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Why have Cleveland area water, sewer bills doubled in a decade? | CLEVELAND, Ohio If it seems that your monthly water and sewer bills are taking a larger chunk out of your bank account than ever before, its not your imagination. The Greater Cleveland area has the highest water and sewer rates of the six largest cities in the Great Lakes region, according to a recent story aired by National Public Radio. The rates have more than doubled over the past decade, to an average of $1,317 a year for a family of four, utility officials said. For some, the increase has been an onerous expense thats difficult to afford. Qwendolyn Alexander, a 54-year-old mother of two sons from Maple Heights, had to turn to the water and sewer departments discount programs to avoid service shutoffs. Not having water and sewer is not an option, Alexander said. I have to be able to keep myself clean and do my dishes. Otherwise, Id have to sell my house and move to an apartment where the water and sewer was part of the rent. Ten years ago, about the same time the Cleveland area water and sewer bills began ballooning, Alexander lost her job as a research administrator at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, which she had held for 22 years. She continued to do contract consulting for Case, but the work was sporadic, and she ran into economic problems about five years ago. She reached out to CHN Housing Partners. Shes been hustling to make ends meet, but needed our help with crisis payment plans, said Laura Boustani of CHN, a community development corporation dedicated to helping low-income residents with housing needs. These are problems that can apply to anybody. She didnt want to lose her home. After Qwendolyn Alexander lost her full time job, she relied on discount programs offered by the water and sewer utilities to save her from having to sell her house. Photo courtesy of Qwendolyn Alexander The regions skyrocketing utility rates can be attributed to massive capital improvement projects to repair and replace aging pipes, some of which are a century old, and to construct sewage infrastructure required by a federal consent decree to reduce the amount of pollution entering Lake Erie. The largest piece of area residents sewer bills, about 40 percent, goes toward the cost of Project Clean Lake, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer Districts $3 billion, 25-year pipe-building program. When completed, the project should reduce the flow of raw sewage during heavy rains into the lake by 4 billion gallons a year. An additional monthly sewer charge, averaging about $5.15 a month, helps pay for a $42 million-a-year stormwater project to repair eroding hillsides and riverbeds, and to clear obstructions from pipes and channels in the Sewer Districts 355-square mile service area. Who pays what Cleveland Water Departments usage rates are divided into four zones, with prices determined by customers distance and elevation from the lake. The farther away from the lake, the higher the rates because it costs more to pump the water, said water department spokesman Jason Wood. Ninety-eight percent of the departments customers are on an updated meter-reading system, which allows for remote water-usage readings. The system has dramatically reduced the number of estimated bills, which caused inaccurate readings and brought a deluge of complaints about 10 years ago. The new meter-reading system also helps to alert the department to potential water leaks. In 2014, for example, the department sent 70,000 courtesy leak notices to customers, resulting in a 90 percent resolution within a few days of the first notice, Wood said. A common cause was a leaking or running toilet, which was easily fixed. Clevelands Water Department has spent $1.7 billion over the past 30 years to modernize and repair its water-treatment and delivery system, the ninth largest in the nation. Much of that $630 million went toward modernizing and rebuilding Clevelands four water-treatment plants, which freed up funds for the ongoing capital improvement pipe repair and replacement programs. Nearly half of customers monthly water bills are earmarked for the $26 million the department spends annually to repair and replace its aging water pipes, which stretch for 5,300 miles and burst an average of 1,800 times a year. Nearly half of customers monthly water bills are earmarked for the $26 million the department spends annually to repair and replace its aging water pipes, which burst an average of 1,800 times a year. Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer Nationwide, Cleveland area water and sewer customers bills are about average, said Jean Smith, a Sewer District spokeswoman. New York City and Philadelphia, for instance, are slightly lower; Atlanta and San Francisco are among the highest in the country, averaging $2,000 a year per household, she said. Federal money that once paid up to 63 percent of total spending on water and sewer projects kept rates artificially low for decades. But in recent years, federal funds have practically disappeared, Smith and Wood said. With the exception of stimulus money, we havent received a single penny of federal money in the past decade, Smith said. Almost all of our funding comes from ratepayers, Wood said. Its a complicated system, but at the end of the day its simple: Were taking water from the lake, were making it safe, and were sending it to your home. Affordability is an issue But whether the city departments 440,000 customers spread over 80 communities can afford to pay the ballooning costs for their water and sewer services is an entirely different matter. Hundreds of thousands of customers around the Great Lakes are having their water service shut off due to nonpayment of bills, according to the NPR story. That includes more than 40,000 homes and businesses in Cleveland over the past eight years, Wood said. Not surprisingly, the majority of these shutoffs were in Clevelands poorest neighborhoods. Preventing shutoffs and restarting water service for those who have been shutoff is a vital concern of the water department, Wood said. Were not in the water shutoff business, he said. Well work with customers, to help them apply for discount programs and payment plans. Those plans include the Homestead Program, which provides a lower fixed charge and consumption rate for senior homeowners with a household income less than $33,500, and the Water Affordability Program, which provides a 40 percent discount for qualifying needy homeowners, such as Qwendolyn Alexander. If a customer responds after receiving a shutoff notice, they typically are signed up for a payment plan or discount program, Wood said. If the customer fails to respond to a shutoff notice, it could lead to service termination. Very few people enrolled in the two discount programs get disconnected, Wood said. About 27,000 customers are signed up for the programs. The Sewer District rarely shuts off service to delinquent paying customers, and offers five discount and payment programs, Smith said. A typical household pays an average sewer bill of about $59 a month, or nearly twice the average Cleveland area water bill of $32.50. Scheduled rate increases are expected to increase the average sewer bill to $76 by 2021, and water bills by $1 to $2 this year. Although Sewer District revenues have been decreasing due to water conservation measures, declining economic activity and a shrinking population in its 400,000-customer service area, that has not been the case with the Cleveland Water Department. Our revenues in good shape, and our number of customers remains stable, Wood said. Ward 8 Councilman Mike Polensek said the water departments revenues are beyond good shape, citing a recent utility budget report that showed the Division of Water had a $198 million cash carryover balance from last year. This was a result of an 82 percent increase in the cost of Cleveland water, Polensek said. Thats outrageous. To me, they could not justify that increase. I voted against it. City Council approved the water rate increase, spread over a five-year period, by a 10-8 vote in 2011. Polensek said increasing water and sewer bills are having a major impact on people with fixed incomes, the elderly and the poor. The utilities thought theyd help [customers] by breaking up quarterly water and sewer bills to month-to-month. But believe me, that hasnt softened the hit. | https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2019/02/why-have-cleveland-area-water-sewer-bills-doubled-in-a-decade.html |
Does our immune system hold the key to beating Alzheimers disease? | Half a million people in the UK are living with Alzheimers disease, the most common form of dementia. And while the risks generally increase with age, thousands are afflicted under the age of 65. Inheritable genetic conditions can lead to familial Alzheimers, which can afflict people as young as 30. There is no known cure. Some medications can reduce memory loss and aid concentration, but these merely alleviate the symptoms or boost the performance of those neurons in the brain that remain unaffected. They do nothing to stop or slow down the killing-off of brain cells by this neurodegenerative condition It is a bleak picture. Part of the problem with developing drugs is that the causes of Alzheimers are still not fully understood. Moreover, the disease is also challenging to combat because, like cancer, it is not caused by an invading pathogen. It arises from our own biology from something that our cells are prone to doing. But, also like cancer, one of the most promising current approaches to a cure enlists our bodys own defences, using the immune system to ward off the disease by means of immunotherapy. Immunotherapy works in the same way as vaccines, by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells, and many researchers and some pharmaceutical companies are now striving to make a vaccine against Alzheimers. Activity sharpens even dementia-affected brains, report suggests Read more Some immunotherapeutic drugs are now in clinical trials, being tested on human volunteers to see if they are safe and effective. There is good reason to hope that the vaccination strategy might ultimately be effective for treating or warding off this widespread, devastating and fatal condition. Alzheimers is caused by two rogue proteins the molecules that carry out much of the work in our cells. Proteins are chain-like molecules encoded by genes, which typically fold into compact blobs to function properly as enzymes. One of them, called amyloid beta, can misfold into a sticky form that then clumps together into aggregates called plaques in the brain. These can accumulate outside neurons, and are toxic to them. The risk of misfolding increases with a persons age, but it can also happen early in life for people with a particular mutation in a gene called APP, which stands for amyloid precursor protein, the protein that becomes amyloid beta. People who inherit one of these APP mutations will get Alzheimers, typically in their 40s or 50s with a near 100% certainty, says Nick Fox, a neurologist at University College London. But siblings who dont inherit the mutation will have no more chance of getting Alzheimers than anyone else. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A model of the amyloid beta molecule, which is toxic to neurons. Photograph: Molekuul/Getty Images That makes it look as though amyloid beta is the primary culprit of Alzheimers. But theres another protein involved too, called tau (rhymes with wow). Whereas no one is quite sure what the natural role of healthy amyloid beta is, tau is known to maintain protein filaments called microtubules inside nerve cells, which Fox calls the railway tracks of the neurons transport system. If tau folds into an abnormal shape and doesnt work properly, the tracks break up and form tangles inside the neurons, which again stops them working and leads to their death. Whats worse, an abnormally folded tau protein may be able to spread the misfolding tendency to other neurons, in a kind of contagion. The consequences of aberrant amyloid beta and tau formation of plaques and tangles in brain tissue were seen by the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer himself when he identified and studied this form of neurodegeneration in the 1900s. But its still not agreed which is the more important, and the field has been dogged by arguments between the so-called baptists (who believe amyloid beta protein, BAP, is the prime cause) and tauists (who blame tau). Some say that amyloid beta sets up the danger but tau sets it off: amyloid plaques build up around neurons in the brains of healthy people, but thats only a problem if tangles caused by tau are present too. In this view, amyloid is the match, and tau the fire. At any rate, without amyloid there seems to be no danger no fire without matches so anti-Alzheimers drugs are being developed to clear it. Its not obvious how best to do that, though. It is said that when one of the pioneers of Alzheimers immunotherapy, the late Dale Schenk of Elan Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco, convened a lab meeting in the 1990s to discuss strategies for developing drug treatments, lab members listed all the possible approaches on a whiteboard and the idea of a vaccine was considered the worst. Alzheimers was regarded purely as a result of age-related wear and tear; no one thought it had anything to do with the immune system. But Schenk (who died of pancreatic cancer in 2016 at the age of 59) tried it anyway, and the results astonished the research community. He and his colleagues studied mice with a gene mutation that conferred a condition similar to Alzheimers by producing a faulty amyloid protein. The mice were vaccinated with fragments of that protein to induce an immune response. Their bodies produced antibodies that would attack amyloid as it built up plaques. Surprisingly, the antibodies seemed able to get from the bloodstream into the brain, something that is normally blocked by membranes that form a blood-brain barrier. This work led to the development of a human vaccine called AN-1792, which Elan put into clinical trials. It looked promising at first. James Nicoll of the University of Southampton was in one of the teams that looked at the results; in 2003, when one of the patients in the trial died of unrelated causes, his group had a chance to examine the persons brain post-mortem. We found evidence of quite extensive removal of amyloid plaque, he says. It showed that the approach does work. Facebook Twitter Pinterest German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, seated left, with fellow researchers. Alzheimer is regarded as the first scientist to identify and describe the disease that would later bear his name. Photograph: Science History Images/Alamy Fox became drawn into the quest because of his expertise in brain-imaging using the technique of MRI, which supplies a means of both tracking the course of Alzheimers and assessing treatments while patients are still alive. Because of neuron death, the brain can shrink by as much as 20% for people with the condition. So MRI offers a quick way to track how much effect a drug is having. But in the AN-1792 tests, says Fox, imaging scans showed areas of brain swelling due to inflammation. At the phase II stage of clinical trials, which involves a relatively large patient group, about 6% of those given the treatment suffered inflammation. Their immune system seemed to be over-reacting, just as it does in an allergic response. The inflamed brain caused symptoms similar to meningitis. Most patients recovered fully, but the trial was stopped. The whole field was rocked, says Fox. It was such a setback if you couldnt control the immune response safely. Still, the idea wasnt abandoned. They neednt even be human antibodies; with a little modification, they could be raised in other animals, such as horses. That approach has led to a number of candidate antibody drugs able to provoke immune attack safely on amyloid plaques. But clinical trials have so far produced no sign of improvement in cognitive function. Perhaps the treatments were too little or too late, says Fox. Given the earlier experience of inflammation, the doses might have been too cautious. Trails are ongoing, however. One antibody drug called aducanumab, currently being tested by the company Biogen, has shown some promise in higher doses, with possible cognitive benefit as well as safe clearance of amyloid. Large-scale trails will be completed in about a years time. Unfortunately, this type of treatment, known as passive immunisation, would be hugely difficult and costly to administer because it requires patients to have regular intravenous infusions of the drug. Its not clear how a health service could cope with that for everyone who shows signs of Alzheimers, or is merely thought vulnerable to it. Passive immunisation is hugely expensive, says Nicoll. Its difficult to envisage how you could treat many people over many years with regular infusions. So he sees this approach more as a demonstration of the principle that antibodies can do the job. That is why vaccination an active, once-only treatment that stimulates the bodys own immune system still looks more attractive. The problem of inflammatory side-effects remains a concern but at least its becoming better understood. Nicoll believes that when amyloid is broken down by the antibodies, the fragments dissolve in the blood and end up in the walls of blood vessels, which become damaged and leaky as a result, causing microbleeds in the brain. If amyloid plaque formation can be prevented , that problem shouldnt arise. Hopes were rekindled recently by the results of another candidate drug in clinical trials, called UB-311 and produced by Dublin-based United Neuroscience. The drug is an artificial protein-like molecule that mimics amyloid and provokes a natural immune response. Apparently, UB-311 doesnt have serious side-effects the tests so far show that it is definitely safe, according to Mei Mei Hu, the companys chief executive officer. The key question, still unanswered, is whether any of these treatments can stop or even reverse the decline in brain function caused by Alzheimers. Once neurons in the brain have been killed, the brain cant replace them. The large-scale studies [of drugs] have been disappointing in terms of preventing cognitive decline, says Nicoll. Amyloid is not the only target. Vaccines against tau protein are also being studied one of them, called AADvac-1, developed by Axon Neuroscience in Slovakia, is in phase II clinical trials now and the results are due next year. But an Alzheimers vaccine would pose difficult choices. The logical thing with vaccination is to go very early, says Fox. One concern is that the drug trials so far have intervened too late in the process to have much effect: amyloid aggregation can appear up to 15 years before a person shows any neurodegenerative symptoms. Its often said that weve been treating the last 10 years of the disease as if they were the first 10 years, Fox says. On the other hand, vaccination of healthy people is often controversial, not least because of the risk of side-effects or over-responses, even in just a few individual cases, in people who would never develop the disease. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scientists have posited a link between gum disease and Alzheimers. Photograph: RamCreativ/Getty Images Its frustrating that we still dont know after 20 years if immunisation is going to be a useful approach for Alzheimers or not, says Nicoll. But he sees some cause for optimism in the existing evidence from animal studies that antibodies against amyloid protein can prevent plaques from forming. He says there are currently two studies being conducted that deliver plaque-busting drugs to people with a genetic susceptibility to early Alzheimers, to see if the disease can be prevented before it occurs. Some of the participants in these trials carry the APP mutation that would make neurodegeneration otherwise inevitable in mid-life. If that is avoided, it should be a clear indication that immunisation can work. Hopefully, well get answers in the next few years, says Nicoll. Neurosurgery could spread protein linked to Alzheimer's, study finds Read more In the absence of any known cure, people living with Alzheimers are typically eager to give these trials a shot, says Fox. The people he works with are repeatedly disappointed [with failures of candidate treatments], but rarely resentful. They are realistic, and really appreciate the efforts being made. If were lucky, the best line of defence against this form of dementia will turn out to be the body itself. Gum disease link to Alzheimers risk A possible link between gum disease and Alzheimers is prompting some people to pay more attention to dental hygiene. Thats no bad thing: gum disease isnt just bad for your teeth but offers an entry point for all kinds of pathogenic bacteria. Whether flossing will do anything to lessen your risk of dementia, however, remains to be seen. The claim, made by researchers at the biotech startup Cortexyme in South San Francisco and others, is that the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis, which cause gum disease, were found in the brains of people who had died from Alzheimers alongside gingipains, the toxic proteins the bacteria produce. The bacteria were also detected in people with only very early biological indicators of Alzheimers, suggesting that the gum disease wasnt simply caused by cognitive decline. It is thought gingipains disrupt the tau protein. They reported that infecting mice with the bacteria could trigger an Alzheimers-like condition, and that drugs that block the effects of gingipains could protect the mouse neurons. The results might lend some support to an unorthodox theory, championed by Harvard neurologist Robert Moir, that amyloid is a defence against pathogenic microbes. Even Moir, however, hesitates to conclude from the new study that P. gingivalis is itself a cause of Alzheimers. There are echoes here of the early days of cancer research, when it too seemed to be a shared endpoint of several possible causes, including infections. These are important clues, but its not yet very clear what they are telling us. PB | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/03/alzheimers-disease-immune-system-immunotherapy-vaccine |
Could Floridas Jachai Polite be the next Jevon Kearse for Titans? | INDIANAPOLIS Back in 1999, the Titans selected an edge rusher from Florida in the first round of the NFL draft, an instant-impact presence who helped lift the team from good to great. Twenty years later, theyre in position to do something similar. But Jachai Polite hasnt really looked up to Jevon Kearse, despite the similar background. Nah, Polite said Saturday at the 2019 NFL scouting combine. It was really Dante Fowler. Fowler, the No. 3 pick in 2015 and a current free agent, makes sense as a football role model for someone near in age like Polite. But regarding Kearse the 1999 AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year whom the Titans drafted with the 16th overall pick forgive Polite. Hes only 20. Kearse was a bit before his time. Still, Polite in Nashville which hosts the 2019 NFL draft in April adds up. Hes projecting to go in the middle of the first round, and several mock drafts have the Titans taking him at No. 19. The Titans' biggest need is arguably improving on the edge and getting to the quarterback, and Polite, with his speed and ability to bend around the corner, satisfies that need to a T. And for whatever its worth, the Titans have already won some points with Polite. He said hes had 19 formal meetings with teams this week, most of which were part of the bashing crew as in teams that were quick to criticize flaws in his game, specifically his technique stopping the run. "Thats probably it. Thats probably the only flaw of my game, Polite said. They know you have good plays. Thats why were here. So everybodys going to pull up your bad plays. ...Thats their job. Theyre trying to get my character out. Theyre trying to make me feel uncomfortable. See the way I react. So them bashing me, thats their job. Theyre about to invest millions probably I hope. So I have to take it. The questions had a similar theme. Like, Why? Polite recalled. Why? Oct 7, 2017; Gainesville, FL, USA;Florida Gators defensive lineman Jachai Polite (99) gets the fans pumped up against the LSU Tigers during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports (Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports) But not the Titans. "Nah, not really," said Polite, who mentioned the Los Angeles Rams were the team whose interview he most enjoyed. "They didnt. I remember all the teams. But like they didnt at all. Why? They were just trying to see who I was because they really didnt do background checks on me, they said. So I was like, OK, cool.' Theyre getting to actually just know who I am. Not ask 'why' questions and stuff. Thats how I thought it was going to be in all the meetings." It wasn't the first time this week where Polite's expectations didn't align with reality. His roommate, Ohio State's Nick Bosa, who is the projected No. 1 overall pick. "Hes so cool," Polite said. "Probably going No. 1. Thats crazy. I never imagined Id be in the same room as him, literally. Its just crazy. Im very blessed to be a part of this draft class." And perhaps he's the next Jevon Kearse for the Titans. Even if he's a few inches shorter, the potential seems to be there for Polite, who had 11 sacks and six forced fumbles this past season for the Gators. NEWSLETTERS Get the Sports newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Top and trending sports headlines you need to know for your busy day. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-342-8237. Delivery: Daily Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters "I stay humble, but I got to talk myself up," Polite said with a smile. "Ive got to believe in myself first. I feel like I am the most athletic guy in this class." Reach Erik Bacharach at [email protected] and on Twitter @ErikBacharach. DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get Titans news about the NFL draft from The Tennessean on your mobile device REPORT: Titans among 3 teams most interested in Antonio Brown NFL DRAFT: T.J. Hockenson to the Titans at No. Iowa TE is downplaying the hype | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2019/03/03/nfl-combine-titans-draft-florida-football-jachai-polite/3042962002/ |
What to make of Anthony Davis' trade comments on LeBron James' show? | originally appeared on nbcsportsboston.com Anthony Davis offered a glimpse at NBA All-Star Weekend into how he really feels about the trade rumors and reports swirling around him. Scroll to continue with content Ad On Friday night, he opened on the subject in a discussion with one of the central figures of those rumors. Here's Davis and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James discussing the New Orleans Pelicans star's public trade demand on James' HBO show, "The Shop." "I'll say what I wanna say and do what I wanna do. I got the power." @AntDavis23 doesn't need your approval in reclaiming his career. #TheShopHBO pic.twitter.com/IKATt6Mekc HBO (@HBO) March 2, 2019 "As the CEO of my own business, I got the power," Davis says. "I'm doing what I wanna do and not what somebody's telling me to do." There's a hint of irony in Davis' statement. His agent, Klutch Sports' Rich Paul (who also represents James), has driven much of the conversation around his trade request and reportedly leaked several details about Davis' trade preferences while trying to drive his client to the Lakers prior to the NBA trade deadline. It's possible Davis is pushing back against those leaks; with the trade deadline gone, he'll be fair game for any NBA team this offseason -- including the Boston Celtics, who are expected to make an aggressive push for the 25-year-old. Story continues Davis said at All-Star Weekend that every team is on his list and that he just wants to win, comments which bode well for the Celtics' odds of landing the superstar forward if he really wants to act in his best interests. Expect James to make his own strong pitch for Davis, though. The Lakers star offered praise for Davis on the show phrased as looking out for the big man's best interests. "Seven years in the league, nobody's ever said ... anything negative about AD," James said, as transcribed by Bleacher Report. "But you can tell when the narrative changed when you don't do what they want you to do." Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device. | https://sports.yahoo.com/anthony-davis-trade-comments-lebron-164412843.html?src=rss |
What if Gov. Doug Ducey can't get his way with Republican lawmakers? | CLOSE The Arizona governor is used to getting his way. But growing rifts on the budget could lead to a showdown, columnist Robert Robb says. Diana Payan, The Republic | azcentral.com Opinion: The Republican governor is used to getting his way by holding his ground. That might not work this session. Gov. Doug Ducey is used to getting his way at the Arizona Legislature. This session might be different. In fact, there is a growing potential for a significant rift between Republican lawmakers and the governor on fundamental tax and spending issues. The state has an estimated surplus of $1.1 billion and revenue growth continues to be strong. The star proposal in Duceys budget was to increase the rainy-day fund to $1 billion. That would use up roughly $540 million of the surplus. There is a case to be made for that. Although the national and state economies are performing well now, a future downturn is inevitable. The current rainy-day fund is on the low side of what fiscal wonks recommend. However, there are many competitive ideas percolating in the Legislature and there are probably more developing. And these do not represent minor differences. They have major differences on taxes Start on the revenue side. Although the income tax filing deadline is less than two months away, the state still hasnt decided what people owe for 2018. This is mostly Duceys fault for ducking the issue last year. If the state conforms to changes at the federal level, that would produce a revenue windfall of an estimated $155 million. Ducey wants to pocket the money, at least for the 2018 tax year. GOP legislators, correctly, see that as a tax increase and want to give the money back or not collect it. Ducey has already vetoed one proposal to do that. Then there is the highway safety fee that was enacted last session and would produce in the neighborhood of $185 million next fiscal year, which begins in July. Theres been a strong public backlash against the new fee and a repealer passed the Senate by a veto-proof margin. Again, Ducey wants to keep the money. And different spending priorities There are also different priorities being expressed about spending. NEWSLETTERS Get the Opinions Newsletter newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Our best and latest in commentary in daily digest form. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Opinions Newsletter Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters In coping with the recession, the state skipped three monthly payments to the schools over a period of time. This didnt actually reduce what the schools could spend. But it did create cash flow issues for them. The total amount in arrears is $930 million. A proposal to pay back $620 million has made progress in the House. Duceys budget proposed just $35 million in additional operational funding for the universities. Given the rhapsodic praise heaped upon Duceys paltry offer by the university presidents and the board of regents, in a clearly orchestrated act of sycophancy, it would be political poetic justice to stick them with it. But the universities were severely cut back during the recession, and the state is rolling in dough. A bill to increase university funding by over $100 million this year, growing to over $300 million in three years, has made some headway in the Senate. There is also the proposal to refer to voters an increase in the education sales tax to benefit K-12 education and higher ed. That has some legislative life. Ducey has been oddly silent about it, but he presumably would like to see it get lost somewhere before the session ends. Although it hasnt been formalized in a bill, presumably the idea of restoring K-12 funding for additional assistance faster than the governors five-year timetable will get some traction. At least I hope it does. These are differences of hundreds of millions of dollars, on both the revenue and spending side. The governor has the stronger hand in budget negotiations. Thats because he knows what he wants. The Legislature, having abandoned actually developing a budget through the give-and-take of deliberations in the Appropriations Committees and on the floors, really doesnt. But among GOP lawmakers, the view of the governor as the titular head of the party and a conservative thought leader has dimmed. He wont get the benefit of the customary deference. This will be a new test for Ducey. Hes used to simply stating his position and holding his ground until the Legislature gives him what he wants. That might not work this session. Reach Robb at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/robertrobb/2019/03/03/gov-doug-ducey-republican-lawmakers-growing-rift-arizona-budget/3022228002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/robertrobb/2019/03/03/gov-doug-ducey-republican-lawmakers-growing-rift-arizona-budget/3022228002/ |
Is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, too modern for the British press? | Seventeen years ago, I was pregnant in New York and some lovely friends held a baby shower. One American mate bought me some tiny Gucci bootees: I still have them, pristine and boxed, as a memento of a lovely, mad time. I remembered them when I read some of the reactions to the trip to New York by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, when her not just generous, but wildly wealthy, friends such as Serena Williams and the Clooneys coughed up a reported 330,000 for a baby shower in a top Manhattan hotel. No public money was spent on Meghans party, unless you count the security detail for members of the royal family. Yet Libby Purves, in a fabulously damning piece in the Times, wrote that while such daft flaunting of wealth was to be expected among stars, the clash comes when a free-spending American TV celebrity, the independent Ms Markle, becomes the British Queens granddaughter-in-law. Just consider the adjectives in that sentence; Markle is not just flashing the cash (free-spending) but foreign, famous and, possibly worst of all, an independent Ms. For hire: the former royal hangers-on who are hounding Meghan Read more It has all underlined the growing sense in much of the British media that Meghan is somehow just not one of us. The relationship between the royals and the press could, perhaps, withstand the relentless scrutiny of Meghans body last week we learned, courtesy of Mail Online, that her belly button has been pushed out by the baby but not the publication of a five-page handwritten letter written from Meghan to her father. Kensington Palace is now considering legal action against the Mail on Sunday similar to that brought successfully by Prince Charles when the paper published his diaries in 2006. Yet less than a year ago the marriage of Harry to this mixed-race divorcee with a successful career was being held up as a joyous coming-together of old and new. The event was heralded as the start of a new era by the New York Times and a breath of fresh air showing just how progressive and open British society could be. How clever of The Firm to reinvigorate itself in this way with a sprinkling of Hollywood glamour. Now it seems that a woman praised for modernising the monarchy is perhaps just a bit too modern, a bit too full of herself, a bit too independent. Piers Morgan, a man never known to avoid a social dog fight when he sniffs one, condemned her for acting her way to the top after she refused to return his calls, as if she needed an excuse. Keep her mouth shut. In the space of a few months, Meghan has gone from teaching the royals new ways, to apparently finding herself in breach of royal protocol by showing too much shoulder. Kate, once dismissed as an airhead oik in search of a rich husband, lest we forget, is somehow allowed to show some shoulder, a double standard seized on by the US press, of course, as it allows them to lambast their hidebound British peers, while benefiting from the ensuing sales lift provided by the most photogenic royals. For anyone who believes Meghans media treatment is no different to other royals, I give you Mike Tindall. While the former actor has been forced to drop her online blog and acting career, the member of a World Cup-winning rugby team, and another outsider to marry a royal grandchild, has continued with his former career and appeared on TV survival programmes since marrying Zara Phillips. Whats more, his treatment by the press appears overwhelmingly positive despite two lengthy drink-driving bans. The racial undertones first mentioned by Prince Harry in a letter asking the press to desist in its treatment of his then girlfriend in 2016 also bedevil the coverage. This was brought home to me last week when I was told by a tabloid sage of rumours that Meghan was no longer using skin lightening lotions because she was pregnant. In all seriousness. About a woman who said magazines which change her skin tone or airbrush out her freckles are her pet peeve.In a moving 2015 piece for Elle magazine about growing up the daughter of an African-American woman and Caucasian man, Markle described the hateful online reaction to the decision by the producers of Suits to cast a black man as her father. I used to think she was hot. She moves to the UK and, as well as spiteful Fleet Street gossip, Kensington Palace has to moderate comments on its official online feeds to stop racist and sexist abuse. A respected Times journalist, meanwhile, described any suggestion that Markle was being pursued and vilified, as her dead mother-in-law was, as utter fantasy. No one is spying on her in the gym, he opined. No one is listening in on her phone calls. Post-Leveson, much has changed, but it seems the bar is still quite low. Owning our independence When it emerged last week that a Saudi investor had bought a 30 % stake in the Evening Standard for an estimated 25m to match his 2017 investment in the Independent, there was little fanfare. The Financial Times identified the investor as Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel, an employee of NCB Capital, the investment banking arm of Saudi Arabias National Commercial Bank, which is majority owned by the Saudi government; the regime which dwells at the bottom of press freedom league tables and is implicated in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Oh, and that the investment was made via a Cayman Islands offshoot long beloved of thriller writers looking for signs of covert ops. Move along, nothing to see here. The Standard, now edited by former chancellor George Osborne, insists its editorial freedom is safeguarded. They point to the papers coverage of Russia since it was bought by former KGB officer Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny in 2010. The younger Lebedev, who now has British citizenship, has spent some time with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and shows an interest in the Middle East, posing on Instagram with Saudi-backed militias in Yemen while accompanying Evening Standard journalists there on assignment, for his birthday last May. The Independent can be rightly proud of its history of journalism about the Saudi regime, while the Standard can argue that the actions of Putin are not really its core area of concern. It did however publish pictures of the Russian president greeting the Saudi crown prince just weeks after the Khashoggi murder at the G20 with a very smiley high five. The argument, made by David Puttnam among others, that British newspaper owners should all be domestic tax payers, has largely been dismissed for failing to understand that, without foreign ownership, newspapers would have died. The Barclay brothers-owned Telegraph, already accused by a former columnist of killing stories critical of advertisers, has a 750,000-a-year deal to include a supplement from the Communist party of Chinas daily newspaper. One newspaper executive said last week there was no difference between the Saudis or Russians owning a newspaper and a football club. Which would be true if the British media was just a vehicle for identity politics, fun and games rather than a time-honoured way of holding the powerful to account. | https://www.theguardian.com/media/commentisfree/2019/mar/03/is-meghan-duchess-of-sussex-too-modern-for-the-british-press |
Should Starbucks only allow reusable cups? | According to CNN, Starbucks served 3.85 billion paper cups for hot beverages in 2017. The biggest coffee chain in the world could spark a huge domino effect by only allowing reusable cups in stores. But the chain has spent the last 30 years looking for a solution, and some say it will be impossible to fully make the switch. Believe it or not, the current Starbucks cup is already engineered with sustainability in mind. CNN's Danielle Wiener-Bronner describes the cup as "close to perfect" when it comes to engineering alone, and the cups can be recycled. The problem is getting people to actually do the recycling after ordering their venti soy-two-pumps-no-foam beverage. Plus, many recycling facilities don't go forward with recycling the paper-plastic cups: Most facilities dont recycle paper cups because to do so, they would have to separate the cups plastic lining from the paper. Many recyclers find that process to be more trouble than its worth. Starbucks has described this as a systemic issue, but the chain is hopeful that it can reach a solution by making recycling easier in stores, rather than changing the cup itself: Still, the company has set high standards for itself. We wont consider our cups universally recyclable until our customers can recycle them in our stores, at their homes and workplaces, and in public spaces, the company said in its 2010 global responsibility report. Cherries are red, Roses are too. Be sure to take a moment to celebrate you. #CherryMocha pic.twitter.com/rL0svxGUfO Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) February 7, 2019 Starbucks paper cups are made with 10 percent recycled material, so theres plenty of room for improvement. In all fairness, the chain is searching for a viable solution. Wiener-Bronner reports that Starbucks has held three Cup Summits between 2009 and 2011, looking to everyone from experts at MIT to amateurs. One particular summit, the NextGen Cup Challenge brought in 480 entries: The winning designs also include three reusable cup systems. One, called CupClub, has already been piloted in London. The service puts RFID chips in cups, so they can be tracked and then picked up from drop points to be cleaned and reused. Imagine walking into Starbucks, making your order, receiving a reusable cup, and going on your way. The only difference would be dropping your empty cup off in a Starbucks bin instead of a trashcan. During the 2018 holiday season, Starbucks gave away reusable cups to a select number of customers. People were so excited that Starbucks limited supply seemed to disappear almost instantaneously on the day of their release. Plus, if you bring your own reusable cup to any Starbucks, youll be offered a 10 percent discount on your beverage. Starbucks is already accommodating customers who are willing to change their behavior and those who aren't. CNN reports: But if paper cups have an infrastructure problem, reusables have a behavioral one. Starbucks has called reusable cups the greenest option of all, but over the last 30 years, it has struggled to get a significant number of customers to embrace the idea. Starbucks is the largest coffee chain worldwide. It cant possibly expect its entire customer base to change at the same pace, but it is doing what it can to serve those who are willing to change their habits. But some people feel that since Starbucks wields so much power, if the chain switched to reusable cups, customers would have no choice but to follow its lead, as would other international food chains. simples...make every customer bring their own cup. if you can afford a $5 coffee you can afford to bring your own cup. end of Teldar Paper (@yogurtraisin) February 28, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.nola.com/tylt/2019/03/should-starbucks-only-allow-reusable-cups.html |
How can we make Mardi Gras greener and cleaner? | Theres nothing better during Mardi Gras than the catch. You make eye contact with a masked rider on a float and score a piece of Carnival treasure. For two weeks, you fill bags with pounds of glittery beads, hula hoops, glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces and blinky rings. Then, at the end, youve got to figure out what to do with all that plastic, most of which youll never put on again. Some throws are usable, like the zippered pouches and mini-notebooks from Muses, the cellphone lanyard from Nyx or the glass beads some krewes have started throwing again. Some are coveted keepsakes, like the Zulu coconut, Muses shoes and Nyx purses. Or, the yellow flags tossed to the crowd Thursday night with Never Been Thrown, Float 20 printed on them. Thats definitely a keeper. Some people use beads for their art, and some sort their loot and take it to ARC of Greater New Orleans to be repackaged and reused. But most of those strings of plastic go into landfills or, as New Orleanians have learned, into our storm drains. Tons of beads and other trinkets never make it home with anyone. They litter the streets and sidewalks and are scooped up and sent to landfills by the street-cleaning crews who follow parades. We cant go on this way. Or, we shouldnt. The city found 46 tons of Mardi Gras beads in New Orleans drainage system along five blocks of St. Charles Avenue in 2018. Thats 92,000 pounds on just one small section of the parade route. Street-cleaning crews scoop up about 900 tons of waste on average during the Mardi Gras season. Last year, that number was nearly 1,200 tons, according to the city. We have to face the consequences at the end of the parade, Howard Mielke, a Tulane University pharmacology professor, told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reporter Maria Clark. Watching the gigantic sanitation trucks come by at the end visually, its spectacular to see that take place. It is impressive how quickly that happens and how clean the route is afterward. But that feat covers up the fact that we are putting tons of waste into our environment that isnt going to break down and could have toxins in it. Mielke has researched the amount of lead in Mardi Gras beads picked up along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street. His 2013 study found lead in four bead samples, including small green beads, large green beads, non-metalized black beads and non-metalized small red beads. That small number might reassure some people. But he also found higher traces of lead accumulated in the ground along the parade routes. Thats old soil that has had years and years of exposure to lead. Kids pick beads up off the ground and dont know they have been contaminated by the parade route itself, Mielke said. Verdi Gras, a group formed in 2011 to increase recycling of Mardi Gras throws, commissioned a separate study in 2013. Researchers with The Ecology Center, a non-profit environmental organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan, screened 87 Mardi Gras bead necklaces, bracelets and other accessories. Fifty-six out of the 87 products tested had concentrations of lead above 100 ppm, which is the limit for childrens products set by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The highest amount of lead detected was far beyond that limit 29,864 ppm in a green, round bead necklace. The necklaces arent necessarily a threat, at least when they are new. But as they degrade and the finish wears off, lead exposure is possible, the lead researcher said. There are alternatives being developed. An LSU biological sciences professor has a patent pending on biodegradable beads made from algae. Misti and Aron Medders, who live Uptown, have started making environmentally-friendly throws to sell. They planned to make 550 dozen of their No-Call Nola necklaces made with black and white recyclable plastic beads and a little yellow penalty flag. Recycling efforts are growing, and the city is putting bumpers across some storm drains to keep the beads out. That is a start, but we need to do much more. South Louisiana is one of the most environmentally fragile places on earth. It needs to be better protected from pollution. No one wants to lose the thrill of the catch, but we should be more thoughtful and careful about what gets tossed off a float. | https://www.nola.com/opinions/2019/03/how-can-we-make-mardi-gras-greener-and-cleaner.html |
Why Is Disruption So Hard For Some People To Accept? | Considered by many as the best film director of all time, with three Oscars under his belt and countless more awards over the course of his career, Steven Spielberg seems an unlikely candidate to illustrate the difficulties some people have in accepting disruption. Acclaimed as one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood era and producer or director of legendary science fiction movies as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, AI Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report or Ready Player One among many others, Spielberg is clearly someone who not only understands the impact of technology on society, but is also able to interpret it on the big screen in a way few others have managed. Imagine my surprise then, when I read over breakfast this morning that in light of Romas three Academy Awards, Spielberg is backing proposals that would try to exclude streaming companies like Netflix or Amazon from the Oscars. The director believes that only movies premiered and distributed in cinemas should be eligible: Once you commit to a television format, youre a TV movie. You certainly if its a good show deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar. Romas success has angered both Spielberg and Hollywood: Netflix spent some $50 million on marketing for the Oscars, compared to the $5 million spent on Green Book; whats more it was on release for just three weeks in movie theaters rather than the three-month norm; the company has provided no figures for box office takings, and it was made available in 190 countries almost immediately, 24/7. Hollywood also hates Netflix because it clearly exposed the industrys mistaken obsession with piracy and demonstrated that the real issue was price and ease of access to content. Spielbergs resistance to change is shared by some newspaper editors who claim that internet-only publications are not newspapers. The technological environment something is created in has nothing to do with whether it is any good or not. There is no sense to the arguments that a film produced by Netflix or Amazon is not a film because it has not been shown in movie theaters and instead simply reflect fear of the threat that non-traditional companies pose to Hollywoods domination of the film industry. This is the same kind of resistance to change that leads some to argue that if children are not educated in the same way as their parents, do not play with the same toys or do not communicate in the same way, they must be addicted or sick. Fear of change manifests itself in many ways, almost always associated with what we believe we know, the industry we dominate, or simply our nature. Our environment is changing and that change is being driven by technology. We need to understand that humans and other animals are adaptable and have been adapting to constant changes in their environment for millennia. If history teaches us anything it is that disruption and fear of change are normal, but that we must address those fears rationally. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2019/03/03/why-is-disruption-so-hard-for-some-people-to-accept/ |
Can Houston's Ed Oliver break paradigms like Kyler Murray? | INDIANAPOLIS The five-star prospect from Texas arrived on campus with prodigious hype, dominated collegiate competition and emerged as a compelling and divisive NFL prospect. Everything fits motor, production and speed except for place amid the leagues long-established archetypes. The fundamental tension between outsized production and atypical size has been the dominant narrative of quarterback Kyler Murray, the Heisman Trophy winner who has become the upcoming NFL drafts most compelling figure. Murray has received so much attention that his height measurement 5-foot-10 1/8 recorded on Thursday was arguably the most anticipated measurement in NFL scouting combine history. Scroll to continue with content Ad But theres another NFL draft unicorn Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver that fits Murrays draft narrative of an elite talent who is outside of the typical NFL size paradigms. The size of Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver will be scrutinized this week at the NFL scouting combine. (AP) In scouting circles, Olivers physical measurements and potentially ridiculous 40-yard dash are being greeted with an equal amount of intrigue. Since starting the season being hailed as the potential No. 1 pick, Oliver is now better cast as a guaranteed first-rounder. Some of that has to do with the historic defensive line depth in this class. But theres also size concerns, as Oliver played last season at around 272 pounds even if he was listed at 292 and looks more like a linebacker than a defensive tackle. Oliver is believed to be 6-1, which would make him exponentially shorter and smaller than a typical NFL defensive tackle. (His official measurement on Friday: 6-1 7/8 and 287 pounds.) Story continues But Oliver has a raging motor, freaky physical traits and speed thats expected to test in the 4.5 range that would essentially give him the jets of an average receiver. And theres also high-end production, which included 53 tackles for loss in three seasons. The tension with Oliver lies in how NFL teams will treat his anomalous size. Before Friday, Oliver managed to evade giving the NFL and its scouting services an official height and weight. Oliver is a tough conversation because most of us cant wait to see what his height and weight is this week because we dont even know, said Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock. He added: If you look at historic data, at analytics, it tells you that the height and weight probably shouldnt work in the NFL. He arrived at the University of Houston as the highest recruited player in school history. He earned freshman All-American and as a sophomore became the first underclassman to win the Outland Trophy award for the countrys top interior lineman. Oliver was so confident in his NFL future that he declared hed be entering the NFL draft before the start of his junior season, a decision that offers a window into Olivers endearing braggadocio. Twice during his career, Oliver was the target of dirty hits that resulted in knee injuries with opponents from Temple (2017) and Navy (2018) diving into his knee while he was engaged. (He missed 4.5 games in 2018.) The 2017 hit, in part, led to the NCAA to changing its rules to prevent similar blocks. This slow-mo of block on Ed Oliver from Navy game was shown during Saturdays game. Had not seen this angle pic.twitter.com/a75Q8BV21i Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) November 5, 2018 Former Houston coach Tom Herman, now at Texas, recruited Oliver and coached him for a year there. He watched him as a freshman sack both Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson twice in seismic Houston upsets, as both Oklahoma and Louisville were ranked No. 3 in the country at the time. I think with him, the strength and explosiveness is what overcomes his lack of mass, Herman said in a phone interview on Thursday. Hes never going to be a 325-pound guy. But hes just so strong and quick and explosive that its hard to even get your hands on him. Herman still marvels at Olivers ability to contort his body, as he recalled him running drills where linemen are working on leaning their body to rush the passer. His shoulder pad would be a few inches off the ground, Herman said. It was silly the way he was able to bend while still moving. No one will argue with Olivers freakiness, but there are vexing questions about him. Hes rare in that hes more of a run stuffer than a pass rusher, making it more difficult to justify a high draft choice. The most often used comparison to Aaron Donald Olivers favorite player isnt necessarily a fair one as Donald was much more refined in his technique, especially with his hands, and a more accomplished pass rusher. Olivers position coach at Houston for his final two seasons was also his high school position coach, which stagnated his development. Much like NFL coaches and schemes have recently adjusted to quarterbacks coming from college and not fitting their NFL archetype Murray, Deshaun Watson and Mayfield thered have to be some schematic adjustment for Oliver as well. The general feeling is that you get a movable piece in the front seven with whom you can find matchups and attack, said a source familiar with Oliver. Itd be a disservice to the kid to plug him in and keep him on one spot on the interior of the defensive line. He doesnt fit prototypes, but hes such a good athlete, he can play on his feet and play on the edge. There are no critical character flaws with Oliver, as he wasnt a partier, generally worked hard and went to class and didnt raise any off-field red flags. But there are general questions around Oliver involving his emotional maturity, as he showed at times in his Houston career that he could be temperamental and struggled with coaching. That was epitomized by the great jacket flap this season that led to a wave of social media vitriol for former Houston coach Major Applewhite. In a game against Tulane in November, Oliver screamed at Applewhite on the sideline after the coach attempted to enforce a rule that injured players couldnt wear jackets on the sideline. All that will start with Fridays measurement. It will take a bold and creative team to pick him, which is why he has lost traction in some mock drafts. Well get a better clue when he steps on a scale Friday. Height is a little bit overrated, I think hes a top-10 pick, said a veteran NFL executive. His quickness and disruptiveness translates really well to the modern game. Subscribe to The Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast Apple Podcasts Stitcher Google Podcasts More from Yahoo Sports: The NFL combines biggest question is answered Ole Miss fans trash court after controversial loss Westbrook lectures kid, requests protection from fans Haynes: LeBron has a message for the haters | https://sports.yahoo.com/can-houstons-ed-oliver-break-paradigms-like-kyler-murray-033332257.html?src=rss |
Will police chief fire officers who shot Stephon Clark? | Sacramento Police Chief Dan Hahn said he intends to conduct a fast internal review in the coming weeks of whether his officers failed to follow police procedures the night they chased down and shot Stephon Clark. Any outcome is possible, he said, including the officers getting fired. Speaking to The Sacramento Bee late Saturday, Hahn said he was not sure how much of the internal review he would reveal to the public, but said he planned to disclose as much as his lawyers say he can. The two officers, initially called to investigate reports of someone breaking car windows, confronted Clark, 22, in the side yard of his grandparents Meadowview home and chased him into the backyard, where they fired 20 rounds at him, mistakenly believing the cell phone in his hand was a gun. Hahn expressed regret about the shooting, saying his department is working on changes to prevent an incident like this from happening again. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee If I could turn back the hands of time, if I could bring back Stephon Clark, anybody would do that, he said. If all the things were known then that we know now, but that is not realistic in the moment. Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced on Saturday her offices investigation determined the officers were justified in the shooting and would not face criminal charges. Officers have the legal right, she said, to use deadly force if they believe at the time that their lives are in danger, even if that later turns out not to be true. Support local journalism The Bee is your go-to source for in-depth coverage of the Stephon Clark investigation. And today, we continue to bring you coverage of news that affects your life, your communities and our region coverage you cant get anywhere else. We believe in our communities. Believe in and support The Sacramento Bee, your trusted local news source. Click to subscribe Angry with the DAs decision not to prosecute, members of Black Lives Matter, the NAACP and other community leaders, including representatives of the Clark family, are demanding that the officers be fired. We need to speak to our city leaders to empower the termination of those two officers, NAACP Sacramento chapter head Betty Williams said. Both officers, Terrance Mercadal and Jared Robinet, are still on the force. Hahn said his department will launch its internal review of the officers actions once he gets the investigative report from the DA and a separate investigation report from the state Attorney General. Hahn said he expects to receive the AG report soon, but has not been told exactly when. The internal police investigation will focus on whether the officers followed police department policy. The resulting department actions can run the whole gamut, Hahn said. It could range from that they were (acting) within policy. It could be termination. Tim Davis, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association, said the Clark shooting illustrates how complicated and dynamic a request for police service can be. The officers in this case were clearly afraid for their life, and were legally justified in their use of force, Davis said in a written statement. Stevante Clark, talks with Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn before the city council meeting on Tuesday April 10, 2018 at City Hall in Sacramento. His brother, Stephon Clark, was unarmed when he was fatally shot by Sacramento Police in the backyard of his grandparents home. Paul Kitagaki Jr. [email protected] In cases where an officer is fired, Hahn said he would make a recommendation to City Manager Howard Chan, who has the final say. Hahn declined to say how long he will take to do his review. I dont want to give a specific date, but we want to do that really quick. It wont be months down the road unless something comes up. Hahn said he will seek legal advice on how much of the review to disclose. I am committed to releasing everything we are required by law, he said. The attorneys would tell us specifically what to release, but I believe at the outset there is something that would be released. A new state law, SB 1421, requires the disclosure of internal investigations regarding police shootings, sexual misconduct and professional dishonesty. Law enforcement officials and news media have been sparring in court over the extent of the new law, and some law agencies have refused to disclose information. Hahn said the department has been working with the Attorney General and other policing experts on modifying police policies, including creating a more analytical pursuit policy. The department will be working with UC Berkeley, he said, on an ongoing implicit bias training program designed to teach officers about the subconscious biases they may carry. Hahn said the past 10 months since the shooting have been tough on the police and the community, but especially the Clark family. I cant comprehend what that family has gone through, he said. The family lost a loved one. No matter what decision, it doesnt bring people back. Our dedication is to look to find ways to get better to keep officers and community members safe. Davis, president of the police union, said his organization will work with the department to review our policies and procedures to find ways to reduce tragic outcomes in the future. | https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article227054804.html |
Did students in MAGA gear make Perry High School unsafe? Or just uncomfortable? | Two students take a picture for Perry High School's "Party in the USA" spirit day on Friday, March 1. (Photo: Courtesy Jennifer Farris) On Friday, students at Perry High School in Gilbert were ordered to remove shirts and hats emblazoned with President Donald Trumps call to Make America Great Again. This, nearly 50 years to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with students who were suspended after wearing black armbands to school, protesting the Vietnam War. On Friday, Perry school administrators demanded that students remove their MAGA shirts, hats and accessories. The kids had worn their MAGA gear because it was Party in the USA day at the Chandler Unified School District school. According to parents, everything was fine until lunch when administrators began ordering anyone displaying the MAGA logo to remove it. The students complied. But after school they again brought out their MAGA gear including a blue Trump flag -- to pose for pictures. But they werent the only ones taking pictures. The school's police resource officer began snapping photos and asking for the kids names. When one girl refused to identify herself, she was told to report to the office where she again refused to give her name. By the time her mother arrived, shed been suspended for 10 days. The mother said she was told officials considered the clothing "offensive, and that the kids were being disrespectful by wearing it'' and could face sanctions if they didn't comply. A video shows the principal calling the Trump MAGA flag disrespectful. CLOSE Watch this confrontation between Perry High School Principal Dan Serrano and the mother of a student, Jennifer Farris. Courtesy of Jennifer Farris, Arizona Republic Perry Principal Dan Serrano, in a letter about the incident, explained that students were carrying political signs that caused a disruption and created a safety concern at lunch. After school, they again brought out the signs. "When the schools resource officer asked the students to leave campus, they declined. They also refused to respond to my request to provide their names and school identification when I sought to interview them," Serrano wrote. That refusal, not their political speech, is why they were suspended, he said. In his letter, Serrano said the school must maintain a safe campus and ensure there are no disruptions to the educational environment." I can appreciate the principals concern, especially in these politically charged times with a president who goes out of his way to exploit that which divides us. Donald Trump is the master of the dog whistle, those seemingly innocuous comments that make the hearts of racists and bigots go pitty-pat. And MAGA is their rallying call. NEWSLETTERS Get the Opinions Newsletter newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Our best and latest in commentary in daily digest form. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Opinions Newsletter Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters It is offensive to many, not because of what it says Make America Great Again but because of what it really means. And how and by whom it is used. Justice Abe Fortas, in writing the Tinker decision, said administrators cant interfere with a students right to speech unless there is evidence to show that speech will interfere with the schools' work or of collision with the rights of other students to be secure and to be let alone. Note that he wrote the students have a right "to be secure and to be let alone." There's nothing there about a right to be comfortable, nothing about a right not to be offended. In the case of the kids wearing black armbands, Fortas wrote, there is no indication that the work of the schools or any class was disrupted. Outside the classrooms, a few students made hostile remarks to the children wearing armbands, but there were no threats or acts of violence on school premises. The justices rejected a lower court's reasoning that the school could shut down speech based upon their fear of a disturbance. In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint, Fortas wrote. Im guessing the students, proudly decked out in their MAGA gear, made people uncomfortable. Let's be honest, that was their goal. Principal Serrano owes the Perry community a fuller explanation of the threats or acts of violence that prompted him to shut down the students speech. Either that, or he owes them an apology. Reach Roberts at [email protected]. MORE FROM ROBERTS: Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/03/03/did-students-maga-gear-make-perry-high-school-unsafe/3049232002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/03/03/did-students-maga-gear-make-perry-high-school-unsafe/3049232002/ |
Are We Watching The Nine Lives Of Tesla And Elon Musk Finally Run Out? | With Teslas announcement that it finally will begin selling Model 3s at the $35,000, as promised, the west coast maker of battery-powered vehicles enters a new phase of vigorous competition and even more questions about its survival. The automakers Model 3 achievement would be better news if Tesla also wasnt forced to use $920 million cash instead of stock to repay a series of convertible bonds that came due last week. Tesla also announced that it was closing all of its stores, doing away with test drives and would begin selling vehicles on line, an abrupt operational shift designed to save money. Adding further to the non-stop drama surrounding almost everything the automaker does, federal safety officials have initiated a probe into the reasons for two recent fatal crashes of Tesla vehicles. The company has cut prices on its Model 3, suggesting to some that theyre not selling as briskly as Tesla had projected. Others analogize price cuts in the computer industry as simply a norm of doing business. My theory is the orders have been significantly lower than expected for Model 3 in Europe and China and do not look as promising as expected going forward, wrote Donn Bailey, an independent analyst who publishes his view on the investor website Seeking Alpha. Teslas latest competitor, Polestar 2 a Sino-Swedish creation from Volvo and its corporate parent, Geely is being unveiled this week at the Geneva Auto Show, with similar size and performance as the Model 3 and starting at about $45,000. Polestars ambitions is more modest than Teslas; it aspires to sell in the tens of thousands compared to Teslas hundreds of thousands. Like Teslas Model S and Model X, Polestar intends to stay on the premium side of the market. Model 3 is Teslas bid to make EVs a mass market vehicle, a move some analysts question as lacking a profit potential. General Motors Co. has been selling the Chevrolet Bolt EV, a well-reviewed car that starts at about $37,000 and Nissan the Leaf, likewise well regarded, from about $30,000. Sales of these mass-market EVs are modest. Unfortunately for automakers, demand for EVs remains exceptionally low, though fast growing. Most mainstream consumers have heard the rationales for buying EVs and arent interested or cant afford the premium price. Last year, EV sales accounted for about 1.4% of the new-vehicle sales of 17.3 million in the U.S., up 117% from the previous year. If the current growth rate were to continue for years mass-market EVs would be a viable business. For the moment, EVs are an interesting technology but a loser financially. Automakers are building them because governments worldwide, starting with California, basically have a gun pointed at the industry with tough regulations that require a certain number of zero-free emission sales. Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac are the brands that either are poised or planning to sell luxury EVs probably initially in fairly small numbers. Which leaves Tesla in first place as the most successful manufacturer of EVs in the world for the time being. But the companys up-and-down finances, its fraught relationship with the Securities and Exchange Commission possibly hindering its ability to raise capital and the prospect of rising competition are clear and present roadblocks to sustainability. This wouldn't be the first time warning lights have flashed red: Tesla has bounced back again and again from serious safety, financial, manufacturing and legal difficulties. A Tesla bankruptcy isnt out of the question though in the event of a financial crisis it can't resolve, a forced sale to another automaker is more likely, one that could take the brand to a new level with fresh financing, a conventional distribution network and improved business practices. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/doronlevin/2019/03/03/are-we-watching-the-nine-lives-of-tesla-and-elon-musk-finally-run-out/ |
What Does Controversial Michael Jackson Doc 'Leaving Neverland' Mean For The King Of Pop's Legacy? | The world of music has been hit with yet another bombshell with HBOs two-part Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland. In the new four-hour documentary, two men accuse the King of Pop of sexually abusing them from early childhood into adolescence. Leaving Neverland, which debuts tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, follows closely on the heels of the R. Kelly doc Surviving R. Kelly. The six-part Lifetime documentary, which aired over three nights in January with 1.9 million viewers tuning in, led to Kellys takedown. Pedophilia is one of the most difficult subjects to think or write about. Trying to unpack, absorb and analyze all that Leaving Neverland includes is no easy task. When a child is abused in this way, the devastating effects are a lifelong sentence. Before getting into the specifics of the film, its important to note there is a strong divide over the documentarys content. Many stand by Jackson and defend his innocence, and many believe the men's detailed accusations. The only people who truly know what happened behind closed doors at Neverland Ranch are those that were there. However, when you listen to the individual yet mirrored, parallel accounts from James Safechuck (now 40, was 10 years-old when the alleged sexual abuse began) and Wade Robson (now 36, was 7 years-old when the alleged sexual abuse began), its difficult to ignore how believable and painstakingly detailed their allegations are. After watching, many questions still remain. This documentary is more a testimonial than journalistic endeavor as the Jackson clan was not involved or interviewed. This was a decision made by director Dan Reed. He felt that none of the Jacksons could offer any first-hand knowledge of the events. The Jackson family estate is speaking out, however, with a $100 million lawsuit against HBO. According to the lawsuit, the movie breaches a non-disparagement clause in a contract with Jackson from the early 1990s. The Jackson family stands in a united front that their son, brother, uncle and father was innocent of all charges. And, of course, Jackson is not alive to defend himself. Both Safechuck and Robson describe in graphic detail sexual abuse allegations by the megastar that began soon after they were befriended by Jackson. A methodical cult-like grooming of both boys and their families occurred prior to the alleged abuse. Both say Jackson talked to them a lot about not trusting people, especially women. They also say they were told they could never tell anyone what was happening, that Jackson would be punished and so would they. Now that each are adults with sons of their own, their painstaking accounts are interwoven with the complexities that coincide as they grapple to understand the sexual abuse they suffered as children. Both men recount Jacksons introduction of masturbation into the relationships, which was eventually followed by various sexual acts, including oral sex. This is how we show our love, both say Jackson told them. There are graphic and detailed accounts of how the sexual aspect of their relationships escalated into showering together, kissing, fondling and watching pornography. As each got older, alcohol was also supplied. The alleged abuse took place at Jacksons various homes, including Neverland and two Los Angeles locations, a condo in Westwood referred to as the hideout and a place the star kept in Century City. They described being lovers with Jackson, with Safechuck going so far as to describe a mock wedding ceremony he had with Jackson. He says he was given a gold and diamond wedding band and it felt as if they were a married couple. Both were in constant contact with Jackson with hours-long phone calls when apart. When Robson went home to Australia, the two allegedly spoke daily on the phone, often for over six hours at a time. When fax machines came out, that was another form of communication. There were shopping sprees and a lot of gifts. That is, until they aged-out and were replaced by younger boys. It was noticeable to each when they fell out of favor and each felt jealous as they saw younger boys in their place. Robsons mom describes a pattern wherein every 12 months or so, there would be a new boy, and a new family, in Jacksons inner circle. The controversy surrounding the documentary is not solely regarding Jackson, but also the credibility of Safechuck and Robson, who many say are not telling the truth and have ulterior motives. Robson, in particular, has come under scrutiny. In 2011, he approached the Michael Jackson estate wanting to direct the new Michael Jackson/Cirque du Soleil production, ONE. The estate hired someone else for the job. A year later, he shopped a book about claims of sexual abuse by Jackson, but no publisher picked it up. In 2013, he filed a $1.5 billion dollar civil lawsuit against the Jackson estate, along with Safechuck. The lawsuit was dismissed by a probate court in 2017. Then, this years Sundance Film Festival premiered Leaving Neverland. Both testified under oath in Jacksons defense years ago and denied any sexual abuse for years. Its important to note that many child victims do, in fact, defend the very people that abuse them. The reasons many survivors remain silent are complex. In addition to self-hatred, confusion and guilt, victims of childhood sexual abuse also face issues of self-blame, shame, fear, protection, admiration and disillusionment. These feelings often last well into adulthood. Its also important to note that abusers are dangerous con artists. We teach children about stranger danger but the reality is that more than 80% of child sexual abuse crimes are committed by someone the child knows. In this case, each believed they were Jacksons best-friend at the time, and both were in love with the superstar. Both men say they wanted to protect Jackson from his then-accusers. Sexual molestation in childhood causes extreme confusion that lingers well into adulthood as many struggle to face, and understand, what happened to them as children. It is because of this that sexual abuse, including rape, is the most under-reported crime. According to RAINN, out of every 1,000 rapes, 995 perpetrators will walk free and perpetrators of sexual violence are less likely to go to jail or prison than other criminals. Both mens mothers, siblings and wives also speak out in the film, as does Robsons grandmother. The two mothers describe getting lost in the fairytale and not suspecting anything was amiss until it was too late. Each also felt they had close relationships with Jackson. Both of their marriages suffered, as well. Jacksons family and millions of fans struggle to grapple with accusations he had anything to do with harming children. They are, after all, human just like us. The human condition is nothing less than extremely complicated; were all broken and damaged in one way or another. Were each capable of sin regardless our standing in society. Fame, as we know, isnt a safeguard against bad behavior. He went to his grave denying any and all accusations against him. His legion of fans and family, it appears, will do the same. The long-term ramifications of this documentary to Jacksons legacy arent yet known. Many will believe Safechuck and Robson. Others will stand by the Jackson family. To many, Jackson will forever remain an infallible larger-than-life legend. To others, he was a pedophile. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/danafeldman/2019/03/03/what-does-controversial-michael-jackson-doc-leaving-neverland-mean-for-the-king-of-pops-legacy/ |
Could NBA contenders have interest in Andrew Bogut when he returns from Australia? | When last we heard from Andrew Bogut, he had gone home. After not getting much interest from NBA teams after the Lakers waived him in the middle of last season, Bogut signed to play with the Sydney Kings in his native Australias National Basketball League. There he was named league MVP, averaging 11.4 points and a league-leading 11.6 rebounds a game, he shot 56 percent on the season, and always a smart positional defender he averaged 2.7 blocks per contest. Also, he was named NBLs Best Defensive Player and to the All NBL First Team. Hes helped lead the Kings to the NBL semi-finals. From Shams Charania of The Athletic. Scroll to continue with content Ad Multiple contenders, including Golden State and Philadelphia, are expected to express interest in upcoming free agent Andrew Bogut. His season has ended in playoffs of Australias NBL, where Bogut was league MVP and DPOY, and he will take some time to decide on next team. He could have potential as a veteran reserve center who can pass, shoot from the midrange a little, and knows where to be defensively, plus he has championship experience. Story continues However, last time he was in the NBA Bogut struggled to get on the court for the Lakers last season, before the arrival of LeBron James. Bogut was the teams backup center who played against traditional bigs from other teams, a small and shrinking role in todays NBA. As recently as 2015 he was a starter for the champion Golden State Warriors (and his injury in the 2016 Finals is an under-discussed reason for the Warriors 3-1 lead collapse against the Cavaliers), but since then the game has evolved as Boguts skills have faded. Its not inconceivable a team might take a flier on adding Bogut before the postseason, but good teams like the Warriors, Sixers, and other contenders are going to wait, see what their needs are right before the postseason (something that could shift due to injuries), then decide if they need to add anyone. Maybe one of those teams will consider Bogut, but its going to be in very specific circumstances. | https://sports.yahoo.com/could-nba-contenders-interest-andrew-165931666.html?src=rss |
Is Onboard Hydrogen Storage The Future Of Zero Emission Vehicles? | Last week I wrote an article -- Water Is Not A Fuel -- discussing a press release I had received from Australian-Israeli startup Electriq~Global. As I noted in that article, it wasn't my intent to criticize the company's technology, but rather to explain how a person should approach these sorts of press releases. In general, one should apply a healthy dose of skepticism, and then ask a number of critical questions. This press release didn't go into enough details to ascertain the credibility of the technology, but I was subsequently contacted by the company to clear up my questions. I spoke with Electriq~Global CEO Guy N. Michrowski. Much of what I suspected is true. The "fuel" in this case is a hydride, specifically potassium borohydride (KBH 4 ). This compound stores hydrogen, but it also reacts with water to release hydrogen. Consistent with the laws of thermodynamics that I touched upon last week, the energy content of the hydrogen that is ultimately released had to be first put into the potassium borohydride. What I did not know is that unlike some hydrides, potassium borohydride can be stored in water without a reaction. There is, indeed, a catalyst that is separate from the potassium borohydride that causes the reaction with water. I had assumed a two-part system: Water and a hydride, in which water comes in contact with the hydride and reacts to release hydrogen. Theirs is a three-part system: Hydride is dissolved in water, and then there is a separate catalyst that causes the hydride to react with water, releasing some hydrogen from the hydride and some from the water. The catalyst remains on board, and some of the water/hydride solution is brought into contact with the catalyst to produce hydrogen on demand. After all of the solution has been processed, it is returned for replacement and regeneration (which involves dehydrating the fuel). They expect the catalyst to need to be replaced every year, but still need to do more catalyst lifetime studies. I asked about costs and range, and Guy emphasized that they are still at an early stage, but he could make some projections. He said that the goal from the Department of Energy for competitive hydrogen is $6 per kilogram at the pump. He believes they will be able to produce hydrogen for $4 per kilogram on board the vehicle. Regarding the range, he said that it takes 25 liters (6.6 gallons) of solution to carry 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of hydrogen, which has a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles) in a light vehicle. If they are able to produce that for $4 per kilogram, then the fuel cost per mile is ($4/62 miles) = $0.065/mile. For comparison sake, 6.6 gallons of gasoline in a light vehicle that gets 35 miles per gallon would have a range of 231 miles. At the current national average retail gasoline price of $2.42/gallon, the fuel cost per mile is ($2.42/231 miles) = $0.01/mile. Of course the attraction of a vehicle powered by hydrogen is that there are no carbon emissions from the tailpipe. And, depending on the energy source used to produce the potassium borohydride, it has the potential to be an overall (nearly) zero carbon transportation option. There are multiple classes of hydrogen storage options that can store more hydrogen than potassium borohydride. Just among the borohydrides, potassium borohydride can store 7.4 weight percent hydrogen, while lithium borohydride can store 18.3 weight percent. But lithium borohydride would not work in their system, as it reacts immediately on contact with water. In conclusion, there are no huge technical problems that would prevent such a system from working as advertised. Cost and range may be bigger concerns, but the upside is another potential transportation option that doesn't require fossil fuels. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/03/03/is-onboard-hydrogen-storage-the-future-of-zero-emission-vehicles/ |
Who will lead if the Liberals toss Trudeau? | Its not too soon to speculate about who will lead the federal Liberals in the scheduled October election. The possibility of a Liberal caucus revolt cannot be discounted. Margaret Thatcher was ousted by a caucus fearful that its unpopular leader would lead it to electoral defeat the scenario now facing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus public-approval ratings were already slumping before last weeks explosive testimony by Jody Wilson-Raybould. ( Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) Caucus revolts in Canada have cost Joe Clark and Alberta premier Allison Redford the leadership of their parties, while other leaders have been eased out when they passed their sell-by date. Trudeaus public-approval ratings were already slumping before last weeks explosive testimony by Jody Wilson-Raybould that Trudeau and his top political aides improperly pressured her, when she was federal justice minister, to compromise Canadas justice system on behalf of special pleader SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. The Trudeau war room is dug in, expecting the current outrage to subside. But the Grit brand will be further weakened by still more allegations to come of unseemly conduct by Trudeau and the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). Article Continued Below The unpopularity of the PMO is widespread in this government. The PMOs pressure on Wilson-Raybould is but one of countless acts of meddling in the work of cabinet officers, committee chairs and backbenchers. A salve for those accumulated grievances would be the replacement of Trudeau and his PMO. Trade, environment, aboriginal reconciliation, and judicial reform will top the agenda of whichever party forms the next government. So, the frontrunners to replace Trudeau include Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, and another cabinet star, the winsomely principled Wilson-Raybould, Canadas first justice minister of aboriginal heritage. There would be contenders from outside cabinet, of course. But few can match the record of achievement of the women above. Tim Hortons might hold iconic status for Canadians, but it is a mere outpost of 3G Capital, a partnership of Brazilian financiers. The 3G formula is to pay top dollar for famous brands, then impose a cost-cutting regime described by Tim Hortons franchisees as ruthless, and aimed at short-term profit maximization over future growth. Article Continued Below That strategy has just backfired in spectacular fashion at 3Gs Kraft Heinz Co., which late last month reported a staggering $15.4-billion (U.S.) write-down of its slow-selling, Cold War-era brands. (I described the perils facing Kraft Heinz and Big Food last year.) The Kraft Heinz disaster, in turn, accounts for most of the massive $25.4-billion fourth-quarter loss at 27-per-cent owner Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffetts conglomerate. Meanwhile, 3Gs Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, owner of the Labatt brand in Canada, is suffering market-share losses to innovative craft brewers. Buffett and 3G co-founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have each admitted theyve lost touch with the consumer-goods market. Im a terrified dinosaur, Lemann told an investor conference last April. The performance of Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI), 3Gs umbrella for Tim Hortons, Burger King and Popeyes, is not encouraging. Shares in RBI have flatlined in the $82 (Cdn.) range after impressive early gains, and RBI profits dropped nearly 6 per cent last year. 3G allows that many of its RBI stores need an overhaul. Actually, what Tim Hortons needs is to be un-yoked from a 3G that has a demonstrated ability to overpay for assets and an inability to wisely manage them. Troubled HBC tries to shrink to success Hudsons Bay Co. (HBC) will likely suffer the indignity of being dropped this month from the S&P/TSX Composite Index. HBC remains one of Canadas biggest retailers, with sales last year of $14.3 billion. But the value of the firms publicly traded shares has dropped to just over $500 million, no longer qualifying for inclusion in the index. HBC has lost 53 per cent of its stock-market value in the past five years, and has posted total losses in the past two years of $1.1 billion. The prospect of HBC stock gains would be diminished by the shares absence from the index. Institutional investors feel obliged to hold stocks in the most prominent indexes. Along with the popularity of index funds, index inclusion helps stocks gain value. And vice versa. HBC has made some progress in unwinding chairman Richard Bakers failed strategy of turning HBC into an unwieldly congeries of retail chains, notably with its recent merger of a troubled European retail chain with its chief rival. Bakers gambit was badly timed for dynamic change in consumer preferences, and the rise of Amazon.com Inc. and other e-commerce vendors. HBC still has too many stores, despite HBCs February announcement that it will close its Home Outfitters chain and shed about 20 of the 133 outlets in its underperforming Saks Off 5th chain. HBC still has considerable power as a brand, if not as a merchandiser. Given Baker & Co.s failure to make a success of HBC after 11 years, HBCs future might be as an HBC-branded apparel and accessories line owned and marketed by someone else, the Weston familys Holt Renfrew, Canada Goose Holdings Inc. or Canadiana purveyor Roots Corp. David Olive is a business columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @TheGrtRecession Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2019/03/03/who-will-lead-if-the-liberals-toss-trudeau.html |
How safe are America's railroads? | There have been a number of catastrophic train crashes in recent years that may seem to have been isolated incidents. But, it turns out, they are connected in an important way. They illustrate a failure in the railroad industry to implement a life-saving technology that could have prevented them. The list of accidents includes one last year in Cayce, South Carolina where an improperly aligned track switch sent Amtrak's Silver Star, its crew and more than 100 passengers careening off the mainline track and barreling into a CSX freight train parked on a siding. Emergency responders are at scene after Amtrak train collided with freight train and derailed near Cayce, South Carolina, on February 4, 2018 Randall Hill / REUTERS Mark James: When it hit, I mean, you can couple up at six miles an hour, and it'll shake the ground. And this thing hit at 51 miles an hour. And the blast was unbelievable. Mark James was right there. He was the engineer of the CSX freight train that night. Mark James: And they're bringing people off with broke arms, legs, people fr-- mangled really. And this is something I'll never, I'll never get over. I couldn't imagine anybody else that's ever seen that before. Lesley Stahl: And right up close. Mark James: Yeah. That close. As the engineer, Mark James was driving the CSX train along different tracks in the yard, in order to unload freight. That night he and his conductor were working under unfamiliar conditions because the electrical signal system - that sends out alerts when the tracks are not lined up properly - was out of service. Mark James: Nobody can see what we're doing. It's called dark territory. It was the CSX conductor's job that night to throw the switches by hand like this to realign the tracks and thereby change the direction the train could go. Mark James: Lotsa switches, yes. Mark James: He probably handled close to 40 switches that evening. Mark James But there was only one switch that would matter for the passengers and crew of Amtrak's Silver Star, the switch to keep Amtrak on the main line. Mark James: That's when I ask him, "Did you get the mainline switch?" And he assured me that he had thrown it 100 percent. Lesley Stahl: He said, "100 percent?" Mark James: Uh-huh. Mark James: No. There's no way I can get off a locomotive and go check every switch he throws. That way, you'd get nothing done. Lesley Stahl: But you had a feeling. Mark James: Yeah. I did. I asked him multiple times. I trusted him that he had gotten the switch back. At that moment, southbound Amtrak 91 was bearing down on that mainline switch that would send it into the CSX freight train. Mark James says he had gotten off the train to stretch his legs. Mark James: I get down and I'm expecting these headlights very bright coming to get on past us. And then I see-- you could tell when that train hit the-- hit the switch and came in on top of us, you could see where it-- where it rocked., my mind was just crazy. I didn't-- "Oh, my God, no. Please no. Please no." A surveillance camera near the tracks captured the Amtrak train as it went under a bridge and slammed into the stationary CSX train. Mark James: And it was just tearing the locomotives up. And it went up over and turned over that way. And there was nothing left of where I was sitting. And I thought my conductor was dead. Mark James: As the collision was happening, somehow he made it out the back door. So I'm talking to him. He's in shock. He's sitting there saying, "I know I got that switch back. I know I got that switch back--" This is what was left of the other train's locomotive. That Amtrak train's engineer and conductor were killed. One of the passenger cars folded in half. More than 90 people were injured. Robert Sumwalt: It only took about seven seconds from the time that it hit this switch-- Lesley Stahl: Oh. Robert Sumwalt: And it collides with the stationary CSX. Robert Sumwalt Robert Sumwalt is the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash. Robert Sumwalt: Well, we've certainly seen accidents with toxic chemicals onboard, where a switch was left in the wrong position right here in South Carolina, in fact. It was just over 50 miles away, in Graniteville, where a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in 2005, leaking tons of chlorine gas, killing nine people and leaving 554 with respiratory injuries. Lesley Stahl: And the town has never been the same, as I understand it. Robert Sumwalt: Well, that's right. So people might be thinking, "Well, I-- this-- I don't care about this story. I don't ride a train." But most communities have railroad traffic going through it. Albert Linden: Every day you get some of the locomotives loaded with everything. They heading that way, and they moving 60 miles an hour, too. Albert Linden owns an electrical contracting business next to the crash site in Cayce, South Carolina. It was his surveillance camera that captured the accident. Albert Linden: These tracks are in horrible shape. Albert Linden: Yes, ma'am. It's quite frequent. Albert Linden: In the last ten years, there's probably been seven, eight of them. They forgot to flip the switch, and derailed them in here. Albert Linden: Yes, ma'am. Forgetting to flip the switch. Albert Linden: They, they-- it's a common occurrence. But those didn't involve the lives of more than 100 passengers who along with engineer Mark James were counting on the CSX conductor to make sure the tracks were pointing in the right direction for Amtrak to pass through. Mark James: No. Lesley Stahl: Nothing. Mark James: I can't see what my conductor's doing. And I have to trust him. We have to work together. And I did trust him. And he's human. He made a mistake. What if we told you that mistakes like that, human errors, can be caught, and crashes prevented by a technology that was supposed to be in place by now. Congress mandated that most of the country's major railroads install the technology by 2015. In a complex arrangement, Congress extended that deadline first to 2018 and now again to 2020. The technology is called positive train control PTC. It's a computerized system that uses technology like GPS and Wi-Fi to transmit information from sensors and signals installed along the tracks to and from the trains. It amounts to an automatic braking system. Pat Desir shows correspondent Lesley Stahl how PTC works Pat Desir, an engineer for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, demonstrated how the system works. Lesley Stahl: This is the speed limit and this is what you're going at the moment. Pat Desir: Exactly. It enforces my speed. Lesley Stahl: So it can stop the train, but it can also slow you down to keep you Pat Desir: Exactly. Lesley Stahl: --at the right speed. Pat Desir: See right now we're supposed to be doing 25 miles per hour. All right, I'm gonna go above it. And I'm gonna show you how PTC works. I'll get to about 28 miles per hour. And I'm bringing it up. And now-- (NOISE) Lesley Stahl: Whoa. Pat Desir: And we received a penalty brake application. Brought the train to a complete stop. Lesley Stahl: Whoa. This commuter railroad was one of the first to install the equipment. But others have been slow to follow. And that has led to deadly consequences. The PTC mandate was imposed after a crash in Chatsworth, California that killed 25 people. Since then, there have been 22 crashes, killing a total of 29 people and injuring more than 500. If PTC had been installed, this derailment a year ago in Washington state - when Amtrak 501 was going twice the speed limit wouldn't have happened. And this crash in 2015 when an Amtrak train was going too fast in Philadelphia - wouldn't've happened either. The major railroads including CSX and Amtrak - each own miles of their own tracks and their trains ride on each other's tracks. To make matters more complicated, they're installing different PTC systems and have to make them compatible with the other companies that ride on their tracks. They've also been stymied by software and equipment challenges and regulatory hurdles. As of today only 10 percent of the mandated railroads have fully implemented PTC. Lesley Stahl: It seems so obvious. It just seems so urgent that it's almost unfathomable that it doesn't get done. Robert Sumwalt: That's why the NTSB is just flabbergasted that we still don't have it more than 10 years after Congress mandated Positive Train Control. One issue has been the Federal Railroad Administration, FRA, the railroad's regulatory agency, criticized in government reports for not vigorously enforcing the PTC mandate. We tried to talk to the agency but they declined our interview request. Its handling of PTC has been a source of frustration for Robert Sumwalt of the NTSB. Robert Sumwalt: Well, we have issued recommendations to the FRA and they've not acted upon those. Somebody told us that in his opinion they're captive to the railroad system, to the industry. Robert Sumwalt: The regulator needs to step up to the plate and do their job and regulate. Robert Sumwalt: Well, ultimately, it's up to the railroads to put this system in place. It's a steep climb for them. It's going to cost, depending on who you talk to, anywhere between $10 and $14 billion for the system to be implemented. Lesley Stahl: Okay. Robert Sumwalt: You're right. Lesley Stahl: I mean, it's safety. You're, they're, they have people's lives in their hands. Robert Sumwalt: Yes, and we're confounded by that as well. And for every day that goes by we are at continued risk. When there's a train crash involving Amtrak, it usually pays the damages. But because it is largely funded by the government, that means the taxpayers pay. We have learned that Amtrak agreed decades ago, in secret indemnity contracts, to be responsible for damages even if the freight company is at fault and the accident occurs on the freight company's tracks. The freight company in the South Carolina crash, CSX, declined our interview request, but sent us a letter saying it has already spent "$2.5 billion" on PTC and that the crash was "the result of human error, and violations of long-standing operating procedures." CSX fired both the conductor and engineer Mark James. Mark James: Yes. Lesley Stahl: Are you challenging-- Mark James: Yes. Mark James: Yes. There's nothing I could have done to prevent the accident. I did nothing to cause the accident and I got fired anyway. James is unemployed. He's raising a teenage daughter and is facing large medical bills for PTSD. Mark James: You can't sleep at night, you know. If you wake up, this is in your head. Lesley Stahl: Still. Mark James: Yeah, and nightmares, visions, like in loud noises. Lesley Stahl: Like a soldier. Mark James: Yeah. Mark James: No. Mark James: No. I wouldn't get on one myself. Amtrak, which declined our interview request, sent us a statement saying it has made substantial strides on implementing PTC. Produced by Sarah Koch and Chrissy Jones | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-safe-are-americas-railroads-60-minutes/ |
How Will AI Help Me? | We hear a lot about how AI is progressing well these days and how it will help companies with all kinds of efforts from assisting customer pleasing experiences to implementing massive automation efforts. Well, it looks like AI will make it this time and there is a low probability that there will be another AI winter coming. So now we all have to deal with living with AI. I think the answer will vary by roles the life that we play and where AI will add value to our lives. I think AI is evolving but in a good way. Employee / Contractor Role As an employee, we are asked to do all kinds of work tasks. Some are fun, some are necessary and some are just distasteful or boring. In some job roles, the tasks can be plain dangerous. In the case of unsavory tasks, I see AI in software or physical robots stepping in and freeing us to more fun creative and fun work. Even these fun tasks will likely require great amounts of information, knowledge and even wisdom that AI can help with in the future. I see AI giving us an edge in boosting our ability to consume and leverage knowledge on a grand scale even outside of our native skillsets, culture bases, and language capabilities. This borders on super mental powers for certain kind of work tasks and outcomes. I am optimistic that we will be safer, smarter and more engaged because of AI. While AI will displace, it will also skill assist those that are displaced. I think we will have to learn how to collaborate with AI and optimize the interactions to desired outcomes. Consequently, we may have to learn how to better communicate with AI better and leverage it along the way to feeling comfortable with AI, all while optimizing our collective productivity. Consumer Role As consumers, we all want an experience that gets us to our goals in the most pleasant fashion all while being informed in a transparent fashion. While there may be many hidden complexities in dealing with organizations as a customer, we expect that our goals are being attained optimizing around our time, information needs and efforts. The reality is that organizations were initially built to optimize their outcomes and profits. With the advent of customer journeys, combined with AI, the complexities and company needs can fade in the background while customer needs are being represented within organizational systems, interfaces, and constraints. In fact, AI can help consumers with picking the right organization to work with initially by digesting large amounts of social and legal data, usually represented by textual comments and suggesting best-fit approaches to a specific consumer, prospect or existing customer. This puts the power back in the hands of the consumer before the sale. Once a consumer becomes a customer, AI can help future servicing interactions with emotion detection and emergent responses to the mood of the customer (damage control in some situations, upsell in other cases). Self Help Role Most of us are all trying to become better people and even better citizens. AI can also play a role in helping us in everyday lives. In the case of multi-cultural interactions AI can help us with language translation and to avoid subtle cultural missteps. AI can also help us with interactions with people that are in our network by giving us advice on the proper way to behave or respond in context. If I am talking to my boss or my significant other AI can help me with framing my answers in context. I imagine AI whispering into my earpiece with that perfect suggestion. Also, I could take an inventory or a set of tests for AI to suggest steps for self-improvement. For instance, if I wanted to be a better artist, AI could suggest video training based on looking at my completed art projects. In the same way, AI could suggest some better writing techniques based on ingesting a number of my blogs. AI as a personal trainer of sorts on any number of topics for which I have set some stretch goals makes sense to me. In some cases, AI will assist those that have to overcome physical or mental challenges. You see AI assisted prosthetics emerging today. The potential for self-help is high and emergent. Net; Net While there is always the possibility that AI will go wrong, particularly in the hands of evil people, but I believe AI will add value to our lives over time. I dont think so, but the reality is that the military will use it for defensive and offensive purposes. Just like any technology, it can be used for good or bad. I think AI will help us in ways we havent imagined yet. In so many ways and in some ways I dont see coming. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/03/03/how-will-ai-help-me/ |
Are jukebox musicals like The Cher Show dumbing down Broadway or just giving us what we want? | The essence of The Cher Show on Broadway isnt really the story of the famed entertainers life, as narrated by the three women who play her. Its soul is in the style, starting with the voice: that deadpan sneer, wisecracking her understated one-liners. Its the voice of a hipster chronically ditching school and then growing up to belt survival anthems with one-of-a-kind a and o vowel slurs. Leave it to Cher to rock a diphthong. Jarrod Spector, left, as Sonny Bono and Micaela Diamond as Babe, the youngest Cher, perform in The Cher Show on Broadway. ( Joan Marcus ) This jukebox musicals raison dtre, really, is in the comic nasal honk of Jarrod Spector as Sonny Bono. Its highest purpose lies in a costume collection so fabulous that eventually everything has to simply stop to make way for a parade of Bob Mackie outfits. These idiosyncratic, fashionable elements persuasively whispering Cher matter far more than whether the shows narrative framework will make Aristotle wake up and notice. On the whole, nope. Youve seen stars rise and fall the same way too many times. But more than any other genre in theatre, jukebox musicals elbow aside the usual theatrical concerns plot, character, narrative as they reach (or lunge) for a different set of showbiz goals. For bored or outraged critics, jukebox musicals are Broadways most cynical money-grabbers, mainly good for offering reviewers the chance to see who can gag the loudest. The critiques are legit. Too many jukebox projects are pale, confused imitations. Since Mamma Mia! cracked the code, the easiest thing is to say yes to a title or catalogue that has worked before. Its lazy. Article Continued Below The flops from the Earth, Wind & Fire bomb Hot Feet more than a decade ago, to the Jimmy Buffett Escape to Margaritaville last season seem to outnumber the hits, yet jukebox musicals just keep coming. Tina Turner, Michael Jackson and Alanis Morissette shows are in advanced stages of evolution (as is the hits-driven Moulin Rouge) and Broadway is just one facet of a phenomenon that saturates U.S. theatre. Baltimores Center Stage recently premiered a Bob Marley musical and Soul: The Stax Musical, about the famed Memphis recording studio. Marvin Gaye and Meat Loaf shows are on the menu at Washingtons National Theatre, and the small MetroStage in Alexandria, Va., makes a living on shows about mid-20th-century jazz and blues icons. The omnipresence suggests a cultural hunger and audiences arent wrong to sniff out the possibility of pleasure. They know that jukebox shows guarantee songs with proven muscle and, in projects such as Aint Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, they just might spawn a stage full of dancers in thrilling motion. Sampling Cher and other shows recently making the rounds Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, A Sign of the Times, Head Over Heels only the Go-Gos confection, Head Over Heels, displayed real storytelling verve. But they all tap into a nostalgia not just for old radio staples, but also for a Broadway in tune with the performer-driven essence of showbiz. Writing a bio-musical that doesnt sugar-coat the truth or resort to formulas is hard, and you can feel the pressure as both The Cher Show and Summer take an unexpected page from Edward Albees Three Tall Women, with three actresses playing the title characters at different ages. The gambit doesnt work in either case. The Cher Show has a book by Rick Elice whose Jersey Boys remains a jukebox high point because its subjects entertainingly disputed the facts yet it boils down Chers life to a Behind the Music clich. Girl gets fame, hits the skids, somehow survives its as rote as you fear. Article Continued Below Still, Stephanie J. Block, Teal Wicks and Micaela Diamond cock their hips and sneer the sneers, rocking the hip-hugging bell-bottoms, strutting and hair-tossing among the sublime shimmer of the 1960s-70s TV shows. Its a lot of sequins in your eyes and almost enough personality to give audiences a rock-star performance if only it were funnelled through one lightning performer, not divided by three. The 90-minute Summer, which closed in December after nine months on Broadway and is headed for a national tour, feels a lot like Aint Too Proud, at the Kennedy Center in the summer and opening on Broadway this spring. Behold: Summer and Aint Too Proud are both directed by Des McAnuff and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, and moulded by the same team of designers. These guys keep things moving almost too fast the Summer storys a blur, racking up major deductions for biographical reductions but they do pay attention to one of the main things we want: the sound. You recall that hypnotizing Giorgio Moroder synthesizer riff from I Feel Love and Summers voice ethereally crooning the phrase over and over (Oooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love ...). Now picture a stage of glossy dancers amplifying the rhythm. The recreation of discos dark power is really, really good. Standing atop an executive desk and wearing an immaculate cobalt blue suit, the actress LaChanze, as the senior Donna, belted out the anthemic She Works Hard for the Money and it was a showstopper. The giddy escapism of confetti and swirling lights to Hot Stuff and Last Dance thats why were here. But Summer fades. You wonder what kind of deliriously entertaining show might have evolved by going all in with music and the stage presence of the headliner, ignoring the false shorthand of the bio-formula, not watering Donna down into three smaller portions. Trying to glue a song catalogue to an original story, like the goofy Mamma Mia! or Twyla Tharps daring Billy Joel dance drama Movin Out, is even more fraught with formulaic pitfalls, although breakthroughs happen. With A Sign of the Times, longtime showbiz writer and former Hollywood Square Bruce Vilanch fashions a new scenario for 1960s tunes, with a story created by Richard J. Robin. Its serious-minded and overliteral, dropping a feminist awakening story atop radio hits by the likes of Petula Clark, the Monkees and Nancy Sinatra. Its a kick to hear that middle-of-the-road 1960s pop sound, with catchy rock beats rising to big brassy choruses. But introducing These Boots Are Made for Walkin with construction workers catcalling women who sass back with Nancy Sinatras snotty hit is as dull as using The Shoop Shoop Song (Its in His Kiss) for the scene about budding romance. And You Dont Own Me is too rooted in The First Wives Club to click as the emotional climax for a too-long, too-much-social-history-on-top-of-romantic-triangle-stuff saga. Far more saucy and fun is the poetic-punk Go-Gos musical Head Over Heels. The shows wonderfully weird premise grafts Sir Philip Sidneys Renaissance poem Arcadia no foolin onto tunes such as Automatic Rainy Day, when two gloomy girls sing their lovelorn hearts out, and Vision of Nowness as a gender-fluid oracle directs the action. The silhouetted lovers of Heaven Is a Place on Earth hit familiar tropes of love and woke gender politics in a fresh way. The Renaissance-1980s girl group mash-up kinetically powered, naturally, by a four-woman rock band nicely aligned in terms of wit, rebel yell and century-hopping sex appeal. The cast was gleefully activated by the mix. You cant picture your local theatres tackling the machine-tooled showbiz epics The Cher Show or Summer, but Head Over Heels is manageable and its puckish spark is appealing. Inscribed above the proscenium arch in the recently closed Broadway production were the words Habemus Percussio, a.k.a. We Got the Beat. Full points for ingenuity, for syncing up its disparate influences and walking its own walk. The critics arent wrong: We really do want that crisp, new snap. But Broadway has deep roots in vaudeville no story, just acts so audiences are right: Well always crave performances that revel in that singing, dancing beat. | https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2019/02/22/are-jukebox-musicals-like-the-cher-show-dumbing-down-broadway-or-just-giving-us-what-we-want.html |
What Is The Best Book On Artificial Intelligence (AI)? | AI is rapidly changing the way we live and do business, which leaves many business leaders feeling like theyre struggling to keep pace with developments. As such, business leaders often ask me for tips on recommend reading they want to know which books will help them understand the AI revolution, grasp its impact on our world and plan for an AI-driven future. I read a lot about AI, for my consulting work, and more recently as research for my latest book Artificial Intelligence in Practice and, of course, because I find the subject absolutely fascinating. In fact, Id say Ive devoured pretty much every key AI book thats been published in the last decade. But, honestly, it was just too difficult to narrow down my favorites to one book! Instead, I offer you my top five. In my view, these are the very best AI books that are available right now. All focus on the implications of AI for business and society (as opposed to the nitty-gritty tech side of AI). So if you're interested in the potential impact of AI, or how AI is going to transform every aspect of our world, I highly recommend these five books. The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity By Byron Reese, published May 2018 This fascinating book argues that AI will have enormous implications for the human race, to the extent that it will redefine what it means to be human. As background, Reese sets out the previous three ages where technology has reshaped humanity and sets up AI and robotics as the fourth age of transformation. In other words, its a gripping (and surprisingly optimistic) account of how we got where we are today, and how we should approach the new age thats upon us. Best for: Understanding what AI will mean for us as a species, without getting sucked into a doom-and-gloom dystopian fantasy. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence By Max Tegmark, published July 2018 One of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2018 and named Book of the Year by both The Times and The Daily Telegraph, this highly praised book more than lives up to the hype. In it, Tegmark, who is a physicist and cosmologist, sets out to separate AI myths from reality in an approachable and lively way. How can we protect AI systems from hacking and nefarious use?) without being too high-brow or dumbing down and without telling the reader what to think. Best for: Facilitating challenging, thought-provoking conversations about AI, whether you want to impress folks around the water cooler or instigate serious AI strategy discussions. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow By Yuval Noah Harari, published March 2017 Following on from his smash hit Sapiens, which explored how the human race evolved, Harari peeks into the not-too-distant future to see whats in store for the human race. Artificial life is just one part of this envisioned world, and Harari explores a range of other challenges, including immortality. ), this follow-up is a must-read. Best for: Combining hard science with stimulating philosophical questions around human identity. Definitely one to make you feel smarter! AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley And The New World Order By Kai-Fu Lee, published January 2019 In one of the most recent books Ive read (at the time of writing this article), Lee argues that, thanks to Chinas astonishing growth in this area, it now rivals the US in AI technology. For both of these superpowers, and indeed the rest of the world, this means dramatic business and societal changes will hit us sooner than anyone could imagine. If global politics really isnt your thing, dont be put off. Lee paints a very readable picture of what this increasing AI competition will mean for real peoples jobs. Best for: Understanding which jobs (both blue collar and white collar) are most likely to be affected by AI, and which jobs can be enhanced with AI. Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI By Paul Daugherty and H. James Wilson, published March 2018 Daugherty and Wilson are Accentures Chief Technology and Innovation Officer and Managing Director of IT and Business Research, giving this book a laser-like focus on the business implications of AI or, more specifically, how companies are using AI to innovate and grow. Key to this book is the idea that no business process will be left untouched by AI. Across all areas of business, humans and intelligent machines are working more closely together and changing how companies operate. Indeed, the authors set out six hybrid human + machine roles that they believe every business must put in place. Best for: Providing a practical blueprint for business leaders who want to capitalize on the AI revolution. I hope youve enjoyed my recommended reading list and, as always, I would love to hear your views. Let me know what you think about the books and which other ones you would add to this list. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/03/04/what-is-the-best-book-on-artificial-intelligence-ai/ |
Is 'Keto Crotch' Really A Side Effect Of The Keto Diet? | "Keto breath" is the smelly breath that you may expect to get when on the keto diet. Apparently, there are complaints on message boards and social media about what is being dubbed "keto crotch," an unusual odor emanating from between the legs while on the keto diet. For example, here's an entry from Reddit: Hello ladies! I've been on the diet for about a month and a half now and I've noticed that my vaginal odors have gotten MUCH stronger... (It smells like a mix between urine and discharge... I'm not exactly sure how vaginas are 'supposed' to smell like. Many say 'musky' but I feel like that's too mild of a word... It's much stronger than 'musk' for me :/ ). My discharge is white in color and it doesn't smell fishy. Any input or advice would be helpful, thank you! Others on this board responded with messages such as: "Oh boy, yes. During the first few months there was some extra smell stuff happening all over - crotch and otherwise. But, the good news is that it settles down and goes away after you've been keto for awhile." "I'm glad this was posted because I just changed my underwear AGAIN today because I smelled gross. At least I know I'm in ketosis, I guess." "It is horrible. I have to keep panty liners (hate that name!) in my bag and keep changing them every couple of hours. It's a pain but saves on keep changing knickers all day!" "Keto crotch. It's very much a thing. Just wait until you workout and smell that funk. Thankfully, my shoot from the hip husband, tells me it isn't really that noticeable. Again, only when I'm drenched in sweat." As you may know, "keto diet" is short for ketogenic diet, because who has the time to say "genic." It is a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carb diet with approximately 80% of your calories from fat, 15% from protein, and only 5% from carbohydrates. The goal of the diet is to induce ketosis in your body. The theory is that typically your body may rely on burning the carbs that you eat rather than the fat stores in your body for energy. The thinking is that by severely restricting the amount of carbs in your diet your body may then be forced to burn your body fat instead. Breaking down this fat then results in ketones, which is not some acapella group, but instead organic compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. One type of ketone produced is acetone, which is in certain types of nail polish removers. This accumulation of ketones may result in "keto breath", which is a rotten fruit or metallic smelling bad breath that can smell a bit like, surprise, surprise, nail polish remover. The question then is whether your crotch is like your mouth. Not in general, but in the specific case of ketones. Indeed, the smell of your vagina can depend on the composition of microorganisms there. Some odors, like a strong fishy one, can be the result of an overgrowth of certain microorganisms like bacteria, which is the case in bacterial vaginosis. In theory, all of this is possible. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition did find an association between having more severe bacterial vaginosis and consuming diets higher in total fat and saturated fat. But the keto diet is still a relatively new rage, and not enough scientific studies have been done to determine whether "keto crotch" is really a risk of the keto diet. Not everyone is buying "keto crotch" as a real phenomenon. Some are claiming that it is a crotch or rather a crutch to criticize the diet. Per Dr. @BrianLenzkes follow the money trail... Tro (@DoctorTro) March 1, 2019 If you want to make some enemies very quickly, just jump on to social media and say "the keto diet stinks." Because there are certainly a number of people who swear by the keto diet. Some of them will even swear at you if you say anything bad about the diet. Supporters of the diet claim that the keto diet will help lose weight relatively quickly, clear your mind, make you feel better, and even clear up your acne, because you no longer are taking in carbohydrates that "cause inflammation." People who question the diet have raised concerns about whether maintaining such a high fat diet is effective and healthy in long run. After all, high fat diets could raise the risk of various chronic medical conditions such as heart disease and cancer. The bottom line is that there have not been enough scientific studies, especially longer term ones, to really determine all the potential risks and benefits of the keto diet. Many of the claims out there on the Internet, social media, or television in either direction are anecdotal, meaning that they are individuals telling stories about what has supposedly been their experiences. Take everything you hear that is not supported by scientific evidence with a grain of salt (but not too much salt because too much can be bad for you.) Therefore, more people experiencing "keto crotch" need to visit doctors to determine what's really happening. It could be that some of the people claiming "keto crotch" are instead detecting smells that are not related to their diets. Many different smells could emanate from your crotch, some are normal, some are not. There is still a lot unknown about the links between nutrition and your various bodily functions. You are a complex system with many unknowns. The keto crotch could be a real phenomenon, but more scientific evidence and studies are needed. Of note, it isn't yet clear whether "keto crotch" is strictly a female phenomenon or whether men are experiencing unusual smells in their crotches as well. Either way, more sniffing around is needed, in a scientific manner that is. Keep in mind that if your crotch begins to have a very unusual smell, whether or not you are on the keto diet, you may want to see your doctor. Don't just tell everyone on Reddit about how much your crotch smells. Regardless of your gender, an unusual smell could be a sign of an infection or some other condition that needs proper medical attention. Even if you don't have a medical problem, your doctor can tell you what kinds of smells are normal and not normal. In other words, he or she could lower your concerns about what's going on in the lower part of your body. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2019/03/03/is-keto-crotch-really-a-side-effect-of-the-keto-diet/ |
Can machines be more creative than humans? | Mario Klingemann, a German artist who uses AI in his work, has radical views on creativity. Humans are not original, he says. We only reinvent, make connections between things we have seen. While humans can only build on what we have learned and what others have done before us, machines can create from scratch. Its an interesting perspective. Setting aside whether or not human creativity is limited and indeed what precisely creativity is, its certainly true that artificial neural networks being developed today work out the rules as they go along, rather than being taught. AlphaGo, the AI that defeated the Korean go grandmaster Lee Sedol, was fed thousands of games, but no rules. It worked out how to play go entirely by itself. Klingemann is a pioneer of AI art. He loves the moments, he says, when the machine jumps the system and does something the human programmer didnt expect it to do such as when AlphaGo made a move no human player would ever have thought of making. Some of his work uses algorithms that create what appear to be human faces - but they are not the faces of anyone that has ever lived. They appear to have been dreamed up somewhere deep inside the machines imagination. On 6 March, one of Klingemanns works will go up for auction at Sothebys, giving it, and AI art, far more public recognition. The sale was arranged after a Sothebys scout discovered Klingemanns art at an exhibition in Spain and thought it was exciting and ripe for auction. Its not the first time AI art has been auctioned. A piece by the French collective Obvious was sold at Christies in October for an eyebrow-raising $432,500, 40 times the estimated price. Many people in the AI world were outraged, including Klingemann. Obvious were outsiders in the field. They used a straightforward application of an algorithm that has been available since 2015 and their pieces involved a large amount of human intervention deciding when a portrait was finished and framing it like an Old Master. Facebook Twitter Pinterest The 2018 Lumen prize gold award was presented to Mario Klingemann for his work, The Butchers Son. Photograph: Lumen prize Klingemann, conversely, is recognised as a leading player. He has shown pieces at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Pariss Centre Pompidou, among other places. These include his Neurography series, cameraless photography using a computer to create fictitious photographic images, sometimes in videos spouting fake news. In 2018 he won a Lumen prize for his piece The Butchers Son, a set of Francis Bacon-like images. It was the first time the prize had been won by an AI-generated artwork. Klingemanns art is more challenging than Obviouss. The piece on auction is an installation, Memories of Passersby I, made up of a wooden console housing a computer and two screens that display an endless stream of surreal male and female faces, with one morphing into the next. There is no human curation. The machine creates, and no two portraits are ever the same. Sit and watch the machine and it almost seems to be thinking. The algorithm Klingemann uses is a spin-off of a class of AIs called generative adversarial networks (GANs). One goal of AI research is to develop autonomous machines that can create on their own initiative. An essential element is that they are able to assess their own work. A GAN does just this. It consists of not one, but two neural networks the brains of the program. One generates a flow of images out of nothing and the other, which has been trained on specific images, accepts or rejects them. In this way, the generator learns and creates better and better work from scratch. Klingemann uses a variant of this called Pix2Pix. He feeds in a certain amount of material, leaving the machine enough slack to move beyond its programming, as he puts it; to get creative, unleashing it to do its own thing. He feeds in a blurry, nondescript image and the machine takes this unpromising material, picks out distinctive features, and shapes it into a human face, one that has not been programmed into it and has never existed before. Perhaps were not as different as we think. Ultimately, humans are mere biological machines, and conversely, a thinking, dreaming computer could be considered a silicon life-form. Computers may even become more creative than us, as Klingemann proposes. By trawling the web, they will have access, potentially, to all knowledge. Our human brains are too limited to imagine how powerful machine creativity may become. AI art raises a lot of questions. Ai-Da the Robot Artist was unveiled earlier this month to plenty of fanfare but little reference to the quality of the art it will produce. At the moment all we can do is build machines that reproduce the way we think. Were not capable of teaching them what we dont ourselves know. But ultimately, we may build machines that can go beyond us, that are intelligent enough to create machines of their own, without human intervention. After all, Bach has already been done, by Bach. If, as Klingemann argues, machines can be truly creative while we are doomed only to build on what others have done, AI may ultimately liberate us. We can only expand on knowledge that has been passed down from previous generations. Machines may be able to dream up new realms of knowledge that we are simply incapable of producing, though we could appreciate it. I hope machines will have a rather different sort of creativity and open up different doors, Klingemann says. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Composite of two 2018 Mario Klingemann portraits: Portrait of a Woman (r) and Portrait of a Man (l). Photograph: Sotheby's There are some who find the notion of creative machines deeply troubling, even offensive. In a recent article in the MIT Technology Review, the Harvard philosopher Sean Dorrance Kelly argued that creativity is one of the defining features of human beings and can only exist within a human context. This is surely short-sighted; there is no reason to claim that creativity belongs to humans alone. As Klingemanns work demonstrates, todays machines already show glimpses of creativity in art. AlphaGo, too, has shown unexpectedly creative behaviour in playing Go. To assert that machines will be eternally incapable of creativity for the simple reason that they are not human is a blinkered way of looking at progress, especially in a field that goes beyond science and technology and touches on our everyday lives. Machines are redefining what it is to be living, not merely human, beings. And in fact, little by little, we are merging with them beginning with our smartphones, which have become extensions of ourselves. Two monumental acts of creativity kickstarted the 20th century. Einsteins relativity theory and Picassos development of cubism led us to see the world in new and profoundly different ways and have led to world-changing scientific and artistic developments. Both arose from people seeing connections between fields that seemed to have nothing to do with each other. Einstein saw a link between the laws of thermodynamics of the way heat flows and the nature of space and time, while Picasso turned to developments in mathematics, science and technology to widen his artistic palette. Perhaps in the future, with their encyclopedic knowledge and lightning-fast processing powers, computers will begin to accomplish similar leaps of the imagination, first matching, then surpassing human creativity. Such leaps could have incalculable value for humankind, opening up new cultural and scientific avenues for us to explore, creating new forms of art, literature and music, aiding medical research, and suggesting ways of dealing with our failing climate and growing ecological crisis. Far from replacing us, they might enhance us, enabling humans and machines to work side by side at the highest levels of creativity. Arthur I Millers book, The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity, will be published by MIT Press in autumn 2019 This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. The links are powered by Skimlinks. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that Skimlinks cookies will be set. More information. | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/04/can-machines-be-more-creative-than-humans |
Do We Need A #MeToo For Machines? | As if we dont have enough to worry about these days with concerns that AI will allow machines to rise up against us, now it looks as if they may have become as inherently misogynistic as some of the worst targets of the #MeToo campaign. This widely held perception doesnt just seem to be the result of some vague paranoia about technology: weve seen numerous examples of how AI can absorb the prejudices ingrained in the information used to train it, and can consequently learn to be racist or gender biased. AI has shown itself more likely to associate women with domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning and washing, while the guys get all the cool stuff straight out of a Gillette advert. And what is potentially really worrying is that AI has a tendency not just to absorb the original prejudices, but to exaggerate them into something altogether more threatening. Working with my colleague, Professor Kimberly Elsbach at UC Davis, I set out to find the underlying causes. Our analysis of the existing research suggests the standard perception of technology is that its complex and difficult and, consequently, that it is inherently masculine. The reason seems to lie in the fact science and engineering have traditionally (and, some would argue, still are) dominated by men. Despite all the advances we have made in the cause of gender equality, it appears we may still be locked into thinking dating back to the 18th century: that machines are somehow masculine and consequently need to be made and controlled by men. And this attitude is reinforced by the fact the endorsers of technology are still largely male , which has created something of a boys club atmosphere across the whole sector. The consequences of this male domination are widespread and possibly insidious. For example, a lot of IT hardware and its interfaces are still based on the video game model that arose in the 1980s, when female developers were decidedly thin on the ground. Consequently, many women do not feel as instinctively engaged as they could be. And even in the new more human information technology, it seems our old prejudices are leaking across into the virtual world. Humanoid avatars with reassuringly human voices might make the interface with machines easier and more comfortable, but research suggests that, when dealing with a virtual professional, such as an AI-generated medic, most people would still find a male version more trustworthy than a female one. So much for progress. I think the answer to that question is an emphatic no. Organisations need to recognize that a failure to invest in redressing the general talent imbalance in the technology sector could have severe consequences. Because, as technology becomes ever more pervasive and integral to our everyday lives, there needs to be more and more emphasis on the deployment of empathy, emotional intelligence and the whole spectrum of soft skills areas where research shows women can excel. If the partnership between humans and machines that so many informed commentators advocate is to become a reality, then the input of women to its development is not just a nice idea, but an absolute necessity. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/imperialinsights/2019/03/04/do-we-need-a-metoo-for-machines/ |
How is Panther Island in Fort Worth, TX flood control? | Panther Island has been pitched as a flood control project that would also bring Fort Worth a vibrant riverfront neighborhood new commercial and residential space along the banks of the Trinity River along with a more than $3.7 billion boost the local economy. It would be made possible only by a $1.17 billion federally backed project to cut a channel in the river and form the island. That effort stalled after Washington skipped allocating money for Panther Island last year. That led to questions about the projects management and purpose and prompted local leaders to ask for an independent review of the project. Only one firm is willing to do the study. Backers of the endeavor say behind the renderings of river walks and apartment towers is a necessary flood control project that will pull thousands of acres of Fort Worth real estate out of a flood plain. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram Opponents say its simply a gleaming opportunity to re-imagine downtown Fort Worth that ignores real flooding issues. Layla Caraway, a Haltom City resident, says Panther Island steals funding and attention from other flood control projects, like one designed to mitigate Fossil Creek flooding. Her home was damaged when rising Big Fossil Creek waters swallowed nearly 50 feet of her backyard in 2007. We dont have money to fix a watershed thats been flooding for decades, but we have $1 billion to reroute the river? she said. What floods now will flood when this is complete. We need to address true flooding. Wood Frossard, an engineer with the Tarrant Regional Water District, says the project does address flooding issues. It aims to stop a projected flood that could damage multiple neighborhoods, he said. Its not some flood somebody dreamed up sitting back somewhere, he said. Fort Worths 21 miles of levees along the river can no longer protect the city adequately from a major flooding event, Frossard said. Thats largely because of the boom in development since the levees were built in the 1960s. More pavement means the ground is less able to absorb rain before it runs into the river. The project wont alleviate the urban flash flooding that has increasingly plagued Fort Worth streets. And it doesnt protect an area that regularly sees major flooding. Instead, it pulls about 2,400 acres out of the flood plain for what the Army Corps of Engineers calls a standard project flood, the most severe flood considered possible for a region. Property value was estimated to be worth more than $2 billion in that area but updated numbers werent available. That area includes the future Panther Island, a former industrial zone that would transform into about 800 acres ripe for development. Engineers believe the project would protect several neighborhoods n both forks of the Trinity River, including parts of Linwood, Crestwood, the West 7th Street district and and area west of Brookside Drive around Isbell Road. Burton Hill and River Oaks would also be protected. The Clear Fork and West Fork meet just north of downtown, where they immediately flow against the bedrock bluff the city is built on. The larger river then flows around a tight U-bend before heading downstream. In heavy rain, that confluence slows the flow of water, increasing the risk for flooding upstream, said Frossard, of the Tarrant Regional Water District. The bypass channel essentially skips the U-bend, allowing the water to flow quickly downstream during a flood stage. This means more water moving faster toward downstream cities such as Dallas. To prevent that, overflow basins are being constructed in Gateway and Riverside Park. During a flood, water will top the levees along the parks, spilling water into the basins and slowing the flow. Opponents argue this approach doesnt make sense. Theyre creating a flood situation to take a flood situation, Clyde Picht said in December. Picht, who voted in favor of the project when he was on the Fort Worth City Council, and others have argued the cost has ballooned too much and the city would have saved time and money had it gone with an overhaul of the levee system. When looking at any project, the Army Corps is required to examine alternatives. The alternative explored for the Trinity River was to raise two of the 12 levees in the city at a cost of about $10 million. Frossard said that plan was a no-go from the beginning. Raising only two levees kept the rest of the city vulnerable, and raising all the levees would have been too costly. The Corps never priced raising all 12 levees, he said. To be structurally sound, levees require three feet of base width on each side for every foot in height. In heavily-developed Fort Worth, raising the height of the levees would require obtaining more private property, largely from homeowners, than the Panther Island bypass. Fort Worth has about 21 miles of levees along the Trinity. Raising the levees also requires moving utilities and raising several bridges. Under one part of a the levee plan, a watertight gate would need to be closed manually on either side of the river, Frossard said. I dont know why we, as a governmental entity charged with protecting Fort Worth, would choose to only protect part of Fort Worth, Frossard said of the Corps alternative of raising only two levees. Levee size is an issue in urban areas, said Dave Dzombak, a water infrastructure expert and head of Carnegie Mellon Universitys civil and environmental engineering department. To be effective, all levees in the system must be brought to the same height. Dzombak pointed to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, where a mishmash of levees built at different heights and to different standards exacerbated flooding. When not all the levees in cities can be raised at once, cities struggle to decide which land should be protected first. It becomes a battle of levee height, he said. Whos building the tallest levee to protect what neighborhood? Local advocates have long said Panther Island not only avoids raising the levees, but it also provides a a unique development rivaling San Antonios River Walk. The channel creates roughly 12 miles of riverfront property in central Fort Worth. To make that happen, significant work is needed on the future island, including new roads, sewage and storm water lines. All of that must be funded with local dollars. A special 40-year tax district was established to help fund development, but most of the districts projected revenue would be generated from development that would occur on the island. In 2018 voters passed a $250 million bond, which will pay for infrastructure on the island including some flood control. Time and money Part of the growing frustration with Panther Island is its lengthy time line and ballooning cost. Originally conceived in the early 2000s, the projects price tag in 2005 was less than $500 million. Nearly 15 years later, the cost is well over $1 billion, and no dirt has moved for the channel. Officials say completion could be another 15 years out. Lynn Lovell, a retired Fort Worth engineer who worked for the Army Corps and Halff Associates, said thats normal for major federal projects. Projects can take an extremely long time from the planning stages to full development, he said. He pointed to the flood-prone Big and Little Fossil creeks in Haltom City. He recalled working on designs for flood control in the area during his time at the Corps in the late 1960s and 70s, and said he often grew frustrated when projects were put off in favor of other priorities mandated by Washington. Funding these projects is competitive nationwide, he said. It just depends on Congress mood and how powerful the congressional delegation is. Fort Worth has had a powerful champion in Congress, Rep. Kay Granger, whose son J.D. Granger oversees the Panther Island project. She set her eyes on the Trinity as mayor of Fort Worth and helped push the project to congressional approval in 2016. It was with Congress blessing the project moved forward without a cost-benefit analysis, something nearly all Corps projects need and a major sticking point for the White House in 2018. A cost-benefit analysis would look at the economic impact of flooding in the proposed area versus the cost of the project. Frossard and Corps officials said the traditional cost-benefit analysis was skipped because the economic benefit of the island, currently undeveloped and in the floodplain, cant be measured. Even without the analysis, Lovell said based on his experience, the project likely received significant vetting. My experience with the Corps is theyre a bunch of straight arrows, he said. They may have some political pressure, but they go by the rules, federal rules. Projects like Panther Island maybe going by the wayside regardless. The time and cost of major projects has spurred a growing trend of moving away from structural projects like dams, levees and bypass channels in favor of using natural floodways and changing building codes, said Dzombak, the Carnegie Mellon professor. These big scale projects, theyre costly and complicated and difficult to design. We cant protect against every conceivable flood event, he said. We really should explore other options before investing in big infrastructure. | https://www.star-telegram.com/latest-news/article226928249.html |
Could avocado toast unite our different L.A.s? | After more than a year together in our East Hollywood home, I discovered that my mother, a Taiwanese immigrant, had never had avocado toast. There are probably millions of people in Los Angeles who have never tried avocado toast, but still, I was surprised. At the time we lived just three blocks north of Sqirl, a cafe considered the cradle of toast culture in Los Angeles. And avocado toast, I kept reading, is Los Angeles in a dish, the hallmark of all things Californian. As I struggled to explain in Mandarin how it was prepared (and why she should stop refrigerating my avocados), my mother just shrugged and went back to chopping garlic. It was the moment I realized that we lived in the same house, but different cities. I liked House of Pies, took visiting friends to Sqirl and shopped at Trader Joes. My mom shopped at Zion Market in Koreatown and ate at Pine and Crane or Yoshinoya Beef Bowl. I read the L.A. Times and LA Weekly, and she read World Journal or watched LA 18. I guess Los Angeles has always been like this. We live our lives in parallel with few intersections, each of us experiencing a different city with its own culinary hallmarks. But I was troubled that my mom and I didnt seem to be living in the same city. And as a journalist, I worried about all the other versions of Los Angeles I couldnt see. East Hollywood is a neighborhood of 78,000 people, two-thirds of whom were born outside of the United States. Filipino restaurants serve up chicken adobo and pig blood stew over steam trays all around us. On weekends, backyard quinceaeras blast mariachi and bachata music across gently rolling hills, the drumbeats tapping on our windows. The Korean church has uniform-height bushes and neatly spread gravel. At the Salvadoran Catholic church next door, a parking crew crams the clergys cars into a stamp-sized parking lot, a weekly display of incredible spatial reasoning and patience. Across the street from our house, theres a low concrete staircase where kids skateboard, lounge, or sit with dates. Jimmy Recinos, 28, used to be one of them. Jimmy Recinos tries to shop at businesses like Virgil Farmers Market on that remind him of what his neighborhood used to be like. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times Born in East Hollywood, Recinos hails from the Los Angeles where a lot of people feel forgotten; where kids grow up loving art but fall into graffiti because there are no art programs; where you might take dates to a low concrete staircase because theres no park nearby. His Oaxaca-born mother, who runs a local newsstand, chose the neighborhood in the 1980s because it was affordable and seemed hospitable to immigrants. Sometimes he rides his bike around the neighborhood and thinks about how its all changing. Schoolchildren now share the sidewalk with professional dog walkers. Down the street theres a new wine bar, but it used to be Amalias, one of the most popular Guatemalan restaurants in the city. Next to it is a newly renovated million-dollar home hidden by thick wood slats. Fences arent new in this neighborhood, but at least you could wave hello through the wrought-iron bars of the old ones. Construction noise is everywhere. Shiny residential developments tower over the streets Recinos biked down as a kid. High-priced restaurants keep opening while the older, affordable places are struggling. His version of the city fades a little every day. He tries to shop at the places that keep his memories alive: hamburger meat for barbecues at Carniceria 21, pan at Virgil Farmers Market, haircuts at Quality Barber Shop. His transactions are less like lifelines and more like offerings left at an altar. Sometimes he stops for coffee at Super Pan Bakery, the last panaderia on Virgil Avenue. Elvia Perez, 58, ran this bakery with her two sons and daughter for the last two decades. She lives in the Los Angeles where churches locate in strip mall storefronts because there is nowhere else to go; where 25 cents for pan is all most can afford; where people do business with handshakes because they are family friends, or because they emigrated from the same region in Guatemala or Mexico or El Salvador. Super Pan sold discounted pastries to the many churches that line Virgil Avenue and supplied bread to area street vendors. On Thanksgiving, locals without ovens brought turkeys over for Perez to bake for a small fee. Miguel Herrera smiles toward 1-year-old Melody Martinez as she peaks through the front door of California Grill, where she was having lunch with her mother Marisol Garcia. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Barber Area Abarghoei, left, looks on as customer Justin Toledo checks out his haircut at Vinnys Barber Shop. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Pedestrians walk past the former location of Super Pan Bakery on Virgil Avenue in Los Angeles. The bakery relocated to a place in South Los Angeles in December. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Top: Miguel Herrera smiles toward 1-year-old Melody Martinez as she peaks through the front door of California Grill, where she was having lunch with her mother Marisol Garcia. Bottom left: Barber Area Abarghoei, left, looks on as customer Justin Toledo checks out his haircut at Vinny's Barber Shop. Bottom right: Barber Area Abarghoei, left, looks on as customer Justin Toledo checks out his haircut at Vinny's Barber Shop. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) For decades, Perezs landlords were mostly religious nonprofits and churches, and she never had a contract or faced eviction. But Super Pans new landlords were investors and real estate firms. One offered a contract if Perez renovated the space. Her sons, husband and nephews retiled, installed brick laminate on the walls and erected a new ceiling. It cost more than $2,000, and half of Perezs husbands index finger. He severed it slicing the brick laminate. Still, no contract. The next owner, a real estate investment firm, didnt offer them a contract either, and raised their rent by more than 200%. Activists and locals like Recinos circulated petitions and contacted attorneys and politicians. Capstone agreed to give Super Pan until December to vacate the property, forestalling an immediate eviction. But in December, Perez relocated to a place in South Los Angeles. One block south of Super Pans former location, Jessica Koslow, a native of Long Beach, opened Sqirl in 2011 because it was the only place she could afford the rent. The restaurant is located in the Los Angeles you may have heard about, the East Coasters fantasy, the one where celebrities act like normal people and normal people act like celebrities; where everyone has time to wait in line for brunch. The restaurant quickly got popular after a Jonathan Gold review. Then it got huge. TV shows put Sqirls jam in their farmers market scenes. Magazines put Koslows picture on their covers. Restaurants everywhere started putting avocados on toast, garnishing breakfast bowls with watermelon radishes and selling high-end jam. Many reveled in the apparent anonymity of the neighborhood around Sqirl it made their meals feel more adventurous. It was as if the restaurant got so big that the rest of the world couldnt see East Hollywood around it. Housing prices rose. Up the street, a whole building of families was evicted. One day, spray paint on the restaurant compared Sqirl to Trump, blaming it for displacing longtime residents. Gwenn Wedmond, left, a food runner at Sqirl, delivers food to a table during the lunch hour. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Jimmy Recinos, right, greets friend Eduardo Gonzalez, 60, near Recinos home, where he's lived his entire life. Gonzalez has lived in the neighborhood for around 25 years. Left: Gwenn Wedmond, left, a food runner at Sqirl, delivers food to a table during the lunch hour. Right: Jimmy Recinos, right, greets friend Eduardo Gonzalez, 60, near Recinos home, where he's lived his entire life. Gonzalez has lived in the neighborhood for around 25 years. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Breakfast restaurants dont evict people, but the complaints keep Koslow up at night. She understands that venture capitalists and real estate investors have come to East Hollywood, and avocado toast had something do with that. She wishes she could talk with her critics. She patronizes local businesses and tries to treat her neighbors with respect. Sqirl staff meals are often pupusas from Salvadoran restaurants just up the street or takeout from Wahs Golden Hen across the street. Wahs owner Lena Louie lives in the Los Angeles where its common for old-school Cantonese restaurants to have largely Latino clienteles, where the celebrity regular is comedian George Lopez, where the crowds lining up outside her restaurant dress more casually. Her family opened Wahs in 1972 after fleeing the Cultural Revolution. They settled in East Hollywood because they heard it was affordable and friendly to immigrants. Louie and her husband, a Chinatown cook, took over the restaurant in 1991. Work is Louies way of life. At 63, she has narrowed her path through the city to a small triangle consisting of the restaurant, her home and Costco, where she buys supplies. She hasnt visited her homeland for three decades because she felt they couldnt afford to close. Louies stepmother, 88, walks to the restaurant every day and folds thousands of wontons. A dozen go into each wor wonton soup, along with sauteed chicken, shrimp, napa cabbage, chashu pork and snow peas the kind of affordable, generous meal that inspires intense loyalty among customers. When the business was targeted during the L.A. riots, customers and their families stood guard out front to deter looters. Louie has befriended nearly everyone in the neighborhood, including Koslow, whom she calls her favorite. But Louie had never tried the food at Sqirl. A few weeks ago, I asked if shed have brunch with me there. I arrived at Wahs at around 10 a.m. to find Louie fielding lunch orders and setting tables. It took four tries to leave the restaurant with her the phone kept ringing her back until a customer took mercy upon us and offered to take orders. We headed across the street, a short walk from Louies Los Angeles to Koslows. Louie kept glancing back at her restaurant. Shes too frugal to eat out she lived in America for a decade before she even saw the inside of a McDonalds. Sometimes she treats herself to noodles at the Yoshinoya down the street, but she always feels guilty. She asked me what Sqirls food is like. I tried to describe it, but I have no idea how to say sorrel pesto in Mandarin. Im not totally clear myself on what lacto-fermented hot sauce is. At Sqirl, Koslow and Louie greeted each other with nervous, excessive kindness. Louie assured Koslow that the food would be delicious, and Koslow laughed in a slightly terrified way. Lena Louie, left, owner of Wahs Golden Hen, hugs Jessica Koslow, owner of Sqirl, which is located across the street on Virgil Avenue. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times Koslow presented Louie with a crispy rice salad, a rice porridge and a bright orange turmeric latte. Louie sipped the latte, set it down and left it there. She regarded the salad, head cocked as if it might start talking, then ate half a spoonful. Her eyebrows jumped. Oh, this is crunchy! How did you do that? Koslow looked relieved. They launched into an animated conversation about how the rice is prepared and the struggles of running a restaurant. Louie even got up and started bussing dishes at one point, before Koslow stopped her, laughing and tearing up a bit. By the end, Louie was trying to persuade Koslow to start a restaurant together. Watching them, I thought about how things might be different if we spent more time in the same Los Angeles, the one where we try to understand our neighbors, where the parallel lives we lead intersect every once in a while. A few months ago, I took my mom to Sqirl for the first time. She said the avocado toast was OK, and she was impressed with the crispy rice salad. But she probably wont be back. Mostly, she was just glad that I had tried to show her my side of the city, even if it would never be hers. Produced by Brian Park. Additional credits: Video edited by J.R. Lizarraga | https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-avocado-toast-sqirl-los-angeles-20190304-htmlstory.html |
Should EA Sports bring back Tiger Woods PGA Tour? | By Daniel Tran Its been about five years since Tiger Woods graced the cover of EA Sports PGA Tour video game and many want him (and the game) back. Woods worst years are behind him, and his recent rise to relevance would be a perfect match for the game he helped make popular. However, with The Golf Club 2019 already in production, EA has no reason to make a PGA Tour game anymore. At its peak, Tiger Woods PGA Tour was one of the most successful EA Sports video games series ever. When the PGA Tour untapped EA Sports to make its game, the series made $771 million since 1999. With Woods out of his slump and contending in PGA Tour events, many want to see the franchise come back with him as the cover athlete again. Despite his recent struggles, Woods remains one of the most recognized athletes in the world. His win at the Tour Championship in 2018 only made people more intrigued about his performances. EA Sports and the PGA Tour would be foolish not to capitalize on his popularity once again. The game always had the best courses and players with a slick graphics engine to boot. "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" needs to return! MORE: Its time for a new PGA game, EA Report: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson will bring back The Match The pay-per-view event had glitches at first, but may grow to a team competition. The PGA Tour made the right decision to hand their video game rights to HB Studios, and they should continue that relationship. "The Golf Club 2019" might not have the golfers or all of the courses EA Sports had, but the game itself can improve and will get better with time. There's no need to revert back to a game with Woods, who is past his prime with a sordid past, on the cover. People need to let "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" die in peace. MORE: PGA Tour video game to get a new look with EA Sports out as the official licensing partner The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/03/should-ea-sports-bring-back-tiger-woods-pga-tour.html |
Did students in MAGA gear make high school unsafe? Or just uncomfortable? | CLOSE Watch this confrontation between Perry High School Principal Dan Serrano and the mother of a student, Jennifer Farris. On Friday, students at Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona, were ordered to remove shirts and hats emblazoned with President Donald Trump's call to "Make America Great Again." This, nearly 50 years to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with students who were suspended after wearing black armbands to school, protesting the Vietnam War. In the landmarkTinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Districtdecision, the court said that students don't "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The justices wrote that there were times when school administrators could suppress speech when it "materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others." Two students take a picture for Perry High School's "Party in the USA" spirit day on Friday, March 1. (Photo: Courtesy Jennifer Farris) On Friday, Perry school administrators demanded that students remove their MAGA shirts, hats and accessories. The kids had worn their MAGA gear because it was "Party in the USA" day at the Chandler Unified School District school. According to parents, everything was fine until lunch when administrators began ordering anyone displaying the MAGA logo to remove it. The students complied. Read more commentary: How to handle a kid who won't say the Pledge: First, don't tell him to leave America. The internet is sowing mass confusion. We must rethink how we teach kids With Covington High School blowback, adults lost all perspective on teenage immaturity But after school they again brought out their MAGA gear including a blue Trump flag to pose for pictures. But they weren't the only ones taking pictures. The school's police resource officer began snapping photos and asking for the kids' names. When one girl refused to identify herself, she was told to report to the office where she again refused to give her name. By the time her mother arrived, she'd been suspended for 10 days. The mother said she was told officials considered the clothing "offensive, and that the kids were being disrespectful by wearing it'' and could face sanctions if they didn't comply. A video shows the principal calling the Trump MAGA flag "disrespectful." Perry Principal Dan Serrano, in a letter about the incident, explained that students were carrying political signs which caused a disruption and created a safety concern at lunch. After school, they again brought out the signs. "When the school's resource officer asked the students to leave campus, they declined. They also refused to respond to my request to provide their names and school identification when I sought to interview them," Serrano wrote. That refusal, not their political speech, is why they were suspended, he said. In his letter, Serrano said the school must maintain a safe campus and ensure there are "no disruptions to the educational environment." I can appreciate the principal's concern, especially in these politically charged times with a president who goes out of his way to exploit that which divides us. Trump is the master of the dog whistle, those seemingly innocuous comments that make the hearts of racists and bigots go pitty-pat. And MAGA is their rallying call. It is offensive to many, not because of what it says Make America Great Again but because of what it really means. And how and by whom it is used. Justice Abe Fortas, in writing the Tinker decision, said administrators cant interfere with a students right to speech unless there is evidence to show that speech will interfere with the schools' work or of collision with the rights of other students to be secure and to be let alone." Apologies are in order Note that he wrote the students have a right "to be secure and to be let alone." There's nothing there about a right to be comfortable, nothing about a right not to be offended. In the case of the kids wearing black armbands, Fortas wrote, "there is no indication that the work of the schools or any class was disrupted. Outside the classrooms, a few students made hostile remarks to the children wearing armbands, but there were no threats or acts of violence on school premises." The justices rejected a lower court's reasoning that the school could shut down speech "based upon their fear of a disturbance." "In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint," Fortas wrote. I'm guessing the students, proudly decked out in their MAGA gear, made people uncomfortable. Let's be honest, that was their goal. Principal Serrano owes the Perry community a fuller explanation of the "threats or acts of violence" that prompted him to shut down the students' speech. Either that, or he owes them an apology. Laurie Roberts is a columnist at The Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. You can follow her on Twitter: @LaurieRoberts. You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to [email protected]. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/03/04/students-maga-gear-high-school-suspension-column/3049693002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/03/04/students-maga-gear-high-school-suspension-column/3049693002/ |
Does Coca-Cola Have A Billion-Dollar Brand in Cold-Pressed Juice Favorite Suja Life? | Coca-Cola owns 50% of Suja Life. The company's investments have helped pay for Suja's in-house manufacturing plant - a key to its recent success. Suja Life At Suja Lifes 122,000 square-foot factory outside of San Diego, one and a half million bottles roll off conveyor belts every week, with colorful labels that tout cold-pressed juices and ingredients like kale and monkfruit. Since moving in two years ago, the company has invested some $30 million in this plant. It now sells 95 drinks - from kombucha to drinking vinegars and plant-based protein milks - and moves quickly to get them to shelves from Target and Publix to Costco and Whole Foods. In fact, it can develop an entirely new product and get it to customers within eight weeks - a speed rare in the beverage industry. That agility has led Suja to develop more than 250 products in the six years since it was founded, and on any given day, the factory is manufacturing as much as 15 different styles. Last year, Suja hit $100 million in revenue for the first time, a milestone in the perennially crowded industry, with gross margins of 40%. Its nearly tripled in four years, when sales topped $40 million. The benefit of having spent all the money to do it, is we get a lot of flexibility. We can be really innovative. We can move past the market and try new things without having to have a minimum order, says CEO Jeff Church. But it cost a lot of money and took fundraising rounds to get it to that point. Suja Life's CEO Jeff Church. BevNET.com It has secured about $125 million in all. Its main backer is Coca-Cola, who teamed up with Goldman Sachs in 2015 to buy a 30% stake. Two years later, Coke invested another $11 million and increased its stake to 50%. Part of the reason why: A recent study they funded found that more than 28 million households are interested in more organic cold pressed juice, they just don't know where to get it. Sujas currently purchased by some three-and-a-half million families, so the gap is great. So great, in fact, that Church thinks Suja is on track to become a billion-dollar brand, especially as it continues to break into new categories. Last year, Suja launched 21 products - including energy juices with 100 milligrams of naturally derived caffeine from ingredients such as coffeeberry and guayusa tea. Another line of wellness shots, which launched in August, has sold particularly well. Its Immunity flavor - with ingredients like Ginger, turmeric, camu camu, echinacea, and live probiotics - has become Sujas top selling item across many accounts, the company says, and it averages about 50% faster turns than its juices. Immunity is now emerging as the top-selling item in Sujas entire portfolio of products, out-performing even Sujas long-standing best-seller, the Uber Greens juice. The line has two others flavors, Digestion and Energy, with a fourth, called Focus, about to launch. Suja Life's 122,000 square foot plant near San Diego. Suja Life Suja plans to do launch another 21 products in 2019. And Church says Sujas plant could easily produce other shelf-stable products, from salsa and hummus to salad dressing. It's about continuing to leverage the halo that we've created with our consumers and really take them into other areas of the store and be able to help the store benefit from that. A Kroger has alt-milks in one area and the juices in another area and the kombuchas in another area. That gives us three different growth platforms within the retailers. And then we will be looking around the perimeter of the store and seeing what's not being done fresh that we can own, says Church. Retailers like it because they know that we'll do the cross-marketing to drive consumers from one place, versus trying to build a whole new brand. The factory, along with purchasing produce directly from local farmers, has also helped Suja scale while reducing its costs of goods sold about 50%. Suja keeps inventory low and only manufactures to each order. Thats translated to price reductions across the board: The 12-ounce juice that Suja started selling for $9.99 in 2012 is now sold for typically $2.99 or $3.99. Its also broadened Sujas potential customer base. The brand is now stocked in some 25,000 stores. Says Church: Its really about pushing that price to the lowest possible level that you can. Were always trying to take cost out. As far as the possibility of an acquisition by Coke goes, Church says: Theyve been great. They follow through on investments that were unanticipated, which is really the test of a good partner - that they're willing to step up. If we both ultimately want to be together, then we'll be together. If we don't, then it won't. I'm enthusiastic about the options and opportunities that we have with Coke and without Coke. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2019/03/04/does-coca-cola-have-a-billion-dollar-brand-in-cold-pressed-juice-favorite-suja-life/ |
What Do Wyoming's 13 New Blockchain Laws Mean? | Wyoming has now enacted a total of 13 blockchain-enabling laws, making it the only US state to provide a comprehensive, welcoming legal framework that enables blockchain technology to flourish, both for individuals and companies. These laws enable innovation and creativity, and are meant to bring capital, jobs and revenue into Wyoming. Law and technology are discrete systems. For a new technology to attain wide adoption, the law and technology must be backwards-compatible, as early bitcoin investor Trace Mayer puts it. In a nutshell, thats what Wyoming has now done for blockchain technology. Heres an analysis of what I think it all means. NONE of what follows is legal or tax advicethis is for educational purposes only. You may not rely on it and you must seek a qualified adviser to advise you about how you can take advantage of the great opportunities Wyoming offers! In sum, Wyoming is already the "Delaware of digital asset law," a reference to Delawares lead in corporate law. More than a dozen other US states and Congress are now following Wyomings lead by enacting our bills (usually just one or two of Wyomings bills). But no other state is likely to catch up to Wyomingits a very tall order for any legislature to enact 13 bills on a single topic in a compressed time frame, especially when another state has already claimed first-mover advantage. Here are the top highlights regarding Wyomings newest blockchain laws: Recognizes direct property rights for individual owners of digital assets of all types (virtual currencies, digital securities and utility tokens) and applies the super-negotiability rules of commercial law to virtual currencies which foster their liquidity by applying the very same rules that apply to money. Wyomings commercial law reflects the true nature of digital assets (directly owned, peer-to-peer assets), and I strongly encourage other states to adopt Wyomings same commercial law protections; Creates a fintech sandbox to provide regulatory relief to financial innovators from existing laws for up to 3 years. Its broadly reciprocal with fintech sandboxes both in the US and globally; Authorizes a new type of state-chartered depository institution to provide basic banking services to blockchain and other businesses. The bank is required to have 100% reserves, cannot lend, is for business depositors only, and FDIC insurance is optional. Such banks could be operating as soon as March 31, 2020; Authorizes the first true qualified custodian for digital assets which is a bank. Wyoming banks can start such operations as soon as September 1, 2019. Wyomings digital asset custodians will stand out above all others because they will respect the DIRECT ownership nature of digital assets! These new custodians won't be like traditional securities custodians, because for a Wyoming-based custodian investors will still DIRECTLY own their digital assets under custody as a BAILMENT, which means they retain direct ownership while merely giving up control (much like valet parking). Today, institutional investors are forced to be de facto creditors of their securities custodians, since all publicly-traded securities are owned indirectly. Custody under bailment is possible in securities custody today, but it's neutered by the fact that all securities are owned indirectlyinvestors can't directly own the real security, and therefore they're really just counterparties to the custodian. So, what Wyoming has done is truly revolutionaryBAILMENT + DIRECT ownership! It doesn't exist in securities custody today! Customers of Wyoming custodians can still choose indirect ownership, but it's on much more investor-friendly terms than exist in securities custody today. In sum, Wyoming will become known as the home of SOLVENT, investor-friendly digital asset custodians to which investment fiduciaries are likely to migrate over time. Answer: the custodian is for large institutional investors, which are required by federal securities law to store the assets they manage at an independent custodian. And, now, these institutional investors will be able to directly own the digital assets they custody at solvent Wyoming custodians. Capital ultimately flows to where its treated best. For digital assets within the US, Im pretty confident that will end up being Wyoming. It's all about its legal regime respecting DIRECT ownership of digital assets, whether by individuals or institutional investors. I was formerly a fiduciary of pension plans and, based on that experience, I think it will become a very big deal that provably SOLVENT custodians exist. As more and more securities are natively-issued on blockchains in the next several years, Wyomings custodians will likely become the preferred digital-asset custodians of 401(k) plans and mutual fundsand they will help make securities markets fair to regular investors! Here are some common questions about Wyomings laws. Again, this is not legal or tax advice! No, not unless youre starting a Wyoming bank or custodian. For everyone else, its pretty easy to take advantage of Wyomings blockchain laws. Just ask your attorney! Individual owners of digital assets can gain the protections of Wyomings laws by moving to Wyoming, or you may physically locate your cold storage digital assets somewhere in Wyoming or set up your own Wyoming LLC, corporation, trust, foundation or other business entity (through which to own your digital assets). As Ill discuss below, theres a particular reason why owning digital assets via a Wyoming entity may be beneficial. From a personal wealth planning and protection standpoint, Wyomings laws really cant be beat. Billions of dollars in trust assets are already managed in our state. Wyoming invented the LLC in 1977 and this year it revamped its trust and statutory foundation laws to be the best in the US. Its LLC laws have very strong privacy protections, and Wyoming is frequently cited as the tax-friendliest state in the United States (more on that below). Businesses have 3 ways to benefit and theyre not mutually exclusive. Your business can (1) simply apply Wyoming law to its contracts involving digital assets, (2) legally domicile in Wyoming and/or (3) physically locate in Wyoming. If you own a blockchain business, you should already be asking your attorney why the company is still domiciled anywhere other than Wyoming and examine the costs/benefits of converting to a Wyoming domicile. One objection Ive heard from attorneys is that Wyoming doesnt have a special court for resolving complex business disputes like Delaware does. Well, Wyoming just solved that by setting up its own business court (Chancery Court) this year, details of which are here. Basically, there are none at the state levelin most cases! In the US, federal taxes are distinct from state taxes and federal taxes apply to every Americanbut Wyoming can (and does) offer whats probably the friendliest state tax regime. Wyoming often comes up #1 on surveys of the best states for tax purposes. At the state level, Wyoming has no personal income tax, no corporate income tax, and almost none of the other gotcha taxes that frequently hit businesses domiciled in other US states, such as franchise taxes or gross-receipts taxes. Every Delaware-registered business should be asking your tax adviser how much you pay in Delaware franchise taxes every year and then calculate how much youd save by redomiciling to Wyoming (hint hint!). And, for digital assets specifically, last year Wyoming exempted them from property taxes. Sales taxes apply to tangible personal property, but Wyomings legislature this year classified digital assets as intangible personal property soyou can fill in the blank. As for federal tax relief, Wyoming cant fix the IRSs terrible tax treatment of digital assets (yes, spending bitcoin on a cup of coffee triggers federal capital gains tax). But there are 25 opportunity zones located around Wyoming that provide potential capital gains tax deferralagain, talk to your tax adviser. Some of these locations might be great spots for cold-storage vaults, mining operations and/or the new headquarters of your start-up or investment fund. In short, there are very good tax reasons why, as they say, the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and why so many tax-motivated relocations to Wyoming are happening. Wyoming is Americas tax-friendliest state in many waysand it has the clearest, tax-friendly approach to digital assets. Wyoming is the first state to clarify the treatment of digital assets under existing commercial laws (e.g., the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)), and this is probably the most important of Wyomings new blockchain laws. Laws governing commerce are the foundational laws of businesstheyre a protocol layer of the legal system. These laws are essentially the plumbing that makes every financial transaction possible, and most importantly, they provide rules for what happens when a transaction doesnt go smoothlyensuring parties have certainty regarding their rights and duties. States control commercial laws in the US, so the federal government cannot trump what Wyoming has just created. I strongly encourage other states to enact Wyomings same statutory language, which you can find here. Wyomings commercial law for digital assets is WAY too detailed to analyze here, but Ill highlight my favorite four parts of it. First, as described above, it maps virtual currencies to the super-negotiability rules of money under existing law. In plain terms, this means a bitcoin purchaser can buy bitcoin free and clear of any pre-existing liens against it, unless the purchaser was defrauding a lender who had previously made a loan against that bitcoin. Second, it defines control in a manner thats consistent with how blockchain assets are actually controlled. It also enables a smart contract to take control of a digital assetvery forward-thinking! Third, it makes security interests in digital assets possessory security interests, which means Wyoming law applies as long as the assets are, under this law, located in Wyomingand the law makes it very easy to locate the digital assets in Wyoming. Possessory security interests have priority over other types of security interests. (For this reason alone, I suspect most coin lending and prime brokerage businesses will want to domicile in Wyoming.) Fourth, it extinguishes pre-existing liens after two yearsto match the statute of limitations for fraudulent conveyance under federal bankruptcy law. The latter is one reason why it may make sense for individuals to store digital assets in Wyoming or through a Wyoming LLC, trust or other entity. Heres the issue that may solve. Its possiblethough admittedly an edge casethat a judge will enforce a prior lien against bitcoin that you, an innocent purchaser, did not know existed. To my knowledge that hasnt actually happened yet, but as bitcoin lending markets grow and as more merchants accept bitcoin (which may be covered by an all-assets lien over the merchants inventory), the issue will inevitably arise. Some attorneys have called this bitcoins Achilles heel, and many speculate this surprise lien risk is one of the reasons why new bitcoins trade at a premium over older bitcoins in OTC markets. Well, Wyoming law provides a solutionask your attorney about the myriad ways to get your digital assets subject to Wyoming law for two years! Yes, a lot. Wyomings money transmitter law exempts crypto-to-crypto transactions, effective as of last year. Many lawyers worry that Lightning Network transactions may run afoul of money transmitter laws. Well, not in Wyoming (#probably!check with your lawyer!) At least three other states that I know of have either enacted, or are in process of enacting, Wyomings same money transmitter exemption for crypto-to-crypto transactions. If youre working on security tokens, you wont find a friendlier state because Wyoming law legally recognizes both uncertificated and certificated blockchain shares of stock. Delaware was first to recognize blockchain shares, but it only recognizes uncertificated versions. Wyomings new law regarding certificated shares just took effect this week, and WOW, Missouri was lightning fast in already copying it! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Wyoming was the first state to exempt utility tokens from its state securities laws, which took effect last year. State law doesnt trump federal laws regarding securities, but Im pleased that Arizona also enacted a similar law last year and five other states have proposed it this year. Wyomings law also heavily influenced the proposed federal Token Taxonomy Act in Congress. Its really true that the impetus to change bad federal law sometimes bubbles up from the statesand 7 states supporting a common cause is actually a lot, just one year into the effortits already a movement to push back against the SECs view that most digital assets are securities. And Wyoming added a couple of sweeteners to attract cryptocurrency miners to Wyoming as well. One bill enables Wyomings electric utilities to negotiate directly with miners, instead of requiring them to go through the ratemaking process. All gains and losses from mining agreements remain with the utilitys shareholders, thereby completely insulating retail electric customers from these transactions. And, with a goal to help Wyomings struggling coal industrywhich is crucial to Wyoming and is trying to recover from low coal pricesWyoming passed a bill to provide a process for Wyomings electric utilities to sell the coal-fired generation plants they would otherwise permanently be shutting down. Potential buyers may include crypto miners, among others, and Im told power costs available in Wyoming would be highly competitive with the best electricity prices available to miners around the world. CAPITAL, JOBS and REVENUE. Its really that simple. Sure. But Wyoming is ready, and its laws are pretty punitive on fraudsters. (Remember, rehypothecation is a felony in Wyomingin New York, it wins bankers big bonuses. In Wyoming, it might land you in jail.) TELL ME MORE ABOUT WYOMINGS QUALIFIED CUSTODIAN LAW Its an opt-in regime available to any Wyoming bank, including its new special-purpose depository institutions. A bank license is superior to a trust company license for digital asset custody, for many reasons. Some have expressed concerns about triggering the Bank Holding Company Act (BHCA) by obtaining a Wyoming bank license, but a Wyoming special-purpose depository institution does not meet the definition of bank under the BHCA because it cant make commercial loans. The US Supreme Court has rejected previous attempts by the Federal Reserve to expand this definition, so Wyoming's special-purpose depository institution is a pretty neat regulatory option for those wanting to become qualified custodians of digital assets. Wyomings new law also ensures that digital asset owners have legal certainty about how their assets will be treated and the nature of the custodial relationship (clear laws that specifically govern digital assets + a Chancery Court exclusively devoted to fast resolution of business disputes). Digital assets held in custody today in any other state lack this certainty! Wyomings law contains many investor protections, and SOLVENT custodians will have no problem complying with these provisions. Institutional investors can expect that Wyoming-based qualified custodians will actually be SOLVENT for three basic reasons: The custody relationship is legally a BAILMENT (akin to valet parking for your car, where you give up control but not ownership of your asset). This is far superior to how securities custodians traditionally work, where investors are de facto creditors of their custodians, which are leveraged and may or may not actually have on hand the assets theyve promised to investors. The laws investor protections are a big dealall value from digital assets (including forks, airdrops and staking) belongs to investors unless otherwise expressly agreed. This model is distinct from both traditional securities custodians and crypto exchanges, where investors are usually de facto creditors and where the firms frequently trade with customers' assets behind the scenes. Rehypothecation of assetsthe practice of pledging the same asset as collateral for different loans, which is rampant in the securities industry and which poses solvency risks to traditional securities custodiansis expressly prohibited by Wyomings new digital asset law. It was already a felony in Wyoming anyway, per a 1986 Supreme Court case ( Smith v State ). In a nutshell, Wyomings digital asset custodians will simply be service providers to institutional investors, who will still own their digital assets. They will not be counterparties that are de facto hedge funds in a relationship that is too often heads I win, tails I win. Fiduciaries of institutional investors will, I believe, appreciate this and migrate to Wyoming-based digital asset custodians. Let me close by thanking the wise Wyoming legislators and Governor Gordon, who stand for strong property rights and are welcoming this industry with meaningful laws. Thank you also to all the small army of industry supporters who showed up to support the Wyoming Blockchain Coalitions events along the way, and to those who provided comments on our draft laws. Were all volunteers who crowdsourced this effort! Very special thank you to Rep. Tyler Lindholm and Sen. Ogden Driskill, who led the posse so effectively. Special thanks to Steve Lupien of the Digital Asset Trade Association for his strong, intrepid support on the ground. Biggest thanks go to Chris Land, legislative draftsman extraordinaire and unsung hero of this massive undertakinga true expert in commercial law and digital asset law. Yes, we even talked about the draft UCC bill on Christmas day! I didnt intend to spend the last 14 months volunteeringbut am so glad I did because it benefited two things I dearly love, Wyoming and blockchain. It's probable that my deep attraction to blockchain stems from my Wyoming upbringing. Wyoming instilled in me deep-seeded philosophies that have a strong cultural overlap with those of blockchain (i.e., whats mine is mine and whats yours is yours, good fences make good neighbors, rugged individualism, clear property rights and low taxes). Owing to this strong cultural overlap, it makes perfect sense that Wyoming will be the home of blockchain in the US! Ill be hunkering down in the next few months to help advise the Wyoming Banking Division on the rules drafting process for institutional digital asset custody and special-purpose depository institutions. And I finally hope to finish the book I started writing about the intersection of Wall Street and blockchain. If only I werent such a slow writer! :-) | https://www.forbes.com/sites/caitlinlong/2019/03/04/what-do-wyomings-new-blockchain-laws-mean/ |
Why are New Yorks bookstores disappearing? | The city that produced so many authors is losing its bookshops to pressure from Amazon, changing reading habits and skyrocketing rents Like payphones, typewriter repair shops and middle-class housing, bookstores are a vanishing presence in New York City. In 1950, Manhattan had 386 bookstores, according to Gothamist; by 2015, the number was down to 106. Now, according to a count by the citys best-known bookstore, the Strand, there are fewer than 80. Book Row, a stretch of Fourth Avenue between Union Square and Astor Place that once housed almost 50 used and antiquarian bookstores, now claims just one: Alabaster Bookshop at Fourth Avenue and 12th Street. (Plus the Strand, which relocated a block away in 1957.) Lin-Manuel Miranda buys bookshop to save it from closure Read more In literary New York, the closing of another bookstore elicits a sense of crisis and sometimes emergency measures. In January, after the Drama Book Shop, a pillar of the citys theatre community, announced it could no longer afford its rent, Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the play Hamilton, stepped in to purchase the shop along with three of his Hamilton collaborators. This was Mirandas second intervention; in 2016 he led a crowdfunding campaign to support the store after a pipe burst and destroyed part of its inventory. The shop is currently closed while Miranda and his business partners seek a new, less expensive location. Westsider Books, another stalwart of New Yorks independent bookstores, also announced in January that it would likely close when its lease expired. In response, loyal customers flooded the shop with orders, and someone organised a crowdfunding campaign that has raised more than $50,000 (38,600). The Strand, the citys largest independent bookstore, owns its building, which insulates it from some of the economic pressures faced by its peers. But when a city commission recently proposed landmarking the 11-storey Renaissance Revival building, it was cause for panic, not celebration. Owner Nancy Bass Wyden is lobbying against the proposal because she says it will make maintenance costs prohibitively expensive. I just want the city to leave me alone, Wyden tells me. Her grandfather Fred Bass founded the store in 1927. Her father, who started working at the store when he was 13, saved for years to buy the property, she said, precisely to avoid the fate that befell the rest of Book Row. Americans appear to be reading less, a trend that seems to accelerate with each generation I have been told that I have no chance, Wyden says, but she couldnt live with herself if she didnt fight it. She could make more money renting the bookstores three-floor space to other commercial tenants but has no plans to do so, nor to sell the building. As landmarking only applies to physical architecture, a new status for the Strand wouldnt protect it from becoming, in her words, a bank or a Lululemon, like the Scribner building. Wyden and her supporters including writers Gary Shteyngart and Fran Lebowitz and the graphic novelist Art Spiegelman contested the landmarking proposal at a public hearing last month. In a statement, the landmarks commission said it will continue to work with Wyden to address her concerns and ensure that this cultural institution endures, adding that the commission successfully regulates thousands of commercial buildings across the city and we are sympathetic and responsive to their needs. Contrast the Strands plight with Amazon, long the worlds largest online bookstore and now the worlds most valuable retailer: New Yorks city and state government offered the tech giant $3bn in incentives and subsidies to build a new headquarters in Queens. (Amazon later made the surprise announcement that it was cancelling its New York move, after protests.) Independent bookstores are getting squeezed from multiple directions, including competition from Amazon whose massive purchasing power and low margins undercut brick-and-mortar operations and consumer technology: ebooks, Kindles and tablets, and attention-stealing smartphones. Statistics on reading habits are famously difficult to parse, but the bad news is that yes, Americans do appear to be reading less. This is a long-term trend, dating from the arrival of television, and one that appears to accelerate with each generation. Facebook Twitter Pinterest New York protestors opposing Amazons plan to open its second headquarters in the city in November 2018. Amazon later announced it would not proceed with the move. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images Some sociologists believe that reading is becoming a minority, elite activity the province of a special reading class, as the writer Caleb Crain put it in a 2007 New Yorker article and that society is effectively returning to the situation before the advent of mass literacy. In a follow-up piece last year, Crain argued that the statistics continue to paint a fairly grim picture of Americas reading habits. But the biggest culprit, at least in New York, is the same seemingly unstoppable force shuttering small businesses across the city: rising rent. Rent is a particular concern for bookstores because they operate on low margins but require large storage space. Bookstores have weathered many economic challenges over the decades, but there is nothing they can do when the landlord triples or quadruples the rent, or simply refuses to renew the lease, Jeremiah Moss, author of Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul, tells me. Every time I step into a bookstore in the city, it is packed with people who are browsing and buying books. In a truly fair market, this would be sustaining success, but there is nothing fair about the current market. One of the causes of skyrocketing business rents is speculation: owners are forcing out tenants because buildings are sometimes more valuable empty. The goal is to empty these buildings of rent-regulated residents and small businesses, Moss says, so that they can be sold for profit or used as collateral with which to borrow money that is then invested elsewhere. Your favourite independent bookshops: 'I want my ashes scattered in the fiction section' Read more The most powerful solution, according to Moss, would be commercial rent control a hard sell politically, he acknowledges, but one that was effective in curtailing predatory landlords in the city after the second world war. Other potential solutions, he says, include a vacancy tax on commercial spaces left deliberately empty; zoning to control the proliferation of chain stores; and the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, a bill that would give commercial tenants the option of 10-year lease renewals, as well as the right to request arbitration with landlords. The legislation, first introduced in 1986, has struggled to gain traction. Proponents say it could end rent gouging and the practice of landlords illegally charging tenants extra rent under the table. Critics say the bill might not pass constitutional scrutiny and could discourage landlords from renting to small businesses. It would be a sad turn of events if a city that has nurtured so many great writers Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Edith Wharton, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg and countless others became a city without places to buy their books. | https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/04/why-are-new-yorks-bookstores-disappearing |
How does the inquiry into historical child sexual abuse work? | Image copyright IICSA Image caption Inquiry chairwoman, Prof Alexis Jay, led the probe into child abuse in Rotherham The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales is investigating claims against local authorities, religious organisations, the armed forces and public and private institutions - as well as people in the public eye. But it has been dogged with controversy since being announced in July 2014, with chairwomen coming and going, lawyers quitting their posts and victims' groups losing faith in the process. Following the death of BBC presenter Jimmy Savile in 2011, hundreds of people came forward to say he had abused them as children. The spotlight has also fallen on sexual assaults carried out in schools, children's homes and at NHS sites. Image copyright PA Image caption Jimmy Savile died in 2011 At the same time, there have been claims of past failures by police and prosecutors to properly investigate allegations. The inquiry was announced by the then Home Secretary Theresa May to "expose those failures and learn the lessons" from the past. When it was announced, the inquiry was expected to take about five years to complete. When finished, it will publish a report of recommendations. The inquiry is divided into public hearings into specific areas of concern, with witnesses giving evidence under oath; research into institutional failures in child protection, and the so-called Truth Project in which victims will share their experiences with the inquiry either in private interviews or written form. The inquiry will not seek to determine civil or criminal liability of individuals or organisations but may reach "findings of fact" in relation to this. Allegations of child abuse received by the inquiry will be referred to police and material related to Scotland, Northern Ireland or British Overseas Territories will be passed on to the authorities there. A separate inquiry looking at the abuse of children in care in Scotland has been set up by the Scottish Government. The inquiry is being led by Prof Alexis Jay, a former director of social services who headed the inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham. She is being assisted by a panel of advisers: law professor and human rights expert Malcolm Evans; child protection barrister Ivor Frank; and lawyer Drusilla Sharpling, a former Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, who has worked as an inspector of constabulary since 2009. A separate panel will represent victims and survivors. Brian Altman QC is lead counsel to the inquiry. The inquiry's public hearings consist of 13 separate investigations, which are expected to last until 2020. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Part of the inquiry will focus on the late Lord Janner The inquiry is investigating: the cases of British children in care who were sent to parts of the Empire including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and what was Southern Rhodesia between 1920 and the 1970s alleged failings at Lambeth and Nottinghamshire councils; Cambridge House Boys' Hostel, Knowl View School and other institutions arranged by Rochdale Borough Council; the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches; custodial institutions, residential schools, and the support services and legal remedies available to victims and survivors "areas of contemporary concern" including the internet and organised abuse networks allegations of child sexual abuse by "people of public prominence associated with Westminster" and claims of cover-ups allegations against the late Lord Janner, the former Labour peer who in 2015 was ruled unfit to stand trial on child sexual abuse charges The evidence given at the public hearings is expected to cover a number of other cases that have attracted headlines in recent years, including late MP Cyril Smith and claims of sexual abuse at care homes in north Wales. Three of the investigations are now complete, along with a case study of abuse in Ampleforth and Downside Roman Catholic schools. They found: An interim report has also been published, which concluded that common responses to child abuse "deflected responsibility away from perpetrators and institutions". The inquiry has begun investigating claims that political parties in Westminster "turned a blind eye" to allegations of abuse. Brian Altman QC, lead counsel to the inquiry, said this phase would examine whether there were any attempted cover-ups. But some of the most serious allegations made in the past are not being considered, after they were reviewed by a former senior judge in 2016, who concluded they were false. Public hearings on the Westminster investigation are due to finish in mid-March. The main bone of contention has been the turbulent history in the inquiry's first years surrounding who is in charge. The first chairwoman of the inquiry appointed in July 2014 was Baroness Butler-Sloss. However, she resigned just one week later after concerns arose around her links to the establishment - namely her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, who was attorney general in the 1980s. In September 2014, Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf was named the new head, but after disclosing she had been to five dinners with the late Lord Brittan - one of the people facing accusations at the time, which have since been dropped - she quit by the end of October. In February 2015, Justice Lowell Goddard, a serving judge of the High Court of New Zealand, took over the reins and was in charge as inquiry began hearing directly from victims and survivors. But by August 2016, she had resigned her post as well due to "compounding difficulties" and her family life. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Shane Donnelly and Pauline Blackwood are members of the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, which pulled out of the inquiry A number of lawyers have also resigned or been removed from the process. In November 2016, the largest of the victims's groups involved in the inquiry, the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, pulled out and said it had lost confidence in the inquiry's leadership. A legal case relating to allegations of abuse relating to Lord Janner has been dropped. The case had previously caused hearings to be delayed because of an "overlap" with the criminal investigation. His family have now met with inquiry staff after initially opposing the inclusion of the former politician. The IICSA has a budget of 17.9m in its first year, funded by the Home Office, with staff accounting for 41%. Prof Jay is to be paid 185,000 - almost half her predecessor's salary - while panel members will each receive 565 a day. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34965912 |
Is an ice cream that promises a better nights sleep too good to be true? | Nightfood, a new "sleep-friendly" ice cream, tastes good. The first thing you should know about Nightfood, a new sleep-friendly ice cream, is that its a genius idea. That statement is true whether it actually works or not. Many people have trouble sleeping, and many people love eating ice cream, and the possibility of cookies-and-cream-flavored Ambien even though thats not exactly how the product functions is going to be irresistible to insomniacs everywhere. Part of me is like, Im jealous Im not part of this marketing scheme, said Raj Dasgupta, assistant professor of clinical medicine specializing in sleep at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. They knew exactly where to strike. Yep, right in the taste buds. Nightfoods ice creams come in flavors such as decaf cold brew, Bed and Breakfast (waffles and syrup), chocolate cherry and Cookies n Dreams. The ice creams do not contain melatonin or other sleep supplements, so they will not necessarily help you fall asleep. The point is they will not keep you awake, either: The ice cream is configured to include less of the stuff that can impede your digestion to cause disrupted sleep, like lactose, sugar and caffeine. It also has boosted levels of certain vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium, which studies have shown is beneficial for sleep. It is endorsed by Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, who was a consultant involved in its development. You could eat Nightfood any time of day without feeling drowsy, but the product is designed for sleep because surveys have shown one of the most common times people tuck into a pint of ice cream is at night, probably while watching Netflix. Probably not, Dasgupta said. The best way to improve your sleep is to practice good sleep hygiene: Have a set bedtime and wake time every day, avoid caffeine and screens late at night, and, uh, do not eat within two hours of your bedtime. But our willpower fails us in the face of a Russian Doll binge with a pint of mint chocolate chip. They know no one is going to listen to this advice, so, might as well cater to them, Dasgupta said. Sugary snacks are the no-no foods you dont want someone to eat [before bed]. If theyre going to eat it anyway, Id rather they grab the nutritious one rather than the Twinkie or the cupcake. And heres the thing: It actually tastes really good. Unlike other functional ice creams that boast of higher protein and lower sugar and fat, Nightfood uses real sugar no alternative sweeteners. There is milk and cream in the ingredients list. It has fewer calories than your typical pint, but you would hardly know it from the texture or taste. It does not seem like a healthy ice cream, which makes it all the more likable. Compared with Haagen Dazs, Nightfoods pints have significantly less sugar and fat but they taste way better than other low-fat alternatives, such as Halo Top. I cannot say for sure whether it actually improved my sleep, though. Trendy adaptogenic foods foods with natural compounds that promote certain physiological functions, such as healthier skin, less anxiety or improved concentration are on the upswing, but it is hard to determine how well these products fulfill their claims. The placebo effect is strong. And while my sleep was not disrupted after eating Nightfood, it typically is not after eating other ice creams, anyway. I dont think theyre going to run a double-blinded control trial on ice cream, Dasgupta said. Nightfood is not the only sleep-friendly product on the market. Counting Sheep Coffee, launched in 2013, is a decaffeinated coffee that contains valerian, a natural sleep aid. There are also several carbonated sleep drinks, including Som and Neuro Sleep. They might help a bit, but Dasgupta cautions that sleep-promoting foods are not a cure-all. Youre not just going to start eating this food and get great sleep. Theres other things that go into it, too, like your overall health, stress level and the amount of time you spend aimlessly scrolling through Twitter in bed. So if you were hoping your doctor would prescribe you ice cream . . . well, in your dreams. | https://www.seattletimes.com/explore/shop-northwest/is-an-ice-cream-that-promises-a-better-nights-sleep-too-good-to-be-true/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Is husbands fear of fire pragmatic or paranoid? | He wants to move. She doesnt. Carolyn Hax thinks they can reach a middle ground. Dear Carolyn Adapted from a recent online discussion. DEAR CAROLYN: My husband has recently become very anxious, specifically about fire danger. Yes, we live in a fire-prone area and there have been several big fires in the past few years. But our house is 100 years old and has survived in this environment for that long. He refuses to consider that he should address his anxiety rather than making a plan to move away. I dont want to move! Our friends and family are here. But the difficult part for me is that being around his anxiety seems to be making me anxious. I find it very difficult to feel calm and happy when he is keyed up and super-tense. : Moods of all kinds are contagious, for sure. Theres science on this. Theres also science to support the abandonment of 100-year precedent as your sole insurance policy against bad things happening to your house. Were seeing some record-breaking stuff out there. You dont want to move OK, thats valid. But your husbands concern that youre at an unprecedented fire risk might also be valid. One where you admit that climate trends are telling you to prepare yourselves for an emergency in a way you never needed to in the past and where he admits that moving might not be necessary at this point if you and he can have rational, fact-based emergency plans in place. In general its a good thing to keep in mind: All that energy youve directed to a (so far fruitless) persuasion effort could be applied toward identifying and achieving mutual goals. This is in reference to your column where the woman left her husband because, A year ago, he told me he didnt love me and there was no chance he would change his mind. Anonymous DEAR ANONYMOUS: I believe in the truth, without extra detail and with the most possible grace: Your father told me he didnt love me anymore, so there was no marriage for me to stay in. I cant speak for him, but Im guessing its not how either of us thought this would go. Re: Divorce: I think it would be fine to tell an adult daughter why the marriage ended. I wouldnt get into nitty-gritty, but if she is an adult and is pressuring her other parent, I think it is fair to be open without saying anything negative about the husband, just factual. Open DEAR OPEN: Exactly. Thanks. I think that falling out of love is too often treated as a bad thing one person has done to another, when its often a bad thing that has happened. Yes, couples owe each other a sustained effort to remain interested in and interesting to each other but sometimes that effort, and specifically the work of reconciling, bypassing or absorbing incompatibilities, will eventually deplete the supply of love, and it can wipe out the like reserves too. | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/is-husbands-fear-of-fire-pragmatic-or-paranoid/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
What Is 5G And How Does It Differ From 4G, 3G And What Came Before? | That's the question most people ask when it comes to the increasingly hyped new 5G mobile technology. 5G stands for fifth-generation mobile. Derek McManus, chief operating officer of Telefonica-owned UK mobile operator O2, explains exactly how it will transform the technological landscape. "Each generation of network standard has brought with it unique capabilities and benefits for consumers and businesses alike," says McManus. "1G was introduced in the late 1980s as the first mode for mass mobile communication, allowing us to make simple calls between mobile phones. 2G was introduced in the 1990s offering greater security through its use of digital encryption, as opposed to analog signals, allowing for the first data services such as SMS messaging. "3G arrived in the UK in 2003 and made way for the eventual smartphone revolution, offering higher speeds and bridging mobile devices to the internet. 4G was released in 2012 bringing faster speeds and allowing for streaming on the go, which brought high definition content into the palms of peoples hands for the first time." 5G is probably the biggest leap forward in terms of the life-changing nature of mobile tech. "5G isnt simply an iteration of 4G," emphasizes McManus. "It presents a completely different and more powerful proposition to any of the previous generations of network standards. With the arrival of 5G, mobile connectivity will go from something we experience mainly through personal devices to being built into the fabric of our society, creating an integrated infrastructure that will connect buildings, transport, and utilities. It will update the operating system of our economy, transforming the energy, healthcare, transport, and retail sectors. "O2 research last year estimated that 5G could create over 6 billion of efficiency savings for the U.K.s cities, with innovation including smart energy grids and traffic management systems key drivers. In advance of the launch of our 5G network later this year, were working in partnership with British business to build a 5G economy to ensure we maximize the enormous potential of the technology and create tangible benefits from day one." Last month O2 revealed its plans to roll out 5G in the UK this year with a focus on partnering with U.K. businesses. It is hoped that business will then go on to kickstart the consumer market for 5G. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/annatobin/2019/03/04/what-is-5g-and-how-does-it-differ-from-4g-3g-and-what-came-before/ |
What Would A Resurgent Chris Davis Be Worth, And Would The Orioles Eat The Rest? | If youre an Orioles fan looking for bring spots at the beginning of a long and trying rebuild, you may have read this story about Chris Davis. And this one. Also this one. And maybe even this one. Baltimore baseball fans will be forgiven for not holding their breath. Davis is entering Year 4 of a seven-year, $161-million contract that has eclipsed the infamous Glenn Davis trade as the most damaging deal in franchise history. Twice already since signing, Davis has reported to spring training hopeful of reversing declining production. Each time, the season that followed was even worse, culminating in his garishly historic 2018. By all accounts, Davis is a high character guy and a good teammate who desperately wants to live up to his contract. But there's no evidence yet that 2019 will be different. (At press time, Davis had only 12 spring training at-bats and one hit, a home run.) What has changed is the reason why an improvement would matter to the Orioles. The rebuilding club carries no pretensions of meaningfully contending in 2019 and 2020, and even a vintage 2013- or 2015-type year from the slugger they once lovingly called "Crush" would likely only help the Birds avoid back-to-back 100-loss seasons. The question then is how much of a revival Davis would need to pique other teams' interest in paying even a fraction of his remaining salary, how realistic a resurgence might be, and how much salary the Orioles could stomach eating. Consistently Inconsistent Per year, the Orioles still owe Davis $92 million. That figure grows to $110 million if you factor in deferred payments that extend for 15 years after the deal requires him to play in Baltimore. Even if Davis miraculously morphed back into the 2013 version of himself that clobbered 53 home runs, drove in 138 runs and posted a 7.0 WAR (according to FanGraphs), he almost certainly would not be worth that kind of money in a more cautious player market. For one thing, Davis' career is a study in inconsistency. Since 2011, his WAR has fluctuated by at least two wins from season to season, and often by a lot more. By contrast, former Orioles teammate Nelson Cruz has never posted a single season as good as Davis had in 2013. But his WAR has hovered between 2.5 and 5.0 in each of the past five seasons, including for all of his four-year, $57-million contract with the Mariners that he signed entering his age 34 season, a year older than Davis is now. Even if Davis had a bombastic start to 2019, it would be imprudent to assume anything close to Cruz-like production for the remainder for his four year contract. Additionally, Cruz's late-career success as the plate is by far the exception. Of all 2019 position playing free agents Davis' age or older, only six posted a WAR of 2.0 or higher, and four of those were catchers or middle infielders. At best, a reasonable front office might look at a resurgent Davis and be willing to believe he could be consistently inconsistent for the remainder of his contract. Based on career averages, that would work out to roughly 30 homers and 80 RBIs yearly while posting a .238/.319/.471 slash line. For those numbers, a club might be willing to pay $20-$30 million for 2.5-3.5 years. Sunk Costs Whether the Orioles would be willing to eat the rest in a trade of some sort is a giant question, especially since John and Louis Angelos have taken over -- unofficially at least -- as the public face of club ownership. Their father, Peter Angelos, was reported to have OKed Davis' signing in 2016 partly because of his personal fondness for the lefty slugger. However, with Peter now in poor health, John and Louis appear to have embraced many of the strategies their father was criticized for resisting, such as hiring a more analytically focused front office beginning with new GM Mike Elias, and investing more money in scouting and player development. That's not to say the Angelos brothers will gleefully agree to pay more than half of the salary of a player no longer in Baltimore. But they may not be as emotionally attached to Davis as a player and person, and may also look at the dollar figure in terms of money that can be put toward draft or international signings. In that context, $20-$30 million goes much further there than it does in big league payroll. Well, Baltimore is already coming off a 40-year attendance low in 2018, and he remains relatively popular among fans despite his recent struggles. And perhaps organization's goals for a rebuild timeline are more aggressive than outside expectations, which could mean they believe Davis could contribute to a playoff team in the last two years of his contract. The Not Worst Case Scenario The nightmare scenario for the Orioles is not if 2018 repeats itself. At some point the club would designate Davis for assignment, with zero likelihood another club would claim his mammoth contract. Another young player would fill the void, and the rebuild would continue. The trickier situation is if Davis shows modest improvement to convince new manager Brandon Hyde to allow him some rope, without ever truly reaching a breakout. This might look something like the last years for another power-hitting lefty first baseman, Ryan Howard. Both Howard and Davis' contracts stretched through their age 36 seasons. Over the last four years of Howard's Philadelphia career, he averaged 20 homers, 68 RBIs and a .227/.292/.427 slash line. The Phillies went 280-368, never winning more than 73 games. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianquillen/2019/03/04/what-would-a-resurgent-chris-davis-be-worth-and-would-the-orioles-eat-the-rest/ |
What's The Impact Of The Government Shutdown On The Tech Industry? | Im not sure how we got here, but we have arrived at the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, one that's affected roughly 800,000 federal workers. While there appears to be a short-term resolution, even if the shutdown ends today, tomorrow or continues for another month, repercussions will persist even beyond an agreement to open the government again. And these repercussions dont end with just the federal agencies being affected, either -- the shutdown also has rippling impacts on contractors, regulators and B2Bs, such as my own company, that service these entities. Not to mention the impacts on every other industry, such as retail and restaurants, with so many tightening their belts for the month of January and beyond, deciding to eat in rather than go out, not purchasing a new pair of jeans or deferring to buy tickets to the latest movie release, etc. There are countless examples. Focusing specifically on the tech industry, heres a quick rundown of possible ongoing ramifications: New Technology Adoptions With federal agencies strained by the shutdown, many of the resources that could have been used to invest in new technology for a greater IT stance in 2019 have likely been placed elsewhere. This has consequences not only for the IT personnel within federal agencies that wouldve been involved in these new technology adoptions, but also for the third-party providers and producers of those technologies. Its lost revenue that could have gone toward building the economy. Merger And Acquisition Activity With the widespread uncertainty throughout the country, the taste for making large purchases has decreased significantly. This is also true for companies seeking to acquire and/or merge with other companies, unsure how existing performance and revenue goals might be affected by the growing length of government inaction. Compliance Audits And Approvals Say your company is under a compliance framework and must have audits performed on a quarterly basis. Going into the new year, this would normally be the time a regulator comes knocking on your door. But with the shutdown, delays abound. For industries such as the financial sector, where having proof of passing the latest compliance audit matters quite a bit to clients, consumers and investors, these companies could be feeling the pressure quite strongly. For those already employed by federal agencies, I wouldnt be surprised if they are looking for work elsewhere at this point. A shortage of IT talent in a marketplace where this kind of skill is already highly sought after could have ramifications that last for decades. Cybersecurity Risks According to Quartz, over 130 TLS certificates used by the U.S. government have now expired, and with no tech professionals able to renew them yet due to the impacts surrounding the shutdown, this places the country at a huge vulnerability to data exposure and breaches. Even more frightening than enticement for lone-wolf hackers, this NPR article states, Security researchers worry that the shutdown is like putting a red blanket in front of a bull. There are political nuances Ill choose to avoid in this article. But for those affected in the tech industry, I would say to hold on as best you can. If youre having problems making ends meet, check out this article for a few relevant resources, such as sample letters to creditors, mortgage companies and landlords. If youre an IT person, perhaps take a freelancing job for the interim, since establishing yourself as a freelancer in your skills market may come in handy should another shutdown occur in the future. If youre a business that needs to offload a few IT burdens or hire some IT expertise to fill gaps during this trying time, perhaps check out a managed IT services vendor with a subscription payment structure and short-term contract offerings. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/03/04/whats-the-impact-of-the-government-shutdown-on-the-tech-industry/ |
Could Andrew Bogut Return To The Golden State Warriors? | The Golden State Warriors have seen many twists and turns on their journey to becoming a modern-day NBA dynasty. Right back in the early days, the trade of fan favorite Monta Ellis for an injured Andrew Bogut symbolized a different front office approach and helped solidify a defensive identity that lifted them to their first title. The Warriors of old would never give up a dynamic 20-point-per-game scorer, even if he was limited on the other end, for a less spectacular big man who was better known for solid, intelligent positional defense. Bogut became an important piece of the new Warriors, providing toughness inside, setting bone-crushing screens to free up their world-class shooters, and utilizing his well-honed playmaking skills in the high post through a mixture of dribble hand-off sets and well-timed passes. When Kevin Durant decided to join the Warriors, Bogut was one of the pieces who had to make way in order to create the necessary room under the salary cap. After short stints with the Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers, Bogut returned to his native Australia to play for the Sidney Kings. It seemed that at age 34 that would be the end of a successful NBA career, capped off by that 2015 championship ring. But over in Australia, Bogut found a new lease of life. After averaging 11.4 points, 11.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.7 blocks per game and shooting 56% from the floor, Bogut won both the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year trophy in Australia. Then yesterday Shams Charania of the Athletic reported that multiple contenders, including the Golden State Warriors, were expected to pursue him now the NBL season is over. Its a strange twist in the Warriors story. But Golden State has kept open a roster spot all year in the hope of finding someone who can contribute in the playoffs. The Chicago Bulls Robin Lopez was heavily rumored to be their number one buyout candidate, but he never managed the wriggle free. Indeed, the buyout market that followed a frenzied trade deadline was remarkably tepid, devoid of any real playoff contributors save for a couple of players like Wes Matthews who quickly signed for playoff teams who could give them more minutes. It looked very much like the Warriors were going to be left standing. Their best remaining option was probably converting the two-way contract of guard Damion Lee so that he could become playoff eligible. Indeed the experience of last years playoffs suggests that snagging a wing for that last spot would be the wisest course of action. As the league trends goes more towards smaller, more versatile lineups with speed and shooting, the Warriors could do with another piece who can play some defense and knock down some threes in a pinch. Lee has shot 44.2% from beyond the arc this year, including 4-5 in their latest win in Philadelphia with Klay Thompson out. Hes certainly shown that he can hit the open threes. Whether his defense will hold up in the playoffs remains to be seen, but given the alternative option is Alfonzo McKinnie, who has gone somewhat off the boil in recent weeks, some insurance at that spot may well be a good idea. On the other hand, the Warriors could well face a series of punishing big men in the playoffs. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets both possess bruising giants in the middle. Of course, the Warriors have DeMarcus Cousins still working his way back from injury. Cousins has shown some nice flashes of his offensive potential but the defense is not there yet and may not turn up in time. Some of Cousins recent struggles have been more schematic, and when the playoffs roll around the Warriors will probably go smaller if opposing big men are bombing away from deep as Mike Scott and Jonah Bolden were in Philadelphia. But when Cody Zeller drops 28 points on 13-14 shooting on you, as happened against the Hornets recently, its not a good sign. Thats where Bogut could come in. He may be older now, but hes a former member of the NBA All-Defense team, and has proven his mettle in the playoffs against physical teams. Most notably his Game 5 Western Conference Finals performance against the Thunder in 2016, with 15 points, 14 rebounds, and two blocks, helped turn the tide as the Warriors came back from 3-1 down. Even if hes just injury insurance, the Warriors know what he brings to the table. At the moment if Cousins is struggling defensively with one of the big beasts, or goes down injured, theres not really another option. Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell are more suited to the smaller, switchier lineups, while there are only so many minutes you want to play Draymond Green at the five. Boguts experience and fit would seem to work nicely, but the elephant in the room is his injury history. His career with the Warriors ended after he got injured in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, one of many factors behind Golden States infamous collapse. Signing a player for injury insurance who has a history of getting injured themselves is a risky move. However, Bogut has remained healthy all throughout the NBL season, notching up 900 minutes, which may provide some reassurance to the front office. He wont be asked to play big minutes for the Warriors either. The Warriors have some decisions to make Both Bogut and Lee provide some intriguing possibilities for the 15th spot on the roster. Its unlikely either will make or break their playoff run but having enough depth to withstand injuries is an important, and oft-underrated, factor in winning a championship. Either one could potentially step in and provide spot minutes in a crisis. The Warriors dont have to make a decision straight away. Their roster spot remains open, and the deadline for signing someone isnt until the end of the regular season. Lee has time remaining on his two-way deal, allowing them to evaluate him alongside other options on the roster. They could sign Bogut to the open roster spot now and if Lee breaks out then look to release someone else on the roster if need be. There arent many options for players to cut though. Rookie Jacob Evans may have disappointed but its too early to cut bait on him yet. Alfonzo McKinnie may be struggling of late but he brings an energy to proceedings that remains valuable, and the Warriors have an option to retain him for next season on the minimum which they wont want to give up. The most likely may be the injured Damian Jones, but he is signed through next year after the Warriors picked up his option. Cutting him would leave them with dead money on their salary cap that would count towards the luxury tax, even if his $2.3m option was stretched across three years. In the end, the Warriors pursuit of Bogut could come to nothing. But a reunion would be a fascinating story and may yet help them on their way to another title. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmurray/2019/03/04/could-andrew-bogut-return-to-the-golden-state-warriors/ |
What to make of all the smoke out of Toronto that Connor McDavid growing frustrated in Edmonton? | This in from Steve Simons of the Toronto Sun: Challenging authority doesnt come naturally to Connor McDavid its just not his way but if I was him I would request a meeting with the eventual general manager of the Edmonton Oilers to set a few things straight right away. I would put the GM on the clock from the first time they first met and basically say if theres not a winning team around here in a year or a plan that looks like it could lead to winning then plan on moving me elsewhere. McDavid wont say anything like that of course. Not right now. Certainly not now. But around him there is all kinds of wonder and worry about how long he will put up with losing and how all this pressure and difficulty is affecting his enjoyment of the game. My take Of course, Simmons comments stirred up a lot of anger from Oilers fans, who rightly pointed out a few things, namely that the Toronto media has been whining, crying and bellyaching about McDavid in Edmonton ever since the Oilers won the 2015 draft lottery, and that for all the talk of the Leafs being a team of destiny right now, the Toronto franchise hasnt actually won a playoff series since 2004. In that same time, the Oilers have been to the Stanley Cup finals once and the Pacific division finals once. The Leafs havent won a Cup since 1967. In that time, the Oilers have won five. Right now the Leafs are clearly a better team than the Oilers, though its fair to say the fortunes of the Oilers havent been helped by ongoing injury issues with the teams two best d-men, Oscar Klefbom and Andrej Sekera. If they are, and if Mikko Koskinen turns out to be more stud than dud, the Oilers will be a much better squad. At the same time, Edmonton finally has a number of strong young d-men prospects closing in on the NHL, including Evan Bouchard, Caleb Jones, William Lagesson, Ethan Bear and Joel Persson. If one or two of those players are NHL-ready next year (and thats not such a stretch) the Oilers will also be better able to withstand injury on the blueline. Help at forward could also be on the way from Bakersfield, where a group of young forwards is helping to drive that team to great success. Many Edmonton fans want what Simmons wrote to simply disappear. But thats not how the world works. This is what is being talked about in NHL circles. Thats the fact of the matter, whether we like it or not. When it comes to a fair-minded viewpoint out of Toronto, Ill go with Sportsnets Elliotte Friedman, who recently had this to say to Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now about the McDavid situation, that he would not be surprised if McDavids representation had some say in the decision on who the Oilers hire as GM. But Friedman said McDavid believes his job is to play and he doesnt want to be a guy who dictates what they should do. If Im the Oilers the biggest question I have is, how long until he gets fed up? I think hes going to give you the chance to get this hire right and work this out. So you know that you have to get this right because if it continues this way for another year or two, eventually he is going to say, Ive had enough. In the end, when you erase both Simmons negative spin on the news (McDavid will soon want out) and go with Friedmans positive spin (McDavid will give Oilers another chance), you arrive at the same place. Theyre saying essentially the same thing, that this next GM hire for the Oilers is huge for the team and owner Daryl Katz had better get it right. If Katz does not get it right, he might just end up in a year or two with a McDavid who has simply had enough. Thats the consensus from NHL insiders in Toronto. From what I see, theres no quit in McDavid. Instead theres a fierce determination to make good. When he was asked at the All-Star game if he wanted out of Edmonton, he told reporters: Thats just not the case at all. Im here to be part of the solution. Thats all Im going to say on that I look forward to coming back from the break and trying our best to prove everyone wrong. We have an opportunity here. Things seem pretty down on us. Theres a sense [of] negativity with the media and with everyone around the team We get to prove people wrong and we get to decide how we finish the second halfI think its easy to think we have turmoil in our locker room or we have this and that. We dont have that at all. Were a tight-knit group. Guys love to play for each other. Bottom lines: With McDavid and Draisaitl, Edmonton has as good a chance to win as most NHL teams in coming seasons. If that doesnt happen, if the Oilers continue to lose and continue to fail to make the playoffs, the worst could indeed happen and down the road McDavid could want out of Edmonton. At the same time, the doubt of others seems to be fuel for McDavids fire. Hes not some self-pitying fragile weenie who sees himself as a victim. Hes a committed, focused, fiery and determined leader who is about to come into his own, both as a player and as a captain of his team. My bet is that his Edmonton story turns out not just fine, but brilliant and likely even more brilliant than the story now being written by the Toronto Maple Leafs, as promising as that tale might well be. At the Cult of Hockey LEAVINS: Dont completely count out the Oilers just yet LEAVINS: Oilers blank Jackets 4-0 McCURDY: Oil rebounds for win over Sens STAPLES: So youre telling me theres a chance | https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/cult-of-hockey/what-to-make-of-all-the-smoke-out-of-toronto-that-connor-mcdavid-growing-frustrated-in-edmonton |
Is The Trump Administration Turning A Blind Eye To The Coal Ash Threat? | For those questioning whether a former lobbyist for the coal industry is now able to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency, they have received yet another ominous sign: the loosening of coal ash regulations at a time when the numbers show that 91% of coal plants have unsafe levels of coal combustion byproducts. The Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice are thus arguing for more meaningful regulations for coal ash, which is comprised of arsenic, lithium, mercury and selenium that are all harmful to human health and the environment. The green groups culled publicly-available information provided by electric utilities, indicating that nine-out-of-ten coal plants 265 evaluated in all have unsafe levels of at least one of those toxins. At a time when the Trump EPA now being run by a former coal lobbyist is trying to roll back federal regulations on coal ash, these new data provide convincing evidence that we should be moving in the opposite direction: toward stronger protections for human health and the environment, said Abel Russ, the lead author of the report and attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project. Coal power plants produce about 130 million tons of coal ash a year, at roughly 1,100 sites in 39 states. But the research shows that many of the coal ash ponds have unsafe designs and that only 5% percent have liners to prevent the leakage of those toxins into the groundwater. At present, most such waste is buried in landfills, although those sites must keep a safe distance from surface and groundwater supplies. For coal ash buried on utility grounds, the ponds need to be properly lined to keep the waste from bleeding out. In December 2016 and under President Obama, the law regulating the treatment of solid waste the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act was changed to give the EPA more say in how coal ash is disposed. Since May 2018, utilities must record their progress and make it available to the public. Nationally, about 40 percent of all coal waste is recycled and thus, does not have to be buried. It is, instead, re-used in such products as cement and drywall. Utilities protested the federal oversight. So the Trump administration eased the groundwater monitoring rules, reasoning that if the sites were located far enough away from aquifers, then they really posed no danger to drinking water supplies. The newly-confirmed EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, said earlier that the revised rules would cut red tape and save $31 million a year in regulatory costs while adding flexibility without endangering human health. Our actions mark a significant departure from the one-size-fits-all policies of the past and save tens of millions of dollars in regulatory costs. But the green groups findings come just after Hurricane Florence hit land last September and dislodged 2,000 cubic yards of coal ash in Duke Energys territory. In 2014, that utility suffered an even worse accident when 100,000 cubic yards of coal ash spilled into the Dan River and turned it totally grey. Duke Energy said that because coal ash is considered non-hazardous, it did not believe it posed a risk to human health, noting that it is in the process of closing all of its coal ash sites by 2029. The coal ash debate reached a feverish pitch after the 2008 Christmas season when the Tennessee Valley Authority informed both its neighbors and the nation that one of its dikes had burst and released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal fly ash, ruining 300 surrounding acres. The federally-run utility had to spend more than $1 billion to clean up the spill, which destroyed homes, spoiled drinking water and killed hundreds of fish. EPA responded to what it called the nations worst environmental disaster by deciding that existing coal ash ponds where wet ash is stored do not need to be lined or moved away from waterways. However, any future coal ash sites must be lined or use dry ash to avoid the possibility of leakage. And certain inactive sites, including the one at Dukes failed facility, must be closed. The Trump administration has eased the timetable to comply until 2020. As far as the findings from the Environmental Integrity Project and Earth Justice, they found that 52% of coal ash sites had dangerous levels of arsenic that lead to cancer. And 60% had unsafe levels of arsenic near groundwater supplies, which can lead to neurological damage. The most dangerous sites are located in Texas, North Carolina and Wyoming, they say. All the major utilities are struggling with the issue, including American Electric Power, First Energy Corp. and Southern Co. For decades, coal utilities have been dumping their toxic waste in primitive pits often unlined, unstable, and near groundwaterwhile state and federal regulators have mostly looked the other way, said Jennifer Peters, National Water Programs Director for Clean Water Action. These dangerous coal ash ponds should have been closed and cleaned up years ago. Even though coal plants are retiring at a record pace, their residual impact remains the existence of coal ash impoundments and the potential that their remnants could leach into groundwater supplies. Data provided by the utility companies show a risk. That potential danger needs to be addressed at a federal level to give residents peace-of-mind, although the Trump administration and its EPA chief seem to be turning blind eye to the scare. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2019/03/04/is-the-trump-administration-turning-a-blind-eye-to-the-coal-ash-threat/ |
How far did LSU baseball fall in polls after Texas sweep? | AUSTIN, TEXAS -- LSU baseball had a rough weekend in Austin. The Tigers came into the weekend 8-0 and ranked No. 1 or No. 2 by every national outlet. But LSU didnt have any high-caliber wins, so the weekend series at No. 19 Texas was going to be the first major test for Paul Mainieris club. Instead, LSU lost 8-1 on Friday after Texas ace Bryce Elder dominated and held the Tigers to one run while the LSU pitching staff walked nine batters. Saturday, LSU lost 8-4 as freshman Landon Marceaux allowed six runs and the staff allowed another 12 free passes. Weve got to get better: Top-ranked LSU baseball swept by Texas after late collapse LSU gave away a 3-run lead in the final two innings in a walk-off 7-6 loss. Sunday, though, LSU had a convincing 6-3 lead in the eighth inning as Cole Henry and Todd Peterson combined to allow four runs before they could get the final five outs to win. Texas won on a walk-off RBI single up the middle, finishing the Texas sweep. Heres a breakdown: Baseball America: No. 10 (Previous: No. 2) D1Baseball: No. 13 (Previous: No. 2) Perfect Game: No. 14 (Previous: No. 1) More polls will be added as they are updated. | https://www.nola.com/lsu/2019/03/how-far-did-lsu-baseball-fall-in-the-polls-after-being-swept-by-texas.html |
Is Oregon State the No. 3 or 4 seed in Pac-12 basketball tournament, or No. 9? | Oregon States lost week at Gill Coliseum, where it fell to Arizona and Arizona State by a combined five points, has put the Beavers with fewer postseason options. OSU is surely out of the hunt for an NCAA tournament at-large berth. The Beavers only hope is to win the Pac-12 tournament and land the leagues NCAA automatic. To do that, Oregon States best chance is finish among the top Pac-12s four teams and earn a first-round bye. Otherwise it means winning four games in four days to win the Pac-12 tournament. Only Colorado in 2012 has pulled off that feat. The bottom line this week is this: if Oregon State splits or sweeps its road series against Washington and Washington State, the Beavers finish among the top four. Lose both, and there are myriad possibilities. This much we know so far about the Pac-12 tourney seedings: Washington is No. 1 Arizona State is No. 2 Washington State is No. 11 California is No. 12 Three through 10 are up for grabs. Oregon State cant finish 10th, but everything else is in play. Whats left for teams 3 through 10: OSU (9-7): at Washington, at Washington State UCLA (9-7): at Colorado, at Utah Utah (9-7): USC, UCLA USC (8-8): at Utah, at Colorado Colorado (8-8): UCLA, USC Oregon (8-8): at Washington State, at Washington Stanford (8-9): California Arizona (8-9): Arizona State Here are the Pac-12 seeding possibilities for Oregon State: No. 3 seed Beat Washington and Washington State. Beat Washington or Washington State, with at least one loss by UCLA and Utah No. There is a way. UCLA must sweep, USC, Colorado and Oregon split their last two games. Oregon State wins all the tie-breakers. Even if Arizona and/or Stanford finish 9-9, Oregon States collective record against those tied at 9-9 is better than any other team. No. 5 and 6 seed Lose to Washington and Washington State. There are so many possibilities here it makes the head spin. But OSU probably finishes fifth, and definitely sixth, as long as Arizona isnt among the teams finishing 9-9. No. 7 seed Lose to Washington and Washington State. Utah, Colorado and Oregon sweep, and Stanford wins, but Arizona loses. No. 8 seed Lose to Washington and Washington State. UCLA and USC (or Colorado and Utah) and Oregon sweep, Arizona wins, Stanford loses. No. 9 seed Lose to Washington and Washington State, AND USC, UCLA (or Utah and Colorado) and Oregon sweep, plus Arizona and Stanford win their finales. --Nick Daschel | [email protected] | @nickdaschel Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. | https://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/2019/03/is-oregon-state-the-no-3-or-4-seed-in-pac-12-basketball-tournament-or-no-9.html |
Does Washington want Josh Rosen? | Washington needs a quarterback, but Washington wont be able to sink a lot of money into a quarterback, given the money committed to Alex Smith. With Smith likely to miss 2019 (and possibly never play again) after suffering a badly broken leg last season, Washingtons options are limited. One option would be to trade for Josh Rosen, if the Cardinals indeed plan to take Kyler Murray with the first pick in the draft. Tony Pauline of DraftAnalyst.com reports that multiple sources have indicated that Washington is talking openly about trading for Rosen, if Arizona decides to make the move. Washington holds the 15th pick in the 2019 draft; Arizona acquired Rosen with pick No. 10 a year ago. Arizona paid Rosen a signing bonus of $10.878 million and a 2018 base salary of $480,000, leaving only $6.239 million to be paid out over the next three years. Come 2022, Rosens fifth-year option would become the quarterback transition-tag number for 2021, since he was a top-10 pick. By 2021, however, Smiths $31 million in remaining injury guarantees will have exited the books. Its unclear whether the Cardinals would take the 15th overall pick for Rosen, or whether they would want more especially since theyd be handing to a new team a very affordable quarterback contract, with an average of $2.079 million per year through 2021. | https://sports.yahoo.com/does-washington-want-josh-rosen-221553787.html?src=rss |
How Will Alienated America Save For Retirement? | Alienated America is the title of a new book out by Tim Carney, commentary editor at the Washington Examiner and American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow. Its core observation is this: while in the 2016 general election, Trump had the support of evangelicals and other pro-life Christians, because of the binary choice between Trump and Clinton (where the single issue of abortion was key for many reluctant Trump votes), quite the opposite was true for the primaries. Then, as now, Trump's core support came elsewhere, from those disconnected from religious communities. What's more, it was localities in which community institutions were strong that Trump did poorly in the primaries, and in areas where they were weak and where residents were disconnected from each other, that Trump did well. For wealthy communities like the D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase which Carney uses as one reference point, a swim club or a book discussion group or garden club might do a great job of connecting up residents, but for most Americans, it has historically been their church/house of worship which has been their primary "community institution" and, despite stereotypes otherwise, it is among the white working class that the trend of religious disaffiliation has been most dramatic -- and its impact is much more far-reaching that the results in an election, as the loss of those institutions impact the well-being of the alienated. In early February, the Aspen Institute published a new report, "Portable Non-Employer Retirement Benefits: An Approach to Expanding Coverage for a 21st Century Workforce," which sought to address the 55 million Americans who, according to survey data, lack access to a workplace retirement plan, by describing/proposing six alternate ways of providing access to retirement plans which might be scaled up or, in some cases, brought into existence. Some of these mechanisms are still very much workplace-centered. The report proposes that employers and workers in a specific industry sector might band together to provide retirement plans in which all employees could maintain participation even as they move from one employer to another. These sector-based plans are common in the Netherlands -- for example, the Dutch multiemployer plan which I contrasted with the US equivalent back in November was a plan for the metal industry. In Massachusetts, nonprofit organizations are partnering to provide a multiple employer 401(k) plan, as is a similar coalition in Canada for its nonprofit workers. The report also profiles "new worker organizations" -- union-like groups formed to advance the interests of workers, such as domestic workers, freelancers, app-platform drivers, and so on -- and suggests that they might offer workers the ability to enroll in a retirement plan, and considers professional associations and trade associations as further sources of retirement plan access -- ideas which have been proposed elsewhere. But there are two suggestions which are new. The report suggests that labor unions might be a source of retirement benefits -- not in the form of Taft-Hartley multi-employer plans which are already so troubled in their defined benefit form, but as a sponsor of retirement savings that reaches beyond mandatory contributions as a part of collective bargaining (though it does suggest this) to acting as a plan sponsor for spouses of union members, "non-unionized workers who might join a union under an 'associate member' category" and workers at employers who choose to participate in the union-sponsored plan. The report also proposes that faith communities be a source of retirement plan participation. They observe that the United Methodist Church provides retirement benefits for all its clergy and lay employees via its Wespath entity, the "largest publicly reported denominational plan in the US." (Side note: you'd think the Catholics would be larger, but they manage everything at the level of the diocese rather than country-wide.) But the Aspen report suggests taking this a step further: A potentially more far-reaching approach would be for faith groups to sponsor portable non-employer retirement benefits for the members of their community. The addressable uncovered group here is, in theory, very large. If we assume 55 million Americans lack access to a workplace retirement plan, and 36 percent of those attend religious services once a week or more (assuming the same proportion as the population as a whole), then there is a pool of nearly 20 million regular participants in faith communities who could be served by a faith group-sponsored portable non-employer retirement benefit. Where the faith community already sponsors a retirement arrangement for its employees especially where that arrangement has scale, as in the Wespath example there could be opportunities to extend access to that arrangement to the broader faith community. To be sure, for an entity such as Wespath to reach beyond the employees of the church it serves, to those parishioners, it would become more like a "retail retirement account." The report's suggestion might sound trivial to educated Americans who already have done their due diligence on how to save for retirement, but the kernel of this proposal could make a big difference for those who haven't. Carney emphasizes that churches in America have a key role as community institutions, and, at least among churches with greater resources, they offer groups that reach beyond Bible studies to provide support for the bereaved, young mothers, the unemployed, those in recovery, and so on. In many parishes a "parish nurse" provides further resources and referrals, visits the sick, and provides other aid. Whether through a formal organization or simply through an informal process that materializes as needed, they deliver casseroles to families struck by illness. And many evangelical/mega-churches offer Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" money-management classes. In this context, it's not so crazy to imagine that churches, community groups, and unions acting as a community group could and should have an important role to play in financial wellness and retirement savings -- both as organizations which might provide education and support on the path, and because they provide the sort of informal social networks that nudge people forward towards, for example, saving for retirement. Yet these are exactly the organizations which Carney (and others) reports are disappearing in the regions of America that turned to Trump in 2016. That's another question. Please let me know at JaneTheActuary.com! | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2019/03/04/how-will-alienated-america-save-for-retirement/ |
Will We Care If Earth Gets Hotter? | Surprising research suggests that humans may not notice all that much if Earth warms in the coming decades. In fact, it could be quite the opposite. Researchers have found that humans tend to normalize weather events such as warming, not realizing the temperatures they are experiencing are increasingly abnormal. To get a sense for the general public's reaction to weather events the research team analyzed 2 billion tweets on Twitter between March 2014 and November 2016. The team determined the location of the person who posted the tweets and analyzed the weather and temperature in their location. They filtered these tweets to instances where the user reacted to local weather conditions and compared the weather and temperature to a baseline from 1981 to 1990. All of this allowed the research team to identify people's reactions to temperature extremes. What they found is quite interesting. Initially, as people experienced unusual temperatures or weather they tended to tweet about it. People more often noticed and tweeted about warmer temperatures in winter and cooler temperatures in summer, bucking what they expected during that time of the year. As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal. - Robin S. Sharma However, as people experienced temperature extremes during a given time of the year, if they experienced similar extremes the following year they were less likely to tweet about it. The research team suggests that people had become used to the new temperatures as the new normal. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found people's memory for recent temperature is primarily centered around the past 2 to 8 years. This means if the temperature someone is experiencing is in line with temperatures they've experienced in the past 2 to 8 years, they are less likely to comment on the abnormality of it. Thus, if temperatures gradually increase over years and decades, the study suggests people won't notice the gradual increase all that much and we will simply accept it as the new norm. One analogy that the research team used is the "boiling frog" myth that a frog will jump out of a pot immediately when the water is boiling. However, if you put a frog in a pot with warm water and continue to heat it until boiling the frog will stay in the pot until it dies. The research team recognized that extreme weather events such as increased instances of hurricanes, drought, heat waves, flooding, etc. won't be normalized and will still prompt humans to react to climate change. Therefore, it appears that the gradual increase in temperature on any given day won't be what will startle humans into reaction, but the extreme weather events we continue to face. Adding in another layer of complexity is the fact that average temperatures over years and decades are more easily attributable to climate change than extreme weather events. Thus, when scientists can definitively say the past few years of higher than average temperatures are a result of climate change, the general public may be overall less interested. The normalization of increased temperatures leads us to focus on extreme weather events, which are much more difficult to directly attribute to climate change. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/03/04/will-we-care-if-earth-gets-hotter/ |
Can Target Beat Estimates In Q4? | Target is scheduled to announce its fiscal fourth quarter results on Tuesday, March 5. The retailer has been overhauling its business model with the expansion of small-format stores, in addition to revamping its existing stores and improving supply chain management. In fact, the results of Targets business transformation have started to show in the companys financials from Q1 2018 on. However, the retailers aggressive push to keep up with Amazon and Walmart, both online and in grocery, is leading to shrinking margins. In fact, Targets stock fluctuated between $66 to $89 over the course of 2018, largely due to growing margin concerns despite otherwise strong financial results. Our $83 price estimate for Targets stock is almost 10% ahead of the current market price. which outlines our forecasts for the company. You can modify our forecasts to see the impact any changes would have on the companys earnings and valuation and see all Trefis Consumer Discretionary company data here. Q4 Expectations In Q3, Targets gross margin was 28.7%, down 90 basis points, largely due to increased fulfillment costs resulting from growth in digital sales. This mark also fell short of consensus estimates of 29.7%. On the cost side, selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses grew 5% y-o-y, due to an increase in compensation expenses, reflecting investments in store hours, wage rates and team member incentives. Going forward, we expect this margin pressure to continue in Q4 as well. We also expect Target to continue to post an increase in its revenue growth rate in Q4. In terms of comparable sales, the retailer expects fourth quarter growth of around 5%, consistent with the companys Q3 performance. In addition, Target expects a slight decline in operating income in Q4. Full-Year Outlook | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/04/can-target-beat-estimates-in-q4/ |
What if protesting Perry High School students were pro-choice? | Opinion: Free speech cuts all ways. It goes on. Educating is difficult enough School is already a difficult environment. There are so many diversions competing for a young persons time and attention. And we place so many demands on the understaffed, underfunded educators who are charged with teaching students. Free speech is a beautiful thing, and there is every opportunity for American citizens of every age to exercise that right out in the world. And even to a degree in schools. But imagine the chaos if every kid with a cause (their own or their parents) brought banners and placards and wore t-shirts and hats espousing some deeply head belief each day at school. Lots of possible free speech choices NEWSLETTERS Get the Opinions Newsletter newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Our best and latest in commentary in daily digest form. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Opinions Newsletter Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters LGBT rights. Anti-abortion. Gun control. Climate change. Anti-gun control. Capital punishment. It goes on and on and on. If there were absolutely no restrictions there certainly would be a lot of free speech going on. Reach Montini at [email protected]. MORE BY MONTINI: Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/03/04/perry-high-school-protest-donald-trump/3055014002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/03/04/perry-high-school-protest-donald-trump/3055014002/ |
Does having a higher IQ than Einstein guarantee success? | Twelve-year-old Nishi Uggalle, the newly crowned champion of Channel 4s Child Genius show, is said to have an IQ higher than Einsteins. The immediate problem is that no one knows what Einsteins IQ was, as he was never tested. It is assumed he would have an IQ score of 160+, which is reckoned to equate with genius level. When Nisha was tested almost three years ago by Mensa, a membership organisation for people with very high IQs, she scored 162 the highest possible score in the test she was taking, though other tests can yield higher scores and IQs of above 200 have been claimed. The numbers are purely normative: the test-takers performance is scored against the average for the same age group, based on a series of tests that usually concentrate on pattern recognition, logic and problem-solving ability. The benchmark for the whole group is 100, and most people (estimates very) fall into a range between 70 and 130. Only 2.5% are reckoned to have an IQ above 130. Mensa only accepts members who are in the top 2% of those tested. Rather elitist, I suggest to a Mensa spokeswoman. Its easier to get into Mensa than into certain golf clubs, she counters. The aim of an IQ test is not to measure knowledge, but the individuals ability to learn and their speed in absorbing information. Having zero spatial awareness, I despise them, since they expose me as a complete thicko I once came plumb bottom in an army intelligence test to determine whether I was potential officer material. Psychologists differ wildly on whether IQ tests are reliable. Some swear by them; all we can say with certainty is that they test a particular, narrow definition of intelligence the ability to problem-solve under pressure. The Mensa spokeswoman claims there is a strong correlation between high IQ and good health, longevity and career success, but she also accepts a high IQ can produce social isolation. One of Mensas aims is to bring together gifted children because their general cohort may find them a little odd. I know many chess players who are brilliant problem-solvers but can barely cope with real life. That remains the key, unanswered question. | https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2019/mar/04/does-having-a-higher-iq-than-einstein-guarantee-success |
Will latest study on vaccines and autism change minds? | Yet another study finds no evidence that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine raises the risk of autism -- even among children who are at increased genetic risk. Experts said the findings, reported in the April 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, should be reassuring to parents, particularly those who already have a child with autism. The theory that MMR vaccination raises the risk of autism has its roots in a small study done in 1998 -- one that was later found to be fraudulent. Since then, numerous international studies have found no evidence that vaccines help trigger autism. Still, some parents remain worried. And those who already have a child with autism seem even more concerned. "Research has shown that parents of kids with autism spectrum disorders are more likely to delay vaccinating their younger children," said Dr. Bryan King, an autism researcher at the University of Washington, in Seattle. "Basically, they wait until the developmental dust has settled, and it looks like their child will be unaffected (by autism)," said King, who wrote an editorial published with the study. But delaying recommended vaccinations puts children at risk of potentially serious infections, said Dr. Anjali Jain, the study leader and a researcher at the Lewin Group, a healthcare consulting firm in Falls Church, Va. She pointed to the United States' recent measles outbreaks as an example. This year, 162 people have been sickened in outbreaks across 19 states and Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials blame the reappearance of the disease, in part, on parents who choose to forgo or delay their children's vaccinations. In recent years, the United States has seen a rising rate of autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs -- a group of developmental brain disorders that affect children's behavior and ability to communicate and socialize. The latest federal estimates say one in 68 kids has some form of autism spectrum disorder. They range widely in severity: Some children have relatively mild problems with social interactions, while others are unable to speak and focus on a limited number of repetitive behaviors. It's known that genes make certain children more vulnerable to autism -- that's why kids with an affected older sibling are at higher-than-average risk. But environmental factors also have to play a role, experts believe. One theory, King said, is that it takes a "triple hit" -- genes, plus an environmental trigger that strikes during a particular time window in brain development. But based on years of research, the MMR vaccine is not that trigger, according to health experts. "Every study that's looked at this, through every strategy they've used, has found no signal," King said. The new findings are based on insurance records for nearly 96,000 U.S. children with an older brother or sister; 2 percent had an older sibling with an autism spectrum disorder. Of the children with an affected sibling, 7 percent had an autism spectrum disorder themselves, compared to just under 1 percent of other kids. There was no evidence, though, that the MMR vaccination raised the risk of autism in either group of children, Jain said. Among kids with an affected sibling, those who'd received one MMR dose by age 2 were actually one-quarter less likely to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, the study found. The odds were even lower among those who'd received two doses by age 5. Probably not, King said. It could be possible that some parents who noticed developmental delays in their babies opted not to vaccinate, for example. "But we can say that vaccination was not associated with an increased risk in children with or without an affected sibling," King said. Jain agreed. "I hope this is reassuring to parents," she said. According to King, it's natural for parents with a child who has autism to want to reduce their younger kids' risk. "Everyone believes there have to be environmental factors contributing to the exponential rise we've seen in ASDs," he said. "But we don't understand what those factors are yet." Researchers are finding clues, though. And more and more, they suspect that prenatal brain development is the critical period, King said. He pointed to one study published just last week. There, researchers found that among more than 322,000 children, the risk of autism was elevated among children whose mothers had pregnancy-related diabetes in the first or second trimester. It's not yet clear what that means, King stressed. But, he noted, some of the genes linked to autism are also involved in regulating insulin -- the blood-sugar-controlling hormone that goes awry in diabetes. According to King, studies like that are opening new ideas on the potential environmental risk factors for autism -- even as others are "closing the door" on the MMR theory. | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-latest-study-on-vaccines-and-autism-change-minds/ |
Is it cruel to set up nets that prevent birds nesting? | A battle broke out at the weekend over a hedge in Lincolnshire. The hedge, near the town of Winterton, was covered in netting by Partner Construction, which has applied for planning permission to build 40 homes on the site. This is standard practice, the developer said, in order to prevent birds from nesting in a habitat that might be damaged if building work begins later in the year. However, a group of local residents opposed to the development released a video showing birds trapped beneath the nets. Jeremy Vine and Chris Packham shared the footage, and their outrage, on Twitter. Packham said the nets showed brutal ignorance of how to look after the countryside, and said, if he were there, he would rip those nets down, in a tweet that has since disappeared. According to the Telegraph, some of the offending nets have now gone. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built. In theory, this even bans people from pruning their fruit trees if doing so harms a nest that they know is there. Any tree or hedge becomes a protected site the moment a bird settles in it, which it might do at any time from about February until August potentially shutting down an entire construction site for the busy half of the year. Many conservationists agree to compromise. Netting an empty tree or a bush in the winter is certainly better than making the birds look for a new site in the middle of the breeding season. Its not ideal, says Martin Fowlie of the RSPB, but it is legal, so when it has to be done, its important that it be done properly, which means checking for birds when the netting is fitted, and to keep checking it regularly. Birds are ingenious creatures, and they can often find a way to get under the edge of a net. Builders must compromise by taking this part seriously. Dave Leech, head of ringing and nest recording schemes at the British Trust for Ornithology, accepts that netting is probably the lowest-impact option if a habitat has to be removed during the breeding season. But done badly it might be worse than nothing. A well-protected nest site is a good thing, Leech says, so if you have limited access it might actually be attractive to birds, but they may then get trapped inside afterwards, so youve got to exclude access completely. A spokesman for Partner Construction told the Telegraph: We commissioned properly qualified and experienced ecologists to carry out the work on our behalf. They have assured us and provided photographic evidence there were no birds in the hedgerow after it was netted and that the cover was left in a secure condition, preventing birds from gaining access. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2019/mar/04/is-it-cruel-to-set-up-nets-prevent-bird-nesting-jeremy-vine-chris-packham-protesting |
What is Vice President Mike Pence doing in Phoenix this week? | Vice President Mike Pence is visiting Phoenix again this week. Pence will arrive at Sky Harbor International Airport in Air Force Two just after 11 a.m. Tuesday. Later, Pence is set to speak at the National Association of Manufacturer's Spring 2019 board of directors meeting. After the meeting he will join a roundtable discussion with Linda McMahon, the Small Business Administrator, and the National Association of Manufacturers Executive Council. Then Pence will receive a briefing and tour a Drug Enforcement Administration facility. He leaves Wednesday. Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 909-635-9146. Follow her on Twitter @alexis_egeland. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/03/04/vice-president-mike-pence-phoenix-visit-national-association-of-manufacturers-small-business-dea/3056464002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/03/04/vice-president-mike-pence-phoenix-visit-national-association-of-manufacturers-small-business-dea/3056464002/ |
Do digital echo chambers exist? | A common, and ostensibly common sense, assumption about the era we are living through is that social media is a primary cause of polarisation. I have often endorsed this idea, whether explicitly or implicitly, during my time at the BBC. Twitter has generally struck me as the industrialisation of confirmation bias. Facebook, a softer version of the same. And other platforms, such as Instagram, similar. But this claim - that our digital media habits are an exercise in the lazy endorsement of our prejudices - is itself lazy and full of prejudice. Asked to do a report on the link, if there is one, between social media and polarisation, or social fragmentation, as part of the BBC's Crossing Divides season, I surveyed the academic literature. Most of the academic work in this area points to the complexity of that link, and resists a clear causal connection. Indeed, for the most part, it comes down against the idea that the online world is full of echo chambers. The abstract for this commonly cited article in the journal Public Opinion Quarterly, by Seth Freeman, Sharad Goel and Justin M Rao, puts it succinctly: "Social networks and search engines are associated with an increase in the mean ideological distance between individuals", the authors write. "However, somewhat counter-intuitively, these same channels also are associated with an increase in an individual's exposure to material from his or her less preferred side of the political spectrum". They go on: "The vast majority of online news consumption is accounted for by individuals simply visiting the home pages of their favourite, typically mainstream, news outlets, tempering the consequences - both positive and negative - of recent technological changes." Last week, I went up to Oxford to visit Dr Grant Blank. His most recent work has examined, as he puts it, "the myth of the echo chamber." In an important paper, published with Elizabeth Dubois in the journal Information, Communication and Society, Dr Blank concluded "social media and [the] internet [are] not [a] cause of political polarisation." Image copyright ENB Image caption Dr Grant Blank at the Oxford Internet Institute has examined what he calls "the myth of the echo chamber" Their findings are striking. In an interview, Dr Blank gave me a nuanced account of our digital behaviour. He told me, "one of the characteristics of the internet is that it has created a very large, complex media environment that includes not just social media but also print media, television, radio, and online media of various types, including online copies of print media - as well as specialised online media. "And if you look at that entire multi-media environment what you find is people are not in echo chambers, that people are not locked into groups of like-minded people all thinking the same thing and all talking the same way." I asked him specifically about that alleged link between social media and political polarisation. "You can find a relationship between social media and political polarisation if you look only at social media," he said. "If you look, in other words, at Twitter or you look only at Facebook. But in a complex, multi-media environment - which is the way people live now because of the internet - you don't find that, you find people consuming a lot of media. "You find people interacting with others who have varying points of view, changing their minds, encountering contradictory information, checking information that they find in social media. It turns out, if you look at media generally and you ask people what media do you trust, and then you rank the media in terms of trust, social media is at the very bottom of trustworthiness in terms of news." At this point he returned to a familiar argument: "In Britain it turns out the top [i.e. most trusted] is television. Probably due to the BBC but television, print media, online media of various kinds are all higher than social media in terms of trust." Academics in this field do, however, accept that there is an element of prejudice reinforcement on some social media channels. They just add that you're more likely to encounter different worldviews than in an era where you mainly read The Daily Mirror, say, or watched mainly CNN. Social media has an effect on the ignorance or knowledge of a citizenry that is, it turns out, nuanced and complicated. It certainly gives prominence and oxygen to fringe views that would once have struggled to get a hearing. It ostensibly democratises opinion, by equalising the format in which the US President and some conspiratorial nutter opine: both have 280 characters on Twitter. And for those who want to indulge niche interests, whether political or otherwise, it creates digital wormholes in which you can lose yourself. Partly because Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble, is an engaging speaker. Also, because there are times when we all feel like our social media feeds slant in one particular direction. And, ironically, because the idea of echo chambers and filter bubbles has bounced around social media, gaining traction there. Maybe some platforms, such as Twitter - which is the preferred receptacle for verbose journalists and politicians - are more prone to uniformity of outlook for some users. Which might explain the final reason echo chambers have become part of the prevailing orthodoxy: people like me have parroted the idea without surveying the academic literature. Journalism and academia: that's one divide that should be crossed more often. For more stories about Crossing Divides please go to bbc.co.uk/crossingdivides If you're interested in issues such as these, you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook; and subscribe to The Media Show podcast from Radio 4. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47447633 |
Why is the Dow Jones falling today? | CLOSE After 19 years covering the stock market for USA TODAY, Adam Shell gives his best advice on how to successfully invest in the market. USA TODAY NEW YORK Stocks are lower on Wall Street in afternoon trading as investors wait for more details on reports that the U.S. and China are moving closer to a deal to resolve their costly trade dispute. Stocks fell back in afternoon trading, erasing an early rally. The market is still solidly higher after a strong January and February helped push the Standard & Poor's 500 to its best yearly start since 1991. The worlds two largest economies have pulled back from an immediate escalation of their damaging trade war since they started negotiating last month. President Donald Trump postponed a deadline for raising tariffs on more Chinese goods, citing progress in a series of talks. Now, media reports say the nations could strike a deal this month. The main sticking point for the U.S. is Chinas technological ambitions. The U.S. has accused China of stealing technology and forcing companies to turn over technology in order to do business. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES) Sneaker toss: Why people are throwing their Vans shoes and sharing videos on social media Nursing care: Cost of nursing home care makes planning ahead crucial for financial security Tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by both nations have raised prices on a variety of goods. China could be close to a deal that would cut tariffs on U.S. farm, auto and other products and the U.S. is considering removing most sanctions on imports, according to media reports. Technology stocks, industrial and internet companies were among the biggest decliners in midday trading. Homebuilders, including PulteGroup and Lennar, rose following a report that showed 2018 was a record year for construction spending. AT&T fell after it said it will reorganize its WarnerMedia unit. KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 275 points, or 1.1 percent, to 26,759 as of 12:10 p.m. The S&P 500 index fell 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.8 percent. ZOMBIE COMPETITION: Childrens clothing retailer Childrens Place gave investors a dismal forecast after reporting a disappointing fourth quarter. The stock fell 10.1 percent. The main issue is competition from dying competitors holding liquidation sales. Rivals Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores have been in the process of shutting down, which means liquidation sales and better deals for shoppers. We have never experienced a total liquidation of a direct competitor of the size and proximity of Gymboree, Childrens Place CEO Jane Elfers said in a prepared statement. HOMEBUILDERS RISE: PulteGroup, Lennar and others rose after a government report said 2018 was a record year for construction spending. The Commerce Department reported that construction spending rose 4.1 percent to $1.3 trillion, marking an all-time high. Spending edged lower in December, though, reflecting slower growth within the wider housing sector. PulteGroup rose 3.2 percent and Lennar gained 1.4 percent. BIOTECH BUMP: Gene therapy developer Nightstar Therapeutics surged 66 percent after biotech giant Biogen offered to buy it for $877 million in cash. Nightstar is developing treatments for rare eye conditions. Biogen and other large drug developers have been trying to expand their portfolios to include gene therapy and treatments for rare conditions. Those treatments are expensive to develop, but command better prices if they make it to market. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/03/04/dow-jones-how-did-stock-market-do-today/3056519002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/03/04/dow-jones-how-did-stock-market-do-today/3056519002/ |
Are Business For Sale Multiples Going To Come Down? | Multiples are at all-time highs for business purchases and unlike the past, these multiple increases have trickled down to even the lowest sectors of the business for sale market. Prior to the last market downturn in 2008, when businesses were selling quickly, the lower-end of the businesses for sale market that were generating at least $150,000 of Adjusted Net Income, with an average of $500,000, were selling at 1.97 x multiple. Measuring the last 12 months stats through one of the databases I use in the M & A world (used mostly by business brokers and therefore at the lower end), the average multiple for the same criteria net has been 2.84 times. A colleague of mine suggested that these multiples are never coming down, which to me is a pretty broad statement and one would say borders on predicting the future. In the mid-market, I tend to find their statement a little more plausible. Credit is readily available, there is an enormous amount of unused committed capital in the private markets and the very nature of a PE funds obligation to deploy capital may sustain these multiples. I wish I could suggest an answer with absolute certainty, but that would be foolish. Besides, if I could, I may be better served to play the lottery. To the smaller business buyer, it would be easy to stay on the sidelines. After all, with increasing multiples and some so-called experts predicting a recession, it would be easy to take a wait and see approach. However, that is not prudent. Multiples may continue to rise. As long as you acquire a business that has historically fared okay to well in difficult times and you do not over leverage, you should be fine. The sustainability of the business is critical whether in good times or bad. Your focus has to be on acquiring a good business with solid fundamentals. Yes, it is possible you may overpay slightly, but contrast that to the lost opportunity costs of not getting into the game for a few years. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardparker/2019/03/04/are-business-for-sale-multiples-going-to-come-down/ |
What caused Franklin County North Carolina plane crash? | It will be about a year before the National Transportation Safety Board determines what caused the crash of a small plane in Franklin County on Friday that killed all three people aboard, according to an agency spokesman. The NTSB investigates about 2,000 accidents a year involving all types of transportation, including railroads and pipelines. Its not uncommon for the independent federal board to take a year or more to announce its findings. NTSB investigators are still gathering information from the plane and the crash scene in Franklin County and will release a preliminary report on the basic facts of the crash in 7 to 10 days, spokesman Terry Williams said Monday. That report will not speculate on the cause of the crash, Williams said. The single-engine Cessna C-182 crashed into a creek that leads into Clifton Pond about two miles south of Triangle North Executive Airport at about 7:20 p.m. Friday. The pilot, Brian Sjostedt, his girlfriend Jessica Kenny and her friend Allison Forsythe died in the crash. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The News & Observer They were headed to Hilton Head, S.C., where a friend said Sjostedt kept a boat. It was a flight Sjostedt had made many times, Zack T. Medford said. Sjostedt, who worked as a Raleigh police officer from 1998 to 2005, learned to fly at the Henderson-Oxford Airport in Granville County and passed his private pilots check in 2013, said Paul Hesse, his instructor. Hesse said Sjostedt was a good pilot and an experienced plane owner. | https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article227085024.html |
What Factors Will Weigh On Western Digital's Fiscal 2019 Earnings? | Western Digitals (NASDAQ: WDC) revenues have so far seen a low double-digit drop in fiscal 2019. The top line will likely fall in the high teens for the full fiscal, given the NAND headwinds. The entire industry is seeing normalization of NAND pricing, and this will likely result in lower earnings for Western Digital in fiscal 2019. In fact, we forecast the adjusted earnings to decline in the high 50s percent for the full fiscal. ~ which shows our earnings and share price projection for the company. You can adjust various drivers to see the impact on the companys revenues, earnings, and price estimate. Below we discuss our forecasts in detail. In addition, here is more Information Technology data. Expect Revenues To Decline In High Teens Western Digitals Data Center Solutions segment, which includes products such as enterprise-grade hard drives, fell as solid state drives that are primarily used in data centers, and for cloud-based storage, will likely see revenues decline in the high teens. The overall data center market is expected to witness a slowdown in the near term, which will likely have an impact on Western Digitals business as well. In fact, Gartner predicts the growth rate to slow from 11% in 2018 to 4% in 2019, and a decline of 4% in 2020. Client Devices segment includes revenue generated from global sales of hard drive units as well as solid state drives for desktops, laptops, smartphones, and consumer electronics. The segment revenues were down in high single-digits for the six month period ending December 2018, and the decline for the full fiscal will likely be in the low teens, in our view. This can primarily be attributed to the softness in the smartphone market. Smartphone shipments likely declined by over 3% in 2018, and are expected to see growth of under 3% in 2019, according to IDC. The overall PC shipments also declined in low single-digits in 2018, according to the research firm Gartner. However, 2019 could see PC TAM (total available market) to be flat (y-o-y). The Client Solutions segment, which refers to branded flash and removable storage products, such as USB flash drives, microSD cards, and other removable storage, will likely see the worst hit on sales, given the trends in NAND pricing. In fact, prices for NAND memory have seen significant declines over the last year, as major vendors largely completed the transition from planar NAND to 3D NAND, boosting supply. In addition, the foreign tariffs imposed on China have resulted in weaker demand, amid an overall slower growth in the Chinese economy. Chinas growth is projected to decelerate from an estimated 6.6% in 2018 to 6.2% in 2019. This will have an impact on the overall sales of Western Digital. Looking at margins, the company expects margin pressure to remain primarily on the flash products for the calendar year 2019. We forecast the adjusted EBITDA to be $3.8 billion, reflecting a decline in EBITDA margins of a littler under 300 basis points. We expect the earnings to be $6.10 on an adjusted basis in fiscal 2019, reflecting a decline of over 50% to the prior fiscal earnings. Our price estimate of $53 for Western Digital is based of a 9x forward price to earnings multiple. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/04/what-factors-will-weigh-on-western-digitals-fiscal-2019-earnings/ |
Is Paris Still For Lovers? | Paris was like a lover from my past. I lived there for four years right after graduating from college. After I moved back to New York, I returned to Paris at least once a year. Then the visits turned into every other year, then every two years, and now it had been ten years since I'd returned to the City of Love. I had sweet memories, but Paris was no longer in my heart -- until a few months ago when my boyfriend suggested we go there. I suddenly felt desperate to see the sun glittering on the ancient buildings, the barges floating down the Seine. I was hungry for those freshly baked baguettes the French carried home for lunch and longed to fish escargots out of their little shells while inhaling the heady aroma of garlic butter. The more I remembered about how Paris seduced me in the first place, the more I began lusting for the most romantic city in the world. That summer after graduation when I decided to stay in Paris, I sold my return ticket back to New York so I could rent a cheap room on the Isle de la Cite. I found work right away because it was August, and all the French were on vacation in the south of France; they needed me. My job was working in a Parisian film company right off the Champs Elysee, subtitling foreign films into English. I loved everything about the City of Light, especially the stylish Parisian women who wore higher heels than I had ever seen, had perfect make-up and hair, and walked confidently, swinging their arms at their side. They were so graceful and sophisticated that I longed to be French. I learned the language, changed my hairstyle, bought white leather boots and a grey Courreges skirt and sweater with white piping. I ate steak au poivre at la Coupole and switched to French cigarettes, Gitanes sans filtre. I spent hours walking the city with my Michelin guidebook, studying all the 3-star cultural attractions that were listed, trying to follow the suggested routes. I got lost constantly, but I felt I had to see everything listed, as though I were a student being forced to go through a textbook, chapter by chapter. Most of my free time was spent with my face buried in the guidebook or street map. I never gave myself a chance to just enjoy the scenery from a park bench or cafe chair. And I was always alone (at least in the beginning). Couples kissed on bridges and at the edge of the Seine. They held hands walking through the plane trees of the Tuileries and the Jardins de Luxembourg. I watched, wishing I had someone who would lock my arm through his, take my face in his hands and kiss me tenderly. Now I was about to return to this city of love with a man I knew would kiss me as we walked down the Seine. I was excited to show him my Paris -- but not with a map and guidebook the way I had seen it. We would wander through the city, turning into streets with no direction in mind, no goal. Perhaps we'd visit the Louvre and the Muse Rodin, but mainly we'd stay outside and walk all day and, if we were tired, sit in the shade of the Place des Vosges or any of the small gardens one finds every few blocks. We'd stroll in the shadow of sand-colored buildings which hadnt changed since the 16th century, peek into cobblestone courtyards with huge arched windows and doors. We'd hug the narrow sidewalks where two people can barely walk side by side and sit at outdoor cafes sipping Cafe grand creme . After our transatlantic night flight, we woke up at Charles de Gaulle Airport and held hands in the taxi on our way into Paris. I expected to see the familiar buildings with grey slate roofs and wrought-iron balconied windows, but instead I saw a complex of huge skyscrapers as tall as any in New York. Our Cambodian taxi driver explained that this was a new neighborhood, mainly for Chinese and Japanese and full of great Chinese restaurants. He suggested we eat there. We checked into a cozy hotel two blocks from the Seine, our room overlooking a street of neatly laid-out buildings with ornate moldings, huge windows, and small balconies. This was the Paris I remembered. The bathroom had fluffy bathrobes, terry slippers, even a hair dryer, but shockingly, there was no bidet! When I lived in Paris, a bidet was as natural to the French as brushing their teeth. Back then, even my $3.00-a-night room had one. Id fill it with run cold water and leave my wine chilling. My boyfriend and I strolled down the block and sat under a shade umbrella at a sidewalk cafe. There were many French people sipping espresso, but they were texting or talking on cell phones instead of gazing into one another's eyes. That was something new. The waiter handed us a menu. I expected to order a croissant or pain au chocolat because after all, thats what the French ate for breakfast, but now there was a choice of eggs, bacon and sausage. Mon dieu! We wandered down the Left Bank on Rue de la Harpe, Rue de Seine, and Rue St. Andre des Arts. We walked across a bridge and noticed that Paris had now become a love-locked city, with small padlocks and couples names scratched on them locked into bridge railings. We thought about buying a small padlock, but it seemed cheesy. From time to time, we'd enter a store to examine an antique map or objet d'art, but mainly we looked at the people. Everywhere I looked were American women in sneakers and jeans or baggy cargo pants; but as they passed, they'd be speaking perfect French. They weren't Americans, they were Parisians! They didn't even walk like French women. It looked as though they were trying to be American! We strolled down Boulevard Saint Germain, and I was horrified to see a McDonalds with a large French crowd spilling outside the door. Right next to it was a GAP. We strolled through the courtyard of the Louvre, past the I.M. Pei glass pyramid, across the Place de la Concorde to the Tuileries Gardens. "I don't get it," my boyfriend said. "No one's holding hands. No one's kissing! This isn't the way Paris is supposed to be." I had to agree. Although the city was every bit as beautiful as I remembered it -- the gardens were as lush, the streets were still spotless, and the blaring of the police sirens was still distinctively French -- it was not the same city. The Parisians had morphed into Americans In a packed restaurant that night on the Isle St. Louis we sat next to an older French couple and got into a conversation with them about how much Paris had changed. They explained that Parisians watch every American TV show and movie -- dubbed into French, of course. So, the wife said, Parisians now want everything American, including the latest clothing styles. I thought about the four years I had spent in Paris when the French wanted nothing to do with American culture and nor did I. Back then, I became a Francophile, eating croissants for breakfast and foie gras for lunch, dressing in the latest French fashions, imitating the Parisian walk. I realized that if I were moving to Paris now, there'd be little to imitate that was truly French. And I probably wouldnt have felt so left out being alone, because there was so little hand-holding or public affection taking place. I didn't get the feeling that couples were as ready to steam up the windows of any convenient hotel room based on a passionate look or a knowing smile. Maybe that was something I saw in French movies a long time ago. But I still felt the unmistakable embrace of the world's most romantic city. After all, my lover wasn't talking on a cell phone at our cafe table. And we kissed on every bridge we crossed. # | https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiegoldsmith/2019/03/04/is-paris-still-for-lovers/ |
How Is Digital Transformation Different From Change Management? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Andy Noronha, Director of Strategy & Thought Leadership at Cisco, on Quora: Companies have historically pursued linear approaches to change management. There is no shortage of traditional methods - by some estimates there are more than 80,000 book titles on Amazon falling under the topic of change management. These traditional change management methods can be successful for certain types of organizational changes. Examples include incremental changes across the organization or significant changes within a specific department or process. Often traditional change management methodologies follow a step-by-step approach that has a beginning and an end. However, the nature of digital business transformation is different because it combines high levels of scale, interdependence, and dynamism with the need to make fundamental changes to the entire organization in the service of a new strategic direction. Precisely because digital business transformation involves making big changes across multiple aspects of the business, conventional change management is ill-suited to fostering major changes in highly entangled organizations. This is why we believe that transformation leaders must orchestrate transformation. The DBT Centers definition of orchestrate is to mobilize and enable so as to achieve a desired effect. Orchestration involves mobilizing and enabling different resources in an organization using the power of networks to achieve transformation goals. This is a very different approach than traditional, linear change management efforts. You can learn more in our book Orchestrating Transformation, and by visiting Orchestrating Transformation. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/03/04/how-is-digital-transformation-different-from-change-management/ |
Are These 10 Online M.B.A.s Best In The World? | For the second consecutive year, Britains Warwick Business School has topped the Financial Times highly limited ranking of the best online M.B.A. programs. The 2019 list, ranking a mere ten schools in the world, half as many as last year, is the sixth time that the British newspaper has cranked out a list of top online M.B.A. programs. Only 22 schools cooperated with the Financial Times, a stark contrast to U.S. News online MBA ranking which rates 285 programs and profiles 302 online options in the U.S. alone. In the 2019 U.S. News ranking, published in January, Indiana Universitys Kelley School of Business tied with the University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler Business School for first place. Poets&Quants online MBA ranking puts numerical ranks on 35 different programs, with this years winner being the University of Southern Californias Marshall School of Business. The new FT ranking includes five U.S. programs, three of which are in the top five. Spains IE Business School, which had come in first three years ago, placed second t, followed by No. 3 University of Massachusetts at Amherst, No. 4 Indiana Universitys Kelley School of Business, and No. 5 the University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler Business School. This is the first time UNC, who MBA@UNC boasts one of the largest online MBA enrollments in the world, made the FT ranking. Given the limited size of the ranking, there were few significant year-over-year changes. In fact, the top four schools all maintained their 2018 ranks. Northeastern University saw its online M.B.A. offering rise four places to rank eighth from 12th last year, while the University of Bradfords School of Management also improved by four spots to rank tenth from 14th in 2018. To rank online M.B.A. programs, the FT uses 18 different metrics culled from both school and alumni surveys. The British newspaper puts the most weight (30%) on compensation, with 20% slotted to average alumni salary three years after graduation and 10% on the percentage increase in alumni salary three years after graduation. Warwicks alums reported the highest average pay at $214,141, largely a function of the fact that its online students are older and have more work experience, while the alumni of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management reported the highest percentage increase at 39%, The Financial Times said that Warwick maintained its number one ranking partly on the strength of its faculty, but also its value for money and its graduates career progression. Warwick held onto its lead despite the fact that one in ten students in its online M.B.A. program fails to graduate within five years. That compares with a 100% five-year graduation rate at the other four top five programs. AVERAGE SALARY INCREASE WAS 31.1% WITHIN THREE YEARS OF GRADUATION Oddly, the FT collects this information but does not weight it in the online ranking. As a result, one of its top 10 programs, the No. 9 ranked Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales, posts a mediocre graduation rate of just 72.3% in five years, a sign of a high dropout rate. Yet, the FT does include weighted metrics that are far less important and valuable, including international mobility which gives points to programs that have more alums who work in countries that differ from their citizenship. The newspaper said that overall average salaries for online M.B.A. alumni were $148,742, compared with an average of $189,975 for the top 10 full-time M.B.A.s on its latest global M.B.A. ranking. The big difference between online and full-time study is the salary increase, according to the Financial Times. The average rise across the online courses is 32.1%, compared with 119.5% for the top 10 full-time MBAs in the 2019 global ranking. This is due to student demographics. Full-time MBA students tend to be in their late 20s and at a point in their career where they enjoy rapid promotion. There is much more scope for them to increase their earnings after their MBA. Online MBA students, on the other hand, are more likely to be in their mid-30s and to switch careers after graduating. This means their salary is more likely to plateau or even decrease after the course. Some of the more noteworthy metrics used by the FT include online interaction defined as how the alumni rate the interaction between students, teamwork and the availability of faculty. Some 10% of the ranking is based on this measure. The University of Floridas Warrington School came out first in online interaction, followed by IE Business School, Indiana Kelley, UNC, and Massachusetts. On career services, based on alumni ratings of the effectiveness of the schools careers service in terms of career counseling, personal development, networking events and recruitment, no school did better than Northeastern Universitys DAmore-McKim School of Business. Right behind Northeastern were Indiana Kelley, Warwick, UNC, and Durham University Business School. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandquants/2019/03/04/are-these-ten-online-mbas-best-in-the-world/ |
Can Vanderbilt football replace cornerback Joejuan Williams with Dontye Carriere-Williams, others? | Watching former Vanderbilt cornerback Joejuan Williams at the NFL combine mustve been bittersweet for new Vanderbilt cornerback Dontye Carriere-Williams. Carriere-Williams, a former starter at Wisconsin, transferred from Independence (Kansas) Community College to Vanderbilt, where he enrolled in January. He committed to the Commodores on Dec. 18, hoping to play in the secondary with Williams. But 11 days later, Williams declared for the NFL draft. Now in spring practice, Carriere-Williams is trying to be Williams replacement rather than his teammate. (Developing for an NFL career) definitely played a role (in choosing Vanderbilt), Carriere-Williams said. Seeing Joejuan Williams play here three years and then go on to the next level and train for the combine, thats definitely a motivation. I wanted to play with him, but hes got to do whats best for his family. Williams, a former Father Ryan standout, worked out at the combine Monday. He hopes to capitalize on his rangy 6-foot-3 frame and All-SEC junior season for an early-round pick in the NFL draft, which will be held in his hometown Nashville from April 25-27. Carriere-Williams was in Wisconsins cornerback rotation as a freshman in 2017, starting five games and playing all 14. He was ranked No. 4 among junior-college cornerbacks by 247Sports in this recruiting class. Buy Photo Vanderbilt cornerback Dontye Carriere-Williams runs a drill during the teams first spring practice on Wednesday. (Photo: Shelley Mays / Tennessean) Carriere-Williams, a 5-11, 185-pounder, enters his second week of spring practice hoping to make an impression on his new coaches in facing an experienced group of receivers. The top four pass-catchers, besides running backs, return this season, led by All-SEC performers Kalija Lipscomb and Jared Pinkney. I consider myself a very physical, aggressive press corner, Carriere-Williams said. I can do it all, but my bread-and-butter is press. (The SEC) is the best league, hands down. I wanted to compete with the best, so Im here. Illinois transfer joining mix in secondary Illinois graduate transfer Cameron Watkins, a former Pearl-Cohn standout, will enroll at Vanderbilt this summer and compete at cornerback in preseason camp. That will give the Commodores two cornerbacks with experience at Power 5 schools. Its enough for coach Derek Mason to believe his secondary will improve this season despite losing starting cornerbacks Williams (NFL draft) and Donovan Sheffield (graduation), starting safety LaDarius Wiley (graduation) and safety Zaire Jones (transfer). I think were going to be a better secondary all the way around, Mason said. (In Carriere-Williams), you are talking about a guy that was a starter at Wisconsin. That dude can play. Youve got some good prospects to be able to replace Joejuan Williams and make sure you can line up with some guys who have played football, maybe not the SEC, but at Wisconsin and Illinois. I think weve got guys here already and coming (later) to solidify the secondary. Tae Daley and Frank Coppet, who combined for 14 starts last season, return as quality options at safety. Randall Haynie and Allan George were backup cornerbacks as redshirt freshmen last season. DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get Vanderbilt football news from The Tennessean on your mobile device SPRING FOOTBALL: Vanderbilt quarterback competition to go to preseason camp NFL DRAFT: Vanderbilt's Joejuan Williams swaps Skittles for cauliflower before NFL Combine Reach Adam Sparks at [email protected] and on Twitter @AdamSparks. | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/vanderbilt/2019/03/04/vanderbilt-football-joejuan-williams-dontye-carriere-williams/3049617002/ |
Will the Baseball Caps on Major League Heads Be Union Made? | This week we speak to Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle and activist Eireann Dolan about their push to keep the MLBs caps union made after cap maker New Era announced a factory relocation from Derby, New York, to a non-union shop in Florida. We also talk about the MLB players association and the shift in perception with respect to labor. Ad Policy Weve also got Choice Words about Colin Kaepernicks settlement with the NFL, and Just Stand Up and Just Sit Down awards and more to some basketball players at Ole Miss and Patriots owner and coverage of the Robert Kraft news in recent days. All that and more! Eireann Dolan Twitter: @EireannDolan Sean Doolittle Twitter: @whatwouldDOOdo This MLB power couple is fighting to save 200 union jobs Zirin Colin Kaepernick Settles His Collusion Case With the NFL | https://www.thenation.com/article/baseball-caps-new-era-podcast/ |
Will the New York State Democratic Party Oppose Fusion Voting? | Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and well send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and well send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. In New York, the plot thickens. And theres a useful lesson here for American progressivesboth elected officials and grassroots leaders alikeon what to expect as they build power and organization. Ad Policy The background: The New York State Democratic Party is on the verge of passing a resolution to ban fusion voting. A vote is scheduled for Monday, unless Governor Cuomo decides otherwise. The reasons are described in this earlier column. But the bottom line is this. Governor Cuomo allowed the New York State Senate to be controlled for the last six years by an unholy alliance between Republicans and rogue Democrats. Progressive-minded Democrats won big in November, and the Senate is now under the leadership of Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers. She is the first woman to lead a chamber in New York. And together with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, both legislative chambers, for the first time in state history, are led by African Americans. Katrina vanden Heuvel So the governor no longer controls what legislation comes to his desk. He is in a rage that the legislature wanted to be consulted on the Amazon deal that he and Mayor de Blasio (mistakenly) negotiated in secret. And hes out to embarrass the State Senate and make them understand that this kind of independence will not be tolerated. By forcing the Senate to show disdain for the forces, epitomized by the Working Families Party, that broke the back of the rogue Democrats. If this seems ridiculous, thats because it is. But it puts the Senate and Stewart-Cousins in a bind. A substantial majority of Democrats oppose such a ban, but the governor has immense structural power over the legislature that he is willing to misuse. Stewart-Cousins should insist that any change to the voting laws be taken up in regular legislative order. The governor has immense structural power in the budget process, and it wont be easy for her to stand strong against him. But she must do so. The forces of decency won big in Novembers elections, and legislative leaders always have the difficult task of balancing the need to simultaneously pass legislation, keep the conference united, respond to the activists, and mind the governor. Its not simple. But the legislature is a co-equal branch, just as Speaker Pelosi is showing in Washington, and this is one case in which Leader Stewart-Cousins should just say no to any attempt to limit democracy in New York. | https://www.thenation.com/article/new-york-state-democratic-party-fusion-voting-andrew-cuomo/ |
Why Do So Many People Think Management Doesn't Require Training? | We live in a management age where the prevailing philosophy is "leaner is better" and perceived "extras" like training and development are often jettisoned or reduced. According to HR Professionals Magazine, for example, U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that companies with under 100 employees on average provide less than one hour (0.8 hour, or 48 minutes) of manager training per six-month period. I've never completely understood why senior management, who's presumably come up through the management ranks and knows something about the challenges of the biz, can be so willing to save a few dollars by eliminating training. Successful management requires a complex mix of both hard and soft skills, plus a combination of firmness and diplomacy. National stats consistently show employee engagement rates around the 30% level. Which means of course that close to 70% of employees are not engaged... not emotionally committed to their organizations... hardly a ringing endorsement of overall managerial effectiveness. Yet despite such macro-level data, we tend to think management is something we're just magically and automatically ready for when we're promoted or hired into the role. Broad skill set I can't speak for everyone, but I know I sure wasn't. Ready, that is. When I was first promoted into management. Hadn't the slightest idea where to start. So I blundered my way through it. As I began to talk to people about management, and read books on the subject, and enrolled in an at-night MBA program, the faint contours of the landscape gradually began to come into focus. But it took a while. Probably close to five years until I was managing more by intent and less by instinct. I mentioned above that successful management requires a mix of skills. A broad skill set. Encompassing, say, skills that motivate and skills that control. I've written before that good managers can be, alternately, depending on what's needed in given situations, a coach, a policeman, a psychologist or a diplomat. None of which are too similar. Anyway, beats me why anyone would think all these diverse skills are just innate. I know we worship at the management altar of "lean," but there are short-term gains that may not be to one's long-term benefit if we're constantly burning through staff and/or disengaging our employee population. I'll be back tomorrow in this same space with an "elevator speech" for new managers. If I had just two things to tell them and a couple minutes to do it, this is where I'd focus... | https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2019/03/04/why-do-so-many-people-think-management-doesnt-require-training/ |
Did the North Korea summit help or hurt the United States? | The much-touted second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ended in both leaders unceremoniously walking away from the negotiation table. While such summits typically take place only after negotiations are concluded, both leaders came to Vietnam to talk without plans in place. Trump, disapproving of the offer from Kim, walked out of the meetings. Yet, many worry the mere act of meeting with Kim legitimized him on the global stage. The Washington Post editorial board was scathing in its review of the summit, saying it was not just a failure in terms of negotiations, it also had the unintended effect of softening Kim Jong-Un's public persona. Early in the summit, Trump dismissed concerns that Kim was involved in the brutal treatment and death of American citizen Otto Warmbier. Trump also sat across from Kim as an equal, an image many felt was detrimental to international relations. The failure of President Trumps summit with Kim Jong Un revealed the fundamental weakness of Mr. Trumps strategy for addressing the growing nuclear threat from North Korea. The president supposed that his personal and improvisational diplomacy, featuring unwarranted and unseemly flattery of a murderous tyrant, would make possible the substantive steps toward disarmament that the regime has resisted for decades. Instead, he was presented by Mr. Kim with a patently unacceptable offer that left him no choice but to walk away. Opinion | The Hanoi summit failure exposes Trumps weak diplomacy Some, including columnist Henry Olsen, believed the summit actually showcased Trumps strength. Hoping to get a deal for total denuclearization, Trump was met with an offer from North Korea to shut down one of its nuclear facilities in exchange for the suspension of all sanctions on the country. The deal included no promises to destroy the countys current stockpile of weapons or shutdown any of its other facilities. Rejecting it out of hand shows that Trump was serious in this instance. Sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times, the president said at a news conference. The fact that Trump could do that will send a clear message to Kim and other governments he is negotiating with that he wont let ego get in the way of getting a good deal for the United States. This in turn will bolster, not diminish, his popular standing at home. His backers will see their judgment vindicated: Trump took a risk, didnt get what he needed and was shrewd enough to call off the meeting. Those who arent invested in their hatred for him might begin to see him in a different light. After all, they had just been told incessantly that Trump couldnt do what he just did. Perhaps they will begin to see him as what he has always said he was: a negotiator who knows how to wield carrots and sticks, flattery and straight talk, as needed to get a deal done. Opinion | No, the North Korea summit was not a loss for Trump Former U.N ambassador and current national security advisor John Bolton made the rounds to Sunday morning talk shows defending the presidents actions in Vietnam. AMBASSADOR BOLTON: Well I don't consider the summit a failure. I consider it a success defined as the president protecting and advancing American national interest. There was extensive preparation for this meeting. Extensive discussions between the president and Kim Jong Un and- and the issue really was whether North Korea was prepared to accept what the president called "the big deal," which is denuclearize entirely under a definition the president handed to Kim Jong Un and have the potential for an enormous economic future or try and do something less than that which was unacceptable to us. So the president held firm to his view. He deepened his relationship with Kim Jong Un. I don't view it as a failure at all when American national interests are protected. When pressed by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on whether he agreed with the presidents actions, Bolton repeated that with the presidents opinion that the summit was not a failure. Bolton said, Im the national security advisor. Im not the national security decision maker. Transcript: National security adviser John Bolton on Face the Nation, March 3, 2019 Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff appeared on Face the Nation later in the program and directly contradicted Boltons claims. Schiff felt strongly the president had given up far more than he had gotten during the summit and placed the United States in an unnecessarily precarious situation. REP. SCHIFF: Well I was struck by one thing in particular and that is when you asked him whether the president had given up anything by going to this summit and walking away empty handed and his answer was that the president didn't believe so. And you asked him, well do you believe so and he said well what the president believes is all that matters. He couldn't even agree with his own president but course- of course the president did give up a great deal by going to that summit, by enhancing Kim Jong Un's prestige on the world stage, by giving up those military exercises in the last summit and getting nothing for it. And this is, I think, the result of a president who is not prepared for these kind of negotiations, a staff that is not well-prepared, and that is essentially flying by the seat of its pants and it has real world consequences. Those reactors continue to spin on, as you point out, producing more material that can threaten us and our allies. And I think that this was a spectacular failure but made all- all the worse by the president's obsequious comments when it came to the murder of an American citizen, Otto Warmbier. Transcript: Rep. Adam Schiff on Face the Nation, March 3, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/03/did-the-north-korea-summit-help-or-hurt-the-united-states.html |
Who is Jane Philpott, the Trudeau cabinet minister whose sudden resignation has rocked Ottawa? | OTTAWAJustin Trudeau just lost one of his key cabinet ministers. That was the general reaction Monday when Jane Philpott, who was named Treasury Board president in Trudeaus Liberal government just weeks ago, resigned from her post. It was the latest stunner in the cascading crisis over alleged political interference and pressure on the former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to halt a criminal prosecution against the Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. Liberal MP Jane Philpott leaves a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 27, 2019. Treasury Board president Philpott resigned Monday from the federal cabinet, saying she's lost confidence in the way the Trudeau government has dealt with the SNC-Lavalin affair. ( Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS ) But it is Philpotts stature as a central figure in Trudeaus cabinet who is generally well-regarded deepens the impact of her sudden departure, said political scientist David Moscrop. Indeed, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith told the Star on Monday: its hard to think of someone in politics that I have greater respect for than Jane Philpott. Philpott is an honest woman and shes known to be an honest woman, Moscrop said. I havent met a Liberal or talked to a Liberal who raised her name and didnt respect her. Article Continued Below Its not like losing Domi. Its like losing Gilmour. Philpott came to politics following a career as a doctor, including nine years working in Niger, where her 2-year-old daughter died from meningitis on what she has called the worst day of my life. In 2004, she founded the charity Give a Day to World AIDS, which has raised millions of dollars. When she decided to join Trudeaus push for government in 2015, she resigned from her post as chief of the department of medicine at the Markham Stouffville Hospital. As a rookie politician and newly-elected MP for the GTA riding of MarkhamStouffville, Philpott was appointed Trudeaus health minister. It was a key job in the new government, with partial responsibility for sensitive issues like drafting legislation for assisted dying and the legalization of marijuana. In August 2017, Philpott took on a new role as Indigenous services minister, a novel department that was created to help deliver health and social services to First Nations, Mtis and Inuit communities across Canada. Philpott was tasked with overseeing the transfer of responsibilities to the new department from Health Canada and the Indigenous Affair. She had to stickhandle key priorities for the government in its self-avowed push for reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and settler society, such as the ongoing effort to ensure there is safe drinking water on all First Nations reserves. And finally, last month, Philpott was named president of the Treasury Board. But now, Philpotts resignation leaves another hole in cabinet and, based on the reaction from opposition parties Monday night. It will likely add fuel to the crisis that has enveloped the Trudeau government, Moscrop said. Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/03/04/who-is-jane-philpott-the-trudeau-cabinet-minister-whose-sudden-resignation-has-rocked-ottawa.html |
Is Scotland's oil industry still a good career option? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Aberdeen benefited greatly from the oil boom Oil made austere Aberdeen rich and the frigid North Sea port could not hide its wealth forever. At first, straight out of Texas, the bars were filled with big hats, high heels and flash wheels. Young men began to drive Porsches, their bosses bought Aston Martins. The granite sparkled in the sunshine. Sarah Browell-Hook, who grew up in the booming city says she took it all for granted. "Everybody worked in the oil industry," she says. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The women working in the oil industry. Such success poured fuel onto the constitutional debate, especially the publication of secret government advice arguing that oil could bankroll an independent Scotland. But nothing lasts forever. The average annual price of Brent crude - the North Sea benchmark - peaked in 2012 at $112 per barrel. By 2014, the year of Scotland's independence referendum, it had fallen to $99 per barrel. The price then slumped to $52 in 2015 and $44 in 2016, a shock which led to mass redundancies in the North Sea - some 20,000 jobs lost between 2017 and 2018 alone - and a collapse in tax receipts for the UK Treasury. "Everybody knew somebody who'd been made redundant and been affected," said Ms Browell-Hook, a 36-year-old mother-of-two who had never worked in the industry herself. The slump prompted her to make a decision, to start a second career in decommissioning, dismantling the rigs and pipelines from which Aberdeen prospered. Image caption Decommissioning involves dismantling the rigs and pipelines from which Aberdeen prospered "The oil boom and what it brought to my family was that my dad provided for his family comfortably and I guess the end of that journey, I'm hoping that the decommissioning side of things can help me provide for my family and for my children," she says. The collapse in the oil price was a blow to the credibility of the Scottish government which, four months before the 2014 referendum, had predicted tax receipts in 2016/17 from oil and gas would be between 2.9bn and 7.8bn. Actual tax receipts for 2016/17, which was to have been the first year of independence following a yes vote, amounted to just 36m having fallen well below zero in 2015/16. Opponents of independence, who had prevailed in the referendum by 55% to 45%, said such dismal figures proved that a sovereign Scotland would have started life in crisis. Independence campaign That was despite repeated assertions during the referendum campaign that oil was not the basis for independence - "it will be a bonus" insisted then First Minister Alex Salmond - but that position was later undermined by former Scottish National Party MSP Andrew Wilson when he chaired an SNP commission investigating the economics of independence. "We did have oil baked into the numbers and it was indeed a basis," Mr Wilson told the BBC, as he recommended that any future prospectus for independence should not include the talismanic black gold. In Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen, the Spider's Web is bustling. The pub sits next door to the city's heliport and is known as a waiting room for offshore workers. Image caption In the Spider's Web pub views among oil workers about their future are mixed It's nearly lunchtime and the place is busy with oilmen - they are all men - savouring their first beer after two or three weeks on the rigs. There is a lot of talk of wives and girlfriends, of the balance between the reward of another pint and the risk of missing the train home. Here views about the sustainability of the industry are mixed. One oil worker, who did not want to be identified, fretted about climate change and the need, as he saw it, to diversify away from fossil fuels for the good of the planet. And yet there is still temptation below the waves. New fields A study published in October suggested there could be 17 billion barrels of oil (or the equivalent gas) still to be extracted by 2050, in addition to more than 43 billion barrels recovered since the 1970s. Oil from BP's Clair Ridge development, west of Shetland, began to flow at the end of last year and the field is expected to remain productive for the next four decades while the energy firm Total recently announced a major gas discovery in the same region. One drinker, Russell Edwards, 51, says for some people in the pub, decommissioning is a dirty word. "They are finding more fields," he says. "Exploration is becoming more sophisticated." He hopes the industry will see him to retirement but as for someone starting out now, "who knows?" Image caption Lauren Grant says she's "a local girl trying to get into our local industry" Confidence is to be found, as so often, behind the bar where Lauren Grant, 23, is pulling pints. She has worked at the Spider's Web for five years but now she is heading offshore herself, embarking on a career in oil exploration. "I think there's a good bit more time in the North Sea," says Ms Grant. "I'm a local girl trying to get into our local industry." After growing up in Dyce, watching the helicopters fussing to-and-fro, and studying geology at Aberdeen University, she is now about to take the plunge. "Things are definitely on the up," she says. "Absolutely," she says, "can't wait." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47442696 |
How will Jason Demers fit back into the Coyotes' lineup? | Its been asked for the past six months because it feels as though as soon as one player gets healthy another two or three fall to injury. Coyotes defenseman Jason Demers is the latest player looking to return to the lineup. After injuring his knee back in November, Demers is a game-time decision for Tuesdays game against the Anaheim Ducks, according to head coach Rick Tocchet. Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal (11) and Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jason Demers vie for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri) (Photo: Rick Scuteri, AP) Ill talk to J.D. (Demers) and well come up with a game plan, Tocchet said after Mondays practice at Gila River Arena. We actually have couple guys banged up on (defense), but for the most part guys are healthy. Were going to have to manage it. I dont want to see guys sit out for long times. Its just a numbers game and thats the reality of it when you have healthy people. Id rather have healthy people than injured people. The two banged-up Coyotes defensemen are captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jordan Oesterle, although there is no indication that either will be forced to miss any time. Ekman-Larsson has been skating at less than 100 percent for a while and received a maintenance day on Monday. Oesterle was sore and had to leave practice early, Tocchet said. If Demers, Ekman-Larsson and Oesterle are all cleared to play on Tuesday, the Coyotes will have eight bodies for six spots and deciding the two odd men out is no easy task. Kevin Connauton (seven points in 44 games) is the first name that comes to mind since he has been used as a healthy scratch at times this season and even more recently of late, although he did return to the lineup on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings. However, Ilya Lyubushkin (four points in 38 games) might draw the short straw since he is the only candidate who is waivers-exempt (unless you count Jakob Chychrun), a fact that could allow the Coyotes to send Lyubushkin down to their AHL affiliate in Tucson without needing to move him through league waivers first. But the third and most likely scenario is that the Coyotes will carry eight defensemen for the time being, reserving the right to waive Connauton and/or reassign Lyubushkin if they need to do so. The guess here is that, if all eight are healthy, Connauton and Lyubushkin would be most likely to sit. From my experience over the years and especially during stretch drives, Tocchet said, you need all hands on deck. Guys can go down pretty quick and weve seen that all year. The last six weeks the injuries come more and more so you need healthy bodies. I see us staying with eight defensemen. Get crucial breaking sports news alerts to your inbox. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters But I could see a guy like Boosh (Lyubushkin), if he has to play a game on the weekend he can do down (to Tucson). We havent really discussed that as an organization but these are conversations well address as we go on. As far as Demers is concerned, it remains to be seen just how the Coyotes will integrate him back into the lineup. Demers found success playing on the clubs top pair with Ekman-Larsson, but it doesnt sound like the two will be reunited at least not right away. Tocchet said he and defensive coach Scott Allen have liked the pairing of Ekman-Larsson and Niklas Hjalmarsson and that they will likely stick with that top unit for the time being. Unfortunately, due to Ekman-Larssons absence from practice, there wasnt much to gleam from the defensive pairings on Monday. Demers was paired with Oesterle, Hjalmarsson was paired with Connauton and Chychrun was with Alex Goligoski. Lyubushkin was the extra. To me, were a game-to-game team and Hammer (Hjalmarsson) and O (Ekman-Larsson) have done a nice job together, Tocchet said. I dont see us breaking that up. Maybe every once in a while in the offensive zone, Scott Allen has the luxury to mix and match some guys. But right now we like where were at with the pairs. A for effort Coyotes center Brad Richardson, who wore an A on his sweater on Saturday, will continue to serve as an assistant captain in the absence of Derek Stepan, who suffered a knee injury in Thursdays game against the Vancouver Canucks. Tocchet confirmed on Monday that Richardson, who wore the A on a rotating basis last season, will be an assistant captain as long as Stepan is out. Richardson leads the Coyotes with 16 goals this season. Up next Ducks at Coyotes, Tuesday, 7 p.m., Gila River Arena, FSAZ/KMVP-FM (98.7). The Coyotes (32-28-5) aim for their first eight-game win streak in more than eight years when they host the Anaheim Ducks (25-32-9) on Tuesday at Gila River Arena. Check out the Shot Clock! | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2019/03/04/arizona-coyotes-how-does-healthy-jason-demers-fit-into-lineup/3061656002/ |
Where do Sinema and McSally stand on emergency declaration rollback? | The Republican-controlled Senate is poised to pass a resolution to block President Donald Trumps declaration of a national emergency intended to bypass Congress to unilaterally fund the border wall he is demanding. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to set a vote for the measure by March 15, when the next recess begins. Four Republican senators have said they will cross party lines to vote for the resolution, which is intended to rebuke Trumps use of emergency powers. McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday he expects the House-passed resolution to clear the Senate. Trump is expected to veto it. Each of Arizonas U.S. senators has said they do not want military construction projects planned for the state to be affected by the declaration. The Pentagon has not released a list of projects that could be affected by the emergency. The secretary of Defense will be providing to Congress a list of projects that will be impacted. However, we do not have one at this time, said Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Defense Department spokesman. Davis said it is too early to say whether two construction projects at Luke Air Force Base that are crucial to the full expansion of the bases F-35 program could be jeopardized. Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton, of Phoenix, has said Trumps declaration could imperil $40 million in planned construction projects at Luke, including a new aircraft maintenance facility. Subscribe to azcentral.com. Davis could not say when the Defense Department would release its list of affected projects. Arizonas Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has not explicitly said how she would vote on the resolution, but her recent comments to The Arizona Republic suggests she will vote to disapprove Trump's declaration. Sinema said she is concerned that funds from existing Arizona projects could be redirected for the wall. It is Congress job to appropriate funding for border security, and if the president feels and I agree, rightfully so that Congress hasnt done enough he should request that we do more, Sinema said. And it is our job to take that request seriously and take action. Republican Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona wrote on Twitter last week that she was seeking assurances from Vice President Mike Pence that the border wall money would not come at the expense of military construction projects. We can & must secure our border while ensuring our armed forces have the resources and facilities they need, McSally wrote on Twitter. NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters On Monday, McSally wrote to acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and said that the U.S. could not "forsake one duty for another" by elevating border security over military construction. McSally urged that funding for any military construction projects in Arizona not be delayed because they support critical defense missions. "In response to this border crisis, we need physical barriers where appropriate and other border security investments," McSally wrote. However, we cannot do that at the expense of critical MILCON (military construction) projects in Arizona ... Without funding for these projects on schedule and on budget, we risk disruption or degradation of several important military missions." Have news about Arizona's U.S. Reach the reporter on Twitter and Facebook. Contact her at [email protected] and 602-444-4712. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. CLOSE Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally fought a tough 2018 campaign. Now, they're both U.S. senators. David Wallace, The Republic | azcentral.com Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/03/04/us-senators-kyrsten-sinema-martha-mcsally-vote-on-emergency-declaration-rollback-effort/3058891002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/03/04/us-senators-kyrsten-sinema-martha-mcsally-vote-on-emergency-declaration-rollback-effort/3058891002/ |
Is buying with friends the future of housing? | Image copyright Alex McClure Image caption Courtney and Alex McClure, Amy Mitchell and Carl Colston are in the process of buying a six-bedroom house together With house prices having risen over the last decade, many young people have found it tough to get on the property ladder. Some are choosing to co-buy with friends, but it is not without its risks. Courtney McClure is buying a six-bedroom house with her husband Alex and another couple in south London. The deal is almost complete and the group is excited to make the property in Sydenham, which has a large garden and big communal spaces, their own. Pooling their resources with another couple has enabled them to buy in a "much more appealing" location with better transport links than if they had bought a place separately, Courtney says. "We're getting a lot more for our money," adds Alex, a 32-year-old sound engineer. But money should never be the sole motivation to buy with friends, Courtney says. "It's such a big thing. You're sharing your world. I think if you were just doing it for cost reasons, you probably wouldn't enjoy it." Image copyright Alex McClure Image caption Courtney McClure believes money should never be the only reason to co-buy Her view is echoed by Lucy Jordan who believes buying property with friends, or co-buying, is "the answer". Not only is it a wise choice financially, it is also the "best option", because "people are better off living in groups", she says. "People are trying to decide how best to make the most of their lives," says Lucy, who currently lives in Harlesden, north London. For her this means buying a property in or near Dover, with her partner and four friends. The group has not laid their eyes on any particular places, but Lucy says: "We're all quite passionate about it. It's definitely the way we're going to go." M&S Bank believes there has been an increase in people co-buying. Last year it launched a "mortgage for four", following research it says showed that the "majority of millennials would take out a mortgage with two or more people to get a foot on the property ladder". "The option of becoming a mortgage-mate is particularly appealing to those already in a housemate arrangement, and our research shows that the concept has become increasingly popular with millennials," Paul Stokes, head of products at M&S Bank, said. Mortgage brokers London & Country have detected a small increase in applications by groups of three or four, but spokesman David Hollingworth says this increase does not capture mortgages taken out by two friends, for example, and does not make clear if applicants have "parental backing". Though the phenomenon might be on the up, Alex McClure says when he and his co-buyers approached estate agents, "a lot of them seemed quite surprised - I think it's still considered abnormal." Not all lenders offer group mortgages either. Nationwide, one of the UK's largest mortgage lenders, for example, currently has a maximum of two people per mortgage. London & Country's David Hollingworth warns that if one co-buyer wants to move on, this could create a situation where the "other co-buyers would either have to buy them out or if they can't afford that, be faced with the prospect of selling the property". Even if four people's names are on a mortgage, if one or more stop paying, the mortgage lender has the right to demand full repayments from whoever they can reach, he explains. Sean Gilbert, a 40-year-old flooring contractor from Bedfordshire, says co-buying is "insanely risky". He now lives in his 16th rented property since leaving school, but says house prices have been "artificially inflated" by the buy-to-let market, and he is "resigned to never owning". But he would never consider co-buying. "There are virtually zero legal safeguards if someone wants to up and leave, taking their capital with them." 'In it together' Lucy Jordan, however, has "complete trust" in her group. "We're all incredibly close, and if something were to happen that would mean one of us would become financially insolvent, I would want to support them. We're all in it together. I see us more as a family," she says. There are, however, some ways to formalise co-buyers' obligations towards each other. Image copyright Alex McClure Image caption The McClures are excited to move into a new house with another couple The McClures and their co-buyers have drawn up a deed of trust, which is a legal agreement used to specify how a property is held between its joint owners. It sets out steps the group would take "if someone wants out", Courtney explains. "I don't think anyone will have any hard feelings if someone is really honest and says, 'I really hate this,' and I think it's better to do that and stay friends than put up with a terrible situation," she adds. For now though, the group of friends are excited to move in together - with one couple on each floor, and sharing the cost of any renovation and possibly childcare in a few years time. As Alex puts it: "If you don't have rich parents, how else are you going to get on the housing ladder?" | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46895770 |
Should Texans be allowed to vote on Medicaid expansion? | With the Republican-dominated state Legislature reluctant to expand Medicaid, Democrats have filed legislation that would instead let voters decide the issue. Three other red states Nebraska, Utah and Idaho ushered in Medicaid expansion through their voters in November. State Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin, who has filed House Joint Resolution 46 to allow people to vote on Medicaid expansion, said theres no reason Texas shouldnt be the next state. It takes it directly to the people. We find more support across the aisle when we do that so that they dont feel like anyone is forcing voters. I think this is a viable path, said Bucy, whose top priority on the campaign trail last year was to push for Medicaid expansion. Reps. Celia Israel, D-Austin, and Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, as well as Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, have filed resolutions identical to Bucys. Supporters of Medicaid expansion were bolstered by the results of a poll over the summer that showed 64 percent of Texas voters said they supported it. Texas is one of 14 states that has not expanded Medicaid. Medicaid expansion could help 686,000 Texans who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, a government-subsidized health insurance program, yet earn too little to qualify for tax credits to purchase Obamacare through healthcare.gov, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a policy research organization. Expansion could also make another 439,000 Texans eligible for Medicaid who are already insured through or eligible for Obamacare but who fall just above the federal poverty level. In Texas, which has the highest uninsured rate in the country, Medicaid eligibility is largely limited to people with severe disabilities or near-death illnesses, as well as for low-income children, seniors and pregnant women. Our high uninsured rate is making our maternal mortality crisis worse, limiting our ability to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies, and (failing to) keep rural hospitals open and stabilize our health care infrastructure, said Laura Guerra-Cardus, deputy director of the Children's Defense Fund-Texas. Guerra-Cardus was among more than a dozen people who spoke Monday at a Capitol rally in support of putting Medicaid expansion on the ballot. Majorie Gonzalez, a senior at the University of Texas, falls within the coverage gap. The daughter of a single mom, she had been covered by Medicaid as a child, receiving regular checkups, doctor visits when she wasnt feeling well and help to pay for medication. When she turned 18, however, her coverage was dropped, and with most of the $600 she makes monthly through a work-study program going toward rent and bills, she cant afford health insurance through UT. A recent bout of stomach pain landed her in the doctors office, where she paid $250 for the visit. When I was just younger, I just never realized what a luxury it would be like one day to be able to go to the doctor or get the medication to help me recover, Gonzalez said. Mandate struck down Although the Affordable Care Act originally required states to expand Medicaid, some, including Texas, fought the provision, and the U.S. Supreme Court removed the mandate in 2012. Texas lawmakers have said they dont trust the federal government to fulfill its promise to reimburse 90 percent of the cost of expansion. Aside from lack of trust in the feds, the fact that the Medicaid program is imperfect is sufficient reason not to expand the program, said David Balat with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. He said hes talked to physicians across the state who are bogged down by the paperwork and other administrative requirements of accepting Medicaid, limiting their time with patients. Medicaid is not as caring and efficient and as positive for the beneficiaries that receive Medicaid benefits. Before we even think about expanding the Medicaid program, we really have to start thinking about how to reform it and make it more effective for those who benefit from it, Balat said, adding that many physicians offer uninsured people health services at reduced costs. The state has struggled with its transition to Medicaid managed care, which hands over the administration of the Medicaid program to private insurance companies. Some Central Texas pediatric physicians groups in recent years have threatened to stop offering Medicaid plans from certain health insurance companies in large part because of the administrative burdens imposed by the companies. But proponents of Medicaid expansion have rebutted statements like Balats by pointing to results from a survey over the summer that found that 71 percent of Texans had a very positive or somewhat positive view of Medicaid. Lawmakers this session have filed more than a dozen bills to address Medicaid expansion. One of them, House Bill 565 by Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, will be heard in the House Insurance Committee on Tuesday. It will be the first time a Medicaid expansion bill has received a committee hearing in several years. An uphill battle Balat said the Legislature is not likely to pass Medicaid expansion, even if the measure would bring the issue to voters. Bucy also recognizes the uphill battle of getting his legislation passed but is encouraged by the interest of House Republicans, especially those from rural districts. Since 2016, Texas has had 15 rural hospital closures, more than any other state. It and five other states that had more than five rural hospital closures shared one characteristic none had expanded Medicaid, according to Georgetown University researchers. Rural residents make up a bulk of the uninsured population in Texas, and uninsured people tend to seek out hospitals when theyre sick or injured. Hospitals then typically eat the high cost of treating the uninsured patients, researchers said. Its an old political fight and a fear of being aligned with President Obama. But I will say that the fear seems to be waning as time goes on, as we get separation from the Obama administration, Bucy said. I also think Republicans represent more of the rural areas, and theyre starting to realize they cant do this forever. They have to get past the political opposition and realize its time to do whats right for Texans. | https://www.statesman.com/news/20190304/should-texans-be-allowed-to-vote-on-medicaid-expansion |
Is it time for 'smear test' to be rebranded? | Image copyright Getty Images The government has launched its first cervical screening advertising campaign in England, as the numbers of women taking part have hit a 20-year low. The campaign - being run by Public Health England - has avoided the term "smear test" amid concern it may be putting people off. Officials said the term was outdated and hope the term cervical screening will "normalise" the procedure. Adverts will run on TV, radio and online for the next eight weeks. The campaign stresses the screening is basically a health check for the cervix and shows a woman being reminded by family members and friends to go for testing. Figures last year showed just over 71% of women aged 25 to 64 had been screened at regular enough intervals. PHE director of screening Anne Mackie said the campaign was about "breaking down barriers". She said there were a variety of reasons for not attending but there had been a conscious move away from the term "smear test". "The technical process used today no longer smears the sample of cells from the cervix on to a glass plate," she said. "We now put cells that we collect into a tube of liquid, so technically 'smear' is incorrect." Ms Mackie said the overarching message of the campaign - cervical screening saves lives - was much more "clear and direct" and "hopefully helps to normalise the term". She added: "The campaign shows how cervical screening is a vital preventative test which can identify potentially harmful cells and treat them before they have a chance to develop into cancer, giving us the opportunity to stop cancer before it starts." 'Don't delay cervical screening' Image copyright other Masters student Isha Webber, 29, from London, attended her first screening appointment when she was 25. It came back all clear. A few years later, when she was screened again, she was found to have abnormal cells that required treatment to remove them. "I can't reinforce enough how important it is to stay on top of your cervical screening appointments," she said. "When you get your invitation letter, book right away and don't delay. "I am so glad that I went when I did and had those abnormal cells removed. "I hate to think what may have been the case if I delayed. "I now talk to as many people as possible about my experience, to raise awareness of the importance of screening." The NHS target is for 80% of women aged 25 to 49 to be tested every three years and the same proportion aged 50 to 64 to be screened every five years. But in some areas uptake has dropped below 50%. Experts have put it down to: embarrassment a lack of awareness just putting it off Research by the charity Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust suggested young women were embarrassed to attend because of: their body shape the appearance of their vulva concerns over smell A third said they would not go if they had not waxed or shaved their bikini area. And about 15% said they would miss their screening test for a gym class or a waxing appointment. Every year about 2,600 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and nearly 700 die from the disease. The advertising campaign is just one element of the government's approach to increase uptake. A review of invitation letters, leaflets and results letters is under way, while pilots to trial text messaging reminders have started. Some areas have also started to offer weekend and evening screening. Government advisers are also considering whether to recommend self-testing. Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust chief executive Robert Music said: "We know attending screening isn't always easy for a wide range of reasons yet cervical screening can be lifesaving as it can detect changes in the cervix before they become cancerous." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47445785 |
Is Seattle's real estate market warming up again? | An analysis by Redfin indicates it probably is Delight in this contemporary craftsman townhome with luxury touches including gleaming hardwoods, vaulted ceilings and granite counters. 114 B W Florentia St., Seattle, WA 98119. $639,000. See the full listing here. less Delight in this contemporary craftsman townhome with luxury touches including gleaming hardwoods, vaulted ceilings and granite counters. 114 B W Florentia St., Seattle, WA 98119. $639,000. See the full ... more Photo: Listed By Sarah Rollinger Redfin Corp. Photo: Listed By Sarah Rollinger Redfin Corp. 1 / 105 Back to Gallery Sellers rejoice: Seattle's real estate market could be warming up again after a months-long cool-down, even though there were fewer closed sales in January 2018 when compared to one year prior. But closed sales figures don't give a clear indication of what is to come. Pending sales however, tell a different story. Pending sales in January were up 15 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent analysis by real estate app and brokerage Redfin. That is the highest increase in the number of year-over-year pending sales in the city at one time since the end of 2016. Meanwhile, closed sales are down by 8 percent when compared to January 2018. "The second half of 2018 was frustrating for sellers who listed just as the market began to cool," Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said in the report. "Since then, more sellers have dropped their prices and as a result more homes are going off the market." RELATED: Don't look now but peak real estate season is starting. Here's when experts recommend you list Fairweather urged buyers who were waiting to see what would happen in the market to consider buying sooner than later. "We're seeing this moment before the spring season arrives as an opportunity to get a home that's been on the market for a few months under contract for much less than its original list price," he said. Despite the cool-down in the fall and early winter months, Redfin's analysis indicated that closed sales in Seattle could begin to climb year-over-year "very soon." RELATED: $47.2 billion: Looking back at Washington's 2018 real estate "In the last month we've seen more buyers touring our homes for sale and we're receiving more offers, especially on those that have been on the market for a while," Seattle Redfin agent David Palmer said in the report. But buyers and sellers alike should be aware that things aren't expected to tick up the way they did the last five years. "Even as buyers return, home sellers should expect to negotiate more than they have in the past few years. The days of buyers waiving all contingencies are behind us," Palmer said. Click through the slideshow to see. | https://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/article/Is-Seattle-s-real-estate-market-warming-up-again-13661963.php |
Will Southwest's $49 Fares To Hawaii Trigger An Airline Price War? | On March 4, 2019, Southwest Airlines began selling tickets to Hawaii from the US mainland. The long-awaited announcement included the four California cities Southwest will fly from, as expected (San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento and Oakland) and the destinations (Oahu, Maui, Lanai and The Big Island.) The announcement of service, which begins March 14, also included something else not everyone had been expectingtickets as low as $49 each way. The flight dates and prices came as welcome news to consumers, particularly those who snagged the $49 tickets. No doubt they provided some solace as well to those stranded by an East Coast snowstorm that cancelled 2500 flights, leaving frustrated passengers to dream of Hawaiian beaches. (Full disclosure: I own stock in Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue.) In addition to launching service from Oakland and San Jose with fares as low as $49 and $79 each way to Hawaii (San Diego and Sacramento service will be announced later) Southwest said a little about what that service will look like. The airline says it will provide seating with an industry-leading 32-inch seat pitch on Hawaii flights, along with Islands-inspired drinks and snacks, WiFi enabled planes and 100% free inflight entertainment including movies and live TV. Southwest has put up a dedicated web page for information at Southwest.com/Hawaii. Although long expected, Southwests market entry was not so welcome at competitive airlines that already serve the Hawaiian market, including Alaska, Hawaiian, Delta, United and American. For Southwest itself, the stock market reaction was not particularly positive, as the stock (LUV) declined -0.51 (-0.94%). But the new announcement had a much more pronounced effect on Hawaiian Holdings Inc (HA:NASDAQ), which dropped $3.24 (-10.94%). Alaska Air (ALK), one of the volume leaders in flights to Hawaii from the West Coast, dropped -1.81 (-3.0%). While it was a bad day for the stock market in general, the three other major US airlines flying to Hawaii also declined. American dropped -0.92 (2.66%), United dropped -2.61 (-3.0%) while Delta declined slightly, by -0.17 (-0.3%). The competition problem for Hawaiian, although the airline has been established in the islands for 90 years, is obvious. (Not widely reported was the fact that Southwest is offering four interisland flights a day between Honolulu and Kona on an introductory basis for $29 each way.) The prospect of overcapacity and/or the dread fare war also potentially threatens revenues and profits at the other carriers. The race to the bottom (err, the race to preserve market share in a low fare environment) has already begun. Southwests competitors have responded with fares from the US mainland to Hawaii for as low as $197 roundtrip. For less than two hundred dollars, you can fly roundtrip from San Jose (SJC) or Oakland (Oak) to Kahului, Maui (OGG), or from Oakland to Honolulu (HNL). All three $197 round trips are Alaska Airlines Saver Fares, their version of Basic Economy, so luggage will be extra. (Southwest has promised to continue their two bags fly free policy to Hawaii.) Similarly, American Airlines is offering non-stop roundtrips from Phoenix (PHX) or LAX to Kona (KOA) on the Big Island for $257, also in Basic Economy. Other low fares are available from Delta and Sun Country. Low fares mean less revenues and lower profits, of course. In extreme cases the loser of such a fare war may end up drastically cutting back its presence in Hawaii or retreating from the islands altogether, as Allegiant did in 2017. Obviously, this is not a possibility for Hawaiian Air. Less obviously, the new low fares may mean something elsedamage to the elaborate loyalty and elite structure that the legacy airlines have built over the last 35 years. The folks at the Points Guy found some Southwest flights to Hawaii for $49 or 1,950 points each way, from San Jose and Oakland to Honolulu and Maui. I compared a Southwest flight from Oakland to Honolulu on March 19 with an American Airlines flight on that date, which demanded 22,500 points (or $173) versus 1950 (or $49) for Southwest. Even discounting the fact that the Southwest fare is a promotional one, and any possible discrepancy in point value, this is a huge difference. In some ways, it calls into question the value of loyalty to a particular frequent flyer program, which a number of analysts have pegged as actually more valuable than the airlines themselves. Even with this announcement, Southwest has other sandalser, shoes -to drop when in terms of Hawaiian announcements. The big question is when service from the Los Angeles and Orange County metro areas will begin. The 13 million people who live in those areas served by LAX, Burbank, Ontario, Long Beach and John Wayne/Orange County airports are currently left out of Southwests schedule, although competitors are now offering low fares from LA to the islands. In addition, a quick check of Southwest Vacations, the vacation package site of Southwest Airlines, shows that Hawaiian flightsand hotels, rental cars and other amenitieshave not yet been integrated into the system. When it is, in addition to the current Southwest.com/Hawaii site, expect tens of thousands of Southwest customers to begin building Hawaiian vacation packages. For the airlines, the battle for the Hawaiian market, and perhaps a larger war over the value of plum destinations like Hawaii to loyalty programs, has just begun. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2019/03/04/will-southwests-49-fares-to-hawaii-trigger-an-airline-price-war/ |
How will CA courts pension ruling affect workers, taxpayers? | The California Supreme Court issued a major decision on public employee compensation Monday, upholding a piece of a 2012 pension law that reduced some benefits for workers. Below, find a quick guide to questions you might have about the ruling. Nothing changes right now for public workers. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee Former Gov. Jerry Browns 2012 law among other things eliminated a benefit known as air time that allowed public employees to buy up to five years of service credit that would boost their pensions as if they had worked that time. Had the court ruled differently Monday, employees hired before Jan. 1, 2013, might have regained access to that perk. On the other hand, the court could have made it easier for local governments to reduce public workers benefits, but it didnt. The courts decision preserves the status quo. Government agencies still cant tinker with their employees core pension rights unless unions make concessions at the bargaining table. CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost put it clearly in an emailed statement: Todays decision does not change how we administer benefits on behalf of our 1.9 million members and the nearly 3,000 public agencies that contract with us, Frost said in the statement. CalPERS has not offered air time since the Public Employees Pension Reform Act took effect in January 2013. Air time was not supposed to cost local governments anything, since employees were paying for it. But projections used to determine how much employees had to pay for the benefit turned out to underestimate its cost. Employee contributions fell short of costs by 12 to 38 percent, according to a CalPERS analysis, leaving governments to make up the difference. When local governments pay more for worker benefits, they have less money to spend on other public services such as parks or road maintenance. The Supreme Courts decision protects local governments from having to pay for the air time benefit. Some well-known advocates for reductions in pension benefits said the ruling keeps open the door to future changes. This ruling offers hope that California can take reasonable steps to ensure that our pension systems can always pay all the benefits our employees have earned without driving cities, counties, and school districts into insolvency, said Chuck Reed, a former San Jose mayor and founder of Retirement Security Initiative. It doesnt. Debates about the California Rule are focused on future benefits for current public workers. The courts decision was significant because unions and government agencies in briefs leading up to the case argued it was a test of the California Rule, the set of legal precedents that has prevented public worker benefits from being reduced without compensating them for lost income. The court declined to take up California Rule questions in its decision, determining air time wasnt a core pension benefit with constitutional protections. But those questions remain, and the court could take them up in other cases. Attorneys who have filed legal briefs in an Alameda County pensions case are waiting for the court to schedule oral hearings. That case is expected to address pension benefits more squarely, since it has to do with whether compensation from things like unused vacation time and sick leave can count in pension calculations. The ruling has no immediate effect on public workers, but could impact future negotiations over public pension benefits. | https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article227110584.html |
Is the property tax debate simple or complex? | We need to get more cash from somewhere, Keenan, Opinion, Mar. 4 Thanks to the evidence-based data from Frank Clayton, an economist with Ryersons Centre for Urban Research and Land Development, for providing the research to support a source for much needed revenue in Toronto. As a Toronto home owner for the past 34 years, I fully support an increase in property taxes to pay for needed repairs to infrastructure. Our small bungalow has more than quadrupled in value during our time as homeowners. I suspect that many Toronto homeowners are in an enviable position to financially support the growing needs of our city. Just think how $600 million a year could assist our infrastructure replacement requirements and give a boost to our public transportation system! Shari Baker, Toronto The article suggesting Toronto's property taxes could be 20 per cent higher is misleading. To set the record straight, a proper study must also consider the actual levy, or final bill, on comparable properties across the GTA. The more affordable homes in the outer suburbs have to be taxed at a higher rate in order to generate the same revenue. In other words, a modest home in the City of Toronto will pay $5000 or more in property taxes. In the 905, given the better value of housing, a similar house would only generate $4000 in taxes. There is your 20 per cent difference! That is why the mill rate is set higher outside of the 416. Toronto raises enough tax to balance its budget, as do the other cities. There is no need for a misleading headline over a misreported story. The Star owes its readers clarification. | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/03/04/is-the-property-tax-debate-simple-or-complex.html |
How should we hear Michael Jacksons music after Leaving Neverland? | In a way, though, the same is true of a much older song such as Rock With You, which practically glows with an ebullience simply out of reach for any of Jacksons peers. The song is magic of a kind, and its not as though Jackson had only one trick up his sleeve; the guy made dozens of tunes that seemed to stand apart from the rest of pop, including Dont Stop Til You Get Enough, Wanna Be Startin Somethin, Beat It, Billie Jean, P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), The Way You Make Me Feel, Smooth Criminal and Remember the Time. | https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-michael-jackson-documentary-legacy-notebook-20190304-story.html |
Will 2019 Bring Tebow Time To Citi Field? | Tim Tebow got his first two spring training hits on Monday. Back in the Mets big league camp for a second straight spring, Tebow is already raking at a .222 clip, a lot better than last years .056 before he was reassigned to the minor league camp. OK, batting averages mean almost nothing over a small sample of spring at-bats. But Tebows progress over the past couple of years in the face of all the naysayers is real. The former Heisman Trophy winner and 16-game NFL starter has earned the right to be viewed as more than a marketing gimmick. His trainer tells him: He doesnt know its a damn show, he thinks its a damn fight. So it goes with Tim Tebow and baseball. He thinks its real, and hes mostly played like it. Since the Mets signed him three years ago, Tebows batting average climbed from .194 in the Arizona Fall League to .273 at Double-A Binghamton between 2016 and 2018. His on-base percentage rose from .296 to .336, and his OPS from .538 to .734. This year he appears to be ticketed to Triple-A Syracuse, just one step from the big show. Who knows he may be one Brandon Nimmo ankle sprain away from Citi Field. Tebow still strikes out too much, especially for a guy who doesnt hit a lot of home runs (he whiffed 103 times at Binghamton last year while going deep six times). So, no, hes never going to be Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson. At 31 he remains nothing more than a marginal prospect. But few people even viewed him as that much a couple of years ago. A celebrity who would bring some attention to the Mets brand and sell a lot of tickets and jerseys in minor league ballparks. And that was all true. It just wasnt the entire story. The idea of Tebow making it in baseball may have brought plenty of doubts, but it couldnt just be laughed off. Remember, this is an elite athlete, a guy who scored a football scholarship to the University of Florida, became a starting quarterback in the SEC and even wound up with a Heisman Trophy. Playing high school baseball in Florida, where the competition is about as tough as it is anywhere, he was a big enough star to have drawn looks from pro scouts. That ended when he shut down baseball after his junior year to focus on football, but it was clear there was some talent there. Shaking off the baseball rust after 12 years wasnt going to be easy, but sticking with it for as long as he has goes a long way toward doing that. The Syracuse Mets open their home season on April 4 against the Pawtucket Red Sox. No doubt the New York Mets, who own the team, will be pleased if the game sells out. But by now they might even care about Tebow getting a couple of hits, too. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2019/03/04/will-2019-bring-tebow-time-to-citi-field/ |
Where Does Live Nation Have Room To Grow? | A vertically integrated behemoth. An emerging music monopoly. Ruthless. Live Nation has been described in these terms for many years, especially since the worlds largest concert promoter merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. But that hasnt stopped fans from flocking to its shows. And investors are liking what theyre seeing. Shares of Live Nation hit an all-time high Friday after the company revealed that its overall revenue for 2018 was up 11%, reaching a record $10.8 billion. Concert attendance increased by 8%, to 93 million. Executives told investors to expect similar growth in 2019. An earnings call with investors on Thursday, and a newly released annual report give some insight into the live entertainment giants plans to continue its industry dominance. Global Expansion In the earnings call, Live Nation executives clearly expressed their commitment to pursuing new business opportunities in the U.S. and Canada. However, the companys long-term growth will depend on increasing ticket sales and sponsorships in 40 markets outside of North America. We know that Rihanna can sell out anywhere, said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino. Thats the part that makes our model unique. Live Nation president Joe Berchtold noted that profit margins in international markets are limited by relatively low service fees on ticket sales. Ticketmasters U.S. service fees a longtime vexation for American fans are about 20% of a tickets listed price. Berchtold said these fees stay around 10% in other countries. While we see some level of convergence over time, don't expect that to shift quickly, Berchtold said. Rapino said establishing ticketing operations in Italy, ramping up operations in Germany and laying the groundwork for expansion in Latin America were among the highlights of Live Nations global expansion in 2018. Live Nation typically gains a foothold in new markets by acquiring local entertainment businesses. In the first quarter of 2019, the corporation has snapped up an Australian ticketing firm and promoters in Singapore and Spain. It also acquired the Blockfest hip-hop festival in Finland and the Tons of Rock festival in Norway. Digital Innovation Live Nations latest annual report reflects both the promise and perils of a digital ticketing ecosystem. One of the only blemishes in the concert promoters ledger for 2018 is the $15 million cost of mitigating a data breach that affected 40,000 British and international customers. On the bright side, the company reported that mobile ticket sales were up 35% from 2017, driven in part by a 40% increase in installations of the Live Nation and Ticketmaster mobile apps. The online marketplace converges with live events on Ticketmaster Presence, a platform for venue access control and fan engagement that debuted in 2017. Presence is designed to help venues prevent ticket fraud and analyze audience data, and also allows them to share event information in direct messages to ticket holders. Live Nation deployed Presence at over 200 venues by the end of 2018, including every NFL stadium. It expects to bring the platform to 500 venues by the end of this year. Venue Ownership Live Nation owns or has an equity interest in over 30 concert venues, and is looking to add to that total. "Were seeing more and more opportunities... to have some equity ownership and control in some great assets," Rapino said in Thursdays earnings call. We should capture not just the [entertainment] content, not just the food and beverage, but the equity value of the real estate holdings over time, too. Venue ownership and control is one area where Live Nation trails its main competitor, AEG. Philip Anschutzs privately-held company owns several iconic properties, including Staples Center in Los Angeles, the O2 in London, and the entertainment complexes surrounding both facilities. Rapino said Live Nation is negotiating for a bigger piece of the action in deals with real estate developers across the U.S. If you are a developer right now with a shopping mall to a development site, you probably are no longer asking the movie theater to be your tenant. Youre probably coming to Live Nation, he said. "What we're doing now, when those meetings happen, is to say: we're not happy just to ticket for your building. We want have equity value in that position and operate and run it to maximize all of the value that can be created. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshmandell/2019/03/04/where-does-live-nation-have-room-to-grow/ |
Which team has the best chance to land Antonio Brown? | Scroll to continue with content Ad Its been about two weeks since the Pittsburgh Steelers met with disgruntled receiver Antonio Brown and agreed to try to trade him. In the days since, weve heard only rumors of which teams are purportedly most interested in acquiring the talented but difficult Brown. The reality is, there arent many teams that have the basics to get a deal done: crossing the other AFC North teams as well as the New England Patriots off the list brings the number down to 27; add in the necessary salary-cap space and being willing to alter Browns current contract (which is quite on-market), the draft capital and/or ability and willingness to trade an above-average player, and a strong head coach and structure in place to be able to bring in a player with a history of doing whatever he wants and getting away with it and hopefully get him on board and the list of possibilities narrows significantly. Given everything including Browns recent comments, whether on social media or in an ESPN interview or on LeBron James The Shop were still convinced that when training camps open in July, Brown will still be with the Steelers. Oakland Raiders Among national reporters, both ESPNs Adam Schefter and NBC Sports Peter King have mentioned the Raiders as being on the short list of teams interested in Brown. Story continues Given that Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert is on the record as saying the team will want significant compensation in trade because Brown is a significant player, Oakland makes sense on that front because it has three first-round picks this year (Nos. 4, 25 and 27) as well as a high second-round pick (No. 35). The Raiders also have about $73 million in cap space right now according to OverTheCap.com. (Getty Images) Oakland could certainly use a top receiver: running back Jalen Richard and tight end Jared Cook led the team in receptions last season, with 68 each; in terms of true receivers, Jordy Nelson had a team-high 63 catches. Brown has averaged 114 catches per season since 2013. The Raiders are unquestionably Jon Grudens team, as he has seemingly been given carte blanche to do what he pleases from owner Mark Davis, including forcing out the teams general manager, Reggie McKenzie, and trading two of their best players, in Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper. They also have an experienced quarterback in Derek Carr, who is both talented and generally respected by teammates. Washington Redskins Schefter reported that Grudens brother, Jay, and Washington have shown strong interest as well. Washington has nine picks; its highest spots this year are No. 15 in the first round, as well as No. 46 in the second and two third-rounders at Nos. 76 and 96. It currently has just $17 million in cap space. Washington isnt known for making the best decisions in recent years, but from an organizational standpoint, it isnt clear who the quarterback is going to be in 2019, and Jay Gruden doesnt seem to be a strong head coach, either in position or demeanor. Tennessee Titans A last team mentioned by Schefter was Tennessee, and in many ways, the Titans dont seem too far-fetched. For one thing, both general manager Jon Robinson and second-year head coach Mike Vrabel spent enough time with the Patriots to know how important structure is and generally requiring that all players conform to the same expectations; Vrabel is a pretty no-nonsense guy. The Titans could certainly use a top-flight offensive skill player. Marcus Mariota is coming off his best season statistically, but has a history of injuries and is dealing with his fourth offensive coordinator as he enters his fifth season. Tennessee is roughly $43 million under the cap currently, but only has six total draft picks, including its first-round pick at No. 19. Denver Broncos NFL Networks Ian Rapoport mentioned the Broncos, but Brown doesnt exactly seem like the kind of player John Elway would like given his attitude. Denver is trading for Joe Flacco, who certainly dealt with a variety of personalities in his career with the Baltimore Ravens and has experience and a Super Bowl ring. New coach Vic Fangio is a rookie head coach, but a grizzled vet when it comes to coaching. The Broncos do have $34.5 million in cap space currently, and a high first-round pick, No. 10, after their disappointing 2018 season; they have seven other draft picks. Arizona Cardinals Reported by Rapoport to be interested, the Cardinals would seem to be an unlikely suitor and an in-house reporter quickly debunked the notion. Arizona is heading into this season with a rookie head coach in Kliff Kingsbury, and will have either an unproven second-year quarterback in Josh Rosen or possibly a rookie quarterback, if the Cardinals-Kyler Murray smoke turns into a fire. General manager Steve Keim is likely fighting to save his job after a third-straight playoff-less season, the Steve Wilks hiring and firing in less than 12 months, and his own very public legal issue. The Cardinals do have 11 draft picks this year, and $37.5 million in salary cap space. More from Yahoo Sports: | https://sports.yahoo.com/which-team-rumored-to-be-interested-in-antonio-brown-has-the-best-chance-to-land-him-204502621.html?src=rss |
Why Can't Energy Efficiency Get Any Respect? | Energy efficiency is widely regarded as the least costly source of additional energy, the most immediate way to reduce carbon emissions, a crucial part of any plan to achieve climate goals and advance a clean economy. It enjoys bipartisan support. But Congress let federal energy-efficiency tax credits lapse more than a year ago, and the industry has struggled to get attention in a dramatically distracted capitol. "Renewable energy is always the star quarterback," said Ray Fakhoury, a principle with the clean-energy advocacy group Advanced Energy Economy. "Theyre back there. Theyre doing all the things that you can point to them and see them and touch them. "A lot of the time energy efficiencys your line. You dont see them, but if you have a poor line, then youre going to have a lot of really inefficient renewable-energy production. So we like to think of things as a whole package. Energy efficiency must play a role." Fakhoury was speaking on a panel of energy-efficiency lobbyistsyes, energy efficiency has lobbyistsat the Energy Solutions Conference hosted in February by the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEAA). Not everyone agreed with his assignment of positions. "Energy efficiency should be the star quarterback," said Jason Hartke, president of the Alliance to Save Energy and a former head of the Department of Energy's commercial-efficiency effort. "Maybe its a blue-collar, workmanlike quarterback, maybe its not Tom Brady. Its more like Jim McMahon." MEAA executive director Stacey Paradis then suggested, before the Chicago audience, that Terry Bradshaw would be a better choice. Hartke insisted that energy efficiency has made tremendous progress, but he conceded that it rarely gets to carry the ball. "Weve got tax incentives for a whole slew of different things, including powerful incentives on the generation side. but to not have efficiency incentives is really crazy." In 2016 taxpayers could get breaks for efficient equipment (known by its marker in law as 25C), whole-home efficiency (45L), and commercial building efficiency (179D). "Those have now been expired for over a year and two months," Hartke said. "Really, really sad. They had really strong bipartisan support, but its clouded because of all these other policy issues that are going on and all these other concurrent fights over other thingsgovernment shut-downs." The Department of Energy has calculated that its $14 billion investment in efficiency research and development has netted $230 billion in net economic benefits, Hartke said. "The sector represents two thirds of all energy jobs, 2.25 million jobs," he said, "and were reaping $800 billion in collective energy savings every single year. Things like standards are saving $2.4 trillion in net economic impacts. "Weve made tremendous progress in energy efficiency and there is a little bit of, How do we get the quarterback status, but the stats have us there." | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/03/05/why-cant-energy-efficiency-get-any-respect/ |
How Much Of The Unobservable Universe Will We Someday Be Able To See? | Even though it's been billions of years since the Big Bang, there's a cosmic limit to how far we can observe the objects that occupy our Universe. The Universe has been expanding all this time, but that expansion rate is both finite and well-measured. If we were to calculate how far a photon emitted at the instant the Big Bang occurred could have traveled by today, we come up with the upper limit to how far we can see in any direction: 46 billion light-years. That's the size of our observable Universe, which contains an estimated two trillion galaxies in various stages of evolutionary development. But beyond that, there ought to be much more Universe beyond the limits of what we can presently see: the unobservable Universe. Thanks to our best measurements of the part we can see, we're finally figuring out what lies beyond, and how much of it we'll someday be able to perceive and explore. The Big Bang tells us that at some point in the distant past, the Universe was hotter, denser, and expanding much more rapidly than it is today. The stars and galaxies we see throughout the Universe in all directions only exist as they do because the Universe has expanded and cooled, allowing gravitation to pull matter into clumps. Over billions of years, gravitational growth has fueled generations of stars and the formation of galaxies, leading to the Universe we see today. Everywhere we look, in all directions, we see a Universe that tells us the same cosmic story. But part of that story is the fact that the farther away we look, the farther we're looking back in time. The Universe hasn't been around, forming stars and growing galaxies, forever. According to the Big Bang and the observations that support it, the Universe had a beginning. In the early stages after the Big Bang, the Universe was filled with a variety of ingredients, and it began with an incredibly rapid initial expansion rate. These two factors the initial expansion rate and the gravitational effects of everything in the Universe are the two head-to-head players in the ultimate cosmic race. On the one hand, the expansion works to push everything apart, stretching the fabric of space and driving the galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe apart. But on the other hand, gravitation attracts all forms of matter and energy, working to pull the Universe back together. Normal matter, dark matter, dark energy, radiation, neutrinos, black holes, gravitational waves and more all play a role in the expanding Universe. The expansion rate began large, but has been decreasing as the Universe expands. There's a simple reason for this: as the Universe expands, its volume increases, and therefore the energy density goes down. As the density drops, so does the expansion rate. Light that was once too far away from us to be seen can now catch up to us. This fact carries with it a huge implication for the Universe: over time, galaxies that were once too distant to be revealed to us will spontaneously come into view. It may have been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang occurred, but with the expansion of the Universe, there are objects as far away as 46.1 billion light-years whose light is just reaching us. All told, if we were to add up all the galaxies that exist within this volume of space, we'd find there are a whopping two trillion of them within our observable Universe. As enormous as this number is, it's still finite, and our observations don't reveal an edge in space in any direction we look. The amount of time that's passed since the Big Bang, the speed of light, and the ingredients in our Universe determine the limit of what's observable. Any farther than that, and even something moving at the speed of light since the moment of the hot Big Bang will not have had sufficient time to reach us. But all of this will change in time. As the years and aeons tick by, light that was unable to reach us will finally catch up to our eyes, revealing more of the Universe than we've ever seen before. You might think that if we waited for an arbitrarily long amount of time, we'd be able to see an arbitrarily far distance, and that there would be no limit to how much of the Universe would become visible. But in a Universe with dark energy, that simply isn't the case. As the Universe ages, the expansion rate doesn't drop to lower and lower values, approaching zero. Instead, there remains a finite and important amount of energy intrinsic to the fabric of space itself. As time goes on in a Universe with dark energy, the more distant objects will appear to recede from our perspective faster and faster. Although there's still more Universe out there to discover, there's a limit to how much of it will ever become observable to us. Based on the expansion rate, the amount of dark energy we have, and the present cosmological parameters of the Universe, we can calculate what we call the future visibility limit: the maximum distance we'll ever be able to observe. Right now, in a 13.8 billion year old Universe, our current visibility limit is 46 billion light-years. Our future visibility limit is approximately 33% greater: 61 billion light-years. There are galaxies out there, right now, whose light is on the way to our eyes, but has not had the opportunity to reach us yet. If we were to add up all the galaxies in the parts of the Universe that we'll someday see but cannot yet access today, we might be shocked to learn that there are more yet-to-be-revealed galaxies than there are galaxies in the visible Universe. There are an additional 2.7 trillion galaxies waiting to show us their light, on top of the 2 trillion we can already access. Compared to what the future holds for us, we're presently only seeing 43% of the galaxies that we'll someday be able to observe. Beyond our observable Universe lies the unobservable Universe, which ought to look just like the part we can see. The way we know that is through observations of the cosmic microwave background and the large-scale structure of the Universe. If the Universe were finite in size, had an edge to it, or its properties began to change as we looked to greater distances, our measurements of these phenomena would reveal it. The observed spatial flatness of the Universe tells us that it is neither positively nor negatively curved to a precision of 99.6%, meaning that if it curves back on itself, the unobservable Universe is at least 250 times as large as the presently visible part. We will never be able to see anything close to those extraordinary distances. The future visibility limit will take us to distances that are presently 61 billion light-years away, but no farther. It will reveal slightly more than twice the volume of the Universe we can observe today. The unobservable Universe, on the other hand, must be at least 23 trillion light years in diameter, and contain a volume of space that's over 15 million times as large as the volume we can observe. At the same time that we ponder the Universe beyond our observational limits, however, it's worth remembering how little of that Universe we can actually access or visit. All that we're looking forward to viewing is based on light that was already emitted many billions of years ago: close to the Big Bang in time. As it stands today, even if we left right now at the speed of light, we wouldn't be able to reach nearly all of the galaxies throughout space. Dark energy is causing the Universe to not only expand, but for distant galaxies to speed up in their apparent recession from us. Although there are a total of 4.7 trillion galaxies that we will someday be able to observe out to a distance of 61 billion light-years, the limit of what we can reach today is much more modest. Only those galaxies within approximately 15 billion light-years, or a quarter of the radius at the future visibility limit, can be reached today, which equates to about 66 billion galaxies only. This is only 1.4% of the total number of galaxies that will ever become visible to us. In other words, in the future, we will have a total of 4.7 trillion galaxies to view. Most of them will only ever appear to us as they were in the very distant past, and most of them will never get to see us as we are today. Of all those galaxies we'll someday see, 4.634 trillion of them are already forever unreachable, even at the speed of light. You might notice an interesting occurrence: the future visibility limit is exactly equal to the reachable limit (of 15 billion light-years) added to the current visibility limit (of 46 billion light-years). This no coincidence; the light that will ultimately reach us is right at that reachable limit today, after journeying 46 billion light-years since the Big Bang. Someday far in the future, it will arrive at our eyes. With each moment that passes, we come ever closer to our ultimate cosmic viewpoint, as the light from the last galactic holdouts continues on its inevitable journey towards us in the expanding Universe. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/03/05/how-much-of-the-unobservable-universe-will-we-someday-be-able-to-see/ |
What are the Donald Trump investigations all about? | Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia and whether the president obstructed the investigation. Trump also plays a central role in a separate case in New York, where prosecutors have implicated him in a crime. Advertisement They say Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make illegal hush-money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign. New York prosecutors also are looking into Trump's inaugural fund. Democrats launched a sweeping new probe of Trump on Monday US time. Republican Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced the probe into possible obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power. The panel is sending document requests to 81 people linked to the president and his associates. Republican Jerrold Nadler announced the probe into possible obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power. Photo / AP The broad investigation could be setting the stage for an impeachment effort, although Democratic leaders have pledged to investigate all avenues and review Mueller's upcoming report before trying any drastic action. "Over the last several years, President Trump has evaded accountability for his near-daily attacks on our basic legal, ethical, and constitutional rules and norms," Nadler said. "Investigating these threats to the rule of law is an obligation of Congress and a core function of the House Judiciary Committee." Trump dismissed the Nadler probe and others as futile efforts "in search of a crime." On Twitter, the president exclaimed that it was "Ridiculous!" Meanwhile, the Justice Department said career ethics officials had advised Attorney General William Barr that he should not recuse himself from overseeing the special counsel investigation and Barr said he has decided to follow that advice. Some Democrats had raised concerns that Barr might disrupt or upend Mueller's investigation. Conservative author conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi retracted an article he wrote last year for the website InfoWars alleging that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich and his brother were involved in downloading and leaking DNC emails to the website WikiLeaks. Seth Rich was killed in July 2016 in what Washington police believe was a robbery attempt. On his website Corsi acknowledged that he did not have "independent factual knowledge" for the allegation and had instead relied on a Washington Times article that has since been retracted. There is no smoking gun when it comes to the question of Russia collusion. But the evidence so far shows that a broad range of Trump associates had Russia-related contacts during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition period, and several lied about the communications. There is evidence that some people in Trump's orbit were discussing a possible email dump from WikiLeaks before it occurred. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia. Photo / AP American intelligence agencies and Mueller have said Russia was the source of hacked material released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks during the campaign that was damaging to Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential effort. That is another unresolved question that Mueller is pursuing. Investigators have examined key episodes such as Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey and Trump's fury over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal. The US President has repeatedly slammed the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt" and insisted there was "NO COLLUSION" with Russia. He also says Cohen lied to get a lighter sentence in New York. It's unclear. Then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in January that the probe is "close to being completed," the first official sign that Mueller's investigation may be wrapping up. But he gave no specific timetable. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12209813&ref=rss |
Why does Texas highest criminal court want state government to be more secret? | Texas highest criminal court has added another dangerous layer to the cloak of secrecy around how some government officials want to conduct our business. We say our because we elect these officials to be good stewards of our tax dollars and to represent us on issues that affect our communities. For the sake of accountability, the public has a right to know what our representatives are doing. Were concerned that a ruling last week from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will keep us in the dark. The court dealt a major blow to transparency when it struck down a portion of the open meetings law that makes it a crime for officials to circumvent quorum rules to hold secret deliberations." The courts wrong-headed ruling called the provision unconstitutionally vague. We see it as another excuse for government bodies to usurp the spirit of this important law. | https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2019/03/05/texashighest-criminal-court-want-state-government-secret |
Could robots make us better humans? | Machines can already write music and beat us at games like chess and Go. But the rise of artificial intelligence should inspire hope as well as fear, says Marcus du Sautoy As Marcus du Sautoy greets me at the entrance to New College, Oxford, his appearance is a quiet riot of colour. His clothes rather suggest someone who ran into White Stuff or Fat Face and frantically grabbed anything he could find in this case, a salmon zip-up top, multihued check trousers and shoes that are a headache-inducing shade of turquoise. When we settle down to talk in a nearby meeting room, he repeatedly glances at a notepad whose pages, just to add to all the garishness, are a bold shade of yellow. They are full of what look like scrawled equations, mixed with odd-looking shapes: the raw material, he explains, of a project involving very complicated geometry. Theres an infinite symmetrical structure that Im looking at, he says, and I think the top bit of it will tell me everything thats going on inside it. Its almost like an infinite lake, and I should be able to know everything thats happening in it by looking at the first centimetre. He suddenly looks rather pained. But I dont know. Du Sautoy, 53, is a professor of maths and a fellow of New College. Eleven years ago, Oxford University made him its Simonyi professor for the public understanding of science, a role ideally suited to a prolific author who is a regular presence on the TV. But a lot of his day-to-day life still seems to revolve around the fascinatingly abstract and complex world of pure maths which, as his current quest suggests, is becoming ever more onerous and complex. Modern mathematicians stand on top of a body of knowledge that stretches back centuries. A great many theorems have been proved; even some of the most complicated fields of research have been fully explored, and closed off. To appreciably extend human understanding often seems to require unfathomable intellectual leaps. My PhD students seem to have to spend three years just getting to the point where they understand whats being asked of them, he says. Once again, he looks pained. We seem to be hitting problems that will require so many strands that one mind isnt going to be able to pull them together. Which brings us to a relatively new presence in Du Sautoys world: artificial intelligence, and the deployment of huge computing power by mathematicians working at their subjects cutting edge. This is the starting point for his new book, The Creativity Code, a lucid, endlessly interesting exploration of what AI may mean for maths, the arts and even our understanding of what it is to be human. Unlike many of the mountain of books about tech, it is an essentially optimistic read, but it begins with a sharp pang of anxiety. I am going through a very existential crisis, Du Sautoy writes. I have found myself wondering, with the onslaught of new developments in AI, if the job of mathematician will still be available to humans in decades to come. Mathematics is a subject of numbers and logic. He thinks for a few seconds. I think that could well apply to everything, he says. Du Sautoy is an animated, Tiggerish presence, full of enthusiasm for his subject and for most of the stuff we tangentially spin into, from the US indie band Parquet Courts (whom he saw a few years ago at Glastonbury) to the philosophy of Ren Descartes. We talk for more than two hours; by the end, I have momentarily forgotten that I got a C in my maths O-level, grasped a handful of mathematical concepts and understood the intellectual journey that defines his new book. It is his seventh book, following on from The Great Unknown in 2017, which was about the outer frontiers of science, and dealt with questions that ranged from the nature of dark matter to whether or not the universe is infinite. As the opening passages of The Creativity Code explain, Du Sautoy had a watershed experience in March 2016, when he watched AlphaGo a program developed by the AI specialist DeepMind, which is based in London, and owned by Google play several rounds of the ancient Chinese board game Go against the games South Korean champion, Lee Sedol. Unlike orthodox game-playing programs, AlphaGo had used the technique known as deep learning to essentially teach itself how to play the game. The key moment came during the second match, when it suddenly departed from a conventional strategy. Go is played on a 19x19 grid, with the two players competing to capture territory with their black or white counters, known as stones. Human players always spend the early part of the game concentrating on the boards outer four lines, whereas, on move 37, AlphaGo decided to place a piece on the line five steps from the edge. Some observers thought it had made an awful mistake. But, as it turned out, an apparent flight of computerised fancy was the first inspired step towards AlphaGo winning the game, in an unprecedented way. Its not a human move, said one awed witness. So beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. In the past, Du Sautoy had watched computers thrash human beings at chess, but this was different. Chess was never something that felt threatening if it was done by a computer, he says. It gets simpler as you go on; you remove pieces. But Go increases in complexity because the patterns and shapes that appear on the grid get more and more complicated. I watched those games obsessively on YouTube as they were going on. And, with move 37, it was like: Holy shit! Is my world about to be invaded by these learning machines? What he had glimpsed, he says, was a case study in AI leaving behind formulas established by human beings and doing something creative. In Du Sautoys field of maths, it held out the prospect of AI moving beyond dull, if complex, number crunching, into the kind of quintessentially human activities that define how the subject works: strategising, discriminating and making choices about the interesting pathways to take. There are already mathematicians, he says, working on the basis that AI will do more and more of this stuff. But he also believes that there are aspects of human intelligence, well suited to maths, that are likely to remain ours alone. Slackers should take note: the human aversion to hard work, it seems, is often nothing but a good thing. I think human laziness is a really important part of finding good, new ways to do things, he says. I often look at things and think: This is just getting too complicated let me try to step back and figure out a shortcut. A computer will say: Well, Ive got these tools and I can just bash on, deep into the problem. But because it doesnt get tired and its not going to be lazy, maybe it will miss things that our laziness takes us to. Perhaps that will be our saving grace. Thats an interesting thought: the idea that because we dont have the ability to storm deep into things, were forced to find clever ways to do them. Maths is only the start of what his new book examines. Du Sautoy also looks at AI-generated art, and programs that have come up with superficially convincing works based on the techniques of such old masters as Rembrandt (a horrible, tasteless, insensitive and soulless travesty of all that is creative in human nature, reckoned Guardian art critic, Jonathan Jones). But perhaps the most interesting stuff he explores is centred on the relationship between technology and music. Du Sautoy is an orchestral trumpet player, and has just taken up the cello; his musical universe takes in everything from Sibelius to Happy Mondays, whose music he used to blast out of his window when he was a postgraduate at the usually quiet Oxford college All Souls. In the past, he has devoted plenty of attention to musics mathematic aspects, and the way that it is full of identifiable patterns and numerical relationships; this time, he makes the argument that, in following a finite set of musical options, many musicians behave just as algorithmically as computer software. Now, cutting-edge AI is being used to seize on this similarity and produce increasingly sophisticated computer-generated music. Some of it, he agrees, is little more than muzak: stuff that imitates a particular band or composer and ends up sounding like a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox. But other examples of music authored by machines are much more promising. In both cases, he insists, what computers often highlight is that music is much less mystical and magical than some people think. Whenever I talk about maths and music, people get very angry because they think Im trying to take the emotion out of it, he says. But when you talk to a composer well, I once talked to Philip Glass. He said: People respond emotionally to my music, but I dont put any emotion in there. The emotion comes out afterwards. Im interested in structure and rules. So I think that one of the points of this book is to take a lot of art forms, which everyone believes are something innately human that youll never be able to decode, and to show you a lot of these things already have structures that we can identify, hiding underneath them, which is what were responding to. When I ask him whether he thinks AI will, sooner or later, be able to come up with pieces of music that will amaze and move us just as much as any of the creative achievements pulled off by mere humans somewhat arbitrarily, I mention the Beatles Hey Jude and Stravinskys The Rite of Spring he says his gut feeling is that such feats will soon happen, but that isnt quite the point. There is no fundamental reason why at some point in the future we cant make a machine that is conscious Marcus du Sautoy The best musical use of AI, he says, is in partnership with human beings something demonstrated by the Continuator, a device developed by a French AI specialist Franois Pachet, which can learn from a musicians basic style and then suggest radical directions to take. In the book, Du Sautoy quotes a jazz pianist called Bernard Lubat, who has got used to playing duets with this new machine: The system shows me ideas I could have developed, but that it would have taken me years to develop. It is years ahead of me, yet everything it plays is unquestionably me. This suggests the musical equivalent of the aforementioned move 37, and Du Sautoy thinks it says something profound about how human beings will interact with AI. We often behave too like machines. We get stuck. Im probably stuck in my ways of thinking about mathematical problems. And if AI can see that and say: Well, there are also these possibilities, perhaps it can kick us out of behaving like machines and, weirdly, make us more human again. He also believes that machines are likely to become more and more human outwardly at least. In the book, he says he sees no fundamental reason why at some point in the future we cant make a machine that is conscious. He mentions the stirrings of self-awareness that happen in humans when they are between 18 months and two years old. Something happens in the brain of a child where their consciousness shifts and changes, he says. And I think that theres absolutely no reason why a network cannot reach a sufficient degree of complexity that it is able to encode itself and have a sense of self. A pause. The reality, surely, would be a series of logical steps that may approximate empathy but thats not what empathy is. Its something almost beyond explanation: a feeling we have towards other human beings and animals and sometimes, inanimate objects, weirdly enough. Your challenge is exactly right, he says. But this is the hard problem of consciousness. We will never be able to know whether empathy is just a matter of appearance, and the same applies to you. The Guardian may have just sent along this incredibly good avatar, and Im just getting really emotionally excited talking to you. These things are already better at empathy than we are, he says. AI is able to recognise a false smile as opposed to a genuine smile better than a human can. And if were worried about a dystopian future, we should want an empathic AI an AI that understands what its like to be human. And, conversely, we need to understand how its working because its making decisions about our lives. This is one of his arguments for listening to AI-generated music, studying how computers do maths and, even if they are awful travesties, gazing at digitally produced paintings: to understand how advanced machines work at the deepest level, in order to make sure we know everything about the technology that is now built into our lives. Its also, he says, the best case for reading his book: We think were in control, and at the moment, were not. And unless we learn the ways that were being pushed and pulled around by algorithms, were going to be at their mercy. Once that happens, he suggests, perhaps humans and machines can move smoothly into a shared future as bright as his shoes. Theres actually a lot to be hopeful about, says Du Sautoy, before he picks up his yellow pad, briefly stares at all those shapes and equations, and prepares to get back to work. The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think by Marcus du Sautoy is published on 7 March by 4th Estate. | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/05/could-robots-make-us-better-humans |
Is giving 26-year-old Bryce Harper a 13-year, $330m contract a terrible idea? | The Philadelphia Phillies will be paying the slugger $22m when hes 39. But its unlikely he will be the same player he is now in a decades time For some, 13 is an unlucky number. For Bryce Harper, originally from Las Vegas, 13 is anything but unlucky. Thats because the Philadelphia Phillies will be paying the slugger who has been an All-Star in six of his seven seasons in Major League Baseball $330m over the next 13 years, the richest contract in the history of baseball. With a full no-trade clause and no opt-outs, Harper isnt going anywhere and the Phillies will still need to pay him $22m in the final year of his contract, when hes 39 and far from his prime. Its not really surprising that the Phillies were the team to land the 26-year old Harper. In a move surely regretted in later negotiations, Phillies owner John Middleton clearly stated the teams intent to acquire top level talent in the offseason, no matter the cost. Were going into this expecting to spend money, Middleton told USA Today Sports in November, and maybe even be a little bit stupid about it. Bryce Harper to sign record $330m contract with Philadelphia Phillies Read more But, for baseball, the concern hasnt been over paying stupid money, but rather for paying stupid money for a stupid amount of time. Risk averse teams are increasingly reluctant to hand out large sums of money to players they dont believe will deliver on the goods years down the line. Well, 13 years is a long-time and life happens, namely injuries. Recent free agent history is full of such cautionary tales. Miguel Cabrera 10 years, $275m: a herniated disc in his neck forced a premature end to the 2017 season and most of 2018 was lost to a torn biceps tendon. Albert Pujols 10 years, $240m: given his age at signing, 32, this one might have been doomed from the start. Injuries, particularly foot problems, have diminished his production to the replacement player level over the past several seasons. Prince Fielder nine years, $214m: signed by the Detroit Tigers, traded to the Texas Rangers. Herniated discs in his neck forced an early retirement. And for players signed to these long-term deals, the longer the contract, the greater the likelihood that injury will ultimately strike. In baseball, like other sports, injuries are difficult to prevent collisions with other players, being hit by a pitch, or an awkward dive in the outfield, can all put a player on the disabled list (for the 2019 season, its now called the injured list). Or, of course, the result of the repetitive stress of throwing a ball 95mph or swinging a bat hundreds of times a day. Though he is younger than the average free agent, the 26-year old Harper has had his share of injuries hip, knee, thumb, neck, shoulder most notably a gruesome knee hyperextension in 2017 that was the result of slipping on a wet base. Since the biggest risk of reinjury is a history of injury, minor problems can quickly turn into bigger ones, robbing a player of power and performance. While not directly related to aging, players then have fewer opportunities to post big numbers on the back side of their careers, because they are more likely to have seasons cut short by injury. Why Kyler Murray is set to forfeit a $4.6m MLB bonus and join the NFL Read more Chris Capuano, a left-handed pitcher with 12 years of Major League experience, believes that one of baseballs greatest challenges is the length of the season. The most difficult thing about baseball is the volume of games 30 in Spring Training, 162 in the regular season, and potentially another 20 or so in the postseason. A ballplayer needs to be incredibly disciplined about the way he takes care of his body and his mind throughout the year. Maintaining that level of performance gets harder each season. You obviously cant train the same way at 35 or 40 as when you were 25, says Capuano. Tom Brady is probably the best example of that in sports today. As your body ages, you need to refine your training to be more efficient, more recovery based. Yet, even when not at their physical peak, some players are just better than others. Researcher JC Bradbury, a sports economist at Kennesaw State, believes that the best players follow a different trajectory. It is a mistake to pay too much attention to aging when looking at these players because aging is gradual, he says. Player quality is a much more important variable. A player who is excelling at age 24 is likely to be improving into his late-20s/early-30s and then decline. Every players skill set ebbs over time, with those requiring less physical ability peaking later, specifies Bradbury, but those of the best players have farther to fall than the average player. Those who start with more skill an All-Star like Harper, for example maintain a better than average level of play longer, making them better candidates for long-term contracts. Bradburys research determined that performance generally declines after 29, but not every facet. For example, doubles plus triples per-at-bat peaks 4.5 years later for Hall-of-Famers, which indicates that elite hitters continue to improve and maintain hitting skills while other players are in decline. On-base percentage peaks later than hitting ability, presumably as players get better at reading pitches and therefore earning walks. One reason for decline in performance are changes in hand-eye coordination. Some players can adapt, others cannot. Research shows that some older players can still perform because they are able to compensate with experience. However, older players who cant compensate find themselves out of baseball. Recent increases in average pitching velocity have also likely affected which players can stick around. Interestingly, a recent analysis of long-term contracts in baseball, presented at last weeks MIT/Sloane Sports Analytics Conference, looked at performance during the other end of long-term contracts, the first several seasons. The research, presented by Richard Paulsen, compares a scenario in which an athlete plays a shorter, three-year contract with the first three years of a long-term contract. Paulsen summed it up like this, My work would predict that the player would accumulate about one fewer WAR for his team in the true scenario (first three years of a longer-term contract) relative to the three-year contract. Basically, for a variety of possible reasons, players tend to slightly underperform during the initial portion of a long-term contract. As long as teams are competing for top talent, there will continue to be special players like Harper driving the market. There is certainly risk in long-term contracts, but for teams willing to spend, they believe theres a lot to gain. But know this, the Phillies did not pin their hopes on Bryce Harper producing 13-years from now. Theyre banking on more immediate results. | https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/05/bryce-harper-contract-length-value--philadelphia-phillies-mlb-baseball |
How does physical activity in class improve a child's learning? | During the Super Movers Super-Size Experiment, where primary pupils were tested on their learning capabilities, 77% of schools saw an improvement in brain speed after exercise. Super Movers, a partnership between the BBC and the Premier League, aims to get primary school children up and moving in class with their Brain Booster and Just for Fun videos. To understand just how effective this can be on a child's classroom performance they launched the Super-Size Experiment. Schools from all over the country took part, resulting in over a thousand students being tested with memory and brain speed puzzles. At each school a class would take the test, before being split into two groups. One group continued solving maths problems at their desks, while the other group had a physical activity session which included moving along to Super Movers videos. Both groups then completed a second test and any differences, along with plenty of other factors, were noted. The results are clear, 77% of schools saw an improvement in the brain speed of pupils in the group taking part in sessions including exercise and activity. This improvement was up to 19% higher than their previous scores. The experiment also found that exercise clearly improved the mood of both boys and girls, while those who continued to do traditional, seated maths saw a decrease in mood. In boys this improvement in mood resulted in better brain speed and memory. In Operation Ouch's broadcast of one of the experiments, Dr Chris and Dr Xand explained it best: "Exercise boosts your learning abilities, because when you're active your heart pumps faster and faster. This sends more blood to you brain. "Blood is packed with useful nutrients and oxygen molecules, so more blood means more molecules to help you think quicker!" Super Movers aims to get children moving throughout the day with lots of free, easy-to-use video resources and great football-inspired incentives like a visit from the Premier League Trophy. Brain Booster routines star famous faces and cover key areas of Numeracy and Literacy. They can be used in the classroom or at home to help children feel refreshed and energised whilst learning. The Just for Fun routines help get the whole family active together. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/supermovers/47440613 |
Is London Calling JetBlue? | JetBlue Airways pumped up speculation that it will announce plans to order long-range aircraft and start trans-Atlantic flights, inviting employees to a special event next month. The airline said it would hold a chat about JetBlues vision and strategy on April 10, followed by a party in New York. The announcement spurred a flurry of speculation on social media after sharp-eyed observers pointed out that the background of the invitation resembled the seat fabric on Londons subway system. (jblu)JetBlue has been flirting with the possibility of flying across the Atlantic since 2016, when the carrier said it had the right to swap part of an order for Airbus SE A321 jetliners for a longer-range version of the plane that would enable such routes. The airline, which has said it would make a decision this year on whether to serve Europe, has touted its ability to lower obscene business-class fares on trans-Atlantic flights. Potential routes to Europe could provide us an opportunity to grow our focus cities of Boston and New York as we consider the best use of our aircraft from a margin perspective in those cities, JetBlue said in a statement Monday. The company likened the opportunity to trans-continental flights in the U.S., where it has made inroads with its Mint premium service. The trans-Atlantic marketespecially in the premium categorysuffers from the same lack of competition and high fares that transcon routes in the U.S. saw before JetBlue introduced Mint, JetBlue said. Dominated by joint ventures of major airlines, trans-Atlantic service has been undergoing a shakeup as a new generation of fuel-efficient aircraft enable low-cost carriers to expand. JetBlue would join discounters such as Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA and British Airways Level. | http://fortune.com/2019/03/04/london-jetblue-airplane-routes/ |
What will come after a US withdrawal from Afghanistan? | (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Abdulkader Sinno, Indiana University (THE CONVERSATION) The United States and the Taliban may be nearing an agreement to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan after more than 17 years of conflict. In return, the Taliban would commit to refusing access to anti-American organizations such as al-Qaida on its territory. As a longtime scholar of Afghanistans wars and conflict dynamics, I suggest beginning with a bit of history. The current conflict began when the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan a few weeks after 9/11. It was on Afghan soil that Osama bin Laden hatched the plot to attack the U.S. The Taliban, the de facto rulers of much of Afghanistan in the wake of a bloody civil war, had given bin Laden and his supporters shelter. Two months into the U.S. invasion, Taliban state institutions and defensive positions crumbled and the United States formed new state institutions led by Afghans who had fought the Taliban. The U.S. maintained a limited force to fight and capture al-Qaida and Taliban leaders but otherwise invested little in the Afghan economy or society. It took the Taliban four years to reconstitute itself as an effective force of insurgents to fight the U.S. and the Afghan government, and they became stronger every year after 2004. As I explain in my research, the United States and the coalition of 42 countries it formed to defeat the resurgent Taliban was poorly organized, abusive and mismanaged. Since 2001, the U.S.-led coalition has spent US$1 trillion dollars and committed a peak of 140,000 troops and 100,000 contractors to an unsuccessful attempt to defeat the Taliban. More than 5,000 American soldiers and contractors were killed. Today, a U.S. force of 14,000 troops and massive U.S. Airforce assets are helping maintain the defensive positions of an Afghan government that is widely considered as one of the most corrupt in the world. The Taliban are making territorial gains and killing hundreds of regime troops each month, and feel that they are on the cusp of victory. Militias that recruit from the Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek minorities have rearmed in anticipation of the collapse of the regime in Kabul and fear of a coming civil war with the mostly Pushtun Taliban. Afghanistan is nearing an endgame. What it means for the Taliban An agreement between the Taliban and the U.S. would be an impressive accomplishment for the Taliban. From their perspective, it would be their reward for fighting the worlds strongest military power to a stalemate. They already were rewarded by getting to negotiate directly with the United States, as they have always requested, instead of the Afghan regime which they despise. If the negotiations are successful, they would also be getting precisely what they asked for: an American withdrawal. In return, they are making a commitment to do something they would likely have done anyway. Al-Qaidas attack on the U.S. caused the Taliban to lose control of Afghanistan for years. They are not likely to risk having to pay that cost again once they regain control of Kabul, even if they dont sign an agreement. What it means for US There is little hope for an outright U.S. victory over the Taliban at this point. The remaining force of 14,000 U.S. troops is mostly meant to shore up Afghan state defenses. It is too small to reverse momentum on the battlefield. An agreement and withdrawal would therefore be attractive for those who value less military spending and stress on the military, including General John Nicholson, the previous commander of the American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The agreement, however, could undermine U.S. reputation in ways big and small. The Obama and Trump administrations never reversed a 2002 Bush executive order that added the Taliban to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, but they have simultaneously pleaded with them to negotiate in spite of claims that Washington does not negotiate with terrorists. It also signals U.S. weakness and inability to fight a dedicated force of insurgents. Militants elsewhere, including Islamic State leaders, could find this lesson instructive. I believe such an agreement may well be remembered as a turning point in Americas ability to successfully project its military power around the Muslim world. An agreement could also signal that the U.S. is an unreliable ally that abandons those who side with it. The United States is involved in numerous conflicts worldwide in places as diverse as Syria and Somalia, and many of its local allies would logically recalculate their own commitments after witnessing a U.S. disengagement from Afghanistan. What happens to the state As I describe in my book Organizations at War in Afghanistan, governments tend to unravel quickly in Afghanistan when foreign support, both military and financial, ceases. This is precisely what happened after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and stopped their support to the Najib regime in the early 1990s. As I report in greater detail in my book, different regime militias and military units either disintegrated, joined their erstwhile Mujahideen opponents or became independent militias. Similarly, todays Afghan state officials at all levels have long hedged their bets by maintaining ties with the Taliban, their nominal opponents and minority militias. If history is any indication, we can expect that entire agencies and units will either fragment or collectively join any of several strongman-led ethnic militias when the rewards of working for the regime stop outweighing the risks of facing the Taliban. Some may even defect to the Taliban. This is expected behavior in dangerous environments such as Afghanistan, where everyone is expected to have a hedging strategy for survival. Once the state gets pulled in all directions, Afghanistan will likely degenerate into a civil war very similar to the one that the United States interrupted when it invaded in late 2001. Other countries, including Russia, Iran and India will choose sides to back. I estimate that the Taliban, with their dedicated Pakistani and Arab Gulf backers will win that conflict, just like they almost did in 2001. We may very well reach a point where we see the 17-year American occupation as merely a futile, bloody and costly interruption of the Afghan civil war. I consider a U.S.-Taliban agreement to be no more than a face-saving measure to conclude a failed and costly American military intervention. If there is a useful lesson to be learned from this misadventure, it is that leaders of even the worlds mightiest military power need to reconsider the merits of a militarized foreign policy in the Muslim world. U.S. military interventions are stoking resentment and inflaming a perpetual transnational insurgency across Muslim countries. If it doesnt change its course, the U.S. may very well suffer more defeats such as the one in Afghanistan and will cause even more hurt and damage in other countries along the way. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/what-will-come-after-a-us-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-111036. | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/What-will-come-after-a-US-withdrawal-from-13663445.php |
Should public transportation be free? | One-in-10 Americans use public transportation on a daily or weekly basis. Some feel public transportation should be free in order to grow ridership and encourage people to choose mass transit over their car. But real-world experiments show that making public transit free does not bring in new riders, so the cost should stay the same. When climate change is top-of-mind for many people and governments, it would only make sense to make public transportation easier to access. The more drivers cities can get off the road, the less greenhouse-gas emissions will be released into the atmosphere. According to The Atlantics Joe Pinksker, the U.S. government subsidizes up to 89 percent of operating costs for buses and rail systems, allowing most public transit to cost less than $2 on average. Maybe free public transit should be thought of not as a behavioral instrument, but as a right; poorer citizens have just as much of a privilege to get around conveniently as wealthier ones. If the debate shifted from means-to-an-end thinking to pure egalitarianism, the hope of free public transit might actually be realized. But Pinksker admits that in cases where free public transportation has been attempted, locals were reluctant to change their behavior. According to Pinksker, the earliest urban experiment in free public transportation took place in Rome in the 1970s. The results were less than ideal: Romans couldn't be bothered to ditch their carsthe buses were only half-full during the mid-day rush hour, when hundreds of thousands battle their way home for a plate of spaghetti. Six months after the failed, costly experiment, a cash-strapped Rome reinstated its fare system. When train and bus systems are free for all, they only entice people who might otherwise walk or bike, not those who drive. With this being the case, theres no need for further subsidies or taxes to pay for public transit in entiretythe results would not justify the means. An interesting, albeit misguided, thread: free public transportation doesn't work, on its own. Raising the cost of car use won't do the trick. True. (1/2) https://t.co/qQpebXKEfZ Nicholas de Wolff (@usdew) December 16, 2018 Some argue a small payroll tax would be more than enough to fund train and bus costs for cities. According to The UrbanistsDavid Gordon, this system would shift remaining operating costs to employers and employees. A fare-free [transit] system can quickly and significantly allow low-income people to have more disposable income, reduce traffic congestion by getting more commuters on buses, and reduce the regressive nature of our high sales taxes. Gordon points out that the perks to free transit go beyond reducing greenhouse gases. A free system would also benefit taxpayers in search of faster commutes, as well as transit agencies looking to improve operations and increase ridership. The Case for Making Transit Free (and How to Pay for It) The Urbanist But others feel that making transit free will create a false impression for riders. Lucile Ramackers writes on Medium that passengers already dont cover much of the operating costs for public transportationmost of it is covered by the government: The major problem with free public transport is that it creates the perception of a no-cost service. Just as car drivers commonly assume that there is no cost involved in driving their car somewhere. Ramackers argues by increasing subsidies or taxes, improvements to public transit systems will be even more limited. As more people use these systems, the faults of outdated trains and buses will only become more of a nightmare. Instead, governments should encourage a number of different transportation habits to promote clean air: Indeed, we should support any initiative aiming at reducing air pollution and the scope is wide: improve public transport experience, promote car-sharing, encourage biking, develop Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) meaning electric cars obviously, but also electric motorcycles and scooters. The point is to widen eco-friendly and resource efficient options, so that anyone can choose the most appropriate means of transportation for their journey. Why making public transport free is a bad idea The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/politics/2019/03/should-public-transportation-be-free.html |
What Can Mardi Gras Teach Us About Food Trademarks? | For food and beverage companies, trademarks can offer a priceless competitive advantage. Given that today is Mardi Gras, it seems only appropriate to examine food trademarks through the lens of New Orleans. For example, a courtroom battle over trademarks and beer has broken out in the week before Mardi Gras. Spilling out of New Orleans Bourbon Street into federal court, a local businesses claims that its Huge descriptor of its alcoholic beverages is being infringed by a competitor offering Giant drinks. Distinctiveness represents one of the key criteria for trademark protection. Generally, prospective marks may have a stronger claim when they are more fanciful and less descriptive. As one court put it, the protection accorded trademarks is directly related to the marks distinctiveness. That is, a proposed mark that is completely arbitrary to the nature of the product might obtain greater protection than a mark using a descriptive term without a secondary meaning. New Orleans was home to a canonical trademark case that examined the distinctiveness of trademarked foodstuffs. In that case, Zatarains accused another company of infringing on its Fish-Fri and Chick-Fri marks for mixes used to fry fish and chicken, respectively. Noting that it need not tarry long for it had other fish to fry, the court found that both marks were descriptive. As the court put it, Chick-Fri is at least as descriptive of the act of frying chicken as Fish-Fri is descriptive of frying fish. Nevertheless, the court ruled that Fish-Fri had acquired a secondary meaning specific to the New Orleans area, whereas Chick-Fri had not done so. Using survey evidence combined with what the court described as circumstantial evidence of secondary meaning consisting of use over a period of several decades combined with significant local advertising and sales, Zatarains was able to prove that its Fish-Fri mark had acquired secondary meaning in the minds of the New Orleans consuming public such that it was a protectable trademark. Words, symbols, designs, and names are among the marks eligible for protection under trademark law. In one recent case involving the denial of an application for a temporary restraining order, two quick service restaurants battled over the use of Cajun in connection with chicken biscuits. That court there assessed the alleged trademark infringement of Cajun Filet Biscuit and the phrase GottaWannaNeedaGettaHava, recognizing that the GottaWannaNeedaGettaHava phrase was more abstract and thus subject to greater protection than the descriptive biscuit mark. Ultimately, the court concluded that it simply cannot be that a single company has a monopoly on putting a piece of Cajun spiced chicken between two sides of a biscuit. Product configuration represents another category of registrable trademarks. In order to be registrable, any product configuration must have acquired distinctiveness and it must be non-functional, according to Anne Glazer, a partner at Stoel Rives focusing on trademarks. Glazer added that these are generally difficult standards to meet. Nonetheless, the configurations of food products like Bugles snacks and Goldfish crackers have cleared this bar. In just the past month, the product configuration of the Bubba Burger, an unusually-shaped frozen burger patty, was granted preliminary trademark approval and was published for potential opposition. Glazer noted that the Bubba Burger applicant had submitted extensive evidence of its sales and advertising in order to show acquired distinctiveness and claimed that the unusual shape has no functional benefits in relation to the manufacturing, cooking, or texture of the product. Whether or not one celebrates Mardis Gras with a burger or a king cake marked with a trademarked dog made out of Mardi Gras beads, New Orleans and Mardi Gras have much to teach us all about food trademarks. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommytobin/2019/03/05/mardigras/ |
Will Trump Sign A Paper Tiger Trade Deal With China? | Impossible to enforce commitments like guaranteeing China buy up all those Iowa soybeans as they said instead of the ones growing in Mato Grosso, Brazil. And allowing Americans to win a case now and then against their Chinese counterparts in mainland China in the country's new IP court. For starters, that's a simple example of a bad deal. A "great deal" would depend on almost full capitulation by Xi Jinping. A near reversal of Communist Party industrial policy commitments, for starters, and a legal framework everyone agrees is on par with the Western world's intellectual property laws. Some of the Trump Administration's China hit list will miss the mark. There is no way China's state-owned enterprises (SOE) are going to stop supporting favored industries, especially in their Made in 2025 technology policy plan. Washington can hit them with 25% tariffs, and China gets to keep all those things without any guarantees at all. In the overall scheme of things, China would be fine with that. Economists have estimated that 25% tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods would cut China's GDP by around half a percentage point. A weak trade deal looks kind of like this: no guarantees in anything. No more tariffs, or rumors of tariffs. Xi buys his time. Donald Trump could be gone by January 2021. Settling for less comes with consequences, says Nick Marro, a China analyst for The Economist Intelligence Unit. One of those consequences could be the early retirement (or firing) of Trump's chief China bulldogs, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House Trade and Industrial Policy director Peter Navarro. "Differences over this issue have emerged between Trump and Lighthizer," says Marro. "Lighthizer has focused squarely on China's industrial policy, while the U.S. Commerce and Treasury departments have looked more at questions about subsidies, industrial overcapacity and currency. The latest developments suggest a deeper break in the unity of the U.S. trade team." Trump has hinted at tying any trade settlement to lifting the U.S. case against Huawei, China's premier telecommunication systems company. Huawei has been singled out by U.S. intelligence agenciesas well as the governments in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UKfor spying. Canada, New Zealand and Australia have all seen their relations with China suffer after coordinating a harsher stance on Huawei with the U.S. Beijing views these spying allegations as nothing more than official means to pressure Huawei from developing technologies better, or faster, than their American counterparts. Beijing will never take what the intel agencies say on Huawei as the gospel truth. Huawei is the poster child of China's Made in 2025. China wants many more Huawei's. The U.S., less so. "China will never ever change its Made in 2025 policy to appease the U.S.," says Chi Lo, a China strategist for BNP Paribas Asset Management in Hong Kong. Inbound foreign investment is welcomed in China only insofar as it doesnt undermine their industrial policy goals to develop its high tech economy. At the heart of it all is the fact that these are two entirely different economic and political systems. China has a top-down industrial policy. The U.S. does not. Its development depends on private capital. China's depends on both private capital and its government banks, which happen to be the biggest banks in the world. "Maybe Xi would change the rhetoric on Made in 2025. That's it," says Lo. "It's his pillar policy. That's his Make China Great Again. Imagine Xi telling Trump to temper Make America Great Again and watch what happens. Tech for Xi underscores everything from economic development to the military." For China, the extension of the tariff timeline from 90 days to another 60 days -- or potentially no time limit at all -- suggests Trump has a weak appetite for escalating the trade war, even though top Democrats support it. China's strategy of not conceding has proved successful. Despite the stock market sinking over 20% last year, 2019 has seen a complete reversal. Chinese equities are better than the S&P 500 and are beating the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. More importantly, Xi's political fortunes are not tied to the Shanghai Composite. Trump's is. A slowing economy and a sinking stock market give Trump less ammo to beat the Democrats in 2020. A paper tiger deal is also a deal that does little to convince China that its SOEs can not keep subsidizing strategic sectors. China has to come clean, admit it is part of the global economy now, and play by Western rules. Lastly, if any final deal omits greater protections against intellectual property theft, Trump, Lighthizer, and Navarro would have overseen a rather blase trade deal. According to a recently published survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, the need for a fair, clearer regulatory framework and stronger IP protections are the top two headwinds when doing business in China today. This is a multi-decade fight. A signature on a piece of paper citing a truce has been met does not mean the talks are over. An agreement should mean the U.S. can go back to tariff threats, including doubling those already on the books. For his part, Lighthizer said this was all indeed a process. Trump-style pomp and circumstances do not mean the credits have rolled on Trade War: The Movie. "Im not foolish enough to think that theres going to be one negotiation thats going to change all of the practices of China out our relationship with them," Lighthizer told Congress last week. "I think that we have to take on the major issues and we have to specifically preclude anti-market practices that are unfair...and there are lots of them," he said. Chinese leaders are also struggling with this. Chinas annual gathering of its legislative and political advisory bodies known as the two sessions takes place in Beijing over the next two weeks. It is one of the key events in the countrys political calendar. This years meetings tackle the way Xi has managed the trade dispute, as they like to call it; a dispute many in the private sector are as unhappy with as are their U.S. counterparts. Economists from the New York Federal Reserve, Princeton and Columbia universities estimated this week that the tariffs imposed by Trump on China and elsewhere cost American companies and consumers $4.4 billion a month last year. Despite this, the economy remains on solid ground and the stock market has escaped the bears. Our biggest concern in the business community is that the rules are changing, were adjusting to new economic circumstances, national security challenges, and law enforcement, said Timothy Stratford, chairman at the American Chamber of Commerce China, and a former assistant U.S. Trade Representative. He was speaking at an event in Hong Kong on Monday. We need more clarity as to how the U.S. and China are dealing with these issues," he said. "It's not clear what state were operating in. Stratford was attending the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce Business Summit when he made that comment. Articles in the South China Morning Post said speakers complained about the mixed messages they were getting from Washington. Or is there still great distance on the issues, as White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow has said. "At the end of this negotiation, if were successful, there will be signing and then theres going to be a long process of me working with Congress to ensure that we actually live up to this deal," Lighthizer told Congress last week. "I believe other problems are going to arise and theyll have to be dealt with." | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2019/03/05/will-trump-sign-a-paper-tiger-trade-deal-with-china/ |
Is The Roth IRA More Valuable Under Trump Tax Plan? | The news has been abuzz with people who are displeased about their shrinking tax refunds under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), or as its more commonly called, the Trump Tax Plan. I recently spoke with a couple who were accustomed to getting back several thousand dollars per year. However, they ended up owing more $10,000 when they filed their 2018 federal income taxes. A surprise tax bill like this might cause a taxpayer to scream and then look for ways to cut that tax bill. One of those ways might be a Traditional IRA contribution to lower your current tax liability. While that may be a good step in the right direction, the Trump Tax Plan may make a Roth IRA contribution more valuable in the long term for the average taxpayer. If you google Traditional IRA versus Roth IRA, you will see more than 650,000 results. While there are a number of opinions out there about which is the better option, I think most people should have a combination of pre-tax accounts (Traditional IRA, 401(k)) and post-tax accounts (Roth IRA, Roth 401(k), regular investment accounts). It is important to point out that the Roth IRA may become more valuable to you because of the new Trump Tax Plan. At least that has been the case for many people. Tax-free growth and tax-free income might be quite appealing to current and future retirees. At the same time, more money in your pocket to maximize today could be extremely tempting as well. The reality is that tax rates have been lowered under the TCJA. Lower tax rates decrease the value of a current tax deduction. Pair that with the ballooning federal deficits, and one can reasonably expect that tax rates will have to be higher at some point in the future. A Roth IRA is a type of retirement account that you fund with post-tax money. Put another way, you will not get a tax deduction for your contributions. However, assuming you follow Roth IRA rules, all of your growth and withdrawals in the future will be tax free. For 2018, you can still contribute up to $5,500 into a Roth IRA. Individuals who are at least 50 years old are able to contribute an additional $1,000. April 15, 2019 is the deadline to open and fund an IRA, or Roth IRA, for the 2018 tax year. Keep in mind that there are income limitations. If you are single and make between $120,000 and $135,000, your contributions will be limited. If you earn more than $135,000 you will not be able to contribute at all. The phaseout range is $189,000 to $199,000 for married couples filing jointly. If you make more than this you want to check out the Rich Person Roth which doesn't come with any income restrictions. There is also the Roth 401(k). Individuals are allowed to put up to $18,500, for tax year 2018, into this type of account. That assumes your employer offers this type of retirement account. Like a Roth IRA, the Roth 401(k) allows an individual, who is at least 50 years old, to make catch up contributions up to an additional $6,000 each year. No Required Minimum Distributions Once you reach the age of 70 , an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) formula tells you how much you must take out of your retirement accounts each year. This is called a required minimum distribution (RMD). All of that will likely be counted as taxable income, which could push other retirement income into higher tax brackets. That does not even take into account increased taxes that may be due on Social Security benefits and having higher premiums due for Medicare Part B. I should point out that Roth IRAs are not subject to RMD requirements. They can also offer some retirement income protection in the form of diversity of taxation on your retirement income. They may also provide opportunities for proactive tax planning as well, which if done properly, could help minimize taxes and therefore net more (in your pocket) retirement income. Take Advantage of Low Tax Rates Now If you are in the final stretch of retirement planning, now may be a good time to be funding your Roth accounts or looking at Roth IRA conversions. If you are retired and find yourself in a lower tax bracket than expected, consider converting a portion of your retirement savings into a Roth IRA each year. Do not do it all at once or you will likely end up in a higher tax bracket during the conversion. The funds can then grow, and come out tax free. When handled properly, the tax savings could be substantial. Typically, the younger you are the more value a Roth IRA contribution can bring down the road. That is simply because your money will have more time to compound and grow tax free. For example, lets say you are 22 years old and put in $5,500 today. Assuming that dollar amount grew at 8% per year until age 70, you could have more than $220,000. You would also be able to pull out all of that money, tax free once you retired. To put that in perspective, if you pulled $220,000 out of an IRA today, the federal income taxes that you would be required to pay would be as high as 35% based on 2018 tax brackets. Related: 5 Legal Ways to Get Tax Free Income In Retirement The bottom line is that the more time you have until retirement, the more opportunity you have to let your money grow and compound. Younger workers tend to make less money early in their careers, which may cause them to think they will start investing once they are earning higher salaries. However, making regular investments into a Roth IRA earlier in your career, and then transitioning to a traditional IRA or 401(k) as your income increases, can be a smart move. When doing comprehensive financial plans for clients, we typically look to have a combination of pre-tax and post-tax money by the time they achieve financial freedom. The new tax law may be making your tax refund smaller. But it may be making the benefits of Roth accounts bigger. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrae/2019/03/05/roth-ira/ |
Do Customers Really Want To Be In Control? | "Customers are connected." "Customers are more informed than ever." "Customers trust each other more than brands." "Customers have the power." "Customers are in control." I'm sure that you've seen a headline somewhere across the web recently with those words or some variation of those words. It's the last sentence (maybe the last two) that really baffles me. There's been a lot of talk lately about customers having the power and being in control. First things first: a refresher. I define it as the sum of all the interactions that a customer has with an organization over the life of the relationship with that company. More importantly, it's the feelings, emotions and perceptions the customer has about those interactions. Yes. I used the word "relationship." Some people question if that's the right word to use. Well, according to Oxford Living Dictionaries, a relationship is: "The way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected. The way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave toward each other." It's a connection. It's how we connect. It's feelings about -- and behaviors toward -- each other. It's a two-way street. I think we're safe using the word "relationship" in this context, although I do question if brands really care about their customers. The one thing we should keep in mind is that relationships are not managed, as some software platforms might have you believe, nor are they controlled. Instead, they are developed and nurtured. Imagine if your spouse or significant other controlled or managed your relationship or vice versa. I don't believe customers want to be "in control." Honestly, it's less about control and power and more about expectations and having their expectations known -- and met. It's more about brands doing the right thing. It's about customers knocking brands over the head and saying: "We're tired of being treated poorly! You ask us for feedback, you capture all this data about us, and yet, you still deliver an experience that is primitive, at best." Think about this for a moment. Great customer experiences have many attributes. They're personalized, emotional, memorable, relevant, consistent, etc. But three attributes that rise to the top and get their share of press time on an ongoing basis are: effortless, convenient and simple. Customers are smarter and more informed than ever before. And, yes, that raises their expectations. But all they want is for things to be easy. Remember, this relationship thing is a two-way street: Brands ask customers for feedback. Customers provide feedback, both solicited and unsolicited. Brands track and capture the breadcrumbs of data that customers leave as they interact with the brand. Brands must use that data, combined with the feedback customers provide, to understand customers and their expectations, then to design and deliver a better experience. Customers continue to do business with them. Customers want brands to say, "We heard you, and here's what we've done." Brands want customers to continue doing business with them. I think that's part of the problem. I think that's why this notion of "control" came about. Customers just got ticked off, and the relationship became one-sided. Brands focused on bringing customers into the fold but then didn't take care of them and nurture the relationship afterward. Companies stopped paying attention, and customers got tired of it. After all, we're all human. I know I've used the terms "brands" and "companies" here, but the bottom line is that brands and companies are run by people. People make the decisions to do business the way that they do. Be more human. Be more humane. We are all customers. We make our own lives -- and the lives of others -- more difficult. As you can tell, I have a lot more questions around that thought than I have answers at the moment. But I do think it's a fair line of questioning. Ultimately, I think a better word for what customers want is a participative role in the relationship. It's not about control, and it's not about being one-sided. Customers have needs and have jobs to be done, and companies' products and services help them fulfill those needs or achieve those jobs. Companies are in business to create and to nurture customers. They need each other. One closing thought. There is one way that customers have control: They have a choice. They can walk away. Treat them poorly, and the relationship is over. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/03/05/do-customers-really-want-to-be-in-control/ |
What Happens to Londons Food Scene After Brexit? | Read: Brexit is chaos. The movie about it is anything but. Britains welcoming food culture wasnt always so. Before chicken tikka masala was declared a true British national dish and upscale gastropubs specificalizing in classic British pub fare began to emerge, traditional English cuisine was stereotypically grimdefined by the likes of mutton pies, sausage rolls, and black pudding. And though such tropes have long outlived their relevancewith almost every kind of cuisine available not just in London, but across the countrythey highlight the contrasting visions that Brexit has helped create: an outward-looking Britain that embraces international influences versus an inward-looking Britain that seeks to keep them out. Ottolenghi opened his first deli with his business partners Sami Tamimi and Noam Bar nearly two decades ago in Notting Hill, a fashionable and cosmopolitan neighborhood in West London. At the time, Londons restaurant scene had yet to gain the global prominence that it holds today. Though the city had fine French and Italian dining, it hadnt attracted many flavors beyond Europe. But that didnt mean people didnt have an appetite for them. In Notting Hill, we had this international, extremely well-traveled, affluent crowd, Ottolenghi said. We were beneficiaries of that sense of hunger for outside influences. With Bar handling the business side of things, Ottolenghi and Tamimi focused their efforts on the food, which was influenced in large part by their shared hometown, Jerusalem. Their Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds, respectively, brought to their cooking a wide variety of Middle Eastern flavors, from zaatar and yogurt to pomegranate seeds and date syrup. Despite these influences, however, Ottolenghi said they didnt set out to make one particular type of cuisine. Its not Palestinian or Lebanese or anything of that sort, he said. Of course, it has some of those ingredients, some of those sensibilities. But its not traditional in any sense of the word. Seventeen years, three more delis, and two restaurants later, that intent still shows. Though Ottolenghis menus make no secret of preferencing Mediterranean flavors, they dont feign to represent one distinct type of fare either. And neither do the restaurants aesthetics. The bright and airy atmosphere of Ottolenghi Spitalfields, the largest of the delis, doesnt give guests any of the sort of cultural clues you might find at other restaurants. There is no music, leaving diners instead with the sounds of their own conversationsmany of which, fittingly, arent in English. (From my own table, I heard Portuguese and French.) Ottolenghi credits Britains openness to different cultures as one of the reasons his restaurants and others have thrived. For one thing, there isnt a national chauvinism when it comes to [British] food, he said. The Brits, in kind of a self-deprecating fashion, which applies to other aspects of national identity, have always been absorbing from the rest of the world. | https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/03/ottolenghi-brexits-consequences-uks-food-scene/583945/?utm_source=feed |
What Is A 401(k) Fiduciary And Why Does It Matter? | Yes. Every 401(k) plan has at least one fiduciary. Plans are legally required to have at least one fiduciary. Employers often appoint committees of officers and managers to act as the fiduciaries. A fiduciary is responsible for running the plan. The person, or group of people, who make decisions about plans and their investments are fiduciaries. They must act prudently and in the best interest of the employees. Prudence means that they have to make decisions carefully and thoughtfully. Its in the plans Summary Plan Description, or SPD. Each employee who is eligible to be in the plan should have been given a copy of the SPD. But, if you cant find it, just ask the benefits people at your company. They will give you a copy or they may point you to the plans website to get a copy. If, after reading the SPD, you have any questions about how the plan works or who the fiduciaries are, ask the benefits people at your company. Explained in a general way, it matters because those are the people who have to operate the plan properly and look out for the employees best interests. More specifically, the fiduciaries are responsible for decisions such as: Making sure that the plan investments are well-managed and reasonably priced. The officers and managers who act as fiduciaries must also monitor the investments, which means that they need to look at them periodically to make sure that they continue to be well-managed and reasonably priced. Selecting the service providers for the 401(k) plan. The most common service provider for a 401(k) plan is called a recordkeeper. The recordkeeper usually provides the plan website, educational materials, information about the investments, executes the investment transactions, maintains accounting records for participant accounts, and so on. In many ways, the recordkeeper is the heart-and-soul of the operation of the plan. So, its important that the fiduciaries hire a recordkeeper that can properly do those jobs. Also, the fiduciaries must make sure that the recordkeeper costs are reasonable. As with investments, plan fiduciaries must regularly monitor, or oversee, the recordkeeper to make sure that its services continue to be of good quality and reasonably priced. Fiduciaries have more than those two sets of duties. But, thats a good starting point. The law that governs the fiduciaries, known as ERISA, is demanding. If the fiduciaries dont act competently and knowledgeably, they can be sued for breach of their duties . . . and they sometimes are. One last question, What should you do with this information? First, if you are a company officer with responsibility for making decisions (for example, a committee member), you should ask for fiduciary training. Plan consultants, investment advisers, and ERISA attorneys commonly provide that education to committee members. Without some formal education, its difficult for plan committees to understand the full range of their responsibilities or how to satisfy those duties. If you are a participant in the plan, you should know that the plans services, investments and costs are being monitored, or reviewed, on a regular basis by the plan fiduciaries. If you think there might be a problem, contact your companys benefits staff and ask them about it. If the answers arent satisfactory, ask them to tell the committee about your concerns. Most plan committees take their jobs seriously and want the plan to work well. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/fredreish/2019/03/05/what-is-a-401k-fiduciary-and-why-does-it-matter/ |
Is Gender Parity An Issue In Professional Hairdressing? | Take a look at any New York Fashion Week hairstyling coverage and the names that pop up are overwhelmingly male: Eugene for Wella, Guido for Redken, Bob Recine for Aveda, James Pecis for Oribe. Dig a little deeper and peruse top artist agency websites and most editorial hairdressing rosters read like a boys' club. Women comprise only about 26% of hair talent at the major agencies, fairing better in the world of celebrity hairdressing where representation is closer to 40%. Those numbers aren't great. Traditionally, editorial hairdressers get the prestigious magazine covers, top designer runway shows and lucrative ad campaigns. Despite much talk about the democratizing of fashion, professional hairstyling remains pretty cliquey, heavily relying on a referral system and of course, agency representation. Many of the big (male) names have been at the top for at least 20 years and they still want to work. They tend to get the big jobs. A longstanding gender bias in hiring lead assistants is also to blame. Lead assistant is a coveted role backstage and on set. The demands are physical: long hours, heavy lifting, transporting of bags both your own and for the boss and ensuring electrical power for hair tools in unusual venues. Most gladly do the grunt work as the role often leads to greater opportunities. Assistants get their big break when a key hairdresser recommends him or her for smaller editorial jobs. Most male hairdressers still feel more comfortable allotting the grunt work to fellow guys creating a cycle of sexism. Even successful female hairdressers admit to the bias. Says celebrity stylist and founder of Ouai Haircare, Jen Atkin, I realized four or five years ago that I didnt want to hire female assistants because I thought girls were emotional, and wouldn't be able to carry heavy bags around, and get dirty. I was part of the problem from the 90's! Ive since realized women can multitask like no other. They wear many hats, take on many jobs, and do it with grace and fierceness. I love watching women kick ass. And women are hustling. When once there was only Sally Hershberger and Odile Gilbert representing females in the celebrity and backstage arenas, now women are redefining what it means to be successful in the hairstyling space. They put in their time backstage, nurture their celebrity base, then use their social platforms to launch thriving businesses. Atkin, called the most influential hairdresser in the world by the NY Times, spent some time on Guido Palaus Paris team and at the Chris McMillan salon before overseeing a budding haircare empire of innovative products inspired by her 2.8 million followers. She Instagram Lives her product development meetings to ensure she stays in touch with her base. Atkins contemporary Sarah Potempa used her stints with hair legends Bob Recine and Danilo, and 10 years as a P&G consultant to launch Beachwaver Co., a hair tool company that just added a product extension set to surpass 20 million dollars in sales in the next two years according to WWD. While Kirstin Ess who co-founded her client Lauren Conrad's beauty blog The Beauty Department now has a Target collection set to reach the 100 million dollar mark. In the brick and mortar realm, intimate female-helmed studios are rising in popularity. On the West Coast we have the trio of friendly Streicher Sisters who help stars like Emily Blunt and Mandy Moore get red-carpet ready. Another former member of Guido Palaus inner circle Teddi Crandford struck out on her own offering elevated services to fashion-forward brides and it-girls. Her East Village atelier White Rose Collective is chic and intimate and yes all 8 employees are female. She attracts top talent like colorist Jenna Perry who regularly colors Rosie Huntington-Whitely and Bella Hadid. One hairdresser is a young mom who Teddi allows a flexible schedule. Its a tactic Atkin believes is key for nurturing talent. She says, I think the salon owners and the high ups at the haircare brands need to think about daycare. I see so many talented female hairdressers give up their dreams because they cant financially take care of children and keep up with a demanding salon schedule. While gender parity in the rarefied world of session styling is improving, it's still a work in progress. A fact both sexes are happy to discuss to force the progress along. When posting her first Vogue cover of Reese Witherspoon hairdresser Tara McNaughten recently noted on her Instagram account, Thank you Vogue, Zoe and Tonne. Thank you Reese Witherspoon for your incredible work in the world creating much needed change and always creating a space for women. It is not lost on me how few women hairstylists get these opportunities, so I am grateful. It's a deft way of self-promotion tinged with a gentle protest. Women are good multitaskers. It would be unfair not to acknowledge those men who are also doing their part, using their privilege to help create an ecosystem where there are natural opportunities for young female hairdressers. Many emerging hair leaders like Oribes Global Ambassador James Pecis and backstage favorite Anthony Turner are hiring female lead assistants. Pecis is incredibly supportive of his team when they strike out on their own, often announcing their graduation from lead assistant to full-fledged editorial hairdresser on his social media channels. Notes Pecis, I dont see a difference between genders when I am looking for the best hairdresser. Every person carrys their weight (and bags!) regardless of gender. I dont see any gender as a disadvantage. I choose assistants for their skill, teamwork passion and dedication. In a way, I feel I have an advantage with my team because I dont limit my options to gender. One of his ex-assistants Sara Palmer recently left James team after eight years and along with another budding editorial hairdresser founded Off Black, with the aim to offer a print outlet for work and issues she felt were under represented. Similarly, Cyndia Harvey is a successful hairdresser for magazines but also contributes to the beauty conversation as an editor of alternative publication Dazed and Confused. Notes Sarah, Previously I was told by someone in the industry that its hard for female hairstylists, youve got to be tough, for me I feel you just need to be yourself and be good at hair, nothing else should really matter.following in the footsteps of Odile Gilbert we now have girls like Holli Smith, Cyndia Harvey, Esther LanghamEvery time a girl gets signed it puts a smile on my face. I feel like we are finally getting there. Even in the last four years I feel the industry has progressed a lot and no longer are you put into a box. Every hairdresser in this article cites Odile as an inspiration. Gilbert has been an outlier backstage for 40 years racking up honors such as the Chevalier des Arts des Lettres and collaborating with heavy weights like Rodarte, Carolina Herrera and Alexander Wang. She cites tenacity being a girl you always need to fight a little bit but also humility and openness as keys to longevity in the industry. Odile makes it a point to run a backstage that feels pretty zen and inclusive, even when a backstage includes sewing in fresh flower garlands onto 32 heads of hair. She notes, I love to work with hairdressers from around the world, in this way I learn something just as much as they learn something. Keeping your eyes open feeds your creativity. In a watershed moment two years ago TRESemme, long time sponsor of NYFW tapped Odile along with digital superstar Justine Marjan for their first all-female roster to key their 10 plus shows. A good thirty years divides the two talented womens careers, yet Justine, like Odile grapples with her own gender-specific issues. Says Justine, "Backstage leads can be hard and rough and at first I was really focused on being nice, and that didn't go so well for me. I didn't feel like my message was heard. The following season , I just tried to focus more on holding people accountable. Being a boss. My team actually delivered better results, and I think that's something that doesn't come naturally for women. We want to be people pleasers. Males lead backstage a lot and that type of energy is read differently. It's read differently when it comes from a woman, so it's intimidating and hard to think about stepping into those shoes. You can handle yourself well and still speak with confidence and power and be respected and heard in a good way. Im definitely still learning and hope to do a better job each season." No doubt Justine will continue to evolve for the better, lets hope the hairdressing community, agencies, beauty and fashion brands continue to do so as well. A recommendation from her ex-boss Jen Atkin. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/beamcmonagle/2019/03/05/is-gender-parity-an-issue-in-professional-hairdressing/ |
What's Next For Josh Rosen? | One of the most fascinating draft storylines seems to developing quickly and Rosen is playing a supporting role. But, whether hes the headliner, or not, it is going to be about Rosen at some point. Rosen is the side story of course, to Kyler Murray. There have been several reports in recent days that indicate the Arizona Cardinals are planning to take the Oklahoma quarterback with the No.1 overall pick. The speculation started in January after the Cardinals hired former Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury as head coach. Last season, Kingsbury was quoted as saying Murray, the eventual Heisman Trophy winner, would be his choice if he had the first overall pick in the NFL draft. It was cute, innocent praise by a college coach. However, lo and behold, Kingsbury ended up with the No. 1 pick. Last week, Arizona general manager Steve Keim wasnt overall committal to Rosen. Now, we have the Murray reports. If the Cardinals, indeed, do draft Murray, Rosen will be shipped out, weeks before the draft. The Cardinals traded up from No. 15 (giving Oakland a third-round pick) to take Rosen out of UCLA in the draft last year. He was the fourth quarterback taken. If Rosen going on the market (theres no way the Cardinals would keep both Murray and Rosen), he would essentially be another quarterback in this draft. It is not considered a strong class for quarterbacks overall. It would be difficult to figure on Rosens value. Surely, the Cardinals will likely, and should, ask for a first-round pick. So, teams looking for quarterbacks will surely go back to their 2018 draft files and re-studying Rosen. Rosen struggled in 2018 with the Cardinals, but that shouldnt be held against him. He had an awful supporting cast. He is just 22 years old. Rosen is also affordable. He has three years left of a guaranteed $17.5 million four-year deal he signed with Arizona last year. He has real value. Maybe Murray and Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins are better prospects, but maybe not. They are just newer to the league, thats all. If the Cardinals do put Rosen on the market, teams owe it to themselves to explore this opportunity, There are several teams that could take a play for Rosen. They include the New York Giants, Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins. The Jaguars may be out. There are reports that they are poised to sign former Philadelphia Super Bowl hero Nick Foles in free agency. It would likely too much to give up the No. 6 overall pick. The Giants would probably sway toward Haskins at No. 6. It could get interesting at No. 10. The Broncos need a young quarterback. Missouri quarterback Drew Lock has been heavily connected to the Broncos. Denver would have to seriously weight these two players. If the Broncos dont make a big run at Rosen, the Dolphins and the Redskins make a lot of sense. The Dolphins are expected to move away from Ryan Tannehill. If there are no worthy quarterback left at No. 13, the Dolphins could see real value in offering the pick for Rosen. The Redskins dont have much salary-cap room, but they can take on Rosens contract. It wouldnt be a surprise if Washington makes a real run at Rosen. Again, the Rosen talk will be triggered by the Cardinals deciding to take Murray. But we may be heading that way and it will be an intriguing side note to the huge commitment to Murray in Arizona. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/billwilliamson/2019/03/05/whats-next-for-josh-rosen/ |
Would Titans-Antonio Brown marriage work? Does a trade make sense? How likely is it? | CLOSE What I'm Hearing: Touchdown Wire's Doug Farrar spoke with Steelers sources that say GM Kevin Colbert has unrealistic expectations for Antonio Brown's trade value. USA TODAY Sports It came as a shock and an immediate ray of hope for football fans in Nashville: the Titans appear interested in Antonio Brown. In fact, they're among the top three teams most interested in the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, according to an ESPN report on Friday night. The Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers also have expressed significant interest in trading for Brown, according to the report. But on Monday morning, NFL Network reported the Raiders, Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals are among the teams that have appeared the most interested in Brown. The report also said the Steelers have enough interest in Brown to deal him before March 17. Still, the Titans should be in the mix for one of the most talented players in the sport. So it's worth taking a closer look ... A closer look at the numbers From 2013-18, Brown averaged 114 catches, 1,524 yards and 11 touchdowns per season. Those are once-in-a-generation-type numbers and those of a future Hall of Famer. And then there's this: Brown had six catches of 40 yards or more last season, the same number the Titans had as a team. For a Titans offense that has lacked explosiveness, the seven-time Pro Bowler is a dream acquisition. A key date when it comes to a potential trade is March 17, when Brown is due a $2.5 million roster bonus. If Brown is dealt before March 17, his deal with his new team will be three years, $38.9 million over the next three seasons with a cap hit of $15.125 million in 2019, $11.3 million in 2020 and $12 million in 2021. If he's traded after March 17, the overall figure for his new team falls to $36.425 million, with a cap hit of $12.625 million in 2019, $11.3 million in 2020 and $12 million in 2021. For an elite talent, that's a very reasonable price tag. Titans should be looking for a veteran receiver anyway Corey Davis is 24. So is Taywan Taylor. So is Tajae Sharpe. All three are still developing, and still not nearly consistent enough when considering the Titans' goal this offseason should be to surround Marcus Mariota, who is entering the fifth and final season of his rookie contract, with as much protection and as many weapons as possible. "You've got to have a mixture of veteran guys and youth at really every position group," Titans general manager Jon Robinson said last week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. "And I'd say that position group (wide receiver) is one of our younger position groups. We'll kind of go through free agency and see how the market goes, and if there's a veteran out there that we think can help us, certainly not averse to adding one of those guys." It's worth noting that Brown will be 31 by the start of the 2019 season, so a natural decline is looming a few years down the road. NEWSLETTERS Get the Sports newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Top and trending sports headlines you need to know for your busy day. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-342-8237. Delivery: Daily Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. In Mike Vrabel's first season as Titans coach, the locker room was a strength. It remained steady after a big win against the Patriots. After a big loss to the Ravens. Through the home stretch of the schedule, when the Titans won four games and put themselves in position for a playoff berth that ultimately didn't pan out. "I think the one thing that is a clear message to our team that I try to tell them is that were going to treat you the same way you treat the team," Vrabel said last week at the combine. "And its an easy way to say that we treat everybody fairly, but we treat them differently. Theres a lot of things that you can put up with as a coach and a team, and theres some things that you cant. I think that its important that any time you bring in somebody from outside the organization, whether that it be in free agency or you trade for a player, you just have to make sure that you know and are comfortable with what youre getting. Thats the tough part." Vrabel seems like an ideal figure to handle such a scenario. Back in his playing days, he was a prominent leader for the New England Patriots in 2007, when they brought in star receiver Randy Moss in a similar type of situation. That turned out pretty well for the Pats. The Titans have been a run-heavy team, which could make things tricky. Brown needs a heavy dose of targets to stay happy he's averaged 141.7 per season for his career and 171 over the past six seasons which would require some adjusting on the Titans' part. Then again, Brown would represent the most purely talented receiver the franchise ever has had, as good a reason as any to throw a bit more. CLOSE The Tennessee Titans' new offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, told the media on Tuesday that they will 'not be changing the language' of the offense. Autumn Allison, Nashville Tennessean And then there's their starkly contrasting personalities. Brown is loud, boisterous and commands the spotlight. Mariota is ... none of those things. Their chemistry would be something to monitor, but if Brown is getting his targets and his team is winning, that's plenty to keep him happy. No. That distinction belongs to the Oakland Raiders, who have a lot more going for them in the Brown sweepstakes. For one, the Raiders have three first-round draft picks at their disposal (Nos. 4, 24 and 27), so in a bidding war, they have the upper hand. They also have more salary cap space ($72,915,680 to the Titans' $43,464,313, according to overthecap.com) if they want to renegotiate a contract with Brown. Raiders quarterback David Carr and Brown seem to have a good rapport already after meshing as AFC teammates at the 2018 Pro Bowl. And Raiders coach Jon Gruden in December called Brown "the hardest working player I've ever seen." Also, the Raiders could use a poster boy for their move to Las Vegas in 2020. Oakland is the only two mentioned in both the report by ESPN and the one by NFL Network as teams who are most interested in Brown. Considering the Steelers have no leverage here Brown and the Steelers have reached an impasse and have agreed to part ways it's a buyer's market. It doesn't seem that the Steelers can expect a first-round pick for Brown straight up. The Titans might be willing to part with the 19th overall pick, though, if they get draft compensation back. Brown plus the Steelers' second- or third-round pick could make sense. But again, the Raiders have more draft capital to play with and remain in the driver's seat for that reason. A Tennessean subscription gets you unlimited access to the best inside information and updates on the Titans, plus podcasts like Talkin Titans, newsletters and the ability to tap into sports news from throughout the USA TODAY Network's 109 local sites. Reach Erik Bacharach at [email protected] and on Twitter @ErikBacharach. More: Report: Titans among 3 teams most interested in Antonio Brown More: T.J. Hockenson to the Titans at No. Iowa TE is downplaying the hype | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2019/03/05/antonio-brown-steelers-titans-trade/3054794002/ |
How quickly will Kayvon Thibodeaux ascend Oregons depth chart? | Were taking a look at each position group as Oregon prepares to open spring practice on March 9. The sixth of a nine-part series looks at the defensive line. EUGENE Oregon has to replace its best defensive lineman, but has the No. 1 recruit in the country in line to do so. A lot is going to be expected of Kayvon Thibodeaux and enrolling early will allow him to learn the defense during the spring and put himself in position to compete for a significant role immediately. But dont look past the returning veterans in Austin Faoliu, who will likely lead the defensive line in terms of production, Jordon Scott, Gary Baker, Drayton Carlberg and Gus Cumberlander. Projected depth chart: Defensive end: Austin Faoliu, junior, 42 tackles with two sacks and two forced fumbles Gus Cumberlander, redshirt-senior, 13 tackles with five for loss including four sacks Popo Aumavae, redshirt-sophomore, five tackles with one for loss Andrew Faoliu, redshirt-freshman Nose tackle: Jordon Scott, junior, 29 tackles with 3.5 for loss including a sack and a pass breakup Sione Vea Kava, senior, four tackles Defensive end: Gary Baker, redshirt-senior, 37 tackles with one for loss and a pass breakup Drayton Carlberg, redshirt-senior, 19 tackles with 3.5 for loss including 2.5 sacks with a forced fumble and pass breakup Bryson Young, senior, three tackles OR Kayvon Thibodeaux, freshman Departed: Jalen Jelks Due to arrive in the fall: Brandon Dorlus, Suavaa Poti, Isaac Townsend, Keyon Ware-Hudson, Kristian Williams Outlook: Minor injuries to Faoliu and Baker mean Carlberg and Cumberlander will likely open spring as the first-team defensive ends. But by the second week of practice and most importantly, once the Ducks return from spring break, the starters are expected to be back to full speed. Where Thibodeaux lines up and how quickly he ascends the depth chart will be perhaps the biggest storyline of spring practice, as Oregon has few unknowns on offense and natural successors at other positions on defense. The defensive line was not all that effective a unit last season outside of Jelks and has to improve at rushing the passer, which is where Thibodeaux should come in. Scott will be the focal point at nose tackle but who else new defensive coordinator Andy Avalos works on the interior will be worth watching. Avalos uses 2-4-5, 1-5-5 and Bear formations a lot. The packages hes able to install in the spring will give more of an indicator as to how he intends to utilize Oregons personnel in the fall. | https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2019/03/how-quickly-will-kayvon-thibodeaux-ascend-oregons-depth-chart.html |
Did Leonardo da Vinci create a nude Mona Lisa and if so, who was the model? | The Louvre thinks the great Renaissance master might be behind the charcoal sketch known as the Monna Vanna, and the sitter might not be a woman Leonardo da Vincis studio was a fun place. When they werent playing music and trying on clothes, he and his young assistants among them the good-looking pickpocket Sala enjoyed making rude jokes. For that is what the Monna Vanna is. This charcoal drawing of a naked woman, a nude version of the Mona Lisa posed just like his renowned portrait, goes on exhibition in Paris later this year for Leonardos 500th anniversary. The Louvre has detected Leonardos own hand in it evidence of his subversive sense of humour. The Mona Lisa, which Leonardo worked on obsessively for years and kept with him until his death in 1519, is a painting of veiled ambiguities. Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the Florentine woman who posed for it, wears a diaphanous silk headcovering almost too thin to see, and subtle mysteries resonate from her shadowed eyes to the distant riverscape. The Monna Vanna (it translates as vain woman) is a blunt travesty preserving Leonardos own sly interpretation of his masterpiece. Ever since Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache and goatee on the Mona Lisa in 1919, many people have seen this woman as a man and the atmosphere in Leonardos studio was far from strictly heterosexual. There is a drawing by him depicting his beautiful painting St John the Baptist, but instead of ending at the waist as the painting does, the sketch shows a robust erection. Leonardo was twice accused of homosexuality (a capital offence in Renaissance Europe), which may be one reason he left Florence to work in Milan. The muscular left arm strongly resembles that of a semi-naked Bacchus (or maybe St John) with long curly hair from Leonardos workshop, now hanging in the Louvre. The nude Mona Lisa may be a portrait of this wild youth, who died in a fight in 1524. One thing is for sure the fluid gender of this nude shows why Leonardo is still modern 500 years after his death. | https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2019/mar/05/nude-version-mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-who-model |
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