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Ask Us Anything About… THON™ and Four Diamonds
THON and Four Diamonds – 40 Years For The Kids.
February 15, 2017Penn State Health News
THON represents the culmination of a year-long fundraising effort that engages 16,500 student volunteers. It is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. Since 1977, THON has raised more than $147 million for Four Diamonds.
We talk with Craig Hillemeier, MD, Dean, Penn State College of Medicine, Chief Executive Officer, Penn State Health and Suzanne Graney, Executive Director of Four Diamonds.
View full transcript of video
Description – The video begins inside the infusion room entrance of the Penn State Children™s Hospital. Three individuals are standing in front of a mural type wall that is a large photograph of Penn State students. The students in the photograph are holding their hands in the air making the symbol of a diamond with their fingers to represent, Four Diamonds and THON. The three individuals standing from left to right be, Dr. Craig Hillemeier, CEO of Penn State Health, Dean of Penn State College of Medicine, and Senior VP for Health Affairs at Penn State, Suzanne Graney, Executive Director of Four Diamonds and Scott Gilbert.
Scott Gilbert – Live from inside Penn State Children's Hospital, welcome to Ask Us Anything About THON and Four Diamonds. I'm Scott Gilbert. This Friday on the campus of Penn State University, hundreds of Penn State students will get on their feet and they will dance nonstop. They'll be on their feet for 46 hours as they dance for a cure to cancer. It's knows as the Penn State IFC Panhellenic Dance Marathon, THON for short, and here to talk with us about how the proceeds from THON are put to good use right here at Penn State Children's Hospital, I have Suzanne Graney, Executive Director of Four Diamonds. Thank you for being here.
Suzanne Graney – My pleasure.
Scott Gilbert – And, Dr. Craig Hillemeier is CEO of Penn State Health, he's Dean of Penn State College of Medicine, and Senior VP for Health Affairs at Penn State. Thanks for being here, Dr. Hillemeier.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Good to be here, Scott. Thanks.
Scott Gilbert – Alright. Let's start by talk about the event itself. I know both of you have been many times. Tell me about the excitement, the energy in the room up there at the Bryce Jordan Center. What is it like? How can you explain to someone who hasn't been there?
Suzanne Graney – You know, somebody recently described it like the Grand Canyon. If you see a picture or you hear about the Grand Canyon, you get an idea what it's like, but until you're really there, you don't fully get it. I think probably the best description is, it's the largest display of human kindness I've ever gotten to witness in one place. There's a spirit of kindness and hope and love that just envelops everybody in the Bryce Jordan Center for the entire weekend.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Yeah, I think, I think it's the energy that one feels when you participate in that, and you look, and you're part of the crowd. You just realize how much energy is out there. It's one of the most win-win things that we see. We always look at things which make the people who participate in it feel better and better, and this does that, and it also very much benefits the children who have cancer, and the research that we're doing to try to conquer pediatric cancer, so it's really one of the most fantastic things that I've had an opportunity to be associated with.
Scott Gilbert – Now, let's talk about the fact that the sole beneficiary of THON is Four Diamonds so, again, that money is put to good use here on this campus, and we hear the term Four Diamonds family a lot. Suzanne, what does that mean? What are the criteria that people need to meet to become a Four Diamonds family here?
Suzanne Graney – The criteria is simple, although it's not criteria that anybody wants to have to meet. It's that you're a resident of Pennsylvania, that your child has been diagnosed with cancer under the age of 22 at time of diagnosis, and that you're being treated here at Penn State Children's Hospital.
Scott Gilbert – And, there are a lot of services here at the Children's Hospital that benefit from THON, in addition to that direct patient care, but then all go back to helping the families. Right, Dr. Hillemeier?
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – You know, absolutely. I mean, I think you can add up 24 different types of specialists we have that work with our children and families that have counselor, from social workers, to physical therapy, to occupational therapy, to play therapy, to music therapists. I mean, that's one of the biggest things that they see, is when the guitar comes in the room, you can see the smiles come out. And, it really is that that lets us provide an exceptional experience for those children and their families who are struggling to conquer cancer.
Scott Gilbert – You're watching Ask Us Anything About THON and Four Diamonds, live from Penn State Children's Hospital. I'm Scott Gilbert, along with Suzanne Graney and Dr. Craig Hillemeier. We welcome your questions in the comment field below this post. We can pose them to these two folks live, or even if you're watching this on playback, feel free to pose your questions, and we'll make sure we get you some answers, as well. Feel free to just post your exciting comments, too, your reflections of THON, if you've been up to THON before, things to share with our audience. I'd like to talk a little bit about research, and how research is funded through THON, and that is the only way to a cure, so it's so important.
Suzanne Graney – It's really important. We talk about the equation for hope, which is the combination of world-class clinical care, care for our children, transformative philanthropy, which is exactly what THON is, needs to be combined with life-saving research in order to have hope for a cure. That combination of all three are vital, so there has to be a focus on research. That's where we will find new ways to treat cancer, new discoveries of how to use drugs differently, and how to boost the survival rate so that we can save every child.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Yeah, I think if you look at children with cancer, we now do a lot better than we did three or four decades ago. I think almost four out of five children that have a diagnosis of cancer now survive the cancer, but of course, that means that one out of five do not. It also means that the four or five that we treat with cancer, we need to come up with ways that treat that cancer that have less morbidity associated with them, less long-term side effects associated with the type of treatment we have. That's why something like THON, which is really for the kids and focused on conquering pediatric cancer, just gives us so much hope and energy around here as we do our business.
Scott Gilbert – Fantastic. And, Dr. Hillemeier, you touched on that concept of morbidity, some of those long-term side effects that the existing treatments for cancer can have on children, and Suzanne, that's part of the reason for the Survivorship Clinic we have right here in this building, right?
Suzanne Graney – That's exactly right. Sadly, we know that two-thirds of the children that survive this have a likelihood of developing some type of complication that came because of their treatment. Those types of long-term complications need to be watched long after the patient is done with their standard cancer treatment. So, the Survivorship Clinic is making available an appointment for all of our children who are leaving their oncology care to have follow-up scans once per year to make sure that they're keeping an eye on any of the complications that might arise from their treatment. They're also, as they transition out of being children and into being adults, they're given an individualized medical plan as they transition out of oncology and into a primary care physician, and their own responsibility for their care, as they become 18 or older, for them to know what actually happened, what were the risks that were associated with the type of treatment they had. They might have been too young to know what the exact course of care was, so that individualized plan gives them an opportunity to be proactive adults in watching their own health care, and keeping their eyes open for those complications.
Scott Gilbert – You're watching Ask Us Anything About THON and Four Diamonds from the campus of Penn State Children's Hospital. I'm Scott Gilbert, along with Suzanne Graney and Dr. Craig Hillemeier. We welcome your comments and your questions below this post. We also encourage you to share this post, if you find this to be an exciting topic, and really, who doesn't? THON is just such an exciting 46-hour period of time, and it really marks the culmination of a year of effort up there at University Park, doesn't it?
Suzanne Graney – It does, and this year in particular is really special. This is the 40th anniversary of the partnership between THON and Four Diamonds. Both organizations existed for five years before we became partners, so it's not our 40th birthday, or anniversary, for either organization, but it's the anniversary of the 40th year that we have been dedicated partners working together, finding ways to conquer childhood cancer, and supporting all of the families who are being cared for here in our Children's Hospital.
Scott Gilbert – And, we're marking that anniversary in some interesting ways, including 40 faces on the Four Diamonds website, right?
Suzanne Graney – Yeah, there's a great campaign that's online. You can find it on THON social media channels and Four Diamonds. You can also find it at fourdiamonds.org, and you can see some of the people that were instrumental in putting this partnership together between THON and Four Diamonds, and those that helped to keep it strong over the course of 40 years.
Scott Gilbert – Dr. Hillemeier, what is it like for you to look back on, I mean, 40 years of a partnership here, because before you were in your current position, you oversaw the Children's Hospital here, so you know the subject matter very well.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Yeah, it's been really exciting to see this evolve over time, and to see the students every year pick up the mantle from the previous year, and to have the energy and the enthusiasm to make it a successful year. You know, we always say, it's really about the relationships that are formed, and it really is the relationships between the Four Diamonds families and those students, who are really spending all year trying to figure out how to support those families, that actually culminates in THON, that I think really makes it what it is today. It's really a pretty exciting thing.
Scott Gilbert – And, the students from THON, those who take part, are a presence right here in the Children's Hospital throughout the year. We see them wearing their t-shirts and interacting with patients. It's not just up at that event, although there is plenty of it up there, but they're here throughout the year, too.
Suzanne Graney – Yeah, we love that we have the opportunity to bring the students actually to our hospital, to let them see what is the impact of all of the work that they've been doing. They get an opportunity throughout the course of the year. We host scheduled tours for these students, and they are from students at University Park, but also from all the commonwealth campuses, have an opportunity to sign up to come on a tour. And, we're able to introduce them to a family, and let them hear a personal story about how they're being helped because of Four Diamonds and THON. They get an opportunity to go into one of the research labs and hear from the scientists about what a difference it is that they're making, and how that funding helps to sustain what they're doing in how they're looking for new ways to treat childhood cancer. It gives all of those young, vibrant college students an opportunity to, hands-on, see what's happening here at the hospital, and what they helped to make happen.
Scott Gilbert – What a fantastic opportunity for them, and for families and patients, too, I'm sure.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Oh, absolutely, and I think one of the things that people oftentimes don't really understand is, it's not really just the 700-plus dancers who really put out to make THON so special. There are literally many thousands of students, each of whom spend over hundreds of hours making this whole THON successful.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Looks like we've got a question.
Scott Gilbert – We do, indeed, and we invite you to add your questions to the comment field, as Madison has just done. Madison's asking, "What are some of the things that you've been researching and developing recently?" So many things happening here behind the scenes.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Well, it's amazing and, you know, the dollars that come through THON to Four Diamonds primarily make sure first of all that patients and families have all of their needs taken care of, and that we provide them exceptional care. But, those dollars over and above that go to provide for the research, which is going to conquer pediatric cancer. And, much of that research actually focuses on those cells that cause the cancer, that in some ways seem to act as if they're immortal. They don't have the normal type of senescence, the normal type of life cycle that eventually dies, as normal cells do, and that's why then they take over and they oftentimes cause problems, then, as cancer. And so, much of the research that we have going on tries to look at what we call the molecular mechanisms of why those cells continue to grow and grow and grow, and eventually result in what we call cancer. And then, how to figure out how to interrupt those mechanisms that allow those cells to go on. And, it's really exciting, some of the work that we're doing, in terms of the molecular mechanisms that make the DNA go on and replicate, that cause all of those intracellular signals that result in cell growth, to not sort of go through their normal cycles, but they just perpetuate themselves. And, we have some really exciting things happening in that area.
Scott Gilbert – It is exciting work, and it's work made possible by those who are dancing up at State College this weekend.
Suzanne Graney – It's true. One of the other projects that is really simple to understand, because this is all really complicated science, Dr. Sunny Dovat is working specifically in high-risk leukemia, and he is looking at a particular gene. You know, all of us have genes that can turn on and off, depending on how they're stimulated, but the gene that he's looking at is called Ikaros, and it's believed that if we can figure out how to turn on and off Ikaros, we could figure out how to turn on and off leukemia, which is just startling to think that we're that close to having identified the gene. Now, it's figuring out how to manipulate it, but it gives hope to all of us that we're close to finding answers that scientists have been looking for for centuries, or generations, at least.
Scott Gilbert – Absolute. Very exciting. You're watching Ask Us Anything About THON and Four Diamonds from Penn State Children's Hospital. Thank you for the questions and the comments so far. Our next comment, or I should say question, comes from Joni. Joni is wondering if there have been any positive outlooks for the future in making childhood cancer safer, fewer long-term side effects. I think she's talking about that morbidity issue, and the fact that some of the treatments, I guess you could say that they cure cancer, but down the road, the patients live with those long-term effects.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – So, as Suzanne pointed out, many of the patients who survive pediatric cancer end up having difficulties later on, and that's why it's important that we follow them, but the real answer to that problem is to try and figure out why they have those problems. And, there's some really exciting understandings about individual susceptibility to the medications, because not all of these medications are going to impact each individual the same way. So, understanding the various molecular mechanisms and enzymes that individuals have to deal with the particular mechanisms directly impacts the toxicity or side effects they're going to have. So, if we're able to use the terms precision medicine or personalized medicine to understand how the individual is going to respond to that therapy, we can then better prepare a therapy, which will minimize the side effects and still maximize the effect against the cancer. So, that's probably one of the biggest things that's come about in the last 5 or 10 years, is understanding that not all of the medicines that we use will have the same side effects on everyone, and trying to individualize that therapy. We're also getting a lot better in terms of monitoring the side effects during the actual therapy that might then go on to produce long-term toxicity or side effects. So, it's a really good question, and I think there's a lot of really good work so that we have less, we use the term morbidity, less morbidity associated with these medicines in the long term.
Scott Gilbert – We mentioned a couple websites. I want to throw a couple things out there, because as the energy ramps up heading into this weekend, you have some more opportunities to learn even more about THON and Four Diamonds, and that connection that's been in place for 40 years, including a television program this Friday. It's called "Good Day PA!" You can catch it at 12:30 p.m. in the Harrisburg area on ABC 27, that's WHTM-TV. That is at 12:30 on Friday on Good Day PA! We also encourage you to check out thon.org/webcast. If you're not able to make it up to State College, or even if you're only up there for part of the weekend, and want to see more, including the big reveal at 4 p.m. on Sunday, that's a great way to check it out online. It's always, and that's a student-run production, as well, too.
Suzanne Graney – It is. There's a group called 46 LIVE, they're all communications students from the College of Communications, that keep that livestream going, and they produce all of the content that's on there. It's a huge undertaking, but we know that there were more than 100,000 people that logged in to watch live at some point during THON weekend last year. We're certain that it will be just as compelling, and we hope as many people log on. We also, I wouldn't be doing my job very well if I didn't encourage people to also use thon.org to make a donation and be part of that big reveal that happens at the end, and help THON be successful. And, when you're helping THON be successful, you're helping Four Diamonds and our Children's Hospital be more successful in how we're able to treat children and continue to look for a cure.
Scott Gilbert – Fantastic. Suzanne Graney, Dr. Craig Hillemeier, thanks so much for being part of this interview today.
Dr. Craig Hillemeier – Thank you.
Scott Gilbert – Thank you for watching, and we appreciate the questions, which, as we mentioned before, if you're watching this interview on playback, feel free to add your questions or your comments below. It's not too late. We could even get some answers to those questions, if you'd like, after the fact, and as time goes on, because we know a lot of people check these videos out afterward. So, thank you so much for watching. Thanks again to my guests, and we appreciate you watching Ask Us Anything About THON and Four Diamonds, from Penn State Children's Hospital.
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Today, students are holding their heads a little higher thanks to the efforts of two very special classmates who nominated Enterprise Middle for a makeover from a new NBC reality television show called "School Pride." Of the hundreds that were nominated, Enterprise Middle School was one of only seven schools selected to receive a makeover.
Armstrong® Commercial Flooring was the exclusive hardsurface flooring provider for "School Pride" and was happy to supply MIGRATIONS BBT Bio-flooring for Enterprise Middle School.
MIGRATIONS BBT Bio-flooring is a sustainable, affordable flooring product that has more than five times greater resistance to impact and more than two and a half times greater resistance to cracking from uneven subfloors than standard composition tile.
"MIGRATIONS BBT is perfect for schools since it has the colors and visuals so often used. Even better, it's a greener product option at an affordable price point, while providing the same proven long product life as other resilient flooring materials" said Armstrong Commercial Flooring Director of Product Design Julia Pierce. "Schools can take pride, owners and facility managers now have a wonderful green product that uses many of the same maintenance procedures as our traditional VCT," said Pierce.
Hundreds of students, teachers, parents and community volunteers turned out to help transform Enterprise Middle School. "School Pride" modernized the facilities at the school including classrooms, the school's gym, locker rooms, a science lab and a new reading room which contains hundreds of new books.


Does the trend have staying power?
Is the trend just a new name for something that's been around a long time?
Regardless, like any solution, it's truly about what's the appropriate way to apply or use the trend … and not using it just because it's new and cool.
Mobile: It just makes sense as it's about learning that directly supports job performance, anywhere, and at any time.
Virtual and augmented reality: You can't argue with the notion of placing the user in an immersive simulated environment.
Learning portals: Given there's no shortage of learning resources, a learning portal is critical as it provides a gateway to an organization's assets.
Gamification: Using gaming techniques in learning has been around for a very long time, and many of us follow a standard to have 25-50% practice in our solutions. So using gaming techniques certainly helps with practice, which leads to fluency. Gamification also is a wonderful motivator if used appropriately for the audience.
Storytelling: Stories have been shared in every culture as a means of passing on education, preserving culture, and instilling moral values. Storytelling used to be the most common way of teaching others; today, it's a wonderful technique to make the learning memorable and have the learners feel and experience new learnings on an emotional level.
Social learning: A high percent of learning in organizations comes from people talking to one another and learning on the job. Organizations most likely function because social learning happens. It's a great way to augment formal learning and facilitate collaborative learning.
Microlearning: If a granular-size chunk of learning is what's needed to achieve the learning objective, go for it. I would just caution that not every new thing can be learned from a Tweet or a TED Talk.
Personalization: This is about providing learning in a context that's relevant to individual learners, rather than providing a one-size-fits-all experience. While you can't argue with this, we just need to be on the lookout for learners who might have some ingrained preferences that aren't in their best interests.
Data analytics: We now have the ability to collect and analyze more data than ever. This doesn't, however, mean that we should. The right questions still need to be asked to get at what we are trying to understand from the data, who cares about the answers to the questions we are asking, and what we'll do with the data once we have it.
Agile: It makes sense to follow an instructional systems design process such as ADDIE. It also makes sense to customize the process for your specific project, and iterate and use good formative evaluation principles along the way.
Finally, a new trend I'm hearing about is "learning panorama." The idea is that learners have a diverse, expanding "Panorama" of learning choices and alternatives, including corporate learning content, peer and social content, open content (e.g., TED Talk or YouTube), third-party content (e.g., Khan Academy), material from colleagues working at other organizations, and more. If I understand it correctly, it seems like a new name for something I've been calling blended learning.
And so the trends continue. What new trends are you hearing about? And what is your opinion of them?
When reading this, I quickly remembered The Tipping Point where an idea goes from a trend to critical mass. I once thought that mobile learning would never reach a critical mass because people would not want to learn on such a small screen. But the recent iPhones and Samsung Galaxy have made the phone where people can learn anywhere, anytime and not get burned out. Of course, I would love to compare a course delivered on a mobile phone vs a computer vs. a classroom to determine behavior change.
That would be interesting… I think it all depends on what you are trying to teach to whom. Responsive design now makes the mobile experience much better.


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Mixtape/Video: Leikeli47 – LK-47 Part II + "C&C"
FADER Premieres New Mixtape, Video From Pink Ski Mask-Clad Female Rapper
Critical Praise for Leikeli47:
"Somewhere between Tink and Odd Future—youthful, thoughtful, rebellious, trend-aware." – The FADER
The Mixtape/Video:
Once, maybe twice a year, it seems that a new artist emerges that helps shift the landscape of what's happening in rap music; someone that not only has the ability to embrace current sounds but to enhance them – and to take those sounds to a place that others haven't yet dared. Only a few days into 2014, it appears that one of these artists has arrived.
Her name: Leikeli47. She's from New York, and today, the enigmatic musician has released her new tape, LK-47 Part II, a follow-up to her co-produced mixtape Lk-47. The new tape is also co-produced, alongside District 9 and DammoTHEGREAT, and the 15-track tape, which opens with a chilling narrative from the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, showcases 47's diverse musical talent, fiery lyrical delivery, energetic spirit, and ability to humbly correlate her musical journal to legendary underdogs that include Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. The tape features narrative samples from Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing and New Orleans musicians Big Freedia and Mystikal, along with a brief yet unique rendition of Drake's "Hold On, We're Going Home."
LK-47 Part II is also accompanied by a video for lead single "C&C." For the uninitiated, "C&C," along with the video directed by Dana Rice, make a good starting point for those wondering what makes Leikeli47 so special: Two friends at her side, 47, with alternating ski masks, one of which is hot pink and matches her pair of Wallabees, stomps her through her city's streets, rapping a track that's both menacing and fun, built around heavy drums, quick claps, and a chopped, manipulated vocal sample. "Carolina got a razor/ Christina might tase ya," raps 47 on the track's hook. You can tell she really means it, but still, we just can't help but sing along.
Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/qFPRkk_zEI0
Stream/Download the mixtape here: https://soundcloud.com/leikeli47/sets/lk-47-pt-ii-mxtpe
Check out the FADER premiere here: http://www.thefader.com/2014/01/09/download-leikeli47s-lk-47-pt-ii-mixtape-c-c-video-premiere/
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFPRkk_zEI0[/youtube]
"C&C" Video: http://youtu.be/qFPRkk_zEI0
LK-47 Pt. II Mixtape: https://soundcloud.com/leikeli47/sets/lk-47-pt-ii-mxtpe

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Attenberg set her latest novel, Saint Mazie, in New York during Depression Era. The titular character is based on a beloved 1940 Joseph Mitchell New Yorker profile of Mazie Gordon, and intrepid woman who ran the Venice Theater in the Lower East Side. She spent her days selling tickets, sipping her flask, and letting in folks even if they couldn't pay. At night, she'd help the homeless, doling out quarters and bars of soap, and escorting folks to flophouses. Mitchell described her as a "bossy, yellow-haired blonde," and goes on to note her "wry and genuine fondness for bums." The novel is a delightful pastiche of Mazie's diary, along with interviews with her neighbors, people associated with the theater, and her seafaring lover, all conducted by a filmmaker who, after discovering her diary, sets out to discover the real Mazie as best he can. Attenberg, who is the author of several novels including the best-selling The Middlesteins, has crafted a sharp and generous woman who lives both on and off the page. T+L spoke with Attenberg about her novel and her life in New Orleans, which has, of late, become something of a literary destination for the curious traveler.
You've said that you write more freely when you're in New Orleans, and that you wrote a big chunk of Saint Mazie there. What about the city makes it easier?
For a boisterous city, New Orleans can be awfully quiet when you need it to be. I've spent every winter in a different neighborhood—Mid-City, Riverbend, Bywater—and I've found them serene places to live, quiet, with limited street activity, but also lush and vibrant and visually stimulating. So there's enough going on to keep my mind active without all of the noisy distractions of New York City.
But beyond that, of course, it's a soulful place. It's a city full of ghosts and layers and heartbreak and history and it is in transition, and I'd like to be a part of that transition, in the most positive way I can. I've found the creative culture to be invigorating and its community, not only the artists and musicians and writers I've met, but other folks as well, to be supportive of what I'm doing, what everyone's doing, the idea of a creative output in general. There is a respect for the arts there that has nothing to do with monetizing it, which is sometimes lost in New York City for no other reason than it has become impossible to pay our rent here.
How'd you make a habit of spending winters in New Orleans?
I'm peripatetic by nature, so I've been taking months away from New York for years. I've lived all over during those times—Seattle, both Portlands, Los Angeles, Nebraska, Rome, Dublin, sometimes just out of my car—and I was on the hunt for a new place to plant myself. Austin and New Orleans were the only two American cities left that I was interested in. Also I was broke! And I needed to get out of New York for a while. I put a post up on Facebook to see if anyone knew of sublets in either Austin or New Orleans, and the first response I got was New Orleans. I'd been there before a few times and in fact had spent one drunken month there in my early twenties sleeping on the couch of the house occupied by members of the band Galactic, and I'd loved it, but I hadn't really explored it as an adult, not truly anyway.
How was New Orleans different as an adult?
I don't think I could have handled living there in my twenties. I just had too much fun. In my forties I still have fun but I appreciate that it's my place to write, and be quiet and thoughtful, too. And I have a more fully realized sense of what city life is like, and my impact there as a temporary resident.
When you're in New Orleans in the winter, do you miss New York?
I miss the people and not the place. Because if I were there I'd be suffering through winter! Every email I get, every tweet that I read, everyone seems so sad and oppressed by the weather. I keep inviting people to come down to save themselves from it. But the people are my favorite things about New York by far. Those are some sharp minds living there.
Do you ever think of moving to the Big Easy for the entire year?
I do! All the time. I actually think I'm far too peripatetic to live anywhere year round, but I would love to make it my home base in the future. It feels like home to me.
You've said the Williamsburg bar St. Mazie's is a favorite spot of yours. What are your haunts in New Orleans?
French 75 is one of my favorites, a classic, beautiful, old New Orleans bar. Chris Hannah is one of the best bartenders in the world, and also, coincidentally, a great reader, so it's worth talking to him for a while about books while he serves you the most beautiful and delicious drink you've ever had. Bar Tonique is also wonderful for cocktails.
I will eat all the oysters you put in front of me, so I would say Pascal's Manale tiny, charming stand up oyster bar (there's a bigger restaurant attached). It's the place I bring everyone for oysters immediately after picking them up from the airport. I figure they could use a strong dose of zinc.
I only eat there once a winter because one of their BBQ shrimp po' boys will last you for about that long, but Liuzza's By the Track is wonderful. Po' boys from Crabby Jacks, and also from Killer Poboys in the back of the Erin Rose bar.
What are you reading while on book tour?
I'm reading two books that will be out this fall: Chinelo Okparanta's Under the Udala Trees, a novel set in Nigeria during the 1960s and '70s. It's wonderful. And also Steve Toltz's Quicksand, a contemporary Australian novel. It's hilarious. They're a great balance for each other.
Saint Mazie is your fifth book, and you do such a wonderful job of winding together different character's memories of her. What were the challenges in writing about a real woman who lived decades ago?
I had really limited information about her. There were only a handful of articles and obviously the original Mitchell essay on her. But her voice was incredibly strong and consistent and rang through the page. So it was more about seeing what her world was like. My strategy was to do just enough research so that I was in the room of that time, but not too much that it ended up reading like a book report on the 1920s era of New York City, with me showing off every little detail I'd learned. And at a certain point I had to free myself from not knowing what really happened in her life, and just trust that I'd be true to her essence.
Do you feel you've gotten to know Mazie? Do you channel her at all?
Oh, I feel like I have her in my head all the time, although the noise from having a book come out sometimes drowns her out, the character and the real person both. I have to do little check ins with her from time to time, burn some sage, get a little meditative. My editor came up with this funny line: What Would Mazie Do? It's usually applicable when I need to take a risk of some sort, but it's also a good guide for how to be a human being.


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Cam Newton's Second Act
The former NFL MVP has proved he can bounce back time and again in his career. Can he do so with the Patriots?
By Tyler Tynes Jul 13, 2020, 8:08am EDT
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Cam Newton has been one of the defining sports figures of the past decade. He won the 2010 Heisman Trophy while leading Auburn to the national title. He won the 2015 NFL MVP award while leading the Carolina Panthers to a Super Bowl berth. He's been honored, criticized, questioned, and released. In June, he signed with the New England Patriots.
Over the last year, The Ringer's Tyler R. Tynes has spoken to coaches, teammates, friends, family members, reporters, and even Newton himself on the QB's life and career. The Cam Chronicles, a narrative podcast series, premieres on July 13.
"I try to teach kids this: You know, football is like life, and you get knocked down. You've got to get up no matter how many times you get knocked down. You're going to have to get up."
'The Cam Chronicles': The Life and Career of Cam Newton
I met with Dallas Allen, Cam Newton's high school coach, in downtown Atlanta in January. For nearly an hour, Allen walked through his memories of the skinny kid at Westlake High School who grew into an NFL superstar. So many of the people I've spoken to who knew Cam have suggested, in one way or another, that he was destined for the level of prestige he's acquired in the last decade in professional football.
Cam's charm, and a propensity for mischief, were on display as a student at Westlake, when he bounced in the hallways between classes, sometimes skipping periods for Waffle House trips, and jumped on tables during lunch periods to regale an entire room of high schoolers. His talent was evident on the Westlake practice field, when he pulled gravity-defying stunts or unleashed his cannon arm that made coaches gawk from the sidelines. But it's the mistakes Cam has made in his life that Allen and I are discussing on this cold night, and the lessons he's learned from being a teenager to now, as a 31-year-old father.
When Cam played for Westlake, Allen told him what he told all his players when they felt they couldn't go anymore, when they were ready to give up: After the fall is the toughest. "You can't think about why you got knocked down," he said. "You can only think about what you got to do to be better." Cam has risen and fallen throughout his career. He exemplifies Allen's parable. Cam "done had a lot of bumps and bruises," Allen said.
"But hey, he's still gonna be Cam Newton."
That same week, I attended a church service in Newnan, Georgia, a small town almost 40 miles southwest of Atlanta. Allen's gospel about Cam lives on in this church. Cam's father, and the church's pastor, Cecil Newton, told me that his son isn't an "ordinary guy." Cam took some of his first steps in the church, under the watchful eye of his charismatic and colorful father. Hints of Cam's personality become clear when you speak with the head of the Newton household. I had spent the past few days with the Newtons, watching Cam coach a 7-on-7 football clinic at Lakewood Stadium in Atlanta. I later attended a fiery Sunday service at Cecil's church and had brunch with the congregation curated by Cecil's personal chef. Cecil told me that this was Cam's real life away from football, away from the cameras. This was the Cam Newton people don't see.
"He's a private person," Cecil told me. "He is not so hypersensitive about whether you like him or not. He's comfortable in his own skin. I'm glad he's like that, because if he wasn't, you know, he probably would have faded long before now."
Part of the intrigue of a figure like Cam is his refusal to bend, his resistance to conform to a widely accepted ideal of who he is supposed to be. As he's gotten older, he's spoken less frequently with the press—his public statements often come in the form of fractured phrases or quotes, in passages and metaphors delivered on social media. He's not easily understood. When I briefly spoke with him in Atlanta, he didn't want to get into the controversies, misunderstandings, and transgressions in his career.
"I'm in a position now, man, where I'm comfortable in my skin," he told me. "I don't try to be nothing that I'm not. And I'm fine with that. And a lot of times it kind of rubs people the wrong way." He said he wanted to embrace the things that have made him a firebrand in professional football. "I always try to push the pendulum no matter what it may be. And the fact that, you know, I'm in this place off of influence. I want to make sure that, you know, I project being unique, being yourself and being, you know, true to who you are and where you came from as well."
He stressed that his reflections on his life and career are part of his growth as a father.
"I make mistakes. I have made mistakes. I'm going to continue to make mistakes. But at the same time, I don't want those mistakes to be something that's been constant. You know, I want to live and I've got children. I want to be able to teach them right from wrong and know what to expect. And, you know, I don't proclaim to be something that I'm not. And I know who I am and I know what I'm trying to be."
I asked him whether he has any regrets.
"For what?" Cam asked. He looked at his son, Chosen, who was playing with a rainbow-colored football in the distance. This is the axis of Cam's life: as a father, a part-time pastor in his father's church, a humanitarian, and a quarterback preparing for what could be his last act in football. He looked up at me with a wry smile.
"I'm true to who I am, man," Cam said before walking away. "And I don't bite my tongue for nobody. Everybody know how I rock and roll. And I'm just more comfortable that way."
The poet Claudia Rankine wrote in 2018 that Cam Newton was "vexing to America" because he occupied a space that "white Americans see as a white man's job." She described him as "a young man growing up in the American public while being extraordinary and ordinary and disappointing and magnificent and resilient all at once." She concluded that "Cam Newton is basically just like us, America."
The entirety of Cam's football career has centered around the kinds of contradictions Rankine described. The mere idea of Cam Newton inflames certain conservative segments of football's fan base, which have been prevalent in the sport throughout its history. He isn't a shrinking violet, but rather a brash, Black quarterback who thrives when he revels in his difference. His stature as an icon is both unrivaled and confounding in the same breath. He is the vanguard to the current young class of Black quarterbacks, even though he's been regarded as an irritant for much of his career.
For much of the last decade, Cam has been the Black quarterback of the moment. He danced as we did, laughed like we did, partook in every avenue of a Black culture so frequently denied in mainstream American culture unless it is pimped and parodied for someone else's liking. We've gotten a lot of things wrong about Cam in his career, but one thing stands out to me: He's a self-proclaimed "Superman," but his superpower was never his muscles, his stature, his skill, or his speed. The beauty of Cam was his dissidence as a generational quarterbacking talent. His status in the NFL and his defiance of the norms associated with his position made him a walking protest every time he stepped on the field. That's more of a superpower than anything else he'd ever wield. Looking back, it seems wildly unfair that he had to fight against that idea. If you need Cam to fit a certain profile, that doesn't have to do with Cam, that has to do with us. Our sensibilities. Our bias. The very notion of being a Black quarterback is still provocative to white audiences and fan bases, something Cam has acknowledged in the past.
I don't know how much credit Cam deserves for the style of offense that has become so prevalent in the NFL, but he is the vanguard to the current young class of Black quarterbacks. Would we still have seen Lamar Jackson's rise, or Pat Mahomes's ability, or Deshaun Watson's tactician mind without the barbed wire Newton waded through from the moment he stepped into the NFL?
It's unclear what we can expect from Cam as he approaches the second act of his career, which, interestingly, will take place with the New England Patriots. Injuries have taken their toll. There were times this offseason when I wondered whether he would be on an NFL roster this season. Cam's been clear about his priorities at this stage in his life and career: He wants to play football, be a good father and son, and remain a devout servant to his faith. He wants to be a cultural trendsetter in a profession and at a position that has rarely called for it.
One of Cam's former coaches told me that "Cam is like one of those bouncy balls you get from a quarter machine outside of a grocery store." When he falls, he bounces back higher than the drop would suggest. All of that can be seen in what Cam's given us his entire career. He turns the mundane into motivation: the gospel hymns he blares in his basement from Hezekiah Walker; his hellish workouts he streams on the internet; his blazing attitude, flair, and fashion that serves as a high-definition finger wag to anyone daring to challenge how he goes about his business. In so many ways, it serves as an endless delight. Football is better with Cam Newton in it.
"I've had so many people who didn't know that I knew Cam. They was like, 'Oh, he's so fake. The smile is fake.' They think he's so cocky. He's doing this and doing that," Shaun Rutherford, a teammate of Cam's at Blinn Junior College, told me. "Just from knowing him, dude busts his ass for everything he's had."
While at the church service in Newnan, Cecil called Cam to the altar to speak to the congregation. Cam ambled up to the altar wearing a tweed overcoat and matching vest as his children and his mother, Jackie, watched from the front row.
"This whole year has been on my heart," Cam told the congregation. "I want God to use me. That was my prayer for myself," he explained. He seemed at peace and, in that moment, he came across clearer than I think I've ever seen him. He ended his sermon with a proverb, a note for his life, and a message to those in front of him. It explained his dedication to his craft, his refusal to be humble, and his relentless addiction to betting on himself.
"Faith," Cam says, "without work, is dead."
NFL Conference Championship Picks Against the Spread Vegas oddsmakers are predicting tight games between the 49ers-Eagles and Bengals-Chiefs. Here's the case for why each team could make the Super Bowl, and our picks for who will actually win.


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Home » 5 Steps for Health System Integration
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5 Steps for Health System Integration
Well-thought-out strategy, flexibility needed when linking up with another health care organization
Ethan Rii, Jordan Shields, and Caitlin Podbielski
The decision to align with another health care organization is among the most important, if not the most important, undertakings for a hospital board. Selecting the right partner, strategy, timing and structure all play important roles in determining the ultimate success of an organization and a partnership.
In forming a partnership, choices are made (even in initial conversations) that help to determine how an organization will meet the health care needs of its communities for years to come. These choices may also influence whether the organization will be successful in meeting its objectives. Complexities inherent in these choices can make the process overwhelming, akin to approaching a five-way intersection without a map. Following are a few rules of the road that can provide safe passage and aid leadership in finding the route that leads to the desired destination:
1. Identify your destination
Organizations often make their first mistake while they are still in the driveway. They do this by identifying a given structure — independence, loose affiliation, full integration into a health system of a specific size, or others — as their destination.
Instead of single-mindedly driving toward a specific partner or structure, successful organizations develop precise objectives to direct them to the best fit and approach. These objectives set forth the organization's vision for its role, guiding key decisions and leading it toward its ultimate destination.
In developing such objectives, it can be tempting to focus on near-term considerations: a target for next year's operating performance, growth of a particular service line, reducing medical errors and so forth. Individually, such goals are valid, but they may be insufficient to address longer-term needs. Instead, objectives should be dynamic and vision-driven, focusing on long-term structural implications including the effect on cost and quality of care, patient access, navigating the competitive landscape, and access to capital.
Furthermore, objectives are not static; they may shift or realign throughout the partnership process. Diligent leaders should not be afraid to adjust or challenge their objectives where necessary to keep their organization on an appropriate course.
2. Chart your course
With objectives guiding the organization to a destination, it is time to pull out the road map. Plan for roadblocks and detours by identifying all actionable alternatives and giving due consideration to each.
One common mistake boards make is to select an option that involves achieving a singular or primary objective, perhaps to the detriment of others. For example, the organization may have a set of identified objectives including (1) improving quality metrics and (2) increasing operating margins to support the clinical enterprise. Narrowly focusing on Objective 1, the organization pursues a clinical affiliation with a nearby system known for its quality infrastructure. The partnership gives the organization the intended infrastructure, which will help it to improve its metrics, but the financial benefits associated with the improved quality performance disproportionately accrue to the partner.
As this example shows, a single strategy may have varying degrees of success in achieving each objective, so prioritization is necessary. The pursuit of one path to the exclusion of others can have the unintended effect of derailing the organization by preventing it from realizing balanced, meaningful results.
3. Take the wheel
Board members should be cognizant of the fiduciary duties they owe to their organization that cannot be ceded or delegated, and the board must be careful not to relegate itself to the role of a backseat driver. It can be tempting to be a passive receptor of information vetted and prepared by management and outside experts about which affiliation vehicle may be best for the organization. But effective boards take an active role, critically digesting the available information, asking questions, testing underlying assumptions and, ultimately, making a decision.
Pushing for more information or for answers to unaddressed questions is an appropriate role for the board of an organization seeking to embark on such an important journey. Furthermore, evaluations should compare multiple strategies against one another in addition to appraising each alternative's ability to achieve identified objectives.
4. Avoid the potholes
Along the best-charted paths, there can be unexpected setbacks and mistakes that even the most prepared organizations fail to recognize. There are key steps, however, that can be taken to anticipate possible delays and allow for the least bumpy ride.
Organizations with well-crafted and tended-to objectives and a vetted, plotted course can rely on experienced business and legal advisers to design, facilitate and execute a process that can navigate both common and out-of-the-ordinary detours. Counsel can identify and strategize to avoid or address potential roadblocks. They can conduct Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust reviews, identify legal requirements that may dictate transactional structure and seek regulatory approvals that are necessary before closing in order to limit revenue interruption.
Business advisers who are well-versed in the industry and marketplace can be invaluable in identifying financial, operating and other risks such as hidden balance sheet exposure, the effect of various structural choices on value and vulnerabilities associated with a potential transactional partner. Ultimately, a team of experienced advisers can be the most important tool in an organization's emergency roadside kit, permitting the organization to arrive at its intended destination with minimal detours and delays.
5. Unpack from the trip
Closing the transaction is critical, but it is not the point at which the journey ends. Successful affiliations are defined by outcome and whether the participating organizations are positioned to achieve measurable results in health care quality and access.
Post-closing action items typically focus on the immediate: coordinating reporting systems, linking information technology platforms and rolling out clinical best practices. Uniformity of policies and procedures on its own, however, is insufficient to ensure success. Integration must go beyond paper and matching uniforms. Ongoing efforts at cultural integration reinforced by formal tracking of responsibilities and progress should remain a guiding tenet of the post-closing board's agenda and goals.
Whatever the ultimate destination, the journey will be unique to every organization. Those that approach the trip haphazardly, reacting to a single alternative, an obvious choice or an unintended distraction instead of conducting thoughtful diligence to vet a full range of alternatives, are destined to fail. But engaged boards that are prepared with information, experienced support and access to the full range of actionable alternatives have the best chance to achieve success.
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Strong post-acute care partnerships promise shorter length of stay, fewer readmissions, lower costs and higher quality.
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"Apparently it can based on photos posted today on AP. "
"Volkswagen in center still runs."
"Corte Madera CA looking south TO MILL VALLEY building in back ground is still there"
"Organic dairies and vineyards sometimes use treated posts as well as used ties hmmmmm"
"Are those spaces ships attacking the NWP?"
"yep............that's how good i was in art class"
"I walked the leg of the wye to the old main, but didn't take photos, except for one of the encroachment of stuff between there and the drawbridge."
When they pulled up the track leading to Handi-Kup in the 80's they apparently missed this evil wooden tie (bottom of photo). Looking west toward 101.
"I've looked at that section of the RoW many times from the highway and wondered, given that it sits in a what looks like a low valley, whether it gets covered with water in heavy rainstorms. I understand that if the water is standing and…"
"civic center side away from 101"
"Nice shot. Is this on the east or west side of 101?"


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Housebreakings all over J'Bay
Home News Housebreakings all over J'Bay
News 23 November 2010
The past weekend saw a number of housebreakings occur in Jeffreys Bay. Windows being broken open and doors being forced were the general modus operandi in use by the criminals.
Residents are urged to be aware of their surroundings and to report any suspicious movement in their neighbourhoods to the Police, their security companies or to the relevant Neighbourhood Watch. Cars driving around late at night and loiterers hanging around are indicators that something is out of the ordinary.
Some housebreakings occurred without any forced entry, which means that windows were left unsecured or doors were not locked. The days of leaving our homes unsecured in Jeffreys Bay are sadly over and we need to make life as difficult as we can for criminals. Many of the robberies occur because an opportunity has presented itself to a criminal and they will take advantage of any situation.
Learn to swim lessons and swim training for all ages. Ph 083 549 6795
Lessons can be learned from the Neighbourhood Watches in Paradise Beach and Aston Bay. These suburbs have brought crime to literally a standstill and a few years ago, Aston Bay was a favoured haunt of the criminals amongst us. High visibility through regular patrols at night and reaction units who quickly follow up on any suspicious movement have caused criminals to look for easier pickings in other parts of Jeffreys Bay.
Article continues below...
We still have the opportunity to keep crime down in Jeffreys Bay. Robbers armed with guns are the norm in the cities and we have to make sure this trend does not find its way into Jeffreys Bay. The following incident occurred in Port Elizabeth. The Port Elizabeth police are searching for three gunmen who robbed a house in Framesby yesterday morning. Captain Janse Van Rensburg says the 64 year old victim was accosted as he opened his garage to leave for work. She says the man was tied up and the men made of with a television set and his car, which was later found abandoned in Summerstrand. Janse van Rensburg says the man was not injured but was traumatised by the incident.
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Troy Davis put to death
Georgia inmate Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
Davis died at 11:08 p.m. ET, according to a prison official. The execution was about four hours later than initially scheduled, because prison officials waited for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Davis' request for a stay.
After 10 p.m. ET, the Supreme Court, in a brief order, rejected Davis' request. His supporters had sought to prevent the execution, saying seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
Below are the developments as they happened. Read the full story here.
[Updated at 11:50 p.m.] Jon Lewis of WSB radio, one of the execution witnesses, gave this account of the minutes before Davis' death:
After the warden read the execution order and asked whether Davis had anything to say, Davis - strapped to a gurney - lifted his head up and looked at the witness area's first row, which was where MacPhail's relatives and friends sat.
"(Davis) made a statement in which he said ... 'Despite the situation you're in, (I) was not the one who did it.' He said he was not personally responsible for what happened that night, that he did not have a gun. He said to the family that he was sorry for their loss, but also said that he did not take their son, father, brother.
"He said to them to dig deeper into this case, to find out the truth. He asked his family and friends to keep praying, to keep working, to keep the faith. And then he said to the prison staff, the ones he said 'are going to take my life,' ... 'May God have mercy on your souls,' and his last words to them (were), 'May God bless your souls.'"
Another witness, reporter Rhonda Cook of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, also gave quotes from Davis. According to her, Davis said: "The incident that night was not my fault. I did not have gun."
"And that's when he told his friends to continue the fight and 'look deeper into this case so you can really find the truth,'" Cook said.
Davis also said, according to Cook: "For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls, may God bless your souls."
Davis said to the MacPhail family, according to Cook: "I did not personally kill your son, father and brother. I am innocent."
Hours earlier, Davis declined what the prison offered him as a final meal, Cook said.
[Updated at 11:12 p.m.] Davis has been executed, a prison representative has said. The time of death was 11:08 p.m. ET.
[Updated at 10:55 p.m.] Davis' execution is expected to begin between 11:05 to 11:10 p.m. ET, the Georgia Department of Corrections says.
[Updated at 10:36 p.m.] People who'd been protesting for hours across the street from the prison where Davis will be executed are chanting, "We are Troy Davis," CNN's David Mattingly reported.
[Updated at 10:21 p.m.] The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Davis' motion for a stay of execution.
Word of the Supreme Court's decision comes more than three hours after Davis was scheduled to be executed, and more than four hours after Davis' attorneys had filed the motion.
With the ruling, Georgia is expected to proceed with Davis' execution.
[Updated at 10:07 p.m.] The daylong gathering across the street from the prison by Davis' supporters has turned into a candlelight vigil, CNN's Gustavo Valdes reports. Hundreds still are waiting for a resolution. Some are praying, and some others are singing.
[Updated at 9:41 p.m.] The Rev. Raphael Warnock said he was standing with Davis' relatives on the grounds of the prison when they heard the execution wouldn't happen at the scheduled time.
"I was standing with the family at about 7 p.m. By that time, of course, naturally, we were expecting the worst," Warnock, a pastor to Davis' family, told CNN's Piers Morgan. "Suddenly we began to hear cheers from the crowd across the way, and the word came that the execution had been delayed.
"Certainly we're glad that Troy Davis is still alive, but we are still witnessing, in my estimation, a civil right violation and a human rights violation in the worst way unfold before our very eyes. This is Troy Davis' fourth execution date. I'm glad that he's alive, but that in and of itself is cruel and unusual punishment. America can do much better than this."
Asked if Davis had had what would have been offered as a last meal, Warnock indicated that Davis might have skipped it.
"I do know that on the last time he received an execution warrant, he refused his last meal," Warnock said. "I spoke earlier tonight with his nephew ... and he said his uncle would refuse his last meal again today. He has continued to insist that this is not his last meal. I must say to you that he evinces a faith that is just amazing, even to me as his pastor."
[Updated at 9:05 p.m.] The number of police officers standing outside the Georgia prison housing Davis has risen to more than 100, CNN's David Mattingly reported. The officers are watching protesters, who've been across the street for hours.
The crowd has been orderly, Mattingly said. While it had been chanting for much of the day, they're "probably as quiet as I've heard them all night," Mattingly reported.
[Updated at 8:55 p.m.] Dozens of people have gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in support of Davis, footage from CNN affiliate WJLA shows.
Still no ruling from the court on Davis' request for a stay of execution.
[Updated at 8:39 p.m.] This video report from CNN's David Mattingly, made about 40 minutes ago, shows the people who've been protesting across the street from the prison where Davis is being held, and the police officers in riot gear who are in front of the prison, watching the protesters.
[cnn-video url="http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/topvideos/2011/09/21/jk-mattingly-davis-execution.cnn"%5D
[Updated at 8:19 p.m.] The mother of the police officer that Davis was convicted of killing told CNN's Anderson Cooper that she is "absolutely devastated" that the execution has yet to happen.
"I'm absolutely devastated because I want it over with. ... They've been through the courts four times there in Georgia. They've been to the Supreme Court three times," Anneliese MacPhail said in an interview from her home, referring to previous delays. "This delay, again, is very upsetting and I think very unfair to us."
"I'd like to close this book," she said. "We feel (Davis is) guilty. The evidence and everything that we have seen - that I have seen , because I've been to all the trials - he is guilty, and I believe in that. And so does the rest of my family."
[cnn-video url="http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2011/09/21/ac-annelie-macphail-davis-execution.cnn"%5D
[Updated at 8:10 p.m.] The time that the U.S. Supreme Court is taking to rule on Davis' motion for a stay of execution is unusual, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. "Usually, it's handled pretty promptly," Toobin said.
Davis' lawyers filed the motion at about 6 p.m., an hour before Davis' scheduled execution. The state attorney general's office filed a response shortly afterward.
The two hours that the court has had the motion is "not a long time, but it's long enough for (the nine justices) to respond and say, 'Go ahead,'" Toobin said. "So it does suggest that they're taking this seriously, and there may be some disagreement."
[Updated at 7:43 p.m.] After a brief moment of jubilation upon hearing that the execution hasn't yet happened, Davis' supporters - who have gathered outside the grounds of the prison where he is being held - are regrouping and talking about what might be next, CNN's Emma Lacey-Bordeaux reports. "Troy Davis can never die" is a common theme.
The state of Georgia isn't proceeding with the execution until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on Davis' request for a stay. Davis' attorneys filed the request about an hour before Davis' scheduled 7 p.m. execution.
Davis' supporters, who had been chanting, are now letting out cheers as drivers pass and honk their horns. Otherwise, the mood is tense as they wait for a development, Lacey-Bordeaux reports.
[Updated at 7:26 p.m.] The state of Georgia hasn't yet proceeded with the execution of Troy Davis, because it is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on his request for a stay, CNN's Bill Mears reports.
Davis had been scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. ET. His attorneys filed a motion asking the Supreme Court for a stay about an hour before the scheduled execution time.
[Updated at 7:06 p.m.] Inside the grounds of the prison where Davis is scheduled to be executed, about 100 people, including Davis' sister, have formed a tight circle and are praying and singing, CNN's Gustavo Valdes reports.
[Updated at 6:32 p.m.] Davis' attorneys have filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a stay of execution, the court has said. No decision yet.
[Updated at 6:28 p.m.] Earlier, this blog mentioned a protest outside the White House against Troy Davis' scheduled execution. Here is video of the protest:
[cnn-video url="http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2011/09/21/vo-wh-troy-davis-protests.cnn"%5D
[Updated at 6:20 p.m.] CNN's David Mattingly notes that according to the state Department of Corrections' schedule, Davis would have been offered a mild sedative, to calm his nerves, at 6 p.m.
[Updated at 5:58 p.m.] Davis' supporters outside the Jackson, Georgia, prison where he is to be executed are growing louder, CNN's David Mattingly reports. Frequent chants include: "Death Row? Hell No!" and "Free Troy Davis."
[Updated at 5:54 p.m.] CNN's David Mattingly notes that Davis, who had been scheduled for execution three previous times, "has never been as close to dying as he is at this hour." A previous scheduled execution was called off more than two hours before it was to happen; this time, Davis is a little more than an hour from the scheduled time.
"He has already said goodbye to friends and family visiting today," Mattingly writes. "He's been served his last meal. Everyone is waiting to see if a last-minute appeal now working it's way up the legal system might somehow stop or delay Troy Davis' pending appointment with lethal injection."
[Updated at 5:41 p.m.] The Georgia Supreme Court says it has unanimously denied a stay of execution for Troy Davis.
The court also denied his request for another appeal to be heard.
His attorneys will now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution - Davis' last hope, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said.
"The United States Supreme Court has a procedure in place. They know when executions are coming; they are expecting an application, so I expect this will be acted on fairly quickly. ... It's unlikely that a stay will be granted, but that possibility exists, and that's Troy Davis' only hope," Toobin said.
[Updated at 4:33 p.m.] With one eye on the clock, celebrity supporters of Troy Davis are using their platforms to continue to spread the word about the Georgia inmate.
[Updated at 4:31 p.m.] A Butts County Superior Court judge has declined to halt the execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Davis' attorney Brian Kammer tells CNN the appeal is now being brought before the Georgia Supreme Court.
[Updated at 4:14 p.m.] Davis saw 25 visitors Wednesday during the six-hour window (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) he was allowed to receive them before his scheduled 7 p.m. execution, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
The visitors included relatives, friends, clergy and an attorney.
[Updated at 3:06 p.m.] A look at Davis' schedule today at the Jackson, Georgia, prison where he is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m., from CNN's John Murgatroyd:
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Visitation with family, friends, clergy and/or attorneys.
3 p.m.: Will undergo a physical.
4 p.m.: Last meal offered.
5 p.m.: Opportunity to record final statement.
6 p.m.: An optional sedative will be offered.
[Updated at 3:02 p.m.] About 100 people have gathered outside the White House in Washington, D.C., protesting Davis' scheduled execution in Georgia. The crowd consists mostly of students from Washington's Howard University, CNN's Lesa Jansen and Bob Kovach report.
One of the protesters, Howard graduate student Tamatha Scott, said in a CNN iReport video that the students marched from Howard to the White House, responding to student leaders' call to protest on Twitter.
"I started seeing the tweets about it late last night. It has been a very peaceful protest," Scott said.
CNN's Lesa Jansen took this photo of the protest:
[Updated at 2:38 p.m.] An example of the high-profile support that Davis has received: Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, posted the following to his Twitter account Wednesday afternoon:
"The State should not be executing Troy Davis. . . if there is even a chance that he is innocent, why execute?"
Davis has gained international support. Public figures including Pope Benedict XVI, Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, entertainers such as Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and the Indigo Girls, and others have joined with Amnesty International, the NAACP and other groups in supporting Davis' efforts to be exonerated. On Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it "deeply regrets" the parole board's decision.
[Updated at 2:32 p.m.] Outside the Jackson, Georgia, prison where Davis is to be executed at 7 p.m., many of the speakers have struck hopeful notes, and some say they hope to change the system for the future, CNN's Emma Lacey-Bordeaux reports.
Many are holding hand-lettered signs, with messages such as, "Spare Troy Davis." Some have produced signs showing Davis' picture and the message, "NAACP says too much doubt."
One of the signs carried outside the Jackson prison refers to the NAACP's stance.
[Updated at 1:34 p.m.] Dozens of people have already gathered at the prison in Jackson, Georgia, where Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, CNN's Gustavo Valdes reported.
People gather Wednesday outside the prison in Jackson, Georgia, where Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is among those at the site.
The group is praying and holding hands, Valdes reported.
[Updated at 1:28 a.m. ET] The Georgia Department of Corrections told CNN it has denied a request by Troy Davis' lawyers to conduct a polygraph test.
[Updated at 10:16 a.m. ET] The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has declined to reconsider its decision denying clemency to Troy Davis.
Supporters of Davis have been hoping that some last-ditch efforts might help save him from being executed on Wednesday night. Earlier Wednesday, his team filed an appeal asking to stay his execution.
[Posted at 9:13 a.m. ET] Attorneys for Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia at 7 p.m. Wednesday, have filed a request to stay his execution in Butts County Superior Court.
Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday night in Jackson, Georgia, for the 1989 shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail.
The parole board declined to grant Davis clemency Tuesday following a hearing Monday in which it heard testimony calling into question physical evidence and witness statements that a Chatham County jury relied on in convicting Davis in 1991. In Georgia, only the board - not the governor - has the right to grant clemency.
Since Davis' conviction, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Davis' supporters say the original witnesses were fearful of police and spoke under duress.
Other witnesses also have since come forward with accounts that call Davis' conviction into question, according to his supporters.
Post by: CNN news blog editor Mallory Simon, CNN's Henry Hanks, CNN's Jason Hanna
Filed under: Courts • Crime • Death Penalty • Georgia • Justice
Mabragg
This man should not be put to death if there are ANY doubts.....
September 21, 2011 at 9:50 pm | Report abuse |
Don't take me seriously, I'm just a braindead liberal whackjob. I really need to just jump off a cliff.
You conservatives are so cute. You love forced pregnancies, but hate welfare. You claim to love Jesus, who was wrongfully executed, but adore the death penalty. You fret over so-called "death panels" and then cheer the idea of letting an uninsured man die. You have no arguments based on facts, so you stoop to name-calling and advocating the death of your political opponents. How you sleep soundly at night astounds me.
Tewrobert
Cops charged in homeless man's death will walk in a few years if that long...But this Black man killed a cop out of uniform...and they may put him away...
Whats wrong with this picture?? Its our government that we work our butts off to support and thery live a life style well above most of us...
I am not agains the death penalty.........But lets be fair and very very sure of ourelves..Not just the GUNG HO DA..I think they just have this goal with nbo caring of right or wrong, They just want to win win..There is NO room for error here...If somehow it found he was not the guilty party then there will be lawsuits and once again the taxpayer foots the bill..
Cops are not worth as much a they think they are......
NO I am not Black , I am one of the biggest Red necks in the Great state of Alabama, But lets be fair and be just..
He reserve a new trial as well.American not need more innocent blood.
It's like the Judge is 'waiting' for the crowds to tire out/die down so that there is LESS visibility when they finally do it... I can hear them now: "Just wait til people start going to bed, and stop focusing on us. Mexico will drop another BIG STORY by the AM and we will be farther down on the CNN "Pulse" list..."
Capital punishment is a barbaric anachronism which most of the rest of the world has now abandoned, along with spectral evidence, witch burnings, and trial by ordeal. Time for the US to join the rest of the planet and abolish state homicides forever.
I couldn't agree more. But vindictive, uninformed politics is more and more the norm in this country. When men like Rick Perry are not in jail, but are cheered for their murderous actions, then we're probably moving further and further away from where we want to be. Consolation based on vengeance is false, but that seems to be all bitter people have.
September 21, 2011 at 10:02 pm | Report abuse |
this website is too much, good thing I have a great sense of humor.
The jury in this case consisted of 7 blacks out of 12 people. Black people found him guilty. I get tired of this being an "us against them" situation.
There is no evidence to clear Davis. The records state he has had appeals and he has lost. The "recanters" have refused to testify under oath that their story has changed. Unless they recant under oath, what they say does not matter legally. Time to get on with it.
Art Vandolaye
I say, set him free..... and make the 2 American hikers from Iran, take his place. Knuckleheads hiking in Iraq/Iran deserve to go.
Murder the unjustifid murders and we wont have this problem
But if they dont that much evidence just trow him in prison till found inosent or gulty but he has to pay for all of the expences
Pual
kill the killers!
mymo33
Shameful. Just plain shameful.
The Supreme Court will make the right decision and then we will all have to live with it! Either you believe in the system or you do not! Think about it!
I wish I could believe that but I am afraid their decision will be based on their feelings against the death penalty instead of the evidence in the case.
Proponents of the death penalty who are also people of conscience ought to advocate for a stay of the death penalty any time there is there is the slightest ambiguity about guilt on a particular charge or conviction.
I understand and appreciate the pain of the slain officer's family. I understand their utter conviction that Troy Davis killed their family member. In a civilized society, however, issues of social justice must outweigh the pain and desire for retribution of an individual family. True justice ultimately ought be the product of an entirely logical and rational process. We humans, however, are not entirely logical and rational beings. In addition, what we call the "justice system" has little to do with actual justice, as anyone who has had occasion to become involved on either end of the equation with expectations that "the truth will out" can tell you.
It is obvious that some are completely convinced of Troy Davis' guilt and some of his innocence. More importantly for the good of our society, however, enough people, whether as the result of an effective public relations campaign, or because of objective review of what is known about the case in the context of our "justice system" and the rules of engagement thereof, understand that either the margin of possible error is sufficient to commute a death sentence, or to think in terms of a new trial as being just. Where people go wrong in their thinking is to think that our justice system is ultimately about determining "truth."
Blinded by Race
This has nothing to do with justice, it has to do with a bunch of hood rats trying to show how if you get enough of them together, they can make a right, wrong, and thus degrade our justice system. They've already ruined public education, now they are out to ruin the justice system. Behold the power of welfare hood rats.
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text:
When NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew close by the sun, telescopes were watching from Earth and space
By Elizabeth Howell
The spacecraft got close to 5 million miles from the sun's surface on Feb. 25.
(Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben/SDO)
Telescopes on Earth and in space had the sun safely in their sights when NASA's Parker Solar Probe made its 11th daring close flyby of the star on Feb. 25, all to understand more about the sun's behavior.
To be clear, the Parker Solar Probe wasn't directly visible in the various instruments, as the van-sized spacecraft was too small for the telescopes to pick out. But what the long-distance view did provide is valuable context for what the spacecraft saw close up, from as close as 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) from the sun's surface, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) said in a statement (opens in new tab).
The list of 40 observatories is literally globe-spanning, including the recently commissioned Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, and other major telescopes in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Additionally, a dozen spacecraft provided viewpoints from around the solar system. NASA tasked its Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), Solar Dynamics Observatory, Thermosphere Ionosphere. Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) and Magnetospheric Multiscale missions.
Other contributions came from NASA's and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, ESA's BepiColombo at Mercury, the Japanese-led Hinode solar observatory, and NASA's Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) at Mars.
Related: What's inside the sun? A star tour from the inside out
—NASA's Parker Solar Probe captures stunning Venus photo during close flyby
—A string of planets in our solar system sparkles in photos from 3 different sun probes
—NASA sun probe spies the solar wind in 1st birthday photo
JHUAPL said it will take several weeks at the least to receive preliminary data, meaning that the analysis will take several more months or longer. "The team will get a glimpse of some readings when [Parker] sends a limited amount of data this week," the laboratory noted of its own mission.
Parker is trying to understand the mechanisms behind space weather, or the behavior from our sun in the form of events such as charged particle eruptions. Occasionally these eruptions can disrupt infrastructure such as power lines or satellites, or create colorful displays high in the atmosphere called auroras.
Scientists are also eager to see Parker's viewpoint when it recorded a large solar prominence (opens in new tab) on Feb. 15 that safely smacked the spacecraft, marking the largest such event the spacecraft experienced since it launched 3.5 years ago.
"The shock from the event hit Parker Solar Probe head-on, but the spacecraft was built to withstand activity just like this — to get data in the most extreme conditions," project scientist Nour Raouafi said in a statement. Pointing to the sun's 11-year-cycle starting to ramp up, Raouafi added the team "can't wait to see the data that Parker Solar Probe gathers as it gets closer and closer."
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight
Elizabeth Howell, Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022. She was contributing writer for Space.com (opens in new tab) for 10 years before that, since 2012. Elizabeth's reporting includes an exclusive with Office of the Vice-President of the United States, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and (soon) a Bachelor of History from Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science since 2015. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace
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Cody joined CEE in 2018. As an Energy Counselor, Cody surveys homes for opportunities to install energy saving products that not only help the environment, but save homeowners money in the process.
Cody came to CEE with a background in electrical maintenance. He also has experience as a personal care assistant. Cody is a graduate of Metropolitan State University.


Donna Keen has been in the operating room (OR) at Grady since 1973, and is described by many who have worked alongside her as a veritable legend. Her expertise as an OR nurse has made her a go-to resource for attendings especially, who rely on her during complex procedures.
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OR nurses are responsible for all aspects of patient care during surgery, including assessing and prepping patients, managing medical equipment, assisting with procedures and ensuring a sterile environment is maintained. Keen said her ultimate purpose is clear cut: do whatever you can to save your patient.
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Keen has no intention of stopping, because what keeps her at Grady are the people and what they do for their patients.


Goldcorp is committed to seeking strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Goldcorp's energy strategy includes a five-year plan setting objectives and targets in the following key areas: 15% increase in energy efficiency, 20% emissions reduction, 5% energy from renewables.
In 2012, Goldcorp completed a major greenhouse gas reduction effort that benefited the communities surrounding our Red Lake mine. In partnership with several government organizations, Goldcorp helped deliver cleaner energy to Northern Ontario by supporting the installation of a natural gas pipeline.