#they died in 2020 but the owner put up hundreds of videos of them with stuff or their head

[kittybroker]

Shiro has gone intergalactic! Truly one of the greatest beings around! Bowl headed Shiro now selling for a supersonic $720000000000!

[tamorapierce]

Tammy's Spring 2020 Reading Recommendations For the Bored

Sooner or later the bookhounds among us are going to start joining my relentless song, from age five on up, of “I don’t have anything to read!!!!”

 I am here to help.  In this space, as I get to it (knowing, as my readers do, that I have no sense of deadline), I will be posting a constant set of collections of book titles by authors my team and I have read and will recommend in a wild variety of genres and for a wild variety of ages.  (And I’ll give a short hint as to the subject of the first book/series—if I did them all I’d never finish this.)  This last is for the many of you who are reading teen and adult books in grade and middle school, and those adult readers who are reading teen and kidlit. These people are for those who love books and don’t care who is supposed to be reading them.  

 Also, you may have to look far and wee, since we will be drawing upon not only recently published books but older ones that we have either read recently or that we read long ago and have re-read or have never forgotten.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you when the writing is archaic.  If you’re a true nutsy reader like the rest of us, you won’t care.

 -Tammy Pierce

                                                        *     *     *

Assume the book came out within the last 2 years unless I put LO next to the title, which means you have to check libraries and bookstores online and paper for copies.

 *     *     *

 Diana Wynne Jones  LO

A generation or two of fantasy writers, particularly those who love humor, bow to this woman as our goddess.  Not only was she out of her mind in a very British and manic way, but with her TOUGH GUIDE TO FANTASYLAND she taught a number of us to ditch some ill-considered tropes of our genre.  If you write historic fantasy in particular, move heaven and earth to track this book down.  There’s a bonus: some of the entries will make you laugh till you cry.

           She is best known for her books for middle grade and teens, but they are enjoyable for all readers.  I cannot list them all here because my fingers will break (curse you, arthritis!), but these titles will give you a jumping-off point.  And remember, authors change with each book, so you won’t encounter the same author with each title as the author you read in the previous one!

           The Chrestomanci books, all in the same universe, in order of story,

                       not publication

Charmed Life  (1977) An innocent lad follows his plotting egotistical sister to live with England’s chief wizard

The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988)

Conrad’s Fate (2005)

Witch Week (1982)

The Magicians of Caprona (1980)

Short stories

 The Dalemark Quartet begins with

The Spellcoats (1979)

3 sequels

 The Derkholm books are

Dark Lord of  (1998)

Year of the Griffin (2000)

  The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is standalone, but is a kind of offshoot of the Derkholm books.  You don’t have to have read the Derkholm books to get Tough Guide!

 There are other books and stories by Jones—I’ll let you find them on your own.

  Philip Pullman

To this day I am unable to call him anything but Mr. Pullman—that’s how much in awe of the man I am.  We’ve had dinner together, talked on the phone, talked at an event or two, done a conversation on audio with Christopher Paolini—it’s still Mr. Pullman to me.  (I was an assistant in a literary agency when I discovered his work, and I never recovered.) He is, in a word, brilliant, and his interests range through all kinds of areas, particularly history and religion.  I could have talked with him forever that night we had dinner, but the poor man had jet lag and I let him go to collapse.  It was one of the best exchanges of ideals, values, and books I’ve ever had.  

Read his work carefully, because what he discusses is never just the story on top.  No matter what he writes, he is making strong points about social justice, human nature, religion, and history without preaching.  He is one of the few male writers out there who can write female characters as people, not Something Different.  And you never know, with his work, where he will go next.

 The Ruby in the Smoke,

book 1,  the Sally Lockheart mysteries

Victorian mysteries with a female hero and male assistants,

           The Book of Dust and sequel,

first 2 books of The Secret Commonwealth

           His Dark Materials trilogy

                       The Golden Compass

                       2 other titles                

           THE COLLECTORS

           LYRA’S OXFORD

           THE WHITE MERCEDES

           FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM

           I WAS A RAT!

           TWO CRAFTY CRIMINALS

           COUNT KARLSTEIN

           (I will stop here and let you find the rest. Most are available as Nook books.)

  Sharon Shinn

I discovered Sharon Shinn with JOVAH’S ANGEL, but a shortage of funds left me unable to pursue my interest (I am an economic disaster with libraries, so I buy rather than borrow) until, with a job and money to spend, I spotted THE SAFE-KEEPER’S SECRET.  It is the story of a medieval-ish world and a small village where a baby was left with a childless couple.  She is raised as their daughter and discovers, as she grows, that her mother is an important, a Safekeeper, the person to whom a secret can be told, relieving the person who told it of the weight of guilt from it, to be carried by the Safekeeper until the owner either decides to tell or dies.  (And if they die without giving permission, the Safekeeper never reveal the secret.)  The baby who is adopted by this town’s safekeeper becomes the safekeeper in her turn.

           The next book is THE TRUTHTELLER’S TALE, about a girl who acquires the gift (??) of telling the truth, whether the person she tells it to wants to hear it or not. The third book is The Dream-maker’s Magic.  The three main characters now learn why they have been brought together over the course of the two earlier books, in what I thought was a satisfying, if unusual, conclusion.

           And there’s more!  I just did the two I love best!

             THE SAFEKEEPER’S SECRET (book 1, two sequels)

           ARCHANGEL (4 books)

           TWELVE HOUSES (5 books)

           ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS (4 books)        

SHIFTING CIRCLE (2 books)

           UNCOMMON ECHOES

           GENERAL WINSTON’S DAUGHTER

           GATEWAY

 Daniel Jose Older

 I was a Daniel Jose Older fan before I was sent DACTYL HILL SQUAD for a blurb (preodactyls in flight!  Of all sizes!  Confederate spies!  Thuggish bigot northerners!  The backlash of Gettysburg and the forced recruitment of blacks for the war effort! And strong, smart, fierce kids of various ages, sizes, colors, national heritage, and skills doing their best to help the war against the slaves, keep escaped slaves safe, duck the cruel managers of the homes and jails where they are being kept, find a half-decent meal, free other kids in trouble, learn who’s killing their friends, and help the dactyls!  That’s part of it, anyway!

Yeah, I loved it.  And there’s at least one new book, and once I’ve mowed though that, there are his older teen books, and his grownup mysteries, with their half-dead taxi driver who doubles as a part-time troubleshooter for the undead powers in his Bone Street Rhumba series.  {happy sigh}

  Edgar Allen Poe

Yes, some of these are reminders of why we ended up to be the readers we are and to nudge us to corrupt—I mean, “introduce”—­new readers to the glories that are our legacies.

­

THE COMPLETE TALES AND POEMS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE

           Here are the greats:

poems like “The Raven,” and “Annabelle Lee”

stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Telltale Heart,” and  ::shudder:: “The Pit and the Pendulum” (yes, a deep pit and a swinging pendulum topped with a razor-edged blade will be featured in this story).  

My dad would read these to us on dark and stormy nights when we lived near the Pacific ocean, when the fog came rolling in, softening every sound, when there were no cars driving by and no other sounds in our house but his deep voice and the crackle of the fire in the fireplace.  We would listen, soundless, as he wove the stories and poems around us and the foghorn sounded offshore.

           That’s the power of Poe.

  N. K. Jemisin

I think I began with Jemisin’s THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, soon followed by its sequel THE BROKEN KINGDOMS.  The series ended with a third book, THE KINGDOM OF THE GODS.  She presented a rich and varied world from the aspects of people of different classes, showing the growth of societies and their formation.  I have a secret passion for society-building and social interaction, and whether or not a book is difficult to read (as Jemisin’s books are in spots because she refuses to insult a reader by talking down to them) is immaterial.  I want the world and I want the characters, and with her far-reaching mind and her respect for her characters she delivers each and every time.  I have read almost everything she’s written since that first trilogy: if I’ve missed something, it’s because I was in the middle of a deadline and on the road and somehow didn’t see it.  I’ll catch up!  This is just a sample:

           For readers of all sexes and adult reading skills

 The City They Became (pub’d April 2020)

 The Inheritance Trilogy:

           The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, 2010

           2 book sequels

Novella: The Awakened Kingdom, 2014

                       Triptych: Shades in Shadow, 2015 (3 short stories) 

             The Dreamblood Duology:

           For readers of all sexes and adult reading skills

           The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, 2010

                       Two sequels

 The Broken Earth series:

         The Fifth Season (August 2015)

                       Two book sequels

And there are plenty of short stories out there.  I may even have missed a book or twelve!

For those who prefer to hear my ramble in person, a video!

[yasbxxgie]

Chris Rock wasn’t sure if he was hiding out or not.

On the Friday before Labor Day, he was speaking by phone from Yellow Springs, Ohio, the rustic village where he’d gone to spend time with Dave Chappelle, his friend and fellow comedian. Rock had previously traveled there in July to perform for a small, socially distanced audience as part of an outdoor comedy series Chappelle has been hosting. But Rock couldn’t decide if this return visit was meant to be clandestine. “I don’t know if it’s a secret,” he said quietly. “Maybe it is out here.” He couldn’t easily find the words to describe what he’d been doing just before this trip, either. “I mean, I guess I’ve been acting,” he said. After a short pause, he added, at a more assuredly Rock-like volume: “In a pandemic.”

In August, Rock had gone to Chicago to finish filming the fourth season of “Fargo,” the supremely arch FX crime drama, which makes its debut on Sept. 27. The show’s creator, Noah Hawley, had chosen him to star in its latest story line, set in the dapper gangland of 1950s Kansas City, Mo., and which casts Rock — the indefatigable standup and comic actor — as a mannered, methodical crime lord named Loy Cannon.

Maybe in a different universe where the show premiered in April as originally planned, the “Fargo” role has already put the 55-year-old Rock on a whole new career trajectory, opening the door to more serious and substantial roles and silencing the chorus of fans who still knowingly ask him for “one rib.” Maybe in this universe it still will.

But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, production on “Fargo” was halted in March, and Rock and his co-stars (including Jason Schwartzman, Ben Whishaw, Jessie Buckley and Andrew Bird) were all sent packing. Then at the end of the summer, Rock was summoned back to set, first to spend a week in quarantine and then to complete his acting work under new protocols and not a little bit of stress.

Other prominent projects of his have also been pushed back — he has a starring role in “Spiral,” a reboot of the “Saw” horror series, whose release was postponed a full year to May 2021. But Rock wasn’t mourning the delay of any professional gratification, having spent the spring and summer realigning his values for the new reality of pandemic life. “Maybe for like a day or two, I was like, ‘Oh, me,’” he said with an exaggerated whimper. “But honestly, it was more like, I’ve got to get to my kids and make sure my family is safe.”

In that time he has also heard countless Americans echoing the lesson he offered in the opening minutes of his 2018 standup special, “Tamborine,” where he spoke humorously but emphatically about the ongoing incidents of police violence against Black people. As he said in that routine, law enforcement was among the professions that simply cannot allow “a few bad apples”: “American Airlines can’t be like, ‘You know, most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash in the mountains.’”

Now Rock was feeling mistrustful about the power of his comedy to do anything other than entertain, and unsure when he would get to perform it again for large audiences. And he was admittedly wary about this very interview, explaining with a chuckle that when he talks to the print media, he said, “You have to be comfortable with being boring. If you’re not comfortable with being boring, occasionally, you’re going to get in trouble.”

Not that Rock was ever boring in a wide-ranging conversation that encompassed “Fargo” and his broader career; his latest observations on a nation grappling simultaneously with a pandemic and a reinvigorated longing for racial equality; the resurfacing of a past video where Jimmy Fallon impersonated him in blackface; and of course, President Trump. (“No one has less compassion for humans than a landlord,” he said.) Even in the absence of an audience, Rock was candid, increasingly animated, uncommonly nimble and always looking for the laugh. Now, let the trouble begin.

These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Was there a time when you thought this “Fargo” season was never going to get finished and that the series might not be seen for a long time, if ever?

I’ve had weird little things in my career — I was supposed to do this Bob Altman movie, “Hands on a Hard Body.” We were on the phone a lot, going over my character and I was so excited about doing the movie. And he died. I was supposed to be Jimmy Olsen in “Superman” with Nic Cage [“Superman Lives,” which was canceled in the late 1990s]. I remember going to Warner Bros., doing a costume fitting. Hanging out with Tim [Burton], who I idolized. Like, I’m hanging out with the guy that made “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and he’s showing me the models of the sets for “Superman.” So yeah, I definitely thought there’s a chance this might not happen. Fortunately for everyone involved, that was not the case.

How did Noah Hawley approach you about “Fargo”?

It was a weird day, because it was the day of the Emmy nominations and I didn’t get nominated for my last special [“Tamborine”]. I wouldn’t say I was down down, but I was a little disappointed, and then I got a call from my agent that Noah Hawley wanted to meet with me.

I get acting offers, but I get more hosting offers than anything. It is not uncommon for somebody to want me to do a high-priced wedding or bar mitzvah — a few years ago, I officiated the wedding of Daniel Ek, the owner of Spotify, and Bruno Mars was the wedding band. I think I sat next to [Mark] Zuckerberg at the reception. [Laughs.] I just assumed Noah had some crazy request like that. The only reason I went is because I love “Fargo.” And I get there and he offers me this part.

How did he explain the character of Loy Cannon to you?

He said 1950s gangster, so I know exactly who he’s talking about. My father was born in 1933. It’s not like “12 Years a Slave.” It’s literally a guy my grandfather’s age.

In the first episode, we see Loy pitching the idea for credit cards to an uninterested white banker. Is he a man who wants to be part of polite society, but it doesn’t want him?

I mean, I remember having a production overall deal at HBO and I came in with one person to sell a talk show with them. And they wouldn’t. That person’s name is Wendy Williams. [Laughs.] That’s $100 million that I never made. I was selling Leslie Jones to people, to agents and managers, for 10 years before she got on “S.N.L.” I’m very familiar with selling a no-brainer that people go, “Huh? Why that?”

Is he different from characters you’ve played before, because he’s older and we don’t know how much longer he’s going to be sitting on his throne?

Yeah, it’s one of those jobs: Because of how well it pays, you could be killed at any moment. It is the best part I’ve ever, ever, ever had. I hope it’s not the best part I ever have. Hey, Morgan Freeman’s done a hundred movies since “Shawshank Redemption.” But that’s the best part he ever had.

This role feels like it’s declaring itself as being outside the realm of what you’re best known for. Are you thinking differently about your acting career and where you hope to go with it?

My casting isn’t as weird as it seems if you really watch “Fargo.” Key and Peele are in the first season and Brad Garrett’s amazing in Season 2. Hey, it’s my turn, OK? I want to work on good stuff. Everything I’ve done hasn’t been great, but I was always striving for greatness. I loved “Marriage Story.” I’d kill for something like that. [Laughs.] You see what [Adam] Sandler did with “Uncut Gems.” But you’ve got to get the call and be ready when your number’s called.

Your 2014 film “Top Five,” which you wrote, directed and starred in, was very personal for you. Do you want to make more movies like that?

That’s a vein I intend to keep going in. When I made “Top Five,” I got divorced. And like most people that get divorced, I needed money. [Laughs.] I had to pay for stuff. I also went on tour. Because of Covid, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any serious touring until 2022. So I’m a writer-director-actor right now. I’m working on some scripts in the “Top Five” vein and I honestly hope to direct, some time after the new year.

How much of “Fargo” did you have to finish during the pandemic?

It was like an episode and a half — the whole last episode, and some scenes from the one before it. It’s weird, quarantine when you’re acting. Acting can be isolating, anyway, and then you throw quarantine into that. You’re in solitary confinement with Netflix and Uber Eats. But let’s not get it too twisted. Somebody that’s in solitary is like, shut the [expletive] up. And then to actually act and get tested every other day, and wear a mask whenever you’re not saying your lines. And be cognizant of which zone you’re in. Because for Zone A, everyone’s been tested, but in Zone B, not everyone’s been tested. Zone C is just, everyone’s got Covid.

You performed at one of Chappelle’s live shows in July. What was that like for you?

When you’re in the clubs, you learn the rain crowd is the best crowd. Any time it’s raining, they really want to be there. The pandemic crowd is really good. “Dude, not only do we want to be here, there is nothing else to do. There’s nothing else to watch. Thank you.”

What did you talk about?

I talked about our political whatever. America. Part of the reason we’re in the predicament we’re in is, the president’s a landlord. No one has less compassion for humans than a landlord. [Laughs.] And we’re shocked he’s not engaged.

Did you ever see that movie “The Last Emperor,” where like a 5-year-old is the emperor of China? There’s a kid and he’s the king. So I’m like, it’s all the Democrats’ fault. Because you knew that the emperor was 5 years old. And when the emperor’s 5 years old, they only lead in theory. There’s usually an adult who’s like, “OK, this is what we’re really going to do.” And it was totally up to Pelosi and the Democrats. Their thing was, “We’re going to get him impeached,” which was never going to happen. You let the pandemic come in. Yes, we can blame Trump, but he’s really the 5-year-old.

Put it this way: Republicans tell outright lies. Democrats leave out key pieces of the truth that would lead to a more nuanced argument. In a sense, it’s all fake news.

Looking back at the beginning of “Tamborine,” the first several minutes is you talking about police violence and raising Black children in a racist country. Does it feel futile when you discuss these issues and it doesn’t change anything?

I remember when “Tamborine” dropped, I got a lot of flak over that cop thing. There was a lot of people trying to start a fire that never really picked up. It’s so weird that, two years later, it’s right on. I remember watching the news and Trump said “bad apples.” It was like, you did it! You did it!

But you told people two years ago —

I did. But so did Public Enemy. So did KRS-One. So did Marvin Gaye. There’s something about seeing things on camera. If O.J. kills Nicole on camera, the trial is two days. [Laughs.] It’s two days trying to figure out what kind of cell he deserves. It’s just Johnnie going, [Johnnie Cochran voice] “Well I think he needs at least a 12-by-8. Can he have ESPN?” That would be the whole trial.

But there was videotape of Rodney King’s beating, too. It doesn’t assure any particular outcome.

Yeah, man. Put it this way: This is the second great civil rights movement. And Dr. King and those guys were amazing. But they knew nothing about money. They didn’t ask for anything. At the end of the day, the things we got — it was just, hey, can you guys be humane? All we got was, like, humanity. If they had it to do all over again, in hindsight, there would be some attention paid to the financial disparity of all the years of — let’s not even count slavery, let’s just count Jim Crow.

You’re talking about a system that really didn’t end until about 1973. And I’m born in ’65 in South Carolina. I’m probably in a segregated wing of a hospital — there’s no way in the world I was next to a white baby. Even if the hospital wasn’t segregated, I was in a whole other room and that room didn’t have the good milk and the good sheets. My parents couldn’t own property in certain neighborhoods when I was born. There was an economic disparity there, and that was not addressed in the original civil rights movement. It was a huge oversight. So there’s no money and there’s no land. If you don’t have either one of those, you don’t really have much.

Did you want to participate in the recent protests?

Me and my kids, we looked from afar. But we’re in the middle of a pandemic, man, and I know people who have absolutely passed from it. I’m like, dude, this Covid thing is real.

You’ve been telling audiences for years that racism isn’t going away and remains a potent force in America. Do you feel like you’ve seen circumstances improve at all?

It’s real. It’s not going away. I said this before, but Obama becoming the president, it’s progress for white people. It’s not progress for Black people. It’s the Jackie Robinson thing. It’s written like he broke a barrier, as if there weren’t Black people that could play before him. And that’s how white people have learned about racism. They think, when these people work hard enough, they’ll be like Jackie. And the real narrative should be that these people, the Black people, are being abused by a group of people that are mentally handicapped. And we’re trying to get them past their mental handicaps to see that all people are equal.

Humanity isn’t progress — it’s only progress for the person that’s taking your humanity. If a woman’s in an abusive relationship and her husband stops beating her, you wouldn’t say she’s made progress, right? But that’s what we do with Black people. We’re constantly told that we’re making progress. The relationship we’re in — the arranged marriage that we’re in — it’s that we’re getting beat less.

Jimmy Fallon drew significant criticism this past spring for a 20-year-old clip of himself playing you in blackface on “Saturday Night Live.” How did you feel about that segment?

Hey, man, I’m friends with Jimmy. Jimmy’s a great guy. And he didn’t mean anything. A lot of people want to say intention doesn’t matter, but it does. And I don’t think Jimmy Fallon intended to hurt me. And he didn’t.

There’s been a wider push to expunge blackface from any movies or TV shows where it previously appeared. Have people taken it too far?

If I say they are, then I’m the worst guy in the world. There’s literally one answer that ends my whole career. Blackface ain’t cool, OK? That’s my quote. Blackface is bad. Who needs it? It’s so sad, we live in a world now where you have to say, I am so against cancer. “I just assumed you liked cancer.” No, no, no, I am so against it. You have to state so many obvious things you’re against.

Who do you hang with these days? Who’s your peer group?

I hang with Dave [Chappelle]. I hang with my kids. I hang with Nelson George. There’s not a lot of hanging in the Covid world. The better question is, who do you FaceTime with?

So who do you FaceTime with?

The other day I realized I’ve never met an elderly person that was cared for by their friends. Every elderly person I know that’s got any trouble is cared for by a spouse or a child. Sometimes they have like five kids but only one helps. Where are your friends? Your friends are probably not going to be there when it really counts. [Laughs.] When my dad was dying in the hospital, where were his friends? My grandmother, where were her friends? Don’t get me wrong, you get sick in your 20s, your friends will come to the hospital. It’s an adventure. [Laughs.] You get sick in your 60s, they farm it out. “You go Wednesday and I’ll go Sunday.”

Enjoy them while you have them. But if you think your friends are your long-term solution to loneliness, you’re an idiot.

[newstfionline]

Friday, October 30, 2020

U.S. refugee admissions (Foreign Policy) The number of refugees allowed into the United States in the coming year will be at its lowest level in modern times, after the White House announced just 15,000 refugees would be allowed settle in the country next year. According to a White House memo, 5,000 of those places will go to refugees facing religious persecution, 4,000 are reserved for refugees from Iraq who helped the United States, and 1,000 for refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; 5,000 open slots remain, although refugees from Somalia, Syria, and Yemen are banned unless they can meet special humanitarian criteria. The future of U.S. refugee policy hangs on Tuesday’s vote: Former Vice President Joe Biden has promised to increase annual refugee admissions to 125,000, while the Guardian reports that a second Trump administration would seek to slash such admissions to zero.

Days From Election, Police Killing of Black Man Roils Philadelphia (NYT) There is a grim familiarity to it all. In the final days of a bitter election, it is a reprise of the terrible images that the country has come to know all too well this year: The shaky cellphone video, the abrupt death of a Black man at the hands of the police. The howls of grief at the scene. The protests that formed immediately. The looting of stores that lasted late into the night. It began on Monday, when two officers confronted Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old with a history of mental health problems. A lawyer for the family said that he was experiencing a crisis that day and that the family told officers about it when they arrived at the scene. In an encounter captured in video that appeared on social media, Mr. Wallace is seen walking into the street in the direction of the officers, who back away and aim their guns at him. Someone yells repeatedly at Mr. Wallace to “put the knife down.” The officers then fire multiple rounds. After Mr. Wallace falls to the ground, his mother screams and rushes to his body. Mr. Wallace later died of his wounds at a nearby hospital, and the neighborhood exploded in rage. In the days since, dozens have been arrested, cars have been burned and 53 officers have been hurt. On Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf called in the National Guard. On Wednesday, the city declared a 9 p.m. curfew. And once again, the people in the neighborhood where it all took place were left to consider what had happened and what, if anything, could be done about it.

Zeta soaks Southeast after swamping Gulf Coast; 6 dead (AP) Millions of people were without power and at least six were dead Thursday after Hurricane Zeta slammed into Louisiana and made a beeline across the South, leaving shattered buildings, thousands of downed trees and fresh anguish over a record-setting hurricane season. From the bayous of the Gulf Coast to Atlanta and beyond, Southerners used to dealing with dangerous weather were left to pick up the pieces once again. In Atlanta and New Orleans, drivers dodged trees in roads and navigated intersections without traffic signals. As many as 2.6 million homes and businesses lost power across seven states, but the lights were coming back on slowly. The sun came out and temperatures cooled, but trees were still swaying as the storm’s remnants blew through. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the state sustained “catastrophic” damage on Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish, where Zeta punched three breaches in the levee. Edwards ordered the Louisiana National Guard to fly in soldiers to assist with search and rescue efforts and urged continued caution.

Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexico’s authority and claiming more territory (Washington Post) Organized crime here once meant a handful of cartels shipping narcotics up the highways to the United States. In a fundamental shift, the criminals of today are reaching ever deeper into the country, infiltrating communities, police forces and town halls. A dizzying range of armed groups—perhaps more than 200—have diversified into a broadening array of activities. They’re not only moving drugs but kidnapping Mexicans, trafficking migrants and shaking down businesses from lime growers to mining companies. It can be easy to miss how much the nation’s criminal threat has evolved. Mexico is the United States’ No. 1 trading partner, a country of humming factories and tranquil beach resorts. But despite 14 years of military operations—and $3 billion in U.S. anti-narcotics aid—criminal organizations are transforming the Mexican landscape: In a classified study produced in 2018 but not previously reported, CIA analysts concluded that drug-trafficking groups had gained effective control over about 20 percent of Mexico, according to several current and former U.S. officials. / Homicides in the last two years have surged to their highest levels in six decades; 2020 is on track to set another record. Mexico’s murder rate is more than four times that of the United States. / Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes to escape violence; the Mexican Congress is poised to pass the country’s first law to help the internally displaced. / More than 77,000 people have disappeared, authorities reported this year, a far larger total than previous governments acknowledged. It is the greatest such crisis in Latin America since the “dirty wars” of the 1970s and 1980s. / The State Department is urging Americans to avoid travel to half of Mexico’s states, tagging five of them as Level 4 for danger—the same as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has created a 100,000-member national guard to reclaim areas with little state presence. It’s not clear that will make a significant difference. Years of Mexican and U.S. strategy—arresting drug kingpins, training Mexican police, overhauling the justice system—have failed to curb the violence.

Many Cubans hope US election will lead to renewed ties (AP) Not so long ago the tables at Woow!!! restaurant in Havana were filled with tourists ordering mojitos and plates of grilled octopus. But as President Donald Trump rolled back Obama-era measures opening Cuba relations, the restaurant grew increasingly empty. Now entrepreneurs like Orlando Alain Rodríguez are keeping a close eye on the upcoming U.S. presidential election in hope that a win by Democratic challenger Joe Biden might lead to a renewal of a relationship cut short. “The Trump era has been like a virus to tourism in Cuba,” said Rodríguez, the owner of Woow!!! and another restaurant feeling the pinch. Few countries in Latin America have seen as dramatic a change in U.S. relations during the Trump administration or have as much at stake in who wins the election. Former President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations, loosened restrictions on travel and remittances and became the first U.S. chief of state to set foot in the island in 88 years. The result was a boom in tourism and business growth on the island. Trump has steadily reversed that opening, tapping into the frustrations of a wide segment of the Cuban American community that does not support opening relations while a communist government remains in power. He put into effect part of a previously suspended U.S. law that permits American citizens to sue companies that have benefited from private properties confiscated by the Cuban government, put a new cap on remittances, reduced commercial flights and banned cruises. The president has also forbidden Americans from buying cigars, rum or staying in government-run hotels. A Trump reelection would likely spell another four years of tightened U.S. sanctions while many expect a Biden administration to carry out at least some opening.

Winter gloom settles over Europe (Washington Post) The clocks were dialed back an hour across Europe this week, and the long nights come early now. The hospitals are filling up, as the cafes are shutting down. Governments are threatening to cancel Christmas gatherings. As new coronavirus infections surge again in Europe, breaking daily records, the mood is growing dark on the continent—and it’s not even November. The reprieve of summer feels a long time ago, and Europe is entering a serious funk. Germany and France announced national lockdowns Wednesday to try to get the virus under control. The new measures are less restrictive than in the spring, and yet they face more resistance. People are no longer so willing to remain confined to their homes, venturing onto balconies in the evenings to applaud health-care workers. Many people remain scared of covid-19, but they are exhausted and frustrated—and growing angry and rebellious. In a sign of the times, the head of the World Health Organization recognized the “pandemic fatigue that people are feeling” but urged “we must not give up.” The smugness in Europe about having bested the Americans under President Trump is fading with the daily record-breaking counts.

Young and Jobless in Europe: ‘It’s Been Desperate’ (NYT) Like millions of young people across Europe, Rebecca Lee, 25, has suddenly found herself shut out of the labor market as the economic toll of the pandemic intensifies. Her job as a personal assistant at a London architecture firm, where she had worked for two years, was eliminated in September, leaving her looking for work of any kind. Ms. Lee, who has a degree in illustration from the University of Westminster, sent out nearly 100 job applications. After scores of rejections, and even being wait-listed for a food delivery gig at Deliveroo, she finally landed a two-month contract at a family-aid charity that pays 10 pounds (about $13) an hour. “At the moment I will take anything I can get,” Ms. Lee said. “It’s been desperate.” The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly fueling a new youth unemployment crisis in Europe. Young people are being disproportionately hit, economically and socially, by lockdown restrictions, forcing many to make painful adjustments and leaving policymakers grasping for solutions. Years of job growth has eroded in a matter of months, leaving more than twice as many young people than other adults out of work. The jobless rate for people 25 and under jumped from 14.7 percent in January to 17.6 percent in August. Europe is not the only place where younger workers face a jobs crunch. Young Americans are especially vulnerable to the downturn. In China, young adults are struggling for jobs in the post-outbreak era. But in Europe, the pandemic’s economic impact puts an entire generation at risk, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

3 dead in church attack, plunging France into dual emergency (AP) A man armed with a knife attacked people inside a French church and killed three Thursday, prompting the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The attack in Mediterranean city of Nice was the third in two months in France that authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher. It comes during a growing furor over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo—renewing vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world over the depictions that Muslims consider offensive but are protected by French free speech laws. Other confrontations and attacks were reported Thursday in the southern French city of Avignon and in the Saudi city of Jiddah, but it was not immediately clear if they were linked to the attack in Nice.

Germany does not believe Thai king has breached state business ban: source (Reuters) Germany does not believe that Thailand’s king has so far breached its ban on conducting politics while staying there, a parliamentary source said on Wednesday, after lawmakers were briefed by the government. Following a meeting of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, the source said the government had briefed lawmakers that it believes the king is permitted to make occasional decisions, as long as he does not continuously conduct business from German soil. When asked about the status of the king, the government told the committee he has a visa that allows him to stay in Germany for several years as a private person and also enjoys diplomatic immunity as a head of state. Thailand’s political crisis has made the king’s presence a challenge for Germany, but revoking the visa of a visiting head of state could cause a major diplomatic incident.

China’s New Confidence on Display (Foreign Policy) The Chinese leadership is currently meeting in Beijing to set economic and political goals for the next five years. In the run-up to the plenum, speeches by President Xi Jinping and others have demonstrated a bold confidence that this is China’s moment. As economic policymaker Liu He put it, “Bad things are turning into good ones.” Despite the damage to China’s global reputation this year, its leaders seem to believe that Western economic weakness and mishandling of the coronavirus have created opportunities. That may be true, but it may also encourage dangerous overconfidence, as happened in 2009, when the Chinese leadership was convinced the economic crisis had significantly weakened Washington. That overconfidence is most frightening when it comes to Taiwan, where recent saber-rattling has again raised the specter of an invasion. Distinguishing signal from noise on Taiwan is difficult, but the traditional restraints on Chinese military action—fear of U.S. intervention, reputational damage, and corruption inside the People’s Liberation Army—have weakened. The odds of Chinese action in Taiwan increase if the U.S. election doesn’t produce a clear result, or if a lame duck President Donald Trump embarks on a scorched-earth program on his way out—since Beijing may be convinced that a distracted Washington has no will to block it.

[dvsvsgrr]

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[expatimes]

Zoom, Amazon, ransomware: Tech’s big winners and losers of 2020

We streamed, we Zoomed, we ordered groceries and houseplants online, we created virtual villages while navigating laptop shortages to work and learn from home.

When it comes to technology, 2020 was a year like no other — and as the world was forced to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, some tech companies won big while others lost out.

Losers

Virtual Reality

As the world adjusted to a new stuck-at-home reality, the pandemic could have been virtual reality’s chance to offer an escape. With the use of special headsets and accoutrements like gloves, the technology lets people interact with a 360-degree view of a three-dimensional environment, seemingly a good fit for people stuck indoors.

But people turned to easier-to-use software and games that they already had. Few rushed to spend hundreds of dollars on a clunky new headset or tried to learn the ropes of virtual reality meeting software. And no VR games broke into the mainstream. So virtual reality, on the verge of success for decades, missed its moment, again.

Social media election labels

It was the year of labels on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even TikTok. Ahead of the November 3 US presidential vote, the companies promised to clamp down on election misinformation, including baseless charges of fraud and candidates’ premature declarations of victory. And the most visible part of this was the bevvy of labels applied to tweets, posts, photos and videos.

“Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” read one typical label applied to a tweet by President Donald Trump.

But many experts said that while the labels made it appear that the companies were taking action, ”at the end of the day it proved to be pretty ineffective,” as Jennifer Grygiel a professor at Syracuse University and social media expert, put it.

Quibi

Less than a year ago, Quibi launched a splashy Super Bowl advertisement that posed the question “What’s a Quibi?” People may still be scratching their heads.

Quibi, short for “quick bites,” raised $1.75bn from investors including major Hollywood players Disney, NBCUniversal and Viacom.

Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg raised $1.75bn from investors but shuttered the company in October, just six months after its April launch

But the service struggled to reach viewers, as short videos abound on the internet and the coronavirus pandemic kept many people at home. It announced it was shutting down in October, just months after its April launch.

Uber and Lyft

Fresh off of their initial public offerings the year before and still struggling to show they can be profitable, the ride-hailing services were clobbered by the pandemic in 2020, as people stopped taking cars and huddled down at home.

In May, Uber laid off 3,700 people, or about 14 percent of its workforce. Lyft also announced job cuts.

But there are some signs of hope. After significantly reducing costs by restructuring in the second quarter, Lyft said last month it expects to have its first profitable quarter at the end of 2021.

Fresh off of their initial public offerings the year before and still struggling to show they can be profitable, the ride-hailing services were clobbered by the pandemic in 2020 as people hailed fewer rides

And the companies scored a major victory in California, where voters passed Proposition 22, granting them an others an exception to a law that sought to classify their drivers as employees, an expense that analysts thought would have pummeled their business in the nation’s most populous state.

US TikTok ban

While India outlawed the popular video-sharing app, in the US, TikTok appears close to riding out Donald Trump’s term without the president succeeding in his efforts to ban it.

Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a potential ban. It was the latest legal defeat for the administration in its efforts to wrest the app from its Chinese owners. In October, another federal judge postponed a shutdown scheduled for November.

Many artists like choreographer Netta Yerushalmy have turned to social media to share their work during the coronavirus pandemic, posting music and artwork on Instagram

Meanwhile, a government deadline for TikTok’s parent, ByteDance to complete a deal that would have Oracle and Walmart invest in TikTok has also passed, with the status of the deal unclear. While President-elect Joe Biden has said TikTok is a concern, it’s not clear what his administration will carry on the Trump administration’s attempts at a ban.

Winners

Nintendo Switch

Even in a year heralding splashy new consoles from Xbox and PlayStation, the Nintendo Switch was the console that could. Launched in 2017, the Switch became a fast seller. That was helped by the launch of the handled Switch Lite in September 2019.

In March, it became hard to find a Switch as people searched for ways to be entertained inside their homes. Boosting its popularity was the release of the island-simulation game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” which debuted March 20 and has now sold a cumulative 26 million units globally, according to Nintendo.

According to the NPD Group, during the first 11 months of 2020, Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the US. It has been the best-selling console in units sold for 24 consecutive months — a record.

According to the NPD Group, during the first 11 months of 2020, Nintendo Switch sold 6.92 million units in the US

Zoom

All video conferencing software — from Microsoft Teams to WebEx — thrived during the abrupt shift of tens of millions of people to remote working and schooling during a pandemic. But only one became a verb.

Zoom Video Communications was a relatively-unheralded company before the pandemic hit, but its ease of use let to wide adoption during the pandemic.

There were some growing pains, including lax security that lead to “Zoom bombing” breaches early on. The company revamped its security and remains one of the popular platforms to host remote meetings and classes.

Ransomware purveyors

The ransomware scourge — in which criminals hold data hostage by scrambling it until victims pay up — reached epic dimensions in 2020, dovetailing terribly with the COVID-19 plague. In Germany, a patient turned away from the emergency room of a hospital whose IT system was paralyzed by an attack died on the way to another hospital.

In the US, the number of attacks on healthcare facilities was on track to nearly double from 50 in 2019. Attacks on state and local governments were up about 50 percent to more than 150. Even grammar schools have been hit — shutting down remote learning for students from Baltimore to Las Vegas.

Cybersecurity firm Emsisoft estimates the cost of US ransomware attacks in the US alone this year at more than $9bn between ransoms paid and downtime/recovery.

Computer makers

After beginning the year grappling with exasperating delays in their supply chains, the personal computer industry found itself scrambling to keep up with surging demand for machines that became indispensable during a pandemic that kept millions of workers and students at home.

The outbreak initially stymied production because computer makers weren’t able to get the parts they needed from overseas factories that shut down during the early stages of the health crisis.

After battling exasperating delays in their supply chains at the beginning of 2020, the personal computer industry found itself scrambling to keep up with the surging demand for machines as people worked and learned from home

Those closures contributed to a steep decline in sales during the first three months of the year. But it has been boom times ever since.

The July-September period was particularly robust, with computer shipments in the US surging 11 percent from the same time in 2019 — the industry’s biggest quarterly sales increase in a decade, according to the research firm Gartner.

E-commerce

The biggest of the bunch, Amazon, is one of the few companies that has thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People have turned to it to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company bring in record revenue and profits between April and June. That came even though it had to spend $4bn on cleaning supplies and to pay workers overtime and bonuses.

But it’s not just Amazon. The pandemic is accelerating the move to online shopping, a trend experts expect to say even after vaccines allow the world to resume normal lives.

People have turned to Amazon to order groceries, toiletrries and other items online, helping the company post record revenue numbers between April and June

And thanks in part to shoppers consciously supporting small businesses, Adobe Analytics says online sales at smaller US retailers were up 349 percent on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

At the more than 1 million businesses that use Shopify to build their websites, sales rose 75 percent from a year ago to $2.4bn on Black Friday, according to Shopify.

Jury’s out

Big Tech

Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google did well financially, with each company’s stock price and profit up considerably since the start of the year. They gained users, rolled out new products and features and kept on hiring even as other companies and industries faced significant cuts.

But not all is well in the world of Big Tech. Regulators are breathing down each company’s neck and that’s unlikely to ease up in 2021. Google faces an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice. And Facebook has been hit by one from the Federal Trade Commission along with nearly every US state that seeks to split it off from WhatsApp and Instagram.

More cases could follow. Congressional investigators spent months digging into the actions of Apple and Amazon in addition to Facebook and Google and called the CEOs of all four companies to testify.

#technology Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=16191&feed_id=25790 #economy #internet #news #scienceandtechnology #socialmedia #technology #unitedstates #usampcanada

[maritzaerwin]

6 Jobs That Will Get You Hired During COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic was first detected in China and then spread across the globe. It has now infected almost 188 countries. COVID-19 affected every sector of human life. According to recent statistics, almost 796k people died because of COVID-19. 

Social activities all across the world canceled and people are forced to stay in their homes.  Whether it is the political sector or economic sector COVID-19 affected them all. Now social distancing and stay home is the new normal. It seems like Earth is taking a break.

Coronavirus has led the world towards a global socio-economic crisis. It directly affects the financial world order. It has affected the education system severely. Students are now learning through the online education system.

Unemployment has increased. Pandemic has pushed millions of people into poverty. Prices of goods are rising day by day. There is an increase in the food crisis in third world countries. COVID-19 created a global health crisis.

Apart from this, pandemic results in the collapse of the global economy. Educational sectors have been shut down. Industrial production is decreased. Global trade has been facing a crisis. COVID-19 results in a big shift in stock markets. Thus, the overall economy is affected badly by this. In 2020, millions of people become unemployed. 

People are panicking due to unemployment because everybody needs food and shelter which requires money. Unemployment is a social evil which causes other problems as well. Unemployment doesn’t affect only one person it also affects other people as well. Unemployment on a larger scale leads to the poor economic condition of a country.

Unemployment also leads to stress, anxiety, and other mental health problems. It promotes poverty which increases crime. Expert says the final solution of unemployment is work. 

Proper policies are needed to cope up with the issue of unemployment. If no such policies are introduced, then people will panic and come out of their homes in search of a job. This situation will cause health issues as well. The policies should be introduced on an urgent basis and implemented accordingly.

If you are panicking in COVID-19 due to unemployment there are few ways to deal with this situation. The most important one is to be patient. There is no need to be impatient and lose hope. Millions of people are dealing with the same problem all over the world.

The second is to deal with this problem carefully and have some perspective. This has nothing to do with your worth but everything with the pandemic. The next one is writing down all the resources you have.

Then reach all the resources and look for a better opportunity. Always assume the best in this situation and use your energy wisely. There is no need to find jobs on the street. Focus on the future positively and you will find yourself a job.

 If you also become unemployed during COVID-19 and looking for a suitable job, then no need to worry. There are still many opportunities you can avail of. You can easily get a job in COVID-19 as well. If you find a suitable job in COVID-19 you can continue this work after COVID-19 as well. 

Many online platforms are still accepting job letters. Some of them are related to the health sector and some are from other various sectors. If you have a skill on your hand then you will also get hired online in which you can easily do your work sitting at home in this Pandemic. Besides getting hired you can also start your own business online.

Now is the time to take the financial condition of your family in your own hands. Sometimes you didn’t like your job due to various reasons like it doesn’t pay you well or due to an unhealthy work environment etc. COVID-19 is giving you time to think about your life choices especially your work.

Here is the list of 6 jobs that will get you hired during COVID-19.

Jobs That Are In-Demand During COVID-19 Pandemic

1. Health Sector

Due to COVID-19 hospitals and all other health sectors are so busy. The number of cases is increasing day by day and hospitals are in a shortage of staff. Hospitals, medical centers need staff and always hiring.

If you lost your job in COVID-19 then you can easily get a job in the health sector. All you have to do is to know the basic knowledge about the health sector and easily get a job there. If you don’t know the medical field, then you can get a job as a ward’s person or as administration staff. These types of jobs always pay well.

Other posts in the health sector are:

Registered Nurses.

Nursing Assistants.

Management staff.

Cleaners.

Ambulance drivers.

Wards person.

2. Customer Service Representatives

Now in 2020 many changes in our lifestyle have occurred due to pandemic. Everything is now happening online whether it is a business deal or a university lecture.

This creates new opportunities for online jobs. If you are looking for a job online, then this job is perfect for you. You don’t have to go anywhere. All process from interview to the job is done online.

You can provide services to customers online. Many online businesses are looking for online representatives. You can apply for a job and get hired. These types of jobs don’t require any skills.

You just need communication skills and a personal computer on your hand. Interact with customers online by sitting at home. According to the instructions of your company you provide information and give your response to the inquiries of customers. Give information about the services and products your company offers. This job will pay you enough to solve your financial crisis.

3. Freelancing Jobs

You have no job on your hand don’t worry you can start freelancing today. All you need is to focus on one skill and sell your services online on freelancing platforms. There are many online earning websites on which you can start your freelance career and start earning today. These online earning websites allow you to be your boss by sitting at home during this pandemic. 

There are many types of services on these platforms:

Graphic Designing.

Web Designing.

Creative Writing.

Social Media Marketing.

Video Editing.

Developer.

Translator.

Search Engine Optimization.

The process is simple there is no need to send your job application. You just have to create an account on one of these online earning sites. Create a portfolio according to your skill and start earning without any investment or effort. After getting hired and completing a job you can easily withdraw money directly to your local bank account.

You can easily become an expert graphic designer in COVID or build your own personal brand as a freelance designer. If you don’t have the above-mentioned skills then you can start learning something new. You just have to be patient and hard-working.

4. Online Teaching Services

Teaching is considered the most respected field across the world. It is a big responsibility to teach Students. If you lost your job during the pandemic, then an online teaching job will get you hired immediately.

All universities and colleges are now conducting online classes through different online platforms. All the quizzes, assignments, and papers are done online. 

If you used to be an accountant before COVID-19, you can teach finance students online and so on. Due to online classes, students need an online tutor as well. Many educational websites are hiring teachers and online tutors.

These platforms will provide you with all the course content and students who want to learn. You just have to prepare lectures according to the syllabus. You can also make a YouTube channel about your subject in which you teach students online.

5. Food and Goods Delivery

People are self-isolating at their homes. During this period, people turn to more online shopping because they are unable to go outside to buy anything. Similarly, all the cafes and restaurants are closed for dine-in. The demand for takeaway and delivery has been increased. You can easily get a job as a pick-packer or delivery driver.

Due to an increase in demand for online delivery services many food and courier companies are looking for individuals to help them in delivering things. This job will get you hired during COVID-19.

You just have to apply for these jobs and get hired. These types of jobs tips you well. If you have your vehicle, then this job is much easier for you to do. You only have to pick up the thing from the company and deliver it to the customers. 

6. Start Your Own Business Online

Looking for a job in COVID because due to lockdown you lost your job. You want a job but not finding the one that is according to your skills and experience. Don’t worry it is the perfect time for you to start your own business online.

There are many ways for starting a business online. The world is now shifting online due to advancements in the field of technology and COVID gave a great opportunity to do that.

If you are the owner of the store that sells any type of goods to customer then you can shift your business online. First, you need a website for this then you have to manage your website. Nowadays websites are easy to create you can do that yourself or hire someone for you.

Put all the items of your store online along with product description and their prizes. Promote your online business through different social media platforms and then wait for orders. It takes time for your online setup to work.

There are many scams online so while dealing with customers beware of the theft as a remote worker. You can continue this work after COVID as well.

Pandemic effects hundred and thousands of people across the globe. Millions of people got unemployed due to the shutting down of industries and other businesses. There is a shortage of food and medicines everywhere. Everybody is panicking due to this situation. Jobs are important because you need money to get food. People are looking for financial freedom during COVID-19.

If you among those who lost their jobs to coronavirus then no need to worry. Every activity and business has been shifted online. There is a chance to get jobs online. Many health sectors are looking for people to help them in hospitals. You can get yourself a job there.

You can also provide services at various call centers as their representatives. If you got skill on your hand then be your boss from now own and start freelancing online. You can also provide online teaching services to students. You can also work as a delivery person to food chains and warehouses. 

Wrapping Up

If you fear that you have no above-mentioned skill, then it is not too late to learn something new. You have plenty of time on your hand now because it seems that coronavirus is here to stay for a while.

There are many online platforms where you can learn something that will help you to find a temporary job. Many universities are offering free online courses in many subjects. You can avail of their offers and complete online courses of your choice.

On the other hand, you can also use YouTube for learning. Many teachers are now shifting online and giving lectures every day, and this will cost you nothing. Many websites will guide you about unemployment and job opportunities. Many companies are hiring remote workers for everyday tasks.

Having a pandemic doesn’t mean that we stop doing everything. We need food and stuff due to which factories need to keep manufacturing products. This means they need people for doing these jobs. So, there are still a lot of opportunities. You just have to find the perfect job for you by sitting at home. 

There is no need to wait for the pandemic to end and getting your old job back. Start looking for online jobs and get hired.

The post 6 Jobs That Will Get You Hired During COVID-19 appeared first on CareerMetis.com.

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[douglassmiith]

Hot Dog Sales Are Red-Hot. These Weiner Businesses are Giving Back.

May 22, 2020 6 min read

In normal times, Memorial Day weekend might be the first time you’d consider buying hot dogs since last summer. But of course, these are not normal times, and there’s a good chance you’ve tasted snappy, meaty (possibly microwaved) frankfurter flesh more recently than that.

“We’re going into our bigger months of June and July now,” says Joe Quinn, co-founder of Brooklyn hot dog company Feltman’s of Coney Island. “But since March, it’s been like July every month.”

Market research from Chicago-based data-analytics firm IRI shows that in mid-March, at the height of panic-buying, hot dog sales were up 127 percent from the same time last year. And people are buying in bulk, too: eight-packs, 10-packs, 24-packs have all been flying off the shelves.

That’s probably because hot dogs are an obvious quarantine choice: long shelf life, protein-dense, easy to prepare and kid-friendly. National brands account for 97 percent of the hot dog market, but smaller companies have also felt the boost — in their online and supermarket sales, at least. 

“Initially we actually took a pretty big hit, since a big chunk of our business is food service,” says Tony Fragogiannis, owner of The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company, which Fragogiannis founded in 2012 with business partner Justin Neiser. They make premium classic beef dogs as well as a variety of specialty dogs, like Gyro and Buffalo Chicken. “We supply restaurants around New York City and L.A., and we lost the majority of that business overnight. But our online direct-to-consumer sales — which has always been a very, very small part of our business — is up 300 to 400 percent. So when we were fortunate enough to get that positive inflUX of business, we started thinking about how we could pass it along.”

Every two weeks since the pandemic began, The Brooklyn Hot Dog Co. has chosen a different NYC restaurant delivering meals to healthcare workers and donated 10 percent of their online proceeds to that establishment. Currently, they’re partnering with World Central Kitchen. “We wanted them to use that money to make food for frontline workers,” Fragogiannis says, “and to keep people employed since everyone’s trying to make it on takeout or delivery.”

Related: Real Talk About How Restaurants Can Survive

Tony Fragogiannis and his business partner Justin Neiser// Image credit: The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company

Recent developments, however, have thrown up some roadblocks for Fragogiannis. As has been widely reported, meat-processing plants have been the sites of significant outbreaks, which has resulted in skyrocketing meat prices. “We got hit last week with a crazy price increase, like 40 percent,” Fragogiannis says. “We do beef, and we also do chicken and a pork hot dog. Everything is up, but beef is the most, and beef is also our biggest seller. So we’ve kind of negotiated it down a little bit and are trying to work out some creative ways to get around it. But we’re currently eating the cost, because it’s such a crazy amount that we can’t pass that along to our customers.”

Meat prices going up was something that Joe and Michael Quinn, brothers and co-owners of Feltman’s of Coney Island, anticipated when the pandemic took off. So they invested in getting ahead of it. “We wanted to be ahead of the curve, so we took a risk and put in orders for hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef before the prices went up,” Michael says. 

Panic-buying aside, they were confident that hot dogs would be in unusually high demand for the average household this summer. “People are going to have more backyard barbecues,” Joe says. “They’re going to have people on the porch, or they’re going to be grilling in the park versus going to a restaurant or the baseball park.”

The Quinn brothers started Feltman’s in 2015. In doing so, they revived the (real) original hot dog recipe from Charles Feltman, a German baker who introduced Coney Island beachgoers to his frankfurter on a bun in 1867. The business was also created in honor of their middle brother Jimmy, who was killed on 9/11 at just 23 years old. 

“Jimmy and Mike were older than me,” Joe says, “And they always had these grand ideas of us brothers starting a great business. But without Jimmy, it was just sort of impossible to think about. He was, you know, the gregarious one, the business one, that networker. Losing him left a huge gap in our family. But in 2015 Mike and I sort of said, ‘What the hell, why don’t we take a crack at this thing?’”

Related: Iron Chef Winner Marc Forgione on Owning a Restaurant During a …

Joe and Michael Quinn // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

While their Luna Park stand has closed, along with so many of the bars and restaurants they supply to (like McSorley’s, New York’s oldest pub), the Quinns made a fortuitous decision last fall to pivot toward wider supermarket and ecommerce distribution. They’re now in more than 2,000 supermarkets, including Whole Foods, and since February their online sales — mostly through their own website, but they are also available on Amazon — have jumped 900 percent. 

Giving back to their community has always been important to the Quinns, and when the outbreak began ravaging New York, they knew they had to help. Joe’s wife — who is expecting their third child in three weeks — is a nurse practitioner at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Joe, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, says, “It was a war. For my wife and her friends, it was combat. Mike and I felt like we had to do something.” 

So they started sending care packages — “Hot Dogs for Heroes” — to the nurses on the frontlines, in addition to donating to local pantries and police stations. This week, they’re giving all proceeds from their online sales to TAPS, which provides care and resources to survivors of those who died serving in the military. They also made a Memorial Day video to express gratitude to the pandemic’s first responders, and to stand in solidarity with the families who are grieving in solitude after losing loved ones to the virus.

Michael, Joe and their late brother Jimmy // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

“That’s what Memorial Day is all about,” Joe says. “There’s more than enough love to go around for us to take a moment this weekend to remember those families.” 

Maybe even over a hot dog.

Related: N’Sync’s Joey Fatone Bites Into the Hot Dog Business

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Hot Dog Sales Are Red-Hot. These Weiner Businesses are Giving Back.

May 22, 2020 6 min read

In normal times, Memorial Day weekend might be the first time you’d consider buying hot dogs since last summer. But of course, these are not normal times, and there’s a good chance you’ve tasted snappy, meaty (possibly microwaved) frankfurter flesh more recently than that.

“We’re going into our bigger months of June and July now,” says Joe Quinn, co-founder of Brooklyn hot dog company Feltman’s of Coney Island. “But since March, it’s been like July every month.”

Market research from Chicago-based data-analytics firm IRI shows that in mid-March, at the height of panic-buying, hot dog sales were up 127 percent from the same time last year. And people are buying in bulk, too: eight-packs, 10-packs, 24-packs have all been flying off the shelves.

That’s probably because hot dogs are an obvious quarantine choice: long shelf life, protein-dense, easy to prepare and kid-friendly. National brands account for 97 percent of the hot dog market, but smaller companies have also felt the boost — in their online and supermarket sales, at least. 

“Initially we actually took a pretty big hit, since a big chunk of our business is food service,” says Tony Fragogiannis, owner of The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company, which Fragogiannis founded in 2012 with business partner Justin Neiser. They make premium classic beef dogs as well as a variety of specialty dogs, like Gyro and Buffalo Chicken. “We supply restaurants around New York City and L.A., and we lost the majority of that business overnight. But our online direct-to-consumer sales — which has always been a very, very small part of our business — is up 300 to 400 percent. So when we were fortunate enough to get that positive inflUX of business, we started thinking about how we could pass it along.”

Every two weeks since the pandemic began, The Brooklyn Hot Dog Co. has chosen a different NYC restaurant delivering meals to healthcare workers and donated 10 percent of their online proceeds to that establishment. Currently, they’re partnering with World Central Kitchen. “We wanted them to use that money to make food for frontline workers,” Fragogiannis says, “and to keep people employed since everyone’s trying to make it on takeout or delivery.”

Related: Real Talk About How Restaurants Can Survive

Tony Fragogiannis and his business partner Justin Neiser// Image credit: The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company

Recent developments, however, have thrown up some roadblocks for Fragogiannis. As has been widely reported, meat-processing plants have been the sites of significant outbreaks, which has resulted in skyrocketing meat prices. “We got hit last week with a crazy price increase, like 40 percent,” Fragogiannis says. “We do beef, and we also do chicken and a pork hot dog. Everything is up, but beef is the most, and beef is also our biggest seller. So we’ve kind of negotiated it down a little bit and are trying to work out some creative ways to get around it. But we’re currently eating the cost, because it’s such a crazy amount that we can’t pass that along to our customers.”

Meat prices going up was something that Joe and Michael Quinn, brothers and co-owners of Feltman’s of Coney Island, anticipated when the pandemic took off. So they invested in getting ahead of it. “We wanted to be ahead of the curve, so we took a risk and put in orders for hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef before the prices went up,” Michael says. 

Panic-buying aside, they were confident that hot dogs would be in unusually high demand for the average household this summer. “People are going to have more backyard barbecues,” Joe says. “They’re going to have people on the porch, or they’re going to be grilling in the park versus going to a restaurant or the baseball park.”

The Quinn brothers started Feltman’s in 2015. In doing so, they revived the (real) original hot dog recipe from Charles Feltman, a German baker who introduced Coney Island beachgoers to his frankfurter on a bun in 1867. The business was also created in honor of their middle brother Jimmy, who was killed on 9/11 at just 23 years old. 

“Jimmy and Mike were older than me,” Joe says, “And they always had these grand ideas of us brothers starting a great business. But without Jimmy, it was just sort of impossible to think about. He was, you know, the gregarious one, the business one, that networker. Losing him left a huge gap in our family. But in 2015 Mike and I sort of said, ‘What the hell, why don’t we take a crack at this thing?’”

Related: Iron Chef Winner Marc Forgione on Owning a Restaurant During a …

Joe and Michael Quinn // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

While their Luna Park stand has closed, along with so many of the bars and restaurants they supply to (like McSorley’s, New York’s oldest pub), the Quinns made a fortuitous decision last fall to pivot toward wider supermarket and ecommerce distribution. They’re now in more than 2,000 supermarkets, including Whole Foods, and since February their online sales — mostly through their own website, but they are also available on Amazon — have jumped 900 percent. 

Giving back to their community has always been important to the Quinns, and when the outbreak began ravaging New York, they knew they had to help. Joe’s wife — who is expecting their third child in three weeks — is a nurse practitioner at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Joe, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, says, “It was a war. For my wife and her friends, it was combat. Mike and I felt like we had to do something.” 

So they started sending care packages — “Hot Dogs for Heroes” — to the nurses on the frontlines, in addition to donating to local pantries and police stations. This week, they’re giving all proceeds from their online sales to TAPS, which provides care and resources to survivors of those who died serving in the military. They also made a Memorial Day video to express gratitude to the pandemic’s first responders, and to stand in solidarity with the families who are grieving in solitude after losing loved ones to the virus.

Michael, Joe and their late brother Jimmy // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

“That’s what Memorial Day is all about,” Joe says. “There’s more than enough love to go around for us to take a moment this weekend to remember those families.” 

Maybe even over a hot dog.

Related: N’Sync’s Joey Fatone Bites Into the Hot Dog Business

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source http://www.scpie.org/hot-dog-sales-are-red-hot-these-weiner-businesses-are-giving-back/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/05/hot-dog-sales-are-red-hot-these-weiner.html

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Hot Dog Sales Are Red-Hot. These Weiner Businesses are Giving Back.

May 22, 2020 6 min read

In normal times, Memorial Day weekend might be the first time you’d consider buying hot dogs since last summer. But of course, these are not normal times, and there’s a good chance you’ve tasted snappy, meaty (possibly microwaved) frankfurter flesh more recently than that.

“We’re going into our bigger months of June and July now,” says Joe Quinn, co-founder of Brooklyn hot dog company Feltman’s of Coney Island. “But since March, it’s been like July every month.”

Market research from Chicago-based data-analytics firm IRI shows that in mid-March, at the height of panic-buying, hot dog sales were up 127 percent from the same time last year. And people are buying in bulk, too: eight-packs, 10-packs, 24-packs have all been flying off the shelves.

That’s probably because hot dogs are an obvious quarantine choice: long shelf life, protein-dense, easy to prepare and kid-friendly. National brands account for 97 percent of the hot dog market, but smaller companies have also felt the boost — in their online and supermarket sales, at least. 

“Initially we actually took a pretty big hit, since a big chunk of our business is food service,” says Tony Fragogiannis, owner of The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company, which Fragogiannis founded in 2012 with business partner Justin Neiser. They make premium classic beef dogs as well as a variety of specialty dogs, like Gyro and Buffalo Chicken. “We supply restaurants around New York City and L.A., and we lost the majority of that business overnight. But our online direct-to-consumer sales — which has always been a very, very small part of our business — is up 300 to 400 percent. So when we were fortunate enough to get that positive inflUX of business, we started thinking about how we could pass it along.”

Every two weeks since the pandemic began, The Brooklyn Hot Dog Co. has chosen a different NYC restaurant delivering meals to healthcare workers and donated 10 percent of their online proceeds to that establishment. Currently, they’re partnering with World Central Kitchen. “We wanted them to use that money to make food for frontline workers,” Fragogiannis says, “and to keep people employed since everyone’s trying to make it on takeout or delivery.”

Related: Real Talk About How Restaurants Can Survive

Tony Fragogiannis and his business partner Justin Neiser// Image credit: The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company

Recent developments, however, have thrown up some roadblocks for Fragogiannis. As has been widely reported, meat-processing plants have been the sites of significant outbreaks, which has resulted in skyrocketing meat prices. “We got hit last week with a crazy price increase, like 40 percent,” Fragogiannis says. “We do beef, and we also do chicken and a pork hot dog. Everything is up, but beef is the most, and beef is also our biggest seller. So we’ve kind of negotiated it down a little bit and are trying to work out some creative ways to get around it. But we’re currently eating the cost, because it’s such a crazy amount that we can’t pass that along to our customers.”

Meat prices going up was something that Joe and Michael Quinn, brothers and co-owners of Feltman’s of Coney Island, anticipated when the pandemic took off. So they invested in getting ahead of it. “We wanted to be ahead of the curve, so we took a risk and put in orders for hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef before the prices went up,” Michael says. 

Panic-buying aside, they were confident that hot dogs would be in unusually high demand for the average household this summer. “People are going to have more backyard barbecues,” Joe says. “They’re going to have people on the porch, or they’re going to be grilling in the park versus going to a restaurant or the baseball park.”

The Quinn brothers started Feltman’s in 2015. In doing so, they revived the (real) original hot dog recipe from Charles Feltman, a German baker who introduced Coney Island beachgoers to his frankfurter on a bun in 1867. The business was also created in honor of their middle brother Jimmy, who was killed on 9/11 at just 23 years old. 

“Jimmy and Mike were older than me,” Joe says, “And they always had these grand ideas of us brothers starting a great business. But without Jimmy, it was just sort of impossible to think about. He was, you know, the gregarious one, the business one, that networker. Losing him left a huge gap in our family. But in 2015 Mike and I sort of said, ‘What the hell, why don’t we take a crack at this thing?’”

Related: Iron Chef Winner Marc Forgione on Owning a Restaurant During a …

Joe and Michael Quinn // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

While their Luna Park stand has closed, along with so many of the bars and restaurants they supply to (like McSorley’s, New York’s oldest pub), the Quinns made a fortuitous decision last fall to pivot toward wider supermarket and ecommerce distribution. They’re now in more than 2,000 supermarkets, including Whole Foods, and since February their online sales — mostly through their own website, but they are also available on Amazon — have jumped 900 percent. 

Giving back to their community has always been important to the Quinns, and when the outbreak began ravaging New York, they knew they had to help. Joe’s wife — who is expecting their third child in three weeks — is a nurse practitioner at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Joe, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, says, “It was a war. For my wife and her friends, it was combat. Mike and I felt like we had to do something.” 

So they started sending care packages — “Hot Dogs for Heroes” — to the nurses on the frontlines, in addition to donating to local pantries and police stations. This week, they’re giving all proceeds from their online sales to TAPS, which provides care and resources to survivors of those who died serving in the military. They also made a Memorial Day video to express gratitude to the pandemic’s first responders, and to stand in solidarity with the families who are grieving in solitude after losing loved ones to the virus.

Michael, Joe and their late brother Jimmy // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

“That’s what Memorial Day is all about,” Joe says. “There’s more than enough love to go around for us to take a moment this weekend to remember those families.” 

Maybe even over a hot dog.

Related: N’Sync’s Joey Fatone Bites Into the Hot Dog Business

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

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[scpie]

Hot Dog Sales Are Red-Hot. These Weiner Businesses are Giving Back.

May 22, 2020 6 min read

In normal times, Memorial Day weekend might be the first time you’d consider buying hot dogs since last summer. But of course, these are not normal times, and there’s a good chance you’ve tasted snappy, meaty (possibly microwaved) frankfurter flesh more recently than that.

“We’re going into our bigger months of June and July now,” says Joe Quinn, co-founder of Brooklyn hot dog company Feltman’s of Coney Island. “But since March, it’s been like July every month.”

Market research from Chicago-based data-analytics firm IRI shows that in mid-March, at the height of panic-buying, hot dog sales were up 127 percent from the same time last year. And people are buying in bulk, too: eight-packs, 10-packs, 24-packs have all been flying off the shelves.

That’s probably because hot dogs are an obvious quarantine choice: long shelf life, protein-dense, easy to prepare and kid-friendly. National brands account for 97 percent of the hot dog market, but smaller companies have also felt the boost — in their online and supermarket sales, at least. 

“Initially we actually took a pretty big hit, since a big chunk of our business is food service,” says Tony Fragogiannis, owner of The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company, which Fragogiannis founded in 2012 with business partner Justin Neiser. They make premium classic beef dogs as well as a variety of specialty dogs, like Gyro and Buffalo Chicken. “We supply restaurants around New York City and L.A., and we lost the majority of that business overnight. But our online direct-to-consumer sales — which has always been a very, very small part of our business — is up 300 to 400 percent. So when we were fortunate enough to get that positive inflUX of business, we started thinking about how we could pass it along.”

Every two weeks since the pandemic began, The Brooklyn Hot Dog Co. has chosen a different NYC restaurant delivering meals to healthcare workers and donated 10 percent of their online proceeds to that establishment. Currently, they’re partnering with World Central Kitchen. “We wanted them to use that money to make food for frontline workers,” Fragogiannis says, “and to keep people employed since everyone’s trying to make it on takeout or delivery.”

Related: Real Talk About How Restaurants Can Survive

Tony Fragogiannis and his business partner Justin Neiser// Image credit: The Brooklyn Hot Dog Company

Recent developments, however, have thrown up some roadblocks for Fragogiannis. As has been widely reported, meat-processing plants have been the sites of significant outbreaks, which has resulted in skyrocketing meat prices. “We got hit last week with a crazy price increase, like 40 percent,” Fragogiannis says. “We do beef, and we also do chicken and a pork hot dog. Everything is up, but beef is the most, and beef is also our biggest seller. So we’ve kind of negotiated it down a little bit and are trying to work out some creative ways to get around it. But we’re currently eating the cost, because it’s such a crazy amount that we can’t pass that along to our customers.”

Meat prices going up was something that Joe and Michael Quinn, brothers and co-owners of Feltman’s of Coney Island, anticipated when the pandemic took off. So they invested in getting ahead of it. “We wanted to be ahead of the curve, so we took a risk and put in orders for hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef before the prices went up,” Michael says. 

Panic-buying aside, they were confident that hot dogs would be in unusually high demand for the average household this summer. “People are going to have more backyard barbecues,” Joe says. “They’re going to have people on the porch, or they’re going to be grilling in the park versus going to a restaurant or the baseball park.”

The Quinn brothers started Feltman’s in 2015. In doing so, they revived the (real) original hot dog recipe from Charles Feltman, a German baker who introduced Coney Island beachgoers to his frankfurter on a bun in 1867. The business was also created in honor of their middle brother Jimmy, who was killed on 9/11 at just 23 years old. 

“Jimmy and Mike were older than me,” Joe says, “And they always had these grand ideas of us brothers starting a great business. But without Jimmy, it was just sort of impossible to think about. He was, you know, the gregarious one, the business one, that networker. Losing him left a huge gap in our family. But in 2015 Mike and I sort of said, ‘What the hell, why don’t we take a crack at this thing?’”

Related: Iron Chef Winner Marc Forgione on Owning a Restaurant During a …

Joe and Michael Quinn // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

While their Luna Park stand has closed, along with so many of the bars and restaurants they supply to (like McSorley’s, New York’s oldest pub), the Quinns made a fortuitous decision last fall to pivot toward wider supermarket and ecommerce distribution. They’re now in more than 2,000 supermarkets, including Whole Foods, and since February their online sales — mostly through their own website, but they are also available on Amazon — have jumped 900 percent. 

Giving back to their community has always been important to the Quinns, and when the outbreak began ravaging New York, they knew they had to help. Joe’s wife — who is expecting their third child in three weeks — is a nurse practitioner at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Joe, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, says, “It was a war. For my wife and her friends, it was combat. Mike and I felt like we had to do something.” 

So they started sending care packages — “Hot Dogs for Heroes” — to the nurses on the frontlines, in addition to donating to local pantries and police stations. This week, they’re giving all proceeds from their online sales to TAPS, which provides care and resources to survivors of those who died serving in the military. They also made a Memorial Day video to express gratitude to the pandemic’s first responders, and to stand in solidarity with the families who are grieving in solitude after losing loved ones to the virus.

Michael, Joe and their late brother Jimmy // Image credit: Feltman’s of Coney Island

“That’s what Memorial Day is all about,” Joe says. “There’s more than enough love to go around for us to take a moment this weekend to remember those families.” 

Maybe even over a hot dog.

Related: N’Sync’s Joey Fatone Bites Into the Hot Dog Business

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source http://www.scpie.org/hot-dog-sales-are-red-hot-these-weiner-businesses-are-giving-back/

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

As virus cuts class time, teachers have to leave out lessons (AP) English teachers are deciding which books to skip. History teachers are condensing units. Science teachers are often doing without experiments entirely. With instruction time reduced as much as half by the coronavirus pandemic, many of the nation’s middle school and high school teachers have given up on covering all the material normally included in their classes and instead are cutting lessons. Certain topics must be taught because they will appear on exit exams or Advanced Placement tests. But teachers are largely on their own to make difficult choices—what to prioritize and what to sacrifice to the pandemic. School day schedules have been compressed to deal with the challenges of social distancing and remote learning. The pace of instruction has also been slowed by the need to cover subjects that were skipped following the school shutdowns last spring and by students’ virus-related distractions and the difficulty in addressing both online and in-person audiences.

Winter storm wallops Mid-Atlantic, Northeast with more than two feet of snow (Washington Post) A historic winter storm continues to affect the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast with heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding. The storm brought travel to a standstill in the New York City area on Monday. In northern New Jersey, parts of New York State, eastern Pennsylvania, and much of southern New England, snow fell Monday at rates of up to three inches per hour, quickly overwhelming crews trying to clear roadways. At least 17.2 inches of snow fell in New York City’s Central Park, with the possibility of an inch or two of additional snowfall on Tuesday. This put this storm just shy of the city’s top 10 list of all-time heaviest snowstorms. Montague, N.J. picked up more than twice that, with 33.2 inches. Newton, N.J., was not far behind, at 32 inches. Some of the heaviest snow will fall Tuesday in northern New England, including Maine, where one to two feet is forecast.

The decline of coastal superstar cities (The Atlantic) Beyond anecdotal accounts of bankers fleeing Manhattan and tech workers saying sayonara to the Bay Area, we have loads of private data to back up the story that superstar cities are in trouble. According to U-Haul’s annual review, California lost more people to out-migration than any other state in 2020, and the five largest states in the Northeast—New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland—joined California in the top 10 losers. Rents have fallen fastest in “pricey coastal cities,” including San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York City, according to Apartment List. These migration trends could spell long-term trouble for cities such as San Francisco and New York, where municipal services rely on property taxes, sales taxes, and urban-transit revenue. Absent federal intervention, “the financial situation that nearly every transit agency in America is in will certainly lead to significant service cuts, which inevitably lead to terrible spirals,” Sarah Feinberg, the interim president of the New York City Transit Authority, told me. “Service reductions are bad for commuters, devastating for essential workers, and detrimental to the economy.” If people leave New York—and newcomers don’t immediately take their place—that will reduce the city’s subway and bus revenue, which will lead to service cuts; that will make New York a harder place to live, so more people will leave the city; transit revenue will be reduced further, and on we go.

Oregon decriminalizes some drug use (Los Angeles Times) Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs as a ballot measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday. Instead, those found in possession would face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling. Backers of the ballot measure, which Oregon voters passed by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary move for the United States.

Biden tries to show US as democracy beacon post-Capitol riot (AP) Less than two weeks in office, President Joe Biden is facing two critical tests of whether the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol has damaged America’s standing as a beacon for democracy. Protests in Russia and a military coup in Myanmar come as American credibility on the world stage has plummeted after last month’s storming of the Capitol. That adds to the weight on Biden as he seeks to fulfill a campaign pledge to dramatically reposition the U.S. as a global leader following four years of a Trump foreign policy driven by an “America First” mantra. Biden’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, acknowledged the difficulty. “I think there’s no doubt that the attack on our own democracy on Jan. 6 creates an even greater challenge for us to be carrying the banner of democracy and freedom and human rights around the world because, for sure, people in other countries are saying to us, ‘Well, why don’t you look at yourselves first?’” the secretary of state said in an interview with NBC News.

Many Peruvians ignore new virus lockdown orders (AP) Peru began what was supposed to be a severe lockdown Sunday to combat surging COVID-19, but the order was widely ignored in the nation’s capital. President Francisco Sagasti went on television urging Peruvians “to make an extra effort to contain the growing wave of infections and deaths.” His government told people in the capital and nine other regions to limit trips outside the home to 60 minutes and it closed churches, gymnasiums, museums, libraries and other institutions. But marketplaces were crowded. Even some bus drivers ignored mandatory face mask rules. Seventy percent of Peruvians have no income if they stay home. The government says it will give $165 each to 4 million families—but only after the two-week quarantine. Hundreds of people crowded bus stations in Lima to head for less-restricted rural regions before terminals close later this week. Flights from Brazil and Europe have been cancelled.

Moscow court orders Kremlin foe Navalny to prison (AP) A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than 2 1/2 years in prison on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he has rejected as fabricated. The 44-year-old Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.

Not just Navalny: economic pain also behind Russian protests (Reuters) The trigger for some of the biggest protests to sweep Russia in years was the arrest of opposition politician and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was detained on his return to the country last month after surviving poisoning by a nerve agent. The anger runs deeper, however, and some protesters, young and old, say they have also taken to the streets to vent their frustration over declining living standards and the perceived gap between a small, wealthy elite and ordinary people. Real incomes fell 3.5% last year, unemployment is at its highest since 2011 and the economy in 2020, hit hard by the pandemic, is estimated to have suffered its sharpest contraction in 11 years. Disenchantment over inequality was targeted by Navalny in a YouTube video, released shortly after his detention and viewed more than 106 million times, which showcased a 100 billion-rouble ($1.31 billion) palace complex in southern Russia. Navalny alleged its ultimate owner was President Vladimir Putin, an allegation the Kremlin denies. Since then Putin’s former judo sparring partner has said he owned it.

Journalism crackdown rather than crackdown on Delhi police (CJR) Nine journalists in India are facing criminal charges after they reported that police shot and killed a farmer during protests in Delhi last week; officials say the farmer died in an accident, but photographic evidence and a postmortem report suggest he was, indeed, fatally shot. Yesterday, Twitter bowed to legal demands from India’s government and blocked the accounts of prominent critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Twitter later reinstated the accounts, citing free speech.

Citizens in Myanmar protest coup with noise barrage (AP) Scores of people in Myanmar’s largest city honked car horns and banged on pots and pans on Tuesday evening in the first known public resistance to the coup led a day earlier by the country’s military. What was initially planned to take place for just a few minutes extended to more than a quarter hour in several neighborhoods of Yangon. Shouts could be heard wishing detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi good health and calling for freedom. “Beating a drum in Myanmar culture is like we are kicking out the devils,” said one participant who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals.

China’s Top Diplomat Warns Biden Against Meddling in Hong Kong, Xinjiang (WSJ) China’s top diplomat warned the U.S. not to cross a “red line” as President Biden signals continuity with the previous administration on hot-button issues including Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Yang Jiechi on Tuesday Beijing time emphasized the potential for a healthy U.S.-China relationship on public health, trade and climate, echoing recent language from leader Xi Jinping. But he left limited room for negotiation on issues such as human rights, the coronavirus response and what he called U.S. interference in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang. “These issues concern China’s core interests, national dignity, as well as the sensitivities of its 1.4 billion people,” Mr. Yang said in a video address to the National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York. “They constitute a red line which must not be crossed.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken had in an interview that aired hours earlier on MSNBC criticized China for having broken its promises on Hong Kong’s autonomy and handling of the Covid-19 outbreak with a lack of transparency.

One Case, Total Lockdown (NYT) One case. One young security guard at a quarantine hotel who tested positive for the coronavirus and experienced minor symptoms. That was all it took for Perth, Australia’s fourth-largest city, to snap into a complete lockdown on Sunday. One case and now two million people are staying home for at least the next five days. One case and now the top state leader, Mark McGowan, who is facing an election next month, is calling on his constituents to sacrifice for each other and the nation. “This is a very serious situation,” he said on Sunday as he reported the case, the first one the state of Western Australia had found outside quarantine in almost 10 months. “Each and every one of us has to do everything we personally can to stop the spread in the community.” The speed and severity of the response may be unthinkable to people in the United States or Europe, where far larger outbreaks have often been met with half measures. But to Australians, it looked familiar. Ask Australians about the approach, and they might just shrug. They’ve gotten used to a routine of short-term pain for collective gain.

56 homes lost, more threatened in Australian wildfire (AP) An out-of-control wildfire burning northeast of the Australian west coast city of Perth has destroyed at least 56 homes and was threatening more Tuesday, with many residents across the region told it is too late to leave. The 7,000-hectare (17,000-acre) blaze, which has a 80-kilometer (50-mile) perimeter, began on Monday and raged through the night near the town of Wooroloo, with the shires of Mundaring, Chittering, Northam, and the city of Swan affected. The losses were expected to grow as teams continued their damage assessments.

Iran’s new rocket (WSJ) Iran tested a new rocket yesterday with improved technology that could be used in its missile program, its latest attempt to raise the stakes for the Biden administration ahead of potential negotiations over a new nuclear deal. The new rocket, named Zuljanah, was developed under a government-backed program to send civilian satellites into orbit 310 miles above ground, according to a spokesman for the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Space Department. The technology is easily transferable to Iran’s military missile program run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, experts say.

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Trek Bikes 2020 – Rail – Supercaliber – Fuel Ex – Domane – Produkttest

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Headlines

Trudeau says Canada-US border won’t reopen for ‘many weeks’ (AFP) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that his country’s border with the United States would not fully reopen for at least several weeks, rejecting US President Donald’s Trump overtures to do so sooner. The border—the world’s longest international frontier at 8,900 kilometers (5,500 miles)—was shut to all non-essential travelers on both sides on March 21 in response to the coronavirus crisis. Cross-border trade has continued.

Straggling in a Good Economy, and Now Struggling in a Crisis (NYT) An indelible image from the Great Depression features a well-dressed family seated with their dog in a comfy car, smiling down from an oversize billboard on weary souls standing in line at a relief agency. “World’s highest standard of living,” the billboard boasts, followed by a tagline: “There’s no way like the American Way.” The economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic has suddenly hurled the country back to that dislocating moment captured in 1937 by the photographer Margaret Bourke-White. In the updated 2020 version, lines of cars stretch for miles to pick up groceries from a food pantry; jobless workers spend days trying to file for unemployment benefits; renters and homeowners plead with landlords and mortgage bankers for extensions; and outside hospitals, ill patients line up overnight to wait for virus testing. In an economy that has been hailed for its record-shattering successes, the most basic necessities—food, shelter and medical care—are all suddenly at risk.      Well before the coronavirus established a foothold, the American economy had been playing out on a split screen. On one were impressive achievements: the lowest jobless rate in half a century, a soaring stock market and the longest expansion on record. On the other, a very different story of stinging economic weaknesses unfolded. Years of limp wage growth left workers struggling to afford essentials. Irregular work schedules caused weekly paychecks to surge and dip unpredictably. Job-based benefits were threadbare or nonexistent. In this economy, four of 10 adults don’t have the resources on hand to cover an unplanned $400 expense.

Airlines not offering consumer refunds, but accepting federal bailout (Bloomberg) Airlines in the U.S. that have halted flights are holding more than $10 billion in customer money while offering credits for future travel instead of cash refunds, a group of senators said Friday. Those same airlines (and their related businesses) were allotted more than $70 billion in loans and payroll assistance under the massive federal bailout.

Falling oil prices (Financial Times/Bloomberg) US crude oil prices today dropped to another 18-year low near $18 a barrel, with energy markets still under pressure from a record glut created by the coronavirus pandemic. Fargo, North Dakota is so awash in gasoline, the fuel last week sold for a record 12 cents a gallon at the rack—its last stop before the pump. In better times, the price dip would be a boon for gas station owners looking to snag low-cost supplies. But with fewer customers every day, gas pumps are becoming little more than makeshift storage for ballooning inventories.

How the coronavirus has unleashed economic havoc in Michigan (Washington Post) Charles Johnson was only supposed to be stuck home for about a week. His manufacturing plant, which makes aluminum parts for Ford pickup trucks, shut its doors in March, like many others in Michigan, to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus. A week lapsed into a month, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) closed most businesses statewide. Out of a job for the foreseeable future, and running out of cash, the 46-year-old Johnson joined the ranks of more than 1 million Michigan workers seeking help in a state that’s faced immense economic hardship amid a deadly pandemic. Roughly a quarter of Michigan’s eligible workforce is now trying to obtain unemployment aid, according to local officials, a staggering example of the economic carnage wrought by the coronavirus in a state that’s no stranger to financial struggle.

Trump gives governors options on how to reopen the economy (AP) President Donald Trump has given governors a road map for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out “a phased and deliberate approach” to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases. The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning that some social distancing measures may need to remain in place through the end of the year to prevent a new outbreak.

El Chapo’s daughter, Mexican cartels hand out coronavirus aid (Reuters) A daughter of famed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and several Mexican cartels have been doling out aid packages to help cash-strapped residents ride out the coronavirus pandemic. In one video posted on Facebook, Guzman’s daughter, Alejandrina, can be seen stuffing toilet paper and food into a cardboard box bearing slick logos and a designer stencil-style image of her father, the former Sinaloa cartel chief who is now in a maximum security U.S. prison. The oil, sugar, rice and other items in the boxes, which the video narrator calls “Chapo’s provisions”, were distributed in Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara, in western Jalisco state. Famed for brutality, including beheadings and dissolving victims in vats of sulphuric acid, the cartels also have a history of trying to win over hearts and minds of impoverished communities where they operate.

No work, new debt: virus creates perfect storm for slavery in India (Reuters) When the coronavirus outbreak brought India to a halt last month, Bhagwan Das lost his only income as a construction worker in Delhi and embarked on a three-day trek back to his village. Then the loan shark came knocking. Unable to maintain repayments on the 60,000 rupee ($787) loan he took out in 2017 for his daughter’s wedding, Das had no choice but to offer his son’s labour to service the rising debt. “My son works on the money lender’s farmland now. He gives him food, but no wages,” the 55-year-old said. A coronavirus lockdown—due to end on Tuesday but set to be extended—has left hundreds of millions of informal workers without cash or food, and fearful that lacking paperwork or a bank account will hinder their access to government assistance. Many families will instead resort to taking out loans at high interest rates in order to survive, while others will fall deeper into debt and end up trapped in bonded labour—India’s most prevalent form of modern slavery—according to activists.

Wuhan toll revisited (Reuters) China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak that has now caused more than 143,000 deaths globally, said it had revised up its total death toll by 50%, addressing incorrect reporting, delays and omissions of cases. That would take China’s total deaths to over 4,500. The revision comes as U.S. and other officials question the accuracy of China’s tallies—but also as those countries hit hardest by the pandemic have widely varying methodologies for counting their dead.

As Coronavirus Fades in China, Nationalism and Xenophobia Flare (NYT) As China tames the coronavirus epidemic now ravaging other countries, its success is giving rise to an increasingly strident blend of patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia, at a pitch many say has not been seen in decades. A restaurant in northern China put up a banner celebrating the virus’s spread in the United States. A widely circulated cartoon showed foreigners being sorted into trash bins. African residents in the southern city of Guangzhou have been corralled into forced quarantines, labeled as dangers to the country’s health. Some of the uglier manifestations of nationalism have been fueled by government propaganda, which has touted China’s response to the virus as evidence of the ruling Communist Party’s superiority. And recriminations from abroad, including calls to make China pay for the pandemic that began there, have triggered defensiveness on the part of many Chinese. China’s heightened us-against-them mentality is perhaps most apparent in its recent strictures aimed at foreigners. Though the Chinese government denounced racist attacks against Asians overseas when the outbreak was centered in China, it now casts people from other countries as public health risks.

Beware the boar: wild pigs patrol Israeli city under coronavirus closure (Reuters) While coronavirus closures are coaxing wildlife into the abandoned streets of many a metropolis, in one Israeli city the four-legged interlopers are assertive and, well, quite boorish. Wild boars, some as bulky as Rottweilers and travelling in family packs, have been trotting through Haifa in increasing numbers. Their once-nocturnal visitations now take place throughout the day, as they root through refuse, spook domestic pets and even block roads.

Kenya’s deadly lockdown (Washington Post) While the virus hasn’t devastated Kenya yet, its ripple effects have proved deadly. Police have killed at least 12 people while enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew that began more than two weeks ago, making Kenya’s lockdown one of the deadliest in the world. But the true death toll is higher still: An untold number of others have died because of the curfew itself and the fear prompted by police batons and bullets.