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Tasmania's Covid infections TRIPLE to 428 cases on New Year's Day in extraordinary spike - up from 137 the day before
- Tasmania has recorded 428 new Covid cases, almost doubling the active cases
- Tasmania was free of the virus when it reopened to travellers on December 15
- 79 Covid positive people in community management clinics and two in hospital
- NSW recorded 22,577 new cases on Saturday while Victoria recorded 7,442
Another 428 Covid cases have emerged in Tasmania - more than three times the number of cases the island reported the day before.
The number of active cases in the state has hit 938 with most being managed at home.
One hospital patient is being treated specifically for Covid symptoms, while another person with Covid is being treated for an unrelated medical condition.
Another 428 Covid cases have emerged in Tasmania, almost doubling active cases on the island state to 938
Tasmania was free of the virus when it reopened to fully vaccinated travellers from mainland hotspots on December 15.
The island state's government chose to wait until the population was 90% vaccinated unlike the majority of other states that opened at 80%.
On Friday, Tasmania had reported 137 new cases and had 520 active cases.
Before opening Tasmania, with population of more than 541,000, had 238 cases in total and 13 deaths.
Tasmania was free of the virus when it reopened to fully vaccinated travellers from mainland hotspots on December 15
On Thursday it scrapped the requirement for travellers to take a PCR rest in the 72-hour period before travel to the state, moving to a rapid antigen test one day before arriving.
Other Australian states have continued to break records as case number increase.
NSW kicked off 2022 with another record number of 22,577 Covid cases on Saturday while Victoria's numbers continue to rise with 7,442 new cases. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10359817/Tasmanias-Covid-infections-triple-428-cases-New-Years-Day.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | 2022-01-01T00:32:15 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Sharrod Neasman refused to give in to the doubts that crept into his head, the flashes of negativity that tried to threaten the dreams and goals he knew he would achieve.
Not when he was told he wasn't good enough to play Division I football. Not when he was working two jobs between high school and college, waiting to play again. Not when a knee injury and a coaching change blurred his football future.
“From the jump, I've always had my back up against the ropes,” the New York Jets safety told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “It's always been like, ‘OK, this is going to be a fight.’”
The 30-year-old Neasman has had an NFL journey filled with twists, turns and detours that might have derailed many. The fact he's in his sixth pro season — against all odds — is a study in resilience and perseverance.
“I’m not going to lie, there were points where there were some dark times,” Neasman said. "I was like, 'Man, am I going to be able to do this? Because growing up in my city, I saw a lot of people chase football for a long time and ultimately they wasted their time, you know what I’m saying?
“And so I was like, ‘Am I becoming that guy?’”
Neasman grew up in south Florida, one of five kids raised by his mother Latanya in a single-parent home. He became a star football player at Braden River High School in Bradenton, Florida, as a wide receiver who also returned kickoffs and punts. But his team was only lightly recruited by Division I schools and Neasman received no scholarship offers.
So he took the grainy, blurry video of his football highlights from YouTube and edited them using the skills he learned in one of his TV production classes. He scoured the internet to find email addresses of as many Division I head coaches and assistants as he could, and flooded their inboxes.
And then Neasman waited.
Knowing he would have some major bills to pay when he got to college, he started working at FedEx, loading trucks from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. He'd then head to the mall, where he worked as a part-time sales associate at PacSun. Neasman even fit in some courses at a community college.
That went on for about a year and half.
“I was at a point in my life where I was letting the noise get to me,” Neasman acknowledged. “People were like, ‘Yo, you still trying to play ball?’ And I was like, I need to move on with my life, but, yeah, I'm still trying to play ball.”
In June 2011, the NFL lockout had players scrambling to find ways to stay in shape. At the nearby IMG Academy, players such as Cam Newton, Randall Cobb and Chris Weinke were working out and needed more receivers to throw to. Neasman's brother Marquel, who played quarterback at Central Florida and Grand Valley State, told him to come by.
“I was there working out and training with them and that sparked a confidence in me," Neasman said. “I was like, ‘You know what? This is very attainable, very achievable.’"
And then — finally — Florida Atlantic called.
They had no scholarships or preferred walk-on spots, but Neasman could try out for the football team once he got accepted into the school.
He got in and then was one of five tryout players out of about 100 to make it onto the team. Neasman was quickly switched from wide receiver to cornerback, and made a smooth transition.
“I just wanted to play ball,” he said.
But after his sophomore season, he tore the ACL in one of his knees and coach Carl Pelini was fired. Charlie Partridge took over as coach and Neasman's spot on the team wasn't secure.
Neasman met with Partridge and told him he was had earned a scholarship entering his junior year. Partridge wanted to honor that, but told Neasman he needed to get back on the field first.
He had surgery to repair his ACL in December 2012. Neasman was somehow back on the field five months later — and got his scholarship.
He played cornerback, nickelback and safety as a junior, and then became a full-time safety as a senior. He garnered attention from NFL teams and although he went undrafted, Atlanta signed him as a free agent.
As a rookie, he played in the Super Bowl.
He had two stints with the Falcons over a five-year span, with a training camp stop in New Orleans in between. Neasman signed with the Jets in June and has played mostly as a backup in 11 games, including one start, with his first career interception.
He's likely out this week against Tampa Bay as he recovers from a bout with COVID-19. Neasman is feeling better and thankful for his journey.
“I’m extremely blessed,” Neasman said. “By the grace of God, I was put in an extremely fortunate position to play the sport that I love. I’m extremely grateful.”
Through the Academy of Kings in Orlando, a preparatory school founded by his brother Marquel to help develop male leaders, Neasman has dedicated himself to inspiring youngsters.
He donated almost $60,000 to the cause, which was matched by the Jets as part of the NFL's “Inspire Change” initiative. Neasman shares his story to show others they, too, can achieve their dreams.
“I had some low points where I where I doubted myself and I never really shared, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go to the NFL and I’ll have a great career,'” Neasman said. "I knew that from high school, but didn’t always voice that opinion to people because I didn’t want to hear my dream shot down. And it didn’t really matter because I believed what I believed. ... I just feel like getting that message out to people, young kids, and from the situation that I’m in, it’ll just make them not quit.
“It’ll make them work that much harder and be like, ‘Well, look at him.’ Because it happened to me, right?”
___
More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/sports/article/Journey-of-Jets-Neasman-filled-with-adversity-16741109.php | 2022-01-01T00:32:15 |
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National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom adds four Maryland sites
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom has added four new sites in Maryland as part of its mission to preserve the history of those who sought freedom from slavery.
These latest Underground Railroad sites provide further insight into Maryland’s slavery history by reconstructing the stories of freedom seekers using research to safeguard the past for future generations, according to several researchers and network representatives.
Historically, freedom seekers were enslaved people who sought freedom through escape. The network recognizes the journey that freedom seekers took using the Underground Railroad, and those who aided their escape.
“We are empowering communities and descendants to tell their stories,” National Program Manager for the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Diane Miller told Capital News Service.
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom aims to remember and recognize the history of enslaved people who ventured to escape slavery, and those who aided their journey toward freedom, Miller said.
Since its inception in 1998, the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom has been responsible for inducting nearly 700 sites, programs, and facilities in several states and territories across the country.
As of this fall, Maryland holds over 90 National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listings, according to the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism.
Maryland’s sizable contribution to the network is in large part due to its history of having a significant free Black population and its proximity to border states that didn’t utilize slave labor, making freedom more accessible than other states.
The state has an extensive history in its association with the Underground Railroad.
Prominent abolitionist figure Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland and went on to aid several other slaves to freedom using Underground Railroad sites. Her contributions to the liberation of slaves from bondage in the state make Maryland a notable destination for those looking to learn more about the Underground Railroad.
Among Maryland’s submissions for fall 2021, only four passed the network’s rigorous test for consideration — the Elkridge Furnace at Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County, the Eliza Parker Escape Site at Belle Vue Farm in Harford County, the Henry Massey Escape Site at Stoopley Gibson Manor in Kent Island and the Mount Clare Railroad Station in Baltimore.
Historians seeking nominations to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom work with site managers to prepare applications that use primary sources linking the site to the Underground Railroad. Primary sources often include newspapers containing runaway slave ads, diaries of freedom seekers, and family documents.
“It’s a bit like being a detective because you’re finding bits and pieces of information and a whole bunch of different sources (that) you have to kind of put together to make sense of it,” Miller said.
Applicants meet with regional coordinators, and if a site meets the criteria, the documents are then passed to a review committee for decision. Sites that can prove their legitimacy through historical evidence and earn a majority vote by members of the review committee are accepted into the network, according to Miller.
The four new sites inducted into the National Underground Network to Freedom were made possible by the “Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism’s ‘Four Fellowships for 400: Sharing Maryland’s Underground Railroad Stories’ project. The project partnered with the Legacy of Slavery program at the Maryland State Archives and was funded by a grant from the 400 Years of African American History Commission,” a press release issued Nov. 1 by the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism said.
The Legacy of Slavery program at the Maryland State Archives, a research program recognized by the network, provided research fellows with the necessary tools to find records that would link freedom seekers to Underground Railroad sites, Legacy of Slavery Program Director Chris Haley told Capital News Service.
In addition to Underground Railroad sites, the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom accepts programs and facilities that work to educate the public on the history of slavery.
The Maryland State Archives is a valuable resource for those researching potential sites and is recognized as one of the facilities included as part of the network.
“The Network to Freedom requires the fellows to do research, and hopefully come up with (evidence) in order to confirm either a Network to Freedom site or research facility,” Haley said.
The original structure of Mount Clare Station is now part of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Research by Executive Director of the B&O Railroad Museum Anna Kresmer, Jonathan Goldman, the chief curator for the museum, and their team uncovered evidence of over 20 freedom seekers who passed through the station on their way to freedom.
Goldman worked with several other researchers for a year to research and produce a 63-page document that led to the recent addition of Mount Clare Railroad Station to the Network of Freedom.
“Our archivist (Anna Kresmer) said it was the equivalent of doing (her) dissertation,” Executive Director of the B&O Railroad Museum Kris Hoellen said. “It was like peeling back the layers of an onion in the sense that they would find more information and it would lead to other pieces of the story,” she said.
For freedom seekers traveling north, Mount Clare Station, which connected Baltimore and Ohio through the B&O Railroad, provided a physical and innovative mode of transportation for escape on the Underground Railroad.
Henry “Box” Brown was one such figure who utilized the railroad system at Mount Clare Station. His harrowing journey included shipping himself in a box where he had to remain still despite the uneven motion of the train, Hoellen said.
Brown’s story along with several other freedom seekers is scheduled to be displayed at a new B&O Railroad Museum exhibit on the history of Mount Clare Station slated for 2022.
Matthew LaRoche, a graduate student assistant for the special collection and university archives at the University of Maryland College Park, was one of four recipients to be awarded a fellowship.
LaRoche contributed to the research and writing process of two sites inducted into the network — the Parker and Massey sites.
Research by LaRoche helped identify two freedom seekers who encountered the harsh consequences of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — Eliza Parker and Henry Massey. Belle Vue Farm and Stoopley Gibson Manor were the sites of their escapes from slavery.
Parker and her family were successful in their escape and settled in free Christiana, Pennsylvania. While living among several runaway slaves, they were involved in a shootout protecting those men from capture due to the fugitive slave law, LaRoche said.
Little is known about Parker’s and Massey’s escapes, evidence uncovered by LaRoche found that Massey was designated as a victim of the fugitive slave law and returned.
With the work LaRoche put in to prove the people and stories were tied to these locations, both escape sites were added to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
“(The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom) is the gold standard for Underground Railroad research. So having a site that you can document that will be accepted into this program is a really remarkable thing for the site,” LaRoche said.
Across the three sites that LaRoche worked on, he wrote 120 pages over the course of seven months. However, one site didn’t make the cut. For many sites looking to be added to the network, some don’t make it the first go around.
For LaRoche, documenting and having access to historical resources is important in helping to preserve and promote sites.
The fourth Maryland site receiving the honor of being inducted into the National Underground Railroad to Freedom this year is the Elkridge Furnace.
The research consisting of several runaway slave advertisements that yielded a 15-page application proving the legitimacy of the site as part of the Underground Railroad was written by Sophie Hess, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland.
Through her research, Hess was able to confirm that seven slaves escaped from the back-breaking labor required to run the furnace and produce iron. However, not all were successful in escaping the deplorable and inhumane conditions.
Two detailed runaway slave advertisements describe the same person named Toby. The advertisements are roughly a year apart and the second one stated that he ran away the day prior.
Using Toby’s runaway slave ads and several others, which were dated around the same time of year, Hess was able to discern that the Elkridge slaves were escaping in the summer months when working conditions were at their harshest.
“(What’s) really important about doing these sort of Underground Railroad projects is really centering and recovering stories of people who risked their own lives to resist slavery in an attempt to gain freedom,” Hess said.
With the addition of four sites to the National Underground Network to Freedom, Maryland has more than 90 sites, programs, and facilities recognized by the Network, according to a Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism press release.
“Adding more of these Networks to Freedom sites allows visitors to learn more about the Underground Railroad and to hear stories that may not have ever been told before,” said Tom Riford, the assistant secretary for the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism, Film and the Arts.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland’s lucrative tourism industry took a crippling hit and lost more than 150,000 members of its workforce, Riford told Capital News Service.
Now that the COVID-19 restrictions have relaxed, the state’s tourism industry has begun to recover from the loss, including hiring more employees. But there is still much to be done to restore it, Riford said.
Riford is aiming to reach 100 Underground Network sites in the near future.
“We continue to look for more sites that can be certified as Network to Freedom sites to help showcase Maryland as what it is really known as the most powerful Underground Railroad storytelling destination in the entire world,” Riford said.
This article was originally published on CNSMaryland.org on Wednesday, December 22, 2021 .
The post National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom adds four Maryland sites appeared first on The Southern Maryland Chronicle . | https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2470815653111/national-underground-railroad-network-to-freedom-adds-four-maryland-sites | 2022-01-01T00:32:19 |
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Alfi, Inc. ("Alfi" or "the Company") (NASDAQ: ALF) violations of the federal securities laws.
Investors who purchased the Company's shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's initial public offering conducted on May 4, 2021 (the "IPO"), or between May 4, 2021 and November 15, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the firm before January 31, 2022.
If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.
We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com.
The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member.
According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. Alfi failed to maintain appropriate internal controls on financial reporting. The Company and its employees engaged in certain transactions without the approval of the Board of Directors. Based on these facts, the Company's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period. When the market learned the truth about Alfi, investors suffered damages.
Join the case to recover your losses.
The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.
CONTACT:
The Schall Law Firm
Brian Schall, Esq.,
www.schallfirm.com
Office: 310-301-3335
info@schallfirm.com
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SOURCE The Schall Law Firm | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2021/12/31/upcoming-deadline-alert-schall-law-firm-encourages-investors-alfi-inc-with-losses-100000-contact-firm/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:17 |
Meanwhile, new guidelines from the CDC aim to relax quarantine requirements for those with positive tests, and some health professionals are unhappy about them.
Nurses associations from across the country have condemned the new guidelines, which say that people with COVID-19 should quarantine for 5 days if they don’t have symptoms, or if they have a fever that resolves within 24 hours.
The National Nurses Association, the largest nurses’ union in the U.S., accused the CDC of changing guidelines according to pressure from political and private interests. In a press statement, they claim that business interests keen on avoiding an economic downturn as the omicron variant spreads have swayed policy toward “maintaining business operations, revenues, and profits, without regard for science or the health of employees and the public.” (The Texas Nurses Association did not respond to requests for comment.)
Not all health professionals are on the same page, though.
"I agree with the new guidance. In fact, I think it's overdue," said Dr. Erin Carlson, professor of public health at the University of Texas at Arlington. "We needed new guidance to take into account where we are scientifically with this newly dominant variant," Carlson said.
When the CDC updates guidelines, they usually provide a scientific brief pointing to specific studies that back up the changes. This time, they didn’t. “Let’s see the papers that talk about the viral load, the rate of infection. I need to see all that so we can justify this and make people feel confident in this redirection,” Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist with the Pandemic Prevention Institute, told NPR.
The CDC claims the changes are supported by science showing that coronavirus is most contagious in the first few days after someone contracts it, but the announcement of the changes does not reference any specific studies supporting this claim.“The medical advice that comes from the CDC has obvious economic impacts that the CDC is aware of and that they try to account for when they receive feedback from the White House, or from Congress, or from state officials." - Professor Cal Jillson, SMU
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Carlson said the CDC's policy change is the result of many months of accumulated evidence showing that the coronavirus, and the omicron variant in particular, is most contagious in the first few days before symptoms show up, and the first day or so after. The new guidelines actually provide a bit more cushion than the science suggests is necessary, she said.
Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson pointed out that the decision cannot be divorced from business or political interests even if it's backed up by the science.
“The medical advice that comes from the CDC has obvious economic impacts that the CDC is aware of and that they try to account for when they receive feedback from the White House, or from Congress, or from state officials,” Jillson said.
“That was particularly evident in the past few days with the reduction in the quarantine recommendation,” he said.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, told NPR that because omicron spreads faster than past variants, so many will eventually get COVID-19 that an across-the-board 10-day isolation period isn’t feasible.
“We also want to make sure that we can keep the critical functions of society open and operating,” Walensky said. She did not reference specific scientific evidence that COVID is most contagious during the first few days of infection. | https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/cdc-issues-new-relaxed-covid-guidelines-as-cases-soar-experts-question-the-agencys-motives-13114798 | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
Dorothy Marie Rainey Gates, 80, lifelong resident of Ripley, departed the life Friday morning, December 31, 2021 at Tippah County Hospital in Ripley. Funeral Services honoring the life of Mrs. Gates were held at 2:30 Sunday, January 2 at The Pentecostal Church in Blue Mountain. Bro. Caleb Smith will officiate and burial will follow in the church cemetery. Arrangements will be provided by The Ripley Funeral Home. Mrs. Gates was born May 2, 1941 in Tippah County, the last surviving child born to the late R.C. "Tip" and Mildred Ruth Glissen Rainey. She received her education at Peoples School and was a well known beautician for over 50 years. A member of The Pentecostal Church, Mrs. Gates loved serving her Lord and sharing time with her church family. She was very much a "people person" who enjoyed her work as a hairdresser and visiting with her many clients and friends. Eating good food and going out to eat were favorite pastimes. A beloved mother, "Nanny" and friend, Mrs. Gates' love for her family was unending and she cherished every opportunity to be with them. She lived a full and fruitful life, being loved by all who met her on her life's journey and will be greatly missed by all that knew and loved her. Memories will continue to be shared by a daughter, Ann "Hayden" Gates of New York, two sons, Mike Gates (Barbara) of Oxford and Brian Gates (Katrina) of Ripley, eight grandchildren, April O'Brein (Schuyler), Kelly Gates (Tiffany), Sam and Abby Gates, Colee Massey, Hunter and Allison Gates and Brittany Coleman, six great grandchildren, a daughter in law, Windy Gates and a host of nieces, nephews and other family members. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Bobby R. Gates, one son, Adam Gates, a sister, Dimple Rainey and four brothers, Estel "Slim" Rainey, Evan "Curly" Rainey, RC Rainey and Raybon Rainey. The Ripley Funeral Home invites you to share memories with the Gates family at ripleyfuneralhome.com
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A Midland dog earned the coveted Speed of the Breed title at last week’s American Kennel Club Fast CAT Invitational – coursing ability test – in Orlando, Florida. Owner Meredith Krause showed her German pinscher, Otto, to the AKC’s national lure coursing championship.
Some 250 dogs representing 154 individual breeds competed. The event is open to all AKC-registered dogs including mixed breeds, which AKC calls “all-American dogs.”
Otto clocked in at 26.57 miles per hour.
In Fast CAT, dogs compete in two preliminary trials to determine division finalists. The pure speed category recognizes the top 10 in each height class – open competition that favors long-legged sighthound breeds. Speed of the Breed determines the top 10 of each breed, the top prize going to the dog that runs faster than average for all of the breeds.
Overall fastest dog was a whippet, Reas, who ran the 100-yard course in 5.769 seconds – 35.45 miles per hour. That Otto’s winning time was somewhat slower than Reas’ isn’t surprising: whippets are bred for hunting, and chasing, by sight. German pinschers are a smaller version of the better-known Doberman pinscher, bred as personal protection and general farm dogs and not widely known for either speed nor lure coursing ability.
But Otto is one of a kind, Krause said.
His full name is a mouthful, reflecting his many titles: CH Windamirs Ottoman Emperor RN FCAT3 SWN SIA RATN CGCA TKI AT. Though earning titles was far from the plan when she got Otto as a puppy for her sick father, Krause said. “I bought him as a pet with hopes that he would be a companion and distraction for my dad, who was ill at the time,” explained Krause, who shares Winged Foot Farm in Midland with husband John Jarvis and what she calls a “motley crew” of animals, including her silver medal-winning dressage mare, llamas, chickens, donkeys, cats, Otto and an adopted Ashland basset hound that preferred swimming to hunting. Krause works as a clinical psychologist in Stafford.
“We lost my dad a month after we got Otto (from Windamir German Pinschers in Maryland in 2018.) Otto ended up being a true light through it all. I showed him to a conformation championship shortly after his first birthday and also earned rally obedience, barn hunt, trick dog, canine good citizen and scentwork titles with him.”
Her late father, Bob Krause, was an avid outdoorsman, an upland game and wing hunter and amateur dog trainer who was rarely without a perfectly mannered labrador retriever, his daughter said. Her late mother was also “a dog person,” partial to toy poodles and border collies. Both encouraged Meredith to learn about all kinds of canines.
“Dad spent every day with this pup at his side for the last month of his life,” Krause recalled. “Otto was truly a bright spot for all of us.”
German pinschers are considered all-around farm dogs that excel in vermin control because of a high prey drive, and for personal protection dogs because of a famously alert, confident nature.
Otto was special from the start. “His speed and prey drive led me to give lure coursing a try,” Krause said. The black dog was a natural, winning AKC FastCAT titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Otto won select dog titles at the National and Regional Breed Specialty shows in North Carolina last month.
Though he’s only 3 ½, Otto is now retired from racing, Krause said. She’ll now focus on scentwork and tracking titles and aim for his grand championship in the breed ring.
Complete results and details on FastCAT competition, go to akc.org. | https://www.fauquier.com/sports/midland-dog-wins-akc-title/article_a6eb9696-681c-11ec-af60-ebe6eeed0586.html | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
Live Updates: Michigan vs. Georgia
The stage is set and the chance is here for the Michigan football program to punch its ticket to the national championship. It's not going to be easy, though, as the Wolverines will have to get through Georgia during the Orange Bowl in order to face the winner of Cincinnatti vs. Alabama.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.
For all live news, highlights and updates, check out all of TMBR's updates below.
Pregame
- Dax Hill is with the team and in uniform, which is a pretty good indicator of his status for tonight's game.
- For all uniform watchers out there, the Wolverines appear to be wearing the all-blue combination tonight.
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Like The Maize and Blue Review on Facebook! | https://michigan.rivals.com/news/live-updates-michigan-vs-georgia | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
California Distillers Get a New Year’s Eve Reprieve From Ban on Shipping Booze Direct to Customers
December 31, 2021 | FROM: california, REASON
2021 was a challenging year for California distillers, but it's ending with some good news. Yesterday the state's Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) extended emergency regulatory relief for distillers that will allow them to continue shipping spirits directly to consumers, a measure that was set to expire on January 1. The new extension will last until March 31, 2022.
As Reason reported on Tuesday, liberalization of direct shipping rules has helped California distillers offset sales lost in other channels during the pandemic, such as tasting room visits and in-store tastings. Along with legalizing to-go cocktails and relaxing restrictions on outdoor dining and drinking, these rule changes helped small businesses survive the pandemic. But while these latter two changes have been extended, direct shipping of spirits was stuck in regulatory limbo: The state legislature is considering a bill to legalize it permanently, but a vote wouldn't be expected until months after the emergency order expired.
A coalition of state senators, California distillers, and trade groups urged Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state ABC to extend direct shipping long enough for the legislature to take up the question. Senate bill S.B. 620 would allow California distilleries and some other entities to make direct shipping to consumers a part of their business for the long term. It would also put California distillers on even footing with wineries and breweries, who already enjoy this privilege.
"I'm relieved that I'm not getting cut off from a huge portion of my customer base," says Aaron Bergh, president and distiller at Calwise Spirits in Paso Robles, California. "But we haven't cleared the hurdles yet and could find ourselves back in a precarious position in three months if we don't make our voices heard. I hope the legislature ultimately votes to pass S.B. 620 so we can continue to run our businesses responsibly and foster consumer choice, marketplace competition, and safety."
"We appreciate the governor and ABC giving California small distillers some breathing room to keep our businesses afloat as we work this legislation through the process," says Alex Villicana of Re:Find Distillery, also in Paso Robles. "Craft distillers have dedicated a lot of human and financial resources to this issue and we hope to gain parity with wineries on direct to consumer shipping in the upcoming months."
If passed, California will join nine other states that have legalized direct shipping of spirits, along with 46 others in which direct shipping of wine is permitted. The pandemic response has vastly accelerated liberalization of alcohol laws despite opposition from temperance groups concerned about easier access to drink. Long term, these changes promise to expand access to the longtail of niche spirits, many of which are inconvenient or impossible to purchase due to requirements to sell through a three-tier system in which distributors act as a mandatory middleman between producers and consumers.
The post California Distillers Get a New Year's Eve Reprieve From Ban on Shipping Booze Direct to Customers appeared first on Reason.com. | https://freedombunker.com/2021/12/31/california-distillers-get-a-new-years-eve-reprieve-from-ban-on-shipping-booze-direct-to-customers/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
B.C. public health teams reported 3,795 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Friday, down from more than 4,000 on Thursday as testing centres and laboratories run at maximum capacity to measure the spread of the Omicron variant.
There are 220 people in B.C. hospitals with active coronavirus infections, nine more than Thursday, with 73 patients admitted to intensive care, up by seven in the past 24 hours. There have been three additional deaths, for a total of 2,423 since the pandemic began in early 2020.
The rapid surge in positive tests has seen the total active cases rise to more than 20,000 province-wide, but even as daily cases have quadrupled since just before Christmas, hospitalization rates have stayed steady.
There have been two new health-care facility outbreaks at Kopernik Lodge in Vancouver and Amica Douglas House in Victoria, for a total of 15 facilities with ongoing outbreaks. Most have been recorded since the steep rise of infections that began before Christmas, prompting a return of essential visitors only to senior care homes until at least Jan. 18.
B.C. health authorities continue to operate scheduled appointment COVID-19 vaccination clinics around the province for residents age five and older. Registration and booking appointments in B.C. can be done online here, or by calling 1-833-838-2323 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week.
RELATED: B.C. cuts isolation time to 5 days for mild COVID-19 symptoms
RELATED: New Year’s Eve parties cancelled, moved online across Canada
New and active cases by region for Dec. 31:
• 1,944 new cases in Fraser Health, 9,050 active
• 965 new cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 7,135 active
• 320 new cases in Interior Health, 1,792 active
• 129 new cases in Northern Health, 494 active
• 434 new cases in Island Health, 2,336 active
• 3 new cases of people who reside outside of Canada, 4 active
@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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How to get a personal loan
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If you’re wondering how to get a personal loan to consolidate debt or for any other reason, here’s what you need to know. (iStock)
You may consider a personal loan for many reasons, such as paying off high-interest debt, covering sudden emergencies, or making a major purchase. Depending on your credit history and other personal factors, you might be able to get a personal loan with a competitive interest rate. And you can apply for prequalification without affecting your credit score.
If you’ve decided that a personal loan is the right financial product for you, here’s a look at how to get one, what you can do with the money, and what to expect from the application process.
Credible makes it easy to compare personal loan rates from multiple lenders.
- Where can I get a personal loan and what can I use it for?
- How to get a personal loan
- What are the requirements to get a personal loan?
- Personal loan pros and cons
- Can I get a personal loan with bad credit?
- What should I do if I can’t get a personal loan?
- Alternatives to a personal loan
Where can I get a personal loan and what can I use it for?
You can find personal loans from financial institutions like banks and credit unions, and many online lenders also specialize in personal loan products.
You can take out a personal loan for a number of purposes, including:
- Pay off or consolidate existing balances, such as credit card debt or an auto loan.
- Fund home improvement projects or renovations.
- Cover large expenses, such as a wedding or trip.
- Foot the bill for unexpected costs, like car or home repairs.
- Cover emergency expenses.
- Pay for medical or dental procedures.
Aside from using the money to gamble or engage in illegal activity — or pay tuition expenses, in some cases — there aren’t many limitations on how you can use a personal loan.
How to get a personal loan
So, you’ve decided to take out a personal loan. Here’s what you need to know about the process, what you can do to get approved for that loan, and how you’ll receive the funds.
Decide how much you need to borrow
Before you apply for a personal loan, determine how much you need to borrow. If you’re planning to use a personal loan for debt consolidation, add up your existing credit card balances and other debts. If you’re looking to use the loan to pay off an auto or other installment loan, you may need to obtain payoff quotes from your other lenders.
Check your credit reports
When you apply for a loan, lenders will check your credit to determine whether to offer you a loan, and to calculate what interest rate to offer you. Knowing where your credit stands before you apply can be very valuable and may give you an idea of the loan options available to you.
You can request a free copy of your credit report from each of the main credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — from AnnualCreditReport.com. Look for common inaccuracies, which could include accounts that don’t belong to you or incorrect derogatory reports (like a late payment that was actually on time). If you find any errors, report them to both the creditor and the credit bureaus to have them removed.
Shop around
Comparing multiple lenders can be a great way to not only see the options available to you, but to ensure that you get the best possible deal on a personal loan.
Consider using an online lender platform like Credible to compare offers from multiple lenders at once, without affecting your credit.
Get prequalified
Personal loan prequalification can tell you which loans you’ll likely qualify for and what to expect in terms of rates and monthly payments. This can help you narrow down your list and pick the lenders that best suit your needs.
Getting prequalified for a personal loan involves a soft pull of your credit, which won’t affect your score.
Compare loan details
Now that you’ve gotten prequalified and shopped around with multiple personal loan lenders, it’s time to review your offers. This will help you decide which lender to officially apply with.
Compare these important factors when reviewing loan offers:
- APR — The annual percentage rate takes into account your interest rate and any fees, so it’s more accurate than looking at your interest rate alone.
- Repayment term — This is how long you’ll have to repay the loan, which affects the monthly payment amount.
- Fees — Some loans involve origination and other fees, which can add to your costs.
Apply for the loan
After deciding on a lender, applying for your personal loan is the next step. This part of the process makes your loan-shopping experience "official," as the lender will run a hard credit inquiry. This hard pull is added to your credit report and may temporarily lower your score by a few points.
As part of the application process, you’ll need to provide certain information to the lender, including your address, phone number, and birth date, and personal identification such as your Social Security number or driver’s license number. The lender may also ask you to provide proof of employment, proof of income, and recent tax returns.
Close the loan
You’ve shopped, you’ve applied, and you’ve been approved. Now, it’s time to close your loan. Closing is the final step in the personal loan process. Once your loan closes, the contract is official and the funds are disbursed in one lump sum.
In order to close on your new personal loan, you’ll be required to sign a loan agreement, or promissory note. This contract outlines how much you’re borrowing, the interest rate and repayment schedule you agree to, and any other terms required by your lender.
You may receive your loan funds as quickly as the same day or the next business day, depending on the lender and when you close your loan. These funds may be deposited electronically into the bank account of your choosing, or you can request a paper check.
What are the requirements to get a personal loan?
When deciding whether to offer you a personal loan, lenders consider a few important factors to determine whether you can afford the new loan and how likely you are to repay the debt as agreed.
Requirements vary from one lender to the next, but they’ll typically look at the following:
- Credit score/history — How well you’ve managed debt in the past can be a good indicator of how you’ll manage future debt. Lenders will look at factors such as your credit score, your payment history, the mix of credit-based accounts you hold, and how long you’ve been managing these accounts. Derogatory reports — such as late payments or charge-offs — can seriously impact your approval.
- Income — Before offering you a personal loan, a lender wants to be sure that you can comfortably afford the monthly payments.
- Debt-to-income ratio — The more burdened you are with debt, the more risk you may pose to a new lender. Lenders will calculate your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which tells them how much of your income already goes toward existing balances. If your minimum monthly payments consume too much of your income, you may not be approved for your new loan.
- Collateral — Personal loans are typically unsecured, meaning you don’t have to put up collateral. But a secured loan that holds certain assets as collateral (such as a savings account, vehicle, or certificate of deposit) may make obtaining a loan easier or more affordable.
- Cosigner — If you don’t qualify for a personal loan on your own, or if you want to get better loan terms, you may be able to add a cosigner with good credit, such as a parent or spouse. This individual is held equally responsible for the timely repayment of your new loan. If you fail to make payments, your cosigner will be on the hook to pay off the loan.
Personal loan pros and cons
Like any financial product, personal loans come with advantages and disadvantages to consider.
Pros of personal loans
- Funds are fast and flexible. You can use a personal loan for almost any purpose, and depending on the lender, loans can be disbursed in a matter of days or even hours.
- Rates are lower than other types of credit. Compared to credit cards, personal loans usually come with much lower interest rates.
- No collateral is required. Personal loans are typically unsecured loans, so you won’t be required to put up collateral to get the loan.
Cons of personal loans
- You may have to pay fees. Some lenders may charge origination fees when your loan is issued, or you could be subject to prepayment penalties if you pay off your loan early. This can increase your overall cost of borrowing.
- There’s no flexibility with monthly payments. A personal loan is an installment-based product. This means that you’ll receive the money in one lump sum and pay the debt back with equal monthly payments for a set term.
- It can damage your credit. If you default on your personal loan or fail to make payments on time, you could wind up with derogatory reports on your credit, which can stay on your credit reports for years to come.
Can I get a personal loan with bad credit?
As with most financial products, it’s easier to get approved for a personal loan if you have good or excellent credit. It’s still possible to get a personal loan with bad credit — it just might take a bit more effort.
Some lenders work specifically with people with bad credit. Just keep in mind that the lower your credit score, the higher the interest rates you’ll be offered. If your credit score is too low, you may need to add a cosigner with good credit to your loan in order to get approved. You could also consider applying for a secured personal loan, which will involve putting up an asset (such as a bank account or car) as collateral.
Credible makes it easy to compare offers from multiple lenders in minutes.
What should I do if I can’t get a personal loan?
A lender might deny someone a personal loan for several reasons, including having a credit score that’s too low, no credit history, carrying too much debt already, or not having a high enough income.
If you don’t get approved for a personal loan, here are some steps you can take to improve your chances of qualifying for a personal loan in the future:
- Find out why your application was rejected. Review your application for any mistakes that might have been included. If everything is correct, try to find out why you weren’t approved. A lender will often tell you why your loan application wasn’t approved, especially if it was due to your credit history.
- Work to improve your credit. The better your credit, the more likely you are to be approved for products like personal loans. Make payments on time, reduce your overall debt burden, and boost your credit mix to help improve your credit for the future.
- Boost your income. The more you make, the easier it is to reduce your DTI ratio, even without paying off existing balances. Consider taking on a side hustle to boost your income, which could help you meet lenders’ minimum income requirements.
- Apply for a smaller loan. The more money you want to borrow, the higher the lender’s credit score and income requirements will likely be. Applying for a smaller personal loan instead could increase your chances of qualifying.
- Consider adding a cosigner. Adding a cosigner with good credit can turn a rejection into an approval, or simply unlock better loan terms.
Alternatives to a personal loan
If you decide that a personal loan isn’t right for you, or you can’t get approved for a loan right now, consider these alternatives:
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- Use a balance transfer offer. Many credit cards offer 0% introductory APRs to new cardholders on purchases and balance transfers. By transferring your existing balances to one of these cards, you can work to pay off your debt without incurring new finance charges. Just be sure to pay the balance in full before the promotional period ends otherwise, you’ll start accruing interest at the card’s regular rate (which could be higher than a personal loan interest rate).
- Pull from existing home equity. If you have equity in your home, a home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC) can let you tap into this value. Since these products are secured by your home, it’s often easier to get approved. But if you default on your payments, the lender can seize your home. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/money/how-to-get-a-personal-loan | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
Emphasis on ride-shares heighten as celebrations continue
KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - There is an expectation by law enforcement of more drunken drivers on the road New Year’s Eve.
That means more officers watching for anyone driving impaired.
For areas like Killeen there are not a lot of Uber or Lyft options. But one locally-owned ride-share service is getting ready for a busy night.
“We keep drivers always on stand-by, so all they have to do is just look us up,” said Isaiah Woodard, with I.T.S. Quick Cab.
Typically, this time of the year there is a pick-up in business. Especially with people coming to-and-from holiday parties.
Because there was not a lot of ride-share options in Killeen, I.T.S. took notice when it started a few years ago.
“It was a lot harder for people to get home, especially at night when you want to go out, have fun but want to be safe as well,” said Woodard.
And with New Year’s Eve parties taking place, some area bars are making a point in not letting patrons drive home after having too much to drink.
“If you have had a little bit too much to drink, Sean’s Pub also offers free cabs,” said JoAnn Jackson, lead bartender at Sean’s Pub in Harker Heights. ““We don’t want you driving or anything like that.”
So there is a lot of anticipation of what is to come later.
“Normally by the time I look up, the schedule is booked for the rest of the day,” said Woodard.
Copyright 2021 KWTX. All rights reserved. | https://www.kwtx.com/2022/01/01/emphasis-ride-shares-heighten-celebrations-continue/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
It was a healthy year for big gifts to charitable causes in 2021, a year that saw one of the largest multibillion-dollar contributions in more than a decade, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy tally.
The power philanthropists Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates announced in May that they were divorcing and then gave a jaw-dropping $15 billion to their foundation in July. The money will bolster its endowment and support the grant maker’s work in global health, development, policy and advocacy, and U.S. education well into the future.
The gift increased the grant maker’s endowment to about $65 billion and is the Gateses’ biggest infusion of money into the foundation since 2000, when they transferred Microsoft stock then valued at $20 million.
When they announced this year’s gift, the two philanthropists indicated they planned to continue running the foundation together for the time being but announced through the foundation that if after two years either one of them decides not to work together, then French Gates will resign as co-chair and trustee.
Regardless, the philanthropists made clear in two new Giving Pledge letters that they both intend to keep giving big in the years ahead.
French Gates wrote that she will continue to support efforts to fight poverty and “advance equality for women and girls and other marginalized groups.” Gates wrote in his Giving Pledge letter that the work of the foundation will continue to be his “top philanthropic priority” and that he plans to increase his giving in other areas like “mitigating climate change and tackling Alzheimer’s.”
Nonprofits that focus on those causes are likely to reap big rewards, given that Bill Gates’s net worth is pegged at about $137 billion and Melinda French Gates’s at $6 billion.
Meanwhile, Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny’s, $500 million contribution to the University of Oregon tied for second place on the list. The gift will be used to expand the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and follows a $500 million donation the Knights gave to launch the science campus in 2016. The Knight Campus aims to speed up the process of transforming new scientific discoveries into medical treatments and other developments to improve people’s lives.
Phil Knight, whose net worth stands at about $60 billion, earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the university in 1959. The couple have given the university a total of at least $1.6 billion to date.
Also tied for No. 2 is a $500 million challenge pledge the financier George Soros made through his Open Society Foundations to Bard College for its endowment. The pledge aims to persuade other donors to back the college’s effort to raise $1 billion over the next five years.
College officials announced in April that the pledge had already helped them raise $250 million from other donors. Soros, whose net worth is pegged at $8.6 billion, founded Soros Fund Management, a New York firm that manages hedge funds.
Next on the list is a $480 million donation to Northwestern University from Patrick Ryan, founder of Ryan Specialty Group, an insurance services company, and his wife, Shirley. The Ryans, whose net worth stands at close to $8 billion, gave the money to their alma mater for a variety of programs.
The money will back education and research efforts in applied microeconomics, business, digital medicine, global health, neuroscience, and translational research programs at the university’s Feinberg School of Medicine. A portion of the gift will also pay for building projects.
The Chronicle’s annual top 10 list of the largest gifts announced by individuals or their foundations totaled more than $18.1 billion in 2021. (The 2021 list actually includes 11 donations because of ties.) The contributions on the 2021 list went primarily to well-established institutions. Eight of the 11 gifts are from billionaires whose cumulative wealth totals $426.3 billion.
The Chronicle’s annual rankings are based on the 10 biggest publicly announced gifts. The tally does not include contributions of artwork or gifts from anonymous donors. In February, the Chronicle will unveil its annual ranking of the 50 biggest donors, a list based on individuals’ total contributions in 2021 rather than single gifts.
___
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Top 10 List of Biggest Gifts
1. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Melinda French Gates, founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment firm, gave $15 billion to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for endowment
2. (tie) Philip Knight, co-founder of Nike, and his wife, Penny gave $500 million to University of Oregon to expand the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact
2. (tie) George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, through his Open Society Foundations gave $500 million to Bard College for endowment
4. Patrick Ryan, founder of Ryan Specialty Group, an insurance services company, and his wife, Shirley gave $480 million to Northwestern University for a variety of programs
5. Denny Sanford, chairman of United National Corporation Sanford Health, gave $350 million to establish a virtual-care hospital
6. Denny Sanford, chairman of United National Corporation Sanford Health, gave $300 million for graduate medical education and to expand a sports complex
7. William Goodwin Jr., a real-estate developer, his wife, Alice, and their late son, Hunter, gave $250 million to establish Break Through Cancer, a foundation that will support cancer research
8. Joe Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba Group, and Clara Wu Tsai, co-owner of professional sports teams, through their Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, gave $220 million to establish the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a medical research nonprofit
9. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon gave $200 million to Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for an education center and museum renovations
10. Gerald Chan, co-founder of Morningside Group, an investment firm, through his Morningside Foundation gave $175 million to University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School for endowment
____
This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Maria Di Mento is a writer at the Chronicle. Email: maria.dimento@philanthropy.com. The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/15b-from-gates-french-gates-tops-2021-biggest-gift-list/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:20 |
MICHAEL THORNTON: I lost my virginity to the dazzling Duchess of Argyll - now I must defend her honour
People say that you never forget the place where you lost your virginity. And as the romantic blue-grey chlorite walls and conical turrets of Inveraray Castle appeared on my TV this week, my mind swung back to the scorching summer day in 1958 when, as a 17-year-old, I had my first and rather shocking encounter with the opposite sex.
The castle, ancestral Scottish stronghold of the Dukes of Argyll, is the setting for the BBC’s A Very British Scandal, purporting to be a factual account of the marathon Argyll divorce battle of the 1960s, in which the 11th Duke of Argyll divorced his devastatingly beautiful third wife, Margaret.
On that summer day, I was in Scotland during the long vacation from my school in Brighton, standing in the street in the small Argyllshire town of Oban, when I first met the legendary beauty.
Michael Thornton with Margaret Duchess of Argyll 1968
My companion, the society photographer Brodrick Haldane, suddenly called out ‘Margaret!’ to an elegantly dressed woman walking just ahead of us.
She turned and even before I had been introduced to the devastating Duchess of Argyll, I recognised the startlingly beautiful face so long familiar to the readers of glossy magazines.
As Margaret Whigham, she had been the most celebrated debutante of all time.
Her first husband, the American golfer and stockbroker Charles Sweeny, said of her: ‘Of all the attractive girls in England in the early 30s, one was the undisputed belle of the ball.
‘Margaret Whigham was the most beautiful, the most vivacious, the most witty, the most desirable and the most popular of all that glittering galaxy... it wasn’t just looks or a bright personality; she had something else. Perhaps it was what these days is called “charisma”.’
Cole Porter agreed and included the electrifying Mrs Sweeny in the lyrics of his hit song, ‘You’re the Top: You’re the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire/You’re Mussolini/You’re Mrs. Sweeny/ You’re Camembert.’
As I stood opposite her in that Oban street in 1958, looking at her immaculate chestnut hair, flawless magnolia skin and bewitching green eyes, I began to understand what the fuss was about.
Claire Foy plays the Duchess of Argyl in the new BBC series A very British Scandal
‘You look terribly hot,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you both come back to Inveraray — she pronounced it “Inverarer” — for tea or some cold drinks?’ We piled into a car and drove to the Argyll ducal stronghold, arriving hot and sweaty from the sweltering sun.
‘Go up and have a shower if you like,’ invited Her Grace. ‘You can use my bathroom.’
The 11th Duke of Argyll was not there and I undressed in a room dominated by a pink bath that resembled a giant seashell, into which I stepped naked.
I was about to turn on the shower when the door opened and the duchess entered. She was not wearing any clothes. ‘I thought I would come and join you,’ she said in a normal and charming manner, as if sharing her bath with a naked stranger were an everyday occurrence.
What happened next caused the duke, who later learned of it, to write bitterly to his father-in-law, George Hay Whigham: ‘Like many middle-aged women, she has developed a taste for the attentions of young men of her children’s age.’ (I was eight months younger than Margaret’s son, Brian Sweeny). Only three months after the alarming episode in the pink seashell bath, Margaret was to be accused of seducing another young man on board the liner, the S.S. Homeric, on which the duke and duchess were sailing to Canada. His name was Anthony Wallace-Turner.
Paul Bettany as Ian Campbell and Claire Foy as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, in the new BBC drama A Very British Scandal
The Duke and Duchess of Argyll after their wedding at Caxton Hall in London
Like me, he was blond and blue-eyed, the 25-year-old son of friends of the duke, who complained to his father-in-law that Margaret ‘was sufficiently blatant about it to tell me how much she had enjoyed “breaking in a virgin”.’ Within months of my visit to Inveraray Castle, the Argyll marriage was in terminal meltdown — and this collapse is the subject of the BBC mini-series.
At the outset of the planning for the series, I had been approached by one of its producers for advice and input on the grounds that I was an intimate friend of the duchess for 35 years, and at an early age had myself become involved in the divorce action.
I considered the offer carefully but declined it.
An aura of prurience already clung to the project and when I viewed the result this week I knew my decision had been correct. It is riddled with inaccuracies.
What precipitated the divorce was the day the duke, suspecting infidelity on the part of his wife who was away in New York, had employed a locksmith to break open a cupboard — not her desk drawer, as shown in the mini-series — at the duchess’s Mayfair house, 48 Upper Grosvenor Street. There he discovered passionate love letters from other men and 13 Polaroid snaps.
Two of them showed the duchess naked, save for a three-strand pearl necklace, engaging in sexual acts with an unnamed male, later referred to as The Headless Man as the angle of the camera showed his naked torso only up as far as his neck.
Margaret Campbell, Duchess Of Argyll (1912 - 1993, centre) outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, UK, 9th November 1971
Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll
The duke denounced Margaret to her father as ‘a Messalina in the family’. Messalina was a Roman Empress, notorious for her promiscuity, who conspired against her husband, the Emperor Claudius, and was executed when the plot was discovered.
In September 1959, the duke threw the duchess out of Inveraray Castle, publicly branding her an adulteress.
It always infuriated him that Margaret’s aristocratic ancestry in Scotland could be traced even further back than that of the Campbells. (One of the many absurdities in the script was that Margaret’s father, George, was portrayed with a proletarian Scottish accent which he never possessed.)
Margaret was born in Scotland of 100 per cent Scottish ancestry. She was a Lowlander. Her reply to one of the duke’s many threatening and blackmailing letters, demanding money, was: ‘That does not frighten a Lowland Scot.’
In that sentence lies the clue to her real character and the reason for the failure of actress Claire Foy’s gallant attempt to recreate her.
Unlike Foy, Margaret never had shoulder-length hair. She was never doe-eyed and over-lipsticked. Her beauty was reinforced by a sort of pugnacity, which was entirely absent from Foy’s performance.
Ian Argyll, the duke, an alcoholic with a streak of sadism in his character, had to wait until he was 46 to become Clan Chieftain of the Campbells. His ancestors, many of them wife-beaters, had made a practice of marrying heiresses and he duly followed the tradition. But the warfare the duke now launched against his beautiful third wife was as brutal as anything in the long and bloody history of Clan Campbell.
He compiled a list of her alleged lovers, believing he could cite 88 men. My name, and that of Anthony Wallace-Turner, were omitted from the list. A note in the duke’s handwriting, found among the Argyll divorce papers, records: ‘MT and AW-T are both innocent victims of M’s nymphomania.’
The original list contained some famous names. The Hollywood stars Bob Hope, Ray Milland and Maurice Chevalier were on it. So too was David Niven, who took Margaret’s virginity when she was 15.
The 13 Polaroid snaps appeared to show two different naked men. Pornographic comments written beneath pictures of one of the naked men, shown alone, were alleged to be in the handwriting of Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Duncan Sandys — known derisively to the duke as ‘Shrunken glands’, the Minister of Defence in Harold Macmillan’s Conservative cabinet, and the son-in-law of Sir Winston Churchill — undoubtedly had an affair with Margaret, who used the name ‘Court’ to contact him in secret messages.
A Very British Scandal would have us believe that the Argyll divorce battle destroyed Margaret’s dazzling social position MICHAEL THORNTON writes.
The duke, discovering these, sent a telegram to Sandys asking: ‘Are you Court or caught?’ Sandys paid the duke £20,000 not to be cited in the divorce. Having pocketed the money, Argyll responded by holding up an envelope to the Press, during the divorce evidence on The Headless Man, with the word SANDYS written in large capital letters.
But the duke got it wrong. Sandys was not the headless hero.
Who was it? This week’s TV series failed to identify him. Margaret, at one point, claimed it was her husband, the duke. But that claim foundered after a comparison of the duke’s genitals with those of the man in the photograph.
Since both Margaret and Lord Denning confided to me his real identity in 1987, I can reveal that The Headless Man was indeed the Hollywood star Douglas Fairbanks Jr, although he continued to deny it for the rest of his life. During the threeand-a-half years that the Argyll divorce case dragged on, the duke gave evidence against his wife in a libel and slander action brought against her by their social secretary, Yvonne MacPherson. Under oath, the duke admitted the letter S, used by him to refer to his wife, stood for Satan. The duchess, described as ‘a poisonous liar’, lost the case and had to pay £7,000 in damages.
In May 1963, the duke finally won his divorce action. The Catholic Scottish judge, Lord Wheatley, in a devastating four-hour judgment, denounced her as ‘a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied by a number of men’.
Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll with her poodle
A Very British Scandal would have us believe that the Argyll divorce battle destroyed Margaret’s dazzling social position.
Not so. Ironically it was the victorious duke who suffered most from the fallout from the scandal. His attempts to publish Margaret’s private medical history in a series of sleazy Sunday newspaper articles outraged leading members of his club, White’s, who ostracised him for conduct unbecoming of a gentleman. He was forced to resign in 1965 to avoid a vote to expel him. In 1973, by then a lonely and embittered tax exile, married to his wealthy fourth wife, he was compelled to return to Britain to die in an NHS hospital.
Within a year or two of the divorce, Margaret’s name was restored to the invitation lists of all major London embassies. To the duke’s fury, she had made a spectacular success of organising the London end of the campaign to save his old regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, from disbandment.
Lord Mountbatten went out of his way to be photographed dancing with her. Prince Michael of Kent attended one of her parties.
And at the 80th birthday ball she threw for oil billionaire J. Paul Getty, the guests included ex-King Umberto of Italy and President Nixon’s daughter, Tricia Cox.
My startling encounter with Margaret in the pink seashell bath not only opened for me the gateway to life, but led to a 35-year friendship. Using her influence with Lord Beaverbrook — whose son, Max Aitken, she almost married — she helped to launch my career in journalism.
When the Duke of Argyll resigned from White’s, she gave me the news exclusively, even though I later learned that she herself had heard it from her clairvoyant.
By the time of her death in a London nursing home in 1993 at the age of 80, her once substantial fortune, left to her by her billionaire father, had gone, eaten away by costly litigation, expensive foreign travel and general extravagance.
Of the romantic Scottish castle where we met, she once wrote: ‘I fell in love with Inveraray at first sight.’
Her last wish, recorded in her will, was to be buried in a churchyard ‘close to Inveraray Castle’, but that was disregarded. She was buried in the same grave as her first husband, Charles Sweeny, in Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking. The grave lies in unconsecrated ground.
Margaret was emphatically never the vapid, cold-hearted, selfish creature portrayed in the TV series. Quite the opposite. In front of me, as I write this, lies a bundle of yellowing letters beginning ‘Darling Michael’, and signed ‘love Margaret’.
There is also a green leather cigarette box with the letter M in gold, beneath a ducal coronet, embossed on the lid. These are my last mementoes of one of the most beautiful, bewitching and courageous women who ever lived.
I shall treasure them until I die. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10359825/MICHAEL-THORNTON-lost-virginity-dazzling-Duchess-Argyll-defend-her.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | 2022-01-01T00:32:21 |
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Michigan defensive back Dax Hill was with the team Saturday and going through early warmups for the Orange Bowl against No. 3 Georgia.
Hill did not join the team in South Florida until Thursday.
Coach Jim Harbaugh said Thursday that Michigan’s second-leading tackler had not been with the team throughout the week of preparation for the College Football Playoff semifinal, but declined to give a reason why.
Harbaugh said Hill was questionable to play against Georgia.
“He’s working through something right now,” Harbaugh said.
Hill was on the field in a T-shirt, going through light drills with the other defensive backs more than an hour before kickoff, when only specialists are on the field in pads.
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25 | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/sports/article/Michigan-DB-Dax-Hill-with-team-during-Orange-Bowl-16741140.php | 2022-01-01T00:32:21 |
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Giants center Billy Price and his wife tragically lost a baby boy 15 weeks into pregnancy this week, and Price is doubtful to play Sunday in Chicago as he and his family mourn.
“It is with the most shattered hearts that we have to share the news of our Baby Boy gaining his Angel Wings and being with God in heaven,” Price posted on Instagram. “We are heartbroken that this is our new reality and cannot wrap our heads around it.”
Price added he and his wife “pray that no one ever has to endure this pain and I pray for everyone who already has gone through this or are going through it now. It is hands down the hardest and most painful experience we have ever been through. We are so grateful for the 15 weeks we had with our baby, the excitement our boy gave us & the amount of love and joy we have felt watching him grow and my wife’s body change.”
Head coach Joe Judge said the Giants “fully support Billy and his wife” as an organization regardless of when he decides to return to the team.
“We fully support Billy, fully support Billy as an organization, him and his wife and their family and what they’re going through right now,” Judge said Friday. “We left the door open to Billy in a lot of ways in terms of whatever he needs from us. When I talked to him earlier in the week, I let him know, ‘Hey, listen, if you’ve got to come in here and let this be a distraction, if you want to stay engaged with the game plan, if you want to come out and practice and blow off some steam and hit the weight room, whatever you’ve got to do.’
“He’s dealing with something that a lot of us have been blessed that we haven’t had to deal with,” Judge continued. “He’s going through something personally that we’ve got to make sure we account for and give him support as an organization, as a person. I wouldn’t fully rule him out at this moment, but he has not been at practice with us. He’s not been in-person in the meetings. The Zoom’s been available to him, but we’re letting him and his wife right now have the time they need and fully supporting him in what they’re going through.”
Price did show up at the facility for Covid testing Friday, but he is not expected to play. Matt Skura is expected to start at center in front of QB Mike Glennon with Wes Martin at left guard.
Skura has been starting at left guard but was benched for Martin halfway through last week’s loss to the Eagles.
THIS IS 40
Judge turned 40 years old on Friday.
“Trying to keep that quiet most of the day,” Judge said with a smirk, when wished a happy birthday. “So I appreciate it.”
Judge said when he starts talking about the weather for a game like Sunday’s in Chicago, “a lot of the players look at me and they start rolling their eyes like, ‘Alright, old people talk about the weather, that’s what this guy’s doing.’”
Reminded again of his age, Judge evoked Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s famous rant.
“I am a man now, I am 40,” he said with a laugh.
MR. DEPENDABLE
Practice squad guard Isaiah Wilson missed Friday’s practice due to what the Giants called an “illness.” He missed practice one day after offensive line coach Rob Sale implied Wilson wasn’t acting professionally behind the scenes and said Wilson wasn’t dependable. Wilson, 22, has missed practice in three different weeks due to an “illness,” per the team, since the start of November. The team is short on offensive linemen this week and he still remains a complete afterthought.
WORK IT
Judge said next Tuesday’s workout of offensive linemen, reported Thursday by the Daily News, will be a “good mix” of interior linemen and tackles. He said the purpose is a “combination” of futures looks and possible contributors for the Giants’ season finale in Week 18 against Washington.
“It’s a look at who’s out there as far as the futures and see if we can go ahead and fill any roster spots going forward before we get to free agency and the draft, as well as who may be available next week,” Judge said. “We’ve got to make sure that we go ahead and look and make sure we have depth for the game next week. If that’s something that we think we can add and they can give a contribution, we’ll consider that, as well.”
WHAT RECEIVERS?
WRs Kadarius Toney (shoulder), John Ross (knee/Covid ramp up) and Collin Johnson (hamstring) did not practice Friday and are out Sunday. With Sterling Shepard (torn left Achilles) and Darius Slayton (Covid) also unavailable, the Giants have to roll with a skeleton crew: Kenny Golladay and some combination of practice squadders Pharoh Cooper, David Sills V, Alex Bachman and Travis Toivonen. Sills, made his first NFL catch last Sunday in Philadelphia but drew more praise for finishing an impressive first quarter block in the running game. The Giants will need that above all against Chicago when they commit to the ground to protect Glennon’s shortcomings at quarterback … CB Adoree Jackson (quad/Covid ramp-up), DT Austin Johnson (foot), TE Chris Myarick (hip) and OT Nate Solder (Covid ramp-up) are questionable. Solder is expected to start at right tackle after missing the Philly loss … Andy Dalton is starting at QB for the Bears. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/12/31/giants-center-billy-price-expected-out-sunday-after-family-tragedy/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:26 |
There's nothing quite like the distinctive crackling and fizzing sound of a glass of freshly served champagne. It's well established that the bursting of the bubbles produces that sound, but the specific physical mechanism isn't quite clear. So physicists from Sorbonne University in Paris, France, decided to investigate the link between the fluid dynamics of the bursting bubbles and the crackly fizzy sounds. They described their work in a paper published back in January in the journal Physical Review Fluids.
As we've reported previously, the first mention of a sparkling wine dates back to 1535 in the Languedoc region of France. The classic brand Dom Perignon gets its name from a 17th-century monk who had the job of getting rid of the bubbles that developed in his abbey's bottled wine, lest the pressure build up so much they exploded. Legend has it that upon sipping such a bubbly wine, the monk realized the bubbles might not be such a bad thing after all, declaring, "Come quickly, brothers, I am drinking stars!"
In the 18th century, British chemist Joseph Priestley invented an artificial carbonation process while living next to a brewery in Leeds. Ever the scientist, he started experimenting with the CO2 used by the brewery and found that a bowl of water placed above a fermenting liquor became slightly acidic to the taste, just like natural mineral waters. He included his simple instructions for artificial carbonation in a 1772 treatise, Impregnating Water with Fixed Air.
Carbonation is a particularly fascinating topic within the subfield of fluid dynamics. For instance, a 2018 article in Physics Today reported that carbonation triggers the same pain receptors in our deep brains that are activated when we eat spicy food. Other fun facts gleaned from champagne science over the years: when the bubbles in champagne burst, they produce droplets that release aromatic compounds believed to enhance the flavor further.
Also, the size of the bubbles plays a critical role in a really good glass of champagne. Larger bubbles enhance the release of aerosols into the air above the glass—bubbles on the order of 1.7mm across at the surface. And the bubbles in champagne "ring" at specific resonant frequencies, depending on their size. So it's possible to "hear" the size distribution of bubbles as they rise to the surface in a glass of champagne.
The latter is the only study to date specifically examining the acoustic emissions (crackling and fizzing) of champagne specifically, according to the authors of this latest paper. But there were two prior studies in 1992 and 2013 focusing on the the acoustic emission of bubbles collapsing at a water surface more generally, revealing that the smallest bubbles emitted more of a chirp.
Champagne's effervescence arises from the nucleation of bubbles on the walls of the glass. Once they detach from their nucleation sites, the bubbles start to grow as they rise to the liquid surface, bursting and collapsing at the surface. This typically occurs within a couple of milliseconds, and the distinctive crackling sound is emitted when the bubbles rupture.
The French physicists used a glass tank containing tap water, and a tank containing of a water/surfactant solution for their experiments, since champagne also contains a small volume of surfactant molecules. They injected air bubbles into the tanks using submerged needles connected to a syringe pump filled with air. The bubbles would rise to the surface and float briefly before bursting. All of this was captured on video with two digital high-speed cameras, while the acoustic emissions (sounds) were recorded by a microphone positioned just above the liquid surface. Finally, they filtered the acoustic data to remove any ambient noise.
As Katherine Wright wrote at APS Physics:
Analyzing the data, Pierre and colleagues find—as expected—that the production of the sound coincides with the rupture of the bubble. As the bubble nears the surface, the pressure of the gas inside it increases. This pressure is violently released when the bubble bursts.
The bubble, however, doesn’t immediately disappear. The part of the bubble that is still submerged generates acoustic vibrations of the liquid-gas interface. The frequency of this vibration depends on the volume of gas the bubble contains and on the diameter of the hole in the bubble. As a result, the frequency changes as the rupture grows and the bubble shrinks, increasing in pitch until the bubble dies. For the small micrometer-sized champagne bubbles, only the beginning of the rupture is audible to humans, while for larger millimeter-sized bubbles, the whole burst can be heard.
This process is markedly different from how bubbles beneath the surface emit sound, and the team thinks looking for acoustic signatures could shed light on other hydrodynamic phenomena that elude conventional imaging techniques. "We believe that [our] quantitative description could be used to synthesize artificial acoustic signals of digital animation films," the authors wrote. "More generally, this work is a step in understanding the acoustic signature of violent hydrodynamic events, which adds to previous studies on volcano eruptions... breaking waves, and bursting soap bubbles."
DOI: Physical Review Fluids, 2021. 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.6.013604 (About DOIs). | https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/12/physicists-have-captured-quantified-the-sound-of-champagnes-effervescence/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:26 |
Staff shortages prompt flight cancellations into Monday
Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Sunday, citing staffing problems tied to COVID-19 , as the nation’s travel woes extended beyond Christmas, with no clear indication when normal schedules would resume.
More than 700 flights entering, leaving or flying within the U.S. were called off, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. That figure was down from nearly 1,000 on Saturday . More than 50 flights were already canceled for Monday.
Delta, United and JetBlue have blamed the omicron variant of the coronavirus for staffing shortages that forced cancellations.
“This was unexpected,” United spokesperson Maddie King said of omicron’s impact on staffing.
Globally, airlines scrapped about 2,200 flights as of Sunday morning, down from more than 2,800 from the day before, FlightAware’s data showed. The site does not say why flights are canceled.
Passenger who attacked Southwest Airlines flight attendant facing 20 years in prisonJetBlue scrapped 10% of its flights Sunday. Delta canceled 5% and United canceled 4%, according to FlightAware. The three airlines canceled more than 10% of their scheduled flights on Saturday.
American Airlines spokesperson Derek Walls said the Christmas cancellations stemmed from virus-related sick calls.
In other pandemic developments, the nation’s second Christmas in the shadow of COVID-19 sharply lifted holiday sales, which rose at the fastest pace in 17 years, even as shoppers grappled with higher prices, product shortages and the omicron variant in the last few weeks of the season, according to one spending measure.
Mastercard Spending Pulse, which tracks all kinds of payments including cash and debit cards, reported Sunday that holiday sales had risen 8.5% from a year earlier. Mastercard SpendingPulse had expected a 7.4% increase.
The results, which covered Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, were fueled by purchases of clothing and jewelry. Holiday sales were up 10.7% compared with the pre-pandemic 2019 holiday period.
Also Sunday, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor acknowledged that he was frustrated with the limited supply of COVID-19 tests.
Beware of these 5 early omicron symptoms, study saysDemand for tests has risen amid the surge fueled by the omicron variant. “We’ve obviously got to do better,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I think things will improve greatly as we get into January, but that doesn’t help us today and tomorrow,” Fauci said.
Fauci said he was pleased with evidence that omicron causes less severe illness for most people. But he warned against complacency because the rapid spread of the disease could “override a real diminution in severity,” because so many more people could get infected.
Meanwhile in Europe, France recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time in the pandemic. COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled over the past month as omicron complicates the French government’s efforts to stave off a new lockdown.
More than 1 in 100 people in the Paris region have tested positive in the past week, according to the regional health service. Most new infections are linked to omicron, which government experts predict will be dominant in France in the coming days. Omicron is already dominant in Britain, right across the English Channel.
France’s overall death toll stands at more than 122,000.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government planned emergency meetings for Monday to discuss the next steps. Some scientists and educators have urged delaying the post-holiday return to school or suggested re-imposing a curfew.
Copyright 2021 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. | https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2470815671060/staff-shortages-prompt-flight-cancellations-into-monday | 2022-01-01T00:32:25 |
Mavis Walters Phelps, 89, died December, 29, 2021 at Rosewood Assisted Living in Tupelo, Ms., where she had been a resident for the three years. A graveside service celebrating her life will be held at 1:30 PM Tuesday, January 4, 2022 at Magnolia Cemetery in Magnolia, Mississippi. Visitation will be 30 minutes before the service and afterwards. Holland Funeral Directors-Tupelo (662 840 5000) is honored to be serving their friends. She was born April 10, 1932 in Magnolia, Ms., to the late Arthur and Dollie Fortenberry Walters. She graduated from Magnolia High School and married Talmadge Phelps Aug. 14, 1950. They were married for 62 years until his death in 2012. She was a resident of McComb, Ms., for 65 years before moving to Northeast Mississippi. During her career, she was a homemaker, and was employed over the years by J.C. Penney's, Delaware Garden Apartments, Bank of McComb, Southwest Mississippi Community College and Dr. J.K. McDonald. She was lifetime member of the McComb Junior Auxiliary, Keep Pike County Beautiful, McComb Flower Lover Club and the Howdycrats. In later life, she became a Master Gardener. She had a green thumb when it came to yard work, especially planting and caring for flowers and plants. She also enjoyed gardening with her late husband. They received numerous Yard of the Month awards. Her hobbies were playing bridge and bowling. She also loved to travel by "car, bus, train or plane." She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, one son, Charlie Phelps, a brother, Tommy Walters, and a sister, Francis Walters. She is survived by her son Gene Phelps (Nancy) of Tupelo, Ms., grandson Bart Phelps (Andrea) of Eureka Springs, Ar., and granddaughters Barbara Mabry (Jermaine) of Tupelo and Bridget Phelps of Allen, Tx., six great grandsons - Carson, Collin, Canton and Caiden Phelps, and Cooper and Creed Mabry, and one great granddaughter, Carlee Ann Phelps. She is also survived by her brothers Ralph and Therrell Walters, and her sister Dollie Blanche Rebold (Nick) and several nieces and nephews, including Loran Gerald. The family request memorials be made in her honor to Keep Pike County Beautiful, 109 Main Street, McComb, MS 39648
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For Better or Worse, Television Schedules Are Recovering from COVID
December 31, 2021 | FROM: REASON, television
- The Cleaning Lady. Fox. Monday, January 3, 9 p.m.
- Good Sam. CBS. Wednesday, January 5, 10 p.m.
Television, at least in an arithmetical sense, may finally be clawing its way back to pre-plague levels. The broadcast networks premiered two new series in December, and five more are scheduled for January, none of them reality shows or cheapie remake piffle, which may not sound too impressive until you remember that there were only a dozen new ones during the ballyhooed 2021 fall season.
But remember also that "normal" in television includes a generous helping of mediocrity. None of January's TV offerings are going to make you forget Seinfeld or even The Ugliest Girl in Town. (Which, I swear it, was an actual ABC sitcom in 1968.) The only thing really noteworthy about this week's premieres is that they exist at all after two years of COVID-related havoc on production schedules.
The moderately-more interesting of this week's new shows is Fox's The Cleaning Lady, based on an Argentine narconovela called La Chica Que Limpia. Elodie Yung (The Defenders, Daredevil) stars as Thony De La Rosa, an illegal immigrant working as a janitor in Los Angeles while waiting for specialized medical treatment for her ailing son. While sweeping out a warehouse one night, she inadvertently witnesses a Mexican cartel murder.
The bad news is that Thony gets assigned clean-up duties on all the splattered blood and brains; the good news is that a trafficker (Adan Canto, The Following) with an elevated class consciousness who sees narco-assassins and undocumented cleaning ladies as fellow victims of the vast American conspiracy against immigration takes a shine to her. When the work is done, Thony isn't bumped off but put in charge of tidying up the cartel's mutilated corpses, of which—it soon becomes apparent—there are many.
But at least there's an interesting and socially fulfilling crowd at the office, including Armenian gun-runners, hot-tempered trophy wives, money launderers, rogue FBI agents and others with at least a passing interest in killing her. Or vice-versa; when she criticizes co-workers' devotion to the job, Thony quickly discovers that the cartel HR department is, well, harsh.
For the most part, The Cleaning Lady follows the broad and predictable contours of other Hollywood tales of comely young women caught up in and corrupted by the drug trade, including Queen of the South and Maria Full of Grace. But the show has a few interesting tics, including the cartel's lethal chess match with FBI moles. And The Cleaning Lady has a genuine note of diversity—Thony is not Hispanic but Cambodian, as is Yung, the actress who plays her. Perhaps a Killing Fields flashback would correct Hollywood's certainty that narcotraffickers are the only merchants of death.
CBS' Good Sam, on the other hand, is an over-emotive hospital soap opera that's even more slavishly bound by the conventions of its genre. Cue crusty old heart surgeon browbeating the members of his young medical team. ("Pathlogically arrogant, profoundly insecure, emotionally unpredictable, and excessively vain!") Cue loathsome disease you never heard of but will suffer nightmares about for the next six months. (An infection triggered by a Latin American insect that bites hard, then defecates inside the wound.) Cue turgid dialogue about wild sexual promiscuity. ("We have always been straight with each other!" "That was before you slept with my father!") Repeat for 42 minutes.
When it drifts away from gerontological sex and insect defecation, Good Sam concerns a couple of arrogant heart surgeons, Robert Griffith (Jason Isaacs, Star Trek: Discovery) and his daughter Sam (Sophia Bush, the various Chicago shows). He's her nasty boss and she's his bitchy underling. Griffith falls into a coma for six months, and when he emerges, the poles have been reversed: She's his bitchy boss and he's her nasty underling. The insects and promiscuity are largely unaffected. And Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey are still spinning in their graves.
The post For Better or Worse, Television Schedules Are Recovering from COVID appeared first on Reason.com. | https://freedombunker.com/2021/12/31/for-better-or-worse-television-schedules-are-recovering-from-covid/ | 2022-01-01T00:32:26 |
Graduates can save more money than ever as fixed student loan refinance rates set record low
Fixed student loan refinance rates have fallen to a new record low, giving borrowers the opportunity to save more money on their student debt than ever before.
Interest rates on 10-year fixed-rate refinance loans averaged 3.33% for the week of Dec. 13, according to Credible. This is the lowest fixed student loan rates have been since Credible started collecting this data in June 2020.
STUDENT LOAN DEFERMENT EXTENSION: WHAT BORROWERS SHOULD KNOW
Variable interest rates for the 5-year refinancing term rose significantly during the same week, to 2.82%. Still, the variable rate is much lower than it was during the same time last year, when they were 3.20% on average.
With student loan refinance rates at historic lows, student loan borrowers have the opportunity to reduce their monthly payments, pay off their debt faster and save money on total borrowing costs over the life of the loan.
Keep reading to learn more about refinancing to a private student loan. Browse student loan refinance rates from private lenders in the table below, and visit Credible to see refinancing offers tailored to you without impacting your credit score.
WHAT IS A GOOD ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE (APR) ON A PERSONAL LOAN?
How to qualify for student loan refinancing
Student loan refinancing is when you take out a new loan to repay your current student debt with better terms, such as a lower interest rate. There are many private student loan lenders that offer refinancing, and the process can be done completely online.
When you refinance your student loan debt, your loan amount will stay the same, but your other terms will likely change. It may also be possible to move all of your loans into one monthly payment with student loan consolidation. You can choose a shorter loan term to pay off your student debt faster, or you can opt for a longer-term loan to lower your monthly payments.
Private student loan lenders determine your interest rate based on a number of eligibility criteria, including:
- Responsible financial history. Borrowers with a good credit score and low debt-to-income ratio will have the best chance at qualifying for student loan refinancing at a low interest rate. Borrowers with bad credit could consider enlisting the help of a creditworthy cosigner to qualify for student loan refinancing.
- Loan repayment terms. Larger loans may come with higher interest rates — plus, you'll be paying more in interest over time since it's assessed on a larger amount. Shorter loans will typically offer lower interest rates, while longer loan terms will cost more to borrow over time.
- Type of interest rate. Fixed-rate loans tend to come with higher rates, since borrowers can lock in their rate for the entirety of the loan term. Variable-rate loans tend to offer lower rates, which may rise or fall over the life of the loan depending on market conditions.
You can compare student loan rates on Credible for free with a soft credit pull, then use a student loan calculator to determine how much you can save by refinancing.
HOW TO CHECK YOUR FULL CREDIT REPORT WITHOUT A HARD CREDIT PULL
Should you refinance federal student loans?
Refinancing may help some borrowers lock in a lower rate on their college debt, but there are a few things federal student loan borrowers should know before switching to a private loan.
Interest rates are set differently. Federal student loan rates are fixed across all borrowers depending on when the loan was originated, whereas private student loan interest rates vary by lender depending on a borrower's creditworthiness. Plus, private lenders tend to offer rate discounts, such as an interest rate reduction for setting up automatic payments (sometimes called an Autopay discount).
Borrowers with a high credit score and a low debt-to-income ratio may qualify for a lower interest rate through a private lender, but it depends on the fixed federal student loan rate when the loan was disbursed. Here are the current federal student loan interest rates for loans disbursed between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022:
- Undergraduate Direct Loans: 3.73%
- Graduate Direct Loans: 5.28%
- Parent and Graduate Direct PLUS Loans: 6.28%
WHAT IS THE MINIMUM CREDIT SCORE NEEDED TO GET A STUDENT LOAN?
Private student loan lenders don't charge refinancing fees. When you borrowed your federal loan, you likely had to pay a one-time loan fee that was a portion of the total loan amount. Federal Direct Loans disbursed on or after Oct. 1, 2020 were assessed a loan fee of 1.057%. Direct PLUS loans disbursed during the same time period have a loan fee of 4.228%
Private student loans aren't eligible for federal benefits. By refinancing to a private student loan, federal student loan borrowers are waiving several federal loan protections like income-driven repayment plans, administrative forbearance and select student loan forgiveness programs. Federal student loan payments are currently paused through May 1, 2022, which means that refinancing your federal loans into a private loan now would mean you have to resume monthly payments upon approval.
Still, it might be wise to lock in a private student loan refinance rate while rates are at record lows. Visit Credible to see your student loan refinancing offers, so you can determine if it's worth it to refinance your federal student loan debt.
PERSONAL LOAN ORIGINATION FEES: ARE THEY WORTH THE COST?
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Have a finance-related question, but don't know who to ask? Email The Credible Money Expert at moneyexpert@credible.com and your question might be answered by Credible in our Money Expert column. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/money/student-loan-fixed-rate-refinancing-savings | 2022-01-01T00:32:26 |
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