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Making Sense Of Charlottesville: A Reader's Guide

A rally with white nationalists chanting phrases like "Jews will not replace us" and "end immigration, one people, one nation" was, as many expressed online, disturbing yet not really all that surprising. Within hours of the tragedy in Charlottesville, journalists, scholars and other leading voices weighed in around the Internet, with analysis and deeper understanding of how this unfolded. Below are some of the most revealing pieces we read. Here at Code Switch, my teammate Gene Demby wrote about about how white nationalists are edging their movement out of the shadows: "Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader and University of Virginia alum who coined the term 'alt-right,' would likely count that openness as its own incremental success. 'If you greeted someone in 1985 and you said, 'all gays should marry,' you actually would get a lot of laughs,' Spencer told The Atlantic last year, not long after the election. 'By 2015, gay marriage is popular. What is possible has shifted. That's what the alt-right is doing. It's shifting the reality of what's possible, and imagining a reality in which they are.' " Code Switch alum Matt Thompson, now executive editor at The Atlantic, riffed on the brazenness of the white supremacists who marched this weekend, compared with Klan members of decades past who hid under white hoods. "The shameless return of white supremacy into America's public spaces seems to be happening by degrees, and quickly," Thompson wrote. Dara Lind, a reporter at Vox who wrote an explainer of the rally and its origins, described it as a "coming-out party for resurgent white nationalism in America." Nathan Guttman, a reporter with Forward, an online news site aimed at Jewish Americans, penned a vivid piece about covering the march. He recounted watching as Spencer launched into a rant about the mayor of Charlottesville, Michael Signer. " '[L]ittle Mayor Signer — SEE-NER — how do you pronounce this little creep's name?' asked Richard Spencer, a right-wing leader who dreams of a 'white ethnostate,' as he stood on a bench under a tree to rally his troops, deprived of their protest. The crowd knew exactly how to pronounce his name: 'Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew' some shouted out. The rest burst out in laughter. And that was one of the only moments of levity the alt-right audience gathered under the tree enjoyed." And Jia Tolentino, a writer for The New Yorker and a graduate of the University of Virginia, meditated on Charlottesville's progressive guise and ability to hide its dark racial past. "While I was at U.V.A., the fact that slaves had built the school was hardly discussed, and the most prominent acknowledgment that Jefferson was a slave owner came on Valentine's Day, when signs went up all over campus that said 'TJ ♥s Sally.' " Many writers also took on the response from President Trump, whose initial reaction to the violence in Charlottesville condemned equally both sides of the protest. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," Trump said, in remarks that brought condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans. Writing for The New Yorker, Jelani Cobb parsed Trump's initial response further: "We have seen a great number of false equivalencies in the past two years, and the most recent Presidential election was defined by them. Yet it remains striking to hear Trump imply that Nazis and the interracial group of demonstrators who gathered to oppose them were, in essence, equally wrong. It would have been naïve to expect the President to unambiguously condemn neo-Confederates ("Heritage, not hate," etc.), but Nazis? For reasons that are not hard to discern, the swastika, at least in the United States, has always been more clearly legible as a symbol of racial bigotry than the Confederate flag." Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, lambasted Trump in a Washington Post piece, writing that the current president was "incapable" of speaking for the nation in the face of tragedy: "If great words can heal and inspire, base words can corrupt. Trump has been delivering the poison of prejudice in small but increasing doses. In Charlottesville, the effect became fully evident. And the president had no intention of decisively repudiating his work. What do we do with a president who is incapable or unwilling to perform his basic duties? What do we do when he is incapable of outrage at outrageous things? What do we do with a president who provides barely veiled cover for the darkest instincts of the human heart? These questions lead to the dead end of political realism — a hopeless recognition of limited options. But the questions intensify." On Monday, Trump responded to the increasing pressure to respond more forcefully, and gave a stronger rebuke. "Racism is evil," Trump said. "And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans." In a piece for Commentary Magazine, John Podhoretz, a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, cast a skeptical eye toward Trump's remarks on Monday: "You can choose to have whatever opinion you have on the president's statement today condemning white supremacists, but it's hard to believe he would have read it out if he'd had his druthers. No, the real Donald Trump was the one we saw on Saturday when he decided to condemn violence 'on many sides' in response to the deliberately provocative and intentionally violent neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia; when he decided to refer to the events as 'sad' in tweets; when he wished 'best regards' to those injured by the car that was deliberately smashed into them, killing 1 and injuring 20. When he acted in that way, he was operating according to his instinct. And his instinct said: Do not attack the white supremacists." What Trump's comments Monday mean for how, exactly, he will handle the resurgence of white supremacists, remains unclear. As Maggie Haberman of The New York Times tweeted shortly after Trump's remarks on Monday:

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A rally with white nationalists chanting phrases like "Jews will not replace us" and "end immigration, one people, one nation" was, as

http://tpr.org/post/making-sense-charlottesville-readers-guide

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For Syrian Refugees In Turkey, A Long Road To Regular Employment

In a neighborhood of Istanbul that's plastered with Arabic signs, a Syrian refugee whips up his specialty — avocado cream smoothies — at the small, colorful cafe where he works. Majd al-Hassan has been in Turkey for two years, but has yet to learn much Turkish. He doesn't need to. This area is filled with fellow Syrians. He's paid in cash, under the table, and has yet to really integrate into Turkish society, he acknowledges. "We've got Syrian supermarkets, Syrian restaurants — just like back home," says Hassan, 26. "I haven't even applied for a Turkish ID card. If peace comes to Syria, I'll go home tomorrow." Nearby, a resident who describes herself as one of the last Turks living on this street near Istanbul's Fatih Mosque says she no longer recognizes her neighborhood. "Before, this area was only Turkish people, mostly. But now, here, there, everywhere, it's all Syrian people," says Tulay Suleyman, who was born here. "Some Turkish people, they don't like these [new] people. Their culture is a little bit different than ours. [They're] mostly ignorant people — homeless people, low-class." Xenophobia has flared with the arrival of migrants in parts of Europe. That has not been as big a problem in Turkey, even though there are some 3 million Syrians here — more than in all of Europe combined. As in Europe, many of the Syrians in Turkey are educated professionals who are under-employed, working off the books for low pay — part of Turkey's swelling black-market economy. At first, when Syrian refugees began streaming over the Turkish border in 2011, the Turkish government granted them a special protected status — but no work permits. Many thought the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad would fall quickly — another domino in the Arab Spring — and that Syrian refugees would be able to cross back over the border and return home swiftly. With the Syrian war now in its seventh year, Turkey has opened a path to Syrians for official employment. But few have taken it. One of the government's motives in trying to regularize Syrians is that Turks have been worried about having their wages undercut. "There was a public concern that Turkish people would be unemployed because of the Syrians being employed with lower fees [wages]," says labor lawyer Mehmet Ata Sarikaripoglu. "We see what happened in Europe, and how the politics in Europe has changed after that." Fearing a political backlash, Turkey started a program in January 2016 to increase work permits for refugees. The government also now requires companies to give Syrians the same pay and benefits as Turks. But the roll-out has been slow. Integrating Syrians is political too. They tend to be more religious and conservative than many Turks — and they tend to support Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He's floated the idea of offering them Turkish citizenship, but that has prompted a backlash from some opposition parties and more secular Turks. At an Istanbul municipal office, long lines of Syrians snake across the lobby. People are registering for Turkish ID cards and health care, and signing up their children for public schools — all services they get for free as refugees. One man yells and shakes with frustration. He says bureaucrats keep telling him to come back tomorrow. Turkey's social services are overloaded with newcomers like himself, he says. Behind the lobby's front desk, Yahiya Osman helps Syrians register for ID cards and health care. He's a Syrian refugee himself, and has worked here for four years — even though he only got a work permit two weeks ago. "It makes me eligible for private health insurance, a pension and worker's compensation," says Osman, 33. "You've got to think ahead. We're not sure what's going to happen in Syria. We might have to stay here in Turkey forever." But Turkish government statistics show out of the 3 million Syrians here, fewer than 14,000 had work permits by January — a year into the program. "It's a very exhausting procedure," says Sule Akarsu, who manages a charity that teaches Syrian refugees how to do bricklaying and other construction work. Her work is dedicated to helping Syrian refugees. Yet even she has not applied for work permits for her Syrian staff. "It takes nearly three months to get permission for the Syrians," she says. "It's also difficult for Turkish industry, doing all these procedures." Only companies can apply for these permits, not employees, and they must pay monthly social security for each worker — even if it's a Syrian who doesn't plan to stay in Turkey long-term. Some employers say it's not worth the hassle and expense. There are questions about how much Turkey's government really wants to implement this policy. It has threatened to fine companies that hire Syrians without permits. But the fines are rarely enforced. At an Istanbul cafe, Adnan Hadad, another Syrian, says it's not just the bureaucracy that slows things down. He's dragged his feet too. When he arrived four years ago, he thought he'd be in Turkey "a couple of years," he says. "But the Syrian war, and how it eventually evolved, made me realize I'll be here a lot longer," Hadad says. He still dreams of growing old back home in Syria. But for now, he's starting in on some Turkish paperwork.

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In a neighborhood of Istanbul that's plastered with Arabic signs, a Syrian refugee whips up his specialty — avocado cream smoothies — at the small,

http://tpr.org/post/syrian-refugees-turkey-long-road-regular-employment

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Black Bodies, Green Spaces

When a young African-American woman headed out solo along the Appalachian Trail, she learned a lot about the politics of race in the great outdoors. Every year, the Appalachian Trail calls a new crop of hikers, drawn to its grand sweep – 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine. If that’s you this year, you know it’s go time if you want to finish before winter. Rahawa Haile heard the call and followed it all the way, end to end. And she did it alone as a young African-American woman. That is unusual. People of color are under-represented in America’s great outdoors. Rahawa Haile’s got stories. This hour On Point, hiking while black on the Appalachian Trail. — Tom Ashbrook Guests Rahawa Haile, essayist and short story writer. She through-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2016. (@RahawaHaile) Carolyn Finney, professor of geography at the University of Kentucky. Author of “Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans To The Great Outdoors.” (@cfinney4) From Tom’s Reading List Outside: Going It Alone — “It will be several months before I realize that most AT hikers in 2016 are unaware of the clear division that exists between what hikers of color experience on the trail (generally positive) and in town (not so much). While fellow through-hikers and trail angels are some of the kindest and most generous people I’ll ever encounter, many trail towns have no idea what to make of people who look like me. They say they don’t see much of ‘my kind’ around here and leave the rest hanging in the air.” Atlas Obscura: Exit Interview: I Was a Black, Female Thru-Hiker on the Appalachian Trail — “Last year, Rahawa Haile, a writer now based in Oakland, California, became one of the very few black women to attempt to hike the entire trail. (She was able to find exactly one other attempting the feat in 2016.) In March, she began in Georgia, the more popular end of the trail to start on, and by the middle of October had hiked its entire length. She carried along with her, too, a series of books by black authors, which she left in trail shelters along the way.” BuzzFeed: How Black Books Lit My Way Along The Appalachian Trail — “Everyone had something out here. The love I carried was books. Exceptional books. Books by black authors, their photos often the only black faces I would talk to for weeks. These were writers who had endured more than I’d ever been asked to, whose strength gave me strength in turn. I wanted to show them beauty from heights that a history of terror had made clear were never intended to be theirs. I sought out these titles wherever I could.” See Photos From Rahawa Haile’s Appalachian Trail Journey

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When a young African-American woman headed out solo along the Appalachian Trail, she learned a lot about the politics of race in the great outdoors. Every

http://tpr.org/post/black-bodies-green-spaces

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Trump Administration Extends Deadline For Insurers To Decide On Obamacare Markets

The Trump administration is giving insurance companies an extra three weeks to decide whether to offer insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act markets, and how much to charge. The extension comes as insurance companies wait for President Trump to decide whether he will continue to make payments to insurance companies that are called for under the Affordable Care Act but that some Republicans have opposed. The payments — known as cost-sharing reduction payments — reimburse insurance companies for discounts on copayments and deductibles that they're required by law to offer to low-income customers. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the payments this year would be about $7 billion. Trump has said he may end the reimbursements, which he calls "bailouts," and has been leaving insurers to wonder month to month about whether they will receive a check. A White House spokesman says Trump is "working with his staff and his Cabinet to consider the issues raised by the CSR payments." The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is offering the extra time so insurance companies can plan ahead in case the government decides to end the payments. In a memo Friday, the agency said many states are now requiring companies to file their rates for 2018 on the assumption that they won't be reimbursed. Several companies say that without the cost-sharing payments, their rates will see double-digit increases. For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina says ending the payments would push its rates up 14.1 percent. And Marc Harrison, CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, which covers 173,000 people in Idaho and Utah, says premium increases could be "astonishing." Still, he says, his company will stick with the Obamacare markets. "These are our patients. We're not going anywhere. We're going to keep trying to figure this out." The HHS memo says "there have been no changes regarding HHS's ability to make cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers." But it then says the agency intends to change the ACA's risk adjustment program to compensate for the loss of cost-sharing payments. The changes are technical and complex, but Timothy Jost, professor emeritus at Washington & Lee University's law school, says in a Health Affairs blog that the memo just deepens the confusion. "We still do not know if all of this is needed or not — the Trump administration has not made up its mind," he says. The cost-sharing payments have been at the center of a political battle over the Affordable Care Act since before President Trump took office. House Republicans opposed to the health law sued then-President Barack Obama, saying the payments were illegal because Congress hadn't appropriated money for them. A judge agreed but allowed the administration to continue making the payments during an appeal. Now that Trump is in the White House, and Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have failed, many Republicans are urging the president to continue the payments rather than undermine the health care markets.

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The Trump administration is giving insurance companies an extra three weeks to decide whether to offer insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act

http://tpr.org/post/trump-administration-extends-deadline-insurers-decide-obamacare-markets

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Trump Administration Takes Key Step To Rolling Back Auto Fuel Standards

The Trump administration has begun the process of rolling back tough fuel standards for America's car and light truck fleet. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department have opened the public comment period on the rewriting of standards for greenhouse gas emissions for cars and light trucks for model years 2022-2025. "We are moving forward with an open and robust review of emissions standards, consistent with the timeframe provided in our regulations," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said Friday. The 45-day period allows for the public to comment about regulations before proposed changes. Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules were first put into place after the OPEC oil crisis in the 1970s. During the Obama administration, the CAFE rules were toughened in the wake of the financial crisis and the car company bankruptcies. The new standards called for an increased reliance on electric vehicles. Low gas prices and sluggish sales of alternative fuel vehicles have made meeting those standards tough, especially for those companies more reliant on larger vehicles. Earlier this year, the EPA announced it would reconsider a decision late in the Obama administration to make the rules permanent. The auto industry has hailed the decision to reopen the fuel standards. With the announcement, Mitch Bainwol, president and CEO of the Auto Alliance, a group of auto manufacturers, says, "the Administration is fulfilling its commitment to reinstate the midterm evaluation of future vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards." Environmental and consumer advocacy groups decried the move. "By reopening the midterm evaluation, EPA is bringing back questions that have already been asked and answered," said Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports. Shannon Baker-Branstetter with Consumer's Union says her organization's studies show people want to save money on gas. According to a recent survey, 90 percent of Americans want automakers to raise fuel efficiency. Baker-Branstetter says adds "In fact, consumers are especially concerned about the fuel efficiency of the crossovers and SUVs they've been gravitating toward in recent years." "What kind of changes may or may not be introduced is far from clear", says Stephanie Brinley, senior automotive analyst, IHS Markit. The agencies are expected to expand the data used to make the determination, specifically taking into consideration consumer behavior, she says. The public comment period allows the car companies and others to lobby to keep or make changes. "Pressures from other government requirements and consumer interest in reducing fuel emissions are expected to continue to be aggressive," Brinley says. Even if the U.S. scales back, she says, the movement toward higher standards will likely continue in other countries. Already this year, several countries said they would ban the sale of gasoline vehicles altogether within decades. Many analysts believe that rolling back fuel standards could jeopardize the near term future for electric vehicles.

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The Trump administration has begun the process of rolling back tough fuel standards for America's car and light truck fleet. The Environmental

http://tpr.org/post/trump-administration-takes-key-step-rolling-back-auto-fuel-standards

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Conflicting Rallies Converge On Travis Park Over Confederate Monument

Here in San Antonio, the Confederate monument in downtown’s Travis Park was at the center of separate protests this weekend. Confederate supporters gathered in Travis Park to voice opposition to the monument's potential relocation while those who want it removed held a demonstration of their own. The words exchanged between the two sides were heated, but the protests were without violence. Confederate, U.S. and Texas flags decorated one corner of Travis Park as about 250 people – some armed with long rifles and other fire arms – sang the song of Dixie. Story continues below photo Paul Gramling is a commander with the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He came to protest from Shreveport, Louisiana. He says confederate monuments across the country are war memorials and symbols of heritage. “They were put in spots where they are to remember and memorialize the dead soldiers - our dead men - who didn’t’ come off the battlefield, who never made it home. That’s what these monuments are for,” Gramling said. The protest was organized by a group called This is Texas Freedom Force in response to a request by San Antonio City Council members Roberto Trevino and Cruz Shaw to re-locate the monument; possibly to a museum. The tall obelisk like monument features an unnamed soldier at the top. It was erected in the late 1890s by the daughters of the confederacy. Short video of both sides from today's protests over the Travis Park Confederate Monument @TPRNews pic.twitter.com/z290er7uW9 — Joey Palacios (@Joeycules) August 12, 2017 Across the park nearly another 250 people held a rally of their own in support of removing it, chanting “Take it down, take it down.” Jonathan David Jones is a community activist and often participates in Black Lives Matter events. “This monument should have been gone a long a time ago. It needs to go now. We don’t care what they do with it. They can put it in one of their homes if they want to, but it doesn’t belong in public space,” Jones said. Jones feels the confederacy stood for white supremacy. “They say it’s for heritage, they say it’s for history, but we know what it’s really about,” he added. Story continues below photo San Antonio Police had the two sides separated with barricades. Police Chief William McManus says it was to prevent physical confrontations. “My issue is keeping the peace during these types of demonstrations and having had about 28 years of experience with this in DC the most effective way to keep these folks separate is putting up fencing,” McManus said. SAPD estimates at least 500 people were present in the park. The fencing kept the sides mostly apart. That didn’t stop them from taunting each other with wars of words. Travis Park seemed to mirror the mood of the country in recent months. There were no violent confrontations. At least one person was arrested from the counter protestors’ side. Police charged 20-year-old Michael Murphy with assault. The PA systems on both ends dueled with each other. On the confederate supporters side, Jeffrey Addicott, a professor at St. Mary’s University said the group did not stand for racism. “We’ve got black individuals out here, we’ve got white, we’ve got grey, we’ve got yellow, we’ve got a diversity of people. This is not about racism. And if any of you are racist in here please see me afterwards, I’d love to beat the living daylights out of you,” Addicott said. On the removal side, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert said this country tore itself apart over the institution of slavery. “We stand together united, black, white, brown, gay, straight, of every color, Native American to say this is our country, we’re united we’re together, we love each other, we don’t want to hurt each other, we want everybody to prosper,” Calvert said. “This is our America and we’re not going back.” Moving the monument is not a done deal. It will take action from the full San Antonio City Council. Councilman Shaw and Trevino are asking for the monument to be placed in an area where it can be integrated into historical context. It’s unknown when the proposal will be heard by a council committee.

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2017-07-21 00:00:00

Here in San Antonio, the Confederate monument in downtown’s Travis Park was at the center of separate protests this weekend. Confederate supporters

http://tpr.org/post/conflicting-rallies-converge-travis-park-over-confederate-monument

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Arkansas Pushes To Carry Out Executions, Fighting Court Rulings And The Clock

Arkansas is making preparations for a series of executions that, as of late morning Monday, it is legally barred from carrying out. The state's attorneys are fighting to persuade judges to allow the executions — and to make the decision quickly. The state had scheduled eight men to die over the course of 11 days, because one of the drugs it planned to use in the executions expires at the end of April. Gov. Asa Hutchinson said it wasn't clear whether the state could acquire addition supplies of the sedative midazolam. Two of the executions had been stayed individually before all eight of them were blocked by a state judge and a federal judge. The state judge's decision, reached Friday, was based on how Arkansas acquired another drug — vecuronium bromide, which is used in anesthesia as well as executions. A pharmaceutical supplier alleges that the state bought the drug deceptively, actively misleading the seller about what it would be used for. That decision "stirred a wave of consternation and threats on social media from state lawmakers and conservatives," member station KUAR noted on Saturday — because shortly before the decision, the judge was photographed protesting the death penalty at the gates of the Governor's Mansion. The federal judge's decision on Saturday, meanwhile, was in response to a lawsuit on behalf of the inmates that argued an execution with midazolam would violate their rights. Midazolam has been used in a number of high-profile botched executions, including instances where inmates did not appear to be fully sedated when they received the painful second and third drugs in the cocktail. The suit argued there was an unacceptably high risk they would suffer during the executions. The judge determined that their concerns were sufficient to halt the executions for the time being, to allow the issue to be considered by the courts. Hutchinson and state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge have been pushing to carry out the executions anyway. But they are on a tight schedule: Executions were scheduled to begin Monday night, and if the legal proceedings take more than two weeks, the midazolam supply will have expired before any of the executions can take place. The state has appealed both rulings and asked the higher courts to work quickly to review the decisions. The inmates on death row, meanwhile, have asked the courts to take the time and avoid a "rushed analysis." As the legal battle plays out, the state's execution facility is prepared for a rapid reversal of the decisions. If the rulings are overturned by Monday night, the state will be prepared to execute at least one inmate, according to local TV station KATV. KATV, citing anonymous officials, reports that death row inmate Don Davis has been transferred to the unit where the state's Department of Corrections was preparing to carry out executions. "Davis' exact schedule for the day is confidential but as part of the death protocol, he will be meeting with counsel and a spiritual advisor," KATV reports. "Authorities say a last meal has also been arranged." Arkansas hasn't executed anybody for more than a decade, partly because of a series of legal challenges to the state's death penalty laws.

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Arkansas is making preparations for a series of executions that, as of late morning Monday, it is legally barred from carrying out. The state's

http://tpr.org/post/arkansas-pushes-carry-out-executions-fighting-court-rulings-and-clock

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As U.S. Copes With Charlottesville Violence, Protesters Take To The Streets

One day after deadly unrest roiled Charlottesville, Va., its effects have sent ripples through cities across the United States. Demonstrators from New York City to Seattle organized rallies Sunday to condemn the white nationalist groups that had descended on the Virginia city this weekend. In all, activists say, more than 500 events were planned throughout the day — including a candlelight vigil in Florida, rallies in cities across western Michigan and South Carolina, and a march through Manhattan to Trump Tower. "If the last 48 hours have shown us anything, it's that white supremacy is alive and well," Courtney Thomas told fellow protesters in Greenville, S.C., according to The Greenville News. On the other side of the country, Seattle has seen a fraught confrontation among a conservative pro-Trump group called Patriot Prayer, a sizable group of counterprotesters and the riot police seeking to keep them peacefully separated. "The West Coast has slowly been infected with communist ideologies throughout our entire culture. It is a belief that the individual is weak and that we are all victims. This is the lie of the century," Patriot Prayer wrote on the Facebook page for the event. "These liberal strongholds run off of hatred and negativity," the group added. "Patriot Prayer will bring in a positive message to Seattle that the people are starving for." Ed Ronco of member station KNKX said the pro-Trump demonstration "had been in the works even before the events in Charlottesville," adding, "but once that happened, hundreds of counterdemonstrators showed up at a different city park to march to the pro-Trump rally." Organizers behind the counterprotest, known as Solidarity Against Hate, called the people behind Patriot Prayer "far-right extremists." "When they come, they bring violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and Islamophobia (among other forms of bigotry) to our town," according to the group. As counterprotesters began moving toward the park where the Patriot Prayer rally was being held, riot police sought to corral the crowd with pepper spray and devices known as "blast balls." In response, The Seattle Times notes, the officers were "pelted only with harsh language and silly string." Eventually, both sets of protesters converged on the same park — but were separated by police. "Anti-fascist protesters continue to shout down the pro-Trump speakers," the paper reported, "and more than once, someone from the crowd has jumped onto the stage to grab the microphone away." No serious violence or injuries were immediately reported. In New York City, anti-white nationalist protesters descended on Trump Tower, chanting, "no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA." The president has been criticized by some — including several members of his own party — for what critics say was a tepid response to the violence in Charlottesville, which left three people dead. In his initial statement, Trump condemned "in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" without singling out the white supremacists who started the protests. "People need to wake up, recognize that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done," Carl Dix, leader of one of the groups organizing demonstrations in several cities including New York, told The Associated Press. "This can't be allowed to fester and to grow because we've seen what happened in the past when that was allowed." The wire service reports that protesters have also planned candlelight vigils near the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord and in Winter Haven, Fla., while "other demonstrations centered on Confederate statues on the state Capitol grounds in West Virginia and in Tampa, Florida." Meanwhile, back in Charlottesville, the situation remains far from settled. Jason Kessler, one of the principal organizers behind the calamitous "Unite the Right" rally, attempted to hold a news conference Sunday — only to be shouted down and shuffled away from the crowd within minutes. And a vigil that had been scheduled to mourn Heather Heyer — the 32-year-old woman killed when a car allegedly driven by a white nationalist rammed a crowd of protesters Saturday — was canceled by organizers after they learned of a "credible threat." "This event was designed to be a safe space for Charlottesville residents to gather, grieve, and support one another," the group said in a statement. But "a credible threat from white supremacists created a situation wherein we could no longer guarantee the safety of those who attended."

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One day after deadly unrest roiled Charlottesville, Va., its effects have sent ripples through cities across the United States. Demonstrators from New York

http://tpr.org/post/us-copes-charlottesville-violence-protesters-take-streets

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A 73-Year-Old Is Latest Victim Of Deadly Attacks On Mexican Journalists

You wouldn't expect a 73-year-old to be on the crime beat, but Maximino Rodriguez Palacios couldn't help himself, says Cuauhtemoc Morgan, editor of the Baja California news blog Colectivo Pericu. "It was totally by chance," he tells NPR. "In November 2014, Max called me about a shooting near his home in La Paz. And then he sent me a story and photos about what happened. From that moment, he was our crime reporter." Rodriguez's passion to cover crime led to his death. Gunned down Friday as he pulled up in front of a supermarket, he became the fourth journalist murdered in Mexico in just six weeks. The country continues to be one of the deadliest places in the world to report the news. For decades, Rodriguez had worked in journalism and in public relations for the state government. He came out of retirement to take up the crime beat for Colectivo Pericu, and in the following years his work became increasingly important. His home state, Baja California Sur, has become one of Mexico's most violent in recent months as drug cartels fought over the territory. In January 2017 the state recorded its most murders ever in a single month. Through this, Rodriguez built up a following. A Facebook Live video from April 5 got more than 15,000 views. In it, he runs up to the police tape around a crime scene and, winded, tells his audience that the subject is dead. The victim would turn out to be a plainclothes police officer. Several police officers had been murdered in recent months, and Rodriguez chased the story. In the last column he wrote for Colectivo Pericu, he cited anonymous sources to identify the leader of a local cartel as the mastermind. But this turned deadly. "Our comments sections [on the blog] are open, so it has become routine for us to receive threats there," says Morgan. Rodriguez's final column had five comments on it. Four were threats. Among expletives, one comment ominously reads, "You're lighting the candles for your own funeral, Max." Three days later, Rodriguez was dead. His bullet-riddled car was the exact kind of crime scene he would have run to cover, camera phone in hand. On Sunday night, the state attorney general's office said that ballistics tests showed that the firearm used against Rodriguez was the same one used in the killing of the police officer that Rodriguez had covered a week earlier. The investigation points toward Rodriguez being targeted for his work. Since President Enrique Peña Nieto was elected in 2012, 31 journalists have been murdered in Mexico. Dozens more have been threatened or attacked. Reporters under threat have become hardened to this reality. "When I hear of another murder, I just think 'who's next?' " says Noe Zavaleta, a reporter in Veracruz state. "It sounds crude to say, but it's the way I have to think about it now." Zavaleta knows the danger of reporting well, as 20 journalists have been murdered in his home state since 2010. He began writing for the investigative magazine Proceso after his predecessor, Regina Martinez, was strangled to death in her home. One of his best friends and colleagues, photojournalist Ruben Espinoza, was murdered in Mexico City after seeking refuge there. But Zavaleta is back in Veracruz after briefly fleeing to Mexico City for his safety. "Things haven't changed — if anything, it's gotten worse," he says. "But this is what I know how to do, and I refuse to leave because of intimidation. Maybe it's pride or my ego, but I won't leave." The Mexican government recently has beefed up protection measures for journalists, as well as a specialized unit that investigates these types of crimes. But journalists don't just need protection from organized crime. "[These protections] feel imaginary, because I have filed complaints about threats I have received from government authorities and their cronies," says Zavaleta. "I don't expect them to go anywhere, but I file them anyway so that other journalists can document what has happened to me." The systems to protect reporters aren't working in practice, says Carlos Lauria, the Americas director for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Unfortunately, these bodies and mechanisms have clearly been insufficient to fight the violence and solve crimes against the press," says Lauria. "Impunity is still pervasive. Even in the cases where progress has been made, masterminds are still free and justice is losing." By CPJ's estimate, 87 percent of the murders committed against journalists in Mexico since 1990 either have not been investigated or have no arrests. But the journalists themselves aren't the only victims of press violence, says Lauria: With many reporters too scared to cover news that could anger criminals or corrupt politicians, the public often doesn't get to see the most important stories. In Baja California Sur, it's unclear if reporters will be silenced by Max's death. Cuauhtemoc Morgan says he's talked to some journalists who want to get off the crime beat after the murder. But not everyone will stay quiet. "My wife [the co-editor of Colectivo Pericu] and I are reflecting on what to do," he says. "But right now, we don't plan to stop reporting on this type of news." On Monday, Colectivo Pericu kept publishing, like it was just another day. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: In the last six weeks, four reporters have been murdered in Mexico. The latest victim was Maximino Rodriguez. He was gunned down in his car on Friday afternoon in La Paz, near the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. As James Fredrick reports, Mexico continues to be one of the world's deadliest places to report the news. JAMES FREDRICK, BYLINE: At 73 years old, Max Rodriguez wasn't the kind of person you'd expect to be on the police beat. But he couldn't help himself, says Cuauhtemoc Morgan, the co-founder of Colectivo Pericu, the blog where Max worked. I catch him on his cell as he's driving to a memorial for Max. CUAUHTEMOC MORGAN: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: "It was totally by chance," he said. "In November 2014, Max called me about a shooting near his home in La Paz. And then he sent me a story and photos about what happened. From that moment, he was our crime reporter." After decades as a reporter and government spokesman, Max Rodriguez came out of retirement to cover crime. He didn't know at the time how important the work would become. Murders have recently spiked in his state as a feud broke out between drug cartels. January of this year set a record for the most murders there ever. A week before his death, Max posted this Facebook Live video which got 15,000 views. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) MAXIMINO RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: He's running up to a crime scene outside a local prison. A man had been shot and would turn out to be a plainclothes police officer. But this type of reporting put Max at risk for exposing crimes and sometimes the criminals behind them. MORGAN: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: "Our outlet promotes freedom of expression," says Morgan. "Our comments sections are open, so it's become routine for us to receive threats there." Last week, Max wrote about a string of murdered police officers and named the head of a local gang as the mastermind. There are five comments on the story. One ominously reads you're lighting the candles for your own funeral, Max. Three days later, Rodriguez were shot to death as he pulled up in front of a supermarket. It was the exact kind of crime he would have run to cover, camera phone in hand. On Sunday night, the state government said that the same weapon was used in the murder of Max and the police officer Max had reported on the week before, meaning he was likely targeted for his work. Max's death on Friday is the latest in a long list of murdered reporters throughout Mexico. Three others were murdered in March alone. NOE ZAVALETA: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: Noe Zavaleta knows the risks journalists face as well as anyone. His predecessor at investigative magazine Proceso was strangled to death in her home. And a photojournalist he often worked with was killed after fleeing to Mexico City. ZAVALETA: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: "We journalists face real threats," says Zavaleta. "Organized crime, that's obvious. Another is the state that tries to oppress our voices. And the third are corrupt media outlets that work with the first two to try to smear journalists who become victims." Murdered journalists have become so common as to harden Zavaleta's reaction to another death. ZAVALETA: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: "When I hear of another murder, I just think who's next? It sounds crude to say but it's the way I have to think about it now." Now with this climate of fear and intimidation all over Mexico, the most important stories often can't be covered. Cuahtemoc Morgan says some of the reporters in his state want to get off the crime beat after Max's murder. MORGAN: (Speaking Spanish). FREDRICK: "My wife and I are reflecting on what to do," he says, "but right now, we don't plan to stop reporting this type of news." For NPR News, I'm James Fredrick in Mexico City. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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You wouldn't expect a 73-year-old to be on the crime beat, but Maximino Rodriguez Palacios couldn't help himself, says Cuauhtemoc Morgan, editor

http://tpr.org/post/73-year-old-latest-victim-deadly-attacks-mexican-journalists

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Young Astronaut Hopeful Gets NASA Tour Of His (Space) Dreams

Sixteen-year-old Murad Rahimov peered down into a gigantic space he had only dreamed about before: the world's largest clean room, kept scrupulously free of any dust or contamination, where NASA assembles and tests spacecraft before launch. Murad's eyes gleamed and a smile played on his face as he took it all in — the scientists encased in sterile white suits; the replica of the massive new space telescope, the most powerful ever built, that will study the first galaxies born after the Big Bang. Murad is obsessed with space. He has been ever since he was three, back in his home country Uzbekistan. His young imagination was sparked when his aunt gave him a picture book about space, and he couldn't stop looking at the images of the solar system. Soon after, he told his parents his dream: He wanted to become an astronaut and work for NASA. On this recent day, he was getting a private tour of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., thanks to an NPR listener who heard about Murad's passion for space in a story that aired earlier this year. In January, NPR profiled the Rahimov family on the day they became naturalized as U.S. citizens. The Rahimovs immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010, when Murad was nine. When they first landed in Kansas City, Murad spoke no English. Now, heading into his junior year of high school, he's on an accelerated track, taking extra classes in the summer and packing his schedule with AP courses. Listener Aaron Schnittman heard that story on the radio, and his ears perked up when he heard that Murad's goal is to work for NASA. He emailed NPR that same day, that his brother is a research astronomer working for NASA at Goddard. "I think it would be a cool follow up to connect the son to my brother and help him make the connections needed to pursue studies in astronomy," he wrote. Cool, indeed. The connection was made, emails were exchanged, and last week, at the invitation of Jeremy Schnittman, Murad and his mother, Limara Rahimova, made the trip to Goddard outside Washington, D.C. Schnittman, an astrophysicist who specializes in black holes, spent several hours showing the Rahimovs the inner workings of the space flight center and sharing his enthusiasm for space science. Murad was clearly in his element, sporting a t-shirt with a picture of the Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars, and a line from the movie: "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy." He and his mother got to see the giant cryo-vac chamber where spacecraft are tested to find out if they'll withstand the extreme temperatures of space. They walked inside the acoustic chamber that blasts spacecraft with earsplitting sound to simulate the vibration of launch. They toured the laser lab where scientists are fine-tuning measurements to detect gravitational waves. "Amazing," Murad marveled. Back in his office, ("black hole central," as he calls it) Schnittman talked with Murad about his research into how light gets bent around black holes. Naturally, they both share a hero in Albert Einstein, whose photo Schnittman keeps pinned above his desk. "It's remarkable," Schnittman said. "It's over 100 years since Einstein did all of this stuff, and still, everything is Einstein. Einstein, Einstein, Einstein." When Murad mused about the possibilities of time travel, Schnittman sounded optimistic. "It's really not that much of a stretch to say that we're one step closer to time travel," he told Murad. "This is something that Einstein predicted 100 years ago. According to the theory, the equations, time travel should be possible. The trick is just building it and getting it to work, but as far as we can tell, there's no rule against it." The astrophysicist and the would-be astronaut parted ways with the promise to stay in touch. Later Murad said he loves science because it shows "the sheer awesomeness, the sheer scale of how insignificant and alone we are in the universe. All these petty fights that people have between themselves, they are just insignificant. When you start thinking about space, you get lost in the vastness of it. That's what captivates me the most." Now that he's a U.S. citizen, he believes his dream of becoming an astronaut is more within reach. He and his brother automatically became citizens when their parents did. Murad was at school the day they took the oath: "I came home and looked at my parents, and felt all this pride," he said. "You could sense that something has changed. They were smiling from ear to ear." For his mother, Limara, becoming a U.S. citizen has grounded her in a new way. "I felt before like I'm between countries," she said. "But now I feel like I'm staying ...both my feet here in this land." Limara works at a school, and each morning they all stand for the pledge of allegiance. Before, she said, "it didn't touch me. But now, yes! And I know what each word in the pledge of allegiance means. And it means, for me, a lot." As for Murad? The rising high school junior has his sights set on going to Cal Tech, and on the Mars mission he dreams of one day leading. "Some people, they tell me to try to get a real job," he said, "of maybe not shooting so high. But nah. I'm shooting for it. I'm gonna chase my dreams." Meantime, there's a celestial show about to happen, one he's been excited about for years: the total solar eclipse. Murad's hometown, Kansas City, is a perfect spot to see it: right in the path of totality. Next Monday he will be outside, watching in awe as the moon slides over the sun, and dreaming big dreams of space.

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Sixteen-year-old Murad Rahimov peered down into a gigantic space he had only dreamed about before: the world's largest clean room, kept scrupulously

http://tpr.org/post/young-astronaut-hopeful-gets-nasa-tour-his-space-dreams

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Sitting 26-Feet-High Atop A Horse, Gen. Lee Becomes A Lightning Rod For Discontent

At the center of Charlottesville's violent white nationalist rally was a long-simmering controversy over the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Controversies over Confederate symbols have been brewing around the country — most notably in South Carolina, where the Confederate flag was lowered from the state house grounds two years ago, and New Orleans, where statues came down earlier this year. But in Charlottesville, the movement to remove a Lee statue and the backlash that followed have become particularly intense thanks to an ongoing court battle and questions over whether the city council has the authority to remove it. Now, the planned removal of the statue became a rallying cause for the alt-right — and symbol of growing discontent. One hundred years ago, in 1917, the 26-foot-high statue was commissioned by a philanthropist and given to the city along with the surrounding land in honor of his parents. The statue took seven years and three sculptors (the first one died) to complete. According to the city of Charlottesville's website, the statue was unveiled in 1924 by 100 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute who "paraded through the center of Charlottesville decorated with Confederate colors." The new statue was also reportedly greeted with loud cheers and a speech by then-president of "the University of Virginia Edwin Alderman and followed by parties and balls. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The registration form from the Department of the Interior states that the sculpture "remains undisturbed in its original location. Charlottesville will undoubtedly keep it there, for the monument is a unique to the most eminent Confederate hero of all and an outstanding example of the outdoor sculpture of the late City Beautiful movement." It is now doubtful — though still possible — that Charlottesville will "keep it there." In February, the city council voted 3-2 to sell the statue, ignoring the recommendation of a commission that suggested moving it. A group called Virginia's Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the city, alleging it did not have the right to remove the statute since it was a war memorial. A related group, and others, filed a lawsuit in New Orleans to block the removal of a Gen. Lee statue as well as one of Jefferson Davis. A federal appeals court said that city could remove its Confederate monuments. City Councilor Bob Fenwick, who cast a tie-breaking vote in Charlottesville in April (that vote allowed the city to sell the statue), hoped the city council's action would put to bed more than a year of heated debate in his city. "For now, it is now time for our city to rest," he said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. But that didn't happen. The movement against removal of the statue grew — there is a Facebook group to Save the Robert E. Lee Statue and call for donations to "fund litigation to preserve our monuments." The backlash to the planned removal culminated in a white nationalist rally last weekend, which used the planned removal as a rallying cause. It is important to note, however, that the group behind hte lawsuit, SVC, condemned the Charlottesville rallies. Chaplain-in-chief Ray Parker wrote on Facebook over the weekend: "I condemn in the strongest possible way the actions, words, and beliefs of the KKK and other white supremacist groups." The statue has also been tagged with graffiti several times in the past few years, including with "black lives matter" and "native land." In May, a judge granted a temporary injunction, which meant the statue could not be removed for next six months. So, for now, the statue is still standing in what used to be Lee Park. Only the city council also voted earlier this year to rename the park, an action that was upheld by a judge. Gen. Lee now, rather ironically, sits in Emancipation Park.

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At the center of Charlottesville's violent white nationalist rally was a long-simmering controversy over the removal of a statue of Confederate

http://tpr.org/post/sitting-26-feet-high-atop-horse-gen-lee-becomes-lightning-rod-discontent

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Republicans Look To Avoid A Political Headache In Georgia

Republicans are trying to prevent a political tremor from happening Tuesday night just north of Atlanta that would be a blow to President Trump and a boon to the rising Democratic opposition to him. "I'm very concerned," said Tom Boyle, a 76-year-old retiree from Roswell, Ga., as he was making calls at a Republican phone bank on Monday afternoon. In a closely watched Georgia special election that Democrats have tried to turn into a referendum on Trump, if Democrat Jon Ossoff is able to top 50 percent in Tuesday's all-party primary featuring 18 candidates he'll win outright here. That's a result that was thought impossible months ago. This is a district, after all, that was held for two decades by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and for the past 12 years by Tom Price, an anti-Obamacare champion, who vacated the seat when he was appointed as Trump's Health and Human Services secretary. While an outright Ossoff win Tuesday night still remains improbable, it's no longer thought to be impossible. Still, given the Republican leanings of this district, and a strong push from GOP outside groups, an outright win Tuesday might be Ossoff's best chance at winning the seat. The stakes are high for both parties. If Republicans lose, it would send a warning signal to the Trump White House ahead of next year's midterms, as Republicans look to hold onto control of Congress — and Trump's agenda. But if Democrats can't win, either now or in a June runoff, given all the money and resources poured into the contest, it will raise questions about their ability to compete in the types of districts they'll need to win back the House, beginning with one like this in Georgia. "A chance to make a statement" Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker and former Capitol Hill aide, has raised eye-popping amounts of money (much of it from outside the state) and captured national attention. "The eyes of the whole country are on us right now," Ossoff told volunteers gathered Saturday evening to canvass at his Chamblee campaign office. "The eyes of the world are on us right now. We are the first up to bat in the country with a chance to make a statement about what we stand for." Sensing opportunity, Democrats have poured in resources — and the race has drawn celebrity attention. Actor Samuel L. Jackson, for example, cut a radio ad supporting Ossoff, warning, "Remember what happened the last time people stayed home — we got stuck with Trump." Actress Alyssa Milano helped drive early voters to the polls. The Democratic congressional hopeful didn't mention the president by name in addressing his supporters, and some of his ads don't either. In fact, some of them don't mention his party affiliation at all and tick off some downright Republican-sounding ideas, such as cutting spending, boosting infrastructure and attracting more local tech jobs. Some of his ads do take explicit aim at Trump though, with one trolling him for his rabid tweeting habit and another where he promises to hold the president accountable. In a brief interview with NPR after an afternoon canvass launch Saturday, Ossoff admitted that the race had somewhat taken on a life of its own, but he continued to stress many of the local issues at the core of his economic message. He maintained he can win outright, but if that doesn't happen, his strategy won't change. "A win on Tuesday is certainly within reach, and special elections are always unpredictable," Ossoff said. "If we don't clear 50, we'll be able to fight and win in a runoff." Democrats are trying to capitalize on Trump's unpopularity, and this is one of the first chances for them to take out their frustrations with his presidency. Giving Democrats hope is that even though this is a right-leaning district, it isn't exactly Trump country. While Price was easily re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote, Trump won the district by less than 2 points. It's indicative of the kind of place Trump struggled throughout the country — rapidly growing, diverse and well-educated suburbs, where Republicans usually do well. The president himself underscored the importance of the race — and the possible blowback a loss could have for his own political capital. He recorded a last-minute robocall against Ossoff and poked Democrats with at least four tweets in the last 24 hours about the race: The election comes on the heels of a better-than-expected finish for a Democrat in a special election in a very Republican district in Kansas last week — something Democrats hope portends well in this more moderate district. That result may have also helped to wake up Republicans, who hope that late attacks on Ossoff — tying him to the national party and pointing out the bulk of the $8.3 million he's raised has come from out of state — have at least stunted his rise in the polls. That may be why even rank-and-file Republicans here were on message, toeing the party line, in the final hours. Boyle, for example, described Ossoff, as "the man who's being bankrolled by the West Coast. When people out of state start throwing in $6 million to $8 million, I get worried. I don't like outsiders dictating what we do in Georgia." Ossoff is one of five Democrats on the ballot Tuesday, but the national party lined up quickly behind him, in large part due to the strong support he had from the district's neighboring congressmen, Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson. Ossoff himself actually lives just outside the district (though he grew up in it). Republicans have hammered him on that fact and claimed he's tried to inflate his resume and the national-security work he did as an aide for Johnson. They've tried to highlight his age ,too. Ossoff and his supporters argue fresh, young blood isn't necessarily a bad thing. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro was on hand to help Ossoff on Saturday, and he was quick to underscore the national implications of the race on Tuesday and beyond, especially in the wake of that Kansas special election last week, where the Democratic candidate outperformed Trump by 20 points in the district. "For everyone out there who is a little bit uncomfortable with the idea that the Republicans control everything, especially with a president that is so erratic, the best way to make sure that we can have some balance is to make sure that the Democrats take back the House," Castro said — an effort he underscored began on Tuesday. For Democrats shocked by last November's results, Ossoff's campaign has become a vehicle for them to try to affect change. Megan Prince-Miller, 33, was one of the many volunteers who came out on Saturday to campaign for Ossoff on a warm spring day, ready to knock on doors even though she was heavily pregnant and due in three weeks. "We're having our first baby, a daughter, and, you know, it's just been on the back of our minds — what kind of world is she going to live in? And I don't want it to be the world that I think that President Trump is creating," Prince-Miller said. Can Republicans divided become united? Republicans vying to take on Ossoff here are reflecting the broader national divide among the GOP. They've been hampered by splits within their own base, which is choosing between 11 GOP candidates. It's become something of a circular firing squad among the Republican hopefuls. But many of them aren't exactly running away from the president, despite the middling results he got here last November. Former Johns Creek City Councilman Bob Gray, one of the leading GOP contenders, has pictures of Trump plastered across his main field office, along with the president's signs that read "Make America Great Again" and "America First." In an interview Friday night after a canvass kick-off, Gray praised the president for being a "disrupter" in Washington, and said he wanted to go to D.C. to be his ally. "He needs willing partners in Congress to be there with him to try and affect that agenda, and I intend to do so," Gray said. He's been endorsed by the anti-tax Club for Growth, who's attacking his chief rival, former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel as a career politician — the same moniker Trump was able to successfully apply to some of his own GOP primary rivals. In fact, on the GOP side, it's almost a similar scenario that played out during the 2016 presidential race happening — many different Republican candidates occupying different part of the GOP ideological spectrum fighting amongst themselves. There have been shots lobbed among the top Republican contenders during the campaign at each other as much as at Ossoff. Nevertheless, Republicans maintain they'll eventually come together. "If you don't have a muddy, bloody fight in a Republican primary, you haven't had a Republican primary in this state. But we always get back together," said Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, a former Georgia GOP chairman who was campaigning Monday morning with Handel at the Egg Harbor Cafe. Still, he said he'll support whoever ends up against Ossoff. Handel, who has high name ID from several unsuccessful statewide runs, has come in second in most polls and said she feels good about her chances. And while other rivals have attacked her as a career politician, she argued that's an asset, not a liability. "Our folks, it just took them a little more time to make their minds up because we believe in competition," Handel said, hitting Democrats for "coronating" Ossoff. "And we've had a very spirited, competitive primary on our side." While Handel said she's supportive of the president, she's not exactly wearing it on her sleeve like Gray and other candidates are. "This race is not about President Trump," she said. "This race is about who is the best suited to to be the next congressman." Dalton State College students Jacob Ledford and Wesley Ross were canvassing on Saturday for former state Sen. Dan Moody, who's been endorsed by Sen. David Perdue. He's another candidate who could make the runoff, along with state Sen. Judson Hill — who has the backing of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who once represented parts of the district, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who won this district in the GOP presidential primary. After knocking on door after door, Ledford and Ross were getting a lot of people not home or who didn't want to talk about the race — a common theme both sides are hearing in the closing days, with voters simply fed up with incessant calls and door knocks. They recalled how Democrats have boasted about turning Georgia blue before and have put up top-flight candidates in recent elections — Jason Carter, the grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2014, while Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, lost to Perdue the same year. "Republicans always get behind their candidate, we get out to vote, and that's something the other side struggles with a lot," said Ross. But as they were crossing the streets in a neighborhood in Alpharetta, they spied some Ossoff canvassers nearby — underscoring the massive presence the Democratic frontrunner has been able to build in the district with his army of volunteers and paid staff. Special elections — imperfect predictors? In some recent political cycles, special elections have been harbingers of things to come, and that's what Democrats hope Tuesday ends up being. In January 2010, Republican Scott Brown campaigned against the health care bill and ended up winning the Massachusetts special Senate election to succeed the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy — foreshadowing major losses for Democrats that fall. But they're not always perfect predictors, either. Democrat Mark Critz won a special election in Pennsylvania in May 2010, giving his party hope going into the midterms. Democrats, however, would lose 63 House seats that cycle. But what special elections can be are snapshots in time to gauge how an issue is playing with the electorate. And for Democrats, the Georgia race is an important test of whether their months of marches and protests can translate into real votes at the ballot box. If Ossoff does win — either on Tuesday or in two months — he'll have a major target on his back from Republicans in 2018. But a victory would still fire up the Democratic grassroots and send a warning shot to already worried Republicans about the midterms, when the president's party typically loses an average of 29 seats. Democrats need 24 seats to take back the House next fall — 23 if Ossoff wins. However, if all their money and hype fall short, it may be back to the drawing board for a party already perplexed by Hillary Clinton's loss to despite all her money and staff — just like Ossoff has managed to corral.

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Republicans are trying to prevent a political tremor from happening Tuesday night just north of Atlanta that would be a blow to President Trump and

http://tpr.org/post/republicans-look-avoid-political-headache-georgia

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WATCH: Charlottesville Victim's Father Says 'People Need To Stop Hating'

Standing in the dappled shade of a driveway hundreds of miles from Charlottesville, Va., Mark Heyer spoke of the violence that claimed his daughter's life — and, with voice occasionally quavering, called on people to answer hate with forgiveness. "My daughter was a strong woman that had passionate opinions about the equality of everyone — and she tried to stand up for that," the Sharpes, Fla., resident told Florida Today in a videotaped interview. "With her, it wasn't lip service. It was real." Just two days earlier, a driver rammed a car into a group of people protesting a white supremacist rally, killing Heyer's daughter Heather, 32, and wounding 19 other people. Federal authorities have opened a civil rights investigation into the attack, saying "such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred." The man allegedly behind the wheel, James Alex Fields Jr., had long harbored sympathies for Nazi ideas, according to a former teacher. Fields has been charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run. But the hatred espoused by white supremacists and others in Charlottesville this weekend must not be met with a response that's "twisted into something negative" in its own right, Mark Heyer told the local newspaper. "People need to stop hating, and they need to forgive each other. And I include myself in that, in forgiving the guy that did this," he said. "He doesn't know no better. You know, I just think of what the Lord said on the cross. Lord forgive him, they don't know what they're doing." In this respect, he said he aspires to follow his daughter's example. "You know, my daughter's life — she's ..." he paused, searching for words. "I'm proud of her for standing up. She had more courage than I did. She had more courage than I did. She had a stubborn backbone. She thought she was right. She would stand there and defy you. "But if I understand her," he added, "she wanted to do it peacefully and with a fierceness of heart that comes with her conviction." In interviews with multiple media outlets over the weekend, Heather's mother, Susan Bro, also praised the way her daughter balanced peaceful efforts with a "very strong sense of right and wrong." "It was important to her to speak up for people that she felt were not being heard, to speak up when injustices were happening," Bro said, "and she saw in the lives of many of her African-American friends particularly and her gay friends that equal rights were not being given." One day after the violent gathering that saw protesters and counterprotesters punching and kicking one another — and later saw Heather Heyer killed, along with two state troopers whose helicopter crashed — peaceful protests took shape in cities across the U.S. In Seattle and New York City, Atlanta and in Grand Rapids, Mich., demonstrators sought to respond to the message promulgated in Charlottesville and, in the words of one protester, "resist it fearlessly." "I hope that her life and what has transpired changes people's hearts," Mark Heyer said. "You can fight all you want and fuss and cuss and do all that stuff, but when you take your last breath, it's over. It's done! "You're going to take away what a person has and everything else they're going to have. There is no more — not here, you know," he added. "And that's — that's pretty much all I got, brother."

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Standing in the dappled shade of a driveway hundreds of miles from Charlottesville, Va., Mark Heyer spoke of the violence that claimed his daughter's

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On The Internet, Everyone Knows 'You're A Racist': Twitter Account IDs Marchers

They didn't wear hoods as they chanted "Jews will not replace us." They weren't hiding their faces as they waved Confederate flags, racist signs and swastikas. They looked straight at a sea of cameras as they made the Nazi salute. As Matt Thompson wrote for The Atlantic, the white supremacist march and rally this past weekend wasn't a KKK rally: "It was a pride march." The bare-faced shamelessness was the point. But it was also an opening. On the Internet, some people are crowd-sourcing efforts to identify and shame the people participating in the rally. Most prominently, on Twitter, the account called "Yes, You're Racist" has been soliciting help and posting IDs. "I'll make them famous," the account pledged. So far, at least one protester is no longer employed after being publicly named and shamed. Cole White, who used to work at a hot dog restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., "voluntarily resigned" on Saturday after his employer confronted him about his participation in the event, according to the Berkeleyside news site. @YesYoureRacist is not a new Twitter account. Since 2012, the account has been calling out "casual racism on Twitter," according to the user's fundraising page. It would post screenshots of deleted racist tweets, highlight offensive comments by elected officials and retweet everyday users who would say "I'm not racist but ..." followed by something, well, racist. But after the rally in Charlottesville, Yes You're Racist pivoted from highlighting online remarks to identifying real-world marchers. Many of the people it named had publicly declared their plans to go to Charlottesville. The account identified one man as "Illegal Aryan," who wrote on the white supremacist site Daily Stormer last month, "See you in Charlottesville!" "Illegal Aryan," real name Mark Daniel Reardon, was identified by an antifascist group this spring and confirmed on Daily Stormer that he lost his job as a result. Another identified marcher, who has repeatedly tweeted holocaust denials and says he is a member of the Proud Boys, said on Twitter he was at Charlottesville. After he was identified, he said he's received death threats. Of course, there's a long and not entirely noble tradition of online humiliation for perceived moral trespasses. Jon Ronson, who literally wrote the book on the phenomenon (it's called So You've Been Publicly Shamed), chimed in on Twitter to give his take on the public identification of the white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville. "They were undisguised in a massively contentious rally surrounded by the media," he said, noting also that there's "a big difference" between making a thoughtless or offensive comment online and marching in the name of white power. That said, Twitter is "a terrible information swapping service," he said, and some innocent people would inevitably get caught up in the process. Indeed, the "Yes You're Racist" account has made, and acknowledged, some mistakes. One of the photos it examined was from a previous Trump rally, not the Charlottesville march or rally. (That image featured a man wearing a Nazi armband. He said on Youtube he wore it as a "social experiment" to prove that "not all Trump supporters are Nazis. I went to the Trump rally as a Nazi and they kicked me out and disavowed me ... I dressed up as a Nazi to prove a point, not to spread a message of hate.") Another photo was misidentified as the white supremacist Billy Roper. Roper, who has called for non-white races to be "eliminated" or "become extinct," did not actually attend the Charlottesville event. Roper, who is vehemently anti-Semitic, objected to the fact that one of the speakers at the event works with a Jewish fundraiser. Roper wrote on his blog that he actively contributed to the confusion over the identity of the "Arkansas Engineering" marcher: "Early on in the game, I decided to troll them by alternately confirming then denying that I was the person in the picture, in order to confuse the trail and distract them from the guy they were after. So, I spent the better part of the evening schooling some and gaming others." As Roper muddied the waters, others on the Internet misidentified the man in the photo as a University of Arkansas professor, which was false. Meanwhile, one young man who was photographed screaming at the torchlit march told a local news station that it was definitely him — but he insisted he's "not the angry racist" people see in the photo. "As a white nationalist, I care for all people," said Peter Cvjetanovic, who is studying history and political science at the University of Nevada, Reno. "I did not expect the photo to be shared as much as it was," he told KTVN. A "Yes, You're Racist" tweet about Peter Cvjetanovic was retweeted more than 32,000 times.

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They didn't wear hoods as they chanted "Jews will not replace us." They weren't hiding their faces as they waved Confederate flags,

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Why Future Earthlings Won't See Total Solar Eclipses

Anyone who gets to see the total solar eclipse on August 21 will be lucky — and humanity is lucky to live on a planet that even has this kind of celestial event. Mercury and Venus, after all, don't even have moons. Mars has a couple, but they're too small to completely blot out the sun. Gas giants like Jupiter do have big moons, but they don't have solid surfaces where you could stand and enjoy an eclipse. And, even with solid land and a moon, Earth only gets its gorgeous total solar eclipses because of a cosmic coincidence. "They appear to be the same size because of their distance away from us," explains Amber Porter, an astronomer at Clemson University, which is in the path of the upcoming eclipse. The diameter of Earth's moon is about 400 times smaller than the diameter of the sun, but "even though the moon is about 400 times smaller than the sun, it's about 400 times closer to us here on Earth, which is how that perfect kind of magic happens." Because of this quirk, the tiny moon can obscure the entire face of the sun and reveal its eerie corona, at least right now. In the past, Earth's eclipses did not look like this. "The size of the sun hasn't really changed over the age of Earth, but the moon has been moving away from Earth over eons. So in the past it looked bigger," says Matija Cuk, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute. The moon is still moving away from Earth, he says. Every year, it shifts outward about an inch-and-half. "So actually for billions of years you can have a total eclipse, but this very evenly matched eclipse, where it is barely total, that happens for a relatively short amount of time," says Cuk. In only about 600 million years, the moon will look small enough that it no longer completely covers the sun, and whoever is left on Earth won't see any more total solar eclipses. So, get them while you can.

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Anyone who gets to see the total solar eclipse on August 21 will be lucky — and humanity is lucky to live on a planet that even has this kind of celestial

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After Coming Out As Gay, A Russian Violinist's New Reality

A 23-year-old, Russian-born violinist named Artem Kolesov is capturing international attention after posting a YouTube video in which he comes out as gay. The son of two Pentecostal pastors in a small town an hour away from Moscow, Kolesov says that he has struggled for most of his life to reconcile his sexual orientation with his Christian beliefs and his family's views. "In my family," Kolesov says in his video, "I often heard that all gays should be destroyed, that they should be bombed, and that if anyone in our family turns out to be gay, my family should kill them with their bare hands." In the video, Kolesov also recounts wrenching episodes from throughout his life. At age seven, he prayed that he would die before his mother found out that he liked boys. He also endured physical and sexual abuse from one of his brothers, who threatened to out him to his parents if Kolesov told anyone about the abuse, and later attempted suicide several times. Growing up, he says, "I never heard anything good about gay people. All I knew was that gays are the people who everyone should hate. I was scared because I knew that I was gay. I didn't know anyone who I could talk to about it. It seemed that I was the only gay person in Russia." The violinist made his video as part of the Russian "Children-404" project, which invites teenagers to share their stories and discuss LGBT issues in Russia. In most of their photos and videos, participants shield their identities by holding up a "Children-404" sign in front of their faces. Instead of creating an anonymous contribution, Kolesov chose to share his name and face, to let fellow LGBT youth in Russia feel less isolated. He recorded the video in Russian, but also provided English subtitles. "We don't come out for heterosexual people to know," he says in his video, which he published on March 29. "We don't come out for the ones who hate us to know. We shout and make as much noise as possible just so other people like us who are scared and can't be themselves would know that they are not a mistake and they are not alone." Formerly based in Canada, Kolesov now lives in Chicago, where he is first violinist in the Yas Quartet, which is in residence at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. Last summer, his ensemble took third prize in the Chamber Division at the Schoenfeld International String Competition which was held in Harbin, China. In his video, Kolesov contrasts his family's pleasure in his musical accomplishments with their reaction to his coming out. "They are ashamed to have a gay son and brother," he says. "They wish that this part of my identity didn't exist. Interesting that my family is proud of me for being a violinist, and is so ashamed of me for being gay, though both of these are parts of my identity." In the aftermath of releasing his video, Kolesov told BuzzFeed that he's already begun to experience the impact of his decision to come out so publicly. He has received many positive messages from friends and strangers alike, but he said that he is afraid of being arrested if he returns to Russia, under enforcement of a vaguely worded but broad "anti-gay propaganda" law. Earlier this month, there were reports that more than 100 gay men in Chechnya were arrested and tortured, with some of them reportedly killed by police. (Authorities have denied both the arrests and the deaths.) Kolesov is also not currently on speaking terms with his relatives, and told BuzzFeed, "Even if I go back to Russia, I'm not sure I would be feeling completely safe with my own family."

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A 23-year-old, Russian-born violinist named Artem Kolesov is capturing international attention after posting a YouTube video in which he come

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Big City Escapee Is Living In A Mud Hut - And Loving It

Girindra Nath Jha was born and raised in the tiny village of Chanka, a settlement in the state of Bihar in northern India, close to the Nepal border. It's mostly grassy fields and mud huts with thatched roofs. It gets just seven hours of electricity per day and its first paved road arrived only last year. None of the homes have toilets. And a lot of its 7,000 residents have gray hair. But not Jha, a 34-year-old who wears a cotton scarf around his neck and a happy smile on his face. He understands why other young people leave: "The village doesn't offer them any kind of employment and they don't want to work in the fields." In India, being a farmer is considered to be backward unless you are a landowner, which means you control hundreds of acres and employ people to work in your fields. For poor villagers with very little land, the only discernible route to success is fleeing to somewhere else, either for education or for work. The plan doesn't always pan out, particularly when they don't have the skills to land better paying jobs. "In big cities they end up becoming daily wage laborers," Jha notes. "They work in construction, carrying loads of bricks on their heads." Jha left his village and family after he graduated from high school. He went 500 miles away to New Delhi, where he got a degree in economics from Delhi University — one of India's premier colleges — and obtained a master's degree in journalism from the YMCA Institute of Career Studies. His education helped him land a job as an editor for a newspaper in New Delhi, where he worked for several years. But Chanka never left his mind. So in 2012, Jha quit his job and returned to his village. He has been living there ever since. He has trouble describing why he yearned to work on his family's farm. "I have a kind of love affair with Chanka," he says. "It soothes my soul. The childhood memories have never left me." Most young people throughout India dream of having a life like Jha had outside of the village. People in Delhi laughed at him when he shared that he wanted to give up his career and city life so he could go back and work on his farm. But he was determined. He wanted to set an example and inspire other young men not to leave their homes and villages, and most of all, not to give up on farming. India's economy is largely agricultural despite the large number of people migrating from villages to cities — according to the 2011 census, 83.3 million live in rural areas while 37.7 million live in urban ones. "The old men and women are left to toil in the fields. They need young people," Jha says. Will he return to the city one day? "Not at all," he vows. "It's not going to happen." Since returning, he has helped his parents work their land. In addition to the wheat, corn and potato growing in their fields, he has planted 1,000 Kadamb trees. He says it's a long-term plan, because in 15 years he will have a big crop of timber, which can be used to make plywood. In the meantime, Jha hasn't given up on his journalism career. He continues to write for newspapers and magazines from his village. He writes about village life for city folks. In one recent article, he addressed the government's push for creating "smart cities" and questioned when it would do the same for "smart farmers." Another favorite topic: his love for writing, or as he calls it, "ink and pen." His friends from New Delhi and even ones from abroad are curious to see what kind of life Jha has created for himself in his village. They often visit. So last year, Jha started what he calls the "Chanka Residency" for writers. Participants live in a mud hut with him and his family — it's rustic and peaceful, but there's internet. The first guest was Ian Woolford, an American who teaches Hindi language and courses on South Asian culture at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. During his week-long stay, Woolford says, "We sat outside and drank tea by the fire each morning and evening. We pulled radishes from the field and ate them along with vegetables and roti. And we read each other our writing as we produced it, encouraging each other along." It's an experience Woolford recommends. "I hope that academics, writers and artists might visit — if only out of curiosity — and then fall in love with Bihar, as I did when I first visited," he says. More than 50 other people have come so far. Even more important to Jha is changing the image of village life among his neighbors. He is committed to bringing people back to their roots and in touch with agriculture. Armed with two degrees from the capital's top institutions, he has been teaching as much as possible. He says most young men in his village have smartphones; he has been showing them how to use the devices to download apps that are designed for farmers and keep on top of farming-related news about tools, fertilizers and more. He also organizes daily classes for kids on farming, life in the city and some basic English. Kalpana Devi, the village head, says, "Girindra Nath's residency brings people in the village from all over the world, which is good for the villagers because they get to learn and write. But I often hear parents saying their children are distracted and don't work as hard in the field when the guests from abroad and big cities come to Chanka. They like to hang out with the guests." This exposure to the outside world may be just what the next generation needs, says Anand Dwivedi, who grew up in Bihar and works at the University of Pennsylvania as a director of the Hindi language and culture program. "Now is a good time since people are more open to different ideas and occupations, professions of different kinds, careers in creative fields," he says. Getting this education in Chanka could mean young people have less of an incentive to leave. And maybe, like Jha, they'll help write a new future for their village. Deepak Singh is the author of How May I Help You? An Immigrant's Journey From MBA to Minimum Wage. Contact him @deepakwriter.

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Girindra Nath Jha was born and raised in the tiny village of Chanka, a settlement in the state of Bihar in northern India, close to the Nepal border. It&

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Gas Leak At BP Oil Well In Alaska Has Been Stopped

On Friday, employees of BP Exploration Alaska discovered an uncontrolled gas leak in an oil and gas well on Alaska's North Slope, near the community of Deadhorse. Soon after, they determined that the well was also spraying a mist of crude oil. BP reported the leak and formed a "unified command," which included responders from Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the North Slope Borough. The well vented gas throughout the weekend. By Sunday, the crude was no longer spraying, and workers were able to activate a safety valve that reduced the pressure of the gas. On Monday, nearly three days after the leak was found, ADEC announced the unified command had to managed to "kill" the well overnight and end the gas leak. "The area impacted is limited to gravel," says Candice Bressler, spokesperson for ADEC. "There have been no reports of impacted wildlife." Oil droplets were found on about 1.5 acres of the well's drill pad, according to The Associated Press. The community of Nuiqsut, 50 miles west of the site, had been notified of the incident, but was not evacuated. "Responders determined that the well had 'jacked up,' or risen, approximately 3 – 4 feet; this vertical movement of the well caused the pressure gauge to break off and prevented operations from pumping into the well to kill it," ADEC reported. BP began drilling at the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1968. It has generated more than 12 billion barrels of oil, according to BP, and remains one of North America's largest oil fields. The leak happened amid efforts to boost output from aging wells and reach new supplies in the North Slope's oil fields, reports Bloomberg: "North Slope production rose to 565,000 barrels a day in March, its highest level since December 2013. That's still down by almost three-quarters from the peak of more than 2 million barrels in the late 1980s." In a 2011 settlement with the Department of Justice, BP agreed to pay a $25 million civil penalty and carry out a "system-wide integrity management program" after it spilled more than 5,000 barrels of crude oil from its pipelines on Alaska's North Slope in 2006. Five years later, BP agreed to pay more than $20 billion in penalties for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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On Friday, employees of BP Exploration Alaska discovered an uncontrolled gas leak in an oil and gas well on Alaska's North Slope, near the community

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Tech Is Dominating Efforts To Educate Syrian Refugees

The crisis in Syria has displaced around 1.4 million children and teenagers from their homes. An estimated 900,000 of them are not in school. Historically, in conflict zones, education has taken a backseat to immediate needs like food, shelter and medical care. But more recently, there has been a movement in the international aid community to provide better "education in emergencies." Many private companies and nonprofits are stepping up to do just this — but their efforts are not always well balanced or well coordinated, a new report claims. Would-be students have many immediate needs. They have universally experienced some form of trauma. There is a lack of schools, teachers, books, uniforms and food. Yet, according to this study, nearly half of the donors have chosen to supply educational technology, far more than are building schools, providing basic books and materials or employing teachers. "Many of these companies are based in Silicon Valley, and they do not have a very clear picture of the context they are delivering to," says Zeena Zakharia at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the coauthor of the report. Zakharia has been researching education in Middle East conflict zones for over a decade, and she noted the growing role taken by the private sector, both philanthropies and corporations. "I was like, isn't this interesting!" she tells NPR Ed. At the same time, her colleague Francine Menashy, whose research focuses on the privatization of education, had noticed the same phenomenon. The two collaborated on research, interviewing more than two dozen people dealing with the education of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. Education International, a global federation of teachers' unions, released the report. Zakharia and Menashy catalogued a recent, and overwhelming surge of interest among donors in supporting education for refugee children. This survey doesn't capture every form of aid available to Syrian refugees, who are assisted by international governments and nonprofits like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. The authors were trying to get a sense of what the private sector was up to. They counted 46 businesses, such as Accenture, Bridge International Academies, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett Packard, IBM, McKinsey & Co, Microsoft and Pearson Education, with money or projects in the area. In addition they counted 15 philanthropies, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Open Society Foundation, and Vitol Foundation. (The Gates Foundation and Open Society Foundation also fund NPR). These private organizations often back more than one type of educational activity, but there are clear trends. The authors found that 1 percent of organizations focused resources on social and emotional skills; 5 percent on extracurriculars such as sports; while fully half were focused on providing education technology. To oversimplify a bit, for every donor funding a soccer ball there are 10 backing tablets, educational games, online courses or learning platforms. She says one school leader in Lebanon told her she was approached "every week" with offers of technology. "And I say, 'Oh great, come visit us, see how we operate. And they do not.' " This is a problem, Zakharia says, because based on her interviews, ed-tech isn't necessarily what existing schools need or are asking for. For example, in many settings with Syrian refugee children, there is electricity one hour a day at best, so keeping devices charged can be a problem. "If you don't have the resources to build latrines or to pay teachers, I mean ... investing in technology isn't well placed," another interviewee told the researchers. In addition to the desire to help, many of the business donors Zakharia interviewed talked about the financial motivations behind their initiatives, such as improving their brand image, breaking into the lucrative, untapped Middle East market, and testing new innovations. The idea of dual motivation is nothing new for corporate philanthropy, of course. But, says Zakharia, there is always a risk when these business motives come into play. "What happens when the initiative is not seen as profitable? Education is a very long-term commitment."

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The crisis in Syria has displaced around 1.4 million children and teenagers from their homes. An estimated 900,000 of them are not in school. Historically,

http://tpr.org/post/tech-dominating-efforts-educate-syrian-refugees

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Resurrecting The Lost Art Of Storytelling At The Hotel Emma

It's a series of gatherings for those who treasure the spoken and written word. Sherry Kafka Wagner created the gatherings, and they grew out of her love for literature. Because of that, she spent a lifetime buying and reading books. Recently, she gave them all away. "Those books have found a home in the Hotel Emma at the Pearl," she says of the quirky lending library near the hotel's lobby. Kafka Wagner grew up in Arkansas, where front porch storytelling and music made the pre-air conditioned summer nights not just tolerable, but fascinating. "We would all gather on my great grandparent's front porch and listen to stories and drink ice tea," Kafka Wagner says. She says that those front porch storytelling nights were great equalizers. "You were sitting out there and anybody who happened to wander by would just come up and sit on the porch with you," she says. "Very often a story would be told that would start out with 'well I saw ol' John So-and-so yesterday and he told me this good story.'" In the spirit of that tradition, she will read an excerpt from chosen authors in the Hotel Emma's library. "We will hear a story each week from a different southern woman writer of the 20th century," Kafka Wagner says. "What better story than having Katherine Ann Porter, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullough and Flannery O'Conner tell those stories." The next four Tuesdays, Kafka Wagner will read excerpts from those authors along with a discussion and hopes that soon, the local storytelling will begin. "It will start at 6:30 p.m. and go to 8 o'clock," she says. "Admission is $15 which covers cocktails and snacks. There's something very social about sharing a story, and thinking about the person who wrote the story." And in so doing, the solitary exercise of reading becomes a shared one. "I used to say that in my family it didn't matter so much if you were smart or successful, but it mattered a lot if you were funny or musical." For Kafka Wagner, that family tradition lives on.

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It's a series of gatherings for those who treasure the spoken and written word. Sherry Kafka Wagner created the gatherings, and they grew out of her love

http://tpr.org/post/resurrecting-lost-art-storytelling-hotel-emma

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American Students Turning To 'Russian Math'

American students lag behind many other industrialized countries in math and science. And now, some students are enrolling in after-school programs called “Russian math.” It relies mainly on Russian teachers and methods to help American students from kindergarten to high school. It began in the Northeast, but is now spreading across the country — as far as San Diego, Seattle and San Jose. Carey Goldberg (@commonhealth) of Here & Now contributor WBUR reports.

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American students lag behind many other industrialized countries in math and science. And now, some students are enrolling in after-school programs called

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As Pakistan Marks 70 Years Of Independence, Its Minorities Struggle For Space

The children pile into the stadium in shiny clothes, clutching green-and-white Pakistani flags. Their parents light the area with cell phones to record the event as they scream, chant and cheer, watching soldiers close a gate that separates India from Pakistan. In the evening ritual at the Wagah-Attari border, near Lahore and Amritsar, soldiers from both countries high-kick, shake their fists, then shake hands – and slam the gate shut. It is deeply visceral for many Pakistanis: an acknowledgement of their border, of a plucky country they feel they have sacrificed so much to create. Pakistan was imagined more than 70 years ago by a stern, British-educated, whiskey-drinking Shiite lawyer. Muhammad Ali Jinnah hoped for a nation as cosmopolitan as he was. He led the fight to carve the country out of British-ruled India. In a new, independent India, Muslims were fearful that they would be dominated by a Hindu majority. But in the decades since, the sense of who is a citizen in the Muslim state hasn't been resolved. The question has come at a high price: Although Pakistan's constitution specifies the protection of minority rights, "the government limited freedom of religion," according to the State Department. The country's tiny minorities of Sikhs, Christians and Hindus are vulnerable to persecution. Certain laws, such as blasphemy laws, are often used to target them. Within the Muslim community as well, the definition of who exactly is a Muslim has narrowed. The seeds of Pakistan's intolerance were sown within the country's very ideology as a Muslim state, says Taimur Rehman, a political scientist at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. That intolerance was "inherent in the very way in which Pakistan was created and the very purpose which it was supposed to serve of being a Muslim state," he says. "By its very definition, it has already singled out a community in opposition to another one," he says, referring to Muslims and Hindus. "And it's very easy for that community to be to be narrowed further." Over the decades, he argues, the narrowing has been exacerbated by the military, Pakistan's most powerful institution, which cultivated hard-line Islamists to wage a jihad in the disputed region of Kashmir, among other things. This has given right-wing religious groups outsize influence. "Despite never having won an election," Rehman says, "they are nonetheless able to dictate the narrative in the country because of the support that they have from the military establishment." Perhaps none have suffered more than members of a small Muslim sect, known as Ahmadis, whose beliefs clash with the dominant Sunni version of Islam. They played a key role in founding Pakistan. They are a community of over-achievers: An Ahmadi physicist, Abdus Salam, received one of only two Nobel prizes awarded to Pakistanis. But the state declared Ahmadis as heretics via a constitutional amendment in the 1970s and restricted their rights further in the 1980s. They're not allowed to call themselves Muslims, and can't refer to their houses of worship as mosques. Over the years, militants have attacked their mosques and targeted them in killings. In a leafy suburb near Lahore, the Khans live in a two-story home behind a high gate that's firmly bolted. Mrs. Khan stands on the balcony every morning, waiting for her husband to return from prayers at their local mosque. She's terrified that somebody will kill him. "We are frightened," she says. "For the life." (Her first name isn't being published out of concern for the family's safety.) Most of her family already fled overseas. So far, Mrs. Khan insists on staying. She runs a clinic that dispenses free medicine to her poorer neighbors. "If I go, the people will suffer," she says. She doesn't want to "just sit and eat" in exile. "This is not the meaning of life." She's also worried about her nephew. Twice, somebody threw a note into his house warning him to convert to Sunni Islam — or die. He hides out here when he's afraid. He repeatedly tried to flee Pakistan – but he says the U.K., Sweden and Canada all rejected applications. The roots of intolerance run deeper than just how Pakistan defines itself as a Muslim state, says Anam Zakariya, an oral historian in Islamabad. She traces it back to Pakistan's birth story – at the time of Partition, in 1947, when millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled to India and Muslims to Pakistan. Mobs raped and butchered each other — around a million people died. But Zakariya says those events are pushed aside. Pakistan focuses on celebrating its creation – and emphasizes how Muslims were victims. "Now if it's your biggest victory to date," Zakariya says, "you have to make sure that the bloodshed is portrayed to the younger generations as perpetrated by Indians — Hindus and Sikhs." It's to drive home the point: "And that's why there was a need to create Pakistan." There are challenges emerging to that narrative. In a sprawling park in the heart of noisy, smoggy Lahore, a museum will soon open that will look at Partition through the stories of the people who witnessed it. It's a collaboration between the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, a nonprofit, and the government of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province. "This is the first place in the entire country where you'll experience what the refugees in 1947 experienced," says Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and head of the Citizens Archive. Being exposed to stories from survivors of Partition will help create a more inclusive Pakistan, she believes, but it's a race against time – the people who lived through Partition are fading away. And 70 years on, the very idea of what Pakistan is meant to be – an Islamic state, in opposition to Hindu-dominated India – feels hard to shake. Near the museum construction site, the Abdul Aziz family huddles under a shelter as a sudden summer rain drenches the park. Their patriarch, Yousef, isn't sure of his age, but says he used to work in fields alongside Hindus – and so he predates Partition. When the Hindus left Pakistan, he said, Muslims became free. "We are now in a country where we can say, 'There is no God but God and Muhammed is his messenger,'" he says, reciting the Muslim declaration of faith. In Pakistan, he says, "There is no idolatry" – a reference to polytheist Hinduism. His granddaughters Sania, 22, and Aya, 19, nod in agreement. He says he's proud of Pakistan, which he describes as a "fort of Islam" where it's safe for his grandchildren to grow up. Sania says she's not interested in a museum. She's already heard her grandfather's stories of Partition, and she'll tell them one day to her own children. Besides, she says, "I know history — the Islamic history of Pakistan."

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The children pile into the stadium in shiny clothes, clutching green-and-white Pakistani flags. Their parents light the area with cell phones to record the

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The Opioid Crisis As 'National Emergency'

The opioid crisis is described now as a “national emergency” by the president. Will this open the floodgates for more funding, more help? Last week, the president said he’s declaring a national emergency of opioid abuse. What might that mean? The details are still to come, but the country is watching. 60,000 drug-related deaths predicted for the latest year. That’s a 9/11 every three weeks, says Chris Christie, chairman of the president’s commission on opioid abuse. So, if there’s an emergency level response, where will that focus? On treatment? On police? On a wall? This hour On Point: the presidents “national emergency” on opioids. — Tom Ashbrook Guests Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter for the Washington Post. (@LennyMBernstein) Bertha Madras, member of President Trump’s five-person Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. Psychobiologist at McLean Hospital, and a professor at Harvard Medical School. Helen Jones-Kelley, executive director of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services for Montgomery County, Ohio. From Tom’s Reading List Washington Post: Trump says opioid crisis is a national emergency, pledges more money and attention — “President Trump on Thursday declared the country’s opioid crisis a national emergency, saying the epidemic exceeded anything he had seen with other drugs in his lifetime. The statement by the president came in response to a question as he spoke to reporters outside a national security briefing at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is on a working vacation.” Financial Times: Drug industry faces ‘tidal wave’ of litigation over opioid crisis — “Companies that make or distribute opioid painkillers are facing a “tidal wave” of litigation as US officials seek to raise funds to fight the country’s addiction epidemic and punish those they accuse of fuelling the crisis. The number of government officials launching legal action against drugmakers and wholesalers has soared in the past year in what some lawyers see as a harbinger of a settlement that could echo the more than $200bn extracted from the tobacco industry in 1998.” NPR: What Could Happen If Trump Formally Declares Opioids A National Emergency — “The president could ask HHS Secretary Price to declare an emergency under the Public Health Service Act. Unlike FEMA, HHS doesn’t have a standing emergency fund (although during last year’s Zika virus scare, many people urged that one be established), but money could be freed up. Right now, public health workers and researchers are working on projects defined by grants from HHS. If Price were to declare an emergency, those workers could be redeployed temporarily, from working on AIDS outreach for example, to work on substance abuse issues.”

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The opioid crisis is described now as a “national emergency” by the president. Will this open the floodgates for more funding, more help? Last week, the

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Resources For Educators To Use In The Wake Of Charlottesville

How should educators confront bigotry, racism and white supremacy? The incidents in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend pushed that question from history to current events. One teacher wondering aloud about his role is Derek Weimer. He taught James Alex Fields Jr., the man charged with murdering a woman and injuring multiple others by driving his car into a crowd of anti-racist marchers this weekend. Weimer says he taught Fields in three classes at Cooper High School in Union, Ky. As NPR reported, he told member station WVXU reporter Bill Rinehart: Weimer says Fields was intelligent and didn't cause trouble. But he says the quiet boy was also deeply into Adolf Hitler and white supremacy. Weimer says he did his best to steer Fields away from those interests and thought he had succeeded in doing so. On hearing about the incident in Charlottesville, Weimer said he felt that he failed as a teacher. For 40 years, the nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves has been training teachers to confront racism and bigotry. By studying the moral decisions facing people at historical moments, from Reconstruction to Kristallnacht to the civil rights era, they hope "to empower students to work against bigotry and injustice or improper uses of power," says Roger Brooks, president and CEO. "We sum everything up by saying people make choices and choices make history." Studies show that the curriculum produces academic, social and emotional gains in students. A time like this, says Brooks, is the ultimate teachable moment: "There's a whole lot teachers can slow down and unpack with their students rather than get completely caught up in the emotion of the moment." Indeed, just hours after the attack, teachers were sharing resources online, and we heard from more after reaching out in our newsletter. Here are some resources and ideas for the fast-approaching school year. Just starting out More than 80 percent of public school teachers are white, while half of all students are people of color. Some teachers may never have directly talked about race or racism, particularly with younger children. Brooks suggests they start by making an "identity chart". This is a way to find commonalities as well as celebrate differences. Diverse books: Some teachers will introduce topics of racism, civil rights and diversity, especially to younger students, through books. Here is a curated list of 50 social justice books from the nonprofit Teaching for Change. Here is a second, broken down by grade level, by The National Network of State Teachers of the Year. Teaching Tolerance has lesson plans for students as young as kindergarten that cover bias and social justice. Historical background The Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation at The University of Virginia in Charlottesville published a syllabus on Medium that includes primary and secondary historical resources on the local history of segregationism, as well as the urban renewal that displaced African-Americans in the city. There is also background on the dispute over the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee that was the focal point of the rally this past weekend. Facing History and Ourselves is an evidence-based social studies curriculum for middle and high school students that grounds discussions of racism and prejudice in students' own moral dilemmas. American Federation for Teachers president, Randi Weingarten, shared some collections of lesson plans from AFT's Share My Lesson platform: on racial profiling and stereotyping, on civil rights and social justice, on bullying and helping children cope with traumatic events. Ripped from the headlines The Atlantic contributing writer Melinda Anderson created the hashtag #CharlottesvilleCurriculum on Twitter to serve as an ongoing list of resources to teach responsively to current events. Sources highlighted include the Equal Justice Initiative and the Citizenship and Social Justice Curriculum. To help make sense of the news, the Critical Media Project of the University of Southern California offers lesson plans and resources for talking about media literacy as it relates to race, ethnicity and identity. If you have more to add, we'd love to hear from you @npr_ed on Twitter.

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How should educators confront bigotry, racism and white supremacy? The incidents in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend pushed that question from

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Poet Imagines Life Inside A 1910 Institution That Eugenics Built

Growing up in southwestern Virginia in recent decades, poet Molly McCully Brown often passed by a state institution in Amherst County that was once known as the "Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded." Since 1983 the facility, which was founded in 1910, has been called the Central Virginia Training Center, and it is now a residential home for people with various intellectual disabilities. But in the early 20th century, the place Brown now refers to as "the colony" was part of the eugenics movement taking hold in the U.S., and a variety of treatments now considered inhumane were practiced there — including forced sterilization. Brown, who has cerebral palsy, notes that had she been born in an earlier era, she might have been sent to live at the institution herself. "It is impossible to know that for sure," she says. "I can look at my life and look at my family and look at my parents and think, No, never. That never would have happened. But I also understand that if I had been born 50 years earlier, the climate was very different." She hopes to give voice to those early generations of residents, in her book of poetry, The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded. For Brown, the themes of disability and poetry have been constant throughout her life: "In my life, there has always been my body in some state of falling apart or disrepair or attempting to be fixed, and there has always been poetry. And I couldn't untwine those things if I tried." Interview Highlights On seeing the buildings and grounds of the old facility It was incredibly moving and incredibly powerful. The place is interesting because it is still an operational facility for adults with really serious disabilities, although it is in the process of closing. But like a lot of things in Virginia, it was initially built on an enormous amount of land. And, so, a really interesting thing happened, which is that as the buildings that were originally part of the colony fell into disrepair, they were largely just moved out of — and new buildings were built on accompanying land, but those original buildings were not necessarily torn down. So the place itself is this really strange combination of functioning facility and ghost town of everything that it has been. I've never been in a place that felt more acutely haunted in my life. On how some people assume her physical disability means she also has an intellectual disability We do have a strange tendency in this country to equate any kind of disability with less intellectual capability and with even a less complete humanity. Certainly as a child and as a teenager — and even now as an adult — [I] encountered people who assumed that just because I used a wheelchair, maybe I couldn't even speak to them. I often get questions directed at people I'm with, as opposed to me, and that's a really interesting phenomenon. On the connection between poetry and theology Both poetry and theology for me are about paying attention to the world in a very intentional way, and about admitting a mystery that is bigger than anything that I rationally understand. ... I think poetry has always been for me a kind of prayer. So those things feel very linked for me. And, again, poetry does feel like the first — and in some ways best — language I ever had for mystery and for my sense of what exists beyond the world we're currently living in. On how Catholicism has helped her accept her body One of the things that I find so moving about Catholicism is that it never forgets that to be a person is inherently and inescapably and necessarily to be in a body — a body that brings you pain, a body that brings you pleasure, a body that can be a barrier to thinking more completely about your life and your soul — but [that it] can also be a vehicle to delivering you into better communion with the world, with other people and to whatever divinity it is that you believe in. What Catholicism did for me, in part, is give me a framework in which to understand my body as not an accident or a punishment or a mistake, but as the body that I am meant to have and that is constitutive of so much of who I am and what I've done and what I hope I will do in the world. More and more ... I've come to see my body as a place of pride and potential, and as something that gives me a unique outlook onto the world. And I'd rather that, I guess, than be infuriated by it. On her twin sister, who died shortly after birth She lived about 36 hours after we were born. ... It's a phenomenon in my life that I have not a lot of rational explanation for, ... but it is true that I miss my sister with a kind of intense specificity that has no rational explanation, and that I feel aware of her presence in this way that I can't exactly explain or articulate, but which feels undeniable to me. ... I do think that that sort of gave me no other option than to believe in some kind of something beyond this current mortal life that we're living. Because what is the explanation otherwise for the fact that I feel like I miss and I know this person who only lived a matter of hours? And for the fact as much as I know that she is dead and is gone in a real way, she doesn't feel "disappeared" to me. On how her physical disability and her poetry are intertwined I think the easiest way I have of describing it is I have two [early] memories. ... One of them is of sitting on a table in a hospital room in the children's hospital in St. Louis, choosing the flavor of the anesthetic gas I was going to breathe when they put me under to do my first major surgery. I was picking between cherry and butterscotch and grape. And the second memory that I have is of my father reading a Robert Hayden poem called "Those Winter Sundays." Roberta Shorrock and Therese Madden produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Deborah Franklin adapted it for the Web.

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Growing up in southwestern Virginia in recent decades, poet Molly McCully Brown often passed by a state institution in Amherst County that was once known

http://tpr.org/post/poet-imagines-life-inside-1910-institution-eugenics-built

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Our Homes May Get Smarter, But Have We Thought It Through?

John Essey and family live in a modest, two-story home on a tree-lined street in the suburbs north of Pittsburgh. From the outside, it looks like any other house in the neighborhood, but this house has a brain. "It knows we're home. Doors unlock, [it] kinda sets the mood for the rest of the house too, turns on lights, sets the thermostat accordingly," Essey says. Essey is an engineer at Uber and an early adopter of the Internet of things. He can control his lights with his Amazon Echo or an array of touchpad sensors he's installed throughout the home. Sensors tell him when there's water in the basement or a leak under the sink. While Essey's setup might sound a little like science fiction it's a prototype of the future. Some critics are worried these devices won't be secure and that companies will use them to spy on us to make money. Gierad Laput, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, says as the Internet of things becomes more engrained in our daily lives, there are a couple of ways people are turning ordinary homes into smart homes. "One way is basically to buy all the appliances, smart oven, smart dishwasher, smart microwave, smart toaster, all these things," Laput says. But that stuff is really expensive. Smart refrigerators can cost $3,000 or more. And Laput said those devices don't always talk to each other, especially if they're made by different manufacturers. The other way is to get sensors, and put them on everything you want to monitor. "But then those get really unwieldy and you've got all these things sticking around and they look ugly and socially obtrusive," Laput says. So Laput and his team wanted to see if they could build just one sensor that could monitor a whole range of activity in a room. And they did. It doesn't look like much; just a little 2-inch-square circuit board that plugs into the wall. The board senses about a dozen different facets of its environment: vibrations, sounds, light color and so on. The sensor communicates wirelessly with a computer, which interprets everything it picks up. Laput demonstrated how the sensor works by turning on a blender. Almost immediately, a text box saying "blender running" popped up on a computer screen along with a purple squiggly line representing the blender's vibration. Laput turned on a light, and the screen said, "light on." Laput says he imagines both domestic and commercial applications for such a sensor. It could tell you that you left your stove on or that you're almost out of paper towels in the bathroom at the restaurant you own. But critics say there's a catch. "Surveillance is now the business model of the Internet. Companies make money spying on you," says Bruce Schneier, an Internet security expert and the chief technology officer at IBM's cybersecurity arm. "When the app says I can detect when you're out of paper towels, they're not doing it for your best interest, they're doing it because they want to sell you paper towels." Schneier pointed to Roomba, the little automated vacuum from iRobot. The company's CEO said last month that the device could soon start mapping your home, raising concerns that that data could be sold for a profit. The company swiftly clarified that it would only collect and share data if customers consented. But on top of the issue of surveillance, Schneier says makers of Internet-of-things devices just aren't prioritizing security. "We're building a world-sized robot without even realizing it," he says. That robot has eyes and ears that collect data, brains that process it and arms and legs that take action in the real world. But arms and legs can kick and punch, and more eyes and ears — like Laput's sensor — could make those kicks and punches both more accurate and more devastating.

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John Essey and family live in a modest, two-story home on a tree-lined street in the suburbs north of Pittsburgh. From the outside, it looks like an

http://tpr.org/post/our-homes-may-get-smarter-have-we-thought-it-through

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For Jews, Passover Is A Time Of Traditions, Old And New

Today is the seventh day of Passover, the holiday where Jews abstain from eating foods like bread, rice, pasta, cookies, and cakes. Rabbi Mara Nathan is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth El in San Antonio, and is the first woman to serve as senior rabbi of a major congregation in Texas. Nathan says the Passover story originates from the Hebrew bible, which says Jews were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. She says there came a certain point where they realized they could no longer bear their servitude. “And so God sends Moses and his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam and they interact with Pharoah and the Egyptians and after the ten plagues, lots of drama, Pharoah finally agrees to let the people go,” Nathan says. But while they were trying to escape, the Jews found themselves at the edge of the Red Sea. “Then the sea parts, and they’re able to cross over on dry land from slavery as it were to freedom on the other side,” Nathan. Passover celebrates the Jews gaining that freedom in Ancient Egypt. Jews observe Passover by eating only unleavened foods, or foods that don’t rise, like matzoh—it looks like a big cracker. They start the week of Passover with one or two nights of Seder, which is the telling of the Passover story. “So first of all, Seder in Hebrew means order,” Nathan says. “There is a very specific order that has evolved over hundreds if not thousands of years as to how you tell the story and we tell that story with lots of different symbols.” Nathan calls Seder is the ultimate interactive educational experience. Everyone at the table gets a turn to tell a part of the story. Even the youngest child at the table has a role, reading questions about the significance of what’s going on. “And the Haggadah, which comes from the Hebrew word which means ‘The telling,’ is the book that you use in order to tell the story,” Nathan says. “The book has prayers, it has explanations, it has rituals, all integrated into one book.” Nathan says there are many different versions of the Haggadah that tell the story from a different angles, but the prayers and the rituals that are involved are pretty consistent from one community to another around the world. But she says the ritual food at the Passover Seder can vary greatly from community to community, since the Jewish people have lived all over the world. “How one makes the maror, which is the bitter herb, or how one prepares charoses , which is a fruit and wine and nut mixture which is supposed to represent the mortar that the Israelite slaves used to build the brick pyramids while they were enslaved, depending on where you are in the world, those ingredients might be different,” Nathan says. In the center of the table, is the Seder plate, where all the symbolic foods are displayed. For the last three decades, an orange has been added to some Seder plates. The story that’s been passed around is that a man once scoffed that a woman belonged on the bima, or on the Jewish pulpit, like an orange belonged on a Seder plate. So some people have started putting oranges on their Seder plates to support women’s rights. But Nathan says the story isn’t true. The real story she says is that Susannah Heschel, a Jewish scholar, came across a Hagaddah written by students at Oberlin College when she was a speaker there. “One of their concerns was that lesbians and gay people in general were shut out of Jewish life,” Nathan says. “And that they initially put a crust of bread on the Seder plate, or wrote a story of what it might be like to put a crust of bread on a Seder plate, meaning that it would bring the Seder to a close. It would ruin Passover.” Nathan says in the 80s, these women said they felt like they were a piece of bread at a Seder. They did not belong. They were pushed out. “But Heschel didn’t want to use bread because bread ruins the Seder, so she used oranges instead feeling instead of being something that was seen as prohibited, it was actually a beautiful symbol,” Nathan says. “ And people were supposed to spit out the seeds to repudiate the ignorance and homophobia that existed in Judaism.” Not all Seder plates have an orange on them. But all Haggadahs end the same way. After the fourth cup of wine and the conclusion of the Seder, everyone yells out together, “Next year in Jerusalem!”

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Today is the seventh day of Passover, the holiday where Jews abstain from eating foods like bread, rice, pasta, cookies, and cakes. Rabbi Mara Nathan is

http://tpr.org/post/jews-passover-time-traditions-old-and-new

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Seven Bexar County Deputies Placed On Leave For Hazing

Seven veteran Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputies have been placed on administrative leave for ten days following a hazing ritual involving one of the deputies. During the incident, county issued handcuffs, county issued shackles, and a county issued taser were used. All of the deputies are members of SERT, the Special Emergency Response Team at the Jail. They were all given letters on Monday notifying them of the leave that is due to them as part of their collective bargaining agreement, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar. “After such time, they’re not welcome back at the Sheriff’s Office until the conclusion of this investigation,” said Salazar. “They’ll need to burn their time, but after their ten days administrative leave they are effectively not here anymore. They’re turning in their uniform, they’re turning in their credentials and they are not part of our workforce until the conclusion of this investigation one way or the other.” The incident was recorded on video at a private residence last Friday night. Salazar said what’s most disturbing is that the 4-year-old daughter of one of the deputies was also involved.

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2017-07-11 00:00:00

Seven veteran Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputies have been placed on administrative leave for ten days following a hazing ritual involving one of the deputies

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Surprise, Trump's Education Ideas Are Polarizing

In the last year, there's been a big drop in support for charter schools, while other forms of school choice are getting a little less unpopular. That's the top line of a national poll released today. President Trump and his education secretary Betsy DeVos have put school choice front and center on their education agenda. The general idea of "choice," however, takes many forms. Charter schools are paid for by tax dollars, charge no tuition and are managed independently of public school districts. Vouchers allow students to use tax dollars to pay tuition at private schools. Tax-credit scholarships, now available in 17 states, which allow individuals and companies to get a tax credit for donating to scholarship funds that are used in turn for private school tuition. U.S. opinion on these ideas seems to be shifting, according to a new poll from EducationNext, an opinion and policy journal associated with free-market education reform ideas. They've been asking similar questions for the past decade. Here are the latest results: Charters: Last year 51 percent of the public supported "the formation of charter schools"; this year it's just 39 percent, a 12 point drop in one year. Vouchers: 45 percent are either strongly or somewhat supportive of universal vouchers. That's a bounce from last year, but more or less in line with the five years before. Tax credits: This was the most popular form of school choice with 55 percent of the general public supporting this year; also a one-year bounce, but in line with longer-term trends. There's no one obvious explanation for the change in opinion on charter schools. The drop was seen among both Democrats and Republicans and amongst all racial and ethnic groups. "That's the largest change on any survey item, and one of the largest single-year changes in opinion that we've seen over the 11-year history of the survey," Martin West, the editor in chief of EducationNext, said on a press conference call. The wording of the question — about the formation of charter schools — may hold a clue. In theory, it might be possible to have very positive feelings about the charter schools currently in your community, yet still oppose new ones. And the expansion of charters is exactly what communities around the country have been fighting over. Last year the NAACP and Black Lives Matter called for a moratorium on the growth of charter schools (the NAACP called more recently for a ban on for-profit management of these schools). The state of Massachusetts saw a bruising fight over its charter cap. Detroit's proliferation of charters has been labeled "a glut" and "chaos." And charter expansion was the central issue in the school board race in Los Angeles, one of the biggest public school districts in the country. The nationally representative poll breaks down respondents by political party, and there's a clear partisan divide on many issues, even as public opinion shifts. Last year, for example, 57 percent of Democrats favored universal vouchers, against 45 percent of Republicans. This year they've switched places: 62 percent of Republicans like them and only 50 percent of Democrats agree. Zeroing in on that political divide, pollsters also measured what they called the "Trump effect." That is, how do responses change when some people are told that the president supports or opposes a particular issue? They found that self-identified Republicans are more likely to support an issue if they are informed that Trump also supports it, while Democrats are the opposite. However, Trump's net influence is nearly nil, which makes him less of a force than President Obama was in this poll in 2009. Back then, when respondents on all sides were told the new President supported an education issue, they were more likely to back it, by double digits. This poll, then, serves as a snapshot of what some have called the breakdown of a long-standing bipartisan consensus on education that dated back to No Child Left Behind. Still, there is one enduring issue where blue- and red-state opinions are near-identical: approval of the local public schools. 55 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of Democrats give local schools a B or an A.

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In the last year, there's been a big drop in support for charter schools, while other forms of school choice are getting a little less unpopular. That

http://tpr.org/post/surprise-trumps-education-ideas-are-polarizing

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'Shattered' Picks Through The Broken Pieces Of Hillary Clinton's Dream

Ever since last November's election night, millions in America and around the world have wondered what happened to Hillary Clinton, who was widely expected to become the first woman president of the United States. In fact, nearly everyone in the business of politics thought she would win –-including many of Trump's own people. So: How did she lose? Providing that answer is the mission accepted by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign. It is by no means the last word on 2016, but Allen and Parnes must be regarded as early front-runners in the race to make sense of it all. They saw and heard far more than most of us, exploring deep inside "Clintonworld" in search of the real story. And in these pages, they share enough of what they witnessed to enable us to reach our own conclusions. There is no Big Reveal, no shocking secret answer. Instead we get a slow-building case against the concept and execution of the Clinton campaign, with plenty of fault falling squarely on the candidate herself. Far from a juggernaut, the campaign we see in these pages is plagued with division, unease and anxiety practically from the outset. When things go right, it only means they are soon to go terribly wrong. Win a primary, lose a caucus. Quash a rumor, see three more go viral. Close one wound and find another torn open again. Among those wounds, the first cut is the deepest. The email stories that began in March 2015 never go away. First, it's Clinton's own private server, then the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the endless email dump stolen from campaign chairman John Podesta. Email becomes the cyber-incubus the campaign cannot shed. Whether anyone with Trump connections was colluding or complicit in the Wikileaks-Russian caper or not, the continual media focus on email issues could scarcely have been more convenient for the Trump campaign. The authors also see lasting damage inflicted by her Democratic-primary rival Bernie Sanders' challenge from the left. Sanders' rather quixotic campaign not only tested Clinton, it played perfectly into Trump's own critique of "crooked Hillary" and his tactic of tying her to globalism and Wall Street. "For both sides, Hillary was the perfect symbol of everything that was wrong with America," the authors conclude. "At times, Trump and Sanders would act as the right and left speakers of a stereo blaring a chorus on repeat: Hillary's a corrupt insider who has helped rig the political and economic systems in favor of the powerful." But in the end, Allen and Parnes contend, the worst blows Clinton suffered were self-inflicted. If the controversies and corruption memes came to define her, they write, it was largely because she never managed to define herself. The Clinton we see here seems uniquely qualified for the highest office and yet acutely ill-suited to winning it. Something about her nature, at its best and its worst, continually inhibits her. Her struggle to escape her caricature only contributes to it. Clinton kept questioning staff why she was losing working-class whites, her most loyal voters in 2008. "Why aren't they with me?" she asked during the 2016 primaries. "Why can't we bring them on board?' " Such uncertainty is a recurring theme. The book begins with Clinton searching for the right notes for her announcement speech, and it ends as she wrestles with a concession speech she never expected to give. In fact, the book often dwells on her problematic speech prep. All major politicians have ghostwriters, but Clinton had panels of them. Writers, consultants, script doctors and kibitzers crawl over every page and paragraph of her scripts — sometimes until just minutes before delivery. Where exactly is the candidate herself in all this messaging mélange? Does she have something she really wants to say? Everyone agrees she has plans for every policy problem in the world, but voters want to know what's inside you. And they also want to know what's in it for them. The tone of the Allen-Parnes narrative is unsparing but not unsympathetic, noting campaign flaws and missteps without rue or recrimination. Having collaborated on a book-length profile of Clinton in 2014, the authors extended their research and sources for this insider account. We can readily imagine them setting out to write a very different book about the first woman president. Instead, the authors often seem to be shaking their heads at the unforced errors, internal squabbles and media scrutiny that did in that dream. "Hillary distributed power so broadly that none of her aides or advisors had control of the whole apparatus," they write. We learn that campaign manager Robby Mook, the wunderkind whose heart belongs to data, pushes voter modeling and analytics and models, while pinching pennies on everything else. He clashes with more senior aides who want to invest in more conventional polling, field organizers and yard signs. He also crosses swords with campaign chairman John Podesta, who is twice his age and steeped in official Washington, an intimate advisor to both Clintons and President Obama. We also feel the widely shared exasperation with Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's longtime confidante. Abedin shields her boss from campaign stress, but also reinforces her penchant for privacy. The mystery of Abedin represents what is remote about Clinton herself. To be sure, such infighting has enlivened accounts of past campaigns, especially in the bestseller Game Change, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's best-seller about the political personality wars of 2008. But those personalities were more compelling and telegenic, calling out to turn themselves into the TV movie they became. (We may well see more of that sort of character when we turn to the internal tale of the Trump team.) This volume may not belong on the same shelf with the series of Theodore H. White classics (The Making of the President) from decades ago, or the quadrennial volumes by reporters Jules Witcover and Jack Germond, or the novelistic What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer. But Allen and Parnes offer a first bridge beyond the journalism of the campaign year to the scholarship of the historians and other scholars who will process all this material for generations to come. Clinton could hold on to enough of the contemporary Democratic Party to beat back Sanders and win the popular vote in November. But she had no answer to the populist appeal Trump enjoyed among white males and non-college working people in general. Her extraordinary career prepared her to be president, but not to understand ordinary Americans. Ultimately, Allen and Parnes get inside the campaign but not inside the mind of Hillary Clinton. Much the same seems to have been true for most of her staff and, ultimately, the voters. Maybe we never really know the person we send to the White House, but we usually think we do. With Clinton, we never quite got there.

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Ever since last November's election night, millions in America and around the world have wondered what happened to Hillary Clinton, who was widely

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Bitcoin Streaks To $4,300 Mark, Continuing Meteoric Rise

After soaring to $4,000 on exchange markets over the weekend, the bitcoin cryptocurrency is continuing to rise, topping a record $4,300 on Monday — nearly $1,000 above its rate one week ago, according to data from the Coinbase currency exchange. Bitcoin settled back under the $4,300 mark after reaching a new high Monday morning, according to several exchanges that track the decentralized currency. "The bitcoin market cap soared past $70 billion," says CryptoCoins News, adding that a "flippening" that has been anticipated for years in the cryptocurrency community had finally come to pass, as "bitcoin now has a greater total valuation than payment-processing behemoth PayPal." A bitcoin could be bought for around $570 just 12 months ago — reflecting a rise of around 645 percent to today's exchange rate. Reporting on the rise, the Coindesk site says the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies reached a record $138 billion on Monday. The steep ascent can be attributed to a number of factors, from political concerns to a recent split into two currencies — bitcoin classic and bitcoin cash. That change, which became official on Aug. 1, was made to give the currency a more robust infrastructure; it was also tied to a move to allow large trades in the currency to occur more frequently. Formally introduced in 2009, bitcoin has steadily accumulated both users and investors. And blockchain, the technology that underlies bitcoin, has been embraced by both academics and banking giants such as Fidelity — which now lets customers track investments in cryptocurrency — and Goldman Sachs. Other factors, such as bitcoin's role as a hedge against political uncertainty, also play a role. A finance executive tells CNBC that South Koreans have shown a "surge of interest" in the currency as the U.S. and North Korea trade threats. The network also says there's strong interest in bitcoin in Japan, with the yen accounting for 42 percent of bitcoin currency purchases. It's been a heady summer for bitcoin holders. After the virtual currency hit a record $2,420 in May, The Economist ran a story asking, "What if the bitcoin bubble bursts?" and wondering if its rise could be compared to historic market crazes — like the one over tulips. Noting that "Anyone clever or lucky enough to have bought $1,000 of bitcoins in July 2010, when the price stood at $0.05, would now have a stash worth $46 million," The Economist added that "Ascents this steep are rarely sustainable" — before concluding, "If there is such a thing as a healthy bubble, this is it."

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After soaring to $4,000 on exchange markets over the weekend, the bitcoin cryptocurrency is continuing to rise, topping a record $4,300 on Monday — nearly

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Nonprofit Working To Block Drug Imports Has Ties To Pharma Lobby

A nonprofit organization that has orchestrated a wide-reaching campaign against foreign drug imports has deep ties to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the powerful lobbying group that includes Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Bayer. The nonprofit, called the Partnership for Safe Medicines, has recently emerged as a leading voice against Senate bills that would allow drugs to be imported from Canada. Both the lobbying group and the nonprofit partnership have gone to great lengths to show that drugmakers are not driving what they describe as a grass-roots effort to fight imports, including an expensive advertising blitz and an event last week that featured high-profile former FBI officials and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. However, a Kaiser Health News analysis of groups involved in the partnership shows more than one-third have received PhRMA funding or are local chapters of groups that have received PhRMA funding, according to PhRMA tax disclosures from 2013 to 2015. Forty-seven of the organizations listed in the ads appear to be advocacy organizations that received no money from PhRMA in those years. A PhRMA senior vice president, Scott LaGanga, previously led the Partnership for Safe Medicines for 10 years. At PhRMA, LaGanga was responsible for the lobbying group's alliances with patient advocacy groups, and he was simultaneously listed as the executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines on each of that group's annual tax filings since 2007, the earliest year for which they are available from ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. LaGanga wrote a 2011 article about the partnership's origins. Published in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, it described "public-private partnerships in addressing counterfeit medicines." His PhRMA job was not disclosed in the article. From 2010 to 2014, the organization hosted a conference called the Partnership for Safe Medicines Interchange. In a video from a 2013 event, LaGanga thanks pharmaceutical companies, most of them PhRMA members, for sponsoring the event. In February, LaGanga moved to a senior role at PhRMA and stepped down as executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, just as the group's campaign to stop import legislation was revving up. The partnership's new executive director, Shabbir Safdar, said LaGanga resigned from the group to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. "That's why Scott's not executive director anymore," he said. PhRMA declined to make LaGanga available for an interview. Considering Legislation The Senate push to allow Americans to buy pharmaceuticals from Canada comes as more patients balk at filling prescriptions because of soaring drug prices. Prescription medicines purchased in the U.S. can run three times what they cost in Canada, data from the company PharmacyChecker.com show. In 2016, about 19 million Americans purchased pharmaceuticals illegally from foreign sources through online pharmacies or while traveling, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Many survey respondents cited pricing disparities as the reason. A bill cosponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would provide a mechanism for Canadian drug manufacturers to sell to U.S. consumers and pharmacies. Sanders introduced the bill in February. In January, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also introduced a bill to allow drug imports from Canada. In the House, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) introduced a similar bill to Sanders', along with 23 other Democrats. The U.S. drug industry has strongly opposed efforts to open the borders to drug imports, but the PhRMA lobbying group is not mentioned in the nonprofit partnership's recent advertising blitz against the proposed legislation. The nonprofit says its grass-roots effort is supported by 170 members, including professional organizations and trade groups. The nonprofit describes PhRMA as a dues-paying member with no larger role in shaping the group's activities. Partnership spokeswoman Clare Krusing would not say how much each member contributes. PhRMA spokeswoman Allyson Funk declined to say whether PhRMA funds the partnership. "PhRMA engages with stakeholders across the health care system to hear their perspectives and priorities," Funk said. "We work with many organizations with which we have both agreements and disagreements on public policy issues, and believe engagement and dialogue are critical." Campaigning Against Drug Imports The partnership recently launched its ad campaign, warning against the alleged dangers of legalizing Canadian drug imports. It includes television commercials, promoted search results on Google and a full-page print ad in The Washington Post and The Hill. The group's YouTube page shows recent commercials targeted to viewers in 13 states. "We don't disclose specific ad figures, but the campaign is in the high six figures," Safdar said. The commercials ask voters to urge their senators to "oppose dangerous drug importation legislation." The newspaper ad reads, "Keep the nation's prescription drug supply safe. Urge the Senate to reject drug importation measures." Its headline declares that "170 healthcare advocacy groups oppose drug importation," noting a letter to Congress signed by its members. The ad lists 160 members who signed the letter, and PhRMA's name is not included. "Having a big membership allows the coalition to present what looks like a unified show of grass-roots support ... but it does raise questions about which members of the coalition are really driving and funding the group's policy-making," said Matthew McCoy, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania who studies patient advocacy groups. The list of groups includes at least 64 trade organizations representing the biomedical industry, professional associations representing pharmacists, a private research company and two insurance companies. One group that signed the letter, the "Citrus Council, National Kidney Foundation of Florida Inc.," represents a single volunteer, according to an email from the group. A spokesman for the National Kidney Foundation of Florida said the volunteer's views contradict the position of the umbrella group, and said the foundation supports "any sort of drug importation that allows our patients to have access to drugs at the best price." Two of the hepatitis patients' advocacy groups that were listed, the National Association of Hepatitis Task Forces and the California Hepatitis C Task Force, are run by the same person, Bill Remak. Remak said the groups receive small amounts of PhRMA funding. "I don't enjoy having to take this extreme position of saying we shouldn't import at all, but until we have some oversight regime, some way of protecting consumers, it's a really tough call," he said. "Current drug importation proposals do not appear to have equal safety and chain-of-custody accountability laid out adequately for patient safety concerns," said William Arnold, president of the Community Access National Network, which is also listed in the ad and is an advocacy and support group for people living with HIV/AIDS or hepatitis in Washington, D.C. His group did not accept money from PhRMA between 2013 to 2015, the Kaiser Health News analysis found. Concerns About Safety And Price Last week, the partnership hosted a panel at the National Press Club featuring former FBI director Louis Freeh and former FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. The discussion focused on the alleged health and legal dangers of online pharmacies. "You can talk about lowering prices, but if a drug comes with a high probability of toxicity and death, that comes at a high cost to the patient," von Eschenbach said. "That's what's at issue with drug importation." Each speaker argued that the bill co-sponsored by Sanders would be harmful to patients. Around the same time that bill was introduced, the partnership also sent emails to member organizations seeking help to stop such a measure. Speakers at the partnership event claimed importation would lead to a flood of counterfeit medicines laced with arsenic, fentanyl and lead paint. "These drugs are manufactured in jungles, in tin drums, in basements. ... Those are the sort of sanitary conditions we're talking about here," said George Karavetsos, a former director of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations. Both von Eschenbach and Karavetsos have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Von Eschenbach left the FDA in 2009 to join Greenleaf Health, which counsels pharmaceutical clients, before starting his own consulting company, and Karavetsos counsels pharmaceutical clients at DLA Piper, a Washington, D.C., law firm. In an interview, Josh Miller-Lewis, Sanders' deputy director of communications, refuted Karavetsos' arguments. He said Canadian drugmakers can apply for licenses, and all drugs would have to come from FDA-inspected plants. Politico reported in October that PhRMA is bolstering its war chest by another $100 million per year, suggesting to many industry analysts that drugmakers are gearing up for a ferocious fight. "I think it's safe to say pharmaceutical corporations are prepared to spend some fraction of their multibillion-dollar profits to fight drug importation and any other policy that might end the plague of overpriced medicine," said Rick Claypool, research director for Public Citizen, a watchdog group critical of the drug industry. Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent newsroom that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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A nonprofit organization that has orchestrated a wide-reaching campaign against foreign drug imports has deep ties to the Pharmaceutical Research and

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Charlottesville Suspect To Remain In Jail After First Court Appearance

Updated at 2:10 p.m. ET A judge declined to set bond for an Ohio man during his first court appearance after allegedly ramming a vehicle into a crowd of people demonstrating against a white supremacist rally Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. Charlottesville resident Heather Heyer was killed, and at least 19 other people were in injured in the attack. The Charlottesville Police Department said Saturday that James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, was charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and run. During today's Charlottesville court hearing, as NPR's Debbie Elliott reports, Fields "appeared by video from jail, dressed in a gray and white-striped prison jumpsuit." He answered the judge's questions with a simple "Yes, sir" and "No, sir," according to The Associated Press. Fields told Judge Robert Downer that he could not afford a lawyer. "Downer assigned a court-appointed attorney to represent Fields, and set another hearing for Aug. 25," Debbie adds. "Until then, the judge said, Fields would remain in jail with no bond in part because he has no ties to the area." The AP adds that the judge told the court that the "public defenders' office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday's protest." Fields was taken into custody on Saturday after the incident. Details are emerging about Fields' background and his interest in Nazi Germany. One of the suspect's high school teachers in Ohio told member station WVXU that Fields "was intelligent and didn't cause trouble," but was "also deeply into Adolf Hitler and white supremacy." Derek Weimer, who had Fields in three classes at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Ky., told WVXU, "He went to a good school. Lived in a good neighborhood. There were plenty of people around to try to guide him in the right direction. My first feeling is we failed. I failed." Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Toledo Blade that she was aware her son was going to what he called an "alt-right" rally. "I told him to be careful," Bloom said, according to the newspaper. "[And] if they're going to rally to make sure he's doing it peacefully."

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Updated at 2:10 p.m. ET A judge declined to set bond for an Ohio man during his first court appearance after allegedly ramming a vehicle into a crowd of

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U.K. Prime Minister Calls For Early Election

British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she is calling for early elections on June 8. "At this moment of enormous national significance, there should be unity here in Westminster," she said in televised remarks in front of 10 Downing Street, referring to the U.K.'s negotiations to leave the European Union. "But instead, there is division," May said, accusing other political parties of putting up obstacles. "What they are doing jeopardizes the work we must do to prepare for Brexit at home, and it weakens the government's negotiating position in Europe," May added. "If we do not hold a general election now, their political game-playing will continue, and the negotiations with the European Union will reach their most difficult stage in the run-up to the next scheduled election." Watch her remarks here: Before this announcement, the next U.K. general election was scheduled to take place in 2020.

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British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she is calling for early elections on June 8. "At this moment of enormous national significance,

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Hundreds Feared Dead After Mudslide In Sierra Leone

More than two hundred people have been killed and hundreds more are still missing after torrential rains on the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown caused a mountainside to collapse onto a residential community. A government morgue has received 205 bodies from the mudslide, and at least 71 injured people have been transferred to hospitals, Abu Bakarr Tarawallie, the head of communications for Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society, tells The Two-Way. Some 600 people remain unaccounted for as rescuers continue digging through the mountain of mud to find survivors and recover bodies, Tarawallie said. "It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble," Sierra Leone's Vice President Victor Foh told Reuters while visiting the scene of the mudslide. "This disaster is so serious that I feel myself broken. ... We're trying to cordon the area. Evacuate the people." Tarawallie says recovery efforts face serious challenges. "We are not sure if we will be able to recover all of them considering the herculean task of reaching them out of the depths of the huge mud brought down by the slide," Tarawallie says. "We're not sure of the capacity that exists for them to be reached before they decompose." Video posted by the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation show strong, churning rivers of mud flowing down streets and through houses. "It appears many people were still sleeping when heavy rains triggered the mudslide which engulfed the area," NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported. The damage is extreme, says International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Programme Coordinator Abdul Nasir: "In places, entire communities seem to have been washed away and whatever is left is covered in mud," he said. Up to 3,000 people are believed to have lost their homes, Tarawallie says. "It is estimated that over 100 houses are affected, and about 25 houses were submerged in the mud." Efforts to aid the people who have lost their homes have been "a little bit chaotic," he says. "No organized structure or shelter has been put in place for them." He says that the Red Cross is currently working on a response to help the people who have survived the mudslide. Reuters spoke with Salimatu Bangura, who lives in the flooded area and lost her brother this morning. "We were asleep when we heard the noise of one of the walls falling down. By the time we got up water was flowing in and the whole house was flooded," she said. Tarawallie stresses that Sierra Leone regularly experiences floods and mudslides due to heavy downpours. He adds: "The only particularity of this is that it is unprecedented that for the first time we are having this magnitude of impact and huge loss of property and lives." According to the wire service, deforestation and poor urban planning have exacerbated the dangers in Sierra Leone during the rainy season. "There is little to no urban planning going on in the city at all levels of society," Jamie Hitchen of the Africa Research Institute told The Guardian. "The government is failing to provide housing for the poorest in society. There is a chronic housing deficit in the city and the issues only get discussed on an annual basis when flooding happens and [it] comes into the spotlight."

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More than two hundred people have been killed and hundreds more are still missing after torrential rains on the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital

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Trump Turns To 43-Year-Old 'America First' Trade Law To Pressure China

President Trump on Monday authorized his top trade official to look into whether China is guilty of intellectual property theft, a move that could eventually lead to trade sanctions. Trump called his action "a very big move" against practices that cost our nation "millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars each and every year." He cited not just the theft of intellectual property such as computer software, but also Beijing's requirement that U.S. companies turn over proprietary technology as a condition of entering China's markets. "We will safeguard the copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property that is so vital to our security and to our prosperity," Trump said at the White House. He was flanked by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and members of his economic team. Monday's steps were very preliminary, and analysts say that it could be a long time, if ever, before significant trade sanctions are imposed on China. Eventually, it could lead the administration to initiate what's called a Section 301 investigation, a sanctions mechanism that's part of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 301 was widely used in the 1980s under the Reagan administration, but subsequent presidents have chosen to hear trade disputes at the World Trade Organization. Matt Gold, a former deputy assistant U.S. trade representative, told NPR that Section 301 can be imposed unilaterally and is generally seen as quicker than the alternatives, such as the WTO. "It saves time," he said. A WTO case "would take a few years for us to bring it to a WTO panel, get a decision, then it will get appealed to the WTO appellate body. Then we get another decision. Then we have to go through another WTO process to get authorization for specific types of trade barriers. ... So it can take a few years to get the WTO authorization." The White House move was applauded by technology groups, which have long complained about intellectual property theft. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation issued a statement saying "for too long China has flouted the spirit, if not always the letter of its commitments under the WTO and other agreements." Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said launching the investigation sends a strong signal to China that it will be held accountable if it doesn't work with the United States to level the playing field. But he said the Trump administration needs to go further to address dumping of products such as steel. "We need to follow through with meaningful action and that means the president needs to get serious about trade enforcement, especially on steel," Brown said. But there are risks to the White House approach. Carolyn Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says U.S. companies that try to do business with China could get hurt in several ways. "China is likely to retaliate with tariffs on their own of U.S. goods, and then U.S. companies will be further hurt in China," she said. "It won't lead to anything positive." In an editorial on Monday, the state-run newspaper China Daily said the investigation will "poison" relations. But Freund also points out that for all of Trump's rhetoric about China while on the campaign trail, the White House so far has been slow to take action against unfair trade practices. Trump backed off of labeling China a currency manipulator for instance, and a long promised report on steel dumping has been delayed. She says that's because it's one thing to talk about steel tariffs, but imposing them hurts other U.S. manufacturers, such as automakers and appliance companies.

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President Trump on Monday authorized his top trade official to look into whether China is guilty of intellectual property theft, a move that could

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Later School Start Times Spark Debate In California

In a few weeks, teenagers will stumble bleary eyed and yawning into middle and high schools to beat that early morning bell. But in California, that could change by 2020. That’s if the state legislature passes a bill next month which would require all middle and high schools to open at 8:30 a.m. or later. Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks with California State Sen. Anthony Portantino (@Portantino), a Democrat representing the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley areas, who proposed the bill, and with Nancy Chaires Espinoza, a legislative advocate for the California School Boards Association, which opposes it.

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In a few weeks, teenagers will stumble bleary eyed and yawning into middle and high schools to beat that early morning bell. But in California, that could

http://tpr.org/post/later-school-start-times-spark-debate-california

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As Trump Inquiries Flood Ethics Office, Director Looks To House For Action

Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub Jr. is calling on the chairman of House Oversight Committee to become more engaged in overseeing ethics questions in the Trump administration. In an interview with NPR on Monday, Shaub said public inquiries and complaints involving Trump administration conflicts of interest and ethics have been inundating his tiny agency, which has only advisory power. "We've even had a couple days where the volume was so huge it filled up the voicemail box, and we couldn't clear the calls as fast as they were coming in," Shaub said. His office is scrambling to keep pace with the workload. But while citizens, journalists and Democratic lawmakers are pushing for investigations, Shaub suggested a similar level of energy is not coming from the House Oversight Committee, which has the power to investigate ethics questions, particularly those being raised now about reported secret ethics waivers for former lobbyists serving in the Trump administration. Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, has "authority to investigate these things and compel responses, so hopefully we'll see some action from him," Shaub said. "OGE, however, has no investigative authority, so we're limited as to what we can do if these waivers are not being released publicly," he said. Chaffetz' office said he had no comment. The New York Times, in collaboration with ProPublica, published a story on Saturday saying Trump has been filling the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants, and has been generously waiving ethics requirements without even posting the waiver information on the Government Ethics website. But while Chaffetz has generally been quiet on Trump-related ethics issues, the public has been hammering OGE with questions and complaints. How big is the jump in public contacts, such as calls, letters and emails? During the six months between October 2008 and March 2009, as the Obama presidency was taking shape, the OGE got 733 contacts. During the October 2016 to March 2017 period, it got 39,105 contacts from citizens — an increase of 5,235 percent. Comparing those same two time periods, the number of Freedom of Information Act requests — typically from journalists and public-interest groups — shot up to 280 from 39. That's an increase of 618 percent. Shaub said that, for example, when a top Trump adviser recommended certain fashion lines on Fox & Friends, the public outcry and media interest rocketed up. "When Kellyanne Conway had endorsed Ivanka Trump's product line, our phones rang off the hook, and they practically melted the system," he said. "This is a level of attention that we haven't seen before in terms of public interest." Shaub said Trump is correct when he says, as he did back in January, that presidents technically are not covered by law from having conflicts of interest. "I have a no-conflict situation because I'm president," Trump said at the press conference. He added, "I didn't know about that until about three months ago, but it's a nice thing to have." There are ethics rules that do apply to members of his administration, though. Those are the ones keeping Shaub's small staff busy, according to the director. "When you get 39,000 calls coming into a 71-person agency, the best they can do is log the calls," he said. The statistical analysis, comparing the Obama and Trump eras, have not previously been released. Shaub says his office is "understaffed right now," compared with the massively increased workload involving FOIA requests and the congressional requests, coming mostly from Democrats. "I've never seen anything like this," he said. Still, the office is keeping up with the advisory work — trying to guide Trump appointees on ethics laws and suggesting solutions to conflicts of interest they may face. Other routine business, such as doing staff training or writing new guidelines, has been put on hold as the staff focuses on moving along Trump staffers, he said.

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Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub Jr. is calling on the chairman of House Oversight Committee to become more engaged in overseeing ethics

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Leader Of Texas A&M Protest Against A White Nationalist Speaker Won't 'Allow Evil To Go On'

From Texas Standard: On Saturday, members of the media received a press release titled: “Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M.” The message came from a group organizing a White Lives Matter rally featuring white nationalist Richard Spencer, scheduled to take place on September 11th at the Texas university. There's plenty of outrage on social media, and a counter-protest has already been planned. Adam Key, an organizer of BTHO Hate, says the counter-protest will be non-violent and is meant to challenge the hateful and bigoted ideology perpetuated by Spencer. Indeed, Key organized another protest to a Spencer event last December on campus, but says protesters weren’t allowed into the Memorial Student Center where he was speaking. “The goal of our protest was not to get in and disrupt his event. …We simply wanted to use our free speech to collectively represent our opposition to his ideas,” he says. Even in the midst of events like Charlottesville, when the stakes seem highest for opposition groups like BTHO Hate, Key says peaceful protest is the most important thing to do. “I understand that people are afraid after Charlottesville…but simultaneously, if we don’t speak up because we’re afraid, then they’ve already won,” he says. But there was violence in Charlottesville: A driver plowed through a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring dozens. Some are criticizing the police for not doing enough to prevent physical clashes, but Key says he’s confident the same thing won’t happen at A&M. “I have great faith in the great men and women of the university police department. …I expect just like December, we’ll have state troopers there and I believe the FBI was there last time as well,” he says. For good measure, BTHO Hate’s protest will take place at a distance from the Spencer event. And there will be what he calls a “maroon wall,” or a human barrier, that will obscure onlookers’ view of the white lives matter rally. “Our goal is to have the two be separate things, to discourage the type of physical interaction that happened in Charlottesville,” Key says. Whatever BTHO Hate does to prevent violence, the Spencer event and counter-protest will likely draw extensive media attention, which could fuel tensions. Key is aware of that possibility, but says it’s still important his group speaks up to promote inclusivity, especially because of A&M’s historical exclusion of black students. “It’s incredibly important as Aggies that we stand up and express that our campus welcomes all races, creeds, colors, religions and sexual orientations. But the one thing we don’t welcome is hatred and intolerance. By remaining silent, we basically do nothing and we allow evil to go on,” he says. Written by Caroline Covington.

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From Texas Standard: On Saturday, members of the media received a press release titled: “Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M.” The message

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British Cybersecurity Expert Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Malware Charges

At a federal court in Wisconsin, a British cybersecurity expert pleaded not guilty to charges over an alleged malware scheme to steal personal banking information. Before these accusations, Marcus Hutchins was known for his role in finding the "kill switch" to the WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack last May that "threatened over 150 countries," NPR's Leila Fadel reported. After today's hearing, Hutchins' lawyer Marcia Hofmann described him as a "brilliant young man and a hero," and said that "when the evidence comes to light, we are confident he will be fully vindicated." The FBI took Hutchins into custody earlier this month in Las Vegas, where he had been attending a cybersecurity conference. In July, a federal grand jury indicted him and an unnamed co-defendant on six counts dating from July 2014 to July 2015. The indictment accuses Hutchins of creating the malware, which is called Kronos. The two co-defendents then allegedly advertised it on internet forums and sold it. Hutchins is charged with "one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, three counts of distributing and advertising an electronic communication interception device, one count of endeavoring to intercept electronic communications, and one count of attempting to access a computer without authorization," as Leila reported. She added that other members of his community were shocked at the accusations, because they are counter to his reputation as a person devoted to preventing this kind of attack. Hutchins was "granted bail on 5 August after $30,000 ...was raised by friends and family," according to the BBC. But his release comes with strict conditions, as detailed by The Associated Press: "His bond has been modified so that he can stay in Los Angeles near his attorney and travel anywhere in the U.S., but he cannot leave the country. He was also granted access to use a computer for work, a change from an earlier judge's order barring him from using any device with access to the internet. Hutchins has been working for a network security company, according to prosecutors, who did not oppose allowing him access to a computer for work." "Hutchins is required to wear a GPS monitor, but [Magistrate Judge William] Duffin said the court will consider removing that requirement once Hutchins has found a home in Los Angeles and is complying with the terms of his bond." The wire service adds that the next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 17.

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At a federal court in Wisconsin, a British cybersecurity expert pleaded not guilty to charges over an alleged malware scheme to steal personal banking

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Big Ben's Big Bong Is About To Go Silent

A fixture of the London landscape and soundscape, Big Ben, is falling silent for four years. The bell will cease its regular tolling while extensive repairs are made to the famous clock tower that looms over the Palace of Westminster, the home of the British Parliament. The massive bell will mark the hour for the last time at noon on Aug. 21 and then pause for four years while the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Clock and the Great Bell, aka Big Ben, is restored. A larger restoration of the Parliament buildings is likely to begin in the early 2020s, according to a Parliament website. Quieting Big Ben's mighty bongs will help preserve the hearing of workers involved in the project. The keeper of the Great Clock, Steve Jaggs, said in a statement that the pause "is a significant milestone in this crucial conservation project." If you're in London next Monday you may want to accept Jaggs' invitation to gather in Parliament Square "to hear Big Ben's final bongs until they return in 2021." However, Big Ben will still bong for important national events such as New Year's Eve and Remembrance Sunday. The Great Bell has chimed nearly every hour for the past 157 years. It has had previous breaks in service for maintenance and conservation in 2007, in 1983-1985 and in 1976. The 13.7-ton bell, which was forged in the 1850s, is accompanied by smaller chimes that ring out each quarter hour. The Great Clock has a Victorian-era clockwork mechanism that triggers the bell and chimes. That mechanism and the clock's four faces will also get refurbished, which will require the faces to be covered. To make sure Londoners don't get completely disoriented and lose track of the correct time, Jaggs says at least one clock face will remain visible. It will keep time with the aid of a modern electric motor, while the Victorian mechanism is being repaired.

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A fixture of the London landscape and soundscape, Big Ben, is falling silent for four years. The bell will cease its regular tolling while extensive

http://tpr.org/post/big-bens-big-bong-about-go-silent

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Alabama GOP Senate Primary Tests Reach Of McConnell, Trump

In the Alabama Republican Senate race, every candidate wants to be just like Donald Trump. But in Tuesday's primary, the leading candidate sounds and acts more like the president, while it's the incumbent, an appointed senator just fighting to make it into a likely runoff, who has Trump's actual blessing — but also the curse of being Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's favorite candidate. That's the conundrum of the Republican contest, largely seen as a three-way race between front-runner Roy Moore, a controversial former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice; Sen. Luther Strange, appointed back in February to fill the seat of now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and Rep. Mo Brooks, who's seized on an anti-McConnell platform as the president's attacks against the Senate's top Republican have intensified recently. Moore has consistently polled atop the field, and looks likely to claim a spot in a probable September runoff. His ads sound downright Trumpian, promising to "drain the swamp" and taking a swipe at D.C. elites. Moore is well-known throughout the state — and the country — too. He first gained national notoriety when he refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from a state judicial building despite a federal court order; Moore himself was then removed from his position as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003. He won election to the same post again in 2012, but was then suspended after he ordered judges to enforce the state's ban on same-sex marriage despite the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in favor of gay marriage nationwide under the federal Constitution. He resigned earlier this year to challenge Strange. To state observers, it's not surprising that Moore has been able to build a strong following and even expand beyond what might be his typical conservative base in the state. "Alabama voters supported Trump because he spoke his mind and said all the things they had been thinking about government," said Brent Buchanan, a GOP strategist and pollster in the state. "Out of all the candidates, Roy Moore has some of those similar characteristics. You may not agree with all of his policy or personal preferences, but you know that Roy Moore is going to do what Roy Moore believes." That's why it was so, well, strange last week when Trump tweeted out his support for Strange, saying the incumbent has his "complete and total endorsement!" The senator has benefited from millions of dollars in ads from the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund super PAC. The very next day after endorsing Strange, Trump started going on Twitter tirades against the GOP Senate leader for failing to pass a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Strange has tried to prove his loyalty to the president ever since he was appointed under less than auspicious circumstances. As Alabama's attorney general, Strange was investigating then-Gov. Robert Bentley for misuse of his office amid a sex scandal when Bentley chose Strange to replace Sessions. Facing impeachment, Bentley eventually resigned, and the new governor, Kay Ivey, moved up the date for the special election to replace Sessions long-term. Polling done in the wake of Trump's surprise endorsement showed that the president's blessing had done little — yet — to move the needle toward Strange. One by cygnal, Buchanan's firm, conducted partly after the endorsement, showed Moore still with a lead and high favorables, Strange remained static and it was Brooks who took a hit. Buchanan said the Trump endorsement could help Strange turn out some who were less likely to vote on Tuesday, which could be key in what's already expected to be a very low-turnout affair. And the pro-Trump America First Action super PAC also announced late Friday it would be spending up to $200,000 on digital ads targeting Trump voters to encourage them to come out for Strange. However, although he's slipping in polling, Brooks is hoping to turn McConnell's fervent support for Strange into a last-ditch way to get into the likely runoff against Moore. He's hitched a "Ditch Mitch" banner to his campaign bus in the final days, and in his closing ad he echoes Trump's frustration with McConnell's inability to push through an Obamacare repeal. "McConnell and Strange are weak, but together we can be strong," Brooks says. "Mr. President, isn't it time we tell McConnell and Strange, 'You're fired?'" Ultimately, the Huntsville-area congressman hasn't had the resources the other two candidates have had, and he hasn't been elected statewide before like Moore and Strange. And, perhaps most damaging, he was certainly no fan of Trump during the GOP presidential primaries last year, during which he supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. McConnell's super PAC has pointed that out in ads, saying Brooks sided with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. If Strange does fall short of the runoff, University of Alabama political science professor emeritus William Stewart, a longtime political observer in the state, said that's a big problem for McConnell. And, if Strange does make it to the likely September runoff, expect that to be a big point Moore can use against Strange, too. "The McConnell support for Strange will not be helpful because McConnell, as the president says, hasn't been successful at pushing through the president's agenda, " Stewart said. "If Strange doesn't make the runoff, that's a definite blow to McConnell," more so than Trump. Polling shows Moore is still the favorite against Strange in a runoff, and that's where the McConnell ties could be the most deadly — and place the president in a more precarious spot given his surprising endorsement. Stewart said it would be interesting to watch how much Trump puts his muscle behind Strange later, and something like traveling to Alabama — one of Trump's best states in 2016 — for a rally on the senator's behalf would certainly give Strange a boost. No matter who wins the GOP nomination though, they'll be the heavy favorite in the December general election, even if it's the more controversial Moore. Democrats are expected to nominate Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney, though he could face a runoff against the aptly-named Robert Kennedy Jr., a Naval veteran who is not related to the famous Democratic political family. If Moore is the GOP nominee, it will be interesting to watch whether the Democrats can make it even a mildly competitive contest — something Stewart, the former University of Alabama professor, said is doubtful, and is emblematic of the problems the party faces overall in the South. "Right now the Democratic Party is very impotent here," Stewart said. "I think whomever the Republicans choose as their nominee will be the winner."

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In the Alabama Republican Senate race, every candidate wants to be just like Donald Trump. But in Tuesday's primary, the leading

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2 First-Time Boston Marathoners Emerge Victorious

Two Kenyan runners, both of them making their Boston Marathon debut, have won the prestigious race. Edna Kiplagat, a Kenyan policewoman and two-time world champion marathoner, finished first in the women's race with a time of 2:21:52. Rose Chelimo, a Kenyan-born Bahraini runner, placed second. Geoffrey Kirui, also of Kenya, won the mens' race at 2:09:37 — his first-ever marathon victory. He edged out Portland runner Galen Rupp by 21 seconds. It was a big day for debut runners at Boston, according to Runner's World. In the women's race, 25-year-old Jordan Hasay ran her first-ever marathon in 2:23:00 to place third. It was the fastest-ever debut by an American woman, Runner's World says. And in the men's race, 26-year-old Suguru Osako of Japan — also competing in his first marathon — placed third with 2:10:28. Meanwhile, competitors in the wheelchair race finished in world-best times, The Associated Press reports: "Manuela Schar of Switzerland finished in 1 hour, 28 minutes, 17 seconds — shattering the world best by more than five minutes. Fellow Swiss Marcel Hug took the men's race in 1:18:04, also the fastest time ever. "The winners' times are considered a world best and not a world record. The straight-line Boston course doesn't qualify for world records because of the possibility of a supportive tailwind like the one on Monday." The athletes had a tailwind of 13 mph, the AP reports.

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Two Kenyan runners, both of them making their Boston Marathon debut, have won the prestigious race. Edna Kiplagat, a Kenyan policewoman and two-time world

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Navigating The 'Aisle Of Confusion' To Whiten Your Teeth

Walk down the aisle of your local pharmacy or grocery store and you'll be bombarded by a dizzying array of bleaching products, from gels and strips to paint-on bleach. Cosmetic tooth bleaching is a $3.2 billion global industry, according to market analysts, and it's getting bigger fast. It's easy to see why. Strikingly white, bright smiles dominate TV and social media, and people tend to prefer the bright teeth of youth rather than those that have been yellowed by trauma or age. But if you decide that you, too, want a brighter smile, it's hard to know where to start. "I'm a dentist, but I'm also a consumer and I can certainly get confused by all the products," says Ruchi Sahota who practices in Fremont, Calif. A colleague of hers describes the tooth product aisle in stores as the "dental aisle of confusion," because there are so many options. "You can easily get bewildered standing there trying to figure out which option is the best," she says. The dilemma isn't helped by regulators. Tooth whitening products don't need approval from the Food and Drug Administration before hitting the market, because the agency considers them "cosmetic," a designation that's much more lightly regulated than drugs. And, the FDA says it has not determined that any ingredients contained in currently marketed products are unsafe. The American Dental Association does offer some guidance in choosing a bleaching product — its ADA seal of acceptance. "The seal is rooted in science," says chemist Jamie Spomer, director of the ADA's seal of acceptance program; she notes that when a manufacturer applies for the seal, an independent panel of dentists analyzes the company's data and sometimes performs studies of their own. The seal is a "symbol that an independent panel reviewed and approved the product for its safety and effectiveness," Spomer says. Many toothpastes carry the ADA seal. So far only one over-the-counter-bleaching product does — Crest 3D White Glamorous White Whitestrips. Even so, Sahota says many over-the-counter products that don't carry the seal can still be effective if used as directed. Most cause some tooth sensitivity during the bleaching process, but that goes away once the process is complete, she says. Depending on which product is used, bleaching can take anywhere from two to six weeks. And, if you're not careful, Sahota says the products can leak onto the gums, causing inflammation and "extra sensitivity" to pressure, temperature and touch. A safer but more costly option might be to buy a custom-made tray from your dentist, Sahota says. Unlike the one-size-fits-all trays sold over the counter, a dentist makes the tray "just for you" she says. The tray hugs the teeth and ensures the gel is kept where it should be and is evenly applied. The kits cost about $400; this at-home whitening process can take up to four weeks, depending on how stained the teeth are to begin with. Generally, the trays are worn for one or two hours a day. If you want an even faster route, you'll have to pay more. Bleaching in the dental office can run more than $1,000, but results are quick and more dramatic. Dentists use bleaching gels that rely on high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (up to 40 percent hydrogen peroxide, compared to a 5 to 6 percent concentration in drugstore kits and a 10 to 15 percent solution in the home-kits from dentists). So the whole process in the dentist's office can take just an hour or two to complete. And because the peroxide concentrations used there are much higher, the results can be many shades lighter than with take-home kits and over-the-counter products. An important caveat: Insurance companies consider in-office teeth whitening "cosmetic" so the procedures are almost never covered. Nonetheless, more Americans are opting for in-office whitening. In 2015, in-office bleaching procedures rose 29 percent over the year before, according to an American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry survey. And there's at least a little evidence that the whiter the smile the more attractive the person – in a 2012 study both men and women said they prefer white teeth when choosing a mate. But go to the dentist before you start bleaching, says Ada Cooper, a New York City dentist. "Tooth discoloration can be caused by cavities and other oral problems," she says. "It's more important to maintain healthy teeth." It's also important to note that not all stains are the same. Some are mostly on the surface of the teeth and come from consuming lots of dark colored liquids like coffee, tea and red wine, as well as foods with vibrant yellow spices like turmeric. The tar and nicotine from cigarettes are also huge culprits. Often surface stains can be diminished by routine brushing, flossing and biannual professional cleaning in the dentist's office. Unfortunately, there are deeper stains you just can't avoid by being careful about what you eat and drink. These come with aging and years of chewing, which causes millions of tiny cracks in the outer enamel of the tooth. These cracks can fill up with stain. On top of that, the thinning enamel can allow the yellow core of the tooth to become more visible. Grinding teeth at night and brushing too hard can also weaken and thin tooth enamel. Bleaching agents can penetrate these deeper stains and turn the tooth whiter — typically two to seven shades lighter. There are some discolorations that just can't be bleached away. Trauma to a tooth — such as a chip or break — can also permanently discolor it from the inside, and stains from ingesting the antibiotic tetracycline or large amounts of fluoride are also permanent. In these cases, the only option for whiter teeth is a crown or veneer. All types of bleaching — whether over-the-counter, take-home kits or in the dental office — are temporary, requiring touch-ups at some point. As for homespun remedies promoted online, in social media and in magazines as being "natural whitening" agents (including charcoal, baking soda or lemon juice), the ADA says there is no evidence these methods work.

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Walk down the aisle of your local pharmacy or grocery store and you'll be bombarded by a dizzying array of bleaching products, from gels and strips to

http://tpr.org/post/navigating-aisle-confusion-whiten-your-teeth

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Why The Government Can't Bring Terrorism Charges In Charlottesville

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked how he viewed the car attack in Charlottesville, Va., here's how he responded: "It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute," he told ABC's Good Morning America. That certainly seems to suggest the government is looking into a possible terrorism charge against the suspect, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. At Saturday's rally organized by white supremacists, a car slammed into counterprotesters, killing one and injuring 19. But according to the Justice Department and legal analysts, it's simply not possible for the government to file charges of domestic terrorism, because no such criminal law exists. The Patriot Act does define domestic terrorism, and under this designation, the Justice Department has broad powers to investigate, said Neal Katyal, a Georgetown University law professor who served as former President Barack Obama's acting solicitor general and as the national security adviser to the Justice Department. He said the government has three basic ways to approach the Charlottesville case. "No. 1, this is a hate crime, under the hate crime statutes," he said. "The second is that this is a conspiracy to deprive individuals of civil rights." "And the third is, this is an act of domestic terror, which isn't itself a crime," he noted. In short, the government can't file a criminal charge of domestic terrorism, but so defining the incident does allow it to investigate not only an individual suspect, but also any group the suspect may be affiliated with. In an email to NPR, the Justice Department made the same point. The commonwealth of Virginia, meanwhile, has charged Fields with second-degree murder and other crimes. The Charlottesville case has again spurred a discussion about describing far-right violence as terrorism. After the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism was associated primarily with radical Islamist groups based abroad. The State Department has a list of nearly 60 groups, all foreign, that are identified as terrorist organizations. The vast majority are radical Islamists. And the government can charge a person — American or foreign — with terrorism on behalf of these international groups. Consider this hypothetical: If the Charlottesville attacker emerged from the car and said he was acting on behalf of the Islamic State, he could be charged with international terrorism, according to Katyal. Inside the U.S., the political debate appears to be shifting, with growing numbers calling for far-right extremism to be identified as terrorism. But that's almost entirely a political discussion, not a legal one. On the legal front, there's still a good deal of resistance to creating a criminal charge of domestic terrorism. "It's an incredibly broad label," said Hina Shamsi, director of the national security project at the American Civil Liberties Union. "There's a real danger of the government criminalizing ideology, theology and beliefs rather than focusing on specific criminal acts." She said creating a domestic terrorism charge could quickly raise all sorts of political questions about free speech and religion. The ACLU opposes any such law, believing it could be politicized and used, for example, against anti-war groups or environmental activists. Back in 1995, when Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people with a truck bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma City, it was widely described as the worst act of domestic terrorism to that point. Yet he was charged with, convicted of and executed for killing federal agents and other crimes — but not terrorism. The government has historically used the term "terrorism" as a general description for a range of violent acts, including those by right-wing extremists, as well as environmental, anti-abortion and far-left groups. But the specific criminal charge is never domestic terrorism. Another case came to light Monday, when the Justice Department announced it had arrested a man for allegedly attempting to set off a truck bomb in front of a bank in Oklahoma City on Saturday. The bomb didn't detonate, the department said. But its description of the case is similar to McVeigh's attack, claiming the suspect, Jerry Varnell, 23, was angry with the government. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is leading what's being described as a "domestic terrorism investigation." Yet the formal charge against Varnell is "attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce." Not terrorism.

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When Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked how he viewed the car attack in Charlottesville, Va., here's how he responded: "It does meet the

http://tpr.org/post/why-government-cant-bring-terrorism-charges-charlottesville

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In Children's Storybooks, Realism Has Advantages

A few years ago, my daughter requested that her nightly lullaby be replaced with a bedtime story. I was happy to comply, and promptly invented stories full of imaginary creatures in elaborate plots intended to convey some important lesson about patience or hard work or being kind to others. But my daughter was not pleased. She had very particular ideas about what her bedtime stories should be about. She wanted stories about a little girl planning a birthday party. A human girl. A human girl about her age. And what fascinated her were the mundane details: the theme for the party, the location, who was invited, and (most importantly) what they had for dessert. It turns out my daughter is not alone. Her passion for birthday party stories, in particular, may be somewhat idiosyncratic, but children often prefer the factual over the fantastical. And a growing body of work suggests that when it comes to storybooks, they also learn better from stories that are realistic. For example, preschool-aged children are more likely to learn new facts about animals when the animals are portrayed realistically as opposed to anthropomorphically, and they're more likely to apply the solution to a problem presented in a storybook to a new scenario when the storybook involves real people (as opposed to fictional characters) and a realistic plot (as opposed to a space adventure). A new study by Nicole Larson, Kang Lee, and Patricia Ganea, forthcoming in the journal Developmental Science, reveals that learning about good behavior is no exception. When children read a realistic storybook about humans who shared, they were more likely to do so themselves. In the study, 4- to 6-year-old children were read a story about sharing that featured either human characters or anthropomorphic animals. Both before and after the story, children had the opportunity to share stickers with other children. The number of stickers each child set aside for others provided a quantifiable measure of sharing. The key finding was that, on average, children who heard the story featuring a human who shared increased the number of stickers they shared, whereas those who heard the story featuring an anthropomorphic animal that shared did not. In other words, young children applied the lesson from the story to their own behavior, but only when the story featured humans. The researchers also found that when children in another group were allowed to choose whether to read the story about humans or the story about anthropomorphic animals, they had no reliable preference. This suggests that the story about humans wasn't more effective in promoting sharing simply because children found it more appealing, and also that children weren't reliably drawn to the more fantastical alternative. The findings from the study reinforce the idea that young children have an easier time exporting what they learn from a fictional storybook to the real world when the storybook is realistic. The leap from a fictional human to a real one is simply smaller than the leap from an anthropomorphic raccoon to a human. But it could be that as children grow older they become better at making these leaps, or that parents can help them make the leaps more readily. In a paper just published in the journal Cognition, for example, developmental psychologist Caren Walker and I found that prompting 5- and 6-year-old children to explain key events in a storybook made them better at extracting the moral of the story and then applying it to a real-world problem. This is something parents can do easily as they read storybooks with their children, asking them why (say) an anthropomorphic raccoon did or didn't share, and why other characters responded as they did. If the theory in our paper is right, this should help children relate the unrealistic aspects of the story to what they know about the real world, and thus appreciate the patterns that hold across both the fictional world of the story and the real world around them. The lesson I've learned from research on children's stories is this: When my daughter asks for a (realistic) birthday party story tonight, I'll indulge her. It will be about a human girl who celebrates her 7th birthday. But it will also include some realistic problems with realistic solutions — and I'll throw in some lessons about sharing and some prompts to explain for good measure. Tania Lombrozo is a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes about psychology, cognitive science and philosophy, with occasional forays into parenting and veganism. You can keep up with more of what she is thinking on Twitter: @TaniaLombrozo

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A few years ago, my daughter requested that her nightly lullaby be replaced with a bedtime story. I was happy to comply, and promptly invented stories

http://tpr.org/post/childrens-storybooks-realism-has-advantages

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Home-Based Drug Treatment Program Costs Less And Works

Hannah Berkowitz is 20 years old. When she was a senior in high school her life flew off the rails. She was getting high on whatever drugs she could get her hands on. She was suicidal. Berkowitz moved into a therapeutic boarding school to get sober, but could only stay sober while she was on campus during the week. "I'd come home and try to stay sober really hard — really, really hard," says Berkowitz. "Sometimes I'd make it through the weekend, and sometimes I just couldn't make it. It was white-knuckling it, just holding on." The transition back home always triggered a relapse for Berkowitz. "I thought it was just my fault and there was no hope," she says. No hope — but Berkowitz did have luck. She had private health insurance and she lived in Connecticut, where a startup company, Aware Recovery Care, had begun treating clients in the very environment where Hannah was struggling to stay sober: her home. A chronic disease approach Treating addiction is a growing business, but a lot of the treatment that's available is expensive and patients often relapse. Fortunately, there is a way to help some people pay less for better results, says Matt Eacott, vice president of Aware Recovery Care. "Ninety-nine percent of the industry really treats addiction as an acute problem — like a rash on your arm that you rub lotion on and you're done," says Eacott. Instead, Aware treats addiction as a chronic illness — it doesn't disappear just because symptoms are temporarily under control. The approach is a cost-effective way of treating addiction, Eacott says, with better results than most competitors achieve. Aware comes into clients' homes and connects them with a nurse, a primary care doctor, a therapist, peer support, 12-step meetings and a case manager. Clients hooked on opioids can get medication-assisted treatment. They can also submit to urine screening and GPS tracking, if that helps them stick with the program. Hannah's mother, Lois Berkowitz, says the program is intense at first. But as Hannah built coping skills the supports faded into the background. "It's not like they're doing the work for the addict," says Lois Berkowitz, "they're just basically taking them by the hand and saying, 'Here are the places you need to go that will help you. And I'm going to go with you to start, so it doesn't feel that uncomfortable. And then we're going to let you fly.' " Before they "fly," Aware clients have a pretty long runway. The treatment lasts for a full year. Benefits worth the initial cost, insurer says Aware has now expanded from its base in Connecticut into New Hampshire. The program is expensive. It costs $38,000 a year. As of now, it's only available to private-pay clients and people insured through Anthem health insurance in New Hampshire and Connecticut. Anthem became the first insurer to pay Aware, because the treatment is based on hard science that's yielding solid results for clients, says Dr. Steven Korn, Anthem's behavioral health medical director. Science and results are rare in addiction treatment, he says. "There are old, old notions that have hung pretty tough," says Korn. "When I was young — when I was in training — as soon as substance abuse was mentioned, the response of physicians was, 'Well, go to AA. That's not our problem. We don't treat that.' " For a year of treatment, Anthem says it's paying Aware about the same as the cost of a month or two of inpatient treatment. Anthem also says 72 percent of Aware clients are either sober at the end of one year or still in active treatment. That's about twice the sobriety rate of people who check in to a facility for a month and then get no follow-up care, says Dr. Stuart Gitlow, past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Treating addiction at home makes sense because it's the exact place where people learned all their bad habits, Gitlow says. "It's all based on this concept that addiction is not about the substance use," he says, "but is about what led to the substance use in the first place. And you can't really get there without getting to know the patient." Aware says it's in negotiations with four more major insurers. The program hopes to have a couple hundred clients in New Hampshire by the end of the year. This story is part of NPR's reporting partnership with New Hampshire Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.

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Hannah Berkowitz is 20 years old. When she was a senior in high school her life flew off the rails. She was getting high on whatever drugs she could get

http://tpr.org/post/home-based-drug-treatment-program-costs-less-and-works

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Amid Aid Uncertainty, U.S. Counterterrorism Cooperation Continues In Africa

Along the Chari and Logone rivers separating Cameroon from Chad's capital, four flat-bottomed boats, mounted with machine guns, brimming with Chadian and other special forces, round the curve as they approach the riverbank. Forming an assault force, heavily armed soldiers leap out of the vessels and race up a slope to take up positions while backup forces have their machine guns at the ready. It's all part of a military exercise that simulates going after a high-value target – a leader from the ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram insurgency, who's taken up residence in a huddle of huts on the far side of the riverfront, a terrorist safe haven. The assault force demonstrates crucial military steps before capturing and eliminating him. Three weeks of U.S.-led counterterrorism exercises, known as Flintlock 2017, ended last month in Chad, which, along with surrounding countries, has been targeted for the past eight years in deadly violence by Boko Haram. The Flintlock exercises take place each year in a different African country. Boko Haram's uprising began in northeastern Nigeria, to the west of Chad, and has spilled over its borders, killing thousands of people and driving almost 3 million from their homes across the region. The war left a humanitarian catastrophe in its wake. The Trump administration's budget blueprint pledges to boost U.S. military spending by 10 percent — but also promises deep cuts in foreign aid. It's not yet clear what that might mean for U.S. counterterrorism efforts here or elsewhere in Africa, though the White House has boosted the U.S. military's authority to carry out strikes in Somalia against al-Shabaab militants linked to al-Qaida. At the same time, the U.S. — the biggest donor to the United Nations — is making the case for cuts in U.N. funding and wants to see changes in U.N. peacekeeping operations, most of which take place in Africa. "We need to show results," U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said earlier this month. "We need to find value." Support for foreign nations' counterterrorism efforts, as opposed to big American deployments, were a key tool of the Obama administration. Last year, the U.S. gave $156 million for military support, training and border security in the region straddling Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, known as the Lake Chad Basin. The military officer in charge of Flintlock 2017, Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, has called this region "Ground Zero" when it comes to fighting extremism in Africa. Bolduc, the Special Operations commander in Africa, says for now, the U.S. military is continuing to pursue its objectives. But the prospect of aid cuts worries many, as the region's humanitarian situation risks deteriorating. The U.N. warns there is a risk of famine in Nigeria's northeast, exacerbating a humanitarian disaster that has already seen children, especially those under the age of 5, dying of malnutrition, hunger and starvation. The U.S. has given more than $321 million since last year to help those in the Lake Chad Basin, including more than $175 million in emergency food aid. "Our assistance to this area is critical for promoting stability," said Matt Nims of the U.S. Agency for International Development, speaking at a House subcommittee hearing earlier this month. 'The military can't do it by itself' U.S. special operations troops don't typically deploy in large numbers to help African security forces work together and fight Boko Haram, but local officials say they're useful in serving as the glue that helps everything stick together. For Flintlock 2017, forces from 27 countries took part at seven training sites across west and central Africa. "Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger – unfortunately, the entire region, we are facing the same reality," said Cameroonian police commander Gilbert Nagassou, in charge of the border post at Kousseri, just across the river separating Chad and Cameroon. "That's why we must join forces and together confront terrorism." When it comes to fighting Boko Haram's threats to the Lake Chad Basin, "The military can't do it by itself," Bolduc told NPR in Ndjamena, Chad's capital. "Regionalize all the efforts, work closely together in an effective military construct ... and then bring in the police, the civil administration, religious leaders and include anybody working to bring the stability necessary to the local villages." A U.S. special forces commander involved in Flintlock, who asked that his name be withheld for security reasons, says the challenges shouldn't be underestimated. "We have a regional issue of Boko Haram, [which] easily exploits the seams between international boundaries – especially when you have something like a river way that separates two nations," he says. "And they currently use islands in this pretty broad [Chari and Logone] river to hide out in. It's an easy area to have ungoverned and hard to police and patrol." Members of U.S. military and, for the first time, law enforcement agencies are working with African security forces to enhance their techniques, said Billy Alfano, a special agent with the State Department's law enforcement arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. "Interoperability" – groups and forces working well together — is the current buzzword. "It's critical for our African partner nations to work together and more and more important for police to collaborate with the military, to conduct joint investigations and to truly counter the terrorism threat in the region, with law enforcement in those communities," Alfano said. Law enforcement agents are often first responders after an attack, he explained, so training them in forensics and skills like fingerprinting also helps "attack the terrorist network." Alfano said this year's more broadly focused exercises reflected an emphasis on governance and rule of law, "making a transition from a military-controlled area to training the police to more effectively take over when the military has moved on." And there was what he called "a mass migration training," to teach rural communities how to respond to potential terrorists who may cross porous borders where large numbers of people are already traveling. Cross-border cooperation During Flintlock, training scenarios involved agents from across the region simulating the aftermath of a terrorist bombing, as well as chasing and apprehending hostage-taking terrorist suspects. "Terrorism knows no boundaries or borders," warned Nagassou, the Cameroonian police commander. Deadly Boko Haram bomb blasts and suicide bombing raids have targeted all four countries battling the terrorist network, he said. "Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Islamic State," he said, "so geographic frontiers mean nothing to this group or other terrorist networks and their regional allies. Borders are simply a joke to them — they have connections and communications." Terrorists, he said, easily slip across. "If there's intelligence from Nigeria and it's relayed to Chad, then Cameroon must also be made aware," said Nagassou. "And Niger also needs to be informed, so that together we can nip Boko Haram's nefarious plans in the bud and stop them attacking our people." Battle-hardened Chadian special forces are already familiar with this problem. For the past few years, they've been taking on Boko Haram extremists since violence spread across the border from northeastern Nigeria. They also were a critical force that helped end the occupation of northern Mali by al-Qaida-linked extremist fighters in 2013. "Chadian military history has demonstrated our experience and know-how. It's not today that the Chadian army is learning how to capture and destroy the enemy. Chadian forces are used to pursuing Boko Haram," said Lt. Col. Brahim Mahamat Dahab, Chad's chief of staff for the Flintlock 2017 exercises. He says the river scenario assault force exercise shows that Chad is capable of working with Americans, Italians "and the military from any given country, as well as our neighbors, reinforcing capacity. That's what we want to demonstrate. We need to share that knowledge with others who are also fighting Boko Haram," Brahim told NPR passionately. Back on the banks of the Chari-Logone river in the Chadian capital, the assault force exercise ends and the Boko Haram leader is captured. Amid a hail of protective gunfire, the special operations forces head back down toward the boats speed off down the river. Mission accomplished. For this raid, a textbook success: the same way they hope a real-life operation would end. With the exercise over, the group whoops with satisfaction and relief.

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Along the Chari and Logone rivers separating Cameroon from Chad's capital, four flat-bottomed boats, mounted with machine guns, brimming with Chadian

http://tpr.org/post/amid-aid-uncertainty-us-counterterrorism-cooperation-continues-africa

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After Charlottesville, Central Texans Wrestle With How To Listen And Support

Central Texans are expressing solidarity and concern after Saturday’s deadly white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Sunday morning, about 10 strangers, all of them white, gathered in a room at the Triumphant Love Lutheran Church in Northwest Austin. Most were drawn by a post for a Facebook event, which said a Charlottesville solidarity event was being held at the church. After a few minutes of pleasantries, people began talking about their roles as allies. “We’re mostly white folks here,” said Austin resident Hans Maverick. “There’s a lot of tools online that explain how to really listen to people of color.” Several other attendees echoed Maverick’s points about the need to listen to the experiences of African- Americans and other people of color. Temple, Texas resident Cecily Luft drove about an hour to Austin to attend the gathering. Luft, who is in the process of converting to Judaism, said it was surreal to see images of Saturday's neo-Nazi rally. “I went to Facebook, and I saw page after page of white men carrying torches… swastikas, and I immediately just had to turn it off,” Luft said. “I felt an overwhelming sense of, ‘I can’t let this happen without a fight.’” Eventually the group grew to about 30 people. A few people of color, and the event organizer Margaret Haule, arrived. Haule, who is African American and the founder of Black Lives Matter Austin, led an hour-long discussion on racial tension and how to show support for minority groups. She fielded questions on everything from which charities to support to whether wearing safety pins on your shirt is an effective means of showing solidarity. Haule said Saturday’s events in Charlottesville touched a nerve for many people, regardless of race. “People need an outlet for what they were feeling, what they were experiencing,” Haule said. “This was a way for people to express their pain, express their grief, and just to do a catharsis.” Haule also said that in her experience, white people and even some minority groups tend to unload their stories of racist experiences and guilt onto African-Americans. “There’s a time and place, and also, black people are not monolithic, so it’s important that you tap into your humanity before you just assume that they want for you to bear your burden on them without them having the time to process their own burden,” she said. One man pushed back on Haule’s statements, asking her whether the point of the event was to tell people everything they are doing wrong as allies. He said in his view, it was important to share stories of the human experience. One of the few people of color in attendance was Margarita Bamba. She immigrated from the Philippines and recently became an American citizen. Bamba became emotional when talking to the group about raising her two young sons in a racially charged climate. "I want to teach them what it means to be part of this country and do things that you believe in," Bamba said. Speaking after the event, Bamba said that when people talk about being allies, it's important not to oversimplify the narratives of minority groups. "When everybody was talking about people of color, I think I was grateful that there are so many white people here, but it felt almost like an out-of-body experience, like people were talking about me in the third person, like I wasn't in the room," she said. "It's become this idea of people of color, that we're this monolithic group, and we're not." A white supremacist rally and a counter protest are planned for September 11th on the Texas A&M campus. Haule isn’t directly involved in that counter protest, and she says she’ll leave that effort up to local organizers in College Station, Texas. To those who want to be an ally, she says one of the most important things to do is listen.

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Central Texans are expressing solidarity and concern after Saturday’s deadly white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Sunday

http://tpr.org/post/after-charlottesville-central-texans-wrestle-how-listen-and-support

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Work Can Be Stressful, Dangerous And Sometimes Great

If you think your job is more stressful than it should be, you're not alone. Americans work hard, and it takes a physical and mental toll, not to mention that it frequently cuts into personal time, according to a comprehensive survey on working conditions the nonpartisan RAND Corporation published Monday. But having a good boss and good friends on the job can make work feel less taxing. In 2015, RAND researchers, along with Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles, began collecting data from over 3,000 people from all income and education levels who work or have worked in all types of jobs. What they discovered about how we work may help inform policymakers looking to grow the economy and employers looking to retain the best workers. This kind of data, examining workplace conditions in the U.S., has not been collected for decades. "We have excellent data on wages, on training ... but we don't know much about the conditions of work," says Nicole Maestas, an economist and associate health care policy professor at Harvard Medical School who is the lead researcher on this study. What the researchers found was that more than 1 in 4 Americans surveyed say they don't have enough time to do their jobs, with about half of Americans reporting that they do some work in their free time. This was most prevalent among white-collar workers. Two-thirds of all workers say they frequently work under tight deadlines or at high speed. In addition, 1 in 5 reported experiencing verbal abuse, threats, humiliating behavior or unwanted sexual attention at work in the past month; or they experienced bullying, harassment or sexual harassment in the past year. "One thing that really struck me was the high prevalence of hostile social interactions at work," says Maestas. Her survey found that while such interactions were seen across the board, verbal abuse was much more common in customer service jobs and experienced at the highest rates among men who did not graduate from college. Younger women and women of "prime age," defined in the survey as ages 35-49, experienced the most unwanted sexual attention. But people who have "good" bosses — or bosses who respect them, praise them, work with them and give feedback — were less likely to have workers who reported verbal or physical threats, Maestra notes. "Maybe bad bosses are part of the problem," she says, when it comes to a hostile work environment. American workers feel, by and large, that they have a reasonable amount of autonomy on the job and are confident in their skills. Still, many workers, particularly those in service jobs and without a college degree, have little control over their work schedules. Some experience schedule changes the day of work or the day before. New York and San Francisco have passed laws requiring employers to make schedules more predictable, and Oregon may become the first state to require at least a week's notice of duty hours for certain service jobs so employees can plan doctors' appointments and child care and get to their second jobs. Despite multiple studies showing the benefits of telecommuting, it is still a rare option for many workers. The RAND survey found that 78 percent of employees are required to show up at their workplaces during regular business hours. No matter where we work, friendships play an important role in how we perceive our jobs. Sixty-one percent of women agree with the statement "I have very good friends at work," while 53 percent of men agreed. While the emotional support helps, many jobs are simply tough on the body. Seventy-five percent of people surveyed report intense or repetitive physical exertion on the job at least 25 percent of the time. While workers who don't have a college education report greater physical challenges on the job — think health care aides and construction workers — college-educated and older workers face significant physical challenges as well, particularly in the medical and sales fields where they are lifting heavy items and on their feet most of the day. The physical exertion of their jobs may be why some older Americans retire early. It's also a prime consideration for many seniors who say they would consider going back to work for the "right" job, Maestas says. "We've got more people retiring than ever, and there just aren't enough younger workers to both release retirees and grow the economy," she says, so employers should take notice of workplace conditions if they want to retain older, experienced workers. Additionally, 55 percent of workers report they are exposed to physical risks like smoke, fumes, infectious materials, extreme temperatures and vibrations from hand tools about 25 percent of the time. "That was strikingly high," Maestas says. Saba Waheed, the research director at UCLA's Labor Center who was not involved in the study, says she was also surprised by the extent of the health and safety challenges revealed in the survey. "We have a lot of great laws, but we need better enforcement," she says. While she largely praises the survey's comprehensiveness, Waheed says she would have like to see how workers fared along hourly versus non-hourly lines, as well as the experiences reported by part-time versus full-time workers. "I would really love to see race in here," she says, as well. Maestas says that the survey did not break down workers by race because doing so would have resulted in numbers too small to be statistically significant. The American Working Conditions Survey is based on a European workplace survey conducted every five years. Maestas and her team plan to compare the U.S. data with European data in 2018. The survey was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Social Security Administration.

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If you think your job is more stressful than it should be, you're not alone. Americans work hard, and it takes a physical and mental toll, not to

http://tpr.org/post/work-can-be-stressful-dangerous-and-sometimes-great

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Merck CEO Resigns From A Trump Business Council, Citing His Conscience

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier is leaving President Trump's American Manufacturing Council, saying, "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism." The resignation came after Trump was criticized for his response to the violence at white supremacist events in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend. The president, famous for his ability to be direct and forceful, was faulted for condemning violence "on many sides." Within an hour of Merck announcing Frazier's withdrawal, Trump retorted on Twitter, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned ... he will have more time to lower ripoff drug prices!" In a statement on his resignation, Frazier said, "America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal." Frazier, who is African-American, said he was acting as both the CEO of Merck and "as a matter of personal conscience." The rift did not seem to harm Merck's stock: The drug company's shares rose by nearly a full percentage point in the first hour of trading, to nearly $63. Members of his own party have called on Trump to condemn Saturday's killing of a woman who had been protesting white supremacists as an act of domestic terrorism. The White House later stated that Trump was including "white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups" in his remarks about the violence. Frazier's departure is the latest high-profile exit from a White House advisory council since Trump took office in January. After Trump announced in June that the U.S. would be leaving the Paris climate accord, both Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Disney CEO Bob Iger left his business advisory council. Months earlier, in February, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick left the same panel during the fallout from Trump's executive order that banned immigrants from seven Muslim countries. "The executive order is hurting many people in communities all across America," Kalanick said at the time.

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Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier is leaving President Trump's American Manufacturing Council, saying, "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against

http://tpr.org/post/merck-ceo-resigns-trump-business-council-citing-his-conscience

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Nurse Wins Prize For Research On Benefits Of Faster Tuberculosis Testing

There was a time when Chenai Mathabire read Vogue, watched beauty pageants on TV and fantasized about being a supermodel. Today she helps the sick and injured as a nurse and epidemiologist. Last month, the 35-year-old Zimbabwean received an International AIDS Society prize for showing that a faster tuberculosis test could be implemented at health centers in southeast Africa. Her work will help save the lives of HIV-positive patients who contract TB. "Nursing is often looked down upon and people just think you are there to be the maid of the doctor or do the dirty work. But teachers made me realize that nurses have a big role to play," says Mathabire. In Zimbabwe's bustling capital, Harare, Mathabire earned high enough points in her studies to pursue a degree in physiotherapy, occupational therapy or nursing at university. She chose to become a nurse — the first nurse in her family. In 2008, she was between jobs and Zimbabwe was facing economic problems. Mathabire decided to apply for a job at Doctors Without Borders. The work took her into some of Africa's grimmest situations. She helped diagnose malnourished children with HIV, tuberculosis, pneumonia and malaria in Zimbabwe. Then she supervised workers who were teaching HIV-positive pregnant women how to protect their children from the virus. After that, she worked in a mobile hospital in South Sudan, treating gunshot wounds during a tribal war. In 2015, she was recruited for her first research assignment at Doctors Without Borders, work that would eventually earn her an International AIDS Society prize. She knew that TB was the No. 1 killer of HIV-positive patients from her previous work, but she didn't know about the rapid tuberculosis test until she read the study's protocol. She was eager to get started on the project. For two years, Mathabire and a team explored how easily health clinics and hospitals in the Chiradzulu District of Malawi and the Chamanculo District of Mozambique could implement the tuberculosis test for HIV patients, who are more susceptible to the infection. In Malawi and Mozambique, HIV is the leading cause of death. It is often spread through unprotected sex, and it has wiped out 27 percent of Malawi's and 24 percent of Mozambique's populations according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finding out whether an HIV-positive person has tuberculosis is a matter of life and death. Mathabire remembers a Malawi man in his early 30s who left a clinic untreated. The rapid test, which analyzes a molecule in the patient's urine with a paper strip, had shown that he had TB. A coughing test didn't. But doctors weren't referring patients for the rapid test in their assessment of the man. It hadn't yet been approved by the Ministry of Health which was awaiting the World Health Organization's policy guidance. The man died before he could go back to get help. His story wasn't unique, Mathabire says. "It's very sad but then you realize why you are doing the study — to prevent this from happening," she says. "You start to realize the urgency of what you are doing." Under normal circumstances, patients are given cough tests or chest X-rays to test for TB. Mathabire's team found that it takes an average of two to four days for results, but the wait could drag on for months. Though the government of Malawi pays for certain medical care, including tuberculosis treatment, patients might not have the money to pay for a bus ride to the hospital or clinic for follow-up visits. And more remote clinics don't always have the resources to transport samples to hospitals. With the rapid TB test, sick patients could begin treatment the same day. Mathabire's data showed that the test provided results in less than an hour. Staff in Malawi and Mozambique could be trained to administer the test in just a few hours. And doctors, nurses and clinical officers said it was easy to interpret the bands on the test strips. Mathabire also found that patients weren't skeptical of a new method. They really wanted to take the high-tech test. Mainly peasant farmers, they took the words of the health workers seriously. "Everybody basically knew somebody that had died of HIV [and opportunistic infections] in a terrible way," she says. It was like that in Zimbabwe too. The team's findings, published by Doctors Without Borders this year, has led some of the health centers where the aid group works to embrace rapid TB testing. It could pave the way for more facilities to incorporate the test it into their health systems, meaning faster care for the sickest of HIV patients. In a statement, International AIDS Society president Linda-Gail Bekker said that Mathabire's research will "support the next generation of investigators whose work can help to change the course of this epidemic." Mathabire still works for Doctors Without Borders and is considering conducting more research on HIV and tuberculosis. But her award-winning research isn't the only major event of her summer. She moved to Falun, central Sweden, to marry an infectious disease specialist whom she worked with in Zimbabwe. True to her early love of fashion, she's sewing her own wedding dress, with glass beads, silk and lace. Sasha Ingber is a multimedia journalist who has covered science, culture and foreign affairs for such publications as National Geographic, The Washington Post Magazine and Smithsonian. You can contact her @SashaIngber.

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There was a time when Chenai Mathabire read Vogue, watched beauty pageants on TV and fantasized about being a supermodel. Today she helps the sick and

http://tpr.org/post/nurse-wins-prize-research-benefits-faster-tuberculosis-testing

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At Least 18 Dead After Gunmen Seize A Cafe For Hours In Burkina Faso

Gunmen stormed an upscale cafe overnight in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, strafing the building with bullets and barricading themselves inside for hours. By the time security forces reclaimed the restaurant around dawn Monday, at least 18 people had been killed and eight others wounded, according to local authorities. The West African nation's communications minister, Remis Dandjinou, told reporters Monday that by daybreak, two of the attackers had been killed and several foreign nationals were among the dead. In separate statements, officials in Paris and Ankara confirmed the victims include a French citizen and Turkish citizen, while another Turk was injured in the violence. While Burkinabe officials blamed Islamist militants for the attack on the Turkish cafe, no one group immediately claimed responsibility. "I salute the bravery of our security and defense forces whose engagement allowed us to neutralize the terrorists," Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a statement, as translated by CNN. "The struggle against terrorism is a lengthy fight," he added. "That is why I am calling for vigilance, solidarity and unity of the whole nation to face up to the cowardice of our enemies." In a news conference Monday, Dandjinou detailed the night's bloody events, which opened when he says about three to four militants rolled up to the cafe on motorcycles around 9 p.m. local time. They opened fire on an outside seating area outside then moved indoors, where The New York Times notes a family had been celebrating a 9-year-old boy's birthday. The newspaper reports the boy was hospitalized with injuries from the attack. For Burkinabes, the attack on Aziz Istanbul cafe, which is popular with foreigners, prompts bitter memories of another bloody episode just over 18 months ago. In January last year, militants conducted an hours-long raid on a luxury hotel and a cafe just blocks away from Aziz Istanbul, ultimately killing some 30 people before being dislodged by security forces. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a militant group based in the region, claimed responsibility for that attack — as well as another deadly assault just months before in neighboring Mali. Islamist groups have been active for years in the Sahel region, which includes Mali and Burkina Faso. As groups linked to al-Qaida have carried out attacks in the area, the Times points out that the United Nations peacekeeping mission to Mali "has become one of the most dangerous in the world." The French government — which controlled Burkina Faso, then called Upper Volta, as a colony until 1960 — says President Emmanuel Macron met with Kabore on Monday to discuss the circumstances of the latest attack. The pair of leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the formation of an international security force in the Sahel region to "continue the fight against terrorist groups."

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Gunmen stormed an upscale cafe overnight in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, strafing the building with bullets and barricading themselves inside

http://tpr.org/post/least-18-dead-after-gunmen-seize-cafe-hours-burkina-faso

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PHOTOS: 'Almost Edible' 106-Year-Old Fruitcake Found In Antarctica

Fruitcake is known to stay fresh for an inordinate amount of time. But Antarctic conservators say they recently came upon a specimen that tests the limits of the treat: a 106-year-old cake, found in one of Antarctica's first buildings. This particular cake is believed to have been brought over in 1910 during the Terra Nova expedition of Robert Falcon Scott. According to the Antarctic Heritage Trust, "it has been documented that Scott took this particular brand of cake with him at that time." The Huntley & Palmers fruitcake was wrapped in paper and housed in a tin-plated iron alloy tin, which is showing signs of deterioration. However, the cake itself is "well-preserved," the conservators say. "There was a very, very slight rancid butter smell to it, but other than that, the cake looked and smelled edible!" the Trust's Programme Manager-Artefacts Lizzie Meek said in a statement. "There is no doubt that the extreme cold in Antarctica has assisted its preservation." The century-old dessert was found with nearly 1,500 other artifacts from two huts at Cape Adare. According to the Trust, the first buildings on the continent "were built by Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink's expedition in 1899 and later used by Captain Scott's party in 1911." Meek says the team members were finishing up their work collecting objects when they were surprised to find the old dessert. She adds that even present day explorers love a good fruitcake: "It's an ideal high-energy food for Antarctic conditions, and is still a favorite item on modern day trips to the ice." The cake's sheer density probably helps. As NPR's Maria Godoy has reported, people doing outdoor work in the Antarctic need about 5,000 calories a day — and more like 6,500 if you're involved in manhauling, which is "pulling sleds across the ice and snow with their bodies." Maria writes that there's one clear lesson that Antarctic explorers have learned over the years: "When life is stripped down to man versus the most brutal elements, bring plenty of snacks." This is something Scott's team knew — in fact, Maria says that "his party conducted a study that suggested a high-carb, high-fat diet to be optimal for the harsh climes." But tragically, explorers on Antarctic expeditions were often hungry. Scott himself starved to death while on the return journey from the South Pole. The objects recovered from Cape Adare — including a watercolor painting of a Tree Creeper bird by scientist Edward Wilson — are undergoing conservation treatment and will be returned there, because the huts are deemed an Antarctic Specially Protected Area. That will happen after restoration work is finished on the buildings themselves.

tpr.org

Fruitcake is known to stay fresh for an inordinate amount of time. But Antarctic conservators say they recently came upon a specimen that tests the limits

http://tpr.org/post/photos-almost-edible-106-year-old-fruitcake-found-antarctica

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Popular Pesticides Keep Bumblebees From Laying Eggs

Wild bees, such as bumblebees, don't get as much love as honeybees, but they should. They play just as crucial a role in pollinating many fruits, vegetables, and wildflowers, and compared to managed colonies of honeybees, they're in much greater jeopardy. A group of scientists in the United Kingdom decided to look at how bumblebee queens are affected by some widely used and highly controversial pesticides known as neonicotinoids. What they found isn't pretty. Neonics, as they're often called, are applied as a coating on the seeds of some of the most widely grown crops in the country, including corn, soybeans, and canola. These pesticides are "systemic" — they move throughout the growing plants. Traces of them end up in pollen, which bees consume. Neonicotinoid residues also have been found in the pollen of wildflowers growing near fields and in nearby streams. The scientists, based at Royal Holloway University of London, set up a laboratory experiment with bumblebee queens. They fed those queens a syrup containing traces of a neonicotinoid pesticide called thiamethoxam, and the amount of the pesticide, they say, was similar to what bees living near fields of neonic-treated canola might be exposed to. Bumblebee queens exposed to the pesticide were 26 percent less likely to lay eggs, compared to queens that weren't exposed to the pesticide. The team published their findings in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. "Without the queen laying eggs, there is no colony," says Nigel Raine, one of the scientists who conducted the experiment. Raine helped start the experiment, but has since moved to the University of Guelph in Canada. According to Raine and his colleagues, the reduction in reproduction is so large that wild bumblebee populations exposed to these chemicals could enter a spiral of decline and eventually die out. "To me, based on the data we have, it seems like quite a big impact," Raine says. But he says scientists don't know how harmful the pesticide exposure is in the wild, compared to other perils the bees face, such as disappearing wildflowers that bees rely on for food. "I don't think we have a really good handle on how important, say, nutrition limitation is — if they can't find the right flowers. Or parasite loads. I'd say [neonic exposure] is important and significant, but other factors may be important and significant, too," he says. The results are likely to strengthen calls for further restrictions on use of the pesticides. The European Union imposed a temporary moratorium on use of neonicotinoid pesticides on many crops in 2013, and is now considering proposals to make that moratorium permanent. Pesticide companies and some farmers are fighting those restrictions. They argue that the moratorium has led to lower yields of canola and an increase in spraying of other pesticides to fight insects that previously were controlled by neonicotinoid coatings on seeds.

tpr.org

Wild bees, such as bumblebees, don't get as much love as honeybees, but they should. They play just as crucial a role in pollinating many fruits,

http://tpr.org/post/popular-pesticides-keep-bumblebees-laying-eggs

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Peep Show: Watch Us Calculate The Speed Of Light With Stale Easter Treats

If you just celebrated Easter, you might have some stale marshmallow Peeps lying around the house. And if you want to avoid eating those Peeps, they are the perfect material for a science experiment you can do in your own kitchen. With the help of a ruler and a microwave, you can use leftover Peeps to calculate one of the constants of the universe — the speed of light. It might sound crazy, but all will be revealed in this video from NPR's science YouTube channel, Skunk Bear. As a bonus, you'll also get to see animated Peeps illustrate the history of the search for the speed of light going back to Galileo.

tpr.org

If you just celebrated Easter, you might have some stale marshmallow Peeps lying around the house. And if you want to avoid eating those Peeps, they

http://tpr.org/post/peep-show-watch-us-calculate-speed-light-stale-easter-treats

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Could A San Antonio Federal Panel Resolve Texas’ Redistricting Issue After Six Years?

It might be hard to believe, but Texas’s voting maps, those lines that decide where your representative district is and what seat you’re voting for, have been in flux for the past six years. As heard on Texas Public Radio Large swaths of the state from Dallas to San Antonio out towards El Paso have had their congressional and state House districts disputed since 2011. That’s when the state’s Republican-led legislature re-drew the maps. The Texas Constitution requires the state legislature re-draw these districts after each census, to make sure these geographic boundaries contain the same amount of people. Minority advocacy groups did not like those 2011 maps, and said they were deliberately designed to negatively affect African American and Latino voters. Cue lawsuits, court battles, and then just last month a panel of federal judges ruled three Texas congressional districts were illegal. So after all these years, it’s not surprising many Texans feel like Lelena Fisher, a graphic designer from Austin. Here’s what she told us: “I’ve been wondering about the status of Texas’ redistricting? With all the drawn and redrawn maps, the court cases and all the time that has passed, it’s easy to lose track of this fundamental important issue, Fisher says. To understand where we’re headed, let’s look at where we’ve been. Minority advocacy groups sued the state in response to the maps the Texas legislature approved in 2011. But the 2012 election was just around the corner, so a federal court implemented its own interim maps. The legislature liked those maps, and officially adopted them during the 2013 legislative session. Problem solved, right? No. People like former state-Rep. Trey Martinez Fisher says those maps still intentionally diluted what had been traditional concentrations of Latino and African American voters. “In this instance they said ‘well lets draw some districts that look like minority opportunity districts but they’ll never have the opportunity because we can tell from election data that it will never elect a candidate of its choice,” Fisher says. Cue another lawsuit. Martinez Fisher sits on the board of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and led that 2013 lawsuit against the state. Republican lawmakers disputed the lawsuit’s claims. They said the maps the court had drawn were sufficient and should stand. Since then the issue has kind of been in limbo. When Texans voted for their statehouse and congressional reps in 2014, they used those maps. The case just sitting in federal court until this past March, that’s when three-judge panel from San Antonio decided Texas congressional redistricting efforts were intentionally drawn to discriminate against minority voters. According to Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat who leads the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, It happened in a few ways. “Whether they adopted in some areas of the state a packing technique that packed minorities into districts to dilute their voting strength or they cracked them in a way that you would a wagon wheel, where you take a concentrated community and break it up into multiple districts,” Anchia explains. Anchia, Fisher and the rest of MALC are still in court, scrambling to neutralize the maps before voters go to the polls in 2018. So what happens now? After last month’s decision by the federal court in San Antonio, they called the state and plaintiff groups to court on April 27th. They’ll try to figure out if there’s a quick way the court could remedy the situation. If not, they could order the legislature to handle it. But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has said he doesn’t see the need for the legislature to get involved until after the release of the next US census in 2020. “We will be back in session very shortly, in two years and that will be the session that begins to prepare us for the 2021 maps, so I don’t see any move to do that this session,” Patrick says. House lawmakers agree with him. They voted against dealing with redistricting this year. That’s why Nina Perales, the lead attorney in the current lawsuit, says what happens next will come from the federal court system, not the state Legislature and they’re running out of time. “Candidate filing opens in November of 2017, we have to have lines draw in time for the start of candidate this fall. And so there’s a lot of time pressure on the court right now to make some decisions before the election schedule overtakes us,” Perales explains. Otherwise Perales says the federal district court in San Antonio will have to delay the start of the 2018 election. As for the disputed 2013 House maps, the court is expected to release its opinion on them by end of this month or in early May.

tpr.org

It might be hard to believe, but Texas’s voting maps, those lines that decide where your representative district is and what seat you’re voting for, have

http://tpr.org/post/could-san-antonio-federal-panel-resolve-texas-redistricting-issue-after-six-years

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Ride Hailing In Rural America: Like Uber With A Neighborly Feel

It's easy enough for people who live in cities to hail a ride, either from a taxi or a service like Uber or Lyft. There's plenty of demand, and plenty of drivers. A startup is trying to bring a similar service to rural America, but it has required some creative thinking. The town of Van Wert sits on the western edge of Ohio. It's a stretch of flat farm country punctuated with grain silos and a stone castle that's listed as the nation's first county public library. It doesn't seem like the first place a ride-hailing service would likely come. But Erica Petrie says maybe that's a mistake. Petrie is the mobility manager of the seven-county Area Agency on Aging. Her job is to find transportation options in Van Wert, which has no buses, one cab and a lot of needs. "The quick turnaround needs: 'Can someone help me get to the doctor?' We see short-term needs: 'Normally I'm able to drive, but my car's in the shop,' " she says. So Petrie helped recruit Liberty Mobility Now to Van Wert. The startup began in Nebraska about two years ago and has expanded to Texas and Ohio. It's also on its way to Colorado. Founder Valerie Lefler grew up on a dairy farm and worked on rural transportation issues at the University of Nebraska. She created Liberty as a business, but she talks about it as a mission — one requiring drivers to do more than leave customers at the door. "We really look for folks who are altruistic, that would want to do this anyway because that's what they would do for their best friend or their own mother," Lefler says. One of those people is Shelia Mendoza, whose mission in life, she says, is to be a grandma. Mendoza has worked for a dry cleaner and at a Wal-Mart. She's sold insurance, made RV cabinets and briefly ran Shelia's Cornucopia Cove. And when Liberty came to Van Wert two months ago, she was one of about a dozen drivers recruited and trained. The grandmother of 17 and self-described talker was a natural. That's because while part of Liberty's model is built on an app designed to work in rural geographies, much more of it is built on relationships. For example, Mendoza developed a relationship with her first customer who'd lost his license but found a job: the midnight shift at a meat processing plant. A county agency was willing to cover transportation costs for a few weeks until he could get his license back. "I always had him there five to 10 minutes early," Mendoza says. "We would stop and get coffee sometimes ... before he would go to work. Once in a while he paid for mine." Since he regained his license, things have slowed down for Mendoza. "I was happy he got his car, I was happy he got his license. He's a better person for that because I know he hated getting hauled around by an old lady," she says and laughs. She's hoping business will pick up, and her hopes rest with a lower-tech option Liberty is launching: a call center for those who don't or can't use an app. "I've heard a lot of people say, 'Well, I don't want nothing like that on my phone; I don't have room,' " she says. Scott Bogren of the Community Transportation Association of America, which specializes in smaller and rural transportation issues, says the call center shows that Liberty understands its target community. "The adult children of these seniors who can book rides for mom — they're going to use an online service," he says. "And combine that with the ability for mom to call in and talk to somebody that she can get to know — there's the sweet spot." Because of chronic transportation needs, Liberty is partnering with United Ways, hospitals, health departments and other social service agencies. Rides cost $1.25 to book and $1 per mile. The fees are a small fraction of what the cabbie charges, but Liberty says it will also make referrals if the taxi's a better fit. Petrie says all of that captures the spirit of the area. "I like that the drivers are from the communities," she says. "People are I think more polite, more neighborly. That's just what is going to fit here." Liberty Mobility is hoping to find similar fits all across America. M.L. Schultze is a reporter with NPR member station WKSU. You can follow her @MLSchultze.

tpr.org

It's easy enough for people who live in cities to hail a ride, either from a taxi or a service like Uber or Lyft. There's plenty of demand, and

http://tpr.org/post/ride-hailing-rural-america-uber-neighborly-feel

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Charlottesville Violence Highlights Cities' Struggle To Balance Rights And Safety

"How do you reconcile public safety and the First Amendment?" That's the question Charlottesville, Va., Mayor Mike Signer asked in an interview on Sunday. And it's a question city and state governments are likely grappling with after the weekend's violence in Charlottesville. Around the country, white nationalists and other groups have protested efforts to remove statues and other symbols of the Confederacy. As counter-demonstrators arrive to protest the white nationalists, the resulting scenes are often tense and brimming with the potential for violence. State and local officials prepared for Saturday's protests in Charlottesville, which were known about for months. But in the wake of fierce brawling in the streets of the usually quiet college town, and then a driver plowing his car into a crowd of pedestrians, killing one and injuring 19, many are asking what Charlottesville authorities could have done differently—and what could be done to prevent such violence in the future. City Permitting and Free Speech Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told NPR's Morning Edition that local authorities had done what they could to head off the fighting that erupted, but that they were foiled by a federal judge's decision to allow the Unite The Right rally to go on in Charlottesville's Emancipation Park. Charlottesville tried to revoke the permit it had issued for the rally to be held in Emancipation Park, in order to move the protestors about a mile away to McIntire Park, which offered more open space. "That was the place it should have been. We were unfortunately sued by the ACLU and the judge ruled against us," McAuliffe said. "That rally should not have been in the middle of downtown ... where [people] dispersed all over the city streets, and it became a powder keg. We've got to look at these permits, and we've got to look at where we put these rallies and protesters." The ACLU responded that the injunction was the city's fault because it mounted a weak legal case. "The Governor's anger about what happened is understandable," ACLU Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Hastings said in a statement to NPR. "We are angry, too. The situation that occurred was preventable, and our lawsuit challenging the City to act constitutionally did not cause it. ... All we did was ask the City to live up to the requirements of the Constitution. That it failed to do so is on the City, not us." Charlottesville Police Tactics Scrutinized Also under scrutiny was the action – or inaction – of the Charlottesville police. McAuliffe told Morning Edition that the police did "a magnificent job," and said the potential for violence had been high. "They had to be very careful," the governor said. "We had been planning for this for a while. We had to show tremendous restraint because ... these people all came armed. I've never seen so many weapons. These people were wearing better gear than my own state police were wearing. They had body armor, helmets. I mean people were walking around with semi-automatic rifles through the streets." "[If] one person fired one shot, it would have been a melee, and I would be talking to you today with a lot of body bags. None of that happened." "Think of this," McAuliffe said. "Not one window was shattered, not one ounce of property damage, not one shot fired, and not one person went to the hospital, except for the 19 who were hit by a car terrorist. Which, you can't, you know – there's no preparation's that's gonna prepare for some nut, some murderer, who's going to turn his car into a weapon and run through a crowd." But both protesters and counter-protesters criticized the police response. "There was no police presence," Brittany Caine-Conley, a minister in training who locked arms with other clergy members in counter-protest, told The New York Times. "We were watching people punch each other; people were bleeding all the while police were inside of barricades at the park, watching. It was essentially just brawling on the street and community members trying to protect each other." Princeton professor and activist Cornel West, who was also at the protest, told The Washington Post "the police didn't do anything in terms of protecting the people of the community, the clergy." The Unite The Right rally's organizer, Jason Kessler, was also critical. "Charlottesville refused to honor permit as ordered by a federal judge. CPD didn't even show up until 1.5 hrs into the permit," he tweeted. "Inside the park was peaceful. Outbreaks of violence occurred where police refused to separate or even pushed the feuding groups together." White nationalist Richard Spencer, another organizer, said the police had failed to protect the people who had gathered for the rally. "We came here as a demonstration of our movement," Spencer told the Post. "And we were effectively thrown to the wolves." The ACLU's Hastings also criticized the policing on Saturday, which she said "was not designed to be ... effective in preventing violence." "I was there and brought concerns directly to the Secretary of Public Safety and the head of the State Police," said Hastings. "They did not respond. In fact, law enforcement was standing passively by, waiting for violence to take place, so that they would have grounds to declare an emergency, declare an 'unlawful assembly' and clear the area." Charles Ramsey, who formerly headed the police in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., told the Post that demonstrators and counter-demonstrators "need to be in sight and sound of each other, but somebody has to be in between .... That's usually the police." "The whole point is to have overwhelming force so that people don't get the idea they can do these kinds of things and get away with it," he said. An NPR request for comment from the Charlottesville Police Department was not returned. Lt. Joseph Hatter, a commander with the Charlottesville police, told the Post that officers tried to create separate areas. "It didn't work, did it?" he admitted. "I think there was a plan to have them separated. They didn't want to be separated." He told the newspaper that he doesn't know that police waited to react to the violence. "I think we did the best we could under the circumstances." Public Assembly and Public Space Questions about how governments manage protests are likely to continue, and to be argued in court. On Friday, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction, ruling that the city could not revoke the permit it had issued to Kessler to hold the demonstration in Emancipation Park. In his opinion, Judge Glen Conrad said Kessler was likely to prevail on his claim that Charlottesville's decision to revoke his permit was content-based. "Kessler's assertion in this regard is supported by the fact that the City solely revoked his permit, but left in place the permits issued to counter-protestors," Conrad wrote. "The disparity in treatment between the two groups with opposing views suggests that the defendants' decision to revoke Kessler's permit was based on the content of his speech rather than other neutral factors that would be equally applicable to Kessler and those protesting against him. This conclusion is bolstered by other evidence, including communications on social media indicating that members of City Council oppose Kessler's political viewpoint." The judge wrote further that though the city maintained its decision to revoke Kessler's permit was due to the number of people likely to attend his demonstration, "their concerns in this regard are purely speculative." He added, "there is no evidence to support the notion that many thousands of individuals are likely to attend the demonstration." Following the events in Charlottesville, those worried about potential violence have fresh evidence. Public protests can become especially complicated when people are carrying guns and dressed in full camouflage, as some did this weekend in Charlottesville. McAuliffe argues officials need help from the courts if governments are to maintain public safety while allowing people to exercise their First Amendment rights. "We've got to get a better understanding with these judges to understand our job is to keep our community safe," he said. "The judiciary needs to do a better job of working with us." And the ACLU's Hastings says that whatever strategies authorities use, they need to be lawful and in keeping with the Constitution: "It is my firm hope and desire that the Governor and other local officials will learn from this past weekend how constitutionally to prevent events like the horror we saw in Charlottesville."

tpr.org

"How do you reconcile public safety and the First Amendment?" That's the question Charlottesville, Va., Mayor Mike Signer asked in an

http://tpr.org/post/charlottesville-violence-highlights-cities-struggle-balance-rights-and-safety

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With Six Weeks Left, Can The House And Senate Reconcile Their Differences?

From Texas Standard: As the legislative session heads into its final six weeks, lawmakers have a lot left to do. They face the task of reconciling budgets passed by the House and Senate into a single document. They must act on the governor’s emergency agenda items. And they’ll need to decide the fate of the more than 6,000 bills filed during the session. Texas Tribune Executive Editor Ross Ramsey says conflicts between House and Senate Republicans that have been brewing all session will continue to play out as the two bodies work to produce a final budget for the state. “We’re at the greatest difference right now,” Ramsey says. “This is a pretty normal state of affairs. They rattle their swords a bunch, and then five members from each body go into a room and go line by line through the budget and reconcile their differences. So they’re making a lot of noises right now. They have plenty of time to fix it. They do have some really significant differences to close though.“ Among the most high-profile fights this session has been the so-called ‘bathroom bill’ which would require people to use the bathroom associated with the gender on their birth certificate in selected public places. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is the bill’s staunchest advocate, and House Speaker Joe Straus is against it. The fight, Ramsey says, is partly about how conservative voters and business backers of the party differ no the bill. “The Republicans in the Legislature are in a little bit of a box,” Ramsey says. “It looks like their voters are mostly for the bathroom bill. But if you poll businesses that have been supporters of conservatives, they’re against this bill. They think it’s discriminatory.” But Republicans disagree about more than the bathroom bill, and that conflict is reflected in the makeup of each legislative chamber, Ramsey says. “A long time ago we had a two-party state and both parties were Democrats,” he says. “And now we’ve got a two-party state where both parties are Republicans. The House is sort of the traditional, mainstream Republican party...The Senate is dominated more by movement conservatives, social conservatives and populists. And the two leaders of those bodies, Joe Straus in the House and Dan Patrick in the Senate, kind of embody those different Republican parties.” Ramsey says there’s also a difference in the way the chambers move through their work. “The Senate tends to work more quickly, in a more populist way,” he says. “The House tends to be the place where things slow down, and get a slow consideration and maybe pass and maybe die. “ Of course, there is another party represented in the Legislature. Ramsey says Democrats have had limited success in advocating for their priorities. “The Democrats have a bigger voice in the House,” Ramsey says. “They have bigger numbers. They’re more likely to vote against things and rattle around and make people come to them to make deals.” A few measures have attracted bipartisan support, Ramsey says, and two are priorities for the governor as well. One of these is anti-sanctuary city legislation, which Ramsey thinks will be approved by both houses. Fixes to the state’s child protective services system are also on the governor's emergency agenda, and Ramsey expects the chambers to pass legislation. “It looks like the members of both houses from both parties agree that child protective services in Texas is messed up, and needs some help, and needs some money,” he says. “And I think they’ve done both of those things. They’ve got some legislation moving. They’re throwing a bunch of money at it.” Written by Shelly Brisbin.

tpr.org

2017-04-03 00:00:00

From Texas Standard: As the legislative session heads into its final six weeks, lawmakers have a lot left to do. They face the task of reconciling budgets

http://tpr.org/post/six-weeks-left-can-house-and-senate-reconcile-their-differences

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Erdogan Says Monitors Questioning Turkey's Vote Should 'Know Their Place'

A day after he declared a narrow victory in a referendum vote that radically expands presidential powers, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is criticizing elections observers and their concerns about the fairness of the vote. Decrying a "crusader mentality," Erdogan told a crowd of his supporters that the international monitors should "know their place," according to Reuters. Erdogan added that Turkey did not "see, hear or acknowledge" the reports of irregularities from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Preliminary returns say the presidential proposal passed by just 51 percent of the vote. The European monitor released preliminary findings about Sunday's poll, saying the vote "took place on an unlevel playing field and the two sides of the campaign did not have equal opportunities." Its report states that "while the technical aspects of the referendum were well administered and referendum day proceeded in an orderly manner, late changes in counting procedures removed an important safeguard and were contested by the opposition." The OSCE also said the vote did not meet standards set by the Council of Europe. Allegations of vote rigging are uncommon in Turkey, Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy tells NPR. "We don't know whether the amount of vote fraud was significant enough to change the outcome — or more than 1 percent — but definitely something happened." But in a country that is deeply divided, "where it's almost half and half for and against Erdogan, if you even have allegations of voter fraud, whether or not it happened, his legitimacy will be completely and constantly questioned by that half that does not vote for him." That could present problems for Erdogan in the future, Cagaptay says. Acting State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said U.S. officials have noted the OSCE's concerns, according to Reuters. "We look forward to OSCE/ODIHR's final report, which we understand will take several weeks." Considering how tilted critics called the campaign, NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul says many were surprised at how close the vote was. "It's close enough that the opposition says it's going to challenge alleged irregularities," he says. "It might be an uphill fight. It could be days or longer before we know the final results." The new framework expands Erdogan's powers and means he could potentially stay in office until 2029. As Peter explains: "Power would be more concentrated under the presidency. "If the referendum is approved by majority vote, the office of prime minister would be abolished after the next elections, scheduled for 2019. Another body, the Council of Ministers, would also go, and all executive and administrative authority would be transferred to the president's office. ... "The change would increase Erdogan's influence over who runs for Parliament. "Cabinet ministers would no longer have to be members of Parliament, and the Parliament would not have power over Cabinet appointments — ministers would be appointed directly by the president." People who voted "Yes" say concentrating power in the hands of the presidency will make the country more stable, while critics say it will fundamentally undercut Turkey's democracy. Cagaptay says Erdogan "has become the most powerful person in the country's history in at least a century."

tpr.org

A day after he declared a narrow victory in a referendum vote that radically expands presidential powers, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is

http://tpr.org/post/erdogan-says-monitors-questioning-turkeys-vote-should-know-their-place

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San Antonio Seeking Feedback On Animal Care Services

Before making revisions Animal Care Services' strategic plan, the City is gathering public input on how to handle San Antonio's stray pet and animal population. There are also suggested changes to the Chapter 5 animal ordinance, which include a ban on tethering animals overnight and a limit to how many animals an individual can legally own. Citizens can share feedback through a series of public meetings, which began in February and will continue until mid-May. Proposals for ordinance changes will be submitted to City Council later this year. The next public meeting is scheduled tonight at Miller’s Pond Community Center from 6:30 to 8 p.m. For more dates and an online version of the survey, click here. Guests: Officer Shannon Sims, assistant director of the City of San Antonio's Animal Care Services department Lisa Norwood, public relations and outreach manager at the City of San Antonio's Animal Care Services department *Audio for this segment will be available by 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18

tpr.org

2017-02-27 00:00:00

Before making revisions Animal Care Services' strategic plan , the City is gathering public input on how to handle San Antonio's stray pet and animal

http://tpr.org/post/san-antonio-seeking-feedback-animal-care-services

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Real time energy financing and trading news

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Real time energy financing and trading news

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Real time energy financing and trading news

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Real time energy financing and trading news

Feb. 15, 2017 11:05 EST Welcome to SparkSpread.com This page is only available to subscribers. If you are already a subscriber, please log in below... Log in If you would like to register for a free trial to SparkSpread.com, click here

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Real time energy financing and trading news

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SBI, PNB, UBI cut lending rates by up to 0.9 pc

Agencies, New Delhi State Bank of India, the top public sector lender, along with other PSU lenders — Punjab National Bank and Union Bank — today cut their benchmark lending rates by up to 90 basis points, which is expected to boost credit demand and growth. The rate slash comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon banks to lend more to the poor and middle class. The SBI cut down its one-year marginal cost of funds lending rate (MCLR) by 0.9 percent from 8.90 percent to 8 percent for one-year tenure, while the PNB has cut its MCLR by 0.7 percent to 8.45 percent from 9.15 percent. The Union Bank of India reduced its rate by 0.65-0.9 percent to 8.65 percent. With the banks possessing huge liquidity by way of massive deposits following the demonetisation, the Government had been urging banks to pass to cut lending rate to benefit the borrowers. Welcoming the Banks’ decision, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said in a tweet, “Welcome reduction of interest rates by SBI. Loan disbursement expected to pick up. Positive for economy.’’ “Trend of Interest rate reduction follows demonetisation. Banks have substantial quantum of low cost Funds now,’’ Mr Das in another tweet.

www.centralchronicle.com

2017-01-02 11:05:00

Agencies, New Delhi State Bank of India, the top public sector lender, along with other PSU lenders — Punjab National Bank and Union Bank — today cut their

http://www.centralchronicle.com/sbi-pnb-ubi-cut-lending-rates-by-up-to-0-9-pc.html

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Mulayam rushes to Delhi to meet EC, cancels Jan 5 meet

Agencies, Lucknow Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, facing a ‘political coup” by his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, has rushed to Delhi to meet the Election Commission (EC) for derailing the efforts of Akhilesh to get the cycle election symbol. Mulayam Singh Yadav, accompanied by his younger brother Shivpal Yadav and friend Amar Singh, have reached Delhi to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi at 1400 hrs. Before leaving for New Delhi, Mulayam ruled out his health woes. “You see, I am fit” The SP chief further claimed that the party’s election symbol was his signature, hence there is no question of anyone getting it by holding an illegal meeting and toppling. “I have made this party with strong dedication and hard work, but now some people are trying to throw me out. “Media ne hamesha mera sath diya hai, maine koi bhrashtachar ya galat kaam nahi kiya. Ilzaam laga bhi toh SC ne mujhe bari kiya hai (Media has always supported me. I have never done any corruption or wrong thing. Once an allegation was made against me, but the Supreme Court had given me a clean chit),” he said. Earlier, Mulayam had also cancelled his proposed national convention here on January 5, after his son and UP CM put all spanners not to give permission to hold any meeting at the government venue. The meeting was slated to be held at the Janeshwar Mishra Park, where a meeting was held yesterday to declare Akhilesh as the party’s national president, removing Mulayam. Shivpal Singh Yadav, who was ousted by Akhilesh as the state party chief, today informed the media that the January 5 meet has been cancelled. However, he did not give any concrete reason for the cancellation. The January 5 was called after Akhilesh was declared the SP’s national president, in place of Mulayam. There were also reports that the state government had refused to give permission to hold a meeting at the Janeshwar Mishra Park. It seems that the rift is still not bridged as last night, even after Mulayam complained of high blood pressure, Akhilesh who stays at the adjoining bungalow, did not rush to see his father. Akhilesh said, “Sometimes to protect the ones you love, you must make the right decision.What I did was a tough decision, but 1 had to take it for the betterment of the party and the party supporters”.

www.centralchronicle.com

2017-01-02 13:45:00

Agencies, Lucknow Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, facing a 'political coup" by his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, has

http://www.centralchronicle.com/mulayam-rushes-to-delhi-to-meet-ec-cancels-jan-5-meet.html

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Akhilesh replaces Mulayam as party president

Agencies, Lucknow Termed as a novice in politics Akhilesh Yadav today was donned as the new president of Samajwadi Party replacing his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav, became youngest CM on March 15, 2012 at the age of 38 when he led the Samajwadi Party to power in the state after winning with majority seats. He played an important role in his party’s campaign for the 2012 UP assembly elections. In his 16 year political career, Akhilesh has become the youth icon of the state and his governance has given a new era of development in UP during the past five years. Mr Yadav was born on 1 July, 1973 in Saifai village in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh. His father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, is a four time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Mulayam Singh Yadav founded the Samajwadi Party in 1992 of which he was also a member. Today Akhilesh was declared as the national president of SP in a parallel national convention against his father. Mr Yadav completed his schooling at Dholpur Military School in Rajasthan. Thereafter, he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree course in Civil Environmental Engineering from Mysore University. He also studied in the University of Sydney, from where he holds a degree in Environmental Engineering. Mr Yadav married Dimple Yadav on November 24, 1999 and the couple have two daughters, Aditi and Tina, and a son, Arjun. Akhilesh has keen interest in sports such as football and cricket. His favourite pastimes include reading, listening to music and watching films. Mr Yadav was elected as a member of the Lok Sabha for the first time from Kannauj in 2000. From year 2000 to 2001, he served as a member of the Committee on Ethics. From year 2002 to 2004, he was a member of the Committee on Environment and Forests and also of the Committee on Science and Technologies. In 2004, he was re-elected as a member of the 14th Lok Sabha for a second term. From 2004 to 2009, he was members of Committee on Urban Development, Committee on Estimates, Committee on Provision of Computers to various departments. In 2009, he became member of the 15th Lok Sabha; he got re-elected for a third consecutive term. From 2009 to 2012, he served as member of the Committee on Environment & Forests, Committee on Science & Technology and the JPC on the 2G spectrum scam. On 10 March 2012, Akhilesh Yadav was appointed the leader of the Samajwadi Legislative Party in Uttar Pradesh. On 15 March 2012, at the age of 38 years, he became the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. On 2 May 2012, he resigned as member of the 15th Lok Sabha to become Member of Legislative Council in Uttar Pradesh. Though Akhilesh has been elected as the national president but it has to be seen whether his father Mulayam accepts it or not.

www.centralchronicle.com

2017-01-02 12:50:00

Agencies, Lucknow Termed as a novice in politics Akhilesh Yadav today was donned as the new president of Samajwadi Party replacing his father Mulayam Singh

http://www.centralchronicle.com/akhilesh-replaces-mulayam-as-party-president.html

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Long range Agni IV missile test fired from Abdul Kalam island off Odisha Coast

Agencies, Balasore India today test fired the most advanced long range missile system “Agni-4” from a Road Mobile System from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast. The missile, having a target range of 4000 kms and considered as one of its kind with many new technologies having capability to carry Strategic Warheads for the Forces, was test fired at 11:50 hours from the launch complex 4 of the Abdul Kalam island inside the Bay of Bengal. Defence sources said the Missile System is equipped with modern and compact Avionics with Redundancy to provide high level of reliability. The indigenous Ring Laser Gyros based high accuracy INS (RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINGS) complementing each other in redundant mode have been successfully flown in guidance mode. All the Radars and electro-optical systems along the Coast of Odisha have tracked and monitored all the parameters of the vehicle.

www.centralchronicle.com

2017-01-02 14:11:00

Agencies, Balasore India today test fired the most advanced long range missile system "Agni-4" from a Road Mobile System from the Abdul Kalam Island off the

http://www.centralchronicle.com/long-range-agni-iv-missile-test-fired-from-abdul-kalam-island-off-odisha-coast.html

http://www.centralchronicle.com/wp-content/themes/forester/images/favicon.ico

Petrol and diesel prices hiked by Rs 1.29/litre and Rs. 0.97/litre respectively

Agencies, New Delhi The oil companies including Indian Oil Corporation Limited have decided to effect the following price changes w.e.f. midnight of 1st / 2nd January 2017. Selling price of Petrol has been increased by Rs 1.29/litre (excluding State levies). Selling Price of Diesel has been increased by Rs. 0.97/litre (excluding State levies). The current level of international product prices of Petrol and Diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant increase in selling price of Petrol and Diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision. The movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes.

www.centralchronicle.com

2017-01-02 11:53:00

Agencies, New Delhi The oil companies including Indian Oil Corporation Limited have decided to effect the following price changes w.e.f. midnight of 1st /

http://www.centralchronicle.com/petrol-and-diesel-prices-hiked-by-rs-1-29litre-and-rs-0-97litre-respectively.html

http://www.centralchronicle.com/wp-content/themes/forester/images/favicon.ico

Jyotiraditya to begin ‘satyagraha’ from today

Agencies, Bhopal Congress MP and ex-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will sit on a ‘satyagraha’ in the Madhya Pradesh capital tomorrow in the support of farmers’ demand. Mr Scindia’s ‘satyagraha’ comes in the wake of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s fast for restoration of peace in t he state. “Necessary arrangements for the ‘satyagraha’ have been completed at the Dussehra Ground here. Besides Mr Scindia, Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh and the Congress’ state chief Arun Yadav would take part in the ‘satyagraha’. People from across the state would place their views during the ‘satyagraha’,” the Congress’ state spokesperson JP Dhaopiya said. Asked whether the party intended to bring the deceased peasants’ kin at the ‘satyagraha’ venue, he said Mr Scindia has gone to meet them in Mandsaur. Therefore, there is no plan to call them here. Mr Scindia was on his way to meet the deceased ryots’ family members. However, the district administration has not provided him requisite permission. “Madhya Pradesh’s farmers were agitating over their demands from June 1. On June 6, six peasants were killed in police firing in Mandsaur. Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh and I rushed from Dindori to Mandsaur but were not allowed to meet the peasants. Likewise, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi tried to reach Mandsaur but was prevented,” Mr Yadav told media here.

www.centralchronicle.com

2017-06-14 15:08:00

Agencies, Bhopal Congress MP and ex-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will sit on a ‘satyagraha’ in the Madhya Pradesh capital tomorrow in the support of

http://www.centralchronicle.com/jyotiraditya-to-begin-satyagraha-from-today.html

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Simulation shows swirling of smoke, sea salt, and dust around the world

NASA. Data. Good. Tracking the aerosols carried on the winds let scientists see the currents in our atmosphere. This visualization follows sea salt, dust, and smoke from July 31 to November 1, 2017, to reveal how these particles are transported across the map. The first thing that is noticeable is how far the particles can travel. Smoke from fires in the Pacific Northwest gets caught in a weather pattern and pulled all the way across the US and over to Europe. Hurricanes form off the coast of Africa and travel across the Atlantic to make landfall in the United States. Dust from the Sahara is blown into the Gulf of Mexico. To understand the impacts of aerosols, scientists need to study the process as a global system.

flowingdata.com

2017-12-11 09:03:30

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/12/11/simulation-shows-swirling-of-smoke-sea-salt-and-dust-around-the-world/

http://i0.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Aerosol-simulation.png?fit=1200%2C656

Download comprehensive police shootings data

Data for police shootings is usually the subset that only includes fatalities. Vice News made requests nationwide to get data on people who were shot but not killed by police. To accompany their story, Vice News made the data and code available for download: Ultimately, we obtained some data from 47 departments — with 4,099 incidents in all. Departments in New York’s Suffolk and Nassau Counties didn’t provide us with any data. Maryland’s Montgomery County Police Department gave us only partial incident-level information and no total number of police shootings, so we excluded them from the analysis. We put all this information together to analyze trends across the departments and to compare them with one another — the first time this has ever been done for both fatal and nonfatal shootings. Get the data and look for yourself.

flowingdata.com

2017-12-11 17:41:07

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/12/11/download-comprehensive-police-shootings-data/

http://i2.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Police-shootings.png?fit=1200%2C819

Waiting Game, through the steps of asylum seekers

Apr 24, 2018 Sisi Wei for ProPublica and Nick Fortugno of Playmatics made a game to provide a feeling of what it’s like for someone who needs escape from their home. Based on the real case files of five asylum seekers from five countries and interviews with the medical and legal professionals who evaluate and represent them, The Waiting Game is an experimental news game that lets you walk in the shoes of an asylum seeker, from the moment they choose to come to the United States to the final decision in the cases before an immigration judge. Take your time with this one, and use your headphones. In the game format, I felt more engrossed in the individual stories than I think if it were a linear profile story.

flowingdata.com

2018-04-24 15:42:23

FlowingData

https://flowingdata.com/2018/04/24/waiting-game-through-the-steps-of-asylum-seekers/

Game of Thrones character chart, you decide

I’ve never seen this Game of Thrones show, but I suspect this will be relevant to many. The Upshot made an interactive that asks readers to place characters on a two-axis chart. The x-axis spans evil to good, and the y-axis spans ugly to beautiful. The result is the above, plus contour plots for each character’s place in the space. Like I said, I don’t anything about the show, but I like the contour plots that have a split decision about beauty. For example, most people agree that Hodor is ugly, but there’s a small group who place him at max beauty. Similarly, Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton are clearly evil, but they have wide distributions on the ugly to beautiful scale. Decide for yourself.

flowingdata.com

2017-08-14 06:25:06

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/08/13/game-of-thrones-character-chart-you-decide/

http://i0.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Game-of-Thrones-character-chart.png?fit=1197%2C1200

Mappings for Choose Your Own Adventure books

Every now and then there’s a visual exploration of the Choose Your Own Adventure series. It seems that each gets a bit more complex, so I appreciate the simplicity of these official maps from Chooseco, which shows the structure of each book. Atlas Obscura provides the details. On the official maps, however, the endings aren’t coded in any way that reveals their nature. Instead, they operate according to a simple key: each arrow represents a page, each circle a choice, and each square an ending. Dotted lines show where branches link to one another. The one above is for Journey Under the Sea. I need to dig up my CYOA collection.

flowingdata.com

2017-06-15 07:17:58

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/06/15/mappings-for-choose-your-own-adventure-books/

http://i2.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.jpg?fit=1160%2C956

How far you can drive out of the city in one hour

Using anonymized cell phone data from Here Technologies, Sahil Chinoy for The Washington Post mapped how far you can drive out of major cities during various times of the day. I used to do the kind of math — as I muttered in rage driving out of Los Angeles during rush hour, which by the way is four hours long.

flowingdata.com

2017-08-15 05:08:37

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/08/14/how-far-you-can-drive-out-of-the-city-in-one-hour/

http://i1.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/How-far-you-can-go-in-an-hour.png?fit=1200%2C949

Open data from The White House returns no results

These are my picks for the best of 2015. As usual, they could easily appear in a different order on a different day, and there are projects not on the list that were also excellent.

flowingdata.com

2017-02-15 10:45:38

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/02/15/open-data-from-the-white-house-returns-no-results/

http://i1.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/No-results-for-open-White-House.png?fit=858%2C539

Waiting Game, through the steps of asylum seekers

Apr 24, 2018 Sisi Wei for ProPublica and Nick Fortugno of Playmatics made a game to provide a feeling of what it’s like for someone who needs escape from their home. Based on the real case files of five asylum seekers from five countries and interviews with the medical and legal professionals who evaluate and represent them, The Waiting Game is an experimental news game that lets you walk in the shoes of an asylum seeker, from the moment they choose to come to the United States to the final decision in the cases before an immigration judge. Take your time with this one, and use your headphones. In the game format, I felt more engrossed in the individual stories than I think if it were a linear profile story.

flowingdata.com

2018-04-24 15:42:23

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2018/04/24/waiting-game-through-the-steps-of-asylum-seekers/

In 2017, No More than Five Days Without a Mass Shooting

The mass shooting in Las Vegas on October 1 was the worst in modern history. Unfortunately, while of varying magnitude, mass shootings are somewhat regular in the United States. Based on data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, there was another shooting in Lawrence, Kansas on the same day. As of writing this, three more mass shootings took place since Las Vegas. The chart below shows the number of days we’ve gone this year without a mass shooting. As a nation, our longest streak ends at only five days. This of course depends on your definition of mass shooting. There’s no set definition for the term, but the Gun Violence Archive defines it as a an incident where four or more people are shot or killed in the same location, not including the shooter. As other sources, you might also look to the Stanford Mass Shootings of America data project and the Mother Jones dataset.

flowingdata.com

2017-10-06 19:20:52

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2017/10/06/in-2017-no-more-than-five-days-without-a-mass-shooting/

http://i2.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Mass-Shootings.png?fit=1200%2C491

Counting the times Kevin Durant’s shoe came off during games

This is what happens when there is a lull during the basketball playoff season. Chris Herring, for FiveThirtyEight, goes into full detail of the relatively high number of times Kevin Durant’s shoe falls off during games: All told, an extensive video analysis of Durant’s games from the past three regular seasons and postseasons reveals that the four-time scoring champ has come out of his shoe at least 31 times since the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign. That number, compiled against 20 different NBA teams, equates to losing a sneaker roughly every eight games or so — a mind-bogglingly high figure considering that Durant has had his own signature Nike shoe, designed to fit the unique contours of his feet, dating back to 2008. “His shoe comes off more than anyone I’ve ever seen,” says teammate Draymond Green. The question, of course, is why.

flowingdata.com

2018-05-30 14:59:40

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2018/05/30/counting-the-times-kevin-durants-shoe-came-off-during-games/

Counting the times Kevin Durant’s shoe came off during games

This is what happens when there is a lull during the basketball playoff season. Chris Herring, for FiveThirtyEight, goes into full detail of the relatively high number of times Kevin Durant’s shoe falls off during games: All told, an extensive video analysis of Durant’s games from the past three regular seasons and postseasons reveals that the four-time scoring champ has come out of his shoe at least 31 times since the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign. That number, compiled against 20 different NBA teams, equates to losing a sneaker roughly every eight games or so — a mind-bogglingly high figure considering that Durant has had his own signature Nike shoe, designed to fit the unique contours of his feet, dating back to 2008. “His shoe comes off more than anyone I’ve ever seen,” says teammate Draymond Green. The question, of course, is why.

flowingdata.com

2018-05-30 14:59:40

FlowingData

https://flowingdata.com/2018/05/30/counting-the-times-kevin-durants-shoe-came-off-during-games/

Black boys dropping income levels as adults

Research by Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie Jones, and Sonya Porter from the Equality of Opportunity Project suggests that black boys who grow up in rich families are still much more likely to fall into lower income levels than white boys who grow up in equally rich families. The shift from low income to higher levels also appears to be a greater challenge, which makes closing the gap that much harder. Emily Badger, Claire Cain Miller, Adam Pearce, and Kevin Quealy for The Upshot cover the data extensively with a series of charts, driven visually with a particle-based Sankey diagram (above). The individual points provide a vehicle to show variation over aggregates. Take your time with this one. You can grab the aggregated data from the Equality of Opportunity Project. Here’s the research paper in full (pdf) if you’re interested. And if you’re interested in the Sankey implementation.

flowingdata.com

2018-03-20 07:20:11

FlowingData

http://flowingdata.com/2018/03/20/black-boys-dropping-income-levels-as-adults/

Rivals 250 OL cuts list, will play in the SEC

Warren McClendon has heard and seen enough to go cut his list to five schools from a list of 23 scholarship offers.Alabama offered him first when he was just a freshman. Since the Crimson Tide offe...

n.rivals.com

2018-05-30 09:23:09

https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-250-ol-cuts-list-will-play-in-the-sec

https://cdn.rivals.com/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,t_thumbnail/sumasftdmi0o1xixxuzv

Rob Moses Photography

You can’t really tell from this picture, but it has been a very mild winter so far in Calgary. I’m not sure what the temperature was when I shot this photo, but it was sweater weather for sure. I did kind of a weird edit on this shot, I was going for a grainy film look. I’m not sure if the edit worked out exactly how I was planning, but I kinda like the picture. Anyhow, I think the warm weather is going to be sticking around for a little while longer, so I’ll be getting out there as much as I can before it get’s cold again! Camera: Nikon D3S & 70-200mm f/2.8 VR Thanks for stopping by, Rob 51.048615 -114.070846 Advertisements

robmosesphotography.com

2017-12-11 13:00:43

You can't really tell from this picture, but it has been a very mild winter so far in Calgary. I'm not sure what the temperature was when I shot this photo, but it was sweater weather for sure. I did kind of a weird edit on this shot, I was going for a grainy film…

https://robmosesphotography.com/2017/12/11/warm-winter-sunset/

Rob Moses Photography

I bumped into this stray cat while walking around a random neighbourhood of Puerto Vallarta one day. This cat wasn’t exactly friendly, well he wasn’t not friendly, he just didn’t wander over to me or anything. As I tried to get picture of him he immediately decided to walk off. I kept trying to shoot photos of him as he was leaving and I think you can kind of see it in his face (in the 2nd picture) that he wasn’t to happy about the situation lol. I’m sure he’s laying on a stone path in front of someones house over looking the ocean right now, so I’m sure he got over it. 😉 Thanks for stopping by, Rob 20.653407 -105.225332

robmosesphotography.com

2018-03-19 15:09:18

I bumped into this stray cat while walking around a random neighbourhood of Puerto Vallarta one day. This cat wasn't exactly friendly, well he wasn't not friendly, he just didn't wander over to me or anything. As I tried to get picture of him he immediately decided to walk off. I kept trying to shoot…

https://robmosesphotography.com/2018/03/19/stray-cat/

Boddie's quick trip to Tech puts the Jackets in his final six

NASHVILLE—Three-star athlete Devin Boddie got a quick glimpse of Georgia Tech last month during an unofficial visit for the Jackets’ annual spring game, but he wants to see more and that visit was ...

georgiatech.rivals.com

2018-05-30 14:39:32

https://georgiatech.rivals.com/news/boddie-s-quick-trip-to-tech-puts-the-jackets-in-his-final-six

https://cdn.rivals.com/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,t_thumbnail/myweuj2d0g32qtjq4ozd

Countdown to Kickoff #94 Anree Saint-Amour

One of the most interesting players to watch this fall in the new defense under Nate Woody will be senior defensive end Anree Saint-Amour. The talented pass rusher has 7.5 career sacks coming into this season. Saint-Amour went from a situational pass rusher as a freshman to the third end in the rotation two years ago to jumping a pair of seniors for a starting job by the end of his junior seasons. His production should increase this year with a more aggressive style of defense under Woody and new defensive line coach Jerome Riase. A strong senior season for Saint-Amour could also bolster his draft stock. His length, speed and athleticism will be very attractive for NFL teams if he can put some good senior film on tape.

georgiatech.rivals.com

2018-05-30 13:54:09

https://georgiatech.rivals.com/news/countdown-to-kickoff-94-anree-saint-amour

https://res-2.cloudinary.com/rivals/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,t_thumbnail/rvduqspsxvdqnr8c6ars

Redshirt Report: Tre Swilling

Dressed for every game and firing up teammates on the sidelines, you wouldn’t have guessed that Tre Swilling was redshirting last year, but he did and he heads into spring ball with a chance to compete for a starting job. Swilling the son of Georgia Tech legend Pat Swilling will compete at the boundary corner spot and could even potentially end up at free safety over time as his body matures and fills out. Swilling was on the edge of playing last year as a true freshman, but the Jackets staff played a short bench at corner using just Lamont Simmons and occasionally Ajani Kerr off the pine. Both starters Step Durham and Lance Austin are gone, Simmons and Kerr are the only two players with any real game experience. Swilling and sophomore Jaytlin Askew who played on special teams seem to be the obvious options to compete for a starting job. With a blank slate and a new staff on the defensive side of the ball, a player who plays as aggressively as Swilling did in high school could fit nicely into Nate Woody’s new defensive scheme. Woody’s defenses are always among the top in interceptions and forced turnovers so a ballhawk like Swilling should be a good fit. The competition at corner will be an interesting one this offseason and Tre Swilling could be a name fans say a lot in the fall when the season rolls around.

georgiatech.rivals.com

2018-03-19 13:37:23

https://georgiatech.rivals.com/news/redshirt-report-tre-swilling

https://res-2.cloudinary.com/rivals/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,t_thumbnail/d31ziicdy99xvdqnh0nq

JOL Podcast 4/24

Listen to Jacketsonline publisher Kelly Quinlan and staff writer Jared Halus talk about the Georgia Tech 2018 spring game and recap the spring with an eye toward the upcoming season.

georgiatech.rivals.com

2018-04-24 18:47:12

https://georgiatech.rivals.com/news/jol-podcast-4-24

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Jackets have impressed Johnson

Georgia Tech hosted a list of impressive prospects for the annual spring game, and among them was George Johnson III, a 2019 ATH out of Stuart, Florida. Though Georgia Tech was always in the runnin...

georgiatech.rivals.com

2018-04-24 08:16:25

https://georgiatech.rivals.com/news/jackets-have-impressed-johnson

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IDNR waiting on deer disease results

January 2 – The state of Illinois should know soon if Chronic Wasting Disease is spreading in its deer population. Hunters wrapped up a special Chronic Wasting Disease hunting window this past weekend, and archery season carries over till Jan. 15. After that, the state hopes to know just how far Chronic Wasting has spread. The disease is 100 percent fatal for deer. Douglas Dufford, with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said it cost the state just over $1 million to track the disease in 2016. However, since Illinois has some of the best deer-hunting territory in the country, Dufford believes it’s an investment worth making. “We view it as a million dollars — a million and a half dollars — spent to protect a billion-dollar resource,” he said. “Right now, the funding seems adequate for what we can do and have been doing.” DNR has found Chronic Wasting Disease in 16 of Illinois’ 102 counties. Most of the cases are contained in northern Illinois, near the Wisconsin border, but Chronic Wasting has been confirmed as far south as Livingston and Kankakee. According to Dufford, the state wants to stop the disease before it hits the rich hunting grounds in western and southern Illinois. Source: IRN News

www.nowdecatur.com

2017-01-02 12:01:25

http://www.nowdecatur.com/2017/01/02/idnr-waiting-on-deer-disease-results/

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Macon Co. History Museum shutting down till February

January 2 – The Macon County History Museum will be closing their doors to the public for a few months for renovations and archival work. As they have done in the past, the Museum will be closed January and most of February while Museum staff continues improvements. Museum Director Nathan Pierce says they will be doing further renovations to the lower museum, additional painting, archival and collections work, and they will prepare for new exhibits. Last year, the Museum closed during the winter for renovations to the archival room. Staff started to sift through hundreds of old documents. Over the course of 2016, Museum staff discovered two documents with authentic Presidential signatures on them. President Andrew Jackson’s signature was found on an old land grant and President Grover Cleveland’s signature was discovered on another document. Pierce says larger groups can still visit the Museum during the winter, if times work for both sides. Part of the Museum may not be accessible depending on the time period. The History Museum is scheduled to reopen by February 28, 2017.

www.nowdecatur.com

2017-01-02 09:39:37

http://www.nowdecatur.com/2017/01/02/macon-co-history-museum-shutting-down-till-february/

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Secretary of State to soon roll out Autism ID cards

January 2 – Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder can now apply for an ID card that will quickly show first responders the nature of their disorder. The legislation, backed by State Representative Sue Scherer, took effect this year. The measure creates an ID card available through the Secretary of State’s Office by request to individuals who have been medically diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Scherer says there are several situations this could help in. “The thought behind this came from a mother of a 16 year old who said she was concerned that if her son would be stopped by an officer or encounter a first responder, that maybe his lack of ability to communicate could be misinterpreted,” Scherer said. The card will be separate from a state ID or driver’s license. It will be free of charge and will explain the person’s disorder. Scherer says this will protect those with autism and also enable emergency personnel to better perform their job. The card will be immediately available, though Scherer suggests you wait a few days before requesting your card from the Secretary of State’s Office.

www.nowdecatur.com

2017-01-02 07:05:37

http://www.nowdecatur.com/2017/01/02/secretary-of-state-to-soon-roll-out-autism-id-cards/

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Illini grab first Big 10 win over Buckeyes

December 1 – Malcolm Hill scored 20 points to help Illinois close out a 75-70 win over Ohio State on Sunday night at State Farm Center. Tracy Abrams added 16 points and Leron Black grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds for Illinois. Hill drove to his left for a layup to give the Illini a 71-67 lead with 55-seconds left. Jalen Coleman-Lands and Abrams each made two free throws from there to seal it. Illinois (11-4, 1-1 Big Ten) looked like a different team against the Buckeyes, making stops and going on runs to help its lead. The Illini built a lead that reached as much as 15 points in the latter part of the first half after the Buckeyes went through a couple of scoring droughts. The Illinois bench out-scored Ohio State’s 25-9, led by big men Michael Finke and Maverick Morgan with 12 and 11 points, respectively. JaQuan Lyle led Ohio State (10-4, 0-1 Big Ten) with 26 points. Ohio State couldn’t rebound from scoring droughts in both halves despite a hot start to the second in which it took the lead in the final five minutes of the game. Marc Loving and Kam Williams added 10 points apiece for the Buckeyes. Source: AP

www.nowdecatur.com

2017-01-01 21:48:05

http://www.nowdecatur.com/2017/01/01/illini-grab-first-big-10-win-over-buckeyes/

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Did Vogue Actually 'Love' Kendall and Kylie Jenner's Fashion Collection? Sure

Images via E! “I just got a call from the offices over at Vogue,” Kris Jenner tells her daughters Kendall and Kylie during Sunday night’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. “They’re coming to review the Kendall + Kylie collection in new York. This is like, such a big deal.” Advertisement “Getting a review from Vogue and having it be positive would mean everything to the girls,” Kris explains. But Kendall, already a Vogue cover girl, says she finds the prospect of a Vogue review “really terrifying.” Kylie, a generally unruffled personality, is seemingly chill about the situation. “You should be proud of yourselves. The fact that they’re giving you this attention in year one, Vogue usually does this after a designer has established themselves, even for years. And Nicole Phelps is actually the one coming to review the line,” Kris goes on to explain, more for the benefit of the viewers at home than for her children. “You should be very flattered that they want to see what you’re up to.” “Nicole Phelps has reviewed lines like Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and all the top designers,” Kylie says of the Vogue Runway Director, helpfully breaking things down. “I mean if they love it, it’ll be amazing, but if they don’t, it could potentially make or break us,” Kendall adds. The conversation between the sisters and their mother looks like it was shot the week of September 19, which is odd, given that we then see them present their collection to Phelps during New York Fashion Week, which took place the first week of September. In the scene, we see a man with a microphone that isn’t identified, but was Vogue Runway Style Editor Edward Barsamian. The two did a Facebook Live interview with him on September 7. Phelps also posted about shooting that day. Strange given that, in a later scene, we see Kris telling Kendall about the review—which was also published September 7—as she shoots a campaign for will.i.am’s headphones or something, which appears to have taken place that week as well. “I know how nervous you were about the Vogue review,” Kris says to Kendall, before showing it to her and telling her “I heard they don’t really give them this early” (whatever that is supposed to signify). Then we hear (though do not see) Kris saying “They love every single piece,” with a very large pause between “love” and “every,” suggesting that the sentence was spliced together. Advertisement Advertisement “They don’t just pass those out on a whim,” Kris adds. The Vogue “review” in question is not much of one. Phelps talks about Kanye West’s Yeezy collection, and notes, “Clearly, the Jenner name, like West’s, moves product.” She quotes the sisters explaining who their clothes are for, but quite honestly, most of it comes off as factual, not as commentary, and could even perhaps be taken as a dig at them if you’re reading hard enough. The Jenners are the “creative forces” behind the brand; they prefer not to have official titles. If their hands aren’t getting dirty in the actual crafting of the clothes and accessories, the selling point is that the pieces are made in their image—their everyday style more than their red carpet getups. “The pieces with the most personality are the result of collaborations with artists,” Phelps writes. “A satin souvenir jacket embroidered with a map of California and ‘West Side Till I Die’ spelled out in gothic font qualifies as the coolest item in the lineup; it could appeal to shoppers for whom the Jenner name has no resonance, if indeed there are any of those left out there.” Sponsored But to Kendall and her mother, this short piece of writing counts as a rave, and KUWTK features the only two quotes that could be spun as more than neutral. “I was bracing myself for a bad review, but instead we got a really good one, and it was a nice surprise,” Kendall says. Earlier in the episode, she had clarified that it’s because of her closeness with Vogue that she was nervous, not in spite of it. “I feel like I obviously work with Vogue a lot, but in a different way, and it’s kind of nerve wracking.” Odd, given that she was on the cover of the magazine that month and you’d sort of assume that would slant things at least ever-so-slightly in her favor.

jezebel.com

2017-04-17 18:00:00

“I just got a call from the offices over at Vogue,” Kris Jenner tells her daughters Kendall and Kylie during Sunday night’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. “They’re coming to review the Kendall + Kylie collection in new York. This is like, such a big deal.”

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Scarlett Johnasson Says Monogamy Is 'A Lot of Work'

Photo: Getty In an interview with Playboy, the newly-single Scarlett Johansson shared some thoughts about monogamy, relationships and whether or not it’s “natural” to want to be with the same person forever and ever. Advertisement In the interview, she makes a lot of pretty good points against the institution of marriage. Even more interesting is the timing. Us Weekly speculates that the interview was likely conducted before her split from Romain Dauriac. Even if that happens to be the case, none of the stuff she’s saying is particularly invalid. “Well, with every gain there’s a loss, right? So that’s a loss. You have to choose a path. I think the idea of marriage is very romantic; it’s a beautiful idea, and the practice of it can be a very beautiful thing. I don’t think it’s natural to be a monogamous person. I might be skewered for that, but I think it’s work. It’s a lot of work.” It’s entirely possible to have these feelings about monogamy and stay married, but after reading the rest of what she had to say, I feel like ScarJo is probably much happier unattached — or at the very least, not married. Advertisement “Being married is different than not being married, and anybody who tells you that it’s the same is lying. It changes things. I have friends who were together for 10 years and then decided to get married, and I’ll ask them on their wedding day or right after if it’s different, and it always is. It is.” “The fact that it is such work for so many people—for everyone — the fact of that proves that it is not a natural thing,” she said of marriage. For whatever it’s worth, she and her ex are putting up a nice front. [Us Weekly] Oh no, someone robbed Alanis Morissette and stole $2 million worth of jewelry from her Brentwood home. Advertisement Sponsored According to People, the thieves absconded with “a safe containing approximately $2 million worth of jewelry and other items or property.” Morrissette wasn’t home at the time, so at least there’s that. There’s also this: TMZ spoke to some “law enforcement sources” who reportedly said that celebrity Instagram accounts are essentially handbooks for criminals —the very same argument made by authorities regarding Kim Kardashian’s robbery, too. A brief dive into Alanis’s Insta revealed this, which was perhaps the catalyst for the robbery? Further perusal of her ‘gram reveals a deep love of kilim rugs, juices and a variety of oils. Very soothing, highly recommended. Advertisement [People] I don’t know what this cat looks like, but I don’t think it’s Ross Geller. [People]

jezebel.com

2017-02-14 20:00:00

In an interview with Playboy, the newly-single Scarlett Johansson shared some thoughts about monogamy, relationships and whether or not it’s “natural” to want to be with the same person forever and ever.

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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Night Club Attack in Turkey

image via AP. Turkish officials have arrested eight people in connection with the shooting in an Istanbul night club called Reina on New Year’s Eve that left 39 dead and 69 injured. Advertisement The Guardian reports that the gunman is not amongst the eight people detained by anti-terrorism squads. Turkey’s interior ministry told reporters on Monday that there have been 147 detainments in just the last week over suspected ties to ISIS. Of those, 25 people were placed under formal arrest. ISIS has reportedly released a statement taking responsibility for the lone gunman’s act, saying he “struck one of the most famous nightclubs where the Christians celebrate their apostate holiday.” The gunman is believed to be from either Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. He may have escaped by abandoning his gun at the scene and slipping off in the ensuing chaos. Advertisement Police have supposedly seen some similarities between this attack and the suicide bomber who killed more than 40 people at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport in June. The Guardian says that aside from arrests, the response to ISIS and this recent attack has been swift: The Turkish military said it had carried out raids against Isis in Syria in response to the attack. Turkish jets struck eight targets, and tanks and artillery fired on 103 targets near al-Bab, killing 22 fighters, the Turkish chief of general staff’s office told Anadolu. ISIS claims to have multiple cells in Turkey, which it called in its statement a “protector of the cross.”

jezebel.com

2017-01-02 12:01:52

Turkish officials have arrested eight people in connection with the shooting in an Istanbul night club called Reina on New Year’s Eve that left 39 dead and 69 injured.

http://jezebel.com/isis-claims-responsibility-for-night-club-attack-in-tur-1790688017?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+%28Jezebel%29

Beyoncé Chose Her Mom Over Coachella, Which Seems Like the Right Call

This isn’t celebrity news, per se, but rather an opportunity to look at photos Tina Lawson uploaded to Instagram. (You know we love her here.) There’s the one above, which contains a caption that makes no sense until you realize she is counting herself as one of her four girls. Advertisement Advertisement Then there’s this one, of Tina wishing everyone a happy Easter. (It made me want to go to church.) Here’s a repost of Kelly Rowland’s Instagram video, in which Tina shares her love of candy. (Another reason to choose her over Coachella.) And then there’s this, which speaks for itself: A thing the tabloids are very into lately is making Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s divorce appear to be more intriguing and dramatic than it actually is. In the past few days, People interviewed an attorney about how they are using some legal loopholes to make the documents private (of course they are) and TMZ wrote about how Ben is finally moving out of the family guesthouse (of course he is.) Advertisement Sponsored So imagine my surprise when I read a detail about their split that actually caught my attention. TMZ writes that Affleck is “now dating someone, though ‘not seriously.’” Let the speculation begin. [TMZ] “Thank you Russell, but this is blasphemy. Also tell Ciara hi.” - Jesus Christ

jezebel.com

2017-04-17 09:30:00

We all know Beyoncé is pregnant with twins, we all know she canceled her Coachella appearance because of her pregnancy, we all know Coachella is an outer circle of hell, and we all know Ms. Tina seems like one of the most delightful people on the planet. So, it’s perfectly understandable that Beyoncé would spend Easter with her (presumably in Houston, though it’s not entirely clear based on the photos) as opposed to staying in some impossibly large Airbnb a few miles away from the absurdist fashion show that is Coachella.

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