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Walter's Hot Dogs reopens after months of renovations
Walter's Hot Dogs, the iconic pagoda near the Mamaroneck High School, reopened at 10:30 a.m. today after months of renovations. The hot dogs and homemade mustard will be waiting for you! (And on this nice spring day, so will the lines, I'll bet!)
A few photos from the Walter's Hot Dogs Instagram account, @watershotdogs. (Photo: Walter's Hot Dogs)
Photo by @waltershotdogs on Instagram.
Food writer Megan McCaffrey was there for the opening, and got this photo of Walter's first two customers!
Alex Biener, left, and Max Ellis, both seniors at Mamaroneck High School, were the first two customers when Walter's Hot Dogs reopened at 10:30 a.m. May 2 after months of renovations. (Photo: Megan McCaffrey)
Two things of note, says Katharine Woodward, who is owner Eugene Warrington's granddaughter and founder Walter Warrington's great-granddaughter.
There are now expanded hours: 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. weekdays and 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. weekends.
Also, this weekend, Walter's is doing a promo via social media: encouraging customers to Instagram their very first 2014 Walter's hot dog outing with the hashtag #welcomebackwalters and tagging @waltershotdogs for the chance to win a $25 Walter's gift card.
Walter's will give out three gift cards for its favorite photos on Monday.
"We have received so many emails, messages and photos while we were closed (and of course since 1919) and we would love to capture all the amazing experiences our customers tell us about, especially on days like this weekend," Woodward wrote in an email.
Walters closed Jan. 2 to remodel and modernize the interior with state-of-the-art equipment and a new computer system to increase speed of service and the overall ordering-pickup window. "The behind the scenes work was endless from our basement up to the rafters," says Woodward.
The menu and our recipes have not changed at all. "It's still the same Walter's and our same family," she says.
Buy Photo People wait in line for hot dogs at Walter's. The iconic hot dog stand reopened May 2 after months of interior renovations. (Photo: Megan McCaffrey/The Journal News)
Tag your photos with #lohudfood, too, and we'll repost them on our Instagam, @smallbiteslohud.
Walter's is at 937 Palmer Ave, Mamaroneck. No phone.
Originally published on May 2, 2014 @ 8:24 a.m.
Read or Share this story: http://lohud.us/1naSqgR |
Last December, a group of about 20 militant left-wing activists dressed as Santa Claus crashed a lecture on civil law at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. They were there to target Michael Brück, a 23-year-old member of a recently banned extremist organization and current deputy chairman of the far right wing party Die Rechte, or The Right. “Your classmate is a neo-Nazi!” screamed the protesters, members of a local “Antifa”—anti-fascist—affiliate. A violent scuffle ensued in which the professor leading the class was left with a bloody nose.
The Bochum incident followed a similar confrontation a month earlier at the University of Hanover, in which a student member of the right-wing National Democratic Party, which has seats in two of Germany’s 16 provincial parliaments, was targeted with leaflets stating, “The whole university hates you.” In both instances, the admitted goals of the left-wing activists included not just the public condemnation of their right-wing classmates, but embarrassing university administrations into expelling them for their political beliefs and activities—an objective that neatly coincides with the latest attempt by Germany’s regional governments to ban the NPD for being a threat to the German Constitution and civic order.
In Europe hate speech, Holocaust denial, and other forms of racially or religiously discriminatory expression have been strictly regulated since the end of WWII, when governments believed they had to do everything in their power to prevent the recurrence of fascism—and, in the absence of blanket protections like those offered by the Bill of Rights, had no qualms about starting with curbing speech. Viewed against its liberal democratic counterparts around the world, the United States is unique in its protection of free expression; there is nothing anywhere else quite like the First Amendment, which in its brevity and simple language gives everyone wide berth to speak their mind, no matter how distasteful their views.
Yet this distinctly American conception of free speech has recently come under critical assault by thinkers alarmed by the protection the First Amendment gives to hate speech. “No right should be so freely and recklessly exercised that it becomes an impediment to civil society, making it so that others are made to feel less free, their private space and peace invaded, their sensitivities cruelly trampled upon,” wrote Thane Rosenbaum, a Fordham law professor, in a recent Daily Beast essay titled “Should Neo-Nazis Be Allowed Free Speech?” The answer was basically no. Pointing to France, where the comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala—inventor of the quenelle—was recently prohibited from staging performances in two cities, and Israel, where debate is ongoing about banning the word “Nazi” for noneducational purposes, Rosenbaum suggested that Americans should also rethink their cherished nostrums regarding free speech. “In pluralistic nations like these with clashing cultures and historical tragedies not shared by all, mutual respect and civility helps keep the peace and avoids unnecessary mental trauma,” Rosenbaum writes.
Yet the United States, a country that rivals any other in cultural diversity and that has had its own fair share of “historical tragedies,” has somehow endured without enforcing the sorts of limitations on speech so popular in Europe. Rosenbaum argues that by failing to treat offensive speech in the same way we do violent assault, we “privilege physical over emotional harm.” But by citing something as nebulous as “emotional pain” as a justification for legal action against unpopular speech, he unleashes a limitless potential for self-proclaimed “victims” of said speech to outlaw whatever it is they decide has “cruelly trampled upon” their “sensitivities.” And there is no evidence that European laws limiting free speech have had their intended salutary effect.
On the contrary, by marking certain speech as politically taboo, the European political establishment has strengthened marginal voices. “Outlawing the NPD will spare German society having to confront right-wing extremism,” Anetta Kahane, an anti-fascist activist, told the German magazine Der Spiegel last year. “You won’t get racism out of people’s heads by banning the NPD. You’ve got to confront their attitudes.” In other words, the best weapon to combat offensive and stupid speech is intelligent, nuanced speech.
Indeed, it is precisely the liberal conception of free speech that Rosenbaum finds so injurious and dangerous—granting equal freedom of speech to all, haters and conciliators alike—that has offered the best remedy for minorities seeking better treatment from the majority culture. The case for banning certain types of speech “has not demonstrated that hate speech silences minorities, rather than mobilizing or energizing them; it has not shown that restrictions ameliorate hate or silence haters, rather than intensifying hate and publicizing haters,” writes Jonathan Rauch in the updated afterword to his seminal, and recently reissued, 1993 defense of free speech, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought. In refuting the case for hate-speech laws, Rauch points to the perilous condition in which gay people found themselves in the middle of the last century, when their very existence was illegal.
He uses the case of Frank Kameny, an Army astronomer fired from the government in 1957 for his sexual orientation, to demonstrate how gays gradually used the constitutionally ensured rights at their disposal—namely freedom of speech and assembly—to sway public opinion to the point where the majority of Americans now not only believe homosexuality should be accepted, but that gays should have the right to marry, a state of affairs that would have been inconceivable just 20 years ago. Kameny was the first gay person to challenge his firing by the federal government, and though he lost the case, he went on to become the first openly gay person to run for Congress, played a crucial role in getting the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, eventually lobbied successfully to get the federal prohibition on gay employment lifted, and was honored in 2009 by no less a figure than President Obama.
Kameny’s story, Rauch argues, offers the clearest case for how minorities “are the first to be targeted with vile words and ideas, but we are also the leading beneficiaries of a system which puts up with them.” Imposing restrictions on hate speech against toward minorities is redundant, he goes on, “for by the time a community is ready to punish intolerance legally, it will already be punishing intolerance culturally. At that point, turning haters into courtroom martyrs is unnecessary and often counterproductive.”
But what about when hate speech crosses the line from mere expressions of bigotry into inciting violence? A case that ought to give even the most ardent of free-speech absolutists pause is that of Scott Lively, a hysterical and homophobic pastor from Springfield, Mass., who has traveled the world encouraging countries to “criminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality,” which is precisely what the Russian Duma did last year, in a bill for which Lively takes credit. Several years ago, Lively—the author of The Pink Swastika, a book asserting that Nazism was a homosexual conspiracy—delivered a series of speeches in Uganda, where parliamentarians subsequently proposed a law instituting the death penalty for homosexuality. A Ugandan gay-rights organization is currently suing Lively in U.S. federal court under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to bring suit against Americans for human rights violations committed outside the country.
Continue reading: Feeding nostalgia for Nazism
While he acknowledges his support for the criminalization of advocating homosexuality, Lively contends that he never advocated criminalizing homosexuality itself, never mind imposing capital punishment. Moreover, he claims, the case represents an assault on his constitutionally protected right to free speech—speech that included ravings about how gays seek to molest children and undermine society. As tempting as it is to blame Lively for the oppression that has been inflicted upon gays in Uganda, to punish him for merely delivering antigay tirades—“They asked for my opinion, and I gave it,” he told NPR in 2009—blurs the line between constitutionally protected speech and actual acts of violence. It would also let the true culprits—the Ugandan officials who wrote the law—off the hook.
We see the same effect at work in Europe, where Holocaust-denial laws serve as a convenient tool for societies unwilling to take up the hard task of historical retrospection and recrimination. In 2005, the British historian David Irving was arrested in the southern Austrian state of Styria over a speech he had delivered in 1989, for which he eventually pleaded guilty to “trivializing, grossly playing down, and denying the Holocaust.” Throwing the already disgraced, discredited, and marginalized Irving into jail certainly served the purposes of the Austrian government and wider society, which could boast to the world that it would not tolerate any form of neo-Nazism. Yet only six years earlier, Austrians voted the far right Freedom Party into a coalition government, a move that led the European Union into taking the unprecedented step of imposing sanctions on one of its own members. The Freedom Party was and remains infamous for its xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and whitewashing Austrian complicity in the Holocaust; its late leader Jörg Haider had a habit of either downplaying the crimes of, or outright praising, Nazis.
In other words, banning Holocaust denial and throwing those who espouse it into jail hasn’t diminished the political inheritors of Austrian fascism. In fact, prohibiting public expression of neo-Nazism comfortably coexists with widespread nostalgia for Nazism. To this day, the Freedom Party remains a force to contend with, regularly earning over 20 percent of the vote in nationwide elections; it is currently the third-largest party in the country. A poll conducted last year by the Viennese newspaper Der Standard found that a majority of Austrians—54 percent—believe that the Nazis themselves would win an election were they allowed to compete today. Lest one think that this result indicated a general fear among Austrians about the fascistic inclinations of their countrymen rather than actual, widespread fascistic inclinations among the populace, a full 42 percent of Austrians believe life “wasn’t all bad under the Nazis.”
Throwing someone in jail for stating false information is part and parcel of an Austrian culture of silence. Rather than interrogate their own historical complicity with the Holocaust and work to unwind the myths they have spun about themselves, the greatest of which is that they were Hitler’s first victims, Austrians would rather lock up the most extreme and easily refutable manifestation of neo-Nazi sentiment, an action that effectively grants the rest of their polity a clean bill of health.
To witness the perverse consequences of the European approach to hate speech, and the deleterious effects mimicking them in the United States could have, we need only return to the German Antifa brigades and the martyrs they made out of two misguided twenty-somethings. Following her public shaming, Hanover University student and National Democratic Party activist Christina Krieger emerged to say that her ordeal was “the best advertisement for the party.” And after the screaming Santa Clauses descended upon Michael Brück in Bochum, most students expressing an opinion on the university’s Facebook page directed their ire not at the right-wing extremist in their midst—but rather at the Antifa activists calling for him to be expelled.
***
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James Kirchick, a visiting fellow with the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, is a columnist at Tablet magazine and the author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age. His Twitter feed is @jkirchick. |
2016 Men’s Club Player Of The Year: Johnny Bravo’s Jimmy Mickle
Jimmy Mickle is just hitting his prime.
Ultiworld’s 2016 Club Awards are presented by BE Ultimate; all opinions are those of the authors. Please support the brands that make Ultiworld possible and shop at BE Ultimate!
While 2014 may have been the year of “the Mickle,” in 2016, Jimmy Mickle managed to top himself, elevating his game to staggering new heights. He may not have garnered the same haul for his trophy case, but, in terms of his on field performance, he’s never been better. This season, no one was better than Denver’s big number 23: Jimmy Mickle is the 2016 Men’s Club Player of the Year.
Following two seasons of major talent loss at the top end of Johnny Bravo’s roster, 2016 easily could have been a rebuilding year for Denver. That is, if they didn’t have the best player alive on their roster. Mickle capped off a terrific season by carrying Bravo to the semifinals. It shouldn’t diminish the accomplishments and growth of his teammates to say that it is simply inconceivable that Bravo could have gotten there without him.
He was the offense’s plan A, B, and C, and, despite all that pressure, he consistently rose to the occasion. Playing mostly in the handler set because of Bravo’s personnel, he took to his role with aplomb. Channeling his strong throws and stronger frame into mastering the intricacies of elite handler play, he would smoothly move around the backfield getting off breaks and creating easy resets before unleashing bombs to streaking receivers.
Of course, despite his growth as a handler, he is still in one of the most imposing figures on earth in the deep space. When he takes off from the handler set and starts trucking downfield, you can feel the buzz of excitement in the air. His mere presence as a cutter going deep is enough to make an entire stadium stop what they’re doing and pay attention.
Mickle may not have been able to carry his team to a title, but he went down shooting in the semifinals, with a five assist, one goal performance, capped off by a mind-bending inside flick break assist that kept Denver alive. It’s a throw that maybe five other players have the confidence, ability, and vision to pull off, and it came from a player who was also inarguably the biggest deep threat on the field.
In moments like that, or in his insane-even-as-it-was-happening 10 assist game against Machine in pool play, it almost seems like a mistake that so much talent ended up concentrated in a single player. And the scary thing is, he might just now be hitting his prime.
These moments in sports are rare, when a once in a generation player puts it all together and reaches the peak of their talent. It won’t last forever, so enjoy it while you can.
1st Runner Up: Kurt Gibson
If not for the singular excellence of Mickle, this definitely could have been Kurt’s award. The sheer volume of points he played at Nationals, including a heroic 21 of the 27 points played in the Championship final, easily qualified him for contention. But, of course, it wasn’t just the quantity of his points: the quality was there in spades. Fitting seamlessly into Ironside’s offense and commanding the disc on every defensive point he played, from day one Gibson was the best player on the team that would go on to win Nationals — no easy feat on a team loaded with talent.
A few too many turnovers given the talent around him and a regular season that wasn’t quite as dynamic as his performance at Nationals is all that separates Gibson from the top honor this year, but make no mistake: Kurt’s 2016 title-winning season forever cements him as one of, if not the, greatest to ever play the game.
2nd Runner Up: Nathan White
Nathan White is like a human swiss army knife, but if half of his tools were machetes and laser beams instead of the useless junk that they tack on to fill those things out.1
A perfect example of how a great program can elevate a talented player to a new level, White was good in college but his trajectory since joining Revolver has been off the charts. Getting every ounce of potential out of his gigantic 6’5” frame, White has turned himself from a big guy who could throw into a destroyer of hopes and dreams.
His mark alone is worth at least a turnover per game, and his combination of length and surprising quickness make him essentially matchup proof. Off a turn, White is a nightmare, as he can guard handlers and then abuse them with his size, or guard cutters and then put them through the spin cycle in the handler set. As Revolver faces a changing of the guard that will come sooner rather than later, their future looks bright in hands of a player like Nathan White.
Stay tuned to Ultiworld for All-Club 1st and 2nd teams and additional individual awards later this week. |
After a record-breaking warm April and a spring that really began in February, it turns out Mother Nature was just saving up her worst for Derby week. But the weather should be your only headache this weekend, so let’s rundown some Derby logistics.
Weather
Happy Thurby, everyone! Grab your umbrella and head to the track. It’s the last day this week you’re allowed to bring an umbrella. No umbrellas are allowed at the Oaks or the Derby.
Besides umbrellas, there are a few more unexpected things you can’t bring to Churchill Downs during Oaks or Derby: handbags over 12 inches, cameras with detachable lenses, coolers and thermoses, boxed lunches that aren’t in a clear package and tents of any kind.
We can always hope that the Ohio River does its weird magic and diverts at least some of these storms.
By the way, don’t take Derby Weekend to plant your vegetable garden. There is a frost warning right now for Sunday night. Even with our unseasonably warm winter, never disregard the advice to always plant veggies after Derby.
You’re going to wish Churchill Downs allowed umbrellas and tents, it seems. Today’s high will be 65 degrees with steady, sometimes heavy, rain. And that’s the best it’s going to get, folks. Oaks and Derby days will be chilly and wet, likely. The Oaks Day high is 54 degrees with a 60 percent chance of rain and Derby Day tops out at 61 with a 70 percent chance of rain.
Pegasus Parade street closures
The Louisville Downtown Partnership sums up today’s road closures as: “Motorists should use Breckinridge and Chestnut Streets to travel east and west and Baxter Avenue and Eleventh Street to travel north and south.” Basically, stay as far away as you can from Broadway starting right about now. Most road closings don’t go into effect until 4:30 p.m. but some started as early as 6 a.m.
Also, pay attention to “no parking” signs.
For more information, visit this exhaustive list of road closures and detours.
Transport
The logistics of planning to ride a TARC bus to and from Oaks or Derby are a bit complicated. But for just $3.50 round trip there’s no way you’re getting a better deal for transport to the track unless your Lyft driver turns a blind eye and lets you pack the sedan like a clown car.
TARC routes providing the closest access to Churchill are: #4 – Fourth Street; #6 – Sixth Street; and #29 – Eastern Parkway. The most important thing to remember is that due to road closures, the buses will not pick you up where they dropped you off.
For the ninth year, TARC bus rides on Derby Eve starting at 6 p.m. will be free, thanks to the Miller Lite Free Rides program. The program is designed to reduce drunk driving around major events by providing a safe, free transportation option.
“Every year Derby memories are made on the first weekend of May. Miller Lite and River City Distributing are proud to partner with TARC and the Kentucky Derby Festival to help keep those memories safe,” said River City President John Harris in a news release. “Whether you are a visitor or a Louisville native, we encourage everyone to celebrate responsibly and get home safely.”
A week ago, Insider reported that local Yellow, Orange and Green cabs promised not to level any up-charges on riders above and beyond the metered fare this weekend. But that’s just a fleet of 200 cars, so if you don’t want to drive or take public transport, you may have to rely on other services like Lyft, Uber or Taxi 7. If you haven’t already, sign up for those services and download their apps before you leave for the track.
Parking
If you plan to drive to Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby and Oaks Days, you should be aware that all parking onsite at Churchill Downs is sold in advance and is reserved. And, as always, it is already sold out.
Offsite parking is available with no reservations necessary:
Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium parking: $20
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center parking: $8
Both of those locations are within walking distance of Churchill Downs, but if it’s rainy or you’re worried about hiking down Central Avenue in those heels, shuttles from both lots are available for $15 round trip.
Speaking of shuttles, there’s also a shuttle available from downtown for $30 round trip. Here are pick up and drop off locations for both shuttles.
Other Derby-related questions? Let us know [email protected] |
[+]Enlarge RED ROVER The Curiosity Mars rover took numerous photos of itself to make this composite image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The National Aeronautics & Space Administration’s Mars rover Curiosity has discovered that organic compounds are present in the soil of Mars. Additionally, Curiosity recently detected a local but dramatic surge of methane of unknown origin in the martian atmosphere (Science 2014, DOI: 10.1126/science.1261713).
Although organics, particularly methane, can be produced by living organisms, these compounds can also be synthesized by abiotic reactions of soil, water, and solar radiation. And right now, scientists say they have no way of determining their source.
Still, the discoveries have generated great excitement among Mars scientists.
“We now have full confidence there is methane and organics in ancient rocks,” Curiosity project scientist John P. Grotzinger said at a Dec. 16 press conference at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco.
Organic molecules are not in and of themselves definitive proof that life once existed, or does exist, on Mars, Grotzinger said, “but it is the kind of material you would look for if life ever originated on Mars.”
At last year’s AGU meeting, Curiosity scientists tentatively announced that the rover had detected two organics, chlorobenzene and dichloropropane, during the processing of soil samples. However, at the time, they couldn’t be sure whether these molecules were derived from Mars or from inside Curiosity’s instruments.
Now, after a year of rigorous testing, they’re sure. The chlorobenzene levels detected in the processed samples are much higher than could be produced from the instruments alone.
Along with the aforementioned compounds, the scientists also confirmed the presence of dichloroethane and dichlorobutane. They think the molecules are likely the products of precursor organics from the martian soil and were formed during the heating of the perchlorate-rich soil.
A paper about the organics is under review at the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets.
Methane plumes have been detected on Mars a number of times, but the new measurements are the first from a craft on martian ground. Over a period of 20 months, Curiosity’s laser spectrometer recorded background atmospheric levels of methane of about 0.7 ppb. But then suddenly methane levels spiked more than 10-fold. “It was an ‘oh my gosh’ moment,” Curiosity scientist Christopher R. Webster said at the conference. The methane levels climbed to 9 ppb over a period of several months.
“Six weeks later, we looked again and it had completely disappeared,” Webster said.
Scientists don’t know the origin of the methane, but suggest it is periodically escaping from clathrates under the soil surface. |
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Washington Parish, LA — A man’s 30-second cell phone video has helped to expose an ominously plotted conspiracy within the Louisiana “justice” system.
Two years ago, Douglas Dendinger, 47, accepted an offer of $50 to act as a process server. All he would have to do is hand an envelope containing a lawsuit alleging police brutality to Chad Cassard, a former Bogalusa police officer.
Everything went smoothly. Dendinger handed the envelope off to the former cop in front of a group of police officers and two St. Tammany prosecutors. But then Cassard blew up.
“It was like sticking a stick in a bee’s nest.” Dendinger recalled. “They started cursing me. They threw the summons at me; right at my face, but it fell short. Vulgarities. I just didn’t know what to think. I was a little shocked.”
Although he was shocked, Dendinger was still able to leave and simply drove home.
But things would get worse, much worse.
“Within about 20 minutes, there were these bright lights shining through my windows. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I mean I knew immediately, a police car.”
“And that’s when the nightmare started,” he said. “I was arrested.”
According to WWLT,
He was booked with simple battery, along with two felonies: obstruction of justice and intimidating a witness, both of which carry a maximum of 20 years in prison. Because of a prior felony cocaine conviction, Dendinger calculated that he could be hit with 80 years behind bars as a multiple offender. That kicked off two years of a “living hell,” as Dendinger described it, a period that is now the subject of Dendinger’s federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers, attorneys and former St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed. In a scene described in the lawsuit, Dendinger recounted a nervous night handcuffed to a rail at the Washington Parish Jail. He said he was jeered by officers, including Bogalusa Police Chief Joe Culpepper, who whistled the ominous theme song from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Dendinger remained optimistic, however, as there were several police officers and the two prosecutors who witnessed the handing off of the envelope. Surely this misunderstanding could be resolved once these public servants testified that nothing happened when Dendinger handed the envelope to Cassard.
Unfortunately for Dendinger, things did not get resolved, instead they got even worse.
The case was given to district attorney Reed who was supported by the two prosecutors at the scene. Both prosecutors, Julie Knight and Leigh Anne Wall, gave statements to the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office implicating Dendinger.
Reed presented 7 witness statements, including the two prosecutors, that claimed Dendinger was guilty.
WWLT reports:
In her statement to deputies, contained in a police report, Knight stated, “We could hear the slap as he hit Cassard’s chest with an envelope of papers…This was done in a manner to threaten and intimidate everyone involved.” Casssard, in his statement, told deputies, Dendinger “slapped me in the chest.” Washington Parish court attorney Pamela Legendre said “it made such a noise,” she thought the officer “had been punched.” Police Chief Culpepper gave a police statement that he witnessed the battery, but in a deposition he said, “I wasn’t out there.” But that didn’t stop Culpepper from characterizing Dendinger’s actions as “violence, force.” In a deposition taken by Kaplan, one Bogalusa police officer, Lt. Patrick Lyons, said he witnessed a battery that knocked Cassard back several feet.
“I realized even more at that moment: These people are trying to hurt me,” said Dendinger.
And hurt him, they would, except that Dendinger had one critical piece of evidence that would show, without a doubt, that these claims were false.
In order to prove that he had delivered the lawsuit to the former cop, Dendinger asked that his wife and his nephew film the interaction. The two very short and very grainy videos saved Dendinger from spending the rest of his life in prison.
“He’d still be in a world of trouble if he didn’t have that film,” said David Cressy, a friend of Dendinger who once served as a prosecutor under Reed. “It was him against all of them. They took advantage of that and said all sorts of fictitious things happened. And it didn’t happen. It would still be going like that had they not had the film.”
Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission and himself a former prosecutor said in regard to the video, “I didn’t see a battery, certainly a battery committed that would warrant criminal charges. And more importantly, the attorney general’s office didn’t see a battery.”
“It’s a felony to falsify a police report. And this is a police report. And this police report was the basis of charging this individual with serious crimes,” Goyeneche said.
The charges against Dendinger were eventually all dropped after the case was referred to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. Dendinger has since retained legal counsel and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Reed, his two prosecutors Wall and Knight, the Bogalusa officers and Washington Parish Sheriff Randy ‘Country’ Seal.
Dendinger said that despite being cleared of all the charges, he’s still very worried about what could happen to him next as he pursues this lawsuit against the ones who tried to lock him up. And he should be worried, as no charges nor punishments have been brought against any of the people involved in this criminal conspiracy to deprive a man of his freedom. |
Just as an international consortium was formed to map and sequence the human genome, now a group of stem cell and regenerative medicine scientists say it’s critical that such an effort be ramped up to do a similar project focused on the human embryome.
This was the key message of a panel discussion, “From Mapping the Genome to Mapping the Embryome: The Urgent Need for an International Initiative,” moderated by Michael West, Ph.D., CEO of Biotime. It took place at the World Stem Cell Summit, which is taking place this week in San Diego.
“It is becoming increasingly clear in regenerative medicine that pluripotent stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and IPs cells will be as fundamentally important to medicine as was DNA. Maybe even bigger because you can genetically engineer these cells,” said Dr. West.
Dr. West and his colleagues adamantly believe that there needs to be a large international effort aimed at mapping the cellular and molecular basis of all human life starting with the fertilized egg and working its way up to the body of the adult. This is what it is termed the embryome.
“The opportunity presented by pluripotent stem cells to manufacture for the first time in the history of medicine all of the cellular components of the human body on an industrial scale is at once both an opportunity and a challenge,” said Dr. West. “The opportunity is to build a new field we call regenerative medicine in which many currently incurable diseases are treated with cells capable of regenerating tissues afflicted with disease. The challenge relates to the complexity of the cell types in the body and our ability to manufacture products with precisely defined compositions for human clinical use.”
Dr. West went on to say that to get these different types of stem cells into the clinic, and approved by the FDA, researchers will fully need to understand all aspects of the biology of these cells. An identification and understanding of any contaminating cells will also be essential to success in this field. The question to ask is “What is in the syringe?”
Unlike recombinant DNA, continued Dr. West, the contaminants in pluripotent stem cells are alive and may make things that are undesirable at the intended point of therapy. For example, you might have a bioreactor full of cells that are making heart muscle to regenerate heart function in a patient. But you have to be careful that your cells are not contaminated with neural crest cells from the head area which could generate a tooth along with the heart muscle.
“These contaminants, if you do not remove them, can lead to years of delay in filing an IND and a runup in costs as you try to identify these cells,” explained Dr. West.
The major problem in identifying them, according to Dr. West, is that no one has ever mapped the molecular markers or even a rudimentary cell ontology tree, i.e., mapped out the tree from the fertilized egg to the cells of the human body.
“If [there were] a detailed map of all the cellular and molecular components of life from the fertilized egg to adulthood, and then databased in a manner to the information in the human genome, medicine would be the true beneficiary,” added Dr. West. “That’s why we have made this call for an international initiative.”
For more from the World Stem Cell Summit, be sure to check out “Neural Precursors ‘Cure MS’ in Mice“, “Mary Ann Liebert Wins Stem Cell Education Award“, “$1M Award to Develop a Replacement Liver Announced“, and “World Stem Cell Summit: December 4, 2013 Update“.
Also, watch our video “A Brief History of Stem Cells” to see a timeline spanning over 60 years of stem cell research. |
Angelman Syndrome
Angelman syndrome is a disorder in humans that causes neurological symptoms such as lack of speech, jerky movements, and insomnia. A human cell has two copies of twenty-three chromosomes for a total of forty-six—one copy from its mother and one from its father. But in the case of Angelman syndrome, the maternal chromosome numbered 15 has a mutation or deletion in its DNA and a gene on the paternal chromosome 15 is inactivated in some parts the brain. The result is the paternal gene is silenced during development of the sperm, which is called genetic imprinting. Angelman syndrome was one of the first disorders described as caused by genetic imprinting.
The symptoms of Angelman syndrome have been noted as far back as the 1500s, but in the twentieth century doctors named the disorder. In 1965, Harry Angelman wrote "'Puppet' Children: A Report of Three Cases." Angelman was a doctor in the pediatric wing of Warrington General Hospital in Lancashire, England. In "Puppet Children," Angelman details how three of his patients showed similar symptoms of inappropriate laughter, jerky mannerisms, and flapping of their hands. Angelman termed this collection of behaviors happy puppet syndrome. Later the syndrome was renamed as Angelman syndrome. Other symptoms such as hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, insomnia, and speech impairment, were added to the diagnosis of Angelman syndrome. Typically, affected individuals have only up to ten words in their vocabulary, if they are able to speak at all. Angelman syndrome affects one in 12,000 to one in 40,000 births.
At the time of its discovery, scientists couldn’t determine genetic causes of the disorder. Without a way to investigate the cause of Angelman Syndrome, "Puppet Children" was little discussed until the 1980s. Then in 1987, Ellen Magenis, a doctor at the Oregon Health Science Center in Portland, Oregon, identified a genetic cause of Angelman Syndrome. She identified children with deletions of genetic material on their 15th chromosomes. The deletions occurred only on the maternal copy of chromosome 15, and not the paternal copy.
In 1997 a group of researchers at the Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, found that deletion of specifically the UBE3A gene on the maternal chromosome 15 caused Angelman Syndrome. The UBE3A gene codes for an enzyme called ubiquitin protein ligase E3A, which helps to degrade cell proteins. Normally, both maternal and paternal copies of UBE3A are present and active in most of the body’s tissues. For persons affected by Angelman Syndrome, however, UBE3A is not produced in some parts of the brain, because the maternal copy is deleted or mutated, while the paternal copy is imprinted and disabled. Genetic imprinting occurs when a methyl group (one carbon attached to three hydrogens) is added to chromosome 15 at the location of the UBE3A gene and prevents the gene from producing any products, or proteins.
Since the initial work done by Magenis in 1987, scientists have proposed four genetic mechanisms that cause Angelman Syndrome. First is a large deletion in the maternal copy of chromosome 15 that completely removes the UBE3A gene, which Magenis discovered. Second is when both copies of chromosome 15 are inherited from the father, a condition called paternal uniparental disomy. The third genetic mechanism is when genetic imprinting silences the maternal copy of the UBE3A gene. And fourth, a mutation called a single nucleotide polymorphism causes the maternal UBE3A gene to not produce the ubiquitin protein ligase E3A protein.
In the typical Angelman syndrome case, the condition is not diagnosed until a child develops abnormally, usually between the ages of three and five. Researchers may perform genetic and behavioral tests to check for abnormalities. The remainder of Angelman cases are identified by doctors.
As of 2014, there is no cure available for Angelman syndrome, but medications can alleviate the symptoms: anticonvulsant medications can counter epileptic seizures, melatonin can be used to promote sleep, laxatives can be used to encourage continence, and physical therapy helps with joint problems. Researchers also used the dietary supplements folate and betaine to increase the production of proteins from the parental copy of the UB3A gene, reducing or eliminating side effects. |
Three Democratic Senate aides with knowledge of where members stood on the nomination said Friday that enough Democrats could oppose Dr. Murthy that he would most likely fail to be confirmed if a vote were held soon.
Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, who is up for re-election, has said that he will probably vote no. Mr. Begich, who has received angry letters from Alaskans who say they are alarmed by what they believe are Dr. Murthy’s antigun views, wrote to his constituents recently: “I will very likely vote ‘no’ on his nomination if it comes to the floor. I share your concern about Dr. Murthy’s views in favor of gun control.”
Coming nearly a year after a gun-control bill drawn up after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut went down in defeat in the Senate, the N.R.A.’s highly aggressive and visible campaign against Dr. Murthy shows how the organization has determined that its greatest chances for success in Congress come when it holds nothing back.
The group has already begun gearing up to be a strong presence in congressional and governor’s races. Since late last year, it has hired dozens of field strategists to begin laying the groundwork for campaigns in politically competitive states.
Though Dr. Murthy has expressed a desire to see more restrictions on how guns can be purchased and who can own them — views in step with where many Americans stand on gun control — the N.R.A. has dismissed him as a radical.
In a letter to senators last month, Chris W. Cox, the group’s chief political strategist, mentions Dr. Murthy’s support for limits on ammunition purchases, a ban on “popular semiautomatic firearms” and the removal of restrictions that keep the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding “antigun advocacy research.” Mr. Cox also cited Dr. Murthy’s calls for a federal gun buyback program for assault weapons and for mandatory safety training for gun owners. Dr. Murthy has said his concerns about guns stem from his experience in the emergency room where he has witnessed the trauma that gun violence can cause.
The surgeon general’s office — which deals with policies of medicine and public health — is not usually a focus of gun-rights advocates. But an N.R.A. spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam, said that it was taking no chances that under Dr. Murthy the office would veer into gun policy. “All the rules have changed as far as this White House is concerned,” he said. “Given Dr. Murthy’s blatant activism on behalf of gun control, that’s not a gamble we’re willing to take.” |
The elk is a common image in many Finnish petroglyphs
Finnish paganism was the indigenous pagan religion in Finland, Estonia, and Karelia prior to Christianisation. It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities. The principal god was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other important gods included Jumi (Jumala), Ahti, and Tapio. Jumala was a sky god; today, the word "Jumala" refers to the Christian God. Ahti was a god of the sea, waters and fish. Tapio was the god of forests and hunting.
Finnish paganism shows many similarities with the religious practices of related cultures, such as Mordvin, Mari, Sami and other Uralic paganisms. However, it also shares some features with its neighbouring Baltic, Norse and Germanic paganisms.
The organic tradition was sidelined due to Christianization starting from ca. 12th century and finally broken by modernization latest by early 20th century, when folk magic and oral traditions went extinct. Finnish paganism provided the inspiration for a contemporary pagan movement Suomenusko (Finnish: Finnish faith), which is an attempt to reconstruct the old religion of the Finns. It is nevertheless based on secondary sources.
Deities [ edit ]
The Finnish pagans were polytheistic, believing in a number of different deities. Most of the deities ruled over a specific aspect of nature; for instance, Ukko was the god of the sky and thunder. These deities were often pan-Finnic, being worshipped by many different tribes in different regions. The Finnish pagans were also animists, worshipping local nature deities at site-specific shrines to that particular deity.
Finnish paganism was based on deities of nature, and it evolved in a time where the Finns were highly dependent on the natural world for survival.
Major deities [ edit ]
Several key deities were venerated across nearly all of Finland and Karelia. These pan-Finnic deities controlled many aspects of nature.
The chief god was Ukko (also known as Perkele), who was the ruler over the sky and thunder. A corresponding figure is known in countless other cultures of the world.
Another deity that appeared very significant to the Finnish pagans, but about whom modern scholars know very little, was Jumi, whose name is related to "Jumala", the modern Finnish language word for a monotheist God.
There were many other important deities who ruled over a specific aspect of the natural world, and who have been referred to as "kings" [ citation needed ] . The king of water was often called Ahti, and the king of the forest was Tapio.
. The king of water was often called Ahti, and the king of the forest was Tapio. Other major deities included Äkräs, the god of fertility; Mielikki, the goddess of the forests and the hunt; Kuu, the goddess of the moon; and Lempo, the god of wilderness and archery.
Great heroes, who had, in mythology, once been human, such as Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen, were also objects of worship, in a way similar to the Greek pagans' worship of mythical human heroes like Herakles.
Haltija [ edit ]
Local animistic deities, known as haltijas, were also worshipped. These haltijas could be male or female, and could take a human or another animal's form. Haltijas could be found everywhere in the nature, both in the biotic and abiotic parts. Every human has a haltija, usually called haltijasielu (haltija soul) or luontohaltija (nature haltija), which is one of the three parts of a person's soul. The tradition blends with the Swedish tomte: the Finnish tonttu was a being analogous to haltija, but which lives in a building, like a home (kotitonttu) or a sauna (saunatonttu).
Maan Haltija [ edit ]
Certain "haltiat", known as "maan haltija" (literally "tutelary of land"), guarded the property of an individual, including their house and livestock. Votive offerings would be given to these maan haltioille at a shrine, in thanks for the help given and also to prevent the haltija from causing harm.
Sometimes haltiat of certain families and farms acted against other families and their farms by stealing their wealth or making the animals infertile, for instance.
Many local haltiat were believed to have originally been the sacred spirits of ancestors. In some cases a haltia was the first inhabitant of house. Sometimes while making a new house a local spirit of nature could be "employed" to work as a maan haltija.
Väki and haltija [ edit ]
Different elements and environments had their own haltijas. Haltijas were grouped into types or races called väki. "Väki" has multiple connected meanings of "strength", "force", "throng", "military troop"; in the magical context, it referred ambiguously to magical strength and numbers. There were, for instance, different väki of water, forests, and graveyards.
Väkis could become angry if people acted in a disrespectful manner in their area. For example, cursing close to water made the väki of water angry. When angry, väkis could cause diseases and other misfortune to befall the human victim. Some väkis were always angry, like the väki of fire, explaining why every time you touch fire it burns, no matter how respectful you are around it.
Each tribe of väkis belonged to specific environments and if they were misplaced, problems occurred. For example, most väkis were misplaced if they attached to a human being, and they made the human being ill because they were in the wrong place. Illnesses were removed by sending väkis back to their right places. Shamans who cured diseases were returning the cosmic balance. For example, it was believed that on contact with the ground, as in falling on one's face, diseases could spread to the human, caused by the "väki" of the earth. Similarly, löyly (sauna steam) was believed to contain a väki spirit (löylyn henki), which could cause open wounds to get infected.
According to the concept of väki being divided in two (into power and folk of haltijas) the ancient Finns believed that the world was totally animistic in that no force of nature or intelligent life existed without väkis or haltijas. In other words, nothing happened in the universe without it being caused by a group of spirits. Even a person's soul consisted of many spirits.
Soul, death, and the afterlife [ edit ]
Soul [ edit ]
The pagan Finnish belief about the soul of a human was different from that of most other cultures across the world, in that they believed the human soul to be composed of three different parts: henki, luonto and itse. Each of the three were autonomous beings on their own. Similar beliefs about multiple autonomous souls are found amongst other Uralic people, such as the Khanty-Mansi who believe in two souls: the shadow and the lili (löyly)[1].
Henki (translated as "life", "breath" or "spirit", sometimes also referred to as "löyly") was a person's life force, which presented itself as breathing, the beating of one's heart and the warmth of their body. Henki was received prior to birth and it left at the moment of death. The word "hengetön" (lit. "one without henki") can be used as a synonym for dead in the Finnish language even now.
Luonto (translated as "nature") was a guardian spirit or protector. Luonto has also been referred to as the haltija of a person. A strong willed, artistic or otherwise talented person was believed to have a strong haltija who granted them good luck and skills to complete their tasks well. A weak luonto could be strengthened by various spells and rituals. Luonto could leave a person's body without the person dying, but its lengthened absence would cause problems, such as alcoholism and other addictions. Unlike henki, luonto was not received prior to birth but instead either at the time of getting the first teeth or being given a name. A newborn child was thus considered to be particularly vulnerable. These concepts share similar basics with the idea of Fylgja (follower) and Hamingja (luck) in Norse belief.
Itse was a spirit received at the time of birth or a few days after. It was believed to define one's personality and receiving itse made one a person. In modern-day Finnish the word "itse" means "self", but in old days itse was different from one's self, "minuus". Like luonto, itse could leave one's body without the person dying but long absence would cause illnesses and misery. Depressions, for instance, was seen as a result of having lost one's itse. If a person was diagnosed to be "itsetön" or "luonnoton" (without one's itse or without one's luonto), a shaman or a sage could try locating the missing part of the soul and bring it back. Although itse and luonto were usually lost after a traumatising event, it was possible to purposefully separate one's itse from their body. This was required if a missing part of the soul needed to be found. Itse could also leave the body to appear as an "etiäinen" (a sort of false arrival apparition). At the time of a person's death their itse joined the other deceased of the family or, in some cases, stayed among the living as a ghost.
Burial [ edit ]
In some traditions, it was a habit to pause at a half-way point while transporting the dead body, from the dwelling to the graveyard. Here, a karsikko-marking was made on a big pine tree. The marking was for people to remember the person; and in the event that the spirit were to awaken and try to make its way back home from the graveyard, it would see its own karsikko-marking, then realize that it is dead and instead try to find the path to the spirit realm. A forest with karsikko-marked trees was a kind of supernatural barrier between dwellings of the living and the burial grounds.
After a person died there was a transitional period of thirty to forty days while their soul searched Tuonela, the land of dead, and tried to find their place there. During this period, the soul could visit its living relatives either as a ghost or in the form of an animal.
The soul visited relatives especially if it was unhappy. To please an unhappy soul, one would show respect by not speaking ill of the deceased or by having a sacrifice in the spirit's name.
After this transitional period, the soul moved permanently into Tuonela. However, the soul could still come back if it were unhappy, or if it were asked to return by its relatives who needed help.
Some souls were not able to settle down or were not welcomed in Tuonela, and they continued haunting, i.e. bastard children who were killed and buried outside a cemetery usually ended up as permanent haunters of some place, typically screaming in terror, until someone digs up their bodies, blesses them, and buries them in a graveyard.
Ancestor veneration [ edit ]
People were afraid of ghosts, but spirits of ancestors could also help their living relatives, and they were asked to help. A shaman could be sent to Tuonela to ask for knowledge of spirits or even to take a spirit to the world of living as luonto. A Spirit of the dead had to be honoured by giving him/her sacrifices. Places where sacrifices were given to ancestors were called Hiisi ( = sacred forest, also a kind of open air temple, often included the Offering-stone, uhrikivi, collective monument for the dead of the family). Christianity held hiisi to be evil creatures and places. The old sacred places were often desecrated by being used as the building sites for the churches of the new religion, and the old sacred trees were hacked down.
Lemminkäisen äiti by Kalevala. by Akseli Gallen-Kallela . A depiction of the underworld, Tuonela, from a myth found in the
Afterlife [ edit ]
The Finns believed in a place of afterlife called Tuonela, or sometimes Manala. In most traditions it was situated underground or at the bottom of a lake, though sometimes it was said to exist on the other side of a dark river. Tuonela was ruled over by the god Tuoni, and his wife, the goddess Tuonetar.
Tuonela was a dark and lifeless place, where the dead were in a state of eternal sleep. Shamans were sometimes able to reach the spirits of their dead ancestors by traveling to Tuonela in a state of trance created by rituals. He had to make his way over the Tuonela river by tricking the ferryman. While in Tuonela, the shaman had to be careful not to get caught: the living were not welcome there. Shamans who were caught could end up decaying in the stomach of a giant pikefish with no hope of returning to normal life. If the shaman died during the trance ritual, it was believed that he had been caught by the guards at Tuonela.
An illustration of the hero Väinämöinen from Finnish mythology.
Mythology [ edit ]
The pagan Finns had many myths about their gods and their great heroes. Because they lived in a non-literate society, the stories were taught orally as folklore, and they were not written down. Finnish mythology survived Christianisation by being told as myths. Many of these myths were later written down in the 19th century as the Kalevala, which was created to be a national epic of Finland by Elias Lönnrot.
Sacred animals [ edit ]
The bear was a sacred animal to the Finnish pagans.
Because of the very nature of life in prehistoric, ancient, and medieval Finland, the Finns relied heavily on hunting for survival. As such the animals that they hunted became vital to their survival, and they were treated with respect.
The bear was considered sacred. The pagan Finns believed that it came from the sky and had the ability to reincarnate[citation needed]. A celebration known as Karhunpeijaiset (literally "celebration of the bear") was practised whenever a bear was killed and eaten. The ceremony was designed to convince the bear's soul to reincarnate back into the forest. After the flesh was eaten, the bones were buried, and the skull placed on a venerated pine tree known as kallohonka[citation needed]. Karhunpeijaiset are also an important part of other Uralic cultures, such as the Khanty-Mansi[2].
Before going hunting, the Finns would pray to the Emuus, or ancestral mothers of various animal species, for help.
From ancient drawings, petroglyphs, it is clear that the elk was a very important animal. Elk is also very important to other Uralic people, such as the Komis, who depict their sky god Jenmar as half-human and half-elk. It appears much more than bears do, and it is theorised that the bear was such a holy animal that it was forbidden to depict it. Also, the bear's name was almost forbidden to say, so many euphemisms were developed. The most usual Finnish word for bear in modern language, karhu, is just one of the many euphemisms, and it means "rough fur." Among the many names of bear otso is probably the original "real" name, as suggested by the wide spread of the word otso and related words among many of the Uralic languages. Many euphemisms for bear are local.
Many water birds were holy for Finns and other Uralic peoples. They were often depicted on petroglyphs. It was believed that if you killed a water bird, you'd died soon after. The holiest water bird was the swan. With its long neck, it could look to all the levels of the world, including Tuonela, the land of the dead. Birds are found often in Uralic mythology. For example, there are many stories about a bird creating the world. A very common Uralic myth is where a hunter (Finnish Lemminkäinen, Mari Salij) travels to the underworld in order to marry a woman and comes across the primordial waterbird on the river of the underworld, the hunter shoots the waterbird with his bow, but the waterbird escapes and terrible things happen to the hunter. In many traditions it was believed that the world was created by the egg of a bird. In other traditions it was believed that the world was created on mud that bird took in its beak while diving.
In Karelia it was believed that a bird brings the soul to a newborn baby, and that the same bird takes the soul with it when that person dies. This soul-carrying bird was called sielulintu, "soul-bird". In some traditions people carried artifacts depicting their sielulintu. Sielulintu was believed to guard their souls while they slept. After the person died, the artifact-bird was inserted to sit on the cross at the person's grave. Such crosses with soul birds still exist in graveyards in Karelia. This is one example how Christian and Pagan beliefs still existed side by side hundreds of years after the Christianisation of the Finnish and Karelian people.
Shamanism [ edit ]
Swan and egg, based on petroglyphs of Karelia
It is believed by some scholars that shamanism played a big part in Finnish paganism, as it did (and still does) in the Siberian paganism to the east of Finland. A Shaman is a wise and respected person in the community, believed to have a special relationship with the spirit world. Shamans go into a trance to commune with spirits and ancestors or to take a journey into the spirit realm. In trances shamans may ask their ancestors or various nature spirits for guidance. They believe that nature has the answers to all questions.
Among the Finns' western neighbours, the Norse of Scandinavia, it was a common belief that the Finns were wizards. In the Norse sagas, inclusion of a Finnish element almost always signifies a supernatural aspect to the story. However, "Finn" in some Norse sagas could also mean the Sami and not the Finns. Finns were also called Kvens.
According to tales, foreign seafarers bought ropes tied in knots from Finns. By opening the knot a bit, a seaman could raise a wind to make his ship go faster. However, opening it too fast would raise a storm. Finnish wizards were known and feared by neighbouring peoples around the Baltic Sea.
Christianisation [ edit ]
Christian missionaries entered Finland in the 11th century. The native pagan religion still persisted, until Christianity was strengthened under Swedish influence in the 12th century. In the 13th century a crusade was launched against the last pagans in the country by Birger Jarl. However, old traditions were only slowly rooted out and elements of it long persisted along new faith. Particularly, the cult of Ukko remained popular: there are records from the 17th century of peasants holding festives to honour Ukko, and in some places these traditions may have persisted until the 19th century.
Finnish Neopaganism [ edit ]
In the 20th century, with the rise of the Neopagan movement across the world, Finnish Neopaganism arose as a reconstructed form of the old religion. Unlike those neopagan religions that take an eclectic view of the many pagan faiths, such as Wicca and Neo-druidry, Finnish Neopaganism focuses on reconstructionism to imitate the ancient religion as accurately as possible. It is still mainly practiced within Finland[citation needed], where it accounts only for a relatively small percentage of the population, the majority being members of the state Lutheran Church or professing no religion.
See also [ edit ] |
MIAMI — Late Sunday, after the Democratic debate in nearby Flint, a small group of people listened to Ben Jealous talk about Bernie Sanders’ campaign at a hotel near the Detroit airport. Surrounded by a few bottles of wine, they wanted to know: Why isn’t their candidate doing better with black voters?
Jealous, the professorial former head of the NAACP, did his best to explain, according to a source who was in the room. The problem with black voters at that juncture, Jealous said, was a deep misunderstanding of what Sanders is all about. Black voters are so used to voting for “establishment” candidates and beholden to “establishment politics” that other candidates face a tough battle.
But, he left them with an encouraging prediction: He would be shocked if the margin Clinton won by with black voters in the South wasn’t closer in other places.
And, in Michigan, that turned out to be true.
On his way to a stunning upset in the state, Sanders won a third of black voters, according to exit polls. The improved performance could be seen in the state’s counties where more black voters live: In Wayne County, Sanders won 38% of the vote, to Clinton's 60% (in Detroit itself, Clinton won just more than 70% of the vote). In Genesee County, home to Flint, Clinton only edged Sanders by six points. In Oakland County, Clinton only won by four.
These numbers still demonstrate Clinton’s strength with black voters — but they’re not the splits seen in the South where in some states, 90% of black voters have favored Clinton, and they’re encouraging numbers for the Sanders campaign, which vowed to do better in Midwestern states.
“We are invested in earning the support of African-American voters and we are investing resources, time, and effort to do just that,” Symone Sanders, the campaign’s national press secretary told BuzzFeed News following Sanders' statement late Tuesday.
The campaign attributes the improvement to targeted, intentional outreach — and a core belief that black voters could be convinced to vote for Sanders if they meet him, hear his message, or connect, in ways large and small, with his campaign for president. One of the most encouraging signs: an apparent split of the under-45 vote with Clinton in Michigan, a result the campaign expects to replicate in Ohio.
The campaign promised in the days leading up to Michigan that campaign and candidate would renew and focus their strategy of speaking directly to black activists and community leaders. But this is also a campaign that poured millions into ads and outreach in South Carolina — with little, in the end, to show for it.
“Our view is that South Carolina was something of an anomaly,” said a senior campaign aide, still struggling with why Clinton’s win there was so resounding despite the campaign pouring more resources into that specific state than Clinton. The aide then offered a strain of thought staffers can't seem to let go of: What if there was more time there?
Now, with new momentum, the campaign is focusing attention in Chicago and especially Cleveland, large midwestern cities whose states vote on March 15, a campaign spokesperson said. Jealous will do event with pastors and community leaders in Chicago over the weekend. Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, will campaign for Sanders in Chicago, as well.
"Cleveland really is fertile ground for us," a campaign aide focused on black outreach told BuzzFeed News. "We feel really good about Chicago, too."
The campaign has pointed to an town-hall event Sanders did there last Saturday hosted by Rev. Colvin Olivet of Institutional Baptist Church. “Virtually everyone that was there had shifted towards Bernie," Jealous said. "If they were Hillary [after hearing Sanders], they were on the fence. If they were on the fence they were now supporting him.”
The Sanders campaign is also extending its reach to places like Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis and even pockets of North Carolina with a large concentration of black residents. The campaign aide focused on black outreach argued there were early indications that their candidate was picking up momentum in North Carolina, a state that votes next week and would shares a similar profile with Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia — other states that have voted overwhelmingly for Clinton.
At C.N. Jenkins Memorial Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, the campaign hosted a luncheon on faith and justice. The aide said they'd initially been dubious that the black women and faith leaders present were there were for Bernie. But they were. Already this week, the Sanders camp has sent staff to Mecklenberg County in North Carolina.
The doubts that people weren’t there for Bernie that day were grounded in what happened in South Carolina. What’s different now, according to the campaign?
Much of the explanation in and outside campaign is speculative. Some think the economic and cultural differences between the regions — labor issues are totally different in the Midwest and the South, for example — and how feelings about the economy factor into selecting a candidate may help Sanders in the North. Others argue that, because black voters like any other are not a homogenous group, Sanders' message can resonate given enough retail engagement and enough time to do it.
“The amazing thing is that whenever I talk to a black voter is no matter how they come out, no one ever says I don’t trust Bernie Sanders,” Jealous said recently. “He has integrity that has been clear throughout his entire involvement in politics from when he was a young activist to now as an older senator. Integrity means something. And what we’re seeing is that as black voters hear his message they turn towards him.” |
Typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, slammed into Hong Kong on Wednesday lashing the Asian financial hub with destructive winds and waves which uprooted trees, flooded streets and forced most businesses to close.
More than 400 flights were cancelled, financial markets suspended and schools closed as Hato bore down on the city, the first category 10 storm to hit Hong Kong since typhoon Vicente in 2012 .
Winds intensified in the morning, with the maximum sustained winds recorded at Tate's Cairn and Waglan Island at 77 kmh and 72 kmh, with maximum gusts of 103 kmh and 86 kmh respectively.
The city's flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, said the storm would "severely" impact flight operations, with the majority of flights to and from Hong Kong between 2200 GMT Tuesday and 0900 GMT Wednesday to be cancelled.
... |
CrushDog5 Profile Joined March 2010 Canada 204 Posts Last Edited: 2013-03-05 19:02:11 #1 STARCRAFT II + SCIENCE FINDINGS AND RESULTS
The first empirical study into StarCraft 2 expertise (
While our first project was trail-blazing in a number of ways, our second StarCraft 2 project will dwarf the first both in the quantity and quality of data collected. We believe that the project has the potential to profoundly change how skill learning and expertise are studied forever. The key to the project is that it involves analyzing the changes in individual players across time. What we need is replay packs from players who have saved most (>75%) of their replays. As long as the missing replays are few and you have a lot of replays to provide (300+). This may be three hundred, a couple thousand, or even 10’s of thousands (White-Ra!). The scientific community simply does not have access to similar data on learning in a complex game like StarCraft 2. It will show us when individual players learn the necessary skills. We will also see to what extent certain skills can compensate for others, and if certain skills are always learned before others. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we’ll have much better ideas of how to actually help StarCraft 2 players improve.
Please
The survey and uploader are
If you haven’t saved your replays, please help spread the word to players who might have.
Interesting data from our project so far...
APM versus The Perception Action Cycle
In daily life, we use our attention to focus on objects we want to interact with. That is, looking is for doing. StarCraft is no different, and thus the vast majority of actions happen as part of what we call a “Perception Action Cycle” (PAC). A PAC basically consists of a shift of the screen to a new location for some time, followed by at least one action (typically 4-6), and then a shift to some other location. The delay to the first action in a PAC turns out to be one of the best predictors across all leagues, and the best in certain leagues (beating out the venerable APM, which, despite it’s faults, is a good predictor of league). Other components of the PAC are also important predictors of skill.
Does Variable Importance Change with Skill?
Our primary research question was: to what extent does the importance (i.e. predictive power) of variables change across levels of skill? If it changes more than a little, it is a difficult problem for researchers, because most of the time it’s not feasible to collect detailed data from across many levels of experience, and the alternatives (for example collecting data just from experts and novices) are less useful where variables frequently change in importance. We used a machine learning technique (random forests of conditional inference trees) to build classifiers for each league compared to the one two leagues up (Bronze vs. Gold, Silver versus Platinum, etc.).
This figure describes the ranked importance of each of our key variables in these “skip-league” classifiers. APM was ranked first, for instance, in the Bronze vs Gold classifier, implying that it was our most useful variable for distinguishing those leagues.
Settings Data
Ever wonder how other people have their options set? So did we. The following graphs are results from our original survey about player settings. Note, we did not get surveys from pro players, so we report only GMs. The following figures describe how players set their game settings in each league. For example, roughly 60% of Pros set flyer status (red lines showing the location over which a flyer hovers) to “always on.” Unit Status bars refer to unit health bars and Alerts (obviously) refer to game alerts.
Hotkey Data
These data shows the assignment of hotkeys by pros. This is interesting when compared to Bronze hotkeys. We have two different kinds of figure here. The first figure describes the frequency of Bronze and Pro players’ hotkey assigns per game (broken down by type of unit being assigned). Note how much more the Pros assign hotkeys.
The following figures describe how often particular unit types are assigned to particular hotkeys by professional players. For example, professional players in our sample assigned almost two production structures to hotkey 4 a game.
GGs
Finally, just for kicks, we scanned the chat of each game for gg or any common variant. If you want to be in GM.
Thanks
The participation of players such as yourselves makes our research possible. Thank you.
Questions
I realize this was brief (probably too science-y for some, and not enough for others) I’ll keep an eye on the comments to this thread and answer any questions that I can. I’ll also post the link to the actual scientific paper (which has much more detail about the specific analyses) once it’s available online.
The first empirical study into StarCraft 2 expertise ( here ) was the largest study of expert human performance to date. Thanks to the participation of thousands of SC2 players this study we have expanded our knowledge of human skill acquisition, and we believe that the results, when published, will go a long way to convince the scientific community that StarCraft 2 is a genuine domain of expertise. The project received positive press coverage from Scientific American , the Wall Street Journal and from game oriented media such as TeamLiquid. It also spawned a segment on the science show Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel (Canada) featuring none other than the incomparable Liquid`TLO . We can’t release our results before publication, but we can summarize some of the findings we thought would be most interesting to players. We do so below, after an all-important solicitation for participation in an even more important study.While our first project was trail-blazing in a number of ways, our second StarCraft 2 project will dwarf the first both in the quantity and quality of data collected. We believe that the project has the potential to profoundly change how skill learning and expertise are studied forever. The key to the project is that it involves analyzing the changes in individual players across time. What we need is replay packs from players who. As long as the missing replays are few and you have a lot of replays to provide (300+). This may be three hundred, a couple thousand, or even 10’s of thousands (White-Ra!). The scientific community simply does not have access to similar data on learning in a complex game like StarCraft 2. It will show us when individual players learn the necessary skills. We will also see to what extent certain skills can compensate for others, and if certain skills are always learned before others. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we’ll have much better ideas of how to actually help StarCraft 2 players improve.Please participate here (instruction for finding your replays)The survey and uploader are here If you haven’t saved your replays, please help spread the word to players who might have.In daily life, we use our attention to focus on objects we want to interact with. That is, looking is for doing. StarCraft is no different, and thus the vast majority of actions happen as part of what we call a “Perception Action Cycle” (PAC). A PAC basically consists of a shift of the screen to a new location for some time, followed by at least one action (typically 4-6), and then a shift to some other location. The delay to the first action in a PAC turns out to be one of the best predictors across all leagues, and the best in certain leagues (beating out the venerable APM, which, despite it’s faults, is a good predictor of league). Other components of the PAC are also important predictors of skill.Our primary research question was: to what extent does the importance (i.e. predictive power) of variables change across levels of skill? If it changes more than a little, it is a difficult problem for researchers, because most of the time it’s not feasible to collect detailed data from across many levels of experience, and the alternatives (for example collecting data just from experts and novices) are less useful where variables frequently change in importance. We used a machine learning technique (random forests of conditional inference trees) to build classifiers for each league compared to the one two leagues up (Bronze vs. Gold, Silver versus Platinum, etc.).This figure describes the ranked importance of each of our key variables in these “skip-league” classifiers. APM was ranked first, for instance, in the Bronze vs Gold classifier, implying that it was our most useful variable for distinguishing those leagues.Ever wonder how other people have their options set? So did we. The following graphs are results from our original survey about player settings. Note, we did not get surveys from pro players, so we report only GMs. The following figures describe how players set their game settings in each league. For example, roughly 60% of Pros set flyer status (red lines showing the location over which a flyer hovers) to “always on.” Unit Status bars refer to unit health bars and Alerts (obviously) refer to game alerts.These data shows the assignment of hotkeys by pros. This is interesting when compared to Bronze hotkeys. We have two different kinds of figure here. The first figure describes the frequency of Bronze and Pro players’ hotkey assigns per game (broken down by type of unit being assigned). Note how much more the Pros assign hotkeys.The following figures describe how often particular unit types are assigned to particular hotkeys by professional players. For example, professional players in our sample assigned almost two production structures to hotkey 4 a game.Finally, just for kicks, we scanned the chat of each game for gg or any common variant. If you want to be in GM.The participation of players such as yourselves makes our research possible. Thank you.I realize this was brief (probably too science-y for some, and not enough for others) I’ll keep an eye on the comments to this thread and answer any questions that I can. I’ll also post the link to the actual scientific paper (which has much more detail about the specific analyses) once it’s available online. SkillCraft.com - StarCraft + Science |
A suicide bomber driving a truck attacked a security checkpoint on a strategic highway south of Iraq's capital on Sunday killing at least 60 people.
Another 60 were wounded in the massive blast near the city of Hilla, police officials said.
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf said Hilla is about 90km south of Baghdad.
"It was apparently a suicide bombing that occurred at a checkpoint that is usually manned by Iraq soldiers and federal police forces. A long line of cars along that key road were also caught in the blast," Arraf said.
It wasn't immediately clear who launched the suicide attack.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has recently carried out a string of deadly assaults against Iraqi security forces.
Over the past week, a double bombing at a market in Baghdad's Sadr city killed more than 70 people. The following day a suicide attack at a funeral north of Baghdad killed about 30. |
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Police are to use hundreds of airport-style and hand-held weapon detectors in the crackdown on knife crime.
Teams of 15 officers will be deployed across the 10 boroughs in London that have recorded the most knife crime.
Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin, head of territorial policing in the capital, said officers would be deployed in areas blighted by stabbings to stop and search teenagers suspected of carrying weapons.
Police admit the “in your face policing” is expected to raise community tensions in some areas.
But they say they are getting significant support from communities desperate for them to crack down on the problem.
Officers will use contentious Section 60 powers to enforce effective “no-go” areas for people carrying knives.
The powers enable officers to stop people and search them without the need to have “reasonable suspicion” that they are engaged in wrong doing.
There has been criticism of the powers because research has found it hits black communities disproportionately.
Stop and search has been strongly criticised in the past but police say there is now more support for the action – provided it it is done with sensitivity. |
Nigel Farage has told No campaigners to "stop moaning, stop bitching" or risk losing the EU referendum.
The UKIP leader said the No side needed to "get off its backside", with the Yes side "in full flight".
He said UKIP would not be applying to lead the official No campaign, but would "mobilise a people's army" in favour of leaving the European Union.
"We are taking the lead on the ground," he said and would launch hundreds of public meetings from September.
This was in contrast to "wait and see" tactics he said were being favoured by Conservative and Labour Eurosceptics.
Mr Farage told BBC 5 live he knew UKIP would not lead the No campaign and that there were two groups competing to be the official No campaign in the referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union.
But he accused some Conservative Eurosceptics of being "consumed by rather petty jealousies".
Mr Farage said his message to them was: "Stop moaning, stop bitching and get off your backsides and help us win this referendum."
No campaigns - By Robin Brant
Image caption Liz Bilney from The Know campaign
With friends like these... that's what Nigel Farage may be thinking today after a No campaign set up and part financed by the man who gave £1m to UKIP last year made it clear it doesn't want him to front the campaign. www.theknow.eu is yet to officially launch, and it is only one of several No campaigns in the mix but it is up and running and its chief executive is distancing the operation from UKIP and its leader. Liz Bilney told me it would be "absolutely perfect" if Nigel Farage and his party want to "fall into line" behind the campaign she's running, but she wants it to be non-political.
Her longtime boss Arron Banks, who opened his chequebook for UKIP last autumn, agrees with her, she told me. In explaining that they want to be more "far reaching" in their appeal they echo the concerns that prominent UKIP figures Patrick O'Flynn and Suzanne Evans voiced in the aftermath of the election.
In a speech in London outlining the themes the party believes can win the EU referendum for the No side, Mr Farage stopped short of ruling himself out as leader of the official campaign.
But he said: "What we will do is play our part in this campaign. At the moment there are two competing bodies: one very much a Westminster club, one very much an outside the Westminster club.
"There's merit in what both of those organisations are trying to do. We as a party... will make our minds up about which of those teams we will back, although privately, I hope... there will be a coming together."
UKIP would work with anybody in the Eurosceptic movement, he said, adding: "There'll be no negativity from us once they've got off their backsides and decided to join this fight."
Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Johnson has been mooted as a possible leader of the No campaign in the EU referendum
Asked if he would step back from a campaign role if his presence jeopardised the outcome of the vote, Mr Farage said "Well, obviously."
But he added: "Whatever my shortcomings are, and they may be many, I think I'm probably better than no-one in going out to do this [ground campaign]."
Responding to a question on whether Boris Johnson should take the lead, Mr Farage said the Tory London mayor and MP had the advantage of being well-known but would need a "damascene conversion".
"I would say, 'come on Boris, see the light, come on in the water's lovely'," he added.
'Open borders'
In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Farage said Mr Cameron must not continue to go "unchallenged" in his EU renegotiations.
He said the PM's strategy was solely focused on migrant benefits, which he said failed to address public concerns about the free movement of people, sovereignty and the cost of EU membership.
The leader of the No campaign, Mr Farage argued, needed to be someone who could best take the fight to Mr Cameron on TV and radio and "make the arguments that real folk care about it".
"We cannot pretend, as some in Westminster are doing, that we can ignore the question of open borders; that, I think, in the end will be the key to who wins this referendum," he added.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Cameron has pledged to hold an in/out referendum on the UK by the end of 2017 at the latest
Asked about Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Farage said that "underneath his pretence that he wants us to stay in the EU I suspect there is a Eurosceptic bursting to get out, so if he does win the leadership it will be very interesting".
In an interview with the BBC while in Vietnam, Mr Cameron said he wanted to get on with the EU referendum - which has to be held by the end of 2017 - but said there was "no point" in holding it until negotiations were complete.
'Now the negotiation is under way, technical talks are happening now in Brussels, trying to fix the things like getting out of ever closer union which we never wanted to belong to, making sure Europe's competitive, frankly making sure Europe speeds up and signs trade deals with places like Vietnam more quickly, so all these things will happen and then we'll hold the referendum," he said.
When asked if there were any circumstances under which he would recommend people to vote 'no' in the referendum Mr Cameron said he ruled "nothing out" if he didn't get the changes he wanted. |
Sandy Huffaker via Getty Images Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, followed by several rivals, walks onstage for the presidential candidates at the Reagan Library on Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, California. A new HuffPost/YouGov survey of GOP activists finds that he's increasingly seen as electable.
The most politically active members of the Republican Party have warmed to Donald Trump’s bid for the party’s presidential nomination since last summer, according to a new Huffington Post/YouGov poll, which finds 68 percent now think he could win the general election.
While most surveys attempt to reflect the entire electorate, this one is the latest in a trio of polls focusing solely on Republican activists: well-informed party stalwarts who've run for or held office, served as party officials, worked on campaigns or volunteered their time before elections.
Their views shouldn't be seen as representative of the horserace as a whole, but they provide some insight into the role of GOP political leaders in an election cycle where public opinions have repeatedly flouted the establishment. With days until the Iowa caucus and only a scattered handful of endorsements coming from elected officials in Washington, there are increasing signs that the Republican establishment is losing its grip on its activist base.
Prior HuffPost/YouGov activist surveys map the stages of Trump's political ascent among that group. Last July, while he attracted a significant fraction of support, just over a quarter believed he was capable of winning the Republican nomination or the general election, with even fewer considering him acceptable to most Republicans.
By September, he'd convinced a slim majority he was electable. Much of the data, however, still painted him as a "factional" candidate with intense support in some corners of the party but a ceiling to his appeal. He was still viewed as unacceptable to a majority of the GOP, with a significant group of activists saying they could never support him, or would be angry to see him nominated.
The latest survey, conducted Jan. 14-20, finds that activists now see Trump as one of three candidates, along with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are capable of delivering victory in November.
As in national polls, Donald Trump leads as the activists' first choice, taking 29 percent, with Cruz at a relatively close 25 percent. Previous waves of support for former neurosurgeon Ben Carson and businesswoman Carly Fiorina have all but entirely ebbed, leaving Rubio, at 17 percent, as the only other candidate in the double digits.
With first and second choice combined, Cruz takes the lead with 50 percent, followed by Trump with 45 percent and Rubio at 33 percent.
A gap persists between two groups: volunteers, who've donated significant time or money, and "semi-pros," who've worked in politics or run for office themselves. The volunteers split solidly for Trump, while the professionals are close to evenly divided between Trump and Cruz.
More dramatic than the horserace numbers is the change to Trump's image and his perceived legitimacy as a candidate.
In September, 40 percent of activists rated him unfavorably. Now 30 percent do, giving him lower negatives than anyone else in the field except Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The percentage who say they could never support him has fallen from 28 percent to 20 percent in that time, while the share naming him acceptable to most Republicans has risen from 40 to 54 percent.
While there's little precedent for candidates who lack political experience winning a nomination, let alone the presidency, a 68 percent majority of the activists surveyed now say that Trump is capable of winning a general election. That's up from just half of the activists last fall and 26 percent last summer, and outpaces the perceived viability of any other candidate.
Candidates, of course, can shed those perceptions as easily as they earn them. In September, a majority of activists thought either Carson or Fiorina would be capable of winning the presidency; those numbers have since plummeted.
Just two of Trump's rivals, however, seem currently poised to take advantage among the activists if he falters once voting begins. Cruz, at 61 percent, and Rubio, at 60 percent, are the only other contenders currently seen as electable by a majority of activists.
Cruz, who leads in combined first- and second-choice preference, seems especially well-positioned. As in the previous survey, he is the top choice among activists who are self-described Tea Party members, among whom he leads Trump by 10 percentage points. He also retains a narrow lead among evangelical voters, although that could be threatened by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.'s endorsement of Trump, made after the survey was conducted.
Rubio, the lone establishment-friendly candidate to attract significant support among the activists, is rated positively by 69 percent of those surveyed. While that's down about 10 points from the previous survey, he remains largely popular, with just 11 percent saying they could never support him, and is considered slightly more electable than Cruz.
Other establishment candidates fare considerably more poorly. While former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has leaned hard on his prospects in the general election, just 17 percent of activists consider him electable. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who's made headway in polls of the New Hampshire primary, does about equally badly, with 16 percent believing he can win.
An outsider winning the nomination would be a historic upset, and without a single vote yet cast, there's time for both GOP activists and the electorate as a whole to shift. But the current trend lines suggest that the Republican base currently sees its non-traditional front-runners as its best bet.
The survey consists of 500 completed interviews of self-identified Republicans selected from YouGov's opt-in online panelists who met the screening criteria for party activism. Interviews were conducted Jan. 14-20, 2016. Full results of the survey are here and crosstabulations are here.
The screening criteria were as follows: Respondents who think of themselves as Republicans, say they would vote in a Republican primary in their state and say they have either run for office, held elected public office, been a paid staffer for a political campaign or elected official, been a party official or substantively contributed time or money to a campaign.
For weighting purposes, a sampling frame was created based on the American National Election Studies using similar measures of political activism. Cases were weighted to the frame using an iterative process known as raking. Weights were based on party identification, age, gender and education.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the poll's methodology are available here. |
The father of 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman, the tourist killed in the Times Square rampage last week, has left a heartbreaking letter at a makeshift memorial. (Published Monday, May 22, 2017)
What to Know The father of 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman, the tourist killed in the Times Square rampage last week, has left a letter at a makeshift memorial
"I have a hole in my heart," he writes, while thanking the strangers who have supported him and his family and offered condolences
The driver, 26-year-old Richard Rojas, remains jailed on suicide watch at Rikers Island
The father of the 18-year-old tourist killed in the Times Square car rampage last week has left a touching letter at the makeshift memorial that's sprung up in the days since the horrific incident.
The framed letter sits atop a concrete NYPD barrier, amid flowers and toys honoring Alyssa Elsman of Portage, Michigan, who was killed when 26-year-old driver Richard Rojas zipped down the sidewalk for several blocks last Thursday.
In the letter, Thomas Elsman describes his grief and heartache, and expresses gratitude to those who have supported the family.
"I have met so many people from different countries, religions, creeds, etc... you have shown us that when you remove bias, racism and ignorance, WE ARE ALL ONE," he writes. "Your condolences have been sincere and taken to heart."
2 NJ Classmates Recovering After Times Square Rampage
Jessica Williams and Destiny Lightfoot, students at Dunellan High School, had skipped class and were heading to Manhattan to enjoy a day outside last Thursday when a car sped onto the sidewalk in Times Square and ran over 23 people, including the two girls. Now classmates are pulling together to help them. Brian Thompson reports. (Published Thursday, May 25, 2017)
Part of the letter also describes how Elsman loved New York City: "She loved Times Square. She would appreciate all your kind words but would also tell you all to get back up and continue, that's how full of life my daughter was."
The letter ends, "I have a hole in my heart... I love you kid... Love you, love you, love you."
Kim Spears, who works nearby, had tears in her eyes after reading the letter.
"Everyone feels terrible, and everyone feels awful because you hate to know that somebody came to visit New York -- she's young, she just graduated from high school," she said. "It's just terrible."
On the police barrier, others have left messages saying, "Rest easy," "Lots of love," "God bless you" and "Rest in peace."
Carlos Cardenas, a tourist from San Francisco, said at the site Monday, "It's just very touching. It's just so sad that something like that could happen here."
Tourist's Dad Leaves Gut-Wrenching Letter in Times Square
"I have a hole in my heart," he writes. (Published Monday, May 22, 2017)
Elsman's 13-year-old sister Ava was also critically injured in the accident and had been at Bellevue Hospital with a broken pelvis and a collapsed lung.
Six other victims continue to be treated at Bellevue, one of whom remains in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman says.
Rojas was taken into custody after barreling into the lunch-hour crowd on Seventh Avenue shortly before noon Thursday, according to police. Officials and sources say Rojas, who has a history of DWI arrests, made a U-turn on Seventh Avenue at 42nd Street and started speeding down the sidewalk for about 3-and-a-half blocks, mowing down pedestrians before crashing into a traffic pole.
Rojas told New York Post from Rikers Island Saturday that he was "trying to get help."
"I wanted to fix my life."
The former Navy man told police that he smoked marijuana laced with PCP and has a history of DWI arrests, including one where he was driving faster than 99 mph in a 50 mph zone, police said.
He said he remembered eating with his mother at their Highbridge home Thursday morning when he decided to go for a drive. He said he couldn't remember what was going through his mind during the drive.
“The last thing I remember is driving in my car,” he recalled. “Then, I woke up in the precinct ... I was terrified.”
Rojas also told New York Post that he wants to watch the videos of Thursday's rampage to "verify that I'm the person," he said.
Rojas is charged with second-degree murder, 20 counts of second-degree attempted murder and five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, police said.
One of the other victims has been identified as a New Jersey high school student.
Jessica Williams, a 19-year-old student from Dunellen High School, remains in critical condition, according to a GoFundMe page dedicated to her recovery. She was visiting midtown on Senior Skip Day with a friend when Rojas accelerated and slammed into them and the crowd.
Times Square Driver Charged in Deadly Crash
The driver who allegedly mowed down a crowd in Times Square, killing a woman and injuring nearly two dozen people, said he smoked PCP before the crash and wanted to "kill them all," prosecutors said. Marc Santia reports. (Published Friday, May 19, 2017)
Williams' injuries include a fractured pelvis and broken leg, according to the Daily News.
“Her spleen was removed yesterday and the damage to her face was stitched up today,” her cousin Nicole Guild said on the GoFundMe page. |
Two self-organised spaces were successfully defended when they were attacked by fascist and police forces over the weekend.
Supporters of the fascist Golden Dawn attacked self-organized spaces in the Athens' neighbourhood of Zografou on Saturday night. The attack, which was beaten back, came as supporters of Golden Dawn and nationalists marched nearby.
The attackers broke off from a Golden Dawn and nationalist demonstration in Athens. The march was on the anniversary of the Imia incident, a clash in the 1990's between Greece and Turkey over some deserted rocks in the Aegean which almost led to war. The media reports that around 5,000 fascists and nationalists from all over Greece took part in the march, though the same reports fail to mention the attack in Zografou.
As the protest ended a number of motorcyclists who accompanied the march broke off and headed to Villa Zografou and Berntes, two self-organised spaces in Zografou. The fascists attacked the buildings but in both cases were repulsed by people in the area. Some of the fascists needed hospital treatment and according to some reports one of those injured was taken to hospital 401 which is only for members of the police and armed forces. Following the attack the Villa was surrounded by heavy police forces as hundreds of people rushed to defend the spaces. The police forces eventually withdrew in the early hours.
Not far from the neighbourhood of Zografou the Golden Dawn have recently opened a new office, funnily enough it's in the same area as the police headquarters of the Athens' region. So places such as Villa Zografou are of great importance in resisting the expanding Golden Dawn presence in central Athens. Whilst the fact that the far-right was able to hold a march with thousands of supporters is worrying the night was not a great show of strength. In terms of sheer numbers 5,000 is only half of the approximately 10,000 who came out for a recent demonstration in support of the squats of Athens. What's more the attacks on the social centres show that the far-right is being confronted by organised and determined anti-fascists who continue to grow in strength.
The need for an increasing and ever more determined anti-fascist presence was shown by other recent events. A 37 year-old father of two from Senegal, Cheikh (Babakar) Ndiaye died in Athens after police chased him onto the train tracks at Thissio station on Friday night. Policemen chased Cheikh as part of an operation to remove migrant street sellers in the area. Such harassment of migrants on the streets of Athens' tourist centre has long been an every day occurrence. Friends of Cheikh Ndiaye who gathered at the scene were beaten back by riot police units. This latest death comes two weeks after supporters of the Golden Dawn murdered Shehzad Luqman a 27 year-old man from Pakistan, also in Athens. |
Money pit on Oak Island
The Oak Island mystery refers to stories of buried treasure and unexplained objects on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. Since the 19th century, a number of attempts have been made to locate treasure and artifacts. Theories about artifacts present on the island range anywhere from pirate treasure, to Shakespearean manuscripts, or religious objects of great importance. Various items have surfaced over the years that were found on the island, some of which have since been carbon dated and found to be hundreds of years old. Although these items can be considered treasure in their own right, the significant main treasure site has since been lost. The site consisted of an original shaft which was dug by early explorers, now known as "the money pit".
History [ edit ]
Early accounts (1790s–1856) [ edit ]
Very little verified information is known about early treasure-related activity on Oak Island. It wasn't until decades later that publishers began to pay attention to the activity, and investigated the stories involved. The earliest known story of a treasure find by a settler named Daniel McGinnis first appeared in print in 1856, while excavation information regarding the Onslow and later Truro Company weren't published until the early 1860s. A lot of the following early accounts are thus word of mouth stories going back to the late eighteenth-century.[1] The first of these stories by early settlers involve a dying sailor from the crew of Captain Kidd (d. 1701), in which he states that treasure worth £2 million had been buried on the island.[2]
According to the most widely-held story, Daniel McGinnis discovered a depression in the ground around 1799 while he was looking for a location for a farm.[3] McGinnis, who believed that the depression was consistent with the Captain Kidd story, sought help with digging. With the assistance of two men identified only as John Smith and Anthony Vaughn, he excavated the depression and discovered a layer of flagstones two feet below.[2] According to later accounts, oak platforms were discovered every 10 feet (3.0 m); however, the earliest accounts simply mention "marks" of some type at these intervals.[4] The accounts also mentioned "tool marks" or pick scrapes on the walls of the pit. The dirt was noticeably loose, not as hard-packed as the surrounding soil.[4] The three men reportedly abandoned the excavation at 30 feet (9.1 m) due to "superstitious dread".[5] Another twist on the story has all four people involved as teenagers. In this rendering McGinnis first finds the depression in 1795 while on a fishing expedition. The rest of the story is consistent with the first involving the logs found, but ends with all four individuals giving up after digging as much as they could.[6][7] In either case word spread fast as by 1801 another man named Gordan Chase attempted to find the treasure. Chase ended any more future attempts after he was wounded by another treasure hunter named Micheal J Whynot, it is unknown if either man found anything of value.[8]
In 1802 (est.), a group known as the Onslow Company sailed from central Nova Scotia to Oak Island to recover what they believed to be hidden treasure.[a] They continued the excavation down to about 90 feet (27 m), with layers of logs (or "marks") found about every ten feet (3.0 m), and also discovered layers of charcoal, putty and coconut fibre.[10] According to an 1862 account, at 80–90 feet (24–27 m) they recovered a large stone inscribed with symbols.[5] The diggers then faced a dilemma when the pit flooded with 60 feet (18 m) of water from unknown reasons. The excavation was eventually abandoned after workers attempted to recover the treasure from below by digging a tunnel from a second shaft that also flooded.[9] Another company called The Truro Company was formed in 1849 by investors who re-excavated the shaft back down to the 86-foot (26 m) level, but the pit then flooded again. It was then decided to drill five bore holes using a pod-auger into the original shaft. According to a nineteenth-century account, the auger passed through a spruce platform at 98 feet (30 m). After this platform, the auger hit layers of oak, something described as "metal in pieces", another spruce layer, and clay for 7 feet (2.1 m).[5] This platform was hit twice each time metal was brought to the surface along with various other items such as wood and coconut fiber.[11]
Another shaft was then dug 109 feet deep northwest of the original shaft, a tunnel was again branched off in an attempt to intersect the treasure. Once again though seawater flooded this new shaft, workers then assumed that the water was connected to the sea as the now flooded new pit rose and fell with each tide cycle. The Truro Company shifted its resources to excavating a nearby cove known as "Smith's Cove" where they found a flood tunnel system.[11] When efforts failed to shut off the flood system, one final shaft was dug 118 feet deep with the branched off tunnel going under the original shaft. Sometime during the excavation of this new shaft, the bottom of the original shaft collapsed. It was later speculated that the treasure had fallen through the new shaft into a deep void causing the new shaft to flood as well.[11] The Truro Company then ran out of funds and was dissolved sometime in 1851.[b]
The initial McGinnis excavation first appeared in the Liverpool Transcript in October 1856. The first published account, which mentioned a group digging for Captain Kidd's treasure on Oak Island, was published the following year.[2] A more complete account, by a justice of the peace in Chester, Nova Scotia then followed in the Liverpool Transcript.[2][12] The account based on the Liverpool Transcript articles also ran in the Novascotian, the British Colonist, and is mentioned in an 1895 book called A History Of Lunenburg County.[13][14][15] In early 2000, investigator Joe Nickell reviewed the original accounts and interviews with descendants of McGinnis and the original Oak Island landowners.[1] While later sources state that the treasure had been discovered by three young boys, Nickell reported that the story was about three adult lot owners who discovered the depression on the island and began digging.[1]
Early excavations (1861–1898) [ edit ]
The next major excavation attempt was carried out in 1861 by a company called "The Oak Island Association". The original pit was re-excavated to a depth of 88 feet, and two more shafts were dug. The first one missed its intended target of an alleged flood tunnel, while the other intersected the original shaft via a branched off tunnel at around 105 feet deep. Both of these shafts were filled with water when an alleged flood tunnel was again breached. At one point one of the platforms placed in the original shaft at 98 feet collapsed, and dropped to a lower level. The effect caused the next two platforms to drop as well with the treasure now resting some 119 feet below ground along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber.[16] The first of six accidental deaths during excavations occurred during the fall of 1861 when a pump engine boiler burst. The explosion was first mentioned in an 1863 novel titled "Rambles among the blue-noses", while mention of a death came five years later.[16][17] Another shaft was dug in the spring of 1862, which was 107 feet deep. This new shaft was parallel and connected to the original shaft as it was used to pump water out of the original shaft to a depth of 103 feet. Although the pumps could not keep up with the floodwater, tools that were used by the Onslow and Truro companies were recovered.[16] The Oak Island Association also did some work at Smith's Cove by drilling a few shafts in an attempt to shut off and seal the alleged flood tunnels. All of these attempts were failures in the end due to the tide which eventually broke through barriers that were put in place. One final attempt was made in 1864 to intersect the money pit which resulted in an alleged flood tunnel again being breached. By this time saltwater was undermining the walls of the original shaft which some workers refused to enter. The original shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe, and the company abandoned their efforts when their money ran out.[16][18][19]
In 1866, a group known as The Oak Island Eldorado Company or more commonly The Halifax Company was formed to find the treasure. By this time there were many shafts, bore holes, and tunnels under Oak Island by previous treasure hunters. When a plan to shut off the alleged flood tunnels from Smith's didn't work, the company decided to shift focus to the original main shaft.[20] Exploratory holes were drilled that turned up bits of wood, more coconut fiber, soft clay, and blue mud. The group gave up the search in 1867 having found nothing of interest.[21]
In 1896, an unknown group arrived on the island with steam pumps and boring equipment. Although the pumps were unable to keep water out of the flooded side shaft, boring samples were taken. It was claimed that one of the samples brought a tiny piece of sheepskin parchment to the surface. The parchment had two letters, "vi" or "wi", written in India ink.[22] The second accidental death occurred on March 26, 1897 when a worker named Maynard Kaiser fell to his death.[18] Red paint was poured into the flooded pit by the group in 1898, which reportedly revealed three exit holes around the island.[23]
Old Gold Salvage group (1909) [ edit ]
Captain Henry L. Bowdoin arrived on Oak Island in August 1909 representing the Old Gold Salvage Group, one of whose members was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. By this time the area now known as the "money pit" was cleared out to 113 feet (34 m), and divers were sent down to investigate.[22] Although multiple borings were taken in and around the pit, none of the cores revealed anything of interest.[22]
Bowdoin also examined Smith's Cove, where drain tunnels and a ring bolt in a rock had reportedly been seen. Although the group found the remains of an 1850 cofferdam, no evidence of anything else was found.[22] Bowdoin later examined the "stone cipher" in Halifax, and found it a basalt rock with no symbols. He was doubtful that symbols could have worn off the rock, given its hardness. The group left the island in November 1909, but Roosevelt kept up with Oak Island news and developments for most of the rest of his life.[22]
William Chappell and Gilbert Hedden (1928–1939) [ edit ]
August 1931 aerial photo of digs and buildings
In 1928, a New York newspaper published a feature story about Oak Island. William Chappell became interested and excavated the pit in 1931 by sinking a 12-by-14-foot (3.7 m × 4.3 m) 163-foot (50 m) shaft southwest of what he believed was the site of the 1897 shaft (which was thought, without evidence, to be near the original pit). At 127 feet (39 m), a number of artifacts, including an axe, a fluke anchor and a pick, were found. The pick was identified as a Cornish miner's pick, but by this time the area around the pit was littered with debris from previous excavation attempts and finding the owner was impossible.
Gilbert Hedden, an operator of a steel fabricating company, saw the 1928 article and was fascinated by the engineering problems involved in recovering the reported treasure. Hedden made six trips to Oak Island and collected books and articles about the island. He went to England to consult Harold T. Wilkins, author of Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island, about a link he found between Oak Island and a map in Wilkins' book.[24] After Chappell's excavations, Hedden began digging in the summer of 1935, after he purchased the southeastern end of the island. In 1939, he informed King George VI about developments on the island.[25] Further excavations were made in 1935 and 1936, none of which were successful.[26]
Restall family and Robert Dunfield (1959–1966) [ edit ]
Robert Restall, his 18-year-old son, and workpartner Karle Graeser, came to Oak Island in 1959 after signing a contract with one of the property owners. In 1965, they tried to seal what was thought to be a storm drain in Smith's Cove and dug a shaft down to 27 feet (8.2 m). On August 17, Restall was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes. His son then went down the shaft, and also lost consciousness. Graeser and two others, Cyril Hiltz and Andy DeMont, then attempted to save the two men. A visitor to the site, Edward White, had himself lowered on a rope into the shaft but was able to bring out only DeMont. Restall, his son, Graeser and Hiltz all died.
That year, Robert Dunfield leased portions of the island. Dunfield dug the pit area to a depth of 134 feet (41 m) and a width of 100 feet (30 m) by using a 70-ton digging crane with a clam bucket. Transportation of the crane to the island required the construction of a causeway (which still exists) from the western end of the island to Crandall's Point on the mainland, two hundred metres away.[18] Dunfield's lease ended in August 1966.
Triton Alliance (1967–1990s) [ edit ]
In January 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship, David Tobias, Robert Dunfield, and Fred Nolan formed a syndicate for exploration on Oak Island. Two years later, Blankenship and Tobias formed Triton Alliance after purchasing most of the island. Several former landowners, including Mel Chappell, became shareholders in Triton. Triton workers excavated a 235 feet (72 m) shaft, known as Borehole 10-X and supported by a steel caisson to bedrock, in 1971.
According to Blankenship and Tobias, cameras lowered down the shaft into a cave recorded possible chests, human remains, wooden cribbing and tools; however, the images were unclear and none of the claims have been independently confirmed. The shaft later collapsed, and the excavation was again abandoned. The shaft was later re-dug to 181 feet (55 m), reaching bedrock, but work was halted due to lack of funds and the collapse of the partnership.[27] Divers sent to the bottom of Borehole 10-X in 2016 found no artifacts.
An account of an excavation of the pit was published in the January 1965 issue of Reader's Digest.[28] The island was the subject of an episode of In Search of... which was first broadcast on January 18, 1979.
In 1983, Triton Alliance sued Frederick Nolan over the ownership of seven lots on the island and its causeway access. Two years later, Nolan's ownership of the lots was confirmed but he was ordered to pay damages for interfering with Triton's tourist business. On appeal, Triton lost again in 1989 and Nolan's damages were reduced.
During the 1990s, further exploration stalled because of legal battles between the Triton partners and a lack of financing. In 2005, a portion of the island was for sale for US$7 million.[citation needed] Lot Five is currently owned by Robert S. Young of Upper Tantallon NS who purchased it from Frederick G. Nolan of Bedford, NS in June 1996. Although the Oak Island Tourism Society had hoped that the government of Canada would purchase the island, a group of American drillers did so instead.[29]
Oak Island Tours & The Michigan Group (2005–present) [ edit ]
It was announced in April 2006 that brothers Rick and Marty Lagina of Michigan had purchased 50 percent of Oak Island Tours from David Tobias for an undisclosed sum. The rest of the company is owned by Blankenship. Center Road Developments, in conjunction with Allan Kostrzewa and Brian Urbach (members of the Michigan group), had purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000 one year before Tobias sold the rest of his share. The Michigan group, working with Blankenship, said that it would resume operations on Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and solving the island's mystery.
In July 2010, Blankenship and the other stakeholders in Oak Island Tours announced on their website that the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage had granted them a treasure-trove license which allowed them to resume activities until December 31, 2010.[30] After December 2010, the departments repealed the treasure-trove license and replaced it with an Oak Island Treasure Act.[31] The act, which became effective on January 1, 2011, allows treasure hunting to continue on the island under the terms of a license issued by the Minister of Natural Resources.[32] Exploration by the Lagina brothers has been documented in a reality television show airing on the History channel starting in 2014.
Water in the Money pit [ edit ]
According to an account written in 1862, after the Onslow Company had excavated to 80–90 feet (24–27 metres) the pit flooded with seawater up to the 33-foot (10 m) level; attempts to remove the water were unsuccessful. Explorers have made claims about an elaborate drainage system extending from the ocean beaches to the pit.
Later treasure hunters claimed that coconut fibres were discovered beneath the surface of a beach, Smith's Cove, in 1851. This led to the theory that the beach had been converted into a siphon, feeding seawater into the pit through a man-made tunnel. A sample of this material was reportedly sent to the Smithsonian Institution during the early 20th century, where it was concluded that the material was coconut fibre.[33]
Although one expedition claimed to have found a flood tunnel lined with flat stones at 90 feet (27 m),[4] geologist Robert Dunfield wrote that he carefully examined the walls of the re-excavated pit and was unable to locate any evidence of a tunnel.[4]
At the invitation of Boston-area businessman David Mugar, a two-week survey was conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1995 (the only known scientific study conducted on the site). After running dye tests in the bore hole, the institution concluded that the flooding was caused by a natural interaction between the island's freshwater lens and tidal pressures in the underlying geology (refuting the man-made tunnel theory). The Woods Hole scientists who viewed the 1971 videos reported that nothing conclusive could be determined from the murky images.[34] The reported five finger (or box) drains at Smith's Cove have recently been thought to be the remains of an early salt works, with no connection between the drains and any flooding of the pit.[35]
Oak Island lies on a glacial tumulus system and is underlain by a series of water-filled anhydrite cavities, which may be responsible for the repeated flooding of the pit. This type of limestone easily dissolves when exposed to water, forming caves and natural voids. Bedrock lies at a depth of 38 to 45 metres (125 to 148 feet) in the pit area.
Stone with alleged markings [ edit ]
A stone found 90 feet below the surface was said to have been inscribed with "mysterious markings." It was first reported in a July 2, 1862, Halifax Sun and Advisor article, which mentioned a June 2, 1862, letter by J. B. McCully which retold the story of the stone.[5][36] Offering a secondhand description of its discovery during the early 1800s excavation, McCully wrote: "Some [layers] were charcoal, some putty, and one at 80 feet was a stone cut square, two feet long and about a foot thick, with several characters cut on it." In an 1863 newspaper article, the stone was said to have been built into the "chimney of an old house near the pit".[3] Another article, a year later, claimed that the stone was held by the Smith family. On January 2, 1864, Historical Society of Nova Scotia secretary John Hunter-Duvar contacted treasure hunter George Cooke. In a January 27, 1864, letter to Hunter-Duvar, Cooke claimed that Smith built the stone into his chimney in 1824 and said that he was shown the stone by Smith in the chimney around 1850, when "there were some crudely cut letters, figures or characters upon it. I cannot recollect which, but they appear as if they had been scraped out by a blunt instrument, rather than cut with a sharp one." According to Cooke, when he made inquiries in 1864, he discovered that the chimney had been enclosed in wood and surrounded by a staircase; the stone was no longer visible.[37] An undated post-1893 letter by William Blair read, "Jefferson W. McDonald, who first mentioned Oak Island to me in 1893, worked under George Mitchell. Mr. McDonald, who was a carpenter by trade, also told of taking down a partition in Smith's house, in order that he with others might examine the characters cut on the stone used in the fireplace in the house. The characters were there all right, but no person present could decipher them."[38] Mitchell was the superintendent of works for the Oak Island Association, which was formed on April 3, 1861, and ceased operation by March 29, 1865.[15]
In his 1872 novel, The Treasure of the Seas,[39] James DeMille describes being a summer resident of Chester Basin during the later 1860s. DeMille lived on Oak Island for a summer and had firsthand knowledge of the area. The characters in the novel find that the stone had been removed from the chimney when they arrived on the island;[40] until then, no one had been able to decode the mysterious symbols reportedly on the stone, which an inn landlord describes as 'rather faint, and irregular' — he also says that 'men who don't believe in Kidd's treasure ... say that it isn't an inscription at all ... it's only some accidental scratches'.[41][42] Reginald Vanderbilt Harris (1881–1986) wrote in his 1958 book, The Oak Island Mystery,[43] "About 1865–1866 the stone was removed and taken to Halifax. Among those who worked to remove the stone was Jefferson W. MacDonald." The Blair letter mentioned above states that MacDonald took down the partition in order to examine the stone, not to remove it. Harris provides no source for the claim that the stone was removed in 1865 or 1866. The next mention of the stone is in an 1893 Oak Island Treasure Company prospectus. According to the prospectus, the stone was taken out of the chimney and moved to Halifax; there, an unnamed expert was said to have deciphered the stone as reading: "Ten feet below are two million pounds buried."[44]
On August 19, 1911, Collier's magazine published a firsthand account by Captain H. L. Bowdoin of the stone (which was then in use at Creighton's bookbindery in Halifax). Bowdoin described the rock as "of a basalt type hard and fine-grained." The stone he saw had no symbols on it. Although Bowdoin was told that they had worn off, he was skeptical because of the stone's hardness.[22] According to Charles B. Driscoll's 1929 book, The Oak Island Treasure (based on secondhand accounts),
The stone was shown to everyone who visited the Island in those days. Smith built this stone into his fireplace, with the strange characters outermost, so that visitors might see and admire it. Many years after his death, the stone was removed from the fireplace and taken to Halifax, where the local savants were unable to translate the inscription. It was then taken to the home of J.B. McCulley in Truro, where it was exhibited to hundreds of friends of the McCulleys who became interested in a later treasure company. Somehow the stone fell into the hands of a bookbinder, which used it as a base upon which to beat leather for many years. A generation later, with the inscription nearly worn away, the stone found its way to a bookstore in Halifax, and what happened to it after that I was unable to learn. But there are plenty of people living who have seen the stone. Nobody, however, ever seriously pretended to translate the inscription."[45]
The stone was reportedly brought by A. O. Creighton (of the 1866 expedition) from the Smith home to Creighton's bookbindery in Halifax. Harry W. Marshall (born 1879), the son of an owner of the bookbindery, wrote in 1935 that: -
He well remembered seeing the stone as a boy. "While in Creighton’s possession some lad had cut his initials ‘J.M.” on one corner, but apart from this there was no evidence of any inscription either cut or painted on the stone." Creighton used the stone for a beating stone and weight. When the business was closed in 1919, ... the stone was left behind.[46]
One researcher claimed that the cipher translated as "Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." The symbols associated with the "Forty feet below" translation first appeared in 1949's True Tales of Buried Treasure by explorer and historian Edward Rowe Snow. In his book, Snow said that he received the set of symbols from Rev. A. T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but no information was provided as to how or where Kempton obtained them.[47] It was found that Kempton had stated in a letter dated April 1949 that he had obtained his information from "a school teacher long since dead".[48]
Investors and explorers [ edit ]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stirred by family stories originating from his sailing and trading grandfather (and Oak Island financier) Warren Delano, Jr., began following the mystery in late 1909 and early 1910. Roosevelt continued to follow it until his death in 1945.[49] Throughout his political career, he monitored the island's recovery attempts and development. Although the president secretly planned to visit Oak Island in 1939 while he was in Halifax, fog and the international situation prevented him from doing so.[50]
Australian-American actor Errol Flynn invested in an Oak Island treasure dig.[51] Actor John Wayne also invested in the drilling equipment used on the island and offered his equipment to be used to help solve the mystery.[52] William Vincent Astor, heir to the Astor family fortune after his father died on the Titanic, was a passive investor in digging for treasure on the island.[52]
Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr. was also a passive investor in Oak Island exploration and treasure hunting, and monitored their status.[1] Byrd advised Franklin D. Roosevelt about the island;[53] the men forged a relationship, forming the United States Antarctic Service (USAS, a federal-government program) with Byrd nominally in command.[54]
Theories [ edit ]
Natural sinkholes [ edit ]
Wide-ranging speculation exists about how the pit was formed and what it might contain. According to Joe Nickell, there is no treasure; the pit is a natural phenomenon, probably a sinkhole connected to limestone passages or caverns.[1] Suggestions that the pit is a natural phenomenon (accumulated debris in a sinkhole or geological fault) date to at least 1911.[55][56][57][58] A number of sinkholes and caves, to which the "booby traps" are attributed, exist on the mainland near the island.
Its resemblance to a human-made pit has been suggested as partly due to the texture of natural, accumulated debris in sinkholes: "This filling would be softer than the surrounding ground, and give the impression that it had been dug up before".[58] The "platforms" of rotten logs have been attributed to trees, damaged by "blowdowns" (derechos) or wildfires, periodically falling (or washing into) the hollow.[59]
Another pit, similar to the early description of the "money pit", was discovered in the area in 1949 when workmen were digging a well on the shore of Mahone Bay. At a point where the earth was soft, "At about two feet down a layer of fieldstone was struck. Then logs of spruce and oak were unearthed at irregular intervals, and some of the wood was charred. The immediate suspicion was that another money pit had been found."[60]
Treasure trove [ edit ]
According to the earliest theory, the pit held a pirate treasure buried by Captain Kidd;[2][61] Kidd reportedly conspired with Henry Avery, and Oak Island was their community bank. Another pirate theory involved Edward Teach (Blackbeard), who said that he buried his treasure "where none but Satan and myself can find it."[citation needed]
An additional proposed explanation is that the pit was dug by Spanish sailors to hold treasure from a wrecked galleon or British troops stationed there during the American Revolution. Others claim that British marines dug the pit to store the loot acquired from the British invasion of Cuba, valued at about £1,000,000 pounds (about $180,000,000 in 2015). John Godwin wrote that given the apparent size and complexity of the pit, it was probably dug by French Army engineers hoping to hide the treasury of the Fortress of Louisbourg after it fell to the British during the Seven Years' War.[62]
Artifacts [ edit ]
Marie Antoinette's jewels [ edit ]
Marie Antoinette's jewels, missing except for specimens in museum collections, have been reportedly hidden on the island. On October 5, 1789, an angry mob of Parisian working women was incited by revolutionaries and marched on the Palace of Versailles. According to the undocumented story, Marie Antoinette instructed her maid (or a lady-in-waiting) to take the jewels and flee. The maid fled to London with the jewels and (perhaps) other treasures, such as artwork or documents, secreted on her person or in her luggage.[63][64][65] The woman then fled from London to Nova Scotia.[66] Using royal connections, she contracted with the French Navy to construct the Oak Island pit. In late 2017 the first possible evidence of this theory seemed to have been validated by the discovery of a 500-year-old brooch containing a large garnet.[67]
Bacon-Shakespeare authorship [ edit ]
In his 1953 book, The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit, Penn Leary wrote that the pit was used to hide manuscripts indicating that Francis Bacon was the author of William Shakespeare's works and a leader of the Rosicrucians.[68] Leary's "The Second Cryptographic Shakespeare", published in 1990, identified ciphers in Shakespeare's plays and poems which pointed to Bacon's authorship.[69] Author and researcher Mark Finnan[70] elaborated on Leary's Oak Island theory, which was also used in the Norwegian book Organisten (The Seven Steps to Mercy) by Erlend Loe and Petter Amundsen and the TV series Sweet Swan of Avon.[71]
Masonic and other artifacts [ edit ]
In his book, Oak Island Secrets,[70] Mark Finnan noted that many Masonic markings were found on Oak Island, and the shaft (or pit) and its mysterious contents seemed to replicate aspects of a Masonic initiation rite involving a hidden vault with a sacred treasure. Joe Nickell identifies parallels between Oak Island accounts, the "Secret Vault" allegory in York Rite Freemasonry and the Chase Vault on Barbados.[1] Freemason Dennis King examines the Masonic aspects of the Oak Island legend in his article, "The Oak Island Legend: The Masonic Angle".[72] Steven Sora speculated that the pit could have been dug by exiled Knights Templar and might be the final resting place of the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.[73]
Another theory holds that the Rosicrucians and their reported leader, Francis Bacon, organized a secret project to make Oak Island the home of its legendary vault with ingenious means to conceal ancient manuscripts and artifacts. Researchers and cryptographers such as Petter Amundsen and Daniel Ronnstam claim to have found codes hidden in Shakespeare, rock formations on the island, and clues hidden in other 16th- and 17th-century art and historical documents. According to Daniel Ronnstam, the stone found at 90 feet (27 m) contains a dual cipher created by Bacon.[74][self-published source]
Other theories [ edit ]
Author Joy Steele suggests that the money pit is actually a tar kiln dating to the historical period when "Oak Island served as a tar-making location as part of the British naval stores industry".[75] When marine biologist Barry Fell attempted to have the symbols on the stone translated during the late 1970s, he said that the symbols resembled the Coptic alphabet and read: "To escape contagion of plague and winter hardships, he is to pray for an end or mitigation the Arif: The people will perish in misery if they forget the Lord, alas."[76] According to Fell's theory, Coptic migrants sailed from North Africa to Oak Island and constructed the pit. However, Fell is not considered to be credible by most mainstream academics.
Notes [ edit ]
^ [9] No original documents relating to the Onslow Company have ever been found. It is known that the company roughly had its activity sometime in the early 1800s. ^ [11] One of the "best" accounts of what happened with the Tauro Company later appeared in the "1893 Oak Island Treasure Company Investment Prospectus".
References [ edit ]
News reports [ edit ] |
His non-conformist style makes Jiang Wen an icon in the Chinese film industry. Starting as an actor in critically acclaimed movies such as Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum", he then found his own path as a director. His directorial debut was a semi-autobiographical film called "In the Heat of the Sun" (1994). Its 17-year-old lead, Xia Yu, won the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival.
His second movie "Devils on the Doorstep" (2000), a black comedy set during the Japanese occupation in China, snatched the Grand Prix at Cannes but was banned in his home country. According to reports, Jiang Wen was banned from making films for the past seven years in his home country.
Jiang reemerged as a director with "The Sun Also Rises" (2007) and then directed the highest grossing domestic film in China - "Let the Bullets Fly" (2010). The film's loose sequel, "Gone With the Bullets" (2014), is nominated for a Golden Bear award in Berlin this year. Unlike the first one which was a critical and commercial success, his follow-up film is quite controversial. In Jiang's own words, "the opinions are extremely polarized".
Gala premiere postponed
The Beijing gala premiere of the 3-D gangster film, “Gone With the Bullets,” was abruptly called off in December last year due to last-minute issues with censors. Some movie fans believe that censorship made the movie hard to follow.
"Of course censorship has some effect on artistic expression. A lot of people have been saying they have difficulty understanding the movie. I don't think it is fully to do with the censorship because there are also other people who love it and have no difficulty understanding", Jiang Wen told DW.
The Beijing gala premiere of "Gone With the Bullets" was called off in December due to last-minute issues with censors
"This is now a phenomenon in China where people tend to think anything they can't easily decipher must be bad. That's a very self-important way looking at the world. I just imagine how bad the world would become if we would all think like that, since there are so many things we can't understand."
The last time Jiang had been to Berlin was some 20 years ago. During that visit, he gained the impression that the rest of the world didn't understand much about China. But in his eyes, that itself was also a generator of many beautiful things. "That allowed us get many (film) awards in fact", he laughed. "I think, today there are still some misconceptions. But the availability of information in both directions is much greater."
Jiang said he is not sure what he is trying to do by bringing this film to Berlinale – Germany's international film festival. He explained, "If you say that I'm trying to use this film to help people understand China - there are other and much better channels. Regardless which countries the audiences come from, I just want to tell them this story."
Searching for truth
"Gone with the Bullets," set in 1920s Shanghai, is based on a true story: a playboy kills a popular prostitute. Thanks to his fascination with the 1920s, Jiang came up with an ambitious idea, "I wanted to make what we called the Beiyang period in China into a film genre the same way that the Wild West and the prohibition era have become film genres in American cinema.
"From 1911 to 1928, the country was officially called Republic of China, but in reality, it was actually split between different warlords. It was one of the liveliest periods in Chinese history. It is therefore quite theatrical and it is good for making films", Jiang added.
In addition to history, Jiang is also obsessed with the quest for truth. "The leading character in this film is somebody who is unable and also unwilling to help the world move in the direction of fakery. He is somebody who wants to seek out truth. By making this film, I was also trying to find my way towards truth."
"A lot of work being done here is challenging or going against people's basic assumptions. For instance, the high status of the prostitute. Changing people's preconceptions is something you have to do in order to search for truth. Of course normally that's not done because it also challenges social stability and stories, as a result, are often told much more simply," Jiang said.
'In Chinese cinema there are fewer interesting movies these days because people are too obsessed with money,' said Jiang
China 'beyond parody'
With special effects by German-based Pixomondo and co-production with American film-giant Columbia Pictures, "Gone With the Bullets" is a big-budget action-comedy film. However, Jiang refused to call it a commercial movie: "I personally don't distinguish between artistic and commercial films. As a director, what I'm trying to do is to create interesting stories", Jiang said.
"But in Chinese cinema, there are fewer interesting movies these days because people are too obsessed with money. This leads them to make simple films that are easy for people to understand."
After being asked if his latest film is a parody of modern China, he burst into laughter again, saying, "China today is beyond parody. It is already a huge satirical work. Any film you would make about China is going to be a satire of China." |
Wikimedia Commons One of the more common beliefs about the U.S. labor market is that small businesses are the engine of job creation.
But in a new 10-page research note on the impact of small business on jobs, Goldman Sachs' economist Kris Dawsey argues that's not accurate.
In one paragraph, he explains why size doesn't matter. Rather, age does.
...recent research indicates the conventional wisdom that small businesses are responsible for all or most net job growth is not correct. For example, Haltiwanger et al. (2010) find that after controlling for firm age, there is no systematic relationship between net job growth and firm size. They find that historically the most important contributor to whether a firm grows or not is its age, rather than its size. The process of young firms (which do tend to start out small) growing into larger firms is the true contributor to job growth. Others such as Hurst and Pugsley (2011) back up this finding, noting that the vast majority of small firms start small and do not grow significantly. Furthermore, small firms are disproportionately concentrated in areas of the economy that tend to have lower productivity growth, including doctors' offices, small shopkeepers, restaurants, the building trades, etc.
That's very intuitive. Check out Dawsey's chart:
Goldman Sachs
Unfortunately, that doesn't address the fact that small business creation is lagging. The stats are very clear and they are undisputed.
But Dawsey explains:
...the underperformance of small business in the current business cycle can be largely traced back to the unique character of this business cycle relative to past cycles in terms of the composition of job losses. Construction employment declined more sharply relative to its peak―both on an absolute and proportional basis―than employment in any other major industry group. Furthermore, construction employment has regained only a small fraction of the jobs lost during the past recession. Because employment within the construction industry is disproportionately geared toward small firms, and because the share of employment in the construction industry among large firms is the lowest of any industry (Exhibit 3), the idiosyncratic poor performance of the construction sector goes a long way toward explaining the poor performance of small business employment more broadly. In other words, the question is not why has small business employment done so poorly since its peak, but rather why has construction employment done so poorly since its peak―a question that we can answer much more readily in light of the collapse of the housing bubble starting in 2006. Our rough calculations suggest that roughly all of the "missing jobs" in the small business sector (on a net basis) can be accounted for by the decline in employment among small firms in the construction industry.
Here's Dawsey's chart:
Goldman Sachs
Despite all of this, Dawsey communicates the house view that job creation will continue.
"Although there are risks posed by the low rate of new firm creation in recent years, our outlook for job growth remains broadly positive," he wrote. "Nonetheless, under our forecast, the labor market will take a number of years to normalize, with the unemployment rate likely falling back to a more normal level by around 2017."
Next Friday, we'll get the August jobs report. Goldman expects payrolls grew by 200,000. |
Name that protest movement The Occupy Wall Street protesters disagree with the conservative Tea Party movement on the nature of America's problems, but at times, their complaints sound remarkably similar. Can you tell the Tea Partiers from the Occupiers?
1.) Multiple Choice Question "As long as these big corporations have a good crony capitalist in the White House, they can rely on DC to bail them out until the whole system goes bankrupt, which, I am afraid, is not very far off." Who said it? A Tea Party supporter
A Wall Street Occupier
2.) Missing Word Question We are in a battle... for our freedom against * Wall Street
government
corporations
3.) Multiple Choice Question Who complained: "At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was elected"? A Tea Partier
An Occupy Wall Street protester
4.) Multiple Choice Question "I have children and grandchildren, and I don't want them to grow up in this world. I want the world to change. It can be done." Who said it? A Tea Partier
A Wall Street Occupier
5.) Multiple Choice Question Who said: "I'm just saying this feels an awful a lot like the 60s or 70s when I was a kid. I mean, you have the same feeling out here that government and nation have parted paths and the people will bring government back to the nation"? A Tea Party organiser
An Occupy Wall Street organiser
6.) Multiple Choice Question "We got sold out! Banks got bailed out!" Where can this chant be heard? A Tea Party protest
An Occupy Wall Street protest
7.) Multiple Choice Question "You leave your own country and you expect things to be better in America, a step or two up from what you left back home. And then there's this rude awakening: America is just not what it used to be." Who said this? A Tea Party protester
An Occupy Wall Street protester
8.) Missing Word Question * are controlling more and more of our lives Politicians
Corporations
9.) Multiple Choice Question "Republicans, Democrats and independents are stepping up and demanding we put our fiscal house in order. I think the overriding message after years of borrowing, spending and bailouts is enough is enough." Who said it? A Republican congressman who is a leader in the Tea Party
A Democratic congressman lending his support to Occupy Wall Street
Answers Tea Party icon Sarah Palin, former Republican Alaska governor, wrote this on her Facebook page on 6 September. In the same post, she also railed against "big government" and "big union bosses". Ms Johns was aiming her anger at the federal government - and the Obama administration, standard targets for the anti-tax Tea Party movement. John Penley, an unemployed legal worker from Brooklyn, said this at an Occupy Wall Street demonstration last week, according to the Associated Press. In interviews, Occupy Wall Street protesters say they are not happy with America's direction since Mr Obama's election in 2008. Deborah Zuchman, 64, a former Philadelphia public school teacher, said this to the Philadelphia Inquirer at an Occupy Philadelphia rally last week. Your hint: A Tea Party person would probably associate the word 'change' with liberal politics - and with Barack Obama - and would shun it. Mark Williams of organising group Tea Party Express said this on 11 September 2009 on Fox News Channel. Occupy protesters complain that banks received billions of dollars in public funds in 2008 while the government has not taken sufficient steps to create jobs. Tea Party protesters also criticise the bailouts, but see them as inappropriate government meddling in the financial system, rather than state support for wealthy corporations. Abdullah Pollard, 58, an immigrant from Trinidad who was laid off from his job in April, said this at an Occupy Wall Street protest last week. He also complained: "Both political parties march to the same drummer - the powerful corporations." Mr Ross said: "Corporations are controlling more and more of our lives and the economy of the country." He railed against the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, which the US Supreme Court has ruled gives corporations the right to inject virtually unlimited amounts of money into the political system in the name of free speech. Republican Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, a staunch conservative popular with the Tea Party, said this in September 2009. Complaints about government spending are common refrains among the Tea Party set, while Occupy Wall Street protesters call for more spending on education and social services. |
By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
Maybe there is no rock bottom for the Alabama Republican Party.
Maybe it’s just that mushy mud that you find on the bottom of the Tennessee River, and the ALGOP just keeps burrowing deeper and deeper into the muck and filth.
Thursday brought on a new bout of digging, with a familiar face behind the shovel.
Roy Moore. The ever-constant posterboy for what is wrong in Alabama politics.
Too much Bible thumping. Too much holier-than-thou. Too much greed. Too much law breaking. Too much self-involvement.
For a man who has been twice removed as Alabama’s chief justice, and in a state that has watched its governor and House speaker be convicted and booted from office in this election cycle, it is hard to shock people.
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Child sexual assault allegations will do it every time.
The Washington Post dropped a story Thursday in which a woman claimed that Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 14 and he was 32. Three other women quoted in that story said they too had been pursued by Moore when they were ages 16, 17 and 18 — all above the age of consent in Alabama, but well below the age of scandalous for a 30-something man.
For nearly 40-year-old allegations, the Post’s story was about as solid as it could be.
Within minutes, national Republican leadership was calling on Moore to step aside, if the allegations are true.
In Alabama, there was a decidedly different response — justification. Like a bunch of naive moms, Alabama’s brainwashed politicos came rushing to the defense of the guy with an R by his name.
It was a pathetic and infuriatingly stupid display of all-out ignorance. Led, of course, by State Auditor Jim Zeigler, who never misses an opportunity to insert himself into a controversy.
To justify Moore’s alleged sexual assault of a minor, and his pursuit of teenagers when he was in his 30s, Zeigler turned to the Bible, to the story of Jesus’ parents.
“Take Joseph and Mary,” Zeigler said to a reporter from the Washington Examiner. “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became the parents of Jesus.”
I assume this was from the King Trump Version of the Bible, in which “virgin” is just Mary’s nickname.
But it didn’t stop there.
Daniel Dale, a Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, attempted to call several of Alabama’s GOP county chairmen. Of the eight he managed to get on the phone, not a single one denounced Moore’s alleged behavior.
Two of those county chairmen — Bibb County’s Jerry Pow and Covington County’s William Blocker — actually told Dale that they’d vote for Moore over Doug Jones even if they had hard evidence that Moore committed sexual assault.
Even. If. They. Had. Proof.
Mixed among the replies were various instances of these guys excusing away sexual assault of minors. Marion County’s David Hall actually said there was “nothing wrong” with a 30-year-old dating a 16-year-old.
What’s it going to take, Alabama voter?
What’s it going to take before you realize that your family values, my-sin-is-better-than-your-sin, conservative voting approach has produced a state government filled with lying, cheating, sexually assaulting, money-grubbing criminals who have embarrassed us countless times, and on top of everything, mismanaged the hell out of this place?
I’m serious.
Take a look around you.
We’re terrible as a state. We’re near the bottom in public education, medical care, infrastructure, economy and upward mobility and at the top in infant mortality, poverty, obesity and political corruption.
Our budgets are consistently a mess — we’re going to have to magically find $100 million somewhere next year — and our state services are so underfunded that they’re all but worthless. We’re short on troopers, courthouse workers, road crews, maintenance personnel and teachers.
This is what the Roy Moore Republican Party has brought Alabama.
A government built on greed and hatefulness, on shunning anything different and thumbing our nose at any hint of progress.
These people have convinced you that this is all some sort of a grand game, where we win by our chosen party maintaining control, instead of winning by electing men and women who best represent the actual interests of the people.
And this is where it’s left you.
Right now, you have a choice between two men. One of those men is most famous for courageously prosecuting the domestic terrorists who bombed a church and killed four girls. The other is most famous for being kicked off the Supreme Court twice for refusing to follow the law and for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old.
You’re doing Cirque du Soleil-level contortions to justify voting for the latter.
Let us know if you ever find that muddy bottom. |
MIAMI/MOSCOW – During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump downplayed his business ties with Russia. And since taking office as president, he has been even more emphatic.
“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,” President Trump said at a news conference last month. “I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia.”
But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida, according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.
The buyers include politically connected businessmen, such as a former executive in a Moscow-based state-run construction firm that works on military and intelligence facilities, the founder of a St. Petersburg investment bank and the co-founder of a conglomerate with interests in banking, property and electronics.
People from the second and third tiers of Russian power have invested in the Trump buildings as well. One recently posted a photo of himself with the leader of a Russian motorcycle gang that was sanctioned by the United States for its alleged role in Moscow’s seizure of Crimea.
The Reuters review of investors from Russia in Trump’s Florida condominium buildings found no suggestion of wrongdoing by President Trump or his real estate organization. And none of the buyers appear to be from Putin’s inner circle.
The White House referred questions from Reuters to the Trump Organization, whose chief legal officer said the scrutiny of President Trump’s business ties with Russia was misplaced.
“I can say definitively that this is an overblown story that is media-created,” Alan Garten said in an interview. “I’ve been around this company and know the company’s dealings.”
The tally of investors from Russia may be conservative. The analysis found that at least 703 – or about one-third – of the owners of the 2044 units in the seven Trump buildings are limited liability companies, or LLCs, which have the ability to hide the identity of a property’s true owner. And the nationality of many buyers could not be determined. Russian-Americans who did not use a Russian address or passport in their purchases were not included in the tally.
The review focused on Florida because the state has a large concentration of Trump-branded buildings, and determining the ownership of properties is easier there than in some other states. The resort town of Sunny Isles Beach, site of six of the seven Trump-branded Florida residential towers, stands out in another way: The zip code that includes the Sunny Isles buildings has an estimated 1,200 Russian-born residents, among the most in the country, U.S. Census data show.
The Trump organization advertises all seven Florida buildings on its website as it pursues similar branding deals around the world. Exactly how much income Trump has earned from the buildings is unclear.
Six of the seven properties were the product of an agreement the New York property magnate struck in 2001 with father-and-son American developers Michael and Gil Dezer. The six buildings operated by the Dezers in Sunny Isles would bear Trump’s name under a licensing agreement.
“I can say definitively that this is an overblown story that is media-created.” Alan Garten, Chief Legal Officer, The Trump Organization
In an interview, Gil Dezer said the project generated $2 billion in initial sales, from which Trump took a commission. Dezer declined to say how large a commission, citing confidentiality agreements. Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, said Trump’s income was a mix of flat fees and percentages but declined to disclose them.
Edgardo Defortuna, a leading Miami developer, estimated that Trump likely made between one percent and four percent in initial sale commissions, based on the standard fees paid on similarly branded projects. If so, Trump stood to reap a total of $20 million to $80 million in Sunny Isles.
Trump receives no commission on subsequent sales in all seven of the Florida residential towers.
He continues to make money from one of the six Sunny Isles buildings, however, according to disclosure forms Trump filed in the 2016 U.S. presidential race. The disclosure form states that Trump received between $100,000 and $1 million from a business called Trump Marks Sunny Isles I LLC. Dezer said these funds came from the Trump International Beach Resort, a hotel and condominium complex.
Trump reported no income on his disclosure form from his seventh Florida property, the Trump Hollywood in the city of Hollywood. How much he has made over the years from that property’s 200 units is unclear. BH3, an investment fund which took over 180 units in a foreclosure sale, paid Trump a licensing fee of $25,000 for each unit, according to Daniel Lebensohn, a principal at the fund. If the remaining 20 units generated the same fee, Trump’s take would have been $5 million. Garten declined to confirm Trump’s commission.
Informed of the Reuters analysis of Trump’s Russian condo investors, two Democratic opponents of the president, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), renewed their calls for greater disclosure of his finances.
“While the president has denied having invested in Russia, he has said little or nothing about Russian investment in his businesses and properties in the United States or elsewhere,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “This should concern all Americans and is yet another reason why his refusal to release his tax returns should be met with considerable skepticism and concern.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Republican chairs of the Senate and House intelligence committees, declined to comment.
Schiff, as well as two U.S. intelligence officials and one former senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Russian government sometimes directs funding at prominent individuals in the United States and Europe in hopes of improving their perception of Russia. Reuters found no evidence of such an effort with Trump. Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, scoffed at the idea.
“This is politics at its worst,” he said.
RUSSIAN ELITE
The glimpse inside the condominium dealings offers a look at how the wealthy in Putin’s Russia use foreign property to stow cash.
One wealthy Russian buyer was Alexander Yuzvik. In 2010, he and his wife bought unit 3901 of Trump Palace in Sunny Isles for $1.3 million, according to Florida property records. The three-bedroom apartment has 2,100 square feet and panoramic views, according to an online real estate listing.
From 2013 to 2016, Yuzvik was a senior executive at Spetstroi, a state-owned company that has carried out construction projects at military facilities.
The Spetstroi website says the firm was involved in construction projects at the Moscow training academy of the FSB, Russia’s primary civilian intelligence service and successor of the KGB. Spetstroi also did construction work in the administrative building of the general staff of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
In a statement sent to Reuters, Spetstroi said Yuzvik worked there until he stepped down in March 2016.
Employees of some state-owned Russian companies are typically required to disclose their assets and income. Yuzvik and his wife filed a declaration for 2013. In that declaration, which is publicly available, they list only assets inside Russia. The Florida condo isn’t included.
Yuzvik could not be reached for comment.
Andrey Truskov, another Trump condo owner, is a founder and co-owner of Absolute Group LLC, a holding company involved in wholesale electronics, banking and property development, with projects in Moscow, London and New York. The wholesale electronic business is the biggest in Russia, an Absolute representative told Reuters. The company does not disclose its financial results.
Truskov bought apartment 1102 in the Trump Hollywood building for $1.4 million in 2011. The three-bedroom, 3.5-bath unit is 3,100 square feet, according to online real estate listings.
In a telephone interview, Truskov confirmed that he purchased the Trump Hollywood unit. He said the Florida apartment was the same price as a three-room apartment outside Moscow at the time, and Florida was a nice place to have a property. He said the purchase was a personal decision that had no connection with his business.
Several wealthy buyers were from Moscow and St. Petersburg, the country’s two largest cities, according to interviews in Russia, Florida public records and the Bureau Van Dijk company database Orbis. Among them: Alexey Ustaev, the founder and president of St. Petersburg-based Viking Bank, one of the first private investment banks established in Russia after the fall of Communism.
A donor to orphanages and chess clubs in St. Petersburg, Ustaev has received awards from the Russian Sports Ministry and the St. Petersburg chamber of commerce for his banking and charitable work, according to his biography on the bank’s website.
In 2009, Ustaev bought unit 5006, a 3-bed, 3.5-bath apartment in the Trump Palace complex in Sunny Isles, for $1.2 million in cash, according to Florida public records. Two years later, Ustaev bought another apartment, a penthouse unit, this time in the nearby Trump Royale condominium development, for $5.2 million.
In an email reply to questions, Ustaev said he purchased the properties in the Trump buildings for private use, but declined to comment on his family’s U.S. business. “I am living in Russia, I am working in Russia, and going abroad only for business purposes or vacations,” he said.
Many of the Russian buyers were from the country’s provinces. One is Oleg Misevra, a wealthy coal magnate and former traffic police commander whose company’s main assets are in the Pacific island of Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East. He has caught Putin’s eye: At a 2010 regional meeting of Putin’s United Russia party, Putin praised Misevra’s work and held a lengthy question and answer session with him.
A corporation Misevra controls, Swiss Residence Aliance Inc, purchased Penthouse #1 in Trump Hollywood for $6.8 million in 2010. The six-bedroom duplex is 8,200 square feet and boasts 12-foot ceilings, according to real estate listings. Misevra did not respond to requests for comment.
Some of these Russian buyers appear to have done well in America. Another local politician, Vadim Valeryevich Gataullin, bought an apartment for $3.5 million in the Trump Hollywood. He did the deal through a company registered in Florida called VVG Real Estate Investments LLC. Five years later, Gataullin sold the apartment for $4.1 million to a Delaware-based limited liability company whose owner is not identified in state records.
In early 2012, Gataullin bought a second apartment in the same building, unit 2701, for $920,000, according to Florida records. Several months later, Gataullin sold the apartment for $1.1 million to a couple from Venezuela, property records show.
Gataullin is from the semi-autonomous Russian Republic of Bashkortostan, an oil-producing region in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. The son of a deputy regional prosecutor, he was a deputy in the regional parliament from 2013 until 2015.
As a member of the regional parliament, he was required to declare his income and assets under Russian federal law, according to a representative of the Bashkortostan regional parliament. A copy of the income declaration Gataullin filed for in 2013, when he was still owner of the second Trump unit, contains no mention of the apartment.
Gataullin did not respond to messages sent to his company in Bashkortostan.
More recently, Gataullin has been actively investing in the Miami area. His VVG Real Estate has spent at least $28 million on property in Broward County between 2012 and 2016. It also bought and sold six properties in Miami Dade County between 2015 and 2016 for a total profit of $238,400, property records show.
VVG is also the registered licensee on a small motel close to the beach in Hollywood. An employee there told Reuters that Gataullin “appears and disappears like a ghost” and was currently in Russia. A secretary at Gataullin’s holding company in Russia told Reuters on March 17 that he is not in Russia.
The American experience has been a mixed one for some of the Trump buyers. Among them is Pavel Uglanov, a businessman who served as a deputy minister for industry and energy in the regional government of Saratov, in central Russia, from 2010 to 2011.
Uglanov bought unit 3704 of Trump Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida, for $1.8 million in 2012. He sold the 3-bed, 3,395 square foot apartment for $2.9 million two years later.
Back in Russia, Uglanov made unsuccessful runs for the Saratov city assembly in 2006 and 2011, the second time as a member of Putin’s United Russia party. After leaving his deputy ministership in 2011, Uglanov told his then-wife, Anastasia, they were moving to Florida.
Anastasia said in an interview in her Miami apartment that her ex-husband never told her why. “I don’t know what goes on in a man’s head,” she said.
In Miami, Uglanov opened a gas station, called Niko Petroleum. When that business struggled, he sold it. He then started a charter boat business and a trucking firm. They struggled, too.
Uglanov did not have connections in the United States like he did in Russia and he didn’t understand how Americans do business, his ex-wife said.
Last August, Uglanov posted a photograph of himself on his Facebook page posing alongside Alexander Zaldostanov, leader of the “Night Wolves” biker gang. The Wolves, and Zaldostanov personally, were made subject to U.S. financial and travel restrictions. The U.S. government said gang members stormed a Ukrainian government naval base and a gas facility during Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
An aide to Zaldostanov did not respond to questions from Reuters. The group, in interviews in Russian media, has denied storming the base and the gas facility.
Zaldostanov has had multiple meetings with Putin, according to the Kremlin’s website. The Russian president awarded Zaldostanov the country’s “medal of honor” in 2013.
In a phone interview late last month, Uglanov confirmed the Trump apartment purchase. He said it was a personal matter and declined to answer questions. “Basically, my private life is not your business,” he said.
THE RAINMAKER
For Dezer, Trump’s American partner in Sunny Isles, the six buildings have been a win for his family, the Trumps and Sunny Isles.
Trump visited the sites at least four times as the buildings – including a hotel – were constructed and promoted between 2001 and 2011, according to Dezer and former employees of Dezer’s company. Trump had approval over the look of the buildings and apartments, Dezer said.
A glimpse into Russian investment in Trump buildings
“His people were very much involved in quality control and construction,” Dezer said. “They were down here once every quarter checking on us, the progress. They wanted to see we were making money.”
In 2008, when the housing market crashed, buyers defaulted on 900 Trump apartments, according to Dezer. Dezer said he worked hard over the coming years to pay back creditors. Until those 900 apartments were sold off, Trump did not earn any money for them, he added.
Foreign buyers bought into the Trump buildings as the developers dropped their prices after the crash, according to Dezer and local realtors. The majority of these buyers were from South America, with a smaller percentage of Russians and other former Soviet nationals.
Tanya Tsveyer, a realtor whose Russian clients have bought in the Trump buildings, described her customers as primarily business people, including several with investments across the United States and Russia.
“They bought in the Trump because they liked how the buildings fit their lifestyle,” she said, referring to the Russians.
By early 2011, the Trump buildings had started to turn a profit, according to Dezer. He invited Trump to a mortgage burning ceremony to celebrate Dezer’s paying off the project’s $475 million dollar mortgage. Dezer recalled Trump telling him that he planned to run for president.
At the party, Dezer, his father and Trump gleefully set flame to a stack of mortgage documents, applauded by a crowd of tenants from the Trump buildings and local business people. A video of the event shows Trump smiling, joking and working the crowd.
“I was with Michael Jackson when he had the hair burned with the Pepsi, and it was a disaster,” Trump told revelers, referring to the time the pop superstar’s hair caught fire during the 1984 filming of a Pepsi commercial. “I am sitting next to that friggin’ fire, and if my hair goes, I am out of business.”
Dezer and Trump got help selling the condos from Elena Baronoff, who immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Baronoff, who grew up in Uzbekistan, had been active in Soviet cultural associations. In Miami, she soon began bringing Russian tour groups to Miami.
Gil Dezer’s father, Michael, recruited Baronoff to work alongside the Dezer corporation. She traveled to Moscow, St Petersburg, France and London to bring in Russian buyers, according to Dezer, selling apartments to them for between $1 million and $2 million. Baronoff was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2014 and died a year later.
“She was huge, she was big for them,” Dezer said, referring to Russian buyers. “No one has filled her shoes.”
Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow; John Walcott, Mark Hosenball, Jonathan Landay, Arshad Mohammed and Warren Strobel in Washington; and Astha Rajvanshi in New York.
————— Moscow on the Beach By Nathan Layne, Ned Parker, Svetlana Reiter, Stephen Grey and Ryan McNeill Data analysis: Ryan McNeill Graphics: Christine Chan Video: Jonah Green Edited by David Rohde and Christian Lowe |
Dive Brief:
Duke Energy has begun selling frequency regulations services to the PJM Interconnection from a new 2-MW battery system at its retired W.C. Beckjord coal-fired plant in New Richmond, Ohio, Bloomberg reports.
The lithium-ion batteries were delivered by LG Chem and are controlled by software designed and provided by Greensmith.
The 2-MW battery system doubles Duke’s storage capacity at Beckjord to 4 MW.
Dive Insight:
Duke Energy's move to recycle a retired coal plant into a site for energy storage could open a new avenue for other utilities plotting ideas for similarly-fated facilities.
Duke, working with LG Chem and Greensmith, has begun selling frequency regulation services to the PJM Interconnection from its retired W.C. Beckjord coal plant in New Richmond, Ohio.
"Locating the storage system at our retired coal plant allowed us to take advantage of the grid infrastructure already in place and repurpose the site for use with new, relevant technology," Phil Grigsby, Duke Energy's senior vice president of commercial transmission, said.
LG Chem provided the project's 2 MW energy storage operating system, comprised of advanced lithium-ion batteries. The batteries use Greensmith’s GEMS energy storage software platform to manage the system's performance, providing synchronized response to signals dispatched every two seconds. Parker Hannifin provided a 2 MW power conversion inverter.
Work on installing the system began in August 2015. The system entered service on Nov. 18.
With the installation of the new batteries at Beckjord, Duke now operates 4 MW of energy storage at the Beckjord site. A first 2 MW battery system at Beckjord entered commercial operation in January 2015. During any given 24 hour period, the system responds more or less continuously either charging or discharging energy, depending on whether the system is above or below the target frequency.
Duke has no “imminent plans” to add more storage capacity at Beckjord, but it is “not out of the realm of the possible,” spokeswoman Tammie McGee said.
Duke also owns and operates a 36 MW energy storage system at its Notrees Windpower Project in Texas. The final two coal-fired units at Beckjord, totaling about 700 MW, plant were closed in September 2014. |
But more than 100 others, according to Beamsville 4 Paw Rescue owner Pam Huson, will not have this same opportunity.
After being tipped off about the rural property in mid-July, Huson said she arrived to find something she has never seen the likes of in her more than 20 years doing animal rescue.
There were dead cats in barrels, in garbage bags and under trees scattered across the 29-acre property. A wooden structure with a tarp over it housed the remains of a mother cat with her kittens that appeared to die while trying to suckle.
And that's just outside. Nichol said there are cats inside the home — under a bed, behind the front door, beneath the window — that they have not been able to get to because of the clutter and debris.
"It's a horror film," she said.
Property owner Noor Teyyab, who purchased the site about five years ago, said he had no idea what was going on at the house until he was contacted by police.
He allowed the former homeowner to rent the property from him, and while he visited once a year, he said he always stood on the road and had never entered the house before this situation was brought to light.
Teyyab said he's been notified by the Town of Lincoln that he needs to clean up the property and is working to get that done as soon as possible.
The problem began more than 20 years ago but has significantly escalated in recent years, according to neighbour Moira Saganski.
Driving home from work, she would often find the cats littered across the dirt road leading up to her property.
But starting in July, she learned that when the vineyard staff she employs would make their way home at the end of a long day, they would be followed by cats they ended up feeding.
"They don't have enough money to pay for cat food so I said "I'll take over,"" Saganski said. "I was feeding them — I started every other day — and then I was feeding them every day.
As soon as I came on the property, the cats would just surround me, they were so, so, so hungry."
Saganski said she contacted the OSPCA about the situation after hearing from neighbours that they had been phoning for years.
Allison Cross, OSPCA spokesperson, said they have been investigating a possible animal cruelty situation at Merritt Road for eight months after receiving a complaint.
Since then, she said they have removed about 17 living cats from the property and have found about 10 dead ones. It's believed the dead cats died before being brought on the property, that they were road kill the tenant had collected and disposed of them there, Cross said.
"It is a hoarding situation," she added. "It was a very debris-filled type property."
Despite this, OSPCA investigators have not been finding the same conditions the rescue groups have been sounding alarm bells about, she said.
"If the animals are actually there … why are they not sharing this evidence with us?" Cross asked.
By disposing of animal carcasses and removing cats off the property, the groups are "jeopardizing the investigation", she said.
Both the OSPCA and the rescue groups say they wonder when the other side is going to contact them about the evidence collected from the property.
Huson and Nichol said they have stopped removing dead cats from the property because they don't want to tamper with evidence.
Cross said the investigation is ongoing and that looking into hoarding situations can take a bit longer because there is an educational component with them.
Under the Ontario SPCA Act, penalties include a maximum fine of $60,000, a lifetime ban on owning an animal and up to two years in jail.
Huson and Nichol say they want the person responsible for this to be banned from ever having pets again.
And until every single cat is removed from the site, they plan to be there with their traps, food and water, hoping to find them.
On Monday, Huson said she believed only a few living cats remained on the property but said they would be the trickiest to capture because only the skittish ones have avoided them this long. It's not known if there are any in the house or in the barn, she said.
Both rescues say they can use all the help they can get — whether that be volunteering time, fostering a cat or donating money or dropping off towels, litter, gift cards, blankets or crates.
While nearby veterinarians and crematoriums have been generous in donating some services, each cat they have had to pay for has cost them $250, Huson said.
You can help
For more information or to help: beamsville4pawrescue.com or youcaring.com
[email protected]
905-526-2420 | @NatatTheSpec |
Wood marked with a 2016 Rockefeller Christmas Tree stamped is installed during a house rehabilitation Habitat for Humanity, Friday Dec. 1, 2017, in Newburgh, N.Y. Boards from last year's 94-foot Norway spruce were trucked 50 miles north to Newburgh, where volunteers recently used the planks to fix up two brick-front homes. (AP Photo/Michael Hill)
NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Old Rockefeller Center Christmas trees never really die, they just get built into the wall frames and floor supports of affordable homes.
For the past decade, the ornament-laden trees that have been lit up with glitz, songs and dancing Rockettes have gone on to be milled into lumber used in dozens of Habitat for Humanity homes from Philadelphia to Pascagoula, Mississippi. Each tree yields a truckload of 100 or more boards, all stamped with an image of the tree and the year it was on display.
Wood from three of the Rockefeller trees has gone 50 miles (80 kilometers) up the Hudson River to the hardscrabble city of Newburgh, New York, which has helped create an unlikely Rockefeller Row of four homes on the same block.
“They didn’t just cut it and throw it away. They used it in something good. And what better than my home?” says Viridiana Perez, who was visiting her family’s soon-to-be home being built with wood from last year’s 94-foot (28-meter) Norway spruce.
Homeowner Keith Smith can’t see the unique wood from the 2015 tree in his home, but he feels it. He appreciates his family’s connection to the annual tree lighting extravaganza in Manhattan.
“Pretty much everyone on TV is watching it. That makes it a part of history. That makes me proud to have a part of history in my house,” Smith says.
In addition to Newburgh, other locations that have received Rockefeller wood include Morris, New Jersey, and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Rehabilitating a home in this historic city can cost $150,000, though the subsidized costs to buyers are based on 30 percent of their income. Habitat for Humanity makes up the difference through fundraising.
Buyers also must contribute hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” by working alongside Habitat for Humanity volunteers.
The Rockefeller wood is more symbolic than structural. That’s because the big Norway spruces that tower over skaters each December at Rockefeller Center are show trees, not work trees, with wood often too knotty to support a lot of weight. So Habitat volunteers use the special spruce strategically, as they did last week in Newburgh with 14-inch (35-centimeter) sections bracing floor joists in a gutted row house.
Several doors down, it was used to help frame in an interior wall. That house is ready for a move-in by Perez, her husband and their four children. Perez is a Jehovah’s Witness and does not celebrate Christmas, but she still showed the lone piece of still-visible stamped wood above a light switch to her toddler.
“Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas, it means a lot for me because it’s still nature,” she said.
Perez hopes to move in within a few months. By then, this year’s Rockefeller tree will be milled into planks headed to a yet-to-be-determined city for Habitat for Humanity.
“After it’s all said and done with, it’s going to somebody else’s house,” Smith says. “It makes me wonder how they’ll feel about that. Will they feel how I feel?” |
I’ve been writing a lot more lately about renewable energy than I have analog electronics, but I think with good reason. There has been added interest on the part of many because of Barack Obama’s election to the presidency and his promise to invest $15 billion per year for 10 years in order to create 5 million new “green collar” jobs. But where and how do we separate the promises and the politician from the reality? How do we know that renewable energy will help pull America out of our economic recession? And most importantly, once we are confident that this idea of a green economy could work, how do we know where to put our money and invest?
I think the most important thing to point out is that there are going to be a LOT of bad investments out there. My last entry about EEStor is a good example; a company that could potentially be doing great things, but more likely will look for lots of investments and then not deliver on their promises. Like any other engineering activity, renewable energy is an iterative process. On average, the solar technologies in 2 years will be better than the technologies we see today (especially because of the higher interest in renewables and the notion that eventually oil prices will return to extremely high prices). Further, there will be other companies “green washing” (basically talking the talk of being an energy friendly company, but not walking the walk). If you decide to invest in solar, wind, geothermal, etc, you should realize that beyond the usual risk of investing, there are risks associated with unknown, unproven technologies. Prices on renewable companies haven’t gone through the roof yet, but human nature tells us that there will be an overzealous buying of stocks at some point. Let’s look at what we should do when investing so we avoid any unnecessary losses:
Are they forthcoming with details? — Companies like EEStor might try to be secretive because they have a breakthrough technology, but there are limits on how much a company should really withhold information. Mostly it comes down to whether or not you want to roll the dice on a company that keeps you in the dark. I would much rather see a proven technology (heck, a prototype would be nice) and then make my decision based on that. You might not get the 1000% returns that people expect (perhaps they’re nostalgic for the dot com days?), but you will go into an investment with facts you can hold companies to when things get tough. Do you understand everything about what they are doing? — This is important for two reasons. First, it is important because you should not invest in what you don’t understand. If you don’t get how a solar cell works, don’t get how it could benefit society and are only sure that it will somehow produce power, then it is not a good idea to dive headfirst into investing in that company. Second, some of the best investing ideas are the simplest ideas; if you cannot explain to someone in 1 sentence what the company does, it is probably too complex to form a productive, sustainable company (a generalization, of course). Examples of this might be Apple (“They sell computers and music players”). Of course the internals of their products are more complex, but the products are simple to describe and sell. If you have a company that is producing a chemical that is required in the fabrication of GeAs solar cells for the 3rd implantation process…yeah, might not be such a great buy at first glance. Have they brought in good management? — The best ideas in the world are worthless if you can’t sell them. It’s not greedy; it’s business. Sure, the truly great ideas will always rise to the top (eventually), but since we’re talking about investing here, we need to concentrate on ideas that are likely to get to market quickly and ones that will be successful for the long term. Good management will include a proven track record at start ups (there are very specific skill sets) and some experience in the industry. Note that these people can sometimes be the founders, but unless the creators of the new idea or technology have significant soft skills, don’t expect it. Are they digging for the gold, selling the gold or selling the shovels? — This was always an analogy and investing idea that I liked: the ones who made the most in the California gold rush were not the ones digging the gold, but instead those selling shovels. To give an example for each, the diggers here would be the solar companies (cell manufacturers), the sellers of the gold would be the energy companies and the sellers of shovels would be fabrication equipment manufacturers. The best case scenario is when you find a great company supplying the shovel with little competition. If the “shovel-maker” can continually sell their product to each new technology that pops up, then they will be well positioned to outperform the rest of the market.
Do they have a simple product that can be produced quickly and efficiently? — Really, I’m thinking about GreenField Solar Corp, which I recently read about in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. They have a simple solar concentrator that can mostly be built from off the shelf components. However, the best part of their implementation is that they would license and franchise the production facilities (making the start-up cost lower for the actual company) and they would only retain sales ownership of their proprietary software, control systems and solar cells (a very specific type). It is reminiscent of the lean manufacturing idea that Solar Automation eschews and Henry Ford pioneered. If you have TONS of money you want to invest, you could always try to start a solar factory.
For my part, I am staying put on renewable energy stocks for now. In reality, it’s always a very difficult climate when you try to guess what technology will come out on top. It happened with the biotech stocks in the early- to mid-2000s, it happened in the dot-com era (post-bust), it happened in the 90s with the PC and chip makers, it happened in the 80s with banks and so on back through time. If you are reading this post, you likely either found my site through searching or you were linked here; in either case, if you are not sure about renewable energy stocks, stick with what you know and continue to monitor the industry. Then when you see a disruptive technology that you think WILL revolutionize the industry, maybe buy a few shares to help support the company. However, do not expect to make money for a few years and continually research your target company. If you are REALLY looking to invest in your favorite solar or wind company, go buy a solar array or turbine and try powering your home. You will help the company and yourself.
If you have any questions about investing in renewables or if you have any favorites you would like to let others know about, please leave them in the comments. |
The theory is that adding atmospheric CO2 leads to the acidification of the world’s oceans, and this profoundly alters the ecosystem, endangering sea life. As Marita Noon of CFACT.org , who first publicized the discovery of the suspected fraud, writes:
A startling discovery by a graduate student has uncovered what looks like a fraud remarkably parallel to the infamous “Hockey stick” graph of Michael Mann that purported to show global temperatures skyrocketing when atmospheric CO2 rose, but only did so because “hide the decline” was the operating principle in selecting data. For those who have not been keeping up with the alarmist follies, alleged ocean acidification has joined and supplemented the rapidly-fading alleged global warming threat as an urgent reason to stop emitting CO2, and hand money and power over to regulators who would control the production of energy, the very basis of modern life.
This ought to be the subject of congressional hearings next year.
“Ocean acidification may seem like a minor issue to some, but besides being wrong, it is a crucial leg to the entire narrative of ‘human-influenced climate change.’ By urging our leaders in science and policy to finally disclose and correct these omissions, you will be helping to bring honesty, transparency, and accountability back where it is most sorely needed.”
Here is the chart that Wallace produced, using the data that was omitted from the alarmist graph:
“In whose professional world,” Wallace asks, “is it acceptable to omit the majority of the data and also to not disclose the omission to any other soul or Congressional body?”
Interestingly, in this same general timeframe, NOAA reissued its World Ocean Database. Wallace was then able to extract the instrumental records he sought and turned the GEPH data into a meaningful time series chart, which reveals that the oceans are not acidifying. (For another day, Wallace found that the levels coincide with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.) As Wallace emphasized: “there is no global acidification trend.”
It looks to me as though some posterior-covering was underway:
In his last e-mail exchange, Wallace offers to close out the FOIA because the e-mail string “clarified that your subject paper (and especially the ‘History’ segment of the associated time series pH curve) did not rely upon either data or other contemporary representations for global ocean pH over the period of time between the first decade of 1900 (when the pH metric was first devised, and ocean pH values likely were first instrumentally measured and recorded) through and up to just before 1988.” Wallace received no reply, but the FOIA was closed in July 2013 with a “no document found” response.
Sabine writes: “Your statements in italics are essentially correct.” He adds: “The rest of the curve you are trying to reproduce is from a modeling study that Dr. Feely has already provided and referenced in the publication.”
“…it’s possible that Dr. Feely also WAS partially responsive to my request. Yet again, this could not be possible unless the measurement data used to define 20th Century ocean pH for their curve, came exclusively from 1989 and later (thereby omitting 80 previous years of ocean pH 20th century measurement data, which is the very data I’m hoping to find).”
“…it is possible that Dr. Sabine WAS partially responsive to my request. That could only be possible however, if only data from 1989 and later was used to develop the 20th century portion of the subject curve.”
In an effort to obtain access to the records Feely/Sabine didn’t want to provide, Wallace filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Note that it is a basic methodology of science that data leading to conclusions should be shared, to allow others to analyze it. The use of threats to the career of a person asking questions is a tell.
Sabine replied that it was inappropriate for Wallace to impugn the “motives or quality of our science” and warned that if he continued in this manner “you will not last long in your career.” Having provided Wallace with a few links – all of which turned out to be useless – he concluded his email by saying “I hope you will refrain from contacting me again.”
When Wallace emailed his query to Feely and Sabine, however, he found them less than helpful.
So Wallace did what any scientist interested in the truth would do:
Mysteriously, the chart [the one above]only began in 1988. But Wallace knew for a fact that there were oceanic pH measurements dating back to at least 100 years earlier and was puzzled that this solid data had been ignored, in favour of computer modelled projections.
While studying a chart produced by Feely and Sabine, apparently showing a strong correlation between rising atmospheric CO2 levels and falling oceanic pH levels, Wallace noticed that some key information had been omitted.
Looks pretty scary, right? Things were going great for the doomster, at least until a graduate student at the University of New Mexico started asking questions about it. Watts Up with That and James Delingpole of Breitbart both have explained the detective work of one Mike Wallace, a PhD candidate. Delingpole writes:
Here is the chart, via the Quest post, that Feely published that won him the big bucks and appeared to make the case that WE ARE DOOMED! If we don’t cut back on hydrocarbons, even if the global warming has morphed into climate change.
In 2010, Feely received the $100,000 cash prize from the Heinz Family Foundation awards (established by Teresa Heinz , wife of Secretary of State John Kerry ). The Heinz award site touts Feely’s work: “Ocean acidity is now considered global warming’s ‘evil twin,’ thanks in large measure to Dr. Feely’s seminal research on the changing ocean chemistry and its impact on marine ecosystems.”
Feely’s four-page report: “Carbon Dioxide and Our Ocean Legacy,” offered on the NOAA website, contains a similar chart. This chart, titled “Historical & Projected pH & Dissolved Co 2 ,” begins at 1850. Feely testified before Congress in 2010—using the same data that show a decline in seawater pH (making it more acidic) that appears to coincide with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Within the Quest text is a link to a chart by Dr. Richard A. Feely , who is a senior scientist with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)—which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Feely’s climate-crisis views are widely used to support the narrative.
The science and engineering website Quest recently posted : “Since the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, we have been mining and burning coal, oil, and natural gas for energy and transportation. These processes release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. It is well established that the rising level of CO2 in our atmosphere is a major cause of global warming. However, the increase in CO2 is also causing changes to the chemistry of the ocean. The ocean absorbs some of the excess atmospheric CO2, which causes what scientists call ocean acidification. And ocean acidification could have major impacts on marine life.”
“Ocean acidification” (OA) is receiving growing attention. While someone who doesn’t follow climate change science might think OA is a stomach condition resulting from eating bad seafood, OA is claimed to be a phenomenon that will destroy ocean life—all due to mankind’s use of fossil fuels. It is a foundational theory upon which the global warming/climate change narrative is built.
A startling discovery by a graduate student has uncovered what looks like a fraud remarkably parallel to the infamous “Hockey stick” graph of Michael Mann that purported to show global temperatures skyrocketing when atmospheric CO2 rose, but only did so because “hide the decline” was the operating principle in selecting data. For those who have not been keeping up with the alarmist follies, alleged ocean acidification has joined and supplemented the rapidly-fading alleged global warming threat as an urgent reason to stop emitting CO2, and hand money and power over to regulators who would control the production of energy, the very basis of modern life.
The theory is that adding atmospheric CO2 leads to the acidification of the world’s oceans, and this profoundly alters the ecosystem, endangering sea life. As Marita Noon of CFACT.org, who first publicized the discovery of the suspected fraud, writes:
“Ocean acidification” (OA) is receiving growing attention. While someone who doesn’t follow climate change science might think OA is a stomach condition resulting from eating bad seafood, OA is claimed to be a phenomenon that will destroy ocean life—all due to mankind’s use of fossil fuels. It is a foundational theory upon which the global warming/climate change narrative is built. The science and engineering website Quest recently posted: “Since the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, we have been mining and burning coal, oil, and natural gas for energy and transportation. These processes release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. It is well established that the rising level of CO2 in our atmosphere is a major cause of global warming. However, the increase in CO2 is also causing changes to the chemistry of the ocean. The ocean absorbs some of the excess atmospheric CO2, which causes what scientists call ocean acidification. And ocean acidification could have major impacts on marine life.” Within the Quest text is a link to a chart by Dr. Richard A. Feely, who is a senior scientist with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)—which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Feely’s climate-crisis views are widely used to support the narrative. Feely’s four-page report: “Carbon Dioxide and Our Ocean Legacy,” offered on the NOAA website, contains a similar chart. This chart, titled “Historical & Projected pH & Dissolved Co 2 ,” begins at 1850. Feely testified before Congress in 2010—using the same data that show a decline in seawater pH (making it more acidic) that appears to coincide with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
There’s big money in alarmism: In 2010, Feely received the $100,000 cash prize from the Heinz Family Foundation awards (established by Teresa Heinz, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry). The Heinz award site touts Feely’s work: “Ocean acidity is now considered global warming’s ‘evil twin,’ thanks in large measure to Dr. Feely’s seminal research on the changing ocean chemistry and its impact on marine ecosystems.”
Here is the chart, via the Quest post, that Feely published that won him the big bucks and appeared to make the case that WE ARE DOOMED! If we don’t cut back on hydrocarbons, even if the global warming has morphed into climate change.
Looks pretty scary, right? Things were going great for the doomster, at least until a graduate student at the University of New Mexico started asking questions about it. Watts Up with That and James Delingpole of Breitbart both have explained the detective work of one Mike Wallace, a PhD candidate. Delingpole writes:
While studying a chart produced by Feely and Sabine, apparently showing a strong correlation between rising atmospheric CO2 levels and falling oceanic pH levels, Wallace noticed that some key information had been omitted. Mysteriously, the chart [the one above]only began in 1988. But Wallace knew for a fact that there were oceanic pH measurements dating back to at least 100 years earlier and was puzzled that this solid data had been ignored, in favour of computer modelled projections.
So Wallace did what any scientist interested in the truth would do:
When Wallace emailed his query to Feely and Sabine, however, he found them less than helpful. Sabine replied that it was inappropriate for Wallace to impugn the “motives or quality of our science” and warned that if he continued in this manner “you will not last long in your career.” Having provided Wallace with a few links – all of which turned out to be useless – he concluded his email by saying “I hope you will refrain from contacting me again.”
Note that it is a basic methodology of science that data leading to conclusions should be shared, to allow others to analyze it. The use of threats to the career of a person asking questions is a tell.
Wallace turned to FOIA. From Noon’s piece:
In an effort to obtain access to the records Feely/Sabine didn’t want to provide, Wallace filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. In a May 25, 2013 email, Wallace offers some statements, which he asks Feely/Sabine to confirm: “…it is possible that Dr. Sabine WAS partially responsive to my request. That could only be possible however, if only data from 1989 and later was used to develop the 20th century portion of the subject curve.” “…it’s possible that Dr. Feely also WAS partially responsive to my request. Yet again, this could not be possible unless the measurement data used to define 20th Century ocean pH for their curve, came exclusively from 1989 and later (thereby omitting 80 previous years of ocean pH 20th century measurement data, which is the very data I’m hoping to find).” Sabine writes: “Your statements in italics are essentially correct.” He adds: “The rest of the curve you are trying to reproduce is from a modeling study that Dr. Feely has already provided and referenced in the publication.” In his last e-mail exchange, Wallace offers to close out the FOIA because the e-mail string “clarified that your subject paper (and especially the ‘History’ segment of the associated time series pH curve) did not rely upon either data or other contemporary representations for global ocean pH over the period of time between the first decade of 1900 (when the pH metric was first devised, and ocean pH values likely were first instrumentally measured and recorded) through and up to just before 1988.” Wallace received no reply, but the FOIA was closed in July 2013 with a “no document found” response.
It looks to me as though some posterior-covering was underway:
Interestingly, in this same general timeframe, NOAA reissued its World Ocean Database. Wallace was then able to extract the instrumental records he sought and turned the GEPH data into a meaningful time series chart, which reveals that the oceans are not acidifying. (For another day, Wallace found that the levels coincide with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.) As Wallace emphasized: “there is no global acidification trend.” “In whose professional world,” Wallace asks, “is it acceptable to omit the majority of the data and also to not disclose the omission to any other soul or Congressional body?”
Here is the chart that Wallace produced, using the data that was omitted from the alarmist graph:
Wallace summarizes what is at stake:
“Ocean acidification may seem like a minor issue to some, but besides being wrong, it is a crucial leg to the entire narrative of ‘human-influenced climate change.’ By urging our leaders in science and policy to finally disclose and correct these omissions, you will be helping to bring honesty, transparency, and accountability back where it is most sorely needed.”
This ought to be the subject of congressional hearings next year. |
In 1988 memo, Agency bragged about how “for the last 40 years” they had “held the GAO and their armies of auditors at bay”
Read Part 1 here
The 1988 amendment was especially alarming to the CIA Director, because it included the possibility that the GAO would be able to sue over information. Their letter argued that the mere prospect of a lawsuit presented “a substantial danger of unauthorized disclosure.”
While Iran-Contra provided fresh insight into the inadequacy of the situation, it nevertheless failed to produce any meaningful change in regards to GAO. At least one Iran-Contra related GAO investigation was hampered by the fact that the GAO was denied certain documents until after their report was issued. The eventual release of these materials substantially changed the GAO’s conclusions, as they provided the evidence GAO needed to conclude that lobbying statutes had been violated.
The lobbying statutes that had been violated were no small matter, yet they were all but covered up by denying access to information. As a result, they’ve all but been forgotten by history. The documents, however, survive. The Senate’s final staff report concluded that the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean (S/LPD) “played a central role in the creation and management of the private network involved in the Iran/Contra affair.” The report also concluded that the S/LPD had been created and managed “by operations in the National Security Council who maintained close ties with Oliver North and former CIA Director Casey.” As the Congressional Iran-Contra report would note, the NSC staff member responsible for overseeing the S/LPD was also a former CIA employee.
The S/LPD’s origins become especially significant in light of the S/LPD providing question no-bid contracts to International Business Communications (IBC). While being paid by the S/LPD, IBC not only served as the “conduit through which millions of dollars from the illegal sales of weapons to Iran were diverted for use by the Contras as well as other purposes” but as a source of propaganda. Gomez, one of IBC’s principals, participated in covert and illegal propaganda efforts “designed to influence the media and public support for the President’s Latin American policies.” Alarmingly, this included “sophisticated television ad campaigns that were targeted at Members of Congress” who disagreed with President Reagan.
Not even GAO’s conclusion that these efforts violated anti-lobbying statutes and the Senate’s conclusion that the office funding the efforts had been created by the NSC and reported to the former CIA Director was enough to convince Congress to give the GAO real access to CIA’s records. While the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman would introduce legislation to allow the GAO to evaluate the Agency, the legislation, and the more limited proposal introduced in the House, quietly died when referred to the intelligence committees.
Instead, the Committee’s control was further concentrated in 1988, when their audit staff was created. Meant to be “a credible independent arm for Committee review of covert action programs and other specific Intelligence Community functions and issues,” it was meant to provide an alternative to the GAO for auditing the Intelligence Community. In effect, it created another significant bottleneck to oversight while making it further subject to politically motivated manipulation, such was when the Republicans unilaterally fired the entire audit staff in 2005.
That same year, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion that attempted to more fully exclude GAO from the Congressional oversight process. The GAO disagreed with the DOJ’s legal analysis, arguing that the exclusion was not as categorical as the DOJ said.
During the 106th Congress, which operated from January 3, 1999, to January 3, 2001, the audit staff was composed of three full-time auditors. These auditors were expected to lead or support “the Committee’s review of a number of administrative and operational issues relating to the agencies of the Intelligence Community.” In comparison, the GAO had 3,275 full time employees, many of whom had or could be granted security clearances. This importance of this imbalance is highlighted in a 1985 EYES ONLY memo written by the Agency’s Executive Director, stating that the Agency had “for the last 40 years held the GAO and their armies of auditors at bay.” It was certainly easier for the Agency to deal with Congress’ three full time auditors, subject to political control, than it was to deal with the “armies of auditors” at the independent GAO.
It doesn’t seem that the Senate’s audit staff expanded over time. When they suddenly replaced in 2005, the staff still consisted of only three members.
The Agency would rather brazenly refuse to allow the GAO to audit the Agency “with respect to funds authorized for the Nicaraguan Resistance.” Fresh on the heels of Iran-Contra, the Agency insisted that since any such funds would break the law, there was nothing for GAO to audit, and therefore GAO’s request was being denied. Similarly, any other hypothetical assistance to the Nicaraguan Resistance would have been subject to Congressional oversight, and on which grounds the Agency would similarly deny the GAO access.
A 1988 memo makes it clear that the Agency’s interest wasn’t simply in limiting the GAO’s access, but in similarly preventing any committees other than the intelligence committees from claiming any degree of oversight jurisdiction. The CIA was leery of “Congressional micromanagement” of the Agency, arguing that “Congressional intervention erodes Agency management flexibility and ties up thousands of man-hours.” The Agency apparently felt rather strongly that personnel benefits was in the jurisdiction of the intelligence committees only. They were equally leery of the GAO and the House Judiciary Committee’s interest in the drug war. According to the Agency, “all such efforts need to be turned aside lest several committees assume de facto oversight responsibilities.”
That same year, Congressman Leon Panetta introduced legislation to assert GAO’s authority to audit the Agency. According to a CIA memo from their Office of Congressional Affairs, Panetta was convinced to drop the matter in favor of allowing the Congressional committee to focus on another bill which was introduced but was never passed. When he became Director of Central Intelligence in 2009, he does not appear to have taken the opportunity to significantly increase CIA’s cooperation with GAO.
However, the Agency wasn’t finished limiting GAO’s ability to conduct oversight. A few years later, CIA drew what it called a “hard line” against GAO’s oversight - a hard line that continues to this day.
Read the 1988 memo embedded below:
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Image via Wikimedia Commons |
Dak Prescott Announces Joining Adidas with Custom Ultra Boosts
Dak Prescott will be leading the Dallas Cowboys tonight in Arlington facing the Chicago Bears. While we have spotted him wearing Adidas since Week 1 and there was lots of speculation about him remaining with the three stripes following his days at Mississippi State, he formally announced it with a pair of custom Adidas Ultra Boosts cooked up by Mache.
The “Hail State” custom Adidas Ultra Boosts pay homage to his days playing in Oktibbeha County for the Mississippi State Bulldogs where he earned first team All-SEC honors in 2014 and 2015.
The first images of the custom Ultra Boosts were posted by Mache a couple of days ago calling out that a pair was made for MSU head coach Dan Mullen and an alum which had many speculating.
Hey @CoachDanMullen I cooked up a little something special for you and one of your alums for this weekend’s game #HailState pic.twitter.com/5y2mc3z3Ns — Mache Custom Kicks (@MACHE275) September 23, 2016
Shortly after, Coach Dan Mullen shared the pics of the shoes and asked if Dak had seen them as well.
Not long after, Dak confirmed that he had indicated he already had his pair and shouted out #teamadidas.
Dak Prescott becomes one of many new NFL players to join the Adidas Football roster giving even more presence and visibility to the three stripes each and every Sunday. |
House Concurrent Resolution 81 is effectively dead, following a surprise bit of sleight of hand by the House Rules Committee. The resolution demanded an end to US involvement in the Saudi invasion of Yemen, on the grounds that such involvement was never authorized under the War Powers Act.
Under the War Powers Act, any Congressman is able to bring such a legal challenge, and is guaranteed a floor vote on the matter. The H.Con.Res. 81 challenge was offered in early October, and delayed until November 2.
November 1 rolled around, however, and House leadership quickly forced through a Rules Committee vote which changed the rules on H.Con.Res. 81, stripping it of its privileged status (which would have guaranteed a floor vote). Though the War Powers Act guarantees such a resolution privilege, the Rules Committee claimed Yemen doesn’t rise to the level of the War Powers Act applying.
One legislative aide was quick to bash the move, saying it was in “defiance of the plain text of the War Powers Resolution,” and warning that it set a “very dangerous precedent” for future challenges to illegal wars.
Instead of H.Con.Res. 81, the House leadership is going to allow an alternative “compromise” resolution on Yemen. This will allow debate on whether America’s involvement in the Yemen War is legal, but the vote will be non-binding.
Amid mounting unauthorized US wars around the world, H.Con.Res. 81 was the biggest attempt to enforce the War Powers Act to limit such conflicts. While the Rules Committee technically only stopped a single challenge this way, and the War Powers Act remains on the books, the success of this sort of chicanery means that the Congressional leadership can do the exact same thing to any future challenges.
A joint statement on the move against H.Con.Res. 81 is available here.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz |
Up to date as of July 18 2016. This is a work in progress so if I’ve omitted something please let me know through comment or email.
This serves as a guide to any newcomers to Brussels who want to start playing Beach Volley as soon as possible but don’t know where and with whom. The good news are that there are plenty of courts around Brussels that are usually not too crowded. The bad news that it’s not entirely trivial to find people to play with – but with a bit of effort it should work out.
Location of Brussels’ Beach Courts
Watermael-Boitsfort (1 court)
Google Maps link here.
Needs to be booked here. 15 EUR/h, lower if more sessions purchased in one go.
Opening hours: Whenever there’s sufficient daylight without any other restrictions (according to the parc’s director)
Very fine sand. Net and lines in good conditions but no antennas. Little space (about 3m) behind back lines for serves. Cage has some wholes so ball sometimes difficult to recover.
Place de la Petite Suisse (1 court)
Google Maps link here.
Well maintained Beach Court that’s part of a playground (Pleine de Jeux la Petite Suisse). It’s completely free and accessible through a gate from Place de la Petite Suisse. Check out the pictures on Google Maps to find the access.
Opening hours: I couldn’t find precise information online, if you do let me know. In the summer it closes at around 9pm.
Bruxelles Les Bains (3 courts)
Yet to be visited
http://www.bruxelleslesbains.be/sport-2/
Temporary from July 1 – August 7 2016 (and probably likewise in 2017 etc.)
1 EUR/h
Iris Beach Brussels
Yet to be visited
https://foursquare.com/v/iris-beach-brussels/5363c09b498eff6b6345c5aa
How to find co-players
The best starting point in absence of personal connections are online groups (that’s how I got to know the community). Go to any of their events and start chatting with the people.
Urban Volleyball in Brussels on Meetup
Huge group of nearly 500 Volleyball enthusiasts. They organise newcomer friendly indoor and beach sessions. All sorts of languages are spoken, as long as you speak one of English, French or Dutch you should be fine. The level of player ranges from 1y to 5y serious playing experience. Great way to get into the (Beach) Volley scene in Brussels.
After the sessions, many players hang out for a drink afterwards. So if you’re keen on that make sure you stick around and don’t leave prematurely.
Urban Volleyball in Bruxelles ( and surroundings ) Brussels, BE
478 Brussels Beachers Do you want to do something for yourself? Like fitness, exercise – and even have fun?Like moving, running, jumping, shouting, laughing and crying?Do you love your body work?… Check out this Meetup Group →
Beach Volleyball Facebook group
There’s a Facebook group with around 150 members dedicated to Beach Volley in and around Brussels. It’s closed but if you introduce yourself properly with background/playing experience it should be no problem getting admitted. There’s an event almost every day.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/387460408045319/
WhatsApp groups
Once you’ve met beachers at one of the above meetings you could ask whether you could be added to their WhatsApp groups (there are at least six of them I’ve been told). Don’t do it before you’re friendly with the group though.
Post script: Responses to this article
I’ve been struck by the at times hostile response to me writing this article. Some players feel like knowledge about Beach Volleyball in Brussels is something private and secret, not to be revealed to the general public on the internet, only to be transmitted by word of mouth. Justification given for this view is that if the location of courts was widely known, they would be too crowded to play.
While I’m somewhat sympathetic to this sentiment, being in pursuit of the public good myself I cannot agree. Beach courts are public spaces and to deliberately keep them secret is not ethical. In particular as most beach courts are not overcrowded most of the time. |
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke Tuesday morning at the ninth World Congress of Families being held in Salt Lake City. Several thousand participants have gathered at the Grand America Hotel for the four-day meeting, which features 185 speakers comprised of scholars, researchers and religious leaders.
“Society, law and popular opinion may change, but we know that society’s version of the family cannot and will not substitute for God’s purpose and plan for His children,” said Elder Ballard in his opening remarks as he outlined “how completely linked [Mormon] theology is to the traditional family.”
“In today's world, where marriage and children are increasingly marginalized, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not stand alone in identifying the traditional family as one of its most important doctrinal elements,” he said, adding that Pope Francis, the Southern Baptist Convention and other churches and prominent Christian leaders have also promoted traditional families.
Elder Ballard explained the Church’s position on marriage, which was outlined 20 years ago in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” He said, “This doctrine explains our strong position on the family. We also believe we are to reach out to all people with understanding, love and compassion.”
Several thousand participants gather at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City for the World Congress of Families, October 27, 2015. © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.1 / 4 Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles addresses the importance of traditional marriage at the World Congress of Families in Salt Lake City, October 27, 2015. © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.2 / 4 Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speaks at the ninth World Congress of Families in Salt Lake City, October 27, 2015. © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.3 / 4 A woman and child attend the World Congress of Families in Salt Lake City, October 27, 2015. © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.4 / 4 Download Photos
The proclamation, issued by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, states, “Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and … the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”
Elder Ballard also stressed the significance of temples to Mormons. “Temples are very important to Latter-day Saints because in them couples are married for ‘time and all eternity,’ not just ‘till death do you part.’”
“We must rally all the support we can to strengthen and protect our faiths, families and freedom. Some are actively trying to strip us of these rights,” he said.
Elder Ballard also encouraged those in the audience to “extend a hand of fellowship to those with whom we disagree.” He cited the Church’s support of recent legislation passed by the Utah Legislature that protects LGBT people from being fired or denied housing because of their sexual orientation. The legislation also protects religious freedom.
This morning my kids and I performed at The World Congress of Families IX right after Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke. So... Posted by Jenny Oaks Baker on Tuesday, October 27, 2015
“By engaging in compromise and extending love to all God’s children, who are our brothers and sisters, we can create a peaceful, diverse tapestry of ideals and beliefs,” Elder Ballard said. “Remember, married or single, that, in the end, we are each a unique part of God's grand plan.”
The global World Congress of Families has been held in previous years in Sydney, Madrid and Amsterdam. |
ARLINGTON, Tex. — When Yu Darvish arrived in Texas from Japan in 2012, the Rangers were coming off consecutive World Series appearances.
As was expected with his celebrated entrance then, Darvish is pitching for a World Series contender. However, he is doing so out on the West Coast for the Los Angeles Dodgers instead of in Texas, where he never won a postseason game and was not even part of winning a playoff series.
With a third straight American League West title long out of reach, and a wild-card spot becoming ever more distant with each loss, the Rangers obtained three minor league players for Darvish, the pitcher they spent more than two years scouting and more than $107 million to acquire.
After completing a trade with the Dodgers minutes before Monday’s nonwaiver deadline, Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels was asked if he thought Darvish was worth it — the time, $56 million in salary and more than $51 million the Rangers had to pay his team in Japan. |
US vice-president Joe Biden has asked Ecuador to turn down an asylum request from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the country's president said Saturday.
Rafael Correa said he had a "friendly and very cordial" conversation with Biden, and told the vice-president that Ecuador hadn't sought to be put in the situation of deciding whether to harbor an American fugitive. Correa said Ecuador can't consider the asylum request until Snowden is on Ecuadorean soil.
"The moment that he arrives, if he arrives, the first thing is we'll ask the opinion of the United States, as we did in the Assange case with England," Correa said. "But the decision is ours to make."
Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has been given asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London.
White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed that the two leaders spoke by phone Friday and discussed Snowden, but wouldn't disclose any details about the conversation. It's the highest-level conversation between the US. and Ecuador that has been publicly disclosed since Snowden began seeking asylum from Ecuador.
Correa, in a weekly television address, praised Biden for being more courteous than US senators who have threatened economic penalties if Ecuador doesn't cooperate.
At the same time, Correa rebuked the Obama administration for hypocrisy, invoking the case of two bankers, brothers Roberto and William Isaias, whom Ecuador is seeking to extradite from the US.
"Let's be consistent," Correa said. "Have rules for everyone, because that is a clear double-standard here."
The US believes Snowden is holed up in a Moscow airport's transit zone. He may be waiting to see whether Ecuador or another country may grant him asylum. Snowden is charged with violating American espionage laws.
Correspondence obtained by Univision and shared with the Wall Street Journal shows that divisions over Assange have agitated Ecuador's government.
After meeting with other Ecuadorean diplomats privately, Correa declared invalid a temporary travel document that could have helped extract Snowden from his reported location in Moscow.
In a TV interview on Friday, Snowden's father expressed concerns about the involvement of WikiLeaks. "I don't want to put him in peril, but I am concerned about those who surround him," Lonnie Snowden told NBC's Today show.
"I think WikiLeaks, if you've looked at past history … their focus isn't necessarily the constitution of the United States. It's simply to release as much information as possible."
Lonnie Snowden said he told US attorney general Eric Holder through his lawyer that his son might return home if he would not be detained before trial, could choose the location for his trial and would not be subjected to a gag order. It was not clear that Lonnie Snowden was communicating his son's views, as he also said they had not spoken since April. |
Conservative activists and think tanks are urging Congress to stick to regular order Tuesday as chatter escalates that a new amnesty bill is in the works to replace DACA.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions officially announced the end of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy Tuesday, putting the open-borders constituency’s hopes for amnesty back in Congress’s hands. Many congressional Republicans, who have not been stirred to pass any significant funding for the wall on the southern border nor have made significant progress on the RAISE Act to reduce low-skilled immigration, may spring into action to extend amnesty to the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients President Barack Obama exempted from the law in a move of questionable constitutionality.
Under “regular order” in Congress, any such bill would have to pass on its own merits, considered first in the subcomittee of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees before moving on to the full committees and then the full vote of each body. Many immigration hawks fear that, as in previous attempts to get Congress to go along with amnesty, open-borders politicians will bypass regular order and tack a mini-“DREAM Act” onto an omnibus bill.
“Regular order is absolutely necessary to ensure that all concerns are addressed. Plus, I believe that the Chairmen of the committees of jurisdiction will insist on regular order,” Center for Immigration Studies Fellow Andrew Arthur assessed in anticipation of the heavily signaled upcoming push for a new amnesty bill.
Even the administration’s announcements of the new policy itself seem to include a thinly veiled hope that Congress would pick up exactly where President Obama and DACA left off, even though, through the tireless efforts of the conservative grassroots and patriotic immigration reform activists, the very similar “DREAM Act” and even broader “Gang of Eight” amnesty bills have been consistently and repeatedly defeated over the last 16 years.
The DHS press release on DACA’s demise made repeated reference to winding DACA down slowly so Congress can have time to legislate. “With the measures the Department is putting in place today, no current beneficiaries will be impacted before March 5, 2018, nearly six months from now,” Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke said, “so Congress can have time to deliver on appropriate legislative solutions.”
The president’s tweet Tuesday only buoyed pro-amnesty hopes for a new law to replace DACA:
Congress, get ready to do your job – DACA! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017
These hopes have landed on some receptive ears. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), for example, continued to signal his willingness to extend amnesty Tuesday, saying, “At the heart of this issue are young people who came to this country through no fault of their own, and for many of them, it’s the only country they know.”
Seventeen other Republican members of Congress showed their own quibbles with ending DACA before the official announcement was made. These are: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Orin Hatch (R-UT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Jeff Flake (R-AZ); and Reps. Jeff Denham (R-CA), David Valadao (R-CA), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Daniel Donovan (R-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Will Hurd (R-TX), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Scott Taylor (R-VA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and John Faso (R-NY). They can be expected to be joined in the fight to make so-called “dreamer” amnesty the law of the land by reportedly pro-amnesty voices within the administration like Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump.
Opposition has already begun to foment among the conservative immigration hawk alliance that stopped amnesty before and, among, them, Breitbart News found widespread preference that Congress avoid the gimmicks of the past and use regular order.
Dale Wilcox, Executive Director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a sister group to FAIR, was emphatic in his organization’s opposition to amnesty, “no matter what the terms.” He was equally insistent congressional Republicans stick to regular order in handling the latest push, telling Breitbart News:
If Congress is really serious about amnesty, it’s difficult to see how they could do it without going through regular order. Patriotic Americans hate the idea of rewarding those who break our laws. To get them on board, Congress will have to combine amnesty with a slew of patriotic and pro-labor measures, such as mandatory E-verify, fence-funding, the RAISE Act, and, of course, an end to automatic citizenship by birth. Those measures cannot be properly provided for in legislation without going through the normal deliberative process.
The sentiment was mirrored in the conservative grassroots, used to the legislative maneuvers open-borders politicians have tried to use to tack amnesty onto omnibus bills in the past. “I’m always in favor of regular order,” Northern Virginia Tea Party organizer Ron Wilcox told Breitbart News, when asked about expected attempts to legislate a new DACA-like amnesty, calling any program that encourages minors to jump our border illegal “government sponsored kidnapping.”
Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the pro-amnesty gang of eight member pushing hard against a “literal wall,” insisted Congress return to regular order for budget issues in an op-ed last month. |
EXCLUSIVE
REHEARSALS for NITV’s new NRL show, League Nation Live have yet to kick off, but new co-host Justin Hodges can promise one thing from the get go — they won’t be dressing up in drag like their bigger brand rivals.
The former Brisbane Broncos and Queensland Origin star will join an impressive line-up of indigenous presenters who will attempt the highwire act of live television with their unique 90-minute league analysis show — set to run across 32 weeks of the 2016 season next year.
While Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin and his cohorts over on Nine have resorted to wearing womens’ clothing in the past to liven things up, Hodges reckons that won’t be necessary on their colourful weekly show.
“I don’t think we have to go down that path. They got us dressed nice and schmick,” he laughed, while on holiday in Fiji last week.
“The producers have been looking at American (sports) shows and how they do it the best ... nice suits, immaculate. I just think the five of us are going to work together really well.”
Hodges will join East West 101 and The Straits actor Aaron Fa’aoso, Nathan Appo, Jodan Perry and Hannah Hollis on the panel, with Wayne Denning and Maurice Parker as executive producers.
Retiring from his fulltime playing career after this year’s grand final — missing out on his fairytale finish, thanks to the North Queensland Cowboys and the magic of Johnathan Thurston.
Now, on the media side of the story, he said, he’d keep Thurston and others who gave him a hard time on the field in his sights: “he’s a close mate, but I should hammer him.”
Jokes aside, Hodges is looking forward to his new TV challenge.
“It’s not something I ever thought I’d be doing, but talking to everyone who is involved, just the passion they have for the show, what they want for the show, it’s going to be something special.”
Each episode will feature player profiles, match commentary and a special segment WYF? — ‘where you from?’ — which will take star players back to their hometowns. |
Before there were laws and regulations on the books to protect the environment, loggers felled forests for their trees, hunters devastated wild animal populations and companies dumped toxic waste into the water supply. Here’s a glimpse of what the United States looks like without environmental protection measures.
Fire water
Before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency existed, the Cuyahoga River had gone up in flames multiple times. This water in Cleveland, Ohio, was full of oil, sewage, garbage and industrial waste that killed fish and sometimes caught fire, the EPA says. The worst fire was in 1952, but even after an oil slick caught fire that year, people still used the river to dump waste. A final fire in 1969 led to the Clean Water Act and the EPA’s creation.
Dirty water
Among its goals, the Clean Water Act aims to keep American drinking water sources safe from pollution. It includes provisions that, for example, require companies to incorporate newer technologies into production processes that reduce waste.
Smog
This smoky fog that hangs over many cities around the world is visible air pollution. Car exhaust, burning coal and noxious substances all feed the smog, National Geographic explains, and the cloud can damage the lungs and cause reactions similar to having allergies. More recent U.S. regulations like those that govern emissions from factories aim to reduce the amount of pollution going into the air, and could help curb smog.
Toxic waste
The EPA’s Superfund program began in 1980 in order to help clean up hazardous sites, such as where industrial companies dumped toxic waste like lead and arsenic. In many places those harmful chemicals saturated the air or seeped into local groundwater, posing risks to people living nearby and to the local ecosystem.
One Superfund example is the Berkeley Pit in Montana, where “since the late 1800s, mining crews dumped mining wastes into on-site streams and wetlands near mining operations,” the EPA explains. “These activities contaminated soil, groundwater and surface water with heavy metals.” Among the numerous contaminants at the site are aluminum, arsenic, mercury and lead.
The EPA has been working on the site since the late 1980s but the organization is not done yet — the site still poses risks to human health.
Logged trees
The U.S. didn’t always have regulations on logging, and there was a time when vast swaths of land were completely cleared of their enormous, old trees. Laws like the National Forest Management Act of 1976 helped protect forests from excessive timber harvesting.
Endangered species
Buffalo, the iconic American mammals, are a posterchild for environmental regulations after being hunted to the brink of extinction in the United States. They survive in small numbers today, thanks to government intervention. The Endangered Species Act is one such measure that allows officials to protect endangered plants and animals.
See also:
Look At All the Garbage Orbiting Earth
Sharks Are Finally Bouncing Back |
Supporters of Prouty Garden — a historic healing garden for patients at Boston Children's Hospital — are asking state officials to re-consider their approval of a planned hospital expansion that would see the garden demolished.
The billion-dollar project received final approval from the Department of Public Health's Public Health Council in October. On Thursday, supporters of Prouty Garden filed an administrative appeal of that Public Health Council decision.
Under the expansion, the half-acre garden would be replaced with a new 11-story clinical building housing 71 single-bed units and a new neonatal intensive care unit.
Hospital officials say the expansion is needed to replace outdated facilities and to increase the amount of space available at the hospital. Opponents of the plan have said that Prouty Garden is an important part of the care the hospital gives its patients.
Critics have also raised concerns that the project would make health care costs in the state rise as patients leave smaller hospitals to move to the expanded Boston Children's. An analysis by state watchdog agency Health Policy Commission agreed with that claim -- while a DPH assessment found costs would not rise.
In the appeal, supporters of the garden say the Public Health Council and the Department of Public Health granted approval to the project without sufficiently reviewing the hospital's application. They also say DPH did not state the exact reasons for approving the expansion and that the department did not follow proper procedures.
In a statement, Boston Children's Hospital says they earned approval at every step of the planning process. The hospital says they received DPH approval after they "demonstrated a clear need for its clinical care." |
Another Federal Appeals Court Says Trump's Travel Ban Should Remain On Hold
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images
Updated at 6:20 p.m. ET
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a preliminary injunction blocking President Trump's travel ban should remain in effect, at least for now. It's the second appeals court decision in less than a month to maintain a nationwide stay on the ban.
Monday's decision centers on an executive order to temporarily suspend the admission of refugees to the U.S. and limit travel from some majority-Muslim countries. It's Trump's second attempt at such a policy. The first executive order was issued in late January, with no advance notice, causing chaos for some travelers and prompting swift legal challenges.
After that order was blocked by courts, the White House issued a second executive order, omitting references to religion and specifically exempting green card holders. That one was challenged by lawsuits and blocked by injunctions before it ever went into effect.
There are multiple cases pending against the revised order. The one before the Seattle-based 9th Circuit was the case of Hawaii v. Trump — the first lawsuit filed by a state against the revised travel ban. A three-judge panel heard oral arguments on that case last month.
The 9th Circuit sided with the state of Hawaii in deciding that the ban should stay on hold as the cases against it move through the courts. The judges were not directly ruling on the merits of the travel ban itself; however, to evaluate whether the injunction was appropriate, they had to weigh the probable impact of the travel ban and the likelihood that a case against it would succeed.
They concluded the travel ban would probably cause irreparable harm if it went into effect and that the revised executive order "does not offer a sufficient justification to suspend the entry of more than 180 million people on the basis of nationality."
"National security is not a 'talismanic incantation' that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power," the judges wrote.
It's the second such decision in less than a month. The Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld another nationwide injunction against the president's travel ban.
Both courts were broadly skeptical of the government's argument that the president — who has wide latitude on issues of immigration — was well within his rights to issue the executive order.
The president has "broad power," the 4th Circuit ruled, "but that power is not absolute." The 9th Circuit took a similar stance on Monday, writing: "Immigration, even for the President, is not a one-person show."
But the appellate courts' opinions were notably different in focus.
A 13-judge panel of the 4th Circuit extensively considered issues of religious freedom, drawing heavily on Trump's public statements calling for a "Muslim ban."
The majority of those judges found that Trump's executive order "drips with religious intolerance" and that "the reasonable observer would likely conclude that EO-2's primary purpose is to exclude persons from the United States on the basis of their religious beliefs." As a result, they found the order to be probably unconstitutional.
The three judges of the 9th Circuit, writing unanimously, barely discussed religion at all. In a footnote, they said they "need not address" claims of religious discrimination to rule on the injunction. And unlike the 4th Circuit, they did not consider whether the order is constitutional.
Instead, they focused on federal law. They ruled the order likely violates the Immigration and Nationality Act by discriminating on the basis of a person's country of origin.
Any exception to the INA would need to be justified based on national interest, the judges write — and they were not convinced by Trump's argument that the order ensures national security.
"The Order does not tie these nationals in any way to terrorist organizations within the six designated countries," they wrote. "It does not provide any link between an individual's nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism or their inherent dangerousness."
The 9th Circuit invoked the case of Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, to highlight the danger of classification by nationality.
That case had come up in oral arguments, as NPR reported at the time:
"Judge Richard Paez asked [acting Solicitor General Jeffrey] Wall what separates Trump's executive order from the World War II-era mass imprisonment of Japanese-Americans, which was also initiated by an executive order from President Roosevelt and justified on national security grounds. "That executive order was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court at the time. It's now nearly universally recognized as being unconstitutional and profoundly unjust, born of 'race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership,' as a congressional apology put it."
The 9th Circuit decision has another key difference from the 4th Circuit ruling: It also denies the White House's request to reinstate a temporary suspension of the refugee program, as well as a reduction in the number of refugees admitted in general.
Among other things, the judges concluded that the president didn't adequately consult with Congress before reducing the number of refugees who could be admitted to the U.S.
Ultimately, the appellate court said the central provisions of the revised executive order — regarding both travelers and refugees — should remain on pause.
However, the 9th Circuit did rule that the preliminary injunction, as originally imposed by the district court of Hawaii, was too broad. One portion of the "travel ban" executive order — which does not limit travel or immigration and calls for the government to carry out an internal review of the refugee admission process — should be allowed to go into effect.
At a news conference Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the travel ban is lawful and is a necessary tool for fighting terrorism. He also said the administration — which has already asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and reinstate the revised travel ban — looks forward to hearing from the high court on the issue.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a statement later on Monday.
"The Executive Branch is entrusted with the responsibility to keep the country safe under Article II of the Constitution," he said. "Unfortunately, this injunction prevents the President from fully carrying out his Article II duties and has a chilling effect on security operations overall."
Sessions called the threat of terrorism "immediate and real," saying Trump knows "there are active plots to infiltrate the U.S. immigration system — just as occurred prior to 9/11." The attorney general said the Department of Justice will continue to "seek further review by the Supreme Court." |
She's the hero New York needs.
Bella, a 6-year-old teacup Yorkshire terrier, stole the show on Thursday afternoon when she and her comrades at FDNY Engine 8/Ladder 2/Battalion 8 responded to a burning car in a Midtown garage.
Bella has been hanging around Engine 8, located on East 51st Street between Third and Lexington avenues, for most of her life, putting in 24-hour shifts just like the rest of New York’s Bravest, according to one of her colleagues, who declined to give his name.
“She likes to ride around in the truck,” he said.
Bella drew an admiring crowd as employees waited to head back into the Sheraton Times Square Hotel, part of which was evacuated just before noon Thursday after a car caught fire in the adjoining garage, an FDNY spokesman said.
But don't be fooled by her size. Sporting a gold chain, the pyro pooch showed her tough side when one fan got a little too close to her perch in the truck, sending the woman packing with a ferocious bark.
► READ MORE: 7 Animals Pursuing Lucrative Career Paths in NYC
While Bella guarded her truck, firefighters brought the blaze — located three levels below ground in the hotel’s garage — under control by 1 p.m., according to an FDNY spokesman.
One person suffered minor injuries due to smoke inhalation. |
PAX East kicks off this week! Are you ready?
GENERAL INFORMATION
What: Hosted annually in Boston, PAX East is a celebration of gaming culture and community
Where: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center booth #1036 of the Expo Hall
When: March 22–24
Head on over to east.paxsite.com for panel schedules, hotel and travel information, forums, and more. If you have an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows 7 smart phone, you can also download the super sexy (and super official) PAX East 2013 app from Guidebook for free.
SOMETHING NEW We've got something new to share, and we're bringing it to PAX East! If you're attending, be sure to arrive at the Naga theater early in order to secure a seat for our presentation. If you're not going to PAX East this year (or you just went a little too crazy the night before), we've got you covered -- the whole thing is being streamed live on the official PAX Twitch channel at 10:00 a.m. EDT Friday, March 22. |
WASHINGTON — Senators emerged Thursday from a classified briefing with sharp critiques of the Obama administration's plans to arm and train Syrian rebels.
"Literally, this does make Pickett's Charge look like a good idea," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after leaving a closed-door Armed Services Committee briefing. "The idea of degrading and destroying ISIL with this strategy is an illusion."
Graham says the administration's plan to take vetted Syrian rebels out of that country and train and provide them weapons in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar is akin to US Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordering Lt. Gen. Longstreet to lead an ill-fated charge on the final day of the American Civil War's Battle of Gettysburg.
Longstreet advised against the plan, and lost over 2,500 soldiers. Nearly 900 more were wounded.
"The problem does not lie with the [US] military. It lies with the political leadership," Graham said of the Obama administration. "This is militarily immoral what we're doing. We're about to train people for certain death.
"The idea that we're going to get people to fight [the Islamic State] only, given the fact that most of them want to rid the country of Assad and [IS] is absurd," he said. "Number two, if you don't support these people, if they don't have an air force, they don't have capability, these are going to be light-infantry people at best. If I'm Assad, I would take the first recruits we send and kill them in the cradle."
He also doubts the number of recruits for the train-and-equip program will be enough to counter Islamic State fighters and Assad's forces.
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"The numbers that you would need to a serious change of momentum? Years away," Graham said. "The concept is fatally flawed. The concept of training an army that would be slaughtered by two enemies … is militarily unsound.
"The inability of this administration to understand that Assad is not going to sit on the sidelines and watch us build up an army that can beat ISIL and then turn on him without doing something at a critical moment is beyond absurd," said Graham, a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate.
SASC Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., offered his own negative critique of the plan presented to panel members by Pentagon and administration officials.
"There still is no strategy," McCain told reporters. "I think … it's very weak and will not have significant impact.
"The most ridiculous thing is that they're telling them that they're only against ISIS, and Bashar al-Assad has slaughtered more than 200,000 of their countrymen, 3.5 million refugees, and they're not fighting against Bashar al-Assad? He's their enemy."
Some members were less sharp.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said a takeaway from the briefing was, "we're still in the early stages of this.
"I think there's a lot of work to do," she said. "And a lot of questions to be answered."
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told reporters "the situation in Syria is very very challenging, very complex, and very difficult at this time."
Sessions would add one controversial element to the mission US military advisers are doing currently in Iraq.
"We don't need troops out leading in any battle. But the Sunni leaders out in the tribal areas, the Baghdad areas and the Kurds will respond more positively and more aggressively if they know they have embedded Americans with their fighting units who can communicate with air support and provide confidence that they'll have support in any kind of activity they undertake," he said. "I think we're awfully slow on that.
"We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Iraqis and Afghanis for over a decade," Sessions said. "We lost over 5,000 [troops] fighting with them. The idea that we cannot put an embedded soldier in with an Iraqi Army that we trained makes no sense at all."
Sessions was pressed on whether he worries about a slippery slope leading to another protracted US ground war if embedded American troops were killed. |
World’s largest aircraft: Five interesting facts about the Antonov AN-225
Cargo Air Charter 10th December 2013 10 12 2013
Renowned as the largest aircraft in the world, the Antonov AN-225 Mriya (meaning Dream in Ukrainian) has always received red-carpet attention whenever it makes an appearance.
Be it upon arrival or departure, the AN-225 is constantly pursued by aircraft enthusiasts and plane spotters every time it makes a landing or take-off.
There are even websites where fans of the AN-225 closely watch and exchange information on the whereabouts of the freighter aircraft.
So, what makes the Antonov AN-225 Mriya so interesting? Here are the five most interesting facts about the freighter:
1. For over 25 years, the AN-225 has held the title of the biggest commercially used freighter in the world. Powered by six turbofan engines, it is the biggest heavier-than-air aircraft in terms of length (85.3m) and wingspan (88m) in operational service. It is able of carrying up to 250 tons of cargo, which is equivalent to the average weight of 52 mature elephants.
2. There is only one operational AN-225 in the world.
3. The Ukrainian plane manufacturer Antonov developed the AN-225 during the Cold War in the 1980’s to airlift (in a piggyback fashion) the Buran spacecraft for the Soviet space program. The maiden flight took place on 21 December 1988 and six months later the AN-225, with the Buran atop, was presented for the first time in the west at the Paris Air Show in 1989.
4. The AN-225 is an extension of the successful Antonov AN-124 Ruslan freight aircraft – the hull and the wingspan were both extended by 15m. The plan was to build an extended version of the AN-225 freighter with eight engines, but the project named AN-325 has not been realised. The AN-225 is currently the only commercial freighter powered by six engines.
5. The AN-225 has set over 200 world records, including airlifting the world’s heaviest cargo, and the world’s longest cargo.
Exclusively used for charter flights, Chapman Freeborn has performed many successful airfreight projects with the AN-225, delivering reliable air cargo charter solutions for our clients. We have organised the first transatlantic flight from Frankfurt-Hahn to Toronto, as well as the first commercial flight of the AN-225 to South America in 2010. |
SYNEITE Reveries by Edna Foley On the third of July, 1941, Sam and I were married in the study of the First Baptist Church of Farmington. After purchasing a few articles, we drove to our home to begin a life of happiness and fulfillment together. This place was one mile west of Knob Lick. Over a hundred years ago, it was known as Syneite. There were numerous granite quarries in the community. This place was a town resembling old western towns with light saloons, a dance hall, hotel, boarding house and dwellings. The largest quarry was owned by a Scottish gentleman named William Milne. He was a kind, considerate man, held in high esteem by all who knew him. The stones were quarried here and hauled to Knob Lick, then loaded on the train bound for St. Louis. They were used to pave the streets. The old Milne house was a sturdy beautiful house made of granite. Six rooms, two fireplaces and stoves to heat the upstairs. The dining room had a fireplace. So did the large parlor. The parlor was divided by sliding doors. The large roomy kitchen was at the back. Upstairs were two bedrooms and the family room. There was a large barn and stable for the cow and the horse, ridden by the circuit rider. When they quit paving the streets in St. Louis, the large quarry shut down, pulled the pumps and it filled with water, providing a good swimming pool for the neighborhood. A large pine support provided the beginners support to hold on to. One other pine support lay on the ground. Gordon Milne, the youngest of the large family, lived across the road from the Milne house and looked after the premises. He had rented the house partially furnished to a nice couple from Georgia. This young man managed a plant in another old abandoned quarry. In a few years the plant was discontinued and the Wades went back to Georgia. We hated to lose this nice couple from our neighborhood. Members of the Milne family took the remaining beautiful pieces of furniture and hanging lamps from the house and it stood empty for years. Finally Gordon sold the property to a family from St. Louis. We were glad to see a light in the window again. The house has been there for many years. A sturdy house, built to last a long time. It had huge chimneys and two lightning rods. Gordon had a new roof put on and it is as good as new. I loved this old house and would have liked to have lived there, but my husband said it was too much house for us. He was usually right. So it is a large roomy house, should have a large family. And this house will be a land mark for a long time. It is a small community now, with a granite house not far from the Milne house. Several houses along the highway. We all had large gardens, and dry wells. Our well was between two large granite boulders. We drew the water with a bucket attached to a pulley. The water was clean, cold and sparkling and very good. Folks had used it for many years. Dry wells got some debris in them and are apt to become contaminated. I took a sample of the water and sent it in for analysis. The answer came back, not safe to drink! Was my face red? I sent a dollar for something to put into the well to correct this and we kept on drinking the water. All of the old timers left the community when the quarries closed. It is a small community, but a good one. Lovely with the old Knob standing there and the beauty of the changing seasons. It will always be my home. Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Thurs. July 17, 1980. |
Here is our annual list of Halloween torts and crimes. This holiday remains a favorite for personal injury lawyers around the world and this year’s additions show why.
So, with no further ado, here is this year’s annual Spooky Torts list of actual cases from Halloween (with our past winners).
Smith v. Taunton High School
I am still trying to get the correct name of this lawsuit filed last month, but it involves a Halloween prank gone bad in Massachusetts. A teacher at Taunton High School asked a 15-year-old student to answer a knock on the classroom door. When the boy was startled when he came face to face with a man in a mask and carrying what appeared to be a running chainsaw. The student fell back, tripped and fractured a kneecap. His family is now suing though the state cap on such lawsuits is $100,000.
Dussault said the family is preparing a lawsuit, but is exploring ways to avoid a trial and do better than the $100,000 cap when suing city employees. This could make for an interesting case, but would be better for the Plaintiffs as a bench versus a jury trial. Many jurors are likely to view this as simply an attempt at good fun by the teacher and an unforeseeable accident.
Source: CBS
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In Florida, a woman has sued for defamation, harassment and emotional distress after her neighbor set up decorations that included an insane asylum sign that pointed to her yard and a fake tombstone with an inscription she viewed as a reference to her single status. It read, “At 48 she had no mate no date/ It’s no debate she looks 88.”
This could be a wonderful example of an opinion defense to defamation. As for emotional distress, I think the cause of the distress pre-dates Halloween.
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A lawsuit appears inevitable after a tragic accident in St. Louis where a 17-year-old girl is in a critical condition after she became tangled in a noose at a Halloween haunted house called Creepyworld. The girl was working as an actress at the attraction and was found unconscious. What is particularly chilling is that people appeared to have walked by her hanging in the house and thought she was a realistic prop.
Notably, the attraction had people walk through to check on the well-being of actors and she was discovered but not for some time after the accident. She is in critical condition. Creepyworld employs 100 people and can expect a negligence lawsuit.
Source:
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Rabindranath v. Wallace (2010)
Peter Wallace, 24, was returning on a train with fellow Hiberinian soccer fans in England — many dressed in costumes (which the English call “fancy dress.”) One man was dressed as a sheep and Wallace thought it was funny to constantly flick his lighter near the cotton balls covering his body — until he burst into flames. Friends then made the matter worse by trying to douse the flames but throwing alcohol on the flaming man- sheep. Even worse, the victim Aberdeen supporter Arjuna Rabindranath, 24, is an Aberdeen soccer fan. Rabindranath’s costume was composed of a white tracksuit and cotton wool.
Outcome: Wallace is the heir to a large farm estate and agreed to pay damages to the victim, who experienced extensive burns.
What is fascinating is the causation issue. Here, Wallace clearly caused the initial injury which was then made worse by the world’ most dim-witted rescue attempt in the use of alcohol to douse a fire. In the United States, the original tortfeasor is liable for such injuries caused by negligent rescues. Indeed, he is liable for injured rescuers. The rescuers can also be sued in most states. However, many areas of Europe have good Samaritan laws protecting such rescuers. Notably, Wallace had a previous football-related conviction which was dealt with by a fine. In this latest case, he agreed to pay 25,000 in compensation.
The case is obviously similar to one of our prior Halloween winners below: Ferlito v. Johnson & Johnson
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Perper v. Forum Novelties (2010)
Sherri Perper, 56, of Queens, New York has filed a personal injury lawsuit due to defective shoes allegedly acquired from Forum Novelties. The shoes were over-sized clown shoes that she was wearing as part of her Halloween costume in 2008. She tripped and fell.
She is reportedly claiming that the shoes were dangerous. While “open and obvious” is no longer an absolute defense in such products cases, such arguments may still be made to counter claims of defective products. In most jurisdictions, you must show that the product is more dangerous than the expectations of the ordinary consumer. It is hard to see how Perper could be surprised that it is a bit difficult to walk in over-sized shoes. Then there is the problem of assumption of the risk.
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Dickson v. Hustonville Haunted House and Greg Walker (2009) Glenda Dickson, 51, broke four vertebrae in her back when she fell out of second
story window left open at the Hustonville Haunted House, owned by Greg Walker.
Dickson was in a room called “The Crying Lady in the Bed” when one of the actors came up behind the group and started screaming. Everyone jumped in fright and Dickson jumped back through an open window that was covered with a sheet — a remarkably negligent act by the haunted house operator. She landed on a fire escape and then fell down some stairs.
OUTCOME: While no criminal charges are planned, this would appear a likely case for a lawsuit for negligence. Since it only happened yesterday, we may have to follow up next year to see if this got really scary.
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Maryland v. Janik (2009)
Sgt. Eric Janik, 37, went to a haunted house called the House of Screams with friends and when confronted by a character dressed as Leatherface with a chainsaw (sans the chain, of course), Janik pulled out his service weapon and pointed it at the man, who immediately dropped character, dropped the chainsaw, and ran like a bat out of Halloween Hell.
Outcome: Janik is charged with assault and reckless endangerment for his actions. Charges pending.
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Patrick v. South Carolina (2009) Quentin Patrick, 22, an ex-convict in Sumter, South Carolina shot and killed a trick-or-treater T.J. Darrisaw who came to his home on Halloween — spraying nearly 30 rounds with an assault rifle from inside his home after hearing a knock on the door. T.J.’s 9-year- old brother, Ahmadre Darrisaw, and their father, Freddie Grinnell, were injured but were released after being treated at a hospital.
Patrick left his porch light on — a general signal for kids that the house was open for trick and treating. The boy’s mother and toddler sibling were in the car.
Patrick emptied the AK-47 — shooting at least 29 times through his front door, walls and windows after hearing the knock. He said that he had been previously robbed. That may be so, but it is unclear what an ex-con was doing with a gun, let alone an AK-47.
OUTCOME: Charges pending for murder.
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Kentucky v. Watkins (2008)
As a Halloween prank, restaurant manager Joe Watkins of the Chicken Ranch in Paris, Kentucky thought it was funny to lie in a pool of blood on the floor. After seeing Watkins on the floor, the woman went screaming from the restaurant to report the murder. Watkins said that the prank was for another employee and that he tried to call the woman back on her cell phone.
OUTCOME: Under Kentucky law, a person can be charged with a false police report, even if he is not the one who filed it. The police charged Watkins for causing the woman to file the report — a highly questionable charge.
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Mays v. Gretna Athletic Boosters␣95-717 (La.App. 5 Cir. 01/17/96)
“Defendant operated a haunted house at Mel Ott Playground in Gretna to raise money for athletic programs. The haunted house was constructed of 2×4s and black visqueen. There were numerous cubbyholes where “scary” exhibits were displayed. One booster club member was stationed at the entrance and one at the exit. Approximately eighteen people participated in the haunted house by working the exhibits inside. Near and along the entrance of the haunted house was a bathroom building constructed of cinder blocks. Black visqueen covered this wall.
Plaintiff and her daughter’s friend, about 10 years old, entered the haunted house on October 29, 1988. It was nighttime and was dark inside. Plaintiff testified someone jumped out and hollered, scaring the child into running. Plaintiff was also frightened and began to run. She ran directly into the visqueen-covered cinder block wall.
There was no lighting in that part of the haunted house. Plaintiff hit the wall face first and began bleeding profusely from her nose. She testified two surgeries were required to repair her nose.”
OUTCOME: In order to get the proper effect, haunted houses are dark and contain scary and/or shocking exhibits. Patrons in a Halloween haunted house are expected to be surprised, startled and scared by the exhibits but the operator does not have a duty to guard against patrons reacting in bizarre, frightened and unpredictable ways. Operators are duty bound to protect patrons only from unreasonably dangerous conditions, not from every conceivable danger.
As found by the Trial Court, defendant met this duty by constructing the haunted house with rooms of adequate size and providing adequate personnel and supervision for patrons entering the house. Defendant’s duty did not extend to protecting plaintiff from running in a dark room into a wall. Our review of the entire record herein does not reveal manifest error committed by the Trial Court or that the Trial Court’s decision was clearly wrong. Plaintiff has not shown the haunted house was unreasonably dangerous or that defendant’s actions were unreasonable. Thus, the Trial Court judgment must be affirmed.
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Powell v. Jacor Communications␣
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
320 F.3d 599 (6th Cir.2003)
“On October 15, 1999, Powell visited a Halloween season haunted house in Lexington, Kentucky that was owned and operated by Jacor. She was allegedly hit in the head with an unidentified object by a person she claims was dressed as a ghost. Powell was knocked unconscious and injured. She contends that she suffered a concussion and was put on bed rest and given medications by emergency-room physicians. Powell further claims that she now suffers from several neuropsychological disorders as a result of the incident.”
OUTCOME: Reversed dismissal on the basis of tolling of statute of limitations.
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Kansas City Light & Power Company v. Trimble␣
315 Mo. 32; 285 S.W. 455 (1926)
“A shapely pole to which, twenty-two feet from the ground is attached a non-insulated electric wire . . Upon a shapely pole were standard steps eighteen inches apart; about seventeen feet from the ground were telephone wires, and five feet above them was a non-insulated electric light wire. On Halloween, about nine o’clock, a bright fourteen- year-old boy and two companions met close to the pole, and some girls dressed as clowns came down the street. As they came near the boy, saying, “Who dares me to walk the wire?” began climbing the pole, using the steps, and ascended to the telephone cables, and thereupon his companions warned him about the live wire and told him to come down. He crawled upon the telephone cables to a distance of about ten feet from the pole, and when he reached that point a companion again warned him of the live wire over his head, and threatened to throw a rock at him and knock him off if he did not come down. Whereupon he turned about and crawled back to the pole, and there raised himself to a standing position, and then his foot slipped, and involuntarily he threw up his arm, his hand clutched the live wire, and he was shocked to death.”
OUTCOME:
Frankly, I am not sure why the pole was so “shapely” but the result was disappointing for the plaintiffs. Kansas City Light & Power Company v. Trimble: The court held that the appellate court extended the attractive nuisance doctrine beyond the court’s ruling decisions. The court held that appellate court’s opinion on the contributory negligence doctrine conflicted with the court’s ruling decisions. The court held that the administrator’s case should never have been submitted to the jury. The court quashed the appellate opinion.
“To my mind it is inconceivable that a bright, intelligent boy, doing well in school, past fourteen years of age and living in the city, would not understand and appreciate the fact that it would be dangerous to come in contact with an electric wire, and that he was undertaking a dangerous feat in climbing up the pole; but even if it may be said that men might differ on that proposition, still in this case he was warned of the wire and of the danger on account of the wire and that, too, before he had reached a situation where there was any occasion or necessity of clutching the wire to avoid a fall. Not only was he twice warned but he was repeatedly told and urged to come down.”
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Purtell v. Mason␣ 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49064 (E.D. Ill. 2006)
“The Purtells filed the present lawsuit against Defendant Village of Bloomingdale Police Officer Bruce Mason after he requested that they remove certain Halloween tombstone “decorations” from their property. Evidence presented at trial revealed that the Purtells placed the tombstones referring to their neighbors in their front yard facing the street. The tombstones specifically referred to their neighbors, who saw the language on the tombstones. For instance, the tombstone that referred to the Purtells’ neighbor James Garbarz stated:
Here Lies Jimmy, The OlDe Towne IdioT MeAn As sin even withouT his Gin No LonGer Does He wear That sTupiD Old Grin . . . Oh no, noT where they’ve sent Him!
The tombstone referring to the Purtells’ neighbor Betty Garbarz read:
BeTTe wAsN’T ReADy, BuT here she Lies Ever since that night she DieD. 12 feet Deep in this trench . . . Still wasn’T Deep enough For that wenches Stench!
In addition, the Purtells placed a Halloween tombstone in their yard concerning their neighbor Diane Lesner stating:
Dyean was Known for Lying So She was fried. Now underneath these daises is where she goes crazy!!
Moreover, the jury heard testimony that Diane Lesner, James Garbarz, and Betty Garbarz were upset because their names appeared on the tombstones. Betty Garbarz testified that she was so upset by the language on the tombstones that she contacted the Village of Bloomingdale Police Department. She further testified that she never had any doubt that the “Bette” tombstone referred to her. After seeing the tombstones, she stated that she was ashamed and humiliated, but did not talk to Jeffrey Purtell about them because she was afraid of him.
Defense counsel also presented evidence that the neighbors thought the language on the tombstones constituted threats and that they were alarmed and disturbed by their names being on the tombstones. James Garbarz testified that he interpreted the “Jimmy” tombstone as a threat and told the police that he felt threatened by the tombstone. He also testified that he had concerns about his safety and what Jeffrey Purtell might do to him.”
OUTCOME: The court denied the homeowners’ post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to and motion for a new trial. Viewing the evidence and all reasonable inferences in a light most favorable to Officer Mason, a rational jury could conclude that the language on the tombstones constituted threats, that the neighbors were afraid of Jeffrey Purtell, and that they feared for their safety. As such the Court will not disturb the jury’s conclusion that the tombstones constituted fighting words — “those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
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Goodwin v. Walmart␣
2001 Ark. App. LEXIS 78
“On October 12, 1993, Randall Goodwin went to a Wal-Mart store located on 6th Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He entered through the front door and walked toward the sporting goods department. In route, he turned down an aisle known as the seasonal aisle. At that time, it was stocked with items for Halloween. This aisle could be observed from the cash registers. Mr. Goodwin took only a few steps down the aisle when he allegedly stepped on a wig and fell, landing on his right hip. As a result of the fall, Mr. Goodwin suffered severe physical injury to his back, including a ruptured disk. Kelly Evans, an employee for appellee, was standing at the end of her check-out stand when Mr. Goodwin approached her and informed her that he had fallen on an item in the seasonal aisle. She stated that she “saw what he was talking about.”
OUTCOME: Judgment affirmed because the pleadings, depositions, and related summary judgment evidence did not show that there was any genuine issue of material fact as appellant customer did not establish plastic bag containing the Halloween wig which allegedly caused him to slip and fall was on the floor as the result of appellee’s negligence or it had been on the floor for such a period of time that appellee knew or should have known about it.
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Eversole v. Wasson␣ 80 Ill. App. 3d 94 (Ill. 1980)
“The following allegations of count I, directed against defendant Wasson, were incorporated in count II against the school district: (1) plaintiff was a student at Villa Grove High School which was controlled and administered by the defendant school district, (2) defendant Wasson was employed by the school district as a teacher at the high school, (3) on November 1, 1978, at approximately 12:30 p.m., Wasson was at the high school in his regular capacity as a teacher and plaintiff was attending a regularly scheduled class, (4) Wasson sought and received permission from another teacher to take plaintiff from that teacher’s class and talk to him in the hallway, (5) once in the hallway, Wasson accused plaintiff of being one of several students he believed had smashed Wasson’s Halloween pumpkin at Wasson’s home, (6) without provocation from plaintiff, Wasson berated plaintiff, called him vile names, and threatened him with physical violence while shaking his fist in plaintiff’s face which placed plaintiff in fear of bodily injury, (7) Wasson then struck plaintiff about the head and face with both an open hand and a closed fist and shook and shoved him violently, (8) as a result, plaintiff was bruised about the head, neck, and shoulders; experienced pain and suffering in his head, body, and limbs; and became emotionally distraught causing his school performance and participation to be adversely affected . . .”
OUTCOME: The court affirmed that portion of the lower court’s order that dismissed the count against the school district and reversed that portion of the lower court’s order that entered a judgment in bar of action as to this count. The court remanded the case to the lower court with directions to allow the student to replead his count against the school district.
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Holman v. Illinois␣
47 Ill. Ct. Cl. 372 (1995)
“The Claimant was attending a Halloween party at the Illinois State Museum with her grandson on October 26, 1990. The party had been advertised locally in the newspaper and through flier advertisements. The advertisement requested that children be accompanied by an adult, to come in costume and to bring a flashlight. The museum had set up different display rooms to hand out candy to the children and give the appearance of a “haunted house.” The Claimant entered the Discovery Room with her grandson.
Under normal conditions the room is arranged with tables and low-seated benches for children to use in the museum’s regular displays. These tables and benches had been moved into the upper-right-hand corner of the Discovery Room next to the wall. In the middle of the room, there was a “slime pot” display where the children received the Halloween treat. The overhead fluorescent lights were turned off; however, the track lights on the left side of the room were turned on and dim. The track lights on the right side of the room near the tables and benches were not lit. The room was dark enough that the children’s flashlights could be clearly seen. There were approximately 40-50 people in the room at the time of the accident.
The Claimant entered the room with her grandson. They proceeded in the direction of the pot in the middle of the room to see what was going in the pot. Her grandson then ran around the pot to the right corner toward the wall. As the Claimant followed, she tripped over the corner of a bench stored in that section of the room. She fell, making contact with the left corner of the bench. She experienced great pain in her upper left arm. The staff helped her to her feet. Her father was called and she went to the emergency room. Claimant has testified that she did not see the low-seating bench because it was so dimly lit in the Discovery Room. The Claimant was treated at the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a fracture of the proximal humeral head of her left arm as a result of the fall. Claimant returned home, but was unable to work for 12 to 13 weeks.”
OUTCOME: “The Claimant has met her burden of proof. She has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the State acted negligently in placing furnishings in a dimly-lit room where visitors could not know of their location. The State did not exercise its duty of reasonable care. For the foregoing reasons, the Claimant is granted an award of $ 20,000.”
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Ferlito v. Johnson & Johnson␣
771 F. Supp. 196 “Plaintiffs Susan and Frank Ferlito, husband and wife, attended a Halloween party in 1984 dressed as Mary (Mrs. Ferlito) and her little lamb (Mr. Ferlito). Mrs. Ferlito had constructed a lamb costume for her husband by gluing cotton batting manufactured by defendant Johnson & Johnson Products (“JJP”) to a suit of long underwear. She had also used defendant’s product to fashion a headpiece, complete with ears. The costume covered Mr. Ferlito from his head to his ankles, except for his face and hands, which were blackened with Halloween paint. At the party Mr. Ferlito attempted to light his cigarette by using a butane lighter. The flame passed close to his left arm, and the cotton batting on his left sleeve ignited. Plaintiffs sued defendant for injuries they suffered from burns which covered approximately one-third of Mr. Ferlito’s body.”
OUTCOME: Ferlito v. Johnson & Johnson: Plaintiffs repeatedly stated in their response brief that plaintiff Susan Ferlito testified that “she would never again use cotton batting to make a costume.” Plaintiffs’ Answer to Defendant JJP’s Motion for J.N.O.V., pp. 1, 3, 4, 5. However, a review of the trial transcript reveals that plaintiff Susan Ferlito never testified that she would never again use cotton batting to make a costume. More importantly, the transcript contains no statement by plaintiff Susan Ferlito that a flammability warning on defendant JJP’s product would have dissuaded her from using the cotton batting to construct the costume in the first place. At oral argument counsel for plaintiffs conceded that there was no testimony during the trial that either plaintiff Susan Ferlito or her husband, plaintiff Frank J. Ferlito, would [**9] have acted any different if there had been a flammability warning on the product’s package. The absence of such testimony is fatal to plaintiffs’ case; for without it, plaintiffs have failed to prove HN9proximate cause, one of the essential elements of their negligence claim.
In addition, both plaintiffs testified that they knew that cotton batting burns when it is exposed to flame. Susan Ferlito testified that she knew at the time she purchased the cotton batting that it would burn if exposed to an open flame. Frank Ferlito testified that he knew at the time he appeared at the Halloween party that cotton batting would burn if exposed to an open flame. His additional testimony that he would not have intentionally put a flame to the cotton batting shows that he recognized the risk of injury of which he claims JJP should have warned. Because both plaintiffs were already aware of the danger, a warning by JJP would have been superfluous. Therefore, a reasonable jury could not have found that JJP’s failure to provide a warning was a proximate cause of plaintiffs’ injuries.
The evidence in this case clearly demonstrated that neither the use to which plaintiffs put JJP’s product nor the injuries arising from that use were foreseeable.
But in Trivino v. Jamesway Corporation, the following result:
The mother purchased cosmetic puffs and pajamas from the retailer. The mother glued the puffs onto the pajamas to create a costume for her child. While wearing the costume, the child leaned over the electric stove. The costume caught on fire, injuring the child. Plaintiffs brought a personal injury action against the retailer. The retailer filed a third party complaint against the manufacturer of the puffs, and the puff manufacturer filed a fourth party complaint against the manufacturer of the fibers used in the puffs. The retailer filed a motion for partial summary judgment as to plaintiffs’ cause of action for failure to warn. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed the actions against the manufacturers. On appeal, the court modified the judgment, holding that the mother’s use of the puffs was not unforeseeable as a matter of law and was a question for the jury. The court held that because the puffs were not made of cotton, as thought by the mother, there were fact issues as to the puffs’ flammability and defendants’ duty to warn. The court held that there was no prejudice to the retailer in permitting plaintiffs to amend their bill of particulars.
OUTCOME: The court modified the trial court’s judgment to grant plaintiffs’ motion to amend their bill of particulars, deny the retailer’s motion for summary judgment, and reinstate the third party actions against the manufacturers.
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This article is about the Pennsylvania city. For other uses, see Philadelphia (disambiguation)
"Philly" redirects here. For other uses, see Philly (disambiguation)
Largest city in Pennsylvania, United States
Consolidated city-county in the United States
Philadelphia, sometimes known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863.[6] Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017 .[4] Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.[5]
William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony.[8] Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, and the Siege of Fort Mifflin. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and a railroad hub. The city grew from an influx of European immigrants, most of whom came from Ireland, Italy and Germany—the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city as of 2015 .[9] In the early 20th century, Philadelphia became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War,[10] as well as Puerto Ricans.[11] The city's population doubled from one million to two million people between 1890 and 1950.
The Philadelphia area's many universities and colleges make it a top study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational and economic hub.[12][13] According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia area had a gross domestic product of US$445 billion in 2017, the eighth-largest metropolitan economy in the United States.[14] Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania and is home to five Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is expanding, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016,[15] including several nationally prominent skyscrapers.[16] Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city.[17][18] Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States.[19] The city is known for its arts, culture, cuisine, and colonial history, attracting 42 million domestic tourists in 2016 who spent US$6.8 billion, generating an estimated $11 billion in total economic impact in the city and surrounding four counties of Pennsylvania.[20] Philadelphia has also emerged as a biotechnology hub.[21]
Philadelphia is the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps,[22][23] and is also the home of many U.S. firsts, including the first library (1731),[24] hospital (1751),[24] medical school (1765),[25] national capital (1774),[26] stock exchange (1790),[24] zoo (1874),[27] and business school (1881).[28] Philadelphia contains 67 National Historic Landmarks and the World Heritage Site of Independence Hall.[29] The city became a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in 2015,[30] as the first World Heritage City in the United States.[13] Although Philadelphia is rapidly undergoing gentrification, the city actively maintains mitigation strategies to minimize displacement of homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods.[31]
History
Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape (Delaware) Indians in the village of Shackamaxon. The Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government.[32] They are also called Delaware Indians,[33] and their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley.[a] Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts.[33] Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape. Surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States' independence pushed them further west. In the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma and surrounding territory) under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape reside in Oklahoma, with some communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario (Canada), and in their traditional homelands.
Europeans came to the Delaware Valley in the early 17th century, with the first settlements founded by the Dutch, who in 1623 built Fort Nassau on the Delaware River opposite the Schuylkill River in what is now Brooklawn, New Jersey. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony. In 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina (present-day Wilmington, Delaware) and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their military defeat of the English colony of Maryland. In 1648, the Dutch built Fort Beversreede on the west bank of the Delaware, south of the Schuylkill near the present-day Eastwick neighborhood, to reassert their dominion over the area. The Swedes responded by building Fort Nya Korsholm, or New Korsholm, named after a town in Finland with a Swedish majority. In 1655, a Dutch military campaign led by New Netherland Director-General Peter Stuyvesant took control of the Swedish colony, ending its claim to independence. The Swedish and Finnish settlers continued to have their own militia, religion, and court, and to enjoy substantial autonomy under the Dutch. The English conquered the New Netherland colony in 1664, though the situation did not change substantially until 1682 when the area was included in William Penn's charter for Pennsylvania.
In 1681, in partial repayment of a debt, Charles II of England granted Penn a charter for what would become the Pennsylvania colony. Despite the royal charter, Penn bought the land from the local Lenape to be on good terms with the Native Americans and ensure peace for his colony.[34] Penn made a treaty of friendship with Lenape chief Tammany under an elm tree at Shackamaxon, in what is now the city's Fishtown neighborhood.[35] Penn named the city Philadelphia, which is Greek for "brotherly love," derived from the Ancient Greek terms φίλος phílos (beloved, dear) and ἀδελφός adelphós (brother, brotherly). As a Quaker, Penn had experienced religious persecution and wanted his colony to be a place where anyone could worship freely. This tolerance, far more than afforded by most other colonies, led to better relations with the local native tribes and fostered Philadelphia's rapid growth into America's most important city.[36]
Penn planned a city on the Delaware River to serve as a port and place for government. Hoping that Philadelphia would become more like an English rural town instead of a city, Penn laid out roads on a grid plan to keep houses and businesses spread far apart, with areas for gardens and orchards. The city's inhabitants did not follow Penn's plans, however, as they crowded by the Delaware River port, and subdivided and resold their lots.[37] Before Penn left Philadelphia for the last time, he issued the Charter of 1701 establishing it as a city. Though poor at first, the city became an important trading center with tolerable living conditions by the 1750s. Benjamin Franklin, a leading citizen, helped improve city services and founded new ones, such as fire protection, a library, and one of the American colonies' first hospitals.
A number of philosophical societies were formed, which were centers of the city's intellectual life: the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture (1785), the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts (1787), the Academy of Natural Sciences (1812), and the Franklin Institute (1824).[38] These societies developed and financed new industries, attracting skilled and knowledgeable immigrants from Europe.
An 18th-century map of Philadelphia, circa 1752
Philadelphia's importance and central location in the colonies made it a natural center for America's revolutionaries. By the 1750s, Philadelphia had surpassed Boston to become the largest city and busiest port in British America, and second in the British Empire after London.[39][40] The city hosted the First Continental Congress (1774) before the Revolutionary War; the Second Continental Congress (1775–76),[41] which signed the United States Declaration of Independence, during the war; and the Constitutional Convention (1787) after the war. Several battles were fought in and near Philadelphia as well.
Philadelphia served as the temporary capital of the United States while the new capital was under construction in the District of Columbia from 1790 to 1800.[42] In 1793, the largest yellow fever epidemic in U.S. history killed approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people in Philadelphia, or about 10% of the city's population.[43][44]
The state capital was moved to Lancaster in 1799, then Harrisburg in 1812, while the federal government was moved to Washington, D.C. in 1800 upon completion of the White House and U.S. Capitol building. The city remained the young nation's largest until the late 18th century, being both a financial and a cultural center for America. In 1816, the city's free black community founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent black denomination in the country, and the first black Episcopal Church. The free black community also established many schools for its children, with the help of Quakers. New York City surpassed Philadelphia in population by 1790. Large-scale construction projects for new roads, canals, and railroads made Philadelphia the first major industrial city in the United States.
Throughout the 19th century, Philadelphia hosted a variety of industries and businesses, the largest being textiles. Major corporations in the 19th and early 20th centuries included the Baldwin Locomotive Works, William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.[45] Industry, along with the U.S. Centennial, was celebrated in 1876 with the Centennial Exposition, the first official World's Fair in the United States.
Immigrants, mostly from Ireland and Germany, settled in Philadelphia and the surrounding districts. These immigrants were largely responsible for the first general strike in North America in 1835, in which workers in the city won the ten-hour workday. The city was a destination for thousands of Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine in the 1840s; housing for them was developed south of South Street and later occupied by succeeding immigrants. They established a network of Catholic churches and schools and dominated the Catholic clergy for decades. Anti-Irish, anti-Catholic nativist riots erupted in Philadelphia in 1844. The rise in population of the surrounding districts helped lead to the Act of Consolidation of 1854, which extended the city limits from the 2 square miles (5.2 km2) of Center City to the roughly 134 square miles (350 km2) of Philadelphia County.[46][47] In the latter half of the century, immigrants from Russia, Eastern Europe and Italy, and African Americans from the southern U.S. settled in the city.[48]
Philadelphia was represented by the Washington Grays in the American Civil War. The African-American population of Philadelphia increased from 31,699 to 219,559 between 1880 and 1930.[49][50] Twentieth-century black newcomers were part of the Great Migration out of the rural south to northern and midwestern industrial cities.
By the 20th century, Philadelphia had an entrenched Republican political machine and a complacent population.[52] The first major reform came in 1917 when outrage over the election-year murder of a police officer led to the shrinking of the City Council from two houses to just one.[53] In July 1919, Philadelphia was one of more than 36 industrial cities nationally to suffer a race riot of ethnic whites against blacks during Red Summer, in post-World War I unrest, as recent immigrants competed with blacks for jobs. In the 1920s, the public flouting of Prohibition laws, organized crime, mob violence, and police involvement in illegal activities led to the appointment of Brig. Gen. Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corps as director of public safety, but political pressure prevented any long-term success in fighting crime and corruption.[54]
In 1940, non-Hispanic whites constituted 86.8% of the city's population.[55] The population peaked at more than two million residents in 1950, then began to decline with the restructuring of industry, which led to the loss of many middle-class union jobs. In addition, suburbanization had enticed many of the more affluent residents to outlying railroad commuting towns and newer housing. The resulting reduction in Philadelphia's tax base and the resources of local government caused the city to struggle through a long period of adjustment, with it approaching bankruptcy by the late 1980s.[56][57]
Revitalization and gentrification of neighborhoods began in the late 1970s and continues into the 21st century, with much of the development occurring in the Center City and University City neighborhoods. After many of the old manufacturers and businesses left Philadelphia or shut down, the city started attracting service businesses and began to market itself more aggressively as a tourist destination. Contemporary glass-and-granite skyscrapers were built in Center City beginning in the 1980s. Historic areas such as Old City and Society Hill were renovated during the reformist mayoral era of the 1950s through the 1980s, making those areas among the most desirable neighborhoods in Center City. These developments have begun a reversal of the city's population decline between 1950 and 2000 during which it lost about one-quarter of its residents.[58][59] The city eventually began experiencing a growth in its population in 2007, which has continued with gradual yearly increases to the present.[60][6]
Geography
Landsat simulated-color image of Philadelphia and the Delaware River
Topography
The geographic center of Philadelphia is located approximately at 40° 0′ 34″ north latitude and 75° 8′ 0″ west longitude. The 40th parallel north passes through neighborhoods in Northeast Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia including Fairmount Park. The city encompasses 142.71 square miles (369.62 km2), of which 134.18 square miles (347.52 km2) is land and 8.53 square miles (22.09 km2), or 6%, is water.[61] Natural bodies of water include the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, the lakes in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, and Cobbs, Wissahickon, and Pennypack creeks. The largest artificial body of water is the East Park Reservoir in Fairmount Park.
The lowest point is sea level, while the highest point is in Chestnut Hill, about 446 feet (136 m) above sea level on Summit Street near the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike (example coordinates near high point: 40.07815 N, 75.20747 W).[62][63]
Philadelphia is situated on the Fall Line that separates the Atlantic coastal plain from the Piedmont.[64] The rapids on the Schuylkill River at East Falls were inundated by the completion of the dam at the Fairmount Water Works.[65]
The city is the seat of its own county. The adjacent counties are Montgomery to the northwest; Bucks to the north and northeast; Burlington County, New Jersey, to the east; Camden County, New Jersey, to the southeast; Gloucester County, New Jersey, to the south; and Delaware County to the southwest.
Cityscape
City planning
A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia, by Thomas Holme – the first map of Philadelphia, ca. 1683
Philadelphia's central city was created in the 17th century following the plan by William Penn's surveyor Thomas Holme. Center City is structured with long straight streets running nearly due east-west and north-south, forming a grid pattern between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers that is aligned with their courses. The original city plan was designed to allow for easy travel and to keep residences separated by open space that would help prevent the spread of fire.[66] Penn planned the creation of five public parks in the city which were renamed in 1824[66] (new names in parentheses): Centre Square (Penn Square),[67] Northeast Square (Franklin Square), Southeast Square (Washington Square), Southwest Square (Rittenhouse Square), and Northwest Square (Logan Circle/Square).[68] Center City had an estimated 183,240 residents as of 2015 , making it the second-most populated downtown area in the United States, after Midtown Manhattan in New York City.[69]
Philadelphia's neighborhoods are divided into large sections—North, Northeast, South, Southwest Philadelphia, West, and Northwest—surrounding Center City, which corresponds closely with the city's limits before consolidation in 1854. Each of these large areas contains numerous neighborhoods, some of whose boundaries derive from the boroughs, townships, and other communities that constituted Philadelphia County before their inclusion within the city.[70]
The City Planning Commission, tasked with guiding growth and development of the city, has divided the city into 18 planning districts as part of the Philadelphia2035 physical development plan.[71][72] Much of the city's 1980 zoning code was overhauled from 2007 to 2012 as part of a joint effort between former mayors John F. Street and Michael Nutter. The zoning changes were intended to rectify incorrect zoning maps in order to facilitate future community development, as the city forecasts an additional 100,000 residents and 40,000 jobs will be added by 2035.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority is the largest landlord in Pennsylvania. Established in 1937, it is the nation's fourth-largest housing authority, housing about 84,000 people and employing 1,250. In 2013, its budget was $371 million.[73] The Philadelphia Parking Authority works to ensure adequate parking for city residents, businesses and visitors.[74]
Architecture
Philadelphia's architectural history dates back to colonial times and includes a wide range of styles. The earliest structures were constructed with logs, but brick structures were common by 1700. During the 18th century, the cityscape was dominated by Georgian architecture, including Independence Hall and Christ Church.
In the first decades of the 19th century, Federal and Greek Revival architecture were the dominant styles produced by Philadelphia architects such as Benjamin Latrobe, William Strickland, John Haviland, John Notman, Thomas Walter, and Samuel Sloan.[75] Frank Furness is considered Philadelphia's greatest architect of the second half of the 19th century. His contemporaries included John McArthur Jr., Addison Hutton, Wilson Eyre, the Wilson Brothers, and Horace Trumbauer. In 1871, construction began on the Second Empire-style Philadelphia City Hall. The Philadelphia Historical Commission was created in 1955 to preserve the cultural and architectural history of the city. The commission maintains the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, adding historic buildings, structures, sites, objects and districts as it sees fit.[76]
In 1932, Philadelphia became home to the first modern International Style skyscraper in the United States, the PSFS Building, designed by George Howe and William Lescaze. The 548 ft (167 m) City Hall remained the tallest building in the city until 1987 when One Liberty Place was completed. Numerous glass and granite skyscrapers were built in Center City beginning in the late 1980s. In 2007, the Comcast Center surpassed One Liberty Place to become the city's tallest building. The Comcast Technology Center was completed in 2018, reaching a height of 1,121 ft (342 m), as the tallest building in the United States outside of Manhattan and Chicago.[16]
For much of Philadelphia's history, the typical home has been the row house. The row house was introduced to the United States via Philadelphia in the early 19th century and, for a time, row houses built elsewhere in the United States were known as "Philadelphia rows".[75] A variety of row houses are found throughout the city, from Federal-style continuous blocks in Old City and Society Hill to Victorian-style homes in North Philadelphia to twin row houses in West Philadelphia. While newer homes have been built recently, much of the housing dates to the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, which has created problems such as urban decay and vacant lots. Some neighborhoods, including Northern Liberties and Society Hill, have been rehabilitated through gentrification.[77][78]
Climate
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Climate chart (explanation) J F M A M J J A S O N D 3 40 26 2.7 44 28 3.8 53 34 3.6 64 44 3.7 74 54 3.4 83 64 4.4 87 69 3.5 85 68 3.8 78 60 3.2 67 48 3 56 39 3.6 45 30 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation totals in inches Metric conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D 77 5 −4 67 7 −2 96 12 1 90 18 7 94 23 12 87 28 18 110 31 21 89 30 20 96 26 16 81 19 9 76 13 4 90 7 −1 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation totals in mm
According to the Köppen climate classification, Philadelphia falls under the northern periphery of the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen Cfa),[80] whereas according to the Trewartha climate classification, the city has a temperate maritime climate (Do).[81] Summers are typically hot and muggy, fall and spring are generally mild, and winter is moderately cold. The plant life hardiness zones are 7a and 7b, representing an average annual extreme minimum temperature between 0 °F (−18 °C) and 10 °F (−12 °C).[82]
Snowfall is highly variable with some winters having only light snow while others include major snowstorms. The normal seasonal snowfall averages 22.4 in (57 cm), with rare snowfalls in November or April, and rarely any sustained snow cover.[83] Seasonal snowfall accumulation has ranged from trace amounts in 1972–73 to 78.7 inches (200 cm) in the winter of 2009–10.[83][b] The city's heaviest single-storm snowfall was 30.7 in (78 cm) which occurred in January 1996.[84]
Precipitation is generally spread throughout the year, with eight to eleven wet days per month,[85] at an average annual rate of 41.5 inches (1,050 mm), but historically ranging from 29.31 in (744 mm) in 1922 to 64.33 in (1,634 mm) in 2011.[83] The most rain recorded in one day occurred on July 28, 2013 when 8.02 in (204 mm) fell at Philadelphia International Airport.[83] Philadelphia has a moderately sunny climate with an average of 2,500 hours of sunshine annually, and a percentage of sunshine ranging from 47% in December to 61% in June, July, and August.[86]
The January daily average temperature is 33.0 °F (0.6 °C),[87] though the temperature frequently rises to 50 °F (10 °C) during thaws and dips to 10 °F (−12 °C) for 2 or 3 nights in a normal winter.[87] July averages 78.1 °F (25.6 °C),[87] although heat waves accompanied by high humidity and heat indices are frequent, with highs reaching or exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) on 27 days of the year. The average window for freezing temperatures is November 6 thru April 2,[83] allowing a growing season of 217 days. Early fall and late winter are generally dry with February having the lowest average precipitation at 2.64 inches (67 mm). The dewpoint in the summer averages between 59.1 °F (15 °C) and 64.5 °F (18 °C).[83]
The highest recorded temperature was 106 °F (41 °C) on August 7, 1918, but temperatures at or above 100 °F (38 °C) are not common.[88][c] The lowest officially recorded temperature was −11 °F (−24 °C) on February 9, 1934.[88] Temperatures at or below 0 °F (−18 °C) are rare with the last such occurrence being January 19, 1994.[83] The record low maximum is 5 °F (−15 °C) on February 10, 1899, and December 30, 1880, while the record high minimum is 83 °F (28 °C) on July 23, 2011, and July 24, 2010.
Climate data for Philadelphia (Philadelphia Airport), 1981–2010 normals,[d] extremes 1872–present[e] Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 74
(23) 79
(26) 87
(31) 95
(35) 97
(36) 102
(39) 104
(40) 106
(41) 102
(39) 96
(36) 84
(29) 73
(23) 106
(41) Mean maximum °F (°C) 62.0
(16.7) 62.7
(17.1) 73.6
(23.1) 83.2
(28.4) 89.1
(31.7) 94.2
(34.6) 96.4
(35.8) 94.7
(34.8) 89.8
(32.1) 81.7
(27.6) 72.3
(22.4) 63.5
(17.5) 97.5
(36.4) Average high °F (°C) 40.3
(4.6) 43.8
(6.6) 52.7
(11.5) 63.9
(17.7) 73.8
(23.2) 82.7
(28.2) 87.1
(30.6) 85.3
(29.6) 78.0
(25.6) 66.6
(19.2) 56.0
(13.3) 44.8
(7.1) 64.6
(18.1) Daily mean °F (°C) 33.0
(0.6) 35.7
(2.1) 43.5
(6.4) 54.0
(12.2) 63.9
(17.7) 73.3
(22.9) 78.1
(25.6) 76.6
(24.8) 69.1
(20.6) 57.5
(14.2) 47.6
(8.7) 37.5
(3.1) 55.9
(13.3) Average low °F (°C) 25.6
(−3.6) 27.7
(−2.4) 34.4
(1.3) 44.1
(6.7) 54.0
(12.2) 63.8
(17.7) 69.2
(20.7) 67.9
(19.9) 60.3
(15.7) 48.4
(9.1) 39.2
(4.0) 30.1
(−1.1) 47.1
(8.4) Mean minimum °F (°C) 8.7
(−12.9) 12.7
(−10.7) 19.4
(−7.0) 31.6
(−0.2) 42.0
(5.6) 52.2
(11.2) 59.8
(15.4) 57.8
(14.3) 47.2
(8.4) 35.8
(2.1) 26.0
(−3.3) 15.8
(−9.0) 6.4
(−14.2) Record low °F (°C) −7
(−22) −11
(−24) 5
(−15) 14
(−10) 28
(−2) 44
(7) 51
(11) 44
(7) 35
(2) 25
(−4) 8
(−13) −5
(−21) −11
(−24) Average precipitation inches (mm) 3.03
(77) 2.65
(67) 3.79
(96) 3.56
(90) 3.71
(94) 3.43
(87) 4.35
(110) 3.50
(89) 3.78
(96) 3.18
(81) 2.99
(76) 3.56
(90) 41.53
(1,055) Average snowfall inches (cm) 6.5
(17) 8.8
(22) 2.9
(7.4) 0.5
(1.3) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0.3
(0.76) 3.4
(8.6) 22.4
(57) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 10.6 9.4 10.5 11.3 11.1 9.8 9.9 8.4 8.7 8.6 9.3 10.6 118.2 Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 4.4 3.6 1.8 0.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 1.8 12.2 Average relative humidity (%) 66.2 63.6 61.7 60.4 65.4 67.8 69.6 70.4 71.6 70.8 68.4 67.7 67.0 Mean monthly sunshine hours 155.7 154.7 202.8 217.0 245.1 271.2 275.6 260.1 219.3 204.5 154.7 137.7 2,498.4 Percent possible sunshine 52 52 55 55 55 61 61 61 59 59 52 47 56 Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961–1990) [87][86][83]
Air quality
Philadelphia County received an ozone grade of F and a 24-hour particle pollution rating of D in the American Lung Association's 2017 State of the Air report, which analyzed data from 2013–15.[91][92] The city was ranked 22nd for ozone, 20th for short-term particle pollution, and 11th for year-round particle pollution.[93] According to the same report, the city experienced a significant reduction in high ozone days since 2001—from nearly 50 days per year to fewer than 10—along with fewer days of high particle pollution since 2000—from about 19 days per year to about 3—and an approximate 30% reduction in annual levels of particle pollution since 2000.[92] Five of the ten largest combined statistical areas (CSAs) were ranked higher for ozone: Los Angeles (1st), New York City (9th), Houston (12th), Dallas (13th), and San Jose (18th). Many smaller CSAs were also ranked higher for ozone including Sacramento (8th), Las Vegas (10th), Denver (11th), El Paso (16th), and Salt Lake City (20th); however, only two of those same ten CSAs—San Jose and Los Angeles—were ranked higher than Philadelphia for both year-round and short-term particle pollution.[93]
Demographics
According to the 2017 United States Census Bureau estimate, there were 1,580,863 people residing in Philadelphia, representing a 3.6% increase from the 2010 census.[6] After the 1950 Census, when a record high of 2,071,605 was recorded, the city's population began a long decline. The population dropped to a low of 1,488,710 residents in 2006 before beginning to rise again. Between 2006 and 2017, Philadelphia added 92,153 residents. In 2017, the Census Bureau estimated that the racial composition of the city was 41.3% Black (non-Hispanic), 34.9% White (non-Hispanic), 14.1% Hispanic or Latino, 7.1% Asian, 0.4% Native Americans, 0.05% Pacific Islanders, and 2.8% multiracial.[99]
* 2017 figures are estimates
White , Black , Asian , Hispanic , or Other . Map of racial distribution in Philadelphia, 2010 Census. Each dot is 25 people:, or
The 2010 Census redistricting data indicated that the racial makeup of the city was 644,287 (42.2%) Black (non-Hispanic), 562,585 (36.9%) White (non-Hispanic), 96,405 (6.3%) Asian (2.0% Chinese, 1.2% Indian, 0.9% Vietnamese, 0.4% Korean, 0.3% Filipino, 0.1% Japanese, and 1.4% other), 6,996 (0.5%) Native Americans, 744 (0.05%) Pacific Islanders, and 43,070 (2.8%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 187,611 persons (12.3%); 8.0% Puerto Rican, 1.0% Mexican, 0.3% Cuban, and 3.0% other. The racial breakdown of Philadelphia's Hispanic/Latino population was 63,636 (33.9%) White, 17,552 (9.4%) Black, 3,498 (1.9%) Native American, 884 (0.47%) Asian, 287 (0.15%) Pacific Islander, 86,626 (46.2%) from other races, and 15,128 (8.1%) from two or more races.[100] The five largest European ancestries reported in the 2010 Census included Irish (13.0%), Italian (8.3%), German (8.2%), Polish (3.9%), and English (3.1%).[103]
The estimated average population density was 11,782 people per square mile (4,549/km²) in 2017. In 2010, the Census Bureau reported that 1,468,623 people (96.2% of the population) lived in households, 38,007 (2.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 19,376 (1.3%) were institutionalized.[100] In 2013, the city reported having 668,247 total housing units, down slightly from 670,171 housing units in 2010. As of 2013 , 87 percent of housing units were occupied, while 13 percent were vacant, a slight change from 2010 where 89.5 percent of units were occupied, or 599,736 and 10.5 percent were vacant, or 70,435.[100][104] Of the city's residents, 32 percent reported having no vehicles available while 23 percent had two or more vehicles available, as of 2013 .[104]
In 2010, 24.9 percent of households reported having children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.3 percent were married couples living together and 22.5 percent had a female householder with no husband present, 6.0 percent had a male householder with no wife present, and 43.2 percent were non-families. The city reported 34.1 percent of all households were individuals living alone, while 10.5 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.20.[100] In 2013, the percentage of women who gave birth in the previous 12 months who were unmarried was 56 percent. Of Philadelphia's adults, 31 percent were married or lived as a couple, 55 percent were not married, 11 percent were divorced or separated, and 3 percent were widowed.[104]
According to the Census Bureau, the median household income in 2013 was $36,836, down 7.9 percent from 2008 when the inflation-adjusted median household income was $40,008 (in 2013 dollars). For comparison, on an inflation-adjusted basis, the median household income among metropolitan areas was $60,482, down 8.2 percent in the same period, and the national median household income was $55,250, down 7.0 percent from 2008.[104] The city's wealth disparity is evident when neighborhoods are compared. Residents in Society Hill had a 2013 median household income of $93,720, while residents in one of North Philadelphia's districts reported the lowest median household income, $14,185.[104]
During the last decade, Philadelphia experienced a large shift in its age profile. In 2000, the city's population pyramid had a largely stationary shape. In 2013, the city took on an expansive pyramid shape, with an increase in the three millennial age groups, 20 to 24, 25 to 29, and 30 to 34. The city's 25- to 29-year-old age group was the city's largest age cohort.[104] According to the 2010 Census, 343,837 (22.5%) were under the age of 18; 203,697 (13.3%) from 18 to 24; 434,385 (28.5%) from 25 to 44; 358,778 (23.5%) from 45 to 64; and 185,309 (12.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.7 males.[100] The city had 22,018 births in 2013, down from a peak 23,689 births in 2008. Philadelphia's death rate was at its lowest in at least a half-century, 13,691 deaths in 2013.[104] Another factor attributing to the population increase is Philadelphia's rising immigration rate. Like the millennial population, Philadelphia's immigrant population is also growing rapidly; according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the city's foreign-born population had increased by 69% between 2000 and 2016 to constitute nearly 20% of Philadelphia's work force.[105]
Irish, Italian, German, Polish, English, Russian, Ukrainian and French are the largest ethnic European groups in the city.[103] Philadelphia has the second-largest Irish and Italian populations in the United States, after New York City. South Philadelphia remains one of the largest Italian neighborhoods in the country and is home to the Italian Market. The Pennsport neighborhood and Gray's Ferry section of South Philadelphia, home to many Mummer clubs, are well known as Irish neighborhoods. The Kensington, Port Richmond, and Fishtown neighborhoods have historically been heavily Irish and Polish. Port Richmond is well known in particular as the center of the Polish immigrant and Polish-American community in Philadelphia, and it remains a common destination for Polish immigrants. Northeast Philadelphia, although known for its Irish and Irish-American population, is also home to a large Jewish and Russian population. Mount Airy in Northwest Philadelphia also contains a large Jewish community, while nearby Chestnut Hill is historically known as an Anglo-Saxon Protestant community.
Philadelphia has a significant gay and lesbian population. Philadelphia's Gayborhood, which is located near Washington Square, is home to a large concentration of gay and lesbian friendly businesses, restaurants, and bars.[107][108]
The Black American population in Philadelphia is the third-largest in the country, after New York City and Chicago. Historically, West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia were largely black neighborhoods, but many are leaving those areas in favor of the Northeast and Southwest sections of Philadelphia. There is a higher proportion of Muslims in the Black American population than most cities in America. West Philadelphia also has significant Caribbean and African immigrant populations.[109]
The Puerto Rican population in Philadelphia is the second-largest after New York City, and the second-fastest growing after Orlando.[110] There are large Puerto Rican and Dominican populations in North Philadelphia and the Northeast, as well as a significant Mexican population in South Philadelphia.[111]
Philadelphia's Asian American population originates mainly from China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and the Philippines. Over 35,000 Chinese Americans lived in the city in 2015,[112] including a large Fuzhounese population. Center City hosts a growing Chinatown accommodating heavily traveled Chinese-owned bus lines to and from Chinatown, Manhattan in New York City. A large Korean community initially settled in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Olney; however, the primary Koreatown has subsequently shifted northward, straddling the border with the adjacent suburb of Cheltenham in Montgomery County, while also growing in nearby Cherry Hill, New Jersey. South Philadelphia is also home to large Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Chinese communities. Philadelphia has the fifth largest Muslim population among American cities.[113]
Religion
According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 68% of the population of the city identified themselves as Christian, with 41% professing attendance at a variety of churches that could be considered Protestant, 26% professing Catholic beliefs, and less than 1% are Mormons, while the remaining 24% claim no religious affiliation. The same study says that other religions collectively compose about 8% of the population, including Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.[114][115]
The Philadelphia metropolitan area's Jewish population was estimated at 206,000 in 2001, which was the sixth largest in the United States at that time.[116]
Other religious groups in Philadelphia include Buddhism in Chinatown, and Caribbean and traditional African religions in North and West Philadelphia. Historically, the city has strong connections to the Quakers, Unitarian Universalism, and the Ethical Culture movement, all of which continue to be represented in the city. The Quaker Friends General Conference is based in Philadelphia.
African diasporic religions are practiced in some Hispanic and Caribbean communities in North and West Philadelphia.[117][118]
Languages
As of 2010 , 79.12% (1,112,441) of Philadelphia residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 9.72% (136,688) spoke Spanish, 1.64% (23,075) Chinese, 0.89% (12,499) Vietnamese, 0.77% (10,885) Russian, 0.66% (9,240) French, 0.61% (8,639) other Asian languages, 0.58% (8,217) African languages, 0.56% (7,933) Cambodian (Mon-Khmer), and Italian was spoken as a main language by 0.55% (7,773) of the population over the age of five. In total, 20.88% (293,544) of Philadelphia's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.[120]
Dialect
The traditional Philadelphia accent is considered by some linguists to be the most distinctive accent in North America.[121] The Philadelphia dialect, which is spread throughout the Delaware Valley and South Jersey, is part of a larger Mid-Atlantic American English family, a designation that also includes the Baltimore dialect. Additionally, it shares many similarities with the New York accent.
Thanks to over a century of linguistic data collected by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania under sociolinguist William Labov, the Philadelphia dialect has been one of the best-studied forms of American English.[122][123][g] The accent is especially found within the Irish American and Italian American working-class neighborhoods.[124] Philadelphia also has its own unique collection of neologisms and slang terms.[125]
Economy
Top publicly traded companies
headquartered in Philadelphia Corporation Rank Revenue Comcast 33 84.5 Aramark 200 14.6 Crown Holdings 338 8.7 Urban Outfitters 645 3.6 FMC 673 3.4 Revenue in billions for FY 2017 Source: Fortune[126]
Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania with the headquarters of five Fortune 1000 companies located within city limits. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia area had a total gross domestic product of $445 billion in 2017, the eighth-largest metropolitan economy in the United States.[14] Philadelphia was rated by the GaWC as a 'Beta' city in its 2016 ranking of world cities.[127] Philadelphia International Airport is undergoing a $900 million infrastructural expansion to increase passenger capacity and augment passenger experience;[128][129] while the Port of Philadelphia, having experienced the highest percentage growth by tonnage loaded in 2017 among major U.S. seaports, was in the process of doubling its capacity in order to accommodate super-sized post-Panamax shipping vessels in 2018.[130]
Philadelphia's economic sectors include financial services, health care, biotechnology, information technology, manufacturing, oil refining, food processing, and tourism. Financial activities account for the largest economic sector of the metropolitan area, which is also one of the largest health education and research centers in the United States.
The city is home to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and some of the area's largest companies including cable television and internet provider Comcast, insurance companies Cigna, Colonial Penn, and Independence Blue Cross, energy company Sunoco, food services company Aramark, packaging company Crown Holdings, chemical makers FMC and Rohm and Haas, pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, Boeing Rotorcraft Systems, apparel retailer Urban Outfitters, and automotive parts retailer Pep Boys.
Philadelphia's annualized unemployment rate was 7.8% in 2014, down from 10% the previous year.[104] This is higher than the national average of 6.2%. Similarly, the rate of new jobs added to the city's economy lagged behind the national job growth. In 2014, about 8,800 jobs were added to the city's economy. Sectors with the largest number of jobs added were in education and health care, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services. Declines were seen in the city's manufacturing and government sectors.[104]
About 31.9% of the city's population was not in the labor force in 2015, the second highest percentage after Detroit. The city's two largest employers are the federal and city governments. Philadelphia's largest private employer is the University of Pennsylvania followed by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.[104] A study commissioned by the city's government in 2011 projected 40,000 jobs would be added to the city within 25 years, raising the number of jobs from 675,000 in 2010 to an estimated 715,000 by 2035.[131]
Philadelphia's history attracts many tourists, with the Independence National Historical Park (which includes the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and other historic sites) receiving over 5 million visitors in 2016.[132] The city welcomed 42 million domestic tourists in 2016 who spent $6.8 billion, generating an estimated $11 billion in total economic impact in the city and surrounding four counties of Pennsylvania.[20]
Education
Primary and secondary education
Education in Philadelphia is provided by many private and public institutions. The School District of Philadelphia runs the city's public schools. The Philadelphia School District is the eighth largest school district in the United States[133] with 142,266 students in 218 traditional public schools and 86 charter schools as of 2014 .[134]
The city's K-12 enrollment in district run schools dropped from 156,211 students in 2010 to 130,104 students in 2015. During the same time period, the enrollment in charter schools increased from 33,995 students in 2010 to 62,358 students in 2015.[104] This consistent drop in enrollment led the city to close 24 of its public schools in 2013.[135] During the 2014 school year, the city spent an average of $12,570 per pupil, below the average among comparable urban school districts.[104]
Graduation rates among district-run schools, meanwhile, steadily increased in the ten years from 2005. In 2005, Philadelphia had a district graduation rate of 52%. This number increased to 65% in 2014, still below the national and state averages. Scores on the state's standardized test, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) trended upward from 2005 to 2011 but subsequently decreased. In 2005, the district-run schools scored an average of 37.4% on math and 35.5% on reading. The city's schools reached its peak scores in 2011 with 59.0% on math and 52.3% on reading. In 2014, the scores dropped significantly to 45.2% on math and 42.0% on reading.[104]
Of the city's public high schools, including charter schools, only four performed above the national average on the SAT (1497 out of 2400[136]) in 2014: Masterman, Central, Girard, and MaST Community Charter School. All other district-run schools were below average.[104]
Higher education
Quadrangle at the University of Pennsylvania , one of the highest ranked universities in the world
Philadelphia has the third-largest student concentration on the East Coast, with over 120,000 college and university students enrolled within the city and nearly 300,000 in the metropolitan area.[137] There are over 80 colleges, universities, trade, and specialty schools in the Philadelphia region. One of the founding members of the Association of American Universities is in the city, the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution with claims to being the oldest university in the country.[138]
The city's largest school by number of students is Temple University, followed by Drexel University.[139] The University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Drexel University comprise the city's major research universities. Philadelphia is also home to five schools of medicine: Drexel University College of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, and the Thomas Jefferson University. Hospitals, universities, and higher education research institutions in Philadelphia's four congressional districts received more than $252 million in National Institutes of Health grants in 2015.[140]
Other institutions of higher learning within the city's borders include:
Culture
Philadelphia is home to many national historical sites that relate to the founding of the United States. Independence National Historical Park is the center of these historical landmarks being one of the country's 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell are the city's most famous attractions. Other national historic sites include the homes of Edgar Allan Poe and Thaddeus Kosciuszko, early government buildings like the First and Second Banks of the United States, Fort Mifflin, and the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church.[141] Philadelphia alone has 67 National Historic Landmarks, the third most of any city in the country.[141]
Philadelphia's major science museums include the Franklin Institute, which contains the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial; the Academy of Natural Sciences; the Mütter Museum; and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. History museums include the National Constitution Center, the Museum of the American Revolution, the Philadelphia History Museum, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania in the Masonic Temple, and the Eastern State Penitentiary. Philadelphia is home to the United States' first zoo[142] and hospital,[143] as well as Fairmount Park, one of America's oldest and largest urban parks,[19] founded in 1855.[144]
The city is home to important archival repositories, including the Library Company of Philadelphia, established in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin,[145] and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, founded in 1814.[146] The Presbyterian Historical Society is the country's oldest denominational historical society, organized in 1852.[147]
Arts
The city contains many art museums, such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Rodin Museum, which holds the largest collection of work by Auguste Rodin outside France. The city's major art museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is one of the largest art museums in the world. The long flight of steps to the Art Museum's main entrance became famous after the film Rocky (1976).[148]
The city is home to the Philadelphia Sketch Club, one of the country's oldest artists' clubs,[149] and The Plastic Club, started by women excluded from the Sketch Club.[150] Many Old City art galleries stay open late on the First Friday event of each month.[151] Annual events include film festivals and parades, the most famous being the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Mummers Parade on New Year's Day.
Areas such as South Street and Old City have a vibrant night life. The Avenue of the Arts in Center City contains many restaurants and theaters, such as the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Academy of Music, home of Opera Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Ballet.[148] The Wilma Theatre and the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre produce a variety of new plays.[152][153] Several blocks to the east are the Walnut Street Theatre, claimed to be America's oldest and most subscribed-to theater in the world,[154] and the Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephens Episcopal Church.[155]
Philadelphia has more public art than any other American city.[156] In 1872, the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association) was created as the first private association in the United States dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning.[157] In 1959, lobbying by the Artists Equity Association helped create the Percent for Art ordinance, the first for a U.S. city.[158] The program, which has funded more than 200 pieces of public art, is administered by the Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture, the city's art agency.[159]
Philadelphia has more murals than any other U.S. city, thanks in part to the 1984 creation of the Department of Recreation's Mural Arts Program, which seeks to beautify neighborhoods and provide an outlet for graffiti artists. The program has funded more than 2,800 murals by professional, staff and volunteer artists and educated more than 20,000 youth in underserved neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia.[160]
Music
Philadelphia has played a prominent role in the music of the United States. The culture of American popular music has been influenced by significant contributions of Philadelphia area musicians and producers, in both the recording and broadcasting industries. In 1952, the teen dance party program called Bandstand premiered on local television, hosted by Bob Horn. The show was renamed American Bandstand in 1957 when it began national syndication on ABC, hosted by Dick Clark and produced in Philadelphia until 1964 when it moved to Los Angeles.[161] Promoters marketed youthful musical artists known as teen idols to appeal to the young audience. Philadelphia-born singers such as Frankie Avalon, James Darren, Eddie Fisher, Fabian Forte, and Bobby Rydell, along with South Philly-raised Chubby Checker, topped the music charts, establishing a clean-cut rock and roll image.
Philly soul music of the late 1960s–1970s is a highly produced version of soul music which led to later forms of popular music such as disco and urban contemporary rhythm and blues.[162] On July 13, 1985, John F. Kennedy Stadium was the American venue for the Live Aid concert.[163] The city also hosted the Live 8 concert, which attracted about 700,000 people to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on July 2, 2005.[164] Famous rock and pop musicians from Philadelphia or its suburbs include Bill Haley & His Comets, Todd Rundgren and Nazz, Hall & Oates, The Hooters, Ween, Cinderella, and Pink. Local hip-hop artists include The Roots, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, The Goats, Schoolly D, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Meek Mill.
The Curtis Institute of Music is one of the world's premier conservatories. The Philadelphia Orchestra is generally considered one of the top five orchestras in the United States. The orchestra performs at the Kimmel Center[165] and has a summer concert series at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.[166] Opera Philadelphia performs at the nation's oldest continually operating opera house—the Academy of Music.[148] The world-renowned Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale has performed its music all over the world.[167] The Philly Pops plays orchestral versions of popular jazz, swing, Broadway, and blues songs at the Kimmel Center and other venues within the mid-Atlantic region.[168]
Cuisine
The city is known for its hoagies, stromboli, scrapple, soft pretzels, water ice, Irish potato candy, Tastykakes, and the cheesesteak sandwich which was developed by Italian immigrants.[169] The Philadelphia area has many establishments that serve cheesesteaks, including restaurants, taverns, delicatessens and pizza parlors.[170][171][172] The originator of the thinly-sliced steak sandwich in the 1930s, initially without cheese, is Pat's King of Steaks, which faces its rival Geno's Steaks, founded in 1966,[173] across the intersection of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in the Italian Market of South Philadelphia.[174]
McGillin's Olde Ale House, opened in 1860 on Drury Street in Center City, is the oldest continuously operated tavern in the city.[175] The City Tavern is a replica of a historic 18th-century building first opened in 1773, demolished in 1854 after a fire, and rebuilt in 1975 on the same site as part of Independence National Historical Park.[176] The tavern offers authentic 18th-century recipes, served in seven period dining rooms, three wine cellar rooms and an outdoor garden.[177]
The Reading Terminal Market is a historic food market founded in 1893 in the Reading Terminal building, a designated National Historic Landmark. The enclosed market is one of the oldest and largest markets in the country, hosting over a hundred merchants offering Pennsylvania Dutch specialties, artisan cheese and meat, locally grown groceries, and specialty and ethnic foods.[178]
Sports
Philadelphia's first professional sports team was baseball's Athletics, organized in 1860.[179] The Athletics were initially an amateur league team that turned professional in 1871, and then became a founding team of the current National League in 1876.[180] The city is one of 13 U.S. cities to have teams in all four major league sports: the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League of Major League Baseball, the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. The Phillies, formed in 1883 as the Quakers and renamed in 1884,[181] are the oldest team continuously playing under the same name in the same city in the history of American professional sports.[182]
The Philadelphia metro area is also home to the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer. The Union began playing their home games at Talen Energy Stadium in 2010, a soccer-specific stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.[183]
The city's professional teams and their fans endured 25 years without a championship, from the 76ers 1983 NBA Finals win[184] until the Phillies 2008 World Series win.[185][186] The lack of championships was sometimes attributed in jest to the Curse of Billy Penn after One Liberty Place became the first building to surpass the height of the William Penn statue on top of City Hall's tower in 1987.[187] After nine years passed without another championship, the Eagles won their first Super Bowl following the 2017 season.[188] In 2004, ESPN placed Philadelphia second on its list of The Fifteen Most Tortured Sports Cities.[189][190] Fans of the Eagles and Phillies were singled out as the worst fans in the country by GQ magazine in 2011, which used the subtitle of "Meanest Fans in America" to summarize incidents of drunken behavior and a history of booing.[191][192]
Major professional sports teams that originated in Philadelphia but which later moved to other cities include the Golden State Warriors basketball team—in Philadelphia from 1946 to 1962[193]—and the Oakland Athletics baseball team—originally the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1954 (a different Athletics team than the one mentioned above).[194]
Philadelphia is home to professional, semi-professional, and elite amateur teams in cricket, rugby league (Philadelphia Fight), and rugby union. Major running events in the city include the Penn Relays (track and field), the Philadelphia Marathon, and the Broad Street Run. The Philadelphia International Cycling Classic was held annually from 1985 to 2016, but not in 2017 due to insufficient sponsorship.[195] The Collegiate Rugby Championship is played every June at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.[196]
Historic Boathouse Row at night on the Schuylkill , a symbol of the city's rich rowing history
Rowing has been popular in Philadelphia since the 18th century.[197] Boathouse Row is a symbol of Philadelphia's rich rowing history, and each Big Five member has its own boathouse.[198] Philadelphia hosts numerous local and collegiate rowing clubs and competitions, including the annual Dad Vail Regatta, which is the largest intercollegiate rowing event in North America with more than 100 U.S and Canadian colleges and universities participating;[199] the annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta, which is billed as the world's oldest and largest rowing event for high school students;[200][201] and the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta.[202] The regattas are held on the Schuylkill River and organized by the Schuylkill Navy, an association of area rowing clubs that has produced numerous Olympic rowers.[203]
The Philadelphia Spinners were a professional ultimate team in Major League Ultimate (MLU) until 2016. The Spinners were one of the original eight teams of the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) that began in 2012. They played at Franklin Field and won the inaugural AUDL championship and the final MLU championship in 2016.[204] The MLU was suspended indefinitely by its investors in December 2016.[205] As of 2018 , the Philadelphia Phoenix continue to play in the AUDL.[206]
Philadelphia is home to the Philadelphia Big 5, a group of five NCAA Division I college basketball programs. The Big 5 are La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph's, Temple, and Villanova universities.[207] The sixth NCAA Division I school in Philadelphia is Drexel University. Villanova won the 2016[208] and the 2018[209] championship of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.
Parks
Fairmount Park, ca. 1900
As of 2014 , the total city parkland, including municipal, state and federal parks within the city limits, amounts to 11,211 acres (17.5 sq mi).[19] Philadelphia's largest park is Fairmount Park which includes the Philadelphia Zoo and encompasses 2,052 acres (3.2 sq mi) of the total parkland, while the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park contains 2,042 acres (3.2 sq mi).[210] Fairmount Park, when combined with Wissahickon Valley Park, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States.[19] The two parks, along with the Colonial Revival, Georgian and Federal-style mansions contained in them, have been listed as one entity on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.[211]
Law and government
From a governmental perspective, Philadelphia County is a legal nullity, as all county functions were assumed by the city in 1952.[212] The city has been coterminous with the county since 1854.[47]
Philadelphia's 1952 Home Rule Charter was written by the City Charter Commission, which was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in an act of April 21, 1949, and a city ordinance of June 15, 1949. The existing city council received a proposed draft on February 14, 1951, and the electors approved it in an election held April 17, 1951.[213] The first elections under the new Home Rule Charter were held in November 1951, and the newly elected officials took office in January 1952.[212]
The city uses the strong-mayor version of the mayor–council form of government, which is led by one mayor in whom executive authority is vested. The mayor has the authority to appoint and dismiss members of all boards and commissions without the approval of the city council. Elected at-large, the mayor is limited to two consecutive four-year terms, but can run for the position again after an intervening term.[213]
Courts
The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas (the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania) is the trial court of general jurisdiction for the city, hearing felony-level criminal cases and civil suits above the minimum jurisdictional limit of $10,000. The court also has appellate jurisdiction over rulings from the Municipal and Traffic Courts, and some administrative agencies and boards. The trial division has 70 commissioned judges elected by the voters, along with about one thousand other employees.[216] The court also has a family division with 25 judges[217] and an orphans' court with three judges.[218]
As of 2018 , the city's District Attorney is Larry Krasner, a Democrat.[219] The last Republican to hold the office is Ronald D. Castille, who left in 1991 and later served as the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 2008 to 2014.[220]
The Philadelphia Municipal Court handles misdemeanor and felony criminal cases with maximum incarceration of five years, and civil cases involving $12,000 or less ($15,000 in real estate and school tax cases), and all landlord-tenant disputes. The municipal court has 27 judges elected by the voters.[221]
Philadelphia Traffic Court is a court of special jurisdiction that hears violations of traffic laws.[222] As with magisterial district judges, the judges need not be lawyers, but must complete the certifying course and pass the qualifying examination administered by the Minor Judiciary Education Board.[223][224]
Pennsylvania's three appellate courts also have sittings in Philadelphia. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the court of last resort in the state, regularly hears arguments in Philadelphia City Hall.[225] The Superior Court of Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania also sit in Philadelphia several times a year.[226][227] Judges for these courts are elected at large.[228] The state Supreme Court and Superior Court have deputy prothonotary offices in Philadelphia.[229][230]
Additionally, Philadelphia is home to the federal United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, both of which are housed in the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse.[231][232]
Politics
The current mayor is Jim Kenney who won the election in November, 2015.[233] Kenney's predecessor was Michael Nutter who had served two terms from 2009 to January 2016.[234] Kenney is a member of the Democratic Party as all Philadelphia mayors have been since 1952. Philadelphia City Council is the legislative branch which consists of ten council members representing individual districts and seven members elected at-large, all of whom are elected to four-year terms.[235] Democrats currently hold 14 seats including nine of the ten districts and five at-large seats, while Republicans hold two at-large seats and the Northeast-based Tenth District. The current council president is Darrell L. Clarke.[236]
As of December 31, 2016, there were 1,102,620 registered voters in Philadelphia.[237] Registered voters constitute 70.3% of the total population.[h]
Democratic: 853,140 (77.4%)
Republican: 125,530 (11.4%)
Other parties and unaffiliated: 123,950 (11.2%)[237]
Philadelphia was a bastion of the Republican Party from the American Civil War until the mid-1930s.[239][240] The city hosted the first Republican National Convention in 1856.[241] Democratic registrations increased after the Great Depression; however, the city was not carried by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in his landslide victory of 1932 as Pennsylvania was one of only six states won by Republican Herbert Hoover. Voter turnout surged from 600,000 in 1932 to nearly 900,000 in 1936 and Roosevelt carried Philadelphia with over 60% of the vote. The city has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1936. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama drew 83% of the city's vote. Obama's win was even greater in 2012, capturing 85% of the vote. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won 82% of the vote.[238]
As a result of the declining population in the city and state,[242] Philadelphia has only three congressional districts of the 18 districts in Pennsylvania, based on the 2010 Census apportionment:[243] the 2nd district, represented by Brendan Boyle; the 3rd, represented by Dwight Evans; and the 5th, represented by Mary Gay Scanlon.[244] All three representatives are Democrats though Republicans still have some support in the city, primarily in the Northeast.[245] Sam Katz ran competitive mayoral races as the Republican nominee in 1999 and 2003, losing to Democrat John Street both times.[246][247]
Pennsylvania's longest-serving Senator, Arlen Specter,[248] was an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania who opened his first law practice in Philadelphia.[249] Specter served as a Republican from 1981 and as a Democrat from 2009, losing that party's primary in 2010 and leaving office in January 2011.[250] He had also been assistant counsel on the Warren Commission in 1964 and the city's district attorney from 1966 to 1974.[249]
Philadelphia has hosted various national conventions, including in 1848 (Whig), 1856 (Republican), 1872 (Republican), 1900 (Republican), 1936 (Democratic), 1940 (Republican), 1948 (Republican), 1948 (Progressive), 2000 (Republican), and 2016 (Democratic).[251] Philadelphia has been home to one vice president, George M. Dallas,[252] and one Civil War general, George B. McClellan, who won his party's nomination for president but lost in the general election to Abraham Lincoln in 1864.[253]
Crime
Police Administration Building (the Roundhouse) in Center City east of Chinatown
The police districts with the highest rates of violent crime are Frankford (15th district) and Kensington (24th district) in the Near Northeast, and districts to the North (22nd, 25th, and 35th districts), West (19th district) and Southwest (12th district) of Center City.[104] Philadelphia had 525 murders in 1990, a rate of 31.5 per 100,000. An average of about 600 murders occurred each year for most of the 1990s. The murder count dropped in 2002 to 288, then rose to 406 by 2006, before dropping slightly to 392 in 2007.[254] A few years later, Philadelphia began to see a rapid decline in homicides and violent crime. In 2013, the city had 246 murders, which is a decrease of nearly 40% since 2006.[255] In 2014, 248 homicides were committed. The homicide rate rose to 280 in 2015, then fell slightly to 277 in 2016, before rising again to 317 in 2017.[256]
In 2006, Philadelphia's homicide rate of 27.7 per 100,000 people was the highest of the country's 10 most populous cities.[257] In 2012, Philadelphia had the fourth-highest homicide rate among the country's most populous cities. The rate dropped to 16 homicides per 100,000 residents by 2014 placing Philadelphia as the sixth-highest city in the country.[104]
In 2004, there were 7,513.5 crimes per 200,000 people in Philadelphia.[258] Among its neighboring mid-Atlantic cities in the same population group, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. were ranked second- and third-most dangerous cities in the United States, respectively.[259] Camden, New Jersey, a city directly across the Delaware River from Center City, was ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States.[259]
The number of shootings in the city has declined significantly since the early years of the 21st century. Shooting incidents peaked at 1,857 in 2006 before declining nearly 44 percent to 1,047 shootings in 2014.[104] Major crimes have decreased gradually since a peak in 2006 when 85,498 major crimes were reported. The number of reported major crimes fell 11 percent in three years to 68,815 occurrences in 2014. Violent crimes, which include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery, decreased 14 percent in three years to 15,771 occurrences in 2014.[104]
Philadelphia was ranked as the 76th most dangerous city in a 2018 report based on FBI data from 2016 for the rate of violent crimes per 1,000 residents in American cities with 25,000 or more people.[260] The latest four years of reports indicate a steady reduction in violent crime as the city placed 67th in the 2017 report,[261] 65th in 2016,[262] and 54th in 2015.[263]
In 2014, Philadelphia enacted in ordinance decriminalizing the possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana or 8 grams of hashish; the ordinance gave police officers the discretion to treat possession of these amounts as a civil infraction punishable by a $25 ticket, rather than a crime.[264][265] Philadelphia was at the time the largest city to decriminalize marijuana.[265] From 2013 to 2018, marijuana arrests in the city dropped by more than 85%.[264] The purchase or sale of marijuana remains a criminal offense in Philadelphia.[265]
Media
Newspapers
Philadelphia's two major daily newspapers are The Philadelphia Inquirer, first published in 1829—the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the country—and the Philadelphia Daily News, first published in 1925.[266] The Daily News has been published as an edition of the Inquirer since 2009.[267] Recent owners of the Inquirer and Daily News have included Knight Ridder, The McClatchy Company, and Philadelphia Media Holdings, with the latter organization declaring bankruptcy in 2010.[268] After two years of financial struggle, the newspapers were sold to Interstate General Media in 2012.[268] The two newspapers had a combined daily circulation of 306,831 and a Sunday circulation of 477,313 in 2013 —the eighteenth largest circulation in the country—while the website of the newspapers, Philly.com,[269] was ranked thirteenth in popularity among online U.S. newspapers by Alexa Internet for the same year.[270]
Smaller publications include the Philadelphia Tribune published five days each week for the African-American community;[271] Philadelphia magazine, a monthly regional magazine;[272] Philadelphia Weekly, a weekly alternative newspaper;[273] Philadelphia Gay News, a weekly newspaper for the LGBT community;[274] The Jewish Exponent, a weekly newspaper for the Jewish community;[275] Al Día, a weekly newspaper for the Latino community;[276] and Philadelphia Metro, a free daily newspaper.[277]
Student-run newspapers include the University of Pennsylvania's The Daily Pennsylvanian,[278] Temple University's The Temple News,[279] and Drexel University's The Triangle.[280]
Radio
The first experimental radio license was issued in Philadelphia in August 1912 to St. Joseph's College. The first commercial AM radio stations began broadcasting in 1922: first WIP, then owned by Gimbels department store, followed by WFIL, then owned by Strawbridge & Clothier department store, and WOO, a defunct station owned by Wanamaker's department store, as well as WCAU and WDAS.[281]
As of 2018 , the FCC lists 28 FM and 11 AM stations for Philadelphia.[282][283] As of December 2017, the ten highest-rated stations in Philadelphia were adult contemporary WBEB-FM (101.1), sports talk WIP-FM (94.1), classic rock WMGK-FM (102.9), urban adult contemporary WDAS-FM (105.3), classic hits WOGL-FM (98.1), album-oriented rock WMMR-FM (93.3), country music WXTU-FM (92.5), all-news KYW-AM (1060), talk radio WHYY-FM (90.9), and urban adult contemporary WRNB-FM (100.3).[284][285] Philadelphia is served by three non-commercial public radio stations: WHYY-FM (NPR),[286] WRTI-FM (classical and jazz),[287] and WXPN-FM (adult alternative music).[288]
Television
Original WCAU studio at 1622 Chestnut Street
In the 1930s, the experimental station W3XE, owned by Philco, became the first television station in Philadelphia. The station became NBC's first affiliate in 1939, and later became KYW-TV (currently a CBS affiliate). WCAU-TV, WFIL-TV, and WHYY-TV were all founded by the 1960s.[281] In 1952, WFIL (renamed WPVI) premiered the television show Bandstand, which later became the nationally broadcast American Bandstand hosted by Dick Clark.[289]
Each commercial network has an affiliate, and call letters have been replaced by corporate branding for promotional purposes: CBS3, 6ABC, NBC10, PHL17, Fox29, The CW Philly 57, UniMás Philadelphia, Telemundo62, and Univision65. The region is served also by public broadcasting stations WPPT-TV (Philadelphia), WHYY-TV (Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia), WLVT-TV (Lehigh Valley), and NJTV (New Jersey).[290]
Philadelphia has owned-and-operated stations for all five major English-language broadcast networks: NBC – WCAU-TV, CBS – KYW-TV, ABC – WPVI-TV, Fox – WTXF-TV, and The CW – WPSG-TV. The major Spanish-language networks are Univision – WUVP-DT, UniMás – WFPA-CD, and Telemundo – WWSI-TV.[290]
As of 2018 , the city is the nation's fourth-largest consumer in media market, as ranked by the Nielsen Media Research firm, with nearly 2.9 million TV households.[291]
Infrastructure
Transportation
Philadelphia is served by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) which operates buses, trains, rapid transit (subway and elevated trains), trolleys, and trackless trolleys (electric buses) throughout Philadelphia, the four Pennsylvania suburban counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery, in addition to service to Mercer County, New Jersey (Trenton) and New Castle County, Delaware (Wilmington and Newark, Delaware).[292] The city's subway system consists of two routes: the subway section of the Market–Frankford Line running east–west under Market Street which opened in 1905 to the west and 1908 to the east of City Hall, and the Broad Street Line running north–south beneath Broad Street which opened in stages from 1928 to 1938.[294]
Beginning in the 1980s, large sections of the SEPTA Regional Rail service to the far suburbs of Philadelphia were discontinued due to a lack of funding for equipment and infrastructure maintenance.[295][296][297]
Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is a major railroad station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor with 4.4 million passengers in 2017 making it the third-busiest station in the country after New York City's Pennsylvania Station and Washington's Union Station.[298] 30th Street Station offers access to Amtrak,[299] SEPTA,[300] and NJ Transit lines.[301] Over 12 million SEPTA and NJ Transit rail commuters use the station each year, and more than 100,000 people on an average weekday.[298]
The PATCO Speedline provides rapid transit service to Camden, Collingswood, Westmont, Haddonfield, Woodcrest (Cherry Hill), Ashland (Voorhees), and Lindenwold, New Jersey, from stations on Locust Street between 16th and 15th, 13th and 12th, and 10th and 9th Streets, and on Market Street at 8th Street.[302]
Airports
Two airports serve Philadelphia: the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is located 7 mi (11 km) south-southwest of Center City on the boundary with Delaware County, providing scheduled domestic and international air service,[303] while Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE) is a general aviation relief airport in Northeast Philadelphia serving general and corporate aviation.[304] Philadelphia International Airport is among the busiest airports in the world measured by traffic movements (i.e., takeoffs and landings).[305] More than 30 million passengers pass through the airport annually on 25 airlines, including all major domestic carriers. The airport has nearly 500 daily departures to more than 120 destinations worldwide.[303] SEPTA's Airport Regional Rail Line provides direct service between Center City railroad stations and Philadelphia International Airport.[306]
Roads
William Penn planned Philadelphia with numbered streets traversing north and south, and streets named for trees, such as Chestnut, Walnut, and Mulberry, traversing east and west. The two main streets were named Broad Street (the north-south artery, since designated Pennsylvania Route 611) and High Street (the east-west artery, since renamed Market Street) converging at Centre Square which later became the site of City Hall.[307]
Traffic heading into Philadelphia on Interstate 95 during the morning rush hour.
Interstate 95 (the Delaware Expressway) traverses the southern and eastern edges of the city along the Delaware River as the main north-south controlled-access highway, connecting Philadelphia with Newark, New Jersey and New York City to the north and with Baltimore and Washington, D.C. southward. The city is also served by Interstate 76 (the Schuylkill Expressway), which runs along the Schuylkill River, intersecting the Pennsylvania Turnpike at King of Prussia and providing access to Harrisburg and points west. Interstate 676 (the Vine Street Expressway) links I-95 and I-76 through Center City by running below street level between the eastbound and westbound lanes of Vine Street. Entrance and exit ramps for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge are near the eastern end of the expressway, just west of the I-95 interchange.[308]
The Roosevelt Boulevard and Expressway (U.S. 1) connect Northeast Philadelphia with Center City via I-76 through Fairmount Park. Woodhaven Road (Route 63) and Cottman Avenue (Route 73) serve the neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia, running between I-95 and the Roosevelt Boulevard. The Fort Washington Expressway (Route 309) extends north from the city's northern border, serving Montgomery County and Bucks County. U.S. Route 30 (Lancaster Avenue) extends westward from West Philadelphia to Lancaster.[308]
Interstate 476 (locally referred to as the Blue Route[309]) traverses Delaware County, bypassing the city to the west and serving the city's western suburbs, as well as providing a link to Allentown and points north. Interstate 276 (the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Delaware River extension) acts as a bypass and commuter route to the north of the city as well as a link to the New Jersey Turnpike and New York City.[308]
The Delaware River Port Authority operates four bridges in the Philadelphia area across the Delaware River to New Jersey: the Walt Whitman Bridge (I-76), the Benjamin Franklin Bridge (I-676 and U.S. 30), the Betsy Ross Bridge (New Jersey Route 90), and the Commodore Barry Bridge (U.S. 322 in Delaware County, south of the city).[310] The Burlington County Bridge Commission maintains two bridges across the Delaware River: the Tacony–Palmyra Bridge which connects PA Route 73 in the Tacony section of Northeast Philadelphia with New Jersey Route 73 in Palmyra, Camden County, and the Burlington–Bristol Bridge which connects NJ Route 413/U.S. Route 130 in Burlington, New Jersey with PA Route 413/U.S. 13 in Bristol Township, north of Philadelphia.[311]
Bus service
Philadelphia is a hub for Greyhound Lines. The Greyhound terminal is located at 1001 Filbert Street (at 10th Street) in Center City, southeast of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and south of Chinatown.[312] Several other bus operators provide service at the Greyhound terminal including Fullington Trailways,[313] Martz Trailways,[314] Peter Pan Bus Lines,[315] and NJ Transit buses.[316]
Other intercity bus services include Megabus with stops at 30th Street Station and the visitor center for Independence Hall,[317] BoltBus (operated by Greyhound) at 30th Street Station,[318] and OurBus at various stops in the city.
Rail
Since the early days of rail transportation in the United States, Philadelphia has served as a hub for several major rail companies, particularly the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad first operated Broad Street Station, then 30th Street Station and Suburban Station, and the Reading Railroad operated Reading Terminal, now part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The two companies also operated competing commuter rail systems in the area. The two systems now operate as a single system under the control of SEPTA, the regional transit authority. Additionally, the PATCO Speedline subway system and NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line operate successor services to southern New Jersey.[319]
In 1911, Philadelphia had nearly 4,000 electric trolleys running on 86 lines.[320] In 2005, SEPTA reintroduced trolley service to the Girard Avenue Line, Route 15.[321] SEPTA operates six "subway-surface" trolleys that run on street-level tracks in West Philadelphia and subway tunnels in Center City, along with two surface trolleys in adjacent suburbs.[322]
Philadelphia is a regional hub of the federally owned Amtrak system, with 30th Street Station being a primary stop on the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor and the Keystone Corridor to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. 30th Street also serves as a major station for services via the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Pennsylvania Main Line to Chicago. As of 2017 , 30th Street is Amtrak's third-busiest station in the country, after New York City and Washington.[298]
Walk Score ranks
A 2017 study by Walk Score ranked Philadelphia the fifth most walkable major city in the United States with a score of 79 out of 100, in the middle of the "very walkable" range. The city was just edged out by fourth place Miami (79.2), with the top three cities being New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Philadelphia placed fifth in the public transit friendly category, behind Washington, D.C., with the same three cities for walkability topping this category. The city ranked tenth in the bike friendly cities category, with the top three cities being Minneapolis, San Francisco and Portland.[323]
The readers of USA Today newspaper voted the Schuylkill River Trail the best urban trail in the nation in 2015.[324]
Utilities
In 1815, Philadelphia began sourcing its water via the Fairmount Water Works located on the Schuylkill River, the nation's first major urban water supply system. In 1909, the Water Works was decommissioned as the city transitioned to modern sand filtration methods.[325] Today, the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) provides drinking water, wastewater collection, and stormwater services for Philadelphia, as well as surrounding counties. PWD draws about 57 percent of its drinking water from the Delaware River and the balance from the Schuylkill River.[326] The city has two filtration plants on the Schuylkill River and one on the Delaware River. The three plants can treat up to 546 million gallons of water per day, while the total storage capacity of the combined plant and distribution system exceeds one billion gallons. The wastewater system consists of three water pollution control plants, 21 pumping stations, and about 3,657 miles (5,885 km) of sewers.[326]
Exelon subsidiary PECO Energy Company, founded as the Brush Electric Light Company of Philadelphia in 1881 and renamed Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) in 1902, provides electricity to about 1.6 million customers and more than 500,000 natural gas customers in the southeastern Pennsylvania area including the city of Philadelphia and most of its suburbs.[327] PECO is the largest electric and natural gas utility in the state with 472 power substations and nearly 23,000 miles (37,000 km) of electric transmission and distribution lines, along with 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of natural gas transmission, distribution & service lines.[328]
Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), overseen by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, is the nation's largest municipally-owned natural gas utility. PGW serves over 500,000 homes and businesses in the Philadelphia area.[329] Founded in 1836, the company came under city ownership in 1987 and has been providing the majority of gas distributed within city limits. In 2014, the City Council refused to conduct hearings on a $1.86 billion sale of PGW, part of a two-year effort that was proposed by the mayor. The refusal led to the prospective buyer terminating its offer.[330][331]
Southeastern Pennsylvania was assigned the 215 area code in 1947 when the North American Numbering Plan of the Bell System went into effect. The geographic area covered by the code was split nearly in half in 1994 when area code 610 was created, with the city and its northern suburbs retaining 215. Overlay area code 267 was added to the 215 service area in 1997, and 484 was added to the 610 area in 1999. A plan in 2001 to introduce a third overlay code to both service areas (area code 445 to 215, area code 835 to 610) was delayed and later rescinded.[332] Area code 445 was implemented as an overlay for area codes 215 and 267 starting on February 3, 2018.[333]
In 2005, a low-cost, citywide Wi-Fi service was approved for installation in the city. Wireless Philadelphia would have been the first municipal internet utility in a large U.S. city, but the plan was abandoned in 2008 as EarthLink pushed back the completion date several times. Mayor Nutter's administration closed the project in 2009 after an attempt to revitalize it failed.[334]
Notable people
Sister Cities
Chinatown Gate at 10th and Arch (2013), a symbol of Philadelphia's friendship with Tianjin
Philadelphia has eight official sister cities designated by the Citizen Diplomacy International of Philadelphia:[335]
Philadelphia also has three partnership cities or regions:[335]
City Country Date Kobe[344] 1986 Abruzzo[345] 1997 Aix-en-Provence[346] 1999
Philadelphia has dedicated landmarks to its sister cities. The Sister Cities Park, a site of 0.5 acres (2,400 sq yd) located at 18th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway within Logan Square, was dedicated in June 1976. The park was built to commemorate Philadelphia's first two sister city relationships, with Tel Aviv and Florence. The Toruń Triangle, honoring the sister city relationship with Toruń, Poland, was constructed in 1976, west of the United Way building at 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Sister Cities Park was redesigned and reopened in 2012, featuring an interactive fountain honoring Philadelphia's sister and partnership cities, a café and visitor's center, children's play area, outdoor garden, and boat pond, as well as a pavilion built to environmentally friendly standards.[347][348]
The Chinatown Gate, erected in 1984 and crafted by artisans of Tianjin, stands astride 10th Street, on the north side of its intersection with Arch Street, as a symbol of the sister city relationship. The CDI of Philadelphia has participated in the U.S. Department of State's "Partners for Peace" project with Mosul, Iraq,[349] as well as accepting visiting delegations from dozens of other countries.[350]
Gallery
See additional Media related to Philadelphia at Wikimedia Commons.
See also
Notes
References |
About 500 people are out of a job after Canadian uranium mining company Cameco, announced it's suspending production at Saskatchewan's longest-running uranium mine.
On Thursday, Cameco released a statement outlining its plans to suspend operations at its mine in Rabbit Lake, Sask., as well as scaling back production at Cameco Resources' U.S. operations.
Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel told said an oversupply of uranium has tanked the price per pound of uranium and the labour cuts are for the longterm sustainability of the company.
"The uranium market has been low for over five years. The price of uranium five years ago was $72 per pound U.S., this afternoon it was $26," Gitzel said. "The price per pound is nowhere near what we need it to be to restart or to think about starting any new ones up, so we're preparing for a lower-for-longer scenario."
The changes are expected to result in a labour reduction of 500 positions at the Rabbit Lake mine and about 85 jobs at its U.S. operations. Job cuts are expected to happen over the next four months, the company said.
Gitzel made the trip to Rabbit Lake on Thursday to announce the job cuts. He said the decisions didn't come easily.
About 500 people are out of a job after Canadian uranium mining company Cameco, announced it's suspending production at Saskatchewan's largest uranium mine. 0:54 "It was a difficult day for Cameco and the uranium industry, but we'll work through it," he said.
The company said where possible, they will consider relocation options for employees to other Cameco facilities and job-sharing options to try and minimize the impact on its outgoing employees.
About 150 employees will stay at the mine to maintain the facilities, allowing the uranium-mining giant the option of resuming operations at the Rabbit Lake mine. Cameco said market conditions need to significantly improve before the mine goes back online.
Gitzel said the company believes there is still a supply of between 23 and 28 million kilograms of uranium at the Rabbit Lake mine.
"In a better market that mine could be coming around again," he said.
According to Cameco's website the Rabbit Lake mine is the world's second-largest uranium mill and the longest-running mine in North America. The mine opened in 1975, and employed about 600 people. |
Interim Vice President for IRT and Chief Information Officer Ken Blackney, at left, and Interim Vice President for Public Safety Eileen Behr, at right.
Until a permanent appointment can be found to fill the open positions, Drexel named interim leaders for both Information Resources and Technology and Drexel Public Safety.
Ken Blackney to Serve as Interim Vice President of IRT/CIO
Helen Y. Bowman, Drexel’s executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer (CFO), announced that Ken Blackney, the current associate vice president for core technology infrastructure, will lead Information Resources and Technology (IRT) and serve as the University’s chief information officer (CIO) from the start of July until a permanent appointee takes over.
A national search is underway to find a permanent replacement for John Bielec, who retired at the end of June.
“Ken is a knowledgeable and respected leader within IRT and the University, and I am confident he will provide a seamless transition of leadership through the completion of the search,” Bowman said.
Blackney has worked with Drexel’s technology infrastructure since 1987.
Eileen Behr to Serve as Interim Vice President for Public Safety
Jim Tucker, senior vice president of Administrative and Business Services, announced that Eileen Behr will serve as interim vice president of public safety. Her role began at the start of this month.
Behr will take over for Domenic Ceccanecchio, who recently retired. In addition to her interim role, Behr will continue to serve as chief of Drexel Police.
Behr came to Drexel in January 2014 after serving in past positions such as the sheriff of Montgomerry County and the chief of the Whitemarsh Township Police. She arrived at Drexel with more than 37 years of experience in law enforcement.
“In the past year-and-a-half, Eileen has provided outstanding leadership of our internationally accredited Drexel Police Department and has worked collaboratively and effectively with colleagues and partners across the University to maintain a secure environment for our students and community,” Tucker said.
Irene Tsikitas Lin, director of communications, Administrative and Business Services, assisted this report. |
Define your 1R - initial risk. For me, I use 8-10% depending on the market I am trading in. For every trade you do, write it in a journal (Excel template is sufficient), and include a column titled "R-Multiples". The formula to calculate it is Profit(Loss) divided by Initial Risk.
So, what is the big deal about this R-Multiples?
"When you have a complete R-multiple distribution for you trading system (remember, you need to have a system first, and all your trades are strictly following your system), there are a lot of things you can do with it." - van Tharp
One benefit is that the MEAN of R-Multiple, called EXPECTANCY, tells you what you can expect from your system on the average over many trades in terms of R.
Consider the following tables:
Here the expectancy tells you that the average you will make is 0.2R per trade. Therefore, over many trades, say 100 trades, you will make about 20R.
The standard deviation tells you how much variability you can expect from your system performance. In the sample above, the standard deviation was 0.97R. Typically you can determine the quality of your system by ration of expectancy to the standard deviation. In this example the ration is 0.2, which according to van Tharp, is not good enough. If the ratio remains above 0.25 over many trades, the system can be taken as acceptable.
If you are interested to get the excel file for the above table, get it here.
In this article I am going to introduce 2 terms in my stock trading routines that I use a lot:and. These theory was introduced by van Tharp in many of his books.Most traders, be it the professionals or novices ones, have some sort of exit criteria that they like. Some use a fixed percentage drop from the initial buying price, some prefer to use chart and graph to tell them to get out of the market. I am personally using the fixed percentage stop loss. In different markets, I will use different stop loss percentage as the volatility levels are different. When profit taking, I trust my system (I use algorithm to give me sell signal when the indicators indicating the market has reached the top) to tell me when is right time to get out.So what is R-Multiples and Expectancy?1R defines your initial risk. For example, for a $40 stock, my initial risk (my stop loss percentage) is 10% or 4 dollars. This means that I will need to get out of the market if it drops to $36. This also means that your initial risk of $4 is 1R. So if you have lost $2, your R-multiple is -0.5R. Easy?So, the first two steps you need to ask yourself: |
The incongruity of it seemed to be nothing short of a betrayal. After lightheartedly dancing his way into the hearts of Americans and gaining entrance to the inner sanctum of their cherished cult of celebrity, the Korean rapper, Psy, whose song "Gangam Style" became the most watched video in the history of YouTube and made him a pop culture sensation, has been revealed to have a politically active past which places him directly at odds with the American mainstream worldview and which violently decries its most basic articles of faith.
The man whom they enjoyed as an unthreatening, comically light-hearted foreigner dancing for their enjoyment was revealed to have only years earlier been a vociferous public critic of American policies and the country's role in the world.
In a 2004 performance, the rapper famous for his "invisible horse dance" denounced the United States in a song called "Hey American":
"Kill those f---ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those f---ing Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully"
For an American public conditioned to the type of unquestionable worship of the military embodied in the phrase "Support the Troops", Psy's words represent nothing less than sacrilege. This song however was not his only offence.
In a previous performance, he had come on stage to protest the presence of 37,000 US troops in South Korea and smashed a miniature American tank in protest over the killing of two South Korean schoolgirls by American forces stationed in the country.
As it turned out, the Asian pop-star whom Americans had enthusiastically embraced, arguably the first entertainer to bridge the continental divide so successfully, brought with him not just a culturally unique style of song and dance, but also a worldview which is threateningly alien to most Americans.
If even an innocuous pop singer from a country perceived as benign could espouse views the typical American would attribute to menacing terrorists such as al-Qaeda, it begs serious questions about the pervasiveness of global anti-Americanism as well as to what informs it.
A legacy of violence
While the stories of American brutality in places such as Korea are unknown or ignored by the overwhelming majority of Americans, they are less quickly forgotten by the citizens of the countries which have suffered and continue to suffer horrific atrocities at the hands of US troops.
Inside Story Americas - What is fuelling
anti-American protests?
During the Korean War, American troops were believed to have been responsible for hundreds of instances of mass-killings of civilians, including the infamous No Gun Ri massacre in which members of the US 7th Cavalry Regiment massacred hundreds of Korean civilians under a railway underpass over the course of three days.
A 2009 investigative film revisiting the massacre documented the words of one Korean survivor who recalled how US troops had indiscriminately murdered men, women and children:
"Children were screaming in fear and the adults were praying for their lives… they never stopped shooting."
Another Korean War survivor described the common American tactic of firebombing villages with napalm in a scorched-earth campaign which killed countless civilians:
"When the napalm hit our village, many people were still sleeping in their homes…. Those who survived the flames ran…. We were trying to show the American pilots that we were civilians. But they strafed us, women and children."
The wanton disregard to Korean lives during America's global campaign against Communism continues to extend to the present day in the form of rape and murder directed towards Korean civilians by US soldiers stationed at bases throughout the country.
In one 2011 incident, emblematic of long-documented practices by US troops in the country, a 21-year-old soldier, Kevin Flippin, broke into a Korean woman's hotel room and raped and tortured her for several hours before robbing her of the equivalent of roughly US $5 and fleeing back to his base.
Sexual violence and murder has been a recurrent theme throughout the decades of American military presence in Korea and reflects longstanding behaviour in countless other countries across the world subject to US military basing and occupation.
Widespread American unfavourability
While the virulent undercurrent of anti-Americanism which was briefly glimpsed in the revelations surrounding Psy's political history have their basis in incidents such as these, Korea is far from being the most anti-American country in the world.
Polls of regions such as Latin America have shown anti-American sentiment to be even more rife; a legacy of US military interventionism in the continent which has been most vividly expressed in the form of torture, murder and the subversion of democratically elected leaders over the past several decades.
However, a 2012 Pew Research poll showed the least favourable perceptions of the US today to be in countries within the Arab and Muslim worlds; negative views which are thought to have briefly abated upon the election of Barack Obama but which can now be seen to have returned to their historic lows during the George W Bush era.
Among countries polled the bottom echelon are exclusively countries with Muslim majority populations. Even those such as Turkey and Jordan whose governments are traditionally allied with the US showed overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards America, with the latter polling at a mere 12 per cent favourability.
Tellingly, Jordan also happens to be home to a massive population of refugees from the American invasion of Iraq, the civilian victims of a war who have been forgotten by Americans but continue to live on in desperation and misery in many countries scattered throughout the region.
While an incredible amount of research has gone into formulating complex theories to explain this widespread disdain for the US, Occam's Razor, the logical principle that the simplest explanation is most often the correct one suggests that the American militarism which once ravaged Korea and which has now been set upon the Muslim world is the cause of this growing antipathy.
Pakistan, which polled at roughly 9 per cent favourability towards the US in a 2010 BBC World poll, once had a vibrantly pro-American polity where Jacquelyn Kennedy was mobbed in the streets with flower garlands by thousands of admirers during a state visit and where American popular culture was once widely revered and emulated.
Inside Story Americas - US post-Iraq legacy
In recent decades however, all of this has changed, as Pakistanis have been left to witness the staggering human cost of US warfare in neighbouring Afghanistan as well as to deal with the millions of refugees that conflict has sent into Pakistan.
Pakistanis themselves have also increasingly become the direct target of American violence; being gunned down in the streets by rogue CIA officers, murdered by remote operated drones and renditioned for torture at clandestine "black-sites" throughout the world.
By starting a massive war and occupation in Afghanistan which caused widespread destabilisation and social chaos in Pakistan, a country which shares deep ethnic and religious bonds with its neighbour, the US has helped turn a once reasonably benign relationship into an increasingly dangerous one which has fuelled virulent anti-Americanism even among liberal and secular Pakistanis.
The degeneration of American popularity in Pakistan is however only one illustration of a broader trend where wanton militarism has generated negative popular perceptions towards the US.
Arrogance and atrocity
For Americans who are commonly feted with reassurances of their country's benevolent role in the world, it may come as a surprise that half of all refugees on the planet today are running from American wars.
The wanton, industrial-scale violence, which the US has unleashed upon the civilians of countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia has naturally generated a tidal wave of negative feeling within these countries which many Americans utterly fail to grasp.
Episodes such as the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family by US troops are emblematic of the fundamental sadism of American policy towards the region. However, in a type of bizarre dark comedy, popularly elected American leaders continue to question the lack of gratitude among the populations upon whom they have let loose this violence.
What this appears to represent is a type of brazen ignorance and egotism which has come to represent mainstream government policy; the type of myopia under which a country can launch a full-scale war, invasion and occupation of another sovereign nation under entirely false pretences, kill hundreds of thousands in the process and create millions of refugees and still at the end sincerely ask the question "Why they do hate us?".
While the US military, whom the American public puts forth as the unquestioned heroes and proud symbols of the apex of their society, finds new and innovative ways to inflict violence upon the populations of Arab and Muslim countries - including wanton, lawless and often completely anonymous target killings, and even recently the sanctioning of killing so-called "hostile children" in Afghanistan, the popular reputation of America as a country naturally sinks to new depths among the countries in the Middle East and around the world.
An illustrative example of the essentially self-destructive arrogance of US policy in the region pertains to that of Afghanistan; where the US in 2001 categorically refused to negotiate with the Taliban when the latter expressed a desire to co-operate with the full spectrum of US objectives and hand over Osama bin Laden, on the rhetorical grounds of "refusing to talk to evil".
Fast forward 11 years - with tens of thousands of lives lost, trillions of dollars wasted, and America is doing exactly this, negotiating with the Taliban exactly as it could have done a decade earlier were it not for flagrantly irrational government policymaking informed by a mixture of arrogance and bloodlust.
"A 2012 Pew Research poll
showed the least favourable perceptions of the US today to be in countries within the Arab and Muslim worlds."
For the self-proclaimed preeminent global power to behave in such a shockingly ignorant and destructive manner and to still express wonderment over others' negative perceptions of it speaks to a deep lack of national self-awareness and perspective which could seriously impede the country from operating an effective foreign policy in the future.
An increasingly poisoned relationship
Even among those within the Arab and Muslim worlds and beyond who admire purported American values such as secularism, free speech and free enterprise, the past decade of increasingly wanton and unrestrained violence has worked to permanently stain the reputation of a country which was at one time held in high esteem across social strata.
American policy towards the Middle East today is popularly perceived to be informed by a cruel, arrogant and fundamentally racist worldview in which subject populations are essentially lesser peoples whose suffering is an accounted-for externality of hegemonic policies.
The type of brutality which Americans inflicted upon Korea decades ago still manifests in the undercurrent of anger held by many Koreans today, so it bears asking how long it will take for negative perceptions of America in the Muslim world to dissipate.
As long as unchecked American militarism in the region continues, these negative perceptions will only escalate and the phenomena of anti-Americanism will continue to spread and damage the ability of the US to find necessary allies in a strategically-important part of the world.
Regardless, as evidence has shown even when such negative feelings are sublimated for the sake of pragmatism, they seldom truly cease to exist. When its history is written, the US will have to come to terms with the legacy of global disdain, distrust and resentment it has engendered over its time as a superpower - a history which may very likely be unkind and incongruent with the image most Americans hold of themselves and of their country.
Murtaza Hussain is a Toronto-based writer and analyst focused on issues related to Middle Eastern politics.
Follow him on Twitter: @MazMHussain |
When it comes to atomizers, RDA’s have always been my preference. Don’t get me wrong I own plenty of tanks, but to me drippers provide a whole new vaping experience. Maybe it is because I came from rolling my own cigarettes and I enjoy the constant refilling to satisfy my need to keep my hands busy while vaping. It could also be my eLiquid ADD where my palette constantly changes and I don’t have the patience to wait for a tank to go dry.
By the time I realized my love for drippers, I was late for the Origen v1 train and after weeks of waiting to find one on the second hand market and lusting after my friends Origens, the new v2 was announced. Right then I knew I had to get my hands on the Origin v2 and be active about getting one of these treasures. Constantly hopping between vendors on launch, I finally was able to score a Origen of my own!
Here are some of the differences between the v1 and v2:
Shorter in height, for a smaller chamber producing more flavor and vapor
Drip well changed from a split design to one united well.
Serial numbers.
A new wide bore drip tip.
O-ring relocated to the top cap.
Aesthetics:
The Origen looks fantastic on top of any mod, no matter the type of metal. I find the nice cylindrical step taper to be very nice styling that gives it a unique modern look without being too flashy. Also the mixed media finished –brushed ring and matte cap– help make it universal to your mod finish.
The fact it sits at 22mm means it will be flush with most mechanical mods on the market, however if you happen to favor bigger diameter mods, the styling still fits due to the top cylindrical steps.
Finally they included a simple, clean wide bore drip tip which complimented the atomizer perfectly, to me a huge improvement over the v1 drip tip.
Quality:
Norbet did not cut any corners with this iteration. They clearly took an industry leading product and improved it based on community feedback. The O-rings on the inside of the top cap seem to help improve the longevity of the sealing. You can configure the airflow to your build preference, whether you are a single or dual coil fan. The air holes on the adjustable air flow are perfect for any draw and are drilled at 2mm, 1.5, and 1.2mm.
All the pieces of the atomizer are machine for a perfect, snug fit.
Performance:
The performance of the atomizer carrying the Origen pedigree is to be expected, fantastic! This is clearly built for amazing flavor and in that department it does not disappoint.
Also because the Origen has adjustable airflow it can produce some pretty amazing clouds. The biggest adjustment is 2mm and for me that seems to be the perfect amount where I am still having to feel like I have to draw for my clouds without inhaling it.
Lastly, the unified well is a major improvement. No longer do you have to worry about one well going dry or balancing between the two. I also like the increase in size it means I can store more juice when I don’t want to be constantly dripping, as long as I am diligent about keeping the mod upright.
Ease Of Build:
The Origen has never been known as the easiest mod to build, but at the same time it is not difficult. I feel like they took some innovative steps on the center post with a nice knurled cap that can be tightened with fingers. However, they lose some points on requiring a small allen wrench for the screws on the sides. I can understand why they did this, to ensure the lifetime of the atomizer by avoiding stripping. The downside in this means I have to carry an extra tool in my kit and it is harder to see if my allen wrench is properly seated while building. Also since my fingers are too big this point is moot, but I feel like the knurled sides of the screws on the v1 may have made it easier for someone with smaller fingers to build.
I my experience I find that a vertical build with u-wick cotton produces the most flavor and best wicking. From reading other reputable builders comments they seem to concur.
Pricing:
At the time of writing this article there are still some Origen v2’s to be had at $120 dollars. This price puts the Origen at the high-end price range for drippers. However, considering this is the most suggested atomizer online from experts you are truly getting what you are paying for! Also do not forget it includes a very nice, wide bore drip tip. This is where Norbet serializing the v2 becomes good as you are able to be proud of your authentic, quality product. |
La Liga : Eibar routs Granada 4-0 Posted: Feb 14, 2017 • 01:32 PM by Akshay Somani
Eibar (Spain), Feb 14 ( ) Eibar outplayed Granada 4-0 and vaulted to the seventh place in La Liga here. Facebook to live stream Liga MX 2017 season
Granada, mired in the 19th spot, were hoping to post a second consecutive victory for the first time this season on Monday though they have never claimed all three points from a match at Eibar's Ipurua stadium here, reports Efe.
The hosts took the lead in the 10th minute as Adrian Gonzalez converted from the spot after Sergi Enrich was fouled inside the area.
Enrich put Eibar up 2-0 with a goal in the 38th minute that left the visitors dazed and discouraged.
Granada managed a shot on goal early in the second half, but Ivan Ramis' tally off a Pedro Leon corner kick in the 51st minute put the match out of reach.
Leon added a fourth goal 10 minutes later.
The win brings Eibar to 35 points from 22 matches, just a point behind sixth-place Villarreal. |
No, this isn’t an article from The Onion that’s landed here by mistake. Following the shock announcement that Ben Affleck will play the new Batman, incensed fans really have asked Barack Obama to condemn the casting choice.
A petition launched on the ‘We The People’ section of the White House’s official website urged the US President to “denounce the selection of Ben Affleck”.
[Photo: Getty]
It has since been taken down, as it violates the site’s Terms Of Service. Apparently the casting controversy is simply not a matter of importance for the leader of the free world.
Before it was removed, the original petition read:
“Fans/citizens are outraged at the selection and we want to send a message to Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and Zack Snyder using an outlet that could garner the appropriate media attention to do so.”
Another petition demanding that Warner Bros remove Affleck from the planned Superman vs Batman movie is however still very much alive, with thousands of people having signed it so far.
Revealing Affleck as the new Batman, Warner president Greg Silverman insisted:
“We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics’ most enduringly popular superheroes. Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill – and then some.”
Barack Obama has so far neglected to comment on the issue.
What do you think about the casting decision? Would you like to know what Obama thinks?
Have your say in the comments below (just register first), on Twitter with #wow247 or at our Facebook page |
The St George Illawarra Dragons announced on Sunday that Eto Nabuli has agreed to a one-year contract extension that will see him remain at the Club until at least the end of 2016.
The Fiji Bati international made his first-grade debut for the Club in the opening round fixture against the Melbourne Storm this season and has played 10 NRL games to date.
Nabuli, 26, who can play on the wing and has scored four tries so far this season, was previously part of the Penrith Panthers team which won the NSW Cup Premiership in 2014.
“I am very pleased to be able to continue my development here at the Dragons,” said Nabuli.
“Head Coach Paul McGregor and the coaching staff have helped me to improve as a player and I look forward to continuing to represent the Club.
”Dragons Director of Recruitment and Retention Peter Mulholland is delighted by the representative’s decision to remain at the Club.
“Eto is a very strong and exciting player who has really benefitted from a complete pre-season with the Club,” said Mulholland.
“He has demonstrated the right attitude to the way he conducts himself at training and his efforts have been rewarded with the number of first-grade games he has played so far this season.
“We all look forward to watching Eto continue his development both on and off the field here at the Dragons.” |
The Move From Large Size Dollars To Small Sized Dollars - From Concept To Reality - A Brief History Of The United States Small Dollar - The Dollar Coin has been the main staple of the United States' monetary system since it was authorized by Congress on April 2, 1792 and first struck in 1794. Even though it was large in size (38.1 to 40 mm), it was a popular denomination and circulated well due to its buying power. The "silver dollar" was discontinued in 1935. By the mid to late 1960's, the price of silver rose to the point that "silver dollars" no longer circulated. In 1971, due to the needs of gambling casinos for a dollar coin, and the public's desire to honor the first landing on the moon, the dollar coin was again struck, i.e. the Eisenhower Dollar. The coins failed to circulate widely, primarily due to their large size and the acceptance and convenience of the paper dollar.
SIDE-BY-SIDE SIZE COMPARISON OF AN EISENHOWER
DOLLAR (38.1 mm) AND A SUSAN B. ANTHONY DOLLAR (26.5 mm)
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT EZERMAN In the mid 1970's, attention turned to a smaller size dollar coin, culminating in the Susan B. Anthony Dollar in 1979. Miss Anthony was chosen to honor her life long fight for women's suffrage. From day one the Anthony Dollar was rejected and ridiculed. The portrait was considered ugly and the coins were not easily distinguished from the quarter dollar. Besides being the same color, there was less than nine-hundredths of an inch difference in the diameters of the Anthony Dollar and the quarter dollar. They were given nicknames such as "Agony Dollars", "Carter Quarters", "Susan B. Edsel", and "JC Pennies" (Jimmy Carter was in the White House at the time). They were discontinued at that time after only being struck for circulation for two years, 1979 and 1980. The 1981 Anthony Dollars were struck for mint sets only. Curiously, this was not the first time this criticism was accorded a United States coin. In 1875 a Twenty-Cent piece was struck. Besides having virtually the same design as the quarter dollar, it was a mere eight-hundredths of an inch smaller. The Twenty-Cent piece ceased being struck for circulation in 1876 after only two years production. Here's "Proof" that the Mint also had t rouble distinguishing an Anthony D ollar from a Quarter. In the early 1990's, discussion of striking a new small size dollar coin was begun. This time government officials were armed with the knowledge of the mistakes of the Anthony Dollar. Discussions centered on striking a new small size dollar coin that would be golden in color and have a distinctive edge so that it could be easily distinguished from the quarter dollar. The striking of a new small size dollar at that time was not to be. Besides the queasiness of the mint to venture into another failed dollar coin, there was one other major problem. That is, more than a decade after the Anthony Dollar was discontinued, there were still millions of them in Federal Reserve vaults. By the late 1990's the supply of Anthony Dollars was finally dwindling down. After congressional and public hearings, it was decided that a new small size dollar coin with a plain edge and golden in color would be struck in 2000. The obverse would have the likeness of Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian girl that helped guide Lewis and Clark through the northwest on their exploratory expedition of the Louisiana Purchase. In the mean time, the Anthony Dollar supply was decreasing so quickly that the mint struck 1999 dated Anthony Dollars to fill the need for a dollar coin until the Sacagawea Dollar could be struck and placed into circulation. The Sacagawea Dollar made its debut early in 2000 to the praise and acceptance of both collectors and the general public. However, after the honeymoon period was over, it began to fall out of favor. Just like its predecessor, the Anthony Dollar, it too was struck for circulation for only two years. It remains to be struck for sale to collectors in mint sets, rolls, and bags. In 2007, the United States began honoring our Nations Presidents by issuing $1 circulating coins featuring their images in the order that they served. The United States Mint will issue four Presidential $1 coins per year, and each will have a reverse design featuring the Statue of Liberty. The composition of the new Presidential $1 Coins will be identical to that of the Sacagawea Dollar. Living Presidents are excluded from the series, however they may be added only if they have been deceased for two years prior to their coins release. The "Presidential Dollar Coin Act of 2005" had stipulated that the mint would continue issuing the Sacagawea Dollar in quantities no less than one-third of the years total dollar mintage. This stipulation was set to begin with the 2007 Sacagawea Dollar, however, the "Native American Dollar Coin Act of 2007" eliminated this requirement. The "Native American Dollar Coin Act of 2007" was signed into law on September 20, 2007 by President George Bush. It superseded the Presidential Dollar Coin Act of 2005's requirement that one Sacagawea Dollar be struck for every three Presidential Dollars struck. Instead, it required that beginning in 2009, one Native American Dollar be struck for every five Presidential Dollars struck. It also states that "the design on the reverse shall bear images celebrating the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the development of the United States and the history of the United States". The reverse of the Native American $1 Coin will feature a new design each year. In addition, the date, mint mark, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and IN GOD WE TRUST were moved to the edge. The year 2009 also saw some changes made to the Presidential Dollar design. IN GOD WE TRUST was moved from the edge of the coin to the obverse, and the edge had 13 stars, representing the thirteen original colonies, added to it. |
By Rob Kelly at Meadow Park
Arsenal produced an exhilarating first-half performance to beat a talented Aston Villa side 4-2 at Meadow Park on Tuesday night.
Steve Gatting’s side were in sensational form during the opening 45 minutes and once Serge Gnabry gave them the lead, there was no stopping them.
Jon Toral struck a brace - although the returning Benik Afobe may yet claim the second - and Emmanuel Frimpong headed in a fourth just before half-time.
Villa grabbed one back through Michael Drennan and soon started to exert some real pressure on the Gunners, with Graham Burke putting Arsenal nerves on edge with a second in the 75th minute.
But despite the visitors’ spirited fightback, the Gunners’ first-half masterclass proved enough to claim the points on a satisfying night for the Club’s rising stars.
SETTING THE SCENE
It had been more than a month since the under-21s’ previous match, the 2-1 victory over Wolves at Emirates Stadium, and Gatting made seven changes for this contest.
The big news was the return of Afobe up front after eight months out with a knee injury, while Frimpong was called in to bolster the midfield. Gnabry, fresh from his appearance off the bench at Old Trafford on Sunday, was also included in a strong team.
Villa, meanwhile, included eight members of the squad that won last season’s NextGen Series, including former Gunner Lewis Kinsella.
FIRST HALF
With Arsene Wenger in attendance, this was a real opportunity for some of Arsenal’s rising stars to stake their claim for first-team action - and they certainly took it.
Gatting’s side made a bright start to the game, with Gnabry’s testing Benjamin Siegrist with a curling shot after nine minutes that the Villa keeper palmed away.
With Afobe causing real problems for the visitors, Arsenal were clearly in the mood and in the 16th minute they grabbed the lead. Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill found Toral in space to the left of the Villa box and the Spaniard kept his composure to pick out the onrushing Gnabry to slot home from six yards.
Nine minutes later the roles were reversed as Thomas Eisfeld played in Gnabry on the right and the German picked out Toral with a low cross that the teenager coolly converted from close range.
By now the Gunners were playing with a real swagger and it came as no surprise when they added a third in the 36th minute. Afobe raced on to a lofted through ball and lobbed the onrushing Siegrist, with the ball bouncing down for Toral to force over the line as Villa scrambled to try to clear it.
Afobe was in fine form, playing on the shoulders of the Villa backline and he came close again with another lob over Siegrist that drifted narrowly wide. With the game so open, another goal seemed inevitable and it arrived right on half time as Frimpong headed in Gnabry’s corner. It had been quite some first-half display.
SECOND HALF
If the visitors had hoped for any let-off from Arsenal in the second half, it was immediately dismissed as Afobe was played through straight from kick-off. The striker tried to take it around Siegrist, but the keeper did well to get a hand to it and push it away from the forward.
Minutes later Toral fired wide from close range after good work from the impressive Ormonde-Ottewill down the left flank.
However, in the 53rd minute a momentary lapse by Matt Macey presented Drennan with a great opportunity, and the Villa youngster slotted the ball home for the visitors.
The goal seemed to stir Villa into life and they suddenly set about the Gunners with real gusto - and pulled another one back in the 75th minute when Burke forced the ball in after a scramble in the area.
Despite some uncomfortable moments towards the end, that sensational first-half display proved enough for Gatting’s side to claim another hard-earned victory. |
BEIJING (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has removed the New York Times Co’s (NYT.N) English- and Chinese-language news apps from its iTunes store in China following a request from the local authorities, the companies said separately on Thursday.
The apps, which the newspaper said were removed on Dec. 23, are the latest Western services to fall foul of Chinese authorities, whose other scalps include Apple’s own iBooks and iTunes Movies stores which have been blocked since April.
REUTERS RECOMMENDS: China to plow $361 billion into renewable fuel by 2020 Child monks in the Indian Himalayas
Their removal comes just over a month after the Cyberspace Administration of China called for greater media scrutiny, citing fears of social disorder, moral harm and threats to national security. The internet regulator did not respond to a faxed request for comment about the Times’ apps.
“The development of the internet in China must respect China’s laws and regulations, in principle,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in response to a question about the apps.
New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Reuters that the newspaper has asked Apple to reconsider.
“The request by the Chinese authorities to remove our apps is part of their wider attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage by The New York Times of that country,” Murphy said.
The government has blocked the Times’ websites since 2012 after a series of articles on the wealth of the family of then-Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, the New York Times reported.
“We have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations,” Apple spokesman Fred Sainz in California told Reuters.
An Apple spokeswoman in China declined to comment on specific reasons or which regulatory body made the request.
Apple has previously removed news apps from its China app store, but none as high-profile as the New York Times. At least three other apps have been removed from the app store in recent years on the grounds of “illegal content”, according to news reports and the apps’ developers.
Apps from other international publications whose websites are blocked, including CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, were still available on Thursday.
Chinese mainstream media has not reported the app removal but it was discussed widely on social media.
“This must be coming from the request of The Wall right?” said one user on microblogging service Weibo, referring to state-backed internet censorship. “Apple has made enough money in China, it’s OK for it to take the blame this time for the sake of the money.”
Slideshow (3 Images)
Other users said they would attempt to change their country of residence within the app store to restore access.
While the New York Times’ websites have been blocked, mirroring sites managed by anti-censorship advocates have periodically made their content available. |
Not the actual test subject. Dan Muntz When else would you need a beer more than the nuclear end of days? But you wouldn't want it to kill you, that's for sure. Well, good news, A 1957 US government study discovered that beer and soda would be safe to drink, if it survives a nuclear explosion.
From Robert Krulwich's NPR blog:
...in 1956, the Atomic Energy Commission exploded two bombs, one "with an energy release equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT," the other 30 kilotons, a test site in Nevada. Bottles and cans were carefully placed various distances from ground zero....
The closest containers were placed "less than a quarter mile away," says Alex [Wellerstein, science historian], "a mere 1,056 feet", the outliers a couple of miles off. Some were buried, some left in batches, others were placed side by side.
Beers close to the blast site were slightly radioactive and still totally drinkable in dire situations. Those further away were less radioactive.
The researchers even taste tested the beers and sodas, most of which they deemed good (except those nearest the blast).
See the NPR article and hit up Wellerstein's blog post to glance over the actual document. |
Season 2 of True Detective just didn’t quite work. But it came very close in many ways and so I think it’s worth exploring why it missed the mark. The short answer is that it tried to do too much. It tried to leapfrog Season 1 both in form and in function – and the form part didn’t really work, either. And so it Icarus’d. And we were disappoint.
First, function:
Last year I wrote a short article about True Detective and why it worked. Basically I said that there are dark little corners of this country, where the local custom and culture has not yet been homogenized into the national norm, and in these places weird shit can go down. The exploration thereof is the basis of a lot of Twin Peaks and The X-Files and now True Detective. It defines a genre: New Weird America.
True Detective Season 2 took this to its next level. It showed that you can have this same kind of atavism, nasty and weird, right smack in the middle of the modern world. It hides in plain sight. It actually exists! It doesn’t reach up from the darkness to steal our children; it reaches down from above to manipulate our everyday lives. In this way, Season 2 was an advance upon Season 1. Season 1 was fantasy with elements of realism; Season 2 approached the level of journalism – The Wire moved from B-More to The OC.
Functionally, then, Season 2 was a level above Season 1. But they didn’t stop with function. They tried to do the same with form.
Season 1 was told in a fairly linear fashion. In the present day, two dudes are being interviewed. They talk about the past. Eventually their narrative catches up to the present. Then, they go forth and conquer.
It’s a great storytelling device. But if you took it away, the series would not suffer. This particularly because the two narrators are telling the same story. It’s one frame around one narrative. Classic storytelling – Citizen Kane with a cherry on top.
Season 2 was not simple or linear. There were four protagonists instead of two. They didn’t even meet until the end of the first episode. They didn’t really start working together until the end of the sixth episode – the point in the first season when the detectives resume their partnership. And they had a great deal of their own shit going on – some of which ended up affecting the other characters, but much of which did not.
There was a definite madness to this method. The other point of Season 2 was that, as Jordan says,”Everyone gets touched” – the consequences of little choices, the interconnectivity of things and lives and the world. Heady stuff. Hence the season’s near-constant motif of California highway interchanges – the huge land-spanning Gordian knots that the detectives realize they cannot cut, but must untangle, from the beginning.
So there was a point to this. But saying “I meant to do that” only gets you so far. Making your TV show really disjointed and complex in order to prove a point does not excuse you from having made your TV show really disjointed and complex. It’s just not good storytelling. Certainly not for an eight-episode season of TV. Do you know why House of Leaves should not serve as the basis for the next season of House of Cards? Yes! Yes you do! I don’t need to explain it to you! Don’t do it!
True Detective Season 2 had two functions. One was to show that the weird and evil of the bayou can be found just as easily in Bel-Air. Phenomenal stuff. This too would have been enough. The other was to show that The Detective Story needs improvement. This is a tough nut to crack even when your audience is not defined by having liked your first season – a classic detective story! It’s doubly tough when it means you have to make a story which is noticeably hard to follow… and also get them to follow it. (The Night Of barely pulled this off, barely). And it’s triply tough when you are trying to leapfrog your first season in both form and function simultaneously.
There is one final point I’d like to make, and that is tone. True Detective Season 2’s tone was off. Even if it had been nothing but another Season 1 it still would have had problems. Too many furrowed brows, too many intense internal monologues made agonizingly external. Too little wit and too many purposeless homages. The first season found drama in small things; the second took nothings and belabored them like pinatas. It felt like it set out to put “an epic spin on topics that don’t [usually] get the epic treatment” – which is what PT Anderson said about Magnolia, for chrissakes. Season Two set out in function to avoid the sins of the genre; in form, to critique them; in tone, to commit them, each and every one. The first is a triumph; the second, a failure; the third, Brumaire-like, a farce. The three together was season two of True Detective.
There was also that five-minute-long dream sequence where a Conway Twitty impersonator in a powderpuff-blue tuxedo sang background to a prophecy that turned out to be right with no explanation and for no reason. But if I’d started with that, you wouldn’t have bothered with my analysis. And, uh, maybe there’s something to learn from that, too.
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Home > Japanese Entertainment > "Attack on Titan: End of the World" World Premiere Got 3,000 fans in Hongkong
Japanese Entertainment
The world premiere of live-action film "Attack on Titan: End of the World", the second installment of the film "Attack on Titan", was held in Hongkong on September 15th. The actor Haruma Miura and Kiko Mizuhara attended the event. About 3,000 fans gathered in the red carpet and welcomed the two Japanese actors who greeted the audience in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese on the premiere stage.
Hongkong was chosen to be the very first and only place for the world premiere of the film since the first part was very successful and the Japanese films are especially popular there even compared with other Asian areas.
Miura and Mizuhara appeared with two Shishimai that are the lucky symbol in Hongkong and responded to fans by giving autographs or being taken pictures with a big smile.
Miura said, "Please look forward to our great challenge. I hope this film remains deeply in your mind." Mizuhara said "I will be glad if you could enjoy Mikasa's evolution and growth", and also commented "What you are looking forward to seeing the most must be the Titans. I am very sure they will not disappoint you."
"Attack on Titan: End of the World" is scheduled to release on September 19 in Japan and will be distributed in 83 countries and regions worldwide. |
EQ is pretty simple, right? Crank a knob, hear the sound’s tone change?
Not quite. Just when you think you know everything there is to know about EQ, something new comes up. Here are a few advanced EQ techniques that you might not be using to full potential:
1. Mid/Side EQ
Any true stereo sound might be able to be enhanced with mid/side EQ.
Mid/side EQ basically turns your stereo EQ into a frequency-specific stereo width adjustment tool. You’ll get the most natural results by only processing the side channel. You can boost the top to increase clarity and dimension. You can narrow the mids to provide focus and punch. You can high-pass the bass to easily collapse the bass to mono without touching the mids and highs.
2. Spectral Matching EQ
This one’s usually a multi-step process.
First get the EQ to ‘listen’ to some reference audio (such as another track or commercial mixdown), then get the EQ to ‘listen’ to the audio you want to process. Finally, the EQ can then either match the two (so that the processed audio sounds similar to the reference audio), or it can compliment the two (so that the processed audio sounds very different to the reference audio).
Matching EQ can be useful whenever you want one track to sound like another. Obviously, this might be useful in mastering, but it can also come in handy when working with samples from a variety of different sources.
Compliment EQ can be useful if you want to make sure two tracks do not interfere with each other.
3. Dynamic EQ
This is an interesting one. It allows the gain of each EQ band to change dynamically with the level of the audio. It can work a lot like a multi-band compressor, except that the envelope follower controls the gain of an EQ band instead of a frequency range. This allows you to get much more surgical and specific with how the audio is processed.
The most common use of dynamic EQ is de-essing vocals, where the high frequencies are turned down when there’s too much sibilance. It’s also useful for other situations where a recorded track needs to be cleaned up in a specific way, but static EQ or broadband compression are too blunt for the job. Things like low frequency bumps or thuds, or the occasional odd midrange resonance are sometimes good opportunities to use dynamic EQ.
4. Parallel Processing with EQ
This is a good example of a more advanced pairing of EQ and compression. This technique works best with a naturally dynamic recording — such as a lead vocal or acoustic guitar. Duplicate the track and heavily compress one copy while leaving the other relatively dynamic. Balance the two so that the compressed track is dominant during quiet passages and the dynamic track is dominant during the loud passages. This opens up a lot of interesting possibilities when the two tracks have different EQ applied to them.
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For example, you could make the dynamic track brighter and the compressed track darker. It will sound as if the recorded instrument itself gets brighter in the mix as it gets louder. Or make the compressed track warm and full-bodied, but reduce the lower frequency energy in the dynamic track. As the track gets louder, it thins out to make room for other instruments in the mix (which might also be getting louder), but stays warm and full during quieter parts where it’s more exposed.
5. EQ’ing Your Effects Returns
This is a good one. It’s especially useful for reverbs.
If you’re mixing in software, insert your favorite EQ after your reverb. If you’re mixing in hardware, bring your reverb back on a regular channel pair (not the less-featured stereo returns). Or patch a decent outboard EQ after the reverb before it comes back to the desk. Many reverbs have some in-board tone control, but it probably won’t be as flexible as your desk EQ or outboard EQ. This gives you much more power to shape the sound of your reverb and ambience at the back of the mix.
Happy with the reverb but it’s fighting a bit too much with the vocal? Give it a dip in the midrange. Want more focus in the low end of the slap bass while still retaining the ambience and space in the top? Bring in a gentle low shelf for a more natural cleanup than a low cut filter. Mix sounding a bit dead? Add some more dimension by gently boosting the top without upsetting the mix balance.
And this is just scratching the surface.
All in all, there’s a lot you can do with EQ. Much more than might be obvious at first. Give these techniques a try and you might just find a new secret weapon that’ll save your next mix.
[Editor’s note: If you want to rapidly improve your EQ skills, download Quiztones]
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MIAMI -- While the rest of his teammates stood behind a row of tables two days before Thanksgiving, handing out food to needy families just blocks away from AmericanAirlines Arena, Chris Bosh found a more interactive way to participate.
He sat at a table with a group of children for a mean game of Uno.
"This is serious," Bosh said before turning back toward a group of youngsters that quickly went from awed by Bosh to focused on beating him.
Bosh doesn't appear the slightest bit troubled.
He's free, happy.
He seems concerned only with helping underprivileged families both at this Heat-sanctioned event and at his own foundation's Thanksgiving event later that evening.
So Bosh hops in the back of his black Mercedes Sprinter, which can only be described as a sophisticated party bus, complete with flat-screen TVs lining the walls and limousine-style seating. Once he has been driven to his Miami Beach home, he is greeted by his wife, Adrienne, and a pair of white toy dogs, Scout and Cupid.
By the time he sits at the pub-style table in his kitchen, Bosh already has his lunch, complete with a can of Dr Pepper. All he's missing is some sour cream, which he blames his younger cousin, Rachel, for hogging.
He finds some in the fridge, sits back down at the table and starts to reflect.
It's always been good to be Chris Bosh. Just never this good.
He's married.
He and his wife, Adrienne, have a son, Jackson, Chris' second child.
He's a champion.
He's a center now, which is different.
He's not inundated by mockery everywhere he looks, which is very different.
And he's not bothered by much of anything. At least not over the past six months or so.
Winning a championship wasn't just the finale to a season of redemption. Not for Bosh. For the 28-year-old, it was the much-desired finish to two years of taxing, demanding, frustrating and often emotional times.
He's not a new man. Just different. Improved. More complete.
***
After the Heat lost to Dallas in the Finals in 2011, Bosh cried for all the world to see ... and criticize. AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Bosh thought he was in a good place when he first got to Miami. After only two playoff appearances in seven seasons in Toronto, he was excited about playing on the NBA's most talked about team, and he relished the opportunity to be in his home country.
What he found instead was a nation -- much of it, anyway -- ready to toss him into the Heat Hatred Express that began its rounds once LeBron James brought his you-know-whats to you-know-where.
While LeBron was second guessed for saying the wrong things or missing the wrong shots, Bosh was mocked for, well, just about anything. He was labeled soft. He was considered a third wheel, riding the coattails of LeBron and Dwyane Wade. Nothing was off limits.
"I was just happy to be in the United States market," he said. "I had this talent that I wanted to showcase, and I wanted to show I'm one of the best players in the league. But when I get here, I'm the butt of a lot of jokes and all these things. I'm like, damn, what did I do? What did I do to deserve this?"
He was even called effeminate at times, which led to the most sophomoric humor available.
"It was this one thing during fashion week: I had my legs crossed, and they called me gay," Bosh said. "I've got my legs crossed, I'm chillin', I'm getting my grown man on at the event. It just seemed like anything I did, it was always chastised or made fun of."
There was no empathy, especially not after the Big Three's first season ended in failure.
After Miami's series-clinching Game 6 loss to Dallas in the 2011 NBA Finals, TV cameras caught Bosh falling to his knees crying in the hallways on the walk back to the Heat locker room.
It wasn't just the defeat that affected him.
"I put my heart and soul into that game," Bosh said. "We give everything in the playoffs. Then just to come up short. All I could think about was all the negative B.S. I was hearing. I just wanted to prove them wrong so badly, and I was so close.
"I was like, 'It's just not fair.' That's how it felt. It's not fair to have these things alter my life, and all I want to do is win a championship, and we didn't even get that.
"That was everything for me."
It took until the following season began in December for Bosh to finally develop thick enough skin.
He was less burdened. He was also married.
Chris and Adrienne had actually wed privately in their backyard, with a stunning view of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline, in April 2011, before his first playoff run with the Heat began. But he initially denied the marriage despite court records showing otherwise, choosing to wait until the July ceremony to acknowledge the nuptials. Given the season he was having, a simple, private marriage felt right.
"That was very cool because it was just me, her and my daughter (Trinity, now four years old)," Bosh said. "I didn't want to make it a big deal. One thing I notice when you're getting married is that everybody makes you second guess yourself. They're like, 'You sure? You sure? You sure?' Yeah, I'm sure!
"I see why people get cold feet. I see why people elope."
***
After he "cracked the code" of champs, Chris Bosh was on the path to ultimate playoff success. Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Heading into his second season in Miami, any insults became an "everyday part" of life for Bosh and fell into the background. His sights were set on winning a title.
Just before his second postseason began, Bosh locked himself in his man cave on the second floor of his home and watched every documentary of NBA champions he could find.
From the Lakers to the Celtics to the Bulls to the Heat and the Celtics and Lakers again, Bosh found a similar theme in their title runs.
"There was always a moment when it looked bad," he said. "Always. Every single time, it was over. That's the Bulls included -- every single year.
"So I was like, 'That's it. I've cracked the code.'"
But going through those challenging, everything-is-falling-apart moments is much more difficult that watching it play out on a DVD.
They began, fittingly, with a birth.
Two games into the playoffs, with the Heat leading the Knicks 2-0 in their first-round series, the Boshes played the tricky game of planning a birth around scheduled sporting events. The plan was for Jackson to be born on May 7, a day after Game 4. If it hadn't happened by then, they would induce birth.
But as soon as Bosh landed in New York the evening before Game 3, he received a phone call from Adrienne, who was feeling nauseous and concerned, even though her doctor told her that same day that she shouldn't expect anything.
Bosh, who booked a private plane just in case, was with a friend at BLT Prime, a Manhattan restaurant he wanted to try, when he got another call.
"As soon as we sat down, [I] got the call," he said. "I didn't even order. We stopped by this little place to get something to go. We're calling her friends, 'Code red!'"
Bosh arrived in the delivery room just before 3 a.m. Jackson was born at 3:12.
"I'm just sitting by myself saying, 'I was just in New York,'" Bosh said. "Then the doctor was asking me, 'You want to cut the umbilical cord?'"
Bosh darted back to New York for Game 3, then made the back-and-forth trip again before Game 4. But after the Heat discarded the Knicks in five games, Bosh was seriously injured in Game 1 of the following series against the Pacers.
Of course he was.
It would've been far too perfect for Bosh to have the complete fairy tale without the anguish again, this time just as much physical as mental.
The day after his injury, he was given the target date for a return. Three weeks would be best-case scenario, so that's what he envisioned.
Only, a few days after the injury, Bosh was at home, barely able to walk and watching his team fall behind the Pacers 2-1 in the series. He was 2½ weeks away from recovery, but his teammates looked like they'd be eliminated before that chance ever came.
Bosh was on the verge of depression, even talking to his wife about rescheduling their vacation for June instead of July.
Having Jackson around helped, even if most of the time was spent watching him sleep. But Bosh was in a serious funk.
"I could barely walk," he said. "Couldn't get up on my own. I was sitting here, Dwyane had a terrible game, we were down 2-1 and still on the road. I'm just like, 'Oh my God.'"
That's when Adrienne threw Chris' words back in his face.
Remember that code Bosh cracked about championship teams? Well, this was that time. Only problem was, it wasn't supposed to focus on him.
During what the Boshes call one of their "honesty sessions," Adrienne whipped her husband back into shape.
"My whole thing was, you told me this was coming," Adrienne said. "He was like, 'See, if you watch this, you'll see there's always a time when it doesn't look good. Watch this one, watch this one, watch this one. So be prepared for this when it happens.'
"Then, when the time comes and he's over here getting down on himself, I was like, 'Umm, no. You said this was going to come.' I just told him, 'No. We got this.' I planned our whole summer based on him winning a championship.
"No contingency plans."
It made a little more sense for Bosh then. And when his teammates recovered to beat Indiana, he was back working toward the quickest recovery possible.
***
Chris Bosh entered Game 5 of the Eastern Confernce finals against Boston fresh off a tragedy. Steve Mitchell/US Presswire
On the very day he was officially cleared to return, with his team locked up at 2-2 with the Boston Celtics, Bosh was thrown another twist, this one more jarring than anything he could've experienced in sports.
Bosh hadn't seen his massage therapist, Chautele Mia Cooksey, for a while because he didn't want to potentially aggravate his abdominal injury. But on the day before his return to the court, he called Cooksey for an appointment.
Shortly after Cooksey held Jackson for the first time and handed her back to Adrienne, Cooksey collapsed.
Adrienne yelled, and Chris ran into the room fearing something had happened to Jackson. Soon after, Cooksey regained consciousness and insisted there was no need for medical attention.
"She was like, 'No, I just laid down because I was hot and I was tired,'" Adrienne said. "I said, 'No, you didn't lay down. You passed out.' It was weird. She was just staring into space, kind of lifeless.
"Imagine you're sitting here just fine, and then 10 minutes from now you're not even coherent."
Cooksey lost consciousness again, and Adrienne made the 911 call. Less than an hour after being taken away in an ambulance, Cooksey, 41, was pronounced dead.
The Boshes had known her since they got to Miami in 2010. But after that night, he couldn't even afford to think about her passing. It was impossible not to, of course, but a pivotal Game 5 against the Celtics was hours away, and sports rarely stop for the often harsh reality of everyday life.
Bosh and the Heat lost, at home, and, suddenly, Bosh's comeback from injury was only a minor story in the epic drama that was the apparent collapse of the Miami Heat.
Game 6, of course, goes down in LeBron's history books, and the day of Game 7 began with a great feeling for Bosh.
Before he could start explaining that feeling, his son Jackson is carried into the kitchen by his nanny.
"Heeeeeyy buddy," Bosh offers to his 6-month-old before asking the nanny, in Spanish, how her weekend went.
The pacifier in Jackson's mouth read "No hablo," which translates to "I don't speak," and his bib said "Daddy's Big Guy." After the welcomed interruption, Bosh, back in his usually jovial mood thanks to his son's presence, returned to his Game 7 memories.
"I told my friend driving from shootaround, 'Man, the ball feels real good today. I'm not gonna miss today,'" Bosh said. "He thought I was joking, but I was serious. I was thinking about that all day."
Even his teammates in shootaround couldn't relate to Bosh's odd confidence. He is a lefty, after all.
But they understood it better after Bosh came off the bench to hit eight of his 10 attempts, including, three 3-pointers, to help the Heat pull away from the Celtics.
It also happened in front of Cooksey's sons, who the Boshes invited to the game, along with their mother's best friend and two sons.
Little did Bosh know entering the Finals, but he'd make yet another transition then.
***
Manning the middle against OKC in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Chris Bosh helped the Heat take control. Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images
By Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Bosh was back in the starting lineup. At center.
It's the position he never wanted to play in Toronto and grudgingly accepted at times in Miami. But here he was, in the championship series, playing strictly in the pivot.
"Even in Toronto, I'd be at the 5 like, 'Didn't I ask [for] this not happen?'" Bosh asks in an exaggerated dignified voice. "'Wasn't it understood?'"
There would be no complaining this time around.
"This is the Finals," Bosh said. "If I have a complaint about being on the floor, starting in the Finals, my old self would've been pissed off at me. ... 18-year-old Chris would've been like, 'Are you serious?'"
The Heat didn't lose a game with Bosh manning the middle, even though he was in constant pain and could only dunk off two feet for fear of re-injuring his abdomen. Bosh's transformation was just about complete. All that was missing was the official coronation.
"I didn't know Mike [Miller] was gonna go crazy like that [in Game 5], but once it was happening, it was like, 'This is how it's supposed to be,'" Bosh said. "It was like magic."
Bosh even played to all the effeminate jokes by pouring champagne on himself in, well, an interesting manner. The video immediately made the rounds on the Internet.
"Oh, I was goofing off by then," Bosh said, laughing. "It was like, 'Yeah buddy. Everybody was talking.'"
Bosh's transition from stunned and thin-skinned to comfortable and ultra-confident didn't go unnoticed.
"I thought he did an unbelievable job of not responding, just responding with the way he plays," Wade said. "He basically said, 'Hey, this is me. You either hate me or love me, but this is who I've always been.'"
***
Adrienne Williams reminded Bosh of a champion's title path right when the Heat needed him most. Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
The Boshes vacationed, as planned, visiting the south of France, Rome, Paris, Greece, all with his family, all with the glow of a champion, all with the adoration of international fans reminding him of his accomplishments.
He returned this season with no baggage, no regrets, not even an issue with being a full-time center.
"I'm gonna have to outwit them," said Bosh, who is averaging 18.0 points, 7.9 rebounds and shooting 54.8 percent from the formerly dreaded position. "I'm not going to Shaq them or Kareem them. I'm just thinking of angles I can use and moves. We're just players. If you want to label it, that's fine.
"I kind of just shed that label a little bit. I let it go. I let a lot of things go."
It took a lot longer than he ever expected, but we're finally seeing the Bosh he was expecting us to see.
Not a joke. Not a loser. Not even a power forward.
He's a center, which is still a little weird. He's a champion, which will never get old. He's a family man.
It has never been bad to be Chris Bosh. But it has never felt this good.
"It was never horrible," Bosh said. "But my mindset, my approach and just the way I feel when I go to work every day.
"It used to be we had this tension all the time. Even if it was a beautiful, sunny day, it was 'Damn, I gotta go to work tomorrow.' Who knows what's going to come tomorrow.
"Now it's just ride the nice wave. If something comes up, it's just a part of the gig." |
Two artists sit in a paint-festooned studio surrounded by works of art in various stages of completion. It’s a casual setting; there’s coffee and easy conversation between the two as they weave in and out of topics. They discuss color, artistic discovery, passion, mysticism and the finer points of Herbie Hancock.
“After the first minute or two, most people forget they are speaking into a microphone and we just chat,” said Brian Alfred, Brooklyn-based artist and creator of the Sound & Vision podcast. “I’d like to think I also set them at ease. The fact that I am a fellow artist, I think, makes it easy for them to converse in a direct and natural way.”
Alfred, an assistant professor of art at Penn State, created Sound & Vision as a natural extension of the conversations he’d had with his colleagues and friends in the arts community. The series explores not only the myriad aspects of inspiration and creation in the visual arts, but also the role and influence of music on that medium.
“I always had a parallel life in music,” said Alfred, who started listening to podcasts to pass the time while commuting from his Brooklyn studio to Happy Valley. “When I started making animations, music became more integrated into my work in a direct way with them scoring the animations. It was a great way for me to keep involved in music and also keep collaborating with other artists.”
Alfred’s love affair with art began at an early age, and eventually led him to Penn State, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts. A lifelong painter, he became more committed to the subject while still an undergrad.
As he pursued his master’s degree in New York, Alfred started to experiment with collage work and animation by using various computer programs to workshop painting ideas. As he describes it, “I just became interested in the idea of making moving paintings.”
New York remains his artistic base of operations, but a twist of fate brought Alfred back to Penn State a few years ago. And he was pleasantly surprised by the experience.
“I came back to cover for my old professor when she went on sabbatical and really loved teaching,” he explained. “Penn State has so many great resources in the arts: theatre, music, the Palmer Museum, just so many events and opportunities. And it has a wonderful interdisciplinary program where you can really have a dialogue between many fields. That’s the appeal over traditional art school. There are so many opportunities in so many fields to take advantage of.”
As for the future, Alfred plans to continue growing Sound & Vision, expanding on the theme of artistic dialogue he found in the university setting. He’s quick to note that while the touring lifestyle of most musicians makes scheduling tricky, he hopes to soon add influential electronic musicians and even sound artists to the list of guests he’s interviewed.
“In my artwork, I am interested in what place says about who we are as a people,” Alfred said of the connectivity of music and the visual arts. “[Music] can really take you to the feeling of a place. One advantage music has is there is really no visual constriction. It can speak to you and yet allows you to visualize a setting completely of your own imagination.”
By John Tolley |
I have sure spies on the Saxon's motions To-night they sleep in the convent of Saint Wittol , or Withold, or whatever they call that churl of a Saxon Saint at Burton-on-Trent.
A LANGUAGE historian has revealed the best long-lost swear words from Britain - including nippy, tarse and wittol .
You probably wouldn't know how to respond if someone called you a ninnycock or a wittol .
Interestingly, Piero was a willing cuckold or wittol having been given a job by Francesco to support Bianca, while also being a philanderer himself.
London, August 22 (ANI): A new research from Collins Dictionary has indicated that words like aerodrome, charabanc, wittol , drysalter, alienism and many others are no longer used by people.
After LT was published and a kind of poetical press war developed, Swinburne complained that Tennyson's version had "lowered the note and deformed the outline of the Arthurian story, by reducing Arthur to the level of a wittol , Guenevere to the level of a woman of intrigue, and Lancelot to the level of a 'co-respondent. |
Top 5 cornerbacks by playmaker index
By Brett Whitefield • Oct 10, 2017
Almost a third of the way through the NFL regular season, here is a look at the top play making cornerbacks this season using our play maker index. Playmaker index measures the amount of plays a cornerback gets his hands on a football when he’s targeted with either a pass defended or interception.
Playmaker Index – 31.8 percent
With the amount of plays Robinson has made on the ball this year, it’s no surprise though five weeks of the season he is PFFs top graded CB at 92.6 overall. Robinson has gotten his hands on seven of 22 targets into his coverage (1 interception, 6 passes defensed).
Playmaker Index – 27.3 percent
The rookie from LSU has allowed an incredibly low catch rate of 48.5 percent into his coverage and a big reason why is his ability to get his hands on balls thrown at him. He is tied for the lead league with nine combined passes defended or interceptions (1 interception, 8 passes defensed). White currently sits as the fifth-ranked corner with a grade of 89.7.
Playmaker Index – 25.0 percent
It is no surprise to see Lewis near the top considering he led FBS cornerbacks in playmaker index last season while at Michigan. Lewis is another rookie cornerback in the midst of a strong first campaign, grading as the 24th best corner with a grade of 81.9.
Playmaker Index – 24.3 percent
The Colts were desperate for a corner to step up and play well and Melvin has answered the call. Melvin has been targeted the third most among all cornerbacks at 37 times but has answered by picking off two passes and getting his hands on seven more. His overall grade of 86.3 ranks 10th among corners.
Playmaker Index – 23.5 percent
Trufant has been targeted just 17 times on the season so far and probably for good reason, as he’s make a play on the ball on almost a quarter of those. Trufant currently ranks 14th among cornerbacks with an overall grade of 84.2. |
Allardyce is believed to have received around £200,000 after Kean and Rovers accepted liability for the disparaging comments made about the West Ham manager while his former No 2 was in charge at Ewood Park.
Kean, who claimed he was forced to resign at Rovers last September after nearly two turbulent years, was caught on YouTube making derogatory comments about Allardyce while on the club’s pre-season tour of the Far East in the summer of 2010.
The Scot appeared to cast doubt on his Rovers predecessor’s integrity, his operating methods and ability as a manager in an unguarded attack filmed by supporters in a Hong Kong bar. On Friday night the four-minute video, which was also uploaded to the website of supporters' organisation, Blackburn Rovers Football Community Action Group, had been viewed almost 662,000 times.
Allardyce was sacked in December 2010 and, under the terms of the severance package, neither he nor Rovers can make derogatory remarks about each other. After being made aware of the footage his solicitors initiated legal action against his former assistant Kean and Blackburn for slander last July.
But Kean has settled out of court, with the dispute expected to have been officially signed off on Friday night. The amount of damages will remain undisclosed but is understood to be significant.
Allardyce will almost certainly view this development as a personal triumph after his controversial dismissal from Rovers two years ago. The club were almost relegated six months after his departure but went down the campaign after, with Kean – whose appointment was detested by the majority of supporters – lasting only until September of this season.
Since his appointment at West Ham in June 2011 Allardyce has guided the club out of the Championship at the first attempt and they are currently 11th in the Premier League. Kean, meanwhile, is out of work. He will appear on Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday programme this weekend.
Blackburn’s much-maligned owners, Venky’s, have also had to pay damages and this may affect Allardyce’s plans to sign Martin Olsson this month. Olsson, the Sweden international defender, will cost around £2 million and Venky’s are unlikely to be keen on doing business.
Allardyce said: “If they have made Martin available I would definitely be interested because I worked with the lad at Blackburn when I was there for two years. I had a really good time developing him into what I consider to be quite a good player.” |
This Bill Could Stop Protectionist State Broadband Laws, But ISP Control Over Congress Means It Won't Pass
from the get-the-hell-out-of-the-way dept
"I’m disappointed that a recent court ruling blocked the FCC’s efforts to allow local communities to decide for themselves how best to ensure that their residents have broadband access,” Eshoo said. “This legislation clears the way for local communities to make their own decisions instead of powerful special interests in state capitals."
"Rather than restricting local communities in need of broadband, we should be empowering them to make the decisions they determine are in the best interests of their constituents. Too many Americans still lack access to quality, affordable broadband and community broadband projects are an important way to bring this critical service to more citizens."
We've noted for years that one way incumbent broadband providers protect their duopoly kingdoms is by quite literally buying state laws that protect the status quo. These laws, passed in roughly twenty different states , prevent towns and cities from building their own broadband networks or in some instances from partnering with a private company like Google Fiber. Usually misleadingly presented by incumbent lobbyists and lawmakers as grounded in altruistic concern for taxpayer welfare, the laws are little more than pure protectionism designed to maintain the current level of broadband dysfunction -- for financial gain.Earlier this year, the FCC tried to use its Congressional mandate under the Communications Act to eliminate the restrictive portions of these laws in two states. But the FCC's effort was shot down as an overreach by the courts earlier this month , and the FCC has stated it has no intention of continuing the fight. That leaves the hope of ending these protectionist laws either in the hands of voters (most of whom don't have the slightest idea what's happening) or Congress (most of whom don't want the telecom campaign contributions to stop flowing).Undaunted, Representative Anna Eshoo this week introduced the Community Broadband Act of 2016 in the House, which is intended to be a companion bill to the existing bill of the same name already introduced in the Senate by Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden. Both bills would ban states from passing any law that prohibits a city, municipality or public utility from providing "advanced telecommunications capabilities" to state communities. In a statement , Eshoo expressed her displeasure at the ongoing efforts to thwart alternative broadband options:Which is all true, though both bills have virtually no chance at passing. Incumbent ISPs have been very successful in paying lawmakers to argue that any attempt to eliminate these protectionist laws is an "assault on states' rights," as argued by the likes of Marsha Blackburn . Of absolutely no concern to these critics is the fact that large companies are writing and buying the passage of state laws that ensure many states remain broadband backwaters solely to protect incumbent ISP revenues.On the bright side, the rise of alternative (though limited) options like Google Fiber -- and the FCC's fight -- have shined a very bright spotlight on a practice that has been ongoing for fifteen years with little to no public and press attention. As such, ISPs (and the politicians that love them) are having a much harder time than ever convincing locals that laws keeping them on expensive, sluggish broadband are in their collective best self-interest.
Filed Under: competition, congress, fcc, municipal broadband |
The relentless series of doping scandals within professional cycling in recent years hides disturbing developments lower down the competitive ladder, reported the Union Cycliste International’s Independent Commission for Reform in Cycling, which stated its belief that doping was increasing among under-23s and in teams below WorldTour, and that “doping in amateur cycling is becoming endemic. This was confirmed by riders, professionals, managers and anti-doping personnel”.
The report also raised concerns about doping in over-40s racing, stating that: “Masters races were said to have middle-aged businessmen winning on EPO, with some of them training as hard as professional riders and putting in comparable performances.” It also conjured up the surreal image of professional riders explaining that “they no longer ride in Gran Fondos” – popular, lengthy timed events run mainly in Italy – “because they were so competitive due to the number of riders doping”.
Lance Armstrong and UCI ‘colluded to bypass doping accusations’ Read more
The upsurge in doping among amateurs, said the report, was “caused by ease of access to drugs via gyms and the internet, the reduction in costs for substances, a spread of knowledge in means and methods of administration, and a lack of funding for regular testing at the amateur level”.
Another reason it suggested was that the UCI had directed its efforts at the highest echelon and “part of the doping problem has shifted to layers below the top level. It has been reported that doping has grown more prominent in U23 riders and particularly within continental teams. In this group of cyclists there are many athletes that want to turn professional and/or look for good contracts and are, thus, particularly vulnerable to doping.”
It cited the case of “a team below the UCI WorldTour recently involved in doping. It was claimed that the team manager and sports director brought a nutritionist into the team who advised a selected group of riders within the team on a doping programme. The instructions were to administer EPO Zeta every second day after 11pm at night, and alternate in the winter with HGH and Lutrelef, a hormone. Their haematocrit levels were to be tested every third day, and amounts of EPO Zeta reduced [by half] as the season approached.”
The commission reported that it had heard from a national anti-doping body, that it felt that “testing at the amateur level was not done because they are only amateurs and we concentrate on professionals”. It added that “other Nados [National Anti-Doping Organisations] indicated that they carried out some testing at amateur level. Budgetary constraints restrict the amount of testing that can be done at amateur level.
“As a consequence, as amateur riders told the commission, they know that it is highly unlikely that they will be tested so they know that it is easy to dope and get away with it. The more widespread doping at the amateur level means the concept of doping is reinforced at the broader amateur level ie. within the wider fan base. Internet chat rooms provide significant information in the many discussions about doping.”
Rulers in dark about extent of doping as clean bill of health proves elusive | William Fotheringham Read more
This is borne out by test results in recent years, which include a third-category French amateur who tested positive for 12 substances, mainly steroids and corticoids, the most ever found in a single sample, and the British cyclist Dan Staite, who was banned for using EPO in 2010. Another case in 2012 involved a 47-year-old member of the Danish Cycling Federation’s board, who tested positive for testosterone and cortisone in a veteran’s race.
CIRC also made the point that youth cycling merits attention being “particularly vulnerable as anti-doping testing is concentrated at the elite level so doping may go undetected at lower levels. If youth riders want to reach higher ranks, the incentives are there to dope at an early age. As a result, some managers try to identify good quality amateur riders in their mid-teens to sign them clean before they got exposed to doping.”
The commission recommended the UCI should look closely at women’s cycling as it grows to prevent a similar problem developing to the one among male professionals.
The report concluded that doping in women’s cycling “most probably is not as widespread and systematic. This is likely because far less money is available in women’s road racing. The commission was told of doping at the highest levels nevertheless, and it is logical to assume that when women’s cycling is developed to a status comparable to the men’s sport, it will attract the same problems unless steps are taken now to protect it from that fate.” |
This week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced President Donald Trump's plan to distribute military gear to state and local law enforcement agencies. The rule change means weapons typically reserved for war-time use – tracked armored (tank-like) vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vessels, grenade launchers, bayonets, and firearms with ammunition of .50-caliber or higher – will start flowing to local law enforcement agencies through the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program.
Yes, the story is familiar. In 2016, we sounded the alarm at Forbes about the Obama administration sending heavy weapons to local police departments. We noted that people of good faith on both the left and right were raising serious concerns regarding civil liberties and the growth of government.
Today, the same questions are valid: What’s the legitimate law enforcement purpose for these weapons? Does the militarization of local police threaten our civil liberties?
Search our OpenTheBooks interactive map for all weaponry transferred to the 6,500 local, state and other federal police agencies across America since 2006. See it all – in your hometown, park district, forest preserve, junior college, university, county, state police – or federal agency such as Homeland Security, Interior and the Justice Department – across any ZIP code!
What military gear will you find in your local police department? Here’s a sample of our findings:
In Illinois, the College of DuPage received 14 fully automatic M16 rifles. The police department in Wheaton (pop. 53,000) picked up 68 M16 and M14 rifles plus five pistols (.45 caliber). Evanston – a small community known to promote gun control ordinances – procured 20 M16 rifles.
Paducah County, Kentucky, (pop. 25,000) received 78 M16 rifles and one mine-resistant vehicle while the Georgetown Police Department (pop. 33,000) procured 77 M16 and M14 rifles, 40 pistols (.45 caliber), and one mine-resistant vehicle.
In California, the Cotati Police Department (pop. 7,500) received 13 M16 rifles and Del Norte County (pop. 27,000) received 25 M16 rifles. The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department procured $3.6 million in surplus equipment including 768 M16 rifles.
In Ohio, the Department of Natural Resources received 240 fully automatic M16 and M14 rifles. Why? To enforce hunting laws?
Mine-resistant armored vehicles (49) were transferred to many small towns and counties in Florida including Baker County (pop. 27,000), Leesburg (pop. 22,400), Hallandale Beach (37,113), and Suwannee County (pop. 43,000).
Even sovereign Native American police agencies are procuring serious military gear. Here are some examples:
In Oklahoma, the Comanche Nation Police Department received nearly $3.5 million in military gear including mine-resistant vehicles, military cargo trucks, tractor trucks and night vision goggles.
The Chickasaw Nation Lighthorse Police received nearly $435,000 in gear including mine-resistant vehicles, infrared illuminators, night vision goggles, a mine-detecting set, and thermal sights.
The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service received two mine-resistant vehicles ($1.1 million).
In Colorado, the Indian Tribes Police Department received a helicopter worth $190,817.
Last year, citizen outrage helped shut down a local police department in Illinois after we released our OpenTheBooks Snapshot Report – The Militarization of Local Police Departments. We revealed that the police in London Mills (pop. 381) acquired $201,445 in military equipment including rifles, generators, trucks, and Humvees.
Here is an updated summary of the 1.5 million pieces of military weaponry and equipment distributed to law enforcement agencies from 2006 through June 30, 2017:
7,828 trucks ($458.9 million), 865 mine-resistant vehicles ($593 million); 502 helicopters ($170.2 million); 335 armored cars and trucks ($22.5 million); and 57 airplanes ($293.5 million).
83,122 M16/M14 rifles (5.56mm and 7.62mm) ($31.2 million); 8,198 pistols (.38, .40, and .45 caliber) ($491,769); and 1,385 riot 12-guage shotguns ($25,357).
20,297 night-vision sights, sniper scopes, binoculars, goggles, and image magnifiers ($108.2 million); 6,388 infrared, articulated, panoramic and laser telescopes ($2.1 million).
875 mine detecting sets, marking kits, and probes ($913,044) and 58 grenade launchers ($41,683).
6,020 bayonets ($308,175) and 57 swords and scabbards.
Florida ranks first among states in the receipt of military gear since 2006 (more than $292 million in gear). Items include 4,198 transfers of M16 and M14 rifles (5.56mm and 7.62mm) across the state. For example, the state highway patrol received 1,815 M16/M14 rifles, plus six military-armored vehicles, three Mine Resistant Vehicles and three Complete Combat/Assault/Tactical Wheeled Vehicles.
Over the past 18 months, however, Tennessee has led the charge by receiving $52 million in military equipment. In just 18 months, 26 mine-resistant vehicles have been distributed to small town police departments in Tennessee such as Waverly (pop. 4,100); Pigeon Forge (pop. 6,200); Perry County (pop. 7,900); Lenoir City (pop. 9,100); and Brownsville (pop: 9,780).
California has received nearly $43 million while Texas and Alabama have procured about $33 million each.
In the first five months of 2017, local and state law enforcement agencies received mine-resistant vehicles, taser guns, rifles, bayonets, armored vehicles, helicopters and thousands of other types of military equipment. The Department of Defense distributed 275,999 pieces of surplus military equipment worth $127 million.
This week’s policy change announced by AG Sessions puts prohibited war weapons back on the table. It is therefore more important than ever that citizens investigate and ask hard questions of their local police departments.
We must demand answers: What is the legitimate public purpose for local police agencies to possess military weaponry? Is this in best interests of taxpayers? And is it in the best interests of our civil liberties? |
AIRO -- It takes five seconds. By the time he opens the passenger door, swings out his legs and stands up, the kids swarm. Some are as young as grade schoolers, others are teenagers. One boy wears a blue NAPA hat. Another a black Superman T-shirt. All the girls have their heads wrapped in colorful scarves.
The kids are likely here at the famed Pyramids of Giza on a school field trip. But on this sun-filled morning, the main attraction isn't the Sphinx or the Great Pyramid. Instead, it's a determined-looking American, a bald man wearing dark blue jeans and a plain gray T-shirt with beads of sweat soaking through the fabric. It's Bob Bradley.
Since accepting the job as manager of the Egyptian national team last September, the former U.S. coach, a man who had been ridiculed stateside for being too boring and too robotic, has become an A-list celebrity in soccer-crazed Egypt. His commitment to his new country and his response to its post-revolution challenges have endeared him to a population that wrestles every day with the concept of leadership. Now, the man can barely step outside his Cairo apartment without someone begging for a photo.
"There are days where I take 500 pictures, 1,000 pictures," Bradley says. "But what are you going to do? It's just it's just their world."
ESPN The Magazine Bob Bradley arrived in Egypt between a revolution and a riot. He found his way by leaning on the country's biggest star, Mohammed Aboutrika. Read Wayne Drehs' story, "The Crucible in Cairo," in ESPN The Magazine. Here's a preview: THE BOY IS DYING. He lies on his back on squares of sparkling white tile in the Al Ahly locker room, fighting for every last second. Mohamed Aboutrika, the most beloved player in Egyptian soccer, rushes to him, kneels down and takes the boy in his arms. A postgame riot has brought the two together. The chaos on this February night in Port Said began moments after the match between Cairo's Al Ahly and its rival, Al Masry, as fans set upon one another with rocks, broken bottles and knives. When the stadium lights mysteriously flickered off, the riot police chose to stand by. The result will be the most gruesome tragedy in Egyptian soccer history: 74 dead. A thousand-plus injured. Millions outraged. Some of the wounded rush to the Al Ahly locker room for help. It soon resembles a MASH unit: Injured and dying are everywhere, at players' lockers and in the hall. The dead lie on the floor amid duffel bags and dirty socks. At the center of it all is Aboutrika. Al Ahly is Egypt's version of the Yankees; Aboutrika is Derek Jeter, an aging superstar who commands respect, a hero to fans. The dying boy on the sparkling white tile is one of them. He wants to see Aboutrika, touch him, so the player leans closer as the astonished boy says, "Captain." Read "The Crucible in Cairo."
Ross Dettman for ESPN.com
Bradley wouldn't typically hang out at the most popular tourist destination in this or any other country. But today, he's doing it for a specific reason.
In February, Bradley watched on television as 74 fans were killed and thousands more injured after a postmatch riot in the Egyptian Premier League. The horrific scene in Port Said was broadcast around the world. It left me wondering why Bradley was in Egypt, and what life was like in such a tumultuous post-revolution world. We talked by phone, and he insisted things weren't nearly as chaotic as they seemed. He spoke about the warmth of the Egyptian people, and invited me to come to Egypt and see for myself. From the moment I landed in the Middle East, Bradley raved about the pyramids. How my jaw would drop. My eyes would widen. How it would be unlike anything I'd ever seen. If I'm going to understand and appreciate Egypt, he said, the pyramids are a must. Just to make sure I don't miss them, he takes me there himself. When our tour begins, Bradley stops our guide midsentence and turns to me. "You getting some of the history here?" he asks. "This is pretty incredible stuff."
But bringing me here comes with consequences. Everyone wants a piece of the man they hope will take their country to its third World Cup in 80 years. Outside the Great Pyramid, grown men call to him atop camels. Others fill his hands with free souvenirs, which he later gives to me insisting I take them home to my daughter. And here by the Sphinx, it's that throng of school children who can't stop staring. Every kid wants his or her own 1-on-1 photo. Bradley tries to accommodate as many as he can. But he's tight on time. In every picture with a boy, click, he puts his arm around their shoulder. In every picture with a girl, click, he keeps his hands to himself. As one child poses for a picture, the boy says, "Cheeeeeeese."
"They love that here," Bradley adds.
As Bradley walks closer to the Sphinx, the pack grows. We've been at the pyramids for nearly two hours. Someone decides it's time to go. Bradley poses for a few more pictures and then endlessly repeats the Arabic phrase for thank you. "Shokron," he says. An assistant coach and an Egyptian Soccer Federation PR man usher him to his waiting car. When the door closes, he takes a deep breath. Then he chuckles.
"It's wild around here, isn't it?" he says.
Bradley then realizes he's bleeding from a tiny cut on the side of his head. He has no idea how it happened. He guesses one of the kids must have bumped him while holding a cell phone. As the car begins to pull away, Bradley touches the nick with his fingers to survey the damage. It's not a big deal. "Lindsay will get a laugh out of this," he says of his wife. Outside the car, kids cup their hands around their faces and press up against the glass to see inside the car. A boy yells to Bradley.
"Thank you, thank you," the boy says in English. "Thank you, my friend."
And just like that, Bradley is gone. |
Responding to criticism from lawmakers Thursday, Gov. Larry Hogan said money he proposed for a new Baltimore jail should instead pay for projects at state universities.
In a letter to leaders of the General Assembly's budget committees, Hogan asked that $18.3 million budgeted to design a new jail be spent elsewhere because "there is clearly no longer support for this project in the General Assembly."
Hogan asked lawmakers to keep $16.6 million in the budget for demolishing buildings at the jail site, where he shuttered facilities dating to the Civil War last year.
The governor cannot move the money himself — the legislature controls changes to state construction spending after the governor introduces his budget.
The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday that Hogan's spending plan delayed five college projects, including two at historically black universities in Baltimore, to begin building a $480 million jail in the city. The proposal incensed Democratic lawmakers, including the Legislative Black Caucus.
Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer, chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said Hogan made a "good decision" in asking to hold off on the jail project. Kasemeyer said the jail and college projects were in competition because the governor was trying to reduce spending.
"You can't do everything," said Kasemeyer, a Democrat who represents parts of Howard and Baltimore counties. "It's not an unlimited budget. You have to create priorities."
The jail probably will have to be rebuilt at some point, Kasemeyer said, but "when you match it up with this or that — build a new jail or build new facilities at a school — I think the choice is obvious."
House Speaker Michael E. Busch said the governor ignored a work group that came up with a plan for replacing the jail and decided — on his own — to close it last year.
A new jail might be needed, "but not at the expense of educational institutions," said Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat. "The vast majority of citizens, particularly in Baltimore City, want to see their schools funded ... before they start to fund a jail."
Del. Nic Kipke, an Anne Arundel Republican who is the House minority leader, defended Hogan.
"I'm sure the governor never wanted to build a jail and, like anyone, would much rather spend those dollars in another way," Kipke said. "However, that facility needed to be closed. It was a liability, and the conditions were deplorable."
Hogan's request to eliminate some of the jail funding capped a tense day in Annapolis that began with members of the Legislative Black Caucus sharply criticizing the governor for a number of his decisions, including postponing the college projects in order to free up money for the jail. Del. Barbara Robinson, chairwoman of the caucus, called that plan "unconscionable."
Asked if they thought Hogan's decision-making was racially motivated, black caucus members responded: "Absolutely."
Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer rejected the accusation, calling it "shameful."
As black caucus members spoke to reporters, Hogan was being interviewed on "The C4 Show" on WBAL radio. Hogan told host Clarence Mitchell IV that he was open to dropping the jail project in response to lawmakers' complaints.
"If these folks who pushed for the jail no longer want the jail, we will not build the jail," Hogan said. "And we'll figure out a way to take another look at the budget, and if there are some better ways to spend that money. We're all about working together."
By the afternoon, Hogan had asked lawmakers to revise his budget proposal.
In July, Hogan abruptly closed the jail, which the state had run since 1991. The jail had been the target of a lawsuit over conditions for the detainees and was also the setting for a corruption scandal involving the Black Guerrilla Family gang, which authorities said essentially ran the facility until 2013.
Detainees were moved out of the main jail, built in the 1800s, into other buildings on the 27-acre Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services site.
Though the jail closure came as a surprise, some civil liberties advocates praised it.
Hogan had proposed spending $480 million over five years for a new, six-story jail that would house men and women, and include space for education and drug-treatment programs. Sixteen buildings on the site would be demolished.
Hogan's plan replaced an earlier plan endorsed by lawmakers that would have cost $780 million and taken 13 years to complete.
Speaking on the radio, Hogan said he wasn't keen on the new jail project in the first place.
"It's not my idea to build a jail in Baltimore. I have no desire to build a jail in Baltimore. … The legislature has demanded that we build a new jail," he said. "The city of Baltimore has been demanding that we build a new jail. Legislators that were critical in the paper voted for it. It was their idea, not my idea."
In his letter to lawmakers Thursday, Hogan suggested spending the money he proposed for the jail on higher education projects including:
•A business school renovation at Coppin State University;
•A student services building at Morgan State University;
•A biosciences building at the University System of Maryland's Shady Grove campus;
•A research and classroom building at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center;
•A life sciences building at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and
•A school of pharmacy project at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.
Lawmakers also were annoyed Thursday that Hogan compared them to rowdy college students during his radio interview.
"It's like they're on spring break. They come here for a few weeks. They start breaking up the furniture and throwing beer bottles off the balcony," Hogan said. "Luckily, in a few weeks, they're going to go home, and we go back to running the state and making progress, like we have for the past year." |
Crandell University in Moncton New Brunswick wants it both ways. As a Christian college, it feels it has a religious right to dictate the sexual behavior and preferences of its staff and refuse jobs to LGBT applicants.
At the same time, the school claims a right to a huge chunk of public funding - $150,000 annually from Moncton - which LGBT activists and others say must be cut off unless it changes its anti-gay policy.
Human rights activists are not the only ones opposed to Crandell’s discriminatory policies; The Canadian Association of University Teachers told Global News that it's “entirely inappropriate” for an institution calling itself a university to impose “an ideological test” on its professors.
But a Crandell spokesman told the press he doesn’t believe the college is violating human rights, and he welcomes debate on the issue.
Let Crandell know it can’t take money from a public it discriminates against, and tell Moncton to stop funding this anti-gay college. |
John Taylor of College Football Talk(related to Pro Football Talk) is reporting through two sources that there is a "very good chance" that Kansas City Chiefs LB Mike Vrabel will join the Ohio State football coaching staff. An announcement could come as soon as Monday, according to the report.
This would end the question of whether Vrabel will return to the Chiefs.
If you've been reading this space for the last couple of years, the Vrabel-to-Ohio-State story shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Vrabel's former coaches thought he would be a coach one day, his current coach figured he might be and even Vrabel himself has said he'd be interested in coaching.
At Luke Fickell's introductory press conference as the OSU head coach, Vrabel was questioned about his interest in returning to his alma mater. At the time, he said his former teammate and now head coach, Fickell, knew he had a lot of on plate at the time so it certainly didn't sound like it was happening this year.
This is somewhat of a surprise because just a few months ago Vrabel said he was interested in returning to Kansas City. He told Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star in April he "would love to come back." Perhaps Vrabel now is simply not interested in playing anymore, or perhaps he finally got his OSU offer, or it's also possible the Chiefs filtered word to him that they're not interested if he returns.
But in that same interview he also did something not many players are able to do -- he looked at the situation realistically.
''I would certainly hope so. I really do,'' Vrabel told Teicher last April. ''But I also have to find out realistically if anybody is interested. It does me no good to say I want to play if nobody is interested. It does me no good to say I don't want to play if somebody is interested."
We shall see if this is the end of Mike Vrabel. |
A Texas school district has assembled a SWAT team to bolster school safety, local NBC affiliate KVEO reports. The decision comes after the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Following the Connecticut massacre, the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District dispatched police officers to all its elementary schools in order to strengthen security.
Though the project, dubbed Operation Safeguard, was suspended in January after Edinburg CISD police chief Rick Perez announced schools were safe, the district decided to put together a special SWAT -- Special Weapons And Tactics -- unit to prepare for potential future threats.
According to school officials, the district's proximity to the United States-Mexico border was also a factor in the decision, ABC affiliate KRGV reports.
The 12-member SWAT team began training in February and runs practice drills, such as staging an active shooter situation, at least once per month.
According to the Valley Town Crier, each SWAT member -- armed with a M4 Carbine assault rifle -- will be placed at a school in the district. If a situation arises, team members will respond to the location of the threat.
However, Perez says the specially trained officers will not regularly patrol school campuses with the high-powered firearms.
"Those types of weapons are only utilized in a circumstance as it arises," Perez told the Valley Town Crier. “We're not going to be walking around campuses with them but we base the need for our equipment as the situation occurs." |
There are probably fewer Trotskyists in Britain today than at any time since an ice pick was plunged into the skull of Leon Trotsky almost exactly 76 years ago. There were once Trotskyist groups in Britain with thousands of members: the Workers’ Revolutionary party (defunct), the Socialist Workers’ party (more irrelevant than ever) and Militant (deceased, with a noisy but shrivelled successor party). The political significance of British Trotskyism is minimal. Its influence is mostly confined to blocking entrances to political events with aggressive paper-sellers, and asking questions at political meetings which are really long-winded pre-prepared statements that achieve little other than driving other attendees to think “oh god, what am I doing with my life?”
If you want to understand the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon in good faith, there is little value in the discussion of entryism that has been taking place over the last week. Now, to be absolutely clear, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, did not say that the hundreds of thousands of new members who have transformed Labour into Europe’s biggest progressive party were Trotskyists. He said a “small number of people” were, and suggested there were “some old hands twisting young arms”. My experience of young Labour members is that they have a huge capacity to think for themselves and develop their own politics. That aside, Watson highlighting efforts by the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL) to get involved in the Labour party will undoubtedly fuel a media narrative that Labour is falling under the spell of revolutionary zealots.
Judges and infiltrators in Labour’s civil war | Letters Read more
Even under Tony Blair’s leadership, there were Trotskyist groups involved in the Labour party, ranging from the AWL to Socialist Action. Undoubtedly some of them see the Corbyn surge as a fantastic recruitment opportunity, or the next stage in fomenting the kind of revolution that has never taken place in a single western country. Some Trotsykists who, a year and a half ago, were berating me for being a rightwing sellout for suggesting Labour was the left’s best bet are now berating me for being a rightwing sellout for showing insufficient loyalty to the Labour leadership. But in the grand scheme of things, they are just irrelevant. Most of Labour’s membership influx would probably struggle to even define Trotskyism. They believe in things like public ownership of rail, higher taxes on the rich, improved workers’ rights and investment rather than cuts. Trotsky’s transitional demands it ain’t. In the 1970s such beliefs would have been regarded as pretty timid social democracy. There are too few Trotskyist activists to have any decisive impact on a party as big as Labour now is.
And then there’s Labour party millionaire donor Michael Foster’s description of Corbyn supporters in the Mail on Sunday this weekend as “Nazi stormtroopers”. As the Jewish Voice puts it, such a suggestion is “dangerous, offensive and cynically exploits fear”. Comparing politically enthused democratic socialists to murderous paramilitaries employed by a genocidal totalitarian regime that slaughtered leftists: well, frankly, it’s diabolical.
A large chunk of the Labour party membership believe that they are at war with the party’s old order. They are furious. The more they feel insulted and belittled, the stronger their support for Corbyn. And with these distractions, the party is being denied a debate on the issues. The Corbyn campaign’s floating of a cradle-to-grave national education service is a good example. How can Labour win over older Britons who have turned away from the party in great numbers? What does the party have to say to the growing ranks of the self-employed? How will it tackle the triple whammy of a lack of social housing, an unregulated private rented sector and collapsing home ownership? And, yes, how can a Labour leadership with such disastrous poll ratings turn them around and prevent the party being wiped out at a possible snap election?
Labour is in the midst of a civil war that threatens its future existence. All sides have a responsibility to prevent the party from disappearing. And a start would be to calm down the rhetoric and stick to the issues. Otherwise the party will become a freakshow existing for the entertainment of the Conservative party. |
In February 2016, I sat in the press area for the GOP presidential debate in Greenville. One of the people I met was a reporter for The Guardian, Ben Jacobs. We introduced ourselves and chatted for a few minutes before the debate started. Ben was friendly and engaging. Hardly the “aggressive” type as he’s been portrayed in some quarters.
When the story broke that Montana Republican Greg Gianforte assaulted Jacobs, the reaction from some conservatives on social media was, “Ben is lying.” Ben used the term “body slammed” and people conjured up images of a professional wrestler picking up an opponent and slamming them to the ground.
People assumed because Jacobs is a “liberal” who writes for The Guardian, he either made up the story or exaggerated what happened. Even with audio available of what happened, some people still didn’t believe it, content in being suspicious because of “liberal reporter.”
There was a Fox News team there to interview Gianforte, and they witnessed the incident. Ironically, what they describe sounds worse than Jacobs’ description:
During that conversation, another man — who we now know is Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte’s face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon. At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, “I’m sick and tired of this!” Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked Faith, Keith and myself for our names. In shock, we did not answer. Jacobs then said he wanted the police called and went to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. At that point, I told him and Scanlon, who was now present, that we needed a moment. The men then left.
Once the report spread, the narrative shifted in some conservative circles to “he lied,” to “He deserved it,” or “Who cares?”
Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center tweeted the following:
Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk. I'm not surprised he got smacked. — Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) May 25, 2017
Classy.
Laura Ingraham suggested Jacobs should have jumped up and start throwing punches:
Politicians always need to keep their cool. But what would most Montana men do if "body slammed" for no reason by another man? — Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) May 25, 2017
Ingraham, of course, supports Donald Trump who spends a lot of time telling everybody how “unfair” the media is to him.
What happened here is another example of tribal politics getting in the way of reason. There is never an excuse for a politician to assault a reporter for asking questions. There are hundreds of photos to see with politicians talking into a sea of microphones, digital recorders, and smartphones. It comes with the job.
It’s sad to watch some conservatives wave it away because they don’t like the media. |
LOS ANGELES (CN) — A California law requiring psychotherapists to report patients who look at child pornography on the internet does not violate patients’ privacy — even if the patients are teenagers sexting nude selfies to each other, an appellate court ruled Monday.
“The privacy interest of patients who communicate that they watch child pornography is outweighed by the state’s interest in identifying and protecting sexually abused children,” Division Two of the Second Appellate District ruled, affirming a judgment from Los Angeles Superior Court.
Therapy patients cannot expect privacy about a child pornography habit because having or viewing child porn is illegal, the three-judge panel said in a 36-page opinion.
“Not only is it illegal, the conduct is reprehensible, shameful and abhorred by any decent and normal standards of society,” Presiding Justice Roger Boren wrote for the unanimous panel.
Although the legal question centers on privacy rights, an important underlying issue is the tension between treating potential sexual predators and treating them.
At issue is a section of California’s Penal Code called the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, or CANRA. Since the 1980s, it has required certain professionals to inform law enforcement when they learn about someone who has made or exchanged child porn. A 2014 amendment updated the law to cover downloading, streaming or accessing child pornography through electronic or digital media, according to the appellate opinion.
Two marriage and family therapists and an alcohol and drug counselor sued to block the law in February 2015, saying it would scare off patients needing treatment.
The revised law would “induce patients to cease therapy, make them unlikely to disclose intimate details needed to provide effective therapy, or deter existing or potential patients with serious sexual disorders from obtaining therapy at all,” family therapists Don Matthews and Michael Alvarez and counselor William Owen claimed in their suit against Attorney General Kamala Harris and Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
The plaintiffs said the law could lead to prosecutions against consenting minors who send or receive sexting photos “that do not involve sexual abuse or exploitation.”
In scattered cases across the country, minors as young as 12 have been charged with child pornography for sending or receiving sexts, including in Pennsylvania and Iowa.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Stern rejected the therapists’ lawsuit last year. On Monday, Justice Boren, joined by Justices Victoria Chavez and Brian Hoffstadt, said that even the strong right of privacy in Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution is not absolute, and “must be balanced against other important interests.”
And child pornography “does not involve any ‘vital privacy interest,’” Boren wrote.
“The fact that a patient might share the information of his or her past criminal conduct in possessing Internet child pornography with a psychotherapist does not implicate a constitutionally protected privacy interest.”
Boren also rejected the therapists’ argument that the Legislature went too far in the 2014 amendment when it expanded CANRA from printing, copying or trading child pornography to simply downloading it.
“We discern no legal basis to distinguish between obscene images of children in prints or on the Internet, both of which involve ‘sexual exploitation’ of the most vulnerable members of society,” Boren wrote.
The Evidence Code privilege against patient-psychotherapist communication does not apply to child porn, according to a California Supreme Court ruling.
There is no constitutionally protected right to view such pornography, Boren held. “When patients seek medical treatment for their sexual disorders, they have no legally protected privacy interest in communicating that they have downloaded, streamed or accessed child pornography from the Internet.”
The same reasoning applies to the therapists’ claims about sexting. “Minors do not have a fundamental right to produce or possess child pornography, including viewing sexually explicit images of other minors,” the justice wrote.
Boren also rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that people who merely download child porn are unlikely to move on to “hands-on” sexual exploitation of children. “The claim that CANRA cannot be expanded to include Internet child pornography victims because they are ‘virtual’ and therefore are not harmed is patently absurd,” Boren said.
Finally, Boren ruled there is no guarantee in the U.S. Constitution to privacy in medical records. “California has a legitimate interest in the identification and protection of sexually exploited children, which is a reasonable exercise of its police power to address the problem of sexually exploited children on the Internet.”
Mark Hardiman, of Nelson Hardiman, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, did not return a call seeking comment on late Tuesday. The attorneys representing the state could not be reached.
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Dollar Donut and Coffee Deals
Donut Bar
Dating someone who lives Downtown? If so, you might just get lucky … and, of course, by that we mean that you might get to partake in the DTLV denizen morning ritual of strolling or rolling up to Donut Bar (gotta love that 15-minute loading-only spot!) for what is quite possibly the best deal in town. Score an old-fashioned cake doughnut ($1 plain and half-dipped chocolate, $2 half-dipped vanilla bean) and a $1 small coffee ($2 large—the Portland Roast is where it’s at, kids!). Take your treats out back to the Adirondack chairs or, if it’s sweltering, stay inside and watch fish swim around replica Big Poppa Tart doughnuts in the fish tank. For less than $5, you can have doughnuts and coffee for two. Hey, big spender! 124 S. Sixth St., donutbar.com
Bacon, Egg & Cheese Sandwich
Eggslut
Courtesy of The Cosmopolitan
You’ve been waking up with that traditional breakfast sandwich for weeks now, and it’s gotten a little stale. Its buns aren’t as big anymore. It doesn’t warm your insides like it used to. We all have needs, and Egg Slut’s Bacon, Egg & Cheese sandwich fulfills them best. This classic creation covers all the bases of a good breakfast sandwich—fluffy brioche bun, hardwood-smoked bacon, melted cheddar—but the egg is the star ingredient. Instead of a standard scramble, it’s cooked over-medium, leaving the yolk intact but not too runny. As you bite into the sandwich, the delicate yolk bursts, coating the bacon and cheese. This one’s a keeper. $8, The Cosmopolitan, eggslut.com
Fried Egg Sandwich
The Goodwich
Breakfast being the most important meal of the day, we’d be remiss in mentioning just one egg sandwich. The Goodwich’s fried egg sammie ($4) has just four ingredients: choice of bread (marble rye, please) that is buttered, salted and griddled to shore up the fried egg, which is served by default with a silky broken yolk but can also come with a firmer center by request. Now, here’s your opportunity to get creative and remain within budget. From the “Stack” menu, add melty cheese (+$1) and bacon (+$2) for a stacked-rite delight that’s still less than the cost of the other sandwiches on the menu. Feeling more adventurous? Layer on avocado (+$1.50), jalapenos (+$1) or chicharrones (+$1). No, really, though: Have it your way. 900 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Suite 120, thegoodwich.com
Hawaiian Benedict Sandwich
Vesta Coffee Roasters
That feeling when it’s Monday and you’re not in Maui? There’s a cure for that at Vesta Coffee Roasters. The laid-back atmosphere, smiling baristas and generous sunlight pouring in from large, uncovered windows will almost make you feel like you’re in the islands. Just add a bite of the Hawaiian Benedict sandwich, with an easy egg, Spam, cheddar and sriracha hollandaise, to complete the experience. Never mind the triple-digit temperatures and that pesky dry heat. $7, 1114 S. Casino Center Blvd., vestacoffee.com
Croque Madame
Café Breizh
Whether it’s true or not that the ham ’n’ cheesy grilled French sandwich was discovered when workmen placed their lunch pails next to the radiator, resulting in a melty, toasty meal, it does make perfect sense that the female version of the Croque Monsieur has an egg on top. But that’s just one of the reasons that makes the Croque Madame at Café Breizh so sinfully delicious. There is also the buttered toast, Gruyère cheese from the Swiss Alps, béchamel sauce and ham. The crunch of the bread, the cheesy goodness and the egg just waiting to be popped result in an explosion of texture and taste. $9.50, 3555 S. Fort Apache Rd., cafebreizh.com
Ono’er
Makai Pacific Island Grill
Got the itch for Hawaiian kine grindz and a fan of build-your-own food bars? Head over to Makai Pacific on the southwest side and get your island-flavor fix. There are three sizes to choose from depending on how hungry you are, all starting under $10. Grab the Ono’er, which includes two scoops of rice, two choices of meat and two sides. Definitely upgrade to the sticky-icky mochiko wings for 50 cents more, and don’t forget the mac salad. $7.69, 5165 S. Fort Apache Rd., makaigrill.com
Vegan Stromboli
The Pizza Company
The Pizza Company has gained quite the vegan following, thanks to its many options (hello, garlic knots of awesome) and pies. While you can’t go wrong with the local shop’s pizza, the small-size vegan stromboli is definitely worth changing things up a bit. Choose from either Daiya mozzarella or house-made cashew ricotta cheese, then add a choice of three veggies, such as spinach, mushrooms and banana peppers,
to create a custom roll. $9.99, 2275 E. Sunset Rd., pizzacompanylv.com
Truffled Potato Chips
Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill (Summerlin)
Cheap eats and celebrity chefs are two things you don’t see together often. With the name Wolfgang Puck attached to a dish, you instantly know you’re in for some quality food. The Truffled Potato Chips—thinly sliced, crisp house-made potato chips drizzled in a creamy, truffled blue cheese sauce finished with blue cheese crumbles, chopped parsley and chives—is the perfect starter dish to whet the appetite. It’s served at lunch and dinner, but stop in for happy hour any day of the week from 3–7 p.m. and snag them for a bargain. $5 (happy hour), $9 (lunch and dinner), 10955 Oval Park Dr., wolfgangpuck.com
Montaditos
Bin 702
Want to sit outside drinking bottomless rosé, but you have little ones? You can at Bin 702 inside Container Park, where children are now allowed on the patio. Take your pick from the expansive wine and beer lists, then pair with a perfectly crafted charcuterie board or a few montaditos—tapa-sized rolls of bread shaped like a wide baguette—which come in varieties such as the Cuban (porchetta, Gruyère, mustard and pickle), Flamin’ Hot Cheeto house spread, Brie with honey, and turkey with smoked gouda and fig jam. Try them all and watch the afternoon fly by. $2.50 each, 707 E. Fremont St., bin702.com
Double Vegan Burger
VegeWay
You’ve probably heard that becoming a vegetarian is a huge “missed steak.” In the case of VegeWay’s Double Vegan Burger, it’s technically two missed steaks, sans the beef. This burger—two vegan burger patties, lettuce, tomato, onion, special sauce and melty vegan cheese—has all the accoutrements minus the greasy beef patties. What it lacks in meat, it more than makes up for in flavor. It’s truly a burger you can feel good about. Even better? For less than $10, you can upgrade with fries and a drink. $5.89, 7790 S. Jones Blvd., vegewaylv.com
The Mutt Dog
Dirt Dog
Mama probably warned you about the dirt dogs when you were younger, but she can make an exception for this one. The Mutt is the Gemini of Dirt Dogs, topped with ingredients from both the Red and Green Dogs, two very different, and tasty, personas. Between a choice of a traditional, Portuguese or lobster bun, there is a bacon-wrapped (bacon-wrapped!) dog loaded with onion and bell peppers cooked in chimichurri sauce, bacon bits, chili flakes and cilantro. Spicy chipotle aioli inside the bun heats your cheeks on that first bite, but the guacamole spread evens it out for a cool finish. $6.25, 8390 Rainbow Blvd., Suite 100, dirtdogla.com
Steak Tartare
The Kitchen at Atomic
If you’re looking to ball on a budget Downtown, the Kitchen at Atomic has you covered. Sit beneath the string of white lights and the red neon glow radiating from Fremont Street on the restaurant’s patio and nosh on chef Joshua Horton’s steak tartare, made of diced prime beef tenderloin, seasoned with Worcestershire, Italian parsley and shallots, topped with caper remoulade, crispy carrot tops, fried capers and cured egg yolk, and served with truffle crostini. Enjoy the explosive flavors while contemplating the history of Atomic Liquors next door, Nevada’s oldest freestanding bar. $10, 917 E. Fremont St., atomic.vegas
Bún
Viet Bistro
Phỏ is often the first dish that comes to mind when we talk about Vietnamese food, but a steaming bowl of soup does not exactly appeal when the temperatures climb to triple digits. A lesser-known option perfect for hot weather is bún, a rice vermicelli served at room temperature with fish sauce “dressing.” It comes with iceberg lettuce and cucumbers, shredded carrot and a choice of grilled sliced pork, grilled shrimp, egg roll (or a combination of those three items) or grilled chicken or beef. For a vegan option, try bún with crispy tofu strips. $8.50–$9, 7175 W. Lake Mead Blvd., 4145 S. Grand Canyon Dr., vietbistrolvnv.com
Poke Crunch Bowl
Pa’ina Cafe
Sure, the poke bowl craze has been on the mainland for a little while now, but can you believe that the first chef responsible for officially adding the term “poke bowl” to a menu has opened up shop in Las Vegas? Absolutely. This is the ninth island, after all. Pa’ina Cafe offers a range of poke bowls, including the Poke Crunch Bowl with rice, which comes with your choice of poke, the house special teriyaki glaze blend, shredded nori and crispy tempura flakes. While you’re there, don’t forget about the super ono desserts. $9.95 (regular), 6870 Spring Mountain Rd.
Lunch Special
Thai Room
If you’re near the University District looking to kill some time, there’s a great spot for lunch that won’t break the bank. Thai Room’s lunch special comes with a refreshing plate of iceberg lettuce and shredded carrots drizzled with a tangy honey mustard dressing, chicken and cabbage soup with a savory broth, steamed or fried rice and an entrée featuring a choice of protein—pork, beef, vegetable or tofu. Some favorites are yellow curry with potato and carrots, red curry with bamboo shoots and bell peppers, and pad Thai. All that and a soda is included. It’ll fuel you through your vintage book search at the Goodwill next door, you hipster. $7.50, weekdays only, 3355 E. Tropicana Ave.
Cheese Whiz Cheesesteak
Pop’s Philly Steaks
Most of us have driven past Pop’s Philly Steaks and wondered what’s up. The building is beautifully lit with purple neon strips and has a nostalgic drive-in-type diner feel. Whether you’re looking for a late-night snack or just craving some good ol’ cheesesteak, Pop’s has you covered. Keep it classy with the Cheese Whiz Cheesesteak. Served on a fluffy yet crispy roll, the thinly sliced steak is cooked with peppers and onions and smothered in Cheese Whiz. Yes, Cheese Whiz. $10, 501 S. Decatur Blvd., popscheesesteaks.com
Brown Bag Portobello
Burger Joint
There’s a supersecret menu over at Burger Joint … and we’re letting you in on it. Take the thinking out of ordering and opt for this meal deal that comes with a portobello burger topped with onions that have been caramelized for 18 hours, fennel escabeche and avocado, plus a side of hand-cut fries or the uberpopular tater tots (spud or sweet potato variety) and a fountain drink. (Take note: This brown bag deal is only available at the restaurant. Postmates can’t drop it at your door.) $9.50, 10890 S. Eastern Ave., burgerjointlv.com
Grandfather Dog
Cheffini’s
No small plates here, just big dogs piled with unusual ingredients, packaged the familiar way. With a choice of beef, turkey or vegan frank, there’s no reason not to stop by this favorite, located in Container Park. Go all the way out with the Grandfather Dog, accompanied by pork belly, red bell peppers, caramelized onions, crushed potato chips, spicy mayo, basil aioli, pickled mango and topped with a fried quail egg. $8.99, 707 E. Fremont St., cheffinis.com
Meal Combo
Pancho’s Vegan Tacos
Can’t have dairy or meat but still long for tacos? Enter Pancho’s Vegan Tacos, which has a massive menu packed with Mexican staples. But what we’re crazy about are the meal combos. Three soft street tacos filled with vegan meat, onion, cilantro and salsa with a side of rice and beans and a medium drink for $6.99. Order up the three rolled and fried potato tacos with sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and salsa with rice and beans on the side for $8.99. Want something a bit heartier? There’s a burrito packed with all the goodies for $8.99. 4865 S. Pecos Rd., panchovegano.com
Hot Dogs and Sausages
ReBar
This bar/antique shop/hot dog spot has it all: ambiance, cheap booze and cheap eats. Choose from an beef dog, Polish sausage, hot or brat link—all priced between $6–$8. For the vegan crowd, there’s a kielbasa (skip the pretzel bun and request the egg-free option). Add oomph to your dog by ordering with “the works,” which loads on spicy and yellow mustards, sauerkraut, sweet pickle relish and vinaigrette onions. Open late, it’s the perfect place to do some post-drink Downtown grubbing on the cheap. $6–$8, 1225 S. Main St., rebarlv.com
Pastrami Boyger
Fat Boy
There are burgers and then there are boygers. Fat Boy’s notorious Pastrami Boyger is something to behold. The first mouthful of pastrami bears a flavorful kick when ordered with jalapenos, and as you take more bites, the reams of meat keep on coming. Fat Boy is generous with its servings—so generous, actually, that it snuck a beef patty underneath all that pastrami for a dual layer of flavor. For the full effect, add cheese to this bad boyger, as it’s rich and melted directly onto the meat, no rubbery slices included! $4.99, 4425 E. Stewart Ave., 1570 W. Horizon Ridge, facebook.com/fatboyrestaurant
Matzo Ball Chicken Noodle Soup
Weiss Deli
Tired? Hungover? Under the weather? Weiss Deli’s matzo ball chicken noodle soup is the cure for what ails. Tucked away in the corner of Green Valley Parkway and Sunset Road, the beloved breakfast spot is a hub for cured meats, bagels and knishes that leave us verklempt. For those days when you need a little TLC, this matzo ball soup—brimming with chunks of chicken, al dente angel hair pasta and perfectly cooked vegetables—is just what your bubbe would have made. $9.99, 2744 N. Green Valley Pkwy.
Falamus
Paymon’s Mediterranean Café & Lounge
Wrap your lunch or dinner in a pita with the Falamus. “What’s a Falamus,” you ask? It’s a combination of Paymon’s sensational deep-fried falafels made with chickpeas, fava beans, veggies and herbs wrapped in pita, filled with creamy hummus, lettuce, tomatoes and tahini sauce. Swing by for dinner any Wednesday from 5–9 p.m. and enjoy 25 percent off your bill in the cafe only, courtesy of the restaurant’s Customer Appreciation Night. $8.95, 4147 S. Maryland Pkwy., paymons.com
Doña Juana Sandwich
Bodega Forte
In the mood for an extraordinary sandwich? For the real deal, head to Doña Juana at Bodega Forte, located inside Forte. Named after the 77-year-old rock star of premium artisanal Spanish meats (and Forté friend), it’s a lunch that celebrates Spain’s culinary treasures. Bite into slices of cured serrano ham and two types of Spanish dry-cured sausages between a sizable, house-made crunchy baguette, with layers of intense and zesty Manchego cheese, roasted piquillo peppers and olive oil. The sandwich is served with a mix of marinated olives and makes a complete lunch. $8.50, 4180 S. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 806, barforte.com
Skewers
Starboard Tack Rum & Provisions
If there are more than just a couple of seasonal frozen Chi-Chis in your future, you’ll want something substantial in your stomach. The best deal going at this new rum joint is the skewers, which, like everything else, is inspired by the rum trade of centuries past. Choices include Szechuan chimichurri beef, tom kha mushroom, kung pao chicken, mapo tofu and coconut shrimp, served with rice. Now you’re ready to power your way through the Tack’s rum collection—somewhere between 230 and 240 at last count! $3.50 each, four for $12, 2601 Atlantic St., facebook.com/starboardtack
Bukkake Udon With Soft-Boiled Egg
Marugame Monzo
Don’t knock it till you try it. Marugame Monzo’s Bukkake Udon with a soft-boiled egg is great during the scorching heat of summer. It’s light, can be enjoyed cold and comes with a dashi-based broth, served on the side and splashed onto handmade udon noodles, hence the name “bukkake.” (If you’re not familiar with the term, Google it at home, because it’s NSFW.) Topped with a soft-boiled egg, bonito and tempura flakes, grated daikon radish and green onions, it’s a dish you won’t soon forget. $8.25, 3889 Spring Mountain Rd.
Slice and a Beer
Pizza Lotto
If you find yourself Downtown on Fremont, there’s a good chance you already have a beer in hand. With the other hand free, the possibilities are endless. Pizza Lotto offers a slice and a beer for $6—your choice of a New York–style slice and a generous 16-ounce PBR or Coors Light to wash it down anytime of the day or night. With cheap eats becoming harder and harder to find on Fremont, this might be the best meal deal Downtown. $6, 600 E. Fremont St., pizzalotto.com
Nachos
Sharky’s
Sharky’s Woodfired Mexican Grill serves up SoCal-inspired Mexican food (or maybe
Mexican-inspired SoCal food?) made with organic, non-GMO, hormone- and preservative-
free ingredients. The half order of nachos is a standout, with cheese, choice of black or pinto beans, guacamole, sour cream, pico and jalapenos. With the four types of cheeses used, you’d think the chips would sag under the weight. Not so—just ask your server to go light on the cheese, and you’ll have a good balance of saltiness, sweetness, coolness and spice. $8.69, 8975 W. Charleston Blvd., sharkys.com
Tony’s Fried Boloney
Plantone’s
Tony’s Fried Boloney is nothing like the Oscar Meyer bologna sandwiches you were forced to eat as a kid. This is premium Italian bologna fried and piled high with fried onions, melted American cheese and a choice of special spicy mustard on a toasted kaiser roll. It’s a simple sandwich with only four ingredients, but it’s packed with enough flavor to wipe out all those bad memories of bologna sandwiches past. With a price tag coming in under $8, it’s one of the Valley’s most delicious deals. $7.25, 8680 W. Warm Springs Rd., plantonesitalian.com
Hog Heaven
Evel Pie
Made of equal parts badass and pizza, the Evel Knievel–themed joint, Evel Pie, nestled into the craziness that is Fremont East, has gained a reputation for its bold flavors and atmosphere since Day One. Whether you’re a traditionalist and want just a slice of cheese and a beer for $5 or you’re looking to expand your palate, pizza maker Vincent Rotolo has your back. For our money, we’d bet on a piece of Hog Heaven, topped with Evel’s BBQ sauce, smoked mozzarella, Fontina, pulled pork, candied bacon, red onions and fresh parsley. $5.50, 508 E. Fremont St., evelpie.com
Pork Belly
Sporting Life Bar
After a couple of adult beverages, it’s only natural to find yourself looking over the bar menu to satisfy late-night, possibly alcohol-induced hunger. You’re likely to find just about anything that can fit into a deep fryer on that menu, but not at Sporting Life Bar, known for upscale bar food and reasonable prices. Take the braised slab of pork belly finished in a cider glaze reduction atop a creamy layer of polenta. One bite and you’ll think you hit the jackpot. $8.99, 7770 S. Jones Blvd., sportinglifebar.com
Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Cornish Pasty Co.
Pasties are the star at Cornish Pasty, but don’t miss out on the selection of soups (up to four daily), which serves up comfort any season of the year. The crowd favorite is the roasted red pepper soup made with red pepper, black beans, rice, chicken and jalapeno, which comes with homemade bread that is as impressive as the soup itself. The combination is just as filling as a pasty. $6.50 (bowl), 10 E. Charleston Blvd., cornishpastyco.com
Spicy Veggie Ramen
Kabuki
This noodle soup gets your eyes watering and your nose running in the best possible way. Tapping into the ramen obsession, Kabuki offers its own version of spicy veggie ramen, with a heaping bowl of noodles in veggie broth, packed with sautéed kale, onions and sprouts. We dig it for the taste and heartiness factor, but also because it checks off as being gluten-free and vegan, too. Bonus: You also get a side salad, just in case there’s extra room. $8.95, Town Square, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. South; Tivoli Village, 400 S. Rampart Blvd., kabukirestaurants.com
Soft Serve/Milkshake
Milk Bar
Yes, there are totally cheaper and just as delicious dessert joints in this town, but every now and then, do as the kids say and treat yo’ self with the $6 soft serve special at Milk Bar. Christina Tosi’s sugar haven at The Cosmopolitan offers up little delights in flavors such as cereal milk, fruity cereal milk, crack pie and sweet potato pie. Try any of those flavors as a milkshake for a couple of bucks more. $6–$9.50, inside The Cosmopolitan, cosmopolitanlasvegas.com
“Sushi” Rice Crispy Treats Gummies
Honey Salt
Restaurateur Elizabeth Blau has long sought her son Cole’s input for the kids’ menu at Honey Salt, hence the tagline “Cole Tested, Mom Approved.” Recently, the pair unveiled “Sushi” Rice Crispy Treats Gummies desserts that are highly addictive at any age. When making the “rolls,” Blau adds more marshmallows to soften traditional Rice Krispies Treats, then stuffs the centers with chunks of Milky Way bars or Twizzlers and wraps them in a Fruit Roll-Up. If you prefer dessert nigiri-style, you can get a Rice Krispies Treat topped with Swedish Fish or gummy worms. Why don’t we just take one of everything? $5, 1031 S. Rampart Blvd., honeysalt.com |
I wish to make an important announcement for the information of the House.
The Government has met in the last hour to consider a proposal from the Minister for Finance to once and for all remove the Promissory Notes relating to the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. This proposal follows the conclusion of discussions between the European Central Bank and the Irish Government.
When Fine Gael and Labour formed a new Government in 2011, we promised to renegotiate the bail-out programme inherited from the previous Government to secure a fairer and more affordable solution to our banking and sovereign debt crises.
In particular, we committed to replacing short-term, emergency Central Bank lending secured against the Promissory Notes used by the previous Government to bail-out the worst Irish banks with longer-term, more affordable financing that reduces the burden on Irish taxpayers and restores confidence among other potential investors in Ireland.
The Promissory Notes represent, in this Government’s view, a highly onerous and unfair legacy of the banking crisis.
Under this Promissory Note arrangement put in place by the previous Government, Irish taxpayers due to pay €3.1 billion next March and every March until 2023, and declining payments until 2031, to cover the massive private losses of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.
Including interest costs, the lifetime cost of the Promissory Note would have been almost €48 billion.
I am pleased to announce that today that Ireland has reached a conclusion to its discussions with the European Central Bank that delivers on our commitment to put in place a fairer and more sustainable arrangement. This is the outcome.
The liquidation of the Irish Bank Resolution Company, as legislated for by the Oireachtas this morning. The remnants of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide – stains on our international reputations and dents to our national pride – have now been removed from the financial and political landscape. Their closure bookends a tragic chapter in our country’s history.
The annual Promissory Notes payments are gone. The liquidation this morning caused the Central Bank to assume full ownership of the €25 billion in Promissory Notes and other collateral held as security for the funds provided by the Central Bank to the IBRC.
Under the agreement reached today with the European Central Bank, the Promissory Notes are being exchanged for long term Irish Government bonds with maturities of up to 40 years.
The first principal payment will not now be made until 2038 and the last payment will be made in 2053. The average maturity of the Government bonds will be over 34 years as opposed to the 7 to 8 year average maturity on the Promissory Notes. In effect, we have replaced a short-term, high interest rate overdraft that had to be paid down quickly through more expensive borrowings, with long-term, cheap, interest-only loans.
In addition, by agreement with the ECB, the liquidation of the IBRC has caused the Central Bank to take ownership of the €3.4 billion bond used to settle the promissory note last March.
As a result, there will be a €20 billion reduction in the NTMA’s market borrowing requirements in the next decade as we seek to restore the economy to full employment, and a very large reduction in the debt servicing costs of the State over the next generation.
The average interest rate on the new bonds will begin at just over 3%, compared with an interest rate of well over 8% on the Promissory Notes.
This will result in a reduction in the State’s General Government deficit of approximately €1 billion per annum over the coming years, which will bring us €1 billion closer to attaining our 3% deficit target by 2015. This means that the expenditure reductions and tax increases will be of the order of €1 billion less to meet the 3% deficit target.
This plan will lead to a substantial improvement in the State’s debt position over time.
Today’s outcome is an historic step on the road to economic recovery. It secures the future financial position of the State by reducing the burden on Irish taxpayers arising from the bail-out of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.
Step-by-step, this Government is undoing the disastrous banking policies that brought this State to the brink of national bankruptcy.
The agreement has reduced Ireland’s vulnerability from the huge debts taken on by Irish taxpayers as a result of the cost of rescuing failed private banks.
Irish citizens can look forward once again with positive expectations. The legacy banking debt hoisted on the Irish taxpayer is a heavy burden. The promissory notes in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide served as a millstone around the neck of the Irish taxpayer. This burden served to erode confidence and limit the economy’s ability to grow.
The new plan will likely materially improve perceptions of our debt sustainability in the eyes of potential investors in Ireland, leading lower interest rates and faster growth than would otherwise be the case. A successful Irish exit from the bail-out by the end of this year would prove that a combination of intensive national reform efforts and European solidarity can deliver results.
Let there be no doubt, this is no silver bullet to end all our economic problems. After the catastrophic economic management of the past decade, there is still a long way to travel in our country’s journey back to prosperity and full employment. The damage done by these financial institutions will take many years to rectify.
Even as the lower interest rates resulting with this agreement reduce Ireland’s deficit, a very large and unsustainable gap between Government revenues and spending remains to be fixed – a gap unrelated to our banking crisis. Only we in Ireland can fix this problem by reforming the way our State and country works.
We continue to negotiate to improve other core elements of the onerous bail-out deal inherited from the previous Government. Today, we have secured a vastly better deal on the cost of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. Tomorrow we continue our efforts to seek European assistance to recover as much taxpayers’ money as possible from the other financial institutions bailed out by the State.
Eurozone leaders, including Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande, have publicly recognized the unique circumstances behind Ireland’s sovereign debt crisis and have mandated the eurogroup to address these issues.
What today shows is that the more Ireland is prepared to help itself, the more others will assist us along the difficult path we still have to travel.
It is a step forward in accelerating our path back to economic recovery and renewed job creation.
It can give us confidence that our goals are achievable, that our hopes are realisable.
It is important to recognise the independent efforts of the Irish Central Bank Governor, his staff and officials from the ECB in securing this agreement. I am confident that it will contribute hugely to the ongoing rebuilding of trust between Irish and European authorities in the management of the banking crisis.
Today’s result has been brought about a strong and determined collective effort by the entire Government. I want to thank the Tanaiste and all Ministers for their contribution to this outcome.
Most of all, I want to publicly thank the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and his officials for leading these negotiations to a successful conclusion. Their dedicated service to the State in their tireless, persistent and patient work over the past 18th months should be an inspiration to us all.
I commend this agreement to the House. |
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ACTU and Jobs Australia say requirement of 25 hours a week of work in remote areas unfairly targets Indigenous Australians
Work for the dole scheme accused of discriminating against Indigenous Australians
A work for the dole scheme that would allow job service providers to dock people’s welfare in remote areas discriminates against Indigenous Australians, unions and the providers’ peak body have warned.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions and Jobs Australia raised the concerns in submissions on proposed changes to the Community Development Program (CDP), which started on 1 July.
Superannuation, women, and flexible work: it's a sad state of affairs | Greg Jericho Read more
Under the scheme CDP providers match dole recipients in remote areas with job placements, including in for-profit companies.
The ACTU and Jobs Australia said the scheme sets more onerous work conditions in remote areas, which disproportionately affect Indigenous Australians. These include a requirement for 25 hours a week in work or other approved activities year-round. The ACTU said this gives Newstart recipients an effective income of $10.50 an hour.
Other work for the dole schemes only require welfare recipients aged 30-49 to work 15 hours a week and only for six months a year.
The vast majority of unemployed people in remote areas subject to the CDP are Indigenous Australians, making up 84% according to Human Rights Commission figures cited by Jobs Australia.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A map of communities where the Community Development Program applies. Photograph: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
The amending bill before the Senate would change the scheme so that CDP providers pay welfare recipients directly for their work activities, rather than the Department of Human Services making payments.
CDP providers would also have the responsibility for cutting off welfare payments if recipients failed to meet conditions like attendance at work. Welfare recipients will have a right of appeal to the department.
Jobs Australia warned this would put CDP providers’ staff “at increased risk of harm in confrontations with job seekers” because they would no longer be able to blame the department if welfare recipients were unhappy their payments had been cut off.
Senate calls for action after 19% rise in Centrelink complaints Read more
Jobs Australia also complained that the Indigenous affairs minister would have the power to determine welfare recipients’ obligations, including what activities they could be compelled to do and what might constitute a “reasonable excuse” for failing to show up for work.
This amounted to “giving the minister authority to rewrite social security law and ensure that penalties are applied more quickly and with less checks and safeguards”.
“It must be remembered that benefit sanctions can result in severe financial hardship for individuals and their families,” Jobs Australia said.
It argued the CDP changes “most likely discriminate against Indigenous people”.
“Transferring responsibility for administering welfare payments to CDP providers is likely to result in more financial penalties being applied more often, without the scrutiny of the DHS to safeguard against inappropriate sanctions being applied to vulnerable people,” it said.
The chief executive of Jobs Australia, David Thompson, told Guardian Australia: “Rules about welfare should be relatively consistent – you want people in similar circumstances to have similar entitlements, regardless of their race or their location.”
The Senate committee examining the bill reported on 2 March and said it shared reservations about the broad discretion for the minister to set conditions on the CDP program.
Mal Brough may lose his job over Ashbygate. He should have lost it over the intervention | Jeff Sparrow Read more
But the committee, which has a majority of Coalition government members, said this was done to “provide flexibility” to vary conditions according to community needs. It recommended passage of the bill.
The ACTU’s national Indigenous officer, Kara Keys, told Guardian Australia it objected to the bill because it stopped the Department of Human Services determining when someone’s welfare was cut off.
The bill raises the amount people can earn in other jobs before their welfare payments are reduced, to increase the incentive to work more than the mandatory 25 hours.
But Keys argued it was perverse that a person could do the same work for the same company, providing 25 hours of free labour (since it is paid from welfare funds) and then only receive minimum wage for additional hours worked.
“People can work in a CDP place for up to six months – that’s basically a job,” she said. “Why would a business employ somebody if it can access this free pool of labour?”
Thompson said “thousands of people will be working for free – and that has to displace paid employment at some level”.
Addressing claims of discrimination, a spokeswoman for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said: “The CDP applies equally to all jobseekers who reside within remote income-support regions across Australia.”
She said the CDP was designed for the unique labour market challenges of remote Australia, so it had a greater focus on work readiness activities in contrast with urban areas, where there was a greater focus on looking for jobs.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet spokeswoman said: “CDP workplace hosted placements cannot displace real jobs” because they were limited to six months at a time.
A spokesman for the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, said communities had asked for the reforms.
Addressing concerns CDP providers would cop flak instead of DHS, he said: “Generally, we have found that locally-based Indigenous organisations with close ties to community are well placed to deal with challenging clients in their region.” |
Note: In lieu of an abstract, this is an excerpt from the first page.
Excerpt
et al.
et al.
Numerous attempts have been made to constrain climate sensitivity with observations [1-10] (with [6] as LC09, [8] as SB11). While all of these attempts contain various caveats and sources of uncertainty, some efforts have been shown to contain major errors and are demonstrably incorrect. For example, multiple studies [11-13] separately addressed weaknesses in LC09 [6]. The work of Trenberth[13], for instance, demonstrated a basic lack of robustness in the LC09 method that fundamentally undermined their results. Minor changes in that study’s subjective assumptions yielded major changes in its main conclusions. Moreover, Trenberth[13] criticized the interpretation of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as an analogue for exploring the forced response of the climate system. In addition, as many cloud variations on monthly time scales result from internal atmospheric variability, such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, cloud variability is not a deterministic response to surface temperatures. Nevertheless, many of the problems in LC09 [6] have been perpetuated, and Dessler [10] has pointed out similar issues with two more recent such attempts [7,8]. Here we briefly summarize more generally some of the pitfalls and issues involved in developing observational constraints on climate feedbacks. [...] View Full-Text |
Joel Embiid has a torn meniscus in his left knee, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The tear was discovered after Embiid underwent an MRI following a 93-92 victory on January 20th over the Portland Trailblazers. Embiid left the game in the third quarter with a left knee contusion after landing awkwardly following a drive to the basket.
There is some thought that the torn meniscus could be a pre-existing condition which an ensuing MRI discovered, rather than caused by the fall on January 20th, although the two injuries being related has not been completely ruled out.
The tear is a low-grade tear and is not expected to require surgical intervention. It is unclear whether the tear is contributing to the soreness and swelling which has kept Embiid out of 11 of the last 12 games, including the last 8 in a row.
Embiid has been ruled out of tonight’s game against the Miami Heat, and there is a good chance he will remain out through the All-Star break, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Embiid missed the three games immediately following the original diagnosis of a left knee contusion before appearing in a January 27th nationally televised game against the Houston Rockets. The team ran Embiid through a series of tests prior to playing him against the Rockets, according to a league source, and he was experiencing no pain or discomfort at the time. The rookie scored 32 points to go along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocked shots in 28 minutes of play.
After the game Embiid said he had to convince the team to allow him to play.
“They didn’t want me to push it. They didn’t want me to play at all, and I had to convince them,” Embiid said at the time. “I went through the warm-ups and shootaround this morning. I felt pretty good and they let me play.”
Sixers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo told 94 WIP’s Carlin and Reese that Embiid began to experience swelling in the knee two days after the Houston game. Embiid has not played since.
Neither the knee contusion nor the meniscus tear are expected to be long-term concerns, according to sources, and Embiid is considered day-to-day. He did take part in today’s shootaround before the game against the Miami Heat.
“I’m not healthy”, Embiid told Jessica Camerato of CSN Philly after today’s shootaround. “It’s been on and off. Work out and then (the knee) swells up a little bit, and then I got to slow it down. It’s all about patience.”
The 22-year-old, drafted with the 3rd overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, is averaging 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.1 assists per game in 31 appearances on the season. |
Seoul, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korea on Monday (June 1) confirmed the number of people in the country infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus had risen to 18.
First identified in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered China's deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no cure or vaccine.
The first patient was diagnosed on May 20 after a trip to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the health ministry added.
"There are three additional cases, so we confirmed that a total of 18 people have MERS. These three people among the 18 are the same as the other 15 patients, who were infected by the first confirmed case and are linked with one specific hospital," South Korean Director of Public Health Policy, Kwon Jun-wook said.
Chair of Korean Society of Infectious Diseases Kim Woo-joo said five of the 18 were in a serious condition.
"There should be no deaths and tertiary transmissions. However, as Director Kwon says, five people among 18 are in serious condition. They have pneumonia symptoms and have been put on respirators," he said.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Sunday (May 31) said a task force to deal with the spread of the virus in the country had been set up.
The United Nations health agency has not recommended the screening of passengers or that travel or trade restrictions be imposed on South Korea due to the outbreak. |
It’s almost overwhelming, the multitude of absurd race-agitating actions and words coming from those who refuse to accept the facts and law as to the Zimmerman trial. – William Jacobsen, Professor of law, Cornell –
Something evil is happening in our country right now. We have seen it before. In fact we have seen it many times, but this time the orchestration of evil is especially obvious.
The Racial Grievance Industry is in the business of keeping hate alive. In their quest to foster racial animosity, race hustlers pick cases to publicize to ”prove” that whites are forever racist. This evil enterprise gives them undeserved power, prestige and money. It creates a solid, angry block of voters who do not understand that their “leaders” may be the most destructive force in their culture.
Martin Luther King dreamed about a day when people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Most of us share that dream. The race hustlers have the opposite dream. For them, skin color, racial identity, is everything. And they will not tolerate any judgments about character.
If you look closely at the genesis of the Trayvon Martin story you can see the race hustlers at work. This was a well organized public relations campaign planned by professionals. The primary actors had profited from creating racial grievances in the past and knew just what buttons needed to be pushed to create hate. It was an election year and this activity is called “motivating the base”, or, more accurately, “motivating the base instincts”.
Our Department of Justice played a key role in the beginning by helping in the organization of a completely fake “student protest group” called the “Dream Defenders”. The organizers were not students, but instead were paid activists with ties to ACORN and Occupy. You can see a video and more documentation on this hate group here. The Department of Justice was helping a bogus group create racial animosity. The group marched on the Sanford Police Department and succeeded in getting the police chief fired.
This was just the beginning of the Department of Justice’s many injustices in this case. A team of FBI agents was sent to interview the people who knew George Zimmerman best. They wanted to prove that he was a racist. They found the opposite. They found a man who tutored black children for free, who went to bat for a homeless black man who had been assaulted, whose black friends said he was not in any way a racist. As with other parts of this case, the facts are being completely ignored. The fictional story still takes precedence.
After the verdict, the Department of Justice sunk even lower by opening a hot line to solicit dirt on the man who had just been found not guilty in a court of law. If they can keep the hate alive, they are certainly going to do it.
This is a sick enterprise on two levels. For George Zimmerman, he is the victim of a political persecution based on a collection of lies which are still being promoted at the highest levels. Like the man who made the Muhammad movie, Zimmerman is the recipient of a government organized hate campaign. Rewards have been offered for Zimmerman’s murder and the Department of Justice shockingly does nothing about it except fan the flames.
At a higher level, our country suffers incalculable damage from the never-ending efforts to create racial animosity. The race hustlers teach each new generation of black Americans the following destructive lesson: You are perpetual victims with no chance of success and all of your problems are someone else’s fault. Few things harm black people more than this lesson from their “leaders”. These old leaders need to be rejected and replaced with new leaders who have a positive vision of personal achievement and personal responsibility.
The entire scam that is being used in the Martin/Zimmerman case follows a pattern that is common to other government deceptions. It’s time to unmask the technic. The scam has 3 parts.
1. The Big Lie; Setting the Fire - A racist white man in Sanford chased down and shot a little black boy, demonstrating what a racist country this is. The Benghazi attack was caused by a video. Sarah Palin was responsible for the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords. Etc.. These are fact-free assertions.
2. Fanning the Flames – The lie is widely publicized by those who share the political goals of the liar. We see an explosion of supportive stories. For example, leftist lackeys like NBC are happy to edit tape to support the deception. Those being lied about assume an unjustified defensive position.
3. Moral Posturing by the Arsonists – Those who set the fires now pose as the firemen. There they are, speaking from on high, lecturing about the danger of these fires and calling on us to do some soul searching about our evil ways. Obama and Hillary perform this part of the scam quite well. It’s contemptible behavior.
Andrew McCarthy understands how the scam is orchestrated at the top and he exposes it brilliantly in “The Obama Administration’s Race-baiting Campaign”. Do take the time to read his excellent column.
In the Zimmerman case, you will not understand the enormity of the lies being sold to the public unless you understand the facts of the case. It’s a tragic case but not a complicated case. We know that Trayvon chose to confront Zimmerman, because he had walked home and then walked back to the area of the assault. It seems clear that he threw the first punch (and apparently all the punches) as he straddled ”the creepy-ass cracka” on the ground. Trayvon had no signs on his body that Zimmerman had hit him. Trial witness Rachel Jeantel agrees that Trayvon threw the first punch but says that Zimmerman should have known that Trayvon was just going to administer a little “whoop-ass” and should have known that Trayvon wasn’t going to kill him.
If some strong young man was pounding your head into the concrete, “MMA style”, you may not understand that it was ‘just a little whoop-ass’. And if the young man beating you said, ”You gonna die tonight” that may raise your fear level a bit. Trayvon was not unarmed. He had two arms with fists attached.
The lesson from the Trayvon/Zimmerman encounter is this. Not every whoop-ass ends the way you had imagined. This one ended very badly.
Can you extrapolate from this event that white people in America are racist and are responsible for this assault? No logical person could infer that. But here are some people who can.
Chris Matthews: “Can I just take a second to apologize on behalf of all white people?”
Jesse Jackson is calling for a boycott of Florida which he calls “an apartheid state”. He says, “It’s time to call on the United Nations Human Rights Commission for an in-depth investigation of whether the U.S. is upholding its obligations under international human rights laws and treaties.”
Al Sharpton organized angry divisive rallies across the country. Speaking apparently of white people in general, Sharpton told a Baptist Church audience, “…They saw a young man that was vulnerable and killed him…. we have no rights.”
AP reporter Cristina Silva: “So we can all kill teenagers now?”
Nicki Minaj: ” We just paid to see a murderer walk free after killing an innocent unarmed little boy”
Richard Dreyfuss: “It’s 2013 and an American jury just acquitted a man who admitted to stalking and killing an unarmed child.”
This is all a diversionary tactic to keep you from looking at the real problems. Let’s look at what they want you not to see. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that approximately 8 to 9 thousand African Americans are murdered in the U.S. every year. That’s more than the total number of servicemen killed in Iraq plus Afghanistan. 93% of these murders are committed by blacks, mostly young black men.
Some of these victims were unarmed. Some were young. Some were named Trayvon. Some looked like they could have been Obama’s son. Obama could have gone on TV and said, “They could have been me 35 years ago”, but he didn’t. No marches were organized in their honor because no racial animosity could be generated that way. Individual murders matter only to the extent that they suit the truly sinister goals of the Racial Grievance Industry.
Using government crime statistics, Pat Buchanan reported:
“An analysis of ‘single offender victimization figures’ from the FBI for 2007 finds blacks committed 433,934 crimes against whites, eight times the 55,685 whites committed against blacks. Interracial rape is almost exclusively black on white — with 14,000 assaults on white women by African Americans in 2007. Not one case of a white sexual assault on a black female was found in the FBI study.” Though blacks are outnumbered 5-to-1 in the population by whites, they commit eight times as many crimes against whites as the reverse. By those 2007 numbers, a black male was 40 times as likely to assault a white person as the reverse. If interracial crime is the ugliest manifestation of racism, what does this tell us about where racism really resides — in America?
The problem is actually worse than the statistics indicate and the Trayvon Martin case is a good illustration. The Miami Dade school District has it’s own police force. Police Chief Charles Hurley, in collusion with school district leadership, launched a plan to lie about crime statistics in the school district. The plan was specifically aimed at under-reporting the crimes of young black males. When Trayvon Martin was caught with stolen jewelry and a burglary tool, the crime was not reported and no attempt was made to see if the jewelry matched a reported robbery. It was all hidden.
Another race based fraud was recently uncovered at Winston-Salem State University. Administrators routinely and fraudulently raised the grades of African-American students. The plan was exposed by a few honest faculty members.
Don’t you think it is time that we stopped this nonsense and faced problems honestly?
Watch Bill Whittle’s forceful commentary on this issue: |
Elio di Rupo will be Belgium's first prime minister from francophone Wallonia since 1974 [EPA]
Belgian politicians have finally agreed to form a government after record-long talks finally led to the creation of a six-party coalition tasked with implementing the most profound state reform in decades and restoring the country's finances.
The government, announced late on Monday and due to be sworn in on Tuesday almost 18 months since the last elections in June 2010, will be headed by Elio Di Rupo, the French-speaking Socialist leader.
Di Rupo is the first Belgian prime minister to come from the francophone region of Wallonia since 1974, as well as the first son of immigrants and the first openly gay person to lead the government of the bilingual country.
Di Rupo's government retains many of the ministers from the caretaker government of Yves Leterme, the current acting prime minister, albeit in different roles.
Steven Vanackere, a Flemish Christian Democrat, becomes finance minister and Didier Reynders, a francophone Liberal, foreign minister in a straight job switch.
The government must satisfy demands of the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority for devolution of further powers to Belgium's regions, and may have to redraw a budget that economists say is based on too optimistic a growth forecast.
The more right-leaning Flemish electorate has already expressed concern about being led by a French-speaking Socialist, and one whose command of Dutch is considered limited.
A poll in Le Soir newspaper showed just 29 per cent of Flemish people had confidence in Di Rupo, although his support in French-speaking Wallonia was 69 per cent.
Talks including N-VA, a party that wants Flanders to break free from Belgium, were deadlocked for months, prompting speculation that 181-year-old Belgium could break apart.
The N-VA's eventual exit opened the door for a deal resolving electoral boundaries around the capital Brussels, devolution of more powers to the regions and financial transfers, issues over which Belgium's linguistic groups have argued for years.
Belgium also has a budget battle on its hands and might be forced to toughen austerity measures that drew 50,000 protesters onto the streets last Friday.
Belgium has found itself in an uncomfortable middle ground between triple-A rated eurozone countries and those at the periphery of the single currency bloc whose sovereign debt has been sharply sold off since the start of last year.
Belgium's public sector debt totalled 96 per cent of gross domestic product last year, putting it behind only Greece and Italy in the eurozone and on a par with Ireland.
It has also been saddled with providing the bulk of state guarantees to the bailed-out Franco-Belgian financial group Dexia. |
If the season ended today, the Lakers would have the seven or eight pick (they are tied with Cleveland, there would be a coin flip). They are also currently 12 games back of the eight seed and the playoffs in the West, ground they are not going to make up.
Those facts have a lot of Lakers’ fans in full tank mode — just as their team is getting healthy (Steve Nash and Steve Blake are back) and won two of three the fans want to see the Lakers lose and lose a lot. They want a top five pick. Lakers fans are just fine if Kobe Bryant doesn’t return until next season.
Too bad, he’s planning to come back.
That’s what Bryant told Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com on Monday.
“My plan hasn’t changed,” Bryant said Sunday at an event to promote his newest signature sneaker, the Nike Kobe 9 Elite Masterpiece. “I’m just going about it every single day just trying to get better. That’s my job. My job is to get my butt back out there on the court when I’m healthy enough to play and that hasn’t changed.”
After working hard to return from his ruptured Achilles, Bryant played just six games before he suffered a lateral tibial plateau fracture in his left knee. He has been out since Dec. 17 and will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break.
Announcement: Pro Basketball Talk’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $65,000 Fantasy Basketball league for Monday’s games. It’s $25 to join and first prize is $8,000. Starts at 7pm ET on Monday. Here’s the FanDuel link.
When will he return?
“That I don’t know,” Bryant said. “It’s completely out of my control. I really got to sit here and just wait until this thing heals up and then go out there and do what I do.”
With or without Bryant the Lakers will not be good. There is wisdom in what the fans want with tanking, and that’s one reason the Lakers will try to be sellers with the contract of Pau Gasol among others drawing interest.
But the Lakers will not fully go there and embrace being bad to get good, it’s not in their organization’s nature. Bryant and Nash (who looked pretty good until he aggravated his injury again Sunday) will get their chances this season. And combined this Lakers roster is just good enough to push this team up to about the 10 seed. Which should frustrate fans. |
News > esport > DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship
DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship
DreamHack and SteelSeries proudly presents DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship at DreamHack Summer 2013 15-18 June. This official tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be a 16-team tournament with 200 000 SEK in prizes and where the ultimate champions will be crowned at DreamArena Extreme in front of thousands in the audience.
DreamHack have already announced the Grand Finals of ESPORT SM 12/13(Swedish Championship) being held at DreamHack Summer 2013 where 8 of Sweden’s best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams will fight to become the first Swedish Champions in Global Offensive. Today DreamHack present the international tournament, with a 16 team main tournament and another 200 000 SEK in prizes, supported by the global leader in professional gaming products – SteelSeries.
“SteelSeries has always been a huge supporter of eSports at DreamHack. As many people know, our roots comes from FPS gaming and Counter-Strike. So therefore we are very proud to partner up with DreamHack and give the community an amazing CS:GO tournament.” said Henning Christiansson at SteelSeries.
“DreamHack is very proud to have SteelSeries on-board and supporting our upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament at DreamHack Summer 2013. SteelSeries isn’t only a long term partner to us, but also one of the most important of sponsors and supports of eSports in general.” said Tomas Hermansson at DreamHack.
New group-system
The big difference from earlier editions is that we’ll use double elimination BO1 groups (widely known as “GSL Groups” in the eSports community) to reduce the possibility to be knocked out on round difference and other similar tie-breaker rules. DreamHack will divide the 16 teams into 4 groups with 4 teams, where the top 2 teams advance to the Single Elimination BO3 Playoff bracket.
System explained below – DreamHack group system
Match #1: Team 1 vs. Team 4
Match #2: Team 2 vs. Team 3
Match #3: Winner Match #1 vs. Winner Match #2 – Winner advance to Playoffs with Seed #1
Match #4: Looser Match #1 vs. Looser Match #2
Match #5: Winner Match #4 vs. Looser Match #3 – Winner advance to Playoffs with Seed #2
Livestream & Coverage at Twitch.TV
DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship will be livestreamed at DreamHack.TV powered by Twitch.TV in 720p for free. TwitchTV is the world’s largest video game broadcasting and chat community. More information about our media production and casters will be announced in a later stage.
Main tournament
Tournament: DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship
Head Sponsor: SteelSeries
Sponsor: Benq & Intel
Location: DreamHack Summer 2013, Tournament Area in Hall B, Elmia, Jönköping, Sweden
Date: 15-17 June 2013
No of teams: 16
Tournament format: Group stage 4 teams in 4 groups Double Elimination BO1 play. Top-2 advance. Single elimination BO3 playoffs.
Platform: PC, Latest available patch
Rules: TBA
Prize Purse: Total – 200 000 SEK
1. 70 000 SEK
2. 40 000 SEK
3-4. 25 000 SEK
3-4. 25 000 SEK
5-8. 10 000 SEK
5-8. 10 000 SEK
5-8. 10 000 SEK
5-8. 10 000 SEK
Schedule in short:
Saturday 15th of June – BYOC Qualifier + Group A/B
Sunday 16th of June – Group C/D
Monday 17th of june – Playoffs RO8 + RO4 + Grand Finals
Teams – Slots
1. NiP-Gaming – Invited, DreamHack Winter 2012 Champions
2. TBA – Invited
3. TBA – Invited
4. TBA – Invited
5. TBA – Invited
6. TBA – Invited
7. TBA – Invited
8. Online Qualifier – TBA
9. Online Qualifier – TBA
10. Online Qualifier – TBA
11. Online Qualifier – TBA
12. Qualifier TBA – TBA
13. Qualifier Belarus – Techlab Cup Minsk (LAN)
14. Qualifier Sweden – Inferno Online Stockholm (LAN/Online)
15. BYOC-Qualifier – Register your team here!
16. BYOC-Qualifier – Register your team here!
Tickets / Competitor fee: All BYOC competitors need to have a computer seat BYOC ticket (929 SEK) to be able to participate in this tournament. Buy tickets at bokning.dreamhack.se.
DreamHack will announce more information and registration about each qualifier in the upcoming weeks. If you’re a team that we might consider to invite, please send us a e-mail to esport [at] dreamhack.se including Full contact details (Name, E-mail, Skype, Phone no.) and all Offline Achievements listed.
SteelSeries
From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making professional gaming gear that provide meaningful benefits to gamers of all skill-level, with the most demanding being those gamers whose lively hood depends on the performance of our products. We believe, as most gamers do, in winning, not trying!
What originally began as a small two-person operation in Copenhagen back in 2001 has become a global leader in professional gaming products. SteelSeries recognized the need for superior, high-quality professional gaming gear that would give players a competitive edge.
More information can be found at www.steelseries.com
Follow SteelSeries at Twitter: @SteelSeries
Follow SteelSeries at Facebook: /SteeSeries |
Prague, Czech Republic, November 28th – The wait is over. Keen Software House just released Miner Wars 2081, the most anticipated 6DOF survival space simulation shooter. Miner Wars 2081 is now available worldwide through all major digital channels, including Steam, GameStop, GamersGate, Desura and www.MinerWars.com
Miner Wars 2081 is a 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) action-survival space-shooter simulation-game set in the year 2081, 10 years after the destruction of all planetary objects in the Solar System. Player operates an advanced mining ship in a fully destructible and open-world environment, which remains persistent as he completes missions or plays online with others. Realism and survival are key aspects of gameplay.
“From day one, I have been pushing myself and everyone in the team to make the best 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) gaming experience of our lives and I'm incredibly proud of my team and our supportive community. Together we have achieved this goal.” said Marek Rosa, CEO and Creative Director of Keen Software House, author of Miner Wars 2081.
We tried to push boundaries of innovation on many fronts - first by developing our own voxel engine VRAGE, allowing us to present fully destructible and persistent environment, set in an open world area containing the whole Solar System, then by polishing intuitiveness of the game controls. We believe that good gameplay starts with immersion and you achieve that only if the game reacts exactly how player expects it.
Miner Wars 2081 is just the first piece in what we want to become a large Miner Wars universe. In this first title we focused on the journey of two brothers, Marcus and Apollo Rainier. Trying to uncover what they expect to be a groundbreaking discovery leading to ancient times, they travel through the whole Solar System, visit vastly different sectors, and cooperate to fight with warring factions. In a desperate attempt Apollo is forced to seek the help of the dark side – The Fourth Reich. We believe that players will enjoy the immersion and story, which is supported by heavyweight musical lineup and professional voice acting.
“Releasing Miner Wars 2081 is the culminating point of my work in the last three years. I am very happy that now I can start focusing on our next projects. I am full of ideas and Miner Wars 2081 just scratched the surface of what can we achieve with our in-house engine - VRAGE. Miner Wars MMO will blow your minds; Also I can’t overlook that the community demands for the continuation of the story and gameplay introduced in Miner Wars 2081.” said Marek Rosa as he jumps in excitement.
“I personally want to thank to our community for supporting as for all these years, keeping our forums troll/hater-free and especially for helping us to get through Steam Greenlight” said Marek Rosa.
6DOF (six degrees of freedom) games are back baby!
Miner Wars 2081 is also available in retail stores in Czech and Slovak Republic. Players may expect an update with Czech localization.
EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH FOOTAGE:
Intro: Youtu.be or: Mirror1.minerwars.com
Launch trailer: Youtu.be or: Mirror1.minerwars.com
WHERE TO PURCHASE?
* Steam: Store.steampowered.com
* GameStop: Impulsedriven.com
* GamersGate: Gamersgate.com
* Desura: Indiedb.com
* Directly from the developer: MinerWars.com
Free demo available at Minerwars.com
Everyone who owns a copy of Miner Wars 2081 (pre-ordered or future purchase at minerwars.com or any other place) can retrieve their Steam key at Minerwars.com
FOLLOW US:
* Twitter.com
* Facebook.com
* Youtube.com
* MinerWars.com |
Kevin Towers, the GM for the Arizona Diamondbacks, currently holds the position of Baseball Dummy, a title that is bestowed upon the worst general manager each year (though Jack Zduriencik is doing his best to take the belt). Previous winners were Brian Sabean, until his Giants won two World Series, and Ned Colletti, for having signed Juan Uribe to be the Dodger's third baseman before Uribe arguably had the best year of his career in 2013.
Towers was already making waves last season when the Diamondbacks traded some of their best pieces in an attempt to ‘grit' up the club in manager Kirk Gibson's image. It's continued this offseason, and after firing pitching coach Charles Nagy for not having his pitchers throw at the opposition, Towers has been trading off young talent for what seems like a minimal return, getting fleeced by White Sox GM Rick Hahn in the process.
Towers started by trading Tyler Skaggs (12th best prospect according to Baseball America coming into 2013) and Adam Eaton (73rd) in a three team deal, netting the powerful Mark Trumbo as well as Brandon Jacobs, a 23-year-old outfielder/DH who had a .291 OBP in his first taste of AA last year.
And yesterday, Towers hooked up with Hahn again, acquiring late-inning reliever Addison Reed for third base prospect Matt Davidson, a move made necessary by Trumbo forcing Prado back to third base full-time.
On paper, it seems like Kevin Towers has already lost. Mark Trumbo has one skill, that being tremendous, earth-shaking power, but his ability to play defense is roughly non-existent. Though Trumbo may be an upgrade over Eaton at the plate, his lack of speed and ability to corral fly balls could easily make this move a wash.
And while Addison Reed has the stuff to succeed in late innings, he has just a 103 ERA+ through 133.2 IP while Davidson hit .280/.350/.481 with 17 HR in AAA before getting his first taste of the majors last year.
Looking at these trades, it seems that Towers, the GM of the Padres for 15 seasons, and in his fourth year at the helm of the Diamondbacks, either:
a) Has been taken over by a robot imposter that only makes bad decisions
b) Had experimental brain surgery and can no longer tell the difference between good and bad
c) Is actually the assistant GM for the White Sox, reporting to Rick Hahn
d) Blackmailed himself into the GM job
All of those are possible. Hell, the robot idea sounds incredibly plausible.
Of course, if Towers hasn't doomed the Diamondbacks to years of irrelevance, we may have to concede that perhaps Towers knows something we don't.
Skaggs, for all of his prospect hype, had a 5.12 ERA in the majors last year, and gave up more than a hit per inning in AAA, his fastball sitting in the upper-80s to low-90s. While Skaggs is still young, that's not exactly what you're looking for in an uber-prospect.
Adam Eaton, though embodying the scrappy-doo attitude of Kirk Gibson, could end up being nothing more than a fourth outfielder, his speed and ability to slash the ball to all fields not showing up in major league games yet.
And Matt Davidson, while there's power potential in the bat, is no guarantee either. Davidson has problems making contact, striking out in 24% of his plate appearances over the last three years, his .831 OPS last season made less impressive given that it came in the extremely heightened offensive environment in Reno (Davidson was fourth on the team in OPS, behind Chris Owings, Ed Easley, and Brad Snyder).
Just look to last year when Towers was seemingly giving players away. He was hauled across hot coals for trading Trevor Bauer, but Bauer pitched only 17 major league innings for the Indians while posting a 5.4 BB/9 in the minors. While you could rightfully question the Diamondbacks for not doing their due diligence when they drafted him, the return of Didi Gregorius gave the team a slick-fielding infielder whose bat can at least keep him in the lineup, even if he's not scaring pitchers.
Cliff Pennington may have done nothing for Arizona last year (.242/.310/.309), but Chris Young didn't help the Athletics either, hitting only .200/.280/.379.
And finally, the biggest move that made us question Towers' judgment and wonder if perhaps he should be put in a mental ward for observation: the Justin Upton trade. Widely panned at the time, it seemed only worse when Upton was hitting .298/.402/.734 with 12 home runs by the end of April. This was the MVP All-World Super Athlete that we had been promised, the one Kevin Towers gave up on.
For the rest of the season though, Upton hit only .256/.343/.409, looking awfully similar to the .282/.333/.417 line posted by Martin Prado. Add in Randall Delgado's performance (4.26 ERA in 116.1 IP), who is expected to hold down a spot in next year's rotation, and Towers doesn't appear to have lost this trade either.
Kevin Towers is certainly not building a team the way I, or most of the internet, would like to see. He is seemingly willing to give up on young, unproven talent in exchange for players that, while they have major league success, lack a high ceiling. That doesn't seem to bode for great success, rather it seems to err on the side of an eternity of .500 seasons, something the team has already done for the last two years.
While grading trades after one season is foolish, especially with young players involved, Towers can hold his head high. Bauer, Upton, Eaton, and Davidson are all young, and could all develop into legitimate starters (or, in Upton's case, a superstar), but so far, Towers hasn't lost yet. He may not be a critical darling, but he's not as dumb as we assume, the Diamondbacks in seemingly safe hands.
Of course, if Kevin Towers was a robot set to self-destruct, that's exactly what he would want us to think. |
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Frankie Boyle was censored by BBC bosses after a string of offensive jokes on Have I Got News For You.
Appearing in the guest presenter slot, the Scottish stand-up star fired off a series of withering political gags but saved his most cutting jibes for the Queen.
Most were cut from Thursday’s recording before it was broadcast last night – despite raising laughs from the audience and panelists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.
One gag centred on artist Dan Llywelyn Hall having a second go at painting the Queen after criticism for his previous effort.
But Boyle raised convicted paedophile Rolf Harris’ 2005 portrait of Her Majesty, adding: “The Queen keeping Rolf Harris’s hands busy for a week is probably the best thing she’s ever done.”
In another deleted joke, he scoffed after Prime Minister David Cameron branded foreign governments “fantastically corrupt” at a Buckingham Palace reception.
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Boyle said: “Even the Queen seemed to give him a look like ‘No’.
"It’s very hard to tell if the Queen is unhappy with you. She hasn’t really cracked a smile since Diana died.”
Read more:
One risque quip that was broadcast referred to the monarch’s comments about a “rude” Chinese delegation this week.
Boyle branded her family “the products of centuries of incest” employed “to try to sell fridge magnets”.
But the comedian, 43, seemed to cross the line as the audience gasped at a joke about last November’s Paris terrorist attacks.
Referring to London Mayor Sadiq Khan being accused of association with Islamist fundamentalists, he said: “If sharing a stage with extremists made you an extremist, the Eagles of Death Metal would be the most wanted men in the world.”
He then admitted: “That probably won’t make the edit.”
The Glasgow-born comedian is no stranger to controversy but has gained support for his outspoken views on human rights and the junior doctors pay dispute. |
I took a little break off of sewing for a while but I'm trying to get back in the swing of things!This is a full-sized Rainbow Dash minky plush. She is 100% HAND SEWN! (You would not believe how long that took) She has felt applique eyes and cutie marks and very soft minky body and hair. She is super soft and cuddly but can still stand on her own. She is 13 inches high (from hoof to hair) and 12 inches long (from nose to tail).Rainbow Dash is looking for a new home! She premiered on the final day of Everfree Northwest 2014 at our company's booth however she did not sell. She is available here at my sister and my company Etsy page:Thanks for looking! More full size plushies are in the works as well as some new additions to our plushie lineup coming soon!Character is owned by Hasbro, art is owned by myself. |
Opinion: Working at Google seemed like a dream job. The reality has been a pointless nightmare.
A guest takes photos of the new Google Pixel 2 mobile phone after a news conference in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. A guest takes photos of the new Google Pixel 2 mobile phone after a news conference in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Opinion: Working at Google seemed like a dream job. The reality has been a pointless nightmare. 1 / 23 Back to Gallery
The banner atop the Google Careers portal caught my eye back when I was one of 3 million hungry applicants: "Do Cool Things That Matter." It speaks at once of the tech industry's casual hipness and its passionate purpose. It spoke to me.
But while it probably describes some jobs at Google, it hardly captures my experience these past two years in the company's human resources department. And so I'm handing in my resignation this week.
There is nothing cool about my job as a "talent channels specialist," a type of recruiter charged with soliciting new applications from qualified people who haven't thought to apply or who might need persuading. I scour LinkedIn, a factory farm of fluff, for engineers with a specific skill set and then send hundreds of canned messages to unsuspecting professionals each week.
Google HR uses the TextExpander program, which populates email templates with salutations, job description links and questions. All we have to do is press two keys (mine are semicolon followed by the letter "C"). There's also space for fill-in-the-blanks: one for the candidate's name ("Hey Mark") and another at the end for the day of the week ("Enjoy your Thursday!"), so the message is personal.
We then hold 10-minute phone calls with interested candidates, conversations comparable in depth and variation to a drive-through order at Burger King. Our mouth muscles get so accustomed to the spiel that we can think full separate thoughts - about our next career move, say - while talking. We might feign curiosity in a candidate's ideal role, pitch them on working at Google and finally ask a few technical questions from a spreadsheet that gives us the correct answers, thankfully, because computer science is Greek to us.
HR "specialists" don't participate in second-round interviews. We merely collect times of availability from candidates and then wait for the results. If a second interview goes well, we hand off the candidate to another recruiter. If it doesn't go well? TextExpander: semicolon followed by "NO" populates a sympathetic four-paragraph rejection email. We then return to step one: LinkedIn.
That's it. The whole job. Seriously. Repeated 40 or so times in each workday.
As for doing things that matter? Remember: It's about 10 times more difficult to get into Google than Harvard University. So we recruiters can close our sticker-covered laptops at the end of each day and walk down the brightly painted hallways - royal red, lime green! - confident that almost no one we contacted will get hired. The lucky few applicants will be shuffled from one high-paying tech job to another.
In some ways, my experience is not so different from that of other 20-somethings in corporate America. Yet Google's low-level HR employees are barraged by higher-ups about Passion! and how we are Changing People's Lives!
At first, I drank the Kool-Aid. Who doesn't like being told they're important?
Later, I began to wonder if I was crazy, eating alone in the cafeteria and wearing ear plugs so I wouldn't have to overhear one more random Googler claim, without irony or visible self-consciousness, to have held "a mini-pow-wow on 360 wellness," or to be "a product expert across a myriad of domains hoping to sync and gain best practices."
I can't tell who believes themselves and who is just acting, because everyone participates. Every email has an exclamation mark, or 10. Google HR is a special type of hell ruled by the tyranny of positivity. It's a privileged hell, for sure, but it's hell, and its primary trait is hollowness.
Having excised coolness and mattering from the careers page slogan, we're left with: "Do Things." I envision it right above an image of two guys in T-shirts pointing to a monitor, furrowing their brows, innovating.
But that first word, "Do," isn't quite right. It implies action-orientation. What have I actually done for the last two years as a talent channels specialist? I raise my eyebrows and can conjure nothing.
My resume will have that holy header, Google, above a few bullets - though after this essay I can probably forget about references - but what words will follow the bullets? Evangelized? Shaped the world? Facilitated cross-functional optimizations? How will I answer some future interviewer who inquires: What did you do as a talent channels specialist?
"Things," I'll say.
---
Lindsley is a writer living in Oakland, Calif. |
TORONTO – Toronto police have arrested a Brampton man in Sunday’s TD Bank robbery in which two people were wounded by gunfire.
Toronto police staff inspector Mike Earl said it was forensic evidence at the scene that led them to one of two suspects wanted in connection with the bank hold-up.
Police are still looking for a suspect who shot a teller while firing at the customer.
The suspects can be seen on security video — one of them brandishing a handgun and the other leaping over the counter at a TD bank branch on St. Clair Avenue near Runnymede Road shortly after noon Sunday.
As the second suspect leaps back over the counter, he is tackled by a customer and the first suspect shoots at the customer, but strikes a 22-year-old teller in her thigh.
Watch video
Police said the 54-year-old customer then chased the suspects into the parking lot, where he was shot in the abdomen.
The teller is expected to recover. The customer is recovering in hospital and underwent surgery to remove his spleen, part of his pancreas and part of a kidney.
Earl advises those facing a similar situation to avoid intervening and cooperate.
“If somebody is demanding your money or your watch, cooperate with them, because we don’t want people getting hurt.”
But Earl adds this is on the suspect armed with a firearm.
“He brought a loaded firearm to a bank robbery and obviously, he was prepared to use it.”
Earl says bank employees receive training to cooperate for the safety of everyone in the bank.
“They’re trained to cooperate with the robber because the money isn’t what we’re after,” he said. “What we’re concerned about is public safety and employee safety.”
Police said the suspects made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, although it is believed a bank security ink device may have stained most of the money.
A stolen green four-door Honda Civic, sought by police, was located Sunday night in the Jane Street and Wilson Avenue area, police said.
The Canadian Bankers Association is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects. |
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com.
The video for the all-star “Forever Country” mash-up opens on a green field, panning to sun-dappled woods and a glimpse of Nashville’s Honky Tonk strip before Brad Paisley appears in a roadside café, singing the words of a classic: “Almost heaven, West Virginia…”
For Paisley, one of the 30 acts lending talent to “Forever Country,” the project was personal. “‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ is my state anthem,” Paisley tells PEOPLE of the John Denver tune that was blended with Dolly Parton‘s “I Will Always Love You” and Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” for the new song and video celebrating this year’s 50th anniversary of the Country Music Association Awards. “It was one of the first things I learned because at any event you did in West Virginia, it works. But it works everywhere. It’s truly boundary-less.”
The video, which was shot in Nashville over three days and directed by Grammy winner Joseph Kahn, makes extensive use of CGI to play with the idea that country music can indeed reach beyond boundaries, putting Nelson beneath the Eiffel Tower and Rascal Flatts in front of London’s Houses of Parliament as they go “On the Road Again.” Reba then takes it to the Mother Church, Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, turning Dolly’s heartbreak tune into a love letter to country fans.
“We wanted to bring artists together from the past and from now and do something that would be really special to them and also to everyone who loves this music,” says Shane McAnally, who produced the song, which features vocals from legends like Ronnie Milsap and Charley Pride alongside the genre’s new stars like Brett Eldredge and Kacey Musgraves. “I hope this is a great timepiece for the legacy of country music.”
“When I went in to record this, I was so nervous,” Eldredge says. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s my voice next to Reba’s! There’s my voice next to Martina’s!’ It was intense. But I love the fact that I get to be a part of this family.”
The music behind the mash-up also triggered precious memories for the artists involved. “I grew up with ‘On the Road Again,'” says Carrie Underwood. “My dad used to take me out on the tractor and let me drive. I’d sit in his lap and he’d sing that as we’d drive out.”
Says Little Big Town‘s Karen Fairchild, “These songs are treasures. Everything it means to be a country artist are wrapped up in these three songs.”
And with 50 years of country history wrapped into the project, “I hope it brings back memories,” says LBT’s Kimberly Schlapman. “And I hope it opens up people’s eyes to country music.” |
By Rob Carrick
Bit by bit, we get closer at our house to cutting our cable TV. We're not quite there yet, although many others are, but I'm paying close attention to articles like this one, a complete guide on how to get free TV over the Internet.
What's to complain about with cable? For one thing, our already substantial rates just went up about 3.5 per cent for cable and Internet combined, roughly double the rate of inflation. Anger over cable TV bills prompted the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to order cable companies to come up with a $25 a month "skinny basic" package of channels, which they did earlier this month. Now, the CRTC is getting a lot of complaints about the new cheaper option. Turns out they're not so cheap after all. One critic even calls these new packages a slap in the CRTC's face.
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I haven't finished venting about cable. One more complaint is how lame the technology is. Our remote works intermittently and so slowly it's painful. Our cable box has been replaced at least two or three times, probably because they keep handing us what seems to be reconditioned equipment.
Happy with your cable, but hoping to cut costs a bit? Try this guide to cutting your TV-watching costs.
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> That's divorce for you - the stealth wealth killer. Listen to Al Green instead.
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Why voters will stay angry
> Money-related issues figure prominently in the charts shown here to document why voters around the world are angry, and likely to remain so. To sum up, a lot of people feel they're getting poorer.
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> Interesting to see credit history on this list, as well as claims history.
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> A list of cashback cards that can be used to reduce your shopping bill. Practically speaking, probably the best use of reward points.
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> Is this IKEA staple the world's most versatile book case, or McFurniture?
Today's featured investment tool
This week's federal budget introduced the Canada Child Benefit, which replaces the Universal Child Care Benefit and the Canada Child Tax Benefit. Here's a calculator to help estimate how much of the new child benefit your family will receive.
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Ask Rob
The question: "Hi, I am an aunt with no children. I feel excluded and discriminated against by the registered education savings plan (RESP) structure of parents-only. I can give money, but I can't get a tax receipt for it, and I think it's hugely unfair. Why are so many regulations set up to exclude childless couples or singles who are part of a family, too?"
My reply: You're right – you can contribute to an RESP for a niece or nephew using what are known as individual or group plans. Now, let's clarify that point about tax receipts. RESPs are unlike registered retirement savings plans in that you don't get a tax receipt for making a contribution. The benefit of RESPs is tax-free growth in a plan until a child attends college, university or certain other post-secondary schools. Money withdrawn from an RESP is taxed in the hands of the beneficiary child, who typically has a low income and thus won't have to worry about owing taxes on his or her RESP withdrawal.
Do you have a question for me? Send it my way. Questions and answers are edited for length.
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Despite the bad press that the TTC tends to get on a consistent basis, the results from its first customer service survey paint a picture of a mostly happy ridership. It may be a Toronto tradition to complain about our transit system, but unless the over 500 people who participated in the study are all just friends of Chris Upfold, there's actually reason for the folks at the TTC to give themselves a pat on the back.
As far as an overall rating goes, participants ranked TTC service at a very respectable 76 per cent. Perhaps even more noteworthy is that only seven per cent of respondents characterized service as poor. That's a far cry from the vitriol one often sees expressed in comment sections on city-based publications (there's a lesson in here somewhere).
I don't have info on the demographic makeup of the sample, so I'll take the results at face value. My experience riding the TTC is generally pretty good, and the addition of NextBus arrival info has drastically improved my commute. That said, there are a few responses that I find somewhat surprising. Take, for instance, the question related to the TTC's relative value for money. 60 per cent report that a ride on the TTC offers good or excellent value. That's a bit odd given that it's probably the most expensive transit system in North America. But, hey, maybe we just have low expectations.
If there's an area in which the TTC comes up short on the survey it's in notifying customers of delays prior to their entering the system. The installation of information screens near fare booths at some stations helps to address this â as does the @TTCnotices Twitter account â but there's clearly some work to be done given the feedback provided by the respondents.
For more results, check below.
Customer Satisfaction Survey 2012
Photo by sjgardiner in the blogTO Flickr pool |
The mourners also will recall the enormous loss of life and suffering — "the bloodbath" which, again, conventional wisdom has tried to deny — that followed Saigon's fall. Thousands died in "the Vietnamese gulag," communist "re-education camps" where Prime Minister Pham Van Dong publicly admitted that more than 1 million people had been imprisoned. Few but the Vietnamese remember that in addition to the 255,000 boat people who reached the shelter of the miserable refugee camps, thousands drowned at sea, often refused entry by neighboring countries. That is not in any way to minimize the enormous loss of life and the sacrifice of Americans in what was a noble if tragic struggle. But it is an effort to retell the whole story of "Vietnam" for fellow Americans, particularly younger generations who have grown up amid a vast media and pseudo-scholarly distortion of facts. The remembrance also glories in the thousands of young Vietnamese now serving with distinction in the U.S. armed forces. Unfortunately, in Vietnam itself, the oppression continues unabated. The communist regime persecutes religious and ethnic minorities, and in its own ham-handed way, attempts to stamp out political dissent. An endlessly feuding politburo guides the one-party state — so enmeshed in petty personal rivalries and ideological confusion that it publicly arrested the Communist Party official newspaper editor after he wrote an anti-Chinese editorial. And, since 1995, when Sens. John McCain of Arizona and John Kerry of Massachusetts — both veterans of the war — pushed for U.S. diplomatic recognition without quid pro quos, official Washington has obfuscated the true nature of the regime. U.S. policy has naively and ignominiously sought favor with Hanoi through economic and trade concessions in a fruitless effort to promote political liberalization. Although Vietnam's economic team long ago adopted "the Chinese model," tattered Soviet-style central planning, incompetence and unbridled corruption have led to shortages, inflation and rising debt. Nevertheless, the indomitable Vietnamese entrepreneur, with his traditional thirst for education that finds an echo in the success of America's Vietnamese immigrant communities, has produced a growing gross national product for a youthful population nearing 90 million. Ironically, remittances from the American emigres to unfortunate relatives left behind has been the most powerful economic prop for the regime, totaling as much as $8 billion in 2008. That compares with $5 billion annually in aid from the multilateral agencies and bilateral aid programs. These remittances contribute 5 percent of the GDP, adding to the money sent home by a half-million workers abroad and spending by another 400,000 ethnic Vietnamese tourists annually. Capital from the American emigres, often arriving via the black market, funds small entrepreneurs who make Greater Ho Chi Minh City-Saigon the country's overwhelming economic hub, the cash cow for Hanoi's kleptocrats. The U.S. remains Vietnam's largest official investor as well, with some $1 billion in registered capital. More foreign investment would come were it not for the tangle of kickbacks and intrigues between the central Hanoi government and regional party bosses. Trying to counteract the effects of the worldwide credit crunch and recession, the communist planners in 2009 threw more than $1 billion — over 1 percent of GDP — at the currency. But while credit expanded by nearly 40 percent, the price of dollars soared despite two massive devaluations. Exporters, struggling with the high-priced dollar, have difficulty financing dollar imports of raw materials and components in the battle against their heavily subsidized Chinese competitors. And foreign exchange outflows are draining reserves. The business community is bracing for another round of inflation, probably even greater than the crisis year of 2008. The struggles of daily life, especially among the unemployed youths for whom both the French and American wars are a distant past, ignore the continued preoccupation with "Vietnam" in the United States. Hollywood's Vietnam War movies, for example, despite the widespread appeal of American popular culture, have elicited little interest. Much more important now, the Vietnamese look over their shoulder at their neighbor and traditional enemy, China. Despite border agreements following the short but bitter war in 1979 in which Hanoi bloodied Beijing's nose, disputes continue over islands in the South China Sea. And a flood of clandestine Chinese imports have wiped out many of Vietnam's cottage industries in the north. Bloggers on both sides keep up a steady chauvinist debate over old issues. And everyone waits for some new and spectacular development that will end the current malaise. Sol W. Sanders, ([email protected]), writes the 'Follow the Money' column for The Washington Times on the convergence of international politics, business and economics. He is also a contributing editor for WorldTribune.com and EAST-ASIA-INTEL.com . An Asian specialist with more than 25 years in the region, Mr. Sanders is a former correspondent for Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and United Press International. > COMMENT LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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