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Was Wheaton Precious Metals Able To Beat Market Expectations In Q4 2018? | Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM), one of the worlds largest precious metals streaming companies, announced its Q4 2018 results on March 20, 2019, followed by a conference call the next day. Though the fourth quarter revenue and EPS were lower on a year-on-year basis, WPM beat the consensus estimates for revenue and EPS for the quarter as well as FY 2018. The company reported revenue of $196.6 million in Q4 2018 (against market expectation of $191.7 million), 18.9% lower than the $242.5 million reported in Q4 2017. The companys earnings came in at $0.08 per share (against a consensus of $0.06 per share) in Q4 2018, much lower than $0.19 in the year-ago period. Full year revenue decreased by 5.8% to $794 million in 2018. According to Trefis analysis, the lower revenue and earnings were mainly the reflection of a decrease in silver shipments, driven by termination of the old San Dimas silver purchase agreement, coupled with the ceasing of silver production from Lagunas Norte, Veladero, and Pierina mines. Lower silver revenues were slightly offset by an increase in gold sales and addition of palladium sales as a new revenue stream for the company. In addition, here is more Materials data. Trefis Key Factors Affecting Earnings Decrease in silver production and price realization: Silver was the biggest drag on WPMs revenue growth in 2018. Revenue from silver decreased by 18.1% (y-o-y) to $343.6 million in 2018, compared to $419.3 million in 2017, mainly due to an 11.8% decline in silver shipments to 21.7 million ounces in 2018 from 24.6 million ounces in the previous year. Volume decreased as a result of the signing of the new San Dimas agreement in May 2018, under which silver production that was attributable to the company under the old agreement would now be converted to the equivalent gold volume. Additionally, silver production at the companys Lagunas Norte, Veladero, and Pierina mines ceased effective March 2018. Along with lower volume, silver prices also witnessed a decline on the back of a stronger dollar and rising interest rates in the US. Going forward, we expect silver revenue to decline marginally in 2019 and remain flat in 2020 driven by lower volumes, partially offset by strengthening of prices as observed over the last three months. Higher Gold Sales: Gold revenue increased by 4.1% to $441.2 million in 2018 from $423.9 million in 2017, driven by higher volume and better price realization. Gold shipments increased from 337.2 million ounces in 2017 to 349.2 million ounces in 2018, mainly due to additional gold attributable to WPM following the new agreement with First Majestic at San Dimas, coupled with WPMs acquisition of a new gold stream at Stillwater, and higher production at Salobo and Constancia mines. Additionally, though gold prices witnessed a lot of volatility in 2018 due to rising interest rates, prices saw some strengthening in the fourth quarter, which helped WPM increase its price realization for the year. We expect gold prices to rise further in 2019 (as the trend has been over the last three months) on the back of higher retail and institutional investment in the yellow metal, with many Central Banks buying gold as a hedge against rising economic uncertainty. Simultaneously, we expect volume to rise further over the next two years as WPM would benefit from a full year under the new San Dimas agreement, slightly offset by lower-grades at Salobo due to mine sequencing (most pronounced in the first quarter of 2019). Benefits from Palladium: Palladium is a new addition to WPMs revenue streams with the company having entered into an agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater to acquire palladium at an agreed ratio of total production at the site. Palladium added $9.2 million to the companys revenue in 2018. Palladium production is expected to increase going forward as the Company has its first full year of production from the Stillwater stream, which was acquired in July of 2018. Prices are expected to remain elevated in the near-term, in line with the recent increase. Higher Margins: Net income margin increased sharply to 53.8% in 2018 from 6.8% in 2017. However, this rise was driven by a one-time gain from the termination of the previous San Dimas silver purchase agreement, which amounts to approximately $245.7 million. This gain was partially offset by higher interest expense on the back of rising interest rates and increased amount drawn under WPMs revolving credit facility. Over the next two years, we expect margins to decline to about 32%, in the absence of any large non-recurring benefit, offset by higher volume and better price realization. We expect the declining silver production to be completely offset by rising gold output, which would be driven by the new San Dimas agreement and Stillwater acquisition. Additionally, the company has announced the expansion of its Salobo III mine, thus ramping up its total gold production. With the addition of Palladium to its portfolio, WPM is expected to reap benefits of this diversification as palladium prices have increased sharply in the last couple of months. Additionally, in June 2018, WPM entered into an agreement to acquire from Vale an amount of Cobalt at an agreed ratio of Voiseys Bay cobalt production. Though deliveries under the contract are scheduled to begin in 2021, we believe that the companys aggressive push towards diversification rather than being a traditional silver-gold miner, would help in enhancing investor confidence as the stocks risk goes down. With the Feds latest statement dimming the likelihood of any rate hikes in 2019, prices of precious metals are expected to strengthen further. Thus, rising production of gold and palladium along with a positive pricing environment, expansion projects in the pipeline, and the companys focus on diversifying its portfolio and risk-mitigation, is expected to support WPMs stock price going forward. We have a price estimate of $27 for WPMs share price, which is higher than its current market price. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | Wheaton Precious Metals announced its Q4 2018 results on March 20, 2019, followed by a conference call the next day. The company reported revenue of $196.6 million in Q4 2018 (against market expectation of $191.7 million), 18.9% lower than the $242.5 million reported in Q4 2017. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/22/was-wheaton-precious-metals-able-to-beat-market-expectations-in-q4-2018/ | 0.620582 |
Is Co-Living 2.0 The Next Big Thing In Residential Real Estate? | Getty You all know the old saying, home is where the heart is. Increasingly, urban residents have been looking for places that foster a sense of community, as well as providing great accommodation. It is a well-known fact that people have a growing sense of isolation in our ever more connected world, something that has been highlighted with the heightened attention to mental health issues in recent years. It was this desire for a sense of community, alongside increasing levels of unaffordability in cities, that spawned the first wave of co-living concepts. Co-living 1.0 seeks to bridge the gap for university leavers, with micro-spaces, shared kitchens and large communal areas. This product also works well for remote workers looking for temporary short-term accommodation or for a place to sleep in a few nights a week when they are in town for work. Though addressing a real need, co-living 1.0 remains very much a niche product. New co-living propositions have been hitting the market recently, targeting a slightly older demographic that desires a strong sense of community and a curated offering, but also wants significantly more living space than that afforded by micro-living products. They value their privacy, care about what they are sharing and whom with. This is co-living 2.0, which might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. Anil Khera, Founder and CEO of Node, is a pioneer of the co-living 2.0 model. Node is a global co-living company that creates urban rental apartment communities in creative capital cities around the world. Nodes curated co-living concept delivers compact, efficiently designed apartments which have their own private kitchen and living areas. The interior design is customized to be unique to each unit (Node even collaborates with local artists to create art for single units), and the neighbors are a group of creative and sophisticated peers to connect with. As Khera puts it, Few people want to spend over $/1,000/month, live in 100 square feet and share a kitchen with 10 other people. There has to be a co-living model that embraces communal living and the sharing economy, but with slightly larger private spaces for sustainable independent living too. Nodes target market is older and richer than that for co-living 1.0. Residents are typically in their late twenties and early thirties, are single or married but dont have children, and each individual earns on average $70 thousand per year. There is a strong female demographic in Nodes buildings, and residents tend to have just moved to that city. They are looking for a place that feels like a home, which is private and fosters a sense of security whilst also being inclusive. Khera believes that this new format could bridge the gap between co-living and multifamily/PRS, creating an entirely new market segment that will attract creative types, entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals who are not quite digital nomads but are rather global citizens, These people may have three cities they call home for the next five to ten years and will move back and forth for medium-term stays of one to three years at a time, with shorter term visits in between. At present, there is no real way of creating continuity in terms of a community for these people, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Nodes vision is to create a truly global network of buildings, which will allow residents to keep a foot in the communities they no longer live in, or dont yet live in. They will have their main home city but can benefit from short term stays in Node buildings in places they travel to. According to Khera, As people move around globally, there is a growing need and desire for a global community a group of friends, peers and even mentors that live and move around the world. Restarting community life every time one moves is highly disruptive and so the rise of a global community can help tackle issues of loneliness and isolation for globally mobile people. Central to this offering is Node connect- a platform to connect with the wider community, including non-residents. Residents lounges double as event spaces and pop up coworking areas. Node is also launching a global residents app, the first of its kind. This will encompass everything from access control to deliveries, from the resident application process, through maintenance, to payments, as well as governing internal messaging groups which are tiered for the global or local community. The Node app will give residents and members to access to nodes communal spaces globally and will help them connect with other people in the space and around the globe. Khera believes that the only way to build a truly global community is through tech, telling me that The concept of being able to call multiple cities home can be fostered through technology that connects our Node residents worldwide. Node recently launched their latest development in Dublin, to great fanfare, and with great success. They are steadily scaling the business, all in the name of building a truly global network for their residents. They are very much at the forefront of the co-living 2.0 movement and, though their success to date is deeply encouraging, only time will tell if this is yet another niche play or the beginning of a revolutionary market shift. I suspect the latter. | Co-living 2.0 might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelicakrystledonati/2019/03/22/is-co-living-2-0-the-next-big-thing-in-residential-real-estate/ | 0.307651 |
Is Co-Living 2.0 The Next Big Thing In Residential Real Estate? | Getty You all know the old saying, home is where the heart is. Increasingly, urban residents have been looking for places that foster a sense of community, as well as providing great accommodation. It is a well-known fact that people have a growing sense of isolation in our ever more connected world, something that has been highlighted with the heightened attention to mental health issues in recent years. It was this desire for a sense of community, alongside increasing levels of unaffordability in cities, that spawned the first wave of co-living concepts. Co-living 1.0 seeks to bridge the gap for university leavers, with micro-spaces, shared kitchens and large communal areas. This product also works well for remote workers looking for temporary short-term accommodation or for a place to sleep in a few nights a week when they are in town for work. Though addressing a real need, co-living 1.0 remains very much a niche product. New co-living propositions have been hitting the market recently, targeting a slightly older demographic that desires a strong sense of community and a curated offering, but also wants significantly more living space than that afforded by micro-living products. They value their privacy, care about what they are sharing and whom with. This is co-living 2.0, which might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. Anil Khera, Founder and CEO of Node, is a pioneer of the co-living 2.0 model. Node is a global co-living company that creates urban rental apartment communities in creative capital cities around the world. Nodes curated co-living concept delivers compact, efficiently designed apartments which have their own private kitchen and living areas. The interior design is customized to be unique to each unit (Node even collaborates with local artists to create art for single units), and the neighbors are a group of creative and sophisticated peers to connect with. As Khera puts it, Few people want to spend over $/1,000/month, live in 100 square feet and share a kitchen with 10 other people. There has to be a co-living model that embraces communal living and the sharing economy, but with slightly larger private spaces for sustainable independent living too. Nodes target market is older and richer than that for co-living 1.0. Residents are typically in their late twenties and early thirties, are single or married but dont have children, and each individual earns on average $70 thousand per year. There is a strong female demographic in Nodes buildings, and residents tend to have just moved to that city. They are looking for a place that feels like a home, which is private and fosters a sense of security whilst also being inclusive. Khera believes that this new format could bridge the gap between co-living and multifamily/PRS, creating an entirely new market segment that will attract creative types, entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals who are not quite digital nomads but are rather global citizens, These people may have three cities they call home for the next five to ten years and will move back and forth for medium-term stays of one to three years at a time, with shorter term visits in between. At present, there is no real way of creating continuity in terms of a community for these people, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Nodes vision is to create a truly global network of buildings, which will allow residents to keep a foot in the communities they no longer live in, or dont yet live in. They will have their main home city but can benefit from short term stays in Node buildings in places they travel to. According to Khera, As people move around globally, there is a growing need and desire for a global community a group of friends, peers and even mentors that live and move around the world. Restarting community life every time one moves is highly disruptive and so the rise of a global community can help tackle issues of loneliness and isolation for globally mobile people. Central to this offering is Node connect- a platform to connect with the wider community, including non-residents. Residents lounges double as event spaces and pop up coworking areas. Node is also launching a global residents app, the first of its kind. This will encompass everything from access control to deliveries, from the resident application process, through maintenance, to payments, as well as governing internal messaging groups which are tiered for the global or local community. The Node app will give residents and members to access to nodes communal spaces globally and will help them connect with other people in the space and around the globe. Khera believes that the only way to build a truly global community is through tech, telling me that The concept of being able to call multiple cities home can be fostered through technology that connects our Node residents worldwide. Node recently launched their latest development in Dublin, to great fanfare, and with great success. They are steadily scaling the business, all in the name of building a truly global network for their residents. They are very much at the forefront of the co-living 2.0 movement and, though their success to date is deeply encouraging, only time will tell if this is yet another niche play or the beginning of a revolutionary market shift. I suspect the latter. | Co-living 2.0 might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. Anil Khera, Founder and CEO of Node, is a pioneer of the co-living 2.0 model. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelicakrystledonati/2019/03/22/is-co-living-2-0-the-next-big-thing-in-residential-real-estate/ | 0.456843 |
Is Co-Living 2.0 The Next Big Thing In Residential Real Estate? | Getty You all know the old saying, home is where the heart is. Increasingly, urban residents have been looking for places that foster a sense of community, as well as providing great accommodation. It is a well-known fact that people have a growing sense of isolation in our ever more connected world, something that has been highlighted with the heightened attention to mental health issues in recent years. It was this desire for a sense of community, alongside increasing levels of unaffordability in cities, that spawned the first wave of co-living concepts. Co-living 1.0 seeks to bridge the gap for university leavers, with micro-spaces, shared kitchens and large communal areas. This product also works well for remote workers looking for temporary short-term accommodation or for a place to sleep in a few nights a week when they are in town for work. Though addressing a real need, co-living 1.0 remains very much a niche product. New co-living propositions have been hitting the market recently, targeting a slightly older demographic that desires a strong sense of community and a curated offering, but also wants significantly more living space than that afforded by micro-living products. They value their privacy, care about what they are sharing and whom with. This is co-living 2.0, which might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. Anil Khera, Founder and CEO of Node, is a pioneer of the co-living 2.0 model. Node is a global co-living company that creates urban rental apartment communities in creative capital cities around the world. Nodes curated co-living concept delivers compact, efficiently designed apartments which have their own private kitchen and living areas. The interior design is customized to be unique to each unit (Node even collaborates with local artists to create art for single units), and the neighbors are a group of creative and sophisticated peers to connect with. As Khera puts it, Few people want to spend over $/1,000/month, live in 100 square feet and share a kitchen with 10 other people. There has to be a co-living model that embraces communal living and the sharing economy, but with slightly larger private spaces for sustainable independent living too. Nodes target market is older and richer than that for co-living 1.0. Residents are typically in their late twenties and early thirties, are single or married but dont have children, and each individual earns on average $70 thousand per year. There is a strong female demographic in Nodes buildings, and residents tend to have just moved to that city. They are looking for a place that feels like a home, which is private and fosters a sense of security whilst also being inclusive. Khera believes that this new format could bridge the gap between co-living and multifamily/PRS, creating an entirely new market segment that will attract creative types, entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals who are not quite digital nomads but are rather global citizens, These people may have three cities they call home for the next five to ten years and will move back and forth for medium-term stays of one to three years at a time, with shorter term visits in between. At present, there is no real way of creating continuity in terms of a community for these people, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Nodes vision is to create a truly global network of buildings, which will allow residents to keep a foot in the communities they no longer live in, or dont yet live in. They will have their main home city but can benefit from short term stays in Node buildings in places they travel to. According to Khera, As people move around globally, there is a growing need and desire for a global community a group of friends, peers and even mentors that live and move around the world. Restarting community life every time one moves is highly disruptive and so the rise of a global community can help tackle issues of loneliness and isolation for globally mobile people. Central to this offering is Node connect- a platform to connect with the wider community, including non-residents. Residents lounges double as event spaces and pop up coworking areas. Node is also launching a global residents app, the first of its kind. This will encompass everything from access control to deliveries, from the resident application process, through maintenance, to payments, as well as governing internal messaging groups which are tiered for the global or local community. The Node app will give residents and members to access to nodes communal spaces globally and will help them connect with other people in the space and around the globe. Khera believes that the only way to build a truly global community is through tech, telling me that The concept of being able to call multiple cities home can be fostered through technology that connects our Node residents worldwide. Node recently launched their latest development in Dublin, to great fanfare, and with great success. They are steadily scaling the business, all in the name of building a truly global network for their residents. They are very much at the forefront of the co-living 2.0 movement and, though their success to date is deeply encouraging, only time will tell if this is yet another niche play or the beginning of a revolutionary market shift. I suspect the latter. | Co-living 2.0 might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. Anil Khera, Founder and CEO of Node, is a pioneer of the co-living 2.0 model. Node is a global co-living company that creates urban rental apartment communities in creative capital cities around the world. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelicakrystledonati/2019/03/22/is-co-living-2-0-the-next-big-thing-in-residential-real-estate/ | 0.558924 |
Can Trump Survive Mueller? | Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer for Politico. Well, the newswoman said to Donald Trump, youre under a tremendous amount of pressure lately. Why do you say that? he asked. Story Continued Below It was April 6, 1990, and Paula Zahn on CBS actually had plenty of reasons to think Trump might be feeling anxious. It hadnt been two months since the hyper-public, tabloid-tawdry revelation that his philandering had shattered his marriage to the mother of his first three children. He and his executives were grappling with the flawed, frantic opening of the newest, gaudiest, most expensive and most debt-bloated of his three casinos in Atlantic City. And reporters who covered money instead of celebrity had started to suss out the unsteadiness of Trumps overall financial state. Both in your professional life and your personal life, Zahn offered. She asked how he was doing. I feel great, Trump replied. Im doing well. Nearly three decades have passed. Even in Trumps perma-perilous presidency, this is a juncture that pulses with risk. Newly empowered Democrats in Congress are ramping up multiple investigations, and talk of impeachment is impossible to avoid. Looming largest over this tumultuous battlefield, though, is the report special counsel Robert Mueller appears poised to submit to Attorney General William Barrthe culmination of nearly two years of labor and the subject of immeasurable speculation. While Trump often awards himself and his administration A-plus grades, many others question whether he will be able to sustain his rosy self-assessment once the details of Muellers findings become public. Trump in the 90s: Amidst a period of highly-public personal philandering, Donald Trumppictured bottom left with his first wife Ivana in 1989, the year he began his affair with his to-be second wife Marla Maples, pictured bottom right with their newborn daughter Tiffany in 1993would open and drive into incredible amounts of debt multiple casinos in New Jerseys Atlantic City, including the Trump Taj Mahal, pictured above at its grand opening in 1990. | AP Photo/Mike Derer, SWERZEY/AFP/Getty Images, AP Photo Every flurry of tweets from the presidentand last weekends two-day grievance bender against late-night comedy and cable news shows was a particularly strong examplebegets new pronouncements that Trump is coming unglued from the strain. George Conway, husband of close Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, hauled out the clinical definition of narcissistic personality disorder to make the case that Trump is not only unfit for office but becoming catastrophically worse. And psychiatrists are speaking with dire predictions about the potential for a deranged person with extraordinary powers to create global mayhem and destruction. He has very poor coping mechanisms when he is criticized or when he feels humiliated, Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist from Yale and the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the second edition of which is out this month, told me, and at these points he generally goes into attack mode and he threatens others or tries to get revenge. Obliterate observing eyes of his humiliation, Lee said. Destroying the world. That, very quickly, becomes an avenue, a perceived solution for individuals with his personality structure. Make what you will of such medical predictions, but the historical record tells a different story. The back-and-forth with Zahn is an instructive (and comforting?) reminder about overstating Trumps fragility. The Trump campaign in 2015 and 16 careened from kill shot to kill shot, of course, and just kept going, right to the White Houseand that was not the first time he flashed his ability to mitigate calamity and deftly skirt what might have seemed like an inevitable comeuppance. Whether or not Trump could remain not only financially solvent but reputationally intact was an open question for the entirety of the first half of the 1990s. So many times, he could have been snuffed, stopped, rendered a relative footnote, his place in the history of this country limited to status as a gauche totem of a regrettable epoch of greed. That, needless to say, is not how the tale played out. Trump is many things. A developer. A promoter. A master media manipulator. A grown-old rich kid. The president of the United States. Above all else, though, he is a survivor. The ultimate survivor, former Trump casino executive Jack ODonnell told me recently. Trumps Trophies: Trump had a tendency to spend on things he couldnt affordlike his Manhattan Plaza Hotel, left, a luxury yacht, top right, and his 1989 airline Trump Shuttle, bottom leftmostly with borrowed money. | AP Images, AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, JetPix/Wikimedia Commons But its not just that Trump has survived thats important to consider at this momentits how he has done it. Armed with extraordinary audacity, constitutional sangfroid, a stomach for tumult, an acumen for recasting obvious losses into strange sorts of wins, and the prodigious safety net bequeathed by his wealthy, wily father, he has plowed past myriad hazards. And he did it by tying himself tightly to his bankers and lenders in New York and to gaming industry regulators in New Jerseywho let him live large until they couldnt let him die without fatally wounding themselves. He effectively inhabited hosts, using them to get bigger and bigger in the 80s until he was practically perversely invincible by the 90snot only too big to fail, as the late Wayne Barrett once told Susan Glasser and me, but too big to jail. Perhaps his past escapes are the reason he appears oddly calm as most of the country leans forward, awaiting word of bombshells from Mueller. Over the weekend, when outsiders perceived mounting anxiety in Trumps Twitter barrage, people who spoke to Trump by phone told reporters that he seemed to be in good spirits. The volume of tweets, they surmised, was just a product of too much time on his hands in the White House. His bravado and bluster cant mask, his critics say, the true jeopardy he faces. The stakes now are too high, the arena too large, the political currents too strong, for Trump to expect the same results. But if he does fail, pinned to account by the weight of evidence uncovered by Mueller, one thing is certain: It will be the first time. *** Those who believe in the power of Trumps survival skills to protect him from even this unprecedented threat draw an analogy between the Republican Partyits members of Congress and especially the Senateand the institutions that have enabled him in the past. The banks were heavily invested in Trump, and they couldnt have him go down, former Trump campaign staffer Sam Nunberg told me, and the Republican Party cant have him go down. I think he believes that the presidency is too big to fail, too powerful to be taken down, ODonnell added. And I think that this is kind of something that he learned in the 90s, where the banks basically said to him, Youre too big to fail, we have to back you. And they did it, time and time again, in Atlantic City. To be determined in the coming weeks and months: how well those lessons will hold up. This is a man who has lived dangerously for decades by flirting with the boundaries of propriety, legality and civility, Trump biographer Tim OBrien told me. And he is now faced, after years and years of getting away with it, with consequences that are far beyond anything hes encountered before. I think theyre going to be absolutely of no use if the legal consequences are realized at their full magnitude. Trump the Builder: The New York real estate mogul, above in 1987, partnered with Hong Kong investors to develop buildings on the Upper West Side, below, that would have been Trump City but were later called Trump Place, until recently tenants voted to remove the presidents name. | Joe McNally/Getty Images, Oliver Morris/Getty Images Others who know Trump well arent so sure. No matter what they do, he survives. No matter what they try, he survives, longtime New York Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf told me. He absolutely can. In the middle of 1990, after all, he was more than $3 billion in the red. He had for years spent too much to buy too much, all with mostly borrowed money. The yacht, the airline, Manhattans Plaza Hotel. Trophies, he called them. And his casinos, first two, now three with the lurching launch of the Trump Taj Mahal, cannibalized each other. Even record rakes of cash werent enough to simply service all of Trumps debt. On the horizon was the first of his six corporate bankruptcies. Trump is on his way downand probably out, business journalist Allan Sloan wrote that June in Newsday. People didnt stop at mere predictions. They also poked fun. I envision Donald Trump a year from now doing the ads for stomach-flatteners or ginsu knives on late-night TV. Or as a Worldwide Wrestling Federation commentator, Gail Collins, then a columnist for the New York Daily News, told David Von Drehle, then a reporter for the Miami Herald. Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown likened Trump to late-in-life Elvis. He probably will wind up in that sort of Graceland, you know, wearing a diaper, she told Steve Kroft of CBS News. Spy, the puckish satirical magazine and inveterate needler of Trump, in its August 1990 issue took a tongue-in-cheek look at what they foresaw as a sad, middling future for a balding, paunchy Trump. Their crystal ball, though, was not all wrong. They anticipated a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, and a rough version of reality television, tooand a public offering that would permit Trump to use money from shareholders to make money of his own (Now YOU can own a piece of the Trump!). But beyond the smart sets schadenfreude were Trumps real-life results. After weeks of negotiations, the cluster of 70-some-odd banks that had loaned him billions of dollars gave him an additional $65 million loan. It was the first in a yearslong sequence of bailouts and extensions and breathing-room reprieves. They had loaned him so much money, it was no longer only his problemit was theirs. He all but dared them to take him down. He has a good bit of leverage over the institutions, a Harvard Business School finance professor told the Boston Globe at the time. His adjusted net worth is minus several hundred million dollars, by my estimate, and he is alive only because his bankers are too red-faced to pull the plug on his life-support system, the chairman of a money management firm wrote in the New York Post. The most important thing, an official in the office of one of his lenders said in The American Banker, is to make Trump survive. Trump the Candidate: Despite a number of incidents that might have taken any other candidate downincluding the infamous Access Hollywood tape, pictured above, in which he swaggered about sexual assaultTrump was elected president on Nov. 8, 2016 and delivered his acceptance speech, pictured below, in the early hours of the following morning. | YouTube, Spencer Platt/Getty Images The banks over time clawed back a passel of Trumps possessions (the yacht, the planes, the Plaza), but they didnt take his casinosbecause they didnt want them. The last thing they want to do is manage casinos, an analyst from Moodys Investors explained to the Associated Press. And the last thing the gaming officials and city leaders in New Jersey wanted was to have them close. The relationship was the same as with the banks back in New York. Desperate to prop up the flagging gaming industry, looking continually to the casinos to inject into the struggling seaside town at least the appearance of vitality and prosperity, they needed Trump as much as Trump needed them. A prerequisite to owning a casino in Atlantic City, understandably, was financial stability, and regulators could have stripped Trump of hisrepeatedlybut of course didnt. Trumps casinos amounted to roughly a third of the market. The whole economic development of the town, said ODonnell, it was dependent on this. And so they justthey caved. Trump had managed to turn an apparent weakness into a significant advantage. The banks put him on an allowance of $450,000 a month. The Trump Tower triplex was safe. The man is a Sherman tank in a Brioni suit, New York Post gossip columnist and Trump pal Cindy Adams told USA Today. Hey, look, I had a cold spell from 1990 to 91, he said in 1994 in New York. I was beat up in business and in my personal life. But you learn that youre either the toughest, meanest piece of shit in the world, or you just crawl into a corner, put your finger in your mouth, and say, I want to go home. And Trump didnt want to go home. He wasnt entirely in the clear, though, until 1995 and 96, when his need for money finally superseded his desire for absolute control and he took his casinos public. He sat in his office and looked at OBrien, then a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He was back, he said. People bought stock in Trump and lost money in droves. Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts proved to be a good investment for just one personTrump. It was to get other people to get him out of that debt, a former member of the Trump Organization told me. In addition to his selling of his stake in his foundation-laying Grand Hyatt and tens of millions of dollars of wrangled, well-timed loans from family trusts, its what saved Trumpalong with a partnership with Hong Kong investors that turned his long-held plot of land on the Upper West Side that always cost him money into one that began to actually make him money. Construction on what would have been Trump City and now would be called Trump Place (and then wouldnt) started in 1997. And two years later, in front of some of the buildings, Trump let the magician David Blaine get buried alive for a week in a plexiglass coffin. It was, said Blaine, a stunt famed illusionist Harry Houdini always wanted to do. For Trump, the publicity ploy made for an apt ode to the art of escape. Trumpologists and culture critics frequently cite showman P.T. Barnum as Trumps preeminent antecedent, but another, less noted inspiration was Houdini, the author of a forthcoming Houdini biography told me. He always foundespecially when it just seemed like it was over for himhe found some new chapter, and some new way to sort of get his success going again, Joe Posnanski said. He created this handcuff act, and the handcuff act becomes huge, and then that sort of runs its course. And then he comes up with the milk can, and the milk can sort of runs its course. And he comes up with the Chinese water torture cell, and that runs his course. And he starts hanging upside down and escaping from straitjackets. It makes Posnanski think of Trump. With Trump, you just think, OK, this is it. This is totally it, you know? he said. Hes bankrupt, people are laughing at him, hes this, hes thatbut its never over for him. Trump, said Sheinkopf, the Democratic strategist, is incessantly pulling Houdini acts. Recall all the gaffes that were to have torpedoed his indelicate, unorthodox 2016 presidential bidpeaking, of course, with the Access Hollywood tape revealed in early October in which he swaggered about sexual assault. *** Those who predict Trump will ultimately fall dont disagree that he has benefited from well-placed safety nets before. This time is different, they insist, because his high-wire act is being performed at unprecedented heights. Under Investigation: An investigation run by Robert Mueller, left, has hung over Trumps presidency for nearly two years and led to the arrest of multiple of the presidents associates, including his former attorney Michael Cohen, top right, and his long-time advisor Roger Stone, bottom right. | Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images, ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images Significantly higher, OBrien said. Hes been on a financial tightrope, and a familial tightrope, but hes never been on a legal tightrope like this one. Not even close. This is fundamentally new because of the legal consequences, and those legal consequences dont end with the filing of the Mueller report. He still has issues that are still very serious in the Southern District of New York; in some ways, they may be more serious than the Mueller investigation in terms of potential consequences and how far they dig into his world. Bandy Lee is worried. The forensic psychiatrist from Yale has studied thousands of people with the mental disorders she perceives Trump has. Their behavior, untreated, had predictable and unpleasant results. She foresees a similar unraveling for Trump, albeit with a wild card she has never encountered in any of her patients: the awesome power of the commander in chief. Under stress, we can see the limits of ones ability to cope, and we can see that the president has reached his limits fairly rapidly, in terms of not being able to sit with the advancing special counsels investigation. You can see there is a heightening of activity and creation of crises, distractions, if you will, in order to distract both themselves as well as the public away from the bad news he is continuing to receive, Lee said. He has very poor coping mechanisms when he is criticized or when he feels humiliated, she continued, and at these points, he generally goes into attack mode, and he threatens others or tries to get revenge. Our conversation took place before Trump resurrected his feud with the late John McCain, but I couldnt help thinking of Lees warning as I listened to the president on Wednesday belabor his grudge before a crowd of workers who were expecting some good news on the economy, not a hit job on a war hero. Maybe this, just like the days of name-calling with George Conway, really are the signs of a mind in turmoil. Trump the Survivor: President Trump departs the White House earlier this year, while talk of his impeachment by a newly-Democratic House is impossible to avoid. Hes teetered on the brink before and never succumbed. | Win McNamee/Getty Images And yetand this is just the reality of the recordTrump shrewdly, bullheadedly, even blithely pushed past crises in the 90s that would have felled almost anybody else. And then, perhaps convinced of his own invincibility, he blew through a litany of accepted social and political checkpoints on his way to the Oval Office and his high-backed chair behind the Resolute desk. Pressure, Trump said in an extended interview in Playboy in 1990, doesnt upset my sleep. I like throwing balls into the airand I dream like a baby. That same year, on June 14, he turned 44. The next day, he missed about $45 million in debt payments for his casino called Trump Castle. He is absolutely on knifes edge, James Grant, the editor of Grants Interest Rate Observer, told Newsday. The day after that, Trump had a party. More than a thousand employees in Atlantic City showed up at the bash on the boardwalk, according to news reports. We love you, Donald! they cried. He was presented with a chocolate cupcake, a 12-page birthday card and an 8-foot-by-10-foot portrait of himself. Nobody wants to write the positives, Trump told the cheering crowd. Over the years, Ive surprised a lot of people. The largest surprise is yet to come. True. | Michael Kruse: Can Trump survive Mueller's report? He says in 1990, Trump told a newswoman he was doing well. He says the truth is that Trump was under a lot of pressure at the time. Kruse says there's no guarantee that Trump will survive the Mueller report. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/22/trump-mueller-report-survive-226101 | 0.144735 |
Does Samuel L. Jackson watch his own movies? | The next time you are watching a Samuel L. Jackson film and you see someone in the theater who looks like the actor, it just might be the one and only. Jackson tells Steve Kroft that he's not one of those actors who claims he can't watch his own films. He likes watching himself on the big screen. So do a lot of people: Jackson is currently the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. The movie star talks to Kroft for a 60 Minutes profile to be broadcast Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Jackson thinks it's a tad disingenuous to say you can't watch yourself in films. "I always think that, 'Oh, I can't stand to watch myself' is like some bulls---," he tells Kroft. "And if you can't watch it why should people pay $13.50 to watch you do it?" For the former stage actor, watching his film performances is a privilege. "When I was doing theater in New York, I always wanted to see the play I was in with me in it," he says with a grin. "Yeah, it is very difficult. So this is perfect for me, I get to watch my performances." A record number of people have watched Jackson in over 100 movies, making him the highest grossing Hollywood film actor. The fact that the prolific movie star has never won an Oscar doesn't seem to bother him in the least. "Like I tell people winning or losing an Academy Award doesn't do a lot toward moving the comma on your check," he says. "Butts in seats. Selling tickets." Kroft also speaks to Jackson's wife of 38 years, the actor LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and accompanies Jackson to his childhood neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tenn. | Samuel L. Jackson is the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. He says he likes watching himself on the big screen. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-samuel-l-jackson-watch-his-own-movies-60-minutes/ | 0.288887 |
Does Samuel L. Jackson watch his own movies? | The next time you are watching a Samuel L. Jackson film and you see someone in the theater who looks like the actor, it just might be the one and only. Jackson tells Steve Kroft that he's not one of those actors who claims he can't watch his own films. He likes watching himself on the big screen. So do a lot of people: Jackson is currently the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. The movie star talks to Kroft for a 60 Minutes profile to be broadcast Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Jackson thinks it's a tad disingenuous to say you can't watch yourself in films. "I always think that, 'Oh, I can't stand to watch myself' is like some bulls---," he tells Kroft. "And if you can't watch it why should people pay $13.50 to watch you do it?" For the former stage actor, watching his film performances is a privilege. "When I was doing theater in New York, I always wanted to see the play I was in with me in it," he says with a grin. "Yeah, it is very difficult. So this is perfect for me, I get to watch my performances." A record number of people have watched Jackson in over 100 movies, making him the highest grossing Hollywood film actor. The fact that the prolific movie star has never won an Oscar doesn't seem to bother him in the least. "Like I tell people winning or losing an Academy Award doesn't do a lot toward moving the comma on your check," he says. "Butts in seats. Selling tickets." Kroft also speaks to Jackson's wife of 38 years, the actor LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and accompanies Jackson to his childhood neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tenn. | Samuel L. Jackson is the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. He tells Steve Kroft that he likes watching himself on the big screen. The movie star talks to Kroft for a 60 Minutes profile. | bart | 1 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-samuel-l-jackson-watch-his-own-movies-60-minutes/ | 0.25236 |
Does Samuel L. Jackson watch his own movies? | The next time you are watching a Samuel L. Jackson film and you see someone in the theater who looks like the actor, it just might be the one and only. Jackson tells Steve Kroft that he's not one of those actors who claims he can't watch his own films. He likes watching himself on the big screen. So do a lot of people: Jackson is currently the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. The movie star talks to Kroft for a 60 Minutes profile to be broadcast Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Jackson thinks it's a tad disingenuous to say you can't watch yourself in films. "I always think that, 'Oh, I can't stand to watch myself' is like some bulls---," he tells Kroft. "And if you can't watch it why should people pay $13.50 to watch you do it?" For the former stage actor, watching his film performances is a privilege. "When I was doing theater in New York, I always wanted to see the play I was in with me in it," he says with a grin. "Yeah, it is very difficult. So this is perfect for me, I get to watch my performances." A record number of people have watched Jackson in over 100 movies, making him the highest grossing Hollywood film actor. The fact that the prolific movie star has never won an Oscar doesn't seem to bother him in the least. "Like I tell people winning or losing an Academy Award doesn't do a lot toward moving the comma on your check," he says. "Butts in seats. Selling tickets." Kroft also speaks to Jackson's wife of 38 years, the actor LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and accompanies Jackson to his childhood neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tenn. | Samuel L. Jackson is the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. He says he likes watching himself on the big screen. Jackson: "I always think that, 'Oh, I can't stand to watch myself' is like some bulls--- " The movie star has never won an Oscar. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-samuel-l-jackson-watch-his-own-movies-60-minutes/ | 0.339407 |
Why does Jane Philpott keep knifing her fellow Liberals? | I guess we have the answer. She would quit cabinet. She would remain an MP, fail to resign from the Liberal caucus, continue to attack the government in an election year as a matter of principle, and say in explicit terms that her fellow Liberal MPs care more about re-election than conscience. Liberal MP Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, and her reasons are simply unfathomable, Heather Mallick writes. ( Justin Tang / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) Equally, she would give an interview although she could use parliamentary privilege to speak candidly to hint at corruption in the SNC-Lavalin affair so complex that it might take four hours to explain. Four hours! So she told Paul Wells, a great political journalist with a preternatural ability to persuade intelligent politicians to say the silliest things. Perhaps he uses silence judiciously. And with that in a climate emergency, with young people bereft, with Donald Trump still in office were pulled back into SNC-Lavalin. My wildest fantasy: Ottawa was distributing crystal methamphetamine in diplomatic pouches until two cooks yes, the cabinet cooks meth on those rural caucus retreats plucky Jody Wilson-Raybould and Philpott, went on strike for a bigger lab. Or their own distribution deal. Or perhaps she and Wilson-Raybould were unhappy at Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus gender-equal cabinet and quit to make an obscure feminist point that frankly eludes me and many other feminists. Or she is, as she says, totally devoted to the honest burghers of Markham-Stouffville. Heres my problem with these theories. People in her riding are the same as other Canadian voters. They want a stable future for their children, an effort at preventing and preparing for the climate change that is about to devastate us, good jobs, equity for women, fairness for Indigenous people, and a national pharmacare plan. And thats why two women, presumably feminists, quit cabinet, so they could personally do less to achieve these things. I grieve to use feminist because I firmly believe that women are a lot like men. They are individuals and dont represent the cause. As it turns out, thats a good thing. Talking to Wells, Philpott spoke obsessively about Wilson-Raybould, blue-skying about what a cabinet minister under pressure and perhaps being harassed might do. In a world run by men, I usually advise such women to do a Tina Fey: go over, under and through. Live to fight another day. I have a basket of clichs at the ready. Article Continued Below Women, including cabinet ministers, have to be resilient. I have worked for and with difficult people but I am resilient. Of course, that is only because I had very large class sizes in high school, says Doug Ford. Perhaps Wilson-Raybould and Philpott were tutored. Either way, I cannot fathom their motive for doing everything in their power to elect a Conservative government headed by the embarrassment that is Andrew Scheer. MPs are well-paid and well-pensioned, as they should be. And its hard to leave the public eye. I doubt they want the leadership of any party, national or provincial, not that it will ever be on offer. Voters dont mind political manoeuvring. Thats the job. But they dont like serial knifings, which is what Philpott is doing to the prime minister and Liberal colleagues. It bothers me that Philpott was unkind enough to say of them, there are people who are afraid that theyre not going to get elected because of what I did. She doesnt mention the possibility that they fear the return of the Conservatives with their sexism, Yellow Vest pals, racism against Indigenous people and at the border, apathy about climate change, and laxity about gun control including assault weapons. Maybe political life was more than a job to many Liberal MPs. It was a call to make Canada a better place. It is possible. Both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are good people, and I admire Philpotts immense stores of compassion. But theyre nave and new to politics, which is all about bending with the blows rather than breaking, and taking the long view. It is not pleasant to think yourself demoted, as Wilson-Raybould did with Indigenous Services and Veterans Affairs. It hurts. But I dont understand Philpotts motives for her continued knifings. If the two are waiting to be exiled and claim supreme victimhood, I say it discredits feminism, because pathetic men do this all the time. Look at former Ontario Conservative leader Patrick Brown writing Takedown: The Political Assassination of Patrick Brown its Jaccuse written by a hamster and driving around looking for a random election. Look at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wailing. This is not my fault. I did not start this, Philpott told Wells. This is a self-help affirmation that I do not intend to post for morning guidance. It doesnt matter who started it. And I find that people who say it is not their fault are often the very people whose fault it is. Heather Mallick is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick Read more about: | Liberal MP Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, writes Heather Mallick. | bart | 0 | https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/03/22/why-does-jane-philpott-keep-knifing-her-fellow-liberals.html | 0.189133 |
Why does Jane Philpott keep knifing her fellow Liberals? | I guess we have the answer. She would quit cabinet. She would remain an MP, fail to resign from the Liberal caucus, continue to attack the government in an election year as a matter of principle, and say in explicit terms that her fellow Liberal MPs care more about re-election than conscience. Liberal MP Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, and her reasons are simply unfathomable, Heather Mallick writes. ( Justin Tang / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) Equally, she would give an interview although she could use parliamentary privilege to speak candidly to hint at corruption in the SNC-Lavalin affair so complex that it might take four hours to explain. Four hours! So she told Paul Wells, a great political journalist with a preternatural ability to persuade intelligent politicians to say the silliest things. Perhaps he uses silence judiciously. And with that in a climate emergency, with young people bereft, with Donald Trump still in office were pulled back into SNC-Lavalin. My wildest fantasy: Ottawa was distributing crystal methamphetamine in diplomatic pouches until two cooks yes, the cabinet cooks meth on those rural caucus retreats plucky Jody Wilson-Raybould and Philpott, went on strike for a bigger lab. Or their own distribution deal. Or perhaps she and Wilson-Raybould were unhappy at Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus gender-equal cabinet and quit to make an obscure feminist point that frankly eludes me and many other feminists. Or she is, as she says, totally devoted to the honest burghers of Markham-Stouffville. Heres my problem with these theories. People in her riding are the same as other Canadian voters. They want a stable future for their children, an effort at preventing and preparing for the climate change that is about to devastate us, good jobs, equity for women, fairness for Indigenous people, and a national pharmacare plan. And thats why two women, presumably feminists, quit cabinet, so they could personally do less to achieve these things. I grieve to use feminist because I firmly believe that women are a lot like men. They are individuals and dont represent the cause. As it turns out, thats a good thing. Talking to Wells, Philpott spoke obsessively about Wilson-Raybould, blue-skying about what a cabinet minister under pressure and perhaps being harassed might do. In a world run by men, I usually advise such women to do a Tina Fey: go over, under and through. Live to fight another day. I have a basket of clichs at the ready. Article Continued Below Women, including cabinet ministers, have to be resilient. I have worked for and with difficult people but I am resilient. Of course, that is only because I had very large class sizes in high school, says Doug Ford. Perhaps Wilson-Raybould and Philpott were tutored. Either way, I cannot fathom their motive for doing everything in their power to elect a Conservative government headed by the embarrassment that is Andrew Scheer. MPs are well-paid and well-pensioned, as they should be. And its hard to leave the public eye. I doubt they want the leadership of any party, national or provincial, not that it will ever be on offer. Voters dont mind political manoeuvring. Thats the job. But they dont like serial knifings, which is what Philpott is doing to the prime minister and Liberal colleagues. It bothers me that Philpott was unkind enough to say of them, there are people who are afraid that theyre not going to get elected because of what I did. She doesnt mention the possibility that they fear the return of the Conservatives with their sexism, Yellow Vest pals, racism against Indigenous people and at the border, apathy about climate change, and laxity about gun control including assault weapons. Maybe political life was more than a job to many Liberal MPs. It was a call to make Canada a better place. It is possible. Both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are good people, and I admire Philpotts immense stores of compassion. But theyre nave and new to politics, which is all about bending with the blows rather than breaking, and taking the long view. It is not pleasant to think yourself demoted, as Wilson-Raybould did with Indigenous Services and Veterans Affairs. It hurts. But I dont understand Philpotts motives for her continued knifings. If the two are waiting to be exiled and claim supreme victimhood, I say it discredits feminism, because pathetic men do this all the time. Look at former Ontario Conservative leader Patrick Brown writing Takedown: The Political Assassination of Patrick Brown its Jaccuse written by a hamster and driving around looking for a random election. Look at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wailing. This is not my fault. I did not start this, Philpott told Wells. This is a self-help affirmation that I do not intend to post for morning guidance. It doesnt matter who started it. And I find that people who say it is not their fault are often the very people whose fault it is. Heather Mallick is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick Read more about: | Liberal MP Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, and her reasons are simply unfathomable, Heather Mallick writes. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/03/22/why-does-jane-philpott-keep-knifing-her-fellow-liberals.html | 0.24475 |
Why does Jane Philpott keep knifing her fellow Liberals? | I guess we have the answer. She would quit cabinet. She would remain an MP, fail to resign from the Liberal caucus, continue to attack the government in an election year as a matter of principle, and say in explicit terms that her fellow Liberal MPs care more about re-election than conscience. Liberal MP Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, and her reasons are simply unfathomable, Heather Mallick writes. ( Justin Tang / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) Equally, she would give an interview although she could use parliamentary privilege to speak candidly to hint at corruption in the SNC-Lavalin affair so complex that it might take four hours to explain. Four hours! So she told Paul Wells, a great political journalist with a preternatural ability to persuade intelligent politicians to say the silliest things. Perhaps he uses silence judiciously. And with that in a climate emergency, with young people bereft, with Donald Trump still in office were pulled back into SNC-Lavalin. My wildest fantasy: Ottawa was distributing crystal methamphetamine in diplomatic pouches until two cooks yes, the cabinet cooks meth on those rural caucus retreats plucky Jody Wilson-Raybould and Philpott, went on strike for a bigger lab. Or their own distribution deal. Or perhaps she and Wilson-Raybould were unhappy at Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus gender-equal cabinet and quit to make an obscure feminist point that frankly eludes me and many other feminists. Or she is, as she says, totally devoted to the honest burghers of Markham-Stouffville. Heres my problem with these theories. People in her riding are the same as other Canadian voters. They want a stable future for their children, an effort at preventing and preparing for the climate change that is about to devastate us, good jobs, equity for women, fairness for Indigenous people, and a national pharmacare plan. And thats why two women, presumably feminists, quit cabinet, so they could personally do less to achieve these things. I grieve to use feminist because I firmly believe that women are a lot like men. They are individuals and dont represent the cause. As it turns out, thats a good thing. Talking to Wells, Philpott spoke obsessively about Wilson-Raybould, blue-skying about what a cabinet minister under pressure and perhaps being harassed might do. In a world run by men, I usually advise such women to do a Tina Fey: go over, under and through. Live to fight another day. I have a basket of clichs at the ready. Article Continued Below Women, including cabinet ministers, have to be resilient. I have worked for and with difficult people but I am resilient. Of course, that is only because I had very large class sizes in high school, says Doug Ford. Perhaps Wilson-Raybould and Philpott were tutored. Either way, I cannot fathom their motive for doing everything in their power to elect a Conservative government headed by the embarrassment that is Andrew Scheer. MPs are well-paid and well-pensioned, as they should be. And its hard to leave the public eye. I doubt they want the leadership of any party, national or provincial, not that it will ever be on offer. Voters dont mind political manoeuvring. Thats the job. But they dont like serial knifings, which is what Philpott is doing to the prime minister and Liberal colleagues. It bothers me that Philpott was unkind enough to say of them, there are people who are afraid that theyre not going to get elected because of what I did. She doesnt mention the possibility that they fear the return of the Conservatives with their sexism, Yellow Vest pals, racism against Indigenous people and at the border, apathy about climate change, and laxity about gun control including assault weapons. Maybe political life was more than a job to many Liberal MPs. It was a call to make Canada a better place. It is possible. Both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are good people, and I admire Philpotts immense stores of compassion. But theyre nave and new to politics, which is all about bending with the blows rather than breaking, and taking the long view. It is not pleasant to think yourself demoted, as Wilson-Raybould did with Indigenous Services and Veterans Affairs. It hurts. But I dont understand Philpotts motives for her continued knifings. If the two are waiting to be exiled and claim supreme victimhood, I say it discredits feminism, because pathetic men do this all the time. Look at former Ontario Conservative leader Patrick Brown writing Takedown: The Political Assassination of Patrick Brown its Jaccuse written by a hamster and driving around looking for a random election. Look at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wailing. This is not my fault. I did not start this, Philpott told Wells. This is a self-help affirmation that I do not intend to post for morning guidance. It doesnt matter who started it. And I find that people who say it is not their fault are often the very people whose fault it is. Heather Mallick is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick Read more about: | Heather Mallick: Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, and her reasons are simply unfathomable. She says she would quit cabinet, resign from the Liberal caucus, and say in explicit terms that her fellow Liberal MPs care more about re-election than conscience. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/03/22/why-does-jane-philpott-keep-knifing-her-fellow-liberals.html | 0.290253 |
What Is Jordan Peele's 'Us' Really About? | Just as Get Out was a metaphorical story of the insidious racism that festers even in progressive circles, Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. Thankfully, Peele doesnt hammer his audience with his message; theres enough ambiguity in this film to invoke varied discussion. The following analysis is my personal take on the story, and entirely subjective. Spoilers Ahead, Obviously Us sees Adelaide and her family living a modest version of the American dream. While theyre not quite as wealthy as their neighbors, they are comfortable enough to own a holiday home. Interestingly, Adelaides husband Gabe stresses about keeping up with said neighbors, without considering that their marriage appears loveless, the rival family clearly not as happy as his own. When the invasion of the doppelgngers begins, our first reaction is of, course, terror. These people are incredibly violent and otherworldly. Adelaides doppelgnger, Red, is the only one with the ability to speak, the others communicating through hand signals and animalistic cries. But when we discover where the doppelgngers came from, the horror story twists into a sci-fi dystopia. The aggressors become the victims, as it becomes clear that these people are fighting back against a world that imprisoned them beneath the ground, living in the shadow of their originals. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. Us is about living under the weight of guilt that comes with modern life, the knowledge that the First World is elevated by the suffering of the Third. Somewhere, unseen to us, countless individuals are enslaved and exploited, so that we can consume. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the cheap technology we buy are provided through supply chains that get progressively nastier the further they move away from us. We are connected to these unfortunate people, though we try not to think about them. This trail of blood only gets thicker as we move back through history, and learn about how our civilizations were founded. When young Adelaide initially visits the hall of mirrors, it is marketed as the Shamans Journey, echoing the Native American genocide that birthed America. When she returns to the hall of mirrors, it has been repackaged as the more politically correct Merlins Journey. And inside, going down the literal rabbit hole, she enters the place where the doppelgngers were born into imprisonment. Their red jumpsuits invoke prison uniforms, the white rabbits bring to mind the countless animal test subjects that have suffered, so we dont have to. The bleak underworld resembles a depressing underground mall, the inhabitants doomed to echo the actions of the people above. Without knowing it, the ordinary Americans going about their business are puppet masters to the wretched doppelgngers. But Adelaide is different. She swapped roles with her original, and thus, condemned Red to a life of suffering. In hindsight, Adelaides strangely sympathetic behavior to the psychotic doppelgnger children makes perfect sense, as does her unwillingness to converse with Kitty, and her reluctance to return to the beach. She always knew her actions would have consequences, that she didnt really belong in this world. Its a twisted version of imposter syndrome, the feeling that the life you enjoy is undeserved. Its clear that she eventually became indistinguishable from an ordinary person, meaning that all the rest of the people trapped down there also have the potential to be normal. The doppelgngers cannot speak because nobody ever taught them to, they were driven mad by their living circumstances. We are all monsters, the film seems to be saying. The sins of the past and present corrupt our comfortable lives, sparking symptoms of discontent, depression, a pervading sense of guilt and unease. Red, the original Adelaide, lived a life she always knew was wrong, and her grand scheme to unite the doppelgngers in a line of solidarity will ultimately fail. The final shot shows the helicopters circling the doppelgngers - we know their rebellion is already over. Ironically, the gesture was inspired by the activism Red saw on television as a child, a human chain organized to end world hunger. That charitable event too, was practically futile, merely an acknowledgment that there are others out there who are living in hell, a feel-good event for those involved, and nothing more. Adelaide traded her suffering for someone elses happiness, and shes not the only one. Adelaide and Red are identical, one simply a victim of circumstance, reacting to her immense suffering with violence. Adelaide got away with it, and in her final appearance, she smiles, knowing that its over. Its pretty unsettling to think that most of us would do the exact same thing, in her circumstance. | Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. | bart | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/03/22/what-is-jordan-peeles-us-really-about/ | 0.283718 |
What Is Jordan Peele's 'Us' Really About? | Just as Get Out was a metaphorical story of the insidious racism that festers even in progressive circles, Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. Thankfully, Peele doesnt hammer his audience with his message; theres enough ambiguity in this film to invoke varied discussion. The following analysis is my personal take on the story, and entirely subjective. Spoilers Ahead, Obviously Us sees Adelaide and her family living a modest version of the American dream. While theyre not quite as wealthy as their neighbors, they are comfortable enough to own a holiday home. Interestingly, Adelaides husband Gabe stresses about keeping up with said neighbors, without considering that their marriage appears loveless, the rival family clearly not as happy as his own. When the invasion of the doppelgngers begins, our first reaction is of, course, terror. These people are incredibly violent and otherworldly. Adelaides doppelgnger, Red, is the only one with the ability to speak, the others communicating through hand signals and animalistic cries. But when we discover where the doppelgngers came from, the horror story twists into a sci-fi dystopia. The aggressors become the victims, as it becomes clear that these people are fighting back against a world that imprisoned them beneath the ground, living in the shadow of their originals. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. Us is about living under the weight of guilt that comes with modern life, the knowledge that the First World is elevated by the suffering of the Third. Somewhere, unseen to us, countless individuals are enslaved and exploited, so that we can consume. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the cheap technology we buy are provided through supply chains that get progressively nastier the further they move away from us. We are connected to these unfortunate people, though we try not to think about them. This trail of blood only gets thicker as we move back through history, and learn about how our civilizations were founded. When young Adelaide initially visits the hall of mirrors, it is marketed as the Shamans Journey, echoing the Native American genocide that birthed America. When she returns to the hall of mirrors, it has been repackaged as the more politically correct Merlins Journey. And inside, going down the literal rabbit hole, she enters the place where the doppelgngers were born into imprisonment. Their red jumpsuits invoke prison uniforms, the white rabbits bring to mind the countless animal test subjects that have suffered, so we dont have to. The bleak underworld resembles a depressing underground mall, the inhabitants doomed to echo the actions of the people above. Without knowing it, the ordinary Americans going about their business are puppet masters to the wretched doppelgngers. But Adelaide is different. She swapped roles with her original, and thus, condemned Red to a life of suffering. In hindsight, Adelaides strangely sympathetic behavior to the psychotic doppelgnger children makes perfect sense, as does her unwillingness to converse with Kitty, and her reluctance to return to the beach. She always knew her actions would have consequences, that she didnt really belong in this world. Its a twisted version of imposter syndrome, the feeling that the life you enjoy is undeserved. Its clear that she eventually became indistinguishable from an ordinary person, meaning that all the rest of the people trapped down there also have the potential to be normal. The doppelgngers cannot speak because nobody ever taught them to, they were driven mad by their living circumstances. We are all monsters, the film seems to be saying. The sins of the past and present corrupt our comfortable lives, sparking symptoms of discontent, depression, a pervading sense of guilt and unease. Red, the original Adelaide, lived a life she always knew was wrong, and her grand scheme to unite the doppelgngers in a line of solidarity will ultimately fail. The final shot shows the helicopters circling the doppelgngers - we know their rebellion is already over. Ironically, the gesture was inspired by the activism Red saw on television as a child, a human chain organized to end world hunger. That charitable event too, was practically futile, merely an acknowledgment that there are others out there who are living in hell, a feel-good event for those involved, and nothing more. Adelaide traded her suffering for someone elses happiness, and shes not the only one. Adelaide and Red are identical, one simply a victim of circumstance, reacting to her immense suffering with violence. Adelaide got away with it, and in her final appearance, she smiles, knowing that its over. Its pretty unsettling to think that most of us would do the exact same thing, in her circumstance. | Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. The aggressors become the victims in this sci-fi dystopia. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. | bart | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/03/22/what-is-jordan-peeles-us-really-about/ | 0.272238 |
What Is Jordan Peele's 'Us' Really About? | Just as Get Out was a metaphorical story of the insidious racism that festers even in progressive circles, Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. Thankfully, Peele doesnt hammer his audience with his message; theres enough ambiguity in this film to invoke varied discussion. The following analysis is my personal take on the story, and entirely subjective. Spoilers Ahead, Obviously Us sees Adelaide and her family living a modest version of the American dream. While theyre not quite as wealthy as their neighbors, they are comfortable enough to own a holiday home. Interestingly, Adelaides husband Gabe stresses about keeping up with said neighbors, without considering that their marriage appears loveless, the rival family clearly not as happy as his own. When the invasion of the doppelgngers begins, our first reaction is of, course, terror. These people are incredibly violent and otherworldly. Adelaides doppelgnger, Red, is the only one with the ability to speak, the others communicating through hand signals and animalistic cries. But when we discover where the doppelgngers came from, the horror story twists into a sci-fi dystopia. The aggressors become the victims, as it becomes clear that these people are fighting back against a world that imprisoned them beneath the ground, living in the shadow of their originals. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. Us is about living under the weight of guilt that comes with modern life, the knowledge that the First World is elevated by the suffering of the Third. Somewhere, unseen to us, countless individuals are enslaved and exploited, so that we can consume. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the cheap technology we buy are provided through supply chains that get progressively nastier the further they move away from us. We are connected to these unfortunate people, though we try not to think about them. This trail of blood only gets thicker as we move back through history, and learn about how our civilizations were founded. When young Adelaide initially visits the hall of mirrors, it is marketed as the Shamans Journey, echoing the Native American genocide that birthed America. When she returns to the hall of mirrors, it has been repackaged as the more politically correct Merlins Journey. And inside, going down the literal rabbit hole, she enters the place where the doppelgngers were born into imprisonment. Their red jumpsuits invoke prison uniforms, the white rabbits bring to mind the countless animal test subjects that have suffered, so we dont have to. The bleak underworld resembles a depressing underground mall, the inhabitants doomed to echo the actions of the people above. Without knowing it, the ordinary Americans going about their business are puppet masters to the wretched doppelgngers. But Adelaide is different. She swapped roles with her original, and thus, condemned Red to a life of suffering. In hindsight, Adelaides strangely sympathetic behavior to the psychotic doppelgnger children makes perfect sense, as does her unwillingness to converse with Kitty, and her reluctance to return to the beach. She always knew her actions would have consequences, that she didnt really belong in this world. Its a twisted version of imposter syndrome, the feeling that the life you enjoy is undeserved. Its clear that she eventually became indistinguishable from an ordinary person, meaning that all the rest of the people trapped down there also have the potential to be normal. The doppelgngers cannot speak because nobody ever taught them to, they were driven mad by their living circumstances. We are all monsters, the film seems to be saying. The sins of the past and present corrupt our comfortable lives, sparking symptoms of discontent, depression, a pervading sense of guilt and unease. Red, the original Adelaide, lived a life she always knew was wrong, and her grand scheme to unite the doppelgngers in a line of solidarity will ultimately fail. The final shot shows the helicopters circling the doppelgngers - we know their rebellion is already over. Ironically, the gesture was inspired by the activism Red saw on television as a child, a human chain organized to end world hunger. That charitable event too, was practically futile, merely an acknowledgment that there are others out there who are living in hell, a feel-good event for those involved, and nothing more. Adelaide traded her suffering for someone elses happiness, and shes not the only one. Adelaide and Red are identical, one simply a victim of circumstance, reacting to her immense suffering with violence. Adelaide got away with it, and in her final appearance, she smiles, knowing that its over. Its pretty unsettling to think that most of us would do the exact same thing, in her circumstance. | Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. The aggressors become the victims in this sci-fi dystopia. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. Us is about living under the weight of guilt that comes with modern life. | bart | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/03/22/what-is-jordan-peeles-us-really-about/ | 0.475115 |
What Is McDonald's Expected Revenue And EBITDA in FY 2019? | McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) released its full year results on January 30, 2019. The company beat the consensus earnings but missed slightly on revenue for the 4th Quarter. This was primarily due to the refranchising of its restaurants that has been under process for a couple of years mow. The companys long-term goal is for 95% of McDonalds restaurants to be owned by franchisees, and at the end of FY 2018, this figure stood at 92.7%. Overall the company posted revenue of $21.03 billion while earnings were at $7.50, up 18% year on year as the refranchising strategy has also helped them in cutting down costs and thus improving margins. Global comparable sales also improved by 4.5% YOY. Based on Trefis analysis, we have maintained our long-term price estimate for McDonalds at $196, which is around 5% ahead of the current market price. We have created an interactive dashboard on McDonalds Revenue And EBITDA Breakdown, which details our forecasts for the company in the near term. You can modify our assumptions to see the impact any changes would have on the companys revenue and EBITDA. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Trefis Overall we expect the company to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3% year on year and $11.5 billion in EBITDA, up by nearly 12% year on year. Out of the total expected revenues from 2019, $8.05 is expected from the US segment, closely followed by International Lead Markets segment at $7.8 billion. For High growth markets our estimate is $4.01 billion while for Foundation Markets and corporate it is $1.7 billion. The overall revenue is still less than the number achieved in FY 2017 mainly due to the refranchising strategy of the company which translates into better earnings but lesser growth or negative growth in the near term in the top line. In the US the company is executing significant initiatives in making foundational changes in the business and staying focused on the customers. Still, in 2018, they grew sales while continuing to invest billions of dollars in the restaurants. In 2019 we expect them to continue the growth for revenue and also improve the EBITDA margin. International lead market segment grew on the back of UK, where they now have 51 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth with simultaneously increasing its share, and Australia with offerings such as the successful all-day favorites and the benefit of rising delivery sales. We expect these two regions to continue to add to the growth of the segment. We saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue of High growth markets in 2018 due to an impairment charge and refranchising in China and HongKong. Moving forward in 2019 we expect the segment to gain its previous traction and improve its EBITDA margin, too. Foundation Markets and Corporate saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue. The fall was mostly driven by higher investments in technology in the corporate segment and the company expects the same to continue for another year before the segment stabilizes. Overall, McDonalds is expected to do well in FY 2019 in terms of revenue and earnings on the back of refranchising, technological initiatives, new launches, and increasing share in certain markets. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | Trefis: McDonald's expected to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3%. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/22/what-is-mcdonalds-expected-revenue-and-ebitda-in-fy-2019/ | 0.142523 |
What Is McDonald's Expected Revenue And EBITDA in FY 2019? | McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) released its full year results on January 30, 2019. The company beat the consensus earnings but missed slightly on revenue for the 4th Quarter. This was primarily due to the refranchising of its restaurants that has been under process for a couple of years mow. The companys long-term goal is for 95% of McDonalds restaurants to be owned by franchisees, and at the end of FY 2018, this figure stood at 92.7%. Overall the company posted revenue of $21.03 billion while earnings were at $7.50, up 18% year on year as the refranchising strategy has also helped them in cutting down costs and thus improving margins. Global comparable sales also improved by 4.5% YOY. Based on Trefis analysis, we have maintained our long-term price estimate for McDonalds at $196, which is around 5% ahead of the current market price. We have created an interactive dashboard on McDonalds Revenue And EBITDA Breakdown, which details our forecasts for the company in the near term. You can modify our assumptions to see the impact any changes would have on the companys revenue and EBITDA. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Trefis Overall we expect the company to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3% year on year and $11.5 billion in EBITDA, up by nearly 12% year on year. Out of the total expected revenues from 2019, $8.05 is expected from the US segment, closely followed by International Lead Markets segment at $7.8 billion. For High growth markets our estimate is $4.01 billion while for Foundation Markets and corporate it is $1.7 billion. The overall revenue is still less than the number achieved in FY 2017 mainly due to the refranchising strategy of the company which translates into better earnings but lesser growth or negative growth in the near term in the top line. In the US the company is executing significant initiatives in making foundational changes in the business and staying focused on the customers. Still, in 2018, they grew sales while continuing to invest billions of dollars in the restaurants. In 2019 we expect them to continue the growth for revenue and also improve the EBITDA margin. International lead market segment grew on the back of UK, where they now have 51 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth with simultaneously increasing its share, and Australia with offerings such as the successful all-day favorites and the benefit of rising delivery sales. We expect these two regions to continue to add to the growth of the segment. We saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue of High growth markets in 2018 due to an impairment charge and refranchising in China and HongKong. Moving forward in 2019 we expect the segment to gain its previous traction and improve its EBITDA margin, too. Foundation Markets and Corporate saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue. The fall was mostly driven by higher investments in technology in the corporate segment and the company expects the same to continue for another year before the segment stabilizes. Overall, McDonalds is expected to do well in FY 2019 in terms of revenue and earnings on the back of refranchising, technological initiatives, new launches, and increasing share in certain markets. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | Trefis: McDonald's expected to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3% year on year. We expect them to continue the growth for revenue and also improve the EBITDA margin. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/22/what-is-mcdonalds-expected-revenue-and-ebitda-in-fy-2019/ | 0.228832 |
What Is McDonald's Expected Revenue And EBITDA in FY 2019? | McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) released its full year results on January 30, 2019. The company beat the consensus earnings but missed slightly on revenue for the 4th Quarter. This was primarily due to the refranchising of its restaurants that has been under process for a couple of years mow. The companys long-term goal is for 95% of McDonalds restaurants to be owned by franchisees, and at the end of FY 2018, this figure stood at 92.7%. Overall the company posted revenue of $21.03 billion while earnings were at $7.50, up 18% year on year as the refranchising strategy has also helped them in cutting down costs and thus improving margins. Global comparable sales also improved by 4.5% YOY. Based on Trefis analysis, we have maintained our long-term price estimate for McDonalds at $196, which is around 5% ahead of the current market price. We have created an interactive dashboard on McDonalds Revenue And EBITDA Breakdown, which details our forecasts for the company in the near term. You can modify our assumptions to see the impact any changes would have on the companys revenue and EBITDA. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Trefis Overall we expect the company to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3% year on year and $11.5 billion in EBITDA, up by nearly 12% year on year. Out of the total expected revenues from 2019, $8.05 is expected from the US segment, closely followed by International Lead Markets segment at $7.8 billion. For High growth markets our estimate is $4.01 billion while for Foundation Markets and corporate it is $1.7 billion. The overall revenue is still less than the number achieved in FY 2017 mainly due to the refranchising strategy of the company which translates into better earnings but lesser growth or negative growth in the near term in the top line. In the US the company is executing significant initiatives in making foundational changes in the business and staying focused on the customers. Still, in 2018, they grew sales while continuing to invest billions of dollars in the restaurants. In 2019 we expect them to continue the growth for revenue and also improve the EBITDA margin. International lead market segment grew on the back of UK, where they now have 51 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth with simultaneously increasing its share, and Australia with offerings such as the successful all-day favorites and the benefit of rising delivery sales. We expect these two regions to continue to add to the growth of the segment. We saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue of High growth markets in 2018 due to an impairment charge and refranchising in China and HongKong. Moving forward in 2019 we expect the segment to gain its previous traction and improve its EBITDA margin, too. Foundation Markets and Corporate saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue. The fall was mostly driven by higher investments in technology in the corporate segment and the company expects the same to continue for another year before the segment stabilizes. Overall, McDonalds is expected to do well in FY 2019 in terms of revenue and earnings on the back of refranchising, technological initiatives, new launches, and increasing share in certain markets. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | Trefis: McDonald's expected to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3% year on year. We expect them to continue the growth for revenue and also improve the EBITDA margin. We have created an interactive dashboard on McDonalds Revenue And EbitDA Breakdown. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/22/what-is-mcdonalds-expected-revenue-and-ebitda-in-fy-2019/ | 0.26445 |
Does Anybody Really Want What Apple's (Probably) Offering? | Getty The Silicon Valley trades have been just about roaring with delight over what will allegedly be Apples big TV announcement next week. Seems those mavericks are going to reinvent the bundle. Kinda, sorta, not really. What they are allegedly doing is packaging up a bunch of streaming services like Showtime, Starz and HBO, and letting you get a full year subscription for less than it would cost you to subscribe to each individually. Plus, you get a bunch of new original shows from Apple as part of the package. On paper it sounds sort of interesting, but lets dive a little deeper into the proposition. Subscribing and unsubscribing to HBO and Showtime is a hassle if you have them as part of your cable bundle. Theres some magical math the provider does that somehow makes it seem like youre paying less if you add some premium cable stations as part of your Super Platinum Plus bundle, and cancelling means spending hours on a phone chain and arguing with a rep who is incentivized to talk you out of cancelling. So theres that. But if you have a Roku or Amazon Fire TV, you can easily subscribe and unsubscribe from HBO or Showtime via the apps. No one will argue with you and it will take all of five minute. Whats more, you can subscribe via your Roku or Amazon account, as both companies already have a system that lets you manage all your subscriptions. So while the Apple offering will be useful to people with Apple TVs, but its a me too offering, not an innovation. I can understand why HBO, Showtime and Starz might want to lock people in for a year right now, but Im not really getting whats in it for consumers. (And lets be real: the cost savings of just a one-month cancellation to any of these services is likely to equal the savings from signing up for a full-year subscription.) There's also the fact that it seems that Apple is going to launch with just a few of the smaller streaming services which means they're not likely bundling a big percentage of most people's streaming bill, which further reduces the service's usefulness. Well, one could argue, there is all that new original programming that Apple is going to be offering for free. Which brings up yet another yes, but You see, youll only be able to watch those shows on an actual television set if you have a $179 Apple TV device. And a $179 Apple TV device is not something a whole lot of people have. (Nor should they, given that they are in no way superior to a $29 Roku or Amazon Fire TV device.) Apples new shows can also be watched on a few models of Samsung TV, and, it seems likely, viewers will also be able to stream them to their Roku devices using Airplay 2. Something I can all but assure you that very few people will be bothered to figure out how to do. Now Apples announcement may not turn out to be a total bust. There are also rumors theyll include a program guide of sorts for all your subscription services. Thats yet another not a bad idea on paper as one of the biggest complaints I hear about the all-app ecosystem is that its hard to figure out how to find anything. But thats because people forget whether that new series Russian Doll their friend told them about is on Netflix or HBO or FX, not what time its on, so the guide is likely to be of limited use, especially since its not particularly all-encompassing. Bundle 2.0 Apple has deep pockets and a loyal fan base plus millions of iPhone users worldwide. That gives them bandwidth to figure this all out and to iterate. The lessons they learn selling Bundle 1.0 may prove valuable to them in launching Bundle 2.0, which is definitely something I see happening in the post-Flixcopalyptic TV industry, as astronomical churn rates cause both subscription services and vMVPDs to see bundling as the best way to increase stickiness. Future bundles will likely include non-TV media platforms with monthly subscriptions, like music streaming and newspapers and magazines. (Similar to what Hulu and Spotify are already doing, but only on a more massive scale.) As for Apple, well find out what theyre really up to next week. At which point it may make sense to revisit this piece. Or not. | Apple is allegedly offering a year's subscription to HBO, Showtime and Starz for less than it would cost you to subscribe to each individually. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanwolk/2019/03/22/does-anybody-really-want-what-apples-probably-offering/ | 0.150211 |
Does Anybody Really Want What Apple's (Probably) Offering? | Getty The Silicon Valley trades have been just about roaring with delight over what will allegedly be Apples big TV announcement next week. Seems those mavericks are going to reinvent the bundle. Kinda, sorta, not really. What they are allegedly doing is packaging up a bunch of streaming services like Showtime, Starz and HBO, and letting you get a full year subscription for less than it would cost you to subscribe to each individually. Plus, you get a bunch of new original shows from Apple as part of the package. On paper it sounds sort of interesting, but lets dive a little deeper into the proposition. Subscribing and unsubscribing to HBO and Showtime is a hassle if you have them as part of your cable bundle. Theres some magical math the provider does that somehow makes it seem like youre paying less if you add some premium cable stations as part of your Super Platinum Plus bundle, and cancelling means spending hours on a phone chain and arguing with a rep who is incentivized to talk you out of cancelling. So theres that. But if you have a Roku or Amazon Fire TV, you can easily subscribe and unsubscribe from HBO or Showtime via the apps. No one will argue with you and it will take all of five minute. Whats more, you can subscribe via your Roku or Amazon account, as both companies already have a system that lets you manage all your subscriptions. So while the Apple offering will be useful to people with Apple TVs, but its a me too offering, not an innovation. I can understand why HBO, Showtime and Starz might want to lock people in for a year right now, but Im not really getting whats in it for consumers. (And lets be real: the cost savings of just a one-month cancellation to any of these services is likely to equal the savings from signing up for a full-year subscription.) There's also the fact that it seems that Apple is going to launch with just a few of the smaller streaming services which means they're not likely bundling a big percentage of most people's streaming bill, which further reduces the service's usefulness. Well, one could argue, there is all that new original programming that Apple is going to be offering for free. Which brings up yet another yes, but You see, youll only be able to watch those shows on an actual television set if you have a $179 Apple TV device. And a $179 Apple TV device is not something a whole lot of people have. (Nor should they, given that they are in no way superior to a $29 Roku or Amazon Fire TV device.) Apples new shows can also be watched on a few models of Samsung TV, and, it seems likely, viewers will also be able to stream them to their Roku devices using Airplay 2. Something I can all but assure you that very few people will be bothered to figure out how to do. Now Apples announcement may not turn out to be a total bust. There are also rumors theyll include a program guide of sorts for all your subscription services. Thats yet another not a bad idea on paper as one of the biggest complaints I hear about the all-app ecosystem is that its hard to figure out how to find anything. But thats because people forget whether that new series Russian Doll their friend told them about is on Netflix or HBO or FX, not what time its on, so the guide is likely to be of limited use, especially since its not particularly all-encompassing. Bundle 2.0 Apple has deep pockets and a loyal fan base plus millions of iPhone users worldwide. That gives them bandwidth to figure this all out and to iterate. The lessons they learn selling Bundle 1.0 may prove valuable to them in launching Bundle 2.0, which is definitely something I see happening in the post-Flixcopalyptic TV industry, as astronomical churn rates cause both subscription services and vMVPDs to see bundling as the best way to increase stickiness. Future bundles will likely include non-TV media platforms with monthly subscriptions, like music streaming and newspapers and magazines. (Similar to what Hulu and Spotify are already doing, but only on a more massive scale.) As for Apple, well find out what theyre really up to next week. At which point it may make sense to revisit this piece. Or not. | Apple is allegedly offering a year's subscription to HBO, Showtime and Starz for less than it would cost you to subscribe to each individually. But if you have a Roku or Amazon Fire TV, you can easily subscribe and unsubscribe from HBO or Showtime via the apps. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanwolk/2019/03/22/does-anybody-really-want-what-apples-probably-offering/ | 0.200634 |
Is Apple about to expand its TV business? | Invitations to an event at its Cupertino campus on Monday simply saying "It's show time" have sparked speculation that the tech giant could be about to announce its next TV steps. Apple needs to diversify and find a new ways of bringing in cash as iPhone sales slow down, analysts say. But in an unforgiving media landscape, Apple is expected to launch a challenge to the likes of Netflix. Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV, which didn't get very far. Its first major foray into the area was in 2007, when it first started selling its Apple TV console. This has had limited success compared with its iTunes music service, analysts say. Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester, says: "Apple has had a TV device and content library for several years, following the model around music that revolutionised that industry. "But people consume TV and music content very differently so just applying the music model didn't have the same impact." Apple TV's hardware and technology platform is used to rent and sell content through iTunes. Image copyright CBS/YouTube Image caption James Corden got a bit emotional on Paul McCartney's Carpool Karaoke The firm has released original titles through Apple Music, including Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps, a reality show about app development. Since 2007, Apple has also had some success in distributing movies and TV shows, according to Canalys analyst Ben Stanton. However, he adds: "Its iTunes movies business is under huge threat from affordable streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and soon Disney. "It was a success in its day, but Apple now needs to evolve this business or it will die." Apple has built up relationships with major movie studios and TV networks, and these are "critical" for it to launch a subscription service, Mr Stanton says, because it needs to have more content than just its own original shows. But some big players have said they are not on board. Netflix has already ruled out making its TV programmes and films available through Apple's subscription service, with chief executive Reed Hastings saying: "We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service." Apple has been on a $2bn spending spree, signing up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, for original content. Jennifer Aniston and Reece Witherspoon are also widely reported to have been signed up. Directors and producers including M. Night Shyamalan and J.J. Abrams have been signed up, according to showbiz publication Variety, as well as Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. Apple also hired two well-respected Sony Pictures executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, to head its original content division. Image copyright Kevin Winter Image caption Oprah Winfrey has signed up to a multi-year content deal with Apple As for the service itself, Jim Nail of Forrester says: "As usual, Apple is so closely guarding the details that it is hard to judge it. And the price matters a lot. As they say in the TV business, stay tuned..." It may also allow customers to buy subscriptions to CBS, Viacom and Lions Gate, and is also in discussions with Game of Thrones maker HBO to become part of its service, according to Reuters. Netflix "is the biggest fish in this particular pond", says Ben Stanton, and Netflix and Apple "have been at loggerheads recently". The streaming giant is shifting its subscription model away from the Apple App store, which means it will be much harder for Apple to make money from Netflix customers on its iOS operating system. In terms of content, Amazon Prime has a number of irons in the fire, including an upcoming series based on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings mythology, Radio Times reports. Image copyright Sky Atlantic Image caption A new series of Game of Thrones is due out in April Amazon Prime includes Channels, where consumers in the US can sign up to third parties such as HBO and Showtime. HBO is due to premiere season eight of its smash hit series Game of Thrones in April. The BBC and ITV also announced recently that they are in talks over launching a service called Britbox in the UK. Smartphone sales are slowing for many major manufacturers, including Apple, says Ben Stanton, but most other companies have big businesses to fall back on. "Huawei has its infrastructure business. Samsung has a very profitable components division, not to mention its TV business. But Apple is extremely dependent on iPhone," he says. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Apple chief Tim Cook wants to shift the firm's focus to services Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said he wants to focus the company on selling services rather than just hardware in a major shift in strategy. Apple is "sacrificing some of the profitability in its iPhone business" to try to push up the number of people using iOS, so it can sell services to them and to its existing user base, Mr Stanton says. Tom Harrington of Enders Analysis adds: "iPhone sales are slowing so it makes sense for Apple to further diversify its business. "Video viewing is growing, the Amazon Channels model has been successful for Amazon and the third party services alike, and with a massive base of iPhone and iPad users there is quite a lot of potential." | Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47657414 | 0.111128 |
Is Apple about to expand its TV business? | Invitations to an event at its Cupertino campus on Monday simply saying "It's show time" have sparked speculation that the tech giant could be about to announce its next TV steps. Apple needs to diversify and find a new ways of bringing in cash as iPhone sales slow down, analysts say. But in an unforgiving media landscape, Apple is expected to launch a challenge to the likes of Netflix. Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV, which didn't get very far. Its first major foray into the area was in 2007, when it first started selling its Apple TV console. This has had limited success compared with its iTunes music service, analysts say. Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester, says: "Apple has had a TV device and content library for several years, following the model around music that revolutionised that industry. "But people consume TV and music content very differently so just applying the music model didn't have the same impact." Apple TV's hardware and technology platform is used to rent and sell content through iTunes. Image copyright CBS/YouTube Image caption James Corden got a bit emotional on Paul McCartney's Carpool Karaoke The firm has released original titles through Apple Music, including Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps, a reality show about app development. Since 2007, Apple has also had some success in distributing movies and TV shows, according to Canalys analyst Ben Stanton. However, he adds: "Its iTunes movies business is under huge threat from affordable streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and soon Disney. "It was a success in its day, but Apple now needs to evolve this business or it will die." Apple has built up relationships with major movie studios and TV networks, and these are "critical" for it to launch a subscription service, Mr Stanton says, because it needs to have more content than just its own original shows. But some big players have said they are not on board. Netflix has already ruled out making its TV programmes and films available through Apple's subscription service, with chief executive Reed Hastings saying: "We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service." Apple has been on a $2bn spending spree, signing up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, for original content. Jennifer Aniston and Reece Witherspoon are also widely reported to have been signed up. Directors and producers including M. Night Shyamalan and J.J. Abrams have been signed up, according to showbiz publication Variety, as well as Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. Apple also hired two well-respected Sony Pictures executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, to head its original content division. Image copyright Kevin Winter Image caption Oprah Winfrey has signed up to a multi-year content deal with Apple As for the service itself, Jim Nail of Forrester says: "As usual, Apple is so closely guarding the details that it is hard to judge it. And the price matters a lot. As they say in the TV business, stay tuned..." It may also allow customers to buy subscriptions to CBS, Viacom and Lions Gate, and is also in discussions with Game of Thrones maker HBO to become part of its service, according to Reuters. Netflix "is the biggest fish in this particular pond", says Ben Stanton, and Netflix and Apple "have been at loggerheads recently". The streaming giant is shifting its subscription model away from the Apple App store, which means it will be much harder for Apple to make money from Netflix customers on its iOS operating system. In terms of content, Amazon Prime has a number of irons in the fire, including an upcoming series based on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings mythology, Radio Times reports. Image copyright Sky Atlantic Image caption A new series of Game of Thrones is due out in April Amazon Prime includes Channels, where consumers in the US can sign up to third parties such as HBO and Showtime. HBO is due to premiere season eight of its smash hit series Game of Thrones in April. The BBC and ITV also announced recently that they are in talks over launching a service called Britbox in the UK. Smartphone sales are slowing for many major manufacturers, including Apple, says Ben Stanton, but most other companies have big businesses to fall back on. "Huawei has its infrastructure business. Samsung has a very profitable components division, not to mention its TV business. But Apple is extremely dependent on iPhone," he says. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Apple chief Tim Cook wants to shift the firm's focus to services Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said he wants to focus the company on selling services rather than just hardware in a major shift in strategy. Apple is "sacrificing some of the profitability in its iPhone business" to try to push up the number of people using iOS, so it can sell services to them and to its existing user base, Mr Stanton says. Tom Harrington of Enders Analysis adds: "iPhone sales are slowing so it makes sense for Apple to further diversify its business. "Video viewing is growing, the Amazon Channels model has been successful for Amazon and the third party services alike, and with a massive base of iPhone and iPad users there is quite a lot of potential." | Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV. Its first major foray into the area was in 2007, when it first started selling its Apple TV console. This has had limited success compared with its iTunes music service. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47657414 | 0.135285 |
Is Apple about to expand its TV business? | Invitations to an event at its Cupertino campus on Monday simply saying "It's show time" have sparked speculation that the tech giant could be about to announce its next TV steps. Apple needs to diversify and find a new ways of bringing in cash as iPhone sales slow down, analysts say. But in an unforgiving media landscape, Apple is expected to launch a challenge to the likes of Netflix. Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV, which didn't get very far. Its first major foray into the area was in 2007, when it first started selling its Apple TV console. This has had limited success compared with its iTunes music service, analysts say. Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester, says: "Apple has had a TV device and content library for several years, following the model around music that revolutionised that industry. "But people consume TV and music content very differently so just applying the music model didn't have the same impact." Apple TV's hardware and technology platform is used to rent and sell content through iTunes. Image copyright CBS/YouTube Image caption James Corden got a bit emotional on Paul McCartney's Carpool Karaoke The firm has released original titles through Apple Music, including Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps, a reality show about app development. Since 2007, Apple has also had some success in distributing movies and TV shows, according to Canalys analyst Ben Stanton. However, he adds: "Its iTunes movies business is under huge threat from affordable streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and soon Disney. "It was a success in its day, but Apple now needs to evolve this business or it will die." Apple has built up relationships with major movie studios and TV networks, and these are "critical" for it to launch a subscription service, Mr Stanton says, because it needs to have more content than just its own original shows. But some big players have said they are not on board. Netflix has already ruled out making its TV programmes and films available through Apple's subscription service, with chief executive Reed Hastings saying: "We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service." Apple has been on a $2bn spending spree, signing up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, for original content. Jennifer Aniston and Reece Witherspoon are also widely reported to have been signed up. Directors and producers including M. Night Shyamalan and J.J. Abrams have been signed up, according to showbiz publication Variety, as well as Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. Apple also hired two well-respected Sony Pictures executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, to head its original content division. Image copyright Kevin Winter Image caption Oprah Winfrey has signed up to a multi-year content deal with Apple As for the service itself, Jim Nail of Forrester says: "As usual, Apple is so closely guarding the details that it is hard to judge it. And the price matters a lot. As they say in the TV business, stay tuned..." It may also allow customers to buy subscriptions to CBS, Viacom and Lions Gate, and is also in discussions with Game of Thrones maker HBO to become part of its service, according to Reuters. Netflix "is the biggest fish in this particular pond", says Ben Stanton, and Netflix and Apple "have been at loggerheads recently". The streaming giant is shifting its subscription model away from the Apple App store, which means it will be much harder for Apple to make money from Netflix customers on its iOS operating system. In terms of content, Amazon Prime has a number of irons in the fire, including an upcoming series based on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings mythology, Radio Times reports. Image copyright Sky Atlantic Image caption A new series of Game of Thrones is due out in April Amazon Prime includes Channels, where consumers in the US can sign up to third parties such as HBO and Showtime. HBO is due to premiere season eight of its smash hit series Game of Thrones in April. The BBC and ITV also announced recently that they are in talks over launching a service called Britbox in the UK. Smartphone sales are slowing for many major manufacturers, including Apple, says Ben Stanton, but most other companies have big businesses to fall back on. "Huawei has its infrastructure business. Samsung has a very profitable components division, not to mention its TV business. But Apple is extremely dependent on iPhone," he says. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Apple chief Tim Cook wants to shift the firm's focus to services Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said he wants to focus the company on selling services rather than just hardware in a major shift in strategy. Apple is "sacrificing some of the profitability in its iPhone business" to try to push up the number of people using iOS, so it can sell services to them and to its existing user base, Mr Stanton says. Tom Harrington of Enders Analysis adds: "iPhone sales are slowing so it makes sense for Apple to further diversify its business. "Video viewing is growing, the Amazon Channels model has been successful for Amazon and the third party services alike, and with a massive base of iPhone and iPad users there is quite a lot of potential." | Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV. Its first major foray into the area was in 2007, when it first started selling its Apple TV console. This has had limited success compared with its iTunes music service. Apple is expected to launch a challenge to the likes of Netflix. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47657414 | 0.140415 |
What does the Mueller report say and what does it mean for Trump? | We dont know yet. We know that Mueller has filed his report to William Barr, the attorney general, and that Barr has informed Congress that he received it. Mueller was only required, under the regulations on special counsels, to explain to Barr whom he decided to prosecute, whom he declined to prosecute, and why. But it is possible that he added more detail on what he found out. A justice department official said on Friday the report was comprehensive. Barr did disclose on Friday that there were no actions proposed by Mueller that Barr overruled. This means that Mueller apparently made it to the end of his investigation free from interference from Trumps administration. The report is likely to reveal whether or not Mueller discovered any coordination between Trumps presidential campaign and Russian operatives who interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has repeatedly denied that there was any such coordination, and no Americans have yet been charged for it. But Mueller has accused Trumps former campaign chairman of sharing polling data with an alleged Russian intelligence asset. The report may also say whether or not Muellers team concluded that Trump obstructed justice or attempted to by firing James Comey, the former FBI director, or taking other actions. It is not clear how much of the report will be given to Congress and the public. Barr said in his letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Friday that he was reviewing the report and may be in a position to advise you of the special counsels principal conclusions as soon as this weekend. Barr said he would separately be discussing with Mueller and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, what other information could be revealed to Congress and the public. The attorney general told Congress that he was committed to as much transparency as possible but said he would also be guided by the justice departments long-standing practices and policies. Typically the department does not make public derogatory information about people who are not being charged. In any case Democrats, who control the House, have vowed to obtain the full report and make it public. If Barr resists this, a legal dispute may follow. Mueller documented, in lengthy and detailed indictments, a long-term and multi-level effort by Russia to tamper in US elections and sow discord online. Muellers documentation of the Russian espionage and sabotage efforts contrasted with Trumps equivocation on whether Russia had engaged in such activity. Mueller also uncovered and documented ties and contacts, before and after the 2016 election, between Russians and key former Trump aides including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Michael Cohen. All have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct or been convicted by a jury. Mueller had also referred investigations to outside prosecutors offices in New York and Virginia, which have resulted in convictions against or guilty pleas from Manafort, Cohen and Gates, and which have led to ongoing investigations of alleged criminal conduct inside the Trump Organization, the Trump Foundation, Trumps inaugural committee and the presidential transition team. In all, Mueller had previously indicted or secured guilty pleas from 34 individuals (including 26 Russians and six former Trump aides) and three Russian corporations. With near unanimity, former prosecutors and legal analysts have judged Muellers work to have been completed with speed and precision. Mueller was appointed on 17 May 2017, to serve as special counsel for the Department of Justice. The appointment was prompted by the firing of the FBI director, James Comey, eight days earlier; the recusal of the then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from matters pertaining to the Russia investigation; and a perceived need to protect and advance open investigations into Russian election tampering and the Trump campaign. An official letter of authorization signed by the acting attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, authorized Mueller to investigate (quoting from the document): (i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and (ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and (iii) any other matters within the scope of [the statute prescribing the special counsels jurisdiction]. Mueller turned in his report 650 days after his appointment. By the end of last December, the investigation had cost about $27m, Politifact estimated a fraction of the cost of special prosecutor investigations in decades past. Accounting for the estimated $48m that Muellers team has clawed back from tax cheats, the net cost of the Mueller investigation could be negative. Yes, lots. While the special counsels office has concluded its work, investigations taken up by federal prosecutors in the southern and eastern districts of New York continue, and prosecutors have also been active in the eastern district of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Unlike Mueller, those prosecutors are not bound by narrow authorizations dictating what activity they can investigate, and there is no pressure to hasten the investigations. Congress is conducting separate investigations of Trumps campaign and other matters. Evidence gathered by Mueller could feed those investigations. Muellers duties connected with his appointment as special counsel are now complete, and he is not expected to take on a further public role. Before agreeing to the special counsel appointment, Mueller, 74, was in private practice, after having served for 12 years as director of the FBI, as a US attorney, and as a marine. He has not announced future plans. | It is not clear how much of the report will be given to Congress and the public. The report is likely to reveal whether or not Mueller discovered any coordination between Trumps presidential campaign and Russian operatives. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/22/mueller-report-what-it-says-what-does-it-mean-for-trump | 0.281482 |
What does the Mueller report say and what does it mean for Trump? | We dont know yet. We know that Mueller has filed his report to William Barr, the attorney general, and that Barr has informed Congress that he received it. Mueller was only required, under the regulations on special counsels, to explain to Barr whom he decided to prosecute, whom he declined to prosecute, and why. But it is possible that he added more detail on what he found out. A justice department official said on Friday the report was comprehensive. Barr did disclose on Friday that there were no actions proposed by Mueller that Barr overruled. This means that Mueller apparently made it to the end of his investigation free from interference from Trumps administration. The report is likely to reveal whether or not Mueller discovered any coordination between Trumps presidential campaign and Russian operatives who interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has repeatedly denied that there was any such coordination, and no Americans have yet been charged for it. But Mueller has accused Trumps former campaign chairman of sharing polling data with an alleged Russian intelligence asset. The report may also say whether or not Muellers team concluded that Trump obstructed justice or attempted to by firing James Comey, the former FBI director, or taking other actions. It is not clear how much of the report will be given to Congress and the public. Barr said in his letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Friday that he was reviewing the report and may be in a position to advise you of the special counsels principal conclusions as soon as this weekend. Barr said he would separately be discussing with Mueller and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, what other information could be revealed to Congress and the public. The attorney general told Congress that he was committed to as much transparency as possible but said he would also be guided by the justice departments long-standing practices and policies. Typically the department does not make public derogatory information about people who are not being charged. In any case Democrats, who control the House, have vowed to obtain the full report and make it public. If Barr resists this, a legal dispute may follow. Mueller documented, in lengthy and detailed indictments, a long-term and multi-level effort by Russia to tamper in US elections and sow discord online. Muellers documentation of the Russian espionage and sabotage efforts contrasted with Trumps equivocation on whether Russia had engaged in such activity. Mueller also uncovered and documented ties and contacts, before and after the 2016 election, between Russians and key former Trump aides including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Michael Cohen. All have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct or been convicted by a jury. Mueller had also referred investigations to outside prosecutors offices in New York and Virginia, which have resulted in convictions against or guilty pleas from Manafort, Cohen and Gates, and which have led to ongoing investigations of alleged criminal conduct inside the Trump Organization, the Trump Foundation, Trumps inaugural committee and the presidential transition team. In all, Mueller had previously indicted or secured guilty pleas from 34 individuals (including 26 Russians and six former Trump aides) and three Russian corporations. With near unanimity, former prosecutors and legal analysts have judged Muellers work to have been completed with speed and precision. Mueller was appointed on 17 May 2017, to serve as special counsel for the Department of Justice. The appointment was prompted by the firing of the FBI director, James Comey, eight days earlier; the recusal of the then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from matters pertaining to the Russia investigation; and a perceived need to protect and advance open investigations into Russian election tampering and the Trump campaign. An official letter of authorization signed by the acting attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, authorized Mueller to investigate (quoting from the document): (i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and (ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and (iii) any other matters within the scope of [the statute prescribing the special counsels jurisdiction]. Mueller turned in his report 650 days after his appointment. By the end of last December, the investigation had cost about $27m, Politifact estimated a fraction of the cost of special prosecutor investigations in decades past. Accounting for the estimated $48m that Muellers team has clawed back from tax cheats, the net cost of the Mueller investigation could be negative. Yes, lots. While the special counsels office has concluded its work, investigations taken up by federal prosecutors in the southern and eastern districts of New York continue, and prosecutors have also been active in the eastern district of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Unlike Mueller, those prosecutors are not bound by narrow authorizations dictating what activity they can investigate, and there is no pressure to hasten the investigations. Congress is conducting separate investigations of Trumps campaign and other matters. Evidence gathered by Mueller could feed those investigations. Muellers duties connected with his appointment as special counsel are now complete, and he is not expected to take on a further public role. Before agreeing to the special counsel appointment, Mueller, 74, was in private practice, after having served for 12 years as director of the FBI, as a US attorney, and as a marine. He has not announced future plans. | Mueller has filed his report to William Barr, the attorney general. Barr has informed Congress that he received it. It is likely to reveal whether or not Mueller discovered any coordination between Trumps presidential campaign and Russian operatives who interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has denied that there was any such coordination, and no Americans have yet been charged for it. | bart | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/22/mueller-report-what-it-says-what-does-it-mean-for-trump | 0.344259 |
Will We Ever Hear from Robert Mueller? | For nearly two years, Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government. Tasked by the Justice Department with investigating Russias attack on the 2016 election, he communicated with the public only through court filingsindictments, motions, plea deals. SightingsRobert Mueller at the Apple Store, Robert Mueller at the same airport gate as Donald Trump, Jr.were enough to make news. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. It was left to William Barr, the new Attorney General, to tell Congress that hed received a report from Mueller, and would be reviewing it in the coming days to determine what Congress and the public can be told of its findings. While Mueller was working, Democrats often interpreted his silence as a great strength, a sign that his investigation was far removed from the everyday scrums and tweet drama of Donald Trumps Washington. Minutes after Barr disclosed his receipt of the Mueller report, leading Democratsincluding much of the 2020 fielddemanded its immediate release. As my colleague David Rohde noted on Friday, if Barr refuses to make the report public, House Democrats have vowed to subpoena Mueller himself. Surely, there will be debate about Justice Department policies and practices if it comes to that. For Mueller to testify would be an extraordinary step. But he was appointed in extraordinary circumstances, because senior Justice Department officials realized that public trust in government was at stake. Many Americans were expecting Mueller, when he was done, to be forthcoming about what he found. Preserving public trust now means breaking the silence, in one form or another. | For nearly two years, Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.newyorker.com/news/current/will-we-ever-hear-from-robert-mueller | 0.162781 |
Will We Ever Hear from Robert Mueller? | For nearly two years, Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government. Tasked by the Justice Department with investigating Russias attack on the 2016 election, he communicated with the public only through court filingsindictments, motions, plea deals. SightingsRobert Mueller at the Apple Store, Robert Mueller at the same airport gate as Donald Trump, Jr.were enough to make news. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. It was left to William Barr, the new Attorney General, to tell Congress that hed received a report from Mueller, and would be reviewing it in the coming days to determine what Congress and the public can be told of its findings. While Mueller was working, Democrats often interpreted his silence as a great strength, a sign that his investigation was far removed from the everyday scrums and tweet drama of Donald Trumps Washington. Minutes after Barr disclosed his receipt of the Mueller report, leading Democratsincluding much of the 2020 fielddemanded its immediate release. As my colleague David Rohde noted on Friday, if Barr refuses to make the report public, House Democrats have vowed to subpoena Mueller himself. Surely, there will be debate about Justice Department policies and practices if it comes to that. For Mueller to testify would be an extraordinary step. But he was appointed in extraordinary circumstances, because senior Justice Department officials realized that public trust in government was at stake. Many Americans were expecting Mueller, when he was done, to be forthcoming about what he found. Preserving public trust now means breaking the silence, in one form or another. | For nearly two years, Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. He was appointed in extraordinary circumstances, because senior Justice Department officials realized that public trust in government was at stake. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.newyorker.com/news/current/will-we-ever-hear-from-robert-mueller | 0.164309 |
Will We Ever Hear from Robert Mueller? | For nearly two years, Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government. Tasked by the Justice Department with investigating Russias attack on the 2016 election, he communicated with the public only through court filingsindictments, motions, plea deals. SightingsRobert Mueller at the Apple Store, Robert Mueller at the same airport gate as Donald Trump, Jr.were enough to make news. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. It was left to William Barr, the new Attorney General, to tell Congress that hed received a report from Mueller, and would be reviewing it in the coming days to determine what Congress and the public can be told of its findings. While Mueller was working, Democrats often interpreted his silence as a great strength, a sign that his investigation was far removed from the everyday scrums and tweet drama of Donald Trumps Washington. Minutes after Barr disclosed his receipt of the Mueller report, leading Democratsincluding much of the 2020 fielddemanded its immediate release. As my colleague David Rohde noted on Friday, if Barr refuses to make the report public, House Democrats have vowed to subpoena Mueller himself. Surely, there will be debate about Justice Department policies and practices if it comes to that. For Mueller to testify would be an extraordinary step. But he was appointed in extraordinary circumstances, because senior Justice Department officials realized that public trust in government was at stake. Many Americans were expecting Mueller, when he was done, to be forthcoming about what he found. Preserving public trust now means breaking the silence, in one form or another. | Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government for nearly two years. Democrats often interpreted his silence as a great strength, a sign that his investigation was far removed from the everyday scrums and tweet drama of Donald Trumps Washington. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. | bart | 2 | https://www.newyorker.com/news/current/will-we-ever-hear-from-robert-mueller | 0.152291 |
Why are nets appearing over trees and hedges? | Image caption The Wildlife Aid charity says this netting in Guildford was put in place to stop birds nesting so that the trees can eventually be removed It's finally spring, the time of year when the flowers bloom, the sun is out for longer and birds are nesting. But nesting is not being made easy in many parts of England, with increased reports of developers covering hedges and trees with netting. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says developers do this to make it easier for them to remove greenery when the time comes, as although it's an offence to destroy an active nest, there are no laws to prevent the installation of nets to stop birds nesting in the first place. One of several high-profile figures to condemn the practice is naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham, who has described it as "ghastly" and the "antithesis of everything conservation stands for". The RSPB - which says the UK has lost more than 40 million birds in the past 50 years - has now asked the government to address this issue. Image caption Hedgerows covered with orange netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust says netting "seems to be an increasingly common practice", which it's seeing "more and more on developments", while the Woodland Trust believes it's been happening for a few years. The representative body of the homebuilding industry, the Home Builders Federation (HBF), says installing this type of netting is not a new thing but as it's not aware of anyone who monitors its use, the organisation can't comment on whether the practice is on the rise. Image caption Outline planning permission was given for a development on this site in Warwickshire three years ago Netting is being spotted all over England, often in places where preparation work is being carried out for planned housing developments. In Guildford, 11 trees have been covered by Sladen Estates, which is aiming to build 191 homes on a derelict site, and netting has appeared on hedgerows in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Taylor Wimpey intends to build a 270-home development. Image caption A spokesman for Solihull Retail Park says these nets are to ensure birds are protected during redevelopment work Image caption Green netting has been spotted in Rocks Green near Ludlow in Shropshire In Tuffley, Gloucester, blue and green netting has been installed, while in Darlington, a dead sparrow was caught in black netting on land where homes are set to be built. Darlington Green Party says residents are tying green ribbons to hedges and trees in protest. Some netting has come down, however. Tesco removed nets installed at a store in Norwich after criticism from bird-lovers on social media. Yes, although the RSPB says there are legal responsibilities such as fitting the netting properly and checking it regularly to make sure birds and animals aren't trapped. Image copyright PA Image caption Broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham says this "ghastly new netting practice has to stop" The great and the good have criticised the practice, including author Philip Pullman, who described the Guildford tree covering as "wicked", and TV presenter Jake Humphrey, who called the Tesco netting in Norwich "nonsense". A petition calling for netting hedgerows to become a criminal offence has more than 36,000 signatures and a campaign has been started asking people to send photographs of netting to their local authority, including the #NestingNotNets hashtag, with details about the location. Dr Rob Lambert, an environmental academic from the University of Nottingham and vice principal of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, says the reaction of the public "expresses the real connection we have with nature". Dr Lambert, who says 25 million people across the country regularly feed birds in their gardens, believes the netting issue has struck a chord. "There is an incredible sense of 'what have we become and why are we doing this?'" he says. "I can absolutely see the pressure housing developers are under but we have to find a way forward where nature does not come last." Image caption Netting erected to protect the trolley area from bird droppings at this Tesco store in Norwich has been taken down William Davis Homes, which has covered hedges in netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, says it was given permission to access the site in November. A spokeswoman said: "The works are being carried out in compliance with planning consent, observing the requirements of Countryside and Wildlife Act and following industry best practice." Developer Sladen Estates, which aims to build 191 homes in Guildford, says it took advice on the use of the netting. Andrew Whitaker, from the Home Builders Federation, says: "Netting trees aligns with the relevant environmental requirements in instances where it has been agreed with the local authority that a tree has to be replaced." He adds: "Last year, house builders planted about nine million trees and shrubs, making the industry one of the nation's biggest providers of new trees. "As we build the homes the country needs, the industry is committed to bio-diversity, proactively acting to protect birds and providing a net increase in the number of trees." Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The practice has been widely criticised as detrimental to birds and other wildlife Jack Taylor, from the Woodland Trust, believes putting up netting shows "an alarming disregard for the welfare of wildlife". "While not an illegal practice, we consider that netting hedges and trees during the nesting and breeding season is inappropriate," he says. An RSPB spokesman says we "cannot keep trying to squeeze nature into smaller and smaller spaces or demanding it fits in with our plans". "We are looking to the government to not just ask planners and developers to think about whether it is necessary to remove the trees and hedgerows that are vital for supporting our wildlife, but to ensure that developers replace what they take away." Image caption Green netting covering a hedgerow in Hilton, Derbyshire A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) says it wants developments to "enhance our natural environment" and has announced plans to require developers to deliver a "biodiversity net gain". The Defra-sponsored body Natural England says it doesn't regulate the use of netting on trees, but that it's "essential that developers look at the most suitable option for complying with the necessary regulations". It says alternatives to netting, such as scaring off birds or restricting access to food sources, can be useful management tools to guide animals away from particular areas. | Developers are covering hedges and trees with netting to stop birds nesting. | bart | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47627749 | 0.432711 |
Why are nets appearing over trees and hedges? | Image caption The Wildlife Aid charity says this netting in Guildford was put in place to stop birds nesting so that the trees can eventually be removed It's finally spring, the time of year when the flowers bloom, the sun is out for longer and birds are nesting. But nesting is not being made easy in many parts of England, with increased reports of developers covering hedges and trees with netting. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says developers do this to make it easier for them to remove greenery when the time comes, as although it's an offence to destroy an active nest, there are no laws to prevent the installation of nets to stop birds nesting in the first place. One of several high-profile figures to condemn the practice is naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham, who has described it as "ghastly" and the "antithesis of everything conservation stands for". The RSPB - which says the UK has lost more than 40 million birds in the past 50 years - has now asked the government to address this issue. Image caption Hedgerows covered with orange netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust says netting "seems to be an increasingly common practice", which it's seeing "more and more on developments", while the Woodland Trust believes it's been happening for a few years. The representative body of the homebuilding industry, the Home Builders Federation (HBF), says installing this type of netting is not a new thing but as it's not aware of anyone who monitors its use, the organisation can't comment on whether the practice is on the rise. Image caption Outline planning permission was given for a development on this site in Warwickshire three years ago Netting is being spotted all over England, often in places where preparation work is being carried out for planned housing developments. In Guildford, 11 trees have been covered by Sladen Estates, which is aiming to build 191 homes on a derelict site, and netting has appeared on hedgerows in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Taylor Wimpey intends to build a 270-home development. Image caption A spokesman for Solihull Retail Park says these nets are to ensure birds are protected during redevelopment work Image caption Green netting has been spotted in Rocks Green near Ludlow in Shropshire In Tuffley, Gloucester, blue and green netting has been installed, while in Darlington, a dead sparrow was caught in black netting on land where homes are set to be built. Darlington Green Party says residents are tying green ribbons to hedges and trees in protest. Some netting has come down, however. Tesco removed nets installed at a store in Norwich after criticism from bird-lovers on social media. Yes, although the RSPB says there are legal responsibilities such as fitting the netting properly and checking it regularly to make sure birds and animals aren't trapped. Image copyright PA Image caption Broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham says this "ghastly new netting practice has to stop" The great and the good have criticised the practice, including author Philip Pullman, who described the Guildford tree covering as "wicked", and TV presenter Jake Humphrey, who called the Tesco netting in Norwich "nonsense". A petition calling for netting hedgerows to become a criminal offence has more than 36,000 signatures and a campaign has been started asking people to send photographs of netting to their local authority, including the #NestingNotNets hashtag, with details about the location. Dr Rob Lambert, an environmental academic from the University of Nottingham and vice principal of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, says the reaction of the public "expresses the real connection we have with nature". Dr Lambert, who says 25 million people across the country regularly feed birds in their gardens, believes the netting issue has struck a chord. "There is an incredible sense of 'what have we become and why are we doing this?'" he says. "I can absolutely see the pressure housing developers are under but we have to find a way forward where nature does not come last." Image caption Netting erected to protect the trolley area from bird droppings at this Tesco store in Norwich has been taken down William Davis Homes, which has covered hedges in netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, says it was given permission to access the site in November. A spokeswoman said: "The works are being carried out in compliance with planning consent, observing the requirements of Countryside and Wildlife Act and following industry best practice." Developer Sladen Estates, which aims to build 191 homes in Guildford, says it took advice on the use of the netting. Andrew Whitaker, from the Home Builders Federation, says: "Netting trees aligns with the relevant environmental requirements in instances where it has been agreed with the local authority that a tree has to be replaced." He adds: "Last year, house builders planted about nine million trees and shrubs, making the industry one of the nation's biggest providers of new trees. "As we build the homes the country needs, the industry is committed to bio-diversity, proactively acting to protect birds and providing a net increase in the number of trees." Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The practice has been widely criticised as detrimental to birds and other wildlife Jack Taylor, from the Woodland Trust, believes putting up netting shows "an alarming disregard for the welfare of wildlife". "While not an illegal practice, we consider that netting hedges and trees during the nesting and breeding season is inappropriate," he says. An RSPB spokesman says we "cannot keep trying to squeeze nature into smaller and smaller spaces or demanding it fits in with our plans". "We are looking to the government to not just ask planners and developers to think about whether it is necessary to remove the trees and hedgerows that are vital for supporting our wildlife, but to ensure that developers replace what they take away." Image caption Green netting covering a hedgerow in Hilton, Derbyshire A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) says it wants developments to "enhance our natural environment" and has announced plans to require developers to deliver a "biodiversity net gain". The Defra-sponsored body Natural England says it doesn't regulate the use of netting on trees, but that it's "essential that developers look at the most suitable option for complying with the necessary regulations". It says alternatives to netting, such as scaring off birds or restricting access to food sources, can be useful management tools to guide animals away from particular areas. | Developers are covering hedges and trees with netting to stop birds nesting. RSPB says developers do this to make it easier for them to remove greenery. But there are no laws to prevent the installation of nets in the first place. | bart | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47627749 | 0.491695 |
Why are nets appearing over trees and hedges? | Image caption The Wildlife Aid charity says this netting in Guildford was put in place to stop birds nesting so that the trees can eventually be removed It's finally spring, the time of year when the flowers bloom, the sun is out for longer and birds are nesting. But nesting is not being made easy in many parts of England, with increased reports of developers covering hedges and trees with netting. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says developers do this to make it easier for them to remove greenery when the time comes, as although it's an offence to destroy an active nest, there are no laws to prevent the installation of nets to stop birds nesting in the first place. One of several high-profile figures to condemn the practice is naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham, who has described it as "ghastly" and the "antithesis of everything conservation stands for". The RSPB - which says the UK has lost more than 40 million birds in the past 50 years - has now asked the government to address this issue. Image caption Hedgerows covered with orange netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust says netting "seems to be an increasingly common practice", which it's seeing "more and more on developments", while the Woodland Trust believes it's been happening for a few years. The representative body of the homebuilding industry, the Home Builders Federation (HBF), says installing this type of netting is not a new thing but as it's not aware of anyone who monitors its use, the organisation can't comment on whether the practice is on the rise. Image caption Outline planning permission was given for a development on this site in Warwickshire three years ago Netting is being spotted all over England, often in places where preparation work is being carried out for planned housing developments. In Guildford, 11 trees have been covered by Sladen Estates, which is aiming to build 191 homes on a derelict site, and netting has appeared on hedgerows in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Taylor Wimpey intends to build a 270-home development. Image caption A spokesman for Solihull Retail Park says these nets are to ensure birds are protected during redevelopment work Image caption Green netting has been spotted in Rocks Green near Ludlow in Shropshire In Tuffley, Gloucester, blue and green netting has been installed, while in Darlington, a dead sparrow was caught in black netting on land where homes are set to be built. Darlington Green Party says residents are tying green ribbons to hedges and trees in protest. Some netting has come down, however. Tesco removed nets installed at a store in Norwich after criticism from bird-lovers on social media. Yes, although the RSPB says there are legal responsibilities such as fitting the netting properly and checking it regularly to make sure birds and animals aren't trapped. Image copyright PA Image caption Broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham says this "ghastly new netting practice has to stop" The great and the good have criticised the practice, including author Philip Pullman, who described the Guildford tree covering as "wicked", and TV presenter Jake Humphrey, who called the Tesco netting in Norwich "nonsense". A petition calling for netting hedgerows to become a criminal offence has more than 36,000 signatures and a campaign has been started asking people to send photographs of netting to their local authority, including the #NestingNotNets hashtag, with details about the location. Dr Rob Lambert, an environmental academic from the University of Nottingham and vice principal of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, says the reaction of the public "expresses the real connection we have with nature". Dr Lambert, who says 25 million people across the country regularly feed birds in their gardens, believes the netting issue has struck a chord. "There is an incredible sense of 'what have we become and why are we doing this?'" he says. "I can absolutely see the pressure housing developers are under but we have to find a way forward where nature does not come last." Image caption Netting erected to protect the trolley area from bird droppings at this Tesco store in Norwich has been taken down William Davis Homes, which has covered hedges in netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, says it was given permission to access the site in November. A spokeswoman said: "The works are being carried out in compliance with planning consent, observing the requirements of Countryside and Wildlife Act and following industry best practice." Developer Sladen Estates, which aims to build 191 homes in Guildford, says it took advice on the use of the netting. Andrew Whitaker, from the Home Builders Federation, says: "Netting trees aligns with the relevant environmental requirements in instances where it has been agreed with the local authority that a tree has to be replaced." He adds: "Last year, house builders planted about nine million trees and shrubs, making the industry one of the nation's biggest providers of new trees. "As we build the homes the country needs, the industry is committed to bio-diversity, proactively acting to protect birds and providing a net increase in the number of trees." Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The practice has been widely criticised as detrimental to birds and other wildlife Jack Taylor, from the Woodland Trust, believes putting up netting shows "an alarming disregard for the welfare of wildlife". "While not an illegal practice, we consider that netting hedges and trees during the nesting and breeding season is inappropriate," he says. An RSPB spokesman says we "cannot keep trying to squeeze nature into smaller and smaller spaces or demanding it fits in with our plans". "We are looking to the government to not just ask planners and developers to think about whether it is necessary to remove the trees and hedgerows that are vital for supporting our wildlife, but to ensure that developers replace what they take away." Image caption Green netting covering a hedgerow in Hilton, Derbyshire A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) says it wants developments to "enhance our natural environment" and has announced plans to require developers to deliver a "biodiversity net gain". The Defra-sponsored body Natural England says it doesn't regulate the use of netting on trees, but that it's "essential that developers look at the most suitable option for complying with the necessary regulations". It says alternatives to netting, such as scaring off birds or restricting access to food sources, can be useful management tools to guide animals away from particular areas. | Netting is being spotted all over England, often in places where preparation work is being carried out for planned housing developments. RSPB says developers do this to make it easier for them to remove greenery when the time comes, but there are no laws to prevent the installation of nets to stop birds nesting. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47627749 | 0.107955 |
How many Colorado drivers were arrested for DUI over St. Patricks Day weekend? | Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patricks Day weekend, a decrease from 2018 celebrations, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced in a news release Friday. Denver police recorded the most arrests of any city with 31 people getting citations, followed by Colorado Springs with 26 and Aurora with 15. The state patrol made 38 arrests. Law enforcement made 323 arrests for impaired drivers last year, the release said. CDOT pointed to its free ride-sharing offer, which provided rides to drivers who pledged not to drive impaired. More than 4,200 took the sober-driving pledge, CDOT said. | Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patrick's Day weekend. | bart | 0 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/22/st-patricks-day-dui/ | 0.336111 |
How many Colorado drivers were arrested for DUI over St. Patricks Day weekend? | Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patricks Day weekend, a decrease from 2018 celebrations, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced in a news release Friday. Denver police recorded the most arrests of any city with 31 people getting citations, followed by Colorado Springs with 26 and Aurora with 15. The state patrol made 38 arrests. Law enforcement made 323 arrests for impaired drivers last year, the release said. CDOT pointed to its free ride-sharing offer, which provided rides to drivers who pledged not to drive impaired. More than 4,200 took the sober-driving pledge, CDOT said. | Denver police recorded the most arrests of any city with 31 people getting citations. Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patricks Day weekend. Law enforcement made 323 arrests for impaired drivers last year. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/22/st-patricks-day-dui/ | 0.60692 |
How many Colorado drivers were arrested for DUI over St. Patricks Day weekend? | Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patricks Day weekend, a decrease from 2018 celebrations, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced in a news release Friday. Denver police recorded the most arrests of any city with 31 people getting citations, followed by Colorado Springs with 26 and Aurora with 15. The state patrol made 38 arrests. Law enforcement made 323 arrests for impaired drivers last year, the release said. CDOT pointed to its free ride-sharing offer, which provided rides to drivers who pledged not to drive impaired. More than 4,200 took the sober-driving pledge, CDOT said. | Denver police recorded the most arrests of any city with 31 people getting citations, followed by Colorado Springs with 26 and Aurora with 15. Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patrick's Day weekend. Law enforcement made 323 arrests for impaired drivers last year. | pegasus | 2 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/22/st-patricks-day-dui/ | 0.624682 |
Are genetic tests useful to predict cancer? | The health secretarys call for tests to be rolled out on NHS was met with controversy The health secretary, Matt Hancock, this week shared his shock at discovering that he is at greater than average risk for prostate cancer, despite having no family history of the disease. The revelation came after he took a predictive genetic test that assesses risk for 16 common diseases, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and breast and prostate cancers. Hancock said the test might have saved his life and that such tests should be urgently rolled out on the NHS, to guide screening programs and the age at which drugs like statins are prescribed. However the suggestion was immediately met with controversy. Some claim that the usefulness of predictive DNA tests has been overstated, pointing to the fact that, while Hancock described his own 15% lifetime risk of prostate cancer as high, it was only marginally above the population average risk of 12%. UK breast cancer death rates falling fastest in big six of Europe Read more Until now, genetic testing for disease risk has largely focused on versions of single gene that confer a substantial amount of risk, such as BRCA for breast cancer. The latest predictive tests for a range of common diseases take a different approach: they aggregate the tiny contributions to risk made by hundreds or even thousands of genes to give a personalised score. Because the risk is spread out over many genes, people can end up at the very high-risk end of the spectrum by chance, without having a family history of a particular illness. Seven key facts Show Hide Our genes are made of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which forms double helix strands inside the nuclei of our bodies cells. DNA contains information that is passed from generation to generation and directs the development of our bodies. Scientists began studying ancient DNA 20 years ago when Svante Pbo used gene amplification techniques to extract and analyse genetic material from Neanderthals. At first only fragments of Neanderthal DNA could be studied, but by developing techniques to piece together small overlapping fragments, it was possible to recreate the entire set of genes, or genome, of a Neanderthal. Subsequent research showed that most people outside Africa contain small numbers of Neanderthal genes, the result of interbreeding between the two species as modern humans emerged from their African homeland about 70,000 years ago. In 2010 scientists discovered the genome of a completely new human species in bone and tooth fragments found in the Denisova cave, Siberia. These people are now known as Denisovans. Research published last year suggests that modern humans interbred with both Neanderthals and Denisovans on numerous occasions over the past 250,000 years. Genomics Plc, the Oxford-based data science company that provided the health secretary with personalised risk scores, has just released results showing the extent to which predictive DNA tests can reveal the likelihood of diseases from cancers to asthma and coronary heart disease. Based on data from 160,000 men (UK Biobank participants), it found that those who scored in the top 1% in terms of risk for heart disease had the same risk at 45 years old as an average man at 60-65 and one of the lowest risk men in their mid-70s. When the scientists looked more closely at common characteristics of the high-risk men, they found they had slightly higher cholesterol, BMI and blood pressure but not extraordinarily high. Prof Peter Donnelly, a statistical geneticist and CEO of Genomics Plc, said: Many of them are individuals who would be invisible to the health system currently. Theyre happily wandering around the streets at much higher risk of heart disease but not aware of it. If you were one of these men thats potentially helpful to know. Similarly for breast cancer, the top 1% of women based on genetic risk score had a 30% lifetime risk of breast cancer, while the lowest 5% had a 2%-3% lifetime risk. Genomics said its tests cost 20-40 per person, much lower than the 500-1,000 cost to sequence a whole genome. The world were in, where we screen women just based on age and offer mammography at 50, just doesnt make sense, said Donnelly. We should be screening these women much earlier. Prof John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford university who led a recent government-commissioned review of the life sciences industry, said the approach could have a quite profound effect on the ability to manage disease. Read more Currently, he said, screening programmes face huge problems: they are expensive, they give lots of false positives and miss people such as women in their early forties who never enter routine screening for breast cancer, but who have a high genetic risk. Its all slightly hopeless, he said. This is exactly what we need. David Spiegelhalter, professor for the public understanding of risk at the University of Cambridge, agrees that genetic tests could allow the NHS to rapidly identify those who may need closer monitoring. However, he said care would need to be taken in how risk scores were communicated to individual patients, most of whom (as in the case of Matt Hancock) fall somewhere in the mid-range for most illnesses. Even the most extreme 3% are only at around 2-3 times average risk, and so most people will only be given a moderately raised or lowered risk, said Spiegelhalter. It is essential that these results are communicated properly, to avoid any suggestion that they are predicting the future. A significant concern is that the vast majority of data that has been used to identify risk genes has come from people of white European heritage, who are significantly overrepresented in genetics studies and databases such as UK Biobank. The extent to which genes confer risk also depends on the overall genetic backdrop, which varies across ethnicities. This means that currently the tests developed by companies such as Genomics Plc work less well for people of non-white European heritage. Donnelly said the company is currently assessing the extent of the performance gap and looking for ways to improve the technology so it works better for everyone. One has to even think really hard about whether it should be rolled out now when its more useful for some individuals than others, he said, adding that if there was a significant gap then he would be against rolling it out quickly. | Health secretary Matt Hancock took a predictive genetic test. The test assesses risk for 16 common diseases including cancer. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/23/are-predictive-genetic-test-useful-to-predict-cancer-matt-hancock | 0.143059 |
Are genetic tests useful to predict cancer? | The health secretarys call for tests to be rolled out on NHS was met with controversy The health secretary, Matt Hancock, this week shared his shock at discovering that he is at greater than average risk for prostate cancer, despite having no family history of the disease. The revelation came after he took a predictive genetic test that assesses risk for 16 common diseases, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and breast and prostate cancers. Hancock said the test might have saved his life and that such tests should be urgently rolled out on the NHS, to guide screening programs and the age at which drugs like statins are prescribed. However the suggestion was immediately met with controversy. Some claim that the usefulness of predictive DNA tests has been overstated, pointing to the fact that, while Hancock described his own 15% lifetime risk of prostate cancer as high, it was only marginally above the population average risk of 12%. UK breast cancer death rates falling fastest in big six of Europe Read more Until now, genetic testing for disease risk has largely focused on versions of single gene that confer a substantial amount of risk, such as BRCA for breast cancer. The latest predictive tests for a range of common diseases take a different approach: they aggregate the tiny contributions to risk made by hundreds or even thousands of genes to give a personalised score. Because the risk is spread out over many genes, people can end up at the very high-risk end of the spectrum by chance, without having a family history of a particular illness. Seven key facts Show Hide Our genes are made of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which forms double helix strands inside the nuclei of our bodies cells. DNA contains information that is passed from generation to generation and directs the development of our bodies. Scientists began studying ancient DNA 20 years ago when Svante Pbo used gene amplification techniques to extract and analyse genetic material from Neanderthals. At first only fragments of Neanderthal DNA could be studied, but by developing techniques to piece together small overlapping fragments, it was possible to recreate the entire set of genes, or genome, of a Neanderthal. Subsequent research showed that most people outside Africa contain small numbers of Neanderthal genes, the result of interbreeding between the two species as modern humans emerged from their African homeland about 70,000 years ago. In 2010 scientists discovered the genome of a completely new human species in bone and tooth fragments found in the Denisova cave, Siberia. These people are now known as Denisovans. Research published last year suggests that modern humans interbred with both Neanderthals and Denisovans on numerous occasions over the past 250,000 years. Genomics Plc, the Oxford-based data science company that provided the health secretary with personalised risk scores, has just released results showing the extent to which predictive DNA tests can reveal the likelihood of diseases from cancers to asthma and coronary heart disease. Based on data from 160,000 men (UK Biobank participants), it found that those who scored in the top 1% in terms of risk for heart disease had the same risk at 45 years old as an average man at 60-65 and one of the lowest risk men in their mid-70s. When the scientists looked more closely at common characteristics of the high-risk men, they found they had slightly higher cholesterol, BMI and blood pressure but not extraordinarily high. Prof Peter Donnelly, a statistical geneticist and CEO of Genomics Plc, said: Many of them are individuals who would be invisible to the health system currently. Theyre happily wandering around the streets at much higher risk of heart disease but not aware of it. If you were one of these men thats potentially helpful to know. Similarly for breast cancer, the top 1% of women based on genetic risk score had a 30% lifetime risk of breast cancer, while the lowest 5% had a 2%-3% lifetime risk. Genomics said its tests cost 20-40 per person, much lower than the 500-1,000 cost to sequence a whole genome. The world were in, where we screen women just based on age and offer mammography at 50, just doesnt make sense, said Donnelly. We should be screening these women much earlier. Prof John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford university who led a recent government-commissioned review of the life sciences industry, said the approach could have a quite profound effect on the ability to manage disease. Read more Currently, he said, screening programmes face huge problems: they are expensive, they give lots of false positives and miss people such as women in their early forties who never enter routine screening for breast cancer, but who have a high genetic risk. Its all slightly hopeless, he said. This is exactly what we need. David Spiegelhalter, professor for the public understanding of risk at the University of Cambridge, agrees that genetic tests could allow the NHS to rapidly identify those who may need closer monitoring. However, he said care would need to be taken in how risk scores were communicated to individual patients, most of whom (as in the case of Matt Hancock) fall somewhere in the mid-range for most illnesses. Even the most extreme 3% are only at around 2-3 times average risk, and so most people will only be given a moderately raised or lowered risk, said Spiegelhalter. It is essential that these results are communicated properly, to avoid any suggestion that they are predicting the future. A significant concern is that the vast majority of data that has been used to identify risk genes has come from people of white European heritage, who are significantly overrepresented in genetics studies and databases such as UK Biobank. The extent to which genes confer risk also depends on the overall genetic backdrop, which varies across ethnicities. This means that currently the tests developed by companies such as Genomics Plc work less well for people of non-white European heritage. Donnelly said the company is currently assessing the extent of the performance gap and looking for ways to improve the technology so it works better for everyone. One has to even think really hard about whether it should be rolled out now when its more useful for some individuals than others, he said, adding that if there was a significant gap then he would be against rolling it out quickly. | Matt Hancock took a predictive genetic test that assesses risk for 16 common diseases. Tests assess risk for coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and breast and prostate cancers. | bart | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/23/are-predictive-genetic-test-useful-to-predict-cancer-matt-hancock | 0.137528 |
Are genetic tests useful to predict cancer? | The health secretarys call for tests to be rolled out on NHS was met with controversy The health secretary, Matt Hancock, this week shared his shock at discovering that he is at greater than average risk for prostate cancer, despite having no family history of the disease. The revelation came after he took a predictive genetic test that assesses risk for 16 common diseases, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and breast and prostate cancers. Hancock said the test might have saved his life and that such tests should be urgently rolled out on the NHS, to guide screening programs and the age at which drugs like statins are prescribed. However the suggestion was immediately met with controversy. Some claim that the usefulness of predictive DNA tests has been overstated, pointing to the fact that, while Hancock described his own 15% lifetime risk of prostate cancer as high, it was only marginally above the population average risk of 12%. UK breast cancer death rates falling fastest in big six of Europe Read more Until now, genetic testing for disease risk has largely focused on versions of single gene that confer a substantial amount of risk, such as BRCA for breast cancer. The latest predictive tests for a range of common diseases take a different approach: they aggregate the tiny contributions to risk made by hundreds or even thousands of genes to give a personalised score. Because the risk is spread out over many genes, people can end up at the very high-risk end of the spectrum by chance, without having a family history of a particular illness. Seven key facts Show Hide Our genes are made of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which forms double helix strands inside the nuclei of our bodies cells. DNA contains information that is passed from generation to generation and directs the development of our bodies. Scientists began studying ancient DNA 20 years ago when Svante Pbo used gene amplification techniques to extract and analyse genetic material from Neanderthals. At first only fragments of Neanderthal DNA could be studied, but by developing techniques to piece together small overlapping fragments, it was possible to recreate the entire set of genes, or genome, of a Neanderthal. Subsequent research showed that most people outside Africa contain small numbers of Neanderthal genes, the result of interbreeding between the two species as modern humans emerged from their African homeland about 70,000 years ago. In 2010 scientists discovered the genome of a completely new human species in bone and tooth fragments found in the Denisova cave, Siberia. These people are now known as Denisovans. Research published last year suggests that modern humans interbred with both Neanderthals and Denisovans on numerous occasions over the past 250,000 years. Genomics Plc, the Oxford-based data science company that provided the health secretary with personalised risk scores, has just released results showing the extent to which predictive DNA tests can reveal the likelihood of diseases from cancers to asthma and coronary heart disease. Based on data from 160,000 men (UK Biobank participants), it found that those who scored in the top 1% in terms of risk for heart disease had the same risk at 45 years old as an average man at 60-65 and one of the lowest risk men in their mid-70s. When the scientists looked more closely at common characteristics of the high-risk men, they found they had slightly higher cholesterol, BMI and blood pressure but not extraordinarily high. Prof Peter Donnelly, a statistical geneticist and CEO of Genomics Plc, said: Many of them are individuals who would be invisible to the health system currently. Theyre happily wandering around the streets at much higher risk of heart disease but not aware of it. If you were one of these men thats potentially helpful to know. Similarly for breast cancer, the top 1% of women based on genetic risk score had a 30% lifetime risk of breast cancer, while the lowest 5% had a 2%-3% lifetime risk. Genomics said its tests cost 20-40 per person, much lower than the 500-1,000 cost to sequence a whole genome. The world were in, where we screen women just based on age and offer mammography at 50, just doesnt make sense, said Donnelly. We should be screening these women much earlier. Prof John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford university who led a recent government-commissioned review of the life sciences industry, said the approach could have a quite profound effect on the ability to manage disease. Read more Currently, he said, screening programmes face huge problems: they are expensive, they give lots of false positives and miss people such as women in their early forties who never enter routine screening for breast cancer, but who have a high genetic risk. Its all slightly hopeless, he said. This is exactly what we need. David Spiegelhalter, professor for the public understanding of risk at the University of Cambridge, agrees that genetic tests could allow the NHS to rapidly identify those who may need closer monitoring. However, he said care would need to be taken in how risk scores were communicated to individual patients, most of whom (as in the case of Matt Hancock) fall somewhere in the mid-range for most illnesses. Even the most extreme 3% are only at around 2-3 times average risk, and so most people will only be given a moderately raised or lowered risk, said Spiegelhalter. It is essential that these results are communicated properly, to avoid any suggestion that they are predicting the future. A significant concern is that the vast majority of data that has been used to identify risk genes has come from people of white European heritage, who are significantly overrepresented in genetics studies and databases such as UK Biobank. The extent to which genes confer risk also depends on the overall genetic backdrop, which varies across ethnicities. This means that currently the tests developed by companies such as Genomics Plc work less well for people of non-white European heritage. Donnelly said the company is currently assessing the extent of the performance gap and looking for ways to improve the technology so it works better for everyone. One has to even think really hard about whether it should be rolled out now when its more useful for some individuals than others, he said, adding that if there was a significant gap then he would be against rolling it out quickly. | Matt Hancock took a predictive genetic test that assesses risk for 16 common diseases. Tests assess risk for coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and breast and prostate cancers. Hancock said the test might have saved his life and that such tests should be urgently rolled out on the NHS. | bart | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/23/are-predictive-genetic-test-useful-to-predict-cancer-matt-hancock | 0.173705 |
How on Earth are Philips Hue white LED bulbs back down to $11 each? | Well guess what: today is the day youve been waiting for. Philips Hue White A19 Single LED Bulbs went on sale last week for about $11 each, and people practically tripped over themselves to get them. In fact, more than 10,000 of our readers got in on the action. If you missed out though, dry those eyes because this killer deal is somehow back. Hurry over to Amazon and youll find white bulbs on sale for just $11 and change. If youd like to add some color bulbs into the mix, youll also find a deep discount on those today. Back to the white bulbs, you should be aware that they will almost certainly sell out at this price probably within a few hours so get a move on! This dual wireless charging pad works with the iPhone and Apple Watch, and it's only $30 This $64 sous vide cooker works just as well as a $200 Joule VOICE CONTROL: The Philips Hue White Smart Bulb works with Amazon Alexa to support dimming through voice control. For the full Hue experience and to take advantage of voice activation purchase the Philips Hue Hub (Model: 458471). Search Philips Hue Hub or B016H0QZ7I to find this product on Amazon. SCHEDULE YOUR OWN CUSTOM LIGHTING SCENES: Philips Hue can make it seem like youre home when youre not, using the schedule function in the Philips Hue app. Set the smart bulbs to come on at a pre-set time, so the lights are on when you arrive home. You can even set rooms to light up at different times. And of course, you can let the smart lights turn off gradually in the night, so you never have to worry whether youve left any lights on. This is the perfect way to personalize your smart home. EASY INSTALLATION: To install, simply screw the smart bulbs into your desired light location, download the Hue mobile app and pair your Hue Hub (sold separately). Control smart-bulb-equipped lamps and overhead lights via the Philips Hue App EXPAND YOUR ECOSYTEM: Connect the smart bulb directly to your other Smart Home Devices like Amazon Echo Plus, Nest, or SmartThings systems. Easily expand your smart lighting system with hue accessories (sold separately), such as a Hue Dimmer Switch, Hue Tap, or Hue Motion Sensor Sign up for BGR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Trending Right Now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com | The Philips Hue White A19 Single LED Bulbs went on sale last week for about $11 each. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/earth-philips-hue-white-led-113102270.html | 0.135356 |
How on Earth are Philips Hue white LED bulbs back down to $11 each? | Well guess what: today is the day youve been waiting for. Philips Hue White A19 Single LED Bulbs went on sale last week for about $11 each, and people practically tripped over themselves to get them. In fact, more than 10,000 of our readers got in on the action. If you missed out though, dry those eyes because this killer deal is somehow back. Hurry over to Amazon and youll find white bulbs on sale for just $11 and change. If youd like to add some color bulbs into the mix, youll also find a deep discount on those today. Back to the white bulbs, you should be aware that they will almost certainly sell out at this price probably within a few hours so get a move on! This dual wireless charging pad works with the iPhone and Apple Watch, and it's only $30 This $64 sous vide cooker works just as well as a $200 Joule VOICE CONTROL: The Philips Hue White Smart Bulb works with Amazon Alexa to support dimming through voice control. For the full Hue experience and to take advantage of voice activation purchase the Philips Hue Hub (Model: 458471). Search Philips Hue Hub or B016H0QZ7I to find this product on Amazon. SCHEDULE YOUR OWN CUSTOM LIGHTING SCENES: Philips Hue can make it seem like youre home when youre not, using the schedule function in the Philips Hue app. Set the smart bulbs to come on at a pre-set time, so the lights are on when you arrive home. You can even set rooms to light up at different times. And of course, you can let the smart lights turn off gradually in the night, so you never have to worry whether youve left any lights on. This is the perfect way to personalize your smart home. EASY INSTALLATION: To install, simply screw the smart bulbs into your desired light location, download the Hue mobile app and pair your Hue Hub (sold separately). Control smart-bulb-equipped lamps and overhead lights via the Philips Hue App EXPAND YOUR ECOSYTEM: Connect the smart bulb directly to your other Smart Home Devices like Amazon Echo Plus, Nest, or SmartThings systems. Easily expand your smart lighting system with hue accessories (sold separately), such as a Hue Dimmer Switch, Hue Tap, or Hue Motion Sensor Sign up for BGR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Trending Right Now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com | The Philips Hue White A19 Single LED Bulbs went on sale last week for about $11 each. They will almost certainly sell out at this price probably within a few hours. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/earth-philips-hue-white-led-113102270.html | 0.104523 |
How on Earth are Philips Hue white LED bulbs back down to $11 each? | Well guess what: today is the day youve been waiting for. Philips Hue White A19 Single LED Bulbs went on sale last week for about $11 each, and people practically tripped over themselves to get them. In fact, more than 10,000 of our readers got in on the action. If you missed out though, dry those eyes because this killer deal is somehow back. Hurry over to Amazon and youll find white bulbs on sale for just $11 and change. If youd like to add some color bulbs into the mix, youll also find a deep discount on those today. Back to the white bulbs, you should be aware that they will almost certainly sell out at this price probably within a few hours so get a move on! This dual wireless charging pad works with the iPhone and Apple Watch, and it's only $30 This $64 sous vide cooker works just as well as a $200 Joule VOICE CONTROL: The Philips Hue White Smart Bulb works with Amazon Alexa to support dimming through voice control. For the full Hue experience and to take advantage of voice activation purchase the Philips Hue Hub (Model: 458471). Search Philips Hue Hub or B016H0QZ7I to find this product on Amazon. SCHEDULE YOUR OWN CUSTOM LIGHTING SCENES: Philips Hue can make it seem like youre home when youre not, using the schedule function in the Philips Hue app. Set the smart bulbs to come on at a pre-set time, so the lights are on when you arrive home. You can even set rooms to light up at different times. And of course, you can let the smart lights turn off gradually in the night, so you never have to worry whether youve left any lights on. This is the perfect way to personalize your smart home. EASY INSTALLATION: To install, simply screw the smart bulbs into your desired light location, download the Hue mobile app and pair your Hue Hub (sold separately). Control smart-bulb-equipped lamps and overhead lights via the Philips Hue App EXPAND YOUR ECOSYTEM: Connect the smart bulb directly to your other Smart Home Devices like Amazon Echo Plus, Nest, or SmartThings systems. Easily expand your smart lighting system with hue accessories (sold separately), such as a Hue Dimmer Switch, Hue Tap, or Hue Motion Sensor Sign up for BGR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Trending Right Now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com | Philips Hue White A19 Single LED Bulbs went on sale last week for about $11 each. More than 10,000 of our readers got in on the action. Hurry over to Amazon and youll find white bulbs on sale for just $11 and change. | pegasus | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/earth-philips-hue-white-led-113102270.html | 0.16987 |
Can brutal Bethlehem slaying ever be solved after 40 years? | BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) The package arrived in the mail several months ago and landed on Bethlehem Detective Tom Galloway's desk with a thud. There was no return address. It held a plastic three-ring binder, containing several pages of meticulously organized notes. A young woman's smiling face on the cover, the photo framed by the words "Justice for Holly." Nearly 40 years after 17-year-old Holly Branagan was stabbed to death in the kitchen of her Bethlehem home, tips continue to pour in about the Lehigh Valley's most vexing unsolved murder. Many, like the binder, come from anonymous sources who summarize the evidence and suggest a suspect. Nearly all of the tipsters get key facts wrong, Galloway said. That question, police concede, may never be answered. "In every case, obviously, the further you get from the event, it becomes more difficult," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. "And when you're this far away, it becomes really difficult." 'We are enamored of the dark side' Holly was home alone and on the phone with a friend when she heard a knock on her door. It was March 28, 1979. She never told the friend who was there before she hung up, but it was clear that the pretty and popular Freedom High School senior knew her visitor. More than 11 hours later, Holly's brother found her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, a large kitchen knife in her back. Whoever brutally stabbed Holly walked away undetected. Galloway, who inherited the case in 2007 from a string of detectives, has a theory: Holly knew and trusted her killer enough to let the person in her home. But when the conversation did not go as expected, Holly may have grabbed a knife to defend herself, enraging her visitor. Holly could expose her killer if she lived, Galloway surmises. She fought for her life, but died on her kitchen floor. As the case went cold over the next four decades, public fascination heated up. And no wonder. The crime had all the elements of a television drama: A popular teenager savagely murdered in her home. A parade of sometimes reluctant witnesses from an affluent neighborhood. An investigation by inexperienced officers who inadvertently tainted the crime scene. Holly's father, a widower, was still reeling from his only daughter's death when his son Sean, 19, died in a gas station explosion just a few months later. The second shocking family tragedy only deepened the mystery. Google Holly Branagan's name, and you'll find people on dozens of blogs and true crime fan sites discussing the homicide. With the advent of the internet, people across the country over the past decade have tried to solve the crime through podcasts, online crime communities and through a network of former and current Bethlehem residents who keep in touch via Facebook. "We are enamored of the dark side," said Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association who studies crime. "An unsolved murder like this evokes uncertainty, and that in turn causes the human mind to become creative, to think of ways to solve the mystery." ___ An unsolved murder like this evokes uncertainty, and that in turn causes the human mind to become creative, to think of ways to solve the mystery. Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association ___ Farley, who teaches at Temple University's Psychological Studies in Education program, believes the people who send tips about Holly's murder to police are likely superfans of television crime dramas. "They feel they can be of help," Farley said. "They enjoy the experience." Morganelli bluntly refers to some of those would-be sleuthers as "kooks" who want to involve themselves in the investigation for whatever reason, often wasting police time and resources. But investigators say they remain hopeful that some of the tips may prove useful. Unfortunately, nothing discussed online or dropped in detectives' mailboxes has brought Holly's killer closer to justice. Police, however, think they know who did it. A killing in Bethlehem Morganelli, the county's top law enforcement official to probe the killing, recently said he would discuss with police whether to release some evidence that was previously undisclosed, including an FBI profile of the suspect. "I think as long as we have unanswered questions, which we still do in this case, I certainly don't want to put it to rest," said Morganelli. "I'd like to try and find out more, if we can." Morganelli says he understands the fascination with the case a violent murder in a town relatively unmarred by crime with a teen brutally slain in her own home. Having grown up in Bethlehem and a law student at the time of the killing, Morganelli always hoped the crime would be solved. For many of Holly's classmates, on the brink of adulthood, her death was a reminder of their own mortality and end of innocence, said Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio. The affluent neighborhood filled with large homes and dotted by woods and an apple orchard was a place where doors were left open and everyone knew each other. ___ I think as long as we have unanswered questions, which we still do in this case, I certainly don't want to put it to rest. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli ___ The Branagan case is one of about 35 unsolved homicides in the county, Morganelli said. It's a case stymied by lost or destroyed evidence over the decades, family members, investigators and classmates who have died and an exhaustion of investigative techniques and forensic testing, he said. "Unless someone comes forward and says, 'Oh, this person confessed,' and it matches, I'm not overly optimistic about solving the Holly Branagan case," Morganelli said. "I wish we could. I don't know who killed Holly Branagan." Contaminated crime scene Former Bethlehem police officer Craig Stefko was one of the first officers on the scene when Holly's body was found. He recently shared some new details about the early days of the investigation with The Morning Call. There was a chilling statement on the radio: "Base, I've got a party with a knife in her back on the floor. Can I break in?" Stefko arrived a short time later and found Holly's brother, Sean, and a friend, at the home. Sean led police into the kitchen and said, "There she is." After clearing the house to make sure no one else was inside, Stefko said the home soon became "flooded" with officers, some of whom normally would not be at a homicide scene, including officers from the traffic division. "It was an unusual thing to have a murder and I was kind of shocked myself," Stefko said. "I tried to get out of the house to get to my paperwork and I remember going back in and thinking, 'Wow, there's too many people in here.'" Stefko said he saw officers move items around inside the home, including two chairs in the kitchen near where Holly's body was found. As more personnel arrived to take photos, Stefko said officers moved back several items, including the chairs. He said camera equipment used by police was placed on the kitchen table, another thing that could contaminate potential evidence. ___ There are things investigators did years ago that we look at now and think, 'Wow, I can't believe they did that.' Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio ___ "That should have never been," Stefko said. "I don't fault them. It (a murder) didn't happen a whole lot. I don't think they had the education or the training." DiLuzio stopped short of saying the crime scene was botched, but acknowledged crime scene processing techniques have changed greatly in the four decades since Holly's murder. Back then, he said, the main investigative techniques were interviews, photos of the scene, fingerprints and identification of blood types. He agreed that in today's standards, moving kitchen chairs would be considered contaminating a crime scene. "There are things investigators did years ago that we look at now and think, 'Wow, I can't believe they did that,' " DiLuzio said. "Law enforcement is constantly advancing with education, new crime scene techniques and technology." Other evidence gathered in the case has been exhausted. Even though DNA was unknown to crime scene investigators in 1979, Morganelli said, the knife that was used to kill Holly was tested for the presence of DNA as well as other forensic evidence. Police say that testing cost "in the tens of thousands of dollars," but yielded no results. Fingerprints found at the scene were also re-examined, but that effort was also unsuccessful. Some evidence in the case, including clothing, has deteriorated because of the way it was stored at the time. Crime scene photos show officers, and even the coroner, without rubber gloves or other protective gear worn today to help preserve any shred of evidence. Both Morganelli and DiLuzio say they believe the case cannot be solved unless someone comes forward with new information. "You might have a missing piece of a puzzle," DiLuzio said. "We may have the whole puzzle and just need that little piece to make it clear." Police have a suspect Morganelli and Bethlehem police have a "divide" over an unnamed suspect in the case, a stunning development announced in 2014. Police say today they still believe that suspect killed Holly, but Morganelli isn't so sure. Both agree the evidence is only circumstantial. Authorities would not release the suspect's name because the case remains open. At one point, investigators identified six people who may have been involved, including male and female classmates of Holly's as well as a person who lived in the neighborhood, Morganelli said. All were cleared over the years. "There are cases out there that we feel we know who did it, but just can't prove it," Morganelli said. "I can't personally say that the Branagan case is that kind of a case, but there are some detectives who think they know who did it. But I'm not convinced that's the case." Morganelli said he's familiar with police's theory about the suspect, but said speculation is not enough to make an arrest, let alone a possible conviction. Galloway has doggedly documented Branagan's killing, filling several filing cabinet drawers in his office with yearbooks, documents, police interviews, photos and records of the suspect. Being careful not to name the person, both Galloway and DiLuzio say the suspect was identified after repeated interviews that left them with more questions than answers about that person's actions and behavior following Holly's death. Police would not identify whether the person is a man or woman, or dead or alive. "As we developed more and more information about this person, I can say that the person moved from someone we were seeking information about to a person whom we had a very strong suspicion in being involved in the crime," Galloway said. "I personally believe that this person did that, but we can't use my opinion in court." The clock With the case languishing, Galloway still dutifully checks out every lead, even if most ultimately prove fruitless. The three-ring binder that recently arrived in his office is an example of one of those dead-end tips. A Morning Call article published in April 1979 appears to be the first mention of a "grandfather clock in the hallway," that was stopped at 5:20 with a pendulum lying broken on the floor. It's a chilling detail that some theorized stopped at the exact time of Holly's murder, a concept plucked straight from television crime drama. But it's not correct. There was a clock stopped inside the home at 5:20, but it was a small cuckoo clock in the Branagan kitchen. Authorities say the cuckoo clock wasn't damaged, nor do they know if there is any relevance to the stopped time, which could have stopped at 5:20 a.m. or 5:20 p.m. It's a clock that Holly's father, Richard Branagan, often reset each day by pulling on a set of weights shaped like pine cones at the end of a long chain. Richard Branagan died in 2016, but the clock remains in the home of his widow. The clock is one of several inaccurate leads that people often think is a critical part of the investigation, authorities say. But it's a detail police only recently publicly acknowledged. "It's not my job to correct people's mistakes or tell them something in their theory isn't true," Galloway said. "What if that person is the killer who is trying to see what police know?" A drink never shared Most of Holly's immediate family are buried in a plot at Holy Saviour Cemetery in Bethlehem, a simple gravestone marked with a cross overlooking a nearby farm where several horses play in the snow. The plot marks the resting place for Holly, Sean and their mother, who died in 1976. Richard Branagan's thoughts were never far away from his children, but he had to find a way to move on, said Richard's widow, Lee Branagan, who recently spoke about Holly's murder. She married Holly's father several years after the deaths of his children. Although he hailed the efforts of law enforcement, Richard Branagan believed his daughter's killing would never be solved, Lee Branagan said. For years, he didn't talk about Holly's murder. "Dick was a strong person, strong-minded and he was of great faith and believed in prayer," Lee Branagan said. "I think that's what pulled him through, to know that he had to go forward. "You just keep these things to yourself and you suffer in silence and go forth and I think he did that," she said. ___ You just keep these things to yourself and you suffer in silence and go forth and I think he did that. Richard Branagan's widow on how he handled his daughter Holly's murder ___ Richard Branagan's quiet quest for justice isn't lost on law enforcement authorities. During his many visits to speak to Richard Branagan about the case, DiLuzio said, he was struck that Branagan wished mostly to know the truth about why someone would kill his daughter. With each update in the case, DiLuzio said, he'd again visit the Branagan home and Holly's father would often offer him a vodka martini. DiLuzio would always politely decline, but made a promise to raise a toast when police found the killer. "Every time I'd see him, he'd ask if it was time for that martini and I'd have to say, 'Not yet,' " DiLuzio said. "I regret that I was never able to share that drink with him." ___ Online: https://bit.ly/2Fh88b7 ___ Information from: The Morning Call, http://www.mcall.com | Nearly 40 years after Holly Branagan was stabbed to death in her Bethlehem home, tips continue to pour in. | pegasus | 0 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crime/article/Can-brutal-Bethlehem-slaying-ever-be-solved-after-13710820.php | 0.131603 |
Can brutal Bethlehem slaying ever be solved after 40 years? | BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) The package arrived in the mail several months ago and landed on Bethlehem Detective Tom Galloway's desk with a thud. There was no return address. It held a plastic three-ring binder, containing several pages of meticulously organized notes. A young woman's smiling face on the cover, the photo framed by the words "Justice for Holly." Nearly 40 years after 17-year-old Holly Branagan was stabbed to death in the kitchen of her Bethlehem home, tips continue to pour in about the Lehigh Valley's most vexing unsolved murder. Many, like the binder, come from anonymous sources who summarize the evidence and suggest a suspect. Nearly all of the tipsters get key facts wrong, Galloway said. That question, police concede, may never be answered. "In every case, obviously, the further you get from the event, it becomes more difficult," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. "And when you're this far away, it becomes really difficult." 'We are enamored of the dark side' Holly was home alone and on the phone with a friend when she heard a knock on her door. It was March 28, 1979. She never told the friend who was there before she hung up, but it was clear that the pretty and popular Freedom High School senior knew her visitor. More than 11 hours later, Holly's brother found her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, a large kitchen knife in her back. Whoever brutally stabbed Holly walked away undetected. Galloway, who inherited the case in 2007 from a string of detectives, has a theory: Holly knew and trusted her killer enough to let the person in her home. But when the conversation did not go as expected, Holly may have grabbed a knife to defend herself, enraging her visitor. Holly could expose her killer if she lived, Galloway surmises. She fought for her life, but died on her kitchen floor. As the case went cold over the next four decades, public fascination heated up. And no wonder. The crime had all the elements of a television drama: A popular teenager savagely murdered in her home. A parade of sometimes reluctant witnesses from an affluent neighborhood. An investigation by inexperienced officers who inadvertently tainted the crime scene. Holly's father, a widower, was still reeling from his only daughter's death when his son Sean, 19, died in a gas station explosion just a few months later. The second shocking family tragedy only deepened the mystery. Google Holly Branagan's name, and you'll find people on dozens of blogs and true crime fan sites discussing the homicide. With the advent of the internet, people across the country over the past decade have tried to solve the crime through podcasts, online crime communities and through a network of former and current Bethlehem residents who keep in touch via Facebook. "We are enamored of the dark side," said Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association who studies crime. "An unsolved murder like this evokes uncertainty, and that in turn causes the human mind to become creative, to think of ways to solve the mystery." ___ An unsolved murder like this evokes uncertainty, and that in turn causes the human mind to become creative, to think of ways to solve the mystery. Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association ___ Farley, who teaches at Temple University's Psychological Studies in Education program, believes the people who send tips about Holly's murder to police are likely superfans of television crime dramas. "They feel they can be of help," Farley said. "They enjoy the experience." Morganelli bluntly refers to some of those would-be sleuthers as "kooks" who want to involve themselves in the investigation for whatever reason, often wasting police time and resources. But investigators say they remain hopeful that some of the tips may prove useful. Unfortunately, nothing discussed online or dropped in detectives' mailboxes has brought Holly's killer closer to justice. Police, however, think they know who did it. A killing in Bethlehem Morganelli, the county's top law enforcement official to probe the killing, recently said he would discuss with police whether to release some evidence that was previously undisclosed, including an FBI profile of the suspect. "I think as long as we have unanswered questions, which we still do in this case, I certainly don't want to put it to rest," said Morganelli. "I'd like to try and find out more, if we can." Morganelli says he understands the fascination with the case a violent murder in a town relatively unmarred by crime with a teen brutally slain in her own home. Having grown up in Bethlehem and a law student at the time of the killing, Morganelli always hoped the crime would be solved. For many of Holly's classmates, on the brink of adulthood, her death was a reminder of their own mortality and end of innocence, said Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio. The affluent neighborhood filled with large homes and dotted by woods and an apple orchard was a place where doors were left open and everyone knew each other. ___ I think as long as we have unanswered questions, which we still do in this case, I certainly don't want to put it to rest. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli ___ The Branagan case is one of about 35 unsolved homicides in the county, Morganelli said. It's a case stymied by lost or destroyed evidence over the decades, family members, investigators and classmates who have died and an exhaustion of investigative techniques and forensic testing, he said. "Unless someone comes forward and says, 'Oh, this person confessed,' and it matches, I'm not overly optimistic about solving the Holly Branagan case," Morganelli said. "I wish we could. I don't know who killed Holly Branagan." Contaminated crime scene Former Bethlehem police officer Craig Stefko was one of the first officers on the scene when Holly's body was found. He recently shared some new details about the early days of the investigation with The Morning Call. There was a chilling statement on the radio: "Base, I've got a party with a knife in her back on the floor. Can I break in?" Stefko arrived a short time later and found Holly's brother, Sean, and a friend, at the home. Sean led police into the kitchen and said, "There she is." After clearing the house to make sure no one else was inside, Stefko said the home soon became "flooded" with officers, some of whom normally would not be at a homicide scene, including officers from the traffic division. "It was an unusual thing to have a murder and I was kind of shocked myself," Stefko said. "I tried to get out of the house to get to my paperwork and I remember going back in and thinking, 'Wow, there's too many people in here.'" Stefko said he saw officers move items around inside the home, including two chairs in the kitchen near where Holly's body was found. As more personnel arrived to take photos, Stefko said officers moved back several items, including the chairs. He said camera equipment used by police was placed on the kitchen table, another thing that could contaminate potential evidence. ___ There are things investigators did years ago that we look at now and think, 'Wow, I can't believe they did that.' Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio ___ "That should have never been," Stefko said. "I don't fault them. It (a murder) didn't happen a whole lot. I don't think they had the education or the training." DiLuzio stopped short of saying the crime scene was botched, but acknowledged crime scene processing techniques have changed greatly in the four decades since Holly's murder. Back then, he said, the main investigative techniques were interviews, photos of the scene, fingerprints and identification of blood types. He agreed that in today's standards, moving kitchen chairs would be considered contaminating a crime scene. "There are things investigators did years ago that we look at now and think, 'Wow, I can't believe they did that,' " DiLuzio said. "Law enforcement is constantly advancing with education, new crime scene techniques and technology." Other evidence gathered in the case has been exhausted. Even though DNA was unknown to crime scene investigators in 1979, Morganelli said, the knife that was used to kill Holly was tested for the presence of DNA as well as other forensic evidence. Police say that testing cost "in the tens of thousands of dollars," but yielded no results. Fingerprints found at the scene were also re-examined, but that effort was also unsuccessful. Some evidence in the case, including clothing, has deteriorated because of the way it was stored at the time. Crime scene photos show officers, and even the coroner, without rubber gloves or other protective gear worn today to help preserve any shred of evidence. Both Morganelli and DiLuzio say they believe the case cannot be solved unless someone comes forward with new information. "You might have a missing piece of a puzzle," DiLuzio said. "We may have the whole puzzle and just need that little piece to make it clear." Police have a suspect Morganelli and Bethlehem police have a "divide" over an unnamed suspect in the case, a stunning development announced in 2014. Police say today they still believe that suspect killed Holly, but Morganelli isn't so sure. Both agree the evidence is only circumstantial. Authorities would not release the suspect's name because the case remains open. At one point, investigators identified six people who may have been involved, including male and female classmates of Holly's as well as a person who lived in the neighborhood, Morganelli said. All were cleared over the years. "There are cases out there that we feel we know who did it, but just can't prove it," Morganelli said. "I can't personally say that the Branagan case is that kind of a case, but there are some detectives who think they know who did it. But I'm not convinced that's the case." Morganelli said he's familiar with police's theory about the suspect, but said speculation is not enough to make an arrest, let alone a possible conviction. Galloway has doggedly documented Branagan's killing, filling several filing cabinet drawers in his office with yearbooks, documents, police interviews, photos and records of the suspect. Being careful not to name the person, both Galloway and DiLuzio say the suspect was identified after repeated interviews that left them with more questions than answers about that person's actions and behavior following Holly's death. Police would not identify whether the person is a man or woman, or dead or alive. "As we developed more and more information about this person, I can say that the person moved from someone we were seeking information about to a person whom we had a very strong suspicion in being involved in the crime," Galloway said. "I personally believe that this person did that, but we can't use my opinion in court." The clock With the case languishing, Galloway still dutifully checks out every lead, even if most ultimately prove fruitless. The three-ring binder that recently arrived in his office is an example of one of those dead-end tips. A Morning Call article published in April 1979 appears to be the first mention of a "grandfather clock in the hallway," that was stopped at 5:20 with a pendulum lying broken on the floor. It's a chilling detail that some theorized stopped at the exact time of Holly's murder, a concept plucked straight from television crime drama. But it's not correct. There was a clock stopped inside the home at 5:20, but it was a small cuckoo clock in the Branagan kitchen. Authorities say the cuckoo clock wasn't damaged, nor do they know if there is any relevance to the stopped time, which could have stopped at 5:20 a.m. or 5:20 p.m. It's a clock that Holly's father, Richard Branagan, often reset each day by pulling on a set of weights shaped like pine cones at the end of a long chain. Richard Branagan died in 2016, but the clock remains in the home of his widow. The clock is one of several inaccurate leads that people often think is a critical part of the investigation, authorities say. But it's a detail police only recently publicly acknowledged. "It's not my job to correct people's mistakes or tell them something in their theory isn't true," Galloway said. "What if that person is the killer who is trying to see what police know?" A drink never shared Most of Holly's immediate family are buried in a plot at Holy Saviour Cemetery in Bethlehem, a simple gravestone marked with a cross overlooking a nearby farm where several horses play in the snow. The plot marks the resting place for Holly, Sean and their mother, who died in 1976. Richard Branagan's thoughts were never far away from his children, but he had to find a way to move on, said Richard's widow, Lee Branagan, who recently spoke about Holly's murder. She married Holly's father several years after the deaths of his children. Although he hailed the efforts of law enforcement, Richard Branagan believed his daughter's killing would never be solved, Lee Branagan said. For years, he didn't talk about Holly's murder. "Dick was a strong person, strong-minded and he was of great faith and believed in prayer," Lee Branagan said. "I think that's what pulled him through, to know that he had to go forward. "You just keep these things to yourself and you suffer in silence and go forth and I think he did that," she said. ___ You just keep these things to yourself and you suffer in silence and go forth and I think he did that. Richard Branagan's widow on how he handled his daughter Holly's murder ___ Richard Branagan's quiet quest for justice isn't lost on law enforcement authorities. During his many visits to speak to Richard Branagan about the case, DiLuzio said, he was struck that Branagan wished mostly to know the truth about why someone would kill his daughter. With each update in the case, DiLuzio said, he'd again visit the Branagan home and Holly's father would often offer him a vodka martini. DiLuzio would always politely decline, but made a promise to raise a toast when police found the killer. "Every time I'd see him, he'd ask if it was time for that martini and I'd have to say, 'Not yet,' " DiLuzio said. "I regret that I was never able to share that drink with him." ___ Online: https://bit.ly/2Fh88b7 ___ Information from: The Morning Call, http://www.mcall.com | Holly Branagan, 17, was stabbed to death in the kitchen of her Bethlehem home. Nearly 40 years later, tips continue to pour in about the Lehigh Valley's most vexing unsolved murder. | bart | 1 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crime/article/Can-brutal-Bethlehem-slaying-ever-be-solved-after-13710820.php | 0.133655 |
Can brutal Bethlehem slaying ever be solved after 40 years? | BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) The package arrived in the mail several months ago and landed on Bethlehem Detective Tom Galloway's desk with a thud. There was no return address. It held a plastic three-ring binder, containing several pages of meticulously organized notes. A young woman's smiling face on the cover, the photo framed by the words "Justice for Holly." Nearly 40 years after 17-year-old Holly Branagan was stabbed to death in the kitchen of her Bethlehem home, tips continue to pour in about the Lehigh Valley's most vexing unsolved murder. Many, like the binder, come from anonymous sources who summarize the evidence and suggest a suspect. Nearly all of the tipsters get key facts wrong, Galloway said. That question, police concede, may never be answered. "In every case, obviously, the further you get from the event, it becomes more difficult," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. "And when you're this far away, it becomes really difficult." 'We are enamored of the dark side' Holly was home alone and on the phone with a friend when she heard a knock on her door. It was March 28, 1979. She never told the friend who was there before she hung up, but it was clear that the pretty and popular Freedom High School senior knew her visitor. More than 11 hours later, Holly's brother found her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, a large kitchen knife in her back. Whoever brutally stabbed Holly walked away undetected. Galloway, who inherited the case in 2007 from a string of detectives, has a theory: Holly knew and trusted her killer enough to let the person in her home. But when the conversation did not go as expected, Holly may have grabbed a knife to defend herself, enraging her visitor. Holly could expose her killer if she lived, Galloway surmises. She fought for her life, but died on her kitchen floor. As the case went cold over the next four decades, public fascination heated up. And no wonder. The crime had all the elements of a television drama: A popular teenager savagely murdered in her home. A parade of sometimes reluctant witnesses from an affluent neighborhood. An investigation by inexperienced officers who inadvertently tainted the crime scene. Holly's father, a widower, was still reeling from his only daughter's death when his son Sean, 19, died in a gas station explosion just a few months later. The second shocking family tragedy only deepened the mystery. Google Holly Branagan's name, and you'll find people on dozens of blogs and true crime fan sites discussing the homicide. With the advent of the internet, people across the country over the past decade have tried to solve the crime through podcasts, online crime communities and through a network of former and current Bethlehem residents who keep in touch via Facebook. "We are enamored of the dark side," said Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association who studies crime. "An unsolved murder like this evokes uncertainty, and that in turn causes the human mind to become creative, to think of ways to solve the mystery." ___ An unsolved murder like this evokes uncertainty, and that in turn causes the human mind to become creative, to think of ways to solve the mystery. Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association ___ Farley, who teaches at Temple University's Psychological Studies in Education program, believes the people who send tips about Holly's murder to police are likely superfans of television crime dramas. "They feel they can be of help," Farley said. "They enjoy the experience." Morganelli bluntly refers to some of those would-be sleuthers as "kooks" who want to involve themselves in the investigation for whatever reason, often wasting police time and resources. But investigators say they remain hopeful that some of the tips may prove useful. Unfortunately, nothing discussed online or dropped in detectives' mailboxes has brought Holly's killer closer to justice. Police, however, think they know who did it. A killing in Bethlehem Morganelli, the county's top law enforcement official to probe the killing, recently said he would discuss with police whether to release some evidence that was previously undisclosed, including an FBI profile of the suspect. "I think as long as we have unanswered questions, which we still do in this case, I certainly don't want to put it to rest," said Morganelli. "I'd like to try and find out more, if we can." Morganelli says he understands the fascination with the case a violent murder in a town relatively unmarred by crime with a teen brutally slain in her own home. Having grown up in Bethlehem and a law student at the time of the killing, Morganelli always hoped the crime would be solved. For many of Holly's classmates, on the brink of adulthood, her death was a reminder of their own mortality and end of innocence, said Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio. The affluent neighborhood filled with large homes and dotted by woods and an apple orchard was a place where doors were left open and everyone knew each other. ___ I think as long as we have unanswered questions, which we still do in this case, I certainly don't want to put it to rest. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli ___ The Branagan case is one of about 35 unsolved homicides in the county, Morganelli said. It's a case stymied by lost or destroyed evidence over the decades, family members, investigators and classmates who have died and an exhaustion of investigative techniques and forensic testing, he said. "Unless someone comes forward and says, 'Oh, this person confessed,' and it matches, I'm not overly optimistic about solving the Holly Branagan case," Morganelli said. "I wish we could. I don't know who killed Holly Branagan." Contaminated crime scene Former Bethlehem police officer Craig Stefko was one of the first officers on the scene when Holly's body was found. He recently shared some new details about the early days of the investigation with The Morning Call. There was a chilling statement on the radio: "Base, I've got a party with a knife in her back on the floor. Can I break in?" Stefko arrived a short time later and found Holly's brother, Sean, and a friend, at the home. Sean led police into the kitchen and said, "There she is." After clearing the house to make sure no one else was inside, Stefko said the home soon became "flooded" with officers, some of whom normally would not be at a homicide scene, including officers from the traffic division. "It was an unusual thing to have a murder and I was kind of shocked myself," Stefko said. "I tried to get out of the house to get to my paperwork and I remember going back in and thinking, 'Wow, there's too many people in here.'" Stefko said he saw officers move items around inside the home, including two chairs in the kitchen near where Holly's body was found. As more personnel arrived to take photos, Stefko said officers moved back several items, including the chairs. He said camera equipment used by police was placed on the kitchen table, another thing that could contaminate potential evidence. ___ There are things investigators did years ago that we look at now and think, 'Wow, I can't believe they did that.' Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio ___ "That should have never been," Stefko said. "I don't fault them. It (a murder) didn't happen a whole lot. I don't think they had the education or the training." DiLuzio stopped short of saying the crime scene was botched, but acknowledged crime scene processing techniques have changed greatly in the four decades since Holly's murder. Back then, he said, the main investigative techniques were interviews, photos of the scene, fingerprints and identification of blood types. He agreed that in today's standards, moving kitchen chairs would be considered contaminating a crime scene. "There are things investigators did years ago that we look at now and think, 'Wow, I can't believe they did that,' " DiLuzio said. "Law enforcement is constantly advancing with education, new crime scene techniques and technology." Other evidence gathered in the case has been exhausted. Even though DNA was unknown to crime scene investigators in 1979, Morganelli said, the knife that was used to kill Holly was tested for the presence of DNA as well as other forensic evidence. Police say that testing cost "in the tens of thousands of dollars," but yielded no results. Fingerprints found at the scene were also re-examined, but that effort was also unsuccessful. Some evidence in the case, including clothing, has deteriorated because of the way it was stored at the time. Crime scene photos show officers, and even the coroner, without rubber gloves or other protective gear worn today to help preserve any shred of evidence. Both Morganelli and DiLuzio say they believe the case cannot be solved unless someone comes forward with new information. "You might have a missing piece of a puzzle," DiLuzio said. "We may have the whole puzzle and just need that little piece to make it clear." Police have a suspect Morganelli and Bethlehem police have a "divide" over an unnamed suspect in the case, a stunning development announced in 2014. Police say today they still believe that suspect killed Holly, but Morganelli isn't so sure. Both agree the evidence is only circumstantial. Authorities would not release the suspect's name because the case remains open. At one point, investigators identified six people who may have been involved, including male and female classmates of Holly's as well as a person who lived in the neighborhood, Morganelli said. All were cleared over the years. "There are cases out there that we feel we know who did it, but just can't prove it," Morganelli said. "I can't personally say that the Branagan case is that kind of a case, but there are some detectives who think they know who did it. But I'm not convinced that's the case." Morganelli said he's familiar with police's theory about the suspect, but said speculation is not enough to make an arrest, let alone a possible conviction. Galloway has doggedly documented Branagan's killing, filling several filing cabinet drawers in his office with yearbooks, documents, police interviews, photos and records of the suspect. Being careful not to name the person, both Galloway and DiLuzio say the suspect was identified after repeated interviews that left them with more questions than answers about that person's actions and behavior following Holly's death. Police would not identify whether the person is a man or woman, or dead or alive. "As we developed more and more information about this person, I can say that the person moved from someone we were seeking information about to a person whom we had a very strong suspicion in being involved in the crime," Galloway said. "I personally believe that this person did that, but we can't use my opinion in court." The clock With the case languishing, Galloway still dutifully checks out every lead, even if most ultimately prove fruitless. The three-ring binder that recently arrived in his office is an example of one of those dead-end tips. A Morning Call article published in April 1979 appears to be the first mention of a "grandfather clock in the hallway," that was stopped at 5:20 with a pendulum lying broken on the floor. It's a chilling detail that some theorized stopped at the exact time of Holly's murder, a concept plucked straight from television crime drama. But it's not correct. There was a clock stopped inside the home at 5:20, but it was a small cuckoo clock in the Branagan kitchen. Authorities say the cuckoo clock wasn't damaged, nor do they know if there is any relevance to the stopped time, which could have stopped at 5:20 a.m. or 5:20 p.m. It's a clock that Holly's father, Richard Branagan, often reset each day by pulling on a set of weights shaped like pine cones at the end of a long chain. Richard Branagan died in 2016, but the clock remains in the home of his widow. The clock is one of several inaccurate leads that people often think is a critical part of the investigation, authorities say. But it's a detail police only recently publicly acknowledged. "It's not my job to correct people's mistakes or tell them something in their theory isn't true," Galloway said. "What if that person is the killer who is trying to see what police know?" A drink never shared Most of Holly's immediate family are buried in a plot at Holy Saviour Cemetery in Bethlehem, a simple gravestone marked with a cross overlooking a nearby farm where several horses play in the snow. The plot marks the resting place for Holly, Sean and their mother, who died in 1976. Richard Branagan's thoughts were never far away from his children, but he had to find a way to move on, said Richard's widow, Lee Branagan, who recently spoke about Holly's murder. She married Holly's father several years after the deaths of his children. Although he hailed the efforts of law enforcement, Richard Branagan believed his daughter's killing would never be solved, Lee Branagan said. For years, he didn't talk about Holly's murder. "Dick was a strong person, strong-minded and he was of great faith and believed in prayer," Lee Branagan said. "I think that's what pulled him through, to know that he had to go forward. "You just keep these things to yourself and you suffer in silence and go forth and I think he did that," she said. ___ You just keep these things to yourself and you suffer in silence and go forth and I think he did that. Richard Branagan's widow on how he handled his daughter Holly's murder ___ Richard Branagan's quiet quest for justice isn't lost on law enforcement authorities. During his many visits to speak to Richard Branagan about the case, DiLuzio said, he was struck that Branagan wished mostly to know the truth about why someone would kill his daughter. With each update in the case, DiLuzio said, he'd again visit the Branagan home and Holly's father would often offer him a vodka martini. DiLuzio would always politely decline, but made a promise to raise a toast when police found the killer. "Every time I'd see him, he'd ask if it was time for that martini and I'd have to say, 'Not yet,' " DiLuzio said. "I regret that I was never able to share that drink with him." ___ Online: https://bit.ly/2Fh88b7 ___ Information from: The Morning Call, http://www.mcall.com | Holly Branagan, 17, was stabbed to death in the kitchen of her Bethlehem home in 1979. Nearly 40 years later, tips continue to pour in about the Lehigh Valley's most vexing unsolved murder. "We are enamored of the dark side," says Frank H. Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association. | bart | 2 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crime/article/Can-brutal-Bethlehem-slaying-ever-be-solved-after-13710820.php | 0.206447 |
Are The Risks Of Drugs That Enhance Imaging Tests Overblown? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Morsa Images/Getty Images Morsa Images/Getty Images One of the most widely used drugs in the world isn't really a drug, at least not in the usual sense. It's more like a dye. Physicians call this drug "contrast," shorthand for contrast agent. Contrast agents are chemical compounds that doctors use to improve the quality of an imaging test. In the emergency room, where I work, contrast is most commonly given intravenously during a CT scan. Around 80 million CT scans are performed annually in the U.S., and the majority are done with contrast. Most contrast agents I use contain iodine, which can block X-rays. This effect causes parts of an image to light up, which significantly enhances doctors' ability to detect things like tumors, certain kinds of infections and blood clots. One thing about contrast agents that makes them different from typical drugs is that they have no direct therapeutic effect. They don't make you feel better or treat what's ailing you. But they might be crucial in helping your doctor make the right diagnosis. Because these drugs are used in some people who might not turn out to have anything wrong with them, and in others who may be seriously ill, contrast agents need to be quite safe. And by and large they are. Some patients may develop serious allergic reactions or cardiovascular complications, but these are rare. Others may experience nausea or headache. But there is one widely feared adverse effect of contrast kidney damage. As a result, contrast is often withheld from patients deemed by their doctors to be at risk for kidney problems. The downside is that these patients may not receive the diagnostic information that would be most useful for them. In recent years, though, new research has led some physicians to question whether this effect has been overstated. The first report of kidney damage after intravenous contrast, which became known as contrast-induced nephropathy, or CIN, appeared in a Scandinavian medical journal in 1954. An early form of contrast had been given to a patient for a diagnostic test. The patient quickly developed renal failure and died. The authors proposed that the contrast may have been responsible, because they could find no other clear cause during an autopsy. With other physicians now primed to the possibility, similar reports began appearing. By the 1970s, renal injury had become a "well-known complication" of contrast in patients with risk factors for kidney disease, like diabetes. By 1987, intravenous contrast was proclaimed to be the third-leading cause of hospital-acquired kidney failure. The belief that contrast agents were risky had a significant effect on how often doctors used them. In a 1999 survey of European radiologists, 100 percent of respondents believed that CIN occurred in at least 10-20 percent of at-risk patients, and nearly 20 percent believed it occurred in over 30 percent of such patients. A 2006 survey found that 94 percent of radiologists considered contrast to be contraindicated beyond a certain threshold of renal functiona threshold that nearly 1 in 10 middle-aged American men could exceed. But Dr. Jeffrey Newhouse, a professor of radiology at Columbia University, had a hunch that something wasn't quite right with the conventional wisdom. He's administered contrast thousands of times, and rarely did it seem to him that contrast could be said to have been directly toxic. There were often far too many variables at play. Newhouse decided to go back to the primary literature. In 2006, he and a colleague reviewed over 3,000 studies on contrast-induced nephropathy and came to an astounding conclusiononly two had used control groups, and neither of those had found that contrast was dangerous. "Everyone assumed that any kidney injury after contrast was a result of the contrast," Newhouse said, "but these studies had no control groups!" In other words, there was no group of patients who hadn't received contrast to use for comparison. Newhouse discovered that nearly every study supporting CIN had fallen prey to this shortcoming. The importance of controls in any experiment is elementary-level science; without them, you can't say anything about causation. What came next was brilliant. "Having criticized those that did the experiment without the control, we decided to do the control without the experiment," Newhouse said. He reviewed 10 years of data from 32,000 hospitalized patients, none of whom received contrast. He found that more than half of the patients had fluctuations in their renal function that would have met criteria for CIN had they received contrast. This raised the possibility that other causes of kidney injury and not the contrast could have explained the association found in earlier studies. Other researchers stepped up after Newhouse published his findings in 2008. Physicians in Wisconsin conducted the first large study of CIN with a control group in 2009. In more than 11,500 patients, overall rates of kidney injury were similar between people who received contrast and those who hadn't. There was one major weakness with the study, thoughit was retrospective, meaning it relied on medical records and previously collected data. When a study is performed this way, randomization to different treatments can't be used to guard against biases that could distort results. So, for instance, if the physicians treating patients in the Wisconsin study were worried about giving contrast to high-risk patients, they may have steered them into the group receiving CT scans without it. These sicker patients might have been more likely to have kidney injury from other causes, which could mask a true difference between the groups. The next generation of retrospective studies tried to use a special statistical technique to control for these biases. The first two appeared in 2013. Researchers in Michigan found that contrast was associated with kidney injury in only the highest-risk patients, while counterparts at the Mayo Clinic, using slightly more sophisticated methods, found no association between contrast and kidney injury. A third study, from Johns Hopkins, appeared in 2017. It, too, found no relationship between contrast and kidney injury in nearly 18,000 patients. And in 2018, a meta-analysis of over 100,000 patients also found no association. "Nearly harmless and totally harmless we're somewhere between those two," he says. We just don't know." Still, Dr. Michael Rudnick, a kidney specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, isn't so sure it's time to clear contrast agents completely. He thinks there still could be some danger to the highest-risk patients, as the Michigan researchers found. And he pointed out that even sophisticated statistical analyses can't control for all possible biases. Only a randomized trial can do that. Here's the rub, though, Rudnick says we're unlikely to get a randomized, controlled trial because there's still a possibility that contrast could be harmful, and ethics committees are unlikely to approve such a trial. It's a conundrum that existing belief about contrast agents could actually limit our ability to conduct the appropriate trials to investigate that belief. Matthew Davenport, lead author of the 2013 Michigan study, and chair of the American College of Radiology's Committee on Drugs and Contrast Media, says that "the vast majority of things we used to think were CIN probably weren't." But he does agree with Rudnick that there could still be real danger for the highest-risk patients. He echoed the current American College of Radiology recommendations that the decision to use contrast in patients with pre-existing renal disease should remain an individualized clinical decision. For now, if you are in need of a scan that could require contrast, talk about the risks and benefits of the medicine for you and make the decision together with your doctor. Clayton Dalton is a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. | Radiologist: Risks of drugs that enhance imaging tests are overblown. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/23/705492079/are-the-risks-of-drugs-that-enhance-imaging-tests-overblown?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr | 0.509044 |
Are The Risks Of Drugs That Enhance Imaging Tests Overblown? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Morsa Images/Getty Images Morsa Images/Getty Images One of the most widely used drugs in the world isn't really a drug, at least not in the usual sense. It's more like a dye. Physicians call this drug "contrast," shorthand for contrast agent. Contrast agents are chemical compounds that doctors use to improve the quality of an imaging test. In the emergency room, where I work, contrast is most commonly given intravenously during a CT scan. Around 80 million CT scans are performed annually in the U.S., and the majority are done with contrast. Most contrast agents I use contain iodine, which can block X-rays. This effect causes parts of an image to light up, which significantly enhances doctors' ability to detect things like tumors, certain kinds of infections and blood clots. One thing about contrast agents that makes them different from typical drugs is that they have no direct therapeutic effect. They don't make you feel better or treat what's ailing you. But they might be crucial in helping your doctor make the right diagnosis. Because these drugs are used in some people who might not turn out to have anything wrong with them, and in others who may be seriously ill, contrast agents need to be quite safe. And by and large they are. Some patients may develop serious allergic reactions or cardiovascular complications, but these are rare. Others may experience nausea or headache. But there is one widely feared adverse effect of contrast kidney damage. As a result, contrast is often withheld from patients deemed by their doctors to be at risk for kidney problems. The downside is that these patients may not receive the diagnostic information that would be most useful for them. In recent years, though, new research has led some physicians to question whether this effect has been overstated. The first report of kidney damage after intravenous contrast, which became known as contrast-induced nephropathy, or CIN, appeared in a Scandinavian medical journal in 1954. An early form of contrast had been given to a patient for a diagnostic test. The patient quickly developed renal failure and died. The authors proposed that the contrast may have been responsible, because they could find no other clear cause during an autopsy. With other physicians now primed to the possibility, similar reports began appearing. By the 1970s, renal injury had become a "well-known complication" of contrast in patients with risk factors for kidney disease, like diabetes. By 1987, intravenous contrast was proclaimed to be the third-leading cause of hospital-acquired kidney failure. The belief that contrast agents were risky had a significant effect on how often doctors used them. In a 1999 survey of European radiologists, 100 percent of respondents believed that CIN occurred in at least 10-20 percent of at-risk patients, and nearly 20 percent believed it occurred in over 30 percent of such patients. A 2006 survey found that 94 percent of radiologists considered contrast to be contraindicated beyond a certain threshold of renal functiona threshold that nearly 1 in 10 middle-aged American men could exceed. But Dr. Jeffrey Newhouse, a professor of radiology at Columbia University, had a hunch that something wasn't quite right with the conventional wisdom. He's administered contrast thousands of times, and rarely did it seem to him that contrast could be said to have been directly toxic. There were often far too many variables at play. Newhouse decided to go back to the primary literature. In 2006, he and a colleague reviewed over 3,000 studies on contrast-induced nephropathy and came to an astounding conclusiononly two had used control groups, and neither of those had found that contrast was dangerous. "Everyone assumed that any kidney injury after contrast was a result of the contrast," Newhouse said, "but these studies had no control groups!" In other words, there was no group of patients who hadn't received contrast to use for comparison. Newhouse discovered that nearly every study supporting CIN had fallen prey to this shortcoming. The importance of controls in any experiment is elementary-level science; without them, you can't say anything about causation. What came next was brilliant. "Having criticized those that did the experiment without the control, we decided to do the control without the experiment," Newhouse said. He reviewed 10 years of data from 32,000 hospitalized patients, none of whom received contrast. He found that more than half of the patients had fluctuations in their renal function that would have met criteria for CIN had they received contrast. This raised the possibility that other causes of kidney injury and not the contrast could have explained the association found in earlier studies. Other researchers stepped up after Newhouse published his findings in 2008. Physicians in Wisconsin conducted the first large study of CIN with a control group in 2009. In more than 11,500 patients, overall rates of kidney injury were similar between people who received contrast and those who hadn't. There was one major weakness with the study, thoughit was retrospective, meaning it relied on medical records and previously collected data. When a study is performed this way, randomization to different treatments can't be used to guard against biases that could distort results. So, for instance, if the physicians treating patients in the Wisconsin study were worried about giving contrast to high-risk patients, they may have steered them into the group receiving CT scans without it. These sicker patients might have been more likely to have kidney injury from other causes, which could mask a true difference between the groups. The next generation of retrospective studies tried to use a special statistical technique to control for these biases. The first two appeared in 2013. Researchers in Michigan found that contrast was associated with kidney injury in only the highest-risk patients, while counterparts at the Mayo Clinic, using slightly more sophisticated methods, found no association between contrast and kidney injury. A third study, from Johns Hopkins, appeared in 2017. It, too, found no relationship between contrast and kidney injury in nearly 18,000 patients. And in 2018, a meta-analysis of over 100,000 patients also found no association. "Nearly harmless and totally harmless we're somewhere between those two," he says. We just don't know." Still, Dr. Michael Rudnick, a kidney specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, isn't so sure it's time to clear contrast agents completely. He thinks there still could be some danger to the highest-risk patients, as the Michigan researchers found. And he pointed out that even sophisticated statistical analyses can't control for all possible biases. Only a randomized trial can do that. Here's the rub, though, Rudnick says we're unlikely to get a randomized, controlled trial because there's still a possibility that contrast could be harmful, and ethics committees are unlikely to approve such a trial. It's a conundrum that existing belief about contrast agents could actually limit our ability to conduct the appropriate trials to investigate that belief. Matthew Davenport, lead author of the 2013 Michigan study, and chair of the American College of Radiology's Committee on Drugs and Contrast Media, says that "the vast majority of things we used to think were CIN probably weren't." But he does agree with Rudnick that there could still be real danger for the highest-risk patients. He echoed the current American College of Radiology recommendations that the decision to use contrast in patients with pre-existing renal disease should remain an individualized clinical decision. For now, if you are in need of a scan that could require contrast, talk about the risks and benefits of the medicine for you and make the decision together with your doctor. Clayton Dalton is a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. | Contrast agents are chemical compounds that doctors use to improve the quality of an imaging test. One widely feared adverse effect of contrast is kidney damage. As a result, contrast is often withheld from patients deemed at risk for kidney problems. | bart | 1 | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/23/705492079/are-the-risks-of-drugs-that-enhance-imaging-tests-overblown?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr | 0.208464 |
Are The Risks Of Drugs That Enhance Imaging Tests Overblown? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Morsa Images/Getty Images Morsa Images/Getty Images One of the most widely used drugs in the world isn't really a drug, at least not in the usual sense. It's more like a dye. Physicians call this drug "contrast," shorthand for contrast agent. Contrast agents are chemical compounds that doctors use to improve the quality of an imaging test. In the emergency room, where I work, contrast is most commonly given intravenously during a CT scan. Around 80 million CT scans are performed annually in the U.S., and the majority are done with contrast. Most contrast agents I use contain iodine, which can block X-rays. This effect causes parts of an image to light up, which significantly enhances doctors' ability to detect things like tumors, certain kinds of infections and blood clots. One thing about contrast agents that makes them different from typical drugs is that they have no direct therapeutic effect. They don't make you feel better or treat what's ailing you. But they might be crucial in helping your doctor make the right diagnosis. Because these drugs are used in some people who might not turn out to have anything wrong with them, and in others who may be seriously ill, contrast agents need to be quite safe. And by and large they are. Some patients may develop serious allergic reactions or cardiovascular complications, but these are rare. Others may experience nausea or headache. But there is one widely feared adverse effect of contrast kidney damage. As a result, contrast is often withheld from patients deemed by their doctors to be at risk for kidney problems. The downside is that these patients may not receive the diagnostic information that would be most useful for them. In recent years, though, new research has led some physicians to question whether this effect has been overstated. The first report of kidney damage after intravenous contrast, which became known as contrast-induced nephropathy, or CIN, appeared in a Scandinavian medical journal in 1954. An early form of contrast had been given to a patient for a diagnostic test. The patient quickly developed renal failure and died. The authors proposed that the contrast may have been responsible, because they could find no other clear cause during an autopsy. With other physicians now primed to the possibility, similar reports began appearing. By the 1970s, renal injury had become a "well-known complication" of contrast in patients with risk factors for kidney disease, like diabetes. By 1987, intravenous contrast was proclaimed to be the third-leading cause of hospital-acquired kidney failure. The belief that contrast agents were risky had a significant effect on how often doctors used them. In a 1999 survey of European radiologists, 100 percent of respondents believed that CIN occurred in at least 10-20 percent of at-risk patients, and nearly 20 percent believed it occurred in over 30 percent of such patients. A 2006 survey found that 94 percent of radiologists considered contrast to be contraindicated beyond a certain threshold of renal functiona threshold that nearly 1 in 10 middle-aged American men could exceed. But Dr. Jeffrey Newhouse, a professor of radiology at Columbia University, had a hunch that something wasn't quite right with the conventional wisdom. He's administered contrast thousands of times, and rarely did it seem to him that contrast could be said to have been directly toxic. There were often far too many variables at play. Newhouse decided to go back to the primary literature. In 2006, he and a colleague reviewed over 3,000 studies on contrast-induced nephropathy and came to an astounding conclusiononly two had used control groups, and neither of those had found that contrast was dangerous. "Everyone assumed that any kidney injury after contrast was a result of the contrast," Newhouse said, "but these studies had no control groups!" In other words, there was no group of patients who hadn't received contrast to use for comparison. Newhouse discovered that nearly every study supporting CIN had fallen prey to this shortcoming. The importance of controls in any experiment is elementary-level science; without them, you can't say anything about causation. What came next was brilliant. "Having criticized those that did the experiment without the control, we decided to do the control without the experiment," Newhouse said. He reviewed 10 years of data from 32,000 hospitalized patients, none of whom received contrast. He found that more than half of the patients had fluctuations in their renal function that would have met criteria for CIN had they received contrast. This raised the possibility that other causes of kidney injury and not the contrast could have explained the association found in earlier studies. Other researchers stepped up after Newhouse published his findings in 2008. Physicians in Wisconsin conducted the first large study of CIN with a control group in 2009. In more than 11,500 patients, overall rates of kidney injury were similar between people who received contrast and those who hadn't. There was one major weakness with the study, thoughit was retrospective, meaning it relied on medical records and previously collected data. When a study is performed this way, randomization to different treatments can't be used to guard against biases that could distort results. So, for instance, if the physicians treating patients in the Wisconsin study were worried about giving contrast to high-risk patients, they may have steered them into the group receiving CT scans without it. These sicker patients might have been more likely to have kidney injury from other causes, which could mask a true difference between the groups. The next generation of retrospective studies tried to use a special statistical technique to control for these biases. The first two appeared in 2013. Researchers in Michigan found that contrast was associated with kidney injury in only the highest-risk patients, while counterparts at the Mayo Clinic, using slightly more sophisticated methods, found no association between contrast and kidney injury. A third study, from Johns Hopkins, appeared in 2017. It, too, found no relationship between contrast and kidney injury in nearly 18,000 patients. And in 2018, a meta-analysis of over 100,000 patients also found no association. "Nearly harmless and totally harmless we're somewhere between those two," he says. We just don't know." Still, Dr. Michael Rudnick, a kidney specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, isn't so sure it's time to clear contrast agents completely. He thinks there still could be some danger to the highest-risk patients, as the Michigan researchers found. And he pointed out that even sophisticated statistical analyses can't control for all possible biases. Only a randomized trial can do that. Here's the rub, though, Rudnick says we're unlikely to get a randomized, controlled trial because there's still a possibility that contrast could be harmful, and ethics committees are unlikely to approve such a trial. It's a conundrum that existing belief about contrast agents could actually limit our ability to conduct the appropriate trials to investigate that belief. Matthew Davenport, lead author of the 2013 Michigan study, and chair of the American College of Radiology's Committee on Drugs and Contrast Media, says that "the vast majority of things we used to think were CIN probably weren't." But he does agree with Rudnick that there could still be real danger for the highest-risk patients. He echoed the current American College of Radiology recommendations that the decision to use contrast in patients with pre-existing renal disease should remain an individualized clinical decision. For now, if you are in need of a scan that could require contrast, talk about the risks and benefits of the medicine for you and make the decision together with your doctor. Clayton Dalton is a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. | Contrast agents are chemical compounds that improve the quality of an imaging test. Some fear they can cause kidney damage, but new research suggests this is overstated. The drugs are safe for most people, but they can be risky in some people, too, experts say. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/23/705492079/are-the-risks-of-drugs-that-enhance-imaging-tests-overblown?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr | 0.417147 |
Could shoe contract factor into UNLV coaching search? | At her March 15 press conference announcing the firing of Marvin Menzies, UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said she had enough pledged money from outside sources to make the schools next basketball coach the highest-paid in the Mountain West. We have the financing in place, Reed-Francois said. Most took that to mean program boosters were pitching in to raise the hiring budget. But there could be an additional factor impacting how much money UNLV will have available to spend on its next coach: the universitys apparel contract. UNLV has had a school-wide apparel deal with Nike since 2009 (and the mens basketball team has been a "swoosh" squad for much longer than that), but the current five-year contract expires on May 31. The university will become a free agent at that time, and with shoe companies vying to become the next exclusive merchandising partner of UNLV, it could open up new avenues for paying the next basketball coach. When UNLV courted Cincinnatis Mick Cronin in the spring of 2016 it was reported that the Rebels offer would have been heavily supplemented by Under Armour. UNLV would have paid Cronin around $1 million per year, and Under Armour would have chipped in between $1 million to $2 million per year to foot the rest of the bill and that was when UNLV still had three years left on its deal with Nike. Now that the school is free to sign with any shoe company in a few months, the coaching opening could make UNLV a target for competing bids. According to sources, Under Armour is eager to add an influential west-coast program to its stable of sponsored teams, and UNLV fits that description. Shoe-company contracts can be lucrative. Cincinnati signed a 10-year contract with Under Armour in 2015 that will be worth $47 million over the course of the deal; UA will provide Cincinnati with $36 million in apparel and equipment while also paying the school $11 million in cash. UNLVs current apparel deal calls for Nike to provide the school with up to $1 million per year in shoes, uniforms and equipment, but no cash. According to sources, Reed-Francois believes she has between $1.7 million to $2.8 million per year available to attract the next coach. Reed-Francois did not respond to a message seeking comment, so its unclear how much of that has been pledged by private donors and how much she could be hoping to receive as part of the next apparel deal. If Under Armour (or Nike, or any other company) were to offer cash in addition to apparel/equipment, it could help offset the salary of the next coach or be put toward paying the buyout for a coach who is currently under contract to another school. VCU coach Mike Rhoades has a $1-million buyout provision in his contract, and Buffalo coach Nate Oats has a $750,000 buyout. If UNLV can score a favorable apparel contract, those buyouts could become less of an obstacle. Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala. | UNLV is free to sign with any shoe company in a few months. Shoe-company contracts can be lucrative. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/mar/23/could-shoe-contract-factor-into-unlv-coaching-sear/ | 0.108495 |
Could shoe contract factor into UNLV coaching search? | At her March 15 press conference announcing the firing of Marvin Menzies, UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said she had enough pledged money from outside sources to make the schools next basketball coach the highest-paid in the Mountain West. We have the financing in place, Reed-Francois said. Most took that to mean program boosters were pitching in to raise the hiring budget. But there could be an additional factor impacting how much money UNLV will have available to spend on its next coach: the universitys apparel contract. UNLV has had a school-wide apparel deal with Nike since 2009 (and the mens basketball team has been a "swoosh" squad for much longer than that), but the current five-year contract expires on May 31. The university will become a free agent at that time, and with shoe companies vying to become the next exclusive merchandising partner of UNLV, it could open up new avenues for paying the next basketball coach. When UNLV courted Cincinnatis Mick Cronin in the spring of 2016 it was reported that the Rebels offer would have been heavily supplemented by Under Armour. UNLV would have paid Cronin around $1 million per year, and Under Armour would have chipped in between $1 million to $2 million per year to foot the rest of the bill and that was when UNLV still had three years left on its deal with Nike. Now that the school is free to sign with any shoe company in a few months, the coaching opening could make UNLV a target for competing bids. According to sources, Under Armour is eager to add an influential west-coast program to its stable of sponsored teams, and UNLV fits that description. Shoe-company contracts can be lucrative. Cincinnati signed a 10-year contract with Under Armour in 2015 that will be worth $47 million over the course of the deal; UA will provide Cincinnati with $36 million in apparel and equipment while also paying the school $11 million in cash. UNLVs current apparel deal calls for Nike to provide the school with up to $1 million per year in shoes, uniforms and equipment, but no cash. According to sources, Reed-Francois believes she has between $1.7 million to $2.8 million per year available to attract the next coach. Reed-Francois did not respond to a message seeking comment, so its unclear how much of that has been pledged by private donors and how much she could be hoping to receive as part of the next apparel deal. If Under Armour (or Nike, or any other company) were to offer cash in addition to apparel/equipment, it could help offset the salary of the next coach or be put toward paying the buyout for a coach who is currently under contract to another school. VCU coach Mike Rhoades has a $1-million buyout provision in his contract, and Buffalo coach Nate Oats has a $750,000 buyout. If UNLV can score a favorable apparel contract, those buyouts could become less of an obstacle. Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala. | UNLV is free to sign with any shoe company in a few months. Shoe-company contracts can be lucrative, and Under Armour is interested in UNLV. If UNLV can score a favorable apparel contract, those buyouts could become less of an obstacle to hiring. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/mar/23/could-shoe-contract-factor-into-unlv-coaching-sear/ | 0.274965 |
How healthy is the cabane sucre? And does it matter? | Healthy eating is all the rage, so how does one reconcile that with one of Quebecs and Canadas time-honoured traditions: an annual visit to the cabane sucre, a.k.a. For Pierre Faucher, there is no dilemma. I dont like that people say (cabane sucre food) is not healthy, said the owner of Sucrerie de la Montagne, in Rigaud, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Ive been eating this stuff for the past 41 years, Faucher said. I have no cholesterol problem, no diabetes. Im in great shape. Im 72 years old, going on 73, and I work 12 hours a day. On the Sucreries all-you-can-eat menu are favourites including mountain dwellers pea soup, sugar-cured country ham, tourtire from Quebecs Beauce region, traditional meatball stew, country-style sausages in syrup water, grilled salt pork, baked beans with molasses, mashed potatoes, pancakes with maple syrup, and sugar pie. Its about recreating the heritage of our ancestors, Faucher explained. We tend to forget these things. The experience is about more than just food, he insists. Its about tradition, music, the cuisine, the aromas. People appreciate coming together, chez moi, in a warm atmosphere with homemade food. Its very festive. I compare it to grandmas cooking. Cast in the unenviable role of party pooper, dietitian Tamara Cohen chose her words carefully between eruptions of laughter when the Montreal Gazette asked her to weigh in on the nutritional merits of a trip to the cabane sucre. Its a celebratory time, said Cohen, who is Concordias Webster Scientist in Nutrition and Lifestyle. With it comes education, especially for kids, and a chance for people to spend time together. Its very positive in that sense. And now for the bad news. The danger with the cabane sucre, she warned, is the altered sense of reality you can get from being away from your routine, surrounded by things you wouldnt normally consume. People are eating sugary foods that are outside of what theyre used to. They tend to be very distracted, so there is the possibility of overeating. A lot of these dishes are high in saturated fats and salt. Before you get all up in arms, relax. Cohen isnt trying to keep anyone away from the cabane sucre; she is merely doing her thankless job. In that respect, she would advise clients to go in with a game plan. This is what I would call a sometimes food, she said. In all our cultures, we have traditional foods with Italians, its a lot of pasta; Im Jewish, so theres a lot of fried that are best in moderation. While we had her attention, just for kicks, the Gazette asked Cohen to pipe up on the pros and cons of various cabane sucre staples. She gamely played along. We started with a classic: pea soup. Oh my gosh. I dont even know how to go there. Theyre probably full of fat, if theyre fried. Baked beans: Very fibrous, full of protein, but often have a lot of added fats and can be very, very high in salt. Sausages, she noted, are very high in salt, and then you have the fat. Its the same thing, over and over. Meatballs with gravy: Im getting thirsty. You should definitely drink a big bottle of water on your way home, and maybe pack some Tums. Its not all so over-the-top. Most cabanes sucre will offer an omelette. Great! Cohen said, sounding relieved. Eggs are a great source of protein, and low in fat. Im not going to lie, I find that delicious, she admitted. Its totally awesome, but its a sometimes food. And when youre at a sugar shack, its part of the experience I cant believe Im admitting that to you. Oh god, Im going to lose my job. Which brings us to desserts, and that old standby, sugar pie. Again, I feel like Im repeating myself: its full of fats, likely made with butter and loads of sugar, plus plus. The key words are to be mindful of what youre eating, Cohen counselled. Not to necessarily load your plate, but to have little servings of each thing. Whet the palate. Yeah, um, fat chance. Im shaking my head right now. I dont even know what to say. This is exorbitant. That seems like more of a dental issue, Cohen said, but thats just me. Again, if youre a healthy individual, your body can totally take care of the extra sugar. Youll just feel really off, physically. Cohen works out of Concordias PERFORM Centre, where she is conducting a study on how well a phone app can assess peoples food intake. She describes herself as a very relaxed dietitian and encourages people to embrace the cabane sucre experience, but to be mindful. It is possible to partake in the fun without going off the deep end. In that respect, she has one piece of advice that sounds like common sense but which many people tend to ignore en route to the cabane sucre. Dont starve yourself before. Eat a normal breakfast. Dont go to these things starving, because then you know youre going to overeat. And thats about as much as Cohen can do for you. Because when it comes to guilty pleasures, at the end of the day, she said, people are going to do what they want. If you simply dont trust yourself, there is help. Louis-Robert Handfield is part of a wave of cabane sucre owners who are adapting their menus to the changing times. His Cabane sucre Handfield, in the Montrgie, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year; it is attached to Auberge Handfield, which will mark 90 years in 2020. Without ixnay-ing excess, Handfield has tried to make certain dishes healthier in recent years, even offering vegan, pork-free and gluten-free options. More and more, we have to cater to special dietary requests, he said. We all have to face these kinds of concerns sooner or later, whether on doctors orders or because over time our bodies ask us to be more considerate. Handfield is aware that the standard cabane sucre offerings dont hold up to scrutiny when it comes to their impact on the body. Beans in lard, soupe au jambon, crpes with crispy pork rinds, eggs fried in bacon fat its not very healthy, he acknowledged. We have changed a lot of recipes to better answer the demand. Handfield has reduced the fat content of his pea soup; now omits the lard from his baked beans; has begun using duck fat instead of pork fat for his cretons; makes his homemade pork sausages thinner than he used to; and has eliminated gluten and reduced the sugar content of many of his desserts. People notice at the end of their meal, he said. They like it. Its not as heavy, and not too sweet. Things get a little tricky when it comes to other meaty classics. But thats where the above-noted alternatives come in. Theres something for everyone, Handfield said. Our objective is to satisfy every person at the table. Were not a vegetarian restaurant, and were not a medical clinic, but when people ask us for something, we try to work it out. Ultimately, he explained, the goal is simple. We want families to get together, learn about the folklore and for everyone to feel at home. AT A GLANCE For more information on Sucrerie de la Montagne, visit sucreriedelamontagne.com. For more on Cabane sucre Handfield, visit aubergehandfield.com. For information on Concordias PERFORM Centre and to participate in Tamara Cohens study, visit concordia.ca/research/perform. tdunlevy@postmedia.com twitter.com/TChaDunlevy | The cabane sucre is an annual tradition in Quebec and Canada. The traditional food is high in saturated fats and salt. A dietitian warns of the danger of overindulging. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://montrealgazette.com/life/food/how-healthy-is-the-cabane-a-sucre-and-does-it-matter | 0.265177 |
How healthy is the cabane sucre? And does it matter? | Healthy eating is all the rage, so how does one reconcile that with one of Quebecs and Canadas time-honoured traditions: an annual visit to the cabane sucre, a.k.a. For Pierre Faucher, there is no dilemma. I dont like that people say (cabane sucre food) is not healthy, said the owner of Sucrerie de la Montagne, in Rigaud, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Ive been eating this stuff for the past 41 years, Faucher said. I have no cholesterol problem, no diabetes. Im in great shape. Im 72 years old, going on 73, and I work 12 hours a day. On the Sucreries all-you-can-eat menu are favourites including mountain dwellers pea soup, sugar-cured country ham, tourtire from Quebecs Beauce region, traditional meatball stew, country-style sausages in syrup water, grilled salt pork, baked beans with molasses, mashed potatoes, pancakes with maple syrup, and sugar pie. Its about recreating the heritage of our ancestors, Faucher explained. We tend to forget these things. The experience is about more than just food, he insists. Its about tradition, music, the cuisine, the aromas. People appreciate coming together, chez moi, in a warm atmosphere with homemade food. Its very festive. I compare it to grandmas cooking. Cast in the unenviable role of party pooper, dietitian Tamara Cohen chose her words carefully between eruptions of laughter when the Montreal Gazette asked her to weigh in on the nutritional merits of a trip to the cabane sucre. Its a celebratory time, said Cohen, who is Concordias Webster Scientist in Nutrition and Lifestyle. With it comes education, especially for kids, and a chance for people to spend time together. Its very positive in that sense. And now for the bad news. The danger with the cabane sucre, she warned, is the altered sense of reality you can get from being away from your routine, surrounded by things you wouldnt normally consume. People are eating sugary foods that are outside of what theyre used to. They tend to be very distracted, so there is the possibility of overeating. A lot of these dishes are high in saturated fats and salt. Before you get all up in arms, relax. Cohen isnt trying to keep anyone away from the cabane sucre; she is merely doing her thankless job. In that respect, she would advise clients to go in with a game plan. This is what I would call a sometimes food, she said. In all our cultures, we have traditional foods with Italians, its a lot of pasta; Im Jewish, so theres a lot of fried that are best in moderation. While we had her attention, just for kicks, the Gazette asked Cohen to pipe up on the pros and cons of various cabane sucre staples. She gamely played along. We started with a classic: pea soup. Oh my gosh. I dont even know how to go there. Theyre probably full of fat, if theyre fried. Baked beans: Very fibrous, full of protein, but often have a lot of added fats and can be very, very high in salt. Sausages, she noted, are very high in salt, and then you have the fat. Its the same thing, over and over. Meatballs with gravy: Im getting thirsty. You should definitely drink a big bottle of water on your way home, and maybe pack some Tums. Its not all so over-the-top. Most cabanes sucre will offer an omelette. Great! Cohen said, sounding relieved. Eggs are a great source of protein, and low in fat. Im not going to lie, I find that delicious, she admitted. Its totally awesome, but its a sometimes food. And when youre at a sugar shack, its part of the experience I cant believe Im admitting that to you. Oh god, Im going to lose my job. Which brings us to desserts, and that old standby, sugar pie. Again, I feel like Im repeating myself: its full of fats, likely made with butter and loads of sugar, plus plus. The key words are to be mindful of what youre eating, Cohen counselled. Not to necessarily load your plate, but to have little servings of each thing. Whet the palate. Yeah, um, fat chance. Im shaking my head right now. I dont even know what to say. This is exorbitant. That seems like more of a dental issue, Cohen said, but thats just me. Again, if youre a healthy individual, your body can totally take care of the extra sugar. Youll just feel really off, physically. Cohen works out of Concordias PERFORM Centre, where she is conducting a study on how well a phone app can assess peoples food intake. She describes herself as a very relaxed dietitian and encourages people to embrace the cabane sucre experience, but to be mindful. It is possible to partake in the fun without going off the deep end. In that respect, she has one piece of advice that sounds like common sense but which many people tend to ignore en route to the cabane sucre. Dont starve yourself before. Eat a normal breakfast. Dont go to these things starving, because then you know youre going to overeat. And thats about as much as Cohen can do for you. Because when it comes to guilty pleasures, at the end of the day, she said, people are going to do what they want. If you simply dont trust yourself, there is help. Louis-Robert Handfield is part of a wave of cabane sucre owners who are adapting their menus to the changing times. His Cabane sucre Handfield, in the Montrgie, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year; it is attached to Auberge Handfield, which will mark 90 years in 2020. Without ixnay-ing excess, Handfield has tried to make certain dishes healthier in recent years, even offering vegan, pork-free and gluten-free options. More and more, we have to cater to special dietary requests, he said. We all have to face these kinds of concerns sooner or later, whether on doctors orders or because over time our bodies ask us to be more considerate. Handfield is aware that the standard cabane sucre offerings dont hold up to scrutiny when it comes to their impact on the body. Beans in lard, soupe au jambon, crpes with crispy pork rinds, eggs fried in bacon fat its not very healthy, he acknowledged. We have changed a lot of recipes to better answer the demand. Handfield has reduced the fat content of his pea soup; now omits the lard from his baked beans; has begun using duck fat instead of pork fat for his cretons; makes his homemade pork sausages thinner than he used to; and has eliminated gluten and reduced the sugar content of many of his desserts. People notice at the end of their meal, he said. They like it. Its not as heavy, and not too sweet. Things get a little tricky when it comes to other meaty classics. But thats where the above-noted alternatives come in. Theres something for everyone, Handfield said. Our objective is to satisfy every person at the table. Were not a vegetarian restaurant, and were not a medical clinic, but when people ask us for something, we try to work it out. Ultimately, he explained, the goal is simple. We want families to get together, learn about the folklore and for everyone to feel at home. AT A GLANCE For more information on Sucrerie de la Montagne, visit sucreriedelamontagne.com. For more on Cabane sucre Handfield, visit aubergehandfield.com. For information on Concordias PERFORM Centre and to participate in Tamara Cohens study, visit concordia.ca/research/perform. tdunlevy@postmedia.com twitter.com/TChaDunlevy | The cabane sucre is an annual tradition in Quebec and Canada. The traditional food is high in saturated fats and salt. A dietitian warns of the dangers of overindulging in the traditional food. The best way to enjoy the tradition is to go in with a game plan, she says. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://montrealgazette.com/life/food/how-healthy-is-the-cabane-a-sucre-and-does-it-matter | 0.361821 |
How many perfect March Madness brackets are left after first round? | There were 17.2 million brackets entered in the ESPN Tournament Challenge for the 2019 NCAA tournament. After one round, only nine are still perfect. The tournament's first 32 games captivated audiences as always, and like in most years, they also poked holes in many people's predictions on how the Big Dance would play out. And then...there were 9. After the first two days, of the over 17.2 million completed brackets in ESPNs Tournament Challenge... there are just 9 perfect brackets remaining. Some other notes: pic.twitter.com/SS8c9yB2bL Matthew Berry (@MatthewBerryTMR) March 23, 2019 Of all the upsets that took place, No. 11 Ohio State over No. 6 Iowa State in the Midwest Region and No. 12 Liberty over No. 5 Mississippi State in the East Region had the most lasting effects on brackets. Nearly 30% of ESPN brackets had Iowa State in the Sweet 16 and almost a quarter of them had Mississippi State making it that far. The second round of the tournament gets started at noon Saturday and is sure to bring some more chaos to everybody's brackets. | There were 17.2 million brackets entered in the ESPN Tournament Challenge for the 2019 NCAA tournament. After one round, only nine are still perfect. | bart | 0 | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/03/23/nine-perfect-march-madness-brackets-after-first-round | 0.141087 |
How many perfect March Madness brackets are left after first round? | There were 17.2 million brackets entered in the ESPN Tournament Challenge for the 2019 NCAA tournament. After one round, only nine are still perfect. The tournament's first 32 games captivated audiences as always, and like in most years, they also poked holes in many people's predictions on how the Big Dance would play out. And then...there were 9. After the first two days, of the over 17.2 million completed brackets in ESPNs Tournament Challenge... there are just 9 perfect brackets remaining. Some other notes: pic.twitter.com/SS8c9yB2bL Matthew Berry (@MatthewBerryTMR) March 23, 2019 Of all the upsets that took place, No. 11 Ohio State over No. 6 Iowa State in the Midwest Region and No. 12 Liberty over No. 5 Mississippi State in the East Region had the most lasting effects on brackets. Nearly 30% of ESPN brackets had Iowa State in the Sweet 16 and almost a quarter of them had Mississippi State making it that far. The second round of the tournament gets started at noon Saturday and is sure to bring some more chaos to everybody's brackets. | There were 17.2 million brackets entered in ESPN's Tournament Challenge. After one round, only nine are still perfect. Nearly 30% of ESPN brackets had Iowa State in the Sweet 16. The second round of the NCAA tournament starts Saturday. | pegasus | 1 | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/03/23/nine-perfect-march-madness-brackets-after-first-round | 0.278337 |
How many perfect March Madness brackets are left after first round? | There were 17.2 million brackets entered in the ESPN Tournament Challenge for the 2019 NCAA tournament. After one round, only nine are still perfect. The tournament's first 32 games captivated audiences as always, and like in most years, they also poked holes in many people's predictions on how the Big Dance would play out. And then...there were 9. After the first two days, of the over 17.2 million completed brackets in ESPNs Tournament Challenge... there are just 9 perfect brackets remaining. Some other notes: pic.twitter.com/SS8c9yB2bL Matthew Berry (@MatthewBerryTMR) March 23, 2019 Of all the upsets that took place, No. 11 Ohio State over No. 6 Iowa State in the Midwest Region and No. 12 Liberty over No. 5 Mississippi State in the East Region had the most lasting effects on brackets. Nearly 30% of ESPN brackets had Iowa State in the Sweet 16 and almost a quarter of them had Mississippi State making it that far. The second round of the tournament gets started at noon Saturday and is sure to bring some more chaos to everybody's brackets. | There were 17.2 million brackets entered in the ESPN Tournament Challenge for the 2019 NCAA tournament. After the first two days, there are just 9 perfect brackets remaining. The second round of the tournament gets started at noon Saturday and is sure to bring some more chaos to everybody's brackets. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/03/23/nine-perfect-march-madness-brackets-after-first-round | 0.252175 |
Could charitable giving become a tax law casualty? | People don't necessarily give to charity because of tax benefits, but it doesn't hurt. However, the new tax law, among other things, has eliminated or sharply reduced the benefits of charitable giving for many would-be donors. Even though the deduction for donations is unchanged, you still need to itemize to claim it, and that's a much higher bar with the now nearly doubled standard deduction. Under the new law, an individual will need total itemized deductions to exceed $12,000, the new standard deduction for individual taxpayers, up from the former $6,350 standard deduction. Married couples would need deductions exceeding $24,000, up from $12,700. As a result, fewer people will likely itemize this year, which means many won't reap the tax benefits of their charitable contributions. One analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that 21 million taxpayers will stop taking the charitable deduction under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Not only did the number of taxpayers itemizing shrink, but lower tax rates reduced the marginal benefit of giving, as well, the Tax Policy Center said. | The new tax law has eliminated or sharply reduced the benefits of charitable giving. | bart | 0 | https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/23/could-charitable-giving-become-a-tax-law-casualty.html | 0.430076 |
Could charitable giving become a tax law casualty? | People don't necessarily give to charity because of tax benefits, but it doesn't hurt. However, the new tax law, among other things, has eliminated or sharply reduced the benefits of charitable giving for many would-be donors. Even though the deduction for donations is unchanged, you still need to itemize to claim it, and that's a much higher bar with the now nearly doubled standard deduction. Under the new law, an individual will need total itemized deductions to exceed $12,000, the new standard deduction for individual taxpayers, up from the former $6,350 standard deduction. Married couples would need deductions exceeding $24,000, up from $12,700. As a result, fewer people will likely itemize this year, which means many won't reap the tax benefits of their charitable contributions. One analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that 21 million taxpayers will stop taking the charitable deduction under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Not only did the number of taxpayers itemizing shrink, but lower tax rates reduced the marginal benefit of giving, as well, the Tax Policy Center said. | The new tax law has eliminated or sharply reduced the benefits of charitable giving. Even though the deduction for donations is unchanged, you still need to itemize to claim it. As a result, fewer people will likely itemize this year. | bart | 1 | https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/23/could-charitable-giving-become-a-tax-law-casualty.html | 0.519651 |
Could charitable giving become a tax law casualty? | People don't necessarily give to charity because of tax benefits, but it doesn't hurt. However, the new tax law, among other things, has eliminated or sharply reduced the benefits of charitable giving for many would-be donors. Even though the deduction for donations is unchanged, you still need to itemize to claim it, and that's a much higher bar with the now nearly doubled standard deduction. Under the new law, an individual will need total itemized deductions to exceed $12,000, the new standard deduction for individual taxpayers, up from the former $6,350 standard deduction. Married couples would need deductions exceeding $24,000, up from $12,700. As a result, fewer people will likely itemize this year, which means many won't reap the tax benefits of their charitable contributions. One analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that 21 million taxpayers will stop taking the charitable deduction under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Not only did the number of taxpayers itemizing shrink, but lower tax rates reduced the marginal benefit of giving, as well, the Tax Policy Center said. | The new tax law has eliminated or sharply reduced the benefits of charitable giving. The deduction for donations is unchanged, but you still need to itemize to claim it, and that's a much higher bar with the now nearly doubled standard deduction. The number of taxpayers itemizing shrink, which means fewer people will likely itemize this year. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/23/could-charitable-giving-become-a-tax-law-casualty.html | 0.590163 |
What Does 'Love in Sadness' Have Going For It Beside A Scandal? | MBC Love in Sadness is an interesting blend of the soapier kind of Korean drama, updating a 40s noir plot, sprinkled with some Hallmark Channel-worthy flower allegories, some fine poetry, and plenty of lovely cinematography. It also has one standout performance. Every time Ryu Soo Young is on the screen viewers may sink back into their seats in terror. Ryu plays Kang In Wook, a successful businessman who spent his life under the thumb of his cruel father. He takes more abuse than he should from his father, who he was once terrified of and is now desperately eager to please. Instead of learning from his fathers abusive behavior, which ultimately resulted in his mothers death, he perpetrates it by locking up his wife and brutalizing her. The frightened wife, Yoo Ma Ri, played alternately by Park Ha Na and then Park Han Byul, turns to a plastic surgeon for help, because she feels the only way she can escapein a world with extensive CCTV coverageis to alter her face. The kind hearted surgeon, played by the ever affable Ji Hyun Woo is the opposite of her husband. He wishes only the best for her but winds up giving Yoon Ma Ri the face of his beautiful yet indifferent late wife, Woo Ha Kyung. Generally the kind doctor alters peoples faces to help them overcome injury or disfigurement but in this case, his motives might be more complicated. The theme of plastic surgery giving a person a chance at a new life and altering their perception of the world inspired two 40s noir films. In A Womans Face a blackmailers disfigurement made her see the world in a different way. In Dark Passage, a man undergoes surgery to hide from the law. Both those themes are at play in this drama as Yoon Ma Ri sees life differently with her new face but is also in hiding. The plot offers many dualities, comparing the difference between the two Woo Ha Kyungs, one of whom is kind. The other is not. It compares life before and after plastic surgery, as well as how Ji Hyun Woos character Seo Jung Woo is the complete opposite of Kang in Wook. While there are shades of gray in both characters, they are still so far apart that Ryu is shot a lot in black and white, while Ji is often captured in warm colors and surrounded by flowers. Ryu Soo Young is really bone chilling as the obsessive, cold-hearted and yet so desperately vulnerable husband. His gaze is meant to send chills and when he glares at anyone who gets in his way, he does so with the cold fury of a snake-haired Gorgon. He wants to find his wife and lock her up in a cage, slowly shredding and devouring her sense of self. Its a common theme in k-dramas that an innocent character will be abused by unbridled power and that good people do not always realize they have the means to fight back. When they do realize that they have agency, power can crumble in ways that have far-reaching implications. Ironically, its a theme that also plays out in the real-life drama that has created negative associations for Love in Sadness. The drama received negative publicity because the main actress, Park Han Byul, is married to Yoo In Suk, one of the alleged key players in the Burning Sun scandal. As a partner in Yuri Holdings, with Big Bangs Seungri, he was implicated in allegations of violence and drugs, as well as possible police bribery, taking place in the Burning Sun nightclub. The MBC drama began broadcasting in late February and when the scandal broke had only completed a few episodes. Some viewers requested that Park Han Byul be removed from the drama, because she was married to Yoo In Suk, but the dramas producers did not agree and she remains for the 40-episode drama. The unfolding plot will provide an interesting comparison with the real-life scandal. | Love in Sadness is a Korean drama about a woman who undergoes plastic surgery to escape her abusive father. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2019/03/23/what-does-love-in-sadness-have-going-for-it-beside-a-scandal/ | 0.282193 |
What Does 'Love in Sadness' Have Going For It Beside A Scandal? | MBC Love in Sadness is an interesting blend of the soapier kind of Korean drama, updating a 40s noir plot, sprinkled with some Hallmark Channel-worthy flower allegories, some fine poetry, and plenty of lovely cinematography. It also has one standout performance. Every time Ryu Soo Young is on the screen viewers may sink back into their seats in terror. Ryu plays Kang In Wook, a successful businessman who spent his life under the thumb of his cruel father. He takes more abuse than he should from his father, who he was once terrified of and is now desperately eager to please. Instead of learning from his fathers abusive behavior, which ultimately resulted in his mothers death, he perpetrates it by locking up his wife and brutalizing her. The frightened wife, Yoo Ma Ri, played alternately by Park Ha Na and then Park Han Byul, turns to a plastic surgeon for help, because she feels the only way she can escapein a world with extensive CCTV coverageis to alter her face. The kind hearted surgeon, played by the ever affable Ji Hyun Woo is the opposite of her husband. He wishes only the best for her but winds up giving Yoon Ma Ri the face of his beautiful yet indifferent late wife, Woo Ha Kyung. Generally the kind doctor alters peoples faces to help them overcome injury or disfigurement but in this case, his motives might be more complicated. The theme of plastic surgery giving a person a chance at a new life and altering their perception of the world inspired two 40s noir films. In A Womans Face a blackmailers disfigurement made her see the world in a different way. In Dark Passage, a man undergoes surgery to hide from the law. Both those themes are at play in this drama as Yoon Ma Ri sees life differently with her new face but is also in hiding. The plot offers many dualities, comparing the difference between the two Woo Ha Kyungs, one of whom is kind. The other is not. It compares life before and after plastic surgery, as well as how Ji Hyun Woos character Seo Jung Woo is the complete opposite of Kang in Wook. While there are shades of gray in both characters, they are still so far apart that Ryu is shot a lot in black and white, while Ji is often captured in warm colors and surrounded by flowers. Ryu Soo Young is really bone chilling as the obsessive, cold-hearted and yet so desperately vulnerable husband. His gaze is meant to send chills and when he glares at anyone who gets in his way, he does so with the cold fury of a snake-haired Gorgon. He wants to find his wife and lock her up in a cage, slowly shredding and devouring her sense of self. Its a common theme in k-dramas that an innocent character will be abused by unbridled power and that good people do not always realize they have the means to fight back. When they do realize that they have agency, power can crumble in ways that have far-reaching implications. Ironically, its a theme that also plays out in the real-life drama that has created negative associations for Love in Sadness. The drama received negative publicity because the main actress, Park Han Byul, is married to Yoo In Suk, one of the alleged key players in the Burning Sun scandal. As a partner in Yuri Holdings, with Big Bangs Seungri, he was implicated in allegations of violence and drugs, as well as possible police bribery, taking place in the Burning Sun nightclub. The MBC drama began broadcasting in late February and when the scandal broke had only completed a few episodes. Some viewers requested that Park Han Byul be removed from the drama, because she was married to Yoo In Suk, but the dramas producers did not agree and she remains for the 40-episode drama. The unfolding plot will provide an interesting comparison with the real-life scandal. | Love in Sadness is an interesting blend of the soapier kind of Korean drama, updating a 40s noir plot. Ryu Soo Young is really bone chilling as the obsessive, cold-hearted and yet so desperately vulnerable husband. | bart | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2019/03/23/what-does-love-in-sadness-have-going-for-it-beside-a-scandal/ | 0.276027 |
What Does 'Love in Sadness' Have Going For It Beside A Scandal? | MBC Love in Sadness is an interesting blend of the soapier kind of Korean drama, updating a 40s noir plot, sprinkled with some Hallmark Channel-worthy flower allegories, some fine poetry, and plenty of lovely cinematography. It also has one standout performance. Every time Ryu Soo Young is on the screen viewers may sink back into their seats in terror. Ryu plays Kang In Wook, a successful businessman who spent his life under the thumb of his cruel father. He takes more abuse than he should from his father, who he was once terrified of and is now desperately eager to please. Instead of learning from his fathers abusive behavior, which ultimately resulted in his mothers death, he perpetrates it by locking up his wife and brutalizing her. The frightened wife, Yoo Ma Ri, played alternately by Park Ha Na and then Park Han Byul, turns to a plastic surgeon for help, because she feels the only way she can escapein a world with extensive CCTV coverageis to alter her face. The kind hearted surgeon, played by the ever affable Ji Hyun Woo is the opposite of her husband. He wishes only the best for her but winds up giving Yoon Ma Ri the face of his beautiful yet indifferent late wife, Woo Ha Kyung. Generally the kind doctor alters peoples faces to help them overcome injury or disfigurement but in this case, his motives might be more complicated. The theme of plastic surgery giving a person a chance at a new life and altering their perception of the world inspired two 40s noir films. In A Womans Face a blackmailers disfigurement made her see the world in a different way. In Dark Passage, a man undergoes surgery to hide from the law. Both those themes are at play in this drama as Yoon Ma Ri sees life differently with her new face but is also in hiding. The plot offers many dualities, comparing the difference between the two Woo Ha Kyungs, one of whom is kind. The other is not. It compares life before and after plastic surgery, as well as how Ji Hyun Woos character Seo Jung Woo is the complete opposite of Kang in Wook. While there are shades of gray in both characters, they are still so far apart that Ryu is shot a lot in black and white, while Ji is often captured in warm colors and surrounded by flowers. Ryu Soo Young is really bone chilling as the obsessive, cold-hearted and yet so desperately vulnerable husband. His gaze is meant to send chills and when he glares at anyone who gets in his way, he does so with the cold fury of a snake-haired Gorgon. He wants to find his wife and lock her up in a cage, slowly shredding and devouring her sense of self. Its a common theme in k-dramas that an innocent character will be abused by unbridled power and that good people do not always realize they have the means to fight back. When they do realize that they have agency, power can crumble in ways that have far-reaching implications. Ironically, its a theme that also plays out in the real-life drama that has created negative associations for Love in Sadness. The drama received negative publicity because the main actress, Park Han Byul, is married to Yoo In Suk, one of the alleged key players in the Burning Sun scandal. As a partner in Yuri Holdings, with Big Bangs Seungri, he was implicated in allegations of violence and drugs, as well as possible police bribery, taking place in the Burning Sun nightclub. The MBC drama began broadcasting in late February and when the scandal broke had only completed a few episodes. Some viewers requested that Park Han Byul be removed from the drama, because she was married to Yoo In Suk, but the dramas producers did not agree and she remains for the 40-episode drama. The unfolding plot will provide an interesting comparison with the real-life scandal. | Love in Sadness is a Korean drama about a woman who undergoes plastic surgery to escape her abusive father. The drama received negative publicity because the main actress, Park Han Byul, is married to Yoo In Suk, one of the alleged key players in the Burning Sun scandal. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2019/03/23/what-does-love-in-sadness-have-going-for-it-beside-a-scandal/ | 0.468808 |
What's the deal with microdosing? | Silicon Valley swears by taking tiny amounts of psychedelic drugs. Can it really improve your health, asks Maria Lally. Gwyneth Paltrow has always seen herself as something of a bellwether in the world of wellness. As far back as 2004, Paltrow introduced the world to the ancient Asian art of cupping when she showed off the telltale circular bruises on her upper back at a New York premiere. Since then mostly via her wellness website, Goop she's bought us vaginal steaming, conscious uncoupling and even once claimed that nobody would have heard of yoga if it wasn't for her. Continuing with her theme, in a recent interview with the New York Times, Paltrow said: "When we [Goop] talk about something incendiary, I always see in six months other people starting to write about it, and 18 months later, businesses popping up around it." "I think how psychedelics affect health and mental health and addiction will come more into the mainstream," she replied. Advertisement Paltrow's comments follow a new study on rats from the University of California that found evidence that small doses of hallucinogenic drugs could have therapeutic benefits, including a reduction in the symptoms of anxiety, depression, OCD and pain. Microdosing LSD has been used for a while among a growing number of Silicon Valley professionals who claim that taking it in small doses offers a "productivity hack", making them sharper, more creative and less stressed. One of Silicon Valley's biggest stars the late Steve Jobs, creator of the iPhone once said that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life". He went on to say that Bill Gates, his biggest tech rival, would have been "a broader guy if he had dropped acid". Steve Jobs. Getty Images Microdosing involves taking a 10th of the recreational dose of psychedelic drugs such as LSD (which is the most commonly microdosed drug) and psilocybin, more widely known as magic mushrooms. Its proponents say that, while a regular dose of LSD can powerfully alter your mood and cognitive processes, and cause hallucinations, small doses can heighten alertness and creativity and can help with things such as stress, anxiety and even PMT. Or in the words of English countess Amanda Feilding: "Microdosing just adds a little sparkle. It loosens your state of consciousness a little, but not to the point it's perceptible. It's like a psychedelic vitamin." In 1998 Lady Feilding founded the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust that promotes drug policy reform. Feilding was introduced to LSD in 1965 before it had been criminalised and says: "I was studying comparative religion and mysticism and found LSD fascinating. Then I realised, at a lower dose, it could improve mood health, thinking and creativity. It became a major interest of mine, especially its potential to be used in a very low non-toxic dose." However, in 1966, LSD was made illegal in the UK and US. The following year it was criminalised in New Zealand. "Ayelet Waldman, the American novelist who at the time was a magistrate who had never broken the law, told me when I met her that she had become quite depressed and had writer's block," says Feilding. "She discovered microdosing, and within a month wrote her bestselling book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life." In it, she talks of putting 10 micrograms of acid under her tongue every three days for a month. "The US, in particular California, is very interested in microdosing right now," says Feilding. "It's particularly caught on in Silicon Valley, the thinking powerhouse of the world. They're very forward-thinking with their health and interested in peak performance, and I know several high-up people who have taken up microdosing quite enthusiastically. These are people behind some of the big breakthroughs of our time." Gwyneth Paltrow. Photo / AP She won't name them, of course, because microdosing is still illegal. However, LSD is about to enter more scientific trials to see if there is any evidence whether its medical effectiveness, displayed during the Fifties and Sixties, holds true today against the more rigorous standards of modern science. "We're currently studying psilocybin [magic mushrooms] for depression," says clinical psychologist Rosalind Watts, who works for the psychedelic research group at Imperial College London. "In the last study, with a small sample size, we saw a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. We are now in the middle of a larger study, comparing psilocybin to antidepressant medication. "Microdosing is interesting, but there haven't been many scientific studies yet. A 'self-blinding' microdosing study (part of the Imperial Beckley research programme) is under way, where voluntary participants who are currently or planning to start microdosing with LSD track their own progress. It will be a while before robust scientific evidence can shed more definitive light on microdosing. Until then, it's too early to say. But the model for microdosing has potential for creative mood management, PMT, anxiety and a whole host of things. "One of the interesting things with psychedelics is they may work on something much deeper down. In other words, mental health problems from eating disorders to depression may share similar roots. We hear sufferers feel disconnected from other people and the world around them and psychedelics may help with that disconnect. But we need studies to answer those questions. "However, research into psychedelics ground to a halt in the Sixties. Psychedelics showed promise as therapeutic treatments in the Fifties but soon became tarnished due to a number of factors, including irresponsible recreational use. Hopefully, this is starting to change now, thanks to a new wave of modern psychedelic research which in the UK was spearheaded by Amanda Feilding, and my colleagues at Imperial, David Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris." However, Watts says that LSD and other psychedelics can be unsafe in an unsafe setting or where the purity of the drug isn't known, or if they're taken alongside other drugs or alcohol. During trials, she sits with study participants during their trips, as they can elicit very strong emotions. Countess Amanda Feilding. Photo / Francesco-Gudiccini/Beckley Foundation "These emotions can be beneficial in a therapeutic context but could be frightening and counterproductive otherwise," she adds. Feilding's trial is about to test 25 volunteers who will take microdoses of LSD, fill in psychological questionnaires and play the Go. "It's a no-luck Chinese board game involving pattern recognition," she says, "and I've found that it [LSD] has improved my playing of Go over the years. "However, much more research is needed on the effects of LSD, and hopefully this study will start the conversation again." Putting it to the test Microdosing means regularly taking very small doses of psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin (magic mushrooms) over a period of weeks or months. The practice has made countless headlines over the past couple of years, with claims it can improve health, strengthen relationships and increase productivity. These claims are surprising because microdosers take doses so small there are no noticeable effects. These can be just 1/20th of a typical recreational dose, often every three or four days. With such small amounts, microdosers go about their daily business, including going to work, without experiencing any typical drug effects. Previous research suggests microdosing may lead to better mood and energy levels, improved creativity, increased wisdom and changes to how we perceive time. But these previous studies have mainly involved asking people to complete ratings or behavioural tasks as one-off measures. Our study, published today in PLOS One, tracked the experience of 98 users over a longer period six weeks to systematically measure any psychological changes. Overall, the participants reported both positive and negative effects from microdosing, including improved attention and mental health; but also more neuroticism. What we did As you would expect, there are many legal and bureaucratic barriers to psychedelic research. It wasn't possible for us to run a study where we actually provided participants with psychedelic substances. Instead, we tried to come up with the most rigorous design possible in the current restrictive legal climate. Our solution was to recruit people who were already experimenting with microdosing and to track their experiences carefully over time, using well validated and reliable psychometric measures. Each day we asked participants to complete some brief ratings, telling us whether they had microdosed that day and describing their overall experience. This let us track the immediate effects of microdosing. At the beginning and end of the study participants completed a detailed battery of psychological measures. This let us track the longer-term effects of microdosing. In a separate sample, we explored the beliefs and expectations of people who are interested in microdosing. This let us track whether any changes in our main sample were aligned with what people generally predict will happen when microdosing. What we found There are five key findings. 1: A general positive boost on microdosing days, but limited residual effects of each dose. The idea is that each microdose, every three or four days, has a residual effect that lasts for a few days. The daily ratings in our study do not support this idea. Participants reported an immediate boost in all measures (connectedness, contemplation, creativity, focus, happiness, productiveness and wellness) on dosing days. But this was mostly not maintained on the following days. 2: Some indications of improvements in mental health. We found that after six weeks, participants reported lower levels of depression and stress. We recruited people who were not experiencing any kind of mental illness for the study, so levels of depression and stress were relatively low to begin with. Nevertheless, ratings on these measures did drop. 3: Shifts in attention. The microdosers in our study reported reduced mind wandering, meaning they were less likely to be distracted by unwanted thoughts. They also reported an increase in absorption, meaning they were more likely to experience intense focused attention on imaginative experiences. Absorption has been linked to strong engagement with art and nature. 4: Increases in neuroticism and some challenging experiences. Not everyone had a good time microdosing. Some participants reported unpleasant and difficult experiences. In some cases, participants tried microdosing just once or twice, then didn't want to continue. 5: Changes do not entirely match people's expectations. People have strong expectations about the effects of microdosing. But when we looked at the specific variables participants most expected would change, these didn't match up with the changes actually reported by our microdosers. Two of the biggest changes microdosers expected were increases in creativity and life satisfaction, but we found no evidence of shifts in these areas. This suggests the changes we found were not simply due to people's expectations. There are promising indications of possible benefits of microdosing, but also indications of some potential negative impacts, which should be taken seriously. It's important to remember this was an observational study that relied heavily on the accuracy and honesty of participants in their reports. As such, these results need to be treated cautiously. - Additional reporting: The Conversation | Microdosing involves taking a 10th of the recreational dose of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12215633&ref=rss | 0.346799 |
What's the deal with microdosing? | Silicon Valley swears by taking tiny amounts of psychedelic drugs. Can it really improve your health, asks Maria Lally. Gwyneth Paltrow has always seen herself as something of a bellwether in the world of wellness. As far back as 2004, Paltrow introduced the world to the ancient Asian art of cupping when she showed off the telltale circular bruises on her upper back at a New York premiere. Since then mostly via her wellness website, Goop she's bought us vaginal steaming, conscious uncoupling and even once claimed that nobody would have heard of yoga if it wasn't for her. Continuing with her theme, in a recent interview with the New York Times, Paltrow said: "When we [Goop] talk about something incendiary, I always see in six months other people starting to write about it, and 18 months later, businesses popping up around it." "I think how psychedelics affect health and mental health and addiction will come more into the mainstream," she replied. Advertisement Paltrow's comments follow a new study on rats from the University of California that found evidence that small doses of hallucinogenic drugs could have therapeutic benefits, including a reduction in the symptoms of anxiety, depression, OCD and pain. Microdosing LSD has been used for a while among a growing number of Silicon Valley professionals who claim that taking it in small doses offers a "productivity hack", making them sharper, more creative and less stressed. One of Silicon Valley's biggest stars the late Steve Jobs, creator of the iPhone once said that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life". He went on to say that Bill Gates, his biggest tech rival, would have been "a broader guy if he had dropped acid". Steve Jobs. Getty Images Microdosing involves taking a 10th of the recreational dose of psychedelic drugs such as LSD (which is the most commonly microdosed drug) and psilocybin, more widely known as magic mushrooms. Its proponents say that, while a regular dose of LSD can powerfully alter your mood and cognitive processes, and cause hallucinations, small doses can heighten alertness and creativity and can help with things such as stress, anxiety and even PMT. Or in the words of English countess Amanda Feilding: "Microdosing just adds a little sparkle. It loosens your state of consciousness a little, but not to the point it's perceptible. It's like a psychedelic vitamin." In 1998 Lady Feilding founded the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust that promotes drug policy reform. Feilding was introduced to LSD in 1965 before it had been criminalised and says: "I was studying comparative religion and mysticism and found LSD fascinating. Then I realised, at a lower dose, it could improve mood health, thinking and creativity. It became a major interest of mine, especially its potential to be used in a very low non-toxic dose." However, in 1966, LSD was made illegal in the UK and US. The following year it was criminalised in New Zealand. "Ayelet Waldman, the American novelist who at the time was a magistrate who had never broken the law, told me when I met her that she had become quite depressed and had writer's block," says Feilding. "She discovered microdosing, and within a month wrote her bestselling book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life." In it, she talks of putting 10 micrograms of acid under her tongue every three days for a month. "The US, in particular California, is very interested in microdosing right now," says Feilding. "It's particularly caught on in Silicon Valley, the thinking powerhouse of the world. They're very forward-thinking with their health and interested in peak performance, and I know several high-up people who have taken up microdosing quite enthusiastically. These are people behind some of the big breakthroughs of our time." Gwyneth Paltrow. Photo / AP She won't name them, of course, because microdosing is still illegal. However, LSD is about to enter more scientific trials to see if there is any evidence whether its medical effectiveness, displayed during the Fifties and Sixties, holds true today against the more rigorous standards of modern science. "We're currently studying psilocybin [magic mushrooms] for depression," says clinical psychologist Rosalind Watts, who works for the psychedelic research group at Imperial College London. "In the last study, with a small sample size, we saw a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. We are now in the middle of a larger study, comparing psilocybin to antidepressant medication. "Microdosing is interesting, but there haven't been many scientific studies yet. A 'self-blinding' microdosing study (part of the Imperial Beckley research programme) is under way, where voluntary participants who are currently or planning to start microdosing with LSD track their own progress. It will be a while before robust scientific evidence can shed more definitive light on microdosing. Until then, it's too early to say. But the model for microdosing has potential for creative mood management, PMT, anxiety and a whole host of things. "One of the interesting things with psychedelics is they may work on something much deeper down. In other words, mental health problems from eating disorders to depression may share similar roots. We hear sufferers feel disconnected from other people and the world around them and psychedelics may help with that disconnect. But we need studies to answer those questions. "However, research into psychedelics ground to a halt in the Sixties. Psychedelics showed promise as therapeutic treatments in the Fifties but soon became tarnished due to a number of factors, including irresponsible recreational use. Hopefully, this is starting to change now, thanks to a new wave of modern psychedelic research which in the UK was spearheaded by Amanda Feilding, and my colleagues at Imperial, David Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris." However, Watts says that LSD and other psychedelics can be unsafe in an unsafe setting or where the purity of the drug isn't known, or if they're taken alongside other drugs or alcohol. During trials, she sits with study participants during their trips, as they can elicit very strong emotions. Countess Amanda Feilding. Photo / Francesco-Gudiccini/Beckley Foundation "These emotions can be beneficial in a therapeutic context but could be frightening and counterproductive otherwise," she adds. Feilding's trial is about to test 25 volunteers who will take microdoses of LSD, fill in psychological questionnaires and play the Go. "It's a no-luck Chinese board game involving pattern recognition," she says, "and I've found that it [LSD] has improved my playing of Go over the years. "However, much more research is needed on the effects of LSD, and hopefully this study will start the conversation again." Putting it to the test Microdosing means regularly taking very small doses of psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin (magic mushrooms) over a period of weeks or months. The practice has made countless headlines over the past couple of years, with claims it can improve health, strengthen relationships and increase productivity. These claims are surprising because microdosers take doses so small there are no noticeable effects. These can be just 1/20th of a typical recreational dose, often every three or four days. With such small amounts, microdosers go about their daily business, including going to work, without experiencing any typical drug effects. Previous research suggests microdosing may lead to better mood and energy levels, improved creativity, increased wisdom and changes to how we perceive time. But these previous studies have mainly involved asking people to complete ratings or behavioural tasks as one-off measures. Our study, published today in PLOS One, tracked the experience of 98 users over a longer period six weeks to systematically measure any psychological changes. Overall, the participants reported both positive and negative effects from microdosing, including improved attention and mental health; but also more neuroticism. What we did As you would expect, there are many legal and bureaucratic barriers to psychedelic research. It wasn't possible for us to run a study where we actually provided participants with psychedelic substances. Instead, we tried to come up with the most rigorous design possible in the current restrictive legal climate. Our solution was to recruit people who were already experimenting with microdosing and to track their experiences carefully over time, using well validated and reliable psychometric measures. Each day we asked participants to complete some brief ratings, telling us whether they had microdosed that day and describing their overall experience. This let us track the immediate effects of microdosing. At the beginning and end of the study participants completed a detailed battery of psychological measures. This let us track the longer-term effects of microdosing. In a separate sample, we explored the beliefs and expectations of people who are interested in microdosing. This let us track whether any changes in our main sample were aligned with what people generally predict will happen when microdosing. What we found There are five key findings. 1: A general positive boost on microdosing days, but limited residual effects of each dose. The idea is that each microdose, every three or four days, has a residual effect that lasts for a few days. The daily ratings in our study do not support this idea. Participants reported an immediate boost in all measures (connectedness, contemplation, creativity, focus, happiness, productiveness and wellness) on dosing days. But this was mostly not maintained on the following days. 2: Some indications of improvements in mental health. We found that after six weeks, participants reported lower levels of depression and stress. We recruited people who were not experiencing any kind of mental illness for the study, so levels of depression and stress were relatively low to begin with. Nevertheless, ratings on these measures did drop. 3: Shifts in attention. The microdosers in our study reported reduced mind wandering, meaning they were less likely to be distracted by unwanted thoughts. They also reported an increase in absorption, meaning they were more likely to experience intense focused attention on imaginative experiences. Absorption has been linked to strong engagement with art and nature. 4: Increases in neuroticism and some challenging experiences. Not everyone had a good time microdosing. Some participants reported unpleasant and difficult experiences. In some cases, participants tried microdosing just once or twice, then didn't want to continue. 5: Changes do not entirely match people's expectations. People have strong expectations about the effects of microdosing. But when we looked at the specific variables participants most expected would change, these didn't match up with the changes actually reported by our microdosers. Two of the biggest changes microdosers expected were increases in creativity and life satisfaction, but we found no evidence of shifts in these areas. This suggests the changes we found were not simply due to people's expectations. There are promising indications of possible benefits of microdosing, but also indications of some potential negative impacts, which should be taken seriously. It's important to remember this was an observational study that relied heavily on the accuracy and honesty of participants in their reports. As such, these results need to be treated cautiously. - Additional reporting: The Conversation | Microdosing involves taking a 10th of the recreational dose of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin, more widely known as magic mushrooms. Silicon Valley swears by taking tiny amounts of hallucinogenic drugs. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12215633&ref=rss | 0.432612 |
What's the deal with microdosing? | Silicon Valley swears by taking tiny amounts of psychedelic drugs. Can it really improve your health, asks Maria Lally. Gwyneth Paltrow has always seen herself as something of a bellwether in the world of wellness. As far back as 2004, Paltrow introduced the world to the ancient Asian art of cupping when she showed off the telltale circular bruises on her upper back at a New York premiere. Since then mostly via her wellness website, Goop she's bought us vaginal steaming, conscious uncoupling and even once claimed that nobody would have heard of yoga if it wasn't for her. Continuing with her theme, in a recent interview with the New York Times, Paltrow said: "When we [Goop] talk about something incendiary, I always see in six months other people starting to write about it, and 18 months later, businesses popping up around it." "I think how psychedelics affect health and mental health and addiction will come more into the mainstream," she replied. Advertisement Paltrow's comments follow a new study on rats from the University of California that found evidence that small doses of hallucinogenic drugs could have therapeutic benefits, including a reduction in the symptoms of anxiety, depression, OCD and pain. Microdosing LSD has been used for a while among a growing number of Silicon Valley professionals who claim that taking it in small doses offers a "productivity hack", making them sharper, more creative and less stressed. One of Silicon Valley's biggest stars the late Steve Jobs, creator of the iPhone once said that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life". He went on to say that Bill Gates, his biggest tech rival, would have been "a broader guy if he had dropped acid". Steve Jobs. Getty Images Microdosing involves taking a 10th of the recreational dose of psychedelic drugs such as LSD (which is the most commonly microdosed drug) and psilocybin, more widely known as magic mushrooms. Its proponents say that, while a regular dose of LSD can powerfully alter your mood and cognitive processes, and cause hallucinations, small doses can heighten alertness and creativity and can help with things such as stress, anxiety and even PMT. Or in the words of English countess Amanda Feilding: "Microdosing just adds a little sparkle. It loosens your state of consciousness a little, but not to the point it's perceptible. It's like a psychedelic vitamin." In 1998 Lady Feilding founded the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust that promotes drug policy reform. Feilding was introduced to LSD in 1965 before it had been criminalised and says: "I was studying comparative religion and mysticism and found LSD fascinating. Then I realised, at a lower dose, it could improve mood health, thinking and creativity. It became a major interest of mine, especially its potential to be used in a very low non-toxic dose." However, in 1966, LSD was made illegal in the UK and US. The following year it was criminalised in New Zealand. "Ayelet Waldman, the American novelist who at the time was a magistrate who had never broken the law, told me when I met her that she had become quite depressed and had writer's block," says Feilding. "She discovered microdosing, and within a month wrote her bestselling book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life." In it, she talks of putting 10 micrograms of acid under her tongue every three days for a month. "The US, in particular California, is very interested in microdosing right now," says Feilding. "It's particularly caught on in Silicon Valley, the thinking powerhouse of the world. They're very forward-thinking with their health and interested in peak performance, and I know several high-up people who have taken up microdosing quite enthusiastically. These are people behind some of the big breakthroughs of our time." Gwyneth Paltrow. Photo / AP She won't name them, of course, because microdosing is still illegal. However, LSD is about to enter more scientific trials to see if there is any evidence whether its medical effectiveness, displayed during the Fifties and Sixties, holds true today against the more rigorous standards of modern science. "We're currently studying psilocybin [magic mushrooms] for depression," says clinical psychologist Rosalind Watts, who works for the psychedelic research group at Imperial College London. "In the last study, with a small sample size, we saw a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. We are now in the middle of a larger study, comparing psilocybin to antidepressant medication. "Microdosing is interesting, but there haven't been many scientific studies yet. A 'self-blinding' microdosing study (part of the Imperial Beckley research programme) is under way, where voluntary participants who are currently or planning to start microdosing with LSD track their own progress. It will be a while before robust scientific evidence can shed more definitive light on microdosing. Until then, it's too early to say. But the model for microdosing has potential for creative mood management, PMT, anxiety and a whole host of things. "One of the interesting things with psychedelics is they may work on something much deeper down. In other words, mental health problems from eating disorders to depression may share similar roots. We hear sufferers feel disconnected from other people and the world around them and psychedelics may help with that disconnect. But we need studies to answer those questions. "However, research into psychedelics ground to a halt in the Sixties. Psychedelics showed promise as therapeutic treatments in the Fifties but soon became tarnished due to a number of factors, including irresponsible recreational use. Hopefully, this is starting to change now, thanks to a new wave of modern psychedelic research which in the UK was spearheaded by Amanda Feilding, and my colleagues at Imperial, David Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris." However, Watts says that LSD and other psychedelics can be unsafe in an unsafe setting or where the purity of the drug isn't known, or if they're taken alongside other drugs or alcohol. During trials, she sits with study participants during their trips, as they can elicit very strong emotions. Countess Amanda Feilding. Photo / Francesco-Gudiccini/Beckley Foundation "These emotions can be beneficial in a therapeutic context but could be frightening and counterproductive otherwise," she adds. Feilding's trial is about to test 25 volunteers who will take microdoses of LSD, fill in psychological questionnaires and play the Go. "It's a no-luck Chinese board game involving pattern recognition," she says, "and I've found that it [LSD] has improved my playing of Go over the years. "However, much more research is needed on the effects of LSD, and hopefully this study will start the conversation again." Putting it to the test Microdosing means regularly taking very small doses of psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin (magic mushrooms) over a period of weeks or months. The practice has made countless headlines over the past couple of years, with claims it can improve health, strengthen relationships and increase productivity. These claims are surprising because microdosers take doses so small there are no noticeable effects. These can be just 1/20th of a typical recreational dose, often every three or four days. With such small amounts, microdosers go about their daily business, including going to work, without experiencing any typical drug effects. Previous research suggests microdosing may lead to better mood and energy levels, improved creativity, increased wisdom and changes to how we perceive time. But these previous studies have mainly involved asking people to complete ratings or behavioural tasks as one-off measures. Our study, published today in PLOS One, tracked the experience of 98 users over a longer period six weeks to systematically measure any psychological changes. Overall, the participants reported both positive and negative effects from microdosing, including improved attention and mental health; but also more neuroticism. What we did As you would expect, there are many legal and bureaucratic barriers to psychedelic research. It wasn't possible for us to run a study where we actually provided participants with psychedelic substances. Instead, we tried to come up with the most rigorous design possible in the current restrictive legal climate. Our solution was to recruit people who were already experimenting with microdosing and to track their experiences carefully over time, using well validated and reliable psychometric measures. Each day we asked participants to complete some brief ratings, telling us whether they had microdosed that day and describing their overall experience. This let us track the immediate effects of microdosing. At the beginning and end of the study participants completed a detailed battery of psychological measures. This let us track the longer-term effects of microdosing. In a separate sample, we explored the beliefs and expectations of people who are interested in microdosing. This let us track whether any changes in our main sample were aligned with what people generally predict will happen when microdosing. What we found There are five key findings. 1: A general positive boost on microdosing days, but limited residual effects of each dose. The idea is that each microdose, every three or four days, has a residual effect that lasts for a few days. The daily ratings in our study do not support this idea. Participants reported an immediate boost in all measures (connectedness, contemplation, creativity, focus, happiness, productiveness and wellness) on dosing days. But this was mostly not maintained on the following days. 2: Some indications of improvements in mental health. We found that after six weeks, participants reported lower levels of depression and stress. We recruited people who were not experiencing any kind of mental illness for the study, so levels of depression and stress were relatively low to begin with. Nevertheless, ratings on these measures did drop. 3: Shifts in attention. The microdosers in our study reported reduced mind wandering, meaning they were less likely to be distracted by unwanted thoughts. They also reported an increase in absorption, meaning they were more likely to experience intense focused attention on imaginative experiences. Absorption has been linked to strong engagement with art and nature. 4: Increases in neuroticism and some challenging experiences. Not everyone had a good time microdosing. Some participants reported unpleasant and difficult experiences. In some cases, participants tried microdosing just once or twice, then didn't want to continue. 5: Changes do not entirely match people's expectations. People have strong expectations about the effects of microdosing. But when we looked at the specific variables participants most expected would change, these didn't match up with the changes actually reported by our microdosers. Two of the biggest changes microdosers expected were increases in creativity and life satisfaction, but we found no evidence of shifts in these areas. This suggests the changes we found were not simply due to people's expectations. There are promising indications of possible benefits of microdosing, but also indications of some potential negative impacts, which should be taken seriously. It's important to remember this was an observational study that relied heavily on the accuracy and honesty of participants in their reports. As such, these results need to be treated cautiously. - Additional reporting: The Conversation | Microdosing involves taking a 10th of the recreational dose of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin, more widely known as magic mushrooms. Silicon Valley swears by taking tiny amounts of LSD as a 'productivity hack' Gwyneth Paltrow says microdosing will become more mainstream. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12215633&ref=rss | 0.39025 |
When is the last time LeBron James missed the NBA playoffs? | For the first time since 2005, the NBA playoffs won't feature LeBron James. His Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Brooklyn Nets 111-106 on Friday and were officially eliminated from the postseason. It has been a long time since we've gone without LeBron playing hoops in May. Like, a really long time. And after 13 straight playoff appearances, this was not what people were hoping for during his first year as a Laker. So now is the time where we remind you about all the things that used to be popular back when LeBron last played in the playoffs and all of the things that are super popular now and meant basically nothing to most people in 2005. Its been a while ... since LeBron missed the playoffs pic.twitter.com/5s8xJqzmZi ESPN (@espn) March 23, 2019 Last time LeBron missed the playoffs was in 2005 That year Netflix was delivering DVDs Apple didnt have an iPhone YouTube was founded Aubrey Graham wasnt Drake yet, he was Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi pic.twitter.com/Yi20zF9I5Z Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 23, 2019 The world was quite a different place the last time LeBron James missed the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/5cF4jxYp2g theScore (@theScore) March 23, 2019 The last time LeBron James missed the playoffs was 2005. Tiger won 2 majors that year. pic.twitter.com/PKdVcQTCrA Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 23, 2019 The most popular songs in 2005, the last time Lebron missed the playoffs: 1. We Belong Together - Mariah Carey 2. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani 3. Let Me Love You - Mario 4. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson 5. 1, 2 Step - Ciara pic.twitter.com/VxuNNoXDEn SB Nation (@SBNation) March 23, 2019 Last time LeBron missed the playoffs: - The best selling phone was a Nokia 1110 - The Office was just a few weeks old - 1, 2 step by Ciara was one of the songs dominating charts - The SuperSonics were still a thing. - There was no Twitter or Instagram. The last time his team was officially eliminated from the playoffs (Cavs, 4/20/05) was the same week the Green Bay Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers. That was the last time LeBron James missed the playoffs... pic.twitter.com/Qmd1FKrW0J Stadium (@Stadium) March 23, 2019 The last time LeBron missed the playoffs in 2005, Steph Curry had 0 Finals MVPs. Now, Steph....well.....still has 0 Finals MVPs. In 2029 we can do this when again we talk about the Warriors finally not winning the title. | The last time LeBron James missed the playoffs was in 2005. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.si.com/nba/2019/03/23/lebron-james-missing-playoffs-first-time-2005-lakers | 0.686304 |
When is the last time LeBron James missed the NBA playoffs? | For the first time since 2005, the NBA playoffs won't feature LeBron James. His Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Brooklyn Nets 111-106 on Friday and were officially eliminated from the postseason. It has been a long time since we've gone without LeBron playing hoops in May. Like, a really long time. And after 13 straight playoff appearances, this was not what people were hoping for during his first year as a Laker. So now is the time where we remind you about all the things that used to be popular back when LeBron last played in the playoffs and all of the things that are super popular now and meant basically nothing to most people in 2005. Its been a while ... since LeBron missed the playoffs pic.twitter.com/5s8xJqzmZi ESPN (@espn) March 23, 2019 Last time LeBron missed the playoffs was in 2005 That year Netflix was delivering DVDs Apple didnt have an iPhone YouTube was founded Aubrey Graham wasnt Drake yet, he was Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi pic.twitter.com/Yi20zF9I5Z Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 23, 2019 The world was quite a different place the last time LeBron James missed the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/5cF4jxYp2g theScore (@theScore) March 23, 2019 The last time LeBron James missed the playoffs was 2005. Tiger won 2 majors that year. pic.twitter.com/PKdVcQTCrA Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 23, 2019 The most popular songs in 2005, the last time Lebron missed the playoffs: 1. We Belong Together - Mariah Carey 2. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani 3. Let Me Love You - Mario 4. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson 5. 1, 2 Step - Ciara pic.twitter.com/VxuNNoXDEn SB Nation (@SBNation) March 23, 2019 Last time LeBron missed the playoffs: - The best selling phone was a Nokia 1110 - The Office was just a few weeks old - 1, 2 step by Ciara was one of the songs dominating charts - The SuperSonics were still a thing. - There was no Twitter or Instagram. The last time his team was officially eliminated from the playoffs (Cavs, 4/20/05) was the same week the Green Bay Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers. That was the last time LeBron James missed the playoffs... pic.twitter.com/Qmd1FKrW0J Stadium (@Stadium) March 23, 2019 The last time LeBron missed the playoffs in 2005, Steph Curry had 0 Finals MVPs. Now, Steph....well.....still has 0 Finals MVPs. In 2029 we can do this when again we talk about the Warriors finally not winning the title. | The last time LeBron James missed the NBA playoffs was in 2005. The world was quite a different place at the time. There was no Twitter or Instagram and Apple didn't have an iPhone. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.si.com/nba/2019/03/23/lebron-james-missing-playoffs-first-time-2005-lakers | 0.75457 |
When is the last time LeBron James missed the NBA playoffs? | For the first time since 2005, the NBA playoffs won't feature LeBron James. His Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Brooklyn Nets 111-106 on Friday and were officially eliminated from the postseason. It has been a long time since we've gone without LeBron playing hoops in May. Like, a really long time. And after 13 straight playoff appearances, this was not what people were hoping for during his first year as a Laker. So now is the time where we remind you about all the things that used to be popular back when LeBron last played in the playoffs and all of the things that are super popular now and meant basically nothing to most people in 2005. Its been a while ... since LeBron missed the playoffs pic.twitter.com/5s8xJqzmZi ESPN (@espn) March 23, 2019 Last time LeBron missed the playoffs was in 2005 That year Netflix was delivering DVDs Apple didnt have an iPhone YouTube was founded Aubrey Graham wasnt Drake yet, he was Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi pic.twitter.com/Yi20zF9I5Z Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 23, 2019 The world was quite a different place the last time LeBron James missed the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/5cF4jxYp2g theScore (@theScore) March 23, 2019 The last time LeBron James missed the playoffs was 2005. Tiger won 2 majors that year. pic.twitter.com/PKdVcQTCrA Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 23, 2019 The most popular songs in 2005, the last time Lebron missed the playoffs: 1. We Belong Together - Mariah Carey 2. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani 3. Let Me Love You - Mario 4. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson 5. 1, 2 Step - Ciara pic.twitter.com/VxuNNoXDEn SB Nation (@SBNation) March 23, 2019 Last time LeBron missed the playoffs: - The best selling phone was a Nokia 1110 - The Office was just a few weeks old - 1, 2 step by Ciara was one of the songs dominating charts - The SuperSonics were still a thing. - There was no Twitter or Instagram. The last time his team was officially eliminated from the playoffs (Cavs, 4/20/05) was the same week the Green Bay Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers. That was the last time LeBron James missed the playoffs... pic.twitter.com/Qmd1FKrW0J Stadium (@Stadium) March 23, 2019 The last time LeBron missed the playoffs in 2005, Steph Curry had 0 Finals MVPs. Now, Steph....well.....still has 0 Finals MVPs. In 2029 we can do this when again we talk about the Warriors finally not winning the title. | The last time LeBron James missed the NBA playoffs was in 2005. The world was quite a different place at the time. There was no Twitter or Instagram and Apple didnt have an iPhone. The NBA playoffs are now officially over for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.si.com/nba/2019/03/23/lebron-james-missing-playoffs-first-time-2005-lakers | 0.770088 |
Could parole board make a comeback in Minnesota? | After decades behind bars, Minnesota inmates serving life sentences must pin their hopes for freedom on just one man. Paul Schnell, the newly appointed Department of Corrections commissioner who determines which offenders are granted supervised release, isnt sure thats fair or wise. Should justice be dependent on who sits in the commissioner of Corrections role? he said recently. Its a huge responsibility. I certainly dont want to release anybody thats going to pose a public safety risk. Schnell believes that responsibility should be shared. Hes endorsing a bill now being debated in the Legislature to establish a five-member, bipartisan review board tasked with deciding lifers fates. If approved, it would roll back sole discretionary powers awarded to the DOC commissioner in 1982, when Minnesota abolished its formal parole board system. That system was really a product of the time, said Kelly Mitchell, executive director at the University of Minnesotas Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. Concerns over the subjective nature of parole decisions and the possibility of unfair racial disparities prompted Minnesotas transition to its current determinate sentencing system where there is no early release for good behavior. Corrections chief Paul Schnell talked to Patrick Nunn Jr., who he had once arrested. This is full circle for me, to hear him talk to people in a human way, Nunn said. That change left only a small number of lifers hanging in the balance, a percentage that lawmakers likely saw as too insignificant to retain a parole board for, Mitchell said. It probably says that our Legislature was trying to be efficient and streamline the process, she said. Minnesota is one of only four states where the commissioner maintains unilateral authority over who is freed. Schnell says hes not trying to shirk the weighty obligation. He argues that asking an independent body of criminal justice experts to vote on those issues would reduce bias and better reflect the interests of Minnesotans. We believe that, in the interest of fairness, it is important that a broader segment of people have the opportunity to be included in this, Schnell testified earlier this month during a public safety committee hearing at the Capitol. Rep. John Lesch, D-St. Paul, was receptive to the idea. Granting a governor-appointed commissioner sole decisionmaking power, politicizes a process that shouldnt be politicized, Lesch said. The proposed new board would award equal voting power to five members, with the commissioner as chair. Panelists with at least five years criminal justice or related experience would be appointed by leaders of both parties, serve staggered four-year terms and make release decisions by simple majority. Rep. Marion ONeill fought for an amendment that would require a supermajority, saying she was troubled by the potential for constant 3-2 splits along partisan lines. If you only have a vote of three, it would be very easy for one ideology one political party to really control that board, warned ONeill, R-Maple Lake. But if you have a supermajority the voice of the minority would not be silenced. But Safia Khan, the DOCs lobbyist, counters that the whole point [of having a five-member board] is to depoliticize it. These are not meant to be political operatives. Hope as a motivator Of the 610 lifers housed in Minnesota state prisons, roughly 75 percent or 470 inmates could rejoin society one day. Many are first-degree murderers, who must serve a minimum of 30 years in prison before being considered for supervised release Minnesotas version of parole. But there is no guarantee theyll ever get out. Those lucky few who do see freedom are under surveillance for life. And if former inmates fail to stay out of trouble or regularly check in with their assigned community service officer, theyll quickly find themselves back inside a cell. Each month, Schnell studies a massive three-ring binder on those petitioning for release. Among other factors, he must weigh the inmates risk of reoffending, progress in treatment, behavior while incarcerated, psychological evaluations and victim impact statements. The offender appears via livestream to discuss their potential release plans. Schnell is then advised on how to proceed by deputy commissioners and the facilitys warden, but its ultimately his decision. If a person has demonstrated a sense of remorse for their involvement in the offense, theyve participated in programming, they have complied with all the rules of the facility what penological benefit is there in keeping them in our prison? Schnell said. He has yet to grant any releases, but is expected to oversee about 70 requests this year. Hope of rebuilding a life outside is a powerful motivator to improve, Schnell said. Without it, inmates have little incentive to remain social and engaged. Shane Price, co-founder of a popular prison program that stresses personal accountability, regularly works with lifers. We like to say, It only takes 30 seconds to get 30 years, said Price, who runs the Power of People Leadership Institute. Now you have 30 years to consider [what youve done]. The program empowers offenders to make positive choices and teaches them that they are not defined by their worst mistakes. Price notes that many of his students have transformative self-discoveries around the 10-year mark. The street myths fall away, he said, and the men reshape their thinking about who they are as a person. From inmate to mentor Willie Lloyd Jr. is proof that radical change is possible. At barely 18, the Minneapolis teen was sentenced to life in 1988 for his involvement in a gang-related shooting that killed a man. He was just two credits shy of his high school diploma and had recently become a father. Over 24 years behind bars, Lloyd finished his degree, learned some carpentry skills and began to read voraciously. He says the turning point came about five years in, when his mother died. It never dawned on me that I wouldnt see her again, he recalled. I decided from that point on I would be the best man I could be. I didnt want my son to go through what I had. It took at least three hearings with former DOC Commissioner Tom Roy before Lloyd was granted supervised release in 2012. Now 49, he is an instructor for Summit Academy OIC in north Minneapolis, helping certify low-income and minority students in construction trades. And hes a mentor for others navigating their re-entry into the community. It shows that with the right support, anyone can change, Lloyd said. | Minnesota abolished its formal parole board system in 1982. A proposed new board would award equal voting power to five members. | ctrlsum | 0 | http://www.startribune.com/could-parole-board-make-a-comeback-in-minnesota/507567012/ | 0.214875 |
Could parole board make a comeback in Minnesota? | After decades behind bars, Minnesota inmates serving life sentences must pin their hopes for freedom on just one man. Paul Schnell, the newly appointed Department of Corrections commissioner who determines which offenders are granted supervised release, isnt sure thats fair or wise. Should justice be dependent on who sits in the commissioner of Corrections role? he said recently. Its a huge responsibility. I certainly dont want to release anybody thats going to pose a public safety risk. Schnell believes that responsibility should be shared. Hes endorsing a bill now being debated in the Legislature to establish a five-member, bipartisan review board tasked with deciding lifers fates. If approved, it would roll back sole discretionary powers awarded to the DOC commissioner in 1982, when Minnesota abolished its formal parole board system. That system was really a product of the time, said Kelly Mitchell, executive director at the University of Minnesotas Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. Concerns over the subjective nature of parole decisions and the possibility of unfair racial disparities prompted Minnesotas transition to its current determinate sentencing system where there is no early release for good behavior. Corrections chief Paul Schnell talked to Patrick Nunn Jr., who he had once arrested. This is full circle for me, to hear him talk to people in a human way, Nunn said. That change left only a small number of lifers hanging in the balance, a percentage that lawmakers likely saw as too insignificant to retain a parole board for, Mitchell said. It probably says that our Legislature was trying to be efficient and streamline the process, she said. Minnesota is one of only four states where the commissioner maintains unilateral authority over who is freed. Schnell says hes not trying to shirk the weighty obligation. He argues that asking an independent body of criminal justice experts to vote on those issues would reduce bias and better reflect the interests of Minnesotans. We believe that, in the interest of fairness, it is important that a broader segment of people have the opportunity to be included in this, Schnell testified earlier this month during a public safety committee hearing at the Capitol. Rep. John Lesch, D-St. Paul, was receptive to the idea. Granting a governor-appointed commissioner sole decisionmaking power, politicizes a process that shouldnt be politicized, Lesch said. The proposed new board would award equal voting power to five members, with the commissioner as chair. Panelists with at least five years criminal justice or related experience would be appointed by leaders of both parties, serve staggered four-year terms and make release decisions by simple majority. Rep. Marion ONeill fought for an amendment that would require a supermajority, saying she was troubled by the potential for constant 3-2 splits along partisan lines. If you only have a vote of three, it would be very easy for one ideology one political party to really control that board, warned ONeill, R-Maple Lake. But if you have a supermajority the voice of the minority would not be silenced. But Safia Khan, the DOCs lobbyist, counters that the whole point [of having a five-member board] is to depoliticize it. These are not meant to be political operatives. Hope as a motivator Of the 610 lifers housed in Minnesota state prisons, roughly 75 percent or 470 inmates could rejoin society one day. Many are first-degree murderers, who must serve a minimum of 30 years in prison before being considered for supervised release Minnesotas version of parole. But there is no guarantee theyll ever get out. Those lucky few who do see freedom are under surveillance for life. And if former inmates fail to stay out of trouble or regularly check in with their assigned community service officer, theyll quickly find themselves back inside a cell. Each month, Schnell studies a massive three-ring binder on those petitioning for release. Among other factors, he must weigh the inmates risk of reoffending, progress in treatment, behavior while incarcerated, psychological evaluations and victim impact statements. The offender appears via livestream to discuss their potential release plans. Schnell is then advised on how to proceed by deputy commissioners and the facilitys warden, but its ultimately his decision. If a person has demonstrated a sense of remorse for their involvement in the offense, theyve participated in programming, they have complied with all the rules of the facility what penological benefit is there in keeping them in our prison? Schnell said. He has yet to grant any releases, but is expected to oversee about 70 requests this year. Hope of rebuilding a life outside is a powerful motivator to improve, Schnell said. Without it, inmates have little incentive to remain social and engaged. Shane Price, co-founder of a popular prison program that stresses personal accountability, regularly works with lifers. We like to say, It only takes 30 seconds to get 30 years, said Price, who runs the Power of People Leadership Institute. Now you have 30 years to consider [what youve done]. The program empowers offenders to make positive choices and teaches them that they are not defined by their worst mistakes. Price notes that many of his students have transformative self-discoveries around the 10-year mark. The street myths fall away, he said, and the men reshape their thinking about who they are as a person. From inmate to mentor Willie Lloyd Jr. is proof that radical change is possible. At barely 18, the Minneapolis teen was sentenced to life in 1988 for his involvement in a gang-related shooting that killed a man. He was just two credits shy of his high school diploma and had recently become a father. Over 24 years behind bars, Lloyd finished his degree, learned some carpentry skills and began to read voraciously. He says the turning point came about five years in, when his mother died. It never dawned on me that I wouldnt see her again, he recalled. I decided from that point on I would be the best man I could be. I didnt want my son to go through what I had. It took at least three hearings with former DOC Commissioner Tom Roy before Lloyd was granted supervised release in 2012. Now 49, he is an instructor for Summit Academy OIC in north Minneapolis, helping certify low-income and minority students in construction trades. And hes a mentor for others navigating their re-entry into the community. It shows that with the right support, anyone can change, Lloyd said. | Minnesota abolished its formal parole board system in 1982. A bill now being debated in the Legislature would establish a five-member, bipartisan review board. The board would make parole decisions by simple majority. | ctrlsum | 1 | http://www.startribune.com/could-parole-board-make-a-comeback-in-minnesota/507567012/ | 0.245532 |
Could parole board make a comeback in Minnesota? | After decades behind bars, Minnesota inmates serving life sentences must pin their hopes for freedom on just one man. Paul Schnell, the newly appointed Department of Corrections commissioner who determines which offenders are granted supervised release, isnt sure thats fair or wise. Should justice be dependent on who sits in the commissioner of Corrections role? he said recently. Its a huge responsibility. I certainly dont want to release anybody thats going to pose a public safety risk. Schnell believes that responsibility should be shared. Hes endorsing a bill now being debated in the Legislature to establish a five-member, bipartisan review board tasked with deciding lifers fates. If approved, it would roll back sole discretionary powers awarded to the DOC commissioner in 1982, when Minnesota abolished its formal parole board system. That system was really a product of the time, said Kelly Mitchell, executive director at the University of Minnesotas Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. Concerns over the subjective nature of parole decisions and the possibility of unfair racial disparities prompted Minnesotas transition to its current determinate sentencing system where there is no early release for good behavior. Corrections chief Paul Schnell talked to Patrick Nunn Jr., who he had once arrested. This is full circle for me, to hear him talk to people in a human way, Nunn said. That change left only a small number of lifers hanging in the balance, a percentage that lawmakers likely saw as too insignificant to retain a parole board for, Mitchell said. It probably says that our Legislature was trying to be efficient and streamline the process, she said. Minnesota is one of only four states where the commissioner maintains unilateral authority over who is freed. Schnell says hes not trying to shirk the weighty obligation. He argues that asking an independent body of criminal justice experts to vote on those issues would reduce bias and better reflect the interests of Minnesotans. We believe that, in the interest of fairness, it is important that a broader segment of people have the opportunity to be included in this, Schnell testified earlier this month during a public safety committee hearing at the Capitol. Rep. John Lesch, D-St. Paul, was receptive to the idea. Granting a governor-appointed commissioner sole decisionmaking power, politicizes a process that shouldnt be politicized, Lesch said. The proposed new board would award equal voting power to five members, with the commissioner as chair. Panelists with at least five years criminal justice or related experience would be appointed by leaders of both parties, serve staggered four-year terms and make release decisions by simple majority. Rep. Marion ONeill fought for an amendment that would require a supermajority, saying she was troubled by the potential for constant 3-2 splits along partisan lines. If you only have a vote of three, it would be very easy for one ideology one political party to really control that board, warned ONeill, R-Maple Lake. But if you have a supermajority the voice of the minority would not be silenced. But Safia Khan, the DOCs lobbyist, counters that the whole point [of having a five-member board] is to depoliticize it. These are not meant to be political operatives. Hope as a motivator Of the 610 lifers housed in Minnesota state prisons, roughly 75 percent or 470 inmates could rejoin society one day. Many are first-degree murderers, who must serve a minimum of 30 years in prison before being considered for supervised release Minnesotas version of parole. But there is no guarantee theyll ever get out. Those lucky few who do see freedom are under surveillance for life. And if former inmates fail to stay out of trouble or regularly check in with their assigned community service officer, theyll quickly find themselves back inside a cell. Each month, Schnell studies a massive three-ring binder on those petitioning for release. Among other factors, he must weigh the inmates risk of reoffending, progress in treatment, behavior while incarcerated, psychological evaluations and victim impact statements. The offender appears via livestream to discuss their potential release plans. Schnell is then advised on how to proceed by deputy commissioners and the facilitys warden, but its ultimately his decision. If a person has demonstrated a sense of remorse for their involvement in the offense, theyve participated in programming, they have complied with all the rules of the facility what penological benefit is there in keeping them in our prison? Schnell said. He has yet to grant any releases, but is expected to oversee about 70 requests this year. Hope of rebuilding a life outside is a powerful motivator to improve, Schnell said. Without it, inmates have little incentive to remain social and engaged. Shane Price, co-founder of a popular prison program that stresses personal accountability, regularly works with lifers. We like to say, It only takes 30 seconds to get 30 years, said Price, who runs the Power of People Leadership Institute. Now you have 30 years to consider [what youve done]. The program empowers offenders to make positive choices and teaches them that they are not defined by their worst mistakes. Price notes that many of his students have transformative self-discoveries around the 10-year mark. The street myths fall away, he said, and the men reshape their thinking about who they are as a person. From inmate to mentor Willie Lloyd Jr. is proof that radical change is possible. At barely 18, the Minneapolis teen was sentenced to life in 1988 for his involvement in a gang-related shooting that killed a man. He was just two credits shy of his high school diploma and had recently become a father. Over 24 years behind bars, Lloyd finished his degree, learned some carpentry skills and began to read voraciously. He says the turning point came about five years in, when his mother died. It never dawned on me that I wouldnt see her again, he recalled. I decided from that point on I would be the best man I could be. I didnt want my son to go through what I had. It took at least three hearings with former DOC Commissioner Tom Roy before Lloyd was granted supervised release in 2012. Now 49, he is an instructor for Summit Academy OIC in north Minneapolis, helping certify low-income and minority students in construction trades. And hes a mentor for others navigating their re-entry into the community. It shows that with the right support, anyone can change, Lloyd said. | Minnesota abolished its formal parole board system in 1982. A bill now being debated in the Legislature would establish a five-member, bipartisan review board. The board would make parole decisions by simple majority, with the commissioner as chair. The proposal has drawn mixed reactions from lawmakers. | ctrlsum | 2 | http://www.startribune.com/could-parole-board-make-a-comeback-in-minnesota/507567012/ | 0.241333 |
How long will the undercover policing inquiry take? | Image copyright Getty Images In February 2019, one of the UK's longest-running and most controversial inquiries confirmed what's been long suspected - that it may be another year before it hears any evidence at all. The inquiry into alleged undercover policing abuses was launched four years ago, in March 2015. It was supposed to have reported in 2018 - yet as it passes another anniversary, it has still not resolved some of the fundamental questions about how it should hear and publicise evidence. Given that it won't hear any before 2020, it won't remotely get to the full facts before the 10th anniversary of the unmasking in 2011 of Mark Kennedy, one of the officers whose actions led to miscarriages of justice. Victims have walked out of court in protest at how the inquiry is being run, a move backed by Baroness Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in 1993. It was the allegation that an undercover officer had infiltrated the Stephen Lawrence justice campaign that triggered the inquiry. Police officers who thought they had been promised lifelong anonymity have threatened not to co-operate. And amid all of this, it has spent 13m trying to navigate a legal and logistical quagmire relating to anonymity, national security and privacy. The key objective of the inquiry is to get answers from the officers who made up two disbanded units - the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). Of the more than 160 former SDS officers who are still alive, more than 100 have sought some form of anonymity - and two-thirds of those have got it. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Baroness Lawrence backed the victims' walkout An even greater proportion of the more than 60 NPOIU officers are expected to be similarly protected because many of them are still serving in the police - and potentially still undercover. This anonymity process - we'll have the final figures by the summer - has been at the heart of complaints from the victims of abuses. They say that unless campaigners who were targeted know who the officers were, they cannot provide meaningful evidence to the inquiry. Lawyers for the officers argue that undercover officers are entitled to anonymity because their lives may be in danger - although in some cases the pleas are simply based on concerns about privacy. The story of the officer codenamed HN16 shows how difficult this exercise has been. HN16 was in the SDS and infiltrated groups between 1997 and 2002. In his anonymity application he said some of his targets were violent. Now the ruling from Sir John Mitting, the inquiry chairman, is that he won't be named unless there is a good reason to do so - despite campaigners saying that he won't know what the good reason is unless the officers are named. In the case of HN16 he came to a halfway-house position. Image copyright Julia Quenzler Image caption Sir John Mitting, a retired judge, is heading the inquiry In late 2017, he disclosed the officer had infiltrated the Animal Liberation Front and hunt saboteurs in Croydon and Brixton, south London. And he'd used two cover, or fake, names: James Straven and Kevin Crossland. The latter was the name of a real five-year-old boy, who died in an air crash in August 1966. When it came to building his undercover identity, HN16 apparently obtained Kevin's birth records, and created a fictional life by legally resurrecting a boy who had died in an awful disaster. This "stealing" of the names of dead children is one of the major limbs of the inquiry. And revealing HN16's cover name led to him being implicated in a second strand. Two women came forward to say the officer had tricked them into sexual relationships. HN16 has now admitted both relationships. Their stories came to light only when there was enough information about the officer for them to join the dots. The upshot is that the chairman has declared that HN16 will have to be named, despite his protests. Three years. And it will be a lot longer before we hear from HN16 about why he did it. Here, the second challenge the inquiry faces becomes clear. Scotland Yard has described the process of tracking down and assessing undercover documents dating back to the late 1960s as "unprecedented". There are now 100 police officers and staff working full-time on helping the inquiry - and a further 30 lawyers and legal staff advising them. Scotland Yard couldn't give the BBC an up-to-date figure, but their last estimate was that the inquiry was now costing 14m a year. But there's more. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), the umbrella group for chief constables, is also involved. It has uncovered the data equivalent of 40 million pages of records relating to the National Public Order Intelligence Unit's activities. The NPCC thinks it could take a team of officers more than four years to go through them to assess whether they need redacting (censoring) before being disclosed to the public. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The vast numbers of documents involved is one of the inquiry's main challenges And as the inquiry limbers up to record the officers' actual accounts about their undercover lives, the strain to manage all this information - and work out what can safely be put in the public domain - will only increase. The NPCC predicts the total costs across all forces will be in the tens of millions of pounds. There is also now a new and bewilderingly complex issue of the right to privacy. On Monday 25 March the inquiry holds the second of two complicated hearings into the handling of personal information about the people officers targeted. Let's say the inquiry has an intelligence report from Officer HN16 on an animal-rights meeting he watched. That report would name attendees, what they said and did, and who they associated with. If they're redacted, they won't make much sense: it will be difficult to understand who was being targeted - and why. The inquiry wants to show uncensored reports to the officers, so it can ask them to justify their actions. But the inquiry may have a legal duty under data protection laws, as the custodian of this historical document, to ask the individuals first what they want retained by the inquiry - and therefore disclosed. Image caption Helen Steel is concerned that private information about victims will be made public At the inquiry's last major hearing in January, Sir John Mitting revealed that based on 26,000 documents from the decade up to 1984, SDS officers each produced 1,000 pages of intelligence reports. In total, they gathered information concerning around 5,000 people. When one of the lawyers for victims suggested the inquiry contact all of the 5,000 to give them the same opportunity to seek anonymity and privacy as the officers, Sir John replied: "We will not finish this decade." Helen Steel, who was tricked into a relationship, said it would be "absolutely outrageous" to deny victims the chance to withhold sensitive personal information. In her case, she has already discovered enough to be sure that information about her health made it into the files. "It feels like entirely double standards," she said. "We have had three years of hearings about protecting the police and their privacy and fears, and now effectively it feels like we are being told it is too great a burden to protect the privacy of those who were actually spied on, who have already had their privacy invaded by the state." So these are just some of the monumental challenges the inquiry still has to resolve. It would have to run for 13 years and three months to beat the record (which concerned investigations into hospital deaths), according to the Institute for Government. So if I'm still watching it in 2028, I'll let you know... | The inquiry into alleged undercover policing abuses was launched four years ago. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47625246 | 0.102415 |
How long will the undercover policing inquiry take? | Image copyright Getty Images In February 2019, one of the UK's longest-running and most controversial inquiries confirmed what's been long suspected - that it may be another year before it hears any evidence at all. The inquiry into alleged undercover policing abuses was launched four years ago, in March 2015. It was supposed to have reported in 2018 - yet as it passes another anniversary, it has still not resolved some of the fundamental questions about how it should hear and publicise evidence. Given that it won't hear any before 2020, it won't remotely get to the full facts before the 10th anniversary of the unmasking in 2011 of Mark Kennedy, one of the officers whose actions led to miscarriages of justice. Victims have walked out of court in protest at how the inquiry is being run, a move backed by Baroness Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in 1993. It was the allegation that an undercover officer had infiltrated the Stephen Lawrence justice campaign that triggered the inquiry. Police officers who thought they had been promised lifelong anonymity have threatened not to co-operate. And amid all of this, it has spent 13m trying to navigate a legal and logistical quagmire relating to anonymity, national security and privacy. The key objective of the inquiry is to get answers from the officers who made up two disbanded units - the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). Of the more than 160 former SDS officers who are still alive, more than 100 have sought some form of anonymity - and two-thirds of those have got it. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Baroness Lawrence backed the victims' walkout An even greater proportion of the more than 60 NPOIU officers are expected to be similarly protected because many of them are still serving in the police - and potentially still undercover. This anonymity process - we'll have the final figures by the summer - has been at the heart of complaints from the victims of abuses. They say that unless campaigners who were targeted know who the officers were, they cannot provide meaningful evidence to the inquiry. Lawyers for the officers argue that undercover officers are entitled to anonymity because their lives may be in danger - although in some cases the pleas are simply based on concerns about privacy. The story of the officer codenamed HN16 shows how difficult this exercise has been. HN16 was in the SDS and infiltrated groups between 1997 and 2002. In his anonymity application he said some of his targets were violent. Now the ruling from Sir John Mitting, the inquiry chairman, is that he won't be named unless there is a good reason to do so - despite campaigners saying that he won't know what the good reason is unless the officers are named. In the case of HN16 he came to a halfway-house position. Image copyright Julia Quenzler Image caption Sir John Mitting, a retired judge, is heading the inquiry In late 2017, he disclosed the officer had infiltrated the Animal Liberation Front and hunt saboteurs in Croydon and Brixton, south London. And he'd used two cover, or fake, names: James Straven and Kevin Crossland. The latter was the name of a real five-year-old boy, who died in an air crash in August 1966. When it came to building his undercover identity, HN16 apparently obtained Kevin's birth records, and created a fictional life by legally resurrecting a boy who had died in an awful disaster. This "stealing" of the names of dead children is one of the major limbs of the inquiry. And revealing HN16's cover name led to him being implicated in a second strand. Two women came forward to say the officer had tricked them into sexual relationships. HN16 has now admitted both relationships. Their stories came to light only when there was enough information about the officer for them to join the dots. The upshot is that the chairman has declared that HN16 will have to be named, despite his protests. Three years. And it will be a lot longer before we hear from HN16 about why he did it. Here, the second challenge the inquiry faces becomes clear. Scotland Yard has described the process of tracking down and assessing undercover documents dating back to the late 1960s as "unprecedented". There are now 100 police officers and staff working full-time on helping the inquiry - and a further 30 lawyers and legal staff advising them. Scotland Yard couldn't give the BBC an up-to-date figure, but their last estimate was that the inquiry was now costing 14m a year. But there's more. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), the umbrella group for chief constables, is also involved. It has uncovered the data equivalent of 40 million pages of records relating to the National Public Order Intelligence Unit's activities. The NPCC thinks it could take a team of officers more than four years to go through them to assess whether they need redacting (censoring) before being disclosed to the public. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The vast numbers of documents involved is one of the inquiry's main challenges And as the inquiry limbers up to record the officers' actual accounts about their undercover lives, the strain to manage all this information - and work out what can safely be put in the public domain - will only increase. The NPCC predicts the total costs across all forces will be in the tens of millions of pounds. There is also now a new and bewilderingly complex issue of the right to privacy. On Monday 25 March the inquiry holds the second of two complicated hearings into the handling of personal information about the people officers targeted. Let's say the inquiry has an intelligence report from Officer HN16 on an animal-rights meeting he watched. That report would name attendees, what they said and did, and who they associated with. If they're redacted, they won't make much sense: it will be difficult to understand who was being targeted - and why. The inquiry wants to show uncensored reports to the officers, so it can ask them to justify their actions. But the inquiry may have a legal duty under data protection laws, as the custodian of this historical document, to ask the individuals first what they want retained by the inquiry - and therefore disclosed. Image caption Helen Steel is concerned that private information about victims will be made public At the inquiry's last major hearing in January, Sir John Mitting revealed that based on 26,000 documents from the decade up to 1984, SDS officers each produced 1,000 pages of intelligence reports. In total, they gathered information concerning around 5,000 people. When one of the lawyers for victims suggested the inquiry contact all of the 5,000 to give them the same opportunity to seek anonymity and privacy as the officers, Sir John replied: "We will not finish this decade." Helen Steel, who was tricked into a relationship, said it would be "absolutely outrageous" to deny victims the chance to withhold sensitive personal information. In her case, she has already discovered enough to be sure that information about her health made it into the files. "It feels like entirely double standards," she said. "We have had three years of hearings about protecting the police and their privacy and fears, and now effectively it feels like we are being told it is too great a burden to protect the privacy of those who were actually spied on, who have already had their privacy invaded by the state." So these are just some of the monumental challenges the inquiry still has to resolve. It would have to run for 13 years and three months to beat the record (which concerned investigations into hospital deaths), according to the Institute for Government. So if I'm still watching it in 2028, I'll let you know... | The inquiry into alleged undercover policing abuses was launched four years ago. It was supposed to have reported in 2018 - yet it has still not resolved some of the fundamental questions about how it should hear and publicise evidence. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47625246 | 0.106339 |
Is Harlow being used to socially cleanse London? | Reports of children who are frightened to go home and cant sleep at night because they are petrified; concerns about the potential for grooming of vulnerable adults and youngsters; suspected drug dealing; alcohol-fuelled bad behaviour; incidents of domestic abuse ... Harlow in Essex is being left to pick up the pieces because London councils are socially cleansing their boroughs and sending hundreds of vulnerable and troubled people to live in converted office blocks in the town. That is the claim from some politicians and officials in Harlow, which appears to have become a flashpoint for a government policy that allows developers to cram huge numbers of rabbit hutch flats into unused office buildings without planning permission. Harlow was built after the second world war to ease overcrowding in the capital. Seventy years on, some locals claim the town has become a dumping ground for people on London council waiting lists. Harlows Conservative MP Robert Halfon said recently that the office-to-residential boom has been a disaster, as London councils have socially cleansed their residents and sent hundreds of troubled families to his constituency. There is clearly money to be made. Guardian Money can reveal that one of the companies apparently making a fortune in rental income from two of the biggest office-to-residential conversions in Harlow, and a string of other developments in the south of England, is Croydon-based property group Caridon. This is the same group behind plans to squeeze 26 studio flats into a building on an industrial estate in Balham, south London, which Money featured on 2 March in an article headlined Will these be the worst new rabbit hutch flats in Britain?. According to its website, Caridon is run by Mario Carrozzo, who has generated a self-made property portfolio worth in excess of 100m. The group says its goal is to maximise return on investment while helping to ease the housing crisis with bespoke, inexpensive, modern accommodation for those with challenging requirements. Planning documents indicate some of its flats are less than half the recommended minimum floor area for a new home. However, the company told us: The homes are not intended as a permanent living solution, with tenants typically staying 12 months, and by making them compact we can help house more people. It adds that it invests significantly in its residents wellbeing. It was only in May 2013 that ministers changed the rules so that offices could be turned into housing without planning permission but this policy has already had a huge impact on towns such as Harlow and Crawley in West Sussex. In Harlow the council has identified 13 office blocks that have been converted, resulting in more than 1,000 individual flats. While on the face of it that might sound like a good thing when the UK is arguably not building nearly enough homes, some of these flats are very small, and the majority are located in industrial areas, which can throw up problems with access to public transport, schools, health services and shops, as well as road safety dangers and air quality. About 40% of the 1,000-plus flats in Harlow are owned and managed by Caridon, whose latest big development in the town is Terminus House, a nine-storey 1960s office building that sits on top of a multistorey car park. This has been converted into more than 200 flats and opened its doors to its first tenants last April. The company also owns two-storey Templefields House, which according to Harlow council now contains 180 flats, and houses a mixture of social and private tenants. Planning documents indicate that some of the Templefields House flats measure as little as 18 sq metres. National space standards state that the minimum floor area for a new one-bedroom one-person home (including conversions) is 37 sq metres. However, these minimum sizes are not compulsory. One resident living at Templefields House with her partner and two children told the EssexLive news website in May 2018 that she struggles to live in the tiny flat, adding: My bed is in my living area... [My sons] bed is in my kitchen area and my daughters cot is in the living area. She said she had to pull her son out of nursery as it was too far away, adding: There is a very busy road nearby. Huge lorries come rushing down. Among those objecting to the Templefields House conversion was Harlow Civic Society, which argued that as an industrial area this was a totally inappropriate location for people to live, adding: There are no facilities nearby that are essential for civilised family life. Both Terminus and Templefields were allowed to go ahead. Under so-called permitted development rights (PDR), office-to-residential conversions dont require the permission of the local planning authority. A Harlow council report stated: It is evident that properties ripe for this type of development are cheaper to purchase in some parts of Essex than in London, and it provides London boroughs and other councils with something of a solution to the ever-increasing demand for temporary and other types of accommodation in their own areas. It added that the negative impact on families placed out-of-area can be huge, with people left feeling isolated and unsupported, and potentially exposed to antisocial and criminal behaviour. Mark Ingall, Harlow councils Labour leader, told Money that it is a disgrace that London boroughs are packing their families off to Harlow and using often unsuitable converted office blocks in the town to deal with their housing shortages. These already vulnerable families are ... being forced to live miles away from their communities, their families and friends and where they work or where their children go to school. The London boroughs that make that decision and the government who created the permitted development rules could stop this now, he says. A Harlow council report published last October said concerns had been reported about families with children being housed in converted offices. While not yet fully substantiated, these included a high volume of calls to Essex police, suspected drug-dealing and drug use, incidents of domestic abuse resulting in the police being called, and lone males hanging around the site leading to concerns about the potential for grooming of vulnerable adults and children. On its website it says it is projected to increase its property portfolio to 5,000 residential units by 2020. The latest accounts for Caridon Holdings, for the year ending 31 March 2018, lists a string of sites described as investment properties, including the two Harlow developments. There are also several sites in Crawley, including Ashburn House (for which floor plans suggest that some flats are as small as 15 sq metres), Maplehurst House, Sutherland House and Central House. The accounts state that the 2018 value of the investment properties was 113m, and that the profit for the year also expressed as total comprehensive income was 11.2m. Caridon Property said: Working in partnership with charities and local authorities such as Harlow council, we provide affordable and social rent accommodation to individuals and families on low incomes and in difficult circumstances The majority of our residents in Harlow are originally from the area. It added: While we are a profit-making business, we invest significantly in our residents wellbeing by hosting regular community events and creating new facilities ... We collaborate extensively with organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Harlowsave [credit union] and Rainbow Services ... Caridon Group also has a charitable foundation whose sole aim is to help our residents better their situation. Caridon said the Harlow council report was several months old and included claims the report admitted were not wholly substantiated. Our building managers have never had any dealings with the police concerning some of the serious crimes listed, including the grooming of children. It also said: The financial information listed also refers to the wider Caridon Group and not Caridon Property, the company that operates both buildings [in Harlow]. Caridon said the company had offered the Guardian guided tours and interviews with tenants. It put us in touch with two current Templefields House tenants and two ex-tenants, all of whom spoke positively about the building and Caridon. One of them, Susannah Gladwin, who lives in a Templefields House flat with her partner, daughter, six, and son, two, told us: To be fair, I think its perfectly safe there are massive security gates, and you have to have a key fob to get in. She said that when she moved in just over two years ago, there was quite a bit of dramas going on, but since then there has been new management. Everything has completely changed, and theres been no trouble at all my daughter doesnt feel scared any more. | Harlow in Essex is being left to pick up the pieces because London councils are socially cleansing their boroughs. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/16/is-harlow-being-used-to-socially-cleanse-london | 0.354058 |
Is Harlow being used to socially cleanse London? | Reports of children who are frightened to go home and cant sleep at night because they are petrified; concerns about the potential for grooming of vulnerable adults and youngsters; suspected drug dealing; alcohol-fuelled bad behaviour; incidents of domestic abuse ... Harlow in Essex is being left to pick up the pieces because London councils are socially cleansing their boroughs and sending hundreds of vulnerable and troubled people to live in converted office blocks in the town. That is the claim from some politicians and officials in Harlow, which appears to have become a flashpoint for a government policy that allows developers to cram huge numbers of rabbit hutch flats into unused office buildings without planning permission. Harlow was built after the second world war to ease overcrowding in the capital. Seventy years on, some locals claim the town has become a dumping ground for people on London council waiting lists. Harlows Conservative MP Robert Halfon said recently that the office-to-residential boom has been a disaster, as London councils have socially cleansed their residents and sent hundreds of troubled families to his constituency. There is clearly money to be made. Guardian Money can reveal that one of the companies apparently making a fortune in rental income from two of the biggest office-to-residential conversions in Harlow, and a string of other developments in the south of England, is Croydon-based property group Caridon. This is the same group behind plans to squeeze 26 studio flats into a building on an industrial estate in Balham, south London, which Money featured on 2 March in an article headlined Will these be the worst new rabbit hutch flats in Britain?. According to its website, Caridon is run by Mario Carrozzo, who has generated a self-made property portfolio worth in excess of 100m. The group says its goal is to maximise return on investment while helping to ease the housing crisis with bespoke, inexpensive, modern accommodation for those with challenging requirements. Planning documents indicate some of its flats are less than half the recommended minimum floor area for a new home. However, the company told us: The homes are not intended as a permanent living solution, with tenants typically staying 12 months, and by making them compact we can help house more people. It adds that it invests significantly in its residents wellbeing. It was only in May 2013 that ministers changed the rules so that offices could be turned into housing without planning permission but this policy has already had a huge impact on towns such as Harlow and Crawley in West Sussex. In Harlow the council has identified 13 office blocks that have been converted, resulting in more than 1,000 individual flats. While on the face of it that might sound like a good thing when the UK is arguably not building nearly enough homes, some of these flats are very small, and the majority are located in industrial areas, which can throw up problems with access to public transport, schools, health services and shops, as well as road safety dangers and air quality. About 40% of the 1,000-plus flats in Harlow are owned and managed by Caridon, whose latest big development in the town is Terminus House, a nine-storey 1960s office building that sits on top of a multistorey car park. This has been converted into more than 200 flats and opened its doors to its first tenants last April. The company also owns two-storey Templefields House, which according to Harlow council now contains 180 flats, and houses a mixture of social and private tenants. Planning documents indicate that some of the Templefields House flats measure as little as 18 sq metres. National space standards state that the minimum floor area for a new one-bedroom one-person home (including conversions) is 37 sq metres. However, these minimum sizes are not compulsory. One resident living at Templefields House with her partner and two children told the EssexLive news website in May 2018 that she struggles to live in the tiny flat, adding: My bed is in my living area... [My sons] bed is in my kitchen area and my daughters cot is in the living area. She said she had to pull her son out of nursery as it was too far away, adding: There is a very busy road nearby. Huge lorries come rushing down. Among those objecting to the Templefields House conversion was Harlow Civic Society, which argued that as an industrial area this was a totally inappropriate location for people to live, adding: There are no facilities nearby that are essential for civilised family life. Both Terminus and Templefields were allowed to go ahead. Under so-called permitted development rights (PDR), office-to-residential conversions dont require the permission of the local planning authority. A Harlow council report stated: It is evident that properties ripe for this type of development are cheaper to purchase in some parts of Essex than in London, and it provides London boroughs and other councils with something of a solution to the ever-increasing demand for temporary and other types of accommodation in their own areas. It added that the negative impact on families placed out-of-area can be huge, with people left feeling isolated and unsupported, and potentially exposed to antisocial and criminal behaviour. Mark Ingall, Harlow councils Labour leader, told Money that it is a disgrace that London boroughs are packing their families off to Harlow and using often unsuitable converted office blocks in the town to deal with their housing shortages. These already vulnerable families are ... being forced to live miles away from their communities, their families and friends and where they work or where their children go to school. The London boroughs that make that decision and the government who created the permitted development rules could stop this now, he says. A Harlow council report published last October said concerns had been reported about families with children being housed in converted offices. While not yet fully substantiated, these included a high volume of calls to Essex police, suspected drug-dealing and drug use, incidents of domestic abuse resulting in the police being called, and lone males hanging around the site leading to concerns about the potential for grooming of vulnerable adults and children. On its website it says it is projected to increase its property portfolio to 5,000 residential units by 2020. The latest accounts for Caridon Holdings, for the year ending 31 March 2018, lists a string of sites described as investment properties, including the two Harlow developments. There are also several sites in Crawley, including Ashburn House (for which floor plans suggest that some flats are as small as 15 sq metres), Maplehurst House, Sutherland House and Central House. The accounts state that the 2018 value of the investment properties was 113m, and that the profit for the year also expressed as total comprehensive income was 11.2m. Caridon Property said: Working in partnership with charities and local authorities such as Harlow council, we provide affordable and social rent accommodation to individuals and families on low incomes and in difficult circumstances The majority of our residents in Harlow are originally from the area. It added: While we are a profit-making business, we invest significantly in our residents wellbeing by hosting regular community events and creating new facilities ... We collaborate extensively with organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Harlowsave [credit union] and Rainbow Services ... Caridon Group also has a charitable foundation whose sole aim is to help our residents better their situation. Caridon said the Harlow council report was several months old and included claims the report admitted were not wholly substantiated. Our building managers have never had any dealings with the police concerning some of the serious crimes listed, including the grooming of children. It also said: The financial information listed also refers to the wider Caridon Group and not Caridon Property, the company that operates both buildings [in Harlow]. Caridon said the company had offered the Guardian guided tours and interviews with tenants. It put us in touch with two current Templefields House tenants and two ex-tenants, all of whom spoke positively about the building and Caridon. One of them, Susannah Gladwin, who lives in a Templefields House flat with her partner, daughter, six, and son, two, told us: To be fair, I think its perfectly safe there are massive security gates, and you have to have a key fob to get in. She said that when she moved in just over two years ago, there was quite a bit of dramas going on, but since then there has been new management. Everything has completely changed, and theres been no trouble at all my daughter doesnt feel scared any more. | Harlow was built after the second world war to ease overcrowding in the capital. Some locals claim the town has become a dumping ground for people on London council waiting lists. | bart | 1 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/16/is-harlow-being-used-to-socially-cleanse-london | 0.161656 |
Is Harlow being used to socially cleanse London? | Reports of children who are frightened to go home and cant sleep at night because they are petrified; concerns about the potential for grooming of vulnerable adults and youngsters; suspected drug dealing; alcohol-fuelled bad behaviour; incidents of domestic abuse ... Harlow in Essex is being left to pick up the pieces because London councils are socially cleansing their boroughs and sending hundreds of vulnerable and troubled people to live in converted office blocks in the town. That is the claim from some politicians and officials in Harlow, which appears to have become a flashpoint for a government policy that allows developers to cram huge numbers of rabbit hutch flats into unused office buildings without planning permission. Harlow was built after the second world war to ease overcrowding in the capital. Seventy years on, some locals claim the town has become a dumping ground for people on London council waiting lists. Harlows Conservative MP Robert Halfon said recently that the office-to-residential boom has been a disaster, as London councils have socially cleansed their residents and sent hundreds of troubled families to his constituency. There is clearly money to be made. Guardian Money can reveal that one of the companies apparently making a fortune in rental income from two of the biggest office-to-residential conversions in Harlow, and a string of other developments in the south of England, is Croydon-based property group Caridon. This is the same group behind plans to squeeze 26 studio flats into a building on an industrial estate in Balham, south London, which Money featured on 2 March in an article headlined Will these be the worst new rabbit hutch flats in Britain?. According to its website, Caridon is run by Mario Carrozzo, who has generated a self-made property portfolio worth in excess of 100m. The group says its goal is to maximise return on investment while helping to ease the housing crisis with bespoke, inexpensive, modern accommodation for those with challenging requirements. Planning documents indicate some of its flats are less than half the recommended minimum floor area for a new home. However, the company told us: The homes are not intended as a permanent living solution, with tenants typically staying 12 months, and by making them compact we can help house more people. It adds that it invests significantly in its residents wellbeing. It was only in May 2013 that ministers changed the rules so that offices could be turned into housing without planning permission but this policy has already had a huge impact on towns such as Harlow and Crawley in West Sussex. In Harlow the council has identified 13 office blocks that have been converted, resulting in more than 1,000 individual flats. While on the face of it that might sound like a good thing when the UK is arguably not building nearly enough homes, some of these flats are very small, and the majority are located in industrial areas, which can throw up problems with access to public transport, schools, health services and shops, as well as road safety dangers and air quality. About 40% of the 1,000-plus flats in Harlow are owned and managed by Caridon, whose latest big development in the town is Terminus House, a nine-storey 1960s office building that sits on top of a multistorey car park. This has been converted into more than 200 flats and opened its doors to its first tenants last April. The company also owns two-storey Templefields House, which according to Harlow council now contains 180 flats, and houses a mixture of social and private tenants. Planning documents indicate that some of the Templefields House flats measure as little as 18 sq metres. National space standards state that the minimum floor area for a new one-bedroom one-person home (including conversions) is 37 sq metres. However, these minimum sizes are not compulsory. One resident living at Templefields House with her partner and two children told the EssexLive news website in May 2018 that she struggles to live in the tiny flat, adding: My bed is in my living area... [My sons] bed is in my kitchen area and my daughters cot is in the living area. She said she had to pull her son out of nursery as it was too far away, adding: There is a very busy road nearby. Huge lorries come rushing down. Among those objecting to the Templefields House conversion was Harlow Civic Society, which argued that as an industrial area this was a totally inappropriate location for people to live, adding: There are no facilities nearby that are essential for civilised family life. Both Terminus and Templefields were allowed to go ahead. Under so-called permitted development rights (PDR), office-to-residential conversions dont require the permission of the local planning authority. A Harlow council report stated: It is evident that properties ripe for this type of development are cheaper to purchase in some parts of Essex than in London, and it provides London boroughs and other councils with something of a solution to the ever-increasing demand for temporary and other types of accommodation in their own areas. It added that the negative impact on families placed out-of-area can be huge, with people left feeling isolated and unsupported, and potentially exposed to antisocial and criminal behaviour. Mark Ingall, Harlow councils Labour leader, told Money that it is a disgrace that London boroughs are packing their families off to Harlow and using often unsuitable converted office blocks in the town to deal with their housing shortages. These already vulnerable families are ... being forced to live miles away from their communities, their families and friends and where they work or where their children go to school. The London boroughs that make that decision and the government who created the permitted development rules could stop this now, he says. A Harlow council report published last October said concerns had been reported about families with children being housed in converted offices. While not yet fully substantiated, these included a high volume of calls to Essex police, suspected drug-dealing and drug use, incidents of domestic abuse resulting in the police being called, and lone males hanging around the site leading to concerns about the potential for grooming of vulnerable adults and children. On its website it says it is projected to increase its property portfolio to 5,000 residential units by 2020. The latest accounts for Caridon Holdings, for the year ending 31 March 2018, lists a string of sites described as investment properties, including the two Harlow developments. There are also several sites in Crawley, including Ashburn House (for which floor plans suggest that some flats are as small as 15 sq metres), Maplehurst House, Sutherland House and Central House. The accounts state that the 2018 value of the investment properties was 113m, and that the profit for the year also expressed as total comprehensive income was 11.2m. Caridon Property said: Working in partnership with charities and local authorities such as Harlow council, we provide affordable and social rent accommodation to individuals and families on low incomes and in difficult circumstances The majority of our residents in Harlow are originally from the area. It added: While we are a profit-making business, we invest significantly in our residents wellbeing by hosting regular community events and creating new facilities ... We collaborate extensively with organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Harlowsave [credit union] and Rainbow Services ... Caridon Group also has a charitable foundation whose sole aim is to help our residents better their situation. Caridon said the Harlow council report was several months old and included claims the report admitted were not wholly substantiated. Our building managers have never had any dealings with the police concerning some of the serious crimes listed, including the grooming of children. It also said: The financial information listed also refers to the wider Caridon Group and not Caridon Property, the company that operates both buildings [in Harlow]. Caridon said the company had offered the Guardian guided tours and interviews with tenants. It put us in touch with two current Templefields House tenants and two ex-tenants, all of whom spoke positively about the building and Caridon. One of them, Susannah Gladwin, who lives in a Templefields House flat with her partner, daughter, six, and son, two, told us: To be fair, I think its perfectly safe there are massive security gates, and you have to have a key fob to get in. She said that when she moved in just over two years ago, there was quite a bit of dramas going on, but since then there has been new management. Everything has completely changed, and theres been no trouble at all my daughter doesnt feel scared any more. | Harlow was built after the second world war to ease overcrowding in the capital. Some locals claim the town has become a dumping ground for people on London council waiting lists. In Harlow the council has identified 13 office blocks that have been converted, resulting in more than 1,000 individual flats. | bart | 2 | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/16/is-harlow-being-used-to-socially-cleanse-london | 0.179923 |
Is using a personal loan to pay off credit card debt a good move? | CLOSE Credit score, debt and income are all factors in getting a personal loan, and the requirements vary by lender. Here are 5 tips for getting a loan. USA TODAY When it comes to borrowing money, not all debt is equal. A mortgage, for example, has a much lower interest rate than credit card debt. On top of that, a mortgage helps consumers purchase a necessity that can gain value over time. The same cannot often be said of credit card purchases. That's why mortgages are generally considered "good" debt, while credit card debt is almost universally deemed "bad." Car loans can fall into either category, as their interest rates vary widely. An auto loan with a low rate (maybe 5 percent interest or lower) might be considered good debt, while higher-rate auto loans, while sometimes a necessary evil, are far from great. Personal loans, meanwhile, can't be easily classified. They tend to have relatively high interest rates, but then, many people take them out to consolidate credit card debt that previously carried even higher rates. That's why it's both encouraging and that personal loans are the fastest growing form of debt for Americans, according to a report from Experian. Attitudes toward personal loans have softened. While personal loans don't get the publicity that credit cards do, there are currently 36.8 million of them in the U.S. right now. That's 10.8 percent of the population and the balance on those loans has been rising since 2015, according to Experian. The number of personal loans in the U.S. jumped to 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 and total loan debt climbed to $291 billion for the same time period. This type of loan used to be heavily stigmatized, a sort of loan of last resort for people desperate to find a short-term way out of debt. In many cases, the high rates associated with these loans would merely forestall problems. Get that application accepted: 5 tips to boost your chance of winning approval for a personal loan Intuit moves: Why the tax software leader wants to disrupt the personal loan process Attitudes toward personal loans, however, have softened. A personal loan can allow you to consolidate higher-rate loans into a single, lower-rate loan as a first step toward getting out of debt. Average personal loan balance: $15,143 Average monthly payment: $353 Average annual percentage rate (APR): 9.37 percent Number of outstanding personal loan accounts: 36.8 million New personal loan accounts: 6.1 million Number of consumers with a personal loan: 9.7 million Existing personal loan debt: $291 billion Data source: Experian. NEWSLETTERS Get the Managing Your Money newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong A collection of articles to help you manage your finances like a pro. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-872-0001. Delivery: Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Managing Your Money Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters It all depends on how you use the money If you've racked up credit card debt and can pay it off with a personal loan that offers a lower APR, then that makes sense. The problem is that many people do that but don't stop using their credit cards, which leaves them with more debt to pay off than they started with. Taking a personal loan is still something of a last resort. It's generally not money you should borrow to take a vacation or do something frivolous. Personal loans, however, do make sense as a way to lower your interest rates, and they can serve as an alternative to using credit cards to pay off unexpected emergency expenses that can't be avoided. If you take a personal loan to pay off debt or to avoid putting an unplanned expense on a credit card with a high interest rate, make sure you have a plan to pay the money back. As with any form of high-interest debt, you'll want to pay the loan off as fast as you can to minimize how much you spend on interest. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Offer from the Motley Fool: The $16,728 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,728 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2019/03/16/personal-loan-paying-off-credit-card-debt-can-good-move/39157119/ | Personal loans are the fastest growing form of debt for Americans. They tend to have relatively high interest rates, but then, many people take them out to consolidate credit card debt. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2019/03/16/personal-loan-paying-off-credit-card-debt-can-good-move/39157119/ | 0.237003 |
Is using a personal loan to pay off credit card debt a good move? | CLOSE Credit score, debt and income are all factors in getting a personal loan, and the requirements vary by lender. Here are 5 tips for getting a loan. USA TODAY When it comes to borrowing money, not all debt is equal. A mortgage, for example, has a much lower interest rate than credit card debt. On top of that, a mortgage helps consumers purchase a necessity that can gain value over time. The same cannot often be said of credit card purchases. That's why mortgages are generally considered "good" debt, while credit card debt is almost universally deemed "bad." Car loans can fall into either category, as their interest rates vary widely. An auto loan with a low rate (maybe 5 percent interest or lower) might be considered good debt, while higher-rate auto loans, while sometimes a necessary evil, are far from great. Personal loans, meanwhile, can't be easily classified. They tend to have relatively high interest rates, but then, many people take them out to consolidate credit card debt that previously carried even higher rates. That's why it's both encouraging and that personal loans are the fastest growing form of debt for Americans, according to a report from Experian. Attitudes toward personal loans have softened. While personal loans don't get the publicity that credit cards do, there are currently 36.8 million of them in the U.S. right now. That's 10.8 percent of the population and the balance on those loans has been rising since 2015, according to Experian. The number of personal loans in the U.S. jumped to 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 and total loan debt climbed to $291 billion for the same time period. This type of loan used to be heavily stigmatized, a sort of loan of last resort for people desperate to find a short-term way out of debt. In many cases, the high rates associated with these loans would merely forestall problems. Get that application accepted: 5 tips to boost your chance of winning approval for a personal loan Intuit moves: Why the tax software leader wants to disrupt the personal loan process Attitudes toward personal loans, however, have softened. A personal loan can allow you to consolidate higher-rate loans into a single, lower-rate loan as a first step toward getting out of debt. Average personal loan balance: $15,143 Average monthly payment: $353 Average annual percentage rate (APR): 9.37 percent Number of outstanding personal loan accounts: 36.8 million New personal loan accounts: 6.1 million Number of consumers with a personal loan: 9.7 million Existing personal loan debt: $291 billion Data source: Experian. NEWSLETTERS Get the Managing Your Money newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong A collection of articles to help you manage your finances like a pro. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-872-0001. Delivery: Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Managing Your Money Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters It all depends on how you use the money If you've racked up credit card debt and can pay it off with a personal loan that offers a lower APR, then that makes sense. The problem is that many people do that but don't stop using their credit cards, which leaves them with more debt to pay off than they started with. Taking a personal loan is still something of a last resort. It's generally not money you should borrow to take a vacation or do something frivolous. Personal loans, however, do make sense as a way to lower your interest rates, and they can serve as an alternative to using credit cards to pay off unexpected emergency expenses that can't be avoided. If you take a personal loan to pay off debt or to avoid putting an unplanned expense on a credit card with a high interest rate, make sure you have a plan to pay the money back. As with any form of high-interest debt, you'll want to pay the loan off as fast as you can to minimize how much you spend on interest. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Offer from the Motley Fool: The $16,728 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,728 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2019/03/16/personal-loan-paying-off-credit-card-debt-can-good-move/39157119/ | Personal loans are the fastest growing form of debt for Americans. They tend to have relatively high interest rates, but then, many people take them out to consolidate credit card debt that previously carried even higher rates. A personal loan can allow you to consolidate higher-rate loans into a single, lower-rate loan. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2019/03/16/personal-loan-paying-off-credit-card-debt-can-good-move/39157119/ | 0.41257 |
Why did Teddy Bridgewater turn down a starting job to stay with the Saints? | The Miami Dolphins offered Teddy Bridgewater some things the New Orleans Saints could not: A chance to walk into the 2019 season as the starting quarterback and a chance to play in his home town. Still, Bridgewater chose the Saints, signing a one-year, $7.25 million contract that could net him as much as $12.5 million if he hits performance incentives. Bridgewater explained his rationale Friday (Mar. 15) in a teleconference with reporters. 3 reasons why Malcom Brown chose to sign with the Saints Brown, a former first-round pick of the New England Patriots, fills a critical offseason need for New Orleans First, his age: Im still 26 years old, Bridgewater said. The way I look at it is that Ill have another opportunity to start in this league at some point. Second, the resources and the opportunity to be a part of something big: I get to compete (with) and learn from a guy who is going to be a Hall of Famer (Drew Brees), to get to be a part of a team that was a call away from being in the Super Bowl, I get to be a part of a team and a coaching staff that grinds on a daily basis, that spends numerous nights at the facility to make sure the players are in the best position to win. Third, an offense with a track record: You look at what this offense has done over the past decade, its like, shoot, everythings right there. Its proven, its a proven offense, its a proven staff. Of course, it didnt just happen by just rolling the ball out there. Mario Edwards Jr., new to Saints, follows dads path from Florida State to NFL He's a defensive lineman from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There also, of course, is the little matter of a potential succession plan. Brees turned 40 years old in the days before the NFC championship and does not yet have a clear idea of when he may retire. Bridgewater declined to speak about any sort of plan to speak about following Brees as the Saints starting quarterback, saying he is zeroing in on this season alone. We were a call away from being in the Super Bowl, and I think everyone is returning with the mindset that we need to get back to that stage and win, Bridgewater said. Thats the focus right now. | New Orleans Saints signed quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a one-year, $7.25 million contract. Bridgewater cited his age, resources and the opportunity to be a part of something big. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nola.com/saints/2019/03/why-did-teddy-bridgewater-turn-down-a-starting-job-to-stay-with-the-saints.html | 0.331997 |
Why did Teddy Bridgewater turn down a starting job to stay with the Saints? | The Miami Dolphins offered Teddy Bridgewater some things the New Orleans Saints could not: A chance to walk into the 2019 season as the starting quarterback and a chance to play in his home town. Still, Bridgewater chose the Saints, signing a one-year, $7.25 million contract that could net him as much as $12.5 million if he hits performance incentives. Bridgewater explained his rationale Friday (Mar. 15) in a teleconference with reporters. 3 reasons why Malcom Brown chose to sign with the Saints Brown, a former first-round pick of the New England Patriots, fills a critical offseason need for New Orleans First, his age: Im still 26 years old, Bridgewater said. The way I look at it is that Ill have another opportunity to start in this league at some point. Second, the resources and the opportunity to be a part of something big: I get to compete (with) and learn from a guy who is going to be a Hall of Famer (Drew Brees), to get to be a part of a team that was a call away from being in the Super Bowl, I get to be a part of a team and a coaching staff that grinds on a daily basis, that spends numerous nights at the facility to make sure the players are in the best position to win. Third, an offense with a track record: You look at what this offense has done over the past decade, its like, shoot, everythings right there. Its proven, its a proven offense, its a proven staff. Of course, it didnt just happen by just rolling the ball out there. Mario Edwards Jr., new to Saints, follows dads path from Florida State to NFL He's a defensive lineman from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There also, of course, is the little matter of a potential succession plan. Brees turned 40 years old in the days before the NFC championship and does not yet have a clear idea of when he may retire. Bridgewater declined to speak about any sort of plan to speak about following Brees as the Saints starting quarterback, saying he is zeroing in on this season alone. We were a call away from being in the Super Bowl, and I think everyone is returning with the mindset that we need to get back to that stage and win, Bridgewater said. Thats the focus right now. | New Orleans Saints signed quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a one-year, $7.25 million contract. Bridgewater cited his age, resources and the opportunity to be a part of something big. Bridgewater declined to speak about any sort of plan to follow Drew Brees as the Saints starting quarterback. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nola.com/saints/2019/03/why-did-teddy-bridgewater-turn-down-a-starting-job-to-stay-with-the-saints.html | 0.280508 |
Can Felicity Huffman's and Lori Loughlin's careers ever recover from college bribery scam? | Millionaires, college athletic coaches and ACT proctors are all entwined in the college-admissions bribery scandal heard 'round the world. But its two TV stars who have become the faces of the bombshell story, after it was revealed Tuesday that Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman allegedly paid thousands of dollars to fake test scores and disguise their children as athletes in order to gain access to prestigious schools. And that's the downside of fame, experts say. "Although there were (more than 30) parents involved, theyre the two that are going be the face of it again and again and again. And thats the price you pay for being in Hollywood," says crisis-management expert Howard Bragman, CEO of La Brea Media. First, a look back at their alleged crimes. How we got here Federal prosecutors allege Huffman spent $15,000 on a cheating scheme to aid her daughters SAT test-taking, according to the investigation. Ultimately Huffman's daughter scored 1420 on the SAT, an improvement of approximately 400 points over her PSAT" she'd taken a taken a year earlier, according to the affidavit. 'Expel this cheater': Lori Loughlin's daughter Olivia is being trolled over bribery case And Loughlin, who was charged alongside her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid bribes totaling $500,000 "in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team, despite the fact they did not participate in crew, thereby facilitating their admission to USC." Actually, most image experts say no. But first, both actresses have some explaining to do. It's just that they probably can't say much. "Their criminal lawyers are saying, 'Shut up, dont say anything, dont talk to anybody,'" Bragman says. "And thats the best advice, although Im sure they want to talk and they want to say, We thought we were doing whats best for our kids and we made a mistake." In court, their lawyers could take a variety of stands. If I was their attorney, my argument would be, How are these people really different than people who have made donations directly to the school? Its more of a cultural issue," says criminal defense lawyer Lara Yeretsian, who has represented celebrity defendants including Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson. But if they are innocent, "then they need to vigorously dispute the charges and focus on their history of being credible and trusted citizens," says Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants. "If they are guilty, they must remain careful and quiet because the last thing they want to do is deceive the public, as it will destroy any chance of rebuilding their brand and trust after the case is adjudicated. Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy in September 2018 in Los Angeles. Both women have a busy 2019 planned. Huffman has two Netflix projects slated for spring releases: the mom-centric film "Otherhood" (streaming April 26), opposite Angela Bassett and Patricia Arquette; and Ava DuVernays Central Park Five series "When They See Us" (May 31), in which Huffman plays former New York city prosecutor Linda Fairstein. Though Loughlin's IMDb page also shows four upcoming "Garage Sale Mysteries" TV movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, the network cut ties with her Thursday, scrapping any upcoming productions. "We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations. We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin including Garage Sale Mysteries, an independent third party production," Crown Media Family Networks said in a statement sent to USA TODAY. Netflix had no comment about Huffman's or Loughlin's participation in their projects. | Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman have become the faces of the college-admissions bribery scandal. Federal prosecutors allege Huffman spent $15,000 on a cheating scheme to aid her daughters SAT test-taking. | pegasus | 1 | https://news.yahoo.com/felicity-huffman-apos-lori-loughlin-142425841.html | 0.162442 |
Can Felicity Huffman's and Lori Loughlin's careers ever recover from college bribery scam? | Millionaires, college athletic coaches and ACT proctors are all entwined in the college-admissions bribery scandal heard 'round the world. But its two TV stars who have become the faces of the bombshell story, after it was revealed Tuesday that Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman allegedly paid thousands of dollars to fake test scores and disguise their children as athletes in order to gain access to prestigious schools. And that's the downside of fame, experts say. "Although there were (more than 30) parents involved, theyre the two that are going be the face of it again and again and again. And thats the price you pay for being in Hollywood," says crisis-management expert Howard Bragman, CEO of La Brea Media. First, a look back at their alleged crimes. How we got here Federal prosecutors allege Huffman spent $15,000 on a cheating scheme to aid her daughters SAT test-taking, according to the investigation. Ultimately Huffman's daughter scored 1420 on the SAT, an improvement of approximately 400 points over her PSAT" she'd taken a taken a year earlier, according to the affidavit. 'Expel this cheater': Lori Loughlin's daughter Olivia is being trolled over bribery case And Loughlin, who was charged alongside her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid bribes totaling $500,000 "in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team, despite the fact they did not participate in crew, thereby facilitating their admission to USC." Actually, most image experts say no. But first, both actresses have some explaining to do. It's just that they probably can't say much. "Their criminal lawyers are saying, 'Shut up, dont say anything, dont talk to anybody,'" Bragman says. "And thats the best advice, although Im sure they want to talk and they want to say, We thought we were doing whats best for our kids and we made a mistake." In court, their lawyers could take a variety of stands. If I was their attorney, my argument would be, How are these people really different than people who have made donations directly to the school? Its more of a cultural issue," says criminal defense lawyer Lara Yeretsian, who has represented celebrity defendants including Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson. But if they are innocent, "then they need to vigorously dispute the charges and focus on their history of being credible and trusted citizens," says Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants. "If they are guilty, they must remain careful and quiet because the last thing they want to do is deceive the public, as it will destroy any chance of rebuilding their brand and trust after the case is adjudicated. Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy in September 2018 in Los Angeles. Both women have a busy 2019 planned. Huffman has two Netflix projects slated for spring releases: the mom-centric film "Otherhood" (streaming April 26), opposite Angela Bassett and Patricia Arquette; and Ava DuVernays Central Park Five series "When They See Us" (May 31), in which Huffman plays former New York city prosecutor Linda Fairstein. Though Loughlin's IMDb page also shows four upcoming "Garage Sale Mysteries" TV movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, the network cut ties with her Thursday, scrapping any upcoming productions. "We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations. We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin including Garage Sale Mysteries, an independent third party production," Crown Media Family Networks said in a statement sent to USA TODAY. Netflix had no comment about Huffman's or Loughlin's participation in their projects. | Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are the faces of the college-admissions bribery scandal. Federal prosecutors allege Huffman spent $15,000 on a cheating scheme to aid her daughters SAT test-taking. If they are guilty, their lawyers could take a variety of stands. | bart | 2 | https://news.yahoo.com/felicity-huffman-apos-lori-loughlin-142425841.html | 0.177886 |
Are delivery apps hurting Montreal restaurants? | Its a busy Friday night at Atma restaurant on St-Laurent Blvd. Customers are pushing away thoughts of sub-zero temperatures by scooping nose-tingling butter chicken and chili paneer onto smoky naan bread. So far, the kitchen has had no trouble keeping up, but its almost 7:30 prime time for delivery. The restaurant has three tablets that transmit orders from three food-delivery companies: Foodora, SkipTheDishes and Uber Eats. When the first order comes in, its from Foodora, which means Atmas kitchen has 20 minutes to get the tandoori chicken, chicken biryani and daal makhani into recyclable takeaway containers for Foodoras courier to pick up. Foodora bases prep time on behavioural trends, order size and time of day and week, and will take $5 off if the foods not ready, unless the restaurant uses the in-app chat to request more time. According to Foodora marketing specialist Sadie Weinstein, the fee is to ensure Foodora customers receive the same customer service level as they would dining at the restaurant. For Atma co-owner Ravi Anand, losing that $5 would hurt, since most apps in Montreal take a 25 to 30 per cent commission (newcomer GOLO takes about 18 per cent). A 30 per cent commission with an average 30 per cent food cost leaves 40 per cent for the restaurant to pay staff, rent, hydro and hopefully make a profit; thats $12 on a $30 order, or just $7 if the food is late. Anand can get up to 60 online orders per night, so Atmas kitchen isnt swamped yet, but when all the tablets start pinging at once, he hits pause on one or all of the apps. This doesnt just happen at Atma. It could be any night, said Jonathan Dresner, co-owner of four Notre-Boeuf-de-Grce locations. On a Monday, you dont have four or five cooks, so it can still get busy. Sometimes you pause it for 20 minutes and then turn it back on. Thats why your favourite restaurant might not appear on your favourite app around 7 or 8 p.m. Consider popular Qing Hua; there are only so many pork dumplings a person can hand-wrap per minute. Fortunately, there are plenty of other restaurants to choose from SkipTheDishes has more than 1,000 in Montreal, and Foodora has more than 750 in Montreal and Laval. But the growing popularity of delivery apps has turned them into a double-edged well, knife, said Dresner. Other restaurateurs have asked me, Should I do it? I always tell them, You make money, but its not the money you want to make. If youre at a period where you can handle a little more, youre not losing money. But if youre going to hire extra staff to do it, youre going to break even or lose. You have to have a busy restaurant as well. Notre-Boeuf-de-Grce doesnt even advertise that it offers delivery on its website. I want guests to come in and have an experience. So anything we get from takeout, pickup, delivery is something extra, Dresner said. In Canada, the restaurant-to-consumer delivery market is estimated to be worth about $1.36 billion, according to Statista, an international market and consumer data research company. Howard Migdal, SkipTheDishes managing director for the Canadian market, says it could be as high as $4 billion and is growing at approximately 15 per cent year over year, based on SkipTheDishes internal data. Some restaurants even add second prep areas to their kitchens, install pickup shelves and open drive-through windows for online orders. Despite the growth, SkipTheDishes which merged with the Just Eat Group in 2016 isnt profitable yet, though its board and trading update from January states that its on track to be the first profitable food delivery organization by the end of 2019. I think there was some nervousness around delivery apps, Migdal said, but convenience is something everyones used to. Especially for independent restaurants, they wouldnt have the infrastructure to do delivery on their own. We give independent restaurants a tremendous opportunity to grow revenues and meet consumers needs. And brands think that we can do logistics cheaper than they could on their own. But Michel Lvine, owner of la Carte Express, is skeptical because of the high commissions. If your restaurants core sales are consumer delivery, or (if consumer delivery is) an important part of your total sales, its a problem, he said. Market saturation convinced him to shift la Cartes focus to larger corporate orders, which make a commission rate of about 30 per cent easier to swallow. We couldnt fight in the consumer market, so we went business-to-business, he said. These guys are not into profit-making theyre into gaining market share. We used to pay $7, $8 for a customer on AdWords. Now its more than $20 for customer acquisition. Sandra Ferreira of Campo restaurant is glad to let the apps handle the logistics of delivery. Its a love-hate relationship, she said. With the insurance, bike, gas and problems of recruiting, I prefer paying a little bit more and not having to worry with that. All I have to do is make sure my product comes out nice. Some restaurant owners, like Jojo Flores of Filipino restaurant Junior and Hyun Woo Lee of Japanese restaurant Raku, say the online platform is good marketing, but they dont see that translating into more in-person customers, who are much more profitable for restaurants. When theyre in the restaurant, theyll order drinks, theres a bar, maybe theyll have dessert, coffee, said Flores. There are things that arent on the delivery menu that youd be curious to try. At home, youre watching TV and eating. You just want to get it over with and move on to something else. Lee says hes had only three customers come to the restaurant after placing online orders since November, despite Raku being one of the Plateaus top-selling Japanese restaurants on Uber Eats and about 90 per cent of his sales coming from delivery. Its not really worth it. We are just working hard for the delivery company, he said. Flores doesnt mind if online customers dont come to Junior. Our restaurant is more like a neighbourhood restaurant. The reason people are ordering is they wouldnt come anyway, he said. His strategy is to use four apps at once. When you add them all together, youre making not a lot, but a decent amount, he said. About 10 to 15 per cent of Floress business is delivery, and hed be OK with it going up to 30 per cent. For Atma, delivery is about 50 per cent and can go up to 70 per cent on busy nights. At Campo, its approximately 20 per cent, which is about right for Ferreira, though shed like to see that increase at off-peak hours. Margins at Raku would be better if Lee could increase prices on delivery to offset the commissions, but Uber Eats and SkipTheDishes require his in-restaurant and delivery prices be equal. The delivery company checks our prices at the restaurant. Only Foodora lets us increase the price, he said. Comparing menus of other Montreal restaurants, however, its clear that restaurants are increasing prices usually about $1 per item, but sometimes more. Others get around the no-markup policy by setting a higher delivery fee, using their own couriers and offering only larger sizes of menu items, which command higher prices and save cooks from making lots of tiny, individually packaged items. Despite Lees frustration, he wont drop Uber Eats and Foodora even once he has his own couriers, which is his goal. Its a good way to promote my restaurant, he said, adding that a lot of tourists use delivery apps. According to Notre-Boeuf-de-Grces Dresner, its not a case of good guys and bad guys. The delivery services are trying to make a living, too and theyre not there yet. Its a tough business. Doing the marketing, the customer service of course they have to charge commission to make money. Why shouldnt they profit? How restaurants can make money with delivery apps 1. Sign up with multiple apps to be seen by more users. 2. Increase delivery menu prices to make up for the commission, but not so much that you drive away customers. 3. Offer only large sizes of dishes. 4. Only sell dishes that travel well (or else expect bad reviews). 5. Hire your own couriers. 6. Have a big kitchen space to accommodate orders from restaurant guests and delivery pickups. 7. Have a separate entrance for takeout and delivery. 8. Run a ghost restaurant that only does delivery. 9. Increase your delivery fees, if possible. 10. Buy your own tablet, if possible, instead of buying one from the app company. | A growing number of Montreal restaurants are using delivery apps to make money. But the apps can be a double-edged knife, says one restaurateur. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/are-delivery-apps-hurting-local-restaurants | 0.416605 |
Are delivery apps hurting Montreal restaurants? | Its a busy Friday night at Atma restaurant on St-Laurent Blvd. Customers are pushing away thoughts of sub-zero temperatures by scooping nose-tingling butter chicken and chili paneer onto smoky naan bread. So far, the kitchen has had no trouble keeping up, but its almost 7:30 prime time for delivery. The restaurant has three tablets that transmit orders from three food-delivery companies: Foodora, SkipTheDishes and Uber Eats. When the first order comes in, its from Foodora, which means Atmas kitchen has 20 minutes to get the tandoori chicken, chicken biryani and daal makhani into recyclable takeaway containers for Foodoras courier to pick up. Foodora bases prep time on behavioural trends, order size and time of day and week, and will take $5 off if the foods not ready, unless the restaurant uses the in-app chat to request more time. According to Foodora marketing specialist Sadie Weinstein, the fee is to ensure Foodora customers receive the same customer service level as they would dining at the restaurant. For Atma co-owner Ravi Anand, losing that $5 would hurt, since most apps in Montreal take a 25 to 30 per cent commission (newcomer GOLO takes about 18 per cent). A 30 per cent commission with an average 30 per cent food cost leaves 40 per cent for the restaurant to pay staff, rent, hydro and hopefully make a profit; thats $12 on a $30 order, or just $7 if the food is late. Anand can get up to 60 online orders per night, so Atmas kitchen isnt swamped yet, but when all the tablets start pinging at once, he hits pause on one or all of the apps. This doesnt just happen at Atma. It could be any night, said Jonathan Dresner, co-owner of four Notre-Boeuf-de-Grce locations. On a Monday, you dont have four or five cooks, so it can still get busy. Sometimes you pause it for 20 minutes and then turn it back on. Thats why your favourite restaurant might not appear on your favourite app around 7 or 8 p.m. Consider popular Qing Hua; there are only so many pork dumplings a person can hand-wrap per minute. Fortunately, there are plenty of other restaurants to choose from SkipTheDishes has more than 1,000 in Montreal, and Foodora has more than 750 in Montreal and Laval. But the growing popularity of delivery apps has turned them into a double-edged well, knife, said Dresner. Other restaurateurs have asked me, Should I do it? I always tell them, You make money, but its not the money you want to make. If youre at a period where you can handle a little more, youre not losing money. But if youre going to hire extra staff to do it, youre going to break even or lose. You have to have a busy restaurant as well. Notre-Boeuf-de-Grce doesnt even advertise that it offers delivery on its website. I want guests to come in and have an experience. So anything we get from takeout, pickup, delivery is something extra, Dresner said. In Canada, the restaurant-to-consumer delivery market is estimated to be worth about $1.36 billion, according to Statista, an international market and consumer data research company. Howard Migdal, SkipTheDishes managing director for the Canadian market, says it could be as high as $4 billion and is growing at approximately 15 per cent year over year, based on SkipTheDishes internal data. Some restaurants even add second prep areas to their kitchens, install pickup shelves and open drive-through windows for online orders. Despite the growth, SkipTheDishes which merged with the Just Eat Group in 2016 isnt profitable yet, though its board and trading update from January states that its on track to be the first profitable food delivery organization by the end of 2019. I think there was some nervousness around delivery apps, Migdal said, but convenience is something everyones used to. Especially for independent restaurants, they wouldnt have the infrastructure to do delivery on their own. We give independent restaurants a tremendous opportunity to grow revenues and meet consumers needs. And brands think that we can do logistics cheaper than they could on their own. But Michel Lvine, owner of la Carte Express, is skeptical because of the high commissions. If your restaurants core sales are consumer delivery, or (if consumer delivery is) an important part of your total sales, its a problem, he said. Market saturation convinced him to shift la Cartes focus to larger corporate orders, which make a commission rate of about 30 per cent easier to swallow. We couldnt fight in the consumer market, so we went business-to-business, he said. These guys are not into profit-making theyre into gaining market share. We used to pay $7, $8 for a customer on AdWords. Now its more than $20 for customer acquisition. Sandra Ferreira of Campo restaurant is glad to let the apps handle the logistics of delivery. Its a love-hate relationship, she said. With the insurance, bike, gas and problems of recruiting, I prefer paying a little bit more and not having to worry with that. All I have to do is make sure my product comes out nice. Some restaurant owners, like Jojo Flores of Filipino restaurant Junior and Hyun Woo Lee of Japanese restaurant Raku, say the online platform is good marketing, but they dont see that translating into more in-person customers, who are much more profitable for restaurants. When theyre in the restaurant, theyll order drinks, theres a bar, maybe theyll have dessert, coffee, said Flores. There are things that arent on the delivery menu that youd be curious to try. At home, youre watching TV and eating. You just want to get it over with and move on to something else. Lee says hes had only three customers come to the restaurant after placing online orders since November, despite Raku being one of the Plateaus top-selling Japanese restaurants on Uber Eats and about 90 per cent of his sales coming from delivery. Its not really worth it. We are just working hard for the delivery company, he said. Flores doesnt mind if online customers dont come to Junior. Our restaurant is more like a neighbourhood restaurant. The reason people are ordering is they wouldnt come anyway, he said. His strategy is to use four apps at once. When you add them all together, youre making not a lot, but a decent amount, he said. About 10 to 15 per cent of Floress business is delivery, and hed be OK with it going up to 30 per cent. For Atma, delivery is about 50 per cent and can go up to 70 per cent on busy nights. At Campo, its approximately 20 per cent, which is about right for Ferreira, though shed like to see that increase at off-peak hours. Margins at Raku would be better if Lee could increase prices on delivery to offset the commissions, but Uber Eats and SkipTheDishes require his in-restaurant and delivery prices be equal. The delivery company checks our prices at the restaurant. Only Foodora lets us increase the price, he said. Comparing menus of other Montreal restaurants, however, its clear that restaurants are increasing prices usually about $1 per item, but sometimes more. Others get around the no-markup policy by setting a higher delivery fee, using their own couriers and offering only larger sizes of menu items, which command higher prices and save cooks from making lots of tiny, individually packaged items. Despite Lees frustration, he wont drop Uber Eats and Foodora even once he has his own couriers, which is his goal. Its a good way to promote my restaurant, he said, adding that a lot of tourists use delivery apps. According to Notre-Boeuf-de-Grces Dresner, its not a case of good guys and bad guys. The delivery services are trying to make a living, too and theyre not there yet. Its a tough business. Doing the marketing, the customer service of course they have to charge commission to make money. Why shouldnt they profit? How restaurants can make money with delivery apps 1. Sign up with multiple apps to be seen by more users. 2. Increase delivery menu prices to make up for the commission, but not so much that you drive away customers. 3. Offer only large sizes of dishes. 4. Only sell dishes that travel well (or else expect bad reviews). 5. Hire your own couriers. 6. Have a big kitchen space to accommodate orders from restaurant guests and delivery pickups. 7. Have a separate entrance for takeout and delivery. 8. Run a ghost restaurant that only does delivery. 9. Increase your delivery fees, if possible. 10. Buy your own tablet, if possible, instead of buying one from the app company. | A growing number of Montreal restaurants are using delivery apps to make money. But the apps can be a double-edged knife, says one restaurateur. The apps charge a fee for delivery, but some restaurants don't even advertise they offer it. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/are-delivery-apps-hurting-local-restaurants | 0.462878 |
Are delivery apps hurting Montreal restaurants? | Its a busy Friday night at Atma restaurant on St-Laurent Blvd. Customers are pushing away thoughts of sub-zero temperatures by scooping nose-tingling butter chicken and chili paneer onto smoky naan bread. So far, the kitchen has had no trouble keeping up, but its almost 7:30 prime time for delivery. The restaurant has three tablets that transmit orders from three food-delivery companies: Foodora, SkipTheDishes and Uber Eats. When the first order comes in, its from Foodora, which means Atmas kitchen has 20 minutes to get the tandoori chicken, chicken biryani and daal makhani into recyclable takeaway containers for Foodoras courier to pick up. Foodora bases prep time on behavioural trends, order size and time of day and week, and will take $5 off if the foods not ready, unless the restaurant uses the in-app chat to request more time. According to Foodora marketing specialist Sadie Weinstein, the fee is to ensure Foodora customers receive the same customer service level as they would dining at the restaurant. For Atma co-owner Ravi Anand, losing that $5 would hurt, since most apps in Montreal take a 25 to 30 per cent commission (newcomer GOLO takes about 18 per cent). A 30 per cent commission with an average 30 per cent food cost leaves 40 per cent for the restaurant to pay staff, rent, hydro and hopefully make a profit; thats $12 on a $30 order, or just $7 if the food is late. Anand can get up to 60 online orders per night, so Atmas kitchen isnt swamped yet, but when all the tablets start pinging at once, he hits pause on one or all of the apps. This doesnt just happen at Atma. It could be any night, said Jonathan Dresner, co-owner of four Notre-Boeuf-de-Grce locations. On a Monday, you dont have four or five cooks, so it can still get busy. Sometimes you pause it for 20 minutes and then turn it back on. Thats why your favourite restaurant might not appear on your favourite app around 7 or 8 p.m. Consider popular Qing Hua; there are only so many pork dumplings a person can hand-wrap per minute. Fortunately, there are plenty of other restaurants to choose from SkipTheDishes has more than 1,000 in Montreal, and Foodora has more than 750 in Montreal and Laval. But the growing popularity of delivery apps has turned them into a double-edged well, knife, said Dresner. Other restaurateurs have asked me, Should I do it? I always tell them, You make money, but its not the money you want to make. If youre at a period where you can handle a little more, youre not losing money. But if youre going to hire extra staff to do it, youre going to break even or lose. You have to have a busy restaurant as well. Notre-Boeuf-de-Grce doesnt even advertise that it offers delivery on its website. I want guests to come in and have an experience. So anything we get from takeout, pickup, delivery is something extra, Dresner said. In Canada, the restaurant-to-consumer delivery market is estimated to be worth about $1.36 billion, according to Statista, an international market and consumer data research company. Howard Migdal, SkipTheDishes managing director for the Canadian market, says it could be as high as $4 billion and is growing at approximately 15 per cent year over year, based on SkipTheDishes internal data. Some restaurants even add second prep areas to their kitchens, install pickup shelves and open drive-through windows for online orders. Despite the growth, SkipTheDishes which merged with the Just Eat Group in 2016 isnt profitable yet, though its board and trading update from January states that its on track to be the first profitable food delivery organization by the end of 2019. I think there was some nervousness around delivery apps, Migdal said, but convenience is something everyones used to. Especially for independent restaurants, they wouldnt have the infrastructure to do delivery on their own. We give independent restaurants a tremendous opportunity to grow revenues and meet consumers needs. And brands think that we can do logistics cheaper than they could on their own. But Michel Lvine, owner of la Carte Express, is skeptical because of the high commissions. If your restaurants core sales are consumer delivery, or (if consumer delivery is) an important part of your total sales, its a problem, he said. Market saturation convinced him to shift la Cartes focus to larger corporate orders, which make a commission rate of about 30 per cent easier to swallow. We couldnt fight in the consumer market, so we went business-to-business, he said. These guys are not into profit-making theyre into gaining market share. We used to pay $7, $8 for a customer on AdWords. Now its more than $20 for customer acquisition. Sandra Ferreira of Campo restaurant is glad to let the apps handle the logistics of delivery. Its a love-hate relationship, she said. With the insurance, bike, gas and problems of recruiting, I prefer paying a little bit more and not having to worry with that. All I have to do is make sure my product comes out nice. Some restaurant owners, like Jojo Flores of Filipino restaurant Junior and Hyun Woo Lee of Japanese restaurant Raku, say the online platform is good marketing, but they dont see that translating into more in-person customers, who are much more profitable for restaurants. When theyre in the restaurant, theyll order drinks, theres a bar, maybe theyll have dessert, coffee, said Flores. There are things that arent on the delivery menu that youd be curious to try. At home, youre watching TV and eating. You just want to get it over with and move on to something else. Lee says hes had only three customers come to the restaurant after placing online orders since November, despite Raku being one of the Plateaus top-selling Japanese restaurants on Uber Eats and about 90 per cent of his sales coming from delivery. Its not really worth it. We are just working hard for the delivery company, he said. Flores doesnt mind if online customers dont come to Junior. Our restaurant is more like a neighbourhood restaurant. The reason people are ordering is they wouldnt come anyway, he said. His strategy is to use four apps at once. When you add them all together, youre making not a lot, but a decent amount, he said. About 10 to 15 per cent of Floress business is delivery, and hed be OK with it going up to 30 per cent. For Atma, delivery is about 50 per cent and can go up to 70 per cent on busy nights. At Campo, its approximately 20 per cent, which is about right for Ferreira, though shed like to see that increase at off-peak hours. Margins at Raku would be better if Lee could increase prices on delivery to offset the commissions, but Uber Eats and SkipTheDishes require his in-restaurant and delivery prices be equal. The delivery company checks our prices at the restaurant. Only Foodora lets us increase the price, he said. Comparing menus of other Montreal restaurants, however, its clear that restaurants are increasing prices usually about $1 per item, but sometimes more. Others get around the no-markup policy by setting a higher delivery fee, using their own couriers and offering only larger sizes of menu items, which command higher prices and save cooks from making lots of tiny, individually packaged items. Despite Lees frustration, he wont drop Uber Eats and Foodora even once he has his own couriers, which is his goal. Its a good way to promote my restaurant, he said, adding that a lot of tourists use delivery apps. According to Notre-Boeuf-de-Grces Dresner, its not a case of good guys and bad guys. The delivery services are trying to make a living, too and theyre not there yet. Its a tough business. Doing the marketing, the customer service of course they have to charge commission to make money. Why shouldnt they profit? How restaurants can make money with delivery apps 1. Sign up with multiple apps to be seen by more users. 2. Increase delivery menu prices to make up for the commission, but not so much that you drive away customers. 3. Offer only large sizes of dishes. 4. Only sell dishes that travel well (or else expect bad reviews). 5. Hire your own couriers. 6. Have a big kitchen space to accommodate orders from restaurant guests and delivery pickups. 7. Have a separate entrance for takeout and delivery. 8. Run a ghost restaurant that only does delivery. 9. Increase your delivery fees, if possible. 10. Buy your own tablet, if possible, instead of buying one from the app company. | A growing number of Montreal restaurants are using delivery apps to make money. But the apps can be a double-edged knife, says one restaurateur. The apps charge a fee for delivery, but some restaurants say it's worth it to make a profit on the service. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/are-delivery-apps-hurting-local-restaurants | 0.501492 |
Did Saint Patrick Bring Whiskey To Ireland? | Its St. Patricks Day, an occasion to celebrate the feast day of Irelands patron saint and all things Celtic and Irish. Historically, Irish whiskey has been a ubiquitous part of the annual celebration. According to the Irish Whiskey Association (IWA), more Irish whiskey, upwards of 5 million bottles, is consumed in the week of St. Patricks Day than on any other week of the year. The close association between St. Patricks Day and Irish whiskey has given rise to the widely held belief that it was the venerable Saint himself that first brought the art of distillation, and by extension whiskey, to Ireland. The first reference to whiskey in Ireland, or at least its predecessor, was in 1170. Shortly after his invasion of Ireland, Henry II noted that the Irish were in the habit of making and drinking aqua vitae. In Gaelic, it was called uisce beatha, a term that was eventually corrupted by the English into whiskey. Henry IIs reference to aqua vitae, Latin for water of life, was the earliest recorded reference to the manufacture and consumption of distilled spirits in Ireland, and preceded their introduction into Scotland by several centuries. While the origins of whiskey distillation in Ireland are unclear, there is no doubt who showed the Scots how to make whiskeythe Irish taught them. It is impossible for the practice of distillation to have been introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick, regardless of the close association of St Patrick and Irish whiskey. St. Patrick had grown up in Roman Britain during the 5th century. There is no historical record of the distillation of alcohol anywhere in the British Isles during this period. Moreover, while there is evidence that minute quantities of alcohol were being produced during Roman times for use in religious rituals, there is no record that any significant quantities of alcohol, for consumption as a beverage, was being produced anywhere in the Roman Empire. Roman writers produced a prodigious number of publications concerning Roman gastronomy in general and, in particular, the production and appreciation of fine wines. Nowhere in this literature is there any reference to the consumption of alcohol as a beverage. It is not clear how St. Patrick would have obtained a knowledge of distillation, much less that he taught the Irish how to do it. It has also been suggested that distillation was a remnant of Celtic civilization. Here too there is no evidence of this link. Today we associate Ireland with Celtic culture. Traditional Irish music is often referred to as Celtic music. Celtic symbols, folklore and legends are all deeply woven into the fabric of Irish life. Its easy to conclude, as a result, that Ireland was the center of the Celtic world. That conclusion, however, is incorrect. At its peak, Celtic civilization ranged from Ireland to the Black Sea, and from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. In antiquity, the center of Celtic civilization was northwest France, centered in the region that today we call Champagne. Beginning in the 1st century BC, the majority of the Celtic world was systematically conquered by Romes legions and progressively absorbed into the Roman Empire. Ireland, Hibernia, to the Romans, at the very fringes of the known geography, was the only part of the Celtic world that escaped Roman conquest. The Romans did send a few exploratory expeditions into Ireland during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but they found little of value there to spur their interest. Roman Britain was one of the few Roman provinces that actually operated at a loss. The cost of Roman administration, and keeping Roman troops, there exceeded the tax revenues generated by the province. The Romans concluded that garrisoning and administering Ireland would just be a drain on the treasury and left Hibernia alone. If the distillation of alcohol had been part of Celtic civilization, then it is likely that the Romans would have become familiar with it during the conquest of Gaul, the very heartland of the Celtic world, and the subsequent conquest of Britain. There is, however, no record of alcohol distillation anywhere in the Celtic world in antiquity. The more likely explanation is that knowledge of distillation diffused from the Middle East via various routes sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries. Monasteries became the repository of that knowledge, and it was passed on by traveling monks to other monasteries. This is probably how the knowledge of distillation first arrived in Ireland. This was the beginning of Irish whiskey, although it would take the better part of five centuries before modern whiskey would begin to emerge. Regardless of how the Irish learned to make whiskey, the close association between Irish whiskey and St. Patricks Day remains. So, this St. Patricks Day raise a wee dram of Irelands fine whiskey to celebrate the feast day of Irelands patron saint. St. Patrick may not have taught the Irish how to make whiskey, but he has certainly exerted a considerable influence on its consumption. Slinte | Irish Whiskey Association: More Irish whiskey is consumed in the week of St. Patrick's Day than on any other week of the year. It is impossible for the practice of distillation to have been introduced into Ireland by St Patrick, regardless of the close association of St Patrick and Irish whiskey. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemicallef/2019/03/16/did-saint-patrick-bring-whiskey-to-ireland/ | 0.20989 |
Why Were Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google Allowed to Get So Big? | The rise of global technology superstars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google created new challenges for the competition watchdogs who enforce the nations antitrust laws. Those companies dominate markets in e-books and smartphones, search advertising and social-media traffic, spurring a global debate over whether its time to rein in such winner-take-all companies. The U.S. has largely been hands off, but that may be changing. 1. Theyre powerful, for sure. Google and Facebook Inc. together control almost 60 percent of digital ad revenue in the U.S. and 64 percent of mobile ad revenue, according to eMarketer. Apple Inc. has about 45 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. About 47 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales go through Amazon.com Inc. But under modern antitrust enforcement, those percentages alone arent enough to alarm regulators in the U.S., which long ago stopped equating big with bad. (For comparisons sake, Standard Oils market share got as high as 88 percent late in the 19th century.) Whats illegal is for a monopoly to abuse its market power to prevent rivals from threatening its dominance. Federal courts ruled Microsoft Corp. did so in the 1990s. 2. The Microsoft lawsuit was the last major monopolization case brought by the U.S. The ensuing 20-year dry spell is often cited by those who argue enforcement has been too timid. President Barack Obamas administration vowed to get tough on dominant companies in 2009, but it didnt follow through. The number of monopoly cases brought by the U.S. dropped sharply from an average of 15.7 cases per year from 1970 to 1999 to less than three between 2000 and 2014. 3. Some lawyers and economists think its time to move past conventional antitrust enforcement to consider harmful effects from increased concentration such as lower private investment, weak productivity growth, rising inequality and declining business dynamism, or the rate at which firms enter and exit markets. Theyve gained a high-profile backer in Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who is seeking her partys 2020 presidential nomination and who has proposed dismantling tech giants like Facebook and Google. 4. As the middlemen for todays essential products and services, platforms like Amazon and Facebook have leverage over both producers and consumers. Amazon used its power over the book market in 2014 to block pre-orders for some Hachette Book titles during a dispute with the publisher over pricing. The tech giants are also growing by snapping up potential rivals that might threaten market share. Data compiled by Bloomberg show the big five Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft have made 431 acquisitions worth $155.7 billion over the last decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The companies also have control over vast amounts of data about their customers, raising concerns about threats to privacy. 5. In the U.S., theyre primarily focused on the harm to consumers from reduced competition. Thats usually not an issue in high-tech tie-ups, because big firms are often gobbling up much smaller rivals or buying companies for the purpose of entering new markets. The European Union has been more aggressive, as evidenced by the $2.7 billion fine against Alphabet Inc.s Google in 2017 for favoring its shopping-comparison service over those of its rivals. Google was hit with an additional $5 billion fine by the EU last year. 6. EU law sets a lower bar for finding dominance by a company, so its easier to run afoul of anti-monopoly law. (The U.S. chose not to bring charges against Google for the same conduct the EU found illegal.) EU enforcers also have been more wary of big companies collecting consumers personal data. Strict new privacy rules that took effect in the EU last May under the General Data Protection Regulation gave regulators unprecedented powers to protect people from having their data misused by companies doing business there. Already, Google has been fined 50 million euros ($56.8 million) for privacy violations the highest such penalty ever in the EU. (Google has appealed.) 7. They argue that their dominance is hardly durable because barriers to entry are low for new competitors. As Google is fond of saying, competition is just one click away. Due to the nature of competition in the digital marketplace, tech platforms benefit from network effects: As more people use them, the more useful and dominant the platforms become. Network effects can give a company scale quickly and create what investor Warren Buffett calls competitive moats. | The rise of global technology superstars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google created new challenges for the competition watchdogs. The U.S. has largely been hands off, but that may be changing. | bart | 1 | http://fortune.com/2019/03/16/google-amazon-antitrust-laws/ | 0.122106 |
Why Were Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google Allowed to Get So Big? | The rise of global technology superstars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google created new challenges for the competition watchdogs who enforce the nations antitrust laws. Those companies dominate markets in e-books and smartphones, search advertising and social-media traffic, spurring a global debate over whether its time to rein in such winner-take-all companies. The U.S. has largely been hands off, but that may be changing. 1. Theyre powerful, for sure. Google and Facebook Inc. together control almost 60 percent of digital ad revenue in the U.S. and 64 percent of mobile ad revenue, according to eMarketer. Apple Inc. has about 45 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. About 47 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales go through Amazon.com Inc. But under modern antitrust enforcement, those percentages alone arent enough to alarm regulators in the U.S., which long ago stopped equating big with bad. (For comparisons sake, Standard Oils market share got as high as 88 percent late in the 19th century.) Whats illegal is for a monopoly to abuse its market power to prevent rivals from threatening its dominance. Federal courts ruled Microsoft Corp. did so in the 1990s. 2. The Microsoft lawsuit was the last major monopolization case brought by the U.S. The ensuing 20-year dry spell is often cited by those who argue enforcement has been too timid. President Barack Obamas administration vowed to get tough on dominant companies in 2009, but it didnt follow through. The number of monopoly cases brought by the U.S. dropped sharply from an average of 15.7 cases per year from 1970 to 1999 to less than three between 2000 and 2014. 3. Some lawyers and economists think its time to move past conventional antitrust enforcement to consider harmful effects from increased concentration such as lower private investment, weak productivity growth, rising inequality and declining business dynamism, or the rate at which firms enter and exit markets. Theyve gained a high-profile backer in Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who is seeking her partys 2020 presidential nomination and who has proposed dismantling tech giants like Facebook and Google. 4. As the middlemen for todays essential products and services, platforms like Amazon and Facebook have leverage over both producers and consumers. Amazon used its power over the book market in 2014 to block pre-orders for some Hachette Book titles during a dispute with the publisher over pricing. The tech giants are also growing by snapping up potential rivals that might threaten market share. Data compiled by Bloomberg show the big five Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft have made 431 acquisitions worth $155.7 billion over the last decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The companies also have control over vast amounts of data about their customers, raising concerns about threats to privacy. 5. In the U.S., theyre primarily focused on the harm to consumers from reduced competition. Thats usually not an issue in high-tech tie-ups, because big firms are often gobbling up much smaller rivals or buying companies for the purpose of entering new markets. The European Union has been more aggressive, as evidenced by the $2.7 billion fine against Alphabet Inc.s Google in 2017 for favoring its shopping-comparison service over those of its rivals. Google was hit with an additional $5 billion fine by the EU last year. 6. EU law sets a lower bar for finding dominance by a company, so its easier to run afoul of anti-monopoly law. (The U.S. chose not to bring charges against Google for the same conduct the EU found illegal.) EU enforcers also have been more wary of big companies collecting consumers personal data. Strict new privacy rules that took effect in the EU last May under the General Data Protection Regulation gave regulators unprecedented powers to protect people from having their data misused by companies doing business there. Already, Google has been fined 50 million euros ($56.8 million) for privacy violations the highest such penalty ever in the EU. (Google has appealed.) 7. They argue that their dominance is hardly durable because barriers to entry are low for new competitors. As Google is fond of saying, competition is just one click away. Due to the nature of competition in the digital marketplace, tech platforms benefit from network effects: As more people use them, the more useful and dominant the platforms become. Network effects can give a company scale quickly and create what investor Warren Buffett calls competitive moats. | The rise of global technology superstars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google created new challenges for the competition watchdogs. Those companies dominate markets in e-books and smartphones, search advertising and social-media traffic. The U.S. has largely been hands off, but that may be changing. | bart | 2 | http://fortune.com/2019/03/16/google-amazon-antitrust-laws/ | 0.228916 |
Why are truffles are so darned expensive? | They're difficult to find, a pain to grow and lose their sexy aroma within a week Truffles the non-chocolate kind, sorry are edible fungi, like mushrooms. expensive, sometimes as much as thousands of dollars per pound. Truffles are costly because they're hard to find, frustrating to grow, and impossible to store for any length of time. They generally range from strawberry- to apple-sized, though larger ones have been discovered. Though multiple species are found worldwide, prestige truffles come from specific areas, much like wine from celebrated regions of Europe and California. Black truffles from France and white truffles from Italy are the two most highly valued. Even though they resemble evil spores from a 1960s Outer Limits episode, truffles are prized delicacies in gastronomy, the art of cooking and eating good food. More: U.S. farms grow $1,000-per-pound truffles with help from dogs Some U.S entrepreneurs are cultivating truffles to become part of an industry estimated to grow to nearly $6 billion globally over the next two decades. Truffle farms face formidable agricultural challenges, since truffles thrive only in a narrow band of weather conditions. Black truffles, for example, need mild winters, no frost, warm (not hot) summers, and dry winters, according to modernfarmer.com. Black truffles are found in the Prigord region in France. Getty Images Grow a good truffle, however, and you'll be rewarded by food fanatics clamoring for a seat at your table. Ask aficionados to describe truffles and you'll get baskets of adjectives: garlicky, mushroomy, earthy, pungent, musky, gamey. That's because the truffle's flavor comes not from its taste, but its aroma. Writers wax poetic about it: Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them the truffles were coming. William Makepeace Thackeray, Memorials of Gormandizing, 1841 Truffles' peculiar odor comes from a multitude of chemicals. In white truffles, bis(methylthio)methane is the key compound, according to the American Chemical Society. In black truffles, dimethyl sulfide and 2-Methylbutanal are found. In addition to those scent molecules, truffles have pheromones, chemical substances that affect animals and insect behavior. They have androstenol, a steroidal pheromone found in humans, and androstenone, which boars produce for mating. White truffles come from Italy's Piedmont district. Getty Images Modern research suggests truffles affect people because of the human pheromone. Others have commented on the phenomenon: "The truffle is not a positive aphrodisiac, but on occasion it can make women more loving and men more lovable." Alexandre Dumas, Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, 1871 The smell is also why pigs were originally used to sniff out truffles they were drawn to the boar pheromone. Specially trained dogs are employed these days, since they don't gobble up truffles as pigs do. Unfortunately the unique odor starts to fade as soon as the truffle is dug up. Truffles don't last longer than 7 to 10 days. Truffles can be cooked, but are usually cleaned by hand and grated or sliced paper-thin atop warm food, which absorbs the truffle's aroma. Other cooks put truffles in closed containers with food to impart a truffle flavor. You don't need much since a little goes a long way. In lieu of actual truffles, some people use less expensive truffle oil, which is "cooking oil, such as olive or sunflower oil, that has been infused with the aroma of white or black truffles," according to Bon Apptit magazine. Black truffles served over polenta, a type of yellow cornmeal. Getty Images It can be difficult to find truffle oil that includes real truffles. It's out there, but most of it is cooking oil scented with chemicals found in truffles (but not truffles themselves). You shouldn't cook with truffle oil since heat tends to alter it, advises RecipeGeek. It's considered a finishing oil, best when sprinkled sparingly over prepared food like eggs, cooked vegetables, pasta or potatoes. Even french fries are subjected to the treatment. Truffle oil has its passionate defenders and detractors. Anthony Bourdain, the late celebrity chef, was unsparingly critical: "Truffle oil. It's horrible. It's not even food. It's really on a par with about as edible as Astroglide, and made from the same stuff." SOURCE americantruffle.com; American Chemical Society; Scientific American; mssf.org; Forbes; foodreference.com; wideopeneats.com; smithsonian.com; modernfarmer.com; Bon Apptit; recipegeek.com; USA TODAY research; TOP IMAGE: Getty Images | Truffles are edible fungi, like mushrooms, and can cost thousands of dollars per pound. | bart | 0 | https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/world/2019/03/16/truffles-why-so-expensive/3161242002/ | 0.202746 |
Why are truffles are so darned expensive? | They're difficult to find, a pain to grow and lose their sexy aroma within a week Truffles the non-chocolate kind, sorry are edible fungi, like mushrooms. expensive, sometimes as much as thousands of dollars per pound. Truffles are costly because they're hard to find, frustrating to grow, and impossible to store for any length of time. They generally range from strawberry- to apple-sized, though larger ones have been discovered. Though multiple species are found worldwide, prestige truffles come from specific areas, much like wine from celebrated regions of Europe and California. Black truffles from France and white truffles from Italy are the two most highly valued. Even though they resemble evil spores from a 1960s Outer Limits episode, truffles are prized delicacies in gastronomy, the art of cooking and eating good food. More: U.S. farms grow $1,000-per-pound truffles with help from dogs Some U.S entrepreneurs are cultivating truffles to become part of an industry estimated to grow to nearly $6 billion globally over the next two decades. Truffle farms face formidable agricultural challenges, since truffles thrive only in a narrow band of weather conditions. Black truffles, for example, need mild winters, no frost, warm (not hot) summers, and dry winters, according to modernfarmer.com. Black truffles are found in the Prigord region in France. Getty Images Grow a good truffle, however, and you'll be rewarded by food fanatics clamoring for a seat at your table. Ask aficionados to describe truffles and you'll get baskets of adjectives: garlicky, mushroomy, earthy, pungent, musky, gamey. That's because the truffle's flavor comes not from its taste, but its aroma. Writers wax poetic about it: Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them the truffles were coming. William Makepeace Thackeray, Memorials of Gormandizing, 1841 Truffles' peculiar odor comes from a multitude of chemicals. In white truffles, bis(methylthio)methane is the key compound, according to the American Chemical Society. In black truffles, dimethyl sulfide and 2-Methylbutanal are found. In addition to those scent molecules, truffles have pheromones, chemical substances that affect animals and insect behavior. They have androstenol, a steroidal pheromone found in humans, and androstenone, which boars produce for mating. White truffles come from Italy's Piedmont district. Getty Images Modern research suggests truffles affect people because of the human pheromone. Others have commented on the phenomenon: "The truffle is not a positive aphrodisiac, but on occasion it can make women more loving and men more lovable." Alexandre Dumas, Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, 1871 The smell is also why pigs were originally used to sniff out truffles they were drawn to the boar pheromone. Specially trained dogs are employed these days, since they don't gobble up truffles as pigs do. Unfortunately the unique odor starts to fade as soon as the truffle is dug up. Truffles don't last longer than 7 to 10 days. Truffles can be cooked, but are usually cleaned by hand and grated or sliced paper-thin atop warm food, which absorbs the truffle's aroma. Other cooks put truffles in closed containers with food to impart a truffle flavor. You don't need much since a little goes a long way. In lieu of actual truffles, some people use less expensive truffle oil, which is "cooking oil, such as olive or sunflower oil, that has been infused with the aroma of white or black truffles," according to Bon Apptit magazine. Black truffles served over polenta, a type of yellow cornmeal. Getty Images It can be difficult to find truffle oil that includes real truffles. It's out there, but most of it is cooking oil scented with chemicals found in truffles (but not truffles themselves). You shouldn't cook with truffle oil since heat tends to alter it, advises RecipeGeek. It's considered a finishing oil, best when sprinkled sparingly over prepared food like eggs, cooked vegetables, pasta or potatoes. Even french fries are subjected to the treatment. Truffle oil has its passionate defenders and detractors. Anthony Bourdain, the late celebrity chef, was unsparingly critical: "Truffle oil. It's horrible. It's not even food. It's really on a par with about as edible as Astroglide, and made from the same stuff." SOURCE americantruffle.com; American Chemical Society; Scientific American; mssf.org; Forbes; foodreference.com; wideopeneats.com; smithsonian.com; modernfarmer.com; Bon Apptit; recipegeek.com; USA TODAY research; TOP IMAGE: Getty Images | Truffles are edible fungi, like mushrooms, and can cost thousands of dollars per pound. They're hard to find, frustrating to grow, and impossible to store for any length of time. | bart | 1 | https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/world/2019/03/16/truffles-why-so-expensive/3161242002/ | 0.364016 |
Why are truffles are so darned expensive? | They're difficult to find, a pain to grow and lose their sexy aroma within a week Truffles the non-chocolate kind, sorry are edible fungi, like mushrooms. expensive, sometimes as much as thousands of dollars per pound. Truffles are costly because they're hard to find, frustrating to grow, and impossible to store for any length of time. They generally range from strawberry- to apple-sized, though larger ones have been discovered. Though multiple species are found worldwide, prestige truffles come from specific areas, much like wine from celebrated regions of Europe and California. Black truffles from France and white truffles from Italy are the two most highly valued. Even though they resemble evil spores from a 1960s Outer Limits episode, truffles are prized delicacies in gastronomy, the art of cooking and eating good food. More: U.S. farms grow $1,000-per-pound truffles with help from dogs Some U.S entrepreneurs are cultivating truffles to become part of an industry estimated to grow to nearly $6 billion globally over the next two decades. Truffle farms face formidable agricultural challenges, since truffles thrive only in a narrow band of weather conditions. Black truffles, for example, need mild winters, no frost, warm (not hot) summers, and dry winters, according to modernfarmer.com. Black truffles are found in the Prigord region in France. Getty Images Grow a good truffle, however, and you'll be rewarded by food fanatics clamoring for a seat at your table. Ask aficionados to describe truffles and you'll get baskets of adjectives: garlicky, mushroomy, earthy, pungent, musky, gamey. That's because the truffle's flavor comes not from its taste, but its aroma. Writers wax poetic about it: Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them the truffles were coming. William Makepeace Thackeray, Memorials of Gormandizing, 1841 Truffles' peculiar odor comes from a multitude of chemicals. In white truffles, bis(methylthio)methane is the key compound, according to the American Chemical Society. In black truffles, dimethyl sulfide and 2-Methylbutanal are found. In addition to those scent molecules, truffles have pheromones, chemical substances that affect animals and insect behavior. They have androstenol, a steroidal pheromone found in humans, and androstenone, which boars produce for mating. White truffles come from Italy's Piedmont district. Getty Images Modern research suggests truffles affect people because of the human pheromone. Others have commented on the phenomenon: "The truffle is not a positive aphrodisiac, but on occasion it can make women more loving and men more lovable." Alexandre Dumas, Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, 1871 The smell is also why pigs were originally used to sniff out truffles they were drawn to the boar pheromone. Specially trained dogs are employed these days, since they don't gobble up truffles as pigs do. Unfortunately the unique odor starts to fade as soon as the truffle is dug up. Truffles don't last longer than 7 to 10 days. Truffles can be cooked, but are usually cleaned by hand and grated or sliced paper-thin atop warm food, which absorbs the truffle's aroma. Other cooks put truffles in closed containers with food to impart a truffle flavor. You don't need much since a little goes a long way. In lieu of actual truffles, some people use less expensive truffle oil, which is "cooking oil, such as olive or sunflower oil, that has been infused with the aroma of white or black truffles," according to Bon Apptit magazine. Black truffles served over polenta, a type of yellow cornmeal. Getty Images It can be difficult to find truffle oil that includes real truffles. It's out there, but most of it is cooking oil scented with chemicals found in truffles (but not truffles themselves). You shouldn't cook with truffle oil since heat tends to alter it, advises RecipeGeek. It's considered a finishing oil, best when sprinkled sparingly over prepared food like eggs, cooked vegetables, pasta or potatoes. Even french fries are subjected to the treatment. Truffle oil has its passionate defenders and detractors. Anthony Bourdain, the late celebrity chef, was unsparingly critical: "Truffle oil. It's horrible. It's not even food. It's really on a par with about as edible as Astroglide, and made from the same stuff." SOURCE americantruffle.com; American Chemical Society; Scientific American; mssf.org; Forbes; foodreference.com; wideopeneats.com; smithsonian.com; modernfarmer.com; Bon Apptit; recipegeek.com; USA TODAY research; TOP IMAGE: Getty Images | Truffles are edible fungi, like mushrooms, and can cost thousands of dollars per pound. They're hard to find, frustrating to grow, and impossible to store for any length of time. Some U.S. entrepreneurs are cultivating truffles to become part of an industry estimated to grow to nearly $6 billion globally. | bart | 2 | https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/world/2019/03/16/truffles-why-so-expensive/3161242002/ | 0.431123 |
What made Troy Dannen change his mind about Mike Dunleavy Sr. at Tulane? | More than four weeks passed from the time when Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen gave a public show of support for basketball coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. to the moment the two met at 9 a.m. Saturday (March 16). During that meeting, Dannen told Dunleavy he planned to make a change in leadership of the basketball program. In other words, the AD fired Dunleavy after the three losing seasons that ended with a 21-game losing streak, the schools longest in 55 years. If you dont feel progress is being made, if youre not looking forward to what lies ahead, you have to ask yourself, why not?" Dannen said Saturday during a news conference to discuss the firing. I dont know that there was a day where that switch hit, but it was really obvious over the course of the last few weeks, we werent in position to get better over the next year or the next two years. Dannen said the show of support Feb. 13 came in part to keep other programs from contacting current players and prospective recruits to encourage them to either transfer or consider committing to a different school. Dannen wanted to take those external pressures off his coach and players as they neared the finishing stretch of the season. He used the four-plus weeks since then to continue his evaluation of the basketball program, and at some point met with university president Michael A. Fitts to remind him that a he felt a basketball turnaround at Tulane would be more difficult than other sports. At some point, Dunleavys fate was sealed, even after Dannen said in his show of support to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that Mike Dunleavys not going anywhere. Dunleavys .258 winning percentage (24-69) is the second-poorest among all coaches in school history. The only coach with a poorer winning percentage is Ted Lendhardt, whose 1963-64 team lost the first 22 games before beating LSU in the final game for a 1-22 record (.043). We just werent making the progress we wanted to make, Dannen said. I said from the very beginning when I got here, we want to win at everything. Mike Dunleavy, Tulane were a bad fit, now Green Wave needs to find the right one Tulane had no choice but to move on from former NBA coach after abysmal 4-27 season Dannen insisted Dunleavy was the right hire at the time it was made in March 2016. Dannen said Tulane had a team grade-point average of 1.99, which has since improved to 3.19 in the recent fall semester. Dunleavys ability to develop talent has been well documented with how Melvin Frazier and Cameron Reynolds are now on NBA rosters, with Frazier on the Orlando Magic as the first Tulane player selected in the NBA Draft since 1997 and Reynolds recently signing a multi-year contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Green Wave this season won four of the first 10 games but then lost the remaining 21 contests, including an 0-18 record in American Athletic Conference play. The season ended with a conference tournament against Memphis on the Tigers home floor. Dannen followed his meeting with Dunleavy on Saturday by meeting with the players. They played hard, Dannen said. I told the guys when I met with them, its really easy when things are going the way they went, to quit, to give up. The last thing that they never did was quit or give up. They played as hard in the last minute of the season as they did in the first. I was very proud of that. But it also goes back to Mikes leadership inside the program. Tulane hired Dunleavy with more than 1,300 games of NBA coaching experience. Dannen said the next coach will come from the college ranks, either as a current or former head coach, or a current assistant. He said if he had a list of 20 candidates for the job, 15 or so would be coaching in the NCAA tournament as a head coach or assistant. | Tulane AD Troy Dannen fired basketball coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. after three losing seasons. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.nola.com/tulane/2019/03/what-made-troy-dannen-change-his-mind-about-mike-dunleavy-sr-at-tulane.html | 0.142167 |
What made Troy Dannen change his mind about Mike Dunleavy Sr. at Tulane? | More than four weeks passed from the time when Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen gave a public show of support for basketball coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. to the moment the two met at 9 a.m. Saturday (March 16). During that meeting, Dannen told Dunleavy he planned to make a change in leadership of the basketball program. In other words, the AD fired Dunleavy after the three losing seasons that ended with a 21-game losing streak, the schools longest in 55 years. If you dont feel progress is being made, if youre not looking forward to what lies ahead, you have to ask yourself, why not?" Dannen said Saturday during a news conference to discuss the firing. I dont know that there was a day where that switch hit, but it was really obvious over the course of the last few weeks, we werent in position to get better over the next year or the next two years. Dannen said the show of support Feb. 13 came in part to keep other programs from contacting current players and prospective recruits to encourage them to either transfer or consider committing to a different school. Dannen wanted to take those external pressures off his coach and players as they neared the finishing stretch of the season. He used the four-plus weeks since then to continue his evaluation of the basketball program, and at some point met with university president Michael A. Fitts to remind him that a he felt a basketball turnaround at Tulane would be more difficult than other sports. At some point, Dunleavys fate was sealed, even after Dannen said in his show of support to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that Mike Dunleavys not going anywhere. Dunleavys .258 winning percentage (24-69) is the second-poorest among all coaches in school history. The only coach with a poorer winning percentage is Ted Lendhardt, whose 1963-64 team lost the first 22 games before beating LSU in the final game for a 1-22 record (.043). We just werent making the progress we wanted to make, Dannen said. I said from the very beginning when I got here, we want to win at everything. Mike Dunleavy, Tulane were a bad fit, now Green Wave needs to find the right one Tulane had no choice but to move on from former NBA coach after abysmal 4-27 season Dannen insisted Dunleavy was the right hire at the time it was made in March 2016. Dannen said Tulane had a team grade-point average of 1.99, which has since improved to 3.19 in the recent fall semester. Dunleavys ability to develop talent has been well documented with how Melvin Frazier and Cameron Reynolds are now on NBA rosters, with Frazier on the Orlando Magic as the first Tulane player selected in the NBA Draft since 1997 and Reynolds recently signing a multi-year contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Green Wave this season won four of the first 10 games but then lost the remaining 21 contests, including an 0-18 record in American Athletic Conference play. The season ended with a conference tournament against Memphis on the Tigers home floor. Dannen followed his meeting with Dunleavy on Saturday by meeting with the players. They played hard, Dannen said. I told the guys when I met with them, its really easy when things are going the way they went, to quit, to give up. The last thing that they never did was quit or give up. They played as hard in the last minute of the season as they did in the first. I was very proud of that. But it also goes back to Mikes leadership inside the program. Tulane hired Dunleavy with more than 1,300 games of NBA coaching experience. Dannen said the next coach will come from the college ranks, either as a current or former head coach, or a current assistant. He said if he had a list of 20 candidates for the job, 15 or so would be coaching in the NCAA tournament as a head coach or assistant. | Tulane AD Troy Dannen fired basketball coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. after three losing seasons. The Green Wave finished with a 21-game losing streak, the school's longest in 55 years. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.nola.com/tulane/2019/03/what-made-troy-dannen-change-his-mind-about-mike-dunleavy-sr-at-tulane.html | 0.302653 |
What made Troy Dannen change his mind about Mike Dunleavy Sr. at Tulane? | More than four weeks passed from the time when Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen gave a public show of support for basketball coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. to the moment the two met at 9 a.m. Saturday (March 16). During that meeting, Dannen told Dunleavy he planned to make a change in leadership of the basketball program. In other words, the AD fired Dunleavy after the three losing seasons that ended with a 21-game losing streak, the schools longest in 55 years. If you dont feel progress is being made, if youre not looking forward to what lies ahead, you have to ask yourself, why not?" Dannen said Saturday during a news conference to discuss the firing. I dont know that there was a day where that switch hit, but it was really obvious over the course of the last few weeks, we werent in position to get better over the next year or the next two years. Dannen said the show of support Feb. 13 came in part to keep other programs from contacting current players and prospective recruits to encourage them to either transfer or consider committing to a different school. Dannen wanted to take those external pressures off his coach and players as they neared the finishing stretch of the season. He used the four-plus weeks since then to continue his evaluation of the basketball program, and at some point met with university president Michael A. Fitts to remind him that a he felt a basketball turnaround at Tulane would be more difficult than other sports. At some point, Dunleavys fate was sealed, even after Dannen said in his show of support to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that Mike Dunleavys not going anywhere. Dunleavys .258 winning percentage (24-69) is the second-poorest among all coaches in school history. The only coach with a poorer winning percentage is Ted Lendhardt, whose 1963-64 team lost the first 22 games before beating LSU in the final game for a 1-22 record (.043). We just werent making the progress we wanted to make, Dannen said. I said from the very beginning when I got here, we want to win at everything. Mike Dunleavy, Tulane were a bad fit, now Green Wave needs to find the right one Tulane had no choice but to move on from former NBA coach after abysmal 4-27 season Dannen insisted Dunleavy was the right hire at the time it was made in March 2016. Dannen said Tulane had a team grade-point average of 1.99, which has since improved to 3.19 in the recent fall semester. Dunleavys ability to develop talent has been well documented with how Melvin Frazier and Cameron Reynolds are now on NBA rosters, with Frazier on the Orlando Magic as the first Tulane player selected in the NBA Draft since 1997 and Reynolds recently signing a multi-year contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Green Wave this season won four of the first 10 games but then lost the remaining 21 contests, including an 0-18 record in American Athletic Conference play. The season ended with a conference tournament against Memphis on the Tigers home floor. Dannen followed his meeting with Dunleavy on Saturday by meeting with the players. They played hard, Dannen said. I told the guys when I met with them, its really easy when things are going the way they went, to quit, to give up. The last thing that they never did was quit or give up. They played as hard in the last minute of the season as they did in the first. I was very proud of that. But it also goes back to Mikes leadership inside the program. Tulane hired Dunleavy with more than 1,300 games of NBA coaching experience. Dannen said the next coach will come from the college ranks, either as a current or former head coach, or a current assistant. He said if he had a list of 20 candidates for the job, 15 or so would be coaching in the NCAA tournament as a head coach or assistant. | Tulane AD Troy Dannen fired basketball coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. after three losing seasons. The Green Wave finished the season with a 21-game losing streak, the school's longest in 55 years. The AD had previously shown his support for the former NBA coach. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.nola.com/tulane/2019/03/what-made-troy-dannen-change-his-mind-about-mike-dunleavy-sr-at-tulane.html | 0.410209 |
Does Nuggets Michael Malone deserve NBAs Coach of the Year? | Any validation Nuggets coach Michael Malone needed about the job hes done in Denver or the culture hes instilled was finalized hours before this season started when his contract extension became official. The Nuggets were in Los Angeles prior to their season opener against the Clippers, and Malone was almost reticent to address the news, wary of preempting any formal release. But if the ensuing six months have provided any clarity, Malone has already made good on the deal, which extends through the 2020-21 season. Hes navigated a flood of injuries to prominent pieces like Gary Harris, Will Barton and Paul Millsap, emboldened reserves Monte Morris and Malik Beasley to play beyond their years and guided Denvers budding contender to at least one round of homecourt advantage this postseason, if not more. End-of-season awards can often be a crapshoot, but Malone is on the shortlist for Coach of the Year. That list also includes Milwaukees Mike Budenholzer, Indianas Nate McMillan and Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers. Budenholzer turned the Bucks into an efficiency powerhouse and unleashed MVP-caliber Giannis Antetokounmpo; McMillan didnt allow the Pacers to collapse after Victor Oladipos season-ending injury, and theyre still in contention for a top-three seed in the East; Rivers had his best player traded at the deadline yet the Clippers are all-but assured of a playoff appearance. All three have valid claim to the award. So does Malone. The Nuggets jumped from the worst 3-point defense in the league last year all the way to eighth this year. Overall, they have the 11th-best defensive rating this season, up from 23rd last year. Our numbers defensively have shot through the roof from last year, Morris said. Hes put in rotations, he gave us chances to win. For Malone, his case is built not just on the Nuggets improbable leap from barely missing the playoffs in two consecutive seasons to flirting with the top seed in the Western Conference; its how Malone has traversed the season with his young team, often reflecting the mood he wants his team to exhibit. If a winning streak has the locker room satisfied, expect Malone to expose their shortcomings and demand more focus. As recently as this week, when the Nuggets were safely in the No. 2 seed, he wouldnt concede that the playoffs were a foregone conclusion. But if an extended losing streak has sapped the fun out of a given week, Malone can be counted on to keep the stretch in perspective, cognizant that the team is taking its cues from him. Consequently, Malone has excelled at managing the locker room. It helps that Denvers core Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Harris has grown up under Malones watchful eye, but the truth is that Malone holds everybody, including his star players, accountable. If Jokic isnt aggressive enough, Malone tells him. Same thing if he feels Murray is playing selfishly. He knows you can lose a locker room quickly if you dont. Related Articles Rockies Insider: Mark your calendar to see Colorado and the Nuggets on the same days in Denver Kiszla: Baywatch boxers and tricks shots at the buzzer. Making the case for Nuggets center Nikola Jokic as MVP. Jokics stunning game-winner saves Nuggets vs. Mavs Nuggets Thomas declines to address reporters after benching Why Isaiah Thomas DNP vs. Minnesota casts doubt on his Nuggets future Hes got great guys, Millsap joked. But on top of that, youve still gotta be able to manage the talent level that we have. Weve got a lot of guys that can play. For him to manage the times and to manage the egos on that end, where guys want to play and cant, its been pretty good. Most recently, he made the trying decision to bench Isaiah Thomas, whose personal relationship with Malone dates back to their time in Sacramento and was one of the reasons Thomas opted to come to Denver in the first place. Malone first addressed it with Thomas so he wasnt blindsided when his name wasnt called to check in against Minnesota. Just because thats professional protocol in the NBA doesnt make it any easier. I think the more honest and upfront you are with guys, the more they respect you, Millsap added, speaking generally about Malones candor. I think hes been that for the whole year. Guys respect people who come to them and tell them the truth even if you dont want to hear it. Not scared to tell them the truth. Hes good at that. Hopefully hell win it. | Nuggets coach Michael Malone is on the shortlist for Coach of the Year. | bart | 0 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/16/nuggets-michael-malone-coach-of-the-year/ | 0.178408 |
Does Nuggets Michael Malone deserve NBAs Coach of the Year? | Any validation Nuggets coach Michael Malone needed about the job hes done in Denver or the culture hes instilled was finalized hours before this season started when his contract extension became official. The Nuggets were in Los Angeles prior to their season opener against the Clippers, and Malone was almost reticent to address the news, wary of preempting any formal release. But if the ensuing six months have provided any clarity, Malone has already made good on the deal, which extends through the 2020-21 season. Hes navigated a flood of injuries to prominent pieces like Gary Harris, Will Barton and Paul Millsap, emboldened reserves Monte Morris and Malik Beasley to play beyond their years and guided Denvers budding contender to at least one round of homecourt advantage this postseason, if not more. End-of-season awards can often be a crapshoot, but Malone is on the shortlist for Coach of the Year. That list also includes Milwaukees Mike Budenholzer, Indianas Nate McMillan and Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers. Budenholzer turned the Bucks into an efficiency powerhouse and unleashed MVP-caliber Giannis Antetokounmpo; McMillan didnt allow the Pacers to collapse after Victor Oladipos season-ending injury, and theyre still in contention for a top-three seed in the East; Rivers had his best player traded at the deadline yet the Clippers are all-but assured of a playoff appearance. All three have valid claim to the award. So does Malone. The Nuggets jumped from the worst 3-point defense in the league last year all the way to eighth this year. Overall, they have the 11th-best defensive rating this season, up from 23rd last year. Our numbers defensively have shot through the roof from last year, Morris said. Hes put in rotations, he gave us chances to win. For Malone, his case is built not just on the Nuggets improbable leap from barely missing the playoffs in two consecutive seasons to flirting with the top seed in the Western Conference; its how Malone has traversed the season with his young team, often reflecting the mood he wants his team to exhibit. If a winning streak has the locker room satisfied, expect Malone to expose their shortcomings and demand more focus. As recently as this week, when the Nuggets were safely in the No. 2 seed, he wouldnt concede that the playoffs were a foregone conclusion. But if an extended losing streak has sapped the fun out of a given week, Malone can be counted on to keep the stretch in perspective, cognizant that the team is taking its cues from him. Consequently, Malone has excelled at managing the locker room. It helps that Denvers core Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Harris has grown up under Malones watchful eye, but the truth is that Malone holds everybody, including his star players, accountable. If Jokic isnt aggressive enough, Malone tells him. Same thing if he feels Murray is playing selfishly. He knows you can lose a locker room quickly if you dont. Related Articles Rockies Insider: Mark your calendar to see Colorado and the Nuggets on the same days in Denver Kiszla: Baywatch boxers and tricks shots at the buzzer. Making the case for Nuggets center Nikola Jokic as MVP. Jokics stunning game-winner saves Nuggets vs. Mavs Nuggets Thomas declines to address reporters after benching Why Isaiah Thomas DNP vs. Minnesota casts doubt on his Nuggets future Hes got great guys, Millsap joked. But on top of that, youve still gotta be able to manage the talent level that we have. Weve got a lot of guys that can play. For him to manage the times and to manage the egos on that end, where guys want to play and cant, its been pretty good. Most recently, he made the trying decision to bench Isaiah Thomas, whose personal relationship with Malone dates back to their time in Sacramento and was one of the reasons Thomas opted to come to Denver in the first place. Malone first addressed it with Thomas so he wasnt blindsided when his name wasnt called to check in against Minnesota. Just because thats professional protocol in the NBA doesnt make it any easier. I think the more honest and upfront you are with guys, the more they respect you, Millsap added, speaking generally about Malones candor. I think hes been that for the whole year. Guys respect people who come to them and tell them the truth even if you dont want to hear it. Not scared to tell them the truth. Hes good at that. Hopefully hell win it. | Nuggets coach Michael Malone is on the shortlist for NBA's Coach of the Year. Malone has guided the Nuggets to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and a potential playoff spot. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/16/nuggets-michael-malone-coach-of-the-year/ | 0.311497 |
Does Nuggets Michael Malone deserve NBAs Coach of the Year? | Any validation Nuggets coach Michael Malone needed about the job hes done in Denver or the culture hes instilled was finalized hours before this season started when his contract extension became official. The Nuggets were in Los Angeles prior to their season opener against the Clippers, and Malone was almost reticent to address the news, wary of preempting any formal release. But if the ensuing six months have provided any clarity, Malone has already made good on the deal, which extends through the 2020-21 season. Hes navigated a flood of injuries to prominent pieces like Gary Harris, Will Barton and Paul Millsap, emboldened reserves Monte Morris and Malik Beasley to play beyond their years and guided Denvers budding contender to at least one round of homecourt advantage this postseason, if not more. End-of-season awards can often be a crapshoot, but Malone is on the shortlist for Coach of the Year. That list also includes Milwaukees Mike Budenholzer, Indianas Nate McMillan and Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers. Budenholzer turned the Bucks into an efficiency powerhouse and unleashed MVP-caliber Giannis Antetokounmpo; McMillan didnt allow the Pacers to collapse after Victor Oladipos season-ending injury, and theyre still in contention for a top-three seed in the East; Rivers had his best player traded at the deadline yet the Clippers are all-but assured of a playoff appearance. All three have valid claim to the award. So does Malone. The Nuggets jumped from the worst 3-point defense in the league last year all the way to eighth this year. Overall, they have the 11th-best defensive rating this season, up from 23rd last year. Our numbers defensively have shot through the roof from last year, Morris said. Hes put in rotations, he gave us chances to win. For Malone, his case is built not just on the Nuggets improbable leap from barely missing the playoffs in two consecutive seasons to flirting with the top seed in the Western Conference; its how Malone has traversed the season with his young team, often reflecting the mood he wants his team to exhibit. If a winning streak has the locker room satisfied, expect Malone to expose their shortcomings and demand more focus. As recently as this week, when the Nuggets were safely in the No. 2 seed, he wouldnt concede that the playoffs were a foregone conclusion. But if an extended losing streak has sapped the fun out of a given week, Malone can be counted on to keep the stretch in perspective, cognizant that the team is taking its cues from him. Consequently, Malone has excelled at managing the locker room. It helps that Denvers core Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Harris has grown up under Malones watchful eye, but the truth is that Malone holds everybody, including his star players, accountable. If Jokic isnt aggressive enough, Malone tells him. Same thing if he feels Murray is playing selfishly. He knows you can lose a locker room quickly if you dont. Related Articles Rockies Insider: Mark your calendar to see Colorado and the Nuggets on the same days in Denver Kiszla: Baywatch boxers and tricks shots at the buzzer. Making the case for Nuggets center Nikola Jokic as MVP. Jokics stunning game-winner saves Nuggets vs. Mavs Nuggets Thomas declines to address reporters after benching Why Isaiah Thomas DNP vs. Minnesota casts doubt on his Nuggets future Hes got great guys, Millsap joked. But on top of that, youve still gotta be able to manage the talent level that we have. Weve got a lot of guys that can play. For him to manage the times and to manage the egos on that end, where guys want to play and cant, its been pretty good. Most recently, he made the trying decision to bench Isaiah Thomas, whose personal relationship with Malone dates back to their time in Sacramento and was one of the reasons Thomas opted to come to Denver in the first place. Malone first addressed it with Thomas so he wasnt blindsided when his name wasnt called to check in against Minnesota. Just because thats professional protocol in the NBA doesnt make it any easier. I think the more honest and upfront you are with guys, the more they respect you, Millsap added, speaking generally about Malones candor. I think hes been that for the whole year. Guys respect people who come to them and tell them the truth even if you dont want to hear it. Not scared to tell them the truth. Hes good at that. Hopefully hell win it. | Nuggets coach Michael Malone is on the shortlist for NBA's Coach of the Year. Malone has guided the Nuggets to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. He also has a reputation for holding his players accountable for their performance on the court and in the locker room. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/16/nuggets-michael-malone-coach-of-the-year/ | 0.382733 |
Was The 'Apex Legends' Season 1 Battle Pass Delayed? | Despite widespread rumors, leaks and whatever you might want to call the dissemination of unconfirmed information, the Apex Legends season 1 battle pass did not release on Tuesday, March 12. Respawn, aware of the fact that most people thought the battle pass was coming out that day, took to Reddit to tamp down expectations, once again not saying much more than that the developers were working hard on Season 1 and that it would be out soon: as far as we know, it's still slated for March. There's a lot of suspicion, however, that the battle pass was originally slated to come out on March 12, and that it was delayed past this originally planned release date. The best evidence for this is that Origin pushed out an ad for Season 1 on that day featuring suspected new hero Octane before quickly pulling it, which seemed to confirm a bunch of leaks and rumors that had already given us that date last week. And, dataminer Shrugtal also noted that the servers seemed to be attempting to give out Season 1 loot but couldn't do it because it wasn't in the game yet: If you needed any more proof that the battle pass was supposed to come out on 12th, Apex Servers attempt to distribute Unreleased (Season 1) content in Apex Packs but fail because the associated item hasn't been patched in yet. https://t.co/ow55AolA01 Shrugtal (@shrugtal) March 14, 2019 I wouldn't be surprised if Respawn pushed back this March 12 date after the game exploded as quickly as it did. Less popular games get a little more wiggle room than big ones because a higher percentage of the people playing are going to be committed to the game. That's not the case with a hit: when you've got 50 million people playing the game you risk either losing them or, in the case of a free-to-play game, not making any money off of them. Season 1 and the first battle pass are set to be the first major events in the world of Apex Legends, and the sudden success puts a whole lot of pressure on them to be perfect. On top of that, a massive increase in the number of players with no beta leads to all sorts of unexpected networking and server-side problems, and that can take development resources away from making new content. The team may also have been surprised by the tepid response to the currently available cosmetics and decided to take some of the planned skins back to the drawing board. Overall, I'd say that this is a good thing if true. It shows that the team knows how important this eventual release is, and it shows that nobody is rushing to meet pre-planned schedules. Live service games thrive on flexibility, and I think we saw some of that here. | The Apex Legends season 1 battle pass did not release on Tuesday, March 12. | bart | 0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/03/15/was-the-apex-legends-season-1-battle-pass-delayed/?src=rss | 0.193233 |
Was The 'Apex Legends' Season 1 Battle Pass Delayed? | Despite widespread rumors, leaks and whatever you might want to call the dissemination of unconfirmed information, the Apex Legends season 1 battle pass did not release on Tuesday, March 12. Respawn, aware of the fact that most people thought the battle pass was coming out that day, took to Reddit to tamp down expectations, once again not saying much more than that the developers were working hard on Season 1 and that it would be out soon: as far as we know, it's still slated for March. There's a lot of suspicion, however, that the battle pass was originally slated to come out on March 12, and that it was delayed past this originally planned release date. The best evidence for this is that Origin pushed out an ad for Season 1 on that day featuring suspected new hero Octane before quickly pulling it, which seemed to confirm a bunch of leaks and rumors that had already given us that date last week. And, dataminer Shrugtal also noted that the servers seemed to be attempting to give out Season 1 loot but couldn't do it because it wasn't in the game yet: If you needed any more proof that the battle pass was supposed to come out on 12th, Apex Servers attempt to distribute Unreleased (Season 1) content in Apex Packs but fail because the associated item hasn't been patched in yet. https://t.co/ow55AolA01 Shrugtal (@shrugtal) March 14, 2019 I wouldn't be surprised if Respawn pushed back this March 12 date after the game exploded as quickly as it did. Less popular games get a little more wiggle room than big ones because a higher percentage of the people playing are going to be committed to the game. That's not the case with a hit: when you've got 50 million people playing the game you risk either losing them or, in the case of a free-to-play game, not making any money off of them. Season 1 and the first battle pass are set to be the first major events in the world of Apex Legends, and the sudden success puts a whole lot of pressure on them to be perfect. On top of that, a massive increase in the number of players with no beta leads to all sorts of unexpected networking and server-side problems, and that can take development resources away from making new content. The team may also have been surprised by the tepid response to the currently available cosmetics and decided to take some of the planned skins back to the drawing board. Overall, I'd say that this is a good thing if true. It shows that the team knows how important this eventual release is, and it shows that nobody is rushing to meet pre-planned schedules. Live service games thrive on flexibility, and I think we saw some of that here. | The Apex Legends season 1 battle pass did not release on Tuesday, March 12. There's a lot of suspicion that the battle pass was originally slated to come out on March 12, and that it was delayed past this originally planned release date. | bart | 1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/03/15/was-the-apex-legends-season-1-battle-pass-delayed/?src=rss | 0.387781 |
Was The 'Apex Legends' Season 1 Battle Pass Delayed? | Despite widespread rumors, leaks and whatever you might want to call the dissemination of unconfirmed information, the Apex Legends season 1 battle pass did not release on Tuesday, March 12. Respawn, aware of the fact that most people thought the battle pass was coming out that day, took to Reddit to tamp down expectations, once again not saying much more than that the developers were working hard on Season 1 and that it would be out soon: as far as we know, it's still slated for March. There's a lot of suspicion, however, that the battle pass was originally slated to come out on March 12, and that it was delayed past this originally planned release date. The best evidence for this is that Origin pushed out an ad for Season 1 on that day featuring suspected new hero Octane before quickly pulling it, which seemed to confirm a bunch of leaks and rumors that had already given us that date last week. And, dataminer Shrugtal also noted that the servers seemed to be attempting to give out Season 1 loot but couldn't do it because it wasn't in the game yet: If you needed any more proof that the battle pass was supposed to come out on 12th, Apex Servers attempt to distribute Unreleased (Season 1) content in Apex Packs but fail because the associated item hasn't been patched in yet. https://t.co/ow55AolA01 Shrugtal (@shrugtal) March 14, 2019 I wouldn't be surprised if Respawn pushed back this March 12 date after the game exploded as quickly as it did. Less popular games get a little more wiggle room than big ones because a higher percentage of the people playing are going to be committed to the game. That's not the case with a hit: when you've got 50 million people playing the game you risk either losing them or, in the case of a free-to-play game, not making any money off of them. Season 1 and the first battle pass are set to be the first major events in the world of Apex Legends, and the sudden success puts a whole lot of pressure on them to be perfect. On top of that, a massive increase in the number of players with no beta leads to all sorts of unexpected networking and server-side problems, and that can take development resources away from making new content. The team may also have been surprised by the tepid response to the currently available cosmetics and decided to take some of the planned skins back to the drawing board. Overall, I'd say that this is a good thing if true. It shows that the team knows how important this eventual release is, and it shows that nobody is rushing to meet pre-planned schedules. Live service games thrive on flexibility, and I think we saw some of that here. | There's a lot of suspicion that the battle pass was originally slated to come out on March 12, and that it was delayed past this originally planned release date. I wouldn't be surprised if Respawn pushed back this March 12 date after the game exploded as quickly as it did. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/03/15/was-the-apex-legends-season-1-battle-pass-delayed/?src=rss | 0.12728 |
Can Terry Franconas grassroots movement cause MLB to rethink 3-batter rule? | CLEVELAND, Ohio If Terry Franconas grassroots movement to overturn MLBs three-batter rule doesnt work, hes going to have to make some changes in the way he manages a game come 2020. That is the last year of Franconas contract with the Tribe. As for the last time hell be able to use lefty Oliver Perez to face one batter before telling him to hit the showers, well, that just may be this season. Francona loves to run a bullpen. In his first big-league job, managing a bad Philadelphia Phillies team, he was criticized for not being able to handle a bullpen. Hes been making up for that slight ever since. His best moment came in 2016 when the Indians traded for Andrew Miller and he turned the 6-7 lefty into reliever who could not only save games, but pitch anywhere from the sixth inning on to compensate for a badly wounded starting rotation. Backed by strong-armed relievers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen, the Indians rode Miller to the AL pennant before losing the World Series in seven games to the Cubs. Now a big part of Francona and every other managers strategy could be taken away. MLB and the MLPA introduced a blizzard of rule changes Thursday for 2019 and 2020. The three-batter rule, implemented by Commissioner Rob Manfred for 2020 and grudgingly agreed upon by the Players Association the release said the union would not grieve the rule says a starter or a reliever must pitch to either three batters or the end of that inning. The days of the one-and-done lefty vs. lefty or righty vs. righty are numbered because Manfred thinks it bogs down the game. Last year Indians relievers led the big leagues with 64 appearances in which they faced just one batter. Perez, 37, made 19 such appearances while saving a struggling bullpen. He became Franconas go-to guy and it wasnt just a left-on-left monster. Lefties hit .194 (12-for-62) and righties .104 (5-for-48) against Perez. The Indians thought so much of him that in a winter where they slashed payroll and traded the bulk of their offense, they brought him back on a one-year, $2.5 million deal. They even gave him a vesting option for 2020. Now this rule comes along and could ruin a beautiful relationship. Francona leaned heavily on Perez with his one-and-done strategy, but the rest of the pen was not ignored. Lefty Tyler Olson made 11 one-batter appearances. Righties Dan Otero, Neil Ramirez and Cimber made seven, five and four appearances, respectively. Departed lefties Jeff Beliveau made five and Marc Rzepczynski three. Francona told reporters on Thursday that he could adjust to the other new rules, but was worried about the three-batter rule. "I really hope that during this year that enough people voice concerns where maybe they'll rethink it," said Francona. "I'm not trying to be critical of MLB because that's not how I feel. I just think that when you start to get into the competitive part of the game, we spend our whole lives trying to figure out how we're going to try and be smarter than the other team or to use our bullpen to our advantage. "That one really worries me. He used this example to highlight his concern. The other day when we were playing the Padres, said Francona. They had Eric Hosmer (left-handed hitter) and Manny Machado (right-handed hitter) batting second and third. If Corey Kluber goes 7 1/3 innings and we have Hosmer and Machado (due to hit), we're going to want (lefty) Oliver Perez and (righty) Adam Cimber." The new rule would not allow Francona to match up. Perez, Cimber or another pitcher would have had to face Hosmer and Machado. The new rule will be used in the independent Atlantic League this year in a deal with MLB. Its been reported that if problems arise the rule could be tweaked for 2020. If it does become a rule, it not only will change the way managers manage, it could change the career paths of a lot of pitchers. Submarine relievers, such as Cimber, are going to have to get proficient at getting righties and lefties out. His motion makes him tough on right-handers, but if the one-and-done option goes away, Cimber is certain to be facing a lefty pinch-hitter or two depending on what situation hes facing. It could also change how teams groom relievers. The development of a third pitch would be important and teams may stockpile big-league ready relievers at Triple-A because there could be a greater turnover on the big-league club. Francona often talks about unintended consequences when baseball changes its rules. At the moment, most of the consequences of the three-batter rule are out in the open. They do not appear to be that appealing to managers and match-up relievers. | Terry Francona's grassroots movement to overturn MLB's three-batter rule could backfire. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/can-terry-franconas-grassroots-movement-cause-mlb-to-rethink-3-batter-rule.html | 0.220347 |
Can Terry Franconas grassroots movement cause MLB to rethink 3-batter rule? | CLEVELAND, Ohio If Terry Franconas grassroots movement to overturn MLBs three-batter rule doesnt work, hes going to have to make some changes in the way he manages a game come 2020. That is the last year of Franconas contract with the Tribe. As for the last time hell be able to use lefty Oliver Perez to face one batter before telling him to hit the showers, well, that just may be this season. Francona loves to run a bullpen. In his first big-league job, managing a bad Philadelphia Phillies team, he was criticized for not being able to handle a bullpen. Hes been making up for that slight ever since. His best moment came in 2016 when the Indians traded for Andrew Miller and he turned the 6-7 lefty into reliever who could not only save games, but pitch anywhere from the sixth inning on to compensate for a badly wounded starting rotation. Backed by strong-armed relievers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen, the Indians rode Miller to the AL pennant before losing the World Series in seven games to the Cubs. Now a big part of Francona and every other managers strategy could be taken away. MLB and the MLPA introduced a blizzard of rule changes Thursday for 2019 and 2020. The three-batter rule, implemented by Commissioner Rob Manfred for 2020 and grudgingly agreed upon by the Players Association the release said the union would not grieve the rule says a starter or a reliever must pitch to either three batters or the end of that inning. The days of the one-and-done lefty vs. lefty or righty vs. righty are numbered because Manfred thinks it bogs down the game. Last year Indians relievers led the big leagues with 64 appearances in which they faced just one batter. Perez, 37, made 19 such appearances while saving a struggling bullpen. He became Franconas go-to guy and it wasnt just a left-on-left monster. Lefties hit .194 (12-for-62) and righties .104 (5-for-48) against Perez. The Indians thought so much of him that in a winter where they slashed payroll and traded the bulk of their offense, they brought him back on a one-year, $2.5 million deal. They even gave him a vesting option for 2020. Now this rule comes along and could ruin a beautiful relationship. Francona leaned heavily on Perez with his one-and-done strategy, but the rest of the pen was not ignored. Lefty Tyler Olson made 11 one-batter appearances. Righties Dan Otero, Neil Ramirez and Cimber made seven, five and four appearances, respectively. Departed lefties Jeff Beliveau made five and Marc Rzepczynski three. Francona told reporters on Thursday that he could adjust to the other new rules, but was worried about the three-batter rule. "I really hope that during this year that enough people voice concerns where maybe they'll rethink it," said Francona. "I'm not trying to be critical of MLB because that's not how I feel. I just think that when you start to get into the competitive part of the game, we spend our whole lives trying to figure out how we're going to try and be smarter than the other team or to use our bullpen to our advantage. "That one really worries me. He used this example to highlight his concern. The other day when we were playing the Padres, said Francona. They had Eric Hosmer (left-handed hitter) and Manny Machado (right-handed hitter) batting second and third. If Corey Kluber goes 7 1/3 innings and we have Hosmer and Machado (due to hit), we're going to want (lefty) Oliver Perez and (righty) Adam Cimber." The new rule would not allow Francona to match up. Perez, Cimber or another pitcher would have had to face Hosmer and Machado. The new rule will be used in the independent Atlantic League this year in a deal with MLB. Its been reported that if problems arise the rule could be tweaked for 2020. If it does become a rule, it not only will change the way managers manage, it could change the career paths of a lot of pitchers. Submarine relievers, such as Cimber, are going to have to get proficient at getting righties and lefties out. His motion makes him tough on right-handers, but if the one-and-done option goes away, Cimber is certain to be facing a lefty pinch-hitter or two depending on what situation hes facing. It could also change how teams groom relievers. The development of a third pitch would be important and teams may stockpile big-league ready relievers at Triple-A because there could be a greater turnover on the big-league club. Francona often talks about unintended consequences when baseball changes its rules. At the moment, most of the consequences of the three-batter rule are out in the open. They do not appear to be that appealing to managers and match-up relievers. | Terry Francona's grassroots movement to overturn MLB's three-batter rule could backfire. The one-and-done strategy helped the Indians win the AL pennant in 2016. | ctrlsum | 1 | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/can-terry-franconas-grassroots-movement-cause-mlb-to-rethink-3-batter-rule.html | 0.286619 |
Can Terry Franconas grassroots movement cause MLB to rethink 3-batter rule? | CLEVELAND, Ohio If Terry Franconas grassroots movement to overturn MLBs three-batter rule doesnt work, hes going to have to make some changes in the way he manages a game come 2020. That is the last year of Franconas contract with the Tribe. As for the last time hell be able to use lefty Oliver Perez to face one batter before telling him to hit the showers, well, that just may be this season. Francona loves to run a bullpen. In his first big-league job, managing a bad Philadelphia Phillies team, he was criticized for not being able to handle a bullpen. Hes been making up for that slight ever since. His best moment came in 2016 when the Indians traded for Andrew Miller and he turned the 6-7 lefty into reliever who could not only save games, but pitch anywhere from the sixth inning on to compensate for a badly wounded starting rotation. Backed by strong-armed relievers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen, the Indians rode Miller to the AL pennant before losing the World Series in seven games to the Cubs. Now a big part of Francona and every other managers strategy could be taken away. MLB and the MLPA introduced a blizzard of rule changes Thursday for 2019 and 2020. The three-batter rule, implemented by Commissioner Rob Manfred for 2020 and grudgingly agreed upon by the Players Association the release said the union would not grieve the rule says a starter or a reliever must pitch to either three batters or the end of that inning. The days of the one-and-done lefty vs. lefty or righty vs. righty are numbered because Manfred thinks it bogs down the game. Last year Indians relievers led the big leagues with 64 appearances in which they faced just one batter. Perez, 37, made 19 such appearances while saving a struggling bullpen. He became Franconas go-to guy and it wasnt just a left-on-left monster. Lefties hit .194 (12-for-62) and righties .104 (5-for-48) against Perez. The Indians thought so much of him that in a winter where they slashed payroll and traded the bulk of their offense, they brought him back on a one-year, $2.5 million deal. They even gave him a vesting option for 2020. Now this rule comes along and could ruin a beautiful relationship. Francona leaned heavily on Perez with his one-and-done strategy, but the rest of the pen was not ignored. Lefty Tyler Olson made 11 one-batter appearances. Righties Dan Otero, Neil Ramirez and Cimber made seven, five and four appearances, respectively. Departed lefties Jeff Beliveau made five and Marc Rzepczynski three. Francona told reporters on Thursday that he could adjust to the other new rules, but was worried about the three-batter rule. "I really hope that during this year that enough people voice concerns where maybe they'll rethink it," said Francona. "I'm not trying to be critical of MLB because that's not how I feel. I just think that when you start to get into the competitive part of the game, we spend our whole lives trying to figure out how we're going to try and be smarter than the other team or to use our bullpen to our advantage. "That one really worries me. He used this example to highlight his concern. The other day when we were playing the Padres, said Francona. They had Eric Hosmer (left-handed hitter) and Manny Machado (right-handed hitter) batting second and third. If Corey Kluber goes 7 1/3 innings and we have Hosmer and Machado (due to hit), we're going to want (lefty) Oliver Perez and (righty) Adam Cimber." The new rule would not allow Francona to match up. Perez, Cimber or another pitcher would have had to face Hosmer and Machado. The new rule will be used in the independent Atlantic League this year in a deal with MLB. Its been reported that if problems arise the rule could be tweaked for 2020. If it does become a rule, it not only will change the way managers manage, it could change the career paths of a lot of pitchers. Submarine relievers, such as Cimber, are going to have to get proficient at getting righties and lefties out. His motion makes him tough on right-handers, but if the one-and-done option goes away, Cimber is certain to be facing a lefty pinch-hitter or two depending on what situation hes facing. It could also change how teams groom relievers. The development of a third pitch would be important and teams may stockpile big-league ready relievers at Triple-A because there could be a greater turnover on the big-league club. Francona often talks about unintended consequences when baseball changes its rules. At the moment, most of the consequences of the three-batter rule are out in the open. They do not appear to be that appealing to managers and match-up relievers. | Terry Francona's grassroots movement to overturn MLB's three-batter rule could backfire. The one-and-done strategy helped the Indians win the AL pennant in 2016. The new rule will take effect in 2020 and is expected to hurt the bullpen. | ctrlsum | 2 | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/can-terry-franconas-grassroots-movement-cause-mlb-to-rethink-3-batter-rule.html | 0.402872 |
Is JetBlue ready to launch flights to London? | Thats long been a source of speculation in the airline industry, and that seems only likely to increase after some of the most direct comments yet by the carriers executives. "Were actively looking at it now, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said about the possibility of London service in an interview with The Independent. What JetBlue has always done since we started nearly 20 years ago is bring low fares with a better service, and wed love to bring that to Europe, Hayes added to London newspaper. Hayes offered no specifics about when such service might begin, but he did offer some details as to what it might look like if it was added. London flights would operate from JetBlues two busiest hubs New York JFK and Boston and would be on Airbus A321LR narrowbody jets. The LR stands for long range, meaning the aircraft could easily handle trans-Atlantic routes between the U.S. Northeast and much of western Europe. JetBlue does not currently have any A321LRs in its fleet, but it is expected to begin receiving the first of more than 80 Airbus A321neos this year. JetBlues order with Airbus gives it the option convert some of those deliveries to the long-range variant. IN PHOTOS: Airbus delivers U.S.-made A321 to JetBlue Hayes told the Independent that business-class fares on competitors' routes like Boston-London have risen so much that theres a lot of room to come in and undercut those with JetBlues new Mint lie-flat seats. He pointed to whats happened on cross-country routes in the USA where JetBlue has rolled out those seats. Since we launched (Mint), transcontinental fares have approximately halved, he said to the Independent. The Independent noted the airline's staff has been alerted to an April 10 meeting in New York described as a chat about JetBlues vision and strategy. Hayes is scheduled to deliver a speech to the Aviation Club in London on April 11. Despite the attempt to connect the dots, JetBlue said its not ready to reveal anything definitive about the launch of London flights. As weve said previously, we plan to announce our decision on the Long Range version of the A321 in 2019, JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw said in an email to USA TODAYs Today in the Sky blog. The transatlantic market especially in the premium category suffers from the same lack of competition and high fares that transcon routes in the U.S. saw before JetBlue introduced Mint. | JetBlue CEO: "We're actively looking at it now" London flights would be on Airbus A321LR narrowbody jets. | ctrlsum | 0 | https://news.yahoo.com/jetblue-ready-launch-flights-london-181209412.html | 0.167928 |
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