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A year of 5:2, intermittent fasting
On April 29, 2017 By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, domestic life, food, Health, life, women41 Comments
Occasionally!
A year ago I decided to give it a try — while the truly hard core consume only 500 calories two days of every week, hence the name 5:2.
Here's my initial blog post about it.
Two days every week, I restrict my intake to 750 calories, sometimes a bit more (800 to 850), and have been doing this consistently for a year.
I can't tell you how much weight I've lost because I won't get on a scale — it would destroy all motivation if I didn't like result!
I don't care if I end up thin; ideally I want to eventually lose at least 30 to 40 pounds.
But friends now immediately notice the difference in my appearance, and my husband, who obviously sees me most often, and most exposed, sees it as well.
My upper body is smaller and firmer.
My face is thinner.
I've dropped a band and cup size for my bras.
I now see muscle definition in my calves and arms that wasn't there, or hadn't been as visible.
I'm also lifting weight, (30 reps for each exercise, mostly upper body), and take a 45-minute spinning class (i.e. seated bike) twice a week, emerging each time sweat-drenched. That helps suppress my appetite and burn some calories.
I only allow myself alcohol Friday through Sunday.
Fasting isn't fun, of course! But it's totally do-able and, after the first few weeks, you're not ravenous on fast days, just hungry. Big difference.
If you really want to lose weight, and are prepared to make a permanent change to your health habits, this regimen might be worth trying.
I fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, (although I shift that as needed, when traveling, for example), and friends know it, so we can still meet for a coffee, but not for a meal.
I work alone at home, (with no kids to feed as well), so it's easy to stock our pantry and fridge with low-calorie foods and drinks, like home-made iced tea, coffee, tea, selzers, things I actually enjoy, so there's no chance of falling off the wagon: water-packed tuna, low-calorie Wasa crackers, Babybel cheeses (80 calories each), low-fat cottage cheese, fruit, vegetables, low-calorie salad dressings, peanut butter, soup, plain yogurt.
Measuring portions, with a set of tea/tablespoons and measuring cups (and/or a kitchen scale) is essential as is, obviously, knowing calorie counts.
Fast days, de facto, allow very little room for carbs or sweets; a 15-calorie Lifesaver or a few dried apricots or half a banana or a cup of blueberries or strawberries.
My body feels better– no more acid reflux!
I'm hoping to drop at least two dress sizes by the time I'm closer to my goal. But I'm also allowing several years to do it, not insisting on instant results.
I quickly lost a fair bit of weight a few years ago on a very, very strict diet — so much, so fast that neighbors asked my husband if I was OK. I looked amazing, but was miserable and couldn't sustain it.
Of course, I soon regained the weight.
This has to be my new life.
Caitlin Kelly, an award-winning non-fiction author and frequent contributor to The New York Times, is a New York-based journalist. Her one-on-one webinars and individual coaching, by Skype, phone or in person, have helped writers and bloggers worldwide; details here. Contact: learntowritebetter@gmail.com.
Pushpushushpush = success! Maybe not…
On April 25, 2017 By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, business, domestic life, education, family, life, women, work31 Comments
It's a deeply American belief that if you never ever ever give up you'll eventually get what you want.
It's charming in its meritocratic faith — but it's also often bullshit.
Some doors, for all sorts of reasons, stay shut, locked and barred to us, whether social or professional.
Maybe not forever, though.
Patience, it turns out, really can be a virtue. (Oh yeah, and tenacity, in it for the long haul.)
I recently broke through to a market I've been wanting to write for for, literally, a decade or more. I wanted it soooooo badly, and wrote to the editor in chief several times, even as every new one arrived.
I had all the right experience and credentials.
Then (yay!) someone who works on staff there followed me on Twitter and I asked, nicely, for an introduction to someone higher up the ladder. She did it. Now I have an assignment I'd finally given up ever attaining.
Sometimes it's best to just lay down your tools and walk away.
We're taught from childhood that winners never quit and quitters never win.
But sometimes it's wisest to retreat and re-think strategy, to ask ourselves why we even want this thing we think we need so desperately.
Patience — such a Victorian ideal in this era of instant everything — can produce results.
I won a New York Times national exclusive, a story about Google, (and I don't cover tech nor live anywhere near Silicon Valley), by waiting six months after learning about it. During those months, my contact and I exchanged more than 100 emails, as the negotiations were so delicate and protracted.
Here's the story.
Sometimes you just have to wait:
— For the right person to get the hiring/budgetary authority to appreciate you and your skills. That might take months, even years.
— To develop the emotional intelligence to handle a situation you're sure is yours right now. Maybe you're really not quite ready for it.
— To nurture social capital, and its referrals to the players who can help you achieve your goals. Trust takes time!
— To polish the social skills required to network well with senior people in your field or industry. Not everyone will respond to your texts or emails just because you're in an unholy rush. Buy and use high-quality personal stationery. (It works, I know.)
— To acquire the requisite technical skills to add real value to whomever you're approaching. Just because you want it rightnow! doesn't mean you're offering what they need. Your urgency is not theirs.
— To realize, by thinking about it calmly for a while, that a golden opportunity is…not so much.
— To accumulate the savings you need to be able to ditch a crappy marriage or live-in relationship, a nasty job, abusive internship or freelance gig. Once you have a financial cushion, (or, as we call it in journalism, a fuck you fund), your choices become true options. You don't have to rush into a decision, or stay miserably stuck in a bad situation.
— If you're mired in endless conflict and confrontation with someone, withdrawing for a while, (maybe even years, if social/family), might be the best option while you decide what's best for you, not just for them. It takes time to reflect deeply and to process difficult or painful emotions.
What success(es) have you gained by waiting and being patient — even when you didn't want to?
It's spring! Time for a room refresh?
On April 21, 2017 By broadsideblogIn antiques, beauty, design, domestic life, life, Style17 Comments
One of our many mirrors…
We've just endured the least-sunny, most-gloomy winter in my 25+ years living in downstate New York — day after day after day after day of gray clouds, rain, mist and/or fog.
Soooooo depressing!
If I wanted that climate, I'd move to the Pacific Northwest.
So, after a few years of loving the soft dove gray walls in our small sitting room, I'd had enough.
I couldn't take one more glimpse of gray.
Back to my favorite paint store, Farrow & Ball, an English company whose paint has, to my formally-trained design eye, the loveliest colors on offer, now 132.
You can test their colors out with $8 sample pots, (a must, painted on a large white card, carefully considered in all kinds of light, from daylight to candlelight, with every adjacent fabric on it.)
Here's our new sitting room choice — number 286, name Peignoir. Love it!
It's the palest warm lavender, like clouds at sunset, its tones ever-changing with the light. That exact tone is in our curtain fabric and also had to relate comfortably to two adjacent wall colors, difficult in an open-plan 1960s-era apartment. (It didn't hurt that all three colors are Farrow & Ball. Their colors can work beautifully with one another.)
We already had a color scheme, thanks to a rug and curtains.
I'll later add some of my own floral images, framed.
A few quick ways to refresh a room; (you can find low-cost options in thrift stores, flea markets, Ebay and Craigslist):
Usually by far the cheapest answer, especially, (if as we do), you do the prep/sanding/spackling/painting yourself. A gallon of paint can cover a lot of wall, (especially over a light color), and a fresh creamy white can punch up dinged/dingy baseboards, (skirting boards to Britons.)
Adding color(s) terrifies many people, and getting it wrong can mean visual misery. No matter what you think you like, when choosing a color, consider:
1) the color of your floor;
2) the color of your current furniture and fabrics;
3) which way the room faces, (e.g. north light is cooler);
4) the mood you want to create.
Read a few smart websites on color and color schemes — then buy a big piece of foam-core and paint a 3 foot square sample, maybe of several colors, or different hues/intensities of the same color.
Then choose.
The floral is our sitting room curtains
The world is full of amazing fabric, from spendy designer stuff to Ikea to Spoonflower, where you can design and print your own. I love vintage textiles and search them out at antique shows, flea markets and auctions, making them into throw pillows and tablecloths.
Even the simplest sofa can benefit happily from a few fresh pillows in complementary colors; Pier One, in the U.S., is a great/affordable resource as are pricier Horchow, Serena & Lily and Anthropologie.
Fresh flowers — a must!
Our home is never without multiple arrangements of fresh flowers, whether a single lily — brilliant orange, pure white, soft pink — or a bunch of purple or white or red tulips.
I keep Oasis on hand, (the green foam used by florists you can cut and shape to any size), allowing you to make anything non-leaky into a floral container. Floral frogs, of metal and glass, with holes and spikes to hold stems in place, (easiest to find at flea markets) are also helpful.
They don't have to be dark nor boldly patterned nor made of wool!
Too many people just throw down a big pile of red or blue or dark green and get stuck with an ugly color scheme as a result.
I prefer lighter colors and cotton and wool flat-weaves, like kilims. A favorite site of mine is Dash & Albert, with a wide range of colors and sizes.
Here's our rug…
A must, especially when they reflect sunlight into and around a room.
Don't hang them too high.
Our bedroom mirror, from Anthropologie, is this one, $128.00.
Total cost of our sitting room refresh:
1 gallon Farrow & Ball paint $99
1 quart white semi-gloss paint for baseboards $12
two vintage (bought in 2010, originally) chairs $450
new tray $56
3 pots Farrow & Ball (color: Churlish Green) to repaint bamboo boxes we owned $24
A former student, now instructor, at The New York School of Interior Design, I can help!
Email me for a consultation, $100 U.S./hour: learntowritebetter@gmail.com.
More simple pleasures
On April 16, 2017 By broadsideblogIn behavior, life17 Comments
The comforting, rasping sound of my husband shaving
The insistent ratatatatatatatat of nearby woodpeckers
The first bike ride of spring
Trees and bushes finally exploding into starbursts of white, pink, yellow and purple blossom
A freshly-painted room
New buds
Sandals!
Holding a tea party for female friends, using my new-to-me early 19th. century tea-set
The sun finally hitting our balcony — giving us a much-loved additional outdoor room
This Moomin mug — what a fun way to start my morning
This Moomin mug also makes me happy!
Backlit forsythia — everywhere!
Discovering a gruff local businessman has a softer side, meeting him with his two French bulldogs
Gorgeous, enormous canvases by a local artist on display at our local coffee shop
A kid's lemonade stand at the end of his suburban driveway
Reading on a park bench in warm sunshine
Watching river traffic — boats and barges — on the Hudson River
Putting away heavy, bulky winter clothing and slipping back into cotton and linen
Why Pulitzer Prizes still matter
On April 13, 2017 By broadsideblogIn behavior, books, business, culture, journalism, Media, photography, U.S., work15 Comments
This week the most coveted awards in journalism were given out, the prizes named for Joseph Pulitzer, a man born in Hungary in 1847 and who became a legendary publisher of major American newspapers; (pronounced Pull-itzer.)
It is a very big deal to win a Pulitzer Prize, both for the writers and photographers who win it for their individual, often team, efforts, but also for their editors and publishers.
It can take decades to win one, or, for the fortunate few, it arrives early in their careers. The photographer who's won the most ever in journalism, four, is Carol Guzy, of The Washington Post — who began her career as a nurse.
In a time when our industry is struggling mightily — tens of thousands of us having been laid off in recent years — this sort of accolade is still something many of us strive for.
If you stay in journalism a few decades, you come to know, and sometimes work with, and possibly deeply admire, many colleagues, sometimes scattered globally. When they win, we're also cheering for our tribe.
Here's the list of all the 2017 winners, including history, poetry, drama and music.
One of my favorite stories of 2016, a stunning 18,102 word account of a young combat veteran, was written by The New York Times' staff writer C.J. Chivers, himself a former Marine. He won the 2017 Pulitzer for feature writing.
His award is one of three Pulitzers awarded to the Times this year. Another went to Australian-born, New Delhi-based freelance photographer Daniel Berehulak for breaking news covering the drug war in the Philippines being waged by President Duterte. He also won the award in 2015 for feature photography for documenting the Ebola outbreak.
From his website:
Their Ukrainian practicality did not consider photography to be a viable trade to pursue so at an early age Daniel worked on the farm and at his father's refrigeration company.
Not so surprising — journalism is still considered a terrible career choice by many parents: it's professionally insecure, badly paid and sometimes dangerous.
It's one of the many reasons we, (I've been a journalist for decades), are so proud of our colleagues who persist and succeed. It's damn hard!
In an era of "fake news" and endless claims to the "truth", we need media literate readers/listeners and viewers more than ever.
And we need smart, tough, determined reporters, whether visual or word-focused, and their editors and their publishers, to stay committed to strong, intelligent work of lasting value —- not just chase clicks and views.
David Farenthhold — we all knew he had this one in the bag — took the prize for National Reporting, on Trump, for The Washington Post.
In 1912, one year after Pulitzer's death aboard his yacht, the Columbia School of Journalism was founded, and the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917 under the supervision of the advisory board to which he had entrusted his mandate. Pulitzer envisioned an advisory board composed principally of newspaper publishers. Others would include the president of Columbia University and scholars, and "persons of distinction who are not journalists or editors." Today, the 19-member board is composed mainly of leading editors or news executives. Four academics also serve, including the president of Columbia University and the dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Also from the Pulitzer website:
What do Pulitzer Prize winners get when they win?
There are 21 Pulitzer categories. In 20 of those categories the winners receive a $10,000 cash award and a certificate. Only the winner in the Public Service category of the Journalism competition is awarded a gold medal. The Public Service prize is always awarded to a news organization, not an individual, although an individual may be named in the citation.
Selfishly, I have a deeply vested interest in the Pulitzers — as we have one in the family. It belongs to my husband, Jose R. Lopez, whose blog is here.
On 9/11, as fighter jets screamed over Manhattan and the Twin Towers fell, Jose was a team member of talented, fast-thinking, quick-acting New York Times photographers and photo editors covering it.
They won the Pulitzer that year for breaking news photography.
Jose, then a photo editor, (and former news photographer), literally turned his basement Brooklyn apartment, (the very day he was to move in with me and everything was already packed!) into a local Times bureau — scanning and transmitting images from his computer as photographers delivered their film to him.
There was no way to physically get into Manhattan from Brooklyn in time, to reach the Times' building that day.
On a day of confusion and terror and trauma, the Times team stayed calm and organized. Their job — our job — always, is to witness, testify, explain, share.
That's what we do.
Columbia Journalism School
Do we need role models?
On April 9, 2017 April 17, 2017 By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, domestic life, education, family, life, seniors, US, women145 Comments
A favorite TV series, about an older Swedish detective
Once you become an adult, certainly if you're female and choose an unconventional life — maybe not marrying or not having children or working in a creative field — you might crave a role model.
Someone who took the path less traveled by, and thrived.
As American poet Robert Frost wrote, in 1916:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Mainstream, mass market American women's magazines are too generic, hence unhelpful.
Impossible to relate to corporate warriors like Sheryl Sandberg or Arianna Huffington in their $4,000 sheath dresses and multi-million-dollar lives.
I hope to keep traveling!
In North America, older women are typically offered a depressingly bifurcated path — turn dumpy and invisible or spend every penny on Botox, fillers and plastic surgery. Look younger, or else!
Neither appeals to me, so I'm forever in search of inspiration, i.e. role models.
In June — where I'll be celebrating in Paris — I'll hit a milestone birthday.
Since my mother and I don't speak and my stepmother died nine years ago, I don't have many older women to talk to intimately about what lies ahead.
So it was a great pleasure recently to run into a friend from my dance classes — I was out walking in our small town in the sunshine — and catch up with her, a woman about to hit her next milestone birthday, a decade beyond mine.
She really is an inspiration to me, about to fly to Japan, again, where she'll be teaching writing and staying with her partner, who has a home there. Last time we met up, she was off to Barcelona to visit one of her daughters.
She always looks terrific, trim and fit, wearing flattering colors and — most importantly — has a real infectious joy and spirit of adventure.
I lost both my grandmothers the year I turned 18, so it's been a long, long time without a much older woman in my life to talk to.
Members of my team, Softball Lite taking a CPR class, March 4, 2017 in Hastings, NY.
But our apartment building is pretty much an old age home, the sort of place people move into at 65 or 75 or 85 after they've sold the family house.
So I watch people decades older than I navigate their lives, whether romantic, professional or personal. We don't hang out, but we do socialize and chat in the hallways or lobby or driveway, our shared spaces.
One woman — in her late 80s, maybe older — on our floor, has a fab new Barbour tweed jacket and looks amazing, even with her walker. I told her so, and as I walked away, heard her say, happily: "That made my day!"
Older people get ignored. They aren't listened to. Their needs and desires get dismissed.
That's not what I want! That's not what anyone wants.
My father, at 88, is still blessed with enough income and health to be traveling internationally and deciding where to live, still on his own. In his own way, he's a role model — my husband, a late-life surprise baby, lost both his parents when he was still in his 20s.
Fleece came in handy when playing golf in 19 mph winds; Cruit Island, Donegal, Ireland
I know the elements of a happy later life, especially after retirement, will be many of the same things as today:
good health, enough money to enjoy some pleasures, intimate friendships, a strong sense of community, a well-tended marriage.
I'm also deliberately trying new-to-me things and learning new skills, like CPR and how to play golf. I debated trying to learn German, but I admit it — I wimped out!
Like both of my parents, I enjoy knowing several much younger friends — people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, each of us at a different stage of life, perhaps, but often struggling with similar, life-long issues, whether intimacy, work or how to handle money well.
We don't have children or grand-children, (putting us very much out of step with our peers.) So we enjoy others' when we can.
I like having chosen the road less traveled, with its many twists and turns.
But a compass and a guide are helpful.
Do you have role models to help you figure out your life?
Who, and how?
Caitlin Kelly, an award-winning non-fiction author and frequent contributor to The New York Times, is a New York-based journalist. Her practical tips, offered through one-on-one webinars and individual coaching, have helped many other writers and bloggers worldwide, quickly increasing their sales, reader engagement and followers; details here.
Contact: learntowritebetter@gmail.com.
A morning filled with orchids
On April 6, 2017 By broadsideblogIn art, beauty, culture, design, education, entertainment, nature, U.S.7 Comments
Are you as mad for flowers as I am?
My friend Pam is crazy for orchids, so we made our first-ever journey this week — about a 20-minute drive south of our town — to the New York Botanical Garden, a legendary destination we had never seen.
The show, which filled room after room of the enormous conservatory, was spectacular, complemented by hanging lanterns and tinkling exotic music.
It ends April 9.
I've been fortunate enough to see huge baskets of orchids when I visited Thailand, but typically have only admired them in nurseries and flower shops.
This was an astonishing array — and this year's show, their 15th focused on orchids, was all about Thailand, which has 1,200 species of orchids.
The displays included several small altars, enormous topiary elephants and a temple.
The challenge(s) of teaching writing
On April 2, 2017 By broadsideblogIn blogging, books, culture, education, journalism, work11 Comments
Maybe it's really unfair to teach writing without ever having formally studied it, or having been taught how to teach; (I studied English literature at the University of Toronto.)
Yet I've been teaching others how to write better for decades, starting with an undergraduate journalism class in Montreal at Concordia University. I was then only 30, barely a few years older than some of my students, some of whom were…not terribly motivated.
I admit it — I'm not the best teacher for people who just don't care to work, and work hard. Writing can be fun, and deeply satisfying, but it always has to resonate with your reader.
It's not just all about you!
And if you're not reading a lot, and widely, across genres and styles, you're unlikely to be, to to become, a terrific writer.
You've got to read a lot, and some tough, smart stuff, to analyze and appreciate the skill and structure of great writing.
Just because the tools — laptops, phones, tablets — are now easy to acquire for so many people, there's a fantasy that writing should be easy as well. Thanks to computers, anyone can now bang out a gazillion words and hit send or publish and say — DONE!
(Oh for the long-lost days of typewriters, the bang and clash and clickety-click. Best of all, the ripping out of an offending piece of paper, {what was I thinking?!} the crumple and toss of it. How far can I throw the damn thing!?)
A few steps the best prose requires:
Have you revised the hell out of it?
Have you read it in hard copy?
Have you read it aloud?
Have you shared it with a few critical beta readers?
I'm now teaching, again, a four-week class at the New York School of Interior Design, on East 70th St. in Manhattan, where I studied in the 90s, thinking I'd leave journalism and change careers. I loved my classes there, and did well, but my first marriage ended and it didn't feel like a great decision to start a new career at entry-level wages.
I love the variety of people who take my classes there, a mix of ages, experience and nationalities. I never assume a specific level of skill, which makes it even more challenging — where to begin?
This time I kicked off our first two-hour class, only one of four, with a song lyric by one of my favorite musicians, British singer/songwriter Richard Thompson, whose work is astonishing.
The song, Train Don't Leave, is only 2:21 but tells an entire story of conflict and resolution. That's tight writing!
Here's a few lines:
She's sitting on the train, the train's gonna to leave
Bags in her hand, tears on her sleeve
Banging on the window with all of my might
But she won't look to the left or the right
We had a fight and it wasn't pretty
Now she's leaving, ain't it a pity
Going to wait tables, down in the city
Hold that red light one more minute
6:18's got my baby in it
Note the verb tense; the conversational voice; the visual and auditory details (bags in her hand, banging on the window), the emotion…
The best writing combines the personal and universal.
It connects with the reader quickly and deeply, whether the work is a news story, a poem, a novel, a letter to the editor.
One of my favorite books, written by a British Airways 747 pilot
It's not easy!
What do you find most challenging about writing?
How are you learning to do it better?
(And, yes, I coach and offer webinars! Here's the link.)


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The Minuteman » Police » SSCC #270–Pinellas
« For the EE's Out There
Why Giving Them What they Want is a Bad Idea »
SSCC #270–Pinellas
By TMM | March 2, 2012 - 18:40 | March 25, 2013 Police, State Sponsored Criminal Count, Unfiled
A Pinellas sheriff's detective says that in an effort to seek out homegrown marijuana, he donned a Progress Energy uniform as a "ruse" and then entered a homeowner's property without a search warrant.
Yeah, there is a reason when I someone from the utility company is at my house I consider it suspect. If they want in my house, I'm calling the company and there is going to be a long talk as to why he's at my house. When said company says he's not with them, I will assume criminal and things are going to be come quite dangerous for the idiot. He has closed distance and is lying about who he is and is trying to gain entrance to your house.
So you would think that since the Sherriff supposedly frowns upon it there would be some sort of punishment, however this is the departments response:
Although Gualtieri criticized the tactic, he was less quick to criticize his detective. "He's a young detective who I think thought he was just being creative," Gualtieri said. "I put more responsibility with the supervision." He said he wanted to think about whether to discipline anyone.
Yeah, and the guy from the utility isn't a sworn law enforcement officer either. If you present yourself as X, you're assumed to be X, and you are tricking people. They will kick in your door in the middle of the night and shoot your dog. They will fool you into allowing them access without a warrant. Would you give an officer any access to your property without a warrant knowing them to be such?
Yeah, this was sneaky, back handed, and totally wrong. We see how the cops love it, they may bitch publicly about it but honestly they don't care.
State Sponsored Criminal Count 270: Detective Paul Giovannoni
Because it's so much easier to just skip the warrant and pretend to be someone else and fool someone into giving you access.
SSCC #232/#233 - Utica NY (RANDOM)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Terps football's recruiting class gives Maryland hope for future
By By Don Markus and The Baltimore Sun
| COLLEGE PARK
A few months after his team failed to hold late leads in several games, Maryland football coach Randy Edsall and his staff won three key down-to-the-wire recruiting battles Wednesday that could help hasten the rebuilding process for the Terps.
In announcing the signing of 22 players, Edsall admitted that the late decisions by linebacker Yannick Ngakoue, wide receiver Taivon Jacobs and cornerback Jacquille Veii turned what was considered by many a solid recruiting class into one that could quickly turn the struggling program around.
"To be able have three quality young men and to get them on signing date, that's special, that was really special," Edsall said during a news conference at the Gossett Team House. "You just keep going to the very end, that's what the staff did, we just kept grinding to the very end and kept recruiting to the last moment we could, and it all paid off."
The three players join wideout Deon Long, who was considered the top junior college receiver in the country last season, as well as cornerback and return specialist Will Likely, offensive linemen Derwin Gray and Moise Larose (Wilde Lake) and quarterback Shane Cockerille (Gilman) to give the Terps the 30th-best recruiting class in the country.
Depending on the recruiting service, it ranks similarly to where the Terps jumped to last winter when they signed Stefon Diggs, who became one of the most dynamic players in the country as a freshman.
One of four players from recent Washington, D.C. power Friendship Collegiate Academy in the Terps' recruiting class this year, Ngakoue chose Maryland over Florida State. Jacobs, whose brother Levern plays for the Terps, had been heavily recruited by Ohio State.
That Maryland has suffered through two straight losing seasons — winning a total of six games — might have helped the Terps given some of the traditional powers they beat out. Seeing the way Edsall and offensive coordinator Mike Locksley used Diggs didn't hurt.
"I think they saw that we're not afraid, that I'm not afraid to play freshmen. If they're the best player, they're going to play and have that opportunity, and that's not the case at every place," Edsall said. "At some positions, we still have the opportunity for that to happen. Every young man wants to try to get on the field as quickly as they can."
Likely, who grew up rooting for and hoping to play at Florida State, which recruited him, said that he chose the Terps over the Seminoles "just to be able to come in and turn the program around. You can say they've had a few down years, but they have the talent and this year we're going to show everybody wrong, that Maryland has the talent to be where they want to be at."
The late additions enabled Maryland to move up to fifth among Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the recruiting rankings for this class and, perhaps more significantly, fourth among Big Ten teams. The Terps are scheduled to join the Big Ten beginning in 2014.
"We've got to play the ACC this year for one more year and we'll focus and concentrate on that, but we have a plan and a formula that we want to go into the Big Ten with in terms of what we think we're going to be able to do and what we know we're probably going to have to be able to stop and defend," Edsall said. "We're gearing towards that this year, and we'll continue to go in that direction."
By the look of the last two recruiting classes, Edsall knows in order to contend in the Big Ten, the Terps will need to recruit players with the type of speed and athleticism Urban Meyer brought with him to Ohio State from Florida.
"I think that's one of the things when you look at this 22-member class, the speed and the athleticism I'm very impressed with," Edsall said. "I just know there's an opportunity here at Maryland, because of where we're located, to get a lot of skilled athletes that have speed and ability. What we're going to do is get the kids from this area that can make us better and then we're going to go to Florida and we're going to Georgia and then we'll go out to the Midwest to get kids that can help us."
While Cockerille will likely redshirt as a freshman — as long as Maryland can keep the rest of its quarterbacks healthy, which didn't happen in 2012 — Edsall said the Gilman star was the quarterback he wanted.
"I think that he proved himself in the things that he was involved with," Edsall said. "Biff Poggi, the football coach at Gilman, does things to help his team win football games, but Shane is a guy that can throw the ball. I think he played well in that game last night [the International Bowl]. He's a Maryland guy who bleeds Maryland."
So apparently does Long, who grew up in Washington and took a circuitous route home that included stops at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia for prep school, West Virginia for spring practice, New Mexico for his freshman season and Iowa Western, where he led the school to a junior college championship last season.
"When I got the offer in June, I committed," Long said Wednesday. "It was Maryland, Maryland, Maryland. Florida State came in, Maryland. Oregon came in, Alabama. I'm a Terp."
don.markus@baltsun.com
2013 recruiting class for Terps football
Name/Position/Previous school/Hometown
Silvano Altamirano/OL/San Diego Mesa College/San Diego, Calif.
Jalen Brooks/OLB/North Gwinnett/Suwanee, Ga.
Chandler Burkett/DL/Deane Bozeman/Panama City, Fla.
Jermaine Carter/ILB/Friendship Collegiate (D.C.)/Fort Washington
Shane Cockerille/QB/Gilman/Baltimore
Milan Collins/DB/Bishop McNamara/La Plata
Elvis Dennah/DB/Annapolis Area Christian/Lanham
JaJuan Dulaney/OL/McEachern/Powder Springs, Ga.
Derwin Gray/OL/Friendship Collegiate (D.C.)/Washington, D.C.
Derrick Hayward/OLB/Wicomico/Salisbury
Andrew Isaacs/TE/Manchester/Manchester, Conn.
Taivon Jacobs/WR/Suitland/Camp Spring
Malik Jones/DL/Dunbar/Baltimore
DeAndre' Lane/WR/Catonsville/Catonsville
Moise Larose/OL/Wilde Lake/Odenton
Will Likely/DB/Glades Central/Belle Glade, Fla.
Deon Long/WR/Iowa Western/Washington, D.C.
Yannick Ngakoue/OLB/Friendship Collegiate (D.C.)/Bowie
Kingsley Opara/DL/Mandarin/Jacksonville, Fla.
Jarrett Ross/DB/Charter School of Wilmington/Newark, Del.
Jacquille Veii/DB/Avalon School/Gaithersburg
Cavon Walker/OLB/Friendship Collegiate (D.C.)/Washington, D.C.
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My next Pokemon, I hope.
The other day, I completed my Pokédex in Pokémon GO. The missing creature was a Girafarig — not the rarest in the world, but a Pokémon that had eluded me so far. I hatched the little guy from a 5KM egg, finally reaching a goal I had set more than a year ago. I say "my" Pokédex, of course, because there are some missing entries in there. Namely: Mr. Mime, Kangashkan, Farfetch'd and Corsola. Players of the game will recognize what's going on here: those Pokémon are exclusive to regions I do not live in, so I'm not counting them. Some day, maybe, I'll manage it. I managed to snag a Heracross at Pokémon GO Fest, after all.
Paul Tassi thinks that these things have outlived their usefulness and that it's time for Niantic to drop down the barriers and let them roam free across the globe, or at least made available in global events. We're more than a year into release, he says, and it's just frustrating that these relatively uninteresting Pokémon remain elusive even to players that have managed to capture every Legendary Bird made available. I've got to disagree. Regional Exclusives are one of the best things about this game, and one of the few remaining features that remind us of how unique it really is.
I call into evidence Corsola, a much more interesting version of the Regional Exclusive than the broad, continental concept that we've seen so far. Corsola is only available in tropical regions, which the game appears to define as something between Latitudes 31°N and 26°S. Which is a really cool idea, both broader for its larger area and more specific for its habitat-oriented argument. and I've love to see more of it. This game could feel much more alive if Sandslash were only available in dessert regions, or if Piloswine was only available at northern latitudes. What's Piloswine doing in Florida anyways? Doesn't it get hot? Right now, the only areas that actually feel distinct are water biomes, which occur in all kinds of places — the game is basically the same on a global level. Taking a harder-line stance on Pokémon habitats could make the game's connection to the world around it feel much more alive, continuing to drive home that you are catching these things in the real world. As such, it's a bit tangential.
The problem with Regional Exclusives right now isn't so much that they wall off these Pokémon to players in their respective parts of the world. It's that there is an outsize focus put on them because of the lack of content in this game overall. Completing the Pokédex isn't just the "gotta catch 'em all" end goal of the game, it's in many ways the only thing to actually do for a late game player. And that poses a problem: not only is it frustrating when you can't actually do it, it's disorienting when you find yourself as close as you can. Witness the fable of Dave and the Girafarig. And so if there's nothing to do but quest after Farfetch'd, of course you'll be irritated if you have to go to Asia to get it. The fact that these exclusive Pokémon aren't particularly powerful poses a problem, mostly, because it reminds you how useless collecting even powerful Pokémon can feel. I'm not sure I'll ever use my Articuno in combat, for example.
If Pokémon GO were a better-fleshed out game with stronger progression systems, completing the Pokédex could easily continue to sit on the mountaintop as a far-off end goal that might take years to complete. If you could train up some unique Pokémon and use them to fight battles and collect badges in systems that actually felt rewarding and fun, then collecting some new creatures on a trip might actually feel that much more special, giving you a little twinge of memory when you scroll past your Steelix from that trip to Pittsburgh. From a game design point of view, you'd have to make sure that players could continue to progress no matter what region they lived in, but that's a basic balance issue.
I hope that they introduce more Corsola-like exclusives into the game alongside Gen-3, alongside with those gameplay features the game so badly needs (I know, I always say that). In the meantime, I'm looking forward to hunting Corsola on my next trip to New Orleans and trying to explain to my parents how to get me a Mr. Mime in the UK.


Brintons have always been regarded as experts in the manufacture of high quality woven Axminster and Wilton carpet and we are now sharing our knowledge with architects so they can gain a greater understanding of the process involved in manufacturing carpets.
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For the first time in five years, the Gogangs don't show, and the local Love Canal franchise declares a party. After spending all night partying, Reuben is suddenly tasked with body guarding the Mayor of Chicago C.K. Blitz. Blitz has a long list of enemies - it's going to be a long day!


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ABOUT CPK
CPK Financial Statements
CPK FTY 2020
Constitution of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK)
Manifesto of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK)
Nominations, Elections Rules and Code of Conduct of CPK
Msimamo Wa CPK
CPK Charter
CPK Music Project
On Party Unity, CPK
YCL-Kenya Constitution
CPK Central Committee
ITIKADI
Issue No. 1
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Kileleshwa, Off Riverside Drive, Nairobi.
P.O Box 101011-00101 Nairobi, Kenya.
2023 ACTION PLAN FOR THE KENYA-CUBA SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE (KCSC)
On January 12, 2023, the National Working Committee of the Kenya Cuba Solidarity Committee (KCSC) 2023 planning meeting held at the United Kenya Club in Nairobi passed unequivocally the resolutions as outlined below. In line with its traditions and practice, the meeting was attended offline and online with up to fifty-four delegates representing different counties in Kenya.
"International solidarity is not an act of charity: It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objective. The foremost of these objectives is to aid the development of humanity to the highest level possible." ~ Samora Machel
Consistent with the Sixth African Continental meeting of solidarity with Cuba held in Abuja, Nigeria, on September 23-25, 2019, KCSC undertakes to do the following in the year 2023:
1. Promote and be consistent with the legacy of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz and the Cuban people in Kenya and Africa through conferences, commemorative activities, panels, and political events in different countries to remember his contribution to the African liberation movements.
2. Expand the solidarity movement in various sectors of Kenyan societies, especially to all graduates of Cuba and their families.
3. Strengthen and increase the relationship between political forces, trade unions, youth organizations, women's organizations and friendship associations with Cuba.
4. Strengthen the links between solidarity organizations with Cuba in the different countries of the African continent to allow the exchange of experiences.
5. Address the people and Congress of the United States with requests to end the illegal and inhuman blockade against Cuba, the Helms-Burton Act, the activation of its Title III and the unlawful occupation of Guantanamo by the United States.
6. Perform monthly actions to demand the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States government, the end of the aggressive escalation and the return of the territory occupied by the illegal Naval Base in Guantanamo (shipment of letters to US government executives, marches in front of US Embassies / Consulates, among others).
7. Manage that each Parliament in Africa, particularly the Kenyan parliament and the Parliament of the African Union, approve Resolutions that demand the end of the illegal and inhuman blockade against Cuba and the end of the unlawful occupation of Guantanamo by the United States.
7. Reinforce actions of solidarity, dissemination and support for the causes of Palestine, Saharawi, and unrestricted support for the Bolivarian Revolution to boost the effect of a common cause.
8. Organize ourselves against terrorism in different forms so that to have solidarity to become much more effective
9. Divulge the International Volunteer and Solidarity Work Brigades with Cuba.
10. Develop communication strategies through TV, radio, social networks, and other platforms to disseminate Cuban reality.
11. Intensify the use of social networks as a platform to denounce hostile policies against Cuba; disseminate information about solidarity activities and the reality of Cuba in response to disinformation campaigns.
12. Support Cuban collaborators, especially doctors, and popularize the impact of their work on Kenyan communities.
13. 14. Prioritize the rejuvenation of the structures that make up the Solidarity Movement with Cuba creatively and comprehensively.
Hands off, Cuba!
Long live Kenya-Cuba Solidarity Committee!
Down with Economic and Financial Blockades!
Booker Ngesa Omole
National Working Committee, KCSC
About Kenya Cuba Solidarity Committee ( KCSC)
KCSC was founded in 2007 with the Social Democratic Party of Kenya (now the Communist Party of Kenya). At that time, it was called the Kenya Cuba Friendship Society before it was transformed into Kenya Cuba Solidarity Committee in 2021 mainly to defeat the bureaucracy of admitting new members at the registrar of societies and to reflect its solidarity character.
The African people have benefited from the political solidarity and humanitarianism of the Cuban revolution, which has brought medical, sports, health, culture and education to our people, among many others.
KCSC clearly demonstrates that Cuba is not alone (in her struggle against US imperialism) and that the Kenyan people defend the right of Cuba to be an independent, socialist and sovereign country. The organization has and will continue to condemn the attempt to suffocate the sovereignty of Cuba by measures of the successive USA administrations directed to economically asphyxiate the Cuban people. The blockade is a politics of genocide, criminal, illegal, cruel, insensitive and inhumane, affecting the fundamental rights of every Cuban and should be fought in all forms and platforms.
Message to the Frente POLISARIO, on their 16th National Congress
ogether, let's eliminate, once and for all, one of the most deep-seated fears in the living memory of the peoples of the world, namely expansionism and forcible territorial acquisition. Receive revolutionary greetings form the entire leadership and membership of the Communist Party of Kenya. First and foremost, we wish Frente POLISARIO a resounding success on its 16th National Congress, Congress Emhammed Jadad, which is taking place from 13th to 17th January 2023, in the Wilaya of Dakhla (Saharawi refugee camps, Tindouf, Southwest Algeria). Frente POLISARIO will grow from [ ... ]
Kenya Western Sahara Solidarity Committee (KWSSC) 2023 Action plan
On this great occasion, Frente POLISARIO is holding their 16th National Congress. On behalf of the National Working Committee and Kenya Western Sahara Solidarity Committee (KWSSC) membership. We would like to pass our unconditional and permanent solidarity with the just struggles of the Saharawi people. We reiterate that only just wars succeed; the Saharawi War of independence is a just war. Saharawi people will eventually be victors. Your victory is our victory. Kindly find the resolutions of the KWSSC meeting held on January 14th, 2023: Kenya Western Sahara Solidarity Committee (KW [ ... ]
On January 12, 2023, the National Working Committee of the Kenya Cuba Solidarity Committee (KCSC) 2023 planning meeting held at the United Kenya Club in Nairobi passed unequivocally the resolutions as outlined below. In line with its traditions and practice, the meeting was attended offline and online with up to fifty-four delegates representing different counties in Kenya. "International solidarity is not an act of charity: It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objective. The foremost of these objectives is to aid the development of humanity to t [ ... ]
THE BRUTAL, CHILLING MURDER OF COMRADE FELIX MUSILI BY THE KENYA POLICE.
On January 11, 2023, at about 5 am, three uniformed police officers stormed the home of Felix's parents in Mumbuni, Kitui and took Felix's life with several gunshots. Felix was shot right in front of his parents and siblings. His murder was carried out only a few days after President Ruto appeared on national TV to assure the Kenyans that extra-judicial killings, a common practice with every successive regime in Kenya, would be a thing of the past. The Communist Party of Kenya demands the immediate arrest of the police who took an innocent soul, and in addition to the arrest, conduc [ ... ]
On party unity, the crisis in the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK)
A statement of solidarity with the people of Saharawi, from the Communist Party ...
Public Notice in Response to Public Statements Issued by Benedict Wachira
AN INTROSPECTIVE TALE OF KENYA'S LEFTIST STRUGGLE.
CPK Workshop Report on Preventative Care in Public Health
Press Release - Scientific management of our public health system will improve K...
Africa Liberation Day 2022 - Message from Comrade Bah El Mad
Joint Statement of the COMMUNIST PARTY OF KENYA and the ZIMBABWE COMMUNIST PARTY...
CPK MESSAGE ON INTERNATIONAL DAY OF AL-QUDS HELD AT SIR ALI MUSLIM CLUB NAIROBI ...
Book Review - LITERARY APPRECIATION: THE PURPOSE OF THE EPIC AS A LITERARY FORM ...
(c) Communist Party of Kenya. All rights reserved. 2019


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Sad ending
December 13, 2021 team member 2 Comments
Box of letters from Keith "Malik" Washington
In November 2021 the San Francisco Bay View reported that Keith "Malik" Washington assaulted his ex-fiance and acted at least once as an informant to the DOJ. You can read their article at the San Francisco Bay View. I applaud the work that the San Francisco Bay View has and continues to do.
It has taken me over a month to write this because I have been processing the news and reaching out to Malik.
I, justin adkins, met Keith through a pen pal program in 2012 I was looking for someone to connect with who was working to change the system, and ultimately abolish it, while living caged inside. From our very early correspondence, Malik and I hit it off. We are different in so many ways and yet we connected as comrades in the struggle for abolition.
Over the years, though we have never met, Malik became one of my closest friends. Over time, I became Malik's voice on the outside. We did videos where I would read the information he sent and add my own 2 cents. We would disagree on issues and approaches to the work but never to the point of coming between our friendship, until now.
Malik had been up for parole a few times in the years I knew him. When he was finally released in September 2020 he had served a majority of his original sentence.
Over his many years as a caged man Malik would speak up about an issue, such as the lack of air conditioning in Texas State Prisons during the hottest year on record, and then he would get transferred. This pattern happened multiple times over the years I knew him.
I have been grieving the loss of a friendship and all it gave and meant to me over the last decade. I have been reflecting on the people I met through him and the work we did together.
For example, through Malik, in 2016 I met Erin Brokovich. Malik was researching the water quality of the prison he was in and discovered high arsenic and other chemicals. He sent me a huge packet of information he and other caged men had requested and researched and asked me to send it to Erin Brokovich. I was not always timely in my response and sat on the info for a while, which infuriated him. Then, low and behold, Erin was coming to the town just north of me to host a community meeting because PFOAs had been found in the water there. I grabbed Malik's packet of info and drove to the community meeting intent on meeting Erin Brokovich on behalf of my incarcerated friend, Comrade Malik. I sat through the multi-hour meeting and listened to all of the stories and concerns of a struggling town in Upstate NY. I then patiently waited for the townspeople to speak one at a time with Erin as she listened to their stressors and concerns. It was finally my turn to speak with her and she gave me the same attention as I explained the situation with the water in Texas State prisons and presented her with the packet of information from Comrade Malik. Eventually, the case moved forward and the Houston Chronicle among others reported on it. I spread the word in my community about what was happening in Hoosick Falls, NY and, other surrounding small communities linked by the contaminated watershed. My connection with Malik pushed me to connect with so many people over the years.
Malik has been a Muslim for quite some time. He was raised in the Baptist faith but felt a greater connection to God through Islam. Malik had encountered various levels of support (mostly lack of support in the Texas "Bible Belt") for his faith depending on where he was caged. In 2015 Malik went full force to make sure that Muslims caged in the TDCJ could more fully practice their faith. He and others focused on the rights of Mulsim men such as himself to wear beards and kufi. In 2016, they succeeded in changing those rules.
Every time Malik spoke out about an issue, he disappeared into administrative segregation (ad-seg/solitary) or was transferred. I would get quick calls or letters from incarcerated friends of his letting me know what had happened and cryptic messages to keep pressuring the DOJ and TDCJ on his behalf no matter what happened to him. Most of these issues are documented here on this website.
Not long before Malik was released he met Nube. I was so happy for him. Nube is an amazing woman with a long track record of standing up for inmate rights and the abolition of the prison industrial complex. He was also getting closer to Mary Ratcliff, editor of the San Francisco Bay View, a paper I had been sending his articles to for a few years. Mary, Nube, and Malik started working to get Malik free and paroled to Oakland or San Francisco so that he could apprentice under Mary with the goal of becoming the next editor of the Bay View.
Not long before Malik was paroled, he and Mary had a few months where they weren't speaking due to a disagreement that I never understood. Malik is a strong-headed person and once he gets an idea in his head he won't let it go. Of course, this is part of what made him so effective at organizing inside for all those years. The government doesn't make it easy for incarcerated folx to speak up or out.
Malik had been sober for 13 years. He was proud of his sobriety. Sobriety inside. He never hid that he was an addict and that he only got clean after he entered the TDCJ 2007. When he was released in the middle of a global health pandemic he was sent to the San Francisco tenderloin district to a halfway house. Life on the outside is hard after years of solitary confinement and regulation. Malik was offered more support than most, and he was not able to keep his sobriety and flamed out in spectacular fashion.
As the Bay View reported, Malik assaulted Nube and was also discovered to have informed on a fellow man during his incarceration.
I was horrified to hear that Malik assaulted Nube. Assault on anyone is not ok. As humans, we have been blessed with the ability to communicate. We need to use our words to express our anger, frustration, and pain, not our hands or bodies. As activists and abolitionists, this is even more important. The system of incarceration is based on violence against the body, mind, and soul. The system teaches that violence and constraint is the answer to problems. Can't communicate properly, you get constrained and separated from the general population. The prison industrial complex teaches us on the outside as well that if harm is done the answer is to lock someone away, to segregate them, violently. The prison industrial complex is violence. As abolitionists, we need to be different. We need to respond to interpersonal issues and concerns by communication and not physical, mental, or verbal violence.
The Bay View also reported that Malik informed false information to the DOJ about another caged man, Bradley Barton. In the report from the Bay View they published a letter written by Malik where he tells the DOJ that he used to be a "rock star informant" The letter is in his unique cadence and handwriting though this "rock star" line is in a penmanship that after many years I am not familiar with. The thing is, that line is not the issue. The rest of the letter, which is his writing and tone, is a letter of reporting on a fellow inmate to the DOJ.
The system of incarceration breeds this type of behavior. The tit-for-tat of the prison industrial complex is a series of mental manipulation, of promises delayed for timely information. People have pled guilty for crimes they didn't commit just to find a resolution and not loose more of their or their family's lives and time. The system of information, true and false, is bred into the system of incarceration.
After all of this, I am most disappointed that the man who I knew as one of my dearest friends for over a decade has not responded to me or others to speak to the conditions surrounding this horrific letter of what seems to be false information that resulted in the continued imprisonment of another human. There is nothing Malik can say about assaulting Nube he was wrong, but I would like to hear from him about the situation in which he spoke against Bradley Barton to the DOJ. I would also like to hear from him about any other informant activities he may have participated in over the years.
Until he reaches out to me or others to discuss what happened, I can no longer support Keith H. Washington, the man I knew mostly as Comrade Malik.
As noted above, he, along with many other caged activists, did years of work that changed the conditions of imprisonment for thousands. He suffered harm for his advocacy. And, he has inflicted harm as well. This is a difficult duality to sit with as an abolitionist, yet it is one that I must sit with.
This site is no longer serving its purpose and I will not renew it when it comes up for renewal (6/29/22). The Comrade Malik facebook pages that I launched and ran for many years have been turned over to Malik and I am no longer an administrator of them.
I do not know where he is now and I cannot vouch for anything having to do with him due to these circumstances. I will continue my support of incarcerated people. I will continue to fight for the abolition of all cages. No living being should live in a cage. That is the continued struggle for us to all be free. As we fight for abolition we must also build. We must build systems of support in our communities. Support for those struggling with addiction. Support for those who have experienced trauma in their lives. Build access to food and health care. Build networks of support for those leaving incarceration. The fight for abolition includes all of these struggles as they are all interlinked. There is much work for us to do, and I for one will continue in the struggle for justice.
As I have for many years, I sign off in the words of fellow trans activist Lou Sullivan.
Yours in Liberation,
justin adkins
COVID-19 Update at USP Pollock (Lousiana): Behind the Scene Details
August 19, 2020 team member Leave a comment
By Keith 'Malik' Washington
San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper
Today is August 3rd, 2020. By the time that this report is posted I may be on mandatory quarantine. All the prisoners who arrive here at USP Pollock and all prisoners who are preparing to leave must submit to a period of quarantine.
The Unit which is utilized as the housing space for all quarantine prisoners is B-3 which is located in B-building here at USP Pollock. Since December 2019 I have been housed at UsP Pollock and up till now USP Pollock has been one of the few success stories in regard to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. While other units have been ravaged by the deadly Coronavirus, USP Pollock has remained unscathed and untouched. Recently that good fortune has changed.
For years I have operated in the capacity of an investigative journalist and reporter for the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper. As I prepare for my release I continue to provide the public with details in regard to the conditions inside Amerikan prisons and jails. Since March 2020 I have been focussing on the Federal Bureau of Prisons response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently there has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in Florida, Arizona, and Texas as well as California. During the past 3 weeks USP Pollock has been accepting prisoners from county jails and Detention centers within the south central region.
What has become extremely problematic is the US Marshal Service bringing COVID-19 infected prisoners to USP Pollock. This week I spoke to a BOP medical staff member here at USP Pollock about the recent introduction of COVID-19 positive prisoners to the compound. The employee requested to remain anonymous. I will honor their request.
The BOP employee said that during the week of July 27th, 2020, the US Marshal service brought four federal prisoners from the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area. Out of those four, two tested positive for COVID-19. What is remarkable, the employee said, was that the USP Pollock Prison Administration instructed the medical department to house these infected prisoners on Unit B-3. Unit B-3 is exclusively used to house prisoners who are being discharged into the community as well as prisoners coming into the facility.
The employee stated that since the Coronavirus is an airborne pathogen it can be easily passed to otherwise healthy prisoners who have found themselves trapped on the so-called quarantine unit of B-3. The employee stated that USP Pollock is out of compliance with the CDC guidelines and that the BOP has been falsifying weekly pandemic response requirement compliance reports. Other employees here at USP Pollock have voiced their frustration with the US Marshal Service's disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of both prisoners and staff at USP Pollock.
Recently I have requested that my support team contact the administration here at USP Pollock as well as the BOP's central office in Washington DC in order to request that I not be housed on Unit B-3 where COVID-19 positive prisoners are being housed with perfectly healthy prisoners. The environment on the B-3 quarantine unit is a closed environment. There are no windows that can be opened and it has been proven that the HVAC system can transmit the deadly Coronavirus. As a 52-year old who suffers from a chronic seizure condition, I believe the BOP is guilty of 'Deliberate Indifference' in regard to the handling of COVID-19 positive prisoners.
US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke has recently ruled that mass quarantining prisoners, a practice known as 'cohorting', is out of compliance with both CDC guidelines for correctional facilities and ICE's pandemic response requirements. Please see the article written by Christopher Zoukis in the July 2020 edition of the Prison Legal News – With Lives of Immigrant Detainees at Risk to COVID-19, Federal Judge forces ICE's Hand.
I have personally warned Complex Warden Chris McConnell about the airborne transmission of this deadly coronavirus. I ask that if I should contract this virus while on quarantine on Unit B-3 here at USP Pollock that the agency be held liable in a court of law. Contrary to popular opinion, Prisoner Lives Matter and I will continue to fight for the health, welfare, and safety of all. Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win. All Power to the People.
Covid-19 Update: USP Pollock receives an Infected Prisoner
August 2, 2020 team member Leave a comment
Fight Toxic Prisons–correspondent
On July 22nd, 2020 United States Penitentiary Pollock received an in-coming transfer bus of prisoners from facilities in the South Central Region. This region which happens to include federal prisons in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas has been plagued with an increase of Covid-19 cases. A prisoner who was received here at USP Pollock tested positive for Covid-19. Prior to the positive test the prisoner had been in a holding cell with at least 10(ten) other prisoners who have been quarantined on Unit B-3 here at USP Pollock. B-3 is the Unit which the Administration has assigned for the housing of Prisoners releasing to the Public and prisoners who are preparing to be transferred to other facilities. At this time it is unknown whether or not the infected prisoner has infected any other staff members or prisoner. Covid-19 has proven to be extremely contagious especially in the congregant settings of Prisons and Jails.
As of July 20th, 2020–3,861 Federal prisoners in B.O.P. and private prisons have been infected by the Corona Virus. Approximately 320 Staff have been diagnosed with the Corona Virus. 99 B.O.P. facilities and 6 private prisons as well as 46 Federal Half-Way houses have been infected with Corona Virus. These are record setting statistics that have been reported via the LISA Federal Prison Newsletter that I receive weekly. LISA reports that 101 Federal Prisoners have died of Covid-19. The most recent deaths have been at FMC Carswell and FCI Seagoville both located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area.
The LISA News-Letter is Edited by Thomas L. Root M.A., J.D. it is very important that we give Mr. Root the credit for publishing this excellent news source for Federal Prisons so that we can collect timely and accurate information regarding the conditions inside these Federal Prisons. I request that this update is posted and shared far and wide via Social Media and any other Media Platforms. My Name is Keith 'Malik' Washington I am scheduled to be released on September 3rd, 2020 please advocate for my immediate release so that I can return to Free Society Healthy and Safe!!! Let us continue to advocate for the immediate release of all Elderly and Vulnerable Prisoners in Federal and State Prisons as well as Jails and Detention Centers all across the United States of Amerika and Europe!!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, All Power to the People!!
FIGHT TOXIC PRISONS!!!!!
Re-opening Schools disproportionately impacts Single Black Moms.
July 30, 2020 team member Leave a comment
Assistant Editor San Francisco Bay View-National Black Newspaper
A friend from Sacramento, California recently asked me about my thoughts on whether schools should re-open.
In the midst of the Corona Virus Pandemic, I firmly believe that we must lean toward science and empirical data when making the decision to re-open schools.
There should be a different decision depending on the geographical area you live in. The concrete conditions on the ground should dictate our response.
Betsy DeVos who is the current Secretary of Education in Washington D.C. is in 'Lock-Step' with the U.S. President Donald J. Trump on the school issue. The economy and this entire 'Get Back to Work Now' strategy has been put before the health, safety, and welfare of our children, our teachers, and our most vulnerable family members.
In regard to re-opening schools in the United States, there is no 'one size fits all' solution. We will have to remain flexible and create innovative ways to teach our children.
Personally, I like the model which sets forth a combination of virtual learning coupled with in school learning. Covid-19 testing must be a part of our re-opening strategy.
However, I have a friend in the Sacramento area who works in the field of education. They raised a good point:
Communities of color are being disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, so how do we adjust our response so all children benefit and are reintergrated into the re-opening process?
Making Wi-Fi available to communities of color and ensuring that all children have Tablets and Lap Tops is a step in the right direction.
However, I have another issue that I'd like all of you to consider. Sisters and brothers today is July 27th, 2020. Many people do not know if the U.S. Senate or the White House is going to extend the extra $600 that has been included in U.S. citizens' Un-employment checks.
Without this added $600 hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of Americans will be evicted from their homes and apartments. Mass evictions are a reality.
The number one demographic group that will be vulnerable from being effected by these mass evictions are lower black single moms. Yes, black single moms, are one of the most vulnerable groups in the United States.
Who in the Trump Administration has a vested interest in ensuring that single black mothers survive this Pandemic?
I want to know if Val Demings, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Kamala Harris, Stacy Abrams or Elizabeth Warren can hear my voice?
Before we tackle the issue of re-opening schools we have to make absolutely sure our children and our moms have a roof over their heads. This issue of re-opening schools is much more complex than it appears.
Before I end this piece, I want to remind all of you that in order to make it through this pandemic successfully we must have principled leadership in Washington D.C., leaders who have a heart and mind for the people. We don't have that right now.
Some of my friends, allies, and supporters may say: "Malik we do not need more leaders or Masters in Washington D.C.
My response is this: I agree that the current system has failed us. Nevertheless, in order to address these failures I have a very serious question that I'd like all of you to reflect upon: "Will you open your home or your apartment to a single mom with children?"
There is going to have to be a paradigm shift in how we visualize our new society. This question that I have posed is going to have to be on many peoples' hearts and minds. Soon there will be an explosion of homeless people on the streets of America. If this G.O.P. led U.S. Senate doesn' act intelligently there could be dire consequences. Austerity is not the answer compassion and empathy is.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER AND THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA.
Dare to struggle, Dare to win, All Power to the People.
Urgent COVID-19 Update: Will Prisoner Lives Ever Matter to the Oppressors?
By Keith "Malik" Washington
Fight Toxic Prisons – correspondent
"…through indifference or incompetence the B.O.P. is endangering the lives of individuals entrusted to its care by failing to establish consistent and effective safeguards to protect them from coronavirus."
– LISA Newsletter, July 6th 2020
Edited by Thomas L. Root M.A., J.D.
Roger Stone, who happens to be a friend of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, said that a three year federal prison sentence would be a virtual death sentence for a 67 year old like him. President Trump commuted the sentence for his friend so he would not be subjected to the Federal Death Traps operated by the Bureau of Prisons.
I think by now that most of us who embrace Abolitionist Politics realize that no amount of moral shaming nor exposure is going to convince the oppressors in Amerika to release vulnerable prisoners who are poor and who are not rich, white, and connected.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages out of control every facet of the criminal justice system wages an all out war on Black and Brown Lives.
On July 10th, 2020 we saw a record-breaking 65,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the United Snakes of Amerika.
Texas, along with Arizona and Florida, is one of the major hotspots which is driving this surge in positive cases of this deadly virus. In regard to the prison population in Texas, Michael Barajas of the Texas Observer reports the following: "As of early June 2020, about 7,000 people incarcerated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and nearly 1,000 prison employees have tested positive for COVID-19. At least 42 inmates and 7 prison staff have died from the virus. Even as those numbers rise, Governor Greg Abbott – and the parole board he appointed – has largely ignored calls to release people who have already made parole."
I personally made parole last year in Texas and as I prepare to release to a Federal Half-way House in the State of California (Sept. 2020) state officials in Texas have been holding up and delaying my parole transfer request!
Before I requested to be transferred to San Francisco, California I was slated to release to Houston, Texas. The city of Houston is located in Harris County. Harris County has been experiencing one of the worst surges of coronavirus in the nation. Although the B.O.P. and TDCJ are well aware of this I find myself struggling to convince prison officials to expedite both my release and transfer. Obviously prisoner lives don't matter – but there's more!!
COVID-19 is now present in over 84 federal prisons. There have been nearly 100 prisoner deaths and those numbers are liable to increase due to a recent spike in confirmed cases throughout the United States.
One of the most disheartening and discouraging pieces of news to come out of the U.S. Supreme Court is the decision by U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor to block the emergency release of federal prisoners housed at the Federal Correctional Institution at Elkton in Ohio.
Of all the U.S. Supreme Court justices who currently sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, I would have never have dreamed in my wildest dreams that only Sotomayor would ignore the humanity of low security prisoners who are vulnerable to contracting the deadly coronavirus. The next time someone tries to tell you how "good" liberal judges are, think again! The entire system is bereft of compassion or empathy.
In comparison to F.C.I. Elkton in Ohio, we have federal prisoners at F.C.I. Oakdale in Louisiana who have attempted to plead for similar emergency relief as the prisoners in Elkton.
What is remarkable is the number of deaths. At FCI Oakdale there have been approximately 28 deaths of prisoners. There have been approximately 10 deaths at F.C.I. Elkton.
In both of these cases the Federal B.O.P. has fought aggressively to keep prisoners inside these death traps. However, with a phone call and a stroke of his powerful pen, U.S. President Donald Trump protected his personal friend Roger Stone from the threat posed by the coronavirus.
Every group in Amerika needs a representative who speaks out and fights hard for their interests. I represent the elderly, infirm, poor, and vulnerable federal and state prisoners in Amerika who have been left to suffer and die inside these slave kamps and gulags.
I am not angry that Roger Stone did not go to prison. I am angry that the system promotes, sanctions, and condones these stark inequalities in the application of justice in Amerika.
Nevertheless, we must join together in order to shed a discerning light on these ongoing injustices as well as the abuse of political power.
I stand in solidarity with the campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons as well as many other autonomous organizations that seek to dismantle and abolish these systems of oppression which represent the horrible Amerikan legacy of slavery.
Let us struggle together to abolish all forms of slavery and lets fight to free ALL prisoners by any means necessary!!!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, All Power to the People!
Note: Please support and promote Malik's re-entry fundraiser, he is scheduled to be released in September 2020. Visit the GoFundMe link: https://gf.me/u/ydbirm. Thank you for helping our comrade.
Comrade Malik Speaks: It is not Panic Talk it is Big Facts!!!
Nearly 140,000 deaths Nationally. Dallas, Texas experiences record breaking Deaths. The Oklahoma Governor has Covid-19. The Louisiana Attorney General has Covid-19. Another record breaking day on Covid-19 cases–77,000!! Hospitals are being over-run. Governor Greg Abbott tries to insinuate that this is Panic Talk. No!! This is not Panic Talk these are Big Facts Sisters and brothers it is time to separate Fact from Fiction. We must collectively come together and protect human lives. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms cares about the Lives of Atlanta citizens. Governor Brian Kemp is playing politics!!! It is time for righteous human beings to stand up to these bullies and save the Lives of the most vulnerable. Sometimes more is less!! It is time for some action
Twelve Years a Slave in Texas!
Toxic death flowin out of the prison's water spigots.
Beat down and abused by Racist Bigots.
Confederate Grey Uniforms they wear.
Open Pride for White Supremacy on display and laid bare.
I remember all the hate campaigns launched against me.
Too much pain, sleepless nights, my mind not at ease.
FINALLY GRANTED PAROLE IN TWO THOUSAND NINETEEN!
The Creator of the Universe heard my pleas.
But what will become of the comrades left behind?
From my desk at the Bay view—Whom will I SAVE?
Twelve long years in Texas.
In Trump's New Amerikkka am I still considered a Slave?
I Organized Prison work strikes—-asked for help—little came.
Long Term Solitary confinement was the punishment.
Next door neighbor committed suicide–Driven insane!!
In Huntsville they have the gurney and the needle.
Poison forced into our veins.
Senator Joan Huffman hid the identity of the pharmaceutical corporations,
Senator John Whitmire clandestinely down with the games!
Twelve years a Slave in Texas.
Oh, y'all thought I forgot your names??
In Texas the Warden conspires against you.
The prison guard carries out the Task.
Ligature marks on our wrists and necks.
AG Ken Paxton has no questions to ASK?—COMPLICIT!!!
Governor Gregg Abbott attacked the Panthers.
Comrade Rashid and I Resisted.
Texas contacted the Fusion Center and they gladly
aided and Assisted.
Anarchists and Socialists came to our aid.
Twelve years in Texas and still a god-damn Slave!
There is a debt that must be Paid.
Prison Slave Laborers buried at Central Unit in Mass Graves.
Broken Backs, Whips and Chains.
Today in 2020 Happy Slaves in Texas still work for Free!
Gettin pimped and exploited under the church steeple.
I tried my best to wake them up and transform them all into
SERVANTS OF THE PEOPLE!
Snitches and Rats informed on me.
The Police poisoned my food.
All this and more for striving for righteousness and
fighting for the greater good.
Branded a Black Militant and extremist.
Everyday I was facing hate.
It is I your Comrade–Brother Malik.
THE REAL ENEMY OF THE STATE!
No more tears only laughter.
Gettin ready for the next Chapter.
Freedom is Sweet and Love is Pure—NUBE.
They did their damndest to break me baby but
with mutual aid and solidarity I was able to endure.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has the future looking so unsure.
A Living Testimony, here I STAND.
Here to show the world that even the people society
throws away, have the power and strength to HEAL OUR LAND!
A SLAVE NO MORE I BE.
It is now time for all of us to unify and organize in order to set
ALL THE CAPTIVES FREE!!!
Will Texas Governor Greg Abbott choose to save Lives or Save Face?
San Francisco Bay View–National Black Newspaper
US Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrive at a press conference on the coronavirus at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas on June 28, 2020. – Photo: Juan Figueroa, Dallas Morning News
Texas governor Greg Abbott like many republican governors across the United States followed the lead of the U.S. President Donald J. Trump and pushed to re-open states before the science revealed that it was time to do so.
In approximately 4 1/2 months the Corona Virus has killed over 136,000 human beings here in the United States.
The state of Texas rushed to open and now large urban centers such as Houston, Austin, and San Antonio as well as small cities such as Corpus Christie are facing an apocalyptic health care crisis.
This is a defining moment for Greg Abbott. The question presents itself; 'Will governor Abbott choose to save lives or will he ignore the empirical data and the science and choose to save face?'. I ask this question: "Will Greg Abbott distance himself from the poor leadership of Donald J. Trump and make decisions that will save the lives of ALL Texas Citizens?
The state of Texas is the home of some of the best colleges and universities in the United States. Texas also has some of the most prestigious and advanced hospitals in the world. However, allow me to present some remarkable historical information.
In 2015 the University of Texas at Austin–Human Rights Clinic headed by Professor Ariel Dulitzky presented a scientific and empirical analysis within the body of a report which clearly showed that deadly extreme heat and deliberate indifference by Texas State Prison Officials as well as members of the University of Texas Medical Branch contributed to the deaths of prisoners housed in facilities operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The argument put forth could easily convince a group of intelligent human beings to install air conditioning inside all Texas Prisons in order to save prisoner lives. Deadly heat still poses a serious risk to the health and the lives of Texas prisoners and this is only exacerbated more by the current Corona Virus pandemic.
At the time in 2015 the state of Texas was fighting a lawsuit brought by four Texas prisoners who were seeking the installation of air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit located in Navasota, Texas. It is note-worthy to mention that the Wallace Pack Unit houses a large number of elderly and infirm prisoners who are vulnerable to extreme heat and of contracting the Corona Virus. (The Wallace Pack Unit now has Air-conditioning thanks to these fearless prisoners)
In 2015, in response to the report by the University of Texas at Austin–Human Rights Clinic the Texas governor's office retaliated. I am very familiar with this situation because I was one of the people who was the victim of the state's retaliatory response. The Texas governor's office threatened the chancellor of the University of Texas at Austin and told him that the State of Texas did not want University of Texas professors, lawyers or college students helping Texas prisoners.
Even though the state of Texas had created deadly conditions inside its prisons–deadly conditions which still exist in most of Texas' prisons to this very day. The 'Company Line' was to retaliate rather than take decisive and humane actions that would have improved the quality of life and actually saved the lives of wards of the State.
Like Donald J. Trump–governor Greg Abbott has established a clear pattern of conduct by which he attacks those who present or expose information which shines a negative light on the states inhumane practices. At this moment in time I ask the citizens of Texas as well as Texas Legislators and responsible members of the Media and our Activist Community to urge Greg Abbott to set aside his allegiance to the Republican Party and make the 'hard' decisions that will save many lives:
*Order the Shut Down of all Cities where Covid19 is spreading
*Increase Testing, Isolation, and Contact Tracing immediately and focus energy on our most vulnerable communities—Communities of color
If Texas governor Greg Abbott wants to fulfill his duty to serve and protect ALL Texas citizens he must rise to the occasion and LEAD in his own way and ignore the false narratives and faulty leadership emanating from Trump's White House.
SAVE THE PEOPLE!!
SERVE THE PEOPLE!!
SHUT IT DOWN AND SAVE LIVES!!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to win, All Power to the People!!!
BREAKING NEWS FROM THE FEDERAL PRISON IN POLLOCK, LA FROM COMRADE MALIK
July 9, 2020 team member Leave a comment
Originally published: http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2020/07/call-for-immediate-action.html
A couple of months ago, David Sumera (#37063-034), who is from Louisiana, but serving in the federal system, had a Gran Mal seizure which left him paralyzed from the waist down. He shouldn't even be here! They don't have the facilities in place nor the staff to offer him adequate medical care. Recently, staff have not been giving him the opportunity to shower and clean himself so he is left sitting and laying in his urine and excrement.
On July 4th, David requested to be placed in the shower. His cellmate, Jason Lee, who is also from Louisiana, helped him get in the shower. On or about 5 p.m., David had a seizure. During and after the seizure, numerous officers and prisoners were eye witnesses to a Lieutenant Rene (White, male) saying to David (and I quote): "I hope he fuckin' dies." And he kicked him in the ribs.
I will write a grievance tonight, but please — as soon as possible — organize a Phone Zap to call Warden Chris McConnell at 318-765-3119 demanding that David Sumera be moved immediately to an appropriate facility where he can and will be given the medical attention and on-going care he needs.
As we know, federal and state prison systems have suspended visiting "privileges" using the COVID-19 pandemic as the excuse. This makes it even more important for us to act quickly and powerfully to hold administrations and staff accountable for the safety and care of those in their custody. Please act now.
Clear Out U.S. Senate in November 2020!!
The republican led U.S. Senate obstructed the investigation into the dealings of Donald J. Trump. Specifically, it was Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell that orchestrated the obstruction of justice during the Impeachment Process.
Now in July 2020 the Republican Party refuses to address the FACT that police in Amerika continue to murder un-armed Black people and people of color on Amerikan streets. Make no mistake about it, we are living in a Historical time and the Republicans have staked out their position and made their intentions clear. The Grand Old Party will Not protect nor will they Respect Black Lives. In November 2020 let us collectively send them a Clear Message!!!


text:
SpaceX fires employees who criticized Musk, USA Today responds to reporter dishonesty and top social platforms for small businesses
Also: Ryanair achieves relatability, humor on TikTok.
By Emma Atkinson
@emmameg
Hello, communicators:
It's tough to make fun of your own brand on social media and not come across as disingenuous or like you're trying too hard to be relatable.
European airline company Ryanair, however, has perfected the art.
Blending TikTok trends with self-burns about the company's infamously low-cost, no-frills flights, the brand has garnered more than 1.6 million followers with short form videos like this one:
@ryanair
Do you even know us at all?? 😩 #ryanair
♬ original sound – AussieClips_
"YOU'RE MY FAVE AIRLINE!!!" text on the video reads as the audio says, "I love you."
"Yeah, cool, I love you too," a different voice says with exasperation.
The text on the screen changes to "I'd love a free drink and a window seat" as the audio says, "I want to stay with you, in your room, in your bed."
"Okay, well, that's not going to happen," the audio concludes.
It's all about the power of the trend and a company's willingness to take a risk on social media.
Here are today's other top stories:
SpaceX reportedly fired employees who spoke out about Elon Musk
According to reporting from The New York Times, Elon Musk's company SpaceX has fired a number of employees who were involved in the writing and distribution of an open letter criticizing Musk's behavior.
The Verge first reported that the letter, which was sent to SpaceX executives, raised concerns about how his behavior was negatively affecting the reputation of the company:
"Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks," the letter states. "As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values."
SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell responded with an internal email to employees that shared the firing of the workers who were involved.
"The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views," Shotwell wrote in the email. "We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism."
Why it matters: Shotwell's internal email also serves as a PR statement in which she rebukes the idea that the letter was indicative of the majority of employees' opinions; rather, that it was the work of a few employees who sought to pressure SpaceX administration.
However, some public discourse indicates that audiences believe the move directly contradicts Musk's views on "free speech," which could serve to erode trust in him and his companies.
MEASURED THOUGHTS
A new report from Hello Alice pegs TikTok as the top platform for small- and medium-sized businesses looking to be creative on social media.
(Image via)
Sixty-seven percent of polled business owners named TikTok as a platform that helps them to tell their brand story in a creative way, followed by Instagram (65%), YouTube (58%), Facebook (55%) and Snapchat (51%).
"Storytelling is a highly effective marketing tool, especially for small businesses. It's an opportunity to not simply promote their products and services, but to showcase their values, personality, and creativity," the report says. "Recent trends have shown that consumers are seeking this more personalized content from brands.³ Consequently, small businesses should leverage marketing platforms that enable them to tell their unique stories in an innovative, engaging way to take advantage of this consumer shift."
Read more from the Hello Alice report here.
USA Today removes reporter's stories after quote fabrications
USA Today announced this week it was removing 23 stories from its website after an internal audit found evidence that a reporter had fabricated quotes and sources.
The news outlet shared a lengthy statement about the move, including that the reporter, Gabriela Miranda, had resigned.
"The audit revealed that some individuals quoted were not affiliated with the organizations claimed and appeared to be fabricated," the statement reads. "The existence of other individuals quoted could not be independently verified. In addition, some stories included quotes that should have been credited to others."
USA Today also shared the steps it would be taking to "reinforce and strengthen [its] reporting and editing diligence and processes," including improving the reader complaint process, ensuring that reporters take steps to verify source information and applying additional scrutiny to sources found through social media or email.
Why it matters: Damage control after an event that could seriously mar your organization's reputation is critical. USA Today quickly released a statement that was clear and comprehensive, avoiding any claim that it took too long to respond.
Additionally, by providing the steps it will take to avoid such events in the future, the news outlet is able to start to rebuild the trust it's lost — a crucial move, considering studies show the public is less trusting of journalists and news outlets.
Topics: Daily Scoop
Daily Scoop | Allison Carter
Southwest continues apology tour, Meta to reinstate Trump and more
Popeyes sponsors a viral star, TikTok bans spread to colleges and more
Culture wars claim M&Ms, new AI problems for CNET and more
TikTok 'heats' videos, most approve of NFL's handling of Hamlin and more
Alec Baldwin faces charges and pitches see decreased response rate


Singers from the Glendale area will perform Handel's "Messiah" as part the Los Angeles Master Chorale at 7 p.m. the next two Sundays at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., in downtown Los Angeles.
Glendale residents performing are Suzanne Anderson (soprano), Christina Bristow (soprano) Bradley Chapman (tenor), Greg Davies (tenor) and Sal Malaki (tenor). La Crescenta resident Jody Golightly (tenor) also will sing.
Music Director Grant Gershon conducts 48 members of the acclaimed chorus, chamber orchestra and four soloists from among the chorale's ranks — Anna Schubert, soprano; Callista Hoffman-Campbell, mezzo soprano; John Russell, tenor; and Abdiel Gonzalez, baritone.
Tickets range from $29 to $119. Group rates are available. For tickets, call (213) 972-7282, or visit www.lamc.org.


text:
Nanjian, may refer to:

Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, an autonomous county in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China
Nanjian Town, a town in Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan, China

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Supply Needs: 9/3 - Food/Water, Toiletries (Shampoo/conditioner, soap, sanitary napkins, etc.), Baby Items (Diapers, formula, etc.), Pet Needs (Dog food, cat food, etc.), Cleaning Supplies (Disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, all-purpose cleaner, etc.), Disposable Supplies (Toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags, etc.) No more clothing/bedding needed.


text:
package com.yirendai.infra.cicada.exception;

import com.yirendai.infra.cicada.constants.AppError;

import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Data;
import lombok.EqualsAndHashCode;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;

@Data
@EqualsAndHashCode(callSuper = false)
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
public class InternalServerErrorException extends RuntimeException {
  private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

  private int errorCode;
  private String message;

  public InternalServerErrorException(final AppError appError) {
    super();
    this.errorCode = appError.getErrorCode();
    this.message = appError.getMessageKey();
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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