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fdc050630d3d27aac88c73e3b52f3abf | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/20/kaiser-offering-syringes-along-prayers-churches-help-iv-drug-users/95630144/ | Offering syringes along with prayers, churches help IV drug users | Offering syringes along with prayers, churches help IV drug users
Offering Syringes Along With Prayers, Churches Help IV Drug Users
By Taylor Sisk
Kaiser Health News
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — When Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation in July legalizing syringe exchange programs in North Carolina, James Sizemore rejoiced.
The pastor of a small church, Sizemore had — with the tacit approval of some, but not all, local law enforcement — been offering clean syringes to drug users to help them avoid contracting HIV and hepatitis C. Now he could do so without fear of arrest.
Sizemore, who in 2007 launched Radiant Church, an affiliate of the Church of God of Prophecy, has sought to alleviate the effects of drug addiction, work that he sees as a natural extension of his other pursuits: feeding, clothing and otherwise offering sustenance to his parishioners and others in need.
“It was never an issue of, ‘Is this the right thing to do spiritually, scripturally?’” Sizemore said of his efforts. “For us, it was the right thing to do … You can’t save somebody’s soul if they’re dead.”
Churches and other faith-based organizations have increasingly voiced approval of syringe exchange programs, sometimes launching their own. Their efforts have contributed to growing support for the programs, which the federal Centers for Disease Control and other health organizations see as a valuable tool in combating the opioid epidemic. Most programs include components such as education, treatment and testing for HIV and hepatitis C, which can be spread by sharing needles. Some also distribute naloxone to reverse overdoses.
The CDC offered further encouragement Nov. 29, reporting greater use of syringe exchanges by people who inject drugs. Even so, one-third of users cited in the CDC analysis reported in 2015 that they had shared a needle within the past year. Exchange programs allow drug users to turn in used syringes and get sterile ones.
While more than half of states have not explicitly authorized syringe exchange, Corey Davis with the Network for Public Health Law said that most have at minimum removed the prescription requirement for syringes. A number have “patchworks” of what’s permitted in terms of exchange and what’s not.
The North American Syringe Exchange Network, or NASEN, reports 228 syringe exchange programs operating in 35 states and Washington, D.C. But the number of programs is growing weekly in response to the rise in heroin overdose deaths across the country.
Neither NASEN nor the Harm Reduction Coalition has an estimate of the number of faith-based churches and organizations directly involved in syringe exchange, but momentum is clearly gathering. Church-based programs are operating in communities across the country, including Seattle; Cincinnati; Albany, N.Y.; and even in traditionally conservative southern states.
Institutions such as the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ and National Council on Jewish Women have issued statements of support for syringe exchange.
“Ultimately, we want people to live without the burdens of addiction, but for many people the road to recovery is long and arduous, and protecting public health in the meantime is fundamental,” said Kara Gotsch, who until recently was director of advocacy for the Interfaith Criminal Justice Coalition.
Hillary Brownsmith researches and writes about faith-based harm reduction initiatives and helps run the Steady Collective, a mobile syringe exchange program in Asheville, N.C. The program is based at the Haywood Street Congregation, a United Methodist Church ministry, and has received funding from three other congregations.
Brownsmith has engaged ministers and churchgoers in theological conversations about reaching out to drug users, and said she’s received only positive feedback.
“I think the tide is definitely shifting,” she said, with church officials and congregants recognizing that syringe exchange is in keeping with soup kitchens, temporary shelters and other outreach ministries.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, launched its syringe exchange program last November. Shelby Carrothers, a church member, saw the need for one while offering HIV testing during a weekly free hot meal. She discovered that most of the people being tested identified as IV drug users.
Carrothers said that while providing clean syringes is a critical service, “almost equally important is that we provide a nonjudgmental space to talk about what they’re going through and answer questions that they might otherwise be afraid to ask.”
Sherman Terry, 40, is among those who’ve found help at St. Paul’s. A former IV drug user, he came for a hot meal and has received a lot more.
“Shelby, bless her heart …” Terry said during a recent Wednesday lunch at the church, recounting how Carrothers had introduced him to a variety of support services. No longer an IV drug user, Terry now advocates in the community for safe sex, clean needles, healthy living in general.
Carrothers distributes some 300 to 400 syringes each week. But the need to help IV drug users continues to mount. She’s now talking with a Lutheran church in Fayetteville and Episcopal churches in Little Rock about hosting exchanges.
In North Carolina, James Sizemore tells of his own circuitous route to harm-reduction advocacy.
President of his high school’s “Just Say No Club,” Sizemore went from being a Duke Divinity School student to a cocaine mule, transporting kilos from Miami to North Carolina. For five years, he struggled with addiction. Once free of drugs, he found his way back to the pulpit.
Disenchanted with mainstream churches — which, he perceives, too often fail to embrace the marginalized members of their communities — Sizemore started his own, in a section of Fayetteville marked by poverty and drug use.
Syringe exchange fits into his church’s primary mission, tending to an array of immediate needs.
You can’t “preach salvation” to someone who’s in the throes of addiction, battling for their life, or turning tricks to feed their kids, Sizemore said. “They’re not interested in hearing anything about the spirit because they’re concerned about these issues first.”
“Slowly, but surely,” he said, “we established a good enough relationship in the neighborhood that they trusted us enough to care for them spiritually.”
Kaiser Health News isa national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
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cc8560c4111bbadced8ada04b5380110 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/20/short-list-tuesday/95649544/ | 'James Comey: The Grinch Who Stole the Election' by Bill Clinton | 'James Comey: The Grinch Who Stole the Election' by Bill Clinton
Another wrinkle in the Clinton-FBI timeline
Hillary Clinton and FBI Director James Comey have history, so let's review. July 5: After a year-long inquiry into Hillary Clinton's use of private email servers while she was secretary of State, Comey recommended that she not face criminal charges. Oct. 28 (nine days before the election): Comey sends a letter to lawmakers that investigators are reviewing new emails related to the FBI's previously closed inquiry. Nov. 6 (two days before the election): Comey announces there's still no evidence to bring any charges against Clinton. Nov. 8, Election Day: Clinton loses. Dec. 20 (today!): The FBI warrant from October is unsealed, and lawyer Randy Schoenberg, who submitted the Freedom of Information Act request to unseal it, is "appalled." "I see nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause," he said. Guess who else is appalled? Bill Clinton. The FBI probably isn't on his Christmas list. Nor Russia. Nor Donald Trump, with whom he's been feuding on Twitter. Since Trump used emails as a key rallying cry against Hillary Clinton, Democrats are feeling grinchy about this latest revelation.
(Still) don't drink the water? 4 officials charged in Flint
Officials in Flint, Mich., knew their water treatment plant couldn't deliver safe drinking water by taking it from the Flint River, and yet they went ahead with a plan to do it anyway. That's the conclusion of Michigan's attorney general as he announced criminal charges against four defendants Tuesday in his ongoing investigation of the Flint water crisis and lead poisoning of its residents. "So many people knew that that plant was not ready — and yet it was done," said lead investigator Andrew Arena. "That's the thing that shocked me." Former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose and city officials Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, Attorney General Bill Schuette said. Michigan says the water is safe now and has asked a judge to stop requiring it to deliver bottled water. Earlier this month, Congress approved $120 million in funding to help Flint. If only the problem stopped there. A USA TODAY NETWORK investigation found astronomical lead levels across the country. Poor, rural communities are particularly vulnerable.
What is 'Rock and Roll' anyway?
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s inductees for its Class of 2017 only added fuel to the debate over the kind of music it should represent. Last year, KISS frontman Gene Simmons argued, if "you don’t play guitar and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there." But the Hall of Fame hasn't abided by that philosophy, and the six performers announced Tuesday — Joan Baez, Electric Light Orchestra, Journey, Pearl Jam, Tupac Shakur and Yes — cover a big swath of time and style. Hip-hop artists such as N.W.A., Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash drew flak when their names came up for induction, and so did Shakur. And Baez? The folk legend was hardly a headbanger. Hall of Fame CEO Joel Peresman defended the range of the class. “Rock and roll means so many things to so many different people,” he said. Rock on.
'Christmas on the beach at Waikiki.' Plus thundersnow.
Cue the ukeleles and tell 'em to play White Christmas: It's snowing in Hawaii. The volcanic summits of Hawaii's Big Island saw the white stuff earlier this month, and another round of snow — including reports of thundersnow — blanketed the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on Sunday and Monday. Thundersnow? It's just what it sounds like: Thunder + Lightning + Snow = Thundersnow. And, yes, it's rare. If you've booked a Hawaiian vacation, don't worry: Temperatures will remain warm throughout the rest of the state, with highs in the 80s in Honolulu. No more thundersnow in the forecast.
Peace on Earth (please, please, please)
The Islamic State claimed responsibility Tuesday for the attack on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead. Earlier Tuesday, prosecutors released a suspect due to lack of evidence. That person arrived from Pakistan last year, a detail that could spell trouble for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has allowed nearly 1 million asylum seekers to enter Germany. World leaders, including President-elect Donald Trump, spoke out after the attack. "These terrorists ... must be eradicated from the face of the earth," Trump said. In the meantime, U.S. cities are stepping up security around holiday events.
Extra bites
Had a bad day/week/month? There's one way it'll start getting better at 5:44 a.m. ET.
Lead in the water isn't the only thing our investigative reporters uncovered. Check this out for some bookmark-worthy #longreads.
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6d1908582eba72e98245cc1bb5d10b42 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/22/teachers-who-sexually-abuse-students-still-find-classroom-jobs/95346790/ | Teachers who sexually abuse students still find classroom jobs | Teachers who sexually abuse students still find classroom jobs
School officials in East Texas didn’t want Kip McFarlin around their students.
For years, he had crossed the line in conversations with teenage girls, using sexually suggestive language and even telling one student he’d date her if he were younger.
By 2005, administrators at Orangefield Independent School District, about a two-hour drive from Houston, had investigated complaints by six different students.
When it came time to deal with the Orangefield High School football coach, administrators didn’t fire McFarlin or report him to police. They didn’t even notify Texas education officials who had the power to take away his teaching license.
Instead, they let him become someone else’s problem.
They hid his behavior from state regulators, parents and coaches.
All McFarlin had to do was go teach somewhere else.
“This incident does not have to end McFarlan’s (sic) career,” school district attorney Karen Johnson wrote in a letter in 2005 to then-superintendent Mike Gentry. In the letter, Johnson recommended the district negotiate “a graceful exit” for the teacher. Less than two years later, McFarlin, then 38, landed a job at a nearby school district, where no one had any idea about his past problems. In 2011, he had sex with one of his students, a 16-year-old girl.
Despite decades of repeated sex abuse scandals — from the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts to scores of news media reports identifying problem teachers — America’s public schools continue to conceal the actions of dangerous educators in ways that allow them to stay in the classroom.A year-long USA TODAY Network investigation found that education officials put children in harm’s way by covering up evidence of abuse, keeping allegations secret and making it easy for abusive teachers to find jobs elsewhere.
As a result, schoolchildren across the nation continue to be beaten, raped and harassed by their teachers while government officials at every level stand by and do nothing. The investigation uncovered more than 100 teachers who lost their licenses but are still working with children or young adults today.
In the most comprehensive national review of teacher discipline to date, USA TODAY examined educator misconduct and licensure databases from every state, reviewed thousands of pages of court filings and employment records and surveyed state education officials to determine how teachers who engage in misconduct remain in the education system. Among the findings:
• State education agencies across the country have ignored a federal ban on signing secrecy deals with teachers suspected of abusing minors, a practice informally known as “passing the trash." These contracts hide details of sexual behavior and sometimes pay teachers to quit their jobs quietly. The secrecy makes it easier for troubled teachers to find new jobs working with children.
• Private schools and youth organizations are especially at risk. They are left on their own to perform background checks of new hires and generally have no access to the sole tracking system of teachers who were disciplined by state authorities.
• Despite the risks, schools of all kinds regularly fail to do the most basic of background checks. A private high school in Louisiana hired a teacher who was a registered sex offender in Texas. Students using a simple Web search uncovered his past.
• School administrators are rarely penalized for failing to report resignations of problem teachers to state licensing officials. Though 41 states have laws requiring public school administrators to report the firing or resignation of a teacher to state education officials, violations of those laws rarely have consequences.
At every level, institutions and officials charged with ensuring the safety of children have failed. Lawmakers have ignored a federal mandate to add safeguards at the state level. Unions have resisted reforms. And administrators have pursued quiet settlements rather than public discipline.
This isn’t supposed to be happening.
A series of high-profile abuse cases and media investigations in the 1990s and 2000s put a spotlight on lax regulations by government officials at every level.
A few states, including Florida, Missouri and Oregon, instituted tough laws and regulations to crack down on abusive teachers and publicly report their names. Congress passed a law in December 2015 requiring states to ban school districts from secretly passing problem teachers to other jurisdictions or face losing federal funds. But 45 states have not instituted a ban.
None of those changes closed the gaping holes plaguing the nation’s teacher screening system. Inconsistencies in state background check rules and the lack of a government-run tracking system for serious teacher misconduct continue to hinder efforts to root out problem educators.
“I’m not against what’s been put into law,” said Charol Shakeshaft, a professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University who has studied teacher misconduct. “It just isn’t much of a solution.”
The results of the unheeded calls for change have been tragic.
Although abusive teachers make up only a fraction of 1% of the nation’s teaching corps, USA TODAY found dozens of teachers who lost one job after being accused of abusive behavior and had no trouble getting hired somewhere else.
They include a New Jersey teacher who molested five elementary school students, an Oregon substitute teacher who reached under a table to touch a student’s genitals and an Illinois teacher who forced elementary students to eat food off his crotch. In each instance, the teacher had been disciplined for sexual misbehavior in a prior school district.
Those cases were among many identified as part of a two-year investigation by USA TODAY Network into flawed screening mechanisms that allow educators with troubled pasts to work with children again in public schools and private settings. A story published this year found that the only national system to track abusive teachers was riddled with problems that make it impossible to thoroughly screen teachers as they move from state to state and was missing thousands of names.
“It’s enraging when I read these cases about a teacher who has been well-known for abusing little children for over 20 years,” said Charles Hobson, a professor of business management at Indiana University Northwest who studies teacher misconduct. “And nobody — nobody — has picked the phone up and called Child Protective Services or the police. That’s crushing.”
Reforms follow USA TODAY Network teacher probe
Though passing the trash can be the most expeditious way for a school district to rid itself of a bad teacher — often helping avoid the cost of lawsuits or the burden of fighting teachers unions at termination hearings — the consequences for students can be devastating. In an ongoing federal lawsuit, a former student testified that New Mexico elementary school teacher Gary Gregor repeatedly touched her legs in class and invited her to sleep in his bed with him. Gregor, who has denied the allegations in the civil suit, resigned from another school district where he was accused of engaging in similar behavior. He declined to comment due to the pending litigation.
“I was a little girl. I thought I could trust adults, right?” the former student said in a deposition. “I can’t trust anyone.”
When McFarlin applied for a teaching position at the Port Arthur Independent School District in 2008, having left his job in Orangefield, school officials in the town along Texas’ border with Louisiana might have counted themselves lucky. McFarlin, a graduate of Texas Tech with a major in exercise sport science, had more than a decade of experience as an educator. There was nothing on his criminal background check. His Texas Education license record showed no disciplinary actions. On his application, he listed the reason he left two previous teaching jobs as “job improvement.” Port Arthur’s human resource director, James Wyble, said Orangefield school officials never told him about the misconduct allegations when contacted for a reference. “They … shared with me that the reason that Kip was leaving Orangefield was because … there was a divorce in the family and Kip felt like he needed to move on,” Wyble said in a deposition taken as part of a federal lawsuit against both districts by the victim of McFarlin’s crime. “That’s what was shared with me.” The lack of disclosure was not an accident. Johnson, the attorney of Orangefield schools, in her 2005 letter to the superintendent laying out the terms of McFarlin’s “graceful exit,” advised the district to “agree to a neutral recommendation or positive recommendation for his coaching duties, etc.” Johnson was hired in 2007 by the Texas Education Agency, which oversees teacher credentialing in the state, according to state records. Neither the agency nor Johnson responded to requests for comment.
The school district was not required under state law to disclose McFarlin’s misconduct to state officials because he was not convicted of a crime — a fact Johnson stressed in her memo suggesting the district keep its findings about McFarlin’s inappropriate comments to students secret from the State Board for Educator Certification.
“I do not feel that you have to report to SBEC under §21.006 Tex Educ Code,” she advised the district. “He is not guilty of abuse or an unlawful act with a student, just inappropriate and stupid remarks for a professional to make.” McFarlin entered the job market with a clear history and soon landed the job in Port Arthur.
Within weeks of the start of the 2011 school year, according to court records, he had sex with one of his 16-year-old students.
McFarlin was convicted of sexual assault of a child and improper relationship between an educator and a student and is serving an eight-year prison sentence. The school administrators involved in the case were not criminally charged.
Texas is one of 41 states in which there is a law requiring school districts to report the resignation of an educator who is accused or suspected of misconduct to state education officials, according to a USA TODAY survey of education officials in every state. Texas’ law was in place in 2005. Most of those 41 state laws, including the one in Texas, lack any civil or criminal enforcement mechanism for failing to report. The victim’s federal lawsuit against the two school districts that employed McFarlin was dismissed in 2014 after a judge ruled the victim did not state a legally valid claim against Orangefield and did not prove that Port Arthur should have known about the prior misconduct. McFarlin, serving his sentence at a state prison outside Houston, could not be reached for comment.
USA TODAY Network found similar examples in nearly every state, and the secrecy is often cemented in legally binding contracts. In New Jersey, Montville Township Public Schools wanted to get rid of first-grade teacher Jason Fennes in 2010 after complaints he had engaged in misconduct with his female elementary school pupils, including allegations that he inappropriately touched them and allowed them to sit on his lap.
The district did not report the accusations to police. It signed a contract stating that only his positions and dates of employment would be disclosed to prospective future employers and that “no further information will be provided.” Less than two months after resigning, Fennes was hired for a teaching job at Cedar Hill Prep School, a nearby private academy.
Prosecutors in two counties brought charges against Fennes after victims from both schools came forward. He entered guilty pleas in both cases in September, admitting to molesting at least four female students and having sex with a 15-year-old athlete he coached.
In another case, Ohio elementary school teacher Timothy Dailey lost his license after he was accused of touching students in a sexually suggestive manner. District officials in Chillicothe, about one hour south of Columbus, took measures to keep the accusations secret. Dailey could not be reached for comment. In a settlement agreement, the Union Scioto Local School Board agreed to transfer all documents about the misconduct into a file separate from Dailey’s personnel file. The district even agreed to let Dailey meet with the school board attorney to determine which items would be removed. The district agreed to take no actions “which would jeopardize applications at future school districts” and that a school administrator would say “no comment” if asked about Dailey’s reasons for departure. The document, signed by then-school board president Sarah Cochenour, paid Dailey $82,929, records show. Cochenour could not be reached for comment.
In some cases, school districts agree to eliminate personnel records, making it all but impossible to tell what the teacher was accused of doing. “These separation agreements and confidentiality agreements that allow these alleged predators to obfuscate the law and not be reported to police as they should be and stopped have created a pool of mobile molesters in our schools,” said Terri Miller, president of the Nevada-based advocacy group Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation.
Using disciplinary records from every state, USA TODAY identified more than 100 educators whose public-school teaching credentials were revoked or surrendered for serious misconduct yet continued to work with youth in different environments.
When reporters set out to track down the educators and the administrators who gave them their new jobs, the result was a blitz of excuses and obfuscation.
A Missouri sex offender told a reporter he was not working with teens on a youth basketball team before deleting evidence from his Facebook page.
A senior pastor at a Georgia church said the children’s pastor failed to disclose during the application process that he lost his state teaching license for misconduct with students.
An official at an Oregon community college said it did not check the state license history of an instructor whose K-12 teaching privileges were revoked for exchanging sexually graphic messages with an underage girl.
From youth sports leagues to church groups to tutoring groups, employees or volunteers are often hired with no background checks. The analysis shows how easily those accused of misconduct can dodge oversight — especially if they move into private schools or private coaching jobs.
Only nine states require background checks for volunteers in the sports activities. In Florida, Charles Moehle lost his teaching license because he continuously texted a student, showed up at her house unannounced and gave her flowers, according to state records. Moehle resigned his position as football coach at Pasco County Schools but remained in the classroom until he was caught months later with “multiple erotic and pornographic images” on his school computer in 2015, according to state records. He could not be reached for comment.
Eric Romig, a part-time softball coach in the Philadelphia suburbs, is accused in a federal lawsuit of a pattern of misbehavior that began with sending a student athlete at a private school thousands of text messages. The messages, many of them romantic in nature, according to the suit, led to Romig losing his position, then engaging in the same misconduct at a nearby public school in 2013, when he had a sexual relationship with a student.
David Babb, the athletics director for Pennridge School District, where Romig coached, said during a recent deposition that he hired Romig despite concerns that came to his attention during a conversation with the athletic director at the private school about Romig’s texting. “He said, you know, ‘He's coached softball for me. He's doing a great job now.’ He said he had an issue with him texting,” Babb recalled in the deposition. “What did he say the issue was?” the attorney pressed Babb. “He did not say,” Babb replied. “Did you ask him?” “No,” Babb said.
In an ongoing lawsuit, the student testified that Romig gradually gained her trust by telling her details about his personal life and encouraging her to do the same — a process known as “grooming.” Eventually, she said, Romig convinced her they were a couple and said he wanted her to marry him and stay at home instead of going to college. The lawsuit’s allegations against the two schools were dismissed by a judge because the plaintiff was not able to establish their negligence, while the civil case against Romig remains active. “He manipulated me, and he earned my trust,” the victim said in a deposition. “He kept, like, saying that he could be there, and he just earned my trust and kept trying to build up the relationship.”
The federal government does not maintain a database of teachers who have sexually abused children, and most states store data on predatory teachers within broader databases that include professional discipline imposed for paperwork deficiencies or other lesser offenses.
In the absence of a national, government-run data-sharing system to track problem teachers, state education agencies in all 50 states share information through a database maintained by the non-profit National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, known as the NASDTEC Clearinghouse. Private schools cannot submit information to the NASDTEC Clearinghouse. Even when misconduct is properly reported to the database by public schools, new employers don’t always check it. In one such case, George Offenhauser Jr. was stripped of his license to teach in Texas public schools in 2001 after his second conviction on an indecent exposure charge, records show. Offenhauser was required to register on Texas’ sex offender registry, and his name was entered by Texas education officials into the NASDTEC Clearinghouse. None of that prevented Offenhauser from getting work when he found his way to Louisiana in 2006 and got hired to teach at a private school in New Orleans.
Broken discipline tracking systems let teachers flee troubled pasts
About 10% of the nation’s K-12 students attend a private school. Officials at the private school were not aware of Offenhauser’s past, records show, until students searched the Internet while trying to find a picture of him for a school event and stumbled upon his entry in the Texas sex offender registry. Despite learning of his sex offender status, school officials did not contact law enforcement, allowed Offenhauser to continue teaching and gave him a positive letter of recommendation at the end of the year, according to a report in 2010 on teacher misconduct by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress’ watchdog agency.
Though most states have laws in place requiring licensed public-school teachers to undergo background checks, private schools typically aren’t required to conduct background checks under any state or federal law. Offenhauser used this loophole to flee his past twice. After his history was discovered at the Louisiana private school, he taught for several months at a public high school outside New Orleans in 2007 before a parent accused him of sending sexually inappropriate messages to a student, according to a report by federal investigators. Offenhauser could not be reached for comment.
The problem is not new.
Going back to the 1960s, officials in the Philadelphia Archdiocese knew Raymond Leneweaver had a documented history of molesting young boys, according to a Philadelphia grand jury report citing an internal archdiocese memo. Administrators allowed the pattern of abuse by shuffling Leneweaver from parish to parish. The archdiocese knew Leneweaver started to teach in Philadelphia-area public schools in 2003. Church officials did not prevent Leneweaver from working in four separate public school systems. Leneweaver died in 2015. In the 1990s, Gregor — the New Mexico teacher whose victim testified he damaged her ability to trust others — was accused of sexually abusing three of his female elementary school students while teaching in Utah. One student accused Gregor of rubbing her buttocks, kissing her and telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her when she turned 16; another student said Gregor rubbed and kissed her thigh. School officials sent him off with a letter of reprimand and a $10,000 severance payment. After a stint teaching in Montana, Gregor found work in Santa Fe, where he was again accused of misconduct with students, including hugging and tickling girls and having them sit on his lap. He resigned in exchange for a promise by school administrators to give a neutral reference. After finding work at another New Mexico school district, Gregor finally lost his teaching license when parents told administrators that Gregor invited students to his house overnight, gave them gifts and engaged in physical sexual misconduct. One girl reported to administrators that Gregor regularly touched her legs and inner thigh, licked or kissed her on the ear and put his thumb inside her pants to touch her bare skin.
Gregor, who could not be reached for comment, has filed legal responses vehemently denying the accusations against him in the ongoing federal litigation. In 2005, public school administrators in McLean County, Ill., gave Jon White a glowing letter of recommendation after he resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, and he soon began working at a district nearby. He pleaded guilty in February 2007 to aggravated criminal sexual assault of 10 children across the two districts where he worked. “I’m glad we took the steps we did to get him out of the district,” McLean Human Resources Superintendent John Pye wrote in an email to the head of the teachers union after White’s arrest. “I believe it was you that said he was on a path to further problems.” The first school district’s findings of misconduct involving White were not reported to the Illinois State Board of Education, the state agency charged with disciplining teachers, or the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Three school employees were sentenced to a $2,000 fine, community service and 18 months of court supervision. It was the only case identified by USA TODAY’s review in which administrators faced any criminal penalties for failing to report a teacher’s misconduct to state authorities.
Student welfare advocates said they have seen some progress in ending secretive practices surrounding educator misconduct, but it is not enough to eradicate the problem. In late 2015, Congress enacted a federal law that requires each state to pass a law or regulation banning the practice of passing the trash. The new prohibition applies to cases in which a teacher engaged in “sexual misconduct regarding a minor or student in violation of the law.” Only Connecticut and Texas have taken action to comply with the requirement in the year since it has been in effect. Three states — Missouri, Oregon and Pennsylvania — had laws in place prohibiting confidentiality agreements before the federal requirement. In the other 45 states, movement to comply has been slow. Some teachers organizations have consistently fought against such state legislation. “This will limit the ability of employees and employers from negotiating separation agreements and could potentially result in a flood of teacher termination hearings,” Jan Hochadel, president of the union representing about 15,000 Connecticut educators, testified at a hearing on a new state law eradicating secret settlement agreements for teachers. The measure passed in March with only one dissenting vote. Efforts to maintain better national data on teacher misconduct and keep track of the worst sexual-misconduct offenders have been hamstrung by opposition from a host of state and national education groups.
One such measure, the Student Protection Act introduced most recently in 2009, would have required the U.S. Department of Education to maintain a national database of educators who are terminated from a public or private school, or sanctioned by a state government, on the basis of an act of sexual misconduct against a student. The bill died amid fierce opposition from national teachers organizations, which had concerns about due process for teachers accused of misconduct. Shakeshaft of Virginia Commonwealth University said passing the trash is not just a product of the flawed regulations that allow it to happen but of poor judgment. School administrators are often slow to believe a teacher’s transgressions may be a sign of a more serious pattern of abuse, allowing them to rationalize decisions to quietly shift the danger to another community. “It’s not that they don’t believe it would happen,” she said. “It’s just that they don’t believe it would happen in their district."
Contributing: Paul Berger, Jessica Campisi, Jacob Carpenter, Mark Nichols, Nick Penzenstadler, Christopher Schnaars, Laura Ungar and Alison Young.
About this story
Through requests filed under the open records laws of each state, the USA TODAY NETWORK obtained databases identifying tens of thousands of teachers who have faced disciplinary actions.
Over the course of several months, reporters narrowed the data from each state to several thousand cases nationally in which the teacher lost or surrendered his or her public school teaching credentials due to inappropriate behavior with children or teenagers, including sexual misconduct or harassment.
The names and other identifying information for those teachers were then compared to various public databases, social media networks and other sources to identify more than 100 cases in which the teacher continued to work with youth in another environment after their public school teaching credentials were revoked or surrendered. In most cases, reporters also contacted the educator and their new employer to verify a teacher’s identity.
Read more about how we gathered and analyzed the data and how we surveyed and compared states' policies for tracking teacher discipline.
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06ac771a6627ded01e36cf3133748dc1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/24/graham-threatens-pull-funding-un-over-settlement-vote/95827352/ | Graham threatens to pull funding for U.N. over Israeli settlement vote | Graham threatens to pull funding for U.N. over Israeli settlement vote
Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Saturday that he will propose a bill in Congress to pull U.S. funding for the United Nations unless the U.N. Security Council repeals its just-passed resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal.
The resolution, a major rebuke to Israel, passed Friday in a 14-0 vote. The U.S., which has vetoed similar resolutions in the past, abstained, allowing it to be adopted.
The measure demands Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem." It declares that the establishment of settlements by Israel has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."
The Republican senator from South Carolina told CNN on Saturday that he had been planning to work with the U.N. to create a Marshall Plan to support countries emerging from conflict but won't do it unless the council overturns the resolution.
"I am a huge supporter of foreign aid and the U.N.," he said. "I want to do more, not less. But I can't support funding a body that singles out the only democracy in the Middle East who shares our values."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the measure as "shameful" and said Israel will not abide by its terms.
Graham told CNN that trying to defund the U.N. is a new approach.
"This is a road we haven't gone down before," said Graham, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee. "If you can't show the American people that international organizations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break."
In a statement Friday following the vote, Graham said President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry went from "naïve and foolish to flat-out reckless" in allowing the resolution to be adopted.
White House officials said the administration's decision not to veto was consistent with long-standing U.S. opposition to Israeli settlements, calling them an incitement to violence and an impediment to peace.
The resolution "makes clear that both Israel and the Palestinians have to take steps to preserve the two-state solution," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. Rhodes said the U.S. had nothing to do with the U.N. resolution, and that the Obama administration has been warning Israel for years that settlements were increasing its international "isolation."
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, in remarks to the council after the vote, said the U.S. position on the settlements has remained unchanged for five decades. She quoted a 1982 statement by then-president Ronald Reagan, which declared Washington “will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements.”
"The U.S. has been sending the message that the settlements must stop, privately and publicly, for five decades," Power said.
She said settlement activity "harms the viability of a negotiated two-state outcome and erodes prospects for peace and stability in the region.”
Under international law, Israeli settlements — built on Palestinian land occupied by Israel — are considered illegal. Some 600,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel argues that the final status of the territories should be determined in any future talks on Palestinian statehood.
Graham, in his statement, said the U.S. diplomatic move amounted to abandoning Israel and that he expects it will "create a backlash" against the U.N. in Congress.
"The organization is increasingly viewed as anti-Semitic and seems to have lost all sense of proportionality," he said.
The senator told CNN he discussed the resolution before the vote with António Guterres, the incoming U.N. secretary-general, and also lobbied members of the Security Council not to support it.
In addition, he raised the issue with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump, in an unprecedented move for a president-in-waiting, tried to block the vote by persuading Egypt, the initial sponsor of the measure, to withdraw it Thursday. The following day, however, other co-sponsors of the measure brought it up for a vote.
Afterward, Trump — who takes office in four weeks — tweeted: "Things will be different after Jan. 20th."
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9c314c9b3ad9aa57cb859ce46a521ffe | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/27/police-suspect-social-media-spurred-mall-violence/95886724/ | Police suspect social media spurred mall violence | Police suspect social media spurred mall violence
Police officials in several U.S. cities said Tuesday that they suspect social media was used to organize some of the string of brawls and disturbances that broke out at more than a dozen shopping malls across the country a day earlier, marring one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
In Aurora, Colo., police said a posting on social media announcing a fight at the Town Center of Aurora drew an unruly crowd that grew to about 500 people. Five suspects, all juveniles, were arrested in that fight, which brought 50 officers to the scene and led to the mall being shut down.
Manchester, Conn., police said several fights broke out around the same time at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills Mall in that city on Monday evening. Capt. Christopher Davis said police there believe it is “highly probable” that social media postings played a part in organizing the disturbances that ended with the arrests of seven people — including five teenagers — who were involved in the melees.
Meanwhile, in Beachwood, Ohio, police said about 500 young people who took part in a large-scale disturbance at the mall on Monday had been “loosely organized on social media.”
Reports of mall disturbances light up social media
Police in the Cleveland suburb evacuated the mall after teens had been running through the shopping center amid incorrect reports that shots had been fired. The mall’s operators eventually reopened it to shoppers after the situation was calmed. One juvenile who struck a police officer was charged with disorderly conduct.
Other major mall disturbances — including some that led to shopping centers being evacuated — occurred in Tempe, Ariz.; Aurora, Ill.; Louisville; Fayetteville, N.C.; East Garden City, N.Y.; Memphis; Fort Worth and elsewhere.
Images and videos of the brawls and chaotic scenes also were posted on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.
“There’s a definite connection with social media,” said Chris McGoey, who heads the Los Angeles-based McGoey Security Consulting firm. “This is not a coincidence that on this day you have all of these similar events happening across the country involving a certain age demographic. If you look at where many of these incidents occurred, they are in cold climates. Added to that, it happened the day after Christmas, most of these individuals were school-age children and they have nothing to do. And this is the YouTube generation, they record everything, and they want to stimulate things through their social media.”
Law enforcement officials have not uncovered any evidence that the incidents — which occurred at malls in at least 12 states within hours of each other — were nationally coordinated.
Officer Tamara Valle, a Fort Worth Police Department spokeswoman, said officers there were investigating to see whether an incident at Hulen Mall, in which 100 to 150 teenagers brawled at the food court, was part of “some kind of premeditated thing across the nation.” Like the incident in Beachwood, police were called to the scene after incorrect reports that shots had been fired.
Capt. Gary Haba, a spokesman for the Beachwood Police Department, said police and mall officials there regularly monitor social media and beef up security when they spot postings from teenagers suggesting that a fight may occur at the mall.
Haba said while police spotted postings on social media suggesting that something was brewing on Monday, the messages did not appear to be spread very far.
“We didn’t see any massive traffic that suggested that it was going to be a big thing,” Haba said. “Sometimes, we’ll see about as much (social media traffic) as we did yesterday, and we’ll show up and nothing happens.”
100-150 involved in Hulen Mall fight
In the incident at the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, Ill., west of Chicago, police said eight juveniles, ages 13 to 17, face various misdemeanor charges for their parts in several melees that broke out there on Monday and may have been spurred by social media.
Mall security called police after they saw a large crowd of teenagers gather in the food court area. Police arrived and called on the teens to disperse.
Shortly after officers ordered the teens to disperse, police said a large fight broke out in the mall as well as several smaller skirmishes. The situation escalated further as some in the crowd threw drinks and other items at police and mall security, police said.
Two officers were battered trying to break up the fights, and 75 officers were dispatched to the mall to restore order. No one was seriously injured, police said.
“Aurora Police continue to investigate what role social media may have played in organizing the disturbance and what connection the disturbance may have to other similar incidents that were reported in several cities across the nation,” the department said in a statement. “The motive behind the disturbance is not yet known.”
McGoey, the Los Angeles-based security consultant, said mall operators' best effective deterrence to these social-media driven incidents is to be tough on less serious misconduct, such as loitering and harassment of shoppers.
“These incidents aren’t going to get better, they’re probably only going to become more common,” McGoey said. “The malls that enforce rules of conduct and drive the knuckleheads away and won’t allow them to hang out in clusters and make catcalls (at women), they are going to reduce the chances of being targeted. They’re going to pick on the mall that allows them to gather in clusters and where mall security allows things to escalate before they do anything.”
Contributing: USA TODAY's Susan Miller and WFAA-TV
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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55819fc89eebf281c8935e433d2d0663 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/31/judge-temporarily-blocks-law-curbing-power-new-nc-governor/96032870/ | Judge temporarily blocks law curbing power of new N.C. governor | Judge temporarily blocks law curbing power of new N.C. governor
Only a day before North Carolina's new governor replaces the man he ousted in a bitter election, a state court temporarily has delayed implementation of a law passed by the Republican-dominated legislature that would have curbed his powers as the state's chief executive.
Gov.-elect Roy Cooper and Gov. Pat McCrory have both sought court intervention in a political struggle that continues despite McCrory's loss by 10,000 votes in November.
At stake is control of the North Carolina political landscape that could open the way for Democrats to cut into Republican domination of the legislature in the next election.
On Friday, McCrory, a Republican, asked Supreme Court Justice John Roberts in something of a political "Hail Mary" to block orders that the state legislature must quickly redraw legislative boundaries already declared illegal because of racial gerrymandering.
The move came the same day that Cooper, a Democrat who will be sworn in as a governor shortly after midnight Saturday, persuaded a state Superior Court judge to temporarily block enactment of a law, passed earlier this month by the legislature, that would have restructured the state elections board and reduced Cooper's control of it.
The judge froze the law Friday pending further court hearings.
The law, passed by lawmakers in a hastily convened special session in December, would dilute Cooper's power over the state electoral board by dissolving the old state board and creating one in which he would not be able to appoint the majority of members.
"This complex new law passed in just two days by the Republican legislature is unconstitutional and anything but bipartisan," Cooper said in a statement, according to Reuters. "A tie on a partisan vote would accomplish what many Republicans want: making it harder for North Carolinians to vote."
Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican and Cooper critic, countered that blocking the creation of a board with equal numbers of party members "may serve his desire to preserve his own political power, but it does not serve the best interests of our state."
If McCrory's long-shot Supreme Court effort succeeds, it would delay a federal court order for the redrawing of district boundaries in March and the holding of an election in 2017. A one-year delay would mean Cooper would have to contend with the Republican's veto-proof majority in the legislature for two years.
The political battle is in response to a three-judge federal court ruling in August that found the state's 2011 electoral maps included 28 illegal districts. The court, however, did not order new districts redrawn immediately because it was too close to the 2016 elections.
After the election, however, the court ordered the General Assembly to draw new maps by March 15 and hold special elections in 2017, The Charlotte News & Observer reports.
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6522b609f8086eb4c63027f2a9cf613e | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/03/report-discovery-could-mean-hope-better-pms-treatment/96138814/ | Report: Discovery could mean hope for better PMS treatment | Report: Discovery could mean hope for better PMS treatment
The discovery of molecular mechanisms that could be responsible for symptoms of a severe form of premenstrual syndrome could mean that new treatments are possible.
The discovery by researchers at the National Institutes of Health was reported in the Jan. 3 edition of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, causes severe irratability, sadness and anxiety. It affects 2% to 5% of women of child-bearing age, according to the NIH.
This research is important because it shows that women battling PMDD have an "intrinsic difference in their molecular apparatus for response to sex hormones," said David Goldman of the NIH National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Experimentally turning off estrogen and progesterone in test subjects made the symptoms disappear, while turning the hormones back on made the symptoms return, according to NIH.
The discovery contributes to evidence that PMDD occurs with cellular response to estrogen and progesterone, said Peter Schmidt of the NIH National Institute of Mental Health, Behavioral Endocrinology Branch.
Learning more about a suspected gene complex involved gives hope for improved treatment, he said.
"For the first time, we now have cellular evidence of abnormal signaling in cells derived from women with PMDD, and a plausible biological cause for their abnormal behvioral sensitivity to estrogen and progesterone," Schmidt said.
PMDD can be disabling, and can affect a person's performance at work and damage relationships, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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23353d66d365e2de454e140c1d62ee91 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/04/nyc-sees-historic-drop-crime/96179104/ | NYC sees historic drop in crime | NYC sees historic drop in crime
New York City was celebrating an historic drop in crime as the city on Wednesday released annual figures at a ceremony at the Brooklyn Museum.
Overall, reported crimes were down 4.1 percent, from 105,921 in 2015 to 101,606 last year, according to NYPD. The 2016 figure represented the fewest crimes ever reported in the modern crime-reporting area, the police agency said.
The news was good almost across the board: Murders down 4.8 percent from 352 in 2015 to 335 last year; rape down 1% from 1,450 in 2015 to 1,436 last year; robberies down 8.7 percent from 16,971 in 2015 to 15,489 last year. The only reported figure that was up was felonious assault, which rose 2.1 percent from 20,375 to 20,807, the NYPD reported.
"2016 was the safest year ever in the history of New York City," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said. "We have been working hard at reducing crime to historic lows, when many said it could not be done."
"This is an amazing moment for New York City," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "Crimes are being stopped before they happen because the focus is on the right people and the right places."
Along with the other positive numbers, New York also saw its fewest ever annual shootings last year, the mayor said. The figures also reflected the fewest ever robberies and burglaries in a single year, de Blasio said.
"None of this happened by accident," O'Neill said. "We've zeroed in on the relatively small population of people who commit most of the violent crime in our city. We are picking them off one by one or, in many cases, dozens by dozens."
Officials credited a big push over the last year and a half on neighborhood policing and a reworking of how detectives are organized, allowing detectives to compare notes and focus on the small group of people committing most of the violent crimes. Many of shootings were gang-related, and detectives focused on the circle of gang members doing most of the shooting, Robert Boyce, NYPD chief of detectives, said.
The efforts to boost community policing included more neighborhood meetings hosted by police, during which police would explain their presence, who they arrested and why, according to O'Neill.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams noted that the crime reductions happened even as the city cut down on its controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which allows officers to stop anyone they deem suspicious. Opponents complained the policy allowed police to wrongly target to many minorities, while proponents said it was a necessary crime deterrent.
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878603b9be7cc818c9b8da6742c06a0b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/05/jurassic-footprints-show-dinosaurs-may-have-hunted-packs/96217224/ | Cretaceous footprints show dinosaurs may have hunted in packs | Cretaceous footprints show dinosaurs may have hunted in packs
Some 90 million years ago, three carnivorous dinosaurs sloshed through the mud, leaving footsteps still visible today. Now researchers have found clues hinting at the pack’s intent: to grab dinner, in the form of a fellow dinosaur.
If this idea is correct – and it’s far from confirmed – the tracks could provide valuable evidence for cooperative hunting by tyrannosaurs, the family of meat-eating, hind-leg-walking reptiles headed by the mighty T. rex.
Scientists have found fossils and other tracks suggesting dinosaurs hunted cooperatively, but evidence for dinosaur behavior “is still relatively rare, because we’re talking about something we can’t see,” says Brent Breithaupt, a Wyoming-based regional paleontologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who was not involved with analyzing the tracks. And whatever happened at this spot one day in the Cretaceous, “tracks are the first good step – excuse the pun – into learning about what animals were there.”
The predator tracks were first discovered a decade ago in a rugged corner of New Mexico overseen by the land-management bureau. The researchers found 13 prints left by three meat-eating dinosaurs: small, medium and large.
The proportions and shape of the three-toed prints point to tyrannosaurs as the culprits, says Douglas Wolfe of the White Mountain Dinosaur Exploration Center, who found the tracks. Fossils of a tyrannosaur-like dinosaur – a new species still under study -- lie nearby, bolstering the case that the tracks are the footwork of tyrannosaurs.
Many of the tracks parallel each other, indicating “a family group, maybe moving in concert,” Wolfe says. What stumped him was the pattern of the tracks. The prints march across the ground in a relatively straight line. Then they suddenly change direction and veer off.
A few years ago, Douglas Wolfe’s wife Hazel noticed something no one else had seen: a round footprint exactly where the tyrannosaur tracks swerve. Little piles of sediment hint the round-footed animal kicked up sand as it scrambled away.
The maker of the round track was probably a plant-eating horned dinosaur of the Triceratops family, Douglas Wolfe says. One candidate is Zuniceratops, a smallish horned dinosaur. Wolfe thinks the tyrannosaurs closed in on the horned dinosaur’s right side before their quarry fled. The Wolfes reported their findings at a recent meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
A joint tyrannosaur attack may seem far-fetched, but dinosaurs were not the loners of the popular imagination. At one Canadian site, a collection of fossils from tyrannosaurs of different ages suggests the animals died together, says James Kirkland of the Utah Geological Survey. “These were sophisticated animals,” Kirkland says.
Scientists not involved with the New Mexico find say it’s too early to know its significance. Breithaupt calls the site “intriguing” but wonders whether the meat-eaters and the plant-eater actually crossed paths, rather than trekking across the same spot days or weeks apart. He’d like to see more data, including digital imaging of the tracks.
Douglas Wolfe says the animals would not all have left tracks if they hadn’t shown up at the mud patch at roughly the same time. In any case, he says, it’s useful simply to find prints of tyrannosaur-like animals: the tracks indicate tyrannosaurs once stalked this patch of ground in the Cretaceous, and that they did so in a herd.
The set of tracks also “shows there are many, many unique sites still out there” waiting to be discovered, Breithaupt says. “Each one of these sites has a different story … that will provide us with a better understanding of the life and times of the animals that were roaming around back in the Age of Dinosaurs.”
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ea83d447b0f9bae1fcfef74430730d15 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/06/reports-shots-fired-ft-lauderdale-airport/96248086/ | Army vet opens fire at Fort Lauderdale airport, kills 5, injures 8 | Army vet opens fire at Fort Lauderdale airport, kills 5, injures 8
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — An Army veteran who flew from Alaska to Florida opened fire in the baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport Friday, killing five people, injuring eight and sending terrified passengers running through the airport before police grabbed the suspect unharmed, according to law enforcement authorities.
Witnesses said the 26-year-old man - described by his aunt as behaving erratically in recent weeks and possibly having "lost his mind" - emptied several magazines of bullets, then dropped to the floor spread-eagled to await arrest. He was taken into custody without incident by a Broward County sheriff's deputy, according to Sheriff Scott Israel.
Israel identified the suspect as Esteban Santiago. The sheriff said Santiago was armed with a semi-automatic handgun and was "indiscriminately firing" at people in a "cowardly, heinous act."
Passengers and their relatives described screams and horror as shots rang out in the baggage area.
“People started kind of screaming and trying to get out of any door they could or hide under the chairs,” a witness, Mark Lea, told MSNBC. “He just kind of continued coming in, just randomly shooting at people, no rhyme or reason to it . . . He wasn't targeting anyone."
Chip LaMarca, a Broward County commissioner, was briefed on the airport shooting by the Broward Sheriff’s office. On his Twitter account, he said the shooter arrived in Fort Lauderdale aboard a flight with a gun in a checked bag.
"He claimed his bag and took the gun from baggage and went into the bathroom to load it. Came out shooting people in baggage claim," LaMarca tweeted.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said Santiago was carrying a military ID at the time of the attack.
Santiago was booked into the main Broward County jail on a murder charge pending trial, according to the Broward county sheriff's office.
Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale early Friday aboard a Delta flight that originated Thursday in Anchorage and passed through Minneapolis, according to a federal official who is not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official said the suspect apparently retrieved a handgun from his checked luggage and loaded it before launching the assault.
In November, the suspect appeared unannounced in the FBI offices in Anchorage, complaining that the Islamic State had gained control of his mind and the terror group was urging him to fight on its behalf, according to the FBI.
"His erratic behavior concerned FBI agents," said George Piro, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office.
The FBI conducted a background check, learning of his military record, which included service in Iraq, but found no connection to terror groups. Determining that the man apparently needed psychiatric care, the FBI alerted local law enforcement and turned him over to their custody for a medical referral. It is not clear whether Santiago received treatment following that incident.
Santiago worked in Anchorage in a security-related job and has a girlfriend and a child there, according to the federal official wh was speaking on background..
Santiago's aunt, Maria Ruiz, who lives in Union City, N.J., said her nephew is an Army veteran who served two years in Iraq and came back acting strangely. However, she said that he “was happy with the kid” after the birth of his child last year.
“I don’t know why this happened,” she said during an interview at her home Friday afternoon.
She said that her nephew had been living in Alaska, where he was able to obtain the security job. She showed reporters a photo of Santiago at a hospital holding his newborn son in September. Staff at Providence Hospital in Anchorage confirmed that the photo was taken in their hospital.
In the photo, Santiago wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Disturbed," an apparent reference to the heavy metal band of the same name. Ruiz said that Santiago, whose mother lives in Puerto Rico, seemed to be happy - but shortly thereafter, he seemed to come unglued, she said.
“Like a month ago, it was like he lost his mind,” she said. “He said he saw things.”
She said that he was hospitalized for two weeks, but she did not have details about his condition. Ruiz spoke to reporters at her home Friday afternoon before FBI agents showed up at her door and local authorities closed off the street near her home.
Sheriff Israel said authorities had not established a motive for the shooting and that it was too early to declare it a terrorist act.
"At this point, it looks like he acted alone," Israel told reporters. But the FBI said last night that terrorism has not been ruled out. "We're not ruling out anything," Piro said in a press conference.
Army records show that Santiago had served in U.S. military service from December 2007 to August 2016. He had been awarded several commendations, including the Army Good Conduct Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, according to the Army public affairs office in Washington.
President-elect Donald Trump urged tweeted that he was following the events. "Monitoring the terrible situation in Florida," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Just spoke to Governor [Rick] Scott. Thoughts and prayers for all. Stay safe!"
Florida suspect's aunt: ‘I don't know why this happened’
The melee, which erupted around 1 p.m. EST, brought air traffic to a standstill at the heavily traveled airport. Some incoming flights were halted on the tarmac and were likely to be sent to another city without allowing passengers to disembark, according to airport director Mark Gale. By late Friday night, about 10,000 people were being helped to find hotels, transportation and food, Gale said.
Fort Lauderdale International Airport handles about 586 commercial flights daily, according to flight-tracking website Flight Aware. As of mid-morning Saturday,, about a quarter of those flights – 112—scheduled to depart from the airport had been canceled and 17 were delayed.
Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday that authorities were meeting passengers arriving on cruise ships, at the end of their vacations, to help direct them to other airports.
The shooter, described as slender, about 5-foot-7 and wearing a blue T-shirt, did not say a word during the incident, calmly opening fire as he strolled among passengers at a baggage carousel in Terminal 2, which services Delta flights.
It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag — not a carry-on — and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.
Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after having checked only one piece of luggage — his gun, said Jesse Davis, police chief at the Anchorage airport.
Another witness, John Schicher, told MSNBC the shooter appeared to be wearing a blue Star Wars T-shirt.
The shooting sent people scrambling onto the tarmac, some carrying luggage. Others cowered behind cars.
Video posted on Instagram appeared to show several people wounded in the baggage claim area of the terminal. One person appeared to be lying in a pool of blood with a head wound.
Paramedics could also be seen treating a bleeding victim outside the airport. Hundreds of people stood on the tarmac as an ambulance drove by.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott called the shooting a "senseless act of evil" and added that he called Trump to keep him informed about the case.
Early word on the incident came from a tweet by Ari Fleischer, former White House spokesman for President George W. Bush. "I'm at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport," Fleischer tweeted. "Shots have been fired. Everyone is running."
Buses delivered travelers from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to the Port Everglades terminal late into the night, as groups of people sat by luggage, talked on cell phones and approached law enforcement officers.
Traffic into the port facility, northeast of the airport, was essentially at a standstill for hours. At times, law enforcement officers with rifles walked past the motionless vehicles.
Perched on a bench at the port next to his 73-year-old wife, Jerry Finnegan, 78, said they’d flown in from Baltimore, Md., and arrived about 12:50 p.m. local time.
“We spent all our time in lockdown at the airport, you couldn’t go anywhere in or out,” Finnegan said. He added that they were brought to the port, and got there about 10 p.m. That was two hours after they were supposed to leave on a cruise out of Miami.
“That ship’s gone,” he said. Asked what they planned to do, he said, “I have no idea right now.”
Finnegan did say that the airport was “total chaos” and that people knocked him down.
A short walk away through a crowd of people, Debbie Blesi, 51, said she and another person got to the airport about 5 a.m. from Minneapolis. They planned to meet others coming in from another flight and were waiting for a shuttle to go to a hotel before leaving on a cruise ship Saturday.
“I think the presence of the officers has been tremendous,” she said. “You can plan all you want until it happens and hope your plan works, and I think they did a pretty good job.”
The port area remained busy around midnight. Airport officials said at a late-night press conference that they hope to re-open the airport by 5 a.m., but urged passengers to check with airlines before coming to the airport.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson and Jim Michaels, in Washington; Abbott Koloff and Monsy Alvarado, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record;Will Greenlee inFort Lauderdale, TCPalm;the Associated Press
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1ad3709de10243290923336cde7056dc | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/10/backpage-executives-refuse-answer-senate-panel-probing-sex-trafficking/96390352/ | Backpage executives refuse to answer Senate panel probing sex trafficking | Backpage executives refuse to answer Senate panel probing sex trafficking
The operators of the online classified site Backpage.com on Tuesday declined to answer questions from a Senate panel investigating the company’s adult services ads, which lawmakers and law enforcement say have helped facilitate pimping and child sex trafficking in the U.S.
Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer, his business associates James Larkin and Michael Lacey as well as other company officials appeared before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations but invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves.
"After consultation with counsel, I decline to answer your question based on the rights provided by the First and Fifth Amendments," Ferrer responded to a series of questions from subcommittee chairman Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
The hearing, in which Backpage officials were compelled to appear, came as Backpage announced late Monday that it had shuttered the adult services section of the website to U.S. users. The move by Backpage came hours after the subcommittee published a scathing report charging that Backpage.com systematically edits its escort ads, filtering out words that would suggest the site was promoting the sex trafficking of children. The company said in a statement it made the decision to shutter its adult services section in response to "an accumulation of acts of government censorship using extra-legal tactics."
Critics of Backpage say the site helps facilitate pimping and trafficking of children. But the company has effectively argued in federal courts that while some users of its site may engage in criminal activity, it is just the host of content posted on the site and is immune from prosecution under the Communications Decency Act.
Backpage.com shuts adult services section following blistering report from a Senate panel
But the subcommittee charges in its report that Backpage “knowingly concealed evidence of criminality” by systematically editing escort ads posted on the site, filtering out words that would suggest the site was promoting the sex trafficking of children.
Backpage executives began using a feature called “Strip Term From Ad Filter” to help screeners automatically delete hundreds of words indicative of sex trafficking — such as lolita, teenage, amber alert, teen and school girl, according to the Senate report. By Backpage’s own internal estimate, by late-2010, the company was editing 70 to 80% of ads in the adult section either manually or automatically.
"Think about the real-world effect of that practice," Portman said of the filtering. "A trafficker submits an ad on Backpage.com containing a word like ‘lolita’ or ‘teen’ — a pretty good clue that a crime may be afoot. But then Backpage’s Strip Term From Ad filter would delete the problematic term and the remainder of the ad would be published. Of course, this editing changed nothing about the real age of a person being sold for sex or the real nature of the advertised transaction."
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that by editing the ads Backpage officials were effectively coaching pimps on how to traffic children, without raising red flags.
“That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of evil — simply evil,” she said.
The report also charges that Backpage officials know the site facilitates prostitution and child sex trafficking. The subcommittee estimates that Backpage makes about $150 million annually from its adult services ads, roughly 90% of the company's revenue.
The website, which is similar to Craigslist, has been under pressure from lawmakers and law enforcement for years to end adult-services advertisements. Craigslist ceased posting adult and erotic service ads in 2010.
The hearing comes a day after the Supreme Court said it won’t hear an appeal from three sex trafficking victims who accuse Backpage of helping to promote the exploitation of children. A lower court ruling threw out the case, citing the Communications Decency Act as shielding Backpage from liability.
In October, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced pimping charges against Ferrer and charges of conspiracy to commit pimping against shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin (Lacey and Larkin said in a statement they sold their interest in Backpage two years ago, but the subcommittee asserts they still maintain a substantial financial interest and influence over the company).
A Sacramento County judge tossed out the charges, noting the Communications Decency Act. But Harris, who has since been elected to the Senate, refiled new charges in December of pimping and money laundering against the three men.
In July 2015, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart successfully lobbied MasterCard and Visa to cease processing transactions for its adult services ads. American Express stopped doing business with Backpage earlier in 2015.
Visa follows MasterCard, cuts off business with Backpage.com
Employees of Backpage told subcommittee investigators that employees were aware that the website was facilitating prostitution, and some employees even visited prostitutes who were advertised on the website.
In one case, an employee that was part of the team that screened ads wrote an internal message concluding that a user of the site was a prostitute, and the employee was reprimanded by Chief Operating Officer Andrew Padilla, according to the report.
“Leaving notes on our site that imply that we’re aware of prostitution, or in any position to define it, is enough to lose your job over,” Padilla wrote in an e-mail.
Some First Amendment advocates say the Senate's tactics are worrisome.
"The tactics used against sites like Backpage threaten speech far beyond what's posted on online classified ad sites," said Emma Llansó, of the Washington-based Center of Democracy & Technology. "When government officials move beyond the bully pulpit and conduct persistent pressure campaigns to achieve a result repeatedly denied to them in court, we're in the territory of unaccountable government censorship that is anathema to First Amendment values."
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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3b99414a0350e02a60a7aa7e851d8a97 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/12/arrival-us-troops-poland-sparks-kremlins-ire/96481698/ | Arrival of U.S. troops in Poland sparks Kremlin's ire | Arrival of U.S. troops in Poland sparks Kremlin's ire
Some 3,000 U.S. troops, under a NATO banner, are arriving in Poland and six other Eastern European countries in what a Kremlin spokesman calls a threat to Russia's interest and security.
The deployment, which includes more than 80 main battle tanks and hundreds of armored vehicles, is part of NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve, which was launched in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The operation, representing the largest U.S. military reinforcement of Europe in decades, calls for a unit rotation every nine months.
The armored brigade combat team, based in Colorado, arrived in Germany last week. The group is gathering at a NATO and Polish base in Wrocław, in southwest Poland, before fanning out to six other NATO countries in the Russian neighborhood, including the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that any country would regard a buildup of foreign military presence near its borders negatively.
"This is precisely the way we see it," he said, Russia's TASS news agency reported. "We interpret this as a threat to us and as actions that endanger our interests and our security."
U.S. concern over possible Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, as well as the Baltics, was underscored by a visit last week to the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — now NATO allies — by three U.S. senators, including John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The three also visited a former military post in Ukraine.
McCain visits frontline Ukraine troops in anti-Putin gesture
The reinforcements in Poland, a former member of the Warsaw Pact, come less than two weeks before the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has indicated he will likely pursue warmer relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said this week that Poland did not want to block closer U.S. ties with Russia "provided that this does not happen at our expense," Radio Poland reported.
Russia, in its own saber-rattling gesture, recently deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, the sliver of Russian territory between Poland and Lithuania.
Contributing: Associated Press
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13a5fb640696470bcb1a536d1f0b3a5a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/13/soldiers-and-sailors-monument-wins-landmark-status/96538904/ | Soldiers and Sailors monument wins landmark status | Soldiers and Sailors monument wins landmark status
It is THE Indianapolis landmark, a 284-foot white limestone spire set in the heart of Downtown.
Now, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument takes its place among America's great landmarks. The U.S. Interior Department designated it a National Historic Landmark, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources announced Friday.
"It is the largest of more than 200 Civil War memorials in the U.S., and the only one that combines large-scale sculpture in bronze and stone," the DNR boasted in a news release.
The monument, dedicated to common soldiers, took 13 years to build and was dedicated in1902.
The monument is part of Indianapolis life as the site for rallies and protests, a spot for lunch, for tourists to inspect or an iconic Indianapolis scene for nationally televised sporting events.
One other Indiana structure — West Union Covered Bridge in Parke County — also was listed as National Historic Landmark.
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17a6cef4b950f931b2379877c335a1c7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/19/feminism-intersectionality-racism-sexism-class/96633750/ | What is intersectional feminism? A look at the term you may be hearing a lot | What is intersectional feminism? A look at the term you may be hearing a lot
"Intersectional feminism" is much more than the latest feminist buzzword. It is a decades-old term many feminists use to explain how the feminist movement can be more diverse and inclusive.
If feminism is advocating for women's rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women's overlapping identities — including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation — impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination.
A white woman is penalized by her gender but has the advantage of race. A black woman is disadvantaged by her gender and her race. A Latina lesbian experiences discrimination because of her ethnicity, her gender and her sexual orientation.
Intersectionality has received increased attention in part due to how the Women's March on Washington came together. The rally, which began organically on Facebook, was initially criticized for failing to include any women of color as organizers. Now its leaders include Tamika Mallory, an African-American civil rights activist and former director of the National Action Network; Linda Sarsour, a Muslim who heads the Arab American Association of New York; and Carmen Perez, a Latina activist who directs Harry Belafonte’s Gathering for Justice. The march's policy platform is called "Unity Principles," which include the belief that "gender justice is racial justice is economic justice."
At 2.6 million strong, Women's Marches crush expectations
"This has been a conversation about feminism for years, but what we're witnessing now is a literacy, newer generations are coming to feminism and starting to understand how intersectionality fits within their feminism and how it can widen their view in a sense of how we think about advocating and shaping policy," said Syreeta McFadden, professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City and a writer on racial discrimination and African-American culture.
The concept was given a name in 1989, when Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor at UCLA and Columbia and a leading thinker on race theory, wrote a seminal paper on the topic.
Today, the term makes some people uncomfortable in part because it suggests that white women recognize their privilege and examine the ways in which that privilege can make other women invisible within the feminist movement.
Watch live: Women's March on Washington
"White women do not want to jeopardize their power or their interests, so now they need to ask what they will do differently to help other women," said Ruth Enid Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland and the interim director of the university's U.S. Latino Studies Initiative.
Intersectional feminism means not focusing solely on breaking the glass ceiling in corporate America, for instance, but in raising the minimum wage, as nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers in the U.S. are women, according to the National Women's Law Center.
"I'm a bit over how the mainstream narrative flattens the feminist movement to try to make it into the Sheryl Sandberg-identity of feminism," McFadden said. "Not to say that she didn't have ideas that were helpful and on point, but there is a class conversation that gets lost."
Intersectionality also means broadening the conversation around reproductive rights.
"Some intersectional feminists have been critical of framing reproductive justice claims in terms of a feminist demand for 'choice,' since choice discourse presumes that all women have the economic means to afford an abortion if they so choose," said Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at UCLA. "Moreover, privileging attention to abortion rights over other reproductive justice issues — such as forced sterilization — can be seen to elevate a middle-class white women’ agenda over other issues that are equally if not more important to poor women and women of color."
In the current political climate, some say the time is right to embrace intersectionality.
"Intersectional feminism is especially important right now as we face a situation in which many women are confronting multiple forms of vulnerability," Williams said. "In times like this, there is a real danger that feminism itself can function in an exclusionary manner by marginalizing less powerful and less privileged women and allies — the very people who most need feminism today."
Here's how feminist scholars explain the meaning of intersectionality in their own words:
Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at UCLA
"Intersectional feminism is a form of feminism that stands for the rights and empowerment of all women, taking seriously the fact of differences among women, including different identities based on radicalization, sexuality, economic status, nationality, religion, and language. Intersectional feminism attends to the ways in which claims made in the name of women as a class can function to silence or marginalize some women by universalizing the claims of relatively privileged women."
Nancy J. Hirschmann, director of the Alice Paul Center for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Pennsylvania
"Intersectional feminism is the idea that 'gender' or 'women' doesn’t just refer to a single unified concept: all women have a race, whether white, black, Asian, Latina, etc. as well as a class, ethnicity, religion, etc., and their experiences as 'women' differ because of those other differences. The different aspects of our identity intersect — white women’s experiences 'as women' is partly defined by their race, just like black women’s experiences are, it’s just that it’s easier for white women to ignore their race. So if 'feminism' is supposed to represent 'women' it has to attend to those differences."
Ruth Enid Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland
"There isn't just one 'feminism. There are 'feminisims.'"
"Intersectionalism is crucial. How do we begin to disentangle 'women' from 'African American women' from 'Puerto Rican' women from 'Mexican American women' from 'international women'?"
"White women need to recognize that gender isn't a single category. There is a need to acknowledge underrepresented women and domestic groups that have different histories and are at a tremendous disadvantage."
Alia Dastagir writes about media and culture for USA TODAY. You can follow her on Twitter @alia_e.
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008e2915a9045aabb41d8baeea97a39f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/24/trump-threatens-send-feds-deal-chicago-violence/97024490/ | Trump, fed up with Chicago 'carnage,' threatens to send Feds | Trump, fed up with Chicago 'carnage,' threatens to send Feds
CHICAGO—President Trump on Tuesday warned that if Chicago does not stem the violence that has ravaged the city, he stands ready to call for federal intervention.
Chicago recorded 762 murders and 4,300 shooting victims in 2016 — the deadliest in nearly two decades for the city. The nation’s third largest city is now off to a bloody start in 2017. The city had recorded at least 42 murders through Monday — compared to 34 murders at the same time last year.
“If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!,” Trump wrote on his personal Twitter account.
The president's Twitter post came shortly after Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor aired a segment on Tuesday evening, advocating for federal intervention in Chicago.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the city for its handling of the spike in violence. Earlier this month, Trump wrote on Twitter that if Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel can’t stem the violence “he must ask for Federal help!”
During a presidential debate, he likened Chicago to a “war-torn country.”
In August, following the high-profile shooting death of basketball star Dwyane Wade’s cousin, Nykea Aldridge, Trump pointed to the killing and suggested on social media that “African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP.” Aldridge was fatally shot by gang members who were targeting someone else as she was pushing her baby in a stroller on Chicago’s South Side.
Earlier that same month, Trump boasted in a Fox News interview that he met with “a couple of very top police” in the department who said they would “be able to stop (the violence) in one week.”
At end of bloody year in Chicago, too few murders solved
After Trump’s salvo on Tuesday evening, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi responded that the city “is more than willing to work with the federal government to build on our partnerships with DOJ, FBI, DEA and ATF and boost federal prosecution rates for gun crimes in Chicago.”
Rahm Emanuel dismisses Trump comments on Chicago violence
The latest shot at Chicago by Trump came the day after Emanuel — a former chief of staff to President Obama — took aim at Trump and his administration spending so much time insisting incorrectly that his inauguration last week drew a larger crowd than Obama’s.
“You didn’t get elected to debate the crowd size at your inaugural," Emanuel said. "You got elected to make sure that people have a job, that the economy continues to grow, people have security as it relates to their kids’ education."
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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ee143d3917d379bb8dfe194ee5fbc5cf | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/25/big-us-city-mayors-vow-defy-trump-sanctuary-cities-order/97066272/ | Big city mayors vow to defy Trump on sanctuary cities order | Big city mayors vow to defy Trump on sanctuary cities order
Several big city mayors across the U.S. vowed on Wednesday to defy President Trump’s executive order that threatens to cut off federal funding to cities that offer some sort of protection to undocumented immigrants in their communities.
The pushback from the mayors came as Trump signed a long-anticipated executive order that directs the government to identify federal money it can withhold to punish so-called "sanctuary cities," a term for hundreds of communities that in some way limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents. Trump had pledged to take action against sanctuary cities on the campaign trail.
But as Trump announced the order — as well as action to build a wall along the U.S-Mexico border and hire thousands of new border patrol agents and immigration officers — leaders of some of the nation's biggest cities flatly stated they would not be cooperating with the president.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed that the action “won’t change how we enforce the law in New York City.”
De Blasio said that the city has been able to dramatically reduce the crime rate in the nation’s largest city, in part, because relationships the police department has managed to build in immigrant communities. He added that if Trump follows through with the plan it would mean he's effectively cutting funding from the New York Police Department. An early analysis by NYC officials suggested that about $156 million in federal funding for the NYPD could be impacted.
“Here in New York City and in cities across the nation, this executive order could in fact undermine public safety and make our neighborhoods less safe,” de Blasio said.
In Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh called the executive order an attack on "Boston’s people, Boston’s strength and Boston’s values.”
“If people want to live here, they’ll live here,” Walsh told reporters at a news conference. “They can use my office. They can use any office in this building.”
In Seattle, Mayor Ed Murray said that he had directed city departments to review their budgets to prepare for a potential loss of federal funding, the Associated Press reports.
"This city will not be bullied by this administration," Murray said. "We believe we have the rule of law and the courts on our side."
Trump orders clamp down on immigrant 'sanctuary cities,' pushes border wall
In Chicago, where Trump has pilloried the mayor over the surge in violence in the city, Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed that the nation’s third largest city would remain a sanctuary city. Emanuel sidestepped questions at an afternoon news conference about how the city would weather a potential cut in federal funding.
“I want to be clear. We're gonna stay a sanctuary city," Emanuel said. "There is no stranger among us. We welcome people, whether you're from Poland or Pakistan, whether you're from Ireland or India or Israel and whether you're from Mexico or Moldova, where my grandfather came from, you are welcome in Chicago as you pursue the American Dream."
In San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee told reporters after Trump signed the executive order that nothing has changed for his city.
“I am here today to say we are still a sanctuary city,” Lee said. “We stand by our sanctuary city because we want everybody to feel safe and utilize the services they deserve, including education and health care.”
Both Lee and de Blasio said that early readings of the executive order by their cities' attorneys suggest that the document is vaguely written and predicted that the Trump administration would face a tough legal battle if it tries to use it as a basis to slash funding.
“There is less here than meets the eye,” De Blasio said of the order.
In Detroit, a top aide to Mayor Mike Duggan, questioned whether the city even qualified as a sanctuary city.
The Detroit City Council in 2007 passed legislation prohibiting city employees, including police, form asking about person’s immigration status unless it was directly related to an alleged crime. City officials say that Detroit police, however, regularly cooperated with requests from federal immigration officials.
“We do not believe this applies to the city of Detroit," said Alexis Wiley, Mayor Mike Duggan's chief of staff. "We do cooperate fully with all federal agencies during the course of criminal investigations, regardless of a person’s immigration status.”
The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Major Cities Chiefs Association expressed concern that the executive order is overly vague.
“That order does not provide a clear definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “Instead, it gives undefined discretion to the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate sanctuary jurisdictions and the Attorney General to take action against them. We call upon the Secretary of Homeland Security to document and promulgate a lawful definition before further actions are taken, so the cities across the Nation may determine how to proceed."
Contributing: Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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b761a6c6644f2fff3f679776cb0ff6d6 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/25/nyc-alleges-religious-discriminatio-jfk-airport-contractor/96989428/ | NYC alleges religious discrimination by JFK airport contractor | NYC alleges religious discrimination by JFK airport contractor
The New York City Human Rights Commission announced Wednesday allegations of religious discrimination against Pax Assist, a contractor that provides wheelchair assistance to passengers at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The company, which serves 32 airlines and employs more than 250 workers at JFK’s Terminal 4, allegedly denied breaks to Muslims for daily prayers or for eating after fasting for Ramadan, according to the commission.
Supervisors at Pax Assist also allegedly harassed Muslim workers over a radio system when they requested break time with messages such as “we’ll give you a break on our time, not your time” and “we don’t care about Ramadan,” according to the commission.
If confirmed, the allegations carry a maximum $250,000 civil penalty, with potential compensatory damages such as when workers are fired unfairly.
“We will not tolerate religious discrimination of any kind in New York City,” said Hollis Pfitsch, deputy commissioner of the law enforcement bureau. “Employees of every faith have a legal right to request religious accommodations and should not be harassed or discriminated against by their employer for requesting break time to observe their faith.”
After receiving the complaint last week, Pax Assist has 30 days to respond. The company didn’t reply to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
The commission and Pax Assist could negotiate a resolution to the charges. If not, the case will be heard by an administrative judge, who could issue a recommendation for a fine or other resolution. The commission would then consider the recommendation, and could raise or lower a proposed fine.
The commission is a city agency that enforces the human-rights law against discrimination in 22 categories. About 900 complaints were filed last year, which represented a 30% rise in reporting of discrimination about race, religion, national origin and immigration status, according to spokesman Seth Hoy. About 400 cases remain open.
“Discrimination does not just happen on the street, it can touch every part of our daily lives, including in the workplace,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Now more than ever, it is important for everyone to stand up against discrimination and hate, and to protect the rights of Muslim Americans."
While most cases are filed by individuals, the commission itself filed charges against Pax Assist for an alleged “pattern or practice” of violations. Three workers have alleged discrimination so far, but the investigation will continue with interviews of supervisors named in the complaint, Hoy said.
Isha Jahan, 24, of New York, worked for Pax Assist taking passengers to gates for four months in 2016. She told USA TODAY that supervisors sometimes refused to let her take a break for prayers, unless she threatened to tell the union.
“It’s important – very important – in the Muslim religion to pray,” she said.
Jahan faced a tougher challenge with her observance of Ramadan, a month of fasting from sunrise to sunset. She asked to push her break back to 8 p.m. so that she could eat after breaking her fast, but was refused.
Jahan said she trembled and felt sick when she wasn’t able to eat after the fast, and it would make her “very emotionally upset.” She has since found another job.
The union organizing with Muslim workers, 32BJ Service Employees International Union, brought the allegations to the commission’s attention. Muslims pray five times per day, but Pax workers were repeatedly denied requests for 10- to 15-minute breaks during the last year, according to the commission.
“Airline subcontractors like Pax should respect their employees, not only for the hard work they do and important services they provide to passengers every day, but also as human beings and people with families, convictions and human dignity,” said Hector Figueroa, the union’s local president.
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99807d81d1737d386d537409b76be3c7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/25/sanctuary-cities-texas-abbott-trump/97055868/ | Showdown on 'sanctuary cities' plays out in Texas | Showdown on 'sanctuary cities' plays out in Texas
AUSTIN – The showdown over "sanctuary cities" is playing out in Texas: lawmakers want to de-fund the cities, and the governor threatened Wednesday to remove any local official who protects an undocumented immigrant from federal crackdowns.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's pledge Wednesday to work with conservative lawmakers to remove local officeholders who fail to enforce federal immigration law comes as the Trump Administration said it will direct the federal government to identify federal funds it can withhold to punish sanctuary cities.
Sanctuary cities were a major part of President Trump’s campaign and he often promised to end the practice.
At the center of the debate are “immigration detainers,” or requests issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, for people held in local jails who may be in the country illegally. Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, has said complying with detainer requests is not mandatory.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center counts four states, 364 counties and 39 cities as currently having some form of sanctuary policy. The debate over sanctuary cities gained national attention after the July 2015 death of Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed in San Francisco allegedly by an undocumented immigrant who had been repeatedly deported.
Officials in cities with sanctuary policies like San Francisco, Oakland and Chicago have pledged not to abide by new federal mandates, regardless of penalties. Some local and state law enforcement agencies say such requests erode trust between police and their community. Critics of sanctuary cities say local jurisdictions could potentially release criminal immigrants.
The Texas governor's remarks came days after the sheriff of Travis County, which includes Austin, announced her staff would limit how they respond to federal requests for potentially illegal immigrants.
In a video uploaded to YouTube last week, Sheriff Sally Hernandez said her staff would answer only detainer requests for serious felonies, such as murder and human trafficking.
“The public must be confident that local law enforcement is focused on local, public safety, not on federal immigration enforcement,” she said. “Our jail cannot be perceived as a holding tank for ICE or that Travis County deputies are ICE officers.”
Texas lawmakers also want to take action against sanctuary cities. The legislature is considering a bill that would cut state funding to the “sanctuary cities,” or those with policies or rules that restrict alerting federal agents about people who may be in the USA illegally.
If the Texas bill passes, Texas would join North Carolina as the only other state holding local jurisdictions accountable for not complying with federal requests for illegal immigrants.
“We’ve spent $800 million of taxpayer dollars on border security,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, who sponsored the bill. “Undermining those initiatives by essentially creating a sanctuary for criminals doesn’t make sense.”
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter control on immigration, said not following through with ICE detainer requests amounts to obstruction of federal immigration policy.
“The only people who benefit from sanctuary policies are criminals who get released,” she said.
State Rep. César Blanco, D-El Paso, who opposes the legislation, said those types of fears are overblown and not backed by data. Asking local law enforcement to determine legal status could lead to racial profiling and other discriminatory tactics, he said.
"It's very political and it's fear mongering at its worse," Blanco said.
Asking police to enforce federal immigration law leaves municipalities vulnerable to lawsuits when they accidentally detain a U.S. citizen, says Elissa Steglich, a law professor of the University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic.
“Identifying a person’s status could be incredibly challenging,” Steglich said. “Even for the supposed experts, mistakes can happen.”
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eee3ea8ccd053be179b3d43d7e6423e2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/26/first-sanctuary-city-caves-donald-trump-demands/97111048/ | First 'sanctuary city' caves to Trump demands | First 'sanctuary city' caves to Trump demands
MIAMI — President Trump is hailing the first victory in his fight against "sanctuary cities" after a South Florida mayor ordered his employees on Thursday to begin working more closely with federal immigration authorities.
For years, Miami-Dade County has refused to hold some undocumented immigrants in its jails for federal immigration agents. But after Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez changed his mind.
Gimenez signed an executive order Thursday ordering the director of his corrections department to begin honoring all requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold immigration suspects in Miami-Dade County jails.
"Miami-Dade County complies with federal law and intends to fully cooperate with the federal government," the order read.
Gimenez said he made the decision to ensure that the county does not lose out on $355 million in federal funding it has coming in 2017.
Trump was quick to praise the decision, tweeting on Thursday: "Right decision. Strong!"
Big city mayors vow to defy Trump on sanctuary cities order
The term "sanctuary city" is a broad term that describes up to 300 communities that have policies protecting the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Some refuse to share any information with ICE agents. Some will share information, but refuse to hold undocumented immigrants for the sole purpose of giving ICE agents time to pick them up.
Trump vowed throughout the campaign to crack down on those cities. He often cited the example of Kate Steinle, a San Francisco woman who was shot and killed by an undocumented immigrant who had been released by the city's sheriff's department.
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order that directed the Department of Homeland Security to identify and label "sanctuary cities" in the U.S. It ordered the department to publish a weekly roundup of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, including any local police departments that had custody of those immigrants but chose to release them.
The order also directed the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to identify federal grants that can be withheld from sanctuary cities that continue their practices. Those federal departments give out millions of dollars in grants each year to help local communities hire police officers, hold undocumented immigrants, improve community policing practices and crack down on violence against women.
"These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic," Trump's order read.
How Trump can defund 'sanctuary cities' protecting undocumented immigrants
Big city mayors responded forcefully to Trump's order, with mayors from San Francisco to Chicago to New York vowing to fight back. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said he would even allow undocumented immigrants to seek refuge in city hall.
"They can use my office," Walsh said. "They can use any office in this building."
A collection of police chiefs and sheriffs on Thursday also criticized Trump's attacks on sanctuary cities.
They say the practice of holding suspects in their jails solely for ICE has been ruled unconstitutional by federal courts. And they say the federal government should not try to force cities to carry out the federal responsibility of immigration enforcement.
"Law enforcement has a responsibility to work with federal immigration authorities. And the vast majority of police departments do," said Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Tom Manger. "But this notion that the federal government would cut funding to coerce local policies to change is troubling."
Contributing: Aamer Madhani in Chicago.
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0d6559e378ea71912db6ad7bf671e790 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/26/kaiser-trying-solve-alzheimers-puzzle/97112898/ | Trying to solve the Alzheimer's puzzle | Trying to solve the Alzheimer's puzzle
Despite a 99% failure rate and another major setback last month, Alzheimer's researchers are plowing ahead with hundreds of experiments — and a boost in federal money — to try to a crack a deadly disease that has flummoxed them for decades.
A law passed by Congress in December and signed by President Obama sets aside $3 billion over 10 years to fund research of brain diseases and precision medicine, a shot in the arm for Alzheimer's research. The law, called the 21st Century Cures Act, also includes prize money to encourage Alzheimer's experiments.
But billions of dollars have so far made little progress in decoding the memory-robbing disease, which affects 5 million Americans. Alzheimer's is currently the nation’s sixth leading cause of death. Decades of research have not produced a single drug that alters the disease’s course.
December began with another major setback: Eli Lilly shared disappointing results of a late-stage clinical trial of its which failed to significantly slow Alzheimer’s progression.
But scientists aren't giving up on the main hypothesis behind Lilly's trial: that Alzheimer's can be defeated by using drugs to attack amyloid "plaques" that build up in the brain of Alzheimer's patients. Some scientists believe these cause the disease.
Many observers still hold out hope for another promising anti-amyloid drug, Biogen's aducanumab, which in an early trial improved cognitive decline in a small number of patients.
Other potentially groundbreaking research aims to intervene before patients even feel any symptoms. Using PET scans, scientists can now identify amyloid plaques building up in a patient's brain years before they develop Alzheimer's. The A4 study, for instance, is testing solanezumab in adults who are accumulating amyloid plaques, but who show no outward signs of Alzheimer's, such as memory loss or cognitive decline.
Other scientists are targeting what they believe is the true culprit, the protein tau, which creates "tangles" in the brain, the other primary marker of the disease.
The experiments continue against a bleak backdrop: No new Alzheimer's therapies have won federal approval since 2003, and Alzheimer's clinical trials have had a 99% failure rate. Patients can access only four Food and Drug Administration-approved Alzheimer's drugs, and those just alleviate symptoms — they do not prevent, slow or reverse brain damage.
"The history of clinical trials results has been a history of disappointment," said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach at the Alzheimer’s Association.
Still, 77 Alzheimer's drugs are currently being investigated or developed, according to the trade group PhRMA. And other experiments seek to repurpose FDA-approved drugs for other conditions, such as diabetes or cancer, to see if they can help Alzheimer's patients — and cut several years from the drug development process.
Non-pharmaceutical solutions are also being explored. Observational studies have shown that people who exercise more and have healthier diets seem to get the disease later in life. Researchers are now conducting trials to more closely measure the effects of exercise and diet. One randomized trial underway at Wake Forest University, dubbed EXERT, is testing the effects of high-intensity aerobic exercise on adults with mild cognitive impairment by enrolling them in exercise programs at a YMCA.
Even before last month's passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, public funding for Alzheimer's research has been rising. The National Institutes of Health allocated almost $1 billion to Alzheimer's research in fiscal 2016 — a $350 million increase over the previous year, according to Laurie Ryan, chief of NIH's Dementias of Aging Branch. There are 468 open clinical trials related to Alzheimer's, and over a hundred more in progress, listed on the government database Clinical Trials.gov.
Meanwhile, Alzheimer's advocates still grapple with a basic question: Is the rate of Alzheimer's actually going down? A study in JAMA in November found that even as scientists have made no progress in changing Alzheimer's course, overall dementia rates, which include Alzheimer's and other dementias, appear to be dramatically declining. The paper cast doubt over a major talking point of the Alzheimer's lobby: That as Baby Boomers age, the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's will explode from the current 5 million to 14 million in 2050. The study also suggested that lifestyle changes may be making a difference.
While some heralded that as good news, others downplayed the finding.
Even if dementia rates drop, Alzheimer's remains a major killer, and the number of afflicted people will likely still rise, because the US population is aging so rapidly, predicted Fargo. He also questioned the study's methods, which relied largely on telephone interviews.
"It's not time to let our foot up off the gas," Fargo said.
Eli Lilly's closely watched trial, dubbed Expedition 3, was the latest potential breakthrough to fall flat. In 2,100 people with mild dementia, solanezumab failed to show significant results compared to a placebo.
Some critics said the failure casts doubt on the hotly disputed hypothesis that Alzheimer's is triggered by the buildup of amyloid plaques.
But Eli Lilly spokeswoman Nicole Hebert said more work is needed to test the hypothesis, because the trial explored just one method of removing amyloid, on one subgroup of people. She said the company is pursuing seven other lines of attack against the disease.
"Rumors of the death of the amyloid hypothesis have been around for many years, and they're probably premature," Fargo agreed.
Fargo noted that brain imaging has shown that amyloid plaques start to build up 15 to 20 years before signs of dementia appear. So to really test the amyloid hypothesis, he said, scientists may have to intervene earlier than they did in Expedition 3.
Despite the latest failure, Fargo said, "there's still more optimism in Alzheimer's research right now than there has been for 10 years."
The answer to Alzheimer's, Ryan said, is not going to be one "magic bullet," but an array of solutions tailored to different patients.
Will scientists ever find a cure?
Dr. Ron Petersen, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic, isn't betting on it. But there's still "a lot going on to be hopeful about," he said.
"I think slowing the progression, and/or delaying the onset, are realistic goals."
Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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86a717a5148b308b100fed45be8e9c18 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/26/report-arrested-russian-intel-officer-allegedly-spied-us/97094696/ | Reports: Arrested Russian intel officer allegedly spied for U.S. | Reports: Arrested Russian intel officer allegedly spied for U.S.
A senior Russian intelligence officer and cybersecurity investigator arrested last month on treason charges allegedly was passing information to U.S. intelligence services, according to Russian media outlets.
Sergei Mikhailov, who worked for the FSB, the successor to the KGB, was arrested in December, along with Ruslan Stoyanov, a top manager for Russia's largest cybersecurity firm, according to the economic newspaper Kommersant. Stoyanov was also charged with suspicion of treason.
In addition, two other people, including Major Dmitry Dokuchaev, also an FSB officer, were arrested in connection with the case, according to Russia's REN-TV. The fourth person was not identified.
Stoyanov allegedly developed a program introduced into a prominent bank's computer system to gather privileged information on customers, REN-TV reports. That information, it reports, was then sold to the West.
In another twist, Russian media says the FSB believes Mikhailov tipped U.S. intelligence about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company "King Servers." The U.S. cybersecurity company Threat Connect identified King Servers last year as an "information nexus" used by hackers suspected of working for Russian intelligence in cyberattacks on electoral systems in Arizona and Illinois.
The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta says Mikhailov was arrested during an FSB meeting in early December when officers came into the room, put a bag over his head and took him away.
The cause of the arrests was not clear. The newspaper said only that the FSB discovered Mikhailov's alleged involvement in the purported plot after the U.S. accused King Servers of the cyberattacks on the U.S.
In a wilder twist, a pro-Kremlin television network, Tsargrad TV, claimed Mikhailov "patronized and supervised" an "Anonymous International" group called "Humpty Dumpty" that it said hacked the personal email of Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and other top Russian officials in 2014.
While more far-fetched, it is perhaps noteworthy Tsargrad TV, which even Novaya Gazeta notes is prone to wild conspiracy theories, would publish such a report during the heated debate in the U.S. over Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. election. The TV station, for example, suggested "Humpty Dumpty" was a CIA operation, and that with Russian presidential elections coming up in 2018 hacked information could serve "goals ... opposed to national interests."
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20c6ca5466c5c481fd96f11c3c6d79c7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/28/complete-chaos-1000-calls-after-trump-immigrant-ban-hits/97184560/ | 'Complete chaos,' 1,000 calls after Trump immigrant ban hits | 'Complete chaos,' 1,000 calls after Trump immigrant ban hits
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee received more than 1,000 calls by midday Saturday from people who have been stranded or detained in the U.S. and abroad as a result President Trump's ban on immigrants and refugees.
The executive order, signed at the Pentagon on Friday, suspends the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, halts the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and bars entry for three months to residents from the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
Abed Ayoud, legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said legal immigrants who were traveling overseas to attend funerals and visit family when Trump signed his order are now unable to return to the U.S. Foreigners studying at U.S. universities who were part of study abroad programs are also stuck. Even Customs and Border Protection agents are confused about how to handle Trump’s order and responding in different ways, he said.
“The impact of what President Trump was looking for is in full effect,” Ayoud said. “Complete chaos.”
Melanie Nezer, vice president of HIAS, a Jewish group that is one of nine refugee resettlement agencies, said more than 2,000 refugees were scheduled to fly into the U.S. next week. She said 850 of them came from the seven countries barred by Trump.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, say they have either filed lawsuits or will do so shortly challenging the ban.
Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project protested the president's action in a statement on the organization's website: “President Trump's war on equality is already taking a terrible human toll. This ban cannot be allowed to continue.”
Read more:
Court grants temporary, emergency stay of Trump's immigration ban
What you need to know about Trump's immigration plan
Microsoft, Uber, Apple, Google: How the tech world responded to Trump's immigration ban
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abbd5b41825221eaa010bc4e8fb4b320 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/30/5-things-you-need-know-monday/96944340/ | 5 things you need to know Monday | 5 things you need to know Monday
Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misidentified which states have new restrictions on driver's licenses.
Muslim civil rights group to file suit challenging Trump order
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would file a federal lawsuit Monday in the Eastern District of Virginia to challenge the constitutionality of an executive order by President Trump that temporarily bans immigration by citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. The suit will charge that the order's underlying motive is to ban people of Islamic faith from entering the United States from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Chaos reigned at U.S. airports across the country over the weekend, as authorities, travelers and lawyers struggled to understand how the ban was being implemented.
Super Bowl week starts now
The most hyped seven days in all of sports kicks off Monday, bringing a week's worth of festivities ahead of Sunday's matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. Here's your guide to what's ahead. Monday's Opening Night will bring a media frenzy to Houston's Minute Maid Park as reporters have at the Falcons followed by the Patriots, who arrive in town today.
New restrictions on some state driver's licenses
As of Monday, residents of some states can't use their driver's licenses to gain access to federal agencies or nuclear power plants. The change comes as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Real ID program, which requires states to adopt better security measures for driver’s licenses and other ID to discourage forgeries and prevent terrorism.
Expect a major upheaval in Monday's AP hoops poll
Last week, three of college basketball's top four teams in The AP Top 25 poll suffered losses by Wednesday. The hits to ranked teams kept coming, leading to what's sure to be a major upheaval in Monday's poll. One team stayed steady through the chaos: No. 3 Gonzaga, the only undefeated team in Division I. Should the Bulldogs top Monday's poll, it would be the second time in program history. Their first No. 1 ranking came in 2013.
NAACP leaders appear in court for protesting Trump pick
Six NAACP leaders plan to appear in court Monday after staging a sit-in this month at the office of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, President Trump's attorney general nominee. NAACP President Cornell William Brooks led the Jan. 3 protest demanding Sessions remove himself from the confirmation process because of past statements about race, police misconduct and the Voting Rights Act. Brooks and the five other leaders were arrested and charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass, requiring them to appear in court in Mobile.
And the essentials:
Weather: The national forecast calls for light snow in the Mid-Atlantic and the Northern Rockies, a "clipper" across the Upper Midwest, and a '"stellar" day across Texas and Oklahoma.
Stocks: Global shares fell Monday, rattled by weak data and uncertainty over the potential impact of President Trump’s travel ban.
TV Tonight: Here's what we're watching Monday.
Be inspired: Swimmer with MS swims one million yards.
Need a break? Try playing some of our games.
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Want to listen rather than read? Grab your headphones and check out our 5 Things podcast:
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fbcaf6e236e3aa6cc851612fea03be5a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/30/delta-outage-airline-technology-problems/97250834/ | Delta outage a reminder of fragility of airline computers | Delta outage a reminder of fragility of airline computers
The Delta Air Lines technology glitch that canceled hundreds of flights Sunday and Monday was smaller than other episodes in recent months that cost airlines tens of millions of dollars, but it still served as a reminder of how fragile airline computers are.
“I’m sure everybody has this, but this is visible because people can’t get on airplanes," said Bill Curtis, senior vice president and chief scientist at CAST, which analyzes software for large companies. "You never know what’s hiding inside these systems. You never know exactly what’s going to trigger it."
Airlines big and small have had problems with outages in recent years. United Airlines grounded flights for an hour Jan. 22 and 23 because of a technology problem that canceled at least 200 flights.
The problems can be costly. A Southwest Airlines outage blamed on a router in July canceled more than 2,000 flights and cost an estimated $54 million. A previous Delta outage that involved a fire in August canceled 2,300 flights over three days and cost the airline $150 million in lost revenue.
Computer outage grounds United Airlines domestic flights
Delta earnings drop in 3Q with $150M loss from technology outage
Southwest extends fare sale because of glitch, warns of long lines
Delta’s latest outage Sunday occurred about 6:30 p.m.; systems were restored by midnight. But the problem caused 170 cancellations Sunday, 110 Monday and numerous delays.
“I want to apologize to all of our customers who have been impacted by the frustrating situation,” said CEO Ed Bastian, whose airline promotes its punctuality and completion rates. “This type of disruption is not acceptable to the Delta family, which prides itself on reliability and customer service.”
Airlines regularly update their technology. Delta President Glen Hauenstein told investment analysts on Jan. 12 that the airline was investing half its cash flow back into the business, including $600 million in the fourth quarter for aircraft modifications, facility upgrades and technology improvements. Tammy Romo, chief financial officer at Southwest, said Thursday that technology and facilities were the largest drivers behind $700 million in capital spending last year — and more expected this year as the airline replaces its reservation system.
Jim Corridore, an analyst at CFRA Research, said Monday that Delta’s computer outage puts a “spotlight on risks of airline technology infrastructure, much of which is old and patched with differing systems.” But he kept a positive view on the industry based on solid demand for flights and strong profits.
Airlines rarely detail what went wrong with their computers. But technology experts say complex systems that include reservations, ticketing, a frequent-flier program and flight schedules can develop a problem in one area that cascades into others.
Airlines build new programming atop old software, especially after a merger. Computer languages may differ. And programmers make assumptions about how software will work that sometimes hit roadblocks.
Curtis said it's tough for any large business to test complex computer systems because of the difficulty matching the number of customers who will actually use the system.
“It’s the old expression like trying to repair the airline in mid-flight," Curtis said. “They may simulate 10,000 users, but they can’t simulate 5 million, so they struggle."
Gil Hecht, CEO of Continuity Software, which tests computer systems for large banks and insurers, said more testing would reduce outages, but that it is expensive.
Hecht compared the construction of complex computer systems to a layer cake, with Web servers, database software, storage and possibly interaction with other systems such as government computers that check whether passengers are allowed to fly.
“Testing should be done by every single layer and every single business service that participates in the critical infrastructure, and some of them are simply not under the airline’s control,” Hecht said.
He compared one way of testing to running a car into a tree to see whether the airbags work, which isn’t possible while keeping a computer system working. Instead, testing for a large financial institution or airline must confirm that each layer is configured to work well with all the others, he said.
“In order to do that, critical infrastructure operators must do much more testing, whether it’s manual by humans or by technology or by any means possible,” Hecht said. “Yes, it costs money. Quite a lot. But if more money and more effort will be driven into testing, we will have far less down time and data-loss events.”
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b7719b1d84d98b11c2390c9745bebd7a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/02/house-votes-strike-rule-banning-guns-some-deemed-mentally-impaired/97299756/ | House votes to strike rule banning guns for some deemed mentally impaired | House votes to strike rule banning guns for some deemed mentally impaired
WASHINGTON —The House of Representatives approved its first effort of the new Congress to roll back gun regulations, voting to overturn a rule that would bar gun ownership by some who have been deemed mentally impaired by the Social Security Administration.
The House voted 235-180 largely along party lines Thursday to repeal an Obama-era rule requiring the Social Security Administration to send records of some beneficiaries to the federal firearms background check system after they’ve been deemed mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs.
The rule, when implemented, would affect about 75,000 recipients of disability insurance and supplemental insurance income who require a representative to manage their benefits because of a disabling mental disorder, ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia. It applies to those between age 18 and full retirement age.
Republicans argued the rule, which was vigorously opposed by gun-rights and disability groups, would unfairly stigmatize people with disabilities and strip them of their Second Amendment rights without due process.
“This is a slap in the face for those in the disabled community because it paints all those who suffer from mental disorders with the same broad brush,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. “It assumes that simply because an individual suffers from a mental condition, that individual is unfit to exercise his or her Second Amendment rights.”
Democrats agreed the government must not stigmatize those with disabilities but said this rule affects a small group with severe, long-term mental disorders preventing them from doing any work. Passage of the resolution puts others at risk, they said.
“These are not just people having a bad day,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif. “These are not people simply suffering from depression or anxiety. These are people with a severe mental illness who can’t hold any kind of job or make any decisions about their affairs. So the law says very clearly they shouldn’t have a firearm.”
The regulation is among a host that Republicans aim to repeal under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to dismiss an outgoing administration’s recently enacted regulations. It requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate.
Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said House efforts to block five Obama regulations by the end of this week are “just the start.” The House has also voted to overturn a rule to protect streams from coal mining debris, a rule requiring federal contractors to disclose labor and worker safety violations, and another rule requiring oil, gas and minerals companies to disclose payments to foreign governments.
“In the weeks ahead, we will act on more resolutions to deliver relief from excessive regulations,” Ryan said. “When you think about the fact that the Obama administration was issuing major regulations at a rate of one every three days, this is real sea change.”
Read more:
Congress to challenge gun ban for some mentally impaired
Congress and guns: Key moments in 26 years of death and debate
Congress passes first rollback of Obama environmental rule
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called the Social Security regulation “reckless, overly broad and an affront to the Second Amendment rights of people with disabilities." He introduced an identical resolution to reverse it in the Senate on Thursday with 25 Republican co-sponsors, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
“Whenever the government acts to limit the fundamental constitutional rights of citizens, it must do so carefully, lawfully and in a way that doesn’t unduly impact law-abiding Americans,” Grassley said in a statement.
The rule, which took effect Jan. 18 and sets a December compliance date, requires the agency to notify individuals of their possible prohibition from possessing or receiving firearms and their rights to appeal.
The National Rifle Association argues that the Social Security Administration’s process for determining disability payments is a bureaucratic process and not an adjudication that should end in someone losing the right to bear arms. Restoration of those rights requires a person to affirmatively prove that they’re not a danger to public safety.
“Under this flawed system, the individual bears the burden against the government,” Goodlatte said. “This is not what due process looks like.”
The gun rule was issued in December in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. It was designed to implement a 2007 law requiring federal agencies to provide records for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which prevents gun sales to convicted criminals, people adjudicated with mental health disorders and others prohibited from owning a gun.
The 2007 law passed after the Virginia Tech shooting in which a gunman who had been declared mentally ill by a Virginia special judge killed 32 people.
Follow @ngaudiano on Twitter.
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bac660ca239ce7e470e72556a7d92e54 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/02/trumps-threat-pull-federal-funding-uc-berkeley-empty-one-experts-say/97401818/ | Can Trump pull funding from UC Berkeley? Not likely, experts say | Can Trump pull funding from UC Berkeley? Not likely, experts say
President Donald Trump’s threat early Thursday to pull federal funding from the University of California’s flagship Berkeley campus over violent protests against a controversial speaker may sound serious, but it is essentially toothless, experts said.
Protests erupted on campus late Wednesday and the university canceled a scheduled speech by conservative firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-proclaimed "troll" and editor for the conservative Breitbart News.
In response, Trump tweeted: “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”
The university's defenders responded swiftly. California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a university regent, tweeted: "I'm appalled at your willingness to deprive over 38,000 students access to an education because of the actions of a few."
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin on Thursday tweeted that destruction and violence “have no place in our community.” Unfortunately, he said the incident “provided the ultra-nationalist far right exactly the images they want to use to try to discredit” peaceful protesters in Berkeley and elsewhere.
Milo Yiannopoulous' speech at UC-Berkeley canceled as protest turns violent
But experts say Trump's threat is an empty one, even in the face of Wednesday’s violence.
“There is currently no federal law that would allow the federal government to deny funding to an institution of higher education because they prohibited someone from speaking on campus,” said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the Washington, D.C-based American Council on Education (ACE), which represents college presidents.
The government can withdraw federal funding, he said, but it's typically because of fraud or research misconduct. Even then, Hartle added, most research dollars are awarded — and withdrawn — through peer review. “So the ability of a president to sort of retaliate against a particular institution is pretty limited.”
The question arises from time to time, he said — during the Vietnam War, House lawmakers considered denying federal aid to students who participated in campus protests. But Hartle said there’s “no authority to do that under current law — and I think developing a way to do that could be very problematic.”
What began as a peaceful demonstration against Yiannopoulos’ invitation by the Berkeley College Republicans devolved into chaos as protesters threw smoke bombs, knocked down barriers, set fires and started fights, police said.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, the university said the violence “was instigated by a group of about 150 masked agitators who came onto campus and interrupted an otherwise non-violent protest.”
David Hudson, ombudsman for the Newseum Institute's First Amendment Center, called Trump’s tweet “a blatant overreaction,” especially given evidence that the violence was perpetrated by non-students — one student journalist covering the protests quipped that "everyone looks pretty old."
“Government officials, including the Chief Executive, should take time to assess and reflect rather than fire off incendiary, knee-jerk messages,” he said.
But Hudson, who is also the author of Let the Students Speak: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools, said he worries about “the heckler's veto” in situations like this. “People from all across the political spectrum should be allowed to speak.”
Hartle said Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks “very clearly and unambiguously affirmed the right of the speaker to be on the Berkeley campus, even for ideas that are unpleasant and hateful.”
Yiannopoulos, a well-known conservative provocateur, was banned from Twitter last June for a targeted hate campaign against Saturday Night Live actress Leslie Jones.
In a statement issued last week, Dirks called Yiannopoulos “a troll and provocateur who uses odious behavior in part to ‘entertain,’ but also to deflect any serious engagement with ideas.” Dirks said the college received many requests to ban Yiannopoulos from speaking, but that the U.S. Constitution “prohibits UC Berkeley, as a public institution, from banning expression based on its content or viewpoints, even when those viewpoints are hateful or discriminatory.”
The school, ACE’s Hartle said, “attempted to allow him to speak and to permit peaceful protests. Unfortunately, violence changes everything.”
He added, “Violence was responsible for canceling this speech — not Berkeley.”
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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c0f739c59b89764b90f4b16cddd91460 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/02/us-eases-some-economic-sanctions-against-russia/97399136/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter | U.S. eases restrictions on cyber-security sales to Russian spy agency | U.S. eases restrictions on cyber-security sales to Russian spy agency
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday eased economic sanctions on Russia, allowing some cyber-security transactions with the Russian Federal Security Service accused of meddling in the U.S. electoral process.
Some Russian officials applauded the move as signaling a thaw in relations with Washington. But several members of Congress decried the move as pandering to Russia and its hacking attempts. The Trump administration, meanwhile, denied any easing of sanctions, describing the changes as routine tweaking of complicated policy.
The move by Treasury makes changes to sanctions initially imposed by President Obama in April 2015 and strengthened again in December, in reaction to alleged "malicious cyber-enabled activities" by Russia's security service, known as the FSB, in the U.S. electoral process.
The changes by the Office of Foreign Assets Control cover "all transactions and activities" involving the FSB, the successor to the KGB, that were banned by Obama's executive orders. It specifically eases the ban on sales of information technology products to Russia.
President Trump disputed the notion that the modifications of earlier sanctions amounted to an easing of sanctions. "I'm not easing ... anything," he told reporters.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the changes do not mark a policy shift, describing them as "a regular course of action" that Treasury takes to address unintended consequences of sanctions.
In the latest case, some U.S. companies had expressed concern that the sanctions would limit their ability to sell electronics to Russia. The FSB has control over imports to Russia of devices with encryption technology.
While the White House tamped down speculation of a policy change, former FSB director Nikolai Kovalyov, a member of the State Duma, saw the move as a sign of improving relations between Moscow and Washington.
"This shows that actual joint work on establishing an anti-terrorism coalition is about to begin," Kovalyov told Russia's TASS news agency.
"Without easing these sanctions it would have been impossible to take the next step," he added.
In Washington, where Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have called for strengthening, not easing of sanctions on Moscow, the move by Treasury was met with dismay among some members of Congress.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., ranking member of a House CIA subcommittee, accused the Trump administration of “rewarding” the FSB for tampering with the U.S. elections.
“This is the same group (FSB) that, just a month ago, our intelligence community determined was responsible for the attack on our democracy,” Swalwell told USA TODAY. “We just made it easier for the same group to import into Russia the tools they could use to hack us or our allies again.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the Trump administration appeared to be going to "extreme lengths" to put Russian interests above the United States. "Allowing U.S. companies to do business with the Russian intelligence service (FSB) rewards Russia for its nefarious behavior and emboldens Putin to act out in the future," he said.
The Trump administration's starts and fits over other policies, such as the recent travel ban, complicated efforts to assess the meaning of the move by Treasury.
In the past, sanctions have been modified, for example, when the Obama administration eased sanctions on Iran in its landmark 2015 nuclear deal because the language of the act inadvertently included a ban on the sale of medical devices using nuclear medicine.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to make a statement on the decision, TASS reported.
"First we need to understand what it is all about," Peskov said, according to TASS. "If we turn to the rocket engines matter, we will see that our U.S. counterparts never impose sanctions that could damage their own interests."
Contributing: Donovan Slack in Washington; John Bacon in McLean, Va.; the Associated Press
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3aa58e035a17368fa2808041e91b6cdd | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/03/audi-super-bowl-ad-feminism/97405622/ | Audi Super Bowl ad asks what we should tell our daughters about self-worth. Here's a start. | Audi Super Bowl ad asks what we should tell our daughters about self-worth. Here's a start.
The Super Bowl is much more than a sporting event. Ads on football's biggest night are cultural markers of the nation's evolving attitude toward women. We see more commercials cheerleading feminist ideals, but they remain interlopers in a room of buxom blondes and nagging wives.
Audi’s new spot on equal pay, airing during Sunday's game, is the latest buzzworthy fempowerment ad, set to be viewed in millions of homes just two weeks after the nation witnessed a historic rally promoting gender equality. In the 60-second spot, a dad watches his daughter compete in a cart race while contemplating what to say to her about worth:
“What do I tell my daughter? Do I tell her that her grandpa’s worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom? Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets?”
It sounds decidedly grim, until (*spoiler*) the girl crosses the finish line first, and dad and daughter walk to their Audi S5 Sportback Prestige, ending the tale with a hopeful, "Or maybe I'll be able to tell her something different."
The ad raises an important question: What should we tell our daughters to think about their self-worth?
USA TODAY's Ad Meter: Watch all the Super Bowl commercials
We could start with the truth.
"I am strong. I am smart. I work hard. I am beautiful."
In a video that went viral last fall, Ron Alston stands with his daughter in front of a mirror reciting these affirmations. It's a morning ritual with truth at the heart. Girls are strong (and athletically competitive), smart (more women graduate from college than men), work hard (girls get higher grades than boys in all school subjects), and are beautiful (do we really need a citation for that?).
But the world isn't perfect. Or equal.
White women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by white men; black women earn 65 cents. The share of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies was 4.2% in 2016. In Hollywood, women account for only 7% of directors and 13% of writers. Congress is currently 19% female, and only about a third of those are women of color. The nation has never elected a female president.
And yet, in 2015 91% of Americans said gender equality was very important. While a generation of girls is being taught there is nothing boys can do that they can't, study after study shows girls' self-esteem plummets during adolescence.
USA TODAY asked Jess Weiner, a confidence and branding expert who worked with the White House Council on Women and Girls, what parents, educators and brands can do to promote gender equality.
Start talking
Many parents are eager to speak with their children about gender equality, but they don't know where to begin.
"Sometimes there's pressure to have all the answers, but you don't need all the answers. All you need to do is say 'I want to have this conversation, and it's kind of tricky,'" Weiner said.
This isn't a Hallmark commercial
Don't try to make it one.
"I think media literacy in our culture needs to be a bottom line — that parents get more comfortable talking with their kids, whether it's the Super Bowl or the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show," Weiner said.
Ask questions. What are you thinking when you see that image? What message do you think they're trying to send about boys and girls?
Listen to how you talk about yourself
Research shows that the same-sex parent is the most important role model for a child. Weiner said it's crucial to ask, "Are you as a mother disparaging your own intelligence and abilities? How are you talking to them about what women are capable of?"
Get real about your own experiences
"The first step is for people to explore their own stories of inequality in their own lives," Weiner said.
A 2016 study on women in the workplace by McKinsey and Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg's LeanIn.org group found women are less likely to be promoted, more likely to be ignored in meetings and their input is solicited less frequently on important decisions. If you're a working woman, it's likely you have encountered discrimination in the workplace. Don't be afraid to talk about moments when you've experienced sexism.
"It's OK to share authentically from your own life," Weiner said. "If you're a mom, if you're working outside of the home, you can say, 'Hey, sometimes mom feels like this at work.'"
Give them role models
A study by researchers at New York University published in the journal Science this January found girls as young as six believe boys are inherently more brilliant, and therefore they are more likely to avoid activities said to require brilliance. Part of the way to combat this is to expand girls' "canon of role models," Weiner said.
Don't lump all girls into one category
Female empowerment language that resonates with a white girl may not resonate with a girl of color, who faces different systems of oppression. "You go girl!" can grossly oversimplify obstacles, Weiner said, "because not all girls can 'go.'" School-aged black girls, for example, are more likely than all their female counterparts and many boys to be suspended, which the National Organization for Women attributes to "racial and gender stereotyping that label African-American girls as confrontational and provocative."
Teach boys to respect girls
It's not enough for girls to develop and maintain healthy senses of self-esteem. Boys must be taught the dangers of gender stereotypes, too. Weiner said start by giving boys better visual cues. "Show boys and girls playing together," she said. "Don't segregate the play. Show boys following girls in leadership positions."
"Men have traditionally been raised on the paradigm of privilege, and I think right now there's a feeling that men are ... losing that," Weiner said. "For a lot of parents, that means asking themselves 'what does it mean to raise a boy differently in this world?'"
"Have a conversation with sons about privilege, about what things they can do in culture that girls can't. It helps you raise more socially-conscious and more compassionate children."
Help boys redefine masculinity
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cried last week while condemning President Trump's executive order suspending the refugee program and barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump mocked Schumer for his "fake tears."
"I don't see him as a crier," Trump said. "If he is, he's a different man."
Weiner pointed to this as an example of why we need to examine how our current definition of masculinity hurts men and women.
"If you look at Chuck Schumer crying, and you look at Donald Trump mocking him about crying, you see that there's a constant through-line in our culture where we demonize men, and we feminize them. We make being feminine a bad thing," Weiner said. "But crying is a human emotion, not just a female emotion. We stomp out compassion when we tell boys that they 'need to be a man.'"
Help both girls and boys be who they are
A 2015 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found sex and gender differences in the human brain, but researchers said they don't break down neatly into "male" and "female." The brain is a mosaic of male and female traits.
"Some boys like to play with trucks and some girls like to play with dolls. But I think there are more and more kids that span across the lines," Weiner said. "Parents need to get to know the child they have, what they play with, what they value, and give them well-rounded opportunities to see who they are."
So, what about Audi?
Audi's emotional ad is a welcome departure from beer-bloated frat boys ogling semi-nude female bodies, but its message doesn't mean much to the viewer if the minute ends with little more than a tissue-toss. "Now more than ever you have to double down on both message and action," Weiner said. "You can't just relay a good-feeling ad that doesn't signify much in the life of the person who consumes it. People want messages married with purpose and action. If you're going to be evocative, give me something to do."
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f9c6e4894db2f7e56bbccc1f61bbca9f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/07/facts-about-education-secretary-betsy-devos/97605238/ | What you need to know about Betsy DeVos | What you need to know about Betsy DeVos
Here's what you need to know about Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed Tuesday as the U.S. secretary of Education:
Personal:
DeVos, 59, was born Elisabeth Prince in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1958. Her father was an entrepreneur who made millions in the auto parts trade. Her younger brother Erik, a one-time Navy SEAL and CIA operative, founded the government services company Blackwater USA.
She is married to Dick DeVos, son of Richard DeVos Sr., a founder of Amway. Since 1991, his family has owned the Orlando Magic basketball team. They also hold a minority stake in the Chicago Cubs.
The couple, who have reported assets totaling $583 million to $1.5 billion, are longtime Michigan Republican Party activists and donors. They also co-founded the West Michigan Aviation Academy, located on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.
Education:
DeVos earned a bachelor’s degree in business economics in 1979 from Calvin College, a private Christian liberal arts college in Grand Rapids. As a freshman, she served in the college’s student senate after winning a seat without a vote — the college says too few students applied to hold one.
Both DeVos’ family and her husband’s family have given generously to the college, with their names gracing two campus buildings.
Betsy DeVos confirmed Education secretary; Pence casts deciding vote
Despite the families’ goodwill, about 2,700 Calvin students and alumni protested her nomination as Education secretary in a Jan. 27 open letter.
Politics:
Betsy DeVos is a former chair the Michigan Republican Party. During her nomination process, she revealed that she had made $5.3 million in political donations over the last five years, including nearly $2 million in 2016. During the 2015-16 election cycle, her husband made $1.2 million in political contributions to presidential candidates and GOP groups, according to election records.
Dick DeVos, a former member of the Michigan State Board of Education, was the Republican nominee for Michigan governor in 2006, running against Democratic incumbent Gov. Jennifer Granholm. During the election, Granholm claimed that under DeVos’ leadership, Amway cut 1,400 jobs in Michigan and shipped them to China. DeVos said Amway had expanded operations to sell products in China, which required them by law to open a Chinese factory. He lost to Granholm by 14 points.
Ideas:
DeVos is mainly known in education circles as a champion of school choice, including offering families private-school vouchers. In a 2013 interview with the Philanthropy Roundtable, she said, “I’m most focused on educational choice. But, thinking more broadly, what we are trying to do is tear down the mind-set that assigns students to a school based solely on the ZIP code of their family’s home. We advocate instead for as much freedom as possible.”
Her organization, the American Federation for Children, is the 501(c)(4) arm of the 501(c)(3) non-profit group the Alliance for School Choice.
Controversy:
During the nomination process, DeVos told lawmakers that she would divest of her financial interests in 102 companies and investment funds, but that she would keep her investment, totaling $5 million to $25 million, in Neurocore, a company that markets an experimental biofeedback procedure that promises to help users overcome attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In her financial disclosures, DeVos also said she held interests in Theranos, the embattled blood-testing firm, The New York Times reported.
Many education groups opposed DeVos’ nomination, pointing out her lack of experience in classrooms or in public schools. “The sum total of her involvement has been spending her family’s wealth in an effort to dismantle public education in Michigan,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. She has called DeVos "the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education."
Detroit Free Press columnist Stephen Henderson last December lamented the city’s “deeply dysfunctional educational landscape” that gives families many school choices, yet few high-quality ones.
In 2014, a year-long investigation by the Free Press found that Michigan taxpayers pour nearly $1 billion a year into charter schools, but that state laws regulating charters are among the nation’s weakest, with little accountability in how taxpayer dollars are spent or how well children are educated.
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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78b84f42238a8d9b09c4925bd4049e9b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/13/lawmakers-want-federal-special-education-site-restored/97868762/ | Lawmakers want federal special education site restored | Lawmakers want federal special education site restored
WASHINGTON — Two congressional lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to restore a missing U.S. government website that helps families navigate a complex federal law on students with disabilities. They also want U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ assurance that the site won’t be stripped down during her tenure.
Education advocates late last month noticed that the site, idea.ed.gov, had been shut down. It has since reappeared, but in the past few days it has linked to a generic page offering information about the federal Individuals with Disabilities Eduation Act (IDEA).
The Education Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but after the site initially went down, an unnamed department spokesman told The Washington Post that the agency was working on the problem. “The site was not taken down,” the spokesman said, adding that the department had known about it since Feb. 8, one day after DeVos was sworn in.
Server issues related to the site, he said, had plagued it since at least Jan. 27.
The Post noted that the site was not working on DeVos’ first morning in office — that led special-education advocates to fret about her approach to a sensitive issue that affects millions of students.
Two weeks earlier, during her Jan. 17 confirmation hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, DeVos stumbled over a question about whether states were obligated to follow IDEA, apparently not recognizing that it is a federal law. She later said that if confirmed, she would be “very sensitive” to students’ special needs.
But the hearing unleashed concerns from special education groups — in a Jan. 26 letter to lawmakers, Denise Marshall, executive director of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc., an advocacy group, said DeVos “manifested an appalling lack of knowledge of educational concepts, the difference between the federal and state statutes that govern education, and basic facts about public education. Specifically, her lack of knowledge of the IDEA is disturbing and offensive to us.”
Marshall said DeVos’ stance, whether due to confusion or ideological belief, “is unacceptable and clearly indicates that Ms. DeVos is unqualified to serve as Secretary of Education.”
In a Feb. 10 letter to DeVos about the IDEA website, two Democratic lawmakers from Washington State, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, said the administration’s failure to keep the “critical resource” available makes it harder for parents, educators and administrators to find the resources they need to implement IDEA “and protect the rights of children with disabilities.”
Murray, a former preschool teacher, is the ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee.
The pair noted that the temporary site “lacks much of the information previously available” on the idea.ed.gov site.
Murray and Cantwell noted that the more detailed site was established years earlier by one-time Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who served under Republican President George W. Bush, and that federal workers have “consistently updated this website as Congress has enacted new legislation” and courts have interpreted the law.
They even managed to sneak in what could be interpreted as a dig at the new administration, which has several billionaires in its cabinet, including DeVos, whose Michigan family founded a thriving auto parts business: Murray and Cantwell note that students served by IDEA “are exceptionally diverse and reflect the full spectrum of America's students, including those who live in urban or rural settings, those born into billionaire families or barely scraping by, and those who are new to this county and are learning English.”
The pair asked for DeVos’ assurance that the site won’t be stripped down during her tenure, and requested a detailed plan and timeline for when key resources at the site became inaccessible.
"Parents rely on easy access to information about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act so they can learn about their child's disability and their civil rights," said Mimi Corcoran, president & CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. "For years, the idea.ed.gov website has served as a trusted and comprehensive resource, and we were surprised to learn that it now redirects parents to a website that provides less information. I would hope we could all agree that giving parents information about their legal rights is of utmost importance and I hope we see idea.ed.gov fully and quickly restored."
On Monday, a message on the site told visitors: “The servers hosting our idea.ed.gov website are experiencing technical issues.” The department said it was working to resolve the issue.
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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362709bc1a4c637636245c48e77a1262 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/14/drone-flight-atlanta-airport-commercial-use/97748194/ | Why it's a big deal that commercial drones flew around the Atlanta airport | Why it's a big deal that commercial drones flew around the Atlanta airport
Drones flying around airports are generally considered a big, dangerous, illegal no-no.
But one day last month in Atlanta, drones made seven flights at the world's busiest airport with the blessing of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Those flights at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — the first civilian drone flights given FAA approval in a Class B airspace, a designation given the busiest area around crowded airports — marked a milestone for the development of commercial drones.
The flights on Jan. 10 helped map plans for two new parking garages and for moving a public-transit station, which are part of $6 billion in expansion and improvement program. Architectural designers at Autodesk said drones flown by 3D Robotics helped measure and plan the project much faster than standard measurements.
Experts say the approval indicates that as the drone market matures, the FAA is more willing to consider broader applications for the new technology.
“It’s a very big deal," said Jim Williams, a principal at Dentons law firm.
Williams, who previously led the FAA’s drone program in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office, said the FAA-approved airport flights are "a very good sign that the FAA is taking everything on its merits and looking hard to find a way to make things work."
The FAA set comprehensive regulations for drone operations in August. The broad rules allow flights during the day within sight of the pilot up to 400 feet off the ground, but generally not near airports or over crowds of people. That meant the drone operators who wanted to use the devices to map the airport needed a waiver from the FAA.
That waiver was one of more than 300 that FAA has granted for commercial drone flights since the regulations took effect. FAA has granted special permission for CNN to experiment with flights over people for news gathering, and with BNSF Railway to inspect tracks farther away than the pilot can see.
The industry wants the FAA to develop more rules to avoid the need for such case-by-case reviews.
Already real estate and photography businesses use drones frequently. The construction market also sees expansive uses for drones. The investment firm Goldman Sachs estimated in January that businesses will invest $13 billion in commercial drones by 2020, with more than $11 billion in the construction industry. “That’s creating a market that is too big to ignore,” a Goldman Sachs report said.
Williams, the former FAA official, said the construction industry was among the first to adopt drones for dangerous tasks before they were technically legal.
“They would fly the inexpensive drones because it’s so much easier to do," Williams said. “It’s so much easier to inspect the outside of a building using a drone than it is to hang somebody on a harness to look at the outside of the building."
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At the Atlanta airport, Autodesk, a design, engineering and construction software company, wanted to use the remote-controlled aircraft to help design and plan part of the complex construction project at the airport, said Tristan Randall, strategic projects executive for Autodesk.
The airport wanted to keep the existing garages operating while the new garages were under construction, so the designers needed to look at the whole picture of the airport. Drones could provide precise measurements down to millimeters in a matter of hours, rather than over days or weeks that typical design work requires, Randall said.
“It’s a pretty amazing capability of being able to – within a couple of hours – get a complete 3D model of these existing buildings and then plan construction in the same environment,” Randall said. “We’re really excited to see where this technology can go.”
But the FAA set stricter drone rules than usual at the busy Atlanta airport, which hosted 104 million passengers last year, to avoid collisions with passenger planes or crashes that could hurt people on the ground.
To use the drones for the construction project, the FAA required 3D Robotics, the company whose pilot actually flew the drones, to have someone with a pilot's license steer the drones so that he would have experience speaking with controllers. Commercial drone pilots typically just need to pass a knowledge-based test. Three observers watched the drones from the ground to ensure they were flying along the planned routes.
The FAA put a 200-foot ceiling on the drones to avoid conflicts with airliners higher aloft. Randall said drones hovered about 150 feet in the air to measure parking garages that were about 60 to 70 feet tall from above and to the side.
The pilot kept in communication with air-traffic controllers in the airport tower for each of the 15-minute flights, to avoid conflicts with passenger planes that might have needed to fly an unusual path after an aborted landing.
The drones flew mostly along automated paths, but could have been directed by the pilot’s tablet. The aircraft didn’t lose connection with the pilot, but were programmed to return to one of the four points where they had launched. The pilot also could have recalled the drones to their launch point with the press of a button, Randall said.
“I think the safety features that we have in place have shown that this is something we could do on any construction site,” Randall said. “We’re really comfortable with how the operations went.”
“I think it's really just the beginning of what we can do in this industry,” he said.
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fb8d558bbb716677d8bbe5264e84d3e7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/14/ethics-chief-conway-likely-broke-rules-go-buy-ivankas-stuff-remarks/97906020/ | Ethics chief: Conway likely broke rules with 'go buy Ivanka's stuff' remarks | Ethics chief: Conway likely broke rules with 'go buy Ivanka's stuff' remarks
WASHINGTON — White House aide Kellyanne Conway appears to have violated government ethics rules when she touted Ivanka Trump's fashion line during a recent television appearance, according to the government's top ethics official.
Walter Shaub, the head of the Office of Government Ethics, called on the White House to launch an investigation of Conway's conduct and "consider taking disciplinary action against her," in a letter released Tuesday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The panel's top Democrat, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, and its Republican chairman, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, last week wrote to Shaub, urging him to review Conway's actions. The Shaub letter to White House Deputy Counsel Stefan Passantino indicates that officials in the ethics office had begun looking into Conway's comments before receiving the request from Cummings and Chaffetz.
At issue: Whether Conway's remarks, urging viewers of Fox & Friends to "go buy Ivanka's stuff" last week violated rules that bar officials from misusing their public positions for private profit.
Shaub said the facts seem "to establish a clear violation of the prohibition against misuse of position" and asked Passantino to investigate and share the results of the White House findings by Feb. 28.
Conway's comments, made from the White House briefing room, followed President Trump's decision to excoriate Nordstrom on Twitter for dropping his daughter's clothing line. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, and Conway both defended Trump's action.
Spicer told reporters that Conway had been "counseled" after her comment but did not elaborate. Last week, Conway pushed back on the criticism, saying she had Trump's support in the matter.
Trump's administration has faced a thicket of ethics questions. He has not released his tax returns, citing an ongoing IRS audit. And he refused to give up his ownership stake in his real-estate and licensing empire, but has transferred management responsibilities to his adult sons and a longtime Trump Organization executive.
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326f09256def16f920b7b352f88fadec | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/16/kaiser-docs-northwest-tweak-aid--dying-drugs-prevent-prolonged-deaths/98003110/ | Docs In Northwest tweak aid-In-dying drugs to prevent prolonged deaths | Docs In Northwest tweak aid-In-dying drugs to prevent prolonged deaths
Two years after an abrupt price hike for a lethal drug used by terminally ill patients to end their lives, doctors in the Northwest are once again rethinking aid-in-dying medications — this time because they’re taking too long to work.
The concerned physicians say they’ve come up with yet another alternative to Seconal, the powerful sedative that was the drug of choice under Death with Dignity laws until prices charged by a Canadian company doubled to more than $3,000 per dose.
It’s the third drug mixture recommended by the doctors whose medication protocols help guide decisions for prescribers in the six U.S. states where aid-in-dying is allowed.
The first Seconal alternative turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain. The second drug mix, used 67 times, has led to deaths that stretched out hours in some patients — and up to 31 hours in one case.
“[Twenty percent] of the cases were 3 hours or more before death, which we think is too long,” said Robert Wood, a retired HIV/AIDS researcher who volunteers with the advocacy group End of Life Washington, in an email. “The longest was 31 hours, the next longest 29 hours, the third longest 16 hours and some 8 hours in length.”
Patients and families are told to expect sleep within 10 minutes and death within four hours. When it takes far longer, family members get worried, even distressed, said Dr. Carol Parrot, a retired anesthesiologist who has prescribed drugs for dozens of aid-in-dying patients in Washington.
The doctors say this can be addressed with larger doses of the three drugs they have been using — diazepam, often used to treat anxiety; digoxin, used to treat heart issues; and morphine, a narcotic pain reliever — plus another heart medication, propranolol, in a four-drug cocktail aimed at quickly inducing death, Wood said.
Parrot and Wood are part of a seven-member group of doctors in the Northwest who came up with the three-drug protocol after Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc., acquired the rights to secobarbital, known as Seconal, in 2015 and raised the price sharply.
“We wanted the new drug regime to be safe, reliable and effective — and cost $500 or less,” said Parrot.
Since 1997, when Oregon’s Death with Dignity law became the first in the nation, doctors had relied on fast-acting, relatively inexpensive barbiturates — either secobarbital or pentobarbital — for patients with terminal diagnoses who sought aid in dying in Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado, Montana and Vermont. The practice also has been approved in Washington, D.C., but is being reviewed by Congress.
Pentobarbital became unavailable after drugmakers blocked its use in U.S. death penalty executions.
Concerns about the overly long deaths surfaced last summer, Parrot said. Nearly all of the problems occurred in patients already taking high doses of opiates.
“We run into patients who are so tolerant or dependent on narcotics that even the astronomically high doses of oral narcotics in our prescription do not stop them from breathing,” she said.
If patients have diseases that slow or alter normal organ function, it can affect the speed and amount of drugs absorbed in the small intestine, metabolized in the liver and sent to the rest of the body. Very large patients, too, may require larger doses.
Deaths aren’t required to be supervised, and no doctor was present with the unidentified patient who took 31 hours to die, so doctors would only be speculating about the reason, Parrot said.
Not all patients — or doctors — experienced overly long deaths with the previous drug mixture. Dr. Lonny Shavelson , a Berkeley, Calif., physician who has supervised two dozen aid-in-dying deaths under California’s new law, said it worked fine.
“My personal experience is I haven’t had long deaths with it,” Shavelson said.
And not all doctors think long deaths are a problem. In Oregon, even with fast-acting barbiturates, time to death has ranged from one minute to 104 hours during the 20 years the law has been in effect, state records show.
“I’ve heard stories where it took quite a number of hours to die, and it was fine,” said Dr. David Grube, an Oregon-based medical director for the advocacy group Compassion & Choices.
Scott and Amy Kreiter, of Wenatchee, Wash., didn’t know what to expect when Scott’s mother, Patricia Hansen, 69, decided to take the lethal drugs on Dec. 26, 2016. Hansen, a lively woman who once ran a gourmet ice cream business, had endured frequent hospitalizations for end-stage kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other ailments.
“She said, ‘I want to listen to Willie Nelson, I want to play a game of Scrabble, I want to drink a Rob Roy or two, and then I want to be done,’” Scott Kreiter, 47, said.
Hansen proceeded to “kick our butts” at Scrabble, her son said — including fulfilling a goal of getting a triple-word score with a dirty word. Then she mixed the drugs with scotch and drank the solution.
“She didn’t complain. She just took it,” her son recalled. “She said, ‘You thought I’d chicken out, didn’t you?’”
Within two minutes of downing the mixture, Hansen was asleep. Within 20 minutes, her breathing had stopped.
“We thought it would take one to two hours,” Amy Kreiter said. “It if had gone on for hours, we would have thought we did it wrong.”
Critics of aid-in-dying say growing reports of overly long deaths underscore their objections. Dr. David Stevens, CEO of Christian Medical & Dental Associations, which has tried to halt or reverse laws, said coming up with new drug protocols could eventually be a step toward Holland’s practice of allowing euthanasia by lethal injection “so the patient could be killed ‘humanely.’”
“We are heading down that same path,” Stevens said in an email.
But Parrot and other frequent prescribers of aid-in-dying drugs say they are looking for the best way to honor the wishes of patients in states where the practice is allowed. Doctors recently began using the newest drug mixture and will gather data about its effectiveness.
“We’re not experimenting,” Parrot said. “We are working with available drugs to provide dying patients a comfortable, peaceful death that is reliable and safe for them and comforting for their families as well.”
Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN’s coverage of end-of-life and serious illness issues is supported by The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
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14ab61133185be1aa6329e3620f6fa51 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/16/researchers-virtual-charter-schools/98007714/ | Researchers: Don't expand virtual schools as is | Researchers: Don't expand virtual schools as is
New research released Thursday suggests that efforts to quickly ramp up online “virtual” public schools nationwide could have a downside: lower achievement for the students who most need a boost.
Researchers from New York University (NYU) and the Rand Corp. looked at achievement for the nearly 1.7 million students in Ohio who attend K-12 virtual schools, which deliver most or all of their instruction online. They found that lower-income, lower-achieving white students are more likely to choose these schools than other students. Once enrolled, however, students in virtual schools are still performing worse on standardized tests than students in traditional brick-and-mortar public or charter schools.
The online charter school system in Ohio “tends to attract kids who are lower-performing, on average,” said Andrew McEachin, a policy researcher at Rand.
Many of these students are former home-schoolers or rural students looking for better schools. Others are looking for more flexible schedules, have gotten in trouble at school or simply don’t do well in school for many reasons — everything from lousy instruction to bullying.
“It could be a good alternative system for them, theoretically, and I think it’s worth figuring out why these individuals and their families opted out of a traditional brick-and-mortar school,” McEachin said. Parents “are sending a strong signal — at least a small group of them — that there is something (in) traditional brick-and-mortar-type schools that isn’t satisfying them.”
But his fellow researcher, NYU’s June Ahn, said these students need more support, not less. Nonetheless, many virtual schools “just put them in front of content with no social support,” he said. So it isn’t surprising that they get disappointing results.
“I’m not sure that the instructional design and the instructional environments of online schools right now are mature enough yet to handle young children at different stages of their development,” Ahn said.
Ready or not, virtual schools may soon be put to the test: on the campaign trail last September, candidate Donald Trump floated a plan to expand school choice rapidly by handing 11 million low-income children $12,000 apiece in public funds to attend the public, magnet, charter or private school of their choice.
The proposed federal contribution would equal $20 billion, more than the federal government spends each year to educate virtually all of the low-income children in public schools.
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s new education secretary, has championed virtual charter schools in her home state of Michigan and elsewhere. In financial disclosures, her husband, Dick DeVos, a 2006 GOP candidate for governor, revealed that the couple were investors in K12, a Virginia-based online education company.
During her confirmation process last month, DeVos told lawmakers that many virtual schools boast high graduation rates. Actually, many of these schools have fairly low graduation rates, previous research has shown.
But even if Trump showers the charter sector with billions in federal funding, Ahn said educators should “tinker in a more focused way” than simply opening up millions more seats. “I’m not sure you want to expand things really rapidly until you’ve got a little bit of a better idea of how to do it well.”
McEachin added: “As the evidence stands right now, it would probably not be a good idea to expand the current model further.”
The pair suggested that the government create a research-and-development fund to focus on how virtual schools can do a better job offering specialized coursework — for example, online statistics classes for rural students whose schools can’t offer them.
“But I think the design for a full day, or a full online environment, has not been shown to be very successful in its current implementation,” McEachin said. “If you just allow unfettered growth and fund unfettered growth, it’s highly unlikely to expect positive outcomes.”
The study appears in the new issue of Educational Researcher.
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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e3e49095611fd1f5bd28a9ed56cb5f8a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/17/5-things-you-need-to-know-friday/98000092/ | 5 things you need to know Friday | 5 things you need to know Friday
Trump returns to a comfortable place: The campaign trail
President Trump visits a Boeing plant in South Carolina on Friday, a day after his combative news conference where he defended his administration and repeatedly bashed the media. Trump's appearance, his first outside the Beltway since taking office on Jan. 20, is part of a two-day series of events that will reignite talk about his 2020 re-election bid. After the Boeing event, Trump heads to an old-fashioned airport rally in Florida on Saturday — a gathering organized and financed by his campaign organization.
'Biggest storm of winter' to slam Southern California
A major storm — likely the strongest in at least six years — is poised to bring drenching rain, heavy mountain snow and howling winds to Southern California on Friday and Saturday. Floods, mudslides, rockslides, travel delays and power outages are all possible, the National Weather Service warned. While Northern California will miss out on the brunt of the storm, another is lined up to hit that part of the state late Sunday. That could aggravate the situation around the dam at Oroville and other reservoirs that are filled to capacity, AccuWeather said.
Amid controversy, Yiannopoulos to appear on 'Real Time'
Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos will appear Friday night on Real Time with Bill Maher. Journalist Jeremy Scahill will not. This week, Scahill — a frequent guest on the show — posted on Twitter that he wouldn't appear as scheduled, citing Yiannopolous' "hateful diatribes." Yiannopoulos writes for Breitbart News, considered by many a platform for the “alt-right” movement, an offshoot of conservatism that mixes racism, white nationalism and populism. Earlier this month, a planned speech by Yiannopoulos at the University of California-Berkeley was canceled after violent protests broke out.
The battle of unlimited data heats up
Looking for a new data plan? Well, Friday might be your lucky day as three of the major cellphone carriers' unlimited plans go into effect. T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T announced new deals this week in an effort to draw in new customers after Verizon, the last big carrier with no unlimited data plan, unveiled an $80 per month unlimited plan ($180 for four lines) during the Grammy's on Sunday. Comparing unlimited data plans can be complicated, though — you can't read the fine print too carefully, right? Before making your big decision, click here to review the different prices.
'The Great Wall' hits theaters saddled with controversy
Matt Damon’s new film The Great Wall opens Friday amid critics calling it a “blatant white savior narrative.” The action-adventure movie — centered around a 12th-century European mercenary tasked with helping Chinese warriors fight off supernatural creatures — is projected to make just upward of $20 million this weekend, despite huge success in markets such as China, where it has amassed more than $170 million. Experts point to Hollywood’s inability to develop bankable, diverse stars in foreign markets as part of the problem.
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a0ae9cf07ef709bb9d5ff91cb378e4d0 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/24/dhs-memo-contradict-travel-ban-trump/98374184/ | DHS memo contradicts threats cited by Trump's travel ban | DHS memo contradicts threats cited by Trump's travel ban
Refugees seeking asylum in the USA from the seven countries listed under President Trump’s controversial travel ban do not pose a significant terrorism threat to the United States, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo.
The three-page memo, titled “Citizenship Likely an Unreliable Indicator of Terrorist Threat to the United States” and obtained by the Associated Press, was drafted in response to a White House request and contradicts assertions by the Trump administration that the travel ban was necessary to keep Americans safe.
Trump cited terrorism concerns for implementing the travel ban from seven mostly Muslim countries — Syria, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. Earlier this month, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked enforcement of the travel order, upholding an earlier decision by a federal judge in Seattle.
Trump and his advisers attacked the court order and vowed to continue the fight in court.
“This is a judicial usurpation of power,” White House policy adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News Sunday shortly after the court’s decision. “It is a violation of judges’ proper roles in litigating disputes. We will fight it.”
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In the Homeland Security memo, analysts show through statistics and reports that relatively few people from the seven countries listed in the travel ban have carried out or been involved in terrorism-related activities in the USA since Syria’s war started in 2011.
It said more than half of the 82 people the government determined were inspired by a foreign terrorist group to carry out or try to carry out an attack in the United States were U.S. citizens born in the USA. The others were from 26 countries, with Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iraq and Uzbekistan leading the pack.
The memo also asserted that relatively few people from the seven banned countries are given access to the U.S. None of the seven countries accounted for more than 7% of the U.S. visas granted in their region in Fiscal Year 2015, it said.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Gillian Christensen told the Associated Press the memo was from a single intelligence source and not the final comprehensive review requested by the White House. “The ... report does not include data from other intelligence community sources," she said. "It is incomplete.”
The assessment drew from unclassified information from Justice Department press releases on terrorism-related convictions and terrorist attack perpetrators killed in the act, State Department visa statistics, the 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the State Department Country Reports on Terrorism 2015.
The travel ban sparked protests by thousands of people across the nation and drew condemnation from leaders in countries like Britain, France, Australia and Canada.
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84eb935d57cb4b71fb31ab308c5a8b06 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/01/37-billion-year-old-bacteria-may-hold-key-finding-life-other-planets/98576388/ | 3.7 billion-year-old bacteria may hold key to finding life on other planets | 3.7 billion-year-old bacteria may hold key to finding life on other planets
Scientists have found traces of bacteria living more than 3.7 billion years ago, an age that would make them — if confirmed — the oldest-known fossils and bolster the idea that life got off to a running start on Earth, and perhaps elsewhere.
The bacteria lived near hydrothermal vents, cracks in the seafloor that gush hot, mineral-laden water into the open ocean, say the scientists who identified the fossils. Verification of the finding could make ocean vents on other planets in the solar system a key target in the search for extraterrestrial life.
“It’s exciting to find life had managed to get a grip and start to evolve on Earth so quickly after the planets formed,” says Matthew Dodd of Britain’s University College London, co-author of a study in this week’s Nature that describes the fossils. “It gives me … high hopes of finding life elsewhere in the universe.”
The rock in which the fossils reside is at least 3.77 billion years old and could be 4.28 billion years old. The next-oldest confirmed fossil is 3.5 billion years old, the study says. Last year, scientists reported the discovery of stromatolites — formations built by ancient microbes — dating to 3.7 billion years ago.
When Dodd began examining slivers of rock collected from northeastern Quebec, he saw something strange: thread-like filaments half as wide as a human hair and slightly thicker cylinder-shaped tubes. Both filaments and tubes were composed of an iron-rich mineral.
Similar filaments are excreted by modern bacteria that consume iron, says co-author Dominic Papineau, also of University College London. Such filaments and tubes have also been seen in much younger “microfossils,” named because of their microscopic size, found in Norwegian rocks.
The researchers also spotted rosette-shaped formations, which the scientists argue could have blossomed through a chemical process that began with rotting bacteria. The rosettes are freckled with dots and shards of other chemicals linked to life, such as phosphorus, a key ingredient for biological activity.
The rock formations around the fossils hint that the microbes lived on the seafloor around hydrothermal vents or in the water near vents. Like modern iron-dependent bacteria, they “would have literally ‘eaten’ the iron … in the same sense that we eat cake,” Papineau says, adding the bacteria could have formed rust-colored mats like those seen today.
The researchers collected multiple forms of evidence to back their claim, which strengthens their case, says Christopher House of the Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the study. Though the data are less definitive than the evidence for life in younger rocks, he says, this “may be as good as it gets for as old as these rocks are.”
“There’s enough in here to get me interested but not enough to make me convinced,” says Michael Tice of Texas A&M University, who also wasn’t part of the study. He questions, for instance, the study’s claim that the microfossils lived near a hydrothermal vent, which could influence where scientists send robots to look for signs of life on Mars. The rocks’ chemistry doesn’t necessarily signal a location near a vent, he says.
Dodd says the rocks around the fossil-containing layers contain chemical signatures of a hydrothermal vent. The evidence so far, he says, raises the possibility that life arose on Jupiter’s watery moon Europa or even closer to home.
“You have life on Earth at a time when we believe there was liquid water on the surface of Mars, and the atmosphere wouldn’t have been too drastically different,” Dodd says. “Maybe there was life on Mars in the past and we have yet to find it.”
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f7009d6b55725d24d53e10b126d77d2f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/04/civil-rights-leaders-discuss-truth-reconciliation-selma-anniversary/98712382/ | Civil rights leaders discuss truth, reconciliation at Selma anniversary | Civil rights leaders discuss truth, reconciliation at Selma anniversary
Without acknowledging where a story of injustice was born, there can’t be healing and there can’t be progress. Civil rights leaders gathered in Selma on Saturday to talk about what that healing looks like.
It’s recognizing that socioeconomic injustice today is a direct result of racial injustice in the 1960’s and that racial injustice in the 1960’s was a direct result of slavery in the 1860’s. It’s about turning toward that truth, forgiving it and building a more hopeful world in spite of it.
“It is (a culture) where the specificity of human dignity is an urgent matter of justice for us … for me, justice begins with the recognition of human dignity,” said David Ragland of the Truth Telling Project in Ferguson, Missouri.
Their panel discussion was part of Selma’s annual celebration commemorating Bloody Sunday, where 52 years ago roughly 500 people were beaten and gassed by police for attempting to cross the Edmund-Pettus Bridge and demanding the right to vote. Bloody Sunday led to the Selma-to-Montgomery march, which helped pave the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Nearly a half century after that brutality, panelists spoke to a crowded room in the Selma Center for Nonviolence about truth and reconciliation - what that is, what challenges it, and where opportunity lies to foster it.
“Reconciliation is, first of all, about a process of truth telling,” said Fania Davis, co-founder of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth. “[It’s saying], ‘This is what you did and this is how it harmed me this is how it impacted me and my family.’” It doesn’t happen in a single moment or during an accumulation of moments. It’s what can take place after truth is told.
One of those hard truths that they acknowledged is that Selma, the city where non-violence once conquered violence, is now the eighth most violent city in the country. But in spite of that, they still found reason to hope.
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Bernard Lafayette, a panelist and pivotal leader during the civil rights movement, looked out over the multigenerational, multicultural crowd and said that this was exactly what Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of.
“This is what he told me he wanted to see happen,” Lafayette said. “Institutionalized non-violence.”
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55e1dd68332d94447569e805a865e6c9 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/04/south-carolina-roads/97909854/ | Are hazardous roads in South Carolina causing deaths? | Are hazardous roads in South Carolina causing deaths?
COLUMBIA – When South Carolina’s traffic fatality rate ranked worst in the nation last year, some saw the report as ammunition for making the case the state needs to be spend more fixing roads that are contributing to highway carnage.
A review of accident records for 2016 by The Greenville News, however, reveals that the link between South Carolina’s road conditions and highway casualties is elusive and difficult to document.
Of the 936 fatal accidents reported in 2016, only 12 listed road conditions as a contributing factor, according to preliminary data for the year. And some of those involved ice or snow, records show. Road conditions were cited as a contributing factor in just 1 percent of the 39,035 accidents involving injuries, according to the preliminary data. More accidents had animals in the road listed as a primary factor than road conditions.
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What the numbers don't show, advocates say, are the dangers built into the state's highway system – hazards worsened by years of neglect that in some cases can all but eliminate the margin for error when events go horribly wrong.
High speeds or inattentiveness may be the underlying cause of the wreck, they say, but it might have been narrow shoulders, poorly designed curves or trees left to grow too near the road that turn a bad accident into a catastrophic one, particularly on rural roads.
Lawmakers are debating plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on road improvements, raising the state's gas tax and other fees in the process.
House gives key approval to road-funding bill
But as lawmakers focus on finding the money to improve the roads, critics say they may be overlooking another way of saving lives – restoring the number of state troopers patrolling the roads to levels they haven’t seen in almost a decade.
In 2008, South Carolina had about 950 troopers, according to the Department of Public Safety. As of last month, according to the agency, the number of troopers was 805 – largely unchanged since 2011, though 43 new troopers are enrolled in basic training at the Criminal Justice Academy.
Among Southeastern states, Tennessee and Georgia have about the same number of troopers as South Carolina, while North Carolina and Florida have twice as many and Virginia has nearly 2,000.
Meanwhile, the Highway Patrol’s total budget from the state’s General Fund has fallen from $52.9 million in fiscal year 2008 to $47.8 million in the current year, according to legislative budget records.
Since 2000, the number of registered vehicles in the state has increased by more than 1 million, while the number of licensed drivers has grown by about 800,000, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Larry Grooms told The News that he believes the conditions of the roads, the presence of law enforcement and the condition of vehicles all contribute to the high number of crashes in South Carolina.
"Today, in a torrent before I (arrived in) Columbia, my car skidded sideways," he said. "If I went off the road and hit something, it would have been (listed as) weather related. But if the road had adequate drainage, there wouldn't have been water puddling in the storm."
"Those are the safety enhancements that might not be specifically listed in a report but they are contributing factors to the number of deaths and accidents on our roads," said Grooms, who said he supports increased funding for more troopers.
LETTER: State needs leadership on roads
Rick Todd, president and CEO of the South Carolina Trucking Association, said that while roads might not cause fatal accidents, safer roads might allow drivers to survive their mistakes.
He said he is convinced that had the state worked on such improvements over the past three decades, they “would have had a substantial impact on our fatality statistics.”
Douglas Jennings, a Charleston lawyer who handles accident cases involving road defects, agreed that the raw statistics can be “misleading.”
“Because oftentimes these cases get documented as 'too fast for conditions,' as opposed to being accurately reported as a road defect,” he said
To be sure, South Carolina has a problem with both bad roads and traffic deaths.
In 2008, nearly one third of the state's primary routes – where half of all travel occurs – were graded in poor condition, according to the state Department of Transportation. By 2015, the number of miles graded poor had grown to more than half.
The lack of maintaining the pavement, officials say, means many roads will have to be rebuilt. "We have waited too long," Transportation Secretary Christy Hall told senators recently.
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The Legislature is now in its fourth year of debating road funding. Last year lawmakers passed a bill to send more than $200 million to DOT to be used to leverage $2 billion in bonds for road projects, most of it for a handful of expensive interstate projects.
This year, the House has passed a plan to raise about $600 million more per year for roads, while the Senate is still considering a bill that would raise about $800 million more per year and also provide tax relief.
According to DOT, the state is currently spending about $415 million a year on pavements when it should be spending about $900 million a year. Overall, according to the agency, the difference between what the state is spending and what it needs for infrastructure, including safety improvements, widening and bridge needs, is $1.1 billion annually.
At the same time the pavement was crumbling, the state's death rate placed it among the worst in the country.
In 2015, the most recent year for which federal data is available, South Carolina had the highest fatality rate in the nation. With 1.89 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven, the state far outpaced the national average of 1.13. Rhode Island had the lowest rate at .57.
South Carolina’s immediate neighbors ranked better in fatality rates, at 1.21 deaths per 100 million miles driven for Georgia and 1.23 for North Carolina.
About a third of the state’s accidents in 2015 involved alcohol-impaired drivers, while another third involved speeding, according to federal highway safety records.
“We have the highest fatality rate in the nation, period,” Hall told senators, making a link between bad roads and safety. “The real cost of deferred maintenance is just that. Our fatality rate is 53 percent higher than the national average. And significantly higher than our neighboring states.”
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“It’s more than an issue of convenience of getting from Point A to Point B," said Grooms. "It’s a matter of life or death on our highway system.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin, a member of the transportation panel, points to nearly 7,000 crashes in rural areas.
“If these folks whose lives have been affected in South Carolina are not more important than lobbying groups from wherever from across this nation who don’t want us to answer to these 7,000 families, if this doesn’t count, what does?” he asked.
This week, House lawmakers referred to the state's traffic fatalities in debating a road-funding package that passed 97-18.
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In explaining the bill, House Majority Leader Gary Simrill told the House that in 2012, about 1,200 claims were filed against DOT by motorists or family members over damage and injuries caused by bad roads. In 2016, 3,638 claims were filed, he said. “That just tells you the severity of where we find ourselves today,” he said.
Simrill, who has spearheaded the House efforts at passing a road-funding bill for the past three years, told the body this week that, “the other part of this is the deadliness of our highways.” He said there has been almost 27 percent increase in road deaths in the past three years and 2017 “already is trending worse.”
“All of those components that we talk about, they all play in together, of having deadly highways, losing jobs to Georgia and North Carolina because they passed a (roads) plan and we did not. Having all the claims we have – 3,638 claims in 2016, alone – it tells you the roadways are not only dangerous but now is the time to act.”
One lawmaker, freshman Rep. Katie Arrington of Summerville, told the House about a mother who was injured and thrown from her car and her son killed when their vehicle flipped this week in her district after running into an inadequate shoulder of the highway.
The primary factors for serious accidents are driving too fast, failure to yield, DUI, disregarding traffic signs and signals, and following too closely, according to records of the state Department of Public Safety.
LETTER: Roads aren't nearly as bad as those in some states
In only three of last year's 936 fatal crashes were roads listed as a primary factor, DPS said. Each accident can have up to five contributing factors, including one listed as the primary factor. In one accident the road-related factor was blamed on debris, according to the agency. In another it was an obstruction, and in the third it was a rut, hole or bump.
Nearly half of the factors attributed to roads concerned surface conditions of the pavement, such as wet roads.
Of three fatal collisions in 2016 that occurred in the Upstate and had roadway conditions as a factor, all three were tied to ice or snow, the records show, though one driver was impaired. Two occurred in Greenville County on roads that had icy patches, according to the investigative reports that noted the drivers who died were driving too fast for conditions when they hit the ice and spun into other vehicles. The third fatality in Union County was a single-vehicle accident on roads covered with ice and slush and involved a driver who was under the influence of alcohol and tested positive for opiates, according to the accident report.
Hall said it's difficult to measure what portion of crashes are due to bad roads.
"I do believe deferred maintenance has caught up with us," she said. "What we're seeing on these fatalities in our rural areas is certainly a high price to pay for the condition of deferred maintenance we have accumulated over the years. It's not too hard to compare the safety map with all the fatalities and serious injuries versus the map that shows actual pavement conditions. While you can't really draw a one-to-one comparison, there are some similarities."
Tiffany Wright, a spokeswoman for AAA Carolinas, a highway safety and motorist advocacy group, said South Carolina is known for its rural road fatalities.
“It’s because of the way they are designed,” she said. “They have no shoulders or they don’t have big shoulders and they are poorly lit. And that unfortunately can lead to traffic deaths.”
Nationally, she said, most accidents are caused by driver behavior, such as speeding, distracted driving and drunk driving.
“This is just my opinion, but I don’t think as far as the national front that road conditions are a major contributing factor to road deaths,” she said.
She said she agrees that while bad roads may not be the major cause of South Carolina road deaths, road improvements, particularly those aimed at safety measures, can help drivers survive their mistakes.
“With no shoulders, normally correctable mistakes can become catastrophic because there is not much room for error,” she said. “(Poor) road conditions don’t give them an out, they don’t give them a chance to correct a mistake.”
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97add1b5cf8f23c7c1893ed1f51f2e14 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/04/womens-history-month-women-color/98595366/ | Women's History Month: Women of color whose names you should know | Women's History Month: Women of color whose names you should know
These leaders — Black, Latina, Asian, Arab, Native American — in varied fields, broke both gender and racial barriers as they made history. Here is a by-no-means-comprehensive primer recognizing 36 women of color, past and present:
Peggy Alexander and Diane Nash
Peggy Alexander and Diane Nash, pictured in the middle in the photo above, participated at lunch counter sit-ins during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and were some of the first African Americans served lunch at a previously all-white counter, along with Matthew Walker and Stanley Hemphill.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was a Pulitzer prize-nominated poet and civil rights activist. Her first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings received critical acclaim for its depiction of racism and sexual assault. A leader in black feminism, Angelou worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Ella Baker
Ella Baker was a civil rights activist who founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a prominent organization in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement that united its young leaders. Baker worked with other leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.
Monifa Bandele
Monifa Bandele works as an advocate for food justice at MomsRising, a grassroots organization aimed at empowering mothers politically and educating people on issues that women and mothers face.
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Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was a prominent writer and activist who worked closely with black Marxist and black power leaders like Malcolm X and her husband James Boggs during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Charlotte Hawkins Brown
Charlotte Hawkins Brown was born next door to a plantation in Henderson, N.C., but moved to Cambridge, Mass., as a young girl. Her mother made sure that Brown received a good education, and a chance encounter with Alice Freeman Palmer, president of Wellesley College, resulted in her having an influential mentor. Brown eventually returned to North Carolina to open the innovative Palmer Memorial Institute, a prep school for African-American children. More than 1,000 students graduated from the Institute in Brown’s 50-year presidency. She also spoke out against Jim Crow laws.
Melanie Campbell
Melanie Campbell is the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, which seeks to increase black voter participation.
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress in 1968, and later became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for president as a Democrat.
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox, star of Orange Is The New Black, became the first transgender actress to play a transgender network-TV series regular on CBS' Doubt. "I think that talking about diversity, talking about race, talking about gender is important," she said.
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Angela Davis
Born in Birmingham, Ala., Angela Davis rose to prominence during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement due to her involvement with the Communist party. She was targeted by the FBI, making its 10 Most Wanted List, and later imprisoned but then acquitted on murder and kidnapping charges in association with a courtroom attack during the trial of the Soledad Brothers, three African-American inmates charged with the murder of a white prison guard. She has been a professor and author and today focuses on battling the "industrial prison complex" in the U.S. as well as the role of black women and the rise of intersectionality in feminism.
Ava DuVernay
Ava DuVernay was the first black woman nominated for a Golden Globe for best director for her movie Selma. Her documentary 13th was nominated for an Oscar this year. She's also the first woman of color to direct a live-action film with a budget exceeding $100 million (A Wrinkle In Time).
Alicia Garza
Alicia Garza, along with Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder trial.
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is a writer whose collection of essays in Bad Feminist explores what the word "feminist" has come to mean today and how attitudes around the term have shaped women's progress.
LaDonna Harris
LaDonna Harris is a Native American activist and member of the Comanche tribe. She is the founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity and served on the National Indian Opportunities Council as President Lyndon B. Johnson’s appointee. Harris was also an honorary co-chair for the Women's March on Washington.
Dorothy Irene Height
Dorothy Height served as president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, Height worked as an educator and activist seeking to increase political rights for African American women.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta is a labor activist and co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, now the United Farm Workers. She has advocated for immigrant and Latino rights in the United States. Huerta also served as an honorary co-chair for the Women's March on Washington.
Carol Jenkins
Carol Jenkins is an Emmy-award winning TV anchor and journalist. She was a co-host of Positively Black on NBC in New York, one of the first shows dedicated to predominately black issues.5
Avis Jones-DeWeever
Avis Jones-DeWeeve is the former executive director of the National Council of Negro Women and works today as a female empowerment and workplace diversity consultant.
Barbara Jordan
Barbara Jordan was a prominent politician and civil rights leader who was the first black woman from the South elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Barbara Jordan incisiveness as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the Richard Nixon impeachment hearings gained her national attention. In 1976 she became the first African-American woman to give the keynote speech at a Democratic National Convention. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1990 and received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After her husband's death, she continued his work advocating for African Americans' rights and became a leader in the women's rights, LGBT rights and anti-apartheid movements. In her memoir, she reiterates how black women, pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement, were too often denied top leadership positions, and how she encountered resistance from some of her husband’s compatriots.
Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke is a Native American and environmental activist. She was Ralph Nader's Green Party running mate, a vice presidential nominee, in 1996 and 2000. An economist, she has advocated for tribal land protection and sustainable economic development.
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde was a self-proclaimed black lesbian feminist warrior poet. She wrote 12 poetry collections and five books of prose, including A Burst of Light, which won a National Book Award.
Tamika Mallory
Tamika Mallory is an African-American civil rights activist, former executive director of the National Action Network and co-chair of the Women's March on Washington.
Wilma Mankiller
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to serve as chief of the Cherokee Nation and she fought for the rights of women and Native Americans. She led Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton in 1998. "She understood that great leadership begins with the women — that's our long, cultural tradition," said Chad Smith, who was chief when she died in 2010. "If I had one word to frame her, it would be patriot. A patriot is one who gives her all for her people." Gloria Steinem spoke at her memorial service.
Janet Mock
Janet Mock is a transgender activist and writer whose memoir Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More made the New York Times' bestseller list.
Carmen Perez
Carmen Perez is a civil rights activist focusing on racial inequalities in criminal justice, and she served as a national co-chair for the Women's March on Washington. "I want young girls to know they are powerful. They are necessary and they can become the leaders of the next generation," she said.
Ersa Poston
Ersa Poston served as president of the New York Civil Service Commission starting in 1967 and in 1977 became the first black woman appointed to the federal Civil Service Commission.
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera was one of the instigators of the Stonewall uprising and a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front. A Puerto Rican transgender woman, she fought for the protection and safety of all trans people.
Audrey Rowe
Audrey Rowe is the administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she works to provide access to healthy and affordable food for low-income families.
Linda Sarsour
Linda Sarsour served as a national co-chair for the Women's March on Washington and executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. She is a Palestinian American who works as an activist for Muslim American rights.
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Madonna Thunder Hawk is a Native American activist and leader in the American Indian movement, which works toward Native American rights and sovereignty. A member of the Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, she is “grandmother to a generation of Native American activists,” according to the website for the advocacy group the Lakota People’s Law Project, where she is principal organizer and Tribal Liaison.
Harriet Tubman
Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman escaped to Philadelphia in 1849 only to return to the South to help hundreds of slaves reach freedom through a network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Tubman also served as a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War and will soon replace Andrew Johnson on the $20 bill.
Nanye-hi or Nancy Ward
Nanye-hi was born into a powerful Cherokee Wolf clan in what is now Tennessee. Despite a childhood filled with violent encounters with both Europeans and other tribes, including battles she joined alongside her husband — even rallying her tribe to victory after he was shot and killed — Nanye-hi believed all people should live together in peace. At a young age she was given the name Ghighau, or Beloved Woman, by the Cherokees, and went on to have a powerful and influential position in treaty talks. She advocated for peace until her death.
Winnie Wong
Winnie Wong is a co-founder of the People for Bernie and creator of the #FeelTheBern hashtag. She was also an organizer for the Occupy Wall Street movement and Women's March on Washington.
Addie Wyatt
Addie Wyatt was the first black woman elected to serve as vice president of a major labor union in the meatpacking industry. In the '60s she marched with Martin Luther King on Washington, Selma and elsewhere. In 1974, she was one of the founders of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the country's only national organization for union women. She is also a founding member of the National Organization of Women (NOW).
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d435174540a64038ec5db988097676fd | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/07/campaign-granted-page-permission-moscow-trip/98874648/ | Trump campaign gave Page permission for Moscow trip | Trump campaign gave Page permission for Moscow trip
Former Donald Trump campaign national security adviser Carter Page had the Trump campaign’s permission for his controversial speech in Moscow in July 2016, Page told USA TODAY.
Page confirmed he asked the campaign for permission in June before making the trip to Moscow and campaign management cleared him to do so, as long as he acted as a private citizen and not a representative of the campaign. Page declined to publicly name the person.
“I’m confirming that information,” Page told USA TODAY when asked about getting approval from the campaign.
For months, Trump officials tried to distance the campaign from Page after his speech at the New Economic School in Moscow, which drew intense political scrutiny because he called aspects of U.S. foreign policy “hypocritical” and sharply criticized America’s sanctions against Russia. In the weeks that followed, Trump campaign aides first said he was only an informal adviser, while others said he had no role at all, though Trump himself had publicly named Page as an adviser.
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Corey Lewandowski, who was President Trump’s campaign manager until June 20, 2016, in an interview with USA TODAY on Monday both denied granting Page permission to travel to Moscow in his capacity as a private individual and also said he couldn't remember whether he had or not. In that interview, Lewandowski gave a litany of contradictory answers about Page's involvement in the campaign.
“I'm very clear about this," he said. "I granted nobody permission to do that."
Lewandowski said he has never had a conversation with Page and has never met him. However, he said he was unsure whether he had communicated with Page by email.
“I can’t say unequivocally I’ve never responded to an email to somebody,” Lewandowski said.
In an audio recording of a March 21, 2016 editorial board meeting at The Washington Post, Trump is heard asking Lewandowski, who was also present, to hand him a list of national security advisers he was announcing. Trump announced members of the national security advisory committee at the meeting, including Page.
In the interview with USA TODAY this week, Lewandowski said he did not remember if Page was on the national security advisory committee.
“It’s possible,” he said. “I don’t recall it.”
In his July 7, 2016 speech at the New Economic School in Moscow, Page spoke about U.S. foreign policy, and made clear that he was speaking in his capacity as a private individual as the campaign had asked him to do. “I’m speaking with you today just as a private citizen and as a business executive,” he said. “So this lecture only reflects my own ideas which I’ve developed over years past.” However, an announcement posted July 5 on New Economic School's Facebook page describes Page as an adviser to the Trump campaign.
Later in July, Page attended events connected to the 2016 Republican National Convention, along with other members of the national security advisory team. There, both Page and Sessions both spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as part of a program attended by dozens of diplomats. Disclosure of the discussions between Trump campaign officials and Kislyak last week contradicted months of denials by Trump officials that there was any communication with the Russian government.
Page left the Trump campaign in September 2016 amid controversy over his speech. In a letter last month to the Department of Justice, Page said the controversy was politically motivated. The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is investigating alleged Russian influence on 2016 U.S. elections, has contacted Page and requested that he preserve materials related to Russia.
In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, Lewandowski said, "I don’t know who Carter Page is."
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3ab11711b26fe4c18cbb92d614532c28 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/08/why-women-are-wearing-red-on-international-womens-day/98914904/ | Seeing a lot of red today? This is why | Seeing a lot of red today? This is why
Seeing a lot more red today than usual? There's a good reason for it.
In honor of Internation Women's Day, people around the world are wearing the color to show support and raise awareness for the women's rights movement. Many have also taken to social media to spread the word, posting pictures in red outfits with the hashtag #internationalwomensday and changing their profile image to the color.
A number of celebrities and politicians, of both genders, have joined in on the action as well.
The color was chosen by the organizers of the Women's March on Washington, which saw millions take to the streets in January to protest the first full day of Donald Trump's presidency. According to the group, the color was chosen to represent "revolutionary love and sacrifice." Red also has a history of being associated with the labor movement.
At 2.6 million strong, Women's Marches crush expectations
In addition to using red to promote equality and women's rights, the group on Tuesday was also spearheading the "A Day Without Women" protest encouraging walkouts, rallies and marches as a sign of economic solidarity.
A Day Without a Woman: What you need to know
Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal
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41bce33461688efcf0b5e9ed0aa052ab | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/09/5-things-you-need-know-thursday/98908450/ | 5 things you need to know Thursday | 5 things you need to know Thursday
The second-longest bull market in U.S. history turns eight
Got stock? Then happy birthday, indeed. Wall Street's current bull market was born on March 9, 2009, after the worst stock plunge since the Great Depression. It overcame obstacles ranging from debt crises in Europe to natural disasters like hurricanes. It survived fits of global instability, a U.S. government shutdown, a downgrade of the nation’s triple-A credit rating and countless political scares. Now we're here. At the S&P 500’s recent closing high on March 1, the bull was up 254%. For how much longer? No one knows. But worth noting that the longest bull in history, which spanned most of the 1990s before topping out in March 2000, lasted about 9 1/2 years.
More: A statue of little girl is defiantly staring down the Wall Street bull
Sign on the dotted line: NFL free agency kicks off
The NFL's offseason gets into full swing Thursday with the start of free agency. Though signings can't become official until 4 p.m. ET, the annual game of musical chairs has already begun with several notable players being released or agreeing to contracts with new teams. The Dallas Cowboys are expected to release Tony Romo, making the quarterback one of the biggest names on the open market. Four-time all-pro running back Adrian Peterson also could be looking for a new team after the Minnesota Vikings declined to exercise his option. Teams looking to spend might be best off looking at a class heavy on defensive talent.
'Trial of the century' kicks off in South Korea
The de facto leader of Samsung Electronics denied bribery and embezzlement charges Thursday, part of a larger web of scandal that forced the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in December. Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is accused of paying more than $37 million to a close associate of Park’s in exchange for government backing of a merger between two Samsung subsidiaries. Lee's trial has touched a raw nerve in South Korea about the role of Samsung and other massive conglomerates, which are widely seen as corrupt and above the law, resembling feudal dynasties more than modern international businesses.
Trial of accused Pa. shooter gets underway
The trial of Eric Frein, who prosecutors say ambushed a Pennsylvania police corporal in September 2014, opens Thursday. The jury will consider capital murder charges against Frein, 33, after he allegedly led police on a manhunt before U.S. marshals found him 30 miles from where Byron Dickson II was shot twice. Dickson, 38, was leaving the Blooming Grove barracks at night when a gunman in the woods across the street shot him. Frein spoke of starting a revolution in a letter to his parents, prosecutors said. He has pleaded not guilty.
Muhammad Ali’s son heads to D.C. to talk about Trump's immigration ban
Muhammad Ali Jr. and his mother, Khalilah Camacho Ali, are headed to Washington Thursday to talk to lawmakers about President Trump's controversial travel order after Ali Jr. was detained by immigration officials at a Florida airport last month. The Alis, who were invited by Democrats to a forum organized by members of the House subcommittee on border security, were left convinced that they were specifically targeted by immigration officials because they are Muslim and have Arabic names. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said Ali Jr. was held for questioning, but not due to his religion.
Contributing: Associated Press
Prefer to listen rather than read? Catch up with the 5 Things podcast.
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9e022213c803aaa96fbfc2609ae6c4f4 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/10/pope-says-cardinal-sent-guam-because-terrible-incidents/98997610/ | Pope says cardinal sent to Guam because of terrible incidents | Pope says cardinal sent to Guam because of terrible incidents
Pope Francis said in a recent interview with a German newspaper that Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke was sent to Guam in February because of “some terrible incidents there,” as the Vatican holds a canonical penal trial of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron.
Apuron, Guam’s archbishop for nearly 31 years, has been sued by four former altar boys allegedly for raping or sexually abusing them in the 1970s when he was still a parish priest.
The pope, in an interview with the German journal "Die Zeit", denied seeing the conservative Burke as an enemy and instead praises him as an excellent lawyer.
The pope, according to the interview, also denied that the recent decision to send Burke to Guam to lead Apuron’s canonical trial was a form of punishment.
“Cardinal Burke was (on Guam) because of some terrible incidents there. For that I’m very grateful to him, he’s an excellent lawyer, but I believe the assignment is almost completed,” the pope said in the German interview, recorded before he began his Lenten retreat.
Tim Rohr, who writes about critical Guam church issues on his longtime blog, JungleWatch, said Friday if the translation of the pope’s interview is correct, Pope Francis didn’t say “alleged” and that the pope said the assignment is almost completed.
Vatican visit puts global spotlight on Guam allegations
Former Agat altar boy accuses Guam's archbishop of rape
Fall of an archbishop; Byrnes set to arrive, steps in for Apuron
Concerned Catholics of Guam and Laity Forward Movement have been seeking Apuron’s removal as archbishop and for him to be defrocked, not only because of the sexual abuse of minors but over financial mismanagement. One of their biggest contentions is Apuron allegedly giving away a church property valued at $75 million, to an exclusive group despite directives from the Vatican ordering otherwise.
Lou Klitzkie, president of Laity Forward Movement, said March 12 marks the 34th Sunday picket with a singular message of having Apuron removed and defrocked.
“They say courage and perseverance equal success,” she said. “We are sustaining the numbers and picketers are motivated. Message to remove and defrock Apuron remains.”
Pope Francis suspended Apuron on June 6 2016, a few weeks after three former altar boys came forward to publicly accuse Apuron of rape or sexual abuse. The mother of a fourth former altar boy, now deceased, also came forward to share what her son told her on his deathbed 11 years earlier.
There are now 28 former altar boys that have filed lawsuits against Catholic priests, the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America or other John Does who may have helped, abetted, concealed or covered up the abuses.
The lawsuits were made possible after Gov. Eddie B. Calvo signed on Sept. 23, a law that allows victims of child sex abuse to sue their abusers and the institutions with which they are associated, at any time.
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e0205553b14fe55d6e3bd139743afaf6 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/10/union-city-man-facing-deportation-scheduled-ice-check-friday/98958616/ | Union City man facing deportation given extension | Union City man facing deportation given extension
A Union City grandfather was temporarily spared deportation on Friday after meeting with immigration officials while about 100 supporters — including Newark Archbishop Joseph Tobin, among other faith leaders from around the state, and Sen. Bob Menendez — rallied on his behalf.
Catalino Guerrero was given an extension, but he must report back to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on May 22, said his attorney, Cesar Martin Estela of Newark.
Minutes after exiting the Peter Rodino federal building in Newark, Guerrero was greeted with hugs from clergy and other supporters, who surrounded him as he walked to Grace Episcopal Church and cameras recorded his every move. Inside the church, immigration advocate Richard Morales provided an update and Guerrero, speaking softly and in Spanish, said he was happy to be able to return home. His family sat in the pew behind him.
Guerrero said he wished President Donald Trump, whose campaign focused on cracking down on illegal immigration, would change his mind and his immigration policies.
"What he's doing is not just," he said in Spanish. "There are a lot of people that are being deported for no cause or crime."
Estela, the attorney, said he submitted an application on behalf of Guerrero for a six-month stay of removal, and immigration officials will now review that application. A decision could possibly be given at their next meeting, on May 22, he said.
The attorney said he plans to file a separate application on behalf of Guerrero for permanent residency. Guerrero is eligible to apply for permanent residency, he said, because he was a victim of a crime. In 2007, he said, someone entered Guerrero's home, robbed him and threatened his life. Estela said that with Guerrero's help, police were able to make an arrest. In the past, he said, attorneys for Guerrero had focused on his health condition.
"The application includes a copy of our strategy," Estela said.
Luis Martinez, a spokesman for ICE, confirmed that Guerrero must still report to immigration officials.
“Catalino Guerrero, a Mexican national unlawfully present in the U.S., was ordered removed from the United States in 2009 by an immigration judge. Guerrero is presently not in ICE custody, but must periodically report to ICE as a condition of his release,” he said in an emailed statement.
Guerrero reported to his meeting shortly after 9 a.m., and walked out a little more than an hour later.
Guerrero, who has four children and four grandchildren, has deportation orders, and he was told last month to bring a valid passport to Friday's meeting with immigration officials.
“This is our country, and these are the people that are part of our country, and our community,’’ said John Mennell, the rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Montclair, who addressed clergy and immigrant advocates who planned to participate in the rally.
Earlier in the morning, faith leaders and immigrant advocates gathered in a conference room at the Courtyard Newark Downtown on Broad Street before walking to the federal building. As the snow fell, about 50 people chanted "Build communities, not a wall," and as they approached Guerrero, who was waiting for them alongside Menendez and Tobin near the federal building, they started to say: "Catalino, Catalino, estamos contigo," which translates to "Catalino, Catalino, we are with you. "
Throngs of media and supporters surrounded Guerrero as he, Menendez and Tobin made their way to a podium set up under a canopy. There, clergy from different denominations prayed, and Menendez and Tobin addressed the crowd.
Menendez called Guerrero "a good man, not a bad hombre," and said he hoped Trump was watching.
The Democratic senator from Paramus, whose roots are in Union City, said America needs to be a nation that doesn't treat grandfathers like gangbangers with criminal records who Trump has said were the targets of his immigration policies.
"Today, it's about Catalino and my God if he can be deported, then we truly are at the verge of mass deportation,'' Menendez said. "This man has no reason to be deported from the United States of America. He is the embodiment of the immigration experience and aspirations for a better life."
Menendez added in Spanish that Guerrero is a decent man, a family man who owns his own house and has paid taxes, a man with no criminal record.
"Today, he is going through a nightmare," the senator said. "He's a good man, and that's why the immigration department should accept his petition to not be deported."
Tobin, who, like Menendez, spoke in English and Spanish, pointed to Guerrero's longstanding ties to the community, saying he is the grandfather of a large and stable family. He thanked those in attendance, saying that they are putting a face on people who are treated as "statistics or as demons."
"You can see what Catalino looks like and how he lives and how he has lived,'' Tobin said.
The cardinal said what Guerrero was going through should lead people to question the immigration system.
"It lets us know that the enforcement of the broken immigration system is capricious and unjust," Tobin said.
Communities of faith believe in a nation of laws, Tobin said, but most people agree that the immigration system is broken. Faith communities, he said, should stand and help people like Guerrero.
"I think it's appropriate for churches, synagogues and mosques to walk the talk, and what that means is that not simply that they believe in some stuff, but they put their hearts, minds and lives on the line,'' the cardinal said. "What the churches are doing is not harboring criminals, but what they are doing is accompanying here in public people who are suffering and are in danger of being unjustly persecuted."
DEPORTATION: Clergy, religious organizations and advocates mobilize to help immigrants
TRENTON: Christie offers no assurances to undocumented immigrants
IMMIGRATION: Refugees rattled by FBI calls meant to 'build trust'
Guerrero met with immigration officials and two lawyers as the protesters waited outside and chanted, "Hear us now as we pray, let him stay, let him stay."
The check-in with a deportation officer is part of the routine supervision of unauthorized immigrants who have been ordered out of the country by immigration judges. Guerrero has checked in before and has been given a year or two to report back. But last month, when he met with ICE officials, he was told to bring a valid passport on March 10.
In January, Trump signed executive orders that laid out categories of undocumented immigrants who would be subject to priority removals; the categories, for example, would be for those charged with or convicted of a crime, those who are subject to a final order of removal, or undocumented immigrants who have “abused” any program related to receiving public benefits. The orders also say that people with final administrative deportation orders are a priority. It gives individual immigration officers the power to decide if a person should be detained based on whether they believe the person poses a risk to public safety or national security.
Trump supporters who back his immigration policies say his executive orders are designed to protect the country.
Steve Lonegan, a former Bogota mayor who was the New Jersey state chair for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, said he supports immigration when people follow the laws. He said he could not comment directly on Guerrero’s case.
“Each case has to be tried individually,’’ he said. “I would leave the immigration court to decide on this.”
Estela, Guerrero's attorney, said that under President Barack Obama's immigration policies, those with final deportation orders were already a priority. But Guerrero and his family said Trump's new orders have heightened their fears. Members of Guerrero's family say they worry that he could be deported.
“We are praying that it does not happen. If in a moment that happens, we have various organizations that are helping us, and we hope they will mobilize to help him,’’ his daughter Veronica said Thursday evening in advance of the hearing, adding that Tobin and Menendez's attendance gave her additional hope.
Morales, the immigration policy director for the PICO National Network, which has advocated on Guerrero's behalf, said he saw no reason for ICE to not approve the stay on Friday.
"ICE should immediately exercise prosecutorial discretion and grant him a permanent stay of removal,'' he said.
Guerrero, who was born in Mexico, said he immigrated to the United States in 1991 and then secured a work permit and a Social Security card. Unbeknownst to him, Guerrero said in an earlier interview, the person who was providing him with legal advice applied for political asylum on his behalf, which was the reason he obtained a work permit. His application was denied, he said. Years later, he said, he discovered that an order of removal had been issued.
Guerrero's daughter Veronica said that when he came to the United States he was just trying to provide for his family and that he should be allowed to stay.
“He deserves the opportunity to stay in this country,’’ she said Thursday evening. “I know that the way he came to this country was not the right way, but he was just trying to get his family in a better economical condition and also to escape from the insecure life that we had in our country.
“He has not done anything wrong, and he has just tried to work here legally,’’ she added. “He has worked here for more than 25 years, and he was trying to do the right thing to survive here. He always worked for whatever he got.”
Guerrero has worked various jobs since he first came to the U.S. Most recently, he said, he worked for his son’s moving company and delivered food for local restaurants. In recent years, he said, he has battled health issues, including a stroke and diabetes.
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68c8a75da17b46bf82348f70f0552691 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/14/chicago-vows-police-reforms-doj-aversion-to-consent-decrees/99189210/ | Chicago vows police reforms even if DOJ doesn't press for them | Chicago vows police reforms even if DOJ doesn't press for them
Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story failed to make clear that there have been more than 4,800 shooting victims in the past 14 months in Chicago.
CHICAGO — With the Trump administration signaling an aversion to federally-mandated reforms of local police forces, the Chicago Police Department’s top cop on Tuesday said that he is moving forward with an ambitious agenda to boost training and accountability of one of the nation’s largest police departments.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson outlined plans to bolster community policing, implement a field training officer program for new cops, revise the department’s use of force policy and other changes in the months ahead.
The latest push by Chicago to improve training and accountability of the embattled department comes as Attorney General Jeff Sessions has suggested that the Justice Department under his watch may shy away from the frequently used Obama administration practice of suing local police departments to force reforms related to violations of excessive force policies, racial discrimination and other misconduct.
“What’s necessary is reform…and to that end we are going to do it,” said Johnson, whose comments came as the department released a document entitled the Next Steps for Reform. “CPD is different than it was at this time last year. We don’t need a piece of paper to ensure that we’re doing it.”
The department’s brass and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have been pressing to win back the trust of large swaths of Chicago in the aftermath of the court-ordered release in November 2015 of chilling police video that showed a white officer, Jason Van Dyke, fire 16 shots at 17-year-old Laquan McDonald as he appeared to be running away from police during a pursuit. Van Dyke, who was charged with first-degree murder, is awaiting trial.
The video—which came after decades of simmering mistrust and allegations of police brutality and misconduct in some of Chicago’s predominantly minority neighborhoods—also lead to widespread public outrage and weeks of protests in the city. The public backlash lead to the Obama Justice Department launching a year-long probe of Chicago police’s pattern and practices.
In the final days of the Obama administration, the Justice Department issued a scathing report, which found the Chicago Police force is beset by widespread racial bias, excessive use of force, poor training and feckless oversight of officers accused of misconduct. The Justice Department and the city of Chicago also issued “a statement of agreement” to find remedies to improve policing in the nation’s third-largest city and repair a shattered public trust.
But the comments from the new attorney general, Sessions, has raised doubts about DOJ finalizing negotiations of a consent decree, which would require independent monitoring to certify Chicago is taking agreed upon steps to solve problems within the department.
"Somehow, someway, we've undermined respect for police and made — often times — their job more difficult,'' Sessions said in a speech soon after being confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement officer last month. "We need to help police officers get better rather than reduce their effectiveness, and I'm afraid we've done some of that. So, we're going to pull back a little on this. I don't think that it's wrong or mean or insensitive to civil rights or human rights. I think it's out of concern to make the lives of those, especially in poorer communities and minority communities, live a safer, happier life.''
Read More:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions: 'We are in danger' of rising violence
Chicago police use excessive force, scathing Justice Department report finds
Critics fear attorney dismissals could undermine probes
The debate over whether to implement a consent decree comes as Chicago has seen a dramatic surge in violence in which the city has tallied nearly 900 murders and more than 4,800 shooting victims in the last 14 months. President Trump has repeatedly slammed Emanuel and Chicago officials over the surge in violence and has made vague threats of federal intervention if the violence isn't abated.
Zachary Fardon, who until earlier this week was the U.S. attorney for Northern Illinois, wrote in an open letter to the media that implementing a consent decree was one of the top five things that he thought needs to happen to get Chicago in a better place. Among the findings of the Justice Department investigation of the Chicago department was the need to bolster training for the city's cops.
“You can’t stop our brand of violence without a top-flight police department,” wrote Fardon, who was one of 46 U.S. attorneys who were asked to resign by Trump last week. “And you can’t have a top-flight police department on the cheap. For decades, CPD has been run on the cheap. Officers don’t have the training, the supervision, the equipment, or culture they need and deserve.”
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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811fe079faa5b2fe7a0fb2e277377d38 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/14/gloria-steinem-advice-journalism/99139890/ | Gloria Steinem has something to say to the media | Gloria Steinem has something to say to the media
Before Gloria Steinem was an icon, political activist and peripatetic feminist organizer, she was a journalist.
With social justice at the heart of her work, her resume reads like a cross between reporter and advocate: She went undercover as a Playboy bunny and exposed exploitative working conditions for women; penned a political column for New York magazine where she wrote the landmark feminist essay After Black Power, Women's Liberation; and in 1972 co-founded pioneering Ms magazine, which still publishes today.
With more than half a century of experience with the media, both as a journalist and as the journalist's subject, Steinem has witnessed the industry's evolution, and its ensuing erosion — a 2016 report found Americans' trust in the media has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup history.
Steinem said news organizations must shoulder some of the blame for a deteriorating relationship with its audience.
"Journalists need to take responsibility for some things that have been part of our culture that turned out to be part of the problem," Steinem said. "For instance, false equivalency, you know the idea that there are two sides to every issue, which actually is a very gendered thing. There aren't two sides to every issue. There are maybe six or 12 or one, and as Christiane Amanpour always says: Our job is not to be balanced — it's to be accurate."
Steinem said she battled false equivalencies during her career. In her memoir, My Life on the Road, she wrote that when she approached an "open-minded editor" to write about gender issues he explained that "if he published an article saying women were equal, he would have to publish one next to it saying women were not — in order to be objective."
The slide in media trust, Gallup said, has been happening for the past decade, though it may have been exacerbated by the divisive presidential election. In 2000, Democrats and Republicans were roughly aligned in their view of the media: 53% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans professed trust. In 2016, Republicans who say they have trust in the media has plummeted to 14% from 32% just a year ago, the lowest confidence among members of the GOP in 20 years.
Transparency, Steinem said, will be key to rebuilding it.
"I think we are so aware now of how precious facts are, of how precious truth is, and narrative happens to be the way our brains are organized from sitting around campfires for hundreds of thousands of years," she said. "So I think telling a true narrative, and offering up fact-checking so that your readers or watchers can know that you are not among those that is purveying a false story, will make you a gift — a gift. Nothing, nothing on earth could be more important."
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Full coverage of Women's History Month at women.usatoday.com
Alia Dastagir writes about media and culture for USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter @alia_e.
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8a9b1e0166363bf881d143cc3c0daa3b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/16/feminism-glossary-lexicon-language/99120600/ | A feminist glossary because we didn't all major in gender studies | A feminist glossary because we didn't all major in gender studies
Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of this story included a definition of "women of color" that has since been updated.
Like any "ism," feminism is rich with jargon, which can lead deeply personal conversations to turn unnecessarily dense. While some terms are entrenched, others are contemporary additions to an evolving lexicon. To help you break through, here are definitions for everything from "feminism" and "misogyny" to "bropropriated" and "feminazi."
The basics
Feminism: Belief in and desire for equality between the sexes. As Merriam-Webster noted last month: "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities." It encompasses social, political and economic equality. Of course, a lot of people tweak the definition to make it their own. Feminist activist bell hooks calls it "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression."
Patriarchy: A hierarchical-structured society in which men hold more power.
Sexism: The idea that women are inferior to men.
Misogyny: Hatred of women.
Misandry: Hatred of men.
A little deeper
Hostile sexism: The one most people think about. Openly insulting, objectifying and degrading women.
Benevolent sexism: Less obvious. Kind of seems like a compliment, even though it's rooted in men's feelings of superiority. It's when men say women are worthy of their protection (off the sinking boat first) or that they're more nurturing than men (therefore should raise children). It's restrictive.
Internalized sexism: When the belief in women's inferiority becomes part of one's own worldview and self-concept.
Misogynoir: Misogyny directed toward black women.
LGBTQ: The acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.” Some people also use the Q to stand for "questioning," meaning people who are figuring out their sexual or gender identity. You may also see LGBTQIA. I stands for intersex and A for asexual/aromantic/agender.
Cisgender: A term used to describe a person whose gender identity aligns with the sex assigned to them at birth.
Transgender: A person whose gender identity differs from the cultural expectations of the sex they were assigned at birth.
Transphobia: Prejudice toward trans people.
Transmisogyny: A blend of transphobia and misogyny, which manifests as discrimination against "trans women and trans and gender non-conforming people on the feminine end of the gender spectrum."
TERF: The acronym for "trans exclusionary radical feminists," referring to feminists who are transphobic.
SWERF: Stands for "sex worker exclusionary radical feminists," referring to feminists who say prostitution oppresses women.
Gender fluidity: Not identifying with a single, fixed gender.
Non-binary: An umbrella term for people who don't identify as female/male or woman/man.
Women of color: A political term to unite women from marginalized communities of color who have experienced oppression. It could include women of African, Asian, Latin or Native American descent.
Title IX: Protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Victim-blaming: When the victim of a crime or harmful act is held fully or partially responsible for it. If you hear someone questioning what a victim could have done to prevent a crime, that's victim-blaming, and it makes it harder for people to come forward and report abuse. Groups working to eradicate abuse and sexual assault are clear: No woman is guilty for violence committed by a man.
Trigger: Something that forces you to relive a trauma.
Trigger warning: A statement that someone is about to experience challenging material that could potentially be disturbing (graphic, racially-insensitive, sexually explicit, etc.). The practice is controversial on college campuses.
Yes means yes: A paradigm shift in the way we look at rape, moving beyond "no means no" toward the idea that consent must be explicit.
Male gaze: A way of looking at the world through a masculine lens that views women as sexual objects.
Privilege: The idea that some people in society are advantaged over others.
Sex positive: An attitude that views sexual expression and sexual pleasure, if it's healthy and consensual, as a good thing.
On the Internet
Bropropriating: Stealing an idea from a woman and putting it into the world as your own.
Mansplain (verb) mansplainy (adjective): When a man explains something to a woman in a condescending way when he either 1) doesn't know anything about it or 2) knows far less than the woman he is talking to. Sorry, if you already knew that.
Manterrupting: When a man interrupts a woman, especially excessively. Examples: During the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye West grabbed the mic from Taylor Swift, who had just won an award and was trying her best to accept it, to let everyone know "Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Or, during September's presidential debate when Donald Trump interrupted Hillary Clinton 22 times in the first 26 minutes. Or when Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell interrupted Elizabeth Warren’s recitation of Coretta Scott King’s 1986 letter against Jeff Sessions, but allowed Bernie Sanders to read it the next day.
Manspreading: When men take up excess space by sitting with their legs far apart. This is such an actual thing that in 2014 New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched a campaign to get guys to close their legs to make more room on the subway.
Woke: Rooted in black activist culture, it means you're educated and aware, especially about injustice. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ca., has told young people to "stay woke." If you're thinking about it in the context of women's rights, look at the #SayHerName campaign, which works to raise awareness for black women who are victims of police brutality.
Woke misogynist: Nona Willis Aronowitz paints an all-too-familiar picture of the guy who acts like he's all about gender equality, but then turns around and demeans, degrades and harasses women. His misogyny may not always be overt, but it's there. He's a feminist poser.
Emosogynist: Zach Braff in Garden State, according to Jezebel. He's emotional, full of angst and seems like a feminist, but what he really wants is a real-life manic pixie dream girl to manipulate and eventually discard after he finds himself.
Whimpster: Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything... A white, wimpy, emo guy who uses his male insecurity to prey on women who want to nurture.
Feminazi: A derogatory term for a radical feminist.
Types of feminism
Intersectional feminism: If feminism is advocating for women's rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women's overlapping identities — including race, class, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and disability status — impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination.
Transfeminism: Defined as "a movement by and for trans women who view their liberation to be intrinsically linked to the liberation of all women and beyond." It's a form of feminism that includes all self-identified women, regardless of assigned sex, and challenges cisgender privilege. A central tenet is that individuals have the right to define who they are.
Women of color feminism: A form of feminism that seeks to clarify and combat the unique struggles women of color face. It's a feminism that struggles against intersecting forms of oppression.
Womanism: A social and ecological change perspective that emerged out of Africana women’s culture and women of color around the world.
Empowerment feminism: Beyoncé's Formation comes on at the club, and you and your friends hit the dance floor hard. Empowerment feminism puts the emphasis on "feeling," though some feminists would argue feeling amazing is not a great gauge of how society is actually supporting your self-expression and flourishing. Sheryl Sandberg's perpetually controversial Lean In, which focuses on how women can make changes to achieve greater success in the workplace, is another example of empowerment feminism.
Commodity feminism: A variety of feminism that co-opts the movement's ideals for profit. Ivanka Trump has been accused of peddling this brand of feminism, using her #WomenWhoWork campaign to sell her eponymous lifestyle brand.
Equity feminism (conservative feminism): Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, is a champion of what she calls "equity feminism." In her view, "equity feminism" is focused on legal equality between men and women, while "gender feminism" focuses on disempowering women by portraying them as perpetual victims of the patriarchy. In the words of President Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway: “I look at myself as a product of my choices, not a victim of my circumstances, and that’s really to me what conservative feminism, if you will, is all about.”
Waves of feminism
*Some feminist scholars are moving away from "waves" since it can give the appearance that feminists aren't always actively fighting inequality. But if you see them, here's generally what they're referring to:
First wave feminism: Kicked off with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to discuss the "social, civil, and religious condition of woman" and continued into the early twentieth century. It culminated in 1920 with the passage of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote, though some states made it difficult for women of color to exercise this right until well into the 1960s.
Second wave feminism: Began in the 1960s and bloomed in the 1970s with a push for greater equality. Think Gloria Steinem, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Betty Friedan. It was marked by huge gains for women in legal and structural equality.
Third-wave feminism: Beginning in the 1990s, it looked to make feminism more inclusive, intersectional and to allow women to define what being a feminist means to them personally. Also, Buffy.
Feeling "woke" and "empowered"? Find more at women.usatoday.com
Alia Dastagir covers media and culture. Find her on Twitter @alia_e
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b1a110e472fc65469ddc7e9aa6242202 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/22/electronics-ban-lithium-ion-batteries/99502856/ | Midair firestorm: Lithium-ion batteries in airplane cargo spark fear | Midair firestorm: Lithium-ion batteries in airplane cargo spark fear
The U.S. and United Kingdom bans on personal electronics in the cabin of some flights from the Mideast and Africa have sparked worry about the risk of fires from lithium-ion batteries stored in cargo.
Rechargeable batteries have raised concerns for years because poor packing or manufacturing flaws can occasionally cause catastrophic problems. Storing batteries in cargo raises worry because that’s where a fire could spread unnoticed.
“Any mishap you have in that checked luggage could cause a small fire, but trigger and light up these flammable materials” such as hair spray or nail polish packed in the luggage, said Michael Mo, CEO of KULR Technology, which is developing technology with NASA to prevent lithium batteries from overheating. “A much bigger fire in the cargo space is nothing that anybody wants.”
Incidents of rechargeable battery fires are exceedingly rare, either in aviation or elsewhere. Government security officials said they worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure that electronics and their batteries are packed and shipped safely. The electronics ban applies to non-stop flights of nine airlines from eight countries in the Mideast and Africa.
For example, the FAA guidance discouraged airlines from collecting all electronics in a single bin at an airport gate to be checked, to prevent jostling and avoid damaging batteries.
George Kerchner, executive director of the trade group PRBA – the Rechargeable Battery Association, said international standards for more than a decade have allowed electronics in checked luggage and spare batteries in carry-on bags.
“We’re not aware of any additional risk that this presents,” Kerchner said. “The industry obviously has an outstanding record for safety. There are millions of electronic devices that people use every day and the record reflects that.”
Concerns about lithium batteries typically focus on large-scale shipments aboard cargo planes. Battery shipments were implicated – but not proven as the cause – in fiery crashes of an Asiana Airlines flight near South Korea in 2011, a UPS flight in United Arab Emirates in 2020 and a UPS flight in Philadelphia in 2006.
FAA testing later found that halon gas used to suppress fires on planes doesn’t work well on batteries in a chemical reaction called a thermal-runaway, where temperatures reach 800 degrees Celsius.
A 2015 FAA report found "the uncontrollability of lithium battery fires can ultimately negate the capability of current aircraft cargo fire suppression systems, and can lead to a catastrophic failure of the airframe.”
The International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations that sets non-binding policies for airlines, decided last year to ban bulk shipments of lithium-ion batteries on international passenger flights. On cargo flights, the batteries must be charged to no more than 30%, to reduce the likelihood of fires.
But after the Obama administration sought to adopt the international standard for domestic flights, the Trump administration has frozen the regulation for further review.
On a smaller scale, the Transportation Department banned Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones from airlines in October after nearly 100 reports of the devices overheating and sometimes injuring owners. The manufacturer halted production of the device after updated versions continued to overheat, following a recall of the first version.
Airlines adopted special gloves and bags to hold overheating phones and smother them of oxygen, thus preventing the spread of a fire.
Incidents involving batteries are exceedingly rare. But the FAA counted 138 aviation incidents involving lithium batteries as cargo or luggage from March 1991 through December 2016, which the agency said might not be a complete list. Incidents included:
♦A fire in the overhead bin of a Delta Air Lines flight from Honolulu to Atlanta on Dec. 3 was traced to a laptop. Three halon extinguishers and two water extinguishers were used to smother the fire.
♦A fire in a checked bag aboard a United Airlines flight from Newark to San Juan on Aug. 13 was blamed on two spare lithium batteries in their charging unit in a checked bag.
♦A Delta flight from Newark to Detroit on Aug. 5 was delayed when a lithium-battery charger in a seatback pocket caught fire, and the passenger extinguished it in the lavatory, which set off the smoke detector. The flight was delayed 34 minutes.
The FAA allows electronics with lithium-ion batteries to fly in checked luggage or carry-on bags. But the FAA restricts spare lithium batteries to carry-on bags because of risk of damage while jostling.
The FAA concern is that loose batteries could short-circuit – causing extreme heat or even a fire – if they come into contact with keys, coins, tools or other batteries. The FAA recommends packing loose batteries in their original packaging or a battery case.
If batteries stay inside the laptop or camera, FAA says another key is to make sure the device is turned off and can’t be turned on accidentally, to prevent overheating.
“The batteries must be protected from damage and short circuit or installed in a device,” the FAA said in its “pack safe” advice for travelers. “Battery-powered devices —particularly those with moving parts or those that could heat up — must be protected from accidental activation.”
Mo, the expert who was attending the International Battery Seminar in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said he is concerned that rough treatment of checked luggage could damage batteries.
“This is an extremely volatile situation,” Mo said.
But Kerchner, of the battery-industry group, said current regulations ensure that batteries are safe for travel.
“There are adequate safeguards in place to address these concerns that occasionally pop up, like the Samsung recall, for example,” he said.
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628336d3b63f35d4fbd46afb03b2fdd1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/23/bus-anti-transgender-message-vandalized-nyc/99560530/ | Bus with anti-transgender message is vandalized in NYC | Bus with anti-transgender message is vandalized in NYC
NEW YORK -- A bus spreading a message against transgender culture was vandalized near United Nations headquarters early Thursday evening while it was parked, according to the head of one of the three groups organizing the bus tour.
The "Free Speech Bus," as it is called by organizers, was parked near the UN for a scheduled event when two people approached, scratched it with a key, cracked windows with a hammer, and spray painted slogans such as "Trans Liberation," Brian Brown, president of the Washington-based National Organization for Marriage, told USA TODAY.
The people on board the bus traveling between points in New York, Connecticut, Washington and Boston were inside the UN for an event, but the driver was with the vehicle, Brown said. The driver tried to protect the bus and was tackled but not hurt by one of the vandals, Brown said.
Brown's organization put together the bus tour along the East Coast along with Citizen Go, a social activism group that works through online petitions, and the International Organization for the Family, a Washington-based group that promotes "the natural family."
"Boys are boys and girls are girls - it's very simple," Brown said of the bus tour's purpose and message. "We don't want men in girl's restrooms. We don't want schools and our law attempting to say that people are bigoted simply because they understand that there's a difference between male and female."
Of the alleged vandalism, Brown said, "If they thought that would silence us, they were totally wrong."
The New York City Police Department said it took a report on the alleged vandalism and that it is being investigated as an incident of criminal mischief.
The bus received a tumultuous reception in New York, a city known for its open support for LGBT rights and for its number of organizations supporting the LGBT community. Brown said as the bus made its way through New York's streets, it was greeted with the thumbs up from some people, and "some other hand signals" from others.
Pro-LGBT organizations condemned the intention of the bus, calling it the "Hate Bus."
"Free speech is a constitutional right, but language has consequences that must be considered," Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International, a pro-LGBT rights organization based in New York, said in a statement e-mailed to USA TODAY.
"Trans youth already have an extremely high risk for violence, discrimination and suicide. Broadcasting a message that erases and denies the reality that transgender and intersex children and youth exist (sic) is irresponsible, factually misleading, disrespectful and dangerous," Stern said.
Gillian Kane, senior policy adviser at Ipas, an international women's health and reproductive rights organization, is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council to denounce the message of the bus.
Media representatives at City Hall did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent Thursday evening requesting comment.
The vandalism incident will delay the bus' tour by about a day while it is repaired, Brown said. The tour will head to Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Boston, and then return to Washington next week, he said.
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a88805849f6e3c932ac36083d6cd20a3 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/27/racist-assassin-indicted-terrorist-nyc-murder-black-man/99705466/ | Racist 'assassin' indicted as terrorist in NYC murder of black man | Racist 'assassin' indicted as terrorist in NYC murder of black man
A sword-wielding racist who traveled to New York City and allegedly killed a homeless black man was charged Monday with state terrorism charges - a rarity - in a crime that prosecutors decried as an assault on personal and racial freedom.
The Manhattan district attorney's office took the dramatic step of filing first- and second-degree murder as an act of terrorism charges against James Jackson, 28. Terrorism charges are typically filed at the federal level and are reserved for suspects who planned mass attacks, anti-abortion killings, or eco-terrorism. Among the most famous domestic terror cases are the Unabomber attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Charleston church shooting.
Jackson was originally charged with run-of-the-mill murder charges but prosecutors on Monday upgraded the ante to terrorism. He is depicted in an indictment as an assassin who traveled from his Baltimore home for one simple reason: the scouting and killing of a black person on the streets of New York.
"James Jackson prowled the streets of New York for three days in search of a black person to assassinate in order to launch a campaign of terrorism against our Manhattan community and the values we celebrate," the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, wrote in announcing the charges, which also include a count of murder in the second degree as a hate crime. "With total presence of mind, he acted on his plan, randomly selecting a beloved New Yorker solely on the basis of his skin color."
Fatally stabbed in the March 20 attack was Timothy Caughman, who was picking through trash when Jackson is alleged to have pulled a 26-inch sword from a long black overcoat he was wearing and stabbed him in the chest and back.
Jackson, who was staying in a midtown New York hotel, told police that he hated black men for at least a decade, police said.
“The reason he picked New York is because it’s the media capital of the world, and he wanted to make a statement,” Assistant Police Chief William Aubrey said at the time of Jackson's arrest.
Police suggested that Jackson had been thinking of attacking others but instead chose to turn himself in.
The New York Daily News reported Sunday that Jackson said in a Rikers Island jailhouse interview with a reporter that he hoped the attack on Caughman would stop white women from entering relationships with black men.
Jackson said he grew up in an “almost all-white” area outside of Baltimore. “My family is as liberal as they come ... typical liberal Democrats,” he told the Daily News. “The white race is being eroded. ... No one cares about you. The Chinese don’t care about you, the blacks don’t care about you.”
Jackson told the newspaper he is a fan of the web site Daily Stormer — which was also frequented by South Carolina church gunman Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death for killing nine black worshipers in 2015.
Vance, the Manhattan prosecutor, said that in addition to New York's reputation as a media capital, Jackson sought out the Big Apple because of its reputation as a melting pot for different people and cultures. It was in such a place that Jackson wanted to deliver his message of hate, Vance said.
"We must never take for granted New York's remarkable diversity. We must celebrate it, protect it and refuse to let violence and hate undermine the progress we have made," Vance wrote.
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e1a6e56b9bb8324e6ef0fd85a32c26c1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/28/border-patrol-locals-trump-homeland-security-rules/99676700/ | In a border town, locals 'very fond' of their federal Border Patrol officers | In a border town, locals 'very fond' of their federal Border Patrol officers
LAREDO, Texas — In this busy border city, Customs and Border Protection agents are more than just faceless federal officers: They back up local sheriff’s deputies on dangerous calls, go on joint missions with police and even take part in local parades.
“I know there’s a lot of stigma out there against them, but here locally we’re very fond of them,” Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina said of Border Patrol agents. “They will tell you they can walk anywhere in their uniform and they won’t be frowned upon.”
That cozy relationship between local law enforcement and the Border Patrol in places such as Laredo may soon get even cozier under new Homeland Security guidelines. The rules, released Feb. 20, call for the hiring of 15,500 more immigration agents, including 5,500 Border Patrol personnel, and a series of other sweeping measures aimed at bolstering immigration enforcement, a cornerstone of President Trump's campaign last year.
Among the new rules: The expansion of the 287(g) program, a volunteer program that deputizes local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. The program has historically been the realm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which is responsible for tracking undocumented immigrants inside the U.S. But the new rules expand it to include the Border Patrol, whose agents work mainly on the border.
That was welcome news for some people on the border, who feel working closely with the Border Patrol is key to stamping out smugglers and illegal drug transports that pass through the area. Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, who's based in Laredo, said his department isn't part of the 287(g) program and his deputies don't perform immigration duties. But he welcomes closer cooperation with federal agents, he said.
“If we see they’re illegal, we call Border Patrol, and they do whatever they have to do with them,” Cuellar said. "We don’t know what kind of criminal agents we have on our hands, and I’m not just going to let them loose.”
But others warn that expanding 287(g) to the Border Patrol would in essence deputize local deputies and police officers to look for immigration violators, something they’re not trained to do, and could corrode trust between the community and its local police.
The program came under widespread criticism in 2011 when then-Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio reportedly used it to engage in widespread racial profiling and civil rights violations against Latinos. Homeland Security later rescinded its agreement with Maricopa County.
The 287(g) program, which mostly allows ICE agents to pick up undocumented immigrants wanted for serious crimes from local jails, was scaled back under President Obama. Under the new DHS rules, the Trump administration appears poised to ramp it back up and spread it to the border.
That’s problematic, given ongoing reports of rights violations by the Border Patrol, said Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law. “It would absolutely be an issue,” she said. “To take an agency that’s already pretty troubled and under scrutiny and give them the authority to get local agents who are untrained and inexperienced in immigration enforcement is ill-advised.”
Since Trump's election, the extent that local law enforcement officers should cooperate with federal immigration agencies has been a hotly debated topic in Texas and across the U.S.
Sheriffs in Austin and Houston, as well as police in some border towns such as El Paso, have opted out of the program, earning the ire of Gov. Greg Abbott and other state Republican leaders, who maintain local leaders have a responsibility to assist ICE and the Border Patrol in capturing undocumented migrants with criminal records. Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that would punish so-called “sanctuary cities” — those that refuse to comply with requests from federal immigration agencies — by cutting state funding.
On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions re-urged sanctuary cities to comply with federal requests or risk losing billions of dollars in federal funding.
"Such policies cannot continue,'' Sessions said from the White House. "They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets.''
But pro-immigrant activists claim putting federal immigration decision-making in the hands of locals make cities less safe. Besides the risk of having Latinos profiled by ill-trained local police officers, the 287(g) program drives a wedge between residents, many of whom may know an undocumented immigrant, and the police, said Abraham Espinosa, a Houston-based immigrant advocate.
“There’s less people reporting crime because they’re afraid to approach their local police,” he said “Ultimately, it doesn’t make us safe. It makes us unsafe.”
Cuellar, the Webb County sheriff, said his deputies already work closely with Border Patrol agents under Operation Stonegarden, a federal initiative aimed at stopping unauthorized crossings and drug transports. The department receives about $3.4 million a year for participating, a sum Cuellar shares with constables, airport police and other local agencies who help out.
That close cooperation paid off last week when his deputies arrested a suspect after a high-speed chase. The suspect, lacking proper immigration documents, was handed over to the Border Patrol, and later identified as being wanted for murder in Dallas.
With Webb County deputies running into undocumented migrants nearly every day, close Border Patrol cooperation is invaluable, Cuellar said.
“I’m not going to let any criminals leave my jail and commit another homicide or burglary,” he said. “We’re here to uphold the law.”
Contributing: USA TODAY reporter Kevin Johnson
More coverage:
'Physically imposing': Here are the design specs for Trump's border wall
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79152b339f4581d690d0296546333f2d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jumokedada/2017/08/24/hidden-figures-in-tech/ | Hidden Figures In Tech: Beyond The Big Screen | Hidden Figures In Tech: Beyond The Big Screen
In 1955, Annie Easley, a computer scientist and mathematician, began her career at NASA. NASA.gov
Hidden Figures In Tech
In the film Hidden Figures, we learned about the lives of three African American female mathematicians whose work helped NASA solve complex problems during the early years of the U.S. space program. The movie shed light on women in technical roles and the experiences of women of color during that time. The production of the book-turned-film was one step in spotlighting the contributions of women in STEM; however there are many dynamic women in tech with untold stories that have built computers, hacked code, spearheaded programs and more. With the buzz that surrounded the movie and more recent news, you’ve probably heard the question: “Where are the women in tech?”
Diversity in tech, women in tech and girls in STEM are hot topics nowadays because of the growing need for more tech talent. And there is no shortage of opinions about why there aren’t more women in tech. In recent news, a former Google employee shared his perspective on why he believes that women don’t pursue technical roles. Despite the dismal statistics even in 2017 and some of the barriers to entry for women, supportive spaces and communities exist that encourage women to pursue careers in tech.
For decades, women have held technical roles at tech companies or within the information technology (I.T.) departments of non-tech companies. Many of those women were pioneers in their own right and many made major contributions in their field. Some dynamic, veteran women in tech include women like Dr. Majorie Lee Browne, a noted mathematician born in 1914 that understood the importance of computer science and eventually received a grant from IBM for computers. Women like Annie Easley, who was an African-American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. And other women like Mamie Beale Johnson and Genevieve Dixon who worked as “human computers” at an aircraft company in Buffalo, NY. In more recent years, women have risen to lead the technology divisions at companies, founded nonprofits, or launched startups to make local and global impact. Examples include women like Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code, and Jessica O. Matthews, CEO of Unchartered Play.
Today’s startup culture is bringing more entrepreneurs to the forefront and creating spaces for women to talk about what they do in the tech industry. Until recently, when was it cool for us to go to a networking event and talk about building web servers, deploying new apps or founding a tech company? Nowadays women are making their mark as employees and techpreneurs. Now more than ever, women with ideas for apps have access to people and resources that can help bring their products to life. Also, women with technical skills have more opportunities and platforms to showcase their work if they choose to do so.
Even with the excitement, to some of us technologists being a "woman in tech," however you define it, is not a new phenomenon. Some of us enjoyed working behind the scenes for years without any spotlight. Some of us do our jobs then take off our “tech hat” to enjoy simpler lives. Some of us are moms, aunts, and sisters who run in marathons, play instruments, design clothes, travel and more when we clock out of work. And we love it.
Off-line and online tech talk, programs, films, and more, are here to stay but as we dialogue about tech talent, the primary question should no longer be “Where are the women in tech?” Instead, we should ask, “Who are the women in tech?” As more women and girls aspire to become technologists, founders, and executives, it’s imperative that we identify and recognize our hidden figures in tech because people strive to be what they can see.
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3910907f44832e5c6a5e49f9848a97db | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jumokedada/2017/10/08/dreamers-and-doers-seven-nigerian-american-women-in-tech-trailblazers/ | Dreamers And Doers: Seven Nigerian-American Women In Tech Trailblazers | Dreamers And Doers: Seven Nigerian-American Women In Tech Trailblazers
Nigerian-American Luvvie Ajayi was the moderator at the 2017 TIDE conference in Orlando. Courtesy of Luvvie Ajayi
American-born Uber executive Bozoma Saint John is nothing short of amazing. Only she could kickoff the FORBES Under 30 Summit on October 1st by showing off her pretty “skirt with pockets” while also drawing everyone in with stories about her childhood, her struggles, and her truths. When she began talking about what it was like being raised by Ghanaian parents who migrated to the United States, her words brought back memories of my childhood as a first-generation, Nigerian-American with a similar upbringing.
Ghanian-American Bozoma Saint John gave opening talk at FORBES Under 30 Summit in Boston 2017 Jumoke Dada
Interesting enough, October 1st was also the 57th Independence Day for the country of Nigeria, which meant that Nigerians around the world celebrated. Across the United States, Nigerian-Americans proudly waved their green-white-green flags at parades and posted pride images on social media. The festive cultural appreciation was a welcome relief given that a few weeks earlier the nation was divided after the Trump administration announced plans to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA. DACA was a plan implemented by the former President Barack Obama to protect the children of immigrants also known as the "Dreamers."
Whether one agrees with the current administration’s forthcoming plans or not, there is something to be said about the positive contributions that immigrants and their offspring make to the American society. Saint John, a Ghanaian-American, and all of her awesomeness reminded us of that fact as she shared her story.
Ghanaians and Nigerians playfully refer to themselves as "cousins" because of the proximity of the neighboring countries in West Africa and the similarities between both cultures. There are very strong chances that if you know a Nigerian family in the United States, you will find a member that works in a STEM field in some capacity. More specifically, there are many women who are on the forefront of innovation in the tech industry.
So with a little inspiration from "cousin" Saint John, here are seven amazing Nigerian-American women in tech that are also making big things happen:
Luvvie Ajayi, NYTimes Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Founder, Awesomely Luvvie and Awesomely Techie
Luvvie is a rock star.
If you did not hear Luvvie Ajayi’s name in the past year then you don’t have cool friends or you don’t read funny books. Ajayi is a 13-year veteran blogger who has risen to celebrity status. Her blogs, AwesomelyLuvvie.com and AwesomelyTechie.com, serve as the go-to sites for pop culture humor, television show recaps, “real talk” about everything, as well as useful tech and business information.
Ajayi is a highly sought-after speaker and her first book, I’M JUDGING YOU: The Do Better Manual, was an instant best seller which, as a result, landed on the New York Times list in the first week of release. To add to her awesomeness, she recently announced that she is working with Shonda Rhimes on a TV project for the book.
Ajayi is bilingual. She was born in Nigeria and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine.
Twitter: @luvvie
Asmau Ahmed, Brand Manager, Plum Perfect
Asmau is a quiet storm.
Ahmed leads customer-centric digital innovation at Capital One. She is also the founder of and engineer for Plum Perfect, a patented technology that extracts visual data from photos to match shoppers to products.
Ahmed is a Cynopsis Media "Top Women in Digital," and one of 12 black women to raise millions in funding - a statistic she is determined to change. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS with Honors in Chemical Engineering from University of Virginia.
Ahmed was a panelist at the 2017 FORBES Under 30 Summit where she provided valuable insight on how to keep women and girls engaged while in pursuit of careers in STEM.
Twitter: @asmauplum
Asmau Ahmed (second from right) as a panelist at the 2017 FORBES Under 30 Summit in Boston Jumoke Dada
Kelechi Anyadiegwu, CEO & Founder, Zuvaa Marketplace
Kelechi is a boss.
Anyadiegwu is making her mark around the world as the innovator behind Zuvaa, an online marketplace for African print design. Anyadiegwu uses her background in marketing and user experience technology to showcase the beauty and vibrancy of over 50 of the best designers on the African continent.
Since launching in 2014, Zuvaa has been featured in The New York Times, Essence magazine, Ebony magazine and Fast Company magazine. Anyadiegwu has been recognized by Forbes magazine as a "30 Under 30" in the Retail & Ecommerce category. She recently announced her acceptance into the Harambe Cisco Incubator Fellowship, a program for entrepreneurs that are making great impact in Africa.
Twitter: @shopzuvaa
Esosa Ighodaro, Cofounder, CoSign
Esosa is a rainmaker.
Ighodaro left a career in banking to pursue an idea to make social shopping easy by cofounding CoSign, a mobile social media-shopping app with innovative technology that rewards endorsers around the world. As president, Ighodaro heads branding, marketing, sales, external partnerships and communications. As the finance expert, her role includes raising funds.
Ighodaro spent over six years developing her skills by working with top companies like J.P. Morgan Chase, CitiGroup and Bear Stearns. She has been featured in Entrepreneur magazine, Paste magazine and Delta Sky magazine. Ighodara and her cofounder Abiodun Johnson also recently participated in CNBC's Power Pitch.
Ighodaro is from New York and resides in Brooklyn.
Twitter: @cosign
Jessica O. Matthews, CEO, Unchartered Play *
Jessica is an innovator.
At the age of 19, Jessica invented the SOCCKET ball, an energy generating soccer ball that provides off-grid power for the developing world. At the age of 22, she founded Uncharted Play, renewable energy company specializing in motion-based, miniaturized power systems.
Jessica was invited by President Barack Obama to the White House to represent small companies for the signing of the America Invents Act in 2012, and currently serves as an Ambassador of Entrepreneurship for Nigeria. In 2016, she was selected to ring the NASDAQ opening ceremony bell, representing all Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnae.
Jessica’s research and career centers around the intersection of disruptive technology, human behavior and the psychology of self-actualization. A dual citizen of Nigeria & the U.S., Jessica has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Twitter: @uplayco
Morin Oluwole, Head of Luxury, Facebook and Instagram *
Morin is a strategist.
Morin Oluwole is a luxury industry thought leader in digital advertising at Facebook in France, where she manages Facebook and Instagram's global luxury client partnerships.
She was formerly the Business Lead to the VP of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook in NY where she was responsible for developing strategic business solutions that aid in managing top client and agency relationships. She joined Facebook in September 2006 and has focused on Product Marketing (Facebook Pages), Global Partnerships (fashion/luxury), and Digital Advertising.
Morin holds a BA and MA from Stanford University in Human Biology and Sociology and an MA in Management from Columbia University. She speaks four languages (English, French, Spanish and Yoruba) and has lived on three continents. Morin currently resides in Paris.
Twitter: @morinoluwole
Zim Ugochukwu, former Founder and CEO, Travel Noire *
Zim is a visionary.
Ugochukwu launched the recently acquired, Travel Noire, platform with one lofty goal in mind: to make international travel more inclusive and representative for explorers of color, in turn, inspiring them to frequently explore new destinations. With explosive growth over the past two years, Travel Noire has sold out of every product they've brought to market, building a legion of loyal followers and customers along the way.
Prior to launching Travel Noire, Ugochukwu worked in a capacity where she lead and managed multidisciplinary domestic & international teams and strategizing million dollar funding campaigns in a wide variety of fields.
At 19-years-old, she cloned a gene with similarities to a genetic disorder and became the youngest precinct judge for the state of North Carolina. With a vision almost as grand as the world we live in, Ugochukwu is dedicated to creating long-lasting change by using technology to empower people of color to lead more global lives.
Last month it was announced that Blavity acquired TravelNoire.
Twitter: @zimism
* Content source is LinkedIn.
The seven trailblazers listed represent a small portion of a growing list of Nigerian-American women making major contributions to the tech industry. There are many more women that work in technical roles at large corporations. Like Saint John, the women highlighted are a great reminder of the impact that the children of immigrants can make in a society where they are free to dream, speak their truths and bring their ideas to life.
Nigerian-American and Ghanian-American Women in Tech Pose at Digital Undivided's 2012 #Focus100... [+] event in NYC Digital Undivided
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eb29fef05ebda037c9648fb237a68941 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jumokedada/2017/12/09/crowdfunding-dos-and-donts-from-ifundwomens-karen-cahn/ | Crowdfunding Do's And Dont's From iFundWomen's Karen Cahn | Crowdfunding Do's And Dont's From iFundWomen's Karen Cahn
Karen Cahn, Founder and CEO of iFundWomen, at the 2017 Pennsylvania Conference for Women Jumoke Dada
In October, I attended the 14th Annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women - one of the nation’s most prominent conferences for professional women. Reported as their largest conference to date, 12,000 women were in attendance to network with peers, learn from experts and hear from the former first lady Michelle Obama. In an interview format like that of two girlfriends chatting, thousands of onlookers listened in as Mrs. Obama shared stories with media maven Shonda Rhimes about her career and life after the white house. Following their awe-inspiring conversation, I had my own girlfriend-like chat with an amazing woman named Karen Cahn, CEO and Founder of iFundWomen.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 03: Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and... [+] Screenwriter, director and producer Shonda Rhimes speak on stage during Pennsylvania Conference For Women 2017 at Pennsylvania Convention Center on October 3, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marla Aufmuth/Getty Images for Pennsylvania Conference for Women
I sat in on the “Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Pushing the Boundaries for Success” session where Cahn and other panelists encouraged women to make decisions that will take their careers to the next level. Immediately following the panel discussion, Cahn, a former Women@Forbes contributor, and I spoke one-on-one about two important topics for women: business and money.
Panelists Left to Right: Patrice Eubanks, Founder of Girls Auto Clinic, Karen Cahn, Founder of... [+] iFundWomen, Jennifer Roberts, Head of Digital Products for JPMorgan Chase
Cahn, who previously worked at Google and Aol (now OATH), is a second time entrepreneur. During our conversation, she was transparent in sharing that her first software company, VProud, failed because she “did everything backwards” and spent too much time trying to perfect the product. “Perfect is the enemy of done,” she said when she talked about the length of time that it took for her to launch the product. Since it was difficult for her to get funding for her startup, she also spent a lot of her own money building the product so when she needed to save her business, she decided to create a crowdfunding campaign.
Coming out of big tech companies, I was brainwashed into thinking that the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur was raising an equity round right away. This is just wrong. You need to have a working prototype and demand for your product before you think about any type of institutional financing like VC or a loan. I definitely wasn’t prepared to be an entrepreneur coming out of the comfy corporate womb.
While running her crowdfunding campaign she thought, “Why aren’t people talking about how amazing crowdfunding is for early stage entrepreneurs? The whole process gives you the opportunity to raise a round of cash from your own personal and professional network so you can launch your product and assess if there is demand. It’s genius. Also, why are there no crowdfunding platforms to help women?” A light bulb went off and she decided that it was time for her company to pivot. As a result, she and her team began working on iFundWomen.
iFundWomen is a “for women by women” crowdfunding platform. In addition to being a tool for women to raise money for their businesses, the iFundWomen team provides coaching to help women with their pitches and video content. Through the iFundWomen ecosystem, Cahn aims to democratize crowdfunding. Similarly to other crowdfunding platforms, there is a usage fee however 20% of the profits are used to reinvest into campaigns on the platform. Her team also started “accelerator pools” where people give money to pools and reward grants of cash to high performing entrepreneurs to supplement their crowdfunding efforts.
Today iFundWomen has a global platform available to startups in 25 countries, and five U.S.-based cohorts, with two recently launched in Newark and Boston. For each cohort, the team partners with city leaders and investors to activate support for entrepreneurs in their community. According to Cahn, iFundWomen is different because it takes a very human, hands-on approach to crowdfunding.
Cahn shared that one of her most exciting moments to date was starting the cohort in Raleigh, North Carolina because it gave her the opportunity to work with a “hidden figure.” A woman by the name of Dr. Sandra K. Johnson applied for the Raleigh cohort. Johnson, a former IBM executive with over 35 years of I.T. experience, was the first African American woman to receive her doctorate in electrical engineering. Today she is the founder and CEO of SKJ Visioneering, LLC, and applied to iFundWomen to get support for her product: a blockchain Fintech app to serve people in sub-Saharan Africa. “After reading her application with her credentials, I started tearing up because I realized that this is why I do it. There are ‘hidden figures’ all over the world who are just waiting to be discovered and funded.”
"Hidden Figure" Sandra K. Johnson, Founder and CEO of SKJ Visioneering, LLC Courtesy of iFundWomen
The iFundWomen team is committed to supporting women on their entrepreneurial journey. She believes that more women need to be taught about raising cash rounds as opposed to pursuing venture capital or worse, taking out a loan, in the early stages of their business. According to Cahn, “92% of startups fail. You don’t want to fail and have to worry about having a loan to pay back.” When thinking about her experiences she added, “Don’t spend years of your life perfecting a product. The most important thing is speed to market. Raise a round of cash. Get your product out there quickly. Get the feedback. Iterate.”
Equipped with a wealth of knowledge about raising funds and doing business, Cahn continued to provide great tips. Below are some additional Do’s and Don’ts that she shared to help women have a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Do’s:
Do Have A Digital Media Presence
Your website and social media channels must be launched and the messaging must be on point because people will judge you. It needs to convey exactly what you do very simply and be on brand.
Do Talk Consistently About Your Business And Prepare People For Your Campaign
Talk about your business so much that when people see your campaign, they know that you are consistent. Set your campaign’s launch date months in advance and let your audiences know that it is coming. Be sure to set a manageable length of time for your campaign (30 days is recommended) because you will be promoting it 24x7 days a week.
Do Have A Clear Goal And Action Plan To Raise Money Every Day
If your goal is to raise $30, 000 in 30 days then you must have a goal to raise at least $1000 a day. You must promote your campaign every day via email, social, and most importantly in real life.
Do Have A Tight Elevator Pitch
You should have a 30 second elevator pitch ready at all times that communicates who you are, your expertise, the problem that you are solving, your company mission, how your product is solving the problem, and then wrap it up with an ask. You never know who you are going to meet in an elevator who will support your project.
Do Create A Professional Video That Conveys Your Pitch
Your campaign’s video is the funder’s first view into you so it must be great. iFundWomen has a video production arm to help women tell stories about their brand.
Do Have Family And Friends Ready To Contribute To Your Campaign Within The First 48 hrs
Everyone is not comfortable asking loved ones for money but it’s critical to have them on board early. iFundWomen allows users to take advantage of an “incognito” phase. It’s a private link that allows women to start crowdfunding a week before their campaign goes live so that they have supporters already on board when they launch.
Do Create Scarcity
Offer an exclusive reward with limited availability. If you take advantage of iFundWomen’s incognito phase, you can pre-sale the reward. Promote your rewards heavily so that they can be sold out early.
Don’ts:
Don’t Rely On Heavy Advertising To Strangers
People that fund your campaign will more than likely be people that know you. Establish in real life (“IRL”) connections with people that know you and ask them to support you. The people that are really cheering for you will support you.
Don’t Call A Contribution A Donation
You are trying to get your startup funded. Ask for support, a contribution, a backer, etc., but never ask for a donation. You are in business and your business is not a charity. Ask people to support the mission and invite them to support you as an entrepreneur.
Don’t Discount Any Contribution Amount, And Profusely Thank Every Backer
Appreciate every contribution amount whether it is big or small. Someone took the time to click and support your dream, so appreciate all of them.
Don’t Talk About Equity Or Venture Capital At The Minimal Viable Product (MVP) Stage
Women get 2.5% of venture dollars and women of color get .2% of that funding. Start with a crowdfunding campaign first for cash to build your pilot, prototype, MVP, or proof of concept. Prove out your model first. Once you have traction, customers and revenue then decide if you want to seek out an Angel investor (typically $10k-$100k equity investment), Seed investor ($100k – $2-3 million), or a small business loan.
In wrapping up our girlfriend-like conversation, Cahn offered these last words:
For any female entrepreneur that is reading this article who has an idea and needs to raise funding… don’t wait. Get started. Go and create a project on the iFundWomen platform because you have nothing to lose. It’s better to try and fail and learn a bunch of great business lessons than to not to have tried at all.
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a012514ec6b00578757598d238d6415a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jumokedada/2018/02/26/tech-vc-hero-invests-in-hbuc-innovators/ | Wakanda Forever: Techie-Turned-Venture Capitalist Hero Invests In Innovators From HBCUs | Wakanda Forever: Techie-Turned-Venture Capitalist Hero Invests In Innovators From HBCUs
Hadiyah Mujhid leads meeting with Cross Culture Venture Partners. HBCU.vc students in attendance... [+] include Khrys Hatch (Fisk University) and De'Havia Stewart (Florida A&M University) Tyrone Smith
Black Panther – a film about a man’s rise to kingship in a technologically-advanced Africa and his struggles with his position and contribution to the world – continues to break box office records around the globe. **Spoiler Alert** By the end of the film, “T’Challa” -aka- the Black Panther realizes that it’s time for him to do more outside of the Kingdom of Wakanda. He decides to start by going back to the community where a chain of events began that later impacted his life in a major way. The film ends with his sister “Shuri” - a techie who showed her passion for technology and education - explaining to a group of youth who were admiring the Wakandan aircraft that technology was used to create it.
With the ongoing excitement about the film and as Black History Month draws to a close, I would like to introduce you to a real superhero of sorts who is using her tech and startup experience to help the next generation of innovators who attend historically black colleges or universities (HBCUs). Her name is Hadiyah Mujhid and she is the founder HBCU.vc.
HBCU.vc is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to connect and equip the next generation of black and brown tech innovators and investors. With its focus on venture capital, one could assume that Mujhid is a venture capitalist (VC) herself but she is not. She is a technologist who understands the power that comes with financial backing for minority entrepreneurs.
Mujhid’s path as a technologist-turned-founder isn’t typical and it’s clear that she was being prepared to do very specific work for her community while she figured out her life. In 2001, Mujhid graduated from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore – a historically black college - with a degree in Computer Science. She was able to obtain a STEM degree while being surrounded by people of color. After graduation, she had what she describes as the "rare experience" of being hired by an African American manager at a major defense company, Lockheed Martin. Her time at the company spanned 11 years, and she held multiple positions including software engineer, systems engineer and program manager. One of her last positions with the company led her to the San Francisco Bay Area where she would later realize that it was time for her to step out on her own.
Hadiyah Mujhid Diane Phillips
She went on to cofound Picturely – an image processing company that helped brands retrieve analytics from images on the web. She began networking at events and quickly learned that up until that point she didn’t have a clear picture of the full landscape of the tech industry. She didn't know what it really looked like or what it lacked because she had engaged with people of color for most of her college and professional life. The startup wasn’t successful but through that experience, she realized two things: as an engineer, she needed to understand customer acquisition and as a founder, she needed to secure funding to sustain her business.
As a result of the relationships that she established while running her first startup, she joined with other black tech entrepreneurs in the Bay area and cofounded Black Founders because they saw a need to create a supportive community for black tech entrepreneurs. One thing that continued to come up as a barrier to the sustainability of tech businesses was the lack of funding available for people of color. Mujhid had an “Aha!” moment and realized that she could help.
Her research revealed that only 1% of VC-backed entrepreneurs were black and only 1% of venture capitalist were black. She also recalled from her work experience that companies had trouble recruiting diverse staff. Additionally, a man named Richard Kirby, who would later become one of her program mentors, wrote a post on TechCrunch about the path to a venture capital career. She realized that if she could increase the number of VCs that were making the determination of which startups get funded, it could increase the number of black and brown entrepreneurs who receive funding for their companies. And if more minority entrepreneurs would receive funding, they could run sustainable businesses and create more jobs in their communities. Her solution was HBCU.vc.
Founded in 2017, HBCU.vc is almost at the completion of its inaugural Student Investor Fellowship cohort which began in October. She received the majority of the funding for the first year of the program from a Kauffman grant and backing from individual donors. She secured an impressive roster of venture capitalists to serve as mentors for the first year. Next, she made an open call (via social media) to students attending HBCUs asking that they apply for the inaugural cohort. According to Mujhid, “...the response was amazing. Students were allowed to apply as individuals or teams to represent a school and we received 165 applications across 30 schools nationwide." She continued, "Roughly, 99% of applicants had no background or understanding of venture capital. About 27% of the students that applied were young women. In the end, the makeup of the initial makeup of the inaugural class was 50% women and 50% men as a result of the combination of individuals and teams that were selected.” She provides more statistics on the makeup of the participants in this post.
Through the fellowship, Mujhid exposes black and brown entrepreneurs to the tech and venture capital ecosystem to ensure that they have the knowledge, network, support and confidence to be successful entrepreneurs who invest back into their communities. Every month, mentees schedule virtual meetings with their VC mentors to review assignments. Some of the deliverables that mentees are responsible for include researching startups, submitting reports and taking their knowledge of venture capital back to their peers by hosting techpreneur education events on their college campuses.
Mujhid with HBCU.vc Investment Partner and Mentor, Marlon Nichols, General Partner at Cross Culture... [+] Ventures Tyrone Smith
Mujhid shared, “the primary role of the mentors is to create opportunities for students to talk to someone that looks like them about their career paths in hopes that it will give them the students confidence to know that they can do the same thing. Secondly, I want to ensure that the students develop an external network in the industry because the relationships that you develop are important.” The first cohort will be coming to an end in a few months but Mujhid already has venture capitalists that will be available to participate in the next cohort which begins this October. One of the changes that she will make to the investor program is extending it to a two-year program. Additionally, she is working on establishing formal relationships with the universities. Applications for the new cohort open in April 2018.
The work that Mujhid is doing through HBCU.vc is proof that we have real-life superheroes among us. She understands that in order to make a significant contribution to the world she must share her experiences, bring others alongside her to do the same and empower the next generation to pay [the knowledge] forward. Like the Black Panther’s character Shuri, Mujhid is excited by tech, her community and the potential that exists when people band together to do good. When asked why she is passionate about her work, she said, “When we talk about wealth creation in our communities as a goal of our mission, it goes beyond just having money in the bank. I want healthy, happy and prosperous outcomes for members of our communities.”
Mujhid answered her call because she saw a problem and implemented a solution. As African Americans (and others) inspired by the Black Panther film continue to chant “Wakanda Forever” in passing, it serves as the reminder of what’s possible when people rise up, take their position and do what it takes to ensure that those coming behind them are able to thrive in their community and beyond.
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3ae9ec3c64259554554eb0fb08a21706 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/junearocha/2016/12/20/4-simple-ways-women-can-help-women-succeed-in-business/ | 4 Simple Ways Women Can Help Women Succeed In Business | 4 Simple Ways Women Can Help Women Succeed In Business
Senator Ron Wyden Event at Brazi Bites Headquarters (courtesy of Brazi Bites)
Earlier this fall, I had the privilege to host Senator Ron Wyden and more than a dozen women business owners at the Brazi Bites headquarters. The topic of the roundtable discussion was the state of women-led businesses in Oregon; and, more specifically, the hurdles that female entrepreneurs face when it comes to accessing bank financing since women run almost 30% of small businesses yet are awarded less than 5% of the total value of conventional business loans .
The event inspired me to think of ways that I -- and other women -- can help one another grow our companies and achieve our goals. If you’re looking to do more in 2017, here are four simple ways we can help each other and have a real impact:
1) Share Your Network: The longer you’ve been in business, the more contacts and connections you have. One of the easiest ways to help fellow entrepreneurs is to open your network to them, share your contacts and make introductions. I’ll always be grateful to Lisa, owner of Petunia's Pies & Pastries - a fellow Portland food entrepreneur with whom I shared commercial kitchen space in the very early days of Brazi Bites - she connected me with the “Local Forager” for Whole Foods Market. That generous yet simple action on her part turned out to be the first step toward a long-lasting partnership with Whole Foods and national distribution for my company.
2) Make Strategic Time: I’m not suggesting lunch, dinner or even coffee. We’re all very busy growing our companies. Going out takes valuable time when you add up getting there, parking and waiting for food. Instead I usually try keeping my Friday afternoon schedule lighter so that I can take phone calls or meetings at my office. That’s the time to meet with the “friend of a friend” who is interested in starting a food company, someone who’s looking to raise capital or an entrepreneur who may want advice on getting on “Shark Tank”. 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon is very doable and typically enough time to help someone work through a challenge.
3) Share Insights: Our experiences and lessons learned have been acquired through years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. They drive the decisions that move our companies forward and might be our most valuable assets as business leaders. I wouldn’t have grown Brazi Bites this far without insights from others, so I’m thrilled to share my lessons learned. I called my entrepreneur friends Taya and Leah from Scratch & Grain when I needed help preparing to pitch on Shark Tank, they coached me and gave me just the amount of confidence I needed to nail it; a quick email to Erika - cofounder of Wild Friends - helped me select the right booth at a large trade show I hadn’t attended before; and I trusted Maddy - cofounder of Love Grown - to teach me all about Canada when I was ready to export. I’ll do the same for them. It’s incredible to think I can help another entrepreneur avoid mistakes, spend their money wisely or capitalize on a unique opportunity. And doing so comes back to you and your business tenfold.
4) Share Resources: When I was just starting out in the food industry, a friend who had a booth at a tradeshow shared her extra passes so that I could attend the show for free. This small gesture was a big deal for me and my co-founder. We had wanted to attend this particular show but were still in “lean startup mode” and couldn’t spend the money. That experience proved invaluable, and I now work to pay it forward. Whether it’s passes to a tradeshow, an empty desk in your office or a heads-up that a reporter is looking for someone to interview for a story, there is probably something that’s relatively easy for you to share that would mean a lot to someone else.
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1e0b8c8596b361b1671bfd159953d118 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/junhli/2012/10/09/chinas-crisis/ | China's Crisis of Confidence | China's Crisis of Confidence
Welcome to the inaugural post of my blog, Due Diligence.
First a little about myself: I was born and raised in Shanghai, China, attended college and business school in the U.S. and have spent last 10 years working in equity research and investment in New York City. I currently run JL Warren Capital LLC, which I founded to plug a gap in the market for rigorous, unbiased and actionable research focusing on Chinese companies.
This blog is for me to explore the issues that I grapple with in my work, and in a way that takes on common misconceptions about China, questions the “obvious” and piques reader reactions.
This first one is a classic China bear/China bull rehash, which in itself is nothing new. However, China's uniqueness makes it impossible to account for all the variables at play in any given discussion. That is why the bears and the bulls have coexisted for so long. In this instance, I'll zoom in on a discussion confronting one of the biggest challenges China faces: the confidence crisis in the government due to its inability to address structural problems in the economy and the system.
Last week, I visited the Asia Society on the Upper East Side in New York to attend a book luncheon for The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India, authored by the Boston Consulting Group’s senior managing partner Michael Silverstein, along with several of his colleagues.
Silverstein preached to a roomful of China watchers about his conviction in the “China Miracle,” on his vision of China’s unstoppable economic boom and his conviction that it is shifting toward a consumption-driven economy.
“From 2010 to 2020, annual per-capita income will increase on average from about $4,400 to $12,300 in China,” noted Silverstein. “Chinese consumers will spend $41.5 trillion over this period, with annual expenditures rising from $2.0 trillion to $6.2 trillion, an increase of 203 percent.”
The audience seemed impressed, which is understandable since nowadays it feels good to hear “203%” growth when there is hardly any to spare in the developed world these days.
I, on the other hand, almost jumped out of my seat a couple of times. Let’s look at his numbers for a second, in a back-of-the-envelope way.
If we analyze by annualizing that 203% growth in the consumer market, GDP per capita will have to grow at a rate of 6% and consumer spending will grow at 7.8% between now and 2020, outpacing GDP growth by nearly 2%, consistently for the next 8 years.
So far I do not see any reason for this to happen. On the contrary, I see capital flowing out of the country at an accelerating pace. There are two primary reasons for this: limited investment opportunities domestically and, more importantly, a declining confidence among Chinese companies and people in “China’s Miracle.” Because it represents a tangible asset, real estate is a major fixation among Chinese people, and a large portion of the outflow goes to luxury apartment purchases around the world, much of it spurred by immigration purposes.
So why are Chinese people looking for exit as the country is getting richer?
Let’s look at the latest incarnation of the China’s miracle for a second.
In 2009 soon after the global financial crisis and ensuing recession unfolded, Chinese government cut an RMB 4 trillion check designed to offset the slack from declining exports with an infrastructure bonanza, supplemented by a commercial property frenzy on the private front (although since local governments make money from land sales, it's all in the family) and pressure on banks to relax lending. All have contributed to a backslide into “State Capitalism," with government increasing its stake in the economy and control over resource allocation, oftentimes promoting inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at the cost of innovative and competitive small businesses.
When Silverstein and his team traveled to China, I am sure that they were duly impressed by the build-out of what I call the economy’s “hardware” -- and so am I. But looking underneath the world-class high-speed rail system, modern subways with wifi signals, and the stunning high-rises architecture along the coast one finds that the quality of growth is missing. Instead, we have overcapacity in almost all industries that the government has subsidized, mounting non-performing bank loans, fiscal deficits among local governments, rampant corruption and widening income inequality.
So how will this consumption about-face that Mr. Silverstein sees kick in?
I couldn’t help but asking Mr. Silverstein about this during the Q&A, wondering if there was something BCG’s team on the ground picked up that I missed.
“Our survey shows 80% of Chinese saying they were confident in China's future," he answered. "The trend you mentioned only exists among the wealthy. They would need to diversify their assets anyway."
That makes no sense.
China’s wealth is concentrated among the top 0.1%, which makes it one of the most unequal societies in the world, though exactly to what degree is hard to tell due to government opacity and the shadow wealth created by rampant cronyism. After the wealthy “diversify” money outside of the country, what’s left is an empty shell.
Numbers can be cooked. But facts are stubborn things.
And the facts are that China is experiencing a severe confidence crisis, due in large part to the government's fixation on keeping up GDP at the cost of creating a more equal, transparent and honorable society. It is to no one’s benefit – maybe with the exception of BCG’s consultants – to continue to sing the hymns of this rosy Chinese "GDPism."
What the incoming government should do is to let go the GDP- ism, and address the confidence crisis by pushing forward with market reform. Only by doing so, will urbanization continue, the service industries will catch up and the $10 trillion potential may one day materialize.
As I stood up after the lunch, a man came over to me and put his business card in my hand.
“You are the only person who made any sense here," he said. "I have been in and out of China for 30 years and I have never seen things so stressed - especially within the government.”
We chatted for a minute before parting ways, and then I chanced a look at the card. He is a top executive at one of largest multinational retailers in China.
I guess I am not the only skeptic out there.
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e454e690866677c359fa93a25375ed32 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/junhli/2014/12/02/chinas-housing-market-review-post-the-pboc-rate-cut/ | China's Housing Market Still Struggling After the Interest Rate Cut | China's Housing Market Still Struggling After the Interest Rate Cut
The Chinese central bank, or People's Bank of China (PBOC), cut interest rates on Nov. 21 in a move widely viewed as an attempt to stimulate growth. So far, however, our tracking of the Chinese housing market suggests that the rate cut has had a much tamer impact than previous policy changes.
Last week, the week following an interest rate cut, primary home transaction volume increased by 6% week-over-week for both units and square meters sold nationwide. That compares to 100% and 105% week-on-week increases, respectively, during the week immediately after September 30, when Chinese authorities announced that they were relaxing requirements for mortgage lending. Secondary home transactions changed by -1.4% and 2.2% in units and square meters sold nationwide, compared to 238% and 244% respective increases during the week following the September mortgage policy change. (See charts below)
However, during the same week the offshore market surged by ~4%, led by the insurance (+14%) and property (+12%) sectors. The onshore market surged by 8.7% led by real estate (17%) and financials (17%).
We believe the stock market’s recent performance reflects an unwarranted optimism. Investors are falsely assuming that the latest PBOC benchmark cut and the future rate cuts (including RRR cuts and other expansionary open market and repo actions) will reverse the deterioration of the residential housing sector, the lynchpin of China’s economy.
The recent policy stimulus will likely mitigate and delay the decline in home prices and transactions, and may even bump up construction-related activities in the near term. However, it will not reverse the weakening of the property market, both secondary and primary.
As we have written previously, that weakening is caused by a mismatch between supply (largely of luxury homes) and demand (for social affordable homes), an aging society that leads to fewer first-time buyers, and excessive leverage in the Chinese corporate sector. The excess supply in the housing market must be worked off gradually, and that will require a bigger correction in home prices than seen in 2014.
The authorities can and will do more to stimulate the economy, both through further interest rate cuts, reserve requirement ratio cuts and other credit-enhancing measures. The central government may even provide a fiscal stimulus in 2015. If, however, the fiscal stimulus aims to make state-owned enterprises and local governments use banking sector credit and local government bond issuances to take on more projects with doubtful commercial viability, it will do little other than feed the credit bubble and increase excess capacity.
Only if the fiscal stimulus directly targets consumers and social/affordable housing, and is funded directly or indirectly by the central government, can the slowdown in the economy perhaps be halted. The sharp decline in oil prices (down 40% since June) will provide a boost to consumers in China and to producers that use oil as an input.
How did the rate cuts differ in 2014, 2012 and 2008?
We have compared the expansionary monetary policies in 2014, 2012 and 2009, including the benchmark rate cuts, RRR cuts, and other market operations that the central bank attempted in 2008 and in 2012. Together with 4 trillion RMB spending and 10 trillion RMB of bank lending, these measures helped stave off two recessions but also fed a credit bubble and rampant corruption.
In 2008, the authorities eliminated all constraints on lending and credit to trigger a big boost in fiscal spending, to a large extent through local authorities. In 2012, likewise, authorities introduced fiscal stimulus on top of the rate cut.
Note that the mechanics of rate cut in 2014 are different from those in the two previous downturns. As we have written elsewhere, the PBOC lowered the benchmark deposit rate but also raised the mark-up ceilings, such that the effective deposit rate remained unchanged. In 2008 and 2012, the effective deposit rate was actually lowered.
The same is true with the lending rate. The benchmark lending rate was cut symbolically last week, but any banks that wanted to lower their lending rates have already done so, as the lending benchmark is not a hard minimum. In 2008 and 2012, the effective minimum lending rate was cut along with the benchmark.
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55b6fec545728c2103b40506dcf0432b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/juniper/2017/09/29/hacker-revenge-inspires-team-to-rethink-its-security-strategy/ | Hacker Revenge Inspires Team To Rethink Its Security Strategy | Hacker Revenge Inspires Team To Rethink Its Security Strategy
By Teresa Meek
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are a perennial game of cat and mouse: As companies boost their defense, hackers find new ways to get through — and the problem is becoming more serious.
Attacks are getting larger and more powerful as hackers incorporate armies of internet of things (IoT) devices to create so-called “botnet” attacks. There were 11,246 DDoS incidents at enterprises around the world last year, 98 percent of which were aimed at large organizations, according to Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report. Of those, 15 percent were very strong at more than 50 gigabits per second, nearly double the number of the previous year. Eighty-six percent of businesses attacked were hit more than once.
Though most attacks last only a couple of days, they’re strong enough to shut down websites and put a halt to e-commerce.
Sometimes attackers launch a DDoS attack as a diversionary tactic, tying up the security team while they quietly exfiltrate data. iStock
“Attacks have changed, and it’s not just about size or volume, but attackers’ skills,” said Joseph Blankenship, a senior analyst at Forrester, serving security and risk professionals. Sophisticated attacks are harder to detect and defend against, especially for an internal IT team, Blankenship said.
In a DDoS attack, hackers flood a company’s servers with “garbage” data, overwhelming them with traffic. Websites slow down and become unable to handle incoming business requests and activity. If the attack is severe enough, the site shuts down.
Attackers aren’t usually seeking financial gain, although Blankenship has heard of cases where they threaten a second attack unless a company shells out payment in Bitcoin. Some are motivated by political gain. Others are testing their skills or seeking revenge.
Dangerous Games
Stefan Ideler, chief technology officer of i3D.net, a Netherlands-based company that provides worldwide performance hosting and networking for enterprises and online games, has experienced the consequences of hacker revenge.
“With the gaming market growing in double digits, games become crazily competitive. People will say, ‘I’m sick of those guys. Let’s try to disrupt the servers they play on so they can’t play or beat us anymore.’ They have the technical knowledge to do so,” Ideler said.
Though attacks kept cropping up, Ideler and his team were able to end them soon after they started by blocking about 10 types of traffic typically associated with high-volume attacks.
Then gamers learned to narrow their targets by directly attacking the game-server applications of specific player groups. Attacks became easier to launch and harder to mitigate. To make matters worse, some gamers shared attack methods on Facebook, and others modified them to work with more games.
The impact of these DDoS attacks on the gaming world are becoming substantial, with all game-hosting companies experiencing some serious impact, Ideler explained. In parts of the world where transit capacity is still an issue, such as Latin America, volume-based attacks have had the biggest impact. “We spent a lot of time mitigating these attacks by working on our detection and filtering, and succeeded in reducing the impact of these types of attacks. Application-based attacks, which only impact a single server, were a rare occurrence until the tools needed to execute this attack spread across the internet, making them available to any player who watched an instructional video. These attacks became more frequent, hitting many times per hour instead of once a month,” he said.
Ideler considered using a third-party service that switches traffic to another location, but worried that latency caused by the switch would irritate players. Eventually, he started using Juniper’s vSRX, a virtual firewall that identifies traffic by location, allowing Ideler to make a “smart list” of addresses to block. “Because the firewall is virtual, it is possible to deploy it immediately on all locations worldwide, with practically no delay. In the old days, it could take months to ship and install the physical appliances in all locations. Using virtual machines, we are able to scale up within minutes when we notice an increase of attacks on one of our 26 locations worldwide.”
This solution reduced attack traffic by 50 percent. Over time, Ideler and his team used the system to develop additional filters. “By fine-tuning the filters for the vSRX and using the methods we developed over 10 years of dealing with attacks on our servers, we managed to bring the attacks down by 90 percent. Customer satisfaction has improved substantially, and the gaming community is able to focus again on what it is all about: playing games together. Game publishers are now knocking on our door, because of our technical advantage.” he said.
Dealing With DDoS Attacks
Sophisticated DDoS attacks are not limited to gamers. Some of Ideler’s enterprise clients may have been hit too, but because of the extensive protection and filtering, most of them never noticed.
Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent DDoS attacks, Blankenship said. But you can mitigate them.
“Job one is to understand what your risks are,” he said. “What internet-facing apps do you have to protect, and what are your resources?”
Many organizations don’t have the internal capability or resources for an in-house mitigation solution, which switches on during an attack. Instead, they outsource mitigation to a service provider.
Whether you handle attacks internally or through a third-party provider, you should have a plan in place and review it annually. “Some of the worst impacts I’ve seen are from companies that didn’t have a plan,” Blankenship said. “Their websites are completely unreachable, and there’s an absolute panic among network staff, who don’t know how to recover or who to call. Panic typically leads to a prolonged impact from the attack.”
Sometimes attackers launch a DDoS attack as a diversionary tactic, tying up the security team while they quietly extract data. Blankenship said companies need to make sure they have sufficient resources to monitor for both activities.
It’s also important to keep network devices up to date with patching. Another good practice is partitioning your network through a virtual local area network (VLAN) to prevent an attack from spreading across the system.
No matter what you do, “there will always be a battle between defenders and attackers,” Blankenship said. “It’s a dynamic, changing space that requires vigilance on the part of security vendors and would-be targets.”
Teresa Meek lives and works in Seattle. With over 15 years of experience in communications, she has also written for the Miami Herald and Newsday.
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06d5301b4908313ff3479a73e4926a4d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/junwu1/2020/10/30/is-self-help-ai-the-new-trend/?sh=5dfac2485090 | Is Self-Help AI The New Trend? | Is Self-Help AI The New Trend?
Human Wireframe and Digital Consciousness System Concept getty
There’s no shortage of self-help books on the bookshelves. The self-help industry in the US is massive. With the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare taking off this year, companies creating AI-enabled tools to understand the mental health of individuals and their behaviors in group settings. With more information, help can be provided by healthcare providers and on the individual level.
Two early-stage startups that are working in this area are SignalActionAI and Luther AI.
Awareness and Reflection
Successful people are often identified by their ability to be more aware of their actions and behaviors. The entire self-help industry hinges on teaching people to be more aware of themselves, what they want, their intentions, and motivations. When people are more self-aware, they can live more truthfully, where their actions align with their intentions. Most people who live authentic lives will tell you that it frees them from drama, confusion, and abuse. They can be more present in their daily lives. SignalActionAI started as a company putting emotional AI and conversational AI together in a Multimodal analysis to help mental health providers and schools gather more information from group interactions such as group therapies and classrooms.
Steve Ardire, CEO of SignalActionAI says, “Human behavior is messy, and most brain activity is nonconscious, so the best way to address is using multimodal analysis, i.e., spoken language, emotional, facial, behavioral inputs with human-like understanding to reveal intent, nuanced perceptions, anxieties for more meaningful insights.”
From analyzing the group dynamics and inferring emotional states, changes in group dynamics can be seen by the individuals' changes. How does an elevated level of fear, depression, anxiety first come about in the group? Perhaps, someone in the group first started to exhibit these high levels of negative emotional states.
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Adam Hocek, CTO of SignalActionAI says, “For example, if you detect fear, anxiety, perhaps depression starts becoming the categorization. You'd begin to be able to look at these emotions' patterns and then start making classifiers for them. We then combine emotional states with the conversational component because the voice is enormously rich in carrying our emotion signals i.e., rate, rhythm, volume, pitch, prosody [stress and intonation] to tell whether a patient is down and discouraged, agitated and anxious, or dysphoric and manic.”
Using AI, emotional states and group dynamics can be reflected in both the individual participants and the group moderators. In a school setting, the group moderator can be the teacher in the classroom. In the therapy group setting, the group moderator can be the therapist.
Adam Hocek says, “It’s incredibly helpful for younger therapists who usually don’t have as much experience or intuition to see their therapy session data reflecting the changes in behavior and emotional states in such granular detail to analyze the situations better.”
In domestic violence, addiction, and other mental health conditions where participants tend to “hide,” detecting and reflecting the changes in behavior and emotional states can allow for better treatment in a shorter timeframe.
In other group settings such as colleges, taking mental health assessments of students and employees can help the school provide additional assistance to students and ensure a better learning environment.
Adam Hocek says, “With COVID and isolation, we’re seeing a significant rise in Mental health conditions common among teens and young adults. 50% of lifetime mental illnesses develop by age 14, and 75% develop by age 24.”
Signal Action AI Image from SignalAction.AI
SignalActionAI products are Group Reflection, a web app that conducts anonymous assessment of mental health for teens and young adults, schools, communities, and organizations; Self Reflection™, a Contextual AI web app where semantic models detect mental health indicators of anxiety, stress, depression, suicide etc; Reflection™ TeleAssistant, a video chat tele-health extension that reveals deeper insights and real time reports for therapists and clinicians augmenting their ability to personalize treatment.
Memory and Self-reflection
Group reflections are helpful for more objective assessments of group dynamics, but self-reflection helps memory retention and recall. Today, there are 5.8 million people affected by Alzheimer's in the US and can benefit from memory retention and recall assistance.
During the current pandemic, there is an even greater need for self-reflection due to increase stress and anxiety, leading to decreased working memory capacity, a decline in performance, and reduced goal-directed behaviors.
According to a poll in the Psychiatry Journal, 62% of the general population is anxious due to COVID-19, and 59% feel that the pandemic has a severe impact on their daily lives.
Your Personalized AI built on your private memories. Image from Luther.ai
Luther AI is an early stage startup that’s developing technology to encapsulate memory for retention and to make sense of memories for recall using artificial intelligence.
Suman Kanuganti, CEO of Luther AI says, “AI has created a lot of value for businesses in the past decade. We want to bring AI to people in this decade. All of our data is owned by the individual user. They have control over their data and they own it.”
By building memory stacks on top of people's interactions, Luther AI can allow the user to see memories and contextual information from their past in real-time. These users will be able to engage in their conversations more effectively. They've discovered from initial testing that people are emotionally interacting with the technology. When people interact with the technology emotionally, it improves their ability to recall.
Sharon Zhang, CTO of Luther AI says, “We are building an AI that’s personalized for you on top of your memories so that you can interact with it. People will connect with their memories emotionally, and they are not just thinking about factual information.”
One of the biggest use cases for this technology is to keep track of one’s life for many years throughout their lifetime. Then, every time you have a conversation with someone, you can get real-time feedback about what you talked about in the past, what was necessary, and how you can engage better. More use cases are unlocked as more memories are kept.
Sharon Zhang says, “There are three parts to our technology. The first part is about how you capture a memory and input them into your memory stack, think of all of the texts, images, thoughts, and live conversations that go into your life. The second part is about applying AI models in real-time to enrich these memory feeds, identifying people and emotions, detecting questions and actions so that you can recall them later. The third part is about using the relevant contexts from these memories to enable a more ambient recall experience. The key points here are all of these are done in real-time, and the user does not have to take action. When you think about how biological memory works, it’s in real-time. You wouldn’t take five minutes to store into your memory or search in your memory, then come back into the conversation. Your personalized AI built on top of your memory stack - we call it your Prime AI - knows what you want to recall in the moment, whether you are carrying out a conversation with someone or reflecting on a thought to tweet out.”
Sharon Zhang says, “As you build your memory stack, you have more and more use cases. Imagine if you have two or three months' worth of data of your life, then you can surface things like emotional states over the last month. You can build your personal AI to help you self-reflect.”
Contextual AI and Theory of the Mind
Theory of the Mind is an area of psychology research trying to unlock a person’s intention and motivations to understand general cognition. One of the bedrocks of the theory of mind implementation in AI is the ability to do contextual AI. In NLP implementations, how to infer the context from the speech is challenging. Both SignalAction and Luther AI approach this problem by having multi-modal information such as text, image, video, etc.. They both refer to emotion AI as a core component of these types of behavior inferences. In the next few years, we’d likely see more research in this area.
Suman Kanuganti says, “Contextual AI is really difficult to do. The way we tackle it is to generate contexts from the entire conversation and memories that are interconnected. When you have interconnected memory blocks, then it’s much easier to retrieve the relevant memories. If you use our AI to manage your work conversations, then you get a more accurate picture of that area of your life. You can have more effective meetings and work conversations by recalling the details and contextual information from these conversations.”
What’s the Trend?
With proven use cases that AI can provide help with contextual and multimodal assessments, people will likely understand where it can help manage their memories and relationships.
Steve Ardire, CEO of SignalActionAI says, “You can’t have ‘human-like’ intelligence without personality or emotions. People don’t change behavior on information; they change it on emotion, emotional intelligence, and empathy.”
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ccb624a504f6e4536eca0d73d006f3bb | https://www.forbes.com/sites/junwu1/2020/12/22/bioniks-inmotion-robotics-sets-new-trends-for-trauma-recovery/?sh=4ffbfe1d58a3 | BIONIK’s InMotion Robotics Sets New Trends For Trauma Recovery | BIONIK’s InMotion Robotics Sets New Trends For Trauma Recovery
BIONIK's InMotion Robotics Image from BIONIK
When you have a stroke today, you will likely go to the emergency room and stay in the ICU for a couple of days. Then, you will be transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility or a skilled nursing facility. In the first phase of recovery, you may encounter the BIONIK InMotionTM robotic arm as part of the treatment plan to enhance your recovery using your brain's neuroplasticity. From research pioneered by MIT, BIONIK is a Toronto & Boston based company with InMotionTM technology based on AI and Robotics to help hospitals administer targeted therapy for stroke patients.
In the last two decades, researchers have been developing InMotionTM technology to assist with traumatic injuries. Much of the research demonstrates how to leverage the brain’s neuroplasticity can allow for faster recovery.
Increasing both the quantity and the quality of movement simultaneously to stimulate motor learning and improve overall functional reach, a necessary component of performing activities with the arm, healing occurs.
Dr. Eric Dusseux, MD, MSc, MBA, CEO of BIONIK, says, “When I was studying medicine, 25 years ago, we were told that the brain could not heal after a stroke. However, since then, more than 60,000 peer-reviewed publications tell us that was wrong. Not only does the brain change day to day as we learn new things, but we can also use the principles of motor learning to drive neuroplasticity after an injury so that the brain can heal more effectively.”
Why Targeted Therapy Works Better?
Historically, our understanding of neuroplasticity has been limited. Research has shown that even the adult brain is capable of neuroplasticity after injury if the areas of the brain are stimulated by rehabilitation therapy using the principle of motor learning. We often see the miracle of patients recover from traumatic injuries after suffering through what appears to be grueling physical therapy.
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Using Robotics and targeted therapy, recovery from traumatic injuries such as stroke doesn't have to be a grueling process.
Often, there are several stages of the recovery process. The most critical step is to stimulate the patient's brain toward rapid recovery leveraging the brain's neuroplasticity. This can be difficult to achieve through conventional means due to the need to overcome gravity with significantly weakened and uncoordinated muscles.
Dr. Dusseux says, “If we focus on the stroke and the upper limb, the way to heal is to do intensive therapy without the effects of gravity, doing a lot of planar (2 dimensions) repetitive movements. Using the fundamental components of proper reach patterns and quality repetitions, compared to conventional therapy, recovery of impairment is faster.”
For the patient and the therapist, seeing initial possibilities is essential. The initial motivation generated can help patients work harder along their entire recovery journey. They can learn to unleash their potential.
Robotics and InMotionTM technology empower patients and therapists.
Dr. Dusseux says, "When you're doing conventional therapy, you can do 30 to 60 movements per hour, and it's very exhausting for both therapist and the patient. With the InMotionTM robot guided by the therapist, the patient can do anywhere from 600 to 1,000 movements in an hour, because our robotic device is assisting the patient as needed while measuring 200 times a second, the position, the speed, and the acceleration to adjust the response of the robot to the patient’s individual needs."
For instance, the robotics arm can detect any small movement initiated by the patient. These movements are often invisible to the therapist's naked eye. From day one, the initiation to carry the bulk of the workload to form motion allows the person who cannot physically do a full reach to see progress still.
Dr. Dusseux says, "On the first day, for patients with limited function of the arm, they would probably do maybe 1% because they cannot overcome gravity, but the robot will pick up that effort and add it in a way that maximizes performance and motivation to show the patient that they can achieve movement. When this occurs, the brain will make changes in the connections between the parts needed to achieve movement. That's neuroplasticity. Once that process has started, the robot adapts to the needs of the patient, helping them a lot at the beginning when it is highly needed and also reinforcing gains made session to session so that they improve on the strength, the range of motion and especially the coordination.”
At later stages of recovery, physical therapists and other technology-assisted therapies may be helpful. When the brain needs to be stimulated from targeted repetitive movements at the initial phase of recovery, Robotics can help make this process less intimidating.
Dr. Dusseux says, "You need the intent to move. So that's what starts neuroplasticity. As long as that is present, even if you have difficulties and challenges completing the motion, you will achieve success with the robot. The haptic component, which helps you really engage in the physical world, is the key. That's why it is so powerful."
Dr. Dusseux says, "In fact, the Robot learns from each movement made, and compares that to the velocity pattern of normal movement to provide only the amount of haptic feedback needed to complete each motion because it knows what my pattern of movement is. You see, that's why the smart algorithm is useful because it learns from the way I move. It learns from the smoothness pattern. It learns from the velocity."
Big Data Helps Therapists Evaluate Therapy Efficacy
Since 2018, BIONIK partnered with Kindred, which manages about 125 hospitals in the US, to equip their Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) with InMotionTM robotic devices and train their hospital staff and therapists on this new robotics technology. Even though hospitals in the US are still learning to use Big Data in a meaningful way to inform healthcare, using robotics, hospitals can train their healthcare staff within a narrow clinical specialty to work with data analytics. After confidently integrating data analytics to evaluate patients' recovery and assisting in their day to day recovery routine, hospital staff can gain confidence in using data analytics in other areas of their work.
Dr. Dusseux says, "Usually, a therapist, PT, physical therapist, or OT occupational therapist, they are not driven by data. They delight in being able to support their patients. So when we developed InMotion ConnectTM Solution, enabling them to collect in real time data from the robotic devices, store them in the cloud and analyze them. It not only assists the facilities in analyzing day to day data, it enables us to provide insights to perform better, to give greater opportunity for coaching and training when and where needed. Through data, we can understand how hospital staff is doing, and assist them as they need it so there is no down-time.”
Dr. Dusseux says, “We have very simple dashboards for the therapist. In fact, it's a few metrics that we track, very simple. The dashboard can also act as a platform of solutions to increase therapist knowledge. There are currently some solutions including webinars, on-site coaching that so-so, and virtual trainings that a therapist can select to match their facility needs. That's a one stop platform of data analysis and solutions, allowing the C-suites to accelerate the adoption of the technology and maximize the outcomes.”
In healthcare technology, particularly for in-hospital therapeutic equipment, technologies such as BIONIK’s InMotionTM technology need to detect trends and demonstrate causality in their efficacy. Rigorous research, clinical partnerships, and if needed clinical trials are just the beginning when you process big data.
Dr. Eric says, "For instance, we notice that when you're doing 45 minutes of therapy, it's better than 30 minutes. If you do it several times a week or once a week or so, there is a statistical association; but without data to show it, there’s no association to tell that the therapy is what resulted in recovery. These data are real world evidence giving us insights on the outcomes of the current treatment being provided to patients in rehabilitation. Because it is healthcare, you need to demonstrate beyond that and do some clinical trials, randomized, multi-centric with several arms including control arm to verify. In BIONIK, we are driven so much by research, having more than 60 peer-reviewed publications with our robotic devices. It is most important that once you capture a trend, once you see a statistical association, you try to better understand and demonstrate it if needed with clinical trials because a statistical association is not causality. Next step to progress on the knowledge about mobility and rehabilitation is to enlarge these sets of big data by integrating new sensors and robotic devices, from hospitals, to outpatient care centers and to home in order to impact positively the patient journey.”
As pointed out in a recent review article, “Neurorehabilitation permits the scientific community to collect valuable data, which allows inferring about the principles of brain organization.” Dr. Dusseux says, “Better understanding the brain connections and improving them is the ongoing big jump in science.”
The Future of Robotics In Hospitals
As BIONIK’s technology demonstrates a need for InMotionTM technology to assist with stroke patient’s recovery, there are many other areas of medicine that can also use the assistance of robotics.
While emerging technologies such as virtual reality can provide therapists and patients with in-home therapeutics, for targeted therapies geared at critical moments in patient’s in-hospital recovery, time tested robotics solutions will continue to progress and provide value.
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3ed4845e01d1a3669c2dd3b9f648e741 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jurgenappelo/2015/07/08/the-peer-to-peer-bonus-system/ | The Peer-To-Peer Bonus System | The Peer-To-Peer Bonus System
In a business that depends on collaboration, you should receive your bonus from your colleagues (not from your manager) with a peer-to-peer bonus system.
Last month on my team, Jennifer gave 15 credits to Lisette "for being the backbone of the organization." Lisette gave 25 points to Sergey "for all the feedback and support." Sergey gave 10 credits to Chad for his "terrific illustrations." And Chad gave 20 credits to Hannu for his "friendliness and clarity of communication."
And on and on it went...
Peer-to-Peer Crediting
My team members are supporting, evaluating and crediting each other continuously. Every day. With a focus on the good things we have done for each other. In my experience, when you focus mainly on problems, mistakes, and failures, you are most likely to demotivate people and you mainly get more problems, mistakes, and failures. According to the observer effect, in a social system, you often get more of what you pay attention to. Therefore, in my team, we direct most (but not all) of our attention to positive things, with the hope it will generate even more good experiences.
It seems to work.
I received 10 credits from Louise for fully trusting her to work on our company's newsletter. I got 15 points from Nicolas for helping to arrange a workshop for him. And Jennifer gave me 20 points for making sure that the team works toward a shared vision.
Like many other normal people, I'm a compliments junkie. I crave recognition. Compliments make me feel good. My teammates tell me what they care about, what I did well, and how I can do even better! Interestingly enough, one of them has not credited me as much as the others. This makes me think. Why is that? What can I do to be better appreciated? I had better figure this out, because my income depends on it.
The credits I receive are my bonus!
Traditional Bonus System
The standard approach to employee bonuses is that a manager on a higher hierarchical level--who usually has far too little information to know what's really going on in the company--decides who gets how much money. One thing you know for sure with this approach is that everyone will blame the manager for not doing a good job. Except, perhaps, for the person who received the largest bonus.
With a traditional bonus system, everyone will blame the manager for not doing a good job.
Another thing you know for sure is that most people believe that they deserve more. It is said that 70% of car drivers think they are above-average drivers; 80% of college teachers think they are above-average teachers; probably 90% of writers on Forbes.com believe they are above-average writers. The more creative people are, the more they seem to overestimate their own capabilities. And this makes them feel unhappy about traditional bonuses. Someone wrote to me this week:
Bonuses are my yearly challenge. And I agree with you. No matter which way you do this awful exercise, dealing with HR and legal constraints, the result is always the same: nobody is happy. - Nathalie, France (from private conversation)
Crowdsourced Bonus System
I know of only one kind of observer that can give you a reasonable assessment of everyone's individual performance, with a good chance of keeping people happy. It's not the manager; it's not the person himself; and it's definitely not some complicated scorecard of metrics that, in any kind of creative job, is always easy to manipulate.
The best assessor is the collective intelligence of the crowd.
Valve, Medium, Shopify, and plenty of less-famous companies are reported to have delegated parts of their performance evaluations and bonus programs to the wisdom of the crowd. They all have implemented some form of a peer-to-peer crediting system. There are hundreds of differences in the details, but the main principles are always the same:
Management takes care of the budget, but not the individual distribution. Workers take care of the distribution, but they cannot credit themselves. Evaluations happen at a micro-level, so there's opportunity to iterate and adapt.
And then...let the games begin!
Merit Money
I use merit money as a catch-all term for all variants of iterative crowdsourced bonuses, because the money that people earn is a direct result of their merits, from the perspective of their peers. The credits that people earn are a reasonable approximation of the value that they offer in the corporate social network.
Of course, no social game is perfect. The question I am always asked is, "Doesn't this become a popularity contest?" And my answer is always the same: maybe, maybe not. Consider that, with a traditional hierarchical bonus system, you already have a popularity contest. It is called Kissing-Up-to-the-Boss. A merit money system simply delegates the performance evaluation to the crowd. It is democratized kissing up. (Or maybe kissing sideways?) I can tell you, the members of my team have to kiss up to a whole lot of people in order to earn themselves a decent amount of bonus money! Yes, it is quite hard for them to please everyone. But I prefer this over all of them trying to please me, and then hating me for distributing their bonuses badly.
It's their money, their problem.
A peer-to-peer bonus system is like democratized kissing up.
The transition from a traditional bonus system to a merit money system is like replacing a dictatorship with a democracy. There is no guarantee that it will make everyone happy. About democracy, Winston Churchill famously said it is the worst kind of system, except for all the others. With merit money, I think the success rate is similar. That means it is the system with the best chance to result in more than just one happy face in the company.
For me, as the manager of the system, not having to think about the money distribution saves me a lot of headaches. It means I have time to investigate more important problems. Such as, why did one of my team members give me just a few credits? How can I do a better job adding value to the network? Instead of explaining to most team members that they are overestimating their contributions, I can now try to figure out why I overestimated my own!
Also on Forbes:
Gallery: 10 Tips For Getting Your Colleagues To Work With You Better 11 images View gallery
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ff9644f49b0b13a1684f13cf338f9c86 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jurgenappelo/2015/07/14/create-teams-by-forming-crews/ | Create Teams By Forming Crews | Create Teams By Forming Crews
Are you creating teams, but do you find the word "team" overused and uninspiring? Try forming "crews" instead.
At nine people, we had to draw the line. Teams should not have more than nine members. Plenty of research confirms that people are more productive when they work on small teams. Twenty workers is not a team. That's just a group. Most often, a range of three to seven people is suggested as the optimal team size, with the number five as the sweet spot. In our case, with nine team members, we were already stretching it a bit.
So, what to do when you plan to hire colleagues 10 and 11? How do you make everyone's productivity scalable?
You split up. Obviously.
Teams Or Groups
The first challenge for us was the terminology. How would we refer to a subset of workers? The word group is clearly not a good choice. It is too generic. Three people can be a group; three million people can be a group. The word doesn't convey cohesion, a sense of identity, and a feeling of we're-in-it-together. I am member of many groups, including the groups of keynote speakers, coffee lovers, fantasy readers, and people-living-in-Brussels. But this doesn't mean I care to hang out with fellow members of those groups.
The word team does convey a feeling of togetherness. After all, the word is defined as a group of people working together. (The word is also used for sports teams and teams of animals, which is somewhat less relevant for us.) However, in my company, we had already been using the word team for the entire group of nine, and also for smaller activities where just two or three of us teamed up temporarily to perform specific activities. I foresaw a lot of confusion about the words team, teams and subteams, so I decided not to make this an official word in our vocabulary.
But what then?
Some experts use the word unit, as in "a team is a goal-oriented social unit". It sounds technically correct, but I find that the word unit itself is somewhat dehumanizing. It can refer to people, devices, measurements, molecules, departments, almost anything you can think of. "I am part of the social media unit," doesn't sound like something people would enjoy saying. As member of our governance unit, I vote against it.
The Holacracy framework refers to people working in circles. When I saw this word being used as an alternative to teams, the first thing I wondered was whether this also makes people's work go in circles. Like unit, the word circle is a bit too abstract for me. And don't forget the Wiccan association: ghosts of dead people seem to be attracted to witches in circles, not squares or triangles. This is something I prefer to stay away from.
The employees at Spotify experimented with the term squad as a fancy alternative to team. The term sounds more human than both units and circles: all its definitions refer to people. However, the contexts most often associated with the term squad are the police and the army. And when I saw that Google Search offered "assassination squad" as the first example, I knew that this is not the best word to use in our organization.
And then there's the word cabal which has been used by game studio Valve, among others. It certainly refers to people with a purpose. However, the behaviors of cabals, according to the dictionary, are often associated with secrecy, intrigues, and plots to overthrow a government. As a leader in our company, with an eye on self-preservation, the term cabal may not be the smartest of choices.
OK, what else is there?
Clique, faction, band, party, gang, cell, club, ring, brigade, platoon, mob...
I found only one word suitable to describe a small group of professionals doing creative work together.
crew \'krü\noun
the group of people who operate a ship, airplane, or train a group of people who do a specified kind of work together a group of people associated together in a common activity or by common traits or interests
The dictionary associates the word crew with people operating machines (factory crews), people who serve travellers (flight crews, ship's crews), people who build things together (construction crews), and technical people on a creative mission (film crews, theater crews, or crews of music bands).
That's the word we need!
Form Crews, Not Teams
Words come with meaning. Words convey ideas and intentions to people. It makes quite a difference whether you call someone a Call Center Agent or a Customer Happiness Officer. Maybe it means nothing to the customer, but it can mean everything to the employee! Likewise, people may feel and behave differently depending on whether you refer to them as circles or crews.
It makes quite a difference whether you call someone a Call Center Agent or a Customer Happiness Officer.
Words should be chosen wisely.
At my company Happy Melly, we decided not to have teams, units, circles, squads or cabals. Bands, gangs and platoons were definitely out of the question. Instead, we have crews who are on a creative mission, while serving customers, operating tools and building stuff. The benefit of adopting the word crew is that we had never used this word before. It came without baggage, and with the right kind of associated contexts and meanings.
We have crews on a creative mission, serving customers, operating tools, and building stuff.
History will prove if we chose correctly.
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5b56b16ee44903f2c47927ef7491d676 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justcapital/2018/06/08/the-compelling-investment-value-of-just-companies/ | The Compelling Investment Value Of Just Companies | The Compelling Investment Value Of Just Companies
Shutterstock
Does it pay for investors to build their portfolios based on companies that are ethical, honest, fair, and just? Our research at JUST Capital and the live trading record of our indexes suggest that, when it comes doing right by employees, customers, the environment, and communities, the answer is a resounding yes. Moreover, the most persuasive reason to invest in just companies is one that any investor can understand: compelling performance.
Together with the launch our inaugural rankings in 2016, we created a passive investable index that is annually reconstituted, the JUST U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index (JULCD), which tracks the performance of the U.S. large-cap companies that most closely align with the American public's definition of just business behavior. It includes the top 50 percent of companies JUST Capital ranks by industry, and is constructed to match the Russell 1000’s industry weights. The live trading results since its inception have been compelling.
From November 30, 2016 through June 1, 2018, JULCD has returned 32.3%, outperforming the Russell 1000 by 4.3%. Importantly, JULCD does not make any large sector bets relative to the Russell, making it suitable for a core U.S. equity allocation. At the same time, it only includes companies that rank well on the issues that matter most to the American public. For example, compared with Russell 1000 companies not in the Index, JULCD includes companies that produce 45% lower greenhouse gas emissions per dollar of revenue, create U.S. jobs at a 20% greater rate, are twice as likely to pay nearly every worker a living wage, and among other notable attributes, earns a 7% higher return on equity (ROE).
What drives the compelling performance of just companies? We’ve conducted careful analysis of the drivers of outperformance, controlling for other factors such as beta, size, and value, and found statistically significant evidence that the top quintile of just stocks have generated positive alpha of 3.5 percent over the period, while the least just have cost investors 7.1 percent of performance. In other words, there is a compelling benefit to investing in companies whose behavior aligns with the priorities of the American public, as well as meaningful shareholder value creation from corporate justness. Quantitatively, there is twice as much benefit from avoiding low-ranked companies as there is from investing in high-ranked ones. We’ve also deconstructed the specific corporate behaviors that most influence stock prices and found that that strong worker pay and treatment significantly reduce stock volatility and drawdowns. In addition, high leadership and ethics scores, as well as lower environmental impact, are associated with higher ROE and stock market return.
The live track record and our analysis of just company performance in the stock market provide compelling evidence for a new investor imperative. We believe that this new imperative, placing just business behaviors at the forefront, provides both compelling returns for investors and better outcomes for our society as a whole. Investing without consideration to the social attributes of companies is likely to soon be seen as antiquated and absurd as investing based on the hemline indicator – the 1926 theory that purports that stock prices rise with the hemlines of women’s dresses. JUST Capital will continue to track the performance of just companies, in an effort to shed light on the impacts – both financial and societal – of aligning business behaviors with the priorities of the American public.
Legal disclosures relating to JULCD can be found in the full report.
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a752323e4bd5a14dbf1a946bbf89d73e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justcapital/2019/02/06/the-do-good-superbowl-ads-of-2019/ | The Do-Good Super Bowl Ads Of 2019 | The Do-Good Super Bowl Ads Of 2019
Budweiser's 2019 Super Bowl Ad Budweiser
More than most, this year’s Super Bowl paled in excitement to many of the ads that premiered during the game.
I was looking forward to seeing the ads, hoping that brands took their cues from recent campaigns, including the much-discussed and highly-impactful Colin Kaepernick Nike ad released last year. Among the slate of star-studded and action-packed advertisements, there are a few that stood out for putting their company’s purpose front and center.
These companies used their Super Bowl spots to make a statement – about what they stand for as organizations, what issues they’re focused on solving, and where they’re focused on creating impact. And the proof is in the pudding! – many of these were came from companies in the JUST 100. Check out our favorites below:
Microsoft: We All Win
The top company in our 2018 JUST 100, Microsoft’s ad demonstrates its commitment to creating quality, accessible products that can be beneficial to all.
Verizon: The Coach Who Wouldn’t Be Here
Also a member of the JUST 100, Verizon puts its core mission of reliability at the center of its ad, driving home their commitment to providing value and care to the customers who need it.
Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch): Wind Never Felt Better
While Anheuser-Busch is not currently included in our Rankings, its 2019 Super Bowl ad is a gold star example of how companies can champion their sustainability and other CSR efforts in communications.
Google: Job Search for Veterans
Google, the #3 company in our JUST 100, showcases how it leverages technology to innovate products, solutions, and resources for groups – like veterans – that otherwise lack them.
Pringles (Kellogg): Sad Device
This one is hardly your traditional “Do Good” ad, but #79 company Kellogg uses its advertising platform to make a wry statement about the future of work and technology, eschewing sentimentality for an existential warning to us all.
This post has been corrected to name Kellogg as the parent company of Pringles.
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8eadc537a8436c319952631b37cf918e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justcapital/2019/02/28/spotlight-on-prudential-building-a-more-just-and-shared-prosperity/ | Spotlight On Prudential: Building A More Just And Shared Prosperity | Spotlight On Prudential: Building A More Just And Shared Prosperity
With the American economy arriving at a critical juncture, where calls to modernize capitalism are mounting, we believe that business can and must be a force for good. America’s Most JUST Companies stand at the center of this movement, and whether capitalism can become better aligned with the people it serves rests on the work that these corporations do every day to serve their stakeholders.
And many are already addressing society’s biggest challenges, and have been for years – so we’re unpacking the policies and practices behind top performing companies in a new spotlight series on the companies that best reflect the priorities of the American public.
First on the docket is Prudential Financial, which was founded in 1875 on a disruptive idea – to make life insurance protection available to everyday families. More than 140 years later, that founding promise – that working class people should be able to achieve some measure of financial security and peace of mind – is even more prescient.
This year, in our 2018 list of America’s Most JUST Companies, Prudential once again ranks first in the Insurance industry and places in the top 25 overall – arguably a result of the company’s dedication to this mission, as well as its persistent efforts to generate quality jobs, create inclusive experiences for employees and customers, produce beneficial products, and strengthen local communities, especially in its hometown of Newark where it forges strategic partnerships to build shared prosperity. The company’s corporate responsibility framework is founded on the belief that companies can and should do more than generate profits – they should help drive progress.
Reframing Financial Wellness
In the ongoing national dialogue to improve financial stability, mobility, and prosperity for all, Prudential has grown partnerships, products, and services that reflect the emerging needs of American workers across all income brackets.
In 2018, with nearly two thirds of Americans unable to cover emergency costs of $500, Prudential launched an in-plan, after-tax emergency savings feature to prevent customers from having to withdraw pre-tax money early from their retirement accounts. In partnership with nonprofit Prosperity Now, Prudential’s program is offered as part of its holistic workplace financial wellness package, which is inclusive and accessible to both low- and high-income earners, and aims to keep financial wellness within reach for all.
These efforts, while not reflected directly in the company’s Customer scores, are bolstered by its performance on this issue – Prudential ranks 4th in its industry (tied with The Hartford) for customer treatment and privacy. Digging in further, we found that Prudential has best-in-class customer service privacy disclosures, and provides overall positive customer service experiences.
Connecting Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact Investing
Since the company created The Prudential Foundation and formalized its impact investing program in 1976, Prudential has made more than $890 million in grants and contributions to nonprofits, and more than $2.5 billion in investments. Additionally, in 2014, Prudential committed to having a $1 billion impact investment portfolio by 2020 and is well on its way with more than $800 million in assets under management.
In 2018, Prudential made $76.9 million in grants and contributions, over 1% of pre-tax profit – 40% above the average giving rate for all the companies we evaluated last year, and nearly five times the average for insurance companies for which we have data. Overall, Prudential ranks 4th in its industry and 74th overall for its charitable giving efforts, and its impact investing programs direct capital toward organizations and projects that are creating tangible social impact.
An additional example of this strategy at work is its support of the Freelancers Insurance Company, which provides health coverage to freelancers, The Disability Opportunity Fund, which provides housing assistance and other social services to individuals with disabilities, and Habitat for Humanity’s FlexCap Program, which helps create funding for affordable housing. As a major contributor to each of these projects, Prudential furthers its mission – helping to create financial security for all people, especially those underserved by traditional capital markets.
Encouraging Employee Engagement
In addition to its robust institutional giving mechanisms, Prudential provides a wide array of giving opportunities for employees through its Prudential CARES and Volunteer Grants programs. In 2017, Prudential employees volunteered nearly 80,000 hours to more than 350 organizations in the U.S., creating both local impact and engaging its workforce.
Out of the full array of companies JUST Capital ranks, just 16% (139 companies) disclose that they offer paid time off for employees to volunteer, and Prudential is one of only 37 in the JUST 100 that have this policy. These efforts help land Prudential in the top spot in its industry for Communities, and in the top 65 companies overall.
Building upon its volunteer initiatives, Prudential’s nonprofit board service program supports highly skilled employees in working with nonprofits to achieve their mission. Additionally, its pro bono programs leverage the talent and expertise of high performing employees to help build capacity of local partners. In 2018, Prudential employees provided $926,850 in pro bono consulting to 42 nonprofits and small businesses.
Committing to Local Action
Perhaps most unique in Prudential’s slate of just business practices is its deep dedication to the community in which it originated – Newark, New Jersey. In the last decade alone, the company has committed more than $1 billion in Newark to spread economic and social opportunity.
With the city working to reduce economic disparity and foster local business growth, Prudential has been a crucial investor in Newark’s real estate development projects, working to ensure that the city’s residents can benefit from growth. These projects include Newark2020, an initiative aiming to connect 2,000 Newark residents to local jobs by 2020, and The Safer Newark Council, which aims to increase public safety and cultivate improved police-community relationships.
When it comes to maintaining strong local relationships, Prudential is tied for 3rd overall in our Rankings and 1st among its peers in the Insurance sector. It also ties for 1st overall for its commitment to local products and resources – a testament to the company’s dedication to its hometown of Newark and the other communities where it has a presence.
As Prudential creates pathways for all to achieve financial and social mobility, it has laid remarkable groundwork in its local community for residents, customers, and employees to make a difference. The company continues to use JUST Capital’s Rankings to benchmark its own performance on the issues that matter most to the American public and provides a leading example to other businesses striving to support their communities and create opportunity for customers and workers.
In 2019, we will continue to track how Prudential’s efforts to address the issues that matter most to the public – some of the most pressing social challenges of our time – contribute to driving progress in America today.
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692fe8b82b24322602707dd42432cecd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justcapital/2021/01/08/the-century-of-misery-we-will-confront-on-january-21st/ | The ‘Century Of Misery’ We Will Confront On January 21 | The ‘Century Of Misery’ We Will Confront On January 21
Nicholas Eberstadt, political economist at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Conference in ... [+] Houston in March, 2019. Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP
Shortly after the election of Donald Trump, Commentary magazine published what turned out to be its most-read piece of the past two decades: Our Miserable 21st Century. It was a scathing analysis of the catalysts for Trump’s election: the gilded age we’ve entered in which the wealthy are getting even further ahead, and the rest are struggling to stay in place. It applied an X-ray to U.S. economic indicators and showed how porous the myth of American prosperity has become since the turn of the century
The thesis of Nicholas Eberstadt’s widely read piece was succinct: “Our . . . 21st–century America has somehow managed to produce markedly more wealth for its wealth holders even as it provided markedly less work for its workers.” In some ways, it was an empirical confirmation of Thomas Piketty’s economic theories in his widely read book, Capital. Eberstadt pointed out that the year 2000 was an inflection point: the quality-of-life escalator came to a halt for most Americans in that year, freezing upward mobility ever since. (I would date this inflection point two decades earlier, but regardless, Eberstadt is accurate about our crisis, regardless of when it began.) From the dawn of the new millennium, wealth continued to increase dramatically for the privileged few while economic output, wages, employment, and social welfare either stalled or declined for the vast majority. Most of what was true in 2017 is still true today.
In his overview, this is what our unacknowledged misery looks like:
By 2017, American real estate assets were at all-time highs and rising in value. Financial markets were thriving. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was setting new record highs. Wealth was generating far more wealth on its own, untethered from the creation of new products or services. In other words, simply through financial tactics, the rich were getting richer.
As for the rest of the population, not so much. This financial bonanza is taking place against a backdrop of stalled productivity. Between 2008 and 2017, Gross Domestic Product hardly increased. Eberstadt wrote, “As of late 2016, per capita output was only 4 percent higher than in late 2007.” By contrast, between 1948 and 2000, GDP grew an average of almost 2.3 percent per year. If we had kept pace with that growth, the GDP of 2017 would have been 20 percent higher than it turned out to be.
Between 2000 and 2016, the labor force participation rate for Americans 20 and older plummeted. By 2017, that rate wasn’t even close to the rates from early 2000. For the two decades following the burst of the dot.com bubble in the late 90s, employment hardly increased, even though the population grew by 18%—partly because of setbacks from the financial crash of 2008. “As of late 2016,” wrote Eberstadt in his piece, “the rate was still at its lowest level in more than 30 years.” (This rate has grown over the past few years, but it has a lot of catching up to do.)
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The leading indicators led us to believe just the opposite. The official unemployment rate looked fabulous, dropping to record lows, but only because that measure purposely ignores the chronically unemployed, those who have quit looking for work. The actual unemployment rate is much, much larger. According to Eberstadt, “The unemployment rate tracks only joblessness for those still in the labor force; it takes no account of labor force dropouts. (At the time of this writing, for every (officially) unemployed American man between 25 and 55 years of age, there are another three who are neither working nor looking for work.”)
In the U.S. and the West in general, he points out, postwar labor markets exploded with growth for half a century, until the year 2000. Between 1985-2000, total paid hours of work increased by 35 percent nationwide. That was a dramatic growth in the national payroll. In the fifteen years after 2000, those hours increased by only 4 percent (again, while the population grew by 18 percent.) This indicator has also ticked up, regaining its 2008 level around 2016 and has been rising steadily since the publication of Eberstadt’s article.
All of this stagnation created a wave of despair. Eberstadt concludes by citing the quiet holocaust of drug overdoses among the disenfranchised and undereducated population left behind by our economy. He writes, “A short but electrifying 2015 paper by Anne Case and Nobel Economics Laureate Angus Deaton talked about a mortality trend that had gone almost unnoticed until then: rising death rates for middle-aged U.S. whites. By Case and Deaton’s reckoning, death rates rose somewhat slightly over the 1999–2013 period for all non-Hispanic white men and women 45–54 years of age—but they rose sharply for those with high-school degrees or less, and for this less-educated grouping most of the rise in death rates was accounted for by suicides, chronic liver cirrhosis, and poisonings (including drug overdoses).”
The author sums up: “Thus the bittersweet reality of life for real Americans in the early 21st century: Even though the American economy still remains the world’s unrivaled engine of wealth generation, those outside the bubble may have less of a shot at the American Dream than has been the case for decades, maybe generations—possibly even since the Great Depression.”
Here's what Eberstadt doesn’t point out. This is a choice. We can begin to change all this tomorrow. The private sector can choose a smarter way to do business and revitalize all economic sectors. Yes, Eberstadt’s economic misery is one of the consequences of the global inequities in labor costs, with jobs migrating to developing nations like China, Vietnam and India. Yet most new jobs arise from growth in small to mid-sized businesses, which don’t outsource to Asia and most of which depend on consumption — buying power — to stay in business. Larger companies can make some sensible decisions that would expand the amount of disposable income for average households. They can do this by recognizing and focusing on the source of all value in a company: a creative, devoted employee.
Here’s what that means. There is a direct link between how a company views its labor force, how it treats those human beings, and how those human beings then pass along this devotion or disdain to customers. It’s a choice of one or the other: either you recognize and treat your workers as the creators of customer delight, or you see them as nothing but a cost to be diminished at every opportunity. The latter view has reigned for decades through the practice of maximizing short-term shareholder value. It results in a demotivated, unhappy workforce—people who have little interest in delighting customers because they work for a company that sees them as numbers on a balance sheet. It’s time to move on from this vision.
By recognizing the unique and indispensable value of a devoted, energized and creative work force, a company comes to understand the need to invest in its workers as a wellspring of future value. This is not an increase in costs. It’s an investment in a company’s future, in human capital, and it inspires happy workers motivated to find new solutions to customer problems, new ways to cement customer loyalty, and new products or services to expand a company’s markets. And if all companies adopted this vision, both productivity and employee income would soar, rebalancing the growth of capital with a new growth in productivity and wages. Our 21st century’s misery would then begin to lift. Some call this recognition of the centrality of employees and the new value of creative labor as one of the key principles of Stakeholder Capitalism. I call it common sense.
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113ad6d13cefb2a0fe8afec4ea8967a8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2019/12/27/keep-an-eye-on-kandre-miller-he-may-impact-the-rangers-defense-next-year/ | Keep An Eye On K’Andre Miller, Who May Impact Rangers’ Defense Next Year | Keep An Eye On K’Andre Miller, Who May Impact Rangers’ Defense Next Year
VICTORIA , BC - DECEMBER 26: K'Andre Miller #20 of United States skates against Slovakia during the ... [+] IIHF World Junior Championships at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on December 26, 2018 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images) Getty Images
In a matchup filled with missed opportunities, K'Andre Miller's late-game mistake proved too costly for Team USA to overcome.
Moments after the Americans scored the game-tying goal, with just over three minutes remaining in the contest, Miller turned the puck over while attempting a saucer pass to a teammate in Team USA's zone. Canada forward Alexis Lafreniere, the likely first overall pick in the upcoming NHL Draft, deflected the pass, secured the puck and slipped it past the goalie for the go-ahead score in Canada's 6-4 victory Thursday.
For Team USA, dropping a close game to a bitter rival was tough. But one loss in the group stage won't set them back too far. For Miller, he has to be better. His pro club is watching closely.
The New York Rangers need to improve their defensive unit and of the Blueshirts' five prospects representing their countries at the 2020 World Junior Championships — Miller and Zachary Jones for Team USA, Nils Lundkvist and Karl Henriksson for Sweden and Nico Gross for Switzerland — four are defensemen. Miller could be a difference-maker at the NHL level as early as next season.
An impressive showing at World Juniors, against the top under-20 talent in the World, could completely alter how the Rangers approach their organizational strategy this offseason. If Miller performs well, New York might focus on upgrading its forward group and overall depth knowing defensive help is already on the way. But right now, the Rangers need to use the tournament to evaluate if their 19-year-old prospect is far enough along to improve their defensive play in 2020.
And while Miller represents one possible solution, his road to becoming a top defenseman prospect in the Rangers organization has been unconventional. When New York selected him 22nd overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, he was still relatively new to the position. He first became a defenseman to fill a team need in high school and at 6 feet 4 inches with smooth skating ability, the transition to the blue line was a natural fit.
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A successful career at the United States National Team Development Program propelled Miller into the first round of the draft. It also landed him an apprenticeship at the school ESPN's Chris Peters dubbed "Defenseman U" – the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the years, the Badgers have produced an incredibly talented crop of defensive alumni that include Chris Chelios, Ryan Suter and Ryan McDonagh.
Last year as a freshman, Miller established himself as one of the better blueliners in the Big Ten and earned a place on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team. Before this season, The Athletic's Corey Pronman ranked Miller as New York's fifth-best prospect (also listing the Rangers as the No. 1 farm system) citing his "reach, skating and physicality make him projectable as a great pro defender who will match up against good forwards." His offensive future remains unclear, but Miller projects as a dependable defensive zone presence. And offense isn't the problem for the Rangers' defensemen right now.
According to NHL.com, the Rangers have allowed 34.6 shots per game, the second-most in the league. They also possess the NHL's tenth-worst penalty kill (78.1 percent).
5v5 Unblocked Shot Rates (Against), NYR 2019-2020 Relative to League Average for the Season Micah Blake McCurdy, @IneffectiveMath, hockeyviz.com
Advanced stats don't favor this group as well. The Rangers are last in the league in both Corsi (44.4 percent) and Fenwick (45.0 percent), according to Hockey-Reference.com, displaying how out-chanced the club is getting at even-strength. Examining the club's five-on-five heat map from HockeyViz.com shows New York is giving up more than the league average of unblocked shots from basically all over the zone and operates with a 20 percent higher threat of relinquishing a score.
With an average age of 24.8, the Rangers are young at the defensemen's position. They're going to get better with time alone. But fast-tracking their improvement by seeking an upgrade outside the organization puts them in a precarious position.
According to Spotrac.com, New York has the fourth-most money invested in defensemen for the 2019-20 season and the fifth-most on the books for next. They are set to have almost $21 million in cap space this offseason and could use it on an expensive game-changer such as Alex Pietrangelo or Tyson Barrie. However, Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast have expiring contracts and Ryan Strome, Brendan Lemieux, Tony DeAngelo and Alexandar Georgiev are all due for raises in restricted free agency. Returning all of these pieces means sacrificing the opportunity to sign a marquee player.
Miller's potential arrival in 2020 offers a cheap, quality alternative. His entry-level contract will barely impact the cap and if Wisconsin head coach Tony Granato's opinion is any indication, Miller is "close to being an NHL player." Adding his physical presence and defensive zone prowess could transform the Rangers' unit as a whole. New York also has the benefit of other strong defensive prospects in their pipeline – Jones, Lundkvist, Matthew Robertson and Joey Keane – but Miller is the closest to making an impact.
Through the duration of the tournament, Miller has to keep improving and display the positive influence he can have on a game. The talent-level at World Juniors is elite and as a top-pairing defenseman, the experience of matching up against the World's best under-20 forwards is invaluable.
Friday's 6-3 win against Germany was a step in the right direction. Team USA strengthened its chance to compete in the medal round, Miller posted a responsible defensive game and the Rangers watched their top prospect inch closer to contributing at the NHL level.
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1a1dea4e5489e4cae062935c52ae43a7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/02/11/consistency-is-key-for-pavel-buchnevich/ | Consistency Is Key For New York Rangers’ Pavel Buchnevich | Consistency Is Key For New York Rangers’ Pavel Buchnevich
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 21: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers skates with the puck ... [+] against Brock Nelson #29 of the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden on January 21, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) NHLI via Getty Images
Describing Pavel Buchnevich’s 2019-20 season is easy. Just look at last week.
He posted two down performances against the Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres and two strong follow-ups against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings. After Wednesday’s win against Toronto, Rangers coach David Quinn likened Buchnevich’s play to the experience of going to an amusement park.
“Sometimes you get the high rides, and you’re having a hell of a time, and then you’re waiting in line and waiting to get on the ride, and you’re getting frustrated and aggravated,” Quinn said. “He’s a good player. He’s a real good player, and he’s had a good year for us. And sometimes guys just need a little jolt.”
Quinn’s comparison is dead on. Any young player has to fight to develop consistency at the NHL level early in their career. Buchnevich is no different. At times, the lows have required action – against the Stars, Quinn demoted Buchnevich to the fourth line mid-game. But his ability to bounce back quickly and make a positive impact — the next game against the Maple Leafs, he posted a goal and two assists — is a constant reminder of why the Rangers are so high on Buchnevich.
And fulfilling his potential and establishing consistency requires a heightened focus on the in-game battles, a mentality that helped Buchnevich’s linemate, Chris Kreider, develop into an All-Star caliber two-way forward. Kreider, an eight-year NHL veteran, comes from a different background than Buchnevich, though. He grew up on North American ice, while his Russian teammate learned the European, possession-based style of play. And even after four years in the league, Buchnevich is still learning the intricacies that separate the two approaches.
Kreider first joined the Rangers in 2012, albeit with a different coaching staff, and says placing emphasis on wall battles, playing a responsible defensive game, making plays at the lines and forcing turnovers all contributed to him developing as a player. When Buchnevich follows this blueprint, it leads to more opportunities.
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“So [it comes down to] your ability to read plays, work smart and force turnovers when it actually leads to possession and offense,” Kreider said after the Rangers’ 4-1 win over the Kings Sunday. “When he’s doing that, and he has been, I think, all year, we get the puck off a lot more, and it’s a lot more fun playing offense than defense.”
Against the Kings, Buchnevich did just that. Kreider commended his teammate for stifling Los Angeles’ top line late in the game by fighting for pucks on the wall, chipping them out and putting his club in good spots to get fresh legs on the ice. Buchenvich advanced pucks and won battles, contributing to an overall positive effort from the Rangers.
“I mean, that’s as frustrating as anything,” Kreider said. “If you’re playing against the other team’s top line and they’ve worked hard to get the zone, now they gotta get out, regroup and get back in, especially late in the shift. So that was big for us, keeping them on the perimeter.”
Even following a positive outing, though, the up-and-down nature of Buchnevich’s game raises an important question. When is he going to take the leap?
And Buchnevich’s role on this roster is about to become even more pivotal. There’s no official indication yet, but Kreider trade rumors are swirling. He’s the best rental forward on the market, he’s performing exceptionally well since the All-Star break and the Rangers have to recoup assets with the current state of their cap.
If Kreider does change teams, the Rangers will move on without one of their best offensive contributors, and the overall depth of their forward group shrinks further. This offseason projects to be a cap crunch for the Blueshirts, which makes it all the more critical for a player like Buchnevich to step up. He’s on pace for a career-high 49 points in 2019-20, but the Rangers need more.
Last week, WFAN’s Sean Hartnett argued against using Buchnevich as a trade chip for the upcoming Feb. 24 trade deadline. His logic: “A future of 70-point seasons should be within his reach. The Rangers just need to keep the faith and not overreact when the ugly side of his game shows up.” But for how long?
Buchnevich is still young; he’s only 24 years old with 233 games under his belt. But a career total of 132 points is not enough to justify the Jekyll and Hyde nature of his game. Buchnevich is one of the top forwards on this roster. He skates with a Mika Zibanejad, a dynamic playmaker with a knack for setting up his teammates on a nightly basis. Buchnevich has to produce at a higher clip and maintain his defensive responsibility.
“Again, our top players weren’t where they needed them to be, and he’s one of our top players,” Quinn said after Friday’s 3-2 loss to Buffalo. “It certainly wasn’t just him. That’s for sure. I don’t want to just harp on him. But there’s a big drop-off from a bunch of guys who had big nights against Toronto compared to what happened tonight.”
As Hartnett mentioned, Buchnevich has a 70-point season locked somewhere inside his potential. If the Rangers hope to return to the playoffs in 2020-21, they need to get the most out of their 24-year-old winger. For now, Buchnevich needs to continue improving his game on both ends of the ice.
“He’s battling,” Kreider said. “He’s working. I think he’s matured a lot. Sometimes you can have emotional highs and lows, especially when you’re younger and put a lot of emphasis on every single shift. But he doesn’t get away from his game.”
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ebcc69e1313c951761656208b772bf70 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/03/27/starting-in-the-ahl-is-the-best-move-for-rangers-prospect-kandre-miller/ | Starting In The AHL Is The Best Move For Rangers Prospect K’Andre Miller | Starting In The AHL Is The Best Move For Rangers Prospect K’Andre Miller
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 29: New York Rangers Defenseman K'Andre Miller (79) skates during New York ... [+] Rangers Prospect Development Camp on June 29, 2018 at the MSG Training Center in New York, NY. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
K’Andre Miller has a bright future as a New York Ranger. But now that he’s signed his entry-level contract, it’s up to his new professional club to resist temptation and avoid rushing him to the NHL.
Miller, one of the Rangers’ three selections in the first round of the 2018 draft, comes highly touted as a professional. With a 6-foot-4, 211-pound frame and successful careers at the United States National Team Development Program and the University of Wisconsin, which ESPN’s Chris Peters dubbed “Defenseman U,” his potential is sky-high. The 20-year-old is just one of multiple elite prospects that earned the Rangers pipeline the second-best ranking in The Hockey News’ recent Future Watch issue.
NYR 5v5 Defense. Unblocked Shot Rates. 2019-20. Relative to League Average for the Season. Micah ... [+] Blake McCurdy, @IneffectiveMath, HockeyViz.com. Micah Blake McCurdy/HockeyViz.com
When training camp opens next season, Miller will have a chance to crack the Rangers’ roster. The club needs defensive depth, which could be exacerbated if Tony DeAngelo ends up elsewhere. The Rangers were operating with a 15 percent higher threat of giving up a score in their defensive zone, according to HockeyViz.com.
Trading Brady Skjei to Carolina sent a message; the Rangers reinforced their confidence in the inbound wave of young, defensive talent. And to be clear, Miller does have the tools to already contribute at the NHL level. However, his long-term growth would be better served if he spent time honing his skills in the AHL, which according to LoHud.com’s Vince Mercogliano, is the Rangers’ intention.
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It’s important to remember that Miller is still relatively new to the position. He first became a defenseman in the middle of high school to fill a team need. And while his pure talent, raw athleticism and smooth skating have given him enough of a foundation to excel at each level of his career, he still needs to mature as a player. Miller’s game has to become more reliable.
One play doesn’t define a player, but it’s hard to forget the crucial error he made in Team USA’s opening game of the 2020 World Junior Championships against Canada. Seconds after his club had scored the game-tying goal in the third period, Miller made a poor decision to attempt a cross-ice pass in his own zone. Canada forward Alexis Lafreniere picked it off and slipped it in net for the go-ahead score. USA lost 6-4.
Similar issues persisted in his sophomore season as a Wisconsin Badger, according to The Hockey News. During the NCAA season, Miller was prone to missing assignments defensively and giving away pucks, just as he was at World Juniors. His play rounded out as the season went on, but it was still a noticeable step back from his impressive season as a freshman on both ends of the ice. To be fair, the Badgers did battle a slew of injuries and underperformed in 2019-20.
Again, even the most gifted players make mistakes. But the need for Miller to improve his defensive awareness is clear. It’s a skill that comes with time and all the more reason to start his career with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
The Rangers’ AHL affiliate has been an exceptional developmental tool for the club in recent memory. Chris Drury, who doubles as the Wolfpack’s general manager and an assistant GM for the Rangers, has successfully stewarded the growth of Filip Chytil, Ryan Lindgren, and most recently, Igor Shesterkin. Drury’s positive impact earned him a contract extension earlier this month.
Under normal circumstances, Miller would have been able to start the clock on his development by joining the Wolf Pack to close out this season. By signing an amateur tryout contract (ATO), he could have gotten a taste of professional games and built a better idea of what to expect in his first NHL training camp. However, the unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus has left the NHL and AHL seasons indefinitely suspended and potentially canceled. Miller will have to wait to get his pro career underway.
There is, of course, Adam Fox, the outlier in all of this. Fox transitioned straight from Harvard to the NHL and posted an impressive rookie season, one worthy of Calder Trophy recognition. Could Miller follow Fox’s blueprint? It’s possible. But Fox had an extra year of college under his belt and a style of play built on a keen hockey sense, as opposed to athleticism.
For now, it’s better to wait and allow Miller to develop at his own pace. He has all the tools to be successful and has the chance to become one of the top defensemen in the organization. Add a little more seasoning and Miller could be on a path to reach his potential and become an impact player for the Rangers soon.
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d7364e80161357b1d1dc2281db675465 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/04/24/wayne-gretzkys-last-dance-with-the-new-york-rangers/ | Revisiting Wayne Gretzky’s ‘Last Dance’ With The New York Rangers | Revisiting Wayne Gretzky’s ‘Last Dance’ With The New York Rangers
The crowd of spectators, players and team mates applaud as Wayne Gretzky of the New York Rangers ... [+] waves in salute on his retirement after the National Hockey League (NHL) game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on 18 April 1999 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Getty Images
When film producer Mike Tollin finally got his chance to meet with Michael Jordan, he knew exactly what to say.
Tollin, who also produced documentaries on Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Hank Aaron and Allen Iverson, had been chasing a once-in-a-career opportunity. Thanks to the foresight of former NBA Entertainment producer Andy Thompson and his then-bosses Adam Silver and Gregg Winik, a film crew had embedded with the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls as they chased their sixth and final title before being unceremoniously broken up. However, a condition of the arrangement became any project stemming from this needed Jordan’s approval.
The footage sat on the shelf for years, the existence of it rumored to be of mythological proportions. But Tollin got his meeting in June 2016, and it was on him to close the deal.
“The first page was a letter that I’d written to him,” Tollin said, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “Dear Michael, everyday kids come into my office wearing your shoes, who’ve never seen you play.
“It’s time.”
And he was right. “The Last Dance,” a 10-part docuseries covering the 1997-98 Bulls debuted last Sunday to an average of 6.1 million viewers between the first two episodes, according to ESPN. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sports world remains on hold, and interest now rages for the stories surrounding arguably the greatest basketball player to ever live, which brings up an interesting parallel.
Just one year after Jordan’s time with the Bulls ended, Wayne Gretzky decided to call it a career. An entire generation now exists without seeing the greatest hockey player ever take the ice. In fact, roughly 12 percent of players who participated in at least one NHL game this season were born in 1999, the year of Gretzky’s final game, or later.
He won nine Hart Memorial Trophies, four Stanley Cup championships with the Edmonton Oilers and scored an NHL record 2,857 points, 1,963 assists and 894 goals. Gretzky has such a commanding lead on the all-time scoring list that if you removed all of his career goals, he’d still have a 42-point lead on the second spot. He retired 21 years ago with 61 NHL records, and to this day, 60 remain in his possession.
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Gretzky is the best to ever step out onto NHL ice, and when the twilight of his career came into focus, he chose to spend his final three seasons as a New York Ranger.
“I guess what probably tipped the scale was the chance to play with Mark and the opportunity to get a chance to play with a team that is really focused on trying to win a championship,” Gretzky said in his introductory press conference in 1996, according to NHL.com. “This will be my last stop. I’ll make that clear.”
There was a definite finality to Gretzky’s Rangers tenure. A “Last Dance” of his own. And as the sports world honors Jordan with a look back on some of the greatest moments of his career, Gretzky should be extended the same courtesy.
It’s time.
Welcome To The Big Apple
When Gretzky arrived in New York City for the 1996-97 season, the legendary 200-point outbursts of his Edmonton Oiler glory days were a distant memory. However, he was still performing at a high level, one worthy of more than the two-year, $10 million deal he signed to reunite with his friend and former Edmonton teammate Mark Messier.
“I’m probably one of the first free agents to ever come to New York that came for a less-money situation,” Gretzky said in 1996, according to NHL.com.
NEW YORK, NY - JULY 21, 1996: Wayne Gretzky puts on the New York Ranger jersey on for the first time ... [+] on July 21, 1996 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images) Getty Images
Gretzky had just come off a 102-point season split between the Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues, and while he failed to cross the 100-point plateau with the Rangers, the then-36-year-old still put together one of the best individual seasons in franchise history during his first year in the Big Apple.
His 97 points in 1996-97 are tied for the eighth-best single-season total in Rangers history, according to the Hockey-Reference Play Index. He also tied Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux for the league lead in assists with 72. The following year, Gretzky posted 90 points with 67 assists and this time tied Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr for the league lead.
With only three years in New York, this version of Gretzky never had the opportunity to make a serious dent in the Rangers all-time scoring list. But his 249 points in 234 games did make for fifth-best point-per-game average (1.064) in franchise history, according to QuantHockey.com.
Called To Action
After sporting the customary captain’s “C” at every stop of his illustrious career, Gretzky’s arrival in New York marked the first time he wasn’t the de facto leader of his club. The honor belonged to Messier in 1996-97, and then Brian Leetch from 1997-2000 after Messier departed for Vancouver.
“It wouldn’t be accurate to call it a demotion. Wayne Gretzky was never a captain or an alternate captain for the Rangers. So he didn’t lose something he already had on the eve of the regular-season opener,” The New York Times’ Joe Lapointe wrote in 1996. “But it will seem strange for hockey fans this season to see Gretzky playing with no letters except R-A-N-G-E-R-S on the front of his jersey. Mark Messier will again wear the captain’s ‘C,’ as he has in his first five seasons with New York. Brian Leetch and Adam Graves will be the only two alternates, Coach Colin Campbell announced yesterday.”
While Leetch never relinquished the title during Gretzky’s Rangers tenure, an opportunity did arise when an injury kept the defenseman out of the lineup. The result — Gretzky unofficially stepping into the role of captain.
And technically, it never happened. Gretzky does not appear on Hockey-Reference’s list of New York Rangers captains. But even as acting captain, according to Lapointe, Gretzky was not shy, voicing “several opinions to Referee Terry Gregson, one of them after his lip was cut by the stick of a Montreal player” after a contest with the Canadiens in 1998.
Money Isn’t Everything
After 21 seasons navigating the ranks of professional hockey, father time finally caught up to Gretzky in 1998-99. The then-38-year-old only managed to muster nine goals and 62 points, his lowest single-season total when playing at least 60 games (which he did in 19 of 21 professional seasons). The time to hang up his skates was now, but Rangers owner James Dolan wanted to compel his superstar center to give the decision another look.
Just a day before Gretzky was set to make the announcement, he and Dolan met for coffee, according to his book, “99: Stories of the Game.” Right there, Dolan pulled out a $1 million check. All Gretzky had to do was consider the choice for another week, with no repercussions or strings attached. If he wanted to still retire, the money was his.
Gretzky respectfully declined.
“What I said to him is, ‘You know, in good conscience, I just can’t take your money. Because I know I’m done,’” Gretzky said in an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger in 2016. “But that’s just how classy their organization was.”
Recalling the meeting nearly two decades later, Gretzky laughed.
“[It’s] probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” Gretzky said. “Without question.”
The Right Tune For The Last Dance
On April 18, 1999, Gretzky stepped out onto the ice for the final time in his professional hockey career, which prompted an important question. How do you say goodbye to the greatest player in NHL history?
Gretzky never wanted a victory tour, according to former Rangers teammate Mike Richter. He didn’t want to be a distraction to both his club and the league as he played out his final days in the NHL. But he knew he had a responsibility to the greater hockey world.
“He also knew enough to not just decide to mail it in from a golf course in August saying, ‘I’m not coming back next year,’ Richter said, according to Sporting News Canada’s Jackie Spiegel. “He’s too important.”
So, with the date finally set, the NHL and the Rangers delivered a memorable affair. Hockey royalty showed up to in the form of Mark Messier, Mario Lemieux and Phil Esposito. Celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Christopher Reeve and Mark O’Meara lined the stands of Madison Square Garden. Michael Jordan and Gordie Howe, Gretzky’s childhood hero, recorded video messages to pay tribute to The Great One’s career, according to CBC.ca. The Rangers organization gifted Gretzky a Mercedes, which was driven onto the ice by his father, Walter. And as of that night, no player in the NHL would wear the No. 99 sweater again. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced its retirement by the league.
Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky (in uniform) with his father Walter on the ice of Madison ... [+] Square Garden on the occasion of Gretzky's final professional hockey game, New York, New York, April 18, 1999. A car is parked on the ice behind them and the spectators in the stands give them a standing ovation. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images) Getty Images
The national anthems made for arguably the most iconic moments of the night, though. When Bryan Adams performed O’Canada, he improvised the lyrics to say, “We’re gonna miss you, Wayne Gretzky.” (The Canadian anthem was as a tribute to Gretzky despite it being a matchup of two American teams.) John Amirante followed with the Star-Spangled Banner, also choosing to call an audible and sang, “O’er the land of Wayne Gretzky.”
The Rangers ended up losing to the Penguins 2-1 in overtime — Jagr picked up the game-winning goal. But Gretzky did pick up an assist on a Brian Leetch goal, his 2,857th and final point of his career. And while the outcome was not what they desired, the fans remained in their seats, cheering for Gretzky long after the final buzzer. So much so that he returned to the ice for a curtain call twice.
1999 Season: Gretzky hangs up his skates for the last time. April 18,1999 Madison Square Garden. ... [+] (Photo by Andy Marlin/Getty Images) Getty Images
After the game, Gretzky spoke to the media still dressed in uniform and lingered before changing out of his gear for the last time.
“Probably, subconsciously, I don’t want to take it off,” Gretzky said, according to NHL.com. “I’m not going to pull it on ever again. It’s hard. It’s hard to take it off right now. I have to be honest with you. I don’t want to take it off.”
And 21 years later, The Great One’s memory still resonates through the sport.
“I was a boy that happened to love a game and got lucky,” Gretzky said. “And the good Lord gave me a passion for it.”
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79b29388d13483d1cdefaa94f652e0c2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/06/16/a-shark-in-the-desert-arizona-cardinals-devon-kennard-builds-future-in-real-estate/ | A Shark In The Desert: Arizona Cardinals’ Devon Kennard Builds Future In Real Estate | A Shark In The Desert: Arizona Cardinals’ Devon Kennard Builds Future In Real Estate
Arizona Cardinals Linebacker Devon Kennard Courtesy of Devon Kennard
It didn’t take long for Arizona Cardinals linebacker Devon Kennard to realize football wasn’t going to last forever.
Before his senior season at USC, Kennard suffered his third significant injury since his final year of high school: a torn pectoral muscle, after an ACL tear and a hip surgery. As a former standout prospect at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Kennard had lofty goals. He didn’t just want to play in the NFL; he planned on spending a decade in the league. But faced with numerous health concerns, a slew of coaching changes and a lack of a breakout season, Kennard had to ask himself an important question.
“What if that doesn’t happen?” Kennard says now, reflecting on that moment of his life.
Glamorous as the NFL lifestyle might appear, it is usually short-lived. The average career is only 3.3 years, according to Statista, and a 2015 paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 15% of NFL players go bankrupt after being out of the league for a dozen years.
Fortunately for Kennard, his redshirt senior season at USC propelled him to a fifth-round selection in the 2014 NFL Draft and a career with the New York Giants, the Detroit Lions and, now, Arizona. And while Kennard has managed to beat the odds so far – he recently joined the Cardinals on a three-year, $20 million deal — that hasn't stopped him from planning ahead.
“I realized I wanted to reach success and financial security and financial independence for myself and my family with or without football,” Kennard says. “And my college career kind of showed me you never know what’s going to happen with football.”
Over the last decade, Kennard, who turns 29 next week, has developed into a savvy real estate investor, amassing a multimillion-dollar portfolio that he says has averaged an impressive 8% to 12% return. By funneling his time, effort and money into ensuring he never becomes another statistic, Kennard has obtained the financial security and independence he so adamantly sought and has effectively taken control of his family’s financial future.
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Kennard's perspective on life after football comes from his father, Derek, who played 134 games in the NFL before retiring at age 34, when Devon was 5. The memory left a lasting impression on the younger Kennard.
“I realized you retire and you have so much life ahead of you still,” he says.
He had already started networking with all of this in mind when he left USC with bachelor's and master's degrees in communications and business management. After his rookie season with the Giants, his teammate Mark Herzlich introduced him to Chad Williams and John Ratliff, two businessmen who were holding a seminar to help NFL athletes prepare to invest their money.
Kennard showed up having ripped through every bit of recommended reading, complete with highlighted sections and notations. He recalls the event as a “perspective-changing” experience, having learned fundamental business concepts such as how to read financial statements, understanding debt versus equity, business forecasting, valuation analysis and more. Kennard’s level of preparation and engagement impressed Williams, who mentors him to this day.
“[Devon] clearly has all the attributes of a lifelong learner,” says Williams, a managing director at align5. “He’s curious, he wants to make himself better, and he’s willing to put the work in.”
After the seminar transformed the idea of a business career from something Kennard “hoped” to do to a practical endeavor, he made his first investment. In 2016, he teamed up with a former USC teammate and purchased an already-renovated single-family property in Indianapolis. They hired a management company to handle the day-to-day and sat back and collected a few hundred bucks a month in profit. Kennard and his partner sold the property this past year and netted a 100% return on the $12,000 each initially invested. Between two NFL players, that kind of money isn’t much. But it still taught Kennard a valuable lesson.
“It was getting our feet wet and teaching us the game,” he says.
Investing in real estate offers two key advantages for pro athletes: a relatively low time commitment and cash flow. The NFL season is rigorous, and Kennard often finds he doesn’t have the bandwidth to process every piece of information related to his businesses. Instead he relies on his financial advisor, David Johan, and other members of his team to filter and simplify the details.
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 14: Devon Kennard #42 of the Detroit Lions looks on against the Green ... [+] Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on October 14, 2019 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) Getty Images
Plus, Kennard says, there’s a huge misconception among NFL players who want to funnel their money into the stock market and “hope it's gonna go up.” If they don't figure out how to keep the money flowing and their bills paid after football ends, Kennard says, “it’s not if, it’s when you’re gonna go broke.” As a result, he’s a huge proponent of “mailbox money,” or passive revenue streams—in this case, the monthly income from rental properties.
“If your money is not working when you sleep, you’re not making money,” Johan says, quoting Warren Buffett.
Today, Kennard owns 14 properties himself and is invested in 16 other real estate deals spanning single- and dual-family properties, hotels, senior living centers, commercial buildings, apartment complexes, business loans, syndications and funds. The locations vary; he owns properties in Arizona, Kansas City and Ohio. Because he’s exposed to such a high volume of potential deals through his network, his choices remain geographically agnostic.
Part of that is attributed to his platform as an NFL player. Johan says that when Kennard signed his three-year, $17.25 million deal with Detroit in 2018, “it was unbelievable how many people went after him.” It’s been a blessing and a curse. On one hand, Kennard has a wide array of opportunities and relationships available to him. Plenty of investors will invite him to their offices or take a meeting just because he’s an NFL player. But there are also plenty of people seeking to take advantage of an athlete’s newfound wealth.
Former Tennessee Titans defensive end Derrick Morgan, who’s also built up a successful real estate portfolio, lost money based on the actions of a negligent advisor during his second year in the league. Toward the end of his career, Morgan received some valuable advice from 15-year NFL veteran Takeo Spikes while working on his MBA at the University of Miami.
“I know you just got your new contract and you poppin’ right now, but listen, it’s a little different on this side,” Morgan recalls Spikes saying. “Take advantage of the time you got to make connections so when you do transition, it’s a smooth one.”
Morgan adds, “You can get infatuated with all the fake fan love, or you can [take] that fake love/real love, whatever it is, and you can use that to your advantage.”
Kennard recognizes that “no one is going to be as interested in me as they are right now, and that window has been pretty big for me.” It’s something he’s continuing to leverage as his business career progresses.
During the off-season, Kennard hosts a book club through his Instagram account, and the most recent book was Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. Kiyosaki heard about it and invited Kennard to join him on his podcast. Kennard, who says he’s read the book ten times, jumped at the opportunity.
“I plan on taking advantage of that the best way I can,” Kennard says. “Maybe he’ll be a mentor to me. Maybe it could lead to deals. Who knows what it can become? So I’m looking forward to that. That’s just another example of using my platform and my passion and knowledge for real estate for business and financial literacy and running with it.”
Kennard’s next business goal is to transition from a limited partner role to a general partner in some of his deals. He says it’s a way to raise his financial upside and give himself more agency over his investments. But with the time and effort required, that’s a move for after his playing career ends.
For now, Kennard is biding his time and focusing on his on-field play. He’s already succeeded in a way many other players have not, securing his future and preserving the generational wealth he’s accumulated during his playing days. Football isn’t going to last forever, and when it does come to an end, Kennard will be ready.
“My goal is to continue to grow, and I want to become a big real estate mogul when I’m done playing,” Kennard says. “I’m starting to build up to that now. And when I’m done playing in the NFL, that’s when I’ll go all in.”
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c4b4e9764cc8a3806814138503103bab | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/08/25/ubs-arena-poised-to-transform-the-legacy-of-new-york-islanders-owners-jon-ledecky-and-scott-malkin/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&sh=578cddee3ad2 | UBS Arena Poised To Transform The Legacy Of New York Islanders Owners Jon Ledecky And Scott Malkin | UBS Arena Poised To Transform The Legacy Of New York Islanders Owners Jon Ledecky And Scott Malkin
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 21: (L-R) Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin attend the retirement ceremony ... [+] for John Tonelli that celebrated his career with the New York Islanders and saw his jersey retired and raised to the rafters of NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on February 21, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Getty Images
There’s a reason so many pieces of New York Islanders history are prominently displayed inside the UBS Arena Preview Club in Manhattan. From Al Arbour’s blue and orange jacket to Billy Smith’s iconic mask to the four Stanley Cup replica trophies in the center of the room, the franchise has a legacy it is eager to celebrate.
On Thursday night, that’s precisely what Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky did. His club had just defeated the Washington Capitals 4-0, advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals, and the 62-year-old Harvard-educated businessman beamed at his club’s future while standing quite literally in it.
The Preview Club is merely a taste of the experience awaiting Islanders fans when UBS Arena opens for the 2021-22 season, a replica luxury suite lauding the club’s history and paying homage to celebrated New York venues and the city’s music scene.
During the postseason, Ledecky and the Islanders have hosted an assortment of guests — limited to only a handful at a time due to Covid-19 restrictions – to revel in the Islanders’ success of today, and comforts of tomorrow.
“I think that’s the legacy — the Islanders have deserved a home for 30 years,” Ledecky said. “And the fans really have been patient, and now they’ve got a new home.”
When the Islanders move into UBS Arena after next season, it’s poised to become one of the premier hockey and live entertainment venues. Fans will experience 5G technology, world-class acoustics and theatre-inspired game presentation, moving on from a rickety old barn in disrepair. Tunnels beneath the stadium for easy unloading and a decked out hospitality room were designed to lure in more musical acts. But none of those bells and whistles compares to the investment into Nassau County and Long Island.
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The $1.5 billion project, developed in partnership with Oak View Group and Sterling Project Development, is expected to generate roughly $25 billion in economic activity over the next two decades. The project includes $100 million diverted to the construction of the first newly constructed Long Island Railroad station in nearly 50 years, adding 3,000 permanent jobs and 10,000 in total, 30 percent of which are reserved for local residents. Just under a third of the construction dollars are earmarked for state-certified minority and female-owned businesses, with an additional 6 percent going to service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses. When Belmont Park’s redevelopment is complete, it will comprise 315,000 square feet of luxury retail and a 4-star boutique hotel with up to 250 rooms.
“We’re trying to set an example and we’re trying to have an organization of excellence,” Ledecky said. “I think [UBS] shared our vision that the Islanders are a community treasure, and this is going to be a community asset. It’s gonna be really important to Long Island.”
The Islanders are synonymous with Long Island culture – the community lives and dies with the team’s success. After the Islanders’ series-ending win Thursday, Ledecky recalled the plethora of pictures he received of signs in the windows of restaurants around the island and a plane flying with a “Let’s Go Islanders” message.
How far the Islanders advance in the Stanley Cup is out of ownership’s hands. The responsibility of competing belongs to GM Lou Lamoriello and coach Barry Trotz. But Ledecky, along with his best friend and partner Scott Malkin and the rest of the ownership group, have ensured the club will be a fixture in the community for years to come.
“How do you not walk into the most expensive hockey arena ever built and not want to have success?” said Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group.
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 08: Timothy Leiweke attends a basketball game between the Toronto ... [+] Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on December 8, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Noel Vasquez/Getty Images) Getty Images
Leiweke has been involved in arena construction for decades with a laundry list of notable projects. His company, Oak View Group, is currently leading the redevelopment of Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and the University of Texas’ new basketball arena, among others. He also oversaw the development of Staples Center and the 5.6 million square foot L.A. Live campus in the surrounding area.
He witnessed how that project became a boon for the community. Leiweke claims it “saved Downtown Los Angeles single-handedly.” Last October, The Downtown Center Business Improvement District estimated Staples Center has had a $32 billion economic impact on the city since opening in 1999, according to Los Angeles Business Journal. But Leiweke thinks the new venue played an even more significant role in establishing the culture that led the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings to a combined seven championships in the last two decades.
For the first time in decades, the Islanders will have access to a top-tier, state-of-the-art 23,000-square-foot locker room and team training facility, dispelling the age-old stereotype that Long Island is not an NHL destination.
“The players walk into the bowl, walk around and go, ‘My God, this place is beautiful,’” Leiweke said. “I see it happening with the Rams and Chargers in Los Angeles. I see it happening with Raiders in Las Vegas. I think that’s gonna happen to the Islanders. So, Lou [Lamoriello] has a better time keeping players and recruiting players. Barry [Trotz] has a better time creating that culture and that brand and that style that he wants to play. It feeds off one another.”
However, the idea of a new sports arena generating a positive impact isn’t a universal belief. Two years ago, The Atlantic likened sports stadiums to a “drain” on the community saying tax breaks result in a “reshuffling deck chairs instead of developing anything new” and the influx of economic activity and tourism often costs more than it’s worth.
A lot of that has to do with public financing. When the city of Minneapolis constructed the $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium for its beloved Vikings, it put Minnesota on the hook for $678 million over the next three decades. After the Rams announced their move to Los Angeles, the team left St. Louis with more than $100 million in lingering public bond debt used to finance the Edward Jones Dome in the 1990s, according to The Week.
Leiweke agrees that stadium financing shouldn’t burden taxpayers, and that’s a major reason why Oak View Group secures private funding on a variety of projects, including UBS Arena. But Leiweke wholeheartedly disagrees with the implication that a new sports arena isn’t a positive.
“[When] done properly,” Leiweke said. “There is little that has a greater economic impact, rejuvenation of an economy and creation of new jobs than the entrepreneurial spirit of something like a new arena.”
Ledecky added: “I do think [in] the future is it’s going to be hard for municipalities from a voter standpoint to back wealthy sports owners.”
As for legacy, Ledecky doesn’t believe ownership should be synonymous with the Islanders brand. To him and his partners, the fans are the stakeholders. The responsibility of him and Malkin is to steward the organization for their tenure and find the right group to be the next owners of the team, just as Charles Wang, who put the early stages of the Belmont plan in motion before his death in 2018, did before them.
Whether the Ledecky-Malkin partnership is remembered for championship success remains to be seen, but the construction of UBS arena has already had a transformative impact on the franchise. Islanders stakeholders – the players, fans, and members of the Long Island community can rejoice that their organization is moving into a preeminent hockey and live entertainment venue.
“I’ve said that we’re stewards of this community trust and I’ve also said, which people kind of misquote, that nobody will remember who the Islander owners are,” Ledecky said. “But it’s a wonderful thing to be able to do for the fans and the community in the greater Long Island market and Metropolitan New York.”
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7cbe776ba68fda84a99bf8bd5f8e2354 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/08/31/new-assistant-coach-jacques-martin-could-be-an-insurance-policy-for-the-rangers-if-needed/ | New Assistant Coach Jacques Martin Could Be An Insurance Policy For New York Rangers If Needed | New Assistant Coach Jacques Martin Could Be An Insurance Policy For New York Rangers If Needed
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - FEBRUARY 19: Assistant coach Jacques Martin of the Pittsburgh Penguins works ... [+] the bench against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on February 19, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. The Penguins defeated the Devils 4-3. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Getty Images
The New York Rangers filled the empty spot behind their bench Monday, naming veteran coach Jacques Martin as an assistant coach. Martin replaces Lindy Ruff, who hopped across the Hudson River to become the New Jersey Devils' head coach.
The 67-year-old Martin joins the Rangers after spending the last seven years in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. He served as an assistant coach for parts of five seasons, including Pittsburgh's two Stanley Cup championships in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Martin will likely assume the defense and penalty kill role left behind by Ruff and brings a wealth of NHL experience to one of the NHL's younger teams (the Rangers' average age was 25.8 entering 2019-20, according to The Athletic). But is the addition of a veteran coach like Martin more than a move to bolster the coaching staff's strength? Is Martin an insurance policy in case David Quinn falters?
Expectations for Quinn and the Rangers will be high entering the 2020-21 season. The Rangers are coming off a playoff appearance, watching several young players, such as Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin, take significant steps forward. Factor that all in with the development of 2019 No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko and this year's presumptive No. 1 selection Alexis Lafrenière and Quinn's performance behind the bench will be closely monitored.
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From a timing perspective, Quinn can't afford to take a step backward. The average tenure of NHL coaches is relatively brief. NHL coaches tend to last about three and a half years, according to a survey done by Business Insider in 2016. The average tenure of all current head coaches averages out to roughly 2.6 years, according to Behind The Benches (excluding coaches hired in 2020, while counting time spent as an assistant in tenure).
And with the bright lights of New York continually shining on Madison Square Garden, James Dolan-run teams haven't been shy about shuffling their staff. Since 2000, the Rangers' roommates, the New York Knicks, have had 15 different head coaches. In that same period, the Rangers have had nine.
While midseason changes generally don't result in deep playoff runs, Mike Sullivan's Penguins in 2015-16 and Craig Berube's St. Louis Blues being the exceptions, teams still make changes quite often, according to Sportsnet. NHL clubs have switched coaches 27 times over the last six seasons, 22 of which were internal promotions (from the NHL staff or AHL affiliate). Based on those numbers, it seems NHL teams view having a potential successor on staff as a good thing, and few coaches have the resume Martin does.
For the past three decades, Martin has served on an NHL coaching staff or a front-office position. He had head coaching stints in St. Louis, Ottawa, Florida and Montreal, amassing 613 wins with a .551 point percentage in 1,294 career games. In 1998-99, Martin won the Jack Adams Award as the league's Coach of the Year and had been a finalist for the honor on three other occasions.
As impressive as Martin is, Quinn is likely not going anywhere. The Rangers under Quinn endured an expected rebuild year followed by one of exceeding expectations. On talent alone, the Rangers should grow into a serious competitor over the next few seasons, and there's no indication now that Quinn won't be leading them.
However, the last six years have shown it's never bad to have a qualified, NHL-level coach on staff. And if the club decided to make a change, Martin's experience makes him an excellent option.
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fd3a41758521be0cef1c986610c32bbc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2020/09/27/the-marc-staal-trade-reveals-what-cap-freedom-is-worth-to-the-new-york-rangers/ | The Marc Staal Trade Reveals What Cap Freedom Is Worth To The New York Rangers | The Marc Staal Trade Reveals What Cap Freedom Is Worth To The New York Rangers
WINNIPEG, MB - FEBRUARY 11: Marc Staal #18 of the New York Rangers gets set during a third period ... [+] face-off against the Winnipeg Jets at the Bell MTS Place on February 11, 2020 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images) NHLI via Getty Images
Marc Staal just set the going rate for salary dumps.
The 33-year-old defenseman changed teams Saturday night after the New York Rangers agreed to trade Staal and a 2021 second-round pick to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for “future considerations.” By acquiring Staal, the Red Wings move closer to the salary cap minimum, while getting a defenseman who, while no longer at the top of his game, can still log significant minutes on a relatively wide-open club. For the Rangers, it’s $5.7 million in much-needed cap relief.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic tanked NHL revenues and flattened the salary cap for the 2020-21 season, the Rangers were cap crunched. Tony DeAngelo, Ryan Strome, Alexandar Georgiev and Brendan Lemieux are all due raises in restricted free agency this offseason. Jesper Fast, who spent his entire seven-year NHL career in New York, is headed to unrestricted free agency. Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil and Ryan Lindgren will be up for pay bumps the following season, and Adam Fox the year after that. The Rangers need money to spend, which was part of the reason why they shipped Brady Skjei and his $5.25 million cap hit to the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline.
Thanks to the acquisition of Hart Trophy finalist Artemi Panarin and the emergence of young players such as Fox and Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers arrived early, and the rebuild is over. Now, this is a club looking to inch its way into perennial contention in the Eastern Conference. A quick exit in the NHL’s Return-To-Play Qualifying Round serendipitously handed the Rangers the first overall and the opportunity to add QMJHL phenom Alexis Lafrenière, but it’s not enough. To contend for the Stanley Cup, the Rangers need to add more talent.
The inclusion of the second-round pick in the Staal trade is not surprising, but intriguing. Even at 33, Staal isn’t a worthless asset – he played almost 18 minutes a game in 2019-20. But based on his contract, declining skillset and injury history – he missed 13 games after having ankle surgery November – the Rangers would have probably given Staal away for free.
What the move reveals is how the Rangers quantify the price of cap freedom. The deal lifted $5.7 million off of the Rangers’ books and raised their available cap space to roughly $20 million, according to CapFriendly.com. In the case of Staal, relinquishing a second-round pick was worth the space, which could also inform how the Rangers approach the other two contract issues on their roster – Brendan Smith and Henrik Lundqvist.
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Smith’s contract isn’t that bad – he’s set to earn $4.35 million next season. Plus, he’s a versatile player that can slot in on defense or at forward. But the Rangers could reallocate that money in better ways instead of the salary of a depth defenseman. Smith’s 11:06 average time-on-ice was the lowest among Rangers defensemen this season, according to Hockey-Reference.com.
Lundqvist presents a more complicated case. His $8.5 million salary coupled with a full no-movement clause is trickier to move. Though Lundqvist has more value to offer a team than Staal or Smith, his contract situation makes a buyout more likely, as the New York Post’s Larry Brooks speculates.
The Rangers don’t have another second-round pick this year or next – their next one is for the 2022 draft. But they do have a stockpile of third and fourth rounders. It’s hard to imagine Lundqvist ceding control of his situation and letting the Rangers trade him, but Smith is a much easier asset to move.
Between the seven picks combined the club has in the third and fourth rounds of the next two drafts, the Rangers could find a way to dump Smith’s contract. Ottawa is one option. The Senators have a projected $43 million in cap space and would benefit from stockpiling draft picks amid a long-term rebuild. Buffalo is another consideration. With a projected $33 million in cap space, the Sabres could eat Smith’s contract and probably find use for him as a depth defenseman as they build toward a quicker turnaround.
Staal’s departure is the end of an era for the Rangers. The blueliner was drafted by the organization in 2005 and was one of the few remaining remnants of the 2014 Eastern Conference champions. But jettisoning Staal was a much-needed win for the Rangers’ front office, a group that will need to save every dollar it can as it tries to build a Stanley Cup contender in the next few years.
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84999ecc65bcc70045d79434e71a0fe4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinchan/2017/06/29/puerto-ricos-economic-distress-forces-many-millennials-out-while-welcoming-others-in/ | Puerto Rico's Economic Distress Forces Many Millennials Out While Welcoming Others In | Puerto Rico's Economic Distress Forces Many Millennials Out While Welcoming Others In
FILE - In this July 29, file 2015 photo, the Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico's... [+] Capitol as in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Congress edged closer to delivering relief to debt-stricken Puerto Rico as the Senate on Wednesday, June 29, 2016, cleared the way for passage of a last-minute financial rescue package for the territory of 3.5 million Americans. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)
When it came time for Guaynabo native Luigi Davila to pursue a college degree, he, like most of his peers at Colegio Rosa-Bell, left Puerto Rico. Though one of the perks of living on the island is access to affordable higher education, Davila didn’t believe there were many job opportunities available. It was 2013. Puerto Rico’s debt had ballooned to nearly $87 billion, more than four times the amount of debt Detroit had accrued. The island’s unemployment rate was over 13%, and countless Puerto Ricans were moving to the United States mainland in search of a better life.
“Going to the United States, for me, meant having a better future,” Davila said. “I wanted to do cinematography, but when that didn’t work out, I wanted to do digital media and marketing. I feel like staying in Puerto Rico, I wasn’t going to make any money.”
The aspiring digital project manager decided to attend Syracuse University in upstate New York, where his peers knew very little about his homeland. Some questioned whether he was an American citizen; others accused him of speaking English with an accent. When he went home to visit his family, he found that much of Puerto Rico had become “Americanized.” The island’s economy, on the other hand, continued to crumble. Now a college graduate, Davila has elected to stay and work in the mainland, despite the cultural hurdles he’s faced.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going back to the island at all,” he said. “I’m super sad about it. Companies aren’t investing in Puerto Rico as much as before.”
Davila, like his fellow millennials, has handled news of Puerto Rico’s seemingly never-ending economic crisis with a measure of caution. While scores of young Puerto Ricans have moved to the states in the hopes of landing better careers, others who were once part of the diaspora have returned to invest in the public and private sectors. The commonwealth, popularly known as the “Island of Enchantment” among tourists for its alluring flora and beaches, is struggling with a back-and-forth migration of millennials who—whether they know it or not—are responsible for Puerto Rico’s financial future.
In 2010, Andrea González-Ramirez started her studies at the University of Puerto Rico Río Pedras. A campus-wide protest against tuition hikes and budget cuts that year—combined with conversations with classmates from less fortunate backgrounds—heightened her awareness of Puerto Rico’s worsening economy. The following year, her father, who used to work at a pharmaceutical company, was laid off.
“When it happened, it was sort of like, ‘Oh, it’s really bad,’” she said. “They weren’t just laying off entry-level people. They were laying off my dad, who had been there his entire career. That definitely was a wake-up call in a way that I was not really aware of before.”
Unlike her peers who wanted to stay in Puerto Rico after college, González-Ramirez moved to New York to study journalism at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Her decision to live abroad, like so many others’, has left some Puerto Ricans who are strongly attached to the island bitter. To counter the often unflattering depiction of the Puerto Rican diaspora, González-Ramirez created “Los Que Se Fueron,” a collection of personal interviews that paints a more diverse narrative of young Puerto Rican migrants.
“I know a lot of people that are not interested in coming back, and that tends to get very demonized,” she said. “It’s like, ‘You traitor, you’re never going to come back. You hate Puerto Rico.’”
Although González-Ramirez hopes to return to Puerto Rico one day, the island’s shaky economy has not provided much optimism. Over 60% of millennials say they feel uncomfortable with Puerto Rico’s current predicament, notes a poll by marketing firm de la Cruz & Associates. Tax incentives that once boosted Puerto Rico’s giant pharmaceutical industry, such as Section 936, have disappeared. Excessive borrowing of municipal bonds and improper spending have led to failing infrastructure and significant cuts in funding for institutions like the University of Puerto Rico, the region’s main public university system. Since 2005, more than 170,000 Puerto Ricans have moved to the mainland for jobs, according to the Pew Research Center.
“One of the results of the crisis has been massive migration,” said José Antonio Ocampo, a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “[Puerto Rican millennials] face the same problems migrants face in general. The real question is whether they can easily become part of the communities in their places of destination.”
Assimilation into the mainland, in particular, has presented the Puerto Rican diaspora its own set of challenges. While English is taught in Puerto Rico’s primary and secondary schools, not all Puerto Ricans come away with a strong grasp of the language. Furthermore, some millennials do not necessarily graduate school with the proper skills that are specific to their career interests. Earlier this year, the Center for a New Economy’s Growth Commission for Puerto Rico convened for the first time to address these issues as part of a larger goal to strengthen Puerto Rico’s economic framework. Among its top priorities are raising the quality of education and investing in sustainable job sectors. Accomplishing both could potentially stem the outflux of talent leaving Puerto Rico.
“The strategy up to this point has been to rely solely on investment and borrowing,” said Francisco Rivera-Batiz, a member of the commission who also teaches at Columbia University. “It’s just not the government but also the private sector that’s been doing that. That worked for 20 years, but with competition from other developing nations, there has been a struggle to sustain that strategy.”
A number of young Puerto Ricans have already taken steps to help each other realize the island’s hidden opportunities. In 2012, Cristina Sumaza, along with Ciara Napoli and Natalie Trigo, founded ConPRmetidos, an organization that connects Puerto Rican businesses with networks in the diaspora. Sumaza, who moved back to Puerto Rico from New York to create a gastronomical park in Santurce called Lote23, admits that there are few millennials who want to return home and take their chances, but she believes that Puerto Rico has much to offer.
“There are a lot of support opportunities locally now compared to years ago,” she said. “Even though entrepreneurship isn’t an easy thing to do, there are a lot of potential investors, mentors, and communities that will help you launch your project.”
In fact, in the years following the expiration of Section 936, the Puerto Rican government has passed several laws to encourage economic growth. In 2012, for instance, legislators approved the Individual Investors Act, which guarantees tax exceptions to high net worth investors on dividends, interest and capital gains once those investors qualify as “bona-fide residents.” Two years later, lawmakers enacted the Private Equity Funds Act, which grants tax benefits to domestic and foreign firms that operate as partnerships or limited liability companies. Perhaps the most important act that affects Puerto Rican millennials, however, is the Young Entrepreneurs Act, which passed that same year, in 2014. The bill aims to retain young talent by extending tax exemptions to 16-to-35-year-old Puerto Ricans who earn $500,000 in gross income during the first three years of their businesses. Organizations like ConPRmetidos and Parallel 18 have seized this chance to foster innovation among Puerto Rico’s youth.
“The conversation has dramatically changed,” said ConPRmetidos’ managing director Isabel Rullán. “The ecosystem is working much more united. Five years ago, everyone was talking about problems, but they weren’t working together. What has happened now is that there is a more cohesive effort and people are collaborating much more.”
In 2002, Alexander Borschow left Puerto Rico to study chemical and biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following his graduation, he remained in the states to work in finance; he was convinced that there weren’t many positions available in Puerto Rico. When his father contacted him about an investment opportunity on the island two years ago, he was concerned that Puerto Rico’s economic disaster would undermine his ability to grow any profit. Yet, the incentives to return home were too enticing for him to pass up. Today, Borschow is a managing partner at Semillero Ventures LLC, a private-equity investment fund in Puerto Rico that specializes in agriculture and agribusiness.
“The way I look at this crisis is through my experience of going through the financial crisis in 2008,” he said. “When I was sitting at a desk in Wall Street, one thing my boss told me was that it was the absolute best opportunity in our lifetime to invest and grow businesses. A crisis like this is the most opportune time to take risks.”
Against the backdrop of Puerto Rico’s recent declaration of bankruptcy, some members of the diaspora say the decision to return has yielded better-than-expected results. After living in the states for 10 years and working as an auditor at the U.S. Department of Defense and, later, as a consultant at Accenture, Loreana Gonzalez Lazzarini moved back to Puerto Rico four months ago to start her own consulting practice called Citizens of Mastery. While Puerto Rican millennials may be skeptical of the job prospects on the island, a little digging can go a long way, says Gonzalez Lazzarini.
“Having a coffee here with someone for an hour and connecting with the right person can literally change your path,” she said. “Puerto Rico right now is in a great position to innovate.”
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878834098c5a33cfced083a2d688caf2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinconklin/2018/12/18/new-years-resolutions-are-for-loserstake-these-4-steps-instead/ | New Year’s Resolutions Are For Losers — Take These 4 Steps Instead | New Year’s Resolutions Are For Losers — Take These 4 Steps Instead
Toast your friends this New Year's Eve, but skip the resolutions. Getty
After spending awkward quality time this holiday season with family steeped in meals, gifts and traditions, many people will be prepared to make bold, sweeping changes in their lives. Forty percent of Americans will take stock of their year and make a declarative statement of their intentions for the year to come.
Eighty percent of us will fail within 30 days. With only 8% of resolution makers actually seeing follow through, more often than not making a resolution will result in frustration and a sense of defeat.
According to Statista, 53% of Americans surveyed in 2017 wanted to save money in the coming year closely followed by 43% who want to lose weight or get in shape. A desire to be healthier and richer are certainly great goals, but knowing that over three-quarters of those who embark on these goals are going to fail, what’s a person to do?
Don’t make resolutions.
Resolutions clearly don’t work for the majority of people in America. Why continue putting energy into something that is bound to fail? Instead, do these four things to achieve whatever goal you decide to set.
Don’t Make Rigid Resolutions—Choose A Word Of The Year
As an alternative to making a resolution that you’re probably not going to see through, choose a word to guide your year. This idea, which isn’t new by any stretch, has been thoughtfully packaged by author Susannah Conway. She creates a free yearly workbook to unravel your year and choose a word to guide the next. If you choose a word to give your coming year shape and direction, there is automatically no failure.
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An abstract word alone won’t propel you to your goals, though. Hard work will still need to be done to achieve them. The word just gives you more flexibility.
Take for example the two most popular resolutions, saving money and getting fit. Perhaps your word would be something like Wealth, Fitness, Wellness or Thrifty. Feel it out. What do you want your year to look like? Now is the time to pick a word that you’ll use as a mantra to guide and shape your choices for the next 365 days.
Related: Three Things I Did To Make My Dreams Come True
Forget About Saving Money—Hold Yourself Accountable With A Budget
Let’s be real—nobody wants to set a budget. They’re not fun, they can be restrictive and sometimes they’re downright depressing. But unless you were lucky enough to win the $1.5 billion Mega Millions lottery, which you weren’t, it’s a fact of life that to grow your bank account you need to watch what and how you spend.
Budgets are a great way to tackle both of the most popular resolutions in one fell swoop.
The easiest money saving tip is, of course, to not buy things you won’t use. Take for example a gym membership. A 2014 episode of the Planet Money podcast found that half of the people who hold memberships at Planet Fitness never go. With 61.87 million gym memberships across the U.S. at a variety of gyms and health clubs, that’s a massive amount of money going down the drain.
Save your money and skip the gym until you know you are actually going to stick with working out. There’s no need to buy an excessive amount of workout clothes or equipment and to join a gym that you won’t use just to wallow in your failure 30 days later.
Instead, check out the thousands of free workouts on YouTube. You’ll have a massive variety to choose from, you can do them in your home and you’ll have spent nothing which is a great price. Plus, who doesn’t want to brag about being able to do a Spider-Man push-up?
Once you’ve mastered the discipline of actually working out on a consistent basis, then seek out a gym that fits within your budget if that’s what you think you’d like.
Another area to effectively cut your spending is to take a look at all of your subscription services. Are you using them to their full potential? Is it worth the cost? Are you even aware of how much they add up to?
Related: Here Are The Top Budget Tips For This Holiday Season
If the idea of tallying it up yourself seems daunting, there is always the option to download an app to assist with budgeting or even to act as a personal assistant to hack at your bill spending for you.
Look for other money-saving sources in your budget. Utilize your local library instead of buying books. Take advantage of free admission to museums. There are lots of ways to get the things you want without sacrificing your quality of life.
Lastly, make your money work for you. Check out coupons and rebates for things you regularly buy to save a little cash. Apps like Ibotta show you available deals with others like Dosh link to your accounts and grant you savings automatically when you make your purchases.
Throw Your Diet Out The Window—Take Control In The Kitchen
Now is your chance to channel your inner Food Network star. In addition to not going hog wild with a gym membership that you’ll probably never use, reigning in your food spending is a quick way to pad your wallet. Dieting isn’t fun, so instead of picking some wacky diet that makes you put butter in your coffee (Seriously? Has Ina Garten taught us nothing about where butter goes?), check out a food pyramid that fits your lifestyle and morals and plan your weekly meals accordingly, remembering that you need to be mindful of excess.
There are a ton of YouTube personalities, blogs, podcasts, Instagram stars, books and apps that are readily available to help you make nutritious, healthy meals for every style of eating from omnivore to vegan on a budget. It will just take a little planning and time on your part to cook and prepare your food instead of hitting up Seamless for a pizza. Spend a couple hours on Sunday cooking and you can eat like a king all week on the cheap, saving both your wallet and your waistline.
Related: How I Got The Most Meals For My Money — And Saved $180 Doing It
New Habits Are Hard—Be Patient With Yourself
New habits aren’t formed overnight. While you’re making all of these awesome, new choices, you will potentially backslide. It happens. You’re human. Eating your weight in pizza and margaritas doesn’t mean that you’re an utter failure. Skipping a work out doesn’t mean that you’ll never work out again. Accept that you didn’t hit your goals for the day and do better tomorrow. Sometimes Netflix releases an entire season of a new show and you simply must watch the entire thing in one sitting. Sometimes you need a night out with your friends. Sometimes you want to eat every recipe that Delish and Basically put on Instagram, so go ahead indulge once in a while. Then just get back on track the next day and know that one day or one meal isn’t going to break your resolve.
There’s no need to go to extremes with strict resolutions that you’re bound to bail on. Instead, choose a word to guide yourself through the coming year, make a plan that isn’t overly restrictive that fits with your lifestyle and goals and take the steps necessary to stick with it. New habits are built over time and anyone can achieve them if they don’t set themselves up to fail in the first place.
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a09d119c18a378a0e45fbde2028af74b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinconklin/2020/08/18/no-royal-caribbean-no-sea-lions-how-halted-cruise-ships-could-close-the-alaska-sealife-center/?sh=5353c1111c11 | No Royal Caribbean, No Sea Lions: How Halted Cruise Ships Could Close The Alaska SeaLife Center | No Royal Caribbean, No Sea Lions: How Halted Cruise Ships Could Close The Alaska SeaLife Center
A visitor at the Alaska SeaLife Center interacts with a seal lion. Alaska SeaLife Center
Dr. Thomas Argondizza began his morning in Happy Valley as he does most days. After breakfast, he went for a walk with his rescue St. Bernard Max before reading the Anchorage Daily News to check on what was happening near The University of Anchorage Alaska where he teaches educational technology.
What Argondizza, 46, read that day in July troubled him. The Alaska SeaLife Center, situated at the head of Resurrection Bay in Seward, was in danger of closing permanently.
With a drastic drop in visitors—and revenue—this is the new Covid-19 normal. The Art Newspaper reports that one in three museums may shut down forever while The Washington Post says that over 200—more than 8%—zoos and aquariums in the U.S., like the Alaska SeaLife Center, may have to shut down for good.
The cause? No sail orders on cruise lines and Covid-19 driving fewer overall visitors. The Alaska SeaLife Center sees around 90% of its annual 160,000 plus visitors during the months of May to September, who spend roughly $4 million dollars on tours and gift shop merchandise. The center estimates that some 50% of its summer traffic comes from cruise ship passengers, leaving them with a projected revenue gap of $4 million.
Like many museums and zoos, the ASLC has implemented state-mandated public safety requirements—such as limiting capacity and wearing masks—as well as their own Covid-19 mitigation plan that includes daily screenings for all employees and sanitation stations throughout the center. But unlike some museums and zoos, the Alaska SeaLife Center hasn’t been able to reduce much of their costs during the coronavirus outbreak—fresh water must continually pump through the facility for the marine mammals and fish in their care.
Should the ASLC close, all of the animals would need to be relocated—no easy task in the time of Covid-19. Airlines have reduced their services and are less willing to fly animals. With over 4,000 animals in their care, the logistics and cost of such a move would be daunting. The City of Seward, which owns the 25-year-old building that the ASLC occupies, would also face a unique challenge of an empty facility and even further loss of tourist dollars when—and if—cruise lines reemerge from their pandemic hiatus.
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The exterior of the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska. Alaska SeaLife Center
“The Alaska SeaLife Center is one of the largest employers in Seward,” says Jason Bickling, executive director of the Seward Chamber of Commerce, “If it closes that will have a huge impact on our citizens and the vacant building, because it’s such a unique facility, would be a weight on the city.”
Alaska’s official state motto is “North to the Future.” One major cruise line driving the local economy, Royal Caribbean, slogans on “Where extraordinary happens.” The challenge will be whether they can make good on their promises in the age of coronavirus—but they’ll need each other’s help.
Why The Alaska SeaLife Center Matters
The Alaska SeaLife Center is the only facility in Alaska that combines a public aquarium with marine research, education, and wildlife response. The nonprofit organization is at the forefront of research on climate change and arctic and subarctic marine ecosystems, while offering educational opportunities for students and guests. “In a lot of instances this is the only chance for the public to get face to face with Alaska’s marine life,” says president and CEO Tara Riemer.
The PhD-level marine scientists’ research inside the facility has also been impacted by the pandemic. “Some of the projects are not happening this summer, some are just happening with a lot of PPE and some, like the remote cameras we have monitoring Steller sea lions on Chiswell Island, haven’t been impacted much at all. People are able to watch from their homes,” says Riemer, noting that these projects are discussed with the visitors as they tour the aquarium.
A tufted puffin at the Alaska SeaLife Center. Alaska SeaLife Center
Priya Shukla, a PhD student at the University of California, Davis, has been working in the field of ocean and climate science with a specialty in aquaculture. “Studying climate change and the effect on our global oceanography is really important because the oceans are responsible for the climate that everyone experiences from living on the coast to the middle of America,” she says. Without facilities that are studying the impact of temperature change in our oceans, we would be unprepared to deal with the effects on our weather systems and food supplies, she adds.
In addition, the ASLC is the only permanent marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation facility in Alaska, rescuing on average 10 marine mammals a year to provide them care before releasing them back to their natural habitat.
In June, the facility rescued six seal pups who were suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. If the facility didn’t exist to rescue and rehabilitate these animals, their outcomes would be uncertain. “NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) or FWS (Fish and Wildlife Service) may have stepped in, they could have been left to the elements, or a local vet may have been asked to euthanize them,” relates Riemer.
The rehabilitation of injured animals is a small part of the ASLC’s wildlife response efforts. It also stands ready to act upon oil spill rescue and other unusual events allowing them to generate and share scientific knowledge about the stewardship of Alaska’s marine ecosystem. Its main goal is to learn from live and dead stranded animals to better understand wild populations and maintain capacity to respond to natural or manmade disasters.
Finding The Funds
Because the ASLC is a non-profit organization it does not receive any funds from government entities. It did, however, receive $1 million in funding from the first round of PPP loans. The city of Seward has also pledged to provide $500,000 to the center, and with expected summer revenue of $1 million, the center needs approximately $2 million to continue operations.
Local businesses have taken up the call to save the ASLC by creating fundraisers and even placing donation jars on their counters. “There are a number of restaurants and bars that have picked specific menu items, like the Midnight Sun Brewing Company, who are donating 100% of proceeds from their Puffin Pale Ale draft sales to help us,” says Riemer.
Larger businesses are also getting into the mix with companies like GCI, Alaska’s largest wireless network, which offered matching memberships up to $50,000 last month. More art auctions, giveaways and other events are happening through the months of August and September, notes Riemer.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Royal Caribbean Group and SSA Marine, whose ships haven’t operated normally since March, announced in mid-August that they have created a joint effort to support the Alaska SeaLife Center. “We’ve been in direct communication with the communities in Alaska to see how we can help,” says Steve Moeller, senior vice president of commercial development for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. The partnership will match donations made to the ASLC up to $100,000, with the hope that individuals and other companies will see this as an opportunity to make a donation.
“The SeaLife Center is unique the same way that Alaska is unique among the portfolio of ports that we go to,” says Preston Carnahan, director of west coast business development at Royal Caribbean Group “It’s a natural step for us to want to support something that really gives back the same way we look to give back to the communities that we visit as a cruise line.”
A giant pacific octopus at the Alaska SeaLife Center. In recent years, a lot of research has been ... [+] done looking at the octopus population in the north Pacific. Because they have a short life span and are solitary, this has made research difficult. Alaska SeaLife Center, Ron Niebrugge
“We probably would have done it all individually, but as a collective group and with our concern for the local community we all felt we could leverage this in a greater fashion if we did this as a team,” says Bob Watters, senior vice president and director of business development of SSA Marine, “Hopefully that will be the result—we’ll get a lot of matching donations.”
Businesses are not the only ones getting into the fundraising spirit. There are individual fundraiser pages, like the one set up by Argondizza. “I’ve never been to the Alaska SeaLife Center or fundraised before,” he says. “I’m an animal advocate and as soon as I read in the article that the Alaska SeaLife Center was having trouble, I immediately sprang into action and decided to get involved.” So far he’s raised $675 since the end of July.
Riemer remains cautiously optimistic that they’ll be able to reach their goal of $2 million. “We don’t know how much the fundraising is going to be,” she says, “It’s looking very positive, but we’re not there yet.”
Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus
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b7e835c3bbbba15536bcc9522199f955 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2012/02/29/can-battery-storage-and-solar-work-together-arizonas-largest-utility-to-find-out/ | Can Battery Storage And Solar Work Together? Arizona's Largest Utility To Find Out | Can Battery Storage And Solar Work Together? Arizona's Largest Utility To Find Out
Arizona utility APS just launched a two-year energy storage pilot featuring this unit from... [+] lithium-ion battery maker Electrovaya. Credit: APS
Last week, Phoenix-based APS, Arizona’s largest utility, began testing a 1.5-megawatt-hour energy storage system. The shipping container-sized unit, developed by lithium-ion battery maker Electrovaya Inc., can dispatch power equivalent to 1,200 hybrid Prius sedans or 300,000 cell phone batteries. Here is a video with a description of how the unit works.
The energy storage system, located in Flagstaff, will see double duty over the two-year pilot. At its first stop, an electrical distribution substation, the unit will store electricity when demand and prices are low and dispatch it at peak, usually late afternoon and early evening, when demand surges. In about a year, the unit will be trucked a few miles away, to a neighborhood solar zone, to interact with a 500-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) farm and cluster of rooftop solar arrays (more on this below).
Battery storage and solar, working together
Once installed at the Doney Park Renewable Energy site, home to the 500-kW PV farm, APS will use the energy storage system to supply power when solar output dips, as when a cloud passes overhead, and to help meet higher demand at peak after dark.
APS' 500-kilowatt Doney Park PV farm, in Flagstaff, Arizona. Credit: APS
“One of the busiest times on our system is between 5 and 9 p.m. That’s when many customers get home from work, turn on the lights, the TV and the air conditioner. However, by that time, solar systems have largely stopped producing for the day,” APS Energy Storage Project Manager Joe Wilhelm said in a statement. “With storage, we can gather solar energy during the day and dispatch it in the evening.”
“Connecting the energy storage system to a small solar plant like the one in Doney Park was certainly attractive,” APS spokesman Dan Wool wrote in an e-mail. “But overall, Flagstaff offers a very stable system environment to test technologies such as energy storage. Flagstaff is not subject to the extreme desert temperatures and high customer demand we see in say, Phoenix.”
Flagstaff: clean energy incubator
The energy storage pilot burnishes Flagstaff’s reputation as an emerging clean energy incubator. The city is home to Southwest Windpower, one of the leading manufacturers of small wind turbines. My alma mater, Northern Arizona University (go Lumberjacks!), has built some of the most impressive green buildings erected anywhere, including the LEED Platinum Applied Research and Development Building.
Flagstaff is also home to an earlier APS solar project that complements the new energy storage pilot. In April 2010, the utility launched a Community Power Project in Flagstaff’s Doney Park neighborhood – the future destination of the Electrovaya unit. Funded by a $3.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the 45-month study is analyzing the effects of adding a high concentration of solar to the grid in a single neighborhood.
APS owns, maintains, and receives the electricity generated by 125 photovoltaic systems it installed on homes and an elementary school in the area. Customers who agreed to host PV arrays are charged a fixed rate (PDF) for the electricity produced by the systems over 20 years. APS is also deploying smart grid technology to help facilitate the interaction between the energy storage system, the 500-kW PV farm, and the rooftop solar arrays.
The energy storage pilot is funded by APS. APS' Dan Wool told me he could not provide the project cost because of a non-disclosure agreement with Electrovaya.
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72ac48c9bf4c20f0203f1432f02efcc3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2012/05/11/the-global-electric-vehicle-movement-best-practices-from-16-cities/ | The Global Electric Vehicle Movement: Best Practices From 16 Cities | The Global Electric Vehicle Movement: Best Practices From 16 Cities
Global leaders want to have 20 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the road worldwide by 2020. Last year, some 40,000 EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) were sold around the world. If the J-shaped growth expectations are to be realized, the cost of advanced batteries must continue to fall and smart policies must accelerate the adoption of EVs in urban areas.
A new report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) tackles the latter. The EV City Casebook (PDF), compiled by IEA with the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Clean Energy Ministerial’s Electric Vehicles Initiative, and C40 Cities, details best practices from 16 cities in nine countries.
The profiled cities, from Shanghai to the tiny Goto Islands of Japan, account for 30% of the EVs on the road today. The other cities profiled are Amsterdam; Barcelona; Berlin; BrabantStad (The Netherlands); Hamburg; Helsinki; Kanagawa Prefecture (Japan); Los Angeles; New York City; North East England; Portland (Oregon); Research Triangle (North Carolina); Rotterdam; and Stockholm. (For more detail about efforts under way to promote EVs in Portland, read my profile of Electric Avenue and distillation of 10 EV charging lessons learned published at this blog in March.)
The report acknowledges the significant hurdles that must be overcome to reach the 2020 target, which was set by member countries of the Clean Energy Ministerial. But it also finds that EVs are starting to gain traction with consumers:
Before reaching this ambitious goal, electric vehicle technology must pass through several stages of market development, optimization and scale-up. Although the current EV market is small, the outlook is encouraging. About 40,000 EVs/PHEVs were sold worldwide in 2011, the most in any year in history (and greater than the historical EV stock peak of approximately 30,000 at the turn of the 20th century). Since the nascent market is still developing, with more models being launched each month, it is clear that 2012 auto sales will be important in determining the road ahead for electric vehicles.
Already, in 2012, we’ve seen record sales, in March, of the Chevy Volt and hybrid Toyota Prius; the April launch of the electric Ford Focus; booming sales for the Nissan Leaf in Norway; and, earlier this week, an announcement that eight U.S. and German automakers had agreed to a standard all-in-one charging port, the Combined Charging System, for EVs sold in the U.S. and Europe.
There will be setbacks – GM was forced into damage control over allegations, since dismissed, that the Chevy Volt was a fire hazard and the new $50,000 Toyota EV RAV4 landed with a thud this week – but it’s clear that the EV market is maturing.
The new EV City Casebook documents best practices from Portland, Oregon, and 15 other global cities.... [+] Credit: Justin Gerdes
The EV City Casebook documents the basket of financial and non-financial incentives the profiled cities have implemented to boost demand for EVs and charging stations.
Financial incentives:
Rebates or tax credits on vehicles (often augmented by subsidies from the national government) Exemptions from vehicles registration taxes or license fees Discounted tolls and parking fares Discounts for recharging equipment and installation
Non-financial incentives:
Preferential parking Access to restricted highway lanes Expedited permitting and installation of EV supply equipment
Many of the profiled cities have used their purchasing power to jumpstart the market by adding EVs to municipal fleets or hybrid buses to public transport systems. Some are installing charging stations at libraries, parking garages, city halls, or other public buildings and offering EV owners discounted electricity rates from municipal-owned utilities. Cities are also, the report finds, using their convening power to bring together city planners, automakers, utilities, infrastructure suppliers, academic and research institutions, and city and national officials to “identify and address technical, economic and regulatory barriers to EV adoption and integration.”
What does this proactive policymaking look like on the ground? I reviewed the profiles of two cities, Amsterdam and Stockholm, to learn more.
Amsterdam
By 2040, the City of Amsterdam expects that nearly all of its public and private vehicles will be powered by renewable electricity sourced from the wind, sun, and biomass. There are 750 EVs on the road in Amsterdam today; by 2015, city officials expect the number to reach 10,000.
The city claims that with 350 public charging stations installed, Amsterdam (population 780,000) has the highest per capita penetration of charging infrastructure in the world. By next year, the city expects to have installed 1,000 public charging spots. Real-time information on the location and availability of the public charge spots is accessible via an open API (Application Programming Interface).
The City of Amsterdam also offers subsidies to encourage companies to add electric cars (€5,000/$6,475), taxis (€10,000/$12,951), and trucks (€40,000/$51,804) to their fleets. A subsidy scheme launched in 2009 resulted in the purchase of more than 200 EVs. Among them, were Amsterdam’s first 10 EV taxis. The cars began operating in May 2011; 30 more EV taxis will be added by the middle of this year.
EVs are also available to those who don’t want to own a car or need one infrequently. In November 2011, the global car-sharing company Car2Go launched in Amsterdam. No subscription is required. Three hundred smart fortwo EVs, located online via your computer or a smart phone app, can be picked up or dropped off anywhere in the city center. Users pay an all-inclusive per-minute (€.29/$.38) fee.
Stockholm
In May 2011, the Stockholm City Council adopted an EV/PHEV strategy and committed to being fossil-fuel free in the inner city by 2030. Because 90% of the electricity consumed in Stockholm is supplied by hydro and nuclear plants, there is the potential to significantly reduce emissions by electrifying the transport sector.
The national government offers EV owners several financial incentives. EV owners are exempt from the vehicle tax for the first five years, companies pay lower taxes for EVs, and a new subsidy, the Super Clean Car Premium (€4,000/$5,180), took effect in January of this year.
There are only 100 EVs operating in Stockholm today; the target for 2015 is 1,500. The City of Stockholm is adding 20 EVs to its fleet each year, and it coordinated, with utility Vattenfall, a contract with six automakers under which 296 cities, county councils, and companies will purchase 850 electric cars and 400 electric trucks and vans each year. The first 1,000 EVs sold under the deal received a €5,000 ($6,475) grant from the national government.
Stockholm is also building a public charging infrastructure. Like Amsterdam, it has installed 350 charging stations. The city’s newest parking garage, the Högalidsgaraget, which opened in September 2011, is equipped with 200 EV charging spots.
In Stockholm, as elsewhere, most EV charging will be done at home. Sixty-five percent of households in Stockholm have access to engine block heaters. Not only can these units be used to charge EVs, but it means that tens of thousands of Stockholmers are already comfortable with the routine of connecting a plug to their vehicle at night or early in the morning.
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0901e2ffdb75347bc6fff4a623ece1be | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2012/07/30/more-countries-join-coalition-to-slash-soot-and-methane/ | More Countries Join Coalition To Slash Soot And Methane | More Countries Join Coalition To Slash Soot And Methane
Seven countries have joined a U.S.-led effort to slash emissions of short-lived planet-warming pollutants. At a meeting in Paris on July 24, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced that Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, and the United Kingdom would participate in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC). The Stockholm Environment Institute became the first research institute to join the group.
The announcement formalized the membership of France, Italy, Germany, and the UK (in May, I reported that at the Camp David summit G8 leaders had announced their intent to join the CCAC) and brings membership in the partnership to 21 nations and organizations. Coalition members pledge to collaboratively take actions to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon (or soot), methane, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
"The idea is to come together around a network to scale up actions that could reduce these short-lived pollutants in the near term," U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing told journalists at a press conference. "If we are able to do this we can really buy time in the context of the global problem to combat climate change – time that we need desperately as the rate of emissions continue to rise globally."
Pershing also said that the United States was in talks to convince other nations, including China and India, to join the coalition, according to Reuters. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the launch of the CCAC in February.
Researchers at a panel convened by the California Air Resources Board on May 24 urged policymakers to take action to cut short-lived climate pollutants as a means to reduce projected warming and to protect public health. Doing so, as I wrote at this blog, would complement international efforts to cut emissions of CO2:
Unlike CO2, which stays in the atmosphere for about a century, short-lived climate pollutants remain in the atmosphere from a few days to a few weeks (black carbon) to up to 15 years (methane, HFCs). Therein lies the opportunity. If policymakers put in place strong measures to tackle short-lived climate pollutants, which are much more potent planet-warming agents than CO2, it would significantly improve the odds of forestalling runaway climate change.
CCAC members in Paris emphasized that early action to tackle soot, methane, and HFCs would prevent some warming and save lives. “Fast action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants can have a direct impact on climate change, with the potential to reduce the warming expected by 2050 by up to 0.5 degrees Celsius. At the same time, by 2030, such action can prevent millions of premature deaths, and avoid the annual loss of more than 30 million tons of crops,” said the coalition in a statement released by UNEP.
At a July 24 meeting in Paris, seven countries joined the U.S.-led Climate and Clean Air Coalition... [+] to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants such as soot, methane, and HFCs. Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The coalition has prioritized action in five areas: methane emissions from municipal waste, emissions from brick kilns, reducing black carbon emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles and engines, promoting alternatives to HFCs, and emissions from the oil and gas industry.
Advances made on short-lived climate pollutants at Rio+20
Governments signaled further willingness to tackle short-lived climate pollutants in June at the Rio+20 conference. In the political declaration (paragraph 222), 191 countries recognized that the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances has dramatically increased the use and release of HFCs, a replacement for CFCs. In response, the text reads, governments “support a gradual phase-down in the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons.” HFCs are widely used as a refrigerant and in insulating foams.
“The Rio declaration’s support for phasing down HFCs is the first universal recognition of the need to protect the climate by phasing down HFCs, super-greenhouse gases that molecule for molecule warm the climate hundreds to thousands of times more than carbon dioxide,” Durwood Zaelke, President, Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, said in a statement (PDF). Zaelke was one of the researchers who presented findings in May to the CARB panel on short-lived climate pollutants.
“Phasing down HFCs is the biggest, fastest, cheapest piece of climate mitigation available to the world in the next few years, and it should be done immediately, and under the Montreal Protocol, the world’s most effective environmental treaty,” Zaelke added. The United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Federated States of Micronesia have all presented proposals to phase out HFCs under the Montreal Protocol. Their efforts have been stymied by opposition from Brazil, China, and India.
“The global consensus in Rio shows that momentum is building for a phase-down of HFCs, which inevitably will be through the Montreal Protocol,” said Zaelke.
Also in Rio, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and Clinton Climate Initiative Cities program announced they would partner with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to reduce methane emissions from urban landfills. Supported by the CCAC and World Bank, C40 will launch a peer-to-peer learning network for local governments to share waste management best practices. C40 and its partners will provide technical assistance to help cities develop projects to reduce methane gas production and access financing.
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5f15a0430a73b54b03542bab4b2e482c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2012/09/28/california-launches-nations-largest-clean-energy-pace-program/ | California Launches Nation's Largest Clean Energy PACE Program | California Launches Nation's Largest Clean Energy PACE Program
Commercial property owners in 140 California cities and counties will be able to invest in energy- and water-saving upgrades with no upfront costs after the launch last week of the nation’s largest property assessed clean energy (PACE) program.
The CaliforniaFIRST program, run by Oakland-based Renewable Funding for the California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSCDA), is available to owners of office, multi-family residential (5 or more units), retail, industrial, and agriculture properties in 14 counties and 126 cities.
Eligible improvements (PDF) include not only energy-saving equipment such as insulation, lighting, and HVAC systems but onsite renewable energy (rooftop PV, wind turbines, and fuel cells) and water-saving upgrades such as low-flow plumbing fixtures and grey water systems. Projects must be worth $50,000 or more to secure financing.
Much of the appeal for a property owner of PACE financing is avoidance of the upfront cost to install money-saving upgrades. After an audit identifies energy- and water-saving opportunities, property owners wishing to pursue PACE financing enter into an assessment contract with CSCDA to finance the project.
The contract stipulates that the property owner agrees to repay the cost of the improvements through an annual property tax assessment lasting up to 20 years. If a building is sold or transferred, the PACE lien remains tied to the property.
Projects are funded by private capital (Wells Fargo’s Sustainable Infrastructure group was listed as a backer in the CaliforniaFIRST launch press release) channeled through a bond issuance – in this case tax-exempt municipal bonds issued by CSCDA. Read the CaliforniaFIRST FAQs (PDF) and program overview (PDF) for more details.
According to Renewable Funding, the program has already received applications for solar and energy efficiency projects across California and is backed by $250 million of private capital. In a future post, I’ll update readers on the number and value of projects funded.
CaliforniaFIRST is not the nation’s first statewide commercial PACE program; that honor goes to Connecticut. I reported in June that Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy had signed a bill authorizing a statewide commercial PACE program. Kerry O’Neill, a senior advisor at the Clean Energy Finance Center (CEFC) told me that the hope is to launch the program by year’s end. But, because of the size of the California market, the CaliforniaFIRST program promises to mainstream commercial PACE financing.
Commercial property owners in 140 California cities and counties will be able to invest in energy... [+] efficiency upgrades without upfront costs after the launch last week of the nation’s largest clean energy PACE program. Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Considerable demand exists for energy efficiency project financing in the United States. For a post I published in April on the launch of a PACE program in South Florida, Ygrene Energy Fund President Dan Schaefer told me that billions of dollars of projects await funding nationwide. Kerry O’Neill told me that Connecticut officials have been “bombarded” by inquiries from national and local financial players, energy service companies (ESCOs), service providers, and deal originators keen to jump into the commercial PACE market.
For now, the CaliforniaFIRST program applies only to commercial properties but the plan is to expand to the residential sector once federal regulatory issues are resolved, according to Renewable Funding. Such a change would mean that officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) drop their resistance to PACE liens (see my August 24 post for an update on the status of the residential PACE financing).
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0f58b6456771192e04db71bb14ceac56 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2013/01/31/sacramento-launches-100-million-energy-retrofit-fund/ | Sacramento Launches $100-Million Energy Retrofit Fund | Sacramento Launches $100-Million Energy Retrofit Fund
Sacramento, California – Sacramento commercial and residential property owners can now install energy-saving equipment at no upfront cost. Yesterday, local political leaders, including Mayor Kevin Johnson, announced the launch of Clean Energy Sacramento, a property assessed clean energy (PACE) program operated by Ygrene Energy Fund.
With PACE financing, the property owner agrees to repay the cost of improvements such as a more efficient chiller or rooftop solar panels through an annual property tax assessment lasting up to 20 years. If a building is sold or transferred, the PACE lien remains tied to the property. As I’ve written before at this blog, perhaps the strongest selling point of PACE financing is that it enables property owners to avoid the upfront cost to install new equipment, one of the thorniest problems of energy efficiency project development.
Years in the making, Clean Energy Sacramento launched with the support of the City of Sacramento. City leaders, eager to free the economy from an over-reliance on state government and new home construction, had been looking for ways to create jobs and meet the city’s environmental goals without making new demands on a lean city budget.
According to Ygrene Energy Fund CEO Stacey Lawson, Clean Energy Sacramento is the first privately funded clean energy financing model in the nation that includes both commercial and residential properties. Local governments across the country either scuttled or chose not to offer residential PACE programs after the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) ruled, in July 2010, it would not underwrite mortgages on homes with PACE liens. In August 2012, a federal district court judge in California ruled against the FHFA. Read my post on the ruling here.
Individual investors and regional banks have pledged $100 million over five years to fund Clean Energy Sacramento projects. “This is one of the unique aspects of our model,” said Lawson. “We have figured out how to do the interim funding with players who really want to invest in the local community and then have a mechanism by which we can securitize in the capital markets so we can recycle that capital over and over.”
Lawson said the pre-arranged financing and a focus on customer service (Ygrene opened a physical storefront at 2600 Capitol Avenue to offer one-stop service for property owners and contractors) are intended to speed completion of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water efficiency projects undertaken by qualifying property owners.
“That means more jobs for the struggling construction industry here; it means more economic stimulus for our local communities. And at a time, as Mayor Johnson and others know, where city budgets are very much strapped for cash, Clean Energy Sacramento does this without a single taxpayer dollar,” said Lawson.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson announces the launch of Clean Energy Sacramento. Credit: Ygrene... [+] Energy Fund
She added that Clean Energy Sacramento had pre-qualified $22 million in commercial and residential projects and trained 160 local contractors to offer PACE retrofits under the Ygrene model. “In anticipation of opening our doors, over the last year, we’ve been working with local contractors and commercial property owners” to line up projects, she said. The pipeline is 80% commercial projects.
One of the pre-approved projects is a $513,000 retrofit at 520 Capitol Mall, where the building owner will install a new high-efficiency chiller. The upgrade will save the owner $47,000 annually in avoided maintenance and reduced electricity bills.
Mayor Johnson noted that buildings account for nearly three-quarters of the electricity consumed in the United States. “If you can figure out a way to make buildings energy efficient, it’s going to get at every other item that we care about when it comes to being smart and green in our community,” he said.
The biggest challenge to upgrading buildings, he added, is capital on the front end. “We, as the public, don’t have dollars to put up front. We’ve been looking for ways to solve this dilemma. That’s where Ygrene comes in. They solved the upfront capital problem.”
Should Clean Energy Sacramento retrofits match the projections, Johnson said, it would help the city fulfill several long-term environmental and economic goals. Five-year goals for Clean Energy Sacramento – based on an economic impact analysis [PDF] of PACE programs conducted by ECONorthwest – assume that every $100 million invested in PACE projects creates 1,500 jobs, $250 million in economic activity, and $25 million in tax revenue.
By the end of the decade, the City of Sacramento aims to: double number of green jobs from 14,000 to 28,000; attract $1 billion in new investment in the green economy; retrofit 25% of existing homes, schools, commercial, and office buildings; and reduce energy consumption by 15%.
Ygrene Energy Fund plans to launch its Clean Energy Green Corridor program, located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, next month, Stacey Lawson told me in an interview. I wrote about the Green Corridor program last April. As in Sacramento, the Green Corridor program will be anchored by an Energy Center, where property owners can apply for funding and contractors receive training. The center is schedule to open on February 15, Lawson said, with the grand opening to be held soon thereafter.
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4a7721e9430665425aba7d73bb185073 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinoconnell/2019/11/01/how-salesforce-is-using-blockchain-to-decentralize-data--hyperledgers-role/ | How Salesforce Is Using Blockchain To Decentralize Data & Hyperledger’s Role | How Salesforce Is Using Blockchain To Decentralize Data & Hyperledger’s Role
Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf says he’s noticed an anti-institutional sentiment out there in the world.
“You're either with the banks or you're against the banks or you're with the government or you're against governments,” he said. “Maybe it's just because I'm old and I feel like the world is more nuanced than when I was in my twenties.”
Hyperledger, a collaboration by enterprise to develop enterprise grade, distributed ledger technologies, doesn’t discriminate. “We are one of the few organizations trying to say there's a technology stack or set of stacks that should be able to run the gamut of helping startup companies build their companies, giving them a really cool advantage and edge, help the larger companies and banks who just have a job to get done, and even help governments in their ability to regulate markets.”
Hyperledger launched in December 2015 as a project of the Linux Foundation, a non-profit for open-source innovation. Behlendorf joined in May 2016. There are currently 15 different projects hosted by Hyperledger.
How Salesforce Is Improving Their Business With Hyperledger’s Sawtooth
Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company, announced in April a blockchain offering on top of Hyperledger Sawtooth. Behlendorf, who has served on the board of Mozilla Foundation since 2003, notes how crucial Salesforce’s architecture is to the operations of their clients — this makes them a perfect fit to explore distributed technologies.
“There's been concern about the centralization of data, and how much [companies] are building a dependency upon Salesforce,” said Behlendorf, who once served as Chief Technology guru of Burning Man, an annual arts festival in the northern Nevada region of the Great Basin. “The use of a distributed ledger is a way to decentralize some of that dependency so that there's a full copy of the data sitting at every node. Some of those nodes might be on Salesforce or at other providers, as well.”
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Behlendorf, who has been on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2013, says absolving concerns about the centralization of data could help Salesforce expand into new verticals.
“For all the cloud providers, for companies who care about the providence of data, who care about exit costs from a commercial relationship, centralizing all of your data into one cloud provider creates an operational risk,” he says. “Being able to extract your data is not always guaranteed or always practical. Being able to migrate from one cloud provider to another is always a challenge, if the data isn't being shared and standardized by default.”
Blockchain technology solves some of these concerns. “If five business partners build a distributed ledger and are conducting transactions, all five have to trust one central party to maintain the shared version of the truth — that's a problem operationally from a risk point of view,” said Behlendorf. “If, instead, we decentralize it so we're not all dependent on that central party, then that eliminates the risk.”
While this might not be a problem for some simple applications, for other applications, enterprise still harbors concern. “If we're talking about core financial transactions between parties or delivery of a contract, there are a lot of companies not quite comfortable moving certain business processes to ‘the cloud’ unless they had something more decentralized,” he said. He hopes that distributed ledger technology becomes a tool for cloud providers to address the distrust around the cloud.
Hyperledger Focuses On The Enterprise Application Of Distributed Ledger Technology & Creates Tools For Public Blockchains
Hyperledger stood out to Behlendorf by not focusing on cryptocurrencies, tokens, and similar verticals.
“It focused instead on enterprise application of the technology, in which tokenization might be an attribute, but where a speculative financial instrument and burning all the CPU power of the universe was explicitly not part of what was going on,” he said, referencing the energy cost of Bitcoin and its consensus method, proof of work.
While Hyperledger spoke about using blockchain for use cases such as supply chain traceability, settlement layers between banks or other institutions, traceability challenges, most people were more interested in ICOs and tokens.
“The mass was focused on the rise of Bitcoin or whatever, and I was more interested in what you can actually do with this technology to solve real problems,” Behlendorf said. “But, you'd go out to different conferences, and we’d talk to different people outside of the enterprise space, and you kind of felt like a nun showing up to an orgy.”
Brian Behlendorf at World Crypto Con 2019 in Las Vegas Author
Behlendorf says that what was once Hyperledger’s edge—focusing on enterprise while the rest of the industry focused on cryptocurrencies and tokens—is now the mainstream. While today tokens are still being launched and sold, established companies are increasingly talking about enterprise deployments.
“What was disruptive, edgy or non-traditional three years ago is now very much mainstream, whether it’s our tech or things like Corda, Quorum or other things,” he said. “We’ve legitimized [the use of distributed ledgers] by showing that it's positively affecting healthcare or the fight against slave labor or transparency and accountability in financial markets. That's actually very gratifying.”
While often associated with distributed ledger for enterprise, Hyperledger collaborates on public blockchains, as well. Hyperledger Fabric, for instance, began supporting Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contracts in the coding languages Solidity or Vyper in October 2018. Hyperledger Fabric, a permissioned blockchain infrastructure, as well as Hyperledger Sawtooth, a modular platform for building, deploying, and running distributed ledgers, are both compatible with Ethereum.
“We were one of the first organizations to say, [Ethereum Virtual Machine] is worth exploring,” Behlendorf said. “And the premise there is that by sheer virtue of all the investment and creative energy happening in the public cryptocurrency space, like one hundred monkeys typing on a keyboard producing Shakespeare, good technology will be built out. We would be remiss to ignore it or to pretend that only big companies know how to come up with innovative stuff appropriate for enterprises.”
Hyperledger remains attentive of public blockchains and building bridges within the public blockchain community, which, other than Ethereum, includes projects like Bitcoin, Stellar, and more.
Hyperledger’s Goal Is To Become The Open-Source Standard For Distributed Ledgers
According to Behlendorf, who was the primary developer of the free and open-source Apache Web server, Hyperledger’s goal is to become the open-source standard for distributed ledgers, similar to Linux’s status as the standard for open-source operating systems. Although Linux has competitors in Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS, it is embedded in Android phones, IOT devices, as well as every one of the top 500 supercomputers on the planet.
Companies such as Google, Amazon, Kashr, IBM Cloud, SAP Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Baidu, Tencent, and Winway run Hyperledger nodes for their clients to solve different needs. Early members included Accenture, ANZ Bank, Cisco, CLS, Credits, Deutsche Börse, Digital Asset Holdings, DTCC, Fujitsu Limited, IC3, IBM, Intel, J.P. Morgan, London Stock Exchange Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), R3, State Street, SWIFT, VMware, and Wells Fargo.
“We’re here to make sure that the technology, as it's getting built, accrues to the benefit of everybody, and not just to the developers who wrote it, and that it's a public resource. The Hyperledger community is building code that we hope permeates throughout the entirety of the blockchain industry.”
There Is No Blockchain Or Distributed Ledger To Rule Them All
Despite the organization's goal to be ubiquitous, Behlendorf believes different distributed ledgers or blockchains could be deployed to solve different problems.
“There's still a lot of people who want to see the world converge on just one blockchain technology, one protocol or one stack,” he said. “They think there’ll just be one mainnet to rule them all. And typically the people who say that are token holders in that mainnet.” He does acknowledge that if you believe in something, you're probably going to be invested in its future, which can include holding a token.
“But, I think the reality is dawning on people that this will be a place as heterogeneous and complex as the World Wide Web is,” he said. “There's lots of different technologies that make up the web—not just TCP, IP or HTML. We're still at a thousand flowers bloom moment. Let's not shut down innovation or new ideas just because we all want a single answer to everyone's problem.”
He says there are some use cases for which public blockchains will make more sense. “I just wish we could drain the hype and pump-and-dump characteristics. But public ledgers have a role to play. Most of the world's transactions will be conducted in non-public scenarios. Even if you were to completely answer privacy and security concerns around doing work on mainnet, you still want to have a diversity of different networks out there for resiliency. There'll be many mainnets. There might be a couple for payments and settlement, a couple of others for identity and the like.”
By understanding many distributed ledgers could provide solutions for various problems, Behlendorf believes Hyperledger still maintains an edge. “Ironically, by being big tent and aiming to be friends with everybody, we're actually also being disruptors,” he said. “Very few other people, it seems, have the same focus or desire to be as cross-intersectional as we are.”
Introducing Forbes Blockchain 50: Learn about the companies investing in the tech that will speed up business processes, increase transparency and potentially save billions of dollars.
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bef9451ad0209748fcb3e71930fba891 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinoconnell/2019/12/25/the-2010s-in-bitcoin-the-year-2011/ | The 2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2011 | The 2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2011
I’m reviewing the 2010s in Bitcoin. This is the story about 2011 in Bitcoin. Read about 2010 here.
In 2011, Bitcoin reached parity with the US Dollar on February 9 — the same month Silk Road, the online dark-net marketplace, went online.
Founded in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road quickly made headlines and caught the attention of the U.S. government. Adrien Chen, the editor of gawker.com, scoured the marketplace to see what was there. She reportedly found 340 varieties of drugs, such as Afghani hash, sour 13 weed, ecstasy, tar heroin, LSD etcetera.
Bitcoin Magazine owner David Bailey at Bitcoin Conference 2019. Author
Silk Road’s terms of service forbade anything with a purpose of harming or defraud, including stolen credit cards, assassinations, and weapons of mass destruction.
Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia implored in June Attorney General Eric Holder and Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart to shut down the Silk Road.
“The only method of payment for these illegal purchases is an untraceable peer-to-peer currency known as Bitcoins. After purchasing Bitcoins through an exchange, a user can create an account on Silk Road and start purchasing illegal drugs from individuals around the world and have them delivered to their homes within days,” the senators’ letter stated. “We urge you to take immediate action and shut down the Silk Road network.”
Wikileaks Accepts Bitcoin
This is the year in which WikiLeaks announced, after facing a financial blockade by all of its payment providers, it would accept Bitcoin for donations. Satoshi Nakamoto lamented WikiLeaks accepting Bitcoin.
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"The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way,” Satoshi wrote in 2010 on BitcoinTalk. “I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.”
Nakamoto shared his thoughts once WikiLeaks made its announcement: "It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us."
Casascius Physical Bitcoins
Physical Bitcoins were a thing in 2011. Mike Caldwell began selling Casascius coins, which became a symbol of bitcoins due to their photogenicism, before FinCEN notified him that his business was treated as a money transmitter, and therefore he would need the requisite licenses. He decided instead to shutter the business. Caldwell released in September 2011 the first Casascius physical bitcoins. They had a 22 character private key inside the coin and 3,500 were produced.
Alpacas
The connection between bitcoin and alpacas likely began after a February 2011 post on Slashdot describing the goods and services available for bitcoins. Grass Hill Alpacas sold alpaca products for bitcoin, including alpaca socks. In 2011, the popular Bitcoin explainer video, “What is Bitcoin?” was released by WeUseCoins, in which alpaca socks earned a mention, because bitcoiners love alpaca socks.
Bitcoin Malware and Hacks
Cybercriminals unleashed in 2011 bitcoin mining malware into the world, which allow cybercriminals to exploit computing resources to mine bitcoins.
Mt. Gox sold March 6, 2011 to Mark Karpeles and Tibanne company. Not long after, the exchange revealed that the user details of 60,000 Mt Gox users had been compromised.
The Bitcoin price on Mt. Gox fell from $17 to 0.01 in minutes. The platform suspended trading. The exchange blamed the crash on a compromised user account, and Karpeles said the exchange would go offline to fix the problem.
On June 13, 2011, 25,000 bitcoins were reportedly stolen from BitcoinTalk forum member allinvain, who had his wallet.dat file, the file holding a user’s private keys, on his Windows machine. The sum at the time was worth $500,000.
“I am totally devastated today,” he wrote on BitcoinTalk. “I just woke up to see a very large chunk of my bitcoin balance gone.”
He added: “The theft occurred right after someone broke into my slush’s pool account. In a moment of sheer stupidity I did not think that maybe my whole system was compromised. I merely thought that someone brute forced my slush’s pool password.”
Bitomat, the first Polish Bitcoin exchange which went online in April 2011, swiftly lost 17,000 bitcoins it held on behalf of clients. The site went offline on July 26, 2011 and returned on July 31 bearing the message: "all data stored has been lost!, Including record concerning bitcoin portfolio and its backups (backups).” Mt. Gox bought Bitomat in August 2011 and compensated lost bitcoins.
On July 29, myBitcoin, an early Bitcoin wallet, shut down. The site went back online August 4, stating that their interface had been compromised to the tune of 150,000 bitcoins. Later on, the wallet stated that it had been compromised and that 51% of its total bitcoin holdings were stolen. It began re-issuing 49% of their customer balances.
Early U.S.-based exchange, Tradehill, launched in 2011 and would do business at Bitcoin.com before shuttering a year later, despite positive attention.
EFF Briefly Accepts Bitcoins
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) experimented in 2011 with bitcoin donations, though it removed the donation option on the EFF after deciding not to accept bitcoins. They cited several reasons.
“We don't fully understand the complex legal issues involved with creating a new currency system,” wrote EFF. “Bitcoin raises untested legal concerns related to securities law, the Stamp Payments Act, tax evasion, consumer protection and money laundering, among others. And that’s just in the U.S.”
Nearly two years later, EFF would reinstate bitcoin donations.
Read about 2012 here.
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e4f1c3811227f11b1b866fb798cd59a1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinoconnell/2020/01/17/hedera-hashgraph-cpo-the-adoption-of-blockchain-is-going-faster-than-ive-seen-in-iot-and-ai/ | Hedera Hashgraph CPO: ‘The Adoption Of Blockchain Is Going Faster Than I’ve Seen In IoT And AI’ | Hedera Hashgraph CPO: ‘The Adoption Of Blockchain Is Going Faster Than I’ve Seen In IoT And AI’
Lionel Chocron, Chief Product Officer at Hedera Hashgraph, was born in France. About twenty years ago, he came to the US west coast to receive a Master’s degree at UC Berkeley, whereafter he eventually took a job working at Cisco. He spent 10 years there focusing on emerging technology—he ran the Internet of Things business unit at Cisco for years—and corporate strategy. He then joined Oracle to lead the emerging technology industry solution group, which was focusing on imaging technology, IoT, blockchain, and AI.
He crossed paths in 2019 with the co-founders of Hedera Hashgraph, and grew excited about blockchain technology. At the time, large companies were adopting public ledger tech, and he saw the potential for Hedera Hashgraph to become third-generation distributed ledger technology.
“The adoption of blockchain is going faster than I've seen in IoT and AI,” said Chocron, noting IoT takes longer due to the need for connecting millions of devices. “The time it takes to really get the value on the IoT side is pretty long. On the AI side, you don't have any hardware to install, but the volume of data that you have to be able to analyze to raise the level of insight that your AI machine is giving you, minimizing what the market calls a false positive, is huge. You cannot do it in a few weeks. It takes years and years and volumes of data to be able to train your algorithms. Adoption is great, but it is a game for those who have access to the data to be able to optimize.”
Until a company or startup gets these prerequisites to play ball—either the hardware for IoT or the data for AI—you’re on standby in those industries. With blockchain, it’s easier than IoT and AI, for, in its journey towards mass adoption, blockchain relies on neither major hardware investment nor on major volumes of data.“Now, from proving the value to scaling,” says Chocron, “that’s a different discussion, but at least you can demonstrate the value pretty quickly.”
At Hedera Hashgraph, he focuses on enabling small, medium, and large companies to adopt distributed ledger technology. He helps them integrate with the tools and the ecosystem out there today. “Blockchain and distributed ledgers are pretty well understood,” said Chocron. “Everybody knows what a ledger is. When you start understanding a distributed ledger, and you start paving the path of how you can use an ecosystem of companies that are working together and sharing information on the ledger, whether it's a private and public ledger, it clicks pretty quickly and people see the value in it.”
Hedera Hashgraph CPO Lionel Chocron at Blockchain Expo 2019 in Santa Clara, California. Author
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Whether or not public ledgers are adopted depends on performance, stability, security, and governance, he says. “When I was looking at the first generation and second-generation players, as amazing as they've been, and are doing today in terms of paving a path for a new industry, there were a lot of shortcomings in terms of performance, stability, security, and governance that my customers [at Oracle], the big companies, were seeing as a no-no,” said Chocron, with whom I spoke at Blockchain Expo 2019 in Santa Clara, California. The third generation that's coming today is going to address that, he believes.
In order to be adopted by enterprise, a distributed ledger will need to be fully integrated into what companies are doing today, he says. Enterprise is already running use cases on private ledgers like Hyperledger, for instance, so an enterprise-facing blockchain company like Hedera needs to help clients integrate into Hyperledger.
Alongside performance, stability, security, and governance, another challenge for blockchain is not having a complex and fully matured regulatory environment. “The regulatory environment for blockchain is still not fully defined, and not just in the US, but globally,” Chocron said. “There's enough room for interpretation that it's pretty critical for companies, like we've done, to carefully look at the path in front of us to make sure that we stay aligned with what we believe the regulatory environment is going to be. While companies have been looking at private ledgers, they also see value in a public ledger, and they are also trying to understand the regulatory environment to be able to move in that direction.”
Such companies are also trying to wrap their heads around how to use the tech, as was Chocron when he first made the leap from enterprise into the blockchain startup world. Unlike in other startup environments, when you are joining the blockchain industry, you have to deal with the token on-ramps and token ecosystem, such as wallets, custody, etc. This barrier to entry doesn’t exist in the traditional startup world.
“In the blockchain space, it is actually a pretty big challenge not having had the experience,” he said of working with hardware wallets, etc.. “This is a learning curve that the industry is going through today.”
Besides the regulatory uncertainty and a new stack of technology to learn, the rest of the blockchain industry reflects more traditional ones: “This is about building use cases, proving the value, developing, and technology, deploying on a POC, and so forth,” said Chocron.
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bfb37dfdaca26ed896fcb08b0fbf87e9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinoconnell/2020/04/14/shapeshifts-erik-voorhees-has-a-plan-to-escape-financial-witchcraft/ | ShapeShift’s Erik Voorhees Hatches Plan To Escape “Financial Witchcraft” | ShapeShift’s Erik Voorhees Hatches Plan To Escape “Financial Witchcraft”
“I am appalled and shocked,” says Erik Voorhees, founder of ShapeShift, a self-custody crypto platform. “All the mainstream economists, everyone on Wall Street, and much of the public, is enamored and fully supportive of this idea that you can create wealth and prosperity by printing money.”
Twenty years ago, such a proposition was laughable. “If you brought it up, people would recall stories of the Weimar Republic,” he said, mentioning Zimbabwe’s 2007 hyperinflation crisis, too. “People started trying it out more in the 2008 financial crisis, and called it Quantitative Easing, which is an amazing twisting of words. It is just creating money out of thin air and buying bonds from the federal government.”
But, it's now commonplace and the status quo. “The solution to economic problems is to print money; that's what all these people say,” he laments. “It leads to disaster. Within a generation, it will become very apparent that it was a disaster. And people will be horrified that it was ever believed that you could print money to create prosperity.”
He evokes last week's headlines: the Federal Reserve injects $2.3 trillion into the economy. “It sounds so strong and muscular, it sounds stimulative and like it'll fix things,” said Voorhees. “But, how many people are asking, Inject it from where? It's not like the Federal Reserve had $2.3 trillion of assets that it had saved up through prudent financial savings over time.”
ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees ShapeShift
Instead of complaining, Voorhees wants the crypto industry to continue building the alternative financial system that is cryptocurrency, blockchains, and an open decentralized financial system, which he defines as a system to which anyone can connect, so long as they have a computer or phone.
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“It doesn't matter where they were born, it doesn't matter what passport they hold, it doesn't matter what country they're in, it doesn't matter what race or gender they are,” he said. “It is a totally blind and agnostic system, and anyone can interact with it.” Similar to how the internet itself works, he says.
“That's the kind of model that people should expect when it comes to money, not just information,” he said. “And then, in terms of self sovereignty, this is largely a point about self custody. Basically, the idea that you should be able to control your assets, and have full unilateral ability to send and receive with any other person on earth.” Cryptocurrencies allow you to do that.
“But, obviously, if you are letting some other party hold your funds, then you do not have self sovereignty over those assets,” Voorhees warns. “If they can be frozen by some other party, then you are trusting them. In some circumstances, that might be okay.
“But, people should expect and understand how to use a financial system in a noncustodial, self sovereignty mode,” said Voorhees. “This is what the real alternative is to all this financial witchcraft. The coronavirus, and the economic crisis that's happening as a result of it, will accelerate the timeline on which the alternative is needed. To all those who are in this industry, my advice is to stay focused, and build quickly, because the world is going to need this lifeboat very soon.”
Voorhees believes that, in some ways, ShapeShift, which offers crypto trades with zero commissions and the buying of crypto assets with a debit card, is the best way to interact with this open, decentralized financial system.
“We're basically just trying to make self custody so easy and secure for people that they have no reason to use anything else,” he said. “That's an important task; that's what we focus on. As these basic services get built out, it allows the thesis that crypto will be an alternative to the traditional financial system to really bear out.”
Towards this end, ShapeShift announced today it acquired Portis, an Israeli startup and noncustodial software wallet solution. ShapeShift first integrated Portis in November 2019 to allow people to use ShapeShift.com without a hardware wallet.
“Portis had done such a good job of making it easy to log into a wallet with just a username and password,” said Voorhees. And, it felt as easy as a custodial solution, but it was fully noncustodial. We just love that. And I've been working with them now for the last few months on this.”
Voorhees doesn’t think that people will seek out security if it takes much effort. ShapeShift Platform users will soon be able to log into and access several DeFi services seamlessly, under one account.
“Everyone wants to be secure, but they often won't spend the time to do it or to learn about it,” he said. “To get people secure is a matter of making something so easy that they just tend to use it naturally.”
Tom Teman and Scott Gralnick, founders of Portis Wallet. Portis Wallet
“Portis is the easiest for all the various applications and services in the DeFi ecosystem,” said Voorhees. The acquisition means that Portis users will see the capabilities of their wallets enhanced in the coming months, creating seamless experiences in crypto-to-crypto trading, as well as enabling the instant purchase of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC from a debit card.
“You can log in with Portis, and then your wallet is with you wherever you're logging in,” he explains. “That was the angle from which we approached Portis when we added it to ShapeShift.”
You never really understand a software until you start building with it, says Voorhees. “Our engineers loved it,” he said. “It was smooth, it worked. It did not cause any kind of spike in customer support issues.” The ShapeShift team was very impressed with what Portis built, for it’s really well engineered.
“When you see something that's very complicated, it might seem impressive, because it seems like it was difficult to build,” says Voorhees. “But, generally, when you're trying to build things for consumers, the simpler something is, the better the technology,” he says. “And Portis’ login flow is just so elegantly done. The fact that it was not reliant on any sort of special server hardware module or anything like that, it was just pure client side encryption of keys done in an elegant way that a user can access with an email and a password.”
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8d196949184cbb5716bc450a2b3773c8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinoconnell/2020/04/24/inside-blockchains-coronavirus-hiring-spree/ | Inside Blockchain's Coronavirus Hiring Spree | Inside Blockchain's Coronavirus Hiring Spree
Since January 1, 2020, the share of job postings for cryptocurrency jobs has increased 4.77% on jobs site Indeed. During the course of March 2020, the share of job postings for roles related to cryptocurrency increased by 8.73%.
The jobs site scraped those positions which included the keywords "cryptocurrency," "bitcoin," "ethereum," "blockchain" or "litecoin" in the body or title. Positions include:
Software engineer Software architect Senior software engineer Full stack developer Front end developer Developer Instructor Transformation manager Product manager Development Operations engineer
According to Indeed’s data, companies hiring for jobs related to blockchain include:
IBM Cisco Deloitte Coinbase JPMorgan Chase Facebook Accenture Ripple EY
When it comes to remote-only roles, the numbers are more dramatic. Since the beginning of January 2020, the share of all job postings that are for remote roles related to cryptocurrency increased by a whopping 40.3%. In March 2020 alone, the share of all job postings that are for for remote roles related to cryptocurrency increased by 42.86 %. The remote job positions include:
Broker Infrastructure engineer Senior software engineer Developer Full stack developer Software engineer Business development manager Front end engineer
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As covered in March by Forbes.com, Kraken, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, is also hiring. The company originally planned to hire 250 people in 2020, largely due to the upcoming bitcoin halving. As coronavirus led to people looking for alternative assets, Kraken bumped that number to 350, and moved up their hiring timeline. According to data provided by the exchange, signups grew 39.5% in March month-over-month compared with February, while average daily signups for March were up 61% compared with January.
“The traditional system seems to be completely breaking down all over the world,” said Jesse Powell, co-founder and CEO of Kraken. “So, increased customer demand is going to mean increased business for us, and it's going to mean increased hiring.”
In recent weeks, the company turned to hiring people in the households of its employees, including roommates and close family members, for support related roles. “We did super streamlined on-boarding,” said Powell.
Many of the jobs available in the blockchain industry are for developer positions. Author
Part of Kraken’s motivation was to take care of its own employees. Part was to meet immediate demand. “We felt like members of the household were more likely to be able to vouch for each other,” said Powell. “In a remote working environment, having somebody there with you to help onboard you is really useful; someone sitting next to you to help to answer questions for you.”
It’s not in Kraken’s interest to have its employees completely distracted with the coronavirus crisis, says Powell. “Whether that be a spouse or a roommate losing their job, and now they’ve got to figure out how they are going to buy food or how they are going to pay their rent,” he said. “We were able to alleviate that pressure, which we think makes people more productive.”
They won’t have to deal with such distractions. “Just culturally and business wise, it made sense on so many levels to try to target the people in the households of our employees who are affected.”
Originally, Kraken was expecting to do most of the hiring in the months after the Bitcoin halving, an pre-programmed event on the bitcoin blockchain in which the amount of bitcoin’s rewarded to miners for solving computing puzzles will be cut in half. It is scheduled for May. “We weren’t expecting coronavirus to drop in all of this uncertainty,” Powell said. “It was the reason to hire earlier than we normally do.”
Kraken isn’t the only exchange hiring. San Francisco-based Coinbase announced in a blog post the opening of 100 positions across its United States offices, Europe, and Asia.“As a cryptocurrency company, we’re in a unique position,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Coinbase has never known a time where we’ve operated without volatility. We have managed through 40x growth in a year, and negative 10x growth.”
Armstrong adds: “In a world where unprecedented stimulus packages are being rolled by governments around the world, and a major expansion of the money supply is likely, I believe there has never been a better time for people around the world to learn about sound money and a more global, fair, financial system powered by cryptocurrency. “
If you’re looking to take a job in the blockchain industry, Powell points those interested towards the many Bitcoin job boards out there, such as BitGigs, the ‘Jobs4Bitoin’ subreddit, Crypto Jobs List, and others. Powell offers further advice, too. “If you don't have any experience in the industry, that is one thing to get yourself up to speed on,” he said. “Start reading as much as you can. We often will ask people questions in the interview process, just general crypto questions, to see if they have a basic understanding or are actually interested in the industry.”
Kraken prefers to hire people who have an interest in crypto, not just someone looking for any random job. “If you're applying for a job, but it's a specific business, use their service, try it out, have an opinion about it,” he said. “It never hurts to come into an interview with a feature request or constructive critique.”
By coming in with some understanding of the business, you can demonstrate to your prospective employer that you didn’t just blast out 1,000 applications indiscriminately. “I look at applying for jobs a lot like online dating,” said Powell. “If you think about how you are going to get the person to respond to your message in an inbox with 1,000 other messages, you've got to go a little bit further. Let them know that you really took some time to understand them and why this might be a good fit.”
Many people indiscriminately apply for jobs hoping to get something, as if it's a numbers game, he said.“But, try and be more targeted to get that attention from the recruiter, the screener or whoever's reviewing the stack of 1,000 applications for one role.”
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152d856cfc25cc4a489a572696d9d8f6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinwarren/2017/02/23/jay-fry-leaves-new-relic-to-head-hashicorp-marketing/ | Jay Fry Leaves New Relic To Head HashiCorp Marketing | Jay Fry Leaves New Relic To Head HashiCorp Marketing
Jay Fry, HashiCorp's new head of marketing. (Source: Supplied)
Jay Fry, most recently SVP of Marketing at New Relic, has joined HashiCorp to head up its Marketing efforts as the company seeks to expand further into the enterprise cross-cloud management market.
Known for its open-source tools like Vagrant, Terraform, and Vault, HashiCorp is well known by DevOps practitioners and sees itself as focused on the pragmatic reality of large-scale enterprise customers.
"I like to jump in where there are big market changes happening," Fry said. "HashiCorp is at the center of what's going on right now. The excitement in the market right now is about products that are at the fulcrum of cloud adoption."
HashiCorp targets the enterprise market, and the kind of cloud adoption Fry is seeing from these customers is one of multiple clouds, rather than going all in on one particular cloud provider. "If you're a small company, you're probably going to go all-in on one of the clouds, and you should because your life will be simpler," he says. "For top-end enterprises, they can't, just as a pragmatic reality."
"It's about the organizational realities of cloud adoption in large enterprises that are beyond the technology pieces." says HashiCorp CEO David McJannet. For example, any kinds of merger and acquisition activity—common in even mid-sized enterprises—will likely introduce new technology stacks into the environment. Why force the newly acquired company to change cloud providers just because the parent happens to have chosen a different one in the past? It's a complex exercise at the best of times, and the case for it being value-generating is a tricky one to make.
Instead, larger organizations are more-or-less forced into being multi-cloud (or even hybrid-cloud) for purely pragmatic business reasons, rather than any kind of technological ideology. "Jay's focus is first and foremost about helping continue to build a community of successful practitioners," says McJannet. "This is a product led company."
Of course, there comes a point where the marketing rhetoric has to meet the cold reality of customers parting with their money to purchase your products. For a company that gives away a lot of its products for free, I was curious how HashiCorp managed to convince these large enterprise customers to part with their heard-earned cash.
Making Money With Freemium
The question of how to make money from Open Source is a vexed one, with Red Hat frequently held up as the poster child of commercial open source success, yet it remains a lonely occupant of the category "Open Source Companies That Are Profitable".
Enterprise organizations require features that individual developers and small teams either don't need or don't value. Features like audit logs, complex identity topologies, and security that integrates across them, as well as cross-team collaboration tools. Being able to do all of this in a consistent way, across multiple cloud providers, and at scale, is a non-trivial problem. And solving non-trivial problems has lots of value, which leads to people being willing to spend money on solving those problems.
The freely available version of the HashiCorp tools don't have many of these more complex features, but also have enough functionality to get people hooked on using them. It's the same basic model as used by Slack, GitHub, Docker, and many other DevOps style companies.
"The open source products are really focused on the practitioner," McJannet said. "The enterprise products are focused on the needs of the organization."
It's an important point.
There's money to be made when the reason for a tool existing is no longer about just the one person using it, but how it enables them to work well with others. It feels to me that this is something to look for in other companies with an open source or freemium approach to a market: do they provide products that help individuals or small teams play well with others?
I'm going to be taking this new—to me, at least—insight with me as I look at other companies. Are they helping people play by themselves, or with others? And does that change the amount of value they can provide, and therefore charge for?
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4b094fcdd0aa23ce3de59a28239d33e0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinwarren/2017/09/06/tech-of-vmworld-2017-monitoring/ | Tech of VMworld 2017: Monitoring | Tech of VMworld 2017: Monitoring
The VMworld 2017 logo before the day 1 keynote. Justin Warren
VMworld 2017 was a reinvigorated ecosystem, as I wrote about previously, and there was plenty of interesting tech about datacenter infrastructure was what you wanted to know about.
One of the main categories I spent time to look at was monitoring and telemetry systems. These are software tools used for managing infrastructure in the VMware ecosystem, which is rapidly extending into cloud options.
The most impressive find was the newly rebranded Densify. Previously called Cirba, the company has performed one of the most successful and comprehensive re-positioning efforts I've seen in a long time. It chose to focus on its densification
CTO and co-Founder Andrew Hillier showed me how the tool can do a cost comparison between multiple hosting options, including the just-announced VMware-on-AWS offering, so help customers figure out how to optimise their spend on infrastructure.
Anyone who has dealt with an AWS bill, or attempted to plan out a non-trivial environment in any cloud system and compare it to on-site options, knows how daunting it can be. Densify does this pretty much automatically (on-site pricing is a little trickier, on which more in a moment) and it presents the information is a dead-simple-to-understand dollar cost per month. I understood what it was showing me immediately, and could see the value just as quickly.
There are other costing tools that do similar things, but not in the way Densify does it. Densify uses the real, running workload you have in VMware and can tell you what it would cost in a given cloud. It also helps you optimize your current AWS or other cloud configuration, and helps you fix mis-allocations, even if you've inadvertently purchased Reserved Instances that you really shouldn't have. Densify makes it really simple to see what's mis-allocated, and what to do to fix it. It's just simple and practical and useful.
Densify was the Best of VMworld Gold winner for Workload Management and Migration, and justifiably so.
I don't mean to oversell this, so always check things for yourself, but it's just so rare for me to see a company absolutely nail their positioning and messaging around a product that has clear value.
I also spent time with Turbonomic CEO Ben Nye, who explained to me why the company's focus on performance is so important.
I've been following Turbonomic for a while—since it was called VMTurbo—and the company has always had an obsession with the free market analogy behind its software model of infrastructure. It's designed around software actors buying and selling in a simulated market where you define budgets for different components based on your organizational priorities.
Ignore all that.
The important thing about Turbonomic is that focusing on ensuring application performance (using this internal model that you don't need to care about) means you also fix system issues that cause outages. Turbonomic isn't about efficient allocation of resources, it's about making sure applications perform well as they provide end-user functions.
Turbonomic helps to manage the end-to-end experience, and proactively avoids problems by dynamically re-allocating resources to where they are needed in a system that becomes impossible for a human to manage at scale. Turbonomic helps remove bottlenecks that would otherwise cause problems and helps you to find the real bottlenecks that you can then focus on managing. Read Goldratt's The Goal for a more detailed understanding of the operations management going on here, but know that it's good science and engineering used in manufacturing for decades.
Turbonomic makes these decisions, thousands of them, which are often counter-intuitive. "That's why most humans shouldn't be allowed to make these decisions," says Nye. We just aren't any good at it.
I also spoke to Blue Medora who make a series of plugins for VMware's vRealize Operations (VROPS) and New Relic's application monitoring platform.
Blue Medora is all about filling in the gaps that the native products don't do, adding plugins for things like AWS' RDS and ECS with management packs. The general idea is that by filling in those gaps you can get more use out of the tools you already have, and do more with them.
We talked about the challenge of visibility as the world moves to distributed micro-services architectures where monitoring the CPU and RAM utilization on a couple of servers tells you pretty much nothing about what's actually going on. While the nirvana of a single, unified dashboard that suits everyone—operator and developer alike—is probably an illusion, providing information to people so they can understand what's going on in an increasingly complex system is very important.
The challenge of configuring such a system to be powerful and comprehensive, but also simple to use, is a daunting one. However, without getting the information in the first place, an organization is essentially flying blind, and reliant on low-level diagnostic tools that are time-consuming and complex to use. They should be reserved for deep-dives by specialists when things have gone terribly awry. The rest of the time, we should be able to get high-level information about the health of the system using something like Blue Medora, while something like Turbonomic manages the details of standard operations, and Densify helps us keep costs optimized and alerts us to possible alternatives that are better or cheaper.
A good way to manage the complexity of a modern IT environment—a hairy mix of on-site, cloud, and mobile weirdness—is to have a suite of tools, all working in concert.
That's the story I get from the VMworld ecosystem, and it sounds pretty good to me.
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6546ad22b3740cfd28beaa23b11395e6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinwarren/2020/05/05/backblaze-launches-s3-compatible-api-with-veeam-quantum-and-more/ | Backblaze Launches S3 Compatible API With Veeam, Quantum, And More | Backblaze Launches S3 Compatible API With Veeam, Quantum, And More
Consumer backup target and cheap storage company Backblaze has added an S3 compatible API to its B2 product. Backblaze launched the new API with a host of ISV partners, including backup software heavyweight Veeam.
Thirteen years ago, the Backblaze founders had originally planned to use Amazon Web Services S3 as the backing store for its consumer cloud backup service. "What we realised very early on was that we there was no way we could afford to do that because the Amazon s3 was very expensive, on a per gigabyte basis," said Backblaze co-founder and CEO Gleb Budman.
Gleb Budman, Backblaze co-founder and CEO Supplied
"When we did the math on it, we said 'Oh, that's interesting'," he said. "If we put it on Amazon at the pricing we wanted to charge, we were going to lose money on every single customer. And that's hard to make up in volume."
Losing money on every deal but making it up in volume is a favoured technique of VC-backed startups keen to set fire to as much of other people's money as possible, yet Backblaze had decided to self-fund. This meant the company needed to figure out how to make money as part of its original business plan, rather than delaying this difficult work until some point in the distant future.
"We couldn't kind of count on the magical unicorn coming and saving us three years later," Budman said.
Backblaze now claims to manage over an exabyte of storage on the storage system it designed and built itself.
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Backblaze claims to manage over an exabyte with few employees and little external money invested. Backblaze
Backblaze is famous for sharing, in great detail, the process of designing, building, and using its Backblaze Storage Pods and its regular disk reliability reports are highly anticipated by storage nerds everywhere.
Backblaze had resisted calls to add an S3 compatible API for its B2 storage service, launched five years ago, despite considerable popularity. "We were assuming that developers were going to write to the API," Budman said. "What we found was that, sure, developers can write to it, but the bulk of people out there are not developers."
Backblaze had been telling customers to pressure their software vendors to support the Backblaze B2 API, and many did, but it seems the customer pressure finally became too great. By adding an S3 interface layer, Backblaze has made its B2 service compatible with the broad range of software that already supports S3, and joins a broad ecosystem of other S3-compatible storage providers.
"I really think that this this will be transformative for us in supporting all sorts of use cases and all sorts of customers out there," said Budman.
Adding the S3 interface makes sense to me. It makes Backblaze much more accessible to a huge number of customers that aren't developers. It's much easier for those that are developers to support one API (albeit with a few variations) than many different ones. The growth potential for Backblaze here is immense, and I look forward to seeing how they cope with increased demand.
S3 is the de facto standard for object storage now, so I'd personally like to see it leave the exclusive control of AWS and be managed by an independent standards body of some kind. It left the innovative pioneering stage years ago and the settlers have put down deep enough roots that S3 is ready to get handed over to the town planners. It's time.
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34b43fb0807f52385b1ecff5441eee16 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/juyoungseo/2016/05/30/burj-al-arab-in-dubai-opens-innovate-luxury-outdoor-terrace/ | Burj Al Arab in Dubai Opens Innovate Luxury Outdoor Terrace | Burj Al Arab in Dubai Opens Innovate Luxury Outdoor Terrace
Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai has unveiled Terrace, a highly anticipated outdoor deck as an extension to the hotel. The 10,800-square-foot luxury deck fans 330 feet out into the Persian Gulf and accommodates 32 air-conditioned cabanas, 400 sun loungers, a fresh-water pool, a saltwater pool, a restaurant, and a bar.
Newly opened "Terrace" at Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in Dubai.
When Burj Al Arab opened in 1999 it was the most outrageous and creative building in Dubai, if not in the world, from an architectural construction point of view. Standing on an artificial island of sand, supported by 250 columns, its sail-shaped building has become the most iconic image of Dubai, similar to Sydney’s Opera House or New York’s Statue of Liberty.
In recent years Dubai has become a city of innovation, especially in architecture and luxury. Emaar Properties recently announced plans to erect the world’s tallest building in Dubai by 2020, which will surpass Burj Khalifa, the current world record-holder in the same city and also their brandchild. In addition to the recent opening of uber luxury hotels such as Four Seasons Palazzo Versace, there will be more 5-star properties added to the city in the near future.
Fresh Water Pool
Infinity Pool
The Terrace deck was developed by marine construction experts ADMARES at a shipyard in Finland that specializes in the construction of cruise ships and yachts. The Jumeirah Group, which owns Burj Al Arab, said the process of construction and installation was intended to cause minimal impact to the marine environment and provide shade for local fish and to attract undersea ecosystems that are known to cluster around steel piles. Once constructed in Finland, the 5,000-ton deck was shipped by sea in six parts and assembled on-site.
Alfresco dining at Scape Restaurant
Guests can enjoy alfresco dining at Scape Restaurant & Bar, which serves California cuisine. Cabanas are available for hotel guests and members. The air-conditioned 24 cabanas and 8 Royal Cabanas overlooking the Dubai skyline accommodate up to four people and come with butler service.
The One Bedroom Suite at Burj Al Arab starts at AED 10,000 ($2,700) per night and the most luxurious Royal Suite is AED 70,000 ($19,000) per night.
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94bf1e051f85808ce8cefc0eff23647c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/juyoungseo/2016/07/27/how-to-spend-48-hours-in-monte-carlo-like-the-rich-and-famous/ | How to Spend 48 Hours in Monte Carlo Like the Rich and Famous | How to Spend 48 Hours in Monte Carlo Like the Rich and Famous
The world is divided in two in Monte Carlo: The rich and those who want to feel rich.
Half an hour from Nice and a little over three hours from Milan by car, Monte Carlo makes a good luxury pit-stop to mingle with the stylish crowd of well-heeled Europeans. This small city that occupies 0.234 square miles is easy to explore in a day or two if you want to see a remnant of lingering old glamour and have a glimpse of the life of high society.
Monte Carlo (photo credit: Juyoung Seo)
Stay in a swanky hotel, lounge at the exclusive beach club by day, dine on the terrace of a finest restaurant in the evening (with a view of the fleet of multi-million dollar yachts docked in the harbor), spend an evening at the legendary Monte Carlo Casino (go see the exuberant Bell Epoque architecture even if you don’t play a single hand of blackjack).
It’s also a charming experience to walk up the winding hills of the old town to tour the Royal Palace, which is also a perfect spot to watch the sunset.
Monte Carlo Casino (photo credit: Juyoung Seo)
HOW TO GET THERE
Situated along the French Riviera at the foot of the Maritime Alps, Monte Carlo offers easy access by car or air. The closest airport is a 30-minute drive, in Nice, France. If you decide to drive, entering the city in a convertible with the top down is the way to go. After all, it’s the city of the Grand Prix and where some of the James Bond movies were filmed. Alternatively, you can arrange a private helicopter transfer from the airport through Heli Air Monaco.
WHERE TO STAY
- Hotel de Paris: Palatial and majestic, this 150-year-old hotel -- which is constantly ranked among one of the best in Europe -- is the most luxurious option for those who want to be surrounded by old glamour.
Hotel de Paris (photo credit: Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer)
Hotel de Paris (photo credit: Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer)
Rooms start from €371.
- Hôtel Hermitage: Part of The Leading Hotels of the World, this splendid Bell Epoque hotel boasts ornate decorations, including a cupola that was designed by Gustave Eiffel. The rooms are spacious and tastefully decorated. Don’t miss the breakfast room and restaurants, which boast an outdoor terrace overlooking the ocean.
Hôtel Hermitage (photo credit: Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer)
Rooms start from €298.
WHERE TO EAT
- Le Louis XV by Alain Ducasse: This three-Michelin-starred restaurant by this legendary chef is a must for savoring the taste of the French Riviera. It’s set within Hôtel de Paris and considered by many food critics to be one of the best French restaurants in the world.
- Joel Robuchon Monte Carlo: Dine at this exceptional French restaurant with two Michelin stars for the creative yet refined Mediterranean dishes. It’s situated in the uber-luxury Hotel Metropole and offers an elegant ambience with rich drapery and beautiful wallpaper throughout. They offer a vegetarian menu as well as a special lunch menu.
- Le Vistamar: Set within the luxury Hôtel Hermitage, this seafood restaurant on the terrace with an ocean view makes it one of the best spots in Monte Carlo for alfresco dining.
Le Vistamar at Hôtel Hermitage (photo credit: Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer)
Elsa: Situated at the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel, this 100% organic restaurant (certified by Ecocert, the leading French organic certification body) puts an emphasis on locally sourced produce and seasonal ingredients. It’s the first 100% organic restaurant ever to win a Michelin star. Get an outdoor table if you can.
The view from the restaurant Elsa (photo credit: Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer)
WHERE TO DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY
Jimmy’z has been the legendary club since 1971, providing the nightlife experience with some of the Europe’s best DJs. Located in the Sporting Monte Carlo complex, its outdoor deck goes out on the ocean, providing a beautiful setting.
WHERE TO SHOP
In the heart of the city, a few meters from the Monte Carlo Casino, is the Monte Carlo Pavilions in Boulingrins Gardens. This shopping center of five contemporary white curvy spaces houses twenty luxury shops ranging from Chanel to Saint Laurent.
Also, the “Carré d’Or” area (between Hotel Hermitage and Monte-Carlo Casino) that includes Place du Casino and Avenue Monte-Carlo is home to numerous jewellers and stores such as Hermes and Prada.
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91185270656e322357b2dbeaa9ac4ff2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/juyoungseo/2020/09/11/adapting-to-new-normal-luxury-hotel-riggs-washington-dc-has-reopened/ | Adapting To "New Normal": Luxury Hotel Riggs Washington DC Has Reopened | Adapting To "New Normal": Luxury Hotel Riggs Washington DC Has Reopened
Riggs Washington DC in the Penn Quarter area has reopened.
It’s been a challenging year for the hospitality business, and in a way, more so for Riggs.
Soon after its grand opening in February, the luxury hotel had to close due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Amid the still-lingering fear and the possibility of the second wave, many hotels are slowly reopening. Riggs has made a stylish, albeit cautious, comeback with new features including safety measures.
Rooftop at Riggs at night. Jennifer Hughes
The 181 room hotel is housed in the historic Riggs National Bank, a.k.a. the “Bank of Presidents,” where 23 U.S. presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, had banked. This swanky hotel in the heart of the city exudes European charm — not surprisingly, as the hotel group behind it was also responsible for the acclaimed Pulitzer Amsterdam and Sea Containers London on the River Thames. As well as its central location and proximity to attractions such as the White House and the National Mall, Riggs Washington DC boasts the boldly designed interior by Lore Group’s Creative Director, Jacu Strauss. His signature whimsical design was carefully executed throughout the property, honoring the history of the building.
With the reopening of the hotel, Riggs Washington DC made a number of changes in order to deal with challenges imposed by Covid-19. Most notably, the new Rooftop at Riggs has made its debut, offering panoramic views of the city and a casual menu of Mediterranean-inspired aperitifs and seasonal cocktails.
In an interview, David Taylor, COO of Lore Group, explains how the hotel is adapting to the new normal in response to the pandemic and social challenges.
Riggs is the first property of Lore Group outside of Europe and its opening was highly anticipated before it had to close due to the Covid-19. How do you see the hospitality business changing in these new circumstances and how will Riggs adapt to this new normal?
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“We have a long-term commitment to Riggs so we want to ensure that whatever we do in the short term will ensure our future success for this iconic DC landmark. With less international guests and conventions/groups, we have shifted our revenue focus to staycations and near county markets with a tailored re-opening offer that provides some additional value such as complimentary upgrades, a credit to use in Café Riggs — the hotel's ground-level restaurant — and late check-outs.
From an employee and guest safety perspective, we have taken the current DC mandates and then gold-plated them to ensure we are going above and beyond, but at the same time ensuring that as a world-class hospitality business, we don’t lose sight of our role in providing a fantastic guest experience.”
Some hotels are renting out rooms as office spaces in order to survive the crisis. Are you diversifying the offerings at your hotels as a result of the pandemic?
“We are indeed. We can see that our guests are looking for spaces, which combine the ability to work and socialize. We have created a dual functional space on our rooftop. Rooftop at Riggs is an open-air, spacious and sophisticated rooftop bar terrace where views of Penn Quarter are complemented by a bright and breezy menu of Mediterranean inspired aperitifs and small plates. Similarly, the hotel now also offers the new apartment-style Riggs Suite – once the boardroom of the “Bank of Presidents” – which is a spacious entertainment space available for intimate gatherings, meetings, and receptions.
Additionally, we have expanded our ground-floor restaurant, Café Riggs, outside for an alfresco patio dining experience with flexible wall partitions, as well as implemented delivery and takeout service with curbside pickup.”
Riggs Washington DC is offering the new apartment-style "Riggs Suite", once the boardroom of the ... [+] “Bank of Presidents." Jennifer Hughes
"Rooftop at Riggs" has made its debut with the re-opening. Jennifer Hughes
The Covid-19 is a global issue that caused the closing of Riggs and Lore’s other properties. But there are also local issues that the hotel cannot ignore. Black Life Matters and the March On Washington which took place in the city on August 28th, for instance. How will Riggs deal with these matters in order to support regional/social issues?
“The Riggs team has been engaged from the ground up through their ongoing partnership with DC Central Kitchen, which, in its core purpose, works to create equal opportunities in DC and alleviate hunger as part of that. The team was also donating food and supplies to protesters in early June. We have also partnered long-term with Horton’s Kids, another local non-profit in which our team members will volunteer their time with underprivileged children that aims to provide a holistic, researched-based continuum of academic, youth development, and basic needs support designed to empower children to succeed.
Months before the March on Washington, we also supported several peaceful protests in partnership with a local non-profit charity: Friends and Family Meal that provided grab and go food stations full of supplies for the marchers, located on the march routes.”
How are you making sure that it’s safe to stay at Riggs during the pandemic?
“To provide an enhanced guest experience and a safe environment for all visitors, hotel staff are adhering to CDC guidelines including the wearing of protective facemasks and more. Contactless payment, check-in/out and menus, along with the frequent deep cleaning and sanitizing of spaces, practicing social distancing, and regular employee health checks are all being enforced.”
(You can find more details here.)
Covid-19 aside, how do you see the future of the hospitality business in Washington D.C.? There have been several openings of stylish hotels in the area. What do you think of this new trend?
“Washington, D.C., recognized this year as the “number-one place to go” by the New York Times, has never had a shortage of excellent hotels, jam-packed with history. However, we see traveler’s needs and expectations changing with design-forward additions such as Riggs which rely less on old-school luxury pretense and hone in on an individualized guest experience given we are all different. The addition of new hotels and restaurants can only help attract domestic and international visitors to DC.”
(Read my previous article to find more about Riggs Washington DC.)
Riggs Washington DC is at 900 F Street NW, Washington D.C. 20004.
(Phone): +1 202-638-1800
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b6460c6c96165568a368352236b4f57d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2015/08/30/inside-out-science/ | How 'Inside Out' Explains The Science Of Memory | How 'Inside Out' Explains The Science Of Memory
The five emotions of Inside Out (Image: Disney/Pixar)
Inside Out is not just Pixar's best film since Toy Story 3, it's also the smartest. Mostly set inside the mind of 11-year-old Riley as she moves to a new town, the movie uses colorful characters to illustrate how emotions influence our memories.
We humans have two main memory systems: implicit and explicit. Implicit memory includes unconscious processes like emotional and skeletal responses, learning skills and habits, plus reflex actions. Explicit memory stores facts and events, and recalling that information requires conscious awareness. The two systems can be separate, which is why you might retain an implicit fear of clowns after forgetting the explicit experience that originally triggered your coulrophobia. The two memory systems can also be connected when events have emotional significance – the focus of Pixar's film.
Outward emotions
Inside Out depicts five emotions as characters with distinct personalities: Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Sadness. These are inspired by the work of American psychologist Robert Plutchik, who proposed that we have eight basic emotions, which can be arranged on a wheel with pairs of opposites: joy and sadness, anger and fear, trust and disgust, anticipation and surprise.
Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions (Image: Wikipedia)
Plutchik called this idea a 'psycho-evolutionary synthesis' because it's based on Charles Darwin's theory that an animal's outward expressions reflect emotions that help them survive. As stated at the start of Inside Out, fear stops you from putting yourself in danger, for example, while disgust prevents you from poisoning yourself. Although the film's major characters are Joy and Sadness, the most vital emotion in nature is fear. Having emotions is driven by natural selection: if an animal isn't able to recognise a potential threat, it risks being killed.
Learning and memory helps animals respond quickly to situations that resemble past experiences, which improves its chances of survival. Attaching emotions to an event gives that explicit memory some context, and also makes it stronger. As Riley's imaginary friend Bing Bong says, "When Riley doesn't care about memories, they fade."
In Inside Out, each memory is a glowing orb whose colours match the movie's five emotions: yellow for joy, blue for sadness, red for anger, purple for fear, and green for disgust. Memories aren't limited to a single emotion, as shown at the end of the film when most of Riley's memory orbs aren't uniform, but become marbles filled with multicoloured swirls of emotions. For example, while not named in the movie, combining joy and sadness (blue and yellow) creates sentimental feelings for the past, or nostalgia (Greek for 'ache for home').
Inside the brain
So how do memories and emotions become connected? The process begins with stress hormones released by adrenal glands, which ultimately activate the amygdala, a pair of tonsil-sized areas in each brain hemisphere. The amygdala is located above a pair of seahorse-shaped structures called the hippocampus, which is roughly equivalent to Inside Out's aptly-named 'Headquarters'. The five emotions personify the amygdala, and attach emotional significance to a new memory by pressing a big button on the control console in Headquarters, which is akin to nerve cells (neurons) in the amygdala sending signals to the hippocampus.
Brain areas associated with emotional responses (Image CC BY 3.0: OpenStax College /... [+] http://cnx.org/content/col11496)
Memory has two lifespans: working (or 'short-term') and long-term. Working memory keeps knowledge in mind for cognitive functions like learning and reasoning, enabling us to compare and contrast information. Long-term memory is needed when the brain is presented with more information than it can handle, such as when you're asked to memorise 10 words at once.
Long-term storage of facts and events (explicit memory) depends on the hippocampus, as proven by the case of 'HM', who suffered from epileptic seizures. In their famous 1957 study, surgeon William Scoville and neuroscientist Brenda Milner removed a small part of HM's brain, the hippocampus and surrounding areas within the medial temporal lobe. The procedure cured HM of epilepsy, but also left the patient with anterograde amnesia – the inability to form new long-term memories.
Long-term memory in Inside Out (Image: Disney/Pixar)
The memory orbs of Inside Out are sent through vacuum tubes down to 'Long Term', a library of endless shelves that hold Riley's memories. From above, Long Term looks like the cerebral cortex, folded outer layers that make a mammal's brain to resemble a walnut. Jellybean-like characters known as 'Mind Workers' pick memories off a shelf and thrown them into the 'Memory Dump', a deep chasm where the unwanted orbs go dull and the information they carry – such as old phone numbers and piano lessons – is soon forgotten.
Scattered storage
In the movie, an individual memory is a single orb. But in the brain, each memory doesn't exist in a specific location, but as a branching network of neurons. More precisely, each memory is stored or 'encoded' as a pattern of synapses, as the tiny gaps between brain cells. (An adult brain has 86 billion neurons, each with about a thousand synapses.) The pattern of nerve impulses across the cerebral cortex creates the physical trace of a memory, what scientists call an 'engram'.
Sleep is an important process for learning and storing memories. The brain's hypothalamus – located above the amygdala – controls the switch between being awake or asleep. In Inside Out, Riley enters REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep the second she closes her eyes. In reality, we fall into non-REM first, then alternate between REM and non-REM over 4-5 sleep cycles during the night.
REM sleep often includes dreaming, and one theory for why we dream is that the sensations and emotions we experience are a side-effect of random firing of impulses during the strengthening and pruning of the connections between neuron branches. Our brain tries to make sense of our thoughts by stitching them together into a logical story. In Pixar's film, Riley's mind has a studio called 'Dream Production' that creates movies based on her past experiences. This often creates a disjointed narrative. As Fear shouts while watching a dream, "Boo! Pick a plot line!"
Unreliable recall
Your memory isn't as reliable as you might think. Research by American psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has shown that our minds can be manipulated via a 'misinformation effect' that implants false memories. In a 1974 study, Loftus showed participants a video of a car crash, then told them to recall the accident. After being asked a leading question or changing one minor detail, like using the word 'smashed' instead of 'hit', people would estimate that vehicles had travelled at faster speeds, and remembered seeing broken glass – even though it wasn't there. This highlights the dangers of relying on eyewitness testimony alone during criminal trials.
Memory recall in Inside Out (Image: Disney/Pixar)
In Inside Out, recall occurs when memory orbs from Long Term are sent back up to Headquarters, where a projector shines light through the orb so a past event is replayed on a screen in front of the control console. Although this is the most common way to show the past in the medium of moving pictures, it perpetuates the myth that individual memories are recorded as linear film sequences that we can rewind or fast-forward.
But in the brain, each memory actually consists of scattered information – synaptic connections between neurons – that only leave a physical trace during storage or recall. Every time a memory is accessed, its bits are pieced back together. And so instead of retrieval, it's more accurate to describe recall as 'recollection'. The process of converting information in working memory to long-term is known as 'consolidation', and scientists have found that recall can sometimes cause memories to be reconsolidated. This means there's potential for a memory to become modified by synapses that weren't part of its original physical trace.
Inside Out also shows that the association between explicit events and implicit emotions isn't permanent, as illustrated whenever the character Sadness changes a memory orb's colour from yellow (joy) to blue. Researchers are testing ways to exploit reconsolidation to improve mental health. Drugs like propranolol (a beta blocker that interferes with molecules that help form and maintain memories) can be given while someone relives a bad experience to cut synaptic connections between an event and its associated emotions. This could reduce the emotional impact of flashbacks that soldiers experience in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for example.
The unreliable nature of human memory is illustrated at the end of Inside Out, when Joy realises that one of Riley's happiest moments followed an unhappy event, after her team lost a big hockey game. Clearly, the moral of the story is that emotions – even negative ones like sadness – are necessary for dealing with life's ups and downs.
Pixar's movie is also a triumph for science education. It's not perfect (there's no biological basis for a 'Core Memory' or the 'Islands of Personality', for instance) but it's still a very clever film. Analogy is a powerful tool that helps people understand complex concepts in an intuitive way, without jargon, and Inside Out has managed to teach a generation of kids – and adults – how memory works.
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746f62b5e47992ed4dee24470ea431de | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2015/10/27/bacon-cancer/ | Bacon Causes Cancer, But Don't Worry About It | Bacon Causes Cancer, But Don't Worry About It
Fried bacon rashers (Image CC BY-SA 2.0: cyclonebill / https://flic.kr/p/4onV98)
Don't panic, but the World Health Organization has declared that processed meats – which includes bacon, ham and salami – cause cancer.
Scientists from WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IAGR) came to this conclusion based on a survey of over 800 studies: 12 out of 18 long-term observations (cohort studies) from the meta-analysis reported a link between consuming processed meat and developing colon cancer. As a result, IAGR's panel of 22 experts has 'classified consumption of processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" (Group 1)'.
Because the 'Group 1' category also includes tobacco and other cancer-causing substances, some newspapers have claimed that processed meats are 'as big a cancer threat as smoking' and 'rank alongside smoking as cancer causes'.
The alarming headlines imply that eating processed meat is just as bad as smoking. This is very, very wrong: the various carcinogens are not comparable – being in Group 1 only means there's sufficient evidence to support the possibility that a substance causes cancer. (The IAGR panel also concluded that red meat – beef, lamb or pork from the muscle of mammals – should be classified as Group 2A, or 'probably carcinogenic to humans'.)
Risk factors
The effects on health depend on dose. The researchers calculated that each 50-gram portion of processed meat, eaten daily, increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. That's a small amount: 50g is roughly two rashers of bacon, or a large hot dog. As IARC's Dr Kurt Straif states in the press release: "For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed." There's no context for the level of risk, only a vague warning.
Risk is notoriously difficult to understand, however, and 18% seems like a big number. Many people will interpret "increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%" to mean a rise from zero to 18%. But that increase isn't absolute risk – it's the relative risk.
To put the figure in perspective: the risk of developing lung cancer is 23.6 times higher among male smokers than non-smokers, so smoking increases the relative risk by 2360%. So if you started with a hypothetical 5% risk of developing bowel cancer, consuming 50g of bacon every day would only raise your risk to almost 6%.
Biological effects
As with any lifestyle choice, there are costs and benefits to eating meat, which leads to tradeoffs. Meat is rich in nutrients like iron, but iron in the blood forms N-nitroso-compounds (NOC). The process of curing produces carcinogenic chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) but also prevents microbes from growing, reducing the chance of food poisoning (few organisms can survive high salt content). High-temperature cooking by grilling or pan-frying creates carcinogens such as heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) but heat kills pathogens too.
Carcinogens such as NOC, PAH and HAA are 'genotoxic' because they trigger mutations within and around a cell's DNA, which prompts abnormal behaviour. Tissues of the digestive tract are obviously exposed to the chemicals in food on a regular basis, which partly explains why the colon and rectum are so vulnerable to generating out-of-control tumour cells.
Should you avoid processed meats? Given that I'm a trained biologist and my father's a surgeon who specializes in colorectal cancer, you might think I wouldn't recommend eating processed meat. But that would be a knee-jerk reaction to oversimplifying IARC's conclusions. I won't discuss the ethical considerations of being vegetarian here, but will emphasize that most advice – even from public health authorities – isn't based on good science.
Health advice
Diet and nutrition are extremely complicated. Frankly speaking, anyone who claims that a specific diet will work for you personally (and by extension, everyone) is talking out of their rectum. There's a very simple biological reason for that: everyone is different.
Genetics plays a part. For example, the tumour suppressor protein 'APC' normally helps protect against cancer, and mutations to the APC gene are associated with processed meat consumption. And as with most characteristics, there's nature via nurture: individuals vary due to their unique combination of genes, the influence of their environment, and the complex interaction between the two. A journalist might call APC a 'gene for bacon resistance', but it's hard to know precisely how genetic programming manifests as a physiological feature – in this case, your body's ability to protect itself against the harmful effects of meat.
So should you cut-down on processed meat? Yes, especially if you currently eat lots of it. But should you worry about bacon causing cancer? No.
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36b9979dacca4162d2f23fb58e08063f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2015/11/12/animal-president/ | Why Donald Trump Couldn't Lead A Pack of Hyenas | Why Donald Trump Couldn't Lead A Pack of Hyenas
Who will be the next leader of the United States?
The two main political parties are at very different stages in choosing their presidential candidate: while Hillary Clinton looks set to win the Democratic nomination, there's no clear front-runner in the Republican race. This difference has parallels with how leaders emerge in nature.
Animal leadership is challenging because scientists disagree on exactly what it means. "A basic definition that we can all agree upon is the leader initiates something," says Dr Jennifer Smith, a biologist at Mills College in Oakland, California.
Smith recently led a survey of social mammals by a diverse team that included anthropologists, psychologists and mathematicians. The new study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, compared 16 groups: eight small human societies lacking complex political systems, and eight non-human species, from African elephants to the plains zebra.
"Many people assume that humans are somehow unique and special," says Smith. "And likely we are, but we went into this thinking, 'Okay, let's look at the data'." That research revealed leadership patterns that apply to everything from primates to presidential candidates.
Learning from animals
A lot of what we know about leadership is based on stereotypes and not genuine observations from nature. For example, mammalian groups are rarely led by a single individual, says Smith. "There's often this misconception that someone is coordinating all of the behaviour, when in fact much of it is happening on a much smaller scale and there's no centralized authority."
How does leadership of large groups come from small-scale coordination? A president can't control every citizen, but they can set policy and direct their staff, so orders trickle-down to prompt actions that change the behavior of a society. ObamaCare has forced many Americans to alter their health insurance, for instance. Such patterns emerge from a 'fission-fusion society'.
"What you see most of the time is small subsets meeting up," Smith explains. "So you have three hyenas – who's the dominant one, who's the subordinate one? Same for humans: individuals are constantly meeting-up with each other, having to deal with who's the leader, and switching those roles potentially, or keeping them the same."
The big difference between humans and non-human societies is that, in people, a leader's roles are more flexible. Smith's study rated leadership in four domains: movement, acquiring food, mediating conflict within a group, and interactions with other groups. The results showed that in many species, leaders in one domain are leaders in another, being the first to move and also leading from the front in battle – the leader of a pack.
"In the animals that we looked at, we don't see as much role specialization as you see in the human cases," says Smith, who believes that having leaders in charge of certain things might lead to more efficiency overall. "Individuals in the group could benefit from having different tasks allocated to different individuals."
Natural leadership
Spotted hyenas have female-dominated, matriarchal societies with a dominance hierarchy. "Whether it's hunting or acquiring food, the high-ranking one, she gets to eat first," says Smith. Unlike a U.S. president, who's commander-in-chief but rarely a soldier, a hyena puts its life on the line when fighting other groups. "The high-ranking female is at the front lines when they go to war."
So how is Clinton an alpha female?
President Hillary Clinton would be like a high-ranking hyena due to the origin and source of her political power. The study led by Jennifer Smith looked at long-term data to assess animal leadership in four dimensions: the benefit relative to being a follower, how leaders are distributed within a society, how leadership emerges, and the strength of a leader's power.
Smith and colleagues rated how powerful a leader is using a five-point scale: a score of 1 means leadership is weak or non-existent (decision-making is highly democratic), while a rating of 5 means leaders are despots (they coerce or persuade others to follow). For example, there's weak leadership in a pride of lions, an egalitarian society in which group members help raise each others' offspring. (Donald Trump's penchant for firing would probably not go over well in a pride of lions.)
The Lion King has a lot to answer for. "When they're eating, they'll often share and eat together, and there's not really this pecking order that you might find in something like a hyena," says Smith, making an analogy with the U.S. presidency. "In our political societies, as you have a leader that's starting to move out of office, they might not have as much power as they might have had when they first came in."
Leadership can emerge through a process of competition based on an individual's qualities and performance, or they can inherit power through family connections – what social scientists call 'achieved' or 'ascribed' status. On a 5-point scale, a score of 1 means leadership is fully based on achievement, whereas 5 means it's fully ascribed.
The relationship between the origin and strength of leadership can be plotted on a graph, which shows how powerful leaders are (x-axis) versus how they emerge (y-axis) after converting the scores. Leadership is achieved in bottlenose dolphins, but they have weak leaders, for example, whereas female hyenas inherit power from their mother, and the highest-ranking alpha female is especially strong. "She can make decisions regardless of how any other members of the group are 'voting'," says Smith.
Republicans: too human?
Although Clinton obviously didn't inherit power from a parent, her husband Bill Clinton was a popular president. Family ties probably helped one famous political dynasty, the Kennedys and, as Smith points out, the Bushes. Jeb Bush, an early favourite for the Republican Party's nomination, is son of George Bush Sr and brother of George W, giving him an 'ascribed' leadership status.
If Americans elect a president based on 'achieved' leadership, it does't bode well for charismatic candidates like Ben Carson and Donald Trump, who have little political experience, whereas Hillary Clinton also served as a U.S. senator and Secretary of State.
But the fact that Democrats already have a leading candidate isn't necessarily better, as the drawn-out selection process also provides more time to consider the options. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, delegates will pick the party's nominee. "You might be stuck in that meeting forever because nobody can figure out who the leader is," says Smith. "But maybe at the end of it you'll have a better leader."
Smith won't be drawn on which presidential candidate would make the best leader. "I'm not going to name any names," she laughs. Based on leadership in nature, however, she suggests that a good president should engage in bipartisan politics. "The one thing I can say that would be a very clear message is that the cooperative leaders tend to be more efficient."
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60079fd8196e2ebf3c7012921558303d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2017/09/16/how-face-id-works-apple-iphone-x/ | How Face ID Works On iPhone X | How Face ID Works On iPhone X
iPhone X Apple
Apple's new smartphone, iPhone X, uses a recognition system called 'Face ID' to unlock the device and authorize payments. How does it check your identity is authentic?
"It compares two face images and determines how similar they are," says Professor Anil Jain, who studies pattern recognition and computer vision at Michigan State University. "In the simplest way, that's what face recognition does. You enrol your face, just like in Touch ID you enrol your fingerprint."
Image capture
Face ID uses a combination of light projectors and sensors to take several images of your facial features. Collectively called the 'TrueDepth camera system', Apple says these technologies work together to build a 'detailed depth map of your face to recognize you in an instant.'
Face ID set up Apple
To set up Face ID, you follow the on-screen instructions, which involve moving your head in a circle so a camera can take multiple shots of your face for a 3D map. It uses infrared (IR) light to illuminate your face while capturing the images, to work day or night, outside or indoors. IR spans wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (known commonly as 'light') just beyond the visible spectrum, so iPhone X's display won't dazzle you in the dark.
TrueDepth camera system Apple
"Infrared light is a non-visible illuminator, which will compensate for the effect of low background or ambient light, and very high or bright sunlight," Jain explains. "So infrared illumination helps in enabling the face recognition to work in non-favorable conditions."
3D dot model Apple
Here are the steps for image capture:
The proximity sensor and ambient light sensor help the TrueDepth camera system determine how much illumination will be needed for face recognition; The flood illuminator produces infrared (IR) light, part of the electromagnetic spectrum that's invisible to the naked eye, to illuminate your face; The dot projector produces more than 30,000 dots of invisible IR light to create a three-dimensional map (for area and depth) of your facial landscape; The infrared camera captures images of the dot pattern and the IR light (a heat signature) that's been reflected back from your face.
Face recognition
Your face is a 'biometric' -- a measurable biological characteristic. Some other biometrics used in security include fingerprints, voice and the irises of eyes.
All biometric authentication systems basically compare two complex patterns and calculate how similar they are. Those patterns may be the waveforms in your voice, your fingertip ridges, the colored structures of your iris, or your landscape of facial features.
When a biometric system is set up, a computer -- such as the processor in your smartphone -- will capture and store the reference patterns, known as a template or 'enrolment image'. Then when you want to access a device (e.g. unlock your phone), you present the computer with a 'verification image'.
"Internally it computes a score between 0 and 1," says Jain. "If it's closer to 1, that means it's the same fingerprint or face. If it's closer to 0, it's not the same person."
As the enrolment and verification images won't be identical due to differences in capture conditions, your phone uses a threshold to determine whether they're significantly different. A comparison score of 0.7 might be close enough under some scenarios, for example, and that minimum score is not a fixed number.
"If you are just unlocking the phone, the internal threshold which your mobile phone company uses could be relatively low -- they could set it at 0.5 or 0.6," says Jain, adding that the number can be high in certain contexts, like when you pay for expensive products. "If this is a secure transaction when you are buying a $10,000 necklace at Tiffany's, maybe the threshold will go up to 0.9."
All the calculations happen too fast for you to notice, thanks to the power of smartphone processors. iPhone X uses a 'Neural Engine' that, as Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller boasted, "can perform over 600 billion operations per second, and it's used to do real-time processing of Face ID recognition."
Here are the steps for face recognition:
The IR images are sent from the camera to iPhone X's 'Neural Engine' computer processor to build a 3D mathematical model (map) of your face; The 3D model or 'verification image' is presented to the computer's algorithms and compared against your stored template or 'enrolment image'; The processor calculates whether the verification and enrolment images match, based on a comparison score of similarity between your images; The phone authenticates your identity and unlocks (or authorises a payment) if the comparison score is higher than a certain threshold value.
NEXT PAGE: Neural networks and PIE
Whether biometric recognition is successful also depends on being ready for the authentication process. In the same way that smartphone users are now accustomed to cleaning a greasy or wet finger before trying to unlock their device, those with an iPhone X will need to prepare their face.
Authentication accuracy
Three variables influence the accuracy of face recognition: pose, illumination and expression. Researchers abbreviate this to 'PIE'.
"Under the most favourable conditions," says Jain, "if the user is cooperative and provides a frontal pose, illumination is uniform and expression is neutral, the accuracy can be as high as 99.99%."
Recognition is obviously more accurate when your face isn't obscured. After the three variables of PIE, there's a fourth parameter: facial occlusion. That means your face isn't covered-up by things like a scar or sunglasses.
To date, face recognition has required your strict cooperation. "For all the government applications so far -- passport, visa, mugshots, driver's license -- you are asked to provide photos with certain standards," says Jain. "You cannot be laughing or smiling for a passport photo. The background is flat, lighting is inside, and you're asked to remove any facial accessories."
Face ID seems to overcome many of the above restrictions, as Apple claims that its system is able to recognize you despite changes in your physical appearance, like when you wear glasses or a hat, cut your hair or grow a beard.
Better face recognition occurs thanks to so-called 'neural' technology. Schiller said that iPhone X's Neural Engine is "specialised hardware built for a specific set of machine learning algorithms" and Apple "developed multiple neural networks to create Face ID." What does all that technobabble really mean?
Machine learning algorithms are the instructions that allow machines to adapt, while an artificial neural network is a computer system inspired by the brain, whose interconnected structures (particularly neurons) provide the incredible processing power that enables an animal to learn and adapt to its surroundings.
Precisely how Apple's machine learning and neural network actually work isn't important, only that it lets Face ID continually update its algorithm so that it's able to recognize you when your appearance changes.
Apple calls Face ID 'A revolution in recognition'. But is its system really revolutionary, and how accurate is it? While Schiller claims "it just all works" and subjective experiences have been favourable, Apple's latest smartphone isn't yet available, so there isn't any objective research by a third party.
According to Anil Jain, his fellow scientists are keen to test how well Face ID works on iPhone X. "I'm sure people are waiting to get hold of that new model as soon as possible, so they can start evaluating it."
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248f1158f98968d0db15d4a0b3d7b6db | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2019/05/07/avengers-endgame-biodiversity/ | The Science Of 'Avengers: Endgame' Proves Thanos Did Nothing Wrong | The Science Of 'Avengers: Endgame' Proves Thanos Did Nothing Wrong
Thanos in 'Avengers: Infinity War' Marvel Studios
At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the villain Thanos acquired the infinity stones for a gauntlet that let him snap his fingers and turn half the population to dust. In doing so, Thanos believes he's achieved his goal, a universe free of suffering. His reasoning is simple: on a planet with too many people and limited resources, the survivors have more than they need, solving the world's problems.
Spoiler Alert! This article contains mild spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
Is Thanos right about overpopulation? His rationale seems to make sense if we consider our own planet. Since the Industrial Revolution, the world population has grown rapidly. The figure is currently over 7.6 billion and is projected to reach 10 billion in 2050.
Fewer people ought to mean more food and less hunger, and might lower the risk of an epidemic when overcrowding enables the spread of disease. Human activity is driving a loss of biodiversity, with about 25% of animals and plants now threatened with extinction, so halving the population would help other species. As a consequence, you could conclude that by eliminating 50% of all humans, Thanos did the Earth a huge favor.
The idea that Thanos did nothing wrong has become an internet meme, but the joke does have some truth to it -- and Endgame provides the proof.
During a conversation between Captain America and Black Widow early in the movie, five years after the events of Infinity War, Cap mentions crossing the Hudson River in New York and says, "I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge." That one line implies a bright side to Thanos' actions: they were beneficial to the environment.
Promoting Biodiversity
Would removing half the human population really benefit the planet? According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, a 'dangerous decline' driven by five factors: land use, hunting or exploiting wildlife, climate change, pollution and introducing invasive species.
Even if humanity could stop carbon dioxide emissions today, global warming would continue for hundreds of years and several long-term effects can't be reversed. Over a short period like the five years depicted in Endgame, we wouldn't notice any improvement to climate, but a Thanos snap might influence the other four extinction factors.
Black Widow and Captain America in 'Avengers: Endgame' Marvel Studios
Let's imagine how halving the human population might have an impact on marine mammals. In Endgame, Captain America suggests that whales are able to swim in the Hudson because "There's fewer ships, cleaner water." This sounds plausible. After commercial whaling was made widely illegal in the 20th century, some animals recovered: the number of Right whales (the most endangered large species in the Atlantic Ocean) has risen by almost 3% per year, for example, from about 300 in 1935 to 500 in 2010. Animals still become entangled in fishing nets, however, so less traffic from "fewer ships" might well mean more whales.
What about "cleaner water"? Persistent organic pollutants like the chemical PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) become more concentrated as they pass along the food chain, reaching toxic levels that threaten marine apex predators and spell doom for half of orca (killer whales). Meanwhile, microscopic particles of plastic -- microplastics like those in synthetic fibres from clothing -- have been found in the guts of every marine mammal that washes-up on Britain's shores. Fewer people creating less pollution might also prove Cap right about whales.
Endgame shows that Thanos' actions helped animals. And while there's no doubt that he's a mass murderer, it's misleading to use provocative language like 'kill' or 'genocide', or say that using the infinity stones 'wiped-out' half the population. The snap itself simply erased people from existence.
Reducing Overpopulation
Thanos believes he's performing a necessary evil that's required to achieve a greater good, actions with the side-effect of promoting long-term biodiversity on Earth. Why would the Avengers want to reverse the effect of the snap? (READ: The Confusing Timeline of 'Avengers: Endgame' Explained)
The Avengers are guilty of putting the grief of survivors above the health of our world. From the planet's point of view, it's the superheroes who are the bad guys. Reversing Thanos' actions is a selfish endeavor that reflects the fact we humans put ourselves at the center of everything, a philosophical viewpoint called 'anthropocentrism'. Nonetheless, we can still ask whether a smaller population would reduce suffering in the surviving people.
Thanos' armor in 'Avengers: Endgame' Marvel Studios
Overpopulation is a controversial concept. It assumes that Earth has a natural 'carrying capacity', a maximum number of people the planet can support because food and other resources are finite. That assumption might not be justified, however, as there's no strong scientific evidence that our world couldn't carry more humans.
The 1968 book The Population Bomb claimed that the '70s would see hundreds of millions starve to death due to overpopulation -- a prediction that didn't come true: in fact, the United Nations says the proportion of undernourished people has dropped to 11%. Our planet ought to be able to produce enough food to feed the hungry, and some experts argue that the residents of rich, developed countries consume more than they need, so the real problem is overconsumption.
So in trying to oversimplify the issue as 'overpopulation', Thanos did make one mistake. Snapping his fingers seemed to erase one in every two people at random. While such indiscriminate elimination means that everyone has an equal chance of being dusted, being 'fair' would work against his aim of reducing suffering. If overconsumption is the real problem, Thanos should have targeted people from wasteful nations, leaving a better world for the 50% who survive the snap.
Mass Extinction
There's one final complication. At the start of Endgame, Black Widow states that Thanos "wiped-out 50% of all living creatures." This suggests the villain didn't only eliminate individuals from the most influential or dominant species throughout the cosmos, he erased half of all life. And it's impossible to predict what would happen to Earth's ecosystem if 50% of living things suddenly disappeared. Near the end of the film, we see the impact on birds, but what about organisms that aren't visible to the naked eye, such as bacteria?
Even if Thanos did erase everything from microbes to man, the history of life on Earth suggests there's reason to be optimistic. Our planet has faced five mass extinction events (including a 'Great Dying' 252 million years ago that killed 96% of all marine species). Life bounced back every time.
Scientists believe that Earth is undergoing or on the edge of a sixth mass extinction driven by human activity. Ultimately, that reality could have the same outcome as a fictional Thanos snap: the planet should eventually recover but humans would probably be extinct.
So without counting people, you could indeed argue that Thanos did nothing wrong -- and in the long run, the villain might have actually saved the world.
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