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Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Shamshera is the latest entrant in a long list of recent Hindi films — including Samrat Prithviraj, Bachchhan Pandey, Dhaakad and Jayeshbhai Jordaar — that have fared poorly at the box office. This trend has led to several questions, and quite rightly so, in the mind of film viewers as well as makers. What is going wrong? The increasing audience disenchantment with mainstream, commercial Hindi cinema is a phenomenon that needs some probing.
While Hindi films aren’t doing too well, their counterparts from the South have managed to successfully capture popular imagination. This is a big moment in contemporary Indian film history and never have we witnessed this kind of success for Southern films that cross linguistic borders. Rajinikanth was perhaps the only exception, though his films too released only in certain pockets in non-Southern Indian states.
The box office collections of films such as Pushpa: The Rise, KGF: Chapter 2, and RRR in the Hindi cinema heartland are noteworthy. Recently, while travelling through rural West Bengal, I noticed Pushpa merchandise in village shops – shirts and T-shirts featuring actor Allu Arjun’s face. A little later, I came across a group of youngsters proudly displaying their Baahubali fare at the village junction. That too at a place where the only language spoken and heard is a dialect of Bangla. This was unimaginable even a decade ago and points to the significant penetration these films have been able to achieve. Digital technology and its spread have undeniably contributed to this reach. But this also brings into question our pre-conceived notions about Hindi cinema superstardom and fanbase.
Have those fans now moved to newer pastures? Are they tired of their favourite stars dishing out the same films repeatedly? Is this a warning of sorts that there are other avenues for wholesome entertainment beyond Hindi cinema which are now easily accessible and available?
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These South Indian films are big-screen extravaganzas. The audience goes to watch these films expecting a spectacle. When Baahubali: The Beginning was released, some even compared it to James Cameron’s Avatar. The content of these films merits a separate discussion and a lot has been written and said about how regressive it can be. There is even talk about Ayan Mukherji’s upcoming Brahmastra, which will release this year after being delayed several times, mimicking the look and feel of these big Southern films. Will it fetch similar dividends? We must wait and watch but a template has certainly been created.
This indicates a bigger problem, however: The lack of originality or creative thinking. Is the Hindi mainstream industry so hard-pressed for content that they must rely upon a formula from the South? Some of the other big box office successes of Hindi cinema like the highly problematic Kabir Singh are also remakes of Southern films. Telugu superstar Vijay Deverakonda, the lead in Arjun Reddy on which Kabir Singh was based, is now being launched by Karan Johar in the upcoming Hindi film Liger, perhaps also to encash on the star’s huge fan base in the South.
On another note, during the pandemic, viewers discovered contemporary Malayalam cinema through OTT platforms. These films are now the cornerstone of several film discourses. They have been able to create a wonderful balance between commerce and content, something in which mainstream Hindi cinema has largely failed. Films like Malik, Bheeshma Parvam, Dear Friend, Kurup, Salute, Minnal Murali are not non-mainstream. Successful Malayalam stars like Tovino Thomas and Fahadh Faasil not only have interesting filmographies to showcase but have also backed similarly exciting film projects as producers. Instead of following trends, they are creating trends themselves. The freshness of these films in terms of the stories they choose to tell and the characters they showcase make them distinct. Access to such cinema through OTT platforms has also revealed to viewers that good cinema doesn’t necessarily require massive budgets and could be made with limited means. Why should they settle for any less when there are better films available in the comfort of their home? After all, watching good cinema is the best exposure for a film viewer.
The Kerala film industry is minuscule in comparison to Hindi, Tamil or Telugu film ecosystems. Contemporary Hindi cinema has no similar trajectory to show. Even its actors-turned-producers back conventional subjects, thereby regurgitating time-tested formulae.
South Indian cinema is not a homogenous category. The combination of big spectacular films alongside content-driven cinema is, however, a model that many would aspire to but few manage to achieve. Does the spate of recent rejections in Hindi filmdom indicate that audiences need better content? It’s still too premature to make that claim but will films mimicking those from the South offer a respite? Anurag Kashyap recently said that Hindi films are performing poorly because they are being made by people who don’t speak Hindi themselves and are, therefore, not rooted in their culture. But that’s just a part of the problem. Hindi cinema needs better vision, ideas, scripts and a will to reform by looking beyond pyaar, ishq, mohabbat and nafrat.
The writer teaches literary & cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
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https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/in-the-failure-of-shamshera-a-warning-and-lesson-for-bollywood-8062446/
| 2022-07-31T12:41:55
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A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Deoghar earlier this month, the Congress’s Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari swung hard at the BJP. He accused the party of targeting Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren with the Enforcement Directorate and wondered how people facing corruption allegations become clean after joining the BJP.
On Saturday, West Bengal police detained Ansari along with fellow Congress legislators Naman Bixal Kongari (Kolebira MLA) and Rajesh Kacchap (Khijri MLA) after huge amounts of cash was found in the car the three were travelling in. The car belonged to the Jamtara MLA.
The Congress on Sunday suspended all three legislators, claiming that they were linked to attempts to destabilise the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress government in the state. All India Congress Committee (AICC) member in charge of Jharkhand Avinash Pande said efforts had been on for the last two years to destabilise and weaken the government and dislodge it from power. “Attempts were made to contact the MLAs, intimidate or lure them. Some months ago, an FIR was lodged against some BJP leaders for contacting some MLAs,” he added.
Since the presidential elections last week, the Congress has been wary of “Operation Lotus”, which refers to the BJP’s alleged plan to engineer the defections of seven Opposition MLAs after the 2008 Karnataka Assembly election to consolidate its strength in the House. Following the presidential poll, Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey said that at least nine votes went to Murmu from the Congress even though the party was backing Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha.
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There has also been resentment brewing in the Congress after ally JMM did not adhere to a supposed unwritten pact and did not allow the party to send its choice of candidate to the Rajya Sabha. In addition, many Congress MLAs were said to have been dissatisfied with not being chosen for positions in various corporations and boards. At present, 35 such positions are vacant.
Ansari’s name did the rounds last year when there was an alleged attempt to topple the government. In July 2021, Bixal alleged that he had been offered Rs 1 crore by “some people” to bring down the government. Subsequently, an FIR was also registered against three people.
Irfan Ansari
Ansari, 44, is the son of one-time MP Furkaan Ansari, who was also a five-time MLA in undivided Bihar. He has been involved in controversies ever since he won his first election in 2014. The MLA is also a doctor with an MBBS degree, which he received in 2000, from a Ukrainian medical college. The MLA is often seen treating people in his constituency, which is one of the state’s most backward areas.
“His politics revolved around Muslim votes, but he is one leader who does not carry any weight because of how he speaks,” claimed a Congress insider. “He is not taken seriously in political circles. However, he was generally seen in his constituency. To what extent he is involved will become clear eventually.”
Ansari is known for making controversial statements and kicking up rows. Last September, he called the Taliban “revolutionaries” for forcing the US out of Afghanistan. This March, he kicked up a storm when, after a Karnataka High Court order on the hijab row, he alleged that the BJP was “running the courts”.
The names of Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari and Kolebira legislator Naman Bixal Kongari had surfaced last year too when there was talk of attempts to topple the state government. The Congress has suspended them along with Khijri MLA Rajesh Kacchap.
Naman Bixal Kongari
The 47-year-old Kongari, a law graduate, had the image of a “simple tribal leader” from Simdega when he entered politics. He received his major break in 2018 after the Kolebria seat fell vacant following the conviction of veteran leader Anosh Ekka, who had won the election in 2009 and 2014 despite being in prison, in a murder case. Ekka received a life sentence.
A Congress leader in Kolebria who was part of the team that helped Kongari win said, “The Congress in the state put its weight in Kolebira behind Kongari. We set up war rooms in the constituency and made sure that things worked effectively and signalled the revival of Congress, which has been struggling in Jharkhand for a long time. This was the first time we saw how the Congress as an organisation was effectively involved to make a candidate win. The result was evidently clear, he won by more than 9600 votes.”
The leader said Kongari “should have known better” than getting involved in “horse-trading politics”. He added, “It feels so bad that a person who was helped so much by the party gets embroiled himself in ‘Lotus politics’.”
Rajesh Kacchap
The 41-year-old MLA from Khijri in Ranchi district rose up the party ranks from the ground level. He was a block and district-level member of the Youth Congress, and won his first election in 2019 by defeating his BJP rival by 5,000 votes.
A state Congress leader said, “He was forever indebted to some people as he got the ticket. Once we went to visit him after he won the election, he would not sit in front of us on a chair. He harboured angst against some Congress Cabinet ministers and got disillusioned. Last we spoke, he said he had lost his way but was back on track … I don’t know what suddenly happened.”
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
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https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/jharkhand-congress-mlas-held-in-bengal-profile-8061974/
| 2022-07-31T12:41:59
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/baltimore-orioles/articles/40239795
| 2022-07-31T12:42:03
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Commonwealth Games 2022 Medal Tally: Touted as one of the games where India would dominate at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Weightlifting won India another gold and a fifth overall medal on Sunday, July 31. The most recent of the winners, 19-year old Jeremy Lalrinnunga lifted a total of 300kg across Snatch and Clean & Jerk to top the men’s 67kg category. Lalrinnunga also broke the Games record in his category with a 140kg lift in Snatch.
Jeremy’s Games Record Lift at @birminghamcg22 🔥@raltejeremy set the GR in Men’s 67kg Snatch event with the best lift of 140kg & winning a GOLD🥇 on his debut at the #CommonwealthGames 💪💪
Way to go!!! #Cheer4India🇮🇳#India4CWG2022@PMOIndia @ianuragthakur @NisithPramanik pic.twitter.com/nryNlOj30N
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) July 31, 2022
Earlier on Saturday, Mirabai Chanu had headlined a four medal count with her gold medal in the women’s 49kg event. Sanket Sargar and Bindyarani Devi had clinched silver medals in men’s and women’s 55kg events respectively while Gururaja Poojary won bronze in men’s 61kg.
India jumped above Malaysia, who have seven medals, in the tally owing to their second gold. The table is sorted by the most gold medals won and also includes tallies for silver, bronze, and the total medals till after Jeremy Lalrinnunga’s event in Weightlifting.
Australia sit atop the tally with a count of 32 medals that includes 13 golds while hosts England are second with a total of 25 medals.
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Commonwealth Games 2022 Medal Tally:
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
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https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/commonwealth-games/cwg-2022-india-medal-tally-8062455/
| 2022-07-31T12:42:05
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/baltimore-orioles/articles/40240132
| 2022-07-31T12:42:09
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A US woman has left netizens amazed with her bhangra performance. The woman is seen slaying the energetic dance form in a video shared on Instagram.
In the clip, she is seen performing bhangra in her kitchen wearing a T-shirt and leggings. She gracefully performs to the song “Chidi Blauri”, sung by Mannat Noor and Ammy Virk, from 2018 movie Laung Laachi. With a smile on her face, she grooves enthusiastically, winning the hearts of netizens.
“Something slow for today,” Omala, the Instagram user captioned the video. The clip has garnered more than 1.2 million views on Instagram.
A social media user commented, “hell yes, you had the swag and attitude and perfectly done steps to traditional Bhangra! Whoot whoot.” Another user commented, “What aa dance 😍🔥🔥🔥🔥 amazing 😍.”
View this post on Instagram
Omala says in her bio that she is a self-taught bhangra dancer. Bhangra is a traditional Punjabi folk art form. Her Instagram account is replete with her bhangra performance videos.
Set in different locations, the woman is seen cheerfully dancing to many Indian songs, including “Gallan Bholiyan”, and Prince Narula’s song “Kafla”. In one of the clips, she is also seen lip-syncing to the Punjabi track “Sanu Ta Bulauno Vi Geya” by Nimrat Khaira.
Time and again, dazzling bhangra performances have won the netizens’ approval. Last year, an Indian couple won the praise of singer-songwriter Diljit Dosanjh by shaking a leg to the peppy beats of “Black and White” from Dosanjh’s album MoonChild Era.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
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https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/us-womans-bhangra-performance-wins-hearts-online-8062468/
| 2022-07-31T12:42:11
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/articles/40239836
| 2022-07-31T12:42:15
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Hariyali Teej 2022: Take cues from your favourite B-town celebs on how to ace the Teej look
July 31, 2022 5:12:07 pm
July 31, 2022 5:12:07 pm
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Dressing up is an important part of the festival of Hariyali Teej. Mostly, women wear green coloured ensembles to celebrate the day. This year you can make things easy for yourself by taking cues from your favourite B-town celebs. Aditi Rao Hydari looks elegant in this green silk suit with elaborate brocade work. This outfit is a perfect match for Hariyali Teej. (Source: Aditi Rao Hydari/Instagram)
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Alia Bhatt in a simple green silk sari can be a good pick for the celebrations. (Source: Alia Bhatt/Instagram)
3 / 10
When it comes to ethnic wear, who better than Kajol to take cues from. The actor wore a dark green organza sari and we love how she looked. (Source: Kajol Devgan)
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The actor wore a simple green transparent sari with net work. This sari will be a good choice for all the newbie brides. (Source: Kiara Advani/Instagram)
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If you want to get all decked up for the festivities, this lehenga is a perfect option. Madhuri Dixit looks stunning in this deep green lehenga- choli, laden with shimmery embroidery. (Source: Madhuri Dixit/Instagram)
6 / 10
The actor looks gorgeous in a simple green sari and light green sleeveless blouse. (Source: Mrunal Thakur/Instagram)
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One can keep it cool as Priyanka does. The actor wore a light green kurta and paired it with a white pants. This outfit is super comfortable for those who are not a fan of heavy ensembles. (Source: Priyanka Chopra/Instagram)
8 / 10
The actor looks radiant in a green sari. A high bun makes this outfit a perfect choice for Teej festivities. (Source: Shanaya Kapoor/Instagram)
9 / 10
Tamannaah Bhatia donned a sea green sari with elaborate work and paired it with a cream-coloured blouse. The heavy set the actor teamed the sari with, completed her look. (Source: Tamannaah Bhatia/Instagram)
10 / 10
Who said you cannot wear ethnic and look chic? The actor proves it by looking elegant and chic in this white and green striped sari. (Source: Vidya Balan/Instagram)
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https://indianexpress.com/photos/lifestyle-gallery/hariyali-teej-2022-b-town-celebs-teej-ready-8062279/
| 2022-07-31T12:42:17
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| 2022-07-31T12:42:21
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| 2022-07-31T12:42:27
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/articles/40240069
| 2022-07-31T12:42:33
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/articles/40240198
| 2022-07-31T12:42:39
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| 2022-07-31T12:42:45
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/articles/40240284
| 2022-07-31T12:42:51
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| 2022-07-31T12:42:57
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/articles/40240306
| 2022-07-31T12:43:03
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A sheriff in the Kansas' largest county says he's investigating claims of election fraud — but hasn't provided evidence. This comes right as the state holds an referendum on abortion rights.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A sheriff in the Kansas' largest county says he's investigating claims of election fraud — but hasn't provided evidence. This comes right as the state holds an referendum on abortion rights.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/a-kansas-sheriff-is-investigating-claims-of-election-fraud-but-evidence-is-scarce
| 2022-07-31T12:46:34
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The new government in Sri Lanka has resumed bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund, but rolling blackouts and food and fuel shortages continue.
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The new government in Sri Lanka has resumed bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund, but rolling blackouts and food and fuel shortages continue.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/as-rolling-blackouts-and-food-shortages-continue-sri-lanka-weighs-imf-bailout
| 2022-07-31T12:46:40
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40238277
| 2022-07-31T12:46:42
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A potential trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan has increased tensions between the U.S. and China. Meanwhile, growth in the world's second largest economy is not meeting expectations.
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A potential trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan has increased tensions between the U.S. and China. Meanwhile, growth in the world's second largest economy is not meeting expectations.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/as-tensions-with-the-u-s-rise-china-signals-disappointing-economic-growth
| 2022-07-31T12:46:46
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40238721
| 2022-07-31T12:46:48
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After last summer's heat wave, Oregon instituted new rules to protect outdoor workers on farms, construction sites and other locations. With the state heating up again, these rules are being tested.
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After last summer's heat wave, Oregon instituted new rules to protect outdoor workers on farms, construction sites and other locations. With the state heating up again, these rules are being tested.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/as-the-west-heats-up-oregons-new-outdoor-worker-protection-rules-are-being-tested
| 2022-07-31T12:46:52
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Even with sea level rise, Washington, D.C., will be largely safe from hurricane-related flooding because of its waterfront parks. But an NPR analysis finds that 1,000 people will still be at risk.
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Even with sea level rise, Washington, D.C., will be largely safe from hurricane-related flooding because of its waterfront parks. But an NPR analysis finds that 1,000 people will still be at risk.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/d-c-s-unique-history-provides-a-bit-of-extra-security-from-sea-level-rise
| 2022-07-31T12:46:58
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Hadi and Zeek Alrayes of Cape Coral, Florida, who have seen their electric bills at their ice cream shop double over the past year.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Hadi and Zeek Alrayes of Cape Coral, Florida, who have seen their electric bills at their ice cream shop double over the past year.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/floridians-are-seeing-their-electric-bills-spike-this-year
| 2022-07-31T12:47:04
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40238992
| 2022-07-31T12:47:06
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Happy Birthday, George Jetson? Published July 31, 2022 at 6:44 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email According to memes circulating on the internet, today is when George Jetson was born. He was the father in the 1960s television series "The Jetsons," set in what was then the future. Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/happy-birthday-george-jetson
| 2022-07-31T12:47:10
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40238993
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University, about the how monkeypox spreads and how people can protect themselves from the virus.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University, about the how monkeypox spreads and how people can protect themselves from the virus.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/how-to-protect-against-the-monkeypox-virus
| 2022-07-31T12:47:16
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40239055
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A deal for climate-related legislation boosts President Biden's legacy, but won't likely provide much help to Democrats in November's midterm elections.
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A deal for climate-related legislation boosts President Biden's legacy, but won't likely provide much help to Democrats in November's midterm elections.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/politics-chat-climate-related-legislation-bidens-approval-rating-and-the-midterms
| 2022-07-31T12:47:22
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| 2022-07-31T12:47:24
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'Prey' takes the Predator franchise to the great plains, 300 years ago Published July 31, 2022 at 6:44 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with actress Amber Midthunder about "Prey," the new sci-fi film in the Predator franchise in which she stars. Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/prey-takes-the-predator-franchise-to-the-great-plains-300-years-ago
| 2022-07-31T12:47:29
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40239411
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On-air challenge: Every answer today is a word or name with the accented syllable "sell" — in any part of the word, and in any spelling.
Ex. Place for wine to be stored --> CELLAR
1. Merry-go-round
2. Speed up, as a car
3. Alternative to Fahrenheit
4. Noted site of a 1965 march
5. Crunchy bit in a salad
6. Infrequently
7. Sportscaster Howard
8. Actor Peter who played Inspector Clouseau
9. Tennis star Monica
10. Mime Marceau
11. Boston's N.B.A. team
12. High-speed train service between Boston and Washington, D.C.
13. Picture you take with your own phone
14. Transparent sheet of wrapping material
15. New York's state motto ("Ever upward")
16. Outer casing of an aircraft engine
17. Have a party, as for a birthday
Challenge answer: 81
Winner: Ryan Berry of Seattle, WA
This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name a famous person in American television — 6 letters in the first name, 4 letters in the last. Switch the last letter of the first name with the first letter of the last. Then reverse the order of the two modified names. You'll get a phrase meaning "almost typical." What is it?
If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here by Thursday, August 4 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/sunday-puzzle-or-shall-we-say-sunday-sell-ebration
| 2022-07-31T12:47:35
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40239417
| 2022-07-31T12:47:39
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A new Beyonce album is like a solar eclipse in pop music: rare and spectacular. But what are some other summer releases? NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Reanna Cruz from the Switched on Pop podcast.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A new Beyonce album is like a solar eclipse in pop music: rare and spectacular. But what are some other summer releases? NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Reanna Cruz from the Switched on Pop podcast.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/the-latest-music-releases-to-add-to-your-summer-playlist
| 2022-07-31T12:47:41
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40239594
| 2022-07-31T12:47:45
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Steve Rosenthal of the Urban Institute about a tax loophole that allows hedge fund and private equity managers to pay a lower tax rate than middle-income Americans.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Steve Rosenthal of the Urban Institute about a tax loophole that allows hedge fund and private equity managers to pay a lower tax rate than middle-income Americans.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/this-tax-loophole-allows-hedge-funds-to-pay-a-lower-rate-than-middle-income-americans
| 2022-07-31T12:47:47
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/40239804
| 2022-07-31T12:47:51
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Former President Trump's legal troubles haven't stopped him from finding partners and customers for his business ventures. A Saudi-backed golf tour is the latest example.
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Former President Trump's legal troubles haven't stopped him from finding partners and customers for his business ventures. A Saudi-backed golf tour is the latest example.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/trump-inc-isnt-having-trouble-finding-business-partners
| 2022-07-31T12:47:53
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/articles/40239691
| 2022-07-31T12:47:57
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Ukraine says it is ready to resume grain shipments from its southern ports that stopped with the onset of the war with Russia. The grain could alleviate a global food shortage.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Ukraine says it is ready to resume grain shipments from its southern ports that stopped with the onset of the war with Russia. The grain could alleviate a global food shortage.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-07-31/ukraine-provides-a-bit-of-good-news-amidst-a-global-food-shortage
| 2022-07-31T12:47:59
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/articles/40239815
| 2022-07-31T12:48:03
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BEIJNG — The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, confirmed Sunday she will visit four Asian countries this week but made no mention of a possible stop in Taiwan that has fueled tension with Beijing, which claims the island democracy as its own territory.
Pelosi said in a statement she is leading a congressional delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan to discuss trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, security and "democratic governance."
Pelosi has yet to confirm news reports that she might visit Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in Beijing's dealings with the island in a phone call Thursday with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make its decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don't support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.
The Biden administration didn't explicitly urge Pelosi to avoid Taiwan but tried to assure Beijing there was no reason to "come to blows" and that if such a visit occurred, it would signal no change in U.S. policy.
"Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe," Pelosi's statement said.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the communists won a civil war on the mainland. Both sides say they are one country but disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership. They have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars of trade and investment.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but maintains informal relations with the island. Washington is obligated by federal law to see that Taiwan has the means to defend itself.
Washington's "One China policy" says it takes no position on the status of the two sides but wants their dispute resolved peacefully. Beijing promotes an alternative "One China principle" that says they are one country and the Communist Party is its leader.
Members of Congress publicly backed Pelosi's interest in visiting Taiwan despite Chinese opposition. They want to avoid being seen as yielding to Beijing.
Beijing has given no details of how it might react if Pelosi goes to Taiwan, but the Ministry of Defense warned last week the military would take "strong measures to thwart any external interference." The foreign ministry said, "those who play with fire will perish by it."
The ruling party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army, has flown growing numbers of fighter planes and bombers around Taiwan to intimidate the island.
"The Air Force's multi-type fighter jets fly around the treasured island of the motherland, tempering and enhancing the ability to maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity," military spokesman Col. Shen Jinke said on Sunday, referring to Taiwan.
Pelosi said her delegation includes U.S. Reps. Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mark Takano, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs; Suzan DelBene, vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee; Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Andy Kim, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.
A visit to Taiwan would be a career capstone for Pelosi, who increasingly uses her position in Congress as a U.S. emissary on the global stage. She has long challenged China on human rights and wanted to visit Taiwan earlier this year.
In 1991, as a new member of Congress, Pelosi irked Chinese authorities by unfurling a banner on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing commemorating those killed when the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests two years earlier.
"It's important for us to show support for Taiwan," Pelosi, a Democrat from California, told reporters this month.
But she had made clear she was not advocating U.S. policy changes.
"None of us has ever said we're for independence, when it comes to Taiwan," she said. "That's up to Taiwan to decide."
On Friday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tried to tamp down concerns.
"There's no reason for it to come to that, to come to blows," Kirby said at the White House. "There's no reason for that because there's been no change in American policy with respect to One China."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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| 2022-07-31T12:48:05
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/articles/40240149
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In 2012, Dana Cardile says she was at her then-boyfriend's house in Yonkers, N.Y. They were arguing, and he called the police. It was around 9 p.m. A group of officers arrived and told Cardile to show them her driver's license.
She alleged later in a lawsuit that on the way to retrieve her license from her car, she was violently assaulted by four male officers — pushed to the ground, kicked, grabbed by her throat and lifted to her feet, and repeatedly thrown against the trunk of her car. Cardile claimed that what happened was unprovoked. Officers took her to a holding cell, and after she requested medical care, according to her lawsuit, the police took her to a Yonkers hospital several hours later. There, she was treated for a fractured hand and injuries to her arm and shoulder.
"The uniform makes them feel like 'we can do what we want, and you sit there and shut up,'" says Cardile, who was 37 at the time of the incident.
In her federal civil rights lawsuit, filed two years after the incident, Cardile alleged that the officers used unreasonable and excessive force. The city of Yonkers denied wrongdoing — but settled with Cardile for $50,000.
Civil suits like this are often the only recourse citizens have for holding police officers accountable, and for some people the only way to obtain any sense of justice.
Yonkers is a small city just north of New York City. The Yonkers Police Department does not look like the community it serves. Yonkers is 19% Black and 40% Latino. But the police force of about 600 officers is nearly 75% white, according to the department.
NPR obtained records of payouts by the city of Yonkers for incidents of alleged police misconduct that took place between 2007 and 2020. When the city of Yonkers settled cases, it was made clear that the city and the officers involved in the lawsuits denied any wrongdoing.
We focused on this period because the incidents that resulted in payouts occurred as the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating the Yonkers Police Department and recommending areas for reform.
Even with the extra scrutiny from the Justice Department, the payouts by the city over alleged misconduct did not seem to have signaled that there were deeper systemic issues within the police department. Over the years, the number of incidents that resulted in a payout fluctuated: They peaked at 17 in 2012, dropped to a low of two in 2016, and bumped back up to eight in 2018.
Among our findings:
Christina Gilmartin, director of communications for the mayor of Yonkers, says lawsuits are settled for a variety of reasons and stressed that there is no admission of liability.
"Typically," she says, "there is some investigation after a claim is filed. Decisions are made based on the strength of the claim, the assessment of the damages, the anticipated cost of defense."
Settlements are paid for out of general tax revenues, she says, and are approved by the city council.
And according to Frank DiDomizio, public information officer for the Yonkers Police Department, "the Police Department does not play a role in the settlements."
He also noted, in a statement to NPR, that "we are an agency that averages 160,000 calls for service per year." He added that the NPR investigation only identified about 300 officers named in lawsuits over roughly 15 years, a tiny fraction "compared to the total contacts with the public."
"There is no policy ... of using less force."
When the Department of Justice began investigating the Yonkers Police Department in the summer of 2007, it was looking for a pattern of unlawful policing.
The Justice Department found what it called "significant concerns."
Two years into its investigation, it outlined findings in a 26-page letter to the city. It said that the Yonkers police did not have a "comprehensive" policy on the use of force, and that its manual contained little guidance for officers about when and how to use force.
Rather than providing definitions or legal standards of "reasonable" or "justified" force, the DOJ found that the Yonkers Police Department left it up to individual officers to define these terms for themselves. For example, its manual instructed officers to apply force to "appropriate" areas of the body, without giving further explanation. Regarding its policy on "deadly" use of force, the manual did not classify actions such as using an object to strike someone on the head, or putting them in a chokehold, as potentially fatal. The DOJ said the manual's piecemeal approach was "dangerous" and noted that the Yonkers police manual lacked information about how officers might use de-escalation techniques in lieu of force.
"There is no policy, nor even a suggestion, of using less force," the Justice Department concluded.
It outlined key areas of reform for the police department, including a recommended revamp of its use of force policies, and changes in how incidents involving force are reported.
The Justice Department inquiry was prompted by Karen Edmonson, who lives in Yonkers and worked for the Yonkers NAACP at the time. Around 2006, residents were reaching out to her with their stories about police misconduct. She says the first complaint she received was from a man who said he was assaulted by officers, then assaulted again in the waiting area of a Yonkers hospital where they took him for treatment. "I'll never forget that case," Edmonson says. "I was so furious about that."
Edmonson started spreading the word that she was collecting more stories. She opened up "town halls," at places like the public library, where people could come and describe what they experienced with police. "I called it therapy. People were coming and venting; they wanted to be heard. And I was listening," she says.
Eventually, Edmonson collected about 60 complaints of officer misconduct and forwarded those to the DOJ. "My job was to show the pattern," she said. "That was the only way to get the DOJ to come in."
Edmonson said she had hoped the DOJ's intervention would help reform the department and set things right: "My goal was for institutional best practices, to make it stop, and to make it a better police department."
Some reforms did take place. But our investigation found that despite the complaints Edmonson collected and the more than 100 payouts by the city of Yonkers while the Justice Department was providing oversight, incidents of alleged police abuse continued.
From broken bones to missing teeth
In state and federal court documents, plaintiffs claimed they were punched, kicked, tackled, or choked — sometimes as officers used racial slurs. Many alleged they were beaten with officers' batons or guns. Some claimed that officers kneeled on their backs and necks while they were face down on the ground.
One plaintiff alleged that officers put him in the back of a police car after arresting him, sprayed mace directly in his face and shut the doors, leaving him without ventilation. He claimed that police then took him to the parking lot of a local hospital and assaulted him again before bringing him inside for treatment. In a different case, a man alleged that as he was being choked and kicked by police, another officer arrived on the scene, called it a "party," and asked the other officers, "How could y'all start without me?"
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In almost half of the 102 cases we reviewed, people said they were hospitalized. Plaintiffs alleged in court documents that they had suffered a range of injuries: broken and fractured bones, head traumas, internal bleeding, loss of consciousness, eyes swollen shut, broken and missing teeth, and wounds that needed to be closed up with stitches or staples. Some claimed they faced repeated surgeries and chronic pain.
Most of the payouts in these cases were relatively small — sometimes as little as $1,500. The largest was a $1.15 million settlement to a woman severely injured by an officer who had responded to a call at a local bar. According to allegations in court records, she suffered a broken jaw, severe bruising to her face and other injuries.
Ray Fitzpatrick, an attorney who represents the city of Yonkers, said that since this large payout in 2017, the city has not seen any incidents involving use of force that are "very, very troubling." But our investigation found that the city paid $268,500 to settle 12 lawsuits alleging excessive use of force that occurred since that payout in 2017. In one, a man alleges that as he was retrieving his driver's license from his car, he was tasered and beaten. He claims he had to be treated for fractures to his face at a Yonkers hospital. While not admitting wrongdoing, the city of Yonkers settled his case for $50,000.
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Rewarding repeat offenders
After we had amassed a list of payouts over alleged misconduct, NPR discovered that the names of certain officers appeared over and over again. Ten officers were named in four or more settled cases for incidents that allegedly happened since 2007, and six officers were named in six or more cases.
There may be even more such cases since the court documents we reviewed left many officers unnamed. We counted more than 300 officers who were identified by name. Many others appeared simply as "John Doe."
We found that one officer, Alex Della Donna, was involved in at least nine settlements over alleged misconduct that happened after the DOJ started its investigation. The city has paid out $402,500 for cases that he was involved in. One case is still being litigated, although Della Donna retired at age 45 in late 2021.
NPR made numerous attempts to contact Della Donna, by phone and by email and through the police union, but was unable to reach him.
A plaintiff in one of those cases, who was 15 at the time, stated in her court complaint that police stopped her for driving a stolen vehicle. She alleges that police pointed a weapon at her, opened the driver's side door and pulled her out. She claims she hit the ground face first. She alleges that Della Donna and four other male officers severely beat her, that she suffered a broken nose and several missing teeth, and needed to be hospitalized. In her complaint, she says she heard officers laughing at her missing teeth; then she lost consciousness. She received a $33,000 settlement.
Another woman alleged in a court complaint that Della Donna coerced her to have sex with him at least seven times in an unmarked vehicle while he was on duty, promising her that in exchange he would get her drug charges dropped. In the court complaint, she claimed she was worried the charges could lead her to being deported and losing her children. She claims that she became suicidal. She received a $20,000 settlement.
Della Donna faced a disciplinary hearing 11 months after the suit alleging sexual assault was filed. His supervisors wrote that "his sexual relationship with a criminal defendant exhibited a ... lack of professionalism that reflected unfavorably upon the department." They revoked 30 days of paid leave and ordered him to retake an ethics training course.
In general, officers who were involved in frequent payouts were rarely disciplined, and when they were, their penalties were light.
That wasn't Della Donna's first disciplinary hearing. In another incident, according to department disciplinary records, Della Donna allegedly pinned down a man being held in the city jail. The records say he used his knee on the man's neck, even though the man wasn't resisting. Della Donna's supervisors revoked four days of paid leave.
Despite that disciplinary hearing and several subsequent lawsuits alleging misconduct, Della Donna received 14 departmental awards. In total he received 59 awards throughout the course of his nearly 15 years with the Yonkers Police Department.
This was part of another pattern we discovered: Even as the city of Yonkers was paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars involving complaints against these 10 officers, the Yonkers Police Department was rewarding many of them.
One officer, for example, was promoted to sergeant just three years after the city made the last of four payments in cases in which he was one of the defendants. Three of the four cases resulted in a settlement; the other was a jury verdict. The city paid out more than $417,000 in those cases. From the time of the first lawsuit to the last, the officer received 38 departmental awards.
Another officer, now retired, has been named in six cases — all alleging excessive force. The city has so far paid out more than $130,000 to settle those cases. In response to a request, the city could not provide any disciplinary records for this officer. During the years the city was negotiating the settlements, the officer received eight departmental awards.
Overall, of the 10 officers named at least four times in lawsuits where the city made a payout, seven of them received some kind of department commendation.
The Yonkers Police Department says the awards and any payouts for alleged misconduct are separate matters. "Officers receive departmental awards for specific incidents that they are involved in, exclusive from any previous events," says DiDomizio, the public information officer for the Yonkers Police Department.
He added: "Only the details surrounding a particular event are taken into consideration when reviewing departmental recognitions. Although an Officer may have had an incident(s) in the past that resulted in litigation, it does not preclude them from being recognized for an exemplary job during another incident that is deserving of an award."
"A couple of dollars to shut up?"
Victims who got paid said they still feel that justice wasn't done. What they wanted was for the cops to be held accountable.
The Yonkers Police Department — because of the oversight from the Department of Justice and reforms pushed by former Police Commissioner John Mueller — has made changes.
In 2017, it updated its use of force policy to include de-escalation practices and techniques. It now requires officers to issue verbal warnings, when "practical." And it requires officers to de-escalate a situation if a subject being arrested stops resisting.
Officers must also now wear name tags.
The number of times officers reported using force went down while Mueller was in charge, and the crime rate in Yonkers went down too. Mueller left the force in April of this year.
However, complaints leading to payouts, though up and down over the years, persist.
The department and the city of Yonkers say the settlements are meant to compensate people for harm done. Andrew Quinn, a lawyer for the union representing Yonkers police officers, said that settlement amounts are determined by estimating how much income a person and their dependents will have lost while recovering from injuries.
For some people, the settlements are meaningful, according to Rose Weber, a civil rights lawyer who has represented many plaintiffs in Yonkers. "From the perspective of many of my clients, who are very low-income, what seems like a low settlement to you or me, could be life-changing for them." She recalled one plaintiff who was able to get off the streets and pay rent in an apartment for a year or so after receiving his settlement.
Edmonson, the former NAACP activist who held the public "town halls" that helped get the Justice Department involved in Yonkers, sees it differently.
"People who came and told their stories wanted to see certain officers go to jail. Others wanted to feel heard and feel a sense of some justice," she says. " It's not about getting money. Money won't fix the emotional trauma."
Cardile, the woman who claims she was pushed to the ground and pulled up by the neck at her boyfriend's house, says the $50,000 settlement she received was not entirely satisfying.
"I didn't care about the money," she said. "They were giving me a couple of dollars to shut up? I wanted those officers to lose their jobs, or their pensions."
Without accountability, Cardile said of officers who engage in misconduct, "they're free to do this to somebody else."
METHODOLOGY: HOW WE COMPILED THE DATA
Records of payouts to plaintiffs involving police misconduct are not easily tracked. We asked the city of Yonkers through a public records request for cases it settled. It had to create a list and it identified 140 cases. We independently found 10 other cases. We then narrowed the overall list in the following ways:
— We eliminated cases in which the incident happened before 2007, the year the Justice Department began investigating the Yonkers police.
— We did not count cases where we learned from the city's legal department that payouts took place before a court case was filed.
— We did not count cases where we could not locate court documents in federal or state court databases.
We tried to corroborate as much information as possible — including the specific allegations against officers — in court records.
That winnowed our list from the 140 cases the city said it settled to the 102 cases we analyzed here.
Of the 102 cases, 95 were settlements in which the city paid out money to the plaintiff but admitted no wrongdoing. Seven payouts were jury verdicts in which the city and/or the officer was found liable after the plaintiff had the opportunity to make their case in court.
Among those cases, we counted the allegations asserted in the court complaints; most cases included multiple allegations. The categories of allegations that we cite are derived from those court records, either from the type of violation claimed under the law, or in some instances, from the background facts alleged to support the claim. In some cases, we combined categories that were similar. For example, we combined the separate allegations of assault, battery, and excessive force into one category: assault and/or excessive force. There are more allegations listed in court records that we did not include.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-07-31/alleged-police-misconduct-cost-yonkers-n-y-millions-the-complaints-kept-coming
| 2022-07-31T12:48:11
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Growing up, thriller author Megan Miranda spent time at her grandparent's house in the Poconos. There wasn't any cell service — it was just her and her family out there in the woods, cut off from society. "During the day, it would be this grand adventure," recalls Miranda. "But at night I would just stare out into the darkness thinking, 'what is out there?' "
So began Miranda's long obsession with the duality of nature — at once, a beautiful serene place, and also, with just a slight change of perspective, a terrifying one.
"You step inside the woods and it feels like legends can almost be real," she says on a recent hike near her home in North Carolina. "It's a place where things are hidden, but also you can hide. It's just a great place for thrillers."
Nature — woods, lakes, and the ocean — has become a consistent, often menacing character in Miranda's more than a dozen thrillers. Her latest novel, The Last To Vanish, takes readers to a small hiking town in North Carolina, pushed up against the Appalachian Trail. There, 7 people have disappeared in the woods over the last 25 years. Were they all accidents — hikers doomed by nature — or was it something more sinister?
As we hike through the wetlands trail near Miranda's home, the green trees glisten from recent rain, the air thick with moisture. The woods are lush and full in mid-July and you can't really see past 20 feet. It was on a hike just like this that the idea for Last to Vanish came to her.
"It had just rained," explains Miranda as we walk, "and inside the woods, it still sounded like it was raining. I took out my phone right then and started taking notes. It reminded me of this idea of echoes of the past, of a town where everything you are seeing already happened. I went home and started writing immediately."
That seed of an idea turned into a much more complex web. The main character, a young woman named Abby, is an outsider who moved to the small fictional town of Cutters Pass a decade ago. She works at the inn at the base of the mountain, the last place so many hikers were seen alive.
From The Last To Vanish:
He arrived at night in the middle of a downpour. The type of conditions more suitable for a disappearance. I was alone in the lobby, removing the hand-carved walking sticks from the barrel behind the registration desk, replacing them with our stash of sleek navy umbrellas when someone pushed through one of the double doors at the entrance. The sound of rain cascading over the gutters, the rustle of hiking pants, the screech of boots on polished floors. A man stood just inside as the door fell shut behind him, with nothing but a black raincoat and some sob story about his camping plans. Nothing to be afraid of. The weather. A hiker.
The room where Miranda writes her thrillers is on the second floor of her home in Davidson, North Carolina. There are elements of her new book around the room: hiking sticks she and her husband got on a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains lean against a bookshelf and there are pictures of her and her family hiking, hung up around her desk.
Her method of writing includes keeping spreadsheets that detail the story. "I don't have a murder wall," Miranda explains with a laugh, "it's all on a piece of paper." Columns include dates, plot points, major turning points (ex: a body is found), and clues (ex: there's glass in her toes, blood in the hall but nowhere else.)
She pulls out the spreadsheet for The Last To Vanish. "I'll try not to give any spoilers," she says as she trails her finger down the page. It lands on a clue halfway down: a window is left open in a cabin. "I remember writing that and thinking like, is that something I will use or is that something I won't use?" she says. It's not giving away too much to divulge that the open window ends up being important.
A thriller writer who is scared of many things
On our hike, we pass a pond filled with frogs. We stop to listen, enchanted by the sounds of the woods. The recent rain has made the trail muddy, and as we navigate a few patches, I notice Miranda is deep in thought; her writing brain spinning. Spending time in the woods can do that to you.
"Right now, I was like, 'What would this be like to run on when it's a little muddier?' How can I use that? It changes so much, whether it's been rainy, or what season of the year it is." She looks off to the side of the trail, into the dense landscape of trees and bushes. "You know, we're focused on the trail right now, but there's this whole other part to it where you'd get quite tangled if you ran away," I ask her if she's always thinking about running away. "I'm not," she says laughing, "I just have that on my mind."
Growing up, Miranda's mom was an avid mystery book reader who brought her daughter to the library once a week. Miranda remembers leaving the library holding a stack of books. Nancy Drew was an early favorite — but she's always loved books that had an element of wilderness to them: Hatchet, Where The Red Fern Grows, and Bridge to Terabithia.
The question of the unknown — the what-ifs — was always alluring to Miranda, who started solving mysteries, first in the field of science — working in biotech after college and becoming a high school science teacher — before she tried her hand at writing thrillers.
As we make our way down the trail, I ask Miranda what scares her. "I have an overactive imagination, so I am afraid of many things," she says. She's especially afraid of being alone in the woods at night. Feeling vulnerable and on edge, not knowing what else is out there. "The idea that you hear footsteps behind you and you can't see it and they stop when you stop," she says, "that to me is this terrifying idea." That feeling when the hair on the back of your neck stands up, you feel the tension in your shoulders, and you have a sharp focus on just getting to safety — that's the feeling Miranda is trying to capture in her books.
And yet, it's intriguing that someone who spends her life writing books with tension and murder is seemingly afraid of most things. How does someone who scares so easily, not just read — but write — thrillers?
"I think it's almost a safe way to explore it," she says, "It is like you're taking a journey and you know you're making it through to the other side. I think there is a comforting element and that relief at the end of it." Because in fiction, unlike in life, the murders and the mysteries have a resolution, or an answer or an explanation, which is really the safest way to feel scared.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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At the Police Training Academy in Madison, Wis., there are 46 recruits in two groups for the class of 2022. Nikki Acker, 36, is one of nine female trainees in the group who are new to policing.
Part of their training today is how to handcuff a person. Their shoes squeak on the blue floor mats as they practice.
Acker used to be a teller at a credit union and worked in property management. She's 5'4" and never imagined being a police officer until she got a job working as a clerk in the records department.
"I guess I had in my mind the stereotype of these big guys with military backgrounds," she laughs, "and once I started learning more and getting involved in reading reports and seeing the calls, I learned that they're so much more than that."
They're often people with good communication skills, she says, problem-solving skills — and she felt that type of job was something she could do.
Despite all the controversy surrounding policing, her husband and friends encouraged her to try it.
"And if I don't, who does?" she says.
Women in policing
Women make up just 12% of the law enforcement officers in the country and 3% of police leadership. One of the efforts to increase those numbers is called the 30x30 initiative.
The program aims to have women make up 30 percent of the recruits in police training classes by 2030.
Maureen McGough, chief of staff at the Policing Project at New York University School of Law, is one of the founders of the initiative.
"It's not just about getting women in the door," she says, "but on transforming police agencies by taking a deep look at policies, procedures and culture."
Nearly 200 agencies across the country have signed onto the project. Interest surged after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests that followed. The Madison Police Department was one of the first to pledge its support.
The agency already has one of the highest percentages of female police officers on the job — 28% of Madison's 509 sworn police officers. That's a distinction the department emphasizes in a recruitment video.
Several decades ago, a former police chief focused on creating a more diverse police force — convinced that it would be beneficial. Other leaders stayed true to the commitment.
"There's been a lot of scrutiny of the profession, understandably and justifiably so," says Madison Asst. Police Chief Paige Valenta, the highest-ranking woman on the force.
While many agree that police departments should reflect the communities they serve, critics argue that efforts to hire women and people of color can't eliminate longstanding bias and racism in policing.
Valenta says the challenging atmosphere has made recruiting difficult throughout the country.
"It's not traditionally been a profession that's been very welcoming to women," says Valenta. "S0, I do think there's a long way to go nationally, but I do think that we have been doing a lot of good things and are way ahead of the curve in Madison."
Bringing change started small
Some changes designed to improve the experience of women in the ranks are simple, low-cost steps, says Valenta — like using inclusive language and saying "patrol officer" instead of "patrolman."
Women can wear a load-bearing vest instead of a belt full of equipment around the waist. Sgt. Theresa Magyera, who oversees recruitment and training at the Academy, says despite changes there are still barriers.
"The really difficult part of the job revolves around kids and families," Magyera says. "I was in patrol when I got pregnant, and I stayed working until I was 14 weeks pregnant."
Pregnant officers can be assigned light duty and work inside. Madison police stations also have breast-feeding rooms for officers with infants.
Magyera did not return to a patrol assignment. Instead, she landed the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift as the Academy's training director. New recruits are often assigned to afternoons or night shifts and that makes finding daycare for children challenging. Female officers with children who work a daytime shift often don't try for promotions so they can keep their family-friendly hours. Something a male officer rarely has to contemplate.
What can also be daunting are the physical aspects of the entrance exam. For example, applicants must be able to do 15 pushups to get in the door, then 18 at the beginning of training and 23 at the end. Magyera says the training team offers help to women and men who don't pass the fitness test on the first try.
"We allow them a second-chance opportunity," Magyera says. "We give them specific exercises to help them increase their pushup count or their sit-up count and they come back and they pass it and that's a huge win for us."
On her way to answer a dispatch call, patrol officer Nicole Schmitgen chuckles as she remembers her struggle. "I was still in grad school when I applied the first time. I couldn't get my pushups."
She succeeded the second time, after other recruits and her sister helped her train.
"I'm hopeful that people, especially women, can realize that this isn't just about the physical aspect of things," she cautions. "Does it help to be fit? Absolutely. But I would say that's only 10 to 20 % of my job."
Benefits and criticism of female cops
Nearly 270,000 people live in Madison. The crime rate is lower than the rest of the country and other cities its size like Fort Wayne, Ind., and Reno Nev. In 2020, there were reports of 738 violent crimes, according to FBI data.
Officer Schmitgen patrols solo — answering 9-1-1 calls and keeping an eye out for trouble in Madison's central district around the state capital and part of the University of Wisconsin campus.
Her patrol car is a rolling office. The dispatch radio is stationed low under the dash. There's a computer and also a rifle. This is Schmitgen's second year on the job. She has a master's degree in social work and says what drew her to law enforcement was Madison's record of community policing and its high percentage of female officers.
She adds while people think policing is about guns, drugs and driving fast — it's more about communication and helping people.
Almost on cue, there's a call on the radio — a dispatcher says officers need to check for a woman at her apartment. She's known to have dementia, and a worried friend says she left a hospital.
Schmitgen types on the computer — looking for more information — and an alert with a picture of the woman pops up. At the apartment, there's no answer but later, police find the woman — safe and sound.
Schmitgen is on to the next call. The summer is a busy time, she says, and the reaction she gets as a female police officer varies.
"I've had calls where the victim is a survivor of sexual assaults and they prefer speaking to a woman and that's my purpose. That's why I'm here," she says. "And then there's where I am being catcalled, I'm being called a bitch, I'm being called everything under the sun. It comes in waves."
University of Wisconsin Law Professor Keith Findley is a member of Madison's Police Civilian Oversight Board. He says a plethora of research shows that women on the force have a positive impact on police departments and communities. He says they are often better at communicating and de-escalating tense situations.
"They are sued less frequently than male counterparts, they make fewer discretionary arrests, especially of non-white residents," Findley says. "They use force less frequently, and excessive force less frequently, than their male counterparts."
Findley says research also shows female police officers are trusted more in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, both of which are policed more heavily.
Some communities say gender doesn't always bring change
But not everyone agrees. Brandi Grayson scoffs at the idea of gender changing the culture of policing. She's the CEO of the non-profit Urban Triage, a support organization for Black residents and Black communities.
She's also been at the forefront of protests over the deaths of Black men killed by police — including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 and George Floyd in Minneapolis two years ago.
There also have been protests in Madison over fatal police shootings, including the 2015 death of Tony Robinson, a biracial man. Authorities ruled the white officer involved had used lawful deadly force.
Less than 7% of Madison's population is African-American, but Blacks made up 47 percent of those arrested during the first quarter of this year. Police records show that in the nearly 30,000 calls to police during that time, force was used in .21% or 64 of the encounters. Assistant Chief Valenta says it can be complicated to determine whether there's less force used by males or females since it's often a combination of female and male officers responding to a call.
But Grayson maintains it makes little difference if a female police officer is in a patrol car. She says institutions train people to behave in certain ways and even though Madison's police department is already 28% female, it hasn't made a dent in the deep racial disparity when it comes to arresting and incarcerating African-Americans and specifically black youth.
"Maybe, they don't yell as much, but they still arrest us. Maybe they don't shoot us, but we still get arrested, we still get ticketed," she says. "And often times, when you are part of a vulnerable population — and I say vulnerable, I mean oppressed, women are oppressed as well, right? You have to conform or you're out."
It's that allegiance "to the blue," says Grayson, that makes it impossible for the addition of more women or people of color to change policing. She considers the 30x30 initiative more public relations than a reform.
"Until we are honest about what's needed — which means defunding police and investing in people, investing in resources and opportunities and the things we know decrease community violence and decrease arrests — then what are we talking about?" she asks.
Grayson adds there may be a few instances of female police officers acting compassionately, but she says that's just not enough because there are so many other instances of Black youth and Black people being harmed by police.
Ivonne Roman, a co-founder of the 30x30 initiative, argues that the project will make change. She's a former chief of the Newark, N.J., police department, and says while it is difficult to shift the culture of policing, 30% of marginalized people in any group is a tipping point.
"(That's) where they are able to say, 'This isn't right and this is affecting us negatively,' and they don't feel there will be negative consequences associated with it."
Roman says as the 30x30 initiative grows, the influence of a critical mass of women in law enforcement will be key in redefining what policing means.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-07-31/increasing-women-police-recruits-to-30-could-help-change-departments-culture
| 2022-07-31T12:48:23
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This past week, in the midst of many competing events, the nation's news-aware and money-savvy cohorts gave their undivided attention to a professorial-looking fellow calmly reading from a piece of paper.
The bespectacled reader was Jerome Powell, who bears a weighty title as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank. While he is unknown to most Americans, his economic power is sometimes said to rival that of the president himself.
And while few voters may be thinking of Powell as they go to the polls in November, all will be coping with economic conditions strongly influenced by Powell's little-known institution.
The Fed is the latest Washington power center trying to smile for its closeup — caught in the bright glare of contemporary media attention. Like the Supreme Court, which has been barricaded behind new fencing since it overturned the federal protection for abortion rights, the Fed governors have preferred to exercise their extraordinary authority quietly in near anonymity.
The same could be said for top decisionmakers at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and others responsible for fighting the COVID and monkeypox viruses. Scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci have become household names and symbols, praised as saviors and condemned as tyrants.
The curtain has even been drawn back on the Constitution-based oddity known as the Electoral College, an assembly of 535 actual persons who meet at a specified interval every four years and elect the president. Normally a routine exercise noticed by few, the Electoral College has become another focal point in the current congressional investigation of former President Trump's efforts to stay in office after losing the 2020 election.
That particular investigation has even pierced some of the murkiness of the Secret Service, which cannot account for the loss of critical text messages during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
All these institutions are usually run by individuals who operate with little public notice and speak in the code of their own professional expertise. Each agency has its unwritten protocols — which have minimal oversight and scant public knowledge.
And they have an extraordinary level of authority. While their top officials have been appointed by a president at some point, they all operate with remarkable independence thereafter.
The special case of the Fed
Secretive as many parts of the government may be, there are moments when any may be subject to exposure. This past week, it was showtime for the Fed.
Powell was on TV to read out a number set by an internal committee of the Board, a committee he also chairs. It is called the Federal Open Market Committee, and it votes on the "federal funds rate" which governs the cost of loans between financial institutions.
The FOMC consists of the seven presidentially appointed governors of the Federal Reserve and five from among the 12 presidents of the regional Federal Reserve Banks (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Dallas, Kansas City, and San Francisco).
The image has long been that of a crusty collection of aging white males who tend to be conservative financiers. The current board, however, has come to look a good deal more like the country.
The seven presidentially appointed members include the recently confirmed Vice Chair Lael Brainard and two other women. Two of the seven are African Americans, both appointed by President Biden. In partisan terms, three are Republicans, including Powell, and four are Democrats. Three were appointed (or re-appointed) by Trump, four by Biden.
This week, the change in the federal funds rate — the number the nation was waiting to hear — came in at 75, as in 75 basis points (or three-quarters of one-percent). It was instantly fed into countless computer programs and repeated endlessly in the media all over the world.
It moved the financial markets globally in real time, and the remarks Powell read from his notes on old-fashioned paper this week actually cheered some investors and helped the stock market indices to their best 3-day rally in months and the S&P 500 to its best month since 2020.
The federal funds rate can also determine the fate of individual businesses and the direction of entire industries. Not to mention the trajectories of presidents and their political parties.
Powell made clear the FOMC's intent was to restrain the effects of inflation, which last month came in at an annualized rate of more than 9%. As has been widely noted, that was the highest in four decades. This week another number, the "personal consumption expenditures" price index (PCE), came in "hotter" than expected, pointing to the likelihood our current inflation is already in double-digit territory.
The other number, which got far more attention, was this week's Gross Domestic Product reading for June. It showed the economy grew in nominal dollars in the first six months of the year but actually shrank by a little less than a percentage point when the numbers are adjusted for inflation.
That made for the second three-month period in a row with such a reading (the shrinkage for the first quarter of the year had been 1.6 percent). That met one common definition for a recession (although not the one preferred by most economists).
The moment vs. the momentum
After his announcement this week, Powell also read comments suggesting more rate hikes would be likely but not automatic. He noted that the latest increase, the fourth this year, brought the benchmark as high as 2.5% – a hefty move considering that the Fed's rate had been, in effect, zero — an extreme reached twice in recent history. The first was in 2009 in the so-called "Great Recession," the second in the recession of 2020-2021 the followed the onset of COVID.
Powell stuck around onstage answering reporters' questions about recession. The chairman made it clear he did not see a recession at the moment, due to strong production and sales numbers and the continuing strength of hiring in the job market. The unemployment rate is a strikingly low 3.6% as of June.
Powell may well be right about the moment, but he knows that's not the same as the momentum. His own policies contemplate pushing the economy toward, if not into, a recession. That is how those policies seek to break the inflationary cycle.
Politically, the obvious takeaway from such a moment would be that people struggling with higher prices might soon be working fewer hours or losing their jobs entirely. And the consequences of that have been pretty clear in midterm elections for generations.
Still, in the complex economic and political environment of our post-COVID world, it is possible that past experiences are less than perfect predictors.
The performance of equity markets such as the S&P 500 late in the week was taken as evidence the economic picture might be brighter than imagined.
The hope is that the fastest rate hikes since Fed Chairman Paul Volcker's reign of terror began in 1979 can have the desired effect without anything approaching the same degree of collateral damage.
There may be no such thing as a perfect "soft landing," but Powell at this point can at least hope for what he calls "softish."
A storied past
The Fed is now 109 years old, a creation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 during what we now call the Progressive Era. President Woodrow Wilson and his first session of Congress had the rather idealistic notion of removing certain key economic decisions from the pressures of politics and the markets.
Its initial purpose was to manage the money supply, maintain value and prevent the kind of panics that had periodically plagued the economy in the 1800s. Since World War II, however, it has become increasingly imperative for the Fed to also mind levels of unemployment in making its calculations. This "dual mandate" has complicated Fed operations ever since, and Powell alluded to it this week.
Powell is the 16th person to chair the Fed and the latest to struggle with those decisions and pressures. While some have been more successful than others, all have been caught in the crossfire of criticism while in the job and especially after leaving it. Some who were hailed as heroes in their tenure have subsequently borne blame for bad things that happened later.
Alan Greenspan was dubbed an economic "Maestro" by some journalists (and one biographer) for his 18 years as charman (1987-2006), a period when even sharp increases in the federal funds rate often had relatively manageable consequences. But after he retired, Greenspan was faulted by some for the rapid rise in home valuations and alternative debt instruments that led to the crash of 2008 and the "Great Recession" that followed.
Reagan stuck with the medicine and its medicine man
Volcker, who chaired the Fed from the fateful summer of 1979 until Greenspan took over has been lionized as the man who beat double-digit inflation. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter at a point when inflation had reached nearly 14%, Volcker immediately set about persuading the Board of his day that drastic measures were mandatory
"At the time, the resulting inflationary psychology was so deeply embedded that almost everyone despaired at purging it," wrote financial journalist Robert Samuelson in his book The Great Inflation and its Aftermath in 2008. "Only the unexpectedly savage recession of 1981-82, when unemployment peaked at nearly 11 percent, succeeded in doing so."
That "savage" recession had already begun by the summer of 1981, when Volcker and his board continued raising the federal funds rate past 20%. Volcker was not cooling the economy so much as strangling it.
Even before that recession struck with full force, the "stagflation" of the 1970s had proved too much for Carter. While other issues mattered in Carter's loss to Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, economics had set the stage.
Reagan stuck by the medicine and the medicine man. Volcker and his board raised the federal funds rate as high as 20% in 1981. Srre enough, Republicans suffered losses around the country in the midterms of 1982, especially in governorships. But Reagan's working majority of Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress survived largely intact. He reappointed Volcker the following year, as the medicine continued to prove effective against the underlying disease.
Widely vilified as the man who brought on double-digit joblessness in the early 1980s, Volcker had the satisfaction of seeing both the unemployment number and the inflation rate beaten back down into low-single digits during his second term as chairman. He retired but returned to advise the policymakers dealing with the Wall Street crisis in 2008.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-07-31/meet-the-fed-the-latest-superpower-to-emerge-from-washingtons-shadows
| 2022-07-31T12:48:29
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More than two years after Georgia Linders first got sick with COVID, her heart still races at random times.
She's often exhausted. She can't digest certain foods.
Most days, she runs a fever, and when her temperature gets up past a certain point, her brain feels like goo, she says.
These are commonly reported symptoms of long COVID.
Linders really noticed problems with her brain when she returned to work in the spring and summer of 2020. Her job required her to be on phone calls all day, coordinating with health clinics that service the military. It was a lot of multitasking, something she excelled at before COVID.
After COVID, the brain fog and fatigue slowed her down immensely. In the fall of 2020, she was put on probation. After 30 days, she thought her performance had improved. She'd certainly felt busy.
"But my supervisor brought up my productivity, which was like a quarter of what my coworkers were doing," she says.
It was demoralizing. Her symptoms worsened. She was given another 90-day probation, but she decided to take medical leave. On June 2, 2021, Linders was terminated.
She filed a discrimination complaint with the government, but it was dismissed. She could have sued but wasn't making enough money to hire a lawyer.
Survey data suggests millions of people aren't working because of long COVID
As the number of people with post-COVID symptoms soars, researchers and the government are trying to get a handle on how big an impact long COVID is having on the U.S. workforce. It's a pressing question, given the fragile state of the economy. For more than a year, employers have faced staffing problems, with jobs going unfilled month after month.
Now, millions of people may be sidelined from their jobs due to long COVID. Katie Bach, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, drew on survey data from the Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the Lancet to come up with what she says is a conservative estimate: 4 million full-time equivalent workers out of work because of long COVID.
"That is just a shocking number," says Bach. "That's 2.4% of the U.S. working population."
Long COVID can be a disability under federal law
The Biden administration has already taken some steps to try to protect workers and keep them on the job, issuing guidance that makes clear that long COVID can be a disability and relevant laws would apply. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example, employers must offer accommodations to workers with disabilities unless doing so presents an undue burden.
Linders now she thinks back to what she should have asked for after her return to work. She was already working from home due to the pandemic, but perhaps she could have been given a lighter workload. Maybe her supervisor could have held off on disciplinary action.
"Maybe I wouldn't have gotten as sick as I got, because I wouldn't have been pushing myself to do the things that I knew couldn't do, but I kept trying and trying," she says.
Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has seen COVID play out in similar ways in other patients.
"If someone has to go back 100% when they start feeling a little bit better, they are going to crash and burn fast," she says.
Figuring out accommodations for long COVID can be complicated
The problem with coming up with accommodations for long COVID is that there are so many unknowns. The duration and severity of symptoms varies wildly from person to person.
Gutierrez finds herself stumped by questions on disability forms that ask how long an individual might be out or how long their illness may last.
"This is a new condition," she says. "We don't know."
Accommodations in the workplace might include flexibility in where someone works, extended leave, or a new role in a different department. The goal is to get workers on a path back, says Roberta Etcheverry, CEO of Diversified Management Group, a disability management consulting firm.
But with long COVID, it's difficult to measure whether an employee is in fact on a path back.
"This isn't a sprain or strain where somebody turns an ankle and we know in x amount of months, they're going to be at this point," she says. "It's not — somebody was helping move a patient, and they hurt their back, and they can't do that kind of work anymore. They need to do something else."
With long COVID, symptoms come and go, and new symptoms may arise.
The Labor Department is urging employers not to rule out accommodations for employees who don't get an official long COVID diagnosis.
"Rather than determining whether an employee has a disability, your focus should be on the employee's limitations and whether there are effective accommodations that would enable the employee to perform essential job functions," the Labor Department says in its long COVID guide for employers.
Accommodations may be harder to come by in some jobs
Still, not all employers have the means to offer the kind of accommodation an employee may need given their symptoms.
Bilal Qizilbash believes he would have been fired long ago had he not been the boss of his own company.
"Majority of my team has no idea that I'm working from bed most of the time," says Qizilbash, a COVID long hauler who suffers chronic pain that he compares to wasp stings.
As the CEO of a small business that manufactures health supplements, Qizilbash says he tries to be compassionate and at the same time, ruthlessly efficient. Having one employee whose productivity is severely compromised could end up negatively impacting the whole company, he says.
In other professions, it may be challenging to find accommodations that work, no matter how generous.
In South Florida, Karyn Bishof was a new recruit with the Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue team in 2020 when she contracted COVID, likely at a training, she says. She comes from a family of firefighters, and it was her lifelong dream to follow suit. But long COVID has left her with profound brain fog, fatigue, light-headedness and a slew of other symptoms incompatible with fighting fires.
"I couldn't run into a burning building if I can't regulate my temperature," she says. "If I can't control having hypertension, I can't lift up a patient or I'm going to pass out."
Bishof was terminated from her job for not meeting performance-related probationary standards and has since become an advocate for COVID long haulers.
The Labor Department is crowdsourcing ideas for how to keep workers employed
Taryn Williams, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, wants to hear from workers and employers. Through the middle of August, the Labor Department is holding an online dialogue, asking for input on policies that may help with workplace challenges arising from long COVID.
"We want to be responsive," says Williams. "We're considering how can we support these workers in what is a transformative time in their life."
She says the government has encountered situations in the past when there was a sudden rise in the number of people needing accommodations at work. Significant numbers of service members returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries, for example. Williams says such times have led to shifts in disability policy in the U.S.
From her home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Linders has contributed a number of comments to the Labor Department's online dialogue. Like Bishof, she also spends a lot of time helping other COVID long haulers navigate what she's been through, including qualifying for Social Security disability insurance.
Her advocacy helps her feel as if she's contributing something to society, even if it's not the life she wanted.
"I don't want to be disabled. I don't want to be taking money from the government," she says. "I'm only 45. I was going to at least work another 20 years."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-07-31/millions-of-americans-have-long-covid-many-of-them-are-no-longer-working
| 2022-07-31T12:48:35
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(NEXSTAR) – Passengers aboard a recent American Airlines flight were delayed for several hours at Charlotte Douglas International Airport amid mechanical and weather-related issues. The flight, which was scheduled to leave for New York at 1:07 p.m. on July 24, didn’t depart until shortly after 7 p.m. that evening, and only after passengers were transferred to another plane, American Airlines confirmed.
Some passengers had complained of limited air conditioning or beverages during the nearly six-hour delay, the Charlotte Observer reported. One passenger, herself a Charlotte Observer reporter, claimed another traveler began “having a mental breakdown” during the wait and that some people had even “started sobbing.”
American Airlines issued a statement acknowledging the frustrating situation, but as far as the Federal Aviation Administration is concerned, the carrier appeared to abide by all rules and regulations for passengers awaiting takeoff.
According to the Department of Transportation, airlines are allowed to keep passengers on a departing flight for up to three hours (or four for an international flight) before they are required to start moving the plane “to a location where passengers can safely get off.” There are exceptions, of course, which are allowed “only for safety, security, or air traffic control-related reasons.”
In the case of last Sunday’s American Airlines flight, which was initially delayed after the flight crew detected a maintenance issue, the plane’s passengers were instructed to deplane at 3:50 p.m. After 40 minutes in the terminal, customers were transferred to a different plane, which began boarding at 4:30 p.m. but didn’t take off for New York until 7:03 p.m. due to lightning in the area, according to American Airlines.
American also claims that, for the majority of the delays, the plane was sitting at the gate with the jetbridge attached and the forward cabin door open for any passengers who wished to leave.
Because of this, a representative for American Airlines told Nexstar the incident didn’t officially qualify for the Department of Transportation’s definition of a “tarmac delay,” which only begins when the boarding doors are closed. Instead, a representative for the carrier referred to Sunday’s incident as an “extended gate delay.”
If this was a tarmac delay, however, the Department of Transportation explicitly states that passengers who choose to leave the plane could also be refused re-entry: Airlines are in no way required to let them back on the plane, and they may not even offload those passengers’ checked baggage.
“Passengers will need to contact the airline about returning their checked luggage at a later time,” the Department of Transportation writes.
As for food and beverages during tarmac delays, passengers are entitled to a drink and a snack (“such as a granola bar”) within two hours after the start of the delay, barring any significant safety or security reasons.
But what if your plane isn’t parked at the gate and it hasn’t yet been three hours (or four, for international flights) since the delay began? What happens if passengers begin requesting to be let off the plane? In that case, it’s usually up to the airline whether the aircraft can return to the gate and deplane passengers.
Many different agencies — Air Traffic Control, the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — can elect to allow a plane to disembark, depending on whether the aircraft is arriving (from a domestic or international location) or waiting to depart. But if the plane is simply waiting on the tarmac and there is no threat to the safety or security of passengers, the airline is generally in charge of deciding whether to deplane earlier than the required time frame.
A representative for Customs and Border Protection told Nexstar that CBP officials, too, can choose to contact the airline and begin facilitating the deplaning of an aircraft if circumstances necessitate it.
Each U.S. airline, meanwhile, is required by law to establish a Contingency Plan for Lengthy Tarmac Delays, to address passenger needs and rights. In the case of American’s Contingency Plan, all rules for tarmac delays appear as if they were followed during Sunday’s extended gate delay. Though, if the plane wasn’t parked at the gate with the door open — and the incident actually did qualify as a tarmac delay — the Charlotte Observer reporter, mentioned earlier, might feel warranted in arguing about the cabin temperature.
“We know it can be frustrating when travel doesn’t go as planned, and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American wrote in a statement shared with Nexstar.
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| 2022-07-31T12:48:39
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The peak of Mauna Kea, a shield volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, is one of the world's most remote places.
The mountain's flat shape, gentle winds, and low humidity make it perfect for watching the stars.
"You add it all up and Mauna Kea is arguably number one in the world as a site for locating telescopes," said Doug Simons, the director of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.
The land on the mountain had been primarily administered by the university since the 1960s, but changes are on the way. A state law passed last month will transfer authority to a new stewardship authority composed of scientists, university officials and people in the local community.
The law is an important step towards ensuring the protection of Mauna Kea, a mountain native Hawaiians consider sacred, says Dr. Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, the executive director of the Lālākea Foundation, which aims to preserve the cultural practices and traditions of native Hawaiians.
"We do, to this day, believe that Mauna Kea, and the summit area in particular, is the place where the Earth Mother, or Papa, meets the Sky Father, Wākea," she said. "So all life begins at that point. And in our cosmology, and many of our ancient chants, Mauna Kea, the mountain, is the first born out of that union."
More than 11,000 acres of state-owned land on the mountain were leased to the University of Hawaii in 1968. This granted the university the right to use the land for scientific purposes, and to sublease land on the mountain to those wanting to build observatories on its peak. They've had control over managing the land there ever since.
There are now a total of 13 observatories on the mountain, with plans to decommission two of them to help reduce astronomers' footprint on the mountain.
But there are plans to add another, much bigger telescope already under way. The Thirty-Meter Telescope, or "TMT", named after the diameter of its primary mirror, would be one of the world's largest upon completion.
Scientists are excited about the new project, which was first granted a sublease on Mauna Kea in 2014. Its website says the new observatory would be able to provide images 12 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope and four times sharper than the new James Webb Space Telescope.
But there was strong opposition to its arrival.
Activists, including native Hawaiians and conservationists, protested the TMT multiple times between 2014 and 2019, saying its massive size could potentially spoil the land on Mauna Kea's already crowded summit.
Those protests, among other things, have stalled development on the project.
Wong-Wilson said native Hawaiians had been trying for decades to give their input on how the mountain — or mauna, in Hawaiian — should be managed, but their voices were often left unheard.
"Our plea was to consider the overall impact of all this development," Wong-Wilson said. "The decisions just never went our way."
There had been calls for changes to the management structure on the mountain, with many criticizing the University of Hawaii for its management. These re-emerged last year, with Hawaii House Speaker Scott Saiki making his position clear in a February address to the chamber.
"The University has tried to manage Mauna Kea, but for too long the University's work has been shrouded by its inability to appropriately manage cultural practices, resources and education," Saiki said. "This is why the University of Hawaii must no longer manage Mauna Kea and it should cease its work to extend the master lease."
University officials have acknowledged previous criticisms and apologized for them on multiple occasions, citing their continued commitment to protecting the mountain.
The result of those negotiations was a new bill, which proposed to create a new group tasked with managing the land: the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. The 11-member panel would include representatives from the university, the observatories, and — most notably for Wong-Wilson — two seats for native Hawaiians.
"This new act is the first time that native Hawaiians, cultural practitioners, and the community really have an opportunity to sit at the decision-making table and help to govern this very important place," Wong-Wilson said.
The authority will begin to administer the mountain jointly with the University of Hawaii in 2023. Then the new body will fully take over in 2028.
One of the first things on its plate will be the negotiation of new land leases on the mountain for its existing observatories. The original lease granted to the University of Hawaii says that all telescopes must stop operating by the time the lease expires in 2033.
John O'Meara, chief scientist at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, said that means the next few years will be crucial for astronomy in Hawaii.
Once it has full control over the mountain, the group will be tasked with negotiating new leases for the mountain's new and existing observatories to prevent them from being decommissioned.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding how negotiations will go, O'Meara said he thinks the creation of the new authority was a step in the right direction.
"I'm confident that astronomy can thrive in Mauna Kea and in Hawaii before 2033 and after," O'Meara said, "Because we're coming to a place of mutual stewardship — of everybody recognizing that it's the mauna at the center of this and not any one player."
How the authority will act depends on who gets appointed to serve as its members, a process that will be completed when the legislature reconvenes next year.
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| 2022-07-31T12:48:41
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You may have come across a meme showing an ancient fish known as Tiktaalik.
It shows the green, eel-like creature crawling out of the sea about 375 million years ago — about the time that scientists say fish developed the physical characteristics to survive on land — only to be directed to turn around.
The joke, as far as the meme goes, is that the fish should crawl straight back into the water to avoid the woes of our modern times.
Now, a new study published in Nature suggests a relative of Tiktaalik – named Qikiqtania wakei – did just that.
Dunno who made this, but yes. pic.twitter.com/JhxAACkTDu
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) December 7, 2021
"You had this evolutionary series of fish evolving to walk, but this one said, 'Eh, not going to do that one. I'm going back in,'" said Neil Shubin, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago who co-authored the study.
Shubin was part of the team who discovered Tiktaalik during a 2004 expedition in the Canadian Arctic. Qikiqtania was found on the same trip, but the fossil went mostly unstudied while the team focused on Tiktaalik.
"This new species is a very close cousin of Tiktaalik. We know that by looking at all the features," Shubin said. "In fact, it's a very close cousin of both Tiktaalik and creatures with arms and legs and fingers and toes, so-called tetrapods."
Early tetrapods were likely spending more and more time out of the water during this period, Shubin said. The arrangement of bones and joints in these animals' fins was starting to resemble arms and legs, which would have allowed animals like Tiktaalik to prop themselves up in shallow water and survive on mudflats.
But Tom Stewart, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State who also worked on the study, said Qikiqtania's physiology suggested it was swimming in open water. Qikiqtania's fins are the result of its swimming ancestors crawling onto land, then returning to the water.
"That's an unexpected pattern," he said. "That's not something that would have been predicted before we had a fossil like this."
The study expands paleontologists' understanding of this period in evolutionary history by showing that animals weren't just evolving from water-based fish to land-based tetrapods.
"The transition from life in water to life on land was going both ways," Shubin said.
Qikiqtania is a vivid counterexample to the long-debunked, yet enduring myth that evolution is a linear progression from one species to the next.
"We get introduced to the idea of evolution through images like an ape that slowly stands upright and then produces a man walking," Stewart said. "Those are some of these classic, iconic teaching tools ... but really, evolution doesn't work in that way."
Shubin said evolution was more accurately described as a set of branching paths, rather than a ladder. "Evolution is much more of a bush," Shubin said, "a tree of creatures evolving in many different directions."
We'll see how the memes evolve from here.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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| 2022-07-31T12:48:47
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The U.S. military runs more than 3,000 slot machines on American military bases overseas even though the rate of problem gamblers in the military is thought to be around twice that of the rest of the general population, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling, an organization that advocates for services to assist people and families affected by problem gambling.
The slot machines, operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, earn the DOD more than $100 million each year in the name of "morale, welfare, and recreation" for service members, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office that was written in response to demands from Congress.
Slots are often found on bases where there is precious little to do, like Diego Garcia – a 12-sq.-mile island in the Indian Ocean with a population of just over 4,000 people – where the Navy runs 52 slot machines. And they can be played by service members as young as 18 – individuals who wouldn't be allowed to enter most casinos in the U.S. before they turn 21.
Slots have had a contentious history in the military
In 1951, Congress banned slot machines from domestic military bases after passing legislation to that effect. Two decades later, the Army and Air Force removed them from all foreign bases as well, only to restore the foreign slot machines in the 1980s. The military's last accounting in 2017 showed that the machines are located on bases in 12 countries– mostly run by the Army.
The machines are managed by the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) groups of the respective military branches, which purport to "deliver high-quality, customer-focused programs and services that contribute to resiliency, retention, readiness and quality of life."
A Pentagon report in the early 2000s claimed that without the slot machines, the MWR groups would not be able to afford other amenities for military members such as golf courses and family activity centers. DOD spokeswoman Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman echoed that argument, telling NPR the machines "contribute significantly to the non-appropriated fund and many other recreation and entertainment overseas programs."
It's difficult to know the exact number of problem gamblers among service members since the military stopped screening for it more than a decade ago and has only resumed screening following the 2017 GAO report. However, a 2008 study of 31,000 Air Force recruits found that 6.2% exhibited some of the necessary behaviors to be deemed problem gamblers. A 2016 study on the experiences of returning veterans found that 4.2% were at-risk or problem gamblers after returning from deployment. Taking this and other studies into consideration, the National Council on Problem Gambling conservatively estimates that 4% of military personnel meet the criteria for moderate to severe gambling problems – twice the national average.
"Everything we know about military personnel — that they tend to be young, male, risk-takers, likely to be suffering from higher rates of substance abuse, stress, depression, PTSD or traumatic brain injuries — is conclusively correlated with problem gambling," Keith Whyte, executive director of the NCPG, told NPR.
While deployed overseas, service members are often isolated, separated from friends and family and receive increased pay. For those seeking recreation on base, slot machines are often just a quick walk away.
Congress has tried to step in
In 2018, lawmakers from both parties said they believed the number of problem gamblers in the military could potentially pose a threat to national security, making service members susceptible to blackmail and creating impediments to security clearances.
But legislation introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., to curb this threat and provide aid to those struggling with gambling addiction never made it into law.
Some individual veterans, including those affected by gambling addiction, say they view the machines as a technique in what some in the military call "harm reduction" – the idea that gambling on base might keep someone from doing so off base, where the odds may be worse and the stakes may be higher.
"I spent hours in front of the slot machines on base and usually left plus or minus $50," Ed Grabowski, Navy veteran, told NPR. "I don't see where that is really going to create an issue. I could drop $50 in a pinball machine."
But there are few – if any – studies that suggest that service members are better off playing slots on base than gambling elsewhere.
"From a gambling standpoint, there is no data to say that slot machines are a form of harm reduction," Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies program, told NPR.
Fong said he is focused on how these machines are regulated. "My concern is they're managed by the DOD – not by a public health institution or by groups that regulate gaming," he said.
Fong said he has met active duty military members who have developed gambling addictions in part because of easy access to slot machines on base. For Fong, one of the most dangerous aspects of gambling addictions is that they are not publicly obvious like other addictions.
The NCPG's Whyte agrees, noting that without some sort of realistic alert system or limit on gambling "the first signs of addiction are often other offenses like theft, fraud, going AWOL, [and] conduct disorders" – all offenses that could lead to a dishonorable discharge.
Often, by the time gambling addiction is discovered, it might be too late.
Aaron Walsh, an Army Apache pilot, lost $20,000 to the Army's slot machines in South Korea, resigned to avoid a court-marshal and ultimately committed suicide.
"I'm angry. That was a life lost needlessly due to the military's failure to take problem gambling seriously, and there are more of those stories," Whyte said.
The government has tried to take steps to address the issue, including through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs a program in Brecksville, Ohio, for veterans and active duty personnel struggling with problem gambling. Separately, the annual personal health assessment for all active duty military members now includes three health screening questions aimed at identifying gambling addictions.
The Defense Department says it has "extensive controls in place to minimize potential abuse by limiting hours of operation, limiting access to machines, limiting the number of machines in locations, limiting amount of money played and limiting the potential winnings."
Controls by themselves may not always be enough when access to slots are just steps away.
Army veteran Dave Yeagar says when he arrived at Yongsan Army Base South Korea right after Sept. 11, 2001, he didn't have a gambling problem. He says that even while living near Atlantic City, N.J., he was not tempted to play in the base's slots room like he was on base in South Korea.
"I found myself in there 7 days a week. ... The draw of those rooms and how easy it is to get to them is a lot of what led to my addiction developing," he told NPR, adding there was little oversight back then.
"There were literally days that I would go in there when the slot room opened on a Saturday morning and leave when it closed. Nobody came up to me and said, 'You've been here too long.' Nobody. Nothing," he said.
Yeager, who now mentors active duty members with gambling addictions, says he hasn't heard that anything has changed.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country Music Hall of Famer and Grammy winner Barbara Mandrell retired from music more than two decades ago, but the Grand Ole Opry still feels like home to her.
Mandrell, 73, made a rare public appearance on Saturday night at the Opry to celebrate her 50th anniversary of being an Opry member.
“Here we are at home again,” Mandrell told The Associated Press in an interview backstage at the Opry House before the long-running radio and TV program. “50 years. Not everybody gets that blessing.”
Born in Texas and raised in California, Mandrell was just 23 when she became a member in July of 1972. But she was already a seasoned entertainer by the time she came to Nashville, after her teenage years were spent playing steel guitar and appearing regularly on the California-based country TV show “Town Hall Party.”
Over her decades-long career, the actor, multi-instrumentalist and singer turned millions of fans onto country music in the ‘70s and ’80s, not only through her popular TV show “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,” but also through hits like “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” “If Loving You is Wrong (I Don’t Want to be Right)” and “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”
She became the first country artist to earn back-to-back entertainer of the year awards from the Country Music Association, crossing over with R&B covers and bringing glamour and showmanship to the genre. Her performances were a showcase of her musicality, whether she was singing to the top of the rafters, playing pedal steel, the banjo or the saxophone.
“It’s called show business. You need to show them something,” Mandrell said. “Otherwise, they could sit at home and listen to your recordings or listen to you on the radio. You’ve got to give them something that entertains them.”
With her sisters Louise and Irlene, Mandrell used the power of television to bring new ears to country music, as well as gospel music. Her musical guests were a mixture of R&B, pop and country artists.
“So many would say things like, ‘I never listened to country music, but now, boy, I’m watching every Saturday night and I love it,’” Mandrell said.
This Saturday night, Mandrell was still a champion of country music. Before the show began, Mandrell watched Carrie Underwood from side stage as Underwood did her soundcheck of “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” stopping to give her a hug and greeting Underwood’s band members.
Underwood said growing up, Mandrell’s voice was always around.
“She has been such an inspiration to me and so many others that stand on the shoulders of great female artists like her,” Underwood told the Opry crowd.
During the Opry show, Mandrell enthusiastically applauded the all-female artist lineup, including CeCe Winans, Linda Davis and Suzy Bogguss, as they performed her hits.
“I already feel on top of the world. I feel the deepest of gratitude and excitement because I am such a huge fan of these ladies,” said Mandrell.
From her seat in the middle of the crowd, Mandrell waved and blew kisses at her fans, who snapped photos of the country star.
Mandrell hasn’t played music or sung — other than in church — since she retired in 1997. Her last concert ever was held at the Opry House and made into TV special called, “Barbara Mandrell and the Do-Rites: The Last Dance.”
Dressed smartly in a hot pink pantsuit and surrounded by 50 vases of roses bought by her fans, Mandrell gave another goodbye from the same Opry stage 25 years later.
“I chose my home to do my final performance on and it was this one,” Mandrell said. “God bless you!” she told fans before she walked off stage into the shadows.
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https://www.opry.com/
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Follow Kristin M. Hall at https://twitter.com/kmhall
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| 2022-07-31T12:53:47
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California claims to know how much climate-warming gas is going into the air from within its borders. It's the law: California limits climate pollution and each year the limits get stricter.
The state has also been a major oil and gas producer for more than a century, and authorities are well aware some 35,000 old, inactive oil and gas wells perforate the landscape.
Yet officials with the agency responsible for regulating greenhouse gas emissions say they don't include methane that leaks from these idle wells in their inventory of the state's emissions.
Ira Leifer, a University of California Santa Barbara scientist said the lack of data on emissions pouring or seeping out of idle wells calls into question the state’s ability to meet its ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
Residents and environmentalists from across the state have been voicing concern about the possibility of leaking idle or abandoned wells for years, but the concerns were heightened in May and June when 21 idle wells were discovered to be leaking methane in or near two Bakersfield neighborhoods. They say that the leaking wells are “an urgent public health issue,” because when a well is leaking methane, other gases often escape too.
Leifer said these “ridealong” gases were his biggest concern with the wells.
"Those other gases have significant health impacts,” Leifer said, yet we know even less about their quantities than we do about the methane.
In July, residents who live in the communities nearest the leaking wells protested at the California Geologic Management Division’s field offices, calling for better oversight.
“It’s clear that they are willing to ignore this public health emergency. Our communities are done waiting. CalGEM needs to do their job,” Cesar Aguirre, a community organizer with the Central California Environmental Justice Network, said in a statement.
Robert Howarth, a Cornell University methane researcher, agreed with Leifer that the amount of methane emissions from leaking wells isn’t well known and that it’s not a major source of emissions when compared with methane emissions from across the oil and gas industry.
Still, he said, “it’s adding something very clearly, and we shouldn’t be allowing it to happen.”
A ton of methane is 83 times worse for the climate than a ton of carbon dioxide, when compared over twenty years.
A 2020 study said emissions from idle wells are “more substantial” than from plugged wells in California, but recommended more data collection on inactive wells at the major oil and gas fields throughout the state.
Robert Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist and co-author on that study, said they found high emissions from some of the idle wells they measured in the study.
In order to get a better idea of how much methane is leaking, the state of California is investing in projects on the ground and in the air. David Clegern, a spokesperson for CARB, said the agency is beginning a project to measure emissions from a sample of properly and improperly abandoned wells to estimate statewide emissions from them.
And in June, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a budget that includes participation in a global effort to slash emissions called the Methane Accountability Project. The state will spend $100 million to use satellites to track large methane leaks in order to help the state identify sources of the gas and cap leaks.
Some research has already been done, too, to find out how much methane is coming from oil and gas facilities. A 2019 Nature study found that 26% of state methane emissions is coming from oil and gas. A new investigation by the Associated Press found methane is billowing from oil and gas equipment in the Permian Basin in Texas and companies under report it.
Howarth said even if methane from idle oil and gas wells isn't a major pollution source, it should be a priority not just in California, but nationwide, to help the country meet its climate pledges.
“Methane dissipates pretty quickly in the atmosphere,” he said, “so cutting the emissions is really one of the simplest ways we have to slow the rate of global warming and meet that Paris target.”
A new Senate proposal would provide hundreds of millions dollars to plug wells and reduce pollution from them, especially in hard hit communities.
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Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — After a decade of vigorous opposition, most North Carolina Republicans have now embraced the idea of expanding the state's Medicaid program to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults. Legislative approval finally appears within reach.
During the General Assembly session that ended July 1, the GOP-controlled House and Senate passed separate, bipartisan measures by wide margins that would put the state on the path to Medicaid expansion. Some details remain to be worked out, but there's a real opportunity to hammer out a compromise by year's end.
It's a remarkable political turnabout in North Carolina, sure to be analyzed in the dozen states that have yet to accept the federal government's offer to cover people who make too much to be insured by traditional Medicaid but too little to receive subsidized private insurance.
“If there’s a person in the state of North Carolina that has spoken out against Medicaid expansion more than I have, I’d like to meet that person,” Senate leader Phil Berger said when he sought to explain his reversal at a news conference in May. “We need coverage in North Carolina for the working poor.”
The two chambers couldn’t work out their differences before adjourning, and talks between legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper — a longtime expansion supporter — have idled since then, at an impasse over other health care reforms that senators seek. But Berger remains bullish on ultimate success. “I think we'll get there,” he told reporters recently.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done ... but overall we are feeling extremely encouraged by how far we’ve come,” said Erica Palmer Smith, executive director of Care4Carolina, a coalition of 150 groups that has worked for expansion since 2014.
Other advocates are tired of waiting. They say too many of the working poor are uninsured, risking their health and their lives. Others on traditional Medicaid worry that without expansion, they'll no longer be covered if they make too much money.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Courtney Crudup, 32, of Oxford, a mother of three and a cosmetologist who is currently unemployed. She spoke this week outside the Legislative Building at an event urging lawmakers to act. “Hear our stories. Hear regular people like me and people that want to work."
The apparent change of heart followed years of GOP suspicion about the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which Republicans derided as “Obamacare” only to see the label, as well as the program, become highly popular.
For years, Republicans said they couldn’t trust Congress to keep the federal government’s promise to pay 90% of the costs of expansion. They said the state’s Medicaid program — now with 2.7 million enrollees — had been overspending for years and was ill-prepared to take on more.
And fundamentally, they argued that more people would become dependent on government if allowed to benefit from Medicaid, which now mostly serves poor children and their parents and low-income elderly people.
Republicans say North Carolina Medicaid spending is now largely under control and they don't think Congress will increase the state's share of the cost beyond 10%. The state’s portion — perhaps as much as $600 million annually — can be covered by assessments on the state’s hospitals and insurance plans.
Interest also grew when the 2021 COVID-19 federal relief package offered a financial sweetener to encourage the remaining holdout states to accept expansion. For North Carolina, whose tax coffers already are flush thanks to a roaring economy, it would be an extra $1.5 billion over two years.
“This is an opportunity to take federal dollars, actually present a savings to the state of North Carolina and increase access to health care,” House Speaker Tim Moore told colleagues in June. “I’d call that a pretty good trifecta to do those things.”
Cooper also can take credit for his persistence. He's pushed nonstop for expansion since taking office in 2017, citing the economic shot in the arm the federal money would bring to rural hospitals, communities and families of the 600,000 residents who could qualify.
Cooper went so far as to veto the 2019 state budget because Moore and Berger wouldn’t commit to Medicaid talks. He signed this year's, saying "we are closer than ever to agreement on Medicaid expansion,” and a veto “would be counterproductive.”
A pivotal moment came after the 2020 elections, when Cooper convened a bipartisan commission of medical, business and nonprofit leaders and state legislators that came up with “guiding principles” to improve health care coverage.
"People with quite different political views were willing to listen to those who are coming at these issues from different backgrounds and different concerns,” said Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, which convened the commission.
Another influencer was former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who told a joint House-Senate committee in March how expansion has worked in his Republican-leaning state. The committee focused on the details, including how to increase the number of nurses, hospital beds and services in the state.
Negotiations slowed this summer between the House, Senate and Cooper, largely because the Senate wants regulatory changes aimed at providing even more access to services that it says will result in lower costs.
They include giving nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and others the ability to work independently from doctors, and scaling back “certificate of need” laws that critics say enable medical providers to limit competition that could bring down their revenue.
Berger blames hospitals for refusing to accept a compromise. The North Carolina Healthcare Association, representing hospitals and health systems, said it has raised concerns about Berger’s bill, but remains an expansion advocate.
“It’s positive that both chambers now support expansion, and right now hospitals hold the key to getting this done,” Cooper spokesperson Ford Porter said.
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https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Medicaid-expansion-breakthrough-within-reach-in-17341178.php
| 2022-07-31T12:54:00
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BERLIN (AP) — Pilots with Germany's Lufthansa have voted in favor of possible strike action, a union announced Sunday, saying that walkouts can still be avoided but calling the result an “unmistakable signal” to the company in a pay dispute.
The Vereinigung Cockpit union is calling for a 5.5% pay increase this year and an automatic adjustment for inflation starting next year. It has argued that Lufthansa hasn't yet made a negotiable offer in six rounds of talks.
The union said that 97.6% of pilots who took part in a ballot approved its call. It said in statement that the vote “doesn't yet necessarily lead to strike measures, but it is an unmistakable signal to Lufthansa to take the cockpit staff's needs seriously.”
The dispute comes on top of a separate altercation with a union representing Lufthansa ground staff in Germany. A one-day strike on Wednesday in that standoff led to the cancellation of over 1,000 flights.
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https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Pilots-with-Germany-s-Lufthansa-back-possible-17341148.php
| 2022-07-31T12:54:12
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ATLANTA (AP) — Democrats in Georgia predict dire outcomes should Sen. Raphael Warnock lose to challenger Herschel Walker this fall and Republicans regain control of Capitol Hill.
“They’re going to take away our democratic rights one after another,” longtime state lawmaker Nan Orrock warned partisans at a birthday party for the senator, who turned 53 on July 23. “Failure,” she said, “is not an option.”
Warnock took a different tack.
“I work with anybody to get something good done for the people of Georgia,” he told the same crowd, highlighting a trio of Republican senators with whom he has made legislative deals. Warnock mentioned President Joe Biden's name just once and referred several other times only to “the president of the United States," trying to distinguish himself from Biden — and the rising inflation that has marked his term.
Running for his first full Senate term, Warnock is pitching himself as a senator willing to do whatever it takes to help his state. That's a shift from his approach in what were nationally elevated twin runoff campaigns won by Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff in January 2021, giving their party Senate control two months after Biden was elected president.
Now, with inflation up and Biden’s popularity down, Warnock requires a more nuanced argument, and he’s selling his work in Washington, especially on the economy, as something distinct from the White House and the Senate's Democratic leadership.
Republicans sense an opportunity in a state they dominated for two decades before 2020. Walker, a first-time candidate like Warnock was two years ago, is making every effort to shape the contest as a referendum on what his campaign calls the “Biden-Warnock agenda.”
“This is still a national race,” said Gail Gitcho, a senior adviser to Walker. “The burden is on Raphael Warnock and the extremely close ties he has to Joe Biden in this environment. Herschel has put him on the defensive.”
Warnock's strategy of playing up his “bipartisan” credentials and leaving other Democrats to attack Republicans and rally the party faithful could be the incumbent's only shot to recreate his runoff coalition. In that election, Democrats were united and enthusiastic; Republicans were not, especially GOP-leaning moderates whom then-President Donald Trump alienated with his lies that Biden’s victory was fraudulent. Some of those voters helped Warnock to his 94,000-vote win a 2% margin. This time, Warnock cannot depend on Trump to push those key swing voters in his direction.
Attracting them again starts with not directly dignifying Republican attacks.
Asked about Walker’s broadsides, Warnock ignored specifics and bemoaned “demagogues trying to divide us.”
He pivoted again when asked about Biden’s performance. “I’m focused on the job I’m doing,” Warnock said. “When that means standing with this person or that person, it’s based on what it does for Georgia.”
Even on the president’s accomplishments, Warnock avoids partisan cheerleading. He hailed the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package passed without any Republican votes, for its tax cuts aimed at lower-income workers. He praised a long-sought infrastructure bill as a “bipartisan” success that included “the Cruz-Warnock amendment.”
“Hear me out, now,” Warnock said, laughing as some of his supporters jeered Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The two men, Warnock explained, wanted to make the eastward expansion of Interstate 14 — now just a short stretch in central Texas — a federal priority. Because a Senate committee hadn’t endorsed the idea, the unlikely partners had to work the full Senate.
The amendment passed unanimously.
“Guess what: The highway that runs through Texas also runs through Georgia,” Warnock said. “It goes past red districts and blue districts. ... Everybody needs to be able to get to where they need to go.”
Warnock noted other efforts with Republican Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Marco Rubio of Florida. With Tuberville, he led a measure that would open European markets to peanut farmers in their two states. With Rubio, he worked on legislation to improve maternal mortality rates in the United States.
Tuberville is a staunch Trump ally. Rubio came to Georgia to campaign against Warnock at the outset of the runoff campaign. Warnock didn't mention those details.
As for the uneven economy, Warnock notably referred to “global inflation” while sidestepping Biden.
He noted his work on a jobs and technology measure, which cleared the Senate on Wednesday with 17 Republican votes. The bill, which aims to boost computer chip production in the United States, would strengthen supply chains and expand national technology production, among other investments, Warnock explained.
The senator emphasized his proposals to cap insulin costs for people with diabetes and allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices from pharmaceutical companies. He reminded supporters that he called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax in February, early in the 2022 energy price surge.
“Somebody must have been listening,” Warnock said, because Georgia’s Republican administration suspended the state gas tax in March and “the president of the United States is now on record saying we should suspend the gas tax” nationally.
Warnock reminded reporters that he came out swinging when Biden’s budget plans called for closing the Pentagon’s combat readiness center in Savannah. “I stood up against the administration” and “a terrible idea,” Warnock said, taking a position that aligns him with the Republicans in the state's congressional delegation.
Additionally, he said he’s “pushing the president of the United States right now” on student loan cancellations for some borrowers. Biden’s Department of Education already has eased some rules on debt repayment, and the president is still considering a more blanket forgiveness up to a cap. The White House has said a decision on the amount could come in August.
In Walker’s camp, Gitcho relishes the thought of Warnock replicating scenes from the two-month runoff blitz, when Biden traveled twice to Georgia and shared stages with Warnock and Ossoff. “The best surrogate Warnock could have,” she said of the beleaguered president. “But we know that won’t happen.”
Warnock instead appears ready to brandish his party credentials carefully. In fundraising solicitations and online ads, Warnock says he’s “running to keep Georgia blue.” But the campaign targets those to reliable Democratic voters.
Standing over birthday cakes and candles, the senator fondly recalled his runoff victory and thanked Georgians who “gave us the narrowest majority.”
“Think about what would have happened had it gone the other way,” he allowed. But at his crescendo 15 minutes later, the Baptist minister went bigger — and perhaps toward a potentially decisive middle.
“We are one nation,” he said, voice rising. “We are one people. And come November, Georgia is going to do it one more time.”
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics
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https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Sen-Warnock-cites-bipartisanship-avoids-Biden-17341136.php
| 2022-07-31T12:54:18
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| 0.972711
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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A rare Democrat in a deeply Republican state, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas is one of the most vulnerable incumbents seeking reelection this year. In the final months of her congressional campaign, she is focusing on Republicans' strict opposition to abortion rights.
An online ad she released last week highlights how Amanda Adkins, the Republican favored to emerge from Tuesday's primary for a rematch with David in November, opposed abortion without exceptions. The ad points to Adkins' support of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution on the ballot Tuesday that would make clear there is no right to abortion in the states.
“There were a lot of people who would not have known that I have an opponent who is extreme on this issue,” Davids, who beat Adkins in 2020, said in an interview. “It’s not hypothetical anymore.”
That's a sign of how the Supreme Court's decision in June to repeal a woman's federal constitutional right to abortion has scrambled the political dynamics heading into the fall elections, when control of Congress is at stake. A half-dozen of the most vulnerable House members — all of them women, all representing swaths of suburban voters — see the issue as one that could help them win in an otherwise difficult political climate.
In addition to Davids, these incumbents include Reps. Angie Craig of Minnesota, Cindy Axne of Iowa, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria of Virginia, and Susan Wilds of Pennsylvania. They all face Republican opponents who support the high court's abortion ruling. Some are contending with rivals who back efforts to ban abortion in all circumstances, including when the mother's life is at risk.
It's unclear whether the focus on abortion alone may be enough to mean reelection for many of these Democrats, who are running at a time of high inflation and frustration with President Joe Biden's performance.
“In a close, toss-up election, which I think all of these are, it can make a difference,” said national pollster Christine Matthews, a self-described moderate who has worked for Republicans. “It’s not going to be what drives everyone to make a vote choice, but it will drive some people to make a vote choice.”
Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults named abortion or women’s rights in an open-ended question as one of up to five problems they want the government to address in the next year, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in June. That has more than doubled since December.
Since the Supreme Court decision, as state governments have moved to act on abortion rights, AP-NORC polling has found a majority of people in the United States saying they want Congress to pass legislation guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide.
Overwhelming majorities also think states should allow abortion in specific cases, including if the health of the pregnant woman is endangered or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Like those questioned overall, a majority of suburbanites think abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to AP-NORC polling. Suburbanites also were slightly more likely than city residents and significantly more likely than people living in rural areas to say abortion or women’s rights are among the top issues for the government to address, according to the AP-NORC poll from June.
That's particularly important in districts such as Axne's in Iowa, which includes Des Moines' teeming suburbs. Dallas County, west of Des Moines, has been one of the country's fastest-growing counties since 2000, with the cornfields from decades ago now covered in new homes, schools and commercial developments.
In an interview, Axne was adamant that she would make abortion a central theme of her campaign. Axne's GOP opponent is state Rep. Zach Nunn, who indicated in a primary debate that he opposes abortion without exceptions.
“I can’t even believe I have to say this. I have an opponent who would let a woman die to bear a child,” Axne said. “This is crap we don’t see in this country. This is the stuff we talk about in other countries and women not having rights.”
In Michigan, Rep. Elissa Slotkin faces state Sen. Tom Barrett, who supports only an exception to save a woman's life.
“That’s more extreme than the 1931 law that’s on our books," Slotkin said in an interview. “So I think that that’s an important contrast to make.”
The Adkins, Barrett and Nunn campaigns did not reply to telephone, email and text messages seeking comment for this story.
In Virginia, Yesli Vega, the Republican challenging Spanberger in a district that spans the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and Richmond, has not dismissed the debunked theory that pregnancy is unlikely in cases of rape. In audio published by Axios late last month, Vega was asked during a campaign event in May whether “it’s harder for a woman to get pregnant if she’s been raped.”
Vega responded, Axios reported, “Maybe, because there’s so much going on in the body. I don’t know. I haven’t seen any studies. But if I’m processing what you’re saying, it wouldn’t surprise me, because it’s not something that’s happening organically. Right? You’re forcing it.”
The answer was reminiscent of what Todd Akin, a Missouri congressman who was the Republican nominee for Senate in 2012, said during that campaign. In discussing his opposition to exceptions for rape victims, Akin claimed, “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
The comments were viewed as a major contributor to his loss to Democrat Clare McCaskill, a vulnerable incumbent.
In Virginia, Spanberger released a digital ad last week declaring that Vega’s “views don’t represent Virginia.”
Earlier, Spanberger had said Vega's comment was “extreme and ignorant" and “horrifying and disrespectful to the millions of American women who have or will become pregnant due to sexual violence.”
One of the Spanberger's campaign digital posts used this headline: “Republican congressional candidate pulls a Todd Akin on abortion."
Representatives for Vega did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Some Republicans warn that Democrats risk overplaying their hand.
In Minnesota, for example, Craig is facing Republican Tyler Kistner, whom she narrowly beat in 2020 in a district that covers Minneapolis' southeastern suburbs.
Craig has begun running digital ads attacking Kistner, who opposes abortion, but would allow for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
“Tyler Kistner wants to take away our rights," a woman's voice proclaims in an ad.
Kistner consultant Billy Grant said Craig is “trying to scare you" and noted that the Republican's team is weighing a counter to the attack that portrays him as “pro-life, but who understands both sides."
“The rest of America really is not a single-issue voter on that and they are concerned about the economy," Grant said.
___
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https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Vulnerable-House-Dems-see-abortion-as-winning-17341139.php
| 2022-07-31T12:54:25
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| 0.968949
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Young weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga smashed two Games records on his way to a sensational gold medal win at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games as he added a second yellow metal to India's tally on Sunday.
The 2018 Youth Olympic champion dominated the men's 67kg competition with a total lift of 300kg (140kg+160kg), finishing ahead of Samoa's Vaipava Nevo Ioane, who managed a total of 293kg (127kg +166kg).
Nigeria's Edidiong Joseph Umoafia took bronze with an effort of 290kg (130kg+160kg).
The 19-year-old from Aizwal wrote the Games snatch (140kg) and overall lift (300kg) record in his name but not before an injury scare as twice he grimaced in pain during the clean and jerk attempts.
Jeremy opened up a huge 10kg gap with the nearest rival Edidiong Joseph Umoafia when he lifted 140kg in a successful second attempt. He had begun with 136kg.
Jeremy further targetted 143kg in his final attempt, but did not succeed.
In Clean and Jerk, the 2021 Commonwealth Championship winner began with 154kg and followed that up with 160kg, but could not complete the 165kg attempt.
This was India's fifth medal from the weightlifting arena with Mirabai Chanu (gold), Sanket Sargar (silver), Bidyarani Devi (silver) and Gururaj Poojary (bronze) earning podium finishes on Saturday.
Son of a national-level boxer Lalneihtluanga, Lalrinnunga also aspired to don the gloves but shifted to weightlifting as it involved just power to excel, something he found fascinating. PTI AT AT AH AH
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| 2022-07-31T12:54:30
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| 0.947721
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The call for a blanket ban on ‘Okada’ or motorcycle taxis in Nigeria could spell trouble for Bajaj Auto, India’s third largest two-wheeler producer, which depends on the west African country for nearly a quarter of its two-wheeler exports.
The Federal Government of Nigeria is considering banning Okada to curb the escalating insecurity in the troubled country even as a top economy awareness group, Nigeria Economic Security Agenda (NESA), warned the government about the repercussions of the ban.
Rakesh Sharma, Executive Director, Bajaj Auto said, “There has been talks in the government circles about banning motorcycles because they are being used for terrorist activities in some parts of Nigeria. There has been no notification of this but we are in touch with the Indian High Commission there, and we are watching out for it.”
Impact on citizens
According to NESA, the nationwide ban will impact 5.2 million citizens who operate these taxis and another 15 million indirectly dependent on them, including people working in the vehicle service stations. The ban has been in effect in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, since June.
“They (motorcycle taxis) ferry about 40 million people every day. The industry employs a very large number of people such as mechanics. So, an outright ban of motorcycle across Nigeria will be a huge challenge for whoever does it. We expect normalcy to return and it is not as if the entire country is troubled with terrorism,” Sharma added.
Honda is the largest player in Nigeria, followed by Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor Company.
Imminent pressure
Pune-based Bajaj Auto depends heavily on its two-wheeler exports, which now accounted for 57 per cent of the company’s total sales during the June quarter. The maker of Pulsar and Boxer exported 5.32 lakh two-wheelers during the June quarter, while the domestic market saw sales of 3.14 lakh during the same quarter.
Nigeria could become the latest trouble market for Bajaj Auto. Sri Lanka, which is trapped in economic turmoil, was also once a large market for Bajaj’s three-wheelers. While there are more than 70 countries where Bajaj Auto exports its two and three-wheelers to, the company has expanded to newer geographies such as Latin America to reduce its dependence on its bigger markets.
Mitul Shah, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, says, “Nigeria being the largest market for the Indian two-wheeler exporters, any adverse development in the country impacts the overall exports of these companies significantly. We expect a huge pressure on the exports of Bajaj Auto in the near to medium term. Therefore, we cut our export volume estimates by 16 per cent and 14 per cent for FY23 and FY24 respectively.”
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| 2022-07-31T12:54:36
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| 0.956722
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Kolkata Raw jute prices have dropped around five-to-seven per cent over the last month on the estimated rise in production and good arrivals. Prices were currently ruling at around ₹6,200 a quintal against ₹6,500 a month ago.
Jute output is estimated to be six-to-seven per cent higher at around 95 lakh bales in 2022-23 as against close to 90 lakh bales last year. This year’s carryover stock is estimated to be about 19 lakh bales against5 lakh bales last year. The total availability is likely to close to 114 lakh bales, as against 95 lakh bales last year.
According to Raghav Gupta, Chairman, Indian Jute Mills Association, the crop availability is good and all the mills have reopened and running at good capacity.
“Prices have seen a correction of around 5-7 per cent at the beginning of harvesting period. It is likely to come down further when arrivals start picking up,” Gupta told BusinessLine.
Higher sowing but quality could be impacted
Enthused by the highly remunerative prices of raw jute over the last two years, farmers have gone in for higher sowing covering close to 8 lakh hectare this year. However, inclement weather has prevailed in jute growing areas in June and July, with flooding in North Bengal and Assam and less rainfall in South Bengal affecting retting.
The quality of jute fibre is expected to deteriorate and production of TDN3 and TDN5 grades will likely to increase to 75 per cent of the total produce and these grades can only be used for sacking manufacturing, an industry insider said.
The raw jute prices were close to ₹7,000-7,200 a quintal in April-May this year despite higher production of the fibre in 2021-22 due to low carryover stock. Accordingly, the Jute Commissioner, had, in a notification dated September 30, 2021, fixed the price of jute at ₹6,500 a quintal for 2021-22 till June 30, 2022 to rein in the prices. However, mills were finding it difficult to procure at these rates as market rates are much higher.
The price cap of ₹6,500 a quintal fixed by the Jute Commissioner not only caused the closure of jute mills across the country but also led to more than 50 per cent of the demand for food grain packaging during the ongoing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2022-23 being met through polypropylene bags.
However, given the robust availability of raw jute this year, industrial production is estimated to increase to 13 lakh tonne, compared to close to 12 lakh tonne last year, as most mills have resumed operations. The industry will be able to supply anywhere between 34-36 lakh bales on government account, apart from meeting other domestic and export commitments. The demand from the foodgrain sector is expected to be around 35 lakh bales this year. Hence continued reservation of 100 per cent for foodgrain and 20 per cent for sugar should be maintained, an industry expert said.
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| 2022-07-31T12:54:42
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| 0.951763
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In the run-up to the festive season, companies across sectors have started boosting the temporary workforce to meet the expected growth in customer demand.
Gig work aggregator Shadowfax which works with companies like Flipkart, Meesho, Nykaa, etc, expects to hire 1,05,000 workers for this festive season, which is double the number of temporary workers hired for last festive season (55,000 hires), Praharsh Chandra, Co-founder and Chief of Operations, Shadowfax told BusinessLine.
Similarly, Gig marketplace Taskmo currently completing around 5,00,000 gig jobs per month, expects to achieve over 10,00,000 jobs during the festive season. To put this in context, Taskmo had completed only 2,00,000 tasks per month during the last festival month.
Prashant Janadri, Co-founder of Taskmo, said, “As the covid-induced-tailwinds and the fear of third-wave lingered around, the festive season in 2021 hadn’t noticed much growth. As borders opened, travelling, purchasing behaviour, supply of products/services also saw subsequent growth.”
Gig job opportunities
The economy’s gradual recovery has also led to the growth of the gig job opportunities. As per the May 2022 report of Taskmo Gig Index, the platform has witnessed over 50 per cent growth in the number of active gig workers compared to last year.
Further, Taskmo Gig Index in June 2022 saw a 66 per cent sequential growth over May as e-commerce firms like Flipkart and Amazon created many direct and indirect gig jobs for the festive sale season. “5,00,000 gig tasks were offered in June as compared to 3,00,000 gig tasks offered in May 2022,” according to Taskmo.
Amazon’s move
Amazon Indiaemains committed to creating work opportunities and investing in India. Every year, the company strengthens its teams significantly with thousands of seasonal associates working across Amazon’s operations network ahead of the festival season to enhance the shopping experience for its customers and enable faster deliveries.
“In 2021, we created more than 1,10,000 seasonal work opportunities, which helped elevate Amazon’s fulfilment and delivery capabilities to meet the surge in customer demand during the festive season This year too, we will welcome seasonal associates as they join our associates at Amazon’s fulfilment centers and delivery network across the country,” an Amazon spokesperson added.
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| 2022-07-31T12:54:48
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| 0.956358
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WFO MEDFORD Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Monday, August 1, 2022
_____
FIRE WEATHER WATCH
URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Medford OR
503 AM PDT Sun Jul 31 2022
...Abundant Lightning On Dry Fuels Expected through Monday...
.Heat, instability, and increasing moisture along with multiple
low pressure impulses moving through Monday are expected to bring
scattered thunderstorms and abundant lightning on dry fuels to the
area. Today into Monday, an approaching low pressure system will
bring more abundant lightning to areas from the Marble Mountains
and Siskiyous northeastward.
...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO
11 PM PDT THIS EVENING FOR ABUNDANT LIGHTNING ON DRY FUELS FOR
FIRE WEATHER ZONES 281 AND 624...
...FIRE WEATHER WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY MORNING
THROUGH MONDAY EVENING FOR ABUNDANT LIGHTNING ON DRY FUELS FOR
* Impacts: Lightning and high fire danger will likely result in
new fire starts. Gusty thunderstorm winds could contribute to
fire spread. Despite rainfall, initial attack resources could be
overwhelmed and holdover fires are possible.
* Affected area:
In Northern CA Fire Zones...280...281...284.
In South Central OR Fire Zone....624.
In Southwest OR Fire Zones...617...623.
* Thunderstorms: Today into Monday, an approaching low pressure
system will bring a couple of rounds of scattered thunderstorms.
* Rainfall: Today, thunderstorms may begin relatively dry and then
transition to a mix of wet and dry. Monday, thunderstorms are
more likely to produce wetting rainfall. Locally significant
wetting rainfall will be possible with some of the thunderstorms,
especially the slower moving ones.
* View the hazard area in detail at:
https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mfr/HAZARD
FIRE WEATHER ZONE 625...
In Northern CA Fire Zone....285.
In South Central OR Fire Zone....625.
In Southwest OR Fire Zones...621...622.
* Thunderstorms: While isolated thunderstorms will be possible
Sunday, the possibility of abundant lightning is currently
greatest on Monday for this area.
* Rainfall: Monday, scattered thunderstorms will be a mix of wet
and dry. Locally significant wetting rainfall will be possible
with some of the thunderstorms, especially the slower moving
ones.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
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https://www.expressnews.com/weather/article/CA-WFO-MEDFORD-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17341174.php
| 2022-07-31T12:54:49
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| 0.814239
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The auction of the 5G spectrum capable of offering ultra-high-speed internet entered the sixth day of bidding on Sunday after receiving bids worth 1,49,966 crore in the first five days from players like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
The bidding resumed on Sunday morning with the 31st round, and the subsequent round is currently underway, according to sources.
The pitched battle in Uttar Pradesh East circle — where demand for 1800 MHz had peaked since Wednesday — seems to be cooling off now, indicating that the auctions may be entering the final leg, according to industry sources.
As of Saturday, the total value of bids in the telecom spectrum auction had come within the striking distance of the ₹1.50 lakh crore mark.
"The 5G auction shows that the industry wants to expand. It has come out of problems and is getting into a growth phase. The auction results aregood close to ₹1,49,966 crore has been committed by the industry for buying the spectrum," Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a briefing in Mumbai.
Companies in the race
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of Gautam Adani's Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for the 5G spectrum, which offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.
Besides powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), the Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions, including e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming.
Incrementally, ₹111-112 crore came in on Saturday, the provisional proceeds rising from the ₹1,49,855 crore received till Friday from players, such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
After a flying start on Tuesday that saw players pouring in ₹1.45 lakh crore on the first day, the numbers moved up only incrementally over Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as Jio and Airtel engaged in intense bidding in Uttar Pradesh East circle for 1800 MHz band. In all, 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least ₹4.3 lakh crore is on the block.
The auction is being held for spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.
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https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/5g-spectrum-auction-bidding-enters-sixth-day-garners-nearly-150-lakh-crore-so-far/article65706340.ece
| 2022-07-31T12:54:54
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| 0.934826
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WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, August 3, 2022
_____
BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT
Coastal Hazard Message
National Weather Service San Diego CA
436 AM PDT Sun Jul 31 2022
...BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON...
* WHAT...Elevated surf of 4 to 7 feet will be likely tonight
through Wednesday.
* WHERE...San Diego County Coastal Areas and Orange County
Coastal Areas.
* WHEN...Through Wednesday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Elevated surf and strong rip currents will create
dangerous swimming conditions.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Remain out of the water to avoid hazardous swimming conditions.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
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https://www.expressnews.com/weather/article/CA-WFO-SAN-DIEGO-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17341146.php
| 2022-07-31T12:54:56
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| 0.807001
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A 32-feet long medical bus with all primary healthcare amenities to reach remote and underserved areas to be supported by Anandalok Hospital was inaugurated on Sunday.
This ‘hospital on wheels, an initiative of BDG Ramesh Goyal Seva Sansthan and made by BDG Metal and Power, will be equipped to provide primary healthcare services, including eye care, dental and ENT check-up and treatment, general check-ups, pathological laboratory, general OPD, ECG and X-Ray facilities, said a statement.
Medicines and spectacles would also be provided in the mobile hospital. A team of four doctors, lab and X–ray technicians and a patient counsellor would be available.
According to Dev Kumar Saraf, founder director of Anandalok Hospital, the bus will reach remote West Bengal villages providing access to quality primary healthcare.
Affordability
The bus costing ₹3 crore, will be charging ₹10 per patient for consultation. Medicines will be provided without any charge for the first time. The eye care faculty will provide spectacles to the patients at ₹20. Other services like pathology, ECG and X-ray services would be available at ₹20.
“Our main motive behind launching this bus was a humble passion to serve the deprived people and to make healthcare accessible to the rural areas through technology integration and affordability,” Ramesh Chand Goyal, chairman of the Goyal group, said.
According to him, a majority of the rural population are unaware and ignorant of diseases like diabetes, anaemia and haemoglobin deficiency and reaching out to them by a mobile hospital may help detect these diseases.
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https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/hospital-on-wheels-inaugurated-in-bengal/article65706990.ece
| 2022-07-31T12:55:00
|
en
| 0.934617
|
WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, August 3, 2022
_____
BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT
Coastal Hazard Message
National Weather Service San Diego CA
448 AM PDT Sun Jul 31 2022
...BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON...
* WHAT...Thunderstorms will be possible today. For tonight
through Wednesday, elevated surf of 4 to 7 feet will be likely.
* WHERE...San Diego County Coastal Areas and Orange County
Coastal Areas.
* WHEN...Through Wednesday afternoon.
* IMPACTS...Dangerous cloud to ground lightning from any
thunderstorms. Elevated surf and strong rip currents will create
dangerous swimming conditions.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Remain out of the water to avoid hazardous swimming conditions.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
|
https://www.expressnews.com/weather/article/CA-WFO-SAN-DIEGO-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17341162.php
| 2022-07-31T12:55:02
|
en
| 0.814655
|
Toyimports are down by 70 per cent and the country has the potential to become an export “powerhouse” in the segment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday during his “Mann Ki Baat” address.
Earlier, toys worth more than ₹3,000 crore used to be imported or come into the country.
However, now, India has exported toys worth more than ₹2,600 crore, as against earlier years when exports in the category were to the tune of ₹300-400 crore.
“And you already know that all this happened during the Corona period. India’s toy sector has proven its mettle by transforming itself. Indian manufacturers are now making toys based on Indian mythology, history, and culture. Toy clusters are there everywhere in the country, small entrepreneurs who make toys, are getting a lot of benefit from it. The toys made by these small entrepreneurs are now going around the world. Manufacturers are also working closely with the world’s leading global brands,” Modi said.
According to him, local toys in India are eco-friendly and consonant with both tradition and nature, and the achievement of the industry was previously unimaginable.
“Today, when it comes to Indian toys, the echo of Vocal for Local is being heard everywhere. You will also like to know that now the number of toys coming from abroad in India is continuously decreasing,” the Prime Minister maintained.
Modi mentioned Shumme Toys, a Bengaluru-based start-up, for its focus on eco-friendly toys, while Gujarat-based Arkidzoo Company found mention for the AR (augmented reality)-based flash cards and AR-based storybooks that it is making. The Pune-based company, Funvention – which tries to kindle children’s interest in science, technology, and mathematics through learning, toys, and activity puzzles., was also referred to during the address.
“Let us all together make Indian toys more popular all over the world. Along with this, I would also like to urge parents to buy more Indian toys, puzzles, and games,” he said.
AYUSH exports up
According to him, Ayush treatment has played a major role in the fight against Covid. This has led to an increase in exports. Meanwhile, the sector received investment proposals of ₹10,000 crore during a recent global investment summit.
“We all know how useful Indian traditional methods are in this. In the fight against Corona, AYUSH has played an important role at the global level. There is a growing interest in ayurveda and Indian medicine around the world. This is one of the major reasons why Ayush exports have witnessed record growth,” the PM said, adding that: “It is also a matter of joy that many new start-ups are also emerging in this sector.”
According to Modi, there has been an increase in research on medicinal plants during the Covid times and “many research studies are being published on this”.
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https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/toy-imports-down-by-70-per-cent-pm-modi-on-mann-ki-baat/article65707052.ece
| 2022-07-31T12:55:06
|
en
| 0.977243
|
Birmingham India's Bindyarani Devi raised her game to secure a silver in the women's 55kg category, providing the country's fourth weightlifting medal in as many categories at the Commonwealth Games here.
Soon after Mirabai Chanu's gold, the 23-year-old created a Games record by lifting 116kg in the clean and jerk after a personal best of 86kg in the snatch section, totalling 202 kg on Saturday.
The gold medal expectedly went to Nigeria's Adijat Adenike Olarinoye, who lifted 203kg (92kg+111kg). She also smashed the Games record in snatch and total effort.
Local favourite England's Fraer Morrow bagged the bronze with a 198kg effort (89kg+109kg).
"It is my first CWG and I feel very happy about the silver and about the Games record as well," Bindyarani said.
Like Chanu, Bindyarani too hails from Manipur. She had won the Commonwealth Championships gold in 2019 before getting a silver in the 2021 edition.
Daughter of a farmer who also owns grocery shop, Bindyarani took up weightlifting due to her short height.
"I was into taekwondo from 2008 to 2012 after that I shifted to weightlifting. I had a height problem so had to shift. Everyone told my height is ideal for weightlifting. So I changed." Bindyarani was in the bronze medal finish after the snatch section with a personal best of 86kg, behind Olarinoye (92kg) and Fraer (89kg).
The Indian made an unsuccessful second attempt for 115 kg before lifting a kilogram more to elevate her to silver medal position from bronze as Morrow fluffed her final 115kg attempt.
Earlier in the day, Chanu had provided India its first gold while Sanket Sargar and Gururaja Poojary had clinched silver and bronze medals respectively.
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https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/sports/commonwealth-games-bindyarani-devi-clinches-silver-in-weightlifting-55kg-category/article65706931.ece
| 2022-07-31T12:55:12
|
en
| 0.963058
|
The Excellence Enablers, a corporate governance specialist, has urged corporates to seek the assistance of students during their vacation to trace ‘missing investors’ and distribute unclaimed dividends worth crores of rupees.
Corporates are mandated to credit dividends to investors bank account within 30 days of announcing it. The dividends that cannot be paid to investors due to inadequate details have to be transferred into a separate ‘unpaid dividend account’.
In order to ensure that corporates do not enrich themselves with the income from unclaimed dividend, the government has mandated that the money which has remained unclaimed for seven years from the date of dividend payment, should be transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund.
The Excellence Enablers, an initiative by M Damodaran, former Chairman of SEBI, had reached out to top-100 companies for ascertaining their effort to trace the ‘missing shareholders’. Interestingly, only 25 companies responded and, of this, four companies said they were not doing anything in addition to sending mails to the last-known addresses.
Suggesting new means to deal with a problem, Excellence Enablers said companies can engage students living in localities of the last-known address of the missing investors and get them to talk to their former neighbours, post office officials and others to get some leads on their present whereabouts. This could be done by students during their vacation, and they could be incentivised for this purpose, it said.
SEBI should direct NSDL and CDSL to set up a process of periodical KYC every three years. Under the current processes at depositories, demat account holders are not allowed to make key changes. The processes for other changes are also complex and time-consuming. To address these complexities, SEBI could mandate the depositories to make the processes simple and flexible, without compromising on the compliances and control. This will enable many of the investors to update their records periodically, it said.
Through RTAs (Registrar and Transfer Agents), companies can map the address and contact details of the shareholders with PAN details, as there are many shareholders who may hold more than one demat account and can have different correspondence addresses.
Companies can provide list of shareholders whose consolidated unclaimed dividend is more than a certain amount to the Chairperson and senior management as they might know some of the shareholders due to the shareholder’s long association with the company.
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https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/unclaimed-dividend-use-services-of-students-to-trace-missing-shareholders/article65702596.ece
| 2022-07-31T12:55:18
|
en
| 0.961579
|
WFO PENDLETON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022
_____
HEAT ADVISORY
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
456 AM PDT Sun Jul 31 2022
...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING...
* WHAT...Afternoon high temperatures of 95 to 105 degrees. Warm
overnight lows as high as the upper 50s to mid 60s.
* WHERE...In Washington, East Slopes of the Washington Cascades,
Northwest Blue Mountains. In Oregon, Ochoco-John Day Highlands,
Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon, Southern Blue Mountains of
Oregon, Grande Ronde Valley, East Slopes of the Oregon Cascades
and Wallowa County.
* WHEN...Until 11 PM PDT Sunday.
* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out
of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young
children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.
Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when
possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent
rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone
overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.
Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.
...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures of 105 to
115 degrees. Very warm overnight lows in the mid 60s to mid
70s.
* WHERE...Portions of central, south central and southeast
Washington and central, north central and northeast Oregon.
* IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the
potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those
working or participating in outdoor activities.
...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT
MONDAY...
* WHEN...Until 11 PM PDT Monday.
potential for heat-related illnesses, particularly for those
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
|
https://www.expressnews.com/weather/article/WA-WFO-PENDLETON-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17341164.php
| 2022-07-31T12:55:26
|
en
| 0.88185
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| 2022-07-31T12:55:48
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