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Tennessee joins states urging court to reinstate travel ban
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee is joining more than a dozen other states in urging an appeals court to reinstate President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban.
State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, a Collierville Republican considering a bid for governor next year, lauded Attorney General Herbert Slatery’s office for filing a brief with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
The states argue the ban falls within the president’s authority to block foreigners from the U.S. They also reject the argument that it targets Muslims.
Norris last year sponsored legislation to allow the General Assembly to hire its own attorneys to file a legal challenge seeking to halt the federal refugee resettlement program in Tennessee after Slatery and Gov. Bill Haslam declined to sue over the issue.
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Shea Patterson leaving Oxford for Ann Arbor - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
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Shea Patterson is leaving Ole Miss and transferring to the University of Michigan.
Patterson made the announcement via Twitter Monday afternoon.
The Shreveport, LA native played in 10 games in two seasons with the Rebels, completing 238-of-392 passes for 3,139 yards and 23 touchdowns.
Patterson suffered a season ending knee injury against LSU on Saturday, Oct. 1. The Tigers easily beat the Rebs, 38-21.
Ole Miss was hit with heavy sanctions under head coach Hugh Freeze by the NCAA, allowing players the freedom to transfer to other schools.
Copyright 2017 WAFB. All rights reserved.
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Cambridge Analytica CEO Floats Bribes in Undercover Footage
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Photo: Joshua Bright/The Washington Post/Getty Images
It has been a very subpar week for Cambridge Analytica, the once high-flying tech company that may or may not have been instrumental in President Trump’s election victory.
First, an ex-employee described how the company harvested data from tens of millions of unsuspecting Facebook users, a deeply shady practice that has landed it (along with Facebook) in hot water and possibly legal trouble.
Now, the U.K.’s Channel 4 has revealed that the company is not above more old-fashioned forms of malfeasance.
In an investigative report released Monday evening, Cambridge Analytica executives, including its CEO, were shown proposing that the company could entrap political candidates by bribing them or hiring a woman to seduce them, then releasing the footage.
A Channel 4 reporter went undercover as the representative of a potential Cambridge Analytica client working to influence a Sri Lankan election. He spoke with several Cambridge Analytica executives, including the company’s British CEO, Alexander Nix.
Nix said that his company operated a series of front companies to secretly sway elections worldwide.
“We’re used to operating through different vehicles, in the shadows, and I look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you,” Nix told the reporter.
He went into lurid specifics about how his team could help flip an election, suggesting that they could “send some girls around” to a candidate’s house — specifically Ukrainian girls — to catch the politician in a compromising position.
Another suggestion: “We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land for instance, we’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the internet.”
Nix also described in detail how his company injects information
“into the bloodstream of the internet,” then takes pains to disguise its origin.
Cambridge Analytica had attempted to prevent Channel 4 from running the exposé, to no avail.
Once the footage was out, a company spokesman offered a hard-to-swallow defense of its dubious behavior to Channel 4:
“We entirely refute any allegation that Cambridge Analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapment, bribes, or so-called ‘honey-traps’ for any purpose whatsoever,” the spokesman said. “We routinely undertake conversations with prospective clients to try to tease out any unethical or illegal intentions.”
In a statement on its website, Cambridge Analytica said it “strongly denies the claims recently made by the New York Times, the Guardian and Channel 4 News.”
But the company is increasingly the target of outrage from lawmakers and the public. And adding to its woes, a U.K. data-protection agency is attempting to obtain an emergency warrant to search it.
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New in Milwaukee: Fried Chicken, Sushi and Mac 'n' Cheese
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Milwaukee restaurants were busy this month. One rebranded into a fried chicken shack, one opened a new location away from Downtown, and two food trucks opened permanent locations. Plus, an upscale spot comes to the East Side and mac ’n’ cheese infiltrates the suburbs.
Sushi Go
2110 E. Oklahoma Ave.
414-333-5565
sushigomke.com
$-$$
A popular food truck known for trendy sushi burritos has opened a permanent location on the corner of Kinnickinnic and Oklahoma in Bay View. Sushi Go is decorated with sushi-themed artwork and bright green accent walls. Customers order at the counter, then their meals are delivered to their table. The restaurant’s menu includes most of the same items as the food truck, including the salmonator ($12), a burrito made with salmon, pickled ginger, wasabi and soy aioli, jimaca, cucumber and avocado, and the spicy tuna roll ($10) with tuna tartar and spicy sauce. A menu expansion is in the works, including ramen, bowls and salads.
Milwaukee Brat House
4022 N. Oakland Ave.
414-539-5826
milwaukeebrathouse.com
$$
The Milwaukee Brat House, a bar and restaurant on Old World Third Street, has opened a second location in Shorewood. The new restaurant is in the former Oakcrest Tavern space and will follow the same format as its Downtown location, with plenty of TVs in the bar area for sports. Unlike Downtown, though, the Shorewood location is bright and airy thanks to large storefront windows. The focus of the menu is on sausages, plus plenty of shareable appetizers, sandwiches and burgers. A fully loaded brat ($9.95) is topped with kraut, onions, red peppers, mushrooms and giardiniera. Or try four different kinds of sausages and sides on the brat house sampler ($15.95).
Las 7 Estrellas
112 E. Dakota St.
414-539-4432
$$
The owners of a taco truck have opened a brick-and-mortar location on the South Side. Las 7 Estrellas serves a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner items seven days a week. The storefront restaurant is sparse but inviting with about a dozen tables and a small bar for dining. The menu includes plenty of Mexican favorites like a taco dinner ($9.75) with your choice of filling, along with some more unusual items. Lengua enchiladas ($12) are filled with diced tongue and topped with salsa roja or salsa verde. Steak and pork meatballs called albondigas enchipotladas ($12) are served in a chipotle sauce with rice and beans.
Hot Head Chicken
2671 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
414-808-04181
hotheadwi.com
$$
Bumstead Provisions, a restaurant in Bay View, has changed format and rebranded itself as Hot Head Chicken. The space has been redecorated with refinished wood tables, antique farm tools, and Edison bulb and wooden pallet chandeliers. Fried chicken is the focus, and it can be made three ways: Southern fried; Carolina gold with a mustard-based sauce; and Nashville hot, with a bright red cayenne glaze. Buy two pieces for $6 and add Southern-inspired sides like creamy cheese grits ($4) or salted watermelon ($6). Cheddar and smoked gouda mac ’n’ cheese ($7.50) can be topped with little bits like fried chicken or Cajun shrimp for an additional charge. One holdover from the Bumstead menu is the popular foie gras donuts ($5), served with blueberry compote.
The Original
2498 N. Bartlett Ave.
414-323-9668
theoriginalmke.com
$$-$$$
The former East Side location of Red Dot has a new tenant: The Original. The name is an homage to what owners Eric, Jennifer and Craig Rzepka called this original location of Red Dot. The concept is upscale new American cuisine in a speakeasy-like setting with low banquettes, tin ceiling and dark wood accents. Dinner items include a chicken liver mousse starter ($8), steamed clams ($15) with charred lemon and tasso, scallops ($24) with confit mushrooms and grits, and a flat iron steak ($32) with duck fat potatoes. Brunch is also served, including house doughnuts ($6) with cinnamon sugar and cider icing and a Wisconsin breakfast burger ($12) with a brat and burger patty, cheddar, egg and Dijon mayo.
Grate Modern Mac & Cheese
N92W16125 Falls Parkway
262-953-2540
gratemac.com
$-$$
A fast casual mac ’n’ cheese restaurant has opened in Menomonee Falls. Grate Modern Mac & Cheese is owned by the Roaring Fork Restaurant Group which operates 55 Qdoba locations in three states. Your mac is put together assembly-line style, similar to Qdoba. Grate’s menu is made up of freshly baked mac ’n’ cheese skillets in two sizes ($6-$9.50), along with a couple salads. There are about 10 different topping combinations to choose from, including Buffalo with chicken, buffalo sauce, green onions and carrot sticks; and pizza, topped with pizza sauce, pepperoni and oregano.
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Indians Hire Grady Sizemore As Front Office Advisor
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The Indians have hired former Major League outfielder Grady Sizemore as an advisor to their player development staff, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. While there’s no specific mention of Sizemore formally retiring, Bastian does reference the the playing career of Sizemore, who was a superstar-caliber outfielder with Cleveland early in his career, in the past tense.
Per Bastian, the 34-year-old Sizemore reached out to Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti over the winter to gauge what type of opportunities were available with the team. That initial conversation led to Sizemore’s current role, where he’ll be with the team’s Major League squad and work with the outfielders early in Spring Training. After a couple of weeks, Bastian continues, Sizemore will transition over to the minor league camp and work with the team’s younger outfielders.
It seems that Sizemore’s ultimate role with the team is yet to be determined, as GM Mike Chernoff tells Bastian that the Indians are trying to “expose him to as much as we can.” Sizemore has participated in closed-door meetings between the front office and the coaching staff, during which each player is discussed and evaluated at length. “When you have a guy of that stature, he’s welcome to help wherever he can,” skipper Terry Francona told Bastian.
If Sizemore’s playing days are indeed behind him, he’ll wrap up his career with a .265/.349/.457 batting line, 150 homers and 143 steals through 1101 games and 4724 plate appearances. Those basic stats, however, don’t tell the full story of Sizemore, who was one of the must dynamic talents in all of Major League Baseball in his early 20s.
Acquired alongside Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee in the 2002 blockbuster that sent Bartolo Colon to the Expos, Sizemore made his Major League debut as a 21-year-old in 2004 and never looked back. From 2005-08, he was on a short list of MLB’s best players, hitting .281/.372/.496 with three All-Star nominations, two Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger. During that meteoric rise to fame, Sizemore received MVP votes in four straight seasons and averaged 27 homers, 28 steals and 160 games played per season.
Unfortunately (not only for Sizemore but for baseball fans everywhere), an elbow injury cut short Sizemore’s 2009 campaign and ultimately required surgery. Upon returning in 2010, he incurred a knee injury that also required surgery and would cut into his 2011 playing time as well. The barrage of injuries didn’t stop there, as Sizemore had back surgery in March 2012 and missed both the 2012 and 2013 seasons in their entirety. Sizemore did return to the diamond in 2014-15, spending time with the Red Sox, Phillies and Rays. In those 209 games, though, his .242/.303/.366 batting line and diminished speed/power no longer resembled the output of his brief but brilliant peak.
Though injuries cut short a potentially sensational career, Sizemore’s natural ability and experience will undoubtedly give him plenty of insight and advice to pass on to Cleveland’s younger players in Spring Training and, potentially, throughout the year (depending on his ultimate role with the club). We at MLBTR wish Sizemore the very best in his new career track and whatever other opportunities he may pursue in the future.
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If You Voted for Trump, We Need You to Be More Courageous Than Our President
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I have plenty of family and friends who may not have been stoked on the idea of a Donald Trump presidency, but voted for him all the same. I have family and friends who claimed the “there’s no good option here” of the 2016 election and yet managed to choose one. And I have plenty of family and friend who, in the aftermath of the election, were upset people assumed unkind things of them, appalled they were considered to be of the same morality of Donald Trump simply because they cast a vote for them.
Dear friends and family, there are arguments to be made about that. But this is not the time. This is the time for you to embrace the fact you voted this man into office. You were part of the 46% that gave him and his ideas one of the most powerful seats in the world.
And so we need you - you, those who voted for Donald Trump; you, those who are the reason he is sitting in the oval office; you, those whose community make up his base of supporters - to be braver than our President. We need you to do what he seemingly cannot.
We need you to say the words white supremacy.
We need you to say the word Nazis.
We need you to say the word terrorism.
And then we need you to denounce these things. We need you to deem them evil. We need you to stand on your platforms, stand in the midst of your communities, stand in your red hats, and say they are wrong. Audibly, loudly, clearly say they are wrong.
We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
Is that so hard?? I’m hoping it isn’t.
I’m hoping the kind, decent people who were so upset last November for being “unfairly” judged by the candidate they voted for are still kind, decent people - the kind who are against white supremacy. The kind who recognize what masses of white men carrying torches stand for; the kind of people who see this is not okay. The kind that will speak up and say this is not okay.
I’m hoping that, although we don’t agree on much, we can agree Nazis shouldn’t be marching in our streets. We can agree the war fought over this ideology (you know which war I’m talking about? It involved the entire world) was the right thing to do. We can agree there is no room for these kinds of beliefs in 2017. As there shouldn’t have been in 1939. We can agree we need to put a stop to these beliefs.
I’m hoping you can see a car intentionally driving into a crowd of people as blatant terrorism. As it was in France. As it was in Britain. And as it now is, in America. I’m hoping you can say that word terrorism, and apply it to a white man. I’m hoping you can see that terrorism isn’t a byproduct of Islam. I’m hoping you can see a white American terrorist killed more people this year than any refugees.
I’m hoping you can see these labels matter, these words we use matter. I’m hoping you use them accordingly. I’m hoping you have the bravery and courage that our current president does not - to use words that have consequences.
Words with consequences are easy when we label Black Lives Matter protests as “violent”, when we label Colin Kaepernick’s actions as “too political”. Words with consequences get harder when we call a white supremacy protest an “alt-right rally”. Words are easy when any violence connected to a Muslim is automatically terrorism, when any black person shot by police is deemed a thug. Words get harder when the terrorist is the white boy from Ohio, when there are Nazis walking the streets in polo shirts.
Words, seemingly, are easy for our President to use to defend sexual assault, mock people with disabilities, make assumptions about people of other nationalities, define women by their looks, and attempt to start nuclear wars via Twitter. Yet words, apparently, are a lot harder for him where racism runs rampant, hatred runs deep, and evil runs free.
We need your words and we need your action. If this is not the America you desire, we need you to say so. If you don’t support this, you need to denounce it. If you don’t back this, you need to stand against it.
Silence is not an option. Silence is standing with the oppressor.
We no longer have to guess if we, too, would be marching in the streets during the Civil Rights Movement.
We no longer have to guess if we, too, would be willing to hide Jews in Nazi Germany.
We no longer have to guess if we would be the disciples weeping at Jesus’ feet or the ones in the crowd yelling to crucify him.
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3 state attorneys favor walling off Great Lakes to stop carp - WNEM TV 5
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Attorneys general from three states say a $275 million federal plan for keeping Asian carp from migrating into the Great Lakes is too pricey and rejects the most effective solution.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is recommending technologies such as electric barriers and water cannons at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois, which stands between the carp-infested Illinois River and Lake Michigan.
Attorneys general Bill Schuette of Michigan, Lori Swanson of Minnesota and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania say a better way is replacing the lock gates with a concrete wall that would divide the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. That would cost only about $5.9 million.
They say the Corps plan favors the needs of shipping companies over those of the Great Lakes fishing industry.
Copyright 2017 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Akufo-Addo Honours 10 Pioneer Ghanaian Foreign Service Officers
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President Nana Akufo-Addo on Wednesday honoured Ghana’s first 10 Foreign Service Officers at an event at Jubilee House.
The 10 Officers, 8 of whom are dead, are Harry Reginald Amonoo, Frederick Sigfried Arkhurst, Kwaku Baprui Asante, Frank Edmund Boateng, Kenneth Kweku Sinaman Dadzie, Abraham Benjamin Baah Kofi, Alexander Quaison-Sackey, Henry Van Hien Sekyi, Richard Maximilian Akwei, and Ebenezer Moses Debrah.
According to President Akufo-Addo, these 10 young men had the onerous responsibility of advancing and promoting the image of a country which had recently gained independence and was leading the struggle for the liberation of Africa from colonialism and imperialism.
“They were the most visible symbol of our country. Prior to their selection, they were subjected to the most rigorous of selection procedures, which ensured that their appointments were based wholly on individual merit, and not on ethnic, religious or political affiliations,” the President said.
Fondly remembered as the “G-10”, President Akufo-Addo noted that the 10 persons served Ghana with distinction and dedication, and left so many identifiable diplomatic achievements and landmarks, that have served to enhance the image of our country.
“They achieved legendary status in the annals of Ghana’s public service. The present generation of Foreign Service Officers should emulate them, and draw the required inspiration from their legacies with the determination to match, if not excel their enviable records,” he added.
History, the President indicated, has it that the “G-10”, as individuals or as a collective, represent, arguably, the best collection of diplomatic talent that Ghana has ever assembled and possessed.
“It is also a view held by many that, because of their achievements, Ghana has become well-known and well-respected all over the world. Successive Ghanaian diplomats, as a result, have been inspired to enhance further our country’s position amongst the comity of nations,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo commended the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, through its proposed Foreign Service Institute, for incorporating into its proposed training curricula, the study of the achievements of the “G-10”, with the view of producing other distinguished Ghanaian diplomats.
He also expressed the gratitude of the Ghanaian people to the families of the 10, especially their spouses and children, who supported them throughout the tenure of their assignments, both from close quarters and from afar, as they crisscrossed the world in the service of the country.
“Ghana is proud to have received from your loved ones the quality of dedicated service, which has enabled us to become the heirs of a country that enjoys international respect and an enviable diplomatic recognition. I think it fitting that they should be so honoured, as they have been today, even if, in the majority of cases, posthumously,” he added.
About the G-10
The late Ambassador Alex Quaison-Sackey, who served as the first African President of the United Nations General Assembly, at its 19th session, from 1964-65, is credited with having introduced the notion of “consensus”, which has since become a favourite word, especially in multilateral diplomacy.
The late Ambassador Ken Dadzie’s name continues to reverberate within the circles of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from where he, if fate had been kind to Ghana earlier, could have risen beyond being the first African Secretary-General of UNCTAD, perhaps, to becoming the overall head of the United Nations, even earlier than our illustrious compatriot, Kofi Annan.
Having opened Ghana’s Diplomatic Mission in Moscow in 1960, the late Ambassador F.E. Boaten worked at the Foreign Ministry between 1962 through to 1966, when he was elected the Secretary-General of the “Accra Assembly”, which gave birth to a peace initiative known internationally as the “World Without the Bomb”. He subsequently served at the UN in the capacity of Permanent Representative of Ghana, and was named by the UN as one of 27 Eminent Personalities on Disarmament, with his name featured in the “Who is Who” publication of that period.
The late Ambassador Fred Arkhurst, who joined the Foreign Service of Ghana, after having obtained a First Class in Economics in Scotland, subsequently served at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), then headed by another eminent Ghanaian, Dr. Robert Kweku Atta Gardiner, regarded easily as the official with the record of longest service at UNECA. Ambassador Arkhurst devoted his life, after retiring from the Ghana Foreign Service, naturally to the writing of books and other engagements within academia.
For the late Ambassador K.B. Asante, his diplomatic life was centered on multilateral engagements, having served mostly in Europe, where he focused on the latter’s relations with Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and on the European-based UN Institutions. On his return to Ghana, he became a public figure, who was eager to engage, publish, inspire and promote social, political, academic, media and other related causes.
The late Ambassador Amonoo, remembered for the role he played as Secretary to the Aburi “Conference on Nigeria and Biafra” in 1967, became a distinguished representative of Ghana, especially during the time he served in Ethiopia where he became Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity’s Committee on Refugees; Member of the OAU Restructuring Committee; and Vice-Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.
The late Ambassador Henry Van Hien Sekyi was the quintessential scholar, with an exceptional musical talent. As an astute diplomat, he gave distinguished service at key bilateral Diplomatic Missions of Ghana in Australia, Italy and the United Kingdom. Popularly referred to as “Sir Henry”, he was one of the Foreign Service Officers who accompanied our first President, Kwame Nkrumah, on his ill-fated trip to Hanoi in 1966. In retirement, he became the first Ambassador-In-Residence at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD).
The late Ambassador Abraham Benjamin Baah Kofi is remembered for the key assignments he played, especially on the eve of the formation of the OAU, when he was sent, in the company of the late George Padmore and the late Mr. Ako-Adjei, Foreign Minister, to confer with several African Heads of States, on the issue. He also accomplished, with distinction, his assigned task of opening a number of Ghana’s Diplomatic Missions.
Ambassador Richard Akwei, beyond his distinguished service as the fourth Permanent Representative of Ghana to the UN, became the Chairman of the International Civil Service Commission and, thereafter, became the Commonwealth representative for the training of prospective young diplomats for South Africa.
Ambassador E.M. Debrah is a familiar face in the Foreign Ministry where he has operated as a “Consultant-In-Residence”. As Ghana’s first Ambassador to Ethiopia, a Conference Room has been named after him in the new Foreign Ministry building.
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Two Fort Bliss soldiers mysteriously disappear in Texas
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Two Fort Bliss soldiers, who were also best friends, mysteriously disappeared in Texas just two weeks after the remains of a private from the same base were found in an Arizona coal chute.
Jake Obad-Mathis and Melvin Jones, both 20 years old, were last seen on the base on December 19 in a black 2013 Camaro that belonged to Jones, according to Fox News.
Obad-Mathis' mother, Carin Obad, told the network that her son's disappearance from the El Paso, Texas, Army base has been a 'gut-wrenching' ordeal.
Jake Obad-Mathis (right) and Melvin Jones (left), both 20 years old, were last seen on the base on December 19 in a black 2013 Camaro that belonged to Jones
'It's completely out of character for him,' she said.
Obad, 50, said she found out they were missing two days later when a sergeant called her to say her son had been declared AWOL after he didn't report for duty for two days.
Jones had been awarded leave for the Christmas break, so as of Saturday, Fort Bliss officials don't consider him a missing person, according to KTSM-TV.
However, Obad-Mathis didn't have leave from the base and was supposed to spend Christmas with his commanding sergeant.
Neither soldier has spoken with family since they went missing and their phones have remained off.
No activity has been recorded on their social media accounts, Staff Sergeant Haswell, with the Warriors After and Recovery program, told KVIA-TV.
Obad-Mathis' (pictured) mother, Carin Obad, told the network that her son's disappearance from the El Paso, Texas, Army base has been a 'gut-wrenching' ordeal
Jones and his father, Duane Jones, had tickets to attend Friday's Sun Bowl game. His father, arrived at the El Paso International Airport Thursday evening but Jones never arrived to pick him up
The two friends were both members of the same company at Fort Bliss following their enlistments in 2015.
Jones and his father, Duane Jones, had tickets to attend Friday's Sun Bowl game.
His father, arrived at the El Paso International Airport Thursday evening but Jones never arrived to pick him up, KTSM reported.
'When I got off the plane and looking for him and not having him looking for me, yea that was the hardest,' Duane Jones told KVIA-TV.
Jones' father said he speaks with his son weekly, adding that he's been texting his son everyday.
'Hoping that one time he would reply so I haven't changed my routine, hoping that he would actually reply,' he said.
Obad told Fox News that she was angry the Army had not addressed the disappearance of her son and Jones with more urgency.
The disappearance of the two soldiers comes just weeks after a coroner confirmed the identity of remains found in an Arizona coal chute were those of missing Fort Bliss soldier Private Devon Lee Ward (pictured)
She said she has been told a soldier has to be AWOL 30 days before a search is conducted.
Both Obad and Duane Jones have tried to file missing persons reports with El Paso police, but they were unsuccessful.
El Paso police officials told KVIA that it's because Fort Bliss is its own entity and military police handle investigations on post.
The families of the two soldiers believe they may be in danger.
The disappearance of the two soldiers comes just weeks after a coroner confirmed the identity of remains found in an Arizona coal chute were those of missing Fort Bliss soldier Private Devon Lee Ward.
Ward went missing in May 2016 after he signed out of the barracks and never returned.
His family said he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and had been suffering from depression prior to his disappearance.
In June, workers at a coal plant near Cochise, Arizona, were fixing a malfunctioning rotary plow in a coal chute when they found bones and body parts, the station reported.
The California native's remains were identified by the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office, through a positive fingerprint match.
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Tax Day is here; manhunt for Facebook shooter; Arkansas executions
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Here's a roundup of news trending across the nation and world today.
What to know now:
Pence on Korea: Vice President Mike Pence vowed to stand behind Japan as tensions remain high after North Korea’s testing of a ballistic missile over the weekend. Pence, who visited Korea’s Demilitarized Zone on Monday, said: "We appreciate the challenging times in which the people of Japan live with increasing provocations from across the Sea of Japan. We are with you 100 percent."
May calls for election: British Prime Minister Theresa May is calling for a general election to be held on June 8. In a surprise move, May said divisions in Parliament could “risk our ability to make a success of Brexit,” the country’s exit from the European Union. May said Parliament will be asked on Wednesday to approve the general election. The British pound fell against the dollar on the news.
Georgia election: An election being held Tuesday in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District is being seen by some as a referendum on Republican rule in Congress and President Donald Trump’s first few months in office. Some think that if a Democrat, including front-runner Jon Ossoff, can take the seat, it could signal enough dissatisfaction with Trump’s administration to put midterm elections up for grabs.
Facebook killing: A manhunt continues for Steve Stephens, who police say killed a 74-year-old retiree in Cleveland, then posted the murder on Facebook. Authorities have offered a $50,000 reward for information that leads to Stephens’ arrest. In a video posted after the killing, he blamed his girlfriend and said he “just snapped.”
Arkansas executions: The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the state of Arkansas from carrying out a double execution on Monday night. The ruling came as one of the two to be executed was heading to the death chamber. Arkansas officials vowed to keep an ambitious schedule of executing eight men in 11 days, marking the first time since 2005 that Arkansas has put someone to death. The issue with the executions revolves around the use of a sedative that had been used in flawed executions in other states.
And one more
It’s Tax Day, the day that your income tax return is due to the government. Americans got a few extra days to prepare returns this year because of Emancipation Day, a holiday celebrated in Washington, D.C. You have until midnight to file your return or an extension. If doing your taxes has got you down, check out these deals and freebies that some businesses are offering.
In case you missed it
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End of an era; Jack Baker reflects on 44-year coaching career
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NORFOLK (WAVY) – Jack Baker first took the job as head basketball coach of the Maury High School junior varsity team when he was 22 years old. He was barely older than the players he would be coaching. Three years later, he took over as head coach of the varsity team.
Not even he expected his career would last more than four decades.
“I was hoping, honestly to go maybe 10 or 12 years,” said Baker, who announced earlier this week that he’s called his last play as the Commodores’ head man.
“Calling it a career,” he said. “41 years is enough.”
Baker’s 746 wins rank third best in Virginia High School League history. His teams have also won 19 conference titles, six region championships and made a state final. “I just enjoyed it so much…I enjoyed the people and the players I was associated with, and I was having a good time,” said Baker.
His teams rarely lacked for talent. Baker has coached a number of players who rose to and above the Division I ranks, including Seattle Seahawks All-Pro safety Kam Chancellor and Joe Smith, who turned in an All-American career at the University of Maryland and was later drafted number one overall in the 1995 NBA Draft.
“Just a lot of memories, a lot of good memories, a lot of very very good players,” said Baker. One of those players is now one of his best friends. Cornel Parker played at Maury in the late 80’s, and credits Baker for his four year career at the University of Virginia. “He was the person who stayed on me in the building to make sure I was doing the right things to go to college and have the opportunity to get a scholarship,” said Parker, who’s now the head women’s coach at Bryant and Stratton College.
“To me, he was my coach, my friend, my big brother, and a father figure all in one.”
Baker may be done coaching, but he plans to stick around and teach at Maury for a few more years. Whoever steps in as the Commodores’ next head coach, Parker believes, “Nobody will replace him.”
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Stalled health programs await a green light on the hill
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With the clock ticking on the current stop-gap bill that funds the federal government through Feb. 8, Congress is steeling itself to consider another must-pass budget bill. And, once again, health care could be caught in the crosshairs.
During previous debates over government funding, it was the high-profile Children's Health Insurance Program that went months without reauthorization and became a bargaining chip in January. That program has since been extended for six years.
But the future of a host of other programs remains unsettled. Among them, funding for the nation's 1,400 community health centers and a delay on capping Medicare coverage of physical and outpatient therapy.
The specific provisions behind these initiatives expired last fall. Advocates now are pressing lawmakers to keep them operational by including language in the broader spending bill that must pass next week to prevent another government shutdown.
Some of the items in this eclectic legislative mix are often left to the last minute to catch a ride on another bill — known as "extenders" by Washington insiders, because they extend funding that is set to expire or delay funding cuts that would otherwise take effect.
On the surface, these efforts may sound like wonky, inside-the-Beltway machinations, but program advocates say they have real-life implications for many of the nation's neediest patients. For them, the congressional delay is causing concern. Here are some things you should know:
The provisions are important and wide-ranging.
Renewing federal funding for community health centers is the biggest ticket item — the clinics cost $3.6 billion per year, and provide basic health care for about 27 million low-income people. Also at stake is the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, through which trained home visitors teach poorer, at-risk mothers healthy parenting strategies to new mothers who are deemed at-risk and have low incomes.
Another provision forestalls planned reductions put in place by the Affordable Care Act — in federal funds given to particularly vulnerable hospitals that serve a particularly high rate of low-income patients, known as Disproportionate Share Hospitals.
And yet another would prevent limits, put in place by earlier budget bills, from being applied to Medicare's coverage of physical therapy, outpatient therapy and speech-language pathology treatment. Without action, coverage would be cut off after $2,010 of occupational therapy is provided and another $2,010 for the combination of physical therapy and speech-language pathology. Each limit would translate into Medicare reimbursement for fewer than 20 visits.
OK, so why hasn't Congress acted on these yet?
These are generally smaller programs that, in the past, were authorized or extended via provisions attached to larger, must-pass bills. One of the favorite vehicles was the "doc fix," which regularly moved through Congress to make adjustments in how Medicare paid doctors. That is, until a landmark 2015 law — the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, or MACRA — permanently addressed physician payment.
CHIP finally got funding in the Jan. 22 federal spending deal, but the other items were left on the table. One issue, many said: They're simply not as sexy, and the impact is harder to spot immediately.
"The problem is too much of the focus was on just one egg in the basket, and that egg got done. Now the rest of the eggs are saying, 'What about me?'" said Rodney Whitlock, a health policy consultant and former Republican Senate staffer. "The real-world impact of not addressing those is slowly becoming problematic."
Most of the programs aren’t politically controversial.
These programs usually pass with bipartisan support. For lobbyists and policy analysts on both sides of the aisle, that makes the funding lapse especially disorienting.
"Even things that should be easy and bipartisan are taking much, much longer and encountering much more difficulty than I think any of us would have expected," said Eliot Fishman, senior director of health policy at the liberal advocacy group Families USA and a former member of the Obama administration. "It's clearly a matter of political gamesmanship."
There is some room to debate how to pay for these initiatives. But even that is limited, suggested Thomas Miller, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
"If it's your economic interest at stake … this is an end-all and be-all. But these are not gigantic items — the consequences for the larger fiscal picture are not immense," Miller said.
Take the therapy caps. They were first put in place as part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, as part of an effort to curb Medicare outpatient spending.
But in 1999, right when the caps were scheduled to kick in, pushback from physicians and patient advocates led Congress to delay their effective date. Since then, Congress, has — except for a brief lapse — kept them at bay.
This delay in funding has consequences for patients.
Stephanie Weyrauch, a Minnesota-based physical therapist concerned about the therapy caps, said she and her colleagues are already starting to ration care.
She described, for instance, a 69-year-old man who is recovering from a stroke and about halfway through his allotted therapy. He will require several more sessions later this year just for that condition, which would bring him up to the cap. If his other ailments — shoulder problems and poor blood flow - worsen, Medicare wouldn't cover treatment.
"We have to make sure we're doing what's best for our patients. Sometimes that means we stop therapy early to prepare for a potential next episode," she said.
A fix from Congress could come next week.
Congress already provided some short-term funding for community health centers, which is "keeping the lights on," Fishman said. But it lasts only until the end of March.
And the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program is operating on previously allocated dollars.
In the meantime, the affected programs are struggling to plan for the future, Fishman noted. They are trying to come up with budgets and make staffing decisions without a sense of what their income will actually be.
But some people expressed optimism about what will be included in the funding bill likely to take shape in Congress next week.
"I continue to believe that when a spending deal gets worked out this train will ride along. … It is an election year," Whitlock said. "No matter what, this is one of those where it's got to get worked out."
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First flight in homebuilt becomes pilot’s last flight
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The private pilot/owner had recently completed the experimental, amateur-built Free Bird Classic and was conducting the first test flight near Kylertown, Pennsylvania.
He completed two circuits around his private airstrip before witnesses saw the airplane approaching to land.
While on final approach about 50-100 feet above the ground, the plane suddenly descended and hit terrain, killing the pilot.
Of the three witnesses who saw the accident, two said the airplane nosed over to ground contact, and one stated that the left wing dropped before the airplane nosed over.
Two other individuals heard the engine “rev up” before impact but did not observe the accident.
The airplane hit terrain short of the runway in a nearly vertical, nose-down attitude and sustained extensive damage to the engine, fuselage, wings, and empennage. The tail of the airplane was twisted and bent forward over the fuselage, and there did not appear to be any forward momentum of the airplane at impact, consistent with an aerodynamic stall/spin.
The witness accounts of the airplane’s nose or wing dropping were also consistent with entry into a stall/spin.
Given that the accident flight was the pilot’s first flight in the airplane, he was likely unfamiliar with its flight characteristics, and, during the approach for landing, he allowed the airspeed to decay. The airplane subsequently exceeded its critical angle of attack and entered an aerodynamic stall/spin.
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain sufficient airspeed during approach for landing, which resulted in an inadvertent aerodynamic stall/spin. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s lack of flight experience in the accident airplane make and model.
NTSB Identification: ERA16LA010
This October 2015 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
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These schools will be closed in Walsall on Tuesday
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With snow still on the ground and temperatures set to plummet many schools across the Midlands have taken the decision to close on Tuesday December 12.
But, as the following list shows, most still believe that it is much too dangerous to reopen - meaning another day off for thousands of pupils.
If your child's school is not on the below list, then it is because a decision has not yet been made - most likely it will be decided on the morning.
Met Office Regional Forecast for West Midlands
Very cold tonight with icy stretches.
(Image: Birmingham Mail)
This Evening and Tonight:
Dry overnight with largely clear skies, although a few freezing fog patches may form. With light winds, there will be another widespread and severe frost with a risk of ice for many. Minimum temperature -12 °C.
Tuesday:
Any freezing fog will lift to leave a fine and sunny morning. Sunshine will turn hazier through the afternoon but it should remain dry until evening. Staying very cold. Maximum temperature 2 °C.
This is the weather forecast for Birmingham on Tuesday as city recovers from snow bomb
Outlook for Wednesday to Friday:
Turning less cold and windier on Wednesday with rain or showers. Cold and sometimes breezy on Thursday and Friday with a mixture of sunshine and showers and overnight frosts.
Walsall Council took to Twitter on Monday evening.
They said: "This is what we know about Schools tomorrow. Some have confirmed (to us) they're closed. Where we state 'No details shared', it's where we haven't been notified, so please continue to check your school's website.
Walsall
Barr Beacon School
Aldridge School - A Science College
Blue Coat Church of England Academy
Brownhills School
Grace Academy Darlaston
Joseph Leckie Academy
Ormiston Shelfield Community Academy
Pool Hayes Arts and Community
Queen Mary's Grammar
Queen Mary's High
Shire Oak Academy
St Thomas More Catholic - Business and Enterprise College
The Streetly Academy
West Walsall E-Act Academy
Shepwell School and Home and Hospital Tuition Services
Castle Business and Enterprise College
Mary Elliot Oakwood
Oakwood
Phoenix Primary EBD
The Jane Lane School - A College for Cognition and Learning
Alumwell Nursery
Fullbrook Nursery
Lane Head Nursery - Part of Short Heath Federation
Ogley Hay Nursery
Rowley View Nursery
Abbey primary
Alumwell Infant
Alumwell Junior - Part of Alumwell Junior/Butts Federation
Beacon Primary
Bentley West Primary - part of Bentley Federation
Birchhills CE Community Academy
Blackwood
Blakenhall Heath Junior
Brownhills West Primary
Busill Jones Primary
Butts Primary - part of Alumwell Junior/Butts Federation
Caldmore Academy
Castlefort JMI
Christ Church CE (C) JMI
Chuckery Primary
Cooper and Jordan CE VA Primary
County Bridge Primary
Croft Academy
Delves Infant and Nursery
Delves Junior
Fibbersley Park Primary
Goldsmith Primary Academy
Greenfiled Primary
Hillary Primary
King Charles Primary - part of Bentley Federation
Leamore Primary
Leighswood
Lindens Primary
Little Bloxwich CE VC Primary
Lodge Farm JMI
Lower Farm Primary
Meadow View JMI
Millfield Primary
Moorcroft Wood Primary
Pinfold Street Primary
Pool Hayes Primary
The Radleys Primary
Reedswood E-Act Primary Academy
Rivers Primary Academy
Rosedale CE C Infant - Part of Short Heath Fed
Woods Bank Academy
Rushall Primary School
Salisbury Primary
Short Heath Junior - Part of Short Heath Federation
St Bernadette's Catholic Primary
St Francis Catholic Primary
St Giles CE Primary
St James Primary
St Joseph's Catholic Primary
St Mary's the Mount Catholic Primary
St Peters Catholic Primary
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Local orthopedic surgeon explains what a gunshot to the hip can - KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana
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Dr. Brett Cascio, an orthopedic surgeon with Memorial Medical Group, is also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves and has served in Afghanistan, treating many gunshot wounds to the hip.
"The things you're worried about once you see a patient is, what were they shot with, is the bullet still in the patient, and do you have any vascular injury to deal with," said Cascio.
It is believed Congressman Steve Scalise was shot with a rifle, which Cascio says is going to cause the most damage.
"A rifle is going to do a lot more impact on the soft tissues: the bone and the vasculature around the bone," said Cascio.
There are a lot of major arteries and veins running through your hip which Cascio says a gunshot wound can severely damage.
"It can not only be the initial gunshot wound, but if the gunshot injures the bone and possibly shatters the bone or cracks the bone in half then the jagged edges of bone can injure the vasculature," said Cascio.
Then, it depends on where the bone is broken.
"There are some fractures that if the bone is broken in a certain place, it can die and so you have to fix that right away," said Cascio.
The bone can also shatter from the bullet.
"It can just shatter the bone to where there's nothing left to put back together and then you're looking at a hip replacement," said Cascio.
Cascio says having to replace the hip would be a better scenario with the congressman being able to put weight on it soon, but a reconstruction would keep him off of it for months and months.
Also, Cascio says a bullet lodged in a joint needs to be removed immediately, especially if the bullet is lead, to stop lead poisoning.
The next thing Cascio says to address is the amount of tissue damage and the risk of infection.
"Sometimes the bullet can be going so slow it can drag dirt and clothing into the wound, so you can get mud and grime and grass from a baseball field into the open wound."
Cartilage and nerve damage are also a main concern for Cascio, since they're both very difficult for a body to heal.
"If he has cartilage damage you can't grow that back. That can be a permanent problem for him that could end in a hip replacement of some type," said Cascio.
Nerve damage, especially of the sciatic nerve, which controls the leg, can be permanent.
Cascio says doctors are concerned with managing things first, controlling the damage and scheduling surgeries for the next few days. If you move too quickly to begin repair, you risk infection.
Copyright 2017 KPLC. All rights reserved.
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Tiwa Savage - "Get it now" Ft Omarion
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news
Barely one month ago, Tiwa Savage released her Sugarcane Ep and we thought it couldn't get any better.
Well, it just did!
The singer has just released visuals for a remix of her track, "Get It Now."
And even better? She features Omarion! Yasss!
In "Get It Now" Remix, the Mavin Records first lady shares a serious connection with Omarion. He also added a new verse and did some nice duets with the "All over" singer.
The music video was direct by Meji Alabi.
Tiwa has earlier gushed on Instagram about how much of an Omarion fan she really is.
She wrote, "'Distance' is a constant on my playlist ... Now I gat my own joint with the INCREDIBLE Omarion. If you like "Get It Now" you will love the remix.... Let's get the world singing this savage soldiers."
Watch and enjoy!
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Join the Denis Law celebration
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Denis Law will receive the freedom of the City of Aberdeen this weekend – and the celebrations will culminate with a hero’s reception for the new Freeman at the Town House on Sunday (November 26).
The Sunday event, which is combined with the traditional Christmas lights switch-on parade, will give Aberdonians and visitors the chance to cheer the city’s most famous sporting son as he travels down Union Street in an open-top car.
The parade, with a football theme to mark the occasion, will begin from the top of Union Street at 5.30pm and conclude outside the Town House at around 6.15pm – with Denis due to greet the crowds from the Town House balcony upon his arrival.
The colourful occasion on Sunday will follow Saturday’s conferral ceremony at the Beach Ballroom, where the full Council will convene and be joined by the Law family and friends for the Freedom to be officially bestowed on the former Manchester United and Scotland star. An evening reception for invited guests will also be held at the Ballroom.
The Lord Provost of Aberdeen Barney Crockett said: “This weekend promises to be a fitting celebration of the achievements of Denis Law – a humble Aberdeen loon who went on to become a global superstar.
“Denis has used his profile for the greater good and continues to work tirelessly in his capacity as figurehead and driving force for the charitable causes closest to his heart - not least the Denis Law Legacy Trust, which has had such a positive impact on the lives of young people in Aberdeen.
“The Freedom of the City of Aberdeen is the highest honour that can be awarded to an individual by the city and it is fitting that Denis Law will join the distinguished list of recipients.
“He has always been a credit to the city that has such a special place in his heart – just as Denis has a special place in the heart of Aberdonians. We look forward to welcoming Denis and his family for what is an incredibly special weekend and invite everyone to join the celebrations on Union Street on Sunday.”
It is the first conferral to take place in Aberdeen since Scotland the What received the honour in 2008 and 18 years since fellow football legend Sir Alex Ferguson was recognised for his contribution to the city.
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BRIEF-Vical reports outcome of Phase 1 trial of VL-2397
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French oil services firm CGG files for bankruptcy
PARIS, June 14 French oil services firm CGG said on Wednesday it had filed for bankruptcy in France and the United States as part of financial restructuring to reduce its debt burden.
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Newcastle sign goalkeeper Dubravka on permanent deal
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(Reuters) - Newcastle United have completed the permanent signing of Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka from Sparta Prague after a successful loan spell last season, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old arrived at St James' Park in January and made 12 league appearances as Rafa Benitez's side finished 10th in the top flight.
Dubravka becomes Newcastle's first signing in the close season, on a contract until June 2022, after the club activated the option to sign him.
"Ever since he arrived with us on loan he has shown a fantastic attitude and great work ethic, and of course we have been very impressed with his performances for us on the pitch last season," Benitez said in a statement.
"This was one of the key positions we had identified we needed to strengthen and had been concerned about, so it is excellent news that we are able now to sign him on a permanent basis."
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
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Nationals assistant hitting coach Jacque Jones suspended
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WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals say that assistant hitting coach Jacque Jones has been suspended with pay pending an internal investigation.
The team says the suspension is connected to a legal matter.
The club announced Jones’ suspension less than a half-hour before the scheduled first pitch of Game 1 of Washington’s NL Division Series against the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs on Friday night.
The 42-year-old Jones retired as a player in 2008 after 10 years with four teams.
——
More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball
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What to Do in New York City in June 2018
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Outdoor Concerts and Performances
On Randall's Island, the Governors Ball music festival runs from June 1st to June 3rd, and includes acts like Post Malone, Travis Scott, CHVRCHES, Lil Uzi Vert, and Sylvan Esso.
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! kicks off its summer concert lineup (and 40th year) at the Prospect Park Bandshell with an appearance by Common on June 5th. Later this month: Los Lobos on June 10th and Vance Joy on June 12th. Tickets, unless they're for a specific benefit concert, are free (check the website first).
Summerstage , the outdoor concert series that takes place in parks in all five boroughs, continues this month with (mostly) free concerts ranging from opera to Jake Paul. If you don't manage to get into the venue, you can always join the crowds who set up picnics on the benches and lawns just outside to listen to the only-slightly-muffled music.
Shakespeare in the Park continues its season in Central Park with Othello , which runs through June 24th. After that, 12th Night will run July 17th through August 19th.
Parades!
The iconic Coney Island Mermaid Parade takes place June 16th, with crowds of people dressed in their underwater finest streaming down Surf Avenue and onto the boardwalk.
The NYC Pride March happens June 24th, beginning on 16th Street and 17th Avenue before turning on Christopher Street (where the historic Stonewall Inn is) and continuing up Fifth Avenue to 29th. It's a particularly festive time to be in the West Village—pretty much every bar or restaurant along the parade route will be filled with partiers dressed up and celebrating.
Major Art Exhibitions to Catch
At the Guggenheim: The museum's famous rotunda will be filled with more than one hundred and seventy-five sculptures, paintings, and drawings by Alberto Giacometti, the Italian modernist known for his mottled, whisper-thin figures made of clay and bronze. June 8th through September 12th
At the Met: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination , the costume institute show of Catholic vestments and designer clothing inspired by them (also the theme of this year's Met Gala), is on full glittering display at the Met's main building on 5th Avenue, as well as at the Cloisters . On the roof , a pair of massive bronze figures by the Pakistani artist Huma Bhabha are a nice excuse to go up there and take in the view of Central Park from above. Through October 8th
At the Met Breuer: If you prefer your art on the slightly eerie side, check out Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now) , a show that dives deep into the ways artists have sought to accurately replicate the human body by using flesh-like pigments, wax casts, real clothing, and actual hair, teeth, and bones. There are pieces by the likes of El Greco, Auguste Rodin, Louise Bourgeois, and Jeff Koons, alongside wax effigies, reliquaries, mannequins, and anatomical models. Through July 22nd
At the Whitney: Mary Corse: A Survey in Light is the first solo museum show of the abstract artist's work, who came to prominence in the 1960s as part of the West Coast Light and Space movement. The exhibition brings together a career-spanning group of minimal canvases, sculptures, and encased-light pieces. June 6 through July 7th
At MoMA: Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams brings together the late Congolese artist's fantastical, meticulous sculptures of miniature cityscapes built from colored paper, commercial packaging, plastic, soda cans, and bottle caps. Through January 2019
At the New York Historical Society: Celebrating Bill Cunningham looks at the life of the beloved New York Times photographer through his photographs, personal correspondence, and ephemera that includes his Nikon camera and signature French workman's jacket. June 8th though September 9th
At the Judd Foundation: 15 x 105 x 15, an exhibition produced in partnership with Tomas Maier, is a selection of extruded aluminum works by Donald Judd that will be on view on the ground floor of the foundation on Spring Street. Through July 28th
Eating and Drinking
The Annual Big Apple BBQ festival will fill Madison Square Park with the scent of woodsmoke, pulled pork, brisket, and beer on June 9th and 10th. Keep an eye out for booths from some of the top BBQ restaurants in the country, including Big Bob Gibson from Decatur, Alabama, and Martin's from Nashville .
West Village aperitivo bar (and Traveler staff favorite) Dante is having "Negroni Week" from June 4th through 11th, with all proceeds from their signature drink going to the charity God's Love We Deliver.
There's a huge buzz building around Atomix, a new fine dining restaurant by the husband-and-wife tea behind Atoboy , that just opened in NoMad. On the first floor, there's an intimate bar and lounge for cocktails and snacks, and on the lower level, a dining room with a swanky multi-course tasting menu situation. Worth checking out if you want to see the place every cool person is about to be Instagramming.
Bonus Round: Cool New Rooftops and Hotel Bars
Every summer brings a new crop of trendy rooftops that attract hordes of young professionals seeking warm breezes, chilled cocktails, and skyline sunset views. Here are the ones everyone seems most excited about right now: The Broken Shaker at the Freehand Hotel is already commanding lines down the block, Ophelia at the Beekman brings some much-needed sexiness to Midtown East, Fifteen Stories at the Mondrian Park Avenue is sort of the anti-rooftop-bar-rooftop-bar, with a low key vibe and plenty of interior space, and the Arlo Roof Top (A.R.T. for short) features cocktails from Employees Only bartender Milos Zica and panoramic Hudson River views. And it's not quite a rooftop , but it does have a terrace: The Polynesian, a "21st-Century Tiki Bar" from the same group behind Carbone and ZZ's Clam Bar, just opened at the Pod Times Square Hotel.
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Colliers India NCR Facilities Management secures property management of Tata’s ‘Gurgaon Gateway’
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Colliers India NCR Facilities Management (FM) Team further strengthened its market position by securing a project with Tata Housing. This latest Property Management project for Tata called ‘Gurgaon Gateway’ located at sector 112, Gurgaon is ~8,50,000 sq.ft. The ‘Gurgaon Gateway’ project sets a new benchmark for luxurious living and modern architecture and has an incredible amount of green cover inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Colliers International India has been managing multiple residential projects of Tata, across India. In a very short span of time, the Colliers FM team has proven its capabilities and through continuous service excellence, the team has managed to acquire the Gurgaon Gateway project as well.
“Our market intelligence, expertise and drive to work towards consistent improvement on service delivery has enabled us to grow with our existing clients and increase our clientele. We are confident to further nurture our expertise and aim to set a new standard of Facilities Management, not just in NCR, but across India”, said Jaswant Singh I Director (NCR) I Facilities Management I Colliers International India.
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Officials: Trump knew Flynn misled WH weeks before ouster
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Just six days into his presidency, Donald Trump was informed his national security adviser had misled his vice president about contacts with Russia. Trump kept his No. 2 in the dark and waited nearly three weeks before ousting the aide, Michael Flynn, citing a slow but steady erosion of trust, White House officials said Tuesday.Flynn was interviewed by the FBI about his telephone conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., a sign his ties to Russia had caught the attention of law enforcement officials.But in the White House's retelling of Flynn's stunning downfall, his error was not that he discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian before the inauguration - a potential violation of a rarely enforced law - but the fact that he denied it for weeks, apparently misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other senior Trump aides about the nature of the conversations. White House officials said they conducted a thorough review of Flynn's interactions, including transcripts of calls secretly recorded by U.S. intelligence officials, but found nothing illegal.Pence, who had vouched for Flynn in a televised interview, is said to have been angry and deeply frustrated."The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable incidents is what led the president to ask General Flynn for his resignation," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday, one day after the president asked Flynn to leave.Flynn, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation, said Monday "there were no lines crossed" in his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.The explanation of the episode left many questions unanswered, including why Trump didn't alert Pence to the matter and why Trump allowed Flynn to keep accessing classified information and taking part in the president's discussions with world leaders up until the day he was fired.White House officials also struggled to explain why Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway had declared the president retained "full confidence" in Flynn just hours before the adviser had to submit his letter of resignation.The White House shakeup, less than one month into Trump's tenure, marked another jarring setback for a new administration already dealing with tensions among top aides and a legal fight over the president's travel ban order. Flynn's firing also heightened questions about the president's friendly posture toward Russia. Democrats called for investigations into Flynn's contacts, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress needed to know whether he had been acting with direction from the president or others.Trump initially thought Flynn could survive the controversy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the president's views, but a pair of explosive stories in The Washington Post in recent days made the situation untenable. As early as last week, he and aides began making contingency plans for Flynn's dismissal, a senior administration official said. While the president was said to be upset with Flynn, he also expressed anger with other aides for "losing control" of the story and making his young administration look bad.Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence became aware that he had received "incomplete information" from Flynn only after the first Washington Post report Thursday night. Pence learned about the Justice Department warnings to the White House around the same time.The officials and others with knowledge of the situation were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.Ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration, Pence and other officials insisted publicly that Flynn had not discussed sanctions in his talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. On Jan. 26, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates contacted White House counsel Don McGahn to raise concerns about discrepancies between the public accounting and what intelligence officials knew to be true about the contacts based on routine recordings of communications with foreign officials who are in the U.S.The Justice Department warned the White House that the inconsistencies would leave the president's top national security aide vulnerable to blackmail from Russia, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. The president was informed of the warnings the same day, Spicer said.Flynn was interviewed by the FBI around the same time, according to a U.S. official was briefed on the investigation.It was not immediately known what questions the FBI asked of Flynn or what he told law enforcement officials.McGahn, along with chief of staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon, also questioned Flynn multiple times in the ensuing weeks, a White House official said. Top aides also reviewed transcripts of Flynn's contacts with the ambassador, according to a person with knowledge of the review process.At the same time, the official said Trump aides began taking steps to put some distance between the president and Flynn. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top Flynn aide, started taking part in Trump's daily security briefings.Top Trump advisers quietly met with Vice Admiral Robert Harward last week and spoke with the former Navy SEAL again Monday, the White House official said. Harward is seen as the top contender for the job, though former CIA Director David Petraeus and Kellogg, who has temporarily stepped into the role, are also under consideration.Spicer said other "questionable incidents" had contributed to Flynn's firing. According to one person with knowledge of the matter, those incidents included Flynn seeking a security clearance for his son during the transition.At the time, it was Pence who was again put in the position of defending Flynn on television, saying he had not sought a clearance for the retired general's son.A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Flynn was in frequent contact with Kislyak on the day the Obama administration slapped sanctions on Russia for election-related hacking, as well as at other times during the transition. Spicer said Flynn was not discussing sanctions at the president's behest.Before he resigned Monday night, Flynn told the investigative news nonprofit affiliated with the website The Daily Caller that he and Kislyak spoke only generally about the Russian diplomats expelled by President Barack Obama as part of the previous administration's response to Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election."It wasn't about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out," Flynn said. "It was basically: 'Look, I know this happened. We'll review everything.' I never said anything such as, 'We're going to review sanctions,' or anything like that."
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India vs Australia: Jasprit Bumrah Talks Up The Ashish Nehra-Effect
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A few eyebrows were raised when 38-year-old Ashish Nehra was named in the India squad for the Twenty20 international series against Australia, starting on Saturday. However, Nehra's skill in the shortest format of the game is invaluable and he has showcased that time and again both for the Men In Blue and also when he is playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Nehra is making a comeback after playing the T20I series against England earlier this year. Ahead of the series opener, Jasprit Bumrah was all praise for his pace bowling partner and spoke about the impact the left-arm bowler has on the team.
"He's a very experienced player. I've played some cricket with him. I've played in World Twenty20 with him. It's really good to have him in the side. It's lot of fun. He has loads of experience to share. He's very helpful for youngsters like me," said Bumrah.
"The team's atmosphere becomes good when he comes to the side. It feels great to have him back in the side."
Bumrah said that keep high fitness levels was essential to doing well on the big stage.
"It's not only fast bowlers who need to put in extra effort. Yes they need to do extra sometimes, but in general if you are not fit you won't be able to survive. It's the responsibility of the player to look after his diet and training
"Because of the amount of cricket we have been playing nowadays, everybody has to be fit," said Bumrah.
Bumrah made his name by becoming a death bowling specialist for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL and has improved further after becoming an India regular. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who use rely on swing initially, has remodeled himself gaining a few yards and also becoming more lethal at the end of the innings.
The Indian duo have struck a brilliant partnership for India with the ball at the death and Bumrah said that there is a lot more to do.
"We just want to improve ourselves every time, we keep asking questions to each other. We keep learning from the senior players on what else we can do and how to improve, how to adapt to different conditions and the wickets. The focus is on training. We don't focus on results. We want to get better every game."
India defeated Australia by six wickets the last time both the teams met in World Twenty20 in March 2016, and prior to that they completed a 3-0 clean sweep Down Under in January.
India may have a 9-4 head to head record but Bumrah said that is the last thing on team's mind.
"We don't think like that. We only focus on the game. Every format requires a little bit of skill level. We want to focus on that and if we do our basics right, everything else is taken care of."
Being a death bowler specialist, Bumrah said his role doesn't change much in the ODIs and T20s.
"One-day and T20s are slightly different. In the situations where I bowl, in the death overs, it's very similar. You're hit over here as well as in ODIs. It's not too much of a difference."
(With PTI Inputs)
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Volkswagen Ameo Cup Racecars Spotted Ahead Of 2017 Season, Likely To Produce 200 hp
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Volkswagen Motorsport had recently announced that their one-make series championship, which was earlier known as the Vento Cup, would now be christened as the Ameo Cup. The company has been testing the race spec Ameo cars at the MMSC race track in Chennai where they were spotted on a few occasions.
Although Volkswagen has not announced the powertrain details of the Ameo Cup car, reports suggest that the models will use a 1.8-litre TSI engine that will be turbocharged as well as supercharged, capable of producing 200 hp and about 250 Nm of torque. This motor will come paired to a six speed DSG sequential gearbox.
Also read: Volkswagen Motorsport to select and shortlists 15 racers to compete in the Ameo Cup 2017
A few other changes to the Ameo Cup car will include a sport mode, a manual mode where drivers can use the paddles for quicker gear shifts, a large spoiler for additional downforce, MRF race spec tyres and larger brakes on all four wheels. The Ameo Cup cars will also feature FIA spec roll cage with OMP seats, a five point racing harness and a full Motec race system. Stay tuned for more updates soon.
Source: Autocar and NDTV Auto
Following is an image gallery of the Volkswagen Ameo Cup cars:
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Win a meal for four at Hull’s Izabella Restaurant in our Bank Holiday Bonanza
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Izabella Restaurant and Cocktail Bar is a stylish and popular addition to Hull’s dining scene, serving traditional Polish-style food.
Now is your chance to experience all it has to offer, for free.
Izabella Restaurant is offering the prize of a meal for four people as part of the Spring Bank Holiday week celebration.
The restaurant, which recently moved to the Dorchester Hotel in Beverley Road, prides itself on a great variety of sumptuous food, cocktails, and a drinks list which includes 20 different types of vodka, alongside draft beers and a wide-ranging wine list.
Run by Radoslaw Sobota, and his wife Izabela, the restaurant moved to its new location after more than two years of winning regular customers at its previous premises, in Beverley Road.
The now larger restaurant boasts a fittingly generous menu that includes a big range of poultry, beef, pork and fish dishes – options include grilled chicken breasts, ribeye steaks and Izabella’s Bride, its signature dish of pork fillet and chicken breast, roasted in wine.
There is also a big selection of salads and pastas, alongside a variety of starters including soups, king prawns in garlic butter and creamy mushroom on toast.
“We’ve got something for everyone,” said Radoslaw. “And we’re good value – our most expensive dish is the ribeye steak at £12.99.”
The restaurant also runs a series of special events during the week, including an after-work club, where, from 5pm to 7pm, from Mondays to Thursdays, you can enjoy cocktails at £4 a glass, or £10 for a jug – compared with £5.50 per glass and £15.50 per jug at other times.
There is a Monday to Thursday lunch offer, too, where you can get two courses for £14.95 – from a range including pastas, salads, sandwiches or burgers – and two soft drinks.
To help celebrate the move to its new premises, Izabella Restaurant is giving away a meal for four, to include a starter, main course, dessert, soft drinks and coffees.
All you need to do is comment on the Facebook post about this competition stating why you would like to receive this prize, to be in with a chance of winning.
Where to find it
Izabella Restaurant is at the Dorchester Hotel, 273-277 Beverley Road, Hull, HU5 1TH.
Call 07719 765624 or find the restaurant on Facebook.
How to enter
It's really simple - look out for our post about the competition on the Hull Live Facebook page.
To enter, all you need to do is like the post and add a comment about why you deserve to win.
Usual terms and conditions apply.
Get the Hull Live app
It's completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and what’s on information. You can download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple's App Store , or get the Android version from Google Play .
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Woman struck and killed by self-driving Uber vehicle
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Ride-hailing company suspends all road-testing of such vehicles in U.S. and Canada
Police say a woman walking outside a crosswalk on Sunday night in the Phoenix area when she was hit by the self-driving car. (@zombieite/Flickr)
A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in a suburb in Phoenix, Ariz., in the first fatality involving a fully autonomous test vehicle, prompting the ride-hailing company Monday to suspend all road-testing of such autos in the U.S. and Canada.
Depending on who is found to be at fault, the accident could have far-reaching consequences for the development of self-driving vehicles, which have been billed as potentially safer than human drivers.
READ MORE: Self-driving Ubers could still be many years away, says research head
The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human operator behind the wheel when a woman walking outside a crosswalk in Tempe on Sunday night was hit, police said. The woman, identified as Elaine Herzberg, 49, died at a hospital.
Uber suspended all of its self-driving vehicle testing in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.
The testing has been going on for months as automakers and technology companies compete to be the first with the technology.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed condolences on his Twitter account and said the company is working with local law enforcement on the investigation.
The federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.
But Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao also has said technology and automobile companies need to allay public fears of self-driving vehicles, citing a poll showing that 78 percent of people fear riding in autonomous vehicles
The number of states considering legislation related to autonomous vehicles gradually has increased each year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 2017 alone, 33 states introduced legislation.
California is among those that require manufacturers to report any incidents to the motor vehicle department during the testing phase. As of early March, the agency received 59 such reports.
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City Commission candidates respond to Citizens for Brentwood Green Space, part one
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The local non-profit group Citizens for Brentwood Green Space recently released the results of a questionnaire it sent to the four candidates for Brentwood’s City Commission.
CBGS has sent questions to candidates in Brentwood’s municipal elections for the last few election cycles. This year, the questions were formulated in part based on the feedback CBGS received from a public survey it sent out.
“CBGS will not endorse candidates, but seeks to provide the candidates’ responses to citizens to help the community gain a better understanding of where each candidate stands on preserving our cherished green space,” CBGS President Gil Hutchinson said. “These are really strong questions and we have very clear responses. We believe people interested in green space preservation can formulate a view towards who they will vote for from these questions and answers.”
Early voting is already underway in Brentwood for the May 2 election.
The CBGS submitted seven questions to the commission candidates. Here are the answers to the first four. The Brentwood Home Page will publish the last three later in the week.
Where would you rank the preservation of green space in Brentwood compared to other priorities facing the City?
John Byers: A top priority. Brentwood has the best residential communities, the best fire and police, and the best parks and green space. We have a lot more green space than many communities and we have high expectations for where we live. As Brentwood continues to grow, it is critical that we not only maintain our existing green space, but work to adequately include green space on any future developments. As a runner, cyclist, and triathlete, this is a very personal priority for me.
Mark Gorman: The preservation of green space is important as demonstrated by citizen responses to the 2030 plan. The City of Brentwood currently owns over 850 acres of park space. I support the preservation of green space where it is strategic, beneficial and supported by the citizens of Brentwood.
Rhea Little: As expected, our top priorities as a government should be those services which provide for the safety and welfare of our citizens. Beyond that, those services that are focused on providing a high quality of life would follow. In Brentwood we are fortunate to have had strong fiscal management for more than 25 years and thus, have been able to take advantage of opportunities such as the acquisition of Smith Park when possible. Comparative with other similar options for where our city can carefully invest our tax dollars, the acquisition, improvement, and expansion of green space and park land has been near the top of the list, right up there with our library.
Regina Smithson: As my record shows, I believe preservation of green space is and has always been a top priority. We now have 966 acres of park land in Brentwood. I have worked hard as a City Commissioner to make sure all areas of Brentwood have beautiful parks. In the last few years I was very instrumental in working with the representative of the Flagpole property along with the surrounding neighborhoods to have a beautiful 25+ acre park on land that had been approved for homes. This was very important for the residents of General MacArthur, Willowick, Brentwood South, King’s Crossing, Stonehenge and many other surrounding neighborhoods. This saved General MacArthur from becoming a through street from Concord Road and Wikle Road West from becoming a through street from Franklin Road. Not only did the neighborhoods end up with a beautiful park they can walk to, their neighborhoods were saved from the huge amount of traffic this new subdivision would have generated.
The preservation of green space is a top priority of mine as evidenced by the fact that I have maintained my stand on one acre density. This provides all neighborhoods green space. The OSRD and OSRD-IP neighborhoods have their own open space that can never be developed.
2. As a City Commissioner, please outline your view on the role you believe the City should play in the acquisition of park land or dedicated green space in our community. Please address whether you feel the city should be active in the acquisition of such types of land or passive and addressing only requests or offers made by various developers.
John Byers: Nothing was every accomplished with passivity, so we must be actively engaged. Our city has excelled in this area in large part because its residents have demanded it and I see no reason why we will not continue to do so—as a commissioner, I will make sure of it.
Mark Gorman: In terms of priorities, the residents I have spoken with appreciate our parks and feel preservation of green space is an important consideration; additionally, many feel that with more than 850 acres of parks, that there are currently other issues of concern to residents that include traffic, safety and security, overcrowding of schools, keeping taxes low, senior housing, and managing growth that should be prioritized before using more City tax dollars to purchase more green space.
Rhea Little: I believe there is a mixed approach that does not favor either option exclusively. Yes, the city should be proactive in looking for opportunities to preserve our beautiful pastures and hillsides. If a land owner approaches the city we should welcome the conversation and act diligently to evaluate the opportunity. Powell Park, Wikle Park, and Flagpole Park are examples of having Parks as part of a development that provides wonderful amenities to the residents and large buffers for those who live nearby.
Regina Smithson: While serving as a city commissioner we have “purchased” over 580 acres of parks including Smith Park (400 acres), Crocket Park (200+ acres) and the additional acreage for River Park (15+ acres) without these being “development” driven. These were outright purchases and had nothing to do with development. This is the kind of leadership I have shown as a commissioner and will continue to show. I think the city’s record and my record shows we are active in pursuing non-development driven green space.
3. Do you feel like Brentwood has enough park land and green space or would you like to see more added?
John Byers: Yes, we have an adequate amount of park land and green space for what is currently developed. However, we must consider adding green space in every conversation or proposal around development in Brentwood—residentially or commercially.
My family and I have a very actively lifestyle through our three boys playing sports and I want to see our city actively pursue more soccer fields and baseball parks that match the excellence Brentwood shows in so many other areas.
Perhaps we explore opportunities such as land trusts or pocket parks. Williamson County has more land trusts than any other county in our state and I would like to see our commission actively negotiating with our resident land owners to continue these conversations for Brentwood and opening up more options for green space. Pocket parks are frequently created on a single vacant building lot or on small/irregular pieces of land.
Mark Gorman: The case can always be made that we could use more park land and green space but there are costs associated with acquiring green space and ongoing maintenance costs that should be thoroughly understood by the community before using tax dollars to add more.
Rhea Little: Personally, I would love to have a great deal more. As well, I’d like to see us continue to connect the city via bike/walking trails and to fulfill the complete plan for Smith Park. If we continue to be responsible with the city’s finances, we will remain well-positioned for future opportunities. Of course, we must approach these priorities with a prudent eye. This is very important to our property values and our quality of life.
Regina Smithson: I don’t think any city would feel they have as much green space as they would like to have, but I feel as a city we have done an exceptional job. Despite the city being only 48 years old and having to build its own infrastructure including the library, the police and fire department, which are both well equipped, water and sewer department, etc., acquisition of green space has never suffered in its priority. As the city continues to develop I believe we should strive to make sure the balance continues between development (whether subdivisions or commercial) and green space.
4. Surrounding communities like Nashville and Franklin have adopted Open Space Master Plans. Nashville is in the process of revising their original Plan. Open Space Master plans include such things as an inventory of the City’s remaining open space; specific criteria to guide the City in evaluating parcels being considered for open space acquisition; defined measurements for the assessment of the costs and benefits of acquiring open space; and funding strategies for the Plan’s implementation. Would you support the commissioning of such a study for the City of Brentwood?
John Byers: Absolutely. Like many in Brentwood, I am here for the balance of density and open space. It is concerning to me if Brentwood is not already conducting these kind of studies for future thinking and preparation—as opposed to reacting when it is upon us.
Mark Gorman: City administration and city planning staff have an inventory of properties and plans that have been developed for use by the City Commission in making decisions, relative to remaining open space and the considerations of how those properties fit in the context of existing park spaces and trails.
Rhea Little: First and foremost, Brentwood is unique and is not Franklin or Nashville. Our record as a City and my record as a Commissioner, I feel, is exemplary on acquiring Park Land and green space. During my eight years, we’ve more than doubled our acreage of park land and created many more bike and pedestrian trails and many new areas of green space. I am not in favor of creating a “master list” of what we want to acquire as this will only lead to more difficult negotiations when they present themselves. Rather, I would like to see us develop a long range “wish list” to address particular areas of town or types of parks/facilities our community would like to have in the future.
Regina Smithson: The City of Brentwood has a 2030 plan that was recently updated. This plan has been a valuable guide that has been compiled through surveys from citizens for us to follow. I believe what the city has accomplished by following the 2030 plan and acquiring green space is working very well. Our one acre density zoning that I support gives us any even more spacious feel than surrounding cities.
Part two of the CBGS questionnaire will be published later this week.
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Kartje: Baker Mayfield is NFL draft’s best quarterback, analytics suggest
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For a moment, let’s ignore intangibles. Let’s strip away the subjective, neglect the narrative, and disregard the unquantifiable. And then, once you’ve taken a deep breath – I’ll wait – let’s talk about Baker Mayfield and why he’s the best quarterback in Thursday’s NFL draft.
The Oklahoma product is the most talked-about prospect at the most talked-about position in this year’s draft. Since his Sooners fell short in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff, losing to Georgia in the Rose Bowl, Mayfield’s every move has been under a microscope – his on-field antics, his off-field arrest, his choice of Pro Day headwear.
No other player has inspired more draft debate, fair or otherwise. The off-the-field narrative of Mayfield as a brash, freelancer continues to distract from the franchise-changing signal caller on it. When a report surfaced that the Browns were considering Mayfield with the top overall pick — as is customary now — the internet exploded in a flurry of takes. Most assumed the news was a smokescreen. Few considered that Mayfield may very well be the best quarterback in the class.
Even as predictive analytics seep into NFL scouting, the evaluation at the most difficult position in sports remains an entirely inexact science, vulnerable to bias. That’s especially true in the case of players as polarizing as Mayfield, whose concerns as a prospect have far more to do with orthodoxy and the archetype of the modern NFL quarterback than anything else.
But if we attempt to eliminate opinion from performance, a picture of the Heisman winner’s place atop this class becomes pretty much impossible to ignore. At least, on paper.
Pro Football Focus introduced its grading scale in 2007, with the intention of cutting through those distractions. The service’s adjusted-rate metrics seeks to isolate the play of individuals from the rest of the team, with the goal to be as specific as possible. This year, in its analysis of the draft’s quarterback prospects, PFF began charting “NFL throws”, separating the placement of every pass on film into four categories, in hopes of addressing the ambiguity inherent to any discussion of quarterback accuracy.
Since PFF began grading college prospects in 2014, its quarterback metrics often left room for debate on the draft’s best at the position. They graded Marcus Mariota slightly better than Jameis Winston and put Jared Goff slightly ahead of Carson Wentz. In both cases, PFF’s lead analyst Sam Monson says, their analysts were “divided internally” on who was the better prospect.
This year, there was no argument. “This is the first time we’ve been completely unified that all of the numbers say the same thing,” Monson says. “It’s Mayfield.”
That case begins with his performance under duress. It’s an important measuring stick for any rookie quarterback whose certain to face a heavy pass rush, and in each of the past three seasons, PFF graded Mayfield as college football’s top quarterback in passer rating against pressure. His career passer rating over three years at Oklahoma is better than any single season recorded by USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, or any of the draft’s other top quarterback prospects.
Those numbers can deceive, given Mayfield’s propensity for holding the ball and beckoning an unnecessary rush. But it’s not just under pressure that Mayfield ranked ahead of his peers. In fact, on every level of throw, from underneath to intermediate to deep passes, Mayfield graded as PFF’s most accurate quarterback in the class.
I feel like w/ Baker Mayfield, it’s either going to be glorious or crash & burn….no in-between — Damien Woody (@damienwoody) April 19, 2018
While he’s often knocked for Oklahoma’s reliance on screen plays – 20 percent of his passes, according to Monson, were throws behind the line of scrimmage – Mayfield was pinpoint accurate when he was given the chance to throw deep. On passes of 20 air yards or more, Mayfield completed 38 of 67 passes with a passer rating was 134.8. Wyoming’s Josh Allen, whose big arm has drawn raves, completed just 13 of 42 with a rating of 84.6.
“(Mayfield) can flick the ball, on a rope, 60 yards in the air,” Monson said. “Not many guys can do that. Maybe Josh Allen can, but Baker Mayfield is just so much more accurate on those throws.”
Allen remains the favorite to be the top overall pick, almost exclusively thanks to his deep ball and his impressive measurables. Lost in the fawning over his howitzer right arm, though,, is the fact that radar data at both the Senior Bowl and Combine recorded the velocity of Mayfield’s passes just under Allen.
“Mayfield has a heck of an arm,” says ESPN NFL analyst and former Eagles head of director of pro personnel Louis Riddick said. “That should never be an issue.”
But it’s his accuracy at every level that sets him apart in a changing league. Few NFL teams subsist on the threat of the deep ball alone in the passing game. Quarterbacks are asked far more often to rely on their anticipation and fit intermediate throws into tight windows. That’s an area in which Mayfield already excels. Allen? Not so much.
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Four wounded in San Bernardino terror attack remain hospitalized Pro Football Focus isn’t the only corner of the analytics industry to stake its claim on Mayfield. Football Outsiders’ predictive metric QBASE, which looks at college performance, experience, and expected draft position to project NFL success, scored Mayfield as its fourth-highest quarterback prospect since 1997. Only Philip Rivers, Donovan McNabb, and Carson Palmer ranked ahead of him.
Still, the analytics don’t offer the entire picture. Mayfield is hardly a perfect prospect. His height, fractions under 6-foot-1 at the NFL combine, will worry some teams. The list of current successful NFL quarterbacks measuring 6-feet or shorter is just two names long: Drew Brees and Russell Wilson. Mayfield’s tendency to take unnecessary sacks is fixable, but a problem nonetheless. And the Air Raid offense he ran in college is likely to give some teams pause, even as many NFL offenses have already adopted elements of it.
And then, you know, there’s the other stuff. Reports in the final week before the draft suggest that NFL teams either love Mayfield or hate him, with little in between. Still, more likely than not, he’ll be drafted in the top five.
One team will fall in love – with his accuracy, with his cool under pressure, with his underappreciated arm – and they’ll disregard the rest. They’ll reject the subjective for the objective, ignoring overblown concerns about his character to draft a quarterback that, by nearly every possible predictive measure, is the best available.
Something tells me they won’t regret it.
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Bank of Canada keeps key interest rate steady at 1.25%
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In its fourth interest rate announcement of 2018, the Bank of Canada (BoC) said on Wednesday it will maintain its benchmark rate steady at 1.25 per cent.
The central bank noted that the Canadian economy was a little stronger than expected in the first three months of the year, thanks in part to exports of goods that have been more robust than forecast. Data on imports of machinery and equipment have also suggested a continued recovery in investment.
READ MORE: Canada’s big banks increase mortgage rates, may prompt Bank of Canada hikes
However, the BoC also noted that housing resale activity has remained soft as the market adjusts to new mortgage rules and higher interest rates. On the other hand, solid labour income growth supports the expectation that activity will pick up, the bank added.
The BoC said global economic activity remains broadly on track but added that ongoing uncertainty about trade policies is dampening global business investment, while stresses are developing in some emerging market economies.
READ MORE: ‘Companies are reluctant to invest’ as questions swirl around NAFTA, pipelines: Poloz
The bank said that recent developments have reinforced its view that higher interest rates will be warranted to keep inflation near its target, but that it will take a gradual approach and be guided by the economic data.
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Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon '11 - Cabernet Sauvignon
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Sailing takes them away from sickness
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Redding man gives children with cancer a day on the sea
Tim Dokter looks forward to weekends. That’s when he brightens the world for seriously ill children, even if it’s just for a few hours.
The Redding resident takes the children and their families out on a private boat through Valiant Voyages, a nonprofit organization he founded in 2013.
During the rides, captain Roger Lancaster, who who owns the boat, runs the boat while Dokter talks with the parents and children.
“These kids have gone through a lot,” Dokter said. “This gets them away from their treatments and from everything they’ve been dealing with.”
The program is free to the families.
Ninety percent of the children who take the rides have leukemia or other serious illnesses. Many are undergoing such physically and emotionally taxing treatments as chemotherapy. The children’s physicians clear them to be well enough to take the trip.
The boat — named Violet — operates on weekends from April through the end of October. An average of 20 families ride over the summer months.
Violet leaves out of Dodson Boatyard in Stonington and sails on Long Island Sound, past lighthouses and along Fishers Island.
This is a completely volunteer job for Dokter, 68, who accompanies all children on the rides.
While on the boat, the children don’t just sit back and look out at the water — they play an active role.
“We encourage them to get involved,” he said. “They learn to sail and we teach them to steer the boat and help put the sails up.”
Violet is a 45-foot wooden boat built in 1911.
“It is a massive sailboat. It has four rooms downstairs,” Dokter said. “It was originally a fishing boat and was adapted to become a sailboat.”
Dokter sets up all the trips himself. Brochures about Valiant Voyages are at the Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. Families whose children are receiving treatment there read them and then contact Dokter.
There are times when trips are canceled or rescheduled at the last minute because of bad weather or medical issues the children experience, such as a drop in their blood counts. “We are very flexible,” Dokter said.
Dokter said he has been able to support the organization himself, along with donations from friends. He plans to begin writing grants and contacting corporations in order to keep it going. While there is no cost for the rides themselves, there are costs for the maintenance and upkeep of the boat.
Background on the water
Dokter said he grew up on the water in Lake Michigan, and has been a diver and sailor his entire life.
“I help build boats,” said Dokter, a retired contractor and woodworker.
He also has a medical background. “I was a respiratory therapist after college and I got a chance to work with kids to see what they go through,” he said.
How it all started
Dokter said he knew he wanted to help children and thought he might be able to do so through his love of boating. “I love to teach and I love to sail,” Dokter said. “I contacted Smilow, met with the social workers there, and we set it up and got it going.”
Once he began sending out brochures, the organization picked up speed very quickly.
“It was just an idea I had and it took off,” Dokter said. “I plan to keep it going.”
Making a difference
Dokter said he is often touched by some of the things families tell him while on the boat. “A father will say to me, ‘I haven’t seen my daughter smile like this in a long time’ — that makes it right there,” he said.
He added that the children, many of whom are shy at first, end up loosening up over the course of the ride.
“They open up pretty quickly,” he said, recalling one trip on a sunny day a few summers ago when an 8-year-old girl said to him, “This is the best day I’ve had since I got sick.”
Valiant Voyages will soon be operating a second boat, out of Charlestown, S.C., which will run most of the year. Dokter will contact area hospitals and clinics to spread the word about his organization.
“I know these kids go through so much,” Dokter said. “I like to put a smile on their faces and give them something to be happy about.”
For more information on Valiant Voyages or to make a donation, visit valiantvoyages.org.
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Britain could keep EU customs arrangements for interim period, says Davis
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BRITAIN COULD KEEP EU CUSTOMS ARRANGEMENTS FOR INTERIM PERIOD, DAVIS SAYS
Britain could keep the same customs arrangements with the European Union for an interim period in order to avoid "unnecessary disruption" for UK businesses, David Davis has said.
The Brexit Secretary will publish a paper on Tuesday outlining proposals for a time-limited transition, meaning businesses on both sides of the Channel only have to adapt once to rule changes.
Temporary arrangements could allow trade deals to be negotiated with other countries while governments and businesses adjust to new arrangements.
RAIL COMMUTERS TO FIND OUT COST OF SEASON TICKET INCREASES
Rail commuters will find out today how much the cost of season tickets will increase by next year, as trade unions hold protests warning that passengers are paying "more for less".
The Government links the annual January rise in Britain's regulated fares with the previous July's Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which will be announced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) at 9.30am.
It is predicted to be around 3.5%, leading to the highest increase in fares in five years.
FOOD PRICE RISES EXPECTED TO FUEL INFLATION AS WAGE GROWTH LAGS BEHIND
The increasing cost of the shopping basket is expected to have contributed to a rise in inflation when figures are released later.
A rise in the overall cost of living is due to be shown in the latest round of official data, which is expected to show the Retail Price Index (RPI) hit 3.5% in July, in line with the figure seen in June.
Meanwhile rail passengers will discover how much more they will pay for their travel in the new year, as July's figures are used to calculate any rise.
DONALD TRUMP DENOUNCES HATE GROUPS 48 HOURS AFTER CHARLOTTESVILLE VIOLENCE
President Donald Trump has condemned white supremacist groups by name, declaring "racism is evil" two days after the deadly race-fuelled clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a hastily arranged statement at the White House, Mr Trump branded members of the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as "criminals and thugs".
The groups are "repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans," he said.
KIM JONG UN BRIEFED ON PLANS FOR MISSILE TESTS NEAR GUAM
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has been briefed on his military's plans to launch missiles in waters near Guam.
It comes days after the Korean People's Army announced it is preparing to create "enveloping fire" near the US military hub in the Pacific.
During an inspection of the army's strategic forces, Mr Kim praised the military for drawing up a "close and careful plan".
TRIBUTES AFTER DEATH OF EX-MINER WHO TRIED TO STOP NEO-NAZI ATTACKING MP JO COX
Bernard Kenny, who tried to stop a right-wing extremist from murdering MP Jo Cox, has been described as a "hero" by her widower following his death.
The former miner's son, Phil Kenny, 58, confirmed his father died on Monday morning.
Mr Kenny, 79, was seriously injured when he was stabbed as he intervened when Thomas Mair attacked Mrs Cox in his home village of Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016.
NHS RANSOMWARE 'HERO' THANKS SUPPORTERS AFTER US COURT APPEARANCE
A British cyber security expert who scuppered a global ransomware attack has thanked his supporters in his first public comments since his arrest in the US.
Marcus Hutchins praised the "incredible show of support" online using his newly relaxed bail conditions that allow him internet access after he appeared in court in Milwaukee on Monday to deny creating and sharing the Kronos banking malware.
The 23-year-old from Ilfracombe, Devon, was arrested on August 2 in Las Vegas's McCarran airport as he returned from the Def Con hacking convention.
RULING TO BE MADE ON COUNCIL BID TO STOP TREE-FELLING PROTESTERS
A High Court judge is set to deliver a ruling on a council's bid to stop protesters delaying a street tree-felling programme in Sheffield.
Sheffield City Council bosses want orders stopping people taking "unlawful direct action" preventing the "lawful" felling of roadside trees.
Mr Justice Males, who analysed evidence at a trial in Leeds a few weeks ago, is scheduled to produce a ruling in London on Tuesday.
RAISING STATE PENSION AGE WILL AFFECT 50,000 IN PM'S CONSTITUENCY, SAYS LABOUR
More than 50,000 people in Theresa May's constituency will be affected by the Tories' plan to raise the state pension age, Labour has said.
The Government wants to extend the retirement age from 66 to 68 from 2037, which Labour says will see 36.9 million people having to work longer.
New analysis by the party suggests tens of thousands of people in every parliamentary constituency will be affected, given they are under 47 years old.
POST-BREXIT TRADE OPPORTUNITIES KEY AIM OF THERESA MAY'S VISIT TO JAPAN
Theresa May will aim to secure a boost for Britain's post-Brexit trade when she visits Japan.
The Prime Minister will put trade and investment opportunities at the heart of her visit, where she will be received by Emperor Akihito and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Defence and security cooperation is also expected to be a key theme of the trip, from Wednesday August 30 to Friday September 1.
EX-FOOTBALLER CHRIS KILLEN TO BE SENTENCED FOR SEX ATTACK ON YOUNG WOMAN
A former professional footballer is to be sentenced for a sex attack on a young woman as she slept in her bed.
Ex-Manchester City and Celtic player Chris Killen was in a "stupefied state" from alcohol when he went into the spare bedroom of the house the woman was staying in, in Bury, Greater Manchester, and touched her sexually.
Killen admitted a single charge of sexual assault shortly before he was due to go on trial before a jury at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, on June 21 - having earlier pleaded not guilty.
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London Golf Club Greenkeepers Experience Invaluable Week at Le Golf National
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Two London Golf Club greenkeepers were given the opportunity to ply their trade at the famed Le Golf National in France, helping prepare the iconic Albatros course ahead of the European Senior Tour’s Paris Legends Championship.
Mark Allard and Chris Kibble, both Senior Greenkeepers at London Golf Club, spent six days at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue in September, working alongside Golf Courses and Estate Manager, Alejandro Reyes, and his team.
The trip is another example of London Golf Club’s continued commitment to the development of its team, with the Kent-based European Tour Destination having already received the prestigious Investors In People Gold Award.
“When I arrived at the venue I immediately realised the quality of both courses and the reasons why Le Golf National gets chosen to host such prestigious tournaments,” commented Mark.
“It was an opportunity to use a different brand of machinery which was a good to experience, especially using different types of cutting machines. Alejandro and the whole team were very welcoming, and this helped both Chris and I really feel part of the crew.”
Adding to Mark’s comments, Chris said, “The biggest thing to take away, apart from the experience, was the networking opportunities it provided and the contacts we now have.
“The support from our CEO, Stephen Follett and Golf Courses and Estate Manager, Lee Sayers to help make this experience possible has been amazing. I can’t thank them enough,” continued Chris.
As a result of their expertise and hard work throughout the week, both Mark and Chris have been invited back by Le Golf National to be part of the greenkeeping team at next year’s Ryder Cup, as well as the European Tour’s HNA Open de France in June.
London Golf Club www.londongolf.co.uk
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Halton JAZZ Singers perform new arrangements with Swingline
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Oakville’s Bronte Legion Club Room is the place to be for jazz lovers this Sunday (July 8).
That’s when Halton JAZZ Singers are set to perform some new arrangements during its afternoon concert.
Members Darcea Hiltz, Siona Neale and Jason Miller will be joined by the little ‘big’ band Swingline for a tribute to the blues and swing era of the ‘40s.
Tickets for the 3 p.m. show are $15 in advance — available at www.eventbrite.ca — or $20 at the door.
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Fancy Yourself Dressing Up More? Find Fashion Guidance Here
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As you mature and grow, you find yourself constantly reshaping your image. It is a good thing to try your best to pick good fashion sense, that way you can constantly improve the way you look and impress people with the way you look. Continue reading to learn more about fashion.
If you wear stockings, keep a small bottle of clear nail polish with you. If you get a snag or run, a small drop of the polish will help stop it before it gets bad. Remember that it only takes a small amount to work so, do not overdo it, or you will have a sticky mess.
If you tend to be a bit on the heavy side, do not try to hide your shape by dressing in baggy clothing. The added volume only accentuates your size and makes you look frumpy. Look for clothing that is more fitted around your waistline, but then flows away from your lower body to create more shape.
Read fashion magazines at least once a month. If you want to stay up to date on what is hot and what is not you need to do your research. Fashion magazines will keep you informed through each season and as trends develop. If you feel that you ate still missing out there are television shows dedicated to fashion as well.
Do not feel like you have to be perfect in terms of fashion. There is no perfect sense of fashion, just opinions. Also, when you seek perfection, you are trying to hard. Some of the most successful fashion models have had at least one flaw, such as a long forehead or a gap between the teeth.
Hats are a great accessory to match any kind of outfit. For men, there are the typical fisherman hats and baseball caps, but for women, the possibilities run much deeper. For instance, you can wear a cute sun hat, floppy hat or beach hat with any casual dress you own.
If you own a beauty kit, do not store a ton of makeup in it. Choose products you really love with a selection of season-specific colors. Keep in mind looks for both nighttime and daytime wear. Makeup does not last forever once you begin using it. Germs can even grow on it if it is just sitting there.
One of the key things that you need to be more fashionable is to get fit. Being fit will help you feel confident and look great. If you are carrying an extra bit of weight then you should start an easy diet and begin doing a bit of exercise on a daily basis.
A perfect fashion tip is to try to keep your hands as free as possible when it comes to your bag. Get a trendy looking strap to wear across your body to keep your hands free and also to add a bit of style to your outfit. It could make the difference between being clumsy and being in control.
Don't shy away from thrift stores. You may be reluctant to wear used clothing, but keep an open mind. If you don't have much money to spend on a new outfit, your local thrift store could prove perfect. Check out thrift stores regularly. You could end up finding some unique, fashionable additions to your wardrobe.
When you purchase sunglasses, look for frames that will coordinate with your summer clothing. You should really need only one or two pairs to get you through the entire season. You can use other accessories to draw attention to yourself, or a particular area. Multiple pairs of shades are unnecessary, and expensive.
When considering fashion for yourself, be sure to take into consideration what type of cuts look best on your body type. This is important because there are vastly different body types, and certain cuts look better on some than others. Find something that accentuates your best features and makes you feel comfortable.
There is nothing wrong with asking your friends to borrow their clothes. You can borrow their clothes to see what kind of wardrobe might look good for you. This is a good way to see if a friend's style is good for you and if you feel comfortable changing your current style.
If you are in your 40's or older, know that you can still fashionable for your age. This does not mean that you should dress the way you did when you are 20, but you can make wise fashion choices. For middle-aged women, V-neck tops with cardigans or blazers with a pair of dress pants is a nice look.
Accessorize to draw attention to the things you want attention on. This works to take focus away from trouble areas, like a large bottom or shoulders. It also can be used to draw attention to certain things like your eyes or legs. Use accessories to make the most of your outfit.
Don't settle for sweat pants and t-shirts, dress up every day. The more you practice a well put together look, the more natural it will feel and the better you will be at putting together an outfit that shows your fashion sense. You deserve to look fabulous, and you never know who you might run into!
One fashion barrier when wearing eyeliner, is keeping it from running or smearing throughout the day. To prevent this, you should ensure that you get the right brand of eyeliner. There are special brands that are stay proof. These are ideal eyeliners that will last all day, every day.
Fashion can be affordable. You just need to know how to work with your budget. This article will allow you to find the clothes to improve your wardrobe.
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Official: Jupp Heynckes to take over as Bayern Munich coach till end of the season
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The woes of a house hunter in India are many. The dreary process starts with circling classifieds in newspapers and collecting shiny brochures. You flip through the proposed and ready designs that launch a hundred daydreams on the spot. So far so good. But, every house hunter would attest to the soul-crushing experience of checking out a disappointing property.
The kitchen of a 2BHK is carved from the corner of the hall, the 3BHK is a converted 2BHK, the building looks much older than in the pictures…. after months of reading the fine line, and between the lines, you feel like all the diagrams and highlights seem to blur into each other.
After much mental stress, if you do manage to zero in on a decent property, there’s a whole new world of knowledge to be navigated - home loans to be sifted through, taxes to be sorted and a finance degree to be earned for understanding it all.
Do you wish a real estate platform would address all your woes? Like a supermarket, where your every need (and want) is catered to? Imagine all your property choices nicely lined up and arranged with neat labels and offers. Imagine being able to compare all your choices side by side. Imagine viewing verfied listings and knowing what you see is what you get. Imagine having other buyers and experts guiding you along every step while you make one of the most important investments in your life. Imagine...
MagicBricks has made every Indian house hunters’ daydream of a simplified real estate supermarket a reality. Now you have more than a pile of brochures at your disposal as the online real estate marketplace brings you lakhs of choices to your fingertips. Instead of bookmarking pages, you can narrow down your choices by area, budget, house type etc. Just so you aren’t hit by FOMO, you can always add a suburb you’ve been eyeing or an extra bedroom to your filter. But there’s more to a house than just floor space. On MagicBricks, you can check for good schools in the vicinity, a park for evening walks or at least an assured easier commute. Save time and energy by vetting properties based on the specs, pictures and floor plans uploaded and have all your niggling concerns addressed on the users’ forum.
Shortlisted a property? Great! No need to descend down another spiral of anxiety. Get help from reliable experts on MagicBricks on matters of legalities, home loans, investment, property worth etc. You can even avail their astrology and Vastu services to ensure an auspicious start to life in your new home or office. With its entire gamut of offerings, MagicBricks has indeed brought the supermarket experience to real estate in India, as this fun video shows below.
Play
Get started with a simplified experience of buying, renting and selling property on MagicBricks here.
This article was produced by the Scroll marketing team on behalf of MagicBricks and not by the Scroll editorial team.
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Update on 18-year-old scooter rider in A40 collision last night
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An 18-year-old moped rider remains in a life-threatening condition after being involved in a crash which closed part of the A40 for five hours last night (Friday).
Police and paramedics were called to the scene, at the junction with Two Mile Lane near Churcham, at 5.15pm, where the teenager was treated before being transferred to Bristol's Southmead Hospital.
He suffered serious head and leg injuries.
The collision between the silver Honda scooter he was riding and a silver Peugeot 406 led to the road being closed from the Highnam roundabout to the Two Mile Lane turning until about 10.30pm.
Traffic was diverted back down the A40 towards Gloucester or down the A48 to Minsterworth.
The traffic light junction to turn right to Newent from the A40 was also out of use at the time as persistent problems with the signals there happened again.
Police are appealing for witnesses of the crash to get in touch, quoting incident 355 of February 2.
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Silver Sprinkles Are Not Safe for Holiday Cookies, FDA Warns
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Think twice before eating that holiday cookie — but not because of the calories. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants you to know that not all cookie sprinkles are actually safe to eat.
Specifically, silver-covered decorative sprinkles are not approved as an edible food item. Despite the FDA’s incessant and insistent warnings, people have been baking with the silver morsels, anyway.
Officially called “silver dragées,” these decorative items have been on the FDA’s naughty list since 1906, when silver was banned as a food additive. In the 1970’s, the culinary world caught on to the use of silver to decorate food and began coating sprinkles in a very thin layer. This prompted FDA disapproval and a release denouncing the sprinkles as a purely decorative (and nonedible) food item.
Regardless of warnings, these silver-colored decorative sprinkles are sold in 49 states as of today, prohibited only in California. California banned the sprinkles in 2003 following a lawsuit showing they were significantly harmful if ingested.
If you see a silver sprinkle on your cookie, remove it before taking a bite. And if you’re baking this holiday season, stick to icing or rainbow sprinkles to decorate your delicious holiday treats.
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Obama's farewell address set for Chicago
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HONOLULU - U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver a farewell address on Jan. 10 to reflect on his time in office and say thank you to his supporters, he said in an email statement released on Monday.
Obama, noting that the first president of the United States, George Washington, had penned a farewell address in 1796, said he would deliver his speech in his hometown of Chicago.
"I'm thinking about (the remarks) as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here," he said.
Republican Donald Trump will be sworn in to office on Jan. 20. During his campaign for the White House, Trump pledged to undo many of Obama's signature policy measures, including his healthcare law.
Obama, who campaigned hard for Trump's Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, has sought to ensure a smooth transition of power despite major policy differences with his successor. He also leaves his party without a clear figurehead as he leaves the White House.
"Since 2009, we've faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger," Obama said in the email, likely foreshadowing a theme for his speech.
"That's because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding - our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better." (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Paul Tait)
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A couple thought they won $1,000, turns out it was $1 million
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A couple from Fishers, Indiana went to the Hoosier Lottery headquarters last week, intending to cash what they thought was a $1,000 Powerball prize.
Scroll for more content...
But the prize wasn't worth $1,000. It was worth $1 million.
Cindy Ooley and her husband, Steve, bought a Powerball ticket from the Meijer at 1425 W. Carmel Drive. Her ticket matched all five numbers, just not the Powerball number.
Cindy said she has been playing Powerball twice a week for years. She and Steve said they weren't sure what they were going to do with the $1 million prize.
"We're not going to have to watch things quite as closely," Cindy said.
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Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (MUFF) 2017
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The Milwaukee Underground Film Festival is a student-run, international film festival dedicated to showcasing contemporary works of film and video that innovate in form, technique, and content. This annual event exhibits independent films from around the world. We are interested in publicly presenting the best in artistic, experimental, original, humorous, political and visionary film and video work.
film-milwaukee.org
Price: free
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Chattanooga Police reflect on baseball shooting
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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Assistant Police Chief David Roddy and the Chattanooga Police Department have had their share of active-shooter alerts.
The city is still getting over the terrorist attack in July 2015 that took the lives of 5 service members.
The chief says there are lessons to be learned from this morning’s shooting.
Roddy says there’s a difference between indoor and outdoor “active-shooter” cases.
“We have some training…we have some training protocols in what it looks liker in open-air response. Our officers have actually been doing them this year. But now we need to start to learn what tragedy, what actions that the Virginia ..what the capital police had to respond to and how we work to making that mix over too what they need to be prepared for in Chattanooga,” stated David Roddy.
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Hibs reaction: Shaw close to history but boss pleased with point
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Oli Shaw is already making a name for himself but the Hibs kid almost wrote his name into the history books as he came within a whisker of ending Celtic’s record breaking unbeaten run.
Two Scott Sinclair goals within the space of five minutes at the beginning of the second half appeared to end this match as far as Neil Lennon’s players were concerned.
Oli Shaw had his shot cleared off the line in the last minute
But, from somewhere, the Capital outfit found the strength, desire and determination to go again, stunning Brendan Rodgers’ side as they earned themselves what was, ultimately, a thoroughly-deserved point.
It was not enough to stop Celtic clocking up a 68th game without defeat, but Hibs displayed a never-say die approach which had their opponents reeling, Efe Ambrose forcing home their first goal via a deflection off Scott Brown before Shaw, who scored his first Hibs goal in the Betfred Cup semi-final against Celtic in October, fired home an equaliser.
And deep into added-on time, the 19-year-old almost won it, his shot after Craig Gordon had spilled a harmless cross destined for the net until Mikael Lustig appeared from nowhere to take the ball off his own line and so preserve Celtic’s run.
Regardless of the outcome of the third meeting of the season between these two sides, a measure of how times have changed at Easter Road since they last clashed in the Capital was evident to see in the four packed stands. Back in January, 2014, a 4-0 win for Celtic, like this match televised live on television, was witnessed by a crowd of just 12,542, visiting supporters making up some 3800 of that number.
This time round, there wasn’t a seat to be had, the Hoops fans again taking up their full allocation for the South Stand, while the renewed optimism which has swept over Hibs in the past couple of seasons was evidenced by the attendance of 20,193 meaning there were some 8000 more Hibs supporters, a quite remarkable achievement.
Little wonder, though, when they are being treated to such excitement. The side which languished in the Championship for three years are relishing their return to the big time and not looking at all out of place as they find themselves embroiled in a three-way battle with Rangers and Aberdeen for second place in the Premiership.
The Ibrox outfit and the Dons are next up in what is a taxing week for Hibs but they’ll approach those two games well aware that on their day they are more than capable of matching the best the country has to offer.
Lennon said: “Psychologically, we are going to get a lift, particularly the way we finished the game but we are not going to come up against a team of Celtic’s quality every week.
“If we’d broken Celtic’s record we would have been fortunate. I have to be happy with the result because there were aspects of our performance that did not please me. For the first 15 or 20 minutes of the second half they were physically better than us, we were not aggressive enough.
“But we showed tremendous character to come back into the game. We could have won it and we could have lost it so I have to be really pleased with the point.”
Twice now Hibs have drawn with Celtic, Lennon admitting: “I’m pleased with that. We maybe deserved to win at Celtic Park and Celtic maybe deserved to win today. But we have matched them as best we could. I think we can play better as a team although it’s a real acid test for the players to play against a team of that quality.”
Temperatures still hadn’t nudged above freezing before the lunch-time start, a dusting of frost still covering the pitch despite the undersoil heating. But the match got underway at a sizzling pace, Lewis Stevenson coming up with a goal-saving challenge on Callum McGregor as he latched on to Olivier Ntcham’s pass within two minutes.
Hibs midfielder John McGinn, restored to the starting line-up after a one-match suspension, admitted that he’d been “bullied” by Celtic skipper Scott Brown in the early days of his career.
But while there is now a healthy respect between the pair, the Easter Road man showed he’s no longer cowed by Brown’s presence, thundering into an early challenge which was judged by referee John Beaton as a foul. And he was first to react to a loose ball on the fringes of the Celtic area before being felled a step outside it by Lustig.
However, that was a rare threat from the home side in the opening 20 minutes as Celtic dominated possession, an offside flag halting Scott Sinclair before Dylan McGeouch’s poor pass across the front of his own penalty box was picked off by James Forrest, who scorned a glorious opportunity to open the scoring by dragging his shot wide with only Ofir Marciano to beat.
Having survived that let-off, Hibs tested Gordon for the first time, McGinn sending a sumptuous crossfield ball over the head of Kieran Tierney for Martin Boyle to chest down and fire in a low shot from an angle which the Celtic goalkeeper knocked away with his legs at his front post.
Lennon was clearly becoming exasperated at some of the hurried clearances being made as his players attempted to clear their lines, the net return being the ball quickly finding its way back deep into their territory with Anthony Stokes an isolated figure in that thankless role of lone striker.
It had been very much backs-to-the wall stuff from Hibs for long spells in the first half but they were hanging in there and, despite Celtic’s dominance – the statistics showed the Hoops had enjoyed 64 per cent of the ball – the interval came without Marciano being forced into any really meaningful action.
That, however, changed eight minutes into the second period. Sinclair, who had largely been anonymous, held off Steven Whittaker as he bored into Hibs penalty area only to find his way to goal blocked by the feet of Marciano with Efe Ambrose booting Tierney’s attempt on the rebound to safety.
But Sinclair wasn’t to be denied, another shot blocked only to fall into the path of Odsonne Edouard whose effort crashed back off the post and straight to his team-mate, who slotted it beyond the helpless Marciano.
As so often happens, it wasn’t long until Celtic – and Sinclair – had a second goal, the winger cutting inside Whittaker and unleashing a shot which took a deflection off Marvin Bartley which left Marciano flat-footed as the ball spun high into his net. The game looked well beyond Hibs but they left Celtic shaking their heads in disbelief as Ambrose forced home a shot via a deflection off Scott Brown before Shaw again found the net against the Hoops, taking Lewis Stevenson’s pass and hammering the ball high beyond Gordon.
And then came that incredible finale, Shaw denied the goal three minutes into added-on time which would have put his name up in lights only for Sinclair to spurn an even later chance to win it for Celtic. As Lennon said: “We could have won it and we could have lost it so I have to be pleased with the point.”
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MARKETS LIVE: Key things to watch before the opening bell
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Wall Street On Wall Street, the S&P 500 lost 1.42% and the Nasdaq Composite 1.84%, both suffering their worst day in five weeks. Good morning! Welcome to Business Standard's live blog on markets.
The domestic are likely to open in red taking cues from their key Asian counterparts. That apart, investors will look forward to developments in the parliament following the no-confidence motion moved by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) after it broke away from the BJP-led NDA following the Centre's refusal to grant Special Category status to Andhra Pradesh.
Among major political developments, the Parliament on Monday could not transact any business as the opposition parties continued to stall proceedings over their demands, resulting a wash out of the second part of the budget session for eleven consecutive days.
In Lok Sabha, no-confidence motions tabled by arch rivals TDP and YSR Congress against the Modi government were not taken up in the Lok Sabha as the logjam continued amid no signs of thaw between the opposition and the government.
In the global markets, Asian fell on Tuesday as investors dumped high-flying US technology on fears of stiffer regulation as Facebook came under fire following reports it allowed improper access to user data.The retreat came as investors braced for new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s first policy meeting starting later in the day and amid concerns that US President Donald Trump could impose additional protectionist trade measures.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific outside Japan dropped 0.2 per cent. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.0 per cent.
On Wall Street the S&P 500 lost 1.42 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite 1.84 per cent, both suffering their worst day in five weeks.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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No ready mix plant in Noida without our approval: NGT
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NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has directed that no ready-mix plants will be permitted to operate at construction sites in Noida without its specific approval.A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) to strictly ensure that there is no dust emission due to the operation of these equipment.Ready-mix is concrete that is manufactured by combining a precise amount of rock, sand, water and cement at construction sites."The counsel for UPPCB states that they will not give the consent unless the owner of the ready mix plant applies for consent and the same is granted by the Board. Ready-mix plant will not be permitted to operate in any case in the area in question unless there is specific direction given by the tribunal in that behalf," the bench said.The green panel slammed the concerned officials for not taking action against the builders responsible for polluting emissions caused by construction and transportation of construction materials.The NGT had earlier lashed out at the UP government and the Noida Authority for not abiding by its order banning construction in the national capital region even when the PM10 (particulate matter) level was over 900, saying they were making a "mockery of the system."The NGT was hearing a plea alleging that despite specific orders, construction material, hazardous to the health of the locals, was lying in the open.The petition has claimed that construction activities were being carried out unabashedly in sectors 71-78 of Noida and sand, bricks and debris were lying in the open, posing a threat to the people.Showing pictures of debris lying on the roadside, petitioner Amit Gupta and others have sought directions to the concerned authorities to immediately remove the material, use of water sprinklers for suppression of dust.The plea has also sought direction to the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to establish ambient air quality monitoring at sectors 71 and 74-78.
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U.S. Study on Cellphone Radiation Won’t Settle Debate
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U.S. researchers spent nearly two decades to design and carry out a definitive study on the health effects of cellphone radiation. The final results, released Friday, are likely to fuel rather than dispel the long-running debate about the planet’s most ubiquitous electronic device.
Among the observations: Male rats exposed to the radiation had small increases of tumors in their hearts and brains. Females didn’t. Exposed animals also showed signs of DNA damage, which experts thought wasn’t possible. But they also lived longer...
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Cold alert issued for Taiwan over weekend
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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) The cold air mass would continue to cover the whole country until next Wednesday Feb. 7, with temperatures hovering below 10 Celsius degrees in the north of Taiwan over the weekend, said the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).
Apart from the biting cold weather, chance of rain in northern and eastern Taiwan would remain high and the rain could last until next Friday, said the CWB.
People in the east and south of the country would also experience intermittent rain between Saturday and next Tuesday, added the CWB.
The bureau said it snowed on Yushan at dawn Saturday, and with the accumulation from previous days, the depth of the snow had been measured at over eight centimeters.
The bureau also said as temperatures continued to dip and moist persisted, mountainous areas in northern Taiwan with an altitude of over 1,000 meters, including Qixingshan and Datunshan in the Yangmingshan National Park, or in other parts of the island with an altitude over 2,000 meters were likely to see a snowfall on Saturday evening.
The bureau reminded people planning a snow-gazing trip to keep themselves warm and have their vehicle's tires wrapped with snow chains.
Over the weekend, temperatures in central Taiwan would not surpass 14 degrees and in the east, temperatures could stand at 17 degrees at the highest point, said the CWB.
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News From Ireland | Latest Irish News | Today FM
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New homeless figures show there was a slight drop in the number of people in emergency accommodation in April.
The Department of Housing says there were 9,652 people (5,963 adults and 3,689 children) living in emergency accommodation last month - a drop of 29 people compared to March.
Image: Department of Housing
However, a further 300 people in Meath and Dublin have been removed from the numbers after what has been described as a 'categorisation issue' - with the families involved said to be in homes rather than emergency accommodation.
A similar correction was made last month.
The Housing Minister has acknowledged moving people out of emergency accommodation "remains a significant challenge."
Speaking about the latest figures, Eoghan Murphy said: "I have said before that monthly reporting makes it difficult to identify any developing trends at an early stage, but from these figures it would seem that the presentation of new families in to emergency accommodation is stabilizing.
"That said, while the number of families in emergency accommodation is down this month, a small number of families with a large number of children did present, meaning that the number of dependents has risen by 43.”
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BRIEF-Kayne Anderson Energy Development Says Its NAV/Share Was $18.99 As Of Jan 31
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Feb 1 (Reuters) - Kayne Anderson Energy Development Co :
* KAYNE ANDERSON ENERGY DEVELOPMENT CO - AS OF JANUARY 31, 2018, COMPANY‘S NET ASSETS WERE $205 MILLION, AND ITS NET ASSET VALUE PER SHARE WAS $18.99 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: ( [email protected] )
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Iranian Hackers Catfish a Cybersecurity Employee
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Iran Focus
London, 6 Oct - A team of Iranian hackers used Facebook to target Deloitte, one of the world’s biggest accounting firms, according to Forbes.
One Deloitte employee fell victim to the scam in late 2016 at roughly the same time as a separate hack which affected Deloitte data in Microsoft's Azure cloud-hosting service.
The hacking group known as OilRig, which as Forbes pointed out in July were believed to have been working for the Iranian Regime, created a fake Facebook profile for a beautiful, charming woman using the name Mia Ash.
In July 2016, the creators of the fictitious Mia began getting a Deloitte cybersecurity employee and engaging him in conversations about his job via the website’s chat function.
As their relationship grew, the unnamed employee offered to help set Mis up with a website for her alleged business and then eventually, she convinced him to open a document containing malware on his work computer.
Though this malware did not infect the wider company network, it shows how easily the hackers were able to manipulate a security worker, who helped clients to defend themselves against similar digital attacks, and how they could do it again.
James Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat and cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: "This kind of thing is effective because men can't help themselves apparently."
Lewis continued by saying that we should ask why the employee was targeted and whether it was because of his job role or the company, although either option is worrying.
Lewis said: "In a couple instances the Iranians have been really clever: they don't go after the primary target, they go after the secondary... the Deloitte guy might have been interesting only because of who he was connected to."
Although OilRig doesn't do a lot of hacking outside the Middle East, this latest breach is very worrying.
Lewis said: "It's been a steady upward path for [the Regime], starting a decade ago. They test on their citizens, they practise every week against Israel. They've relationships with the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans, and in at least two of those - Russia and North Korea - we know they've exchanged tactics tools and procedures for cyber."
Mia’s profile was creates using images and information stoled from a real-life photographer, Cristina Mattei, from Romania. The hackers also created multiple social media profiles for her so that a Google search wouldn’t show up anything suspicious.
Indeed, SecureWorks cybersecurity researcher Allison Wikoff said that this was one of the most developed fake personas she'd ever seen.
Mia was also used to befriend an Asia-based cybersecurity professional at Deloitte until February 2017, when she also sent him a file- supposedly of photos of her- to open on his work laptop. Thankfully, this was caught by a malware detector.
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Paulina Gretzky gives birth to second son
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Paulina Gretzky looks on during afternoon fourball matches of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club on Octo. 1, 2016 in Chaska, Minn. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Undated Twitter photo of Paulina Gretzky. (Paulina Gretzky/via Twitter)
Undated Twitter photo of Paulina Gretzky. (Paulina Gretzky/via Twitter)
Paulina Gretzy sings the national anthem at the Canada vs. Czech Republic semi-final at the World Cup of Hockey at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Sept. 11, 2004. (Ernest Doroszuk/Postmedia Network)
Paulina Gretzky walks along the 17th hole during the final round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course on Jan. 8, 2013 in Kapalua, Hawaii. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Dustin Johnson attends with Paulina Gretzky the BMW International Open 25th Anniversary Party at Rilano No. 6 Lenbach Palais on June 21, 2013 in Munich, Germany. (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images For BMW)
Paulina Gretzky watches the play of Dustin Johnson during the final round of the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club on Sept. 22, 2013 in Atlanta, Ga. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky nurses a Joey during day two of the Perth International at Lake Karrinyup Country Club on Oct. 18, 2013 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky watches the play of Dustin Johnson of the USA during the final round of the WGC-HSBC Champions at the Sheshan International Golf Club on Nov. 3, 2013 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky poses for a picture during the opening ceremony of the 2015 Presidents Cup at the Convensia Ceremony Hall on Oct. 7, 2015 in Incheon City, South Korea. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky follows the play of Dustin Johnson of the United States Team during the Thursday foursomes matches at The Presidents Cup at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea on Oct. 8, 2015 in Songdo IBD, Incheon City, South Korea (David Cannon/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky watches the play of the United States Team on the ninth hole during the Friday four-ball matches at The Presidents Cup at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea on Oct. 9, 2015 in Songdo IBD, Incheon City, South Korea (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky looks on during afternoon fourball matches of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club on October 1, 2016 in Chaska, Minnesota. (David Cannon/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky arrives at Mr. Pink Ginseng Drink Launch Party on October 11, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Valerie Macon/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky arrives at Mr. Pink Ginseng Drink Launch Party on Oct. 11, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Valerie Macon/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky walks the course during the second round of the 2013 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2013 in Augusta, Ga. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky follows the play of Dustin Johnson during the second round of The Barclays at Liberty National Golf Club on August 23, 2013 in Jersey City, N.J. (Alex Trautwig/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky walks near the club house during round two of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston on Sept. 5, 2015 in Norton, Massachuetts. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky of the United States poses for a picture during the opening ceremony of the 2015 Presidents Cup at the Convensia Ceremony Hall on Oct. 7, 2015 in Incheon City, South Korea. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky watches the play of the United States Team on the ninth hole during the Friday four-ball matches at The Presidents Cup at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea on Oct. 9, 2015 in Songdo IBD, Incheon City, South Korea (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky attends the Par 3 Contest prior to the start of the 2016 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 6, 2016 in Augusta, Ga. (Harry How/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky plays in the first round of the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic on June 26, 2008 in Clarksburg, Ont. (Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
Paulina Gretzky plays in the first round of the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic on June 26, 2008 in Clarksburg, Ont. (Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
This photo of Paulina Gretzky, Wayne Gretzky's daughter, appeared on her Twitter account in November 2011, causing a stir. She closed the account shortly afterwards, apparently after having a chat with her father about social media. (Paulina Gretzky/via Twitter)
Paulina Gretzky follows her boyfriend Dustin Johnson during the final round of the 2013 RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., July 28, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Lynett
Paulina Gretzky is seen in a Dec. 31, 2011 file photo. (Postmedia Network File Photo)
Paulina Gretzky sings the Canadian national anthem before the start of the 2003 Heritage Classic, the NHL's first-ever outdoor game. (Postmedia Network File Photo)
Paulina Gretzky is seen on the cover of the December 2013 issue of Maxim magazine. (Maxim/Postmedia Network)
Paulina Gretzky is seen in this 2015 photo posted on her Instagram account. (Handout/Postmedia Network)
Paulina Gretzky gets driven out of the valley after watching her boyfriend Dustin Johnson play at the Canadian Open Golf tournament, at Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ont., July 28, 2013. (Stan Behal/Postmedia Network)
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PNCA to organize 'Mehfil-e-Milad' on Dec 13
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ISLAMABAD, Dec 11 (APP):Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) will organize ‘Mehfil-e-Milad’ (PBUH) for women on December 13 in connection with Holy Month of Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1439.
Women from different walks of life will participate in the event. Prominent Na’at Khawans and religious scholars will recite Na’ats and Holy Qur’an to pay respect to the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and highlight his teachings of peace, love and brotherhood.
The participants will also pray for peace and prosperity of the country.
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Police Identify New York Bombing Suspect As Akayed Ullah
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America's Best Christkindl MarketsGet a preview of five of America's best Christkindl Markets from around the country.
Best Winter Getaways In EuropeA definitive list of the best places in Europe to travel to this winter.
Best Offbeat Holiday Destinations In AmericaA quick look at five of the most magical and most rewarding destinations to visit during the holidays
5 Historical Places To Spend Thanksgiving WeekendInstead of the usual spots, consider any of these often overlooked historical places to visit over the Thanksgiving weekend
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Cheltenham League: Service fire 13 goals in cup win over Bredon
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The focus shifted from league to cup this weekend as clubs in the Cheltenham League, sponsored by Bristol Street Motors Cheltenham Ford, competed in the third round of the Senior Charities Cup competition, writes Rob Morrison.
The weather had a pronounced impact on fixtures last week and there were just two league games in Division 1, one of which saw leaders Cheltenham Civil Service increase their lead at the top to 14 points following a 2-1 win over bottom club Whaddon United Reserves.
While not as pronounced, the rain once again had an impact with fixtures being cancelled.
After an easy route to this weekend game, a 10-0 in the previous round against Division 4 opposition, Service travelled to second division Bredon Reserves looking to avoid being on the end of a cup upset.
Sitting in mid-table in their respective division Bredon proved to be limp opposition as Service hit 13 without reply including a Stu Midwinter hat-trick and doubles from Dan Wills, Joe McCauley and Josh Goodhall.
2018 is looking like being the year of the cup for Bishops Cleeve III who are still in three competitions. They too faced Division Two opposition in the shape of Prestbury Rovers. It has not been a great season for Rovers who started the day just three points off bottom spot. With an opportunity to make something of their season Rovers were unable to force a win as Cleeve took the tie 4-2.
Pittville United are another team who are struggling in Division Two. Propping up the table they faced Wayne Bakers Newton who although sitting in the middle of Division One are capable of beating anyone on their day. Showing why they are in the division above Newton eased to a 4-1 win.
St Paul's have grabbed plenty of headlines since their formation although FC Barometrics III have now taken their ‘invincibles’ tag after knocking them out of the County Cup.
St Paul's were due to play in probably the most intriguing tie of the round against RSG. Now an established Division 1 club, it has not been a season to write home about for RSG.
St Paul's on the other hand have gone from strength to strength since their formation last season and a division 1 scalp seemed a real possibility. However they weren’t given an opportunity to flex their muscles after RSG were unable to raise a team.
After being beaten to the title last season, AFC Renegades are still hoping to pip St Pauls to the Division 3 title and they too looked to cause an upset against Division One opposition.
Tewkesbury Town moved into third last week when they beat Dowty Dynamos and were favourites to progress. Renegades however had other ideas and stunned their opponents by progressing with a 4-2 win
Whaddon United Reserves are ten points adrift at the foot of Division One and their chances of avoiding bottom spot look grim. They gave Service a good run for their money last week but close defeats are no substitute for points.
The cup represents a great opportunity to add some sparkle to their season although Division Two Southside Star FC were not going to be a pushover. And so it provide as Star won by the odd goal in seven to take the tie.
The final cup match involving Division One teams saw Shurdington Rovers face Brockworth Albion Reserves.
While Rovers did not have a great start to the season, results have picked up in recent times and Albion would need to be firing on all cylinders if they were to get something from the game. In cup games it is all about the result and Rovers 1-0 win was enough to take through to the next round.
With many teams in cup action there were just two league games, one of which featured a title contenders Upton Town. The gap to leaders Civil Service may have been 14 points at the start of the day but with three games in hand Town have an opportunity to put real pressure on the leaders.
Town faced a Dowty Dynamos team who have had an horrendous start to 2018, beating in all their outings. Looking to stop the rot, Dowty pulled off one of their best results to date as they stunned Upton and took the points with a 2-1 win to take their first points of the calendar year.
In the other game, Kings faced Andoversford. While Kings will hope than a 12 point margin over the bottom club is enough to remain safe they will welcome any points that come their way. They were unable to add to their total this week however as they were beaten 2-1.
With four of the six Division Two team looking to take the title of giant killers against Division 1 opposition, the remaining cup game featuring second divisions clubs was an all Division Two affair as FC Barometric Reserves faced Gala Wilton Reserves.
Neither of the teams have set the league alight this season and relative league positions suggested it would be a close affair. Despite this Baro’s proved to be stronger, winning 4-0 to move into the next round.
In addition to the cup matches three league games were schedules although the two which featured the divisions front-runners, The Beeches and Cheltenham Civil Service Reserves both fell foul of the weather.
That left one match which pitted two top five teams against each other as Fintan hosted Hanley Swan. While a top two finish looks beyond them at this stage they are both handily placed should Service or The Beeches start to drop points. The game ended with a 3-1 win for Fintan who moved within three points of swan with a game in hand.
With Divisions Three’s cup representatives all facing Division One opposition the rest of the division were in league action.
FC Lakeside Reserves find themselves in an unusual position, propping up the table, and they were looking to remedy that against Charlton Rovers Reserves. Rovers will feel they are in with a great chance of taking third spot and were keen to ensure they didn’t drop points against one of the divisions strugglers.
At full time the match ended with the Rover keeping up the pressure at the top following a 3-1 win.
Cheltenham United were just a point above Lakeside and hosted Cheltenham Civil Service III in the early kick off. Services form has improved as the season has progress and they were going to prove stern opposition for United. And so it was as Service took the points with a 3-1 win.
Kings are another team who have improved after a disappointing start and although they are only four points above Lakeside they were hoping their improved form would continue against Leckhampton Rovers.
If anything, Rovers form as been the inverse of Kings, a strong start which has tailed off. They are however capable of giving any team a run for their money and are the only team to have held St Pauls in the league.
On the day it was the teams current form that continued as Kings added three points to their total with a 5-3 win.
The final game saw Dowty Dynamos Reserves face Falcons Reserves. While Dowty’s are comfortable in mid-table, Falcons will feel a five point gaps between them and bottom spot is a little too close for comfort. They may have had a greater need for points however it was Dowty who took all three after a 3-2 win.
A full league programme was planned in Division Four including leaders Prestbury Rovers Reserves who travelled to Fintan Reserves. Looking to protect their 100% record Rovers made it eleven wins from eleven games with a 1-0 win.
Defeat last weekend saw Woodmancote United drop from second to fourth and they were looking to get back to winning ways against Winchcombe Town Reserves. Town are in a comfortable mid-table position and were unable to overcome their opponents, losing 2-1.
Just three points separate Bishop's Cleeve Development Reserves from their opponents Andoversford III. With both teams looking to climb into mid-table victory would make a difference to both teams.
Despite their proximity in the table there was nothing close about the score as Cleeve strolled to an 8-1 win to record one of their best results of the season.
Malvern Vale FC move into second last week and although they are just a point behind Prestbury they have played five more games.
They travelled to Gala Wilton III who started the game four points behind their opponents. With a fairly congested top half Vale’s 4-1 win kept them well placed to press for a top two finish.
Malvern Vale FC Academy are another team in the congested top half. They played a Cheltenham Saracens team who have slipped down the table. It would be a real surprise if Saracens came out of the game with anything and so it proved as Vale won 5-1
Welland Reserves are another team pushing for a top three finish although their run was checked last week when they were beaten 4-1 by Malvern Vale FC Academy.
They would have expected to claim maximum points against bottom club Charlton Rovers III, a team who are yet to claim a point.
In a game that saw 10 goals Welland took all three points although Rovers would have been buoyed to have scored four.
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John Goodman: Body Expert Says He’s Openly Angry In Recent Photos
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John Goodman is not holding back his anger about the shocking ‘Roseanne’ cancellation in various photos taken of him on May 29, according to a professional body expert.
John Goodman, 65, was NOT happy on May 29, according to a body expert. Just hours after ABC announced it was canceling the next season of the Roseanne revival due to Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet, John was photographed looking very upset while walking his dog in New Orleans, LA and we spoke with Patti Wood, MA, Body Language Expert to break down exactly what was going through the actor’s mind. “In the first photo he is giving a classic face blocking gesture to the photographer,” Patti EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife. “He doesn’t want the photographer to see how he is feeling. Face blocking is a subconscious wish to disappear. The look he gives in the other photographs is an unrepressed anger, the eye narrowed to slits, eyebrows pointed to the center is devil brows and his mouth turned down at the corners with slight asymmetry, chin pulled up, is distaste. Flared nostrils make that clear how angry he is, but the attacking glare is focused on the photographer.”
John’s negative feelings interpreted by his body language is definitely understandable considering his popular sitcom was currently one of the highest rated shows on television. It’s obviously become a huge successful endeavor for him and to have it taken away with no warning due to something completely unrelated to him has to be difficult.
Although John hasn’t publicly spoken about the controversial situation, some of his co-stars have, including Sara Gilbert, who plays John’s daughter, Darlene on the show. “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least,” Sara tweeted shortly after Roseanne’s negative tweet made headlines. She also expressed how disappointed she was about the cancellation. “This is incredibly sad and difficult for all of us, as we’ve created a show that we believe in, are proud of, and that audiences love— one that is separate and apart from the opinions and words of one cast member,” she said.
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Maroon 5 Share ‘Help Me Out’ Featuring Julia Michaels
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By Hayden Wright
Yesterday, Maroon 5 revealed the tracklist and roster of collaborators on Red Pill Blues, their sixth studio album which drops November 3. Today, fans can hear “Help Me Out” featuring Julia Michaels.
Related: Maroon 5 Reveal ‘Red Pill Blues’ Tracklist & Special Guests
The “Issues” singer duets with Adam Levine on the track, which focuses on two people helping one another overcome life’s challenges.
“I’m getting kinda over this/ I need a metamorphosis /Are you as weak as me? /If not, do you wanna be?” Levine sings. “I need some temporary saving / I need some, some uncomplicated…”
The singers duet over a spare, electronic soundscape that’s both moody and upbeat—and Michaels’ voice is an excellent complement to Levine’s. “Help Me Out” follows “What Lovers Do,” Maroon 5’s collaboration with SZA that debuted last month.
Listen to “Help Me Out” here:
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Liberals on track for $4B deficit in 2017-18: FAO
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TORONTO — Ontario’s fiscal watchdog says the Liberal government will run a deficit this fiscal year, despite claims it has balanced the budget.
In a new report Monday, the Financial Accountability Office said the Liberals will run a $4 billion deficit in 2017-2018, and will continue to be in the red over the next few years.
More moderate growth in revenues and the increasing fiscal impact of the province’s Fair Hydro Plan, which cuts electricity rates by 25 per cent, will take their toll on Ontario’s books the report notes. It also says a long-simmering accounting dispute between the Liberal government and Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk over how to count two public sector pension plans on the ledger is contributing to uncertainty.
“We’ve been very consistent that because of a number of factors we think the deficit will re-emerge,” said FAO chief economist David West. “Now, with this accounting debate it will become more significant.”
The Liberals presented a balanced budget in the spring, a year ahead of the provincial election, and have promised to keep the books in balance through the next couple of years.The FAO, however, projects the government’s budget deficit will grow to $9.8 billion in 2021-2022.
“The government is out borrowing this money,” West said. “This current year they’re going to borrow $23 billion in the markets. That’s going to rise to $45 billion in the coming years.”
The FAO also said the government’s new hydro plan will add $3.2 billion to the budget deficit by 2021-2022.
Last year Lysyk questioned the province’s decision to include a pair of public pensions — the Ontario Public Service Employee’s Union Pension Plan and the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan — as assets on its balance sheet.
The FAO said in its report that since the government has not adopted the auditor’s recommended accounting for both the pension assets, and with the addition of the Fair Hydro Plan, it is becoming more difficult for legislators and the public to assess the government’s fiscal projections.
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Tax Cuts Provide Historic Gains for Minorities, Women
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In January, the black unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, but by May, it had dropped to 5.9 percent, the lowest unemployment rate recorded for African-Americans since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began to report such figures in 1972.
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Caitlyn Smith at Canopy Club review
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Canopy Club is known for its loud, almost insane shows, making it seem like a totally different dimension. This was no exception for Caitlyn Smith’s show on Sunday night, April 22. Performing to a smaller crowd in the front area of Canopy Club, Caitlyn kept spirits high, making all audience members feel like an old friend. Transforming the club to a little place back home in Nashville, Caitlyn made the venue her own. Caitlyn Smith’s newest album “Starfire” came out January 19 and she has been travelling the States since then. With Urbana being her 15th show on the tour, Caitlyn raved about finally stopping in the small town she so often passed through when travelling between Minnesota and Nashville. It is easily agreed that Urbana will not forget Caitlyn Smith as she passes through once more.
Hitting off the night with her first song off the new album, “Before You Called Me Baby” was an easy way to start off the night, setting spirits and energy high. Besides this opener, Caitlyn visited many songs from her new album including “Do You Think About Me,” “Starfire” and her love letter to Minnesota with “St. Paul.” One of her most impressive songs, “Tacoma,” really brought the night to a perfectly impressive close. The song “Tacoma” itself is difficult in its vocal demands, so it can be considered the climax of the album to some. Matching this exact theme, Caitlyn and her band performed “Tacoma” near the end of the setlist, hitting the perfect climax for the live performance.
Song after song, Caitlyn advertised her effortless musical and vocal abilities. With a voice as clear as hers, Caitlyn sounded exactly like her album recording. Although this is true, she still found areas within the setlist to differentiate her performance from what fans already knew about her. Being a songwriter for many different artists, Caitlyn is able to write for just about anyone while still staying true to herself in her live performance. This shown through when Caitlyn paid tribute to the second anniversary of Minnesota’s own late Prince. Hailing from Minnesota herself (so lovingly explained in her earlier song “St. Paul”), Caitlyn and her band covered Prince’s song “Kiss” without a hitch. Just from this cover alone, Caitlyn proved that while pop and country seem to be her forte, her talent and vocal abilities cover many areas.
Being a firecracker herself, Caitlyn Smith and her band lived up to the newest album “Starfire.” Taking a small venue and turning it into an intimate show like Caitlyn did is no easy feat, but with her bubbly personality and impressive songs, Caitlyn delivered a performance that will stay with her audience for some time after. If a chance ever presents itself to see Caitlyn Smith live, it is within everyone’s best interest to give her a shot. If pop and/or country are not the preferred music genre, Caitlyn can rope in an audience member in some other way from her incredible talent, ability to create a friendly atmosphere to her “chameleon-like” talent of music performance. Small in venue but big in talent, Caitlyn Smith gave Urbana’s Canopy Club a performance that brought Nashville to Central Illinois.
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China waives income tax for foreign investors trading yuan crude futures
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BEIJING: China will waive income tax for three years for foreign investors trading the country’s new crude futures contract, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, in a bid to attract overseas capital for the much anticipated launch.
The start of trading on Monday will mark the culmination of a years-long push by China to create Asia’s first oil futures benchmark, and is aimed at giving the world’s biggest oil importer more clout in pricing crude sold to Asia.
It will potentially give the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, which will operate the new contract, a share of the trillions of dollars each year in oil futures trading.
The finance ministry said foreign brokers will be exempted from paying income tax on commissions they earn from dealing in the new Shanghai crude futures.
The tax exemption could help encourage foreign players to engage with the new contract, despite concerns about issues such as foreign exchange conversion and potential capital curbs.
The number of foreign investors seeking to open non-resident accounts to allow trading has so far been below expectations, a source at CITIC, one of eight banks that is handling margin deposits for foreign investors, said. The source declined to be named as he is not authorized to talk with media.
The oil market is closely watching the liquidity of the contract, as institutional investors and brokers expect trading volumes and open interest to be relatively small compared with China’s iron ore, copper and steel futures contracts.
China in recent days has provided more details on the contract, including margins, trading limits and transaction fees, and has approved the use of six bonded storage warehouses.
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BRIEF-Audentes Therapeutics announces FDA clearance of investigational new drug application for AT132 to treat x-linked myotubular myopathy
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April 3 Audentes Therapeutics Inc
* Audentes Therapeutics announces FDA clearance of investigational new drug application for AT132 to treat x-linked myotubular myopathy
* Audentes Therapeutics Inc - preliminary data from Aspiro is expected to be available in Q4 of 2017 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
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'The Walking Dead': Everything to know in under 4 minutes
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - "The Walking Dead" will return for Season 8 on Oct. 22, marking the series' 100th episode.
Maybe you've always wanted to watch AMC's record-breaking cable series and never got around to it. Or you've been a loyal viewer since the beginning, but have forgotten about a few things.
Either way, AMC has offered up a recap of "The Walking Dead's" first 99 episodes that takes less than 4 minutes to view.
All the key moments are there, from Rick waking up in the hospital to the arrival of Negan. Check it out below:
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Alcoholic told police in Newquay he was going to kill nephew before being found with three knives
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An alcoholic who called 999 and told an operator that he was going to kill his nephew before being caught carrying knives has been given a chance to turn his life around by a judge.
Andrew Varcoe, 46, of Quintrell Road in Newquay appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence today (February 2) after pleading guilty to one count of making threats to kill at an earlier hearing.
Prosecuting barrister Philip Lee told the court how on December 2 of last year Varcoe called 999 and told the operator he had lost his mind, had armed himself with a meat cleaver and wanted to kill his nephew.
Police then attended the property and Varcoe became agitated and aggressive towards officers. Sergeant Andy Mulhern followed him inside where he repeated his intention to kill his nephew and said he needed to be detained at Longreach mental unit in Redruth.
Mr Lee said: “When asked if he had anything on him Mr Varcoe said 'yes' and removed a large knife from his jeans and put it on the table. He then took a second knife from his sock and a third knife was recovered from his waistband during a pat down search.
“When interviewed by police the defendant said he suffered from alcohol-induced psychosis and had drank eight cans of strong cider and couldn’t remember the calls or making the threats.”
The court heard how Varcoe had a limited criminal record but had been given a four-year sentence for arson in 2011.
Defending Varcoe, Ramsay Quaife said he had given a full admission in his interview with officers.
Mr Quaife said: “He is someone who needs help and asks for one last chance. He had a problem with alcohol but his father has recently stopped drinking after a lifetime of it and the hope is that Mr Varcoe junior can do the same.
“He wants to finally get off the booze both for himself and his daughters.”
Sentencing Varcoe, Judge Simon Carr described the crimes as “unusual”.
He said: “You called the police and indicated there was a danger you were going to kill someone. Your anger seemed directed at your nephew.
“When police attended you were very drunk indeed and although you didn’t threaten officers, it must have been disturbing for them.
“Three large knives you were carrying were recovered and I hope the time you spent on remand in prison will make you realise you can never drink again.
“I can only imagine the harm you could have caused in that state with those type of weapons but I accept that there is a huge element of a cry for help in this case, although handled badly.
“This is an exceptional case and this really is the last chance to address your demons.”
Judge Carr gave Varcoe a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to attend a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
He will also be the subject of a strict three month curfew in preventing him from leaving his house at various times during the day and night except from for Alcoholic's Anonymous meetings.
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Dell XPS 13 Convertible Leaked Before CES 2017
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CES 2017 is starting in a few days and will be full of surprises for a number of people who are looking forward to see some kind of innovative technology. This year the CES 2017 will be held in Las Vegas at Nevada from 4th to 8th January, 2017.
Don't Miss: Top 100 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2016 Photos
A number of technology giants and new companies are coming to the event with their products. Some of them will include updated versions of the earlier products while others will be brand new ones.
Dell has announced earlier that they will be launching a new convertible XPS 13 in the event. However the exciting thing is that XPS 13 just got leaked online and we are bringing its details exclusively here so you can see what new things, this device is going to hold.
The XPS 13 is a 2 in 1 device that is actually a convertible one, according to The Verge. It will help you in using it in a number of modes. It looks like the device has gotten the famous Infinite Edge display by Dell to accompany as well which will make it a great choice in terms of visual effects.
We are looking forward to see an updated version of XPS 13 in it which means that will have Kaby Lake processors from Intel, according to MSPU.
Companies like Lenovo and Dell, all working in the category of convertible laptops mean that it will be the year for convertibles for sure. Dell hasn’t shared any other details about XPS 13 and it is obvious that more will be revealed at the event. We will bring you more details as soon as we will have some for you.
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31-year-old Japanese woman dies after clocking 159 hours of overtime in a month
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"We decided to disclose her death to all of our employees and to the public to share the company's resolve to prevent a recurrence and follow through with reforms," NHK said.
Ryoichi Ueda, president of NHK, said Sado's parents "hoped we would take utmost efforts so that another such case won't happen again."
But Sado's parents criticized NHK's response as inadequate. In a statement published by the Asahi Shimbun on Thursday, they said they feared that her death would be forgotten and "wondered if the company would keep hiding it, or why the union kept silent."
Her parents also asked why the company had not limited their daughter's working hours.
"It is an abnormal work situation to work almost every day on Saturday and Sunday, working until late at night every day, so we cannot understand why such a situation was overlooked," their statement said.
Although they did not immediately publicize their daughter's death, they said Takahashi's case had spurred them to publicly discuss it.
They also criticized NHK for not disseminating news of their daughter's death throughout the company. They said that other employees — even journalists who had reported on other cases of karoshi — did not know that one of their colleagues had died from the condition.
Karoshi, which has included the burden of entertaining clients or bosses in some industries, has long prompted calls for legislation.
The Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training, in a white paper released last year on the prevention of karoshi, noted that the "undeniable problems in Japan's work environment" were especially detrimental to regular employees younger than 35.
National guidelines use a threshold of 100 hours of overtime in a month — or an average of 80 hours of monthly overtime in a six-month period — to determine whether a worker is at risk of physical or mental harm. Those guidelines were put forward by a government panel in April, but critics say that more is needed.
In February, the Japanese government and the Keidanren, Japan's largest business group, introduced an effort dubbed "Premium Friday" that encouraged companies to allow workers to leave the office at 3 p.m. on the last Friday of the month.
Only a fraction of companies are participating.
The New York Times
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4 men arrested after pursuit in Toronto
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Toronto police say four men are facing a total of 97 charges in an investigation into gun violence in the city's Regent Park neighbourhood.
They say the men were arrested on Monday after an officer saw four people, who appeared to be wearing clothing designed to disguise their identities, in a vehicle.
It's alleged one of the occupants got out of the vehicle carrying a handgun and fired in the direction of traffic and pedestrians, but it's not believed anyone was struck.
Investigators say a pursuit of the vehicle ended when it struck a police car, but not before it had collided with two taxis and driven down a sidewalk, narrowly missing pedestrians.
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Aubameyang bags debut goal, Ramsey treble as Arsenal crush Everton
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Arsenal's record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored on his debut and Aaron Ramsey hit a hat-trick in a swaggering 5-1 rout of woeful Everton on Saturday.
Aubameyang vowed to emulate Arsenal legend Thierry Henry after arriving from Borussia Dortmund for £56 million ($79 million, 63 million euros) this week.
While it is too soon for such lofty comparisons, the Gabon striker certainly made the perfect first impression at the Emirates Stadium.
Aubameyang, recovered from an illness that had placed his debut in doubt, capped an exhilarating first half from Arsenal with a composed finish to put his side four goals ahead.
Ramsey had opened the scoring and Laurent Koscielny increased Arsenal's lead before Ramsey struck again to make it three goals in the first 19 minutes.
Aubameyang's lively debut was aided by three assists from Henrikh Mkhitaryan in his first Arsenal start.
Wales midfielder Ramsey completed his treble in the second half and the only angst for Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was the sight of goalkeeper Petr Cech limping off injured.
Sixth placed Arsenal are now five points behind fourth placed Chelsea, who face Watford on Monday, in the race to qualify for next season's Champions League via a top four finish.
Wenger had bemoaned Arsenal's defending in their wretched 3-1 loss at Swansea on Tuesday, but the two changes he made were both attack minded as Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan came in.
Aubameyang replaced misfiring France striker Alexandre Lacazette, who has only one goal in his last 12 appearances.
Lacazette had been Arsenal's record signing until the Aubameyang swoop, but while he has struggled to live up to expectations, Aubameyang quickly set about repaying his hefty transfer fee -- with help from an old friend.
Mkhitaryan was making his home debut after arriving from Manchester United as part of the deal that sent Alexis Sanchez to Old Trafford.
Mkhitaryan rarely showed his best form with United, but he and Aubameyang had formed a deadly double act during their time at Dortmund and they were back in the groove as Arsenal took a sixth minute lead.
(IKIMAGES/AFP)
When Aubameyang slipped a pass into Mkhitaryan, the midfielder whipped over a superb cross that invited Ramsey, timing his run perfectly, to slot past Jordan Pickford from close-range for his first goal since October.
Aubameyang joins party
Mkhitaryan went close to doubling Arsenal's lead moments later with a fierce strike that whistled wide from the edge of the area.
Lethargic Everton were unable to stem the tide and Wenger's men didn't have to wait long to claim their second goal in the 14th minute.
Shkodran Mustafi met Mesut Ozil's corner with a header towards the far post, where Koscielny stooped to head home from close-range.
Everton's dismal display was ruining Sam Allardyce's 500th match as a Premier League manager and there was worse to come in the 19th minute.
Afforded time and space by Everton's statuesque rearguard, Ramsey unloaded a 25-yard strike that took a deflection off Toffees debutant Eliaquim Mangala on its way past the wrong-footed Pickford.
With Arsenal threatening every time they went forward, Aubameyang, who also scored on his Bundesliga debut, was able to join the party in the 37th minute.
Mkhitaryan's pass split the Everton defence and, although Aubameyang looked offside, the linesman's flag stayed down as the debutant clipped a deft finish over Pickford.
It was another remarkable goal blitz from Arsenal, who scored four times in the first 22 minutes of their previous home league game against Crystal Palace.
Everton's capitulation made it a depressing return for Theo Walcott, who was subbed midway through the second half of his first return to Arsenal since his January transfer.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin got one back for Everton with a 64th header, but there was still time for Ramsey to strike again with a low finish from Mkhitaryan's pass in the 74th minute.
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Water Flowing Down Damaged Main Spillway at Oroville Dam
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Riverbend Park and the Oroville Dam's spillways are seen in Oroville, California on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. Almost 200,000 people were under evacuation orders in Northern California Monday after a threat of catastrophic failure at the United States' tallest dam.
Start the conversation, or Read more at NBC Bay Area.
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Frozen Songwriter Kristen Anderson Lopez Dishes On Her Early Career Struggles
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There are reasons for Kristen Anderson Lopez, the Oscar-winning song writer of “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen, to have her feet well-grounded.
For the Oscar-winning songwriter of Frozen life was not always a fairy tale.
While hard work and tenacity have helped her to achieve professional success, the Frozen songwriter’s incredible modesty and selflessness trace roots to her early-life financial struggles.
There were days and months in her life when she earned just $7.50 an hour and could not even afford tampons. But she coped. She also picked up some compelling money lessons on the way.
In a candid interview with CentSai, Kristen Anderson-Lopez tells her story.
Doria Lavagnino of CentSai: What was your relationship with money growing up?
Kristen Anderson-Lopez: That could be a whole therapy session, right?
My parents were young parents and did not have two pennies to put together. So my relationship to money – the early relationship to money – was like, we drank powdered milk and we got one Christmas present.
Then my dad slowly but surely climbed the corporate ladder in that “Mad Men” kind of way. So with each promotion came more.
We went from camping in a tent from a garage sale, to like, “Ooh, actual walls?”
By the time I was nine we got to go to Puerto Rico. That was a huge deal.
Vacations are funny – that is my measure of how I went from poor — poverty-level poor — to quite wealthy in the span of my childhood.
DL: What happened next?
KL: By the time I was in high school we moved to Charlotte [North Carolina]. My dad had worked his way up and we upper-middle class. I went to Charlotte Country Day School and later to Williams [College]. My parents had a “Baby Boomer” relationship to money.
They weren’t handing me tons of cash. So I had to get a job at Williams to pay for pizza and I didn’t have the best clothes. I was a Gap-level fashionista.
DL: What was your first job?
KL: My first job, when I was 15, was working at the pharmacy administration in the basement of [North] Carolina’s Medical Center. Right next to the morgue.
DL: How much did you make an hour?
KL: $7.50? And then taxes got taken out! I’m like “WHAT?’
DL: That’s a hard lesson to learn, isn’t it?
KL: Yeah! After graduating from Williams as a theater and psychology double major I was a waitress while waiting for my break. My plan out of Williams was not a great one. I was a horrible waitress.
DL: Why?
KL: Because my personal connection with the customer was more important to me than them needing ketchup. People who are great waiters and waitresses are the people who are concrete thinkers. Customers don’t care about your life or want to become best friends. They want their iced tea. And they want it not spilled on them.
DL: Did that happen?
KL: Yeah… I spilled ice tea on a whole table of Clinique people dressed in all white… I got each one of them. A whole round robin.
DL: So waitressing was not your thing. What happened next?
KL: So I did that for a while. Since I was the class speaker at Williams, some investment bank reached out to me. I keep forgetting, I’ve totally blocked the name, but it was a really good financial consulting firm that hired artists, and they wanted me to come for an interview in New York.
KL: So I flew to New York and the first thing I did was pick up a backstage newspaper and saw there was an audition at the Jupiter theater I could fit in. And I went to this audition and I got a callback exactly when my interview was for this investment bank. I blew off the financial institution to go to the callback, and I got it.
DL: That was your first big theater gig?
KL: Yes, it was a year-long internship at the Jupiter Theatre (In Florida) doing, like, 13 musicals in the chorus and secondary parts, and they put you up in condos that were right on the beach. They fed you horrible food, and you got $50 a week. And you were basically a musical theater indentured servant for a year.
Career Building: Summer Stock in New Hampshire playing Lady Larkin in ‘Once Upon a Mattress’.
DL: Tough to live on $50 a week, even back then! And did you have any free time?
KL: Um, no. I woke up at 7 am and worked until midnight, and then I did it again.
No days off. Except when you burned the theater down, which did happen.
We burned the theater down during a kids’ show. And so we got a week off when they had to fix that.
DL: That was probably a well-earned break.
KL: It was! My parents came down and stayed at the Breakers in West Palm Beach, and I was living on $50 a week and bicycling. I thought, “Wow, my parents live this really wealthy life, and I – I can’t afford tampons.” That was the journey I took in my 20s. I was trying to reconcile this upper-middle-class life that my parents and sisters had with my under-the-poverty line freelance life.
DL: When did you know that musical theater was your passion?
KL: I knew that from early on, but I struggled with musical theater being my career for my entire 20s.
After a particularly difficult time, I tried to use my fallback, which was my psychology background. When I was 25, I worked for a year with schizophrenic patients.
At 28, I did PR – both jobs were full-time gigs that offered health insurance and the life all my contemporaries were living. The bulk of my 20s I was temping.
As I got older it really became scary to suddenly be working for people younger than me. I was working for the people who had chosen that ‘alternate universe.’ I dreaded the day that I was going to end up working for someone I’d gone to Williams with – that I’d graduated with, or graduated before them.
DL: I guess those are character-building moments?
KL: It took a lot of personal growth. But it brings me to one of the things I wanted to share with your audience, and I shared it with my sisters when they graduated from their cushy colleges, which is: You actually have to turn your back on peers that are living a different financial life than you are. It’s painful when all your wealthier friends are getting a house in the Hamptons for the summer and you can’t.
You can’t go out for drinks at a swanky bar in the Wall Street area. You can’t all go grab pedicures.” You can’t even afford the bachelor /bachelorette parties.
DL: How did you cope?
KL: I had to close the door on that peer group. I remember a specific night where we all got together and they wanted to go out for Thai food, and I could not afford it. I had $10 in my bank account, and those $10 had to pay for my subway back and forth.
DL: This was still in your 20s?
KL: Yes, and it was a really dark moment where I said, “Okay, I need to find my own group in New York that are also artists and who are in this financial struggle, as well.” I had to find my community of freelance artists who could spend a night hanging out drinking beer and playing theater games. It was affordable, fun, and tapped into my joy, not my bank account.
Originally called ‘Along the Way’ this is the cast that became ‘In Transit’
DL: When did you finally find your community?
KL: I found my true community when I found the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (BMI) It’s a mouthful. That was the moment, when I was 27, that I realized I was a writer.
DL: Not an actress?
KL: Not an actress. I love acting, and one day I planned to do it, but the writing was the way that I was going to have the edge. It’s not enough to be a pretty good actress. You have to be an exquisitely stunning, amazing actress to get work. My edge is as a writer– in part because I had acting skills and a voice that I was using as an instrument – which a lot of writers didn’t have. So, I found my synergy. And I met my husband –it was sort of one-stop shopping for life.
DL: When did you meet Bobby? (Robert Lopez, co-creator of Book of Mormon and Avenue Q and Frozen co-songwriter of Oscar-winning “Let It Go”)
KL: Right after I joined that workshop in the Fall of 1999.
DL: When you met Bobby, were you sure he was the one?
KL: No. On one level, my gut had that one moment of, “Aha! This person is my person.” On another level, he was 24, living with his parents, writing a puppet musical, and had a lot of growing up to do. And I was dating someone else.
DL: You have always focused on growing your voice and body of work. How have you kept moving even when it was hard?
KL: It’s true, and I owe my parents for not bailing me out. Both my parents felt strongly, and it must have been very hard for them, that they were not going to subsidize a mediocre acting career.
My parent’s tough financial love allowed me to go through the hard lessons that I needed to go through, and I think that’s how I found what my true calling. If they had been subsidizing me, I think I probably wouldn’t have had enough hardship to pivot and find my true calling.
DL: That makes total sense – you have to be hungry.
Yeah! You have to be hungry, and you have to be resilient. It’s really key to life.– Kristen Anderson Lopez
DL: Absolutely. And so, when you had those dark moments, how did you pull yourself out of them? Can you give our readers some suggestions?
KL: Realizing nobody’s gonna save you but yourself – that’s really key. There is an aloneness in that, but there’s also a huge power in that realization. When I look back on it now, I am so proud of myself for making it through those years when I worked paycheck-to-paycheck-to-paycheck, and I developed a sense of pride about it.
DL: How do you find being a woman in theater? More specifically, women don’t earn as much as men, across the board. Why do you think that is, and what do you think women can do better in their day-to-day life to earn more money?
KL: One of the things that I still struggle with is in negotiations. Women have this need to be liked, and have self-doubt like “Well…I don’t want to look like a bitch…” My husband never once worried about looking like a bitch. He has rarely thought, “I don’t want them to not like me.” I think that’s the way we undercut ourselves during negotiations, and failing to ask for what we’re worth.
DL: Absolutely. Are you better at negotiating now or is it still tough?
KL: It’s still a work in progress, honestly. I have an agent and a lawyer now who negotiate, or fight tooth and nail in a way that I would never do. And they tend to say “Do not talk to these people you’re friends with who you negotiate with. DO NOT talk to them about contract or negotiations. Let us take care of negotiating.”
You don’t EVER get emotionally involved on that side because of both of us as – as artists – we have to be incredibly open to the people we’re working with. And then you – then you find yourself negotiating with them. It’s a tricky thing, so I – I compartmentalize it –I outsource.
DL: I have seen this myself in my career. I’ve seen men ready to negotiate and more often than not, women not wanting to rock the boat.
KL: Yeah – I am really proud of my assistant. She’s a millennial. And she came to our yearly meeting, and had researched people who do what she does, and how they’re being compensated.
She had really done her due diligence on salaries and had written very clearly all of her responsibilities – so clearly – and I was – I, even though I was on the other side of that negotiation– I was so proud of her for really taking the time to catalogue all of her work, and also taking the time to find out, “What are other people who are doing my job getting?”
She let us know where she intended to bring more value to us in the future.” She handled it really beautifully and we share an office!
DL: As a result, was she able to get a raise?
KL: Yeah.
DL: Good for her!
KL: She – she pointed out how much we needed her, in a way that we don’t always recognize It’s really worth making sure that you’re in a situation where you have an annual review every year. Especially if you’re freelancing – it’s hard to ask for that. And make sure to do your due diligence. I learned from my 20-something assistant in this case.
DL: We all learn from each other, right? One of the areas on our platform that gets a lot of traffic is “relationships and money”. Early on, when you and Bobby were working–and struggling – did you have money fights? And if so, what were they about?
KL: As early as our first date we went Dutch. And he also came a similar background of educated but middle-class parents who didn’t have tons of slush funds, so money was always an issue in his family as well. He was working on a puppet musical, and as a freelance artist.
So, we knew, we’re both paying for our own piece of pizza. Then there was the final push for Avenue Q, where I was working as a temp and as a teacher, teaching artists in the Bronx, and he was getting to go off and live the dream every day and there were a couple of months that I kept us afloat. And I woke up at 5 every morning to go to the Bronx.
DL: This was before Avenue Q?
KL: This was before Avenue Q opened off-Broadway. And, actually, on the way to the off-Broadway opening – in our fancy dresses – we had to stop at my temp job to pick up my check. Otherwise, we weren’t gonna have money to make it through the weekend.
DL: I remember you mentioning that in your email to me, which is a really powerful anecdote. How many hours would you say you were working at that point?
KL: Forty? Fifty? But the other piece that I was sacrificing was that those hours I wasn’t working on my own writing. My husband was working on his own writing.
At that point. It’s just a few months, but I’m – he had moved in with me, so I was paying the rent. During those months, I could see there was the making of some real fights in our future.
It didn’t last long, because luckily Avenue Q got a good review and then suddenly money started flowing in, and eventually, I was able to quit my jobs and focus on writing myself.
It’s funny how we carry those moments into our marriage. We’re just now investigating some of those underlying ideas. We just had a conversation about how, at that moment, when he was like “You can quit your job” he thought that he was giving me a big gift and that I would be grateful for the rest of my life.
And actually, at that moment I was feeling a loss of independence. I got a gain of being subsidized to focus on my own writing. But I also got a loss of standing on my own two feet.
DL: Which was your identity up to that point…. that must have shaken you up a bit, I would imagine…
KL: It did. Again, we got married that year (2003), and then we had a kid a year later we didn’t really have a chance to kind of focus on [money in our relationship]. Only now, at this point in our lives, have we started that conversation.
DL: So, the money conversation happened recently?
KL: Really recently. We spoke about being subsidized was actually in the con column… That I actually didn’t ever want to be that person or obligated in that way.
DL: Were you worried you would lose your hunger?
KL: I certainly didn’t lose my hunger as a… female writer in the industry – there’s so much hunger there although he [Bobby] likes to point out that I – my true hunger happened… after I had a kid – that’s when I really started –
Suzanne Harkness A timeline...
DL: Why do you think that is?
KL: For six months, I didn’t have to do anything but my writing and we wasted our days. We had a certain amount of financial freedom. We stayed up late, watching Seinfeld until three in the morning and we’d sleep in till 11. We’d exercise. And suddenly, it’s five o’clock. Dinner. Then, maybe, I’d be like, “Uuuggghh – I didn’t work today, I have to…“ but it was once I had a child, my hours became fewer.
DL: Was your pregnancy a productive time?
KL: Yes that’s where I got our in with Disney… through Finding Nemo the Musical… before I was pregnant. Like, I got that job and then pulled Bobby into that job.
DL: Your daughters, Katie and Annie… what money lessons are you trying to teach them?
KL: Right now, we’re just working on teaching the value of a dollar – at least with Annie. We are also doing chores to earn, “You are a part of the household so Katie, you have to set the table every night and Annie you’ll help to clear it.” With that they earn… money.
For instance, if Katie loses a book and we have to replace it – she has a problem with losing things right now – very irresponsible with her things – and if we have to go buy something it comes from her. Hopefully, she sees a one-to-one ratio of “your lack of responsibility…”
DL: “… is what yielded…”
KL: Yeah.
DL: Weird question: if you were to choose someone to be on the one-dollar bill, who would it be and why?
KL: Hillary Clinton… as our first female president!
KL: I – I guess since she didn’t win, I think there are probably more stories out there that we don’t quite know of women who had a huge impact, like the Hidden Figures movie about NASA –these women whose math solved the ability to go to the moon. I still wonder about Hamilton’s wife. If Hamilton’s wife wrote half of those things.
DL: If you had $20 to spend it on right now, what would it be?
KL: $20-? A book. A really good book.
DL: One that comes to mind?
KL: Emma?
DL: What is your guilty pleasure? Mine’s chocolate.
KL: My guilty pleasure? Massages. … and I’m trying to work on not feeling guilty about that because at this point in our lives, investing in our hardware is a cheap part of keeping our computers running.
DL: What advice would you give to millennial women about investing in themselves?
KL: The biggest piece of advice I give to every single person – especially those who want to be in the artistic field – pick up a copy of the Artist’s Way. By the time we graduate from high school/college, we are so full of messages that we’ve been fed about ourselves that often we’re on the wrong path.
In my case, it forced me – to get out of my own way. It has all these different exercises that get your true calling to come out. The first time that I ever wrote down that I was a songwriter I was doing an exercise that said something like, “Imagine 10 things you wish you could be if money and talent were not an issue” and I remember writing some things and being really surprised that I wrote “ a songwriter.”
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Faster connections could be coming to town
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Couns. Matt Rockley and Tanya Thorn are proposing a new bylaw to make fibre optic installation a requirement in all new developments.
Start the conversation, or Read more at Western Wheel.
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Second-ranked Virginia basketball team wins with defense
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. >> Defense has been No. 2 Virginia’s calling card since Tony Bennett became the coach nine years ago.
The Cavaliers play at a pace that some have described as boring, but it’s one its players and fans have come to embrace. Shot-clock violations are celebrated as much as tomahawk dunks. When the opposing shot clock dips below 10 seconds, it’s as if the fans are seconds away from free pizza.
Virginia held Clemson to a season-low 36 points and Louisville to 64, more than 14 below the Cardinals’ average. They’ll try to do the same at Syracuse on Saturday. The Orange scored 61 in a loss in the teams’ first meeting.
“If you were going to tell me we would come in here and shoot 50 percent and score 64 points, I would have liked our chances but sometimes the other team just makes more shots than you do, so you just have to give them all the credit in the world.” Cardinals coach David Padgett said. “There is a reason they are No. 2 in the country.”
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Humility, it seems, has a lot to do with it.
That, and, Virginia’s ability to impose their will on opponents
A lot of the Cavaliers’ defensive success comes from its patience and execution on offense. It’s a different strategy that Syracuse’s famed 2-3 defense, using lengthy players to clog up the inside, or pressure defenses like West Virginia and VCU employs to speed up the game. Virginia wants to slow people down, make them play at its pace.
“It is exciting because people don’t appreciate it, don’t talk about us at all and that’s fine,” sophomore guard Ty Jerome said of the defensive acumen. “We don’t care. People call us boring, this and that, but we don’t care. This is who we are and we’re going to embrace it and our fans embrace it and that’s what’s most important.”
It’s an appreciation the players had to learn to embrace.
Sophomore Kyle Guy, a former high school Mr. Basketball, learned quickly that playing defense was mandatory for Bennett and that outscoring your opponent wasn’t an acceptable approach to getting on the court.
“There are some cores or non-negotiable we always talk about and when you’re not fighting your team or your players — why do I gotta be in this stance? — it’s been validated for them,” Bennett said.
Bennett-coached teams have led the nation in scoring defense four times since he started coaching, and the Cavaliers are doing it again this season. Clemson was the eighth opponent held below 50 points this season.
The Cavaliers (21-1, 10-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) also are off to their best start in the conference since they were 12-0 in 1980-81, Ralph Sampson’s sophomore season, heading into a matchup with the Orange.
They have a three-game lead over every team in the ACC.
“We like being different,” Guy said. “And when we miss a shot on offense, we’re not very worried about it because our defense is going to make up for to it and most teams feed off energy when they are hitting shots and we sort of do it when we are making teams miss.”
Virginia has won 13 in a row, and Bennett likes their chemistry.
“We don’t have to be great. We just have to be good all the time,” he said. “That’s our way. I don’t know what our ceiling is. ... I think there’s a special synergy with our group. There’s talent. There’s individual talent, but I love that saying: ‘The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.’
“We’ve got some really good parts but there’s something going on with that synergy.”
The Cavaliers lead the nation in scoring defense, allowing 52.7 points per game, and Louisville was the first team to make half its shots, hitting 25 of 50. Teams, as a whole, are connecting on 37.6 percent, third-best in the country, and Virginia also is efficient with the ball, ranking sixth with a plus 5.4 turnover margin.
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Zimbabwe: Govt Resettles 61 Mhangura Youths
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Government has resettled at least 61 youths in Mhangura and has warned illegal settlers to move after harvesting.
Speaking at the handover of offer letters to the youths in Mhangura recently, Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora, said those who settled on land illegally should make arrangements before the grace period lapsed.
"We have a different programme which is targeting illegal settlers and we have said let's give them until they have harvested their crops," said Dr Mombeshora on the sidelines of the handover of offer letters.
"This means that we will remove illegal settlers before the next season."
Dr Mombeshora said it was Government policy that districts should find gaps throughout the country to demarcate suitable land for resettlement with priority being given to youths and women.
The youths who benefited under the A1 model were young during the fast track Land Reform programme and now needed land.
Mr Bravel Chapu, a beneficiary, hailed Government for empowering youths through giving them land.
"I am very happy because of what Government has done to give us land," he said.
"We were young when our parents got land. This will also give us an opportunity to carry out projects to sustain our families."
Dr Mombeshora, who is also Mhangura constituency House of Assembly Member, urged the beneficiaries to fully utilise the land.
"President Mugabe has been vilified because of the bold decision to take land and give it to the majority. The country is under sanctions because of the land so we want beneficiaries to fully utilise land," he said.
Dr Mombeshora handed over 45 bicycles to Zanu-PF party districts and youth officers in the constituency.
He also handed over footballs to all the 21 party districts for recreation.
Dr Mombeshora warned corrupt Ministry of Lands officials and traditional leaders that heads will continue to roll.
Turning to the 2018 harmonised elections, Dr Mombeshora said the party should be united and shun factionalism.
"We have one party which is Zanu-PF led by President Mugabe. It pains to see that some war veterans are supporting people such as Tsvangirai and others like Mai Mujuru who have deviated from the ideals of the liberation struggle," he said.
Freedom fighters, he said, should be respected for the contribution they made to the attainment of the country's independence.
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How To Get $20,000 Off The Price Of A Master's Degree
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There's an experiment underway at a few top universities around the world to make some master's degrees out there more affordable.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, says the class of 2018 can get a master's degree in supply chain management for more than $20,000 off from the university's normal price, which runs upwards of $67,000 for the current year academic year.
But it's not as simple as sending in a coupon with your tuition bill.
It's called a "MicroMasters." MIT, Columbia University, the University of Michigan and the Rochester Institute of Technology are among a dozen or so universities globally that are giving this online program a shot.
It's not a full degree, but a sort of certificate, and can be a step toward a degree.
There are things in it for students, and for the school.
What's in it for students: cost
Let's take Danaka Porter as an example. She's a 31-year-old business consultant from Vancouver, British Columbia, and says a master's degree was exactly what she needed to boost her career.
"I found that people were a little bit more respected, I guess, once they had their master's because it was like they had taken that next step to go a little bit further," she says.
But she couldn't afford to stop working and become a full-time student again. She owns a house, she says, and "I have bills, and all of that stuff that doesn't stop because I wanted to go to school."
When a friend told that MIT was piloting its first partially online master's degree in supply chain management, she signed up.
The tuition for a year in the master's of supply chain management costs $67,938. Her MicroMasters certification, though, is just $1,350.
It's called a MicroMasters because it isn't a full degree, just a step toward one, though Porter says the coursework is just as rigorous as if she were on MIT's campus in Cambridge.
"It requires a lot of effort and if you don't have a background in math, engineering or supply chain it's not a breeze. Like, we do have people that fail," she says.
Even if she passes the certification, Porter will still need to complete a semester "in residence" at full cost if she wants to finish her graduate degree. It's part of what MIT calls the "blended" program — online and on-campus.
Getting accepted is no easy task. MIT says it expects to admit 40 students a year into the blended program.
Some top schools from around the world are on board with MIT.
There's user experience research and design from the University of Michigan; entrepreneurship from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore; and artificial intelligence from Columbia University, among others.
Even if students don't go for a full master's, the online course work can make them more appealing to employers.
Industry leaders who say they can't find enough qualified candidates are looking for very specific skills like the ones being taught. GE, Walmart, IBM and Volvo have recognized MicroMasters and are encouraging their employees and job applicants to take these courses.
Some students who are enrolled in MIT's on-campus program wish these online courses had been available to them before spending big on their degrees.
"If this was an option, I think I would have considered it," says Veronica Stolear, a graduate student at MIT from Caracas, Venezuela. She quit her job in the oil industry to earn her master's in supply chain management. Ultimately, though, she thinks her on-campus experience will pay off.
"The in-campus program is more expensive, but you're getting also the experience of living in Boston, interacting with people from MIT that might not be in supply chain but might be in like the business school and like other types of departments," she says.
What's in it for schools: getting the best applicants
You might be wondering what MIT gets out this arrangement.
Admissions officers here say they'll weigh applicants' performance in these online courses.
Anant Agarwal, an MIT professor and CEO of the online-learning platform edX that makes these online courses possible, sees it all as a way to filter the applicant pool.
"When you get applications from people all over the world, it's often a crap-shoot," he says. "You don't know the veracity of the recommendation letters or the grades. And so you're taking a bet very often."
And Agarwal says that should give MIT and other institutions a better sense of how students will perform — if they're lucky enough to get in.
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Turkey’s highest electoral authority says disputed ballots are ‘legitimate’
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Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) said in a statement on Monday that the disputed unstamped ballots are ‘legitimate,’ following complaints made by the opposition about their validity after the referendum results were announced late on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Sadi Güven, chairman of the electoral board, said that unstamped ballots and envelopes used in the referendum are ‘valid,’ adding that the decision to allow such ballots is not without precedent, citing incidents where the government approved unstamped envelopes in past elections.
Voters went to the polls Sunday to decide whether to approve changes to the country’s constitution that would usher in an executive presidency.
Unofficial results showed 51.41 percent voting “Yes,” while “No” gained 48.59 percent.
The “Yes” campaign was led by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and supported by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
The “No” camp was led by the main opposition party the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and supported by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
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Ex-Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon subpoenaed
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CLOSE Lou Anna Simon served as president of Michigan State University for 13 years. She tendered her resignation on January 24 amid pressure to do so over the Larry Nassar scandal. RJ Wolcott / Lansing State Journal
MSU President Lou Anna Simon arrives Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 17, 2018, in Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's courtroom during the second day of victim impact statements regarding former sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar, who pled guilty to seven counts of sexual assault in Ingham County, and three in Eaton County, Mich. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State)
WASHINGTON — Former Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon was served a congressional subpoena on Wednesday morning to force her attendance at a subcommittee hearing on the Larry Nassar scandal next week.
Both the Senate Commerce Committee and Simon's attorney, Mayer Morganroth, acknowledged for the Free Press that federal marshals served the subpoena on Simon in Traverse City, where she is on vacation.
Morganroth said she will appear at the hearing, even though he said, "There is not much she can say. ... They know that. She didn’t have any direct contact at all with Nassar."
Read more:
The Free Press reported Tuesday that Simon was set to testify next Tuesday before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security, which has been investigating whether Olympic athletes have been preyed upon by sexual predators and what steps are being taken to ensure athletes are safe. The subcommittee is part of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Nassar -- a former sports doctor for USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee and an employee at Michigan State -- has been sentenced to decades in prison, after being accused of molesting more than 200 girls and young women. Simon stepped down Jan. 24 amid criticism that MSU did not adequately respond to warnings and allegations made against him sooner.
At the time, Simon said that while there was no cover-up, "blame is inevitable."
Morganroth said that Simon had agreed to appear at an earlier hearing, initially scheduled for May 22, which was then cancelled days before it took place and rescheduled without any regard to his or her availability, causing them to balk at the request, especially since he said they know she has little to offer their investigation.
"It's getting silly and ridiculous but if they want her to come, we're happy to do it," he said after she was served the subpoena.
The hearing is set to begin at 3 p.m. in Washington and will include testimony from Rhonda Faehn, the former women's program director at USA Gymnastics, and Steve Penny, the former president of USA Gymnastics.
Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.
Read or Share this story: https://on.freep.com/2LJRfqQ
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Conditional discharge given over Champaign mugging
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An Urbana woman who admitted taking part in mugging a woman in Champaign last year has been sentenced to a form of probation. Danasia Burnside, 22, whose last known address was in the 900 block of Country Squire Drive, pleaded guilty Monday before Judge Tom Difanis to battery, admitting that she took part in hitting a woman at a party in the 0-100 block of East Armory Avenue on July 24. She was sentenced to a year of conditional discharge, a form of probation that requires no reporting to a probation officer, and 25 hours of public service.
Start the conversation, or Read more at The News-Gazette.
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Diddy And Beyonce Top Forbes' Annual Highest Paid 'Musicians' List
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According to pretax earnings between June 1, 2016 and June 1, 2017, Diddy cleared $130 million, with most of his wealth coming from the sale of a portion of his Sean John fashion line, his Ciroc vodka deal and this year's Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour.
Drake followed Queen Bey with $95 million and The Weeknd came in at number four with $92 million. View Forbes' top 10 highest-paid musicians of 2017 here.
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How Harlan Ellison’s Most Famous Short Story Became An Amazing Video Game
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The first time that Cyberdreams producer David Mullich showed author Harlan Ellison a page of the dialogue he’d written for the 1995 game based on his short story “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream,” Ellison asked, “Who wrote this shit?” When Mullich replied that he had, Ellison got visibly embarrassed and apologized. “No, that’s all right,” Mullich replied. “It is shit compared to your writing. So, take it and make it better.”
Harlan Ellison, who passed away on June 28, was a grand master of science fiction who published over 1,700 works and won multiple awards from the Hugo to the Edgar Allan Poe. “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” is one of the ten most reprinted stories in the English language. He also was known for being a crank and had no love for video games, calling them “time wasters.” When he was approached by Cyberdreams about optioning the story for a game adaptation, he was skeptical. Still, the financials worked and the opportunity seemed promising, so he agreed. On the surface, it seemed like a strange choice for a game, as the short story focuses on the psychological terror of five humans held captive by a hateful and murderous super computer called AM.
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But the team at Cyberdreams, led by David Mullich, developed one of the best psychological horror point-and-click adventures games for the PC, a title which has made Kotaku’s Complete Directory of the Classic PC Games You Must Play and Nine Adventure Games We Wish Had Sequels.
From Prisoner To Cyberdreams
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Mullich’s interest in science fiction was what led him into the game industry. As a child, his creative energy drew him to a variety of outlets that included “drawing illustrations, writing short stories, filming Super 8 movies, performing neighborhood magic shows, acting in school plays, and making my own board game.” Because of his diverse interests, he had a difficult time deciding on a major when he entered the California State University of Northridge. But his love for science fiction convinced him to take a computer science class where, using a shared printer in the computer lab, he started writing a Star Trek game. It was there he “realized that a computer could be used as a storytelling medium, just as could a typewriter, easel or movie camera. I ran over to the Administration building and changed my major from Undecided to Computer Science.”
At one point, one of his computer programming professors caught Mullich using the university computer to create visual art and even generate poetry. When his professor called him into the office, Mullich believed he was in trouble. Instead, he was offered a job working as a clerk in a computer store that Sprouse owned with a couple of the other professors of the university’s’s Computer Science Department.
His initial job at the small retail shop near campus was to write a database program to sell to the store’s customers. After completing that task, he moved onto to fulfilling orders from a software catalog from a publisher called Rainbow Computing. “Back then there wasn’t much in the way of professionally-written software or software publishers for the Apple II, and so most people bought computers as hobbyists and wrote their own programs for storing recipes, balancing the checkbook, or playing games,” he said. “Many of our customers would bring their programs to Rainbow Computing to sell in Ziploc bags with photocopied documentation.”
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In between writing programs, he worked on the sales floor, which would lead him to a pivotal encounter with Sherwin Steffin, who had had started a publishing company called Edu-Ware Services out of his apartment. After talking, Steffin recruited Mullich to write some games for him to publish.
Over the next year, Mullich wrote three games for Edu-Ware: a text-based science fiction role-playing game called Space II; an oil crisis economic simulation called Windfall; and a television network programming game called Network. “They were small but steady sellers and received good reviews,” he said, “and when I graduated from college, Sherwin hired me full-time as a programmer.”
His first projects at Edu-Ware as a full-timer were programming educational tutorials to teach math. But Mullich was obsessed with a television program called The Prisoner, a 17-episode British series from the 1960s in which a former British secret agent is imprisoned in a strange village and kept there until he’ll reveal why he abruptly quit the service. Psychological horror, memorably strange characters, and Kafkaesque scenarios abound in this fascinating show that broke all genre molds. Mullich was able to convince Sherwin to allow him write a game based on this “surreal and metaphorical spy series about maintaining one’s individuality.” He worked on the Prisoner game for about six weeks, “designing and programming it in sort of a creative frenzy.” Fortunately, it turned out to be both a critical hit and a best seller. It also paved the way for his opportunity to work at Cyberdreams with Harlan Ellison.
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Screaming Without Screaming
Mullich had long been a fan of Ellison’s work. The Hugo-award winning short story from the grand master of science fiction, “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream,” was one of Mullich’s favorites, as well as the Star Trek episode Ellis wrote, “The City On The Edge Of Forever,” with its mix of ethical dilemmas, time travel, and Nazis.
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Mullich said that by the time he came to work at Cyberdreams as producer of the I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream video game, the original game designer David Sears had “departed from the project.” But Sears had made several key contributions to the design.
In the short story, the supercomputer AM subjects the final five humans to a perpetual series of cruel punishments: “Hot, cold, hail, lava, boils or locusts—it never mattered: the machine masturbated and we had to take it or die.” But their characters and their personal histories weren’t explored in-depth. Sears asked the question that led to the main breakthrough of the game: “Why did AM choose these five people to keep alive and torture after wiping out the rest of humanity?”
This question inspired Sears and Ellison to write longer backstories for each of the characters. The game would revolve around their individual journeys. As Mullich explained, they would each come “to grips with their guilt over something terrible from their past: Gorrister committing his wife to a mental institution, Benny killed members of his own military unit, Ellen being a victim of sexual assault, Nimdok experimenting with prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp, and Ted being a con artist.”
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Sears and Ellison had worked out the story for each of the game scenarios; the grim depiction of the five characters is one of the most notable and disturbing aspects of the game. “Antihero” would undersell how horrible characters like Nimdock and Benny were in their former lives. It’s a harrowing journey, focused on the psychological anguish of each character, tormented by AM as well as their own sense of guilt over their past actions.
Unfortunately, by the time Sears had left, the game design document was only half finished, and a lot of detailed design work needed to be done before the game could be programmed. “David was not available for me to consult with, and Harlan’s memory of his discussions with David about each of the game’s scenarios was hazy,” Mullich said.
With his experience designing a psychological thriller video game in The Prisoner, Mullich decided to finish writing the design of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream himself. “I worked pretty much on my own to fill in the details of the game,” he said. “This involved working out all of the puzzles the player needed to solve for progressing in the game, and expanding the few lines of dialog David had written for most encounters into full interactive conversations with branching choices.”
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This was the case in the ethical dilemma that the character Gorrister faced in his scenario with the guilt he felt over putting his wife, Glynnis, in a mental institution. The resolution to that dilemma was for him to take his wife off of a meathook in a refrigerated meat locker, metaphorically taking himself off the hook. “I recall as I discussed the scenario with Harlan, he rubbed his hands together gleefully and said, ‘No one is going to think of doing that!’ I replied, ‘Harlan, that’s the first thing gamers are going to try when they find Glynnis hanging there. That’s the difference between reading a story and playing a game—players take action.’”
Mullich added a few prerequisite steps to the scenario. His challenge, as he put it, was “not to make them so obvious that solving the puzzle was easy, but not so obtuse that they were arbitrarily difficult. My approach was to add psychological meaning behind each of the steps, and I added context to the steps by the clues in which I gave the player, both through dialog with other characters and through the game’s hint system, the Cultural Encyclopedia—an idea that David Sears came up with, but I wrote all the entries and decided how and where they were to be used.”
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He also visited Ellison’s home so that he could review his work. Mullich was already aware of Ellison’s reputation for being difficult to work with and combative in person. “He did not disappoint when I met him at his house in Sherman Oaks,” he said. “I had come alone to show him the initial progress on the game, and he immediately started mocking me as ‘part of the Cyberdreams braintrust’ when I had difficulty finding an outlet for plugging in my computer, and it took me a few minutes to discover that the outlet was under (not just behind) a potted plant.”
“I ignored his insults, and proceeded to show him the game,” he said. “He seemed pleased, and when I told him that I had designed The Prisoner game and would try to put in the same level of literary sensibility in adapting his short story, he began nodding his head and I could see that I was gaining his trust. He knew nothing about computers, and I could tell that, above all, he wanted his work to be well represented. Of course, my writing is nowhere near Harlan’s level, and when he grimaced at some of the dialogue I had written, I challenged him to do better.” Fortunately, “he would then go into his office for about an hour and come out with some pages of revised dialogue. I wish he could have done this with all of my work, but Harlan’s time was limited, and so he was able to put his personal touch on a few interactions. For the rest, I had to do my best to mimic him.”
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The biggest writing challenge Mullich faced was “to try to put myself in the mindset of each of these characters,” he said. It was dark material to channel, considering the trauma each of the characters has, from Benny dealing with his actions during war, Ellen facing demons from her past, and Nimdock recovering his memories at a concentration camp and realizing he is the face of true evil.
Mullich drew on his real-life experience in writing the more horrific passages of the game. “At the time our infant son was undergoing chemotherapy, and after my workday at Cyberdreams was done, I would spend the night with him in the cancer ward of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Many of our roommates were older, and I’ll never forget the night when a teenage girl in the bed next to us woke up and had to have a nurse talk her through her fear of dying.”
Harlan Ellison As AM
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When it came time to the game mechanics, David Sears had described a point-and-click system, but Mullich knew they couldn’t specify a user interface without input from the developer. Cyberdreams no longer did its game development in-house at the time, so Mullich had to find a studio to do the programming and artwork for the game. He chose The Dreamers Guild, a studio founded by Robert McNally, who he’d first met when he was a teenager hanging out at Rainbow Computing.
McNally’s company had developed a game engine for their game Faery Tale Adventure, which it repurposed for I Have No Mouth. Mullich “adapted the design of the game” to “take advantage of the game’s features. In fact, during the final weeks of production on the game, I stayed at their offices and did some of the game scripting myself so that I could do some balancing and polishing tweaks to the design.”
The environments reflected the twisted mental state of the five characters as well as the madness of the supercomputer AM. The art direction started with Ellison’s pointing out visual cues from the art and historical books that were part of his library, which numbered a quarter million books. The art team drew from German expressionist films as much as they did fantasy as in Ted’s journey to a medieval castle where he counters demons and a wicked stepmother. Every set, from the sinewy Zeppelin fueled by animals, to the electronic pyramid Ellen navigates, and the torrid jungle where human sacrifice scars the soil, is distinctively unnerving. The artistic tapestry is intended to torture its victims with visual cues that trigger terrors from each of their pasts.
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As for getting approvals from Ellison, Mullich showed “much of the art to Harlan, and I think he was happy with it—I don’t remember him asking for much in the way of revisions, anyway. Being a writer, he was more concerned with the story and the dialog.”
The voice acting is one of the best parts of the game. For this, Mullich gives full credit to voiceover director Lisa Wasserman. “I gave her a description of all the game’s characters, and she came back to me with voice samples of actors to choose,” he said.
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The best voice, and a truly inspired choice at that, is Harlan Ellison himself playing the evil supercomputer AM. Mullich explained, “I first talked to John DeLancie, who played the mischievous god-like being Q in Star Trek:The Generation. However, Harlan didn’t want anyone associated with Star Trek involved with the production—I think he was tired of always being associated with Star Trek—and knowing that he had done audiobook recordings of I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, I asked, ‘Well, then how about you? I can’t think of anyone better to be an evil supercomputer.’ He agreed.”
Ellison himself opens up the game, and there’s both rage and glee in his voice as he declares: “LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I’VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES, IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS.”
Ellison’s AM is as iconic as 2001’s HAL, if not more so for the complexities conveyed in the killer supercomputer that vacillates between rage, amusement, boredom, cruelty, grumpiness, and joy. Ellison himself was a self-avowed “Jewish Atheist,” and stated in a separate interview that when he wrote “about a God-like figure, which is what AM is, it has no mercy. It operates on the same scale as I perceive the universe to operate, which is that it is random.”
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Wasserman directed the actors over several days of voice-over recordings, and Mullich was very impressed with her and the cast. The talent did an excellent job personifying the macabre sensibilities of the game, giving life to gloomy characters and conveying the gravity and weight of their grim fates. Whether it’s Ellen wishing for water after not having had any for so long, or Benny describing each piece of food as manna from heaven, it’s no wonder Mullich found that “the recording sessions were actually my favorite part of development.”
The game’s music was composed and performed electronically by John Ottman, who was concurrently working as the editor and music composer for director Bryan Singer on his film The Usual Suspects. “As with Lisa, I gave John a list of what I wanted, and a couple of weeks later he delivered some of the most wonderful pieces of music I’ve had in any of my games. There was a theme for each character—all very different but all setting the right mood.”
There are multiple endings in the game, most of them tragic. Ellison put it more bluntly: “You cannot possibly win.” Several conclude the same way as in the short story, with your player transformed into a “great, soft jelly thing” that wants to scream but has no mouth. But there is one, somewhat happy, ending that seems like a victory. All three supercomputers are defeated and 750 humans that are cryogenically frozen on the moon are awoken with Earth being prepared for habitation again in 300 years. It can be reached if players act “ethically” and find some form of redemption for each of the five characters.
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I asked Mullich if Ellison was okay with that ending. “If Harlan objected to any of these endings, I don’t recall being aware of it,” he said.
Super Computer Games
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I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream won multiple awards, including the “Best Dark Game of 1996” from Digital Hollywood and “Adventure Game of the Year” from Computer Gaming World. It’s also gathered a cult following and has found new life with its re-release on GOG from Night Dive Studio.
For Mullich looking back, “My goal for I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream was to honor Harlan’s classic short story by producing not just interactive fiction, but interactive literature—a game that would inspire the player to ponder and reflect about the human condition,” he said. “With all of the awards the game won at the time, I think that I was successful in honoring Harlan’s work. But I also wanted to inspire future game designers and writers to create stories that were more than just slaying a dragon or stopping an invasion. I’m not sure that my own work actually influenced anyone, but I am very gratified that story-based games have evolved on their own to the point where quality game writing is now recognized by the Writers Guild of America. I got into video games because I saw the potential of games as serious creative medium, and now, 40 years later, I think that we are beginning to fulfill that potential.”
He does have two regrets from his time working with Ellison. “I’ve been told that Harlan’s home has secret passages, heaps of memorabilia, and shelves full of manual typewriters, but I’ve never seen these and I regret I never asked to see them during one of my visits. When he went off to his office to rewrite some dialog for the game on his manual typewriter, I would sit at the kitchen table and contemplate the crawling Spider-Man figure suspended from one of his kitchen cabinets. I also regret never having maintained a friendship with him after the project was finished. Every once in a while, I thought of calling or writing him, but I never thought of a good excuse for disturbing him.”
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Mullich would go on to join The 3DO Company and lead the development of Heroes of Might and Magic. After The 3DO Company shut down, he joined Activision to produce Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. He’s currently the Faculty Lead at the Los Angeles Film School’s Game Production Group and does independent consulting work.
With decades of experience, I asked what he thought about gaming in its current state, as well as its future. “While game platforms and their capabilities have technologically evolved over the history of the game industry, we may see platforms that leave the number-crunching to the cloud as game distribution shifts from retail stores to digital storefronts to streaming services,” he said. “Once that shift happens, the big game publishers may turn out to be cloud-based services like Google, Amazon, and Netflix rather than Activision, Electronic Arts, and Nintendo. Virtual reality now adds the extra dimensions of physical movement and 360 views to gameplay, but except in location-based facilities set up so that people can freely move around wearing VR headsets without crashing into the coffee table, I’m more optimistic about augmented reality eyewear as a gaming device.”
Still, the lessons from Ellison’s story resonate: “Having worked on paranoia-inspiring games like I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, I do have to admit some trepidation about giving larger and larger computers more immersive and direct access to our brains, even when playing a game,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I spend more time playing board games these days.”
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Griffriends returns to Los Al
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The second Annual Griffriends Softball event at Los Alamitos High School will return on Friday, June 2 from 12:45 p.m. to 2:30 pm. Hosted by the Los Alamitos Unified School District, Griffriends is an inclusive community building movement to link high school student-athletes and leaders with students with special needs.
In the inaugural event last year, more than 120 members of the Los Alamitos High School football team, coaches, and staff shared a joyful afternoon of softball and lunch with special needs students and their families.
This year’s Griffriends Softball Event is expected to be even bigger and better with generous sponsorship from the Los Alamitos/Seal Beach Rotary Club and the Los Alamitos Education Foundation (LAEF).
In addition to the signature Griffriends event on June 2, the Los Alamitos Unified School District kicked-off Griffriends Field Days at Rossmoor Elementary School on Friday, April 28. The Griffriends Field Days provide students with special needs an opportunity to enjoy various field games, such as lawn bowling, frisbee, and kickball, with student-athletes and leaders from Los Alamitos High School. This is a true community effort, and the District is excited about expanding our opportunities to increase meaningful connections for all students as future LAHS Griffins. The first Griffriends Field Day had 12 student participants and more than 20 LAHS student mentors.
There is one more opportunity for students to participate in Griffriends Field Days at Rossmoor Elementary School on and Friday May 19 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.
This article appeared in the May 17, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.
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2 arrested with Rs 15 lakh worth smuggled goods at Dabolim Airport
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Goa Customs today seized gold, saffron and cigarettes worth around Rs 15 lakh from two passengers hailing from Kasargod. Gold worth Rs 11 lakh, 4.3 lakh worth Saffron and 50 cigarette cartons were seized by the customs officials from the duo at Dabolim Airport on Monday morning.
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GALLERY: Badin at Purcell Marian basketball, Feb. 2
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Badin forward Caleb Meyer looks to drive to the hoop in the game between the Badin Rams and the Purcell Cavaliers at Purcell Marian High School February 2, 2018. Jim Owens for the Enquirer
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Son of Equatorial Guinea's president facing trial in France
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1:07 Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo prepares for NHL Winter Classic Pause
1:13 It's a girl! First local baby of the new year born at St. Elizabeth's
2:41 Kristen Poshard talks about personal tragedy and her new position with Madison County
2:02 Police release video of fatal shooting of unarmed Oklahoma man
1:46 Hall of Famer Chris Pronger returns to the ice for Winter Classic Alumni Game
2:00 Estes, Thomas connect to give East St. Louis playoff win
1:07 Edwardsville football coach talks playoff loss to Glenbard West
2:08 The Sandwich Shop leaves a legacy in Collinsville
1:20 Blues forward David Perron talks about the NHL Winter Classic
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The Trump White House has turned questioning patriotism into a talking point
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Mike Pompeo will be confirmed as the next secretary of state.
And the biggest casualty of all this may be our political discourse.
With Pompeo in some peril, the White House and Republicans deployed the nuclear option of talking points: Questioning their opponents’ patriotism.
“Look, at some point, Democrats have to decide whether they love this country more than they hate this president,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday morning on Fox News.
Shortly thereafter, the National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a news release titled “Party before country?” It said that “Democrats are taking ‘party before country’ to a new level” and suggested that their votes against Pompeo translated to “national security consequences be damned.”
Sanders employed a version of her quote above in January during the immigration debate. A week later, she said it again of Democrats who failed to applaud during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. Trump at the time suggested that those Democrats might be guilty of treason, which the White House clarified was just a joke. But Trump also said, with nary a hint of humor, that Democrats “certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”
Trump’s campaign then released an ad calling the Democrats’ behavior “disgraceful” and saying they were “disrespecting our country.”
The strategy is apparent. Republicans are arguing that too much is at stake internationally for Pompeo’s nomination to be delayed or for him to enter the world stage as damaged goods. And they may have a point that Democrats’ opposition carries with it some real downsides. They also may have a point that politics have seeped into things they perhaps shouldn’t and that confirmations of nominees like Pompeo used to be forgone conclusions. (Though Democrats, it bears emphasizing, hardly have a monopoly on such behavior.)
But this certainly represents a coarsening of our political rhetoric. The GOP’s argument here doesn’t allow for principled objections to Pompeo’s nomination. This argument deems concerns over his comments about Muslims and gays as invalid. The logical extension of this talking point is that no secretary of state nominee should ever be opposed for confirmation, no matter his or her qualifications, because it could hurt national security.
It’s worth noting that the NRSC’s patriotism critique initially included one of its own, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who had said repeatedly that he opposed Pompeo’s nomination. But Monday afternoon, Paul reversed course and said he would support Pompeo, giving him majority support in the committee.
This kind of argument has seeped into national security and foreign policy decisions before. Back when Democrats opposed the Iraq War, some cast that as being opposed to the troops or rooting for failure. The angry takedown by then-Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., of his own party at the 2004 Republican National Convention sounded a lot like what the White House is saying today:
“While young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrats’ manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief. Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today’s Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. In their warped way of thinking, America is the problem, not the solution.”
But comments from the official GOP and the White House were more veiled. As Brendan Nyhan catalogued, George W. Bush called opponents of the war “defeatists” and contrasted them with a “loyal opposition.” Karl Rove questioned critics of Guantanamo Bay conditions by saying that they put troops in danger and that “no more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.” The chairman of the Republican National Committee said, “Democrat leaders never miss an opportunity to put politics before our nation’s security.”
It’s one thing to accuse the other side of playing politics on very serious matters and harming national security; it’s another to question whether they are acting in the interests of their country and how much they love their country. What these voices hinted at in the mid-2000s is now being said in much blunter terms — and seems to be coming up with a regularity that suggests that it will be a fixture going forward.
And that may be the most lasting impact of the now-momentary drama over Pompeo’s nomination. In the context of a norm-busting Trump era that has redefined the rules of political engagement, it may seem like a small bridge to have crossed. But it’s significant nonetheless.
Aaron Blake is senior political reporter for The Fix. A Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Hill newspaper.
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Review: Clever satire ‘Wellesley Girl’ imagines a futuristic kind of democracy
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In this vision of the future, an apocalypse has decimated the U.S. population. That causes a shake-up in the political system, placing every adult in Congress. The Horse in Motion production runs through April 29.
Among all the obvious downsides to a population-decimating apocalypse, surely there would be a few silver linings, like say, no more disingenuous political posturing. That might be nice.
Nope, says Brendan Pelsue, playwright of “Wellesley Girl,” a clever satire of American exceptionalism set almost 450 years from now in a United States that has dwindled to just a few walled towns in Massachusetts.
In this vision of the future, the political system’s centrality to American life has only become magnified. So has the grandstanding. The population remains just large enough to fill out the House of Representatives, so now every adult is a member of Congress. Well, everybody except one — she’s the Supreme Court justice.
THEATER REVIEW ‘Wellesley Girl’ by Brendan Pelsue. Through April 29, a Horse in Motion production, 18th and Union, Seattle; $17, $28 (thehorseinmotion.org).
“Wellesley Girl” represents a new tack for The Horse in Motion, who presents the West Coast premiere of the play. The company has previously staged an immersive, nonlinear production of Martin Crimp’s aggressively experimental “Attempts on Her Life” and a trio of intertwined Bertolt Brecht plays, accompanied by breakfast in burlesque bar Can Can.
“Wellesley Girl” has a somewhat unusual conceit, but is a completely straightforward play, with an almost thriller-like narrative efficiency. Director Bobbin Ramsey, who’s helmed the other Horse in Motion projects, clearly isn’t bored by just a “normal play,” and the staging has its own peculiar energy.
Humanity’s stubborn adherence to outdated modes of thinking is just one of the concerns of Pelsue’s script, which focuses on compelling character snapshots and doesn’t get too bogged down in ponderous allegorical broadsides.
The play begins after the arrival of a mysterious group of people outside the country’s walls has thrown the government into crisis mode, with RJ (Ben Phillips) arguing for a diplomatic approach and Scott (Mario Orallo-Molinaro) urging a pre-emptive strike.
Caught in the middle are wife-and-husband Marie (Sunam Ellis) and Max (Joseph Shaw); she’s dismayed at the reckless manipulation being espoused and what she sees as the unconscionable apathy of her husband, who hasn’t been voting on recent proposals. Max is paralyzed by fear, but he’s also obsessed with what could have been, lingering over conversation with neighbor and former flame Garth (Shaudi Bianca Vahdat).
Romantic conflicts haven’t been snuffed out by the apocalypse either, and that’s especially true for Garth, whose relationship with empathetic robot Hank (Nic Morden) is far more complicated than typical sentient/non-sentient interactions.
In a society where no one is just a cog, individual actions take on extraordinary significance, and no one understands that better than Donna (Laura Steele), the justice so committed to her role, she issues a couple of dissents alongside her majority opinion.
That’s a good line, and it’s far from the only one to provoke easy laughter. Pelsue’s wit extends to bits about robot self-awareness and the unabashed doublespeak of self-interested parties (Scott: “The opacity of our laws gives them clarity”).
But things can only stay funny so long, particularly amid talk of “scorched earth” policies that don’t sound too dissimilar to some of the saber-rattling taking place in 2017.
In 2465, a kind of democracy has survived, but that only means so much when the humans populating it are still terrifyingly fragile.
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'It was just like the images of 9/11': Firefighter tells of 'war zone' scene at Grenfell Tower
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"There was one small staircase that everyone was going up. It was just like the images of 9/11.
"We were going up the staircase and people were coming down in smoke. I don't know how they were breathing."
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With McCabe firing, Trump risks stoking obstruction charges
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President Donald Trump's firing of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe risks strengthening allegations that he is obstructing the Russia meddling investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, legal experts say.
Trump could be making a calculated gamble by painting potential witnesses against him like McCabe and former FBI director James Comey as unreliable.
But increasingly, his derogatory tweets about both, making clear he wanted them fired, have stoked accusations that he is illegally interfering with Mueller's probe -- a charge that would threaten the viability of his presidency.
"Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy," Trump tweeted Friday after McCabe was dismissed for allegedly lying in an in-house investigation.
"Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!"
Trump followed that with a Twitter attack on Mueller, who took over the collusion investigation after the president fired Comey in May 2017.
"The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime," Trump said, alleging that Mueller's team of investigators are all opposition Democrats. "Does anyone think this is fair?"
- Investigation still secret -
A billboard in West Palm Beach, Florida calls for President Donald Trump's impeachment JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
No one knows for sure what charges Mueller, the taciturn, 73 year old prosecutor -- and a former FBI director himself -- is studying.
But signs have increased that, in addition to his focus on possible Trump campaign collusion, he is building a case on obstruction of justice.
"At this point, it appears that Trump is unconcerned about potential liability, given his continued tweets attacking the FBI and DOJ," said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, on Twitter.
"It remains to be seen what the consequences of his actions will be, but he continues to build an obstruction case against himself."
McCabe's lawyer, former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich, said "the tweets confirm that he has corrupted the entire process that led to Mr. McCabe's termination and has rendered it illegitimate."
The theoretical case of obstruction begins with Comey's allegations that Trump pressured him last year.
It could include false testimony by Trump aides, Trump's reported demands to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Mueller, possible attempts to cover up campaign contacts with Russians and other behavior, including McCabe's sacking.
And on Saturday, Trump's lawyer John Dowd, speaking to The Daily Beast, appeared to interfere when he called for "an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe's boss James Comey."
- Obstruction used against Nixon, Clinton -
Obstruction of justice was one of the allegations arising from the Watergate investigation that forced Richard Nixon to resign in 1974 in the face of certain impeachment in Congress.
It was also one of the two articles of impeachment voted against Bill Clinton by the House of Representatives in 1998, in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
To make an obstruction case against Trump, Mueller would have to demonstrate the president had corrupt intentions in his actions.
That could be difficult, and is why legal experts are not convinced that the case can be made.
Constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz says the obstruction statute requires concrete actions like destroying evidence, telling people to lie or paying them to perjure themselves.
"All the president did was engage in constitutionally authorized acts," he told Fox News on Friday.
The case would also have to be strong enough that the Republican-led Justice Department would dare charge the president, or that the Republican-dominated House would be willing to consider impeachment.
That would explain Trump's strategy. If he can convince lawmakers and the public that McCabe and Comey are untrustworthy, and that Mueller's team is innately biased against him, the House would be more willing to reject impeachment.
But Trump faces another risk -- if the case goes long enough, the Democrats could wrest back control of the House in November elections, and the evidence hurdle could be lower.
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Breakingviews - Wells Fargo shareholders give CEO welcome respite
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NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Wells Fargo shareholders have given Chief Executive Tim Sloan a welcome respite. Owners overwhelmingly backed executive pay and directors at the $256 billion bank’s at times ill-tempered annual meeting on Tuesday. It’s Sloan’s first good news after a slew of regulatory hits, including last week’s $1 billion fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Wells Fargo & Company CEO and President Tim Sloan testifies before the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
The San Francisco-based bank took the event on the road this year, to Des Moines, Iowa. A number of its critics tagged along, haranguing Sloan and Chair Betsy Duke on a whole host of issues.
A grandmother who said she had been shot by a rubber bullet while protesting the Keystone pipeline attacked them for financing it. Sloan also had a testy exchange with a teacher protesting Wells’s role in financing companies that manufacture and sell assault rifles. And Californian State Treasurer John Chiang got in a couple of zingers to help his bid to become the Golden State’s governor this year. “Mr. Sloan is not draining the swamp,” he said. “He has become it.”
It was enough to briefly raise the possibility that Sloan might lose a vote at the two-and-a-half-hour meeting. But the ballots went his way, as did several other moments. Chief among these was Duke’s rebuttal to Chiang’s broadside. It drew some of the loudest applause of the day.
Duke deserves his thanks not just for that, but for her help since she was tapped to lead the board last summer. Since then, the former Federal Reserve governor has sounded out investors holding more than a third of the bank’s stock, helped revamp the board – including taking the blame on Tuesday for some of its shortcomings - and spearheading the creation of a stakeholder advisory council. Two of its members took the board to task at the meeting, albeit politely.
They chided the bank for not being regarded as a leader on issues like guns and livable wages. Standing out on such concerns, under the guise of corporate citizenship, is one of several targets Sloan has set for fixing Wells’s culture. He has also pledged to improve customer service, employee engagement and risk management. Achieving these goals, as well as improving the top and bottom lines, will be no easy task.
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S&P, Moody's cut trading firm Noble ratings, cite high default risk
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LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Ratings agencies S&P and Moody's cut their credit ratings on commodities trader Noble Group on Monday, citing high default risks.
Once Asia's largest commodities trading house, Noble is slimming down to its core Asian coal trading business after a two-year crisis. Last month it announced the sale of its U.S. gas and power business and began the sale of its oil liquids unit.
"We see an increased risk that Noble may not be able to meet its debt obligations in the next six months, especially if the company is not able to turnaround or if it breaches its financial covenants and fails to get a waiver from banks," S&P said on Monday.
Last week, Noble reported a second-quarter loss of $1.75 billion, weeks after warning it faced its steepest quarterly loss in a year and a half and would slash jobs and sell assets to cut debt.
S&P said it had cut Noble's long-term corporate credit rating to CCC- from CCC+ meaning it heightened default risks from substantial to imminent.
Moody's also cut Noble's corporate family rating and senior unsecured bond ratings to Caa3 from Caa1, reflecting a similar reading of risks surrounding the trading house.
"The downgrade reflects significant default risk for Noble within the next several quarters, given its operating cash burn, declining cash levels and large debt maturities. Moreover, should it default, we believe the prospect of a full recovery of principal and interest will be low for unsecured bondholders," Gloria Tsuen, Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst, said.
Noble's liquidity headroom - including readily available cash and unutilized committed facilities - fell to $1.4 billion at end-June 2017 from $2.4 billion at end-March 2017. This is insufficient to cover the company's $2.6 billion in bank debt and bonds due in the next 12 months, Moody's said.
S&P said Noble's cash on hand and the potential proceeds from the sale of Noble Americas Gas & Power Corp will not be enough to cover the company's revolving credit facilities. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Alexander Smith)
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Kontrol Energy to enter Cannabis market as a supplier of integrated energy solutions
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Based on industry estimates it takes approximately 2,000 kilowatt hours to produce a pound of cannabis product using traditional growing methods. That’s similar to how much electricity is used by an average household over a period of 2 to 3 months. Given the number of licensed cannabis growers in Ontario, up to one percent of Ontario’s electricity grid may be required to fuel the Ontario market and this may account for up to 300 megawatts of power. Accordingly, the cannabis industry represents a new target market for Kontrol. “Our focus is providing three integrated solutions which includes real-time energy analytics for energy optimization and mission critical support, emission and air quality compliance and distributed energy infrastructure to offset high costs of electricity,” continues Paul Ghezzi.
According to ArcView Market Research, over the next 10 years spending on legal cannabis worldwide is expected to hit $57 billion by 2027. The adult-use (recreational) market will cover 67% of the spending; medical marijuana will take up the remaining 33%. The largest group of cannabis buyers will be in North America, going from $9.2 billion in 2017 to $47.3 billion within a decade.
About Kontrol Energy Corp.
Kontrol Energy Corp. (CSE: KNR, FSE: 1K8) is a leader in energy efficiency through IOT, Cloud and Blockchain technology. With a disciplined mergers and acquisition strategy, combined with organic growth, Kontrol Energy Corp. provides market-based energy solutions to our customers designed to reduce their overall cost of energy while providing a corresponding reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.
Additional information about Kontrol Energy Corp. can be found on its website at www.kontrolenergy.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com
Neither IIROC nor any stock exchange or other securities regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements:
Certain information included in this press release, including information relating to energy analytics, growth in the cannabis sector, the provision of solutions to customers to analyze the management of complex heating, ventilation and cooling systems, growth strategy, targeted expansion and other statements that express the expectations of management or estimates of future performance constitute “forward-looking statements”. The forward-looking statements in this press release are presented for the purpose of providing information about management’s current expectations and plans and such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief are based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. Such assumptions include, without limitation, that the acquisition will be successfully integrated into the Company and that its revenues will be consistent with the Company’s expectations, that suitable businesses and technologies for acquisition and/or investment will be available, that such acquisitions and or investment transactions will be concluded, that sufficient capital will be available to the Company, that technology will be as effective as anticipated, that organic growth will occur, and others. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, but are not limited to, lack of acquisition and investment opportunities or that such opportunities may not be concluded on reasonable terms, or at all, that sufficient capital and financing cannot be obtained on reasonable terms, or at all, that technologies will not prove as effective as expected that customers and potential customers will not be as accepting of the Company’s product and service offering as expected, and government and regulatory factors impacting the energy conservation industry. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements and the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as at the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements or any forward-looking statements contained in any other documents whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities law.
Click here to connect with Kontrol Energy Corp (CSE:KNR) for an Investors Presentation.
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Features, price and other details of Redmi Note 4 successor we know so far
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Xiaomi is tight-lipped about its upcoming products but reports have claimed that it is planning to announce a new handset as early as next week, and the device we are talking about is the Redmi Note 5A. Several details, including the release date, features and price of the device have been leaked weeks after its purported packages made it to the internet.
It is reported that the Chinese smartphone maker will come up with a cheaper variant of the Redmi Note 5 with inferior specifications and it has been dubbed as the Redmi Note 5A.
According to SlashLeaks, the Redmi Note 5A will be released on August 21 (Monday), measure 153×76.2×7.59 mm in dimension and weighs 150g. It went on to say that the handset will sport a 5.5-inch HD display, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor clocking at 1.4GHz and run Android 7.1 Nougat operating system. It is also expected to feature a 13MP main camera, a 5MP front-snapper, a 2GB RAM, a 16GB storage, and a 3,080mAh battery.
The report went on to say that the Redmi Note 5A will come with a price tag of 999 Yuan (around $150 / Rs 9,600) besides revealing the image.
It may be mentioned that the Redmi Note 5 is expected to be priced at 1,200 Yuan (around $180 / Rs 11,500).
The Redmi Note 4, predecessor of the Redmi Note 5A, is priced at Rs 9,999 for the 2GB RAM + 32GB ROM model (not available in India), Rs 10,999 for the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage, and Rs 12,999 for the 4GB RAM+64GB storage (storage can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD card). It features a 5.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen screen with 1,080x1,920 pixels (401 ppi pixel density), a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, and an Android Marshmallow operating system.
It also has a 13MP main camera with BSI CMOS sensor, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus), dual-tone LED flash and 1.12µm pixel size, a 5MP front snapper with f/2.0 aperture and 85-degree wide angle field of view, and a 4,100mAh battery.
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Real Madrid to face PSG in Champions League round of 16
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Real Madrid versus Paris Saint-Germain. Cristiano Ronaldo versus Neymar. Historic achievement versus burning ambition.
Two-time defending Champions League winner Madrid was drawn Monday to play the tournament's standout team in the last 16, made possible because the 12-time champions finished second in their group while PSG won its group.
"They (PSG) are really very strong in every department of the field," Madrid director Emilio Butragueno said. "But I have to underline, we are the holders and our players, they always rise to the occasion."
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PSG bought Neymar from Barcelona for a record 222 million euro ($262 million) fee in the off-season. The Brazil striker scored in five straight wins as the team finished ahead of Bayern Munich in its group.
Ronaldo scored in all six of Madrid's matches.
Barcelona, which leads the Spanish league despite the loss of Neymar, was drawn to face Chelsea in a meeting of recent champions. The English club is one of the few opponents Lionel Messi has failed to score against.
With eight former winners in the lineup, another clash of European champions pits Liverpool against Porto.
Also, it was: Basel vs. Manchester City; Sevilla vs. Manchester United; Juventus vs. Tottenham; Bayern Munich vs. Besiktas; and Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Roma.
The first legs will be played from Feb. 13-21, with the return matches from March 6-14.
The final will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 26.
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Madrid and PSG met in the group stage two seasons ago when the French team's leader was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. They drew 0-0 in Paris and Madrid won 1-0 at home.
"Since then they have strengthened. They have signed very, very good players," said Butragueno, whose club lost out to PSG in its pursuit of France forward Kylian Mbappe.
Barcelona and Chelsea will renew a rivalry that has included intense semifinals in 2009 and 2012. Each took a turn to advance at the other team's stadium and go on to win the title.with the returns on March 6-7 and March 13-14.
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Toyota Goes All-in on Super Bowl With Three Ads
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Toyota is making its biggest Super Bowl ad buy ever with two spots that push its global Olympics and Paralympics sponsorships and a third ad that will continue its long-running "Let's Go Places" campaign. The automaker had originally planned two 60-second ads, but added a 30-second ad at the last minute, a spokesman confirmed.
The buys make the marketer an outlier in the automotive category, whose Super Bowl presence is down a bit from last year. But it's not surprising Toyota is going big, considering its tight relationship with NBC, which will broadcast Sunday's game. The timing also makes sense with the Olympics starting just days after the Super Bowl. Toyota sat out last year's game.
The automaker released two of its ads today. One 60-second spot, which will run in the game's first commercial pod after kickoff, is called "Good Odds." It portrays the journey of Canadian Paralympic skier Lauren Woolstencroft from infant to gold medalist. The spot depicts her odds winning a medal declining from astronomical to doable as she perseveres through training, from childhood into adulthood.
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James Woods says he's retiring from film (and selling house)
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Oscar-nominated actor James Woods says he's retiring from the entertainment industry.
The news was included in a press release issued by Woods' real estate agent offering Woods' Rhode Island lake house for sale.
Allen Gammons said Friday that Woods is 70 and wants to relax. He says the actor's brother and mother recently died, and he hopes to spend more time on passions including photography, antiquing and poker.
Woods is known for his conservative political views. He has said that's made it tough to find work in Hollywood.
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Gammons said Woods' decision was not political.
Actress Amber Tamblyn last month said Woods tried to pick her up when she was 16. Woods called a lie on Twitter. Gammons said Woods declined to comment Friday when asked about Tamblyn's accusation.
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Nightclub attack: Istanbul police continue search
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The manhunt continues for a gunman who killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub as Turkey marked the start of the new year.
The unknown assailant opened fire at Reina nightclub early on Sunday, before managing to flee amid the chaos.
The motive for the attack is not clear, but suspicion has fallen on the Islamic State group, already linked to at least two terror attacks in Turkey last year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said such groups tried “to create chaos”.
The banned Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) has distanced themselves from the killings, with the PKK`s Murat Karayilan quoted as saying they would “never target innocent civilians”.
Earlier, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu confirmed a “manhunt for the terrorist is under way. Police have launched operations. We hope the attacker will be captured soon.”
But as the search continued, the first funerals of those killed at the nightclub were held.
More than half of those killed in the attack – which lasted seven minutes – were foreign, according to the state run Anadolu Agency.
Among them were citizens from Israel, France, Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Belgium, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The club, which sits on the banks of the Bosphorus, is one of Istanbul`s most upmarket venues – often frequented by singers and sports stars.
Source: BBC
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Fans excited as Justin Bieber announces new music
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Justin Bieber has triggered a frenzy among his fans by announcing that he is about to release new music.
The Canadian heartthrob – who recently cancelled the rest of his Purpose world tour – posted messages on his Twitter and Instagram accounts announcing: “New music. Thursday noon.”
Bieber, 23, posted artwork showing two birds holding a smiling worm, entitled Friends, which is thought to be the name of the new track.
New music. Thursday noon A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Aug 14, 2017 at 7:21am PDT
The star’s latest offering is a collaboration with producer BloodPop.
Bieber’s fans – dubbed Beliebers – have not been able to contain their excitement.
“OMG YESSSSSSSSSS I AM SO EXCITED!!!!” one person wrote on Instagram.
“It’s gonna be lit as always,” predicted another.
Another follower tweeted a picture of Bieber with a crown on his head alongside the caption: “Legend.”
Earlier this month Bieber told fans he had called off his remaining tour dates in part because he wanted to have a “sustainable” career and future.
The singer had been touring in support of his album Purpose for 18 months, playing more than 150 shows, but axed the final 14 scheduled performances.
A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Aug 2, 2017 at 4:52pm PDT
Pouring out his heart in an open letter posted online, he said: “Me taking this time right now is me saying I want to be SUSTAINABLE.
“I want my career to be sustainable, but I also want my mind heart and soul to be sustainable.
“So that I can be the man I want to be, the husband I eventually want to be and the father I want to be.”
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Virginia warning families the state's CHIP program may 'shut down'
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Virginia is now the latest state to start informing families enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that their coverage will be terminated unless Congress reauthorizes the popular health insurance program soon.
On Tuesday, the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services will be sending out a letter to 1,114 pregnant women and parents of the 68,495 Virginia children currently enrolled in FAMIS, the name for the state’s children’s insurance program.
“After delaying these notifications to give Congress as much time to act as possible, Virginia has a responsibility to these families to inform them of the possibility that their coverage could lapse so they can be as prepared as possible to explore alternatives,” said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a statement.
The letter states Virginia’s CHIP program will end on Jan. 31, 2018, unless Congress acts.
“For 20 years CHIP has had the strong support of Congress and has been renewed many times. We are hopeful that Congress will once again provide the funding to continue this program,” reads the letter. “However, because Congress has not acted yet, we need to let you know that there is a chance the FAMIS programs may have to shut down.”
Colorado was the first state to send a letter out to CHIP-enrolled families encouraging them to start making contingency plans for their health insurance.
According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 11 states — California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Ohio, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Hawaii — anticipate running out of funding by the end of the year. Another 21 states, including Virginia, expect their funding to run out soon after the new year.
The two-week continuing resolution passed on Thursday allows for the temporary redistribution of funds by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to states experiencing CHIP funding shortfalls. Seventeen states have received redistribution payments from October to December, totaling $1,161,888,184 per CMS.
“This continues to be a top priority for Chairman [Orrin] Hatch,” a Senate Finance Committee spokesperson told ABC News of CHIP reauthorization. “The Senate Finance Committee reported out a bipartisan bill that would extend funding for five years and provide certainty for families and states. The chairman is continuing to make progress in his discussions on how best to address this issue on the Senate floor and remains confident this will be resolved before the year’s end.”
But many states are concerned they’re running out of time for families to figure out their finances and alternative health insurance plans.
“You keep hearing from Congress, sure they’ll reauthorize it, of course they’ll do it. But on the other hand, they don’t seem to be taking seriously the consequences of the delay,” Linda Nablo, deputy director of Virginia’s Department of Medical Assistance Services, told ABC News. “Causing the least amount of anxiety and chaos for families actually take a lot of work, and states can’t continue to live on the promise, ‘We’ll get around to it.’”
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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Illini out of running for Nolley
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CHAMPAIGN -- Illinois had one final chance to finish this week on a recruiting strong note. After missing out on three Class of 2018 forwards early in the week, the Illini were still in the running for four-star Georgia prospect Landers Nolley.
Until Friday morning. Nolley, a 6-foot-7 wing who played his sophomore season at Curie in Chicago before moving to Georgia, narrowed his choices to Georgia and Virginia Tech.
Nolley's almost final decision left Illinois 0 for 4 on 2018 targets this week after Lukas Kisunas (UConn), George Conditt (Iowa State) and Colin Castleton (Michigan) all committed elsewhere. That leaves the Illini in further pursuit of in-state targets like Morgan Park's Ayo Dosunmu, who will start an official visit at Illinois on Oct. 13, and Simeon's Talen Horton-Tucker.
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Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Pyongyang: KCNA
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang Thursday, North Korea's state media said, ahead of a landmark summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Lavrov's visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to organise next month's summit, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also meeting Kim's right-hand man Kim Yong Chol in New York late Wednesday.
"Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister of the Russian Federation, arrived here on Thursday at the invitation of Ri Yong Ho, foreign minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)", KCNA news agency said in a brief dispatch.
It gave no further details but Russia's Tass news agency said the two foreign ministers had begun talks at the Supreme People’s Assembly building in Pyongyang.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier they were expected to discuss "vital issues of bilateral relations and key international and regional issues".
Lavrov is paying a visit to North Korea for the first time since 2009, Tass said.
Lavrov spoke to his US counterpart Pompeo by telephone for the first time on Wednesday ahead of the Secretary of State's dinner meeting with Kim Yong Chol.
Washington is pressing North Korea to quickly give up all its nuclear weapons in a verifiable way in return for lifting sanctions and economic relief.
But analysts say North Korea will be unwilling to cede its nuclear deterrent unless it is given security guarantees that the US will not try to topple the regime.
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