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Author: Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBA
Emilia Dunham is currently a Project Manager at MassHealth/Department of Public Health, and formerly the Project Manager of the Life Skills project at The Fenway Institute, an HIV intervention study for young transgender women. Emilia worked at Fenway for 7 years, first as a Quality Control and Regulatory Assistant mainly involved with biomedical HIV prevention trials, before serving as the Program Associate for The Network for LGBT Health Equity, a network instrumental in many national LGBT health policy improvements. She is also involved with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, serving as a Steering Committee member and the Policy Committee Co-Chair, an organization largely responsible for the recent passage of the Trans Rights Bill. Additionally she serves as a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, Co-Chair of the Recommendations Committee. Emilia received a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern University. There she served as President of the LGBTQ student group where she planned programs such as Pride Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance, and AIDS Week. In addition, she advocated for LGBTQ inclusive policies and programming on campus such as a Gender Neutral Housing program, an LGBTQ Center and the expansion of Women's Studies to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Emilia recently earned a Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration in health policy and management from the Brandeis Heller School School for Social Policy and Management.
Cross-posting · Feature · Presentations · social media · Staff/Program Updates · White House
Network Staff in First Agency-Wide "I AM: Trans People Speak" Video, also Great Public Health Tool
November 19, 2012 November 19, 2012 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBA1 Comment
by Emilia Dunham
Guest Blogger / Former Network Staff / The Fenway Institute Study Coordinator
I am very pleased to announce the release of Fenway Health's contribution to the "I AM: Trans People Speak" campaign, which I coordinated through my new study for young transgender women, the LifeSkills project of The Fenway Institute.
If you're not familiar, the "I AM" project is an amazingly powerful campaign raising awareness about the diversity that exists within transgender communities. It gives a voice to transgender individuals, as well as their families, friends, and allies. In the video's premier, I hosted at Fenway, LifeSkills Investigator Sari Reisner discusses how it is also a brilliant public health campaign.
Research shows how projects like the "I AM" videos are fantastic examples of how media campaigns are widely recognized as useful public health tools, and that focused, well-executed health media campaigns can change some health knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. (Randolph & Viswanath, 2004) (Noar, 2006) – Sari Reisner, 11/14/2012
Demonstrating the impact of this campaign, our event listing and video were cross-posted in multiple locations including MTPC, GLAAD, Boston.com, The Rainbow Times and GLAAD! Even more significantly, major news outlets like CBS have picked up the campaign! A few professors and students have mentioned their plans to use in their classrooms as well. Just think about the incredible impact this campaign could have!
Making this fun, moving and theoretically informed video even better, the Network's own Daniella Matthews-Trigg, Gustavo Torrez and *your's truly* appear at various points in the video! As you know the Network is all about how the effects of social media can be tools for advocacy in public health, and this is a prime example that's just in time for Transgender Awareness Week. It's ok if you watch just to see our lovely faces, but also consider sending around to your friends, family, classmate/students and colleagues for your part in Transgender Awareness Week or make your own video after watching some on the website.
As we see how even the White House is recognizing Transgender Awareness Week, and that folks like Scout have a seat at the White House table for trans policy initiatives, it's important to have positive public health tools like this campaign to help educate along the way.
Noar SM. (2006). A 10-year retrospective of research in health mass media campaigns: Where do we go from here? Journal of Health Communication, 11, 21-42.
Randolph W, Viswanath K. (2004). Lessons learned from public health mass media campaigns: Marketing health in a crowded media world. Annual Review of Public Health, 25, 419-437.
Creating Change 2011 · social media
Youth Kicks! An LGBTQ Youth Counter Tobacco Project's Next Steps
October 18, 2011 October 18, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
Some of you may remember the LGBTQ youth anti-tobacco campaign, Youth Kicks, I was working on with the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. We started a little less than a year ago with the staff support NYAC, and a few of us met up at Creating Change to discuss strategy and goals. Unfortunately, there were some challenges as NYAC closed its doors back in the Spring. This came as quite a shock to the LGBTQ and youth communities across the country, and the loss of NYAC leaves a big gap to fill in the LGBTQ community.
Shortly after NYAC shut its doors, we at the Network decided to take on the project, and even after the timeframe of the project ended, many of the youth graciously agreed to volunteer even after this time. With conference calls once or twice a month, these youth experts came together to form some what-we-believe-to-be effective strategies to aid in harm reduction of tobacco prevalence in LGBTQ youth communities.
Finally after many conversations of discussing the project, we decided on some messaging and image concepts, which were sent to yet another dedicated volunteer, Jean Calomeni of Project Filter, who is responsible for some stellar ads in response to Camel Snus' aggressive targeting of LGBT communities.
Although I am afraid this is just a teaser as the final product is not complete, though the drafts are quite stunning, so you'll have to hang tight but expect some great designs that you'll be able to share at your agencies and beyond.
However I would like to take a moment to introduce our committee members:
Carla Mena was born in Lima, Peru. She came to the US in the year 2001; she graduated from high school with an honors GPA and became the first National Honors Society Hispanic member at Sanderson High School in Raleigh. During her freshmen year of high school, Carla joined El Pueblo's youth (No Fumo) program and has been a key volunteer since then; it was through El Pueblo and her own experiences that Carla discovered her passion for social justice. Carla is currently attending Meredith College, majoring in Biology. At Meredith, Carla has organized several programs to make the Meredith community more aware of the issues affecting the Latino community, as well as events to share its cultural richness. Carla is currently serving as the Youth Reproductive Health (Our Rights Have no Borders) Intern at El Pueblo Inc. Carla is passionate about access to higher education, human rights and social justice.
Ariel Cerrud is a graduate of Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, majoring in Political Science with a Minor in Communication Studies. As a youth activist, he has advocated on behalf of various governmental, non-governmental, community and advocacy entities. Ariel's advocacy work has revolved around youth focused areas including youth character and leadership development and health disparities in young people including working towards curving adolescent risky behaviors. Ariel's most recent advocacy work has been on behalf of Advocates For Youth, as a Peer Educator for YouthResources.com, a website by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth. Ariel also provides content and materials for Amplify Your Voice, Advocates for Youth new interactive website that serve as a vehicle for youth-led, grassroots online activism. In his professional life, Ariel works as a Program Director for Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland. Under his role, he provides guidance to youth ages 6-18 and instills within each of them a sense of belonging, power and influence over their lives. He works to enable all youth to reach their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens and instills these potentials in every program and activity he leads.
Chase Andrews is a 24 year old, Atlanta native and a recent graduate of Georgia State University. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Communication with a minor in Psychology. He's is the former Program Coordinator for the Department of Student Health Promotion at his alma mater. He got his start as a peer health educator in 2005, from there his interest in health education and HIV prevention blossomed. In August of 2010, he joined the AID Atlanta staff as the Recruitment and Retention Specialist for the Evolution Project. When he's not doing HIV prevention work he's a filmmaker. In 2009 he started a small production company, Eight Peace Productions, LLC. He's currently working on short film entitled: Emotionally Safe Sex: Beyond Barrier Methods. Ultimately, Chase aims to combine his passion for LGBT youth, HIV prevention, and film to create provocative media/art.
Lexi Adsit, a familiar face, is a fierce queer transwomyn of color. She blogged for us at the Philly Trans Health Conference. She is studying at San Francisco State University majoring in Raza Studies with a minor in counseling. Her activism led her to many non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area and a larger network of like-minded people whom she has worked with since high school. She is in the middle of various projects, including YouthKicks, ranging from being an online peer educator with Advocates For Youth (AFY) to interning at the ACLU of Northern California in the Friedman Education Youth Program to more recently working as a Coordinator for YouthNoise. She is also a proud part of the femme shark and INCITE! Movement. She dreams of being a counselor for queer youth and run a homeless shelter for queer and trans youth in the Bay Area.
Ernesto, another familiar face, is a twenty-something aged youth from Portland Oregon. Currently he works for Cascade AIDS Project as youth technology specialist where he engages young people in creating healthy sexuality for themselves and their peers through social media. As an LGBT youth of color Ernesto has worked in various positions in local, state and national organizations to address some of the serious health inequities that exist for young people in America. As a 4th year member of Advocates for Youth initiatives, Ernesto is glad to bring his diverse experiences to the work he does in creating safe and supportive spaces for youth. You may also recall Ernesto served on our Steering Committee and was featured in a recent issue of Sharing Our Lessons: From Queer Youth to Public Health Leader.
Data · Resources
New LGBT People and Tobacco Fact Sheet
October 12, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
We're excited to share a new Network resource. Our updated LGBT People and Tobacco Fact Sheet! With the help of Network members, we're happy to share this new resource with all of you. As you know research on LGBT tobacco rates is very limited, but what we do know is that prevalence is consistently higher within these communities, and it's really useful to put out more refined information that becomes available in recent years.
This factsheet was originally prepared by Scout and Donald Hitchcock in 2005, with assistance from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, http://www.smokefree.net, the American Cancer Society, and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It was updated in 2008 by Scout for the National LGBT Tobacco Control Network, and updated again in August 2011 by Joseph Lee of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Like previous fact sheets, our 2011 version contains key facts regarding LGBT people and tobacco such as the following:
LGBT communities are severely impacted by tobacco use
Tobacco companies target LGBT populations, compromising work against a major health threat
Negative health impacts of tobacco continue to be under-estimated
Reasons for the disparity
LGBT people want clean indoor air
Please check out and share our new fact sheet: http://lgbttobacco.org/files/LGBTTobaccoFactsheetFinal2011.pdf
Action Alerts · LGBT Policy
National Safe Schools Day for LGBTQ Youth
October 5, 2011 October 5, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
Today we'd like to raise awareness for an important campaign by Safe Schools Action Network: National Safe Schools Day. As you likely know there were quite a few highly publicized LGBTQ youth suicides as a result of anti-LGBTQ bullying clustered around this time last year, which makes this day so important. You probably all know the facts about Health Risks of LGBT kids including the obscene statistics about high suicide rates among LGB, and especially T people.
It's of some relief to know that the government is starting to respond with supportive policies and recommendations. At a Network we do our best to support LGBTQ youth in our policy advocacy, trainings, supporting you in your efforts, hosting LGBTQ youth initiatives, action alerts, and youth focused funding technical assistance calls. However, sometimes it's useful to provide resources with what people can do directly, which is just what Safe Schools is doing and why we gladly support their efforts.
The Safe Schools Action Network website hosts many ways to get involved, provides resources for LGBTQ youth, and lists many ways to take action such as:
Send a Letter/Email to a School, Community Leader or Local Newspaper Editor
Speak with your representatives in government to support LGBTQ youth
Work with your schools to educate and create task forces for LGBTQ youth
Talk with neighbors, friends, co-workers and families
Be a mentor to an LGBTQ youth
Some of you already do great work, but we should all push ourselves to do one extra thing this month for the youth. For me, I've decided to contact my old school district, asking for them to support LGBTQ youth. Like many LGBTQ people, when I was growing up I was bullied quite a bit. Well before I even came out, peers directed homophobic and transphobic taunts and slurs at me on a regular basis, and I became very depressed and isolated for feeling so different from my straight, gender conforming peers. When I did come out in high school, it felt good to be myself, but bullying got more defined. However, my school's administration was very supportive of me and were there when I needed them. Looking back, I consider myself lucky to have had such support in a small, conservative town and I'm not sure if I would here today if it wasn't for that support. Therefore I am resolved to write a letter to my school thanking them for their support and asking them for their continued support of transgender, bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer and questioning students.
So whatever you do, whether you're making it personal or taking action because it's the right thing, please do something for the youth.
Make it a Commitment
All of October is Bullying Prevention Month too, so for the next few weeks, please make a committment to support LGBTQ youth.
Cultural Competency Trainings · webinar
Network to Team in Leading First LGBT Cultural Competency Trainings for Nat'l Health Service Corps
October 4, 2011 October 19, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBA1 Comment
A while back the National LGBT Cancer Network and the Network for LGBT Health Equity were asked to do the first LGBT cultural competency webinar for the National Health Service Corps. Likely sparked by their amazing training for the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, this dynamic team returns to lead the first ever LGBT training for this organization.
We're further excited that it's happening this week! Thursday, October 6th Scout and Liz Margolies (the Cancer Network) will be doing two 90 minute webinars for them overall, with a training the following Thursday. To indicate the sheer reach of these webinars, the National Health Service Corps has 9,000 member providers (mostly doctors, dentists, & mental health providers), so we're hoping a big chunk of them will sign up to do the webinars live, but they will also be available on their web for continued access. To further describe how important this training is, most members of NHSC are or were students, so they are early in their careers. Therefore, by educating them early, it make a bigger difference down the line. Also, at least half of NHSC members work in low-income health centers, which LGBT people more often fall into and low-income LGBT people have even more health disparities, so that's something important about these trainings as well.
Given the size of this membership and the fact this is their first member-wide LGBT training, we're thrilled to be leading the tremendous advances in LGBT trainings. Once again, we're so grateful for Scout and Liz for the amazing work and leadership they have in educating providers and other health workers on LGBT knowledge.
Scout and Liz Margolies
LGBT Policy
New Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People
September 26, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
Just yesterday the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) released it's 7th Version of Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People (SOC) in Atlanta (where we're proud to have several members of Fenway Health presenting at and/or in attendance).
This was last updated in 2001, and if you know anything about LGBT health and especially trans health, A LOT has changed in ten years, and this document has demonstrates the evolution in understanding of trans health. This update will make a drastic difference in how trans people are able to access their care. It's something that will make a huge difference on a global scale for trans health, but will also directly affect individuals which is fantastic and not something we always see in trans advocacy.
If you don't know WPATH sets the world standards of care for transgender individuals seeking gender transition. Doctor's use these standards to determine how they will treat trans people who come into their offices, such as in terms of under what conditions they can access hormones, surgeries and other forms of transition-related care (ex. months/years in therapy and in the "real-life experiences" in the desired gender). Many trans advocates and trans individuals themselves see these as harmfully gatekeeping, but there is general understanding there should be some regulation of care for an area of health services needing more research. This document represents that balance.
You can view the document in its entirety here, which has increased significantly: http://lgbttobacco.org/files/WPATHsoc7.pdf
In the meantime here are some of the highlights:
Gender Conversion Psychotherapies are Unethical
De-psychopathologisation of Gender Difference (basically meaning that trans people aren't inherently crazy)
More reasonable criteria for accessing hormones and surgeries
Call for health providers to be culturally competent and treat clients sensitively
More empowerment of trans clients in their own care
Removal of the three-month requirement for either "real life experience" (living in a congruent gender role) or psychotherapy before access to hormonal care.
Clarification on the role of the SOC as flexible clinical guidelines that may be tailored for individual needs and local cultures.
Inclusion of other gender nonconforming folks, minors and other new areas.
Data · LGBT Policy
New Developments from HHS! Visitation Rights & Grant for LGBT Health
September 7, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
Two exciting developments for LGBT health were announced today we're so happy to report!
The first announcement came from the Department of Health and Human Services' Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issuing new enforcement of hospital visitation rights which explicitly protect same-sex partners. Basically all hospitals and health centers that participate in Medicare and Medicaid (which is like most of them) must grant patients the right to choose their visitors, which includes a same-sex domestic partner.
According to HRC Backstory:
"The guidance issued today is also intended to make it easier for family members, including a same-sex domestic partner, to make informed care decisions for loved ones who have become incapacitated."
This announcement comes from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with explicit support for same-sex
Today's LGBT hero, HHS Secty K. Sebelius
couples, as she states (quoting from HHS.gov):
"Couples take a vow to be with each other in sickness and in health and it is unacceptable that, in the past, some same-sex partners were denied the right to visit their loved ones in times of need. We are releasing guidance for enforcing new rules that give all patients, including those with same-sex partners, the right to choose who can visit them in the hospital as well as enhancing existing guidance regarding the right to choose who will help make medical decisions on their behalf."
Another fantastic development concerns the parent organization of this Network: Fenway Health. According to the Advocate:
"A $248,000 grant tothe Fenway Institute, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (a division of HHS), will fund creation of a national training and technical assistance center for LGBT health issues."
Per the HRSA press release, Fenway will use the grant for the following purposes:
Recruit leading experts in LGBT health led seminars and provide consultation to health center staff
Develop curricula specifically targeted to LGBT populations
Work closely with state primary care associations to maximize the geographic reach of the project
So remember when we told you how the government was committed to LGBT research and data collection and the reasons why it's important? Here's part of how that is going to happen!
Cross-posting
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to FDA: Remove Menthol!
August 19, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
Our friends at the Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership
(APPEAL) had another recent great success with organizing a petitioned letter to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) requesting they ask FDA to remove menthol.
With a great number of signatures (including the Network's), CAPAC did write a letter to FDA not only asking that menthol be removed but providing recommendations on further reducing tobacco use in diverse communities. You can see the letter here: CAPAC Menthol Letter. Now, we will wait and see if FDA moves on menthol.
This is a great show of collaboration led by APPEAL, and we congratulate their successful efforts!
APPEAL Press release: "No Community Left Behind" California's Priority Populations Launch a New Tobacco Control Initiative
August 15, 2011 August 15, 2011 Emilia Dunham, MPP, MBALeave a comment
Please check out this press release by our national network partner: Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 1, 2011
Contact: Rod Lew
Executive Director for APPEAL
rodlew@appealforhealth.org
Carol McGruder
Co-Chair, AATCLC
cmcgruder@usa.net
"No Community Left Behind"
California's Priority Populations Launch a New Tobacco Control Initiative
Long Beach, CA –Tobacco control professionals from across the state will gather for the official launch of the newly formed ADEPT (Advocacy and Data dissemination to achieve Equity for Priority populations on Tobacco) Project on August 3, 2011 in Long Beach, California. California's recent smoking prevalence data reports that adult smoking rates are at an all time low of 11.9%, second only to Utah. However, with smoking prevalence for African American males at over 18% and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) young adults at 43%, there are many other California populations that have not shared in the gains reaped from the passage of Proposition 99. Approved by California voters in 1988, Proposition 99 added a 25-cents tax to every package of cigarettes sold in the state of California of which 5-cents was used to fund California's comprehensive tobacco control movement.
"It has been over 20 years since Prop 99 passed, and the diminishing reach and power of that 5-cents has meant a drastic reduction in programs and services that benefit our communities," stated Carol McGruder, Co-Chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council.
Initially, California focused on the communities and groups that had the highest smoking prevalence rates. But due to inflation, an ever shrinking funding base and shifting priorities within the California Department of Public Health, over the years that focus has diminished and California's priority populations continue to suffer disproportionately. With dramatically higher smoking prevalence rates, fewer workplace protections from secondhand smoke and predatory tobacco industry targeting, many of these communities continue to lag far behind the mainstream.
With funding through the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) of California, which administered the California Cancer Research Fund* this year for the University of California, a collaborative is working to help their communities catch up by ensuring that critical tobacco use data on California's most diverse and vulnerable populations are shared and disseminated within those communities. While these communities face the greatest disparities related to tobacco use and the impact of tobacco, they are also the least educated on these issues and have benefitted the least from California's historic gains in tobacco control. Helping to increase these communities' understanding of the impact of tobacco use on vulnerable populations will lead to increased mobilization of tobacco control program and policy initiatives.
The ADEPT Project is comprised of five partners working with six vulnerable populations: Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL); the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC); Coalition of Lavender-Americans on Smoking & Health (CLASH), who work with the LGBT community; Break Free Alliance of the Health Education Council, who work with the low socioeconomic status (SES) community; and the University of Southern California (USC), who work with Hispanic/Latino and American Indian communities.
"We must educate and empower our communities to act," said Rod Lew, Executive Director of APPEAL, "all Californians should benefit from these historic health gains, with no communities left behind."
The ADEPT project is funded through the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) of California, which administered the project's funding from the California Cancer Research Fund*for the University of California. ADEPT operates on the premise that: 1) There is a disproportionate impact of cancer and tobacco-related diseases on vulnerable populations; 2) While some critical data have been collected on various vulnerable populations in California, this data has not been widely disseminated; 3) Wide dissemination of critical tobacco data for vulnerable populations can expand the knowledge base and lead to increased mobilization of communities on tobacco prevention interventions and policy initiatives.
*Contributions to the California Cancer Research Fund are used to conduct research relating to the causes, detection, and prevention of cancer and to expand community-based education on cancer, and to provide prevention and awareness activities for communities that are disproportionately at risk or afflicted by cancer.
Look for the voluntary contribution lines or tell your tax preparer about donating to the California Breast Cancer Research Fund on line 405 and/or the California Cancer Research Fund on line 413 of your state tax Form 540.
To learn more information about California's Voluntary Contributions, see the Franchise Tax Board's FAQ page.
Legacy's Call for Nominations: 2011 Community Activist Award
Emilia Dunham
Re-posting Legacy's call for nominations for the 2011 Community Activist Award
Legacy is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2011 Community Activist Award recognizing an individual's outstanding contribution to tobacco prevention and cessation at the community level.
Each year, Legacy presents the Community Activist Award to honor an exceptional individual who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to creating a tobacco-free world in his or her community. The award is presented to a leader in the community with experience spearheading innovative and influential tobacco control projects, especially those that reflect Legacy's mission to build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.
The winner will receive an honorarium of $2,500 and recognition through press releases and Legacy publications.
To submit, visit http://www.legacyforhealth.org/caa. Nominations will be accepted through Friday, September 16, 2011.


IWC Schaffhausen is launching a Pilot's Watch Chronograph in the original design from 1994. In line with its historic predecessor, this watch also has a quarter-seconds scale for measuring shorter time periods and rectangular, luminous hands. The classic design is worn with a green textile strap.
In 1994, IWC presented the first mechanical Pilot's Chronograph, reference 3706. With its unmistakable instrument-inspired dial, the watch rapidly gained a global fan base, contributing vastly to the success of the Pilot's Watches. Now the classic is returning with an almost unchanged design: The dial on this variant of the Pilot's Watch Chronograph (ref. IW377724) is based on the historic original design and is just as new and contemporary as its predecessor in its time. In contrast to the Pilot's Watch Chronographs in the current collection, this watch has a quarter-seconds scale for measuring short periods of time. The rectangular hands are filled with a beige luminous material, making them easy to read, even at night. A green textile strap contributes to its sporty design.
The robust 79320 calibre chronograph movement enables the watch to be used as a stopwatch and for aggregate timing of up to 12 hours. The minutes and hours are displayed on the two subdials at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. Another useful function is the date and day display. As with all of IWC's Pilot's Watches, the movement is protected against magnetic fields by a soft iron cage, and the glass is specially secured against displacement caused by sudden drops in air pressure in the cockpit.
The price for the IWC Pilot's Watch Chronograph In The Original Design From 1994 is Euro 5.700,--.
The Pilot's Watch Chronograph is available exclusively in the USA at iwc.com until September 2018. The watch will be available at other points of sale later.


Tayo Lawal's Blog: Son reschedules wedding so mum could attend before she dies of cancer. Eehya!
Son reschedules wedding so mum could attend before she dies of cancer. Eehya!
Diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, one of the first things Dorothy Crosby thought about was not getting to see her children marry. The 48-year-old mother-of-two had been looking forward to watching Tyler, 28, walk down the aisle with his long-term girlfriend Amanda in the fall of 2016.
But last summer, a doctor delivered the devastating news that Dorothy, may not make it that far. However, that was not a situation Tyler and Amanda were willing to accept.


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NerdyCode NERDY CODE
⚡ Microservices and the Rise of Micro Frontends
Microservices have exploded in popularity within the past five years or so, and along with that we've seen an interest in applying these concepts to our frontend applications.
The definition of a microservice can vary from person to person, but the premise is quite simple--an architectural style consisting of a collection of distinct, autonomous services, each responsible for a specific thing.
The difference between microservices and micro frontends is that micro frontends are specific to the user interface. The result, from a user's perspective, is a single, composed user interface.
But what exactly is it that caused the popularity of microservices in the first place? And can that help us better understand when and how to use micro frontends?
The Evolution from Monoliths #
Though microservices have been around for a long time, it was really monolithic applications that used to take center stage. Monolithic applications (or, monoliths for short) are applications that are completely self-contained and independent from other software. They're built as a single unit.
Monoliths aren't as bad as people make them out to be, and many big organizations like Etsy have been pretty successful with them.
The problem with monoliths is that people will tend to abuse them. Even with solid practices like following a modular structure and establishing boundaries around those modules, it's just too easy to sneak around those boundaries. Eventually, they can become ginormous and a nightmare to maintain.
Story Time! #
Just imagine for a second that you are a very healthy eater and your goal is to lean up by the summer time. You've bought your bikini, you've bought your carrots--or whatever it is that healthy people buy--and you're ready to rock. There's just one problem. Your best friend is your roommate. The same best friend that bakes pastries and desserts for a living.
You know you're disciplined, but you're a bit worried that smelling freshly baked bread on Sunday mornings and chocolate cake in the evenings is going to throw you off your target. It's just too easy.
You might start incorporating some of your friend's less healthy ingredients into your food, and they might start using your ingredients around the house for their recipes. Nobody is going to want to buy your best friend's cakes if they're going to start substituting flour for powdered quinoa. Actually, I'm not sure I even want to be friends with them anymore. 😐
But if your best friend lived just across the street, it'd make it a lot less likely that you'd give into temptation. You'd have to actually get dressed and go out of your way to go after that pack of cookies, instead of making do with the healthier snacks you already have at home.
You and your roommate sharing a house is the equivalent of two independent services sharing the resources of a monolithic application.
Healthy living is your objective, and crafting tasty treats is their objective. Putting the two of you together in a single space is likely to allow bleeding across the boundaries between the both of you, and neither of you will be as effective in reaching your goals.
Software isn't all that different. Our goal should be to set ourselves up to fall into the pit of success. And, indeed, the next step in the evolution of the monolith was all about slicing up our concerns.
Divide and Conquer #
Service-oriented architecture, or SOA, aims to remediate the problem of tightly bound monoliths by breaking them up into smaller chunks, or services, that provide some kind of business functionality.
This, in turn, allowed services to use different languages, and created a more polyglot world for programmers. SOA is commonly associated with web services, like SOAP. That's because web services are commonly the way SOAs are implemented, so that the services can communicate with one another.
This may sound similar to microservices, and it sort of is, but SOAs tend to focus on a common communication layer across the system, by using something like an enterprise service bus (or ESB). SOAs follow the "share-as-much-as-possible" approach, while microservices follow the "share-as-little-as-possible" approach.
NOTE: Both approaches can come in a variety of forms; this is a basic example for illustration only.
So, microservices make crossing boundaries a bit more difficult to do, because, when implemented correctly, they act as separate entities that encourage us to stay in our own lane.
Separation of Concerns #
The goal in many systems is to create flexibility and well-isolated components that are independent of one another, but what exactly does that mean? Are we talking about dividing things by technical concern or by business concern?
Let's first talk about dividing things by technical responsibility. Data stuff goes with data stuff, user interface stuff goes with user interface stuff, right?
Well, if we want to apply Separation of Concerns to a monolith, we'll end up with somewhat of a traditional tier architecture where you have a layer for your data, a layer for your backend, a layer for your frontend, and so on. Each tier is divided by its respective technical concern, and we end up with a more modular structure.
Single Responsibility Principle #
But we haven't addressed one of the fundamentals in this system, and that's the organizational design. The first principle from SOLID, the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP), states that a class should only have a single responsibility.
Robert Martin, the creator of this principle, later offers a different wording to make it a bit easier to understand:
"Gather together the things that change for the same reasons. Separate those things that change for different reasons."
The Single Responsibility Principle is about people. The goal of following the principle is to limit the impact of inevitable change.
SRP aims to help us approach our code with business concerns as the focal point, and we do that by grouping things based on why they change and how often they change. Things we expect to change for different reasons might include use cases and the user interface.
When we do that, we start to slice vertically into those horizontal layers for each use case. Each slice has all the technical components in it that it needs to fulfill its responsibility, much like Bounded Contexts in Domain-Driven Design.
What this does is it removes the need for separating the frontend and backend as dedicated teams. Instead, the frontend and backend share a common boundary and responsibility that they work together to fulfill, independently of whatever is going on in the rest of the app.
This also means that each system will have its own data store, if it needs one at all. It's the equivalent of your best friend moving across the street. You stop relying on whatever she's brought back from the supermarket. And you start using your own peas and potatoes.
The important thing to understand here is that the vertical boundaries I'm referring to are directly related to the business concerns. If those business concerns are to reflect Conway's Law, then it stands to reason that it is also representative of the organizational structure as well.
Conway's Law: Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.
So, while I'm referring to vertical boundaries and slicing of software and teams, in terms of infrastructure it's quite different, and microservices will tend to be scaled horizontally. I think that distinction can be helpful to understand.
What does this mean for micro frontends? #
Earlier I mentioned that micro frontends are essentially the same as microservices, except that they also include the user interface. Well, sort of.
The idea of micro frontends is that your application is logically broken down into smaller, independent parts that are organized by team or functionality and later composed into a single UI.
How you choose to integrate these systems to get from pieces to an entire whole can vary. Following that, the final result doesn't change: from the user's perspective there is only one user interface. That it was broken into itty bitty pieces before they got there is something they just don't care about.
Ensuring that teams working independently with potentially different technologies and processes still results in a single cohesive product is, indeed, one of the challenges specific to working with micro frontends.
Conclusion #
We want to make it more difficult for us to step on each other's toes, but we also need to prevent ourselves from over-engineering and creating completely fragmented systems or siloed teams. It's a balance that needs to be reevaluated continuously.
Consider starting out with a monolith that follows the principles of SOLID and Separation of Concerns. You can always grow the system into independent units that can be deployed on their own, and eventually switch to micro frontends. As we've learned in the past, a simpler system will almost always be easier to work with.
Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design Robert C. Martin
Evolution of business logic from monoliths through microservices, to functions Adrian Cockcroft
Micro Frontends Cam Jackson
Microservices Martin Fowler
Monolithic vs SOA vs Microservices — How to Choose Your Application Architecture Saad Arshed
Patterns: Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services (PDF) IBM
Single Responsibility Principle Robert C. Martin
Service Oriented Ambiguity Martin Fowler
What Is Service-Oriented Architecture? Software Development Community
Why We Need a New Breed of Hybrid Microservices Platform Tal Doron
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I'm Rachel, a software engineer.
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Charisma Lee Carpenter (Las Vegas, 23 de julho de 1970), é uma atriz, modelo e cantora norte-americana.

Carpenter nasceu em Las Vegas, Nevada, filha de Christine, uma trabalhadora do santuário de pássaros, e Don Carpenter, um vendedor. Ela é de ascendência espanhola (de seu avô materno), francesa e alemã. Iniciou sua carreira na série "S.O.S Malibu", mas ganhou mais notoriedade em "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Ela chegou a ser cotada para fazer o papel principal na série, mas acabou ganhando o papel da patricinha Cordelia Chase, posteriormente participando também no spin-off "Angel", como a mesma personagem.

Fez também uma participação na 7ª Temporada da série "Charmed" por três episódios, como Kyra a Vidente, e também em "Legend of the Seeker", no papel da vilã Mord'Sith Triana.

A atriz norte-americana, também passou por uma experiência violenta e conta sua história no primeiro episódio da série "Por um triz" do canal Investigação Discovery. Em 1991, ela nadava com dois amigos em uma praia de San Diego quando um homem se aproximou e começou a agredi-los. Ela conseguiu escapar, mas seus amigos ficaram feridos: um recebeu um tiro no peito, e o outro, no estômago. Depois de algum tempo, Carpenter descobriu que o criminoso era um policial, responsável por oito estupros e duas tentativas de homicídio. Ele foi condenado a 56 anos de prisão.

Apesar de Carpenter ter saído fisicamente ilesa do episódio, as consequências emocionais foram duradouras. Além de compartilhar sua experiência no livro Sobrevivi, Carpenter mostra a  história de pessoas que se recuperaram de uma agressão com coragem e determinação para incentivar outras a superar o passado e seguir em frente.

As vítimas de um crime costumam passar por um lento processo de recuperação. As sequelas mais comuns são: problemas físicos ligados ao transtorno do estresse pós-traumático (TEPT) como suor excessivo, insônia, tensão muscular ou aumento da frequência cardíaca; isolamento social, evitando participar de eventos ou frequentar locais que de alguma forma lembrem o episódio; e reações psicológicas como ansiedade, medo, desorientação, depressão e comportamento obsessivo-compulsivo.

Carpenter sofre de alguns desses problemas. Ela admite ter experimentado ansiedade e ataques de pânico, e que durante três anos acordava à noite com uma terrível sensação de medo e angústia. Em seu caso, a terapia, o trabalho e novos projetos foram os fatores determinantes para a recuperação.

Filmografia

Ligações externas

Atores dos Estados Unidos
Modelos dos Estados Unidos
Naturais de Las Vegas

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LI biotech and life science companies seek private funding to reach full potential
Rep. Thomas Suozzi discusses the 495 Research Corridor on Hi Tech Island during a Biotechnology & Life Sciences Conference at LIU on Monday in Greenvale. Credit: Howard Schnapp
By Robert Brodsky robert.brodsky@newsday.com @BrodskyRobert Updated September 25, 2018 7:21 AM
Long Island's cluster of biotechnology and life science companies, already heavily supported by federal grants, needs an infusion of private sector dollars to meet their full potential, Rep. Thomas Suozzi and industry leaders said Monday at a conference in Greenvale.
Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) brought together established research institutions and startups at LIU Post to conceive of ways to make Long Island a national hub for life sciences.
The region, he said, already has a "research corridor" along the Long Island Expressway that includes Cold Spring Harbor Lab and Stony Brook Universities to the east and Hofstra University, Northwell Health and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research to the west in Nassau.
The state receives $2.2 billion in National Institutes of Health grants — third most in the country behind California and Massachusetts — with about $1.7 billion going downstate to New York City, Long Island and Westchester.
But venture capital remains elusive. For every federal dollar that state research institutions receive, only 12 cents comes from the private sector, Suozzi said.
"That's the big disconnect," Suozzi said, adding that the challenge is to take "these fantastic, internationally known institutions" that already get federal funds and infuse them with funds from the private sector.
Suozzi and others suggested creating an inventory of regional biotech and life science companies, hosting an event that would allow company leaders to share ideas and creating a Long Island venture capital fund that will encourage investments in startups.
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But John Preston, founder of MIT's Technology Licensing Office, said small-dollar investors must also be encouraged to get in on the ground floor to back growing companies.
"Right now only the ultrarich are getting invited to do the founding investment," Preston said. "Wall Street is looking for larger and larger transactions and venture capitalists are looking for larger and larger transactions."
Joe Scaduto, founder of Traverse Biosciences at Stony Brook University, a firm that commercializes drug candidates for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and age-related conditions, proposed a "big audacious goal" for area research firms to start 50 new companies in the next five years.
"We need 10 entrepreneurs a year to identify technologies emerging from these institutions," he said. "A lot of them will fail but some of them will be successful."
Peter Donnolly, managing director of the Accelerate NY Seed Fund, which supports downstate science and technology-based ventures, said the key is to develop "homegrown" businesses that will then entice others to want to move to the region.
"We can and should recruit companies to come here," said Donnolly, who also serves as director of technology commercialization at Stony Brook University, "but it's no substitute for growing them here where they can establish roots and want to stay here."
By Robert Brodsky robert.brodsky@newsday.com	@BrodskyRobert
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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Was the Battle of Liberty Place a "Race Riot"?
By Philip LeighJuly 22, 2021Blog
Although commonly portrayed as one of the largest mob attacks on blacks by white racists during Reconstruction, the so-called 1874 Battle of Liberty Place in New Orleans was really a conflict between the militias of two competing state governments.
The story begins in 1868 with the election of Carpetbagger Henry Warmoth as Louisiana's first elected Republican governor. To ensure future Republican victories at the polls, in 1870 his legislature established a five-man Election Returning Board, which had final authority to determine the outcome of all major elections. It is perhaps the most egregious example of how Reconstruction-era Republican Puppet Regimes used control of the election machinery to force their will on the people.
At the end of Warmoth's four-year term in 1872 the state's Republican Party split for two reasons. First was an internecine fight over the distribution of political patronage within the state. Second, was a consequence of a split in the national Party between "stalwarts" and "liberals." The stalwarts backed President Ulysses Grant whereas the liberals wanted civil service reform to minimize patronage corruption. Nationally, the Democrats joined the Republican liberals in backing Horace Greeley for President.
Similarly, in Louisiana Henry Warmoth's liberal Republicans backed Democrat John McEnery for governor and David Penn for Lieutenant Governor. The state's stalwart ticket consisted to William Kellogg for governor and Cesar Antoine as his running mate. The Kellogg team was known as the "custom house" faction because Kellogg was previously the tariff collector for the port of New Orleans. Moreover, the then-present collector was James Casey, a brother-in-law to President Grant. During the nineteenth century customs collectors produced most of the Federal tax revenue and were notoriously corrupt.
The election took place on November 4, 1872. When Warmoth convened the Returning Board to certify the winner on 13 November he was dismayed to learn that Kellogg representatives challenged the membership. Through a torturous series of court cases Kellogg felt he had authority to set up his own Returning Board. The result was two opposing Boards. One, managed by Warmoth, supported McEnery. The second, managed by state Senator John Lynch, supported Kellogg. Since Lynch's Board had no ballots to count, they created vote tallies out of thin air. Lynch got the results Kellogg wanted by using as "returns" affidavits, newspaper estimates, and even their own calculations from general knowledge of what a vote in each parish might have been. Predictably, on December 4th Warmoth's Board announced McEnery the winner. Two days later Lynch's Board declared Kellogg the winner.
The true winner will never be known. There was fraud on each side, but especially Kellogg's. Even though Warmoth held the state's election machinery, the Kellogg faction controlled the Federal election supervisory machinery under the new KKK Enforcement Acts. They named numerous supervisors in every parish and deployed six hundred special marshals in New Orleans alone.
Affidavits made by black voters who were allegedly denied the vote were printed in blank by the thousands before the election and signed in bulk by obliging officers. The special marshals engaged to complete them had only to dig up names, from any convenient source, and fill in the blanks. Lynch's Board counted each fraudulent affidavit as a vote for Kellogg.
On December 5th Federal judge Henry Durrell ordered U.S. Marshalls to seize the statehouse, then in New Orleans. The following day Federal troops only allowed Kellogg men to enter the offices. In response, McEnery's Democrats set up their own state government at Lyceum Hall in the New Orleans municipal building.
For the next ten months Louisiana would have two state governments. One propped-up by Federal marshals and soldiers and the other supported mostly by the state's whites. Two years after his December 1872 ruling, the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee in Washington voted to impeach judge Durrell for systematic bribery and for exceeding his authority in the 1872 elections. He resigned before the full House drew-up impeachment articles.
Louisianans soon realized they were confronted with two competing state governments, each expecting taxpayer support. Thus, taxpayers did not know which government should be paid when tax bills arrived. When each government selected a new U.S. Senator, the problem got kicked up to the Senate in Washington because that body would have to choose between the state's two new designees thereby indirectly validating one of the legislatures and nullifying the other.
Although today's student might suppose that the GOP-controlled Senate would choose the Republican candidate, it didn't. As the senators researched the election they were appalled at the manipulations and refused to seat either Louisiana designee. The U. S. Senate concluded that Louisiana should hold new elections, a decision that caused riots between the two sides in Louisiana. That forced President Grant to make a choice. Even though the President and his Cabinet agreed that Kellogg was "a first-class cuss" Grant chose to back him, perhaps because the President's brother-in-law was on the Kellogg team.
Eventually the two state governments formed their own militias. Kellogg's was composed of blacks and the New Orleans police while McEnery's was mostly white volunteers from organizations such as the White Leagues. It was those two forces that clashed at Liberty Place in September 1874. Neither was a disorganized mob. Unlike the Ku Klux Klan the White Leagues were not secretive. In some parishes they did little more than hold anti-Kellogg rallies. In others, such New Orleans, the chapter's 3,000 members were well-drilled and militant. Their leaders explained that the movement was "an inevitable result of that formidable, oath-bound, and blindly [Republican] obedient [Union] league of the blacks."
In July 1874 Kellogg passed a bill that gave the governor even more power to dictate election results by empowering him to appoint, without appeal, all agents authorized to register voters. By September conditions had reached a boiling point. The state's economy had long been dismal. Property values had dropped by two-thirds during the preceding six years. Apparently, only Louisianans affiliated with the Kellogg Administration and their allied tariff collectors prospered. Rumors that Kellogg intended to confiscate firearms in New Orleans incensed the city's White League. Tempers were short and Kellogg abandoned the statehouse for the granite fortress of the customs house. In McEnery's absence his Lieutenant Governor, David Penn, activated their militia. The two militias clashed at four o'clock on the afternoon of 14 September.
Although Kellogg's force was led by former Confederate General James Longstreet, his men were defeated within fifteen minutes. About 30 combined participates on both sides were killed. Consequently, from his bunker in the custom's house Kellogg wired President Grant for Federal troops. When the soldiers arrived three days later, McEnery's militia disbanded peacefully.
Although Louisianans did not vote for a governor in 1874 after the Liberty Place incident, they did elect a new legislature. Kellogg's control of the ballot counting predictably and artificially provided a majority of Republican legislators. When Democrats challenged disputed seats during the swearing-in process, Kellogg called forth the U. S. Army again, this time to seat only those candidates that his Returning Board had authorized and to forcibly remove any challengers. In short, Louisiana's 1874 elections were another Republican-controlled fraud that created a phony Republican majority in the legislature.
Unlike in 1872, this time many more Northerners—and even some Republicans—criticized the situation. Not only was it increasingly evident that the Republican Returning Boards would never permit honest elections, but discipline over dissenting Southerners was becoming increasingly tyrannical. After a hurried and secret summons to New Orleans, General Philip Sheridan suggested that the Federal government classify any Southerners suspected of resisting carpetbagger governments as bandits, thereby making them subject arrest and trial under military regulations as opposed to civil standards.
In response, the New York Tribune pointed out that if Grant could use the army to select his preferred legislators in Louisiana, he might one day use it to select those he would allow Congress to seat. Republican Senator Carl Schurz explained that many political leaders were asking, "If this can be done in Louisiana, and . . . sustained by Congress, how long will it be before it is done in Massachusetts and Ohio?" Republican Congressman and future President James A. Garfield observed, "This is the darkest day for the future of the Republican party that I have ever seen." Public mass meetings against Republican totalitarianism in Louisiana were held in such cities as New York, Cincinnati and even Boston. The legislatures of Ohio and Pennsylvania officially condemned the Federal military "invasion" of Louisiana. Even the President's cabinet was divided. But those siding with Kellogg, such as War Secretary Belknap, Navy Secretary Robeson and Attorney General Williams, would all later resign under clouds of other scandals.
A House investigating subcommittee composed of two Republicans and one Democrat who were present in Louisiana during the 1874 elections concluded that the elections were peaceable and fair; that what fraud occur was mostly on the Republican side due to their control of the election machinery. It even determined that the Democrats had won most of the seats in the legislature but had been denied the majority by "arbitrary, unjust, and illegal" methods exercised by the Returning Board. The subcommittee characterized the Kellogg government as usurpation.
Similarly, Northern journalist Charles Nordhoff added that by 1874 "all white men and many blacks" detested Kellogg's government. In March 1875 New York Republican Congressman William Wheeler negotiated a compromise under which Louisiana Republicans conceded the state house of representatives to the Democrats in exchange for a promise from the latter not to impeach Kellogg. When President Grant's successor removed the Federal soldiers in 1877, Louisiana's Carpetbag government collapsed for good.
Philip Leigh
Philip Leigh contributed twenty-four articles to The New York Times Disunion blog, which commemorated the Civil War Sesquicentennial. He is the author of U.S. Grant's Failed Presidency, Southern Reconstruction (2017), Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies (2015), and Trading With the Enemy (2014). Phil has lectured a various Civil War forums, including the 23rd Annual Sarasota Conference of the Civil War Education Association and various Civil War Roundtables. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology and an MBA from Northwestern University.
Liberty PlaceNew OrleansPhilip LeighReconstruction
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Howdy , this post is about Installing A Drop Ceiling In A Basement Laundry ( Ideas For Drop Ceilings In Basements #6). This photo is a image/jpeg and the resolution of this photo is 1050 x 788. This blog post's file size is just 66 KB. Wether You decided to download This image to Your PC, you could Click here. You could also see more pictures by clicking the following picture or see more at this article: Ideas For Drop Ceilings In Basements.
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March 19, 2013, SANTA CLARA, California–Today, PathSolutions, a VoIP and network performance management solution provider, announced that it had joined the list of hand-selected vendors that will power InteropNet. The InteropNet is the cornerstone of Interop Las Vegas, supplying attendees and exhibitors with the most reliable, high-speed network throughout the entire conference center. Interop Las Vegas takes place May 6-10, 2013 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
"The InteropNet is an industry-leading example of what it takes to build a high-speed network from the ground up. Our team of volunteers from leading companies, and the network community at large, dedicate their time and energy to build and support a heterogeneous, temporary network. We are pleased that PathSolutions has joined the InteropNet team," said Glenn Evans, Lead Engineer, InteropNet.
The InteropNet is the premier example of how to design, deploy, and manage a multi-vendor, converged network. It's a platform for the introduction of new technologies and, using best practice methodologies, provides a viable demonstration and reference model of networks that meet current and future needs. A complete list of the hand-selected vendors can be found here.
PathSolutions Network Performance Manager delivers Total Network Visibility® across networks of any size. It's up and running in less than 12 minutes, continuously monitors the performance of your entire network, quickly tells you where, when, and why network problems occur, and even recommends how to fix those problems in plain-English. With PathSolutions Network Performance Manager, you are able to quickly resolve any performance issues, maximizing productivity and efficiency.
Interop® drives the adoption of technology, providing knowledge and insight to help IT and corporate decision-makers achieve business success. Part of UBM Tech's family of global brands, Interop is the leading business technology event series. Through in-depth educational programs, workshops, real-world demonstrations and live technology implementations in its unique InteropNet program, Interop provides the forum for the most powerful innovations and solutions the industry has to offer. Interop Las Vegas is the flagship event held each spring, with Interop New York held each fall, with annual international events in Mumbai and Tokyo, all produced by UBM Tech and partners. For more information about these events visit, www.interop.com.


e stick, using the spoon make small hole in the mud and balancing the plants between spoon and fork for planting carefully. You will have to remove some of the old mud from the roots before you put plant in the bottle. Planting should be carried out with at most patience and steady hand .Watering should be done very carefully using the PVC or plastic pipe and funnel until the soil get wet. Don't make the planting media too wet . Any dirt sticking the side of the bottle should be wiped with cotton fastened to a bent wire. You should expect some condensation each day, but it will tend to clear and reform this shows that a balance has been achieved.


"I rise today to commend Time Magazine for their selection of their 'Person of the Year' as 'The Guardians and the War on Truth.' I say it is related because Jamal Khashoggi is one of the figures on the cover of Time Magazine as one of the Guardians.
"Time Magazine wrote in this week's issue: 'In Annapolis, Md., staff of the Capital, a newspaper published by Capital Gazette Communications, which traces its history of telling readers about the events in Maryland to before the American Revolution, press on without the five colleagues gunned down in their newsroom on June 28. Still intact, indeed strengthened after the mass shooting, are the bonds of trust and community that for national news outlets have been eroded on strikingly partisan lines, never more than this year.
"'I can tell you this,' declared Chase Cook, a reporter for the Capital Gazette on that fateful day. 'We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.' Cook's promise came just a few hours after five of his colleagues were killed. The man charged with their murders had been obsessed with the paper since it wrote about his harassment of a high school classmate—part of its routine coverage of local legal proceedings. He made the office a crime scene. To put the damn paper out, staffers set up laptops in the bed of a pickup in a parking garage across the street.
"I must tell you that I am very proud of what the Capital Gazette has done. They continue through very difficult times with quality reporting and opinion pages that they have been known for for a long time. It is a real treasured institution in our state capital.
"One of the four Time Magazine covers include the journalists at the Capital Gazette, the Annapolis, Maryland newspaper where five employees were murdered by a gunman last June. I spoke about this shooting on the Senate floor last June, and the Senate unanimously adopted S. Res. 575, which I authored and which was co-sponsored by all members of the Senate. This Senate resolution commemorates the lives, careers, and service of the five victims of the Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis, Maryland; honors the survivors of the attack and the families of the victims and pledges continued support for their recovery; thanks law enforcement officers and other emergency first responders for their heroic actions; and reaffirms the commitment of the Senate to defending the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
"Wendi Winters was among the five Capital Gazette employees killed in the June 28 shooting. According to eyewitness accounts from survivors, Wendi armed herself with the closest weapons at hand – her trash and recycling bins – and charged the shooter, shouting for him to stop. It is believed that Wendi's actions distracted the shooter enough to enable several of her coworkers to escape.
"We think of violence against reporters as something that happens in other countries, in war zones and the like, but not here, not in the United States of America. All around the world, reporters work to gather facts, ask questions, and report the news in the spirit of the free, open, and transparent societies and governments that all people deserve. Too often, reporters are harassed, jailed, and even killed simply because of the nature of their work, which often exposes cronyism and corruption.
"Jason Renzaian, a reporter for the Washington Post who was falsely imprisoned in Iran for doing his job as a journalist, had this to say earlier this year. He talks about that attack I referenced earlier in Annapolis.
"We Americans have certain rights and responsibilities granted to us through the Constitution, which established the rule of law in this country. Freedom of the press is one of those most basic rights and it is central to the First Amendment to the Constitution: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.' This precious freedom has often been under attack, figuratively speaking, since our Nation's founding.
"Today, attacks on the American media have become more frequent and more literal, spurred on by dangerous rhetoric that has created an 'open season' on harassing the media for doing its job – asking questions that need to be asked, investigating the stories that need to be uncovered, and bringing needed transparency to the halls of power whether they are in Annapolis; Washington, DC; or elsewhere.
"Then-candidate and now President Donald Trump's rhetoric – calling the media 'a stain on America' and 'the enemy of the American people' – certainly has caused damage. At the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the President said to the audience 'They're not to believe what you see and hear.' "The President of United States told a crowd of veterans: 'Stick with us don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What you're seeing and what you're reading is not happening.' That is the President of the United States saying those comments; again, demeaning the press and the importance of our free press.
"Let that sink in for a moment. A man who was about to assume the position of President of the United States explicitly acknowledging he was purposely working to diminish the integrity of the free press.
"After the Capital Gazette shooting, Donald Trump said that 'journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.' But how do we interpret his sincerity when, more frequently, he is calling the media 'fake news' or 'totally unhinged' and telling the American people – and the world – that reporters are 'truly bad people'? Donald Trump's constant dismissals needs to end. He needs to accept that one of the press' most important roles is to speak truth to power – including to the President of the United States.
"Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job – both figuratively and literally. The right of journalists to report the news is nothing less than the right of all of us to know. Media freedom and media pluralism are essential for the expression of, or ensuring respect for, other fundamental freedoms and safeguarding democracy, the rule of law, and a system of checks and balances.
"Every one of us in this body – Democrats and Republicans – has sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. As leaders of this great Nation, we have a responsibility to defend the rights of our citizens, including the freedom of the press.
"Time Magazine features three over covers, in addition to the Capital Gazette. One is Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post contributor who was killed at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October. I would note that this is the first time that a Time Person of the Year is a deceased person.
"The United States of America is supposed to stand up for justice and human rights at home and abroad. I agree that Saudi Arabia is a strong ally in a variety of important areas, but that should only strengthen their understanding of America's commitment to the rule of law and that we, as a nation, cannot sanction extrajudicial killings. America's national security is harmed, not helped, when dictators and strongmen believe they can get away with such heinous actions as the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Congress must act to send the right signal to the world that despite our current president, America will continue to be a beacon of justice and defender of human rights.
"Another cover features two Reuters journalists who were arrested one year ago in Myanmar while they were working on stories about the killings of Rohingya Muslims. These journalists remain behind bars, but their wives were photographed for the cover. From this floor, I've stood in solidarity with these Reuters reporters who were detained in Burma for shining a light on the horrific abuses that occurred in the Royhingan state.
"I have stood in solidarity with Ethiopian journalists and bloggers who are routinely arrested for criticizing the Ethiopian government and exposing human rights abuses in that country. I have talked frequently about China, a country that engages in routine censorship and online blocking; harassment, reprisals, and detention of journalists; and visa delays and denials for journalists.
"Another Time Magazine cover shows Maria Ressa, the chief executive of the Philippine news website Rappler, who was indicted on tax evasion charges by President Duterte's administration as part of a crackdown on free speech and dissent.
"According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, more than 600 journalists and media workers have been killed in the last 10 years while doing their job.
"Of the member States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Russia remains the deadliest country for journalists. Turkey is the largest jailer of journalists in the world, and scores of media outlets have been closed since the attempted coup there. The heavy-handed measures used against media freedom in Turkey, both before and during the recent elections, illustrates the lengths to which the government went to control the information available to voters. It also serves as a reminder of the essential role of a pluralistic media for free and fair elections.
"I have also worked in many other countries that have infringed on the freedom of press, in my role on Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the ranking Democrat on the Helsinki Commission. I could give you examples of what we have done in Malta, what we have done in Slovakia, what we have done in Belarus, and the list goes on and on and on.
"I therefore ask the Trump Administration and my colleagues in the Senate to redouble their efforts to protect the freedom of the press both at home at abroad. We must lead by example, as the very foundation and legitimacy of our democratic republic is at stake.
"America's leadership is essential to protect the freedom of press, an essential institution for a democratic state. We must lead by first setting an example by our commitment to the freedom of press here at home. We must demand that freedom of the press be a priority in our global affairs, recognizing it's important to our national security. Time Magazine got it right by naming the guardians and the war on truth as Persons of the Year."


Reinsurers will have to "push back" on pricing if returns continue to dwindle towards unsustainable levels.
That is the view of Taoufik Gharib, senior director, North America insurance ratings for Standard & Poor's Global Ratings, who will be speaking on a panel at a conference in Hamilton today.
Returns on equity have fallen substantially from the levels of five years ago and even this year, after the industry soaked up $135 billion in catastrophe losses in 2017, reinsurance price increases were more modest than carriers had hoped for.
In an interview, Mr Gharib said one of S&P's triggers for action on a company's credit rating was the relationship between cost of capital and return on capital.
"Last year the industry did not earn its cost of capital because of the catastrophe losses," Mr Gharib said. "This year return on equity has been declining because of the catastrophe losses.
"From our perspective, if the return on capital does not cover the cost of capital on a sustainable basis, then we will change our sector outlook to negative, which means that potentially we could have more negative rating actions on reinsurance companies.
Some of the more diversified companies were delivering stronger returns, helped by profitable lines of business such as mortgage insurance and reinsurance.
Rising interest rates should boost returns from reinsurers' large fixed-income portfolios, but Mr Gharib said the benefits would take a couple of years to work through to the balance sheet.
"At some point, the industry has to push back and ask for more reinsurance price increases," he said.
S&P forecasts a reinsurance sector return on equity of 7 to 9 per cent for this year and 2019, a combined ratio of 96 to 99 per cent, assuming catastrophe losses amounting to 8 percentage points and reserve releases of 5 percentage points.
US corporate tax cuts kicked in this year, eroding the island's tax advantage, as the US rate fell from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. Excise tax on premiums transferred to a Bermuda affiliate through a reinsurance agreement are also increasing and are due to climb further.
"For the last 12 to 18 months, we've seen Bermudian companies changing up their quota shares. Many used to have quota shares of 80 or 90 per cent of premiums being sent back to Bermuda from US operating companies.
"Given that the excise tax is going up, gradually, over the next few years, ultimately reaching 12 per cent or so, some have them have reduced those quota shares down to 50 per cent, or even cancelled them.
Bermuda's advantage goes beyond the tax and includes talent, regulation and proximity to the US, he added.
"If you want to get a licence, it takes weeks here. It takes months in other jurisdictions. Also you have the local expertise — Bermuda has become a centre of excellence when it comes to property-catastrophe risk and now ILS.
Mr Gharib says there are several reasons why the trend of consolidation is likely to continue, including a lack of organic growth, customers' preference for dealing with larger reinsurers, and fragmented regulation around the world that generates extra costs that larger players can more easily absorb.
Mortgage insurance and reinsurance has been a growth area for many of the island's companies, including Arch Capital, Everest Re, PartnerRe and RenaissanceRe, Mr Gharib said.
However, he added that pricing was probably past its peak, as underwriting of mortgages had strengthened since the global financial crisis of ten years ago.
Munich Re has entered the market for the first time, he added, partnering with Arch.
From a credit rating standpoint, S&P applies a hefty capital charge to such business, he added, to capture its risk.
"If exposure becomes significant, and it becomes a quasi mortgage insurer, then we have a separate capital model for mortgage insurers, which involves doing a deep dive for additional data and treating it like a mortgage insurer," he added.
S&P's Bermuda Reinsurance Conference will take place at the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club today. Mr Gharib will moderate a CEOs panel featuring Scott Carmilani of Allied World, Kevin O'Donnell of RenaissanceRe and Mike Sapnar of Transatlantic Holdings.


Regardless of the occasion, edible gift basket ideas are a personal and inexpensive way to show your loved ones how much you care. Edible gift baskets make great gifts because they are easily put together and can be completely customized to reflect the person to whom you are gifting it.
and handmade shows you put a lot of time and effort into the gift.
Find out what your hosts favorite candies are and fill a basket full of them. Leave them in their store bought wrappers or but them in decorative jars for an extra personal touch. As an alternative, if your gift recipient loves chocolate, fill the basket with that instead.
Fill small decorative jars or boxes with all different kinds of whole nuts, cracked nuts and trail mixes. Arrange in a basket and add a nutcracker.
Great for summer parties, pack a basket full of citrus, grapes, a pineapple and even containers of berries. Add a container of low fat yogurt dip and voila! The taste of sunshine!
If you love to bake, consider packing your basket full of several varieties of traditional or holiday cookies and homemade breads. Not only will they be made with love but everyone will love you for sharing. Or create a cookie theme basket that they can bake and create their own easily. Include a cookie jar mix for them to make themselves.
Use a fun mug as your basket and include some hot cocoa mixes, peppermint sticks or candy canes, chocolate spoons or cocoa stirrers.
The perfect holiday or birthday gift for co-workers, recipe baskets provide all of the ingredients you will need to make a special meal or treat for your loved one and their family to enjoy.
Include a cheese ball or cheese dip, crackers, fruit, cut up vegetables and a cheese spreader. Prepare the cheese dip recipe below and place in a fancy pint jar. This recipe also has festive colors of green and red which makes for a nice addition to a Christmas food gift basket.
Mix ingredients together and place in a pretty pint jar or bowl. Chill for several hours. Attach a note to the basket to refrigerate cheese dip and Enjoy the Holidays.
Stuff a basket full of different colors and shapes of pasta along with a few jars of homemade spaghetti sauce or a jar of Alfredo mix. For extra fun, include a jar of Italian seasonings. A fun strainer or serving bowl makes a nice touch to this Christmas food gift.
Include a fun popcorn bowl, gourmet popcorn kernels, seasonings and a DVD or movie rental coupon.
Try some of these popcorn or caramel popcorn recipes and include a batch in the gift basket.
Give the gift of a hearty breakfast with this unique variation on the edible gift basket. Include items such as muffin mix, pancake mix, homemade granola and fresh berries.
You can make a delicious arrangement from our Christmas cookie recipes page, or try a cookie mix in a jar. (They can make cookies at a later time when the holidays are over.) See our jar mixes recipes. Add both fresh cookies and a cookie jar mix for double the enjoyment. Include a fun milk container/pitcher or a cookie jar to the basket for a complete Christmas food gift.
Include this onion cheese dip mix with a bag of chips or vegetables and a new family game or a drink mix to complete this food basket idea.
Mix in bowl 1 Cup sour cream and contents of onion cheese dip mix. Chill 1 hour.
Many families don't have the time to make gingerbread houses in the bustling Holiday season. This basket can help a family put one together without all the preparation work. Include in your basket homemade gingerbread (find the recipe here) that they can assemble, candies for decorating, and frosting or the frosting recipe they can make on their own.
Edible gift basket ideas don't always have to be for meals. Try filling your basket full of all the items you need to make a special ice cream sundae. Include candies, chocolate or caramel ice cream sauce, sprinkles and even cherries for a unique one of a kind gift. This homemade fudge sauce poured in a nice jar, decorative ice cream bowls, or an ice cream scoop can finish off the edible gift basket nicely.
In a saucepan heat ingredients together, when butter is melted turn heat down to low. Continue cooking until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool and pour into decorative jars. Attach a label to warm up in saucepan.
Edible gift basket ideas are not hard to come up with and make for perfect gifts for almost every type of person. Remember as you plan your basket to keep in mind the tastes and interests of the person you are giving it to. This type of gift is an excellent way to show your loved ones you care without having to spend large amounts of money.
Add some printable fun game!
Back to Seasonal Activities from this edible gift basket ideas page.