The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is set to reopen next week, July 18 | News, Sports, Jobs – timesobserver.com

Photo submitted to the Times ObserverAbove is the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. The museum reopens its doors on Saturday, July 18.

Closed since March 16, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute will reopen its museum on Saturday, July 18.

My first official act, says Arthur Pearson, on my first day as the new CEO of the institute, was to close the museum to the public. It will be a relief and a joy to reopen our doors and welcome back our many friends and supporters.

Technically, the museum could have reopened June 30 thats the day Governor Cuomo announced Phase IV reopening for Western New York. However, RTPI has taken extra time to ensure the health and safety of staff and visitors.

Health and safety is our number one priority, Pearson said referring to the detailed reopening plan he and his staff have developed in accordance with guidelines provided by the CDC, the state of New York and the American Alliance of Museums, among others.

The plan lays out enhanced measures for minimizing risk while still providing for an engaging museum experience.

Initially, the total number of visitors allowed in the museum will be limited to one-third capacity to ensure everyone can maintain required social distancing. There will be signs posted limiting the number of people allowed per gallery. All visitors will be required to wear masks at all times and to wear them right. Pearson and his staff have developed information signage that reminds visitors to wear masks over mouth and nose, using Roger Tory Petersons famous field guide art to demonstrate.

Peterson was a great artist, Pearson said. He also was a great teacher. Were repurposing his iconic bird images throughout the museum to inform and instruct our visitors how to be safe while visiting us.

Pearson hopes visitors will notice other things about the museum, as well.

Being closed for four months was a huge strain, financially, Pearson says. But it also gave us time to rethink and retool a few things.

As one example, RTPI conducted an analysis of museum sales over the past three years, leading to a complete refresh of its museum store.

Everything came off the shelves, said Jane Johnson, director of museum operations. We restocked with new and priority items that better celebrate Rogers legacy at the intersection of art and nature. We even adopted a new name: The Snowy Owl Museum Store.

Emphasizing health and safety first, Pearson plans to roll out a schedule of programs and events to complement the refreshed and reopened museum.

Our museum extends outdoors, as well, where we plan to host regular bird walks in our preserve and yoga classes on the back patio. We installed a picnic area in view of our new pollinator meadow and cafe tables in our outdoor courtyard to encourage visitors to spend time with us safely surrounded by the beauty of nature, architecture and art, Pearson said.

The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History is home to the largest, most comprehensive collection of Petersons artwork and related archival materials. Peterson, the only artist-naturalist to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is best known for his field guides. The first A Field Guide to the Birds published in 1934, sparked a worldwide movement to connect people with nature as never before. Peterson authored and illustrated dozens of guides for birds, plants, insects and other natural flora and fauna selling millions of copies and becoming an international ambassador for protecting our natural resources.

Today, the Peterson Collection anchors a exhibition schedule that also features the artwork of some of the worlds most revered nature artists. The collection is available to artists, researchers and scholars, and is used to anchor an array of education and research programs all geared toward fostering an enduring love, appreciation and protection of our natural world.

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The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is set to reopen next week, July 18 | News, Sports, Jobs - timesobserver.com

The Times recommends: Strom Peterson for the 21st Legislative District, Position 1 – Seattle Times

State Rep. Strom Petersons pragmatic legislative record and experience as a local government official and retail business owner make him the best candidate to return to Olympia for a daunting task.

The Edmonds Democrat is running for his fourth term representing the 21st Legislative District, which includes Lynnwood, Mukilteo, Edmonds and Everett.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent the states economy and state revenues tumbling. The state could face as much as a $9 billion shortfall over three years, which means course corrections are required. Peterson disagrees with Gov. Jay Inslees recent decision not to call the Legislature back for a special session so lawmakers could get started combing through the budget and crafting solutions.

While some of his colleagues want to use this crisis to advocate for tax increases only, Peterson says he will be pushing solutions that also include program cuts. Its going to be a combination, he said during an endorsement interview.

As chair of the Commerce and Gaming Committee, he ushered a bill through that legalized sports gambling in Washington. This editorial board disagreed with its limit to only tribal casinos.

Neither of Petersons challengers make the case that he should be replaced. Republican Brian Thompson is a fire protection engineer who said he was compelled to run because of the recent crisis. He is averse to tax increases and opposes Petersons support of the measles vaccine mandate, sex education law and proposed assault weapons ban.

Democrat Gant Diede is a student working in network technology. His solution for the states budget crisis is to tax the wealthy and take on more debt. The way to get out of crisis is spending, he said. His criticism of the Legislature is that it is not bold enough on climate change.

Peterson has served his district well, and voters should send him back to Olympia.

The Seattle Times editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Brier Dudley, Jennifer Hemmingsen, Mark Higgins, Derrick Nunnally and William K. Blethen (emeritus).

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The Times recommends: Strom Peterson for the 21st Legislative District, Position 1 - Seattle Times

Beefed-up rosters give Cardinals opening to flex versatility, depth of bullpen – STLtoday.com

Cardinals pitcher Kwang Hyun Kim, right, and pitching prospect Johan Oviedo head to the mound during the seventh day of "Summer Camp" at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Friday, July 10, 2020. Photo by Colter Peterson, cpeterson@post-dispatch.com

Whenever, however he was being used in a game or, in the past few months, throwing bullpens with catcher Yadier Molina in Florida, rookie Junior Fernandez referred to a note he and pitching coach Mike Maddux committed to paper and he committed to using as a compass.

It reminds him regardless of the situation, regardless of the opponent, and regardless of the spot in the game to pitch to his strengths.

Now that Im here Im ready for everything, Fernandez said Friday evening at Busch Stadium. Here you have to be ready for everything any role, any time they call, any time they say youve got to be ready, youve got the next guy. With the plan that I set up, it doesnt matter who I face, doesnt matter what inning I pitch. Im always ready, and I come with the mindset that nobody can hit against me. Pitch with my strengths.

The note gives him direction.

That should help in a shortened season that will start backward and inspire teams to consider reverse-engineering games from the bullpen forward. The 60-game sprint for the postseason starts with a dash of September in July. Rather than end the season with expanded rosters, clubs will begin that way opening with a 30-man roster, as many as 17 pitchers, and handfuls of reasons to go sooner and more often to a deeper bullpen.

Its definitely more backwards than any of us are used to in our game, manager Mike Shildt said. But so are our circumstances. And we adjust and figure it out. I do feel like our ability to understand that weve got a bit more moving parts, with a more abbreviated spring training (makes) sense and literally guys get their legs under them. I feel like our approach is fairly aggressive. With more options, I could see the point of it, allowing for more aggressiveness knowing the next day youre got protection.

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Beefed-up rosters give Cardinals opening to flex versatility, depth of bullpen - STLtoday.com

Riding the waves: Rock River Safety Patrol sees swell in summertime traffic – Daily Union

With waves of heat come waves of boat traffic on Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River.

And this year, perhaps due to increased interest in outdoor recreation after staying "safer at home" to curb COVID-19, boating traffic is on the increase.

Ryan Peterson, a member of the Rock River Safety Patrol (RRSP) for 15 years and chief for three, shares leadership responsibilities with Capt. Henry Sautin, a retired Rock County deputy whom he described as instrumental in maintaining the patrol while helping to develop its leadership.

The patrol has been in service for over 40 years.

Peterson said that the lake and river traffic last weekend was the busiest hed seen over a Fourth of July holiday.

While the traffic is increasing, the patrols commitment to safety remains constant, as does its practice of offering prevention over punishment: Peterson said the 12 sworn officers on the patrol, on average, hand out more boater safety pamphlets and warnings than they do tickets.

The practice is a kind of community policing focused on boater safety while building trust and communication through a sense of fairness, Peterson said.

Lake, river well-populated

An Adams Publishing Group reporter rode along with the patrol Sunday, June 28, a day Peterson described as well-populated.

It is much busier then other years in June," he said. "June, in general, is always fairly slow. People have graduations and weddings. This year, that has not been the case at all.

We are hearing from the marinas that they are having parts ordered for boats that havent been out for years, Peterson continued, adding that he believed some of that interest was driven by COVID-19 and peoples interest in finding safe outdoor recreation.

There are a lot more people on the water. COVID has changed peoples mindset and gets them out, Peterson said.

The Rock River Safety Patrol is responsible for law enforcement, water rescues and recoveries across the 10,500 acres of Lake Koshkonong and 26 miles of the Rock River, covering surface from Jefferson County to Indianford, in Rock County.

We like to say dam to dam, Peterson said.

It also patrols Clear Lake in Milton, he said.

Members of the patrol operate part time, working to cover high-traffic days from two vehicles: a 21-foot Crestliner boat and a Sea-Doo personal watercraft (PWC). The boat is equipped with supplies similar to those used by fire departments, Peterson said.

While driving the boat, Peterson remained in contact through radio with Patrol Officer Mike Herman, who operated from the PWC. He also was in communication with Rock and Jefferson county sheriff's office dispatch units through a separate radio.

Sunday is usually quieter than Saturday," Peterson said, describing boat traffic. "A typical weekend two years ago, Saturday would be busy. Today (June 28), at its busiest point, would have been a typical busy Saturday.

Traffic is up dramatically, he said.

The nature of the lake, offering diverse appeal in a variety of activities, and its proximity to Illinois, contributes to its popularity, he said.

Over the course of the day, several PWC operators approached the patrol with questions about boater safety. Peterson and Herman were eager to share safety rules and tips, handing out boater safety pamphlets with frequency. Multiple verbal warnings and about five written warnings were issued to PWC operators.

In the afternoon, the patrol, along with members from area fire departments, responded to a dispatched call to help locate and rescue a distressed swimmer. The individual was found and taken to the Rock River Marina in Newville.

A group aboard a pontoon boat, describing trouble with the motor, was towed by the patrol back to its pier of origin.

Addressing concerns of safety and law enforcement, Peterson said, Weve had more stops in June than we typically have because more people are here. They are new people and they dont always know whats expected of them.

Many are new to boating and others are unsure of differences between their state of residency and Wisconsin laws, Peterson said.

"Most people out here are here to have fun," Peterson said. "We make sure other people wont put them in danger. We like to give them a DNR (Department of Natural Resources) pamphlet with a general overview of the rules while they are in Wisconsin.

Of the list of 25 citeable infractions, Peterson said, the one most violated revolves around watercraft and their proximity to shorelines and other vehicles while in the water.

The rule requires PWCs to be at least 100 feet away from other craft and 200 feet away from the shoreline when operating above slow-no wake speed. Violation of the rule carries a fine of $230.

One-hundred feet is one-third the size of a football field. People are not always good at estimating that, Peterson said.

The patrol gives warnings, often verbal, with the goal of helping people understand the rule and promote safety.

If we give them a ticket, its a serious safety violation. We give a lot of warnings, Herman, a member of the safety patrol since 2012, said.

Both Peterson and Herman said they advocate teaching people to be safe. On average, they said, they give six to eight verbal or written warnings before writing a ticket.

Over the summer tourism season, the patrol typically writes between zero and eight tickets each weekend, Peterson said.

So we can expect kids to take off from shore and be too close. Some have no life jackets on board and no throw rings," he said.

They do not always have registrations. It makes me think they are new boaters. They make mistakes when we are right next to them and they have no idea what theyve done until we flag them over.

They are understanding when we explain it to them, Peterson said.

Peterson said he believes the community sees the patrol as helpful and fair.

Some people think the police are in need of a wake-up or a shake-up, but we dont get any of that feedback. We are well received," he noted.

I dont have to nitpick boats. There are plenty of violations happening right in front of us and they dont question us. They know they did something wrong. There is mutual respect. Were fair. When we write a ticket, it is a legitimate ticket, Peterson continued. We want the right balance of fairness.

Boating and alcohol

When giving warnings or tickets, Peterson said, alcohol is not usually involved.

I have yet to stop somebody for being under the influence. They are just usually using bad judgment, Herman said.

You can drink while driving a boat; you just cant be drunk, Peterson said, adding that the affects of alcohol are amplified by the waves and the heat.

Someone might appear more drunk after having very little to drink, he said.

Over the course of his 15 years with the patrol, Peterson said, he might have seen 12 people who were intoxicated. Four went to jail.

A motorboat driver can be cited for drunken driving if he or she has a blood alcohol content of 0.1 percent or greater. That is higher than the 0.08 percent limit for motor vehicle drivers.

Drunken drivers are removed from their boats and taken by the patrol to shore, where they are placed in the custody of county deputies.

The patrol uses GPS to determine which countys jurisdiction they are in at the time of the stop.

The biggest portion the river they patrol is in Rock County. The biggest area, including most of the lake, is in Jefferson County, Peterson said.

About RRSP

The patrol operates on an annual budget of about $38,000, with about 70 percent of those funds coming through the Department of Natural Resources. The rest is funded through the five towns that make up the Rock-Koshkonong Lake District (RKLD), including Milton, Fulton, Koshkonong, Albion and Sumner, although funding does not come through the RKLD, Peterson said.

The patrol is part of a multijurisdictional program, working and training alongside the Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Lake Mills and Milton fire departments.

A Boat Board, which has one representative from each of the five towns contributing funds, governs the patrol, Peterson said.

Rock River Safety Patrol Sgt. Jim Jelinek is a Milton Firefighter, an EMT and a commissioner on the RKLD board, he added.

Read more here:

Riding the waves: Rock River Safety Patrol sees swell in summertime traffic - Daily Union

Riding the waves: Rock River Safety Patrol sees swell in summertime traffic – HNGnews.com

With waves of heat come waves of boater traffic on Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River, and this year, perhaps due to increased interest in outdoor recreation resulting from COVID-19, boating traffic in on the increase, Rock River Safety Patrol (RRSP) Chief Ryan Peterson said.

Peterson, a member of the RRSP for 15 years and chief for three, said he shares leadership responsibilities with Capt. Henry Sautin, a retired Rock County deputy, whom he described as instrumental in maintaining the patrol while helping to develop its leadership. The patrol has been in service for over 40 years.

He described lake and river traffic as the busiest hed seen over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

While the traffic is increasing, the patrols commitment to safety remains constant, as does its practice of offering prevention over punishment: Peterson said the 12 sworn officers on the patrol, on average, hand out more boater safety pamphlets and warnings than they do tickets.

The practice is a kind of community policing focused on boater safety while building trust and communication through a sense of fairness, Peterson said.

Lake, river well-populated

The Milton Courier rode along with the patrol Sunday, June 28.

Peterson described the day as well-populated.

It is much busier then other years in June. June in general is always fairly slow. People have graduations and weddings. This year that has not been the case at all.

We are hearing from the marinas that they are having parts ordered for boats that havent been out for years, Peterson said, adding that he believed some of that interest was driven by COVID-19 and peoples interest in finding safe outdoor recreation.

There are a lot more people on the water. COVID has changed peoples mindset and gets them out, Peterson said.

The RRSP is responsible for law enforcement, water rescues and recoveries across the 10,500 acres of Lake Koshkonong and 26 miles of the Rock River, covering surface from Jefferson County to Indianford, in Rock County.

We like to say dam to dam, Peterson said.

RRSP also patrols Clear Lake in Milton, he said.

Members of the patrol operate part-time, working to cover high-traffic days, from two vehicles: a 21-foot Crestliner boat and a Sea-Doo personal watercraft (PWC).The boat is equipped with supplies similar to those used by fire departments, Peterson said.

While driving the boat, Peterson remained in contact through radio with patrol officer Mike Herman, who operated from the PWC. He also was in communication with Rock and Jefferson county dispatch units through a separate radio.

Describing boat traffic, Peterson said: Sunday is usually quieter that Saturday. A typical weekend two years ago, Saturday would be busy. Today (June 28), at its busiest point, would have been a typical busy Saturday.

Traffic is up dramatically, he said.

The nature of the lake, offering diverse appeal in a variety of activities, and its proximity to Illinois, contributes to its popularity, he said.

Over the course of the day, several PWC operators approached the patrol with questions about boater safety. Peterson and Herman were eager to share safety rules and tips, handing out boater safety pamphlets with frequency. Multiple verbal warnings and about five written warnings were issued to PWC operators.

In the afternoon, the patrol, along with members from area fire departments, responded to a dispatched call to help locate and rescue a distressed swimmer. The individual was found and taken to the Rock River Marina in Newville.

A group aboard a pontoon boat, describing trouble with the motor, was towed by the patrol back to its pier of origin.

Addressing concerns of safety and law enforcement, Peterson said: Weve had more stops in June then we typically have because more people are here. They are new people and they dont always know whats expected of them.

Many are new to boating and others are unsure of differences between their state of residency and Wisconsin laws, Peterson said, adding: Most people out here are here to have fun. We make sure other people wont put them in danger. We like to give them a DNR (Department of Natural Resources) pamphlet with a general overview of the rules while they are in Wisconsin.

Of the list of 25 citable infractions, Peterson said the infraction most violated revolves around watercraft and their proximity to shorelines and other vehicles while in the water.

The rule requires PWCs to be at least 100 feet away from other craft and 200 feet away from the shoreline when operating above slow-no wake speed. Violation of the rule carried a fine of $230.

One hundred feet is one-third the size of a football field. People are not always good at estimating that, Peterson said.

The patrol gives warnings, often verbal, with the goal of helping people understand the rule and promote safety.

If we give them a ticket, its a serious safety violation. We give a lot of warnings, Herman, a member of the RRSP since 2012, said.

Both Peterson and Herman said they are advocates of teaching people to be safe. On average, they said, they give 6 to 8 verbal or written warnings before writing a ticket.

Over the summer tourism season, the patrol typically writes between 0 and 8 tickets each weekend, Peterson said.

So we can expect kids to take off from shore and too close. Some have no life jackets on board and no throw rings.

They do not always have registrations. It makes me think they are new boaters. They make mistakes when we are right next to them and they have no idea what theyve done until we flag them over.

They are understanding when we explain it to them, Peterson said.

Peterson said he believes the community sees the patrol as helpful and fair.

Some people think the police are in need of a wake up or a shake up, but we dont get any of that feedback. We are well received.

I dont have to nitpick boats. There are plenty of violations happening right in front of us and they dont question us. They know they did something wrong. There is mutual respect. Were fair. When we write a ticket, it is a legitimate ticket, Peterson said, adding: We want the right balance of fairness.

Boating and alcohol

When giving warnings or tickets, Peterson said, alcohol is not usually involved.

I have yet to stop somebody for being under the influence. They are just usually using bad judgment, Herman said.

You can drink while driving a boat, you just cant be drunk, Peterson said, adding that the affects of alcohol are amplified by the waves and the heat.

Someone might appear more drunk after having very little to drink, he said.

Over the course of his 15 years with the patrol, Peterson said, he might have seen 12 people who were intoxicated. Four went to jail.

A motorboat driver can be cited for drunk driving if they have a BAC (blood alcohol content) of 0.1% or greater.

Drunk drivers are removed from their boats and taken by the patrol to shore where they are placed in the custody of county deputies.

The patrol uses GPS to determine which countys jurisdiction they are in.

The biggest portion the river they patrol is in Rock County. The biggest area including most of the lake is in Jefferson County, Peterson said.

About RRSP

The patrol operates on an annual budget of about $38,000, with about 70% of those funds coming through the Department of Natural Resources. The rest is funded through the five towns that make up the Rock Koshkonong Lake District (RKLD), including Milton, Fulton, Koshkonong, Albion and Sumner, although funding does not come through the RKLD, Peterson said.

The patrol is part of a multijurisdictional program, working and training alongside the Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Lake Mills and Milton fire departments, the RKLD website notes.

A Boat Board, which has one representative from each of the five towns contributing funds, governs the patrol Peterson said.

RRSP Sgt. Jim Jelinek is a Milton Firefighter, an EMT, and a commissioner on the RKLD board, he added.

The rest is here:

Riding the waves: Rock River Safety Patrol sees swell in summertime traffic - HNGnews.com

Some Unexpected Survey Results – The New York Times

The symphony of power tools conducted by men in hard hats still echoed in the foothills of the Ramapo Mountains when Carol Ryan first arrived at the brand-new liberal arts college in Mahwah, N.J.

Though several classrooms on the leafy campus were still without hinges for windows and doors, Ms. Ryan, a 28-year-old freshman and married mother of three, was firmly in place on her first day of school at Ramapo College, and much like the fledgling institution, awash in promise and potential. That was September 1971.

No four years of my life had a greater impact on me than those at Ramapo College, Ms. Ryan, 78, wrote nearly a half-century later, in April 2019, as part of an answer to a survey given to her and other students in the class of 1975, Ramapos first group of graduates.

To catch-up on the lives of Ms. Ryan, by then a widow, and her former classmates, Ramapo officials sent each a seven-question survey, starting with: How did you hear about Ramapo College, and why did you decide to enroll? Was it what you expected?

Ms. Ryan, who grew up in Jersey City, N.J., and was raised in Bogota, N.J., said she very much enjoyed taking the survey, in which she mentioned that she graduated with honors from Ramapo before receiving a masters degree in international affairs from Columbia.

It brought back so many great memories, and stirred up so much emotion that was trapped inside of me, she said, like the memory of the places on campus she remembered best (Question No. 3). The library was one of my favorite places, she wrote. But attending a class, outside on a pretty spring day, sitting on the grass, under the sweeping lilac bushes, was memorable. I certainly will never forget the stirring words, as I sat on the pavement three feet in front of Jane Fonda, when she conducted a rousing anti-Vietnam War rally.

Ms. Ryans completed survey landed in the hands of Clifford Peterson, 79, who spent 40 years at Ramapo College as both a professor of international politics and chairman of its international studies program before retiring in 2012. He had a 52-year marriage, which produced two sons, before becoming a widower.

I was enchanted by her writing, by the incredible life she lived, simply enchanted, said Dr. Peterson, who also happened to be on a committee that was planning for Ramapos 50th anniversary celebration, to be held next year at the college.

Dr. Peterson, who was born in Newark and grew up in Nutley, N.J., graduated from Rutgers, where he played college basketball from 1961 to 1963. (He continues to play the game at the national level as a member of the North Jersey Senior League All-Stars, helping the team win two gold medals in the Senior Olympics in 2009 and 2015.) He later earned a Ph.D. in international politics from Johns Hopkins University.

He was responsible for helping a colleague at Ramapo examine the responses of the 65 surveys that had been returned to the school. Many of the other surveys I read were quite wonderful, he said, but every one of Ms. Ryans answers just blew me away.

Dr. Peterson, who began teaching at Ramapo in 1972, said that he personally knew most of the 1975 graduates he was helping to contact. But he had never met Ms. Ryan, whose answers to many of the survey questions painted a portrait of a dedicated mother and wife who somehow managed to find the time to be an outstanding student-athlete at Ramapo. She excelled on the tennis court, becoming the schools first captain in that sport, and in the classroom, where she was an honors student.

All the time that I was attending classes, I was also attending P.T.A. meetings, driving my kids to functions and generally running a household as a wife, mother and homemaker, baking bread, getting three meals a day on the table, holding an elected local county committee political office and leading a troop of Girl Scouts, she wrote, in part, as her answer to Question No. 6.

Thereafter, she continued, my professional career included working in New York City with the government of Hong Kong; with a division of the US Mission to the United Nations; with a nonprofit economic and policy conference organization; 17 years with an environmental organization and I also headed up a Hudson Valley business venture linked with Wuhan, China. I presently conduct guided tours at the Rockefeller estate, Kykuit.

Dr. Peterson was beyond impressed. Im reading this womans survey, and thinking to myself, My goodness, where was this woman hiding the past 50 years.

On June 11, 2019, Dr. Peterson dialed Ms. Ryans phone number, on behalf of Ramapo College, to first answer a few questions she had sent along regarding the schools sports hall of fame, then thanked her for filling out her survey in such great detail, as he put it. He then asked if she might be interested in visiting the campus to meet some of Ramapos faculty members, including those putting together the 50th anniversary program.

After that, Id like to take you to lunch, and maybe walk around the campus together, said Dr. Peterson, whose voice is reminiscent of the Hollywood film star Jimmy Stewart.

Ms. Ryan said she had practically sworn off dating after two, 25-year relationships the first with my husband, the second with my significant other, she said that both ended with the death of each man. But she went ahead and accepted Dr. Petersons invitation.

There was just something about him that put me at ease, she said, and oh boy was he smart, and could he make me laugh.

Dr. Peterson was soon walking with her, touring their old stamping grounds and hoping to become the next magical entry in her Ramapo survey.

I knew right then and there I wanted to marry her, he said. I honestly believe I was in love with Carol before I ever met her in person.

She was feeling much the same. It was like we were on the same wave length, finishing each others sentences, and we were honest with each other and compatible in every way possible, she said. I had never met a man quite like him.

They began dating immediately. Each helped the other become better people, even at this stage of our lives, Dr. Peterson said. I was a very private person when I met Carol, but she got me to open up. She just keeps bringing out the best in me.

Ms. Ryans only question, Would it fit?

It fit perfectly, Dr. Peterson said, just like Cinderellas slipper.

They were married May 30 in an early-morning ceremony at Louis Engel Waterfront Park in Ossining, N.Y. Their party of five, which gathered along the Hudson River on a day when thunderstorms were forecast, included their officiant, Sue Donnelly, town clerk of Ossining, as well as the couples good friends, Dr. Marsha Gordon and her husband, Eli Gordon, who served as witnesses.

Their ceremony was originally scheduled to take place May 31, followed by a reception on the Ramapo College campus with 150 guests, but the coronavirus changed those plans. Instead, about 400 family members and friends watched the couple exchange vows via Zoom.

We knew from that very first meeting last June that we filled a void in each others lives with love, so many common interests and experiences, a set of shared deeply held personal values and a profound respect for all human beings, the groom told his bride. From the perspective of these things and a lifetime of the full spectrum of human emotions and experiences, ours is a mature love based on mutual respect and a complete partnership in every sense.

Then the bride spoke, mostly through tears. The forecast that had called for rain had now surrendered to sunshine.

You entered my life and in an amazing, almost mystical way, you entered my heart, she said, I met you for the very first time that brilliant day, but as we strolled the campus, we could not help imagining how we certainly must have passed each other in the hallways of the college hundreds of times nearly 50 years ago.

I am truly grateful for our wonderful, welcoming families and every one of our great friends, for our good health and for all the exciting reasonable adventures that we have experienced during our long, long lives and are sharing together now.

And I must admit, she added, Im even grateful for the months and months of our 24/7 splendid Covid-19 isolation, which has established beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are beautifully, perfectly suited for each other it just gets better every day.

When May 30, 2020

Where Louis Engel Waterfront Park, Ossining, N.Y.

Old School Style The groom wore a top hat, morning coat with tails, striped pants, cravat and a wing-tipped shirt with monogrammed sterling silver cuff links, which the bride had given him for his 79th birthday just days before the wedding. The bride wore a multitiered, ivory chiffon dress designed by Nataya that had a 1920s look, topped off with a matching ivory colored fascinator.

Leaving the Treehouse The newlyweds are planning to stay this summer at what the bride called her treehouse condo, overlooking the Hudson River in Ossining. Starting in September, they will begin living together in Scotch Plains, N.J.

Continue following our fashion and lifestyle coverage on Facebook (Styles and Modern Love), Twitter (Styles, Fashion and Weddings) and Instagram.

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Some Unexpected Survey Results - The New York Times

Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson – Thoroughbred Daily News

Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson

Home Archive Shared News Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson

Many of the pieces in the Diversity in Racing series recently in TDN reflect on the fact that backstretch workers at American racetracks were once predominately black. Now they are overwhelmingly Latino. Not one of them reflects on why this happened. At the same time in TDN, we are presented with unending pleas for additional H2B visas needed for the racing industry.

Here is my suggestionhow about the racing industry make a concerted effort to hire and train black Americans who live near racetracks to work on the backstretch by providing them a decent, living wage? But this idea is anathemic to an industry that worships at the altar of labor costs as cheap as possible. The incongruity and hypocrisy of this situation is astounding.

Tim Peterson, Edina, MN

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Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson - Thoroughbred Daily News

They recall the turmoil of ’68. Here’s what they think of Black Lives Matter. – PublicSource

In the days following the April 4, 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Pittsburghs streets filled with protesters and angry rioters. Seven days of riots were spurred by shock and disbelief that the man who utilized non-violence to fight for justice had become a victim of violence himself.

The pain and frustration was undergirded by the poor economic conditions and deep racism felt by Black residents across the country. In comparison to other cities, the destruction was less severe in Pittsburgh. Casualties included one death and 36 people injured, along with more than 1,000 arrests. After news of Kings death hit the airwaves, the impact was immediate. By 10:30 p.m., glass and debris from broken storefronts were strewn along Centre and Fifth avenues.

Fifty-two years later on May 25, 2020 police in Minneapolis responded to a call about a Black man allegedly attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Police pinned George Floyd to the ground, while a bystander filmed from the side. And there for the whole world to see, the life seeped out of Floyd as he repeated that he couldnt breath while officer Derek Chauvin calmly pressed his knee into his neck. All the while, three of his fellow officers stood around with their hands in the pockets.

Days of protests broke out across the country, and in Pittsburgh and like 1968, some of them included violence and significant property damage. Unlike 1968, social media also streamed the violent crackdown by police across the country including the controversial use of gas on protesters locally and while the riots lasted seven days in 1968, demonstrations have been going on for more than a month since Floyds death.

Carlos Peterson, 70, a local technical artist who notably is the designer of the Phoenix Rising sculpture at Freedom Corner in the Hill District, was 18 in 1968. He vividly recalls what he was doing when he learned of Kings assassination.

I was living with my brother Paul at that time. He was just home from Vietnam, and we had no TV, so it would be the next day before I found out. At school, a special assembly was called for us, and they brought in some folks from the NAACP to give us the news. Of course, the riots, looting and destruction started by that time.

When I think about that time, and how later we looked around and the neighborhood was so devastated after the riots, it took a while before realizing that we had literally destroyed our own communities I believe it was because we had no knowledge of who we were or what our history was.

Petersen designed the Phoenix Rising sculpture at Freedom Corner in the Hill District. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Peterson felt that if youth had been taught Black history they would have had a greater respect for the community. And even though there were a few students who understood what was missing from school, he said, Black history wasnt being taught. "I was not taught in my home about myself as a African American," he said.

In 2020, Peterson points out that current protesters did not destroy one thing in the Black neighborhood they went Downtown, this was a big difference I believe it is because there has been more intense education around our Black History.

In Pittsburgh, a largely peaceful protest on May 30 escalated into a chaotic scene with police deploying gas and other crowd control agents on demonstrators. They made numerous arrests. Vandalism included the destruction of police cars and shattering of storefront windows. Police on June 1 again used gas during a demonstration that had been peaceful in East Liberty, an action now subject to a federal lawsuit filed by protesters. Demonstrations in the month since have been peaceful across the region.

Peterson notes that recent protests came after the loss of control felt by communities locked down for more than two months due to COVID-19, and after residents felt priced out of their neighborhoods after years of gentrification. And then theres the repeating deaths, not just of Floyd, but of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others.

This rage had taken on an entirely different pallor than it did 52 years ago, he said. I see the depth of the rage as the biggest difference.

Tamanika Howze of the Hill District was 19 in April 1968. She was meeting with members of Black Sisters United in the home of one of the members. She was in disbelief when a young man entered telling them what happened, they were in disbelief.

We ran upstairs and turned on the televisionthere we saw it and we immediately hit the streets, Howze said. Things had already started.

Comparing 1968 to now, Howze notes that while there were many underlying issues around inequality, the trigger to the anger and rage and frustration was brought on by the assassination of King. Today, the protests stem from an ongoing broken system one that has shown us regularly that racism is real, its systemic, and that as African Americans we are expendable and essentially not valued. And this is made more abundantly clear each day.

During the 60s, organizing major demonstrations took time. In our current world of social media organizing is more instantaneous, she said, and getting the word out and the details of the planned protest can happen within hours.

Retired Pittsburgh police officer Brenda Tate, was also 19 at the time. She and her then-husband were coming home from an evening out at a local bar when they observed a flurry of activity out on the streets of the Hill District. They passed a Jewish meat market on Wylie Avenue whose windows had been smashed people were coming in and out of the broken windows with meat in their hands.

She approached the crowd to find out what was going on. It was then that she learned of Kings death.

It took till I got home for that news to sink in and just how devastating it was for Blacks in this country, Tate said.

Brenda Tate is holding a photo of herself as a teenager in her home in the Hill District. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

In her view, the most significant difference between todays demonstrations and 1968 is the brutality of Floyds death, and how readily it could be seen firsthand.

We were, of course, angry because of the death of Martin Luther King, but the inhuman way Floyd was killed and the power of cell phone videos that allowed us to see that murder over and over again, I feel, created greater pain than anything we know. Hearing him call out for his mother, and then watching as all the officers involved, stood around casually with their hands in their pockets.

Tate noted that it seemed white people viewed the death not just with sympathy, but actually empathized with what we have been experiencing with the continued killings of Black men and the brutality associated with it.

Tate also blames President Donald Trump as a catalyst for racism. She shares that she heard her mother and her aunt say theyd never return to the pain of deep racism and Jim Crow environment they endured while living in Birmingham but now it seems that Trumps behavior toward Black Americans has given a free ticket to racists to act with hatred beyond the level of the 60s.

Brenda Tate (right) and her aunt Margaret Watson, who turns 100 on July 6, at Brenda Tate's home in the Hill District (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Todays protests have also spread across the world.

I believe that God has a plan that he was going to make manifest beyond the United States, Tate said. I believe his intent is that everyone all over was going to participate on some level.

Brenda Tate (right) and Margaret Watson, who is turning 100 on July 6, at Brenda Tate's home in the Hill District (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Seventy-five year old George Moses had just returned from Vietnam and was working at J&L Steel Mill in April 1968. He got a call because the rioting broke out in the streets and his mother-in-law was stuck in Homewood at Holy Cross Church, unable to get home to the Hill.

I had to leave work, in Hazelwood, drive to Homewood, and return her to the Hill District, he said. The streets were already alive with angry folks as a result of the killing of Martin Luther King.

George Moses in front of his home in Point Breeze (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Back then, he recalls protests being led by ministers and heads of organizations like the NAACP, along with civil rights champions like Alma Speed Fox. Today, he has seen a more diverse crowd, including people of different ages, more women and a far greater proportion of white people. Another major difference is that the news media is no longer in sole control of how a demonstration is seen. Cell phones and social media have taken local protests worldwide.

Other countries could see for themselves what was going on here, he said. And now more than ever all eyes are on Americaone way or the other, we set the pace for oppressed individuals all over all the anti-racist actions happening in this country are on full view before the world.

But the prevalence of violent images has caused even greater trauma than in the 60s.

When the word went out about the death of Martin Luther King it was shocking and bad enough, Moses said. Imagine how terrible it would have been if there was a video of him on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel and it kept playing over and over again.

George Moses in front of his home in Point Breeze (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

And while local residents who recall the turmoil of the 60s are heartened by a long overdue awakening about racism across the country, those who remember the fallout from Kings death share a collective sadness that after 52 years, racism is still as prevalent, still pervasive, even more institutionalized, and results in the senseless killings of unarmed Black men all over this country.

"Unlike the 60s there are the images of the mistreatment of African American men that run so deep, that we can't keep ignoring them, Peterson said, referencing the video of an officer kneeling on Floyds neck as he struggled to breathe. It represents our lives being lost right before our eyes."

Renee P. Aldrich is an award-winning writer, a published author and a motivational speaker. She has been writing for more than 20 years and can be reached at writingthewriteword@gmail.com.

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They recall the turmoil of '68. Here's what they think of Black Lives Matter. - PublicSource

Adrian Peterson Trusted ‘the Wrong People’ and Ended Up With a Negative $4 Million Net Worth – Sportscasting

If you played fantasy football in the early 2010s, youre definitely familiar with Adrian Peterson. During his time with the Minnesota Vikings, the running back established himself as one of the NFLs most dynamic offensive talents. As you might assume, that also helped him take home more than $100 million during his professional career.

For all of that on-field success, though, Peterson isnt sitting on a massive fortune. In fact, the running back trusted the wrong people and has ended up with a negative $4 million net worth.

RELATED: Adrian Peterson Eyeing Surpassing Barry Sanders in NFL Record BooksTerrell Owens Lost Almost $80 Million Following a String of Bad Decisions

In todays NFL, few offenses are built around a franchise running back. During his prime, however, Adrian Peterson seemed capable of putting an entire team on his back.

After a dominant high school career and three strong seasons at the University of Oklahoma, Peterson entered the 2007 NFL draft. The Minnesota Vikings snagged the running back with the seventh overall pick and immediately handed him the keys to the offense. Peterson promptly proved that the team made the right decision.

The running back posted 1,341 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns during his first year in the pros, cruising to Offensive Rookie of the Year honors; Peterson immediately followed that up with a 1,760-yard sophomore campaign. He peaked, however in 2012, rushing for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns en route to the Offensive Player of the Year and NFL MVP titles.

That season, however, proved to be Petersons peak. After a solid 2013 campaign, the running back missed most of 2014 afterhitting his son with a switch;he returned to action in 2015, but then spent the majority of 2016 on the sidelines with a torn meniscus. That injury proved to be the end of his time with the Vikings.

After splitting 2017 between Arizona and New Orleans, Peterson found a home with the Washington Redskins. While hes no longer an elite offensive threat, the running back is still capable of doing a job on Sundays.

During his prime, Adrian Peterson was one of the top offensive threats in the NFL. Understandably, that helped the running back take home a pretty sizable salary.

According toSpotracsfinancial data, the running back has earned almost $102 million during his time in the pros. The vast majority of that money came during All Days time with the Vikings; between entering the league as a first-round pick and posting league MVP-quality numbers, he took home almost $95 million during his time in Minnesota.

In recent years, however, Petersons status and, in turn, salary, has deceased. During the 2017 season, which he spent with the Saints and Cardinals organizations, he made $3.5 million. Hes earned approximately $2.5 million during his time with the Redskins; this season, hes playing on a club option with a base salary of $2.25 million before bonuses.

Despite that earning power, Adrian Peterson hasnt found himself in the best financial shape. In an all too familiar tale, the running back trusted the wrong people, landing himself in a tough spot.

As Daniel Kaplan reported for The Athletic in July 2019, the running backs massive salary hasnt been enough to keep him out of debt.

A Pennsylvania lender is suing Peterson for allegedly defaulting on a $5.2 million loan, the proceeds of which he used to pay back other debts he incurred, including millions from a pay-day lender, court documents in New York show, Kaplan wrote. The sum, which with interest and legal fees is now $6.6 million, is separate from the $2.4 million a Maryland state judge last week ordered Peterson to pay another creditor Democracy Capital Corp. In 2018, a Minnesota court ordered him to pay $600,000 left unpaid on a $2.4 million loan.

Shortly after the story broke, Petersons lawyer, Chase Carlson, issued a statement on Twitter. It seems like the running back, like many other pro athletes, found himself following bad financial advice from those in his inner circle.

The truth behind Adrian Petersons current financial situation is more than is being reported at this time,Carlson explained.Because of ongoing legal matters, I am unable to go into detail, but I will say this is yet another situation of an athlete trusting the wrong people and being taken advantage of by those he trusted. Adrian and his family look forward to sharing further details when appropriate.

Today, CelebrityNetWorth estimates Adrian Petersons fortune at negative $4 million. Unfortunately, hes another case on-field success failing to carry over to their finances.

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference

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Adrian Peterson Trusted 'the Wrong People' and Ended Up With a Negative $4 Million Net Worth - Sportscasting

Peterson: This college football season will be different from broadcast, advertising perspective, too – Boone News-Republican

You know by now what to expect if youre planning to attend college football teams this fall. Wear a face mask. Dont expect to tailgate six hours, if at all. Get used to concession food fitting into a package. Stadiums wont be at 100 percent capacity. Prepare for digital ticket-taking and staggered entry.

Youve already read and heard most of that, though. So lets now switch to your experience while watching games on TV, where ratings could be as high as ever.

Its not so much what will be different with College Football 2020, but how networks keep those differences from being overly noticeable.

Game experiences, regardless if they are in the stadium or on the couch, wont be the same. The goal, though, continues to be making viewers feel as if theyre in the stadium, right along with the lucky reduced crowd who could actually be there.

That mind-set wont change. Aside from those less-than-full stadiums and players spaced about the sideline instead of between the 25-yard lines (and referees maybe wearing masks), viewers arent likely to see many differences.

Behind the scenes, however, things will be different.

Remote announcers? Probably.

Theyll likely work from a studio in another state, and not in press boxes at the games theyre describing. Thats the biggest difference, from a TV perspective, but its something viewers and broadcasters themselves eventually will adjust to.

The impact on fans, while minimal in my view, starts with how producers and announcers do their pregame preparation, said Des Moines resident Ray Cole, who was a past ABC board member and liaison to ESPN.

They typically show up at college football game days ahead of time. Pregame meetings with coaches and players of both teams are common.

Those meetings now will be via social media; informative one-on-ones are probably out this season.

I doubt that (announcers) Chris Fowler or Sean McDonough will find college football coaches being as warm, candid and straightforward as they have in the past, Cole said. But it can be done successfully.

Fran Fraschilla called basketball games during the 2016 Summer Olympics from an studio in Stamford, Conn. He pulled it off so well, that friends would call or text him to see how he was enjoying Rio.

More recently, ESPNs Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez called the networks coverage of Korean baseball from their homes.

Additional advertising revenue streams?

Fewer fans mean athletics departments are finding creative ways to help cushion the revenue losses. More company logos on fields? Company emblems on uniforms (Im not sure apparel contracts would allow that)? Advertising logos superimposed digitally at various places of the stadium?

Media outlets such as signage, TV, radio, digital and social channels will see higher demand, so finding ways to capitalize on that will be key, said Chris Wujcik, vice-president of client consulting services at GMR Marketing in New Berlin, Wis.

Traditionally, college and pro football have intentionally avoided signage that has a large TV presence, while trying to maintain a clean landscape and keep the game as the focal point.

Moving forward, with so many in-person limitations reducing the value of in-stadium elements, schools will need to focus on trying to shift assets to provide sponsors the impressions that they crave. (Thats) via broadcast, on what will likely be increased TV ratings, since people will not be able to attend events the same way.

Unique advertising opportunities

Iowa State is among the schools that sell advertising on the blinders that shield signal-waving sideline personnel from observant opponent coaches in the press box. The multicolored ribbon circling the inside of stadiums includes advertising, as do scoreboard video boards.

Anything that is going to get a considerable amount of high profile, on-air exposure should be considered as a possibility, Wujcik said.

An interesting backstage idea

While gameday, in-person access may be limited, schools have an opportunity to create and promote fresh online and social media content, Wujcik said. If fans cant get into the stadium, give them behind-the-scenes tours of the facility.

Show how things operate on gamedays in areas they cant see in person, such as the locker rooms and coaches offices. Bring them into a week of team prep for the upcoming opponent, or into the personalities of the players and coaches.

Now is the time to see how people have been living, and continuing to function in a socially distant world.

And remember this

The late, great Ronald Reagan was famous for calling Chicago Cubs baseball games remotely from the old WHO radio studio while ripping results off the wire, Cole said. Capturing the thrill of victory and agony of defeat in compelling ways that touch viewers on an emotional level has come a long way.

Viewers wont notice much of a difference, if any. At least thats the plan.

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Peterson: This college football season will be different from broadcast, advertising perspective, too - Boone News-Republican

What Is the Real Deal at Jordan Peterson’s Thinkspot? – Merion West

(Jordan Peterson)

However, in this piece, I will explain precisely why Thinkspot was created. The story starts shortly after the turn of the millennium, with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.

I have a problem: My interests are esoteric, and most people are simply not very interested in the things that get me going. I do not often have an opportunity to discuss deeply the ideas that I am passionately interested in. So I was excited when Jordan Peterson announced his backing of the social networking website Thinkspot in June of 2019. I hoped that Petersons involvement would attract enough people who were Maps of Meaning (Petersons earlier and more involved book) readers, as opposed to say 12 Rules for Life(his more recent and popular work) fans. I hoped this would be a place where I might find the types of discussions I was looking for. However, satisfying my personal desire for stimulating conversation was not exactly why Thinkspot was created in the first place. All of the articles that I have read about Thinkspot make many assumptions and usually start with an ill-defined, sweeping gesture towards free speech. However, in this piece, I will explain precisely why Thinkspot was created. The story starts shortly after the turn of the millennium, with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.

The In Crowd

In 2006, crowdsourced user-generated content was the rage. Times Person of the Year was You, alluding to those individuals creating the content for Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube, and countless other sites that would be empty, uninteresting deserts were it not for the content created by users themselves. Around that same time, a group of art lovers was creating a website called Indiegogo to crowdsource fundraisingor, as it soon became known, crowdfunding.

By 2013, seven years after Googles $1.65 billion acquisition of Youtube, user-generated content was becoming nothing short of big business. And Youtube was accounting for $3.5 billion in advertising dollars being collected by Google. So, for some creators on Youtube, things were getting increasingly serious. Youtube was no longer about a teenager sitting in his or her bedroom talking to the camera; creators such as Jack Conte were raising the bar on production values, creating full-fledged short films. At this point, Indiegogo (and other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter) was becoming aviable option for well-known artists to seek funding for specific projects, such as the $5.7 million raised to create the 2014 film Veronica Mars or the $3.1 million Zach Braff raised for a film sequel to Garden State, the 2014 film Wish I Was Here. However, there was still no platform for artists to seek an ongoing stream of revenue: basically a salary. So Cone created one, Patreon, and he announced its creation in one of his Youtube videos.

The idea behind Patreon was a modern take on one of the oldest business models in the world: patronage for artists. For centuries, great artists, who were not independently wealthy, survived by securing the patronage of someone who was. Essentially, they were given an allowance by their patron (a salary, if you will) to ensure that they continued to create, and, in turn, the whole world benefited from the art they created. Patreon gained users and subscribers rapidlynot least because in 2016, Youtube began, in the words of Peter Kafka, demonetizingsome videos because its software thought the content was unfriendly for advertisers. So thanks to the demonetization trend, more and more creators needed to find alternative sources of revenue for businesses they had spent significant effort building, businesses that in some cases disappeared nearly overnight due to demonetization.

Release the Hounds

On December 17, 2014,Slatedeclared 2014 The Year of Outrage, and, six days later, Bloomberg published a response: an opinion piece entitled Sadism and the Online Mob: The Internet and social media make it easier for people to engage in vicious behavior toward one another.

The outrage mob was already a well-established phenomenon at that time, with Justine Sacco, a media publicist, making headlines as the poster child for Twitter mobs delighting in ruining lives over moral transgressions. The Twitter mob came to realize that it had significant influence, given that large corporations were willing to fire people just to placate these mobs. After Adria Richards, a developer evangelist for SendGrid, caused a stranger to be fired from his job with just one tweet, the mob turned on her, and she was soon fired herself. Once companies started caving to that kind of pressure, no one was safe.

Over the next couple of years, as Youtube demonetization became more aggressive, more creators sought relief with Patreon. By 2017 the service processed$150 million worth of payments to content creators. Some of the biggest recipients of these payments were Youtube content creators who had been demonetized because of the outage mobs reaction to their political views. However, Patreon eventually started showing signs of being co-opted by the trend towards censorious behavior, and it began to make decisions about who could (or could not) use the platform based on moral judgments. The consequence was the defection of a few of its highest-profile creator members: Sam Harris, Dave Rubin, and Jordan Peterson.

Yelling Fire in a Crowded Theater

There had been a few controversies at Patreon since the censorship began in 2017; however, the tipping point for Harris, Rubin, and Peterson was the banning of British social commentator Carl Benjamin. Harris had already come close to leaving the year before over Patreons first high-profile banning: of Canadian filmmaker and journalist Lauren Southern based on the view that she was raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life.

With Benjamin, Patreon went a step further, however, by banning him because of words he used in a discussion on somebody elses Youtube videoin other words, for an opinion expressed on someone elses creative work. Bearing in mind that Patreon had up until that point been perceived as a neutral safe haven for creators, the banning of Benjamin was widely viewed as a betrayal of the long-standing Western value of free speech. Only social justice true believers felt that Benjamins speech rose to the level of clear and present danger (the doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States to determine under which circumstances limits can be placed on First Amendment guarantees). Most others felt thatas unfortunate and offensive as Benjamins speech wasbanning him from the platform was overreaching.

So this was the proximate cause for establishing Thinkspot: looking to create a free marketplace for ideas, where content creators could seek financial remuneration for their content without fear of having their business pulled out from under them because of the whims of the platform provider. Thinkspots answer to this was to combine the content presentation platform with the funding mechanism. Thus, Thinkspot was poised not just to be a Patreon Killer but also a Patreon, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter Killer.

Of course, the Killer characterization is hyperbole. I do not really think that Thinkspots founders sought to displace Youtube as the worlds premier purveyor of cat videosor to unseat Twitter as the worlds premier home for inchoate rage. The idea was to rely upon the reputations of Peterson and Rubinnoted free speech advocatesto assure creators that the platform would remain ideologically neutral, while ensuring that the voices of controversial content creators would not be financially starved-out of the marketplace of ideas. Simply put: Thinkspots original and primary objective was to provide content creators with a reliable revenue stream.

Jordan Peterson and the News

Much has been made of Petersons involvement with Thinkspot, and why not? He is the visible face of Thinkspot and a figure of international acclaim. As such, googling Jordan Peterson launches Thinkspot returns just over 30,000 results. However, in reality,there has been little visible evidence of Petersons involvement. It is difficult to say what would have happened were it not for Peterson and his wife, Tammys, recent serious health issues. So we can only know what actually is. Anyone joining Thinkspot with the hope of interacting directly with Peterson is likely to be seriously disappointed.

As for those 30,000 Google hits, many are articles expressing varying degrees of skepticism and condemnation of Peterson and/or Thinkspot, as well as misapprehensions regarding Thinkspots primary purpose. Perhaps I am reading something into them that is not there, but they do seemon the wholerather eager for Thinkspot to be a failure. I will simply remark that very few of these reviews or articles bear any relation at all to my actual experiences on the platform.

The Nuts and Bolts of Thinkspot

I submitted my email address to the waiting list for the Thinkspots beta edition on July 13, 2019 and received my invitation about five months later on December 11th. I believe I was one of the very early members, having signed up just two months after the very first Welcome post was made by the Thinkspots administrators on October 17th.

The platform was advertised as being in beta, but little further information was available. New users were left to explore on their own. The user interface takes some getting used to, which is a polite way of saying that it leaves much to be desired. The interface is somewhat complicated and definitely unpolished. The biggest problem is nested comments. They are not easy to keep track of, and I cannot count the number of times I have received a comment intended for someone else.

Every member of Thinkspot is called a Contributor, in Thinkspeak. All contributors are equal, however, some are just a little bit more equal than others. Featured Contributors get to set pricing and charge for access to their content, and they can create Events, Media, and eBooks. It is not that there is really anything wrong with this; it is entirely in keeping with the original mission of Thinkspot. I have heard mentions in various conversations that eventually all contributors will have this option once the website is out of beta testing, but I suspect that only a small percentage of contributors will end up taking advantage of this. One has to build up a fairly large, devoted audience before one can successfully charge admission, and it is not easy to build that audience.

There is definitely an eeriealmost neglectedatmosphere at Thinkspot. It makes me think of Lord of the Flies. I feel like we, Thinkspot users, are abandoned on a deserted island to fend for ourselves.

But, enough about the container, what about the content?

Personally, I am drawn to only about four or five of the Featured Contributors out of the 44, so no more than 10% of the content on Thinkspot interests me much. My perspective on the other 90% is that of a tourist, someone who visits but does not stay. I have no idea how well my experience in my little patch of Thinkspot translates to the restat least no subjective idea.

What I can do, instead, is provide some objective statistic on the contributors and how they interact with the subscribers. For example, half of the Featured Contributors have listed Culture as an interest, and almost half have also listed Society, Philosophy, and Politics. I believe, though, that these choices actually say very little about the authors. After all, we all agree that taking candy from babies is bad and helping little old ladies across the street is good. What self-respecting intellectual would not be interested in those things? So it is much more revealing when a contributor lists an interest that nobody else does. Then, we know something interesting about that contributor. Gratifyingly, there are 33 Featured Contributors with unique interests.

Readers might be interested to note that from a political point of view, there is only one Featured Contributor listing Conservatism as an interest and just one other listing Progressivism. It would appear that Thinkspot is not quite the hotbed of extreme political partisanship that many articles would have you believe. In fact, the distribution of interests is fairly evensomething for which the mysterious curators of Thinkspot must be commended. Here is the full list of interests showing how many contributors have selected each one:

I can also provide some more quantitative data:

The top contributor in terms of content creation is philosopher Stephen Hicks who postson average nine times per week for the past 45 weeks he has been on Thinkspot.The leader in terms of average number of views per post isquite predictablyJordan Peterson. The runner-up is less obvious: Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Rated third and fourth, respectively, are the publications Merion West and The Post Millennial. Now, let us take a look at which users receive the most recommendation tags (Think: Facebook likes). The content creator whose posts most motivate readers to leave a tag (Recommend, Like, Agree, Insightful, Provocative, or Disagree) is Carl Benjamin, the source of the aforementioned Patreon controversy. He is followed by PragerU, the contributor who listed Conservatism as an interest, and then by Jordan Peterson.

The posts that generate the most user commentson averageare written by Marshall Herskovitz, the contributor who listed Progressivism as an interest. (Herskovitz is a writer, film producer, and director, who is committed to the cause of fighting climate change.) Herskovitz is followed by Jonathan Pageau, a Canadian artist and carver focused on Christian iconography, and then by Carl Benjamin.

Thus, the picture that emerges is very different from what most articles about Thinkspot would have one believe. The Featured Contributors are, for the most part, surprisingly heterogeneous, representing an eclectic mix of interests. Some are political, some apolitical, some theistic, some atheistic, some artistic, some scientific, some establishment, some anti-establishment, and so on. The top viewed contributors are not the top commented upon, and the top posters (in volume) are not the most recommended. The heterogeneity in Featured Contributors draws an equally heterogeneous audience, and so the user base of Thinkspot makes for a very mixed bag.

There is one trait the Featured Contributors largely share: They do not interact very often with anyone elses content. If we keep in mind the original mandate of Thinkspot, this should hardly be surprising, yet a great number of people seem to have subscribed with the expectation of engaging in discussion with the Featured Contributors. Certainly, many unfavorable reviews were based on this premise. Nevertheless, I have had many engaging discussions on Thinkspot, despite the dreadful user interface. I have learned a lot, and I have worked through much thinking in discussions with others. I am a mostly satisfied customer.

The Future

The management of Thinkspot is rather opaque with regards to the future. I invited its leadership team to engage with me for the writing of this article, but I received no response. This leaves me free to speculate.

I would say that Thinkspot has a lot of potential. Its heterogeneity is probably a positive portent. The world desperately needs social media that is not just an echo chamber and, consequently, there is a window of opportunity. I would also say that the segment of the community that I interact with comes to the website for discussion among ourselves. This is the case even if this was not the original intent or focus of Thinkspot. If Thinkspot fails quickly to improve the group discussion experience, something better will come along, and the website will lose a substantial part of its community. This is the most obvious threat I see. Finally, there is the issue of critical mass. Thinkspot seems to have about 63,000 participants at the moment, and the statistics that I have pulled together suggest that any given creator could not hope to appeal to more than 10% of the Thinkspot population because of the diversity of taste among its users. Then assume a (very optimistic) conversion rate of 3%, and we have 189 paying subscribers. Even at $240 per yearwhich most people find very expensive (even the wildly-popular Ben Shapiro cannot charge more than that)this works out to only $45,360 per year, not a particularly lucrative gig.

Youtube has cat videos; Twitter has outrage; and Thinkspot will have to find its drawing card: the thing that will pack em in to the rafters. Otherwise, the content creators the system was originally designed for will simply ignore it as irrelevant. 63,000 potential subscribers is not enough for even one content creator to earn a living. Without a flourishing community (because of user interface issues) to provide a sufficiently large audience pool for content creators wishing to commercialize, Thinkspot faces a dual threat that it must move quickly to overcome.

I wish Thinkspot all the best; it is a worthy endeavor.

Adam Wasserman has 30 years of IT management experience and is the author of The Chaos Factory.

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What Is the Real Deal at Jordan Peterson's Thinkspot? - Merion West

Detroit Perfume-Maker Says New Scents Will Help Us Move Past Pandemic – WDET

If your house smelled like lemon on a Saturday morning, it was a cleaning day. That smell of fresh citrus isnt just a novelty the acidity of lemon makes it an excellent cleaningagent.

You may think of [scent] as a fashion accessory, but it really can be used to communicate. Kevin Peterson, Detroit-based perfumemaker

As we move forward in a post-COVID world, however, what will the future of scent be? Will the scent of lemon persist? Will we associate the smell of hand sanitizer with this current global pandemic movingforward?

Its a question that Detroit-based perfume maker Kevin Peterson has beenpondering.

Chris Miele

The exterior of Sfumato Fragrances and Castalia on Second AvenueinDetroit.

We dont often think of scents as a mode of communication, says Kevin Peterson, the nose at Sfumato Fragrances and co-owner and cocktail scientist at Castalia, a scent-infused cocktail lounge in the Cass Corridor (its considered the only one of its kind in the U.S.)You may think of it as a fashion accessory, but it really can be used tocommunicate.

Scent has become a focal point as we start to re-examine how we use public spaces and the smells we associate withcleanliness.

A lot of our idea of what clean scents are actually goes back to plague times, says Peterson. During the bubonic plague in Europe, the predominant theory of how disease spread was that bad smells transmitted it and the way to counteract that was with good smells, says Peterson. So things like pine, lemon and rosemary were actually what people used in theory to rid themselves from the plague. Strangely, hundreds of years later, a lot of those ideas are still what dominate our idea of what clean smellslike.

As businesses and restaurants begin to reopen with newly implemented safe and health regulations, Peterson says that identifying if a place is clean or not will be a potent form ofcommunication.

You can read a sign that says we [clean] every five minutes, but if you smell that cleanliness, you absorb that information on a much deeper level than reading a sign, saysPeterson.

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Detroit Perfume-Maker Says New Scents Will Help Us Move Past Pandemic - WDET

Cardinals lefty Andrew Miller: ‘There’s still some doubt we’re going to have a season’ – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"I don't want to be the one that brings down a season."

The Cardinals announced Sunday that infielder Elehuris Montero tested positive for COVID-19 and has been placed in isolation awaiting the next step in the protocols. Montero is asymptomatic, an official said. The Cardinals have four other players with tests pending, including Carlos Martinez and Alex Reyes, though the team won't confirm the names of the players.

Some of the players traveled together to St. Louis and that appears to be part of the delay when it comes to their test results.

On Saturday, the players had a meeting that included messages from a veteran group: Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, Dexter Fowler, Matt Carpenter, Matt Wieters, and Miller. They spoke about the need to remain disciplined away from the ballpark and to put aside for three months any activities that might put them in jeopardy of getting the virus and bringing it to the ballpark.

"Do everything we possibly can to assure there's a season on our end," Wainwright said.

Miller's understanding of the agreement is that players can opt-out of the season at any time -- at any time they feel unsafe, they worry for their health, or they have an issue at home that would lead to that decision. Already some high profile players have opted out of the season, including Dodgers lefty David Price, Washington Nationals lifer Ryan Zimmerman, and Colorado outfielder Ian Desmond. Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman and San Diego outfielder Tommy Pham have tested positive for COVID-19, their teams disclosed. Freeman is symptomatic, the Braves said and his wife confirmed on social media.

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Cardinals lefty Andrew Miller: 'There's still some doubt we're going to have a season' - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Is Saquon Barkley the next Adrian Peterson? – Giants Wire

The average career of an NFL player is 3.3 years, so when players sign contracts longer than three years, they are bucking the trend. That stat means most rookies entering the league on standard four-year contracts never see the end of those deals.

So, when you see veterans playing deep into their second contracts, they are actually outliers. One player, running back Adrian Peterson, now with Washington, is heading into his 14th season in the league. Hes really an outlier.

The average career expectancy for an NFL running back is 2.57 years, the lowest of any position in the NFL. Kickers lead the way (4.87 years) followed by quarterbacks (4.44), cornerbacks (2.94) and wide receivers (2.81).

Peterson is essentially a freak, which is something New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has been called in his two seasons in the NFL. Some believe Barkley will have a long career in the league based on his magnificent physique and the drive to keep himself in top shape.

The guy is built. You look at his stature and how strong he is as a runner, former New England Patriots linebacker and current ESPN analyst Rob Ninkovich said recently. I think he has the potential to play a very long time based on look, just the way he plays, the style of play he has. You look around the league at some of these other really good running backs; they might not have the frame, might not have the build that Barkley has. Im going with him. I think hes got a bright future. I know last year he had the ankle injury, but look, its football. Things happen. He came back from that and Im anticipating a very big year for him this year.

Barkley is listed at 6 feet tall (but has also been listed at 5-foot-11 in some places) and weighs in at 234 pounds. That is a lot of compact power for a ball carrier with his shiftiness, speed and versatility.

By contrast, Peterson is 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds. Tennessees Derrick Henry, the leagues rushing leader last season who is considered the ultimate running back specimen in todays NFL, is 247 pounds. But he has nearly four inches on Barkley at 6-foot-3.

Barkleys durability came into question last season when he suffered a high ankle sprain in the Giants Week 3 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He missed a month of the season and then wasnt the same player until very late in the season. He didnt have another 100-yard rushing game until Week 14.

ESPN analyst Louis Riddick believes Barkleys career can exceed Petersons if he can stay healthy. Thats always the big if. Keep in mind Peterson who is a surefire Hall of Famer has 14,216 rushing yards, which is fifth on the all-time list, but he only eclipsed 2,000 total yards from scrimmage once in his career. Barkley did that in his first season in the NFL.

Everyone knows how I feel about Saquon Barkley, Riddick said. I think because hes the bigger player, he is the one I would probably pick and hes probably overall the more explosive athlete. Hes the guy who, despite being that size, is someone who isnt to talk about Bruce Lee, he isnt that guy. Hes not the stiff, tree-like figure. Hes one of those guys who does have tremendous physical dexterity and flexibility for a guy whos 228, 230 pounds and runs a low 4.3.

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Is Saquon Barkley the next Adrian Peterson? - Giants Wire

Analysts think Saquon Barkley could be the next Adrian Peterson – 247Sports

The general consensus in the NFL right now is that running backs have a short shelf life in the league. Because of wear and tear on players bodies from taking constant hits, some are hesitant to hitch wagons to running backs for too long. But a few NFL running backs prove that isnt always true.

Adrian Peterson of the Washington Redskins is the prime example right now. Drafted out of Oklahoma in 2007, Peterson is entering his 14th year in the NFL and is still playing full seasons in the league.

So who could be the next running back to follow a similar path of Peterson and remain in the NFL for a long time? On NFL Live on Monday, analyst Rob Ninkovich said he thinks former Penn State star and current New York Giant Saquon Barkley could be that guy.

The guy is built. You look at his stature and how strong he is as a runner, Ninkovich said. I think he has the potential to play a very long time based on look, just the way he plays, the style of play he has. You look around the league at some of these other really good running backs; they might not have the frame, might not have the build that Barkley has. Im going with him. I think hes got a bright future. I know last year he had the ankle injury, but look, its football. Things happen. He came back from that and Im anticipating a very big year for him this year.

Barkley comes off of his second season in the NFL where he had over 200 carries and 1,000 yards. When compared to Peterson, Barkley isnt quite on pace with the workload that Peterson had put on him early. Peterson had 238 carries in his rookie season with the Minnesota Vikings and then 363 the next year for a total of 601 carries. Barkley is currently at 478.

With the drafting of Georgia star lineman Andrew Thomas and the continued development of quarterback Daniel Jones, Barkley could grow even more in 2020 and continue to create quite the name for himself in the NFL.

Everyone knows how I feel about Saquon Barkley, ESPN analyst Louis Riddick added. I think because hes the bigger player, he is the one I would probably pick and hes probably overall the more explosive athlete. Hes the guy who, despite being that size, is someone who isnt to talk about Bruce Lee, he isnt that guy. Hes not the stiff, tree-like figure. Hes one of those guys who does have tremendous physical dexterity and flexibility for a guy whos 228, 230 pounds and runs a low 4.3.

As long as he can stay healthy and doesnt suffer some kind of freak injury, you have to think Saquons upside is unbelievable because of the fact he does have those physical characteristics and he is someome who can play in both a run game and pass game, equally effectively.

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Analysts think Saquon Barkley could be the next Adrian Peterson - 247Sports

Redskins Adrian Peterson Says He Will Kneel During The National Anthem Without A Doubt – uSports.org

Numerous NFL players have taken part in protests across the country in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. There have been talks of whether or not we will see protests by players while the national anthem is played at games this season. One NFL player has already come out and said that they will be protesting this season.

Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson, when asked by the Houston Chronicle if he will protest this year he said, Yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt.

Petersons reasoning goes back to Colin Kaepernick when he first knelt during the national anthem in 2017. Just four years ago, youre seeing Kaepernick taking a knee, and now were all getting ready to take a knee together going into this season, without a doubt, he said.

The NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell posted a video on social media Friday saying that the league will support its players who choose to protest peacefully.

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Redskins Adrian Peterson Says He Will Kneel During The National Anthem Without A Doubt - uSports.org

Analyzing the NY Mets’ Top 10 prospects: No. 6 David Peterson – NorthJersey.com

USA TODAY Sports' Gabe Lacques breaks down the greatest issues surrounding negotiations between Major League Baseball and its' players. USA TODAY

As we wait, with hope, for the start of the baseball season, we are analyzing each of the New York Mets' Top 10 prospects with a series of reports.

If you want to know what the Mets think about lefty David Peterson, recall what manager Luis Rojas said during spring training. Multiple times, he stated the club was stretching out seven starting pitchers.

Wait, what?

There were six arms competing for five rotation spots. The seventh man?

Peterson.

He did not possess a realistic shot to make the Opening Day rotation, but the fact the Mets were preparing him as a starter speaks to how highly they view him. Of all arms in the farm system, he might be closest to making a big-league start.

Analyzing the NY Mets' Top 10 prospects: No. 7 Mark Vientos

Analyzing the NY Mets' Top 10 prospects: No. 8 Thomas Szapucki

Feb 24, 2020; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; New York Mets pitcher David Peterson (77) throws against the Washington Nationals at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.(Photo: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports)

In 2017, MLB.com ranked Peterson as the No. 19 prospect in the MLB Draft. The Mets eventually took Peterson with the No. 20 overall pick, and he's risen ever since.

Peterson began2018, his first full pro season, in Low A. Over nine starts, the Oregon alumpitched to a 1.82 ERA as he displayed his first-round talent. He finished the season in High A, where he started 13 games and pitched to a 4.33 ERA.

In 2019, he started 24 Double A games, finishing with a 4.19 ERA.

Fielder independent pitching (FIP) isolates the outcomes a pitcher can control. Simple terms: It does not account for outcomes that involve luck (balls in play).

Peterson's FIP in 2018 was 2.98. A year later, it was 3.19. Those indicate he might have pitched better than his ERA shows.

Perhaps most important, he proved he can handle the grind of a professional starting pitcher. He has not missed extended time.

Often, minor-league pitchers are evaluated over small sample sizes, whether that be because of injuries or innings limits. Peterson, on the other hand, has started two full seasons.

Feb 16, 2020; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; New York Mets pitcher David Peterson (77) waits to do defensive drills during a workout at spring training.(Photo: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports)

Since taking over as general manager, Brodie Van Wagenen has been aggressive. He's acted on the organization's desire to win now.

While noble, it has also come at a cost. Trading Jarred Kelenic haunts fans, but the Mets also lost three good pitching prospects over the last year and a half.

In the Robinson Can-Edwin Diaz deal, the Mets sent the Mariners Justin Dunn,who reached the bigs last season and notched a 2.70 ERA over 6 2/3 innings. Months later, the Mets traded their top two pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson to acquire Marcus Stroman from Toronto.

These moves created an opportunity for others in the New York farm system, though. Suddenly, Petersonbecame one of the best prospect arms.

He represents needed starting pitching depth. In spring training, six starters competed for five spots. The competition eventually worked itself out when Noah Syndergaard underwent Tommy John surgery.

But behind him?

Well, that's where things get interesting. The Mets sent Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman into last offseason with an order to prepare as if they'd be starters in 2020, but because the club signed Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha, the former two went back to the bullpen.

Walker Lockett made a few spot starts for the Mets in 2019, and could be an option. But Peterson could also be considered.

Peterson made a strong impression this spring, allowing only a run over six innings of Grapefruit League action.

Thus far, his rise has seemed encouraging for an organization that needs capableprospects to move through its ranks.

Justin Toscanois theMetsbeat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to allMetsanalysis, news, trades and more, pleasesubscribe todayanddownload our app.

Email:toscanoj@northjersey.comTwitter:@justinctoscano

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How Michigan couples are getting married – or not – during the coronavirus pandemic – MLive.com

As if planning a wedding isnt stressful enough already, lets add a pandemic.

A thought along those lines may have run through the heads of thousands of Michigan brides as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hit the state in early March, and spurred the closure of non-essential businesses and the halting of gatherings as the 2020 wedding season was about to begin.

"Its stressful, its sad, but things will get better, said bride-to-be Sara Figueroa, who in April postponed her May 2020 wedding to April 2021. Ultimately, what matters is that youre married.

Four Michigan brides spoke to MLive about how they retooled their wedding plans as the pandemic set in. One opted for a small ceremony on her original May date. One postponed until fall. Two rescheduled their nuptials for 2021.

Thousands of couples are married in Michigan annually, but the numbers declined this spring amid the pandemic.

In Kent County alone, the number of marriage license applications between March 15-May 15 declined by 34% this year, compared to 2019, according to the Kent County Clerks Office. The number of recorded marriages during the same timeframe declined by 73%. However, that stat could change as more couples turn in their marriage licenses, officials noted. In the Upper Peninsula, Marquette County marriages declined by 33% during the same period, according to that countys clerks office.

Weddings are planned months and years in advance, so whenever theres a disruption to such an important event, its stressful for all involved, said Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons. Marriage licenses have been, by far, the service for which our office has received the most frantic calls and emails.

The statewide stay-home order aimed at stemming the spread of coronavirus went into effect on March 24 and extended through June 1. Among the temporary closures were government offices, including county clerks offices that are responsible for issuing marriage licenses. With offices closed, many counties stopped issuing them for a couple weeks. It was mid-April when a mail-in process became available in some counties; other counties began offering appointments.

The by-mail process allowed couples like Mackenzie and Matt Mergener, of Lake Orion, to tie the knot in a backyard ceremony on May 24.

We're just happy to start our life together because who knows when the chaos is going to end, Mackenzie Mergener said.

The stay-home order temporarily closed non-essential businesses, including wedding venues, party rental shops, dress and tuxedo retailers, tailors and seamstresses, florists, DJ services, salons, and photographers and videographers, among other wedding vendors. The order also said not to gather with people outside ones household.

While June has brought an easing of coronavirus-related restrictions, gatherings of the size and scope of many weddings still arent allowed. In southern Michigan, indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people and outdoors is limited to 100. In the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula, up to 50 people can gather inside and up to 250 outside, starting June 10.

RELATED: Restaurants, pools, libraries reopen: An updated chart of whats allowed in Michigan

The new orders are encouraging for brides planning late-summer and fall weddings, although they are still facing uncertainty.

We just kept pushing out a month at a time, said bride-to-be Jayme Peterson, whose wedding is scheduled for Sept. 24. Finally, in the middle of May, we decided to really push it out to September and hopefully it will be able to happen.

Postponing until 2021 is considered less risky by many brides-to-be, including Nichole Baldwin. Her June 2020 wedding is rescheduled for June 2021.

"It did feel like there was a big weight lifted off after we did postpone things, she said.

RELATED: Is a second wave of coronavirus inevitable? Michigan nears critical point to suppress another outbreak

Baldwin, Figueroa, Mergener and Peterson each approached their wedding planning differently when coronavirus began to spread through Michigan. Here are their stories.

Newlyweds Matt and Mackenzie Mergener steal a moment under Mackenzie's veil on their wedding day, May 24, 2020, in Oakland County, Michigan. The ceremony included the bride, groom and their immediate families. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that kept them from having their dream wedding that day.Courtesy of Kelly Smith | Treasured Images Photography

Newlyweds Mackenzie Mergener, 26, and Matt Mergener, 25, took a lighthearted approach to their pared-down celebration.

With six guests, they drank Corona beer, wore bride and groom face masks for photos, and even ordered a koozie that says, Im not a regular bride, Im a quarantined bride.

If you cant beat em, join em make it a laughable moment, instead of a sad moment, Mackenzie Mergener said.

But being married without having celebrated fully feels a bit eerie, she said. In addition to their big wedding, they missed out on having a bridal shower, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and a honeymoon.

They were wed on May 24, which was their original date but almost everything else about the ceremony was adjusted. While they still wanted to get married on that date, the couple realized their dream wedding would not be possible that day when the statewide stay-home order was extended through May 15.

We held out as long as we could, and then started trying to figure out what to do, she said.

Her parents volunteered their backyard as the venue. The cake and flowers were ordered six days before the ceremony, and her wedding dress not the one she had planned to get married in, which is stuck with the seamstress arrived four days before.

Present for the wedding were the bride and grooms immediate families two parents and a brother each and photographer Kelly Smith of Treasured Images Photography, who maintained social distancing. Mackenzie Mergeners brother, Thomas Soma, 23, served as the officiant after becoming ordained specifically for the occasion.

The day of, it definitely felt like a celebration, she said. It was beautiful.

The couple met while attending Michigan State University in 2016. Matt Mergener proposed during July 2018. He works in sales for Align Technology while she is an elementary special education teacher at Avendale Community Schools.

The couple hopes to have a vow renewal ceremony and a reception later this year possibly in December.

We werent able to see those people who have been working toward this wedding just as hard as we have, she said. It just feels like this thing happened in our lives and nobody really knows, and we dont even know what it is. Were very happy though. Were happy that our forever gets to start right now rather than continuing to postpone.

RELATED: Ann Arbor-area couples cope with wedding planning woes amid coronavirus outbreak

Samuel Winn, 26, and Jayme Peterson, 25, both of Byron Center, pose for engagement photos. Winn proposed on March 8, 2020. The couple hoped to marry quickly to ensure Peterson's terminally ill father could be part of the wedding. Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, their wedding is now scheduled for Sept. 24, 2020.Marie Peterson

Samuel Winn, 26, proposed to 25-year-old Jayme Peterson on the ice at a Detroit Red Wings hockey game on March 8. Two days later, the first coronavirus cases in Michigan were announced.

They wanted to get married as soon as possible because Petersons father, Jim Peterson, is terminally ill with cancer.

My dad is my everything thats my best friend, Peterson said. Winn is also close with Petersons family, including her father.

As the pandemic settled in, Winn and Peterson began postponing their wedding by one month at a time. Then, Petersons dads health improved after a bone marrow transplant, and that enabled the couple to set the date for Sept. 24.

A major consideration in the wedding planning is that Winns family lives in Detroit where the novel virus hit Michigan hardest. The couple didnt want to risk causing additional spread by bringing a large group from Detroit to the Grand Rapids area.

The bride-to-be has planned her entire wedding during the pandemic unable to go to stores or meet with vendors in person. She has called about 45 DJ services and has yet to book one. A caterer was also difficult to find, but they did eventually get one. The venue, Townsend Park near Rockford, and a photographer are also booked. Decorations have been made with supplies ordered online. A family friend will officiate.

One store Peterson did go to was Bridal Elegance, where she found her wedding dress shortly before stores were ordered to close. But shes hasnt been able to make any progress on the grooms and groomsmens tuxes.

Peterson and Winn have been together about seven years. They met as freshman attending Baker College of Muskegon. Peterson is a caseworker for Samaritas Families First program. Winn works in customer service at Praxis Packaging.

At first, I was thinking Whats the rush? Peterson said. But I want my dad to be part of it. I would be devastated if he wasnt there.

RELATED: From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level

Nichole Baldwin and fiance Kevin Creason pose for engagement photos in Traverse City.Courtesy of Nikki K Photography

The Baldwin-Creason wedding was always going to be a sparkly affair; now that bride-to-be Nichole Baldwin has an extra year to plan, its going to be extra gaudy, she quipped.

And everyone is just going to have to deal with it, said 31-year-old Baldwin who, after playing bridesmaid 17 times, has no plans of giving up any part of the bridal experience.

35-year-old Kevin Creason proposed to Baldwin on her 30th birthday, using the occasion to disguise his reason for gathering her friends and family for a barhop around Traverse City. He proposed at the end of the evening at Clinch Park, where they had their first date.

Creason, a manager at 2 Lads Winery, and Baldwin, a nursing assistant at Munson Medical Center, have been together for about five years. The Traverse City couple planned to tie the knot on June 13. They pulled the plug on that plan in April. Their new date is June 26, 2021, at Castle Farms.

I did almost a year and a half of planning, so it was devastating having to put it off, Baldwin said. Theres no reason to try to force a wedding and only have 10 people or risk people getting sick. Id rather wait and have everyone there and enjoying themselves.

She was happy to get a June date at her original venue since 2021 calendars are filling up quickly as would-be 2020 brides postpone, and newly-engaged couples work to plan their weddings, too.

By the time they postponed, the couple had paid for the wedding in full - $25,000-$35,000, Baldwin said. Luckily, all the vendors were able to reschedule at no extra charge. Still, there are some costs associated with postponing, like reordering anything with the wedding date on it. They also ordered change-the-date" cards and new invitations.

Her bridal shower was supposed to be in March and the bachelorette party was scheduled for April. Those will both be rescheduled, too.

Ive waited this long. Im not in any rush to get married, Baldwin said. Were going to be together for a lifetime. Ive spent all this time making the tiniest decisions. I want to make sure that I get to have my big day. Now, I just have time to make it extra sparkly.

RELATED: 7 numbers that stand out as Michigan begins to re-open after coronavirus quarantine

Sara Figueroa, 23, and Dennis South, 36, both of Portage pose for engagement an photo. They had planned their wedding for May 16, 2020, but were forced to postpone due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. They are now planning a ceremony on April 24, 2021, but may legally marry before then.Larissa Catherine Photography

When coronavirus was detected in Michigan, Sara Figueroa assumed she would have to postpone her wedding to her fianc, Dennis South.

The Portage couple has been together for about four years. After meeting online and spending two years in a long-distance relationship, South proposed in April 2018 in front of family at their home. They planned to marry on May 16, 2020.

Figeroa, 23, works as an assembler at Stryker Medical while South, 36, is a store manager at Okun Brothers.

With about 50 guests, the couple planned to host their reception at a lodge at Bertha Brock Park in Ionia. But after the stay-home order went into effect, Figueroa knew it wasnt going to happen.

"Everyone was telling me to wait until it got closer, Figueroa said. In the best interest of everyone involved, I would just rather postpone for next year.

Knowing that a lot of couples would have to reschedule, she didnt want to lollygag and risk losing vendors. Fortunately, all her vendors were able to accommodate the new date: April 24, 2021.

I would rather have the wedding that I wanted, Figueroa said.

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How Michigan couples are getting married - or not - during the coronavirus pandemic - MLive.com

Protesters Renew Demand To Change The Name Of Faneuil Hall – WBUR

Protesters poured fake blood at Faneuil Hall on Tuesday as they renewed calls to rename the historic Boston meeting house that's considered the Cradle of Liberty but named after a slave trader.

Residents and young community activists, meanwhile, demanded that city leaders to slash the police department budget as part of a growing movement to "defund" law enforcement agencies.

A small group of faith and community leaders rallied at City Hall, chanting "change the name" and "black lives matter." A few then crossed the street and poured fake blood in front of Faneuil Hall, where Samuel Adams and other prominent Bostonians debated independence from Britain.

"We are spilling blood here at Faneuil Hall because it is at this place that slaves were sold into a life of bondage," said Kevin Peterson, founder of the New Democracy Coalition. "This building is a symbol of white supremacy. We can move toward racial repair in Boston if we rid ourselves of the ugly icons which include Faneuil Hall."

Peterson's coalition has for years called for the hall to be renamed in honor of Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American descent who is considered the first casualty of the American Revolution. His body lay in state in Faneuil Hall after he was shot by a British soldier in the Boston Massacre of 1770.

Attucks has also become something of a rallying figure during nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of police. The meeting hall and its marketplace were built in 1742 with financing from merchant Peter Faneuil, who owned and traded slaves.

Residents and community groups testifying at a Boston City Council budget meeting Tuesday called for cutting police department funding.

The council should consider trimming the department's budget by about 10%, roughly $40 million, they said. They suggested cutting overtime costs, phasing out officers at public schools, eliminating military-style training, exercises and weapons, and other money-saving measures.

The activists suggested the city instead invest in youth services, including job programs, violence prevention efforts, and mental health counselors and other wellness supports in the public school system.

The youth group For the People has said it will hold a march from the historically black Roxbury neighborhood to City Hall on Wednesday to continue the call for the budget changes and other police reforms.

"These are not the entirety of our community's demands or of our movement's demands, but they do represent bare minimum steps that can be taken right now through a democratic process that honors both what this moment and the future of Boston is calling for," said Stephen Lafume, a 21-year-old Boston resident.

Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh has said he'll propose reallocating some of the police department budget, but has so far not released any details.

Council members have also called on him to make good on his pledge to make Boston a national leader in combating racism after Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25.

Councilor Michelle Wu has said that an independent civilian review board should investigate police misconduct, that the department's body camera policy should be strengthened, and that agencies should be banned from using face recognition surveillance technology.

Councilor Andrea Campbell has said Walsh should commit to reviewing and changing the police department's use-of-force policy within 60 days.

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Protesters Renew Demand To Change The Name Of Faneuil Hall - WBUR

Peterson: The things you won’t see in 2020 | News, Sports, Jobs – Daily Mining Gazette

In this whacky and never seen before world were living in, there are going to be things you are not going to see in 2020.

Its bad enough that that high school and college tournament seasons in hockey and basketball were washed away.

I especially feel for all the seniors who never got to play that final game of their careers.

Then, we lost the major league baseball season, even though the MLB insists it is still trying to implement an 80-game season and post season in the next month or so.

Good luck on that as several star players are already saying they dont want to get paid of for half of a year.

Thats the kind of greed that has turned off many people to pro sports.

Theres also the matter of playing the games in stadiums that will be cleared for the most part because of COVID-19.

I believe the fall college football season might be in the most jeopardy of any sport.

The are just too many colleges (Division I, II and III) sponsoring the sport for there not to be major problems with scheduling.

The National Football League might be in the best logistical shape of all pro teams, believe it or not.

With just 32 teams and a 17-game regular season schedule, the NFL might be able to find just enough locations safe enough to play in.

Can you imagine telling Green Bay Packers season ticket-holders they mave to travel to Minnesota or Detroit for a home game.

Sports aside, consider whats been lost locally because of the pandemic.

We also wont have the chance to watch any July Fourth festivities. There isnt going to be a Chassell Strawberry Festival or a Baraga Lumberjack Days. Or any number of other celebrations that were planned.

And thats still not the worst scenario going down the road.

If theres another outbreak coming up, we could lose the fall and winter sports seasons for everyone.

And thats very scary.

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