Russia and India have plans to work together across a range of military matters, including joint exercises, President Vladimir Putin revealed on Monday.

His comments came during a meeting with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, in New Delhi to discuss the long-term partnership of their nations in a number of spheres, including energy, space travel, Covid-19 vaccine production, and medicine. Putin opened the discussions by explaining that the countries were planning to ''develop relations in the international arena, as well as directly in the military sphere.''

''We are conducting joint military exercises, in both Indian territory and Russian territory,'' he said. ''We thank you for your attention to this component of our work. And we plan to work more in this direction.''

The Russian leader also went on to say that his nation was collaborating on military technology with India more closely than with any other partner. ''Together, we're working on developing high-grade military products and manufacturing, including in India,'' he said.

Earlier that day, leaders from both countries had concluded an agreement to collaborate on military technology from 2021 to 2030.

On the subject of Russia's relationship with India, Putin commented, ''We treat India as a great power, with a people who are friendly to us, and with a remarkable history of relations between us.''

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, also announced on Monday that Russia would like to involve India in discussions about Afghanistan along with China, Pakistan, and the US. ''As far as we are concerned, there is every reason to engage countries such as India and Iran in the group's activities,'' the Russian top diplomat said.

Fake-Meat Industry Eyes Crickets, Beetles, Mealworms, Maggots for Burgers - Bloomberg

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Trump's Social Media Site Quietly Admits It's Based on Mastodon | PCMag

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Mastodon had originally threatened to sue Trump's 'Truth Social' site for allegedly violating its open-source license.

To avoid a lawsuit, Donald Trump's social media site is quietly acknowledging the computer code powering the platform comes from Mastodon.

Trump's ''Truth Social'' site now features a dedicated section labeled ''open source,'' which contains a Zip archive to Mastodon's source code. ''Our goal is to support the open source community no matter what your political beliefs are. That's why the first place we go to find amazing software is the community and not 'Big Tech,''' the site adds.

(Truthsocial.com)

Truth Social created the section on Nov. 12, two weeks after social networking provider Mastodon threatened to sue Trump's platform for violating its open-source license.

Although Truth Social has yet to launch, an early test build went live in October, and users immediately noticed it adopted several design elements from Mastodon's software. But at the time, Truth Social made no attempt to credit Mastodon or publish the computer code behind it.

Since Mastodon is an open-source software project, anyone can use it for free. But if you do, the software license demands the code and any ensuing modifications to your Mastodon-powered platform be made publicly available, allowing the entire Mastodon community to benefit. (This doesn't include publishing any user data or disclosing admin access, though.)

''We release our work for free in the first place is the idea that, as we give to the platform operators, so do the platform operators give back to us by providing their improvements for us and everyone to see,'' Mastodon wrote in a blog post last month. However, Trump's social media site had claimed all of its source code was ''proprietary,'' and controlled solely by Truth Social.

In response, Mastodon sent a letter to Trump's social media platform, demanding its source code be published within 30 days or face legal action involving copyright infringement. Mastodon Founder Eugen Rochko now tells PCMag he's holding off on filing any lawsuit.

Recommended by Our Editors''We haven't received any communication back from them, but they've uploaded a ZIP archive of the source code, which for now seems to bring them in compliance,'' Rochko said in an email.

However, it appears the uploaded Zip archive is simply a barebones version of the existing Mastodon source code you can already find on GitHub. The archive itself is only a mere 30MB in size. Nevertheless, Rochko said the Zip archive might ''become more interesting'' once Truth Social finally launches.

Expect Trump's social media platform to formally arrive in next year's first quarter. A beta launch for the site was also supposed to take place in November, but it appears Truth Social has missed the original target date.

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More millennials have been writing wills in case they die unexpectedly, citing COVID as the reason | Daily Mail Online

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More millennials have been writing wills in case they die unexpectedly and cite the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason: At least 27% of 18-34 year olds had a will in 2021, compared to 18% in 2019More millennials have drafted wills since the pandemic hit, with an almost 10 per cent increase since 2019Twenty-seven per cent of adults aged 18 to 34 now have wills compared to just 18 per cent in 2019. There was a decline in 2020 at 17 per cent More than 30 per cent of those 18 to 34 who have wills cited COVID-19 as the reason Millennials are also encouraging their parents to complete their wills to give everyone peace of mind By Alyssa Guzman For Dailymail.Com

Published: 17:06 EST, 7 December 2021 | Updated: 17:09 EST, 7 December 2021

More millennials are writing their wills in case they die unexpectedly in recent years than ever before and many are citing COVID-19 as the reason.

More than 30 per cent of adults under the age of 35 cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for wanting to get their affairs in order, a 2020 LegalZoom and Caring.com survey found, causing an almost 10 per cent increase in 18 to 34-year-olds having wills.

Only 18 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds had wills in 2019, compared to 27 per cent in 2021. There was a decline in 2020, with only 17 per cent of young adults investing in estate planning.

The number of millennials who have wills has spiked almost 10 per cent in two years, with many citing the COVID-19 pandemic as their reasoning

More than 30 per cent of adults under the age of 35 cited the pandemic as their reasoning, as many worry about family members becoming ill. With breakthrough cases and people of all ages succumbing to the virus, more people are organizing their affairs (pictured: stock image)

Like many, Investment Advisor Ryan Bayonnet, 29, changed his mind about how pressing these legal documents were to him when the pandemic hit, after writing it off for so long because he and his wife Bricey, 28, do not have children. Considering his wife Bricey, 28 plans to become an emergency-room physician, they made the decision to write their wills in September after several medical professional were coming down with the illness.

The Ohio man considered it a 'game-changer' when his wife asked if he'd 'want to be put on a ventilator.'

Kimberly Onsager, 38, who is single and lives states away from her parents, told the Wall Street Journal she felt vulnerable without having a will. She created hers for $100 on an online will-creation site. The price to draft a will can change depending on several factors from do-it-yourself to hiring an attorney to the size of the estate in question.

'I wanted to be safer than sorry,' she told the Wall Street Journal.

Like Bayonnet and Onsager, many millennials are following suit, according to the Wall Street Journal.

'Millennials are saying: "let me plan now as I'm not going to live forever,"' lawyer Avi Kestenbaum told the Wall Street Journal. The lawyer saw a rise in younger people drafting wills when the Delta variant was in full swing and expects to see another as the Omicron variants spreads across the globe.

The concern over family members becoming ill has caused 50 per cent adults to engage in estate planning, according to Caring.com.

Eighteen to 34-year-olds were also the most motivated by the pandemic to write-up wills, compared to middle-aged to aging people, which were at 23 and 16 per cent, respectfully.

A 29-year-old investment advisor Ryan Bayonnet, from Ohio, said it was a turning point when his wife - a soon-to-be emergency room physician - asked if he had to be, would he want to be put on a ventilator. They drafted their wills in September. Despite the increase in millennials drafting up wills, older people make up for the majority who have them (pictured: stock image)

Despite the increase in will-owners, just under 50 per cent of Americans have one, with older people still making up the majority.

With breakthrough COVID-19 cases and all ages succumbing the virus, millennials are even encouraging their parents to complete their wills, not only to make it easier for the time comes, but for peace of mind.

Kerry Deliz, 38, reminded her parents, who are in their mid-60s, to write their wills - which they plan to finish by Christmas.

'My mom always told me: "The last gift you leave your family is a plan that is organized so they can properly grieve instead of hunting down paperwork and signatures,"' she told the Wall Street Journal.

Without a will, after death, the state determines how to distribute one's assets under the supervision of a court and could end up being more costly for living family members.

POSO: Jussie Smollett's lawyers pulled a 'Smollett' in claiming judge attacked them | The Post Millennial

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Human Events Daily's Jack Posobiec took aim at the attorneys in Jussie Smollett's "hate hoax" trial in Chicago, where they tried to get the judge to rule a mistrial after claiming the judge attacked them. Judge James Linn declined. In essence, these attorneys made a similar "hoax" claim to the one their client made, Posobiec said.

"His lawyers are now claiming'--this is how bad his case is going'--his lawyers are claiming that the judge in the case attacked them. The judge attacked them and they're asking for a mistrial," Posobiec said.

It was Tamara Walker, one of Smollett's defense attorneys, who called for a mistrial, claiming that the presiding judge "lunged" at her in court.

The alleged "lunge" occurred while the defense was cross-examining the prosecution's witness Olabinjo Osundairo, who claims he was paid to help Smollett stage the hate crime.

It was reported by the Chicago Tribune's Megan Crepeau that Judge Linn tried to "hustle things along, saying Walker is getting into something 'collateral.' She asks for a sidebar, the jury is sent out of the room, and she asks for a mistrial '-- in part because of the 'collateral' comment."

"Walker is also saying that Linn lunged at her during a sidebar: 'You did physically lunge at me.' Linn seems furious and is denying it outright," Crepeau reported.

Matt Finn of Fox News corroborated this account, saying "Right now, court is paused. Smollett's attorney asked to compose herself. She claims judge lunged at her. Judge says he stood up." Judge Linn did not go for the mistrial.

"I don't know exactly what the sentencing phase is going to be in this," Posobiec commented, "but Jussie, you got caught. And it's so bad that your own lawyers are trying to do everything they can to literally pull a Jussie Smollett to get out of this."

"The judge ain't gonna buy it. And I guarantee you, the jurors are definitely not going to buy it," he warned.

"You messed up, man. You messed up. You didn't like that you weren't getting paid enough on your show that you wanted to go big. You thought you could play games and everyone in politics went along with this it's very sad," Posobiec said.

Smollett has testified that there is "no hoax."

Urea shortage: AdBlue crisis to affect cars, trucks, tractors and grocery supplies | news.com.au '-- Australia's leading news site

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Australia is just weeks away from a major crisis which could see tens of thousands of vehicles pulled off the road and supplies of key items dwindle.

Australia is on the brink of a major crisis that could see tens of thousands of vehicles pulled off the road, grocery supplies dwindle and prices skyrocket, with every citizen set to be impacted.

On Friday, news.com.au reported on the urea shortage facing the nation, with experts warning the fiasco would devastate the transport industry within weeks.

But the full extent of the nightmare is becoming clearer, with the shortage set to also affect agriculture, power generation, the trades, healthcare and everyday consumers.

The crisis

The world is currently facing a major shortage of urea, a key ingredient found in diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) '' also known as AdBlue '' and a large component in fertiliser.

A major factor in the supply disruption is the fact China '' which previously supplied 80 per cent of Australia's urea supplies '' has recently banned the export of the product, in order to lower fertiliser prices domestically.

That has left nations such as South Korea in the lurch, and now Australia is facing the same threat, with the shortage set to come to a head by February at the latest '' although the impacts could be felt sooner than that.

The urea shortage is such a significant problem because AdBlue is injected into the exhaust systems of modern diesel vehicles in order to reduce emissions, which is a mandatory requirement for trucks, private vehicles and tractors.

While it is possible to adapt the vehicle, doing so is highly illegal, with rule breakers facing major fines.

As a result, insiders fear that without urgent action, tens of thousands of vehicles could be pulled off Australian roads within weeks '' a move that would cause supply chain havoc during the busy holiday period.

'Extreme pressure'

National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) CEO Warren Clark told news.com.au every single Australian would feel the pinch if the crisis was not averted.

''To be really clear, the lack of AdBlue, without breaking the law, is going to have a large impact on everyday Australians, everyday consumers and everyday business owners,'' he said.

''We've got a freight supply chain under extreme pressure coming out of Covid, and about 50 per cent [of Australia's truck fleet] runs on AdBlue, so it's a massive issue, it's half the fleet, so what happens then?

''Without breaking the law, we will potentially run out of the chemical by about February next year, but we are thinking it could be earlier.

''We saw supermarket shelves empty during the pandemic, and this could be way worse.''

In addition to shortages of everyday staples, Mr Clark said the delivery of crucial pharmaceuticals could also be affected, which would cause ''major disruption'' to countless lives.

Another impact of the urea shortage could be power generation, especially in South Australia, where a lot of back-up generators used in hospitals and other facilities use AdBlue, while countless tradies could also have their vehicles barred from the road, causing construction backlogs.

''We could have power generation issues for sure '' nothing happens until we're under pressure, and then all of a sudden there's nothing to fall back on,'' he said.

''Tens of thousands of vehicles could be affected '' you have a lot of small business owners and tradesmen and construction workers who use diesel-powered smaller vehicles.

''And a lot of new cars purchased two or three years ago '' passenger vehicles '' also run off AdBlue and when that runs out at the bowser, they can't run the car.

''And the other thing is a lot of new tractors, harvesters and agricultural equipment run on AdBlue, and without illegally turning it off, these tractors will also stop, which means fruit and vegetables might not get to the supermarket shelves because the machinery might not work.''

Mr Clark said the government needed to address the complex crisis immediately, adding that simply banning the export of Australia's own meagre urea supply could cause trade breaches, landing Australia in hot water with trade partners.

''This is a supply chain issue the Government needs to look at, because they're the only ones who can fix this,'' Mr Clark said.

''We have a crisis here that could impact every single person in this country if we don't solve it.''

He said the shortage highlighted Australia's vulnerability, given our reliance on the importation of so many vital products, and said people were so worried about the urea crisis they were beginning to ''stockpile'' it just like shoppers did to toilet paper during the pandemic.

He said the ''panic buying'' or AdBlue meant it was difficult to estimate just how much we had left in the country, with some of NatRoad members claiming they could run out as early as this week.

NatRoad is pushing for the establishment of ''a task force of industry, with officials from relevant departments'' to manage the shortage in the immediate term.

'Double trouble' facing Aussies

An Aussie farmer told news.com.au urea shortages ''could cause double trouble'' with ''no tractors to produce food, and no trucks to deliver it''.

He said the looming shortage was causing headaches across the industry, with those in the sector also reeling from soaring fertiliser prices, and the impending closure of a plant owned by Incitec Pivot, a major producer of fertiliser in Australia.

''The fertiliser game is a sh*tshow at the moment, given fertiliser shortages and exorbitant prices,'' the concerned farmer said.

Meanwhile, agricultural market analyst Andrew Whitelaw told news.com.au the availability of urea used specifically for fertiliser was less impacted than that used in AdBlue, but said farmers were being smashed by ''skyrocketing'' fertiliser prices.

Prices have been climbing for some time, but began to increase in mid-2021 before soaring in September.

For example, in October 2020, farmers were paying in the low $400s per tonne (for urea landed in Australia) '' but this October, it had more than tripled to around $1200-1300 a tonne.

''China has decided that because fertiliser prices are getting so high, they'll ban exports to make prices low domestically so their own farmers can afford to buy it. Russia has also done a similar thing, but not the same level,'' he said.

''The biggest impact is that farmers need to pay for that because they need synthetic fertiliser to produce yields, and produce enough to feed the world.

''It's impacting farmers around the world and not just us '' if all farmers stop using fertiliser or reduce volumes because they can't afford not to, it will have an impact on yield, which will impact the amount of food produced around the world, and prices will rise '' it's supply and demand economics.

''This is absolutely a major cost that farmers face '' we've got diesel prices at really high levels, fertiliser at really high levels, chemicals at really high levels and labour costs at really high levels '' all these factors are very expensive, so it's a concern.''

'Worst case scenario'

Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny also recently told radio station 6PR the road transport industry was facing a crisis which could lead to a ''worst case scenario''.

''We're going to need to support our manufacturers. We've got about three manufacturers in Australia '' we're going to have to help them find strategic sourcing of the base agent from anywhere in the world if we can get it,'' he said.

''If we can't do that you've got the worst case scenario '... we start rationing it, if you follow the logic of that,'' Mr Dumesny continued.

''Which areas of transport do you want to prioritise?''

Closure sparks panic

Australia imports the overwhelming bulk of its urea supply, with 80 per cent coming from China.

While we do create some urea locally, it's not enough to address the shortage '' and to make matters even worse, one of our biggest fertiliser producers, Incitec Pivot, is set to close one of its plants next year.

Last month, Incitec Pivot, a $6 billion fertiliser company, announced it would ''reluctantly cease manufacturing'' at its Brisbane-based Gibson Island plant at the end of December 2022, leaving 170 jobs in the lurch.

The facility converts gas into fertiliser products, and can manufacture 280,000 tonnes of urea per year, as well as hundreds of thousands of tonnes of ammonia and ammonium and thousands of tonnes of AdBlue.

The decision was made after ''exhaustive efforts were unable to secure an affordable long-term gas supply from Australian gas producers'', the company revealed in a statement.

At the time, IPL managing director and CEO Jeanne Johns said that after 50 years of continuous production and reinvestment at Gibson Island, the company was ''disappointed'' it was unable to continue.

The news sent shockwaves through the industry, with shares plummeting by 4 per cent following the announcement.

News.com.au contacted Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce for further comment, after Mr Joyce confirmed in a statement on Friday the government was ''aware'' of the issue.

''The Government is aware of the concerns around the supply and availability of AdBlue and is continuing to monitor the situation,'' the spokesman said.

''We encourage industry operators to continue operating as they normally would.''

Read related topics: China

Heiko von der Leyen - Wikipedia

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Heiko Echter von der Leyen (born 2 June 1955) is a German physician and member of the noble family von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen coat of arms

Von der Leyen is married to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Since December 2020, he is Medical Director of the US biotech company Orgenesis which is specialized in cell and gene therapies.[1]

Life Edit Born in 1955, the son of physician Ulrich von der Leyen (1918''1992) and his wife Cornelia Maria n(C)e Groth (1922''2014), he studied Medicine at the University of Hamburg before pursuing further studies at Hanover Medical School. He joined the faculty of Stanford University from 1992 to 1996.[2] He received his Habilitation doctorate at Hanover Medical School in 1998 becoming Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine and Experimental Cardiology at Hanover Medical School in 2002.[3]

Von der Leyen became the Director of Hanover Clinical Trial Center GmbH in 2005; Hanover Clinical Trial Center (HCTC) is an academic clinical research organization located at the campus of Hanover Medical School.[4]

His family are Lutheran members of the Evangelical Church of Germany. Heiko married Ursula n(C)e Albrecht in 1986 and they have seven children.

Since December 2020, he is Medical Director of the US biotech company Orgenesis which is specialized in cell and gene therapies. Orgenesis Inc. is a pioneering global biotech company committed to accelerating commercialization and transforming the delivery of cell and gene therapies (CGTs) while lowering costs. Orgenesis has a cell-based vaccine platform targeting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as other viral diseases such as Zika, West Nile Virus, Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, MERS, HCV and Cytomegalovirus infection (CMV).

See also Edit Ursula von der LeyenReferences Edit

Saule Omarova Withdraws - WSJ

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:28

The White House lost on her nomination because it is bowing to Elizabeth Warren on financial regulation.

Updated Dec. 7, 2021 9:42 pm ETSaule Omarova on Tuesday withdrew her nomination to be Treasury's lead bank regulator, and the White House is portraying her as a victim. The real fault lies with the White House advisers who thought they could push through a nominee for Comptroller of the Currency who loathes the banking system she was going to supervise.

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Saule Omarova on Tuesday withdrew her nomination to be Treasury's lead bank regulator, and the White House is portraying her as a victim. The real fault lies with the White House advisers who thought they could push through a nominee for Comptroller of the Currency who loathes the banking system she was going to supervise.

''As a strong advocate for consumers and a staunch defender of the safety and soundness of our financial system, Saule would have brought invaluable insight and perspective to our important work on behalf of the American people,'' President Biden said in a statement. ''But unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.''

Our editorials were the first to oppose her nomination, but they didn't challenge her ethics or raise personal issues. We reported what the Cornell law professor believes and what she said she wants for the financial system.

Picking up the White House theme, the New York Times reported Tuesday that, ''Some lobbyists, including the incoming chairman of a group representing community bankers and the chief executive of another group that focuses on big banks, also shared a Wall Street Journal editorial suggesting that Ms. Omarova's Soviet childhood meant that she could not be trusted.''

Childhood? Please. The issue isn't where she was from but that she hadn't disavowed her radical views about the U.S. financial system. This included her recent proposal that the Federal Reserve take over consumer bank deposits, ''effectively 'end banking,' as we know it,'' and become ''the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a modern economy.''

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The U.S. doesn't need a bank regulator who wants to end banking as we know it, or who wants to create a central bank digital currency, as she put it, to ''redesign our financial system & turn Fed's balance sheet into a true 'People's Ledger.'''

The White House mistake is that it has subcontracted its financial regulatory personnel choices and agenda to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is placing her proteges and allies throughout the government. They're at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission. The White House is also considering Richard Cordray, who once ran the consumer bureau, for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

In the case of Ms. Omarova, her views were too much even for Senate Democrats, a pack of whom said they couldn't vote for her. She will fit back in comfortably with the Cornell faculty, but she had no business being handed the power to regulate even a corner of the (still barely) free-market American banking system.

Opinion | How to Create a Black Space in a Gentrifying Neighborhood - The New York Times

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Guest Essay

Dec. 5, 2021

Erin Aubry Kaplan in her home in Inglewood, Calif. Credit... Tergo for The New York Times By Erin Aubry Kaplan

Ms. Aubry Kaplan is a journalist and author who grew up in the South Central section of Los Angeles and nearby Inglewood.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. '-- About a year ago, I decided to build a library on my front lawn. By library, I mean one of those little free-standing library boxes that dot lawns in bedroom communities around the country '-- charming, birdhouse-like structures filled with books that invite neighbors and passers-by to take a book, or donate a book, or both.

I'd spotted the phenomenon on walks through upscale, largely white neighborhoods around Los Angeles and immediately resolved to bring it home to Inglewood. Why not? A library is not so much a marker of wealth and whiteness as it is an affirmation of community and cozy, small-town camaraderie that Inglewood, a mostly Black and Latino city in southwestern Los Angeles County, has plenty of. We deserved no less.

Prepandemic, Inglewood was gentrifying, another reason I'd been inspired to do the library: I wanted to signal to my longtime neighbors that we had our own ideas about improvement, and could carry them out in our own way. There are organizations that help people build these little libraries, but I did mine independently. I envisioned it as a place for my neighbors to stay connected during the pandemic. The wooden post on which the library sat was a stake in the ground, literally.

The response to the library was slow at first '-- it was the first in the area, and some people mistook it for a birdhouse, or a mailbox. But I was pleased to soon see people stopping by to browse and take home books.

Then one morning, glancing out my front window, I saw a young white couple stopped at the library. Instantly, I was flooded with emotions '-- astonishment, and then resentment, and then astonishment at my resentment. It all converged into a silent scream in my head of, Get off my lawn!

The moment jolted me into realizing some things I'm not especially proud of. I had set out this library for all who lived here, and even for those who didn't, in theory. I would not want to restrict anyone from looking at it or taking books, based on race or anything else. But while I had seen white newcomers to the neighborhood here and there, the truth was, I hadn't set it out to appeal to white residents.

Now that they were in front of my house, curious about this new neighborhood attraction, I didn't know how to feel. By bringing this modern cultural artifact here from white neighborhoods, had I set myself up, set up the neighborhood? Was I contributing to gentrification and sending the wrong message about how I wanted the neighborhood to be?

What I resented was not this specific couple. It was their whiteness, and my feelings of helplessness at not knowing how to maintain the integrity of a Black space that I had created. I was seeing up close how fragile that space can be, how its meaning can be changed in my mind, even by people who have no conscious intention to change it. That library was on my lawn, but for that moment it became theirs. I built it and drove it into the ground because I love books and always have. But I suddenly felt that I could not own even this, something that was clearly and intimately mine.

As the couple wandered on, no books in hand, I thought about how fragile my feeling of being settled is. It didn't matter that I own my house, as many of my neighbors do. Generations of racism, Jim Crow, disinvestment and redlining have meant that we don't really control our own spaces. In that moment, I had been overwhelmed by a kind of fear, one that's connected to the historical reality of Black people being run off the land they lived on, expelled by force, high prices or some whim of white people.

One of the most famous examples of that displacement happened several miles south of Inglewood. Bruce's Beach, a Black-owned resort, once thrived along the coast of tony Manhattan Beach, until it was seized by eminent domain in 1924 by white city officials. They claimed they needed the land for a public park, but they didn't build one for more than three decades. It's clear they simply wanted the bustling holiday and leisure spot and the Black people it attracted gone. That parcel was recently returned to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce, who owned it '-- an extraordinary example of reparation, but an isolated one that still leaves the problem of Black unsettledness intact.

When my uncle, Paul Aubry, bought a house in Los Angeles in the predominantly white, working-class South Central neighborhood of the late 1940s, he wasn't just buying a house; he was putting his stake in the ground, making his claim to the American ideal of belonging.

My uncle's claim was rejected. A cross was burned on his lawn. As more Black families moved to the neighborhood, white people moved out in droves. The ground shifted under Uncle Paul's feet. That white flight forged the chiefly Black and brown South Central of popular imagination and created similar demographics in other city neighborhoods across the country, including Inglewood.

It has to be said that there's nothing inherently wrong with the Black-, Latino- and immigrant-rich neighborhoods that resulted from those flights. Community has always been our greatest asset, and its greatest source of capital. But now, as younger generations of white people move back to the neighborhoods their parents shunned, in the phenomenon I call ''white return,'' it all suddenly feels up for grabs '-- again.

Instead of the blatant racism of what happened at Bruce's Beach, we now have gentrification. It's perfectly legal, but ultimately it causes the same racial displacement, on a much larger scale. The stratospheric rise in home prices alone has meant that the Black population of Los Angeles has been declining for decades, and has dropped to around 9 percent.

The anti-gentrification strategy articulated by many of my longtime Black neighbors is this: Stay put. Don't sell. Stand your ground. While that is possible for some of us (I won't be selling because, really, where would I go?), it's not for everyone, and it's not a permanent solution. It also doesn't solve the bigger crisis of belonging.

Ultimately, the moment with the couple I saw through my window raised for me a serious moral question about how I should act. Screaming at them to get off my lawn would be adopting the values of the oppressor, as my racial-justice activist father used to say. Yet my resentment was not analogous to the white resentment of generations past (and of now, I'd argue). White resentment has always been legitimized, and reinforced, by legal and cultural dominance, a dynamic evident in everything from the rise of Trumpism to the current battle against the political boogeyman of critical race theory.

My little library, affirming as it is, is also an illusion; it can't save our neighborhood. Still, in 2021, it has become increasingly important to maintain and grow Black space, on its own terms. As I watched the white couple peruse my little library, the most complicated feeling of all was the brief, bittersweet satisfaction I took in watching them drawn to my lawn, and to my idea. It felt empowering and hopeful on the one hand, defeating on the other.

So what message do I hope they took from my library? The same message I wanted to send to the rest of my neighbors, my community: Black presence has value '-- in every sense of the word, and on its own terms.

That value should make the casual displacement of Black people untenable, even immoral. And that will take much more than a little library to rectify.

Canada to join diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics: Justin Trudeau

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:17

Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, speaks during the North American Leaders' Summit in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021.

Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Australia and Britain will join the diplomatic boycott, their prime ministers said on Wednesday, as other allies weighed similar moves to protest at China's human rights record. China denies all rights abuses.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration cited what the United States calls genocide against minority Muslims in China's Xinjiang region. China denies all rights abuses.

"Many partners around the world are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government. That's why we are announcing today that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympics," Trudeau told reporters.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Canada in a written statement accused Trudeau of making false claims.

"Based on ideological biases as well as lies and rumors, Canada and a handful of western countries have been flagrantly engaged in political maneuvering, with the attempt to disrupt the smooth progress of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Their clumsy performance can hardly find any support and is doomed to fail," the spokesperson said.

Athletes from countries taking part in the diplomatic boycott will still compete in the Games and Trudeau said the Canadian contingent would have Ottawa's full support.

Canada, which has seen relations with China deteriorate in recent years, is one of the world's leading winter sporting nations. It finished third in the medal rankings at the 2018 Games in South Korea.

"We have been very clear over the past many years of our deep concerns around human rights violations and this is a continuation of us expressing our deep concerns," Trudeau said.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said Canada needed to send a strong message to Beijing.

Earlier this week the head of the official opposition Conservatives urged the Liberal government to join the boycott, accusing Trudeau of taking too soft a line with China.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

India's military chief, 12 others killed in helicopter crash

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A file photo of General Bipin Rawat, India's chief of defence staff as he inspects a guard of honor during the Air Force Day Parade at Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Friday, Oct. 8, 2020.

T. Narayan | Bloomberg | Getty Images

India's military chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat, and 12 others were killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash in southern Tamil Nadu state, the air force said.

It said in a tweet that the helicopter "met with a tragic accident."

The dead included Rawat's wife. The air force said one officer, Group Capt. Varun Singh, survived and is being treated in a military hospital.

The air force said the Russian-made Mi-17V5 helicopter was on its way from an air force base to the army defense services college when it crashed near the town of Coonoor, a hill station in Tamil Nadu. The reason for the crash was not immediately known.

Television images from the crash site showed plumes of smoke billowing from the debris as local residents tried to put out the fire and remove bodies from the wreckage.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Rawat had contributed greatly to modernizing the country's armed forces. "His insights and perspectives on strategic matters were exceptional," Modi said.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Rawat "served the country with exceptional courage and diligence."

The air force said an inquiry has been ordered into the accident.

Rawat, 63, was the most senior official in the Indian military and the first chief of defense staff, a position created by the government in 2019. He was also an adviser to the Defense Ministry.

His primary task was to overhaul the military, which has struggled to modernize and improve coordination among the army, navy and air force.

He previously served as chief of army staff and also commanded forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir and along the frontier with China.

In 2015, Rawat oversaw Indian "surgical strikes" into neighboring Myanmar, when para-commandos entered the country to attack Naga rebels who had ambushed and killed Indian troops.

In 2017, he awarded a gallantry medal to an army officer who had tied a civilian to the front of his jeep in Kashmir, where rebels are fighting Indian rule. The incident sparked controversy within India and outside, with rights groups saying the officer used the man as a human shield against stone-throwing protesters. Rawat said the officer's actions were within the rules because the army was facing a "dirty war" in the disputed region and had to fight using "innovative" ways.

He earlier survived a helicopter crash in 2015 in the northeast state of Nagaland.

The type of military transport helicopter that crashed Wednesday, Mi-17V5, is widely used in India by the army and ministers when visiting defense locations.

In 2017, an Mi-17V5 helicopter crashed in northeast Arunachal Pradesh state, killing seven military personnel.

AHA: Bristol Myers' $13B MyoKardia heart drug gets along with beta blockers as clock ticks down to FDA decision | FierceBiotech

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Turns out Bristol Myers Squibb's targeted heart drug mavacamten gets along pretty well with traditional beta blocker therapies that are often used to control blood pressure.

This is key as BMS pads the case for an approval of the therapy picked up through the $13 billion acquisition of MyoKardia just over a year ago.

Mavacamten is being tested in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, an inherited disorder that causes the muscle walls of the heart to thicken, sometimes to the point at which they can obstruct blood flow.

BMS, and MyoKardia before, has presented plenty of data on efficacy, symptom control and other measures for mavacamten, which aims to tackle HCM at its source rather than managing symptoms.

RELATED: ACC 2021: BMS unveils more data for mavacamten, nabbed in $13B MyoKardia buyout

Now, the Big Pharma is rolling out three new presentations at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions that provide more information on long-term treatment and how the therapy interacts with other meds. The data come from the phase 3 EXPLORER-HCM and MAVA-LTE studies.

BMS' Roland Chen, M.D., senior vice president for cardiovascular development, is particularly excited about the beta blocker data from a subgroup in the EXPLORER trial, which he said showed that mavacamten benefited patients regardless of whether they were on the common treatments.

The analysis looked at key biomarkers for left ventricular outflow to make this determination, including NT-proBNP and troponin, which are proteins released by cardiac tissue when damaged and are signals of heart failure.

All patients in the subgroup saw an improvement in peak oxygen uptake; however, the study did find that the rates were greater in patients who were not taking beta blockers.

RELATED: ESC: MyoKardia's mavacamten boosts heart function in phase 3, teeing up 2021 filing

These data show ''the benefits that we're seeing overall in this study continued and persisted, regardless of that background therapy on beta blockers,'' Chen said in an interview.

Mavacamten seemed to be slightly less effective at improving exercise capacity in patients taking the beta blockers. Chen said this reduction was expected, given the standard treatments' impact on heart rate response during exercise.

''Beta blockers can block the heart rate increase, when people are exercising at max capacity,'' Chen explained. ''The importance of this study is that it showed consistently, across the range of endpoints studied '... that there was similarity and benefit whether a patient was on beta blockers or not.''

BMS also showcased some long-term data from an extension of the phase 2 MAVERICK-LTE study, which included patients with a nonobstructive form of HCM and had a 48-week data cutoff. Mavacamten was found to have a persistent effect and benefit with a longer duration of therapy.

The same NT-proBNP biomarker was measured in this study, and mavacamten-treated patients recorded improvements in left ventrical relaxation and diastolic function at the cutoff.

RELATED: Bristol Myers strikes $13B MyoKardia buyout to gain heart drug

These data complement long-term follow-up that has been seen in the obstructive population, too, Chen said.

BMS is awaiting an FDA decision in the symptomatic obstructive population, which is due Jan. 28, 2022.

Plenty of companies are chasing success in HCM behind BMS. Cytokinetics, which has struggled after losing two partnerships with Big Pharmas elsewhere in its portfolio, notched a much-needed midphase win with the experimental heart drug CK-274 in July. Lexeo Therapeutics recently added an HCM gene therapy to its pipeline through the acquisition of Stelios Therapeutics.

Elmwood Park will reimburse residents for security cameras if they share video for police investigations - Chicago Tribune

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:08

By Gary Gibula

Pioneer Press |

Dec 08, 2021 at 3:22 PM

Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND - AUGUST 28: A doorbell device with a built-in camera made by home security company Nest is seen on August 28, 2019 in Silver Spring, Maryland. These devices allow users to see video footage of who is at their front door when the bell is pressed or when motion activates the camera. Elmwood Park, Illinois, is starting a program to partially reimburse homeowners who install the security cameras and agree to let police see footage upon request. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

In a program designed to give police access to more security footage they can consult in investigating crimes, the Elmwood Park Village Board voted to help residents pay for home-based security cameras as long as they are willing to provide footage to police upon request.

The Security Camera Partnership Registration Program was announced at the village board meeting Monday.

The program will reimburse residents half the cost, up to $100, for surveillance cameras and installation on the outside of their homes. For example, a system costing $200 or more would be reimbursed with $100, and a system costing $150 would be reimbursed with $75. In exchange, the household must agree to provide video footage to police on request if it might aid a crime investigation.

The police would not have direct access to home security cameras. Homeowners would retain control of their cameras but, to be eligible for the reimbursement, would have to agree to provide video when police ask for it.

''It's an exciting program,'' Elmwood Park Village Manager Paul Volpe said. ''The more cameras we can get out there, the more it will help with safety.''

Doorbell and surveillance cameras pointed at the outside entryway of a home can log the date and time that individuals and passing vehicles are detected. They also can provide a visual deterrent to thieves who might steal delivery packages from front porches.

''I've never heard of a program like this around, anywhere,'' Village Trustee Anthony Del Santo said. ''This is a great thing for the village and I'd like to give the Chief a thumbs up. It just adds another tool for keeping our town as safe as possible.''

The program guidelines call for cameras to be aimed only at the outside of a home, and say the police department must inspect and approve the installation. The camera owner must provide proof of purchase and receipts for the equipment and labor cost.

Within 60 days, the village would issue a complying homeowner with a check for 50 percent of the bill, not to exceed $100, according to the village. The camera owner is required to return the funds if opting out of the program within two years.

Participation in the program is voluntary, and program guidelines indicate that approved applicants are not considered agents or employees of the village or the police department.

If police desire video footage, they will contact homeowners via the phone or email contact information they provide on a written form, according to program guidelines. The guidelines also indicate that any video footage used is kept confidential, except when required by a court order or certain other circumstances.

''I think this program is a really good thing,'' Elmwood Park Police Chief Frank Fagiano said. ''We're hoping to get many residents to participate, and the village will utilize social media and other means to get the word out.''

San Francisco Sees 3,000 Car Break-Ins in 1 Month; 'It's Out of Control'

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:44

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) '-- A recent video of an auto-burglary on a busy San Francisco street shows just how commonplace it is and how residents have become inured to the situation.

Tourist hot spots are popular places for car burglars. A recent smash-and-grab on Grant Avenue near Jackson Street in Chinatown took place within feet of bystanders. A driver gets into his car across the street, as the thief peers into the victim's car. Security video shows a pedestrian walking down the sidewalk and a woman trying to get inside a building, as the burglar looks around.

The thief smashes the back window, steals two bags and then goes back for more '' all while people nearby carry on.

''It's out of control. We have people that are doing this '' are breaking into cars in Nob Hill, then they go down to Fisherman's Wharf, then they come out here. Then they go to another part of the city and the police can't chase the cars, it's considered a misdemeanor,'' said Alan Byard, a San Francisco Patrol Special Police Officer.

As a patrol special officer, Byard is part of a neighborhood police force authorized in San Francisco's city charter. He patrols the Marina, where he has 172 residential clients. He added 20 just in the last month. He said the number one problem is car burglaries.

Video: Tourists Warned Not To Rent Cars In San Francisco To Epidemic Of Auto Break-Ins (CBS SF Bay Area)

Tourists Warned Not To Rent Cars In San Francisco To Epidemic Of Auto Break-Ins

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''I come out here every night and I see new piles of glass,'' said Byard.

In the month of November, city data shows there were 3,375 reports of larceny theft in San Francisco '' the overwhelming majority of those were car break-ins.

SFPD's Central District, home to tourist hot spots including Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown, sees the highest number of smash-and-grabs.

In fact, last month alone, there were 876 reports '' that's almost 30 a day '' compared with 442 last November.

It's still up from the year before, when there 734 cases pre-pandemic.

''I've always seen a lot of glass here so it's no surprise it's been going on for years. I've lived here in the 90s and my car has been broken into actually, not as of late, it was probably in the last 20 years, broken into twice,'' said Aileen McAllister, who lives in the Marina.

Officer Byard said what has increased is perhaps fear and indifference when it comes to getting involved in stopping smash-and-grabs.

Antipodes - Wikipedia

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:32

Diametrically opposite points on Earth's surface

This map shows the antipode of each point on

Earth's surface'--the points where the blue and yellow overlap are land antipodes; most land has its antipodes in the ocean. This map uses the

Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. The yellow areas are the reflections through Earth's center of land masses of the opposite

Western Hemisphere.

The same map, from the perspective of the Western Hemisphere. Here the blue areas are the reflections of the

Eastern Hemisphere.

In geography, the antipode ( or ) of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points antipodal () to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Earth's center. Antipodal points are as far away from each other as possible.[note 1]

In the Northern Hemisphere, "the Antipodes" may refer to Australia and New Zealand, and Antipodeans to their inhabitants.[2] Geographically, the antipodes of Britain and Ireland are in the Pacific Ocean, south of New Zealand. This gave rise to the name of the Antipodes Islands of New Zealand, which are close to the antipode of London. With the exception of a part of the Perth metropolitan area near Baldivis and Rockingham that is antipodal to Bermuda, the antipodes of Australia are in the North Atlantic Ocean, while parts of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco are antipodal to New Zealand.

Approximately 15% of land territory is antipodal to other land, representing approximately 4.4% of Earth's surface.[3] Another source estimates that about 3% of Earth's surface is antipodal land.[4] The largest antipodal land masses are the Malay Archipelago, antipodal to the Amazon basin and adjoining Andean ranges; east China and Mongolia, antipodal to Argentina; and Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, antipodal to East Antarctica. There is a general paucity of antipodal land because the Southern Hemisphere has comparatively less land than the Northern Hemisphere and, of that, the antipodes of Australia are in the North Atlantic Ocean, while the antipodes of southern Africa are in the Pacific Ocean.

Geography [ edit ] The antipode of any place on the Earth is the place that is diametrically opposite it, so a line drawn from the one to the other passes through the centre of Earth and forms a true diameter.[5] For example, the antipodes of New Zealand's lower North Island lie in Spain. Most of the Earth's land surfaces have ocean at their antipodes, this being a natural consequence of most of the Earth's surface being covered in water.

The antipode of any place on Earth is distant from it by 180° of longitude and as many degrees to the north of the Equator as the original is to the south (or vice versa); in other words, the latitudes are numerically equal, but one is north and the other south.[5] The maps shown here are based on this relationship; they show a Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection of the Earth, in yellow, overlaid on which is another map, in blue, shifted horizontally by 180° of longitude and inverted about the Equator with respect to latitude.

Noon at one place is midnight at the other (ignoring daylight saving time and irregularly shaped time zones) and, with the exception of the tropics, the longest day at one point corresponds to the shortest day at the other, and midwinter at one point coincides with midsummer at the other. Sunrise and sunset do not quite oppose each other at antipodes due to refraction of sunlight.

Mathematical description [ edit ] If the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of a point on the Earth's surface are (Ï, Î¸), then the coordinates of the antipodal point are (''Ï, Î¸ ± 180°). This relation holds true whether the Earth is approximated as a perfect sphere or as a reference ellipsoid.

In terms of the usual way these geographic coordinates are given, this transformation can be expressed symbolically as

x° N/S y° E/W '... x° S/N (180 '' y)° W/E,that is, for the latitude (the North/South coordinate) the magnitude of the angle remains the same but N is changed to S and vice versa, and for the longitude (the East/West coordinate) the angle is replaced by its supplementary angle while E is exchanged for W. For example, the antipode of the point in China at 37° N 119° E (a few hundred kilometres from Beijing) is the point in Argentina at 37° S 61° W (a few hundred kilometres from Buenos Aires).

Etymology [ edit ] The word antipodes comes from the Greek: á¼Î½ÏÎ¯ÏÎÎ´ÎµÏ (antpodes),[6] plural of á¼Î½ÏÎ¯ÏÎÏÏ (antipous), "with feet opposite (ours)",[7] from á¼Î½ÏÎ¯ (ant, ''opposite'') + ÏÎÏÏ (poºs, ''foot''). The Greek word is attested in Plato's dialogue Timaeus, already referring to a spherical Earth, explaining the relativity of the terms "above" and "below":

For if there were any solid body in equipoise at the centre of the universe, there would be nothing to draw it to this extreme rather than to that, for they are all perfectly similar; and if a person were to go round the world in a circle, he would often, when standing at the antipodes of his former position, speak of the same point as above and below; for, as I was saying just now, to speak of the whole which is in the form of a globe as having one part above and another below is not like a sensible man.

The term is taken up by Aristotle (De caelo 308a.20), Strabo (Geographica 1.1.13), Plutarch (On the Malice of Herodotus 37) and Diogenes Lartius (Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers book 3), and was adopted into Latin as antipodes. The Latin word changed its sense from the original "under the feet, opposite side" to "those with the feet opposite", i.e. a bahuvrihi referring to hypothetical people living on the opposite side of the Earth. Medieval illustrations imagine them in some way "inverted", with their feet growing out of their heads, pointing upward.

In this sense, Antipodes first entered English in 1398 in a translation of the 13th century De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomeus Anglicus, translated by John of Trevisa:

Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that haue theyr fete ayenst our fete.

(In Modern English: Yonder in Ethiopia are the Antipodes, men that have their feet against our feet.)

The modern English singular antipode arose in the 16th or 17th century as a back-formation from antipodes. Most dictionaries suggest a pronunciation of for this form.[9][10][11]

Historical significance [ edit ] Pomponius Mela, the first Roman geographer, asserted that the earth had two habitable zones, a North and South one, but that it would be impossible to get into contact with each other because of the unbearable heat at the Equator (De orbis situ 1.4).[note 2]

The Terrestrial Sphere of

Crates of Mallus (

c. '150 BCE), showing the region of the antipodes in the southern half of the western hemisphere

From the time of St Augustine, the Christian church was skeptical of the notion. Augustine asserted that "it is too absurd to say that some men might have set sail from this side and, traversing the immense expanse of ocean, have propagated there a race of human beings descended from that one first man."[13]

In the Early Middle Ages, Isidore of Seville's widely read encyclopedia presented the term "antipodes" as referring to antichthones (people who lived on the opposite side of the Earth), as well as to a geographical place; these people came to play a role in medieval discussions about the shape of the Earth.[14] In 748, in reply to a letter from Saint Boniface, Pope Zachary declared the belief "that beneath the earth there was another world and other men, another sun and moon" to be heretical. In his letter, Boniface had apparently maintained that Vergilius of Salzburg held such a belief.[15][16][17][18]

The antipodes being an attribute of a spherical Earth, some ancient authors used their perceived absurdity as an argument for a flat Earth.[19] However, knowledge of the spherical Earth was widespread during the Middle Ages, only occasionally disputed'--the medieval dispute surrounding the antipodes mainly concerned the question whether people could live on the opposite side of the earth: since the torrid clime was considered impassable, it would have been impossible to evangelize them. This posed the problem that Christ told the apostles to evangelize all mankind; with regard to the unreachable antipodes, this would have been impossible. Christ would either have appeared a second time, in the antipodes, or left the damned irredeemable. Such an argument was forwarded by the Spanish theologian Alonso Tostado as late as the 15th century and "St. Augustine doubts" was a response to Columbus's proposal to sail westwards to the Indies.[20]

The author of the Norwegian book Konungs Skuggsj, from around 1250, discusses the existence of antipodes. He notes that (if they exist) they will see the sun in the north in the middle of the day and that they will have seasons opposite those of the Northern Hemisphere.

The earliest surviving account by a European who had visited the Southern Hemisphere is that of Marco Polo (who, on his way home in 1292, sailed south of the Malay Peninsula). He noted that it was impossible to see the star Polaris from there.

The idea of dry land in the southern climes, the Terra Australis, was introduced by Ptolemy and appears on European maps as an imaginary continent from the 15th century. In spite of having been discovered relatively late by European explorers, Australia was inhabited very early in human history; the ancestors of the Indigenous Australians reached it at least 50,000 years ago.

True trip "around the world" [ edit ] To make the longest distance trip around the planet a traveler would have to pass through a set of antipodal points. All meridians can be crossed in one hemisphere'--indeed, by walking around one of the poles'--but such trips are shorter than a maximum circumnavigation. On the other hand, the greatest straight line distance that could in theory be covered is a trip exactly on the Equator, a distance of 40,075 kilometres (24,901 mi). The Earth's equatorial bulge makes this slightly longer than a north-south trip around the world along a set of meridian lines, which is a distance of 40,008 kilometres (24,860 mi). Any other closed great circle route starting on the equator and traveling at an angle between 0° (an equatorial route) and 90° (a polar route) would be between 40,075 and 40,008 kilometres (24,901 and 24,860 mi). In all of these cases, after half of the world has been traversed, every subsequent point will be antipodal to one already visited.

Air travel between antipodes [ edit ] Non-stop antipodal flights by commercial aircraft (scheduled) [ edit ] There are currently no commercial aircraft capable of traveling non-stop between antipodes with a standard full commercial passenger load.

The current world record holder Airbus A350-900ULR, is capable of flying 18,000 kilometres (9,700 nmi; 11,000 mi)[21] or roughly 90% of an average antipodal distance. The current world record holder for the longest scheduled passenger flight, Singapore Airlines, utilizes this model in their non-stop Singapore to New York-JFK route SQ23/24.[22]

In 2019, Qantas completed separate non-stop flights taking 19''20 hours to encompass the 16,013 km from New York and 17,016 km from London, both to Sydney, Australia with a limit of 49 passengers on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and who underwent medical tests on the flight. The London-Sydney direct routes are said to be the world's most profitable ultra-long haul flights annually. Future flights for the same pair of experiments are currently put on hold due to global travel restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.[23][24]

Non-stop antipodal flights by commercial aircraft (chartered) [ edit ] In March 2021, a Comlux 787-8, registered P4-787, flew a non-scheduled (chartered) flight from the (close to true) antipodes of Seoul Incheon to Buenos Aires non-stop with its chartered passengers. This set a new record for the longest commercial non-stop flight with paying passengers in the process having covered a total of 19,483 kilometres (10,520 nmi; 12,106 mi) in a flight time of 20 hours, 19 minutes.

Airbus' business jet variant of its Airbus A350, the ACJ350, which entered into service in 2020,[25] has a range of 20,550 km[26] allowing them to technically operate between any two available antipodes. As of September 2021,[update] there are 3 ACJ350s now in service globally. The owner of the first ACJ350, the German Government, has already taken it on a close to antipodal flight with a flight from Cologne, Germany to Canberra, Australia in November 2020.[27] The upcoming Boeing business jet variant, the BBJ 777-8, will also have an antipodal reach with its published range of 21,570 km.[28] Both aforementioned variants from Airbus and Boeing are the first aircraft designed to handle flights exceeding the Earth's average antipodal distance of 20,000 km.

Direct flights [ edit ] Among flights with fuel stop and crew-change stop but still same flight number, Air New Zealand previously had the world's longest active plane route'--the Auckland''Los Angeles''London marathon, at 19,240 km (11,960 mi) over Los Angeles (directly 18,360 km or 11,410 mi)'--until the airline cancelled this route late in 2019. The current record holder for such a flight is Air China's Beijing - Madrid - S£o Paulo flight which flies 17,584 km (10,926 mi; 9,495 nmi).

Future theoretical antipodal routes [ edit ] A hypothetically almost perfect antipodal flight would be Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport, Morocco (IATA: TNG), to Whangarei Aerodrome, New Zealand (IATA: WRE), whose designated locators are 10,800 nautical miles (20,002 km) apart,[29] almost the maximum possible distance. However, with only a length of 3,599 ft (1,097 m), Whangarei's runway is too short to accommodate any current (as of 2015[update]) commercial jet airliner, especially one with the required range. Traveling between them would currently need at least two plane changes.

Other near-antipodes major city pairs include:

Hamilton, Bermuda and Perth: 19,966 km (12,406 mi) apartTaipei and Asuncion: 19,912 km (12,373 mi) apartSantiago and Xi'an: 19,897 km (12,363 mi) apartMadrid and Wellington: 19,876 km (12,350 mi) apartTangier and Auckland: 19,859 km (12,340 mi) apartJakarta and Bogota: 19,808 km (12,308 mi) apartQuito and Kuala Lumpur: 19,700 km (12,200 mi) apartBuenos Aires and Shanghai: 19,630 km (12,200 mi) apartHanoi and La Paz: 19,210 km (11,940 mi) apartJohannesburg and Honolulu: 19,188 km (11,923 mi) apartThe ambiguous airport designation HLA could refer to either Lanseria International Airport (IATA: HLA, ICAO: FALA, 25°56'²S 027°55'²E) in South Africa or Huslia Airport (IATA: HSL, ICAO: PAHL, FAA LID: HLA, 65°42'²N 156°21'²W) in Alaska. The respective locations are nearly antipodes which is notable considering that they share the same designation. Automated systems that select the wrong airport from a database could lead to navigation errors or large outliers in data analysis.

List of antipodes [ edit ] Earth [ edit ] Some cities and towns which are near-antipodes in

equirectangular projection.

Blue labels pertain to

cyan

and

brown labels pertain to

yellow

areas. Areas where

cyan

and

yellow

overlap (coloured

green

) are land antipodes.

Around 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans, and seven-eighths of the Earth's land (when excluding Antarctica) is confined to the land hemisphere, so the majority of locations on land do not have land-based antipodes. About 15% of the earth's land has an antipodes on land.[3] Rough calculation shows that, of the 29% of the earth that is covered by land, if 15% of that has antipodes on land, then about 4% (0.15 29% = 4.35%) of the earth's surface has antipodes that are both land surfaces. Spilhaus estimates this at about 3%.[4]

The two largest human inhabited antipodal areas are located in East Asia (mainly eastern China) and South America (mainly northern Argentina and Chile). The two largest monolithic antipodal land areas are most of Chile and Argentina along with eastern and central China and Mongolia, and most of Greenland along with a part of Antarctica. The Australian mainland is the largest landmass with its antipodes entirely in ocean, although some locations of mainland Australia and Tasmania are close to being antipodes of islands (Bermuda, Azores, Puerto Rico) in the North Atlantic Ocean. The largest landmass with antipodes entirely on land is the island of Borneo, whose antipodes are in the Amazon rainforest.

Cities [ edit ] Exact or almost exact antipodes:

Christchurch (New Zealand) '' A Coru±a (Spain)Levin (New Zealand) '' vila (Spain)Hamilton (New Zealand) '' C"rdoba (Spain)Hong Kong '' La Quiaca (Argentina)Lianyungang (China) '' Junn (Argentina)Madrid (Spain) '' Weber (New Zealand)Mangawhai (New Zealand) '' Rock of Gibraltar (British overseas territory)Masterton (New Zealand) '' Segovia (Spain)Nelson (New Zealand) '' Mogadouro (Portugal)Padang (Indonesia) '' Esmeraldas (Ecuador)Palembang (Indonesia) '' Neiva (Colombia)Pekanbaru (Indonesia) '' Machachi (Ecuador)Tauranga (New Zealand) '' Ja(C)n (Spain)Ulan Ude (Russia) '' Puerto Natales (Chile)Wellington (capital of New Zealand) '' Alaejos (Valladolid, Spain)Whangarei (New Zealand) '' Tangier (Morocco)Wuhai (China) '' Valdivia (Chile)Wuhu (China) '' Rafaela (Argentina)To within 100 km (62 mi), with at least one major city (population of at least 1 million):

Auckland (New Zealand) '' Seville and Mlaga (Andalusia, Spain)Beijing (China) '' Baha Blanca (Argentina)Nanjing (China) '' Rosario (Argentina)Shanghai (China) '' Salto (Uruguay)Taipei (Taiwan) '' Asunci"n (Paraguay)Tianjin (China) '' Baha Blanca (Argentina)Xi'an (China) '' Santiago, or more precisely Rancagua or San Bernardo (Chile)Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) is partly antipodal to the province of Formosa in Argentina.

Other major cities or capitals close to being antipodes:

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) '' Tokyo (Japan); the host cities of successive Summer Olympic Games (2016 and 2020), ~1,450 km (900 mi)Beijing (China) '' Buenos Aires (Argentina); both cities have populations in the millions, and have been twinned since 1983, ~540 km (340 mi)Shanghai (China) '' Buenos Aires (Argentina); Buenos Aires is actually closer (~380 km (240 mi)) to the antipode of Shanghai (Salto, Uruguay) than to the antipode of Beijing (Baha Blanca)Tongchuan (China) '' Licant(C)n (Chile)Bogot (Colombia) '' Jakarta (Indonesia), ~200 km (120 mi)Guayaquil (Ecuador) '' Medan (Indonesia), ~220 km (140 mi)Phnom Penh (Cambodia) '' Lima (Peru), ~220 km (140 mi)Dili (Timor-Leste) '' Paramaribo (Suriname), ~310 km (190 mi)Irkutsk (Russia) '' Punta Arenas (Chile)Suva (Fiji) '' Timbuktu (Mali)Melbourne and Canberra (Australia) '' Azores, Atlantic Ocean (Portugal)Cherbourg (France) '' Antipodes Islands (New Zealand)Pago Pago (American Samoa) '' Zinder (Niger)Barranquilla (Colombia) '' Christmas Island (Australia)Doha (Qatar) '' Pitcairn Island (British overseas territory)Hu(C) and Da Nang (Vietnam) '' Arequipa (Peru)Manila (Philippines) '' Cuiab (Brazil)Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) '' Cuenca (Ecuador)San Juan (Puerto Rico) '' Karratha (Australia)Limerick (Ireland) '' Campbell Islands (New Zealand)Arrecife, Lanzarote (Canary Islands) '' Norfolk IslandSharm el Sheikh (Egypt) '' Rapa Iti (French Polynesia)Bangkok (Thailand) '' Lima (Peru)Quito (Ecuador) '' SingaporePerth (Australia) '' Hamilton (Bermuda)Montevideo (Uruguay) '' Gwangju (South Korea)Cities and geographic features [ edit ] Gibraltar is approximately antipodal to Te Arai Beach about 85 km (53 mi) north of Auckland, New Zealand. This illustrates the old yet correct saying that the sun never sets on the British Empire; the sun still does not set on the Commonwealth of Nations.

The northern part of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France, is antipodal to some thinly populated desert in Mauritania, a part of the former French West Africa. Portions of Suriname, a former Dutch colony, are antipodal to Sulawesi, an Indonesian island spelled Celebes when it was part of the Netherlands East Indies. Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, is antipodal to eastern Bolivia. As with the British Empire, the sun set neither on the French Empire, the Dutch Empire, nor the Spanish Empire at their peaks.

Santa Vit"ria do Palmar, the most southerly town of more than 10,000 people in Brazil, is antipodal to Jeju Island, the southernmost territory of South Korea.

Hawaii is antipodal to parts of Botswana. The Big Island of Hawaii is antipodal to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, with the island's largest city, Hilo, antipodal to Nxai Pan National Park.

Desolate Kerguelen Island is antipodal to an area of thinly inhabited plains on the border between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the US state of Montana. The only permanent settlement on Kerguelen Island, the research station Port-aux-Fran§ais, is antipodal to fields 10 km (6.2 mi) northeast of Senate, Saskatchewan. Other Canadian towns with antipodes on Kerguelen Island include: Consul, Nashlyn and Govenlock in the vicinity of Senate, and in Alberta Eagle Butte, Elkwater and Manyberries as well as the Red Coat Trail between Orion, Alberta and Etzikom. The northern part of Liberty County, Montana, especially the communities Goldstone, Fox Crossing and Sage Creek Colony, also have antipodes on Kerguelen Island.

St. Paul Island and Amsterdam Island are antipodal to thinly populated parts of the eastern part of the US state of Colorado. They are situated ca. 10.2 km (6.3 mi) south-south-east of Firstview and 30.5 km (19.0 mi) south-south-west of Granada, Colorado, respectively. Together with the northern part of Liberty County, Montana, they are the only three areas of the Contiguous United States with antipodes on land.

The north-eastern coast of Alaska from UtqiaÄvik (former Barrow) over Prudhoe Bay to the Canadian border, and the coasts of the Canadian territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, are antipodal to Antarctica.

The Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited Australian territory, is antipodal to an area in central Saskatchewan, including the towns of Leask and Shellbrook.

Tigres Island, the largest uninhabited island of Angola, is approximately antipodal to Johnston atoll, which is the third largest uninhabited island of the United States.

Easter Island is antipodal to an area close to Desert National Park, 35 km (22 mi) from Jaisalmer, India. The only town on Easter Island, Hanga Roa, is antipodal to the village of Serawa 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Jaisalmer. Serawa is the only village in India to be antipodal to a human settlement. Its neighbouring villages Mokla and the northern part of Bhadasar also have antipodes on Easter Island. The small, rocky, uninhabited island of Sala y G"mez, 391 km (243 mi) east-northeast of Easter Island, is antipodal to an area in the city of Ajmer, India, just east of Ana Sagar Lake. All the rest of India has its antipodes in the sea.

Kiritimati, the largest island of Kiribati and the largest coral atoll in the world, is antipodal to Salonga National Park, which is the largest national park of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the largest tropical rainforest reserve in Africa.

Serra da Estrela Natural Park, the largest natural park of Portugal, is antipodal to Kahurangi National Park, the second largest national park of New Zealand.

South Georgia Island is antipodal to the northernmost part of Sakhalin Island.

Lake Baikal is partially antipodal to the Straits of Magellan.

The Russian Antarctic research base Bellingshausen Station is antipodal to a land location in Russian Siberia.

Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia, is approximately antipodal to Bermuda.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, is almost antipodal to Nicaragua's Corn Islands.

Flores Island, the westernmost island of the Azores, is nearly antipodal to Flinders Island between Tasmania and the Australian mainland.

Point Nemo, the point in the South Pacific Ocean most distant from any other land, is precisely opposite a desolate piece of desert in western Kazakhstan.

By definition, the North Pole and the South Pole are antipodes.

Null Island, 0°N 0°E >> / >> 0°N 0°E >> / 0; 0 , at the intersection of the prime meridian and the equator, has its antipodes at 0°N 180°E >> / >> 0°N 180°E >> / 0; 180 , at the intersection of the antimeridian and the equator. This point lies northeast of Nikunau in the Gilbert Islands and southwest of Baker Island, a United States territory.

As can be seen on the purple/blue map, the Pacific Ocean is so large that it stretches halfway around the world; parts of the Pacific off the coast of Peru are antipodal to parts of the same ocean off the coast of Southeast Asia. For example, the island of Ko Chang'--which is the second or third largest island in Thailand'--is nearly antipodal to San Lorenzo Island, which is the largest island of Peru.

Countries [ edit ] The following countries are opposite more than one other country. (Antarctica is considered separately from any territorial claims.)

CountryNo. of antipodal countriesAntipodal countriesNew Zealand12Mainland: Spain, Portugal, Morocco, UK (Gibraltar)Chatham Islands: FranceKermadec Islands: AlgeriaNiue: NigerTokelau: NigeriaCook Islands: Chad, (Penrhyn) Central African Republic, (Mangaia) Libya, (Pukapuka) Cameroon, (Nassau) NigeriaFrance12Mainland: New Zealand (Chatham Islands)Southern & Antarctic Lands: Canada, United StatesFrench Guiana: IndonesiaNew Caledonia: Mauritania, Western SaharaWallis and Futuna: NigerFrench Polynesia: Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, EthiopiaBrazil9China, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Palau, Federated States of MicronesiaIndonesia8Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, France (French Guiana)Peru7Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, ChinaUnited States7Mainland: France (Southern & Antarctic Lands)Hawaii: Botswana, NamibiaAlaska: AntarcticaPalmyra Atoll & Kingman Reef: DR CongoAmerican Samoa: Niger, NigeriaUnited Kingdom7Falklands: China, RussiaGibraltar: New ZealandSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands: RussiaPitcairn: Saudi Arabia, UAEBermuda: AustraliaChina6Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, UK (Falkland Islands)Niger5Samoa, Tonga, United States (American Samoa), France (Wallis and Futuna), New Zealand (Niue)Antarctica5Greenland, Canada, United States, Russia, NorwayArgentina4China, Taiwan, Mongolia, RussiaMalaysia4Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, ColombiaChile4China, Mongolia, Russia; Easter Island: IndiaKiribati4Phoenix Islands (Orona): Nigeria; Line Islands: DR Congo, Central African Republic, SudanRussia4Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, United Kingdom (Falklands etc.)Australia3Mainland: Bermuda (UK), Portugal (Azores)Heard Island and McDonald Islands: CanadaChristmas Island: ColombiaEcuador3Malaysia, Singapore, IndonesiaPhilippines3Brazil, Bolivia, ParaguayVanuatu3Mauritania, Senegal, (Mere Lava) MaliParaguay3Taiwan, Japan, PhilippinesMali3Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon IslandsColombia3Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia (Christmas Island)Nigeria3New Zealand (Tokelau, Cook Ils), United States (American Samoa), KiribatiCanada3Antarctica, France (Kerguelen), Australia (Heard Island and McDonald Islands)Taiwan2Paraguay, ArgentinaTonga2Algeria, NigerMongolia2Chile, ArgentinaTuvalu2Ghana, (Nanumanga, Nanumea) Ivory CoastFiji2Mali; (Rotuma) Burkina FasoSolomon Islands (Temoto)2Guinea, (Tikopia) MaliUruguay2China, South KoreaBolivia2China, PhilippinesSudan2France (French Polynesia), KiribatiMauritania2France (New Caledonia), VanuatuAlgeria2Tonga, New Zealand (Kermadec)Central African Republic2Kiribati, New Zealand (Cook Ils)Saudi Arabia2France (French Polynesia), UK (Pitcairn)DR Congo2Kiribati, United States (Palmyra, Kingman Reef)Japan2(Ryukyu) Brazil, ParaguaySouth Korea2Uruguay, BrazilNorway2(Svalbard) Antarctica, (Peter I Island) RussiaPortugal2Mainland: New ZealandAzores: Australia (Melbourne)Countries matching up with just one other country are Morocco, Spain, Chad, Libya, Cameroon (with the Cook Islands of New Zealand); Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia (with French Polynesia); Senegal (Vanuatu); the UAE (Pitcairn); Ghana, Ivory Coast (Tuvalu); Burkina Faso (Rotuma in Fiji); Guinea (Solomon Islands); India (Easter Island); Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand (all with Peru); Singapore (Ecuador); Brunei, Palau, Micronesia (all with Brazil); Venezuela and Suriname (Indonesia).

Of these, the larger countries which are entirely antipodal to land are the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Fiji, Vanuatu, Brunei, and Samoa. Chile was as well prior to its expansion into the Atacama with the War of the Pacific.

[ edit ] In a number of cases on extraterrestrial bodies in the Solar System, unusual geologic features (e.g., jumbled terrain or unique volcanic constructs) are located antipodal to major impact basins. It has been hypothesized that this results from focusing of some of the seismic waves (p-waves and surface waves) produced by an impact at its antipode.[30]

Caloris Basin '' "Weird Terrain" (Mercury)[30]Mare Orientale '' Mare Marginis (The Moon)[30]Mare Imbrium '' Mare Ingenii (The Moon)[30]Hellas Planitia '' Alba Mons (Mars)[31][32][33]Isidis Planitia '' Noctis Labyrinthus (Mars)[31][32][33]Kerwan '' Ahuna Mons (Ceres)[34]In popular culture [ edit ] On the TV show Angel, the Deeper Well is a hole that goes through the world, with its entrance in the Cotswolds in England and its antipode in New Zealand.At the closing ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Olympics, antipodes were used as a tool to invite viewers to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, including an image of the video game character Mario using his pipes to travel between Tokyo and Rio, arriving at the closing ceremonies.[35]In the 2012 film Total Recall, a gravity train called "The Fall" goes through the center of the Earth to allow people to commute between Western Europe and Australia.[36][37]In 2006, Ze Frank challenged viewers of his daily webcast the show with zefrank to create an "Earth sandwich" by simultaneously placing two pieces of bread at antipodal points on the Earth's surface. The challenge was successfully completed by viewers in Spain and New Zealand.[38]See also [ edit ] AntichthonesAntipodal hotspotAntipodal pointAntipodes IslandsClimePole of inaccessibilitySpherical EarthNotes [ edit ] ^ In British English, "antipodes" can be either plural or singular.[1] ^ Almost the same assertion had been previously made in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 1, lines 45''51. See the fifth paragraph in More's translation of "The Creation".[12] References [ edit ] ^ "antipodes". Dictionary.com . Retrieved December 2, 2017 . ^ "Antipodes". Compact Oxford English Dictionary. 2008 . Retrieved February 21, 2010 . ^ a b Sawe, Benjamin Elisha (April 25, 2017). "What Is An Antipode In Geography?". World Atlas . Retrieved March 16, 2019 . ^ a b Spilhaus, Athelstan (1991). Atlas of the World with Geophysical Boundaries: Showing Oceans, Continents and Tectonic Plates in Their Entirety. American Philosophical Society. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-87169-196-5 . Retrieved March 16, 2019 . Only about three percent of the surface of the earth is anitpodal land. ^ a b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Antipodes". Encyclop...dia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 133''134. ^ á¼Î½ÏÎ¯ÏÎÎ´ÎµÏ, Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus ^ á¼Î½ÏÎ¯ÏÎÏÏ Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus ^ Plato, Timaeus 63a, translated by Benjamin Jowett, (Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1949).[1] ^ "Definition of Antipode". Dictionary.com . Retrieved 2020-04-10 . ^ "Definition of Antipode". Lexico . Retrieved 2020-04-10 . ^ "Definition of Antipode". Merriam-Webster . Retrieved 2020-04-10 . ^ More, B. (1922). "Ovid's Metamorphoses". Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co. OCLC 715284718 . Retrieved 2019-04-07 . ^ De Civitate Dei, Book XVI, Chapter 9 '-- Whether We are to Believe in the Antipodes, translated by Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D.; from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College ^ Stevens, Wesley M. (1980), "The Figure of the Earth in Isidore's "De natura rerum " ", Isis, 71 (2): 274, doi:10.1086/352464, JSTOR 230175 ^ Loughlin, James (1907), Antipodes in The Catholic Encyclopedia ^ ¥Hasse, Wolfgang; Reinhold, Meyer, eds. (1993), The Classical Tradition and the Americas, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-011572-7 ^ Moretti, Gabriella (1993), The Other World and the 'Antipodes'. The Myth of Unknown Countries between Antiquity and the Renaissance, p. 265, ISBN 9783110115727. In Hasse & Reinhold (1993, pp.241''84). CS1 maint: postscript (link) ^ MGH, Epistolae Selectae, 1, 80, pp. 178''9 Archived 2014-04-11 at the Wayback Machine; translation in M. L. W. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe, pp. 184''5.; see also Jaffe, Biblioth. rerum germ., III, 191 ^ Lactantius (311), "The Divine Institutes, Book III, Chapter XXIV", in Roberts, D.D., Rev. Alexander; Donaldson, LL.D., James (eds.), THE ANTE-NICENE FATHERS, VII, Grand Rapids, Michigan: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing (published 1979), pp. 94''95 , retrieved July 20, 2013 ^ Columbus, Ferdinand (1960) [1543]. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus. Translated by Keen, Benjamin. London: The Folio Society. p. 62. ^ "Airbus A350-900ULR comes with a 9700 NM flight range". 2017-05-13. Archived from the original on 2017-05-13 . Retrieved 2021-05-31 . ^ " " Singapore Airlines To Begin Non-Stop Services To New York's JFK International Airport " ". Singapore Airlines. ^ "Qantas completes longest non-stop New York-Sydney flight". AP NEWS. October 20, 2019. ^ Lewis, Aimee. "Qantas test flight completes record 19-hour non-stop flight from New York to Sydney". CNN. ^ Madureira, Catarina (2020-05-07). "Luftwaffe Receives First Airbus ACJ350 XWB". SamChui.com . Retrieved 2021-05-31 . ^ "ACJ350 XWB". Airbus . Retrieved 2021-05-31 . ^ Schlappig, Ben (2020-11-24). "German Air Force's A350 Flies Around The World". One Mile at a Time . Retrieved 2021-05-31 . ^ "Boeing Launches Longest-Range Business Jet Ever with BBJ 777X". investors.boeing.com . Retrieved 2021-05-31 . ^ Great Circle Mapper Access date: 2017-09-24, ^ a b c d Schultz, P. H.; Gault, D. E. (1975). "Seismic effects from major basin formations on the moon and Mercury". The Moon. 12 (2): 159''177. Bibcode:1975Moon...12..159S. doi:10.1007/BF00577875. ^ a b Peterson, J. E. (March 1978). "Antipodal Effects of Major Basin-Forming Impacts on Mars". Lunar and Planetary Science. IX: 885''886. Bibcode:1978LPI.....9..885P. ^ a b Williams, D. A.; Greeley, R. (1991). "The Formation of Antipodal-Impact Terrains on Mars" (PDF) . Lunar and Planetary Science. XXII: 1505''1506 . Retrieved 2012-07-04 . ^ a b Williams, D. A.; Greeley, R. (1994). "Assessment of antipodal-impact terrains on Mars". Icarus. 110 (2): 196''202. Bibcode:1994Icar..110..196W. doi:10.1006/icar.1994.1116. ^ Ruesch, O.; Platz, T.; Schenk, P.; McFadden, L. A.; Castillo-Rogez, J. C.; Quick, L. C.; Byrne, S.; Preusker, F.; OBrien, D. P.; Schmedemann, N.; Williams, D. A.; Li, J.- Y.; Bland, M. T.; Hiesinger, H.; Kneissl, T.; Neesemann, A.; Schaefer, M.; Pasckert, J. H.; Schmidt, B. E.; Buczkowski, D. L.; Sykes, M. V.; Nathues, A.; Roatsch, T.; Hoffmann, M.; Raymond, C. A.; Russell, C. T. (2016-09-02). "Cryovolcanism on Ceres" (PDF) . Science. 353 (6303): aaf4286. Bibcode:2016Sci...353.4286R. doi:10.1126/science.aaf4286 . PMID 27701087. ^ "Tokyo's party started the moment Rio 2016 said goodbye". International Olympic Committee. 2017-08-22 . Retrieved 2020-01-29 . Remarkably, it was all the brainchild of one of Abe's predecessors. ''The starting point of our performance was that Brazil is on the opposite side of the world from Japan, and so President Mori (Yoshiro Mori, Prime Minister of Japan 2000''2001 and now President of TOCOG) came up with the idea of showing a tunnel being bored between the famous 'Scramble' pedestrian crossing in Shibuya (Tokyo) all the way through the earth to the Olympic Stadium in Rio, and having Prime Minister Abe make an appearance,'' Takaya explained. ^ Martinez, Jason (2012-08-13). "The Science of Total Recall". Wolfram-Alpha Blog . Retrieved March 30, 2018 . ^ Rothman, Lily (August 6, 2012). "Spoiler Alert: The 8,000-Mile Hole in Total Recall". Time . Retrieved March 30, 2018 . ^ "If the earth were a sandwich". the show with zefrank. External links [ edit ] Antipodes Map Interactive map which draws an imaginary tunnel to the other side of the Earth.findLatitudeAndLongitude, interactive tool to show antipodes3D dual globe schematic 3D representation of the earth and the anti-earth on the same place.Map Tunneling Tool Tunnel to the Other Side of the EarthCalculate the other side of the worldAntipodes An online and photographic project which pairs webcam images from places on opposite sides of the globe.Map Tunneller Find out what part of the earth is directly below you using the interactive mapsAntipodal hotspots and bipolar catastrophes: Were oceanic large-body impacts the cause?Antipode Finder Tool to find the opposite side of the world by city or country.

Gableman Hearing: Zuckerberg Infiltrates Wisconsin Election In Five Key Cities - UncoverDC

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:30

Zuckerberg operatives and money infiltrated five key Wisconsin cities in the November 2020 election. The cities allegedly took about $9 million total from the Zuckerberg Foundation, according to former J ustice Michael Gableman . Now the special counsel in charge investigating the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Gableman presented his findings for the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections hearing on December 1.

The expressed focus of his investigation and discussion was to explore the extent to which the mayors and clerks of the five Wisconsin cities allowed ''Mark Zuckerberg's employees to plan and administer those cities' elections'' in 2020. The investigated cities are Green Bay, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine, and Madison.

Gableman received ''straightforward cooperation'' from only one of the five cities'--Kenosha. The other cities offered him ''little or no cooperation'' after subpoenas were served. Speaker Robin Vos of the state assembly signed off on the subpoenas. Gableman issued the subpoenas to the respective municipal clerks, the Wisconsin Election Commission, and the mayors of all five cities.

After issuing the subpoenas, Gableman told the assembly that the State's Attorney General, Josh Kaul, filed a lawsuit against Speaker Vos, Chairman Brandtjen, and Gableman himself, ''to prohibit [Gableman] from asking any questions of Meagan Wolfe who is the administrator of the Wisconsin elections Commission.''

Met repeatedly with resistance, Gableman had to hire lawyers, paid for by the taxpayers, to work through the investigation. Oral arguments are set for December 23 in Madison.

On November 29, Gableman filed two petitions for writs of attachment against two of the five mayors (Green Bay and Madison) because they ''simply failed without reason or excuse to appear for their depositions and answer questions about how and to what extent they allowed Mark Zuckerberg's employees to plan and administer their cities' election in November 2020.''

The question at hand, according to Gableman, is ''whether the millions of dollars each of these mayors received from the Zuckerbergs may have induced them to do something other than [to] treat all candidates fairly and impartially and whether those mayors used the Zuckerberg money to get out the vote for Joe Biden.''

Gableman relayed his dismay over the apparent lack of reporting by the media concerning the ignored subpoenas and conduct on the part of various government officials. Gableman lamented:

The ''incurious press has taken up the partisan cause of unlawful electioneering by shielding from accountability potential wrongdoing by government officials. (Green Bay Mayor) Eric Genrich and (Madison Mayor) Satya Rhodes-Conway have chosen to ignore the subpoenas issued by the Wisconsin assembly because they have no intention of answering uncomfortable questions about how they ran their elections and what they did with the millions of dollars of Zuckerberg money.''

Gableman says hiring teams of lawyers by government officials using taxpayer money amounts to ''legal evasion maneuvering'' of responsibility and is just one big cover-up.

He cites a book written by the former political director for Obama, David Plouffe, as one of the bases for his conclusions. Written in 2019 and called ''A Citizen's Guide to Beating Donald Trump,'' it was remarkably prescient about what seems to have occurred in the 2020 Wisconsin election. The plan laid out in the book, Gableman says, appears to have been executed with uncanny similarities in the actual election.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg later hired David Plouffe to head policy and advocacy at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Zuckerberg's philanthropic organization). The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave $350 million (in two installments) to the Center for Tech and Civic Life ( CTCL ). The CTCL allegedly played an integral role in getting the vote out in the state.

Under the guise of keeping voters ''safe'' during the coronavirus pandemic, the cities in question instead used Zuckerberg funds to run a partisan ''get out the vote'' initiative in favor of Joe Biden.

Gableman says the Zuckerberg funding:

''Changed from the stated purpose of keeping people safe from COVID, and this is not just my opinion, we look at the record to see how much money was actually spent on COVID safety measures, and we see it as it pales in comparison with the amount of the get-out-the-vote effort. Now get out the vote has historically been a partisan term of art. Get out the vote is short for get-out-the-vote for a particular candidate for office.''

''The five cities then took the remainder of the roughly $8.8 million that Mark Zuckerberg was giving away and, under CTCL's contractual provisions, were required to get out the vote. I think the citizens of this state have a right to know whether that was done on a partisan basis and/or for partisan purposes. And what, if any, partisan effect it had in those cities. These are reasonable questions in light of the road map that was set out for all to see in the David Plouff book initiative in favor of Joe Biden.''

Manipulation of the elderly has also been a focus of Gableman's investigation. Officials and volunteers allegedly ignored election laws concerning the treatment of some of the most vulnerable voters'--the elderly.

Special Deputies were missing in numerous nursing homes around the state due to guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). The absence of the Special Deputies left nursing home employees in charge of assisting the elderly to vote.

Countless nursing homes also barred poll workers from helping the elderly vote to allegedly avoid the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, some elderly voters could not vote in the 2020 election, and there is evidence that others ''voted'' despite severe cognitive impairments. All of these activities were illegal and disenfranchised elderly voters in the state.

To answer questions of budgetary transparency, Gableman listed all of the expenses and salaries associated with his team's investigation. The expenses are listed below:

Gableman Expenses/https://www.wpr.org/michael-gableman-reveals-staffers-gop-backed-election-investigationRepresentative Spreitzer, who has been a continual thorn in Gableman's side, challenged Gableman's judgment in hiring people associated with the Trump campaign who ''were actively involved in trying to change the results of the November 2020 election that you're investigating.''

Spreitzer was referring to Rob Heuer, president of the Wisconsin Voters Alliance. Spreitzer accused Gableman of being ''firmly in the lane that the outcome of the election should have been overturned.'' Gableman's reply'--''Stop! I never said anything about overturning any election. Stop making things up. Shame on you!'' Gableman defended Heuer, saying he is a good and ''honorable man.'' Spreitzer characterized Gableman as ''unhinged'' after the hearing.

This unhinged display from Mike Gableman shows what I've said all along: he is unfit to run the Speaker's sham investigation.https://t.co/SoHiVkMenZ

'-- Rep. Mark Spreitzer (@RepSpreitzer) December 1, 2021

According to reporting at cbs58.com,

''Representative Spreitzer called the subpoenas a waste of time after a federal judge ruled last year the election funds were valid. He said, 'Disgraced Trump-aligned attorneys have already wasted hours across multiple hearings proclaiming their dislike for local municipalities seeking the funds they need to administer elections.' He added, 'By issuing these subpoenas, it is now clear that Speaker Vos is using every power available to him to placate far-right extremists.'''

Gableman reiterated the difficulty of completing his investigation due to the lack of cooperation from government officials.

''My work and my employees will be judged by one thing, and that is the finished work product. And right now, what is preventing the finished work product is the fearful running and hiding of those government officials who do not want to be held accountable and who do not want to tell the public what they did with the Zuckerberg money and why they did it.''

Gableman also stated that open records requests obtained by Heuer show evidence of government officials directly communicating with the CTCL in emails. The emails, Gableman said, show evidence of CTCL operatives ''coming to these five cities with all sorts of Zuckerberg money with all sorts of strings attached.'' As Gableman said, even WEC admitted ties with CTCL outside consultants. Toward the end of the hearing, Rep. Brandtjen noted that there were ''almost 14 maybe 18 different groups that came to Wisconsin under the non-profit status that, you know, did quite a few different things.''

Gableman added, ''it's very clear that Mark Zuckerberg's goal was to defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden. He funded CTCL and the Vote-at-Home alliance and their local representative, a man from New York City named Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein.''

Gableman has the emails to prove it and a couple of them have been made public.

Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein Emails/WisconsinAccording to reporting by the Wisconsin spotlight:

''[T]he National Vote at Home Institute is one of several private, left-leaning groups, primarily funded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Spitzer-Rubenstein, with an impressive political resume working for Democratic politicians and campaigns, had significant influence over the administration of the presidential election in Green Bay and, it appears, in Milwaukee.''

Gableman berated Spreitzer for what he believed was a feigned concern for election integrity calling his interactions ''speeches disguised as questions.''

''Representative Spreitzer, the real concern here is, and I would think as someone who represents a district, your real concern would be'--was the 2020 election rigged with bipartisan efforts by government officials using public money to get out the vote for a particular candidate? That's my concern.''

Significant numbers of absentee ballots came into question in the state's 2020 election. At one point, those associated with the Trump campaign estimated there were about 221,000 illegal and/or invalid absentee ballots.

For example, 17,271 absentee ballots in the Wisconsin election came into question due to coordinated, partisan activities like ''Democracy in the Park.'' In that scheme, the event was widely advertised by the Biden campaign, and city employees were hired ''to register, instruct in the process of absentee ballots, help complete them and serve as witnesses.''

Another 28,395 indefinitely confined absentee ballots were issued to those claiming that status after March 25, 2020, and were cast in violation of the law without the required photo identification. Municipal clerks should have reviewed and expunged those voters from the rolls before the election. The margins were small, with only about 20,000 votes separating Biden and Trump in the race.

The 56-minute hearing can be viewed in full below:

No more milk or Weet-Bix: National supply chain could 'grind to a halt'

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:29

Supermarket shelves could be empty within months as a key shortage leaves trucks parked across the country and strangles supplies of even the most essential goods.

Trucking companies have warned thousands of vehicles will be taken off the road without a major government intervention, while a major supermarket chain has said it is ''monitoring the situation carefully''.

It all comes down to a shortage of AdBlue '' a crucial diesel exhaust fluid that is already in short supply and likely to run out altogether by February.

AdBlue is injected into the exhaust systems of modern diesel vehicles and is a legal requirement for trucks in Australia as it helps to reduce emissions.

But Australia faces a major shortage of urea '' a key ingredient of AdBlue '' because its main supplier China has banned the export of the product in an attempt to drive down domestic fertiliser prices.

Parked trucksAustralian Trucking Association chair David Smith said all of Australia would be affected once the road freight industry hits a ''brick wall'' in February, which is when stocks of AdBlue are expected to run out.

Mr Smith said running out of AdBlue would affect a large chunk of Australia's trucking fleet.

''[Without AdBlue], the truck would lose '... about 30 per cent of its power, which in effect makes it not driveable,'' he said.

Mr Smith said the issue could result in a shortage of goods in every industry and affect every Australian.

''There is nothing made or consumed that doesn't travel on a truck,'' he said.

''It would affect your Weet-Bix on the shelf.''

Road Freight NSW CEO Simon O'Hara said at best prices will rise and at worse products will go out of stock.

Mr O'Hara said Australian's supply chain would grind to a halt if the majority of the nation's trucks were pulled off the road.

Supermarkets 'completely dependent'CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman said major supermarket chains such as Coles, IGA and Woolworths are ''completely dependent'' on trucks.

''That's probably going to be the biggest issue for consumers,'' Mr Felsman said.

''If there is this potential problem, it could lead to a shortage of some of those key staples and food products, [like] fruit, veggies, milk and bread.''

Mr Felsman said although supermarkets probably have ''ample'' supplies over the next two months, a ''bottleneck'' supply chain issue would affect consumers' ability to find various goods and services, including petrol.

A Woolworths spokesperson said the supermarket chain and its distribution partners Linfox and Toll were ''monitoring the situation closely''.

As for retail more broadly, Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra said the ''emerging issue'' was a significant concern and supply chain ''challenges'' were likely to continue well into 2022.

''If the AdBlue shortage is realised, it could severely impact the movement of many essential goods around the country,'' Mr Zahra said.

''Businesses are currently assessing the full extent of the potential impacts and mitigation options.

''The ARA is also liaising with the federal government on potential solutions and how this situation can be avoided.''

International co-operation neededAustralia is not the only country suffering from a shortage of urea '' the issue is a global one.

Mr O'Hara said South Korea recently flew a military oil tanker to Australia to take back urea it had originally exported.

''That's how serious this is,'' he said.

The shortage has pushed up the price of urea by 400 per cent since January, exceeding the previous high recorded in 2008 after the Global Financial Crisis, according to Australian AdBlue supplier BioBlue.

Mr O'Hara said co-operation between international governments could help ensure Australians had enough access to AdBlue.

He said the trucking industry wants the federal government '' particularly Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce '' to deal with the issue before the Christmas period.

''Our concern is, we're coming up to Christmas, and a lot of public servants go home and take holidays,'' Mr O'Hara said.

''Given February's just around the corner, we would call on the federal government to '... give us a roadmap out of what appears to be a looming supply chain issue for Australia.''

Jussie Smollett's final act: How a hate crime hoax became a pitch for jury nullification | TheHill

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:28

In his testimony before a Chicago jury this week, actor Jussie Smollett talked about how he has had to carefully maintain his image as ''a black Cary Grant.'' The ''Empire'' star, however, seemed more like a modern version of Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in ''The Caine Mutiny,'' a delusional witness lashing out at every other witness as ''scoffing at me, spreading wild rumors.''

Many have marveled at the audacity of Smollett, who literally is asking jurors to discard not just every piece of material evidence, videotape and eyewitness testimony but to defy any semblance of logic in accepting his account of a racist attack by Trump supporters. That's because he is not really trying to convince anyone he didn't stage the attack with the help of Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo. He is trying to get the jury to vote for him despite his guilt. It is called jury nullification, and this may be the most raw example of the practice in decades. Even if he can get a single holdout juror, he has a hung jury.

After all, Smollett followed a similar strategy successfully in the media for months. He knew that ''facts'' are whatever people want them to be. Some of us expressed skepticism over Smollett's initial account: two Trump supporters coming upon him around 2 a.m. in Chicago on a freezing night in January 2019, and then allegedly beating him, putting a noose around his neck, pouring a chemical on him and declaring '-- perhaps for the first time in history '-- that Chicago is ''MAGA country.'' Making this even more bizarre was that the spontaneous attack occurred shortly after Smollett was the target of a racist letter threatening to lynch him '-- a letter that prosecutors believe he wrote.

None of that mattered, though, because Smollett knew his audience. Vice President Kamala Harris Kamala HarrisTop Dem vows party won't let expanded child tax credit expire at month's end Hugh Hewitt pleads with Trump to not endorse Greitens in Missouri Jussie Smollett's final act: How a hate crime hoax became a pitch for jury nullification MORE , then a U.S. senator, denounced what happened as an ''attempted modern-day lynching.'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiHouse passes bills to pressure China amid Olympic boycott House passes bill to strengthen shipping supply chain Overnight Defense & National Security '-- Biden: US troops to Ukraine 'not on the table' MORE (D-Calif.) said it was a ''homophobic attack and an affront to our humanity.'' In a fawning interview, ABC's Robin Roberts described Smollett as ''bruised but not broken'' and breathlessly concluded the segment with ''Beautiful, thank you, Jussie.''

Even when evidence mounted that this was a hoax, some media figures lashed out at Smollett's doubters. ABC's ''The Talk'' host Sara Gilbert was irate: ''I find so personally offensive that a gay Black man is targeted and then suddenly he becomes the victim of people's disbelief.''

Smollett's attack was simply one of those ''facts too good to check.'' It made more sense to assume there are roaming bands of MAGA-hatted Trump supporters attacking Black people on Chicago's streets.

In a courtroom, such willful blindness is supposed to yield to objective evidence. However, that is where jury nullification comes in. Georgetown law professor and MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler has been a long-standing advocate of Black jurors engaging in jury nullification in some cases involving Black defendants. Butler wrote in the Washington Post in 2016: ''Confronting the racial crisis in criminal justice, jury nullification gives jurors a special power to send the message that black lives matter.''

Jury nullification is not an act of willful blindness. Rather, it is an act of willful disregard of the evidence. It occurs when jurors acquit regardless of the evidence of guilt. It is not that they don't see or understand the evidence; they simply choose the individual over the evidence.

Lawyers usually cannot expressly ask jurors to disregard the evidence of a case in contradiction to the judge's instructions. But they can make the case for nullification in not-so-subtle ways. In Smollett's case, the defendant talked about his mistrust of the police and openly accused the prosecutor of misrepresenting facts to the jury. In front of the jury, he declared: ''I'm a Black man in America and I do not trust police.''

Smollett was curt on cross examination, insisting that the two Nigerian brothers (one of whom he said was once his lover), the Chicago police, the prosecutors and others all sought to frame him. Smollett even chastised prosecutor Dan Webb for reading from Smollett's Instagram messages, which included the N-word; Smollett told Webb to spell or abbreviate the word so as not to offend "every African American in this room."

There have been historical uses of jury nullification to resist government abuse, including racist prosecutions. One of the first such instances was the acquittal in 1735 of publisher John Peter Zenger, who printed seditious libels against abusive colonial governor William Cosby.

However, jury nullification can have a darker side, when jurors refuse to convict people because they agree with a crime, including possible hate crimes. That was the argument once made implicitly to some white Southern jurors in the early to mid-20th century to disregard crimes committed against African Americans, even murder.

The Smollett defense is a classic plea for nullification, which is why it seems so bizarre to most people weighing the evidence. The trial becomes a struggle over perceptions rather than proof. Even Smollett's lawyers claimed to be victims in the courtroom. Defense attorney Tamara Walker demanded a mistrial in a sidebar conversation with attorneys from both sides and Cook County Judge James Linn. Walker reportedly broke into tears after accusing the judge of lunging at her in the courtroom and making faces from the bench.

Jurors can develop a strange sense of improvised justice in nullification verdicts. In Ireland, there was a famous verdict in the case of an Englishman who accused an Irishman of stealing a pair of boots. The guilt of the defendant was glaring, but the Irish jury ruled against the Englishman '-- and added one line to the jury form: ''We do believe O'Brien should give the Englishman back his boots.''

Smollett is seeking the same conscious act of nullification from this Chicago jury. There is, however, more at stake than a pair of boots. Smollett is the very definition of a race-baiter seeking to use our racial divisions for his personal aggrandizement and advancement. If successful, he would reduce the court to the same narrative-driven reality of our politics and entertainment arenas.

In that sense, Smollett is still playing to his audience. He knows reality is not what is true but what an audience wants to be true.

In politics, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi and others proved that with their protestations over his ''attempted lynching.'' In the media, not only his story but questioning of his story were cited as evidence of a viciously racist society. Now, in his latest performance, Smollett hopes to convince jurors that he may not be innocent, but he should not be found guilty. The question is whether jurors, like some journalists, will see the same ''beauty'' in Jussie Smollett's tall tale.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

Gov. Kate Brown signed a law to allow Oregon students to graduate without proving they can write or do math. She doesn't want to talk about it. - oregonlive.com

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:20

Gov. Kate Brown, shown at a ceremonial bill signing in March of 2020, quietly signed a bill on July 14 that suspends a requirement for Oregon students to demonstrate reading, writing and math proficiency in order to receive a diploma.

For the next five years, an Oregon high school diploma will be no guarantee that the student who earned it can read, write or do math at a high school level.

Gov. Kate Brown had demurred earlier this summer regarding whether she supported the plan passed by the Oregon Legislature to drop the requirement that students demonstrate they have achieved those essential skills. But on July 14, the governor signed Senate Bill 744 into law.

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CDC recommends dramatic expansion of HIV prevention medication - ABC News

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:14

"We have a major implementation gap when it comes to PrEP."

December 8, 2021, 6:09 PM

' 5 min read

While a cure for HIV has remained elusive, in recent years there have been great strides made in the prevention and management of HIV and AIDS, the disease the virus causes if left untreated.

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to dramatically expand access to HIV prevention medication. Released on Wednesday, the CDC's newest guidelines encourage more-frequent conversations about HIV prevention medications among health care providers and patients. The guidelines also highlight new medications recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and some pending FDA approval, to further increase those options.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, is preventative medication that reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by up to 99% when taken as prescribed. When taken appropriately, it has a low risk of side effects and is highly effective.

A woman has her blood drawn for an HIV test in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 20, 2016.

But preliminary CDC data suggests that, as of 2020, only a quarter of people for whom PrEP was recommended were taking it.

"We have a major implementation gap when it comes to PrEP," said Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious disease at South Shore Health.

The cause for this gap appears to be twofold. Not all health care providers routinely discuss PrEP with their patients, and many patients may feel uncomfortable sharing details about their sexual practices.

"As providers, we don't necessarily ask the questions regarding sexual behavior. We don't screen as much as we should," Ellerin added. "And it's also possible that some patients may not be forthcoming with their sexual behaviors."

The newest CDC guidelines aim to address this gap by recommending that health care providers discuss PrEP with every patient who's sexually active.

"I think the most valuable update that could have been put in place was encouraging providers to have conversations about the benefits of PrEP, as many patients are not aware of its existence or the benefits," said Dr. Darien Sutton, a board-certified emergency physician.

An HIV negative gay man holds his Truvada pill for the photographer in Watertown, Mass., Sept. 3, 2014.

The CDC recommends PrEP for people who are at high risk of contracting HIV: those with a sexual partner who is HIV-positive, those who have had a bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) within the past 6 months, and those who do not use condoms or use condoms inconsistently. The CDC guidelines also recommend PrEP for those who inject drugs and have an HIV-positive injection partner or share injection equipment.

"I honestly have conversations about PrEP with any of my patients who are sexually active with more than one partner. I think that it really should just simply start there," Sutton added.

Truvada and Descovy are pill forms of PrEP that need to be taken daily for at least a week to be fully effective, and for those who don't want to take a daily pill another option may be on the horizon.

Cabotegravir is an injectable medication shown to be effective for HIV prevention in clinical trials and is pending FDA-approval for use as PrEP. If approved, it would only need to be injected once every two months.

"With regards to the Cabotegravir, you know, we're hoping that that gets approved, and it's definitely useful for people who don't like to take a pill a day," said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease specialist at South Shore Health.

Sara Yumeen, M.D., a dermatology resident at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit. Todd Ellerin, M.D., consults for Gilead and ViiV, manufacturers of Truvada and Cabotegravir.

Reiscertificaat nog maar negen maanden geldig, wat betekent dat? | RTL Nieuws

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:11

Vraag en antwoord 08 december 2021 12:16 Aangepast: 08 december 2021 18:06

De QR-code is straks nog slechts negen maanden geldig. Beeld (C) ANP Gisteren werd bekend dat de QR-code voor reizen binnen Europa straks nog maar negen maanden geldig is. Daarmee wordt een boosterprik voor iedereen verplicht.

Wat is er besloten?De Europese coronareispas, die eigenlijk een jaar geldig zou zijn, is vanaf 1 februari nog slechts negen maanden na de laatste prik geldig. Dat betekent dat veel mensen dan zonder booster niet meer kunnen reizen, tenzij ze zich laten testen. De Europese Commissie heeft dat voorgesteld omdat steeds meer landen strengere eisen gingen stellen, terwijl het de bedoeling was om als Europa juist (C)(C)n lijn te trekken. Daarom gaat de strengere lijn van sommige landen nu in heel Europa gelden.

En ben je na de booster dan w(C)l klaar?Er is besloten dat het certificaat geldig is 'tot negen maanden na de laatste prik'. De implicatie daarvan is dat er vanaf nu elke negen maanden geprikt moet worden, zo lang als het certificaat nodig blijft om te reizen. Maar voor het zover is, gaat daar nog wel naar gekeken worden. Wat is het effect van een derde prik op de duur van de immuniteit? Misschien blijkt die na een derde prik w(C)l zo goed als levenslang aan te houden.

Lees ook: Coronapas voor reizen in Europa verloopt 9 maanden na laatste vaccinatie

Kunnen landen nog aanvullende eisen stellen?Ja, want let op: wat gisteren besloten is, gaat alleen om het reizen. Het kan nog steeds zo zijn dat landen strengere eisen stellen om in dat land iets te kunnen doen. Dat doet Oostenrijk nu al bijvoorbeeld. Daar kom je nu nog wel met alleen een recente negatieve test het land binnen, maar vervolgens kom je geen restaurant of skilift meer in, zonder geldige vaccinatie.

Wat betekent het voor mij als ik op 1 februari nog niet ben geboosterd?Dat hangt er vanaf wanneer je je laatste prik hebt gehad. Voor iedereen die zijn laatste prik na 1 mei heeft gehad, betekent de datum van 1 februari niet zo veel. Je moet je boosterprik uiterlijk negen maanden na je laatste prik hebben, dus als je op 1 juli je tweede prik hebt gehaald, dan is je reiscertificaat tot 1 april geldig en hoef je niet voor die tijd je booster te hebben.

Bekijk ook: Hierom zijn boosterprikken nodig Kan Nederland snel genoeg boosteren? Ja, daar lijkt het wel op. Het beleid in Nederland is erop gericht om iedereen die wil in de zevende maand te kunnen boosteren. De GGD's zijn nu aan het opschalen tot een capaciteit van 750.000 prikken per week en alle vaccins zijn er. We hoeven dus niet meer te wachten op de leveringen, zoals begin dit jaar wel het geval was.

Mag ik nog wel reizen binnen Europa?Dat verandert niet. Zonder geldig certificaat mag je in principe niet naar het buitenland. Ook niet met de auto, al controleert lang niet elk land aan de grens. Maar dat mogen landen wel doen en je auto met Nederlands kenteken kan ook in Frankrijk langs de weg worden gezet om je certificaat te controleren. Heb je geen geldig certificaat, dan kun je een boete krijgen. De hoogte van de boete verschilt per land, maar kan oplopen tot duizenden euro's.

Lees ook: Nog lang niet aan de beurt, dus halen deze Nederlanders hun booster in buitenland

Altijd weten wat er speelt?Download de gratis RTL Nieuws-app en blijf op de hoogte.

Apple's market value about to top world's 5th largest economy '-- RT Business News

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:02

Apple is on the verge of becoming the world's first company to achieve a market value of $3 trillion. This would make the tech giant bigger than the German equity market or the entire UK economy.

The milestone is coming just a year after the US tech giant breached the $2 trillion mark, after reaching a market cap of $1 trillion in 2018.

The company's stock closed at $175.08 per share on Wednesday. Apple needs to reach $182.85 per share to hit the much-anticipated milestone.

Apple stock has soared nearly 30% in 2021 on top of an enormous growth of 80% last year. The company's rivals, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Tesla, have all gained between 10% and 70%.

''It's a phenomenal achievement and highlights the incredible dominance of US tech firms,'' Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, told Bloomberg.

''And there's so much still to come from Apple, which makes you wonder what milestone they'll pass next and how big they can become,'' the analyst added.

The California-based corporation briefly lost its title as the world's most valuable private company to Microsoft earlier this year. The drop followed CEO Tim Cook's comments on the pandemic-related supply chain burden and the current struggle to cope with global shortages of microchips and components to produce smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section

Canada to join diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics: Justin Trudeau

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 11:46

Published Wed, Dec 8 2021 11:14 PM EST

Canada will join its allies in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February to send China a message over its human rights record, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said."Many partners around the world are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government," Trudeau told reporters.A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Canada in a written statement accused Trudeau of making false claims.Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, speaks during the North American Leaders' Summit in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021.

Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration cited what the United States calls genocide against minority Muslims in China's Xinjiang region. China denies all rights abuses.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Canada in a written statement accused Trudeau of making false claims.

Athletes from countries taking part in the diplomatic boycott will still compete in the Games and Trudeau said the Canadian contingent would have Ottawa's full support.

"We have been very clear over the past many years of our deep concerns around human rights violations and this is a continuation of us expressing our deep concerns," Trudeau said.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said Canada needed to send a strong message to Beijing.

Earlier this week the head of the official opposition Conservatives urged the Liberal government to join the boycott, accusing Trudeau of taking too soft a line with China.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

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Apple won't have to allow iPhone apps to use third-party payments tomorrow after all | Ars Technica

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 11:44

Epic v. Apple '-- The status quo will stay in place until an appeal has been resolved. Samuel Axon - Dec 8, 2021 10:35 pm UTC

Enlarge / A

Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic

weren't at each other's throats.

Apple has won a last-minute stay on an injunction that would have required the company to begin allowing iPhone and iPad app developers to direct users to alternative payment options.

The requirement to allow in-app linking to third-party payment systems was ordered in a

September 10 ruling by the judge in the ongoing

Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit. This was one of the few wins for Epic, as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in favor of Apple on most points.

The judge gave Apple until December 9 to make the necessary changes to allow outside payment systems, so this stay comes at the last possible moment. When Judge Gonzalez Rogers rejected Apple's initial request to stay the ruling, the company appealed it to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal has led to this new development.

Apple can now maintain the status quo on this point until the appeal is settled, likely many months from now.

Here are the key parts of the filing, as shared by 9to5Mac:

Apple, Inc. ("Apple") has moved to stay, in part, the district court's September 10, 2021, permanent injunction pending appeal. Apple's motion (Dkt. Entry No. 19) is granted.

Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal raises serious questions on the merits of the district court's determination that Epic Games, Inc. failed to show Apple's conduct violated any antitrust laws but did show that the same conduct violated California's Unfair Competition Law...

Apple has also made a sufficient showing of irreparable harm... and that the remaining factors weigh in favor of staying part (i) of the injunction and maintaining the status quo pending appeal...

Therefore, we grant Apple's motion to stay part (i) of paragraph (1) of the permanent injunction. The stay will remain in effect until the mandate issues this appeal. The existing briefing schedule remains in place.

Advertisement In its appeal, Apple argued, among other things, that the December 9 date was not realistic because it would "take months to figure out the engineering, economic, business, and other issues" involved in the change.

This delay does not mean that Apple will not ultimately have to make the change; it simply means that the debate will continue. Epic Games has also appealed other aspects of Judge Gonzalez Rogers' ruling, so this legal battle may continue for a long time yet.

It also does not affect the court's prior order that Apple allow communication with users about alternative payment systems outside of apps using user contact info acquired from within the app.

BlackRock to Pull $2 Trillion in Assets From State Street - WSJ

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 11:42

State Street was sole custodian for the investing firm's U.S. exchange-traded fund business for more than a decade

BlackRock Inc. is pulling some $2 trillion of assets out of State Street Corp.'s safekeeping, a move that will reduce the investing firm's reliance on a small number of parties and lower the fees it pays for back-office work.

For more than a decade, State Street served as the sole custodian to BlackRock's U.S. exchange-traded funds'--low-cost investment vehicles that have exploded in popularity in recent years. State Street services all of the roughly $2.3 trillion across those BlackRock funds.

While...

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While custody work often involves staid tasks such as maintaining investment records and handling and valuing assets, it is crucial to the smooth functioning of Wall Street and its multitrillion-dollar ETF machine. Traders, pensions and central banks depend on ETFs to invest across stock and bond markets.

BlackRock, the world's largest ETF manager, is now shifting some of the administrative and accounting tasks State Street had performed to Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

The decision reflects both the market power BlackRock wields as the world's largest money manager and the fierce competition among the coterie of banks that vie for investment firms' servicing business. Custody banks have often fought for clients by cutting the fees they charge, a price war that has crimped profit margins. The shift to lower-cost investments has raised the fee pressure on money managers.

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State Street warned its investors earlier this year that the move was coming. The portion of BlackRock's ETF business it expected to lose accounted for about 1.5% of its 2020 fee revenue, or $140 million, the bank's executives have said. That figure includes losses from BlackRock's Irish ETF business. The money manager is weighing custody bids for those funds.

State Street will continue to play a critical role going forward as a long-term partner to BlackRock's ETF business and the firm, State Street said in a statement. ''Beyond ETFs, State Street continues to be a critical service provider to a diverse set of BlackRock funds,'' the custody bank said.

Derek Stein, BlackRock's global head of technology and operations, said the changes allow the ETF business to grow further and ''mitigate concentration risk.'' And by parceling out the U.S. ETF business to three other custodians, BlackRock will lower the fees it pays for the work they provide.

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State Street and its peers have sought to offset the pressures on their core businesses by offering new, higher-margin products to their clients' portfolio managers and traders, including data analytics.

State Street said last year it would need to bring in about $1.5 trillion in new business wins each year, all things being equal, to offset both client attrition and pressures on fees. The bank is running ahead of that goal, saying in October that it had secured more than $3 trillion in new-client assets this year through September.

After the change, State Street will service roughly 15%, or some $300 billion, of BlackRock's U.S. ETFs. Citigroup will wind up custodian for the biggest chunk, with 40%.

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BlackRock will make the changes in late 2022. The transition is expected to take 18 months.

BlackRock's relationship with State Street is multifaceted, reflecting the money manager's complex ties with Wall Street. The bank also provides custody services to BlackRock mutual funds and the manager's private-markets business. They are also competitors.

State Street's asset-management arm was a pioneer in the development of ETFs and remains a top competitor to BlackRock. The bank has been vying for a bigger slice of bond ETFs and recently reduced fees on several bond funds, undercutting BlackRock. Both firms also sell data services to other investors.

Write to Dawn Lim at dawn.lim@wsj.com and Justin Baer at justin.baer@wsj.com

UK alcohol deaths hit new high, follows record high set during first lockdown

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Archived Version

Source: Signs of the Times

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 00:00

Deaths caused by alcohol in the UK have hit the highest number ever recorded following a steep year-on-year increase during the pandemic.

There were 8,974 deaths from alcohol-specific causes in the UK in 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday.

This is an 18.6% increase on 2019, when there were 7,565 deaths caused by alcohol, the highest yearly rise since the data started being published in 2001.

Researchers indicated that changes in the consumption of alcohol during the coronavirus pandemic may have contributed to the increase in deaths, although they cautioned there are "many complex factors" and that "it may be some time before we fully understand all of these".

The figures mean

there were 14 deaths per 100,000 people in the UK from alcohol in 2020, compared to 11.8 per 100,000 in the previous year.

The ONS said that rates of alcohol-specific deaths had remained stable between 2012 and 2019. In 2001, there were 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

Separate data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities show that the number of people drinking very high amounts increased during lockdown.

According to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data, mortality rates for alcohol-specific conditions were higher for all months from May 2020 to August 2021 than in the same months in 2018 and 2019.

There was also an increase in the proportion of "increasing and higher risk" drinkers from April to June 2020.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities reported that before lockdown, 3% of people said they drank more than 50 units of alcohol a week.

But during the first national COVID-19 lockdown, this increased to 5%, and remained at that level for the second and third lockdowns.

According to the ONS data, the death rate from alcohol for males across the UK was more than double the rate for females (19.0 and 9.2 respectively) in 2020, as it has been in previous years.

All four UK nations saw a rise in deaths in 2020, though only England and Scotland recorded "significant" increases, according to the ONS.

Scotland had the highest rate of alcohol-specific deaths last year (21.5 per 100,000 people, up from 18.6), followed by Northern Ireland (19.6, up from 18.8).

In England, the North East had the highest death rate for alcohol for the seventh consecutive year, the ONS said, with 20 deaths per 100,000 in 2020.

The highest regional year-on-year increase in England was in the West Midlands, going from 12.1 to 16.1 deaths per 100,000 people, an increase of 33.1%.

Alcohol-specific deaths only include those health conditions where death is a direct consequence of alcohol misuse.

More than three-quarters of these deaths in 2020 were caused by alcoholic liver disease (77.8%).

A further 12.1% of deaths were caused by "mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of alcohol", while "external causes", such as accidental poisoning by alcohol, caused 6.2%.

BLM calls Jussie Smollett trial a 'white supremacist charade,' say they 'can never believe police' over someone who so 'courageously' stands for black freedom

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Archived Version

Source: TheBlaze

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 23:57

A Black Lives Matter leader on Tuesday blasted the trial against Jussie Smollett as a "white supremacist charade" and suggested that law enforcement in Chicago were railroading the former actor because he is black.

Dr. Melina Abdullah '-- a former California State University professor who now serves as the director of BLM Grassroots '-- declared in a statement published on the organization's website that the movement will continue to stand with Smollett regardless of the outcome of the trial since they "can never believe police" over someone "who has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom."

Smollett '-- who is black and gay '-- drew national headlines in 2019 after claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime put on by supporters of former President Donald Trump. But shortly after the supposed hate crime occurred, the ex-"Empire" actor's story began to fall apart.

Now he stands accused of staging the incident to boost his acting career, and is being tried in court on six counts of felony disorderly conduct.

During the trial, prosecutors even claimed that Smollett arranged a "dry run" of the hoax with his co-conspirators days before the attack '-- and that the practice session was caught on surveillance video.

Nevertheless, Abdullah claimed that "in an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth."

"Instead, we find ourselves, once again, being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, while continuing to face a corrupt and violent police department, which has proven time and again to have no respect for our lives," the BLM leader added.

She would go on to call policing at-large "an irredeemable institution" and to target the Chicago Police Department, in particular, "for its long and deep history of corruption, racism, and brutality."

"From the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, to the Burge tortures, to the murder of Laquan McDonald and subsequent cover-up, to the hundreds of others killed by Chicago police over the years and the thousands who survived abuse, Chicago police consistently demonstrate that they are among the worst of the worst. Police lie and Chicago police lie especially," Abdullah said.

"Black Lives Matter will continue to work towards the abolition of police and every unjust system. We will continue to love and protect one another, and wrap our arms around those who do the work to usher in Black freedom and, by extension, freedom for everyone else," she concluded.

Smollett faces up to three years in prison if convicted of the charges. But experts suggest that he would ultimately only receive probation and be required to perform community service.

On Monday, the former actor testified on the witness stand in his own defense. Closing arguments in the case are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, after which jurors will enter deliberation.

(H/T: Fox News)

Federal court blocks contractor vaccination mandate

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Archived Version

Source: FCW: The business of federal technology

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 23:19

Acquisition

By Natalie Alms, Chris RiottaDec 07, 2021 A U.S. district court issued a preliminary injunction of the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for federal contractors on Tuesday, temporarily halting the administration's ability to enforce the mandate in any state.

R. Stan Baker, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern district of Georgia, wrote that President Joe Biden likely exceeded his authority under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, commonly known as the Procurement Act.

''We've always known the authority of the president to use the act as a basis for actions is broad but not unlimited,'' Alan Chvotkin, a federal procurement lawyer and a partner at the firm of Nichols Liu, told FCW.

The mandate set a Jan. 18 deadline for contractors to be fully vaccinated, although it's already seen a slew of lawsuits from states.

Plaintiffs in the case included Georgia, Alabama, Utah and other states, and a trade organization for construction, Associated Builders and Contractors of Georgia.

National contractor trade associations have expressed concerns about potential workforce shortages arising from the mandate if workers decline to get vaccinated, but so far no major group has signed on to litigation seeking to overturn the mandate.

At a Professional Services Council conference last week, the IT management and budget committee called the mandate a ''major IT and workforce wildcard'' and predicted up to 219,000 workers might refuse vaccination even against the Biden mandate.

Baker wrote that the ''direct impact'' of the executive order mandating contractor vaccination went beyond ''the administration and management of procurement and contracting.''

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that, "the reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work and we are confident in our ability legally to make these happen across the country," and added, "the Department of Justice will vigorously defend this in court."

While the appeals process plays out, Chvotkin said, "this decision will add further disruption '' and not necessarily any greater certainty or clarity '' for federal contractors.''

The Justice Department's response to the injunction in the Kentucky case offers a preview of the kind of arguments that will likely be made in support of the government's efforts to stay the nationwide pause on enforcing the vaccination mandate.

The government's response in the Kentucky case quotes Lesley Field, acting administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, as saying that delays to the ''implementation of the COVID-19 workplace safeguards issued pursuant to the executive order would result in a significant reduction in economy and efficiency in the federal government's procurement of essential services that are required to support the American people, combat the COVID-19 crisis, and carry out national security missions at a critical time for our nation.''

The government brief also states that ''faced with a once-in-a-century pandemic that upended the American economy, threatened the health of the American workforce and disrupted the operations of federal contractors, it is hard to conceive of a procurement policy that would be more likely to create safer contractor work environments, reduce employee absenteeism and reduce contractors' cost of labor over the long term than a vaccination requirement for contractor employees.''

Chvotkin said he doesn't expect any changes to contracts in which companies have already accepted the modification, but per the court order, the mandate will not be enforced. In the short term, Chvotkin said he expects federal contracting officers to hold off on including the vaccine mandate language in new contracts while they process the implications, but long term he expects the mandate to appear in solicitations for federal contracts.

''It's easier to take it out in the future if needed than it is to put it in at the last minute,'' he said.

Adam Mazmanian contributed reporting to this story.

About the Authors

Natalie Alms is a staff writer at FCW covering the federal workforce. She is a recent graduate of Wake Forest University and has written for the Salisbury (N.C.) Post. Connect with Natalie on Twitter at @AlmsNatalie.

Chris Riotta is a staff writer at FCW covering government procurement and technology policy. Chris joined FCW after covering U.S. politics for three years at The Independent. He earned his master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he served as 2021 class president.

Workforce

White House rolls out DEIA strategy On Tuesday, the Biden administration issued agencies a roadmap to guide their efforts to develop strategic plans for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), as required under a as required under a June executive order.

Defense

Why DOD is so bad at buying software The Defense Department wants to acquire emerging technology faster and more efficiently. But will its latest attempts to streamline its processes be enough?

House passes NDAA compromise bill -- FCW

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 23:15

Defense

House passes NDAA compromise bill By Lauren C. WilliamsDec 07, 2021In a race to pass the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act before the New Year, the congressional defense committees pushed out a compromise version of the bill on Dec. 7 that authorizes $740 billion spending level for the Defense Department in fiscal 2022.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 363 to 70 on Tuesday night. The move now moves to the Senate, which, in a break with typical practice, never passed its own version of the NDAA ahead of the conference process.

The bill, which supports $778 billion for national security spending, was filed in lieu of a traditional conference report and combines the text passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in July and the House bill passed in September.

The major, must-pass policy bill has hit a number of roadblocks this year, but the final version has some key initiatives and potential changes for the way the Defense Department handles budget IT, acquisition requirements, and even calls for a joint zero trust strategy. Here are some highlighted provisions:

Eyes on finance IT. The bill includes a provision, originally in the Senate bill, that requires DOD's comptroller, chief information officer, and chief data officer to devise a plan to consolidate IT systems, including those used by the military departments and defense agencies, used to manage data and that are a part of the planning, programming, budget, and execution (PPBE) process. The plan would also include an assessment on which systems should be eliminated or retired. A separate provision calls for a commission of 14 non-federal government employees to evaluate the PPBE process which has been criticized for inhibiting DOD's ability to quickly buy technology. An initial commission report would be due Feb. 6, 2023.

The National Guard gets a boost as cyber support. One provision expands the National Guard's role as cybersecurity support, which can include things like running cyber assessments, to owners of critical infrastructure.

Duplicative IT contracts. The bill includes a provision from the House that would require a report to Congress by May 31, 2022 on DOD's efforts to ''reduce duplicative information technology contracts.''

Changes to the JROC. The undersecretary of defense for research and engineering would become the chief technical advisor to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, if adopted, to ''include more technical rigor and realism in the development and approval of requirements, so that acquisition programs are not initiated in a manner that leads to technical failures or excessive costs,'' according to the joint explanatory statement.

Changes to principal cyber advisor. The bill also includes a provision that modifies the Pentagon deputy principal cyber advisor position to be someone plucked from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy along with a request for a congressional briefing on ''alternate reporting structures'' for the principal and deputy cyber advisor roles.

Microelectronics. The bill mandates creation of a microelectronics research network originally outlined in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act. The bill also includes a separate provision that requires defense contractors to name printed circuit board sources in select systems.

Fast-tracking emerging tech acquisitions. If the bill is adopted, DOD will have to create a pilot program focused on developing and implementing ''unique acquisition mechanisms for emerging technologies in order to increase the speed of transition of emerging technologies into acquisition programs or into operational use.'' According to the bill, the pilot program would include four new projects in such areas as offensive missile capabilities, space-based assets, personnel and quality of life improvement, and energy generation and storage.

Measuring the weight of CMMC. The bill also includes a provision that mandates DOD assess the impact of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program on small businesses. The provision was originally in the House version of the bill. A separate provision requires DOD to submit its plans for the Secretary for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Framework ''in consideration of the recent internal review of the program and recent efforts by the Secretary to improve the cybersecurity of the defense industrial base,'' according to the joint explanatory statement document.

A joint zero trust strategy. If adopted, the bill also requires DOD to develop joint zero trust and data management strategies as well as model architecture for the Defense Department's Information Network (DODIN).

About the Author

Lauren C. Williams is senior editor for FCW and Defense Systems, covering defense and cybersecurity.

Prior to joining FCW, Williams was the tech reporter for ThinkProgress, where she covered everything from internet culture to national security issues. In past positions, Williams covered health care, politics and crime for various publications, including The Seattle Times.

Williams graduated with a master's in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park and a bachelor's in dietetics from the University of Delaware. She can be contacted at [email protected] , or follow her on Twitter @lalaurenista.

Click here for previous articles by Wiliams.

Workforce

Defense

Why DOD is so bad at buying software The Defense Department wants to acquire emerging technology faster and more efficiently. But will its latest attempts to streamline its processes be enough?

Amazon Internal Communication Points to Problem With AWS Network Devices

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 22:26

An Amazon Web Services outage Tuesday caused other apps to see slower services. An AWS analysis pointed to traffic congestion across network devices in the Northern Virginia area. Employees are still seeking the root cause; the issue affected all AWS operations in some capacity. As Amazon Web Services experienced one of the largest outages in company history on Tuesday, more than 600 employees joined an emergency conference call to assess the cause of the service disruption.

The main culprit: a sudden increase in traffic that caused congestion across multiple network devices in Northern Virginia, the biggest region for AWS data centers.

The company had initially pegged the "root cause" of the outage on "a problem with several network devices within the internal AWS network," according to a screenshot of an internal AWS communique from Tuesday morning obtained by Insider. "Specifically, these devices are receiving more traffic than they are able to process, which is leading to elevated latency and packet loss for the traffic traversing them."

The problems were ongoing as of Tuesday afternoon and have resulted in hours of service disruptions across the web, causing some of the world's biggest online services, including Disney+, Netflix , and even Amazon's own e-commerce store, to experience widespread glitches and slowdowns. The list of companies that saw outages Tuesday include Spotify, Zoom , and Airbnb, to name a few.

While the outage was linked to a disruption in Northern Virginia, it has disrupted all parts of AWS' global operations in some capacity. Moreover, Amazon's retail and delivery networks, which rely on AWS' tools, were in some cases thrown into a screeching halt.

The outage snarled Amazon's internal warehousing and logistics operations in the midst of the holiday shopping season. Some warehouse workers and drivers were sent home as the company's internal communications, delivery routing, and monitoring systems stalled.

The network issue "specifically impacted" Amazon's internal DNS servers. As of 2:04 p.m. Seattle time, the company did not have an estimate on when the system would be fully operational, according to a message on the public AWS status console.

A separate internal note said "firewalls are being overwhelmed by an as of yet unknown source," adding that the AWS networking teams were working on "blocking the traffic from the top talkers/offending hosts at the firewall."

Activity from Amazon's real-time digital advertising auction may be responsible for much of the traffic overwhelming the firewall, according to internal Slack messages seen by Insider.

In an email to Insider, an Amazon representative said: "There is an AWS service event in the US-East Region (Virginia) affecting Amazon Operations and other customers with resources running from this region. The AWS team is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

Even inside AWS, however, information on the outage remains sketchy. As engineers and executives worked to decode the issue on a 600-person conference call, led by AWS' vice president of infrastructure, Peter Desantis, rumors spread among staff. One AWS employee speculated that the outage was caused by an "orchestrated DNS attack," while another employee downplayed those concerns, saying it was more of an "internal thing" related to networking and firewall saturation.

"It's the fog of war," an AWS manager said.

In a message sent just before 2 p.m. PT, the company's internal communications team told employees it was "beginning to see significant recovery for AWS service availability in the US-EAST-1 Region." The division's "most senior engineers" are continuing to monitor the issue, including "identifying the specific traffic flows that were leading to congestion within these devices," the note said.

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Betalen met je lichaam. Klinkt gek, maar het is al heel gewoon - Zakelijk Dagblad

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 15:08

Betalen met een wachtwoord, pincode of random reader is al lang niet meer nodig. Tegenwoordig kan bijna iedereen betalen met biometrische kenmerken, zoals je vingerafdruk, gezicht of zelfs je stem. Veiliger, efficinter en toekomstbestendig.

Opmars mobiele betalingenMiljoenen mensen kiezen ervoor om elektronisch te betalen en contant geld laat steeds meer ruimte over voor digitale portemonnees en mobiele apps. De wereldwijde markt voor mobiele betalingen zal naar verwachting in 202 bijna $ 3,7 biljoen bereiken. In het VK wordt in 2018 80% van alle betalingen gedaan via debet-, debet- en creditcards. Betalen met kaarten en smartphones is natuurlijk makkelijk, maar brengt ook risico's met zich mee. Criminelen zijn voortdurend op zoek naar manieren om onze identiteit en geld te stelen, en wachtwoorden en pincodes zijn de zwakke schakel in digitale veiligheid.

Aanvallers zijn goed gepositioneerd om deze kwetsbaarheden in bestaande betalingssystemen te misbruiken. De schade door fraude met betaalkaarten zal naar verwachting in 2020 wereldwijd 31,67 miljard dollar bedragen, en miljoenen mensen lopen nog steeds het risico dat hun bankrekeningen worden gehackt. ''Een manier om dit te omzeilen is om de manier waarop betalingen worden gevalideerd te veranderen. Het vervalsen van vingerafdrukken, gezichten of wapenschilden is voor criminelen uiteraard moeilijker dan het stelen van pincodes en wachtwoorden.'' aldus Richard van Hooijdonk. ''Dit is de reden waarom veel bedrijven en organisaties, techgiganten, overheden, universiteiten en banken steeds vaker biometrie gebruiken om hun digitale systemen te beschermen.'', zegt de welbekende futurist.

Traditionele wachtworden relatief onveiligMiljoenen mensen gebruiken nog steeds ''123 5678'', ''wachtwoord'', ''qwerty'' en andere eenvoudige wachtwoorden om hun online accounts te beschermen. Ondertussen meldt de Zwitserse federale politie in ''The Fingerprint Sourcebook'' dat ''tot dusver miljarden mensen en computers geen twee identieke vingerafdrukken hebben kunnen vinden.''

Er zijn veel andere voorbeelden waar biometrische beveiliging veel voordelen heeft ten opzichte van wachtwoorden. Het is niet verwonderlijk dat de wereldwijde markt voor biometrie naar verwachting zal groeien van 1 ,9 miljard dollar in 2018 tot 2,9 miljard dollar in 2025. Het in Londen gevestigde adviesbureau Goode Intelligence voorspelt ook dat tegen 2023 meer dan 2,6 miljard mensen biometrie zullen gebruiken.

Toekomstige uitagingenTerwijl de beste experts ter wereld hard werken om ons te beschermen tegen fraude, hebben criminelen ook een prikkel om deze complexe beveiligingssystemen te omzeilen. Het kraken van biometrische betalingen zou echter moeilijker zijn dan het stelen van pincodes en wachtwoorden. Ze moeten eerst de vingerafdrukken van het slachtoffer kopiren. Ze moeten dan ''de vingerafdruk veranderen in een substantie, mogelijk gelatine, en deze aan hun vinger bevestigen om in een winkel te betalen'', zegt Stan Swearen, CEO van IDEX, de openbare aanbieder van Mastercard.

Een van de belangrijkste voordelen van biometrische technologie is dat hackers niet binnen kunnen komen. Beveiligingsteams hebben ook manieren gevonden om gezichtsherkenning moeilijker te maken, zoals gebruikers te verplichten een reeks willekeurige getallen te lezen om te bewijzen dat er een levend persoon voor het systeem staat. ''Dit voorkomt dat criminelen de foto's gebruiken om het systeem te bedriegen.'', zegt topspreker van Hooijdonk

Niets kan echter voorkomen dat klanten per ongeluk geld aan criminelen overhandigen. Daarom is het belangrijk om mensen bewust te maken van de gevaren van de digitale wereld. Er zijn ook andere risico's. ''Biometrische gegevens van een serviceprovider zijn net zo waardevol als een doelwit als een database met gebruikersnamen en wachtwoorden'', zegt David Emmas, marketingonderzoeker bij Kaspersky Lab.

The Flu Vanished During Covid. What Will Its Return Look Like? - The New York Times

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:48

Note: Figures reflect weekly totals of positive flu tests, from public and clinical laboratories. · Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

There have been fewer influenza cases in the United States this flu season than in any on record. About 2,000 cases have been recorded since late September, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years, the average number of cases over the same period was about 206,000.

As measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus were implemented around the country in March 2020, influenza quickly disappeared, and it still has not returned. The latest flu season, which normally would have run until next month, essentially never happened.

After fears that a ''twindemic'' could batter the country, the absence of the flu was a much needed reprieve that eased the burden on an overwhelmed health care system. But the lack of exposure to the flu could also make the population more susceptible to the virus when it returns '-- and experts say its return is certain.

''We do not know when it will come back in the United States, but we know it will come back,'' said Sonja Olsen, an epidemiologist at the C.D.C.

Experts are less certain about what will happen when the flu does return. In the coming months '-- as millions of people return to public transit, restaurants, schools and offices '-- influenza outbreaks could be more widespread than normal, they say, or could occur at unusual times of the year. But it's also possible that the virus that returns is less dangerous, having not had the opportunity to evolve while it was on hiatus.

''We don't really have a clue,'' said Richard Webby, a virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. ''We're in uncharted territory. We haven't had an influenza season this low, I think as long as we've been measuring it. So what the potential implications are is a bit unclear.''

Scientists do not yet know which public health measures were most effective in eradicating the flu this season, but if behaviors like mask-wearing and frequent hand-washing continue after the coronavirus pandemic is over, they could help to keep influenza at bay in the United States.

Much also depends on the latest flu vaccines, their effectiveness and the public's willingness to get them. The recent drop in cases, however, has made it difficult for scientists to decide which flu strains to protect against in those vaccines. It's harder to predict which strains will be circulating later, they say, when so few are circulating now.

What happened to the flu? When the reality of the coronavirus pandemic set in last year, the country was still in the throes of the normal flu season, which had peaked in February. Then schools closed, travel halted and millions began working from home, and the number of new flu cases quickly dropped to historic lows, even as the coronavirus surged.

Influenza vs. coronavirus Flu cases dropped even as the coronavirus spread. Note: Figures reflect weekly totals. · Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (flu cases); New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies (coronavirus cases)And the decline has not been because of a lack of testing. Since late September, 1.3 million specimens have been tested for influenza, more than the average of about one million in the same period in recent years.

The public's history of exposure to influenza, scientists say, may partially explain why the flu virtually disappeared while the coronavirus continued to spread after safety measures were implemented.

''For something like Covid, where you have a fully susceptible population at the start of a pandemic, it takes a lot more work to slow the spread of the infection,'' said Rachel Baker, an epidemiologist at Princeton University.

In other words '-- unlike with the coronavirus '-- the population has some natural immunity to the flu, from years of being exposed to various strains of the virus. People are susceptible to new strains of the flu each year, but less so than they are to wholly unfamiliar viruses.

The mere presence of the coronavirus may have also played a role in suppressing flu cases, said Dr. Webby, because there is often just one dominant respiratory virus in a population at a given time. ''One tends to keep the other out,'' he said.

And influenza was not the only virus that disappeared over the last year; there were also substantial drops in other respiratory illnesses, including the respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., which is the most common cause of pneumonia in infants.

What will happen when the flu returns? Influenza is a relatively common illness that has the potential to become deadly, especially among young children, seniors and adults with chronic health conditions. The C.D.C. estimates that the flu has killed 12,000 to 61,000 people a year since 2010.

If immunity to the flu declined during the pandemic because of the lack of exposure to the latest flu strains, more people than usual may be susceptible to the virus.

''Every year, anywhere between 20 to 30 percent of the population gets its immunity sort of boosted and stimulated by being exposed to the flu virus,'' Dr. Webby said. ''We are not going to have that this year.''

''Decreases in natural immunity are a concern,'' Dr. Olsen said, ''and lower immunity could lead to more infections and more severe disease.''

The result could mean larger and out-of-season outbreaks of the flu and of R.S.V., Dr. Baker said. In Florida, in fact, R.S.V. would normally be on the decline at this time of year, but it is currently having an uptick.

If offices and schools begin to reopen in greater numbers in the fall, as many expect, scientists will be watching closely.

''We are always concerned about influenza causing severe disease, particularly in persons at increased risk of complications,'' Dr. Olsen said. ''We know that school-age children are important drivers of influenza virus transmission. However, because influenza is difficult to predict, we cannot forecast the severity of next season.''

There is also a potential upside to the absence of influenza: Fewer cases usually lead to fewer mutations.

''Right now, because influenza isn't circulating as much, it's possible the virus has not had as much opportunity to evolve,'' said Dr. Baker, ''meaning our vaccines could be more effective than normal.''

Choosing the strains for the flu vaccine Creating the influenza vaccine this year has been more difficult than in the past.

Every year, scientists evaluate the strains of influenza that are circulating around the world, and meet to decide which strains to protect against in that year's vaccine. They look at the strains that are getting people sick, and use that information to predict which strains are most likely to infect people when flu season sets in.

''We met at the end of February to make those recommendations,'' said Dr. Webby, referring to the World Health Organization panel that assesses the flu vaccine. ''And it was tricky. The amount of data was orders of magnitude less than it typically is.''

Dr. Olsen, the C.D.C. epidemiologist, pointed out that the vaccine choices are based on more than just existing strains. Scientists also consider other data, including forecasts of ''the likelihood of any emerging groups of influenza viruses becoming more prevalent in coming months.''

And, she said, the uncertainty around the return of influenza makes getting vaccinated against the flu more important, not less.

There's another hard-to-predict factor that could play a significant role when the flu comes back: whether society will carry on behaviors learned in the pandemic that benefit public health. Will mask-wearing become the norm? Will employers give their employees more physical space?

The last time Americans had a chance to make those behaviors part of the culture, Dr. Baker pointed out, they did not.

''The 1918 influenza pandemic should have been something that gave us some sort of societal learning,'' said Dr. Baker, but behavior did not change. ''So what is the journey you are about to go on from the Covid-19 pandemic, along that axis?'' she added. ''Will you wear your mask, even if no one else is?''

COVID misinformation has reached young minds. A Johns Hopkins program seeks to reverse the damage. - Baltimore Sun

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:46

Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Baltimore Sun.

The eighth graders at Baltimore Design School have just one more class period separating them from a holiday weekend, the excitement palpable as the doctor attempts to get their attention.

Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos grew up not far from the school, he tells them, a son of Greek immigrants who dreamed of serving the city that took them in. ''Tostitos!'' one child called out as Galiatsatos patiently explained how to say his name.

''You can call me Dr. G,'' he says. ''It's also my DJ name, if you ever want to go to the club with me.''

This intrigues the students, some of whom believe that all scientists somehow work for the government and have an agenda, according to their health teacher, Erin Nutsugah.

But that's the beauty of ''Ask an Expert'' day in Nutsugah's classroom, the final exercise in her two-week unit about the coronavirus. With Dr. G's help, she said, the kids may shake off their unconscious biases about the health care system, get their questions answered by a knowledgeable source and see a pathway into the medical field they may otherwise have overlooked.

Nutsugah, a 10-year educator who teaches such topics as mental health, nutrition, substance abuse and reproductive health, said she felt compelled to cover COVID-19 in class this year and offer students a way to make sense of the public health crisis. There was no state or district curriculum for her to follow, she said, so she created one with support from the Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training Corps.

''It's vital we all understand what we're dealing with, because we're still dealing with it,'' Nutsugah said. ''It surprises me what they do and don't believe.''

Public health experts have long worried about the effects of misinformation and disinformation on getting the public vaccinated, saying that just a few malicious actors have convinced millions of Americans that the shots are neither safe nor effective. The conspiracy theories, lies and misconceptions about the vaccines and about the virus in general have spread so far that they have trickled down into the youngest of minds.

Enter Galiatsatos, who specializes in lung and critical care treatment at Johns Hopkins Medicine and coleads the institution's Medicine for the Greater Good initiative '-- a partnership between Hopkins, schools and communities that aims to promote health and wellness through education. Along with several of his Hopkins colleagues, he created a free curriculum and educational program to teach K-12 learners about the science behind the disease.

He helps train and deploy Hopkins students studying medicine, public health and nursing into classes to lead sessions, a way to reach even more schools.

No question is too big or small for Galiatsatos or his trainees, who say they take each one seriously and never try to shame a student for what they believe or don't understand. Galiatsatos said they're not there to argue: They're there to arm students with the science they need to become ambassadors for public health.

So far, the more than 160 student volunteers of the Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training Corps, also known as the HEAT Corps, have logged more than 2,200 sessions in some 200 classrooms, with several in Baltimore and others as far away as Guatemala, India and Sudan. Galiatsatos visits more on his own, including a recent stop at Navajo Preparatory School in New Mexico, where he helped answer parents' questions about booster shots and how to safely gather during the winter holidays.

A joint venture of Hopkins-affiliated researchers, clinicians and educators, the HEAT Corps curriculum launched in July 2020, and has been revised and compressed in the months since. It's funded with annual contributions of $200,000 from Johns Hopkins University and $100,000 from Hopkins Health System, and it received a two-year, $300,000 per year grant from the Baltimore City Health Department in July to deliver the curriculum across the city's public school system.

The idea stemmed from the number of teachers calling on Galiatsatos for help during the initial months of the pandemic as school buildings closed and students expressed worry over how long they would be stuck at home. He had existing relationships with schools from his work with Medicine for Greater Good and had previously visited classrooms to talk about topics such as lung health and air pollution. Now, could he come back and explain this new world to them?

In Nutsugah's classroom, it takes a couple minutes and a bit of charm, but Galiatsatos soon captivates the students. Through fist bumps, jokes and kid-friendly analogies, he earns their attention. By the end of class, nearly every student had spoken up.

At this point, he's an expert at teaching kids about COVID-19. Since the coronavirus arrived in early 2020, he has visited '-- virtually or in person '-- more than 200 classrooms to challenge students to think about how they can advocate for public health.

''So, you're here to convince us to get the vaccine?'' asks Priyasha Morris, who sits near the front of Nutsugah's classroom.

No, Galiatsatos says. But that doesn't mean they're off the hook.

Kayden Curtis asks Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos a question about COVID-19 as the Johns Hopkins pulmonary specialist and public health doctor visits students in an 8th grade Health & Wellness class at the Baltimore Design School. A Johns Hopkins program is providing a COVID curriculum/expert to classrooms around the world. October 29, 2021. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun)

''I was invited by your teacher to help you do something no other generation has done before,'' he said, daring them to think of themselves as characters in a Marvel movie. ''What role can you play, right now, to end the pandemic?''

''Wow,'' a student responds.

Annette Anderson, assistant professor at Hopkins' school of education, helped design the COVID curriculum.

''We are fond of saying, we built the plane while we were flying it,'' she said. ''We were parsing it out to make it appropriate, but also being responsive because we were all trying to figure it out at the same time.''

Anderson said keeping up with the pandemic's latest twists and turns poses a challenge for the HEAT Corps, which updated the curriculum at the beginning of the school year with more information about variants, for instance. The curriculum designers engage in lively debates about what to include and what to omit, what qualifies as too graphic and what's age-appropriate for children, she said.

The curriculum shouldn't be considered a ''catchall,'' Anderson said. For example, it briefly touches on the theory that the coronavirus likely developed out of animal-to-human contact, known as ''zoonotic'' spread, one of the curriculum's vocabulary words.

Though the virus' zoonotic spread theory has not been proven definitively '-- even some federal officials in the U.S. contend the virus could have been developed and accidentally released from a lab in Wuhan, China '-- Anderson said the designers consulted their experts and stuck to what they considered the most plausible and scientifically sound scenario.

''We've had to be very careful with how our product aligns, or hews, with certain ideologies,'' she said. ''We've been intentionally clear about what our program does and doesn't do.''

Galiatsatos also instructs HEAT Corps volunteers to be honest about their own knowledge gaps. That helps lessen some of the pressure associated with teaching such a contentious topic, said Ndeye Silla, a graduate student working toward her master's degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who led a virtual session for third to fifth grade students in October at St. Jerome Regional School in northeastern Pennsylvania.

It can be difficult to engage students remotely, said Silla, especially about a virus that continues to evolve.

''It's important to be honest and explain it as best we can,'' she said. ''I say, 'Even though I'm telling you this information, it could change. I know it's hard to understand. Even for adults, it's complicated.'''

Silla and co-leader Britney Murray's session at the Catholic school covered the basics: what COVID-19 is and how it got its name, how it spreads and what can be done to blunt its impact. They used visual aids to demonstrate what a ''superspreader'' event looks like, reviewed vocabulary words such as ''contact tracing,'' ''herd immunity,'' and ''self care,'' and explained the differences between the three vaccines available in the U.S.

When Silla and Murray opened the floor to questions, kids took turns raising their hands and sharing the problems they had been gaming out in their heads. The questions ranged from the practical (''If you get the vaccine, can you still get the virus?'') to the hypothetical (''What would happen if you can't tell you're sick, but you go get the vaccine?'')

Even for such young kids, some of their concerns mirrored those of adults.

''What if you have the virus, and then you touch your friend?'' one girl asked.

''What happens if you spread the virus, and you don't know if you spread it?'' another boy questioned.

Murray encouraged the students to apply the information they had learned about social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing, which she and Silla emphasized repeatedly.

''It seems like we're saying a lot of the same things, but these things are really powerful,'' she told the class.

Priyasha Morris listens as Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a Johns Hopkins pulmonary specialist and public health doctor, responds to her question about COVID-19 on Oct. 29, 2021, at the Baltimore Design School. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun)

With some of the older kids, the questions sometimes veered into more challenging territory.

During a session with sixth, seventh and eighth graders at St. Jerome Regional, one student asked why people had to wear masks after ''20 years of research'' showing that they don't stop the transmission of viruses.

''Viruses are smaller than spit and germs,'' the student said. ''It's like throwing sand through a chain-link fence.''

The co-leaders of that session, Chanel Lee and Bharath Biyyala, said that research shows masks do reduce virus transmission, especially if everyone in a close-contact situation wears them and they're fitted properly to people's faces.

''When you wear face masks, it minimizes viral load,'' Lee said. ''They actually do protect you and other people from getting the virus.''

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Added Biyyala: ''We're confident about the effectiveness of masks.''

For some questions, the volunteers acknowledged that there were no easy answers. One student asked why she never contracted COVID-19, even though her parents did; another wanted to know how much longer they'd have to wear masks.

At Baltimore Design School, students asked if the vaccines contained tracking devices, if they could rewrite a person's genetic material and if they could cause cerebral palsy.

No, no and no, Galiatsatos responded, cautioning the kids to be skeptical and trust science's limitations.

''As long as there are human beings, there will be other humans that will want to pump out misinformation and keep others from doing the right thing,'' he said. ''You always got to be careful what you read.''

But among children of all age groups, no matter what school they attended, where they lived, or how they thought about COVID-19 and the vaccines, there was one question that united them, coming up again and again: They want to know when the pandemic will be over.

From left, Derrel Davis, next to Sincere Clary who fist bumps Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a Johns Hopkins pulmonary specialist and public health doctor, who takes questions about COVID-19 from students in an eighth grade health and wellness class at the Baltimore Design School. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun)

Melbourne Woman Sets Herself On Fire Inside Car With Sign: ''NO ONE CARES, MANDATES ARE KILLING US''

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:15

A woman in Cherry Street, Werribee '' a suburb in Victoria Australia '' has set herself on fire due to the draconian mandates that is forcing Victorians to get a Covid jab or be locked out of Dictator Dan Andrews' ''vaccinated economy.''

The unknown woman parked her car and blocked off a road in Cherry street and had four cans of petrol which she poured on herself

The woman placed a sign on her car saying ''NO ONE CARES, MANDATES ARE KILLING US''. Police attended to find she had 4 cans of petrol in the car. Officers tried to talk with her but she ultimately ended up setting herself on fire after telling police she had nothing left.

It's unclear what condition the woman is in at this stage as this is a developing story and the media seem to be completely ignoring this. So if you can please share this around as much as possible.

A video posted by Wyndham TV on a Facebook live stream shows the aftermath of the incident.

Witnesses at the scene confirmed the woman set herself on fire. in the comments under the video, there are a lot more people who were there at the time as well.

Here is the video:

As you can see a fireman is removing the sign that the woman place on the car that says ''NO ONE CARES, MANDATES ARE KILLING US.''

This tragic situation comes on the heels of a scathing report that Premier Dan Andrews was warned endless lockdowns were responsible for 'one in 10' of all suicides.

Mental health issues and suicides have been on the rise since endless lockdowns and mandates.

What you learn after 350 hours of Joe Rogan - The Verge

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:12

Here I am. Back again in your inbox on a Tuesday, in the final weeks before Christmas, New Year's, and, for you business folks, the end of the quarter. For today's Hot Pod, I interviewed the Media Matters researcher who listened to over 350 hours of The Joe Rogan Experience this year and reported back on what we're all missing. He says the show, for those of us who aren't spending our time there, is currently best described as a ''cesspool of toxic masculinity that discusses elk hunting, mixed martial arts, anti-trans views, and harmful health information about the coronavirus pandemic.''

We'll also discuss separate '-- but, in some cases, related '-- Spotify situations and more ''greenwashing'' in podcast ads. More, more, more, just in time for the season of giving. Let's get to it.

EXCLUSIVE: Meet the reporter dedicated to cataloging Joe Rogan's bonkers claims

As you all well know, Joe Rogan is the most popular podcaster in the US and, likely, the world. He made his name interviewing major guests and for his off-the-cuff, at times controversial, takes on the world. Spotify reportedly paid him $100 million to bring his show to the platform exclusively, which resulted in it distributing a popular but contentious program. The platform keeps getting flack over what its star podcaster says, mostly because it's spending so much money to keep him there and specifically courted this.

Many of us who know this context might be curious to hear what Rogan is really up to on his podcast, only to then see his episodes can span hours and post multiple times per week. So enter Alex Paterson, a researcher at Media Matters whose beat as of the past year or so has included listening to Rogan and reporting back on everything he's hearing. That work culminated in a story last week called: Joe Rogan Wrapped: A year of COVID-19 misinformation, right-wing myths, and anti-trans rhetoric.

I caught up with Paterson the day after the story ran and chatted with him to get a better sense of what he's seeing. He tells me he listens to the episodes as soon as they come out, on 2X speed, to catch everything Rogan says. How are all those hours of Rogan listening going? Does Spotify seem to have taken any action?

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Hi, Alex. Thanks for taking the time to chat. My first, obvious question: why are you so interested in Joe Rogan specifically?

Alex Paterson, researcher at Media Matters: I started regularly monitoring Joe Rogan's podcast beginning last year in 2020 when he had Abigail Shrier on to push anti-trans rhetoric. She's an anti-trans journalist who used to work at The Wall Street Journal, and during that podcast, they compared being trans to joining a cult or cutting yourself through self-harm. After that, knowing that Joe Rogan's podcast is one of the most popular '-- if not the most popular '-- podcasts in the world, I wanted to track the rhetoric he's pushing on his show to help document how harmful it is to our society at large. Particularly in this new year, and as the pandemic has begun, Rogan has taken a clear lurch to the right and become a serial misinformer when it comes to COVID-19 misinformation, and we've been trying to document and limit the harms that he's trying to push into the world.

You said you've been tracking him since 2020. How have you seen Rogan's rhetoric change in that time?

I believe he's become more emboldened to push baseless conspiracy theories and right-wing lies over the past year. Since I started reporting on Rogan's podcast, he's broken into mainstream coverage fairly often: first, with his lie about left-wing people starting wildfires in Oregon, and then again really prominently, [saying] he would encourage healthy, young people not to get vaccinated. And throughout all of that reporting, at least from my view, he hasn't faced any real punishment from Spotify. And I think that's emboldened him to continue pushing hate and lies on his podcast. Just from listening to him every day, he's by no means remitting conspiracy theories and false rhetoric on his show. If anything, he's leaning into it more. He's celebrated in conservative spaces for it. He's a darling of the conservative right in the United States.

I know you and Media Matters more broadly cover the wider world of the right, so places like Fox and OAN. Do you see any parallels between that world and Rogan's?

Yeah, I completely see it as related. Rogan is someone who celebrates himself as being a so-called independent thinker who has both conservative and progressive values, and I think that perfectly illustrates our general media landscape's bend towards right-wing views and over accommodating ring-wing views and not challenging right-wing misinformation. So I think he plays a pretty central role in that landscape, and he's also deeply connected to the network of conservative media. He hosts Ben Shapiro. He hosts Alex Jones. He's a huge supporter of Tucker Carlson, who we know is Fox News' hate-mongerer-in-chief. I think he plays a central role in the right-wing misinformation system.

Much of us in the podcast world are interested in how Spotify treats Rogan. Have you gotten any sense that it's taking action to moderate his content?

Rogan has stated numerous times that Spotify has never spoken to him about the hate that he pushes on his podcast or taken any steps to try to curt him from doing so. You're hearing it from his mouth, and then when we look at Spotify's year-end summary for their Wrapped, he's the star of their podcasting, which is an empire Spotify is very clearly trying to grow. On YouTube, which I would say has stronger enforcement around COVID misinformation, though it's far from great, his show would often be demonetized and occasionally removed. I think he views Spotify as a place where he could spread his specific kind of bigotry and vile without any real consequences.

Have you seen any specific moments where you think YouTube would have moderated his content, but Spotify doesn't?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. We do a lot of work at Media Matters around tech accountability and terms of service, and generally, I would say social media companies are failing to regulate right-wing extremism on the internet. And Spotify has some of the least, almost non-existent, terms of service to protect users and the general public from hatred and targeted violence. Joe Rogan has misgendered and denigrated trans youth on his podcast and never faced any consequences. We have seen YouTube take some steps to remove content that's similar to that, and YouTube has a policy against promoting COVID-19 misinformation. That's become the central core of Rogan's podcast, and Spotify, including CEO Daniel Ek, has refused to take any action against Joe Rogan.

You don't rely on transcripts to monitor the show, and I'm looking slightly ahead, but I do wonder how much that speaks to the broader issues platforms might have moderating shows. Transcripts don't catch everything, especially with speech nuances. So I wonder if you or the team have proposed solutions to help platforms solve these issues?

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Spotify and Joe Rogan and moderation, like how we could moderate extremism online, is that Spotify isn't even at that table. That would appear to be something they aren't even considering with Joe Rogan. So to imagine a world in which Spotify might monitor his transcript is so far from reality that we're just asking them to, at a very baseline, stop their most prominent podcast host from increasing vaccine hesitancy and harming our nation's public response to the pandemic overall. Joe Rogan has shown really clearly that he will use his podcast to spread conspiracy theories, right-wing lies, [and] racist rhetoric in order to sort of promote himself. And yes, Spotify, their CEO, and their comms team has gone on the record time and time again saying that he hasn't violated their terms. At this point, it's like, what would it take?

Well, I appreciate you doing this work and taking the time. Is there anything else you think people should know about Rogan that they might not be considering?

One thing we've done at Media Matters is try to document how social media algorithms and far-right online communities can radicalize everyday people fairly easily. I think Rogan is a good example of that. Let's say you're a young man listening to The Joe Rogan Experience, and you want to get tips on bodybuilding or how to eat healthfully, and then Rogan starts discussing that vaccines are a form of gene therapy with Ben Shapiro, and then perhaps you go to Ben Shapiro's website, The Daily Wire, and there, you fall into a cesspool of hatred and bigotry, and once you click on a Daily Wire article, if you share it on Facebook, you're just going to be led further and further down the far-right rabbit hole. That can take someone from being an everyday person [to] suddenly being fed news and misinformation about QAnon and other right-wing lies. I think it's important to keep in mind that Joe Rogan spreading this misinformation has real-world consequences that can have really dire effects for marginalized people.

Sign up for the newsletter Hot Pod Every Tuesday receive analysis, insights, and commentary on the growing audio industry.

For what it's worth, I reported on Rogan telling young adults not to get vaccinated and pointed out that Spotify had specifically removed music and podcasts that claimed vaccines not only kill people but also have microchips in them. (Both of which are not true.) At the time, Spotify said it ''prohibits content on the platform which promotes dangerous false, deceptive, or misleading content about COVID-19 that may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health.'' I'd encourage you to check out Paterson's story for a better sense of what Rogan is saying and decide for yourself whether it falls within those bounds.

And if you're wondering how influential Rogan really is, take a peek at this story, which discusses ''Dr. Joe Rogan's'' influence on various people's COVID treatment plans, namely UFC president Dana White and his family.

I reached out to Spotify to see if the team wanted to comment on the above interview. A spokesperson, who asked to remain anonymous because of the ''sensitivity of the subject matter,'' sent the same comment as above back but with this tacked onto the end: ''When content is flagged for possible violations of our policies, it is thoroughly reviewed by our in-house team and outside experts, if necessary. If that content is found to be in violation of our policies, the appropriate enforcement action is taken.''

Meanwhile, in separate Spotify moderation news'...

Racist, antisemitic, hateful podcasts live on Spotify and Google Podcasts

Sky News published an investigation on Friday into extremist podcasts and found ''several days' worth'' of content promoting ''extreme views such as scientific racism, Holocaust denial and far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories.'' Reporter Victoria Elms says explicit slurs can be heard, as well as direct calls to violence against Jewish people. She also notes that these podcasters are using the episode description box to promote hateful videos hosted on other platforms, including one about ''Dylann Roof's insightful manifesto.'' Spotify removed the content after Sky News' reachout, but they remain live on Google Podcasts. Pertinent to us is Elms' note about the black box that is these platforms' moderation efforts. I wrote about this in February '-- particularly how difficult it will be to catch and take down infringing content '-- and continue to think about how dire this might become when every platform includes an audio component, the feature du jour.

I hate to keep hammering y'all with bad Spotify things, but we're going to keep going. It's the winter energy, I guess.

Spotify takes down comedians' albums over royalty dispute

This is tangential for us but interesting, as it relates to spoken word content. Spotify has removed ''hundreds of comedians''' work from its platform over a new royalties fight. Summed up as simply as I can: comedians are compensated as performers through their label or distributor, but they want to now also receive writing credits, or what global rights administration company Spoken Giants calls their literary rights. (This parallels the royalties in the music industry '-- a songwriting credit pays different royalties, which can be more lucrative. I recommend listening to or reading my boss's podcast, Decoder, with Charlie Harding of Switched on Pop for more on how this works in music land.)

Spoken Giants is leading the charge here, trying to negotiate for these comics to receive the writing credits and subsequent royalty payouts, but the comics are in the lurch right now, unable to have their content streamed at all on one of the world's biggest platforms. The Wall Street Journal notes that Spoken Giants ''started by representing writers of comedy bits and jokes, with plans to expand across podcasts, speeches and lectures.'' The podcast writing credit royalty system, could it happen?

Now, let's close the loop on the ExxonMobil Daily ad, for now at least...

Podcast ads make up oil companies' ''greenwashing'' strategy

A few weeks ago, I covered the debacle over an ExxonMobil ad that appeared on The Daily. The ad, climate change reporter Emily Atkin wrote, was misleading and not wholly indicative of what Exxon is actually doing.

Yesterday, Drilled podcast host and journalist Amy Westervelt published a bigger piece on the growing trend of oil companies' ads showing up in podcasts. She writes that podcast publishers have to ''develop their own guidelines and fact-checking processes'' around the climate-friendly claims they make because the Federal Trade Commission mostly only cares about claims around products, which the oil companies don't advertise. The piece culminates in the concluding thought, ''What's in place now for identifying misinformation in ads is not really a framework for identifying greenwashing,'' says John Cook, research fellow at the Climate Change Communication Research Hub. So even if the Times and others implement fact-checking for ads, which they say they already do, squishy language from oil companies could pass that test and seemingly already has.

Broadly, all of today's stories add up to a bigger conversation around the new world that podcasting inhabits. The industry's receiving more attention than ever before from outlets like Hot Pod and The Verge but also bigger publications who spot strange and bad things happening. The industry's growing and now faces the same problems massive social platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, contend with regularly. Cook, from Westervelt's story, advises Facebook on climate disinformation, just so you can get a sense of how much expertise is needed at the platforms. The expectations are higher for podcasts, and this tension between stepping up and meeting them versus punting until podcasting has more resources will only continue moving forward.

I love a lil year-end tease. If you want more audio and podcasting industry analysis, you can subscribe for two additional issues here. Otherwise, I'll catch you next week.

Reports: Smollett Testifies CNN's Lemon Warned Him Police Were Suspicious Over Alleged FAKE Racist Attack '' Summit News

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:03

Days after CNN fired Chris Cuomo for abusing his position to help feed information to his sex pest accused brother, it appears that another host, Don Lemon, could become the centre of another journalistic ethics scandal.

Reports indicate that Lemon was pinpointed by Empire star Jussie Smollett who claimed in court that he received texts from the CNN host warning him that police believed Smollett had faked his own attack in February 2019.

Smollett was indicted by a grand jury for staging a racist violent attack on himself and blaming it on Trump supporters.

Witnesses inside the courtroom revealed the details of the testimony:

Smollett testified during investigation he got a text from Don Lemon '-- saying CPD didn't believe him (smollett talking fast here before an objection. Not verbatim.)

'-- Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 6, 2021He also says he declined to give his phone to CPD in part because earlier he'd gotten a text from Don Lemon "saying he'd gotten a text from CPD saying they don't believe me."objections, then a sidebar.

'-- Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) December 6, 2021The Daily Mail reports that the details about Lemon were stricken from the record, writing ''Testifying in court on Monday, Smollett, 39, claimed he had been in contact with CNN's Don Lemon during the early stages of the CPD investigation.''

The report adds that ''In a remark that was presented and then struck from the record, he said things began to seem off when he received a text message from Lemon claiming the Chicago police had reached out to him to say they didn't believe Smollett. ''

Don Lemon discussed the case Monday night on his show with CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez (he who uttered the infamous line ''fiery but mostly peaceful protests'') but both failed to mention that Lemon's own name had been brought up by Smollett during the hearing.

The defense has taken Smollett through nearly every single one of the prosecution's major points in this case. He's refuted them at almost every turn and maintained his innocence throughout. Now, it's the prosecution's time for cross examination.

'-- Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) December 6, 2021Lemon is already under scrutiny owing to accusations that he sexually assaulted a man in 2018 in a bar in Long Island.

Dustin Hice claims Lemon ''vigorously'' rubbed his genitalia, then shoved his hand into Hice's face, while asking if he liked ''p***y or d**k.''

Speaking to Fox News, Hice said that CNN was ''a predator protecting machine,'' adding ''They're a network rife with predators and perverts.''

Referring to Chris Cuomo's firing, Hice added ''Lemon will have to testify under oath in the near future, but it's good to see that there's finally some accountability happening.''

Hice also noted that he has turned down settlement officers, stating ''They've tried to grind me down, they've attempted to intimidate witnesses in my case, they've released confidential information about me in attempt to doxx me. They are complicit. This is who they are.''

As far as Cuomo goes, he has decided to attempt to take CNN down with him, suing the network for breach of contract over $18-20 million in lost earnings, and claiming that CNN head Jeff Zucker was completely aware of the information that Cuomo gave his brother, the former New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, regarding his sexual harassment allegations.

CNN responded in a written statement that Cuomo ''has made a number of accusations that are patently false,'' adding ''This reinforces why he was terminated for violating our standards and practices, as well as his lack of candor.''

As Joe Rogan has noted, these propagandists may finally be getting their comeuppance after years of agenda driven bile they have woefully attempted to disguise as legitimate news content.

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Crystal Mangum - Wikipedia

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 05:43

Crystal Mangum

BornCrystal Gail Mangum

( 1978-07-18 ) July 18, 1978 (age 43) [1]OccupationStripperCriminal statusIncarcerated Spouse(s) Kenneth McNeillChildren3Criminal chargeMurder (second degree)[2]Penalty14''18 yearsVictimsReginald DayeDateApril 3, 2011Crystal Gail Mangum (born July 18, 1978)[1] is a former exotic dancer and convicted murderer from Durham, North Carolina, who is best known for having made false allegations of rape[3][4][5] against lacrosse players in the 2006 Duke lacrosse case. The fact that Mangum was a black woman working in the sex industry, while the accused were all white men, created extensive media interest and academic debate about race, class, gender and the politicization of the justice system.

In February 2010, she was arrested on charges of attempted murder of her live-in partner, Milton Walker.[6] She was eventually convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer.[7]

In November 2013, she was found guilty of second-degree murder after she stabbed boyfriend Reginald Daye, who died 10 days after.[8] She argued that she acted in self-defense, fearing that Daye would kill her.[9] She was sentenced to 14 to 18 years in prison.

Early life [ edit ] Mangum was born and grew up in Durham, North Carolina, the daughter of Travis Mangum, a truck driver, and his wife Mary. She was the youngest of three children.[1] She attended Hillside High School, graduating in 1996.

In 1996, Mangum filed a police report alleging that three years earlier, when she was 14, she had been kidnapped by three assailants, driven to Creedmoor, North Carolina, and raped. One of those she accused was her boyfriend, who was 21 at the time, which would be statutory rape. She subsequently backed away from the charges, a move relatives claimed was motivated by fear for her life. Mangum's father said he did not believe she was raped or injured, though her mother believed such an incident could have occurred'--but not in 1993. She thinks it is more likely to have happened when Crystal was 17 or 18 years old, shortly before she made the police report.[1] Mangum's ex-husband, Kenneth Nathanial McNeill, believed the incident occurred as she said it did.[1]

After graduation from high school in 1996, Mangum joined the US Navy. She trained to operate radios and navigation technology. While serving in the Navy, Mangum married McNeill. Her marriage quickly broke down. Mangum reported to police that her husband had threatened to kill her, but the charge was dismissed when she failed to appear in court.[1] She served for less than two years in the Navy before being discharged after becoming pregnant by a fellow sailor, with whom she went on to have another child.[1]

By 2002, Mangum had returned to Durham and was working as an exotic dancer. In 2002, she was arrested on 10 charges after stealing the taxicab of a customer to whom she had given a lap dance. This prompted a police pursuit at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, occasionally in the wrong lane. After being stopped, Mangum nearly ran over a police officer, succeeding only in hitting his patrol vehicle. She was found to have a blood alcohol content of over twice the legal limit. Ultimately, Mangum pleaded guilty on four counts: assault on a government official, larceny, speeding to elude arrest, and driving while impaired, serving three weekends in jail, paying $4,200 in restitution and fees, and being given two years' probation.[1]

In 2004, Mangum earned an associate degree from Durham Technical Community College, and subsequently enrolled full-time at North Carolina Central University. At the time of the rape allegations, she was in her second year, studying police psychology, and earning a 3.0 average.[1]

Duke lacrosse case [ edit ] In March 2006, Mangum was hired as a stripper at a party organized by members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team. After arriving in an intoxicated state, having earlier consumed alcohol and cyclobenzaprine, to perform with another stripper at a house rented by three of the team captains, she became involved in an argument with the occupants of the residence and subsequently left.

Mangum then became involved in an altercation with her fellow stripper that necessitated police assistance. The officer who arrived on scene took her to a local drug and mental health center, where she was in the process of being involuntarily committed when, after being asked a leading question, she made a false allegation that she had been raped at the party. District Attorney Mike Nifong, who was up for re-election, pursued the case despite questions about the credibility of Mangum,[12] and conspired with a DNA lab director to withhold exculpatory evidence that would have cleared the lacrosse players of the rape accusations.[13] It took almost a year for the state's attorney general's office to dismiss the charges and declare that the players were innocent of the charges laid against them by Nifong.[14]

In 2008, Mangum published a memoir, The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story, written with Vincent Clark.[15] The book gives an unsubstantiated version of events, and she continued to insist on the debunked claim that she was assaulted[16] at the party. Mangum claimed that the dropping of the case was politically motivated. The book also outlines her earlier life, reasserting her claim that she was raped at the age of 14.[17]

Attempted murder and murder charge [ edit ] Just before midnight on February 17, 2010, Durham police were called to Mangum's residence by her nine-year-old daughter. They said that, when they arrived, they found Mangum and her live-in partner, Milton Walker, fighting.[6] She reportedly set fire to some of his clothing in a bathtub in their presence. The building suffered heavy smoke damage. They arrested Mangum on charges of attempted murder, first-degree arson, assault and battery, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting an officer, and misdemeanor child abuse.[18]

Mangum was ordered to remain in jail on $1 million bond. Her bond was lowered to $100,000 in May, and she was released from jail to live in a friend's house. She was required to wear an electronic monitoring device. On July 12, 2010, Mangum was released from house arrest and required to move in with her mother. She was allowed to visit her three children but only under supervision of social services. Mangum was arrested again on August 25, 2010, and held on $150,000 bond for failure to comply with the restrictions on her child visitation order.[19]

On December 17, 2010, Mangum was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer.[7] The jury deadlocked 9''3 for not guilty on the felony arson charge but was unable to reach a decision on it.[20]

After the verdict, Judge Abe Jones sentenced Mangum to 88 days in jail, which she had already served, and left the custody decision in the hands of social services.[21] Durham Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough announced on January 21, 2011, that he would not retry Mangum on arson charges.[22]

Second-degree murder conviction [ edit ] Mangum was arrested on April 3, 2011, following accusations that she repeatedly stabbed and seriously injured a boyfriend, Reginald Daye. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious bodily injury, a class C felony in North Carolina.[23][24] Ten days later, Daye died in the hospital, and Mangum was indicted on a murder charge.[25] Mangum was held in jail under a $300,000 secured bail bond, which was set prior to her boyfriend's death.[8][26] On November 1, 2011, Mangum was deemed competent to stand trial for murder.[27]

On May 1, 2012, Mangum's attorney withdrew, citing the release by Mangum of confidential information regarding her case to her supporters.[28] On February 20, 2013, Mangum was released on bail until trial.[29]

At the trial, Mangum argued that she stabbed Daye in self-defense, as she was being assaulted by him. The prosecution argued that the forensic evidence supported Daye's dying statement that he was attempting to get away from Mangum when he was stabbed.[2]

On November 22, 2013, she was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury of seven men and five women. Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced her to serve a minimum of 14 years, 2 months and a maximum of 18 years in prison.[2] According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, she is projected to be released from prison on February 27, 2026.[30]

In 2015, Mangum filed for an appeal of her 2013 conviction due to trial testimony allowed during trial related to an argument with a man in 2010. She later filed grievances with the North Carolina State Bar Association against the attorney that filed the appeal and her attorneys from the 2013 murder trial. The bar declined to take any action.

In 2018, Mangum appeared before Superior Court Judge Carolyn J.Thompson in Durham County on motions Mangum filed against the Durham County Police Department, the Durham County District Attorney's Office and Police Officer Marianne Bond for malicious prosecution related to 2011 larceny charges. When arrested in 2011, Mangum was in possession of two money orders from Daye. Mangum stated that the money orders were given to her by Daye to pay rent and that Daye, prior to his death had confirmed this to Bond, however Bond and the DA's Office sought to charge Mangum with 2 counts of larceny, one for each money order. Judge Thompson dismissed the motion due to the expiration of the three year statute of limitations. Mangum has not been convicted of the larceny charges.[citation needed ]

As of August 2018, Mangum currently held at Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, North Carolina.[31]

In media [ edit ] A version of the story of Daye's killing was featured in an episode of Wives with Knives, which aired December 12, 2012, during its first season on Investigation Discovery.[32] Mangum appeared in the episode, having given a jailhouse interview to the show's producers in the summer of 2012.[33] The interview focused mostly on the murder and not the Duke lacrosse case. Daye's murder was featured on an episode of Fatal Attraction, called "Toxic Romance", which aired on TV One on August 4, 2014 (Season 2 Episode 23).[34] An episode of Snapped, which aired on October 7, 2018, titled "Crystal Mangum", detailed her story and Daye's murder.[35]

See also [ edit ] Tawana Brawley rape allegations - a similar 1987 case of false rape allegations that occurred in Wappingers Falls, New York.References [ edit ] ^ a b c d e f g h i "Crystal Gail Mangum: Profile of the Duke Rape Accuser". FoxNews.com. April 11, 2007 . Retrieved April 15, 2011 . ^ a b c "Mangum found guilty in boyfriend's stabbing death", WRAL.com; accessed December 22, 2016. ^ Katz, Neil (February 18, 2010). "Crystal Mangum, stripper who falsely accused Duke lacrosse players, charged with attempted murder". CBS News. CBS . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . ^ "North Carolina: Woman in Duke case guilty in killing". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 22, 2013 . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . ^ Yamato, Jen (March 12, 2016). "The stripper who cried 'rape': Revisiting the Duke lacrosse case ten years later". The Daily Beast . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . ^ a b Davis, Stacy; Hartness, Erin (2010-02-18). "Duke lacrosse accuser charged with attempted murder, arson". WRAL-TV . Retrieved 2016-04-30 . ^ a b Emery P. Palesio, "Duke lacrosse accuser convicted of child abuse", Associated Press, December 17, 2013. ^ a b "Police: Boyfriend of Duke lacrosse accuser is dead", newsobserver.com, April 14, 2011. ^ "Crystal Mangum, Duke lacrosse accuser, convicted, sentenced in boyfriend's stabbing death". New York Daily News. November 22, 2013 . Retrieved March 10, 2019 . ^ Craig Jarvis (13 April 2007). "Mangum's life: conflict, contradictions". News and Observer. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. ^ Laura Parker (June 19, 2007). "Disbarment may not be end for Nifong". USA Today. ^ "NC attorney general: Duke players 'innocent ' ". Edition.cnn.com . Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ Meadows, Susannah (April 6, 2014). ''Telling Victim From Villain at Duke''. The New York Times. ^ Walker, Marlon A.; Beard, Aaron (October 24, 2008). "Duke lacrosse accuser pens memoir". Boston.com '' via The Boston Globe. ^ Andrew Hibbard, "Memoir chronicles lax accuser's troubled life", The Chronicle, Duke University, November 6, 2008. Page 3. ^ Attempted murder charges for Duke accuser Archived 2011-09-17 at the Wayback Machine, thetimesnews.com; accessed December 22, 2016. ^ "Arrest warrant issued for Mangum in Durham". WRAL-TV . Retrieved October 9, 2010 . ^ Jesse James DeConto, "Judge declares mistrial on Mangum's felony arson charge", newsobservor.com, December 17, 2013. ^ Judge declares mistrial on Mangum's felony arson charge, newsobserver.com, December 17, 2010. ^ Duke lacrosse accuser won't face arson retrial, wwaytv3.com, January 21, 2011. ^ "Police: Duke lacrosse accuser charged in stabbing". WRAL.com. April 3, 2011 . Retrieved April 4, 2011 . ^ "Felonious assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious injury; punishments" (PDF) . ^ "Duke Lacrosse Accuser Indicted on Murder Charge", foxnews.com, April 18, 2011. ^ Man Mangum accused of stabbing dies Archived 2011-04-16 at the Wayback Machine ^ "Lacrosse accuser deemed competent for murder trial". Durham, North Carolina: WRAL. November 1, 2011. ^ Bridges, Virginia. "Crystal Mangum's attorney withdraws from murder case". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on 5 May 2012 . Retrieved 1 November 2017 . ^ "Duke lacrosse accuser released on bond on murder charge", WRAL.com; accessed December 22, 2016. ^ "North Carolina Department Of Public Safety Offender Public Information". North Carolina Department of Public Safety . Retrieved March 13, 2016 . ^ Bridges, Virginia. "Judge denies Duke lacrosse accuser's request for new murder trial, release from jail". The Herald Sun. McClatchy . Retrieved 20 September 2021 . ^ " " Wives with Knives" Stripped to the Bone (TV Episode 2012) - IMDb" '' via www.imdb.com. ^ Bridges, Virginia (July 15, 2012). "Discovery interviews Crystal Mangum for 'Wives with Knives ' ". News & Observer . Retrieved September 23, 2014 . ^ "Toxic Romance". tvguide.com. ^ "Crystal Mangum". Oxygen. 5 October 2018. Sources and further reading [ edit ] Taylor Jr., Stuart; Johnson, KC (2007), Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, Macmillan, ISBN 9780312384869

Mike Nifong - Wikipedia

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Disbarred North Carolina attorney, and politician

Michael Byron Nifong (born September 14, 1950) is an American former North Carolina attorney, who has been disbarred.[2] He served as the district attorney for Durham County, North Carolina until he was removed, disbarred and jailed following court findings concerning his conduct in the Duke lacrosse case, primarily his conspiring with the DNA lab director to withhold exculpatory DNA evidence that could have acquitted the defendants.[3]

Early life [ edit ] Nifong was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and attended New Hanover High School.[4] He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 1971 with a degree in political science. He registered as a conscientious objector and participated in anti-war protests during the Vietnam War.[5] After working as a teacher and social worker, Nifong returned to UNC in 1975 and earned a J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1978. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar.

Career [ edit ] After spending a year as a per diem assistant with the Durham County District Attorney's office, Nifong was hired on a full-time basis in 1979. He eventually worked his way up to chief assistant. After District Attorney Jim Hardin was appointed to a Superior Court vacancy in 2005, Governor Mike Easley appointed Nifong to fill out the remainder of Hardin's term. Nifong was sworn in on April 27, 2005.[6] As the Duke lacrosse case unfolded, Nifong won the Democratic primary on May 2, 2006 for Durham County District Attorney.[7] He won the general election in November 2006 by a close margin of 833 votes.

Duke lacrosse case [ edit ] In 2006, Nifong pursued rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping charges against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, three white members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team. The accusation of sexual assault was made by Crystal Mangum, one of two local black woman who the lacrosse team hired to work as strippers at a party.[8] The case attracted national and international media attention.[9] Former New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent wrote, "It [the case] conformed too well to too many preconceived notions of too many in the press: white over black, rich over poor, athletes over non-athletes, men over women, educated over non-educated."[10]

In the first weeks of the case, Nifong gave an estimated 50 to 70 interviews. On the day he received his first briefing by police, March 27, 2006, he told the press, "The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done." By April 1, he had made 48 statements to the press, including assertions that others present at the party where the alleged assault took place were covering for the accused players, saying, "I would like to think that somebody who was not in the bathroom has the human decency to call up and say, 'What am I doing covering up for a bunch of hooligans?'"[11] Initial media reports on the case largely reflected Nifong's statements and opinions.[12]

Nifong said in a court hearing on October 27, six months after the arrest of Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans, that he had not yet interviewed the alleged victim. "I haven't talked with her about the facts of that night...We're not at that stage yet." According to Nifong, none of his assistants had discussed the case with her, either.[13]

On December 22, 2006, Nifong dropped the rape charge (while the sexual assault and kidnapping charges were still being pursued) against the three lacrosse players after Mangum changed her story, saying that she was no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally by one or more of the men. This was a few days after it was revealed in court that Nifong had withheld evidence from the defense concerning DNA tests.[14] Nifong was strongly criticized for pressing ahead with what appeared to many to be a weak case without any physical evidence. The defense argued that Mangum had given at least a dozen different accounts of the incident, changing the number of attackers from twenty to three, and modifying the methods by which she was assaulted.[14]

In January 2007, Nifong sent a letter to then-North Carolina Attorney General Roy A. Cooper, asking his office to assume responsibility of the case.[15] This came days after Mangum changed her story again, claiming that suspect Seligmann was not involved in the alleged attack.[16][17] Previously she had accused him and two others of the alleged rape.[16][17]

The next day, Cooper announced that his office would take over the case.[18] In April, he announced that charges against the three players would be dropped and that "based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges".[19]

Criticism [ edit ] Defense lawyers and media outlets were strongly critical of Nifong's handling of the case. Nifong said that the criticisms were the product of a defense strategy to malign the prosecution and intimidate the alleged rape victim.[20]

As the details of the case emerged, Nifong was attacked not only from advocates of the indicted students but by news sources such as The Washington Post[21] and the Los Angeles Times.[22]They claimed he went public with a series of accusations that later turned out to be untrue; that he exaggerated and intensified racial tensions; that he unduly influenced the Durham police investigation; that he tried to manipulate potential witnesses; that he refused to hear exculpatory evidence before indictment; that regulations on the conduct of an identification exercise were breached by failure to include "dummy" photographs of anyone who was not at the party; that he had never spoken directly to the alleged victim about the accusations; and that he made misleadingly incomplete presentations of various aspects of the evidence in the case (including DNA results).[citation needed ]

Additional coverage critical of the prosecution's case included that expressed by: 60 Minutes, Charlotte Observer,[23][24] Fox News,[25] Greensboro News & Record,[26] National Journal,[citation needed ] Newark Star-Ledger,[27] The News & Observer,[3] Newsweek,[citation needed ] New York Daily News,[28] New York magazine,[29] San Diego Union Tribune,[30] Washington Times,[31] The Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.),[32] and the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News.[33]

Nifong gave more than 50 interviews, many with the national media, according to his own account and confirmed by the News & Observer.[3][34][35] In these interviews, Nifong repeatedly said that he was "confident that a rape occurred",[36] calling the players "a bunch of hooligans" whose "daddies could buy them expensive lawyers."[24] From early April 2006, however, Nifong generally refused to talk to the media.[35]

On July 18, 2006, defense lawyers charged that Nifong made "unprofessional and discourteous" remarks. During a preliminary hearing, Nifong said, "[Defense] attorneys were almost disappointed that their clients didn't get indicted so they could be a part of this spectacle here in Durham." One lawyer asserted that "Nifong's statement is an insult to the legal profession as a whole and is certainly unwarranted by any facts in this case." Others saw it as a personal insult. Nifong then went on vacation and could not be reached for further comment.[37]

On October 27, 2006, Nifong said in court that neither he nor his assistants had yet discussed the alleged assault with the accuser, saying they had so far left that aspect of the investigation to the police.[38]

Critics of the district attorney requested that Nifong be investigated, punished and disbarred for his actions in this case.[39] On December 12, 2006, Republican Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina's 3rd district was reported to have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for an investigation into whether Nifong committed "prosecutorial misconduct" and violated the civil rights of the three suspects in the case;[40] Gonzales stated that his office might investigate how Nifong had handled the case.[41] Critics noted that police were instructed to "Go through Mr. Nifong for any directions as to how to conduct matters in this case." This was an unusual move for a prosecutor to order.[42]

On December 16, 2006, it was revealed that Nifong and DNA lab director Brian Meehan conspired to withhold exculpatory DNA evidence from the final report submitted to the defense team.[43][44]

The prosecution of the case was criticized by the legal analyst for the National Journal, Stuart Taylor,[45] as well as New York Times columnists David Brooks[46] and Nicholas Kristof.[45] An investigation by CBS' 60 Minutes "reveal[ed] disturbing facts about the conduct of the police and the district attorney, and raise[d] serious concerns."[24] (This 60 Minutes segment was honored with a Peabody Award on April 4, 2007.)[47] Several writers at Slate criticized the prosecution's actions and especially criticized the mainstream media for accepting prosecution claims at face value in spite of countervailing evidence.[48][49]

In light of the fact that Nifong failed to turn over exculpatory evidence to defense lawyers on December 22, 2006, The News & Observer wrote that "to press forward in the [...] case, District Attorney Mike Nifong must rely on scanty evidence while deflecting serious questions about whether he broke the law or violated the ethics rules governing prosecutors."[50]

Thomas Sowell accused Nifong of using the case to improve his chances in the next election by gaining large support from the African American community.[51][52] Nifong ultimately won the primary and general election in the midst of the case, despite the fact that allegations of ethical improprieties had already come to light. A federal judge in 2011 ruled that the civil lawsuit could proceed against Nifong, including claims of "malicious prosecution" and "fabrication of false evidence".[53]

Ethics charges [ edit ] On December 28, 2006, the North Carolina State Bar filed ethics charges against Nifong over his conduct in the case, accusing him of making public statements that were "prejudicial to the administration of justice" and of engaging in "conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation."[54] The seventeen-page document accuses Nifong of violating four rules of professional conduct, listing more than fifty examples of statements he made to the media.[55]

The State Bar filed a second round of ethics charges on January 24, 2007.[56] In this document, it accused Nifong of a "systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion ... prejudicial to the administration of justice" when he withheld DNA evidence to mislead the court.[57]

Nifong's lawyers filed a report asking for dismissal of some of the charges against him on March 19, arguing that his actions had not prevented the defendants from a fair trial since defense attorneys received a DNA report before a trial date was set. The State Bar denied the request, pointing out that North Carolina law "is unambiguous: Anyone subject to an NTO [Nontestimonial Identification Order] must be given any report of test results as soon as such a report is available." The Bar continued that "Nifong is effectively arguing that he can make false statements to a court which result in the entry of an order, and then use the order that is based on his misrepresentations to claim he committed no discovery violation."[58][59]

At an April 13 hearing, another request for dismissal of charges was denied. Nifong's team argued that the law about revealing exculpatory evidence to the defense was too vague about a timetable. Attorneys for the State Bar pointed out that it was only through diligent efforts of the Duke players' defense team that the DNA report was finally made available to them. The formal ethics hearing began on June 12 in Raleigh.[60]

On June 15, Nifong took the stand to testify in his own defense. During the testimony, he apologized to the families of the Duke athletes and stated that he would resign as district attorney. Joseph Cheshire, attorney for David Evans, one of the accused players, dismissed the apology as "a cynical political attempt to save his law license".[61] During the trial, Nifong acknowledged he knew there was no DNA evidence connecting lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty to the 28-year-old woman who accused them of attacking her when he indicted them on charges of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping a year prior.[62]

Disbarment [ edit ] On June 16, 2007, the North Carolina State Bar Disciplinary Committee unanimously voted to disbar Nifong after delivering a guilty verdict to 27 of 32 charges. The committee found Nifong's previous disciplinary record and acknowledgment of his improper pre-trial statements were substantially outweighed by (among other things) the players' vulnerability and his failure to acknowledge the "wrongful nature of (his) conduct with respect of the handling of DNA evidence."[63]

Committee chair Lane Williamson called the case a "fiasco" and said Nifong's actions involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation." Williamson further stated, "At the time he was facing a primary, and yes, he was politically naive, but we can draw no other conclusion that those initial statements he made were to further his political ambitions." In the end, the panel concluded that "there is no discipline short of disbarment appropriate in this case given the magnitude of the offenses found."[63]

Nifong agreed to surrender his law license and said he would not appeal; through his attorney, he said that disbarment was an appropriate punishment. Nifong is the first sitting district attorney in the history of North Carolina to be disbarred.[64] Earlier in the day, Nifong offered to voluntarily surrender his law license. However, Williamson said that the panel had to issue a ruling, and issued its disbarment order shortly thereafter.[65] Under North Carolina law, the order took effect 30 days after Nifong received it in writing.[62]

Immediately after the hearing, lawyers for the three players said they would seek to have Nifong held in criminal contempt of court for his false statements.[66] The lawyers added that calls for a federal civil rights investigation into the matter weren't out of line.[67] The players' attorneys called for an independent investigation into the case, and as of June 2007[update] Cooper was considering whether to open a criminal probe into the affair.[68]

The players' attorneys said on June 18 that their clients were very likely to file a civil suit against Nifong to recover their legal expenses and restore their reputations. It is not known how much they can recover; Nifong had no income aside from his salary as DA, and public records indicate that he has no significant assets other than his home in Durham, real estate in western North Carolina and retirement accounts. According to The News and Observer, the players incurred $3 million in legal costs.[66]

On June 18, Nifong submitted his resignation to Governor Easley and Durham County Chief Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, saying he would leave office on July 13. Hudson said that Nifong should have resigned immediately, saying that defense attorneys could challenge Nifong's authority. Easley, a former prosecutor and state attorney general, also felt that Nifong should have resigned immediately.[62]

Early on June 19, Hudson issued an order suspending Nifong from office with pay.[69] Under North Carolina law,[70] this was the first step in a process that allows the chief judge of a county to remove that county's district attorney from office. Hudson also appointed a Raleigh attorney as special prosecutor to oversee the removal proceeding.[71] A Durham resident, Beth Brewer had asked Hudson to remove Nifong in February on the grounds that Nifong engaged in willful misconduct and brought disrepute upon his office '' two of the criteria required for removing a district attorney from office. This process has been used only once before, when the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties was removed from office in 1995 for making a racial slur.[citation needed ]

On June 20, Nifong began talks with the special prosecutor about the possibility of leaving office immediately, but later that day, Easley appointed Jim Hardin, Nifong's predecessor, as acting district attorney. This came hours after Easley signed a bill that would allow the governor to remove a district attorney or judge from office if he or she has been disbarred or suspended from practicing law.[72][73] Easley strongly supported the bill, which unanimously passed both houses of the legislature.[74]

Easley had let it be known that he would have removed Nifong from office immediately if he had had the authority and power to do so. It had been unclear how soon Easley could have removed Nifong under this new law. The bill does not allow a governor to remove a DA or judge until the State Bar formally issued its order of disbarment, and all appeals have been exhausted. However, as mentioned above, Nifong had said he would not appeal. Hardin was sworn in the next day, and served until September 2007, when Easley appointed Assistant District Attorney David Saacks to fill out the first half of Nifong's term. At the time of Hardin's swearing-in, negotiations were still under way between Nifong and the special prosecutor,[75] and Hudson was proceeding with the hearing to remove him for good.[76] However, according to a spokesman for the state's Administrative Office of the Courts, Nifong's tenure as DA ended with Hardin's swearing-in.[1] Nifong formally resigned from office on July 2.[citation needed ]

Nifong's former assistant district attorney, Tracey Cline, was elected District Attorney in a 2008 special election and re-elected in 2010. She was removed from office herself in 2012 for, among other things, making defamatory accusations against Judge Hudson. Her license to practice law was suspended for five years in 2015 but she was not disbarred.[77][78]

On June 22, the players' lawyers filed their motion asking Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith, who presided over the case, to hold Nifong in contempt. The players also wanted Nifong to pay for the 60 to 100 hours it took to prove that he misrepresented the DNA evidence. Nifong was charged with having violated at least a dozen laws, rules and court orders designed to protect defendants' rights by playing "a game of hide and seek" with evidence that could have cleared the players. The players' motion also alleged that Nifong's misconduct "shocks the conscience and defies any notion of accident or negligence". Earlier that same month, Judge Smith had filed papers stating that he retained control over the case although the charges had been dismissed, and had the power to impose his own sanctions against Nifong.[79]

On July 25, Nifong issued a less qualified apology for his actions, saying he did not challenge Cooper's conclusion that there was "no credible evidence" to support the charges he had made. While the players' attorneys expressed skepticism about his sincerity, they did withdraw their demands that he pay for the legal work it took to ferret out the DNA evidence.[80]

In a letter addressed to the North Carolina State Bar on August 7, Nifong formally surrendered his law license. He then decried the "fundamental unfairness" with which his disbarment was conducted, contradicting his own lawyer's assertion that Nifong believed disbarment to be an appropriate punishment. To explain the physical condition of the license, Nifong said the license had been damaged "by a puppy in her chewing stage", and therefore had never been framed or displayed.[81]

Sentence and jail [ edit ] On September 7, 2007, after having already been disbarred, Nifong reported to the Durham County jail to serve a one-day jail sentence for contempt of court. He was held alone in a cell for his protection.[82]

Sued by players [ edit ] On October 5, 2007, Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Nifong engineered a wide-ranging conspiracy to frame the players. Also named in the suit were the lab that handled the DNA work, the city of Durham, the city's former police chief, the deputy police chief, the two police detectives who handled the case and five other police department employees. The players sought unspecified damages, and wanted to place the Durham Police Department under court supervision for 10 years, claiming the actions of the police department pose "a substantial risk of irreparable injury to other persons in the City of Durham." According to the suit, Nifong's sole motive was to win support for his reelection bid; the suit alleges that Nifong told his campaign manager that the case would provide "'millions of dollars' in free advertising."[83] This allegation is confirmed by The New York Times,[84] and by an interview with Nifong's campaign manager.[85] Nifong asked the state attorney general's office and the Administrative Office of the Courts to pay his legal fees and help defend him, but both offices refused on the grounds that Nifong's actions involved "fraud, corruption (and) malice."[86]

Bankruptcy filing [ edit ] On January 15, 2008, Nifong filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code.[87] He listed assets of almost $244,000 and liabilities of over $180.3 million, virtually all of which derived from six $30 million "unsecured nonpriority claims", one for each of the six members of the 2005''06 Duke lacrosse team suing Nifong, among others.[citation needed ]

While the bankruptcy filing automatically delayed the civil suit against him, it may not protect Nifong from civil liability for his actions in the case. Unsecured creditors can still pursue claims against someone filing for bankruptcy if the debt was incurred through "willful and malicious injury" to them.[88] Seligmann's attorney, noted Triangle lawyer David Rudolf, said that the players intend to pursue such a claim.[89]

According to at least one bankruptcy law expert, Nifong's bankruptcy filing is a tacit admission that he does not have the resources to defend himself against the players' civil suit, and is trying to protect what assets he is allowed to protect under the law.[90] On March 11, 2008, the Bankruptcy Administrator recommended that Nifong's Chapter 7 bankruptcy case be dismissed or converted to a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case because Nifong earned income above the requirement set forth in the Means Test to be eligible to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.[91] However, the Bankruptcy Court ultimately held that Nifong was eligible to be a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case and granted him a bankruptcy discharge on June 4, 2008. Later that same year, Judge William L. Stocks lifted the automatic stay imposed by Nifong's bankruptcy filing, and announced that the plaintiffs can pursue their lawsuit.[92]

Later developments [ edit ] In July 2014 there was a call for all the cases Nifong had prosecuted to be reviewed on the basis of his having been shown to ignore due process in some cases including the murder trial against Darryl Howard, who had been convicted in 1995 of a 1991 murder of a woman and her daughter.[93]

In 2014, Darryl Howard, who at that time had been imprisoned for murder for 20 years, was granted a new trial because Nifong had withheld evidence in the trial that led to his convictions.[94] Two years later, following a hearing where the state was asked why the convictions should stand, the murder conviction was vacated and Howard released from prison, noting that DNA evidence not presented to the jury would likely have exonerated him.[95]

Personal life [ edit ] Nifong is twice married, his second wife is Cy Gurney, regional administrator of North Carolina Guardian ad Litem. He has a daughter from his first marriage and a son with Gurney. He lives in northern Durham County.[96][97]

References [ edit ] ^ a b "Hardin Sworn in as New Durham DA". WRAL.com. June 21, 2007. ^ Beard, Aaron (August 31, 2007). "Judge Finds Duke Prosecutor in Contempt". ABC News. Archived from the original on September 13, 2007 . Retrieved August 31, 2007 . ^ a b c Neff, Joseph (August 6, 2006). "Lacrosse files show gaps in DA's case". News & Observer. Archived from the original on September 28, 2006. ^ "Our Campaigns - Candidate - Michael "Mike" Nifong". www.ourcampaigns.com. ^ Wilson, Duff; Barstow, David (January 12, 2007). "Prosecutor Asks to Exit Duke Case". The New York Times. Durham, NC . Retrieved December 22, 2016 . ^ "Archive of Nifong's former website". Archived from the original on 2006-04-23 . Retrieved 2008-02-01 . ^ Niolet, Benjamin; Biesecker, Michael; Blythe, Anne (May 3, 2006). "Nifong prevails in DA race". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on August 30, 2006. ^ "Duke Lacrosse Scandal Sheds New Light on the Stripper Industry: A Campus Trend?". ABC News . Retrieved November 4, 2006 . ^ Neff, J. (January 15, 2007). "Nifong conduct rebuked early". News & Observer. Raleigh, NC. Archived from the original on December 18, 2013. ^ Smolkin, R. (2007). "Justice Delayed". American Journalism Review. 29 (August/September): 18''21. ^ Mosteller, R.P. (2007). "The Duke Lacrosse Case, Innocence, and False Identifications: A Fundamental Failure to 'Do Justice ' " (PDF) . Fordham Law Review. 76 (3): 1337''1412. ^ Feighery, G.; Hasian, M.; Rieke, R. (2010). "The Search for Social Justice and the Presumption of Innocence in the Duke University (USA) Lacrosse Case of 2006'--07". In Cheney, G.; et al. (eds.). Handbook of Communication Ethics. Routledge. pp. 258''72. ISBN 9780203890400. ^ Beard, Aaron (October 27, 2006). "Prosecutor Yet to Interview Rape Accuser". The Washington Post. Associated Press. ^ a b "Duke rape charges dropped". Associated Press. October 22, 2006. ^ "DA in Duke Rape Case Asks to Be Taken off Case". ABC News. January 12, 2007. ^ a b "Lacrosse Defense: Accuser's Story Changes Again". WRAL.com. January 11, 2007. ^ a b "Accuser changes story in lacrosse case". The News & Observer. January 11, 2007. Archived from the original on January 13, 2007. ^ "Prosecutor Mike Nifong Removed From Duke Case". WCBS-TV New York. January 13, 2007. ^ Beard, Aaron (April 11, 2007). "Prosecutors Drop Charges in Duke Case". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 16, 2015 . ^ "As Duke rape case unravels, D.A.'s judgment questioned: Defense describes him as willing to skirt law for conviction". San Francisco Chronicle. December 24, 2006. ^ "Prosecutorial Indiscretion". The Washington Post. December 31, 2006. ^ "Dropping Charges at Duke". Los Angeles Times. December 26, 2006. Archived from the original on July 27, 2010. ^ "Investigate the investigation". The Charlotte Observer. December 23, 2006. ^ a b c "Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out". 60 Minutes. Oct 15, 2006. ^ "Duke Defense Lawyers Say Evidence May Give Arrested Lacrosse Players Alibis". Fox News. April 18, 2006. ^ "Nifong begins retreat from Duke rape case". Greensboro News-Record. December 23, 2006. ^ "The prosecutor is guilty". The Star-Ledger. December 30, 2006. ^ "The Duke Three should go free". New York Daily News. December 29, 2006. ^ "Rape, Justice, and the 'Times ' ". New York Magazine. October 16, 2006. ^ "Just who's guilty?". The San Diego Union Tribune. December 30, 2006. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. ^ "The Duke Case". The Washington Times. December 27, 2006. ^ "Add another DA to the sorry list". The Star-News. December 21, 2006. , ^ "North Carolina's out-of-control DA". Rocky Mountain News. January 3, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30 . Retrieved 2007-07-25 . ^ Biesecker, Michael; Niolet, Benjamin; Neff, Joseph (April 22, 2006). "DA on the spot for comments". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on December 9, 2006. ^ a b Niolet, Benjamin (April 20, 2006). "Spotlight is new place for Nifong". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on September 20, 2007. ^ "Duke suspends lacrosse team from play amid rape allegations". USA Today. March 28, 2006. ^ "Attorneys infuriated by DA's remarks". Herald Sun. July 18, 2006. ^ "Duke lacrosse rape prosecutor says he hasn't discussed the case with accuser". Associated Press. October 27, 2006. ^ "DA's critics ask bar, feds to intervene". The News & Observer. December 3, 2006. Archived from the original on December 22, 2006. ^ "Inquiry of Nifong eyed over lacrosse". Durham Herald-Sun. December 12, 2006. ^ "Nifong Probe Possible, U.S. Attorney General Says". WRAL.com. December 17, 2006. ^ Neff, Joseph (March 14, 2007). "Quest to convict hid a lack of evidence". The News and Observer. Archived from the original on April 17, 2007 . Retrieved April 14, 2007 . ^ "Paternity Test Ordered in Duke Lacrosse Rape Case". WRAL.com. December 15, 2006. ^ "Lab director withheld DNA information". The Chronicle. December 15, 2006. Archived from the original on May 10, 2015 . Retrieved November 25, 2013 . ^ a b Kristof, Nicholas (June 11, 2006). "Jocks and Prejudice". The New York Times. ^ Brooks, David (May 28, 2006). "The Duke Witch Hunt". The New York Times. ^ "66th Annual Peabody Awards Winners Announced" (Press release). Peabody Award. April 4, 2007. CBS` "60 Minutes" won for "The Duke Rape Case", an Ed Bradley-led investigation of rape allegations against Duke University lacrosse players that stood widespread assumptions '' and the prosecution's case '' on their heads. ^ Taylor Jr., Stuart (August 28, 2006). "Witness for the Prosecution?". Slate. ^ Shafer, Jack (April 20, 2006). "Trial By Newspaper". Slate. ^ "Pressure on Nifong in Duke case: Misstatements may cost him his career". The News & Observer. December 24, 2006. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. ^ Sowell, Thomas (January 2, 2007). "The real issue at Duke, Part I". Townhall.com. ^ Sowell, Thomas (January 3, 2007). "The real issue at Duke, Part II". Townhall.com. ^ "Judge allows Duke lacrosse lawsuit to go forward". Fox News. Associated Press. March 31, 2011. ^ "N.C. bar files ethics charges against Duke lacrosse prosecutor". Associated Press. December 28, 2006. ^ "State Bar Files Ethics Complaint Against Mike Nifong". WRAL.com. December 28, 2006. ^ Findlaw.com Archived May 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Digital image of thirty-three page Amended Complaint, as filed. ^ "N.C. state bar files more ethics charges against Duke lacrosse prosecutor". Associated Press. January 24, 2007. ^ North Carolina State Bar (March 19, 2007). "Brief in Opposition To Motion To Dismiss" (PDF) . The News & Observer. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2007. ^ "State Bar Says Nifong Skirted System in Handling of Duke Lacrosse Case". WRAL.com. March 20, 2007. ^ "Duke Prosecutor Goes on Trial for Misconduct". ABC News. ^ "Prosecutor of Duke lacrosse players resigns in disgrace". International Herald Tribune. ^ a b c "Judge Suspends Resigned Nifong From DA's Office". WRAL.com. June 18, 2007. ^ a b "Mike Nifong profile" (PDF) . North Carolina State Bar. June 16, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009. ^ Adcock, Sylvia (June 17, 2007). "Prosecutor in Duke Case Gives Up His Law License". The Washington Post . Retrieved May 12, 2010 . ^ Graham, David (June 16, 2007). "State Bar finds Nifong guilty on 27 counts of misconduct". The Duke Chronicle. ^ a b Benjamin, Niolet; Blythe, Anne (June 18, 2007). "Gov. Easley Talks About Nifong Resignation". The News and Observer . Retrieved June 18, 2007 . ^ "Nifong will be disbarred for ethics violations". MSNBC. Associated Press. June 18, 2007. Archived from the original on June 16, 2007 . Retrieved November 5, 2007 . ^ Parker, Laura (June 19, 2007). "Disbarment may not be end for Nifong". USA Today . Retrieved October 26, 2007 . ^ "Suspension order" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-20. (447 KiB) ^ "§ 7A-66". www.ncleg.net. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. ^ Blythe, Anne; Neff, Joseph (June 19, 2007). "Durham judge suspends Nifong". The News and Observer. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. ^ Senate Bill 118-Third Edition Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ncleg.net; accessed November 21, 2014. ^ Jim Hardin Named To Replace Mike Nifong Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, wxii12.com; accessed November 21, 2014. ^ North Carolina General Assembly '' Senate Bill 118 Information/History (2007''08 Session) Archived June 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine; accessed November 21, 2014. ^ "Hardin takes office as Durham DA". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. ^ "Nifong: Hearing set for Thursday". USA Today. June 25, 2007 . Retrieved May 12, 2010 . ^ "Updated: Cline Removed from Office". The News & Observer. February 29, 2012. ^ Tracey Cline law license suspended Archived June 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, newsobserver.com; accessed May 30, 2016. ^ Blythe, Anne; Neff, Joseph (June 22, 2007). "Contempt accusations loom". The News and Observer . Retrieved June 27, 2007 . [dead link ] ^ "Nifong admits 'no credible evidence' in Duke lacrosse case". ESPN. ^ "Nifong: The Dog Ate My Law License". The Smoking Gun. August 15, 2007. ^ Dewan, Shaila (September 8, 2007). "Duke Prosecutor Jailed; Students Seek Settlement". The New York Times . Retrieved October 26, 2007 . ^ "Copy of lawsuit" (PDF) . The News & Observer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-27. ^ Meadows, Susannah (April 6, 2014). "Telling Victim From Villain at Duke; 'The Price of Silence' Replays a Wrenching Campus Episode". The New York Times . Retrieved December 20, 2016 . ...[Nifong's] campaign manager later quoted him as having said that the case would be worth "a million dollars of free advertisements." ^ Zenovich, Marina. "Fantastic Lies". 30 for 30. Season 3. Episode 7. Event occurs at 1:11:56. ESPN. I said to [Nifong], do you have any idea what you're doing? You have no idea what impact this is going to have for or against your campaign. And [Nifong] just kind of smiled back at me and he said, "Yeah but it's worth a million bucks in your advertisement." ^ "State Won't Defend Nifong in Lacrosse Players' Suit". WRAL.com. ^ "Mike Nifong Bankrupt". The Smoking Gun . Retrieved January 16, 2008 . ^ "Mike Nifong Files for Bankruptcy". WRAL.com. ^ "Players still after Nifong's assets". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008 . Retrieved November 21, 2014 . ^ "Nifong files for bankruptcy; city replies to suit". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on 2008-10-10. ^ "Duke Lacrosse Players File Federal Lawsuit Against University, City of Durham". Fox News. February 21, 2008. ^ "Judge: Duke lacrosse players can pursue lawsuit". Fox News. May 28, 2008. ^ "N.C. judge overturns Darryl Howard conviction, finds prosecutor misconduct by Mike Nifong" Archived August 27, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, May 27, 2014; accessed May 2, 2016. ^ Zenovich, Marina. "Fantastic Lies". 30 for 30. Season 3. Episode 7. Event occurs at 1:39:47. ESPN. In 2014, a man imprisoned for murder for 20 years was granted a new trial based on evidence withheld by Nifong. ^ Blythe, Anne (August 31, 2016). "Judge vacates murder convictions against Darryl Howard, Durham DA will not appeal". The News & Observer. Durham . Retrieved December 20, 2016 . ^ https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/It_s_Not_About_the_Truth/9BSRzJykNaoC ^ "About Your District Attorney". April 23, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-04-23. External links [ edit ] News & Observer: Copy of Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson's order suspending Mike Nifong (PDF)Copy of disbarment orderNews about Michael B. Nifong, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times

Grant Hill - Wikipedia

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 04:33

American basketball player

Grant HillPositionVice Chair of the BoardLeagueNBABorn ( 1972-10-05 ) October 5, 1972 (age 49) Dallas, TexasNationalityAmericanListed height6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)Listed weight225 lb (102 kg)High schoolSouth Lakes(Reston, Virginia)CollegeDuke (1990''1994)NBA draft1994 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd overallSelected by the Detroit PistonsPlaying career1994''2013PositionSmall forwardNumber331994''2000Detroit Pistons2000''2007Orlando Magic2007''2012Phoenix Suns2012''2013Los Angeles Clippers7 NBA All-Star (1995''1998, 2000, 2001, 2005)All-NBA First Team (1997)4 All-NBA Second Team (1996, 1998''2000)NBA Co-Rookie of the Year (1995)NBA All-Rookie First Team (1995)3 NBA Sportsmanship Award (2005, 2008, 2010)IBM Award (1997)2 NCAA champion (1991, 1992)Consensus first-team All-American (1994)Consensus second-team All-American (1993)NABC Defensive Player of the Year (1993)ACC Player of the Year (1994)2 First-team All-ACC (1993, 1994)Second-team All-ACC (1992)No. 33 retired by Duke Blue DevilsThird-team Parade All-American (1990)McDonald's All-American (1990)Virginia Mr. Basketball (1990)Points17,137 (16.7 ppg)Rebounds6,169 (6.0 rpg)Assists4,252 (4.1 apg) Stats at NBA.com Stats at Basketball-Reference.com Basketball Hall of Fame as playerCollege Basketball Hall of FameInducted in 2014Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player who is a co-owner and executive of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He attended Duke University and is widely considered one of its greatest players. After playing college basketball for four years, Hill played in the NBA for four teams in his professional career: the Detroit Pistons, the Orlando Magic, the Phoenix Suns, and the Los Angeles Clippers. For most of his career, he played the small forward position. Hill also co-hosts NBA Inside Stuff on NBA TV.

Hill played basketball for the Duke Blue Devils for four years. He was the 1994 ACC Player of the Year, a two-time NCAA All-American, and a two-time NCAA champion. Hill was touted as one of the best players in Duke history and as one of the greatest college basketball players of his era.

After graduating from Duke in 1994, Hill was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the third overall pick in the NBA draft. He was the co-winner of the 1995 NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Early in his NBA career, Hill was widely considered to be one of the best all-around players in the game, often leading his team in points, rebounds and assists. In his first six seasons in the NBA, Hill averaged 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game and made the Eastern Conference All-Star Team five times. However, the trajectory of his career was altered by a 2000 ankle injury. The injury continued to plague him for several years, led to a March 2003 surgery that was followed by life-threatening complications, and forced him to miss the entire 2003''04 season. In 2005, Hill made the Eastern Conference All-Star Team as a member of the Magic. He played in the Western Conference Finals in 2010 during his tenure with the Phoenix Suns. In the 12 seasons following his ankle injury, Hill averaged 13.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. On June 1, 2013, Hill announced his retirement from the NBA. He is a seven-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA selection, and a three-time winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

An ownership group including Hill and Tony Ressler purchased the Atlanta Hawks on June 24, 2015.

College career [ edit ] When the time came to choose a college, Hill's mother told the Fox Sports documentary Beyond the Glory, that she wanted him to attend Georgetown, while his father preferred the University of North Carolina.[1] Hill decided to attend Duke University, playing four years with the Blue Devils and winning national titles in 1991 and 1992. Duke became the first Division I program to win consecutive titles since UCLA in 1966''73. Despite losing two of the biggest contributors on the Blue Devils, Christian Laettner (in 1992) and Bobby Hurley (each of whom went on to play in the NBA), Hill led Duke to the championship game once again in 1994, but lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks.[2] Hill won the Henry Iba Corinthian Award as the nation's top defensive player in 1993, and in 1994 he was the ACC Player of the Year.[3] During his collegiate career, Hill became the first player in ACC history to collect more than 1,900 points, 700 rebounds, 400 assists, 200 steals, and 100 blocked shots. As a result of his successful college career, he became the eighth player in Duke history to have his jersey number (33) retired. After his freshman season at Duke, Hill played on the bronze medal-winning U.S. team at the 1991 Pan American Games, held in Havana, Cuba.[4]

Hill also is widely known for his role in the Hail Mary play in the NCAA tournament regional final against Kentucky in 1992, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest college basketball games of all time. With Duke down 103''102 in overtime and 2.1 seconds remaining after Kentucky's Sean Woods hit a floater, an unguarded Hill heaved the inbounds pass 75 feet across the court into the hands of Laettner, who dribbled once and spun before pulling up to make the game-winning jumper from just outside the free-throw line as time expired. Hill later produced a film, Duke 91 & 92: Back to Back about the team's consecutive wins and this game-winning play.[5] In 2016, Hill was inducted into the Duke Sports Hall of Fame[6]

Touted as one of the best players in Duke history, many went as far as to say that Hill was one of the greatest college basketball players of his era.[7] In 2002, Hill was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team honoring the fifty greatest players in ACC History.[8]

Professional career [ edit ] Detroit Pistons (1994''2000) [ edit ] Hill was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the third pick in the NBA draft after graduating from Duke in 1994.[9] He generally played the small forward position during his NBA career.[10] In his first season, he averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.77 steals per game, and became the first Pistons rookie since Isiah Thomas in 1981''82 to score 1,000 points. Hill ended up sharing NBA Rookie of the Year Award honors with Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, becoming the first Piston since Dave Bing in 1966''67 to win the award. Hill also won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award.[11] He was named to the all-NBA First Team in 1997, and All-NBA Second Teams in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Hill also regularly played in the NBA All-Star Game, where he made history by being the first rookie to lead an NBA All-Star fan balloting in (1994''95) with 1,289,585 votes,[12] narrowly defeating Shaquille O'Neal. Also, he became the first rookie in any of the four major professional sports leagues to lead all-star fan voting.

In his second season (1995''96), he once again led the All-Star fan balloting, this time edging Michael Jordan (Jordan's first All-Star game after returning since retiring in 1993). During the 1995''96 season, Hill showcased his all-round abilities by leading the NBA in triple-doubles (10). He also won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta as a member of the U.S. men's basketball team, where he had the team's fifth-highest scoring average (9.7) and led the team in steals (18).[13] In 1996''97 season, Hill averaged 21.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. He became the first player since Larry Bird in 1989''90 to average 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in a season, an accomplishment that had not been duplicated until Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double in the 2016''17 NBA season. Once again, Hill led the league in triple-doubles, where his 13 triple-doubles represented 35 percent of the league's triple-double total that season. He was the league's Player of the Month for January and was also awarded NBA's IBM Award, given to the player with the biggest statistical contributions to his team. He finished third in MVP voting, behind Karl Malone and Michael Jordan.

Much like Scottie Pippen with the Bulls, Hill assumed the role of a "point forward" in Detroit, running the Pistons' offense. As a result, between the 1995''96 and 1998''99 NBA seasons, Hill was the league leader in assists per game among non-guards all four seasons. In the lockout-shortened 1999 season, as he led his team in points, rebounds and assists for the third time, Hill joined Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history to lead their teams in scoring, rebounding and assists more than once. Hill and Chamberlain are the only two players in league history to lead their teams in points, rebounds, and assists per game three times. Hill was selected to play in the 1998 FIBA World Championship, but in the end, no NBA players played in this tournament due to the lockout.

In the 1999''2000 season, Hill averaged 25.8 points while shooting 49% from the field, the season's third-highest scoring average, behind MVP Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson. He averaged 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. However, despite Hill's accomplishments in Detroit, the Pistons never made it far in the playoffs, either losing in the first round (1996, 1997 and 1999), or missing the playoffs entirely in the 1994''95 and 1997''98 seasons. The 2000 playoffs would be no different. On April 15, 2000, 7 days before the start of the playoffs, Hill sprained his left ankle in a game against the Philadelphia 76ers. He continued to play until the first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat, in which his injured ankle got worse, and Hill was forced to leave halfway through game 2. Eventually, the Heat swept the Pistons, 3''0. Hill was initially selected for the 2000 Olympics U.S. team, but could not play due to the ankle injury. That ankle injury would prove to be a major liability for many years to come.[14]

After the first six seasons of his career, before the ankle injury, Hill had amassed a total of 9,393 points, 3,417 rebounds, and 2,720 assists. Oscar Robertson, Bird, and LeBron James are the only three players in league history to eclipse these numbers after their first six seasons.

Orlando Magic (2000''2007) [ edit ] As an unrestricted free agent, Hill had planned to sign with the Orlando Magic. On August 3, 2000, however, a sign-and-trade deal allowed Hill to receive a slightly more lucrative contract while Detroit received at least some compensation for losing him. The Pistons signed Hill to a seven-year, $92.8 million contract and traded him to Orlando for Chucky Atkins and Ben Wallace.[15] The Magic hoped he would team up with budding superstar Tracy McGrady, who had been signed away from the Toronto Raptors at that time, to return Orlando among the NBA elite. But Hill was hampered by ankle injuries, playing in only four games in his first season with the Magic, 14 games in his second and 29 in his third. He was forced to sit out his entire fourth year with Orlando (2003''04). Meanwhile, the Pistons, who had defeated the Magic in the 2003 Playoffs, but ended up losing to the New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals, won the championship the following year in 2004.

In March 2003, Hill underwent a major surgical procedure in which doctors re-fractured his ankle and realigned it with his leg bone. Five days after the surgery was performed, Hill developed a 104.5 °F (40.3 °C) fever and convulsions and was rushed to a hospital. Doctors removed the splint around his ankle and discovered that Hill had contracted a potentially fatal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. He was hospitalized for a week and had to take intravenous antibiotics for six months.

In the 2004''05 season Hill, though hampered by a bruised left shin that caused him to miss several games, started and played 67 games for the Magic. He was named the Eastern Conference player of the week for the week between November 15''21, 2004. Over the season, Hill averaged 19.7 points per game on a .509 field goal percentage. Fans voted him an All-Star starter again, and he led the Eastern Conference All-Star Team to a victory over the West. Also, after the season, Hill was awarded the Joe Dumars Trophy presented to the NBA Sportsmanship Award Winner.

During the 2005''06 season Hill was once again injured frequently as nagging groin injuries kept him sidelined for much of the first half of the season, limiting him to 21 games. He got a sports hernia that was caused by uneven pressure on Hill's feet while he was running, due to concerns that he could re-aggravate the injury on his left ankle if it got too much pressure. Hill underwent surgery for the hernia and stated that he would consider retirement if he had to get another surgery.

In the 2006''07 season Hill returned from injuries despite numerous rumors surrounding his retirement. Hill received ankle rotation therapy from specialists in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the off-season, and stated that he had regained much motion in his left ankle. Hill returned to the Magic lineup, starting at the shooting guard position. Despite having problems with injuries to his left knee and a tendon in his left ankle, Hill managed to play 65 games, two short of the highest number of games he played over a single season as a member of the Magic. He finished the season with averages of 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. This season would see Hill return to the playoffs for the first time since 2000, his first playoff appearance with the Magic. The 8th seed Magic would meet Hill's old team, the Detroit Pistons, in the first round. The Pistons' vast playoff experience would prevail over the inexperienced Magic, who had not seen significant post-season action for some years, and despite having some close games, the series would end with a 4''0 Pistons sweep, leaving Hill undecided on whether to return for the 2007''08 season with the Magic, sign with another team or retire.[16]

Phoenix Suns (2007''2012) [ edit ] Hill with the Phoenix Suns in 2009

Hill became an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2007. On July 5 Hill's agent, Lon Babby, said Hill intended to sign with the Phoenix Suns on July 11 (the first day free agents can officially sign contracts).[17] Hill earned $1.83 million for 2007''08 with a $1.97 million player option for the next year. Hill was named captain along with Steve Nash. Hill was permitted by Suns Ring of Honor member, Alvan Adams, to wear his familiar No. 33 with the Suns. Hill adapted well to the Suns' up-tempo style, averaging double figures in points as a key role player for Phoenix in the early months of the 2007''08 season. He played in the team's first 34 games before an emergency appendectomy on January 9, 2008, sidelined him for two weeks. Despite being bothered by multiple injuries throughout the season, Hill had his first 70-game season since leaving Detroit, averaging 13.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg, and 2.9 apg in the process.

Playing for the Phoenix Suns in the 2008''2009 season, Hill appeared in all 82 games for the first time in his career and averaged 12.0 ppg, 4.90 rpg, and 2.3 apg, scoring 27 points and 10 rebounds in the Suns' season finale.

On July 10, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Hill decided to re-sign with the Phoenix Suns for a 2-year deal, despite an offer from the New York Knicks for the full mid-level exception and the Boston Celtics offering Hill the bi-annual exception.[18] The first year of the contract is believed to be worth around $3 million with the second year at Hill's option.

In 2010 the Phoenix Suns advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals, marking Hill's first playoff series victory, and making him the first NBA player in history to win his first playoff series after 15 years in the league.[citation needed ] After sweeping the San Antonio Spurs 4''0, the Suns then moved to the Western Conference Finals to face the Los Angeles Lakers, but lost in six games (4-2).

In 2010, he was chosen as the tenth-smartest athlete in sports by Sporting News.[19][20]

On June 8 Hill exercised his option for the 2010''11 season.[21] The Suns underwent two major roster changes in 2010''11. During the pre-season teammate Amar'e Stoudemire left for New York while Hedo T¼rkoÄlu, Josh Childress and Hakim Warrick joined the Suns; within a year they also were traded for three other players. Hill became one of seven all-time NBA players to average 13 or more points at 38 years of age or older. On January 15, 2011, Hill passed the 16,000 career points milestone in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers.[22]

On December 9, 2011, Hill decided to stay with the Phoenix Suns for one year, accepting a $6.5 million contract.[23] By the end of the 2011''12 season, Hill had reached 17,000 career points, ending the season 78th on the all-time NBA scoring list (82nd NBA/ABA), 79th in career assists (83rd), and 66th in career steals (71st).

Los Angeles Clippers (2012''2013) [ edit ] Hill with the Clippers in 2013

After his contract with the Suns expired, Hill was pursued by multiple contenders, including the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. On July 18, 2012, Hill signed a contract with the Clippers.[24] Hill suffered a bruised bone in his right knee in the preseason which kept him out for three months. He then made his debut with the Clippers on January 12, 2013, against the Orlando Magic. During the 2012''13 season, he played only 29 games, averaging 3.2 ppg and 1.7 rpg in 15.1 mpg. The Clippers finished 56-26, fourth-best in the Western Conference, and won the Pacific Division for the first time in franchise history. However, the Clippers fell to the Memphis Grizzlies in a six-game series in the first round.[citation needed ]

Retirement (2013) [ edit ] On June 1, 2013, Hill announced his retirement from professional basketball after 19 seasons in the NBA.[25][26]

On September 7, 2018, Hill was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.[27]

Post-NBA career [ edit ] Beginning in 2013, Hill has hosted NBA Inside Stuff on NBA TV.[28][29] He is also a sports broadcaster for CBS.[30] In 2015, Hill was named to the lead announcing team for CBS and Turner Sports' joint coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, alongside March Madness stalwarts Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery.[31][30]

On June 24, 2015, a deal was approved by the NBA Board of Governors to sell the Atlanta Hawks franchise for $850 million to a group led by Tony Ressler. Hill was a member of that group, and he thus became a co-owner of the team.[32][33][34][35]

Sponsorships and paid endorsements [ edit ] In the 1990s, one of the soft drink Sprite's longest-running advertising campaigns was "Grant Hill Drinks Sprite" (overlapping its "Obey Your Thirst" campaign), in which Hill's abilities, and Sprite's importance in giving him his abilities, were humorously exaggerated.[36]Hill was a spokesperson for McDonald's restaurant, watchmaker TAG Heuer and sportswear companies Fila, and later Adidas and Nike.[37]As of 2014, Hill has also appeared in ads for AT&T and Microsoft along with his wife Tamia.[38]In television and film [ edit ] In 1995, Hill appeared in an episode of the FOX sitcom Living Single. In the episode, Hill (portraying himself) has a whirlwind romance with magazine owner/publisher Khadijah James (Queen Latifah).[citation needed ]In 1998, he was in an episode of Home Improvement on the show inside a show Tool Time.[citation needed ]Hill is featured in the video of the song "Rockstar" by Nickelback.[citation needed ]Hill presented an award at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards with talk show host Ricki Lake.[citation needed ]The March 13, 2011 airing of the ESPN films 30 for 30 documentary The Fab Five sparked controversy, leading up to a series of media exchanges between members of the press and NCAA players in forums such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.[39][40][41][42][43][44]Personal life and family [ edit ] Hill is the son of former NFL football player Calvin Hill and his wife, Janet Hill.[45] He was born in Dallas, Texas and raised in the Washington, DC area.[46]

Grant dated actress Jada Pinkett Smith while he attended Duke University.[47][48]

In Detroit, Michigan, Hill was introduced to Canadian singer Tamia by Anita Baker. Hill and Tamia married on July 24, 1999. Their daughter, Myla Grace Hill, was born on January 23, 2002. On August 9, 2007, Tamia gave birth to their second daughter, Lael Rose Hill.[citation needed ] The family resides in Windermere, Florida.[49]

In 1999, Hill received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[50]

After his wife contracted a life-threatening methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in 2003,[51] Hill became an advocate for the awareness and prevention of MRSA and has appeared in public service announcements for Stop MRSA Now!, a non-profit organization.[52][better source needed ]

Hill earned his bachelor's degree from Duke University with a double major in history and political science.[53]

Charitable activities [ edit ] Hill had been a Vice-Chairman for the Board of Directors of the Special Olympic World Summer Games in 1999 which were held in Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.[54][better source needed ]Grant Hill, his mother Janet Hill and grandmother Vivian McDonald established a scholarship at the Dillard University in New Orleans. This scholarship is in memory of Hill's grandfather, who supported this University consistently.[54][better source needed ]Hill was featured on a poster "READ" that supported libraries, literacy, and advocated reading.[54][better source needed ]Hill contributed to the day care center established by his father, Calvin Hill, in New Haven, Connecticut in 1972, by donating funds. This daycare center was established after Calvin graduated from Yale University and the goal was helping children and families in the local community.[54][better source needed ]Hill funded an organization in his hometown of Reston, Virginia, that helps needy students of any age pursue education.[54][better source needed ]Other interests [ edit ] Hill owns a substantial collection of African-American art, centering on the work of Romare Bearden and Elizabeth Catlett.[55] A selection of 46 works from the collection was featured in a touring exhibition at several American museums from 2003 to 2006. The exhibition was last shown at the Nasher Museum of Art at Hill's alma mater, Duke University.[56][57]Hill has established ties with the Democratic Party. On the night Hill was drafted in the NBA, he received a congratulatory phone call from U.S. President Bill Clinton. Hill publicly supported John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential bids.[58][59]NBA career statistics [ edit ] Regular season [ edit ] Playoffs [ edit ] YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG1996Detroit3338.3.564.500.8577.33.71.0.019.01997Detroit5540.6.437.000.7186.85.4.81.023.61999Detroit5535.2.457.000.8137.27.42.0.419.42000Detroit2227.5.375.500.9005.54.5.5.011.02007Orlando4435.8.500.000.6675.53.8.5.315.02008Phoenix3222.7.455.0001.0005.31.0.7.33.72010Phoenix161628.3.480.188.8685.82.3.8.69.62013L.A. Clippers1020.0.500.000.0004.02.0.0.04.0Career393731.6.469.238.7816.13.6.9.513.4See also [ edit ] List of oldest and youngest National Basketball Association playersReferences [ edit ] ^ "Hill Scorned Georgetown for Duke after recruiting offense". Greensboro News & Record. December 16, 1994 . Retrieved January 25, 2015 . ^ Wojciechowski, Gene (April 5, 1994). "The Razorbacks finish on top after a dramatic seesaw battle with Duke for the NCAA championship". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 22, 2021 . ^ Welborn, John (March 14, 1994). "Duke's Hill named ACC Player of the Year". Greensboro News & Record . Retrieved June 22, 2021 . ^ "U.S. Calls on Reserves for PAN AM Games". The Washington Post. August 19, 1991 . Retrieved June 22, 2021 . ^ "25th Anniversary: Duke Wins 1992 National Title". Duke University . Retrieved October 14, 2020 . ^ "Duke Sports Hall of Fame '' Grant Hill". GoDuke.com. Duke Blue Devils . Retrieved June 16, 2021 . ^ Brodess, Doug (October 24, 2011). "Duke Basketball: Top 10 Blue Devils of All Time". Bleacher Report. Retrieved March 28, 2016. ^ "ACC 50th Anniversary Men's Basketball Team". TheACC.com. Atlantic Coast Conference. November 7, 2008 . Retrieved June 16, 2021 . ^ "1994 NBA Draft". Basketball-Reference.Com . Retrieved August 7, 2014 . ^ Sibor, Doug (August 14, 2013). "The 25 Most Versatile Players in NBA History". Complex.com . Retrieved November 25, 2019 . ^ "NBA Rookie of the Year Award Winners". NBA.com . Retrieved April 30, 2021 . ^ "Hill's record 1,289,585 votes will go down in all-star history. (Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)". Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. January 26, 1995. ^ Schmuck, Peter (August 4, 1996). "Dream Team completes its mission in 95-69 final Up only five at half, American all-stars surge late to trounce Yugoslavs; ATLANTA OLYMPICS". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved August 29, 2021 . ^ "Grant Hill: Ankle Nightmare Would Have Been Avoided With Knicks". March 17, 2014. ^ "Magic's Strength No Illusion". CBS News. August 3, 2000 . Retrieved April 1, 2018 . ^ Beset by injuries in career, Hill considers retirement, updated April 28, 2007, ^ Hill to sign with Phoenix after agreeing to two-year deal July 5, 2007, ^ Aldridge, David. "Loyalty to Suns keeps Hill in Phoenix" Archived July 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, NBA.com, July 10, 2009. ^ "SN names the 20 smartest athletes in sports". Sporting News. September 27, 2010. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. ^ "SN names the 20 smartest athletes in sports '' MLB". Sporting News. September 23, 2010. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013 . Retrieved June 3, 2013 . ^ Schwartz, Michael (June 8, 2010). "Grant Hill swiftly exercises option, sends message about keeping team together". valleyofthesuns.com. ^ "Hill Eclipses 16,000 career points in Sun's Victory over Blazers". NBA.com. January 14, 2011 . Retrieved June 22, 2021 . ^ Grant Hill staying with Phoenix Suns ^ "CLIPPERS SIGN SEVEN-TIME ALL-STAR GRANT HILL". NBA.com. July 18, 2012 . Retrieved July 18, 2012 . [permanent dead link ] ^ "Grant Hill retires from NBA basketball :InsideHoops". www.insidehoops.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 . Retrieved June 2, 2013 . ^ "Grant Hill retires from NBA after 19 seasons". ^ "2018 Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony: Grant Hill thanks Coach K; Jason Kidd jokes with Dirk". CBSSports.com. ^ Lepore, Steve (September 24, 2013). " ' NBA Inside Stuff' is back". SBNation.com. ^ "Where Are They Now: 27 Years After Christian Laettner Made the [sic] "The Shot " ". March 28, 2019. ^ a b "How Grant Hill went from having 'no clue' about broadcasting to calling the Final Four". sports.yahoo.com. ^ Chip Patterson (February 3, 2015). "2015 Final Four: Bill Raftery, Grant Hill picked as game analysts". CBS Sports . Retrieved March 11, 2015 . ^ Cornish, Stephanie (April 25, 2015). "Grant Hill Among New Owners of Atlanta Hawks - Afro". ^ "Atlanta Hawks Sold to Ares' Ressler for $850 million, Group Includes Sara Blakely and Grant Hill". Atlanta Business Chronicle. April 24, 2015 . Retrieved January 27, 2016 . ^ Cohen, Ben (April 22, 2015). "Atlanta Hawks Selling for $850 Million". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved February 9, 2016 . ^ "Atlanta Hawks Co-Owner Hill Says Arena is Geared Towards the Digital Experience". Bloomberg. February 15, 2019 . Retrieved July 12, 2021 . ^ A Better Basketball Player? Archived October 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, AdvertisementAve.com ^ Depaula, Nick (October 24, 2018). "Grant Hill Inks lifetime deal with Fila to revive retro sneaker line". ESPN.com . Retrieved June 22, 2021 . ^ "Tamia & Grant Hill in New AT&T Commercial". Chris Smith Management / 21 Entertainment Group. Archived from the original on May 22, 2014 . Retrieved May 21, 2014 . ^ "The Fab Five: Hating Duke". ESPN. March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on March 16, 2011 . Retrieved March 18, 2011 . ^ Reid, Jason (March 13, 2011). "Jalen Rose's comments on race in ESPN documentary are misguided". The Washington Post . Retrieved March 17, 2011 . ^ Hill, Grant (March 16, 2011). "Grant Hill's Response to Jalen Rose". The New York Times . Retrieved March 17, 2011 . ^ Everson, Darren (March 16, 2011). "Fab Five Member Responds to Hill". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved March 18, 2011 . ^ "Hill Takes Issue In Fab Five Flap". MSNBC. March 16, 2011 . Retrieved March 17, 2011 . [dead link ] ^ "Hill Takes Issue In Fab Five Flap". Forbes. March 16, 2011. Archived from the original on April 6, 2011 . Retrieved March 17, 2011 . ^ Spears, Marc J. (September 7, 2018). "Grant Hill: 'I was fortunate, but that didn't necessarily help in the basketball world ' ". ^ "Hot Air: When ex-Cowboy Calvin Hill was 'unprepared' for birth of son Grant, Roger Staubach came through again". Dallas News. April 3, 2015. ^ Almond, Elliott (March 16, 1993). "A Head Start on Maturity: Duke's Grant Hill Got an Early View of Life's Diversity". Los Angeles Times. ^ Telling, Gillian (December 20, 2018). "Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals Former NBA Star Grant Hill Was the First Boyfriend She Brought Home". PEOPLE.com . Retrieved March 6, 2021 . ^ Shanklin, Mary (December 23, 2016). "Disney reshaped mansion landscape for Orlando". Orlando Sentinel. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. ^ Grant Hill at Stop MRSA Now! ^ "Stop MRSA Now!". www.stopmrsanow.org. ^ Eilerson, Nick (June 28, 2013). "Grant Hill pursues life beyond basketball Former South Lakes High star reflects back on roots in Reston". Fairfax Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013 . Retrieved November 22, 2019 . ^ a b c d e Giving Back to the Community at Hill's official website ^ Broussard, Chris (December 6, 2003). "Inside the NBA: Now It's Artest's Opponents Who Need Anger Management". The New York Times . Retrieved October 28, 2020 . ^ "Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art". Nasher Museum, Duke University . Retrieved October 28, 2020 . ^ Waggoner, Martha (March 26, 2006). "NBA star Grant Hill's art collection on exhibit". Ocala Star-Banner. AP . Retrieved October 28, 2020 . ^ Rhoden, William C. (November 5, 2008). "Joe Louis Moment". The New York Times . Retrieved October 28, 2020 . ^ Chase, Chris (November 5, 2012). "List: NBA players and coaches exclusively donate to Barack Obama's campaign". USA Today . Retrieved October 28, 2020 . External links [ edit ] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grant Hill .Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.comGrantHill.com '' Official SiteGrant Hill YouTube Highlights ChannelInterview with Michael Tillery of The Starting FiveBerri; Schmidt, Martin B.; Brook, Stacey L.; et al. (February 2004). "Stars at the Gate: The Impact of Star Power on NBA Gate Revenues" (PDF) . Journal of Sports Economics. 3 (1): 33''50. doi:10.1177/1527002503254051. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 5, 2007. Links to related articles

Christian Laettner - Wikipedia

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American basketball player

Christian LaettnerLaettner in 2014

Born ( 1969-08-17 ) August 17, 1969 (age 52) Angola, New YorkNationalityAmericanListed height6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)Listed weight235 lb (107 kg)High school Nichols School (Buffalo, New York) CollegeDuke (1988''1992)NBA draft1992 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd overallSelected by the Minnesota TimberwolvesPlaying career1992''2005, 2011''2012PositionPower forward / CenterNumber32, 441992''1996Minnesota Timberwolves1996''1999Atlanta Hawks1999''2000Detroit Pistons2000''2001Dallas Mavericks2001''2004Washington Wizards2004''2005Miami Heat2011''2012Jacksonville Giants2012Fort Wayne Mad Ants (assistant)NBA All-Star (1997)NBA All-Rookie First Team (1993)2 NCAA champion (1991, 1992)NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1991)Consensus National College Player of the Year (1992)Consensus first-team All-American (1992)Consensus second-team All-American (1991)ACC Player of the Year (1992)2 ACC Athlete of the Year (1991, 1992)2 First-team All-ACC (1991, 1992)Second-team All-ACC (1990)No. 32 retired by Duke Blue DevilsUSA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year (1991)Second-team Parade All-American (1988)Third-team Parade All-American (1987)Points11,121 (12.8 ppg)Rebounds5,806 (6.7 rpg)Assists2,224 (2.6 apg) Stats at NBA.com Stats at Basketball-Reference.com College Basketball Hall of FameInducted in 2010Christian Donald Laettner (, LAYT -nÉr; born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. His college career for the Duke Blue Devils is widely regarded as one of the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) history.[a] He was the star player on the back-to-back Duke National Championship teams of 1991 and 1992, and the NCAA player of the year in his senior year.[2] He is particularly famous for his game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 1992 tournament and for the hatred he received from opposing fans.

Laettner was the only collegian selected for the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, dubbed the "Dream Team", that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. As a member of the "Dream Team", Laettner is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, and FIBA Hall of Fame, while he is enshrined for his individual career in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. He was drafted third overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, then played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six teams, being named as an All-Star in 1997.

Early life [ edit ] Christian Laettner was born and raised in Angola, New York (near Buffalo and Niagara Falls) to a blue-collar Roman Catholic family.[3] His father George, a newspaper press plant printer, was of Polish descent and his grandparents spoke Polish as their first language; his mother Bonnie was a teacher. Christian's older brother Christopher was a strong influence, often bullying young Christian, which helped instill a stern competitive drive.[4] Both boys also frequently worked as farm laborers to supplement their allowance.[3]

Laettner attended the private Nichols School; although he received a financial aid package that paid a substantial part of his tuition, his family had to sacrifice to send him there, and he also did janitorial work at the school to defray some of the cost.[b] During his career he scored over 2,000 points, breaking the school record set by teammate Ron Torgalski,[5] and the team won two state titles and reached another semifinal.[3] He was a much sought-after college recruit.[c]

College [ edit ] Laettner attended Duke University and played for the basketball team from 1988 to 1992 under coach Mike Krzyzewski. As the team's star player his final two seasons, he led the Blue Devils to the first two national titles in school history.[d] A four-year starter, he also contributed to their runner-up finish his sophomore year and Final Four appearance in his freshman year.[e] Thus, in total, he played 23 out of a maximum possible 24 NCAA tournament games, winning 21; both are records.

For his career, Laettner averaged 16.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while making almost half of his three-pointers.[6] He scored 21.5 points per game his senior season, garnering every major national player of the year award; Duke retired his No. 32 jersey later that year.[7] His career is widely regarded among the best in college history,[a] and he is enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.[2]

NCAA tournament records [ edit ] Most points scored: 407[8]Most free throws made: 142Most free throw attempts: 167Most games won: 21Most games played: 23Clutch performances [ edit ] Laettner had several clutch performances in the NCAA tournament.[4] His most famous was the 1992 regional final against Kentucky, which was foreshadowed by the 1990 regional final against UConn; in both games Duke trailed by one point with two seconds remaining in overtime before Laettner made a jumper as time expired. He also swished the game-winning free throws against undefeated and heavily favored UNLV in the 1991 semifinal, which avenged UNLV's 30-point victory in the 1990 final. He then led Duke to its first championship, defeating Kansas in the final, and was selected as the tournament's most outstanding player.

In the 1992 East Regional Final, a game many critics rate among the greatest in college basketball history, Laettner hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating turn-around jumper that has since become known as simply The Shot.[4][9][10] Over the course of the game, he shot a perfect ten of ten field goals and ten of ten free throws for 31 points. He then finished his college career by leading Duke to its second consecutive national title. The following year ESPN awarded him both "Outstanding Performance Under Pressure" and "College Basketball Play of the Year" for the Kentucky game, also awarding him "Outstanding College Basketball Performer of the Year".[11]

The game-winning shot against Kentucky became a cultural icon, having been frequently televised in college basketball montages. Several companies have also featured it in their commercials.[f] In 2006 The Best Damn Sports Show Period ranked it the fifth most memorable moment in sports history.[12]

Widely reviled [ edit ] Laettner was widely reviled by opposing fans throughout his career, to the extent that more than 20 years after graduating from Duke, he was voted the most hated college basketball player in history in an ESPN online poll.[13] This led to ESPN's creation of the 30 for 30 documentary I Hate Christian Laettner that explored five factors which the filmmakers believe explain this widespread and persistent hatred: race, privilege, bullying, greatness, and physical appearance.[4] He was particularly resented for stepping on the chest of Kentucky player Aminu Timberlake during the 1992 regional final, which the referees deemed a technical foul; Laettner expressed regret for his misconduct but believed that ejection would have been too harsh a consequence.[14] The opening lyric to the folksong "1992" by Doug Boyd references Laettner's shot and the subsequent impact on University of Kentucky basketball fans.

NBA career [ edit ] Drafted third overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves,[g] Laettner played 13 years in the NBA, from 1992 to 2005, scoring 11,121 points and grabbing 5,806 rebounds.[6] His first six seasons were his best, averaging 16.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while starting almost all of them. He also was selected to the All-Rookie First Team in 1993 and the All-Star Game in 1997 while with the Atlanta Hawks. His time on the Hawks was his most successful NBA team experience, twice reaching the second round of the playoffs.[6]

Despite his achievements, Laettner's NBA career was characterized by relative transience.[4] He played for six different teams, was traded six times, and never spent more than three full seasons anywhere.[6] In 2004, he was suspended for several games for using marijuana.[15]

National team career [ edit ] As the national player of the year, Laettner was the only collegian selected for the prestigious "Dream Team" that won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in a dominant fashion. He averaged 4.8 points per game.[16] The team is considered one of the greatest in sports history[17] and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, FIBA Hall of Fame, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.[18]

Post-NBA basketball [ edit ] Laettner maintains a close friendship with Duke teammate Brian Davis.[4] They have pursued several business ventures together, including real-estate development in Durham,[19] a Major League Soccer team,[20] and an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Memphis Grizzlies.[21] Some legal problems, primarily regarding unpaid debts, have also occurred.[22]

Since 2011 he has operated numerous youth basketball training camps.[23] He also played one season in a semi-pro league[24] and briefly served as an assistant coach in the NBA Development League.[25] For The Z Team, an Olympic Channel reality show that has former Olympic athletes help struggling sports teams, he worked with the Garinger High School boys basketball team for a week.[26]

Personal life [ edit ] Laettner lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and is an avid musky fisherman.[27][28][29]

He is divorced with three children.[30]

He has donated large sums to his alma maters.[h]

Career statistics [ edit ] NBA [ edit ] Regular season [ edit ] Playoffs [ edit ] YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG1996Atlanta101033.4.484.333.7046.91.51.21.015.71997Atlanta101040.3.418.190.8577.22.61.0.817.61998Atlanta4021.8.343.000.8824.31.01.5.39.81999Detroit5024.6.426'-- .7862.82.2.8.210.22000Detroit3325.0.412'-- .7505.02.0.0.36.72005Miami13010.5.500.000.8331.9.5.3.02.2Career452325.7.432.179.7944.71.5.8.510.5College [ edit ] YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG1988''89Duke361616.9.7231.000.7274.71.21.0.88.91989''90Duke383829.9.511.500.8369.62.21.61.116.31990''91Duke393930.2.575.340.8028.71.91.91.119.81991''92Duke353532.2.575.557.8157.92.02.1.921.5Career14812827.4.574.485.8067.81.81.61.016.6Awards and honors [ edit ] NBANBA All-Star (1997)NBA All-Rookie First Team (1993)Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (class of 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team")USA BasketballSummer Olympics gold medal winner (1992)Pan American Games bronze medal winner (1991)FIBA World Championship bronze medal winner (1990)Tournament of the Americas gold medal winner (1992)Tournament of the Americas silver medal winner (1989)Goodwill Games silver medal winner (1990)U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame (class of 2009 as a member of the "Dream Team")FIBA Hall of Fame (class of 2017 as a member of the "Dream Team")NCAA2 NCAA champion (1991, 1992)NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1991)Consensus National College Player of the Year (1992)Consensus first-team All-American (1992)Consensus second-team All-American (1991)2 NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team) (1991, 1992)ACC Player of the Year (1992)ACC Player of the Year (1992)2 ACC Athlete of the Year (1991, 1992)2 First-team All-ACC (1991, 1992)Second-team All-ACC (1990)ACC Tournament MVP 1992Oscar Robertson Trophy (1992)NABC Player of the Year (1992)NABC Player of the Year (1992)John R. Wooden Award (1992)Naismith College Player of the Year (1992)No. 32 jersey retired by Duke in 1992College Basketball Hall of Fame (class of 2010)MediaSporting News College Player of the Year (1992)AP College Basketball Player of the Year (1992)OtherNational Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame (class of 2008)[33]See also [ edit ] List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 2,000 points and 1,000 reboundsList of NCAA Division I men's basketball career games played leadersList of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leadersNotes [ edit ] ^ a b As stated by Jalen Rose, Gene Wojciechowski, Jay Bilas, and others.[4] ^ According to Wojciechowski, "He was, in all probability, the poorest student at the school and almost certainly the only one whose parents ordered his clothes from the Sears catalog, which was the one place they could find pants that fit his growing frame."[3] ^ As a freshman, Laettner received his first recruiting letter, from nearby St. Bonaventure University. The following year, he became a national recruit, sought after by virtually every major Division I program. He first narrowed his list to 11 schools, and eventually decided he preferred the brand of basketball played in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). By his senior year, he decided he would make only three official visits'--to Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia.[3] ^ Duke was the first repeat champion since UCLA in 1973 and remains one of two teams, along with Florida in 2007, to defend its title after the NCAA tournament expanded to six rounds in 1985. ^ earning the distinction of being one of only four players (including teammates Greg Koubek and Brian Davis) to play in four consecutive final fours, while being the only one to start every game. ^ including those of Allstate in 2003 and Laettner's reenactment for Vitamin Water in 2009 ^ after Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning; incidentally all three would be teammates on the Miami Heat during Laettner's final season ^ $1 million to Nichols School to create a scholarship fund for students in financial need and to aid in the completion of a new gymnasium[31] and, in partnership with Brian Davis, $2 million to Duke's men's basketball program to endow an athletic scholarship and support construction of an athletics center and practice facility.[32] References [ edit ] ^ Men's Tournament of the Americas '' 1992, USA Basketball. Retrieved December 6, 2018. ^ a b Christian Laettner at the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame ^ a b c d e Wojciechowski, Gene (January 10, 2012). "How can you be that confident?". ESPN.com . Retrieved January 11, 2012 . Excerpted from The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds that Changed Basketball, Blue Rider Books (imprint of Penguin Group USA), 2012. ^ a b c d e f g ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary I Hate Christian Laettner ^ Rippey, Sharon (December 19, 2007). "Ron Torgalski '89 Inducted into Athletic Hall of Fame". Hamilton College . Retrieved May 13, 2020 . ^ a b c d Laettner's Duke and NBA statistics at basketball-reference.com ^ "Duke Legends". Dukeupdate.com . Retrieved April 7, 2011 . ^ "WashingtonWizards.com Mailbox: Christian Laettner". Nba.com . Retrieved April 7, 2011 . ^ "Kentucky vs. Duke (March 28, 1992)" . Retrieved October 30, 2016 . ^ "SI on Campus: 16 Greatest Games". Sportsillustrated.cnn.com . Retrieved April 7, 2011 . ^ "The 2002 ESPY Awards '' ESPY Awards past winners". Espn.go.com . Retrieved April 7, 2011 . ^ "Best Damn's Top 50 Unforgettable Sports Moments". February 4, 2009. Archived from the original on February 4, 2009 . Retrieved October 23, 2012 . ^ Titus, Mark (March 19, 2013). "Most Hated College Basketball Player, Day 7: There Can Only Be One" . Retrieved October 30, 2016 . ^ "Christian Laettner tries to make amends for infamous stomp". Rivals.yahoo.com. October 5, 2011 . Retrieved March 17, 2012 . ^ CBC Sports. "NBA suspends Wizards' Laettner" January 15, 2004. Accessed February 6, 2008. ^ "USA Olympic Basketball Team Rosters and Stats - Basketball-Reference.com" . Retrieved October 30, 2016 . ^ "The Original Dream Team". NBA.com. August 8, 1992. Archived from the original on May 20, 2012 . Retrieved April 7, 2011 . ^ "The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame '' Hall of Famers". Hoophall.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2010 . Retrieved March 11, 2015 . ^ "Duke buys property in West Village from failed Davis-Laettner venture". Archived from the original on July 3, 2015 . Retrieved October 30, 2016 . ^ "MacFarlane leads group in purchase of Major League Soccer's D.C. United". Archived from the original on March 18, 2007 . Retrieved April 28, 2007 . ^ "Owner sets May 1 deadline to take team off market" . Retrieved April 28, 2007 . ^ Stych, Ed; Producer, Web (March 18, 2012). "Ex-Timberwolves Laettner, Davis again avoid jail time over Dawkins debt". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal . Retrieved March 18, 2012 . ^ "The CLBA" . Retrieved October 30, 2016 . ^ "Getting to Know ... Christian Laettner". Jacksonvillemag.com . Retrieved October 23, 2012 . ^ J.E. Miller (January 20, 2012). "Christian Laettner Joins NBA Mad Ants". Milleronsports.com . Retrieved October 23, 2012 . ^ Fowler, Scott (January 28, 2018). "Would you dare put Christian Laettner in charge of a high school basketball team?". www.charlotteobserver.com. Charlotte Observer . Retrieved October 14, 2019 . ^ 30 Seconds with Christian Laettner, nytimes.com, March 29, 2009. ^ Smits, Garry (February 12, 2012). "Christian Laettner never lost his taste for the game". The Florida Times-Union . Retrieved June 25, 2012 . ^ Best, Neil. Christian Laettner doesn't hate the film 'I Hate Christian Laettner'. Newsday. Retrieved March 15, 2015. ^ Christian Laettner Sued His Own Business for $10 Million. Now Some Former Partners Are Suing Him. David Hudnall, Indy Week March 9, 2016 ^ "NBA.com: Christian Laettner Bio". July 16, 2006. Archived from the original on July 16, 2006 . Retrieved October 30, 2016 . CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) ^ "Laettner, Davis Give $2 Million to Legacy Fund, New Athletic Facility". Dukenews.duke.edu. July 28, 2005. Archived from the original on September 7, 2005 . Retrieved April 7, 2011 . ^ Christian Laettner Archived April 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine at the Polish Sports HOF External links [ edit ] Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.comLinks to related articles

Jalen Rose - Wikipedia

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American basketball player

Jalen Anthony Rose (born January 30, 1973) is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' "Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson) that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores.

Rose played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a small forward for six teams, most notably alongside Reggie Miller on the Indiana Pacers team that made three consecutive Eastern Conference finals, including the 2000 NBA Finals. He retired in 2007 with a career average of 14.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game

Rose is a sports analyst for ABC and ESPN. He is an analyst on NBA Countdown, Get Up!, and co-host of the ESPN talk show, Jalen & Jacoby, with co-host, David Jacoby[1] He is also the founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy and the author of The New York Times best-seller Got to Give the People What They Want and producer of the ESPN documentary The Fab Five.

Early life [ edit ] Rose's biological father Jimmy Walker was a No. 1 overall draft pick in the NBA who started in the backcourt alongside Jerry West in the 1972 NBA All-Star Game. Although they eventually spoke several times over the phone, Rose never met his father in person. Walker died in July 2007 of lung cancer.[2]

Rose's mother, Jeanne, named him from a combination of his father's name, James, and his uncle's name, Leonard.[3] As a result of Rose's prominence in the NCAA and NBA, Jalen became one of the most popular names for African-American boys born in the 1990s and early 2000s. A number of notable American athletes who began play in the 2010s are named Jalen, after Rose,[4][5] including Jalen Mayfield, Jalen Suggs, and Jaylen Waddle. In 2021, there were 32 players with some variation of the name Jalen on rosters in the NBA, NFL, and other North American professional sports, with an additional 80 who played men's college basketball.[6]

Basketball career [ edit ] College basketball career [ edit ] Rose while playing with the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team.

As a star at Southwestern High School in Detroit, where he was teammates with future NBA players Voshon Lenard and Howard Eisley, Rose obtained a high profile and can even be seen at a high school All-American camp in the documentary film Hoop Dreams. Rose attended the University of Michigan where the Wolverines reached two NCAA Finals games in 1992 and 1993, finishing as national runners up both times. Rose was a part of Wolverines coach Steve Fisher's legendary 1991 recruiting class, dubbed the "Fab Five". He led the Fab Five in scoring his freshman year, averaging 17.6 points per game, and set the school freshman scoring record with 597 total points.[7] Aside from being the most outspoken of the Fab Five, Rose was also their small forward and leader. While he did not win an NCAA title, he racked up over 1700 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists, and 100 steals. At 6-8 and playing as a versatile point guard, some reporters started comparing Rose to his schoolboy idol Magic Johnson.[8] Of the players called before the grand jury (Robert Traylor, Webber, Rose, Maurice Taylor, and Louis Bullock)[9] in the University of Michigan basketball scandal, Rose was the only one not listed as having received large amounts of money.[10]

NBA career [ edit ] Rose played for six different NBA teams, forging a solid pro career after skipping his senior season at Michigan. He was selected 13th overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1994 NBA draft. After two years with Denver, he was traded to the Indiana Pacers, along with Reggie Williams and a future first round draft pick, for Mark Jackson, Ricky Pierce, and a 1st round draft pick.[11]

Despite his successes in Indiana, he was not readily accepted early on.[12] Rose frequently logged DNPCDs (Did Not Play '' Coach's Decision) under Coach Larry Brown. Rose also often spoke out about the fact he was being used as a backup two-guard and small forward over his preference, which was point guard. It was not until Larry Bird took over coaching duties did Rose finally begin to blossom, eventually realizing he was most effective at small forward.[13]

As a member of the Indiana Pacers, Rose helped the team get back on its feet after a disastrous 1996''97 season and make it to three consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances.[citation needed ] Rose became the first player in eight years other than Reggie Miller to lead the Pacers in scoring in the 1999''2000 season when he averaged 18.2 points per game for the eventual Eastern Conference Champions, winning the NBA Most Improved Player Award in the process, the first time in Pacers history. After helping lead his team to the 2000 NBA Finals, Rose went on to average 25 points per game in the six game series, including a 32-point effort in a game five win. However, the Pacers lost the series to the Los Angeles Lakers.[14] This playoff series is also remembered for Rose intentionally placing his foot underneath Kobe Bryant in game 2, while Bryant was landing back to the ground after shooting a jump shot, in an effort to cause Bryant injury (which Rose later admitted to intentionally doing).[15] Bryant would miss Game 3 of the series due to an injury after landing on Rose's foot.[15]

During the 2001''02 season, Rose was traded to the Chicago Bulls along with Travis Best, Norman Richardson, and a future second round draft pick in exchange for Brad Miller, Ron Mercer, Ron Artest and Kevin Ollie.

After 16 games in the 2003''04 season, Rose was traded to the Toronto Raptors, along with power forwards Donyell Marshall and Lonny Baxter.

On February 3, 2006, midway through the 2005''06 season, he was traded, along with a first-round draft pick, and an undisclosed sum of cash (believed to be around $3 million), to the New York Knicks for Antonio Davis, where he was reunited with Larry Brown, his coach for one year with the Indiana Pacers. The motivation behind this trade was apparently to free up cap space (Rose earned close to $16 million a year) and to allow the Raptors to acquire an experienced center who could relieve some of Chris Bosh's rebounding duties. Rose's final game and contribution for the Raptors was a home win against the Sacramento Kings, where he scored the winning basket in overtime.[16]

On November 3, 2006, Rose announced he would sign with the Suns.[17] On November 7, it was officially announced that Rose had signed a $1.5 million one-year deal with Phoenix.[18] Rose retired from the NBA in 2007 with a career average of 14.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game.[19]

Post-NBA career and broadcasting [ edit ] Rose worked as a Sideline Reporter for the 2006 NBA Playoffs for TNT. Since his retirement in 2007, Rose has worked at ABC/ESPN, first as an analyst on SportsCenter and in 2012 he became one of the hosts for NBA Countdown. Rose has also worked on ESPN's Grantland. [20]

Rose is the owner of Three Tier Entertainment, an independent, Los Angeles based management and production company. Created in 2007, Three Tier Entertainment develops television and film projects and also manages talent including directors, actors and screenplay writers.[citation needed ] In 2011, he produced the ESPN documentary The Fab Five. The Fab Five earned a 2.1 rating to become ESPNÊ¼s highest rated documentary according to the Nielsen Company, despite sparking controversy that led to a series of media exchanges between members of the press, Michigan Wolverines men's basketball players and Duke Blue Devils men's basketball players.[21]

In 2015, Rose released Got to Give the People What They Want, a book about his personal life story. It is a New York Times Bestseller and made the list of Michigan Notable Books from 2016.[citation needed ] As of 2021, he co-hosts Jalen & Jacoby, a national US sports radio show on ESPN Radio, with David Jacoby.[22] Since April 2018, Rose has been a guest analyst of Get Up!, a three-hour morning sports talk show on ESPN.[23][24]

Rose also has a multi-platform partnership with the New York Post where he hosts a podcast and weekly column under the name Renaissance Man.[25]

NBA career statistics [ edit ] Player profile [ edit ] A left-handed player, Rose was known to have a smooth and versatile offensive game.[citation needed ] Jalen was particularly gifted as a scorer from the perimeter or the post.[citation needed ] Rose was used throughout his career at three different positions. He began his career as a point guard for the Denver Nuggets and became a shooting guard/small forward for the Indiana Pacers. He then returned to the point guard position briefly with the Toronto Raptors. However, during his career he was most effective as a small forward or swingman. Rose was also a good passer, especially for his height, and Indiana often employed him as a point forward. Not known for his defense, Rose's best moment defensively came during the 1997''1998 season, when Rose emerged as a defensive stopper on Michael Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals, though the Bulls pulled out the series in seven games. Rose has sometimes been regarded as a team leader, particularly under head coach Larry Bird, though he reportedly was a disruptive force in the Pacers' locker room during his feud with the coach at that time Isiah Thomas, after Thomas cut former Fab Five teammate Jimmy King on the final day to do so before the 2000''2001 season.[citation needed ]

While in Toronto, Rose also frequently clashed with Raptors coach Sam Mitchell, who benched a struggling Jalen early in the 2005''06 season in favor of rookie Joey Graham.

In the following months, Rose increased his Player Efficiency Rating more than three points (to 13.7) while averaging 12.1 points, 2.5 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game. However, he only shot 40.4% from the field and 27% from three-point range (including a 51.4 true shooting percentage) through 46 games.[citation needed ]

In 2003, Rose was honored with the Professional Basketball Writers Association Magic Johnson Award. Jalen was inducted into the Detroit High School Hall of Fame in 2013 and Michigan Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Regular season [ edit ] Playoffs [ edit ] YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG1995Denver3333.0.464.250.6003.76.01.0.710.01998Indiana15019.5.480.375.7411.81.9.7.48.11999Indiana13027.3.442.348.8242.42.51.0.412.22000Indiana242341.9.437.429.8054.43.4.7.520.82001Indiana4441.0.380.3131.0004.52.81.5.318.02007Phoenix109.0.250.000.0001.02.0.0.02.0Career593031.9.438.385.8013.22.9.8.414.6Philanthropy [ edit ] Jalen Rose with graduates of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy

In 2000, Rose established the Jalen Rose Foundation/Charitable Fund to create life-changing opportunities for underserved youth through the development of unique programs and the distribution of grants to qualified nonprofit organizations. Grants focus on education and sports and are distributed in Jalen's hometown of Detroit and in other communities in need.

Rose established the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy (JRLA) in 2011. The academy is an open enrollment, tuition free, public charter high school on the Northwest side of Detroit. The academy serves over 400 ninth through twelfth grade students and graduated its inaugural class in June 2015 '' one hundred percent of the academy's graduates have gained college, trade/technical school or military acceptance.[citation needed ] The mission is to provide a leadership-focused experience within a high-performing high school that engages and inspires Detroit area youth to achieve at the rigorous level necessary to graduate with a college degree and thrive in life. Rose serves as the President of the Board of Directors.[26]

The Detroit News has recognized Rose with the Michiganian of the Year Award in recognition of his excellence, courage and philanthropy to uplift the metropolitan area and Michigan. In 2016, he was awarded the 11th Annual National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award for his contributions to civil and human rights, and for laying the foundation for future leaders through his career in sports in the spirit of Dr. King. Rose won the award for establishing the Jalen Rose Foundation, which creates opportunities for underprivileged youth.[27] In addition, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame awarded Rose the 2016 Mannie Jackson '' Basketball's Human Spirit Award.[28]

Personal life [ edit ] In 2005, Rose earned a Bachelor of Science in Management Studies from the University of Maryland University College.[29][30] He remains an active supporter of his alma mater, the University of Michigan, and was seen rooting for their men's basketball team during the 2006 NIT Final Four with fellow ex-Wolverine, Maurice Taylor.[31] He also was seen in Atlanta, Georgia for the Wolverines' 2013 NCAA National Title game.[32]

In 2011, Rose was arrested, pleaded guilty and served time in jail for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan.[33]

In July 2018, Rose married for the first time to ESPN personality Molly Qerim in a private ceremony.[34] Rose has two daughters and a son from a previous relationship.

References [ edit ] ^ "Jalen & Jacoby Series". ESPN . Retrieved August 4, 2020 . ^ Bembry, Jerry. "The legacy of Jimmy Walker and Jalen Rose." www.espn.com, September 6, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2013.[non-primary source needed ] ^ "Jalen Rose Report" (Podcast). Grantland Channel. November 21, 2013. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013 . Retrieved November 23, 2013 . ^ Kirkham, Alexandra Berzon and Chris (March 22, 2017). "It's Not Your Imagination: There are Loads of Jalens in College Basketball". Wall Street Journal '' via www.wsj.com. ^ "The most popular names in college basketball in 2020 sound a lot like the 1990s | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. ^ Woodyard, Eric (April 28, 2021). "The Jalen Generation: How Jalen Rose's name has spread throughout the world of sports". ESPN. ^ "Happy Birthday, Jalen Rose: Jan. 30". The Post Game. January 30, 2015 . Retrieved October 13, 2021 . ^ Reed, William F. (April 6, 1992). "A Rose in Full Bloom". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved August 31, 2018 . ^ Larcom, Geoff (October 19, 2000). "Former U-M assistant testifies in Martin case". Ann Arbor News. Archived from the original on January 10, 2003. ^ Norwood, Robyn. "Webber faces indictment." Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2002. www.articles.latimes.com. Retrieved November 6, 2013. ^ "Jalen Rose". www.basketball-reference.com . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . ^ Fromal, Adam. "Jalen Rose: Reggie Miller Doesn't Acknowledge Me, Larry Brown Tried to Ruin Me". Bleacher Report . Retrieved February 19, 2021 . ^ "Rose's Career Booms With Bird". archive.nytimes.com . Retrieved February 19, 2021 . ^ "With Shaq and Kobe in the Starring Roles, Lakers Win First Championship in a Dozen Years". Los Angeles Times. June 20, 2000 . Retrieved February 19, 2021 . ^ a b "Jalen Rose Intentionally Injured Kobe Bryant In The 2000 NBA Finals". www.businessinsider.com . Retrieved July 8, 2019 . ^ "Bibby gets 42, but Raptors beat Kings in OT". Times-Herald. January 30, 2006 . Retrieved February 19, 2021 . ^ "Knicks trade Antonio Davis to Raptors for Jalen Rose". InsideHoops.com. February 3, 2006 . Retrieved October 31, 2012 . ^ "Full bloom: Free agent Rose signs deal with Suns."www.espn.com, November 7, 2006. Retrieved November 6, 2013. ^ "Jalen Rose named ambassador for Retired Players Association". Sports Illustrated. August 5, 2014. ^ Emery, Debbie (September 12, 2015). "Grantland Duo Jalen & Jacoby Get National Primetime ESPN Radio Show". The Wrap. ^ "The Fab Five: Hating Duke". ESPN. March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on March 16, 2011 . Retrieved March 18, 2011 . Reid, Jason (March 13, 2011). "Jalen Rose's comments on race in ESPN documentary are misguided". Washington Post . Retrieved March 17, 2011 . Hill, Grant (March 16, 2011). "Grant Hill's Response to Jalen Rose". The New York Times . Retrieved March 17, 2011 . Everson, Darren (March 16, 2011). "Fab Five Member Responds to Hill". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved March 18, 2011 . "Hill Takes Issue With Rose In Fab Five Flap". nba.com. March 16, 2011. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015 . Retrieved November 8, 2013 . ^ Wang, Joyce (September 21, 2015). "Jalen & Jacoby Launches as National ESPN Radio Primetime Show". ESPN . Retrieved June 14, 2016 . [non-primary source needed ] ^ " ' It Don't Stop': Jalen Rose's Work Days Are a Whirlwind". Sports Illustrated. ^ "NBA Countdown Analyst, Co-host Jalen & Jacoby". ESPN . Retrieved October 13, 2021 . ^ Badenhausen, Kurt (August 20, 2020). "Jalen Rose Partners With New York Post For A Weekly Column And Podcast". Forbes . Retrieved August 4, 2021 . ^ "About JRLA." Archived August 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. Retrieved November 8, 2013. ^ Wade, Don (January 4, 2016). "Sports Legacy Award Winners to Be Honored at MLK Game". MemphisDailyNews.com . Retrieved August 31, 2018 . ^ "The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame :: Chris Paul, Jalen Rose and Tubby Smith Named Winners of 2016 Mannie Jackson - Basketball's Human Spirit Award" . Retrieved March 8, 2017 . ^ Walsh-Sarnecki, Peggy. "Practicing What He Preaches." Detroit Free Press, July 9, 2005. www.jalenrose.com. ^ Rose, Jalen. "Jalen Rose Leadership Academy: Bringing a Quality Education and Jobs to Detroit." Huffington Post, February 1, 2013. www.huffingtonpost.com. ^ Waldstein, David (June 24, 2008). "2006: Star-Ledger: Michigan remains in Rose". JalenRose.com . Retrieved August 31, 2018 . [non-primary source needed ] ^ Greenberg, Chris (April 8, 2013). "Chris Webber Arrives! Fab Five Reunion At Michigan vs. Louisville NCAA Tournament Final". HuffPost . Retrieved September 1, 2018 . ^ "Jalen Rose Sentenced to 20 Days Jail for Drunken Driving". West Bloomfield, MI Patch. July 27, 2011. ^ Sulonen, Dana (July 20, 2018). "Former Michigan basketball player Jalen Rose marries Molly Qerim". Detroit Free Press . Retrieved July 21, 2018 . External links [ edit ] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jalen Rose . Official website Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.comJalen Rose at IMDbLinks to related articles

Cameron Crazies - Wikipedia

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Cameron Crazies swarm the court after Duke defeated North Carolina, 1999''2000

The Cameron Crazies are the student section supporting the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team and the Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team. The section can hold approximately 1,200 occupants.[1][2] The section, also deemed "The Zoo" by Al McGuire for their humorous pranks, and "The Sixth-Man" by Duke men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski, is known for being "rude, crude and lewd '' as well as cleverly funny," stated Frank Vehorn of the Virginian-Pilot. The Crazies are famous for painting their bodies blue and white or wearing outrageous outfits. They start their cheering as soon as warm-ups begin. Throughout the game, the Crazies jump up and down when the opposing team has possession of the ball and yell cheers in unison at focal points of the game.

History [ edit ] The Cameron Crazies were named after Cameron Indoor Stadium, where the home basketball games are held, sometime in the mid-1980s.[3] The name became widely known as Mike Krzyzewski's program. It became one of the best in the country. In an article about the Crazies published in 2007, Al Featherston stated, "Duke's crowd may or may not be the best student section'... but it is the standard by which all others are measured."[2] Some other colleges and universities have used the Crazies as a model for their own cheering sections at basketball games, such as Harvard University and Indiana University, both of which recently printed a run of Crimson Crazies T-shirts. Over the years, some have noted that the Crazies have calmed down due to restrictions, such as not being able to throw things onto the court.[3]

Krzyzewskiville [ edit ] Gathering in

K-ville before the 2000 UNC''Duke game

Krzyzewskiville is a makeshift city in which the Cameron Crazies camp out before games in order to get seats. It was believed to be created in 1986 when around 15 drunk students rented a tent Thursday night and camped out for a game held on the following Saturday. Students followed the trend and eventually Krzyzewskiville became almost like an official town with its own metal placard. Before big games, like those against rival the University of North Carolina, more than 1,200 students pack the lawn. Living in tents in front of the stadium almost three months prior to the game, students have to use the restrooms in the gym, order pizzas and have them delivered to 'K-ville,' and follow strict rules enforced by the university.[1]

Strategies [ edit ] Since the 1980s, the Cameron Crazies have harassed opposing teams.[3] The Crazies are organized and prepare before games, handing out "dirt sheets" containing embarrassing information about opposing players, often focused around academic irresponsibility or run-ins with the law, as well as cheer ideas suggested by Duke's student team of line monitors.[4]

Once during a game, a television network had to turn off the sound because the Crazies were chanting about one of the sponsors.[citation needed ] Pranks included tossing bags of uncooked noodles during warmups at Georgia Tech's Craig Neal, who was 6'5" and weighed 160 pounds, throwing Twinkies at Georgia Tech's Dennis Scott because he was overweight, tossing pizza boxes as North Carolina State University's Lorenzo Charles walked on court after being caught stealing pizzas a few weeks prior to the game.[citation needed ] Chris Washburn had records thrown at him after being charged with stealing a stereo.[3] After being criticized by The Washington Post, the Crazies changed the normal placard that read, "If you can't go to college, go to State," and added "If you can't go to State, write for The Washington Post".[2] Once, while losing to NC State, the Duke crowd started chanting, "That's alright, that's okay! You will work for us one day!"[3] Cameron Crazies popularized many now-famous cheers and taunts, the most widely known of which is the "air ball" cheer in 1979 after North Carolina player Nick Yonakor's shot missed the rim and backboard entirely.[5]

Another famous instance of the Crazies' antics occurred in a Duke/UNC matchup on February 9, 2005. It was Roy Williams' first visit to Cameron Indoor as UNC head coach after formerly leaving his head coaching position at the University of Kansas. The Cameron Crazies used this knowledge and greeted the visiting Tar Heels in creative fashion. Some Duke fans dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz and prepared a yellow brick road for the Tar Heels to communicate that Williams was "not in Kansas anymore".[6]

One of their most famous chants occurs whenever an opposing player fouls out. As the player goes back to his bench, the Crazies mockingly wave at him and chant "Aaaaaah ..." When he sits down, they yell, "See ya!" Several players have been known to keep standing for long periods'--as long as the remainder of the game'--to keep from hearing "See ya!"[7]

Criticism [ edit ] In the past, the cheers and chanting have offended some coaches and fans, including Coach Krzyzewski, who in 1994 publicly asked the students to cheer for their team, not against the opposing team.[3] Duke University President Terry Sanford agreed, sending the students an avuncular letter back in the 1980s asking them to change the obscene cheers into cheers that were "wholesome, witty, and forceful." Television networks also took notice at one point; in 1979, NBC insisted on a time-delay so that the crowd could be censored if necessary.[2]

However, much of this criticism has cooled since the late 1990s, especially as commentators have noted that modern Duke teams frequently face far more vulgar abuse on the road than teams that visit Cameron due to their status as one of the few private schools with a consistently successful basketball program.[citation needed ]

References [ edit ] External links [ edit ] ESPN Page2 on the Cameron's Craziest at ESPN Page 2, 2002Kamp Krazy article on Kville in Sports Illustrated, 2004Articles and photo of the first Kville'' Cameroon Indoor exhibit at Duke University Archives

Duke Power Company - North Carolina History Project

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In addition to producing electricity that spurred industrial development in North Carolina, the Duke Power Company, now called the Duke Energy Corporation, has played important roles in several chapters of the state's history.

The company's origins lay in the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Catawba River. This had been an idea from Dr. W. Gill Wylie, a gynecologist by profession who foresaw the possibilities of electric power. After the completion of the dam in 1904, James Buchanan "Buck" Duke, who had amassed a fortune manufacturing machine-rolled cigarettes, offered to invest in Wylie's electricity generation venture. The Southern Power Company was incorporated in 1905.

The new company constructed a precisely coordinated system of dams on the Catawba River in South Carolina. The system was designed by Southern Power's chief engineer, W. S. Lee, and though it was located in South Carolina, much of its power flowed through new transmission lines into North Carolina. In its early years, Southern Power had numerous advantages over competitors, including efficient operations and a massive source of capital in Buck Duke's tobacco fortune. Buck Duke favored industrial uses of electrical power: during the early years of the Southern Power Company, its principal customers were textile manufacturers, which expanded rapidly as a result of their new source of energy.

In North and South Carolina, residential electricity consumption was minimal until around 1920. When Buck Duke founded Southern Power, he did not intend to supply electricity to residential customers. Southern Power began accepting residential customers only when textile manufacturers insisted that the company sell electricity to the workers who lived near textile mills. Southern Power soon began selling electricity to any individual customer who lived near power lines, and its customer base expanded rapidly. In the midst of this expansion, Buck Duke in 1913 created a new division of Southern Power devoted to residential sales. Called the Southern Public Utilities Company, this division of Southern Power revolutionized domestic life in the Carolinas, and by the 1920s, electrical appliances had become ubiquitous in the two states.

Renamed Duke Power in 1924, the electricity giant became unpopular in the early years of the Great Depression, having drawn the attention of anti-business politicians. Any politicians who supported Duke Power were ridiculed, and many of them, such as U.S. Senator Cameron Morrison, were voted out of office after doing so. Moreover, in the mid-1930s, the Federal government's Tennessee Valley Authority and Public Works Administration began constructing power plants that competed with Duke Power's plants. Duke Power opposed these government projects. Its executives offered clumsy public explanations for Duke Power's opposition to these Federal plants. They asserted, for instance, that the Federal plants would severely constrain Duke Power's philanthropic activities. Nevertheless, the company had some success in blocking these Federal projects, in one case suing successfully to keep a Federally funded plant out of High Point. The Depression was in any event a low point for Duke Power, and its expansion had ground to a halt by the late 1930s.

Along with many other businesses, Duke Power recovered and resumed expansion after World War II. During the 1950s and 1960s, Duke Power became one of the earliest adopters of nuclear power technology in the United States, and continues to operate nuclear power plants in the Carolinas.

In 1971, the company achieved notoriety as the defendant in Griggs v. Duke Power, a landmark court decision on racial discrimination. Thirteen African-American employees of Duke Power sued the company for requiring minimum scores on intelligence tests for advancement. Though Duke Power had by then ceased its policies of overt discrimination, its intelligence test requirement effectively excluded African-Americans from many parts of the company. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice Warren Burger delivered the court's opinion, ruling that the intelligence tests administered by Duke Power were irrelevant to the skills required of the company's employees. Further, he held that these policies had the effect of discriminating against African-Americans and thus violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Burger wrote that while Duke Power likely did not have discriminatory intent in requiring minimum intelligence test scores, the discriminatory effect of the company's intelligence testing policy rendered it illegal.

In recent years, Duke Power has continued its expansion, moving into the Midwest, and it has branched into other businesses, such as natural gas. It has been called the Duke Energy Corporation since it merged in 2006 with the Cinergy Coporation, a Cincinnati-based electricity company. After the merger, Duke Power announced plans to expand its nuclear power operations, placing it at the forefront of that technology's revival.

SourcesDouglas Carl Abrams, Conservative Constraints: North Carolina and the New Deal (Jackson, 1992); David Lee Carlton and Peter A. Coclanis, The South, the Nation, and the World (Charlottesville, 2003); John Downey, "Shareholders approve Duke-Cinergy merger," Charlotte Business Journal, 10 March 2006; Robert F. Durden, Electrifying the Piedmont Carolinas: The Duke Power Company, 1904-1997 (Durham, 2001); Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 401 U.S. 424 (1971); John W. Johnson, Insuring Against Disaster: The Nuclear Industry on Trial (Macon, 1986); Allen Tullos, Habits of Industry: White Culture and the Transformation of the Carolina Piedmont (Chapel Hill, 1989).

James Buchanan Duke - Wikipedia

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American businessman, founder of the American Tobacco Company

James Buchanan Duke (December 23, 1856 '' October 10, 1925) was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing,[2] and his involvement with Duke University. He was also the founder of the American Tobacco Company in 1890.

Early life [ edit ] James Buchanan Duke, known by the nickname "Buck", was born on December 23, 1856, near Durham, North Carolina, to industrialist and philanthropist Washington Duke (1820''1905) and his second wife, Artelia Roney.[3]

Business career [ edit ] Duke's father, Washington, had owned a tobacco company that his sons James and Benjamin (1855''1929) took over in the 1880s. In 1885, James Buchanan Duke acquired a license to use the first automated cigarette making machine (invented by James Albert Bonsack), and by 1890, Duke supplied 40% of the American cigarette market (then known as pre-rolled tobacco). In that year, Duke consolidated control of his four major competitors under one corporate entity, the American Tobacco Company, which was a monopoly as he controlled over 90% in the American cigarette market. His robber baron business tactics directly led to the Black Patch Tobacco Wars in 1906-1908.

At the start of the 1900s, Duke tried to conquer the British market as he had done the American, eventually forcing the then divided British manufacturers to merge into the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland, Ltd (Imperial Tobacco). After two years of intense competition in Great Britain, Imperial Tobacco took the fight to the U.S. market, forcing American Tobacco to look for a settlement. This resulted in an agreement whereby American Tobacco controlled the American trade, Imperial Tobacco controlled the trade in the British territories, and a third, cooperative venture named the British-American Tobacco Company was set up between the two to control the sale of tobacco in the rest of the world.

During this time, Duke was repeatedly sued by business partners and shareholders. In 1906, the American Tobacco Company was found guilty of antitrust violations, and was ordered to be split into four separate companies: American Tobacco Company, Liggett & Myers, R. J. Reynolds, and the P. Lorillard Company. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an order breaking up the American Tobacco Company's monopoly. The company was then divided into several smaller enterprises, of which only the British-American Tobacco Company remained in Duke's control.

In 1892, the Dukes opened their first textile firm in Durham, North Carolina, which was run by his brother Benjamin. At the turn of the century, Buck organized the American Development Company to acquire land and water rights on the Catawba River. In 1904, he established the Catawba Power Company and the following year he and his brother founded the Southern Power Company, which became known as Duke Power, the precursor to the Duke Energy conglomerate. The company supplied electrical power to the Duke's textile factory and within two decades, their power facilities had been greatly expanded and they were supplying electricity to more than 300 cotton mills and other industrial companies. Duke Power established an electrical grid that supplied cities and towns in the Piedmont Region of North and South Carolina. Lake James, a power-generating reservoir in Western North Carolina, was created by the company in 1928 and named in Duke's honor. Buck Steam Station in Rowan County, North Carolina, built in 1926, was also named for Duke.

Personal life [ edit ] Duke was married twice, first in 1904 to Lillian Fletcher McCredy (also known as Lillian Nanette Duke). They divorced in 1906 and had no children. In 1907 he married the widow Nanaline Holt Inman, with whom he had his only child, a daughter, Doris, born November 22, 1912. Doris was raised at Duke Farms located in Hillsborough, New Jersey, where her father had worked with landscapers such as James Leal Greenleaf (a member of the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted), and Horatio Buckenham to transform more than 2,000 acres (8 km2) of farmland and woodlots into an extraordinary landscape containing 2 conservatories, 9 lakes, 35 fountains, 45 buildings, countless pieces of sculpture, over 2 miles (3 km) of stone walls and more than 18 miles (29 km) of roadway.[4]

Duke died in New York City on October 10, 1925, and is interred with his father and brother in the Memorial Chapel on the campus of Duke University. He resided at his home, Lynnwood in Charlotte, North Carolina during the last five years of his life.[5] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[6]

Philanthropy and will [ edit ] Statue of James B. Duke in front of the West Campus Quad, pictured in July 2008

In December 1924, Duke established The Duke Endowment, a $40 million trust fund (equivalent to $604 million in 2020[7]), some of which was to go to Trinity College. The University was renamed Duke University in honor of his father. The James B. Duke Library, the main campus library at Furman University, is also named for him because of his philanthropic relationship with the university.[8]

On his death, he left approximately half of his huge estate to the Duke Endowment, adding another $67 million (equivalent to $989 million in 2020[7]) to the trust fund. In the indenture of trust, Duke specified that he wanted the endowment to support Duke University, Davidson College, Furman University, Johnson C. Smith University; not-for-profit hospitals and children's homes in the two Carolinas; and rural United Methodist churches in North Carolina, retired pastors, and their surviving families.

Much of the remainder of Duke's approximately $100 million (equivalent to $1.48 billion in 2020[7]) estate went to his daughter Doris Duke, who became "the richest girl in the world".[9] In 1927, Doris sued her mother for control of the family house in Manhattan and won.[10] Doris also successfully sued for control of the Duke Farms estate. Associating Duke Farms with fond memories of her father, Doris Duke made few major changes to the property other than the adaptation of her father's Conservatory to create Display Gardens in his honor.[11] These gardens showcased her father's extensive sculpture collection and were open to the public from 1964 until closed by her foundation trustees in May 2008.[12]

Further reading [ edit ] Duke, D.W. (2014). The Duke Legacy. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4917-2621-1. OCLC 875351886. Durden, Robert F. (2003). Bold Entrepreneur: A Life of James B. Duke. Carolina Academic PressJenkins, John Wilbur (1927). James B. Duke: Master Builder. George H. Doran CompanyKremer, William (November 13, 2012). "James Buchanan Duke: Father of the modern cigarette", BBC News MagazineSobel, Robert (1974). "James Buchanan Duke: Opportunism Is the Spur". The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition. New York: Weybright & Talley. pp. 148''194. ISBN 0-679-40064-8. References [ edit ] ^ Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates'--A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xiii, ISBN 978-0-8065-1800-8, OCLC 33818143 ^ Kremer, William (November 13, 2012). "James Buchanan Duke: Father of the Modern Cigarette". BBC News . Retrieved November 13, 2012 . ^ "The Duke Family and its Legacy". Duke Endowment. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008 . Retrieved June 2, 2008 . ^ "History". Duke Farms. Archived from the original on January 11, 2008 . Retrieved February 11, 2008 . ^ Davyd Foard Hood and Joe Mobley (n.d.). "James Buchanan Duke House" (PDF) . National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office . Retrieved February 1, 2015 . ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010. ^ a b c 1634''1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF) . American Antiquarian Society. 1700''1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF) . American Antiquarian Society. 1800''present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800''" . Retrieved January 1, 2020 . ^ James Duke, Philanthropy Hall of Fame ^ Pace, Eric (October 29, 1993). "Doris Duke, 80, Heiress Whose Great Wealth Couldn't Buy Happiness, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved July 29, 2021 . ^ "Doris Duke, 14, Gets $1,600,000 House" (PDF) . The New York Times. February 11, 1927. p. 12. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved July 29, 2021 . ^ "The Gardens at Duke Farms". Skylands Visitor Guide . Retrieved June 2, 2008 . ^ "Duke Farms Promotes 'Greener' Future" (Press release). Duke Farms. March 2, 2008. Archived from the original on March 28, 2008 . Retrieved April 14, 2008 . it's the final months of the gardens being on display in the greenhouses that have enchanted visitors since 1964 External links [ edit ] James Buchanan Duke at Find a Grave

Duke University - Wikipedia

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Private university in Durham, North Carolina, United States

Duke UniversityLatin: Universitas Dukiana[1]Former names

Brown School (1838''1841)Union Institute (1841''1851)Normal College (1851''1859)Trinity College (1859''1924)MottoEruditio et Religio (Latin)[1]Motto in English

"Knowledge and Faith"[2]TypePrivate research universityEstablished1838 ; 183 years ago ( 1838 ) AccreditationSACSReligious affiliation

United Methodist Church[3][4][5][6]Academic affiliations

Endowment$12.7 billion (2021)[7] (The university is also the primary beneficiary (32%) of the independent $3.69 billion Duke Endowment)[8]Budget$2.8 billion (FY 2020)[9]PresidentVincent Price[10]ProvostSally KornbluthAcademic staff

3,870 (Fall 2019)[11]Administrative staff

8,880 campus employees41,206 total campus & health system employees (Fall 2019)[11]Students15,634 (Fall 2019)[11]Undergraduates6,526 (Fall 2019)[11]Postgraduates9,108 (Fall 2019)[11]Location,North Carolina

,United States

36°0'²4'"N 78°56'²20'"W >> / >> 36.00111°N 78.93889°W >> / 36.00111; -78.93889 Coordinates: 36°0'²4'"N 78°56'²20'"W >> / >> 36.00111°N 78.93889°W >> / 36.00111; -78.93889 CampusLarge City,[12] 8,693 acres (35.18 km2)[11]NewspaperThe ChronicleColors Duke Blue White[13][14]NicknameBlue DevilsSporting affiliations

NCAA Division I FBS '' ACCMascotBlue DevilWebsite www.duke.edu Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892.[15] In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment and the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.

The campus spans over 8,600 acres (3,500 hectares) on three contiguous sub-campuses in Durham, and a marine lab in Beaufort. The West Campus'--designed largely by architect Julian Abele, an African American architect who graduated first in his class at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design'--incorporates Gothic architecture with the 210-foot (64-meter) Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation, is adjacent to the Medical Center. East Campus, 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away, home to all first-years, contains Georgian-style architecture. The university administers two concurrent schools in Asia, Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore (established in 2005) and Duke Kunshan University in Kunshan, China (established in 2013).[16]

Duke is ranked among the top universities in the United States. The undergraduate admissions are among the most selective in the country, with an overall acceptance rate of 5.7% for the class of 2025.[17] Duke spends more than $1 billion per year on research, making it one of the ten largest research universities in the United States.[18] More than a dozen faculty regularly appear on annual lists of the world's most-cited researchers.[19] As of 2019[update], 15 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university. Duke alumni also include 50 Rhodes Scholars, the third highest number of Churchill Scholars of any university (behind Princeton and Harvard), and the fifth-highest number of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars of any American university between 1986 and 2015.[20] Duke is the alma mater of one president of the United States (Richard Nixon) and 14 living billionaires.[21]

Duke is the second-largest private employer in North Carolina, with more than 39,000 employees.[22][23] The university has been ranked as an excellent employer by several publications.[24][25]

History [ edit ] Beginnings [ edit ] One of the first buildings on the original Durham campus (

East Campus), the Washington Duke Building ("Old Main"), was destroyed by a fire in 1911

Duke first opened in 1838 as Brown's Schoolhouse, a private subscription school founded in Randolph County in the present-day town of Trinity.[26] Organized by the Union Institute Society, a group of Methodists and Quakers, Brown's Schoolhouse became the Union Institute Academy in 1841 when North Carolina issued a charter. The academy was renamed Normal College in 1851 and then Trinity College in 1859 because of support from the Methodist Church.[26] In 1892, Trinity College moved to Durham, largely due to generosity from Julian S. Carr and Washington Duke, powerful and respected Methodists who had grown wealthy through the tobacco and electrical industries.[15] Carr donated land in 1892 for the original Durham campus, which is now known as East Campus. At the same time, Washington Duke gave the school $85,000 for an initial endowment and construction costs'--later augmenting his generosity with three separate $100,000 contributions in 1896, 1899, and 1900'--with the stipulation that the college "open its doors to women, placing them on an equal footing with men."[27]

In 1924 Washington Duke's son, James B. Duke, established The Duke Endowment with a $40 million trust fund. Income from the fund was to be distributed to hospitals, orphanages, the Methodist Church, and four colleges (including Trinity College). William Preston Few, the president of Trinity at the time, insisted that the institution be renamed Duke University to honor the family's generosity and to distinguish it from the myriad other colleges and universities carrying the "Trinity" name. At first, James B. Duke thought the name change would come off as self-serving, but eventually, he accepted Few's proposal as a memorial to his father.[15] Money from the endowment allowed the University to grow quickly. Duke's original campus, East Campus, was rebuilt from 1925 to 1927 with Georgian-style buildings. By 1930, the majority of the Collegiate Gothic-style buildings on the campus one mile (1.6 km) west were completed, and construction on West Campus culminated with the completion of Duke Chapel in 1935.[28]

James B. Duke established the Duke Endowment, which provides funds to numerous institutions, including Duke University

In 1878, Trinity (in Randolph County) awarded A.B. degrees to three sisters'--Mary, Persis, and Theresa Giles'--who had studied both with private tutors and in classes with men. With the relocation of the college in 1892, the Board of Trustees voted to again allow women to be formally admitted to classes as day students. At the time of Washington Duke's donation in 1896, which carried the requirement that women be placed "on an equal footing with men" at the college, four women were enrolled; three of the four were faculty members' children. In 1903 Washington Duke wrote to the Board of Trustees withdrawing the provision, noting that it had been the only limitation he had ever put on a donation to the college. A woman's residential dormitory was built in 1897 and named the Mary Duke Building, after Washington Duke's daughter. By 1904, fifty-four women were enrolled in the college. In 1930, the Woman's College was established as a coordinate to the men's undergraduate college, which had been established and named Trinity College in 1924.[29]

Expansion and growth [ edit ] Engineering, which had been taught at Duke since 1903, became a separate school in 1939. The university president's official residence, the J. Deryl Hart House, was completed in 1934. In athletics, Duke hosted and competed in the first Rose Bowl ever played outside California in Wallace Wade Stadium in 1942; the second such game was played in Arlington, Texas, in 2021, moved as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[26][30] During World War II, Duke was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a navy commission.[31] In 1963 the Board of Trustees officially desegregated the undergraduate college.[32]

Duke enrolled its first black graduate students in 1961.[33] The school did not admit Black undergraduates until September 1963. The teaching staff remained all-White until 1966.[34]

Increased activism on campus during the 1960s prompted Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at the University in November 1964 on the progress of the Civil Rights Movement. Following Douglas Knight's resignation from the office of university president, Terry Sanford, the former governor of North Carolina, was elected president of the university in 1969, propelling The Fuqua School of Business' opening, the William R. Perkins library completion, and the founding of the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs (now the Sanford School of Public Policy). The separate Woman's College merged back with Trinity as the liberal arts college for both men and women in 1972.

Beginning in the 1970s, Duke administrators began a long-term effort to strengthen Duke's reputation both nationally and internationally. Interdisciplinary work was emphasized, as was recruiting minority faculty and students. During this time it also became the birthplace of the first Physician Assistant degree program in the United States.[35][36][37] Duke University Hospital was finished in 1980 and the student union building was fully constructed two years later. In 1986 the men's soccer team captured Duke's first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship, and the men's basketball team followed shortly thereafter with championships in 1991 and 1992, then again in 2001, 2010, and 2015.

Duke Forward, a seven-year fundraising campaign, raised $3.85 billion by August 2017.[38]

Recent history [ edit ] In 2014, Duke removed the name of Charles B. Aycock, a white-supremacist governor of North Carolina, from an undergraduate dormitory.[40] It is now known as the East Residence Hall.

On August 19, 2017, following the violent clashes at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from the entrance to the Duke University Chapel, after having been vandalized by protesters.[41][42][43]

In August 2020, the first undergraduates from Duke Kunshan University arrived for their study abroad on Duke's campus. Due to COVID-19, Chinese Duke undergraduate and graduate students unable to travel to the United States were reciprocally hosted at the Duke Kunshan campus.[44]

Controversies [ edit ] In 2006, three men's lacrosse team members were falsely accused of rape,[45][46] which garnered significant media attention.[47] On April 11, 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped all charges and declared the three players innocent. Cooper stated that the charged players were victims of a "tragic rush to accuse."[48][49] The District Attorney, Mike Nifong, was subsequently disbarred.[50]

In 2019, Duke paid $112.5 Million to settle False Claims Act allegations related to scientific research misconduct. A researcher at the school was falsifying or fabricating research data, in order to win grants for financial gain. The researcher was arrested in 2013 on charges of embezzling funds from the university. The scheme was exposed by the allegations made through a lawsuit, filed by a whistleblower, who had worked as a Duke employee, and discovered the false data.[51][52]

In response to the misconduct settlement, Duke established an advisory panel of academics from Caltech, Stanford and Rockefeller University. Based on the recommendations of this panel, the Duke Office of Scientific Integrity (DOSI) was established under the leadership of Lawrence Carin, an engineering professor who is one of the world's leading experts on machine learning and artificial intelligence[53] The establishment of this office brings Duke's research practices in line with those at peer institutions like Johns Hopkins University.[54]

Campus [ edit ] Duke Chapel, an icon for the university, can seat nearly 1,600 people and contains a 5,200-pipe organ

Duke University currently owns 256 buildings on 8,693 acres (35.18 km2) of land, which includes the 7,044 acres (28.51 km2) Duke Forest.[11] The campus is divided into four main areas: West, East, and Central campuses and the Medical Center, which are all connected via a free bus service. On the Atlantic coast in Beaufort, Duke owns 15 acres (61,000 m2) as part of its marine lab. One of the major public attractions on the main campus is the 54-acre (220,000 m2) Sarah P. Duke Gardens, established in the 1930s.[11]

Duke students often refer to the campus as "the Gothic Wonderland," a nickname referring to the Collegiate Gothic architecture of West Campus.[55][56][57] Much of the campus was designed by Julian Abele, one of the first prominent African-American architects and the chief designer in the offices of architect Horace Trumbauer.[58] The residential quadrangles are of an early and somewhat unadorned design, while the buildings in the academic quadrangles show influences of the more elaborate late French and Italian styles. The freshmen campus, known as East Campus, is composed of buildings in the Georgian architecture style. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed Duke among the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.[59]

The stone used for West Campus has seven primary colors and seventeen shades of color.[60] The university supervisor of planning and construction wrote that the stone has "an older, more attractive antique effect" and a "warmer and softer coloring than the Princeton stone" that gave the university an "artistic look."[60] James B. Duke initially suggested the use of stone from a quarry in Princeton, New Jersey, but later amended the plans to purchase a local quarry in Hillsborough to reduce costs.[60] Duke Chapel stands at the center of West Campus on the highest ridge. Constructed from 1930 to 1935, the chapel seats 1,600 people and, at 210 feet (64 m) is one of the tallest buildings in Durham County.[61]

A number of construction projects in recent years include renovations to Duke Chapel, Wallace Wade Stadium (football) and Cameron Indoor Stadium (basketball).[62]

In early 2014, the Nicholas School of the Environment opened a new home, Environmental Hall,[63] a five-story, glass-and-concrete building that incorporates the highest sustainable features and technologies, and meets or exceeds the criteria for LEED platinum certification. The School of Nursing in April 2014 opened a new 45,000 sq ft (4,200 m2) addition to the Christine Siegler Pearson Building.[64] In summer 2014, a number of construction projects were completed.[65] The project is part of the final phase of renovations to Duke's West Campus libraries that have transformed one of the university's oldest and most recognizable buildings into a state-of-the-art research facility. The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library reopened in August 2015 after about $60 million in renovations to the sections of the building built in 1928 and 1948. The renovations include more space, technology upgrades and new exhibits.[66]In 2013, construction projects included transforming buildings like Gross Hall and Baldwin Auditorium, plus new construction such as the Events Pavilion. About 125,000 sq ft (11,600 m2) was updated at Gross Hall, including new lighting and windows and a skylight.[67] Baldwin's upgrades include a larger stage, more efficient air conditioning for performers and audience and enhanced acoustics that will allow for the space to be "tuned" to each individual performance.[68] The 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2) Events Pavilion opened to students in 2013 and serves as temporary dining space while the West Campus Union undergoes major renovations, expected to be completed in the spring of 2016.From February 2001 to November 2005, Duke spent $835 million on 34 major construction projects as part of a five-year strategic plan, "Building on Excellence."[69] Completed projects since 2002 include major additions to the business, law, nursing, and divinity schools, a new library, the Nasher Museum of Art, a football training facility, two residential buildings, an engineering complex, a public policy building, an eye institute, two genetic research buildings, a student plaza, the French Family Science Center, and two new medical-research buildings.[70]

In early 2012, the Duke Cancer Center opened next to Duke Hospital in Durham.[71] The patient care facility consolidates nearly all of Duke's outpatient clinical care services.

West, East, and Central Campuses [ edit ] See main article, Duke University West Campus

The Gothic Reading Room of Perkins Library

West Campus, considered the main campus of the University, houses the sophomores and juniors, along with some seniors.[72] Most of the academic and administrative centers are located there. Main West Campus, with Duke Chapel at its center, contains the majority of residential quads to the south, while the main academic quad, library, and Medical Center are to the north. The campus, spanning 720 acres (2.9 km2), includes Science Drive, which is the location of science and engineering buildings. The residential quads on West Campus are Craven Quad, Crowell Quad, Edens Quad, Few Quad, Keohane Quad, Kilgo Quad, and Wannamaker Quad.[73] Most of the campus eateries and sports facilities'--including the historic basketball stadium, Cameron Indoor Stadium'--are on West Campus.[74]

East Campus, the original location of Duke after it moved to Durham,[75] functions as a first-year campus, housing the university's freshmen dormitories as well as the home of several academic departments. Since the 1995''96 academic year, all freshmen'--and only freshmen, except for upperclassmen serving as Resident Assistants'--have lived on East Campus, an effort to build class unity. The campus encompasses 172 acres (700,000 m2) and is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from West Campus.[11] African and African American Studies, Art History, History, Cultural Anthropology, Literature, Music, Philosophy, and Women's Studies are housed on East.[75] Programs such as dance, drama, education, film, and the University Writing Program reside on East. The self-sufficient East Campus contains the freshmen residence halls, a dining hall, coffee shop, post office, Lilly Library, Baldwin Auditorium, a theater, Brodie Gym, tennis courts, several disc golf baskets, and a walking track as well as several academic buildings.[75] The East Campus dorms are Alspaugh, Basset, Bell Tower, Blackwell, Brown, East House (formerly known as Aycock), Epworth, Gilbert-Addoms, Giles, Jarvis, Pegram, Randolph, Southgate, Trinity, and Wilson.[76] Separated from downtown by a short walk, the area was the site of the Women's College from 1930 to 1972.[75]

Central Campus, consisting of 122 acres (0.49 km2) between East and West campuses, housed around 1,000 sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as around 200 professional students in double or quadruple apartments.[77] However, the housing of undergraduates on Central Campus ended after the 2018''2019 school year.[78] Central Campus is home to the Nasher Museum of Art, the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, the Center for Muslim Life, the Duke Police Department, the Duke Office of Disability Management, a Ronald McDonald House, and administrative departments such as Duke Residence Life and Housing Services. Central Campus has several recreation and social facilities such as basketball courts, a sand volleyball court, a turf field, barbecue grills and picnic shelters, a general gathering building called "Devil's Den", a restaurant known as "Devil's Bistro", a convenience store called Uncle Harry's, and the Mill Village. The Mill Village consists of a gym and group study rooms.[77][79]

Other key places [ edit ] The Sarah P. Duke Gardens attract more than 300,000 visitors each year

Duke Forest, established in 1931, consists of 7,044 acres (28.51 km2) in six divisions, just west of West Campus.[11] The largest private research forest in North Carolina and one of the largest in the nation,[80] the Duke Forest demonstrates a variety of forest stand types and silvicultural treatments. Duke Forest is used extensively for research and includes the Aquatic Research Facility, Forest Carbon Transfer and Storage (FACTS-I) research facility, two permanent towers suitable for micrometeorological studies, and other areas designated for animal behavior and ecosystem study.[81] More than 30 miles (48 km) of trails are open to the public for hiking, cycling, and horseback riding.[82]The Duke Lemur Center, located inside the Duke Forest, is the world's largest sanctuary for rare and endangered strepsirrhine primates.[83] Founded in 1966, the Duke Lemur Center spans 85 acres (34 ha) and contains nearly 300 animals of 25 different species of lemurs, galagos and lorises.[84]

Entrance to the Medical Center from West Campus

The Sarah P. Duke Gardens, established in the early 1930s, is situated between West Campus and Central Campus. The gardens occupy 55 acres (22 ha), divided into four major sections:[85] the original Terraces and their surroundings; the H.L. Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, devoted to flora of the Southeastern United States; the W.L. Culberson Asiatic Arboretum, housing plants of Eastern Asia, as well as disjunct species found in Eastern Asia and Eastern North America; and the Doris Duke Center Gardens. There are five miles (8.0 km) of all(C)es and paths throughout the gardens.[85]

Duke University Medical Center, bordering Duke's West Campus northern boundary, combines one of the top-rated hospitals[86] and one of the top-ranked medical schools[87] in the U.S. Founded in 1930, the Medical Center occupies eight million square feet (740,000 m2) in 99 buildings on 210 acres (85 ha).[88]

Duke University Marine Laboratory, located in the town of Beaufort, North Carolina, is also technically part of Duke's campus. The marine lab is situated on Pivers Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, 150 yards (140 m) across the channel from Beaufort. Duke's interest in the area began in the early 1930s and the first buildings were erected in 1938.[89] The resident faculty represent the disciplines of oceanography, marine biology, marine biomedicine, marine biotechnology, and coastal marine policy and management. The Marine Laboratory is a member of the National Association of Marine Laboratories.[89] In May 2014, the newly built Orrin H. Pilkey Marine Research Laboratory was dedicated.[90]

Singapore and China [ edit ] The logo of Duke Kunshan University

In April 2005, Duke and the National University of Singapore signed a formal agreement under which the two institutions would partner to establish the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.[91][92] Duke-NUS is intended to complement the National University of Singapore's existing undergraduate medical school, and had its first entering class in 2007.[93] The curriculum is based on that of the Duke University School of Medicine. 60% of matriculates are from Singapore and 40% are from over 20 countries. The school is part of the National University of Singapore system, but distinct in that it is overseen by a Governing Board, including a Duke representative who has veto power over any academic decision made by the Board.[94][92]

In 2013,[95]Duke Kunshan University (abbreviated "DKU"), a partnership between Duke University, Wuhan University, and the city of Kunshan, was established in Kunshan, China. The university runs Duke degree graduate programs and an undergraduate liberal arts college. Undergraduates are awarded degrees from both Duke Kunshan University and Duke University upon graduation and become members of Duke and DKU's alumni organizations.[96] DKU conducted research projects on climate change, health-care policy and tuberculosis prevention and control.[97]

Administration and organization [ edit ] Duke University has 12 schools and institutes, three of which host undergraduate programs: Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Duke Kunshan University.[98][99]

The university has "historical, formal, ongoing, and symbolic ties" with the United Methodist Church, but is a nonsectarian and independent institution.[100][5][6][4]

Duke's endowment had a market value of $8.6 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2019.[7] The University's special academic facilities include an art museum, several language labs, the Duke Forest, the Duke Herbarium, a lemur center, a phytotron, a free-electron laser, a nuclear magnetic resonance machine, a nuclear lab, and a marine lab. Duke is a leading participant in the National Lambda Rail Network and runs a program for gifted children known as the Talent Identification Program.[101][102]

Academics [ edit ] Entrance to Bostock Library, which opened in the fall of 2005

Admissions [ edit ] Admission to Duke is defined by U.S. News & World Report as "most selective." Duke received nearly 50,000 applications for the Class of 2025, with an overall acceptance rate of 5.7%.[17] The yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend) for the Class of 2023 was 54%.[103] The Class of 2024 had an ACT range of 34-35 and an SAT range of 1500''1570.[104] (Test score ranges account for the 25th-75th percentile of accepted students.)

From 2001 to 2011, Duke has had the sixth highest number of Fulbright, Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater scholarships in the nation among private universities.[105][106][107][108] The University practices need-blind admissions and meets 100% of admitted students' demonstrated needs. About 50 percent of all Duke students receive some form of financial aid, which includes need-based aid, athletic aid, and merit aid. The average need-based grant for the 2018''19 academic year was $53,255.[11] In 2020, a study by the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked Duke first on its list of "Colleges That Are the Most Generous to the Financially Neediest Students".[109]

Roughly 60 merit-based full-tuition scholarships are offered, including the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship awarded for academic excellence, the Benjamin N. Duke Scholarship awarded for community service, and the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program, a joint scholarship and leadership development program granting full student privileges at both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. Other scholarships are geared toward students in North Carolina, African-American students, children of alumni, and high-achieving students requiring financial aid.[110]

Part of the Divinity School addition, Goodson Chapel

Graduate profile [ edit ] In 2009, the School of Medicine received 5,166 applications[111] and accepted approximately 4% of them,[112] while the average GPA and ACT scores for accepted students from 2002 through 2009 were 3.74 and 34, respectively.[113][114] The School of Law accepted approximately 13% of its applicants for the Class of 2014, while enrolling students had a median GPA of 3.75 and median LSAT of 170.[115]

The University's graduate and professional schools include the Graduate School, the Pratt School of Engineering, the Nicholas School of the Environment, the School of Medicine, the Duke-NUS Medical School, the School of Nursing, the Fuqua School of Business, the School of Law, the Divinity School, and the Sanford School of Public Policy.[116]

Undergraduate curriculum [ edit ] Duke offers 46 arts and sciences majors, four engineering majors, 52 minors (including two in engineering) and Program II, which allows students to design their own interdisciplinary major in arts & sciences, and IDEAS, which allows students to design their own engineering major.[117] Twenty-four certificate programs also are available.[117] Students pursue a major and can pursue a combination of a total of up to three, including minors, certificates, and/or a second major. Eighty-five percent of undergraduates enroll in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. The balance enroll in Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.[118] Undergraduates at Duke Kunshan can choose from 15 interdisciplinary majors approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education,[119] and more majors are in the process of approval, including new major in behavioral science.[120]

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences [ edit ] Trinity's curriculum operates under the revised version of "Curriculum 2000."[121] The curriculum aims to help students develop critical faculties and judgment by learning how to access, synthesize, and communicate knowledge effectively. The intent is to assist students in acquiring perspective on current and historical events, conducting research and solving problems, and developing tenacity and a capacity for hard and sustained work.[121] Freshmen can elect to participate in the FOCUS Program, which allows students to engage in an interdisciplinary exploration of a specific topic in a small group setting in their first semesters.[122]

Pratt School of Engineering [ edit ] The curriculum of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, significantly transformed in recent years, immerses students in design, computing, research, and entrepreneurship '-- but still accommodates educational opportunities, including double majors, in a variety of disciplines from across Duke.[123] The school emphasizes undergraduate research opportunities with faculty. Research and design opportunities arise through a real-world design course for first-year students,[124] internships, independent study and research fellowships,[125] and through design-focused capstone courses. More than 60 percent of Duke Engineering undergraduates have an intensive research experience during their four years, and nearly a fifth publish or present a research paper off-campus. Nearly 54 percent of Duke Engineering undergraduates intern or study abroad. Eighty-five percent have jobs or job offers at the time of graduation.[126]

Duke Kunshan University [ edit ] Duke Kunshan's undergraduate curriculum focuses heavily on interdisciplinary coursework and majors.[127] Noah M. Pickus, Associate Provost and Senior Advisor at Duke and Dean of Undergraduate Curricula Affairs and Faculty Development at Duke Kunshan University, oversaw the development of the university's future-focused, internationalized curriculum.[128]

Libraries and museums [ edit ] Duke Libraries includes the Perkins, Bostock, and Rubenstein Libraries on West Campus, the Lilly and Music Libraries on East Campus, the Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Marine Lab, and the separately administered libraries serving the schools of business, divinity, law, medicine, and Duke Kunshan University.[129]

Duke's art collections are housed at the Nasher Museum of Art on Central Campus. The museum was designed by Rafael Vi±oly and is named for Duke alumnus and art collector Raymond Nasher. The museum opened in 2005 at a cost of over $23 million and contains over 13,000 works of art, including works by William Cordova, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Bob Thompson, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, Ai Weiwei, Fred Wilson, and Lynette Yiadom Boakye.[130]

Research [ edit ] The Fitzpatrick Center is home to many of Duke's engineering programs

Duke's research expenditures in the 2018 fiscal year were $1.168 billion, the tenth largest in the U.S.[131] In fiscal year 2019 Duke received $571 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health.[132] Duke is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities '' Very high research activity".[133]

Throughout the school's history, Duke researchers have made breakthroughs, including the biomedical engineering department's development of the world's first real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound diagnostic system and the first engineered blood vessels and stents.[134] In 2015, Paul Modrich shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2012, Robert Lefkowitz along with Brian Kobilka, who is also a former affiliate, shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on cell surface receptors.[135] Duke has pioneered studies involving nonlinear dynamics, chaos, and complex systems in physics.

In May 2006 Duke researchers mapped the final human chromosome, which made world news as it marked the completion of the Human Genome Project.[136] Reports of Duke researchers' involvement in new AIDS vaccine research surfaced in June 2006.[137] The biology department combines two historically strong programs in botany and zoology, while one of the divinity school's leading theologians is Stanley Hauerwas, whom Time named "America's Best Theologian" in 2001.[138] The graduate program in literature boasts several internationally renowned figures, including Fredric Jameson,[139] Michael Hardt,[140] and Rey Chow, while philosophers Robert Brandon and Lakatos Award-winner Alexander Rosenberg contribute to Duke's ranking as the nation's best program in philosophy of biology, according to the Philosophical Gourmet Report.[141]

Rankings and reputation [ edit ] National Program Rankings[151]ProgramRankingBiological Sciences10Business12Chemistry32Clinical Psychology18Computer Science25Earth Sciences46Economics16Engineering23English13History18Law12Mathematics16Medicine: Primary Care26Medicine: Research3Nursing: Doctorate4Nursing: Master's2Nursing''Anesthesia3Physical Therapy7Physician Assistant1Physics28Political Science7Psychology17Public Affairs25Sociology15Statistics12Global Program Rankings[152]ProgramRankingArts & Humanities41Biology & Biochemistry20Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems2Chemistry158Clinical Medicine9Computer Science198Economics & Business16Electrical & Electronic Engineering165Engineering172Environment/Ecology8Geosciences115Immunology24Materials Science91Mathematics50Microbiology11Molecular Biology & Genetics33Neuroscience & Behavior26Oncology16Pharmacology & Toxicology25Physics77Plant & Animal Sciences17Psychiatry/Psychology10Social Sciences & Public Health16Surgery15Built in 1932, Old Chemistry has scientific symbols carved above the main doorway

Undergraduate rankings [ edit ] In 2016, The Washington Post ranked Duke 7th overall based on the accumulated weighted average of the rankings from U.S. News & World Report, Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, Times Higher Education (global), Money and Forbes.[153]

In 2021, Duke was ranked 5th in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings, having risen five places in the past year.[154] In addition, Duke was ranked 2nd for student outcomes. The rankings take into account graduation rate, teaching reputation, graduate salaries, and student debt.[155]

In 2020, Duke was ranked 22nd in the world by U.S. News & World Report and 20th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.[156][157] QS World University Rankings ranked Duke 52th the world for its 2022 rankings.[158] Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked Duke 20th globally in its 2020-21 report.[159] Duke was ranked 28th best globally by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2019, focusing on quality of scientific research and the number of Nobel Prizes.[160] The 2010 report by the Center for Measuring University Performance puts Duke at 6th in the nation.[161]

The 2012 Global Employability Ranking as published by The New York Times surveyed hundreds of chief executives and chairmen from around the world and asked them to select the best universities from which they recruited. Duke placed 26th in the world and 12th in the country.[162][163] Duke also ranked 42nd in the world and 12th in the country on Times Higher Education ' s global employability ranking in 2019.[164]

In 2018, Duke enrolled 106 National Merit Scholars, the 19th university in rank by number.[165] Duke ranks 5th among national universities to have produced Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars.[20] As of 2012[update], Duke graduates have received 25 Churchill Scholarships to the University of Cambridge. Only graduates of Princeton and Harvard have received more Churchill awards.[166] As of 2020, Duke has produced 8 Mitchell Scholars.[167]Kiplinger ' s 50 Best Values in Private Universities 2013''14 ranks Duke at 5th best overall after taking financial aid into consideration.[168]

In a 2016 study by Forbes, Duke ranked 11th among universities in the United States that have produced billionaires and 1st among universities in the South.[169] A survey by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education in 2002 ranked Duke as the #1 university in the country in regard to the integration of African American students and faculty.[170] According to a poll of recruiters conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Duke ranks 2nd in terms of producing the best graduates who have received either a marketing or liberal arts degree. In a corporate study carried out by The New York Times, Duke's graduates were shown to be among the most valued in the world,[171] and Forbes magazine ranked Duke 7th in the world on its list of 'power factories' in 2012.[172] Duke was ranked 17th on Thomson Reuters' list of the world's most innovative universities in 2015. The ranking graded universities based on patent volume and research output among other factors.[173] In 2015, NPR ranked Duke first on its list of "schools that make financial sense".[174] Time magazine ranked Duke third on its list of the "Best 50 Colleges for African Americans". The ranking was based on representation, affordability and post-graduate earnings.[175] In 2016, Forbes ranked Duke sixth on its list of "Expensive Schools Worth Every Penny".[176]

Duke has also been recognized as the third-best university employer in the country, behind Stanford University and Harvard University.[177]

Graduate school rankings [ edit ] Duke has been named one of the top universities for graduate outcomes several years in a row, having tied with Harvard University and Yale University.[178][179] In U.S. News & World Report ' s "America's Best Graduate Schools 2021", Duke's medical school ranked 3rd in research[180] and 26th in primary care.[181] The School of Law was ranked 12th in the 2021 rankings by the same publication,[182] with Duke's nursing school ranked 2nd[183] while the Sanford School of Public Policy ranked 5th in Public Policy Analysis for 2019.[184]Among business schools in the United States, the Fuqua School of Business is ranked tied for 10th overall by U.S. News & World Report for 2020, while BusinessWeek ranked its full-time MBA program 1st in the nation in 2014.[185][186] The graduate programs of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering ranked 24th in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report in its 2020 rankings.[187]

Times Higher Education ranked the mathematics department tenth in the world in 2011.[188] Duke's graduate-level specialties that are ranked among the top ten in the nation include areas in the following departments: biological sciences, medicine, nursing, engineering, law, business, English, history, physics, statistics, public affairs, physician assistant (ranked #1), clinical psychology, political science, and sociology.[189] In 2007, Duke was ranked 22nd in the world by Wuhan University's Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation. The ranking was based on journal article publication counts and citation frequencies in over 11,000 academic journals from around the world. A 2012 study conducted by academic analytics ranks Duke fourth in the nation (behind only Harvard, Stanford, and MIT) in terms of faculty productivity.[190] In 2013, Duke Law ranked 6th in Forbes magazine's ranking of law schools whose graduates earn the highest starting salaries.[191] In 2013, Duke's Fuqua School of Business was ranked 6th in terms of graduate starting salaries by U.S. News & World Report. In the same year, a ranking compiled by the University of Texas at Dallas ranked Fuqua 5th in the world based on the research productivity of its faculty. The MEM (Masters in Engineering Management) program has been ranked 3rd in the world by Eduniversal[192] In 2013, Forbes ranked Duke 4th in the nation in terms of return on investment (ROI). The ranking used alumni giving as a criterion to determine which private colleges offer the best returns.[193] In 2018, Above the Law ranked Duke Law 3rd in the nation in its ranking of law schools based on employment outcomes.[194] In 2013, Business Insider ranked Duke's Fuqua School of Business 5th in the world based on an extensive survey of hiring professionals.[195] In the same year, Forbes magazine ranked Fuqua 8th in the country based on return on investment. In 2014, Duke was named the 20th best global research university according to rankings published by U.S. News & World Report and the University Ranking by Academic Performance published by Middle East Technical University. The U.S. News ranking was based on 10 indicators that measure academic research performance and global reputations.[196] The University Ranking by Academic Performance uses citation data obtained from Thomson Reuters' Web of Science to rank universities based on research output.[197]

Student life [ edit ] Student body [ edit ] Duke's student body consists of 6,526 undergraduates and 9,108 graduate and professional students (as of fall 2019).[11] The median family income of Duke students is $186,700, with 56% of students coming from the top 10% highest-earning families and 17% from the bottom 60%.[200]

Residential life [ edit ] Duke requires its students to live on campus for the first three years of undergraduate life, except for a small percentage of second-semester juniors who are exempted by a lottery system.[72] This requirement is justified by the administration as an effort to help students connect more closely with one another and sustain a sense of belonging within the Duke community.[201] Thus, 85% of undergraduates live on campus.[202] All freshmen are housed in one of 14 residences on East Campus. These buildings range in occupancy size from 50 (Epworth'--the oldest residence hall, built in 1892 as "the Inn") to 250 residents (Trinity).[203][204] Most of these are in the Georgian style typical of the East Campus architecture. Although the newer residence halls differ in style, they still relate to East's Georgian heritage. Learning communities connect the residential component of East Campus with students of similar academic and social interests.[205] Similarly, students in FOCUS, a first-year program that features courses clustered around a specific theme, live together in the same residence hall as other students in their cluster.[206]

Sophomores and juniors reside on West Campus, while the majority of undergraduate seniors choose to live off campus.[207] West Campus contains six quadrangles'--the four along "Main" West were built in the 1930s, while two newer ones have since been added. Central Campus provided housing for over 1,000 students in apartment buildings, until 2019.[208] All housing on West Campus is organized into "houses"'--sections of residence halls'--to which students can return each year. House residents create their house identities. There are houses of unaffiliated students, as well as wellness houses and living-learning communities that adopt a theme such as the arts or foreign languages. There are also numerous "selective living groups" on campus for students wanting self-selected living arrangements. SLGs are residential groups similar to fraternities or sororities, except they are generally co-ed and unaffiliated with any national organization. Many of them also revolve around a particular interest such as entrepreneurship, civic engagement or African-American or Asian culture. Fifteen fraternities and nine sororities also are housed on campus. Most of the non-fraternity selective living groups are coeducational.[209]

Greek and social life [ edit ] Cameron Crazies gathering in K-ville

About 30% of undergraduate men and about 40% of undergraduate women at Duke are members of fraternities and sororities.[202] Most of the 17 Interfraternity Council recognized fraternity chapters live in sections within the residence halls. Eight National Pan-Hellenic Council (historically African American) fraternities and sororities also hold chapters at Duke.[210] The first historically African American Greek letter organization at Duke University was the Omega Psi Phi, Omega Zeta chapter, founded on April 12, 1974. In addition, there are seven other fraternities and sororities that are a part of the Inter-Greek Council, the multicultural Greek umbrella organization.[211] Duke also has Selective Living Groups, or SLGs, on campus for students seeking informal residential communities often built around themes. SLGs are residential groups similar to fraternities or sororities, except they are generally co-ed and unaffiliated with any national organizations.[212] Fraternity chapters and SLGs frequently host social events in their residential sections, which are often open to non-members.[213]

In the late 1990s, a new keg policy was put into effect that requires all student groups to purchase kegs through Duke Dining Services. According to administrators, the rule change was intended as a way to ensure compliance with alcohol consumption laws as well as to increase on-campus safety.[214] Some students saw the administration's increasingly strict policies as an attempt to alter social life at Duke.[215] As a result, off-campus parties at rented houses became more frequent in subsequent years as a way to avoid Duke policies. Many of these houses were situated in the midst of family neighborhoods, prompting residents to complain about excessive noise and other violations. Police have responded by breaking up parties at several houses, handing out citations, and occasionally arresting party-goers.[216] In the mid-to-late 2000s, the administration made a concerted effort to help students re-establish a robust, on-campus social life and has worked with numerous student groups, especially the Duke University Union, to feature a wide array of events and activities. In March 2006, the university purchased 15 houses in the Trinity Park area that Duke students had typically rented and subsequently sold them to individual families in an effort to encourage renovations to the properties and to reduce off-campus partying in the midst of residential neighborhoods.[217][218]

Duke athletics, particularly men's basketball, traditionally serves as a significant component of student life. Duke's students have been recognized as some of the most creative and original fans in all of collegiate athletics.[219] Students, often referred to as Cameron Crazies, show their support of the men's basketball team by "tenting" for home games against key Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, especially rival University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).[220] Because tickets to all varsity sports are free to students, they line up for hours before each game, often spending the night on the sidewalk. For a mid-February game against UNC, some of the most eager students might even begin tenting before spring classes begin.[221] The total number of participating tents is capped at 100 (each tent can have up to 12 occupants), though interest is such that it could exceed that number if space permitted.[222] Tenting involves setting up and inhabiting a tent on the grass near Cameron Indoor Stadium, an area known as Krzyzewskiville, or K-Ville for short. There are different categories of tenting based on the length of time and number of people who must be in the tent.[222] At night, K-Ville often turns into the scene of a party or occasional concert.[223]

Activities [ edit ] Student organizations [ edit ] Duke's West Campus Union building has restaurants, offices, and some administrative departments.

The Chronicle's editorial office, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, and the Center for

LGBT Life are all located in the Union.

More than 400 student clubs and organizations operate on Duke's campus.[224] These include numerous student government, special interest, and service organizations.[225] Duke Student Government (DSG) charters and provides most of the funding for other student groups and represents students' interests when dealing with the administration.[226] The Duke University Union (DUU) is the school's primary programming organization, serving a center of social, cultural, intellectual and recreational life.[227] There are a number of student-run businesses operating on campus, including Campus Enterprises, which offer students real-world business experience. Cultural groups are provided funding directly from the university via the Multicultural Center as well as other institutional funding sources. One of the most popular activities on campus is competing in sports. Duke has 37 sports clubs, and several intramural teams that are officially recognized. Performance groups such as Hoof 'n' Horn, the country's second-oldest student-run musical theater organization, a cappella groups, student bands, and theater organizations are also prominent on campus.[228] As of the 2016''2017 school year, there are seven a cappella groups recognized by the Duke University A Cappella Council: Deja Blue, Lady Blue, Out of the Blue, the Pitchforks, Rhythm & Blue, Something Borrowed Something Blue, and Speak of the Devil.[229] The Duke University mock trial team won the national championship in 2012.[230] The Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee provides guidance to the administration on issues regarding student dining, life, and restaurant choices.

Cultural groups on campus include the Asian Students Association, Blue Devils United (the student lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group), Black Student Alliance, Diya (South Asian Association), Jewish Life at Duke, Mi Gente (Latino Student Association), International Association/International Council, Muslim Student Association, Native American Student Coalition, Newman Catholic Student Center, Languages Dorm, and Students of the Caribbean.[224][231]

Civic engagement [ edit ] The

von der Heyden Pavilion is a popular place among students for gathering and studying

More than 75 percent of Duke students pursue service-learning opportunities in Durham and around the world through DukeEngage and other programs that advance the university's mission of "knowledge in service to society." Launched in 2007, DukeEngage provides full funding for select Duke undergraduates who wish to pursue an immersive summer of service in partnership with a U.S. or international community. As of summer 2013, more than 2,400 Duke students had volunteered through DukeEngage in 75 nations on six continents. Duke students have created more than 30 service organizations in Durham and the surrounding area. Examples include a weeklong camp for children of cancer patients (Camp Kesem) and a group that promotes awareness about sexual health, rape prevention, alcohol and drug use, and eating disorders (Healthy Devils). The Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, started by the Office of Community Affairs in 1996, attempts to address major concerns of local residents and schools by leveraging university resources.[232] Another community project, "Scholarship with a Civic Mission", is a joint program between the Hart Leadership Program and the Kenan Institute for Ethics.[233] Another program includes Project CHILD, a tutoring program involving 80 first-year volunteers; and an after-school program for at-risk students in Durham that was started with a $2.25 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation in 2002.[234] Two prominent civic engagement pre-orientation programs also exist for incoming freshmen: Project CHANGE and Project BUILD. Project CHANGE is a free weeklong program co-sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and the Duke Women's Center with the focus on ethical leadership and social change in the Durham community; students are challenged in a variety of ways and work closely with local non-profits.[235] Project BUILD is a freshman volunteering group that dedicates 3,300 hours of service to a variety of projects such as schools, Habitat for Humanity, food banks, substance rehabilitation centers, homeless shelters. Some courses at Duke incorporate service as part of the curriculum to augment material learned in class such as in psychology or education courses (known as service learning courses).[236]

Student media [ edit ] The Chronicle, Duke's independent undergraduate daily newspaper, has been continually published since 1905 and now, along with its website, has a readership of about 70,000.[237] Its editors are responsible for selecting the term "Blue Devil". The newspaper won Best in Show in the tabloid division at the 2005 Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention.[238] Cable 13, established in 1976, is Duke's student-run television station. It is a popular activity for students interested in film production and media.[239] WXDU, licensed in 1983, is the university's nationally recognized, noncommercial FM radio station, operated by student and community volunteers.[240][241]

The Chanticleer is Duke University's undergraduate yearbook. It was founded while the institution was still Trinity College in 1911, and was first published in 1912. The yearbook been published continually ever since, apart from 1918 when many students left for military service in World War I. In 1919 the yearbook was titled The Victory to mark the war's end.[242]

Alumni [ edit ] Duke's active alumni base of more than 145,000 devote themselves to the university through organizations and events such as the annual Reunion Weekend and Homecoming.[243] There are 75 Duke clubs in the U.S. and 38 such international clubs.[244] For the 2008''09 fiscal year, Duke tied for third in alumni giving rate among U.S. colleges and universities according to U.S. News & World Report.[245] Based on statistics compiled by PayScale in 2011, Duke alumni rank seventh in mid-career median salary among all U.S. colleges and universities.[246]

Duke Alumni Association [ edit ] Duke Alumni Association (DAA) is an alumni association automatically available to all Duke graduates. Benefits include alumni events, a global network of regional DAA alumni chapters, educational and travel opportunities and communications such as The Blue Note, social media and Duke Magazine. It provides access to the Duke Lemur Center, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke Rec Centers and other campus facilities.[247]

Duke Magazine [ edit ] Duke Magazine, an alumni magazine, is the university's flagship vehicle for stories about the Duke community.[248] It has been published five-six times a year by the Office of Alumni Affairs since 2002.[249]

Athletics [ edit ] Teams for then Trinity College were known originally as the Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White or the Methodists. William H. Lander, as editor-in-chief, and Mike Bradshaw, as managing editor, of the Trinity Chronicle began the academic year 1922-23 referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils. The Chronicle staff continued its use and through repetition, Blue Devils eventually caught on.

The Duke University Athletic Association chairs 27 sports and more than 650 student-athletes. The Blue Devils are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and wrestling; women's sports include basketball, cross country, fencing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.[250]

Duke Blue Devils mascot. This is an older design; an updated mascot was introduced in 2008.

Duke's teams have won 17 NCAA team national championships'--the women's golf team has won seven (1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014 and 2019), the men's basketball team has won five (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015), the men's lacrosse team has won three (2010, 2013, and 2014), and the men's soccer (1986) and women's tennis (2009) teams have won one each.[251] Duke consistently ranks among the top in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors' Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. For Division I in 2015, Duke finished 20th overall and fifth in the ACC. The Blue Devils have finished within the top 10 six times since the inception of the Cup in 1993''94. Also, Athletic Director Kevin White earned multiple awards in 2014, including the National Football Foundation's John L. Toner Award.[252]

On the academic front, nine Duke varsity athletics programs registered a perfect 1,000 score in the NCAA's multi-year Academic Progress Report (APR) released in April 2016.[253]

Men's basketball [ edit ] Duke's men's basketball team is one of the nation's most successful basketball programs.[254][255] The team's success has been particularly outstanding over the past 30 years under coach Mike Krzyzewski (often simply called "Coach K"). The Blue Devils are the only team to win five national championships since the NCAA Tournament field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 11 Final Fours in the past 25 years, and eight of nine ACC tournament championships from 1999 to 2006. Coach K has also coached the USA men's national basketball team since 2006 and led the team to Olympic golds in 2008, 2012, and 2016. His teams also won World Championship gold in 2010 and 2014. Overall, 32 Duke players[256] have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in the Coach K era. More than 50 Duke players have been selected in the NBA Draft.[256]

[ edit ] The Blue Devils have won seven ACC Football Championships, have had ten players honored as ACC Player of the Year (the most in the ACC),[257] and have had three Pro Football Hall of Famers come through the program (second in the ACC to only Miami's four). The Blue Devils have produced 11 College Football Hall of Famers, which is tied for the 2nd most in the ACC. Duke has also won 18 total conference championships (7 ACC, 9 Southern Conference, and 1 Big Five Conference). That total is tied with Clemson for the highest in the ACC.[258]

The most famous Duke football season came in 1938,[259] when Wallace Wade coached the "Iron Dukes" that shut out all regular season opponents; only three teams in history can claim such a feat.[260] That same year, Duke made their first Rose Bowl appearance, where they lost 7''3 when USC scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game.[259] Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the fear that a large gathering on the West Coast might be in range of Japanese aircraft carriers.[261] The football program proved successful in the 1950s and 1960s, winning six of the first ten ACC football championships from 1953 to 1962 under coach Bill Murray; the Blue Devils would not win the ACC championship again until 1989 under coach Steve Spurrier.

David Cutcliffe was brought in prior to the 2008 season, and amassed more wins in his first season than the previous three years combined. The 2009 team won 5 of 12 games, and was eliminated from bowl contention in the next-to-last game of the season. Mike MacIntyre, the defensive coordinator, was named 2009 Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA).[264]

While the football team has struggled at times on the field, the graduation rate of its players is consistently among the highest among Division I FBS schools. Duke's high graduation rates have earned it more AFCA Academic Achievement Awards than any other institution.[265]

In 2012, the Duke football team made its first bowl game appearance since 1994[266] with a win over arch-rival North Carolina, a bowl which they would lose to the Cincinnati Bearcats in the by a score of 48''34.[267]

2013 marked the beginning of the Blue Devils' recent but relative success, having a breakout 10''2, 6-2 (ACC)[268] season while claiming the title of Coastal Division Champions.[269] Duke would go on to play the Florida State Seminoles in the ACC Championship game where they would lose to the national champions 45''7.[270] Duke received an invite to the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl that same year in which they took on the Texas A&M Aggies led by college football legend Johnny Manziel, losing by a score of 52''48.[271]

For the 2014 season, Duke finished 9''3, 5''3 (ACC) and earned a trip to the Sun Bowl,[272] where the Blue Devils lost to the Pac-12's Arizona State 36''31. In 2015, the Detroit Lions drafted Duke offensive guard Laken Tomlinson[273] and the Washington Redskins drafted wide receiver Jamison Crowder.[274] In 2019, Duke quarterback Daniel Jones was drafted 6th overall by the New York Giants.[275]

Track and field [ edit ] In 2003 Norm Ogilvie was promoted to Director of Track and Field, and has led athletes to over 60 individual ACC championships, and 81 All-America selections, along with most of the track and field records being broken during his tenure.[276] A new facility, the Morris Williams Track and Field Stadium, opened in 2015.[277]

See also [ edit ] List of colleges and universities in North CarolinaReferences [ edit ] ^ a b King, William E. "Shield, Seal and Motto". Duke University Archives . Retrieved November 30, 2016 . ^ "About '' Duke Divinity School". Duke Divinity School. Archived from the original on July 2, 2011 . Retrieved July 4, 2011 . ^ "Duke University's Relation to the Methodist Church: the basics". Duke University. 2002. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010 . Retrieved March 27, 2010 . Duke University has historical, formal, on-going, and symbolic ties with Methodism, but is an independent and non-sectarian institution ... Duke would not be the institution it is today without its ties to the Methodist Church. However, the Methodist Church does not own or direct the University. Duke is and has developed as a private nonprofit corporation which is owned and governed by an autonomous and self-perpetuating Board of Trustees ^ a b "United Methodist schools score high in rankings". The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on July 1, 2012 . Retrieved June 30, 2007 . ^ a b Separated brethren: a review of Protestant, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox & other religions in the United States. Our Sunday Visitor. 2002. ISBN 978-1-931709-05-7. ^ a b "Duke University". International Association of Methodist-related Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU). Archived from the original on October 6, 2007 . Retrieved June 30, 2007 . ^ a b As of September 27, 2021. Duke University's Endowment Sees Record 56% Gain in Latest Year (Report). Bloomberg. September 27, 2021 . Retrieved September 27, 2021 . ^ "About the Duke Endowment". The Duke Endowment. January 9, 2009 . Retrieved May 21, 2019 . ^ Satisky, Jake (May 11, 2019). "Board of Trustees discusses task forces, approves $2.8 billion budget at May meeting". The Chronicle. ^ "A First Day as President-Elect is a Memorable One". December 3, 2016. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017 . Retrieved July 1, 2017 . ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Duke Facts". Duke University . Retrieved December 7, 2019 . ^ "IPEDS-Duke University". ^ "The Origin of Duke Blue". Duke University Archives . Retrieved March 1, 2017 . ^ "Color Palette". Duke University . Retrieved March 1, 2017 . ^ a b c King, William E. "Duke University: A Brief Narrative History". Duke University Archives . Retrieved May 23, 2011 . ^ McGuinness, William (January 2, 2013). "Duke Readies For China Campus Amid Controversy". HuffPost . Retrieved March 3, 2020 . ^ a b "Duke University sees a record increase in undergraduate applications". Duke Today . Retrieved May 19, 2021 . ^ "Duke's Research Expenditures Exceed $1.2 Billion in Latest Federal Data". ^ https://researchblog.duke.edu/2020/11/18/most-highly-cited-list-includes-37-from-duke/https://researchblog.duke.edu/2014/06/13/duke-researchers-cited-for-their-influence/ ^ a b Top Scholar Rankings: 1986''2015 Archived September 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine . Kansas State University, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2015. ^ Elkins, Kathleen. "Billionaire Universities". Forbes. ^ "North Carolina's Largest Private Employers" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on March 8, 2016 . Retrieved July 31, 2017 . ^ https://facts.duke.edu ^ "America's Best Employers" . Retrieved February 13, 2018 . ^ "Great Colleges To Work For 2015". July 19, 2015 . Retrieved February 13, 2018 . ^ a b c "A Chronology of Significant Events in Duke University's History". Duke University Archives . Retrieved May 23, 2011 . ^ Pyatt, Tim (November''December 2006). "Retrospective: Selections from University Archives". Duke Magazine. Duke Office of Alumni Affairs. 92 (6). Archived from the original on May 15, 2011 . Retrieved May 23, 2011 . ^ Duke University Chapel '' History Archived May 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine . Friends of Duke Chapel. Retrieved July 5, 2011. ^ King, William, E. (1997). "Washington Duke and the Education of Women". University Archives. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library . Retrieved March 24, 2015 . ^ Witz, Billy (January 1, 2021). "In Pasadena, Moving the Rose Bowl Makes For Unusual Rancor". The New York Times . Retrieved May 11, 2021 . ^ "Navy V-12 Program". Durham, North Carolina: Duke University. 2011. Archived from the original on March 5, 2011 . Retrieved September 28, 2011 . ^ Marianne Twu (2010). "Slavery and Segregation". Duke Human Rights Center . Retrieved January 8, 2016 . ^ "Celebrating the Past, Charting the Future: Commemorating 50 Years of Black Students at Duke University" . Retrieved July 27, 2019 . ^ "The Road to Desegregation". Duke University. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019 . Retrieved January 28, 2019 . ^ Duke Annual Report 2000/2001-Interdisciplinary Archived July 24, 2012, at archive.today . Duke University Annual Report, 2001. Retrieved January 12, 2011. ^ Rogalski, Jim. Breaking the Barrier: A History of African-Americans at Duke University School of Medicine. 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American Psycho - Wikipedia

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1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis

American Psycho is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first person by Patrick Bateman, a serial killer and Manhattan investment banker. Alison Kelly of The Observer notes that while "some countries [deem it] so potentially disturbing that it can only be sold shrink-wrapped", "critics rave about it" and "academics revel in its transgressive and postmodern qualities".[3]

A film adaptation starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman was released in 2000 to generally favorable reviews.[4] In 2008, it was confirmed that producers David Johnson and Jesse Singer were developing a musical adaptation[5] of the novel to appear on Broadway. The musical premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London in December 2013.

Development [ edit ] Author Bret Easton Ellis initially imagined a disillusioned but nonviolent protagonist. After a dinner with friends who worked on Wall Street, he decided to make him a serial killer. Patrick Bateman's idolization of Donald Trump is based on his friends' respect for and envy of the mogul.[6][7] Ellis researched murders at the New York Public Library. His first draft of American Psycho left out all the grisly scenes, which were to be added in later. In 2010, in conversation with journalist Jeff Baker, Ellis commented:

[Bateman] was crazy the same way [I was]. He did not come out of me sitting down and wanting to write a grand sweeping indictment of yuppie culture. It initiated because of my own isolation and alienation at a point in my life. I was living like Patrick Bateman. I was slipping into a consumerist kind of void that was supposed to give me confidence and make me feel good about myself but just made me feel worse and worse and worse about myself. That is where the tension of American Psycho came from. It wasn't that I was going to make up this serial killer on Wall Street. High concept. Fantastic. It came from a much more personal place, and that's something that I've only been admitting in the last year or so. I was so on the defensive because of the reaction to that book that I wasn't able to talk about it on that level.[8]

'--'Bret Easton Ellis

Plot [ edit ] Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho follows the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, in his mid-20s when the story begins, narrates his everyday activities, from his recreational life among the Wall Street elite of New York to his forays into murder by night. Through present tense stream-of-consciousness narrative, Bateman describes his daily life, ranging from a series of Friday nights spent at nightclubs with his colleagues'--where they snort cocaine, critique fellow club-goers' clothing, trade fashion advice, and question one another on proper etiquette'--to his loveless engagement to fellow yuppie Evelyn and his contentious relationship with his brother and senile mother. Bateman's stream of consciousness is occasionally broken up by chapters in which he directly addresses the reader in order to critique the work of 1980s pop music artists. The novel maintains a high level of ambiguity through mistaken identity and contradictions that introduce the possibility that Bateman is an unreliable narrator. Characters are consistently introduced as people other than themselves, and people argue over the identities of others they can see in restaurants or at parties. Deeply concerned with his personal appearance, Bateman gives extensive descriptions of his daily aesthetics regimen.

After killing Paul Owen, one of his colleagues, Bateman appropriates his apartment as a place to host and kill more victims. Bateman's control over his violent urges deteriorates. His murders become increasingly sadistic and complex, progressing from simple stabbings to drawn-out sequences of rape, torture, mutilation, cannibalism, and necrophilia, and his grasp on sanity begins to slip. He introduces stories about serial killers into casual conversations and on several occasions openly confesses his murderous activities to his coworkers, who never take him seriously, do not hear what he says, or misunderstand him completely'--for example, hearing the words "murders and executions" as "mergers and acquisitions." These incidents culminate in a shooting spree during which he kills several random people in the street, resulting in a SWAT team being dispatched in a helicopter. This narrative episode sees the first-person perspective shift to third-person and the subsequent events are, although not for the first time in the novel, described in terms pertaining to cinematic portrayal. Bateman flees on foot and hides in his office, where he phones his attorney, Harold Carnes, and confesses all his crimes to an answering machine.

Later, Bateman revisits Paul Owen's apartment, where he had earlier killed and mutilated two prostitutes, carrying a surgical mask in anticipation of the decomposing bodies he expects to encounter. He enters the perfectly clean, refurbished apartment, however, filled with strong-smelling flowers meant, perhaps, to conceal a bad odor. The real estate agent, who sees his surgical mask, fools him into stating he was attending the apartment viewing because he "saw an ad in the Times" (when in fact there was no such advertisement). She tells him to leave and never return.

Bateman's mental state continues to deteriorate and he begins to experience bizarre hallucinations such as seeing a Cheerio interviewed on a talk show, being stalked by an anthropomorphic park bench, and finding a bone in his Dove Bar. At the end of the story, Bateman confronts Carnes about the message he left on his machine, only to find the attorney amused at what he considers a hilarious joke. Mistaking Bateman for another colleague, Carnes claims that the Patrick Bateman he knows is too much of a coward to have committed such acts. In the dialogue-laden climax, Carnes stands up to a defiant Bateman and tells him his claim of having murdered Owen is impossible, because he had dinner with him twice in London just a few days prior.

The book ends as it began, with Bateman and his colleagues at a new club on a Friday night, engaging in banal conversation. The sign seen at the end of the book simply reads "This is not an exit."

Themes [ edit ] According to literary critic Jeffrey W. Hunter, American Psycho is largely a critique of the "shallow and vicious aspects of capitalism".[9] The characters are predominantly concerned with material gain and superficial appearances, traits indicative of a postmodern world in which the 'surface' reigns supreme. This leads Patrick Bateman to act as if "everything is a commodity, including people",[10] an attitude that is further evident in the rampant objectification and brutalization of women that occurs in the novel. This distancing allows Bateman to rationalize his actions;[11] in one anthropophagic scene, Bateman remarks "though it does sporadically penetrate how unacceptable some of what I'm doing actually is, I just remind myself that this thing, this girl, this meat, is nothing ..."[12]

Patrick Bateman's consumption of what he views as nothing more than a piece of meat is an almost parodically literal interpretation of a monster created by consumer culture. This, combined with sex, violence, drugs, and other desires of the id, is how Bateman enacts his sociopathic violence in a superficial world.[13]

Bateman's episodes of schizophrenia also shows clear signs on how he copes with being an affluent person living in a superficial world, fashioned on consumerism. As described by the critic Jennifer Krause in her intertextual analysis of the novel, which relies on the work of postmodern theorist Fredric Jameson, Jameson "blames the schizophrenic's ills on the incoherence of postmodern media and capitalistic consumption".[14]

Jameson's critique is expanded by Krause, who writes, "We can see a distinctly popular culture schizophrenia arise, a disease spread by the postmodern culture industry, which ruptures personality and isolates the fractured self. Though Jameson does not specifically reference two different types of schizophrenia in his writings, he implies an artistic schizophrenia versus a more popular form'--one more or less accepted, and the other anathema. This raises questions about how popular culture might act as a potential cure for madness."[15] On the one hand is a rich Wall Street banker, Bateman, concerned and very self-conscious about every detail of his physical appearance, expensive possessions, and control of the people and the world around him. On the other hand, is the inner self of Patrick Bateman, the aboriginal-self, who copes and relinquishes his outer complications and "fake" identity, created by consumerism, through violence on other human beings, who he finds consumable, and expresses absolute control of his desires and true self through his violent fantasies. His consumer, artificial self, proceeding in society as a wealthy consumer would live and spend his income, versus his natural self, who, instead of spending money, would hunt and prey on the weak and vulnerable, usually women, whom he deems expendable. Bateman treats the people around him just like any other consumer product, because of the void he still battles with and wishes to fulfill from within, hence, having dual personas, having the dull artificial identity, compared to his free limitless persona of his mind.

Observing another side of potential behavior coming from the affluent American society of consumerism is explained through C. Serpell saying, "Though serialized violence in American Psycho is an extension of the deadening effects of serialized consumer exchanges in an economy where commodities and bodies become interchangeable and indistinguishable, this point largely escaped the notice of the novel's harshest critics."[16] Despite critics arguing over the aesthetic properties of the novel from rapid patterns and transitions of self-consciousness and murder, Serpell claims critics have overlooked the key themes and motives of the novel. Serpell bringing to light the patterns and trends Ellis expresses through Bateman, what the consequences of how "serialized consumer exchanges in an economy where commodities and bodies become interchangeable and indistinguishable,"[16] could affect society, and the way affluent people view others whether they are higher, lower, or the same in wealth or social status. The critic Thomas Heise states, "the uncertainty about the reality of Patrick's violence has become the chief critical debate on American Psycho, and it serves as a convenient introduction to the entanglement of epistemology and ethics in the novel."[17] Bateman's character and traits, according to Heise, challenge what readers understand as the social norms for the way the elite upper class think and react to society on a normal basis. Bateman's epistemology and ethics in regards to his actions and way of thinking throughout the novel is a reflection, through his violence, which raises the questions of the moral and ethical understanding of all individuals in Bateman's position and status, and how they might act and think similar or completely identical in a consumer world built on capitalism as we see in today's American society.

Citing the many bodies that are never found, Henry Bean wonders "is it possible that the murders themselves never occurred?" He continues:[18]

The novel subtly and relentlessly undercuts its own authority, and because Bateman, unlike, say, Nabokov's unreliable narrators, does not hint at a "truth" beyond his own delusions, "American Psycho" becomes a wonderfully unstable account. The most persuasive details are combined with unlikely incidents until we're not only unsure what's real, we begin to doubt the existence of reality itself.

Characters [ edit ] Major characters [ edit ] Patrick Bateman '' The central narrator and villainous protagonist of the novel.Evelyn Richards '' Bateman's supposed fianc(C)e.Timothy Price '' Bateman's best friend and colleague. Later appears as a teenager in Ellis's novel The Informers.Paul Owen '' Bateman's colleague who is later murdered by Bateman.Jean '' Bateman's secretary, whom Bateman refers to as "Jean, my secretary who is in love with me".Luis Carruthers '' A closeted homosexual co-worker who has gay feelings for Bateman, something that disgusts the latter.Courtney Lawrence '' Luis' fiancee who is having an affair with Bateman.Craig McDermott '' Bateman's colleague, part of a social foursome alongside Bateman, Timothy Price and David Van Patten.David Van Patten '' Bateman's colleague, also part of Bateman's main social group.Minor characters [ edit ] "Christie" '' A prostitute, employed and badly abused by Bateman on multiple occasions before he eventually murders her in a grisly fashion. Bateman gives her this name; her real one is never revealed.Elizabeth '' A dinner date of Bateman's, drugged and coerced into having sex with "Christie" before being violently murdered.Marcus Halberstam '' Bateman's colleague; Paul Owen repeatedly mistakes Bateman for Marcus.Donald Kimball '' Private detective hired to investigate Paul Owen's disappearance.Alison Poole '' Sexually and physically assaulted by Bateman; created by Ellis's friend Jay McInerney in his novel Story of My Life[19] and based on McInerney's former girlfriend Rielle Hunter; reappears as a main character in Ellis's later novel Glamorama, where she is involved with the lead character, Victor Ward.Sean Bateman '' Younger brother of Patrick Bateman and also the lead character of The Rules of Attraction.Paul Denton '' Friend of Paul Owen, who also appears in The Rules of Attraction where he is possibly romantically involved with Patrick's brother Sean.Christopher Armstrong '' Bateman's colleague at Pierce & Pierce.Bethany '' An old girlfriend of Patrick's whom, after a date, he tortures and subsequently murders.Stash '' Evelyn's friend, who is HIV positive.Vanden '' Evelyn's friend from the East Village who claims to attend Camden College, the main setting of The Rules of Attraction.Al '' A homeless man whom Bateman blinds and disfigures with a knife.Tom Cruise '' Lives in the same apartment building as Bateman, in the penthouse.Bono '' The leader singer of Irish rock band U2. Appears in a chapter in which Bateman and his colleagues attend a U2 concert.Patty Winters '' The host of a talk show which Bateman frequently views. As the novel progresses the subject of her programs become more and more absurd, implied to be no more than a figment of Bateman's imagination.Controversy [ edit ] Ellis later wrote that people assumed that American Psycho would end his career.[6] It was originally to have been published by Simon & Schuster in March 1991, but the company withdrew from the project because of "aesthetic differences". Vintage Books purchased the rights to the novel and published the book after the customary editing process. The book was not published in hardcover in the United States until 2012, when a limited hardcover edition was published by Centipede Press,[20] although a deluxe paperback was offered.[21] Before its publication, Roger Rosenblatt of The New York Times approved of Simon & Schuster canceling the "worthless" book in a review called "Snuff This Book! Will Bret Easton Ellis Get Away With Murder?".[22] Ellis received numerous death threats and hate mail after the publication of American Psycho.[23][24] The Los Angeles Times ' s review[18]'--"the one good review in the national press", he said'--resulted in "a three-page letter section of all these people canceling their subscriptions".[6]

In the United States, the book was named the 53rd most banned and challenged book from 1990''1999 by the American Library Association.[25]

In Germany, the book was deemed "harmful to minors" and its sales and marketing severely restricted from 1995 to 2000.

In Australia, the book is sold shrink-wrapped and is classified "R18" under national censorship legislation (i.e., the book may not be sold to those under 18 years of age). Along with other Category 1 publications, its sale is theoretically banned in the state of Queensland, and it may only be purchased shrink-wrapped.[26] In Brisbane, the novel is available to those over 18 from all public libraries and can still be ordered and purchased (shrink-wrapped) from many book stores despite this prohibition.[27] Bret Easton Ellis has commented on this, saying "I think it's adorable. I think it's cute. I love it."[28][29] In New Zealand, the Government's Office of Film & Literature Classification has rated the book as R18 (i.e., the book may not be sold or lent in libraries to those under 18 years of age). It is generally sold shrink wrapped in bookstores.[citation needed ]

During the trial of Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo, a copy was discovered in Bernardo's bedroom. The Toronto Sun reported that Bernardo "read it as his 'bible ' ",[30][31] though it turned out it actually belonged to his wife and accomplice Karla Homolka; it is unlikely Bernardo ever read it.[30]

Feminist activist Gloria Steinem was among those opposed to Ellis's book because of its portrayal of violence toward women.[32][6] Steinem is the stepmother of Christian Bale, who played Bateman in the film. This coincidence is mentioned in Ellis's mock memoir Lunar Park.

Phil Collins, whose solo career is referenced in the book, recalled: "I didn't read it. At the time, I just thought, 'That's all we need: glorifying all this crap. I'm not interested.' Then the film came out, and I thought it was very funny."[33]

Adaptations [ edit ] 2000 film [ edit ] In 2000, writer Guinevere Turner and writer/director Mary Harron adapted American Psycho into a dark, comic film released by Lions Gate Films in United States and Columbia Pictures in other territories. This screenplay was selected over three others, including one by Ellis himself. Bateman is played by Christian Bale with Willem Dafoe and Reese Witherspoon in supporting roles. As a promotion for the film, one could register to receive e-mails "from" Patrick Bateman, supposedly to his therapist.[34] The e-mails, written by a writer attached to the film and approved by Ellis, follow Bateman's life since the events of the film. American Psycho premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival where it was touted as the next Fight Club.[35] The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave the film an NC-17 rating for a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with two prostitutes. The producers excised approximately 18 seconds of footage to obtain an R-rating for the film.[36]

It polarized audiences and critics with some showering praise, others scorn.[37] Upon its theatrical release, however, the film received positive reviews in crucial publications, including The New York Times which called it a "mean and lean horror comedy classic".[38] Author Bret Easton Ellis said, "American Psycho was a book I didn't think needed to be turned into a movie," as "the medium of film demands answers," which would make the book "infinitely less interesting."[39] The film currently holds a 67% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

A direct-to-video spin-off, American Psycho 2 was released and directed by Morgan J. Freeman. This spin-off was not based on the novel or the original film, as its only connection with the original is the death of Patrick Bateman (played by Michael Kremko wearing a face mask), briefly shown in a flashback.

Other adaptations [ edit ] In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of American Psycho, narrated by Pablo Schreiber, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.[40] A Hungarian version of the novel was written by Attila Hazai (1967''2012) called Budapesti skizo ("Budapest Psycho", 1997); it was Hazai's best known work but as of his death never translated into English.[41]

In 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was launched by Ellis and others to get a musical stage adaptation made.[42] The premiere of the musical, with music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik opened at the Almeida Theatre, London in December 2013. The role of Patrick Bateman was played by Matt Smith.[43] In 2015, the musical was workshopped in New York, with Benjamin Walker re-assuming the role of Patrick that he had originally taken on in 2011. It premiered in early 2016, but closed June 5 of that year after a run of only 54 regular performances.[44] In the announcement, they cited "stiff competition" from more well-known musicals like Waitress, Shuffle Along, and Hamilton.

Also in 2013, FX was planning a TV series, set in the present, with Patrick Bateman in his 50s.[45]

See also [ edit ] Aestheticization of violenceTransgressive fictionReferences [ edit ] ^ "Marshall Arisman illustrations". Marshallarisman.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-30 . Retrieved 2012-02-15 . ^ Cohen, Roger. "Bret Easton Ellis Answers Critics of 'American Psycho ' ". The New York Times. ^ Kelly, Alison (27 June 2010). "Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 30 June 2010 . Retrieved 28 July 2010 . ^ "Metacritic reviews for American Psycho". Metacritic.com . Retrieved 2012-02-15 . ^ Kepler, Adam W. (2012-04-22). " ' American Psycho' as a Musical". The New York Times. ^ a b c d Seymour, Corey (2019-04-16). "Bret Easton Ellis on Talking Porn With Kanye, a New Novel, and (Yes) Trump". Vogue . Retrieved 2019-04-17 . ^ Swaim, Barton (2019-04-16). " ' White' Review: Repeat Offender". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 2019-04-17 . ^ Baker, Jeff (July 2010). "Q&A: Bret Easton Ellis talks about writing novels, making movies". OregonLive . Retrieved 2010-07-09 . ^ Contemporary Literary Criticism. Jeffrey W. Hunter (ed.). Vol. 229. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007, pp. 228''294. From Literature Criticism Online. ^ Contemporary Literary Criticism. ^ Brock, Leigh. "Distancing in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. Notes on Contemporary Literature 24, no. 1 (January 1994): 6''8. ^ Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Page 345 ^ Heyler, Ruth. "Parodied to Death: The Postmodern Gothic of American Psycho". Modern Fiction Studies 46, no. 3 (fall 2000): 725''746. ^ Polan, Dana; Foster, Hal (1984). "The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture". New German Critique (33): 264''269. doi:10.2307/488367. ISSN 0094-033X. JSTOR 488367. ^ Krause, Jennifer (2016-02-16). "The Killing Cure: Popular Culture and Postmodern Madness inOnde andar Dulce Veiga?andAmerican Psycho". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 57 (2): 166''177. doi:10.1080/00111619.2015.1019409. ISSN 0011-1619. ^ a b Serpell, C. Namwali (January 2010). "Repetition and the Ethics of Suspended Reading inAmerican Psycho". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 51 (1): 47''73. doi:10.1080/00111610903249864. ISSN 0011-1619. ^ Heise, Thomas (2011). "American Psycho: Neoliberal Fantasies and the Death of Downtown". Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 67 (1): 135''160. doi:10.1353/arq.2011.0001. ISSN 1558-9595. ^ a b Bean, Henry (1991-03-17). "SLAYGROUND : AMERICAN PSYCHO By Bret Easton Ellis (Vintage: $11, paper; 399 pp.)". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035 . Retrieved 2019-04-17 . ^ "Allow Bret Easton Ellis to Introduce You to Alison Poole, A.K.A. Rielle Hunter". New York Magazine. 2008-08-06. Archived from the original on 7 August 2008 . Retrieved 2008-08-06 . ^ "American Psycho". centipedepress.com . Retrieved 27 February 2015 . ^ Benatar, Giselle (1990-11-30). "American Psychodrama '' EW.com". Entertainment Weekly. ^ Rosenblatt, Roger (1990-12-16). "Snuff This Book! Will Bret Easton Ellis Get Away With Murder?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-04-17 . ^ Messier, Vartan (2005). "Canons of Transgression: Shock, Scandal, and Subversion from Matthew Lewis's The Monk to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho" (PDF) . Dissertation Abstracts International. 43 (4): 1085 ff. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-24 . Retrieved 2006-04-16 . (University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez). Chapter Pornography and Violence: The Dialectics of Transgression in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho provides an in-depth analysis of the novel. ^ Bret Easton Ellis at IMDb ^ Office of Intellectual Freedom (2013-03-26). "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990-1999". American Library Association . Retrieved 2021-06-15 . ^ "Police ask for new edition of American Psycho to be removed from Adelaide bookshelves". ABC News. 2015-07-17. ^ Government of Australia National Classification Scheme. [permanent dead link ] ^ "Bret Easton Ellis Slams Self-Censorship Among Artists". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-11-18 . Retrieved 2012-02-15 . ^ "American Psycho Author Bret Easton Ellis: In Conversation". FORA.tv. Archived from the original on 2011-10-16 . Retrieved 2012-02-15 . ^ a b Harron, Mary (2000-04-09). "FILM; The Risky Territory Of 'American Psycho ' ". The New York Times . Retrieved 2018-04-14 . ^ Cairns, Alan (1995-09-01). "Life imitates 'art' in Bernardo 'bible ' ". The Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 2012-01-28 . Retrieved 2018-12-28 . ^ Venant, Elizabeth (11 December 1990). "An 'American Psycho' Drama: Books: The flap surrounding Bret Easton Ellis's third novel flares again. NOW is seeking a boycott of his new publisher. Other observers raise questions of censorship". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 23 October 2015 . ^ White, Terri (December 2014). "Cash for questions". Q: 33. ^ Howell, Peter (March 8, 2000). "American Psychos Web Promo Sickens Star". Toronto Star. Toronto. ^ "American Psycho hits Sundance". The Guardian. London. 2000-01-26 . Retrieved 2010-07-27 . ^ "American Psycho cut to appease censors". The Guardian. London. 2000-02-29 . Retrieved 2010-07-27 . ^ Corliss, Richard (January 24, 2000). "Sundance Sorority". Time. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007 . Retrieved 2009-04-08 . ^ Holden, Stephen (April 14, 2000). "Murderer! Fiend! Cad! (But Well-Dressed)". The New York Times . Retrieved 2009-04-08 . ^ "Bret Easton Ellis talks film adaptations at SCAD". Creative Loafing. Archived from the original on 24 June 2010 . Retrieved 2010-06-19 . ^ Audible Announces New Modern Vanguard Line of Audiobooks. International Business Times ^ Hazai Attila (1967''2012), complete review, "The Literary Saloon", April 10, 2012. ^ "AMERICAN PSYCHO". Kickstarter . Retrieved 27 February 2015 . ^ Almeida Theatre. "American Psycho" . Retrieved 23 May 2013 . ^ Viagas, Robert (5 June 2016). "American Psycho Ends Broadway Run Today". Playbill . Retrieved 2018-12-11 . ^ Elavsky, Cindy (6 October 2013). "Celebrity Extra". King Features . Retrieved 9 January 2014 . Further reading [ edit ] Ellis, Bret Easton (March 6, 1991). American psycho: a novel. Vintage contemporaries (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-73577-9. LCCN 90010247. OCLC 22308330. OL 1857983M. Wrethed, Joakim (Fall 2021). "Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho as a Palimpsest of the Theories of Girard, Gans and de Andrade". Anthropetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology. XXVII (1). External links [ edit ] American Psycho on Open Library at the Internet Archive

Nancy Grace - Wikipedia

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 02:31

American legal commentator, television host, television journalist, and former prosecutor

Nancy Ann Grace (born October 23, 1959)[1] is an American legal commentator and television journalist. She hosted Nancy Grace, a nightly celebrity news and current affairs show on HLN, from 2005 to 2016, and Court TV's Closing Arguments from 1996 to 2007. She also co-wrote the book Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System. Grace was also the arbiter of Swift Justice with Nancy Grace in the syndicated courtroom reality show's first season.

Grace was formerly a prosecutor in a local district attorney's office in Atlanta, Georgia. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a victims' rights standpoint, with an outspoken style that has brought her both praise and criticism.

Early life Nancy Grace was born in Macon, Georgia, the youngest of three children, to factory worker Elizabeth Grace and Mac Grace, a freight agent for Southern Railway.[2] Her older siblings are brother Mac Jr. and sister Ginny.[3] The Graces are longtime members of Macon's Liberty United Methodist Church, where Elizabeth plays the organ and Mac Sr. was once a Sunday School teacher.[4]

Grace graduated from Macon's Windsor Academy in 1977.[5] She attended Valdosta State University, and later received a B.A. from Mercer University. As a student, Grace was a fan of Shakespearean literature, and intended to become an English professor after graduating from college.[2] But after the murder of her fianc(C) Keith Griffin in a workplace shooting when she was 19, Grace decided to enroll in law school and went on to become a felony prosecutor and a supporter of victims' rights.[6][7]

Grace received her Juris Doctor from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer, where she was a member of the law review. She went on to earn a Master of Laws in constitutional and criminal law from New York University.[6] She has written articles and opinion pieces for legal periodicals, including the American Bar Association Journal.[6] She worked as a clerk for a federal court judge and practiced antitrust and consumer protection law with the Federal Trade Commission.[6] She taught litigation at the Georgia State University College of Law and business law at GSU's School of Business.[6] As of 2006, she is part of Mercer University's board of trustees and adopted a section of the street surrounding the law school.

Career as prosecutor Grace worked for nearly a decade in the Atlanta-Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney's office as Special Prosecutor. Her work focused on felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation, and serial arson.[8] Grace left the prosecutors' office after the District Attorney she had been working under decided not to run for reelection.[9]

While a prosecutor, Grace was reprimanded by the Supreme Court of Georgia for withholding evidence and for making improper statements in a 1997 arson and murder case. The court overturned the conviction in that case and found that Grace's behavior "demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness and was inexcusable."[10] As well, a 2005 federal appeals opinion by Judge William H. Pryor, Jr. found that Grace "played fast and loose" with core ethical rules in a 1990 triple murder case, including the withholding of evidence and allowing a police detective to testify falsely under oath. The 1990 murder conviction was upheld despite Grace's prosecutorial misconduct.

Career as broadcaster After leaving the Fulton County prosecutors' office, Grace was approached by and accepted an offer from Court TV founder Steven Brill to do a legal commentary show alongside Johnnie Cochran. When Cochran left the show, Grace was moved to a solo trial coverage show on Court TV, she hosted Trial Heat from 1996-2004, then Closing Arguments from 2004-2007, replacing Lisa Bloom and James Curtis, both of whom were hosting Trial Heat at that point.[9]

In February 2005, she began hosting a regular primetime legal analysis show called Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News (now HLN) in addition to her Court TV show.[8] On May 9, 2007, Grace announced that she would be leaving Court TV to focus more on her CNN Headline News Program and charity work.[11] She did her last show on Court TV on June 19, 2007.

Grace has a distinctive interviewing style mixing vocal questions with multimedia stats displays. The Foundation of American Women in Radio & Television has presented Nancy Grace with two Gracie Awards for her Court TV show.[8]

While still hosting Nancy Grace, she also hosted Swift Justice with Nancy Grace which premiered September 13, 2010, and ran until May 2011. Grace left the show due to productions moving from Atlanta to Los Angeles. In September 2011, Judge Jackie Glass, who is known for presiding over the O. J. Simpson robbery case, took over Grace's place. The show continued for one more season and ceased production in 2012.

Grace had been covering the Casey Anthony story for years. After the controversial verdict finding Casey Anthony not guilty, her Nancy Grace show on HLN had its highest ratings ever in the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. hour slots on Tuesday, July 5, 2011.[12]

On October 13, 2016, at the end of her contract, Grace hosted her last show.

On July 13, 2019, an Oxygen TV channel true crime series began, hosted by Grace and titled Injustice with Nancy Grace with criminal cases being the subject of episodes that seek to bring to light unjust accusations, bungled investigations, arcane evidence, new motives, and shocking sentences.[13]

Controversies In a 2011 New York Times article, David Carr wrote, "Since her show began in 2005, the presumption of innocence has found a willful enemy in the former prosecutor turned broadcast judge-and-jury". He criticized her handling of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Duke lacrosse case, the Melinda Duckett interview and suicide, and the Caylee Anthony case. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Carr that Grace, as an attorney and reporter, "has managed to demean both professions with her hype, rabid persona, and sensational analysis. Some part of the public takes her seriously, and her show erodes the respect for basic rights."[14]

In January 2014, she again ignited controversy for her wildly negative depiction of recreational marijuana users. Grace made statements such as users were "fat and lazy" and that anyone who disagreed with her was "lethargic, sitting on the sofa, eating chips" to CNN's news correspondent Brooke Baldwin during a segment covering legalization in Colorado on January 6, 2014.[15]

On October 11, 2016, The Jim Norton and Sam Roberts Show had Grace as a guest, on which they accused her of capitalizing on others' tragedies, for her personal gain.[16] They also addressed her handling of The Ultimate Warrior's death,[17] and the Duke lacrosse case.[18] Norton said during the interview that he has disliked her for some time, and she has previously blocked him on Twitter.[19] Grace, in defending herself, stated that she was a crime victim herself,[20] and that they didn't ask her one decent question.[21] The next day on The View, Grace addressed the interview, calling Norton and Roberts Beavis and Butt-Head.[22] Grace said she had to hold back tears during the interview and stated, "I don't really know what it was, but it was hell for me."[23]

Elizabeth Smart kidnapping During the 2002 Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, when suspect Richard Ricci was arrested by police on the basis that he had a criminal record and had worked on the Smarts' home, Grace immediately and repeatedly proclaimed on Court TV and CNN's Larry King Live that Ricci was guilty, although there was little evidence to support this claim. She also suggested publicly that Ricci's girlfriend was involved in the cover-up of his alleged crime. Grace continued to accuse Ricci, though he died while in custody.[24] It was later revealed that Smart was kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, two individuals with whom Ricci had no connection.[25]

When Court TV confronted Grace seven months later to ask whether she was incorrect in her assertion that Ricci was guilty, and whether or not she felt bad about it in any way, she stated that Ricci was "a known ex-con, a known felon, and brought suspicion on himself, so who could blame anyone for claiming he was the perpetrator?" When Larry King asked her about the matter, she equated criticism of herself with criticism of the police in the case. She said, "I'm not letting you take the police with me on a guilt trip."[26]

In July 2006, Grace interviewed Smart, who was promoting a legislative bill. Grace repeatedly asked her for information regarding her abduction. Smart told her she didn't feel comfortable discussing it, despite Grace's persistence in the matter. Finally, Grace stopped when Smart said she "didn't appreciate [Grace] bringing all this up."[27]

Danielle van Dam case During the trial of David Westerfield in 2002 for the kidnap and murder of Danielle van Dam, Grace made it clear on Larry King Live that she thought he was guilty, but she got some facts wrong. For example, she said he had steam-cleaned his RV, but no evidence was introduced that he had. Dr. Henry Lee pointed out that if he had done so, they wouldn't have found the fingerprints and the bloodstain on the carpet.[28][29] David Westerfield was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Danielle van Dam.

Grace also dismissed the defense's proposal that hair and fibers found on Westerfield's black jacket had been transferred from van Dam to Westerfield when the two were dancing at a bar on Friday night. Grace contended that the jacket was leather and a transfer would not have been possible.[30]

She also made some statements pointing to Westerfield's possible innocence. The strongest evidence against Westerfield was found in his RV, particularly a drop of van Dam's blood and her hand print. That evidence could be innocently explained if, at some previous time while it was parked unlocked in the streets outside her home, van Dam had entered that vehicle, perhaps to explore it out of curiosity. There was no testimony she had done so, but Grace said she "can imagine a little girl wandering into a RV and playing in it, much as if they saw a swimming pool, they might jump in, or a playground, they might play on it".[28]

Duke lacrosse allegations Grace took a vehemently pro-prosecution position throughout the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, in which Crystal Mangum, a stripper and North Carolina Central University student, falsely accused three members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team of raping her at a party. Prior to Duke suspending its men's lacrosse team's season, she sarcastically noted on the air, "I'm so glad they didn't miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape!" and "Why would you go to a cop in an alleged gang rape case, say, and lie and give misleading information?"[31] After the disbarment of District Attorney Mike Nifong, Attorney General Roy Cooper pronounced all three players innocent of the rape charges made by Mangum and Nifong.[32] On the following broadcast of her show, Grace did not appear and a substitute reporter, Jane Velez-Mitchell, announced the removal of all charges.[33]

Suicide of interviewee Melinda Duckett In September 2006, 22-year-old Melinda Duckett committed suicide following an interview conducted by Grace concerning the disappearance of Duckett's 2-year-old son Trenton.[34] Grace interviewed Duckett less than two weeks after the child went missing, questioning her for her alleged lack of openness regarding her son's disappearance, asking Duckett "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"[35] Duckett appeared confused and was unable to answer whether or not she had taken a polygraph test. When Grace asked her why she could not account for specific details, Duckett began to reply, "Because I was told not to," to which Grace responded, "Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day twelve." According to the CNN transcript, Duckett replied, "(INAUDIBLE) with all media. It's not just there, just all media. Period." Grace then moved on to a psychologist who asserted that Duckett was "skirting around the issue."[34][35]

The next day, before the airing of the show, Duckett shot herself, a death that relatives claim was influenced by media scrutiny, particularly from Grace.[34][36] Speaking to The Orlando Sentinel, Duckett's grandfather Bill Eubank said, "Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end. She was not one anyone ever would have thought of to do something like this."[34] CNN has also been criticized for allowing the show to air in the wake of Duckett's suicide.[37] Police investigating the case had not named Melinda Duckett as a suspect in the case at the time, but after her suicide the police did say that, as nearly all parents are in missing-child cases, she was a suspect from the beginning.[34]

Grace at the book party for her book "Objection!", at the Bryant Park Grill, NYC, 2005

In an interview on Good Morning America, Nancy Grace said in reaction to events that "If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide. To suggest that a 15- or 20-minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing."[38] She then said that, while she sympathized with the family, she knew from her own experience as a victim of crime that such people look for somebody else to blame.[39]

While describing it as an "extremely sad development", Janine Iamunno, a spokeswoman for Grace,[34] said that her program would continue to follow the case as they had a "responsibility to bring attention to this case in the hopes of helping find Trenton Duckett." Grace commented that "I do not feel that our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett. The truth is not always nice or polite or easy to go down. Sometimes it's harsh, and it hurts."[34]

On November 21, 2006, The Smoking Gun exposed pending litigation on behalf of the estate of Melinda Duckett, asserting a wrongful death claim against CNN and Grace. The attorney for the estate alleges that, even if Duckett did kill her own son, Grace's aggressive questioning traumatized Duckett so much that she committed suicide. She also argues that CNN's decision to air the interview after Duckett's suicide traumatized her family. Trenton has never been found.[37][40]

On November 8, 2010, Grace reached a settlement with the estate of Melinda Duckett to create a $200,000 trust fund dedicated to locating Trenton. This settlement was reached a month before a jury trial was scheduled to start. According to the agreement, if the young boy is found alive before he turns 13, the remaining proceeds in the trust will be administered by a trustee '' Trenton's great-aunt Kathleen Calvert '' until he turns 18 and the funds are transferred for his use. If Trenton is not found by his 13th birthday, or if he is found but is not alive, the funds will be transferred immediately to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "We are pleased the lawsuit has been dismissed. The statement speaks for itself," a spokeswoman for CNN said.[41]

Caylee Anthony case From 2008 to 2011, the Caylee Anthony disappearance and the prosecution, trial, and acquittal of her mother Casey Anthony on charges of murder of the child were a regular feature of the Nancy Grace show. She would reveal every new detail of the story.[42] Her program is cited as having "almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession".[43]

The Nancy Grace audience more than doubled in the weeks after the start of the Casey Anthony trial.[44] David Carr wrote that Grace took her show to the trial scene in Orlando, Florida in order to "hurl invective from a close, intimate distance."[14] Grace expressed rage at Anthony's acquittal right after announcement of the verdict, saying: "Tot Mom's lies seem to have worked."[43] In a press conference after the verdicts were read, Cheney Mason, one of Anthony's defense attorneys, blamed the media for a "media assassination" which led to public hatred toward Anthony. He also said,

I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a damn thing about, and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it.[45]

Grace took it personally and responded, "What does he care about what pundits are saying?". She also stated that she had as much legal experience as Mason and criticized the defense attorneys for taking on the media before mentioning Caylee Anthony's name in their news conference and stated that "[T]here is no way that this is a verdict that speaks the truth."[45]

Michelle Zierler, director of the Project in Law and Journalism at New York Law School, said Grace "is always certain that the defendant is guilty and needs instant punishment" and this had affected her analysis of the case.[45] Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County, Florida public defender said,

Nancy Grace should offend every journalist out there. These lawyers on TV during the Anthony trial only offered one side, everybody believed them, and now you've got a big chunk of the population that thinks the legal system let them down. Every time that happens, you lose part of the national community.[43]

On the day Anthony was sentenced on misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators, a supporter held a sign reading: "Nancy Grace, stop trying to ruin innocent lives. The jury has spoken. P.S. Our legal system still works!"[46]

In a televised appearance with media expert Dan Abrams, Grace stated about Anthony's being freed from jail,

No one wishes for vigilante justice; nobody advocates that. People who are opposed to the jury verdict, that think it was wrong, are really seeking justice, and I do not believe those people are interested in harming Tot Mom Casey Anthony.

Abrams commented,

There are too many people out there who love Nancy Grace, who watch Nancy Grace on a regular basis, who are going to see [Anthony] out there somewhere and are going to give her a very, very hard time wherever she goes.[47]

Whitney Houston death Mainstream media have suggested that Grace made "wildly speculative" allegations on her program that the investigation into Whitney Houston's death should include the possibility that someone may have been responsible for drowning Houston. Some reporters have pointed out that Grace should have waited for the coroner's report before making this allegation.[48]

Toni Annette Medrano suicide On November 22, 2011, Toni Annette Medrano accidentally killed her 3-week-old son, Adrian Alexander Medrano, while she was sleeping on the couch with him. According to the criminal complaint, Medrano told police she had consumed almost an entire fifth of vodka the night before her son died and fell asleep with him on a couch. The following morning, she woke up and found her infant son unresponsive and cold to the touch. While Grace was covering the case, she infamously dubbed Medrano "Vodka Mom". During one of her shows, Grace brought a bottle of vodka onto her set and poured shots to demonstrate how much Medrano had drunk the night of her son's death.[49] In June 2012, Medrano was charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter.[citation needed ]

"The baby is dead because of vodka mommy," Grace said during her June 11 show on HLN. "I don't care if she was driving a car, holding a pistol or holding a fifth of vodka. [It] doesn't matter to me. The baby is dead at the hands of the mommy." During the show, Grace said the charges filed against Medrano weren't harsh enough. "I don't see how this whole thing was an accident and I want murder charges," Grace said.[50]

On July 2, Medrano doused herself in flammable liquid and set herself on fire. She died of her injuries on July 7. After her death, Medrano's husband and the father of her son said he felt the segment Grace did was cruel and added "The things people said were horrible. It shows that cyberbullying happens to adults, too."[51] Following Melinda Duckett's suicide, this is the second suicide to which Grace has been linked.[52] On January 4, 2012, a lawsuit against CNN brought by Medrano's family was settled, "I can tell you the case was settled in principle two weeks ago," said personal injury attorney Michael Padden. A lawsuit was never formally served but "we resolved the case just by negotiation," he said.[53]

Amanda Knox Grace commented on the Amanda Knox case: "I was very disturbed, because I think it is a huge miscarriage of justice. I believe that while Amanda Knox did not wield the knife herself, I think that she was there, with her boyfriend, and that he did the deed, and that she egged him on. That's what I think happened... I just happen to know the facts... I'm not trying to get Amanda Knox's first interview because'... my show does not pay for interviews... Second, I don't think she's going to tell the truth anyway, so what's the point?"[54]

The Ultimate Warrior Following WWE Hall of Famer The Ultimate Warrior's death on April 8, 2014, Nancy Grace invited retired wrestler Diamond Dallas Page on her show to discuss Warrior. Unbeknownst to Page,[55] the subject of the episode was deaths in the professional wrestling industry caused by steroids. Grace claimed that "rumors of steroid and drug use are swirling" in the case of Ultimate Warrior's death,[56][57] although an autopsy had concluded that Warrior had died of natural causes with neither drugs nor alcohol in his system at his time of death.[58] During the segment, Grace made several mentions to a list of wrestlers who had died young, linking their deaths to drug abuse. The list included wrestlers whose deaths were unrelated to drug abuse.[56]

After the segment aired, a petition on Change.org requesting that CNN remove Nancy Grace from television received over 10,000 signatures within twenty four hours.[59] #CancelNancyGrace became a trending topic on Twitter following the episode's airing.[55] Page released a statement after the episode aired, stating that he was under the assumption that he would be sharing stories in Warrior's memory and did not know that steroids would be the only topic discussed.[55][60] WWE subsequently asked past and present WWE talent to not appear on Grace's HLN show.[61] Nancy Grace responded to criticism by telling Radar Online that she would welcome any WWE personalities to come onto her show to "correct all of my misconceptions".[62]

Disappearance of Charles Bothuell V During one of her newscasts, Grace interviewed Charles Bothuell IV, informing him that his son, Charles Bothuell V, was found, to the surprise of Bothuell IV, in his basement by members of law enforcement.[63]

Michael Skakel lawsuit In 2012, Grace's show wrongly reported that DNA evidence linked Michael Skakel to the murder of Martha Moxley. HLN retracted and settled a lawsuit in October 2013.[64]

Awards Grace has been awarded several American Women in Radio & Television Gracie Awards, has been awarded the "Individual Achievement/Best Program Host" honor by that organization, and has been recognized by many other organizations (including, without limitation, the Carole Sund-Carrington Foundation, Crime Victims United of California and The Retreat) for her advocacy work on behalf of victims' rights.[6]

Other television work Dancing With the Stars Grace was a contestant on the thirteenth season of Dancing with the Stars, which began airing on September 19, 2011. She was partnered with pro-dancer Tristan MacManus. The couple lasted for 8 weeks and placed 5th overall in the competition before being eliminated on November 8, 2011, one week shy of the semi-finals.

Raising Hope In early April 2012, Grace appeared on the last two episodes of the second season of the TV show Raising Hope playing herself.

Law & Order On May 22, 2007, Grace appeared in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Screwed" the season 8 finale, playing herself opposite Star Jones.[65][66]

Hancock Grace has a cameo appearance in the film Hancock, starring Will Smith.

Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry In June 2017, Grace sat for a reading by purported psychic medium Tyler Henry on his E! TV show, Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry. Grace believed Henry was communicating with her dead father, as well as murdered fiance, and said she had received closure.[67] After the reading Grace said "there were many things [Henry] said were impossible for him to have gleaned on the internet or even a computer search, speeches I've given, of things that have happened, I find it difficult to believe '... I find many of the things he said to be absolutely amazing."[68] In April 2018, Susan Gerbic analyzed the reading, and detailed in Nancy Grace Should be Ashamed of Herself! exactly how Grace had unfortunately been fooled by the usual fraudulent techniques of cold reading and hot reading used by "grief vampires" like Henry to convince people that they have paranormal powers.[68]

Further work Grace's first book, Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System, was published in 2005 by Hyperion and became a New York Times bestseller.[6] Her first work of fiction,[69] The Eleventh Victim, also published by Hyperion, was released on August 11, 2009. The mystery thriller follows a young psychology student, Hailey Dean, whose fianc(C) is murdered just weeks before their wedding. She goes on to prosecute violent crime and is forced to reckon with what she left behind.[70] Publishers Weekly described it as "less than compelling";[71] however, it was also a New York Times bestseller[6] and became the foundation for the Hailey Dean Mysteries series of, thus far, nine movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.[6] A third New York Times bestselling novel, Death on the D-List, was published by Hyperion on August 10, 2010, and followed by Murder in the Courthouse, published by BenBella Books in 2016.[6]

Grace has also helped staff a hotline at an Atlanta battered women's center for 10 years.[6] Since January 10, 2017, Grace hosted a daily Podcast on Crime Online called "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace".[72]

Personal life Marriage and motherhood In April 2007, Grace married David Linch, an Atlanta investment banker, in a small private ceremony. The two had met while she was studying at Mercer University in the 1970s. Grace, who had given up on marriage after the death of her fianc(C), said, "We've been in touch all these years, and a lot of time, we were separated by geography and time. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to get married. I told my family only two days before the wedding."[73]

On June 26, 2007, an emotional Grace announced on her HLN talk show that her life had "taken a U-turn" in that she was pregnant and expecting twins due in January 2008.[74][75] Lucy Elizabeth and John David were born in November 2007.

Allegations regarding fianc(C)'s murder In March 2006, an article in the New York Observer suggested that in her book Objection!, Grace had embellished the story of her college fianc(C)'s 1979 murder and the ensuing trial to make it better support her image. Grace has described the tragedy as the impetus for her career as a prosecutor and victims' rights advocate, and has often publicly referred to the incident.[76] The Observer researched the murder and found what it submitted to be contradictions between the events and Grace's subsequent statements, including the following:

Her fianc(C), Keith Griffin, was not shot at random by a stranger, but by a former coworker, Tommy McCoy.McCoy did not have a prior criminal record.Rather than denying the crime, McCoy confessed on the night of the murder (nevertheless, he subsequently denied the crime by a plea of not guilty and went to trial).The jury deliberated for a few hours, not days.There was no ongoing string of appeals (McCoy's family did not want any), though McCoy did file an appellate court habeas corpus petition for a new trial, which was rejected.Grace told the Observer she had not looked into the case in many years and "tried not to think about it."[76] She said she made her previous statements about the case "with the knowledge I had."[76]

In response to Keith Olbermann's claims in a March 2007 Rolling Stone interview in which he was quoted as saying, "Anybody who would embellish the story of their own fianc(C)'s murder should spend that hour a day not on television but in a psychiatrist's chair,"[77] Grace stated, "I did not put myself through law school and fight for all those years for victims of crime to waste one minute of my time, my energy, and my education in a war of words with Keith Olbermann, whom I've never met nor had any disagreement. I feel we have X amount of time on Earth, and that when we give in to our detractors or spend needless time on silly fights, I think that's abusing the chance we have to do something good."[77]

Griffin's murderer, Tommy McCoy, received ten years for aggravated assault and life imprisonment for murder, but was released on parole from the Georgia Department of Corrections on December 5, 2006.[78]

Depictions of Grace in popular media Law & Order connection The Law & Order programs often base their fictional stories on real-life events and have featured stories based on Grace on several occasions.[79]

In the episode "Haystack" of Law & Order: SVU, an overzealous reporter named Cindy Marino (played by Kali Rocha) causes the mother of a kidnapped son to commit suicide.[80] Grace herself appeared in the SVU episode "Screwed".[81]

On Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Grace has also been compared[who? ] to a character named Faith Yancy (Geneva Carr) who hosts a similar talk show (Inside American Justice) that sensationalizes whatever case the main characters are working on and makes it difficult for them to gain access to key witnesses. However, the character could be based on any number of individuals with this type of show. The character has appeared on the episodes "In the Wee Small Hours" (original air date November 6, 2005), "Masquerade" (original air date October 31, 2006), "Albatross" (original air date February 6, 2007), "Neighborhood Watch" (original air date August 10, 2008), and "Lady's Man" (original air date June 28, 2009).[82]

The Newsroom Episode eight of The Newsroom, "The Blackout Part I: Tragedy Porn", features a scene in which the newsroom staff dismantle Grace's coverage of the Caylee Anthony case.[83]

Saturday Night Live Sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live has parodied Grace, both in and out of the context of her show, a number of times since her rise to prominence. Originally Grace was portrayed by SNL cast member Amy Poehler. Her impression featured in a parody of the Nancy Grace show during Saturday Night Live ' s 32nd season (in episode 7.).[84] The sketch parodied Grace's reactions to Michael Richards' infamous Laugh Factory appearance, the O. J. Simpson trial and her own parking fines.[85][86] During the sketch, host Matthew Fox portrays a parking attendant whom Grace's staff have brought off the street, where he was giving Grace a parking ticket.[85][86] Poehler also voiced Grace, on May 21, 2005, as part of the show's Saturday TV Funhouse segment in a Divertor sketch.[87][88] During this appearance, Grace says little more than "[Name of celebrity in question] should fry."[87]

Grace would later be impersonated by Saturday Night Live cast member Abby Elliott in the sketch 'So You've Committed A Crime... And You Think You Can Dance?',[89] in which Grace features as a judge of the dance contest. In the sketch, Grace calls the show 'Disgusting'.[90]

Most recently, Grace was portrayed by featured player Noel Wells[91] in Season 39, Episode 11.[92] The sketch parodies Grace's reaction to the legalization of Marijuana in Colorado[92] and features host/musical guest Drake doing an impression of comedian Katt Williams.[91] Much of Grace's dialogue from the sketch was lifted directly from an interview she conducted on January 6, 2013, with Brooke Baldwin[93] on CNN's News Room,[94] in particular the phrase 'I've got a sneaking suspicion that you are pro-pot. And I don't like it.'[91][94]

This Hour Has 22 Minutes A recurring sketch on the CBC prime-time sketch comedy series This Hour Has 22 Minutes features Cathy Jones as Betty Hope, an obvious send-up of Grace.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip During the episode 'Disaster Show' of series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Grace is impersonated by Sarah Paulson as part of a sketch on the titular show within a show.[95] In the episode, Paulson's character, Harriet Hayes, is performing a parody of the Nancy Grace show.[95]

Gone Girl It is widely acknowledged, by the media and by Grace herself,[96][97][98] that the character of Ellen Abbot in the 2014 film Gone Girl is based on Grace. In an interview with actress Missi Pyle, who played Abbot in the film, Grace told pundits she was "very flattered"[98] and that she "laugh[ed] out loud at it,"[97] calling Gone Girl her new favorite portrayal.[98]

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Retrieved April 20, 2014 . ^ Eric D. Lawrence (April 16, 2015). "Parents of boy held in basement charged with torture". Usatoday.com . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ "Skakel settles lawsuit against HLN's Nancy Grace". CNS News. Archived from the original on April 9, 2015 . Retrieved December 17, 2015 . ^ TURK, JOHN. "Nancy Grace, Star Jones probe Pontiac woman's death". The Oakland Press . Retrieved August 30, 2019 . ^ "Nancy Grace Films Law & Order With Star Jones, Mum On View Rumor". Adweek . Retrieved August 30, 2019 . ^ DUNCAN, GABI (June 28, 2017). "Hollywood Medium Recap: Nancy Grace Reveals How Her Late Fianc(C) Changed Her Life With Just One Dream". Eonline.com. E Online. Archived from the original on April 20, 2018 . Retrieved April 20, 2018 . ^ a b Gerbic, Susan (April 20, 2018). "Nancy Grace Should be Ashamed of Herself!". CSICOP.org. CFI. Archived from the original on April 20, 2018 . Retrieved April 20, 2018 . ^ France, Lisa Respers. "New chapter for Nancy Grace with her first novel". CNN . Retrieved March 22, 2017 . ^ Grace, Nancy. "The Eleventh Victim: A Thriller". Hyperion Books. Archived from the original on June 26, 2009 . Retrieved January 21, 2014 . ^ [4] ^ Darcy, Oliver (January 10, 2017). "Nancy Grace launches digital media venture aimed at fighting crime". Business Insider . Retrieved June 29, 2017 . ^ Starr, David (June 26, 2007). "Nancy's Secret Wedding". New York Post . Retrieved January 21, 2014 . ^ Orloff, Brian (June 27, 2007). "Nancy Grace: Married and Expecting Twins". People . Retrieved January 21, 2014 . ^ Hancock, Noelle (June 26, 2007). "First Photo: CNN's Nancy Grace Pregnant With Twins!". Us Weekly. Archived from the original on June 28, 2007 . Retrieved January 21, 2014 . ^ a b c Dana, Rebecca (March 6, 2006). "Did Nancy Grace, TV Crimebuster, Muddy Her Myth?". The New York Observer . Retrieved January 21, 2014 . ^ a b "Nancy Grace set to speak her mind in Del". The News Journal. April 9, 2007 . Retrieved July 1, 2007 . ^ "Find an offender". Georgia department of corrections. georgia.gov . Retrieved July 5, 2011 . ^ 5th paragraph Farhi, Paul (March 8, 2009). "Ripped From the Headlines '' and From the Heart". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 12, 2010 . ^ "Haystack". IMDb.com. February 20, 2007 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ "Stars Galore Make a Guest Appearance on the Season Finale of Law & Order: SVU". Movieweb. March 6, 2007. ^ "Geneva Carr". IMDb . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ Mirkinson, Jack (August 13, 2012). " ' The Newsroom' Recap: 'The Blackout, Part 1 ' ". The Huffington Post . Retrieved January 21, 2014 . ^ "SNL Transcripts: Matthew Fox: 12/02/06". Snltranscripts.jt.org. December 2, 2006 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b "SNL Transcripts: Matthew Fox: 12/02/06: Nancy Grace". Snltranscripts.jt.org . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b "Matthew Fox on SNL - Nancy Grace on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. August 21, 2010 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b "TV Funhouse: Divertor - Saturday Night Live". YouTube. September 20, 2013. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ "SNL Transcripts: Lindsay Lohan: 05/21/05". Snltranscripts.jt.org. May 21, 2005 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ "Andy Samberg - News and Videos: Andy Samberg - Is Kevin Federline (So You Committed A Crime...)". Andysamberg.blogspot.co.uk. October 5, 2009 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ "SNL Transcripts: Ryan Reynolds: 10/03/09: So You Committed A Crime... And You Think You Can Dance?". Snltranscripts.jt.org . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b c "Nancy Grace - Saturday Night Live". YouTube. January 19, 2014. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b "SNL Transcripts: Drake: 01/18/14". Snltranscripts.jt.org. January 18, 2014 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ "Brooke Baldwin '' CNN Newsroom - CNN.com Blogs". Newsroom.blogs.cnn.com . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b "Nancy Grace talks pot on CNN - January 6, 2013". YouTube. January 6, 2014. Archived from the original on January 15, 2014 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b "iTunes - TV Programmes - Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip, Season 1". Itunes.apple.com. March 11, 2008 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ Yahr, Emily (October 7, 2014). " ' Gone Girl' deftly skewers the Nancy Grace cable TV culture". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b Miller, Julie (January 15, 2015). "Here's What Nancy Grace Thought of Missi Pyle's Parody of Her in Gone Girl". Vanity Fair . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . ^ a b c "Nancy Grace Reacts to Being Parodied in Gone Girl". Mediaite. December 12, 2014 . Retrieved July 11, 2015 . External links Official website HLN biography

Duke lacrosse case - Wikipedia

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 02:14

2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States

Coordinates: 36°00'²30'"N 78°54'²43'"W >> / >> 36.00831°N 78.91203°W >> / 36.00831; -78.91203 The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape.[1][2][3] The three students were David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann. The accuser was Crystal Mangum, a student at North Carolina Central University[4][1] who worked as a stripper[5] and dancer. The rape was alleged to have occurred at a party hosted by the lacrosse team, held at the Durham residence of two of the team's captains on March 13, 2006. The case's resolution sparked public discussion of racism, sexual violence, media bias, and due process on campuses, and ultimately led to the resignation and disbarment of the lead prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong.

On April 11, 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped all charges, declaring the three lacrosse players "innocent" and victims of a "tragic rush to accuse".[6][7] Nifong, who was labeled a "rogue prosecutor" by Cooper, withdrew from the case in January 2007 after the North Carolina State Bar filed ethics charges against him. In June 2007, Nifong was disbarred for "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation", making him the first prosecutor in North Carolina disbarred for trial conduct. Nifong served one day in jail for lying about sharing DNA tests (criminal contempt); the lab director said it was a misunderstanding and Nifong claimed it was due to weak memory.[8] Mangum maintained her insistence that she was sexually assaulted that night. She faced no charges.[9]

Cooper noted several inconsistencies between Mangum's accounts of the evening, and Seligmann and Finnerty's alibi evidence. The Durham Police Department came under fire for violating their own policies by allowing Nifong to act as the de facto head of the investigation; using an unreliable suspect-only photo identification procedure with Mangum; pursuing the case despite vast discrepancies in notes taken by Investigator Benjamin Himan and Sgt. Mark Gottlieb; and distributing a poster presuming the suspects' guilt shortly after the allegations.[10] Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans brought a lawsuit against Duke University, which was settled, with the university paying approximately $20 million to each claiment. The claimants also sought further unspecified damages and called for criminal justice reform laws in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Durham.[10]

Timeline of events [ edit ] Events at the house [ edit ] The house at 610 North Buchanan Boulevard (demolished in July 2010)

In March 2006, Crystal Mangum,[11][12] a student at North Carolina Central University,[4] had been working part-time for about two months as a stripper. Although Mangum claimed that she had only recently taken up stripping, she had actually worked at strip clubs as early as 2002: when she was arrested that year for stealing a taxi and trying to run over a police officer, the incident report stated that she had been lap dancing at a strip club that evening.[13]

On March 13, 2006, a party was held at 610 North Buchanan Boulevard, a house owned by Duke University and used as the off-campus residence of the Duke lacrosse team captains. The party was intended as compensation for the team having to remain on campus and miss Spring Break. The players were consuming alcohol at the party. Several players did not know that strippers were being hired until the players arrived at the party and were asked to contribute to the strippers' fees.[14]

A team captain contacted Allure, an escort service, and requested two white strippers. However, the two women who arrived, Mangum and Kim Mera Roberts (aka Kim Mera Pittman), were respectively black and biracial (half-black/half-Asian). Before arriving at the party, Mangum, by her own admission, had consumed alcohol and Flexeril (a prescription muscle relaxant).[15] Mangum and Roberts traveled to the party separately. Roberts drove herself and arrived first, and Mangum was later dropped off by a man.[16][17][18]

According to the team captains, one player asked if the strippers had any sex toys, and Roberts responded by asking if the player's penis was too small. The player then brandished a broomstick and suggested that she "use this [as a sex toy]". This exchange of words abruptly stopped the performance, and both strippers shut themselves in the home's bathroom. While the women were still in the bathroom, players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty left the house. The women eventually came out, and Mangum roamed around the yard half-dressed and shouting.[17]

According to Mangum, the women were coaxed back into the house with an apology, at which point they were separated. She asserts she was then dragged into a bathroom and raped, beaten, and choked for a half hour.[19] Later, police received a 9-1-1 call from a woman complaining that white men gathered outside the home where the party took place had called her racial slurs and threatened to sodomize her with a broomstick.[19]

Some of the party attendees expressed displeasure that the strippers had delivered a very short performance despite being paid several hundred dollars apiece to perform. The team captain who had hired the strippers tried to convince the women to come back into the house and complete the performance. Both women came back into the house, but upon being approached by the player who had earlier held up the broomstick, again refused to perform and locked themselves in the bathroom. By this point, a number of the party guests had left, and the residents of the house, including player David Evans, were asking the remaining guests to leave because they were concerned that the noise would cause neighbors to complain to police. When the strippers left the bathroom and the house for the second time, a resident locked the door so they (and the guests who had left the house) could not get back in.[18]

Shortly before 1 a.m., Mangum and Roberts entered Roberts's vehicle. Roberts called the partygoers "short dick white boys", and jeered at a player about "how he couldn't get it on his own and had to pay for it",[20] to which one player yelled, "We asked for whites, not niggers." Mangum and Roberts departed in Roberts's car.[17][21] Roberts then called 9-1-1 and reported that she had just come from 610 North Buchanan and a "white guy" had yelled "nigger" at her from near the East Campus wall. The party ended shortly thereafter and everyone, including the residents, left the house. Police later went to the house as a result of Roberts's complaint, but got no answer at the door; a neighbor confirmed that a party held earlier had ended.[22]

After departure [ edit ] As Roberts drove away with Mangum, the two women began to argue. Roberts stopped the car and attempted to push Mangum out.[23] When that failed, Roberts drove Mangum to a nearby Kroger supermarket, went inside, and told a female security guard that a woman was refusing to leave her car. The guard walked to the car and asked Mangum to leave, but Mangum remained in the vehicle. The guard later said she had not smelled alcohol on Mangum's breath, but thought she might have been under the influence of other drugs. At 1:22 AM, the guard called 9-1-1 to report that Mangum refused to leave the car. Police then arrived, removed Mangum from the car and questioned her.[24]

As Mangum had no identification, would not talk to police, was having difficulty walking, and seemed severely impaired, police took her to Durham Center Access, a mental-health and substance-abuse facility, for involuntary commitment. During the admission process, she claimed that she had been raped prior to her arrival.[22][25]

Mangum was transferred to Duke University Medical Center. Examination of her skin, arms, and legs revealed no swelling, no abnormalities, and three small cuts on her right knee and right heel. When asked, she specifically and repeatedly denied receiving any physical blows by hands. Further examination showed no tenderness in the back, chest, and neck.[26] There was, however, diffuse swelling of her vagina. Mangum later claimed that she had performed using a vibrator for a couple in a hotel room shortly before the lacrosse team party. This activity, or a yeast infection, could have caused the swelling. Investigators did not note any other injuries in the rest of the report.[27][28][29][30][31]

McFadyen e-mail [ edit ] A couple of hours after the party ended, Ryan McFadyen, a member of the lacrosse team, sent an e-mail to other players saying that he planned to have some strippers over, kill them, and cut off their skin while wearing his Duke-issue spandex and ejaculating.[32]

The e-mail began:

To whom it may concern, tomorrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. I plan on killing the bitches as soon as the[y] walk in and proceding [sic] to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex . . all in besides arch and tack [two of his teammates] please respond[33]

Some of the players suggested the e-mail was intended as humorous irony. Administrators asserted the e-mail was an imitation of Patrick Bateman, the protagonist in the Bret Easton Ellis novel, American Psycho, which was read and lectured upon in more than one Duke class, as shown by the e-mail responses from other players. One response read, "I'll bring the Phil Collins," another reference to the American Psycho book and film. Police released the McFadyen e-mail but refused to release the following e-mail exchanges, leaving the impression that the McFadyen e-mail was actually intended as a serious threat. McFadyen thereafter received a thousand death threats in one week.[34]

The e-mail led many people to assume guilt on the part of the players.[33] McFadyen was not charged with any crime, but he was temporarily suspended from Duke, with the university citing safety concerns. He was invited back to Duke to continue his studies later that summer.[35]

Investigation and prosecution [ edit ] Arrests and investigation timeline [ edit ] On March 14, 2006, the day after the party, the Durham Police Department (DPD) began their investigation into the rape allegations by interviewing Mangum and searching 610 North Buchanan pursuant to a warrant. The three team captains who lived at the house, including Evans, voluntarily gave statements and DNA samples to police and offered to take lie detector tests. The police turned down the offer.[36][17][37] The DPD made their investigation public on March 15, when Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, the police supervisor, posted on a digital community bulletin board that they were investigating the rape of a young woman by three males at 610 North Buchanan on March 13, and asking anyone in the area who saw or heard anything unusual to contact Investigator Benjamin Himan.[37]

Between March 16 and 21, police showed Mangum photo arrays in an attempt to have her identify her attackers. Each photo array only contained photographs of lacrosse team members, and did not follow the DPD's recommended policy of including photos of individuals not regarded as potential suspects (known as "fillers"). Mangum identified Seligmann as someone who attended the party, but not as an attacker, and did not identify Evans at all despite seeing his photo twice.[38]

On March 27, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong received his first briefing on the case from Gottlieb and Himan. Within a few hours of receiving the briefing, Nifong made his first public statement on the case. Over the following week, Nifong by his own estimate gave fifty to seventy interviews and devoted more than forty hours to reporters. After that, he continued to make statements, although less frequently. Many of these statements concerned the team members' alleged failure or refusal to provide information to law enforcement authorities; their invocation of their constitutional rights; or Nifong's own opinions that a crime had occurred, that it was racially motivated, and that one or more lacrosse players were guilty.[39]

Mangum was shown another photo array containing only photos of the 46 white lacrosse team members, including members who had not attended the party, and with no fillers. The photos were shown to Mangum as a PowerPoint presentation, with each photo projected individually to Mangum, instead of displaying all the pictures arrayed together. For the first time, Mangum identified photos of Seligmann, Evans, and Finnerty as her attackers. She also identified at least one other photo as being a player who was present at the party; further investigation showed he had not been there.[38]

On April 10, an attorney retained by one of the lacrosse players stated that time-stamped photographs existed which showed that Mangum was already injured when she arrived at the party, and was very impaired.[40] Players' attorneys announced that DNA testing by the North Carolina state crime lab had failed to connect any members of the Duke men's lacrosse team to the alleged rape.[41]

Seligmann and Finnerty were arrested and indicted on April 18 on charges of first degree forcible rape, first degree sexual offense and kidnapping.[42][43][44][45] The same day, search warrants were executed on Finnerty and Seligmann's dorm rooms.[46] Seligmann reportedly told multiple teammates, "I'm glad they picked me", alluding to a solid alibi in the form of ATM records, photographs, cell phone records, an affidavit from a taxi driver, and a record of his DukeCard being swiped at his dorm.[47][48]

DNA Security Inc. (DSI), a private company engaged by Nifong to perform a second round of DNA testing, produced an incomplete[49] report which contained an analysis of DNA found on false fingernails discarded by Mangum in the bathroom trash bin, and concluded that 2% of the male population, including Evans, could not be excluded from a match with the fingernail DNA.[50] DSI director Brian Meehan later testified that, pursuant to an agreement between himself and Nifong, he had deliberately withheld information from the lab's report.[49]

On May 15, 2006, former team captain and 2006 Duke graduate[51] Evans became the third player to be indicted on charges of first-degree forcible rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. Just before turning himself in at the Durham County Detention Center, he made a public statement declaring his innocence and his expectation of being cleared of the charges within weeks.[52][53][54][55]

Court documents revealed that Roberts, in her initial statement, had said she was with Mangum the entire evening except for a period of less than five minutes. Additionally, after hearing Mangum claim she was sexually assaulted, she called her claims "a crock".[56]

On December 22, 2006, Nifong dropped the rape charges against all three lacrosse players after Mangum told an investigator a different version of events and said she was no longer sure about some aspects of her original story. The kidnapping and sexual offense charges were still pending against all three players.[57]

On December 28, 2006, the North Carolina bar filed ethics charges against Nifong over his conduct in the case, accusing him of making public statements that were prejudicial to the administration of justice and heightened public condemnation of the accused, and of engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation. The 17-page document accused Nifong of violating four rules of professional conduct, listing more than 100 examples of statements he made to the media.[39][58]

On January 12, 2007, Nifong sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper asking to be taken off the case, citing the responsibility of the case to the Attorney General's office.[59] The following day, January 13, Cooper announced that his office would take over the case.[60]

On January 24, 2007, the North Carolina State Bar filed a second round of ethics charges against Nifong for a systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion that was prejudicial to the administration of justice when he withheld DNA evidence to mislead the court.[61]

On March 23, 2007, Justin Paul Caulfield, a legal analyst for the sports magazine Inside Lacrosse, stated on Fox News that the charges against Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann would soon be dropped.[62] While the North Carolina Attorney General's Office first disputed the report, on April 11, 2007, it announced that it had dismissed all charges against the three lacrosse players.[63] Cooper not only dismissed the charges but also took the unusual step of declaring the accused players innocent. Cooper also announced that Mangum would not be prosecuted, stating that investigators and attorneys that had interviewed her thought "she may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling ... it's in the best interest of justice not to bring charges".[64]

On April 12, 2007, the attorney general, in declaring Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans innocent, also called Nifong a "rogue prosecutor".[65][66][67]

DNA tests [ edit ] Shortly after the party, the prosecution ordered 46 of the 47 lacrosse team members to provide DNA samples, although some members had been absent from the party. The sole black member of the team was exempt because Mangum had stated that her attackers were white. On April 10, 2006, it was announced that DNA testing by the state crime lab had failed to connect any of the 46 tested team members to the alleged rape.[41]

After the initial tests by the state crime lab, prosecutor Nifong sought the services of a private laboratory, DNA Security, Inc. (aka DSI) of Burlington, North Carolina, to conduct additional tests. DNA from multiple unidentified males was found inside Mangum and upon the rape kit items that had been tested, but none matched any of the lacrosse players.[68] Nifong falsely represented to the court and the public that DNA had only been found from a single male source, Mangum's boyfriend.[69][70]

In a motion made on December 15, 2006, defense attorneys argued that the DNA analysis report written by DSI and provided to them by Nifong's office was incomplete, because it omitted information showing that none of the genetic material from several men found on Mangum matched any DNA sample from the lacrosse team. Brian Meehan, the director of DSI who wrote the misleading report, testified that his lab did not try to withhold information, but acknowledged that the decision not to release the full report violated the lab's policies. Meehan testified that after discussions with Nifong, he decided to withhold the names of the persons excluded by the DNA testing (all 46 tested members of the lacrosse team) to protect the privacy of players not implicated in the case, despite the fact that two players (Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty) had already been indicted for rape more than three weeks prior to the release date of the report.[49][71] Meehan was later fired in October 2007 based on this incident.[72]

DNA was also taken from all surfaces of three of Mangum's false fingernails retrieved from the trash in the party house bathroom (widely but inaccurately reported as DNA taken only from the "underside" of a single fingernail). According to DNA Security, the fingernail DNA showed some characteristics similar to lacrosse player David Evans's DNA. However, the match was not conclusive, as 2% of the male population (including Evans) could not be excluded based on the sample.[50][73] In addition, because Evans lived in the house, defense attorneys contended that any DNA present might have come from the tissue paper, cotton swabs, or other hygiene-related trash that had been in the garbage can along with the fingernail. This was confirmed later by Attorney General Cooper's investigation: "to the extent that Evans's DNA could not be excluded, the SBI experts confirmed that the DNA could easily have been transferred to the fingernails from other materials in the trash can".[38]

Nifong contended that lack of DNA evidence is not unusual and that 75''80% of all sexual assault cases lack DNA evidence. Rape victims often delay reporting by days or weeks, inadvertently destroying DNA evidence. However, in this case, Mangum had a rape-kit exam administered only hours after the end of the party, so the absence of DNA evidence was considered unlikely by legal experts.[74]

At Nifong's subsequent ethics trial on June 14, 2007, the complete DNA findings were revealed during defense attorney Brad Bannon's testimony. According to conservative estimates, the lab had discovered at least two unidentified males' DNA in Mangum's pubic region; at least two unidentified males' DNA in her rectum; at least four to five unidentified males' DNA on her underpants; and at least one identified male's DNA in her vagina.[75]

Collin Finnerty previous incident [ edit ] In November 2005, Finnerty and two of his Chaminade High School lacrosse teammates were charged with misdemeanor simple assault in Washington, D.C., following an altercation with a Washington man outside a Georgetown bar.[76] Finnerty was accused of threatening and taunting the man.[77]

Although the man alleged that Finnerty had pushed and threatened him, the man was actually punched by a third party (a friend of Finnerty), who admitted to the punch.[78] Witnesses later testified that Finnerty himself had actually been hit in the head by a friend of the alleged victim.[79] Although the man alleged that Finnerty and his companions had called him "gay" (among other derogatory names),[76] the incident was not prosecuted as a hate crime. Finnerty was initially accepted into a diversion program for first offenders, allowing for the simple assault charge to be dismissed upon his completion of community service.[76]

However, after the Durham charges appeared, the Washington, D.C. prosecutor cancelled his diversion agreement and proceeded with the assault charge. At trial, the chief defense witness was not permitted to testify and police officers presented details which were not in their notes.[citation needed ]

Finnerty was convicted and sentenced to six months' probation. Afterwards, he was repeatedly threatened by the judge (John H. Bayly, Jr.) with confinement; once, after an anonymous blog post falsely accused him of violating an order preventing him from being in Georgetown; and again after he was absent from home and missed an obligatory curfew in order to be in Durham to work on his defense there, an absence which he had previously cleared with the judge.[80] Some observers[who? ] noted the similarity of this treatment with previous attempts by the government to pressure witnesses to testify in a certain manner.[81] On December 28, 2006, shortly after the Durham rape charges against Finnerty were dropped, Judge Bayly ended Finnerty's probation.

In January 2007, Finnerty's assault conviction was vacated (by an order signed by Bayly) and his record was cleared.[82]

Defense and media questioning [ edit ] Credibility of Crystal Mangum as accuser [ edit ] Possible intoxication and mental state [ edit ] Lawyers for the Duke lacrosse players have said that Mangum was intoxicated with alcohol and possibly other drugs on the night of the party.[83] By the accuser's own admission to police, she had taken prescription Flexeril and drank "one or two large-size beers" before she went to the party.[84]

The Attorney General's office later noted that Mangum had taken Ambien, methadone, Paxil, and amitriptyline, although when she began taking these medications is uncertain.[38] She had a long history of mental problems and suffers from bipolar disorder.[85]

Inconsistencies in Mangum's story [ edit ] Over the course of the scandal, police reports, media investigations, and defense attorneys' motions and press conferences brought to light several key inconsistencies in Mangum's story.[85][86]

Some of the questions about her credibility were:

Durham police said that Mangum kept changing her story and was not credible, reporting that she initially told them she was raped by 20 white men, later reducing the number to only three.Another police report states that Mangum initially claimed she was only groped, rather than raped, but changed her story before going to the hospital.On December 22, 2006, Nifong dropped the rape charges after Mangum stated that she was penetrated from behind but that she did not know with what. In North Carolina, penetration with an object is considered sexual assault, not rape.[87]On January 11, 2007, several more inconsistencies came to light after the defense filed a motion detailing her interview on December 21, 2006. For example, she changed details about when she was attacked, who attacked her, and how they attacked her:[88][89]In the new version from the December 21 interview, Mangum claims she was attacked from 11:35 p.m. to midnight, much earlier than her previous accusations. This new timing is before the well-documented alibi evidence for Reade Seligmann that places him away from the house. However, the defense revealed that this new timing would suggest Seligmann was on the phone with his girlfriend during the height of the attack. Additionally, she received an incoming call at 11:36 p.m. and somebody stayed on the line for 3 minutes, which would be during the party according to the new timetable.The new statement contradicts time-stamped photos that show her dancing between 12:00 and 12:04 a.m. It would also mean that they stayed at the party for nearly an hour after the supposed attack since Kim Roberts drove her away at 12:53 a.m. In her April statement, Mangum said they left immediately after the attack.Mangum changed the names of her attackers, claiming they had used multiple pseudonyms.The accuser also changed her description of Evans. She previously claimed that she was attacked by a man that looked like Evans except with a mustache, but later stated that the assailant just had a five o'clock shadow.Mangum claimed that Evans stood in front of her, making her perform oral sex on him. Previously, she stated that Seligmann did this. In the latest statement, she stated that Seligmann did not commit any sex act on her and that he had said that he could not participate because he was getting married. Although he has a girlfriend, there has never been anything to suggest he was engaged or getting married.North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said Mangum told many different accounts of the attack. In one account, she claimed she was suspended in mid-air and was being assaulted by all three of them in the bathroom. Cooper then said this event seemed very implausible because of the small size of the bathroom. According to a 60 Minutes investigation, Mangum gave at least a dozen different stories.In its own investigation, The News & Observer, North Carolina's second largest newspaper, determined that Mangum gave at least five different versions of the incident to police and medical interviewers by August 2006.[28]Mangum, at one point, claimed both Evans and Finnerty helped her into her car upon departure. However, a photo shows her being helped by another player, while electronic records and witnesses reported that Evans and Finnerty had already left. Upon seeing the photo, Mangum claimed that it must have been doctored or that Duke University paid someone off.[90]Mangum did not consistently choose the same three defendants in the photo lineups. Media reports have disclosed at least two photo lineups that occurred in March and April in which she was asked to recall who she saw at the party and in what capacity. In the March lineup, she did not choose Dave Evans at all. There was only one individual she identified as being at the party with 100% certainty during both procedures '' Brad Ross.[91] After being identified, Ross provided to police investigators indisputable evidence that he was with his girlfriend at North Carolina State University before, during, and after the party through cell phone records as well as an affidavit from a witness.[91][92]Other credibility issues [ edit ] The Duke defense lawyers or media reports have indicated:

The second stripper who performed at the house, Kim Roberts, said that Mangum was not raped. She stated that Mangum was not obviously hurt. Likewise, she refuted other aspects of Mangum's story including denying that she helped dress Mangum after the party and saying that they were not forcefully separated by players as Mangum had reported.[93]DNA results revealed that Mangum had sex with a man who was not a Duke lacrosse player. Attorney Joseph Cheshire said the tests indicated DNA from a single male source came from a vaginal swab. Media outlets reported that this DNA was from her boyfriend.[69]However, it was later revealed that DNA from multiple males who were neither the lacrosse players nor Mangum's boyfriend had been found, but that these findings had been deliberately withheld from the Court and the defense.[94]

She had made a similar claim in the past which she did not pursue. On August 18, 1996, the dancer '' then 18 years old '' told a police officer in Creedmoor she had been raped by three men in June 1993, according to a police document. The officer who took the woman's report at that time asked her to write a detailed timeline of the night's events and bring the account back to the police, but she never returned.[12][95][96]The strip club's security officer said that Mangum told co-workers four days after the party that she was going to get money from some boys at a Duke party who had not paid her, mentioning that the boys were white. The security guard did not make a big deal of it because he felt that no one took her seriously.[97]Mangum was arrested in 2002 for stealing a cab from a strip club where she had been working. She led police officers on a high-speed chase before she was apprehended, at which point her blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.[98] She was sentenced to three weekends in detention.[11][99] [ edit ] Lawyers and media have questioned the methods of the photo identification process, and have argued that the police supervisor in the case, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, has unfairly targeted Duke students in the past.[100]

Photo identification [ edit ] Lawyers and media reports alike suggested the photo identification process was severely flawed. During the photo identifications, Mangum was told that she would be viewing Duke University lacrosse players who attended the party, and was asked if she remembered seeing them at the party and in what capacity. Defense attorneys claimed this was essentially a "multiple-choice test in which there were no wrong answers",[101] while Duke law professor James Earl Coleman Jr. posits that "[t]he officer was telling the witness that all are suspects, and say, in effect, 'Pick three.' It's so wrong."[102]

U.S. Department of Justice guidelines suggest including at least five non-suspect filler photos for each suspect included,[103] as did the Durham Police Department's own General Order 4077, adopted in February 2006.[104]

Ross (the only player she identified as attending the party with 100% certainty during both procedures) provided police investigators with evidence that he was with his girlfriend at North Carolina State University before, during, and after the party through cell phone records and an affidavit from a witness. Another person whom the accuser had identified in April also provided police with evidence that he did not attend the party at all. In regards to Seligmann's identification, Mangum's confidence increased from 70% in March to 100% in April. Gary Wells '-- an Iowa State University professor and expert on police identification procedures '-- has asserted that memory does not improve with time.[105]

According to the transcript of the photo identification released on The Abrams Report, Mangum also stated that David Evans had a mustache on the night of the attack. Evans's lawyer stated that his client has never had a mustache and that photos as well as eyewitness testimony would reveal that Evans has never had a mustache.[106]

Accusations of intimidation tactics [ edit ] Defense lawyers suggested police used intimidation tactics on witnesses. On May 11, Moezeldin Elmostafa, an immigrant taxi driver who signed a sworn statement about Seligmann's whereabouts that defense lawyers say provides a solid alibi, was arrested on a 2½-year-old shoplifting charge. Arresting officers first asked if he had anything new to say about the lacrosse case. When he refused to alter his testimony, he was taken into custody. An arrest and conviction would have destroyed his chance for citizenship and could have led to his deportation. Elmostafa was subsequently tried on the shoplifting charge and acquitted, after a grainy security tape proved that a security guard who was the prosecution's chief witness had "misremembered" events.[107][108]

Police also arrested Mangum's former husband, Kenneth McNeil; her boyfriend, Matthew Murchison; and another friend, with the disposition of their own separate cases entirely in the hands of District Attorney Nifong. The daughter of Durham's police chief was arrested on an old warrant, and the chief himself remained absent from duty and invisible to the press for most of the case.[109]

Supervisor [ edit ] The News & Observer suggested that the supervisor of the lacrosse investigation, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, had unfairly targeted Duke students in the past, putting some of his investigational tactics into question. Gottlieb has made a disproportionate number of arrests of Duke students for misdemeanor violations, such as carrying an open container of alcohol. Normally, these violations earn offenders a pink ticket similar to a traffic ticket.

From May 2005 to February 2006, when Sgt. Gottlieb was a patrol officer in District 2, he made 28 total arrests. Twenty of those arrests were Duke students, and at least 15 were handcuffed and taken to jail. This is in stark contrast to the other two officers on duty in the same district during that same 10-month period. They made 64 total arrests, only two of which were Duke students. Similarly, The News & Observer charges that Gottlieb treated non-students very differently. For example, he wrote up a young man for illegally carrying a concealed .45-caliber handgun and possession of marijuana (crimes far more severe than the Duke students who were taken to jail committed), but did not take him to jail. Residents complimented Gottlieb for dealing fairly with loud parties and disorderly conduct by students.[100]

Duke's student newspaper, The Chronicle, depicted other examples of violence and dishonesty from Sgt. Gottlieb. It published that one student threw a party at his rental home off-East Campus before the Rolling Stones concert in October 2005. The morning after the concert, at 3 A.M., Sgt. Gottlieb led a raid on the home with nine other officers while the students were half asleep. It reported that one student was dragged out of bed and then dragged down the stairs. It reported that all seven housemates were put in handcuffs, arrested, and taken into custody for violating a noise ordinance and open container of alcohol violations. Sgt. Gottlieb reportedly told one student, an American citizen of Serbian descent, that the student could be deported. Other stories include the throwing of a 130 pound male against his car for an open container of alcohol violation, refusing the ID of a student since he was international, searching through a purse without a warrant, refusing to tell a student her rights, and accusations of perjury.[110]

[ edit ] Possible political motivation [ edit ] At the time the rape allegations were made in March 2006, Mike Nifong was in the midst of a difficult Democratic primary election campaign to keep his position as Durham County District Attorney, facing strong opposition. It was understood that if Nifong lost the primary, he would very likely lose his job. Some commentators have opined that Nifong's prosecution of the Duke lacrosse players and his many statements to the media were driven by his political strategy to attract African-American voters. The primary was held on May 6, 2006, and Nifong won by a slim margin of 883 votes. Results showed Nifong won the primary on the basis of strong support from the black community. Nifong went on to win the general election in November 2006, although by a lower margin than usual for Democratic candidates in Durham County at that time.[111]

Prosecution's chief investigator [ edit ] Nifong hired Linwood E. Wilson as his chief investigator. During Wilson's private detective career, at least seven formal inquiries into his conduct were performed. In 1997, Wilson was reprimanded by the state commission. After his appeal of the decision was rejected, he allowed his detective license to expire. In response to criticism, Wilson stated that no one had ever questioned his integrity. On June 25, 2007, shortly after Nifong's disbarment and removal from office, it was reported that Nifong's replacement, interim district attorney Jim Hardin Jr., fired Wilson from his post.[112]

Wider effects [ edit ] Effects on Duke faculty [ edit ] Mike Pressler, the coach of the lacrosse team, received threatening e-mails and hate calls, had castigating signs placed on his property, and was the frequent victim of vandalism in the aftermath of the accusations.[47] On April 5, 2006, he resigned (later revealed to have been forced) shortly after the McFadyen e-mail became public. Through his lawyer, he stated that his resignation was not an admission of wrongdoing on his part.[47][113] On the same day, Richard H. Brodhead, president of Duke University, suspended the remainder of the lacrosse season.[114]

Other Duke faculty members (sometimes referred to as the Group of 88[115] or the "Gang of 88") have been criticized for their "Social Disaster" letter as well as individual comments and reactions which created a perception of prejudgment.[116]

Effect on Duke students [ edit ] Shortly after the party, the University's president warned in a school-wide e-mail of threats of gang violence against Duke students.[117] Other Duke students claimed they had been threatened.[118] Mobs protested outside the house that had been the site of the party, banging pots and pans at early hours of the morning.[119]

Photographs of lacrosse team members had been posted prominently around Durham and on the Duke University campus with accompanying captions requesting that they come forward with information about the incident.[120]

Media policies regarding identity revelation of accusers and accused [ edit ] Fox News was the sole national television news outlet to reveal Mangum's photo following the dismissal of the case, although MSNBC and 60 Minutes revealed her name.[4] Several major broadcasters did not publish Mangum's name at any point, including ABC, PBS, CNN, and NBC.[citation needed ]

Publication of Mangum's identity [ edit ] Partially obscured photos of Mangum at the party were broadcast by The Abrams Report on cable news channel MSNBC and by local television affiliate NBC 17 WNCN in North Carolina. On April 21, 2006, outspoken talk-radio host Tom Leykis disclosed Mangum's name during his nationally syndicated talk-radio program. Leykis has disclosed identities of accusers of sexual assault in the past. On May 15, 2006, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson disclosed Mangum's first name only on his show, Tucker.[121] Court records presented by the defense revealed Mangum's name.[citation needed ]

On April 11, 2007, several other mainstream media sources revealed or used Mangum's name and/or picture after the attorney general dropped all the charges and declared the players innocent. These sources include: CBS,[90] The News & Observer,[122] WRAL,[123] all The McClatchy Company's newspapers (which includes 24 newspapers across the country), Fox News, The Charlotte Observer, the New York Post, Comedy Central's The Daily Show (airdate April 12, 2007) and MSNBC.[124]

[ edit ] The allegations have inflamed already strained relations between Duke University and its host city of Durham, with members of the Duke lacrosse team being vilified in the press and defamed on and off campus. On May 1, 2006, the New Black Panthers held a protest outside Duke University.[125] The case drew national attention and highlighted racial tensions within the Durham area.[126]

Jesse Jackson and Rainbow/PUSH involvement [ edit ] In 2006, Jesse Jackson promised the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would pay the college tuition for Mangum. Jackson said the tuition offer would still be good even if Mangum had fabricated her story.[127]

Aftermath [ edit ] Mike Nifong [ edit ] On June 16, 2007, the North Carolina State Bar ordered Nifong disbarred after the bar's three-member disciplinary panel unanimously found him guilty of fraud, dishonesty, deceit or misrepresentation; of making false statements of material fact before a judge; of making false statements of material fact before bar investigators, and of lying about withholding exculpatory DNA evidence.[128]

Following the state bar's announcement, Nifong submitted a letter of resignation from his post as Durham County district attorney, that would have become effective in July 2007. However, on June 18, Durham Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson ordered that Nifong be immediately removed from office.[129]

On August 31, 2007, Nifong was held in criminal contempt of court for knowingly making false statements to the court during the criminal proceedings. Durham Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III sentenced Nifong to one day in jail, which he subsequently served.[130]

Crystal Mangum [ edit ] On December 15, 2006, it was reported that Mangum was pregnant and the judge in the case ordered a paternity test.[71][131][132]

In May 2008, Mangum graduated from North Carolina Central University with a degree in police psychology.[133]

On August 22, 2008, a press release announced the planned publication in October 2008 of a memoir by Mangum, The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.[134]

The press release indicated the book "can't and doesn't deal with the complex legal aspects of the case" but that "the muddling of facts about Crystal's life, along with North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper's desire to settle the dispute over open file discovery, swallowed the case whole". Defense attorney Joseph Cheshire responded to the news by saying that if the book was truthful, "I think it would be fabulous, and I don't think anybody would think badly about her in any way, shape or form", but that if the memoir did not acknowledge the falsity of her allegations against the players, that he would advise them to initiate civil action against her.[135] Her book was published later that year. In it, she continued to contend that she had been raped at the party and that the dropping of the case was politically motivated. The book outlined her earlier life, including a claim that she was first raped at the age of 14.[136]

In November 2013, she was found guilty of second-degree murder after she stabbed boyfriend Reginald Daye, who died 10 days after.[137] She argued that she acted in self-defense, fearing that Daye would kill her.[138] She was sentenced to 14 to 18 years in prison.

Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans [ edit ] On June 18, 2007, Duke University announced that it had reached a settlement with Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans.[139] No details of the settlement were disclosed.

According to pro-Nifong conspiracy theorists, Duke reportedly agreed to pay $60 million to the three accused (with each player receiving $20 million) subject to confidentiality requirements.[140] Seligmann's attorney told the New York Daily News that the settlement was "nowhere near that much money".[141]

Seligmann enrolled as a student at Brown University in the fall of 2007, and was an important part of Brown reaching the 2009 NCAA lacrosse tournament as well as a number 10 national ranking.[142] He became an active fundraiser and supporter for the Innocence Project.[143] He graduated from Brown in 2010 and from Emory University School of Law in 2013. He has stated that his experience during the Duke lacrosse case motivated him to attend law school and pursue a legal career.[144][145]

Finnerty enrolled at Loyola College in Maryland, leading the team in scoring as the Greyhounds qualified for the 2010 NCAA lacrosse tournament.[146] Finnerty graduated from Loyola in May 2010.[145]

David Evans, who had already graduated from Duke before being charged, received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in May 2012.[147]

Duke men's lacrosse team [ edit ] Not a month goes by when I am not reminded of the damage those accusations have had on my reputation and the public's perception of my character. Sometimes only time can heal wounds.

'--'

anonymous Duke lacrosse player, 30 for 30, Fantastic Lies, (2016)In January 2007, lacrosse team member Kyle Dowd filed a lawsuit against Duke University and against a visiting associate professor and member of the Group of 88, Kim Curtis, claiming he and another teammate were given failing grades on their final paper as a form of retaliation after the scandal broke.[148][149] The case was settled with the terms undisclosed except that Dowd's grade was altered to a P (for "Pass").[150]

Professor Houston Baker, who continued to accuse Dowd and the others of being "hooligans" and "rapists", called Dowd's mother "the mother of a farm animal" after she e-mailed him. Duke Provost Peter Lange responded to Baker, criticizing Baker for prejudging the team based on race and gender, citing this as a classic tactic of racism.[151]

Duke's Athletic Director at the time, Joe Alleva, who forced lacrosse coach Mike Pressler's resignation, faced criticism for his handling of this case. In 2008, Alleva announced he was leaving Duke for the Athletic Director position at Louisiana State University.[152] The lacrosse team, reinstated for the 2007 season, reached the NCAA Finals as the #1 seed. The Blue Devils lost to the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays in the championship, 12''11.[153]

In May 2007, Duke requested that the NCAA restore a year's eligibility to the players on the 2006 men's team, part of whose season was canceled. The NCAA granted the team's request for another year of eligibility, which applies to the 33 members of the 2006 team who were underclassmen in 2006 and who remained at Duke in 2007.[142] Four of the seniors from 2006 attended graduate school at Duke in 2007 and played for the team.[146] In 2010, the final year in which the team included fifth-year seniors (freshmen in 2006), Duke won the NCAA Lacrosse Championship beating Notre Dame, 6''5 in overtime, to give the school its first lacrosse championship.[154]

On June 7, 2007, it was announced that lacrosse coach Mike Pressler and Duke had reached a financial settlement. Pressler was later hired as coach by Division II (now Division I) Bryant University in Rhode Island. In October 2007, Pressler filed suit seeking to undo the settlement and hold a trial on his wrongful termination claim on the grounds that Duke spokesman John Burness had made disparaging comments about him. After Duke failed in an attempt to have the case dismissed, the matter was settled in 2010 with Duke apologizing in a press release but refusing to comment regarding any compensation to Pressler.[155]

On August 25, 2007, multiple sources predicted the players would file a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city of Durham.[156]

Duke University [ edit ] On September 29, 2007, Duke President Brodhead, speaking at a two-day conference at Duke Law School on the practice and ethics of trying cases in the media, apologized for "causing the families to feel abandoned when they most needed support."[157]

On July 12, 2010, Duke demolished the house where the party had taken place, 610 North Buchanan Boulevard, after it had sat unoccupied for the four years following the Duke lacrosse case.[158]

Sgt. Mark Gottlieb [ edit ] In July 2014, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb died by suicide in DeKalb County, Georgia, where he had worked as a paramedic.[159]

Lawsuits filed by players [ edit ] On September 7, 2007, it was reported that the three accused players (Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans), who had already settled with Duke University, planned to file a lawsuit for violations of their civil rights against the city of Durham and several city employees, unless the city agreed to a settlement including payment of $30 million over five years and the passage of new criminal justice reform laws. The city's liability insurance covers up to $5 million.[10]

Lawyers cited three main areas of vulnerability for the city:

The suspect-only photo identification procedure given to Mangum.Vast discrepancies in notes taken by Investigator Benjamin Himan during his March interview with Mangum and Sgt. Gottlieb's notes in JulyThe release of a CrimeStoppers poster by the police shortly after the allegations that a woman "was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community."[10]Durham declined the settlement offer and on October 5, 2007, the three accused players filed a federal lawsuit alleging a broad conspiracy to frame them. Named in the suit were Nifong, the lab that handled the DNA work, the city of Durham, the city's former police chief, the deputy police chief, the two police detectives who handled the case and five other police department employees. The players were seeking unspecified damages, and also wanted to place the Durham Police Department under court supervision for 10 years, claiming the actions of the police department posed "a substantial risk of irreparable injury to other persons in the City of Durham". According to the suit, Nifong engineered the conspiracy to help him win support for his election bid. Nifong reportedly told his campaign manager that the case would provide "'millions of dollars' in free advertising".[160]

On January 15, 2008, the city of Durham filed a motion to remove itself as a defendant, arguing it had no responsibility for Nifong's actions. On the same day, Nifong filed for bankruptcy.[161] On May 27, 2008, Judge William L. Stocks lifted the stay from Nifong's bankruptcy filing and ruled that the plaintiffs lawsuit could go forward.[162]

On March 31, 2011, Judge James Beaty issued a ruling on the Evans et al. case, upholding claims against Nifong and his hired investigator Wilson for conspiracy to commit malicious prosecution in the course of their investigation; the city of Durham for negligence; Nifong, Wilson, and police investigators Gottlieb and Himan for malicious prosecution, concealment of evidence, and fabrication of false evidence. However, the players' civil rights claims, which constituted the bulk of their Complaint, were dismissed on the grounds that the applicable civil rights laws pertained only to persons of African-American descent.[163][verification needed ][dubious '' discuss ]

Plaintiffs contend that they have alleged race discrimination as white plaintiffs. However, the § 1985 claims based on this *971 contention fails for two reasons. First, the Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit have indicated an intent to limit the protections of § 1985 to discrimination against "those classes of persons who are, so far as the enforcement of their rights is concerned, `in unprotected circumstances similar to those of the victims of Klan violence.'" Buschi, 775 F.2d at 1258 (quoting United Bhd. of Carpenters, 463 U.S. at 851, 103 S.Ct. at 3368); see also Cloaninger v. McDevitt, No. 106cv135, 2006 WL 2570586 (W.D.N.C. Sept. 3, 2006) ("As recognized by the controlling law in the Fourth Circuit, the only class of persons protected by Section 1985(3) are African Americans.") (citing Harrison, 766 F.2d at 161-62); Stock v. Universal Foods Corp., 817 F. Supp. 1300, 1310 (D.Md.1993) (dismissing § 1985(3) claim because plaintiff, as a white male, was not a member of a class that has suffered historically pervasive discrimination); Blackmon v. Perez, 791 F. Supp. 1086, 1093 (E.D.Va.1992) (dismissing § 1985(3) claims by white plaintiffs because "plaintiffs do not represent a class of persons who [do] not enjoy the possibility of []effective state enforcement of their rights" (internal quotations omitted)).[164]

On December 17, 2012, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected all of the players' federal claims in Evans v ChalmersCase No. 11-1436 (C.A. 4), holding:

To recapitulate, we hold as follows. We reverse the district court's denial of all defendants' motions to dismiss the federal claims alleged against them. We reverse the court's denial of the City's motion for summary judgment as to the state common-law claims alleged against it. We affirm the court's denial of Officers Gottlieb and Himan's motions to dismiss the state common-law malicious prosecution claims alleged against them. We reverse the court's denial of the officers' motions to dismiss all other state common-law claims. We dismiss for lack of appellate jurisdiction the City's appeal of the state constitutional claims alleged against it. Finally, we remand the cases for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.[165]

The only claims to survive this decision were state constitutional claims. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III concurred, ruling:

A few additional observations may underscore the overblown nature of this case. Plaintiffs have sought to raise every experimental claim and to corral every conceivable defendant. The result is a case on the far limbs of law and one destined, were it to succeed in whole, to spread damage in all directions.[166]

On October 7, 2013, the United States Supreme Court denied the Petition for Certorari filed by Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans, declining to review the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.[167]

On May 16, 2014, the three accused lacrosse players and the City of Durham settled their long-running lawsuit. Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans agreed to dismiss their lawsuit and received no monetary compensation whatsoever. The city agreed to make a $50,000 grant to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.[168]

Lawsuit filed by non-accused players and their families [ edit ] On February 21, 2008, the families of 38 of the lacrosse team's 47 members who were not accused filed a 225-page lawsuit against Duke University, the Duke University Hospital, the city of Durham, and various officials of each organization for multiple claims of harassment, deprivation of civil rights, breach of contract and other claims.[169]

A Duke University spokesperson responded that "we have now seen the lawsuit and as we said before, if these plaintiffs have a complaint, it is with Mr. Nifong. Their legal strategy '' attacking Duke '' is misdirected and without merit. To help these families move on, Duke offered to cover the cost of any attorneys' fees or other out-of-pocket expenses, but they rejected this offer. We will vigorously defend the university against these claims."[170][171] The city never released an official response to the suit. The lawsuit against the university was settled out of court in 2013. Neither side would discuss the details of the settlement.[172]

ESPN documentary: Fantastic Lies [ edit ] The 2016 documentary film Fantastic Lies, which centered around the case and its aftermath, was part of ESPN's 30 for 30 film series. It premiered on March 13, 2016, 10 years to the day after the lacrosse players hosted the house party where Mangum claimed she was raped.[173]

Among the journalists invited to contribute was ESPN college basketball analyst and Duke graduate Jay Bilas, who in his other capacity as a practicing attorney later wrote a letter to the university administration criticizing their handling of the entire situation and describing president Brodhead as "incapable of effectively leading Duke into the future."[174] Crystal Mangum was approached by the film crew to tell her side of the story and agreed to do so, but prison officials would not allow her to be filmed. None of the players involved in the case appeared in the film, but Reade Seligmann's parents and Colin Finnerty's father did.[175][176][177]

See also [ edit ] Racial hoaxTawana Brawley rape allegationsA Rape on CampusReferences [ edit ] ^ a b Katz, Neil (February 18, 2010). "Crystal Mangum, stripper who falsely accused Duke lacrosse players, charged with attempted murder". CBS News. CBS . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . In 2006, Mangum, then a North Carolina Central University student earning money as a stripper, said that three Duke lacrosse players raped her ^ Associated Press (November 22, 2013). "North Carolina: Woman in Duke case guilty in killing". The New York Times . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . ^ Yamato, Jen (March 12, 2016). "The stripper who cried 'rape': Revisiting the Duke lacrosse case ten years later". The Daily Beast . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . ^ a b c "Crystal Gail Mangum: Profile of the Duke Rape Accuser" Archived June 6, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Fox News, April 11, 2007. ^ Siemaszko, Corky (February 18, 2010). "Crystal Gail Mangum, stripper in Duke lacrosse rape case, charged with arson and attempted murder". nydailynews.com. New York . Retrieved September 11, 2010 . ^ "N.C. attorney general: Duke players 'innocent ' ". CNN. April 11, 2007 . Retrieved March 9, 2019 . ^ Beard, Aaron (April 11, 2007). "Prosecutors Drop Charges in Duke Case". The San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 26, 2007 . Retrieved April 11, 2007 . ^ Beard, Aaron (August 31, 2007). "Judge Finds Duke Prosecutor in Contempt". Associated Press. ^ Chambers, Stanley B. Jr. (June 30, 2010). "Duke lacrosse accuser holds press conference to defend herself". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on July 2, 2010 . Retrieved August 14, 2020 . ^ a b c d "Ex-players seek $30 million settlement". News & Observer. September 8, 2007. ^ a b Mangum, Crystal G. Archived January 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, North Carolina Department of Correction Public Access Information System ^ a b "Dancer made prior allegation". Duke Chronicle. April 30, 2006. ^ Smolkin, Rachel (August''September 2007). "Justice Delayed". American Journalism Review. Archived from the original on June 10, 2013 . Retrieved November 3, 2014 . ^ Parrish, R. B. (2009) The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro, p. 19; ISBN 1-4392-3590-2 ^ Until Proven Innocent, pg. 33 ^ Cohan, William D. (2015). The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 16''17. ISBN 978-1-4516-8179-6 . Retrieved May 11, 2015 . ^ a b c d Meadows, Amy (April 22, 2007). "What Really Happened That Night at Duke". Newsweek . Retrieved May 12, 2015 . ^ a b Mosteller, Robert P. (December 2007). "The Duke Lacrosse Case, Innocence, and False Identifications: A Fundamental Failure to "Do Justice " " (PDF) . Fordham Law Review. Fordham Univ. 76 (3): 1342''45 . Retrieved May 13, 2015 . ^ a b "Second Duke Stripper Offers Account" . Retrieved 2018-01-17 . ^ Schorn, Daniel (October 11, 2006). "Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out". 60 Minutes. CBS News. p. 3 . Retrieved October 9, 2010 . ^ Coultan, Mark (October 21, 2006). "Doubts over US college rape case". The Age. Melbourne . Retrieved September 11, 2010 . ^ a b Cohan, William D. (2015). The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 22''25. ISBN 978-1-4516-8179-6 . Retrieved May 11, 2015 . ^ "'Go Ahead, Put Marks on Me'" Archived November 27, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, abcnews.go.com, October 30, 2006. ^ Cuomo, Chris & Lara Setrakian, "Exclusive: Guard Who Saw Alleged Duke Victim Says No Sign or Mention of Rape" Archived November 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine ABC News, April 17, 2006. ^ "Defense motion seeks more reports in Duke lacrosse case", The News & Observer, August 31, 2006. ^ Parrish, R.B. (2009) The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro, p. 45; ISBN 1-4392-3590-2 ^ "Piecing together what happened at the Duke lacrosse-team party" Archived May 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, The Seattle Times, May 20, 2006. ^ a b "Lacrosse files show gaps in DA's case". News & Observer. August 6, 2006. ^ "Defense Sources: Duke Accuser Gave Conflicting Stories About Alleged Rape". Fox News. May 24, 2006. ^ "Cop says nurse found trauma in Duke case". News & Observer. August 27, 2006. ^ Neff, Joseph (April 18, 2007). "To the end, the account continues to change". News & Observer. ^ "Duke Rape Case E-mail Shocker". The Smoking Gun. April 5, 2006 . Retrieved December 31, 2010 . ^ a b Ryan McFadyen e-mail Archived January 9, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, vanityfair.com, March 2014; accessed November 22, 2014. ^ Parrish, R. B. (2009) The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro, pp. 159-61; ISBN 1-4392-3590-2. ^ "Duke's McFadyen reinstated after sending e-mail". USA Today. Associated Press. July 3, 2006 . Retrieved November 22, 2014 . ^ Roberts, Selena (March 31, 2006). "When Peer Pressure, Not a Conscience, Is Your Guide". The New York Times . Retrieved December 10, 2013 . Correction: April 6, 2006, Thursday The Sports of The Times column on Friday, about the investigation involving a woman who said she had been raped by three players on the Duke University lacrosse team misstated the nature of the players' cooperation with the authorities. The police in Durham, N.C., said that although most team members had not voluntarily submitted to police interviews and DNA tests, the three residents of the house where the accuser said the incident occurred had done so. ^ a b Cohan, William D. (2015). The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 63''68. ISBN 978-1-4516-8179-6 . Retrieved May 11, 2015 . ^ a b c d Summary of Conclusions Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, North Carolina Attorney General's Office & North Carolina Department of Justice, online at ncdoj.gov, accessed May 13, 2015. ^ a b Mosteller, Robert P. (December 2007). "The Duke Lacrosse Case, Innocence, and False Identifications: A Fundamental Failure to "Do Justice " " (PDF) . Fordham Law Review. Fordham Univ. 76 (3): 1348''51 . Retrieved May 13, 2015 . ^ "Attorney: Photos will clear Duke lacrosse players" Archived February 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ESPN, April 10, 2006. ^ a b Attorneys: No DNA match in Duke lacrosse case Archived February 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ESPN, April 11, 2006. ^ North Carolina v. Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, findlaw.com, April 17, 2006. ^ Chen, Saidi. "Lawyer claims player has alibi" Archived February 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, The Chronicle, April 21, 2006. ^ Nesbitt, Jim; Barrett, Barbara (April 19, 2006). "Seligmann's backers say he 'is not a nasty player ' ". News & Observer. Archived from the original on April 18, 2007 . Retrieved May 10, 2015 . ^ "Race and class divisions shade case against 2 lacrosse players" Archived March 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, usatoday.com, April 19, 2006. ^ Duke Lacrosse Rape Case Search Warrants Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, FindLaw.com, April 18, 2006. ^ a b c Price, S.L. & Farrell Evans. "The Damage Done", The Augusta Chronicle, June 26, 2006. ^ Cuomo, C., Avram, E. & Setrakian, L."Key Evidence Supports Alibi in Potential Rape Defense for One Indicted Duke Player" Archived November 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ABC News, April 19, 2006. ^ a b c Yaffe, Andrew. "Lab director withheld DNA information" Archived May 10, 2015, at the Wayback Machine The Chronicle December 15, 2006. ^ a b Taylor, Stuart and KC Johnson (2007). Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case. St. Martin's Press: New York. p. 221; ISBN 0-312-36912-3 ^ Duke's 2006 Commencement had been held on the preceding day, May 14, 2006. Kopty, Yazan, "Transcript of 2006 Graduation Speech" (editor's note), Archived August 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Duke Today, May 15, 2006, online at today.duke.edu, accessed May 13, 2015. ^ Indictments (North Carolina v. Finnerty, Seligmann) Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine FindLaw, April 17, 2006. ^ "Dorm Room Search Warrants" Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, FindLaw.com, April 18, 2006. ^ "NPR: Duke Lacrosse Players Arrested on Rape Charges" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine ^ "Duke University Rape Scandal; Interview With Dave Holloway" Archived October 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, transcripts.cnn.com, April 11, 2006 ^ Neff, Joseph. Filing: Second dancer called allegations a 'crock', The News & Observer. June 8, 2006. ^ Beard, Aaron, "Duke Lacrosse Case Takes Dramatic Turn", Archived June 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine WashingtonPost.com, December 23, 2006; accessed May 12, 2015. ^ "State Bar Files Ethics Complaint Against Mike Nifong" Archived January 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, WRAL.com, December 28, 2006. ^ Setrakian, Lara (January 12, 2007). "DA in Duke Rape Case Asks to Be Taken off Case". ABC News . Retrieved April 1, 2007 . ^ Hochberg, Adam (January 13, 2007). "State AG to Take Control of Duke Lacrosse Case". NPR . Retrieved May 13, 2015 . ^ "Former Duke Lacrosse 'Rape' Prosecutor Charged With Withholding Evidence, Misleading Court". FOXNews.com. January 24, 2007 . Retrieved December 24, 2009 . ^ "Breaking News? No Surprise Here". The Johnsville News. March 23, 2007. ^ "Charges Dropped In Duke Lacrosse Case". April 11, 2007. ^ "NC attorney general: Duke players "innocent " ". Edition.cnn.com . Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ "Nifong Criticizes AG Cooper In Statement". Raleigh Chronicle. April 12, 2007. ^ "As Duke rape case unravels, D.A.'s judgment questioned: Defense describes him as willing to skirt law for conviction" Archived January 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, San Francisco Chronicle ^ "Embattled Nifong Says He will Resign" Archived May 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine ^ Parker, Laura (June 19, 2007). "Disbarment may not be end for Nifong". USA Today . Retrieved October 26, 2007 . ^ a b Beard, Aaron (May 12, 2006). "Defense attorney: 2nd DNA test shows no conclusive match". USA Today. Associated Press. ^ "Duke Lacrosse Player: 'I'm Absolutely Innocent ' ". Fox News. May 16, 2006. ^ a b "Paternity Test Ordered in Duke Lacrosse Rape Case" Archived December 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, WRAL.com, December 15, 2006. ^ Waggoner, Martha (August 3, 2011). "Appeals court finds firing OK in Duke lacrosse case". The News & Observer . Retrieved February 19, 2015 . ^ "Report: DNA link possible for third Duke player" Archived November 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Associated Press and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review May 12, 2006. ^ Spilbor, Jonna. "The Rape That Never Was: Why, In Light Of The Lack Of DNA Evidence, The Case Against Duke's Lacrosse Team Should Be Dropped" Archived April 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, FindLaw.com, April 14, 2006. ^ Y-Str (Male) DNA Characteristics Discovered by DNA Security on the Rape Kit Items Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine; retrieved June 14, 2007. ^ a b c Macur, Juliet. "Amid Scrutiny at Duke, Details Emerge of '05 Assault", Archived January 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The New York Times, April 5, 2006. ^ Niolet, Benjamin. "Finnerty's D.C. Record To Be Cleared", News & Observer, January 9, 2007, archived here ^ Striker, Clarissa. "Duke Lacrosse Player Gets Probation", Archived March 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine CBSnews.com, July 11, 2006; retrieved May 10, 2015. ^ Barrett, Barbara. DC Jury Hears Duke Lacrosse Player's Assault Case", Archived May 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine McClatchy News Services, Mcclatchydc.com, July 10, 2006; retrieved May 10, 2015. ^ Taylor Jr., KC; Johnson, Stuart (2018). "17". Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case. ISBN 9780312384869. ^ Parrish, R.B. (2009) The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro, pp. 162-70; ISBN 1-4392-3590-2 ^ Mallia, Joseph, and Melanie Lefkowitz. Collin Finnerty, once falsely accused, graduates from college" Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Newsday.com, May 23, 2010; retrieved May 10, 2015. ^ "Alleged Duke Rape Victim Wants Her Life Back" Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ABC News, April 19, 2006. ^ "Report: Police Notes Bolster Prosecution Of Duke Lacrosse Case" Archived May 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine ^ a b Jarvis, Craig (April 13, 2007). "Mangum's life: conflict, contradictions". News and Observer. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. ^ Khanna, Samiha & Anne Blythe. "Dancer gives details of ordeal" Archived April 27, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, The News & Observer, March 25, 2006. ^ "Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case" Archived March 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, December 22, 2006. ^ "Duke attack story shifts". News & Observer. January 12, 2007. ^ "Lacrosse Defense: Accuser's Story Changes Again". January 11, 2007. ^ a b "The Duke Case: Innocent" Archived October 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, cbsnews.com, April 15, 2007. ^ a b Suppression Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, abclocal.go.com; retrieved June 2, 2007. ^ Cohan, William D. (2014). The price of silence: The Duke lacrosse scandal, the power of the elite, and the corruption of our great universities. New York: Scribner. pp. 67, 116''117, 190''192. ISBN 9781451681802 . Retrieved 8 July 2017 . ^ "Duke accuser lying, second stripper says", msnbc.com, October 13, 2006. ^ Tad Nelson, "Duke Lacrosse Debacle and Accuser's Credibility", FoxNews, January 14, 2007. Archived November 22, 2014, at archive.today ^ "Event told of accuser in lacrosse rape case". News & Observer. November 14, 2006. ^ Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out Archived October 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. 60 Minutes, October 15, 2006. ^ "Accuser in Duke lacrosse case wanted money, man says". newsobserver.com. November 4, 2006. ^ Graham, David. The Duke Lacrosse Accuser's New Trouble Archived April 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Beast, April 5, 2011. ^ "Duke lacrosse players' attorneys step up defense" Archived January 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, espn.go.com, April 9, 2006. ^ a b "Detective got tough with Duke students". News & Observer. September 9, 2006. ^ "Duke Lacrosse Defense Wants Photo IDs Thrown Out" Archived October 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, WRAL.com, December 14, 2006; retrieved September 3, 2007. ^ "Duke prof: Rape case needs new prosecutor". News & Observer. June 13, 2006. ^ Wilson, Duff & Glater, Jonathan D. "Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers", The New York Times, August 25, 2006; retrieved October 26, 2008 Archived November 17, 2015, at the Wayback Machine ^ Until Proven Innocent, page 155 Archived July 4, 2014, at the Wayback Machine ^ Conflicting Identifications Archived October 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. The News & Observer; retrieved December 24, 2006. ^ "3rd Duke lacrosse player: all 'fantastic lies ' ". Associated Press. May 16, 2006. ^ "Cabbie in lacrosse case acquitted in shoplifting". News & Observer. August 30, 2006. ^ Parrish, R. B. (2009) The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro, pp. 157-58; ISBN 1-4392-3590-2 ^ Parrish, R. B. (2009) The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro, pp. 175-76; ISBN 1-4392-3590-2 ^ Mueller, Jared. "Students criticize lax cop's behavior" Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, The Chronicle; accessed September 11, 2006. ^ Mosteller, Robert P. (December 2007). "The Duke Lacrosse Case, Innocence, and False Identifications: A Fundamental Failure to "Do Justice " " (PDF) . Fordham Law Review. Fordham Univ. 76 (3): 1354''57 . Retrieved May 13, 2015 . ^ "Durham DA's investigator jobless". News & Observer. June 26, 2007 . 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Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ Tucker , NBC News, May 15, 2006. ^ Why We're Naming the Accuser Archived May 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. The News & Observer, April 11, 2007. ^ "Faith in Justice System, Praise for Players Follow Dismissal" Archived October 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, WRAL-TV, April 11, 2007. ^ "Dismissing the Duke Case: Video". MSNBC. April 15, 2007. ^ "Duke: 'We will not let the safety...be jeopardized ' ". News & Observer. April 29, 2006. ^ "Report: All Charges Against Duke Lacrosse Players to Be Dropped Soon". FoxNews. March 23, 2007. ^ "Jesse Jackson Says Organization Will Pay Alleged Rape Victim's Tuition" . Retrieved January 7, 2007 . ^ Setrakian, Lara; Francescani, Chris (June 16, 2007). "Former Duke Prosecutor Nifong Disbarred". ABC News. Raleigh, N.C . Retrieved May 12, 2015 . ^ "Judge Suspends Resigned Nifong From DA's Office" Archived April 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, wral.com, June 18, 2007. ^ "Nifong Guilty of Criminal Contempt; Sentenced to 1 Day in Jail". WRAL. August 31, 2007. ^ CBS's 60 Minutes segment "Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out" Archived 6 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, cbsnews.com, October 15, 2006. ^ "Who is the real victim in the Duke lacrosse case?" Archived May 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, rightsideoftheroad.com, January 8, 2007. ^ "Summa cum loony" Archived May 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine ^ "Duke LAX accuser pens memoir - 8/22/08-Raleigh News-abc11.com". Abclocal.go.com. August 22, 2008 . Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ "Duke lacrosse attorney hopes accuser admits she lied" Archived August 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, wral.com; retrieved September 5, 2008. ^ Andrew Hibbard, "Memoir chronicles lax accuser's troubled life", dukechronicle.com; accessed November 6, 2008. Archived May 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine ^ "Police: Boyfriend of Duke lacrosse accuser is dead", newsobserver.com, April 14, 2011. ^ "Crystal Mangum, Duke lacrosse accuser, convicted, sentenced in boyfriend's stabbing death". New York Daily News. November 22, 2013 . Retrieved March 10, 2019 . ^ Duke Univ. Office of News and Communications (June 18, 2007), Duke University, Three Lacrosse Players Announce Settlement, Duke University, archived from the original on March 9, 2013 , retrieved May 11, 2015 ^ Flanagan, Caitlin, "Sunday Book Review: Nothing to Cheer About. 'The Price of Silence' by William D. Cohan" Archived April 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, nytimes.com, April 24, 2014; accessed May 11, 2015. ^ Mandell, Nina (February 25, 2011). "IRS claims former Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann owes millions, lawyer says bill is mistake". New York Daily News . Retrieved April 17, 2015 . ^ a b "NCAA to allow Duke players to reclaim lost season". ESPN.com. 30 May 2007 . Retrieved May 31, 2007 . ^ Clemmons, Anna Katherine, "Former Duke Players Move Forward" Archived May 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine ESPN.com, March 10, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2015. ^ Annan-Brady, Rita, "Reade Seligmann Honored For Innocence Project", Archived May 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Progress, online at NewJerseyHills.com, uploaded November 5, 2010; retrieved May 11, 2015. ^ a b Cohan, William D. (2015). The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 602. ISBN 978-1-4516-8179-6 . Retrieved May 11, 2015 . ^ a b "4 return to Duke lacrosse for 5th year". Miami Herald. September 29, 2007. Archived from the original on November 8, 2007 . Retrieved November 9, 2007 . ^ Cohan, William D. (2015). The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 601. ISBN 978-1-4516-8179-6 . Retrieved May 11, 2015 . ^ "Duke Civil Lawsuit" (PDF) . ABC News. April 11, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2007 . Retrieved April 11, 2007 . ^ "LAX Player Files Lawsuit Against Duke University". ABC News. January 4, 2007. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012 . Retrieved January 14, 2007 . ^ "Faculty revisits case, Nifong". The News&Observer. May 12, 2007. Archived from the original on September 22, 2007 . Retrieved May 12, 2007 . ^ Peter Applebome, "After Duke Prosecution Began to Collapse, Demonizing Continued" Archived January 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, April 15, 2007. ^ "Alleva's tenure saw Duke's best and worst" Archived 27 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Duke Chronicle, April 14, 2008. ^ "Johns Hopkins 12, Duke 11". NCAA Sports.com. ^ "Duke edges Irish for first lacrosse title". ESPN.com. 31 May 2010 . Retrieved February 19, 2015 . ^ Duke settles with former lacrosse coach Pressler Archived June 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, TheChronicle.com; accessed November 21, 2014. ^ "Lawsuit against Durham". Herald-Sun. August 25, 2007. ^ "Duke President Shares Lessons Learned, Regrets About Lacrosse Case". Dukenews.duke.edu. September 29, 2007. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012 . Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ "Infamous Duke lacrosse house demolished" Archived October 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, abclocal.go.com; retrieved July 13, 2010. ^ Former detective in Duke lacrosse rape case commits suicide in Georgia Archived October 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, wral.com; retrieved July 16, 2014. ^ "Copy of lawsuit" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009 . Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ "Nifong files for bankruptcy; city replies to suit". January 16, 2008. ^ "Judge: Duke lacrosse players can pursue lawsuit". FOXNews.com. May 28, 2008 . Retrieved April 16, 2010 . ^ Judge James Beaty, Memorandum Opinion, March 31, 2011. ^ "McFadyen v. Duke University, 786 F. Supp. 2d 887 '' CourtListener.com". CourtListener. ^ "Federal Cases > Constitutional Law Evans v Chalmers". Judicial View . Retrieved 2017-05-23 . ^ "Evans V. Chalmers". Caselaw.findlaw.com . Retrieved 2017-05-23 . ^ "Casetext". Casetext . Retrieved 2017-05-23 . ^ "Durham settles with wrongly accused Duke lacrosse players". WRAL.com. 2014-05-16 . Retrieved 2017-05-23 . ^ "Duke Lacrosse Players File Federal Lawsuit Against University, City of Durham". Fox News. February 21, 2008. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009 . Retrieved May 22, 2009 . ^ "Other Duke players, parents file lawsuit". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009 . Retrieved May 22, 2009 . ^ "Duke Lacrosse Players File Federal Lawsuit Against University, City of Durham". FoxNews. February 21, 2008. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009 . Retrieved May 22, 2009 . ^ Harris, Andrew M (March 1, 2013). "Ex-Duke Lacrosse Players End Lawsuit Against School". bloomberg.com . Retrieved May 21, 2017 . ^ Deitsch, Richard (March 9, 2016). "New ESPN 30 for 30 documentary to look back at Duke lacrosse case". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved March 28, 2016 . ^ "A 2006 open letter on leadership and justice". ESPN. March 14, 2016 . Retrieved March 28, 2016 . ^ "Where are they now?". Archived from the original on 2016-09-30 . Retrieved 2016-12-30 . ^ "The Duke Lacrosse Player Still Outrunning His Past". 25 March 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-11-21 . Retrieved 2016-12-30 . ^ "10 Appalling Moments from the Duke Lacrosse Case". 16 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-07-22 . Retrieved 2016-12-30 . Further reading [ edit ] Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case by Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson (2007); ISBN 0-312-36912-3It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered by Don Yaeger & Mike Pressler (2007); ISBN 1-4165-5146-8A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case by Nader Baydoun and R. Stephanie Good (2007); ISBN 978-1-59555-118-4The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro by R. B. Parrish (2009); ISBN 978-1-4392-3590-4Party Like a Lacrosse Star by Paul Montgomery (2007); ISBN 978-0-615-17150-0The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Gale Mangum Story by Crystal Gale Mangum & Edward Clark (2008); ISBN 978-0-9817837-0-3External links [ edit ] Collected stories from The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer"Duke Rape Scandal" Photo Gallery via Court TVVideo: Duke Jurors Speak (Grand Jury)Exclusive: Duke Lacrosse Grand Jurors Speak Out - ABC NewsComplete transcript and audio of Duke University President Richard Brodhead's Apology and Address on the Ethics and Practice of Trying Cases in the Media - AmericanRhetoric.com

Feature Guide | Unstoppable Domains

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Abandoned Arkansas theme park Dogpatch USA will become a nature center, state panel told

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The abandoned Dogpatch USA theme park will become Marble Falls Nature Park, a project led by the founder of Bass Pro Shops, a state commission was told Tuesday.

Bob Ziehmer, senior director of conservation for Bass Pro Shops, presented the plan at Tuesday's quarterly meeting of the Buffalo River Conservation Committee, held in the Jasper School Cafeteria.

John L. "Johnny" Morris, Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO, bought the 400-acre piece of property in Newton County last year.

The proposed Marble Falls Nature Park will resemble the much larger Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Lampe, Mo., the conservation committee was told. Dogwood Canyon features a working mill and restaurant, trout fishing and fly-fishing lessons, wildlife tours, horseback riding and education programs on conservation.

The Newton County park will focus on the community's history, which includes being the site where a block of marble was quarried, carved and transported to the nation's capital in 1836 and was one of the first stones to be incorporated into the Washington Monument, according to the presentation. The area also has been a health resort featuring the waters from a local spring.

The 400-acre Dogpatch site sold for $1.12 million. For years, people in north Arkansas tried to get Morris to buy Dogpatch. But the price was $3 million in 2016. The former park's price eroded -- along with the site.

Constructed in 1967 for $1.33 million (about $10 million in today's dollars), Dogpatch USA originally featured a trout farm, buggy and horseback rides, entertainment by characters from Al Capp's Li'l Abner comic strip and the park's trademark railroad, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Amusement rides were added later.

Morris has a net worth estimated at $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.com, and a record of successful conservation projects. He developed Big Cedar Lodge, billed as "America's premiere wilderness resort," and the 10,000-acre Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, both of which are in southern Missouri.

Dogpatch was set for sale on the Newton County Courthouse steps in a foreclosure auction March 3, 2020 before Morris company bought it.

Trump's social media site quietly admits it's based on Mastodon

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Mastodon had originally threatened to sue Trump's "Truth Social" site for allegedly violating its open-source license.

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PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

To avoid a lawsuit, Donald Trump's social media site is quietly acknowledging the computer code powering the platform comes from Mastodon.

Truth Social created the section on Nov. 12, two weeks after social networking provider Mastodon threatened to sue Trump's platform for violating its open-source license.

''We haven't received any communication back from them, but they've uploaded a ZIP archive of the source code, which for now seems to bring them in compliance,'' Rochko said in an email.

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Chicago Public School Goes From Low to No Standards | Chicago Contrarian

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:29

Making it impossible to fail in Chicago Public Schools

When most people over the age of 40 were enrolled in school, they may recall that completing homework assignments significantly increased the chances making a passing grade. Those over the age of 40 may also remember students who were remiss but eventually handed in homework were penalized, but earned some credit, and how those who chose not to turn in assignments failed.

These were the days in which students enrolled in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) received a sound education and pupils left school with the necessary skills to thrive in the workplace. Those were also times in which students met a challenge '-- standards set by schools '-- and the crucial executive function skill of accountability students needed to develop to become successful were rigidly enforced by administrators and educators alike.

In Chicago, those days are long gone and the latest example of the lack of academic standards in Chicago's hopelessly failing public schools is unfolding now at Steinmetz College Prep. Steinmetz has adopted a ''zero grade'' policy.

Located in Chicago's Northwest Side Belmont Cragin neighborhood, the principal at Steinmetz is Mr. Jaime Jaramillo. A man with close to two decades in education, Jaramillo has served as principal at Steinmetz for three-and-a-half years. Over this time period, Steinmetz has seen little improvement in overall achievement scores so it is surprising Jaramillo would support a policy which lowers expectations for students.

Trotted out in front of the Steinmetz Local School Council in September, Jaramillo glibly explained the change was inspired by COVID realities, the necessity to accommodate students' ''challenges and circumstances,'' and the desire to achieve ''equity.''

Prior to ''equity grading,'' student grades existed on a 100-point scale, with A, B, C, and D 10-points apart. Grades beneath 59 were deemed failing, and those students who failed to turn in assignments altogether would receive a zero until the assignment was completed for partial credit.

Under Jaramillo's new ''equity'' grading'' system, students who fail to turn in an assigned tasks will receive a minimum grade of 45 percent; those who undertake a reasonable attempt would automatically receive a minimum grade of 50.

According to Jaramillo, ''equity grading'' is a concept of ensuring students have every opportunity to master content for the period of instruction, making failure a choice rather than an indicator at one specific point of time. Apart from the elimination of a zero in grades, ''equity grading'' can encompass assigning points for a student's classroom engagement, revisions to homework or weighing tests or homework less. This new grading system, Jaramillo insists, ''levels the playing field by making all grading bands the same.''

45 is the new zero

Mr. Jaramillo can dress ''equity grading'' any way it pleases him, but the new ''no-zero'' grading method is more relevant to covering up poor student achievement than assisting pupils.

A school in which over 1,100 students are enrolled, Steinmetz graduates a mere 66 percent of its seniors, according to Illinois Report Card. In addition to its unsatisfactory graduation rate, 57 percent of students are chronically absent, an astounding 70 percent are habitually truant and only 59 percent of its freshmen are considered ''on track.''

As one can presume, Steinmetz is consistently ranked among Chicago's lowest-performing schools and it is the sampling of students not ''on track'' which Jaramillo is attempting to inflate. Though the definition of ''on track'' can differ widely, a generally accepted interpretation of ''on track'' is a combination of attendance and grades in core classes. To be considered ''on track,'' pupils must meet a minimum attendance rate and maintain a minimum grade point average in the core classes of Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.

The purpose of the ''on track'' metric is to ensure a student has achieved a mastery of subject matter and the skills to move onto the next grade level. That the school's ''on track'' measure rests at a bleak 59 percent is a source of embarrassment for the administrative leadership of Steinmetz.

While ''zero-grading'' is a relatively new concept in public schools, some evidence from across the nation shows the grading plan has had several unanticipated consequences. Among them were students who made use of the grading method by doing little or no work. Other students, who had not mastered class content, managed to pass the course, but remained wholly unprepared for greater challenges at the next grade level.

Educators also conceded prolonged behavior among students who had seldom turned in assignments and low-test scores that persisted within the same student sampling. Furthermore, some educators have explained ''zero-grading'' removed effective tools educators had historically employed in the classroom to enforce student diligence and teach the significance of deadlines and responsibility in the workplace.

Equally disingenuous is Jaramillo's assertion ''no-zero'' grading is being applied to aid students whose circumstances in the home are barriers to succeeding in school. While the lives of some students enrolled at Steinmetz are askew, the Belmont Cragin neighborhood is not known for widespread social disorder. Conversely, an overwhelmingly Hispanic neighborhood, Belmont Cragin is generally recognized for its cheerful and hardworking residents. While gangs do exist at Steinmetz and, by Jaramillo's admission, the school has some violence and drug-use problems, to portray the neighborhood as a center of depravity with a low quality of life is false.

Despite Jaramillo's pious claims ''zero-grading'' will reduce the punitive effect of an F grade and avail students of an unfair burden, the true aim of ''equity grading'' is to mask failure at Steinmetz. By adopting ''equity grading,'' Jaramillo confesses students who performed poorly by virtue of doing little or no work were boosted academically and elevated into the passing range. Other students who languished with D's now make C's, and some who, before the ''equity'' lift, found themselves in the C range were bumped up to a B. Jaramillo's ''equity grading'' is a finely engineered ploy to improve Steinmetz's ''on track'' rate to take the pressure off administrators and educators over poor student achievement.

The CPS is not living up to its promise

''Equity grading'' is not maintaining a high academic standard in Chicago's public schools. In contrast, it is moving the goalposts to conceal a school's shortcomings.

It is no longer a secret the CPS fails its students. In many Chicago public schools, effort is meaningless: Grade inflation is prevalent, students are receiving numerous opportunities to take the same exam until they pass, and pupils with double-digit absences or multiple disciplinary suspensions are consistently promoted to the next grade level.

For students to flourish academically, three pillars must exist in a school setting. First, a structured environment must exist in a classroom and with the expectation students must put forth effort to fulfill minimum requirements of curriculum in order to benefit from the growth a classroom offers and advance to the next grade.

Second, educators have a responsibility to set, impart, and uphold reasonable standards in the classroom. Competent educators have the ability to distinguish between gifted and mediocre students. Strong, seasoned educators should also have the ability to identify struggling students and should possess the skills to communicate to a pupil the areas in which a student needs to improve.

One effective way to deliver such a message is assigning a zero for poor effort. Low grades signal to a student effort is necessary to advance and achieve. It should not be policy to either pass failing students or promote students to the next grade level if the most basic academic conditions go unmet.

Last, school administrators are expected to be executives, decision makers, and problem solvers. Administrators are also assumed to be innovative, yet the introduction of ''equity grading'' is hardly that. Mr. Jaramillo is failing terribly to maintain even a minimum standard for students enrolled at Steinmetz.

Equity grading is not a relaxation of standards, but the elimination of them. What Chicago public school students need is classrooms with structure and firm standards. Though this was a norm in CPS for decades, it has been replaced with educators and administrators expressing more concern over whether homework is causing stress among students than student progress and resorting to pathetic excuses student achievement is hampered by poor funding or the need for smaller class size.

As long as CPS administrators like Mr. Jaramillo are more motivated by a desire to throw a veil over poor student performance than setting policies which inculcate good discipline habits among pupils in the classroom, CPS will continue to churn out functionally illiterate students with some pretty grim future prospects.

Young Adults Hit with Sudden Heart Conditions Due to 'Post-Pandemic Stress Disorder,' Experts Warn - Slay News

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:25

Hundreds of thousands of younger adults are facing sudden heart-related illnesses due to a new condition called ''post-pandemic stress disorder'' or ''PPSD,'' experts are now warning.

In the UK alone, as many as three million people across the country have already been impacted by PPSD, Mark Rayner, a former senior NHS official and founder of EASE Wellbeing CIC, warns.

Accoridng to Rayner, those aged between 30 to 45 are most at-risk.

Due to PPSD, experts believe Britain will suffer a 5 percent rise in cardiovascular diseases nationally.

Rayner said he fears this could result in a dramatic rise in physical health issues, such as coronary heart failure, if cases are not urgently treated.

''PPSD is a very real problem on a massive scale. As well as the condition itself with all its immediate problems, one of the biggest collateral issues is the effect it can have on heart health,'' Mr. Rayner said.

''It is widely recognized that reducing stress and mental health problems is crucial to the prevention and recovery of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.''

''We are talking about as many as 300,000 new patients with heart issues.''

Mr. Rayner warned that without at least doubling the current funding, the NHS will not be able to tackle the ''trauma timebomb'', which could have potentially fatal consequences for those suffering from long-term PPSD, according to The London Standard.

Meanwhile, Tahir Hussain, a senior vascular surgeon at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, said he has seen a significant rise in cases where he works.

''I've seen a big increase in thrombotic-related vascular conditions in my practice,'' he said.

''Far younger patients are being admitted and requiring surgical and medical intervention than prior to the pandemic.

''I believe many of these cases are a direct result of the increased stress and anxiety levels caused from the effects of PPSD.

''We also have evidence that some patients have died at home from conditions such as pulmonary embolism and myocardial infarction.

''I believe this is related to many people self-isolating at home with no contact with the outside world and dying without getting the help they needed.''

PPSD is a mental health condition induced by the pandemic.

While it is not yet officially recognized, many experts believe it should be.

Mr. Rayner added: ''Everyone has heard of PTSD but we really urgently need to get our heads around PPSD.

''The pandemic and the resulting lockdowns it's brought have had a massive effect on the mental health of the whole nation.''

Research suggests that patients with symptoms of depression are at 64 percent greater risk of developing coronary artery disease and 59 percent more likely to have a future adverse cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or cardiac death.

Heart and circulatory diseases account for a quarter of all deaths in the UK '' equating to more than 160,000 deaths each year.

Figures show there are around 7.6 million people living with a heart or circulatory disease in the UK.

As Slay News previously reported, researchers are also blaming the ''cold weather'' on the recent spike in heart attacks.

Fred Hiatt, Washington Post Editorial Page Editor, Dies at 66 - The New York Times

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:46

He used his powerful platform to champion human rights, caution against a Trump presidency and condemn the killing of a Saudi columnist for the paper.

Fred Hiatt in 2019. In more than two decades as editorial page editor for The Washington Post, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize three times. Credit... Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post Dec. 6, 2021

Fred Hiatt, the longtime editorial page editor of The Washington Post, who used his position atop one of the nation's most visible and influential opinion platforms to support justice and human rights, died on Monday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 66.

He had been visiting his daughter in Brooklyn on Nov. 24 and was out shopping for the family's Thanksgiving dinner when he went into sudden cardiac arrest, said his wife, Margaret Shapiro, who is known as Pooh. A bystander immediately called 911, she said, but Mr. Hiatt never regained consciousness. She said he had a history of heart ailments. He lived in Chevy Chase, Md.

Mr. Hiatt, a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing, led The Post's opinion section for more than two decades. In that time, he expanded the staff from about a dozen people to more than 80, broadening its reach and its ranks to include not only seasoned journalists but also younger, up-and-coming writers, videographers, bloggers and designers. Karen Tumulty, a deputy editorial page editor, said the section is now ''the house that Fred built.''

Mr. Hiatt was perhaps best known in recent years for leading the newspaper's outraged response to the 2018 abduction and murder of one of its Saudi contributors, Jamal Khashoggi, a legal permanent resident of Virginia. On Oct. 5, 2018, when Mr. Khashoggi first disappeared, Mr. Hiatt ran an attention-grabbing empty white space on the opinion page where Mr. Khashoggi's column would have appeared.

Mr. Hiatt orchestrated numerous editorials and essays by outside contributors demanding justice on Mr. Khashoggi's behalf, established a fellowship in his name and gave a global platform to other dissident writers from the Arab world who had been banned from their domestic media.

An intelligence report released by the Biden administration in February said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had approved the Khashoggi assassination.

Donald E. Graham, the publisher of The Post who named Mr. Hiatt as editorial page editor in 1999, said in an interview that he had chosen him for his independence, ''which is a somewhat rare quality in Washington.''

As The Post's editorial board noted in a tribute published online on Monday, Mr. Hiatt had championed Aung San Suu Kyi when she was an imprisoned freedom fighter in Myanmar, and she visited The Post to thank him personally for his support. But years later, when she defended a genocidal military campaign against the country's Rohingya minority, he condemned her in an editorial.

''Few journalists have rivaled his idealism and complete dedication to the causes of democracy and human rights worldwide,'' Frederick J. Ryan Jr., The Post's current publisher and chief executive, said in a statement.

After the world had learned of Saddam Hussein's mass murders and other depravities in Iraq, Mr. Hiatt and the editorial board supported the 2003 American invasion '-- a position that drew sharp criticism from many liberals and led conservative hawks to embrace him.

Mr. Hiatt resisted the label of neoconservative, however, and defended his stance by saying that The Post had always favored a strong defense and an America ''that is prudently engaged in the world.''

Mr. Graham said he had also picked Mr. Hiatt for his ''careful and measured'' news judgment.

''He hired a wonderful staff, he was greatly admired by some pretty picky writers, and he was always willing to listen,'' Mr. Graham said. Mr. Hiatt would assess both sides, he said, but ''when he didn't think there was another side, he could be fierce.''

Image Mr. Hiatt, right foreground, leaving a meeting between the presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and The Post's editorial board in March 2016 at the newspaper's offices. Before the general election got underway, Mr. Hiatt wrote that Mr. Trump was unfit for office. Credit... Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images This included his view that Donald J. Trump was unfit to be president. In 2016, before the general election was underway and long before Mr. Trump was twice impeached, Mr. Hiatt wrote that Mr. Trump's ''contempt for constitutional norms might reveal the nation's two-century-old experiment in checks and balances to be more fragile than we knew.'' He was a Pulitzer finalist for his editorials about Mr. Trump.

But above all, in its tribute on Monday, the newspaper's editorial board recalled Mr. Hiatt as being ''gifted with seemingly effortless charm, good humor and emotional acumen that enabled him to lead a diverse and sometimes fractious staff through daunting challenges.''

When Katie Kingsbury became acting editor of The New York Times editorial page in 2020, Mr. Hiatt reached out to her.

''He was generous not only to his staff, but also to me,'' she said in an email. ''From our conversation I was expecting wise counsel and serious mentorship, which did come, but not before he spent a half-hour trying to make me laugh with tales of ornery writers.''

Frederick Samuel Hiatt was born on April 30, 1955, in Washington. At the time, his father, Howard Haym Hiatt, was a medical researcher at the National Institutes of Health. When the elder Mr. Hiatt became dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, the family moved to Brookline, Mass., where Fred grew up. His mother, Doris (Bieringer) Hiatt, went to library school and co-founded a magazine that reviewed books for school libraries.

Mr. Hiatt went to Harvard, majoring in history and working for the campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, where he met Ms. Shapiro. They graduated in 1977 and traveled around the world together for a year and a half. He started his newspaper career at The Atlanta Journal, then moved to The Washington Star.

When The Star folded in 1981, Mr. Hiatt joined The Post, where Ms. Shapiro was already working as a reporter. His first assignment was covering suburban Fairfax County, Va.; he then took on Virginia politics and the Pentagon. He and Ms. Shapiro were married in 1984.

In addition to her, he is survived by his father; his three children, Alexandra, Joseph and Nathaniel Hiatt; his brother, Jonathan; his sister, Deborah Hiatt; and a granddaughter.

Mr. Hiatt and Ms. Shapiro were both sent to Tokyo in 1987 as co-bureau chiefs; it was the first time The Post sent a couple to share a job in a foreign posting. ''We shared a desk,'' Ms. Shapiro said in an interview. ''He sat on one side, and I sat on the other. He would read my copy, and I would read his. It was seamless.''

It worked out so well that the newspaper moved them to a similar job-sharing beat in Moscow, where they covered the fall of the Soviet Union.

As much as he loved being a foreign correspondent, Ms. Shapiro said, the work that was most meaningful to him was building The Post's opinion section.

''He brought in really talented people both to explain the world and write columns from all different perspectives,'' she said. ''Having been given the opportunity to do that and to continue to do it was hugely important to him. The people he worked with were family.''

Hillary Was Right All Along

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Source: Veterans Today | Military Foreign Affairs Policy Journal for Clandestine Services

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:31

Salon: During her 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton warned us that Donald Trump and his ''basket of deplorables'' were a threat to American democracy. She wasn't a prophet. She was simply offering a reasonable analysis based on the available evidence '-- and she paid an enormous political price for daring to tell that truth in public.

Two things can be true at the same time. Russian interference may well have played a role in Donald Trump's unlikely electoral victory in 2016. But it is also true that Clinton's truthful but politically unwise comment about the ''deplorables'' helped to swing the momentum '-- with the help of an eager and compliant mainstream news media '-- in Trump's direction.

Clinton's description was in fact about much more than the disreputable people who flocked to Trump's banner. It was also a warning about the regressive politics and antisocial values that Trump's followers represented (and still do), including cruelty, racism and white supremacy, sexism and misogyny, collective narcissism, anti-intellectualism, an infatuation with violence, proud ignorance and support for fascism and authoritarianism.

Whatever you think of her as a person and a public figure, Clinton clearly perceived that Trumpism would be a disaster for American democracy and the world, pushing the United States towards the brink of full-on fascism including an attempted coup. Clinton's campaign strategy against Trump had numerous evident flaws, but her diagnosis of Trump and his movement' was overwhelmingly correct.

One thing Hillary Clinton clearly perceived, even if she didn't put it this way, was that Trump's authoritarian politics would involve a campaign to limit human freedom, in accordance with the needs and goals of the Trump movement. Specifically, limiting and controlling the bodily autonomy of those groups and individuals deemed to be Other, the enemy or otherwise subordinate to the dominant group. Read more..

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Still hate Hillary's guts? Fine. But let's admit that she saw all this coming - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:30

The parents of Anthony Huber, shot dead by Rittenhouse as Huber tried to disarm him, put out a public statement that said, in part:

Today's verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son. It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street. A right-wing militia group in New York celebrated in the streets and then put a punctuation mark on their disdain for the law and simple rules of a civil society by entering the New York subway system through emergency exits, bypassing the turnstiles. "Rules don't apply to us!" they seemed to be shouting, along with, "You can't stop us!"

RELATED: Investigative reporter David Neiwert: Rittenhouse verdict a "green light for right-wing extremists"

Trump wannabes in public office who are still trying to capture the white supremacist and white nationhood vote have doubled down on his strategy of fear, hate and vigilantism.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, recently signed legislation that gives legal protections to people who drive their cars into protesters in the street, and defines everybody in any protest as a criminal felon if anybody in that protest breaks a window or engages in other illegal activity.

With DeSantis and other Republican governors pre-exonerating people like the driver who viciously killed Heather Heyer, as well as vigilante protest shooters like Rittenhouse, many are worried that we're entering a new era where vigilante shooters and drivers-into-crowds will become normalized and accepted, just as Amy Vanderpool documents how normalized daily mass shootings have become in America.

Laws similar to Florida's have been passed or are pending in numerous Republican-controlled states, presumably in anticipation of citizen protests when those states use their newly passed laws to overturn the will of voters in the 2022 and 2024 elections. Object to your politicians handing an election they lost to themselves? You go straight from the streets to the jail, just like in tinhorn dictatorships.

There's always been a fringe movement of violent white supremacist vigilantes in America, particularly since the end of the Civil War, but they've never before been embraced by or succeeded in capturing a political party. Today, astonishingly, that's the case in our country.

So, what's motivating today's vigilantes and the police who often aid and support them, as in the Rittenhouse case?

Centuries ago, as white people fanned out across this continent to occupy land stolen from Native Americans, it usually took years or decades for stable government institutions to be created, including local police forces. Therefore, communities would organize their own forces, called "vigilance committees" whose job was to be "vigilant" to protect their own homes and communities.

That sort of "classic vigilantism" pretty much completely disappeared in the U.S. after the Civil War, however, when the Southern states' slave patrols were merged into those states' militias (what we call the National Guard) and professional police forces, state and local, took over.

Modern post-Civil War violent vigilantism, therefore, doesn't usually emerge because the government is failing to protect citizens and therefore communities field their own equivalent of police forces.

Instead, these days it's almost always a conservative response to cultural change that creates a vigilante backlash.

Virtually the dictionary definition of "conservative" is "opposed to rapid change in society." That's why, as America becomes more diverse and states like Texas have become less than 50% white, racist "conservative" factions that have had a home in the GOP since 1968 are turning to violence to try to maintain the absolute dominance of straight white men in American society.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

When the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, for example, those who were opposed to that change in our society, symbolized by the Roe v. Wade decision, organized vigilante groups that threatened women outside abortion clinics, followed and harassed women seeking health care and people who worked in the clinics, and murdered multiple doctors and bombed multiple clinics across the nation.

In the 1980s, conservative billionaires who supported Reagan helped impose neoliberal austerity on America, so for 40 years the country has been in steady decline as jobs went overseas, wages fell so badly the middle class sagged below 50% of Americans by 2015, and a general rage began to build across the country.

Much of that rage was channeled into "anti-government" movements that were encouraged by Reagan, who told us that government was the problem and not the solution. Neoliberal billionaires backed Republican politicians who kept their taxes low while openly and proudly obstructing any government efforts to help working class people.

The GOP also revived Nixon's "Southern strategy" in 1980, using open appeals to racism with Reagan warning about "strapping young bucks" and Black "welfare queens" taking white people's tax dollars. George H.W. Bush put it on steroids in 1992 with his "Willie Horton" television advertisements against Michael Dukakis, charging the Democrat wasn't doing enough to protect Massachusetts from violent Black criminals.

By this time the GOP had totally embraced neoliberalism and stopped proposing any sort of policies that would lift up America. Instead, their efforts went to subsidizing billionaires with tax cuts and increasing profits for polluting industries via deregulation.

Working-class white people continued to fall behind, particularly in rural areas, as wealthy CEOs and trust-fund billionaires made out like bandits, pouring their surplus cash into the campaigns of politicians because five right-wingers on the Supreme Court legalized political bribery with Citizens United in 2010.

The Republican answer to the growing white angst in the country was to start a movement against affirmative action in the 1980s and 1990s, calling it "reverse racism," reviving the old saw from the 1950s that "Black people want to take your job!"

Women, since the 1970s, have also been successfully competing for jobs formerly held by white men, building misogynist frustration and rage among lower-income and lower-education white men, and turning "incels" murderous.

Much of this white male rage was channeled in the 1990s into the fringe "white nationalist" movement, which got their martyrs with Ruby Ridge in 1992 and Waco in 1993, where heavily armed white supremacists shot it out with the feds and lost terribly.

That provoked Tim McVeigh to follow the "Turner Diaries" script for creating "a race-based civil war by provoking the government to seize guns so we can fight back," blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City on the anniversary of Waco in 1995, killing 168 and injuring 860.

He, however, was condemned by both political parties and ultimately put to death by a Republican president. The GOP had not yet fully turned toward embracing fascists, vigilantes and terrorists in the 1990s.

Modern race-based vigilantism with the support of the GOP took a big step forward after 9/11, when multiple Republican leaders used that crime as an excuse to vilify Muslims specifically and brown-skinned Arabs more generally. Most famously, Donald Trump perpetrated the lie that Muslims in New Jersey were celebrating in the streets the afternoon of 9/11.

George W. Bush took that anti-Muslim energy and amplified it as he pushed a revenge-based war against Afghanistan and Iraq, another Muslim country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.

Following Bush's presidency, a Black man whose middle name was Hussein became our president, creating a frenzy of bizarre conspiracy theories on the Fox Propaganda Channel and across right-wing internet and social media outlets.

Was Obama a "real" American? Was he really a secret Kenyan Muslim sleeper agent? Was he trying to flip America communist with his radical Obamacare program? Trump and Republicans asserted that those were all true claims.

With the hard right now empowered by these conspiracy theories on Fox and talk radio, in 2014 Cliven Bundy challenged the authority of the Obama administration to restrict him from grazing his cows on public federal land without paying a fee. Obama flinched and backed down, giving Bundy and armed, anti-government white men a huge national PR victory (as well as getting his cows back).

Two years later Cliven's son, Ammon Bundy, occupied another federal facility, this time the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon near the Idaho border. His armed vigilantes pointed their weapons at federal officers on live television, and again the Obama administration backed down.

Bundy's 2016 "victory" animated white supremacist vigilantes across the nation and made him enough of a media figure that he's now running in the Republican primary for governor of Idaho.

Things really stepped up throughout the Trump administration when the new president openly welcomed white nationhood militias and neo-Nazis into the GOP and praised them from the presidential pulpit, something no president had done since Woodrow Wilson hosted the debut of the Klan recruiting film "Birth of a Nation" at the White House in 1915.

Trump invited vigilantes to the southern border to "help" with the problem of brown-skinned refugees trying to enter the country, and sucked up to police, encouraging them to be even more brutal with (presumably minority) criminal suspects.

His presidency marked a turning point for American politics, with the GOP abandoning any pretense of caring about policy debates to full-on embrace fear and hate of racial, religious and gender minorities as their core political position and strategy going forward.

As a result, NBC News chronicles, threats against federal officials reported to Capitol Police have about tripled since Trump's first year in office, reaching more than 9,000 incidents so far this year.

When we've seen these kinds of things happen in other countries, we've historically called them out as naked assaults on democracy; now Trump and his armed Republican faction have turned America's moral and political standing in the world on its head.

International observers have issued repeated alarms about the state of democracy in America since Trump's 2016 election. In 2017, the U.S. was downgraded by The Economist magazine's Intelligence Unit: instead of being a "full democracy," we are now a "flawed democracy." The international think tank IDEA just reported that we're now a "backsliding democracy."

Today, while the Democratic Party is working hard to secure benefits to all Americans, the Republicans have only two responses: Block legislation and support armed white nationhood vigilantes.

All the Republican Party has left, now that they've abandoned any pretense over the past 40 years of supporting working people or even rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, is hate, fear and death.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his 1933 inaugural address about an earlier generation of Republican obstructionists: "They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish."

And if we don't return to sanity, our democracy could perish as well.

Qualcomm's new always-on smartphone camera is a potential privacy nightmare - The Verge

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:22

''Your phone's front camera is always securely looking for your face, even if you don't touch it or raise to wake it.'' That's how Qualcomm Technologies vice president of product management Judd Heape introduced the company's new always-on camera capabilities in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor set to arrive in top-shelf Android phones early next year.

Depending on who you are, that statement can either be exciting or terrifying. For Qualcomm, it thinks this new feature will enable new use cases, like being able to wake and unlock your phone without having to pick it up or have it instantly lock when it no longer sees your face.

But for those of us with any sense of how modern technology is used to violate our privacy, a camera on our phone that's always capturing images even when we're not using it sounds like the stuff of nightmares and has a cost to our privacy that far outweighs any potential convenience benefits.

A camera that looks for your image even when you're not using it

Qualcomm's main pitch for this feature is for unlocking your phone any time you glance at it, even if it's just sitting on a table or propped up on a stand. You don't need to pick it up or tap the screen or say a voice command '-- it just unlocks when it sees your face. I can see this being useful if your hands are messy or otherwise occupied (in its presentation, Qualcomm used the example of using it while cooking a recipe to check the next steps). Maybe you've got your phone mounted in your car, and you can just glance over at it to see driving directions without having to take your hands off the steering wheel or leave the screen on the entire time.

The company is also spinning it as making your phone more secure by automatically locking the phone when it no longer sees your face or detects someone looking over your shoulder and snooping on your group chat. It can also suppress private information or notifications from popping up if you're looking at the phone with someone else. Basically, if you're not looking at it, your phone is locked; if it can see you, it will be unlocked. If it can see you and someone else, it can automatically lock the phone or hide private information or notifications from displaying on the screen.

But while those features may sound neat and perhaps even convenient, I'm not convinced that having an always-on camera is worth the tradeoff in privacy concerns.

The always-on camera features are discussed at hour three of Qualcomm's four-hour presentation introducing the Snapdragon Gen 1 system-on-chip.

Qualcomm is framing the always-on camera as similar to the always-on microphones that have been in our phones for years. Those are used to listen for voice commands like ''Hey Siri'' or ''Hey Google'' (or lol, ''Hi Bixby'') and then wake up the phone and provide a response, all without you having to touch or pick up the phone. But the difference is that they are listening for specific wake words and are often limited with what they can do until you do actually pick up your phone and unlock it.

It feels a bit different when it's a camera that's always scanning for a likeness.

An always-on camera is a step beyond the always-on microphones already in our phones

It's true that smart home products already have features like this. Google's Nest Hub Max uses its camera to recognize your face when you walk up to it and greet you with personal information like your calendar. Home security cameras and video doorbells are constantly on, looking for activity or even specific faces. But those devices are in your home, not always carried with you everywhere you go, and generally don't have your most private information stored on them, like your phone does. They also frequently have features like physical shutters to block the camera or intelligent modes to disable recording when you're home and only resume it when you aren't. It's hard to imagine any phone manufacturer putting a physical shutter on the front of their slim and sleek flagship smartphone.

Lastly, there have been many reports of security breaches and social engineering hacks to enable smart home cameras when they aren't supposed to be on and then send that feed to remote servers, all without the knowledge of the homeowner. Modern smartphone operating systems now do a good job of telling you when an app is accessing your camera or microphone while you're using the device, but it's not clear how they'd be able to inform you of a rogue app tapping into the always-on camera.

In his presentation, Heape said that ''always-on camera data never leaves the secure sensing hub while it's looking for faces,'' implying that the data isn't sent to the cloud and that apps on the phone won't be able to access it.

In a follow up conversation after this article was originally published, Heape further clarified how the system works on a technical level. The always-on camera is part of a chain that includes a new low-power image signal processor (ISP) and a machine learning step. All three stages '-- the camera, the ISP, and the machine learning '-- are ''hardened'', according to Heape, he says that it isn't possible to inject code into the chain.

The always-on camera is limited to a VGA (640 x 480 pixel) resolution, even though it uses the phone's existing front-facing camera, and the rest of the phone's systems '-- the main processor, cellular radios, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc '-- are turned off. Heape said this low-power ISP ''cannot capture photos or video'' and ''no image or video is stored'' in this process, it only scans to detect if there is a face or not. If the machine learning algorithm determines a face is detected, the rest of the phone's systems are awakened to authenticate the user and unlock the phone or deny access to it. ''It is impossible in the low power state to get an image out of it,'' says Heape.

The system does not have a way to inform you that its always-on camera is running, like other facial recognition systems use. Heape said that an OEM could choose to add an indicator such as an LED light if they wanted.

Another Qualcomm Technologies vice president of product management Ziad Asghar told my colleague Chaim Gartenberg that users will also be able to disable the always-on camera feature or possibly even select which features they want to use and which they don't. ''The consumer has the choice to be able to pick and choose as to what is enabled and what's not enabled,'' he said.

The OnePlus 7 Pro hid its entire camera system in a motorized pop-up module. Perhaps it's time to bring this idea back. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It's also possible that the smartphone manufacturers using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 won't even enable this feature at a hardware level. Since Qualcomm doesn't actually make the smartphones its chips go in (outside of one-off novelties that aren't widely purchased), companies like Samsung, OnePlus, and Xiaomi can customize which features are enabled on their phones and which aren't. Heape said that an OEM can request a Snapdragon chip with the feature disabled at the hardware level. Some of those companies already bypass Qualcomm's image processing components in favor of their own solutions '-- it's not hard to see them just skipping the criticisms of privacy concerns and forgoing this feature as well.

An unsettling and uncomfortable precedent

But even if it's not found in every phone next year, the mere presence of the feature means that it will be used by someone at some point. It sets a precedent that is unsettling and uncomfortable; Qualcomm may be the first with this capability, but it won't be long before other companies add it in the race to keep up.

Ultimately, it comes down to a level of trust '-- do you trust that Qualcomm has set up the system in a way that prevents the always-on camera from being used for other purposes than intended? Do you trust that the OEM using Qualcomm's chips won't do things to interfere with the system, either for their own profit or to satisfy the demands of a government entity?

Even if you do have that trust, there's a certain level of comfort with an always-on camera on your most personal device that goes beyond where we are currently.

Maybe we'll just start having to put tape on our smartphone cameras like we already do with laptop webcams.

Update, 5:15PM ET, December 2nd, 2021: After this article was published, Qualcomm vice president of product management Judd Heape gave further information about how the always-on camera system works on a technical level. The company also clarified that the system does not identify the faces it detects; that is handled by the phone's existing facial identification authentication systems. The article has been updated with this new information and the headline has been changed.

Biden's Build Back Better bill may provide up to a $900 e-bike tax credit

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 14:37

A man rides an electric bicycle near the pier in Huntington Beach, CA on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.

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Electric bicycles have soared in popularity in recent years, and a tax credit in Democrats' $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill may fuel their rise even further.

The version of the social safety net and climate bill that was passed by the House of Representatives offers some Americans a fully refundable, 30% tax credit on purchases of certain e-bikes.

Individuals who make $75,000 or less qualify for the maximum credit of up to $900. Joint filers who make up to $150,000 can qualify for two bikes and up to a $900 tax credit on each. It phases out for taxpayers above those income levels. E-bikes with a sticker price of more than $4,000 don't qualify for the credit.

The e-bike credit has multiple champions in Congress, including Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., who earlier in the year introduced similar, standalone legislation to incentivize e-bike purchases. Because e-bikes are a low-carbon transportation option that can replace some car trips, particularly short-mileage ones, Panetta and other advocates say they are crucial to U.S. efforts to fight climate change.

"We wanted to put [e-bikes] right there with electric vehicles or e-buses, and basically show that this is a way that we can reduce our carbon output in the transportation sector," Panetta told CNBC in an interview.

Transportation accounted for 29% of U.S. greenhouse emissions in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That's the largest of any sector, with electricity production and industrial activity checking in second and third at 25% and 23%, respectively.

Panetta said Democrats want the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is already law, and the Build Back Better Act, which would fund Democrats' social and spending priorities, to help accelerate a transition to more sustainable transportation modes. He said the e-bike tax credit "is an important link in that chain of those efforts to do that."

What's an e-bike?Electric bicycles often look similar to traditional bikes. The key difference '-- as their name suggests '-- is they have a battery-powered electric motor to propel the bike forward, sometimes in addition to users' own pedaling.

In the 12 months between July 2020 and July 2021, e-bike sales jumped 240% compared to the same period two years ago, according to market research firm NPD Group.

Some e-bikes, known as Class 1, have motors that only kick in when the rider is pedaling; the motor stops providing a boost when the bike reaches 20 miles per hour.The motors on Class 2 e-bikes can be used when the rider isn't pedaling. But like Class 1 e-bikes, the motor doesn't work above 20 mph.A third variety called Class 3 also requires the user to pedal, but its motor can assist up to 28 mph before it stops providing assistance.All three classes of e-bikes qualify for the tax credit provided they meet the criteria previously mentioned."The magic of the e-bike is it really takes the more painful edges of bicycling away," said Chris Cherry, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Tennessee, who researches sustainable transportation. He's currently working on a study that examines the impact of e-bike incentives at the municipal level.

"You can keep up with traffic easier. You can fulfill all of your travel needs without spiking into a vigorous physical activity environment," Cherry told CNBC in an interview. The result, he said, is that e-bikes are attractive to a wider group of people, such as those who cannot afford to sweat while riding a traditional bike to work. They also make tasks like going to the grocery store or picking up children from daycare easier to complete by bike, he said.

Incentivizing adoptionE-bikes do not remove all of the barriers to cycling, including safety risks associated with riding on roads with poor bike infrastructure, Cherry said. But e-bikes "overcome some of them," he said. "When those barriers are overcome, people start to think about fulfilling more of their travel demands" on e-bikes instead of more carbon-intensive options like a gas-powered car.

That shift is key to maximizing the possible climate benefits of e-bike adoption, Cherry said, while acknowledging there are additional benefits to riding electric bicycles, including personal health.

"If you really care about emissions and that's why you're buying a bicycle '-- and I think that's the main gist of the e-bike [tax credit] in the Build Back Better bill '-- you have to do it in a way that substitutes car trips," the professor said.

E-bikes tend to be more expensive than comparable-style conventional bikes, but that's where proponents hope incentives can make a difference. Panetta and other advocates, such as Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., hope having an income-capped federal tax credit eases that potential barrier to adoption.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., speaks during a news conference with ranchers supporting the Green New Deal and farm policy reform in Washington on Wednesday September 18, 2019.

Caroline Brehman | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

"Some people need just a little incentive to make the transition to riding a bicycle, and the fact that the e-bike is so convenient and easy and fun makes it more likely that people do it," said Blumenauer, who co-chairs the Congressional Bike Caucus. "These people who make under $150,000 per household are precisely the people for whom the economic benefits are most significant."

The Build Back Better Act, after passing the House, is now being considered by the Senate, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority. It's not clear if the e-bike tax credit will make it in a potential final version. Republican opponents of the broader legislation have criticized its price tag and many of its various spending initiatives, including the e-bike tax credit.

"The government should not be using taxpayer funds to subsidize the electric vehicle industry, whether that is for cars or bikes," Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said in statement emailed to CNBC. Kelly, a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, is co-chairman of the House Automotive Caucus. He's long opposed EV tax credits.

"Right now, this would benefit only the wealthy. This provision comes when E-bikes, specifically, are struggling to gain popularity among the majority of Americans," Kelly continued. "E-bikes are also significantly more expensive than traditional bikes, and I cannot ask the hardworking taxpayers in my district to provide tax credits for these products at a time when inflation and everyday costs are rising."

Industry impactMike Radenbaugh, founder and CEO of Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes, told CNBC he believes a federal tax credit could have a "big impact on our business," which, he said, is already experiencing significant growth. He said Rad has had more than 350,000 customers since launching as a direct-to-consumer business in 2015 and expects to add over 100,000 more riders over the second half of 2021 alone.

Even if the e-bike tax credit doesn't become law, Radenbaugh said the mere fact it was included in the House bill validates e-bikes as "a true form of transportation."

"Two-thirds of our customers use their e-bikes to replace miles that they otherwise would be doing in their cars," Radenbaugh said.

"Our customers are using their bikes primarily for mobility, utility, taking their families to schools and dropping them off at daycare, carrying cargo and doing food delivery and other commercial applications," Radenbaugh said. "This tax credit is one of the first times at the federal level where that is being recognized, that e-bikes are not purely recreation. They are primarily transportation."

3D-printed suicide pods are now legal in Switzerland - Disclose.tv

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 14:03

A 3D-printed capsule is set to ''revolutionize'' assisted suicide. It may be legally operated in Switzerland. This is according to an expert opinion obtained by Exit International '' the organization that developed the ''Sarco'' machine '' and was first reported by Swiss Info.

In 2020, around 1300 people died in Switzerland through euthanasia. They were cared for by the two largest euthanasia organizations in the country: Exit (no connection to Exit International) and Dignitas. The current common method is the ingestion of liquid sodium pentobarbital. After taking the drug, the person falls asleep within two to five minutes before slipping into a deep coma and dying soon after.

The ''Sarco'' capsuleThe capsule called ''Sarco'' offers a different approach to a peaceful death, without the need for prescription substances.

It is a 3D printed capsule that can be activated from inside by the person who wants to die. The machine can be taken to any place to die. This can be in an idyllic outdoor setting or, for example, in the rooms of an euthanasia organization.

Philip Nitschke, Founder of the Australian registered company Exit InternationalThe capsule is mounted on a device that floods the interior with nitrogen and very quickly reduces the oxygen content from 21 to one percent.

The person feels a little disoriented and may also feel slightly euphoric before losing consciousness. The whole process takes about 30 seconds. Death occurs from hypoxia and hypocapnia, a lack of oxygen and carbon dioxide, respectively. ''There is no panic, no feeling of suffocation,'' Nitschke added.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or has had thoughts of harming themselves or taking their own life, get help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations.

A Disastrous Collision Between COVID and HIV May Have Caused the Omicron Variant

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 13:51

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The South African scientist who was first to alert the world to the existence of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant believes that it likely emerged after running rampant through the body of an unvaccinated HIV-positive person.

As The Los Angeles Times reports, bioinformatician Tulio De Oliveira has long been on alert for new strains of COVID to begin spreading in South Africa, where a large percentage of the youth population has uncontrolled HIV and many are unvaccinated.

In June, a study conducted by De Oliveira and colleagues focused on a single South African HIV patient who kept testing positive for COVID for 216 days '-- and in that amount of time, scientists detected a total of 13 unique mutations to the virus from her samples. Although the patient was hospitalized early after her initial positive test, she never became critically ill from the coronavirus, and when her antiretroviral medications were replaced about six months into the study, she both cleared her coronavirus infection and got her HIV under control within a few weeks.

Nevertheless, continued study of the patient's biosamples revealed a total of 30 genetic changes, including some that could affect how well the virus responds to vaccines or treatments.

And now De Oliveira, who alerted the World Health Organization to the existence of the Omicron variant circulating in South Africa that has since been revealed to be in Europe and the United States, is seeing a similar pattern emerge with this variant.

Prior to the June study, virologists did not believe that people with HIV or AIDS would suffer outcomes any worse than other immunosuppressed people. Since De Oliveira's study, which was mostly overlooked in the West, research suggests that while people with HIV or AIDS are not at that much greater a risk for severe illness than other immunocompromised people, they may, in situations such as South Africa's where many people have either undetected or uncontrolled HIV, be host to mutations and variants because the virus can survive longer in their bodies due to their suppressed immune systems.

When the initial research was released over the summer, De Oliveira expressed cautious optimism that these findings could ''be a golden opportunity to control the HIV epidemic and protect the world from variants.''

Now it seems like that outlook was overly sunny, as the US and Europe respond to the rise of the Omicron variant by restricting travel from southern African nations in spite of it having circulated in Europe for weeks prior to De Oliveira raising the alarms to the WHO.

Many questions remain about the Omicron variant itself, much less its relationship to HIV. Though our track record thus far hasn't been great, hopefully De Oliveira's desire for further study on these dueling pandemics will result in advances for both.

READ MORE: Did a collision of COVID-19 and HIV forge the Omicron variant? [The Los Angeles Times]

More on the uselessness of flight bans: Flight bans won't stop Omicron [Popular Science]

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Pfizer accused of funding anti-AstraZeneca information

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 06:05

Sunday 05 December 2021 1:42 pm

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla talks during a press conference after a visit at Pfizer vaccine plant in PuursUS drugmaker Pfizer, the world's dominant Covid vaccine maker, has been accused of funding educational presentations that said its UK rival AstraZeneca was ineffective and even dangerous for some members of the population.

A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation due to be broadcast this week says it has ''uncovered evidence'' that Pfizer funded a number of educational presentations that were delivered to health professionals across Canada about its mRNA vaccine.

Included in these presentations were slides that listed several disadvantages of the ''viral vector'' technology that is the basis for the AstraZeneca vaccine, the broadcaster said.

Delivered by speakers who had received funds from Pfizer, the slides said there is a risk of ''chromosomal integration and oncogenesis'' with such vaccines, which suggests they might turn a healthy cell into a cancerous cell. They also claimed that the AstraZeneca vaccine cannot be used in immunocompromised people.

The claims made about the viral vector vaccine's disadvatanges originated from a scientific paper written by a group of authors, one of whom had worked for several years in Pfizer's vaccine division.

Channel 4 Dispatches did not say where it had found the evidence for these claims, and Pfizer denied it ''sought to undermine others' scientific endeavours'' .

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford vaccine group that developed the Astra Zeneca vaccine, dismissed the contents of the slides and warned of the dangers of spreading misinformation.

''That would that the vaccine could somehow integrate itself into the genetic material in people, which is not true,'' Pollard said.

He said there was ''absolutely zero evidence'' that the vaccine ''would or could'' cause cancer, and that it had been given to millions of immunocompromised people and caused on harm.

''There is huge risks of misinformation, because anything that makes people hesitate about being vaccinated can risk their lives,'' Pollard warned.

''It can undermine and impact on decisions that people make about their own health, but also create uncertainty for policymakers.''

Pfizer said it ''provided funds to a third party agency'' for an ''education programme'' but did ''not provide presentation materials '... and did not edit or influence the presentations''.

In the same investigation, Channel 4 also reveals an analysis by one biological engineering expert that claims the manufacturing costs of Pfizer's vaccine stands at just 76p per shot, but it is reportedly being sold for £22 a dose to the UK government.

It's been an extremely lucrative year for the drugmaker, which now wields considerable political influence due to its hefty contracts with governments around the world.

Pfizer forecast sales of its vaccine will hit $36bn in 2021 '' double that of its closest rival Moderna. As of October, the pharma group provided 80 per cent of Covid Vaccines in the EU, and 74 per cent in the US.

High-Income Business Owners Escape $10,000 Tax Deduction Cap Using Path Built by States, Trump Administration - WSJ

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 21:05

More than 20 states created workarounds to the limit, and New York's law firms and private-equity firms are signing up

Congressional Democrats are debating whether increasing the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction would benefit the rich too much, but some of America's top earners'--including private-equity managers and law firm partners'--are already legally circumventing the cap on much of their income.

That is because state governments and the Trump administration blessed a cap workaround for owners of closely held businesses that is proliferating around the country. So far, about 20 states have enacted versions of it, including...

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This movement is eroding the bite of the $10,000 cap, and the popularity of workarounds changes the nature of the federal debate about what to do with it. The more that business owners can escape the cap for their state income taxes, the more it falls on high-income wage earners and residents of states that have income taxes but lack workarounds.

''If you're willing to take the trouble of going into the [workaround], which shouldn't be terribly burdensome, then I think effectively, the cap doesn't exist for you,'' said Peter Faber, a retired lawyer who specialized in New York state taxes.

Among those that signed up are New York-based law firms including Wall Street powerhouses Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and private-equity firms such as Cerberus Capital Management LP, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mark Klein, chairman of Hodgson Russ LLP, said his law firm is using New York's workaround and that he has worked with dozens of other law and accounting firms that are doing the same. He said the workaround ''helps us return to the status quo'' despite the $10,000 cap.

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Here's how it works. Normally, so-called pass-through businesses such as partnerships and S corporations don't pay taxes themselves. Instead, they pass earnings through to their owners, who report income on individual tax returns. That subjects them to state individual income taxes'--and the federal limit on deducting more than $10,000, created in the 2017 tax law.

Details vary by state, but the workaround flips that concept. The states impose taxes'--often optional'--on pass-through entities that are roughly equal to their owners' state income taxes. Those taxes then get deducted before income flows to the business owners.

The laws then use tax credits or other mechanisms to absolve owners of their individual income-tax liabilities from business income. Thus, they satisfy state income-tax obligations without generating individual state income-tax deductions subject to the federal cap.

In these systems, state revenue is virtually unchanged, because the entity-level tax replaces personal income taxes. Business owners win, because every $100,000 of state taxes that go from nondeductible to deductible yields up to $37,000 in net gain on federal income-tax returns. The federal government loses money.

''This is becoming the thing the cool kids are doing, if you're a state,'' said Howard Gleckman,

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senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. ''With state assistance, this is a classic case of business self-help in figuring out a way around this.''

The full federal impact isn't certain, but the momentum is toward expansion as more states and business owners sign on.

Wisconsin, one of the earliest states to implement the workaround, received $326 million from its entity-level tax in 2020, up from $308 million in 2019. In New Jersey, pass-through businesses reported $1.3 billion in entity-level liability for the tax's first year in 2020, suggesting an equivalent amount of federal deductions that might have otherwise been disallowed. In New York, more than 95,000 pass-through entities opted into the tax for 2021 before the Oct. 15 deadline.

''It's really a slam dunk,'' said Phil London, an accountant and partner emeritus at Wiss & Co. in New York, who said he has seen the owners of one business save $1.5 million and expects law and accounting firms to use the workaround. ''The larger-income entities and real-estate investors and real-estate operators, they're going to benefit from it.''

Private-equity firms have been particularly interested, said Jess Morgan, a senior manager at Ernst & Young LLP. And some businesses have restructured themselves to take maximum advantage of the benefit, she said.

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EY and the other Big Four accounting firms'--some of the largest pass-through businesses in the country'--wouldn't say whether they are using New York's cap workaround for their own partners.

The House-passed plan to change the cap to $80,000 from $10,000 may still matter to business owners. If they have real-estate taxes or state income taxes on personal investments, they can claim federal deductions for those payments up to whatever cap is in place.

Because the workarounds can lower adjusted gross income, they may also offer a way to get a deduction for state taxes against the new surtaxes being proposed for individual income above $10 million and $25 million. That may offer the highest-earning businesses a cushion against other taxes in the Democratic legislation.

After rejecting other workarounds, the Treasury Department blessed these a few days after the 2020 election, citing a footnote in a committee report from the 2017 law and a handful of entity-level taxes that predated 2017. The Trump administration, which had pressed for the $10,000 cap, offered the path out of it.

The notice said forthcoming regulations would offer details. The Biden administration hasn't issued those rules and didn't comment for this article. Mark Mazur, who was a senior Treasury official until mid-October, said the regulations were on the to-do list but delayed by other priorities. That lack of full clarity could make some businesses hesitate.

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But ''it's just hard to imagine that they reverse field on something like this,'' said David Kautter, who was the top tax-policy official at the Treasury Department in the Trump administration and is now at accounting firm RSM US LLP.

The workarounds can be tricky for businesses with owners in multiple states because not all states offer individual-level tax credits for other states' entity-level taxes. That can lead to double taxation or hurt partners based in states without entity-level taxes.

New York businesses with few out-of-state owners are most likely to sign up, said Ken Pokalsky, a vice president of the Business Council of New York State, which pushed the legislation to give pass-through businesses parity with corporations that can deduct state taxes. He expects even more businesses to opt in for future years.

''As the federal recognition becomes more reliable if you will, and as more practitioners become fully familiar with the program, I think it will pick up,'' he said.

'--Miriam Gottfried, Mark Maurer and Jimmy Vielkind contributed to this article.

Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com

The Hidden History of the Incredibly Evil Khazarian Mafia - Veterans Today | Military Foreign Affairs Policy Journal for Clandestine Services

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:25

Editor's Note: The history of the Khazarians, specifically the Khazarian Mafia (KM), the World's largest Organized Crime Syndicate that the Khazarian oligarchy morphed into by their deployment of Babylonian Money-Magick, has been nearly completely excised from the history books.

The present-day KM knows that it cannot operate or exist without abject secrecy, and therefore has spent a lot of money having its history excised from the history books in order to prevent citizens of the World from learning about its ''Evil beyond imagination'', that empowers this World's largest Organized Crime Cabal.

The authors of this article have done their best to resurrect this lost, secret history of the Khazarians and their large International Organized Crime Syndicate, best referred to as the Khazarian Mafia (KM) and make this history available to the World via the Internet, which is the new Gutenberg Press.

It has been exceedingly difficult to reconstruct this hidden secret history of the KM, so please excuse any minor inaccuracies or errors which are unintentional and are due to the difficulty in digging out the true history of Khazaria and its mafia. We have done the best we can to reconstruct it.

It was Mike Harris that connected the dots and made the actual discovery of the presence of the Khazarian Mafia's secret history and blood oath to take revenge on Russia for helping Americans win the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, and their blood oath of revenge against America and Americans for winning these wars and sustaining the Union.

At the Syrian Conference on Combating Terrorism and Religious Extremism December 1, 2014 '-- in his Keynote address, Veterans Today Senior Editor and Director Gordon Duff disclosed publicly for the first time ever that World Terrorism is actually due to a large International Organized Crime Syndicate associated with Israel. This disclosure sent shock-waves at the Conference and almost instantly around the world, as almost every world leader received reports of Gordon Duff's historical disclosure that same day, some within minutes.

And the shock-waves from his historic speech in Damascus continue to reverberate around the world even to this very day. And now Gordon Duff has asked President Putin to release Russian Intel which will expose about 300 traitors in Congress for their serious serial felonies and statutory espionage on behalf of the Khazarian Mafia (KM) against America and many Middle East nations.

We now know that the Khazarian Mafia (KM) is waging a secret war against America and Americans by the use of False-flag Gladio-style terrorism, and via the illegal and Unconstitutional Federal Reserve System, the IRS, the FBI, FEMA, Homeland Security and the TSA. We know for certain that the KM was responsible for deploying an inside-job, Gladio-style False-flag attack on America on 9-11-01, as well as the Murrah Building Bombing on April 19, 1995.

The Hidden History of the Incredibly Evil Khazarian Mafiaby Preston James and Mike Harris

100-800 AD '' an incredibly Evil Society Emerges in Khazaria:

Khazarians develop into a nation ruled by an evil king, who had ancient Babylonian black arts, occult oligarchs serving as his court. During this time, Khazarians became known to surround countries as thieves, murderers, road bandits, and for assuming the identities of those travelers they murdered as a normal occupational practice and way of life.

800 AD '' The Ultimatum is delivered by Russia and other surrounding nations:

The leaders of the surrounding nations, especially Russia, have had so many years of complaints by their citizens that, as a group, they deliver an ultimatum to the Khazarian king. They send a communique to the Khazarian king that he must choose one of the three Abrahamic religions for his people, and make it his official state religion and require all Khazarian citizens to practice it, and socialize all Khazarian children to practice that faith.

The Khazarian king was given a choice between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The Khazarian king chose Judaism and promised to stay within the requirements laid out by the surrounding confederacy of nations led by the Russian czar. Despite his agreement and promise, the Khazarian king and his inner circle of oligarchs kept practicing ancient Babylonian black-magic, also known as Secret Satanism. This Secret Satanism involved occult ceremonies featuring child sacrifice, after ''bleeding them out'', drinking their blood and eating their hearts.

The deep dark secret of the occult ceremonies was that they were all based on ancient Baal Worship, also known as worship of the Owl. In order to fool the confederacy of nations led by Russia that were watching Khazaria, the Khazarian king melded these Luciferian black-magick practices with Judaism and created a secret Satanic-hybrid religion, known as Babylonian Talmudism. This was made the national religion of Khazaria and nurtured the same evil that Khazaria was known for before.

Sadly, the Khazarians continued their evil ways, robbing and murdering those from surrounding countries who traveled through Khazaria. Khazarian robbers often attempted to assume their identities after they murdered these visitors, and became masters of disguises and false identities '-- a practice they have continued even to this very day, along with their child-sacrifice occult ceremonies, which are actually ancient Baal Worship.

1,200 AD '' Russia and the surrounding nations have had enough and take action:

About 1,200 AD, the Russians led a group of nations surrounding Khazaria and invaded it, in order to stop the Khazarian crimes against their people, which included the kidnapping of their young children and infants for their blood sacrifice ceremonies to Baal. The Khazarian king and his inner court of criminals and murderers came to be known as the Khazarian Mafia (KM) by neighboring countries.

The Khazarian leaders had a well-developed spy network through which they obtained prior warning and escaped from Khazaria to European nations to the west, taking their vast fortune with them in gold and silver. They laid low and regrouped while assuming new identities. In secret, they continued their Satanic child blood and sacrifice rituals and trusted Baal to give them the whole world and all its riches, as they claimed he had promised them, as long as they kept bleeding out and sacrificing children and infants for him.

The Khazarian king and his court Mafia plotted eternal revenge against the Russians and the surrounding nations that invaded Khazaria and drove them from power.

The Khazarian Mafia invades England after being expelled for hundreds of years:

To accomplish their invasion, they hired Oliver Cromwell to murder King Charles 1, and make England safe for banking again. This began the English Civil Wars which raged for nearly a decade, resulting in regicide of the royal family and hundreds of the genuine English nobility. This is how the City of London was set up as the banking capital of Europe and launched the beginning of the British Empire.

From David Icke's website www.davidicke.com. David Icke was the first ever to courageously expose the Rothschilds publicly in front of hundreds. This, of course, makes him an international hero and we need more with his kind of courage to break open the coverup hiding the Khazarian Mafia and bring an end to their worldwide illegitimate power.[/caption]

The Khazarian Mafia (KM) decides to infiltrate and hijack all World Banking using Babylonian Black-Magick, also known as Babylonian Money-Magick or the secret art of making money from nothing also using the power of pernicious usury to accumulate interest:

The KM used their vast fortune to enter into a new system of banking, based on secret Babylonian black-magic money-magic that they claimed to have learned from the evil spirits of Baal, in return for their many child sacrifices to him.

This Babylonian money-magick involved the substitution of paper credit certificates for gold and silver deposits, which allowed travelers to travel with their money in a form that offered easy replacement should they lose the certificates or have them stolen.

Interesting how the very problem that was started by the Khazarians also had a solution provided by them. Eventually, the Khazarian king and his small surrounding court infiltrated Germany with a group that chose the name ''the Bauers'' of Germany to represent them and carry on their Baal-powered system of evil. The Bauers of the Red Shield, which represented their secret blood-based child sacrifices, changed their name to Rothschild (aka ''child of the rock, Satan'').

The Rothschilds as the front Men for the Khazarian Mafia (KM) infiltrate and Hijack British Banking and then hijack the whole nation of England:

Bauer/Rothschild had five sons who infiltrated and took over European banking and the City of London Central Banking System through various crafty covert operations, including a false report of Napoleon winning against the British, when actually he lost. This allowed the Rothschilds to use fraud and deception to steal the wealth of the English nobility and the landed gentry, who had made business investments with the City of London Banking institutions.

The Rothschilds set up a private Fiat banking system that specialized in making counterfeit money from nothing '-- charging pernicious usury for the British people, using what should have been their own money.

This was the black art of Babylonian money-magick; they claimed to insiders that such technology and secret money power was provided to them by Baal, because of their frequent child bleeding-out and sacrifices rituals to Baal.

Once they had infiltrated and hijacked the British banking system, they interbred with the British Royals and infiltrated and completely hijacked all of England and all its major institutions. Some experts believe that the Rothschilds genocided the Royal Family members by staging secretly-managed illicit and adulterous breedings with their own Khazarian men in order to replace the Royals with their own pretenders to the throne.

The Khazarian Mafia (KM) wages an international effort to eradicate Kings who rule by the Divine Right of God Almighty:

Because the KM claims to have a personal partnership with Baal (aka the Devil, Lucifer, Satan) because of their sacrifices to him. They detest any kings who rule under the authority of God Almighty because most feel a responsibility to make sure their own people are protected from infiltrators and treasonous ''Enemies within the Gates.''

In the 1600s, the KM murder the British Royals and substitute their own fakes. In the 1700s, they murder the French Royals. Right before WWI, they murder, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand to start WW1. In 1917 they assembled their KM army, the Bolsheviks, and infiltrate and hijack Russia, murder the Czar and his family in cold blood, bayonet his favorite daughter through the chest and steal all the Russian gold, silver and art treasures. Right before WW2, they murder the Austrian and German Royals. Then they get rid of the Chinese Royals and disempower the Japanese ruler.

The Khazarian Mafia's intense hatred of anyone who professed faith in any God but their god Baal has motivated them to murder kings and royalty and make sure they can never rule. They have done the same with American presidents '-- running sophisticated covert operations to disempower them.

If that doesn't work the KM assassinates them, as they did to McKinley, Lincoln, and JFK. The KM wants to eliminate any strong rulers or elected officials who dare to resist their Babylonian money-magick power or their covert power gained from the deployment of their human compromise network.

The Rothschilds create international narcotics trafficking on behalf of the KM:

The Rothschilds then covertly ran the British Empire and crafted an evil plan to recover the vast amounts of gold and silver the British had been paying to China for its high-quality silk and spices that were unavailable anywhere else.

The Rothschilds, through their international spy network, had heard of Turkish opium and its habit-forming characteristics. They deployed a covert operation to buy Turkish opium and sell it in China, infecting millions with a bad opium habit that brought back gold and silver into the Rothschild coffers, but not to the British People.

The opium addictions created by Rothschild opium sales to China harmed China so much that China went to war on two occasions to stop it. These wars were known as the Boxer Rebellions or the Opium Wars.

The money the Rothschilds gained from the sale of opium was so vast that they became even more addicted to the easy money than the opiate addicts were to the opium.

The Rothschilds were the funding source behind the establishment of the American Colonies, by incorporating the Hudson Bay Company and other trading companies to exploit the New World of the Americas. It was the Rothschild's who ordered the mass extermination and genocide of the indigenous people of North America to allow for the exploitation of the vast natural resources of the continent.

The Rothschild's also followed the same business template in the Caribbean and in the Asian sub-continent of India, resulting in the murder of millions of innocent people.

The Rothschilds start the international slave trade, an enterprise that viewed these kidnapped humans as mere animals '-- a view that the Khazarians would impose on all the people of the world who were not part of their evil circle, which some called the ''Old Black Nobility'':

The Rothschild's next big project was to start the worldwide slave trade, buying slaves from crooked tribal chiefs in Africa who worked with them to kidnap members of competing tribes for sale as slaves.

The Rothschild slave traders then took these kidnapped slaves on their ships in cramped cells to America and the Caribbean where they were sold. Many died at sea due to bad conditions.

The Rothschild bankers learned early on that war was a great way to double their money in a short time by lending money to both warring sides. But in order to be guaranteed collections, they had to get taxation laws passed, which could be used to force payment.

The KM Rothschild private Fiat Counterfeit Banksters plot eternal revenge against the American Colonists and Russia who assisted them for losing the Revolutionary War:

When the Rothschilds lost the American Revolution, they blamed the Russian czar and the Russians for assisting the colonists by blockading British Ships.

They swore eternal revenge on the American colonists, just as they had when the Russians and their allies crushed Khazaria in 1,000 AD.

The Rothschilds and the English oligarchy that surrounded them plotted ways to retake America, and this became their main obsession.

Their favored plan is to set up an American central bank, featuring Babylonian money magic and secret counterfeiting.

The Rothschild KM attempts to retake America in 1812 on behalf of the Khazarian Mafia but fails, once again because of Russian interference:

This failure enraged the Rothschild KM, and they once again plot eternal revenge against both the Russians and the American colonists and plan to infiltrate and hijack both nations and asset strip, tyrannize and then mass-murder both nations and their populace.

The KM's attempts to set up a private American central bank are blocked by President Andrew Jackson, who called them Satanic and vowed to route them out by the grace and power of Almighty God.

The Rothschild banksters regroup and continue their covert attempts to install their own Babylonian money-magick bank inside America.

Finally, in 1913, the Rothschild KM succeeds in establishing a major beachhead inside America '-- and an evil enemy of all American enter the gates of America:

In 1913, the Rothschild KM was able to establish a beachhead by bribing crooked, treasonous members of Congress to pass the illegal, Unconstitutional Federal Reserve Act on Christmas Eve without a required quorum. The Act was then signed by a crooked, bought-off President, who was a traitor to America, like the members of Congress who voted for it.

The Rothschild KM then create an illegal taxation System in America:

The KM put an illegal, Unconstitutional tax system in place, in order to make sure that Americans would have to pay for high-level USG spending, approved by a bought-off, crooked Congress and Presidential puppets, put in place by corrupt KM campaign finance.

It is easy for the KM to garner enough money to elect anyone they want because when you control a bank that is a secret major counterfeiter, you have all the money made for you that you desire. At about the same time that they created their illegal tax system in America, they also bribed members of Congress to approve the Internal Revenue Service, which is their private collection agency incorporated in Puerto Rico.

Soon afterward, they set up the Federal Bureau of Investigation to protect their banksters, to serve their cover-up needs and prevent them from ever being prosecuted for their child sacrifice rituals, pedophile networks; and to also serve as a covert Intel operation on their behalf.

Note that the FBI has no official charter, according to the Library of Congress, and has no right to exist or issue paychecks.

The Rothschild KM deployed the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia to extract incredibly savage, bloody revenge on innocent Russians, which they had plotted for many years, ever since Khazaria was destroyed:

The Rothschild KM pre-staged and engineered the Russian Revolution by using its central banks to pay for the Bolshevik infiltration of Russia and their Revolution on behalf of the Khazarian Mafia (KM).

The Bolsheviks were actually created and deployed by the Khazarian Mafia (KM) as the essential part of their long-planned revenge on the Russian Czar and the innocent Russian people for breaking up Khazaria in about 1,000 AD for its repeated robbery, murder and identity theft of travelers from countries surrounding Khazaria. This little-known fact explains the extreme violence taken out on Russia as long-standing revenge by the Rothschild-controlled Khazarian Mafia (KM).[/caption]

In a well-planned savage and inhuman bloodletting that stunned the world, the Bolsheviks were unleashed in full fury on behalf of the KM to gain revenge on the Russians. This had been planned since the destruction of Khazaria.

The Bolsheviks, at the direction of the Rothschild KM, raped, tortured and mass-murdered approximately 100 million Russians, including women, children, and infants. Some of the torture and bloodletting were so extreme, we are not going to mention it here in this article.

But readers who want to know can do some in-depth internet research on the ''Red Terror'' or the ''Bolshevik Cheka'' or watch the classic movie ''The Checkist (1992)''.

The Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (KM) once again decided to sheep-dip themselves and infiltrated and hijacked all Judaism:

The Rothschild KM created a master plan to control all of Judaism and mind-kontrol Judaics. The Rothschild KM has hijacked Judaism, patterned it off of Babylonian Talmudism (Luciferianism or Satanism), and gained control over the banking and Wall Street professions in general, Congress, the major mass media; along with most wealth and economic means of success.

Thus, the Rothschild KM could pass out wealth and success to those Judaics who drank their Kool-aide and use them as cutouts, assets, and Sayanims. In this manner, the Rothschilds hijacked Judaism.

Their financing of the Israeli Knesset and construction of it using Freemason occult architecture displayed their commitment to the occult and Babylonian Talmudism and all the evil accompanying it, including child sacrifice to their secret god Baal. They set up a NWO system called World Zionism which taught and inculcated susceptible Judaics with a paranoid group delusion of racial superiority, which assumed that all Gentiles were intent on mass-murdering all Judaics.

Freemasonry architecture was used in the building of the Knesset and the Israeli Supreme Court viewed through windows.[/caption]

They called this racially-paranoid mass Judaic delusion of world conquest, ''World Zionism'', which is really a form of covert Babylonian Talmudism or Luciferianism that had been unknown to mainstream Judaics. The system was designed to use Judaics as cover, but also to anoint them with Babylonian money-power, in order to use them as cutouts, and to later be sacrificed to Lucifer in two stages.

The first stage would be their planned WWII in Nazi work camps, cut off from supplies, resulting in the deaths of about 200,000 Judaics from starvation and disease, along with about 90,000 non-Judaic inmates from the same causes, according to respected Red Cross official figures. This number is 5% of what the Khazarian Mafia (aka the World Zionists) claim.

The second great sacrifice would be a final one, when their New World Order Luciferian King would be placed into power, and when all three Abrahamic religions would be eradicated '-- especially Judaism, which would be blamed for all the wars and destruction of the world.

By then, the Rothschilds would once again morph themselves into a complete new identity not associated with Judaism in any form, not even World Zionism.

It is important to realize that the Rothschild KM took Germany down to nothing after WWI, created a vacuum for Fascism, and then rebuilt it, creating Naziism and installing Hitler as a counter-force to their Russian Bolshevism.

Hitler became a problem for the KM when he broke free and begin acting in the interests of the German people and the free people of the world, and developed his own banking system free of the Rothschilds.

Hitler introduced a financial system that was free of usury and beneficial to the working class. This mandated the utter destruction of Germany and the German people because the Rothschilds and the Khazarians could never allow an economic system that did not depend upon usury to exist.

We see the same thing today with the Khazarian war against Islam because Islam forbids usury. That is why Israel is so vocal and aggressive about destroying the Islamic people of the world.

The KM expected this to be a large WWII and when they supported both sides, this could be used to industrialize the whole world and maximize their bankster money-power.

The Rothschild KM then bribed and induced Members of Congress to send American Soldiers to their pre-stage and engineered WWI:

As a continuance of their well-proven pattern of financing both sides in any war to maximize profits, the acquisition of more federal tax monies and increased international power, the Rothschild Khazarians once again bribed, blackmailed and induced members of Congress to declare war against Germany in 1917.

This was facilitated by a KM false-flag attack with the sinking of the Lusitania.

The Rothschild KM has since developed the usual pattern of covertly staging false-flag attacks as a standard operating procedure for inducing Americans to fight wars for the Khazarian Mafia.

After WWII was finished, the Rothschild KM deployed the Cold War and used this as an excuse to bring Nazi scientists and mind-kontrol experts to America under Operation Paperclip.

This allowed them to set up a worldwide spying and espionage system that far exceeded any of their prior efforts.

Under this new system, they continue to infiltrate and hijack all American institutions, including the various American church systems, Freemasonry (especially the Scottish Rite and York Rite), the US military, US Intel, and most private defense contractors, the Judiciary and most agencies of the USG, including most State governments, and both major political parties as well.

The Rothschild KM sets up Nazi Work Camps as a pretext to later manipulate the Allies into granting them their own private colony in Palestine, using land stolen from the Palestinians:

The Rothschild KM was able to use their self mislabeled, so-called ''holocaust'' to serve as a mind-kontrol trigger to thwart and resist any criticism of their Zionist ways.

The truth of the matter was that the Rothschild KM set up the Nazi work camps to make huge profits for their corporations that ran their work camps and supplied their Nazi war machine.

Once the Rothschild KM gained their own private homeland in Israel in 1947 through their covert political manipulations, they began to secretly view all of Palestine as their New Khazaria, and began plotting how to genocide all the Palestinians and steal all of Palestine for themselves. Their plans include their fantasy of constructing a ''greater Israel'' by taking over the whole Middle East and manipulating dumb American Goyim to fight and die on their behalf, taking all the Arab lands for Israel and the Khazarian Mafia (KM), so they can asset strip their wealth and natural resources, especially their crude oil.

Recent peer-reviewed Johns Hopkins genetic research by a respected Judaic MD shows that 97.5% of Judaics living in Israel have absolutely no ancient Hebrew DNA, are therefore not Semites and have no ancient blood ties to the land of Palestine at all. By contrast, 80% of Palestinians carry ancient Hebrew DNA and thus are real Semites, and have ancient blood ties to Palestinian Land. This means that the real anti-Semites are the Israelis who are stealing Palestinian lands in order to build Israeli settlements, and it is the Israelis who are the ones tyrannizing and mass-murdering innocent Palestinians.

The Rothschild KM decides to morph again and expand their ranks:

In the meantime, the Rothschild KM realized that they could not stay hidden much longer from the public unless they morphed again and expanded their secret leadership.

So they worked hard to further infiltrate and hijack Freemasonry and its secret offshoots and inducted top members into their pedophile network and child sacrifice rituals.

Also, key members of Congress were inducted into their secret satanic network by giving them special power, high USG, military, and Intel positions, accompanied by great monetary rewards and high status. Massive KM espionage fronts using Israeli-American ''Israeli-first'' dual citizens as cutouts were set up inside America to funnel the Khazarian banksters' counterfeit money to politicians for their election campaigns, in order to own and control them when elected.

The Rothschild KM decides to Mind-kontrol the American masses to make it much easier to manipulate them into approving their illegal, Unconstitutional unprovoked, undeclared, unwinnable, perpetual wars needed to make huge profits and gain more world power:

The Rothschild KM decided to gain complete control over all public education by setting up the Department of Education and creating globalist and socialist curriculums based on political correctness, diversity and ''perversion is normal'' teachings. Fluoride is added to the public water and toothpaste, and dentists are mind-kontrolled to believe that fluoride prevents cavities, and is not harmful to brain function or thyroid function, which it is.

The addition of fluoride to the public water supply and to toothpaste is to dumb-down Americans by on average lowering the operational IQ and making folks much more docile than they would normally be. Programs to develop and deploy vaccinations to dumb-down children and create huge numbers of future chronic health problems were initiated.

Doctors have been mind-kontrolled and misled by biased research that was cherry-picked, ignoring any studies that were negative '-- and that included most of them. All vaccine cell lines are contaminated with SV-40, a known carcinogenic slow-acting virus.

The KM used its monetary power to gain control over all of the allopathic medical schools, and set up and controlled the American Medical Association and other medical societies, in order to make sure their agenda based on lies and deceit was continued.

Part of this massive plan to dumb-down and mind-kontrol the American masses was the KM's buying up and consolidating all the American mass media into six controlled major mass media (CMMM), owned and controlled by their cutouts on their behalf. The CMMM functions as an illegal news cartel, and it should be broken up under antitrust laws and for inflicting espionage and illegal propaganda as a weapon of war against the American people.

The Rothschild KM Chieftains decide that it is time to use America to complete their final take-down and occupation of the Whole World by instituting a major False-Flag attack inside America to blame on the Islamics whom they want America to wrongly attack on their behalf:

So the KM Chieftains use their top Israeli-American ''Israeli-first'' dual citizens living in America (aka, the PNACers and top NeoCon Cutouts) to plan a major nuclear attack on America on 9-11-01.

Bibi Netanyahu, the operational head of the KM, deployed the Mossad and these Dual Citizens to set up and institute this attack on America which was to be blamed by the CMMM on Muslims.

They informed their top Rabbis and ''Friends of World Zionism'' not to fly on that day and to stay out of NYC, as did ''Larry Silverfish'', one of the primary men involved in the operation.

They used their main cutout in the DOD to lure the Able Danger investigators to the Pentagon Naval Intel meeting room, where they would be assassinated by a Tomahawk cruise missile that was fired from an Israeli Dolphin class Diesel submarine bought from Germany.

Thirty-five of the Able Danger investigators who were investigating and tracking the Israeli theft of 350 decommissioned W-54 Davy Crockett nuclear pits out of the backdoor at Pantex in Texas were murdered by this Tomahawk hit, which was timed with the detonation of bombs pre-planted in the Naval Intel wing, which was newly hardened to no avail.

The Israeli Mossad front company, Urban Moving Systems, was used to transport the mini-nukes made from the stolen W-54 nuclear pits from Pantex (and originally made at the Hanford processing plant), where they were stored in the Israeli Embassy in NYC and transported to the Twin Towers for detonation on 9-11-01.

Baal aka Moloch, Lucifer, Satan. Take your pick it's the same evil spirit that wants to mass-murder all humans. In exchange for doing his ''dirty work,'' he rewards those who allow him to snatch their souls by giving them incredible riches, fame, and power. This is the secret blood contract called ''selling one's soul.''

The incredibly Evil Secret Agenda of the Khazarian Mafia (KM) is now revealed publicly for the very first time by Veterans Today's own Gordon Duff. We now know that Bibi Netanyahu ran the nuclear attack on America on 9-11-01 and did it as an overall Khazarian Mafia (KM) Agenda.

Hold on to your chair, this is a very big secret and explains a lot of what has been going on inside America, all caused by Israel and the Khazarian Mafia (KM) which has infiltrated almost all of America's institutions of Government and society.

Now for the first time ever the very specific secret incredibly Evil Agenda of the Khazarian Mafia (KM) is going to be revealed, thanks to an interview that Mike Harris had with Veterans Today Senior Editor and Director Gordon Duff on his talk-show ''The Short End of the Stick'' on 3-10-15.

I have heard a lot of shocking insider's secrets over the years but this one really takes the cake and explains exactly what Israel and its minions in America have been to us on behalf of the Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (KM) that has screwed up almost every aspect of our lives creating a poor economy, lots of unemployment and underemployment, massive crime, alcoholism and drug, screwed up schools that dumb down the kids, various eugenics programs like fluoride in the public water and toothpaste, and mercury in vaccines which are a big fraud, and rampant political corruption.

This interview is now sending shock-waves around the world and when you consider the content that Gordon Duff disclosed for the first time anywhere publicly, you will be shocked. And you will understand that Bibi Netanyahu is the Operational Head of the Khazarian Mafia (KM) and was the one that ordered and supervised the Israeli Nuclear Attack on America on 9-11-01.

In this interview, Gordon Duff disclosed from a written transcript of what was said at a meeting between Bibi Netanyahu and American traitor and some other spies in 1990. Gordon Duff disclosed that Netanyahu was a KGB spy like Jonathan Pollard. And we know now that Israel was started as a satellite of Bolshevik Russia and was quite unhappy when the Soviet Union fell.

Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting in at Finks bar in Jerusalem, a well-known Mossad watering-hole. Here is what he said as taken directly from the transcript of the recording which was witnessed and has been 100% fully authenticated:

''If we get caught they will just replace us with persons of the same cloth. So it doesn't matter what you do, America is a Golden Calf and we will suck it dry, chop it up, and sell it off piece by piece until there is nothing left but the World's biggest welfare state that we will create and control. Why? Because it's god's will and America is big enough to take the hit so we can do it again, again and again. This is what we do to countries that we hate. We destroy them very slowly and make them suffer for refusing to be our slaves.''

This is exactly what the Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (KM) has been doing to America since it successfully infiltrated and hijacked America in 1913. Knowledge of what Bibi said on behalf of the Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (KM) should make us all furious and get motivated to drive these evil creatures out of America and take our great Republic back.

When Bibi Netanyahu mentions god's will, the god he was referring to is Baal (also known as the Great Owl or Moloch), the god these Khazarians believe requires them to worship him by constant bloodletting and painful human sacrifice and mass-murder and that if they ''sell their souls'' to Baal (aka Lucifer or Satan) do this they will be rewarded with incredible riches, fame and great power. When they ''sell their souls'' what actually happens is that their souls are snatched away and they become inhuman or soulless and take on the characteristics of Baal, that is they become increasingly psychopathic and evil.

What Bibi Netanyahu was discussing was the upcoming nuclear attack on America on 9-11-01, and when he mentioned ''they will just replace us'' he was referring to the top Circle of Twelve, the group he answers to that Veterans Today's own Columnist and talk show host Stew Webb disclosed to the World by identifying 11 of the 12 who call themselves the ''Illuminati'' or ''Disciples of Satan.'' These men do semi-annual child sacrifices in Denver and eat the hearts of children, drink their blood after they pedophile them.

Folks, we must get this information out to everyone we can, then unite and drive these soulless Baal worshiping scum out of every nook and cranny of America and bring them all to justice and final judgment for all their incredible evil.

Anyone who understands what Bibi Netanyahu thinks of Americans as a golden calf to asset strip and slaughter should be enraged and driven to community organizing, and political action against Israeli espionage inside America through the Federal Reserve System, AIPAC, JINSA, the Defense Policy Board, the CFR and the like.

The Rothschild KM planted has 25 nukes in major American cities and other major cities in Europe in order to blackmail the associated government. This is referred to as their Samson Option, and was first discovered and disclosed by Seymour Hersh:

The Rothschild KM also gained some S-19 and S-20 Warheads from a corrupt Member of Congress assigned the task to buy up Ukrainian Mirvs on behalf of the USG in order to decommission them. Instead, he sold them to the Israelis and split the money with other key Congressmen involved.

This is high treason and a capital offense punishable by execution. Right after their attack on America, the Rothschild KM told the US Administration that they would detonate city-buster sized nukes in some American cities, including DC, if the Administration refused to allow Israel to create their own large police state occupation force inside America, based on the consolidation of all American Law Enforcement and alphabets under one central Israeli control.

This new Israeli occupation force called Homeland Security (DHS) was initially run by dual citizens and perverts. Former DHS Director Janet Napolitano is being sued for sexual harassment of men working at DHS whom she ordered to move their offices into the men's lavatory.

Dual Citizen traitor Michael Chertoff, (a name translated from Russian as ''son of the devil''), was the criminal mastermind that set up DHS, along with the former head of the East German Stasi, Marcus Wolfe, who was hired as a special consultant and died mysteriously as soon as his mission was completed.

The Rothschild KM never thought they would get exposed for their nuclear attack on America on 9-11-11, but they made one of the biggest tactical mistakes in history and overplayed their hand from excess hubris, based on too much easy success due to their extreme money power in the past.

Soon mainstream America will know that Bibi Netanyahu and his Likudist Party deployed the attack on America on 9-11-01 on behalf of the Rothschild KM:

They thought that they had complete control over the CMMM and could prevent any of the secret IAEA and Sandia Labs investigation from ever being released to the American public.

This incredible tactical error by the KM is so great that it will actually doom them to the complete exposure and eventual complete destruction they deserve. Bibi Netanyahu's order to proceed and deliver the nuclear attack on America on 9-11-01 will go down in history as one of the KM's biggest mistakes, and the one that will be blamed for their exposure and destruction by the world that is now ganging up against them.

The Russians have now leaked the IAEA and Sandia Labs and Able Danger files given to them by Edward Snowden. Soon all of these files will be provided to all Americans and the world via the Internet, and this cannot be stopped.

A number of Russians in the High Military Command in Russia, and in the highest positions of leadership in the Russian government realize that it was the same Organized Crime Cabal that organized the Khazarians into Bolsheviks to mass-murder 100 million innocent Russians '-- and these men want payback.

That is why they are making sure that the Rothschild banksters will be put out of business, which will decapitate the Khazarian Mafia from its endless, elastic counterfeit money supply. This is why the BRICS Development Bank was created '-- to replace the US Petro Dollar as the world's reserve currency, but this one, unlike the US Petro Dollar is backed by gold, silver and real commodities, with NO counterfeiting allowed.

The CMMM is failing, and most Americans no longer believe any of their prime-time national stories, especially the under-thirty crowd, who cherry pick facts from the Internet and construct their own beliefs.

So many Internet users now reject the CMMM that the truth about the Israelis attacking America on 9-11-01 is becoming easier each day to believe. Soon all of mainstream America will know that Bibi Netanyahu and his Mossad and dual citizens did the 9-11-01 attack on America.

The American Military High Command knows that Bibi Netanyahu ordered his Mossad and stateside Dual Citizens to attack America using nukes on 9-11-01 on behalf of the Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (KM):

Various deep cover covert operations are now being deployed globally to expose and decapitate the Rothschild KM from their endless, elastic money supply.

Their days of anti-human power are now limited. The secret, incredibly well-trained US team called the ''Nuclear Snake-Eaters'' is now hard at work searching all incoming Israeli diplomatic pouches and shipments; driving by and flying over synagogues and Israeli embassies and Mossad safe-houses with high tech gamma-ray and helium-3 neutron detectors; and using ultra-high-tech custom-tuned and -focused satellites to search for any stored nuclear pits, as well as working hard to recover all stolen nuclear pits by the Israelis anywhere in the world outside of Israel.

This super-elite team was alerted by Michael Shrimpton's phone call to MI-6 notifying them that an Israeli ''City Buster'' was planted near the Olympic stadium. This call wrongly has landed him in jail. The City Buster was recovered by the ''Nuclear Snake-eaters'', who entered England and recovered and disarmed a large city buster. Sadly MI-6 wanted this nuke detonated in order to gain more power for the Khazarian Mafia in England '-- their home base inside the City of London Financial District '-- since it has been losing power fast.

A secret name for these KM Chieftains which run much of the world out of the City of London is Gog and Magog, despite what so many historians believe is the secret name of Russia which it is not. It is the secret name of the top KM, and apparently represents where they originally came from.

The secret team of super-elite ''Nuclear Snake-eaters'' is ready to be deployed to Israel anytime, should the nation collapse after most European corporations divest from Israel, and the US cuts off all aid, in order to comply with American law. It is illegal to give aid to a nation that has nukes, and which has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Agreement. Israel has nukes detectable from satellite-based Helium-3 sensors and has never admitted it, nor has it signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Agreement. We must all demand that our Congress and Administration obey the law and immediately cut off all aid monetary and military aid to Israel, and arrest all Israeli espionage front directors of AIPAC, JINSA, the Defense Policy Board, the ''Joint'' in NYC, and the ADL, etc.

It is unknown but suspected that a significant number of these stolen nukes have been already recovered. It has been reported by insiders that a very solemn message was communicated to Bibi Netanyahu and his Likudists, as well as all top members of Israeli espionage fronts in America, like AIPAC, JINSA, the Defense Policy Board, the ADL and the like.

What was this serious warning? If insider reports are accurate, these folks were told that if there is one more Israeli-based false-flag attack, those who ordered it or were involved will be hunted down under American National Security and eliminated, and the Israeli defense structures associated with such will be turned to dust.

The rest of Rothschild KM history will likely be determined by YOU:

The future of the Rothschild KM will likely be determined by Veterans Today readers and We The People who learn the secret, forbidden history of the Khazarian Mafia that was excised from the history books and libraries by the KM to protect their evil history that no one would accept if it was known.

So share this story with your family, friends, and associates and take it viral. Be clear about this '-- unless the KM is able to operate in abject secrecy, it will be attacked from all sides and destroyed forever. So take away their secrecy by exposing their hidden history for all Americans to know and understand.

That is why they have worked so hard to buy up and control the CMMM and public mass education including colleges and universities, to make sure the people of the world would never find out about their secret evil, which is so inhuman, so homicidal that the whole world would gang up on them and attack them from all sides at every level they exist at.

The big question remains: Was the true cause of leaders of the Khazarian Mafia's incredible evil and savagery toward the human race a byproduct of nature or nurture? Some believe that this gross parasitism and inclination to mass-murder, engagement in pedophilia and child bloodletting and child sacrifice is due to a toxic culture, best described as malignant Tribalism, characterized by a paranoid group racial superiority delusion.

Others think the leaders of the KM are the bloodline of Cain, that is, ''children of Cain'', that are the Devil's own and have absolutely no soul or human conscience but are pure predators like a wild beast '-- while at the same time being incredibly two-faced, that is able to put on a good con and a nice face on the outside. Perhaps it could be both factors. In any case, it is time to expose this evil, the greatest evil the world has ever experienced. It is time for the world to work together to eradicate this problem now and forever, by whatever means necessary.

Mike Harris is the Financial Editor of Veterans Today, a radio host, a former GOP Finance Chairman, a Gubernatorial Candidate for Arizona, and a Senior Vice President of Adamus Defense Group, Switzerland. Mike is an expert in full-contact mixed martial arts. His long-term expertise in such has gained him a lot of respect and the nickname ''Iron Mike''. Mike was a part of the Veterans Today group that attended the Damascus Conference to Combat Terrorism and Religious Extremism. Mike gave about twenty-five televised interviews that were broadcast to millions of viewers in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran. In these interviews, Mike emphasized and supported the historical declaration by Keynote Speaker, Veterans Today Senior Editor, and Chairman Gordon Duff that the real problem behind World Terrorism is a large Organized Crime Syndicate.

For those who have time and interest on the Head of the Khazarian Mafia (KM) Snake.

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Redistricting, Race, and the Voting Rights Act | National Affairs

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:03

Abigail Thernstrom A s we have at the beginning of each decade since 1790, Americans this year are participating in a national census. Next year, as has happened after each of those head counts, state legislators around the country will gather to redraw their congressional and state legislative districts. But in the years that follow this redistricting, we will surely be treated to displays of a more recent phenomenon: a slew of controversies over racially gerrymandered districts carefully drawn to ensure that minorities are elected to public office roughly in proportion to their share of the population.

Ironically, these race-conscious districts '-- and these controversies '-- are the products not of racism but of the struggle to combat it. They arise from the effort to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965: the crowning achievement of the civil-rights movement, and a watershed in the evolution of American democracy.

There can be little doubt that the cause of integrating American politics has triumphed in the years since the act was originally passed. In terms of voter participation and election to local, state, and federal offices, African Americans have made progress that the act's sponsors and champions could barely have imagined. In 2008, a black man was elected president of the United States, garnering 43% of the white vote '-- roughly the same share secured by his party's white candidates in recent elections '-- and even winning two former strongholds of southern white racism: Virginia and North Carolina. It seems fair to say that Barack Obama's race was no barrier to (and may even have been an advantage in) securing his election as president.

More broadly, black citizens have made spectacular gains as participants in our civic life, and much of that progress can be traced to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. But today that once-magnificent statute, much changed over four and a half decades, has become a barrier to the political integration that was its original aim.

THE ORIGINAL VOTING RIGHTS ACT

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, promised to secure black voting rights. It prohibited the denial or abridgement of the right of any American citizen to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," and empowered Congress to enforce that prohibition by statute. But when the last federal troops pulled out of the South in 1877, blacks were left to fend for themselves in a society dominated by white supremacists. By the 1890s, literacy and "understanding" tests, poll taxes, economic coercion, intimidation, and violence prevented most southern blacks from exercising their right to vote.

By 1965, blacks had made some progress. Whereas an appalling 3% of the 5 million southern blacks of voting age were registered in 1940, by 1964, the figure had climbed to 27% in Georgia and 37% in South Carolina. In fact, in every state except Mississippi, white supremacists were losing ground. But they were far from beaten: Florida and Tennessee were the only southern states in which as many as half of all voting-age blacks were registered.

This constitutional travesty finally became the focus of the civil-rights movement in the early 1960s. And in January 1965, safely elected and eager to pursue an ambitious agenda, President Lyndon Johnson called on Congress to restore to the descendants of slaves their most basic political rights. Both houses passed the Voting Rights Act that summer by comfortable bipartisan margins, and Johnson signed it into law in August.

A number of the act's key provisions were categorical and permanent '-- restating the basic premise of the 15th Amendment, and establishing a system of court-appointed "examiners" (federal election registrars) and observers to oversee racially charged elections around the country. Yet largely overlooked was the original law's most radical provision '-- a measure that created a temporary, and constitutionally unprecedented, process for keeping state and local authorities from using clever tactics to prevent blacks from voting.

Section 4 of the statute set out an ingenious statistical "trigger" to identify the states clearly deserving of federal intervention (without actually mentioning them). Those who wrote the act knew that literacy tests in the South were utterly fraudulent '-- illiterate whites could pass them, while black faculty from Tuskegee University often could not '-- and the act's authors took the well-established correlation between these tests and low voter turnout as evidence of intentional disfranchisement. So states and counties that had employed literacy tests for voting, and that had total (black and white) voter turnouts of less than 50% in the 1964 presidential election, were "covered" by a series of special provisions. The trigger was thus carefully designed to capture Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and some counties in North Carolina.

This "coverage" had several consequences. In the targeted states and counties, literacy tests were prohibited. At the discretion of the attorney general '-- and without any need for judicial involvement '-- federal registrars and monitors could be dispatched to these jurisdictions during elections to ensure black access to the polls. In addition, a separate provision, Section 5, forced all covered jurisdictions to submit their proposed changes in election laws and procedures to the Justice Department or the (seldom used) D.C. district court for "preclearance," or pre-approval.

Remarkably, the preclearance provision was barely discussed in the congressional hearings prior to the passage of the act. But it was utterly unique in American law. As Loyola University law professor Richard Hasen has written: "Never before or since has a state or local jurisdiction needed permission from the federal government to put its own laws into effect." Over time, Section 5 became the best-known provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Under this provision, the burden of proving that changes in voting procedures were free of racial animus fell upon the jurisdictions proposing them. So a city that submitted for preclearance a proposed enlargement of its governing council, or a change in its districting map, or the relocation of a polling place, had to prove a negative '-- demonstrating an absence of discriminatory purpose or, even more difficult, future effect. The mere suspicion of discrimination was thus enough to sink a proposed change.

Section 5 was of course not without its adamant critics, including Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. In a withering dissent in the 1966 case South Carolina v. Katzenbach, Black wrote that by compelling states to "beg federal authorities to approve their policies," the provision "so distort[ed] our constitutional structure of government as to render any distinction drawn in the Constitution between state and federal power almost meaningless." Nevertheless, in an 8-1 ruling, the Court upheld the law's constitutionality. The majority asserted that the evidence of what Chief Justice Earl Warren called the South's "unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution" required the kind of severe measure embodied by the preclearance provision. Moreover, the constitutional distortion Justice Black had complained about would only be temporary; Sections 4 and 5 were emergency provisions, slated to expire after just five years.

The brilliant design of the Voting Rights Act '-- and the Court's strong defense of it '-- yielded swift results. Black registration rates in the covered states soared: In 1964, fewer than 7% of eligible blacks were registered to vote in Mississippi; by the end of 1966, the figure had risen to nearly 60%. During the same period in Alabama, registration rates climbed from just below 20% to just above 50%.

But it didn't take southern politicians very long to find a loophole. They realized that while it had become nearly impossible to limit black voters' access to the ballot box, it was still possible to limit the power of the votes they cast. And in the years immediately following the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, a growing number of southern jurisdictions replaced geographic districts with at-large voting, eliminated elected positions in favor of appointed ones, and reconfigured state legislative districts '-- all in an effort to reduce the effect of the newly surging black vote and to maintain white supremacy.

These deliberate attempts to prevent the transfer of political power from whites to blacks were bound to spark legal challenges. They reached the Supreme Court with the 1969 case Allen v. State Board of Elections, which forever transformed the meaning of Section 5. The case involved a series of laws, mostly in Mississippi, that replaced single-member districts with county-wide voting in the election of county commissioners. The reasoning went like this: Within a county, some smaller single-member districts would likely have black majorities, and so would elect blacks to represent them. But in the South at the time, if the entire county became one majority-white district, only whites would get elected '-- and no white was likely to represent black interests. Because African-American voters could still cast ballots, the introduction of at-large voting did not violate the Voting Rights Act (at least as originally conceived). Still, Mississippi and other states were clearly engaging in unacceptable racist mischief that, as the Court put it, could "nullify" the ability of black voters "to elect the candidate of their choice just as would prohibiting some of them from voting."

In proscribing these moves, the Court expanded the definition of discriminatory voting practices under the act to include devices that "diluted" the impact of the black vote. From then on, Section 5 was understood to empower federal officials to object to at-large voting, districting lines, and other methods of structuring elections '-- any measure that might have the effect of depriving blacks of expected gains in political power.

The act had been irrevocably altered '-- for better and for worse. Preclearance took on a far broader meaning, one that required the Justice Department to involve itself far more deeply in state and local political judgments. Of these, the most important turned out to be the redrawing of election districts, required after every decennial census '-- a process that involves what University of California, Los Angeles, law professor Daniel Lowenstein has called "the woof and warp of [a] state's politics and political culture."

The Court's re-reading of the law meant that blacks in areas covered by Section 5 had acquired a new entitlement: the ability "to elect the candidate of their choice." And in response, the Justice Department began to demand electoral districts drawn to ensure that, at every level of government, blacks held office in numbers proportional to the relevant black population. No longer an effort to secure political equality, the act now ensured that blacks would be treated as politically different '-- entitled to inequality, in the form of a unique political privilege. Race-based districting that amounted to legislative quotas became a federal mandate. In such districts, whites would seldom even bother to compete.

Looking back, it is tempting to argue that this was an obviously dangerous decision by the Court. But the South's swift and effective circumvention of the Voting Rights Act in the wake of its passage demonstrated the truth of what many civil-rights activists had argued: that merely providing access to the ballot was insufficient after centuries of slavery, another century of segregation, ongoing white racism, and persistent resistance to black political power. In the Deep South in 1969 (and beyond), the alternative to de facto reserved legislative seats for black candidates would have been the perpetuation of whites-only politics.

The Court made the right decision in Allen. And yet its revised reading of the Voting Rights Act set in motion a process that, through reauthorizations and amendments as well as judicial and administrative interpretations, would destroy the legislation's original logic. By 1995, Judge Bruce M. Selya would call the statute a "Serbonian bog" into which "plaintiffs and defendants, pundits and policymakers, judges and justices" had sunk. Most tragically, this process would cause the legislation to actually hinder racial progress.

THE ACT TRANSFORMED

Sections 4 and 5 of the original Voting Rights Act were set to expire in 1970, but five years had not been enough time for the political culture of the South to be meaningfully transformed. The case for reauthorizing Sections 4 and 5 was thus an easy one: The Voting Rights Act had made enormous progress toward its goal, but significant hurdles remained. The act was therefore extended for another five years '-- reauthorized with amendments that seemed modest on the surface, but would ultimately have quite significant effects.

The most important of these amendments revised the formula for identifying racially suspect jurisdictions. The new trigger preserved the old criteria '-- flagging jurisdictions that had once employed literacy tests and had voter-turnout rates below 50% in the '64 election '-- but expanded its reach to include those with below-50% turnout in the '68 election as well.

This "updating" of the trigger made a hash of its original purpose. In 1965, the authors of the Voting Rights Act knew which states they wanted to target, and designed their precise statistical test accordingly. But applying the same benchmark to the 1968 election meant that the Justice Department would have to scrutinize jurisdictions that had no history of racist vote-suppression '-- like random counties in California and New York. Three boroughs in New York City '-- Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx '-- became subject to DOJ oversight (Queens and Staten Island did not), even though blacks throughout the city had been voting freely since the enactment of the 15th Amendment and had held municipal offices for 50 years. The city had not changed; the doors of political opportunity had not suddenly been closed to minority voters. It was just that in the 1968 presidential election, reflecting the national trend, more voters had stayed home than in 1964 '-- pushing those three boroughs below the 50% threshold.

In fact, when the Voting Rights Act first passed in 1965, New York was the implicit standard against which the racism of southern politics had been judged. But by 1970, three New York City boroughs and Neshoba County, Mississippi '-- where three voting-rights advocates were murdered in 1964 '-- had come to be equally restricted in their freedom to structure their own electoral arrangements. And these restrictions were not just theoretical: In 1972, the Justice Department used its preclearance power to object to a Brooklyn districting plan. The problem? The plan provided for a state-senate district in which the population was an allegedly insufficient 61% black. The Justice Department demanded that the district be redrawn so that its voting population would be 65% black, in order to better assure the election of a black state senator.

But what necessitated an absolutely secure black legislative seat in a northern state in which blacks had long been political players? And if Section 5 now demanded districts that were 65% black in Brooklyn, why not in the adjacent borough of Queens? The distinction drawn in 1965 between Mississippi and New York had not been arbitrary; that between Brooklyn and Queens in 1970 clearly was. The 1970 amendments destroyed the clean lines and logical construction of the original voting-rights statute.

That process of corruption continued in 1975, when the act was again reauthorized and amended. Ten years after the passage of the original act, the problem of access to the polls had been solved, and it was Section 5 that had come to be seen as the centerpiece of the statute. Civil-rights advocates wanted to build on the concept of the equally effective vote that Section 5 had been interpreted to promise. They argued that the right to vote included the right to representation; that minority representation could be measured only by the number of minority officeholders; and that justice demanded a national commitment to protecting black candidates from white competition. The renewal of the preclearance provision was thus a foregone conclusion in Congress that year.

To be sure, it was still too early to release the South from the federal receivership into which the region had been placed by the original act. In 1975, the nation was far from the point at which it could be said that southern blacks were equal citizens, free to form political coalitions and choose candidates in the same manner as other Americans. But in further amending the act in 1975, Congress largely ignored the statute's original aim of black enfranchisement and expanded its reach far beyond what its authors had originally intended.

The driving force behind this expansion was the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), which wanted for its constituents the same extraordinary protection afforded blacks. They complained that cities in Alabama could not draw new districting maps, move polling places, or even expand their municipal boundaries without federal approval '-- and yet San Antonio, Texas, was free to adopt at-large voting, redraw the districts from which city council members were elected, and make any other alterations to its electoral arrangements. If blacks were entitled to proportional racial representation, why should Hispanics settle for anything less?

Persuaded by MALDEF, Congress brought four additional "language minority" groups under Section 5 coverage: Asian Americans, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and "persons of Spanish heritage"'(although the record compiled in the hearings before that reauthorization made only a feeble case for the inclusion of these groups, whose experience in the United States was so different from that of southern blacks). Legislators also once again changed the trigger for coverage. Turnout figures for 1972 were added to those of 1964 and 1968, and the literacy test was redefined to include English-only ballots, as if they were equivalent to fraudulent literacy tests in the Jim Crow South. Coverage under the act was thus extended to the entire states of Texas, Arizona, and Alaska, as well as to counties in California, Florida, and South Dakota. These were all jurisdictions in which voting fell short of the 50% mark in 1972, and in which no bilingual ballots were provided for a language-minority group exceeding 5% of the state's or county's population. And all of these changes were set to expire after seven years, rather than five, to ensure that they would influence the redistricting that followed the 1980 census.

By this point, the carefully crafted 1965 statute had become almost unrecognizable. Indisputably, the racial progress that southern blacks had made in the decade since the act's original passage was due in considerable part to the broader definition of disfranchisement adopted by the Supreme Court and subsequently embraced by Congress and the Justice Department. But this definition was very much in line with the act's original intent: to protect southern blacks and allow them to play an equal role in the nation's civic and political life. The extensions of the law beyond that original aim were indefensible.

Yet such extensions continued. When the 1975 reauthorization expired in 1982, a strong case could have been made for another ten-year extension of Section 5 to protect southern blacks in the post-1990 round of redistricting. But important civil-rights spokesmen instead wanted to make Section 5 permanent '-- an idea so constitutionally radical as to be a non-starter. They settled for a still-extraordinary 25-year extension instead.

The 1982 reauthorization also included an even more significant amendment. Section 2 of the original Voting Rights Act had been nothing but a preamble reiterating the nation's commitment to the principles of the 15th Amendment. But some activists seized on the provision as a means of repairing the damage (as they saw it) wrought two years earlier by the Supreme Court decision in the case of City of Mobile v. Bolden, which had addressed the use of at-large voting to select members of the Mobile, Alabama, city council. In its ruling, the Court had held that the equal protection clause required the same showing of discriminatory intent in voting-rights cases as it did in employment, school segregation, and other contexts. Plaintiffs in 14th Amendment cases '-- including those involving alleged electoral inequality between minorities and whites '-- therefore could not prevail without evidence of discriminatory purpose. In the view of the civil-rights community, that requirement would prove impossible to fulfill (despite much legal precedent to the contrary). So why not avoid the hassle of constitutional litigation in the first place by altering the Voting Rights Act? Section 2 was thus amended to make discriminatory "result," not purpose, the standard by which voting-rights violations would be judged nationwide. Such a "result" would be apparent wherever minority-group members had relatively less opportunity, in the words of the statute, "to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice."

Unlike Section 5, Section 2 had nationwide reach. And whereas Section 5's preclearance applied only to changes in electoral procedure made after the passage of the 1965 act, the new Section 2 allowed lawsuits attacking longstanding election methods. Moreover, unlike Section 5, it was a permanent provision, meaning it would never come up for renewal. The language of the amended Section 2 was a civil-rights lawyer's dream: a disparate-impact test for discrimination, wrapped in the rhetoric of opportunity. Equal results and equal opportunity had become one and the same.

Section 2 quickly became a powerful tool to attack methods of voting that failed to elect minority representatives in proportion to the minority population in jurisdictions across the nation. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor pointed out, the new Section 2 could mean only one thing: "a right to usual, roughly proportional representation on the part of sizable, compact, cohesive minority groups." As with Section 5, proportionality was the inevitable standard against which racial fairness would come to be judged '-- for anything short of proportionality would suggest at least partial dilution of a minority vote.

Section 5 was due to expire again in 2007. But as the date for renewal approached, the prospect of racially charged controversy sent both Democrats and Republicans into a state of panic. Thus, an entire year before the expiration date, a Republican-controlled Congress once again renewed Section 5 '-- for another 25 years. The temporary, constitutionally extraordinary emergency provision had turned into a near-permanent rule. Other amendments further strengthened the act in a variety of legally complicated ways, but the trigger for coverage remained the 1972 turnout figures '-- even less relevant to the question of enfranchisement than they had been 25 years earlier, and now in place through 2032.

A LEGACY OF PROGRESS

During the 2006 Voting Rights Act reauthorization process, the House Judiciary Committee argued in its official report that "Discrimination today is more subtle than the visible methods used in 1965. However, the effects and results are the same." Rarely in the rich annals of congressional deceit and self-deception have more false and foolish words been written. No meaningful evidence supported this extraordinary claim, which did a disservice to the nation by refusing to recognize the remarkable revolution in race relations that occurred in the second half of the 20th century.

Without question, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was essential to the demise of the Jim Crow South. It ended whites' exclusive hold on political power, which had made all other forms of southern racial subjugation possible. It was an indispensable and beautifully designed response to a profound moral wrong.

Even the drawing of race-conscious districts in the South was a reasonable way to address a grave problem. And it ultimately proved both effective and justified. The history of whites-only politics in the segregated South had made the emergence of black officeholders both symbolically and substantively important. Moreover, southern blacks came to politics after 1965 with almost no experience of organizing as a conventional political force. Thus, race-based districts in areas that had historically disenfranchised blacks were arguably analogous to the high tariffs that had helped the infant American steel industry get started: They gave the black political "industry" an opportunity to get on its feet before facing the full force of equal competition.

Many conservatives have argued that race-driven legislative maps violate the basic color-blind principles to which America should be committed. But context matters. While it is relatively easy to take an uncompromising stance against many racial classifications in higher education, for instance, it is more difficult when the issue is race-conscious districting lines drawn to increase black office-holding.

Racially gerrymandered districts, like preferential admissions, protect black candidates from white competition. But the realm of politics is not the same as higher education. There are few objective qualifications for political office '-- the equivalent of a college or professional degree, a minimum score on the SATs, or a certain grade-point average. And the alternative to racially preferential admissions at the University of Michigan, for example, was never an all-white college or law school. The university had had no history of de jure segregation, and blacks had always been a presence on the campus'(although one that was too small in the view of civil-rights advocates). Compare this to southern politics before the Voting Rights Act, in which the aim had been to keep black officeholders out entirely. Moreover, strong evidence suggests that racial double standards in higher education do not work as advertised: Rich empirical work by UCLA law professor Richard Sander has shown that black students preferentially admitted to law schools fail the bar exam at disproportionately high rates. It is possible, he finds, that racial preferences have reduced, rather than increased, the supply of black attorneys. Race-based districts, on the other hand, reliably elect blacks and Hispanics to legislative seats.

Consider that in 1964, only five blacks held seats in Congress '-- none from any southern state '-- and just 94 blacks served in any of the 50 state legislatures, with only 16 in the southern states that were home to half of the nation's black population. But largely as a consequence of race-conscious districting, the Congressional Black Caucus today has 42 members, 17 of them from the South. And as of 2008, almost 600 blacks held seats in state legislatures; another 8,800 were mayors, sheriffs, school-board members, and other officeholders. Fully 47% of these public officials lived in the seven states originally covered by the Voting Rights Act, even though those states now contain only 30% of the nation's black population. Especially striking is the fact that Mississippi '-- which once had a well-deserved reputation as the most white-supremacist state in the union '-- now leads the nation in the number of blacks elected to political office.

Blacks who came north, beginning with the Great Migration in 1915, faced nothing like the barriers to political participation evident in the South (indeed, political parties worked hard to mobilize black voters). And yet today, the former Jim Crow states look very much like the more historically open New York, Illinois, and Michigan. The South is back in the union.

A LEGACY ENDANGERED

Race-conscious districting, particularly in the South, was thus defensible and appropriate in the years in which few southern whites would vote for black candidates regardless of their qualifications. But they have come with costs. And these costs have increased in importance as some race-conscious districts have devolved into so-called "bug-splat districts" '-- so contorted to segregate black and white voters that they raise serious 14th Amendment questions '-- even as racism among white Americans has waned.

Creating safe black districts and safe white ones is plainly an "effort to 'segregate...voters' on the basis of race," Justice O'Connor wrote in 1993. As such, she said, the districts threaten "to stigmatize individuals by reason of their membership in a racial group." As voting-rights scholars T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Samuel Issacharoff have observed, racial sorting of this kind creates advantaged and disadvantaged categories '-- groups that are privileged and groups that are subordinate. Districts drawn to meet the proportional racial representation standard embedded in the Voting Rights Act are designed to privilege blacks, and in such districts whites are reduced to "filler people" '-- usually irrelevant to the outcomes of elections.

Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein has observed another pertinent phenomenon. Across the political spectrum, when people talk only to those who are of like mind, they end up with more extreme views than they would hold otherwise. The majority of voters in districts drawn for the sole purpose of maximizing black representation are not likely to talk much to people who don't share their left-leaning, race-conscious values. And aspiring politicians who seek office in such settings are free to confine their appeal to these rigid ideological niches.

Black candidates who run in safe black districts thus tend to be to the left of most white voters. Their isolation from white centrists and conservatives deprives them of the broad experience necessary to win higher office. Perhaps this explains why so few members of the Congressional Black Caucus have run for statewide office. It is doubtful that anyone can imagine, for instance, South Carolina representative James Clyburn mounting a campaign for the Senate, let alone the presidency, despite the fact that he is a well-respected, long-serving political figure. He is a black politician with a majority-black constituency. He ran on his racial identity, but having done so has limited his further prospects.

There are exceptions to this rule, of course. This year, congressman Artur Davis is running for the Democratic nomination to be governor of Alabama; it is worth noting, though, that he is one of the few members of the Congressional Black Caucus rated as relatively centrist by the non-partisan National Journal. And the most successful black politician in American history, President Barack Obama, actually failed in his one attempt to run for office in a majority-minority district '-- a 2000 race for the U.S. House of Representatives. As voting-rights lawyer Michael Carvin has said:

[T]he best thing that ever happened to Obama was [that] he ran for a heavily minority black congressional district in Chicago and lost. If he had won, he would have just become another mouthpiece for a group that is ghettoized in Congress and perceived as representing certain interest groups in the legislature.

In still another respect, race-conscious districting may act as a brake on black political advancement. The creation of majority-minority constituencies has not overcome the heritage of political apathy created by the long history of systematic disfranchisement. A number of scholars have shown in recent years that black voters, and therefore black-majority districts, are generally less politically engaged and mobilized. Vanderbilt University law professor Carol Swain has found that turnout in black-majority congressional districts across the country is especially low. She notes, for example, that just 13% of eligible voters showed up at the polls in 1986 in then-congressman Major Owens's 78% black district in New York City. If constituents in Owens's district felt more empowered with a black man representing them in Washington, it certainly did not inspire many of them to bother to vote.

James Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Buffalo, has supported Swain's findings. Campbell found that, in 1994, more than 60% of congressional districts in which racial minorities were the majority ranked in the bottom quintile in terms of voter turnout. The most recently published review of the scholarly literature on this subject is a 2007 article by Harvard political scientist Claudine Gay; summing up what we have learned from previous investigations, Gay observed: "Limited electoral competition and low voter turnout are widely viewed as defining features of districts with black or Latino majorities." The "lack of competition" serves to "discourage participation" and reduces "the incentive for candidates or parties to mobilize voters." In the districts from which members of the California Assembly were elected in 1996, Gay found, voter turnout exceeded 60% of registered voters in only one-quarter of the majority-minority districts '-- compared to 90% of the white-majority districts.

Racial gerrymandering also contributes to the larger problem of political polarization. By concentrating black voters in safe black constituencies, it tends to "bleach" adjoining districts. In the more conservative South, those whiter surrounding districts tend to be safely Republican while black districts are safely Democratic. In this and other ways, the Voting Rights Act has had important partisan as well as racial consequences.

Race-driven majority-minority districts are more or less carved in stone as long as the current interpretation of Section 5 endures. The preclearance provision prohibits so-called called "retrogression" '-- districting after a decennial census that reduces the number of safe minority legislative seats. Thus, when new maps are drawn after 2010, safe black districts will remain safe. The Voting Rights Act has made them sacrosanct. As a consequence, to a substantial degree it is race, not politics, that drives the legislative districting process. And when it comes time for elections in these districts, the non-racial agendas of parties, incumbents, and challengers are recklessly ignored.

GETTING BEYOND RACE

In its current incarnation, the Voting Rights Act rests on the assumption that, even today, black voters would be helpless victims of racism without extraordinary federal protection. Everyone knows, however, that this notion is absurd. Black officeholders and black voters have become politically powerful, but it is not their power alone that protects them. American racial attitudes have changed dramatically, even in the South. And in those places where racial exclusion is alleged, an army of federal attorneys and civil-rights activists stands ready to intervene.

Black voters today are largely ready and able to take full part in American political life. Fifteen years ago, one of the most liberal members of the Supreme Court put the matter plainly: "Minority voters," Justice David Souter wrote, "are not immune from the obligation to pull, haul, and trade to find common political ground, the virtue of which is not to be slighted in applying a statute meant to hasten the waning of racism in American politics."

Pulling, hauling, and trading to find common ground describes the post-racial American polity the Voting Rights Act was intended to create. But it is not the direction in which the contemporary enforcement of the act is taking us. The statute compels us to keep race at the center of our political process, suggests to aspiring black politicians that they should confine themselves to racially safe ground, and encourages black voters to retain a deep pessimism about white racial attitudes that no longer seems justified by the realities of American life.

In February 2008, voters in an Alabama county that is more than 96% white sent a black man, James Fields, as their representative to the state House of Representatives. "Really, I never realize he's black," a white woman told a New York Times reporter. America has changed, the South has changed, and the voting-rights problems that are now of greatest concern '-- hanging chads, provisional ballots, glitches in electronic voting, registration hassles, voter identification, and fraud '-- bear no relationship to those that plagued the South in 1965. As New York University law professor Richard Pildes wrote in 2006, the statute has become "a model from earlier decades that is increasingly irrelevant and not designed for the voting problems of today." At the congressional hearings preceding that year's reauthorization of the act, he and other liberal voting-rights scholars urged Congress to pass a different statute for a new era.

Of course, no one should doubt the importance of the 1965 statute in making America a nation very different from the one in which I grew up not so many years ago. Race-conscious districting was legitimate as a temporary measure to give blacks what Daniel Lowenstein has called "a jumpstart in electoral politics." But Lowenstein makes a further important point: "A jumpstart is one thing, but the guy who comes and charges up your car when the battery's dead, he doesn't stay there trailing behind you with the cable stuck as you drive down the freeway. He lets it go."

It is time to let race-driven districting go. Congress is undoubtedly too timid to act anytime soon, but the Supreme Court should strike down Section 5 in its current form as unconstitutional. The Court had a chance to do so in 2008 and took a pass, but another, stronger case is bound to end up on the docket before long. The result would likely be a substitute statute '-- one surely still far from perfect, but perhaps better suited to today's cultural and electoral landscape. And if the Court hears a case regarding Section 2, it should at least require that the statute be interpreted as those who pushed for its passage in 1982 originally insisted it would be: as a means to protect against genuine racism.

America is much better off with the increase in the number of black elected officials made possible in large part by the deliberate drawing of majority-minority districts. But black politics has come of age, and black politicians can protect their turf, fight for their interests, and successfully compete '-- even for the presidency. America should celebrate, and move on.

Abigail Thernstrom is the author, most recently, of Voting Rights''--'and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections. She is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Student loan borrowers might be in trouble when payments resume

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:51

tommaso79 | iStock | Getty Images

When the payment pause on federal student loans ends on Jan. 31, 75% of borrowers say their finances will take a hit.

That's the finding from a new survey from Bankrate and BestColleges, which polled more than 4,700 adults in November.

More than 40% of borrowers expect that having to pay their bills again will reduce their ability to save. A quarter are worried about how they'll cover their rent or housing costs come February. The average monthly student loan payment is around $400.

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"College students often face one of the most stressful Catch-22s of personal finance: Higher education increases their lifetime earnings potential, but both affording it and paying it off can be a strain on their finances and mental health," said Bankrate.com analyst Sarah Foster.

Still, there are steps borrowers can take before the payments are turned back on if they're worried. Here's what you need to know.

When will bills be due again?In February. Your exact due date will vary depending on the time of month you began paying your student loans.

Even though the payment pause has been repeatedly prolonged over the coronavirus pandemic, don't count on getting more time again, said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit. The U.S. Department of Education said the last extension was the final one.

"It's best to prepare now," Mayotte said.

How can I prep?Over the next two months, borrowers should make sure that their student loan servicer has their current contact information, said Mark Kantrowitz, a higher education expert. If you've moved, for example, it may not.

If you were enrolled in automatic payments and your banking information has changed, you'll also want to notify your servicer of that.

Putting aside some money for when payments begin again may also make the transition less painful, experts say.

I have significant concerns that there will be some big servicing delays.

Betsy Mayotte

president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors

Millions of borrowers will find they have a new lender when the bills resume.

That's because three companies that serviced federal student loans '-- Navient, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (also known as FedLoan) and Granite State '-- all recently announced that they'd be ending their relationship with the government by 2022.

Impacted borrowers should get multiple notices about the change, said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for federal student loan servicers.

Come February, if you mistakenly send a payment to your old servicer, the money should be forwarded to your new one, he said.

What if I won't be able to make the payments?If you're still unemployed or dealing with another financial hardship because of the pandemic, you'll have options.

First, put in a request for the economic hardship or the unemployment deferment, experts say. Those are the ideal ways to postpone your payments because interest doesn't accrue under them.

If you don't qualify for either, you can use a forbearance to continue suspending your bills. But keep in mind that interest will rack up and your balance will be larger (sometimes much larger) when you resume paying.

If you expect your struggles to last a while, it may make sense to enroll in an income-driven repayment plan. These programs aim to make borrowers' payments more affordable by capping their monthly bills at a percentage of their discretionary income and forgiving any of their remaining debt after 20 or 25 years.

How do I decide on the right payment plan?Many people's lives have been changed by the pandemic.

If your circumstances look different than they did more than a year ago, it may make sense to review the payment plans available to you and find one that's the best fit for your current situation.

In the meantime, the law has also changed.

Student loan forgiveness is now tax-free until at least 2025, thanks to a provision included in the $1.9 trillion federal coronavirus stimulus package that President Joe Biden signed into law in March. The policy will likely become permanent, experts say.

That may make income-driven repayment plans more appealing, since they often come with lower monthly payments and borrowers will likely no longer be hit with a massive tax bill at the end of their 20 or 25 years of payments.

But if you can afford it, the standard repayment plan is just 10 years.

To determine how much your monthly bill would be under different plans, use one of the calculators at Studentaid.gov or Freestudentloanadvice.org, Mayotte said.

If you do decide to change your repayment plan, Mayotte recommends submitting that application to your servicer as soon as you can. Lenders will likely be overwhelmed when they have to begin collecting loan payments from tens of millions of people again.

"I have significant concerns that there will be some big servicing delays," Mayotte said.

Is student loan forgiveness still possible?Yes.

President Biden has asked the Education Department and the Department of Justice to review his legal authority to forgive student debt through executive action. The fact that those reports are still pending may explain why we haven't heard anything more definitive yet, experts say.

"He's not going to take any steps until that report comes back," Kantrowitz said.

Omicron travel: Here are the new rules to enter the U.S. from abroad

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:11

The rules of international travel are changing '-- again.

The emergence of the omicron variant of Covid in southern Africa and its detection around the world has sparked a host of new travel requirements and, in some cases, outright bans '-- further complicating international trips that were just starting to pick up.

Three weeks after lifting a blanket pandemic travel ban on more than 30 countries, the Biden administration on Nov. 29 banned visitors from South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Starting Monday, the U.S. is implementing stricter testing requirements for inbound travelers, including U.S. citizens, forcing travelers to make time and to budget for Covid tests closer to their departure date.

Rules have changed quickly. Here is what U.S.-bound air travelers need to know:

What is changing?Starting Monday, air travelers flying to the U.S. from abroad will need to show airlines proof of a negative Covid test result that was taken within one day of departure before being allowed to board. That includes U.S. citizens and vaccinated travelers.

Previously, vaccinated visitors, permanent residents and citizens had to show a test within three days of departure for the U.S.

When do travelers have to take their test?The Centers for Disease Control says specimens must have been collected one calendar day before departure.

What types of Covid tests are accepted?Both antigen and nucleic acid amplification tests, or NAAT, including PCR, results will be accepted.

Do I need to take a test when I land in the U.S.No. The United States does not require that travelers test upon landing and entering the U.S.

However, the CDC has expanded a program to offer free, voluntary tests to travelers upon arrival to help detect variants, most recently the omicron variant.

They're offered by XpresSpa Group, which has expanded from airport massages and other spa services into airport Covid testing since the pandemic started, and Ginkgo Bioworks. The program is available at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. Both at-home tests can be collected or PCR tests done on arrival.

XpresSpa's XpresCheck subsidiary also offers rapid testing at various U.S. airports with prices ranging from $75 for a PCR test to $250 for a rapid PCR test.

Do the new rules apply to land crossing into the U.S.?No. The new rules are solely for air travel.

Can I cancel my flight?Airline policies vary and travelers should check early and often with their carrier for both changing rules and ticket policies.

Major U.S. airlines have eliminated change fees for both international and domestic main cabin and above tickets that were purchased at least in the United States and in certain other countries, but travelers could still be responsible for differences in fare if they elect to travel on a different day. Basic economy tickets are generally less flexible and harder to change, however.

Delta Air Lines is waiving fare differences for Japan and Israel, which have temporarily banned foreign visitors, and for South Africa, if passengers fly on or before Dec. 12. American Airlines says that with tickets purchased for travel to and from Australia, Europe, the U.K., Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand or South Africa between March 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021, and travel would have taken place through the end of this year, the value of the ticket can be used for trips through Dec. 31, 2022.

New tool allows NPR to track source diversity in real time '' Poynter

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:55

Journalists across NPR are now tracking the demographics of their sources in real time thanks to a new piece of software that launched last month.

Dubbed Dex (after ''Rolodex''), the tool is attached to NPR's content management system. For each story, reporters, producers, correspondents and editors submit information about their sources' race and ethnicity, gender identity, geographic location and age range. They can also indicate if a source declined to provide that information. Dex tracks all of this information so that journalists can later pull up reports to monitor their source diversity.

The hope is that NPR, National Public Radio, will produce stories and shows that more accurately reflect its audience '-- the public. In other words, NPR wants to ''look and sound like America.''

Dex also acts as a source database for NPR journalists, allowing them to find experts for stories they cover. NPR maintains a public-facing Diverse Sources Database, but the two are not currently connected, though that could change in the future, said deputy director of news operations Rolando Arrieta.

Arrieta, who led the team that created Dex, said development for the project first started roughly a year ago. In January 2020, NPR decided it would try to capture demographic data from all of its sources. Teams across the organization started tracking that data but lacked a standardized process for doing so.

''We realized we need to provide a system that standardizes that process because through the organization '-- say if it was a Google form, or if it was a spreadsheet '-- there was no consistency across our content groups on how to ask the questions, what types of questions to ask, what demographics we're looking for,'' Arrieta said.

Dex captures information about a source's race and ethnicity, gender identity, geographic location and age range. (Screenshot courtesy of NPR)

The ability to create reports in real time is what makes Dex so powerful, said NPR chief diversity officer Keith Woods. NPR has been tracking the diversity of its sources since 2013. Before 2020, research teams at NPR took an annual random sample of the organization's sources for their demographic analysis.

The first set of results was not promising. For example, just 28% of sources in 2013 were women, and 16% of expert sources were people of color. Twenty-seven percent of all sources came from Washington, D.C.

Those numbers have since improved. In 2019, women made up close to 40% of all sources, and people of color made up 25 to 30% of expert sources. Less than 20% of sources came from Washington, D.C.

In a 2015 report on the progress of the sourcing project, Woods noted that Latino sources remained low. By 2019, those numbers were still relatively flat. Another persistent issue is that though the percentages of sources of color and female sources are rising, they are not doing so uniformly across all coverage areas. Woods said some topics, including politics, the economy, national security, and health and medicine still need additional voices from people of color, women and people across Middle America.

''One of the ways that we can do this is to do the work that Dex is guiding us towards, which is daily, weekly routine assessments of inclusion at a time when we can do something about it,'' Woods said. ''We were doing annual surveys before and by the time newsrooms learned about the numbers, it was a full year in the past. Now, by the end of the week, you can know how you're doing.''

Because Dex is built into NPR's content management system, it makes tracking source diversity a part of the newsgathering process. Journalists will build a habit of paying attention to who they interview, which will allow them to make adjustments sooner rather than later, said Woods.

Dex is currently available for NPR journalists and reporters at some Texas stations, but the goal is to make it available to all member stations. In the future, Dex may also capture additional demographic data, like political affiliation and level of education. All of that information will help NPR answer key questions about its sources' demographics.

''Counting sources doesn't make them more diverse. It doesn't unto itself change anything about who's on air. It isn't the end game at all. But it does have an impact on the individual, and that, we assume, will cause change,'' Woods said. ''And it sets us up to answer some of the important questions moving forward around what levers we need to pull to increase the presence of various demographic groups in our content.''

John Miles, best known for his rock ballad Music, has died - BBC News

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:18

By Mark SavageBBC Music Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Music became the unofficial anthem of the long-running Night Of The Proms concert series in Belgium

Rock musician John Miles has died at the age of 72, his family have confirmed.

Born in Jarrow, north-east England, he was best known for the epic ballad Music, which reached number three in the UK charts in 1976.

Soon afterwards, Melody Maker magazine named him "the brightest, freshest force in British rock".

The star, who later played with Tina Turner, "passed away peacefully after a short illness," his family said.

"He was a loving husband, father and grandfather and we will all miss him more than any words could ever express," read a statement posted on Miles' official Facebook page.

"He will live on forever in our hearts and with the wonderful musical legacy he has left behind. You were our first love and will be our last."

The message echoed the words of Miles's biggest hit: "Music was my first love / And it will be my last / Music of the future / And music of the past."

Figure caption, Warning: Third party content may contain adverts

He wrote the track in just half an hour, while killing time in Leeds between concerts.

It's a relatively simple song - consisting of eight repeated lines extolling his love of music - but the rich, elaborate orchestration made it a pop landmark to rival MacArthur Park and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Miles never matched its commercial peak again, but he enjoyed a long and varied career, releasing 10 albums between 1976 and 1999. In 2017, he received an outstanding contribution prize at the Progressive Rock awards.

"I think I made a contribution but that was way back in the 70s," he joked as he accepted the award.

"I suppose it has endured though. And the song Music has endured as well, and that was the biggest hit worldwide. I'm a man of few words and there are eight lines of lyrics in that song. I get to work with orchestras these days too, which is fantastic."

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, The singer was voted best newcomer by readers of the Daily Mirror in 1975

Born John Errington in April 1949, Miles's first musical venture was the Influences, which also launched the careers of Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson and guitarist Vic Malcolm, of the band Geordie.

After they split up, he moved to London and landed a deal with Decca Records, scoring his first top 20 hit with the melodic rock track Highfly in 1975.

Music was released a year later. As well as making the UK top five, it achieved moderate success in the US, paving the way for a support slot with Elton John,

The song was produced by prog rock legend Alan Parsons, and Miles later provided guest vocals on several Alan Parsons Project albums, including Pyramid, Stereotomy and Gaudi.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Miles played guitar on several of Tina Turner's concert tours, often duetting with the star on stage

In 1990, he was one of eight acts hoping to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest, with the stately piano ballad Where I Belong.

After a public vote, however, he took second place to 15-year-old Emma Louise Booth, whose song Give a Little Love Back to the World eventually came sixth in the competition overall.

As a session musician, Miles toured with Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Page; and participated almost every year in Belgium's Night Of The Proms concerts, where he played orchestral versions of rock classics.

One of his final projects came during lockdown last year, when he recorded a new version of Music with Antwerp's Philharmonic Orchestra under quarantine conditions.

Miles' manager, Cliff Cooper, said the musician had died "peacefully in his sleep with his family at his bedside".

"As John's manager and friend for over 50 years, John was not only so kind and gentle but a brilliant musician and songwriter on the world stage," he told the BBC.

"Grief is the price we pay for love. He will be greatly missed, but his music will live on forever."

Miles is survived by his wife of almost 50 years, Eileen, as well as their two children and grandchildren.

Jackie Avant Death Raises Alarm Around Los Angeles

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:15

''When it starts happening in Trousdale Estates and Hancock Park, we're in trouble,'' said radio station owner and Avant family friend Tavis Smiley

''It's hard to believe someone would murder an 81-year-old woman in the middle of the night at Trousdale Estates,'' said veteran radio host and Avant family friend, Tavis Smiley, in an interview with TheWrap. ''It's hard to wrap your mind around something so barbaric.''

Smiley noted that last week, a mother was robbed while pushing her baby in a stroller in well-to-do Hancock Park. He said it feels like he's witnessing ''the decay of our civilization and the devolution of our culture.''

''It's one thing for it to happen in the ghettos and the barrios,'' he said. ''When it starts happening in Trousdale Estates and Hancock Park, we're in trouble. We've got some work to do.''

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore last month announced the creation of a special ''Follow-Home Task Force'' made up of about 20 detectives from LAPD's Robbery Homicide and other department divisions. The LAPD is investigating more than 100 follow-home robberies this year, with victims targeted while outside and then robbed as they arrive home or at their businesses.

LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division ''is assuming all these cases in the city of L.A. and making sure they're handled appropriately and those involved are held accountable,'' Lt. Ben Fernandes of the specialized division told TheWrap.

In Beverly Hills, the community of about 530 homes where Avant lived is ''all very upset'' about her death, said Alan Berlin, president of the Trousdale Estates Homeowners Association. He noted the community doesn't generally have this kind of violent crime.

''The way things are in the world, you can't prevent some nut with a gun (from) attacking a home,'' he said, adding that details have so far been sparse in the case.

Some residents in their community, including the Avants, have private security, he said.

''I know Mrs. Avant was a much loved person,'' he added. ''My wife met her many times and had been in the home. She was highly thought of in the whole community, not just in Beverly Hills or Trousdale.''

Jacqueline Avant and Clarence Avant (Getty Images)Avant's death came just weeks after ''The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'' star Dorit Kemsley was held up at gunpoint and robbed at her Encino home in October. TV host and actor Terrence Jenkins narrowly escaped an attempted follow-home robbery last month in Sherman Oaks, in which he said the suspects shot at him.

Despite these high-profile crimes, local authorities insist there's no evidence indicating that criminals are targeting Hollywood insiders or those in the entertainment industry.

''The only thing that we're sure of is that they're targeting people displaying wealth, people with Rolex watches, expensive jewelry, expensive purses, driving high-end cars,'' Fernandes said. ''I wouldn't say they're targeting any specific kind of person. We've had folks in the entertainment industry. We've had normal folks. We've had rappers. Really it's all walks of life. The common factor is wealth.''

Fernandes added that people are being targeted from ''high-end locations'' on L.A.'s west side, downtown and other affluent areas. The victims are identified by ''criminal elements'' and then followed to their homes or robbed on side streets at gunpoint, he said.

LAPD Hollywood Division officers arrested Avant's suspected killer, 29-year-old Aariel Maynor of Los Angeles, at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, following an unrelated burglary in the 6000 block of Graciosa Drive in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills police Chief Mark Stainbrook announced Thursday. Stainbrook said Maynor shot himself in the foot at the Hollywood Hills location about an hour after Avant was shot. Maynor was hospitalized and investigators recovered an AR-15 style rifle at the second home, that was believed to have been used in the Beverly Hills shooting.

Beverly Hills detectives responded to the Hollywood incident and said they've collected evidence linking Maynor to the shooting death of Avant, 81, who was the mother of Democratic fundraiser and producer Nicole Avant, wife of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

Maynor, a parolee, has an ''extensive criminal record,'' Stainbrook said last week. The motive, including whether this might have been a follow-home robbery or a home invasion, was still under investigation.

''We haven't determined the reason why he was at (the Avant) house,'' Beverly Hills Police Department spokesman Lt. Giovanni Trejo said Friday. ''Until we speak to him, interview him, we won't be able to say why he was in there.''

The police spokesman noted that they're also developing additional information by other means as to why the shooting occurred. Trejo, however, said that he's noticed an uptick in street robberies in Beverly Hills more than in home invasions.

In recent weeks, BHPD has increased patrols in certain areas, which they normally do during the holiday season. Because of the street robberies and some attempted burglaries in their business district, police have also increased the number of armed private security in the district. Five new officers are additionally joining BHPD on Monday, the city said.

Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook holds a briefing on Dec. 1, 2021 about the shooting death of Jacqueline Avant (Harper Lambert/TheWrap)Najee Ali is a Los Angeles activist and community relations ambassador with Operation Hope, a nonprofit working to empower low and moderate-income youth and adults. Ali called the recent spate of follow-home robberies, home invasions and homicides ''very troubling and disturbing.'' He said he personally hadn't seen this type of rise in crime in the area before.

''We have these young people who seem to be too lazy to just get a job to feed themselves,'' he said. ''They'd rather follow those who are affluent and appear to have resources and take those rather than have earned it through hard work and sacrifice.''

The solution, he said, is to encourage young people to get entrepreneurial or job training and get them into the workforce. The COVID pandemic has likely contributed to the spate in crime with young people being largely confined for more than a year before establishments opened up again, particularly for those who are vaccinated. Meanwhile, PPP loans and other support programs are ending, he said.

Ali said Avant, along with her surviving husband, were well-known figures in civic and entertainment life in Los Angeles. He met her at various fundraising dinners and said she was one of the ''sweetest souls you'll ever meet.'' Avant was a multimillionaire who ''rolled up her sleeves'' and worked in disadvantaged neighborhoods, including Watts, to improve the lives of residents, he said.

Smiley, owner of KBLA Talk 1580 Los Angeles, first met Avant while working as one of former Mayor Tom Bradley's aides nearly 30 years ago and has been friends with the family ever since. He said their influence has reached far and wide in Los Angeles and well beyond, covering nearly every sphere of human endeavor '' including philanthropy, politics, art, music, social justice, and entertainment.

''It's not just a tragic loss; it's a monumental loss,'' he told TheWrap.

Authorities are reminding people to put down their phones and other devices in public, be aware of their surroundings and to immediately call police '' rather than a family member or friend '' if they think they might be followed or in any kind of danger.

Anita Bennett contributed to this report.

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'Rife' cocaine use reported in U.K. Parliament '-- just as Boris Johnson announces crackdown on drug crime

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:13

(C) Christopher Furlong/Pool /Reuters British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dressed in a police uniform and posed with officers in Liverpool on Dec. 6 to promote his strategy for tackling drug crime in the country. LONDON '-- The Speaker of House of Commons has said he is calling in police to investigate reports that drug use is ''rife'' in the British Parliament '-- as Prime Minister Boris Johnson dressed up as a police officer to promote his tough new anti-drug strategy for the country.

A report in Britain's Sunday Times said a dozen sites inside the Palace of Westminster, which includes of the House of Lords and House of Commons, tested positive for traces of cocaine.

Areas of interest included the bathrooms nearest Johnson's office and those of Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is in charge of domestic security.

Drug residue, the newspaper reported, was also found close to rooms used the opposition Labour Party, as well as a sedate dining room in the House of Lords, and the exclusive, sometimes raucous Thames-side pub called the Strangers' Bar.

The paper reported that cannabis was also ''being used openly'' within the vicinity.

Of 12 bathrooms tested for drugs with detection wipes, cocaine was reportedly found in 11 of the locations, including places that can be best accessed only by those with a designated parliamentary pass, including lawmakers and staffers, alongside clerks, librarians, security personnel, waiters and journalists. Different passes allow different levels of access to halls, bars, committee rooms and cubbyholes within the Victorian-age premises.

''The accounts of drug misuse in parliament given to the Sunday Times are deeply concerning,'' Lindsay Hoyle, House speaker, told Sky News on Sunday. ''I will be raising them as a priority with the Metropolitan Police next week.'' The Metropolitan Police service did not immediately return a request for comment.

The report came just as Johnson was set to announce a 10-year plan to hold drug offenders responsible and combat crime in England and Wales. On Monday, he was pictured with police in the city of Liverpool while wearing a dark uniform and a black hat with ''police'' stitched in white across the front '-- an image that caused a stir on social media as #cocaine became a top Twitter trend in the United Kingdom.

In Britain, cocaine is a ''Class A'' drug, the most serious classification. Those found to be in possession of the substance face up to seven years in prison. Those supplying or producing the drug can face a life sentence.

Yet the Sunday Times reported that ''there is a cocaine culture in parliament'' from well-known lawmakers to young staffers '-- on both sides of the political spectrum.

A Washington Post reporter with a Parliamentary Pass walking the halls of the palace found at least one of the suspect bathrooms closed, but the others open for business. The doors of the stalls and toilets '-- called loos here '-- could be locked.

The palace is a confusing warren of Victorian stairways to nowhere and closet-sized offices. There are also plenty of tea rooms, dinning halls and pubs, frequent sites of receptions for constituents '-- and dealmaking.

Westminster is literally rotting from the basements '-- the pipes are bursting and rodents are a scourge '-- and the narrow unventilated corridors often smell like roast meat and plates of eggs. It is fusty '-- and delightful.

Interviews with British journalists and staffers who work in Parliament, who asked for anonymity to speak freely, said that the estate, sometimes called the ''Westminster bubble,'' is all-encompassing world, with a drinking culture.

''So yes, there are some drugs being taken,'' said a British journalist, who described Westminster as ''a workplace with a lot of pubs.''

Johnson has confessed back in 2008 that he snorted cocaine and smoked marijuana as a teenager. He stressed at the time, ''I thoroughly disagree with drugs. I don't want my kids having drugs.''

Asked about allegations of drug use in Parliament, Johnson told Sky News on Monday that the government ''is absolutely determined to fight drugs.''

Under Johnson's new plan, more officers will be sent onto the streets to tackle crime, and drug users will be encouraged to visit rehabilitation facilities. Offenders may also have their passports and driver's licenses revoked, Sky News reported.

''I take the view that it's a long time really since you've heard a government say that drugs, Class A drugs, are bad, bad for society, bad for opportunity, bad for kids growing up in this country,'' Johnson said.

Boris Johnson's Peppa Pig speech forces him to answer the question: 'Is everything okay?' This is not the first time Hoyle has expressed concern that drug use may be taking place within Parliament. ''It's not just drink we've got to catch out, there is a drug problem,'' he said in 2019 as he geared up to replace John Bercow as speaker of the House of Commons.

According to a report on drug misuse from Britain's Office for National Statistics, at least 873,000 people in England and Wales between ages 16 and 59 reported powder cocaine use over a year, ending in March 2020. Cocaine is the second-most commonly used drug after cannabis, the report found.

Johnson is also facing a controversy of another kind: The British press is publishing allegations that there was a staff party held at 10 Downing Street on Dec. 18 last year, when such gatherings were banned because of lockdown measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 146,000 lives in the United Kingdom.

Last week, the Mirror tabloid splashed a story on its front page saying the prime minister gave a speech at a ''packed'' goodbye party for a top aide ''when the country was in the grip of its second lockdown.'' The newspaper said there was a second party with guests ''knocking back glasses of wine during a Christmas quiz and a Secret Santa while the rest of the country was forced to stay at home.''

Johnson has been asked about the party and has not denied it took place.

The government's police minister, Kit Malthouse, was asked about the alleged holiday party on Sky News. First, Malthouse said he was not sure there was a party. Then he said he knew ''nothing about it but I've been assured by 10 Downing Street that no rules were broken, if there was a gathering of any kind.''

He also said ''the police will have a look'' to see whether any rules were broken.

''So Downing Street stands accused of breaking the law and hosting a Christmas party when they instructed us all not to do so, and the PM is cutting about on national television dressed as a police officer? Totally normal country,'' Scottish lawmaker Stewart McDonald tweeted Monday.

A dealer moved cocaine, heroin around the U.K. A photo showing his 'love of Stilton cheese' brought him down.

Rise in 'needle spiking' puts women in Britain on high alert

Boris Johnson visits a farm, steers bull into police officer

Antisemitism, racism and white supremacist material in podcasts on Spotify, investigation finds | Science & Tech News | Sky News

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:01

A Sky News investigation has found antisemitic, racist and white supremacist material in podcasts on one of the most popular streaming services, Spotify.

The company said it does not allow hate content on its platform.

But we found podcasts totalling several days' worth of listening promoting extreme views such as scientific racism, Holocaust denial and far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories.

And while some of the most shocking material was buried inside hours-long episodes, in some cases, explicit slurs could be found in episode titles and descriptions while album artwork displayed imagery adopted by white supremacists.

Spotify removed the content after we reported it to the streaming giant.

But many of these podcasts remain online elsewhere, including in largely unmoderated directories like Google Podcasts.

Google did not respond to our request for comment.

And experts are concerned that the "readily accessible" nature of this material could lure people towards extremism.

Content warning: this article includes references to racist, antisemitic and white supremacist language and ideas

Image: Spotify is one of the biggest podcast streaming platforms, with over three million podcastsOne of the first results returned on Spotify when searching for the phrase "Kalergi Plan" directed us to a series which, at the time, had 76 episodes listed on the platform.

The so-called "Kalergi Plan" is a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which alleges that Jewish elites are behind a deliberate plan to erase the white European race by promoting mass immigration.

We have chosen not to name any of the podcast series mentioned in this article to avoid publicising their content.

In one episode, the speaker explicitly promotes the Kalergi Plan.

He claims that the European elite has been "replaced" by a "new urban nobility" made up of Jewish elites.

The nine-minute monologue ends with an explicit call to violence against Jewish people.

Another episode by the same creator advances the racist and unfounded idea that white people are biologically superior to people of colour.

"There is something about [white men] that makes us privileged, it's in our blood," he says.

He promotes this view, unchallenged, for 13 minutes. The monologue is littered with dehumanising language and makes comparisons that are too offensive to be included in this article.

Image: This flag from Norse mythology has been adopted by some white supremacistsThe album artwork for the series depicts the raven flag - a symbol originally found in Norse mythology, but one that has been appropriated by some white supremacists in recent years.

We showed our findings to Maurice Mcleod of Race on the Agenda, a social research charity focusing on issues impacting ethnic minorities in the UK.

"This is incredibly dangerous," he told Sky News.

"Early this May we had the highest [monthly] number of reported incidents of antisemitism and, in the year to March, we had 115,000 reported incidents of hate crime. Now that's just what's reported, which is always only the tip of the iceberg."

"It feels like it's normalising this sort of thing if you can go on Spotify and listen to Adele, and then you can listen to this stuff right next to it." he said.

The Kalergi Plan is a variation of the white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

Jacob Davey, head of research and policy of far right and hate movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said it was a belief that had been steadily increasing in popularity over the past decade.

"It's gone from what really was quite a fringe talking point among a few European extremists to the bread and butter discussion of extremists globally," he told Sky News.

But these ideas do not exist in an online vacuum, he said.

Image: 51 people were killed in the 2019 Christchurch attack"In 2019, when an individual committed a really horrific terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, he was directly doing that in response to this theory," said Mr Davey

"And after that attack, there were a number of others throughout 2019. The spread of these ideas can really have a noticeable impact in compelling people to go on and commit atrocious violence."

This is just one of the series we came across.

Another one, hosted by US-based alt-right creators, uses racist slurs and white supremacist symbols in the episode titles and descriptions.

The hosts casually and openly promote a range of antisemitic and racist beliefs and theories, including Holocaust denial and scientific racism.

A third series from a different creator included episodes discussing what they refer to as the "beauty" of white supremacy, as well as readings of essays and books by prominent figures of the Nazi Party, including Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.

The creator often used the episode description box on Spotify to advertise videos shared on other platforms. One link directs users to a video of a reading of what it calls "Dylann Roof's insightful manifesto".

Image: Dylann Roof, who shot dead nine black churchgoers, became the first person in the US to be sentenced to death for a federal hate crime in 2017Other episode descriptions link to a Telegram channel that has a swastika as its icon.

These three series amount to almost 150 hours of content.

In response to our findings, a Spotify spokesperson said: "Spotify prohibits content on our platform which expressly and principally advocates or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.

"The content in question has been removed for violating our Hate Content policy."

Image: Spotify removed nearly 150 hours of content after Sky News reported it to the streaming serviceThe platform does allow users to report material that violates their content guidelines. The company also said it is developing new monitoring technology to identify material that has been flagged as hate content on some international registers.

But what is currently being done to moderate its podcasting platform beyond responding to user reports is not public knowledge.

The sheer volume of content online means that technology companies require algorithms as well as people to moderate their platforms.

And while technology capable of detecting hate speech in audio is being developed, it's not yet being widely deployed.

"One of the problems is that it takes a lot more memory to store long audio files. The other problem is that it's messy - you can have multiple speakers and fast-paced dialogue," said Hannah Kirk, AI researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and The Alan Turing Institute.

"There's also tonnes of extra linguistic cues in audio: the tone, the pitch of voice, even awkward silences or laughter. And that's a problem because we don't yet have the technology to accurately encode those kinds of extra linguistic signals," she told Sky News.

Ms Kirk said it is possible that companies like Spotify are hitting resource or technology constraints that mean they are not able to moderate their audio content at scale.

But, she said, the option is available for companies to transcribe audio content and run it through text processing models trained to detect hate, which are far more advanced.

We also found some of the same series on Google Podcasts.

Google's podcasting arm operates as a directory rather than a platform, meaning that it does not host content on its own server and instead collates podcast feeds that it automatically scrapes from the internet.

The company has received criticism before for allowing users to access extreme and misleading content on its interface. It's one of the few remaining places users can still find infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's podcast.

We reported our findings to Google, but it did not respond. The series we flagged remains on its platform.

A spokesperson for the company previously told the New York Times that it "does not want to limit what people can find" and that it only removes content in rare circumstances.

But experts are concerned that the accessibility of extreme material on these popular platforms could lead people into becoming radicalised.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Why data journalism matters to Sky News

A Human Skin Lampshade Sparks a Journey into the Heart of the Holocaust

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:59

After Hurricane Katrina pounded New Orleans, many unwelcome things surfaced'--including a lampshade made of human skin. Veteran journalist Mark Jacobson was enlisted to trace its story. In The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans, Jacobson, a contributing editor at New York magazine, recounts his remarkable two-year hunt. In the process, he raises revealing questions about what the Nazis did, how the Allies presented it, and why Holocaust deniers and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum play it down.

Did the Nazis make Jews into lampshades?

After the war, that was the truth, and everybody knew it. They'd seen lots of footage, photographs, headlines. Everybody thought it was horrible, evil, and that our civilization, with God on our side, had risen up to smite them. It let us feel good about ourselves. And it should.

Is there any evidence for this?

Eisenhower saw Nazi artifacts made from humans, including a lampshade, when he toured Buchenwald, and was legitimately horrified. That stuff was filmed. For him and others, the lampshade summed it up. Maybe, in retrospect, the Allies oversold it. But symbols are how the human mind thinks: The Holy Grail. The True Cross. Don't give me a lot of details; give me something I can focus on. Symbols convince people to think in a certain way. The lampshade did that.

Were any Nazis found guilty of these atrocities?

Ilse Koch, ''the Bitch of Buchenwald.'' There was testimony at Nuremburg. Survivors said she had things made of Jewish people, especially their skin, and that she liked tattoos. When Lucius Clay, military governor of the American sector of Germany, commuted her sentence, there was an uproar. Ed Sullivan, Walter Winchell, all the big columnists screamed. In 1950 Congress was so outraged they convened a special committee about it. They'd demonized her to the point where she became as big as Hitler.

What changed?

Suddenly the Commies were our enemies and the Germans were our friends. So the demonizing shifted targets. Holocaust deniers say it was all propaganda. But that doesn't mean it was untrue. The survivors of the camps kept the stories alive.

Where did that leave your lampshade?

Holding this icon of my postwar youth in my hand had a whole lotta resonance for me. So I had it DNA tested by the firm that worked on body parts from 9/11. Cost me five grand. It turned out to be real. Made of human skin. That's why it was so hard to take when people said it was fake.

What people?

Start with the Holocaust Museum in D.C. My friend who found it was very determined we give it to a holocaust museum. Seemed like the thing to do. So I called them. No response. Finally I called their press rep and came on heavy. He presented me with Diane Saltzman, who was in charge of their collections then. She made it very clear she had zero time for this.

Why wasn't she interested?

She insisted it was a myth, even though I'd sent the DNA report. I didn't understand what she was talking about. Later, I began to understand. She said it was distracting. Sure, it's sensationalist. In my opinion, she's right'--but only because they oversold the symbol to begin with.

How?

After the war, the human lampshade was central to the narrative of the Holocaust. It makes sense to try to put it back in perspective. You've got six million dead Jews and millions more dead people, no matter what Holocaust deniers say. We shouldn't need a lampshade made out of human skin to know how evil that was. I understand that. Their point is, this stuff is so unusual it shouldn't be part of the story. This symbol is no longer needed.

What's wrong with that?

They want to narrow'--and own'--the narrative of the Holocaust. That's dangerous. It gives the owners too much power. It shuts down asking questions. Raul Hilberg, the famous Holocaust historian, used to talk to Holocaust deniers. People thought that was horrible. He said, ''Why not? They might say something interesting.'' I'm with him.

Who else did you talk to?

Basically, I had this'...thing, and I was trying to get somebody'--anybody'--to look at it. I started with Shiya Ribowsky, a cantor who was director of special projects at the medical examiner's office in New York on 9/11. He took it out of the box'--remember, he'd dealt with 20,000 body parts after 9/11'--and said, ''This is the saddest thing I've ever seen.'' That was the first time I thought it might be real. Ken Kipperman is an individual obsessed with finding the Buchenwald lampshade. Michael Berenbaum is former project director at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; he agreed with Saltzman that this stuff is distracting. Mike Smith, alias Denier Bud, said Jewish American propaganda officers planted the stuff at Buchenwald. Hans Ottomeyer, general director of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, said, ''There is an undue concentration on the darkness of German history.'' Yehuda Bauer, a leading Holocaust scholar at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, encouraged me: ''Keep telling the story. That's what's important. Write a book.''

Did you go to Yad Vashem [the official Israeli Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem]?

Their two main curators and the head of the museum gave me an hour, basically to tell me they didn't want to have anything to do with it. In Israel, they have a religious problem: they can't have human remains. I could understand it; it was very fair. They didn't question that it was human skin. But the DNA testing from this ancient, degraded skin meant I couldn't prove its provenance'--Buchenwald 1943, or even a Jewish person. The science isn't available. That was their out. So I went to the Buchenwald Memorial.

What happened?

Volkhard Knigge, the director, took the lampshade for more testing. It turned out like the others. He e-mailed me, ''There will be no last certitude about the object for now. That's how history works.'' But he agreed with Bauer: keep telling the story, keep asking questions.

How did the lampshade affect you?

When I began to realize the horror of the actual process of its creation, I almost screamed. A wave of sympathy overwhelmed me. The horror turned to sadness. The sadness turned to under- standing what the human species is capable of in a situation as crazy as the Third Reich. Skin defines us. Outward appearance. Racism. Tattoos. These are all connected. There's no koan more untrue than ''You can't judge a book by its cover.'' People are always doing that. Thinking like that made the lampshade more and more important to me. Why do some people think others are worth less than they are? I began having sympathy for this thing because I'm a human being. Was Ilse Koch a human being? Her son is born in prison, while she's supposed to be in isolation. I have sympathy for him. I hope he's figured a way to deal with the horrible existential situation he was born into. It wasn't his fault.

'Mystery hut' spotted on dark side of Moon '-- RT World News

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:57

A Chinese Yutu 2 rover has spotted an odd object on the far side of the Moon, and it's been described in initial reports by media outlets as a ''mystery hut.'' Yutu 2 is now poised to take a closer look at it.

The strange cube-shaped object was first spotted by the Chinese lunar expedition in November, China's science outreach channel Our Space reported. The rover detected the object on the horizon some 262 feet (80 meters) away to the north as it was traversing the Von Krmn crater in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon.

The press office of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) published a photo of the object rising over the horizon against a background of dark skies. Few details can be ascertained from the photo, however, and the nature of the object remains unclear.

The Chinese have expressed a strong interest in investigating this ''mystery hut,'' and the rover is now expected to spend the next two or three lunar days '' the equivalent of two or three months here on Earth '' moving towards the object while avoiding the craters that pockmark the far side of the Earth's satellite.

Yutu 2 made the first-ever landing on the far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019 and has been moving around the 115-mile-wide (186-km-wide) Von Krmn crater ever since. It is part of China's fourth expedition to the Moon and the second that has involved a rover.

Ukraine warns EU about 5 million refugees '-- RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:34

Ukraine's defense minister has decided to raise the specter of one of the European Union's major concerns '' large scale migration '' amid American-driven claims that Russia is planning an invasion of his country.

Alexey Reznikov, who took charge of Kiev's Defense Ministry in November, warns that up to five million of his country men and women could flee to the EU in the event of a full-scale war. A similar number are believed to have already left since 2014, about two million to Russia, and the rest to other European countries.

Writing for pro-NATO lobby group the Atlantic Council, Reznikov said there was ''real uncertainty'' about whether Brussels understood the impact a much-hyped large-scale Russian incursion into Ukraine would have on the whole of the continent.

Reznikov dedicated his article to explaining to EU leaders the potentially ''disastrous consequences'' of any conflict '' one Russia has repeatedly said it has no intention of starting.

The sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing a Russian invasion would be just one of many major concerns facing European society.

The crisis would also endanger Europe's food security, as imports of grain and other essential products from Russia and Ukraine would come to a halt due to the fighting, he pointed out.

According to the minister, the Russian invasion would ''mark a definitive end to the rules-based international order,'' paving the way for ''a new era of global insecurity'' that could undermine decades of peace in Europe.

Russia believes the so-called "rules based international order" is a concept the US has devised to excuse its breaches of international law. For example, in its illegal occupations in Syria and Iraq.

In order to avoid such a scenario, ''Western leaders must demonstrate their resolve to resist Russian pressure, while strengthening Ukraine,'' he insisted. ''For our part, we are committed to defending Europe,'' Reznikov wrote, acknowledging Russia's overwhelming military might.

Kiev and its backers in Washington have been speculating about the possibility of a Russian ''invasion'' of Ukraine since last month. On Saturday, an unnamed US government official told the Washington Post that, according to intelligence assessments, Moscow's military operation may be launched early in the new year and involve as many as 175,000 troops.

Russia has rejected those claims as groundless attempts to instill ''hysteria,'' and affirmed that it has no plans to attack any nation. It blamed the NATO buildup in Eastern Europe for ''encouraging'' Kiev to rely on the use of force, to resolve the Donbass conflict, instead of looking for a solution through negotiations.

US President Joe Biden said Ukraine would be one of the key topics on the agenda of his virtual meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday.

Fans Pour Funding'--and Faith'--Into a Hit Drama About Jesus - WSJ

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:20

Crowdfunding has raised millions for 'The Chosen,' an ambitious series exploring characters from the New Testament. Fans have already chipped in enough for three seasons'--and are driving ticket sales for a Christmas special coming to movie theaters.

John Jurgensen | Photographs by

Cooper Neill for The Wall Street Journal

Nov. 27, 2021 12:00 am ETMIDLOTHIAN, Texas'--Last winter 2,000 people costumed in robes and headscarves gathered on a grassy slope here to shoot the season finale of a drama with no ties to any Hollywood studio, network or streaming service. ''The Chosen,'' a saga about the adult life of Jesus and his disciples, is financed completely by its audience. Most of the extras had paid $1,000 each to be part of the climactic scene leading up to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Now, down the hill from that spot, construction crews are building a roughly $20 million...

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MIDLOTHIAN, Texas'--Last winter 2,000 people costumed in robes and headscarves gathered on a grassy slope here to shoot the season finale of a drama with no ties to any Hollywood studio, network or streaming service. ''The Chosen,'' a saga about the adult life of Jesus and his disciples, is financed completely by its audience. Most of the extras had paid $1,000 each to be part of the climactic scene leading up to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Now, down the hill from that spot, construction crews are building a roughly $20 million production complex dedicated to ''The Chosen.'' They're pouring concrete for a soundstage the size of a football field, soon to be flanked by a cafeteria and workshops for sets and costumes. Next, they'll break ground for a replica of Capernaum, an ancient village on the Sea of Galilee.

Dallas Jenkins, the filmmaker who created ''The Chosen,'' says the show's style is modeled more on ''Friday Night Lights'' than other Christian TV shows and movies. Mary Magdalene relapses into vice. The apostle Matthew is on the autism spectrum. Jesus' miracles get back stories.

By fleshing out biblical characters across multiple seasons, the show has inspired fan discussion, debate and squabbling on a level more typical of the Marvel or Star Wars series. Except that for ''Chosen'' fans, the dynamic is fueled by religious faith.

The show grew out of a short film and fundraising messages Mr. Jenkins posted online in 2017. Some 16,000 people paid at least $100 each to fund the shooting of the first season in 2018, budgeted at $11 million. In exchange, this flock of financial backers got an equity stake in the company that produced the show. They received shares in The Chosen LLC through an offering process filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These initial investors could eventually share in any profits from the show and other revenue sources, such as sales of ''Chosen'' T-shirts and bible study books co-written by Amanda Jenkins, the creator's wife.

Majority owners in the company, including Mr. Jenkins (who received an annual salary of $300,000, according to an SEC filing) won't share in profits until the startup investors earn back their initial stake plus a profit of at least 20%.

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The success of the series is a powerful reminder to Hollywood that faith-focused projects can sometimes become breakthrough hits. But what makes ''The Chosen'' even more of an outlier is the way it is supercharging the crowdfunding model to sustain production through multiple seasons. Though ''The Chosen'' is free to watch, viewers have poured $40 million and counting into its production budget, enough to pay for three out of a planned seven seasons. The costs of building the new production facilities, on a 1,200-acre camp owned by the Salvation Army, are being covered by a smaller group of the show's fans.

Producers say viewership was sluggish when the first season premiered for a fee in 2019. But the audience spiked when they made the series free on a ''Chosen'' app, now the show's main distribution hub, and viewers continued to multiply during the pandemic's lockdown months. The show has been translated into 50 languages, and is licensed to video services from Amazon to Peacock. Producers estimate that its 16 episodes have been viewed 312 million times. Now the ''Chosen'' audience is set to converge in person in movie theaters.

Starting Dec. 1, about 1,700 theaters will feature screenings of a ''Chosen'' Christmas special, including musical performances and a new episode in which Mother Mary (a series character played by Vanessa Benavente) flashes back to her son's birth. Distributor Fathom Events, known for one- or two- day releases of classic movies, live opera and other specialty fare, expanded the ''Chosen'' event to 10 days. Ticket sales are approaching $6 million so far, putting ''Christmas with 'The Chosen''' on track to be Fathom's bestseller ever, according to chief executive Ray Nutt.

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Crowdfunded colossusOther movie and TV producers have tapped die-hard fans to cover their budgets, but those projects were small and fleeting by comparison. The record for crowdfunded entertainment was once held by the cult comedy TV series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000,'' which raised about $6 million on Kickstarter for one revival season. Season 3 of ''The Chosen'' is set to start shooting in March with a budget of $18 million, up from $12 million for season 2. The increased expenses include the cost of switching to a union film crew.

Mr. Jenkins, 46 years old, is the co-writer, executive producer and director. In the show's many online videos and social media posts, he is also the audience's behind-the-scenes liaison and explainer of storytelling choices and biblical interpretations. These messages routinely include his disclaimers about the project's business model, such as, ''We are not a nonprofit, a church or a ministry.''

His pitch mixes altruism and evangelism, urging ''Chosen'' fans to chip in money to keep a drama about Jesus and his teachings free for anyone to watch. Revenue flows from viewers who touch a ''Pay It Forward'' button in the ''Chosen'' app, contributing an average of $65 each. Mr. Jenkins hosts livestream events that double as viewing parties for new episodes, which generate an average $1 million each for the show's production fund and overhead costs including distribution fees, he says. The show's 25 employees include social-media staffers and a video team capturing work behind the scenes.

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''We have to grind it out for every viewer, and direct communication with them is how we do it,'' Mr. Jenkins says. ''It's a constant feedback loop.''

After seeing Mr. Jenkins's pilot and initial fundraising call on Facebook, Lisa Ann Lang became one of the show's angel investors with a buy-in of $10,000. Though she describes herself as ''a spiritual person, not a religious person,'' Ms. Lang, 54 years old, has immersed herself in all things ''Chosen.'' She bought DVDs and books in bulk to hand out, and made additional contributions that earned her a spot in the credits, three set visits, and an on-screen cameo in episode 6 as a background villager witnessing Jesus' healing of a paralytic. She recently rented a theater in her hometown in northwest Pennsylvania to screen episodes of ''The Chosen'' throughout December, and paid to advertise the screenings on billboards and radio spots.

''I may not have been called to be a missionary overseas, but this project provides the opportunity to spread the gospel as if you were a missionary close to home,'' she says.

Echoing other devotees of the series, Ms. Lang says ''The Chosen'' brings biblical figures down to earth. Jesus (played by Jonathan Roumie, who's had one-off roles in ''Chicago Med,'' ''The Good Wife'' and other network TV series) makes dry jokes and dances at the wedding where he turns water into wine. Matthew (Paras Patel) gets shunned because of his personality quirks and his job as a tax collector for the Romans. Simon Peter (Shahar Isaac) struggles to balance his devotion to his wife and his Messiah.

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''It has allowed people to relate on a very human level, where a lot of other productions try to be so lofty,'' Ms. Lang says.

This approach stems from Mr. Jenkins's background as a filmmaker and an evangelical. He grew up in a conservative Christian community in Zion, Ill., where he played basketball and trained in a bible memorization program called Awana. His father is Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of the ''Left Behind'' series of novels, which chronicled apocalyptic battles against the Antichrist following the rapture. The books sold tens of millions of copies and topped national bestseller lists around the turn of the millennium, when Mr. Jenkins was starting his own career after bible college in Minnesota. His father, an investor in ''The Chosen,'' wrote a novelization of the show's first season.

Mr. Jenkins says it was the Jack Nicholson picture ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' that first made him want to be a filmmaker. Starting at age 25, he made a series of independent movies that led to his big break in Hollywood, directing a film with two unlikely partners: the horror studio Blumhouse and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., which had decided to produce faith-based projects.

''The Resurrection of Gavin Stone,'' about a down-and-out actor who plays Jesus in a megachurch pageant, died upon release in theaters in 2017. Feeling like a failure, Mr. Jenkins turned to making films for the worship services at his Illinois church, the same one where he'd shot his Hollywood bomb.

''Some fans of 'The Chosen' think it's a stick-it-to Hollywood thing,'' he says. ''They get excited about the outside nature of it. But most of our actors and crew are from Hollywood, and Hollywood gave me an opportunity before but it didn't work out.''

A short film he made for his church's Christmas celebration caught the attention of an online video service specializing in clean content, Angel Studios. ''The Shepherd'' put a tight focus on the kind of character typically relegated to the background of the nativity, and served as a proof of concept to potential investors when Angel Studios helped Mr. Jenkins and his team launch their crowdfunding push for ''The Chosen.''

Mr. Jenkins, whose writing sessions for ''The Chosen'' go from about 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., collaborates on scripts with longtime friends Ryan Swanson, who has had his own ups and downs in Hollywood, and Tyler Thompson, a co-writer of all Mr. Jenkins's church films. Several experts guide them on biblical and historical accuracy, and appear in roundtable discussion videos online.

Mr. Jenkins says he draws on secular sources, too. Binge-watching the kaleidoscopic HBO crime drama ''The Wire'' convinced him to delve into the sociopolitical worlds of Romans and Pharisees. He borrowed the idea of delaying Jesus' entrance in the series from ''The West Wing,'' in which the president doesn't show up until the end of the first episode.

To inject realism, cinematographer Akis Konstantakopoulos favors candlelit rooms and production designer James R. Cunningham creates gritty street scenes. Mr. Jenkins's mantra to his makeup and costume team: ''more dirt, more grime, more holes.''

''One hurdle we have to overcome is the genre itself. There are few people who go, 'Yes! Another Jesus project!' '' he says. ''People are coming in skeptical, expecting that this will be inauthentic, cheesy or lifeless. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, Hollywood-ized, where they're not honoring the text.''

Mr. Cunningham, the set designer and Mr. Jenkins's former roommate in college, says his family didn't sample the show until the pandemic shifted their attention. ''I couldn't get people to watch it because of the stigma to the whole Jesus genre. Once people started watching it took off.''

Efforts to ground the show with 21st-century relevance can create backlash. Scenes of the disciples promoting the Sermon on the Mount, building a stage and handling crowd control, offended some fans who said it depicted Jesus as a rock-star celebrity.

Mr. Jenkins says the goal is to create context where the scriptures lack it: ''People need to understand the difference between the content we make and the content we are inspired by. Some of what we do is on purpose to remind people of that.''

'Planting a stake'When some fans asked to support the show's mission with monetary donations ranging into the millions, the ''Chosen'' team partnered with separate nonprofit companies to accept them, according to chief operating officer Adam Swerdlow. That pool of money, routed through the National Christian Foundation and the Impact Foundation, is being used to build the production complex and the 1st-century village set in Midlothian. ''The Chosen'' will pay rent to use these facilities, which are also intended to accommodate other faith-based film and TV productions.

This headquarters is going up 30 miles from Dallas on the former ranchland of Camp Hoblitzelle, established by the Salvation Army in 1956. Stocked with everything from dorms to a horse corral and ropes course, the sprawling grounds of the camp host summer campers, church youth groups and retreats.

A fan of ''The Chosen'' who worked at Camp Hoblitzelle suggested it when producers were searching for a site of their own. The production had been moving among shooting locations, including a stand-in for ancient Jerusalem in Goshen, Utah, a set owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The ''Chosen'' crew and cast first set up shop at the camp when it was empty during the pandemic to shoot scenes for season 2. That led to a lease agreement with Camp Hoblitzelle.

The Capernaum village set has been designed to accommodate both film crews and everyday visitors to Camp Hoblitzelle. Plans for the 2-acre site include dwellings big enough for camera and lighting rigs, and with interchangeable Jewish and Roman doors, depending on the needs of a scene. But it will also feature a working olive press, a ritual bath called a mikvah, and other features designed to immerse tourists and campers in a biblical setting.

Mr. Jenkins, who has four children, the two eldest in college, moved with his family last summer to a home near the camp. He envisions the emerging site here as a self-sufficient outpost in the entertainment world. As a potential follow-up to ''The Chosen,'' he's considering a series based on the Book of Acts, and a multiseason adaptation of his father's ''Left Behind'' stories.

''We're planting a stake here for not just these five seasons, but potentially more,'' Mr. Jenkins says. ''This is home, so let's make this permanent.''

Write to John Jurgensen at john.jurgensen@wsj.com

A frightening new potential explanation for vaccine-driven myocarditis and other problems

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:18

Downstream effects of the antibodies that people produce against the coronavirus spike protein may lead to myocarditis and even neurological concerns, two veteran medical researchers have written in the top medical journal in the United States.

Our immune systems produce these antibodies in response to both vaccination and natural infection with Covid. However - though the researchers do not say so explicitly, possibly because doing so would be politically untenable - spike protein antibody levels are MUCH higher following vaccination than infection. Thus the downstream response to vaccination may be more severe.

The NEJM published the short paper Wednesday in its Basic Implications of Clinical Observations series. One of the writers is an oncologist and professor at Harvard Medical School; the other is a cancer researcher who has his own lab at the University of California, Davis.

(SOURCE: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcibr2113694)

The spike protein sticks out of the coronavirus shell and binds to a crucial signaling mechanism on our cells called the ACE2 receptor, enabling the virus to infect those cells. The mRNA and DNA/AAV vaccines hijack our cells to make a version of the spike protein. Our immune systems then produce antibodies that will recognize and destroy the spike protein and thus defeat the coronavirus.

But the researchers explain that those spike protein antibodies may themselves produce a second wave of antibodies, called anti-idiotype antibodies or Ab2s. Those Ab2s may modulate the immune system's initial response by binding with and destroying the first wave of antibodies.

Unfortunately, to do so, the Ab2s must contain structures very similar to the spike protein itself. If they are too similar, they can wind up binding to the same parts of our cells that the spike protein targets.

As the researchers explain:

Some of the resulting anti-idiotype (or ''Ab2'') antibodies that are specific for Ab1 can structurally resemble that of the original antigens themselves. Thus, the Ab2 antigen-binding region can potentially represent an exact mirror image of the initial targeted antigen [NOTE: this means the spike protein] in the Ab1 response'...

As a result of this mimicry, Ab2 antibodies also have the potential to bind the same receptor that the original antigen was targeting. Ab2 antibodies binding to the original receptor on normal cells therefore have the potential to mediate profound effects on the cell that could result in pathologic changes, particularly in the long term '-- long after the original antigen itself has disappeared. [Emphasis added.]

In other words, Ab2 antibodies may continue to damage our bodies long after we have cleared either Sars-Cov-2 itself or the spike proteins that the vaccines cause our cells to make.

To be clear, the researchers did not provide proof that these anti-idiotype antibodies are actually causing problems, or even that they exist. The paper merely presents a theory. But the writers believe it could explain the high incidence of myocarditis ''after vaccine administration'' and even ''neurologic effects of SARS-COV-2 infection or vaccines.''

And what the researchers do not say, but what even the Centers for Disease Control acknowledges, is that vaccination produces much higher levels of anti-spike protein antibodies than natural infection.

''Completion of a primary vaccine series, especially with mRNA vaccines, typically leads to a more consistent, and higher-titer initial antibody response [than natural infection],'' the CDC writes. (SOURCE: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/vaccine-induced-immunity.html)

A large Israeli study found spike protein antibody levels about four times as high in vaccinated as infected people. At the same time, vaccine-generated antibodies wane far more quickly, dropping up to 40 percent a month compared to 5 percent a month for naturally generated antibodies.

Are the high levels of vaccine-generated spike protein antibodies producing an equally robust response from Ab2 antibodies and causing a dangerous autoimmune cascade that can affect the heart and possibly other organs?

No one knows. But with non-Covid all-cause mortality rising in many countries where the mRNA vaccines were used heavily, it might be time to find out.

Especially since health authorities are now pushing booster shots, which produce even higher levels of spike protein antibodies in the people who get them.

Anti-vaxxers are society's grumbling 'appendix', German comedian claims '-- RT World News

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:11

A comedian has landed in hot water after joking that right-wingers and anti-vaxxers are the ''appendix'' of society, so can be removed without issue. However, she's been accused of rhetoric straight out of the ''Nazi playbook.''

Sarah Bosetti, who hosts a satirical podcast on German public broadcast network ZDF, made the controversial remarks in the latest episode on Friday, before doubling down on them on her Twitter. In the clip, she rants about the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, as well as about those who are resistant to getting a jab.

While Covid-19 mandates may cause a ''split,'' Bosetti contends, that might not be such a bad thing. She reasons that, rather than society ending up being divided, a small fraction of people on the right would simply break away. And like having a grumbling appendix removed, those who remained really wouldn't notice their absence.

''An appendix is not exactly essential, strictly speaking, for the survival of the whole system. On the contrary, whenever it gets inflamed and cries out, 'Hey, people '' I'm still there!', it simply gets on everybody's nerves,'' she said. Bosetti also pre-empted would-be nitpickers, saying the real-life appendix actually ''plays an important role in the body,'' parrying, ''It's not a biology lecture!''

The comedian's remarks received a rather mixed reaction, with many calling Bosetti out over her apparent dehumanization of anti-vaccination activists, and some even accusing her of using Nazi tropes.

Others supported her, approving the idea of ''splitting off'' the anti-vaxxers and ''Nazis'' from society. Some riffed on her surgery metaphor, saying it was necessary to remove an inflamed appendix before the infection spread to other parts of the body.

The controversy around the remarks prompted Bosetti to issue a clarification. She brushed off the Nazi playbook accusations, insisting the anti-vaxxers were separating themselves from the rest of society through choice, and denying she was advocating any separation by force. Her latest post has since provoked a new round of in-fighting in the comments.

Actual 3D-printed steaks are now being served in restaurants - here's where

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:46

The future of eating out at fancy restaurants could be built on 3D-printed steaks.

Redefine Meat, an Israeli startup, is expanding where its product is available in Europe. The products in question are 3D-printed steaks. The steaks are created from plant-based beef substitutes. But it's all configured to taste and feel like real beef steaks.

3D-printed steaks are now available in 30 more restaurants3D-printed steak created by Redefine Meat. Image source: Redefine MeatRedefine Meat has expanded its operations into Europe. Restaurants in London, Berlin, and Amsterdam now carry the 3D-printed steaks the company has become known for. A full list of the restaurants that plan to offer Redefine Meat hasn't been shared. However, we do know that restaurants owned by celebrity chef Marco Pierre White will offer the meat alternative (via Independent).

White's and three other restaurants in the London area will serve Redefine Meat for £20 to £30. That's a similar price to the way those restaurants charge for traditional beef steak. On top of 3D-printed steaks, Redefine Meat will also provide ''premium quality'' burgers, lamb kebabs, ground beef, and sausages to other restaurants throughout the Netherlands, UK, and Germany. That should give restaurant goers multiple ways to try the plant-based meats the company offers.

How Redefine Meat made realistic quality beef3D printer with injector nozzle. Image source: phonlamaiphoto/AdobePlant-based meat is something multiple companies have tried to push over the years. However, it often falls short in some way. Whether that's by the touch, taste or, smell depends on the company making it.

With these new 3D-printed steaks, though, Redefine Meat uses 3D printing, along with artificial intelligence to recreate the meat. This includes capturing the feeling of the muscle fibers of the animal meat, as well as the juicy, yet firm, texture. This has allowed the company to create 3D-printed steaks that look, taste, and feel like real beef or lamb.

While they might look like real meat, the steaks are made from plant-based materials. These materials include soy and pea protein, as well as beetroot. The company also uses chickpeas and coconut fat to make the steaks seem more like the meat that inspired them.

Redefine Meat wants to offer its 3D-printed steaks in more restaurants, as well as in supermarkets. It also wants to create additional cuts, like thicker or thinner. This should help to make the offering more appealing to more customers as they can choose the cut they want. Right now, the 3D-printed meat is designed to mimic flank steak, which is also known as bavette.

This isn't the first time we've seen innovations pushed by 3D printing, either. But, it is notable because of how closely the new steaks resemble real meat.

It's unclear when Redefine Meat will expand to other restaurants, or when the 3D-printed steaks might start appearing on store shelves, too.

Child sex abusers at CIA avoiding prosecution: What we know '-- RT USA News

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:41

A scolding expose based on a trove of internal CIA documents indicates an apparent pattern of failure by the federal government to prosecute CIA employees and contractors suspected of child sex abuse crimes.

The article published by BuzzFeed is based on over 3,500 pages of declassified materials it obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

How many pedophiles are we talking about?At least 10 cases of credibly suspected crimes were identified over the course of 14 years, according to BuzzFeed.

The trove of documents details investigations by the CIA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The spy agency watchdog deals internally with all sorts of crimes, including those committed by third parties, like possession of a fake agent badge. The documents were heavily redacted and the release of some pages under FOIA was fully denied.

BuzzFeed focused its investigation on alleged sexual crimes involving minors. Of the 10 identified individuals, one admitted to sexually abusing two girls aged two and six. Most cases involve crimes related to child pornography, like possession, smuggling, and procurement of outlawed content.

Was the self-confessed child abuser prosecuted?The documents state that the CIA employee in question admitted to the OIG that he had engaged in ''inappropriate sexual activity'' involving a two-year-old girl and had ''inappropriate sexual contact'' with a six-year-old girl on two occasions. The first victim was not identified. The second one apparently was. The employee was also ''found to have extensively downloaded child pornography'' and admitted to searching for abuse images featuring 12 to 14-year-old victims.

In August 2009, an assistant US attorney declined prosecution ''based on taint issues'' and ''the lack of previously identified child pornography victims'' in videos found in the man's possession. In March of the same year, the CIA decided to terminate the employee and revoke his clearances.

Why no federal prosecution for CIA employees?The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which declined prosecution, would not comment on individual cases, but said that ''the occupation or employer of the suspect does not factor'' in its decision of whether to file charges. The reference to ''taint issues'' may indicate mishandling of evidence, BuzzFeed suggested.

A CIA insider told the outlet that the agency is concerned that in a criminal trial, classified information may be disclosed. ''We can't have these people testify, they may inadvertently be forced to disclose sources and methods,'' the former official was cited as saying.

No prosecutions resulted from the sex scandals at all?BuzzFeed identified two such cases, in which both of the prosecuted individuals were also accused of mishandling classified materials. One was an unidentified contractor, who was found to have on his private laptop personal data of ''Agency-affiliated individuals'' and technical files ''related to Agency systems.'' They were discovered during a child porn probe. The FBI took over as the primary investigator of the case.

Another one involves Joshua Schulte, the former CIA technical specialist accused of leaking the agency's hacking tools dubbed 'Vault 9' to transparency organization WikiLeaks. Last year, he was convicted of contempt of court and making false statements to the FBI, but the jury got deadlocked on the more serious leaking allegations. He pleaded not guilty over the child pornography possession charges. A separate trial for those allegations is pending.

What about the other alleged sex offenders?Five of the 10 people spotlighted by BuzzFeed were fired or resigned. Five others were referred to a personnel board or the Office of Security, which handles the security of CIA facilities. The outcome of one case could not be learned from the released documents.

In an eleventh case, the OIG found no direct evidence of any crimes, but said the subject had ''consistent interest'' in the topic of sexual abuse of minors, which the office believed to be concerning. The part explaining how the agency handled the situation was redacted.

BuzzFeed said the CIA's record of dealing with suspected offenders as described in the documents ''marks a striking deviation from how sex crimes involving children have been handled at other federal agencies.''

Dr. Barbara Simpson departs as Chief Medical Examiner in New York City for Mount Sinai | 711Web

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:40

Home - Latest News - Dr. Barbara Simpson departs as Chief Medical Examiner in New York City for Mount Sinai

By Editor November 30, 2021 Latest News Barbara Sampson, New York City's first female medical examiner and chief of staff during the pandemic's darkest days, will be leaving to take up her position at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, officials announced Monday.

Sampson, appointed in 2014 to the position of medical examiner by Mayor Bill de Blasio, has overseen a number of major changes to the nation's largest municipal forensic operation, including the addition of new DNA technology to identify disaster and crime victims.

According to a spokeswoman for the chief medical examiner's office, Sampson's last day on the job will be Tuesday. She is scheduled to begin her new position Wednesday as vice president of strategic initiatives for laboratory and academic affairs, and professor of pathology at Manhattan Medical School.

Dr. Jason Graham has been named the acting chief medical examiner, officials said. Graham has been with OCME since 2006 and in his current job since 2008.

In 2016, Sampson and other OCME officials laid out a plan to deal with a wave of mass deaths involving in- and out-of-hospital deaths from infection with the virus and other pathogens. In its most severe form, the study estimated that the ''biological accident'' could lead to more than 50,000 deaths over an eight-week period. The report said that the Office for Coordination and Cooperation in the Middle East would be the lead agency in dealing with victims.

When the coronavirus pandemic swept the city in March 2020, Sampson and its staff were overwhelmed by the pandemic's victims as well as other deaths. To store the growing numbers of dead bodies, Sampson and OCME, along with other city agencies, have established a long-term storage operation at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The facility allowed families of pandemic victims more time to arrange final disposition and funerals. The operation lasted nearly 500 days before concluding last September.

As of Monday, there have been more than 34,000 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths in New York City, officials said.

By clicking Register, you agree to private policy.

In recent years, OCME under Sampson has begun using a rapid DNA analysis system to identify mass deaths victims in less than two hours.

Officials hope to use this system in criminal cases. With the remains of more than 1,100 victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks yet to be identified, OCME has also begun using this year's newest massive DNA sequencing system, known as Next Generation Sequencing, to obtain usable DNA profiles from the degraded remains. for identification.

''I am extremely proud of OCME for maintaining our longstanding tradition of conducting independent investigations into the public health service and the criminal justice system and helping New Yorkers deal with their most difficult moments of trauma and loss,'' Sampson said in a statement. ''I leave the agency knowing that we are stronger and ready to take on whatever challenges come for our city.''

Anthony M. Distefano has been a Newsday reporter since 1986 covering law enforcement, criminal justice, and legal affairs from her New York City offices.

'Wall of secrecy' in Pfizer contracts as company accused of profiteering | UK news | The Guardian

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:32

Ministers have agreed a secrecy clause in any dispute with the drugs manufacturer Pfizer over Britain's Covid vaccine supply. Large portions of the government's contracts with the company over the supply of 189m vaccine doses have been redacted and any arbitration proceedings will be kept secret.

The revelation comes as Pfizer is accused by a former senior US health official of ''war profiteering'' during the pandemic. In a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation to be broadcast this week, Tom Frieden, who was director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Barack Obama, said: ''If you're just focusing on maximising your profits and you're a vaccine manufacturer '... you are war profiteering.''

Zain Rizvi, research director at Public Citizen, a US consumer advocacy organisation which has examined Pfizer's global vaccine contracts, said: ''There is a wall of secrecy surrounding these contracts and it's unacceptable, particularly in a public health crisis.''

Rizvi said the UK needed to explain why it had agreed to secret arbitration proceedings. He said: ''It's the only high-income country we have seen that has agreed to this provision. It allows pharmaceutical companies to bypass domestic legal processes.

''The UK government has allowed the drug firms to call the shots. How did we end up in a situation where a handful of drug firms were able to exert so much control over the most powerful governments in the world? It points to a broken system.''

Pfizer has won plaudits for its vaccine delivery programme, but the US multinational faces growing scrutiny over the scale of its profits and the proportion of doses it has delivered to low-income countries.

While AstraZeneca agreed to sell its vaccine at cost during the pandemic, Pfizer wanted to secure its profits. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which now has the brand name Comirnaty, will be one of the most lucrative drugs in pharmaceutical history.

The Channel 4 investigation reveals analysis by one biological engineering expert claiming the Pfizer vaccine costs just 76p to manufacture for each shot. It is reportedly being sold for £22 a dose to the UK government.

The estimated manufacturing costs do not include research, distribution and other costs, but Pfizer says its profit margin as a percentage before tax are in the ''high-20s''. Pfizer expects to deliver 2.3bn vaccines this year with predicted revenues of $36bn (£26.3bn).

One biological engineering expert claims the Pfizer vaccine costs just 76p to manufacture for each shot. Photograph: Rafiq Maqbool/APA report last month by the People's Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of organisations including aid charities, said Pfizer and other drug firms have sold the majority of doses to rich countries, leaving low-income countries ''out in the cold'' . Only 2% of people in low-income countries had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Drug firms should suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, tests, treatments and other medical tools.

Pfizer has faced increased scrutiny allegations of excessive global profits after its partner, the biotechnology company BioNTech, announced in September 2020 it was to receive up to '¬375m (£320m) from the German government to fund vaccine development.

Anna Marriott, Oxfam's health policy manager, said: ''It is deplorable that billions of people around the world are being denied vaccines so that pharmaceutical companies can make obscene profits. Given that public investment was crucial to vaccine development, it's incomprehensible that pharma monopolies are being prioritised over people's lives.''

Pfizer has to date pledged 40m doses out of global production to Covax, the UN-backed initiative delivering vaccines for low income countries. This is less than 2% of its global production for 2021. The firm says it aims to deliver at least two billion doses to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2022.

Pfizer said vaccine production was the ''biggest scale-up'' in the firm's history and it was proud to have delivered more than 2bn vaccines to 162 countries. It supplied low-income countries on a not-for-profit price and all other countries were being offered the vaccine at a significantly discounted price.

The company added: ''The pandemic has highlighted the extraordinary value that a vibrant private sector can deliver to society.'' It said confidentiality agreements were standard practice. The estimated cost of manufacturing the vaccine by a biological engineering expert was grossly inaccurate and meaningless because it did not reflect the true costs of bringing the vaccine to patients, including clinical studies, increased manufacturing efforts and global distribution.

The government said its vaccine contracts were commercially sensitive and it could not disclose any further details. BioNTech did not respond to a request for comment.

Vaccine Wars: The Truth About Pfizer is on Channel 4 at 7.30pm on Friday

'This Unlawful Mandate is Now Blocked in All 50 States': Biden's Vaccine Mandate Suffers Another Blow in Ruling for Montana

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 12:51

The State of Montana has delivered another blow to Biden's now-hobbled federal vaccine mandate. The news was announced by Senator Steve Daines:

"BIG news for Montana," Daines wrote on Twitter. "Joe Biden's overreaching vaccine mandate threatens Montana hospitals, Montana healthcare workers and Montanans seeking access to essential care. We must keep up this fight."

Senator Daines was responding to an announcement from the Attorney General of Montana, Austin Knudsen.

"Great news for Montana healthcare workers: A federal judge just granted our request for an injunction on the CMS vaccine #mandate. This unlawful mandate is now blocked in all 50 states."

The details were reported by the Montana Department of Justice.

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De Blasio mulls COVID booster mandate for indoor NYC events

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Mon, 06 Dec 2021 04:44

Mayor de Blasio says he might require people to get COVID-19 booster shots if they want to attend concerts, restaurants and similar indoor venues, as the new Omicron variant continues to spread citywide.

''I think it's a fair question that we're going to analyze now '' with all of our approaches to COVID, we're going to update them, because we're dealing with some new challenges at this moment,'' de Blasio said Friday during his weekly appearance of WNYC radio's ''The Brian Lehrer Show.''

''So, that will be looked at along with a series of other actions, because it's really dynamic right now.''

Such a new mandate could include a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Currently, the city requires proof of just a single jab to enter certain indoor businesses '-- including all indoor restaurants, entertainment venues and gyms.

The city currently requires restaurants to enforce vaccine mandates for customers. Sipa USA via AP There is no information regarding if fully vaccinated people are fully protected from testing positive from the Omicron variant. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/FileDe Blasio was responding to a question from Lehrer on whether the city should require people eating indoors or attending concerts to show proof they've been fully vaccinated '-- as opposed to just having had one shot of the vaccine.

As of Saturday afternoon, there were eight cases of the Omicron variant detected statewide, including seven in the city.

De Blasio says he's looking at ''a series of other actions,'' to address the emergence of the Omicron variant. Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesLast month, the city extended eligibility for additional booster shots to everyone 18 and older, provided it's been at least six months since their initial Moderna or Pfizer booster or at least two months since a Johnson & Johnson dose.

Werd ex-koning Juan Carlos gechanteerd met seksvideo? | Royals | Telegraaf.nl

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Sun, 05 Dec 2021 22:11

Werd de Spaanse ex-koning Juan Carlos gechanteerd door actrice Brbara Rey?

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Two Men Allegedly Stole $20 Million in Royalties From YouTube

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Sun, 05 Dec 2021 21:46

Photo: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV (Getty Images)

Two men have been accused of a $20 million, years-long music royalties heist from a certain company identified as ''Y.T.'' Federal prosecutors do not explicitly name ''YouTube.'' We can glean from court documents, however, that ''Y.T.'' is a website that hosts uploads and uses the exact same monetization and content ID mechanisms as YouTube. And well, there's really only one site like YouTube.

A public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office was unable to confirm the identity of the company, and YouTube has not responded to Gizmodo's request for comment.

According to court documents (first reported by MarketWatch ), Webster Batista, aka ''Yenddi'' and Jose Teran, aka ''Chanel'' fraudulently claimed royalty rights to over 50,000 songs through LLCs which sounded like record labels. A grand jury has charged them with conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering.

As told in court documents filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, the men more or less simply claimed to be the copyright holders, and that was that. They told ''A.R.,'' the company that administers ''Y.T.'' royalty payments, that their company ''MediaMuv'' owned the copyright for a library of over 50,000 songs. They signed a contract with A.R., which tagged and uploaded the music for MediaMuv. They started collecting revenue. This went on from 2017 to April of 2021.

''Y.T.'' approved them for content ID, YouTube's automated system which hypothetically identifies matching songs from other users' uploads and allows the content ID holder to claim revenue from their ads, if they choose. They also signed a sound recording and audiovisual content license ( this ), which hypothetically allows Google to widely offer the music to users in exchange for monetization revenue.

The first song named is ''Viernes Sin Tu Amor,'' from which they allegedly collected $24,000. This was followed by ''La Quise Tanto,'' which brought in over $30,000, and ''Me Llamas,'' which made them over $100,000. (Various artists have titled tracks ''Me Llamas,'' but most prominently Piso 21's massive hit with over 700 million views on YouTube.)

Prosecutors allege that over time, the money moved around between companies with similar-sounding names'--Elegre Records, Musika Ink LLC, MuveMusic LLC. Said companies' bank accounts were allegedly used to purchase a $550,000 house, a $130,000 Tesla, a $92,000 BMW, and $62,000 in jewelry. Batista got a Pennsylvania ID under a fake name.

In 2018, someone claiming to be a rightsholder (''D.H.'') caught on and reported MediaMuv to the royalties administrator. Teran doubled down and implied that the person was just running the same scam, claiming to deserve royalty money ''just because he say [sic] he has the right to.''

IRS agents arrested Batista at his home in Florida on November 18th. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, they could each face a cumulative 37 years in prison and up to $250,000 for each felony conviction.

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VIDEO - Unvaccinated patrons banned from venues to face penalties for non-compliance | 9 News Australia - YouTube

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:37

VIDEO - Omicron: Pfizer CEO says we may need fourth Covid vaccine doses sooner than expected

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:25

A syringe is filled with a dose of Pfizer's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a pop-up community vaccination center at the Gateway World Christian Center in Valley Stream, New York, U.S., February 23, 2021.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Wednesday that people might need a fourth Covid-19 shot sooner than expected after preliminary research shows the new omicron variant can undermine protective antibodies generated by the vaccine the company developed with BioNTech.

Pfizer and BioNTech released results from an initial lab study Wednesday morning that showed a third shot is effective at fighting the omicron variant, while the initial two-dose vaccination series dropped significantly in its ability to protect against the new strain. However, the two-dose series likely still offers protection against getting severely sick from omicron, the companies said.

Bourla noted that a preliminary study by the company was based on a synthetic, lab-created copy of the variant and more data is needed from tests against the real virus. Those real-world results will be more accurate and are expected in the next two weeks, the Pfizer CEO said.

"When we see real-world data, will determine if the omicron is well covered by the third dose and for how long. And the second point, I think we will need a fourth dose," Bourla told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Bourla previously projected that a fourth shot would be needed 12 months after the third dose. "With omicron we need to wait and see because we have very little information. We may need it faster," he said.

The Pfizer CEO said what's most important right now is to roll out third doses for the winter. Public health officials are worried about a spike in Covid infections as people gather more indoors to escape the cold.

"A third dose will give very good protection I believe," Bourla said. He also said that treatments such as Pfizer's oral antiviral pill, Paxlovid, will help prevent hospitalizations and control Covid during the winter.

Pfizer submitted its application to the Food and Drug Administration last month for emergency authorization of the pill. Bourla told CNBC on Wednesday that Pfizer will have the full results from clinical trials in days, and he expects the pill to demonstrate an 89% reduction in hospitalization and death as it did in interim data last month.

The Pfizer CEO said the company has already shipped pills to the U.S. and can begin rolling out the product this month if the FDA approves it for emergency use. President Joe Biden said last month that the U.S. has bought 10 million courses with delivery slated to start by year-end.

Bourla said he's confident the Pfizer pill will remain effective against omicron, because it targets a different part of the virus, an enzyme used for replication, that is not as susceptible to mutations. The vaccines target the spike protein that the virus uses to invade human cells. The spike protein has mutated repeatedly over the course of the pandemic.

Pfizer and BioNTech can develop a vaccine that specifically targets omicron by March 2022 should that prove necessary, Bourla said. He said he anticipates new variants to emerge in the future, and the company is monitoring to see if vaccine adjustments are needed.

VIDEO - SF Millennium Tower Tilts Quarter Inch in Four Days '' NBC Bay Area

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:44

Newly released monitoring data shows that San Francisco's Millennium Tower tilted a quarter inch during the four days it took to install the first test pile to bedrock last month.

The monitoring data tracks settlement, tilting and water pressure levels underneath the sinking and leaning structure since work began on a fix for the troubled tower in May. Since work began to shore the sinking structure up on the north and west sides, the building has settled nearly 2 inches at the northwest corner and is now tilting more than two feet at that edge.

The latest data '' including the four days that the test pile was installed from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19 '' shows a quarter inch of new tilt, as well as a tenth of an inch of settlement at the time the test installation occurred. At the same time, there was marked fluctuation of water pressure below the foundation on the Mission Street side of the structure.

The water pressure level was recorded at various depths more than 100 feet below the structure, where a layer of clay resides.

Veteran geotechnical engineer Bob Pyke said the sudden fluctuation is a telltale sign.

''This is a large drop -- you can't see the scale on this plot -- but this is a pretty dramatic effect'' he said, pointing to the monitoring data chart that tracks the water pressure levels more than 100 feet below the building. While the data shows plunging pressure level quickly came back up, Pyke said the brief loss would likely generate settlement.

Pyke suspects that the drilling method used to remove soil and water from the bottom of the hole is to blame.

''It's no different from sucking a straw into a milkshake,'' Pyke said, noting that removal method involves using suction, essentially vacuuming up water and debris from the bottom of the shaft being drilled. He says the sucking process is likely stressing larger areas of the Old Bay Clay layer under the building's existing foundation.

He noted that while the pressure recovered on the Mission Street side, it did not return to previous levels under other parts of the foundation. Triggering accelerated settlement across other parts of the foundation of the building.

Other experts say the water pressure drop is evidence that the method designed to limit settlement may not be working as well as hoped.

''You can accidentally remove soil that you want to stay in place,'' said Rune Storesund, a geotechnical engineer who runs UC Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management. He says the water pressure data suggests engineers could clearly do more to refine their methods. ''You're always going to get settlement, obviously you want that to be as low as possible.''

Still, Ron Hamburger, the fix designer, recently assured city officials that the settlement that has occurred during testing of new methods designed to limit sinking is within expected levels. Hamburger now has city permission to install two more test piles. Hamburger told city officials the additional testing is needed to help determine just how many piles will ultimately be used to shore up the structure.

VIDEO - Oakland Unified among California school districts phasing out D, F grades for high school students - ABC7 San Francisco

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:43

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Some of California's largest school districts are trying an unconventional tactic to help students re-engage in school after distance learning and boost their chances of acceptance into the state's public colleges: by dropping D and F grades.

Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified, Sacramento City Unified, San Diego Unified and other districts are phasing out grades below a C for high school students. If a student fails a test or doesn't complete their homework, they'll be able to retake the test and get more time to turn in assignments. The idea is to encourage students to learn the course material and not be derailed by a low grade that could potentially disqualify them from admission to the University of California and California State University. Students who don't learn the material, pass the final exam or finish homework by the end of the semester would earn an "incomplete."

"Our hope is that students begin to see school as a place of learning, where they can take risks and learn from mistakes, instead of a place of compliance," said Nidya Baez, assistant principal at Fremont High in Oakland Unified. "Right now, we have a system where we give a million points for a million pieces of paper that students turn in, without much attention to what they're actually learning."

RELATED: Chronic absences spike at Oakland school as students struggle to stay motivated during distance learningAlthough education reform advocates have been pushing for this for years, the pandemic offered an opportunity for districts to put it into action. With so many students languishing academically after a year of distance learning, districts see dropping D's and F's as a way to help students who had been most impacted by the pandemic, especially Black, Latino and low-income students.

But the move is also, potentially, a step toward an entirely different learning system, in which students are assessed by what they've learned, not how well they perform on tests on a given day or whether they turn in their homework on time. Known as competency -- or mastery-based learning -- the style has been a staple of some private and charter schools for years, and a goal for education reformers trying to overhaul the traditional high school system.

While traditional grading may have worked for previous generations, a competency-based system is better suited for the rapidly changing workplace of the future, said Devin Vodicka, former superintendent of Vista Unified in San Diego County and chief executive of the Learner-Centered Collaborative, a nonprofit that helps districts shift to competency-based learning.

"We need a system that gets beyond the institutional model and provides more meaningful feedback for students," Vodicka said. "The future is going to require less focus on time and more focus on what we can do and contribute, and the quality of our performance. We need to prepare our students for this."

RELATED: Oakland High School students, parents struggle with online classes, crowded study areas at home as new school year startsAt most high schools, grades are linked to time; a grade reflects how well a student has performed on tests and homework by the end of a semester. Grades can open doors to advanced classes and are the primary component of college admissions, especially since universities like UC and CSU temporarily dropped standardized tests as part of the admissions criteria.

But they're notoriously subjective. The state Education Code gives teachers the authority to issue grades, but it doesn't specify how those grades should be determined. Some teachers grade on a curve, with only a set number of students earning A's or B's, while others are more lax. An informal EdSource survey of about two dozen California teachers found that 57 percent rarely or never gave D.s and F's. Only 7 percent said they did frequently.

"Grades are punitive and provide no information on standards mastery," one teacher wrote. "I would love (grading) to be based on mastery of standards and ... authentic feedback."

But for some teachers, Ds and Fs play an important role in the classroom. They signal that a student did not learn the material and needs extra help. Dropping Ds and Fs doesn't guarantee that students will learn the material, even with extra help, and may lead to grade inflation, said Debora Rinehart, a math and science teacher at St. Theresa School, a Catholic school in Oakland.

"I will work with any student before or after school or even on the weekend to help them learn. However, I will never lie about their knowledge level," she said. "Not reporting Ds and Fs is the equivalent of lying about a student's progress."

But the vast difference in teachers' grading styles has resulted in a system where grades are nearly useless as an indicator of students' abilities, said Alix Gallagher, director of strategic partnerships at Policy Analysis for California Education.

"What does a grade mean? It's a mix of things, and it's different from teacher to teacher. It can actually be radically different," she said. "As it's practiced now, grading is idiosyncratic, and that's not a good thing."

Too often, she said, grades take on outsized importance for students, and those who get Ds or Fs become discouraged or disengage even further, never learning the material they missed to begin with.

"Instruction is what leads to learning. Not grading. They're separate. That's the problem -- we have a disconnect between instruction, learning and grading," she said.

Patricia Russell runs the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a nonprofit that advises school districts and colleges on alternatives to grades. Interest in the topic has been soaring, she said. In the three years since the group started, membership has increased from four districts to more than two dozen nationwide.

For college applications, Russell's group encourages students to submit a portfolio that includes essays, tests with high scores, videos showing oral presentations, lab projects or other items that showcase a student's best work.

The idea is to show colleges evidence of what a student can actually do, not a teacher's interpretation based on a limited grading scale.

"We're talking about people who are very young, and labeling them at such an early age as 'less than' or 'more than' can have significant psychological repercussions," Russell said. "Some things in life are zero-sum games, but learning should not be."

Two large school improvement networks, supported by foundations, have made re-examining grading policies a priority.

Laura Schwalm, a retired superintendent of Garden Grove Unified who is now chief of staff of California Education Partners, said the aim is a grading system that puts students on track for admission to the UC and CSU, as well as trade schools.

"Graduating with a D, in career and technology courses, too, leaves students with few choices," she said. "No one is saying water down grades. This is about giving support, not lowering standards, and looking for simple ways to make grading more fair, to give kids a fighting chance and to measure what students know with multiple opportunities to show that."

Lynn Rocha-Salazar, a former principal in Fresno Unified who is now CORE Districts' senior improvement coach, said the work on grading preceded Covid, but the pandemic underscored the need for it.

RELATED: High school freshmen struggle to find friends and connect with a school they haven't visited"Those who had not been well served were penalized the most. ... So now is a time to examine grading practices to see the harm that was done," she said.

Lindsay Unified, in rural Tulare County, has been moving toward a competency-based system for several years, and results are promising. Students at Lindsay High School, nearly all of whom are low-income and Latino, scored higher than the state average among all student groups on math and English language arts tests, as well as in college and career readiness, according to the 2019 California School Dashboard.

In Oakland, high schools are moving gradually toward a new system of assessment that doesn't include D's and F's. Baez, assistant principal at Fremont High, said the change will not happen overnight. Parents, students and especially teachers need time to understand what's expected of them, and they must "buy in" to the change, she said.

"It has to be a cultural shift at the school. You have to build trust because we're really rebuilding an entire system," Baez said. "It will be a lot of work, but it's important we do this because traditional grades benefit some kids, but they don't help everyone."

VIDEO - (11) Tom Elliott on Twitter: "Fauci on NYC: ''Quite frankly, you have to [mandate vaccinations] when you're in the middle of what we call a historic experience of the worst pandemic of a respiratory disease in the last hundred years. We have to

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Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:19

Tom Elliott : Fauci on NYC: ''Quite frankly, you have to [mandate vaccinations] when you're in the middle of what we call a histor'... https://t.co/245cVOmiVa

Wed Dec 08 16:25:49 +0000 2021

Evolution Extracts : @tomselliott If he keeps talking like this, I imagine the peasants will introduce him to some communal justice.

Thu Dec 09 10:34:23 +0000 2021

VIDEO - pierrepoilievre on Twitter: "I asked 10 top government officials where government money comes from. Do you think they had an answer? https://t.co/0x3OcfURiq" / Twitter

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 20:11

pierrepoilievre : I asked 10 top government officials where government money comes from.Do you think they had an answer? https://t.co/0x3OcfURiq

Wed Dec 08 14:53:09 +0000 2021

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Wed Dec 08 20:11:56 +0000 2021

Barb Sanderson : @PierrePoilievre Wow!!! I love this man @PierrePoilievre!! Had that bunch of dummies completed stumped #Trudeausheep

Wed Dec 08 20:11:19 +0000 2021

Davidos : @PierrePoilievre Bravo, keep up the great work ð

Wed Dec 08 20:11:16 +0000 2021

CryptoFanBoy#btc#crypto : @PierrePoilievre Amazing! ð¤ð No body wants to answer the question

Wed Dec 08 20:10:17 +0000 2021

Tssio Sena : @PierrePoilievre @Geertjancap https://t.co/qxPATwtYvT

Wed Dec 08 20:08:46 +0000 2021

natalue : @PierrePoilievre Tomorrow he should ask to have the money that went to the mob and all of those that were erroneous'... https://t.co/LnEk019wAx

Wed Dec 08 20:08:04 +0000 2021

katalin Balazs : @PierrePoilievre Thank you for speaking for those whose voice cannot be heard! That was the best question ever! Eas'... https://t.co/PdJMRBEYIp

Wed Dec 08 20:06:32 +0000 2021

MayAlbion : @PierrePoilievre Refer all those 10 top gov officials to @scientificecon works https://t.co/nm7Vcgcmou

Wed Dec 08 20:06:24 +0000 2021

nobusiness : @PierrePoilievre Where does the money come from to pay your salary Pierre? Do you have an answer'...'...

Wed Dec 08 20:06:11 +0000 2021

Michael Tracey on Twitter: "Oh yes, exactly the person I'd trust for reliable updates on the Russia-Ukraine situation. What a joke https://t.co/N6ZtVjZl49" / Twitter

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:26

Michael Tracey : Oh yes, exactly the person I'd trust for reliable updates on the Russia-Ukraine situation. What a joke https://t.co/N6ZtVjZl49

Tue Dec 07 17:17:23 +0000 2021

VIDEO - Brendan May on Twitter: "OH MY GOD. This is a total car crash for the government. Finally. Could almost cry with relief. This nonsense is coming to an end. It really is. Soon. ð--¥ð--¥ð--¥ #WhoWasAtTheParty #whoattendedtheparty #torylies #ToryCovi

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:23

Brendan May : OH MY GOD. This is a total car crash for the government. Finally. Could almost cry with relief. This nonsense i'... https://t.co/sZTaotfhC2

Tue Dec 07 22:30:38 +0000 2021

Opinion | How to Create a Black Space in a Gentrifying Neighborhood - The New York Times

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:20

Guest Essay

Dec. 5, 2021

Erin Aubry Kaplan in her home in Inglewood, Calif. Credit... Tergo for The New York Times By Erin Aubry Kaplan

Ms. Aubry Kaplan is a journalist and author who grew up in the South Central section of Los Angeles and nearby Inglewood.

That value should make the casual displacement of Black people untenable, even immoral. And that will take much more than a little library to rectify.

VIDEO - Disclose.tv on Twitter: "JUST IN - BioNTech CEO: Potentially upcoming vaccine for the #Omicron variant "should be a 3-dose vaccine." https://t.co/ounAm4Fd41" / Twitter

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:05

Disclose.tv : JUST IN - BioNTech CEO: Potentially upcoming vaccine for the #Omicron variant "should be a 3-dose vaccine." https://t.co/ounAm4Fd41

Wed Dec 08 14:39:33 +0000 2021

JuBee YMCK : @disclosetv Toll, Jetzt ¼bernehmen die schon das Gesch¤ftsmodell aus der Literatur, keine Geschichte in unter 3 B¼chern.

Wed Dec 08 17:05:16 +0000 2021

judie gorney : @disclosetv you need a 3 dose up your ass

Wed Dec 08 17:05:05 +0000 2021

VIDEO - Dr. Dale Okorodudu, Black Men In White Coats Episode 13 - YouTube

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Wed, 08 Dec 2021 03:09

VIDEO - Indeed TV Commercial, 'Record Label' - iSpot.tv

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 23:45

Sorry, our video player is not supported in this browser.Click To ViewMonster.com TV Spot, 'Cherry Picker'

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VIDEO - Paul "The Book Guy" Alves on Twitter: "@RandyRRQuaid @adamcurry short #clip" / Twitter

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 21:37

Paul "The Book Guy" Alves : @RandyRRQuaid @adamcurry short #clip

Tue Dec 07 20:23:08 +0000 2021

VIDEO - Jeff OB on Twitter: "@FatEmperor Anecdotal ++ @adamcurry @ScottAdamsSays @MoeFactz" / Twitter

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 21:34

Jeff OB : @FatEmperor Anecdotal ++@adamcurry @ScottAdamsSays @MoeFactz

Tue Dec 07 20:43:31 +0000 2021

VIDEO - Marina Purkiss on Twitter: "Well well well'... Nail meet coffin So as we all locked down This lot partied And then 4 days later Laughed about it https://t.co/LihE359BRz" / Twitter

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 21:32

Marina Purkiss : Well well well'...Nail meet coffinSo as we all locked downThis lot partiedAnd then 4 days laterLaughed about'... https://t.co/kGXUPBTbMB

Tue Dec 07 19:25:46 +0000 2021

Charmaine : @MarinaPurkiss Sarah Everard lost her life because an evil 'policeman' said she didn't follow the rules....

Tue Dec 07 21:30:56 +0000 2021

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Tue Dec 07 21:30:10 +0000 2021

VIDEO - (9) Deleuze on Twitter: "The way to prevent new Covid variants is to vaccinate the world, WHO Foundation CEO says https://t.co/92NJ18R6BC" / Twitter

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Archived Version

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:46

Deleuze : The way to prevent new Covid variants is to vaccinate the world, WHO Foundation CEO says https://t.co/92NJ18R6BC

Mon Dec 06 18:11:54 +0000 2021

VIDEO - Why People WILLINGLY Give Up Their Freedoms W/ Prof. Mattias Desmet | Aubrey Marcus Podcast - YouTube

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:31

VIDEO - Nearly 70 Vaccinated Hospital Workers Test Positive for COVID After Christmas Meal

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Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:18

More than 50 hospital workers in Spain have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a Christmas meal, according to local media reports.

More than 170 health workers from the Intensive Care Unit of the Regional University Hospital of Mlaga'--located in the south of the country'--attended the meal, with at least 68 people later testing positive for COVID-19, local media outlet Sur reported Monday, although health authorities had only confirmed 22 of these cases on Sunday.

All of the professionals had been fully vaccinated'--including with booster shots. Most of the workers who tested positive are asymptomatic although in a few cases they have reported mild symptoms.

After the hospital became aware of COVID-19 infections following the meal, management proceeded to test everyone involved. Those workers who tested positive had to isolate for ten days and must not return to their jobs at the ICU until they obtain a negative result on a PCR test.

The oubtreak and the fact that Monday is a public holiday in Spain has reportedly forced the hospital to draft in emergency personnel to ensure adequate services in the ICU, a union delegate for the hospital from the Uni"n General de Trabajadores (UGT,) Carlos Bueno, told local media outlet La Opini"n de Mlaga.

"This is something common when unforeseen events like this happen and above in the middle of a [period] where a good part of the staff has gone on vacation. During this pandemic, health professionals have given 200 percent and have covered each other at times when it has been necessary without the slightest complaint and they will continue to do so," Bueno said.

While there is no indication yet that any of the hospital outbreak cases are caused by the new Omicron variant, the "fact that an outbreak has arisen around a Christmas celebration attended by health care workers should make us reflect on the convenience of doing this type of celebration."

Sur reported on Monday that the health workers who attended the Christmas meal had all taken an antigen test before the meal.

"Although I know that those attending the celebration took measures, the virus is still there and you should not lower your guard," Bueno said. "It is necessary to keep a distance, it is essential to use the mask indoors and it should be used in outdoor spaces where there is an agglomeration of people."

Bueno said that the health care workers should not be demonized because outbreaks like these can occur at similar events that are currently taking place across the country involving workers from other sectors.

"What you have to do is take measures so that it does not happen again," he said.

Stock illustration of SARS'CoV'2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Nearly 70 hospital workers who attended a Christmas meal in Spain have tested positive for COVID-19. iStock

VIDEO - Probability and Risk

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Archived Version

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:49

Update: Norman Fenton was interviewed about this work on the Maajid Nawaz show on LBC on 4 Dec:

Our research team havenow analysed the ONS England November mortality data. We conclude that, despiteseeming evidence to support vaccine effectiveness, this conclusion is doubtfulbecause of a range of serious inconsistencies and anomalies. Our detailed report is here.

The data appear to showlower non-Covid mortality for the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated. Odd.Also unvaccinated mortality rates peak at the same time as the vaccine rolloutpeaks for the age group, then falls and closes in on the vaccinated. This isnot natural

Consider what we arewitnessing here. We have a vaccine whose recipients are suffering fewernon-covid deaths and hence are benefitting from improved mortality. And themortality rates look to differ significantly from historical norms, asevidenced in mortality lifetables.

Correlatingunvaccinated mortality with vaccine roll out we see curious patterns (dottedline the proportion of people getting first and second doses). Why are theunvaccinated dying after NOT getting the 1st dose? Why are the single doseddying after NOT getting the 2nd dose?

Plenty of evidence thatthe vaccinated who die within 14 days of vaccination may be categorized asunvaccinated. Then someone who dies within 14 days of first dose ismiscategorised as unvaccinated and a similar thing could occur post seconddose.

Misca tegorizationmight explain odd phenomena in ONS mortality (as previously explained with this hypothetical example). To correct the error we can takethe difference between the expected mortality for the unvaccinated and thedata, and re-allocate this unexpected excess mortality to the vaccinated to getnew ADJUSTED estimates.

The early spikes inmortality that appear to occur soon after vaccination may be caused by theinfirm, moribund, and severely ill receiving vaccination in priority order andthus simply appearing to hasten deaths that might otherwise have occurred laterin the year.

Turning to Covid mortality, at face value, there appears to be clearevidence of vaccine effectiveness.

But…….. After vaccination people endure weakened immune response for a period ofup to 28 days and may be in danger of infection from Covid or other infectiousagent at any time in that period. It therefore makes sense to examine infectiondate rather than date of death registration.

We adjust for this using a temporal offset and see a large spike in mortality for all age groupsduring the early weeks, when covid prevalence was high, and when the first dosevaccination rollout peaked.

After our offset adjustment we observe no significant benefit of thevaccines in the short term. They appear to expose people to an increasedmortality, in line with what we know about immune exposure or pre-infectionrisks,

Whatever the explanations for the observed data, it is clear that the ONSdata is both unreliable and misleading.

Absent any better explanation Occam’s razor would support our conclusions.The ONS data provide no reliable evidence that the vaccines reduce all-causemortality.

Full reference:

Martin Neil, NormanFenton, Joel Smalley, Clare Craig, Joshua Guetzkow, Scott McLachlan, JonathanEngler and Jessica Rose, “Latest statistics on England mortality data suggestsystematic miscategorisation of vaccine status and uncertain effectiveness ofCovid-19 vaccination”, http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14176.20483

The paper has also benefited from the input of senior clinicians and other researchers who remain anonymous to protect their careers.

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Larry Kudlow Show - Expect a Ukraine Taiwan invasion Two-Fer in March 2022 - Grenell.mp3

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LBC -Norman Fenton - Professor of Risk Information Management at Queen Mary University of London - Partial vaxxed dead counted as unvaxxed.mp3

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Mark Meadow with schiff.mp3

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Mark meadows says no NPR.mp3

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Moderna CEO - Vaccine for omicron will be a three dose vaccine.mp3

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Natural immunity MS.mp3

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New twitter rules and boss ntd.mp3

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New York shoot up crises.mp3

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Nolochek Meats on Fox Business News about suing Biden Admin.mp3

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Oakland Unified among Calif. school districts phasing out D and F grades for high school students.mp3

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OMICRON in Waste water BS 2 NPR.mp3

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OMICRON in Waste water BS NPR.mp3

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OMICRON News 4 BS NPR.mp3

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OMICRON News 5 kicker.mp3

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OMICRON News One NPR.mp3

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OMICRON News Three hammering NPR.mp3

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OMICRON News TWO NPR.mp3

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QLD re-opening means fines for unvaccinated.mp3

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Radio ad Britol Meyers and Pfizer about Cardiac issues.m4a

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Regulating social media NPR.mp3

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Seatttle vadalism 2.mp3

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Seatttle vadalism one.mp3

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SF Millennium Tower Tilts Quarter Inch in Four Days.mp3

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The REadout Loud Podcast - Merck molnupiravir not so safe for birthing persons Matthew Herper STAT.mp3

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thieves released in CoCoCo ntd.mp3

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Ursula van der Leyen suggests EU Digital Certificates.mp3

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Weird Olympic Boycott.mp3

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WSJ CEO Council - anchor Jamie Heller -Albert Bourla (1) vaccine mandates (1min41sec).mp3

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WSJ CEO Council - anchor Jamie Heller -Albert Bourla (2) saRNA -other advancements (1min44sec).mp3

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WSJ CEO Council - anchor Jamie Heller -Albert Bourla (3) will scourge of this disease leave (1min28sec).mp3

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WSJ CEO Council - Jacinda Arden [NZ] would you lockdown again -not yet (1min2sec).mp3

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1406: Birthing Comrade

Shownotes

Clips & Documents