sanctions applied against any country, since it was instituted on February 3rd, 1962, by John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States.
In November 2017, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Treasury and State issued new regulations and provisions to strengthen the extraterritorial application of the blockade and intensify the persecution of financial transactions and banking-credit operations with Cuba on a global scale
Baltimore And Texas Men Indicted For Alleged $364 Million Ponzi Scheme
Baltimore And Texas Men Indicted For Alleged $364 Million Ponzi Scheme—One Of The Largest Ever Charged In Maryland
Scheme Believed to Have Over 400 Victims Nationwide, Including Individual, Family Offices, and Investment Groups – FBI Seeking Information Regarding Additional Victims; SEC has Filed Related Civil Complaint
Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury has indicted three men on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering, arising from an alleged $364 million investment fraud scheme. The indictment was returned under seal on September 11, 2018, and unsealed on September 18, 2018, upon the arrests of the defendants. Charged in the indictment are:
Kevin B. Merrill, age 53, of Towson, Maryland;
Jay B. Ledford, age 54, of Westlake, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada; and
Cameron R. Jezierski, age 28, of Fort Worth, Texas.
The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office. A related enforcement action and complaint was announced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Co-Director of Enforcement Stephanie Avakian.
“Federal prosecutors, FBI agents, and our SEC partners together interrupted an ongoing fraud scheme, with the potential to victimize even more people. According to the indictment, the defendants lured investors through an elaborate web of lies, duping them into paying millions of dollars into this Ponzi scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “Most of these investors are just learning that they have been victimized. The effects of this kind of fraud can be devastating. We urge anyone who thinks they may be a victim to contact the FBI at MerrillLedford@fbi.gov (link sends e-mail).”
“The FBI takes our responsibility to investigate and pursue those who commit fraud for personal gain very seriously,” said Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the FBI’s Baltimore Division. “We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who use illegal means and criminal behavior to take advantage of others. We are committed to protecting investors from the illegal and deceptive practices Mr. Merrill and Ledford used to defraud investors out of their hard earned money and savings.”
According to the fourteen-count indictment, beginning in January 2013, the defendants perpetrated a Ponzi scheme to defraud investors of more than $364 million. The scheme was revealed with the arrests and unsealing of the indictment. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Merrill and Ledford invited investors to join them in purchasing consumer debt portfolios. “Consumer debt portfolios” are defaulted consumer debts to banks/credit card issuers, student loan lenders, and car/truck financers which are sold in batches called “portfolios” to third parties which attempt to collect on the debts. The defendants falsely represented to investors that they would use the investors’ money to buy consumer debt portfolios and make money for them by (1) collecting the payments that people made on their debts or (2) selling the portfolios for a profit to third party debt buyers--in a practice called “flipping.” According to the related complaint filed by the SEC, the victim investors included small business owners, restauranteurs, construction contractors, retirees, doctors, lawyers, accountants, bankers, talent agents, professional athletes, and financial advisors, located in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, Las Vegas, Texas, and elsewhere.
The indictment alleges that in order to induce investors to participate, the defendants falsely represented who they were buying the debt portfolios from and how much they were paying for the portfolios; whether they were investing their own funds, and their track record of success. At times, according to the indictment, there was no underlying debt portfolio purchased with the investors’ money. To conceal the truth, the defendants created imposter companies with names similar to actual consumer debt sellers or brokers and opened bank accounts in the names of those imposter companies. In addition, to lend credibility to the transactions, the defendants created false portfolio overviews, sales agreements which used the names and forged signatures of actual employees of the sellers, created false collections reports, and falsified bank wire transfer records and bank statements.
Further, the indictment alleges that the defendants falsely represented that the monies they paid to investors were “proceeds” from collections and/or flipping debt portfolios, when in fact, the proceeds were paid from funds provided by other investors. The indictment alleges that Merrill, Ledford, and Jezierski personally enriched themselves and concealed their diversion of $73 million of investors’ funds to purchase and renovate high end homes in Maryland, Texas, Nevada, and Florida, purchase luxury automobiles, jewelry, boats, and a share in a jet plane, gamble $25 million at casinos, and support a lavish lifestyle.
The indictment seeks to forfeit nine properties, 26 luxury cars, one boat, interest in an aircraft, a life insurance policy, seven and nine carat diamond rings, and a 23 carat diamond bracelet, which were allegedly purchased with proceeds of the scheme to defraud.
If convicted, Merrill, Ledford, and Jezierski each face a maximum of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conspiracy and for each of five counts of wire fraud. Merrill and Ledford each also face 20 years in prison for an additional two counts of wire fraud, as well as 20 years in prison for a money laundering conspiracy, and for each of four counts of money laundering. Finally, Merrill and Ledford face a mandatory two years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, for identity theft. The defendants also face possible fines of $250,000, or twice the gross gain, for the wire fraud conspiracy and for each count of wire fraud and money laundering. Merrill and Ledford face an additional fine of $500,000, or twice the value of the property, for the money laundering conspiracy.
The SEC has filed a parallel civil complaint in this matter.
If you believe you may have been a victim, or have information concerning these charges, please email MerrillLedford@fbi.gov (link sends e-mail) and complete a brief questionnaire. Your responses are voluntary. You may be contacted by the FBI
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
Merrill and Ledford each had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and Las Vegas, respectively, on September 18, 2018, and were ordered to be detained. Jezierski also had his initial appearance in Las Vegas and was released under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services. Merrill is scheduled to have a detention hearing on Thursday, September 20th at 3:30 p.m. Jezierski is expected to have his initial appearance in Maryland on September 24, 2018, and Ledford is expected to be brought to Maryland for a court appearance at a later date.
United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended the FBI in Baltimore, Dallas, Las Vegas and Tampa, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of the Inspector General for their work in this investigation. Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joyce K. McDonald and Martin J. Clarke, who are prosecuting the criminal case.
Why the FBI Mysteriously Closed That New Mexico Observatory
An observatory in New Mexico was mysteriously closed this month while the FBI investigated and now we know why. No, it wasn't aliens.
For the past two weeks, an observatory in New Mexico has drawn worldwide attention, but not because of its research. Since September 6, the Sunspot Solar Observatory has been closed and evacuated for mysterious reasons, with FBI agents and a Blackhawk helicopter seen patrolling the site.
Both the FBI and the agency that manages the observatory, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), refused to comment on the nature of the shutdown at the time, beyond saying it was a "security issue." Due to the scientific nature of the facility, speculation ranged from the first detection of alien life to some covert operation.
Finally, AURA has released a statement clarifying, in part, the reason for the closure. And while it's less exciting than the most outlandish theories, at least it's an answer. According to the organization, the observatory was closed due to “criminal activity” on the premises. From a press release:
“AURA has been cooperating with an on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location.”
AURA also gives an answer for why it was so tight-lipped, even though no aliens were involved:
“We recognize that the lack of communications while the facility was vacated was concerning and frustrating for some. However, our desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take.”
According to the release, the emergency is over and the observatory is re-opening later this week.
According to the Federal Reserve's
According to the Federal Reserve's G.19 Consumer Credit report, America's outstanding revolving debt – mostly credit card debt – was closing in on $1.04 trillion as of June 2018. How will we pay all that money back? An increasing number of Americans may not be able to do so.
ValuePenguin analyst Joe Resendiz calls credit card defaults "a cause for concern." Resendiz highlighted increased second-quarter credit card default numbers for both JPMorgan and Bank of America as disturbing points amid generally good reports.
The second quarter 2018 Household Debt and Credit Report from the New York Federal Reserve backs up some of these concerns. At 6% of all consumer debt, credit card debt remains firmly in third place for all non-mortgage consumer debt behind student loans (11%) and auto loans (9%). However, the sheer number of credit card accounts – approximately 480 million, over four times the number of auto loan accounts and over five times the number of mortgage loans – provides an opportunity for the default numbers to rise.
Defaults are well below the 2009 peak, when 6.77% of credit cards were in default and over 13% of credit card balances were delinquent by ninety days or more. Credit card defaults in the second quarter of 2018 decreased slightly, from 2.54% in the first quarter to 2.47%. However, Federal Reserve data shows the default rate has been on a slow increase since the 2.12% trough in the first two quarters of 2015.
Consider that the credit card default rate is rising during an economic recovery. What will happen when the economy eventually contracts?
Consumer spending has been robust, but with wages staying relatively flat, it's possible that too many Americans are displaying their optimism by increasing their spending on credit – charging more than they can realistically afford to pay.
It's insightful to compare the delinquencies transition rates in different types of consumer debt. New York Fed data shows that the percentage of credit card account balances with missed payments (over thirty days delinquent) rose sharply in the second half of 2016 and stayed above 6% of balances while other forms of delinquencies (mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and home equity loans) stayed flat or decreased slightly.
The same pattern follows into ninety-day delinquencies and above, with credit cards rising in late 2016 and remaining at higher levels. Perhaps our economic boom is riding on excessive use of credit.
ValuePenguin calculated the average credit card debt at $9,333 for Americans who carry a balance. However, the credit burden can be far greater for those at the lower end of the economic spectrum. For the lowest income quintile (households making $24,999 or less annually), the average credit card debt was only $3,000 – but that's 12% of the household income for the highest incomes in that group. Burdens for the upper end of the other income groups (up to $160,000) is below 10%.
Given that credit card debt is generally the highest interest debt that most people hold, it's easy for lower-income Americans to be caught in a debt spiral that eventually leads to default.
If your credit situation is getting out of control, take steps to reign it in now. Start with a realistic budget that gives you a surplus at the end of the month. Cut expenses as necessary to get to that surplus, and then apply the surplus to paying down your debt.
The credit card default club may be growing, but it's not really a club you want to join. The dues will be painful.
If you want to reduce your interest payments and lower your debt, join MoneyTips.
Real Estate Broker Gets Prison for $3.5 Million 'Shotgun' Loan Scheme
A New York real estate broker who pleaded guilty in a loan scheme that defrauded banks of $3.5 million will be heading to prison.
Michael Arroyo, 60, was sentenced Thursday to 21 months in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit bank fraud by “shotgunning,” or submitting several loan applications to different banks at the same time in order to fraudulently acquire multiple home equity lines of credit.
Arroyo and co-conspirator Rafael Popoteur, 67, of New Jersey obtained loans of more than $500,000 on residential properties in New York and New Jersey from multiple banks between 2012 and 2014, according to Department of Justice officials.
Arroyo, Popoteur, and other real estate brokers put up the residences as collateral when the properties were either already being used as collateral with another lender or were already subject to senior liens not yet recorded, federal officials said.
Popoteur, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, was sentenced to three years of supervised release, including one year of house arrest.
FINRA Targets Cryptocurrency Firm Marketing HempCoins for Selling Unregistered Securities
FINRA’s case against Rocky Mountain Ayre regarding its sale of the cryptocurrency called HempCoin might finally settle the issue on whether the token is a security or not.
Financial regulators in the United States are now taking steps to ensure that firms engaged in cryptocurrency-related activities operate within the confines of the law. In a recent move, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is accusing Rocky Mountain Ayre President Timothy Tilton Ayre of selling unregistered securities in connection with the company’s sale of HempCoin cryptos.
Accused of Repackaging HempCoin as Securities
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is charging Timothy Ayre with securities fraud and unlawful distribution of unregistered securities, according to TechCrunch. Ayre is listed as the president, CFO, secretary, treasurer and director of Rocky Mountain Ayre, Inc. (RMTN), a Delaware-based holding company that partnered with Tahionic Soft SRL to put up BitLocation, a company that offers retail businesses a means to trade cryptos and become cryptocurrency locations, according to data from The Wall Street Journal.
FINRA accused Ayre of trying to entice the public from Jan. 2013 to Oct. 2016 to invest in his company, Rocky Mountain Ayre, by purchasing HempCoin, which Ayre claimed as “the first minable coin backed by marketable securities,” according to a Yahoo Finance article. FINRA said that after Ayre purchased the coin’s rights in June 2015, he “repackaged it as a security that was backed by RMTN as a common stock.” Ayre was also reported as having given his assurance that each HempCoin is equivalent to 0.10 shares of RMTN common stock.
FBI: Wisconsin postal worker stole money from thousands of letters
A postal worker was arrested in Wisconsin after she was caught stealing thousands of letters to pay bills.
Sunday, September 16, 2018 08:55AM
A Wisconsin postal worker has been fired after the FBI caught her stealing mail.
Investigators found more than 6,000 opened envelopes in the woman's car. Some of the mail dated back to March 2017. Much of it was intended for people celebrating birthdays and special occasions.
Agents said the postal worker was caught in a sting that involved a $20 bill in an envelope. When the envelope was opened, it sent a signal to agents, who arrested the worker.
The postal worker told investigators she used the stolen money to take care of her children and pay bills.
Ex-CEO of Crypto Company Sentenced to Prison for Fraud, Fined $9 Million
The former CEO of a cryptocurrency company has been sentenced to prison time and ordered to pay $9 million in restitution due to his company’s role in a major Ponzi scheme that cost hundreds of investors millions of dollars. The hearing comes as the U.S. government and regulatory agencies step up their crackdown on cryptocurrency-related fraud.
A District Court Judge in Connecticut sentenced 33-year-old Josh Garza to a 21-month prison sentence followed by six months of house arrest for his role in a Ponzi scheme based around the issuance of a cryptocurrency – called PayCoin – which entitled investors to a portion of another company’s mining profits.
The scheme was conducted between May of 2014 and January of 2015 through four companies owned by Garza. These companies sold the rights and access to cryptocurrency mining operations and allowed investors to buy a portion of these operations through “PayCoin “and “Hashlets,” which claimed to give investors the rights to a portion of the profits from the mining operations.
John Durham, the U.S. District Attorney for Connecticut, spoke about the scheme, saying that “hashlet customers, or investors, were buying the rights to profit from a slice of the computing power owned by the companies.”
Although the operation seems legitimate on the surface, Garza made multiple claims that should have raised red flags for investors, including the guarantee that the price of the virtual currency wouldn’t drop below $20 per unit, because the company would prop the price using their $100 million digital currency reserve.
After pleading guilty for defrauding investors and committing wire fraud, Garza was ordered to pay full restitution to all the investors that had lost their entire investments after the operations were found to be illegitimate. The judge required that Garza pay all the investors a total of $9,182,000 in restitution and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Garza’s Sentencing Comes as the US Government Increases Its Crackdown on Cryptocurrency Scams
This past week, a New York federal judge ruled that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) fall under the umbrella of securities offerings, opening up the gates for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to move to shut down fraudulent, or potentially fraudulent, ICO operations.
The ruling came about in a case regarding a man who has defrauded ICO investors by claiming, and providing falsified evidence, that the virtual currency was physically backed by diamonds and real estate.
Judge Raymond Dearie, the judge handling the case, commented on his ruling, saying that:
“Congress’ purpose in enacting the securities laws was to regulate investments, in whatever form they are made and by whatever name they are called… Stripped of the 21st-century jargon, including the defendant’s own characterization of the offered investment opportunities, the challenged indictment charges a straightforward scam, replete with the common characteristics of many financial frauds.”
Following this ruling, the SEC immediately moved to shut down and charge two cryptocurrency scams that were defrauding investors. The first company charged was TokenLot, a self-described ICO superstore, that was charged with operating as an unregistered broker-dealer. The TokenLot team cooperated fully with the SEC, which led to light charges.
The second company that was shut down by the SEC was a cryptocurrency hedge fund, called Crypto Asset Management LP, that had falsely claimed to investors that it was the first fully regulatory compliant crypto hedge fund. The operator of this fund, Timothy Enneking, had taken over $3 million from investors, and more than 40% of his fund’s investments were considered as securities by the SEC.
It is likely that the SEC and other regulatory authorities in the U.S. will continue to crackdown on cryptocurrency-related scams in the near future.
House of Representatives Passes FinCEN Bill that Targets Virtual Currencies
The House of Representatives has approved the “FinCEN Improvement Act of 2018,” sponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (HR 6411). The bill was passed on a voice vote indicating strong bi-partisan support in the House.
The legislation requires the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN) to work with foreign financial intelligence units to thwart the use of virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, potentially used by terrorist groups for illicit activity and money laundering.
The current language of the bill states;
“Although the use and trading of virtual currencies are legal practices, some terrorists and criminals, including international criminal organizations, seek to exploit vulnerabilities in the global financial system and are increasingly using emerging payment methods such as virtual currencies to move illicit funds.”
In effect, the legislation requires FinCEN to focus more of its efforts on emerging technologies including cryptocurrencies. FinCEN’s current mission is to “safeguard the financial system from illicit use and combat money laundering and promote national security through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence and strategic use of financial authorities.”
Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling commented on the passage of the bill in the House;
“I’m pleased to see these important measures pass the House today to bring greater accountability and transparency to the Federal Reserve and to move the Committee’s efforts to thwart terrorism forward by ensuring appropriate processes are in place to protect our financial networks from unwarranted use by illicit, terrorist groups.”
The bill now migrates over to the Senate for further consideration.
Trade jitters weighing on US business investment: Federal Reserve
"Businesses generally remained optimistic about the near-term outlook, though most districts noted concern and uncertainty about trade tensions - particularly though not only among manufacturers," said the report, which gathers accounts from local contacts nationwide.
"A number of districts noted that such concerns had prompted businesses to scale back or postpone capital investment."
The report said "six of the 12 districts" pointed to instances where the lack of available workers was eating into sales caused employers to delay projects.
"Wage growth was mostly characterised as modest or moderate."
Survey respondents said Mr Trump's trade wars had driven up prices for manufacturers and others, which companies planned to begin passing onto consumers, while also causing prices for key commodities like soy beans to plummet.
Farmers were particularly worried in the St. Louis region.
"Farmers continued to express concerns over low agricultural commodity prices resulting from the trade dispute between China and the United States," according to the report.
"Contacts in Missouri and Indiana indicated that farmers did not lock in pre-tariff pricing for a majority of their soy bean crop, leaving them exposed to current market conditions."
China, the largest purchaser of US soy exports, slapped stinging retaliatory tariffs on American exports of the crop, counterpunching against Mr Trump's tariffs on US$50 billion in Chinese-made industrial and technological goods that Washington says have benefited from theft of intellectual property, subsidies and state intervention.
Farmers, retailers and manufacturers have mounted an increasingly robust lobbying campaign against Trump's trade wars, vowing a full-court press against them in advance of November's hard-fought midterm elections.
Word of businesses holding up investment helped send Wall Street lower following a midday rally, with stocks ending near flat in New York.
Miami financial adviser pleads guilty in Petroecuador money laundering case
Some of the laundered money was allegedly used to purchase South Florida real estate
A Miami financial adviser pleaded guilty for his role in an international money laundering scheme where top officials of Ecuador’s state oil company allegedly used some of the proceeds to buy South Florida real estate.
Jose Larrea pleaded guilty in Miami on Tuesday before a U.S. District Judge to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office. The plea is part of an ongoing investigation into an extensive bribery scheme used to pay several Petroecuador and other Ecuadorian government officials in order to secure contracts, according to a court motion.
Larrea admitted to conspiring with his co-defendant, Frank Roberto Chatburn Ripalda, a dual U.S. and Ecuadorian citizen who also lives in Miami, as well as others to conceal the proceeds of the scheme, including bribes paid to Petroecuador officials, the release said.
Federal officials said Larrea admitted to wiring more than $1 million from his own U.S.-based bank account to other U.S. bank accounts. Larrea made the wire transfers to conceal a bribery scheme in an attempt to retain existing contracts and win new business with Petroecuador. Larrea’s attorney, Ana Davide, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Larrea is now the fourth person to plead guilty in the case. Two former officials of Petroecuador, who received bribe payments, and a contractor have pleaded guilty so far for their connections to the illegal activity. One of the former officials, Marcelo Reyes Lopez, was sentenced in July to four years and five months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Lopez allegedly bought six South Florida properties with the laundered money between 2013 and 2014 for a total of $3.5 million, according to court documents. The properties are:
11316 Northwest 79th Lane, Doral: a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house
14340 Southwest 156th Avenue, Miami: a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house
16711 Collins Avenue, Unit 1902, Sunny lsles Beach: a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo
605 South Ocean Drive, Hollywood: a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house
609 South Ocean Drive, Hollywood: a multifamily complex
345 Monroe Street, Unit 1-4, Hollywood: a multifamily complex
Larrea’s codefendant, Chatburn, was charged in April with one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of violating the act, one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering. Chatburn has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is currently set for Oct. 15.
Federal prosecutors are trying to seize three properties tied to Chatburn: a five-bedroom home at 110 Venetian Way in Miami Beach, a five-bedroom house at 321 West Rivo Alto in Miami Beach and a two-bedroom condo at 2627 South Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove.
Larrea’s guilty plea follows another ongoing money laundering investigation. In that case, federal officials are alleging top executives of Venezuela siphoned $1.2 billion from its state oil fund, PDVSA, to purchase South Florida real estate. The U.S. Attorney’s Office claims at least 16 pieces of South Florida property are tied to the defendants of that scheme, one of which was a condo in the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles.
eu State of the Union 2018
State of the Union 2018: Stronger anti-money laundering supervision for a stable banking and financial sector – Questions and Answers
The Commission proposed today to further strengthen the supervision of EU financial institutions to better address money-laundering and terrorist financing threats.
While the EU has strong anti-money laundering rules in place, recent cases involving money laundering in some EU banks have raised concerns that those rules are not always supervised and enforced effectively across the EU. This creates risks for the integrity and reputation of the European financial sector, but may also have financial stability implications for specific banks.
As part of the broader efforts to complete Banking Union by risk reduction and risk sharing and develop Capital Markets Union, decisive action must be taken to ensure that anti-money laundering rules are effectively supervised across the EU, and different authorities cooperate closely with each other.
Therefore, the European Commission proposes today to amend the Regulation on the European Banking Authority (EBA) in order to strengthen the EBA's role and give it the necessary tools and resources to ensure effective cooperation and convergence of supervisory standards.
This is part of a broader strategy to strengthen the EU framework for prudential and anti-money laundering supervision for financial institutions, which the Commission is setting out in a Communication. It consists of legislative and non-legislative measures to make anti-money laundering supervision more effective and improve the cooperation between prudential and anti-money laundering supervisors.
These measures will contribute to promoting the integrity of the EU's financial system, ensuring financial stability and protection from financial crime.
What are today's anti-money laundering rules and how do supervisory authorities manage associated risks?
The EU has a strong legal framework for preventing and fighting money laundering and terrorist financing in place. Financial institutions as well as other entities are required to put in place internal systems to identify, assess and manage money-laundering risks related to their business. The supervisory framework for combating money laundering is based on the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which also applies to a number of actors outside the financial services sector. While the rules are set at European level, their enforcement is carried out by national authorities.
The fifth revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive is an important step forward towards a stronger supervision of money-laundering issues in the EU. The Directive sets up a system for better cooperation and exchange of information between money-laundering and prudential supervisors. It also provides for the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding between the money laundering supervisors and the European Central Bank for the exchange of information.
Why is additional action on supervision required?
Despite this strengthened legislative framework, several recent cases of money laundering in European banks have given rise to concerns about weaknesses and gaps in the implementation of the legislative framework by the EU's network of different supervisors, in relation to three issues in particular:
Delayed and insufficient supervisory actions to tackle weaknesses in financial institutions' anti-money laundering risk management;
shortcomings with respect to cooperation and information sharing both at domestic level, between prudential and anti-money laundering authorities, and between authorities in different Member States;
lack of common arrangements for the cooperation with third countries in relation to the anti-money laundering supervision of financial institution.
In the EU, the supervision of compliance with anti-money laundering legislation is carried out at national level.
In the Banking Union, the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) is tasked with the direct supervision of significant banks. At the same time, for the prudential aspects relevant to money laundering supervision, it has to apply and rely on national legislation transposing EU Directives in the relevant Member State.
At EU level, the European Supervisory Authorities (the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) have the mandate to ensure that the Union's prudential and anti-money laundering rules are applied consistently, efficiently and effectively. However, this is just one of the many tasks these authorities have to carry out. In addition, supervisors are subject to differently transposed national rules, as prudential requirements in legislation have not been supplemented with harmonised guidance.
What changes to the current anti-money laundering framework does the Commission propose?
In order to address the shortcomings identified and further reduce risks in the EU financial system, the Commission proposes, updating its previous proposals on the European Supervisory Authorities, to introduce a set of targetedamendments to the existing legislation on prudential supervision and the regulatory framework of the European Supervisory Authorities.
To ensure high quality anti-money laundering supervision and effective coordination among different authorities across all Member States, anti-money laundering responsibilities in the financial sector will be entrusted specifically to one of the three European Supervisory Authorities, namely the European Banking Authority (EBA), as it is in the banking sector that money-laundering and terrorist financing risks are the most likely to have a systemic impact.
The Commission proposes to clarify the EBA's mandate in the context of anti-money laundering in order to make it more explicit and more comprehensive, accompanied by a clear set of tasks, corresponding powers and adequate resources.
What is the role of the European Banking Authority under the new rules?
On the basis of existing tools and powers of the Authorities, as amended by the pending proposal to review the European Supervisory Authorities, the Commission proposes to give the European Banking Authority (EBA) a more explicit and comprehensive mandate to ensure that risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the Union's financial system are effectively and consistently incorporated into the supervisory strategies and practices of all relevant authorities.
The amended Regulation will:
ensure that breaches of anti-money laundering rules are consistently investigated: the EBA will be able to request national anti-money laundering supervisors to investigate potential material breaches and to request them to consider targeted actions - such as sanctions;
provide that the national anti-money laundering supervisors comply with EU rules and cooperate properly with prudential supervisors. The EBA's existing powers will be reinforced so that, as a last resort if national authorities do not act, the EBA will be able to address decisions directly to individual financial sector operators;
enhance the quality of supervision through common standards, periodic reviews of national supervisory authorities and risk-assessments;
enable the collection of information on anti-money laundering risks and trends and fostering exchange of such information between national supervisory authorities (so-called data hubs);
facilitate cooperation with non-EU countries on cross-border cases;
establish a new permanent committee that brings together national anti-money laundering supervisory authorities.
These amendments will bring major improvements to the supervisory framework of anti-money laundering risks and contribute to risk reduction in the financial sector.
Supervisory framework
How will the three European Supervisory Authorities cooperate on the fight against anti-money laundering and terrorist financing?
A dedicated committee will be established within the EBA to prepare decisions relating to money laundering and terrorist financing measures (comparable to the existing EBA bank resolution committee). It will be composed of heads of national supervisory authorities responsible for ensuring compliance with laws against money laundering and terrorist financing. The EBA will also cooperate closely with the ESMA and the EIOPA in the framework of the existing Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs).
How did the Commission prepare this proposal?
In May 2018, the Commission invited the Chairpersons of the European Supervisory Authorities, the Chairperson of the Anti-Money Laundering Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities and the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, to establish a Joint Working Group to initiate a collective reflection on ways of improving the current framework for cooperation between anti-money laundering and prudential supervisors.
How does this link to work on completing the Banking Union?
Money laundering issues create risks for the integrity and reputation of the European financial sector and may have financial stability implications for specific banks. The European Parliament and the Council have therefore indicated that this is a matter for further work as the EU is completing its Banking Union by risk reduction and risk sharing and developing the Capital Markets Union. Anti-money laundering issues are part of the work on Banking Union mandated by the European Council until December, and the European Parliament has proposed relevant amendments in the context of the pending relevant legislative proposals, in particular the Banking Package, proposed by the Commission in November 2016.
What are the next steps?
The proposed legislative amendments should be considered immediately in the ongoing legislative negotiations on the Commission proposal to review the European Supervisory Authorities' (ESAs) Regulations, adopted by the Commission in September 2017. The Commissions encourages the European Parliament and the Council to reach agreement on these proposals swiftly.
MEMO/18/5725
Thousands of Israelis Were Absent from the WTC on 9/11?
Did 4,000 Israelis stay home from work at the World Trade Center on 9/11?
None of us needed any reminders after the events of September 11 about what an ugly place the world could be, but we continued to receive those reminders nonetheless. In this case, there were plenty of anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-Israeli groups eager to use the horrors of September 11 as fodder for propaganda to serve their own political ends.
The pieces quote above scarely merit the dignity of a rebuttal. One need only have read newspaper accounts of the thousands of deaths, viewed TV news interviews with grieving families, and scanned the lists of the dead and missing to know that the terrorist attack on New York City claimed the lives of Christians, Jews, and Muslims; agnostics, atheists, and the non-religious alike. No religion was spared, no denomination singled out. Ordinary people of all nationalities suffered. No miracles, human intervention, foreknowledge, coincidence, or vagaries of fate saved more than a few World Trade Center workers from meeting their deaths that day.
Nonetheless, those with something to gain by sowing the seeds of divisiveness would have had us believe that Israel had advance warning of the World Trade Center attack and managed to notify 4,000 Israeli nationals who worked in the two towers about the upcoming horror, but that they left the U.S. completely unaware of the danger.
(“Hello, David Rosenberg? This is the Mossad. Listen, don’t go to work on Tuesday. Yeah, another terrorist attack on the U.S. … call in sick. And remember, not a word to any of your gentile relatives, friends, or co-workers.”)
And even though this scoop to top all scoops winged its way all over the Internet, the American press apparently remained completely in the dark about the nefarious scheme. Is it any surprise that this story emanated from sources such as Pravda and Al-Manar, the pro-Palestinian “Channel of Arabs and Muslims”?
Why would Israel follow such a course of action, betray its staunchest ally, and doom thousands of innocent Americans to death? There were no rational answers to that question, only ugly propagandistic ones. “Israel wanted to draw America into a final showdown with its Arab enemies, so they didn’t warn us” — the same type of conspiracy theory that posited our leaders knew about the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor allowed it to happen in order to galvanize public support for a war. Old theory, new clothes. Even darker was the implication that Israel, not content to wait for an attack which would embroil America in a Middle Eastern war, forced the issue by pulling off a monstrous act of terrorism again the USA themselves.
“It is clear to all that the Jews/Israel have most to gain and should be considered as a possible source behind this act,” we were told. Those who authored and disseminated this kind of rubbish were really the ones with the most to gain.
News accounts in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks demonstrated that Jews and Israelis did die in the World Trade Towers that day. A 18 September 2001 CNN article reported on one Manhattan synagogue that had lost six of its members in the attacks, five in the towers and one at the Pentagon. A 21 September 2001 ABC News article showed that at (then) last count 400 Jews were killed in the attack. And a 21 September 2001 New York Times article detailed efforts then underway to identify the Jews whose bodies remained beneath the World Trade Center rubble.
The rumor apparently originated with a relatively innocuous Israeli news report speculating that about 4,000 Israelis were believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and that tidbit quickly morphed into the idea that 4,000 Israelis — all of them employees of companies housed in one or the other of the WTC towers — had all suspiciously failed to show up for work on 9/11:
Vague conspiracy theories blaming Israel began to appear within 24 hours of the attacks. Syria’s government-owned Al Thawra newspaper may have been the first newspaper to make the “4,000 Jews” claim. According to U.S. embassy reporting, its September 15th edition falsely claimed “four thousand Jews were absent from their work on the day of the explosions.”
The 4,000 figure apparently came from an article entitled “Hundreds of Israelis missing in WTC attack” which appeared in the September 12th internet edition of the Jerusalem Post. It stated, “The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks.”
Unknown conspiracy theorists apparently seized upon the 4,000 figure, transforming it into the false claim that 4,000 Jews did not report for work at the World Trade Center on September 11.
But later analysis showed that the proportion of Jews among occupants of the World Trade Center who were killed in the 9/11 attacks was the same as their proportion of the general New York area population:
A total of 2,071 occupants of the World Trade Center died on September 11, among the 2,749 victims of the WTC attacks. According to an article in the October 11, 2001, Wall Street Journal, roughly 1,700 people had listed the religion of a person missing in the WTC attacks; approximately 10% were Jewish. A later article, in the September 5, 2002, Jewish Week, stated, “based on the list of names, biographical information compiled by The New York Times, and information from records at the Medical Examiner’s Office, there were at least 400 victims either confirmed or strongly believed to be Jewish.” This would be approximately 15% of the total victims of the WTC attacks. A partial list of 390 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who died (out of 658 in the company) lists 49 Jewish memorial services, which is between 12% and 13%.
This 10-15% estimate of Jewish fatalities tracks closely with the percentage of Jews living in the New York area. According to the 2002 American Jewish Year Book, 9% of the population of New York State, where 64% of the WTC victims lived, is Jewish. A 2002 study estimated that New York City’s population was 12% Jewish. Forty-three percent of the WTC victims lived in New York City. Thus, the number of Jewish victims correlates very closely with the number of Jewish residents in New York. If 4,000 Jews had not reported for work on September 11, the number of Jewish victims would have been much lower than 10-15%.
Finra fines Citigroup $100,000 for overcharging clients
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. has been fined $100,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. for failing to properly supervise the sale of mutual funds to certain retirement plan and charitable organization customers.
According to Finra, between January 2011 and September 2016, customers who were eligible to purchase no-load mutual fund shares were instead sold funds with sales loads and higher ongoing expenses.
Finra orders Citi to pay $4 million in wrongful dismissal case
In May 2016, after Finra initiated an examination of CGMI, it started its own review of the sales practices, according to Finra.
The Finra report found that approximately 274 customer accounts purchased mutual fund shares without receiving the appropriate sales-charge waiver.
CGMI estimates that during the relevant period, customers were overcharged $264,844.
As part of the settlement, CGMI agreed to pay $309,093 of restitution to eligible customers.
"We are pleased to have resolved this matter," said Citi spokesman Drew Benson.
Militarized Drones Take Africa in Counterterrorism Tactic: CIA
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s drone program in Africa is expanding and will target concentrations of al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Nigerian desert, the New York Times said Monday.
Just south of the Libyan border, a covert military base in Duque has been deploying fleets of drones on surveillance missions for several months, a Defense Department spokeswoman, Maj. Sheryll Klinkel told the Times.
She denied the operation of any military missions from the small city airport, however satellite imagery shows five defensive positions, security checkpoints, and walls were constructed in February around the Duque airport.
During an interview with Nigerian Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum, though he was unable to give details on the drones, he said, “All I know is they’re American.”
Reports said the U.S. presence in the region has grown from 100 military personnel to 800 people.
According to the city mayor, Boubakar Jerome, the aircraft have helped to lower the crime rate. However, during the Obama administration, CIA drone operations were curtailed due to the international backlash after hundreds of civilian deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Though the Pentagon never took responsibilities for the attacks, program restrictions were introduced. Last year, the policy was changed after complaints from former C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, who said they were needless and impediments to U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
Residents have allegedly joined Islamist militias such as Al Qaeda which is grouped in areas of the Islamic Maghreb such as Algeria, Mali, Niger and Libya, the New York paper said.
Times journalists have reported sightings of “Predator” drones, measuring 27 feet long and were behind the scores of civilian deaths taken from western and north African countries since the early 2000’s.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, over 3,500 victims have died from U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan since 2015, some 300 of these were civilians.
2 suspected gang members arrested in bank jugging sting using bait vehicle
Two suspected gang members were arrested Friday in a bank jugging sting after Houston police used a bait car and a bag of money to lure in the alleged would-be thieves.
Fverswan Runnest Alfred, who is already under investigation for a bank jugging in Austin, made his first court appearance late Saturday at a probable cause hearing where the state laid out the evidence against him.
The 24-year-old and his co-defendant, Terry Lumpkin, are now both in the county jail on charges of engaging in organized crime, burglary of a vehicle and evading arrest. The pair allegedly belongs to the 59 Bounty Hunter Bloods street gang, according to court filings.
Undercover officers were working a jugging investigation near Wallisville and Beltway 8 just before noon on Friday when they spotted a dark-tinted car parked in front of the Chase Bank. The driver - later identified as Alfred - parked and re-parked repeatedly, always keeping a clear view of the front doors of the bank.
Police grew suspicious, and came up with a plan to bait the men in the lingering car. One of the officers in plainclothes went into the bank and made a faux transaction, then emerged with a bag full of $2,500 of cash, prosecutors said.
When he emerged and got in the unmarked car to leave, Alfred and Lumpkin allegedly started following. They tailed the police car for roughly 5 miles, before the officer stopped at an Academy Sports Store and went inside.
Alfred watched the officer get out, and investigators later found binoculars in the suspects' vehicle, according to a probable cause statement read in court.
Once police went inside the store, Alfred reparked next to the unmarked car. Lumpkin hopped and, according to authorities, used a spring-loaded window punch to break into the vehicle.
He allegedly tried swiping the bag of money from under the center console, but it was held in place with a security cable.
Police moved in for an arrest, and Lumpkin ran away through the parking lot. He was later captured and arrested.
Alfred sped off and allegedly led police on a 1.5-mile chase, driving the wrong way and ultimately crashing into a light pole before he was taken into custody.
Now, he's in jail on $71,000 bail. Prosecutors cited his one prior misdemeanor and four prior felony convictions in their request for high bond.
15 Colombian nationals arrested in violent jewel robberies in North Texas, across U.S.
A ring of Colombian jewel robbers used sophisticated and brutal tactics to carry out 11 robberies or attempted robberies over a two-year span, the U.S. Justice Department says.
Fifteen people have been arrested and face charges related to the robberies, along with organized crime and conspiracy charges.
Between September 2014 and January 2016, they allegedly robbed jewelers and traveling jewelry salespeople three times in Dallas, once in Farmers Branch and twice in Houston. Other heists happened in Oklahoma City; Miami Beach; Hollywood, Florida; Indianapolis and Vienna, Virginia, officials said in a news release.
Obtaining rental cars, airplane tickets and hotel rooms, and opening bank accounts using fake identification, the suspects conducted surveillance on diamond and jewelry stores, along with traveling jewelry salesmen, in order to identify potential victims, authorities said.
In some incidents, the robbers would block a salesman’s vehicle with one of their own and disable the salesman’s vehicle by slashing its tires or breaking its windows, authorities said.
They would use violence, threats of violence and weapons, including BB guns and knives, during the robberies, authorities said. They sold the jewels to “fences,” who deal in stolen goods, and split the proceeds.
The arrested men and women were identified as Jonathan David Malpica, 33; Tito Andres Vargas Urbina, 31; Roger Zamora, 40; Camila Andrea Espitia, 23; Mohammed Natour, 32; Omar Gonzalez, 38; Fabrizia Cavanna Sarmiento, 41; Andres Felipe Henao, 32; Bryan David Vargas Londono, 25; Rodolfo Vargas Londono, 30; Luis Garcia, 31; Catherine Salas, 34; Erika Gutierrez Machado, 45; James Jeanphier Tobar Ramon, 27; and Jesus Jean Pool Tovar, 24.
Cavanna and the Londonos were arrested in Colombia by the Colombian National Police, authorities said. The rest were arrested in various locations in the United States between 2016 and 2017.
“The defendants allegedly embarked on a multi-state spree of violent robberies, putting the lives of their victims and other innocent civilians at risk,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, who announced the arrests along with U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox of Dallas and Special Agent Eric K. Jackson of the Dallas FBI office.
“We have no tolerance for those who would violate the sovereignty of the United States to further their criminal goals and we will bring you to justice no matter where in the world you are located,” Jackson said.
To date, nine of the 15 defendants — Gonzalez, Urbina, Malpica, Machado, Salas, Henao, Natour, Zamora and Garcia — have pleaded guilty, authorities said.
H-1B visa ‘fraud’: Indian CEO in U.S. may have brought in nearly 200 foreign workers: feds
Asif Siddique goes through a pile of papers containing his visa and other immigration documents. He has been working in the U.S. on an H-1B visa but his visa expired before he was approved for a green card. He can no longer work in the U. S. but he stays here while he waits hoping to get his green card. Siddique has been in the US since 1987. He went to school at Ohio State University. He is origionally from Pakistan.
An Indian citizen, CEO of two U.S. staffing firms, was arrested upon his return to the U.S. and charged with engineering what federal authorities are calling a “multi-year visa-fraud scheme” centered on the controversial H-1B visa.
Pradyumna Kumar Samal, 49, had earlier this year “fled the United States” amid a federal investigation into employment practices at the two Washington State staffing firms he led, Divensi and Azimetry, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Samal could not be reached for comment.
Samal’s two companies were in the business of supplying tech workers, including software-development engineers, to large corporations, including Fortune 500 firms, the department said in a press release.
Staffing companies and outsourcing firms have become prime targets for critics of the H-1B, a visa intended for workers with specialized knowledge doing specialty work. While major Silicon Valley tech companies rely heavily on H-1B workers, and push for an increase to the annual 85,000 cap on new visas, opponents of the H-1B point to alleged abuses by staffing and outsourcing firms, UC San Francisco, Disney and San Jose tech giant Cisco.
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Samal is accused of submitting, and directing employees to submit, fake documents purporting to show corporate clients agreeing to use workers named in H-1B applications.
“The forged documents included forged letters and fraudulent statements of work, which appeared as if they had been signed by senior executives at the two clients,” the department alleged.
The submitted documents falsely attested that the H-1B visas were for “specialty occupations,” according to an allegation in court documents.
Once U.S. Citizenship and Immigration approved the applications, the workers in question were “benched” — kept unpaid pending possible placement in a client firm of one of Samal’s companies, the department alleged.
“Nearly 200 workers may have been brought in under the phony applications,” the department alleged.
“The employees were forced to pay Samal’s companies a partially-refundable ‘security deposit’ of as much as $5,000 for the visa filings, regardless of whether they were assigned to any projects that provided them with income.”
Law enforcement officers arrested Samal on Tuesday as he arrived at Sea-Tac International Airport near Seattle after an international flight, the department reported. The U.S. Attorney’s office on Wednesday asked that Samal be kept in detention as a flight risk, and a hearing was scheduled for early this week.
The U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security in 2015 started investigating the two firms run by Samal, according to court documents. Authorities allege he was committing visa fraud between 2012 and 2015, according to court records.
Samal is accused of engineering a type of visa fraud known as a “bench-and-switch” scheme, court documents said. In this type of visa scam by a staffing company, a firm secures visas through fake or doctored documents, and then offers up workers to clients who are not designated in application materials. Cutting the time between a client’s agreement to use a worker and the receipt of an H-1B visa for the worker provides a business advantage, federal authorities said in a court filing.
“Shortening or eliminating the lag time enables petitioning companies to place employees at end clients faster than their competitors are able to,” a State Department special agent said in the court filing.
New OTC Equity Short Interest and OTC Threshold Data Download and API Guidelines (Effective November 5, 2018)
As part of a technology upgrade, FINRA has implemented improved interfaces to retrieve data and has established naming conventions that follow industry standards. This change will promote consistent column names, both in the file download feature and API access.
FINRA will change column names and the order in which the columns are displayed in the download files.
FINRA will support a new Application Program Interface (API) to enable access to the OTC Equity Short Interest and OTC Threshold Data effective November 5, 2018.
Details for Equity Short Interest are provided in the Equity Short Interest Data File Download API documentation.
Details for OTC Threshold are provided in the OTC Threshold Data File Download API documentation.
The existing methods of API access will no longer work effective November 5, 2018.
If you have any questions, Please contact us by email.
http://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/Equity_Short_Interest_Data_File_Download_API.pdf
http://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/OTC_Threshold_Data_File_Download_API.pdf
Finra Proposes Higher Position Limits for ETF Options Contracts
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority today proposed an increase of position limits on several of the most traded ETF options contracts; these changes, it said, would increase liquidity and add depth to the market.
The proposal, which would double the limits on such contracts as the PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) and S&P’s Depository Trust (SPY), must first be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
FINRA is asking for the rule change, which would affect nine contracts, to take immediate effect if approved by the SEC, thus waiving the 30-day delay the agency typically demands. Options exchanges normally will set position limits; in fact, limits for SPY were doubled to 1.8 million after a NYSE Arca pilot program that ended in July that had eliminated position limits on that product.
The ETF options contracts affected include position limits officially increased to: 1) 1.8 million on SPY and QQQ; 2) 1 million on Russell 2000 Index (IWM) and MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM); and 3) 500,000 on FTSE China 50 Index (FXI), MSCI EAFE Index (EFA), MSCI Brazil 25/50 Index (EWZ), ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index (TLT), MSCI Japan Index (EWJ).
SPY’s fund market capitalization in 2017 was $240.5 billion while QQQ’s was $78.8 billion.
FINRA says the broad-based indexes are unfairly subject to tighter position limits than the underlying indexes:
“FINRA believes that if certain position limits are appropriate for the options overlying the same index, or an analogue to the basket of securities that the ETF tracks, then those same economically equivalent position limits should be appropriate for the option overlying the ETF. In addition, the market capitalization of the underlying index or reference asset is large enough to absorb any price movements that may be caused by an oversized trade. Also, the issuer may look to the stocks comprising the analogous underlying index or reference asset when seeking to create additional ETF shares which are part of the creation/redemption process to address supply and demand or to mitigate the price movement of the price of the ETF.”
One example provided is with QQQ, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index (NDX). Options on the NDX have no position limits but “share similar trading characteristics as QQQ,” states the FINRA proposal.
Using $154.5422 as the QQQ share price, and NDX level of 6,339.14, FINRA showed where 40 contracts of QQQ equals one share of NDX. If it was assumed the position limit on the NDX was 25,000 contracts, as is the minimum under exchange rules for broad-based contracts, the equivalent would be 100,000 for QQQ.
However, there are no position limits on NDX, which has an average daily trading volume of 15,300, while options on QQQ, with the current position limit of 900,000, have an ADV of roughly 580,000 contracts. That said, the component securities of the NDX in aggregate traded 440 million shares per day in 2017, thus “both market capitalizations being large enough to absorb any price movement by a large trade in QQQ.”
The argument that these ETF options contracts are as liquid or more so than their underlying indexes, which have for the most part no position limits, runs throughout each of FINRA’s contract arguments.
Finra also noted it was confident in surveillance procedures by the exchanges to identify any unusual activity in both the options and underlying stocks. In addition, regulators can keep an eye on margin and capital of members holding large positions, and can impose a higher capital charge on those members if they believe it necessary.
FINRA stated it believes “that the proposed rule change promotes consistent regulation by harmonizing position limits with those of the other self-regulatory organizations. FINRA further believes that increasing the position limit on conventional options promotes consistent regulation by harmonizing the position limit with its standardized counterpart.”
There will be a 60-day period in which comments will be accepted. However, the SEC has the right to suspend the proposal if it feels it’s not in the public interest and move on to hearings on its probity.
Security Crisis Stains Peña Nieto’s Legacy in Mexico
Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto’s final report on the state of the country showed that the security crisis will be one of his darkest legacies and one of the incoming administration’s toughest challenges.
Peña Nieto publicly presented the sixth, and final, report of his administration’s actions on September 3. The document has one chapter dedicated to Mexico’s deepening security crisis.
“Although I have to acknowledge that there are areas where our efforts did not meet the objectives we had set for ourselves, I also leave knowing that the Mexico we hand over is, without a doubt, better than the Mexico we had six years ago,” Peña Nieto said in one of the videos that accompanied the report.
During the presentation, which was attended by Mexico’s political elites, the president ran through some of what he defined as his administration’s main accomplishments in the fight against violence and organized crime.
He mentioned moves for state institutions to work more closely together, the strengthening of security forces, the increased use of intelligence, the development of social programs to prevent violence, the implementation of a new justice system and the passing of a number of laws to fight corruption, which has been a challenge in Mexico for decades.
“We have fought violence with intelligence and with the legitimate use of violence at the hands of the state. In this way, we have succeeded in reducing the capacity and size of criminal organizations,” Peña Nieto said, adding that authorities had either arrested or killed 110 of the 122 criminal targets it had set out to apprehend when he took office.
However, the president also acknowledged that although violence decreased during his first years in office, the kingpin strategy, largely based on targeting the heads of criminal organizations, has led to the fragmentation of larger groups into smaller cells that have been more difficult to target, particularly given the poor capacity of local police forces.
“I’m aware that we didn’t meet the objective of finding peace for Mexicans across the country. Turning that desire into reality will require a long, sustained effort,” Peña Nieto said.
InSight Crime Analysis
There is no doubt this would have been a tough speech for President Peña Nieto to deliver. No matter how hard he tried to highlight the security advances made during his six years in office, rising homicide figures cast a very bleak light on the country’s reality and the challenges ahead.
Peña Nieto arrived at the presidency in December 2012 determined to change course from the aggressive militarization of his predecessor, Felipe Calderón. But many blame him for a rise in the rate of homicides across the country because he lacked a sense of proper policy craftsmanship and seems to have failed to consider the precise reasons for Calderón’s fiasco.
Instead of building a comprehensive security strategy, Peña Nieto voiced support for novel half-measures that were ultimately meaningless: creating an unnecessary new federal police agency, promising to downplay the kingpin strategy and shifting public attention away from the government’s clashes with drug cartels.
This was a recipe for failure.
The clearest evidence of Peña Nieto’s misguided strategy is the stratospheric leap in Mexico’s crime rate.
The outgoing president opened his tenure with two years of declining murder rates, but his team was unable to maintain this trend. By 2015, the number of killings was again on the rise, and the nation is now more violent than when Peña Nieto was inaugurated. By some measures, Peña Nieto’s Mexico has surpassed all precedent. With nearly 2,900 homicides, May 2018 was the bloodiest month in the country’s modern history.
But Peña Nieto’s missteps cannot be fully illustrated by crime statistics alone. Acts of corruption and incompetence throughout his administration have gravely undermined public confidence in government institutions. The most notorious example—the government’s bungling of the investigation of the forced disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa—reads as a relic from the nation’s authoritarian past.
Ayotzinapa has rightly become both an international scandal and an emblem of Peña Nieto’s ineptitude, but it is one of a drumbeat of scandals that leave the public unable to trust its leaders. The army was credibly accused of perpetrating a massacre in 2014. More than a dozen governors have come under investigation for corruption, in most cases stemming from ties to organized crime. And a number of promising anti-graft reforms are still little more than words on paper.
Similar examples of the increasing chaos abound.
The rupture in the implicit contract between the governed and government has been deepened by Peña Nieto’s disinterest in protecting the press. This has propitiated the continued slaughter of Mexico’s media workers, many of whom have, in turn, opted for self-censorship.
Similarly, Peña Nieto’s administration has done little to tackle the increase in attacks on municipal officials, which have left scores of mayors dead during his tenure. In 2018, more than 100 candidates for public office—primarily at the local level—were murdered. This gruesome trend has undercut the effectiveness of local governments, which in theory should be the most responsive to citizens’ day-to-day concerns.
The election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador amounted to a profound rejection of the establishment that Peña Nieto represents. Much of that rejection was a product of his flailing security policy. But while Mexicans appear excited to turn the page on the current administration, the breaches in public trust that Peña Nieto created will not be easily healed. This sad legacy will present a challenge to governance for years, if not generations, to come.
Police Officers' Murder in Mexico Is a Revenge of Organized Crime
The murder of four municipal police officers in Tonala, Jalisco, including the special operation commander, is now considered a revenge against organized crime for the actions against them.
Municipal president, Enrique Ibarra, said this statement in reference to a new action of violence in Jalisco, and in the country, which claimed the lives of police officers and the armed forces members.
The police officers were ambushed by hired assassins who were waiting for them in a car, and from where they fired at the patrol in which commander Eduardo Plazola was being transported.
A police officer was among the soldiers who lost their lives. The murderers fled and a search and capture operation was implemented in the state.
The Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, considered today the most dangerous one in the country, operates, above all, in Jalisco.
Europe needs a central anti-money laundering body
Danske Bank scandal highlights a gaping hole in financial regulation
The scandal surrounding alleged money laundering through the Estonian branch of Denmark’s largest lender, Danske Bank, is escalating into one of the biggest such cases in Europe. As the Financial Times has disclosed, an independent investigation found that as much as $30bn of Russian and ex-Soviet money flowed through the Estonian arm in a single year, 2013 — an eye-popping volume for a small branch operation. It suggests serious gaps in the bank’s safeguards, and in Europe’s efforts to combat money-laundering.
The $30bn figure, it must be noted, represents total money flows from countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan and Moldova, not transactions that appeared suspicious. But a Danish newspaper in July alleged $8.3bn of suspicious money— more than twice previous estimates — passed through Danske’s Estonian branch from 2007 to 2015. Money was being moved between shell companies, often in repeated round trips. The sheer volume of total flows in 2013, the peak year, means the eventual total of suspicious transactions looks set to grow.
It also intensifies the questions over why alarm bells were not clanging at Danske’s Copenhagen headquarters. Even before the bank releases two internal reports in coming weeks into the Estonia case, the position of senior managers — including chief executive Thomas Borgen, who headed Danske’s international banking until 2012 — looks increasingly untenable.
A report from Denmark’s financial regulator in May noted that a whistleblower emailed Danske’s senior management in December 2013 complaining about anti-money laundering issues in the Estonian branch. Danske’s audit department confirmed the concerns in February 2014, but the bank launched a full investigation only in September 2017. The regulator also found that the Estonian branch had “deficiencies in all three lines of defence”, including anti-laundering measures, integration into the group’s risk management, and internal audit.
Mr Borgen has offered to step aside if it would help resolve the case. But the scandal may now have reached the point where only replacing the top leadership will enable Danske to draw a line under the issue. Investors are increasingly jittery, especially over the possibility of a US investigation.
Memories are fresh of Deutsche Bank’s $630m-worth of fines from US and UK regulators last year for so-called mirror trades, which were allegedly used to launder $10bn out of Russia. US officials — who have repeatedly, and embarrassingly, proved better able to police European money laundering than Europe’s own authorities — have not confirmed whether they are probing Danske themselves, but said they are “following the case closely”.
TSB’s tech travails, Danske scandal and changing German attitudes
The Danske scandal has also highlighted again the patchwork nature of Europe’s anti-money laundering supervision. Smaller countries such as the Baltic states, Cyprus and Malta have often lacked the resources, and determination, to tackle financial crime, leaving them open to exploitation. A shortage of specialist expertise in smaller financial centres can also lead to revolving doors between the regulators and the regulated.
While the European Central Bank scrutinises banks’ business models and governance, policing criminal financial flows is still a national competence. An EU-wide anti-money laundering body is sorely needed to harmonise and enforce rules, and direct additional resources to where they are most needed. EU institutions and member states need to find the political will to close what is a gaping hole in the continent’s regulatory framework.
20-year-old charged with leading organized crime for having friends receive his Ecstasy shipments
A 20-year-old Silverdale man was charged Friday with a count of leading organized crime for having friends receive shipments of the club drug MDMA he ordered over the internet, which he then allegedly sold to a University of Washington student living in Seattle.
The 20-year-old had his friends receive the packages from the Netherlands because he lived at home with his parents, according to court documents.
The case started in June when customs agents X-raying packages discovered about 200 grams of MDMA hidden in a DVD case destined for the residence of one of the 20-year-old’s friends, according to court documents. MDMA is also known as Ecstasy or Molly. Federal authorities turned over the case to local authorities who tracked the package back to the 20-year-old.
The suspect admitted to ordering the drug off the “dark web,” a part of the internet that requires special software or permission to access. One shipment was seized by authorities, so he asked four friends to receive the packages with the instructions not to open them to ensure they had “plausible deniability,” according to court documents. Some friends received payment for accepting the packages. He told investigators he bought the MDMA for $1,500 and then sold it to the student in Seattle for $3,000.
The suspect told investigators he trafficked about 4.5 pounds of the drug to his connection in Seattle, according to court documents.
A WestNET detective wrote in court documents this made the suspect the “biggest MDMA supplier” he has seen in Kitsap County in his three years as a narcotics detective.
MDMA, a synthetic drug, rose to prominence in the 1980s at dance clubs and may have some therapeutic uses. It is not associated with property crime and violence like meth and heroin, however, the National Institute on Drug Abuse warned that in high doses, the drug can be dangerous, if not deadly. When preparing doses, dealers sometimes mix in other drugs.
In addition to the charge of leading organized crime, prosecutors also charged the 20-year-old with conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, and attempted delivery of Ecstasy. Prosecutors added aggravators for “major violations” of drug laws as well as for the suspect’s residence being located within a “Drug-Free Zone.”
https://tools.finra.org/scam_meter/
Americans Can Lose $3 Bln in Dubious ICOs. FinCEN Has Drowned In Delations
The regulator got the overwhelming majority of the information within the SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) program – the mandatory notification of the financial intelligence about unusual financial transactions.
SAR’s requirements are simple at the first sight. Every transaction can seem suspicious if it exceeds $5000 for the emitents and $2000 for usual private customers and legal bodies. At the same time: the customer uses a fake identifier (ID), two customers use the same ID, he changes the transaction after the demand to show the ID, performs several transactions for amounts slightly less than acceptable, tries to avoid the requirements of the law on bank secrecy, and so on.
At the same time, the regulator receives information not only from usual financial companies but also from crypto exchanges.
"These messages include both bank and crypto exchanges orders. Many of them turned out to be extremely important for law enforcement agencies," - says Kenneth BLANCO. "The information in the reports included data on beneficial ownership, additional activities related to stock exchanges that we had not previously known, and jurisdictional information".
Moreover, the legal basis of the inspection is the FinCEN 2011 rule released for the fiat money.
According to American instructions, more than 70% of transactions conducted in the virtual market can be considered suspicious. Firstly, anonymous transactions automatically fall within the SAR. They do not use ID at all, and this is already a formal reason for contacting the competent authorities. Secondly, the problem is in the assessment of the value of transactions. The price of crypto assets can vary not by cents, like fiat, but by hundreds of dollars within a day. Accordingly, a critical financial threshold can be passed in a very short time regardless of the will of the transaction parties, which, of course, does not make it illegal.
It is quite possible that a huge number of appeals is just a consequence of the bureaucratic formalism. However, this does not solve the problem in general. According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), during just two months of 2018, US citizens lost $ 532 million in illegal operations in the ICO market. At the same time, according to pessimistic forecasts, this figure could grow to $ 3 billion by the end of the year.
For example, at the end of last year, the US authorities initiated a criminal case against Russian immigrant Maxim Zaslavsky, the owner of the Diamond Reserve Club World (DRC World) and the REcoin Group Foundation. The businessman held two ICOs, during which funds and tokens secured by real estate and diamonds should have appeared in the virtual market. Investors did not see any tokens or diamonds, although they managed to invest over $ 300,000 in Zaslavsky's business. The SEC has noticed a potential scam, and now the businessman faces a serious prison term and a fine.
Disturbing, but also encouraging messages come from another part of the world. The National Police Agency (NPA) of Japan spent 35 million yen ($ 315,000) last year on the development of the software to capture scams in the crypto market. Under the technical enquiry, the software should track the blockchain and identify suspicious movement of funds. Japanese colleagues of American security forces are also concerned about the ever-increasing number of illegal transactions with virtual assets. Since June 18, regulators of the Land of the Rising Sun have banned even the turnover of anonymous cryptocurrency. That resulted in the withdrawal of several popular tokens from the market.
It has not been reported yet what results Japanese specialists have achieved. However, the trend is evident. Law enforcement agencies seem to have poured themselves into the virtual market. Everything new, and cryptocurrencies are not an exception, is extremely irritating for the bureaucratic apparatus. Moreover, even if the representatives of the new economy do not do anything that could harm consumers, their actions are still under suspicion. However, this trend has a positive side too. The increased attention of the security services and regulators to this sphere of the economy is a step towards the creation of the unified regulatory system, which so many businessmen are talking about. What it will be like is the subject of discussion and political bargaining. The main thing is there is a counter movement.
It will be recalled that the beginning month will, in many ways, determine the virtual market. On September 7, the meeting of the European Union Ministers of Finance on the regulation of cryptocurrencies will take place; on September 11, hearings in the Supreme Court of India on the legality of the turnover of virtual assets are to take place; on September 21, the SEC of the USA will consider the issue of the admissibility of the presence of crypto assets on the financial market.
‘100% illegal’: The business of weed banking is veiled in secrecy
Before recreational marijuana became legal in some parts of the U.S., starting in 2012, you needed cash to buy weed. These days, even many legal weed businesses are still cash-only because banks refuse to deal with them — forcing some dispensaries to transport their money in armored cars and pay their taxes with stacks of $20 bills.
Last month, a Florida politician said Wells Fargo went as far as to close her account simply because she accepted money from lobbyists for the medical-marijuana industry. But federal data suggests there’s been a slight increase in the number of banks dealing with pot businesses.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reports that, as of March, 411 banks and credit unions work with pot businesses — up from 318 in October 2016. Patrons of big marijuana dispensaries like San Jose, California’s Airfield Supply Co., Colorado-based LivWell, or Culver City, California-based MedMen might be pleasantly surprised to find they can finally, at long last, pay for their weed with a debit card.
Weed businesses that take debit cards have presumably found banks to work with them. But, asked to identify which banks work with cannabis companies, Harvey Englander, a spokesperson for the United Cannabis Business Association wrote, via email: “Your question provides me with a conundrum because if I identify some banks they may close the accounts. So I must decline to respond.”
That might be because it’s still technically illegal to provide banking services to weed companies and, potentially, because marijuana is still stigmatized. One thing is clear: Even as more states legalize marijuana, a tiny fraction of banks are willing to work with cannabis companies. The financial institutions that do serve cannabis companies tend to be smaller banks and credit unions — and most do not advertise their services to the world.
‘It is 100% legal under federal law to bank the cannabis industry’
It was less than six years ago that Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use. While a total of nine states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational pot, and 30 states have legalized it for medical purposes, weed companies still operate in a legal grey area because pot is illegal under federal law. The DEA classifies cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has “currently no accepted medical use.” That puts it in the same category as heroin.
Under the Obama administration, then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memo, known as the Cole Memorandum, that clarified the Justice Department’s stance on pot. The memo, from August 29, 2013, asserted that, for the most part, the Justice Department would not enforce the marijuana ban in states that had legalized it. (Cole laid out a number marijuana enforcement priorities, including preventing drugged driving.)
Following suit, in February 2014, FinCEN, which is part of the Treasury Department, issued its own guidance on how banks could provide services to the cannabis industry without violating an anti-money laundering law, the Bank Secrecy Act. One apparent goal of that memo — to ensure that cannabis companies could find banks.
The guidance noted: “This FinCEN guidance should enhance the availability of financial services for, and the financial transparency of, marijuana-related businesses.”
When the FinCEN guidance was issued, banks could theoretically avoid the threat of federal prosecution as long as they complied with its guidelines — including filing Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, for transactions related to all marijuana companies. (The recent FinCEN report showing an uptick in banks that work with cannabis companies arrived at its numbers by examining SARs.)
But the Donald Trump administration has threatened the legitimacy of that FinCEN guidance, which itself referenced the Cole memo multiple times. In January, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole memo, calling marijuana “a dangerous drug” and asserting that “marijuana activity is a serious crime.” While Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Congress in February that he wanted the cannabis industry to have access to banks, that might provide little assurance to notoriously risk-averse financial institutions.
“At the end of the day it is 100% illegal under federal law to bank the cannabis industry because of the Bank Secrecy Act,” said business lawyer Hilary Bricken, who writes a column on cannabis policy and regulation for Above the Law. She added, “None of the big banks … openly do business with cannabis companies … These are massively conservative institutions and are probably more regulated than any other institution in the U.S.”
‘We’re prohibited to say who we bank with’
Still, Bricken’s firm, Harris Bricken, does represent a half-dozen banks and credit unions serving cannabis companies in compliance with the 2014 FinCEN guidelines. These banks and credit unions might not advertise themselves as pot-friendly financial institutions, though.
Indeed, LivWell’s executive director and chief legal strategist, Dean Heizer, said he was “not at liberty to” say which bank or credit union his company works with. In fact, he said, that financial institution required him to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
In this May 19, 2018 file photo tourists Randy Wilkie and Keya Cole from Buffalo, New York, check out the offerings of cannabis at one of the MedMen cannabis dispensaries in Los Angeles, prior to boarding the Green Line Trips bus tour.
“As a condition of banking with the institution, we’re prohibited to say who we bank with,” said Heizer, who said his company was “kicked out” of three banks before it finally found one. Other banks that work with cannabis companies also require NDAs, according to Bricken. “Many banks want to keep a low profile if they are participating, so NDAs make sense,” she wrote an email message, while also noting that not every bank that works with cannabis companies requires an NDA.
A representative for another major pot company, MedMen, said he wasn’t sure whether his company had signed a non-disclosure agreement. However, that representative, Daniel Yi, declined to name the financial institutions that work with MedMen. In the past, he’s asked the financial institutions that serve MedMen whether they’d like to speak to reporters covering the cannabis industry.
“I haven’t had one of them say yes,” said Yi, MedMen’s senior vice president of corporate communications and investor relations. He added, referring to credit unions and banks that work with cannabis companies, “Right now they are not wanting to advertise to the world that they’re banking cannabis … I think it’s more the stigma than anything else. If the federal government really wanted to crack down on this, you’re not safe simply because you did not publicize the fact that you’re banking [with the weed industry.]”
The challenge of finding a bank — and serving the weed industry
With relatively few banks dealing with cannabis at all, and those that do declining to advertise their services, it’s not exactly easy for a marijuana company to find a bank.
LivWell has 15 locations in Colorado and Oregon and hundreds of employees, and Heizer said the banks that didn’t want to work with the company didn’t think it was doing anything untoward. Rather, he said, “They got cold feet.” Heizer noted: “Whether or not Justice has the motivation or resources to go after banks, the fact that it remains illegal and Justice hasn’t reaffirmed the FinCEN memo. Practically speaking, it’s only the most robust marijuana companies that are able to get banking.”
Acreage Holdings — a cannabis company that will soon operate in 15 states — has found banking services because it has the resources to account for every dollar of its business, according to the company’s CEO, Kevin Murphy. But smaller firms have a tougher time finding banks. He noted that one of his friends in the cannabis industry recently took a picture of over $1 million he had to pay the IRS in $20 bills because his business didn’t have a bank.
“This business is quickly becoming a business of haves and have nots,” he said, referring to cannabis companies that can and cannot get banking services.
One credit union that openly banks marijuana companies, Seattle-based Salal Credit Union, opens roughly one marijuana-related account for every 10 applications it receives, according to Carmelia Houston, its vice president of business services. That’s partly because the credit union has high standards for its business clients and also because, Houston acknowledged, they don’t want to pay the extra fees that credit unions like Salal charge cannabis companies.
Cannabis companies get charged extra fees for a few different reasons, including the fact that banking weed businesses demands a lot of paperwork. To comply with the 2014 FinCEN guidelines, Houston said that Salal has to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) every time it starts working with a cannabis company and again every 120 days after that.
Moreover, banks like Salal have to assume the added risk that comes with banking cannabis money. For example, banks might attract the attention of federal authorities if they work with a cannabis company that’s sending its wares to a state that hasn’t legalized pot. Christopher Barry, of counsel at Dorsey & Whitney, noted that the following scenario might be problematic:
“Let’s say you’re a bank, and you’re banking a cannabis producer, and it turns out that the cannabis producer is putting a portion of its cannabis on a pickup truck and taking it to Idaho to sell on the black market.”
To assume that risk, and to file mountains of paperwork with FinCEN, banks and credit unions get to charge a “massive premium” to marijuana businesses, according to Bricken. That premium can amount to a fee that’s three to four times higher than what non-marijuana businesses would pay, Bricken said. For credit unions like Salal, though, serving marijuana businesses could have benefits other than the extra fees they can charge.
“We … know that it’s an underserved market, and credit unions are known for serving underserved markets,” Salal’s Houston said. Moreover, she said, “We wanted to help get the cash off the streets to improve public safety.”
In the future, other financial institutions might be able to generate good will from the public by serving the cannabis industry as more states legalize pot and consequently decrease its stigma. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is currently working with Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner to pass a bill that would let states regulate marijuana without interference with federal law-enforcement.
For now, though, many banks will continue not to touch weed money. That means that a lot of weed smokers, for the foreseeable future, will have to hit the ATM before they buy pot from legal dispensaries — just like they did when they met their drug dealers on the street corner.
China has transformed its military to 'fight and win wars', Pentagon warns
US ally Australia in range of Chinese missiles
The report notes: "The PLA has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets."
China's era of 'hide and bide' is over
The US and China's geopolitical rivalry in Asia will likely end in war, some experts warn, although Beijing maintains its intentions are peaceful. But history hangs heavily over the entire China story, writes Stan Grant.
The PLAN Marine Corps (PLANMC) is being expanded from 10,000 to 30,000 personnel by 2020 with a larger mission beyond its current focus on the South China Sea. Critically, strike capabilities are expanding to cover US and allied targets in the region.
The report acknowledges the "PLA …[demonstrates] the capability to strike US and allied forces and military bases in the western Pacific Ocean, including Guam. Such flights could potentially be used as a strategic signal to regional states".
The US and allies such as Australia are within range of Chinese missiles.
For instance, Australia is within range of the nuclear-capable DF-26 and CSS-3 missiles.
China's strategy to avoid dramatic conflict
Fourth, China's preferred strategy is to avoid dramatic conflict. Instead, it uses "opportunistically timed progression of incremental but intensifying steps to attempt to increase effective control over disputed areas and avoid escalation to military conflict."
It combines these incremental measures with economic diplomacy — buying silence and seeking accession. The report documents numerous such instances against the Philippines, Vietnam, and South Korea.
Fifth, China wishes to make "major progress" toward "informatisation" — a concept "roughly analogous to the US military's concept of "net-centric" capability: a force's ability to use advanced information technology and communications systems to gain operational advantage over an adversary".
Sixth, China employs cyber attacks to achieve key strategic goals. These include "intelligence collection against US diplomatic, economic, academic, and defence industrial base sectors".
A former Defence Force chief says in our lifetimes, our economy will be devastated, our land seized, our system of government upended.
The intelligence is then used "to benefit China's defence high-technology industries, support … military modernisation, provide the CCP insights into US … [and] enable PLA cyber forces to build an operational picture of US perspectives".
In addition, it provides knowledge about "defence networks, military disposition, logistics, and related military capabilities that could be exploited prior to or during a crisis".
Seventh, China's military ambitions extend to space: it wishes to acquire "counterspace capabilities, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as to expand space surveillance capabilities that can monitor objects across the globe and in space and enable counterspace actions."
The report notes that China probably has the ability to destroy satellites in space.
Nuclear 'triad' of delivery systems
Eighth, China's nuclear deterrence is evolving to encompass a triad of delivery capabilities. The DOD records that "nuclear capable bombers would, for the first time, provide China with a nuclear 'triad' of delivery systems dispersed across land, sea, and air."
In addition, the country "is developing a stealthy, long-range strategic bomber with a nuclear delivery capability that could be operational within the next 10 years".
Further, China's no-first use policy regarding nuclear weapons is ambiguous. Although it claims it will never use nuclear weapons first, the no-first use policy may not apply if targets that are necessary for nuclear deterrence are attacked, for example.
As the report bluntly notes, "China intends to use BRI to develop strong economic ties with other countries, shape their interests to align with China's, and deter confrontation or criticism of China's approach to sensitive issues".
Obviously, "some BRI investments could create potential military advantages for China," particularly in the naval context.
China is also likely "to establish additional military bases in countries with which it has a longstanding friendly relationship and similar strategic interests, such as Pakistan".
Chillingly, the report documents that the "PLA … [is] likely preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan … by force, while simultaneously deterring, delaying, or denying any third-party intervention on Taiwan's behalf".
While none of this is surprising, the level of detail provided in the report offers a clear look at China's escalating ambitions.
It also showcases China's unmistakable savvy in preparing for any eventuality across the full spectrum of conflict locales — investing in technology leadership, expanding military space capabilities, developing indigenous aircraft carriers, leading in international peacekeeping/counter-piracy missions to gain operational knowledge, developing informatisation and cyber attack capabilities, developing both larger range missiles and missile defence, and expanding nuclear weapons delivery possibilities in the event of a first strike.
The report also offers lessons for states in the region seduced by China's economic goodies — there is no free lunch and Chinese gifts might be followed by military commitments.
Mississippi Department of Corrections asks FBI to help investigate 15 inmate deaths
The head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections is now asking the FBI to help investigate the deaths of 15 inmates who died in August.
Pelicia E. Hall, MDOC commissioner, said in a statement Friday that she has been in contact with the FBI and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety regarding the deaths.
Earlier this week, information was released saying 12 prisoners had died while in custody. Two more inmates were added to that list Thursday and one more was added Friday, bringing the total to 15 deaths.
“While we believe that most of the reported deaths during the month of August are from illnesses or natural causes, such as cancer and heart disease, based on available information, we are seeking assistance from others outside the department in the interest of transparency,” Hall said in her statement.
Hall said Tuesday “the number of deaths the department is reporting is not out of line with the number of deaths in previous months.” The latest DOC figures showed 47 inmates died in 2015, 53 died in 2014 and 71 in 2013.
Hall said in a Tuesday statement that the state’s inmate population — 19,425 as of Tuesday — comprises “people from all walks of life and with all types of pre-existing conditions.”
Reports from CNN affiliates suggest that at least one inmate did not die from natural causes.
According to The Clarion-Ledger and DOC, five of the dead prisoners were from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, three were from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, five were from South Mississippi Correctional Institution and one was from Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. It is unknown where one of the inmates was being held.
Of the 15 inmates, one died in prison and nine died at a hospital. It is unknown where five of the prisoners died.
The cause of death for each of the 15 inmates is pending the results of an autopsy.
George Papadopoulos asks for probation for lying to FBI
Ahead of his sentencing next week, former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos submitted his sentencing memorandum late Friday night. He is asking the court to give him probation for his charge of lying to the FBI. The memo says he was "young" and lied out of "misguided loyalty to his master." The special counsel has recommended a sentence of up to six months. Papadopoulos is to be sentenced Friday.
The memo adds some detail about Papadopoulos' attempts to set up a meeting between Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though he was a member of the campaign's foreign policy team, Trump aides have downplayed his role in the campaign. Aides have said he had no access to Mr. Trump.
Papadopoulos' focus in the campaign was on Russian relations. But having no experience in Russian policy, the filing says that "to say George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement."
Papadopoulos had met with Professor Joseph Mifsud in London, who introduced him to a woman named Olga who had told Papadopoulos she was a niece of Vladimir Putin. The two said they could set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials.
Papadopoulos joined Mr. Trump and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions at the Trump campaign national security meeting on March 31, 2016, the filing says. There, Papadopoulos made the offer to set up a meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin. "Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," the memo reads.
Later, the professor introduced him to Ivan Timofeev, who claimed to have a connection to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At an April 26, 2016 meeting, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that people in Moscow had "dirt," "thousands of emails" on Hillary Clinton, according to the filing.
But the meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin never took place, even though Papadopoulos thought it could be "history making."
During his FBI interview on January 27, 2017, "George found himself personally conflicted during the interrogation." The memo says he gave the FBI "misleading" information about his contact with Mifsud, Olga and Timofeev.
The filing indicates that investigators interviewed the professor and that he denied telling Papadopoulos about the emails.
The special counsel's view of Papadopoulos is that his "lies negatively affected the FBI's Russia investigation" and his "lies were not momentarily lapses," according to a recent government filing.
In cooperating with the government after he was charged, Papadopoulos participated in four proffer sessions with the government.
The memo refers to Alex Van Der Zwaan, who also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in connection to Mueller's investigation. Van Der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison. However, the memo argues that Papadopoulos's actions were "far less egregious."
The memorandum concludes by repeating the words of the special counsel: "He was just a small part of a large-scale investigation."
Finra Suspends South Carolina Broker Who Understated Her Age
In another cautionary tale for brokers looking to cosmetize their personal details, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has suspended and fined a South Carolina broker who allegedly lied to three different firms about her age.
Lisbeth “Libby” Cherrington, a retail broker for 27 years who is currently an independent contractor with FSC Securities, agreed to a two-month suspension and $15,000 fine, according to a letter of settlement posted on Finra’s online disciplinary actions site.
Cherrington, who did not return a call for comment at her FSC office in Bluffton, S.C., neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the settlement. Her lawyer, Thomas M. Campbell, declined to comment on details of the case or on the settlement.
Cherrington made headlines in 2014 when she sued Morgan Stanley for discrimination, alleging it created a hostile work environment because of her openly gay lifestyle. Morgan Stanley denied the claim, and counter-claimed in arbitration to collect $6.7 million of promissory notes related to “forgivable loans” she had received.
The claims were resolved in a confidential settlement in May 2016, according to Campbell.
Cherrington provided a false date of birth on various employment applications, personal brokerage account records and investments to Wells Fargo Advisors, Morgan Stanley and FSC while employed at those firms between July 2011 and August 2016, according to the settlement letter that Finra posted on Friday. Her conduct caused the firms to maintain inaccurate books and records in violation of Finra rules, the self-regulatory group said.
A person who claimed to have worked with Cherrington and who spoke on condition of anonymity said she understated her age by six years.
The “acceptance, waiver and consent” letter said her age-alteration began in June 2010 when she “obtained a driver’s license with a false date of birth” that she used to update her personal brokerage accounts at Wells in 2011. She repeated the age-saving information on her WebCRD search consent form at Morgan Stanley and on her background-check fingerprint card when she joined FSC in January 2014, among other documents, Finra said.
The consent letter accused her of exacerbating the problem by telling FSC during an internal investigation that “someone” provided the wrong birth date and her driver’s license was inaccurate because of her “lack of oversight when it automatically renewed.” Cherrington’s conduct violated Finra’s Rule 4511 requiring firms to maintain accurate books and records and its Rule 2010 requiring firms and their associated persons to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade, the letter said.
Brokers over the years have stumbled on various vanity issues, including inaccurate information used in registration and marketing materials about their education, military experience and age.
Morgan Stanley last month “permitted” Dallas complex manager Ben Fujihara to resign following allegations about the accuracy of personal background information he provided to the firm and his adherence to receiving permission for outside business activities, according to U5 filings. Fujihara, who declined to discuss the allegations, inaccurately claimed to be a graduate of Texas A&M University, according to several sources.
Cherrington, who FSC said was managing $300 million of client assets when she joined three-and-a-half years ago, had previously been fined $2,000 by the South Carolina Department of Insurance over allegations that she renewed her insurance license application four times with an incorrect birth date, according to Finra.
A spokesperson for FSC, a member of the Advisor Group broker-dealer network, did not immediately return a request for comment.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Drug Enforcement Administration
[Docket No. DEA-392]
Bulk Manufacturer of Controlled Substances Application: National Center for
Natural Products Research NIDA MPROJECT
ACTION: Notice of application.
DATES: Registered bulk manufacturers of the affected basic classes, and applicants
therefore, may file written comments on or objections to the issuance of the proposed
registration on or before [INSERT 60 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION IN THE
FEDERAL REGISTER].
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to: Drug Enforcement Administration,
Attention: DEA Federal Register Representative/DRW, 8701 Morrissette Drive,
Springfield, Virginia 22152.
The Attorney General has delegated his authority under the Controlled Substances
Act to the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 28 CFR
0.100(b). Authority to exercise all necessary functions with respect to the promulgation
and implementation of 21 CFR part 1301, incident to the registration of manufacturers,
distributors, dispensers, importers, and exporters of controlled substances (other than
final orders in connection with suspension, denial, or revocation of registration) has been
redelegated to the Assistant Administrator of the DEA Diversion Control Division
pursuant to section 7 of 28 CFR part 0, appendix to subpart R.
In accordance with 21 CFR 1301.33(a), this is notice that on July 6, 2018, National
Center for Natural Products Research NIDA MPROJECT, University of Mississippi, 135
Coy Waller Complex, P.O. Box 1848, University, Mississippi 38677-1848 applied to be
registered as a bulk manufacturer of the following basic classes of controlled substances:
Controlled Substance Drug Code Schedule
Marihuana Extract 7350 I
Marihuana 7360 I
Tetrahydrocannabinols 7370 I
The company plans to bulk manufacture the listed controlled substances to make
available to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) a supply of bulk marihuana for
distribution to research investigators in support of the national research program needs.
No other activities for these drug codes are authorized for this registration.
John J. Martin,
Assistant Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-18983 Filed: 8/30/2018 8:45 am; Publication Date: 8/31/2018]
Federal judge denies states' request to end DACA
A federal judge on Friday declined to order that the U.S. government halt an Obama-era program that shields young immigrants from deportation, marking a blow to President Donald Trump and other opponents of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said Texas and six other conservative states that sued to block DACA couldn't prove that allowing the program to continue was causing irreparable harm. The judge questioned the legality of DACA but argued that more harm would be done to DACA recipients if they lost the program.
The judge, who has ruled against DACA-related programs in the past, essentially said the states waited too long to ask for the preliminary injunction.
"Here, the egg has been scrambled. To try to put it back in the shell with only a preliminary injunction record, and perhaps at great risk to many, does not make sense nor serve the best interests of this country," Hanen wrote in his ruling.
But he reiterated that he believes DACA as enacted by former President Barack Obama is unconstitutional.
"If the nation truly wants to have a DACA program, it is up to Congress to say so," Hanen wrote.
The states filed the lawsuit in Texas, hoping Hanen would stop DACA recipients from continuing to renew their enrollment. That would have triggered a conflict with three federal orders that have required the U.S. government to keep accepting DACA renewals, even after Trump tried to end the program last year. Legal experts say such a conflict would have drawn the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Department of Justice released a statement Friday commending the judge for addressing the legality of the program.
"As the Justice Department has consistently argued, DACA is an unlawful attempt to circumvent Congress, and we are pleased the court agreed today," spokesman Devin O'Malley said.
With the Trump administration now opposing the program, some states that support DACA - along with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF - intervened in the lawsuit to defend it.
The lawsuit followed the same strategy that stopped an expansion of DACA also proposed by former President Barack Obama's administration. After Obama announced he would create a program protecting the parents of children in the U.S. without legal permission, Texas sued in federal court in Brownsville, Texas, where Hanen is based.
Hanen ended up with that case and ruled the expansion of protections was unconstitutional. In that case, an appeals court upheld his ruling, and the Supreme Court split 4-4 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, leaving the ruling in place.
On Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he was confident the courts would ultimately find DACA unconstitutional. He said an injunction was denied only because the states waited too long to request it.
Texas was joined in filing the lawsuit by Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia. The states argued that Obama, as president, never had the authority to create a program like DACA because it circumvented Congress.
The state also cited costs to educate immigrants, which lawyers for MALDEF argued were "both irrelevant and grossly inflated." The group also said that unlike the program Hanen struck down, which never went into effect, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of people to work and pay taxes in the six years since it started. That, the group argued, benefits federal and state governments.
MALDEF said it was happy with the decision and expects the states to appeal to a higher court.
"Today DACA beneficiaries like myself and my little sister breathe a sigh of relief. We all know DACA works," said Greisa Martinez Rosas, the deputy executive director of United We Dream.
Consumer alert: Department of Justice issues warning
It’s scary enough to think you might be a victim of identity theft. What could be worse? How about the idea that those who first alerted you to the problem aren’t who they claim to be?
That’s exactly what the Oregon Department of Justice is warning the public about right now. In their alert, the Financial Fraud/Consumer Protection Section says scammers are impersonating them by calling victims all across the country claiming that they are victims of identity theft. It’s so serious, the DOJ says one woman has already lost her life savings!
The DOJ says the fake agent calls to alert the “victim” of the security breach and claims someone is actively trying to break into their bank accounts. They then instruct the would-be victim to wire all their money to a different bank in a foreign country. To back up their claims, the DOJ says the caller then sends wire transfer instructions and two very convincing documents from the Oregon Department of Justice. They are then told to return those forms to the DOJ office located in Portland.
Make no mistake, this call is a scam. Remember, government officials will never call you first if there is a legitimate concern. They will contact you via mail. Better Business Bureau Northwest + Pacific also urges you to keep the following advice in mind if you are ever contacted in this fashion:
• Confirm on your own. If someone contacts you claiming to be with a certain government group or organization, verify who they are before you give them anything. Do a web search for their contact info and call them directly. Don’t rely on phone numbers or websites given to you, they could be sending you anywhere.
• Be on the lookout for red flags. Typos and grammatical errors, as well as unfamiliar email addresses and scare tactics, are all signs of a phishing scam.
• Protect your personal information. Never share your credit card numbers, Social Security number or even address and phone number with a stranger, especially if they have contacted you unsolicited.
If you think you have fallen victim to this scam, contact the Oregon Department of Justice online at www.oregonconsumer.gov or by phone at (877) 877-9392. For more tips and scam alerts, download the BBB App at bbbapp.org. Anyone who feels they may be a victim of any scheme should report it to local law enforcement and BBB Scam Tracker at bbb.org/scamtracker.
Stephen Mayer is marketplace manager of the Better Business Bureau, serving the Snake River Region from Ontario to Jackson, Wyoming. For more information, visit bbb.org or call (800) 218-1001.
New Castle man caught in Ohio child sex sting
A New Castle resident was among 12 men arrested in Ohio as a result of sting operation aimed at child sexual exploitation.
Adam Dziedzic, 38, faces charges of importuning, attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and possession of criminal tools, according to a news release from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene.
Dziedzic and 11 others were arrested this week as part of an investigation aimed at preventing child sexual exploitation and reducing demand for sex trafficking. It was led by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force, which is part of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission.
James Norkus, 24, of Salem, a physical education teacher at Kirkmere Elementary School in Youngstown, also is among those facing charges. He was arrested on charges of importuning, attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and possession of criminal tools.
“It is reprehensible that anyone would arrange to meet with a juvenile for sex, but it is even more appalling when the person facing charges is an elementary school teacher,” DeWine said. “Protecting children is one of my highest priorities, and we will continue to do all we can to stop offenders from harming Ohio’s kids.”
“These types of internet crimes are something that my office takes seriously and personally,” said Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene. “As we have stated before, we are going to continue to pursue and arrest these types of predators who are looking to exploit our children.”
The suspects are all accused of having sexually explicit online conversations with undercover officers posing as juveniles. The suspects all allegedly traveled to a vacant home in Mahoning County with the intent to engage in a sexual encounter with a minor.
The following suspects also were each arrested on charges of importuning, attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and possession of criminal tools: Naji Alsagoor, 25, Boardman; Robert Canann Jr., 50, Niles; Justin Coyne, 21, Cleveland; Brandon Gorcheff, 26, North Lima; Thomas Maylone Jr., 29, East Liverpool; Kevin McNally, 23, Boardman; Alexander Morlan, 21, New Middletown; Andrew Nuzzi, 22, Girard; Peter Petroff Jr., 47, Boardman; and Edward Webker, 41, Andover. Webker and Nuzzi are also charged with disseminating matter harmful to juveniles for allegedly sending sexually explicit photographs during their online chats with the undercover officers.
The Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force is led by the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and includes representatives from the Austintown Police Department, Howland Township Police Department, Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office, Ohio Adult Parole Authority, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Ohio Investigative Unit, Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the Warren Police Department.
The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also played a large role in conducting the investigation.
Ohr, Steele tried to flip Russian oligarch Investigators looking for organized crime ties
Ohr, Steele tried to flip Russian oligarch
Investigators looking for organized crime ties
Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele -- frequent targets of President Donald Trump's ire related to the Russia investigation -- were involved in U.S. efforts to flip a Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, The New York Times reports.
Between 2014 and 2016, the FBI and the Justice Department sought and attempted to turn Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska into an informant for the United States, the Times reported Saturday.
Citing current and former officials and associates of Deripaska, the Times reported that investigators were hoping for information from Deripaska on Russian organized crime during a September 2015 meeting and, in a meeting a year later, on possible Russian aid to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
The effort to recruit Deripaska was part of a broader, classified U.S. initiative that attempted to gain the cooperation of several Russian oligarchs, the Times reported. The newspaper added that the effort did not seem to have had any successes; Deripaska told U.S. investigators he disagreed with them on Russian organized crime and ideas about possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, a person familiar with the exchanges told the Times.
According to the Times, Ohr and Steele first discussed flipping Deripaska in November 2014. Working as an intermediary, Steele helped arrange a meeting between Deripaska and U.S. officials, including Ohr, in 2015, during which Deripaska was asked about the connections between Russian organized crime and Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, the Times reported, citing a person familiar with the events.
The second time U.S. officials made contact with Deripaska was in September 2016, two months after the FBI began investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Times reported.
FBI agents showed up uninvited and unannounced at a home Deripaska has in New York and grilled the Russian oligarch about whether his former business partner, Paul Manafort, had worked as a liaison between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to the newspaper. Weeks earlier, in August, Manafort left Trump's campaign, which he had led for five months.
Deripaska told investigators their theories about Manafort's role on the campaign were "preposterous" and disputed any potential connections between Russia and the Trump campaign, a person familiar with the exchange told the Times.
The officials, who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the classified effort, told the Times they were afraid that revealing the effort could undermine national security. But they also said they did not want the secret nature of the program to allow Trump and his Republican allies to "cherry-pick facts and present them, sheared of context, to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation" into Russian interference, the newspaper reported. Trump has often criticized the special counsel probe as a "witch hunt" and has repeatedly attacked Ohr and Steele.
Ohr, a 30-year Justice Department veteran, is being scrutinized for his meetings with Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled an infamous dossier on Trump and Russia, and Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Steele to do research on Trump. Ohr's wife, Nellie, was also a contractor for Fusion GPS.
Republicans have charged that the Steele dossier, which contains some salacious and unverified intelligence on Trump and Russia, was inappropriately used by the FBI to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The President and some House Republicans who are vocal critics of the Russia investigation have also seized on Ohr and Steele's connection as proof of an untoward association between government officials and the roots of the special counsel's investigation.
Disbarred Attorney Convicted For Scheme To Defraud Clients Of More Than $750,000
Greenbelt, Maryland – A federal jury today convicted former attorney Saundra Lucille White, a/k/a Lucille Parrish-White and six variations of those names, age 57, of Lothian, Maryland, on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme to defraud clients of at least $750,000.
The conviction was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Robert Geary of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare; and Chief Mark A. Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
According to the evidence presented at White’s seven day trial, in March 2010, White agreed to assist Victim H to obtain guardianship for a relative (Victim M) who had been incapacitated by a stroke. At White’s request Victim H provided White with an accounting of Victim M’s assets. With White’s assistance, Victim H obtained guardianship of Victim M a short time later. Victim M died on January 7, 2011. White was disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia on January 20, 2011 and disbarred in Maryland on September 9, 2011. White did not inform Victim H of her pending disbarment, nor did she tell Victim H that she was no longer a licensed attorney.
According to trial evidence, from March 2010 through May 2013, White created fraudulent tax notices that purported to be from the Internal Revenue Service, and demanded payment of taxes purportedly owed by Victim M and by a deceased relative of Victim M. The notices required that payments be sent to an entity called Intel Realty Financial Services (IRFS) at a mailbox in Annapolis, Maryland, controlled by White. White then mailed and faxed the fraudulent tax notices to Victim H, advising Victim H that in her role as legal guardian of Victim M, she was required to remit payments for these taxes to the address in the notice. Once White obtained the checks sent by Victim H in response to the fraudulent tax notices, totaling $750,000, she deposited them in the bank accounts she opened in the names of IRFS and Victim M. White withdrew the funds from the bank accounts, forging Victim M’s signature on checks made out to White, other entities controlled by White, a family member, or otherwise for White’s benefit. White also obtained debit cards in Victim M’s name and attempted to obtain a Maryland driver’s license in the name of Victim M, but bearing White’s photograph. White used some of the money to purchase luxury items, including a $20,500 check used as a down payment for a 2011 Silver Volvo C70 hard-top convertible.
White faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of three counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and two counts of money laundering; and a mandatory two years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, for aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm has scheduled his sentencing for January 25, 2016.
Today’s announcement is part of the efforts undertaken in connection with the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The task force was established to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices, and state and local partners, it’s the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets; and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions and other organizations. Since fiscal year 2009, the Justice Department has filed over 18,000 financial fraud cases against more than 25,000 defendants. For more information on the task force, please visit www.StopFraud.gov.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended TIGTA, the Anne Arundel County Police Department, and Prince George’s County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas P. Windom and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James I. Pearce of the U.S. Department of Justice, who are prosecuting the case.
Miami Heat place executive on leave amid FBI investigation for alleged complex money-laundering scheme
Jeff David is being investigated for 'suspicious financial transactions' when he worked for the Sacramento Kings
A Miami Heat executive has been placed on administrative leave after coming under investigation for an alleged money-laundering scheme he perpetrated while working for the Sacramento Kings. Jeff David, who currently holds the title of "chief revenue officer" in Miami, is suspected of stealing $13.4 million by diverting the money away from team sponsorships. Via the Sacramento Bee:
A former top executive of the Sacramento Kings is suspected of siphoning off $13.4 million from two of the team's top sponsors and using the funds to purchase beachfront property in Southern California, sources have told The Sacramento Bee.
The FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating Jeffrey R. David, 44, the former chief revenue officer for the Kings who currently holds the same position with the NBA's Miami Heat, for what sources say was a sophisticated money-laundering scheme that allegedly diverted $9 million from the Golden 1 Credit Union and another $4.4 million from Kaiser Permanente Foundation.
As of Thursday, charges had still not been filed, but the Kings released a statement acknowledging the investigation.
"Last week, we alerted federal law enforcement to suspicious financial transactions involving a former Kings employee, Jeff David," the team said. "That investigation is underway and on Monday, U.S. Department of Justice authorities began the formal process of recovering and seizing the properties involved in the investigation.
The Heat also released a statement saying they are cooperating with the authorities, and have placed David on leave. Via the Sun-Sentinel:
"We are aware of the investigation of Jeff David, which focuses on events that took place prior to his joining our team," the statement forwarded to the Sun Sentinel reads. "We are fully cooperating with the authorities. Jeff David is on leave, pending the outcome of the investigation."
Per the Sentinel, David has spent 12 years working in the NBA, and previously served in similar financial-related roles for the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer and the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.
Walmart “asset protection manager” from Aurora convicted of fraud and money laundering
Judge orders 22-month federal prison sentence, $830,000 restitution
A 40-year-old Aurora man who worked for Walmart has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering. He also has been ordered to pay $830,000 restitution.
Justin Manning also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel to three years of supervision after completion of his incarceration, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s Colorado office.
Manning was employed as an asset protection manager and assistant store manager at a local Walmart between 2012 and 2015, according to an indictment in the case. Manning had access to blank checks in his job positions. He fraudulently filled out checks and had others fill out checks in the names of third parties to deceive Walmart employees that the checks were legitimate.
Manning used his management position to access the store’s safe and take cash from deposit bundles, the news release stated. Manning created fake loans to one of the store’s cash registers to conceal that cash was missing from the safe. Manning then placed in those cash registers fraudulent Money Network Checks totaling the same amount as the cash taken so the balance would look correct and other employees would not realize cash had been taken from the safe.
The case was investigated by the IRS.
“The role of IRS Criminal Investigation becomes even more important in embezzlement and fraud cases due to the complex financial transactions that can take time to unravel,” said Steven Osborne, special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office. “This sentence shows there are detrimental consequences for individuals who engage in financial fraud.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen Rhyne prosecuted the case.
Penn Hills man accused of illegal gun and drug sales, money laundering
A Pittsburgh man was indicted by a federal grand jury of illegally having and selling a guns, including a machine gun, and drugs.
Anthony “Poundcake” Bentley, 43, of Curtis Street, is the only person named in the 9-count indictment that was made public Tuesday.
Bentley is accused of trading or selling guns and ammunition even though he isn’t legally allowed to have either.
The 32 guns authorities accuse Bentley of having or selling include 23 handguns, a fully-automatic Colt rifle, and eight other rifles or shotguns.
Prosecutors allege that, between May 2015 to January 2016, Bentley also engaged in a drug trafficking conspiracy involving 11 pounds or more of cocaine.
He also is accused of buying a commercial property at on Laketon Drive in Penn Hills for about $156,000; $86,000 for his house on Curtis Street; $25,000 for an Idelwild Street house in Pittsburgh, and about $14,000 for property at Iowa Street, also in the city, in an attempt to launder his illegal money.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
A federally-administered Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force conducted the investigation. The task force included officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in partnership with state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Allegheny County Police Department, Pittsburgh Police, and the Pennsylvania State Police.
Prosecutor seeks prison sentence for "toy smuggler" for money laundering
Finnish-Syrian Rami Adham spent fundraising money on a garden allotment and transferred some of it to a Turkish account, the prosecution alleges.
Lelusalakuljettaja Rami Adham Helsingin käräjäoikeudessa.
Rami Adham at Helsinki District Court on 28 August 2018. Image: Irene Stachon / Lehtikuva
A Helsinki prosecutor is seeking a prison sentence for so-called "toy smuggler" Rami Adham for 18 crimes, including aggravated money laundering and collection of funds without a fundraising permit. The judicial process against the Finnish-Syrian started at Helsinki District court on Tuesday.
In 2014-2016, Adham served as chair of the Finnish-Syrian Association, which raised funds for people in the war-ravaged Syria.
According to the prosecutor, Adham’s claim that most of the funds raised would go directly to people in Syria was misleading and untruthful.
Instead, 62,000 euros were spent on a garden allotment hut and 54,000 euros ended up in Adham’s account in a Turkish bank, the prosecutor argues, while a portion of the money was used to pay rent of Adham’s office. In addition, the prosecution says Adham gave false information to the authorities about the association’s board, as the woman named as treasurer in reality held no position of authority in the group.
Last year, Adham received a suspended sentence for tax fraud, drug and doping offences, false accounting, attempted extortion and two assaults. That sentence is not yet legally valid.
Before allegations of wrongdoing came out in late 2016, Adham was hailed by local and international media for his efforts to deliver toys into occupied Aleppo.
Money laundering charges against Panama Papers city council member
Former Reykjavík City Council member for the Independence Party, Júlíus Vífill Ingvarsson, is charged with money laundering by keeping amounts of ISK 131-146 million (USD 1.2-1.4 million, EUR 1-1.2 million) in a foreign bank account, an amount that was partly illegally obtained, and to have transferred the money to the bank account of a trust in Switzerland.
This is revealed in charges against him by the Office of the District Prosecutor, a document obtained by mbl.is.
Júlíus Vífill resigned as city council member in 2016 in the wake of the Panama Papers, (millions of leaked documents from a Panama law firm, detailing information about off-shore companies and accounts), which revealed that he had established and off-shore company in Panama.
Júlíus is said to have kept the money, which was in US dollars, Euros and Pounds, in his bank account at UBS bank on the offshore island Jersey in the English Channel, from 2010 to 2014. He is said to have transferred the money to a bank account, belonging to the trust Silwood Foundation at the bank Julius Bär in Switzerland. The beneficiaries of the account were Júlíus, his wife and children.
The amounts in question were earned several years earlier, but had not been reported as taxable income. As a result, he did not pay income tax, local tax or interest on them. The charges state that the illegally obtained amount, on which taxes were evaded, plus interest, amounted to ISK 49-57 million (USD 458-533 million, EUR 391-455 million).
The charges state that money laundering is punishable, according to Article 264 of the Penalty Code, and that a law enacted in 2009 expand the area to which the article applies. Thus, it now applies to gain from all punishable acts, in addition to the maximum sentence having been increased to six years. At the same time, money laundering of the gain from one’s own illegal activity was made punishable.
The document states that the alleged tax evasion took place in 2006 or earlier. Since the statute of limitations has expired, Júlíus cannot be charged with violating the tax law. That doesn’t change the fact that the part of the money that should have been paid in income taxes and local taxes, in addition to gain from interest and foreign exchange gain is the product of Júlíus’ money laundering violation.
The charges state that Júlíus has admitted to failing to report the amount on his tax return, but he has refused to reveal when he obtained the money. Therefore, the exact amount of his gain cannot be precisely estimated.
Trudeau asks Blair to fight money laundering in B.C. in bid to stop organized crime
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has handed new Minister Bill Blair a mandate to fight organized crime money laundering, specifically in British Columbia, in “efforts to counter guns, gangs and opioid distribution.”
The release of Blair’s mandate letter, which also includes directions for reducing gun violence, and handling irregular migration, highlights the engagement of Trudeau’s government in a crisis of money laundering connected to B.C. Lottery casinos.
In July Blair, a former Toronto chief of police, was appointed new minister of border security and organized crime reduction.
Trudeau’s mandate to Blair states: “You will be expected to work closely with provinces, territories, and municipalities, as well as community organizations, law enforcement and border agencies. This work should include a focus on cutting off money laundering which, as we have seen recently in British Columbia, supports our efforts to counter guns, gangs and opioid distribution.”
It’s not immediately clear how Blair plans to tackle B.C.’s money laundering problems. Over the past year there have been discussions within B.C.’s government about starting a money laundering task force with assistance from Ottawa, or requesting funds to increase the number of RCMP officers focused on crimes connected to money laundering.
“Anti-money laundering is primarily a federal responsibility and B.C. would welcome new federal policing investments to restore the RCMP’s federal capacity to investigate trans-national money laundering,” B.C.’s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General stated, in response to questions from Global News.
The schemes involve transnational gangs based in China, Hong Kong and Macau, with criminals involved in fentanyl importation and trafficking in Canada.
Global reported in April: “Criminal syndicates that control chemical factories in China’s booming Guangdong province are shipping narcotics, including fentanyl, to Vancouver, washing the drug sales in British Columbia’s casinos and high-priced real estate, and transferring laundered funds back to Chinese factories.”
The B.C. money laundering schemes also involve offshore and underground banking networks with connections between Richmond, Hong Kong, and Guangdong businesses, Global’s investigations show.
And there are also connections between VIP gamblers from China used in the casino laundering schemes, and gun trafficking in B.C., according to legal cases and law enforcement sources.
Earlier this year, B.C. Attorney General David Eby testified in Ottawa, and informed senators that the unique money laundering method seen in B.C. casinos had become known internationally as the “Vancouver Model.”
This method is similar to money laundering seen in Macau casinos. Wealthy gamblers from China, sometimes including crime bosses and corrupt officials, are given suspected drug cash loans to buy chips in B.C. casinos, by loan shark networks. The so-called “whale gamblers” can pay back these loans in China, with little or no interest.
The loans are also secured by the lenders, by taking out mortgages against luxury real estate or vehicles in B.C.
Last September, Eby ordered an independent review into B.C. casino money laundering after an audit showed about $14 million in suspicious cash had flowed through Richmond’s River Rock Casino in July 2015.
Reviewer Peter German, a former RCMP executive, filed a scathing report confirming that Chinese organized crime networks with roots in Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong, laundered at least $100 million through loan sharks and VIP gamblers in B.C. Lottery casinos. German has since told Global News that the $100 million figure was likely a low estimate.
Swiss watchdog to propose looser anti-money laundering rules for fintechs
Global News has reported extensively on revelations of money laundering in B.C. over the past year.
Feds sentence California man for drug trafficking, money laundering
A California man is spending the next 10 years behind bars after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy and money laundering charges in 2017.
Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess sentenced Enrique Ayon Duenas, 61, on Thursday for his role in trafficking controlled substances,including heroin and methamphetamine, from California to Anchorage, according to a statement from the office for U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder.
According to court documents, Duenas agreed with co-conspirators to distribute controlled substances including 1,000 grams or more of heroin and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine from sources in California to people in Alaska.
"Additionally, Duenas and others laundered the proceeds from the illegal sale of narcotics through financial institutions located in Alaska and California, with the purpose of concealing the true nature of the money," according to court documents. "For example, the money was laundered by transferring it between Alaska and California by various means, including bank deposits made in Alaska into bank accounts in other people’s names, and thereafter by withdrawals in California."
Two additional co-conspirators received sentences for drug conspiracy. Juan Carlos Hernandez was sentenced to 44 months in prison on April 14 and Oscar Josue Maldonado was sentenced to two years in prison on February 27.
Duenas must serve 10 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, and IRS Criminal Investigation helped conduct the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephan A. Collins.
Iran Expected to Lift Cryptocurrency Ban in September
The deputy for innovative technologies at the Central Bank of Iran, Nasser Hakimi, has stated that Iran’s financial regulator will be reviewing the country’s blanket cryptocurrency ban. The central bank official also indicated that the country’s regulatory apparatus pertaining to virtual currencies is expected to be finalized by the end of September.
Iranian Central Bank Official Hints That Cryptocurrency Ban May Be Repealed During September
Whilst speaking at a conference on cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology in Tehran on Sunday, Nasser Hakimi, the Central Bank of Iran’s deputy for innovative technologies, made statements inferred as indicating that the Iranian administration will likely repeal its blanket ban on cryptocurrencies during September.
“The first concerns the prevalent global cryptocurrencies. The High Council of Anti-Money Laundering has imposed a ban in light of concerns over global allegations of money laundering and financing of terrorism. But it seems that after the government’s consideration, this blanket ban will be reviewed,” Mr. Hakimi stated.
The blanket ban, first announced on April 22nd of this year, was ostensibly intended to address concerns pertaining to money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Iran Expected to Lift Cryptocurrency Ban in SeptemberThe cryptocurrency ban is expected to be lifted when Iran announces the finalization of its new regulatory apparatus pertaining to cryptocurrencies, which is currently slated to occur by the end of September.
According to Financial Tribune, Iran’s new cryptocurrency policies have been developed under the guidance of President Hassan Rouhani.
Iran Expected to Lift Cryptocurrency Ban in SeptemberMr. Hakimi also discussed the possibility of Iran’s current position regarding the development of a state-issued cryptocurrency, stating: “National virtual currencies haven’t proved successful experiences in the world, but some economic officials have emphasized on this, so the Informatics Services Corporation has readied a test edition and some other entities are also cooperating in this.”
Saeed Mahdiyoun, an official representing Iran’s Supreme Cyberspace Council, also recently indicated that the country’s cyberspace authority was actively exploring the idea of introducing a national cryptocurrency.
13 indicted on gang charges, including 2017 killing of bartender in Canton
A grand jury indicted 13 people on gang charges — including in the June 2017 killing of bartender Sebastian Dvorak in Canton — following a yearlong investigation into a Bloods gang subset in East Baltimore, prosecutors said Monday.
The investigation into the “500” or “500 L” gang subset by the state attorney general’s Organized Crime Unit, the Baltimore Police Department and the FBI involved wiretaps and undercover drug and gun buys — including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, oxycodone, marijuana, synthetic drugs and a sawed-off shotgun, prosecutors said.
The group, which involved both Bloods gang members and non-members, had operated since 2014 primarily in the 500 block of North Rose Street in the McElderry Park neighborhood, several blocks east of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, prosecutors said.
Malik Mungo, 18, of the 1500 block of Lochwood Road in Northeast Baltimore, faces more than a dozen criminal charges, including first- and second-degree murder in the killing of Dvorak in the 2500 block of Boston Street, on the night of Dvorak’s 27th birthday.
Recent homicide victims in Baltimore include mother of bullied boy, bartender at Ryleigh's
Dvorak was a bartender at several Ryleigh's Oyster locations, including in Mount Vernon and Hunt Valley. Prosecutors said he was robbed and shot by Mungo and an associate while walking home after celebrating his birthday.
“This gang ran a sophisticated operation, engaging in drug and gun trafficking, robbery, and murder,” Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said in a statement. “After countless hours of hard work, we are able to bring a small amount of justice to Sebastian Dvorak’s loved ones and hold these defendants accountable for their actions.”
Mungo did not have any attorney listed in online court records, and a voice mail message left Monday at a number listed for his address was not returned.
Dvorak’s grandfather, Bernard Dvorak Sr., 81, of Towson, said the closure of the case will be “a relief, if they have the actual criminals.”
“We’re just saddened by the whole thing,” he said. “We lost great friend and family member for no good reason.”
Bartender Sebastian Dvorak was killed on his 27th birthday. An 18-year-old has been charged with his murder (HANDOUT)
Prosecutors said that members of the group also were involved in the September 2016 stabbing death of Gerrod Greenwood, and the subsequent intimidation of a witness in the case.
Prosecutors said Wayne Zeigler stabbed Greenwood on Sept. 1 during a fight in the 7800 block of Eastern Avenue in Baltimore County. He was arrested and charged in the case, then learned the identity of a witness while jailed at the Baltimore County Detention Center and shared it with other members via mail, prosecutors said.
Gregory Randle, 34, who went by the nickname “Don Pablo” — an apparent reference to the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar — posted photos to social media of paperwork Zeigler had sent from jail that identified the witness in the case, prosecutors said.
“Among the postings was a picture of the witness, the witness’s information sheet that contained identifying information, as well as portions of a transcript of the witness’s statement given to police,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
In the social media post, Randle labeled the witness a “rat,” highlighted a section of the witness’ statement that mentioned Randle, and tagged other members of the gang to bring it to their attention, prosecutors said.
Also indicted were Clinton Davis, 36; Joseph Flowers, 38; Duwarn Holt, 29; Markeece Jordan, 25; Robert Lewis, 38; Vernon Miller, 29; Dante Neal, 21; Harvey Turner, 28; Keith Worthington, 33; Lienell Young, 33; and Timothy Zeller, 36.
Members of the group are also accused of plotting and committing crimes against one another.
No attorneys were listed for any of the defendants. All are being held without bond, according to court records.
Reserve Bank of India Launches Cryptocurrency Research Unit
India’s cryptocurrency saga has taken another unique turn. According to the Economic Times, the country’s central bank has established a new research unit dedicated to blockchain and cryptocurrency, a sign policymakers are exploring new pathways for regulating disruptive technologies.
Discreet Formation
Under the direct supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the new research unit has been tasked with not only exploring emerging technologies but possibly draft rules for their implementation.
“As a regulator, the RBI also has to explore new emerging areas to check what can be adopted and what cannot,” an unnamed source told the Economic Times. “A central bank has to be on top to create regulations. This new unit is on an experimental basis and will evolve as time passes.”
Although the RBI confirmed as far back as September that research into cryptocurrencies was underway, officials have been heavily criticized for their lack of guidance in regulating digital assets. An information request submitted back in April found that the RBI implemented new cryptocurrency regulations without conducting research or consulting experts.
Since early July, state-regulated financial institutions have been barred from servicing digital currency exchanges and their lenders. The new regulation essentially stamps out fiat-to-crypto transactions. As Hacked reported earlier month, black market methods such as Dabba have rushed to fill the void.
Detailed Guidelines Expected
Public and anonymous sources close to the Indian government have confirmed that a blanket ban on cryptocurrency dealings is unlikely to continue in the future. Last month, a senior official from India’s Ministry of Finance confirmed that new cryptocurrency guidelines are already being developed and could be introduced as early as September. It has even been reported that digital assets may be regulated as commodities, which would allow authorities clampdown on money laundering.
A senior official with India’s Department of Economic Affairs had previously stated that a draft bill will be presented to lawmakers in early July. It is not yet clear whether policymakers have reviewed the proposed guidelines.
The future of India’s cryptocurrency market is up in the air as digital currency exchanges, traders and lenders await a final Supreme Court decision on the matter. In July, the Supreme Court upheld the RBI’s blanket ban on crypto dealings despite several exchanges petitioning to get it revoked. Exchanges argued that the RBI’s policy is arbitrary and unconstitutional.
State trooper linked to drug deals has resigned
A state police trooper who did not disclose her past involvement in a large-scale drug-dealing operation resigned Friday and received a dishonorable discharge, after an internal investigation found she lied to the department during the hiring process.
Leigha Genduso, a Shrewsbury High graduate, resigned before she could be fired for providing “untruthful information ... including her connection to and participation in narcotics dealing and her own drug use,” to the department during her hiring process, a state Police Internal Affairs Investigation concluded last week, according to State Police spokesman Dave Procopio.
“Information gathered in the investigation, including Ms. Genduso’s own statements, indicate that she did not disclose her past involvement in a drug dealing operation to any member of the Massachusetts State Police and that she made demonstrably false statements regarding her past involvement in criminal activities on the application,” Procopio said in a statement Friday night.
When she was being hired, Genduso did not reveal that she had participated in a large-scale marijuana business run by her live-in boyfriend in the early 2000s. State police said she lied about her past involvement in criminal activities on the application.
Information about Genduso’s criminal past was publicly available: In a 2007 federal case she testified against her then-boyfriend, Sean P. Bucci, of North Reading. That testimony enabled her to avoid prosecution for her participation in the enterprise, which she said in court documents included helping package, transport and sell marijuana, as well as launder some of the proceeds.
Bucci was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, conspiracy to commit money laundering, two substantive counts of money laundering, seven substantive counts of structuring currency transactions and four counts of tax evasion.
In the wake of the scandal, the state police have created a new checklist for the background check process, and broadened the questionnaire for recruit candidates to include questions about involvement in any criminal investigation, even if the candidate was not charged with a crime. The department also has approached federal law enforcement agencies about the possibility of searching their investigative records for any reference to state police recruit candidates.
The State Police Internal Affairs Investigation sustained multiple charges against Genduso and had begun termination proceedings before Genduso resigned, according to state police.
Genduso was hired as a dispatcher in 2008. She graduated from the academy in 2014 and was assigned to the state police K-9 section, where she remained until being suspended without pay in February.
Genduso earned more than $150,000 in 2017, according to state payroll records.
Dubuque Man Sentenced to 20 Years’ Prison for Meth Trafficking and Money Laundering
Shipped cash to Phoenix, Arizona, for approximately a year in exchange for over
A man who trafficked at least 50 pounds of methamphetamine in the Dubuque, Iowa, area was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in federal prison.
Derek Richard Rath, age 35, from Dubuque, received the prison term after an August 23, 2018, guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine near a school and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Court documents and evidence presented at the sentencing hearing established that in June 2016, Rath obtained the phone number of codefendant Anthony Robert McCarron in Phoenix. Shortly after, Rath and McCarron agreed that Rath would pay McCarron to ship packages of ice methamphetamine to several addresses in Dubuque. McCarron mailed at least 50 pounds of methamphetamine to Rath between July 2016 to July 2017.
Rath paid for the methamphetamine by mailing packages of cash to McCarron. In all, Rath and McCarron mailed at least 56 packages, sometimes using aliases on the shipping labels. They also wired thousands of dollars to each other with MoneyGram, Western Union, and Walmart2Walmart.
Rath was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand to 240 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a 10-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Rath is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Drew O. Inman and investigated by the Dubuque Drug Task Force, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 17-CR-1042-LTS.
WV State Police seize $10K
WV State Police seize $10K from couple without charging them with a crime
Dimitrios Patlias (left) and Tonya Smith were pulled over by a West Virginia State trooper on June 9. The trooper took from the couple $10,478 in cash and the 78 gift/rewards cards they had with them.
A West Virginia State Police trooper issued Dimitrios Patlias a warning for failing to drive within his lane, just before seizing more than $10,000 in cash from him and his wife.
On June 9, Tonya Smith — who was almost eight months pregnant — and Patlias were headed to the Hollywood Casino in Jefferson County. They had capitalized on several promotional offers and had 13 and 14 (respectively) $100 gift cards on them, along with the cash.
The trooper pulled them over, Smith said in an interview, and ranged from accusing them of smuggling cigarettes, to having drugs in the car, to gift card fraud. After searching the car, their persons, and Smith’s purse, the trooper let them go with a uniform warning citation.
However, he also took the $10,478 in cash, the 78 “gift cards” in the car, and Patlias’ smartphone, according to a property disposition report. Smith said 27 of those cards were gift cards, the rest of them were the kind of rewards program cards you get from any chain business.
Patlias and Smith wound up returning to their home in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, stripped of all their cash but $2, without ever having been charged with a crime.
“It was a disgusting way of being treated,” Smith, a nurse, said. “We work hard for our money.”
The seizure was part of a practice known as civil asset forfeiture, where law enforcement officers have the right to lay claim to property they argue was used in the commission of certain crimes.
Under the West Virginia Contraband Forfeiture Act, once property is seized by an officer, authorities can file a motion in civil court — separate from criminal proceedings — to claim the property via forfeiture.
The unusual nature of the proceedings leads to some strange case titles. For instance, in Morgan County, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Boyce initiated one case in circuit court, naming a Hyundai Elantra, an ignition key, a cell phone, a digital scale, and $523 in U.S. currency as respondents.
In that case, the court granted the forfeiture. The Morgan County Sheriff’s Department received 90 percent of proceeds, and the prosecutor’s office received the other 10 percent, as per state code.
Once a prosecutor initiates a forfeiture proceeding, the person whose property was seized will likely need legal aid to file motions in response to reclaim their property, where the cost of a lawyer often outweighs the value of the goods seized. Upon 30 days of inaction after the prosecutor’s motion, the property is forfeited to the state by default.
Even if suspects are acquitted of the charges filed against them, they still need to go through the civil procedure to reclaim their property.
In February, the state House Judiciary Committee considered a bill that would tie civil asset forfeiture to its respective criminal proceeding, i.e., if you’re acquitted criminally, the seized property cannot be forfeited. The bill died in committee.
Those in support of the practice say the ability of law enforcement officers to use forfeiture laws can hamstring drug dealing networks by leaning on their finances, which can be more effective than criminal charges. They also point out that the proceeds can help police buy much-needed equipment.
Smith said the law seems to incentivize bad behavior from otherwise good police officers.
“To me, this law, now that I’ve learned of it, it turns police officers into dishonest crooks,” she said. “I feel like I was in a movie.”
After the Gazette-Mail reached out to the state police Monday with inquiries about the seizure, and after weeks of Smith calling police, the Jefferson County prosecuting attorney and local politicians, Smith said an officer returned her and Patlias’ possessions in full Thursday evening.
When asked a number of questions about the seizure of Patlias and Smith’s property Tuesday, a state police spokesman confirmed the details but said he did not know whether the seized property had yet been forfeited.
“A complaint was made by Mr. Patlias, and an active IA investigation is ongoing,” he said.
Matt Harvey, the Jefferson County Prosecutor, said the state police notified his office informally of Smith and Patlias’ seizure, and he and his staff declined to make any effort toward forfeiture.
The West Virginia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, which lobbied on behalf of the asset forfeiture reform bill, filed Freedom of Information Act requests to a host of police stations and sheriff’s offices around West Virginia, which were provided to The Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The documents obtained and accompanying responses show most agencies don’t have any espoused policy or training for officers regarding asset forfeiture. There is no statewide tracking system, and recording varies by county and municipality.
While most records indicated goods were forfeited in accordance with convictions, this was not an absolute rule.
Many of the seizures involved amounts of cash in the ballpark of $1,000. Many of them included automobiles.
The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office said it could not produce a comprehensive list of all items forfeited. However, in the list it could provide, the property included cash, a 55-inch LG TV and a 1997 Ford Thunderbird.
The Monongalia County Sheriff’s office sold a long list of property, which included forfeited and abandoned assets, at an auction. The list included a Nintendo Wii with controllers, shoes, jumper cables, a Mickey Mouse watch, a jogging stroller, Legos and others. Regardless of how it was obtained, all the funds went into a forfeiture account.
Most counties said they had no written policy to provide regarding training or general procedure with seizures and forfeitures.
“The Sheriff’s Department does not have any documents relating to internal policies, guidance, guidelines or training regarding the process of civil seizure and forfeitures,” wrote Jennifer Scragg Karr, assistant prosecuting attorney for Putnam County.
Smith, now a new mother, said the experience left her with “a bad taste in her mouth” for police officers, and now, she’ll have to figure out how to teach her son to respect law enforcement while she’s afraid to go near them.
Amendments to Anti-money Laundering Act – consultation process initiated
On 1 June 2018 the Federal Council initiated the consultation on a number of amendments to the Anti-money Laundering Act. The draft bill marks the third bundle of legislative measures to comprehensively implement the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force in its latest mutual evaluation report on Switzerland.(1)
As a first step, on 4 September 2017 the Financial Market Supervisory Authority published a draft amendment to its anti-money laundering ordinance that introduced:
enhanced verification duties for establishing beneficial owners;
a requirement to regularly review and update know-your-customer (KYC) information also in respect of client relationships not involving particular risks;
new monitoring duties encompassing operations abroad; and
new criteria for classifying a relationship or transaction as 'high risk'.
The revised ordinance is scheduled to come into force in 2018.(2)
A second bundle of legislative measures that focused on increasing the transparency of legal entities and proposed abolishing bearer shares was published for consultation on 17 January 2018.(3)
Key amendments
The consultation draft(4) of 1 June 2018 proposes the following key amendments to the Anti-money Laundering Act:
extending the act's scope to include providers of services relating to establishing, managing or administering companies and trusts(5) – these service providers must comply with newly established due diligence duties;
explicitly requiring financial intermediaries to verify information on beneficial owners(6) and thereby codifiy current practice and existing case law – financial intermediaries must also regularly check that client data is up to date; and
reducing the threshold for cash payments in precious metals and gem trading – currently, traders must obey specific duties of care when receiving a cash payment of Sfr100,000; this threshold will be adjusted to Sfr15,000.(7)
The consultation draft also addresses the risk of non-profit organisations (eg, associations) being misused for financing terrorism or money laundering.(8) Associations which are mainly involved in collecting or distributing assets abroad for charitable purposes must now be entered in the commercial register. In addition, the Federal Council may extend the duty of registration to other associations which it considers particularly at risk of being misused.
Further, the consultation draft repeals the right to report suspicion of money laundering under Article 305ter(2) of the Penal Code. Over time, Swiss court practice has constantly lowered the threshold triggering the duty to report suspicious transactions and relationships under Article 9 of the Anti-money Laundering Act, which has made the distinction between reporting rights and reporting duties increasingly blurred and confusing.(9)
In the interest of a coherent suspicious activity reporting system, the government has suggested eliminating reporting rights. Henceforth, even where there is a vague initial suspicion of unlawful conduct, financial intermediaries will have a duty to report, unless inquiries and background checks pursuant to Article 6 of the Anti-money Laundering Act clearly show that the suspicion is unfounded.
Advisers' due diligence duties
The most far-reaching amendment to the Anti-money Laundering Act is the extension of its scope to include certain service providers (defined in the consultation draft as 'advisers'). These services comprise:
establishing, managing and administering foreign companies and legal arrangements (eg, trusts), as well as Swiss domiciliary companies;
procuring funds relating to such activities;
selling or purchasing such a company or trust;
allowing one's address to be registered as the seat of such a company or trust;
acting as nominee shareholder for a foreign company or helping another person to such a position; and
preparatory (and hence advisory and consultancy) services relating to any of these activities.
Advisers' due diligence duties are set out in a general manner in Article 8b of the consultation draft.(10) When establishing a business relationship, advisers must verify customers' identities and establish beneficial owners' identities.(11) Further, advisers must keep records pursuant to Article 7 of the Anti-money Laundering Act and clarify the economic background and purpose of their customers' requested services.
Advisers which are unable to comply with their due diligence duties must not enter into or terminate business relationships with customers.(12) Equally, advisers must terminate business relationships if they know or have reasonable grounds to suspect that a business is connected to:
a criminal organisation;
financing terrorism; or
money laundering.(13)
Failure to terminate the business relationship carries a fine of up to Sfr500,000.(14) The consultation draft does not foresee a specific duty for advisers to report suspicious transactions or relationships to the Money Laundering Reporting Office (in contrast to financial intermediaries and traders, which are subject to a respective duty pursuant to Article 9 of the Anti-money Laundering Act). However, the government's explanatory notes to the consultation draft underline that advisers should consider reporting criminal conduct to the Swiss penal prosecutions authorities pursuant to the Code of Penal Procedure.(15)
US: Ex Head of Swiss Bank Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering
The former managing director and vice chairman of Swiss Bank pleaded guilty on Wednesday for his role in the laundering of over one billion dollars that were embezzled from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, the US Department of Justice said.
German national Matthias Krull, 44, a resident of Panama, admitted in a federal court in Miami that he helped launder US$ 1.2 billion embezzled from Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.
The scheme began in 2014 when several suspects from Venezuela had obtained $600 million from PDVSA and enacted a sophisticated currency exchange scheme to embezzle it. A portion of that money was laundered through Miami real estate, allowing their profits to grow. By May 2015, the conspiracy had doubled to $1.2 billion.
Krull admitted that he attracted private clients, particularly clients from Venezuela, to the bank. His clients included Francisco Convit Guruceaga, who was indicted on money laundering charges on Aug. 16.
South Florida Bankers Learn
South Florida Bankers Learn To Spot Dirty Venezuelan Cash – Including Maduro's?
This week the U.S. froze assets in South Florida worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They belong to people charged with embezzling and laundering Venezuelan oil money. South Florida bankers are getting tuned in to this Venezuelan problem.
Last month the U.S. charged several Venezuelan officials and businessmen with laundering more than $1 billion in stolen public funds. Most of it was allegedly laundered through South Florida real estate and other assets.
That’s an increasing occurrence. Venezuelans with allegedly dirty cash to invest are looking for ways around U.S. financial sanctions against their country’s authoritarian regime. So South Florida bankers, lawyers and executives are learning how to spot those laundering schemes.
“Here in South Florida, financial institutions right now are coping with an incredible risk in dealing with Venezuela,” says Daniel Gutierrez, who chairs the Florida International Bankers Association’s anti-money laundering committee.
Thursday in Key Biscayne, the Association hosted a panel, including a Homeland Security agent, on what red flags to look for regarding Venezuela – and what U.S. officials expect financial institutions to do when they see them.
“The banks are struggling with shell corporations that are incorporated here but that are owned by this humongous spider web of offshore companies to hide the ownership with respect to corruption in Venezuela," says Gutierrez. "You have to report that as a suspicious activity.”
The Miami Herald has reported one of the unnamed Venezuelans indicted last month is none other than President Nicolás Maduro
A Dark Journey Into “The Minds of Men” — Film Review
From the opening of Truthstream Media’s first full-length documentary THE MINDS OF MEN, the general aesthetic — from the narration to the black-and-white appearance to the bizarre imagery — is properly reminiscent of an episode of The Twilight Zone.
Featuring original music and character voicing by Melissa and Aaron Dykes, viewers will learn about the people behind mind-control programs designed and implemented by the military, universities, foundations, elite societies, science and government institutions. THE MINDS OF MEN weaves archival video footage, news clippings, primary research papers, interviews, and analysis into a stunning trove of conclusions about what humanity faces.
As the nearly 4-hour film commences, Part I introduces a chronicle of various experiments on unwitting populations, and the mad science torture methods of breaking down the psyche in an attempt to rewrite the human brain much as one would a computer hard drive.
Viewers might feel like they are completely familiar with projects like the CIA’s MKULTRA, but this well-known program is only used to set the stage. Aaron and Melissa begin to delve deep into the lesser-known subprojects that were developed to create a broad array of tactics and technologies that were tested on many unwitting human beings.
In fact, as the filmmakers expertly document, no one has been off-limits when it comes to military research into the inner workings of the human mind. Psychological, pharmacological and technological trauma was routinely used in tests on military personnel, inmates, hospital patients and even children.
As stated in the film:
The implications for brainwashing, indoctrination, and re-education were staggering.
Part II – Cybernetics covers the establishment of “control and communication in the animal and machine.” Working from the baseline idea that people are fully programmable, the next step along the path toward ultimate control would be to automate the mission. This “man-machine project” introduced the concept of a “neural net,” which we see being developed in a much more advanced form now under the term “neural lace.”
Learning about the origins of robotics and artificial intelligence, all designed to mechanize the human mind, is a solid reminder to be wary of any of the supposed benefits that mind-rewiring technology claims in its modern propaganda.
The dark origins are laid completely bare in what Aaron Dykes calls a “global Manhattan Project for the mind,” which was heavily documented but long since forgotten in publications like Mental Health and World Citizenship. The film continues to connect the dots throughout the evolution of the Internet itself as it was constructed to become a de facto electronic nervous system that the populace is wired into. The potential for behavior modification was seen very early on, even as “new revelations” emerge from social media companies that only now acknowledge this to be part of the built-in design.
Part III – The Brain Doctors looks at many of the people behind mind control systems like the MKULTRA subprojects. Moving beyond behavioral modification, this begins the age of direct mind control via “psychosurgery” with horrific experiments conducted on mental patients. Many of the techniques were rudimentary and brutal precursors to technology we are seeing in the news today, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation. However, today’s news bites don’t properly contextualize the history that the filmmakers have uncovered in the fields of biological control through radio frequency transmitted to implanted electrodes, and testing with microwave radiation (5G anyone?). Worse still is the fact that this testing began on animals, but humans were eventually treated just the same in sanctioned laboratories.
Part IV – The Psychocivilized Society segues from the political turmoil of the 1960s which led to the theory that the behavior of rioting might have a medical cause, even leading some proponents to suggest that political leaders and activists must have some sort of brain disease that should be targeted for correction or prevention. It was an early type of pre-crime notion that sought to identify behavior patterns and the likelihood of violence before any activity had taken place.
What followed was the development of the brain-computer interface and, specifically, the pursuit that specific brainwaves could be eradicated. This is where the concept of violence prediction came about as the combination of psychiatry and social systems began to meld into one overall method for direct control over large populations.
A key interview with Dr Breggin, MD serves to round out all of what the film presents and is a must-see whistleblower account of someone who saw these systems being built. At the time, Dr Breggin was a lone voice of reason and ethics; and in the film, he appears as a shining light amid the darkness as he recounts horrendous physical and mental abuse that clearly was/is rife at the highest level of these mind control programs.
And this film, too, is a shining light despite its dark overtones. It is a meticulously and comprehensively researched account that is a great service to the public as well as other researchers in bringing into one place all of the dots that need to be connected.
After viewing this documentary, despite our own 15-year investigation into the subject of government mind control, we wholeheartedly agree with Melissa and Aaron’s statement about their personal journey while making this film: You may think you know this story, but we promise you, you don’t.
https://www.fourseasons.com/lasvegas/
Agency Information Collection Activities
https://www.fourseasons.com/palmbeach/
Financial firms urged to step up anti-money laundering efforts at overseas branches
Anti-money Laundering Software Market Global Driving Directions 2018| ACI Worldwide, AML360, EastNets, Experian and
WE BE THIEVES
https://www.fourseasons.com/miami/
Massive increase in reports of money laundering
Paul Manafort's conviction means only Donald Trump can keep him out of prison now
Authorities have indicted a 21-year-old Bitcoin dealer for money laundering as he sold $750,000 in Bitcoin across the US.
thelatinopages.com
Fenton Township doctor indicted on 17 counts of health care fraud
Corruption Currents: China Shifts to Iranian Tankers to Keep Buying Oil
MEXICAN CARTELS SMASHED
Discover The Palm Beaches
Feds seek seizure of east Tulsa restaurant
Herrera Indicted on Money Laundering Charges
Chinese family linked to money laundering
Seven Rockford residents face federal wire fraud, food stamp fraud and money laundering charges
They froze computers, then demanded ransom.
THE PARENTS of actor Jiratpisit Jaravijit
BANNEKERUNIVERSITY.COM
Former Colombian Anticorruption Official Pleads Guilty in U.S. to Money-Laundering Charge
GOLD BACKED YUAN
What casinos, bitcoin tell us about money laundering
MLD5: EU's latest AML directive introduces virtual currency regulation
valerie castile raw and uncut PART 1
FINCEN HIGHLIGHTS VALUE OF AML FILINGS IN CRACKING FRAUD CASES, INCREASING FOCUS ON CRYPTO:
Bitcoin Dealer Indicted on Money Laundering Charges; Held without Bond
Argentina casino link to Hezbollah money laundering probe
Iran anti-money laundering law faces challenge as deadline looms
Imran Khan seeks British PM Theresa May's help to combat money laundering
Melanesians Carry DNA Of Unknown Species - Scientists Say
https://youtu.be/qcLVy96WCkQ
americas gang problem get outta here
CHINA EGG/EYEROLL national peoples congress
MONEY LAUNDERING NEWS TELEVISION
Unsaved 16 yr old Sees Horrors of the Tribulation-Life Changing
CHINA HAS LOST IT'S MIND
H.R.H. PRINCESS SARAH WINDSOR
Macaulay Culkin hollywood elite pedophiles
THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE - TRILATERAL COMMISSION
THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE - TRILATERAL COMMISSION PT2
Mueller & President Trump are Pulling the Biggest Sting in History
RapeFugees
Warning that Beijing’s military bases in South China Sea are ready for use
MARK OF THE BEAST PHILLIPINES
US banks have “half the equity they need”-says Fed President
Sanctuary Cities are RACIST !!!!!!!!
trump declared winner 2016 Presidential race
This is art work. If you don't like it. DON'T LOOK!!!!!
Latausha Nedd
Recommended Websites and Actions
Undocumented/Illegal Aliens new world order
illegal immigration new world order
By Ken Adachi.
I can't condone illegal 'immigration' in America. It's not "immigration"
when you enter the country illegally; it's criminal entry.
This is a sovereign nation and its government has the right and the duty to keep out or deport (or jail) those who enter illegally.
Every other nation on the face of the earth exercises that right without apologizing for protecting itself from illegal incursion. However,
Bank of the Orient Compliance Deficiency
BankOfChina Italian Money Laundering
New Mexico HOUSE BILL 560
52ND LEGISLATURE -STATE OF NEW MEXICO -FIRST SESSION, 2015
Zachary J. Cook
RELATING TO FORFEITURE............
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Subject: The Fed Dot Plot: Why It Matters to Every Investor Today
URL: http://mney.co/2cDIqCq
The Fed Dot Plot: Why It Matters to Every Investor Today
By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler • September 19, 2016
Investors ignore the Fed dot plot at their peril.
While it doesn't get as much attention as the decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings or the comments by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve's dot plot is an important guide to where the central bank wants to go with interest rates in the future.
And that means it's closely watched by Wall Street, giving it the ability to influence markets.
Formally known as the U.S. Federal Reserve's Summary of Economic Projections, the dot plot is a simple tool the Fed introduced back in 2012 as part of its efforts to increase transparency. It's released four times a year, at alternating FOMC meetings, at the same time as the committee's policy announcement.
The next dot plot will be released Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 2 p.m.
At its most basic, the Fed dot plot is a chart showing the outlook for interest rates for the current year, the next two years, and the "longer run." Each of the 17 members of the Federal Reserve board participates, even though only 10 are voting members of the policy-setting FOMC at any given time.
The members make a call for each time period; those are the dots. Each dot is a member's estimate of what he or she thinks the Fed interest rate should be at that time.
Here's the last Fed dot plot, from June's FOMC meeting:
This the Fed dot plot from the June meeting. At that time, only two of the 17 Fed members thought rates for 2016 (first column) should be above 1%. Opinion for 2017 was more divided, with most seeing rates near 1.5%, three at 2% or above, and just one at 0.5%.
Investors need to be cautious not to read the Fed dot plot as a prediction of what the Fed is actually going to do. Because the Fed is constantly considering new economic data in its analysis, any prediction of a change in the Fed interest rate – even one by the members of the Reserve Board – is destined to be inaccurate.
Get Our Best Wealth-Building Ideas: Money Morning's top 5 investment reports to grow your money like never before are right here – and they're absolutely free. Read more…
But there is other information that can be gleaned from the Fed dot plot…
"[The dot plot] shows what each participant thinks the Fed should do, based on his or her individual forecast of how the economy will evolve and what the optimal response would be," wrote former Minnesota Federal Reserve Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota in a Bloomberg opinion column in March.
So the Fed dot plot is essentially a window into the minds of the Federal Reserve members.
Now here's why the Fed dot plot has such a huge impact on Wall Street…
David Zeiler
Browse David's articles | View David's research services
David Zeiler, Associate Editor for Money Morning at Money Map Press, has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including 18 spent at The Baltimore Sun. He has worked as a writer, editor, and page designer at different times in his career. He's interviewed a number of well-known personalities - ranging from punk rock icon Joey Ramone to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Over the course of his journalistic career, Dave has covered many diverse subjects. Since arriving at Money Morning in 2011, he has focused primarily on technology. He's an expert on both Apple and cryptocurrencies. He started writing about Apple for The Sun in the mid-1990s, and had an Apple blog on The Sun's web site from 2007-2009. Dave's been writing about Bitcoin since 2011 - long before most people had even heard of it. He even mined it for a short time.
Dave has a BA in English and Mass Communications from Loyola University Maryland.
… Read full bio
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Moodle, QuizPort, Hot Potatoes...
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Senator Grassley and the Televangelists
When Senator Charles Grassley, then chair of the Senate Finance Committee, decided to examine issues in charitable accountability back in 2004, the entire nonprofit sector sat up and took notice. National nonprofit trade associations made strenuous efforts to make nice and cooperate, while behind the scenes they grumbled at the prospect that Grassley and his staff might look at scandals at the United Way, the Nature Conservancy, and elsewhere and generate corrective laws and regulations. Independent Sector, a nonpartisan coalition of approximately 600 charities, foundations and corporate giving programs, convened a highly publicized national panel to demonstrate the value of self-regulation and fend off legislation. They succeeded in fending off new legislation, but the sector’s self-regulatory track record is a mix of hits and misses.
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Now no longer the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Grassley is no less concerned about protecting the charitable contributions of U.S. taxpayers. In 2007, he launched a review of six televangelists to determine exactly how they were protecting the interests of taxpayers and the public at large. His inquiries prompted a raft of challenges that he was trying to pierce the wall between church and state, that he was drawn by unknown unsavory reasons to attack these men and women of the cloth, that he is always hot to trot with new laws and regulations that would cause more damage than they would alleviate harm. Although he could have dropped the inquiry and turned it over to Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, Grassley persisted despite opposition and obstruction from the televangelists and their supporters. Earlier this month, he issued several reports detailing some eye-popping uses of tax-exempt funds by these religious leaders.
The reports read like dry accounting documents, but reveal stunning expenditures by some of the nation’s most visible and prominent televangelists. Most religious leaders couldn’t and wouldn’t fathom the kind of personal excesses the targets of Grassley’s probe apparently relished, with little concern for disclosure or explanation to the Internal Revenue Service or their charitable donors. The televangelists in question might have been channeling Burt Lancaster’s performance as Elmer Gantry as they used their charitable recompense to finance their ostensibly religious programs and their lavish personal and professional lifestyles.
Sister Sharon Falconer at a revival: Bill, see how many of those dear people can match God’s bountiful gift with their own offerings.
Televangelist Kenneth Copeland was less than forthcoming with Senator Grassley’s inquiries, even declining to reveal to Grassley the names of the 10 board members of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Although KCM denied the existence of “integrated auxiliaries”, apparently subsidiaries, Grassley’s investigators found at least 21 that may have existed over the years, not including a 501(c)(3) called Pitcherman, Inc. which (with a board comprised of Kenneth, Gloria, and son John Copeland) exists to “receive charitable gifts from various entities, including offshore corporations and entities, and to distribute said monies to other qualified 501(c)3 churches, para-churches, ministries and evangelistic organizations…” Also not included were Copeland interests in an aviation company, an airport, and a horse and cattle ranch.
Grassley’s investigators couldn’t figure out if Kenneth Copeland received a salary or how much it might be, but he admitted at a KCM conference in 2008 that he is a billionaire. That must make wife, Gloria’s $400,000 salary in the early 2000s plus the honoraria they both get for KCM speaking gigs sort of inconsequential. Kenneth and Gloria live in an 18,000 square-foot home (the “parsonage”) on a 25-acre site owned by the televangelist’s religious operations, valued at $6,429,000 in 2008. The home also has three boat slips, and four boats (the ski-boat is stored in an airplane hanger on the site). Among the cars that have been registered in their names have been a 2007 Mercedes Benz S550, a 2005 XLR Cadillac Roadster Convertible and a 2003 Corvette Convertible.
Elmer Gantry: Is Sister Sharon preaching the word of Jesus or the gospel of Babbitt’s real estate business?
The Copelands appear to be generous with family, employing parents, children, and grandchildren as salaried employees of the Church. Gloria’s brother Doug Neece, owner of a company called Integrity Media, was paid $20 million in 1996 and $22.4 million in 1997 for services to the church. More recent information wasn’t available. Son John was able to acquire three properties from the church for $73,000, the purchase occurring after the sites were determined to have an oil and gas producing field (the church owns several other producing gas wells). Board members have been generous with the KCM as well, including one who gave them a Citation 1 jet in 2007 (the church owns five aircraft). Generosity to the Church is generosity to the Copelands, as it appears that the church pays for most of their living and operating expenses. The jets for example have ferried Gloria to shopping trips in Naples, Fla., John on hunting trips, Kenneth to visit his chiropractor in Arkansas, and the family to another home in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Among the Copelands’ charitable fundraising targets is funding to construct the “Revival Capital of the World.” The mini-city would include the headquarters of the Church, a radio and television center, a resort hotel, a “kingdom park,” and a retirement community called “Wisdom Heights.”
Church leader in “Elmer Gantry”: Like it or not, we are in competition with the entertainment business.
Unlike the Copelands and others who at least provided partial information, Creflo and Taffi Dollar stiffed the Grassley investigators for information about any of their financial dealings, including their salaries and the members of the boards of World Changers and its many related or auxiliary affiliate organizations. Creflo and Taffi Dollar run the World Changers Church International (Creflo is CEO, Taffi was CFO in 2008, but listed as Secretary in 2010, and the registered agent of WCCI is son Jeremy).
Though the Dollars were tight-lipped, it is clear from public records that the couple enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. According to Georgia real estate records, the Dollars own two multi-million dollar mansions, both of which appear to have been given to them by WCCI, though Creflo Dollar told the New York Timesthat he didn’t own them. One of the properties, purchased by WCCI but owned by the Dollars, was listed for sale at $3 million in 2006, $1.99 million in 2008, and $1.395 million in 2010, which would give the Dollars a more than lucrative return for their unknown and probably nonexistent investment. The Dollars also had access to a WCCI-owned luxury New York apartment in addition to the Atlanta-area homes.
Sources told Grassley’s staff that the Church had given Creflo and Taffi each Rolls-Royces, but Creflo told the press that there was only one Rolls in their possession, and it was “purchased by the donors, or the members of the church, and it was a surprise to me.” However, in other comments to the press, Creflo Dollar has talked about his Rolls-Royces in the plural, in part because, according to The New Yorker, one of the “selling points” of the ministry is the Dollars’ “glamorous life style.”
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Like the Copelands, the Dollars also have a taste for aircraft. They typically use a GulfStream jet owned by the for-profit World Heirs, Inc., which lists Creflo as CEO and Taffi as secretary. They also sometimes use a LearJet that is listed in public documents as owned by WCCI itself. World Heirs sold another GulfStream to, surprisingly, Kenneth Copeland. Why the private jets? Dollar says he needs them because commercial airline schedules to New York (where he has additional operations) don’t fit his schedule. However, flight logs show that Creflo flew many more places than just New York to preach, including trips to the Azores, the Bahamas, and “Kenneth Copeland’s ranch.”
The Dollars’ church operations do not file 990s, but somehow from church sources or on occasion Creflo Dollar himself, the press has put his receipt of donations for his Atlanta operation alone at roughly $70 million. But little else can be determined about the revenues and expenditures of the Dollar ministry and its subsidiaries, because even Senator Grassley from the Senate Finance Committee couldn’t get the Dollars to cooperate with any information.
Elmer Gantry: And you, Brother. You can’t go to church on Sunday and cheat at business on Monday.
Bishop Eddie Long responded to the Grassley inquiry, but not necessarily to the questions that the investigators posed. The recent news about Long regarding charges of sexual misconduct with at least four young men (link) , all of whom have filed suits against Long, were not a part of Grassley’s investigation, nor were Long’s well publicized campaigns to cure homosexuality. But the finances of Long’s religious operations have been fodder for the press for years and may well have prompted the Senator’s attention.
Unlike his investigated peers, Bishop Long’s organizations, the Bishop Eddie L. Long Ministries (BELL) and his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church do not have boards full of the church leader’s family members (the nonprofit BELL was officially dissolved in 2002, but it seems to function under other organizational names). But that doesn’t mean that Long thinks much of boards of directors, telling the press that a “biblical leader” shouldn’t have to answer to a board, and in any case, the board of his ministry relinquished total authority to him alone, ridding his church of an “ungodly governmental structure.”
A disdain for “ungodly structures” does not mean that the Bishop eschews affiliated organizations and subsidiaries. The Grassley report lists a dozen “related entities” and roughly the same number of “integrated auxiliaries.” Many are obviously charitable and service oriented, such as the LongFellows Youth Academy (providing “structured programming for male teenagers to promote lifestyle changes), a religious pre-K-12 grade school, New Birth Development (supporting the church’s economic development ventures), and a senior housing corporation. The interlocking managerial and subsidiary relationships among these entities are mind-boggling, begging for a graphic rather than a list. Oddly, however, none of the Bishop’s nonprofit-sounding affiliated organizations filed 990s with the IRS.
How much does Long earn for his ministry? He wasn’t willing to share that information with Grassley’s staff voluntarily, but the report indicated that his salary at BELL and through BELL subsidiaries may have been about $1,625,275 in 2000. The rumors of a million dollar salary have revolved around Long for years, but without reports, definitive numbers are lacking (he seems to have been paid $494,493 just by BELL alone in 2000). He lives in a 12,000 square-foot, 8-bedroom, 9-bathroom home owned by BELL which the organization bought in the late 1990s for $1.425 million. Under his own name, Long owns another 5,000 square-foot home. He could just as well live in his cars, having acknowledged in 2004 that he drove a BELL-owned Rolls and, as has been widely reported, was given a $350,000 Bentley by the organization.
Not to be outdone by his peers, Long likes aircraft too. One of his affiliated organizations leases a Grumman turbojet from Long Charter Air LLC for $30,000 a month. The address for Long Charter Air is the same address as the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and its incorporation papers list Long as the initial member of the corporation and other church members as officers, plus on dissolution of the LLC, all assets are designated to go to Long personally. Several trips to various Caribbean islands and to Las Vegas have been taken on the turbojet, but the church leader didn’t release a tabulation of the use of the plane.
Sister Sharon Falconer at a revival: You darlings can’t make milk and God just won’t make money.
Husband and wife team Randy and Paula White did not escape Grassley’s scrutiny. The Whites announced their plans to divorce in 2007, leaving Randy as the sole senior pastor at Without Walls International Church (WWIC) and Paula as the leader of Paula White Ministries (PWM). Under Randy’s leadership, WWIC defaulted on a $1 million loan, though when WWIC came out of foreclosure proceedings, Randy stepped down and Paula took over as senior pastor.
Randy might have talked to the Senator’s staff but for a policy that seems to have covered lots of departing WWIC and PWM staff, requiring all employees to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from “ever discussing anything pertaining to the organization.” Former staff were afraid of being sued by the church and at least one received a friendly letter from WWIC with a helpful reminder about the confidentiality agreement.
Like the other televangelists, WWIC and PWM make money from selling the tapes, DVDs, and books of their high profile religious leaders. In the case of the Whites, at least during 2004 and 2005, their tapes and books were produced by companies personally owned by Randy and Paula, with the church required to make inventory purchases from their companies of $541,000 and $330,000. In nonprofit parlance, those are called related party transactions, usually frowned upon.
WWIC specifically has a number of related organizations, including KABB Enterprises, apparently set up to purchase a Day’s Inn motel, and several nonprofits and for-profits located at WWIC’s address. Disentangling the financial flows of the Whites’ corporations without more disclosure than the Whites gave the Grassley investigators is impossible. Audited financials for WWIC alone showed revenues of $39.9 million in 2006 and a variety of interesting though vague expenditures, including an $880,000 housing allowance.
One accountant working for WWIC apparently quit after Randy White ordered him to have WWIC pay his personal $24,000 American Express card bill (including $13,000 for the purchase and installation of mirrors) even though that would have made the entity unable to make payroll that week. That’s a small bill compared to their rumored compensation levels – as much as $5 million in around 2004 or 2005. Although the report was never revealed, apparently Randy White presented a compensation study done by “The Strategic Compensation Group of America” to justify whatever the board of WWIC approved as his and Paula’s salaries. WWIC did provide information on its compensation to members of the family, which the Grassley report summarized as payments to “Paula’s son and Randy’s son, daughter, father and sister, up to $420,000, $560,000, $700,000 and $1,075,000 in tax years 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.”
Prior to the divorce, the Whites owned a $2.681 million home (improved with the addition of an in-ground pool and spa) in the Bayshore area of Tampa, and a $3.5 million condo in Trump Tower in New York City. The costs of these properties appear to have been paid for through the WWIC housing allowance. They liked cars too, driving among other vehicles a 2007 Bentley convertible. There must be something about Bentleys, as Paula gave Bishop T.D. Jakes a Bentley convertible as a 50th birthday gift. Randy is generous too, putting his post-divorce girlfriend and her parents on salary and authorizing WWIC to pay for plastic surgery for one of the organization’s pastors.
The ministry – either WWIC or PWM – purchased a Gulfstream GII for $1.2 million, but also pays for ferrying the Whites around by chartered flights. One source told Grassley’s investigators that the Whites chartered a flight to Las Vegas for a boxing match and were accompanied by sports personalities including Gary Sheffield, Darryl Strawberry, Michael Pittman, and Anthony Telford. The boxing match tickets alone, costing between $17,000 and $18,000, were charged to the WWIC AMEX card. Their chartered flights, particularly on a Learjet used predominantly by Paula, were frequently to “the islands” and often involved re-filing flight plans once out of U.S. airspace to head to the Cayman Islands.
Sister Sharon Falconer to Gantry: No more tents. No more running around like a circus. No more haggling with committees. My own tabernacle. A permanent home…A place of worship for everybody of every faith. That’s my first love.
Senator Charles Grassley is hardly anti-religious. A longstanding Republican senator, Grassley is also a devout Baptist. One of his Senate Finance Committee staff who worked on the investigation is an ordained minister – as well as an expert on tax exempt law and finance. This was no crusade against these four televangelists (plus Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, both of whom not only cooperated somewhat more than Dollar, Long, Copeland, and the Whites, but have made changes meant to improve their charitable accountability). Just like his investigations into nonprofit accountability in 2004, they were not “against” nonprofits in the slightest. Grassley is an old school “do the right thing” kind of legislator, with a history of calling for accountability and probity regardless of the politics or beliefs of the entity or its leadership.
Rather than calling for new laws and regulations, Grassley has asked the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) to look at the information his staff compiled and make recommendations. Although self-regulation has a spotty history in most industries, in the nonprofit sector ECFA has been top-notch in its reviews of its faith-based members.
Maybe something good will come of the Grassley investigation and the ECFA review. These televangelists are typically thought of as emissaries of the “prosperity gospel,” the notion that belief and wealth go hand in hand. The ministers’ high flying lifestyles with mansions, Gulfstreams, and Bentleys exemplify the prosperity they promote. But should their prosperity be paid for by the tax exempt dollars of taxpayers? It is impossible to look at the findings in these reports, based on almost no information voluntarily provided by the four televangelists, without hoping that the ECFA could channel “Elmer Gantry” and cry out, “We’ll show ‘em how to clean up this town! Tonight! Right now.” serendipitous grant applications to January 15th. Let’s hope that USAID finds what it’s not looking for and that a nonprofit gets the contract to help them stumble into it.
Nonprofit Workplace Culture: Why It Matters So Much to Us
By Jinna Halperin
The Nonprofit Ethicist | Conflicts of Interest and the Board
By Woods Bowman
One Nonprofit CEO is Cruelly Refused a Raise While Another Whistles
By Mark Light
Executive Committees as Nonprofit Pestilence
Sounding a Call for Civil Sector Journalism: A Letter from NPQ’s Board of Directors
By Chuck Bell
When a Nonprofit Becomes a Regulator: The U.S.
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About Nordan Symposia
Nordan Symposia
The community of truth seekers presided over by Machiventa Melchizedek. Also, the ancient city of Palestine and the current capital of Israel; a holy city for Judaism (Temple of Solomon and the capital of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judeah), Christianity (Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection), and Islam (Muhammad’s ascension to heaven).
Although the precise origin of the Hebrew name for Jerusalem, Yerushalayim remains uncertain, scholars have come up with a variety of interpretations. Some say it means "legacy of peace" — a portmanteau of yerusha (legacy) and shalom (peace). "Shalom" is a cognate of the Hebrew name "Shlomo," i.e., King Solomon," the builder of the First Temple. Alternatively, the second part of the portmanteau could be Salem (Shalem literally "whole" or "in harmony"), an early name for Jerusalem (Jerusalem, by Amos Elon [1] ISBN 0006375316 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd) The epithet may have originated in the ancient name of Jerusalem—Salem (after the pagan deity of the city), which is etymologically connected in the Semitic languages with the words for peace (shalom in Hebrew, salam in Arabic) that appears in the Book of Genesis. (Fr. King James Version: "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God." (Genesis 14:18) Others cite the Amarna letters, where the Akkadian name of the city appears as Urušalim, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem. Some believe there is a connection to Shalim, the beneficent deity known from Ugaritic myths as the personification of dusk.[2] enttitled Jerusalem, the Old City pub. Quds University.
A Midrashic interpretation in Genesis Rabba explains that Abraham came to the city that was then called Shalem after rescuing Lot. "sharing"[3] International De Documéntation Judéo-Chrétienne Sharing Jerusalem: The Spiritual And Political Challenges "I will share another meta-midrash...believers in the One Supreme God." Upon arrival, he asked the king and high priest Melchizedek to bless him, and Melchizedek did so in the name of God (indicating that he, like Abraham, was a monotheist). This encounter between Melchizedek and Abraham was commemorated by renaming the city in their honor: the name Yeru (derived from Yireh, the name Abraham gave to the Temple Mount) was combined with Shalem, "sharing" producing Yeru-Shalem, meaning the "city of Shalem," or "founded by Shalem." If shalem means "complete," or "without defect, " Yerushalayim would mean the "perfect city," or "the city of he who is perfect". Zechariah Sitchin, The Cosmic Code, Avon 1998. The ending -im indicates the plural in Hebrew grammar and -ayim the dual, leading to an interpretation of the name as representing two facets of the city, such as two hills. ISBN 0405102984 by Edwin Wallace Sherman entitled Jerusalem the Holy. A similar view was held by those who give the Hebrew dual to the word (see: Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70 by George Adam Smith, pub. Hodder and Stoughton. "The termination -aim or -ayim used to be taken as the ordinary termination of the dual of nouns, and was explained as signifying the upper and lower citie." [4]. The pronunciation of the last syllable as -ayim appears to be a late development, which had not yet appeared at the time of the Septuagint.
The Shrine of the Book, housing the Dead Sea Scrolls, at the Israel Museum
Although Jerusalem is known around the world for its religious significance, the city is also home to many artistic and cultural venues. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem's premier art museum, annually attracts nearly one million visitors, approximately one-third of them international tourists.[5] pub. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. The twenty-acre museum complex comprises several buildings featuring special exhibits and extensive collections of Judaica, archeological findings, and Israeli and European art.
The Dead Sea scrolls, discovered in the mid-twentieth century in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea, are housed in the Museum's Shrine of the Book.[6] pub. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem entitled Shrine of the Book The Youth Wing, which mounts changing exhibits and runs an extensive art education program, is visited by 100,000 children a year. The museum has a large outdoor sculpture garden, and a scale-model of the Second Temple was recently moved from the Holyland Hotel to a new location on the museum grounds. Other museums affiliated with the Israel Museum are the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Ticho House, and the Paley Center of Art.
The Rockefeller Museum, located in East Jerusalem, was the first archeological museum in the Middle East. It was built in 1938 during the British Mandate.[7] entitled The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum pub The Israel Museum, Jerusalem [8] |pub. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, entitled The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum: About the Museum: The Permanent Exhibition . Ticho House, in downtown Jerusalem, houses the paintings of Anna Ticho and the Judaica collections of her husband, an ophthalmologist who opened Jerusalem's first eye clinic in this building in 1912.[9]entitled Ticho House, pub. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Another prominent cultural institution in Jerusalem is Yad Vashem, Israel's national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem houses the world's largest [10] library of Holocaust-related information, with an estimated 100,000 books and articles.[11] The complex contains a state-of-the-art museum that explores the genocide of the Jews through exhibits that focus on the personal stories of individuals and families whose lives were torn asunder, and a gallery displaying permanent and changing exhibits of work by artists who died in the Holocaust. Another memorial at Yad Vashem commemorates the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished at the hands of the Nazis. Yad Vashem operates as both a research and educational institution.
One of the city's foremost orchestras is the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, which has been operating since the 1940s.[12] The Orchestra has held performances in cities around the world, including Vienna, Frankfurt, and New York City. Within walking distance of the Old City is a cultural district which includes the Khan Theatre, the only repertoire theater in the city,[13] and the Jerusalem Cinematheque. The Jerusalem Theater, located in the Komemiyut (Talbiya) neighborhood, hosts over 150 concerts a year, as well as theater and dance companies and performing artists from overseas.[14] Other prominent facilities for the performing arts include the International Convention Center (Binyanei HaUma) near the entrance to city, where the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra plays, the Gerard Behar Center in downtown Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Music Center in Yemin Moshe,[15] and the Targ Music Center in Ein Kerem. The Palestinian National Theatre, founded in 1984 and once the only center for art and culture in East Jerusalem,[16] today presents art from the Palestinian perspective.[17] The Israel Festival,[18] featuring local and international vocal artists, concerts, plays and street theater, has been held annually since 1961. For the past 25 years, Jerusalem has been the major organizer of this event, which takes place in May-June, and most of the performances take place at venues around the city.[19] The necessary information could be found by clicking the "About" link on the homepage that appears.
Religious significance
Jerusalem plays an important role in the three monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The 2000 Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem lists 1204 synagogues, 158 churches, and 73 mosques within the city.(Protecting Jerusalem's Holy Sites: A Strategy for Negotiating a Sacred Peace,Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521866626) Despite efforts to maintain peaceful religious coexistence, some sites, such as the Temple Mount, have been a continuous source of friction and controversy.
The Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism
Jerusalem has been sacred to the Jews since the 10th century BCE,as the site of Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple. It is mentioned in the Bible 632 times. Today, the Western Wall, a remnant of the Second Temple, is a holy site for Jews, second only to the Temple Mount itself.[20] Synagogues around the world are traditionally built with the Holy Ark facing Jerusalem,[21] and Arks within Jerusalem face the "Holy of Holies".[22] Returning: The Land of Israel as Focus in Jewish History. As prescribed in the Mishna and codified in the Shulchan Aruch, daily prayers are recited while facing towards Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Many Jews have "Mizrach" plaques hung on a wall of their homes to indicate the direction of prayer. The Jewish injunction to pray toward Jerusalem comes in the Orach Chayim section of Shulchan Aruch (94:1) — "When one rises to pray anywhere in the Diaspora, he should face towards the Land of Israel, directing himself also toward Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Holy of Holies."
Christianity reveres Jerusalem not only for its role in the Old Testament but also for its significance in the life of Jesus. According to Biblical accounts, Jesus was brought to the city of Jerusalem not long after his birth. From the King James Version of the Bible: "And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought [Jesus] to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;" (Luke 2:22) and later in his life cleansed the Second Temple. From the King James Version of the Bible: "And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;" (Mark 11:15) The Cenacle, believed to be the site of Jesus' Last Supper, is located on Mount Zion in the same building that houses the Tomb of King David.(Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades ISBN 0415230004 "The interesting, if not reliable illustrations of the church on the round maps of Jerusalem show two distinct buildings on Mount Zion: the church of St Mary and the Cenacle (Chapel of the Last Supper) appear as separate buildings." (A Life of Jesus ISBN 0809123193)
Another prominent Christian site in Jerusalem is Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion. The Gospel of John describes it as being located outside Jerusalem,King James Version of the Bible: "This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin." (John 19:20) but recent archaeological evidence suggests Golgotha is a short distance from the Old City walls, within the present-day confines of the city.[23] The land currently occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is considered one of the top candidates for Golgotha and thus has been a Christian pilgrimage site for the past two thousand years.(St. John's Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups ISBN 0898708214 Pilgrimage: Adventures of the Spirit, ISBN 1885211562 "The general consensus is that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre marks the hill called Golgotha, and that the site of the Crucifixion and the last five Stations of the Cross are located under its large black domes."
According to tradition, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city in Islam. Before it was permanently switched to the Kabaa in Mecca, the qibla (direction of prayer) for Muslims was Jerusalem.(The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalating to NowhereISBN 0275987582) The city's lasting place in Islam, however, is primarily due to Muhammad's Night of Ascension (c. 620 CE). Muslims believe Muhammad was miraculously transported one night from Mecca to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, whereupon he ascended to Heaven to meet previous prophets of Islam.(The Monotheists: The Peoples of God ISBN 0691114609 [24] The first verse in the Qur'an's Surat al-Isra notes the destination of Muhammad's journey as al-Aqsa (the farthest) mosque. "Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)." (17:1) in reference to the location in Jerusalem.
Today, the Temple Mount is topped by two Islamic landmarks intended to commemorate the event — al-Aqsa Mosque, derived from the name mentioned in the Qur'an, and the Dome of the Rock, which stands over the Foundation Stone, from which Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to Heaven.[25]
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Weekly Advance: Week of Nov. 21
By Timothy Carroll • 11/18/11 5:58pm
TRENTON – First word to describe this week: frontloaded. Second word: loaded.
The flurry of post-election activity is upon us. Among the issues moving through Trenton this week: personal injury protection, windmill tax credits, syringe sales, “jobs” bills, and land use legislation allowing for modification of existing projects due to economic hardships.
With no schedule from Tuesday to Friday, the Senate has four committees meeting on Monday; the Assembly has seven.
There are also many issues being discussed in the background this week, like sports betting, accidental injury pension reform, and, according to a source, a bill for the next session to put the Millionaire’s Tax on the ballot for voters to decide.
The last one should come as no surprise given the Democrats’ new three-fifths majority in both chambers (which bypasses a two-year vote) and Friday’s Quinnipiac poll showing 68 percent support for the tax on the upper-echelon wealthy.
Also coming down the pike are telecom deregs (again) and a bill conceptually detailed by state Sen. Ray Lesniak, (D-20), of Elizabeth, last week that would extend the reach of the Election Law Enforcement Commission to include schools and school employees.
In response to the reported investigations into campaign contributions for a few Elizabeth Board of Education officials, Lesniak said in an email that he directed staff to draft a preliminary bill last week. ELEC can currently issue a $5,000 fine for solicitation of campaign contributions on state property or property of an agency of the state – including county and municipal properties – but not on public school properties.
On the telecom front, two senators and a couple of interest groups are rolling out the pressure for passage of S3062 on Monday, too, which they say would “eliminate unnecessary and outdated regulations while ensuring the necessary oversight to protect consumers.”
State Sens. Bob Smith, (D-17), of Piscataway, and Loretta Weinberg, (D-37), of Teaneck, will be joined by Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler and representatives of the AARP and N.J. Citizen Action in the Statehouse Monday morning to highlight the bill’s merits – especially as they relate to the state’s power and telecom outages from recent severe weather.
At least one major event for Monday isn’t happening. The Delaware River Basin Commission’s contentious vote on fracking deregulations has been postponed, even though the Sierra Club and several Democratic lawmakers are carrying on with their War Memorial protest and march to the Statehouse.
The Dems are again ushering through their “jobs” package: A4306, A4336, and A4337 (which officially creates the already operative N.J. Business Action Center).
In the Assembly a variety of bills will be heard in the various committees, like A4259, which allows a gross income tax credit for interest on student loans, and A4104, which deals with particular constraints and circumstances regarding Urban Enterprise Zones and municipalities that qualify for the program.
Finally, there’s good news for bake sale advocates. The Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee is expected to pass S2734 on Monday. The measure permits the sale of home baked goods under certain circumstances.
Now you can have your cake and sell it too (as long as you have the appropriate signage).
The “People’s Chamber” will also swear in its newest member next week, Democrat Troy Singleton, (D-7), filling the seat vacated by the retired Jack Conners, following Singleton’s election triumph in the split district.
SEE ALSO: Weekly Roundup: Week of Nov. 14
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Jersey’s Other Scandal
By The Editors • 03/26/14 11:23am
Back in the days when Chris Christie was a legitimate presidential candidate in waiting—remember those days?—folks in the national media seemed to believe it was morning again in New Jersey. You might remember the narrative: Feisty governor brings fiscal sanity to spendthrift state, restores order where there was only irresponsible chaos.
As the Christie era continues to disintegrate with each new Bridgegate subpoena, the narrative surely has changed. But one thing hasn’t: New Jersey’s finances. They were lousy when Mr. Christie took office, and they remain lousy now, despite all the hype about the governor’s supposed reforms and no-nonsense approach to budgeting.
For all his braggadocio, Chris Christie clearly has failed to deliver the kind of structural reform New Jersey desperately needs.
This may come as news to the paratroopers who have dropped into Trenton during the Christie years but not to those who have been paying closer attention. Last week, Fitch Ratings lowered its outlook on New Jersey’s debt to negative after Mr. Christie submitted a $34.4 billion budget that did little to address the state’s long-term debt problems.
Fitch’s move comes just three months after Moody’s Investors Service also lowered its outlook on New Jersey debt to negative and for the same reasons. Mr. Christie, like his predecessors, simply has not gotten a handle on New Jersey’s long-term debt, which amounts to $78.4 billion. Again, like his predecessors, Mr. Christie has relied on short-term gimmicks and other sleight-of-hand tricks to give the appearance of balanced budgets.
Mr. Christie was elected on a promise to clean up Trenton and make the tough decisions that other governors, especially Jon Corzine, refused to make. It all sounded so good in 2009, but as two ratings agencies now tell us, those promises have amounted to nothing more than business as usual. “The governor has strong powers to complement expenditure reductions to balance the budget, and Fitch expects those powers to be exercised as necessary,” the analysts noted, adding, “but options have become more limited.”
Indeed they have, because the notion that Mr. Christie has imposed fiscal discipline on Trenton is not so much fiction as it is a joke. True, the governor worked with Senate President Stephen Sweeney to bring about needed reforms in pensions and benefits for some state workers. But for all his braggadocio, Mr. Christie clearly has failed to deliver the kind of structural reform New Jersey desperately needs.
In the unsparing, unsentimental judgment of Wall Street, New Jersey merits a negative outlook.
The Bridgegate scandal certainly has captured the attention of the national press corps. But it could be that the real scandal in New Jersey has nothing to do with access lanes to a bridge and everything to do with Mr. Christie’s lack of political will.
The state remains addicted to debt. Mr. Christie has only fed that addiction. That, in essence, is what Moody’s and Fitch have concluded. And they’re right.
Filed Under: Chris Christie, chris christie
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HARD HAT IN DEATH FALL
By C.J. Sullivan
August 1, 2008 | 8:14am
A construction worker fell six stories to his death from the roof of a Greenwich Village building, authorities said. The man in his 40s and whose name was withheld, landed in back of 168 W. 4th St. shortly before 7 p.m.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Cops were looking into the possibility that he may have been playfully wrestling with a co-worker before he fell. Neighbors said workers were resurfacing bricks on the building.
MOTHER MAKES PLEA TO 'ROCKEFAKER' FOR DAUGHTER'S RETURN
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Alpha-synuclein in Fluids and Tissues Not a Valid Parkinson’s Biomarker, Study Finds
by Ines Martins, PhD
The total amount of alpha-synuclein in certain fluids and tissues failed to accurately distinguish between people with Parkinson’s disease and healthy individuals, and cannot be used to help diagnose the disease earlier, a large study has now shown.
According to the study, levels of this protein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) — the clear, colorless liquid that fills and surrounds the brain and spinal cord — were not specific enough, meaning they could not accurately rule out people without Parkinson’s.
At the same time, levels in skin and salivary gland biopsies were specific but not sensitive enough, meaning they were not able to consistently identify people with the disease. They only identified about half and one quarter, respectively, of Parkinson’s patients as actually having the disease.
The study, one of the most complete to examine this potential biomarker, is titled “In vivo distribution of α-synuclein in multiple tissues and biofluids in Parkinson disease” and published in Neurology.
A distinctive feature of Parkinson’s is the progressive degeneration of brain cells due to the accumulation of toxic clumps of alpha-synuclein. Given its role in the disease, this protein has been regarded as a lead candidate biomarker for Parkinson’s.
Biomarkers are urgently needed for these patients; they can help provide earlier diagnoses, monitor disease progression, and measure responses to treatment. But so far, studies examining levels of alpha-synuclein in bodily fluids have failed to validate it as an accurate biomarker of disease.
The Systemic Synuclein Sampling Study (S4; NCT02572713), an initiative from The Michael J. Fox Foundation, was therefore launched to compare the levels of alpha-synuclein in multiple fluids and tissues of patients and controls. Whether levels of this protein were correlated across samples from the same individual was also investigated.
A total of 59 patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease and without dementia were enrolled at six U.S. sites from October 2015 to August 2017. For controls, 21 healthy individuals were also included. Patients and controls both had a median age of 63 years, but the patient group had a significantly larger proportion of males (69% vs. 43%).
Participants provided blood, saliva, and CSF samples, as well as biopsies from the skin (both from the thigh and cervical region), colon, and submandibular gland, a salivary gland that sits beneath the floor of the mouth.
Results first showed that blood and saliva did not exhibit significantly different levels of alpha-synuclein between the groups. And while the total levels of this protein in the CSF were significantly lower in patients than controls, they could only distinguish the two groups with an accuracy of 69%.
In fact, CSF levels could identify about 87% of Parkinson’s patients as having the disease (sensitivity), but only 63.2% of controls were deemed negative for the condition (specificity) — meaning that nearly 1 in 4 controls would be wrongly diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
As for tissue samples, only skin and submandibular samples had a greater number of patients testing positive for alpha-synuclein than controls. While these were very good at identifying controls – only one of 21 controls tested positive for alpha-synuclein in tissue samples – only 56% of submandibular samples and 24% of skin samples tested positive in patients, meaning these were not good enough to identify people with Parkinson’s.
In submandibular gland tissue, the ability to identify Parkinson’s patients rose to 78.6% when only people with advanced disease were included in the analysis. Sensitivity remained low for skin samples.
Though examining all three tissues in one patient could theoretically improve the diagnostic accuracy of alpha-synuclein, the researchers noted that a large proportion of patients (14 of 39) tested negative for this protein in all three tissues, showing that combining data from multiple tissues does not improve diagnostic yield.
“We did not find a correlation between intraindividual measures of total [alpha]-synuclein across the various biofluids and tissues as we had hypothesized,” the researchers wrote.
Finally, the researchers examined if testing positive for alpha-synuclein in skin or gland tissue was associated with clinical characteristics. They found no significant differences between patients testing positive and those who tested negative in these tissue samples.
“These results provide critical information we and the broader Parkinson’s research community can use to move forward. We will continue to support the development of alpha-synuclein biomarkers that may prove to have higher accuracy,” Jamie Eberling, PhD, vice president of research programs at MJFF, said in a press release.
The team believes that measuring toxic alpha-synuclein clumps rather than all forms of alpha-synuclein may provide a better biomarker for the disease.
“Importantly, S4 also provides the research community with samples of fluids and tissues (accessible via michaeljfox.org), with which to assess promising new assays and stains,” the researchers wrote. “Ultimately, understanding the distribution of α-synuclein in biofluids and tissues will help advance development of [Parkinson’s] biomarkers and our understanding of [Parkinson’s] pathology including its progression.”
Ana de Barros PhD
Ana holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Lisbon and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) in Lisbon, Portugal. She graduated with a BSc in Genetics from the University of Newcastle and received a Masters in Biomolecular Archaeology from the University of Manchester, England. After leaving the lab to pursue a career in Science Communication, she served as the Director of Science Communication at iMM.
Tagged alpha-synuclein, Biomarkers, Michael J. Fox Foundation, skin, submandibular gland, Systemic Synuclein Sampling Study.
Previous: First Patients Dosed in Clinical Trial Investigating ANVS401 as Treatment for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
Next:Playing the Parkinson’s Wild Card
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Access Document
Improved synthesis of 5-hydroxymethyl-2'-deoxycytidine phosphoramidite using a 2'-deoxyuridine to 2'-deoxycytidine conversion without temporary protecting groups.
5-Hydroxymethylcytosine has recently been characterized as the 'sixth base' in human DNA. To enable research on this DNA modification, we report an improved method for the synthesis of 5-hydroxymethyl-2'-deoxycytidine ((5-HOMe)dC) phosphoramidite for site-specific incorporation into oligonucleotides. To minimize manipulations we employed a temporary protecting group-free 2'-deoxyuridine to 2'-deoxycytidine conversion procedure that utilizes phase transfer catalysis. The desired (5-HOMe)dC pho...
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Hansen, A. S., Thalhammer, A., El-Sagheer, A. H., Brown, T., & Schofield, C. J. (2011). Improved synthesis of 5-hydroxymethyl-2'-deoxycytidine phosphoramidite using a 2'-deoxyuridine to 2'-deoxycytidine conversion without temporary protecting groups. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 21(4), 1181–1184.
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Hansen, A. S., et al. “Improved Synthesis of 5-Hydroxymethyl-2'-Deoxycytidine Phosphoramidite Using a 2'-Deoxyuridine to 2'-Deoxycytidine Conversion without Temporary Protecting Groups.” Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, vol. 21, no. 4, Bioorganic and medicinal chemistry letters, 2011, pp. 1181–84.
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Hansen, AS, A Thalhammer, AH El-Sagheer, T Brown, and CJ Schofield. 2011. “Improved Synthesis of 5-Hydroxymethyl-2'-Deoxycytidine Phosphoramidite Using a 2'-Deoxyuridine to 2'-Deoxycytidine Conversion without Temporary Protecting Groups.” Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 21 (4): 1181–84.
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Know of anyone interested in vying for an open school board seat in November?
February 15, 2017 March 3, 2017 / susangifford
Learn about the role of a school board director and get information about the three board seats open in the November 2017 General Election during a community meeting on Wednesday, March 8.
People interested in vying for a seat on the school board, as well as those who want to learn more about the role, are encouraged to attend the meeting. The event is scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Knox Administrative Center, 1113 Legion Way S.E. in Olympia.
Superintendent Dick Cvitanich will share opening remarks, followed by guest speaker Tim Garchow, executive director of the Washington State School Directors Association.
Garchow will explain about the role and responsibilities of a school board member. His presentation will be followed by remarks from two veteran Olympia School Board directors: Eileen Thomson, who serves as board president this year, and Vice President Frank Wilson.
There will be three Olympia School Board director seats on the November 7, 2017 election ballot:
Director District #3, currently held by Eileen Thomson; 4-year term.
Director District #4, currently held by Justin Montermini. He was re-elected to the seat in November 2015; however, he has since moved outside of director district #4 but lives within the school district. The person elected to this seat will serve the remaining two years of the term.
Director District #5, currently held by Mark Campeau; 4-year term.
People interested in vying for a seat on the board may mail, drop off in person, or submit their application online to the Thurston County Auditor’s Office Elections Division.
The Elections Division will begin accepting candidate filings by mail on May 1, and they must arrive at the elections office no later than May 19. Candidates may also fill out and submit an application online during candidate filing week May 15-19.
For more information about filing for an open seat on the school board, visit the Thurston County Auditor’s Office Elections Division website.
Candidates must be at least 18 years old, reside in the district for which they are filing and be a registered voter at the time of filing. There are some judicial exceptions; for more information, contact Thurston County Auditor’s Office Elections Division at (360) 786-5408.
A primary election will be held on August 1, 2017, followed by a general election on November 7.
Maps of the district’s five director districts will be on display during the March 8 community meeting. Copies of the maps, including an interactive map in which community members can type in their address to find their director district, are also available on the school district website.
See interactive director map
Superintendent search update: job announcement posted
February 15, 2017 February 15, 2017 / susangifford
Click to open full position announcement
Northwest Leadership Associates, the consulting firm assisting the Olympia School District in its search for a new superintendent, has posted an online job announcement for individuals interested in applying for the leadership position. Dates have also been set for daylong interviews with finalists, including an opportunity for community input.
The deadline to apply for the Olympia School District superintendent position is March 7, 2017. The individual selected will replace Dick Cvitanich, who retires effective June 30, 2017.
Thank you to everyone who responded to the online superintendent search survey and attended the series of 18 staff, student and community focus groups to gather input on qualities and characteristics desired in the next superintendent. Input was used to help develop the job announcement.
Next opportunity for staff input
The school board is expected to review job applicants and select finalists by mid-March. Finalists will be invited to tour the district and meet with employees, students, community members and the school board.
The district has set aside March 20-23 for the daylong finalist interviews; however, the schedule could change depending on the number of finalists selected by the Olympia School Board.
Each finalist will visit the district for an entire day and will meet with various groups at the same time each day.
District employees are invited to meet candidates between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. March 20-23 at Olympia Regional Learning Academy (ORLA), 2400 15th Ave. S.E., Olympia.
See the online position announcement
Read the latest issue of the district’s Spotlight on Success newsletter
See the latest issue of the district’s Spotlight on Success newsletter. In this edition, Madison Elementary students show appreciation with ‘Valentines for Veterans’, Learn All About Kindergarten Day is a whopping success, Jefferson Middle School students become playwrights/performers/set designers, construction on “Mini-Buildings” is underway, and much more!
Open the latest Spotlight on Success newsletter
Safety Tip of the Week
This week Wendy Couture, the district’s safety and risk reduction manager, provides information about making healthy choices to lower the risk of developing heart disease.
February is American Heart Month
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease.
Heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions. Communities, health professionals and families can work together to create opportunities for people to make healthier choices.
You can make healthy changes to lower your risk of developing heart disease. Controlling and preventing risk factors is also important for people who already have heart disease.
To lower your risk and help prevent heart disease, follow these tips:
Watch your weight. Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels. For adults, the Surgeon General recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, like brisk walking or bicycling, every week.
Cigarette smoking greatly increases your risk for heart disease. Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke. Talk to your doctor for support and help to quit.
Control your cholesterol and blood pressure by eating foods low in saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol, and high in fiber and limiting salt.
If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation as alcohol can raise blood pressure.
Choosing healthful meal and snack options can help you avoid heart disease and its complications. Be sure to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods.
Test your knowledge of heart disease by taking this quiz:
https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/quiz.htm
Interested in learning more? Check out this heart healthy website for more information:
https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/news-media/events/heart-month.html
Thank you school counselors!
February 8, 2017 February 8, 2017 / susangifford
National School Counseling Week, sponsored by the American School Counselor Association, is celebrated this week throughout the country.
The recognition highlights the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems and the tremendous impact they have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.
Thank you OSD counseling staff!
Olympia School District Players present ‘Annie’ February 23-26
The Olympia School District Players present this year’s musical, “Annie,” February 23-26 at Olympia High School.
“Annie” is based on the book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strousse with lyrics by Martin Charnin.
Learn more about available seating and ticket information
Educator Night Out February 16
Educators are invited to the annual Educator Night Out at the Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia.
The free event will be held on Thursday, February 16 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the museum, 414 Jefferson St. N.E., Olympia.
Learn about a new “Makers Investigations” field trip option, as well as a “Hands On 2U & Dr. Science Assembly” for schools.
Admission is free for a teacher and one guest with school ID. To register, call 360-956-0818 ext. 103 or email reservations@hocm.org.
Nominations open for district Teacher of the Year
February 8, 2017 / susangifford
The Olympia School District is accepting nominations for one or more staff members to be honored as OSD Teacher of the Year.
The program recognizes the work of teachers who have made a positive difference in their profession. Any Washington public school teacher who has a current certificate and works directly with students for at least 50 percent of his/her time is eligible to be nominated.
Please complete this online nomination form and submit by 4 pm. on Wednesday, February 15, 2017.
A committee will review the applications and select the individual(s) to be recognized. The individual(s) chosen will be eligible to compete for the regional Teacher of the Year selection process. The winner at that level advances to the state Teacher of the Year selection process.
Fill out and submit the online nomination form by February 15, 2017
This week Wendy Couture, the district’s safety and risk reduction manager, provides information about the benefits of educators making healthy eating choices.
Nutrition Tips for Busy Educators
Teaching is a mentally complex and challenging job. In the course of a school day, a teacher makes hundreds of decisions and responds quickly to the myriad of unexpected events that life in the classroom may take. If you are a teacher, you have a high-energy job, therefore it’s essential to prime yourself with the right fuel.
But in the busy life of a teacher, who has time to think about healthy eating?Unfortunately, the less we think about what we eat, the worse our diets can get. We don’t want to fall into the trap of defaulting to snacking on “convenience foods” that may be high in sugar and saturated fats and low in nutrients needed to sustain energy levels.
Consider your nutrition to reduce your potential for low energy throughout the school day:
Don’t forget to feed your brain! The brain consumes calories, too, about 600 per day on average. Food choices that support cardiovascular health are also good for the brain and may increase cognitive function.
Reduce the consumption of foods with added sugar, which includes many prepared foods and snacks.
Here is a good reference to check out: 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Seeds, nuts, olive oil and avocados are ready sources of monounsaturated fats, while fish such as salmon and albacore tuna contain polyunsaturated fats, including omega-3 fatty acids which help support brain function. Fats increase the feeling of satiety and help to keep hunger pangs at bay.
Instead of relying heavily on red and processed meats, you can add more healthy sources of protein by planning meals to include seafood, poultry, eggs and legumes like beans, peas, nuts and seeds.
Start the day off with healthy choices
Instead of processed cereals, consider nutrient-dense foods like a veggie loaded omelet with a cup of coffee or tea to provide fuel to keep the brain firing all the way to lunch. Then when recharging at lunch time, consider a palm-sized portion of protein such as chicken or fish, along with a colorful salad topped with an olive oil-based dressing. This can keep you going strong all day. Don’t forget you may need snacks to carry you over, so reach for that fresh fruit or nuts to help level your blood sugar and keep you feeling energized.
Staff invited to free workshop February 22
All staff districtwide are invited to attend a free workshop on February 22 on “The Impact of Hearing Loss on School-Age Children.”
The Impact of Hearing Loss on School-Age Children
Knox Administrative Center
Wednesday, February 22: 4-6 PM
This workshop will cover numerous aspects regarding the education for a deaf and hard-of-hearing child. Audiology, appropriate accommodations, social/emotional support, American Sign Language, speech and English language support, curriculum and assessment will be discussed. There will be several presenters, each with many years experience with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Come and bring any questions you may have.
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Compliance check of ONS Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics
20191029 CC Overseas Travel Tourism
Download "20191029 CC Overseas Travel Tourism" in PDF format (0.12MB)
Iain Bell
Deputy National Statistician, Office for National Statistics
Dear Iain,
As you are aware, we recently brought forward our planned compliance check of Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics following a letter from Tourism Ministers for the UK, Welsh and Scottish Governments. The letter raised concerns about estimates of inbound visitors from the International Passenger Survey (IPS), most notably the reduced sample size which has resulted in widening confidence intervals and the fact that the Ministers did not feel ONS had given their concerns sufficient priority.
Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics play an important role in understanding the tourism industry in the UK. These statistics are highly valued by users, who often rely on them as a unique source of information. Our review focused on two issues relevant to the Quality and Value pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics: the IPS sample size and how the IPS team engages with users. Users expressed a keen interest in seeing improvements in the quality and communication of the statistics. We appreciate the helpful and open way that your team engaged with us during this process.
We have presented our detailed findings and requirements in the annex to this letter. In summary, they are as follows.
ONS does not have a full understanding of who uses the statistics published in the Overseas Travel and Tourism release, or how they are used. This means the IPS team is unable to judge the quality required for a range of users and how information should be presented to meet their needs. Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics provide a valuable contribution to the UK National Accounts, which require data at a UK-level. The team have a good understanding of these needs and have prioritised them when making decisions about the survey. However, the prioritisation of UK-level estimates in terms of quality and presentation does not reflect the requirement of the majority of other users who need data for smaller geographic areas. ONS should develop a more complete understanding of how Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics are used and by whom, so that it is able to balance different user needs. Where not all user needs can be met ONS should be clear on the priorities and rationale for its decisions.
ONS should take a more proactive approach to engagement and communication with users outside the IPS Steering Group. The IPS Steering Group functions as a forum for sharing updates from ONS but is not as effective as it should be in gaining input on proposals or eliciting feedback from users. Furthermore, in line with Finding 2 from our compliance check on the IPS in 2018, we found that users outside the Steering Group are still not informed about planned developments and changes to methods and outputs. We are pleased that your team is now considering how it can engage with users in a more active way. We encourage ONS to engage with a broad range of users in order to maximise the public value of these statistics. We suggest that the IPS team continue to work with the GSS Good Practice Team to develop their understanding of effective user engagement and to implement these approaches.
Users are concerned about the uncertainty of estimates. For example, in the most recent quarterly data, the confidence intervals for numbers of overseas visitors to Scotland and Wales are +/- 24.2% and 29.6% respectively. Similarly, the confidence intervals for expenditure by overseas visitors to Scotland and Wales are +/- 26.7% and 43.8% respectively. While annual data have narrower confidence intervals, in general, these confidence intervals have increased from previous years due to the decline in sample size and have impacted the ability of users to draw reliable conclusions. We recognise that there may be limits on the potential to improve the IPS to the extent many users want and that substantial changes may depend on additional investment. We encourage ONS to be clear about any limitations with their users. We note that response rates, but not sample sizes, are published by ONS.
We welcome the recent implementation of a Project Board and formal workstreams to investigate issues relating to sample size which have impacted uncertainty. We acknowledge that there are several complex factors which have contributed to the reduction in sample size and which require substantial investigation alongside other competing priorities. We understand that a key priority for the team is the completion of the critical work to correct the imbalance within the IPS which directly impacts the quality of Travel and Tourism Statistics. However, ONS has still been slow to respond to emerging issues and has not explained to users what has happened to sample sizes in a clear and timely way. ONS should complete investigations into the sample decline and publish the results of this within the next nine months.
We welcome the recent work by the IPS team to improve the provision of management information and encourage ONS to ensure that adequate and appropriate resources are available for monitoring sample sizes and responding to emerging issues. We consider that better ongoing monitoring of management information in the past would have enabled issues, such as those regarding sample size, to have been identified and managed sooner.
We consider that Overseas Travel and Tourism statistics should retain National Statistics designation, provided the following improvements are made to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice.
By January 2020
ONS should report back to us on its plans to improve user engagement and provide an update on its investigations into the sample size drop.
By April 2020
ONS should have implemented improvements in user engagement.
By July 2020
ONS should publish better information regarding quality and methods.
ONS should report back to us on how it is ensuring that adequate resources are available for monitoring sample sizes and responding to emerging issues.
We will continue to work with your team to provide detailed feedback and suggestions from our investigation as they work to implement these improvements. On the basis of progress made by July 2020 we will decide whether a full assessment of these statistics is necessary.
Whether or not statistics are fit for purpose depends on how they are used. Therefore, the National Statistics designation is awarded to the Overseas Travel and Tourism output rather than the underlying data source, the IPS itself. We will continue to assess and communicate with you about tourism and migration statistics derived from the IPS separately. However, we note ongoing quality issues which affect both and encourage you to continue to build greater collaboration between your teams to ensure the data are well understood for the range of purposes they are used for.
We are mindful of the challenges around official statistics derived from survey data more generally and therefore are considering a systemic review on the value of surveys as part of our future work programme. In the meantime, I encourage you to review the resources allocated to the IPS as you address the findings from this review.
For annex, see PDF.
Sir David Norgrove to Tourism Ministers (October 2019)
Letter from Sir David Norgrove to Tourism Ministers (August 2019)
Letter from Tourism Ministers to Sir David Norgrove (August 2019)
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1-20 of 467 Results for:
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Abner, David, Sr.
Charles Rosenberg
landowner, businessman, and state legislator, was born enslaved in Dallas County Alabama, to parents named Sarah and Pete, who had been born in South Carolina. David, like his parents, was the property of a family named Abner. There is some dispute as to his birth date—some giving 1826 and others 1838—but the most reliable date appears to be December 1820, as suggested by a letter from his youngest daughter. It is not known when David took the Abner surname for himself, a common but by no means universal practice for formerly enslaved persons. He was sent to Texas in 1843, driving a covered wagon for the newly married daughter (Thelma) of the man who held title to him.
Her father considered his new son in law unreliable and entrusted David to get his daughter safely to her new home and manage ...
Abron, Lilia Ann
Sherri J. Norris
chemical engineer and environmental engineering entrepreneur, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the second of four daughters of Ernest Buford Abron and Bernice Wise Abron, both educators. Abron was educated in Memphis public schools and was a member of the National Honor Society. Abron divorced and had three sons, Frederick, Ernest, and David; she is occasionally credited as Lilia Ann Abron-Robinson.
Abron stayed close to home when she attended LeMoyne College, a historically black college in Memphis, Tennessee. She considered medical school, but she was persuaded by her advisor, Dr. Beuler, to pursue a career in engineering instead. Her decision was a risky one. She did not know of any African Americans with engineering degrees who were actually working as engineers; instead, she once said in an interview, they were often working in post offices. In 1966 Abron received her BS in Chemistry from ...
Adams, William Lloyd
Antero Pietila
a teenaged numbers runner who become an important Baltimore business leader, was born into a family of sharecroppers. He was raised by his grandparents in Zebulon, North Carolina, and moved to Baltimore in 1929, during the Depression. He quickly grew tired of the city's Dunbar High School, working instead in a rag factory and fixing bicycles—a sideline he had begun at age ten. On his bicycle, he also ran errands for numbers operators; lucrative illegal lotteries thrived in the city under the protection of the Democratic machine. By the age of twenty, he was an aspiring kingpin, and the owner of three stores.
Adams's grip on numbers strengthened in 1938, after the death of the city's “Black King,” Democratic boss Tom Smith Adams filled the vacuum That year white Philadelphia gangsters firebombed his tavern He repelled the takeover attempt living up to his nickname Little Willie acquired ...
Adams-Ender, Clara
Teri B. Weil
military leader, nurse, educator, and entrepreneur, was born Clara Mae Leach Adams in Willow Springs, North Carolina. Her parents, Otha Leach and Caretha Bell, were sharecroppers, and she was the fourth of ten children. Her parents were staunch supporters of education and made sure that all of their children knew this. Her parents further instilled in the children a sense of self-respect and a belief that with knowledge they could do anything.
As a child growing up in a family of sharecroppers, Adams-Ender realized early that she wanted more out of life. Her perseverance in continuing her education while missing school to work the farm with her family was evident when she graduated second in her class at the age of sixteen. Although she enrolled in a nursing program, her first career choice was to be a lawyer. However, in 1956 her father believed that ...
Adger, Robert Mara
James G. Spady
One of thirteen children, Robert Mara Adger was born in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, Robert Adger, was black, and his mother, Mary Ann Morong, was Native American. In 1848 the family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Adger's father first found a job as a waiter in the Old Merchant's Hotel. Later, while working as a nurse, he industriously saved enough funds to open a furniture business. He was involved in many activities and was a founder of the Benjamin Banneker Institute.
Robert Mara Adger received his early training at the Bird School, an early black educational institution in the United States. During his teenage years, he worked in his father's furniture stores, which had expanded from one in 1850 to three by 1858 Serving as a manager provided him with the business experience that he later found valuable as director of the Philadelphia Building and ...
Alexander, Clifford L., Jr.
André Willis
Clifford L. Alexander Jr. was born in New York, New York. He graduated from Harvard University in 1955 and Yale Law School in 1958. Alexander worked on a number of community development initiatives in Harlem, New York, before being appointed to a series of political positions in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s and 1970s.
Alexander served as a National Security Council foreign affairs officer under President John F. Kennedy in 1963. He was appointed to three high-ranking advisory positions between 1964 and 1967, including deputy special counsel to the president, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1967 Johnson named Alexander chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), a position he filled until Richard Nixon took office in 1969.
After a brief return to private practice in Washington D C Alexander resumed a role in public life as host and producer of ...
Alexander, Clifford Leopold, Jr.
Antje Daub
lawyer, businessman, and secretary of the army, was born in New York City, the only child of Clifford Leopold Sr. and Edith McAllister. Alexander's father, a Jamaican native, became an apartment building manager of Harlem's Young Christian Association. His mother was from Yonkers, New York, where she worked for a real estate firm. Later she headed the New York City welfare department. She was the first African American woman to get elected to the Democratic Party's Electoral College. In this position she became a prominent figure in the broader civil rights struggle. Both parents inspired Alexander's later work to end racial discrimination.
Alexander spent his childhood in New York City. He received his early education at the Ethical Cultural School and Fieldston Schools in the Bronx. After graduating from high school, Alexander went to Harvard University. Here he met McGeorge Bundy Harvard s Dean of Arts ...
Allen, Anthony D.
Miles M. Jackson
explorer and businessman, was born a slave in German Flats, New York. He was owned by the Dougal family and spent his youth in Schenectady. It is very likely his mother was a slave (New York did not abolish slavery until 1827); his father was a freeman and a mariner. Following the death of his master, he was purchased by another owner. After gaining his freedom in 1796, Allen arrived in Boston in 1800 and went to sea just as his father had done. Indeed, many African Americans living in Boston had ties to the maritime industry in some way. Like other black mariners, Allen faced the risk of reenslavement when he traveled to Southern ports. Once he was saved from imprisonment by one of the ship's owners, who paid $300 for his release.
Allen's years at sea between 1800 and 1810 provided him with unique experiences ...
Amos, Wally
Ayesha Kanji
entrepreneur, author, and inspirational speaker, was born Wallace Amos Jr. in Tallahassee, Florida, to Ruby (maiden name unknown), a domestic worker, and Wallace Amos a laborer at the local gasoline plant Hard work discipline and religion were the cornerstones of Wally s strict childhood The Christian faith was important to his parents and they took him to church regularly By the age of eight Wally had learned all the books of the Bible In their tight knit black community Friday nights were reserved for community dinners where hearty southern fare was served fried chicken potato salad black eyed peas and collard greens Schooling options for black children were less abundant however so Ruby and several of her Methodist church members started a school which Wally began attending at age ten Wally s entrepreneurial spirit surfaced in his childhood when he started a roving shoeshine stand and ...
Anderson, Garland
James V. Hatch
playwright and minister, was born in Wichita, Kansas. Little is known about his parents, although his mother is said to have been an active reformer and a poet. Anderson completed four years of school (the only formal education that he ever received) before his father moved the family to California to take a job as a janitor in the post office. The following year Anderson's mother died, and at age twelve he left home to become a newsboy, selling the Telegraph Press on the corner of Third and Market streets in San Francisco.
After working as a porter on the railroad, Anderson worked for the next fifteen years as a bellhop in various San Francisco hotels. During this period he also became a temporary convert to Christian Science. One afternoon in 1924 he saw a performance of Channing Pollack's moralistic drama The Fool and knew immediately that he ...
Anderson, William H.
Michele Valerie Ronnick
newspaperman, bookkeeper, novelist and short fiction writer, was born in Sandusky, Ohio. His father, Richard, had come from Kentucky and his mother, Mary Lott Anderson, from Indiana. After attending common schools in Sandusky, he came to Detroit at age sixteen, and in June 1875 graduated from Detroit High School as a member of the school's sixteenth class. Soon after Anderson began working for the Newcomb Endicott department store, one of the most important emporia in Detroit at that time. He rose from a parcel carrier in the 1870s to become a bookkeeper in the 1880s, and according to John M. Henderson in The Christian Recorder (7 November 1895, p. 2), he held “one of the highest and most responsible places.” His wife, Lucy Bowdree Anderson (1857–1961), from Jefferson, Ohio, whom Anderson had married in 1885 was similarly employed She was a bookkeeper ...
Antoine, Caesar Carpetier
Antoine was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1836. His father was a veteran of the War of 1812; he had fought the British at the Battle of New Orleans. Antoine's mother was a native of the West Indies and the daughter of an African chief; her parents were taken as slaves from the shores of Africa. On his father's side (so the story goes), Antoine's grandmother Rose Antoine was a remarkable woman who purchased her freedom and acquired a small fortune through her work as a midwife.
Caesar C. Antoine spent his childhood in New Orleans and attended private schools. He was fluent in both French and English. After graduating, he entered one of the few occupations open to African Americans in the antebellum South: the barber trade. After federal troops captured Baton Rouge in 1862 Antoine organized a black company known subsequently as Company ...
Steven J. Niven
Union army officer and politician, was born in New Orleans, the son of a West Indian midwife and a free black soldier who had served in the Corps d'Afrique with General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. His parents' names are not recorded. Family lore had it that Caesar's maternal grandfather, an African chief, had been enslaved and taken to America and that his paternal grandmother, Rose Antoine, had earned enough money from her work as a midwife to purchase her freedom. Rose Antoine also left each of her seven sons twenty thousand dollars in her will.
As a free black child in New Orleans Antoine attended private schools the public schools of the city were closed to blacks and became fluent in both English and French Upon leaving school as a teenager in the early 1850s he then apprenticed and worked as a barber one of ...
Ballard, Florence
Charles L. Hughes
singer and member of the Supremes, was born in Rosetta, Mississippi, the eighth child of Jessie and Lurlee Ballard. In 1953 the Ballards, following the Great Migration path taken by millions of African Americans, moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Jessie Ballard worked in an automobile factory until his death in 1959. The family lived in the Brewster-Douglass Projects, and Ballard's powerful singing voice distinguished her both in school and around the neighborhood. Two of her neighbors, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, who were members of the local singing group the Primes, told their manager, Milton Jenkins, about Ballard, and Jenkins was impressed enough to book Ballard—still in her teens—as a solo act at the Primes' performances.
This early connection between Ballard and the Primes is vitally important both to Ballard s career and to the history of American popular music for two reasons First the Primes would ...
Ballard, John
pioneer settler in Los Angeles County, California, in the 1850s, blacksmith, teamster, firewood salesman, and landowner, was born in Kentucky around 1827. Although it is commonly assumed that he had been enslaved there, he arrived in California a free man prior to the Civil War, and nothing has been established about his previous life.
He was married on 6 November 1859 to a woman named Amanda, born in Texas, by Jesse Hamilton, the earliest pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal church, Los Angeles. Their first two children, Dora and Julia, were born in 1857 and 1859. In 1860 the household included a laborer named Juan Jose, recorded by the census as being of Indian ancestry. Another man of African descent, Oscar Smith from Mississippi lived next door and no race was specified for the other neighbors who had either English or Hispanic names ...
Baltimore, Priscilla
Sharon E. Wood
former slave, entrepreneur, steamboat worker, nurse, and church founder, was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1801 or 1804. Although her father was a white man and also her master, his name is unknown. Her mother, Lydia, was his slave. While she was still a child, Baltimore's father sold her to a trader who carried her to the St. Louis area. Over the next few years, she passed among several masters, including the New Orleans judge Joachim Bermudez, working as a house servant for French, Spanish, and Anglo-American households in Louisiana and eastern Missouri.
In New Orleans Baltimore joined the Methodist Church Her piety so impressed one preacher that he purchased her then allowed her to hire her own time and buy her freedom Baltimore worked as a chambermaid on steamboats and as a lying in nurse According to tradition it took her seven years to earn the ...
Banks, Charles
banker and businessman, was born in a log cabin in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the son of Daniel Banks and Sallie Ann (maiden name unknown), poor farmers. Banks grew up in extreme poverty but was educated in the local public schools and later attended Rust University in nearby Holly Springs, Mississippi. Returning to Clarksdale, he speculated in land and cotton. After marrying Trenna A. Booze of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1893 Banks engaged her brother, Eugene P. Booze, as his apprentice, teaching Booze how to trade cotton and work his general store, Banks & Co. In 1904 Banks and Booze resettled in the black-owned town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Temporarily leaving the merchandising business, Banks established the Bank of Mound Bayou, owning roughly two-thirds of its stock and serving as cashier as well as operating head. Several years later, in 1909 Banks and Booze founded the Farmer s Cooperative Mercantile ...
Banks, Tyra
Joshunda Sanders
media mogul, model, and actress, was born Tyra Lynne Banks and grew up in Inglewood, California. Her father, Donald Banks, was a computer consultant, and her mother, Carolyn London, was a medical photographer and business manager. The couple divorced when Tyra was six years old, in 1980.
Banks attended Immaculate Heart Middle and High School, an all-girl's private school. She credited her mother's photography business and friends' encouragement with her ability to overcome a self-consciousness during her awkward adolescence that almost made her pursue another path.
“I grew three inches and lost 40 pounds in 90 days,” she told the Black Collegian in an interview about her teen years. “It was just this crazy growth spurt. I felt like a freak: people would stare at me in the grocery store.”
A friend encouraged her to try modeling during her senior year At the time several ...
Barnett, Claude Albert
Born in Sanford, Florida, Claude Barnett was sent at a very young age to live with his grandparents and other relatives in suburban Chicago, Illinois. He returned to the South to study engineering at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), from which he graduated in 1906. Back in Chicago, he worked as a postal clerk and, exposed to a wide range of advertising journals, decided to make a career in advertising. In 1913 he produced a series of photographs of famous blacks, which he sold through the mail, furthering his interest in business.
Five years later Barnett and several other entrepreneurs formed the Kashmir Chemical Company which sold cosmetics Barnett left the post office took the job of advertising manager at Kashmir and toured the country selling cosmetics as well as his photographs In each town he visited the local black newspaper hoping to bargain for ...
Robert L. Harris
entrepreneur, journalist, and government adviser, was born in Sanford, Florida, the son of William Barnett, a hotel worker, and Celena Anderson. His father worked part of the year in Chicago and the rest of the time in Florida. Barnett's parents separated when he was young, and he lived with his mother's family in Oak Park, Illinois, where he attended school. His maternal ancestors were free blacks who migrated from Wake County, North Carolina, to the black settlement of Lost Creek, near Terre Haute, Indiana, during the 1830s. They then moved to Mattoon, Illinois, where Barnett's maternal grandfather was a teacher and later a barbershop owner, and finally to Oak Park. While attending high school in Oak Park, Barnett worked as a houseboy for Richard W. Sears cofounder of Sears Roebuck and Company Sears offered him a job with the company after he graduated from high school but ...
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This is the Municipality’s most historically relevant beach, as it was from here that, on 5 October 1910, the Portuguese Royal Family set sail into exile after the Establishment of the Republic was declared. It is also one of the most visited beaches, whether due to its centrality (the old part of Ericeira is exactly above) or due to the expanse of sand and its sheltered situation from the south and south-east winds. It has small portable beach support facilities during the swimming season, as well as fixed toilet facilities, integrated into the Fishing Harbour area. The beach is supervised by the SOS Praia (Beach SOS) system.
Estrada de Bucelas, 20
2665-609 - Venda do Pinheiro
bookings@onhostportugal.com
© DC Travel, Lda.
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Home > IV. Students > Ch.6 - Treatment of Student Education Records
6.6 Record of Requests
The University will maintain a record of the requests for and disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education record of the student, except the record need not include the following:
requests for and disclosure of directory information;
requests and disclosure to persons described in IV-6.1 of this policy; or
requests and disclosures made pursuant to the written consent of the student to persons designated by the student.
The record of requests will state the names of the parties who have requested or obtained personally identifiable information and the legitimate interest of the party in requesting or obtaining that information. This record of requests and disclosures will be maintained by the office that maintains the record and may be inspected by the student under the same procedures by which the record itself may be inspected.
Internal administration of requests. All formal student requests under this policy will be coordinated through the Office of the Registrar. Record custodians may comply with informal requests to review and inspect education records. In addition, forms will be available for records office to record requests and disclosures that must be recorded and maintained with the record under the Act.
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← The Sockum Family and the Nanticoke Indians: Further Research
Revisiting the Delaware Moors, Part I: The Legends →
Nanticoke Indian Surnames
Every word in the title of this post is inappropriate, to an extent. The following names are not all Nanticoke names, necessarily. They may or may not technically be surnames. And, of course, we all know that Native Americans shouldn’t have been called Indians. A more accurate title might be: “Family names associated with native peoples of the Delmarva Peninsula in the 17th and 18th centuries.”
Note that the following names are not associated with the modern Nanticoke Indian Association. Surnames like Clark and Harmon are certainly deserving of attention, but they’re also of European origin. I wish to briefly comment on a few surnames or family names that appear in historical records, definitely linked to local Indians, and definitely rooted in their language.
Asquash (or Ashquash)
Ashquash was a son of the Nanticoke emperor Unnacokasimon, who probably died in the 1680s. Unnacokasimon’s brother, Opeter or Ohopperoon, succeeded him following his death, but the English authorities believed the old emperor had been poisoned and viewed the brother as a usurper. His fate is unclear. Ashquash was emperor in 1705, but left the Eastern Shore in 1713 to live among the Susquehanna Indians.
In 1725, a William Asquash living in Chicacoan Town was described as “the late Emperor’s son.” In other records, the name was sometimes spelled Ashquash. The combination of an English first name and his father’s name is interesting; perhaps he wanted a surname to be more like his white neighbors. However, his relationship to others who apparently used the name Asquash as a surname is unclear. In 1742, Abraham and Jemmey Asquash were living in Chicacoan Town, while in 1757, a petition asking the provincial government to recognize George Pocatehouse as the emperor was signed by John Asquash, Nancy Ashquash, Molley Ashquash, Moses Ashquash, and William Ashquash.
The name is a fairly common word in Algonquian languages, referring to similar plants such as pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, etc., and is the basis for the English word squash. A much earlier example of its use as a name comes from Connecticut, where, in 1644, an Indian named Ashquash murdered an English servant.
Unfortunately, the name seems to have left the peninsula, and/or died out. I’ve searched in vain for records of later Asquashes or Ashquashes.
Cohonk
Cohonk, like Asquash, is an Algonquian term found beyond the Delmarva Peninsula. It referred to the honking of Canadian geese, and was also associated with the coming of winter or the passage of a year. In 1742, a James or Jamey Cohonk testified about the Wimbesoccom event; apparently he was from Chicacoan Town, making him a Nanticoke. He and other Cohonks were involved in the dispute about whether the provincial government should recognize Peter Monk or George Pocatehouse as the emperor in the late 1750s. Like Asquash, the name Cohonk seems to disappear from the records after that period.
Puckham or Puckum
The surname Puckham or Puckum is a bit problematic, because it could be a variation of the English surname Peckham, and is rather common. (A search of Ancestry.com for “puckham” yields nearly two million records, including spelling variations.) However, in the 1670s, there was a 1,500-acre Indian settlement on the east side of the Nanticoke River and on the north side of Barren Creek known as Puckamee. Furthermore, in 1682, an Indian named John Puckham married Jone Johnson, a free “negro” woman, in Stepney Parish, Somerset County. Stepney Parish covered the area between the Nanticoke and Wicomico Rivers. An excellent article at Native American Roots explains the view that Puckham may have been derived from Puckamee, which meant “a place to source red ochre.” Whatever its origins, the surname Puckham or Puckum has generally been associated with blacks since the colonial era.
Hop is not a name, per se, but it seems to have been part of many names. Unnacokasimon’s brother was Ohopperoon; John Chinehopper was a leader of the Nanticokes in 1742; Tom Hoppington was a Nanticoke from Chicacoan Town in 1742, and Hopping Sam was a chief of the Locust Neck Indians (or Choptanks) in 1742. It seems safe to assume that these names shared a common root.
Filed under Delaware history, Maryland history, Nanticoke Indians
Tagged as Algonquian, Ashquash, Asquash, Cohonk, Delaware, Delmarva Peninsula, genealogy, Indians, Maryland, Nanticoke Indians, Native Americans, Puckham, Puckum
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Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2017: Submissions Open and Panel Announced
Simon Skinner - 4 years ago
Leica Camera AG have announced the beginning of submission phase and announcement of members of the international jury for the 2017 edition of this long-established photographic competition
Professional and up-and-coming photographers can submit entries to prestigious competition between 1 March to 10 April 2017
This competition, The Leica Oskar Barnack Award, is now opening into the entry stages. From 1 March to 10 April 2017, professional photographers and up-and-coming photographers aged up to 25 from around the world can submit their portfolios.
Full terms and conditions, as well as entry forms, will be published on the dedicated website atwww.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com from 1 March.
To take part, entrants must submit a series of ten to twelve images, in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between people and their environment in a creative and ground-breaking style. Series of photographs captured in 2016 and 2017, or work from long-term projects including at least some photographs taken in this period, are eligible for submission.
An international jury of experts will choose the twelve finalists for the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ and the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer’ from all the entries received. This year’s jury members are:
Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director & Chief Representative Leica Galleries International (Salzburg, Austria)
Michelle Dunn Marsh, Executive Director, Photographic Center Northwest; Publisher, Minor Matters Books (Seattle, USA)
Christian Pohlert, Managing Picture Editor, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurt, Germany)
Douglas So, Founder and Director of F11 Foto Museum (Hong Kong, China)
Scarlett Coten, Photographer and Winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2016 (Paris, France)
Winners of both categories and the ten other finalists will be honoured during a gala event and their work will be presented at a major, six-week exhibition in Berlin.
The shortlist will be announced in June 2017. With prizes amounting to a total cash value of 80,000 euros, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ is one of the industry’s most prestigious photographic competitions. The winner in the main category will receive a cash prize of 25,000 euros and Leica M-System equipment (a camera and lens) valued at an additional 10,000 euros. The winner of the Newcomer Award will be presented with a cash prize of 10,000 euros and will also receive a Leica rangefinder camera and lens. In addition to the two main categories, ten further submissions to the competition will each be awarded with prizes of 2,500 euros.
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Big celebration in Sofia
Saturday June 11th was a great day in the 20-year history of Mission East.
On that day, together with our local partner in Bulgaria and our international partner in America, Church of God, we celebrated the official opening of the Church and Social Centre in Sofia. This was the fruit of several years’ work of establishing such a centre in the Bulgarian capital.
The centre has functioned since 2008, but only during recent months have all the necessary agreements been made with the authorities, paving the way for the centre to fully function according to the original intention, i.e. that from the centre would come a range of social initiatives benefiting the many thousand poor Bulgarians – in particular the Roma – in need of concrete support, but also in need of an education and a hope for a better future.
The involvement of Mission East in Bulgaria dates back to 1997, 10 years before the country entered the EU. At that time, and also today, a large part of the Bulgarian population are hit by financial problems, including unemployment, which is currently at 35 % of the working population. From 2000 and onwards, the country actually experienced an improvement, but recent years have again seen a downturn in the wake of the financial crisis. The large underprivileged part of the population is mainly made up of the Roma (formerly known as the gypsies), who officially make up 750,000 of the 7.5 million large population, unofficially however twice as many.
From 1997, Mission East’s partner in the country, the Bulgarian Church of God, carried out a range of projects benefitting vulnerable Bulgarians: The elderly were fed in soup kitchens, food was given to street children, children in orphanages were sent to summer camps, a potato project outside the town of Samokov provided food, humanitarian shipments were sent from Denmark and Scotland, and the church was assisted in the organisation of its social work.
In the beginning, Mission East raised a total of USD 250,000 toward these projects from supporters in Denmark and the UK. But already in 1998, the idea was born to gather the many social projects in a joint centre, from where the initiatives could be organized – a Social Centre in the middle of the capital Sofia.
In 1999, a former tobacco warehouse was bought, and the renovation of the centre could start. During the years until 2005, Mission East spent more than USD 1.8 million on the purchase and renovation of the Church and Social Centre. Of this amount, USD 285,000 had been raised through our supporters in Denmark – including the Y’s Men’s Clubs – and our partner in Scotland, Blythswood Care. Most of the funds, however, i.e. more than USD 1.5 million, came from the mother church in the US.
The role of Mission East was to control the finances and to provide technical assistance on the building project, with expertise from both a Danish architect and a Danish construction engineer. For years, this meant frequent travel to Bulgaria in order to supervise all phases in the construction of the building.
During the period after 2005, the project entered a difficult phase, with concerns about the legal aspects of the project. These aspects were only clarified in 2008, after which time the centre was taken into use.
But only this year things have finally fallen into place, with the last renovations and the necessary permits in place. Now we see the fruit of the many efforts.
And what a release it was to see the dream from 1999 come true. Vulnerable elderly are now fed in the kitchen of the centre, aid is distributed to the Roma population in the ghettos of the city, the children from the ghettos gather in the centre, the young can now get training in plumbing, electrical works and construction, and special courses are given in computers and English. Eight different churches now use the building for their meetings. And the social authorities of the capital city are enthused to have a modern centre where the socially vulnerable can get help!
For the actual official inauguration of the centre, the large meeting room was filled with several hundred excited Bulgarians, a Roma orchestra from the town of Sliven led the singing, and speeches were held by Bulgarian and foreign participants. From Denmark, Arne Christensen of the Y’s Men’s Clubs participated, as did the volunteer construction engineer advisor, Leif Martin Jensen, and René and Kim Hartzner from Mission East.
Together we could celebrate that our dream from 1999 had come true!
To these elderly poor, the Social Centre is an oasis.
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American Student Gored by Bull in Spain Is Improving After Surgery
Benjamin Milley suffered injuries to his thighs, sphincter and back muscles
By Tim Nudd
Updated February 17, 2015 07:50 AM
Credit: Jose Vicente/AP
A 20-year-old Georgia man is out of intensive care after being badly gored by a bull during a festival in Spain on Saturday.
Benjamin Milley, a sophomore at the University of Mississippi studying abroad in Salamanca, suffered injuries including a 16-inch goring in the thigh, according to the Associated Press. He also reportedly had damage to his sphincter and back muscles.
Clinic Hospital in western Salamanca originally identified the man as Benjamin Miller, but a spokesman at Ole Miss confirmed his surname is Milley.
Milley’s run-in with the bull was captured in a series of photographs, where he is seen being repeatedly tossed by the bull and pushed along the ground. He was eventually pulled to safety.
The AP said Tuesday that Milley was improving after a three-hour surgery but remains “shaken” by the experience in Ciudad Rodrigo, 186 miles west of Madrid, and was not yet ready to speak about it.
“It’s not the worst injury I’ve seen, but it’s the biggest goring wound I’ve ever had to operate on,” surgeon Enrique Crespo told the AP.
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THE RESTORATION STORY
The National Register nomination states: now a museum dedicated to the renowned American still-life artist John Frederick Peto (who also designed much, if not all, of the house), the building is a Queen Anne structure on an irregular plan. It was built in 1890, and is 2-1/2 stories high.
The John Frederick Peto House and Studio possesses historical and architectural significance of great value to the Borough of Island Heights. It is a monument to the life and work of renowned still-life painter John Frederick Peto, often called the American Rembrandt. Peto designed the house and studio; at the start of this project they still contained some of his furniture and the artifacts depicted in his paintings. Although previously identified as being designed in the Queen Anne style, the architecture is more characteristic of the geometric and simpler Shingle Style. Although the house had been altered, it still conveys the feeling of a late nineteenth century rustic Victorian house. It is unique as an example of an artist’s home and studio, as designed by the artist, and is evocative of his art and his personality. The property is also one of only a handful of historic house museums that celebrate the life of a famous American artist. It has remained in, and been cared for, by the Peto Family for 115 years.
View the Entire Restoration Story Here
HISTORIC ARTISTS’ HOMES & STUDIOS
The John F. Peto Studio Museum is a unique cultural destination in New Jersey. In 2016, it became the first and only artist’s house and studio museum in the Garden State recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) for its cultural and historical importance. The Museum is now a part of the NTHP’s national Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) network, an elite coalition of 35 museums located in the homes of American artists including Jackson Pollock, Andrew Wyeth, Donald Judd, Georgia O’Keefe, and Winslow Homer.
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Biography Cammi Granato
Cammi Granato
by Jorden 05 May,2019
Catherine Michelle "Cammi" Granato is a former American ice hockey player who served as the captain of U.S. Women's hockey team. She is one of the first women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2010. Under her captainship, the U.S. Women's hockey team won a gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics. She has also played for Providence Friars (ECAC), Concordia Stingers (CIS).
The estimated net worth of Cammi Granato is around a range of $10 million as in 2019.
Who is Cammi Granato's Husband? Know about her Spouse, Family, and Personal Life
Cammi Granato is spending a happy married life with her husband Ray Ferraro in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Cammi got married to her boyfriend after being in an affair for a very long time in 2004.
Her husband Ray Ferraro is a former Canadian NHL star.
The Couple has two sons, Riley and Reese, born on December 2006 and December 2009 respectively. Further, she is stepmom of Matt and London, Ferraro's sons from his first marriage. His son London is a Canadian-American professional ice hockey center.
Cammi Granato and her husband Ray Ferraro SOURCE: FamousFix
Earlier, Cammi's husband Ray Ferraro was married to Tracey Ferraro who is also his high school sweetheart but later they got divorced but the exact reason for their divorce is still a mystery.
Previously, he was married to his high school sweetheart Tracey Ferraro. Further, Ray has 2 sons from his previous relationship, Matt, born in 1988, and Landon, born in 1991.
They both seem to be spending their married life happily since any updates and news about any disputes and misunderstanding between them is not yet reported on any media or portal. Currently, Cammi and her husband are living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
What is the Height, Weight, and Age of Cammi Granato?
Cammi Granato is 5 feet and 7 inches tall in height (1.7 meters) and weighs 64 kg(141 lbs). She is currently 48 years old.
Also read: Braydon Coburn
How Much is Cammi Granato's Net worth? His Salary and Earnings
Cammi Granato has an estimated net worth of about $10 million in 2019. Cammi Granato had played several championships in her career.
The exact information regarding her annual income/salary and career earnings is not yet disclosed on the media but as a whole, the female professional ice hockey earns an annual average salary of between $10,000 to $26,000 as reported by the media.
Granato has been in professional ice hockey career for a very long so it can be said that she has made a satisfactory amount of money which helps her live a lavish life.
Cammi Granato's Early life and Education
Catherine Michelle "Cammi" Granato is famously known as Cammi Granato was born on March 25, 1971, in Downers Grove, Illinois, the USA to the parents Don and Natalie Granato. She belongs to the White ethnicity and holds American nationality.
Further her star sign is Aries. She is one of the six children to her parents with four brothers and one sister.
She attended the Downers Grove North High School, Downers Grove, USA. After attending high school she enrolled at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
Similar Bio: Emily Pfalzer
Cammi Granato's Professional Ice Hockey Career
Cammi Granato played for the U.S. Women hockey national team from 1990 to 2005. She played in almost every world championship for the United States from the inaugural events in her playing career. In 1996, she was named United States Women's Player of the Year.
Further, under the captainship of Cammi, the U.S. Women's hockey team won the gold medals in the Winter Olympics of 1998. She is the team's all-time leading scorer. She was unexpectedly cut off from the U.S. National Team before the Turin, Italy 2006 Olympics.
Cammi has also played hockey in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for Concordia University. She also played in National Women's Hockey League(NWHL) for the Vancouver Griffins, a professional women's ice hockey team.
Similar Bio: Bill Clement
Reporting Career
Cammi is also a rinkside reporter for NBC's NHL coverage. She served as a color commentator for NBC's coverage of women's ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. In 1998, She served as the color commentator for Los Angeles Kings radio broadcasts.
Ice Hockey Player NBC Color Commentator Former U.S. Women's Hockey Team Hall Of Famer
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The Princeton Summer Journal
A publication of the Princeton University Summer Journalism Program
Personal Narratives
Tag Archives: SJP2014
The Princeton Summer Journal – 2014 Masthead
The following students and staff participated in SJP 2014. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Masthead and tagged SJP2014 on August 13, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Princeton public schools work to bring students back to the lunch line
Items like black bean cookies and yogurt parfaits will be added to the lunch menus at Princeton Public schools this fall.
By Eric Macias
Chicago, Ill.
This year, Princeton Public Schools will implement a new, upgraded lunch program due to low participation in the current school lunch program.
Rather than eat the food offered by the Princeton Public School system, students from all grade levels opt out. Due to short lunch periods, limited and often unhealthy food options and a lack of education on the importance of eating well, students have been avoiding the cafeteria lunches, leaving some faculty members worried about student health.
“Only nine percent of all students at Princeton High School participate in the lunch program, and most of those students receive free lunch,” said Stephen Cochrane, 53, during an interview in the recently renovated library of Princeton Middle School. Cochrane is the superintendent of Princeton Public Schools and plans to improve the lunch system this year by making lunch more interesting for students. Currently, only between nine and 45 percent of students at Princeton Public schools participates. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in News and tagged Healthy Options, Lunch, Public Schools, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Battle over future of historic site
A couple strolls through the Princeton Battlefield State Park. The Institute for Advanced Study is proposing to build a new site beyond these trees.
By Eliana Lanfranco
Brooklyn, N.Y.
On January 3, 1777, gun smoke, cannon fire and musket balls filled the air of Princeton, as American forces under General John Sullivan’s command cornered British-hired Hessian mercenaries near Princeton University’s Nassau Hall. British forces surrendered as General George Washington and his troops drove another regiment into the woods while shouting, “It’s a fine fox hunt, boys!” Washington’s victory at the Battle of Princeton boosted morale and convinced others, particularly the French, to support the nascent American rebellion.
Two hundred and thirty-seven years later, the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton Battlefield Society (PBS) are engaging in what PBS calls the “second Battle of Princeton.” This time, at stake is a plot of land considered by PBS to be pivotal to the battle. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in News and tagged Institute for Advanced Study, PBS, Princeton Battlefield Society, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Israel and Palestine must compromise
By Rashid Binnur
Imperial Beach, Calif.
By all accounts, there is a major discrepancy between the number of Israelis and Palestinians who have died in the conflict in Gaza that erupted last month. According to the United Nations, more than 1,800 Palestinians have died, while the death toll in Israel, according to its government, stands at just 67.
But these disparate death tolls reflect not just a war in Gaza, but an attack on a nation’s sovereignty — a sign that both Israel and its backers in the United States refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Palestinian state. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Op-eds, Opinion and tagged Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Peace, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Robeson House in jeopardy
The Paul Robeson House Committee must raise at least $1 million to pay off the mortgage of the house.
By Marily Lopez
Los Angeles, Calif.
Football player, actor, civil rights activist and singer, Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in a combined two-story house on the corner of Witherspoon and Green Street in 1898. Almost 116 years later, the Paul Robeson House, a historical centerpiece of the community, may now be in jeopardy due to increasing property values, gentrification and financial issues.
In order to save the house, a historical centerpiece of the community’s rich history, the Paul Robeson House Committee is considering some combination of five possible options: a Memorial Gallery of Paul Robeson, a Center for the Study and Advancement of Human Rights, a Center for the Promotion of the Arts, a Community Resource Center, and/or Mentoring and Referral Services. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in News and tagged African-American, Paul Robeson, Paul Robeson House, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Princetonians divided on immigration border crisis
By Paige Pagan
Bronx, N.Y.
Tens of thousands of undocumented, unaccompanied minors from Central America have recently passed over the United States border. Parents from countries including Guatemala and Honduras have been paying smugglers in a desperate attempt to have their children whisked away to the safety of the United States.
This ever-growing problem is focused in Texas. Containment hotels and refugee camps are being filled by the day, and places to send these incoming children are increasingly running out. Now, some view government officials as babysitters to care for these children. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in News and tagged Border Crisis, Deportation, Immigration, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Hoffman shines in dull spy feature
Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in ‘A Most Wanted Man’ as a brilliant but troubled spy. This was Hoffman’s final role before his unexpected death in February.
By Catherina Gioino
Queens, N.Y.
In a society where fears of terrorism are often racially and religiously-charged, there comes a point at which people must rethink their prejudices. Such is the message of “A Most Wanted Man,” a film set in a post-September 11th era when governments are on the lookout for terrorists.
A darkening title card sets the tone for the film, by detailing the German government’s failure to detect Mohammad Atta, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks. Some time later, Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) — a man sought after by counterterrorism officials — mysteriously appears in Hamburg. Karpov, a suspected Chechen terrorist, is the initial subject of investigation by Günther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a troubled and brilliant spy. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Arts, Movies and tagged Most Wanted Man, Movie Review, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
‘Boyhood’: A journey from childhood to adulthood
Courtesy of IFC Productions
By Jodi Sterling
In his newest feature, writer and director Richard Linklater captures the life of a typical American kid — from dealing with his older sister annoyingly singing Britney Spears to consuming mushrooms on his first day of college. Linklater’s independent film “Boyhood” is a drama that follows a boy through his 12-year journey from childhood to adulthood.
The film tracks Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows up with his struggling mother, Olivia (Patricia Arquette) and his obnoxious sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater). Throughout the film, Mason comes face-to-face with many challenges as he tries to figure out the meaning of this thing called life. As Mason grows from year to year, the viewer sees a realistic perspective of a young kid growing up in America, and the ups and downs that go along with it. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Arts, Movies and tagged Boyhood, Movie Review, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Debenedetti discovers dual nature of water molecules
Pablo Debenedetti’s personality is kind of like a pancake: Each side, when you flip it over, has its own distinguished characteristics. One side of him is highly intellectual, a scholar at the top of his field. Another side of him, however, is gentler and more relaxed, befitting a father of two who loves classical, jazz and tango music and enjoys (well, “enjoyed,” as he tells it) playing soccer.
Debenedetti grew up in Argentina and studied chemical engineering at the University of Buenos Aires. He began studying industrial engineering but ultimately decided to pursue chemical engineering instead. Most recently, he has been using a computer model to study the ability of water molecules to spontaneously split. He has received many awards and honors, and in 2008 was named one of “100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era,” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. But despite his many accomplishments, there is a humility and optimistic air about him. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in News and tagged Chemistry, Pablo Debenedetti, SJP2014, Water molecules on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
Vick, Smith vie for role as Jets starting quarterback
The Indianapolis Colts warm up on Thursday before their preseason opener against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.
By Amna Nawaz
For thousands of Jets fans, Thursday’s 13-10 preseason victory was a welcome start to the season, but the game wasn’t mainly about defeating the Colts. Fans were looking to evaluate the play of the team’s two quarterbacks, Michael Vick and Geno Smith. Both Vick and Smith are competing to be the starter, and after last week’s game, it appears that it’s going to be a close competition.
Vick, age 34, was brought to the Jets in part to serve as a mentor to Smith. Their relationship is not just about competition but also collaboration. “It’s great. It’s a great feeling to have a guy like Mike,” Smith said of his work with Vick. “He is a guy I have always looked up to.”
The Jets hope this collaboration helps the 23-year-old Smith’s maturation process. Smith had an up-and-down rookie year, but there were certainly bright spots: According to the Jets’ website, Smith not only had the most passing yards in a single season for a Jets rookie — registering 3,046 yards — but also had the highest completion rate for a rookie, with 55.8 percent. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Sports and tagged Indianapolis Colts, Michael Vick, New York Jets, SJP2014 on August 11, 2014 by princetonsjp.
The Princeton Summer Journal is a publication of the Princeton University Summer Journalism Program, which annually brings 35-40 low-income high school students from across the country to Princeton's campus for an intensive, all-expenses-paid 10-day seminar on journalism and college admissions. The program's goal is to diversify newsrooms by encouraging outstanding students from low-income backgrounds to pursue careers in journalism. For more information, see our website: http://www.princeton.edu/sjp/
This Year’s Paper
princetonsummerjournal.fi…
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When Andrew Lewis, early American pioneer, soldier, surveyor, and soldier from Virginia, came to survey one of the land grants for the Greenbrier Company in 1751 he found Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell living where Marlinton is found today. They had come from Frederick Maryland in 1749 and are considered the first settlers west of the Alleghenies. They built their original cabin where Marlin Run met Knapp’s Creek but Lewis found Sewell living in a large hollow sycamore tree near the cabin in what is now the area between Eighth and Ninth Avenues between Eighth and Ninth Streets.
The move Westward by settlers was not met well by the Indians as this was one of their many favored hunting areas. A treaty of 1758 confirmed the land west of the Allegheny Mountains to the Indians and forbidding any of his Majesty’s subjects to settle or hunt.
As the white settlers encroached onto the Indian land, there were many raids and massacres reported. After the Revolution, the Indian squabbles quieted and the settlers’ land claims were secured in an orderly manner.
In June of 1863 West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union. Although part of Virginia at the time, the two areas differed culturally and pioneering individuals traditionally settled the western portion, while a slave holding aristocratic society developed in the eastern portion. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861 the residents of the western counties, few of whom owned slaves, decided to stay with the Union. For West Virginia it truly was a Civil War.
The railroads came late to Pocahontas County as building rails over the mountains was not only a tedious but an expensive job. It was not until 1899 that construction began but after that, the task moved with startling speed. The 1900 census of the county indicate many Europeans came to the region to build the railroads.
Commercial timbering quickly began upon completion of the railroads. By the end of 1920 dozens of small railroading towns dotted the landscape including Denmar, Warntown, Watoga, Campbelltown, Deer Creek, Boyer, Nottingham, Thornwood, and Winterburn all on the C & O Line.
Pocahontas County, like so many rural regions in the country, has its own distinct and novel history. Land is rich, forests are thick, and waters are abundant and clean. People from here are no different than anywhere else – proud of their past and who work to insure their children have a successful and peaceful future.
Photos courtesy the Pocahontas County Historical Society.
Pochontas County History
Pocahontas County Settlers
Pocahontas County Courthouse
Pocahontas Genealogy
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May 28, 2019 ∞
In Bird by Bird, one of my favorite books about the art of writing, the celebrated author Anne Lamott tells the relatable story of her 10-year-old brother sitting at the kitchen table, tearfully agonizing over how to begin a major report on birds that had been assigned three months earlier and was due the next day. Lamott’s father puts his arm around her brother and says, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
News of yet another community conversation on June 4 about the “High School Project” reminded me that we’ve been discussing the need to rebuild Minnie Howard—an idea that has both broad support as well as approved funding in the city budget—for more than five years. In early 2016, Port City Notebook described a rebuild proposal developed by a team of faculty leaders at T.C. Williams, emphasizing that “the clock is ticking” and that we needed to accelerate the process of developing educational specifications and getting construction underway. In the three years since then, the only capacity that has been added at T.C. is a couple of portable modular classrooms, known as the “Titan Villas.” Enrollment has risen by more than 400 students, a 12% increase.
The current High School Project timeline indicates that its “design phase” won’t begin until next year. According to the latest update on the High School Project, “once the programming team figures out the best way to use the space at Minnie Howard, the renovations can begin.”
Our school division is like Lamott’s young brother: Years of dithering and procrastination have caused a manageable project to become a last-minute crisis. If the Minnie Howard rebuild had begun in 2017, the larger modern facility would be opening now and our High School Project discussions would be very different and much less fraught.
School boards past and present, along with a succession of superintendents, have been so focused on what would be most optimal 10 to 20 years in the future—one very large comprehensive high school or two big comprehensive high schools?—and too timid to take action that they have become paralyzed by indecision and the growing enormity of the capacity challenge. Bird by bird, ACPS. Just take it bird by bird.
In that spirit, here’s a suggested to-do list for one connected T.C. Williams campus.
Right now:
Cut your losses on stadium lights at T.C. Don’t spend any more time or money on opposing the litigation brought by the adjacent property owners. Heed the lessons from the city’s Waterfront Park: The other side has unlimited resources and will keep the matter tied up in court and draining ACPS funds for years to come. Instead, build a football stadium with lights at George Washington Middle School. The students will get a facility sooner, and the new stadium’s use won’t have to be restricted to home football games. Moving quickly on this will allow those fields to be used during the Minnie Howard rebuild. Invite the litigants to help underwrite the cost of the new stadium in the spirit of cooperation and compromise.
Purchase or lease the medical building next to the Bradlee Safeway and retrofit it to accommodate a larger Satellite Campus to open in Fall 2020. (It’s not for sale, you say. Everything has a price. The building is in poor condition, but the location is paramount. Partner with the city to help current tenants choose from among the many available options for new space.)
Fast-track the planning and construction process for a larger, multi-story rebuild of Minnie Howard, with a projected opening in Fall 2021. It’s okay if the design specifications may not perfectly match the anticipated needs for 2030. Break ground and worry about that later. Ticktock.
Invest in a shuttle system (perhaps partnering with DASH) to move students continuously from location to location, similar to those found on college campuses. Shuttles would serve students enrolled in the new Early College program on the NOVA campus, as well as the Minnie Howard, Satellite, and King Street buildings, the new GW stadium, the proposed Virginia Tech campus at Potomac Yards, the T.C. boat house, and other sites yet to be discovered.
In conjunction with the city, begin planning the rebuild of Chinquapin Aquatics Center to become the T.C. Health and Wellness Center, which would include a new 50-meter competition pool, as well as the student health center, classrooms for the Health Sciences Academy and Health/PE department, and the dance studio, thereby freeing up space in the King Street building. A student-run café/coffeehouse would be a nice addition. Target opening: Fall 2023.*
Coordinate with the city and develop a calendar and budget plan for upgrading and modernizing one of our schools and/or recreation centers each year, as Arlington County does. This will help avoid the trap that Alexandria consistently falls into—delaying action on known problems until they are a more difficult and more expensive crisis. It would also allow the school division to make minor tweaks to capacity and school districting as population and other factors warrant.
Search for a site for a third middle school to alleviate pressure on Hammond and GW, and continue searching for a site for a new elementary school.
Bird by bird, ACPS. Just take it bird by bird.
*In 2016, there were some innovative thinkers suggesting that the city and ACPS swap the sites of Chinquapin and Minnie Howard and rebuild both facilities simultaneously. At the time, many thought the idea had merit but would delay both the needed school capacity expansion as well as the planned 50-meter pool. In retrospect, if we had moved forward then with that more ambitious plan, we would be further along on both objectives.
A recent article in Theogony, T.C.’s student newspaper, by Griffin Harris and Maria Areyan describes falling enrollment in the International Academy at T.C. and the impact of the current administration’s immigration policies.
Congratulations, Class of ’19 Titans!
Volunteers are still needed for the 30th Annual All-Night Grad Party. Sign up here.
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Posts tagged “universal design”
What do diet soda, strollers, and pink have in common? (hint: not women)
Dr Pepper Ten: Because Men Don’t Drink Diet Soda? [huffingtonpost.com] A new diet soft drink is out and “It’s not for women”. In explicitly marketing the dudeness of the drink, including a definitive guide to social protocol for men known as the Dr Pepper 10 Man’Ments, the ad campagin has apparently been effective at getting both men and women to give it a try.
A Facebook page for the drink contains an application that allows it to exclude women from viewing content, which includes games and videos aimed at being “manly.” For instance, there’s a shooting gallery where you shoot things like high heels and lipstick, for example. There is also a “man quiz” with questions on activities like fishing and hunting. “One topic people never tire of talking or arguing about is differences between men and women, particularly if women are excluded,” said Deborah Mitchell, executive director for the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. “That will always get someone’s attention.”
How To Design “Manly” Household Products For The Involved Dad [fastcodesign.com] ‘More Work for Mother’ comes full circle as designers focus on the domestic dad.
When out in public, even the most rational dad might shun parenting products that make him feel less “manly.” For instance, my friend Chris is a tough-on-the-outside social worker by day, but he also stays at home part-time with his daughter, Sarah. Every time he goes to daycare, the park, or play dates, he has a routine of emptying the entire contents of his wife’s handbag-like diaper bag into his own duffel. “One topic people never tire of talking or arguing about is differences between men and women, particularly if women are excluded,” said Deborah Mitchell, executive director for the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. “That will always get someone’s attention.”
Defend Your Research: The Color Pink Is Bad for Fighting Breast Cancer [harvardbusinessreview] Gendered approaches to marketing and branding may actually have the opposite effect desired, aka rejecting the hypothesis of “So long as it’s pink-”
The finding: Seeing the color pink makes women less likely to think they’ll get breast cancer and less likely to donate to cancer research… In psychology, there’s a lot of literature on defensive responses. How do we deal with threatening ideas, with things that are existentially difficult to comprehend? What happens is, these set off very strong denial mechanisms. By adding all this pink, by asking women to think about gender, you’re triggering that. You’re raising the idea that this is a female thing. It’s pink; it’s for you. You could die. The cues themselves aren’t threatening-it’s just a color! But it connects who you are to the threats
advertising, brand, design, diet, gender, manly, marketing, pink, quickies, sexism, universal design
Accessible Drinking Fountain
Ergonomically suitable for human and canine (and other, as the case may be). At Fort Point, in San Francisco, underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
canine, design, dog, ergnomics, fort point, jogger, jogging, pet, runner, running, San Francisco, universal design
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by Athenaeum Photographs | Nov 19, 2020 | Announcements, Events
ZOOM BOOK TALK
The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity
CAROLYN EASTMAN
The Portsmouth Athenaeum and the Membership Libraries Group present Carolyn Eastman, Associate Professor in the History Department at Virginia Commonwealth University, speaking about her new book, The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity. Intended to reach broader reading audiences than the usual academic book, the Strange Genius tells a new story about the early United States through the career of an extraordinary and eccentric performer, James Ogilvie. His travels throughout those early years of the new republic revealed so much about the incomplete and fractious United States that Strange Genius is just as much a story about the nation’s men and women as it was about Ogilvie, who became a household name at a very early point in the 19th century. The narrative takes fascinating and unexpected turns as he destroyed his reputation at one point, regained it a few months later, wound up fighting in the War of 1812, wrote a terrible book, and headed to Great Britain to continue his celebrity performances.
A former Special Collections Librarian at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, Carolyn is also the author of A Nation of Speechifiers; Making an American Public After the Revolution.
To attend the talk, contact info@portsmouthathenaeum.org for the Zoom link.
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Portuguese American Journal News and more for the Portuguese American Community
The Week: Brexit troubling times for traders… – By Len Port
Posted on 15 May 2016.
By Len Port, Contributor (*)
The ‘debate’ over next month’s referendum on whether Britain should stay in or leave the European Union heated up so much this week that it is starting to look like civil war. It seems to be tearing apart the British Tory government and indeed the whole country. A wider worry in the event of a Brexit is the collateral damage in Portugal and other EU countries.
Brexit cheerleader Michael Gove says leaving would be “an empowering moment of patriotic renewal.” The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, evoked fury in the Brexit camp on Thursday by saying that leaving might spark a recession. Then the IMF’s Christine Lagarde weighed in on Friday by saying she had “not seen anything that’s positive” about Brexit. Her remarks were dismissed by Brexit supporters as “nonsense.”
Lots of strong opinions continue to be aired, but in truth no one knows for sure what a Brexit would bring. No country has ever left the EU before.
Amidst all the internal rhetoric, scaremongering and false forecasts, a calm but concerned outlook emerged this week from the British Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in London.
Founded in 1911, the BPCC is an independent, non-profit organization devoted to promoting commercial links between businesses in the United Kingdom and Portugal.
The UK is one of Portugal’s major export destinations, with almost €3 billion worth of goods going there every year. Few countries do more business with Portugal.
The BPCC reports that research conducted by international shipping experts ParcelHero concludes that the impact of a Brexit on this market could be huge. It could have serious implications not only for Portuguese traders, but also consumers.
“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the EU to Portugal’s trade with the UK,” writes Keegan Spindler, a member of the consumer research team.
“The free movement of goods has allowed British companies to be competitive in the European market, and the cost of shipping in the EU is significantly lower than shipping to European countries that aren’t part of the Union, such as Switzerland or Iceland.
“Our research suggests that by leaving the EU, the cost of goods imported to the UK from Portugal could change by as much as 30%. That price change comes from a variety of factors that include raised shipping costs, duties and taxes and handling costs.”
Such a price change would make Portuguese goods less attractive to British consumers and reduce Portuguese manufacturers’ abilities to compete on price in the UK market.
Most Portuguese small to medium enterprises are likely to look elsewhere for their customers if Britain leaves the EU, but those who don’t will have all new challenges to deal with, among them paperwork, customs clearance and duties and taxes. Furthermore, the United Kingdom will no longer be a competitive target for the logistics industry, which is likely to mean that shipping costs will rise significantly, according to the study.
The UK is expected to be separated from countries like Portugal by a lot more red tape, making it a much less attractive proposition for international businesses.
“Our data suggests that the UK’s departure from the EU would likely force many SME’s who trade in the country to find new markets for their goods or be forced to quite literally pay the price. Similarly, a Brexit would see the cost of importing in to Portugal from the UK increase, and as Britain is one of Portugal’s biggest importers, it could be the consumers who end up paying the price.”
None of the above will apply, of course, if the Great British public decides on 23 June that voting for Michael Gove’s “empowering moment of patriotic renewal” would in fact be akin to a catastrophic moment of total madness.
Which way will it go? No one probably knows better than the betting bookmakers. Paddy Power’s latest odds:
* 2/5 in favor of remaining in.
* 15/8 in favor of exiting.
Recent Posts by Len Port
The Week: Money, money, and more money… – By Len Port
The Week: Good and bad from abroad – By Len Port
The Week: It’s all down to numbers – By Len Port
Update: Detective Amaral wins appeal in McCann’s Case – By Len Port
(*) Len Port is a journalist and author. Born in Northern Ireland, his first written pieces were published while he was working in the Natural History Museum, London. Since then he has worked as a news reporter, mainly in Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Portugal. In addition to reporting hard news for some of the world’s leading news organizations, he has produced countless feature articles on all sorts of subjects for a range of publications. Now living in southern Portugal, his books include travel guides and children’s stories. His ebooks – People in a Place Apart and The Fátima Phenomenon – Divine Grace, Delusion or Pious Fraud? are available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. His blog posts can be viewed at algarvenewswatch.blogspot.com
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Brexit: Can the silly season get any sillier? By Len Port
The Week: Past to present! The times they are a-changin’…. – By Len Port
The Week: Europe’s oldest alliance will remain after Brexit – By Len Port
Brexit: British expats’ angst rising alarmingly – By Len Port
COVID’19: Government declares complete lockdown – Portugal
January 24: Portuguese to elect next president – Portugal
Curse of Roses: Diana Pinguicha unveils Isabel de Aragão – Interview
Book: ‘That Hair’ by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida – Editor’s Note
Azores: President José Bolieiro greets Washington – Ponta Delgada
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Group courses are currently held online. Our professinal account and partnership with the Zoom platform, allow us to deliver excellent services, which in many instances are more effective for the learning process than traditional classroom classes.
Features like the breakout rooms which allows for creating smaller rooms for work in pairs or small groups, or the screen share, whiteboard and chat, allows for the sharing of small videos, creating a vey dynanmic and productive learninh amtsmophere.
When it's safe to go back to the school - but we won't go back until a vaccine for Codid-19 is in widspread use - we will return to face to face classes. Nevertheless, even then, those lesson will be broadcast via Zoom, Youtube, Facebook and other platforms. The online training for all our couses has come to stay.
We have now students from all over the world, including several countries in Continental Europe, Ireland, the Unites States, Brazil, Dubai and Singapore. The physical locaion of our school in London is 19-21 Ridgmount St, Fitzrovia, London WC1E 7AH.
This is a 2 min walk from the Goodge Street underground station, and 7 min from the Tottenham Court Road Station.
The online courses follow the same programmes, schdule and structure of the courses in the school.
We offer ten weeks (once a week) or five weeks (twice a week) in classes of two hours (6.30pm to 8.30pm).
The maximum number of students per class is sixteen (average number: eight).
We do three types of courses: Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese and Portuguese for Spanish speakers.
With each course we offer two free workshops on Saturdays do catch up and revise the matters taught.
PRICING - SCHEDULE - BOOK A COURSE
One to one online training, using the Zoom platform. For corporate training, we provide services at the learner's office, or at our school (when it's safe to return to the school). Learning objectives are achieved quicker than in group courses, and specific individual requirements can be addressed. While we still do a lot of courses face to face, in recent years online training has becoming increasingly popular due to its convenience, effectiveness, and lower cost (tutor's travel time isn't involved). A combination of both online and face to face training can also be arranged.
One to one training is scheduled within the learner's time avilability including weekends.
Full satisfaction or money back guarantee
The first lesson is paid as a taster class. If the learner doesn't wish to continue, we'll either refund the remaining classes, or change the tutor, at the learner's discretion.
In London, across the UK, and worldwide. We have currently students from The UK, Ireland, Conineal Europe, the USA, Dubai and Singapore.
Wherever you are, you can learn Portuguese with the best qualified professional teachers, as this format allows us to use the services of professional teachers who actually live in the UK, or in Portugal and Bazil.
Experienced and friendly teachers are as engaging online as they are in person. The platform supports video and voice, and a writing interface that works as a white board, so you can be sure of a full and efficient learning experience.
The first lesson is contracted as a no commitment taster class. If the learner doesn't wish to continue, we'll refund of the remaining lessons.
PORTUGUESE FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS
Spanish and Portuguese are two linguistically close languages. Standard classes of Portuguese result in a very slow and frustrating pace of progression for a Spanish speaker. To avoid this, special methodologies, specific materials, and adequately trained teachers are required. Our Spanish speakers only group classes are the ideal environment for a Spanish speaker to learn Portuguese, as demonstraded by the huge success of our courses.
Survival skills for business or pleasure? Brushing up your Portuguese if you haven't studied or used it for a while? Enrolling at Uni soon? Crash courses provide a quick induction to the language and a solid foundation of its basic structure with a view to pursuing further tuition at a later stage, or to quickly acquire survival skills for a visit to a Portuguese speaking country.
Groups - 8 hr on weekends: Sat & Sun 10am - 2pm, online, via Zoom.
One to one - 6 or 8 hr in two days (any day, any time).
SCHEDULE & BOOKING (GROUPS)
BOOKING (ONE TO ONE)
GCSE, A-LEVEL, UNIVERSITY
We have a solid track record in providing tutorial support to students attending secondary schools and universities. From helping them to prepare assignments and exams, to introductory courses to students who are about to take up a new language, to others with a need to study a language that their schools don't offer, we have helped many students to achieve their academic objectives.
CORPORATE - BUSINESS
We cater for the needs of corporate clients delivering high quality in-house language tuition, for groups or one to one. Our experts and tutors have designed and taught language courses for institutions and companies such as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), the big four and the magic circle City law firms.
Entirely tailor-made, from short, intensive, to long term, the courses can cover general communication skills, or vocabulary-specific, culture-specific language training. The schedule is set according to the specific client's circumstances, objectives and requirements.
> Angola, Mozambique, Portugal and Brazil: we have trained many professionals of companies, NGO's and other institutions with activity in Brazil, Portugal and the Portuguese speaking African countries.
These services are provided by our siser company Cognissima Corporate Training Limited..
FULL IMMERSION COURSES
Get immersed in the culture and language you want to learn or improve.
Partnerships with major language schools enable us to provide full immersion courses in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, liaising with them in the design of a course programme for your needs, in many cases at a special discounted rate, and assisting with accommodation arrangements, including stays with a families, so that you can benefit from a deeper cultural and linguistic experience. Contact us with your specific requirement.
Portuguese Global - International Academy of Portuguese is a school of Portuguese based in London.
For details please visit the About page of this website
© Portuguese Global International Academy of Portuguese
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DeJoy Says USPS Won’t Reinstall More Than 600 Removed Mail Sorting Machines
“There’s no intention to do that,” DeJoy testified. “They’re not needed.”
Ari Berman
Senior ReporterBio
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy arrives at a meeting at the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on August 5.Alex Wong/Getty
Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the US Senate on Friday that he will not reinstall more than 600 mail sorting machines that have been removed under his leadership. Postal workers say the removal of these machines has contributed to major mail delays that could affect whether mail ballots are counted in the 2020 election.
Earlier this week, DeJoy announced that he was halting some planned changes to the USPS until after the election, following public outcry. But he will not reverse steps that he has already taken.
“Will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed?” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) asked DeJoy during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee.
“There is no intention to do that,” DeJoy testified. “They are not needed.”
USPS plants were ordered to remove 671 mail sorting machines that can efficiently process thousands of pieces of mail by the end of September. More than 90 percent of the machines have already been removed—and won’t be replaced.
Many of the machines have been removed in critical swing states: 59 in Florida, 58 in Texas, 34 in Ohio, 30 in Pennsylvania, 26 in Michigan, 15 in North Carolina, 12 in Virginia, 12 in Wisconsin, and 11 in Georgia. (This data was provided to Mother Jones by Jacob Bogage and Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post, who have detailed removal of the machines.)
While some of the removals have been described as routine, many more machines have been removed this year compared to years past. “In 2018, for instance, the agency decommissioned about 3 percent of its Delivery Bar Code Sorters, or 125 machines,” the Post reported. “In 2019, it was 5 percent, or 186 machines. The 671 on this year’s list amounted to about 13 percent.”
President Trump has admitted that he is refusing to fund the USPS because he doesn’t want mail voting to be expanded.
This latest revelation suggests that DeJoy’s announcement that he is reversing efforts to undercut USPS was more about public relations than tangible action—and raises questions about whether USPS will be able to handle a huge increase in mail ballots in November.
Below is a list of all the sorting machines that have been removed:
The Anonymous Trump Official Who Wrote a Scathing 2018 NYT Op-Ed Has Revealed Himself
Ben Dreyfuss
The Pumpkin Spice of California Politics: Slate Mailers
“We’re Seeing the Same Thing, But Stupider”—8 Reporters Discuss the Final Anxiety-Riddled Sprint
Molly Schwartz
The Crazy Last Days of Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon
Dan Friedman and David Corn
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Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’
The techie-turned-philanthropist on vaccines, Trump, and why social media is “a poisoned chalice.”
For 20 years, Bill Gates has been easing out of the roles that made him rich and famous—CEO, chief software architect, and chair of Microsoft—and devoting his brainpower and passion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, abandoning earnings calls and antitrust hearings for the metrics of disease eradication and carbon reduction. This year, after he left the Microsoft board, one would have thought he would have relished shedding the spotlight directed at the four CEOs of big tech companies called before Congress.
But as with many of us, 2020 had different plans for Gates. An early Cassandra who warned of our lack of preparedness for a global pandemic, he became one of the most credible figures as his foundation made huge investments in vaccines, treatments, and testing. He also became a target of the plague of misinformation afoot in the land, as logorrheic critics accused him of planning to inject microchips in vaccine recipients. (Fact check: false. In case you were wondering.)
My first interview with Gates was in 1983, and I’ve long lost count of how many times I’ve spoken to him since. He’s yelled at me (more in the earlier years) and made me laugh (more in the latter years). But I’ve never looked forward to speaking to him more than in our year of Covid. We connected on Wednesday, remotely of course. In discussing our country’s failed responses, his issues with his friend Mark Zuckerberg’s social networks, and the innovations that might help us out of this mess, Gates did not disappoint. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WIRED: You have been warning us about a global pandemic for years. Now that it has happened just as you predicted, are you disappointed with the performance of the United States?
Bill Gates: Yeah. There’s three time periods, all of which have disappointments. There is 2015 until this particular pandemic hit. If we had built up the diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccine platforms, and if we’d done the simulations to understand what the key steps were, we’d be dramatically better off. Then there’s the time period of the first few months of the pandemic, when the US actually made it harder for the commercial testing companies to get their tests approved, the CDC had this very low volume test that didn’t work at first, and they weren’t letting people test. The travel ban came too late, and it was too narrow to do anything. Then, after the first few months, eventually we figured out about masks, and that leadership is important.
So you’re disappointed, but are you surprised?
I’m surprised at the US situation because the smartest people on epidemiology in the world, by a lot, are at the CDC. I would have expected them to do better. You would expect the CDC to be the most visible, not the White House or even Anthony Fauci. But they haven’t been the face of the epidemic. They are trained to communicate and not try to panic people but get people to take things seriously. They have basically been muzzled since the beginning. We called the CDC, but they told us we had to talk to the White House a bunch of times. Now they say, “Look, we’re doing a great job on testing, we don’t want to talk to you.” Even the simplest things, which would greatly improve this system, they feel would be admitting there is some imperfection and so they are not interested.
Do you think it’s the agencies that fell down or just the leadership at the top, the White House?
We can do the postmortem at some point. We still have a pandemic going on, and we should focus on that. The White House didn’t allow the CDC to do its job after March. There was a window where they were engaged, but then the White House didn’t let them do that. So the variance between the US and other countries isn’t that first period, it’s the subsequent period where the messages—the opening up, the leadership on masks, those things—are not the CDC’s fault. They said not to open back up; they said that leadership has to be a model of face mask usage. I think they have done a good job since April, but we haven’t had the benefit of it.
At this point, are you optimistic?
Yes. You have to admit there’s been trillions of dollars of economic damage done and a lot of debts, but the innovation pipeline on scaling up diagnostics, on new therapeutics, on vaccines is actually quite impressive. And that makes me feel like, for the rich world, we should largely be able to end this thing by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022. That is only because of the scale of the innovation that’s taking place. Now whenever we get this done, we will have lost many years in malaria and polio and HIV and the indebtedness of countries of all sizes and instability. It’ll take you years beyond that before you’d even get back to where you were at the start of 2020. It’s not World War I or World War II, but it is in that order of magnitude as a negative shock to the system.
In March it was unimaginable that you’d be giving us that timeline and saying it’s great.
Well it’s because of innovation that you don’t have to contemplate an even sadder statement, which is this thing will be raging for five years until natural immunity is our only hope.
Let’s talk vaccines, which your foundation is investing in. Is there anything that’s shaping up relatively quickly that could be safe and effective?
Before the epidemic came, we saw huge potential in the RNA vaccines—Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and CureVac. Right now, because of the way you manufacture them, and the difficulty of scaling up, they are more likely—if they are helpful—to help in the rich countries. They won’t be the low-cost, scalable solution for the world at large. There you’d look more at AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson. This disease, from both the animal data and the phase 1 data, seems to be very vaccine preventable. There are questions still. It will take us awhile to figure out the duration [of protection], and the efficacy in elderly, although we think that’s going to be quite good. Are there any side effects, which you really have to get out in those large phase 3 groups and even after that through lots of monitoring to see if there are any autoimmune diseases or conditions that the vaccine could interact with in a deleterious fashion.
Are you concerned that in our rush to get a vaccine we are going to approve something that isn’t safe and effective?
Yeah. In China and Russia they are moving full speed ahead. I bet there’ll be some vaccines that will get out to lots of patients without the full regulatory review somewhere in the world. We probably need three or four months, no matter what, of phase 3 data, just to look for side effects. The FDA, to their credit, at least so far, is sticking to requiring proof of efficacy. So far they have behaved very professionally despite the political pressure. There may be pressure, but people are saying no, make sure that that’s not allowed. The irony is that this is a president who is a vaccine skeptic. Every meeting I have with him he is like, “Hey, I don’t know about vaccines, and you have to meet with this guy Robert Kennedy Jr. who hates vaccines and spreads crazy stuff about them.”
Wasn’t Kennedy Jr. talking about you using vaccines to implant chips into people?
Yeah, you’re right. He, Roger Stone, Laura Ingraham. They do it in this kind of way: “I’ve heard lots of people say X, Y, Z.” That’s kind of Trumpish plausible deniability. Anyway, there was a meeting where Francis Collins, Tony Fauci, and I had to [attend], and they had no data about anything. When we would say, “But wait a minute, that’s not real data,” they’d say, “Look, Trump told you you have to sit and listen, so just shut up and listen anyway.” So it’s a bit ironic that the president is now trying to have some benefit from a vaccine.
What goes through your head when you’re in a meeting hearing misinformation, and the President of the United States wants you to keep your mouth shut?
That was a bit strange. I haven’t met directly with the president since March of 2018. I made it clear I’m glad to talk to him about the epidemic anytime. And I have talked to Debbie Birx, I’ve talked to Pence, I’ve talked to Mnuchin, Pompeo, particularly on the issue of, Is the US showing up in terms of providing money to procure the vaccine for the developing countries? There have been lots of meetings, but we haven’t been able to get the US to show up. It’s very important to be able to tell the vaccine companies to build extra factories for the billions of doses, that there is procurement money to buy those for the marginal cost. So in this supplemental bill, I’m calling everyone I can to get 4 billion through GAVI for vaccines and 4 billion through a global fund for therapeutics. That’s less than 1 percent to the bill, but in terms of saving lives and getting us back to normal, that under 1 percent is by far the most important thing if we can get it in there.
Speaking of therapeutics, if you were in the hospital and you have the disease and you’re looking over the doctor’s shoulder, what treatment are you going to ask for?
Remdesivir. Sadly the trials in the US have been so chaotic that the actual proven effect is kind of small. Potentially the effect is much larger than that. It’s insane how confused the trials here in the US have been. The supply of that is going up in the US; it will be quite available for the next few months. Also dexamethasone—it’s actually a fairly cheap drug—that’s for late-stage disease.
I’m assuming you’re not going to have trouble paying for it, Bill, so you could ask for anything.
Well, I don’t want special treatment, so that’s a tricky thing. Other antivirals are two to three months away. Antibodies are two to three months away. We’ve had about a factor-of-two improvement in hospital outcomes already, and that’s with just remdesivir and dexamethasone. These other things will be additive to that.
You helped fund a Covid diagnostic testing program in Seattle that got quicker results, and it wasn’t so intrusive. The FDA put it on pause. What happened?
There’s this thing where the health worker jams the deep turbinate, in the back of your nose, which actually hurts and makes you sneeze on the healthy worker. We showed that the quality of the results can be equivalent if you just put a self-test in the tip of your nose with a cotton swab. The FDA made us jump through some hoops to prove that you didn’t need to refrigerate the result, that it could go back in a dry plastic bag, and so on. So the delay there was just normal double checking, maybe overly careful but not based on some political angle. Because of what we have done at FDA, you can buy these cheaper swabs that are available by the billions. So anybody who’s using the deep turbinate now is just out of date. It’s a mistake, because it slows things down.
But people aren’t getting their tests back quickly enough.
Well, that’s just stupidity. The majority of all US tests are completely garbage, wasted. If you don’t care how late the date is and you reimburse at the same level, of course they’re going to take every customer. Because they are making ridiculous money, and it’s mostly rich people that are getting access to that. You have to have the reimbursement system pay a little bit extra for 24 hours, pay the normal fee for 48 hours, and pay nothing [if it isn’t done by then]. And they will fix it overnight.
Why don’t we just do that?
Because the federal government sets that reimbursement system. When we tell them to change it they say, “As far as we can tell, we’re just doing a great job, it’s amazing!” Here we are, this is August. We are the only country in the world where we waste the most money on tests. Fix the reimbursement. Set up the CDC website. But I have been on that kick, and people are tired of listening to me.
As someone who has built your life on science and logic, I’m curious what you think when you see so many people signing onto this anti-science view of the world.
Well, strangely, I’m involved in almost everything that anti-science is fighting. I’m involved with climate change, GMOs, and vaccines. The irony is that it’s digital social media that allows this kind of titillating, oversimplistic explanation of, “OK, there’s just an evil person, and that explains all of this.” And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger].
Well, you’re friends with Mark Zuckerberg. Have you talked to him about this?
After I said this publicly, he sent me mail. I like Mark, I think he’s got very good values, but he and I do disagree on the trade-offs involved there. The lies are so titillating you have to be able to see them and at least slow them down. Like that video where, what do they call her, the sperm woman? That got over 10 million views! [Note: It was more than 20 million.] Well how good are these guys at blocking things, where once something got the 10 million views and everybody was talking about it, they didn’t delete the link or the searchability? So it was meaningless. They claim, “Oh, now we don’t have it.” What effect did that have? Anybody can go watch that thing! So I am a little bit at odds with the way that these conspiracy theories spread, many of which are anti-vaccine things. We give literally tens of billions for vaccines to save lives, then people turn around saying, “No, we’re trying to make money and we’re trying to end lives.” That’s kind of a wild inversion of what our values are and what our track record is.
As you are the technology adviser to Microsoft, I think you can look forward in a few months to fighting this battle yourself when the company owns TikTok.
Yeah, my critique of dance moves will be fantastically value-added for them.
TikTok is more than just dance moves. There’s political content.
I know, I’m kidding. You’re right. Who knows what’s going to happen with that deal. But yes, it’s a poison chalice. Being big in the social media business is no simple game, like the encryption issue.
So are you wary of Microsoft getting into that game?
I mean, this may sound self-serving, but I think that the game being more competitive is probably a good thing. But having Trump kill off the only competitor, it’s pretty bizarre.
Do you understand what rule or regulation the president is invoking to demand that TikTok sell to an American company and then take a cut of the sales price?
I agree that the principle this is proceeding on is singly strange. The cut thing, that’s doubly strange. Anyway, Microsoft will have to deal with all of that.
You have been very cautious in staying away from the political arena. But the issues you care most about—public health and climate change—have had huge setbacks because of who leads the country. Are you reconsidering spending on political change?
The foundation needs to be bipartisan. Whoever gets elected in the US, we are going to want to work with them. We do care a lot about competence, and hopefully voters will take into account how this administration has done at picking competent people and should that weigh into their vote. But there’s going to be plenty of money on both sides of this election, and I don’t like diverting money to political things. Even though the pandemic has made it pretty clear we should expect better, there’s other people who will put their time into the campaigning piece.
Did you have deja vu last week when those tech CEOs testified remotely before Congress?
Yeah. I had a whole committee attacking me, and they had four at a time. I mean, Jesus Christ, what’s the Congress coming to? If you want to give a guy a hard time, give him at least a whole day that he has to sit there on the hot seat by himself! And they didn’t even have to get on a plane!
Do you think the antitrust concerns are the same as when Microsoft was under the gun, or has the landscape changed?
Even without antitrust rules, tech does tend to be quite competitive. And even though in the short run you don’t think it’s going to dislodge people, there will be changes that will keep bringing prices down. But there are a lot of valid issues, and if you’re super-successful, the pleasure of going in front of the Congress comes with the territory.
How has your life changed living under the pandemic?
I used to travel a lot. If I wanted to see President Macron and say, “Hey, give money for the coronavirus vaccine,” to really show I’m serious I’d go there. Now, we had a GAVI replenishment summit where I just sat at home and got up a little early. I am able to get a lot done. My kids are home more than I thought they would be, which at least for me is a nice thing. I’m microwaving more food. I’m getting fairly good at it. The pandemic sadly is less painful for those who were better off before the pandemic.
Do you have a go-to mask you use?
No, I use a pretty ugly normal mask. I change it every day. Maybe I should get a designer mask or something creative, but I just use this surgical-looking mask.
All Rights Reserved for Steven Levy
Trump’s TikTok Circus Will Have Lasting Consequences
How to Choose the Best Email Service for Business- Windows pc
Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’ — Productivity Hub,dead ordinary windows the jokes are fantastic really are – robert's space
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Member Spotlight: Scott Hudson
by Jim Folger
Spotlight on Scott Hudson, New NTMN President
Scott was born in Chicago, but claimed his Texas heritage as soon as he could. He attended grade school and high school in Midland. Hailing from ranching and farming roots, Scott spent much of his childhood outdoors. Scott developed his love of nature and interest in protecting our environment at an early age; in younger days hunting and camping with his dad and working on the family land, and as an adult hiking, kayaking, and working on trails. He left Midland to pursue a college degree in biology at Emory University in Atlanta in the early 1970s. He received his environmental science master’s degree from UNT. Along the way, he met and married Jimmie Lynn, who grew up in Athens as a classmate of NTMN member Gary Barton.
Scott put his environmental sciences degree to good use for 30 years, and retired at the beginning of last year after serving as Environmental Services Director for the City of Carrollton.
Jimmie continues to teach art at Trinity Christian Academy. She and Scott enjoy art, travel, and hiking. They took a walking tour of Scotland a couple of years ago, and Scott has attended some of Jimmie’s art school trips – a notable one being to Israel. They have a son Robert living in Nashville, who is a folk-rock musician.
Scott continues to be an avid outdoorsman. He backpacked the Muir Trail last year in California, and regularly goes on backpacking trips each year to Big Bend with friends. He can be found exploring Dallas trails almost every week.
According to his sister and fellow NTMN member Nancy Wilson, he has been an inspiration to his family in his commitment to protecting our environment. We look forward to his leadership as president of our chapter.
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News > School News > New Headmaster Appointed
New Headmaster Appointed
We are delighted to announce that Rupert Heathcote has been appointed as the new Headmaster of QEH...
The Board of Governors of Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital is delighted to announce the appointment of Rupert Heathcote as Headmaster of the School from Easter 2020.
Mr Heathcote is currently Second Master at King Edward's School, Birmingham, one of the leading academic schools for boys in the country, and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the school. Previously, he was Deputy Head (Pastoral) at King Edward’s and prior to that was Housemaster and Head of Department at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, and taught at Fettes College, Edinburgh.
Reflecting on his appointment, Rupert said “I’m enormously excited to be appointed Head of such a vibrant and confident school, which champions the development of strong personal values and qualities, whilst also being academically ambitious for all pupils. I am hugely looking forward to joining the school and working with all in the school community and beyond to build on the school’s success.”
Chair of Governors, David Smart, said, “I am delighted to be welcoming Rupert Heathcote to QEH. He will be a worthy successor to Stephen Holliday, who will step down at Easter 2020 after 20 years as Headmaster.”
Mr Heathcote is married with three children, and he and his wife have strong family connections here, having both grown up in the West Country. He is a keen sportsman, having coached rugby and cricket throughout his career, and enjoys running, cycling and outdoor pursuits. He will take up his position at QEH at the beginning of the summer term in April 2020, allowing him time to settle in before the new school year in September.
Derek A Cropper
You are warmly welcomed to leave a message below, share your memories and celebrate the life of Derek Cropper, who we sadly lost in 2020 More...
Take a virtual tour of QEH! More...
The Opening of The QEH Theatre
With The QEH Theatre turning 30, Peter Kirby writes about the day it was opened. More...
Introducing the new Captains of School
Get to know the new Captains of QEH, Ashe and Ruby. More...
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No mother should lose her child.
-Ann Hood
The only language she could speak was grief. How could he not know that? Instead, she said, "I love you." She did. She loved him. But even that didn't feel like anything anymore.
All that was missing... was everything else.
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ANCQ
ANCQ Chemical Resources
ANCQ Past Papers
Chemical Resource Centre
Topic 1 - Chemical Fundamentals: Structure, Properties and Reactions
Chemistry Demonstrations
Topic 2 - Molecular Interactions and Reactions
Topic 3 - Equilibrium, Acids and Redox Reactions
Topic 4 - Structure, Synthesis and Design
9 minutes reading time (1859 words)
Application of Basic Chemical Properties in Drug Design: The Development of Hypoxia-Selective Anticancer Drugs
ANCQ ADMIN
William A. Denny
The first useful drugs were complex mixtures of compounds of unknown structure, extracted from natural sources (plants or animals), and resulted from chance observations of useful effects, probably backed up by trial and error experiments on humans over many generations. A therapeutic drug is now defined as a pure compound of known molecular structure, and while some are still extracted from natural sources, most are obtained by synthesis in the laboratory. The modern pharmaceutical industry is a huge global business, worth about A$ 300 billion annually, and the availability of safe and effective drugs for many diseases is one of the significant contributions which chemistry has made towards our well-being.
At first sight the process of drug design and development seems difficult to relate to the chemistry one learns (or teaches) in secondary school. Certainly, it is no longer a random process, but a highly multidisciplinary effort, most effectively carried out by teams of scientists who are experts in different areas, and backed up by complex instrumentation. However, chemistry remains the discipline at the heart of drug design, and interesting new drugs can be developed by applying basic chemical knowledge to exploit new biological information. This can be illustrated by some of the work currently in progress in our laboratory on the design of new classes of anticancer drugs which take advantage of the fact that cells in many tumours are oxygen-deficient.
A major reason why the available anticancer drugs have only limited effectiveness is because cancer cells do not differ very much from normal cells. Therefore it is difficult to find any structural targets which exist only in tumour cells, and most drugs are not very selective for tumour cells, killing large numbers of normal ones as well. However, recent research in cell biology has shown that some cells in most tumours do differ from all normal cells in the body in an important environmental sense, in that they are deficient in oxygen (hypoxic). This is due to the limited and relatively inefficient blood vessel network inside tumours, which means that some cells are a long way from the nearest blood vessel. Oxygen cannot diffuse more than about 150 μm in tissue because it is metabolised, so that cells further away than this from a blood vessel are hypoxic, but still viable (Figure 1). Even further away cells die, generating the necrotic areas seen in many tumours. Tumour hypoxia therefore provides an opportunity for the design of new types of drugs, which would become active only under hypoxic conditions, generating toxic species exclusively in tumours. What basic chemical principles can assist us in the design of compounds with these properties?
Hypoxia-selective drugs
To be successful, hypoxia-selective drugs must have a number of basic properties. They must be normally non-toxic, and be able to move (diffuse) into the interior of solid tumours where the hypoxic cells are. Once there, they must be able to sense the lack of oxygen and use it to convert themselves into potent cell-killing agents. One general design which we have been studying contains two chemically distinct units; a trigger which will be converted to some other form only in the hypoxic target cells, linked to an effector which will be released as a very toxic species only when the trigger is activated (Figure 2).
The most reliable way to achieve the required triggering is to use reductive processes. Many types of molecules are reduced in cells by enzymes which can sequentially add electrons to them. This happens in all cells, both oxygenated normal cells.and hypoxic tumour cells. However, in many cases these electron adducts are rapidly re-oxidised by molecular oxygen, a process which can only occur in oxygenated cells. Therefore, for these compounds, the initially formed one-electron adduct can selectively accumulate in hypoxic cells, because of the lack of oxygen to re-oxidise it back to the parent drug. Because such one-electron adducts are usually unstable, in the absence of oxygen they eventually convert to some other form. Several types of molecule are known to undergo this behaviour at the appropriate rates in cells (Figure 3), and these are suitable candidates to use as triggers.
Effector units.
These must be non-toxic until released by the trigger, and then be able to kill cells very effectively. The active form must have a lifetime of a few minutes; long enough to be able to diffuse back out of the hypoxic cell where it originates and kill surrounding tumour cells, but not so long that it can move out of the tumour altogether and kill normal cells. There are only a few types of compounds which fill these requirements; one is the nitrogen mustards. These were originally developed as war gases and later as conventional anticancer drugs. In aqueous solution they have half-lives of a few minutes, undergoing spontaneous cyclisation to the aziridium cation. This is a powerful alkylating agent, and mustards can sequentially form two such intermediates, which can kill cells by joining the two strands of DNA in the double helix together (cross-linking it), preventing the strand separation necessary for cell division (Figure 4). Nitrogen mustards are reactive molecules because of the high electron density on the nitrogen. Therefore, they can be deactivated (made non-toxic) by drawing electrons away from this nitrogen atom (through the N-R bond; Figure 4), and must be linked to a suitable trigger unit through this bond.
Cobalt complexes of mustards
Three basic chemical principles lay behind our study of these compounds as potential hypoxia-selective drugs. One was the well-known fact that coordination complexes with transition metals such as cobalt show huge differences (up to 1012-fold) in the stability of the coordinate bonds with nitrogen ligands, depending on the oxidation state of the metal. Thus Co(III) complexes have halflives of many months, but when the metal is reduced (by addition of one electron), the corresponding Co(II) complexes have halflives of only milliseconds (Figure 5). The second principle was that Co(III) complexes can be efficiently reduced by enzymes in cells to the corresponding Co(II) complexes. The third principle was that in a Co-N coordinate bond, electrons are withdrawn from the nitrogen, thus deactivating a nitrogen mustard if this is used as a ligand.
We therefore prepared various cobalt complexes of mustards (eg., SN 24771), designed to have appropriate reduction potentials and stability (Figure 5). The other (acetonylacetone) ligands on the cobalt were chosen to provide an overall single positive charge for the complex (to allow rapid uptake into cells) and an appropriate reduction potential for the metal (to allow efficient reduction by enzymes in cells). While stable (and thus not toxic) in the Co(III) form, SN 24771 is radidly reduced in cells to the Co(II) form. While this happens in all cells, in oxygenated cells the Co(II) form is rapidly re-oxidized by molecular oxygen back to the stable Co(III) complex. However in hypoxic cells, where such back-oxidation cannot occur, the labile Co(II) complex breaks down to the hexaaquo form, releasing the ligands, including the toxic nitrogen mustard (Figure 5). Thus, SN 24771 is about 35-fold more toxic to human tumour cells (grown in the laboratory as single cell suspensions in tissue culture) in the absence of oxygen (hypoxic conditions) than it is under normal oxygenated conditions (Figure 6). Some cell lines can also grow in small clumps called spheroids, which are a better model for solid tumours because only the cells in the centre of the spheroid become hypoxic. When tested against such tumour spheroids, SN 24771 shows effects which suggest that it behaves as designed, diffusing to the hypoxic core of the spheroid where it is activated (by reduction), releasing the activated mustard which then diffuses back out to kill tumour cells (which may not be hypoxic) surrounding the hypoxic core.
Nitrobenzyl quartenary mustards
In the design of these compounds we took advantage of two well-known chemical principles. One was the knowledge that the most effective way of deactivating a nitrogen mustard is to generate a permanent cationic charge on the nitrogen by quaternising it. The second was that conjugated systems possessing extremes of electron density in different parts of the molecule are liable to fragment. We therefore prepared and studied the properties of nitrobenzyl quaternary mustards such as SN 25246 (Figure 7). One-electron reduction of this molecule gives a radical anion, the lifetime of which can be controlled by the structure of the compound. It can be reoxidised by molecular oxygen to regenerate the parent compound, but in the absence of oxygen it spontaneously fragments, generating a benzyl radical and releasing the activated free mustard (Figure 7). In this case the released mustard is the clinical anticancer drug mechlorethamine, which is known to have a halflife of several minutes, sufficient to allow back-diffusion of the released toxin to surrounding tumour cells (which may not be hypoxic).
The quartenary mustard SN 25246 shows an extraordinarily high selectivity for hypoxic human tumour cells in tissue culture (>9000-fold under some conditions). This is by far the largest ratio known for any compound to date. In the spheroid assay mentioned above, SN 25246 again shows effects suggesting that it is able to diffuse to the hypoxic core of the spheroid, there being activated to release the toxic free mustard which then back-diffuses to kill oxygenated tumour cells surrounding the hypoxic core.
These two examples show that modern drug design is no longer a hit and miss affair, but proceeds from a knowledge of basic chemical principles. In the present case, a simple concept of linking suitable trigger and effector units has resulted in two completely new classes of hypoxia-selective anticancer drugs. The cobalt complex SN 24771 is the first example of a metal-based hypoxia-selective drug, while the quaternary mustard SN 25246 is the most hypoxia-selective compound known to date. In both of the described cases, the work is at an early stage; much more will be required before it is known whether drugs of either of these two classes would be suitable for human trial. However, the basic concept has been amply justified. Furthermore, because a number of different types of units might be used, many other classes may also be discovered; we are limited only by our imagination (and by our knowledge of chemistry).
Bill Denny completed a PhD at the University of Auckland in 1970, and following three years post-doctoral work at Oxford University joined the Cancer Research Laboratory (CRL), in the School of Medicine, University of Auckland, where he is now Co-Director and Professor in the Department of Chemistry.
During 20 years of work in the CRL he has sought innovation in the development of new drugs for cancer treatment; work reported in nearly 300 publications and resulting in four drugs (amsacrine, CI-921, DACA and DMXAA) currently in clinical use or in clinical trial. Present projects include the development of hypoxia-selective cytotoxins, inhibitors of tyrosine kinase enzymes involved in signal transduction in cancer cells, and prodrugs for use in gene therapy. He is currently President of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, and in April/May 1995 will be the Wilsmore Fellow in the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne.
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Last Jedi
Worldwasting: Ragnarok and The Last Jedi
April 22, 2018 / Rick Ellrod / 5 Comments
Recently, as the DVD releases became available, I re-watched Thor: Ragnarok (Thor 3) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Star Wars VIII, “TLJ”). I enjoyed both movies very much. But each takes a direction that leads to some reflections on the fine art of worldbuilding.
Making the World
F&SF writers talk a lot about “worldbuilding”: constructing a whole background for your story, an imaginary world. Other kinds of fiction also do some of this. A romance or a Western or a mainstream novel may take place in a fictional town, let the characters eat at an imaginary restaurant, have a marketing maven write slogans for a nonexistent product. But fantasy and science fiction require the author to invent much more and take less for granted.
Worldbuilding is a fascinating exercise that can become an engrossing end in itself. We can spend hours on developing languages or family trees or maps. Tolkien (of course!) famously referred to this process as “sub-creation,” analogous to the creative power of God. (On Wikipedia, “sub-creation” redirects right back to the main page on worldbuilding.) There’s even a Worldbuilding Magazine and a Reddit subsite for “sharing your worlds and discussing the many aspects of creating new universes.”
But the primary purpose of worldbuilding in fiction is to provide a background for the story—one with enough depth and verisimilitude to aid the reader’s “willing suspension of disbelief.” The fictional world is most of all a resource for the story.
. . . And Unmaking It
But a resource can also become a constraint. Every decision you make for a world limits what you can do later. If I’ve placed a mountain range here, I can’t put a flat desert in the same place. If my main character’s father is a heroic pilot, he can’t also be the threatening villain. (Er, or maybe he can—with enough feverish “retconning” to patch the gap.)
The more the world accretes additional detail over a series of books or movies, the more it may become a confining “Procrustean bed” to which later stories must be fitted. The problem reaches its height in comic book series, where the same characters’ adventures may run for decades, at the hands of many different writers and artists. The characters’ backstories and the background details eventually are almost bound to become a “continuity snarl,” with so many contradictory elements that no one can figure out what’s going on any more. The authors or producers can be driven to “reboot” their world—start over from scratch—as a desperate way to clear up the mess.
Even if things doesn’t reach this pass, however, a writer may want to get rid of some pre-existing elements. Maybe they’ve just gotten boring: who wants to see the same character angst and relationship issues recur over four hundred episodes? Maybe an old bit of worldbuilding or character history would get in the way of an appealing new development. Maybe the writer just wants to emphasize how big and menacing a new threat is by having it destroy something that seemed like a fixture of the universe—or simply shock the reader by defying those status quo expectations.
Alongside the draw of building out an ever more fine-grained world, then, there’s a corresponding temptation to tear things up and make radical changes. In search of greater drama, let’s go all the way!
Such dramatic reversals can be productive. Sometimes the status quo has become boring and needs to be upended. But it’s a dangerous enterprise. The built world is our resource. The reader’s or viewer’s attachment to characters, enjoyment of well-established locales, and appreciation for long-running history provides a good deal of the continuing interest for the audience. We risk throwing that away, piece by piece, if we throw away large chunks of the world-background unwisely.
There’s a problem known as spending your capital, or “eating your seed corn.” If you have to use up the resources necessary for the next step or the next generation – consuming the seed you need to plant for next year’s harvest – the needs of the moment may imperil the chances for longer-range development. The worldbuilding “resource” represents the capital the writer has on hand to engage readers and develop the story. It has to be invested wisely.
We’re finally ready to look at the two movies I mentioned—and, unavoidably, to warn—
First, a qualification. Both of these movies are middle pieces: we don’t know how the stories end. (Ragnarok’s “sequel” is Avengers: Infinity War—and we’ll find out how that develops later this week. For TLJ, we’ll have to wait for December 2019.) So we can’t yet fully evaluate what the authors are doing. But both spend their worldbuilding capital rather freely.
Ragnarok’s villain is Hela, queen of the underworld. She’s powerful. How powerful is she? The first thing she does upon entering Asgard is to kill Fandral and Volstagg, two of the beloved “Warriors Three” that comic-book readers have been following since 1965 and movie viewers since the original Thor. (The third warrior, Hogun, meets his end a few scenes later.)
Hela wipes them out without breathing hard. Does that prove her sufficiently badass? Sure. Is it a fitting end for such long-standing heroes? It seems rather abrupt—not even time for memorable last words.
More important, the summary termination deprives the series of those three characters for later stories. That’s a loss. If any young ladies were swooning over the dashing Fandral, they will swoon no more. We won’t see Thor’s three battle buddies at the climactic engagement of the Infinity War. Of course, given the enormous number of major characters Marvel already has to accommodate somehow in Infinity War, maybe reducing the count by three is seen as an advantage. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe has lost some potential energy.
Thor’s iconic hammer Mjolnir is featured prominently in the opening scenes of Ragnarok—so it can be caught and shattered by Hela when Thor first meets her. While Thor (as Odin dryly points out) is not defined by his hammer, it’s his characteristic weapon, and we’ve been shown many times that no one else can even lift it. Again, Hela’s casual treatment of Mjolnir is startling enough to establish her threat level. But it’s hard to picture Thor going through the remaining battles of the Cineverse arc without his trusty hammer.
By the end of the movie, Asgard itself is destroyed, and the surviving Asgardians are setting out to find a new home. While the moment is certainly moving, the universe is a little poorer for the absence of the classic afterworld so brilliantly realized in Thor’s scene design.
Most strikingly, Ragnarok essentially drops the romantic element that’s played a significant part in the story so far. It appears Thor has simply broken up with Jane Foster (or vice versa)—an ignoble offstage end to what we were to regard as a serious love affair.
Now, those of us who remember the original comics might be content enough to have Jane replaced by Sif, who, after all, was Thor’s wife in the mythology—and whose interest in Thor was specifically established in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. But Sif is also absent, and we don’t even hear an explanation. It’s possible these two characters were cleared away to make room for a potential romance with the new character Valkyrie (Brunnhilde). But we don’t really see any sparks fly or bonds form for Thor and Brunnhilde in Ragnarok.
The MCU has backstory to burn, and it’s still quite possible that these will turn out to be resources well spent to build dramatic potential for the overall Avengers plot arc. One hopes so; a world is a terrible thing to waste.
The Force Awakens knocked out one of the pillars of the Star Wars universe by “expending” Han Solo. That was surprising, but not alarming. These original-trilogy characters have lived full lives (if not entirely satisfactory ones). We expect them to give way to the new generation of main characters. It wasn’t startling to see another New Hope stalwart bite the dust in Episode VIII. But TLJ goes considerably further than that.
It seems pretty clear that Luke has shuffled off this mortal coil at the end of TLJ: he’s preformed the Jedi-master trick of evaporating out of his clothing, like Obi-wan and Yoda before him. We can expect to see him again as a Force ghost, but not to do anything except offer sage advice. (On the other hand, the ghostly Yoda seems to have called down lightning to burn up the old tree—a more direct intervention than we’ve seen a departed Jedi accomplish before.)
In addition, we won’t see Leia in Episode IX; the character is still alive at the end of TLJ, but is sadly now subject to what TV Tropes has called “Actor Existence Failure.” That eliminates all three central characters from the first Star Wars picture.
We have the new characters to carry us forward. But in several ways TLJ weakens their potential plot energy as well. The most important issue, of course, is Rey and her parentage.
Rey’s origin probably excited more speculation than any other topic between Episodes VII and VIII. The solution presented in TLJ is brilliant, in its way: Rey’s parents are nobodies, uncaring drifters who sold her to a junk dealer for drinking money. Director Rian Johnson’s solution succeeded in surprising us, since it avoided all the plausible speculations fans had offered over the preceding two years. More important, this revelation strikes at the heart of Rey’s stubborn, anchoring belief that her parents would return for her someday. It would be a major character issue to see how she deals with the blow—if we get a chance to see it; she was in the middle of a major battle at the time and there was very limited opportunity to see how she was taking the news.
We should pause to consider whether Kylo Ren was telling Rey the truth, or presenting a lie designed to play on what he’d just called her weakness. She says she recognizes the truth of his statement at some level herself (reminiscent of Luke’s reaction to Vader in Episode V). But in her state of confusion, that may not be decisive.
On the other hand, there are a few things that don’t fit well with Kylo’s claim. In the Force Awakens (“TFA”) flashback scene, we saw young Rey crying out to a departing spaceship. Would these poor, anonymous drifters have been likely to own a spaceship? And it’s always been a bit mysterious how the young Rey, if she was essentially a slave to Unkar Plutt without any family connections, was somehow allowed to buy herself free (presumably) and attain even the subsistence life of a scavenger in which we first see her. It could turn out that the real truth is yet to be revealed.
But I consider that a long shot at best. Like “I am your father,” the “nobodies” option is simply too good a narrative move to throw away. It subverts the “Chosen One” theme that’s been running in Star Wars since the beginning, bringing us closer to a more Lord of the Rings-like “democratic” trope. That shift in attitude is consistent with several moves in TLJ, including the introduction of Rose, the change in presentation of the Force, and especially the wonderful scene at the very end.
If we do accept Kylo’s description of Rey’s parents, it dissipates a lot of potential interest. There are no hidden connections to be discovered; the mystery is no mystery, but an anticlimax. There are no further plot developments to follow on Rey’s parentage. That highly-charged element of TFA simply seems to have been abandoned—dare I say wasted?
As with Ragnarok, romance also seems to be relegated to a minor role. TFA gave us a fascinating relationship between Rey and Finn that seemed to be developing toward a romance. But they’re separated for most of TLJ, and meanwhile another well-wrought character, Rose Tico, is lined up with Finn. After Rose tells Finn she loves him, we get a final scene in which Rey rather ruefully turns away from seeing Finn tenderly tucking in the near-death Rose (although Finn himself hasn’t made any declaration yet).
If Rey doesn’t fall in love with Finn, who else is there? There’s no sign of any mutual interest with Poe, and if she were going to converge with Kylo (as I’ve occasionally feared), the place for that would have been during their mutual battle on Snoke’s flagship—and no romantic move was made. Like Luke, Rey may be meant for a single life. There’s nothing wrong with that per se—but declining the potential for romance is, again, letting a degree of character interest fade away.
Finally, there’s the Force itself. That’s always been a tricky concept, right back to A New Hope—something worthy of more specific discussion one of these days. But whatever tricks TFA added to the repertoire, TLJ seems to take away.
Does the Force have purposes? Does it act on its own? There are things in the original trilogy (IV-VI) that suggest it might. And in Episode I, we were told that that Force apparently engendered little Anakin Skywalker without even requiring a father.
The title of the series’ revival in Episode VII, The Force Awakens, suggested that Something Big was happening, with its source in the Force itself. But two movies later, I still have no idea what “an awakening in the Force” is supposed to mean.
J.J. Abrams built up the potential for some kind of revelation in TFA. But in TLJ, Johnson seems to dissipate that anticipation entirely. Yoda’s new instruction appears to be that the Force doesn’t act on its own, we simply use it as we will. Frankly, in a way I like that approach better: the notion of the Force moving us around like puppets for its own purposes was a bit creepy. However, our expectation of some revelation about an “awakening” seems to have been scuttled. Again, it’s not that the new plot development is bad; it’s that the worldbuilding set up by previous episodes seems to be ignored or undone by the most recent film.
Good worldbuilding and plot development are like winding up a spring: you’re infusing energy into the system that can later be released to power the narrative. These two recent stories seem to have the opposite effect: they’re blowing off steam, releasing pressure, without fully utilizing that energy to enhance our interest.
Since we have yet to see how either story line comes out, it’s also possible that my comments could be entirely mistaken: the apparent untwisting of plot potential may be twisting up new possibilities that aren’t visible yet. We’ll have to wait and see; that’s the fun of it.
Mind Powers
January 28, 2018 January 28, 2018 / Rick Ellrod / 7 Comments
Mental powers are a staple of both science fiction and fantasy—and even quasi-SF genres like paranormal romance. The idea’s like the traditional iceberg: easy to put into a story, but with some major assumptions lurking under the surface.
The Physical and the Non-Physical
In SF, it became fashionable to use the invented term “psionics” to refer to powers of the mind. The term seems to have originated by analogy to “electronics,” giving it a scientific (or pseudo-scientific) cast, and using the Greek letter psi, the first character of psyche, “soul” or “mind.” Sometimes simply “psi” is used, as in “psi powers.” It’s a useful coinage.
There are two broad approaches to psionics. One treats mental power as acting purely on other minds—what we can loosely call nonphysical: for example, telepathy. The other approach allows mental powers to act directly on matter: the most familiar example is telekinesis, moving things by mind power.
Note that distinguishing “physical” from “nonphysical” already involves some pretty big assumptions—but we’ll get to that.
Mind-to-Mind
Quite a few science fiction stories postulate mental powers that have only mental effects, such as talking mind-to-mind.
The “Lens” worn by the “Lensmen” of E.E. Smith’s classic series is essentially a psionic amplifier. It gives the wearer telepathic abilities. This is extremely useful in making contact with unfamiliar species—especially in interstellar law enforcement, with instant communication an essential for “lawmen” that might be pursuing criminals into unknown regions of space. The Lens also serves as a means of identification that cannot be faked, since an individual’s custom-made Lens will kill anyone who touches it if it’s not in contact with the designated wearer.
But Lensmen can’t make things physically happen by mind power alone; they have to use the conventional space-opera gear of ray guns and such. The Lensmen can communicate mentally; they can influence or even take over the mind of another person; they can erase or implant memories. But a Lensman can’t lift objects and throw them around without flexing his muscles in classic action-hero fashion.
There are some odd borderline cases. The main character, Kimball Kinnison, gains a “sense of perception,” allowing him to perceive nearby objects without using the standard five senses. He can “see” through solid objects, for example. That does involve interaction with inanimate matter, of course; but the interaction is all one way—he can’t affect the things he perceives.
Now, a contemporary scientist physicist would find this paradoxical, since it’s fundamental to quantum physics that you can’t perceive an object without interacting with it—bouncing photons off it to see with, for example. But the Lensman stories were planned out in the 1940s, when we were not so acutely aware of quantum-type theories of perception. The anomaly does illustrate the difference between these two theories of knowledge: one in which the knower is the passive recipient of information, and the other in which knowledge is always the product of interaction.
James H. Schmitz’s numerous stories set against the background of the interstellar “Federation of the Hub” use a similar theory of psionics. Telzey Amberdon, one of the main characters, can communicate telepathically with nonhuman creatures such as her massive “pet,” the crest cat TT (who turns to be a formidably intelligent being in his own right). Hub psis like Telzey can influence other minds and can be extremely dangerous—whether in a good cause or a bad. But physical objects aren’t affected.
A similar sort of psionics is assumed in A.E. van Vogt’s classic mutation novel Slan, and in one of my childhood favorites, Star Rangers (The Last Planet), by Andre Norton. For a more well-known example, the movie Independence Day showed the inimical aliens using mind control to speak through a captive human to communicate with other humans. But to properly destroy humanity, they used conventional physical weapons. (Well, “conventional” as science fiction goes; the alien weapons were dismayingly novel for the embattled Earthlings.)
Fantasy, too, can feature purely mental abilities. There are references in The Lord of the Rings to the ability of elves and wizards to speak mind-to-mind. (This was shown more explicitly, as I recall, in the movie versions of The Hobbit.) An analogue might even be found in ghost stories. Ghosts are often portrayed as acting only through influence on human minds, whether through terror or telepathy—as in A Christmas Carol: the various spirits do not act except on Scrooge’s own consciousness.
Sometimes telepathy is imagined as “hearing” only what people verbalize—what’s put into words; for example, in Al Macy’s novels about mind-reading detective Eric Beckman. In other cases, telepathy allows direct access to other people’s feelings and inchoate thoughts, somehow getting behind the speech-forming function. The notion that one can think without words would itself be anathema to many a twentieth-century linguistic philosopher—consider the linguistic relativism or “Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” so adroitly used in the movie Arrival. The difference raises basic questions about the relation between speech and thought, and how thinking works.
The divide between mental and physical powers gets further eroded when the story includes telepathic machines. The Psychology Service in Schmitz’s Hub routinely uses mechanical detectors to monitor psis. In Slan, “Porgrave broadcasters” can send “recordings” telepathically. Even aside from the Lens itself, which is a quasi-living physical device, the Lensman series eventually gives us machine-generated mental screens, analogous to the physical force-fields of space-opera lore. If psionics were confined to minds alone, how can machines handle it?
I’ve spoken loosely about this sort of mind-on-mind power as “nonphysical”; but that involves a very significant assumption—that the mind is not a physical thing. If the mind were wholly reducible to the brain, there would be no reason in principle why mind powers would only affect matter in the form of other brains. By analogy, microwaves can be used for communications, but also for cooking dinner. On this assumption, mind powers would constitute just another kind of physical force, the analogy often being a different “wavelength” of energy. Second Stage Lensman refers to the “frequency-range of thought” (ch.14), and Smith’s Skylark series presents thought as a “sixth-order wave”—whatever that may be.
We’ve gotten so used to things like telekinesis nowadays that the mind-only abilities discussed above may seem oddly constrained to us.
The original Star Wars film, A New Hope, showed us that the Force could mediate mental communication, even with the dead (“Use the Force, Luke”), and some degree of mind-control or mental influence (“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”). But it was only in the sequel that we saw that it could also enable telekinesis. I still recall the moment when Luke, ice-cemented to the ceiling in the wampaa’s cave, strains fruitlessly to reach his light-saber—then relaxes and closes his eyes; and I thought with some excitement, so, we’re going to get telekinesis too! By the end of the episode, we’re watching Darth Vader use mental power to throw objects to distract Luke and keep him off-balance. You can even use this matter-moving power to move yourself, or in effect to fly without wings—as we saw in one memorable scene in The Last Jedi.
By now this sort of mind-over-matter is familiar territory. But there are still aspects that aren’t obvious on the surface. For one thing, telekinesis is apparently reactionless. It’s unclear whether it obeys Newton’s laws of motion, under which action requires an equal and opposite reaction. It would have been a great comic scene in Empire when Yoda impressively lifts Luke’s X-wing fighter into the air—and Luke had looked over to see Yoda rapidly sinking into the muck, with the entire weight of the X-wing bearing down on his diminutive form.
The simplest fantasy version of telekinesis is the poltergeist, an immaterial spirit which (rather bafflingly) is capable of throwing around physical objects. Levitation, whether of oneself or of something else, is a commonplace for magicians. In fantasy, however, mental powers tend to bleed over into magical powers, which we don’t think of in quite the same way—although one way of conceiving magic is as a kind of mind over matter.
There are other kinds of (fictional) mental interactions with matter, over and above mere movement. A common trope is the ability to start fires, or “pyrokinesis,” as in Stephen King’s Firestarter. This might be interpreted as a subtle form of telekinesis—since heat consists of motion at the molecular level, maybe a telekinetic could create heat by causing an object’s molecules to move faster. Such an explanation leaves open the question of where the added energy is coming from; but that’s an issue common to any form of telekinesis. There may be a certain nerdy satisfaction in supposing that a physically puny specimen like, er, yours truly could throw things around by sheer power of mind, even though one’s muscles aren’t up to it. But whether things are moving by mind or by muscle, there has to be energy coming from somewhere.
There are other things you can do with matter besides just moving it around. Julian May’s Saga of Pliocene Exile, and related stories, postulate “metapsychic powers” that include “creativity,” allowing metapsychics to change the form of matter and thus materialize or convert physical objects. Other stories imagine psionic abilities to “read” the history of an object or a place.
Teleportation—instantaneous movement from one place to another—represents a kind of in-between. Physical objects are obviously affected, but the physical object in question is typically the practitioner’s own body, and perhaps other objects physically connected (such as clothing—but clothing doesn’t always come along, depending on the story, which can be inconvenient). Does it count if your mind affects only your own body—the one locus where even theories that sharply separate mind and matter have to assume some crossover between the two?
There’s a long tradition of mental powers in comic books too. But given the visual nature of the medium, physically effective mental powers tend to predominate over the purely mental. We do see some of the latter—pure telepathy in Marvel’s Professor Xavier or DC’s Saturn Girl. But much more popular is Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), whose telekinetic powers make for much more striking imagery.
Minds and Bodies
Considering these two approaches to mind powers raises the philosophical question of whether minds affect matter only in and through a person’s body, or can do so independently.
If we exclude direct physical effects from the scope of (fictional) mental powers, this suggests parallel realms, with thought proceeding on one level while physical actions occur on another, linked only through the minds of humans or other intelligent beings. It’s almost a Cartesian approach (that is, a theory similar to that of René Descartes) of mind-body dualism, and sinks roots into the long-standing debates over the “mind-body problem.”
The “sense of perception” concept, similarly, functions as if there were two independent metaphysical levels, mental and physical, and this mental sense could allow a person to go “around” the physical senses and inspect an object directly. The philosophical notion of intentionality (not to be confused with the usual sense of “intentional” or deliberate) is adaptable to such non-sensory knowledge. But the trend in both philosophy and physics over the last couple hundred years has been to focus on the physical connection between the knower and the known.
It’s become a standard assumption that we can’t know or do anything without a physical connection. Anything else seems “unscientific.” What’s interesting is that we seem to be willing to accept the now-unpopular postulate of non-physical knowledge and events when we’re dealing with fiction.
Of course, it’s also possible to meld the two back together by taking the position that mental powers really only reflect physical events taking place at a level we can’t yet detect—as with Smith’s “frequency range.” But that isn’t the only way to conceive of the relationship. There is still a certain imaginative appeal, at least, to the notion that mind can act independent of the constraints of the physical body.
I think such stories are helpful. We’re apt to rush to conclude “science has proven” that the mind equals the brain and the brain is just a particularly subtle form of matter. Science has not, in fact, proven any such thing. The physical sciences assume, understandably, that only physics is involved. But they have by no means demonstrated that all observable phenomena can be wholly explained by physics. The arguments on this subject are still live. We should still apply sound standards of evidence, and not leap to conclusions—but that applies in both directions, whether to materialism or to its alternatives.
In other words, there may still be more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our physics, and one of the uses of speculative stories is to help us keep an open mind on these subjects.
The Last Jedi . . . Maybe
February 12, 2017 April 18, 2017 / Rick Ellrod / Leave a comment
Boldly Going Where the Story Hasn’t Gone Yet
Debating what may happen in future Star Wars movies has been a favorite spectator sport since 1980, when we all saw The Empire Strikes Back and spent the next three years madly surmising what would happen in the third episode. Was Vader really Luke’s father? (It’s hard to believe in this era, when “I am your father” is a classic meme, but in 1980 it was a viable theory that he was lying.) Who was the “other” of Yoda’s enigmatic remark, “There is another”?
That last question illustrates the danger of too much speculation. By the time Return of the Jedi came out, we’d debated every possibility, from a complete unknown to Han Solo—including the winning choice, Princess Leia (requiescat in pace). The revelation in Episode VI couldn’t help but be an anticlimax. So I’ve been trying not to spend too much time spinning my wheels over the unanswered questions in The Force Awakens. We’ll find out soon enough.
The title of Episode VIII, though, does bring up an interesting point.
Last Now, or Last Forever?
Disney announced the title The Last Jedi for Episode VIII on January 23, 2017. The fan community immediately went to work to ferret out the implications. It was pointed out, for example, that “Jedi” can be either singular or plural. There might be one last Jedi, or two last Jedi, or an entire academy-full of last Jedi. Still, some sort of finality seems to be indicated.
Comments around the Web as of February 12, 2017, suggest there are at least two major possibilities:
(1) The film is about the last Jedi who happens to be left alive at the moment. That’s obviously Luke Skywalker, and Rey could reasonably say, on meeting him, that she’s found the last Jedi. It doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be any more to follow. The Last Jedi might show Luke taking on Rey as an apprentice and making her a new Jedi. If so, the story could well be captioned, from Rey’s point of view, How I Met the Last Jedi and Became the First Recruit in a New Jedi Order. This would simply put us back in the realm of “That boy is our only hope / No, there is another.”
(2) The more interesting, more drastic possibility is that Luke is the last Jedi there will ever be; that Episodes VIII-IX will involve some sort of epoch-making shakeup that will end the Jedi order permanently. That might seem an anticlimax, after taking all that trouble to restore the order in Return of the Jedi. But if it did, what would the future look like?
This possibility raises a question that has long intrigued me: Is the Jedi order as we see it in the prequel series really a good thing?
How Not to Train Your Jedi
We had to wait for the prequels (Episodes I-III) to see how the Jedi order actually worked in its heyday. What emerged was rather surprising. The training program is of particular interest, because how you form the next generation of Jedi shapes what kinds of people they become and how they carry out their somewhat hazy galactic peace-keeping responsibilities.
(I should note that I’m referring only to the movies here and not the vast expanded universe of novels and spinoffs, much of which is no longer canon anyway.)
When we meet young Anakin Skywalker at nine years of age in Episode I, he is already considered too old for the normal Jedi training program. This is borne out by the scenes we see of five- or six-year-old “younglings” practicing their Jedi arts. Evidently in the Republic, Force-gifted children were taken away from their families as young as five or six and brought to Coruscant for full-time training. (No wonder Yoda also complained about Luke’s age in Episode V.)
If Anakin’s own experience is any guide, the younglings don’t return to their families, even, say, for summer vacations. They are expected to grow up without normal family interactions, living a sort of monastic existence. This approach might produce an intense concentration on one’s studies, and a sense of fierce fellowship among the Jedi members. But it’s not clear that the resulting Jedi Knights would be especially well-adjusted for dealings with other, normal citizens.
We saw how badly this worked out for Anakin himself. When Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi redeem Anakin from slavery in Episode I, they can’t afford to buy out his mother Shmi as well. But, appallingly, they never go back with more funds to do so; apparently they’re content to leave her enslaved while they concentrate on her Force-enabled son. (This omission itself says something about the mind-set of the Republic and the Jedi in particular.) When Anakin returns in Episode II just in time for his mother to die in his arms, this experience plays a key role in his eventual turn to the Dark Side, with the avowed aim of bringing “order to the galaxy” to prevent such tragedies.
No Valentines for Jedi
The exclusion of Jedi Knights from normal family and community life extends forward in their lives as well. We find out in Episode II that Jedi are not permitted to marry. (No one seems to have considered that this restriction is a fine way to breed Force-sensitivity right out of the participating species.)
While this barrier may have been set up simply to create a story conflict, it also intensifies the separation of the Jedi from ordinary social interactions. The trope of a celibate monastic order certainly has some narrative power. But it may not be an ideal way to establish the primary enforcement and conflict-resolution arm of a galactic society. In a curious way, the Jedi order resembles the army of familyless clones that the Jedi themselves initially create, and later combat.
A Failing Republic
With this issue in mind, the whole plot of Episodes I-III looks less like a simple tale of scheming intrigue by Senator Palpatine and more like a civilizational tragedy. A polity falls most easily to a destabilizing force when it is already rotting from within. Palpatine could not have succeeded so easily, one might argue, if the Republic and the Jedi had not already become decadent or dysfunctional.
In fact, the Jedi leaders in the prequels speak uneasily about some sort of failure or lessening of their communion with the Force, which is never really explained. Is it possible that the Jedi ways of cultivating young pupils had become hidebound and ossified in a way that decreased their powers and made them vulnerable to a sneak attack or “phantom menace” from the Dark Side?
This is all speculation, of course. I don’t know whether any such thing was in Lucas’s mind when Episodes I-VI were made, much less in the current screenwriters’ minds now. But these considerations do suggest that it’s not enough just to restore or return the Republic’s Jedi order. A renascence or renovation of the Light Side organization may be needed as well.
A Post-Jedi Order?
We now know that you don’t have to be a Sith Lord like Vader or Palpatine to serve the Dark Side. We’ve also got Kylo’s Knights of Ren, and Snoke, whatever he is. Maybe it’s also possible to serve the Light Side without being a Jedi Knight.
Based on the above thoughts about Jedi training, I’ve always rather hoped that Luke would rethink the historical Jedi practices (which he hardly knows, anyway) and develop a more humane, more balanced cadre. We now know that he tried to train a new group between Episode VI and VII, but from the movies, at least, we don’t know how he went about it. (I haven’t yet read any of the new-continuity novels.)
We do know that Luke’s new Jedi academy was a failure: it produced Kylo Ren and collapsed after his turn to the Dark Side. Perhaps now, after years of meditating on his mistakes, Luke may be ready to try something different. It could be that the new knights of the light won’t be Jedi at all, but a new kind of Force for good. To my mind, that would be a really interesting development.
These idiosyncratic guesses have a pretty low probability of panning out, to be sure. The subtleties of training programs might not appeal to the Star Wars audience as a key plot device. But they’re fun to think about.
The real entertainment value of SWAGs like these is to see how far off they were when the movie actually comes out. We’ll see in December what “The Last Jedi” really means—and probably have a good laugh about this post.
Follow-up Notes
4/14/2017: Here’s the latest trailer.
4/18/2017: Zak Wojnar at ScreenRant has a good commentary today making some of the same points.
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About Rivista QQ
What is the Magazine QQ
The QQ magazine is a new Newsletter for qualitative and quantitative research in General Practice, which started between Verona and Vicenza, within friendly networks of members belonging the SIMG of Verona and National Managers of the VRQ Italian Society of Vicenza.
The magazine’s name indicates “Quality and Qualities” in GP because it wants to demonstrate the absolute kaleidoscopic dimension of GP, which stretches out between research and accurate evaluation of Quality (VRQ), which bring to “Truths” that cannot be easily measured (the different qualitative variables in our job). This project, which started in the Verona and Vicenza area, wants to be recognized, extended and have a nationwide operativeness (also see the International Meetings of Research that have already been organized, whose documents can be found in the 12/98 and 11/99 issues), therefore, the magazine is opened to contributions and wishes to receive researches that all colleagues can send us (please see instructions for the authors).
The QQ decalogue published in April 96, explains and summarizes all these concepts.
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LSD are a supergroup consisting of British musician and rapper Labrinth, Australian singer Sia and American music producer Diplo.[5] The ensemble has released six singles (one of them a remix of their song “Genius”), five of which appear on their first album, released on 12 April 2019.
ContentsOn 3 May 2018, LSD released a single titled “Genius”,[6] along with an animated music video.[7][8] The following day, Diplo revealed that LSD was formed when he was invited to write a song with Labrinth and Sia.[9] Diplo stated:
“Originally, I wasn’t in [LSD] and then our publisher had the idea to throw me in there; those two artists, together, are two of the craziest, most creative people I ever met in my life. I think they have the most severe attention deficit disorder together, their ideas are so crazy, so I helped put their ideas together, taking the job of their producer.”[10]
On 10 May, they debuted the song “Audio”, as well as its music video.[2][11][12] On 6 August, Sia teased the release of a new track titled “Thunderclouds”, which was released three days later, on 9 August.[13] LSD released the song “Mountains” on 1 November 2018.[14] Talking to Rolling Stone in November 2018, Sia revealed that the group would release an album.[15] The album, Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present… LSD, was released on 12 April 2019 through Columbia Records.
LSD - No New Friends
LSD - Thunderclouds
LSD - Audio
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New Nuncio to the Philippines Celebrates first Public Mass
“We have to be like Joseph, listening, and obedient to God. And when we do that, God’s plan works through us.”
This was the message conveyed to the faithful by Archbishop Charles John Brown, newly appointed Papal Nuncio to the Philippines in his first public mass held at the Saint Anthony of Padua Parish in Singalong, Manila last December 18, 2020. He presided over the Misa de Gallo in the parish.
Archbishop Charles John Brown, newly appointed Nuncio to the Philippines | Photo by Maricar Santos/RCAM-AOC
homily, the 61-year-old prelate reflected on the virtues of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary and the father of Jesus. He emphasized the important role of St. Joseph in the plan of God, although there was initial hesitance to follow God's will.
“And that is when the angel then came to tell him, don’t be afraid. You do have a role. You will give him the name of Jesus. He will save his people from their sins,” the Nuncio recounted.
“So, the angel told him, 'Don’t step away. Don’t let her simply raise her child with her parents. Be a father to this child. Give him the name of Jesus...' And Joseph said, yes. Joseph said, yes and became part of God’s plan.”
Archbishop Brown also stressed that all of us, whatever vocation we undertake has a role in the plan of God. Like Saint Joseph, he encouraged the faithful to imitate the saint's virtues.
“My brothers and sisters, on this preparation day for Christmas, on this third day of Simbang Gabi, let us ask Joseph to intercede for us during this year dedicated to him, that we would be open to God’s plan in our life. And we will do God’s will and then my brothers and sisters, we will see miracles before us,” the Archbishop said.
Recently the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared December 8, 2020, to December 8, 2021, as the "Year of St. Joseph", because of the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as the Patron of Universal Church as declared by Pope Pius IX.
On Sept. 28, 2020, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Brown to be the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines. He succeeded Archbishop Gabriel Caccia who is now the head of the Vatican’s Permanent Observer Mission in the United States in New York. He arrived in the country on Nov. 29 and has already presented his letter of credence to President Rodrigo Duterte last December 14. (Fatima Llanza and Jheng Prado/RCAM-AOC)
More in this category: « Homily: Bishop Broderick Pabillo | Gaudete Sunday Homily | Bishop Broderick Pabillo - 4th Sunday of Advent »
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Home > JOURNALS > HASTINGS_LAW_JOURNAL > Vol. 47 (1996) > Iss. 2
Hastings Law Journal
California Antitrust: Standing Room for the Wrongfully Discharged Employee
Sean P. Gates
Should wrongfully discharged employees-those who are terminated for refusing to participate in or blowing the whistle on antitrust violations-have standing under the antitrust laws? To limit the number of potential plaintiffs in antitrust actions, the federal courts have developed a detailed private standing doctrine based in part on the ill-defined concept of antitrust injury. Caught in the twilight zone of this doctrine is the wrongfully discharged employee. Although such an employee has the potential for efficient private enforcement of the antitrust laws, federal courts are at odds on whether a grant of standing to these litigants is proper. Wrongfully discharged employees stand in the cusp between the policy rationales behind the antitrust standing analysis and a manageable formulation of the federal antitrust standing test.
California courts have addressed the same standing issue under California's antitrust law, the Cartwright Act. Since the private standing provisions of the federal and California antitrust statutes are similar, California courts have generally followed federal antitrust standing analysis. In doing so, two California appellate courts have denied standing to wrongfully discharged employees. This is a mistake. Using the case of the wrongfully discharged employee as a vehicle, this Note explores the Cartwright Act's unique history, amendments, and case law that broaden its standing provision and make Cartwright Act standing analysis distinctive. Additionally, this Note demonstrates that such employees have a great potential for efficient antitrust enforcement. Coupled with the Cartwright Act's broadened standing doctrine, this enforcement potential leads to the ultimate conclusion that California courts should open their doors to these valuable litigants.
Sean P. Gates, California Antitrust: Standing Room for the Wrongfully Discharged Employee, 47 Hastings L.J. 509 (1996).
Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol47/iss2/5
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Click to see upcoming Gavekal events
Events Close
Nick has spent the last 12 years involved in either trading, analyzing or writing about European markets and the global economy. At Morgan Stanley for 7 years he divided his time between the interest rate swap and repo markets before returning to university to complete a masters in economics. During that time he also wrote for the Wall Street Journal covering fixed income markets. After graduating in 2011 from London's Birkbeck College, he worked for David Roche's investment consultancy, Independent Strategy, before joining Gavekal in 2013. Nick also has a degree in engineering from Edinburgh University.
Didier is co-founder of Gavekal Intelligence Software and has been managing money since early 1990. He successively moved from the derivative trading space, to hedge fund management, and global asset management. He was Treasurer of Bank of America Paris, then head of interest rate arbitrage and prop trading at Bank of America London in the 90s. He founded Insight Finance in 2000, an equity arbitrage quantitative hedge fund, and managed the portfolio until 2006. He then turned to global portfolio management within Renaissance Capital and joined Gavekal in 2014. Didier has a double background in nuclear physics from Supelec –Paris, France- and in political sciences from Science Po –Paris, France. He is married with three children.
Will earned a degree in business and economics at the University of Oklahoma, supplemented by extracurricular education from the Mises Institute. He worked temporarily with our research team in 2005. We decided it was a good fit, so in 2007 he moved to Hong Kong to join our team. Will is now our lead analyst on the US economy, and has a particular interest in central bank policy. Beyond that, Will answers client questions and generally assists in the development and distribution of our research products, including Gavekal Data. Will speaks English (but he does occasionally use "y'all" in conversation).
After graduating with a degree in social sciences from the University of Paris Dauphine, Cedric studied economics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Cedric returned to Paris Dauphine, where he obtained an MSc in international economics. After interning at OECD, Cedric joined Gavekal Research in 2014 as an analyst focusing on emerging European economies and financial markets. He speaks French, English and German, and drinks both French wines and German beers.
After graduating with a first class degree in Quantitative Finance from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kai Xian joined Gavekal as a Statistician, responsible for creating and maintaining databases, developing models and indicators. Kai Xian, as he’s universally known around the office, also assists valiantly in our coverage of the US economy. He first worked with Gavekal in 2012 and officially joined the research team in 2013. Born and raised in Malaysia, Kai Xian is fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Malay.
Yanmei Xie was previously a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, where she analyzed geopolitical flashpoints in the Asia Pacific region and China’s influence in Africa. She has given talks at the European Council, Chatham House, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been published in the The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, CNN and FT Chinese. Yanmei also previously worked as a journalist in Washington, covering US national politics and policy. She was educated at the Chinese Foreign Affairs University, and has a master’s degree in mass communications from Miami University and a master’s in finance from George Washington University.
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The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros
Brian Neve
Politics, Languages & International Studies
Film & History
Neve, B. (1984). The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros. Film & History, 14(1), 2-13.
The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros. / Neve, Brian.
In: Film & History, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1984, p. 2-13.
Neve, B 1984, 'The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros', Film & History, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 2-13.
Neve B. The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros. Film & History. 1984;14(1):2-13.
Neve, Brian. / The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros. In: Film & History. 1984 ; Vol. 14, No. 1. pp. 2-13.
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title = "The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros",
author = "Brian Neve",
journal = "Film & History",
T1 - The screenwriter and the social problem film, 1936-1938: the case of Robert Rossen at Warner Bros
AU - Neve, Brian
JO - Film & History
JF - Film & History
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Facing new challenges: adapting the NZDF and ADF to the post-Cold War security environment
Alach, Zhivan
Reference: Thesis (PhD--Political Studies)--University of Auckland, 2006.
This thesis examines the development of the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces during the post-Cold War period. It has been motivated partly by a desire to clear up the confusion that has sometimes developed over recent force structure changes in both countries, as well as a desire to make recommendations for enhanced practise. The thesis combines analysis of both policy process and content, although it is more focused on content. It begins by examining the post-Cold War strategic environment, comparing it to the situation as it was in the Cold War, and identifying what has changed, and the effect of that on the role of militaries around the world. It then focuses more closely on the two countries. It examines their defence policy environments, identifying the various participants in the policy process. It then engages in an analysis of major defence policy reviews of the post-Cold War period, as well as a range of other defence policy occurrences. It identifies the overall impact of those defence policy processes on the force structures of the two defence forces, by identifying elements of continuity and change. The thesis then assesses the capability of the two forces against the requirements of the current strategic environment, and makes recommendations for enhanced practise. Recommendations are focused on both elements of force structure, and the policymaking system itself. The broad conclusion of the thesis is that neither defence force has evolved markedly in the post-Cold War period. Continuity, rather than change, has been the dominant theme. This has been the result of multiple factors, and while many are common between the two countries, others are markedly different. This continuity has not been particularly beneficial in enhancing the effectiveness of the two forces. Change would be useful.
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Public statement by Jewish European organizations on the definition and elimination of anti-Semitism
Written by .
Category: Een Andere Joodse Stem
As Jewish European organizations committed to the elimination of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and all other forms of racism, we would like to voice our deepest concern regarding the organization of a conference in Brussels (6-7 November 2018), backed by the Israeli government, aiming to label legitimate criticism and protest against Israeli governmental policies as anti-Semitism. We ask the European institutions, including the European Commission, the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), and members of the European Parliament, and to shun attempts by the Israeli government to use false allegation of anti-Semitism to limit and criminalize work by civil society organizations, including those of diverse Jewish communities of Europe, to pursue peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.
The conference, co-organized by the European Jewish Association and two Israeli ministries, has as its goal to persuade all European political parties to sign up to “red lines” that declare legitimate calls for pressure on Israel, including through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) tactics, to be “fundamentally anti-Semitic.”
We reject their call. Antisemitism is a small but real and growing threat to Jewish populations in Europe – and elsewhere, as the recent outrage in Pittsburgh so tragically demonstrates. Conflating the real threat posed by anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and its policies is a dangerous step; it threatens to misdirect European efforts to combat anti-Semitism, turning these instead into a tool to erode the democratic principles of free speech and freedom of assembly, and to aid the Israeli government in its quest to limit Palestinian non-violent civil resistance to the Israeli occupation. These Israeli efforts do not represent the Jewish communities of Europe. The Israeli policies of siege in Gaza and racial segregation in the West Bank, of fatal attacks on civilians and of land expropriation for Jewish-only settlements – are not in our name. We reject attempts to equate opposition to these deplorable policies with anti-Semitism.
In the context of growing Israeli governmental ties with racist, sexist and xenophobic leaders, groups and political parties in Europe and the US (some of which with a past marked by blatant anti-Semitism), there is a real threat of emergent anti-Semitism. The Israeli governmental conference organized in Brussels is not searching for much-needed solutions to this threat. Sadly, it seeks instead to leverage anti-Semitism to maintain an untenable status-quo of occupation, oppression and fear in Israel/Palestine. We stand in opposition to their mission.
As Jewish organizations committed to the promotion of social justice and equality, we have expressed in several occasions the problematic nature of invoking allegations of anti-Semitism in attempts to silence voices opposing Israeli violations. More than 40 Jewish organisations have recently published an open letter expressing their “growing alarm regarding the targeting of organizations that support Palestinian rights in general and the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in particular” Adding that “These attacks too often take the form of cynical and false accusations of antisemitism that dangerously conflate anti-Jewish racism with opposition to Israel’s policies and system of occupation and apartheid.”
The right to defend human rights, including Palestinian rights, should be safeguarded now more than ever. EU political parties have a responsibility to end complicity of their respective states with the Israeli violations of international law. It is time to act against anti-Semitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and all other forms of racism. It is time to act against Israel’s decades-long occupation and racial segregation. Don’t lend a hand to the Israeli government attempts to stop us from doing both.
Een Andere Joodse Stem / Another Jewish Voice (Belgium)
Free Speech on Israel (United Kingdom)
UJFP – Union juive française pour la paix (France)
JFJFP – Jews for Justice for Palestinians (United Kingdom)
ECO-Rete – Ebrei Contro l’Occupazione (Italy)
Een Ander Joods Geluid/A Different Jewish Voice (The Netherlands)
Judar för Israelisk Palestinsk Fred / Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (Sweden)
Jüdische Stimme für ein gerechten Frieden in Nahost / Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Near East (Germany)
Jøder for en retfærdig fred (Denmark)
Jewish Voice for Democracy and Justice in Israel/Palestine (Switzerland)
EJJP – European Jews for a Just Peace (European Network)
Jewish Voice for Labour (UK)
Jewish Socialist Group (UK)
from http://www.eccpalestine.org/public-statement-by-jewish-european-organizations-on-the-definition-and-elimination-of-anti-semitism/
Jewish groups
EJJP
Jüdische Stimme Deutschland
INTERMEDIATE Report Jews Worldwide in Solidarity with Omar Barghouti and BDS Activists
© 2021 Rete Eco
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The Colonial House
Name: The Colonial House
Date: March 2010
Image Number: CG82cdCG08
Comments: Located at 345 East Main Street, the Colonial House (also known as the Fore House) is possibly the oldest remaining building in Scottsville. The back wing of the house was built ca. 1732, and the front part of the house was built in 1780. In 2010, this house still has its original beaded siding with rose-headed nails. The Colonial House is one of 53 historic buildings in Scottsville's 1976 historic district listing on the National Registry of Historic Places.
In 1841, the Albemarle County land records indicate that this Scottsville property, lot #21, was owned by Samuel W. Tompkins. At that time, only one lot physically separated this house from the James River. In 2010, the grass-covered levee and the railroad tracks physically separate this house from the river. Originally a hall-and-parlor-style dwelling and linear in plan, the house has a one-story shed-roof addition on the east facade and a one-and-a-half story rear addition to create an L-shaped form.
Pictured below is the front of the Colonial House as this June 2009 Batteau Festival participant in colonial attire stopped by for a visit. This reenactor had stopped his batteau for the night down on the nearby James River bank and walked into town, looking for food and drink. This modern day strategy was probably quite similar to the thinking of 18th century batteau men after a long, hot day on the James as observed by early residents of this house.
To learn more about the history of the Colonial House at 345 East Main Street, please read the following article by Ruth Klippstein that appeared in the May 2014 edition of the Scottsville Monthly:
The Tangled History of 345 East Main Street
by Ruth Klippstein
The Scottsville location we now designate as 345 East Main Street was once forested lowland with a view of the outside curve of the James River. Known to beavers perhaps, racoons certainly, and maybe bobcats, it was land hunted and used by the Monacans. When Europeans arrived, looking for places to settle that had water and access to trade, it became real estate, a house, a history. It became 345 East Main Street.
It might have seemed a tangle to the new wave of settlers, though it must have offered wild fruits, fish to catch, and ample water to use. A main street for the new settlement was laid out, building lots were drawn, the ferry began to run. Nearby houses were built here in the county seat of Albemarle, more than 100 years before the canal and the old tavern across the street.
The small house, now called Colonial House and known also as the Fore House (named for an early 1950's resident, house-painter Jim Fore, according to Gene Harding) was documented in the autumn of 1936 by R.E. Hannum of Union Mills, who wrote descriptions of several Scottsville and Southern Albemarle places for the WPA's Historic Virginia Inventory. These priceless records, often including maps and photographs of now-demolished buildings that were part of Virginia's everyday life, are readable online through the University of Virginia Library.
Hannum labels the house simply "Dwelling adjoining Pitts' mansion." Up until the 1950's, the house was next door to a most imposing two-story brick structure, sensibly built on a basement with 18-inch thick walls, originally with an unroofed porch on the rear, later a roofed porch across the front as well, and entered by "heavy double doors." A date left on a corner gutter gives the house's construction as 1831. Miss Mary Agnes Pitts, its owner in 1936, told Hannum the cottage to the east was "traditionally thought to be as old as the Pitts' home," and Hannum assumed it was "probably a little older." The Pitts mansion, now demolished, was located at what now is the site of the East Main Garage.
K. Edward Lay, professor emeritus of the UVA School of Architecture, visited 345 East Main Street twice in the early 1990's to make drawings and write a description. He also included the structure in his 2000 book, Architecture of Jefferson Country. "Perhaps built about 1780 for Samuel Tompkins in Scottsville, the hall-parlour-plan Colonial House features a double-ramped chimney, beaded weatherboards, nine-over-nine window sash, wooden wainscots, six-panel doors with wooden box locks," and other features that illustrate its period. In his archived papers at UVA Special Collections, Lay notes the house was built on land which Tompkins purchased from John Scott. "This modest house is an excellent example of the middle class vernacular architecture... In both plan, shape, and decorative features, the home closely resembles Mt. Walla, John Scott's residence." We do not know of an architect for this home; it is more likely Tompkins employed the common process of hiring craftsmen, who combined regional ideas for houses with local resources and adapted them to fit the client's site and pocketbook.
Hannum describes the house as "an L-shaped, story-and-a-half frame building with a three-roomed basement" from prior to 1731. Ed Lay also says in his notes that the hall-parlour, or part of the house facing East Main Street, was built prior to 1831, and the "L" addition was built ten or fifteen years later. This same information is used to describe the house in Scottsville's 1976 application to the U.S. Department of the Interior for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. An undergraduate student of Professor Lay, Marsha Glen wrote in her 1976 project, 'Architectural Survey of Scottsville,' that the two buildings were connected "early in the nineteenth century." There is a third element, namely the north of the rear wing east of the original house which was added on with a shed roof.
This leaves us now with several conflicting possibilities for the Colonial House dates. Hannum does not suggest there was anything but one L-shaped house, built before the 1831 Pitts house next door. Professor Lay's UVA papers say the two parts of the "L" are separate constructions ten or fifteen years apart. Jean Cooper's 2007 Guide to Historic Charlottesville and Southern Albemarle County and Susan deAlba's 1993 Country Roads, Albemarle, Virginia date the front section, facing East Main Street, as being from 1780, and the rear wing, which would have had a door to the west and be well set back from the street, as being from 1732. Professor Lay's 2000 Architecture of Jefferson Country says they were "perhaps built around 1780..." The Scottsville Museum states that the rear section was the original house and the front was the newer wing, whereas the National Register description says 1732 for the front and "about 15 years" later for the rear, or circa 1747. Ah, the mysteries of Scottsville.
The house has two standing seam gable roofs and two chimneys; inside are four fireplaces, though the one in the living room is not operational. The windows add an elegance that hardly seems "modest" in terms of today's houses; nine panes over nine, with double-hung sashes and their original glass, give an arresting look and soft light to the living and dining rooms with their original pine floors whose boards are in varying widths and complete with insect holes. The rear addition with 20'x20' rooms includes a kitchen with hand-hewn beams on the basement floor, a dining room above. Ed Lay notes the "chimney pent or closet" next to the fireplace in the kitchen is an unusual element for this area. The second floor, over the front part of the house, is reached by a staircase in the front room that is open for the first several steps, then turns to ascend along the perpendicular wall and is enclosed (see photo at right). There are chair rails in the west room and wainscoting in the east.
Besides Samuel Tompkins, this house has been owned by Mrs. Pete Hamner, who sold it to D.H. Pitts in 1870. Pitts willed it to his sisters of whom Mary Agnes Pitts, Hannum's informant, was one. In the 1970's and into the 1990's, Frances Joseph, who also owned the Canal Warehouse, held the deed to the Colonial House. Lewis Ramsey, a house collector and restorer, who had lived in Slate River, Buckingham County, bought the house in the 1990's from his sister Frances for "much less than it was worth," as John Snoddy remembers him saying, because the person living there was sure there was a ghost. There was, in fact, John says, a drunk who regularly crept under the house at night and rummaged through his empties, making, apparently, ghostly noises. Lewis did the bulk of the renovation on the Colonial House, finding the entire basement floor covered in many feet of silt and virtually abandoned. Luke Ramsey, Lewis Ramsey's son who currently heads Ramsey Restoration in Wingina, says he and his father lived in the Colonial House after Lewis purchased it. "It was hardly livable when we moved in," Luke recalls. "It didn't really have a basement because that was filled with silt." Lewis laboriously dug it out and restored the kitchen; Luke remembers sleeping there because the rest of the house was so cold. After much effort, inside and on the landscaping, Lewis restored the house to its simple elegance.
Peter and Jae Suska owned the Colonial House while they were transitioning from ownership of High Meadows in 2000. Peter says they were "always fascinated by the middle level of the house, many feet off the ground (see photo at left of the connecting section of the house as seen from the back yard). There, above the elevated brick basement was our own flood line." There was an exterior staircase leading up to a 9'x10' open area looking out on a two-person balcony on the west. Suska engaged David Ramazani, a master craftsman of Charlottesville, to build fine bookshelves in the area connecting the two parts of the house. Ready to move to a quieter location, the Suskas' last improvement was to have a Nellysford nursery remove the bamboo, installed as a screen to the west, and plant the evergreens growing there now. John Snoddy moved into the Colonial House in 2004. When he married, his wife, Lindsay Check -- "lured by the house," he laughs -- joined him. "We loved that little house," she says. One child fit in well, but the prospect of two children seemed a stretch for the small space, and in July of 2012, they moved, necessitating John's leaving the Scottsville Town Council and his position as vice-mayor.
So in 2012, this structure was once again real estate, billed as an "Amazing Historic Home Right in the Heart of Downtown Scottsville." In Seattle, Washington, Stuart Munson (shown at right) was looking for a place to live nearer his family in Charlottesville. He'd seen everything for sale along 29 North and had one reaction to it: "Ugh!!" When he saw a picture of the Colonial House, he "totally fell in love" with the house but "had no idea where Scottsville was -- I had to Google it!" Ahead of his appointment to tour the house with the agent, he came to town, walked around, and got into conversation with folks. He enjoyed their friendly openness and sense of humor, and he felt at home. He loved the house, the river where he could kayak, and the next day, Stuart made an offer.
Stuart, who works in Richmond and is a docent at the Scottsville Museum, is clear that the odd spaces of his home show it was two separate houses, but he has not yet uncovered much more information. He's hunted deeds but wishes for "the good part," the stories about the house and the people who lived there. He hopes to help develop such house histories with Dan Gritsko and the tourism committee to promote Scottsville as the summer season begins.
Stuart has done little to change the house, though he adds his own touch -- and old ship models. He worked closely with the Scottsville Architectural Review Board to create a needed garage, between the house and the levee, that mirrors the house's architecture. He's also had to have the front door taken apart, due to water leakage, and rebuilt with new elements; he's added a storm door and fixed the gutter to keep the problems from recurring.
John Snoddy dealt with the water problem, too. He had various gutters re-piped to take water away from the foundation, sending it under the yard to the storm drain. "The kitchen floor was damp brick when I moved in," John writes in an email, "and we removed that surface and about two feet of substandard soil underneath it. Drainpipes were installed to pipe a spring which had given access to indoor, fresh water (as evidenced by drain pipes found under the stairs during the 2005 excavation) through the southwestern kitchen wall, under the yard, and out to the storm drain." Water is still a problem, and it's only due to the A. Raymon Thacker Levee that the last real estate ad in 2012 could confidently declare the place was "a stone's throw from the James River."
This fine place, once a wooded river bank, then developed as Scottsville grew, now recognized and preserved, lives on into the 21 st century. As it's changed, Stuart Munson says, "many of the original aspects -- the banister railings, floorboards, and narrow stairs -- have been saved," though he has ample room for his computer and microwave. The National Register of Historic Places includes structures for their "age, integrity, and significance" and helps owners consider strategies for renovation and repair. We all benefit. The WPA project's final line that Hannum had to fill in, number 28, asks, "Does occupant seem to appreciate old architectural features?"
"Yes," was the answer.
The top three photos are from the Connie Geary Collection at Scottsville Museum. The last five photos are from the th Klippstein Collection at Scottsville Museum.
Reference: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places, Scottsville Historic District (Updated Nomination and Boundary Increase 12/3/2003; VDHR File No. 298-0024, Section 7, page 6).
Copyright © 2020 by Scottsville Museum
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Scottsville Museum · 290 Main Street · Scottsville, Virginia 24590 · 434-286-2247
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Duke Edward Due For New Fade-Out
Morrison, Herbert
CORPORATIONS USE STOOGE PRESS TO FIGHT TAXES Duke Edward Due For New Fade-Out — By HERBERT MORRISON ===== Leader of the London City Council. rtNCE more it has become impossible to refrain from...
...The present European situation does not look like clever British diplomacy...
...If China is saved—she will have largely contributed her part...
...It is ox melons that the increase in rates recently granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission is based] It is upon melons that the railroad executives base the demand they are making for another Jweral-i that will net the Toilroads OMOjOOC of increased yearly revenues and cost the public a round billion s year when it shall have rosobOJ the consumer...
...It' may he rough on them, but it is in the nature of the job...
...On reaching Shanghai I passed through the area under Japanese control...
...The tax was designed to meet* grave condition in our national life that has come to increase the east of daily living for every family in America...
...This explains the Soviet's sudden interest in democracy...
...When I visited< the front lines I was amazed to find that the Chinese were not protected by deep trenches —this area being below sea level...
...Your great President, in his Chicago speech, enunciated some most admirable international and humane principles, and, if I were to read them to you, one by one, and at the end of each one were to add "But the U.S.A...
...It is a hard choice, perhaps, for one of his temperament, but the Duke will be wise to fade...
...Unfortunately he did not fully maintain all these qualities...
...This is not military warfare...
...Here is an Exchange message published in the "Sunday Express" of November 7: "The Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (Berlin) remarks: It is clear what lies behind the impudent Baltimore Socislist Trade Unions in America, long under Communist influence— fear that American workers in conversation with the Duke Of Windsor—who has gained a clear insight into the achievements of Germany for the workers—would learn the truth shout Germany...
...In news articles, in cartoons, in editorials the notion is carefully inculcated that this tax is the cause of the so-called "slump in business," thai it has overthrown the noble "recovery" just as lecoeciy was about te end unemployment and make m all happy...
...No authorization was received from the International Union...
...The few days I spent in Japan were most unpleasant because of the constant attentions I received from the Japanese Police...
...It was completely destroyed...
...As one who had no personal -fll-will towards the Duke either hefore or at the time of the abdication, I am sorry about all this...
...Toll and more toll...
...Game of Rule or Ruin It became absolutely necessary to end the strike and to declare thai hp outlaw strikes would be tolerated...
...Perhaps that is why in so many cases de-thronement was accomfsnied by execution...
...Some of them have bees in the capitalization sixty or seventy years and have collected toll from the patient public all that time...
...And the controversial speech attacking those who were critical of the organization of cadet corps among schoolboys...
...It emanates from the foreign policy of the present rulers of Russia—is in direct contrast to its home policy...
...BRITISH LABOR PREPARED TO FIGHT THE enemy to Democracy is Fascism...
...The (Duke of Windsor has chosen to continue certain forms of public activity, which is, I think, a pity...
...Foremost in this gallant chargi one may discern a certain chair of newspapers long voluble for Um New Deal and the Rights of Mai and other Glad Things, With glittering falchions drawn now foi Melons...
...The Nazis' Conviction that the Duke's visit to Germany was good business for them as against democracy...
...Notwithstanding all this, the Communists still played their reckless game of rule or ruin, and sought to create sentiment for authorization of the strike...
...SO they put _ the surplus away until it amounts to a sum deemed sufficient for the purpose...
...After what I saw in Spain and China I am compelled to admit pacifism- is not enough...
...Unless international action by democratic countries can stop Japan we will see in Europe and elsewhere tomorrow what we see in China today—only more so...
...If I criticize him it ia not because I wish to do so...
...There is, I think, among: all of us a universal feeling of regret fk»\ this should be so...
...It is not the fault of his critics...
...It is his own fault or that of the people he permits to advise him...
...I might be charged with being unfair...
...In ordinary times of what n called ^prosperity," Che great utility and transportation companies make more money than they dase to distribute in dividends...
...The choice before ex-kings is either to fade out of the public *ye or to be a nuisance...
...Observe with what plenitude of resource and cleverness of tactic the attack is carried on...
...The British alone can do nothing —their hands in Europe are too full —largely, I admit, through the mishandling of my own Government...
...Happily, their efforts were without avail...
...Never in my life have I seen such pitiful misery...
...Inspiring spectacle...
...It weakened the proletariat, gave permanency to the split which since 1918 has been brought about by the Communists in so many countries, and became one of the primary causes of the many painful defeats democracy has sustained in recent years...
...Charles Bedaux who is set exactly popular with American trade unionists...
...But it goes on, morning and eveling, and seems to score the big kit, for it is said now that a mejorty of the members of Congress are ready to accept H. To save Business and give us igain that glorious Prosperity...
...Despite this grave condition, the Communists immediately began agitation for authorization of this outlaw strike...
...Simpson becoming Queen, On the whole it is best for constitutional royalty to be trained for the job so that they will refrain from any active interference with the work of government and keep well above public controversy...
...Private radios capable of getting foreign stations have all been called in, and foreign Consuls have had their radios sealed by the police...
...As a matter of fact, there is just i>ne business in the United States that will be injuriously affected by this famous tax...
...Happily, the International prevailed, the strike ended, and the machinery lor negotiation''' with arbitration will be speeded up and used...
...Never have I met a more remarkable woman...
...Sudden Affection for Small Business Is Smoke Screen By CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL IF any one cares to see bow easily ¦* this country or any other can be ruled by any power that can control the sources of information, one need look no farther than the notably successful and notably sinister campaign the press is now waging against the Surplus Profits Tax...
...If I may say so, I liked him...
...Here, it appears, the President is miles ahead of public opinion...
...During that day I saw the complete destruction of the Central Health Administration which has done such wonderful work during the last ten years in fighting disease and epidemics...
...Apart from the fact that America is hardly as yet tbte country for a study of public housing and social legislation, the millions of American Labor people, democrats and Jews were bound not to be too pleased with his recent association with the Nazis, and to cap it all his American sponsor was 'to be Mr...
...We in Britain have not noticed this cleverness...
...In due course the U. S. A. visit was dropped...
...It has, been completely destroyed in three different raids by the Japanese...
...Is America prepared to play its part...
...The procedure set forCh in the constitution of the International Union was not followed in either the first or the second strike...
...There is no doubt that the Nazis were delighted with the visit and that they took a lot of trouble shout it...
...made his own choke of a wife and rejected the advice of bis ministers...
...The democratic countries of the world would then face a terrible struggle against an anti-democratic bloc of enormous strength to which, it is true, they would be superior in one way: the democratic state is passionately supported by the working masses...
...ABRUPT CHANGES LIKELY IN EUROPE AN understanding between Hitter and Stalin is, however, not likeiy...
...Hon because of this dreadful thing, n< business men dares to make an] purchases or extend" his operation...
...Humiliating...
...We Labor people can the more say these things because some of his activities were "up our street.'' His visits to the distressed areas and his indications of impatience with the situation—and even with the Government—were hound to be pleasing to our people...
...Communists Swing Far to Right In New Tactical Manoeuvre By KARL KAUTSKY ONE of the most outstanding characteristics of Communists was their contempt of democracy...
...I do not know, but either they are very bad ones or he will not take good advice...
...Hour after hour and day after day I saw Japanese planes dropping bombs in this area...
...SIMPSONS' POLITICAL VIEWS "THEN came the marriage...
...In the International Settlement the streets and alley-ways were crowded with thousands of wretched refugees lying and sleeping wherever they could...
...I am still opposed to war, I believe economic weapons of democratic nations can stop Fascist aggression...
...And Congress falling for it all Lovely sight...
...MRS...
...If we are attacked, we must defend ourselves...
...are unable to continue the fight...
...This "benefit," aa it is called in the corporation jargon, is next added to the total capitalization and becomes the basis for more charges to accumulate more surpluses to be distributed with more unpaid for additions to-the capital stock and be reflected in more charges to the public Around and around goes, the merry wheel and' its revolutions make the great fortunes...
...This is our last chance...
...The Nanking University, with a campus of a square mile, on a clear summer day, cannot be mistaken for a military objective...
...On his behalf it was announced that he would travel and study housing and social conditions...
...But it would appear that either he himself or the circle -with which he has become associated determined that he should not jttire in peace...
...rtNCE more it has become impossible to refrain from .public Vcomment on the movements and affairs of the Duke of Windsor...
...It is not all the fault of the newspapers...
...A million letters to the White House ia support of the President's policy can save Democracy and the world for peace and ultimate disarmament...
...But joint action by the democratic countries would call the fascist bluff...
...Then they distribute it by means of a stock dividend or...
...DUKE PLAYED FOR LABOR SUPPORT ONE of the things he failed to realize was that heirs to throne and, particularly, kings under a constitutional monarchy cannot manifest in public opinions on controversial matters...
...British Labor Ready to Back War in Defense of Democracy E. J. Kerren H roaring the world offer having inveitigated conditio*;* in the Orient for the British Labor Parry...
...But then there were two incidents of another kind...
...In conclusion, let me repeat: The present conflict in the East is not a local incident—it is an international problem—and the outcome will have international consequences...
...His statement was similar to the aaa below, but all the type wa have bold faced was cat from bis speech by the censor...
...There came the visit to Nazi Germany, and the fraternizing with nose Nasi murderers and torturers of Socialists, Trade Unionists and Jews who are now trying to pose as the apostles of law and order...
...Simpson, although there were rumors...
...Publicly and privately I met him more than once when he was Prince of Wales and King...
...Ami Puttering...
...Let us learn from it, littii children...
...It is not only in the strength of these countries, but in the strength of their democracy, that the Soviet Republic is mostly keenly interested...
...the plant was evacuated last Monday...
...CHINA UNITED AGAINST NIPPONESE THE one impression that I gained was that, for the first time in history, there is an absolutely united China with a determination to fight unitedly until the Japanese are beaten or...
...That prevented them being a nuisance to their successors, the Government or the nation...
...and that is why everything is a a standstill and "panic" rules th< Stock Exchange...
...If Japan had been checked then the League of Nations would have remained powerful and Germany and Italy would not have dared to do what they have since done...
...There came the abdication...
...We knew nothing about the opin* ions and political tendencies of Mrs...
...In that case it wms inevitable that his movements gad activities should be a matter of public concern...
...it was definitely an outlaw strike...
...But the consequences of these defeats were so serious for the Soviet State that it saw itself compelled to appeal for help to democracy outside Russia...
...That he cannot a*»OJs abbages or writing paper or operite his luncheon counter because he government is about to lay a ax upon his surplus profits, j Bear in mind that the chain store las all but eliminated the small Ktsiness man and that to find any mrplus profits in the possession of be survivors the government wouM lave to use a microscope or a vivid magination, and see if this play ant a first class comedy stunt— a a way...
...But they were constitutionally dangerous and not inconsistent with those Fascist tendencies with which (quite possibly unjustly) he is credited...
...He paid the price, and we all wished him a happy married life, in quiet retireBat, unfortunately, the quiet retirement has not come off...
...But in that case he must net complain U his movements and activities are a subject of comment—even critical comment...
...If we go down, the rest of the world will rue the day...
...AND then it was announced that the Duke and the Duchess " would make an immediate visit to America to study housing sad social problems...
...This contempt, adopted by many a 'Social Democrat, influenced by them, has since brought forth rotten fruit...
...I hoped that he would develop into a constitutional, discreet monarch blessed with a strong sense of public duty and a warm human sympathy...
...death of the International Union...
...It is barbarism...
...He has been kept in the public eye, and it has not been all the fault of the newspapers...
...To a much lass extent, limitation of expression affects everybody holding responsible positions in public life...
...no great or considerable fortune was ever made from transporting goods or passengers or from supplying electricity...
...5—Despite the agreement arrived at by the committee with the International Union that there would be no further strike action, but that negotiation would be used instead, a second sit-down sfrike began on Wednesday, November 17, which almost led to disaster, until it was ended on Monday, November 22...
...He must choose...
...All the protection they had were sandbags...
...By E. J. KERRAN Labor Member of the London City Council...
...And Patching...
...If international laws and treaties are no longer to be honored, there will be anarchy and destruction in the world...
...JAPANESE WARFARE BARBARIC FROM my hotel window I could see the North Station, half a mile away, where the fiercest fighting was taking place...
...Was British diplomacy clever in 1931-32 over the Manchnrian outrage...
...On my way to the East t passed through Germany and Russia, and in order to get into China I had to cross over to Japan...
...My visit to.the Far East was for the purpose of investigating the present conflict and making a report to m<y party...
...Only collective security of democratic countries can save the world from war and fascism...
...that in a business decline, with General Motors anxious to have a pretext for suspending operations, a strike would be most inopportune...
...It i$ no exaggeration to say that the International Union with its 400,000 members, came as close to disaster as it ever can and still not be smashed...
...Something like this we may havi had before, though not so abl...
...Even in America, when you are about to arrest a dangerous gangster, you do not send your policemen out on the job with a copy of your criminal code in one hand and the Sermon on the Mount in the other...
...Although, what he is going to do with his knowledge I do not know, for he cannot be permitted to re-enter public life—in this wintry at any rate...
...will do nothing to implement it...
...but only there—not at home...
...Notice that oniy Mr...
...My report, I felt, would be incomplete without also visiting the U.S.A...
...On the famous Saturday in September we had six raids in one day...
...The supreme* question is— are Democratic countries prepared to guarantee this elementary right...
...British public opinion now realizes the mistake that was made...
...CONGRESS PALLS FOR IT ALL IT was to check this costly prae* ties, which runs through all the utility services, that the tax wsi designed...
...The Chinese do not expect other countries to fight for them, but they do demand and insist that they be given the right to get unhindered the supplies necessary to enable them to fight on a more equal footing with their highly equipped enemy...
...Russia needs allies, but they can be found only in the democratic states of the West...
...That was bound to annoy every democrat in the world, lost as a friendly visit to Stalin and the exchange of greetings with the Soviet Commissars would have annoyed our Tories...
...But in both countries concerned, the Government must reckon with enormous and ever-growing economic difficulties, bringing in their train increasing uncertainty in ruling circles, growing differences and intrigues within their ranks...
...In the total capitalization of the American railroad system there are about seven billion dollars of these melons on which the public at large is now paying the consequent rate charges...
...But by itself the Russian army could hardly withstand thq pressure from two sides...
...We have to reckon with such changes in Russia as well as in Germany...
...The Japanese newspapers I saw are severely censored, and gave not the slightest indication of the real military position in China...
...If the Duke wants t* study social problems he had far better quietly read books and get advice in private rather than put his foot in it in this way...
...Following Is a report of what he found everywhere...
...It is to preserve toe juicy fruitage for the happy melon cutteri that this campaign is now wage* in the docile, well-trained dafli press...
...Their aid of democracy must be welcomed by every democratic party...
...They defend democracy only where they are in the opposition.- They annihilate it and practice the most cruel subjugation of any form of popular freedom where they are in power...
...Who are the- Duke's advisors...
...RUSSIA NEEDS DEMOCRATIC ALLIES •¦•HE ousting of democracy by a violent despotism in various great neighbor states of Russia constitutes a serious menace to it...
...They are ready to suffer the greatest sacrifices for it, whereas the masses confront dictatorship with apathy and often enmity...
...As she said to me: "We are not fighting for China only, we are fighting for civilisation—the opholding of international law ana "justice...
...Splendid isolation will aave no country...
...Is not the present European situation due to the mishandling of that conflict...
...HAZ1S EXPLOIT THE DUKE'S VISIT Jtf ATURALLY the Nazis have tried to exploit the situation with characteristic clumsiness...
...But what arouses my un stinted admiration is one featun of the fight that is certainly novel SUDDEN INTEREST IN THE SMALL MAN IT is the cool impudence of th< * assumption and the hardihoo of the daily repetition that thi mall businessman is vitally interated in the repeal of this burdenome tax...
...British Labor will not fight for Nationalism or Imperialism, but it will fight for international law and their democratic freedom, gained by their forefathers...
...But the rapprochement of these dictatorships is only one possibility arising from this instability of state power...
...It would meet with toe strong psychic opposition in the effects of current agitation on both sides...
...WHO ADVISES THE DUKE...
...other juicy melon, dewey fresh from the corporation vines...
...In Nanking I interviewed every member of the Government from General Chiang Kai Shek downwards, many of the diplomatic representatives, and the leaders of the various parties and factions...
...Are American women prepared to sacrifice their Japanese silk stockings on the altar of humanity and international justice...
...With news articles, cartoons, editorials, and amid loud cheers frow the National Chamber of Com merce and soma edifying sojnashi from the ghost of the Libertj League...
...It's the Melon that builds the Mansion...
...Given power, British Labor is prepared to pool the resources of the Empire, if other countries agree to disarmament and accept democratic principles...
...In the event of these rulers coming to terms with Germany and...
...AH EX-KING'S OWN CHOICE EX-KINGS are admittedly in a position of some difficulty...
...IHAVE been asked to give a few impressions of my recent tour in China and Japan and to express the point of view of the British Labor Party of which I am a member...
...Hitler once said "Democracies are like stupid cows being led to the slaughter...
...Such a situation may, within a state of absolute despotism, bring about abrupt changes in policy...
...She is the backbone of the Chinese reristance...
...that a condemnation of the sit-down strike might develop into a general strike against General Motors, a contingency that would have been calamitous...
...Are you prepared to use the great - economic weapon yoa have at hand against Japan...
...He had a lawful right to do so, provided be was willing to pay the price of abdication...
...Two of them, the German and the Japanese, threaten Russia from the East and from the West...
...I spent the whole of that day to the company of Madame Chiang Kai Shek, the wife of the famous Generalissimo...
...There, too, exist elements hostile to democracy...
...During my stay in Nanking I went through the most terrible aerial bombardments the city had had...
...During the last war, I spent four years in prison because I was a pacifist...
...Its watchword to Communists of all countries was now 'to take a stand for democracy and for this purpose to form a United "Front with the Social Democrats they had hitherto so furiously attacked...
...The reason they don't dare is because distribution would call.attention to their unreasonably high rates and that would be awkward...
...Kerrans call for united action by the democracies la defence of freedom was deleted by the men la charge of the Broadcasting Corporation...
...managed...
...Here British diplomats are credited with Machiavelian cleverness and as "not safe company for a simple-minded American diplomat...
...The desire of the British people is that he ibeuld be left to enjoy his retirement in peace...
...This came after positive assurances were given by Homer Martin that no outlaw strike would be tolerated...
...Lean once more the tnn usefulness of Reform aad the advances we make by Tinkering...
...That is the Melon Business...
...According to international law and justice this is their right...
...That ignorance of ours was the real constitutional ease against Mrs...
...Japan, the Communists would everywhere become helpers of Fascism...
...If yon believe in Democracy, if yon believe in freedom—if yon accept the fine principles of the President's Chicago speech—then give him the necessary support...
...But this help may not be relied on too strongly...
...Collective buying is to collective bargaining as gasoline is to ar engine...
...But if an ex-king survives abdication he must either fade from the public eye or run the risk of trouble and criticism...
...They are Russia's enemies as well...
...Everyone of these despotisms, according to its nature, is pressing for military expansion...
...King Edward VIII...
...The reactionary newspapers of the entire country were sending their star reporters to Pontiac to be in on the kill—at least what they thought would be the...
...But our joy is somewhat dampened by the fact that this change of the Communists is not one of principle but is merely a tactical manoeuvre...
...The International Union was confronted with this problem: That complaints of discriminations, discharges, speed-up, hundreds and thousands of them in all plants of General Motors were making for unrest...
...I hope it is true, for his own sake no less than that of Great Britain...
...The encouragement of the visit of the ex-service men to Nasi Germany— aa action which would have had much more public value if taken some years before...
...When bo come to the United States, Radio Station WARC la Naw far* asked him fa speak...
...It seems more likely that in Russia those elements will gain the upper hand which see in the granting of democracy the only salvation for the (Continued oa Pare Five) (Continued from Page One) production, four of the active members of the Union were suspended...
...Set aside the lying propaganda, what remains...
...In my country public opinion is in advance of the Government...
...I welcome the statements in the press to the effect that he is w»Hy to retire into private life and that all this press communique business is .to stop...
...and to save time X flew across the Pacific in one of your wonderful Clippers, which does the journey in six days instead of six weeks by steamer...
...So far as this goes, the situation can be greeted with rejoicing...
...How business cried oui from one end of the country to tin other to have tins deadly ineubui taken from its heart that it ma] function again and be healthy...
Vol. 20 • November 1937 • No. 48
Kanda Sofware
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UK: Controversial Badger cull officially starts this Bank Holiday Monday – 26th August – and we predict big trouble !
Posted on August 24, 2013 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Above – Header for Brian May’s ‘Save Me’ Campaign Group – see link below
Below – Dr Brian May – Animal Welfare Campaigner and Queen Guitarist
United Kingdom controversial Badger cull officially starts this Bank Holiday Monday – 26th August
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23791222
Badger cull zone injunction is granted in High Court
The cull zones are in Somerset and Gloucestershire
Badgers tracked by stills cameras
Badger cull date denied by police
Plan ‘to wipe out bovine TB by 2038’
An injunction has been granted to restrict people protesting against the badger cull.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) applied for the injunction, claiming some farmers have been intimidated and harassed and therefore need protection.
The High Court ruling means no protest will be allowed to take place within 100m of the homes, and within 25m of businesses, of anyone involved.
Lawful protest against the badger cull will still be allowed.
The High Court in London granted the injunction after several hours of negotiations over the wording of the injunction between protesters and the NFU.
NFU president Peter Kendall said after the hearing that the injunction was intended to prevent “unacceptable incidents of harassment”, and not to stop lawful protest.
Jay Tiernan, who was named in court as a representative of the Coalition of Badger Action Groups, said the ruling would not stop protests.
‘Very, very annoying’
“It will make absolutely no difference whatsoever,” he said. “We certainly do want to reduce the numbers of farmers involved.
“We like to think of ourselves as being very, very annoying.”
He added: “We will use every available piece of legislation we can to make their lives a misery.”
The injunction includes provisions preventing protesters entering private land without consent.
Anyone found to be in breach could face contempt of court proceedings.
‘Extreme activists’
Mr Kendall added: “For beef and dairy farmers dealing with TB on their farms, these badger culls are an essential part of the fight against this terrible disease.
“Opinion is divided so, while we recognise that not everyone agrees with the Government’s TB eradication policy and the need to cull badgers to start to reduce this disease in cattle, we do acknowledge their legitimate right to hold peaceful protests.
“What we cannot condone are the actions being used by extreme activists designed to harass, intimidate and threaten others.”
Culls are expected to start soon in the West Somerset and West Gloucestershire pilot zones.
The pilot cull will run over a six-week period. More than 5,000 badgers could be killed.
The cull will involve the animals being shot in the open by marksmen using high-velocity rifles. The badgers will not be trapped in cages first.
Supporters claim culling badgers is the only way to tackle TB in cattle, which they say is spread from infected badgers to livestock.
Opponents say culling badgers is inhumane and ineffective in controlling the disease.
Ze Prime Minister – Herr Cameron – Hunter, Shooter, Deer killer – all round anti animal person
Above – Animal Aid
Above – North West Hunt Sabs
Badger culling in the United Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_culling_in_the_United_Kingdom
Web sites to just some of the UK organisations opposing the badger cull and the UK government – David Cameron is gonna have a bad time !
Badger Protection League = http://www.badgerprotectionleague.com/
Brian May’s Save Me = http://www.save-me.org.uk/
League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) = http://www.league.org.uk/content/643/Badger-Cull
Badger Trust = http://www.badger.org.uk/Content/Home.asp
E petition to the British government = http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) = http://www.rspca.org.uk/home
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY TO ALL YOUR GROUPS/RESCUES AND CONTACTS NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONALAND ALL ANTI-GREYHOUND RACING CAMPAIGNERS/GREYHOUND DEVOTEES AND ALL YOUR WEBSITES/TWITTER/FACEBOOK/ MYSPACE/BLOGSPOTS FOR MAXIMUM PUBLICITY!
“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.”
United Kingdom controversial Badger cull officially starts this Bank Holiday Monday 26th August and important greyhound news (UK).
Please note there will be no Badger culls in ‘Scotland’ and ‘Wales’.
Please join this peaceful, law abiding group called ‘Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting’ and ‘Wounded Badger Patrol’– full contact details and info are here for you-
http://www.glosagainstbadgershooting.org/
Please now read the latest articles below on the Badger cull set to go ahead this Monday. This is scandalous and barbaric. Despite the fight by many campaigners, celebrities and animal protection groups the UK government are still going ahead. Even some scientists have said this cull is mad science and will not eradicate the problem of TB in cattle. This is a senseless cull, thousands of Badgers will be murdered!!
SWAP team UK important disclaimer
Please note this information is not intended to encourage the breaking of any UK laws or incite any criminal activity whatsoever.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/21/badger-cull-start-date-set
Badger cull start date set
Controversial badger culls in England, aimed at curbing TB in cattle, expected to begin on 26 August
· Damian Carrington
· theguardian.com, Wednesday 21 August 2013 12.34 BST
England’s controversial badger culls are set to begin on the night of 26 August, the Guardian has learned.
The start of the shooting of badgers, aimed at curbing tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, will come after an injunction sought by the National Farmers’ Union to ban certain protesters from farmland is heard in the high court.
The intended start date was given to the Guardian by sources within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and elsewhere. The police are known to be preparing for the start date and cull opponents claim they have found new hair traps in the cull zones, which are used to estimate badger numbers ahead of the cull. A spokesman for Defra said: “The start dates are a matter for the culling companies.” The NFU, which represents the culling companies, declined to comment.
Rates of TB in cattle have increased significantly in recent years, with 28,000 cattle slaughtered in 2012 at a cost of £100m to taxpayers. Ministers and the NFU argue that culling badgers, which can transmit the disease, is a necessary part of action against the disease but eminent scientists have dismissed the culls as “mindless” and warn that they may make matters worse as badgers flee the shoots. The pilot culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset will see about 5,000 badgers killed if completed.
The NFU’s application for an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 names some individuals and is due to be heard in court on Thursday. NFU president, Peter Kendall, said: “We have applied for the injunction in response to various incidents of harassment and intimidation carried out against farmers and landowners by activists opposed to the badger cull.”
But Dr Chris Cheeseman, a scientist who took part in a landmark 10-year trial of badger culling and had his car windscreen smashed during that time, said the injunction was a mistake. “It’s a pretty desperate measure,” he said. “The injunction has enraged people and could be counterproductive.”
The start of the badger cull, postponed from 2012, is expected to result in the largest animal rights protests since the ban on hunting foxes with dogs and to see many people protest in the cull zones.
In July, the Observer revealed that the government has refused to publish risk assessments of danger to the public during the night-time badger shoots because doing so “could have an adverse affect upon the health and safety of the public”. The police have previously warned of the “clear potential for harm to public safety” but the location and timing of the culls has been kept secret, which campaigners say puts those vaccinating badgers or patrolling for wounded animals at grave risk.
Cheeseman said: “I think it is likely the police will call a halt to the culls if they get nervous about public safety.”
Earlier in August, the prime minister, David Cameron, said culling badgers was “quite simply … the right thing to do”, without which there would be “appalling consequences not just for the cattle and the farmers [but] also for the badgers”.
However, Prof Rosie Woodroffe, at the Institute of Zoology in London and also part of the team that conducted the 10-year culling trial said: “Cattle TB is a major problem for farmers but despite the urgent need to act, evidence suggests that badger culling is not an effective solution. Scientists agree that culling is unlikely to have major benefits for cattle TB control and risks making matters worse, and Defra predicts that the costs will outweigh any financial benefits.”
Analysis of government data by Prof Woodroffe has shown that because of uncertainty over badger population numbers, shooters could kill every badger in the cull zones but still not have killed enough to meet the minimum number required by their licence.
Badger cull zone injunction granted. An injunction is granted to restrict people protesting against the badger cull-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/uk-england-23791222
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/22/judge-order-badger-cull
High court judge delivers order protecting badger cull farmers
Order bans protesters entering private land without permission, but activists say it will not stop them protesting in other ways
Press Association
The Guardian, Thursday 22 August 2013 19.28 BST
A high court judge has made an order aimed at stopping farmers involved in badger culls being harassed and abused.
Mr Justice Turner granted an injunction at a high court hearing in London on Thursday after lawyers representing the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said farmers had been targeted.
But one protester said the order would not stop protests and said demonstrators aimed to make the lives of farmers involved in badger culls “a misery”.
The order includes provisions preventing protesters entering private land without consent and protects farmers from threats and harassment. Anyone found to be in breach could face contempt of court proceedings.
NFU lawyers told the judge that in 2011 the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that badger culling would be allowed in an attempt to prevent bovine tuberculosis (TB) in livestock.
They said pilot culls, postponed from 2012, were due to start soon in parts of Gloucestershire, Somerset and possibly Dorset.
Lawyers said farmers had already suffered “harassing activity”, which had increased in preparation for interference with the cull and outlined a number of incidents.
Peter Kendall, president of the NFU, said after the hearing that the injunction was not aimed at stopping lawful protest. He said it was intended to prevent “unacceptable incidents of harassment”.
Jay Tiernan, who was named in court as a representative of the Coalition of Badger Action Groups, said he did not condone unlawful harassment, but said the injunction would not stop protests.
“It will make absolutely no difference whatsoever,” he said after the hearing. “We certainly do want to reduce the numbers of farmers involved. We like to think of ourselves as being very, very annoying.”
Tiernan said many members of the public who would not class themselves as “animal rights activists” are opposed to the cull.
England’s badger culls are expected to begin on the night of 26 August, according to sources within Defra.
Police are known to be preparing for the start date and cull opponents claim they have found new hair traps in the cull zones, which are used to estimate badger numbers ahead of the cull.
Rates of TB in cattle have increased significantly in recent years, with 28,000 cattle slaughtered in 2012 at a cost of £100m to taxpayers.
Ministers and the NFU argue that culling badgers, which can transmit the disease, is a necessary part of action against TB but eminent scientists have dismissed the culls as “mindless” and warn that they may make matters worse as badgers flee the shoots. The pilot culls will see about 5,000 badgers killed if completed.
Above – This is Somerset.co.uk
Dr Brian May links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPD7_hQk7hk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaUsWfeULks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbRqlbujvhk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Drd032G0Wg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8F9-rnMhNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQsM6u0a038
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »
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Shale Policy Conflict and Cooperation in the U.S.
https://shalepolicyconflict.org
The University of Colorado Denver
Publications by members of our team
Berardo, R., and F. Holm. 2018. “The participation of Core Stakeholders in the Design of, and Challenges to, the U.S. Clean Power Plan.” Climate Policy 18(9):1152-1164. DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2018.1478792.
Blair, B., T. Heikkila, and C. Weible. 2016. “National Media Coverage of Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States: Evaluation using Human and Automated Coding Techniques.” Risks, Hazards, Crisis & Public Policy 7(3): 114-128. DOI: 10.1002/rhc3.12097
Blair, B., C. Weible, T. Heikkila, and D. Evensen. “Comparing Human and Automated Coding of News Articles on Hydraulic Fracturing in New York and Pennsylvania.” Society & Natural Resources 29(7): 880-884. DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2016.1150543
Blair, B., C. Weible, T. Heikkila, and L. McCormack. “Certainty and Uncertainty in Framing the Risks and Benefits of Hydraulic Fracturing in the Colorado News Media.” Risks, Hazards, Crisis & Public Policy 6(3): 290-307. DOI: 10.1002/rhc3.12086
Costie, D., F. Holm, and R. Berardo. 2018. "Hydraulic Fracturing, Coalition Activity and Shock: Assessing the Potential for Coalition-based Collective Action in Argentina's Vaca Muerta Formation.” The Extractive Industries and Society 5(4): 499-507. DOI: 10.1016/j.exis.2018.08.003
Heikkila, T., R. Berardo, C.M. Weible, and H. Yi. 2018. "Comparing Advocacy Coalitions: A Study of Shale Development in the United States, Argentina, and China.” Journal of Comparative Public Policy. DOI: 10.1080/13876988.2017.1405551.
Heikkila, T. and C.M. Weible. 2017. “Unpacking the intensity of policy conflict: a study of Colorado’s oil and gas subsystem.” Policy Sciences. 50(2): 179-193. DOI: 10.1007/s11077-017-9285-1
Heikkila, T., C.M. Weible, and K. Olofsson. 2017. “Lessons from State-Level and National-Level Policy Conflicts over U.S. Shale Development.” Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 59(3): 4-13. DOI: 10.1080/00139157.2017.1301165
Heikkila, T. J. Pierce, S. Gallaher, J. Kagan, D. A. Crow and C. M. Weible. “Understanding a Period of Policy Change: The Case of Hydraulic Fracturing Disclosure Policy in Colorado.” Review of Policy Research 31(2): 65-85. DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12058.
Olofsson, K. L., J. Katz, D. P. Costie, T. Heikkila and C. M. Weible. 2018. “A Dominant Coalition and Policy Change: An Analysis of Shale Oil and Gas Politics in India.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning. DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2018.1493984
Weible, C. M. and T. Heikkila. 2017. “Policy Conflict Framework.” Policy Sciences 50: 23-40. DOI: 10.1007/s11077-017-9280-6
Weible, C. M., T. Heikkila, and D. P. Carter. 2017. “An Institutional and Opinion Analysis of Colorado’s Hydraulic Fracturing Disclosure Rule.” Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 19(2): 115- 134. DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2016.1150776
Weible, C. M. and T. Heikkila. 2016. “Comparing the Politics of Hydraulic Fracturing in New York, Colorado, and Texas.” Review of Policy Research 33(3): 232-250. DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12170.
Weible, C. M., T. Heikkila, and J. Pierce. 2018. “Understanding Rationales for Collaboration in High-Intensity Policy Conflicts.” Journal of Public Policy 38(1): 1-25. DOI: 10.1017/S0143814X16000301.
Ramiro Berardo
316B Kottman Hall
2021 Coffey Road, Columbus, OH 43210
berardo.3@osu.edu
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Robert Plumb
1Susan Emma Woodruff Abbott, Families of Early Milford, Connecticut, p. 582 (1979).
"The Plumb family, as far as we can determine, came from co. Essex, England, by name John and Elizabeth. They had a s Robert who was born ca 1530 and died 18 May 1613. He married/1 Elizabeth Purcus and married/2 Mrs. Ethelred Fuller. They lived at Great Yeldham, co. Essex and had a s Robert who was born ca 1558 and died 14 August 1628. This Robert married Grace Crackbone. They had a son John who was born Spaynes Hall, Essex, England 28 July 1594. John married 1616 Dorothy Wood of Ridgewell, co. Essex, England. She was born ca. 1595. The had a son Robert who was the immigrant ancestor.
1. Robert Plumb s of John and Dorothy (Wood) was born Ridgewell, Essex, England 30 December 1617 and died Milford 12 May 1655. He married 9 January 1642 (MVR) Mary Baldwin who was born 22 April 1621 and died 1 February 1707 dau of Sylvester and Sarah (Bryan). She married/2 17 December 1655 William East. Robert had lot # 37 of 5 acres and 3 rods east of the river on North Street.
Mary b 9 Feb 1644/5 mar 16 June 1668 Matthew Woodruff b 1646 bpt 1658 died Farmington, Conn. Nov 1691 s of Matthew & Hannah
2. John bpt 12 Aug 1646 (MCl)
3. Robert bpt 21 Dec 1648 (MCl)."
Note that possibly Robert's mother was really Dorothy Chaplin.
Matthew Woodruff III
1Nathaniel Goodwin, Records of Farmington in Connecticut, NEHGR Vol. 11, p. 326 (Oct 1857).
"And on the same 16th day of May, 1658, the children of Hannah Woodruff were baptized, viz. John, 15 years old and upward, and Matthew in the 12th year of his life.".
1Ethel Farrington Smith, John Jenkins of Barnstable, Massachusetts, NEHGR Vol. 149, pp. 350-351 (Oct. 1995).
"3. THOMAS,sup>2 JENKINS (John1) was born at Barnstable 15 July 1666, and he died before 25 February 1745 when his will was proved.[59] He married first, at Barnstable 24 August 1687,<sup[60] EXPERIENCE HAMLIN, who was born there 12 April 1668, a twin, and died there before 5 February 1715/16, daughter of James, Jr., and Mary (Dunham) Hamlin.[61] Her father's will of 24 July 1717 refers to her as "my daughter Experience Jenkins, deceased."[62] Thomas married second, between December 1712 and 5 February 1715, MERCY (WINSLOW) WHITE, who was born at Yarmouth about 1676 and died at Rochester, Massachusetts, before 16 July 1755 when an administrator was appointed on her estate, daughter of Kenelm and Mercy (Worden) Winslow.[63] She was the widow of Malatiah White of Rochester, who died at Rochester, who died at Rochester 21 August 1709 in his 39th year.[64]
Thomas was active in the Barnstable church. On 3 June 1728 he was one of thirty-nine members appointed to a Council "to decide the method of singing in public."[65[
In his will dated 9 March 1737, Thomas Jenkins, "weak in body and apprehensive of the ner approach of death," named his loving wife Mercy, sons Ebenezer, Samuel, Josiah, and daughters Thankful, Mercy, Hope, and Experience. The youngest daughter, Sarah, is not mentioned. . . .
63. Lee D. van Antwerp, Arthur H. and Katharine W. Radasch, and Robert M. and Ruth W. Sherman, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations . . ., Vol. 1 : Francis Eaton, Samuel Fuller and William White (Gen. Soc. Mayfl. Desc., 1975) [hereinafter MF1, White], p. 114.
64. Ibid. With her first husband, she had a son, Melatiah White, and daughters Judah, Mercy, and Margaret White (ibid., pp. 114-115). These children were descendants of William White of the Mayflower, but not Jenkins descendants. Judah/Judith, the eldest, married her stepbrother, Ebenezer Jenkins (no. 3.-iv below)."
This source is intended to show that Mercy Winslow married Melatiah White rather than Freeman Ellis. The evidence for Freeman Ellis as her husband is very speculative and unsupported.
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SHOPOPOLIS
consumer culture: past, present and especially the future...by the author of THE MALLING OF AMERICA.
R.I.P. Ada Louise
I never met Ada Louise Huxtable, though for a brief period we were both writing for the New York Times. She even quoted me in one of her books, and I certainly quoted her in The Malling of America. She was one of its guiding lights. She died this week at the age of 91. Here's her LA Times obit.
Her beat was architecture for the Times, their first real architecture critic, and she was up there with Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford in reshaping New York City and how architects and planners thought about cities and how people live in them. She shaped criticism itself as a journalistic pursuit involving reporting, scholarship and taste.
In particular I found her work revelatory on the South Street Seaport in New York, when it was about to host another urban "marketplace" mall built by the Rouse Company, after its successes on the waterfronts of Boston and Baltimore.
At retirement age she instead became the architecture critic for the Wall Street Journal. She also wrote books (I'm footnoted in The Unreal America.) Her influence was highest in the 60s but her work inspired me in the 80s and I'm sure it is inspiring others right now. No reason why it won't for a long time to come. May she rest in peace, and her work live on.
Posted by Captain Future at 11:42 PM No comments:
Labels: R.I.P.
As Black Friday Goes...
Well, this looks like the annual Black Friday post. The blog's look has changed, and not for the last time probably.
This year's Black Friday has been characterized by that great new product: pepper spray. Justifiably famous for its use against Occupy protestors, especially at U.C. Davis (inspiring the Pepper Spraying Cop site and the image above, which is no longer satirical) it has been used today by cops against shoppers, and at least one shopper against all.
Most of the incidents--including tasering and shootings--happened at Wal-Marts or other low-end outlets, testifying both to the desperate straits many in the 99% are in, and to the residual power of consumerism, especially when TV commercials portray the appropriate Christmas gift for young couples as expensive cars. Check Wikipedia and see that this instance of Black Friday is the only one that isn't overtly (as opposed to ironically) a catastrophe. Our society's dependence on consumption is at least as dangerous as its dependence on fossil fuel, and of course the two are intimately related. Yet it is dependence in every sense of the word. And so this Black Friday is both different from the others and exactly the same.
Meanwhile back at the mall: 15,000 lined up at the Mall of America at midnight to raid bargains at 120 stores: "Mall operators estimated that it was the largest crowd ever at the mall, which is big enough to hold seven Yankee Stadiums." Yet observers observed dolefully that there weren't a lot of bags being carried, so the amount of buying is in doubt. Which once against provokes the question: is this an economy or is it an addiction?
Posted by Captain Future at 12:07 AM No comments:
Labels: consumerism
Santa Claus' sleigh these days takes the form of this huge ship, commissioned by Wal-Mart and built in Denmark specifically and only to haul goodies from China to the U.S. It takes just 13 people to run it, even though it's longer than a U.S. aircraft carrier. This ship is so big that it had to be built in five separate sections that were welded together. The command bridge alone is higher than a 10-story building. The ship has its own cargo crane rigs--11 of them--that operating simultaneously can unload the entire ship in under two hours. So this is where Christmas comes from, where Black Friday lives. Typically, cargo ships from China that bring consumer goods to California ports, return with cardboard and material for recycling--in other words, garbage. But these ships reputedly return completely empty. [Thanks to Bill T. for sending me these photos etc. awhile back.]
Labels: consumerism, Great Malls of China
Cathedrals of Consumption
The apparent enemies may change, but this is the real religion that is so persistently and vociferously defended in America: the one true Church of Buying and Selling.
Through lofty times and fearful times, from the 50s onward, people have looked to the mall for excitement and solace, adventure and surcease, novelty and reassurance--and they found it all.
By the 1980s, Americans had come to believe in consumption as salvation: shop till you drop, spend till the end, buy till you die. Buying was the new time religion, which links adherents of all other religions and seems to transcend all other faiths. And the shopping mall was its cathedral of consumption.
There were the votive candles of neon, the altars of Atari, the icons of Calvin and St. Liz (Claiborne.) Like the cathedrals of Europe, the malls made their magic through the senses: the swirl of products' colors and textures, the smiles of clerks and waitresses, the soft splash of fountains and the dance of mirrored light in the Church of Buy Now, Pay Later. As psychologist James Hillman suggested, "Maybe that's what consumerism and advertising are all about, unconsciously, compulsively: a way to rekindle our desire for the world."
The needs and fears hidden in the human shadow were also expressed with their usual shocking power. The desire for comfort became raging greed and the addict's apathyt: the need for peace and identity within a community of worshippers became the walls of denial and exclusion.
What became most obvious during the 1980s was that the new religion of consumption had become organized and dogmatized. It had become the true church: one, unholy and apocalyptic. It was filling the world with waste, devouring its resources, exhausting society and the planet. But buying as a value above all others became a dogma and those who disagreed were heretics.
So the Church of Buying and Selling transformed everything into a product or the means to sell a product. The activities we call art, science, sport, inquiry (from scholarship to journalism,) public discourse, politics and government, weren't of this nature. But beginning in the 80s, they were embraced and adjusted, assimilated and converted.
The Church of Buying is also the Church of Selling, of advertising and public relations. Today these activities determine the form and content of information in all popular media and most of cultural life. To offend the Church of Selling--the advertiser--is to commit a mortal sin punished by banishment, the casting down into the pits of poverty and irrelevance.
The Church of Buying and Selling tolerates no rivals. There is no separation of this church and state. Politics and government have been commodified through corporate special interest lobbying and campaign contributions (which, by the way, we all involuntarily pay for, every time we buy something or even pay a bill.) Independent, disinterested or critical voices supported by the public are not permitted: even so-called public television is starved of public funds, and in the U.S. must rely on corporate funding that selects what it supports and therefore defines what gets seen.
Today the growing consumption industries are fast-food and discount shopping (where the new servant sector grins and spins for minimal wages), entertainment (which turns the beauty of sport and art into no-fault showbiz)and tourism, which pollutes and desecrates places of natural beauty and cultural or even religious significance (such as Native American sacred sites.) But how could that matter when there is only one true religion?
Doth not the Earth exist only to be consumed? And if we use it all up, we will still have our Cyberspace-Graven Images. Everything in nature, culture and history is turned into simplistic reverberate icons, emotional buttons for advertisers to push. Beyond that, they are useless and expendable.
Do not the Faithful work two and three jobs, and push themselves beyond the speed limits of life--sacrificing family, health, reverie, craftsmanship and civility, just to afford all the sacraments and indulgences the church can sell?
Do not the people exist solely to serve the Church of Buying and Selling? Does not all talent, energy, feeling, intelligence and belief belong to it? Are not all relationships secondary to our relationship to this Church? And have not our lives and souls become the ultimate consumables?
See now the congregation assembles for the service. See thge eyes flickering with bliss at Junior Miss. Hear the moans of devotion at Just Pants. Let us all gather by the bank machine--But wait, who is that whispering? Is that heresy we're hearing? Turn the sacred Muzak louder, post a photo of your redemptive purchases on Facebook, and keep moving, from one station of devotion to the next.
The screed above is mostly a piece of mine I'd just about forgotten, published in Adbusters Vol. 2 No. 3 under the title "Graven Images."
The much beleaguered Bayshore Mall in Eureka was humming on Saturday, so what does that say?--see post below.
Posted by Captain Future at 1:12 AM No comments:
Labels: BK photo, mall as place, mall photos
A Sunny Saturday at Bayshore Mall
Autumn is the sunniest time of year here on the California North Coast, and this Saturday was very sunny--but the warmth of the sun was cut by the occasional cold breeze, so clearly this was one of the last summery days of the year.
So people were out, everywhere we went on our errands--including at Bayshore Mall in Eureka. As chronicled in a local cover story, it's much beleaguered these days. But on Saturday it was humming. At first I thought it was because the one new bright spot--a new department store--was opening, and sure enough, there were long lines at Kohl's checkouts. But people were out everywhere--at Costco, Eureka's only Big Box, and at the small yarn shop in Arcata where clerks said it was the busiest day they could remember.
People were in a good mood, too. I saw shoppers at Costco coax a young woman with only two items ahead of them in one of the long lines. There seemed to be differences, though. The yarn shop saw its known clientele--just more of them in one day than usual. Costco shoppers were friendly and chatty, but it was all about the stuff. The mall was more of a social center. Shoppers in the stores, but in the mallways there were the teenagers in groups, the couples of all ages, families.
Perhaps the biggest difference, though, was the age and race mix at Bayshore Mall. The fastest-growing segment of Eureka's population is Mexican, and there were a lot of Spanish-speakers at Costco, too, but even more ethnic and age variety at the mall. Native American kids from Hoopa, wearing identifying shirts. A junior high age Latina in a t-shirt that said, "To the haters, thanks for all the love."
This is a big difference from the first days of shopping malls in general, when they were almost exclusively white. Now the greatest variety of ethnic groups, ages, incomes, etc. is most obvious at Bayshore Mall.
I haven't been to Bayshore Mall at Christmastime in a few years, but someone who had said that it was even busier this Saturday. One is tempted to see a counter-trend of optimism to the continuing upward climb of the California unemployment rate, but maybe it's more pent-up demand. Or just a sunny Saturday afternoon.
I don't know that it says much about the future of the mall, either, but clearly this mall isn't dead yet. It's still a place people like to go and to be.
Labels: mall as place, mall future
This is a model of Xanadu, the mega-mall under construction in New Jersey during what seems to be doom time for the shopping mall. Is it? See the post below.
Labels: mall future
Sustainable Doom
Once again, the shopping mall is doomed. The death knell has been sounded periodically since the 1980s, even before The Malling of America was first published. Now the sudden and still continuing destruction/reinvention of the financial system and the severe downturn in the American and world economy--the Great Recession--seems to make it certain.
Time Magazine hangs its obituary on the bad timing of Xanadu, the megamall-amusement complex under construction in the Meadowlands of New Jersey. It seems made to order: huge and--by several accounts, including New Jersey's governor--garish and ugly--it is so badly timed that if it did open this year, it would be the only major new mall to do so. (But it won't--the opening has been pushed into 2010.)
Meanwhile, Time quotes predictions that up to 3,000 other malls could close this year, as well as 73,000 retail stores before summer. Another obit in The Week adds more numbers: more than 400 of the 2,000 largest malls have closed in the past two years, and a new one hasn't opened since 2006.
So are they right? Is the shopping mall doomed? Not necessarily, but then I've always taken a different view of what the mall essentially is. As the kind of dominant retail hubs that shopping malls were in the 1980s, they've been fighting a losing battle to the Big Boxes for at least a decade. As new large retail developments that can be plopped down at any highway intersection, clearly those days have been over for awhile. What could be malled in America, mostly has been malled.
What the Great Recession does seem to signal is the end of the kind of psychotic consumerism that gripped this society with increasing frenzy over the past several decades. So as centers of retail that generate huge profits, malls may well be gone with the wind. But the Big Box complexes that have replaced malls in many places aren't going to find the going so easy either.
Many of these changes have been happening for awhile, and some malls have responded to them. The Mall of America in Minnesota--which itself got started during a downturn--merged retail with destination entertainment, which was one new trend, and also self-consciously became a more diversified hub for a community it in part defined. Its proposed expansion was largely non-retail.
But that's not exactly the model for the future either. Malls are malleable--they can adapt. The trends some were slowly adapting to are now likely to accelerate: namely the move away from highway dependence, and a new balance between retail and everything else, including low-profit or non-profit public services. Malls as nothing but artifice, artificially sustained, right down to plants in their gardens that didn't actually grow, are probably over. Malls, like everything else, will have to become sustainable.
Sooner or later, communities and perhaps companies are going to realize that they can do better by retrofitting their dead malls instead of abandoning them, or even better, transforming them while they are still alive. They will have to become part of the green economy, and not simply market rain forest awareness and recycling somewhere else.
And there probably still will be a place for a Xanadu--which is well-located in the New York metro area, and accessible by a new train line. After a few stutters, entertainment is flourishing, as it did in the Great Depression. That doesn't guarantee Xanadu will survive even long enough to open. But it has a chance.
So do malls all over America, if the degree of imagination is applied that the shopping mall's pioneers demonstrated when they began, and again when they went downtown. Probably new models of finance as well as new models of what a mall can be will be necessary. For all the reasons I wrote about in The Malling of America, malls served the needs of people, better than other places, despite their deficiencies. Malls always had a social reason to exist, and not just an economic one.
Labels: mall future, Malling of America (book)
Christmas at Ye Olde Shopping Mall: New traditions and even nostalgia now locate Christmas memories where, for better or worse, families have been going to celebrate as well as shop... for forty or fifty years.
Labels: Christmas at the mall
Mall Nostalgia: Recalling Christmas at Ye Olde Shopping Mall
In what’s shaping up to be a bleak Christmas, thoughts may naturally turn to better days gone by. Holidays often look happier in memory anyway, and since Christmas is so associated with childhood (your own or your children’s or grandchildren’s), the season inspires recollections of magical lights and displays, exciting street scenes and parades, and those first visits to Santa.
But one difference over the years has become: many of those fond memories took place in a shopping mall. Routinely berated as cold, indistinguishable and soulless madhouses of over-consumption, these enclosed behemoths have increasingly become the locations of happy, wistful—and important—memories.
Right now on the Internet, sites such as Livemalls.com and Malls of America.com celebrate days of malls gone by, while others, such as Labelscar.com keep current with fan-like devotion to detail. That so many malls have failed in recent years (catalogued on such sites as dead malls.com), or were otherwise transformed in the course of time, has added impetus to this mall nostalgia.
So people are online sharing their memories of Christmases past that might include toddling past the huge mall Christmas tree to tell Santa your secret desires in the Walker-Scott department store in the Escondido Village Mall, or staring at Santa amidst the splendor of a Colonial Christmas with trees decorated by students of local schools at Montclair Plaza, or dashing through the shaved-ice snow at Fallbrook Mall in West Hills, California.
Or riding the Christmas carousel at South Park in North Carolina, being dazzled by the red and green lights in the fountain at Jefferson Mall in Louisville, or standing uncertainly in front of the Talking Christmas Tree at Midway Mall in Elyria, Ohio.
Real old timers may recall Santa arriving at the Tacoma Mall by helicopter in 1965, or in a tank from the local military base (a traumatic event for one online commenter) at the Edgewater Plaza Mall in Biloxi, Mississippi; or snowballs dropping from Santa’s plane over Northland Plaza in Lima, Ohio in 1967.
There is at least one mall that is primarily associated with Christmas experiences, and it happens to be the mall I wrote about extensively in my book, The Malling of America. A website hosted by Dead Malls.com called Greengate Mall Memories includes over a hundred comments in its “Guest Book,” most of them with recollections sited in the mall, and many of them mentioning Christmas.
These memories are so strong partly for two reasons: because Christmas really was a very big deal at Greengate Mall, and because Greengate Mall is no more.
text continued after photos and in photo captions...
Posted by Captain Future at 11:03 PM 1 comment:
Photos I took of Greengate Mall in 1999, when it was nearly abandoned: (top) outside the old Hornes (later Lazarus) department store; inside at center court, the famous fountain; and in the floor near the fountain, the time capsule, buried in 1985 and scheduled to be opened in 2005, but which apparently "disappeared" during demolition. In it, among other things, was a signed copy of my book, The Malling of America. (click photos to enlarge.)
Posted by Captain Future at 9:47 PM No comments:
Labels: BK photo, Christmas at the mall, Greengate Mall (PA)
Greengate was built on land that had been part of a farm and summer home owned by the appropriately named John S. Sell family. (The place even had a name: Sellcroft.) This was an era when a lot of the fresh milk sold in Greensburg came from local dairies and dairy farms. The farm was just west of the town of Greensburg, along the two-lane Lincoln Highway, adjacent to the Mount Odin drive-in theatre.
Then the new four lane Route 30 was built through there, having bypassed the Greensburg downtown. The highway spawned new commercial and housing development, meaning that beginning in the early 60s, it bypassed downtown Greensburg. An early indicator was the K-Mart shopping center that replaced the Mount Odin drive-in.
Then came the first enclosed shopping mall in the county, Greengate Mall. Designed by Victor Gruen, the architect generally considered the inventor of the enclosed mall, it opened in 1965, and after decades of dominance and several troubled final years, it turned off the climate control in 2001 and closed. The building was demolished and a new Wal-Mart opened on the site in 2005.
Posted by Captain Future at 8:54 PM 2 comments:
Labels: Christmas at the mall, Greengate Mall (PA), Victor Gruen
Greengate Mall, center court Christmas display. Click photo to enlarge. BK photo.
Local news coverage about Greengate’s demise inevitably mentioned its Christmas events and elaborate decorations. (I’d written about the overnight process of setting up the center court tree and Nutcracker theme exhibit, surrounded by a child-sized train ride.) Christmas season at Greengate was popular with the surrounding communities for at least 30 years—long enough for some who experienced Christmas at the mall to bring their own child to do the same.
Many if not most of the comments at Greengate Mall Memories—over a hundred of them—mention Christmas recollections. These memories could be surprisingly specific. I’ve tried to match some of them with images I recently transferred from color slides, which I took at Greengate during the Christmas season of 1981.
Labels: Christmas at the mall, Greengate Mall (PA)
“I remember it was where I first told Santa what I wanted for Christmas,” said one. “I always loved going to Greengate Mall with my parents. It seemed like the holidays weren't the holidays unless we had our usual trip to the mall to sit on Santa’s lap.”
“I remember lights in the food court that would change colors (yellow, blue, green, etc) during Christmas as Charlie Brown music would play.” “There was a puppet show that kids would huddle around and watch.”
Many recalled riding the train through the snow-covered Christmas village. “I remember the animated deer with the jerky movements that built toys as kids rode through the display.” Another recalled a young adult perspective, of accompanying nieces and nephews, and watching “how big their eyes would be when they first walked into the center courtyard... Nothing made my parents more happy then seeing [the children] laugh as they went round and round on the train.”
The element of nostalgia is particularly evident in the frequency of comments such as: “Wow, nothing compares to it today.” A department store employee who met her husband there wrote, “We all have very fond memories of Greengate Mall. We especially miss the beautiful holiday decorations!” An ex-employee of another store who remembers “singing on the steps in center court in 1980 for Christmas” with a local high school choir, concludes: “Ahh - Christmas at Greengate Mall - it didn't get any better than that!!!”
When I was first writing about Greengate in the late 70s and early 80s, I often heard similar sentiments expressed about downtown Greensburg in the 50s and before: memories of shopping in the department stores and shops on Main Street, going from store to store in the falling snow, seeing friends and ducking into the Chat and Chew. But Greengate and other malls drew the department stores away from Main Street, and Christmas along with it.
As the malling of America took hold, their size, their concentration on consumption and their sudden omnipresence alarmed many, and their formulaic resemblances to each other brought the malls a lot of scorn. But lost in broad-brush critiques, as justified as they might be on many grounds, was the social and cultural roles many malls played, often defining their own communities.
Then they simply lasted, and thanks partly to years of shared experiences, the local shopping mall often became a real place. And so they became part of memories, and now, of nostalgia. A woman who remembers Greengate as a child (“at Christmas especially. It was wonderful”) has since moved away but visits family in the area every Christmas. She writes: “I'm sad the mall is gone. I would have loved to take a trip down memory lane there by taking my son to ride the holiday train I rode so long ago.”
Christmas is still being experienced at hundreds of malls, and thousands of photos taken with Santa. But even before the latest economic blows, malls were under serious assault by Big Box developments, chiefly Wal-Marts. After decades when not a single regional mall failed, many began to fade, and some (like Greengate) were demolished. Now retail sales so far in this Christmas shopping season are plummeting, and some retail companies are endangered. One mall developer (General Growth) already faces bankruptcy.
But all is not lost for those with mall nostalgia. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, more than a dozen abandoned malls are being transformed into mixed-use projects, with housing, parks and public services as well as retail. Many malls with empty storefronts typically turn to recreation and public services to fill the space, and White Flint mall near Bethesda, Maryland used community-oriented events and organizations (the local Academy of Performing Arts) to increase traffic, and in the process revived itself as a retail destination. One key event was a Christmas celebration. Christmas magic, it seems, does not require total concentration on consumerism.
But will future generations remember instead a beloved Big Box Christmas? There are many reasons why is this unlikely, but the short answer is: maybe—but not quite yet. Some who rhapsodized Greengate castigated the Wal-Mart and related shops that replaced it. One called it “a soul-less development that could be in Anywhere, USA.” That of course is what used to be said of malls.
Big Box Reuse: an inspiring, important book about transforming abandoned retail spaces for crucial public uses (or at least public fun.)
Labels: books, public purpose, wal-mart
Big Box Reuse
by Julia Christensen
This is a wonderful, inspiring book--all the more so because it is meticulously reported and cogently written. But it's also wonderful and inspiring because of the people who made all these projects happen.
The book is about 10 projects in various parts of America that took abandoned Big Box buildings (usually Wal-Marts and some K-Marts) and transformed them for public uses--as a courthouse, children's or senior center, school, library, health center, museum, and in one case, a new wrinkle on a public market.
These buildings were abandoned not because there was anything wrong with them, but mostly because that's what Wal-Mart does: it builds a big store to create a market, then abandons it to build an even bigger store close by, to expand the market. Using jobs and business generation as bait, Wal-Mart often gets municipalities to provide land and roads for reduced or no cost, loans and a deal on sales taxes, with promises of later repayment and/or tax revenues--by which time they're long gone.
So it is more than poetic justice that retail buildings sited and built with public funds eventually get re purposed to serve the public. But it's not easy or quick. It takes a lot of public and private perseverance, ingenuity and hard work.
For example, the Wal-Mart that eventually became the Centralia Senior Resource Center in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. Once the long process of imagining how to use this building, designing it and getting the community to accept and even love the idea was all begun, a deal had to be struck with Wal-Mart, which made some compromises but eventually made money on the deal, as well as getting the money it owed the town forgiven. Though the Wal-Mart company was more giving in other projects described here, it was Wal-Mart workers who rose to this occasion, by donating their time to the project and forcing the company to contribute. Eventually there were over 900 names of contributors on a wall in the resulting complex, which has become a center not only for seniors but for the entire community.
For me, this and others like it --the Head Start Center in Hastings, Nebraska, and the charter schools in Buffalo, New York and Laramie, Wyoming --are the most heartwarming and hopeful stories. Of the library project, one participant said, "It honestly would probably be easier to count the people in this town who didn't help."
The more colorful projects may attract other readers more, like the indoor raceway in Round Rock, Texas or the Spam Museum (the kind in the can) in Austin, Minnesota, or the Peddler's Mall in Kentucky. Christensen does the work of a scholar in describing the projects, the design issues, the outcomes, and adds enough voices of participants to provide a sense of personalities. But it is her clear and judicious prose that brings this book to life.
There's a web site of photos and some information, but the book is the thing: hefty but sturdy, with friendly type on good strong paper, with well presented images. Well-written and well published, Big Box Reuse is a pleasure as well as an important book.
When Black Friday Comes
When Black Friday comes, I stand down near the door
and catch the great men when they dive from the 14th floor.
When Black Friday comes, I call in everything I'm owed
and before my friends find out, I'll be on the road....
--Black Friday by Steeley Dan
Black Friday--the day after Thanksgiving-- got its ironic title in recent years because as one of the biggest shopping days of the most important shopping season of the year, it was the day that retailers went into the black.
This year, as expected, not so much. If it wasn't quite Black Friday in the old sense of doom, initial reports interpreted the data as not promising, and particularly, retailers were still seeing red. Already discounting, it seems they weren't slashing prices quite enough for consumers, willing (or perhaps needing) to wait.
If this shopping season is the nadir, it's been moving in that direction for several years, at least according to expectations--and expectations tend to become needs for those corporate investors who figure in the original Black Friday of the stock market. So come January, a number of major retailers may be holding going out of business sales.
But despite the pain and problems, some kind of adjustment is long overdue. Growth in sales and profits, artificially inflated over the years by marketing, easy credit cards, near-slave labor and other ethically questionable practices, could not continue indefinitely. It's all contributed to changing us, and not always for the better.
Part of what that means is evoked by the Black Friday incident of shoppers trampling to death a Long Island Wal-Mart employee in their frenzy to get into the store as he opened the door. The Washington Post reported further that: "Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said."
What combination of greed and desperation could lead to behavior like that? Black Friday indeed.
It's likely that we're just beginning to feel the effects of the current economic turmoil, which may well result in a lot more unemployment, lost investments and economic insecurity in the coming year. But if this Black Friday is the symbolic nadir of the consumer age, January 20 may be the beginning of a positive transformation.
We have become a society out of balance in so many ways. In America we are consumers but not producers. The excesses of advertising and marketing, together with the dumbing down that helped to make them effective, have compromised our ability to communicate honestly about matters of importance. The resources consumed by our consumption have thrown our planet into dire peril, and weakened what ultimately sustains all life, including ours.
But in this election we have endorsed the changes we need, and hired the leadership to make those changes. Now we can help to build a more balanced society and economy, with cleaner and sustainable energy systems and practices. Besides buying separately, we can work together. The malls of America can house public services as well as private enterprise.
It doesn't have to be either/or, all or nothing. But as one age is dying, another is being born. It won't be easy or painless, but we can be part of it, help to shape it, and save the future.
Labels: consumerism, Consuming the Future
Abandoned Greengate Mall in western PA, a few years before it was torn down. BK photo.
Labels: BK photo, Greengate Mall (PA)
The Wasting of America
In sites all over the Internet, the shopping mall has become an item of nostalgia. I understand how malls can inspire these feelings, but when so many of these cherished malls are no more, this devotion is a sign of the shopping mall's decline.
There are lots of abandoned malls that aren't necessarily cherished, but there is still lots of fascination--at Dead Malls and other sites-- with these once-gleaming and still huge spaces becoming ghostly edifices and deteriorating ruins of a dissipating consumer culture. (There's more analysis than nostalgia however at the Label Scar site.)
There are lots of reasons for these mall failures (this article on the De-Malling of America suggests some) but while some closings are due to overbuilding and bad business practices, competition from Big Box stores and other outlets, etc., there are now significant, more general economic pressures that are likely to result in even more failures.
First there were the spikes in gasoline prices and now a global economy still falling like dominoes. In the U.S., the collapse of the housing market, financial system meltdown, corporate failures, rising unemployment, etc. are already being expressed in disastrous retail sales, and the Christmas shopping season is supposed to be underway.
Change has always been part of the shopping mall industry, and many malls have transformed themselves. Re-purposing old malls is not a bad thing--often they include more public services, and build on the sense that they were always community centers. (Some similar projects are catalogued at Big Box Reuse.)
But it's the abandoned malls that really tell the story of how this particular consumerist era is ending. Because many of these malls were simply abandoned long before any economic downturn. Following the practice of Wal-Mart, some were simply emptied and left behind for bigger malls at supposedly better locations. Wal-Mart has made a science out of such waste, because it is in a sense pre-planned. They build a market with one size store, then expand the market with a bigger store at a nearby location, perhaps in a different jurisdiction that will provide them with tax breaks and free access roads before they are required to start paying taxes from the old store.
I'm told that Florida, for example, is littered with abandoned malls of this kind, just as lots of places are littered with abandoned Wal-Marts. This was not the result of recession but of excess, a symptom of greed over any other value. To generate, attract and feed consumption, there was no conscience about consuming resources, taking land that might have been part of an ecosystem or at least green space, and leaving it a few years later as a heap of broken concrete, toxic chemicals and waste--and then moving on to do the same thing again to an even larger plot of land. Not to mention what these behemoths did to the existing web of businesses and their relationships in the community.
This was part of the wasting of America, contributing to a legacy that will haunt us for decades to come. But this grim end to the consumer culture may yet be redeemed. If we are lucky and smart, we are entering a new era which balances so-called private enterprise with public enterprise--with a sustained effort, involving millions of Americans, to modernize our common infrastructure, to transform our systems of creating and distributing energy as part of renewable, sustainable, super-efficient systems.
A Green Deal for a green economy may well be in our future, and soon. We have a new president who is also dedicated to fostering new public values: not selfishness but service, not 'you're on your own' but 'we're all in this together.'
When the shopping malls that so many people remember with fondness were being designed and built, America had a greater balance of corporate and government, of private and public, and especially of rich and not rich. There was a real, robust middle class.
We're not going back to that America, but we can find new ways to get that balance back, to get the middle class back, so that opportunity is real, and we aren't destroying what ultimately sustains us--like our natural resources, our common air and water, the rest of life, and our planet.
Victor Gruen had a dream: that America needed beautiful places that would foster community, where people could share efforts and ideas as well as pleasures. That was his idea of the mall's purpose. Beauty was essential to that idea, and so was commerce. In the thousands of shopping malls that were built in the next few decades, commerce was paramount and beauty--if it existed at all--was often accidental. But people do remember at least some of those malls as the centers of their communities. So there is hope that malls can be that again.
We're always going to want to buy things, and enjoy the process. But malls are going to have to provide more than that. They're going to have to be different than they are or have ever been. Above all, they can't be causes and symptoms of the wasting of America anymore. That kind of America has no future.
Labels: consumerism, Consuming the Future, Victor Gruen
As products get crappier, malls get gaudier, especially
for upscale buyers, and especially overseas. This is
one section of several theme areas in a mall in Dubai.
Labels: consumerism, e-waste, mall photos
This summer required our household to consider some major purchases, and it was an eye-opener. It began modestly, but with portent: the old microwave gave out. The next one lasted about a week--among its defects, the light stopped working. We took that one back, exchanged it for a different brand. That one took several weeks for the light to go out. We don't much like it, it's pretty shoddy and beat up already, but it doesn't seem we'll get anything better even if we try.
Then the stove developed a glitch that involved it turning the oven on all by itself for up to a few minutes. When this began to happen more frequently, we consulted two repair people, who diagnosed it as caused by two different problems, but came up with the same price for fixing it--which was nearly the price of an identical new stove.
Our stove was about four or five years old, but salespeople of new stoves told us that these days that's all they last: five years. I admit to coming from a generation in which gas stoves lasted 20 or 30 years. Refrigerators lasted almost as long, and again we were advised not to expect too much of our new one.
I realize that new appliances have new features designed to be more energy efficient, which might increase the initial cost. But why would it affect how long they last? We also had trouble finding appliances without additional bells and whistles we didn't want or need.
As we all know by now, practically everything we buy is now made in China or some other place overseas, beyond our health and safety laws. But add to that this fairly shocking shoddiness, and we understand some of the consequences of ceding our industries. It's also a predictable consequence of the Wal-Mart- China alliance and the fixation on lowering costs, which now goes way beyond Wal-Mart to most of the products available to other retailers.
American consumers, consumed by low prices and with no thought of the waste involved, are also to blame. When Wal-Mart figured out that if they sold lawn mowers at a low enough price, it wouldn't matter that they lasted but one summer. Consumers would just come back and buy another one the following spring. Let the landfills fill up. Let future generations worry about it.
It's a psychology that in a somewhat different way also affects a somewhat different segment: cutting-edge electronics. I've also been shopping for an Ipod type MP3 player, and I liked what I saw about a new Creative Zen player. But scanning the reviews on Amazon, I saw a question about the battery--could it be replaced? The answer was, no. But it would last two or maybe three years, and by then, you'd want a new player anyway. This response was not written by the manufacturer or retailer, but by a consumer.
Now I can guess that because this player is so small that its battery is simply built into it. But the attitude that a two or three hundred dollar device is expected to last for no more than a couple of years is appalling.
But what is really disturbing is the attitude that throwing this stuff away at that rate has no consequences. The millions of discarded cell phones alone are creating environmental havoc. We are being polluted and poisoned by e-waste at a fantastic rate. Well, not we consumers so much right now--a lot of this is shipped off to poison people who can't afford to buy any of it. But our ground water, our land and air are all inevitably at risk.
All for...junk.
Labels: consumerism, Consuming the Future, e-waste
Chosen!
When I published a new paperback edition/revision of my book, THE MALLING OF AMERICA, I became part of a new publishing phenomenon: print-on-demand. Several outfits, including Xlibris (where I published) offer books through primarily online booksellers, and when the orders come in, the books are printed and sent. It's digital age publishing, and for certain books and authors, it's great.
But these days, it's marketing that drives the publishing business. Conventional publishers market and publicize only a few of their books, usually to see that those that would do well anyway, do even better. But even big name publishers employ marketing and p.r. firms, and most of their authors must do most of their own publicity, and even hire p.r. and marketing firms themselves.
Still, getting your book noticed is a particular problem for those who "self-publish" through these print-on-demand companies, and so they often offer marketing services for additional fees, and there are independent companies that can be hired to do this work as well.
So after I published my paperback, I've been contacted from time to time both by Xlibris and these independent companies. Usually they offer to do things I've already done, or give me access to being reviewed in publications where reviews of my book have already appeared. (Not much point in offering me possible access to Kirkus reviews when I was already reviewed there, and in a full page review in the New York Times as well as the San Francisco Chronicle, etc.) But recently I received a unique offer--and an eye-opening one.
It came from an outfit called Chosen Few Books. At the top of the letter in headline-sized type were the words: The Malling of America has been chosen! The special meaning of "being chosen" is quickly "revealed" in the letter's first sentence: "Every year Christian authors write hundreds of inspiring and uplifting books." I'm sure that's true, but what does it have to do with my book?
"THE CHOSEN FEW is a limited collection of Christian titles that we believe deserve special attention. We discovered you and The Malling of America only because we were seeking books with powerful messages that we believe will sell."
I could rationalize ways in which my book could be read as having a message that comports with a Christian message of charity, tolerance and moral values. But it seems more likely that this letter was sent without anyone there having the slightest idea of what my book is about.
That much would simply be either touching or amusing or both. But then I took a look at what they were offering. There were the standard promises: book and author photo on their website, selling the book through websites and online booksellers (where it is already available), etc. But here's what caught my eye:
"We will guarantee an interview on a Christian AM/FM radio show."
And in bold:
We will guarantee an interview on a nationally syndicated AM/FM radio show.
For these and other services, they charge a fee of $2700. Which my perhaps creaky sense of ethical practices tells me, is for Christian payola.
For those unfamiliar with the word, "payola" was a term for record companies paying disk jockeys to play certain records in the 1950s, which led to congressional hearings and ended some careers. Things have slipped sufficiently now that many people may be surprised that according to the official radio and television code of ethics, an "interview" that's guaranteed by paying for it is unethical if not illegal, unless the radio program specifically states that it is a paid commercial.
I'm certainly not against giving potential readers the opportunity to buy my book, or to hear about it. (That should be obvious from this site.) But there are rules, or there should be.
Although I have to say that if I had $2700 to throw away, it might be fascinating to hear the questions of that interviewer, trying to figure out what the powerful Christian message of my book might be. I could point to the chapter near the end where I write about commercial media as part of the Mallcondo Continuum of controlled entertainment environments designed as simultaneous advertising and product. I could offer as an example, that very interview. Although perhaps that wouldn't be a very Christian thing to do.
Posted by Captain Future at 11:36 PM 2 comments:
Predictably Irrational:
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
By Dan Ariely
Harpercollins; 304 pages; $25.95.
Call me crazy, but I’ve always thought the axiom of academic economics that says our decisions, especially buying decisions, are based on rational choice is itself irrational. Counter-examples are rife in most of world literature, movies and TV shows, as well as psychology since 1890 and the entire advertising industry, which is not notable for critiques appealing to pure reason.
There’s abundant evidence, including books from Vance Packard’s 1957 The Hidden Persuaders to Douglas Rushkoff's 1999 Coercion to Martin Howard’s 2005 We Know What You Want that advertisers and retailers thrive on pushing non-rational buttons, as have con artists peddling snake oil, pyramid schemes, Florida land, phony stocks and fake charities, from antiquity to the Internet.
But apparently it takes an official Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT like Dan Ariely to suggest that “we are really far less rational than standard economic theory assumes. Moreover, these irrational behaviors of ours are neither random nor senseless. They are systematic, and since we repeat them again and again, predictable.”
In this book, Ariely describes experiments that pertain to general conclusions (“Why we often pay too much when we pay nothing,” “why we can’t make ourselves do what we want to do,” “why options distract us from our main objective,” etc.), and then offers extrapolations of why these tendencies are important. He then offers ideas on how to get ourselves under more rational control, individually and by changing organizational or societal structures.
Some of his research I found eye-opening, particularly the experiments involving the suggestibility that words can have. In one experiment, Asian-American women took a math exam. Half were given a preliminary questionnaire with innocuous survey questions that related to gender (opinions on coed dorms, etc); the other half, questions relating to their racial heritage (family history, etc.) The women who got the race-related survey did better on the subsequent math exam than the women who got the gender-related survey, apparently confirming the stereotypes of women as bad in math, and Asian-Americans as smart in math, as suggested just by the topic of whichever survey they were given.
Another group was given a scrambled-sentence puzzle with words “priming the concept of the elderly,” such as “Florida, bingo, ancient.” Then when they were dismissed, they walked more slowly down the corridor than members of a control group. They weren’t, Ariely notes, “themselves elderly people being reminded of their frailty—they were undergraduate students at NYU.” Yet another experiment found that after being asked to list the Ten Commandment—or when they were reminded of the Honor Code they’d agreed to-- subjects were more honest.
Other topics include how we judge (and misjudge) relative value, the power of placebos, the power of price (more ailments are allegedly cured when the subject believes the medicine is expensive), and the gently subversive idea that market forces don’t always regulate the market for the best outcomes.
Most chapters frame the information in terms of the kind of decision-making processes many of us go through in choosing what or whether to buy, though usually in more simplified form than the bewildering blitz of options, questions and information we contend with these days. Since this book is meant for a wide readership, the style is pleasantly conversational and personal, though jargon is sometimes replaced by cliché.
Ariely’s conclusions sometimes make good sense to me, like bundling preventive health care procedures to combat procrastination. But some seem to be too limited in terms of what questions the research suggests, and others too broad. His general assertions—that we tend to underestimate the role of the irrational in our perceptions and decisions, and that if we have some idea of how we are irrational, we’re less helpless and can assert more conscious control—are useful principles to repeat. Even if they’re not at all new ideas, they could well be new to readers of this book.
While Ariely’s stated goal is to understand the decision-making processes behind behavior—“yours, mine and everybody else’s” he may be overreaching in the applicability of his conclusions.“We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains,” he writes, but he presents no evidence of this causal relationship. It depends on his behavioral experiments being universal. The experiments he presents support the irrationality part of his argument, but I don’t buy the universal predictability of all their specific findings. While these experiments take place in California, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina and so on, they rarely get off campus, and the experimental subjects (at least the ones he describes) are almost always university students.
That’s a specific demographic group that marketing psychologists study very closely, and pitch their products to in ways that don’t work with other—especially older—consumers. There are several conclusions that Ariely makes (the decisive role of image among peers when choosing food at a restaurant, or the “irrational impulse to chase worthless options” in a game, for instance) that could be quite different according to age or even income and social class. And that’s without even attempting to assess the experiment involving young men, Playboy magazines and a Saran wrap-covered laptop.
In any case the accounts of these experiments are useful as cautionary tales and examples inspiring academic as well as water cooler discussion. As for Ariely’s basic conclusion, addressed as this question—“Wouldn’t economics make a lot more sense if it were based on how people actually behave, instead of how they should behave?”—hey, aren’t those economists wild?
Update: This review now appears in the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Book Review.
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The Malling of America
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Reciprocal Relationships
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The Athlete of the Year recognition is awarded to one male long track athlete and one female long track athlete who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to success during the season.
The Athlete of the Year recognition is awarded to one male short track athlete and one female short track athlete who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to success during the season.
Any speed skater or speed skating team who wins a gold, silver or bronze medal at a Winter Olympic Games, wins a senior or junior World Championship title, wins an overall World Cup title, or sets an officially recognized Olympic, senior or junior World Record will automatically be recorded on the Honour Roll of the Speed Skating Canada Hall of Fame.
This trust fund in memory of Peter Williamson, an Olympian, coach and technical director, offers two annual bursaries of $1,500 each to deserving and promising skaters.
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How ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ got people talking about colorism
Tahirah Hairston
Survivor's Remorse, loosely based on the life of NBA champion and executive producer LeBron James, is one of television's most underrated shows. The Starz comedy, about a basketball player who gets drafted into the NBA and moves his entire family from Boston to Atlanta, doesn't portray black athletes in a way that's fit for reality TV or rooted in stereotypes. Instead, the show thrives with a nuanced and sometimes politically incorrect humor and uses satire to poke fun at the media and sports industry. And while the show explores how Cam Calloway (Jessie T. Usher) grapples with the wealth and responsibility that come with being an NBA player, it’s the black women in his life who are his support system and ultimately guide him into the decisions he makes.
While the women on the show call the shots, there weren’t any women directors behind the scenes in the first two seasons, save for one episode directed by Debbie Allen. That was until the show’s creator Mike O’Malley put out a call on social media for women of color directors and added Millicent Shelton, Victoria Mahoney, and Geeta Patel to the roster for this season.
"This isn't an accident or serendipity," Mahoney told me in a phone interview. "They hunted down our voices." She said that Ava DuVernay passed her name along, and then she got a call.
In its three-season run, Survivor's Remorse has created dialogue around significant topics like death, domestic violence, racism, gender equality, and—with Sunday’s episode—colorism. With the discussions around Zoe Saldana's casting as Nina Simone, Jesse William's "light-skinned" privilege, and a dating app for black people where you can pick suitors based on complexion and hair texture, this episode couldn't have come at a better time. It tackles more than the surface-based conversation of light-skinned versus dark-skinned and digs into what happens when you are in position of power to control the narrative and create visibility in the mainstream beauty spectrum for black women.
I talked with the director Victoria Mahoney (Yelling To The Sky) and writer Ali LeRoi (Everybody Hates Chris) about their own experience with colorism and the importance of exploring this issue in entertainment.
This episode finds Reggie’s (Cam's cousin and manager) wife Missy (Teyonah Parris) heading up a fancy magazine shoot, for which she specifically picks a darker-skinned model to pose with Cam in an attempt to negate the idea that professional black athletes only date women who are white or of a lighter complexion. The shoot doesn’t go exactly as planned when the original model lands a gig at Vogue and a lighter-skinned model named Trina is hired in her place. Missy fires Trina and the two women have heated argument about privilege and representation.
“All I know if that my whole life women who like you have been winning. Today, I could put someone that looked like me, and I did," Missy tells the model. "So you think the way you look should work in your favor? That is the most light-skinned shit ever.”
“But don’t you see we’re in the same boat? If the boat sinks you think because I’m light-skinned I won’t drown?" Trina says. "I thought that God had created this job for me. He gave another model the one you hired, who is my friend by the way, a job for Vogue. God created two doors, and this door was for me. But I guess I don’t have enough color for you. This was a huge job for me. The exposure would lead to more work.”
Writer Ali LeRoi pointed out how, in this scenario, Missy doesn't even recognize her own privilege and power. “In a functional sort of way, she’s not even respecting her own position in that conversation. She is experiencing some form of privilege and has some form of power and she’s taken this opportunity to right some wrong that she’s experienced, yet is this the right time? And is this the right way?” LeRoi said. “I think a lot of time as individuals we just like to approach problems for what would be best for us singularly if everything were to go our way and we don’t really care how it impacts someone else. And I think that’s really what that show is about.”
Should a woman of color who isn’t the exact complexion you intended for a magazine spread be fired based on your personal pains? Should a woman of color gracing the cover of a magazine feel like less of a win because she is of a lighter complexion? There isn’t one right answer.
"Everything was so deeply considered and discussed in advance [during the episode's production]. You can’t have a discussion like this, that’s this weighted and that could injure either side of the discussion and not handle it with acute care,” Mahoney told me. “I walked in deeply, deeply conscious about every single word and sentence that was uttered. It was a group effort, and that includes Logan Browning and Teyonah Parris who were also wonderfully a part of carving that particular scene.”
Colorism is a still very much relevant, complex, and touchy subject that exists in multiple communities but is rooted in the ideology of white supremacy. In 1988, when Spike Lee released School Daze, a movie about HBCUs, Greeks, and the power and privilege one is allotted based on skin tone, it was met with hostility for exposing the dirty laundry within the black community. “The idea that we keep things secret in storytelling doesn’t advance humanity in anyway," Mahoney said. "I’m not saying an episode of Survivor's Remorse is trying to advance humanity in the massive scope but I am very, very clear that this particular episode of Survivor's Remorse was interested in inviting a discussion. Today, audiences are extremely vocal about wanting to have their life experiences reflected. People say that audiences weren’t as vocal before, but that’s because they didn’t have a platform to clap back.”
This conversation has expanded on screen. In 2011 and 2015, Bill Duke released the documentaries Dark Girls and Light Girls, exploring colorism in black America from the perspectives of women. In an episode of Girlfriends where Toni Childs (Jill Marie Jones) stops dating a guy because he is too “black,” Lynn (Persia White) delivers the best line: “It’s our different skin tones that keep the white man perplexed.” And on Being Mary Jane, Mary Jane’s niece confesses that she was proud that her daughter’s father was Filipino because that meant her child would be “pretty” and “have light skin and an easier life.”
There have long been apparent prejudices around skin tone surrounding the casting of black actors and actresses: according to Hollywood tropes, lighter skin means more desirable and beautiful, while darker skin means loud, aggressive, and not sexy. We've even seen this bias reflected on television shows created by people of color, like in the differences between Pam and Gina on Martin. It's something that How to Get Away With Murder star Viola Davis touched on last year:
…when you do see a woman of color onscreen, the paper-bag test is still very much alive and kicking. That’s the whole racial aspect of colorism: If you are darker than a paper bag, then you are not sexy, you are not a woman, you shouldn’t be in the realm of anything that men should desire.
It's something Dope star Kiersey Clemmons discussed in May, saying, "We have set up this idea of what beauty is and that's why there's only one Lupita. There should be dozens of Lupitas."
It's something even Queen Bey benefits from. “Beyoncé just put out Lemonade and she’s upset with Becky With The Good Hair, but to a legion of black women she is Becky With The Good Hair,” said LeRoi.
Like every episode of Survivor’s Remorse, this wasn’t a pandering lesson about the effects of colorism, but instead an open-ended discussion that felt honest and human. Both Trina and Missy had valid point of views that mirror a real discussion that might happen behind the scenes when it comes to women of color casting women of color for photoshoots and television shows and the importance of representing all skin tones.
LeRoi and Mahoney both helped the episode feel authentic because of their own experiences with colorism. Mahoney got backlash about her skin tone from both white people and black people. It was part of the reason she became a storyteller on film.
“I was eagerly seeking to figure out what the hell was going on because it was so permanent and unending. It was every time I left my house, it was always this thing about my skin tone and it seemed to always bother people one way or another it was a deficit to their existence,” Mahoney said. “I can see when I walk into a room who was awkward because of height, who is awkward because of hair color, who is awkward because of body weight, who is awkward because of skin color. I was able to identify and connect with people in that awkwardness and somehow the other stuff just stripped away. No matter what color people are, no matter what class, gender, LGBTQ whatever it was I found a way to just connect to the thing inside of them of where that dagger landed and that’s where we had a human exchange and that’s where I found a sense of strength instead of weakness about this perceived thing coming at me.”
Tahirah Hairston is a style writer from Detroit who likes Susan Miller, Rihanna's friend's Instagram accounts, ramen and ugly-but cute shoes.
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Patriots owner Robert Kraft faces soliciting prostitution charges in Florida
Charles Robinson and Pete Thamel
February 22, 2019, 11:58 AM ·2 min read
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft faces misdemeanor charges of soliciting prostitution in Florida.
Kraft was charged Friday on two counts of solicitation, police said.
A law enforcement source told Yahoo Sports that video evidence prompted the charges against Kraft.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Kraft said, “We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity. Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further.”
Police say Kraft was swept up in expansive sting launched by multiple departments, aimed at breaking up an alleged prostitution and sex-trafficking ring at massage parlors in several counties in central Florida. The sting centered on multiple parlors and at least two women identified as co-conspirators in the operation. Kraft is alleged to have engaged in illegal activity at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, located in Jupiter, in two different visits.
In the broader investigation, police allege that some of the women were forced to become sex workers after obtaining work permits after emigrating from China.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy, after the NFL Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. The Patriots won 13-3. (AP)
The probe also involved the execution of at least eight search warrants and the seizure of cash and property assets valued in the millions. Kraft’s charges, according to authorities, was centered on simple solicitation.
Kraft, 77, has been the principal owner of the Patriots since 1994, shepherding the franchise to one of the best runs in NFL history. That has included six Super Bowl titles, including the latest in February. He’s revered in New England for saving the Patriots from moving out of the region, as well as his family’s myriad philanthropic endeavors.
He’s regarded as the of the NFL’s elite owners, as shown by his selection to the NFL chairmen’s committee in August of 2016. That puts him in a select group of owners with Clark Hunt of the Chiefs, John Mara of the Giants, and Art Rooney II in Pittsburgh.
“The NFL is aware of the ongoing law enforcement matter and will continue to monitor developments,” the league said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
Kraft’s wife, Myra, died in 2011. According to The Boston Globe, he has been in a relationship described as “on-again, off-again” with Ricki Noel Lander. Kraft denied in a statement in March of last year that he’s the biological father of Lander’s baby.
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Ravens Wire
Bills beat Ravens, 17-3: Instant analysis
The Baltimore Ravens had little go right for them in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs against the Buffalo Bills.
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HomeSt. Louis Cardinals“Experimental man” Seth Maness about to become a lab subject for a second time
“Experimental man” Seth Maness about to become a lab subject for a second time
April 16, 2019 Rob Rains St. Louis Cardinals 0
Seth Maness did not start out playing baseball wanting to be a Guinea pig.
Yet, for the second time in his career, the former Cardinals reliever is about to enter the lab as one of the subjects doing just that.
The lab is this case is the independent Atlantic League. Maness has signed on to pitch for the High Point, N.C., Rockers this season, a new team in the league which went through its first pre-season workout on Tuesday and will begin the season later this month.
Through an affiliation with major league baseball, the Atlantic League is becoming a testing ground for many of the rules executives are thinking about implementing in the coming years.
“Maybe this falls right in line with me being the experimental man,” Maness said in a telephone interview.
Maness’s first experience with becoming a trailblazer occurred three years ago when he underwent surgery for an elbow injury which traditionally would have required a ligament transfer known as the “Tommy John” procedure.
The procedure, now only partly in jest known as the “Seth Maness surgery” did not involve transferring a ligament into his right elbow as is the case with the Tommy John surgery, an operation that usually keeps pitchers sidelined for close to 18 months.
This new procedure involves reattaching and reinforcing the torn ligament in the elbow, which significantly reduces the recovery time. Maness had the surgery, perfomed by the Cardinals’ team doctor, Dr. George Paletta, in August of 2016. He was back pitching in a Triple A game on May 1 – nine months after the surgery.
Maness made that appearance for the Royals’ top farm team and made eight major-league appearances in 2017. He finished the year back in Triple A and was released a month into last season, but the reason had nothing to do with the health of his elbow, Maness said.
“I can’t blame that (the surgery) at all,” Maness said. “It was more just me not executing my pitches. I was very pleased with the surgery. My elbow felt great and worked great and I was able to stay healthy.”
For whatever reason, Maness did not find any teams wanting to sign him last summer after he was released by the Royals, which led him to sign with the High Point team, located about a 75-minute drive from where he grew up and about three hours away from his current home in Wilmington, N.C.
“I just kept my head down and kept working and decided this was going to be the best route,” Maness said. “I’m ready to go and see what happens. … My biggest thing, and the whole reason for playing, is to try to get picked back up by an affiliated team. Hopefully I am going to do everything in my ability to get another shot.
“I want to know that at the end of the day I did everything within my power and if it doesn’t work out then, hey, there are plenty of other things out there.”
When the 30-year-old Maness signed with the Rockers the agreement between MLB and the Atlantic League to field-test some of the proposed new rules had not been completed.
“I still wanted to play and had the drive to compete again and try to prove myself again,” he said.
Maness said he probably would still have signed to pitch in the league even with the knowledge of the rules changes, but he is taking a wait-and-see attitude about how the new rules impact the game.
“I’m kind of old school when it comes to changing the game,” he said. “I like how it was played for years. I’m not sure about all of these changes.”
The two biggest proposed rules changes affecting Maness and the rest of the pitchers in the Atlantic League will be the implementation of robotic-assistance for umpires in calling balls and strikes. That is supposed to be phased in during the course of the season.
“I heard the umpire might wear an ear piece and get a beep if it’s a strike but I think he still has final judgment,” Maness said.
The second rule change will keep teams from shifting, requiring that two infielders be on each side of second base when a pitch is thrown.
Maness did not have much experience with shifts during his major-league career, as they were just beginning to come into vogue at the time and were not as prevalent as they are now.
“From a pitching standpoint you really only remember it when it doesn’t work,” Maness said. “You kind of expect to turn around and when somebody’s not there you wonder what’s going on. When it does work you are like, ‘OK, that’s what’s supposed to happen.’
“I wasn’t studying every time I turned around where somebody was playing and trying to adjust where I was going to throw the pitch. It’s all about executing the pitch and trying to get the best results.”
As it turns out, the rule proposal that Maness was the most worried about, and the most controversial, has been delayed until at least next season – moving the pitching mound back two feet to 62 feet, 6 inches. The original plan was for that to go into effect the second half of this season.
“That’s great news,” Maness said about last week’s announcement. “I’m not sure I was ready for that.
“If they move the feet back two feet why would a scout watch me throw from 62 feet and want to sign me when that’s not what’s going to happen if I go back to affiliated ball? I really can’t see MLB agreeing to that.”
Among the other rules changes will be eliminating mound visits during an inning except to make a pitching change or because of an injury; increasing the size of the bases from 15 inches to 18 inches; requiring pitchers to face a minimum of three hitters unless he reaches the end of an inning, and shortening the time between innings by 20 seconds, to 1 minute, 45 seconds.
“They say it’s all about speeding up the game,” Maness said, “It’s going to be a trial and error. They are going to try it and see what happens and go from there.”
A couple of things Maness does know for sure that will happen this season is that he is going to be a starter for the Rockers instead of a reliever and one of his teammates, also a starting pitcher, will be his old college roommate at East Carolina.
“I really missed starting,” Maness said. “The first time I really relieved was when I got to St. Louis; I had always been a starter before. I like having the set schedule of knowing when I am going to be out there and feeling like you really have the game in your hands and being in control.”
Having his former roommate, Seth Simmons, on the team also is something Maness knows will make this a fun season.
“We were together from 2008 to 2011 but we never played against each other in the minors,” Maness said. “He got to Triple A with the Diamondbacks and Padres but we were always in different leagues. We always shot text messages back and forth and kept up with each other and it’s kind of cool that we will be back together.”
Maness is one of several former major-league pitchers on the rosters of the eight teams in the league, including two St. Louis-area products, Tim Melville and Ross Detwiler. Also scheduled to play in the league this year is former Cardinals’ catcher Cody Stanley, for the team in Sugar Land, Texas.
“Several people have told me not to come in here thinking it’s going to be a joke of a league,” Maness said. “It’s comparable to Double A and Triple A caliber. Guys in this league can play. If you come in thinking it’s going to be a cakewalk, you can get into trouble real quick.
“It’s possibly a last run for me. I’m just going to give them hell.”
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
Photos by AP courtesy of KSDK Sports
About Rob Rains 191 Articles
Rob Rains , who runs STLSportsPage.com was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, St. Louis Media HOF 2018, and is a former National League beat writer for USA Today’s Baseball Weekly. For three years he covered the Cardinals for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat until its demise in the 1980s. Rains was awarded the Freedom Forum Grant to teach Journalism for a year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State. Now based in St. Louis, Rains is often a guest on Frank Cusumano’s Pressbox Show on 590AM and has been writing books, magazine articles, and covers the Cardinals and Blues for STLSportsPage.com. He has written or co-written more than 30 books, most on baseball, including autobiographies or biographies of Ozzie Smith, Jack Buck, and Red Schoendienst. Rains volunteers his time helping run Rainbows for Kids, a 501 (c)(3) charity for families of children with cancer in the Greater St. Louis Area.
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What’s new this year at Busch Stadium?
Tuesday’s Game Report: Brewers 8, Cardinals 4
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St. Matthew Lutheran Church
Celebrating God's Love. Serving in Jesus' Name.
30 West Chestnut Street, Hanover PA 17331 (717) 637-7101 info@stmattlutheran.org
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You are here: Home / Music Opportunities Abound / About the Organ / St. Matthew Concert Series / Monte Maxwell Back for Return Engagement
Monte Maxwell Back for Return Engagement
The St. Matthew Lutheran Church Concert Series will present organist Monte Maxwell in concert on Sunday, April 7 at 4:00 p.m. Mr. Maxwell is the Organist at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. Free tickets are required for admission and can be ordered by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: April Concert, St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 30 W. Chestnut St., Hanover, PA 17331. A free-will offering will be taken to assist with the concert costs. Please note the number of tickets desired. The doors open at 3:30 p.m. A reception will follow the program. The program will feature classics such as: Bach’s “Prelude and Fugue in D Major”, Saint-Saens “The Swan”, Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”, Sowerby’s “Pageant” plus hymn based songs, a medley from “The Sound of Music”, “Stars and Stripes Forever”, among others.
Monte Maxwell, Chapel Organist, Director of Chapel Music and the Midshipmen Symphony Orchestra, began his service at the United States Naval Academy in 1997. Mr. Maxwell, a native of San Angelo, Texas, earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, studying with Emmet G. Smith. He was then invited to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with John Weaver where he received an Artist Diploma, Curtis' highest degree. Mr. Maxwell earned his Master of Music Degree from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, also studying with John Weaver. While studying in Philadelphia, Mr. Maxwell was an Associate Organist at the John Wanamaker Store, playing the famed six-manual organ, the largest playing organ in the world.
At the Naval Academy, Mr. Maxwell serves as the principal organist for the Protestant and Catholic services as well as playing for weddings, memorial services, funerals and performances throughout the year. He commands the five-manual, 268-rank organ in the main chapel, which has recently undergone substantial enhancement under his direction and design. His additional responsibilities include working with the Protestant and Catholic Chapel Choirs, the Protestant Chapel Chorale, the Men's and Women's Glee Clubs, and conducting the annual winter musical theater productions as well as the Naval Academy Midshipmen Symphony Orchestra. He oversees the annual Chapel Organ Concert series which features guest performing artists from across the United States. He has also served as the Chairman of the Naval Academy Music Department and Director of Instrumental Activities.
Mr. Maxwell's annual All Saints' Day Organ Concert has become a staple of the Naval Academy and greater Annapolis cultural community. The standing-room-only event drew some 3,000 people into the Naval Academy Chapel in 1998, breaking all records in attendance for any event throughout the Chapel's history. Due to the popularity of this event, the Academy now offers two ticketed performances of this concert each year. He has performed in the United States, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Canada, and is an active member of the American Guild of Organists.
The St. Matthew Lutheran Church Austin organ is one of the 10 largest pipe organs in the world with 14,470 pipes, 238 ranks and 335 drawknobs. The organ includes a 198-bell carillon system. The organ has recently had a $1.5 million renovation. A full stop list and description of the organ can be found on the church website.
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Working Class History
Working Class History quantity
Everday Acts of Resistance and Rebellion
Edited by Working Class History
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
PM Press
History is not made by kings, politicians, or a few rich individuals—it is made by all of us. From the temples of ancient Egypt to spacecraft orbiting Earth, workers and ordinary people everywhere have walked out, sat down, risen up, and fought back against exploitation, discrimination, colonization, and oppression.
Working Class History presents a distinct selection of people’s history through hundreds of “on this day in history” anniversaries that are as diverse and international as the working class itself. Women, young people, people of color, workers, migrants, Indigenous people, LGBT+ people, disabled people, older people, the unemployed, home workers, and every other part of the working class have organized and taken action that has shaped our world, and improvements in living and working conditions have been won only by years of violent conflict and sacrifice. These everyday acts of resistance and rebellion highlight just some of those who have struggled for a better world and provide lessons and inspiration for those of us fighting in the present. Going day by day, this book paints a picture of how and why the world came to be as it is, how some have tried to change it, and the lengths to which the rich and powerful have gone to maintain and increase their wealth and influence.
This handbook of grassroots movements, curated by the popular Working Class History project, features many hidden histories and untold stories, reinforced with inspiring images, further reading, and a foreword from legendary author and dissident Noam Chomsky.
“One thing most people in the world have in common—whatever our gender, race, age, culture, or condition—is that we have to work for a living, and most of us have to work for someone else. That means either we have to obey their will or find ways to resist it. This book provides a panoramic compendium of that resistance. I’ve been studying and writing about labor history for more than half a century, but I’ve never even heard about most of these thousand or more strikes, uprisings, protests from around the world—or about the violence that was so often used against them. I’ve found this book an easy and fun way to fill that gap.”
—Jeremy Brecher, author of Strike!
“The WCH project has hit upon a novel way to communicate our shared history to a new generation of budding radicals and working class revolutionaries and, with this book, has laid out centuries of solidarity and rebellion into an easily digestible (and endlessly engrossing) catalogue of dissent. They make it clear that today’s victories build upon yesterday’s struggles and that, in order to push forward into the liberated, equitable future we want, we must remember how far we’ve come—and reckon with how much further there is to go.”
—Kim Kelly, journalist and labor columnist at Teen Vogue
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Break Their Haughty Power
The Battle for Homestead
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Flood Fund Transparency
When we agreed to open a flood fund for Bentley, we said that we would be as transparent as possible about where the money came from and how it was spent. This page is where we are sharing public information about the money that has been given to date. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
Where has the money come from?
This table shows how much was donated each day. Individual donations are not split out (except where there was only one donation on a given day) to protect people’s privacy as much as possible. As of 13th March 2020, the total donated is £45,321.78. We have paid credit/debit card fees of £134.12 which leaves £45,187.66 for distribution.
Total donated
Credit/debit card fees
Total after fees
Running Total of donations
08/11/2019 4 £110.00 0 £110.00 £110.00
11/11/2019 11 £134.00 £3.09 £130.91 £240.91
12/11/2019 9 £1,154.50 £4.08 £1,140.42 £1,391.33
13/11/2019 15 £10,520.00 £10.39 £10,509.61 £11,900.94 Includes donation of £10,000 from Persimmon Homes
14/11/2019 24 £1,047.00 £11.76 £1,035.24 £12,936.18
16/11/2019 5 £2,642.00 £3.37 £2,638.63 £18,042.52
17/11/2019 13 £561.85 £4.89 £556.96 £18,599.48
18/11/2019 8 £1,597.00 £15.50 £1581.50 £20,180.98
19/11/2019 10 £1,441.99 £6.41 £1,435.58 £21,616.55
20/11/2019 4 £1,491.00 £15.58 £1,475.42 £23,091.97
21/11/2019 3 £125.20 £1.87 £123.33 £23,215.30
25/11/2019 4 £446.65 £3.35 £443.30 £24061.44
29/11/2019 1 £20.00 £0.00 £20.00 £25,145.44
18/12/2019 1 £257.70 £10.76 £246.94 £32,949.27 Paid in via Thyngs (higher charges)
29/12/2019 1 £7.00 £0.30 £6.70 £36,517.50
31/01/2020 1 £500.00 £0.00 £500.00 £41,205.6
Where has the money gone?
When we set up the Flood Fund we said the Church would not take anything for administration and that the funds would prioritise those without insurance. We would focus on essential white goods, and flooring. We have also been helping people with the extra costs of energy because of having to have the heating on more or dehumidifiers to dry their homes. We have tried to keep our application process simple because the day to day administration is being done by one volunteer working with the Vicar. The Panel who consider the applications includes the Vicar and two members of the Parochial Church Council (PCC). The PCC is the Church’s board of trustees and is ultimately legally responsible for the funds raised and how they are spent.
We held our first panel on the 30th November, with the intention of spending a quarter of the income received. This was approximately £5,900. We agreed to buy beds for those at Willow Bridge and fridges for everyone who applied. That evening the Council announced that white goods we available through the Community Support Hubs, working with Doncaster Flood Distribution Centre. We decided to work with the council and DFDC. Every application for white goods made to us was turned into a referral to DFDC and we paid for items that DFDC did not have, mostly from Re:furnish. All the items we paid for were new. This was not an easy process, and keeping track of what we were paying for and what had and hadn’t been delivered was interesting to say the least. We only received the invoice for these items on 5th February. Until this point we only had estimated prices.
We are now helping people with flooring now that more homes are dry. Most of the money allocated to flooring below is ‘committed’. That is, we have agreed to provide flooring for the household concerned, but, obviously, the carpet can’t be laid until the house is dry. As the bills come in, we are updating these figures with the actual amount spent.
Most recently we have added a small grants scheme for up to £100 for things which are urgent. These are things like a microwave if you are having to live upstairs, or a travel card if you are in temporary accommodation and have extra travel costs as a result.
We have worked hard to manage expectations of what can be achieved with the money we have received. If we had split it between every affected property each person would have received around £100 (and money is still coming in, although much more slowly, so it would have been difficult to say how much we should give to each person). We have not got everything right, we are only human. Even if we had managed to get everything right, people would disagree!
Applications received
How many led to a payment?
How many did not lead to a payment?
Frank Road and Conyers Road 27 26 1
Cromwell Road, Marsh Road, Chadwick Road, Wrightson Terrace and Ings Road 36 31 5
Bentley Road, Hunt Lane and Yarborough Terrace 33 32 1
Riviera Parade and Mount and Willow Bridge Caravan Site 31 19 12
Scawthorpe, Daw Lane and those who have been permanently rehoused 22 14 8
This table shows how many of the applications we have received came from each area. We have grouped streets because sometimes only one person in a street applied, or only one person received a payment and we don’t want to cause guessing or judging which could be unhelpful. There are a number of reasons why an application might not have resulted in a payment. It could be because the person withdrew, sourced items elsewhere, was no longer living in the property they were claiming for or had all their needs supplied by DFDC. A number of those applications were for help with excesses. As yet we haven’t made any payments towards people’s excesses. We know this is an area where we have caused confusion and bad feeling and we are sorry.
Number of households helped
White Goods and Beds
Urgent items (under £100)
Total spent/committed
Frank Road and Conyers Road 26 £1,725.00 £1,070.62 £4,476.00 £237.94 £7,509.56
Cromwell Road, Marsh Road, Ings Road, Wrightson Terrace and Chadwick Road 31 £2,221.00 £251.48 £2,304.00 £31.50 £4,807.98
Bentley Road, Hunt Lane and Yarborough Terrace 33 £2,771.00 £465.78 £2,590.00 £59.94 £5,886.72
Riviera Parade and Mount and Willow Bridge 19 £474.00 £2,443.31 £2,405.70 £0.00 £5,323.01
Scawthorpe, Daw Lane and those permanently rehoused. 14 £725.00 £167.64 £3,523.92 £0.00 £4,416.56
Totals 123 £7,916.00 £4,398.83 £15,299.62 £329.38 £27,943.83
This table shows where we have spent, or committed to spend money from the Flood Fund and what it has been spent on.
We offered £49 to people who were not receiving help with their energy costs related to drying their homes. Those who were receiving help were offered £25 towards the extra costs of keeping heating on etc. This was (and remains) open to those who are insured or uninsured and the amounts were tripled this week to £75 and £150. The figure for Willow Bridge is lower. They received help with refill gas canisters through another charity. We helped get that scheme in place, but the funds were provided by Doncaster Community Development.
We bought white goods to supplement those on offer from Doncaster Flood Distribution Centre and beds for those on Willow Bridge who requested them.
We have committed to helping people with carpet and vinyl when their houses are dry. This scheme is still open and provides carpet, underlay and fitting to affected rooms with no additional costs to pay.
There are still considerable amounts of money left in the flood fund and we are consulting with the community about what is needed next.
This page was last updated on Saturday 14th March and is due to be updated again on Friday 20th March 2020.
St Peter’s Bentley is a church that’s for everyone.
Contact us: St Peter’s Community Hall, High Street, Bentley, DONCASTER. DN5 0AA
E-mail: hello@stpetersbentley.org
Phone us on: 0330 229 1896
© St Peter’s Bentley 2020. We are a registered charity, number 1191023. CMA Bentley is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
We are committed to the safeguarding of our children and vulnerable adults. Our Safeguarding Policy is here and includes details of who to contact with any concerns.
Our Privacy Policy explains what information we collect about you and how we use and store it. It also tells you about your data protection rights.
Our website is hosted for free by the awesome krystal.uk, because we’re a charity.
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Home Games Modify Game Boy with Raspberry Pi and enjoy PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Modify Game Boy with Raspberry Pi and enjoy PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Michael Darby has managed to run the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in a modified Game Boy, which integrates a Raspberry Pi Zero W, although there is a little hidden trick to it.
The best thing you have at PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds today is that you can play on less powerful computers, gaming systems, even with outdated graphics cards. Graphical optimization is an important factor in this game, so much so that they have broken a new barrier of this game. The user Michael Darby has modified a Game Boy to be able to run PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but of course, the hardware has been modified, specifically , Raspberry Pi has been installed to be able to run this game.
Obviously the original hardware of the Game Boy will never be able to run this game. The process is based on the modification of the system, removing the original hardware and installing a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Basically, the hardware and internal design have been modified to install the Pi Zero W, a LiPo battery and a small TFT screen. He also added the necessary buttons for the control of the game through the GPIO pins and in addition, developed a script in base Python. At the end of this story, we will put a link so that you can have access to the script and the process and necessary materials.
Now it’s time to reveal the interesting hidden trick. The game is not running directly on the device, it actually runs on a full computer and streamed using NVIDIA’s Moonlight streaming technology. The screen has a resolution of 800 × 600 with a rate of 30FPS, offering a different gaming experience, although, we must highlight a problem, there is no sound. No doubt this is an ingenious and fun solution, which allows us to play this game anywhere. [Link to script and data].
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PUBG Mobile already exceeds 100 million active users per month
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds generated 920 million dollars in 2018, 85% was on PC
PUBG now supports Machine Learning to stop Cheaters
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Amazon debuts a dedicated shop for Kickstarter products
Funding a project on Kickstarter is like placing a bet – will the project ever work? Will it ship? Or will you just be out a chunk of change? That said, the crowdfunding platform has enabled a number of companies to get off the ground, including those that range from gadgets and electronics to toys and home goods, among other things. Today, Amazon announced it’s teaming up with Kickstarter to offer those successful Kickstarter products a way to reach more customers through a dedicated section on Amazon’s website.
Via www.amazon.com/launchpad/kickstarter, the online retailer is now featuring a group of over 300 Kickstarter products across a variety of categories, like electronics, books, home & kitchen, movies & tv, and more.
The products can also be browsed by theme, like STEM products, “Always be Learning,” “Exquisite Objects,” “Inventing the Future,” and “Public Benefit,” for example.
Included in the debut collection products like Piper’s Computer Kit, Zivix’s jamstik + Portable Smart Guitar, The Prynt Case, MudWatt’s Clean Energy kit, and others.
The new Kickstarter section is actually an expansion on Amazon’s Launchpad platform, launched a year ago. In July 2015, the retailer debuted a dedicated portal that offered both marketing and sales for hardware and physical goods from younger tech companies. It said at the time it was working with over 25 VC firms, accelerators and crowdfunding platforms to source the products for the new site, including big names like Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and Indiegogo, for example. The online store had over 200 items at the time of its debut.
Today, Amazon says it has now worked with over 100 VCs, accelerators and crowdfunders and has helped more than 1,000 launch products across the U.S., the U.K., China, Germany, and France.
All startups who participate in Launchpad receive custom product pages, a comprehensive marketing package, and access to Amazon’s global fulfillment network, the retailer notes.
While the dedicated online shop is new to Amazon, the retailer has already sold Kickstarter goods on its site prior to now. To date, Amazon.com customers have purchased “millions” of Kickstarter products, it says.
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← Barcelona’s Luis Suarez says Real Madrid won’t target Lionel Messi in El Clasico
Newcastle:Williamtown toxic water test results a big blow →
Newcastle:Victoria Theatre to be restored after sale
NEWCASTLE’S historic Victoria Theatre will likely be restored and revived as a grand entertainment hub after selling pre-auction to the Sydney-based Century Venues group.
The heritage-listed building was due to go to auction on Thursday, but veteran hotelier and building owner Arthur Laundy accepted an offer and exchanged contracts late on Wednesday.
The sale price has not been disclosed, but it was considerably higher than the auction’s $1 reserve and believed to be less than the $1.1 million Mr Laundy paid for it back in 2004.
Century Venues is well known in theatre circles, operating the Enmore Theatre and The Metro in Sydney, The Factory at Marrickville, The Comedy Store at Moore Park and The Vanguard at Newtown, among others.
Company boss Greg Khoury was unavailable for comment late Wednesday, but told the Newcastle Herald last week that he wanted to see the Newcastle theatre restored to its former glory.
‘‘It is a building of profound importance,’’ Mr Khoury, who inspected the building last week, said. ‘‘It is a similar scale and size to the Princess Theatre in Melbourne and would complement the Civic Theatre.’’
Built in 1890 in Perkins Street, opposite the historic David Jones building, ‘The Vic’ theatre has sat empty and boarded up since 1999. Mr Laundy’s hotel group, which also owned the neighbouring Crown and Anchor Hotel, had plans for the site but Mr Laundy recently decided to sell his Newcastle landholdings.
The last curtain was drawn on a performance at the theatre in 1966, but not before the stage had been graced by some of the country’s biggest theatrical legends including June Bronhill, Joan Hammond and Lily Langtry.
Before the sale, Mr Laundy said he saw the $1 reserve as a ‘‘philanthropic move’’ which he hoped would attract someone with enough money to restore the building to its former grandeur.
Colliers International, which handled the sale, also ‘‘donated’’ the sale marketing campaign. Agent Adam Leacy, who originally sold the building to Mr Laundy in 2004, confirmed that contracts had been exchanged.
‘‘We had some really good groups show interest in the property, but Century Venues really stood out,’’ he said.
‘‘I know that everyone, including Mr Laundy and us at Colliers, wanted a really good outcome on this sale and I think we’ve got it. It’s a great old building and I think it’s got a great future.’’
Mr Khoury told the Herald he believed the theatre could play a key role in the city’s revitalisation.
‘‘Theatres are great catalysts for urban renewal he said.
‘‘You just have to look at the Phantom (of the opera) led recover that occurred at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne.
He added that Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, which he took on in the 1980s was now part of the city’s cultural landscape.
‘‘It’s been a long, slow slog, but it is now worth about $23 million in additional elective spending per year,’’ he said.
News of the sale and possible restoration will excite many in Newcastle’s theatre and entertainment industries.
One group, a collaboration of people within the city’s entertainment industry, had rallied in the hope of acquiring the theatre. Shane Bransdon, a spokesman for the Revive The Victoria Theatre Newcastle group took to Facebook to say he was ‘‘very pleased that the new owners have a track record of restoring old theatres and operating them as live performance venues’’. He said he hoped the group would be able ‘‘to share our research and be involved’’ in the theatre’s future.
The Victoria Theatre company first operated in Newcastle in 1870 before moving into the building in 1890. In its heyday, it rivalled the best theatres in Sydney and attracted huge crowds with seating for 1340 people. The theatre itself is now the oldest theatre still standing in Australia.
source:theherald.com.au
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Print & Downloads
The Mermaid Chair Wins Quill Award
Sue Monk Kidd received the Quill Award for her novel The Mermaid Chair at an award ceremony in New York, October 11, 2005. The award was presented to Sue by novelist Erica Jong. The ceremony, televised as a one hour special on NBC October 22, included award presentations to authors in nineteen categories. The Mermaid Chair won in the category of General Fiction. The other nominees for General Fiction were, The Plot Against America by Philip Roth; Zorro by Isabel Allende; Gilead by Marilynne Robinson; A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Books were nominated by a national panel of 6000 invited librarians and booksellers, who sought the best books published between August 1, 2004 and July 31, 2005. The winner was then decided by the reading public who voted online and through bookstores, making the Quill Award the first literary award to contain a “people’s choice” element. For a full list of winners: www.quillsliteracy.org.
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Library Award →
Copyright © 2021 Sue Monk Kidd. Site by AuthorBytes.
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The Summit Podcast
Creating corporate clarity during a crisis - EOS during COVID-19
May 14, 2020 Kyle Hamer | Hamer Marketing Group Season 2 Episode 12
May 14, 2020 Season 2 Episode 12
Kyle Hamer | Hamer Marketing Group
Does your corporate culture need to a change in order to survive remote work and the new business norms? For one company in Denver, Colorado following the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) has been the change the company needed in order to survive the changing economy.
Listen in as Derek Taniguchi, of NetResults, discusses how this is the perfect system for creating a culture of traction.
About Derek Taniguchi
Derek is an award-winning COO at NetResults. As an experienced executive leader specializing in the implementation of an operational framework and developing high performing teams for early and second-stage companies. Derek’s life goal of creating a positive legacy, both through his work life and through family and friends.
His personal passion for continuous improvement (Kaizen) translated into a program he developed in 2013, the Employee Development Program (EDP), which provides team members with a playbook to take both their personal and professional lives to the next level. His ability to align his team and execute on strategy has led him to be the serving Chief Operating Officer for two separate Colorado Companies To Watch (CCTW) winners.
In his free time, you could find him spending time with his wife, daughters, and friends and if that wasn't enough to he's an avid Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) competitor.
About Kyle Hamer
A sales and marketing veteran with a deep understanding of strategy, digital marketing execution, and using technology to enhance brand impact. A hands-on leader with a passion for solving business challenges with process, operations, and technology. When Kyle's not tinkering on businesses, you'll find him spending time with those he loves, learning about incredible people, and making connections.
About Hamer Marketing Group
Market growth for a new product or service is often limited by market distractions, unreliable data, or systems not built to scale. Hamer Marketing Group helps companies build data-driven strategies focused on client acquisition and sales development supported by the technology and operations necessary to create profitable growth.
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/summitpodcast)
Kyle Hamer: 0:04
Hello and welcome to the summit, the podcast where we bring knowledge and insights from industry leaders and professionals. No fluff, no double digit overnight growth skis . I'm your host. I'm on a mission, the blank secrets to success in business. We're having real conversations with real people on how you get answers, progress in your career and move your business forward. Today's guest joining us on the summit is Derek is Derek pedagogy . Derek, welcome to the show.
Derek Taniguchi: 0:38
It's funny because you know we just talked about you got it right? You got it right? Yeah. Thank you for having me. File .
Welcome to the show. For those of you who don't know Derek, he's an award winning COO and the results as an experienced executive leader specializing in the implementation of operational frameworks and developing high performing teams for early and second stage companies. Derek's life goal of creating positive legacy through both his work, his life, and through his family and friends. Derek's life goal is creating a positive legacy through both his work, his life, and through his family and friends. His personal passion for continuous improvement. Kaizen translated into a program he developed in 2013 the employee development program or EDP, which provides members of with a playbook to take both their personal and professional lives to the next level. His ability to align his team and execute on the strategy has led into serving as COO for some several high growth Colorado companies. In his free time, you'll find him spending time with his wife, daughters in France, and if that wasn't enough, he's an avid obstacle course racing competitor. Derek, did I miss anything except maybe the pronunciation of your last name?
No, no, that sounds perfect. It's , it's always, it's interesting hearing you actually saying it out loud was , I've never heard anybody do that, so, no, no. You hit it.
Awesome. Well, today we're going to talk about , um, creating culture and clarity during a time of crisis. I think you're uniquely positioned to kind of understand this, given your , your passions, but before we get into the topic, I really want to know how are you and your people holding up with all that's going on in the world today?
Yeah, I mean, as a company we're holding up. Well, I mean, from looking at it from an operational landscape, we've been able to work remotely. Productivity has actually increased. Uh , we've been able to , uh , sustain a culture, the culture that we built. Uh, so everything's great. I mean, you know, the reality on the other side is on the personal side, meaning now there's, there's always challenges of, you know , some of our team being at home alone. Uh, so we've actually worked through that and discussed it internally on how do we help out each other. So like even this morning we just had a morning social coffee for everybody just got online and started laughing and talking about life and the landscape and everything going on with the pandemic. So , uh, you know, overall I think we're doing well.
W w w having a morning coffee is a little different than a happy hour. I've heard a lot of people having happy hours as well as the idea of having a coffee. That's actually really cool. And I think it's a Testament to your culture, but your culture didn't happen by accident. You guys have been pretty intentional about what you've built in MRI ?
Yes, a very intentional and a lot of that is a lot of that stems from the EOS model, entrepreneurial operating system. Um , and what that focus is, it focuses on six key components, vision , um, data, process, traction issues and people. So those are the six components of ELs . And , um, really what , what that does is it enables us to have a healthy and sustainable culture. And we have a way to actually check if that culture, how it's doing. We do that in a couple of ways. Uh, we look at Gusto team insights and then we also take a annual organizational checkup. So we do several things in order to check culture, check the operational efficiency, efficiency, and effectiveness.
Let's say it would have been two years ago that this had come up. Do you think your tone but you have going on would be in the same spot they are today?
No, not at all. Uh, it's, there's a common thing you pay other , say before Derek or before EOS. Michael, the CEO calls, calls , uh , actually dos Derek operating system versus EOS because w what, what me and the team have done is we've added a little bit more than what EOS is. Uh, but through like the employee development program, some other things I've learned working and operating on other companies, we've put in all of that together here. And , uh, one big thing is having clear accountability, having clear roles, having a clear vision, having systemization, being transparent with every single person in the company. You know, how are we doing financially? How are we doing hitting our goals every quarter we measure that and communicate at a state of company every quarter. All of that was not here at the company and previously to me arriving, which is 2018 and prior, what we did as a company, as we rebuilt a stronger foundation. Well, that's what it is. That's what it's about.
Okay, well you talk about the things that maybe you're doing and the foundation, but it all, all of us builds itself around this idea of vision. I can't imagine for half a second that in , you know, before dos for net results that I'm read . Seriously. I don't think net results didn't have a vision. What do you think the biggest difference is in getting that first pillar? That first cornerstone, right? As you move, as you move into the EOS, like what was the big difference when it relates to vision that now allows people to be aligned today?
You know, I, I, I've, I've talked about this a couple of ways. If you watch sports or you've ever been in the military, you have to understand where are we headed? What are we trying? What is our common goal? What are we all trying to achieve in order to be successful? Ask, ask yourself, ask any coach, any team that's been very successful. If they'd had a clear vision, any successful team will say, yes, we have had a clear vision and I think that's the key is where are we headed? You know, it's like if you're steering a ship, what are the coordinates? Where are we headed to? Otherwise you're just going to endlessly to wherever, right? If you're on the battlefield, which direction do we head together? Right? Sure. If you put people on the battlefield and you don't tell them where they're headed, what's going to happen is we're going to go every, every way. But if every single person on the battlefield knows where they're headed, you're going to see them marched together forward. And that's the key is to having a clear vision that everybody believes and has vested into is they know where they're headed. And that's a core component of this model.
Okay. I mean, let's say I can get on board with that for half a second. And what I mean by that, get on board with that. It's just like , I think there's a lot of leaders and a lot of owners or people, whether they're in management or otherwise, the thing, Hey, we're going to win the super bowl. That's for , Hey, we're going to be the world's largest coffee chop shop chain. That's a bitch . Or Hey, we're going to , um, we're going to take over. Our goal is to take over marketing automation. What's the difference between those visions and what you're doing specifically with dos? How's it different?
Well, first of all, those visions are more like statements and goals. It's not growth focused. Uh, and just based on those examples , uh, you know, for instance, our vision has meaning, right? It has meaning for the founder , uh, as well as that has meaning individually. Uh, what our goal is, is our vision is to achieve our goals while living by the values we believe in, right? Um, to be the best version of version of ourselves and to live balanced lives on this journey together. That is our vision. It's not, we're going , no , we're going to dominate the industry. Right? That's, that's , that's, that's not our vision. That's, that's like a goal outside of the vision. And you , you , you probably heard something about being the best version of ourselves , um, to live balanced lives. That actually is tied to something that's key, which is core values. Core values , uh, are key because it keeps us together. It keeps, it keeps the team consistent in the way we're thinking when we have to make hard decisions. Right. Uh, because for instance, our , our, our core values are, we deliver success, we expect transparency, we solve problems together. Uh, we continuously improve. We live balanced lives and we persist. So what that does is when we're, when we're on this journey together, heading towards our vision, what, what these values do is that keeps us in check when we're making decisions, whether it's , uh , the team level or leadership level, our decisions, a lot of them, majority of them, almost all of them are based on these values. And these values are actually is how we hire as well. And how we sometimes separate from team members because that's what we call right person, right seat with the values and in , in addition to the clear responsibilities and what that person's accountable for. We check if they're a fit for the values of the company. And I think that's key in this journey together towards that vision. And , um, it's, it's, it's, it's interesting because we actually also do performance evaluations and , and part of that performance part, part one, well it's more like the second section of part one, a performance eval is chatting, does this fit? Does this person , uh , fit the values plus plus minus or minus? And we go through as managers and check them and we as managers are evaluated as well.
Kyle Hamer: 12:03
So when you, I mean, you got there and you said, when you said at the top the top with the segment that no, you wouldn't be where you're at today. Two years ago as you got here, you had a vision of some sort. And , but I think a lot of people would say, Hey Derek , I've got core values, man. Uh, people first integrity , uh, say what you do, do what you say, you know, taco Tuesday, whatever your core values are. Like they have core values. What, what makes it different in your system and what makes it different for net results.
Derek Taniguchi: 12:40
So , uh, so what makes it different is that I think what happens in the world and from a individual basis is you're going to get a lot of people who say they have values. I'm not saying they don't have value , but the difference is if you, if it's kind of , it's good if you go and ask that any person on the street, Hey, what are your values? They're going to tell you what their values are, but you're going to see them struggle and talk about, and then you're going to also learn some of those aren't values. It's more of a, it's just a statement. It's not how you live by it, right? And , and then go back a day, day or two later or a week later, and then ask them again, what are your values? I would bet you money that what they tell you that second time is different from the first time. The difference is that our values there , they're clear. It's transparent, it's part of the system. It's intertwined with the vision. It's intertwined with the system. Meaning every single person knows these values. In fact, we have weekly, what we call it , it's a game show. It's a trivia. So we go through something called the VTO vision, traction organizer, and some of those questions are, you know , widows , our core focus, meaning the vision or the purpose, we ask what are the values we ask our team and and because we hire based on values, we think it's important that we live and breathe our values. So by asking the team, it's trivia. I can tell you the difference between when I first came here and now a little bit over a year later. If you were to walk in my office in 2018 and you asked a person what are values, they're probably, what are you talking about? Why do you know? Why do you want to know my values? And you can say, no, no, I meant I meant the values of the company. What do you, what is the how? How do you live and breathe? What does a company live and breathe by it? They look at you crazy today. You go inside office or technically you called her a video hangout in this current landscape. And you said, Hey, what are your values? What are your, what are your company's values? Every single person in the company will be able to tell you our values because they live and breathe by it. They make decisions how they work with, with customers, how we work with partners , vendors, everybody we work with. We live by these values. We lead by example. Everything that I do or that any of my teammates do, that's a direct reflection of the company. And if we're not living by these values, that means it's not reflecting well on the company. We're not, we're not a good representative of the company. So it's key to live by these company values. I've heard some people talk about it being like cult-like. It's funny, it's like living by values that doesn't seem Colt like especially the values make sense. I mean, a Colt doesn't say we want to continuously improve. I mean that's , that's like something I think with your growth minded, you should believe in that. And so there's , there's a big difference between previously before EOS or dos to now is everything's clearer. What is our vision? What are our values, again, transparency into match tricks and where we're headed and how we're doing and how our goal , um , what is the path? Like what does our traction look like getting there? Um, the processes are all laid out. Uh, we're able to solve issues. I mean that to me, all of those items, in addition to a program that focuses on personal and professional growth, that's culture. That's what makes up culture. It's not fancy words. It's not slogans on the wall. It's not having snacks in office. It's not having catered lunches, right? It's , it's all about the overall foundation. That is what creates culture and the key components of that foundation. Oh, I think I'm having an issue. Sorry, hearing you. Let's see. Yeah, I can't hear you.
There it goes. I can , yes, I can hear you now.
Maybe I should have unmuted myself instead of meeting myself.
I've done , I actually did that earlier. I mean , I started talking and everybody's like, Derek , Derek , you're off . You're on you. I'm like, Oh, hold on. Sorry.
Yeah, that's on me. So you , you just talked about the elements that are required for creating this culture. You've got the vision, you've gotta have values in how people behave ends up becoming the culture. But there's, there's an underlying element that you talked about in , in getting alignment. The VTO , why is the VTO in reviewing it and having everybody understand that particular items , so important to creating the culture that allows you to survive chaos.
So the VTO stands for vision, traction organizer, and that consists of your core values, your core focus, which is your vision, your purpose, your niche. It , it , it provides your tenure target and also provides , uh, your, your one and three year goals. Uh, what does that look like from a revenue profit measureables and then it's truly what does it look like? It could be, for instance , uh, you know, as a company we're able to pay everybody above market salaries, right? Uh , that's what it looks like. And , uh, in addition to has our marketing, like demographic, geographic, firmographic has all of that clearly laid out so that everybody knows, okay, these are the type of , um, customers we're going after. Uh , so everybody's clear on that. Uh, so that's, that's key. And the VTO has all this compiled in one place. How many companies, Kyle, have you worked with that have everything that I just said, compile it into a two, three page document that's accessible by everybody?
Well, I would say that the majority of the companies that I've worked with think they have that compiled into a two or three page document. But, but really these either a, not enough, there's not enough detail to make it feel like a plan or B, there's too many platitudes to make it feel meaningful. So a lot of companies struggle to strike the balance between detail and inspiration in pulling off the VTO . What makes your cocktail or your , your mix work?
When do you, what's something I heard is , uh, platitudes and detail? Um, I think, I think it's , it's a weird, it's not, it's detailed, but it's not over detailed. But I'd say it's, it's like key components, right? Because here , here's what I say to any company. Most companies, they do have a marketing plan, right? I mean, you're in marketing, you're a marketer , marketing operations. You consult on that? Uh, so some companies just go, well, what do you think is the bare minimum? We need to have know pure, let's just say pure ELs consultant. The purity in it says, well, you need to have the whole thing. You know what I say? I say, you know what? Obviously you have some goals. A lot of companies have some goals, right? Focused on having the values and, and you know what your vision, your purpose and your niches, those things together are key. They are the backbone to how you could get traction as a company. And, and stay on horse because again, if you're hiring, okay, let's think about, for instance, Uber, what's going on there in the last several years? Lawsuits, sexual harassment. I'm sure there's some level of bezel . I dunno, there's a lot of going on and you can think of various companies that go through this. Do you know why? Because they're just hiring to fill seats and they don't even know if those seats, if the right person is there, but they're thinking, you know what, we're gonna , we're gonna hire based on some values and make sure that when we hire the person, they're clear on our vision, what we're trying to achieve, where our journey's leading to. If they could get aligned with that and we know they're aligned, that's key. One way we, one thing we do for instance is we actually have , uh , when we interview, we have an assessment that's actually , uh , a conscientiousness assessment. And uh, because if a person's conscientious when it comes to solving problems together, which is one of our core values, if a conscientious person, they're going to be collaborators because they're going to be thinking about, you know , how does this affect what, you know, my teammate over here or this department, they're conscientious. They're always self-aware and aware of their surroundings. We have team members take that assessment and that's how we hire. That's one of the ways. So the thing is, is when, when you said, you know, companies think they have it or they have it on paper, you know, we have it on paper and it's very, very clear. I would share this out with anybody. It's not a secret. It's really no secret. I'd share it out with, with any competitor I would. Um, because it's no secret. The key is the difference . The differentiator. If you want to know that it's a French hater , someone could try to replicate this, but I got to ask them , are you living and breathing? Buy this. Buy this vision, traction organizer. Does your whole team, are they aligned? Do they live and breathe by the values, by the vision? Do they live and breathe that? Majority of the time when you go into these companies, you're gonna find people. They're there to collect the paycheck. I call those renters. You want what I, when I speak about ownership mentality, when you live and breathe the values and you believe you're vested into the vision and the steps and everything it takes to get there, you're a holder. That's what it comes down to. That's a big differentiator.
That is a big differentiator. And I think, you know , if we talk about navigating crisis , um, I'm a , I'm a big , uh, so I'm going to comment on a couple of things and then I'll switch it for the next question here. But I'm a big Nebraska Cornhusker fan and anybody who knows anything about Nebraska football knows that in the 1980s and 1990s, they had their own version of the , um, their EOS or the BTO and it was out there everywhere. You knew they were gonna run, right? You knew they were gonna run left and they were going to run up the middle in about every third play. They were going to do some sort of option click . The playbook was pretty vanilla. What they did was pretty basic and, and everybody knew what was coming and they still couldn't stop it. So I love the level of confidence that you have when you're like, look, I'll share out what we do for our , our VTO with, with anybody, including our competitors because Hey, you have to learn to live it. You have to learn to be it. You have to learn to not only live, breathe, breathe it and do it, but it has to become a way of life. You have to execute is that those were the elements that I'm taking away. And if I miss something, please correct me. But my question to you is , is, okay, I'm in the middle of a crisis. I haven't built a reputation. I haven't built the stability. I haven't done these things yet. How do I do this right now? Or, or how can I navigate this? I'm going to take my dos system. I've listened to this podcast and I've listened to Derek talking . I'm like, yeah, I need that. I need that. How do I do that tomorrow? Or even today for my company, for my team, for myself.
Yeah. You know, it's, it's , uh, that's, that's a very good, and it all starts with the person at the top. So if you're saying that you Kyle Hummer and you're saying, you know, I need this, you're the owner of your own company, right? You are the principal CEO, that's great. You have to be committed. And you have to know that this isn't a short game. It's a journey. It's a long game. So if you're, if you're really committed and you read the book traction, or you read the book, what the heck is EOS? And you're like, you know what? I really believe in this. Well, believing and committed are two different things, right? You gotta say, okay, I'm committed to the long game and it's going to be challenging. It's going to be painful, but I am committed to it. That's step number one. So any of the CEOs, even CEOs out there, founders, you're thinking this all sounds great. Ask yourself and don't bullshit. Like say, Hey, you know what? This all sounds great, but can I really be on board with this for the next 10, 20 years? Can I? And you've got to ask yourself and be truthful first. Number one. So once you get past that, and let's just say you're like, I could do this. I know it's going to be painful, there's going to be challenges, it's going to take a lot of effort. I know what the fruits of the labor will be. Great. Next step is there's , there's several things. There's, you can try to implement it yourself. Invest ways through resources on the traction ink or the EOS worldwide.com website. You go hire ELs coach. Uh , there's, I think about 14 here in Colorado and there's probably hundreds across the U S and thousands across the globe. Uh , I know this is the spans globally. You could get an ELs coach , uh, you know, in, just to be transparent, I know in the U S you're going to be paying three to $10,000 a session, and that's the next step. Talking about sessions. You're going to take a two day session , uh, or I mean a two day , but two sessions that we'll go through. Building your vision, traction organizer, all the components of it, your vision, your values. You're going to build your accountability chart, which also is part of right person, right seat . Uh, with that shows is , I know a lot of your , like, what is the accountability chart? It's, it's really, when you look at it, you're gonna be like, Oh, that's an org chart. But no EOS person, we'll call it an org chart . The big differentiator is that on our accountability chart has clear responsibilities under each position on that chart. And you don't feel you don't, it's all about right person, right seat . So you don't create seats or positions for people. You create positions or seats based on, or your company's trying to go. So you create the seats and then you find people to fill them. So you're going to go through that process. And then once you go through those initial two to three to four sessions at Barry's for each EOS coach , uh, you're gonna, you're gonna have this cadence where y'all going and you're going to have what they call level 10 meetings , uh, and it's not that leadership level. And you're going to have L two L three level, which is like leadership. And then you might have management or executives and then middle management and then your team, each level with an eight, various departments have these level 10 meetings and they're like on a weekly or biweekly basis. And then outside of those meetings, you're going to have a strategic initiatives called rocks. And that's part of the traction component of ELs . You're going to learn what those are and that's a key component because that's how you get shit done. Honestly, that's what is the most important thing you need to complete for your company as a company that quarter. And you're going to work as a company to complete that and you're going to do that every single quarter. You're going to learn all of this and you're going to have state of the company every quarter to provide. Again , transparency. You're going to go through this whole process and again, you can try to implement that, implement this on your own or you could hire EOS coach. But I could tell you this, you go through this process, it's going to be transformational. I've heard, you know actually Michael used to hear about, you know, a pipe that's ridiculous cause like culture that's for wimps know and this is probably five years ago. And then you know , he started seeing companies and learning more and he was like, you know, culture is key. It's key to companies , traction, growth and sustainability. I guarantee you Jim Collins was here and he was talking about good grade built to last. Sure, you got a systemization and some good leaders, decent managers, but if you don't house him , cut a model foundation and you don't have that culture that stems or is built from that culture, I mean from that foundation, you're not going to sustain you . You're not going to be a sustainable business. I thought of the day and so it's key and you're not going to look back if you're , if you stay committed even times where you're like, ah , I don't know, is this working? You just gotta believe in it last. It takes about a year to two years for it to be really, I would say one full year is like you're going to see traction after a year easily. You're going to look back and be like, wow, we are a different company. You're two . You're going to be like, okay, this is the true year of traction. We've rebuilt our foundation. You're one, you're two that's a year of to trash and you're going to see some velocity. I guarantee you as well. As long as you are committed and you're doing it right, I can guarantee you that.
What it sounds to me like, I mean you talk about it, but it sounds to me like in many ways it's um , businesses, well , humans in general have personal goals and they'll hit a moment of crisis and they'll say, all right , it's January 1st I'm going to lose weight. So they, they go buy a $10 membership to planet fitness and they go and they sit in the locker room, they go look at the treadmill. They may maybe turn it on, they go back and sit in the locker room and they go home and they're like, I worked out for 30 minutes. But the amount of time they spent on the treadmill was a minute, maybe 10 that goes on for a couple of weeks. And they're like, Oh, obviously I'm not making the transformation that I want. I'm good. I'm done. A couple of months later, they're having a moment of crisis and they're like, Oh my gosh, I've got to look great in my body. My body has got to look great for the summer. My bikini or mountain climbing or whatever, my, my cup of tea is drinking wine, whatever. You got to look good. So they go back to the gym and this time they give it a little bit more stuff and local, a couple weeks later they quit . If that person gets a little more intentional and looks at, Hey, I'm actually going to make a lifestyle change and this isn't about a onetime fix or a short term game , this is about setting myself up for success longterm and maybe for a period of time you need a personal trainer or maybe for a period of time I can't afford a personal trainer, but I'm going to resource everything that I possibly can to have the knowledge, at least some framework and understanding so that I can begin creating momentum and then staying committed to it over a period of time they'll see a transformation. It sounds to me like you're saying the exact same thing holds true for a business. Even if they're in a moment of crisis where it's like, Hey, I know what I want. I gotta set my vision and and optics on that. And then have to be willing to sacrifice things that are uncomfortable. Maybe the things that I love beer or if it's in business for a period of time, it's a , I don't know. Maybe it's your favorite relationship with somebody that that's a vendor that's not working. Like you have to make changes in order to realize that vision and not expect it to change overnight. Right. You have to be committed to it long term . That's what I hear you saying.
Well, a hundred percent and then I like how you said it because you really said it in a relatable way, and I will say this, so when we do personal or professional development, there's one key thing. Does that needs to happen or to achieve success? Consistency. If you're consistent, more than likely you have a greater chance of success. Person who's inconsistent or volatile , you know you could , you can see people who are just like you're saying, yeah , you're, you're engaged for, you're like, I got to lose weight. I see this every single year at the gym. I used to be 205 pounds. I was severely overweight, obese. I grew up athletic. Then for about 10 years I got a control and then , do you know what? I can tell you this for three years, just like EOS , two to three years, man, it was a struggle. I wasn't a skinny guy like I used to be, but I knew that I was making progress. I built a foundation like Kat continued to be consistent on, Hey, you know what? Lifestyle, change your lifestyle. Work out , try to eat better. If that's portion control, then do that just to be consistent every day. Sure you fall off maybe one or two times, but you know what's better than that? Being consistent and get back on the wagon. Continue. And that's the same thing with business and that same thing when we talk about us. That's the same thing we talked about in personal and professional development. I'm not asking you to be perfect. I'm not asking you that to never fail. I'm just asking you to do. Be consistent generally across the board. If you could be consistent, then you're going to have consistent results and it's just key. That one word, consistency.
I don't really think there's a better way to wrap up on this particular topic than with that that thought, which is consistency is key. We don't necessarily, I , I, I've heard it over and over. We don't have to chase hypergrowth. We don't have to expect tomorrow for the virus to go away and the chaos to leave and everything to be okay, but if we can find consistency, sounds like we can survive it and potentially put ourselves in a much more successful place. 1824 36 months from today.
Yup .
I want to really
appreciate like I want to say thank you, Derek, for coming on today and sharing some of the framework of EOS helping business owners, business leaders, managers get a perspective on how they can build a framework, create communication plans, a core values, and at least begin putting together the structure for a better culture so that they can navigate whatever chaos is thrown . We were in the middle of chaos. Now it's going to go away and there will be another one that comes around. But I want to thank you for being willing to share it with the generosity of, of information. Um, it's been great to have you on the show. Oh , thank you. Thanks very much for having me. Uh, I know it's a hard time, hard landscape right now. Uh, but we're all gonna get through it. I believe that as a community we will stick together and support each other and that's key is that consistent support of each other. And uh, I want to thank you for, again, having me and giving me this kind of like seek to be able to talk about what I'm passionate about. So thank you.
Or we're, we're glad that you're passionate because we need people, maybe poor people like you who have a command and understanding of things, sharing it out there and helping the rest of us understand. If somebody has questions, what are some good EOS resources? You've listed them, what's a way for them to get in touch with you?
Yeah, you could get in touch with me a couple of different ways. I'm on LinkedIn, Derek Taniguchi. Uh, and I'm sure you'll have some information on that , um , on this podcast. So I'm on LinkedIn. You can reach me. Uh, Derek, app , net-results.io. Uh, so there's those two ways resources wise. If you want to learn more about EOS , you can go EOS worldwide.com. You could go to YouTube actually and type in EOS worldwide or traction and you're going to find videos about ELs and, but you know, but the key to that, I think the key to really understanding and getting an initial resource, the best way to get kind of high level is going either listen or read the book, the read the book. Uh , what the heck is EO ? That's, that's, that's a great book. It's , it's like a summary of book traction.
Yeah . If you, if you're, you know, if you're interested, if you give you a listening, like you're listening to this podcast, the, I believe the, what the heck is EOS is 90, 90 to 120 minutes long as an audio book. It's a, it's an easy listen quick and it does give you a lot of foundational parts. Um, for those that have tuned in today, and I've listened to the summit, we've just had terror , Derek talking Taniguchi we've just had Derek Taniguchi on the phone. We've just had Derek Taniguchi sharing with us about how people can create culture even in the midst of chaos and crisis. We thank you for listening. The resources we've talked about will be listed on both the blog as well as in the summary of the specific episode. Thank you for tuning in and until next week, keep trucking forward. If you're going to fail, fail fast, fail hard , fail often, but fail forward. Thanks for listening to the summit. I'm your host Kyle .
All content © 2021 The Summit Podcast.
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Kansas Wage and Hour Laws
Kansas workers are protected by both federal and state laws regarding wage and hour requirements. The primary federal law which governs wages and hours is the Fair Labor Standards Act. Kansas also has labor laws which address state wage and hour requirements.
Minimum Wage and Overtime in Kansas
The current minimum wage in Kansas for non-exempt employees is $7.25 per hour. Examples of exempt employees include tipped employees and full-time students working part-time. The minimum for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour. However, tips earned must be enough to bring the employee up to the $7.25 state minimum. Otherwise, the employer must pay the difference.
Under Kansas law, non-exempt employees are paid overtime at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate for any work in excess of 46 hours. However, under the federal law, non-exempt employees are to be paid 1.5 times the usual hourly rate for any work in excess of 40 hours per week.
Pay Day Requirements in Kansas
Employees are to be paid at least once a month on regular pay days designated by the employer.
The following table outlines wage and hour laws in Kansas
Code Sections
KAN. STAT. ANN. §§ 44-1201 et seq., 44-314
Non-exempt employees are paid overtime at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate for any work in excess of 46 hours.
Pay Day Requirements
At least once a month.
Persons Not Covered by State Minimum Wage Laws
The minimum is $2.13 per hour for tipped employees. However tips earned must be enough to bring the employee up to the $7.25 state minimum. Otherwise, the employer must make up the difference.
An employer who pays less than the minimum applicable wage including overtime or compensatory time off is subject to civil penalties of up to $1,000 and the employee may bring an action to recover the full amount of wages less any wages paid. The employee may also recover costs such as reasonable attorney's fees.
An employee may file a claim for wages with the Kansas Department of Labor regarding unpaid or underpaid wages. Thereafter, a hearing is held where a presiding officer reviews evidence submitted and listens to witnesses testify before issuing a decision. The decision may be appealed to the Secretary of Labor.
Kansas Wage and Hour Laws: Related Resources
State labor laws can be confusing. If you would like legal assistance with an employment matter, you can contact a Kansas employment attorney. You can also visit FindLaw’s sections on Wages & Benefits: Overview, Fair Wages FAQ, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for more articles and information on this topic.
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Ooredoo promotes Internet of Things solutions and services at MWC 2016
Previous Article Asiacell selects Ericsson for new transmission backbone deal
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Ooredoo, the leading international communications company delivering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and corporate managed services tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses across markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, has had a strong presence at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.
The company is promoting its success in further developing its Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio for customers across its footprint. Demand for IoT/M2M solutions, which enable business assets to communicate directly with each other or with a central command centre, is growing strongly, as more companies look to automate day-to-day activities.
According to a recent industry report, the global cellular M2M market will grow from USD 3.22 billion in 2015 to USD 11.50 billion by 2020, driven in part by decreasing connectivity costs and increasing demand for solutions like fleet management. In particular, Ooredoo is seeing strong growth in Southeast Asia and North Africa, as companies and organizations look for innovative IoT solutions to daily business challenges.
Ooredoo has expanded its Managed Connectivity solution, IoT Connect, developed in partnership with Ericsson and based on its Device Connection Platform (DCP). The solution, which has already been made available in Indonesia, Tunisia and Kuwait, provides customers with full control of their IoT/M2M connectivity, thanks to a cloud-based M2M platform. In addition, Ooredoo has enhanced IoT Connectto offer seamless M2M connectivity to customers who want to operate in North Africa, Middle East and/or South East Asia.
"Ooredoo sees huge potential for M2M technology in all our operations, as more enterprises look to deploy the power of the Internet of Things," said H.E. Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani,Group CEO, Ooredoo. "We have a clear roadmap for the development of IoT services, including ongoing investment in delivering a global, cloud-based solution for our customers, and we have a series of exciting new solutions in development with our global network of partners."
Ooredoo is working with a wide range of enterprises, government and small businesses to develop solutions on its IoT/M2M platforms. These include solutions for Business-to-Business (B2B) processes such as procurement, billing/charging, and even Business-to-Consumer (B2C) processes, such as retail for consumers. In addition, it is developing solutions for the monitoring of M2M traffic, online ordering and ticketing functions using the IoT Platform.
IoT Ooredoo MWC2016
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Home Music Beatles Extended Edition of Lewisohn Beatles Bio ‘Tune In’ Out in U.S. Nov....
Extended Edition of Lewisohn Beatles Bio ‘Tune In’ Out in U.S. Nov. 7
The complete, uncut and unabridged Extended Special Edition of “The Beatles: All These Years, Vol. 1 – Tune In” by noted Fab Four historian Mark Lewisohn will at long last be available in the United States and Canada on November 7.
“I’m delighted that the fullest version of ‘Tune In’ – the everything-I-wrote edition – is finally being made fully available in North America,” Lewisohn said of the “author’s cut” in a note from his home office outside London.
The new Extended Special Edition release of the book is identical to the original ESE – two bound volumes packaged a specially designed slipcase.
“It’s not technically a U.S. publication, just a U.S. availability,” he said. “British copies are being distributed nationally throughout the U.S. via Hachette Distribution.”
The U.S. abridged edition, the Extended Special Edition, and an uncorrected proof of the abridged edition of ‘Tune In’ by Mark Lewisohn.
Little, Brown published Lewisohn’s 1,728-page, 750,000-plus-word ESE in his native Great Britain in October 2013, but not in the U.S., where only his abridged version numbering 944 pages and about 400,000 words was published simultaneously by Three Rivers Press, part of Random House’s Crown Publishing Group.
The abridged edition went on to be a New York Times best-seller in the States, with both editions continuing to receive massive praise from Beatles fans worldwide to this day.
Little, Brown’s first U.K. ESE printing in 2013 was a limited edition because the publisher was unsure if such a large, expensive volume would sell. In fact, the initial printing sold out quickly, but that still did not meet the demand. Three subsequent limited-edition runs have also sold out.
Lewisohn confirmed the 2017 Hatchette release is the publisher’s fifth printing of the ESE, now available in North America from online retailers such as Amazon (initially for $200, but the price dropped to $135.36 later on release day) and from The Fest For Beatles Fans (for $195, the latter with author-signed bookplates). A Kindle version is not available in the U.S. at this time.
RELATED: Mark Lewisohn Beatles Bio Makes Others Obsolete
“The Extended Special Edition has been in print in Britain since 2013, and I was never happy it could only be obtained in the U.S. and Canada by buying a British copy and having it shipped over,” Lewisohn said. “This edition isn’t cheap because it’s run in small quantities and is expensive to produce, but still, it will make the perfect gift for a loved one – including yourself!”
The Beatles in Liverpool, Sept. 28, 1962: one of more than 100 photos in the ‘Tune In’ Extended Special Edition.
Lewisohn is now four-plus years deep into researching and writing the second volume of his three-part Beatles bio. “Vol. 1 – Tune In,” which took him a decade to complete, details John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s family history and childhoods, all the band’s pre-history, and their rise to fame through the end of 1962, just as Beatlemania was breaking out in Britain.
“I’m happy with ‘Tune In’ – it’s the book I knew needed to be researched and written, and The Beatles’ early history can easily take 1728 pages,” Lewisohn said. “Don’t be put off by that size: if it daunts you, just take it one easy chapter at a time.”
“The Beatles: All These Years, Vol. 2” is still a few years from completion and publication. It will pick up the Fab Four saga on Jan. 1, 1963, just before the sessions for the band’s debut album, “Please Please Me,” and take their story into 1966 or 1967. Eventually, Vol. 3 will cover the years from then through The Beatles’ official split in spring 1970.
RELATED: Lewisohn Beatles Bio ‘Tune In’ Paperback Out October 2016
“Reading the full ‘Tune In’ will help bridge the gap until the arrival of Vol. 2 in this trilogy,” Lewisohn said. “That’s the one I’m working on – every minute of every day – right now.”
In early 2016, this writer was among those who bought a British copy of the ESE and had it shipped to home to the States. On April 27, 2016, when Lewisohn was in Los Angeles on a research mission, we met at a top-secret tape vault in North Hollywood and talked about “The Beatles: All These Years, Vol. 1 – Tune In” for more than an hour. Enjoy the clips below.
Santa Clarita journalist Stephen K. Peeples was the original, award-winning producer of “The Lost Lennon Tapes” radio series for the Westwood One Radio Network from 1988-1990. Mark Lewisohn was Peeples’ invaluable Research Consultant. Peeples, a Grammy-nominated record producer (“Monterey International Pop Festival,” MIPF/Rhino, 1992), is a veteran record industry media relations executive (Capitol Records, Elektra/Asylum Records, Westwood One, Rhino Entertainment, 1977-1998) and website content manager (Rhino, 1996-1998; Warner New Media, 1998-2001). Opting to work closer to home, he was music and entertainment features writer and columnist for the Santa Clarita Valley Signal (2004-2011), and soon became the newspaper’s award-winning online editor (2007-2011). Going independent, Peeples then wrote features for Santa Clarita’s KHTS-AM 1220 News (www.hometownstation.com) and SCVNews.com (2011-2016). He hosted, wrote and co-produced the WAVE-nominated “House Blend” music and interview television show on SCVTV, community television for the Santa Clarita Valley (2010-2015). He also served as Vice President/New Media & Editorial with Los Angeles-based multimedia pop culture company Rare Cool Stuff Unltd. (2010-2015). Now CEO of Pet Me Happy Treats, Peeples still occasionally posts exclusive music news, reviews and interviews on his website and on his YouTube channel. For more information, email skp (at) stephenkpeeples.com.
Article: Extended Edition of Lewisohn Beatles Bio ‘Tune In’ Out in U.S. Nov. 7
Category: News and Reviews
All These Years
Beatles biography
Tune In Extended Edition
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Michael Bolotin, known professionally as Michael Bolton, is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, both on his early solo albums and those he recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack. He became better known for his series of pop rock ballads, recorded after a stylistic change in the late 1980s.
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By Daniel Rossbach
Doing it their own way: The Union Berlin story
When Sebastian Polter scored for Union Berlin in the 85th minute of their game against Kaiserslautern in April, Stadion An der Alten Försterei erupted. With 20,000 Union supporters in attendance, it was the moment the club resurrected their push for promotion to the Bundesliga. As Polter stood arms aloft in front of the Waldseite, the terrace occupied by Union’s Ultras, it was clear how this febrile atmosphere had been a major factor in his decision to return to Berlin following an 18-month spell at QPR.
The energy of that moment helped drive Union forward to score again in a 3-1 victory which put them back in third place, the promotion play-off spot, and three points behind leaders Stuttgart. Defeat to Stuttgart the following week has taken promotion out of their own hands, but 30 minutes after the final whistle in that loss, 5000 travelling supporters called for the team to return to the pitch, not to berate them, but to celebrate their efforts, including a rendition of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
Now three points behind second-placed Braunschweig with three matches remaining, “So ‘ne Scheiße, wir steigen auf” (oh shit, we’re going up), is the song on everyone’s mind. Not everyone connected to Union, whose unique identity is not exactly centred around great sporting success, has come to grips with the prospect of playing Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund next season. In October, 13,000 Union supporters travelled to Dortmund to see their team lose on penalties in the DFB Cup, but soon they could be facing such illustrious opponents on the same level in the German football pyramid.
For fans like Nils Rusche, a Union season ticket holder, promotion would present the opportunity to “carry our mentality and our values to the Bundesliga”. Union’s ascent has been readily adopted as a feel-good story in stark contrast to the last team from Eastern Germany that won promotion to the Bundesliga, Rasenballsport (RB) Leipzig. In many ways, Union are perceived and positioned as the opposite of the Red Bull franchise, representing what English people in particular think German football is like. But their history has not been one of mainstream popularity.
The current season is arguably the most successful in the club’s history, since they were founded in a reorganisation of football in then-East Germany 51 years ago. Union won the cup shortly after in 1968, but clubs like Dresden, Magdeburg and Carl Zeiss Jena benefited from a higher profile in East German football. Not to mention city rivals BFC Dynamo, who were despised for their close ties to the Stasi and won the league for ten consecutive seasons from 1979-88.
After reunification, Union reached the final of the DFB Pokal in 2001. That cup run, which coincided with promotion to the Bundesliga II, came as a huge surprise, and earning the club from Köpenick in south-east Berlin, a place in European competition. They beat Finnish champions FC Haka before losing to Litex Lowetch of Bulgaria, but this success was not enough to stabilise the club. By 2005 they fell into the fourth tier, facing serious financial difficulties along with declining performances on the pitch.
By that stage, Dirk Zingler, a construction entrepreneur, had already taken over as club president. During his tenure, which was recently extended by another four years, Union have found a more secure footing both institutionally and in footballing terms, returning to the Bundesliga II in 2009, finishing comfortably in mid-table ever since.
That comfort has also been criticised. Manager Jens Keller, who joined Union last summer after a mixed spell with Schalke, expressed his astonishment about the club’s perceived lack of ambition, with slow starts in the league and early cup exits both expected and accepted. When Zingler spoke at a festive general members’ meeting to mark Union’s 50th anniversary, he called for more openness and a higher profile as a prerequisite for the club to be successful. “We have to gather those who share our vision of football behind us, to do so, we have to become much more visible,” he said.
There are a number of stories often employed to characterise what, in Zingler’s words, is a “sometimes strenuous but never arbitrary” identity. Supporting Union was a subversive act in the East German state, while more recently, in 2004, fans tried to keep the club afloat in times of financial crisis by donating blood to blood banks and the rewards to the club.
Supporters collectively contributed 140,000 working hours to rebuilding the stadium in 2008-09. Midfielder Benjamin Köhler was given a new contract when he was diagnosed with cancer (an illness he has since recovered from – Köhler returned to the pitch and is still part of the squad, even though he did not play this season due to other injuries). There is also the view that Union insists on a ‘pure’ experience of football, in a stadium with over 18,000 standing capacity and just 3,500 seats.
Those stories are all true, but a club cannot survive on them alone. There is also recognition that Union will need sporting success in order to stay relevant and potentially influence football with its core principles. The official benchmark is to gain a place among the top 20 teams in the country in the next few years. This season offers as good a chance to do that as any.
With the economic gap between the first and second division set to increase owing to the newly agreed TV rights deal, reaching the top flight sooner rather than later is imperative. The case of Polter illustrates that pressure. He left the club in 2015 after a year on loan from Mainz, during which he didn’t just become the team’s top scorer, but also formed a bond with supporters that was genuine enough to last until his return from England in this season’s winter transfer window. Polter references the admiration and support he feels at Union at every opportunity, remembering how after his first game, a heavy defeat to Nürnberg, travelling fans “still supported us as if we had won, not lost by 4-0”.
Polter’s transfer, a record for Union at 1.6 million Euros, highlighted their push for promotion. Yet climbing into the Bundesliga would not only boost the club’s resources. It would also provide a larger platform to propagate the Union Berlin message: that football is primarily there for the people who take part in it locally at the game. Anything derived from that experience is, as president Zingler recently said on a podium at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, secondary.
The second central element in what distinguishes Union from other clubs in Germany and beyond is a steadfast commitment to involving supporters in the club’s evolution. While the ’50+1 rule’ formally demands all professional teams in Germany to maintain a member-controlled majority share, there are many exemptions from that rule, as well as substantial doubts as to whether it could survive a legal challenge and therefore an attempt to enforce it.
Further, many clubs have placed their professional teams outside of the clubs themselves into subsidiary corporations. Union want to be successful in part to show that their model is still functional in these surroundings. And in some sense, adhering to their principles is seen as the only viable choice because, as Zingler says with regard to Union and the wider footballing world: “Denying our origins would be the beginning of the end.” For clubs like Union commercial success and preservation of a unique identity are mutually dependent.
Even though Union are often seen, and position themselves as, a counterpoint to tendencies in modern football, that doesn’t mean their interests necessarily diverge from those around them. Plans to redevelop the stadium illustrate this: new regulations for the minimum required number of seats for stadiums in Germany’s first and second division, as well as a growing fan base, have called for the extension of the current 22,012 capacity necessary.
Those plans will be addressed at the end of the season, and by that stage Union could be a Bundesliga club for the first time. But if that does happen, you can expect the club to stay true to their beliefs. One of the criteria for assessing the stadium redevelopment is whether the club’s special atmosphere can be maintained, along with a continued emphasis on standing terraces. Union like to do things their own way, and the Bundesliga may find that out soon.
Pic credit: Der Robert / Daniel Rossbach
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November 2: Jerwin Ancajas-Jonathan Rodriguez Junior Bantamweight Title Bout Set for Miguel Berchelt-Jason Sosa Co-Feature LIVE on ESPN
Posted on October 8, 2019 in Latest news // 0 Comments
The 115-pound fighting pride of the Philippines, Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas, will make the eighth defense of his IBF junior bantamweight world title against Mexican contender Jonathan Rodriguez Saturday, November 2 at Dignity Health Sports Park. Ancajas-Rodriguez will serve as the co-feature to Miguel Berchelt’s WBC super featherweight title defense versus Jason Sosa, and both fights will be televised live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes (Spanish) starting at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
The undercard will see the return of Oklahoma City’s Alex “El Cholo” Saucedo, who is looking to rebound from his first career defeat against Rod Salka in an eight-round super lightweight bout. Saucedo-Salka and the rest of the undercard will stream live on ESPN+, the leading multi-sport streaming service, beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
“I am looking forward to this fight because Rodriguez brings the Mexican style to his fights, and Mexican and Filipinos make the best fights,” Ancajas said. “I want to thank Top Rank, Senator Manny Pacquiao and my manager, Joven Jimenez, for their continued support. It is going to be a war, and to my Filipino fans, I look forward to putting on a show for you in Carson.”
“I plan on taking full advantage of this opportunity,” Rodriguez said. “Ancajas is a great champion, but my time is now. It is time for a new face at 115 pounds.”
Ancajas (31-1-1, 21 KOs) is one of boxing’s longest-reigning and most active champions, as only two current world champions (Deontay Wilder and Wanheng Menayothin) have more title defenses. The dynamic southpaw won the title in September 2016 and defended his belt three times apiece in 2017 and 2018. He last fought May 4 in Stockton, California, knocking out Ryuichi Funai in six rounds. This will be Ancajas’ fourth consecutive bout in California, but the first time he’s showcased his skills in Southern California. Rodriguez (21-1, 15 KOs) is a dangerous foe who has won five in a row since a split decision defeat spoiled his unbeaten record. He is coming off a career-best win June 7 in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, when he knocked out former two-time world title challenger Felipe Orucuta in the 10th round.
Saucedo (28-1, 18 KOs), who turned 25 years old in June, burst onto the world stage in 2018. He overcame cuts and a swollen face to knock out Lenny Zappavigna in front of his hometown fans at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in a Fight of the Year contender. He returned to the Chesapeake Energy Arena last November and was knocked out in seven rounds by Maurice Hooker in a failed bid for the WBO junior welterweight world title. Saucedo regrouped and enlisted the services of a new trainer, Pedro Neme. Saucedo and Neme have been working together for the past four months and have focused on refining his defensive skills. Salka (24-5, 4 KOs) has not fought since an April 2018 knockout loss to former world champion Francisco Vargas, but before the Vargas defeat, he had won five in a row.
“I am excited to finally be back in the ring,” Saucedo said. “I enjoyed my time off, but the time was right to come back. I have a new team and can’t wait to show everyone the new Alex Saucedo. On November 2, I will steal the show.”
In other undercard bouts:
Southern California native and 2008 U.S. Olympian Javier Molina (20-2, 8 KOs) hopes to extend his winning streak to four versus Hiroki Okada (19-1, 13 KOs) in a 10-round super lightweight bout. Okada fought Ray Beltran in an ESPN-televised Fight of the Year candidate in February, losing via ninth-round knockout.
“I’m pumped to be fighting an opponent like Hiroki Okada,” Molina said. “We know he’s a tough fighter, but these are the types of fights we are looking for. A win over him will get me one step closer to a world title shot, and that’s what we are aiming for. He’s coming off a loss to Beltran, so we know he’s hungry to get back in the win column. We are going to be ready for anything he brings to the table.”
2016 Australian Olympian Daniel Lewis (4-0, 3 KOs) will make his United States debut against Alexis Gaytan (6-4, 2 KOs) in a super welterweight bout scheduled for eight rounds.
Armenian welterweight knockout sensation Gor Yeritsyan (11-0, 10 KOs) will face fellow unbeaten Damien Lopez (9-0-1, 5 KOs) in an eight-rounder. The Freddie Roach-trained Yeritsyan has won four straight bouts via knockout.
Dominican knockout artist Elvis Rodriguez (4-0-1, 4 KOs) will make his fifth ring appearance of 2019 against Chilean veteran Luis Norambuena (4-4-1, 0 KOs) in a six-rounder at super lightweight.
Raymond Muratalla (8-0, 6 KOs) will fight Arnulfo Becerra (7-2, 5 KOs) in a six-rounder at lightweight.
Ruben Rodriguez (9-0, 3 KOs), from Indio, California, will see action in a six-round super lightweight bout versus an opponent to be named.
Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Peltz Boxing, tickets for this world championship event are priced at $125, $85, $65 and $30 (not including applicable fees). Tickets can be purchased by visiting AXS.com, charge by phone at 888-9-AXS-TIX (888-929-7849) and in person at the Dignity Health Sports Park Box Office (Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. PT to 6 p.m. PT).
For more information, visit: www.toprank.com, www.espn.com/boxing; Facebook: facebook.com/trboxing; Twitter: twitter.com/trboxing.
Use the hashtags #BercheltSosa and #AncajasRodriguez to join the conversation on social media.
About ESPN+
ESPN+ is the multi-sport, direct-to-consumer video service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) segment and ESPN. It reached 2 million subscribers in less than a year and offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks, along with premium editorial content.
Programming on ESPN+ includes hundreds of MLB and NHL games, exclusive UFC, Top Rank boxing and PFL fights and events, top domestic and international soccer (Serie A, MLS, FA Cup, UEFA Nations League, EFL Championship, EFL Carabao Cup, Eredivisie, and more), thousands of college sports events (including football, basketball and other sports), Grand Slam tennis, international and domestic rugby and cricket, new and exclusive series, acclaimed studio shows and the full library of ESPN’s award-winning 30 for 30 films. Fans subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year) and can cancel at any time.
ESPN+ is available as an integrated part of the ESPN App (on mobile and connected devices) and ESPN.com.
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An anti-war vet in Trumpland
Guns and Religion in a Small Town on Memorial Day
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I attended a “Salute to Veterans” this past Memorial Day in Waldoboro, Maine, organized by the town’s Historical Society at the headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and co-sponsored by the American Legion. For someone with my antiwar resume, albeit a veteran of a Vietnam combat unit, stepping over the threshold of a VFW Post can feel like crossing into hostile territory. I might exhibit a similar compunction about taking fermentation at certain blue color taverns in the Rust Belt, despite the fact that many of the regulars would pretty much look like me, white seniors with European roots – except maybe they voted for Trump and I didn’t. It’s not just politics; it’s a class thing. I spent my first eleven years in a working class subdivision while my dad, employed at a defense plant, “broke through the line” into management. We moved up and I went to college, then left my hometown in the dust.
The POW/MIA guest setting; and attendees at the Memorial Day event (Photos: Michael Uhl)
Most of those I sat among that afternoon in Waldoboro probably hadn’t been to college – an opportunity with far reaching class consequences – but they’d remained rooted in their communities. Being there, it was as if I’d been whisked back to some mothballed version of where I’d grown up in the fifties. All the musty forms and rituals were intact. The interior of the hall was a shrine to soldierly service. All manner of war and military memorabilia displayed on walls and tables. Mannequins outfitted full fig in uniforms of various epochs. Two rows of chairs faced the stars and stripes and the flags of all the services that stood tall across the front of the room. Stage-set on the left flank was an empty table with a single place setting and chair, the ubiquitous homage of the mainstream veteran service organizations to the MIAs.
One elderly lady saddled in beside me and sparkled brightly, “don’t worry, I won’t bite you.” Was she in the Ladies Auxiliary linked to one of the co-sponsors, I asked? She nodded yes without comment. The chair of the local Historical Society stepped to the podium, asked the body to stand, then summoned the Color Guard, having carried two flags to the rear, to proceed forward and return the standards to their stanchions. Two of the more senior men, costumed with bits and pieces of their old uniforms – both wore sergeant’s stripes – fairly dragged the heavy poles up the aisle. “It weighs a ton,” one of them grumbled under his breath, but loud enough to make his audience, including me, smile and nod in sympathy.
Invited to remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, I did, of course, silent, my arms unpledgingly akimbo; but not the good citizens around me who earnestly recited these words by rote, and placed palms over hearts, or saluted, especially the lodge commanders ramrod straight whose squared fingers grazed the tips of their “piss cutters.” Their drill sergeants would have finally been proud of them. A man at a Hammond Organ struck up the national anthem, and I noticed not many folks were singing, likely having never fully committed Francis Scott Key’s lyrics, arcane, elegiac, to memory. I joined in for America the Beautiful, a tune that glides more smoothly off the lips. Then a reverend rose to pray, and did so for the next ten minutes.
Not a stem-winder by any means; the man was no orator. He’d clearly pre-set his marks, and chockablock sought to hit them all. I can track the gist of it from the hurried scribbles in my notebook, which from time to time drew a sidelong glance from my neighbor, quite inscrutable, but from a woman across the aisle a more openly curious look. The alertness of a neighborhood watcher; no interference implied. Meanwhile, the preacher gathered steam. He thanked his God for “giving us these extra days” that had been denied to the fallen who “did not turn, did not flinch” from their ultimate sacrifice. “When Americans go into battle,” he exclaimed, “they go to win for righteousness sake… to bring peace to those who are oppressed.”
“Might” was preferred, he emphasized, as the “implement of peace for all men of good will.” Even now “the God of peace and love” rested his hand on the “boys and girls who defend our nation… as they go into battle… as volunteers… as Your Son went to the cross.” Well, that part he has right. Some of these young patriots are certainly being crucified. Not only does the preacher fail to countenance such unpleasantries as the economic draft that has replaced conscription, making enlistment an attractive employment alternative over, say, a career in Walmart’s, or similar low wage employment available locally for youngsters with limited education and skills. He hasn’t a clue that “the nearly two-thirds of the 91, 764 U.S. troops,” according to The Washington Post, “who were separated from the military… in a recent four-year period had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress…“
This is not a mark among the preacher’s mental bullet points. It violates the paradigm of community pride toward the “high per capita amount of lives,” in the speaker’s awkward phrasing, “given to our nation from these two (Maine mid-coastal) counties, Knox and Lincoln.” Hinging his body slowly to face the MIA table, he chose to end his reflections by speaking the painfully obvious, that “no one will ever sit there. They won’t be able to come to the mess hall again,” sacred for GIs, he believed, as “another place of peace.” It was by now abundantly clear that for this holder of a minor local pulpit peace was not the way to peace – as A.J. Muste once had taught us. Peace was but a transitory moment at the chow hall along a path of military glory strewn with the bodies of the dead we had come here today to honor. There would be no peace without war.
Memorial Day attendees around a table featuring the traditional poppies. (Photos: Michael Uhl)
The head of the town Historical Society, a tiny woman of a certain age – and originally from New Jersey if memory serves – returned to the mic and cast a gleeful beam over the gathering, now chastened by the reminder of our survival. She had taught English for many years at the Waldoboro High School, and possessed the forbearing eye that a principal displays before a school assembly. We were now her classroom, and a brief lesson traced the origins of Decoration – now Memorial – Day from 1868, when widows organized to decorate the graves of soldiers killed in the Civil War. Judging from the miniature flags that pop up at all the local cemeteries around this holiday, the widows are still at their task.
Many outsiders, and me in spades, develop a fascination for the local history that far outstrips the interest of the local natives. And Waldoboro has a history unique to all of Maine. A compete anomaly in a colony saturated with settlers from the British Isles, the frontier surrounding what became Waldoboro was peopled by Germans in the mid-18th century. This is the stuff from which our emcee now draws to flatter the many ancestors of those Palatine pioneers who are present. Although she is by far the best educated and most articulate of the several speakers who will yet address us, she too is a true believer, well-schooled in the revision of history at the service of civic indoctrination. And so the vitae of the figure from the town’s colonial past chosen to reinforce the traditional values we are called here to witness and celebrate must be embellished by urban myth, which I cite to justify my dangling epitaph above.
Conrad Heyer did indeed have a storied life. His fame rested to some degree on longevity. Born in the middle of the 18th century during the so-called Indian Wars, he was well over a hundred when he died in the middle of 19th on the brink of the Civil War. Heyer was therefore one of the last of the town’s original German speakers, and a man whose piety history records as a lifelong congregant and choir member of the Lutheran Meeting House, a majestic relic of colonial post and beam construction, now open to tourists. Multitudes from Waldoboro and the surrounding communities turned out for the public funeral when he was buried there. Heyer was a small farmer, and poor like most of his neighbors; late in life he received a revolutionary war pension, a then “princely sum” of $8 a month.
Heyer is justly renowned for having rushed to the Cambridge encampment where Washington had taken command of the continentals in the battle for Boston in 1775. He may or may not have been part of the troop movement that crossed the Delaware to fall upon the Hessians in Trenton, but there appears no doubt that Heyer did suffer the deprivations of winter at Valley Forge. Out of this heroic saga, our teacher spins an even more pleasing tale that jumps the historical rails, promoting Conrad Heyer, along with other nameless Waldoboro men, to a place of honor in Washington’s personal guard. History has otherwise chosen to remain silent on this detail. But no military glory can be over-gilded. And you can bet the endorsement of history on such matters is irrelevant, and that the legend of Heyer at Washington’s side is widely credited here. This reminds me of my mother telling us our family had a baron in the old country. When I deliver my own lecture on Waldoboro at our local library, I will set the record straight, and may the letters to the editor in our county rag bristle with outraged rejoinders. I digress.
The mic was passed among a short parade of officers of the Legion and the VFW to tell us of their advocacy in the legislature on behalf of veteran entitlements, and health issues like Agent Orange and Gulf War syndrome, the bread and butter mission of these service organizations. We learned when the local posts were founded, and who they were named for, inevitably men – relatives, boyhood friends, classmates for some – who’d not come home with the rest. There was a bit of nostalgia in one origin story about a time when “we could still hold a turkey shoot [a marksmanship contest] in someone’s backyard. Imagine all the red tape we’d have to go through today?” the man bemoaned with an obligatory head shake. This is the ruefulness of the anachronistic that glues the likes of Trump and our Tea Party governor LePage to their bases.
One commander’s comments had been written by committee, the Historical Society maven happily confided. Teamwork was the essential ingredient behind the planning of this event, avowed the team leader. Script in hand, as the man haltingly read other people’s words, I was reminded of my years as an adjunct at several satellite campuses of the University of Maine System where I taught College Writing, called Freshman Comp in my day. I became well aware of the fact that, while my students could all read – but mostly didn’t – only a small minority were capable of writing beyond a string of simple declarative sentences that seldom added up to a coherent narrative. I was shocked as perhaps only someone reared on the blank slate of suburbia and even modestly sheltered could be.
In this format of a mass meeting of the passive, a recognition ritual places a glimmer of the spotlight on those who’d performed military service, and when the names of the distinct services were called, a wave of random patterns of the seated and the standing rose and fell throughout the hall. One woman, the only woman present who served, had done so in multiple branches, answering the call for the Coast Guard, the Navy and the Air Force. Apparently her career had never been in doubt; only the uniform. When our teacher-emcee announced, “this is the good part,” the organist thumped his keyboard and each service’s song was sung in turn. This was her baby, and so the transplant from New Jersey had the last word, and enjoined her assembled neighbors “to keep the small town connectedness alive.” Her spirit had been revved up by an inner ecstatic charge, and the podium now became her pulpit. She offered thanks to “our Lord Jesus Christ, that we live in a country where we can sing and salute,” although I’m fairly certain this latter mark of obeisance is even permitted to followers of the Prophet.
Accordingly, suffused with the images of “dusty trails” and “caissons” and “the halls of Montezuma,” not to mention the militant “Jesus,” the crowd broke up, with some lingering at a refreshment table for a soft drink and a piece of celebratory cake. I stood briefly nearby with a fellow Vietnam vet, a man who still bore the name of a colonial German ancestor. He had come there in the same duds he would wear changing the oil on his truck – the concept of “dress up” is weak among working men in these parts. Leaning on the cane that eased his war wound, he told me that his greatest regret about going to Vietnam was that he could no longer be a motorcycle racer when he came home. He voiced his gripes about the VA and government waste. “They’ve got research projects studying shrimp on a treadmill forgodsake,” he blurted out bewilderedly. And naturally I had to ask him if he thought Vietnam was worth it. “We shouldn’t have been over there,” he mused, but he was “glad to have done his duty,” the default sentiment in this gathering I reckon.
Among those for whom the concept of class is not taboo, the moral of this tale should be obvious. But I can provide a more explicit political context that illustrates the class divide I experienced so viscerally at this Memorial Day event. Up the road near a town several lumens shinier than Waldoboro, I’d been attending meetings of the Indivisibles, the movement emerging from the Democratic Party to fight the Trump agenda. I asked a woman in the group’s leadership circle what in the Indivisibles’ program is oriented toward detaching low income constituencies — among whom I clearly identify our militarized veteran neighbors of Waldoboro – from Trump’s base in the upcoming electoral cycle. She paused momentarily perplexed. What she finally managed, breaking off our contact with a dismissive wave, was that the Indivisibles were only intent on mobilizing their own base, not engaging with Trump’s.
The Indivisibles have done some good things around here; but the blind spot in this response did not surprise me. Nothing I’ve heard at these meetings comes close to examining, much less challenging the neo-liberal tenets of corporate rule. Stunningly absent from our group’s deliberations or actions on “priority issues” – environment, immigration, LBGTQ, Donald’s tax returns, Russiagate – is any attention whatsoever to economic policy. Narrow indivisibleism sets no priority to challenge the bloated Democratic sanctioned defense budget as the most obvious source of funding [along with taxing the wealthy] to support social programs that would benefit the alienated working class. Of U.S. endless wars and the military’s imperial footprint across the globe, likewise nothing is spoken.
Let’s face it. Over a continuum spanning two generations, it’s not the working class that’s abandoned the Democratic Party; it’s the other way around. Until something dramatic stirs in the body politic that cements an electoral majority to a progressive agenda, for many Memorial Days to come we will find the Trump-inclined patriots in their veterans lodge hall nurturing the ideas and practices that infuriate their liberal “betters” up the road, and still clinging to their guns and religion.
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INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.
The newspapers are agreed that the scheme of industrial arbitration as set forth in the recently passed Act in Sydney is a great experiment, and that it will be watched with
Page 9 - INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.
THE EXPERIMENT IN NEW SOUTH
WALES.
The newspapers are agreed that the scheme
of industrial arbitration as set forth in the
recently passed Act in Sydney is a great
experiment, and that it will be watched with
the keenest interest.
INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION. (1901, December 11). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 9. Retrieved January 18, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14428063
"INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION." The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) 11 December 1901: 9. Web. 18 Jan 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14428063>.
1901 'INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 11 December, p. 9. , viewed 18 Jan 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14428063
{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14428063 |title=INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |issue=19,891 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 December 1901 |accessdate=18 January 2021 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wed 11 Dec 1901, Page 9 - INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.
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Hurricane Joaquin Travel Update and Airline Advisories: Landfall Not Expected in United States — But…
T he latest track predicted for Hurricane Joaquin — which has weakened to a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale — has shifted further east and will most likely not threaten a direct landfall in the United States…
…but as has been demonstrated by Superstorm Sandy on October 29, 2012, the strength of the storm is not always indicative of the damage it can potentially cause.
In addition to New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina are currently under declared states of emergency.
Despite the latest forecast, torrential rains emanating from the hurricane are already causing problems in at least 20 states in the eastern third of the United States — and more rain is expected over the weekend in many of those areas, which could likely bring flooding; and flood watches have already been issued in many areas. In addition, high winds are also being forecast for some of these areas; and heavy pounding surf is also expected along the eastern coast of the United States.
The Bahamas continues to be battered by the forces of the hurricane, which has currently stalled.
If you are wondering to yourself about the media hype pertaining to this hurricane — several media sources have screamed out that greater than 65 million people will be impacted by this storm, which is a claim I loathed to use — you are not alone. I read an interesting article written by Nate Cohn of The New York Times pertaining to the Global Forecast System of the National Weather Service being inferior to the model from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Although I am not a meteorologist, I have always had a fascination for weather — along with knowledge about weather and its characteristics in general — and I admittedly did not understand why forecasts were initially calling for the landfall of Hurricane Joaquin on the east coast of the United States when there were strong steering currents — in coordination with a cold front and a low pressure system over the southeastern United States — which contributed towards preventing that possible landfall from happening…
…but the reason why I post these articles pertaining to weather is to help keep you informed with your travel plans — as well as to give you links to discussions by fellow frequent fliers pertaining to the weather, which are listed below from FlyerTalk…
Exchanging Award Ticket in advance of Hurricane
Hurricane Joaquin’s effect on UA ops?
Hurricane Joaquin thread
Weather travel advisory – refund instead of credit?
Question about possibility of upcoming flight cancellation
Hurricane and travel plans on Tuesaday
Moral Q: Abandoning coworker?
OSO, IROPS / IRROPS, delay, cancelation for AA / US flyers (consolidated)
Official 2015 New England Fall Foliage Thread
…and — for your convenience — here are the latest travel advisories pertaining to Hurricane Joaquin from the following airlines where you can change or cancel your itinerary and possibly receive a full refund where applicable — free of charge:
Keep up to date on the latest information pertaining to this tropical system which may adversely affect your travel plans. Better yet, you may want to consider postponing or canceling your trip, as it might be a better option — no matter which mode of travel you plan on taking.
If you have a flight scheduled, your flight could be delayed or canceled — and you may be eligible for a waiver of a fee to change your itinerary. If you are driving in any of these areas, watch out for deteriorating weather conditions and traffic problems.
Consider contacting your airline or transportation provider for the latest information pertaining to your travels as this situation progresses…
…and please: travel safely.
Source of graphic: the National Hurricane Center of the National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States.
Hurricane Joaquin Update: Track Forecast of Category 4 Storm Shifts East — But...
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LIFE SUPPORT TEAM
NETWORK STATIONS AND CHANNELS
The LIFELINE
Welcome to the LifeFM!
The LifeFM is the Dove Award winning listener-supported radio ministry of the 501c3 non-profit Power Foundation. The LifeFM Network includes 28 radio stations covering geography from Illinois to Florida.
The LifeFM format highlights the top music in Southern Gospel, featuring male quartets, mixed quartets, trios, duets, and soloists. Our aim is to bring honor to Christ with our music and announcer commentary that will have your entire family singing along to the top songs from their favorite artists.
Beyond the music and programs, the LifeFM seeks to provide a helping hand to our listeners and community. We know that life is difficult. We have experienced the struggle. We don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but we do know and point to the One who does.
It’s our hope that you will be blessed through the music and ministry that flows from the airwaves of the LifeFM. Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Turn up the radio…and let’s live! We’re ‘living life together’.
A large group of police officers and other government officials raided a house where children from a heavily persecuted megachurch were being homeschooled in Chengdu, China, the church said in a Facebook post, pleading for Christians worldwide to pray for them.
President-elect Joe Biden and his upcoming administration have similar priorities with conservative evangelicals on international religious freedom policy, Johnnie Moore, who served as an informal evangelical adviser to the Trump administration, told The Christian Post on Friday.
The 117th United States Congress is made up of 88% Christians, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.
A leading Jewish organization that helps Jews across the world settle in Israel is severing ties with the Canadian-based Christian Zionist group Return Ministries over allegations the Christian nonprofit engaged in proselytizing.
Franklin Graham compares Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment to Judas
Rev. Franklin Graham took to social media to slam the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump, comparing them to the infamous Judas Iscariot.
For nearly three decades, the United States has observed January 16 as Religious Freedom Day. America’s “First Freedom” has historically enjoyed near-universal and bipartisan support.
Comment Line:
The LifeFM is a listener supported radio ministry. Contributions are tax deductible and assist this ministry in sharing the good news of Christ.
Galatians 5:16 January 16, 2021
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
The LifeFM is a radio ministry of the Power Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization
Copyright © 2015-2017, The Power Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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OnePlus 8T front camera features teaser video released
The OnePlus 8T smartphone may be equipped with an ultra-wide-angle camera, which is indicated in the latest teaser video. OnePlus shared a short video clip on its Twitter handle, hinting at an ultra-wide-angle selfie camera, with a hole-punch cutout on the top left of the camera display. However, the company has not yet shared any information about the camera, for which you will have to wait a few days more. The OnePlus 8T smartphone will be introduced during the virtual launch event on 14 October.
OnePlus has Tweet I have shared a short video of the smartphone, which is reportedly believed to be OnePlus 8T. This phone is located with a hole-punch display and appears in the video as “Lights, Camera, Ultra”. This could be an indication of an ultra wide-angle selfie camera. Apart from this, a red light is seen blinking near the lens in the video, which is believed to be a reference to the color correction method or a new video recording feature. The company has not yet made public any information about the camera, even the information on the camera megapixel count is currently under suspension. Let me tell you, the recently launched OnePlus Nord was given two front cameras, one with a 32 megapixel wide camera and the other an 8 megapixel ultra-wide snapper.
OnePlus 8T specifications (expected)
OnePlus 8T will have a 6.5-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has been said to be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset and also it has been learned through leaks that the phone will be given a maximum of 12 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage. Apart from this, two color options can be available in the phone for purchase, which are Aquamarine Green and Lunar Silver.
Talking about the camera, the phone may have a quad rear camera setup which will include a 48-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 16-megapixel sensor, a 5-megapixel sensor, and a 2-megapixel sensor. The phone may have a 16-megapixel camera on the front for a selfie.
OnePlus 8T smartphone will be launched in India on 14 October. This virtual launch event will begin on OnePlus 8T in India at 7:30 PM on the website of OnePlus India. Information about some specifications about the smartphone has been confirmed, such as this phone will come with Oxygen OS 11. Apart from this, a 4,500 mAh battery will be provided in this phone, which will full charge the phone in 39 minutes and in just 15 minutes this phone will be 58 percent charged.
IND vs AUS Brisbane Test: Shardul Thakur Khul Raj, the reason behind his excellent batting
Brisbane: Team India's fast bowler Shardul Thakur when he came out to bat in the first innings of the fourth Test against Australia, India...
IND VS AUS 4th Test: Centenary partnership of Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur created history, these two big records made
Brisbane: Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar played a century partnership playing in difficult conditions at the Gaba International Stadium. Shardul and Sundar, who...
IND vs AUS Brisbane Test: Women spectators worry about India’s injured players, said- ‘Get well soon Team India’
New Delhi: The fourth and last match of the current Test series is being played between India and Australia (IND vs AUS). This...
India vs Australia 4th Test: Washington Sundar equals 72 year old record, became the second Indian to achieve this position
new Delhi: On the third day of the fourth Test against Australia, Washington Sundar (Shardul Thakur) of Team India did wonders. These two...
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Argentina’s President Macri Faces Increasing Scandals and Resistance to His Return to Neoliberalism
The political panorama for Argentina’s conservative government looks increasingly difficult according to Prof. Atilio Boron
GREGORY WILPERT: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Gregory Wilpert, coming to you from Quito, Ecuador. For the second part of this two-part interview with Professor Atilio Boron, we’ll be looking at the situation in Argentina. For the first part, we were examining Ecuador. Argentina is Professor Atilio Boron’s home country, and for those of you who missed the first part, let me just say that Atilio is an Argentine Professor of Sociology and Political Science, at the University of Buenos Aires, and he’s written extensively on Latin American politics and social movements. Thanks again, Atilio, for joining us for the second part. ATILIO BORON: Thank you for the invitation. GREGORY WILPERT: In November 2015, Mauricio Macri won the presidential elections against his… successor, against the candidate of Cristina Fernandez. Ever since then, throughout the year of 2016, Macri seems to be following the neo-liberal playbook, lowering taxes for the wealthy, cutting social spending, and laying off public employees. Now, what the other thing that’s making a lot of news though, is that he also forgave the debt to a company that’s belonging to his family, and it was up to something like, $300 million, that was forgiven. How do you think the… or how do you see the Argentine public reacting to these things, and not just the scandal of the debt forgiveness, but also the entire package of neo-liberal programs that have been implemented in Argentina? ATILIO BORON: Well, Greg, I will say, at the beginning, you know, there was a sort of a great hopes, because the campaign against Cristina has been so, so strong, and so vicious. That many people believed, that way now we enter into a new phase in Argentine history, with an honest government, with an efficient government. In which the major social advancements produced during the … year, will be sustained, but also will be improved, so on and so forth. And this explained that Mr. Macri has a reasonably good index of popular support, basically 50%, even after the beginning of the hard economic policies. Now, it is something very interesting. Because of this scandal of the Correo Central, the debt of the Correo Central, there was a sharp decline in the popularity, and the indices of approbation of President Macri. I think that after one year, and a little bit more, people started saying that it is enough, it is enough, and wants to do something different. I think that he also… well, this is a politician which is very, very impulsive. He is unable to distinguish the difference between being a CEO of a big corporation, and the Chief of State. In which, in the second case, you at least have to talk with your allies. But he doesn’t talk to anybody. I know, even, he doesn’t listen to his own advisors, and he’s making many mistakes. I say mistakes, in the sense, not that he would like to do other policies, he wants to do this policy, the re-concentration of wealth, decline in real wages, et cetera, et cetera. But the way in which he does, that creates many …, and especially the fact that … Panama papers(?). Which is something, it means tax evasion, Bahamas, the same, and now with the Correo. With the Correo, it’s a major scandal. You know, he’s… the group, which was held by his father, has a debt of $300 million dollars with the state, for many, many years. Finally the group, the Macri Group, proposed to the state, in this case, the same Mauricio Macri, a reduction of 98.3% of the debt, also to be paid from 2017 until 2033. So, it was a major scandal. And this has created a very, very delicate situation. I think, that this year in the coming weeks, I will say, will start a very, very serious offensive, popular reaction, even by people who voted Macri, and are now strongly disappointed because they believed that he was an honest administration. He’s not… they believed that he was an able administrator. He’s not. They believed that he has a good team, and he does not have a good team. And so I think that this year is going to be a very, very, very turbulent year in Argentine politics, and the government faces a very threatening election in October of this year. If the government does not win this legislative election, in October 2017, I would anticipate that Macri may become, how do I say? Puto Gringo(?), which is the expression in English, “lame duck.” I’m sorry, a lame duck. He will become a lame duck, two years before ending his term. So, this is why he is very, very desperate, trying to see how to arrange things. But it’s going to take a lot of good luck, and favorable international economic environment, which is not there. Now, he’s going to visit Washington, invited by Trump, to go to the White House in April, or May. But, of course, Trump, you know, Trump did something, which was quite grotesque. After many years of preventing the imports of lemons from Argentina, which is perhaps the greatest lemon producer in the world, finally Obama said, okay, you can bring. And after Trump take over the presidency, he cut that possibility, saying that lemons will not be imported from Argentina, because we have good lemon producers in California, and other states of the union, so that… nothing in that. So, what kind of help could expect Mr. Macri, from the United States? He can’t even be allowed to export lemons to the U.S. GREGORY WILPERT: What are the social movements, and unions planning now, given the situation that you have just described? I hear that there will be a general strike in the second half of March. Do you think that that will be a success, given the situation? ATILIO BORON: Well, steaming(?) is gaining in momentum at this moment, at the present time. Now there is a mountain level of intolerance, and anger against the government, because he has been quite able to make enemies, where before they have friends, no? For instance, the old people, the pensioners, are now being very, very badly hit by a recent decision of President Macri. Which will mean that the amount of the pensions will not be re-adjusted in a high inflation country, on the basis of the official index, but something, which is less than half of the official inflation index. So, that means that you are putting yourself in the focus of the pensioners. They are very, very militant against him now. While they have been quite supportive of Macri in the past. And the same happened with several layers of the wage earners, employees, small entrepreneurs also, okay, the Bilinkis(?), what they call in Argentina, small and medium enterprises are being badly hit by the government. There is no credit for them. There is a high inflation rate. And there is not any kind of incentive. The costs of production have skyrocketed, because, for instance, electricity is tripled… the cost in questions of… in a matter of months, the same with the provision of gas, which are essential components of the price structure of these small enterprises. So, I think it’s gathering, an impressive storm, a political storm, in Argentina, in an electoral year. GREGORY WILPERT: Given all of the problems that Macri is facing, and the problems that the public has been facing, with the implementation of his policies, you see a similar situation actually, in Brazil, and in other countries that are currently governed by right-wing governments. How do you think that the right, in general, is reacting to these problems that they themselves have created? ATILIO BORON: I think that the right is not having a good time in Latin America. Look, in Argentina, the situation is quite critical. In Brazil, it’s even worse. But in Brazil, by contrast — in Argentina you don’t have social movements and political forces, which are by tradition, very weak in Brazil, and traditionally are very strong in Argentina. But look at the situation with President Bachelet, in Chile, with an index of approval in the teens, 15, 16, 17%. The country was once considered the economic miracle of Latin America. They don’t have any political alternative. Okay? People are running away from the polls. They are not going to vote anymore. In the last presidential election in Chile, voters, barely one-third of the people who were in capacity to vote, the situation in Peru is not better. The situation in Colombia, well, Colombia is some very serious, and complicated economic problems, aggravated by the question of the paramilitaryism[sic] and so on. So, the right, I think, that in Latin America, has proved that after 30 or 40 years of neo-liberal policies, they have very little to show. And they are unable to win elections. In the case of Argentina, it was, I will say, just an electoral accident. But in the case of Brazil, today the frontrunner candidate for the 2018 elections is Lula. They don’t have anyone able to defeat Lula. What they are going to do is to prevent Lula from being the candidate. GREGORY WILPERT: That was actually one other thing I was going to ask you, regarding how Macri became president in the first place. You called it an “accident”. Why is it that you call it an accident? What happened? ATILIO BORON: Because I think that he was an accident for the many mistakes made by the … government, in the last year. Okay? Economic mistakes, for instance, do not fight seriously against inflation, which was undermining the social policies. The government gave a lot of money to the poor, but given that the inflation was running out of control, at the end of the year, you have lost 35%, 40% of what you gave to the poor. Mistakes, such as insisting in a presidential formula, which was just pure … okay? … who was a former language(?), was good for one-third of the electorate, which is … But in order to win, you need to have a wider political offer, and they failed to do that. They made another serious mistake in the election of the critical province of Buenos Aires, which they lost. It’s the first time in its history, in which being government at the national level, the Peronistas lost an election in the province of Buenos Aires. Never happened before. There was only one case — that was in 1983 — but the Peronistas were not in power at the national level. Alfonsín was in power. But then, losing the province of Buenos Aires was a major, major blow to the electoral fortunes of Peronism. And this is why there was a second ballotage, and in the ballotage, there was a small difference in favor of Macri. It was, nobody expected that. They were not… I can tell you a story. For instance, the meetings of the top candidates at the provincial levels, or legislative positions of the running alliance, the Cambiamos, there’s the name, in which, oh, we are absolutely convinced that when talking with the sociologists, the economists, that they were not going to win. That they were thinking in the 2019, that they’re goal was being very well positioned for the election of 2018. And to their surprise, they won four years before the … and this you can quote, without any doubt that was the case. Okay? And that were… because of the mistakes made by Kirchnerismo, Cristina is a very interesting politician. She’s a long-looking politician that has learned a lot, has studied a lot, is a formidable speaker, formidable speaker, okay? But she’s not good at the short term political maneuvering, which you need if you want to win an election. Néstor Kirchner, her husband, was very good at that. He had… Néstor did not have the long look of Cristina, okay? Not even the international dimension that Cristina handles very well. But he was a master; in terms of the tricks you need to do, in order to prevail in political contests. And Cristina is very bad at that, and didn’t have anyone able to do the job, and this is why they lost. With a very simple change in the presidential formula, if instead of Sanini(?) as a second candidate, as vice-president, they have elected anyone else, they would have won the election without any problem. But, you know, those miskates are very, very expensive in politics. GREGORY WILPERT: Well, we’ve run out of time. But thanks again, Atilio, for joining us for the second part of the interview. ATILIO BORON: No, my pleasure to cooperate with your news. I know that you are doing a very, very good job, in many … So, thank you very much. GREGORY WILPERT: Thank you. Thank you so much, for joining us for this interview with Professor Atilio Boron, about Argentine, Ecuadorian politics in the context of Latin America. And thanks again for watching The Real News Network. ————————- END
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Apple: The Biggest Tax Cheaters in History Repatriate Profits Under Trump’s Tax Bill
by TRNN January 22, 2018 September 23, 2020
What Apple did was outright illegal according to the European Union, but instead of taking legal action against Apple for tax evasion, the Trump tax bill will reward them says white-collar criminologist Bill Black
SHARMINI PERIES: It’s The Real News Network. I’m Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore. Apple – the maker of iPhones, iMacs, iPads – they announced on Wednesday that it is launching a $350 billion five-year investment plan. Great news, right? It also said it will pay $38 billion in taxes that it has managed to evade for profits made abroad. President Trump immediately welcomed the announcement, tweeting, “I promised that my policies would allow companies like Apple to bring massive amounts of money back to the United States. Great to see Apple follow through as a result of tax cuts,” he wrote.
Is the Apple announcement a result of Trump’s tax cuts? Well, according to estimates, Apple is holding more than $252 billion, or over one quarter of trillion dollars, in profits overseas. Apple is now taking advantage of the Trump’s tax bill which lowered the repatriation rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. While a $350 billion investment in the U.S. sounds good, how much is the U.S. Treasury losing from this deal? Joining me now to analyze all of this is Bill Black. He’s a white-collar criminologist, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City. He’s the author of <i>The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. </i> Good to have you, Bill.
BILL BLACK: Thank you.
SHARMINI PERIES: Bill, now according to the group Americans for Tax Fairness, Apple would have paid $78 billion in taxes under the old repatriation tax of 35 percent. Now it will be paying $38 billion, or $40 billion less than it would have had they declared their money and not evaded paying tax in the first place. And it also mentioned that it will invest $350 billion over the next five years. However, according to many analysts, Apple was planning to do these investments anyway in spite of the tax changes, the new tax bill. What is your reaction to all of this?
BILL BLACK: Okay. So let’s start with the basics. What’s going on is that American companies have kept overseas over a trillion dollars to avoid U.S. taxes that they owe. So Apple is the worst of these, the biggest single one. First thing you need to know is that that money doesn’t really stay abroad. So you put it in a tax haven like the Cayman Islands, you being Apple, but the Cayman Islands doesn’t keep $254 billion and invest it in the Cayman Islands because you can’t do that. So their money actually is all over the world, and in particular, in the United States.
So the first thing about how supposedly we’re going to have this massive growth because there’s going to be money in the United States, that’s completely false in terms of economics. Second thing, and that was the focus of your question, is we’re really rewarding the cheaters. We’re saying, “You didn’t do what more honest companies did and actually pay taxes. You evaded those taxes.” In the case of Apple, in ways that were outright illegal according to the European Union, mind you. And because you cheated, rather than charge you a bit over twice as much, we’re going to cut your bill. We’re going to let you have a competitive advantage over the firms, your rivals, that weren’t cheating. We’re going to let you pay a much lower tax rate; as you said, 15.5 percent, which is even lower than the new 21 percent corporate tax rate. So that’s the second thing that’s going on.
Third thing that’s going on is in fact easy, as you said. Apple’s not going to invest anything more, and it’s not going to invest anything more in the United States as a result of the tax bill, which is certainly not a reform; it’s a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans. Apple was going to invest in those data plants in the United States anyway because it turns out those kind of data plants with weak U.S. wages are actually more competitive than putting them these days in India with all the attendant risk that they have, including fraud risk, in those circumstances. So that’s a business decision they were going to make anyway. So bottom line, no economic gain, huge giveaway, and creation of really perverse incentives where the worst actors like Apple are the biggest beneficiaries.
SHARMINI PERIES: Right. Now when Apple’s CEO was asked about this, whether this investment was going to be made anyway in spite of the tax repatriation that’s going on, he was a bit vague. And on top of that, he also said that … He framed this whole presentation as a giveback in terms of Apple. Your thoughts on that.
BILL BLACK: Yeah. They gave back in the sense of, we subsidized them through this special lower tax rate that they got for being the biggest tax cheats in America. That was a real giveback to us. You could tell from the timing, these types of investments that they’re announcing, those have had to have been in the works for years; that simply the planning for them takes that time. So no, they had nothing to do with the tax cuts.
SHARMINI PERIES: In fact, they should be framed as not giving back, but actually tax evaders. Give us a sense of their history here, Bill, in terms of how they’ve managed to avoid and master the art of tax evasion.
BILL BLACK: So Apple has been probably the single most aggressive, really large company. It’s done a lot of it through Ireland, and there are a bunch of scams you play. So Ireland created this race to the bottom of a much lower corporate tax rate. Now the U.S. is responding and Ireland will quite possibly lower it further. And you can see that this dynamic leads to virtually no taxation worldwide on corporations, which is their greatest Christmas present ever and what’s really going on.
So how did they do it? So part of it was just going to Ireland that had a dramatically lower corporate tax rate. The second part is called “transfer pricing.” And what you do is claim by how you charge yourself. So you’ve got all these subsidiaries, these affiliates that are sister companies; well, I could just charge … When I sell from one affiliate to another, a whole lot more or a whole lot less than is the real market situation. So what do I do? I sell to my Irish subsidiaries in ways that make it look like the huge proportion of the profits was earned in Ireland even though I’ve got a really small staff of people in Ireland that do very little. Okay, that’s a common scam not unique to Apple. But again, Apple is the biggest perpetrator of this scam.
But that wasn’t enough. Those first two scams weren’t enough for Apple. So their third scam was going to the Irish government secretly and saying, “Hey, let’s make a extra-special deal. I know your statute says we’re supposed to pay this amount of tax, but why don’t you give us a really much, much, much lower tax, secretly?” And Ireland did that. That’s what I was alluding to when I said that the European Union has actually ruled that this was unlawful. This is done not just in Ireland, but by a host of bad U.S. companies, in Luxembourg as well, where you go in, you make secret deals with a government. These are relatively smaller nations so they don’t care. They could have a one percent tax rate of a huge amount and they’re living great. Luxembourg has no people. The Republic of Ireland has about five million.
And then that still wasn’t enough, so they also did what’s called the “double Irish,” where you first really, dramatically reduce the already dramatically reduced Irish tax rate, and then you do it in conjunction with sales back and forth with the Cayman Islands which has zero tax rate on a lot of this stuff, and you get effective tax rates sometimes that are one percent. Which is to say, again, we are rewarding the absolute worst actors who have been keeping the money that could have funded all kinds of schools and such and healthcare, and we are rewarding them for being cheats and scoundrels.
SHARMINI PERIES: So Bill, is this kind of tax evasion on the part of Apple just a pebble in the ocean, or is it a massive problem we’re experiencing with other corporations as well as, obviously, Apple?
BILL BLACK: It’s the biggest single stone. It is $250 billion we’re talking about.
SHARMINI PERIES: But aggregately, where I was going with this is, Bill, aggregately in terms of corporate tax evasion of this kind, how much are we losing in terms of the public treasury?
BILL BLACK: In terms of the treasury, of course what we’re losing has now been dramatically reduced because they’ve cut corporate tax rates so much. But under the prior rates, we were losing in the hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue every year. And it was getting worse because, if I’m not playing the scam, I’m at a huge competitive disadvantage to my competitor that is playing this scam. So this creates — again, we call it “Gresham’s Dynamic,” in which bad ethics drive good ethics out of the marketplace — and that’s why you saw all these, they’re called “tax inversion deals,” where companies were pretending they were no longer U.S. companies, but instead typically Irish companies and such with much lower rates. And as I said, that’s just the first stage as other countries push back by lowering their corporate tax rate. Then you know what we’re going to hear from Trump. “Oh, we’re no longer competitive. We need to cut our corporate tax rates further.”
SHARMINI PERIES: All right. So, Bill, what’s the solution to all of this?
BILL BLACK: Well actually, corporate taxes are really, really hard to implement and they are subject to these kinds of cons. There are two ways you can do it. You can reach a broad agreement which the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which is roughly the 30 biggest economies, had done until the Bush administration, this is Bush two, killed that deal where there was going to be international cooperation to have reasonable corporate tax rates and avoid this race to the bottom. Alternatively, you can switch to other taxes like value added and such.
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Posted inPolitics and Movements: US
Zero Dark Thirty, Manhunt and Obama Admin. Justify Use of Torture
by Michael Ratner February 4, 2013 September 23, 2020
Michael Ratner: Recent films and Obama’s lack of prosecution of CIA and Bush Cheney for torture is creating conditions for its public acceptance
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay. Welcome to this week’s edition of The Ratner Report with Michael Ratner.
Michael now joins us from New York. Michael’s the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He’s chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. He’s also a board member of The Real News. And he’s got all kinds of other hats, too.
Thanks for joining us, Michael.
MICHAEL RATNER, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: It’s good to be with you, Paul.
JAY: So tell us what you’ve been following this week.
RATNER: Well, other than getting a slight flu and a cold, I made it over to Sundance, which is the big film festival in the United States. And there I saw some films that just are—very depressing is the best way to say it—about what’s happened in America and what’s happened to the issues of torture and the rehabilitation of the CIA.
The film I saw there was called Manhunt. And it’s supposedly the real story, with the real CIA agents, of how they murdered or killed Osama bin Laden.
GREG BARKER, FILMMAKER: It’s the story of our conflict with al-Qaeda told in a way people really haven’t seen it before. My name is Greg Barker. My film is Manhunt, and it’s premiering in the U.S. documentary competition at Sundance Film Festival. It’s really the inside story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and fight against al-Qaeda as told by the CIA operatives who were part of this.
RATNER: The film has the real agents in it. It has the women who were on the team. It has a man named—a CIA agent named Marty Martin, who supposedly led the team as an analyst, and then overall in charge of the team.
So the first thing you recognize about a film called Manhunt is that to get the authority of the CIA to give up these agents’ names, they had to do a film that the CIA was going to like. And let me tell you, the CIA is going to like this film, or they liked it if they saw the cut before, because, first, it justifies—and completely justifies—torture. It essentially says—not essentially; it says openly that torture is how we got the clues that allowed us to kill people from al-Qaeda all over the place, including track down Osama bin Laden.
And they have as the talking head in the film—and this is where I was almost ready to run out of the movie theater—they have Jose Rodriguez. Jose Rodriguez was in charge of the counterterrorism section of the CIA in the first decade, or part of the first decade, of 2000 to 2010. He is the one who destroyed the tapes of the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, supposedly waterboarded, or according to the government documents, 183 times, those tapes, the videos, were destroyed by Jose Rodriguez, who was in charge of that whole operation.
Now, what was incredible is he stood on that screen, he was on that screen talking to these whole Sundance fancy upper middle class, middle class audience, saying first eight techniques, you know, shaking people, slapping them around, that’s not torture. And then the four last techniques, while he didn’t use the word, he said, that’s how we got what we needed; we have to use techniques like waterboarding, we have to use drones; that’s what we’re about. And they never say in the film—and that’s why it’s—in one way why it’s such a slanted film—they never say, this is the man, Jose Rodriguez, who actually got rid of the very videotapes of the waterboarding. So you have Rodriguez saying that.
Then you have Marty Martin, who’s no longer at the CIA but apparently made a lot of money afterwards, Marty Martin again saying that, yes, these techniques are absolutely necessary.
And one of the great ironies, which if people have seen Zero Dark Thirty, which is the sort of supposedly based on the truth, but the more narrative form of how they got Osama bin Laden—
ACTOR, ZERO DARK THIRTY (FILM): Can I be honest with you? I have bad news. I’m not your friend. I’m not going to help you. I’m going to break you. Any questions?
RATNER: It’s the Kathryn Bigelow film. If you see that, in both of these films, in Manhunt and in Zero Dark Thirty, there’s the incident that happened up in Khost in Afghanistan, which is where a doctor from Jordan came in and he blew up and killed a half a dozen CIA agents, maybe more, including a woman who was involved or in charge of that base, a CIA person named Jennifer, who actually appears in the film Manhunt—and, of course, all the CIA agents are crying about how she got killed.
But the incredible irony about how she got killed, about how Jennifer got killed by a person who wore a explosive belt, the Jordanian doctor, into that military base in Afghanistan, the incredible story they follow in Manhunt—and what they say is this Jordanian doctor was really angered by the Iraq War, and he started blogging against America, etc., etc., from Jordan. Eventually his house gets raided by some combination of the U.S. and their Jordanian intelligence agencies, and allegedly he turns and becomes an informant for the United States. I say allegedly because the United States made the mistake of trusting him. He comes up to that military base to give them a lead of how they’re going to reach Osama bin Laden, and what does he do? He wears an explosive belt. Because they trust him so much, they don’t inspect him, and he blows up these CIA agents.
Now, I say irony about the film Manhunt and its basically lauding of interrogation techniques like waterboarding is because if you look at the Iraq War, a key link in selling the Iraq War to the United States was the claim, the claim that Saddam Hussein was supporting al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Where did that, quote, evidence come from, evidence that was used by Colin Powell, our secretary of state, at the UN? It came from the torture of a man named al-Liby by the CIA. It was false evidence, not real evidence. So here you have the irony of a CIA that is supporting torture, supporting waterboarding, being blown up by a man who is angry because of an Iraq War justified in part by a false relationship between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
Let me step back for a second and let’s go to a bigger picture. So you have Manhunt, which justifies the CIA waterboarding, torture, etc. Then you have Zero Dark Thirty, which while it’s been—enough written about it to, like, fill a phone book, the majority of the opinions that I respect, including my own (and I saw the film), is that that film justifies torture—opens with torture (the agent eventually gets acclimated to torture), and of course doesn’t show what we did as a result of these wars to Muslims all over Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan. But it justifies torture, in my view, Zero Dark Thirty.
You put that together with Manhunt, Zero Dark Thirty justifying torture, and you add to that two films that I think most of your viewers will be familiar with. One is called Argo, which is the recent film about how the CIA successfully helped get some people who had been—or wouldn’t have been held hostage after the Iranian Revolution in ’79, and got them out of Iran, and how the CIA played a heroic role in that. And then a film called Green Zone about the green zone in Iraq, where again there’s an avuncular CIA agent in that film getting the truth that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So now you have four films—Zero Dark Thirty, Manhunt, Argo, and Green Zone—all incredibly justifying and really rehabilitating a CIA that is known for and should be known for what it really does, which is to assassinate people and infiltrate legitimate institutions all over the world. And that’s all in the last couple of years.
So what we’re seeing now in the media is really the justification of torture in two major films, and in four films really a rehabilitation of a CIA that I spent much of my life fighting against what it did in Central America, in South America, and over the world.
And it leads me to, really, the last point I want to make for this talk today on torture in film, because one of the trials going on right now are the military commissions at Guantanamo. A military commission’s an illegitimate form of trial. They were set up 11 years ago by President Bush. We expected them not to be continued by President Obama. He of course continued them. They’re not like military—they’re not like court martials, they’re not like regular trials. They’re set up after the crimes have been committed, and the rules are all slanted. Those are going on in Guantanamo as we speak. And one of those people on trial now in the so-called 9/11 conspiracy case is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, if we circle back to the beginning of this talk, in Manhunt is the person who was allegedly waterboarded—not allegedly; he was waterboarded 183 times. I say allegedly because Jose Rodriguez, who is the one who destroyed the tapes of those waterboardings, says in the Manhunt film, it wasn’t really waterboarding 183 times, it was 183 pitchers of water, as if that’s somehow better. Once you get to one waterboarding, it seems you’re at 183.
But in any case, we would actually know what’s going on had Jose Rodriguez—someone who I believe is a war criminal—had Jose Rodriguez not destroyed the tapes. So that trial is going on now in Guantanamo. And it’s a farce. It’s been a farce for 11 years. So it’s going on in Guantanamo. It’s a farce then; it’s a farce today.
So, recently what happened is you go down to that trial, and there’s a glass window in front of you. You can’t hear anything in the courtroom. If you’re a reporter or if you’re a human rights person, you can sit behind that glass window and watch, and they feed the trial into you so you can hear what’s going on. And there’s someone who sits next to the judge with a red button, and when there’s something that’s classified that comes up in the trial, that person hits the red button and cuts off the feed so that I as a reporter or a human rights person cannot hear the classified material. None of that’s good. I object to it. It’s all bad. They classify everything.
But what happened recently was really astonishing, apparently even to the judge. The feed is coming in to the reporters. All of a sudden what’s happening in the courtroom is shut off. And the judge doesn’t even know why it’s shut off. Apparently, unbeknownst to the judge, there’s another CIA person somewhere outside that court (it’s hard to believe the judge didn’t know this) somewhere with another red button. That person cuts off stuff going on at trial so the reporters can’t hear it even if the judge didn’t order it cut off. The judge, to his credit at least, or maybe to at least his credit that he thinks he controls the courtroom when he really doesn’t, got outraged and said, this isn’t going to happen anymore; I control the red button; you don’t.
So the trial just goes on like that with farce after farce after farce.
And the next thing that’s happened in that trial, which also is going to throw the whole thing into a tizzy: there’s only been two people convicted by trial at Guantanamo in all these many years. Those two convictions are in great jeopardy. One has already, as I recall, been overturned because he was tried for conspiracy—that’s bin Laden’s alleged driver. And according to the court of appeals now, there’s no such crime of conspiracy that can be tried by a military commission. So that conviction is gone.
But, of course, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 conspirator, is on trial for that very act, conspiracy. So the prosecutor at Guantanamo is saying, I don’t want to try him on this; he’s going to get—this conviction may be reversed; let’s not try him on this. The government, the Obama administration, says, no, no, we want to keep going forward on the conspiracy. It may be that they can’t prove anything about a conspiracy. So you have that craziness of the trials.
Now, this would have all been avoided had they brought Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the others to New York to try them as they were supposed to do, as Eric Holder supposedly wanted. And then Obama overruled Eric Holder, and then Congress got into the act.
So you have these farces going on at Guantanamo. You still have a Guantanamo that’s open with 187 people there.
And I’ll end on this really not optimistic note. When Obama took office 4.5 years ago, or just over 4 years ago, he promised to close Guantanamo in a year, issued an executive order to that. He appointed a special person to close Guantanamo, Ambassador Fried. Ambassador Fried was in the State Department. His one portfolio: close Guantanamo. And guess what happened a couple of days after Obama took office this time, when he just got—took the oath again? Mr. Fried no longer has a job to close Guantanamo; that office to close Guantanamo at the State Department has been closed, and now Ambassador Fried is in charge of the sanctions against Iran and Syria.
So we no longer have an office to close Guantanamo. It looks to me, Paul, sadly, that something that was an abomination 11 years ago continues today. Guantanamo, indefinite detentions, and rump kangaroo trials continue. And so you put that all together, we have movies justifying all of this behavior, torture, etc. This country has gone a long way on the road to perdition.
JAY: Alright. Well, one question. Go back to Sundance. How did the audience react to that film?
RATNER: Oh, I’m really glad you asked that, Paul. Manhunt received standing ovations, particularly when the CIA agents took the stage. They were there. Two of the women were there and Marty Martin were there.
And of course, you know, in some way it’s—understandable is not the right word, but, you know, to the audience, it looked like these CIA people were heroes. They saved us. They were looking for Osama bin Laden for years. They eventually found him. And that’s why we haven’t had a terrorist attack or that’s how they at least, you know, got to kill Osama bin Laden. So they took the stage and everybody cheered for them.
So it was disheartening to see that. And as we left the theater, the people basically said that to us, because there were some people who objected to the film and said, well, you know, what about the destruction of the tapes, what about the waterboarding, isn’t this torture, and they said, we just know that these people are keeping us safe.
And I do want to say that it’s unclear what exactly was going on, because we also saw the best single film at Sundance, which people will see soon in this country because it was bought and it will be distributed in 15 markets, and that’s—[‘krOliz] was the director and Jeremy Scahill was the person they followed. He had written Blackwater. And that film was called Dirty Wars. And that’s about the drone wars going on in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, throughout the Middle East, and the consequences of those drone wars for the peoples not only in those areas, but mainly in those areas, but the blowback that’s going to have in the United States. That film also got a standing ovation. So it could be different audiences, it could be same audiences, etc.
But I would say that it was impossible, impossible to make headway against what has now become, I would—the idea or the principle in this country that torture works. It was used to capture Osama or to kill Osama bin Laden, and we needed it when we needed it, and it’s justified.
I mean, in that sense, you have to say that Obama, despite banning the worst aspects of torture, was a total failure. Had he actually prosecuted someone like Jose Rodriguez or the people who wrote the memos or the people who carried out the waterboarding or Cheney and Bush, who ordered the waterboarding, we wouldn’t be having films like Zero Dark Thirty and Manhunt which justify torture. So I lay this, obviously, at the feet of President Bush. But Obama, for allowing this to be—for allowing torture to become essentially a political football—and I wish it were still that—but to essentially be something that people can now justify in this country, I lay that at the feet of Obama.
JAY: Alright. Thanks for joining us, Michael.
RATNER: Thank you, Paul.
JAY: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
Michael Ratner is President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin. He is currently a legal adviser to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. He and CCR brought the first case challenging the Guantanamo detentions and continue in their efforts to close Guantanamo. He taught at Yale Law School, and Columbia Law School, and was President of the National Lawyers Guild. His current books include Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in the Twenty-First Century America, and Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away With Murder.
NOTE: Mr. Ratner speaks on his own behalf and not for any organization with which he is affiliated.
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Go Local to Go Global
by Paul Jay December 2, 2014 September 23, 2020
Paul Jay says you can help The Real News break the monopoly on local television news
Paul Jay
Paul Jay was the founder, CEO and senior editor of The Real News Network, where he oversaw the production of over 7,000 news stories. Previously, he was executive producer of CBC Newsworld's independent flagship debate show CounterSpin for its 10 years on air. He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over 20 films under his belt, including Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows; Return to Kandahar; and Never-Endum-Referendum. He was the founding chair of Hot Docs!, the Canadian International Documentary Film Festival and now the largest such festival in North America.
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US Scientific Societies Urge Congress to Act on Climate Change
by Rush Holt July 8, 2016 September 23, 2020
Dr. Rush Holt of the AAAS explains how the inaction on emissions reduction and support of climate adaptation is due to prevailing ideologies and lack of the dispersal of information, not to a lack of research
DHARNA NOOR, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I’m Dharna Noor joining you from Baltimore. Last week 31 American scientific organizations such as the American Public Health Organization and the American Meteorological Society presented a letter to the U.S. Congress. The letter asserted that research shows climate change to be a real threat, and that greenhouse gas emissions are the primary driver. Signatories urged congressmembers to take action on climate change by working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and supporting global efforts to adapt to “address unavoidable consequences, human health safety, food security, water availability, and national security, among others.” Joining us to speak about the letter is Dr. Rush Holt. He’s the Chief Executive Officer of American Association for the Advancement of Science, the organization which spearheaded this leader. He previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years. He’s also a seasoned physicist. Thanks for joining us. RUSH HOLT: Good to be with you Dharna. NOOR: So Rush, could you speak a bit about the letter, and perhaps also about the timing? What did you hope to accomplish with this letter to Congress, and why did you choose to send it now? HOLT: Well, there’s nothing special about the timing except that the scientists all over the world, including scientists represented by the 31 organizations, have continued since 2009 to collect data, to reanalyze the data that was available to us then, and to form an even stronger consensus that climate is changing, that human activity is largely responsible for that, that the effects are costly and deadly, and that there probably are some things we could do about it now if we act promptly. So over these 6 or 8 years now it is the compiling of more data, the further analysis of the data, and the realization that not enough action has occurred that led these organizations, plus some new organizations, joining the 13 organizations, who joined the 18 in 2009, in sending this letter. The letter is similar to the letter of 2009. But with greater consensus, greater consciousness, and greater urgency. NOOR: Can you speak a little bit about the reception of the letter in Congress, and generally the political attitude amongst U.S. Congress members toward action on climate change. Both to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also supporting adaptation methods. HOLT: Well I can’t say much about what is going to be the result of this letter. Congress has been debating appropriations, and gun safety, and a number of other things, not devoting much attention to climate change since we sent it. I do know that over the years, a lot of people have either wished it away or criticized the scientists for various, usually unspecified reasons and done nothing. This is serious. We know the Earth has warmed on average. But even more important than the average changes, we are seeing a lot of specific changes. From hour to hour, day to day, month to month. So it’s not just, well, let’s get used to a few degrees warmer weather. We’re seeing that ecosystems are being upset. That fisheries are becoming unproductive. That agriculture is having trouble keeping up that tidal surges in storms are unmanageable. So there are certainly things that are happening from the inaction and it looks like these instabilities, these nonlinearities, or in other words the fluctuations, which is another word for storms and tidal surges and so forth, are going to become much worse than we’ve seen. It is possible, and that’s as far as I think most of the scientists involved will go, to say that it’s possible that by curtailing emissions of greenhouse gases now, by starting immediately and for the next years we could reduce probably not eliminate, but reduce these damaging dangerous deadly events. NOOR: And you mentioned there that despite this consensus among scientists, and even when confronted with the possibility of actually being able to in some ways prevent the damage done by climate change, often these scientists are sort of singled out and not treated with every much seriousness. This is in some ways demonstrated by this past Wednesday, there was a house in the Energy Commerce Committee hearing, and Republican-Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson called the EPA “un-American”. He sort of seems to be borrowing the language here from the McCarthy trials of the 1950’s. Fittingly, many have called the attitude towards environmentalist and environmental scientists by Congress a sort of witch hunt. Is there any truth to this? Is there a witch hunt happening? HOLT: Well, I would say the authors of this letter, these 31 scientific societies that represent millions of people, scientists, and those associated with them, directly or indirectly, are very careful to say that this is based on the evidence, based on the analysis of the evidence. It is not to be used for partisan political purposes. It is not presented in that sense. You know one of the things that we at the American Association for the Advancement of Science would like to communicate to people at large is that scientists, science is by nature non-authoritarian. It’s not dogmatic. We are not trying to tell the world this is the way it is and you’d better listen to us. We’re saying we have been looking at the evidence. Actually, for 100 years. It goes back 100 years that people began to say, yes, carbon dioxide could be a blanket over the Earth and provide warming. 50 years ago scientists began to issue, really, warnings that there could be real changes because of human emissions of climate change. But it’s not because they suddenly found the truth. It’s because they continued to look at the evidence. At first they said gee, this is interesting, and then they said wow, this is really happening. Now it’s getting to the point where scientists are saying, uh oh, there isn’t a political ideology, or for that matter even a scientific ideology, that’s being advanced here. It is our best understanding of the evidence based on many independent paths of analysis of that data and continuous new data that lead us to say that. So you know, it’s hard for these societies to tell Congress how to balance their competing political interests. But it is for us to tell them our best understanding of what the evidence says about what is happening, why it’s happening, and where it is likely to go. And it’s pretty clear to everybody who looks at this with an independent scientific mind that it’s likely to go in a bad way. NOOR: And in response to all you’ve just said about the presentation of this evidence, I’d just like to sort of get your thoughts on something that we read earlier. So in the Scientific Americans article on this letter, Jon Foley of the California Academy of Sciences seemed to say that–he said that he thought the letter wouldn’t be effective because, and this is a quote, “We’re being bad scientists. Not in how we look at our climate data, but in how we look at our communication data.” So essentially saying that presenting the same information again isn’t the answer. So is poor communication on the part of the scientific community really a problem? HOLT: It must be, because scientists have been coming to this conclusion with more and more confidence over the last decade or two. And yes, there have been in many places in the world strong positive response to this with government leaders saying let’s get to work, and starting to do something. But not so much in the United States. So I think that surely means that there has been some failure of communication here. In other words, communication isn’t motivating enough. I suppose some people out there are saying, well those are good studies, isn’t that interesting. We need more people to say oh those are good studies. This is evidence that’s been well handled, well considered, let’s get to work. So yes you’re right, that’s a communications challenge. NOOR: And the organizations that signed collectively represent millions of scientists across the U.S., and it’s clear from the letter that among scientists there’s a clear consensus that climate change is not only real but also driven by human activity. But what do you think the consensus is among the general U.S. population? So is there–I guess put another way, is it actually un-American to demand environmental, and specifically climate, action? Is this something that most Americans would support? HOLT: Well, surveys show that a majority of Americans, I’m sorry, that it’s not a unanimity of Americans but a majority of Americans think that climate change is real, that it is costly and even deadly and that we should be doing something about it. I think that maybe they are less confident that we can do something about it. But it’s many, many millions of Americans who get it. And some in their own ways are trying to cut back on emissions of greenhouse gases and so forth. The President has been very strong on this. Carried a strong statement and strong delegation position to Paris in past months. In Paris most of the countries, all the major countries of the world, made pledges to do something about this. Now, the pledges are not strongly enforceable, and even all together, those pledges probably wouldn’t be enough, scientists think, to stop the damaging effects of climate change. Nevertheless it’s a big deal that all of these nations made a commitment acknowledging that we’ve got a real problem and that they were going to do something about it. So that’s good. But there certainly are many Americans who don’t understand the urgency of it or are imagining that they see dissention in the scientific community when in fact there really is quite good consensus. Or people who, for their own personal reasons or special interests, don’t want to make changes which would be necessary to deal with a problem of this urgency. NOOR: Okay, and we’d like to continue to speak a bit more about what kind of changes would be required and which ones are being made, where there’s progress being made and where there still is work to be done. So we hope that you’ll join us again in a second part of this interview. Thanks for joining us. HOLT: I’d be happy to, thanks. NOOR: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.
DHARNA NOOR, TRNN: We’re back on the Real News Network. We’re here speaking about a letter given to Congress last week signed by 31 major scientific organizations in the U.S. These organizations represent millions of scientists. This letter was given to urge Congress to address climate change, to support climate action, not only in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also in supporting adaptation methods globally. Joining us here again to speak about this letter is Dr. Rush Holt. He’s the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the organization that spearheaded this letter, and he previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years. He’s also a seasoned physicist. Thanks for coming back. RUSH HOLT: Thanks, Dharna. I appreciate you covering this. NOOR: So going back into sort of the inaction and the action taken by the U.S. government on climate change, last week the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $500 million spending package for the Green Climate Fund for international climate change adaptation. President Obama has promised $3 billion to the program by 2020. Does this mean that we should have hope? Are things improving amongst the House and Senate? HOLT: It’s a step. The president has asked for a lot because he understands, I think, the seriousness and the urgency of the situation. Congress has responded modestly. There are still many members of Congress who approach this from an ideological point of view. In fact, climate change has become more of an ideological debate than many other things in front of us. Actually, on so many issues nowadays, people fall back on their precooked opinions–in other words, their ideologies–and refuse to look at the evidence. That’s particularly true in climate change, and with this letter we’re hoping to draw people’s attention to the evidence. You know, the science is, by nature, not meant to be ideological. It is supposed to be open to the evidence, and the evidence should lead a scientist or anyone looking at evidence to change their mind if necessary, depending on what the evidence says. And the evidence, as collected by thousands and thousands of different scientists working, following different paths of study, has pointed to these conclusions: that climate change is real, largely human-induced, deadly, costly, and that there are some things we should try to do about it. And so, you know, it’s too bad that people have dug in their heels. And the, yes, what you point to is maybe cause for some hope. But until some of the key people in Congress stop digging in their heels and thinking that this is an ideological debate, we’re going to have problems. You know, with the ozone hole, the ozone depletion in the stratosphere, that is, or with the acid rain–that’s sulfur absorbed in moisture in the air that came down as sulfuric acid and so forth, in the lakes–those things were largely taken care of. Not completely. But because people realized that, well, because people approached it not as precooked ideological debates. Instead they said, let’s see how we can fix these. And they did, by banning the chlorofluorocarbons, by putting various additions or changes in our power plants to remove the sulfur dioxide and other acid-causing chemicals. So yes, we could do this. And actually, we could improve our quality of life by having better energy systems. It needn’t be bad for people. It could be good. NOOR: But despite all this evidence, a couple of weeks ago Congress turned down climate change adaptation funding for the Pentagon, which is the second-largest clean energy buyer in the United States. Climate change has been said by some to be a bigger threat to national security than ISIS. So what does that sort of say about Congress’ vision and plan for the future? HOLT: It says we have a long way to go. And there–you know, we can change the way we admit greenhouse gases. It will take some effort. Change is often hard. But I would argue that everybody would benefit, not just by preventing or mitigating some of these damaging effects of climate change, but in many other ways, by using our energy efficiently, by improving–by reducing emissions of all kinds, not just carbon dioxide. By having more convenient transportation systems and energy generation systems, we could have improvements in our quality of life and reduce, probably, some of these serious problems coming from climate change. So Congress had better get with it. Much of the rest of the world is getting with it. We are not the leaders, now. We are the, to some extent, the international impediment in dealing with this. So that’s the point of our letter. I appreciate your covering this story, and I thank you very much. NOOR: Thanks for joining us, Dr. Holt. HOLT: Thank you. NOOR: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.
Rush Holt
Rush Holt, Ph.D., is the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of the Science family of journals.
More by Rush Holt
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The ‘SYRIZA Experience’: Lessons and Adaptations
by Andreas Karitzis March 22, 2016 September 22, 2020
By Andreas Karitzis. This article first published on openDemocracy .
The impact of the strategic defeat of last year is still very strongly shaping various reactions within the Greek left. Some people seem content with superficial explanations of what happened and return to habitual ways of thinking and acting; others sense the strategic depth of the defeat and turn inward to disappointment and demoralization. Still others are trying to learn from the ‘SYRIZA experience’ in order to make themselves more useful to people in the future. All of us sense the dangers lurking in front of us but we are far from having a common and feasible strategy.
Protesters in front of the parliament building during a demonstration of the country’s biggest public sector union ADEDY against planned pension reforms in Athens, Greece.
In a situation like this, political priorities change and ‘novel’ tasks emerge. For example, people far beyond those affiliated with the traditional left are scattered and in disarray, but also full of energy, determination and skills. What should they do? Another urgent task is how to transmit the ‘SYRIZA experience’ abroad, facilitating the left in other countries in the fight against neoliberalism and increased hostility of the elites. ‘Novel’ tasks require a different mentality and operational qualities from the ones we used to deploy through traditional political action.
But first we need: (i) a thorough understanding of the positive and negative aspects of the ‘SYRIZA experience’, and (ii) an open, bold and innovative process of arriving at the new conditions of doing politics. These are some preliminary thoughts in this direction.
The Failure
SYRIZA failed to stop austerity and neoliberal transformation in Greece. One could argue that SYRIZA also betrayed the hopes and aspirations of the popular classes and those fighting against financial despotism. It chose to remain in power, thereby ‘normalizing’ the coup we witnessed last summer and accepting neoliberal coordinates that shape governmentality today in Europe.
SYRIZA’s choice deprived the people of a crucial ‘tool’ in this fight by its painful defeat: the political representation of non-compliance with financial despotism. SYRIZA eliminated the chance of a ‘tactical withdrawal’, a collective process of reassembling our forces that could take into account the escalation of the fight provoked by elites – and forming a more effective and resilient ‘popular front’ that would build its resources to challenge neoliberal orthodoxy in the future.
The experience of the SYRIZA government in the months after the agreement, shows that there is no middle ground between financial despotism and democracy and dignity; if you try to reach such middle ground, you are quickly converted into an organic component of the biopolitical machine aimed at dehumanizing our societies. Arguing that the implementation of the agreement is the only way out of the present situation is just a reformulation of the neoliberal core-argument that There Is No Alternative; no strategy for continuing the fightback against financial despotism.
However, there is a danger of underestimating the brutal strategic defeat that we all suffered in 2015, hiding from ourselves the extent of our current impotence as regards any serious challenge to financial despotism. We must dare to perform an extensive reassessment of our methodology and tools if we want to be relevant in these new conditions. And to do so, we should not preoccupy ourselves with the self-evident negative nature of SYRIZA’s choice and comfort ourselves that this is the source of our problems. The choice SYRIZA made is – among other things – a symptom of the deeper, structural weaknesses of the left.
Today in Greece a ‘Left government’ is implementing austerity, leftwing people are confused and ‘The Left’ is turning into a pro-memorandum political force in people’s minds. Nationalists and fascists have remained the only ‘natural hosts’ of popular rage and resentment, the expected emotional outcomes of the burial of hope we witnessed last summer. Greeks are sensing that the future of their society is severely compromised.
The majority of Greeks have been sentenced to misery and despair through the imposition of newer harder austerity measures without any real hope for the future. If we add to the economic and social disaster that austerity is inflicting on us the huge waves of refugees that are entering Greece – especially the complex and contradictory ways in which their drama impacts on the abused psychic economy of the Greek population – and add also the fear of increased geopolitical instability in the region, then it seems certain that prosperity, stability and peace has left Greece for the identifiable future.
These are exactly the suffocating conditions that prevail in a society before it explodes – due to a random incident – deepening even further the decline, and plunging existential depths. It is like we are walking on thin ice from now on in Greece. In moments like this we have to remain calm and think clearly if we want to arrive at what is needed to adapt and to be effective.
The Sad Case of Europe
The neoliberal EU and Eurozone has transferred a bundle of important policies and powers that once appeared to belong to the nation state out of the reach of the people. At the same time, a vast array of neoliberal regulations and norms govern the function of the state. In the EU and Eurozone today, the elected government is no longer the major bearer of political power. In the case of Greece, democratically electing a government is like electing a junior partner in a wider government in which the lenders are the major partners.
The junior partner is not allowed to intervene and disturb decisions on such crucial economic and social issues as fiscal policy, banks, privatizations, pensions etc. If it does intervene and demand a say on these issues, then the people who appoint it are going to suffer the consequences. The elites – by extracting important powers and decisions on crucial issues from the democratically structured institutions of the bourgeois state – have managed to gain unchecked control over the basic functions of the society. It is up to their anti-democratic institutions to decide whether a society will have a functional banking system and sufficient liquidity to run or not.
That’s what happened to Greece; that’s the core argument of the president of Portugal behind his initial decision to appoint a pro-austerity minority government: I am preventing unnecessary pain. Pain that will be caused by the naivety and dangerous ignorance of the people and political powers that still insist on people’s right to have access to crucial decisions, while at the same time they do not have the power to shape these decisions.
It is evident today that the EU is an openly anti-democratic institutional structure. The left must embrace the crude reality: in Europe a new kind of despotism is emerging fast.
The Time Lag of the Left
In western societies, the left, but not only the left, of a robust democratic constitution has been trained to do politics within the coordinates of a post-war institutional configuration. We assumed that the elites were committed to accepting the democratically shaped mandate of an elected government. If they did not like the policies that it promoted, they had to engage in a political fight; opposition parties must convince the people that this policy is neither desirable nor successful and use the democratic processes for a new government of their preference to be elected.
But was this ever truly the case even for western societies after the Great War? This is surely a debatable issue. However, it is sufficient to assume that this was at least the dominant conception of political functioning that shaped the methodology and strategy of political agency over the last decades, even if it does not correspond fully to reality.
According to this conception, the post-war global balance of forces inscribed in state institutions a considerable amount of popular power, so that people without considerable economic power nevertheless have access to crucial decisions. Of course, the quality and the range of the access was a constant issue of class struggle. The elites were obliged to fight according to the rules (or at least to appear to do so) and at the same time they were working deliberately to diffuse a kind of institutional configuration contaminated by popular power. In recent decades (not accidentally after the fall of the Soviet Union) they made decisive steps toward diffusing this kind of power and hence limiting the ability of the popular classes to influence crucial decisions. Today the elites feel confident enough to openly defy democracy. Democracy is no longer a sine qua non.
Based on the premise that the framework in which politics is being performed hasn’t changed significantly, SYRIZA did what the traditional way of doing politics dictates: supported social movements, built alliances, won a majority in the parliament, formed a government. We all know the results of such a strategy now. The real outcome was totally different. There was virtually no change of policy.
Prepare for Landing
A strategy that wishes to be relevant to the new conditions must take on the duty of acquiring the necessary power to run basic social functions. No matter how difficult or strange this may sound in light of the traditional ways of doing politics, it is the only way to acquire the necessary power to defy the elites’ control over our societies.
Is this feasible? My hypothesis is that literally every day human activity – both intellectual and practical – is producing experiences, know-how, criteria and methods, innovations etc. that inherently contradict the parasitic logic of profit and competition. Moreover, for the first time in our evolutionary history, we have so many embodied capacities and values from different cultures within our reach that we are bound to progress our collective intelligence in this regard if we put our minds to it.
Of course we are talking about elements that are not developed sufficiently yet. Elements that may indeed have been nurtured in liberal or apolitical contexts often functionally connected to the standard economic orthodoxy. However, the support of their further development, their gradual absorption in an alternative, coherent paradigm governed by a different logic and values, and finally their functional articulation in alternative patterns of performing the basic functions of our societies is just a short description of the duty of any left that wishes to take up a clear, systematic and strategically broadbased orientation.
Based on people’s capacities, proper alignment, connection and coordination it is possible to acquire the necessary power to at least be in a position to assume the basic functions if needed. We can do this by ‘extracting’ the embodied capacities of the people and putting them into use for the liberation of society.
For those who are frankly skeptical of the possibility of laying the groundwork for such a process, let’s see the potential in the stark case of Greece.
SYRIZA at its peak had approximately 35,000 members, the various solidarity networks included thousands of people and from experience we know that plenty of people were available to help SYRIZA with their expertise if there had been suitable processes to ‘extract’ their embodied capacities in an efficient way (which was not the case). Furthermore, massive unemployment provides us with huge numbers of people who would be willing to participate in networks of a different nature as long as we can build and expand processes of this kind in a systematic way. So, it is possible to pursue such a path as long as we apply the proper methodological and organizational principles in our way of doing politics.
In the worst case scenario, we will achieve some degree of resilience; people will be more empowered to defend themselves and hold their ground. In the best case, we will be able to regain the hegemony needed: people could mobilize positively, creatively and massively, even decisively to reclaim their autonomy.
Redesign the ‘Operating System’ of the Left
We know that the popular power once inscribed in various democratic institutions is exhausted. We do not have enough power to make the elites accept and tolerate our participation in crucial decisions. More of the same won’t do it. If the ground of the battle has shifted, undermining our strategy, then it’s not enough to be more competent on the shaky battleground; we need to reshape the ground. And to do that we have to expand the solution space by shifting priorities: from political representation to setting up an autonomous network of production of economic and social power (NESP).
Teacher Dude/Flickr.
We must modify the balance between representing people’s beliefs and demands and coordinating, facilitating, connecting, supporting and nurturing people’s actions. Instead of being mainly the political representative of the popular classes in a toxic anti-democratic European political environment designed to be intolerant to people’s needs, we must contribute heavily to the formation of a strong ‘backbone’ for resilient and dynamic networks of social economy and co-operative productive activities, alternative financial tools, local cells of self-governance, democratically functioning digital communities, community control over functions such as infrastructure facilities, energy systems and distribution networks. These are ways of gaining the degree of autonomy necessary to defy the control of elites over the basic functions of our society.
It is not only in Greece that there is a growing exclusion of people from having a job or a bank account, having a ‘normal life’. Modern society in general is in decline. From history we know that societies in decline tend to react in order to survive. It is up to us to grasp this and start building networks that can perform basic social functions in a different way – one that is democratic, decentralized and based on the liberation of people’s capacities. First, this would allow people who are being excluded today to survive. Second, this could begin a transition toward a better and more mature society. And last but not least, there are no empty spaces in history, so if we do not do this, the nationalists and the fascists – with their own militarized ways of performing these basic functions – may step in to conclude the decline.
Shifting the Battlefield
Our opponents have already spotted the shifting nature of the battlefield and have moved to new unclassified ways of organizing and acting. They develop new kinds of institutions (a Greek example www.corallia.org) compatible with the emerging environment of fast flows of information, digital frameworks of action and production etc. They also explore new methods and models; for example, “open innovation” models have emerged in the last few years to enable the R&D departments of big multinational companies to cope with the current distributed nature of knowledge and expertise that exceeds past means of control and usurpation of human intellectual creativity and innovation.
We have to create new popular power if we want to bring about substantial change or make ourselves resilient instead of just handling the remaining, seriously depleted if not already exhausted popular power inscribed in the traditional institutions. The question is what does it look like to do politics in order to produce popular power without presupposing traditional democratic functioning – to restore it by newly transforming it? In other words, what are the modifications needed in our political practice for the constitution and expansion of NESPs?
These modifications may be classified in three categories: political imagination, methodology and organizing principles. From my experience, the very same people who energetically claim that we need to be more innovative, better adapted and more efficient, when they actually do politics, reproduce priorities, mental pictures, methods and organizational habits that they already know are insufficient or inadequate. There are ingrained norms in terms of methodological guidelines that decisively shape the range of our collective actions, rhetoric, decisions and eventually strategy. In the same vein, we believe in and fight for the promotion of the logic of cooperation and democracy against the logic of competition, but in practice our organizations suffer severely in terms of cooperation and democracy on the operational/organizational level. We need to recognize these blind spots and set up a process of identifying best practices, methods and regulations – both from the experience of our collectivities and from expertise in management, leadership, organizational complexity and network systems theory etc. – in order to operationally upgrade our forces.
Furthermore, our actions and initiatives are not properly connected up, but fragmented and isolated, destined to face the same difficulties again and again. We need to upgrade our operational capacities through appropriate nodes of connection, facilitating smooth flows of know-how and information, transferring best practices, building databases and accumulating knowledge and expertise in an easily retrievable and useful way. Actually, this is the advantage of multinational and large corporations in general, in comparison to others: they have a vast social network and powerful databases that gives them the necessary tools to plan and pursue their goals while their smaller competitors seem in disarray in a global environment of rapid changes. We need these qualities if we want to be really useful today.
What About Political Representation?
The function of political representation is a fundamental one in complex societies. It’s the function that political parties mostly perform and that shapes everyday thinking regarding what ‘politics’ is about. The task here is not to revive neglected aspects of politics – like building popular power – or to reinvent collective and individual qualities; the aim is to explore novel ways of performing the function of political representation in order to upgrade significantly the political leverage of the people.
Of course, building popular power will also invigorate and possibly transform the institutional framework, giving substantial meaning back to political representation. But, the expansion of a network of the sort we are discussing here and the changes it could generate at various levels of the social configuration must be reflected on the function of political representation itself. We need to evaluate and explore concepts like the ‘commons’. Advancing a project to shape political representation as ‘commons’ could give us valuable insights into new ways of performing vital functions that transcend the traditional, institutional framework of representative democracy.
Democratizing the State?
The left talks too much about the democratic transformation of the state. In practice, the driving concept is the restoration of state functions as they were before the neoliberal transformation. But the expansion of a network of economic and social power under people’s control could unlock our imagination toward more advanced and better targeted reforms of state institutions. In theory this is an old idea: the transformation of the state is a complementary move to the self-organized collectivities of the people outside it, driven by these forms of self-governance.
Actually, this is exactly what our opponents did consistently and persistently during the last decades: they were designing and implementing reforms in various levels of state institutions based on the methods, the criteria and the functioning of their own ‘social agents‘, namely the corporations and their own understanding of the nature of public space, namely the market. This is exactly the ‘mechanics’ of transformation that various intellectuals and leaders of the left described in detail a long time ago. Perhaps, by shifting our priorities we will be able to revive old but useful ideas that have been forgotten in practice.
The ‘SYRIZA experience‘ will be worthless if we do not resist the temptation to replace one mistake with another. The failure of SYRIZA – the failure of focusing solely on traditional electoral politics to radically change the dominant neoliberal framework – creates favorable conditions for notions like ‘self-referential alternativism‘ and ‘vanguard isolationism‘ to emerge and preoccupy the minds and hearts of those who are willing to continue fighting.
But choices like these just repeat what SYRIZA did, justifying fully the threat of our opponents: either you will be marginal or you will become like us! The existential threats and crucial questions regarding their future that our societies face today have nothing to do with a strategy of building ‘arcs‘ that aim to safeguard the ‘Left‘ or any other identity.
Entering the ominous battlefield of the twenty-first century, the left will either be relevant and useful for the defense of human societies, or it will be obsolete. •
Dr Andreas Karitzis is a former SYRIZA member and former member of its Central Committee and Political Secretariat. He is a founding member of the “Hub” for social economy, empowerment and innovation. He blogs at karitzis.wordpress.com.
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June 14, 2009 by Zack
Filed under Featured Content, Movies
“The Hangover” did look a lot like “Very Bad Things”–but they are two completely different movies. Where “Very Bad Things” is a dark comedy about the depravity of humanity (who knew Peter Berg was so disturbed?), “The Hangover” is a light screwball comedy that, while it does have some “shock” moments, never lets up its shiny disposition that you should have fun with it. It’s a misadventure.
And, probably one that I should’ve encountered sometime in my life while drunkenly wandering the streets of the south side of Chicago. But somehow, by unbelievable luck–I survived without having to go through the ordeals these poor guys have to. And “The Hangover” is everybody’s worst nightmare come true when you go balls out and get wasted–and in a town like Vegas, so much can happen.
So it was, from the start, a win-win situation, as long as the writers realized how much material they had to work with. I think they got it. I think there could have been more, but I think they got enough of it.
This is helped in large part to Zach Galifianakis’s deadpan, strange, and off-the-wall performance where there’s just so much honesty in his eyes, you can’t help but laugh at everything he says and does. There are also just some laugh out loud moments in the film, some of which you feel guilty laughing about.
Overall the movie does work, but I have to gripe about a few things that didn’t work for me: what was the point of the car meaning so much to the dad? It didn’t add any stakes as we all are aware the car was pretty valuable–and, it was already stated in the beginning that he didn’t want anybody driving it but Doug. It just seemed unnecessary for the repeated lines of “Dad is going to be so mad about the car!”. Didn’t add anything at all. But that’s small, it didn’t annoy me. The chicken. What was with the chicken? It wasn’t even a funny prop. The tiger at least had a pay off and was amusing. I didn’t buy the connection Stu made with ruffies having to do with where Doug was. That was weak to me.
But the biggest problem I had was the ending. Once they found Doug, that was it. There was nothing left on the table. It was a huge dip in the energy of the film, and I just felt that the whole wedding sequence was severely drawn out. And the wedding band? Um…yeah–we KINDA saw that in…”Old School”? It was eye-roll inducing to say the least. I understand they wanted to conclude stuff with Stu and his girlfriend but they could’ve done that in a much quicker way. We don’t care enough about these characters to sit through the ceremonies. Once they had found Doug, and they were headed back to the wedding, you need to end the movie in 5 minutes or less.
Going back to the characters for a moment–while misadventures don’t often allow for a lot of character development, because they wanted to treat this as sort of a buddy movie as well as a screwball comedy, it didn’t work as well because the characters were very thinly drawn. It was as though they just borrowed stereotypes from other movies about bachelor parties and gave them the run-of-the-mill standard personalities. And the weird thing was, they didn’t even act out accordingly a lot of the time. Because Allen (Zach) was such a strong presence, the other characters seemed to spend most of their time just trying to figure him out rather than being who they were. And Doug was a complete non-entity. We had no idea why these guys were friends to begin with. They could’ve used a scene or two to establish their history.
The ending credits were probably the funniest part, and that’s not exactly the best time to have the biggest laughs. But I will give credit–they were hysterical.
Overall, it’s a good time and it’s a fun movie. Yes, obviously when you break it down, it falls a part a little bit more. But I’ve laid out stuff in this review that’s really not even necessary–but I couldn’t get it off my mind. Don’t worry, I am recommending this film and I did enjoy it. But I had to call out the weaknesses.
Tags: alcohol, blackjack, buddy movie, buddy picture, counting cards, craps, drugs, hangover, heather graham, las vegas, Movie, movie review, poker, strippers, the hangover, zach galifianakis
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By Tom Victor
Remembering Ahn Jung-hwan’s Golden Goal against Italy and the strangest World Cup subplot
The 2002 World Cup wasn’t what you would call a ‘normal’ tournament, for a number of reasons.
It included some superb goals, from Edmilson’s bicycle kick against Costa Rica to a contender for the best team goal in tournament history from Salif Diao. We got some shocks too; the United States seeing off Portugal with three goals in the first 36 minutes and South Korea and Turkey both making it to the semi-final stage.
But it was perhaps in extra-time of two knockout games where we saw the most preposterous developments – which continued long after the World Cup was over.
Turkey’s quarter-final victory over Senegal will forever (well, presumably forever) remain known as the last ever men’s international game to be decided by a Golden Goal, but the scorer – Ilhan Mansiz – tried his best to make sure that moment didn’t define him. He quit football in his early thirties after a series of injuries and embarked on a top-level figure-skating career, taking part in qualifiers for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
In normal circumstances, the Turkish striker’s career trajectory would be as strange as it got, but this was no ordinary World Cup. Just four days earlier – 15 years ago this month – Italy were stunned by hosts South Korea in Daejeon courtesy of another Golden Goal scored by Ahn Jung-hwan.
‘A Red Nightmare’ was how Gazzetta Dello Sport described a last-16 tie that Italy should have had wrapped up long before Ahn’s 117th minute winner, but which many felt was always beyond them for reasons outside of their control.
Italy hadn’t exactly flown through the group stage, but the Azzurri are often at their most dangerous when gradually building momentum. A late Alessando Del Piero equaliser against Mexico helped Giovanni Trapattoni’s side sneak through with four points from their three group games. But next up it was South Korea, and Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno.
“Seeing that match was so frustrating because it was clear that we were not allowed to win the game,” says Fabio Fedele, an Italian football fan living in London who still blames Moreno for the defeat. “We fully deserved to win but we couldn’t. At the end, in Italy, no one blamed Ahn for that goal because it was clear that the responsibility for the loss was exclusively with Byron Moreno.”
It was all going to plan when Christian Vieri broke the deadlock in the first half, and it’s easy to forget how close Italy were to winning in normal time. But an 88th minute equaliser from Seol Ki-Hyeon – he of the Nike ‘Cage’ advert – and an inexplicable open-goal miss from Vieri in the closing stages resulted in extra-time.
Francesco Totti, who had told the press that “one goal will be enough to beat the Koreans” before the game, was shown a second yellow card by Moreno in the opening period, while the ref also chalked off a Damiano Tommasi goal for offside. Ahn’s late winner was then met by claims of a conspiracy.
Italian newspaper Corriere de Sera were the biggest culprits in resorting to sensationalism, claiming that “Italy has been thrown out of a dirty World Cup where referees and linesmen are used as hitmen; no other team in the entire history of the World Cup has suffered so many injustices.” And even Totti got in of the act, speaking of a “desired elimination” following the final whistle.
The poor officiating and uncontrolled fury from Italy fans might normally have been the biggest story to emerge from the game, but there was another headline-grabbing act to follow. Ahn and Seol, South Korea’s two goalscorers, were the only members of the squad playing in Europe before the tournament. But while Seol’s Anderlecht were largely free from Italian wrath, Ahn had the misfortune of playing his club football for Perugia in Serie A.
If Serie A was the worst place for the striker to be employed in such a situation, Perugia was almost certainly the worst club. Owner Luciano Gaucci redefined the word ‘erratic’ in the early 2000s, signing the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, reportedly making approaches for Sweden women’s internationals Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson and – perhaps even more inexplicably – bringing in Jay Bothroyd.
The 2003/04 season may have been the one that characterised the Gaucci era – bizarre transfer dealings followed by relegation after just six wins from 34 league games – but the aftermath of the 2002 World Cup was its origin story.
Gaucci personally moved to end Ahn’s spell in Perugia after his World Cup goal, explaining: “I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer. I am a nationalist and I regard such behaviour not only as an affront to Italian pride but also an offence to a country which two years ago opened its doors to him.”
It could have been seen as a publicity stunt, considering Ahn’s two-year loan with the Serie A club was about to end anyway, but it did not have its desired impact. Indeed, Gaucci later attempted to backtrack and made a bid to keep the player in Perugia for a third season – an offer that was unsurprisingly rejected.
“The day after South Korea vs Italy I remember Gaucci’s words in the papers, but I have to be honest, no one was surprised because Gaucci used to make weird speeches at the time,” says Fedele. “During his presidency, he always looked out of control and the decision to send Ahn away from Perugia after the game-winning goal was only another of his strange things.”
Ahn moved to Japan following the World Cup, after work permit issues scuppered a potential move to England with Blackburn Rovers, and enjoyed a fruitful few years in the J-League.
While he did return to Europe several years later, that spell at Perugia would prove to be his last in Italian football, and he revealed later in his career how it was not a happy time even before the World Cup in 2002.
“They seldom passed the ball to me in front of goal, even if they had no way for themselves to score,” he said in an interview shortly after retiring from the game, while claiming his relationship with Marco Materazzi was particularly difficult.
The moment when he glanced the ball beyond Gigi Buffon was no doubt made that much sweeter by the sight of Materazzi on the opposing bench, joining his teammates in a display of righteous anger which continued raging until it was extinguished in the World Cup final four years on.
The same stage of the 2006 competition saw Italy benefit from a generous decision themselves, when referee Luis Medina Cantalejo pointed to the spot deep into stoppage time to help a 10-man Azzurri side edge past Australia into the quarter-finals.
Maybe they’ll call it even.
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Katt Williams Sued for Allegedly Assaulting a Waiter With a Salt Shaker
Jacinta Howard
Bryan Steffy, Getty Images
It seems that Katt Williams may end up back in court again, this time for allegedly attacking a waiter with a salt shaker.
According to documents obtained by The Blast, Williams arrived at popular restaurant, Spondivits, in Atlanta back in April 2016, and when he was told there would be a wait for a table, became outraged and threw a glass salt shaker at the waiter.
Kevin Oliveira is now suing Williams, saying that he suffered severe injuries and had to be transported to a local hospital. He claims his injuries required ten stitches to treat a large gash to his lip and mouth.
Oliveira's suit is seeking "unspecified damages for medical expenses, impairment of earning capacity and past and future lost earnings."
This isn't Williams' first run-in with the court system. Back in December 2016, he was sentenced to five years of probation stemming from a March 2016 gun and drug case.
Legal woes aside, Williams made a fantastic return to television via the award-winning show, Atlanta, in the season's opening "Alligator Man" episode. His turn was so impressive, there's talk of a possible Emmy nomination.
20 Best R&B Albums of 1997
Filed Under: katt williams
Categories: Busted, News
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Category Archives: Sacred Secular
This post contains SPOILERS for the latest Star Wars trilogy, especially for The Rise of Skywalker, so you have been warned (again; get outta here and go watch it on the big screen).
In my last post I talked about Ben Solo’s redemption and sacrifice and how that impacted the fans. This time I want to talk about how that impact is spreading in the real world, and how you can participate if you’d like.
As many know, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren was played by Adam Driver in all three movies of the latest trilogy. For some it took this last movie to see how well Adam was able to capture subtle differences when playing Kylo or when Ben was sneaking through, for others they’ve been a fan of Adam’s for a long while. I have to say, his performance as Ben in Rise of Skywalker was fantastic. He was able to take the material given him and literally show a physical change from Kylo Ren in Ben’s bearing, fighting style, reactions, emotions, the whole range with very little dialogue.
Ben’s redemption and death touched many fans, and made a whole new cheering section for Adam Driver as well. Yes, some were incredibly angered by Ben Solo’s death and did not represent the Star Wars fandom in an upright manner. However, on the flip side, one fan decided to show appreciation for the character Ben Solo and the real life actor who brought him to life so well, Adam Driver, and to focus fan emotions onto something worthwhile instead of screaming at each other on the internet.
Adam and his wife founded a charity focused on aiding troops and veterans in a very creative way; via theater. Adam served as a Marine (he was with 1/1 Weapons Company at Camp Pendleton, CA) and wanted to give back, founding Arts in the Armed Forces, a not for profit focused on bringing the arts to service members, vets, and their families.
A GoFundMe; The Rise of Ben Solo, was set up by a fan with the (Adam Driver-appropriate) nickname of Matt the Radar Technician to benefit Arts in the Armed Forces in honor of Adam’s Ben Solo performance. The donations started piling up, and then Adam himself got wind of the fundraiser and thanked fans personally for raising money… more donations poured in, and then Joonas Suotamo, AKA the nextgen Chewie himself, urged the fans to even greater charity by promising his own reprise of the #BenSoloChallenge. Fans didn’t disappoint and reached the $75,000 goal and then some. Go to the GoFundMe link and at least read the updates (especially significant is how this has impacted the fan who started this up), it’s worth a read.
Isn’t that amazing? A good redemption story, a good actor, good fans with a good cause… sacred secular indeed. A lot of people mock fandoms, but when one does something like this, something meaningful, to salute a job well done, well, it does a bit to redeem one’s outlook on humanity, doesn’t it? So, after praying it over, and you can, why not join in? The campaign runs for awhile longer (at least until 1/21/2020, and sits at almost $80,000) and if it’s over and you missed it, go to Arts in the Armed Forces and donate there. My point here isn’t just to plug this one human effort at making a difference but to look at the phenomenon (that we’ve seen in fandoms before) and see something a little bit brighter than the norm.
Christians tend to admit a good story is tough to beat, and we believers know someone quite fond of parables. There’s power in words, make yours good ones. There’s power in actions, make yours count.
Filed under Christianity, Musings, Of Interest, Sacred Secular
Tagged as Adam Driver, Arts in the Armed Forces, Ben Solo, Charity, Chewbacca, Star Wars, Support the Troops
Yes, I’m finally going to let my Star Wars nerd flag fly, after all, I’ve already tackled Doctor Who, Star Trek, Breaking Benjamin, etc… So, be warned; SPOILERS ahead for the new trilogy, and especially for The Rise of Skywalker. If you haven’t watched it, what are you waiting for? It’s the best of the new 3, it is still in theaters, and I heartily recommend it.
So, Star Wars has been a part of my family since the original, and that included taking a toddler me to the theater… apparently my first Star Wars enjoyment came from R2-D2, and then morphed into a childhood crush on Han Solo. Star Wars games, books, comics, movies, fanfic… it was all fair game, and in fact my online nickname “K’liska” came from a Star Wars fic I wrote many moons ago with my brother (I was a bounty hunter, but a good one, of course). Star Wars has always intrigued those looking for something deeper in their movies, and George Lucas has shared some of the philosophical, cultural, and religious bits and pieces that informed his work, so it’s fair game here.
In the aftermath of seeing Rise, I quickly scanned the net to see what others thought of it all. I always note what parts of a movie hit me and then see if it did the same to anyone else. I wasn’t disappointed as the bulk of the conversation (and cursing) revolved around the culmination of Rey’s and Ben Solo’s storyline(s), especially in regards to Ben Solo’s death.
Ben’s story arc was one of redemption, and the evolution of a fractured, volatile, hostile loner into a man who discovered who he really was, and what he was willing to die for. And die he did… which infuriated a lot of the fan base. Ben wasn’t a Sith, but he was bad news as Kylo Ren; bad news in the sense that he committed one of the big immoral no-no’s; patricide. Yes, he killed his own father, Han Solo. Yet, there were many fans in a rager that Ben’s redemption ended in his own death, and didn’t that “set a dangerous precedent that redemption includes death?!?!” Yes, of course it did, but it wasn’t a precedent; the precedent has already been set in human lore.
For sin comes death. It’s something that Christians should know from scripture. It’s one of the huge lessons we are supposed to be learning down here, and it’s not a pleasant lesson to learn. This is also what leads to the cross, and ultimate redemption via Jesus who died so that we might live. Yeah, yeah, I went there, so let me be clear; I’m not comparing Ben Solo to Jesus Christ, but I am saying death is (super)naturally connected to wrong choices. In Ben’s case his death was a result of having to rush to save the day after a long series of bad choices and wrong actions, including Palpatine’s own immoral actions. Jesus’ death was as a result of humankind’s bad choices all along the way of human history. Ben’s death represented redemption, not only for himself, but also for Rey as well as his grandfather Anakin.
Christ took the idea “for sin comes death,” and put a new spin on it since He was the only sinless one; Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Now we see the value in a life laid down on purpose, for purpose. I get why many fans were so upset over Ben’s death… we had just witness the rise of Ben Solo from the ashes of Kylo Ren, we witnessed the connection and love between Rey and Ben (romantic love or platonic love makes no never mind to me in this article), and the final vanquishing of the evil emperor. Everyone wanted to cheer and be happy, but the world, even in fictional form, has consequences. Ben Solo laid down his life for his friend. We, the fans, had just witnessed the greatest act of love possible. It is heartbreaking in its impact, and that heartbreak leads to emotion.
Good stories (including the kind that play out on film) are meant to impact us and to teach us. Good stories tend not to reinvent the wheel, but rather pull from story telling traditions that reflect actual reality and the human experience. So we recognize Ben Solo’s sacrifice as an act of selfless love but we rage against it because it hurts. That hurt is meant to teach us to live our lives in an upright way, walking tall, while the joy of seeing someone redeemed and saved is meant to make us celebrate and to be brave and to recognize the power of sacrifice.
The Rise of Ben Solo impacted fans enough that it took a real world turn, which I will write about in a separate article soon, link forthcoming (And, here it is: The Rise of Ben Solo). In the meantime, as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts dear reader, let me know what you thought of the movie, Ben Solo, Rey, JJ vs. Rian (lol), anything relevant you’d like to share…
Filed under Christianity, Musings, Reviews, Sacred Secular
Tagged as Ben Solo, Bendemption, Death, Jesus, Love, Redemption, Rey, Reylo, Rise of Skywalker, Sacrifice, Star Wars
Captain Fantastic; The Review I Want to Read
As seems to be the norm, I’m late to the game… but better to show up late than not at all. Right? This post is a review piece on the 2016 movie Captain Fantastic staring Viggo Mortensen. Quite frankly, the reason I’m writing this review here and now in 2019 is that I keep reading reviews of this movie and haven’t ever found the one I’m looking for… I guess that means that like everyone else, I’m looking for something that aligns with my subjective take on the thing. Having not found one in 3 years that I agree with (in total), and after much sighing in frustration, I decided to write my own.
Well, it’s not really that I just want to write my own, it’s that almost every Christian review I’ve read about this movie is embarrassing to me as a Christian, and I’m going to focus a lot on the religious (or anti-religious) bits of the movie. So, let’s get a few things out of the way; this movie features cussing, anti-religious sentiment, and last but(t) not least, full-frontal male nudity. Yes, indeed, if you want Viggo in all his glory, this is the movie for you. I happen to love this movie, but that is in spite of, not because of, Viggo’s glory. Please, if nudity offends you, I totally understand, don’t watch the movie. If someone using the Lord’s name as a (or in the midst of a) curse word, is a deal breaker, avoid it. I really do understand completely. (One point I never see mentioned when people are going off about said nudity is that there is zero, 0, female nudity in this movie, and the nudity is not sexual in any way… I think that is on purpose and makes me like the movie more, because I truly think the writer/director Matt Ross did it to make a point.)
Anywho, enough about the nudity. This review and discussion contains spoilers, and yes, the movie is 3 years old, but on the ‘net there is always that one person who screams bloody murder at the fact there wasn’t a spoiler warning even though it’s old news. What we have with Captain Fantastic is a story about parenting (specifically fatherhood), and the attempt to be present in your offspring’s lives to a greater degree than anyone else is; to raise your kids as you see fit. Matt Ross then adds the layer of; what if those parents have an ideology that does not line up with the majority population? Most reviews miss this basic point. Many believe this movie exists to bash a certain political or religious perspective, and they contend the vehicle for this is how we are supposed to feel about Ben (played by Viggo) who is the patriarch of his family. I don’t know what movie they were watching but the father is not portrayed as a hero… all I can come up with is people were 1) not paying attention while watching and 2) were so offended by what they perceived to be the point early on, that they missed the point entirely.
The family; Ben Cash the Dad, Leslie the Mom, oldest brother Bodevan, twin girls Kielyr & Vespyr, Rellian the rebellious brother, Zaja the death obsessed sister, and the “baby” of the family, little brother Nai. Mom and Dad are out of the norm and hard to quantify specifically, but what I instantly noticed that never really gets mentioned is that Ben wears a Mjolnir pendant. Now, we are told flat out that Leslie, his wife, is an Buddhist in regards to philosophy not religion, but we are never told what Ben is, other than he isn’t Christian. Their main beef seems to be against organized religion, which may be a reaction against Leslie’s upbringing that sharp-eyed viewers will find to be Catholic. Many wear Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer) as a sign of protection, or as a nod to heritage, there are even Neo-Nazi’s who have latched on to it as a symbol. Some wear it to simply show they aren’t Christian, but Ben’s use of it is interesting because who exactly is he wearing it for? They see almost nobody, but even in the deep woods, or when showering in a waterfall, he keeps it on and no one (in the movie or in the reviews) really seems to notice. (Interesting side note; Viggo, as himself, has been photographed wearing one as well.) Further, if I may jump to the end of the movie, in the final scene we clearly see he is not wearing it anymore, which is a really important clue that he has indeed changed his ways.
The whole family lives out in the Pacific northwest on a kind of homestead; tiny house with teepee, garden, treehouse, etc… They hunt and grow and can their own food. The kids are homeschooled, which includes hand-to-hand fighting, meditation, wilderness survival training, lots of phys ed, field trips, music education, and a handpicked reading itinerary complete with tests and debates. They all dress (or undress) however they feel like. Mom is conspicuously absent and we soon learn why; she’s been admitted to a hospital because of her bipolar disorder which has finally forced her families to try to get her intensive help. She slits her own wrists one night and we get the feeling she’s threatened to do this many times before, but this time succeeds and kills herself. This sets the stage for the rest of the movie.
Now, here are some points that many don’t seem to catch. When Ben finds out she’s dead, he looks through their important papers and opens her will. We see (and hear) that Ben himself is shocked at her requests (we are kept in the dark about the particulars at first), just as earlier in the movie we see he is shocked at little Zaja’s death obsession that revolves around taxidermy, altars made of animal skulls, and Pol Pot. Again, dad is not fully in control here and we are allowed to see that, nor is he immune to the norms and mores of the wider culture.
Leslie was being treated close to her mom and dad, who are rich, powerful, and used to getting their way. Because of the Cash family’s “wild” ways they do not want Ben interfering with Leslie’s funeral and burial and warns Ben to stay away, which of course he doesn’t. Now, here is where I wish more Christians would express their outrage along with Ben. Leslie’s mom and dad, who are Catholics, completely and totally ignore their daughter’s wishes and will. Leslie was a Buddhist who wanted to be cremated, not embalmed and buried. She wanted music and dancing; a celebration of her life. And, yes, she wanted her ashes flushed down a toilet. Hey, I don’t agree that’s how human remains should be handled, but that is what she wanted and had listed in her will. Other reviewers focus on Ben (and fam’s) “bad” behavior in the church during her funeral… bad behavior? Reading her will, dressing out of the norm, and trying to stop the proceedings is not the bad behavior. The bad behavior is on the part of the mom and dad who did not respect their daughter’s last wishes, who had her embalmed, placed in a Catholic Church, all laid out in a massive coffin, and then buried under a Christian tombstone. None of that is acceptable from a Christian perspective and is meaningless to put a non-Christian through it.
Other worthy mentions; reviewers target a conversation that takes place in a bank. The kids are shocked when they see everyone is so overweight. They haven’t been exposed to that before, and they wonder if everyone is sick. Nai thinks everyone looks like hippos and says so. His sisters remind him that isn’t proper, “We don’t make fun of people.” Vespyr helpfully chirps, “except Christians!” What most Christian reviewers miss is the look of exasperation on Ben’s face right after his daughter says this. He knows he’s caught in the very same hypocrisy that he claims infects Christianity. Does he correct this? No, but the look says it all and we are supposed to catch it as the viewers.
In another scene, Ben is rightfully pulled over for a non-functioning left taillight. The police officer boards “Steve” (their modified school bus) and begins poking around because the kids are not in school and the situation appears unusual. Bodevan gets the idea to run the officer off by proselytizing like a stereotypical evangelical Christian homeschooled family, and they all begin serenading the officer with “One Day When Heaven was Filled with His Praises” and the officer beats a hasty retreat, sending them on their way. Somehow this offends Christians too… but this Christian has heard the jokes my brothers and sisters tell each other; “When you get a call from either a salesperson, or a fake phishing call, just start telling them about Jesus and they’ll hang up really quick! Hahaha.” We know how proselytizing can come off, and some have weaponized it, and now we’re going to act ticked off because it’s used in a similar fashion, but by a non-believer? Nah, it’s funny, lighten up.
Let me flip it for a second and also clarify a point that confuses some reviewers. Ben and fam don’t celebrate Christmas, even the secularized version. This is one of the areas of the film that I’m really surprised they didn’t tweak. Instead of any holiday like Christmas, the Cash family celebrates Noam Chomsky day… and they celebrate it early on their adventure, just like Christmas in July. Rellian, the family rebel, thinks it’s stupid, and asks why they can’t just celebrate Christmas like everyone else. Ben then weaponizes his own philosophy against his son; he essentially humiliates Rellian by demanding an answer to the following question. “You would prefer to celebrate a magical fictitious elf, instead of a living humanitarian who’s done so much to promote human rights and understanding?” I’ve seen Christian reviewers get really bent out of shape here… because they think he’s referencing Christ. No. He’s referencing Santa Claus of course. (Personally I think this is a misstep in writing Ben’s character, but it may have been deliberate to sidestep actually bashing Christian beliefs. Why would Ben have focused on attacking something we all know isn’t true vs. attacking the idea of Jesus Himself? It doesn’t fit the character, IMO.) But that’s beside the point, the point is, this is not an attack on Christ.
And finally the point of the movie itself; the dad was wrong. Not only was the dad wrong, he figures that out, and tells the kids (and us) just how wrong he has been (this is after what I see to be the climax of the movie when his daughter Vespyr falls from her grandparents’ rooftop and about dies). Now, if the point of the movie was to glorify Marxism, and anti-Christian sentiment, why would the dad admit his experiment was “a beautiful mistake?” Why would he then change course, move his kids back to a farm and enroll them in public school, and remove his Mjolnir pendant for the first time in the whole movie? It’s clear as day that he is still a loving, devoted father, he’s just realized there is more than one way to show that and to guide and protect his kids. We can also see that the family does not throw out their former lives or learning, but things are repurposed and balanced out. The point is; if you make your kids into philosopher kings and they have no society to interact with, then what’s the point? If you get your kids seriously injured or killed in raising them up, then what’s the point? Ben has finally learned you have to walk the path between order and chaos in a balanced manner.
All of that to say; I loved the movie. It’s one that should make you think, but if you go into it with a chip on your shoulder about what you initially perceive as “anti” this and that, then you’ll miss the lessons Ben learns along the way. Movies like this should especially challenge us Christians and make us reflect on if there is any truth to the stereotypes against us, and if they are something we want to change or not. It should also make everyone, Christian and non, realize the importance of educating ourselves and raising the bar when it comes to interpersonal discussions, and parenting. Finally, it also calls our society into question; what we spend time, effort, and money on, and if those things are actually meaningful (or inline with the Christian ideal anymore).
I plan to post at least one more article on particular aspects of the movie that I found so interesting, I hope, dear reader, that perhaps they will be interesting to you as well…
Filed under Atheism, Catholicism, Christianity, Humor, Musings, Philosophy, Religion and Politics, Reviews, Sacred Secular
Tagged as Anti-Christian, Captain Fantastic, Christianity, Education, Marxism, Movie Review, Opinion, Parenting
November 2, 2015 · 10:40 pm
Here’s Not Here… A Walking Dead Review
Yes, yes, I’m a fan of The Walking Dead. If gore is one of those things you (as a believer) are lead to stay away from, please don’t go out and watch The Walking Dead just because I’ve mentioned it on my blog, and I also know the various arguments presented for Christians not to watch such things in the first place, let’s just skip ahead to the part where I disagree with blanket restrictions on watching TV shows (though I do think there are some movies, books, shows, etc.. that have no redeeming qualities, I don’t think The Walking Dead (TWD) is one of them for me).
So, this is an episode review and it is written solely for one reason… I can find no other reviews close to my thoughts on this episode and I had to ask myself why, and then blog about it. I think I have the answer… it’s because many out there on the ‘net writing reviews are not Christian, nor do they have a degree in psychology, nor have they taught college philosophy courses, nor studied comparative religions. In short, I found this particular episode one of the best TWD episodes ever for many and layered reasons and I’m not seeing others “get it” in quite the way I expected. This review is going to proceed as if you, dear reader, have seen TWD on a fairly regular basis and have seen the latest eppy Here’s Not Here. So, if you are not a fan you can stop reading without any guilt.
SPOILERS for all past episodes ahead, you’ve been warned.
If you are a watcher, you realize that Glenn’s “death cliffhanger” was the previous episode, and there is a certain group of fans out there in TWD fandom whose heads were exploding because Glenn was not directly in this episode. We still don’t know if he is alive or dead, or is now zombieGlenn, and that is apparently an unacceptable situation for many fans to be put in. There are indeed several reviews praising the episode but hating the timing of it. Here’s what they are missing: that’s one of the points of this episode. The powers that be wanted you to go through a car wreck… not for sadistic reasons, but for effect. They had everyone hurtling 80 miles an hour down the road, only to come to a dead stop with a seemingly out of place episode all about good ol’ crazy Morgan-gone-Zen.
One thing I thought everyone agreed on (Rick spelled it out for the group and the audience blatantly in an episode) is that “The Walking Dead” does not refer to the zombies, but rather to the humans having to live in, and adapt to, this new world. The humans going through Hell on Earth are indeed the walking dead, and most of the characters we have come to know and love are suffering from PTSD. The two characters in the latest episode, Morgan and Eastman, are the two characters picked to showcase the roller coaster that all the characters worth anything on TWD are on. This show was not “just about Morgan” nor was it just about his backstory. Morgan is the character chosen to carry the psychological and philosophical revelations for the whole audience. Glenn was in the show. Rick was in the show. Carol was in the show, etc… etc… They were all represented, one just has to look for them.
This eppy raised deep philosophical and practical questions that have been around for thousands of years. Our religions debate them, our fellow humans struggle with them, and to be truly human I hope we’ve all at least pondered them at some point in our lives. Are you a pacifist? If yes, are there times when your pacifism is actually morally reprehensible? If no, when is killing ok? Is killing animals ok? How about people? Only when necessary? Are you for or against the death penalty? Under what circumstances? Can humans be forgiven? Can they be redeemed? Is there such a thing as evil? What is PTSD? How is it cured? Is it possible to be mindful during a zombie attack? And on and on… how can someone watch such an eppy and not be philosophically geeked out?
Let’s look at the character “Eastman.” East-man. He was used to show what the eastern philosophies may look like in this world of TWD. I’ve seen people mocking the Way of Peace online (the book Eastman leans on for his own philosophy and the book Morgan uses to help return to sanity, and yes, the book is real), in essence arguing that some of the most ancient practices and philosophies “are like so stoopid, no, man, like really reallllly dumb, Carol should just off Morgan, cuz stoopid.” We’ve ran into humans in the show that have given up their compassion and humanity and we’ve seen how they’ve turned out (Termites anyone? How ’bout those Wolves?) Did literally the whole internet miss that Carol was having this very revelation in the previous episode? How ’bout Glenn’s treatment and forgiveness of the despised Nicholas? How ’bout Rick’s descent into darkness?
In Eastman and Morgan we have two characters that are not cowards, are not stoopid, are not naive, and yet decide to not kill a fellow human unless absolutely necessary. We also have these characters showing us a different side of nature (again, a central theme in eastern philosophy); we are used to the beautiful environment of Georgia turning into a enemy at the worst of times, and a forgotten background the rest of the time. In this eppy we have the environment reintroduced as a thing of beauty and life. It’s all about balance and this season is centered (pun intended) on that theme. Eastern philosophy captures that perfectly. Life/death, black/white, good/evil, male/female, love/hate, active/passive, bravery/cowardice… and that is just scratching the surface.
This episode had it all; the themes of man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. self, and I just happen to think the powers that be did a wonderful job presenting those themes in a way that was trying to force the audience to stop and think, which again is why we were slammed to a stop with Glenn’s cliffy. This eppy was to help us see that there are other ways of dying, and there are other ways of becoming a walker, rather than just in the literal sense. The fact that many on the net are howling in anguish and are now spitting on Morgan, but holding Carol up as the perfect human are proving that this was a much-needed episode. I have no idea how it will all turn out. Perhaps the writers are all nihilists. Perhaps they are all naturalists/materialists. Perhaps they will paint a picture of the world I’ll disagree with, but man, Here’s Not Here was surely one of the writing highlights of the show that put forth that humans have a choice to become animals, or to rise above. As a Christian this episode was everything I had wished for Gabriel’s character, but, I’ll take it in eastern guise if I have to.
Filed under Humor, Musings, Of Interest, Philosophy, Reviews, Sacred Secular
Tagged as Eastern Philosophy, Here's Not Here, pacifism, Review, The Walking Dead
Breaking Benjamin is back… and so am I.
I’ve posted several times about Breaking Benjamin, but it has been a while. They were, and are, a favorite band of mine, though the current members are not the same as when they first arrived on the scene. They have an all-new lineup except for Ben Burnley of course. He finally won the court case enabling him to keep the name “Breaking Benjamin” and the rights to the songs.
The new boyz in the band; Jasen Rauch on guitar, and if you recognize the name he was indeed from Red, Keith Wallen also on guitar, Aaron Bruch on bass, and Shaun Foist on drums. Some of the guys sing backing vocals, which is unusual as Ben used to sing alone and do all his own backing vocals on albums.
It took me a long while to buy and listen to the album, Dark Before Dawn, I suppose I didn’t want to be disappointed, but also my musical tastes have changed over time, and I was strangely nervous I’d hear them and hate them. I shouldn’t have worried, their style both remains completely recognizable as Breaking Benjamin, but allows Ben to showcase his journey and his maturing through an unexplained illness that causes him daily suffering. I like the album a lot, and it is definitely worth the cost of a download.
If you don’t like alternative rock, this isn’t for you and they aren’t a Christian band… though if Ben’s not a believer by this point, I’ll eat my hat.
Here are my earlier articles about BB:
Breaking Benjamin Interview
And, yes, I hope this marks my return to blogging. Honestly there is so much to say about world events, these times we live in, and how biblical wisdom is indeed that answer, that it is sometimes hard to know where to start.
Filed under Musings, Of Interest, Reviews, Sacred Secular
Tagged as Ben Burnley, Breaking Benjamin, Dark Before Dawn
Dare to Believe and Share the Gospel
If you discovered the cure for cancer… would you share it? Of course you would. Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Do you believe the gospel of the Bible and have faith in Jesus? If so, do you realize you have something infinitely more precious than a cure for cancer to share. You have something of eternal consequence, of eternal power. What you know can change people’s lives forever. You have no power over them directly, but you do know the truth; in order to have your sins wiped out, and in order to be raised from the dead and take your place in Heaven, you need Jesus. You need His sacrifice, His grace, His blood.
You, my dear brother or sister (in other words my fellow believers), have been given much. I don’t care about how popular you are or how rich or how poor you are, what you own or what you eat. The fact is you have been given much. And, to whom much is given, much is expected. Embrace the fact that you are watched; unbelievers are watching you. How do you act? How you act does not save you, this we know, but how you act shows a bit of Jesus to the world. Don’t use His name in vain… that’s not about cursing, it is about calling yourself a believer, and then acting like the world while others watch you.
This is not about beating people about the head with a Bible; is there anything more off-putting? What I’m talking about is a quiet faith that is shown in what we do, what we don’t do, what we say, what we don’t say… how do we control our anger, do we love our family in Christ, do we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves? Notice that; love your neighbor as you love yourself. Many Christians act as though you have to hate yourself, no, that’s not the answer to pride. The answer to pride is to love God first and foremost. A believer’s right pride comes from Jesus and what He has to offer.
Sharing your faith should be a lot like breathing, breathing is not flashy or showy, it’s natural. The Bible is clear; a proof of God and His Son hinges on us loving each other and treating our brothers and sisters AS brothers and sisters. Care about one another. Pray for one another. Pray for our country because we need it. We don’t need a president, we need God. Our founding fathers were, in the vast majority, Christian. They repeatedly reminded us that our nation is a strong nation because of our moral beliefs rooted in scripture. We know there is sin. We know there is grace. We share the gospel in the lives we lead, how we treat our children and other people’s kids. We share it in the way we treat our family… we share it in the way we treat our enemies.
I heard Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame being interviewed today, and he was right as usual; the answer is not a man-made ideology, its not liberalism, it’s not conservatism, the answer is God. The greatest story ever told is one centered on forgiveness of sin, and the power of Jesus over death, Hell, and the grave. Before someone has correct ideology, they need the creator of all in their lives, it is the only way they can think straight. I’m dumb, God is brilliant. I’m weak, God is strong. I’m sinful, God is perfect. We, and all people, need God in our lives. Share Him, in whatever way you are called to. Read your Bible. Pray. Pray hard. The world needs it.
Our country is made up of states, states are made up of counties, counties of towns, towns of families, families of individuals. In the age of grace God deals with individuals, not with nations as in times past (that time will come again, but is not yet). That means the individuals that make up this country need to be rooted in Christ. If the individuals are rooted, the nation is rooted. You can’t control anyone else, but you can work on you with God’s grace and power. The answer to our “secular” problems are indeed sacred in nature. Grow deed roots and help others do the same.
Grace and peace be with all of you who believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, my prayers are with you, pray for me, pray for our nation, and our family in Him.
Filed under Apologetics, Christianity, Prayer, Religion and Politics, Sacred Secular
Tagged as America, faith, Grace, Jesus Christ, Prayer, The Gospel
The Christian and Debt
Debt is all around us, and most of us have some type of debt currently. I just read a statistic yesterday that less than 50% of all Americans have any net worth at all, meaning that less than 50% of us have monetary value (including assets) over the amount of monetary debt we owe. Financially, then, most Americans are worth less than zero. Think about that. Our country has changed over time and we are a nation of debtors living in a nation of debt. Yes, debt has always, and will always be around, but we are now going into debt for things people in the past would never have considered signing away their future earnings for.
So, what does God teach us about debt, money, and how we can faithfully handle our finances? Now, obviously I’m not going to be able to cover every scripture or every situation. There are many good resources out in the market today that do a better job covering all of that than I ever could. But, I did want to cover a specific aspect of debt that people tend to wink at; Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave. Really think that over; you are a slave to anyone you have borrowed money from. Do you owe a bank, credit company, hospital, the government, etc…?
Whoever you owe money to, you are their slave. You work for them. Your money is theirs, and that is a Biblical concept. In an age where we borrow money from all of these places, we have so many masters we can’t count them. Remember where it says that we can’t serve two masters? Wow. We just don’t think of these things, and what we want, we want it now. If we need an automobile, why of course we take out a loan because the masters make it easy to make monthly payments. We demand a college education, so we take out a loan because the masters act as though we’ll be able to easily pay it back. Our very nation is sinking in debt, and whoever holds our debt is our master. Scarey, hunh?
Romans 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another… If we owe someone money, we give them power over us, and it limits what we can do with our work. Everything that we have comes from God, and our best position is to be free to use what God blesses us with how He sees fit. If we owe money, our money is yoked to the lender. Now, if someone is in need, the answer can be giving, not borrowing.
Giving someone money (or things) freely, with no strings is different than lending. It by-passes usury, and hard feelings. The other answers come in how we view the world and our needs. When I taught logic and philosophy at college, I urged my students to sit and write out their actual needs; what do you need to live? It’s a short list. We live in a world that tells us we NEED all of these various things, but it is a lie. Don’t believe the lie, live below your means, surround yourself with wise people, read wise words, control you money, don’t let it control you, etc…
We should strive to be aware, strive after Godly wisdom and Godly ways. We should also chafe a little bit when contemplating who are master, or masters are, and finally ask ourselves if our money is serving us (and God), or are we serving it?
Filed under Christianity, Musings, Of Interest, Philosophy, Sacred Secular, Uncategorized
Tagged as Christianity, Debt, Finances, Money
The Fast and the Furious Series Review
This is going to be the first time for some of you to read one of my more “secular” posts, but as always I believe you can often find the sacred in the secular. I admit it, I’m a Fast and Furious fan. I fell in love with the first movie when it came out, and have followed it ever since.
If you find cussing, violence, and scantily clad women offensive, or if you’ve been led away from those things, avoid these movies. So, why am I writing this review? Because I believe most people are missing the main point and feature of the movies in this series. I also believe that Vin Diesel is trying, in his own way, to get people to realize several key themes.
First, that the world is now connected in ways that it never has been in the past. Culture is bleeding over political borders, and with it the good and the bad. Crime, and crime bosses can now go global. They can do so digitally or physically, and this is one lesson that we all need to learn in a very real way. Two examples spring to mind; the recent reports of Chinese hackers invading US systems, and the violence on our Southern border. We all now owe it to our society to start thinking more and more globally, and our news organizations will hopefully wake up and begin providing us with global coverage.
Of course, there are good things coming from this blending of cultures as well. New styles, new food, new friends, new conversations to have. And I think that this connects to Vin’s other main theme in these movies; faith and family.
The latest F&F installment, Fast and Furious 6 kinds slaps you upside the head with it, but apparently many reviewers are missing the point. Faith and family. Each installment in the main series always has a moment or two of Dom’s running rule; when you sit down to eat, whoever eats first (or tries to) has to say grace. Some do it with more learning and style, and some try their best. Dom’s cross also becomes a continuing plot device.
This lesson wasn’t something that was full-force in the first movie; Dom cared more for his own feeling of freedom than for his team, but that quickly changed as one-by-one his family was either hurt, or killed. Over the course of the series we’ve seen Dom’s family grow, and with it, his loyalty.
Family. This is where the “sacred” comes in. This string of movies does a very good job of showing how those people that are not directly related to us can become our family. In fact, each person that is a born again believer in Jesus is our family. How often do we really truly see that in our church communities? It’s rare. If we truly wake up to what Jesus is telling us, we should help and protect our fellow believers, because they ARE our family. They are not “like” family they are true family.
I believe this series does a superb job showing us this, in a secular sense of course… annnddd, you really do have to sit through a bunch of racing scenes to get there, but I do believe Vin Diesel is purposefully communicating that idea of family across all borders; language, culture, background, etc… And, yes, Vin isn’t technically a writer, but I hear him and Paul Walker have input into the series, especially when it comes to things the fans demand.
What else do I love about the series? I love the cars. I love the humor. I love the way it self-deprecates. I love the characters, and their interplay. There is also ideas such as self-control and forgiveness taught throughout. The series has become a huge blockbuster and the special effects are there to prove it, but at the heart of it, this series is still about family. Sure, there are now over-the-top explosions, and cheesy physics defying crashes, but the film never takes itself to seriously on that score.
These movies are definitely not for everyone, but I can’t wait til the 7th installment!
Oh, and if you are interested, here’s the watch order if you’d like to see the whole series chronologically and, Han’s first appearance was not in the F&F series, but in a movie called “Better Luck Tomorrow” it would come before Los Bandoleros):
Turbo-Charged Prelude {short}
Los Bandoleros {short}
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Tagged as faith, Family, Fast and Furious, Movie Review
April 9, 2011 · 1:33 am
The Moon By Night…
This is the second in a series about Madeleine L’Engle’s Austin family books. If you are new to what I’m doing with her books, please check out this link to know what the point of this “review” is about; Madeleine L’Engle. This book was also new to me, so it was my first time through it. It is also a good, but easy read.
What suppers did the Austins enjoy? Steak with salad, potato salad and marshmallows, scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and coffee of course, spaghetti, pork chops with turnip greens and salad, stew and salad, hash, tuna and veggie salad, fried chicken with potato salad and lettuce salad, and hamburgers.
What did they listen to in this particular story? The Emperor Concerto, and the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, as well as Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, also sung a lot, including All Through the Night, Now the Day is Over, I Will Lift Mine Eyes unto the Hills, Tallis’ Canon, and the Eddystone LIght.
What were the kids reading or the adults reading to them? A Connecticut Yankee, Anna Karenina, Patterns of Culture by Ruth Benedict, and The Conquest of Space. The poem “Patterns” by Amy Lowell was also mentioned. The Diary of Anne Frank played a bit role, but the play was the focus, not the book.
Their furry companions were in the story a bit less, but still there; Colette their french poodle, Mr. Rochester their Great Dane, and Prunewhip.
What was the fam up to in this story? Traveling and camping across country, and lots of people watching. We also learned that Wallace “Daddy” Austin has a blackbelt in Judo, and were also introduced to Zachary Grey for the first time. As they traveled they played several games, including one I’d never heard of; the Botticelli word game. They also did a twist on the alphabet game; going through the alphabet naming a song or poem that begins with the letter; for example A = Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road” begins with “Afoot…” and B = “The Blessed Damozel.” (The only other one mentioned was I = “I Will Lift UP Mine Eyes…”)
Good prayers and quotes included? (BTW, when I can, I try to find the reference and the correct form of the quote,)
“Mark Twain’s” attributed quote, “When I was seventeen I was amazed at how little my father knew about life. At the age of twenty two, I was amazed how much he had learned in five years.“
One that became a theme, “Comparisons are odious” attributed to Donne, Fortescue, AND Marlowe amongst others. lol
One of my favorites from the book:
The Rain is Raining all Around
The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.
– Lord Bowen
The themes of growing up and also God was strong in this book; the different characters weigh in either directly or indirectly on their own beliefs or thoughts on God. I think my favorite character in this one was Uncle Douglas…
Filed under Musings, Of Interest, Reviews, Sacred Secular, Uncategorized
Tagged as Austin Family, Book Review, Madeleine L'Engle, Quotes
Meet the Austins…
Dear reader, check out this link to know what the point of this “review” is about; Madeleine L’Engle. This is one of her books I just read for the first time…I’d met the Austin family previously in books that come later in the Austin family series. I really enjoyed this story, and it did serve as a good introduction to the Austins, which in turn, sets up the rest of the books in the series. It is a very quick read, and “easy” reading.
What suppers did the Austins enjoy? Standing rib roast with roast potatoes and carrots, spaghetti with carrots and garlic bread, Spanish rice, Shepherd’s pie, strawberry mousse, pork roast with applesauce and carrots, pot roast with deep-dish apple pie, bread pudding with raisins, tapioca, jell-o, raisin bread, steaks with baked potatoes and salad, baked beans with hot dogs chopped up in them, and the ever present beverages of coffee and hot cocoa.
What did they listen to while preparing all of this? Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, Rosenkavalier, Schonberg’s Verklarte Nacht, Handel’s the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, Handel’s Royal Fireworks, and John liked to listen to “The Gambler.” The crew liked to sing; Cockles and Mussels, The Eddystone Light, You take the High Road, Oh, Susannah, Ash Grove, and Tallis’ Cannon.
What were the kids reading or the adults reading to them? The Jungle Book, Charlotte’s Web, The Secret Garden, The Sword in the Stone, and Doctor Dolittle. Also, a book on Albert Einstein’s spiritual views was quoted and talked about, but no title was ever given.
Their furry companions that curled up at their feet? Colette their french poodle, Mr. Rochester their Great Dane, and at least three cats; Prunewhip, Hamlet, and Creamy.
What was the fam up to in this story? Skywatching as usual, including star gazing.
Good prayers and quotes included?
St. Francis’ Prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
A quote from Hildevert of Lavardin;
God is over all things, under all things; outside all;
within, but not enclosed; without but not excluded;
above, but not raised up; below, but not depressed;
wholly above, presiding; wholly without, embracing;
wholly within, filling.
A poem from Thomas Browne;
If thou could`st empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf,
And say, `This is not dead`,
And fill thee with Himself instead.
But thou art all replete with very thou
And hast such shrewd activity,
That when He comes, He says, `This is enow
Unto itself – `twere better let it be,
It is so small and full, there is no room for me.`
Fun book to read, the themes of childhood, change and death were interesting. This book, more than L’Engle’s others that I’ve read, seemed geared toward “younger” readers, but adults who like her style and characters will enjoy this book as well. On to read the second in this series…
Filed under Humor, Musings, Of Interest, Prayer, Reviews, Sacred Secular, Uncategorized
Tagged as Austin Family, Book Review, Christian, Family, Literary Menu, Madeleine L'Engle, Music, Quotes
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Capital machinery import surges 37pc last fiscal
Shows signs of production boost
Siddique Islam | Published: August 09, 2017 06:30:18 | Updated: October 24, 2017 23:04:11
The country's overall imports grew by more than 10 per cent in the fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 due mainly to higher import of capital machinery, officials said.
The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) grew by 10.47 per cent to US$ 44. 27 billion during the July-June period of FY'17 from $40.08 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to the central bank's latest statistics released Tuesday.
On the other hand, opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, rose by 11.05 per cent to $48.12 billion in the FY17 from $43.33 billion in the previous fiscal year.
"The overall imports may increase further by the end of the current fiscal year because of rising trend in food grains import," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The central bank has already relaxed its policies to encourage rice import to meet the growing demand for the essential in the local markets, he said.
Earlier on July 20, the BB relaxed further its foreign exchange transaction rules for opening LCs against rice import to ensure sufficient supply of the staple food in the market.
Under the relaxed rules, the commercial banks were allowed till December 31, 2017 to open LCs against deferred or usance bill basis or under buyer's credit up to 90 days term.
The central bank had also allowed the banks to open LCs for importing rice with zero-margin on the basis of bank-client relationship.
Meanwhile, the import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production was up by 37.39 per cent to $4.85 billion in FY17 as against $3.53 billion of the previous fiscal year.
"The higher imports particularly in the energy and power sector mainly contributed to the rise in overall capital machinery imports," the BB official explained.
In FY17, the import of capital machinery for power and energy sector jumped by more than 133 per cent to $ 1.33 billion from $ 573.06 million in the FY16.
Higher imports in sectors including textile, leather and tannery, garment industry, pharmaceuticals, telecom industry and ship building have contributed to raise the overall capital machinery import in the last fiscal, according to the central banker.
He said the upward trend in capital machinery import might continue in the coming months due to implementation of different ongoing infrastructure development projects in the country.
Currently, the government is implementing nine projects under the Fast-Track Project Monitoring Committee, headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The imports of intermediate goods like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels increased by 11.05 per cent to $3.72 billion in the FY17 from $3.35 billion in the FY16.
The import of industrial raw materials rose by 3.52 per cent to $16.22 billion in the FY 17 from $15.67 billion a year ago.
Besides, import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed a 7.25 per cent growth to $4.62 billion in the last fiscal from $4.30 billion in the previous FY.
"Machinery for other sectors and intermediate goods for industrial consumption also increased substantially, showing signs of boosting production in future," another BB official said.
He said lower prices of petroleum products in the global market have contributed to easing import payment pressure on the economy in the recent years.
Fuel oils import increased by 3.30 per cent to $2.52 billion in the last fiscal from $2.44 billion a year ago, he added.
The import of food grains particularly rice and wheat increased by 2.78 per cent to $1.15 billion in the last fiscal from $1.12 billion in the FY16, the BB data showed.
However, import of consumer goods increased by 9.18 per cent to $5.02 billion in the FY17 from $4.60 billion a year ago.
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Tackling the consequences of illegal migration humanely
Muhammad Zamir | Published: August 18, 2019 20:39:18
A refugee detention camp in Gheryan, outside Tripoli. —Photo: Reuters
Human trafficking and illegal migration have reached unacceptable proportions. The osmotic effect of this equation is proving to be a menace for those trying to gain from this exercise. This has led to about 800,000 illegal migrants and 50,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers being trapped in Libya alone. The continuing exodus of people from war-torn Syria and Iraq and tens of thousands of people from Africa have been adding to the deleterious effects created by persons trying to reach the safety of Europe and subsequent economic and social safety for themselves and their families. It has already led to hundreds having drowned in the Mediterranean Sea during their efforts to cross into Italy or Spain or Greece. The departure points in most cases have been from the northern shores of Libya.
Rana Jawad of the BBC has reported recently about the sorry state of affairs that currently exist in war-torn Libya and how that situation is being further exacerbated through the inability of regional and international institutions to restore a degree of order within this intractable paradigm. Both the print and the electronic media have touched on the miserable situation that exists in several detention centres for the aspiring illegal immigrants who failed to fulfil their dreams of crossing the Mediterranean into Europe.
The BBC has drawn attention particularly to the Triq al-Sikka Detention Centre, run by a pro-government militia in the capital, Tripoli, where the UN provides humanitarian assistance. It has been reported that mishandling of inmates and lack of constructive engagement on the part of the centre authorities have led to self-immolation of some inmates.
The would-be illegal immigrants have drawn the attention of visiting media personnel to the less than effective measures being undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or UNHCR (whose mandate is to protect refugees) and its sister agency the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in this regard.
It may be mentioned here that since 2015 both the UNHCR and IOM have been providing training workshops and equipment for the Libyan coastguard, who have till now intercepted more than 15,000 people and returned them to Libya last year. Some allege that this co-operation with the coastguard is compromising the impartiality of the two UN agencies. The BBC reports has referred in this regard to an interesting observation by a humanitarian worker: "They work together with the EU to ensure that the migration problem is not coming to Europe. This is the aim of the EU and some of the European states, and I think they (UNHCR and IOM) are the implementers of that on the ground."
The European Union (EU) has tightened measures to prevent migrants crossing the Mediterranean. This has reduced the influx somewhat. There has been a decrease of 17 per cent on the same period in 2018. Nevertheless, it may be noted that according to the media in the first three months of 2019, some 15,900 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe via Mediterranean routes.
The EU in this regard has issued a statement, where it has reiterated that it "does not seek to stop global migration, but works with international partners to manage international migration, protect migrants' human rights, prevent perilous irregular journeys exploited by illegal human traffickers and ensure opportunities for legal and safe pathways".
Such an approach has however not been accepted fully by several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are actively involved in efforts to ensure safety for such migrants.
Julien Raikman, the MSF's mission head in Libya, has remarked that it is difficult to understand why migrants should be taken back to Libya as "this is not a port of safety." In reply to this criticism, the UNHCR has retorted that its presence at ports where the Libyan coastguards bring intercepted migrants is important because it can register them and provide assistance. However, critics, including former UNHCR employees, have pointed out that the presence of UNHCR legitimises the unlawful return of migrants to Libya and their transfer to detention centres. Giulia Tranchina, a lawyer who has represented people trapped in Libya, has alleged guards in such detention centres quite often intentionally starve inmates for weeks.
Such reports have not been totally denied by the UNHCR representatives in Libya. One of their senior officials has stated that "These Detention Centres, at least some of them, work on a business model that involves smugglers, traffickers, sometimes forced labour." Sometimes, it has been acknowledged, they are more like prisons and serve as an opportunity for militias to make money.
An interesting feature in this matrix is that the UNHCR is not even recognised by the Libyan government in Tripoli. This creates further problems rather than answers in the ability of UNHCR and IOM being able to deal effectively with other NGOs on the ground.
Libya, since the ouster and killing of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, has become a battleground, with rival militias fighting for control. The UN-backed government in Tripoli has little power itself. Instead, it relies on various armed groups to fight off a rival authority based in the east, led by General Khalifa Haftar. This creates its own turbulence.
Since 2014 the EU has spent more than Euro 338 million (equivalent to about US$ 377 million) on projects in Libya aimed at helping migrants. This funding was supposed to have facilitated the functioning of UN institutions and NGOs. However, a UN audit of the UNHCR published in March this year has revealed mismanagement of funds, and multiple instances of failures to assess how much aid was needed and failures in verifying its delivery. The report has also found that US$ 2.9 million had been overspent on aid which was not then used. Focus has specially been attached to the deteriorating conditions in the Detention Centre in Khoms where there was clear evidence of human rights abuses, disappearances of migrants and suspected collusion between prison guards and human traffickers. Such a situation eventually led two foreign NGOs, including International Medical Corps, to unilaterally suspend their work there, citing a lack of response by both the UNHCR and IOM.
In December last year, the UNHCR paid for a controversial "Gathering and Departure Facility" in Tripoli at a cost of US Dollar 3.5 million. This was heralded by the EU as an "alternative to detention"- free from the abuse discovered at other detention centres. However the pat on the back appears to have come too early. It has subsequently been noted that even access to the compound of the Centre is controlled by Tripoli's Ministry of Interior and there is no freedom of movement for the migrants waiting there to be evacuated to neighbouring Niger.
It would be important to recall here that in July 2018 Human Rights Watch representatives paid a visit to four Detention Centres in Tripoli, Misrata and Zuwara. A subsequent report indicated that this organization had found inhumane conditions, poor quality food and water, lack of adequate healthcare and disturbing accounts of violence. It appears that the situation has continued to deteriorate since then.
Time has come for the relevant European Union authorities and the representatives of UN institutions to be consistent with international legal norms related to refugees. They need to take a more pro-active interest in resolving this inhumane situation. The European Union, an important protagonist in this tragic drama also needs to help in repatriating these unfortunate refugees back to their respective countries.
Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance.
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TSX: TI C$0.77 Change:$-0.02 Zinc: $1.23 USD/lb
Operations & Projects
Empire State Mine
Mineral Ridge
Michael McClelland, CPA, CA
Michael McClelland has over 15 years of experience in accounting and finance. He was formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Bisha Mining Share Company, an operating subsidiary of Nevsun Resources. He previously worked for Goldcorp as the Mine General Manager at Wharf Resources (now owned by Coeur Mining), and prior to that was Director of Finance, Canada and USA. Mr. McClelland started his career at KPMG LLP as a Senior Accountant with the mining group. He is a Chartered Accountant and has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
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CIA Holocaust Claims 20 Million Victims
On September 9, 2008 By Jeff FenskeIn America's Getting Jacked!, CIA Drug Running/Assassinations, George Bush Family, Secret Societies, War
From: Conspiracy Planet
The world’s number one terrorist organization, the CIA has committed heinous acts of terrorism abroad, murdering critics of US foreign and domestic policies and has done it on behalf of an increasing tiny, privileged American elite. …
The official history of the CIA is dull reading. But one would not expect an official document of the US government to reveal the early connections between the CIA and Yale’s notorious Skull and Bones society [George Bush I & George Bush II are members – editor]; one would not expect the US government to reveal the nature of CIA backed coups in Chile to its role in the notorious Bay of Pigs debacle.
One would not expect an official document to detail the role played by the CIA in the Iran/Contra affair. One would not expect a sanitized government version of the CIA to reveal how the CIA creates and support death squads that have resulted in a holocaust not seen since the Third Reich.
The passage of the National Security Act in July 1947 legislated the changes in the Executive branch that had been under discussion since 1945.
The Act established an independent Air Force, provided for coordination by a committee of service chiefs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and a Secretary of Defense, and created the National Security Council (NSC). The CIG became an independent department and was renamed the Central Intelligence Agency.
Under the Act, the CIA’s mission was only loosely defined, since efforts to thrash out the CIA’s duties in specific terms would have contributed to the tension surrounding the unification of the services. The four general tasks assigned to the Agency were to advise the NSC on matters related to national security; to make recommendations to the NSC regarding the coordination of intelligence activities of the Departments; to correlate and evaluate intelligence and provide for its appropriate dissemination and “to perform such other functions … as the NSC will from time to time direct….”
–CIA Organizational Development, [Adapted from: United States Senate Select Committee on Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence — Book I, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, 26 April 1976, pages 102-118.]
The numbers don’t lie! At the end of a detailed statistical study, the CIA will be found, like a spider in its web, at the bump on a bell curve, at the very nexus of murder, mayhem and heinous acts of terrorism that it has exported across the globe and behind the deaths of US citizens in America.
CIA atrocities may be categorized.
* Secret Wars
* Assassinations
* Subversions of targeted regimes
* Overt terrorism
* Support of other terrorist organizations
* Exploitation and/or creation of terrorist organizations like ‘al Qaeda’.
* Drug sales, primarily cocaine and its derivative –crack.
* Domestic Assassinations and acts of terrorism
Read Entire Article
CIA, Drugs and the US Economy
Chuck Baldwin: America’s Greatest Threat
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Framing Wrongs and Performing Rights in Northern Ireland: Towards a Butlerian Approach to Life in Abortion Strategising
Kathryn McNeilly
Feminist strategising on abortion has been dominated by a “pro-choice” frame. Increasingly, however, pro-choice discourse is being viewed as inadequate to meet contemporary and complex feminist aims and analyses, in particular due to the individualising ontological framework upon which it appears to be based. The work of Judith Butler is one location where such concerns have been explored and an alternative approach based upon a renewed analysis of the concept of “life” has been asserted. Foregrounding the fundamental precariousness of intersubjective life and opening the socio-political conditions sustaining precarious life to democratic public engagement carries significant implications for feminist strategising for Butler, and envisages a reconceptualisation of debate on abortion. In this article Butler’s work on life will be combined with her theoretical tool of the frame to explore space which may exist within pro-choice strategising to potentially work towards such a renewed approach to life in social debate on abortion. This space may be used to rethink feminist strategising on abortion beyond pro-choice discourse, and presents an accessible starting point from which to do so. In carrying out this analysis insights will be drawn from feminist advocacy and activism in the contingent location of Northern Ireland where recent employment of a health frame and a rights frame demonstrate instances of pro-choice strategising which may be reiterated to shift feminist activism towards more radical engagement with life as a precarious social process demanding critical attention.
Kathryn McNeilly is a Ph.D. Candidate within the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast.
McNeilly, Kathryn (2013). Framing Wrongs and Performing Rights in Northern Ireland: Towards a Butlerian Approach to Life in Abortion Strategising. Journal of International Women's Studies, 14(4), 95-108.
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It's back to basketball for Canada's Melvin Ejim after witnessing his wife give birth back home
Mike Ganter
Sep 02, 2019 • Last Updated September 2, 2019 • 3 minute read
Canada's Melvin Ejim goes to the basket during the Basketball World Cup Group H game between Canada and Australia in Dongguan on September 1, 2019. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu / AFP)YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images
DONGGUAN, China — The jagged nerves and unsettled feeling in one’s stomach before a big event were drastically amplified for Melvin Ejim this past weekend in China.
A mere six hours before Canada opened its FIBA World Cup run with a loss to Australia, Ejim, 28, was glued to his iPhone watching his wife, Samantha, give birth to the couple’s second boy back home in Georgia.
Miles Ejim entered the world Sunday at 9:20 a.m. local time for dad and 9:20 p.m. Saturday back home in Georgia.
Minutes after the birth, Ejim was on his way to morning team meetings in advance of Sunday’s tournament opener.
“Everyone knew my wife was pregnant and she was going to be giving birth at some period during this trip. We had come to terms with that,” Ejim said before adding, “She’s great She’s unbelievable. She made it easy for me to come out here and play while she is taking care of stuff on the homefront.”
And there was comfort for Ejim in knowing his wife had a strong support group with her. Miles, little brother to three-year-old Deuce, was born with Samantha’s mother, her sister and four good friends in attendance at the family home in Georgia, and under the watchful eye of a midwife.
Good thing, too, because labour lasted about a full 24 hours. Ejim was with his wife on the phone late into the wee hours of Saturday night here in China before succumbing to sleep.
“I woke up around 6 a.m. (Sunday morning in China, 6 p.m. Saturday night in Georgia) and she was already in the pool,” Ejim said. “We had a home birth so she was in the pool. Family was there and by 9:20 (that evening in Georgia) she had given birth and that was right before we had team meetings and stuff like that.”
Six hours later, it was game time for dad.
“I tried to play hard, tried to do what we could but like I said, she makes it really easy for me,” Ejim said. “I do my job. I go out and try to represent Canada and she takes care of things at home.”
Ejim played almost 29 minutes against Australia and had nine points, six rebounds, two steals and was a team-best plus-3 for the game.
Making it easier for Ejim in China was an understanding coach in Nick Nurse, who went through the very same thing just three months earlier when his son Rocky was born during the Raptors’ eventual NBA championship run.
“I mentioned it to coach (early on in the weekend) and he said: ‘Absolutely, whatever you need,’” Ejim said. “He told me: ‘Obviously, there is the game of basketball and then there’s the game of life and this is an important part of that.’ He was completely supportive of me and whatever decision I made, and luckily it didn’t interfere with anything that we had going on over here.”
Once this tournament concludes, Ejim will get home and see his new baby boy in person before the whole family heads over to Spain where the 6-foot-7 forward plays professionally. But for now, he’ll settle for that long-distance feeling.
“I mean, I’ve been FaceTiming with him (Deuce) pretty much whenever they are not sleeping,” Ejim said. “I’m calling them, we’re talking and looking, comparing and seeing who he looks like and stuff like that.”
The experience is something he will never forget and the pull to get home and see his new son in person has to be enormous, but the focus is back on basketball for at least the next week and a bit for Ejim.
“I know we’ve got another game tomorrow (against Lithuania) that we have to win to keep our Olympic hopes alive,” he said. “So we’ve gotta go out, gotta be ready and put on a better performance than we did (Monday against Australia). We had some glimpses but we couldn’t put a whole package together, so tomorrow we’ve definitely got to do that.”
mganter@postmedia.com
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BoM outlook warns eastern Australia could face flooding in wetter-than-average summer
Mostafa Rachwani
Photograph: James Ross/AAP
Large parts of eastern Australia could be at risk of flooding in what is expected to be a wetter-than-average summer.
The Bureau of Meteorology has released its annual summer climate outlook, forecasting above-average daytime temperatures across parts of south-east and far-west Australia, as well as along the northern coastline.
The outlook also forecasts above-average rainfall, especially across the east coast, as an active La Niña event continues to affect the weather.
Dr Andrew Watkins, the bureau’s head of operational climate services, said the La Niña event meant the east coast could expect a deluge come summer.
“New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are expected to see above average rainfall, meaning we face an increased risk of widespread floods.”
Related: Australia weather: temperatures to soar to high 40s as weekend heatwave grips south-east
The bureau’s modelling forecasts the La Niña event will likely peak around December or January, and persist until February.
La Niña occurs every few years, and is a result of variations in ocean temperatures in the Pacific.
The increased rain likely won’t relieve long-term rainfall deficits in some southern parts of Australia. Watkins also highlighted that the risk of bushfires and grassfires is still high.
“There’s a great chance of grassfires in some areas as recent rain and warm weather have led to vigorous vegetation growth. South-eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions in the world. Even short periods of hot and dry weather increase the risk of fire in summer.”
He also said that although the bureau didn’t expect temperatures to reach the extreme highs of recent years, it was still advising communities to be prepared for heatwaves in the coming months.
“Every summer we see heatwaves across southern Australia. This summer, heatwaves may not reach the extreme temperatures of recent years, but may be longer-duration and more humid, which can still have a significant impact on human health.”
NSW and the ACT are in for a heatwave this coming weekend.
Conditions are expected to reach the “severe” category in some locations, where day and nighttime temperatures are expected to be 10C to 16C above average for this time of year.
Helen Reid, a meteorologist at the bureau, said the conditions would also increase the fire risk significantly.
“It is that hot, dry summer feel. The dryness is coming from that continental inland Australian air, and it’ll also be quite windy, so we are keeping a close eye on fire dangers.”
Reid advised that people across the east coast needed to be mindful of outdoor activities across the weekend, and to keep sunscreen and a bottle of water handy.
Northern Australia is still on track for a slightly above average cyclone season. Watkins noted that Australia usually had between nine and 11 tropical cyclones a year, with four expected to cross the coast.
“People in the north of the country should prepare for tropical cyclones now. And don’t forget tropical lows, which can bring heavy rainfall, flooding and cause significant property damage.”
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Can I get rich off penny stocks?
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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will resign her Senate seat on Monday, two days before she and President-elect Joe Biden are inaugurated. Aides to the California Democrat confirmed the timing and said Gov. Gavin Newsom was aware of her decision, clearing the way for him to appoint fellow Democrat Alex Padilla, now California's secretary of state, to serve the final two years of Harris' term. Padilla will be the first Latino senator from California, where about 40% of residents are Hispanic.
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Our favorite books of the season come from authors both emerging and established, meditating on everything from life online to life in the intersections of identity. From Esquire
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PCMag UK Reviews Software & Service Internet
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann Opines at SXSW
By Kirsten Cluthe
13 Mar 2012, 9:24 p.m.
AUSTIN, Texas—Perhaps it's no surprise that Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of the popular social photo-sharing site Pinterest, started out as a bug collector. In an interview today with Chris Dixon (Hunch) at SXSW, Silbermann discussed his transition from pre-med student to founding the latest "It" company, which had 16.1 million unique visitors in January, according to Nielsen.
The philosophy behind Pinterest goes deeper than simply posting things that users think others might find interesting. "When I go into someone's house I view their things, like books, as a collection." Silbermann explained. "My wife's closet is a collection of shoes and clothing. Other people collect art and furniture."
Silbermann told Dixon that he was obsessed with collecting, and while considering a future as a doctor, began reading TechCrunch. He then realized he wanted to be a part of "the story of his time," and so he focused on a way to blend his interest in collecting with technology.
View all Photos in Gallery
Inspired by Digg founder Kevin Rose, Silbermann made his way to Silicon Valley and, as he put it, "cajoled his way into Google," where he worked on designing ad products. Google opened up a world where companies had the "audacity to think at a huge scale," and he became interested in discussion forms like Reddit and the now defunct Google Answers. After leaving Google in 2008, he had a run at making iPhone apps – however the idea of collections persisted. In 2009, Silbermann began building Pinterest.
Pinterest has won all sorts of accolades recently for its design and user experience. That's because the team behind the site obsesses over quality. Asked why they didn't launch early and iterate as they went along, Silbermann responded, "Collections have to be something that you're proud of. If the collections didn't look awesome, why would anyone spend time working on them?"
"You have to show that you put in as much effort as you expect [your users] to put in," he continued.
Silbermann expressed admiration for the simplicity of Twitter's design and engagement, and a keen understanding that consumers now have high expectations. Impeccably crafted iPhones and Google's product efficiency all inform the approach of Pinterest.
So, what's in the pipeline for Pinterest? "Lots of exciting things," Silbermann told the SXSW crowd. An improved profile, for one, could launch "very soon." Silbermann also promised the profile page will be "more beautiful, a snapshot of who you are."
The company is also working to help users find other users – strangers and friends – by allowing connections between sources. The idea is to enable their members to tap into influences and inspiration that they might not otherwise uncover. Pinterest is also working to add video as pin content, from sources such as Hulu and Netflix. They are also working on platform expansion. "I'm so excited about Pinterest on the iPad," Silbermann remarked.
When asked about copyright issues, Silbermann said Pinterest has a process in place for notice, removal, and counter notice. The company takes it very seriously, and is building tools to help people better control their content. Silbermann said he also spends a lot of time reaching out to people who are concerned about it.
That is the crux of what Pinterest is about – consideration of the users, community outreach, and product quality. "We have a social responsibility to understand what's going on in the community and feed it into every product decision," he said.
And if you're interested, they're hiring. In closing, Silbermann said, "The team is still the most exciting product we're building."
For more, see PCMag's review of Pinterest and the slideshow above, as well as PCMag's Pinterest page. For more from SXSW, see the slideshow below.
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About Kirsten Cluthe
Kirsten Cluthe is a contributing writer for various media outlets, including Connected Traveler for PCMag.com, mediabistro.com, and several blogs focused on travel, tech, business, and media. She began her career in Los Angeles, coordinating concert tours and recovering lost baggage for traveling musicians. When not in a window seat at 36,000 feet, she appreciates the view from the ground in Jersey City.
You can follow her on Twitter here: @kir
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The VETC
Factory Planning & Production
Warehouse Planning
Digital & Virtual Factory
Open Seminars
Virtual Planning Games
Consulting projects
4125The VETC
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Luxury on the Wrist
An excursion to the metropolises of German watchmaking: Glashütte and Schramberg
Prof. Dr. Harald Augustin, Svenja Freyberg
With the technical, social and cultural development of mankind, the clock has evolved over centuries from the elementary clock to the high-precision atomic clock and shows us the fourth dimension, time. If the clock originated in Glashütte in Saxony or Schramberg in the Black Forest, it was manufactured in places that are world-famous for their clock-making art.
The group of industrial engineering students headed by Professor Dr. Harald Augustin has set itself the task of exploring the manufacturing process and the traditional craft associated with it on a second excursion after 2014 to watch manufacturers in Glashütte and Schramberg.
Glashütte: a sleepy place in the Erzgebirge?
Originally a mining town, Glashütte is impoverished after silver finds in the Ore Mountains dry up and is faced with the challenge of achieving industrial conversion. With the skill and entrepreneurial dexterity of capable master watchmakers such as Ferdinand Adolph Lange, Julius Assmann, Moritz Grossmann and Adolf Schneider, this conversion to the watch industry was successful: In 1845 they laid the foundation for the glamour that the name Glashütte in Saxony has today. Today, more than ever before, the town with its chequered history stands for artistic precision, craftsmanship and quality. In order to maintain this reputation, 50 percent of the added value of a watch must be created in town.
Dealer with its own watch manufactory: WEMPE Glashütte i/SA
The culturally and historically interesting Dresden is the base station of the excursion group. From there, the first visit leads about 30 km further to Glashütte and the renowned international company Wempe. The family-owned company is one of the most important trading partners of major watch brands in the luxury industry. But Wempe has also had a long tradition of manufacturing maritime precision instruments and nautical time systems since 1905. Since 2005, Wempe has been producing high-quality watches in its own manufactory and has settled in Glashütte for their manufacture. With great attention to detail, the old observatory high above Glashütte was renovated. Originally built to provide watch manufacturers with a binding time signal.
During the tour through all areas and production steps, it becomes clear with what precision and concentration the watchmakers carry out their work in order to have a masterpiece in front of them at the end. Further insights into traditional craftsmanship are gained in the assembly of the Zeitmeister clocks developed in-house and the production of precision pendulum clocks. Finally, we are allowed to take a look at the independent chronometer test centre, which is operated in cooperation with the Thuringian State Office for Consumer Protection (TLV) and the State Office for Metrology and Verification (SME) Saxony. In contrast to the Swiss chronometer test, here the completely assembled watch and not just the movement is tested for 15 days at different temperatures according to the German standard DIN 8319 and certified if the standard is met.
The returnee: TUTIMA Uhrenfabrik GmbH Ndl. Glashütte
On the same day, the doors of the Tutima watch manufactory, whose roots lie in the companies Uhren-Rohwerke-Fabrik Glashütte AG, UROFA, and Uhrenfabrik Glashütte AG, UFAG, founded in 1926, open to the excursion group. Shortly before the factory was bombed and destroyed by the Russian army, the managing director Ernst Kurtz fled with his employees to the West, to return to his old home town of Glashütte in 2008. The watch manufactory is known for its NATO chronograph, which is still the official service watch of the pilots of the German armed forces. In Glashütte, Tutima presents itself as a new watch manufactory that also produces mechanical movements that it has developed and custom-made. During this visit, it becomes clear what dramatic cuts the war and GDR times brought with them, with destruction, expropriation and the founding of state-owned enterprises (VEB) for the companies in Glashütte.
High-tech from suppliers: Sächsische Uhrentechnologie GmbH Glashütte (SUG)
In addition to the watch manufacturers, the Sächsische Uhrentechnologie GmbH Glashütte (SUG) also found its headquarters in the Müglitz Valley in 1998. The company develops and manufactures complete wristwatch cases in exclusive design in small series on the basis of its own developments or those worked out with the customer. While most watch enthusiasts focus on the filigree movement, we learn here that the wristwatch case is also a high-precision and technologically advanced assembly with extremely filigree details: drill holes and whirled threads with diameters the size of a human hair. Company founder Dr. Ronald Boldt shows us which detailed technical solutions and ultra-modern manufacturing processes are required to produce the high-quality watch cases in steel, gold and platinum. In particular, the finishing, i. e. the application of grinding patterns, is still a manual and very complex process that requires the highest degree of sensitivity on the part of the employees.
The rising star: Nomos Glashütte/SA Roland Schwertner KG
We then accepted the invitation of NOMOS, founded in 1990 by Roland Schwertner, the fastest growing company in Glashütte with currently 240 employees. In 2014, Nomos is the first company to break the monopoly of the Swiss company Nivarox (Swatch Group) for the development and production of the assortment (Reglage). In a research project with the Technical University of Dresden, which has been running since 2009, this watch heart, i. e. the control unit, consisting of balance, hairspring, escape wheel, and anchor, will be developed and installed for the first time in the new Metro model in 2014. Nomos Glashütte is known for the production of its own calibers, the clear lines of its models and its special watch design in the Werkbund style. The vertical range of manufacture at Nomos is 97% for some models and thus in the highest possible range that can be found in Glashütte - an ideal typical manufactory. Due to the extremely high vertical range of manufacture, we gain an insight into all production steps and technologies used in watchmaking: Milling, turning, thread cutting, wire eroding, small automatic machines for setting stones, oil metering machines, finishing and assembly.
High-end in perfection: Grossmann Uhren GmbH
If you are in the higher price segment of watches, a visit to Grossmann Uhren GmbH, founded in 2008, is a must. From its manufactory building you have a magnificent view of Glashütte. Grossmann also has a very high vertical range of manufacture in both parts production and assembly. A focal point of our visit is the precision workstations, which allow us to experience the production of ultra-fine and elegant parts. A special highlight is the pointer production: The skill required to carve the profile of a hand from a flat blank and then grind it into shape shows us the complex manual work of watchmaking. The tempering of the hands over an open fire, which at Moritz Grossmann are not blue - as is customary in the watchmaking industry - but rather brown-violet or brown in colour, is also a challenge for the watchmakers.
Quartz and mechanics combined: Bruno Söhnle GmbH Uhrenatelier Glashütte/Sa.
The Bruno Söhnle Glashütte company has made it its business to combine beauty with functionality and to sell watches at affordable prices. In three product lines, fine quartz watches, high-quality hand-wound watches and classic automatic watches are manufactured. In order to be able to provide the watch with the Glashütte designation of origin, Bruno Söhnle produces and refines base plates, automatic bridges, gear train bridges, anchor bridges and winding bridges as well as balance cocks. Watchmakers with steady hands demonstrated these works to us. As a result, some of us ourselves were able to put our hands to the task of final assembly of quartz watches and hand assembly. As a result, our respect for the dexterity and precision of the watchmakers is even greater.
Schramberg: The newcomer Lehmann precision watches
In the south of Germany, Markus Lehmann, Managing Director of Lehmann Präzision GmbH, gives us an insight into his company, which has been developing and building high-precision turning, milling and engraving machines for the watch industry, among other things, for more than 18 years. His love for watches prompted him to found Lehmann Präzisionsuhren in 2011. His in-house expertise in machine tool development and the manufacture of individual parts for the watch industry makes him largely independent of suppliers, as Lehmann manufactures all mechanical parts (including the watch case!) except for the gear train and the oscillation system itself. The design of Lehmann watches with their crown recessed in the case and elegant and technically sophisticated cases, e. g. free-form surfaces, is very impressive.
Luxury: What is it?
While for some people the watch is a mere article of daily use, we experienced in Glashütte and in Schramberg why for others the watch is a luxury or collector's item. The time, dexterity, patience and concentration that the watchmakers put into making each watch makes each one a masterpiece with its own unique character and charm. No matter how much luxury we use to measure time, we all have one thing in common in the end: „Man possesses nothing more noble and precious than time. „ (Ludwig van Beethoven)
We would like to thank all the companies we visited, who took a lot of time for us and took us into the wonderful world of the watch manufacturers and inspired us.
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38 jobs - Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Browse for Jobs in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Find the job of your dreams on CareerCast Veterans Network today!
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The Human Resources Department of Arnold & Porter has an opening for a Director of Human Resources in the Washington, DC office. The Director will manage and facilitate the daily HR matters that arise in the firm’s U.S. offices. The Director will work closely with the Chief Human Resources Offi...
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Sonia Helen PITCHER Update Details
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PITCHER, Sonia Helen
Service Number:
Enlisted:
28 May 1942, Adelaide
Adelaide, SA, 10 May 1923
Medindie, Walkerville, South Australia
Memorials:
Glenelg Woodlands Old Scholars Honour Board
Help us honour Sonia Helen Pitcher's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
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World War 2 Service
28 May 1942:
Involvement SN 96612
Enlisted Adelaide
6 Oct 1943:
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Blood, Sweat and Tears Keyboardist Larry Willis Dead at 76
ullstein bild Dtl, Getty Images
Keyboardist Larry Willis, once a member of Blood, Sweat & Tears, died at the age of 76, friends confirmed. He’d suffered a pulmonary embolism while being treated for pneumonia at a hospital near his Baltimore home.
Willis played with the jazz-rock band from 1972 until 1978, appearing on their albums New Blood, No Sweat, Mirror Image, New City, More Than Ever and Brand New Day. In addition, he was revered as a session pianist, appearing on hundreds of albums for other artists, along with 29 as a band leader or co-leader.
His earliest recording credit is from 1966; his most recent is from 2017. His final stage appearance was in Baltimore on Aug. 1.
Born in Harlem in 1942, Willis was originally more interested in vocals than piano before discovering Miles Davis around the age of 11. He took some classic training for his voice, but besides some brief lessons, he decided to teach himself to play piano. He became a member of a school jazz trio within a year. His first professional engagement came at the age of 19.
Willis joined Blood, Sweat & Tears during an era of change, two years after his first solo album was released. In the meantime, he continued to work with others, including Dizzy Gillespie and Nat Adderley.
“He was the perfect sideman,” said Mapleshade Records owner Pierre Sprey, who employed Willis as music director in the ‘90s and ‘00s. “He had that natural bent for accompanying, which a few people have. It’s not because they’re selfless; they just take pride in making other people play better than they would otherwise.”
Recalling a piece of advice he received from teacher John Mehegan, Willis once said, “He gave me some very, very good advice that I keep in my forefront. He said, ‘Larry, the piano is the most complicated piece of machinery man ever invented.’ And I asked him why, and he said, ‘Well, for starters, every time you sit down at this instrument, the odds are always 88 to 10, and they don’t get any better.’”
Rockers We've Lost in 2019
Next: Top 10 Blood, Sweat & Tears Songs
Filed Under: Blood Sweat & Tears
Categories: News, R.I.P.
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Home Blog Wednesday's Word | 12.16.20
Wednesday’s Word | 12.16.20
As we tiptoe closer to the manger over the next week or so, I want us to consider the passages in Luke that tell the story of Mary visiting her relative Elizabeth. The angel Gabriel has just delivered some astonishing news, and Mary has just delivered her world-changing “Let it be”. And now, immediately and “with haste,” Mary makes her way to Elizabeth’s house in the hills of Judea for a three-month stay. Scenes featuring women as protagonists, with no men present, are rare in the Bible. Luke strikingly bookends the life of Jesus with two such scenes: at the end, the discovery of the empty tomb by a group of women, and here at the beginning, Mary, pregnant with God, visits Elizabeth. In this sense, Luke turns the marginalization of women on its head: at both of these crucial points in the action — birth and death, womb and tomb — it’s women at the center of the story.
Mary’s song — called the “Magnificat” after the song’s first word in the Latin translation — evokes and echoes its ancient forerunner, Hannah’s song of gratitude to God for the newness of life embodied in her son, Samuel. Hannah is a strong, bold visionary, and her story demonstrates that she is well-acquainted with the history of Israel’s relationship with God. First, she prays fervently at the sanctuary in Shiloh, and then later, thanking God for Samuel, Hannah sings of divine majesty and power, painting a picture of God as a master of reversals: YHWH “raises up the poor from the dust,” even as “the bows of the mighty are broken” (1 Samuel 2:1-10).
Musically, Mary’s song is just the beginning. Luke includes no less than four songs in his Gospel’s two opening chapters: Mary’s, Zechariah’s (traditionally called the “Benedictus”), the angels’ song to the shepherds, and Simeon’s song (the “Nunc Dimittis”) (Luke 1:45-55; 1:67-79; 2:14; 2:29-32). It’s as if Luke stages the story as a kind of exuberant musical, suggesting that the joyful mystery of Jesus’ birth can’t be contained or expressed by prose alone. Again and again, the power and poetry of music break through.
Mary has just received stunning, exhilarating news, and her first instinct is to leave her home (and her fiance) in Nazareth — immediately and “with haste” — for an extended stay with her relative, Elizabeth. Part of what’s behind her haste may well be the sheer vulnerability of being a young, pregnant, unmarried woman in first-century Palestine — or anywhere and anytime, for that matter. Or perhaps she wanted some time and space to process what was happening, in the company of an older relative who would understand — and indeed a woman blessed with her own astonishing pregnancy (Elizabeth, like her ancestor Sarah before her, was “getting on in years”). Or perhaps, Mary was simply eager to celebrate with a trusted confidante, since joy is seldom complete until it’s shared. Whatever her motives, Mary’s first move was to Elizabeth’s home: a sanctuary of solidarity and support. The fact that this refuge was in the hill country of Judea, some distance away from the more prestigious cities of Jerusalem, Rome, and Nazareth, underscores the story’s central theme: God lifts up the lowly, working out deeds of power through supposedly powerless people and places.
Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary, “Blessed are you among women,” recalls ancient words spoken about Jael and Judith, two women famous for the parts they played in liberating Israel (Judges 5:24 and Judith 13:18). The greeting thus frames Mary as a liberator, too — and as she sings, a great chorus sings with her: the generations of women throughout the ages with crucial roles in salvation history. Elizabeth testifies that when she heard Mary’s greeting, the child in her womb (John the Baptizer) “leaped for joy” — and Elizabeth in her own way leaps in her joyous exclamation, as does Mary in her song. The common thread here is a particular kind of anticipatory celebration, taking joy in what has secretly begun, but has not yet fully come into view. Call it “first trimester joy.” After all, both women are still in the midst of shadows and uncertainty, still on the margins of society — and the divine promises themselves seem outlandish (the priest Zechariah, for example, initially doesn’t believe them! (Luke 1:20)). Nevertheless, Mary and Elizabeth joyfully believe, and testify, and sing.
Luke portrays Mary not only as poised and courageous, but also as learned and wise. Her eloquent hymn, so evocative of Israel’s longstanding relationship with God, indicates that she is deeply formed in Jewish tradition (and so was likely to instill in her son a love of scripture). Only someone profoundly familiar with Hebrew scripture and tradition, and in particular with Hannah’s song, could have composed the Magnificat. Luke’s point is clear: Mary is a young woman of vision, learning, artistry, and chutzpah. She interprets her life according to ancient patterns of divine action, and her song encourages us to do the same.
Mary sings a revolutionary song about God’s revolutionary love, and this passage illustrates a series of recommendations for budding revolutionaries to consider. First, just as Mary learned from her ancestor Hannah, we are wise to devote time to studying the tradition we’ve inherited, and learning some of its key forms by heart. In this way, we can reflect on the ideas and actions of those who’ve gone before us, all for the sake of building on their good work here and now. Second, when new opportunities and challenges arise, we are wise to follow Mary’s example and intentionally seek out allies and advocates, forming sanctuaries of mutual support. And third, drawing inspiration from both our forebears and our friends, the next step is having the courage to lift up our voices and sing: “Joy to the world, for God is lifting up the lowly!”
The Rev. D. Jill Johnson-Scott
Scripture reference: Luke
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Wednesday’s Word | 1.13.21
Churches Needed For Red Cross/NTC Blood Drive Goal
Wednesday’s Word | 1.6.21
Preston Hollow United Methodist Church
6315 Walnut Hill Lane
Dallas, TX 75230 (map)
office@umcprestonhollow.com
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