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Letter to the editor: Liberals have not contributed to society – Huntington Herald Dispatch

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

I see the same old liberal contributors saying the same old things over and over again. They claim to be experts, but we all know they are self-centered liberals who may claim to be Christians and who may claim to be just real good neighbors to us all.

However, its the same old liberal stuff about how bad our president is and how bad the Republicans are because they dont personally agree with their politics and tactics. Yes, we all have our preferences, but let me ask them about killing babies and selling baby parts for exploitation. How about asking them if they will admit some of the illegal immigrants in to their homes and give them part of their paycheck and part of their homes? How about asking them about Joe Biden, who cant remember where he was yesterday? How about asking them about how they would have handled the coronavirus for the entire country?

To me it is a good thing that we had a president who has done a great job despite the constant flak from the liberals that has been going on for over four years.

They claim to be experts. They have done so many things and held so many jobs.They claim that President Trump spreads hate, but look back at some of your contributions and check out the vicious things that you have said about many people.

I personally think that you all are hypocrites, and I think that the people deserve contributors who are actually out to help the people of West Virginia.

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Letter to the editor: Liberals have not contributed to society - Huntington Herald Dispatch

Andrew Furey wins Liberal leadership race, will become 14th premier of N.L. – CBC.ca

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Andrew Furey poses for a picture with his family wife Alison, and children Rachel, Maggie and Mark after winning the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal leadership election. (Andrew Furey/Twitter)

Orthopedic surgeon Andrew Furey is premier-designate of Newfoundland and Labrador, after winning the provincial Liberal leadership race on Monday evening.

Furey was the frontrunner from the beginning, with the backing of outgoing Premier Dwight Ball's entire cabinet.

In voting results announced Monday evening in St. John's, Furey doubled the only other candidate, longtime civil servant John Abbott, with 26,443 points to 13,557 points.

In his victory speech, Furey promised to be "frank and transparent," and called on all MHAs to work together to address the dire problems staring down at the province.

"Together we can emerge from this crisis as a stronger, more caring, more passionate and more diverse Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

Furey, who has never run in a political race before,said he hasn't given any thought to asking anyone to vacate their seat, but said he will run for the first seat that becomes available.

About 21,000 votes were cast in the leadership race, despite the fact that more than 34,000 people had registered. The final tally of votes cast is less than the 2013 Liberal leadership campaign, even though more people registered to vote in 2020.

Furey has never held office before, and doesn't have a seat in the provincial legislature.

Furey, though, is politically connected. He is the son of Senate Speaker George Furey, a longtime Liberal organizer, and the nephew of former provincial cabinet minister Chuck Furey.

As a doctor, Furey founded Team Broken Earth to respond to Haiti's devastating earthquake in 2010. The organization has grown to include other medical missions.

The leadership race started in February with Premier Dwight Ball dropping a bombshell announcement during the evening news of his intention to resign.

On Monday, Ball was emotional as he gave a farewell speech to a small audience in his home town of Deer Lake.

"I have missed a lot of moments, but I am ready for the next chapter, whatever that may be," Ball said, before turning his attention to the next leader.

"This job deserves your all. There will always be more work to do. You are never finished moving forward."

Ball's decision to resign cameamid growing scandals within his caucus such as former Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Perry Trimper's inadvertent "very racist" voicemail to Innu Nation staffer Dominic Rich, the hiring of Carla Foote without competition to a top job at The Rooms and subsequent investigation into then-Tourism Minister Christopher Mitchelmore's involvement, the hiring of Gordon McIntosh to a $350,000 contract with Nalcor Energy also without competition and the saga of a harassment claim set forth by then cabinet minister Sherry Gambin-Walsh which saw the removal of then-Liberal MHA Eddie Joyce and cabinet minister Dale Kirby.

Ball became premier when he led the Liberals to government in the 2015 general election. In 2019, Ball won a second term, albeit with a reduced caucus.

Furey will also inherit other problems, such as the province's troubling financial situation, which has since worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing push to bring the overbudget Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project online.

Over the course of the race, Abbott remained on the attack, twice raising concerns about how Furey formed his contact list a list Abbottsaid was improperly obtained from Liberal party software before he was officially a candidate. Furey was cleared of those accusations.

The two men also went to battle over health care, with Furey accusing Abbott of not doing enough to fix the system while he held his senior position in government.

Before the final tally was announced, Abbott said he wanted an independent review of the voting process. He said many of the voters his team tried to contact had died before the leadership race began, or were wondering how they even ended up on the voting list at all.

Abbott said he isn't contesting the results, and doesn't think the problems he encountered would have changed the outcome.

Furey said there is still a place for Abbott in his government, and told reporters he reached out to Abbott earlier Monday to express his desire to work together in the coming months.

Abbott told reporters he intends to run for the Liberals in the next election, and said he is willing to meet with Furey about his future.

With the race now over, there will be a transition phase, during which Furey will be referred to as the premier-designate.

Once Furey is sworn in, Furey will become the 14th premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.

He said the first meeting he wants is with Department of Finance officialsto address the province's fiscal woes. He said he wants to get a better understanding of the province's $2.1 billion deficit the second worst in the province's history, only just behind the $2.2 billion deficit of 2015-16.

In his speech, Furey said it is time to overcome the "boom and bust" economic trends the province has been stuck in for decades. He said growing and diversifying the economy will be a top priority.

"We can do it. It just takes the political will," Furey said.

Calling on Ottawa will also be at the top of his list. Furey said he doesn't believe in the word "bailout," since Ottawa has a fiscal responsibility to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Read more aticles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

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Andrew Furey wins Liberal leadership race, will become 14th premier of N.L. - CBC.ca

Time for Liberal government to give up ‘fiction’ that China is our friend, ex-diplomat warns MPs – National Post

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Mulroney was supposed to appear alongside former ambassadors John McCallum and Robert Wright, but those two declined the invitation to appear. The committee voted to formally summon them to testify.

In June, a group of high-profile Canadians wrote a letter calling for a prisoner exchange with Meng to get Spavor and Kovrig back, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promptly rejected. Mulroney said that letter was concerning.

It worries me when I see people who are thought leaders seem to lack the sense of energy to defend our national interests, he said.

He said he believes prominent people, former politicians and government officials, doing businesses with China should have to be upfront about any business ties.

If you choose to go to work for China or another country, you can do that, but you have to be transparent.

Mulroney argued for Canada to stand with allies to pressure China together. He said China can punish one country economically, but cant do that to a coalition of countries standing together.

The reality is that Canada has what China needs, he said. China needs the products that Canada, Australia and the United States produce.

MPs also heard warnings about Chinas motives in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hong Kong is becoming a second Tibet

The leader of Tibets unofficial government-in-exile warned Canadian MPs that China is attempting to subjugate Hong Kong and Taiwan just as it did to his country more than 70 years ago.

Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, testified that Hong Kong is losing its freedoms just as his country once did.

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Time for Liberal government to give up 'fiction' that China is our friend, ex-diplomat warns MPs - National Post

Federal Liberal MP swipes Andrews government over pandemic response – Sydney Morning Herald

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Mr Andrews has fronted media briefings for weeks on end during the virus, which have become appointment viewing for some as other entertainments cease because of the lockdown.

Some have reacted with tribalism, showcased by the two questioners featured on the program. One accused parts of the media of an "attempted crucifixion" of Mr Andrews while another suggested "heads should and must roll" for the failures of the state's hotel quarantine program, which allowed the virus to spread.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching said Mr Andrews' decision to appear at so many press conferences day after day, which often ran for more than an hour, was all that could be asked of a leader.

"I think there is a high level of accountability," Senator Kitching said. "Daniel has said he will take full responsibility and I think he's been very up front."

She accused the Victorian Liberal opposition of "shooting from the hip" with partisan barbs.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil said it was in Australia's interests for the Andrews government to succeed so the rest of the country could learn the lessons.

Victoria recorded its highest number of deaths during the pandemic on Monday but the lowest number of new cases in 12 days, sparking hope the stage four lockdown was working to curb the transmission of the virus.

Questions have been raised by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, along with other media outlets, about how Victoria's hotel quarantine scheme may have been mismanaged, which have fuelled discussion of the Andrews government's performance.

Mr Baird, who is now a healthcare executive, this week called for the public to rally behind Mr Andrews, who he said was "working his absolute guts out to save lives" amid criticism from state opposition MP Tim Smith and federal assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar.

Nick Bonyhady is industrial relations reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based between Sydney and Parliament House in Canberra.

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Federal Liberal MP swipes Andrews government over pandemic response - Sydney Morning Herald

Letters to the Editor: Enough with the liberal whining over Black Lives Matter’s methods – Yahoo News

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Protesters shout slogans at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore., on July 26. (Associated Press)

To the editor: Nicholas Goldberg's column on the protests in Portland and the approving letter in response leave out a major aspect of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations: Black activists and their allies have been trying peaceful protests for decades now and have been largely ignored by the establishment, including and damningly by Democrats.

As a white ally of Black lives, I think it's insulting to the larger movement against police brutality (especially as it affects marginalized people) to insinuate that the righteous anger being expressed on the streets of Portland, Chicago, Seattle and elsewhere "play into Trump's hands" or "detracts from the larger movement."

If you didn't want violence in the streets, you should've listened to the alarm bells that have been ringing since 1776.

To claim to support Black Lives Matter but insult its methods is nothing short of white, liberal, privileged whining. If you don't want to see violence, put pressure on your representatives and government leaders to actually do something to support Black lives beyond writing op-ed articles and painting words on the street.

These don't feed Black families. These don't stop their killings.

Carolyn Knight-Serrano, Fullerton

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Letters to the Editor: Enough with the liberal whining over Black Lives Matter's methods - Yahoo News

The Problem With MSNBC Isn’t That It’s Too Liberal – The New Republic

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Public departures have been one of the biggest media stories of the summer. The New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss walked off the job in July, claiming the newspaper was now being edited by woke Twitter users. Andrew Sullivan used his last New York column to assert that he was being let go because his coworkers didnt like him. (Sullivans departure occurred amid larger layoffs at Vox Media, which owns New York.) Earlier this week, MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary said goodbye to the liberal cable news network because its single-minded pursuit of ratings (and the advertising dollars that follow) stokes national division and blocks diversity of thought.

Pekary ended her post by writing, More than ever, Im craving a full and civil discourse. This was catnip for conservative media and other opponents of cancel culture, which turned a short blog post by a hitherto unknown journalist into a multi-day smorgasbord of content. Here was proof that what liberals have been saying about Fox News for years was also true about MSNBC. It was proof that the left is more concerned with coddling its own than pursuing the truth. As one senior producer quoted by Pekary said, Our viewers dont really consider us the news. They come to us for comfort.

Pekary posted a follow-up a day later underlining that she felt economic pressure, not ideological commitments, was ruining cable news. But at that point, it was too late: Her resignation had already become chum.

Whats striking about Pekarys letter, however, isnt what it says about the news media in 2020. It doesnt say anything about MSNBC or cable news that wasnt also true two decades ago. Its like a Jon Stewart bit without the humor: Cable news is simply not incentivized to be informative. In the social media era, when people can switch their attention at any point, this situation has gotten even worse, encouraging networks to turn their viewers into partisan junkies who dont change the channel because they need a fix that tells them theyre right about everything (and that the other side is wrong).

No one could deny MSNBCs turn toward the conspiratorial in the Trump era. During the Mueller investigation, Rachel Maddow at times went full Glenn Beck, to the point that you almost expected her to start scribbling on a blackboard. The networks overheated analysis of every turn in that investigation, big and small, led its captive audience to believe that the special prosecutor was about to uncover something huge. As Jacob Bacharach wrote in The New Republic last year, MSNBC has the strange simultaneity common to prestige TV: It is at once vast and circumscribed. A wider world intrudes, but the same central heroes and villains show up, week after week.

The Problem With MSNBC Isn't That It's Too Liberal - The New Republic

‘Walking away from the ideology of liberalism’: Hundreds march through Hollywood in support of Trump – Washington Examiner

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Hundreds of President Trumps supporters marched through Hollywood, California, over the weekend in what was called the Rescue America rally.

About 400 people gathered for the demonstration on Saturday, which began in West Hollywood, and they marched toward Los Angeless Beverly Hills sign, according to local outlet Fox 11. Actors Lorenzo Lamas, Scott Baio, and singer Joy Villa were among those who spoke at the event.

"Were a movement of people who are walking away from the Democratic Party. Were walking away from the ideology of liberalism, the liberal media basically, we want to live in a country with peace and civility truthfulness, kindness, and again, were not getting that from the political left, so were walking away from the Democrats," said Brandon Starka, the founder of an organization called Walk Away.

"Were doing these rallies because we wanted to show the radical left whos been smashing windows, committing acts of violence, and committing acts of vandalism they do not own Americas streets. Were going to fight for the heart and soul of America, so this is our third one. Next week well be in Milwaukee, and well basically be doing Rescue America rallies around the country for now through the end of the year," he added.

The Walk Away organization said it planned the rally to speak out against the destruction of property and lives, the villainization of law enforcement and weaponization of tragedies.

Marchers, who were described as peaceful by law enforcement, carried Trump 2020 flags, American flags, and signs that read United We Stand.

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'Walking away from the ideology of liberalism': Hundreds march through Hollywood in support of Trump - Washington Examiner

How the taboo on Hindu widow remarriage led to liberal abortion norms in colonial India – Scroll.in

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

The contours of gender-related reform campaigns also contributed to the lukewarm nature of anti-abortion efforts. From the early nineteenth century, a series of social movements about women emerged across colonial South Asia. One such movement was the campaign to permit and destigmatise the remarriage of Hindu widows. Traditionally, Hindu women in many upper-caste communities did not remarry after the death of their husbands. They lived under ritually and materially restricted conditions in the homes of their dead husbands families. The Hindu remarriage movement focused on the plight of young widows, including virgin widows whose husbands had died before adolescent cohabitation began. Unable to remarry, some widows of childbearing age had extramarital relationships and became pregnant. They turned to abortion to avoid social and economic ruin. Financial support from their dead husbands families was contingent upon the widows continuing celibacy, although occasionally the courts tried to soften this position.

As early as the 1830s, colonial administrators linked abortion to the prohibition on Hindu widow remarriage. Commenting on the draft text of IPC s. 312 (on abortion), one member of the Indian Law Commission expressed scepticism about trying to crack down on abortion while young widows were prohibited from remarrying: I much doubt the policy of providing heavy penalties for the repression of the offence of causing miscarriage by the woman herself whilst the barbarous institutions of the country create the offence.

The widow-remarriage movement portrayed widows as hapless victims of inhumane norms. One 1856 petition signed by 312 native subjects of India argued that the Shasters in fact did permit Hindu women to remarry in five situations: if their husbands died, were long absent, or became ascetic, impotent, or apostates. Because these texts had been ignored in favour of a blanket ban on widow remarriage, the petitioners argued that abortion had become a common practice among young Hindu widows.

The Hindu remarriage campaign culminated in the passage of the (Hindu) Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, which affirmed the validity of widows remarriage contracts under Indian law. A continuing campaign to change social attitudes followed, but the stigma remained. The Hindu widow remained the quintessential figure associated with criminal abortion from the1860ss until the end of British rule in 1947. An 1885 editorial in the Times of India insisted that infanticide and abortion were the inevitable result of a custom that condemns twenty-one million women to perpetual widowhood. According to one letter to the editor in the same year, widow remarriage was still deemed a more heinous crime worthy of exclusion from caste and society than abortion, child desertion, or a criminal conviction. Hehir and Gribble made the following observations in 1892:

In this country it is, no doubt, true that there are a very large number of criminal or violent abortions, and that an unfortunate widow who has yielded to temptation has every reason, through fear of exposure, loss of caste, etc., to resort to such means in order to save her reputation. At the same time, it must be remembered that everything and everybody are against her. There are probably suspicions of her immorality; and in a small village community, where nearly everything that goes on is known, people are on the look-out, and even if she should miscarry naturally, she is sure to be suspected of having used criminal means to produce abortion.

Three decades later, Waddell noted that the majority of known abortion cases in 1920s India still involved Hindu widows. As long as the taboo on remarriage continued, so would the association of widows and abortion.

Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, coroners in Bombay Presidency carried out inquests on young Hindu widows who had died following attempted abortions. The coroner led the process whereby a coroners jury decided whether an unusual death was a suicide, homicide, or accident or had occurred suddenly by means unknown. He delegated the post-mortem examination to the coroners surgeon. If the coroners jury found that the death was a murder, a criminal trial would follow the inquest (provided there was a suspect). This trial would establish whether a particular person had committed the murder. If the coroners jurors found that the death was a suicide, accident, or the result of means unknown, the case ended there.

In some inquests, Hindu widows died by poisoning themselves after attempting to abort by mouth. One young widow in Ahmedabad died after taking drugs given to her by her paramour in 1849. More, though, involved later-term abortion attempts by local means. An 1872 inquest considered the death of Abbai, a 30-year-old widow who lived with her sister and stonemason brother-in-law. The coroners surgeon, Sidney Smith, concluded from the post-mortem that she had died of peritonitis followed perforation of the intestines during an abortion. Five years later, a 25-year-old widow named Heerabai was also found to have died of peritonitis following an abortion. She had been a widow since the age of 11.

Inquest cases were by definition fatal ones. For women who survived, the colonial state would only have added to these womens suffering by prosecuting them for abortion. Such action would also undermine the portrayal of Hindu widows as victims a characterisation essential for the remarriage movement. In other words, a light touch on abortion when the women were still alive was the compromise needed to prioritise another social-reform campaign.

Excerpted with permission from Abortion in South Asia, 1860-1947: A medico-legal history, Modern Asian Studies (2020) by Mitra Sharafi.

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How the taboo on Hindu widow remarriage led to liberal abortion norms in colonial India - Scroll.in

FP1: Bottas heads Hamilton in opening 70th Anniversary GP session as Hulkenberg takes P4 – Formula 1 RSS UK

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Valtteri Bottas celebrated his brand new Mercedes contract for 2021 by heading the first Free Practice session of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix weekend, pipping team mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.138s, with Red Bulls Max Verstappen 0.727s behind Bottas in P3.

At a balmy Silverstone, with air temperature up around 28 degrees Celsius, British Grand Prix winner Hamilton was initially the faster of the two Mercedes. But Bottas, lapping on the C4 soft tyres which Pirelli have been brought in for this weekend, beat him on his second flying lap, eventually stopping the clocks with a 1m 26.166s, over a second quicker than Verstappen managed in FP1 at the track last week.

Verstappens time for third meanwhile, was just 0.049s quicker than Racing Points Nico Hulkenberg. Its been quite the morning for both the driver and the team, with Hulkenberg confirmed as Sergio Perezs replacement for this weekend two hours before the session start after another positive Covid-19 test for the Mexican while Renaults protest against Racing Points RP20 was upheld in the lead-up to FP1, costing the team 400,000 and 15 constructors championship points.

READ MORE: Racing Point deducted 15 points and fined heavily as Renault protest into car legality upheld

FP1 Highlights: 70th Anniversary Grand Prix

It was therefore an especially impressive session from Hulkenberg, who took fourth while team mate Lance Stroll could only manage P8, nearly six-tenths off the German.

Between those two drivers, Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari, ahead of the Red Bull of Alex Albon who complained of understeer and the second Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, the four-time champ once again looking the less comfortable of the two Scuderia drivers with the teams low-downforce set-up on the SF1000.

Following his big crash at last weekends British Grand Prix which led to a tyre barrier being installed at the exit of Maggotts Daniil Kvyat was ninth for AlphaTauri, ahead of the Renault of Esteban Ocon in 10th.

Meanwhile, there appears to be more to come from McLaren, after the team who had both drivers in Q3 last weekend couldnt crack the top 10 in FP1, Lando Norris taking P12, while Carlos Sainz was P14, with Sainz's sparring partner from last weekend Romain Grosjean in between for Haas and P6 to P16 covered by less than a second.

There's probably more to come from Renault's Daniel Ricciardo too, after the Australian, who finished P4 last weekend, could only manage P17.

70th Anniversary GP FP1: Mercedes run Sir Stirling Moss tribute

Bringing up the rear of the field, meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen overcame a small off at Aintree an off that Vettel replicated later in the session to finish in P18, ahead of Robert Kubica, who took over the C39 of Antonio Giovinazzi this morning, while Haas Kevin Magnussen was last, after the Dane went off at Vale and flat-spotted his tyre on his push lap.

George Russell was once again the lead Williams driver in P15, just one spot in front of team mate Nicholas Latifi, as the Grove team look to try and crack Q2 for the fourth race in a row once qualifying kicks off on Saturday.

So, its Mercedes who, rather unsurprisingly, strike the first blow of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix weekend. But there looks to be a fascinating scrap for the second-best team brewing this weekend between Red Bull and that contentious Racing Point, with Ferrari in touching distance too judging by the evidence of FP1. Lets see how that pans out across the rest of Friday.

READ MORE: Mercedes to run Stirling Moss horseshoe tribute on Bottas and Hamilton's cars this weekend

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FP1: Bottas heads Hamilton in opening 70th Anniversary GP session as Hulkenberg takes P4 - Formula 1 RSS UK

Little Peoples Audrey and Jeremy Roloff head to visit his sister Molly in two-week trailer trip amid family f – The Sun

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

LITTLE People stars Jeremy and Audrey Roloff may be caught up in a feud with their siblings.

But they are taking time out to plan a road trip to visit Jeremy's sister Molly.

Audrey, 29, revealed they were hitting the road for a two week camping trip and will see Molly and her husband Joel, who live in Spokane, Washington.

The couple - who have two children, Ember and Bode - told fans they were "excited" to see Molly - who also no longer appears on the show.

"Today we are getting ready to leave for a two week camping trip up through Washington, Idaho, and Montana!," Audrey wrote to her fans.

She revealed details of the trip, writing: "We are super excited to visit Jeremys sister Molly and her husband Joel up in Spokane, and then explore some of the epic lakes in Idaho and Montana!"

Molly also left the show when she moved out of state, and left Zach as the only sibling still appearing on it.

Audrey and Jeremy's brother Jacob have been vocal about their differences, with the feud erupting online in June.

Jacob - a self-described agnostic - has clashed with his Christian sister-in-law and older sibling over their conservative views since their marriage in 2014.

Jacob, 23, has vocally supportedliberalpolicies such as the legalization of marijuana, racial injustice and gun control since he was a teenager.

Meanwhile Audrey, 28, has come under fire over the years for various controversial comments, including her past anti-gay remarks in her religious blog post.

During the lastPresidential election, the pair butted heads for their opposing views on who should be commander-in-chief.

TheLPBWalum tweeted in October 2016: What does it mean for Trump to say 'I don't accept the results of this election?' Clinton can just go on being President

And he can go on being a total clown, sputtering out of relevance, and business. Pathetically still upset he lost.

The same day, the red-headed reality star posted several Instagram Stories that celebratedDonald Trump, 74, during the debates.

She posted a clip that heard POTUS say: We cannot take four more years of Barack Obama, and thats what you get if you vote for Hillary Clinton.Right after, a female voice - seemingly Audrey - cheered and yelled that was good!

After a year of tensity, Jacob unfollowed the mom-of-two on Instagram for the first time in December 2017,RadarOnlinereported.

At the time, he still followed Audreys husband, Jeremy, and his other older siblings, Zach and Molly - who he remains close with to this day.

One month later, their feud reached new heights when The Marriage Journal author appeared to slam Jacobs engagement to hisIsabel Rock.

The ex TLC star was thrilled to reveal he popped-the-question to his now-wife in Iceland on Christmas Day 2017.

While Amy and Matt Roloffs youngest son was congratulated by most family members, Audrey took to her blog soon after and wrote a critical message that seemed to be aimed at the couple.

She fired off in January 2018: Some words on dating from a Christian perspective

Lets just say you recently hurried into a relationship, dabbled with sexual intimacy, and then became emotionally attached.

The scathing post continued: As time passes, your friends and family may raise concerns about the person youre dating.

But you wont be able to rationalize with them because all you will see is perfection. This is a titanic problem, she blasted.

In March 2018, it was revealed that Jeremy, 30, and his wife would write a tell-all book together just after Jacobs own novel, Out To See, was released.

Tension between Jacob and Jeremy along with his wife seemed to have improved later that year however, their feud was reignited once again in January 2019.

A source toldRadarOnlinethat Jacob was yet again attempting to distance himself from the pair.

People already know that he doesnt really get along with Audrey.

"He thinks shes too judgmental, and Im guessing he just didnt want to see her on his brothers account anymore, the insider said.

In the time since, it appears Jacob re-followed his sister-in-law but earlier this month, heunfollowed her againafter he slammed herBlack Lives Matterpost.

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Responding to the ongoing protests due toGeorge Floyds death in May, Audrey reposted her brother's video about unity to her Instagram Stories.

Jacob - who has attended multiple protests with his wife - called thevideo "police propagandaand emphasized it was not activism.

The following day, Audrey posted that she was weathering a shame storm.

Jacob appeared to have once again slammed his brother and sister-in-laws apparentsupport for Trumpthis month.

On June 1, he tweeted: I, too, am embarrassed to be related to Trump voters.

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Little Peoples Audrey and Jeremy Roloff head to visit his sister Molly in two-week trailer trip amid family f - The Sun

Grow and eat bold, beautiful and healthful cabbage – The Oakland Press

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Cleanse the toxins from your body with the help of fresh vegetables. Cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts are a few of natures detoxifiers.

You can add variety to your garden and diet by including green, red or Savoy cabbage. Its fun and easy to grow in the garden or a container and can be used in a variety of healthful dishes.

There is still time to add cabbage to your garden. Cabbage grows best in cooler temperatures. Those in the northern half of the country can plant seeds directly in the garden in early July for a fall harvest. Those in hotter regions should wait another month. Simply check the number of days from seed to harvest and count backwards from the average first fall frost. That will be the time to plant. Those in the far south should plant seeds or transplants in fall or early winter for a winter harvest.

Be sure to allow enough room for the plants to grow to mature size. Space plants at least 12 inches apart in the garden and grow in a sunny to lightly shaded location.

Protect cabbage plantings from pests with floating row covers. Made of polypropylene spun material, the covers allow air, light, and water through while preventing cabbage worms from laying their eggs on the plants. This means no green worms eating holes in the leaves or ending up on your dinner plate.

Loosely cover the planting with the fabric and anchor the edges with boards, pipes, stones, or wickets. Leave enough slack for the plants to grow. The plants support the fabric, so no frames or construction is needed.

Increase your gardens productivity by interplanting the cabbage with quick maturing radishes, beets and heat tolerant greens. Youll harvest these short season crops at about the time the cabbage needs the space.

Harvest cabbage when the heads are firm and full size. Use a sharp knife to remove just the cabbage head, leaving the lower leaves and roots intact. Four to six new heads will arise from buds around the stem. These smaller heads can reach four or five inches in diameter.

Remove any wilted or damaged leaves before storing cabbage in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. If using only half a head of cabbage, wrap the cut end in plastic wrap.

A medium head of cabbage weighs about one and a half pounds and yields about five to six and a half cups of shredded cabbage. A few heads of cabbage can turn into lots of slaw, stuffed cabbage rolls and other tasty cabbage dishes.

Preserve some of your harvest for winter meals. Freeze cabbage by cutting it into coarse shreds, thin wedges or by separating the leaves. It can also be dehydrated and used as a base for casseroles or added to soups and stews.

Consider turning it into sauerkraut with simple fermentation. Make large batches in crocks then can or freeze when fermentation is complete. Smaller batches can be processed in mason jars and stored in the refrigerator.

No matter how you prepare it, cabbage makes a great addition to the garden and your meals.

Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books and hosts The Great Courses How to Grow Anything DVD series and the nationally syndicatedMelindas Garden Moment TV & radio program. She is a columnist and contributing editor forBirds & Bloomsmagazine. Visit MelindaMyers.com.

Toyin Ojih Odutolas Visions of Power – The New Yorker

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

A woman stands in an otherworldly landscape, looking out. The landscape is sublime, though not the European sublime of cliffs, peaks, and mist. Here the sublime is African. It has many texturesconglomerations of stone, waterfalls, verdant grasslandsand may remind Nigerians of their own Jos Plateau. The woman stands with her left leg raised, surveying it all, with no sense of urgency; indeed, she appears to be in a state of philosophical contemplation. She seems assured both of her mastery over this land and of her natural right to it. This sovereignty is expressed primarily by her bodythe fabrics she wears, the pose she strikes, all of which find their reflection in the land around her. The same dark lines tracing her impressive musculature render the rippling rocks; the ridges of her bald head match the ridges in the stone; the luxurious folds of the fabric are answered by the intricate layering of the earth beneath her feet. Toyin Ojih Odutolas The Ruling Class (Eshu) appears, at first glance, to be a portrait of dominion. For to rule is to believe the land is made in your image, and, moreover, that everyone within it submits to you. Structurally, it recalls Caspar David Friedrichs depiction of Enlightenment dominion, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog: the same raised left leg, the same contemplation of power in tranquillity, the echoes of hair, pose, and fabric in the textured landscape. But the red-headed man with the cane and his back to us has been replaced by a black woman with a staff, facing forward. The script has been flipped.

The show containing this image is called A Countervailing Theory. Countervail: to offset the effect of something by countering it with something of equal force. The word could not be more apposite. We are in a cultural moment of radical countervailing, perhaps as potent as that experienced in the sixties, when what was offered as counter to the power of the gun, for example, was a daisy placed in its barrel. A period of hierarchical reversal, or replacement, of this for that. And The Ruling Class might seem wholly part of this countervailing movement, oppositional and constructed of opposites: black replacing white, by way of a restricted black-and-white palette of charcoal, chalk, and pastel. A picture that offers a new image of power as counter to an old one.

But thats not the whole story. And Ojih Odutolawho was born in 1985, in Ife, Nigeriais an unusually story-driven visual artist. Her 2017 breakout show, at the Whitney Museum, To Wander Determined, with its depiction of two imagined Nigerian dynasties united in marriage, involved world-building equal to that of any novel, and in A Countervailing Theory the story, as the title implies, is not merely a flipped script but also a theory concerning countervailing itself. The forty pictures in the show are hung on a curving wall at the Barbican, in London, and unfold sequentially, like a Chinese scroll. Together, they lead us deep into the wilderness of our present ideas about powerwho should have it, how it should be wieldedand then out again, a journey as much philosophical as visual. What are the possibilities and the limits of countervailing, as a political or an aesthetic project? Is it sufficient merely to counter? Or might a higher synthesis be conceivable?

The project started, according to Ojih Odutola, with a wandering charcoal line, which she followed, rather blindly, letting my mark making guide me... to see what aesthetic characteristics and proclivities recur and how to incorporate these as motifs in the work. (Though Ojih Odutolas images are often mistaken for painting, she has so far worked exclusively in pen, pencil, charcoal, and pastel.) Following this line, she arrived at an unexpected destination, framed as a question. What would it look like if women were the only imperialists in known histories across the globe? Which led to another: If the powerful women she was drawing were the masters, over whom did they have mastery? The story developed:

My initial aim was to tell a tale of two beings, one born, another made/manufactured, who exist within a system that enterprises and stratifies war, imperialism and hierarchiesand how these two mitigate their respective lives within it to, ultimately, cross over and come together to bring the whole system down. But they fail.

The two beings are Akanke, who is a member of the Eshuthe ruling class of womenand Aldo, one of the Koba, male humanoids manufactured to work for the Eshu, mining and cultivating food. The Koba far outnumber the Eshujust as slave populations usually dwarf their overseersbut, like slaves, their lives are not their own and they live in fear that their masters will decommission them at any time, for any reason. The first eight pictures give us an idea of what it is to be Aldo. Like all Koba, seams run through his body, etched into the skin, through a process implemented, as another image, This Is How You Were Made; Final Stages, suggests, by the Eshu. And, as is true for all beings, Aldos own existence seems to be a puzzlement to him, although perhaps, as an oppressed being, he puzzles over it more intensely than the ruling class, who, in their tranquillity, tend to think only of their own power. In Introductions: Early Embodiment (Koba), this existential anxiety is expressed through the depiction of hard-to-parse liminal spaces, for Koba seem to come into being in a zone somewhere between the bardo, the depths of a mine, and a penal colonyamid circles, lines, waves, and shadows, where it is difficult to say what is floor or ceiling, ground or sky. In this strange, transitional place, Koba avert their eyes; they seem fearful; each grips his own naked body, which appears to be his only possession.

The contrast with what we glimpse, in Unsupervised Education, of Eshu childhood is striking. Young girls, future rulers, roam their environment freely, evidently curious, touching and examining the land, even breaking off pieces of it, at ease within their surroundings and never doubting that ease. When Ojih Odutola was asked about some of her sources of inspiration for Eshu society, she offered a line of Camille PagliasSociety is a system of inherited forms reducing our humiliating passivity to natureand also the geometric costumery of the Dutch designer Iris van Herpen. It is easy to see, in the imperious Eshu, the ways in which this feared vulnerability is systemically disguised and obscured, by staffs and helmets, by bodies trained to show no sign of weakness or potential decay, and by clothing that, like van Herpens, mimics the patterns of nature and aspires to natures authority of form.

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Toyin Ojih Odutolas Visions of Power - The New Yorker

Red XIII Should Have a Much Bigger Role in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 – GameRant

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

While Red XIII wasn't fully introduced in Final Fantasy 7 Remake's first outing, he'll likely be redeemed in the next episode.

Red XIII unfortunately got the short-end of the stick this year inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake. While the red lion was one of the central characters players meet at the beginning ofFinal Fantasy 7, he was not playable in the first episode of the remake. Instead, he served as an additional AI teammate that players were unable to control or equip any materia. But according to the game's co-director Naoki Hamaguchi, Red XIII will almost certainly become a playable party member inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake's part 2. NOTE: This article contains spoilers from the original FF7 that could appear in part 2.

Of course, for fans of the original game, this would've seemed obvious. Not only is Red XIII a very strong member of the main party in the originalFinal Fantasy 7, but his presence in the story is also arguably more important. The lineage of Nanaki and his connection to the overarching storyis central toFinal Fantasy 7, and will likely remain the same inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake. For fans who were disappointed by Red XIII's appearance in the first episode, his character will be far more prominent inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake's second episode.

RELATED:Final Fantasy 7 Remake Devs Explain Why Red XIII Isn't Playable

At a bare minimum,Red XIII should absolutely become a core member of the party inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake's next episode. While he was relegated to an unplayable teammate and assistant for a platforming section, Red XIII should join the roster with his unique four-legged fighting style. Some fans got a glimpse of how the character may play in the next episode through aFinal Fantasy 7 Remake save editor, but obviously the restrictive nature of an NPC means there's not much to him. The main idea behind making him a sort-of "guest" character was because Red XIII would've been introduced as a party member far too late into the story for it to reasonably make sense.

However, in the second episode ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, the fully designed and animated Red XIII should be a core party member for the rest ofRemake's story. Of course, designing a non-humanoid playable character comes with its own challenges, butRed XIII's original design in particular could be harder to adapt forRemake. Red XIII's battle characteristics functioned more as an all-rounder, similar to Kimahri fromFinal Fantasy 10. While Red XIII has a particularly high speed stat and strong magic builds in the original game, he was still very adaptable and could be successful in any combat role. Remakecould make him a fast brawler with solid magic affinity, but his balanced stat distribution from the original game may make his design a bit harder to realize inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake's combat system.

Outside of his battle capabilities,Red XIII's origin story and his connection to the story ofFinal Fantasy 7are far more prominent in the events after the Midgar escape. While in pursuit of Sephiroth, Cloud and the party eventually end up in Red XIII's home of Cosmo Canyon. Here is where players learn off Red XIII's legacy, along with the history of the planet as told by the elder of Red XIII's tribe, Bugenhagen. Players learn all of the details about the Lifestream and how Shinra's Mako harvestation is destroying the planet from Bugenhagen's observatory. This is also where players learn about Red XIII's origins as a spiritual warrior, as Red XIII discovers things even he didn't know.

Initially, Red XIII resents his father Seto because he believes he died a coward who wasn't able to defend Cosmo Canyon from a rival tribe. This is where Cloud and the party learns of Red XIII's lineage, and how his father actually sacrificed himself to stop the rival Gi tribe from overtaking Cosmo Canyon. After exploring the Cave of the Gi, Red XIII discovers his dead father Seto, who has been immortalized in stone after being killed by petrified arrows. Upon learning Seto's true demise, Red XIII vows to protect the planet in the name of his father's sacrifice. It's a touching character moment that, while only tangentially related toFinal Fantasy 7's main conflict, is one of the best moments and character growths throughout the entire originalFinal Fantasy 7.

RELATED:New Party Members Likely to Appear in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2

Based on what's been seen of Red XIII so far,Final Fantasy 7 Remake appears to be emphasizing his more spiritual warrior personality.Red XIII's character adaptation is one of a calm and intelligent warrior, full of knowledge about the planet's spiritual entities like the Whispers. He's a tough warrior who doesn't mince words, but he does occasionally give off a subtle charm when butting heads with Barret. ThroughoutFinal Fantasy 7 Remake's subsequent episodes, Red XIII will likely be recurring source of information about things like the Lifestream and perhaps even more specific information like the Cetra.

Red XIII's appearance throughout the rest ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remake should be fascinating, especially with how Square Enix's reimagining will tell his origin story. The iconic red lion has one of the most interesting character growths among all the other supporting cast members inFinal Fantasy 7. His knowledge of the planet and the Whispers will almost certainly come in handy later on.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2is reportedly in development.

MORE:Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2's Cait Sith May Be Another Red XIII Situation

Red Dead Redemption 2 Fan Creates Model of In-Game Location Out of Matchsticks

Not actually a distant relative of Bob Dole, Rob Dolen is a Features Writer for Game Rant. Big fan of expansive lore and game analysis, video games are cool. Freedom Fighters is underrated. Probably not good at competitive Halo anymore.

Red XIII Should Have a Much Bigger Role in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 - GameRant

You Cant Avoid Death, but You Can Make It Easier – The New York Times

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

LIFE EVENTSBy Karolina Waclawiak

Do you know how to euthanize a bird? If not, you will just a few pages into Life Events, Karolina Waclawiaks astute and distressing new novel.

Technically, euthanizing a bird isnt that hard. All you need to do is make a concoction of simple syrup, a crushed anti-inflammatory pill and a crushed anti-anxiety pill, and administer it via an eyedropper. But as the protagonist, Evelyn, discovers, the agony was in the waiting. She has to sit by him for hours, watching him die after dropping the mixture onto his tongue, hoping he would take the sip that would finally dull his pain.

We meet Evelyn at 37, aimless, jobless, in the last stages of her dying marriage and consumed with grief over her parents impending death. Its in this state that she notices a hummingbird in distress on the patio of her Los Angeles apartment, and resolves to put it out of its misery.

A few weeks later, Evelyn enrolls in a program for so-called death doulas, or people who come to patients homes to prepare them for euthanasia and be with them until the end. The narrative follows her training and then her work with three very different patients. Evelyn approaches the job with true devotion, but she fails at detachment a requirement in this position. Evelyn is too present, too involved, too reckless to the point of having to seek a Plan B pill after an encounter with one of the patients.

The job wouldve been unbearable if not for the alcohol and anti-anxiety pills that Evelyn takes to dull her own pain. Waclawiak accomplishes a brilliant feat here, creating an atmosphere of almost palpable, effortful dullness that presides over the entire novel. With so much opportunity for raw emotion, the author seems to avoid it at all cost, going for exceptional clarity instead.

In the absence of any real emotional attachment to the characters, the reader is forced instead to engage intellectually, to actually face the tough questions about our own inevitable death.

In the novel, the death doulas have to make sure that their patients make an informed decision rather than an emotional one; so as part of their training, they have to fill out the same questionnaires they give to their patients. In these passages the reader cant help pausing and applying the questions to herself. One of the toughest questions asks what degree of livelihood constitutes a life worth living, on a scale from 100 percent (full health) to 0 percent (death). By 60 percent, mobility was reduced and disease was significant, Evelyn explains with clinical matter-of-factness. Consciousness could waver between full, drowsy and confused.

Imagining yourself functioning at 60 percent is scary enough, but its fully terrifying to think what will happen to you at 30 percent or below. An easier option would be to just keep your head in the sand and not think about death at all. And this is exactly what a majority of Americans are doing.

The health crisis we are living through has exposed many uncomfortable truths about our collective state of denial. Most people have reacted to the threat of Covid-19 as if this were the only possible cause of death, as if theyd never before fully considered their mortality. Tallying the pandemics daily fatalities with fanatical persistence, these individuals and public health officials are ignoring all the other deaths, praying for a vaccine that will allow them to finally relax, as if the prevention of one specific disease could render one immortal.

And even before Covid-19, our medical and cultural institutions would put so much effort into defeating death, which actually means prolonging life by just weeks or days at the cost of horrible suffering. Meanwhile, so little effort is put into helping patients accept their eventual death, effectively encouraging them to ignore mortality.

Waclawiaks Life Events provides a powerful argument against that attitude. The novel offers you a hand, gently helping you pull your head out of the sand to accept the inevitable.

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You Cant Avoid Death, but You Can Make It Easier - The New York Times

PCB Cleanup Makes Uneven Progress – The Southern Maryland Chronicle

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

DC prepares to tackle hotspots, but in Gunpowder River little is to be doneby Timothy B. Wheeler, BayJournal.com

Its been a slog, but efforts are making headway to rid the Anacostia River of long-banned toxic chemicals that make it unsafe to eat many locally caught fish.

After years of sampling and studies, District of Columbia officials have proposed tackling 11 hot spots of contamination in the lower Anacostia, which flows through DC before joining the Potomac River. The sediments in those places are laden with PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a pernicious family of synthetic chemicals still making their way into fish more than four decades after being outlawed because of their risks to human health and wildlife.

We are making real progress, Tommy Wells, director of the districts Department of Energy and the Environment, said at a cleanup planning meeting in June. The departments early action plan, unveiled late last year, calls for a combination of dredging, capping, and treatment of the PCB-tainted sediments. The projected $30 million costs is nevertheless only a down payment on dealing with the full mixture of toxic wastes, pesticides, and other harmful substances fouling the river.

But officials hope that by addressing these hot spots, they can at least reduce the health risks from eating locally caught fish. After reviewing hundreds of comments on the plan, they intend to announce Sept. 30 how theyll proceed.

I have to temper my desire to have it all done yesterday, said Jim Foster, president, and CEO of the Anacostia Watershed Society. But it seems as if we are finally on a trajectory to get it done.

Elsewhere, theres far less getting done about the PCB contamination thats widespread throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. In the Gunpowder and Bird rivers north of Baltimore, Maryland regulators have concluded theres little they can do to reduce the PCBs that are responsible for fish consumption advisories there on channel catfish, carp, and white and yellow perch, among other species.

Anglers hoping to eat uncontaminated catch from those two linked rivers may have to wait for PCB levels to decline on their own, state officials said. But it could be a long wait for the persistent chemicals to break down naturally or become buried under cleaner sediment. In the Gunpowder, that could take 49 years, officials project; in the Bird, 93 years.

Theaux Le Gardeur, the Gunpowder Riverkeeper, finds that intolerable. In many cases, thats three generations of Marylanders subject to fish consumption advisories due to PCBs, he said. Le Gardeur runs a fly-fishing shop and fishing guide service that focuses on the Gunpowder.

On July 29, the riverkeeper filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency challenging the federal agencys approval of what Le Gardeur contends is an inadequate state study of what can be done about PCBs contaminating the rivers.

In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, he complains that the Maryland Department of the Environment didnt sample enough and didnt propose to do anything about the main source of PCBs contaminating fish the bottom sediments. EPA neglected its duty under the Clean Water Act by signing off on the states plan, the suit contends.

Still a widespread problem

The Anacostia and the pair of Baltimore County rivers illustrate the challenges Bay watershed communities face in dealing with problems posed by PCBs and other toxic contaminants.

While Bay watershed states, localities and federal agencies have focused on reducing water pollution from nutrients and sediment, theyve done much less to deal with PCBs, mercury, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and toxic metals in sediment, water, and fish.

According to the state-federal Chesapeake Bay Program, 82% of the Bay and tidal waters of its tributaries are considered either fully or partially impaired by toxic contaminants.

In 2014, all six watershed states, the district, and the EPA pledged to make the Bay and its rivers free of effects of toxic contaminants on living resources and human health. They agreed specifically to go after PCBs.

Once widely used as coolants or insulators in electrical equipment and other products, PCBs were banned by the EPA in 1979 amid research linking exposure to cancer and other health effects. They break down very slowly, however, so have continued to contaminate many waterways, where they tend to collect in bottom sediments.

PCB concentrations in water and sediment have declined some since being banned. But PCBs bioaccumulate, meaning that seemingly minuscule doses build up in the fatty tissue of fish when they ingest the chemicals. The contamination is passed up the food chain as predators, including humans, consume tainted fish.

PCBs are the basis for many of the fish consumption advisories in effect throughout the Bay and its tributaries. Anglers are urged to limit or even avoid eating much locally caught fish including, in some places, the highly prized striped bass.

Over the last two decades, the Bay watershed jurisdictions, under EPA supervision, have developed pollution-reduction strategies, known as total maximum daily loads, for eliminating PCB contamination in dozens of tidal waterways.

The District worked with Maryland, Virginia, and the EPA to develop a PCB-reduction strategy for its stretch of the Anacostia and Potomac in 2007. The plan unveiled by the district last December came after years of studies.

District officials say the measures theyre considering for dealing with hot spots in the lower Anacostia should reduce health risks from eating fish caught there by 90%. Some dredging is proposed, but in other areas, the district is weighing sequestering contaminated silt under a layer of clean sediment or treating it on the river bottom.

Upal Ghosh and Kevin Sowers, a pair of researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, have shown that depositing activated carbon pellets on contaminated sediment can lock-up the PCBs and dramatically reduce whats getting into the water. Coating the pellets with certain naturally occurring bacteria can even speed up the normally slow breakdown of the chemicals from decades to months, according to Sowers.

Fresh sources of PCBs

But cleaning up legacy contamination in sediment wont be enough as long as more PCBs are getting into the river, as studies have shown, Ghosh said.

A 2019 report by the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that lower Beaverdam Creek is the dominant source of fresh PCBs to the lower Anacostia. A study that Ghosh and other researchers presented to the district earlier this year found dissolved PCB levels in the creek to be screaming high, as he put it up to 20 times the levels measured in the river.

In March, Maryland regulators reported finding elevated PCBs in both sediment and water in two stretches of the creek in Prince Georges County. One is by the Landover Metrorail Station, they said.

Sherry Lin, a spokesperson for the transit agency, said Metro has cooperated with MDE investigators. Metro conducts annual inspections of all rail station outfalls and has programs in place to detect and prevent stormwater contamination, she said.

The other PCB-laden stretch of the creek is near its confluence with the Anacostia, the MDE reported. It flows there through a metal recycling facility owned by Joseph Smith & Sons. The MDE said PCB levels in creek sediment spike rapidly at this location, indicating that there may be legacy contamination on land there.

State inspectors last year sampled a retention pond at the 16-acre scrapyard and found PCBs in the water, according to information supplied by the MDE.

Dale Mullen, a lawyer representing the company, said it is voluntarily cooperating with the state and has taken steps to address the situation, including building a new concrete wall to prevent runoff or seepage to the creek. The company is also installing a new stormwater treatment system capable of removing PCBs and other contaminants. In the meantime, he noted, all stormwater outfalls from the site have been closed for now.

The next steps in the investigation, MDE officials said, include checking storm drains for PCB-tainted sediment that may be flushed out when it rains as well as other possible sources of runoff and seepage from tainted soil.

Elsewhere, theres not been as much activity. Maryland has produced PCB-reduction strategies for 31 of its rivers. But nearly half of those, including the one for the Gunpowder and Bird rivers, dont identify any local sources of contamination to be remediated.

State officials say thats because water sampling and computer modeling indicates the vast majority of PCBs in those rivers come from other water bodies the Susquehanna River, in the case of the Gunpowder and Bird. PCBs from there are flowing into the Bay, they say, where currents and tides carry them into the tributaries.

To see meaningful progress, you would need to change whats flowing in from the Chesapeake, said Lee Currey, director of MDEs water and science administration. The agency is working on a strategy for reducing PCBs in the lower Susquehanna, including in the sediments built up behind the Conowingo Dam.

Problems on the Gunpowder

But Le Gardeur, the Gunpowder Riverkeeper, contends that the states PCB reduction strategy for the Gunpowder and Bird rivers doesnt address the major source: chemicals already in the sediments, which can get back into the water to be ingested by fish.

Le Gardeur argues that the state also overlooked potential local sources of PCBs, such as Aberdeen Proving Ground, where the Army tests munitions and at one time tested chemical warfare agents. The entire base is a federal Superfund site undergoing multiple cleanups as a legacy of past releases and the burial of hazardous and explosive materials.

In developing its strategy, the MDE said a review of its records didnt find any legacy PCB contamination in the areas of the proving ground that drain into the Gunpowder.

But a 2016 consultants report measured high levels of PCBs, along with other contaminants, in upper Canal Creek, which drains into the Gunpowder from the proving grounds Edgewood area. The Army is studying the feasibility of options for remediating the PCBs in Canal Creek, according to Bethani Crouch, a base spokesperson.

MDE spokesman Jay Apperson acknowledged the PCB contamination in Canal Creek and said it will be considered in any future revision to the rivers cleanup strategy.

Le Gardeur questioned why the MDE didnt consider dredging or treating contaminated sediments in the rivers, as was done in waters just south of the Gunpowder. From 2016 through 2018, Lockheed Martin Corp., which for decades has produced aircraft and aviation electronics on Middle River, removed PCB-laden sediment from two of its tributaries, Darkhead Cove and Cowpen Creek. The company also treated an undredged portion of the bottom with activated carbon to keep the chemicals there from getting back into the water.

The MDE has said it generally doesnt favor dredging because it could stir up contaminated sediments and harm aquatic life. In Middle River, Currey said the agency approved dredging and treatment of the bottom because it was a relatively small area with documented high levels of the chemicals.

Brady Locher, deputy director of Baltimore Countys Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, said the county has worked diligently to address PCB contamination, which impairs Back River and Baltimore Harbor in addition to the Gunpowder and Bird.

The county partnered with state regulators and the UMBC researchers to assess PCB levels in fish tissue, aquatic insects, sediment and water in Back River. County officials are now looking to contract with an external laboratory capable of analyzing contaminant concentrations.

Because PCB remediation is so expensive, it is crucial that we base our actions on reliable and comprehensive monitoring results, Locher said.

The county is preparing to dredge more than 50 acres of the Bird River but to improve boater access, not remove PCBs. The MDE is reviewing the countys plan. Apperson said a study of dredging in Baltimore Harbor, where contamination is worse, indicated the activity would have only limited impact on fish tissue levels.

Meanwhile, the county should soon have more resources for combating PCBs. Officials expect to get more than $7.5 million from a federal class-action lawsuit against Monsanto Corp., which at one time made PCBs. The company agreed to pay a total of $550 million to settle water contamination claims by nearly 2,000 towns, cities, counties, and port districts. The District of Columbia is slated to get $52 million from that settlement to put toward cleaning up the Anacostia and Potomac rivers.

Le Gardeur said he didnt want to file a lawsuit, but felt he had little choice given the lack of action proposed for the Gunpowder and Bird rivers. He owns a fly-fishing shop and runs a fishing guide service that caters to anglers fishing the Gunpowder, he noted in the legal complaint, so the contamination directly affects his livelihood. Similar lawsuits alleging inadequate cleanup plans have on occasion led to revisions that strengthened them.

A spokesperson for EPAs mid-Atlantic regional office said the agency and the Justice Department are currently reviewing the riverkeepers lawsuit.

The tidal Gunpowder and Bird are used by boaters and swimmers, the riverkeeper noted. Theyre also popular for fishing and crabbing.

Bill Temmink, a local angler, said he doesnt eat what he catches in the Gunpowder, but he knows of a bunch of people who are out here three and four times a week and keep the fish.

Of the projected date when the MDE said the rivers fish should be free of PCB contamination, Temmink said, 50 years is a long time.

This article originally appeared on the BayJournal.com on August 5, 2020 and is republished with permission from Bay Journal Media

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PCB Cleanup Makes Uneven Progress - The Southern Maryland Chronicle

Light in the darkness: After 7 days, Eversource makes significant progress in power restoration – Journal Inquirer

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Danzig

Almost a week after Tropical Storm Isaias ravaged the state, knocking out power that left more than 800,000 customers in the dark for days on end, Eversource has made significant progress and as of this morning had only about 87,500 customers remaining without electricity.

That number is an improvement over the 138,000 customers in the state that were without power Sunday afternoon.

We know how frustrated our customers who still dont have power are, and we have thousands of utility workers repairing the extensive damage across the state today who are relentless in their determination to restore power for all customers, Craig Hallstrom, Eversources president of regional electric operations, said in a statement. We hear our customers and community leaders, and we will not rest until this massive restoration effort is complete.

According to the most recent updates, power is expected to be restored to Andover, Coventry, South Windsor, and Tolland tonight at 6 p.m. and Windsor at 9 p.m.

For Tuesday, power is expected to be restored in Bolton, Hebron, and Stafford at 6 a.m.; Glastonbury and Somers at noon; Suffield at 6 p.m.; and Ellington at midnight.

Power restoration in East Hartford, East Windsor, Enfield, Manchester, Vernon, and Windsor Locks is substantially completed, as just less than 1 percent of all customers in the respective municipalities are still without power.

Eversource spokesman Mitch Grossman said the vast majority of customers are expected to have power by midnight on Tuesday, clarifying that doesnt mean all customers will have power by then but most will.

Despite that, many customers have spoken out about their growing frustrations over the time it is taking Eversource to restore their power.

Both town and state officials alike have criticized the utility companys preparedness when it came to the storm, with Gov. Ned Lamont declaring an investigation will look into how Eversource and United Illuminating Co., the other major utility company in the state, have spent their money which comes from ratepayers over the past 10 years to prevent widespread power outages.

In response, Grossman said the utility was prepared for the storm based on the best information that was available at the time.

Storms often change, and this one did, as far as strength and track, causing extensive damage across the state, Grossman said.

He said Eversources major focus right now is restoring power to those without it, and any reviews or investigations will be conducted at a later date.

Grossman added that Eversource line and tree crews continue working around-the-clock to repair the extensive damage caused during Tropical Storm Isaias, with more than 2,300 line, tree, and support crews, from as far away as Canada, working in the state.

With primaries a day away, the Office of the Secretary of the State has been focusing on restoring power and connectivity to key points of elections infrastructure, the 748 polling places and the 169 town halls statewide.

Utility and telecommunication companies have been asked to prioritize power and connectivity to those locations.

As of noon on Sunday, there were less than 75 of the 748 polling places statewide that still required power restoration, and eight town halls still didnt have connectivity to the Central Voter Registration System.

Grossman said Eversource has been in contact with the Office of the Secretary of the State to ensure all polling places will have electricity for Tuesdays primary while simultaneously pushing for the remaining customers to have power restored as well.

In a statement, Secretary of State Denise Merrill said that nothing was more important than ensuring every voter is able to cast their ballot in the manner of their choosing.

In Connecticut voting goes on in the face of the October Snowstorm, Hurricane Sandy, and now Tropical Storm Isaias polls are open on Election Day and voters will be able to cast their ballots, she stated.

After 7 days, Eversource makes significant progress in power restoration