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more--than--anything · 7 years ago

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Episode Review: "Hands off my computers, Mulder." [S03E19]

It looks like the Jane vs. Roman showdown has begun in full force. But this episode brought us a little more than a little sibling rivalry. What did you think of Galaxy of Minds?

Y: I really enjoyed it. It had a little of everything that I love about this show and a doomsday weapon of sorts. It set up the Jane/Roman finale showdown quite well and while most of the characters took somewhat of a back seat, I think it was important to focus on Roman as we did before moving into the last episodes.

L: I thought this was a very solid episode. Roman was terrifying, the case was intense but brought a little levity into this world that has been so super serious lately, and we even got a tiny bit of Jeller. What a lovely way to usher in the remainder of the season, which is probably going to leave me curled up in the fetal position.

I was surprised that it took us 64 episodes to get a conspiracy theory nut job case. It seems something that would be right up Blindspot’s alley. How did the quirky Dash fit into this week’s case?

L: For a show that is built on secrets and conspiracies, you’re right, it’s kind of surprising that it took us this long to get to “brain rays.” That said, maybe it’s all the years I spent watching The X-Files, but I kind of loved Dash and all the quirky aspects of this case.

Events kick off this week when the tattoo database--which has been quiet since Roman changed his allegiance to Team Crawford--chimes with an alert for a book that just became available for pre-order. The name of the book, “Golden Rhino,” corresponds to a tattoo that is half golden stag beetle, half rhinoceros beetle. I loved Reade identifying the bugs, “Why are you looking at me like that? I have other interests.” It seems a clear call back to Tasha being able to identify the constellation Aldebaran in 1.17, “I like stars, and I was very unpopular in high school.” Maybe we’re supposed to infer that this means these two are compatible, but honestly, to me it just says that everyone on this team is a wee bit geeky in their own way--which probably explains why I love them all so much.

The team hauls in the author of the book, Daschelle (“Call me Dash”) Watkins. He’s a conspiracy theorist who seems nuttier than a fruitcake at first, but as it turns out, his ideas aren’t as far out there as they seem. He tells the team that Golden Rhino is a super-secret military weapons program that was used to assassinate General Joseph Baxter. They are skeptical--especially when he insists that the weapon is a mind-control device--but his intel checks out. Michael Ganzman was the lead engineer for Varnew Industries, one of the largest defense contractors in the country, until he got fired and dropped off the grid, and Baxter was overseeing a weapons contract with Varnew.

Patterson gets tasked with the fun job of sifting through all of Dash’s madness, I mean, research. “Who doesn’t want to sift through the collected works of a madman with said madman? That sounds super fun.” (Too bad things didn’t work out with Jack. I’m sure he’d have loved discussing his Bigfoot evidence with Dash.) One piece of evidence is the black box from Baxter’s plane before it crashed. There isn’t much to the recording, just the windows shattering, no communication from the cockpit, and then a sound that Dash refers to as the “warbles.” (Not to be confused with the Nergal device or the Nargles from Harry Potter, although if there were a connection to either one of these, I have no doubt that Dash could find it.) Dash also has a long list of any out-of-towners in the area of the crash who could have acted as a triggerman on the ground. Patterson is able to cross-reference that list with her own database and comes up with one name who worked for Varnew, Surjik Fells. Unfortunately, he was abducted from police custody that morning by none other than Roman.

The team realizes that Roman is also looking for Ganzman, which tells them they are on the right path. They send a team to investigate a property connected to Ganzman in Oneata, New York, but the pilot of the helicopter reports that his nose is bleeding, and then they hear “warbles” in the background and lose contact with the team. Patterson deduces that the sound they hear comes from a hyper-focused sonic weapon. The FBI brings in the Varnew CEO, Camille Moon, but she refuses to cooperate until Jane stages a fake interview with Avery, in which Avery states that her father kept a journal that recorded each of his meetings with Camille. Afraid that she might be implicated in the deaths of the FBI agents whose helicopter crashed, Camille agrees to help the FBI. She directs them to a factory in Woodstock, where the team arrives to find Ganzman--and the weapon. They are able to destroy the weapon before they are seriously harmed (although Jane is pretty cool about the fact that her husband’s brain is hemorrhaging right in front of her), but Roman gets to Ganzman first and kills him. Jane chases him, but neither she nor Roman is able to take out the other (either because they can’t get the shot or they can’t actually take the shot; hard to tell which, at this point), and Roman gets away.

So the team failed to capture Roman, but they did destroy a powerful weapon before it fell into Crawford’s hands. I’d say that it feels like win, except that Roman apparently unleashed a torrent of hits designed to flood the tattoo database with alerts. Now our team isn’t only flying blind, without Roman’s assistance, they are going to have find real clues like needles in a whole field of haystacks. One step up and two steps back...

Y: Can I start by saying that Crawford being after a mind controlling death ray weapon is very much a comic book super villain and I absolutely love everything about it?

I love when Blindspot manages to pull off a case like this one with equal balance between the trepidation and fear of something absolutely horrible but also add some humor and lightness to it. It’s usually done through a quirky one-time guest star like Dash and gets bonus points when it lands on Patterson to babysit this guest star. And somehow it always ends up on her to do so. It’s not enough that she carries on her shoulder keeping everyone alive week after week, she also has to make room from the crazies invading her lab. All this episode needed was, like you said, some conspiracy nut like Jack to make it complete.

I love how the team--okay, mainly Patterson--succeed in sifting through the madness to make some sense of what is going on and solve this case. I may be biased because I love this team but it just goes to show just how good this team is and how they lean onto each other’s strengths to get things done to solve even the most twisted of puzzles.

I’m sorry, I forgot this is not supposed to be a love letter to the team. Excuse me.

And while they did get to take that weapon off the market, once again, Roman is there to ruin the day for them. They never get a chance to catch their breath and celebrate the small victories. And what is more frustrating I think is that neither the team and nor we as viewers know what Crawford is up to. Okay, granted we might have some more insight thanks to seeing things from Roman’s point of view occasionally, but for the team, they are still in this fight not really knowing what they are up against. And to make things worse, Roman just threw a whole load of crap onto their servers. I really don’t envy their day jobs.

And speaking of Roman, that confrontation with Jane at the warehouse was just great. I’ve loved how they’ve escalated things between these two through the season. We started with the occasional taunting phone calls--you know as all sibling phone calls are--and the tug of war between the two with Roman mainly winning the emotional tugging at first. Then came their meeting in Croatia where Jane managed to press all the right buttons to mess him up psychologically. And finally this episode brought them face to face but with guns. Just the way Shepherd taught them to resolve family disputes. It’s quite interesting that whenever these two face each other while armed, they either cannot make the shot--whether it’s Roman in 2.10 or Jane in 2.22--or they suddenly have terrible aim as was the case in this episode and in 2.21 when Roman missed Jane from a few meters.

But what matters is that all this sets up the finale and the showdown between these two quite nicely. They’ve both announced their allegiances quite clearly and proved that when the time comes they know where they stand. So the question now is, where’s my chocolate?

This team just cannot catch a break. You’d think that after having assassins come after them, they would take a few days off, but here they are, back at work and back to what they do best--not running away from danger. How is the team doing? Please tell me they’ve all kissed and made up!

Y: Well to be fair, this week was slightly less jarring than last week, especially with the emotional tolls that last week carried, mainly for Tasha. Okay, maybe babysitting Dash was as exhausting for Patterson as a date with Jack was but still, at least no one tried to blow her up. While Patterson was stuck with Dash--and again I just love when they pair her up with the crazy ones because it is a recipe for golden moments like the quote in our title--Reade had probably the easiest day of all, getting to stay in his tailored three-piece suit and play the AD all day. And I’m not saying I envy his job, but not getting dirty is a rare thing on this show and Reade won the lottery this week. Tasha was quiet for most of the episode but did get to go on a brain-melting field trip with the Wellers and play some Humvee bowling, and now I am wondering if maybe she was the one who won the lottery instead.

I loved the moment between Tasha and Patterson in the end. Yes, Patterson is still not ready to let Tasha back in, but on the one hand she is not as cold and the cracks in the walls are starting to form. And on the other hand, I am proud of Tasha for not giving up. It’s hard being in Tasha’s place and still having hope and faith in your friendship and still trying to reconnect. These two may still be a long way away from where they once were, but I know they will find their way back to each other. Because if they don’t, I am going to need more chocolate.

L: Patterson definitely drew the short straw this week, babysitting Dash. But as always, she is able to put the pieces together and figure out the way to save the day. I agree, I think that Tasha continuing to reach out to Patterson is going to help break down the walls between them, but it’s not going to be instantaneous. And to some degree, I think that Patterson sorting out her personal stuff (finally moving on from Borden and trying out a date with Jack) is going to help her to come to place of peace with Tasha’s actions. Maybe not as quickly as we’d like, but eventually.

And honestly, at this point in the season, more chocolate is never a bad idea. We still have Reade planning a wedding with his illegally-in-this-country fiancée, and all of these weird unresolved feelings between him and Tasha to deal with. While Roman is gunning for the whole team. Yup, nothing but good times ahead...

Roman’s journey and story this season has been at the heart of everything, and the Roman we’ve seen so far this year has been a man in control and a man with a single-minded approach to a clear endgame. And this episode focused heavily on the younger Kruger sibling. Where’s the puppet master at right now? Still under control?

L: I think Roman is definitely losing control. And it’s not just juggling his relationship with Blake with his duties for Crawford, although maintaining that delicate balance is certainly taxing him to the max. He knows that the situation he is in is untenable: His cover as “Tom” won’t last forever, and he really doesn’t want it to--he wants desperately to be honest with Blake and have her love him for who he is really is, but at the same time, he knows that if he tells her the truth, he will lose her forever. Maybe not as dramatically as he envisioned--although I really loved his little “what if” imagining--but even if Blake can’t bring herself to actually kill him, he knows Crawford will. It’s no coincidence that the way he imagines Blake killing him is the same way that he watched Crawford kill Vic--and is the same way that he kills Ganzman. In each case, it is a quick and easy way to dispose of someone who has no longer has any value to you. His lies are the past that he tells Blake will “always be chasing me, trying to devour me.”

And the thing is, I think Roman knows he’s doomed. He knows he’s not as strong as Jane, who was able to overcome her memory loss and carve out a new life for herself. I think he’s being quite honest when he tells Fells that yes, he is insane. He doesn’t have the same basis in reality that Jane does, and the longer he plays at being Tom, the further from reality he’s getting. Without the moral compass that guides his sister, Roman is more adrift. He’s always been casual about killing, but the way he kills Fells and then Ganzman seems especially brutal to me. Or maybe it was the way he called for a cleanup in aisle, I mean, suite 3. (I think Yas pointed out in a review earlier this season how when things get complicated, Roman resorts to what has always worked best for him: Kill anyone who stands in his way. It’s simple and for him, relatively foolproof.)

I keep wondering how much Roman really knows about Crawford’s plans. He knows that Crawford needs a lot of land and aims to become the world’s “police” to ensure peace. But there was a reason Roman wanted so desperately to stop Crawford that he went to such extreme measures, designing the new tattoos and setting up the team. Does he understand the full scope of Crawford’s plan? Is it something that he is truly okay with helping Crawford achieve? And I keep wondering about the weapon that the FBI destroyed today; does Crawford need it? How unhappy is he going to be that Roman killed the only person who could recreate it?

And when it comes down to it, I just can’t see Roman being completely okay with killing Jane. “Killing me would be like killing part of yourself” is what he says to her, and I think that’s true for both of them. They do have this long history together that even memory loss can’t entirely erase. By killing Jane, he would be killing the last piece of him that is still Roman. There is a moment when Roman sees the news report about the FBI helicopter crash and that everyone aboard perished, when it seems like he is overcome with emotion. I wondered then if he thought that Jane and the team were aboard, and if, in that moment, he was regretting the loss of his sister. I know, given his current trajectory, that it seems hard to believe that he harbors any tender feelings toward Jane, but then then again, neither one of them were able to actually kill the other during this meeting or any of their previous encounters (beginning at the NYO, when Shepherd released Roman). I think that deep inside both of them is the hope that the other will cave and say, “You were right. I’m sorry. Please take me back.” Because if that were to happen, I think both of them would. Not quickly or easily, perhaps, but they wouldn’t turn the other away. Even Roman, as murderous as he might be. Because above all else, Roman still craves love. We see that when he asks Blake to run away with him. He can’t hide his disappointment when she tells him that she can’t just leave her father and her work. He had to know that would be her answer, but he asked her anyway. He had hope.

Speaking of Blake, I love that Blake is becoming suspicious of Roman. I want so much for her to be more than just a pampered rich girl who is dissuaded from her very legitimate questioning of “Tom” by the promise of running off and keeping a secret from her father. When we got that bit where Roman envisions Blake stabbing him after he admits his true identity, I cheered out loud. Not because I want to see Roman get hurt, but because I loved seeing Blake show that she is every bit as capable of the same brutality as her father. She’s an intelligent, well-educated woman who was raised by a man who is shrewd, confident, and utterly ruthless. I have a hard time believing that she is truly as sweet and gullible as we’ve seen so far. I feel like there are hidden depths to Miss Crawford that we have yet to see.

Y: How amazing has this story been? If anything, season 3 should be remembered for how brilliantly the Roman storyline has been crafted and written and developed and of course portrayed by the incredible Luke Mitchell. It’s incredibly difficult to write a sympathetic villain and even harder to write one that you can have the audience begging not for demise or failure but for their redemption. And Roman is all these things. At least for me.

Roman’s psychological and emotional journey has led him to quite an interesting place. And not to mention that apparently the state of his physical health is apparently playing a role in the decisions he’s making. Looking back at the Roman we met in 2.01 and the Roman we met through the flashbacks and to see where he is now, I think Roman remains one of the clearest characters, one who is so complex in how simple the foundation of his character is. But the thing is, it is so painfully and tragically relatable and sympathetic and that is what makes him so compelling.

And Roman in this episode was the most complex and the most messed-up Roman we’ve seen to date. Watching him switch between crazy interrogator/torturer (anyone else think he could have a place in Keaton’s team if he chooses to join the CIA?) and sweet tortured boyfriend and super intelligent mastermind who’s been planning the tattoos and Crawford’s takedown for years and the broken angry little brother was equal parts terrifying and amazing. Jane is right. Roman is scrambling, but he has never been more dangerous because he’s still in so many ways in control but he’s also losing all control. And for a man who’s had nothing to lose really for so long, this can only be a recipe for disaster.

Now, a question. How many times can I ask “where’s my chocolate?” before you guys start rolling your eyes?

Jane’s juggling a lot this year--between trying to fix her marriage, taking on motherhood, dealing with her pesky brother, and trying to take down one of the most evil men on the planet. I think it is safe to say she’s not having any days off any time soon, but she did have a small opportunity to smile this week.

Y: I am about to say something that I absolutely hate but oh well… I kind of understand why Jeller has taken the back seat in the second half of the season, and it makes sense. But I still hate it. Maybe they overwhelmed Jane’s character with more plot lines than can fit in the episode format considering the character elements are always secondary to cases. This season, Jane is central to three main stories besides the tattoos and the cases--there’s Jane and Roman, Jane and Avery, and Jane and Kurt. The third may have taken priority in the first few episodes, but once Avery was introduced, all this shifted towards that and there was no more space for Jeller.

I am not going to argue that the Jane/Roman story shouldn’t take precedence because it should, especially that it is at the core of this year’s mythology, but I think introducing Avery made it hard to balance that with focusing also on Jane and Kurt’s relationship. The writers have been trying to make Avery and Jane’s relationship with at the center of the Jeller reconciliation, and while it has worked at times, it did shove Jeller to the side.

But anyway, with that said, let’s talk about Jane and Avery for a bit, shall we?

After rewatching this episode, I went back and watched the Avery-related moments from previous episodes especially those right after Berlin. I am not going to lie: The progress of their relationship has been very sweet, and obviously I’m biased towards Jane, so I am mostly happy for her to be able to develop this relationship. It’s true that Jane does have a family in the team, but the only thing she has from her real family is pain and suffering. In Avery she has found something more pure and more innocent. Does that mean this relationship is going to end in pain and suffering as well for Jane? It is possible, but I really hope not. Jane deserves something good in her life and if she can get that through Avery then I’m all for it.

But definitely not all for Avery living full-time with Jane and Weller, as sweet as that was and as important as it is in terms of moving forward with this relationship. Not for anything, but the girl needs to go to college at some point, doesn’t she?

L: I agree that Jane’s relationship with Avery has been very important for Jane this season. As much as I too love Jeller, Jane is much more than just Kurt’s wife. She’s been searching for family, for connections, for her place in this world since the premiere. Marrying Kurt--and staying married, through good times and bad--is one piece of that puzzle. Building a place in the team is another. But Roman--her only flesh-and-blood relative until Avery came along--has been a much more difficult situation, and their confrontation in this episode proved that it won’t be easy or painless for her resolve. Enter Avery, someone who shares Jane’s blood and is a part of her that cannot ever be erased. As we’ve talked about before, committing to this relationship is even harder than a marriage, because there are no “divorces” from your kid.

I’ve been really loving the way this relationship has unfolded--the tiny steps that Jane has made, and the ways that she has slowly gotten past all the barriers that Avery erected between them. But I must admit that I’m still worried that things with Avery won’t end happily for Jane. I want to trust Avery, but I am afraid that she’s going to let Jane down and break her heart.

As we saw at the gala, Avery is a lot like her mother. Cool under pressure, very persuasive, and great undercover. She does a great job of selling the story of her father’s journal to Camille. And I guess that’s why she worries me so much--she’s such a good actress that I worry that she could be acting for this whole relationship she is supposedly building with Jane. What if she was still somehow working with Roman after the Wellers brought her back from Berlin? That would explain her intense interest in the case against Crawford. I can’t shake the feeling that there is more about her father or her relationship with the Crawfords than we know. And even if she wasn’t working with Roman, if she believes that Roman is now aligning himself with Crawford, what would keep her from going off half-cocked if she thought she could get to him or Crawford? We know she’s just as impulsive as her mother and uncle. Teens; it’s so hard to tell if you should give them a hug or ground them until they’re thirty.

Even though I don’t fully trust Avery, I still kind of love her. She’s just such a typical teen. First there’s the way everything is totally black and white; no gray area, no nuances. Her dad did bad things for Hank Crawford, so he’s a bad guy. All her memories are ruined, and she should just throw out all of her pictures of him. She cannot separate the father she knew from the facts she is learning about him. And then when Jane tries to empathize with her, to talk about how she resolved her feelings about her mother, Avery cuts her off. Like most teens, her pain is so much greater than anyone else’s, there is no way that Jane could ever understand.

I still don’t really understand why Avery is still in FBI custody in New York. She was a victim/witness, and I just can’t believe that the FBI would keep someone hostage in that capacity for so long. Didn’t she have a life of her own before all of this? Friends? Was she in college? Shouldn’t she maybe be allowed to return to that life at some point? Although yes, after Roman’s attacks on the team last week, it does make sense that they would want to keep her under closer supervision right now. While I’m complaining, I also don’t understand why it didn’t already occur to either Kurt or Jane to ask Avery to move in. I mean, she doesn’t know anyone else in New York, and Jane is her mother, even if she isn’t the person who raised her. Leaving her alone in a safe house for this long seems kind of mean, to be honest.

But all that said, since it doesn’t look like Jane will get any sort of reconciliation with Roman, I’m glad that she’s been able to build a family with Kurt and Avery, and I think it will be a source of strength for her when she next faces off with her brother. Which will be sooner rather than later.

Pass the chocolate.

Kurt, apparently, has been working on his one liners recently. Was it the headache named Dash or a nosebleed that caused him the most stress this week?

Y: With Jane focusing on Avery, and for some reason his family still MIA and no one asking about them, Kurt seems to be floating in the orbit of Jane trying to build a relationship with Avery. And again, I am not really complaining because it is giving us beautiful moments of Kurt being the world’s most precious husband and stepdad. But maybe I am complaining a little bit. I have to admit that I am enjoying this Kurt with the snarky one liners though--his comments to Dash about the book having too many pages and telling him to shut up over comms had me cracking up. It’s subtle but these little moments really do tell a lot about character sometimes, and I think this show does them really well with Kurt, and with everyone else for that matter.

Kurt has realized and accepted that he has to take the back seat at the moment and make room for Avery and make room for Jane’s emotional journey with Avery, and he is doing it with grace. He’s welcomed Avery into their lives, and he’s been so supportive of Jane every step of the way and honestly someone just give this boy an award of sorts. Yes, the Berlin mess was a mess but he has more than made up for it now and he deserves all of the awards!

L: I keep going back to Jane telling Kurt that she thought he’d make a wonderful dad. Because he really is. Teenagers are tough on any marriage. Step-parenting isn’t for the faint of heart. But Kurt has committed fully to his marriage to Jane, and that means that he’s taken her daughter as one of his own. We saw how much her loss in Berlin tortured him, long before Jane even knew she existed. Avery is a part of Jane, and for that reason, Kurt handed over a piece of his heart, no question asked. He is obviously thrilled when Jane asks if Avery can come to live them. And who can’t love a man like that??

And finally, Jeller. After being mostly absent for the middle of the season, it’s good to see them taking some steps forward in their relationship this week. But these two are anything but conventional in any aspect of their lives, so where are they headed now?

Y: I don’t know what it is but it’s like someone told the writers that high dosages of Jeller are dangerous so we’re only getting droplets every now and then. Dudes, we’re here for it. We’re up for it. We want all the Jeller. All the time! That is literally what we signed up for! Granted, what we did get the week is huge and not only because we got two frames of blink-and-you-miss-it of PDA but also because of what it means that Jane wants Avery to move in with them. While on the surface this seems to be about Jane and Avery’s relationship, it is also very much about Jeller’s.

Jane wanting Avery to move in with them and believing that it would be the best way to keep her safe and give her something better speaks volumes about where Jane and Kurt’s relationship is, how far they’ve come and how Jane sees it. It was just a few weeks ago that she moved out and then moved back in and even then, they still didn’t know how they would rebuild their relationship and their life together. But this step from Jane says many things. It says that the home they’ve built is a home and family and that what they have and what they can offer Avery is safety and protection and someone to watch over her and have her back because that is what they have with each other. They have moved on from wondering how this will work or whether it will work. I admit it all happened without us seeing any of it and that is frustrating, but we are seeing the fruits of the reconciliation and this rebuilding process and them arriving to this place where they are a home and a family and two people who see in each other the one person who represents these two things as well as security and safety and love.

I still don’t like that we’re getting a read-between-the-lines version of Jeller. I’m used to the in your face Jeller. I miss my Jeller!

L: I’ve been trying to figure out why the lack of Jeller bugs me so much (besides the fact that I miss them so much!). Yes, the characters are all interesting in their own rights, and the mystery is compelling and the action keeps us on the edge of our seats. So why get so wrapped up in the marital details of two of the characters? I mean it’s not like the posters for each season advertise that this show is about a gorgeous tattooed woman and the sexy FBI agent assigned to her case. Oh, wait... That’s pretty much exactly what they do. No wonder we feel like something important is missing!

But the more I dwelled on it, I realized that this is a show whose entire premise is about a woman who crawled out of a bag with no memory. From day one, this has been Jane’s journey. And frankly, Jane has been a more minor character lately. She’s there, yes, but more in service to the bigger mystery (which is Roman and Crawford this season) than to her own personal journey. If Jane’s journey has been to figure out where she belongs, then a large part of that has to be finding her home, which in her case means her home with Weller and now with Avery. And as much as I love the Avery storyline, lately it’s come at the expense of Jeller. And the more removed I feel from this important piece of Jane, the more removed I feel from the main character and the show as a whole.

That said, I did really love the scene where she asks Kurt if Avery can come live with them, for all of the reasons Yas gave so beautifully above. That’s kind of huge. In any marriage, deciding to bring children into the picture is a big decision. And that’s when they’re tiny and adorable and relatively easy to understand. Teenagers are a whole different ballgame. (There’s a reason you don’t give birth to teenagers. If you did, the human race would be in serious danger of extinction!) So I do love that Jane felt comfortable enough with where their relationship was to ask Kurt for this, and I love that he has zero hesitation about opening up their home to her daughter, because it shows his commitment to Jane is so strong that it encompasses all her personal baggage and nearly-grown kids!

Basically, what it says to me is that this relationship is strong enough to make it. And I guess that’s going to have to be enough for now.

That’s it from us for this week! We’ve got only three more episodes left in the season and we are most certainly not prepared for any of it. Are you? If you say you are, we know you are lying. How can you be?? Now, go buy yourself some chocolate because pain and angst are coming your way!

--Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: episode review #character: jane doe #character: kurt weller #character: patterson #character: edgar reade #character: tasha zapata #character: roman #character: blake crawford #episode: 319 - galaxy of minds #character: avery #character: hank crawford

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californiaprelawland · 4 years ago

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Independent Contractor Or Employee? Uber & Lyft, Inc. Try To Bypass The Courts

By Marshall Comia, University Of California Davis Class of 2021

October 12, 2020

In the upcoming general elections, California voters will have to decide whether or not to pass what has become the most expensive ballot measure in California history, Proposition 22.[i] This proposition would alter the criteria that determines what classifies an employee from an independent contractor.[ii]More specifically, this proposition will determine whether or not “app-based rideshare and delivery companies[, such as Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and Doordash,] can hire drivers as independent contractors.”[iii]Distinguishing between these two worker classifications are important for a company because unlike employees, independent contractors don’t receive standard benefits and protections from their company; these include, among others, health care benefits, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. By taking this expensive legal fight to the ballot box, these app-based companies are trying to bypass the courts.

In 2019, Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5) was passed through the California legislature and signed into law. This bill effectively mandated that app-based rideshare and delivery companies classify their workersas employees instead of independent contractors, aswell as treat these workers appropriate to their new classification. A.B. 5 does this by codifying the case of Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles (2018) (Dynamex). In the Dynamex decision, the “ABC” test, which is “utilized in other [California] jurisdictions in a variety of contexts to distinguish employees from independent contractors,”[iv]was used again to make the worker distinction. Under the ABC test, a worker is considered an independent contractor and not an employee if “the hiring entity establishes:

“(A) that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of such work and in fact;

“(B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and

“(C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity.”[v]

If any one of the three criteria cannot be adequately established by the hiring entity, then the hiring entity can’t classify the worker as an independent contractor; they have to classify the worker as an employee. In a case where a court rules that the ABC test can’t be applied, A.B. 5 says that the test from the case S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989)(Borello) that determines employee or independent contractor status should instead be used. The Borello test weighs a myriad of interrelated factors that can be weighed differently to principally decide “whether the person to whom service is rendered has the right to control the manner and means of accomplishing the result desired.”[vi]Despite the passage of A.B. 5, Uber and Lyft Inc. aren’t following it.

In May 2020, Uber and Lyft Inc. were sued by the Attorney General of California for continuing to violate A.B. 5 after it took effect January 1, 2020, by “misclassify[ying] their ride-hailing drivers as independent contractors rather than employees” in the case People v. Uber et al (Uber et al.).[vii] The People also tried a motion “for a preliminary injunction enjoining Defendants from classifying their drivers as independent contractors;”[viii] meaning that the court would order Uber and Lyft to immediately comply with A.B. 5 unless another court says otherwise. In this California Superior Court decision, Judge Ethan Schulman ruled that Uber and Lyft Inc. misclassified their workers as independent contractors and should be classifying their workers as employees because defendants Uber and Lyft, Inc. fail the B prong of the ABC test established in Dynamax (“that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.”).[ix]Uber tried to argue that their companyis a technology company rather than a transportation company, that “operate[s] as ‘matchmakers’ to facilitate transactions between drivers and passengers”[x] and their actual employees are the tech workers who do the “engineering, product development, marketing and operations ‘in order to improve the properties of the app.’”[xi]Therefore, Uber tried to make the case that Uber drivers are “outside the usual course” of the work that Uber employees do. Uber’s shot down argument was seen by the courts as a “classic example of circular reasoning: because it regards itself as a technology company and considers only tech workers to be its ‘employees,’ anybody else is outside the ordinary course of its business, and therefore is not an employee.”[xii] Uber has made this argument beforein the case O’Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (2015). In this case, “Judge Edward Chen of the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California found this argument ‘flawed in numerous respects’…‘fundamentally, it is obvious drivers perform a service for Uber because Uber simply would not be a viable business without its drivers.’”[xiii]As opined, the decision in Uber et al. to classify Uber and Lyft, Inc. drivers as employees has been seen in many other court conclusions, such as Cunningham v. Lyft, Inc. (2020), Namisnak v. Uber (2020), and Crawford v. Uber Technologies, Inc. (2018).[xiv]

The defendants of Uber et al. also made two other main arguments to defend their evasion from complying with A.B. 5. Defendants first argued that A.B. 5 doesn’t apply to them at all “because they are not ‘hiring entities’ within the meaning of the legislation.”[xv] The court noted that in a previous case, Uber argued that “AB 5 targets gig economy companies and workers and treats them differently from similarly situated group,”[xvi] yet in Uber et al., Uber was trying to argue that the same piece of legislation that unfairly targeted them didn’t apply to them at all. The court decided that they couldn’t “take seriously such contradictory positions”[xvii] and ruled the defendants as subject to A.B. 5.

The second main argument that defendants made was that if they reclassified their drivers as employees in compliance with A.B. 5, they would suffer “two categories of harm: (1) the costs and other harms associated with the restructuring of Defendants’ businesses in California; and (2) the harms to Defendants’ drivers, including the risk that some may [be] unable to continue earning income if Defendants do not offer them continued work as employees, and the risk that their reclassification as employees jeopardize their eligibility for emergency federal benefits available to them as self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.”[xviii] In response to the first category of harm, the court acknowledged that the compliance to A.B. 5 will be costly because defendants “will have to change the nature of their business[es] in significant ways.”[xix] But, the court points out that defendants’ argument “at root, is fundamentally one about the financial costs of compliance.”[xx]

In response to the second category of harm, the court opined that if compliance to the People’s demands of A.B. 5 were far-reaching,

“they have only been exacerbated by Defendants’ prolonged and brazen refusal to comply with California law. Defendants may not evade legislative mandates merely because their businesses are so large that they affect the lives of many thousands of people.”[xxi]

The court points out that since Defendants’ ridership is currently lower than it’s ever been, now “may be the best time (or the least worst time) for Defendants to change their business practices to conform to California law without causing widespread adverse effects on their drivers.”[xxii]Overall, the Defendants are trying to drag out litigation until after the November 2020 election, where Uber and Lyft can become exempt from A.B. 5’s requirements through the passage of Proposition 22. Despite the motions that Defendants have made attempting “to delay or avoid a determination whether, as the People allege, they are engaged in an ongoing and widespread violation of A.B. 5…Defendants are not entitled to an indefinite postponement of their day of reckoning. Their threshold motions are groundless.”[xxiii] The court ordered that defendants are “restrained from classifying their Drivers as independent contractors.”[xxiv]

[xxv]

The contributors supporting Proposition 22 have raised over $184 million, with Lyft, Inc. and Uber as the top two contributors.[xxvi] The contributors opposing Proposition 22 have only raised around $7.5 million. In a Berkeley IGS Poll of likely voters, 39% would vote yes to Proposition 22, 36% would vote no, and 25% are undecided.[xxvii] As shown by the Proposition’s tight poll numbers, the fight for whether app-based rideshare and delivery companies will classify their workers as independent contractors or employees is going to be a close one.

________________________________________________________________

[i]“What Were the Most Expensive Ballot Measures in California.” Ballotpedia. Lucy Burns Institute. Accessed September 29, 2020. https://ballotpedia.org/What_were_the_most_expensive_ballot_measures_in_California.

[ii]“Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures.” Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures :: California Secretary of State. California Secretary of State. Accessed September 29, 2020. https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures.

[iii]“Proposition 22 [Ballot].” Legislative Analyst's Office. Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC). Accessed September 29, 2020. https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Proposition?number=22&year=2020.

[iv]Dynamex Operations W. v. Superior Court and Charles Lee, Real Party in Interest,4 Cal.5th 903, 416 P.3d 1, 232 Cal.Rptr.3d 1 (2018).https://boehm-associates.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Dynamex-Operations-West_-Inc.-v.-Superior-Court_-4-Cal.pdf

[v]Id.

[vi]S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations 48 Cal.3d 341 (1989).

[vii]People of the State of California v. Uber Technologies, Inc., A Delaware Corporation et al. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7032764/Judge-Ethan-Schulman-Order-on-Lyft-and-Uber.pdf.

[viii]Id at 2.

[ix]Dynamax, 4 Cal.5th at 908

[x]People of the State of California v. Uber Technologies, Inc., A Delaware Corporation et al.https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7032764/Judge-Ethan-Schulman-Order-on-Lyft-and-Uber.pdf

[xi]Id.

[xii]Id.

[xiii]Id.

[xiv]Id.

[xv]Id.

[xvi]Lydia Olson et al v. State of California et al, 2:19-cv-10956, No. 52 (C.D.Cal. Feb. 10, 2020) (available at https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/California_Central_District_Court/2--19-cv-10956/Lydia_Olson_et_al_v._State_of_California_et_al/52/)

[xvii]Id.

[xviii]Id.

[xix]Id.

[xx]Id.

[xxi]Id.

[xxii]Id.

[xxiii]Id.

[xxiv]Id.

[xxv]“What Were the Most Expensive Ballot Measures in California.” Ballotpedia. Lucy Burns Institute. Accessed September 29, 2020. https://ballotpedia.org/What_were_the_most_expensive_ballot_measures_in_California.

[xxvi]“November 2020 General Election.” California Fair Political Practices Commission. Accessed September 29, 2020. http://www.fppc.ca.gov/transparency/top-contributors/nov-20-gen.html.

[xxvii]DiCamillo, M. (2020). Tabulations from a Mid-September 2020 Survey of California Likely Voters about Four of the Propositions on the November 2020 Statewide Election Ballot. UC Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1p22n9ws.

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aaltjebarisca · 6 years ago

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What You Need to Know About Shipping Container Homes

Jason Rioux’s family weekend cabin isn’t your standard vacation home. The 1,300-square-foot structure is made of shipping containers. Nestled right outside of Bobcaygeon, Ontario in Canada, the cozy cabin, known as the Octopod, is surrounded by stands of trees. It’s made of seven shipping containers and includes a washroom and covered sauna.

Built with sustainability in mind, electricity for the cottage is provided by a battery-powered generator. The water system is a solar water pump. There’s a water tower inside the house that pumps the water up to a giant tank that gravity feeds to all the fixtures throughout the cottage.

A trend that’s growing in popularity in recent years, shipping container homes have obvious appeal. Besides having the option of living off the grid, you’re using reclaimed materials to build out all the traditional features of a home. “It’s nice not to be dependent on the outside world,” said Rioux of Sea Container Cabin in Toronto. “If we were to live here, the only thing we would really need to survive is food.”

As there’s not much of a market for a shipping container home, chances are you’ll have to build your own. If you’re interested in constructing a shipping container home, here are some financial and logistical considerations.

Work With Its Advantages

When building your home, you want to work with a shipping container for its strengths and advantages: the fact that its modular and is super strong. “People who want to live in them are attracted to their style, look, feel and character,” Rioux said.

As long as you’re designing with advantages of a shipping container in mind, you can do it in a cost-efficient manner, Rioux explained.

“Sometimes people might want to build a home that looks interesting on paper, but it’s costly to build,” Rioux said. “If you’re smart in your design and usage, you could build a lower-cost home than one that’s traditionally constructed.”

For instance, you’ll want to reap the benefits of the shipping container’s steel structure. If you design your home so you keep the giant steel doors and shutters, you’ll enjoy the added security and protection. “If someone wants to break into your cottage, they’ll probably go to the cottage down the road because it’s too much work,” Rioux said.

Know the Costs Involved

While the cost of the shipping containers themselves are inexpensive – you can get a 20-foot by 8-foot shipping container for about $2,800 in the U.S. – your home needs to be insulated properly to avoid any potential issues with condensation and mold. You can install either external wall insulation or internal wall insulation. In turn, you’ll probably spend more on high-quality insulation.

The costs largely depend on a number of factors. For the Riouxs’ cabin, which is a two-bedroom, one-bath home that has a covered space for a sauna and to store their ATVs, it cost them $100 per square foot.

Understand Your Financing Options

Your options for getting a loan on a shipping container home include a mortgage or a personal loan. “If the home is built in compliance with the building codes for single family homes, it can be financed just like any other single family home,” explained Nathaniel Crawford, a broker associate based in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Note that shipping container homes might not be considered real estate. That’s because to be considered a piece of real estate, there has to be property taxes on the asset, explained Shawn Breyer of Breyer Home Buyers in Atlanta.

“Without a recorded title and [property] plat, there are no property taxes and isn’t considered real estate,” Breyer said. “A shipping container must be connected to a permanent foundation with utility hookups.” If the shipping container doesn’t have a permanent foundation, you won’t be able to get a mortgage.

When building a shipping container home, you might be able to get a construction loan. But it can be tricky because shipping container homes aren’t standard, lenders might be nervous to offer you a loan. That’s because banks aren’t sure what the value might be and aren’t always confident about a shipping container home being used as collateral, Rioux explained. To boost your odds, work with an established contractor and have your construction plans ready to show the lender.

Understand the Process in the Buildout

When working with contractors, because shipping container homes are unique projects and contractors aren’t familiar with the process, be prepared to work with 10% of the price of the project up front, then the remaining 90% once the shipping container home has been constructed. Once the home has been built and it gets appraised, you could get a loan from the bank, Rioux said.

What’s more, contractors might not want to take on the job for a fixed price. They might be willing to work on a time and materials agreement, Rioux said. What that means is you pay for the materials and pay the contractors an hourly rate. So it’s on you to get estimates, obtain the materials and pay extra if the project suffers hiccups or takes longer than expected.

While building shipping containers come with a special set of challenges, you’re bound to enjoy a unique experience. “Living off-grid affects how you feel living inside a shipping container more than the structures themselves,” Rioux said. “It’s just fun to be inside a durable, impervious structure in the countryside.”

Have you thought about living in a shipping container home? Let us know in the comments!

The post What You Need to Know About Shipping Container Homes appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/need-know-shipping-container-homes

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aaronsniderus · 6 years ago

Text

What You Need to Know About Shipping Container Homes

Work With Its Advantages

As long as you’re designing with advantages of a shipping container in mind, you can do it in a cost-efficient manner, Rioux explained.

Know the Costs Involved

Understand Your Financing Options

Understand the Process in the Buildout

Have you thought about living in a shipping container home? Let us know in the comments!

The post What You Need to Know About Shipping Container Homes appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/need-know-shipping-container-homes

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lucyoccupy · 2 years ago

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Could This Report Be The Definitive Answer To INSURER FRAUD, BAD FAITH, NEGLIGENCE. TOXIC EXPOSURE & RACKETEERING?

INSURER FRAUD, BAD FAITH, NEGLIGENCE,TOXIC EXPOSURE Report: Statistics and Facts By Linda Ayres September 21, 2022 – Yucca Valley, California I’ve learned a great deal about microbial growth, toxic exposure and various species and dangers of molds and mycotoxins since my roof blew off on February 2, 2019 and the handling of the claim by State Farm caused not only catastrophic damage to my home…

View On WordPress

#AEG- AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP #Contractor Connection - a Crawford Company [TPA]#Environmental Testing #Got Water Damage? Mycotoxins? What about those BILLABLE DEFENSE LAWYER HOURS….. JakeSaysMEH?!!!#MOLD INSPECTION SCIENCES #Paul Davis Restoration #State Farm #WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

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96thdayofrage · 3 years ago

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OVER TWO DECADES, U.S.’S GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR HAS TAKEN NEARLY 1 MILLION LIVES AND COST $8 TRILLION

A new report from the Costs of War Project makes staggering estimates for the human and financial costs of the global forever wars.

THE U.S.-LED global war on terror has killed nearly 1 million people globally and cost more than $8 trillion since it began two decades ago. These staggering figures come from a landmark report issued Wednesday by Brown University’s Costs of War Project, an ongoing research effort to document the economic and human impact of post-9/11 military operations.

The report — which looks at the tolls of wars waged in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and other regions where the U.S. is militarily engaged — is the latest in a series published by the Costs of War Project and provides the most extensive public accounting to date of the consequences of open-ended U.S. conflicts in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, referred to today as the “forever wars.”

“It’s critical we properly account for the vast and varied consequences of the many U.S. wars and counterterror operations since 9/11, as we pause and reflect on all of the lives lost,” said the project’s co-director, Neta Crawford, in a press release accompanying the report. “Our accounting goes beyond the Pentagon’s numbers because the costs of the reaction to 9/11 have rippled through the entire budget.”

The staggering economic costs of the war on terror pale in comparison to the direct human impact, measured in people killed, wounded, and driven from their homes. The Costs of War Project’s latest estimates hold that 897,000 to 929,000 people have been killed during the wars. Of those killed, 387,000 are categorized as civilians, 207,000 as members of national military and police forces, and a further 301,000 as opposition fighters killed by U.S.-led coalition troops and their allies. The report also found that around 15,000 U.S. military service members and contractors have been killed in the wars, along with a similar number of allied Western troops deployed to the conflicts and several hundred journalists and humanitarian aid workers.

The question of how many people have lost their lives in the post-9/11 conflicts has been the subject of ongoing debate, though the numbers in all cases have been extraordinarily high. Previous Costs of War studies have put death toll figures in the hundreds of thousands, an estimate tallying those directly killed by violence. According to a 2015 estimate from the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility, well over 1 million have been killed both indirectly and directly in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan alone. The difficulty of calculating death tolls is made harder by the U.S. military’s own refusal to keep track of the number of people killed in its operations, as well as the remoteness of the regions where many of the conflicts take place.

Like its previous studies, the death toll calculated by the Costs of War Project focuses only on deaths directly caused by violence during the global war on terror and does not include “indirect deaths, namely those caused by loss of access to food, water, and/or infrastructure, war-related disease” that have resulted from the conflicts. The report’s footnotes also state that “some of the people classified as opposition fighters may actually have been civilians as well, since there are political incentives to classify the dead as militants rather than civilians” — a caveat that dovetails with the U.S. government’s own confessed practice of labeling any “military-age males” killed in its operations as combatants unless proved otherwise.

Such practices have continued across multiple administrations. A recent investigation from the military-focused news site Connecting Vets included leaked video and accounts from the 2019 drone campaign in Helmand province in Afghanistan. The story included testimony from former drone operators who said that they had been given the green light to kill anyone seen holding a walkie-talkie or wearing a tactical vest in the province, which had poor security and lacked reliable cell phone service. For some U.S. officials licensed to authorize drone strikes, frustrated by their inability to achieve strategic victory or even favorable negotiating terms with the Taliban, the “metric for success was racking up a body count.”

The Costs of War Project report states that its findings about deaths in the wars are conservative, leaving many still uncounted. Although nearly 1 million people can be said with confidence to have been killed since the global war on terror began, even that staggering figure is, in the words of Crawford, the project co-director, “likely a vast undercount of the true toll these wars have taken on human life.”

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mikebrackett · 6 years ago

Text

What You Need to Know About Shipping Container Homes

Work With Its Advantages

As long as you’re designing with advantages of a shipping container in mind, you can do it in a cost-efficient manner, Rioux explained.

Know the Costs Involved

Understand Your Financing Options

Understand the Process in the Buildout

Have you thought about living in a shipping container home? Let us know in the comments!

The post What You Need to Know About Shipping Container Homes appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/need-know-shipping-container-homes

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kacydeneen · 6 years ago

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Powerful Philly Union Leader Accused of Elaborate Embezzlement Scheme

Baby wipes, Q-Tips, bottled water and expensive dinners were all part of an elaborate embezzlement scheme by powerful electricians' union leader John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty and Philadelphia Councilman Bobby Henon, according to a federal charging document unsealed Wednesday morning.

Dougherty exerted complete control over the union, according to the 116-count indictment, using that power to "repeatedly and persistently steal its funds and put his own self-interests over that of the membership."

Tyson Recalls Chicken Nuggets That May Contain Rubber

All told, the defendants, which included several IBEW Local 98 union employees and associates, misspent more than $600,000 in union funds, officials said.

The sweeping 160-page presentment alleges that Dougherty and his co-defendants conspired to embezzle union money for their own families, friends and business. They concealed these funds by falsifying documentation to make the money appear union-related, according to the indictment.

Apple Opens New Chapter as iPhone Sales Fall and Stock Sinks

Read the complete indictment below.

Charges include conspiracy to embezzle labor union funds, falsification of labor union records, making false statements to the FBI and theft from employee benefits, among many other counts.

Midwest Freeze Cancels Flights, Even Stops the Mail

In addition to Dougherty and Henon, six IBEW Local 98 leaders were also named. They are:

Brian Burrows, president since 2008

Michael Neill, director of training since 2008

Marita Crawford, director of government affairs

Niko Rodriguez, former union apprentice and now-treasurer of Brighter Pennsylvania PAC

Brian Fiocca, union employee and Dougherty's nephew

Anthony Massa, owner and operator of Massa Construction

The defendants allegedly spent thousands of union dollars on expensive family meals, baby supplies, hair styling items and even dog food, federal officials said.

During a birthday dinner for Dougherty in 2015, Crawford used a union credit card to spend more than $1,300 at the Old Homestead restaurant, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to the indictment.

Crawford falsely reported to Local 98 that the birthday dinner was a “Political Campaign Meeting Hosted by John Dougherty.”

“I got a different world than most people ever exist in. I am able to take care of a lot of people all the time," Dougherty allegedly said to a family member, according to the indictment.

The alleged embezzlement outlined in the indictment took place between 2010 to 2016.

Dougherty's personal attorney, Henry Hockeimer, denied any wrongdoing on behalf of his client.

"Every move he makes is done in order to better the lives of the membership of Local 98. And the dramatic increase in wages, health care benefits and the overall standard of living for the membership is a testament to that singular focus," the statement read. "To allege that John in any way attempted to defraud the Union he cares about so deeply is preposterous."

The charges point to dizzying schemes between Dougherty and Henon that, ultimately, did benefit the union itself. In July 2015, for example, the two conspired to shut down the installation of a new MRI machine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia because Local 98 was not given the opportunity to bid on the project. CHOP responded that the manufacturer was installing the machine in order to keep it under warranty should it fail or need repair in the future.

“It is also an L&I violation ... you don’t want a city thing shutting it down," Dougherty reportedly told a hospital administrator. "We have had other hospitals shut down because of that.”

Henon referred the dispute to the city's Department of Licenses and Inspection, which ultimately issued a stop work order for the MRI machine installation.

In another scheme, Henon and Dougherty allegedly pressured Comcast during its franchise licensing agreement talks, according to the indictment. The two warned Comcast that if the cable provider did not hire union workers to install its fiber optic network, city council would not approve the franchise agreement.

Comcast, the parent company of NBC10 and Telemundo62, said it "cooperated fully" with the federal investigation and will continue to do so as a fact witness.

The charges revealed Wednesday come more than two years after the FBI and IRS raided over a dozen offices of people connected to IBEW Local 98, including Dougherty.

Earlier this week, two additional associates were indicted.

George Peltz, a South Jersey contractor and an ally of Dougherty's, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, theft from employee benefits and other charges. He admitted to providing more than $60,000 in gifts and free work, including home and office improvements, to an unnamed union official.

Many people have speculated that unnamed official, identified simply as Official No. 1 in federal documents, is Dougherty.

Dr. James Moylan, the former Zoning Board Chairman of Philadelphia, was also indicted in connection with the investigation. Prosecutors said he used more than $40,000 in union donations to pay his business and personal expenses. He stepped down as zoning board chair after federal agents raided his home and chiropractic business.

Despite never holding public office, the 58-year-old Dougherty has long been one of Philadelphia’s most powerful political figures.

He is head of the broader Philadelphia Building Trades Council, and has sat on influential boards, such as the Delaware River Port Authority. Many inside Philadelphia City Hall consider him to be most influential at the municipal level, where he has had a hand in securing votes for several current councilmembers, including former Local 98 protege Henon.

A spokesman for IBEW Local 98 did not respond to a request for comment.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who received campaign support from IBEW, defended the union's right to contribute to his mayoral campaign.

Speaking to reporters at a different event Wednesday morning, Kenney said he was "sad" and disappointed by the federal charges, but is not worried that anyone in his administration will be implicated.

"We’ve had conversations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and there’s no one in the administration or myself or anyone that is involved in that regard," he said.

The mayor recommended that Councilman Henon make the best decision for the people he represents.

“If he stepped down today, his constituents would not be represented for 10 months. So that’s certainly up to him," Kenney said.

Henon issued a statement on his Facebook page shortly after the charges were revealed.

"I want to make clear: I have done nothing wrong. I have spent 28 years proudly working for Local 98. In 2011, I ran for City Council to give a voice to honest union men and women, working Philadelphians and those in need of a strong voice to represent them in this great city," the statement read.

NBC10 obtained a copy of a letter Dougherty sent to union members Monday that touted recent union successes and said he will "continue to be your business manager for the foreseeable future."

Editor's Note: Some NBC10 employees are members of Local 98.

Powerful Philly Union Leader Accused of Elaborate Embezzlement Scheme published first on Miami News

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teritcrawfordca · 6 years ago

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How to Turn Your Business Venture into an Admired Brand

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with Fabian Geyrhalter. He is a renowned Brand Strategist and the Founder and Principal of FINIEN. He is the author of Bigger Than This. For more info: www.finien.com.

SmallBizlady: HOW DO YOU DEFINE BRAND?

Fabian Geyrhalter: A brand is a company (service, product or person) with soul that is attractive and smart. Soul is key to this. If you are solely selling in order to seize a financial opportunity your company will likely not turn into a brand. Heart and soul creates connection and it’s how you change from transaction to an interaction with your audience. It turns into a relationship. That’s what branding means to me.

SMALLBIZLADY: DOES A BRAND HAVE TO OFFER A RADICALLY NEW AND UNIQUE PRODUCT TO SPARK INTEREST AMONG CONSUMERS?

Fabian Geyrhalter: Given today’s world filled with hot startups that are fueled by tech innovation and are disrupting one segment after the next, the surprising answer is: No

SMALLBIZLADY: HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A COMPANY THAT MANUFACTURES MUNDANE COMMODITY PRODUCTS, LIKE STAPLERS OR SOCKS, TO FEEL “SPECIAL” TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC?

Fabian Geyrhalter: These commodity companies that quickly turn into beloved brands all realized that they need to find a story that is bigger than their offering. In my new book “Bigger Than This” I analyzed that all of these ventures lead with branding rather than product. By using empathy with their audience, they found ways to tell bigger stories that immediately resonated with their new audiences.

SMALLBIZLADY: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO LAUNCH A BRAND IN TODAY’S AGE? HOW DO YOU TURN ANY VENTURE INTO A BRAND IN 2018?

Fabian Geyrhalter: It takes either disruptive innovation or brilliant brand thinking. If you lack innovation, which many companies do, you have to carefully align your offering with a specific audience and around shared values. The traits are story, belief, cause, heritage, delight, transparency, solidarity and individuality. If one or more of these speak to you and your brand’s story, then wholeheartedly start to act upon it and infuse it into everything you say and do.

SMALLBIZLADY: Do I have to have some sort of official certification to do business with the government?

Fabian Geyrhalter: No, one does not require a certification to be a government contractor. But a person or company MUST be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) web site. This is a totally free government registration. A company’s SAM profile (at SAM.gov) has legal statements regarding they type, size and location of the business. A separate, free and optional registration The Small Business Administration (SBA)

SMALLBIZLADY: HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CREATING A BRAND? HOW IS A NAME AND AN IDENTITY CRAFTED?

Fabian Geyrhalter: It really is half science, half art. And emotional intelligence combined with experience, that obviously helps too. Before I start to even think about a name or a visual design language, I lead an one-day workshop intensive with the company. The AND?DNA is the search for something that is not necessarily inherent in the DNA of their offering but in the DNA of a carefully crafted and authentic brand story, which I derive together with the founders that day. When they introduce their products to consumers, the natural question anyone would ask is, “And?” – as in, “And why should I buy these very basic shoes?” Great brands can answer the “And?” question.

SMALLBIZLADY: WHAT BRANDS CONSISTENTLY IMPRESS YOU THROUGH A BRAND MARKETING LENS?

Fabian Geyrhalter: Planet Fitness for excluding the many to gain the few with their “Judgement Free Zone” fitness centers approx. over 6M members. Fishpeople Seafood for putting “people back in seafood” making the journey of where your food comes from transparent and engaging. Everlane, for their radical transparency going as far as shaving off $25 of their bestselling product overnight, citing lower production costs. These are all remarkable, and consistent, brand moves.

SMALLBIZLADY: YOUR CONSULTANCY’S WORK HAS MAINLY BEEN WITH SILICON VALLEY STARTUPS AND FORTUNE 500S. HOW DID YOU GET FASCINATED WITH STARTUP COMMODITY BRANDS?

Fabian Geyrhalter: Now that is a great question as it really sounds downside up. Well, it is “easy” to craft a brand around an exciting new product or a service that piggy-backs on a Fortune 500’s brand legacy, but one day I realized that some really hot new startup companies, famously TOMs with their 1-for-1-movement, are actually based on complete commodity products, so I set out to find more brands that have mundane products but through great brand strategy launched to near-immediate fame.

It’s fascinating to me, on many levels. If these brands can make it, just imagine how anyone can benefit using their successful brand traits.

SMALLBIZLADY: WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT, A GREAT PRODUCT OR A GREAT STORY?

Fabian Geyrhalter: A great product. You cannot rise to fame with a sub-par product in 2018, but you can with a normal, mundane product coupled with a great brand story.

SMALLBIZLADY: HOW HAS BRANDING CHANGED OVER THE PAST FEW DECADES? WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Fabian Geyrhalter: Branding changed from being advertising-based to being human-based. When I started writing this book on the Saturday before Halloween and it came to me that dressing up for Halloween is a great analogy for how many educated consumers see branding: a fake persona is crafted to evoke emotions from a specific audience in order to achieve a predetermined goal. It sounds as calculated as it in fact can be, but this approach is on its way out. Brands are being forced to leave the costumes to humans during Halloween.

Instead they opt for complete transparency and engaging, open conversations because of the rise of social media and the birth of a generation ready to participate, as long as the brand’s approach is inclusive and amicable. We will see this trend of empathetic branding continue on, and we’ll see Fortune 500s struggle to adapt to that new era.

SMALLBIZLADY: IF AN ENTREPRENEUR PICKS UP YOUR BOOK AND FOLLOWS ITS ADVICE, ARE THEY GUARANTEED TO TURN THEIR BUSINESS INTO A BRAND?

Fabian Geyrhalter: If they have a well manufactured product, or a good service – again, it doesn’t need to be anything innovative – and they are open to transforming into a story-based brand, this book will definitely provide them with all the inspiration necessary to turn into a true brand.

Join us every Wednesday from 8-9 pm ET; follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter to stay up to date on our upcoming guests.

Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/1hZeIlz

The post How to Turn Your Business Venture into an Admired Brand appeared first on Succeed As Your Own Boss.

from Teri Crawford Business Tips https://succeedasyourownboss.com/how-to-turn-your-business-venture-into-an-admired-brand/

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at-funeral · 7 years ago

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Little Rock Life Safety Company Wins Award of Excellence For Their Work on the Crawford County Detention Center

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (PRWEB) March 20, 2018

The new Detention Center in Crawford County, Arkansas has raised the bar when it comes to Life Safety measures. The new detention center was built due to alarming overcrowding issues that endangered the safety of the inmates and staff. The new 307 bed facility is now a beacon of safety, especially when it comes to Life Safety and Fire Protection.

In February of 2018, The Association of Builders and Contractors of Arkansas awarded American Fire Protection Group of Little Rock the Excellence in Construction Eagle Award for the implementation of an innovative and premier Life Safety system. The Eagle Award recognizes outstanding work on construction projects. A winning project is evaluated on the material submitted, the attractiveness of design, complexity, workmanship, innovation, unusual challenges and the problems that were overcome.

The Life Safety work on the 64,000 square foot facility took 18 months to complete and totaled $320,000. The project included the installation of 1,140 linear feet of underground piping, 3 fire hydrants, an enclosed backflow preventer, 2 wet sprinkler systems, 1 dry sprinkler system, and 2 remote fire department connections.

A total of 673 sprinklers were installed to protect the entire facility, including institutional sprinkler heads in inmate areas. The duration of the project and scope of work presented several challenges. These challenges were answered with detailed scheduling, trade coordination, and effective internal and external communication between all parties. These efforts aided in ensuring that there were minimal scheduling issues.

In addition to the aesthetic and safety, the other goal of the project was to work with companies that could come in under budget and finish ahead of schedule.

American Fire Protection Group came through big on both, coming in 2 months ahead of schedule and $3 million under the project’s budget.

American Fire Protection Group worked with Smith-Doyle Contractors who are location in Cordova, TN. Don Abernathy, Vice President of Smith-Doyle Contractors said, "It was a pleasure working with American Fire Protection Group on their multi-prime project. Working together to deliver the project to Crawford County 60 days early and over $3 million under budget took a team of dedicated professionals. We applaud their efforts in staying dedicated to the project and to the team. We look forward to working with American Fire Protection Group on many additional projects in the future."

Another issue that was overcome came from the special ceiling requirements. Being a detention center, institutional ceilings were required in all areas where detainees could have access to the ceiling. Once installed, the institutional ceilings are locked in place. So early scheduling and collaborating with the ceiling contractors was completed to plan out the flow of trim out. The epoxy floors were another area where limitations were placed on installation and trim-out. All parties worked to establish a schedule that helped to alleviate confusion and to ensure safety and protection.

Additionally, the Crawford County Justice Center was featured in the January/February issue of Correctional News Magazine. The article was titled "Success In The Southeast". The article praised the new facility as setting the new standard for detention centers in the Southeast.

American Fire Projection Group, along with all Eagle winners will be recognized at the EIC Banquet on April 7, 2018 in Hot Springs, AR. The ceremony will feature a multi-media presentation highlighting the Eagle award winners, printed programs, publications and releases through the regional construction-related news media.

For more information on this project or Life Safety services or equipment please contact Rick Westbrook at 832-206- 3397 or [email protected].

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/03/prweb15326237.htm

Source Article

The post Little Rock Life Safety Company Wins Award of Excellence For Their Work on the Crawford County Detention Center appeared first on Apartments In Cordova TN Deals That Are Waiting For You.

More Info At: http://www.at-funeral.com/little-rock-life-safety-company-wins-award-of-excellence-for-their-work-on-the-crawford-county-detention-center/

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kansascityhappenings · 7 years ago

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Voters say ‘yes’ to new KCI, now what?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas city is getting a new airport. Voters overwhelmingly approved scrapping the old three horseshoe design in favor of a brand new single terminal.

FOX 4’s Matt Stewart found while many travelers will miss the convenience and simplicity of the current KCI, they are excited to move forward with a new airport.

“I mean, c’mon. This airport is older than me.”

Jeffrey Dupree of Gardner understands the need for a new airport. KCI is 45 years old and quickly falling apart. For years, city leaders have pushed to build a new airport, to no avail. But now, after an intense six-month campaign to convince voters, Kansas City residents agreed to let the city build a new single terminal airport.

“I’m just glad we’re going to have the opportunity to have bigger planes and more routes through Kansas City. Less connecting flights. More nonstops. I think it will make travel, and especially business travel, much easier,” Leawood resident Helene Slutsky said.

The price tag? Around $1 billion, paid for by the airlines and passengers through higher ticket prices and parking fees.

Engineers created renderings of what it could look like. The plan is to build it where the now defunct Terminal A sits so flights can still go in and out of Terminals B and C during construction.

The main concern for most is convenience. Flyers love the ease of getting in and out of KCI and hope Edgemoor — the contractor out of Maryland chosen for this project — keeps that in mind.

“I will miss some of the convenience. I am a pretty frequent traveler and I like being able to just run right in here really easily,” Leawood resident Rod Crawford said.

“I love that it’s so easy to get in and out but if you are stuck here it’s not easy to get food, if you have a delayed flight at night, everything is shut down,” Leawood resident Jodi Kaplan said.

“I can park right outside and come right in. That’s the convenience of this airport but if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. So it’s a good thing because you’re moving forward,” Gardner resident Jeffrey Dupree said.

There’s a lot to be done in a short amount of time. First things first, Edgemoor needs to sign a contract with the city to take over this project.

City leaders want Edgemoor to hire local as well as contract with women and minority-owned businesses.

Over the next few weeks, Edgemoor plans to host public meetings across the city to allow residents the chance to tell them what they want out of their new airport, new amenities and conveniences that are important to them, such as more restaurants and bathrooms, and parking close to their gate.

Then they will hire the engineering firm to design the airport with hopes of breaking ground next summer.

Construction will go on for about three to four years. The goal is to have it up and running by 2021.

City leaders tell us if the vote had failed, they really had no plan B.

The airlines told them early on they would not help pay for renovations to KCI. The airlines wanted a new terminal, and the reasoning is because security was too spread out, the airlines wanted more space to bring in more planes.

Airport officials have been saying for years that the buildings were costly to maintain.

KCI was built in 1972. There were some who thought renovations would be better to preserve the three horseshoe structure but again, if the airlines refused to pay for it, then the city would’ve most likely had to cover the brunt of that cost.

Reports showed renovating it would cost about the same as building new. So in the end, the voters chose to build new.

New KCI proposal– designs by Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill (SOM)

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2017/11/08/voters-say-yes-to-new-kci-now-what/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/voters-say-yes-to-new-kci-now-what/

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jnfcanada · 7 years ago

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Part Four 10th Anniversary Work in Uganda

Over the years, Geoff and I have travelled to Uganda at least seven times each; generally together but also on our own. When we travel to Uganda we take donated supplies from Canada that are easy to pack.

We are grateful to the Compassionate Resource Warehouse in Victoria that is a collection depot for all things donated including medical, educational, and sewing supplies, personal items and tools of all kinds. On each trip JNFC has been able to take suitcases full of medical and educational items, as well as knitted comfort dolls. We’ve also taken suitcases filled with dental supplies, baby clothes, sewing supplies, and three times we packed and delivered donated soccer uniforms with equipment. We always take letters and small packages from sponsors to brighten the lives of their sponsored children.

Teachers modelling donated soccer uniforms in 2015

Jim and Shirley Wilson and Jill Stokes packing puppets for the journey in 2012

Comfort dolls are made by different volunteers and bring a little joy every time

Each sponsored family receives toothbrushes and toothpaste, and the extra supplies are given to the staff for the school store. Pictured with Dee Henderson and Chris Crawford 2016

Here are some of the medical supplies received by the nurse in 2015, pictured with Tom the Sponsorship Coordinator and Geoff Stokes.

The money raised through events and donations in Canada is used to begin new projects or continue ongoing projects. Our very first project was a pump for the bore hole (well) on the property, continuing with desks for the school being built, scholastic materials, medical supplies, a kitchen/dining room facility, fencing, solar power installation, sanitation, a library, sports field, water storage, transportation, and more.

We purchased five bicycles, and papyrus which Geoff and staff used to construct the puppet stage pictured in a previous post. This photo shows the truck stuck in the swamp 2012.

We support AFC with coffee and ginger growing as income generation for the school, and last year we implemented a Bursary Fund for students who have no family. You will find a comprehensive list of all of our projects on our website: www.jnfcanada.org

Staff and children all help prepare the coffee plants.

Ginger ready for planting.

The parents/caregivers contribute to the school by working in the gardens that provide food for the school.

We’ve taken art supplies for fun days at the school and below the children were painting two murals: one to stay in Uganda and one for Victoria.

We learned how to finger paint!

In 2012, Geoff and Leanne were in Uganda in February during their birthdays and had a wonderful celebration with the school by serving three cakes.

Rotary Club of Saanich, Districts 5020 BC & District 9200 Uganda, Project Unity and Rotary International

Geoff and I joined the Rotary Club of Saanich in 2008. This was somewhat of a surprise to us because we never intended to join a service club but Naz Rayani of Heart Pharmacy was persuasive in asking us to try it out. We learned to appreciate the history of Rotary and the wonderful work that Rotarians do, volunteering in service projects and fundraising all around the world. We made a lot of friends and connections, learned about other community organizations, and we were able to share the work of JNFC by making presentations to a number of clubs.

We attended a meeting of the Rotary Club of Kalolo in Kampala exchanging banners.

In 2010 Rotary International introduced a brand new Global Grant process starting with a pilot project that took two years to complete. Rotary has a vigorous process of accountability for funds distributed and completion of projects. It was necessary for us to find a club in Uganda who would be the Ugandan liason and we found the Rotary Club of Kalolo. Our project was spearheaded by Geoff and comprised of committed funds from the Rotary Club of Saanich, District 5020 in BC & Washington, and the Rotary Club of Kalolo in District 9200 in Uganda, Rotary International, as well as Project Unity Victoria and JNFC. The Global Grant was $45,000.00 in total. Geoff communicated with all parties including the District level in Washington, and Rotary International in Chicago. Estimates had to be given and contractors lined up with a timeline for the work.

By late 2011 it all seemed overwhelming trying to get the project going in Uganda from Victoria. As a result Geoff flew to Uganda in December 2011 to meet with the contractors, engineer, and the Ugandan Rotarians to get the project started.

A meeting in the swamp with Geoff on the right and Jolly as well as the engineer, contractor and members of the Rotary Club of Kalolo

The Rotary Global Grant was instrumental in:

· converting a swamp into a regulation size sports field;

· finishing an empty brick room as a library with solar power, appropriate furniture, resources, books, computers and a printer;

· installation of an eco-san toilet beside the sports field.

The future library (photo taken in 2010)

In February 2012 Geoff, our daughter Jill and I arrived in Uganda to see the completion of the library, and to witness the work in progress on the sports field.

The sports field took several more months to complete including waiting for the grass to grow. In Uganda, small grass plants are hand planted into the soil and then you wait for the rains to come. The grass is much more hardy than ours and drought resistant.

Photos of the new library coming together, and the librarian receiving new books. Below Jill and I are cataloguing some new books.

2012 Sports field in progress.

In 2013 Leanne was on the new field watching the whole school participate in “sports day” with soccer, net ball, and the younger students playing their own games. It was a joy to see this project completed!

Another project that was very special was providing a new home for an extremely poor family. These grandparents were left with three very young children after their daughter died of malaria when the youngest was a baby. One of our donors gave a significant donation and asked us to match it to build a new house for a family in great need.

Above is the original house the family lived in, and below is the new house just being finished in 2012.

On the far right is an extra room that was incorporated into the house to allow the family to collect rental income. Since that time a tenant has been renting the room.

2012 truly was a very special year with all of these large projects coming together, Jolly’s convocation and our Day of the African Child fundraiser. There has been a lot to celebrate and be thankful for.

Organizational Assessment 2015

At the request of AFC we conducted an Organizational Assessment of AFC. Sessions were led by Geoff and Leanne and attended by the AFC Board of Directors and senior staff. It was insightful and highlighted areas where they excelled as well as a number of areas where improvements could be made.

Bursary Fund Established 2016

Last year we established a Bursary Fund for children who have no family to support them in school. The criteria is: abandoned or orphaned children; families that are unable to take care of their children and live in poor conditions; or abused and/or neglected children. Visit our website for more information under Projects to see how you can help.

Volunteer Board of Directors

In the first post of this series you learned about the original Board of Directors. We have been fortunate that our Board has remained quite stable over the years. John Wilton joined the Board in 2010 and served for three years which was appreciated. The current Board of Directors is comprised of Jolly Nyeko, Geoff and Leanne Stokes who have been on the Board since the beginning, as well as Rashna Charania, Stephanie Hunter and Shannon Nichols. Here is a short bio of Shannon Nichols:

Shannon Nichols

I became involved in the Jolly Nyeko Foundation Canada almost 9 years ago and it has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. They are doing amazing work in Uganda to help children reach their full potential through education and support. When I first became a member, the school in rural Masuliita only offered a few early primary grades. Now they offer grades 1 through 7 and some children have been able to advance on to high school. The school has also grown and now, thanks to JNFC fund raising efforts, the children have a solar powered library, a well, a sports field and new kitchen to provide them a healthy lunch every day.

For a number of years I've sponsored two girls to attend school. I appreciate that I receive regular, comprehensive reports about them from Action For Children that give me a real sense of who they are as people and what their lives are like. I also really look forward to the occasional personal letter and photos from the girls that I can post on the fridge. I would definitely recommend that anyone looking for a way to contribute, consider sponsoring a child's school fees as I believe education is the most effective means of fostering long-term change and growth in Uganda.

I am sure that the next decade will bring many exciting opportunities and accomplishments and I look forward to being part of the journey.

Shannon Nichols is standing left with Leanne Stokes at the Manitoba border.

May 2010 Shannon was moving back to Toronto and asked me (Leanne) if I wanted to drive with her. I said I’d love to go as far as Winnipeg since I have family there. We had a marvelous time exploring Provincial Parks and sights from BC to Manitoba. Then I said goodbye to Shannon as she continued on to Toronto.

Even though we live far apart, Geoff and I have remained good friends with Shannon, and keep in touch. We value Shannon’s expertise, all her help over the years, and continued contribution to the organization. Shannon plans to visit Uganda in March 2018.

Watch for our post next week highlighting another board member and child sponsorship.

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epacer · 7 years ago

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Mister Crawford’s Neighborhood

Rolando

FUN FACTS: ● Out of the area speculators held the land that would become the Rolando subdivisions from the 1880s into the 1920s. ● In 1926 a group of Los Angeles real estate men partnered with several locals to form the New University Syndicate, initial developers of Rolando. ●The name Rolando came from the "rolling land" of the various canyons and mesas of the area. ● The paving of University Avenue in 1925 helped interest the developers to purchase the land and develop Rolando between two new "highways." ● Rolando's initial sales motto was "City of Rolando: Where You'll Love to Live." ● Having worked on high-end subdivisions in Los Angeles, the developers brought in landscape architect Theodore Meyer to design the development with curving streets, decorative street lights, areas for commercial development (Rolando Boulevard near the Island Park), and distinctive pedestrian walkways connecting streets. ● The original Rolando is made up of 5 subdivisions, platted and developed with street improvements between 1926 and 1928. ● Rolando's rural location hurt sales and by 1930 the tract was in foreclosure to the State for failure to pay Mattoon Act Improvement Bond assessments. ● In 1939 local real estate men Ben Margolis, Harry Arthur, and Joe Levikow established the new Rolando Village Company and re-opened the area for development. ● With San Diego entering the Boom triggered by World War II, the area's empty streets and existing infrastructure helped it quickly fill-in, with many of the popular small, minimal-traditional style homes dating from 1939 to 1941. ● Home owners would buy a lot from the Village Company and then choose from the recommended list of contractors, or choose their own—helping create the unique mixture of housing styles. ● After World War II, another 17 small subdivisions, mostly of tract homes, duplexes, and apartments filled in the area west of the original 5 subdivisions up to western boundary College Avenue. ● Unincorporated Rolando and southern neighbor Rolando Park annexed into the City of San Diego in 1954 and the City School District in 1955. ● Henry Clay Elementary opened in 1957 and Clay Park in the 1970s. ● The family focused Rolando Street Fair is held the last Sunday in March annually.

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mollydpowellus · 8 years ago

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Mysterious devices in Trump's pop-up situation room

Last Thursday, April 6, the United States conducted airstrikes against Syria. President Trump received a briefing on this attack at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. The next day, his press secretary Sean Spicer released a photo of this briefing, in which some hitherto unseen and futuristic looking devices were seen:

Trump and his team of senior policy makers at Mar-a-Lago. April 6, 2017 (White House photo - click to enlarge)

In the photo we see some small guest or storage room with a rather narrow table and cheap chairs of the type that can be rented for events. At the far right side there seem to be dark curtains, indicating there may be windows. As was pointed out by Sean Spicer, the photo was redacted for security reasons: the content of the documents was erased. CNN provided a version of this photo showing who all the persons in the room are:

(click to enlarge)

Not present in the room were vice president Mike Pence, secretary of defense James Mattis and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, general Joseph Dunford, but they participated from Washington DC via secure video teleconference, according to Spicer. The photo clearly is an imitation of the famous picture showing former president Barack Obama with his national security team monitoring the killing of Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room. The Trump picture is even shot from the same angle as the Obama one:

President Obama and his national security team watching the killing of Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room. May 11, 2011. (White House photo by Pete Souza - click to enlarge)

Video teleconferencing The big screen seen on the left side of the Mar-a-Lago photo can be identified as the Cisco TelePresence System EX90 with high-definition video screen, modified for TEMPEST protection by CIS Secure Computing. The system includes a smaller touchscreen device which is used to control the video teleconference calls.

Mysterious devices Much more intriguing are the white devices with some kind of black screen or speaker, two by two connected to a larger central device by two cables each. Only for president Trump there's a different device in silver grey, probably with a display folded up:

On the internet, there was speculation about the purpose of the mysterious devices. Some suggested that it could be small displays or microphone/speakers, but that seems less likely. Displays of that size would hardly add any useful functions and for such a small group there's no need for microphones and/or speakers in front of every participant: nowadays one single conference phone unit is sufficient for much larger conference tables (and the large Cisco EX90 screen has built-in microphones too). There's also no reason why there should be such a series of devices when it comes to encryption: both video and audio from the standard Cisco equipment can easily be encrypted by a single network encryptor, like from General Dynamics's TACLANE series. In this way, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) provides secure video teleconferencing at the Secret (over SIPRNet) and Top Secret/SCI (over JWICS) level. Voice masking? Another option for the black-and-white boxes is that they may not be used for picking up audio, but for masking it. With a technique called voice or speech masking, a special device generates noise, preferably according to an algorithm that is adjusted to human speech. This noise is distributed through a number of emitters in order to mask the voices of people who are for example engaged in classified conversations. Such a purpose could explain the modular set-up of the mysterious devices in the Mar-a-Lago room: the larger ones in the middle of the table could then be for producing a standard voice masking noise, while the small ones may even be capable of adjusting the noise to the voice of that particular person.

(click to play)

Several companies sell voice masking systems, but on their websites there aren't devices similar to those in Trump's room. So there's no proof that they are for voice masking, but maybe readers of this weblog can provide more information. Interesting is that one seller claims that their equipment uses the M2 algorithm, which is especially for US and NATO contractor companies, and US and Five Eyes(!) government can contact the company for "further voice masking options." In the 2015 Technical Specifications for SCIF Construction (pdf) it is said that "sound masking devices, in conjunction with an amplifier and speakers or transducers" can be used in order to prevent classified discussions from being overheard by unauthorized persons in case the normal construction of a room doesn't provide the necessary acoustic protection.

Figures showing that the spectrum of SpeechMask is adjusted to the actual qualities of human speech than broadband noise is. (graphic: speechmasking.com - click to enlarge)

A Mar-a-Lago SCIF? This brings us to the security of the room in which the meeting took place. According to Trump's press secretary, the photo shows a SCIF, which stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility - a room, a suite of rooms or a whole building that is protected in such a way that classified Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) can be stored, viewed and/or discussed without being intercepted from the outside. People were wondering whether the Mar-a-Lago residence actually had such a SCIF, especially after Trump and his advisors held an "open-air situation room" meeting on the terrace of the resort, in front of club members and waiters, when North Korea fired a missile in February. It seems that with the photo from Thursday, press secretary Spicer wants to show that for sensitive government business Mar-a-Lago does have a SCIF. But this isn't very convincing. Everything seems hastily arranged for this occasion, given the rather uncomfortable chairs and the odd sign taped onto the door, which says "QUIET AREA" - not clear whether that applies to the room we see or the room behind the door:

And if the mysterious white devices are indeed for voice masking, that would also indicate that the room isn't fully qualified as a SCIF - else there would be no need for installing such equipment. At best, this room is a (temporary) Secure Working Area (SWA), which is an accredited facility "used for discussing, handling, and/or processing SCI, but where SCI will not be stored." With Donald Trump having spent already 8 of the 11 weekends of his presidency at Mar-a-Lago, it's strange that there's still no proper SCIF with solid walls and without windows, and just one door with a high-security lock - shouldn't be difficult for the real estate businessman like Trump was. By contrast, president George W. Bush had a special building on his ranch in Texas that was used as a SCIF, with comfortable chairs and all the necessary communications equipment for secure and non-secure phone calls as well as for video teleconferencing:

George W. Bush's SCIF on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. December 29, 2004. (White House photo - click to enlarge)

On Thursday, April 6, at least the guests at the Mar-a-Lago club were warned not to use cell phones when the president was near, and there were plenty of secret service agents there, according to local news reports. Still, the fact that Mar-a-Lago is open to paying members and ticketed guests, and is staffed by workers without the same security clearances as White House staff, makes the resort vulnerable to infiltration and/or eavesdropping by foreign intelligence. Links - NBC News: What Is a SCIF and Who Uses It? - Quartz: Trump created a makeshift Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago for a briefing on the Syria bombing - Motherboard: What the Heck Are These Electronic Devices in Trump's Situation Room? from My Updates http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2017/04/mysterious-devices-in-trumps-pop-up.html

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