35 best new Netflix movies and shows coming in August 2020 – Netflix Life

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LUCIFER (L to R) LAUREN GERMAN as CHLOE DECKER and TOM ELLIS as LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR in episode 503 of LUCIFER Cr. JOHN P. FLEENOR/NETFLIX 2020

After a jam-packed introduction to summer on Netflix, the number of original series premieres is beginning to slow down. Although August features a lighter lineup of new Netflix movies and shows, theres still plenty of binge-worthy content coming our way this month to keep us occupied during the summer doldrums.

From a handful of new documentaries to the highly anticipated season of a fan-favorite series, Netflix will keep us entertained in August.

Obviously, the months marquee new release is Lucifer season 5, part 1, which fans have been waiting for since last spring. The first half of the super-sized fifth season precedes the forthcoming final season, but its too soon to dwell on endings when there are so many beginnings coming to Netflix. Teenage Bounty Hunters and Hoops are two of the months biggest original series premieres, along with original movies All Together Now, Work It and Project Power.

Find your next lineup of movies to marathon this summer with our comprehensive list of the 35 best movies and TV shows coming to Netflix in August, and comment below with your favorite picks!

Release Year: 2008

Directed By: Marc Forster

Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright, Judi Dench, Gemma Arterton, Anatole Taubman, David Harbour, Joaqun Coso, Fernando Guilln Cuervo, Jesper Christensen, Rory Kinnear

Release Date: Monday, Aug. 31

The second James Bond film to star Daniel Craig and the sequel to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace picks up in the aftermath of the previous films events. James Bond tracks down those who blackmailed his lover, which brings him into the crosshairs of Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a merciless businessman who orchestrated the coercion of Vesper. Along the way, Bond must step into defeat Greenes plan to claim control of an important natural resource.

Quantum of Solace comes from director Marc Forster, who Monsters Ball, Stranger Than Fiction, The Kite Runner and Christopher Robin. The film received middling reception from critics but still made a decent dent at the box office with a worldwide gross of over $589 million. Quantum of Solace was followed by Skyfall and Spectre, and the Daniel Craig era will come to an end later this year with No Time To Die. Watch both Casino Royale and its sequel when both movies begin streaming on Netflix at the end of August.

Season: 3

Created By: Ramn Campos and Gema R. Neira

Starring: Ivana Baquero, Alejandra Onieva, Jon Kortajarena, Eloy Azorn, Chiqui Fernndez, Tamar Novas, Daniel Lundh, Natalia Rodrguez, Laura Prats, Matthew Modine, Ignacio Montes, Begoa Vargas, Manuela Vells

Release Date: Friday, Aug. 7

Also known as Alta Mar, Netflixs original Spanish mystery series High Seas returns this summer for its third season of twists and turns. The series takes place on a transatlantic ship transporting a group of different passengers from Europe to South America as a murder mystery rocks the ship. When a passenger who wasnt listed on the roster and isnt remembered by any other passenger turns up dead, dark secrets emerge from each cabin as the hunt for the killer takes off. Season 3 of High Seas continues the intrigue and premieres eight more episodes on Aug. 7.

Release Year: 2013

Directed By: Malcolm D. Lee

Starring: Ashley Tisdale, Simon Rex, Erica Ash, Katrina Bowden, Terry Crews, Heather Locklear, J. P. Manoux, Mac Miller, Jerry OConnell, Molly Shannon, Snoop Dogg, Kate Walsh, Katt Wiliams

Release Date: Wednesday, Aug. 5

Today in Does anyone even remember this movie?, the fifth and seemingly final entry in the Scary Movie franchise arrives for streaming on Netflix this August. Scary Movie 5 was the first in the series not to star Anna Faris and Regina Hall, instead starring Ashley Tisdale and Simon Rex as a married couple experiencing paranormal activity when they bring their newborn baby home. The film, which parodies a number of popular movies, was panned by critics and a minor impact at the box office. If you missed it the first time, check it out for some laughs on Aug. 12.

Release Year: 1979

Directed By: George Miller

Starring: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward

Release Date: Saturday, Aug. 1

These days, most moviegoers might be most familiar with 2015s Mad Max: Fury Road, which was a reboot and revisiting of the 1979 original starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. However, this August, fans of Fury Road can see how it all began in Mad Max, which stars Mel Gibson in a post-apocalyptic world who pursues a personal vendetta against the gang that murdered his wife and son. The film holds a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and was a box office success, producing two middling sequels in the 1980s. Before the next entry, watch the original on Netflix on Aug. 1.

Release Year: 2020

Directed By:Ian Bonhte and Peter Ettedgui

Starring:Bebe Vio, Ellie Cole, Jean-Baptiste Alaize, Matt Stutzman, Jonnie Peacock, Cui Zhe, Ryley Batt, Ntando Mahlangu, Tatyana McFadden

Release Date: Wednesday, Aug. 26

If youre into documentaries and docuseries, youre in luck. As youll come to see, docu-style content makes up the bulk of Netflixs original new releases in August, and the titles run the gamut in subject matter. Rising Phoenix centers in the world of the Paralympic Games and tracks the history of the global movement that helped bring visibility to disability and diversity. The documentary features a group of global athletes telling their stories, which should make for an inspiring watch when the film premieres on Aug. 26.

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35 best new Netflix movies and shows coming in August 2020 - Netflix Life

East Ladakh LAC Standoff: Winter is Coming – News Intervention

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Every Indian citizen (very perceptive, or the nuanced) especially the security and China watchers would be able to rattle out latest situation along the LAC in East Ladakh given the plethora of inputs, barring from the government. There are a number of options discussed both by the self-styled pacifists (actually status quoists who never want to make a move, and pray and hope that the crisis will resolve itself, irrespective of outcome), the hawks and the moderates.

The background chatter is also by now well known, provide excuses or show surprise at the action of an adversary (HOW COULD HE DO IT, again and again!), talk of the woeful global economic situation in which we are equally affected and to top it all, the crisis of COVID-19 which is engaging the world. Even before analysing the strategic security situation and challenges, and its implications for the future, these people dismiss any hard or resolute actions. All because, of a mindset of how can we challenge the Chinese, will it not lead to a confrontation between two asymmetric adversaries or worse to a two-front entanglement.

We must be very clear that China has violated all the confidence building measures (CBMs), Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), Joint Working Group, Senior Representative level understandings, protocols and mechanisms for border management, including the latest strategic guidance to the respective militaries to strengthen communication to build mutual understanding and enhance predictability and effectiveness in managing borders signed by President Xi Jinping and PM Modi even before the ink has dried. It is by now clear that military and political level talks and movement on ground are going on excruciatingly slowly.

Chinas Big Gamble? Immediately after China got a handle on COVID-19 internally (there are inputs of a second coming, which may actually egg it on to create multiple external crisis situations), and while the rest of the world is still battling COVID-19 and its effects in other domains, China (Chinese Communist Party to be more precise) led by Xi Jinping is changing the global status quo. From using gun boat diplomacy, border troop aggressive movements and deployments, high seas and border intimidation, wolf diplomacy, economic holdouts/threats like with Australia and conduct of high level troop exercises involving entire PLA, building new strategic alliances and friendships a la Iran, China is on the move externally in all domains.

Interestingly the low-key military approach has long been discarded and entire PLA is galvanized. The multi-service, multi-domain Armed Forces exercises in the South and East China seas and border areas especially along the LAC with India are of a much larger scale, involve interoperability and being conducted closer than normal to adversarial shores and borders. PLA Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Rocket Forces, Air Defence, non-kinetic hi-tech formations like cyber, space, information-surveillance & reconnaissance (ISR), amphibious, logistics supply chain units are participating, and Chinas much touted three warfare strategy (public opinion, psychological, and legal warfare) is being applied around its strategic space. At last count one of the security experts spoke of China engaging 27 countries in multi-domain competition leading to confrontation!

Interpretation of Why by the Rest of the WorldEnough reasons for why has also been analysed. From showcasing Chinas comprehensive national power (CNP) and ascent to global power status by simultaneous confrontationist actions with numerous nations, demonstrable actions to challenge USA, and teach cocky new India a lesson (with many payoffs of disrupting Indias growth story, slow down Indias infrastructure development along the Northern borders, indicate an unstable India internally where movement of industries from China is fraught with risk, warn India to lay off Aksai Chin and Gilgit-Baltistan, dissuade India not to create trouble in functioning of BRI (Belt & Road Initiative) especially CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) which is existential for China, stop interfering or dominating the IOR (Indian Ocean Region) and Malacca Straits. BUT China continues with its normal game of salami slicing with a larger ambition of garnering real estate in multiple areas having strategic sensitivities). All the nations, security and China experts are only second guessing and Chinas rationale for its actions is frankly still a mystery, which will unfold as time and events roll along. A reasonable thought would be the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) taking advantage of weakened rivals, and an international power vacuum, hubristically overestimating its own power, reacting to aggression from its adversaries or opportunists and acting out of insecurity about its own status.

Truisms Regarding China and India impacting Relationship

Ground Reality in East Ladakh, Chinese Game Plan and Indian OptionsThe aim here is to focus on resolution of the LAC impasse and leave out the strategy, esoteric and higher conducts of war. China has changed the status quo ante of military and para military forces presence as of April 2020 in East Ladakh in at least four locations. While India has conveyed its intent of not accepting anything less than withdrawal to April 20 positions, the Chinese are playing hard ball. Talks and corresponding movement of troops from the standoff locations are going slow, with total lack of trust, requiring minute verification and detailing on ground and talks.

My assessment is that China is playing for time and at the ground level will follow the following methodology: Agree and withdraw at some places on a quid pro quo basis (not necessarily to April 20 positions, since it has deployed forward in all cases); stay firm but continue talks in some locations which are of strategic significance (Lake Pangong Tso); pull back to status quo positions of April 20 in one/two locations. In any case the operational status quo has been disrupted in terms of force density (Army and Air Force on both sides) by China mirrored by India.

Winter is ApproachingIndia has signaled two aspects firmly; One, Indias intent of not backing down till status quo of April 20 is achieved; Two, and so, its armed forces including the additional formations (be it infantry, artillery, armour, mechanized, Air Defence, Army aviation and IAF) are going to buckle down for the winter. The very famous saying from the blockbuster serial Game of Thrones, that Winter is Coming is very apt. It will require tremendous logistical and infrastructural effort but our troops have done such manoeuvres before and will willingly do so again. Logistics and infrastructure preparations are already on at full swing. History has time and again proved that our armed aorces are outstanding at crisis management, make miracles happen and fight and endure with what we have.

What is the strategic intent of the Chinese; have they already achieved it by changing the tactical status quo and manoeuvre as already discussed. Will they withdraw majority of their troops closer to winter setting in, or also continue to stay the winter? If they stay, the signature of logistic supply chains cannot be hidden and all our intelligence agencies must be focused on it. Logic dictates (logic can go wrong in crisis specially involving adversary and reading an adversarys mind) that China would not want a conflict, as it will be very costly for it too in terms of human casualties and further sharpen world outrage and adverse disposition towards China. This is certainly not a foolproof method of arriving as a global power, annoying the world and embroiled in multi-domain confrontation with a large part of the world specially the developed world and most of Asia.

Coming back to the LAC, logistically the Chinese can master it (if we can, so can it, is a prudent assumption). The question is can the Chinese troops weather the winter, I presume so, but they are largely conscripted, not used to high altitude sustenance over long periods, let alone fighting, and inexperienced in combat. Our logistics supply chains are long no doubt, but Chinas main rear is mainland China and even longer, and most importantly Indian Army has been doing winter stocking in ever increasing quantities since decades.

For the Chinese, to stay the winter may defeat its very purpose and send wrong strategic and ambiguous signals to Chinese people and internationally, that China is stuck in a quagmire of its own making.

China I believe, will try to brazen it out in talks politically, diplomatically and militarily and persuade India to hastily (much before winter sets in) accept a compromise which it will project as a win-win situation for both countries, and showcase its magnanimity and strength to Chinese people and the world. If we do reach an agreement, I hope it is because China has accepted our firm stance of returning to April 20 status quo. Than all its troops other than those who were operating there before April 20 withdraw in a phased manner and situation normalizes in time. Chinese by now would be very clear that Indian troops are prepared to spend winter in East Ladakh.

Opportunities will come its way for the Indian Armed Forces. Army must continue aggressive patrolling in East Ladakh and challenged areas, always posing a threat to the Chinese deployed forward. With synergized multi-service operations and invaluable support from IAF, we should in phases isolate and evict, or force Chinese troops to withdraw to status quo locations; or even look for quid pro quo options of occupying sensitive territory across the LAC, employing the integrated battle groups (IBGs).

India must be more than ready to trade fire to achieve its mission of eviction. India and the Indian Army know that next summer physical eviction of Chinese will get even more challenging. It will have to be hard political and diplomatic manoeuvering (again number of options like review positions on Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan) which is not going to be easy given the disadvantageous ground situation. The Chinese, one would say, have boxed themselves into a corner. They did not want a conflict and will avoid one at all costs. A stalemate would definitely constitute a defeat in strategic and international parlance for China, while for India it will further showcase the emergence of a resurgent, confident new India. For this to become a reality India has to buckle down, show resolve and endurance, weather the winter and Chinese storm, and most importantly show tremendous faith in its armed forces to deliver.

It is going to be a very interesting winter to come, and as I have said before it is going to be a defining moment in our history having far greater implications than tactical, and if we come out of it achieving our national and military objective, a stronger, vibrant new India will be ready to take off in the global platform. It is not going to be easy for the very reason I enumerated and Chinese will know it better than most. But while it is a great challenge for the nation and our armed forces it is doable with planning, resolve and will, as failing is not an option and will set us back strategically and we must be ready for many more similar summers, this time from both China and Pakistan. So, prevail we must.

Remember, even with requisite comprehensive national power, deterrence power may not be forthcoming automatically. For this we have to build deterrence reputation where our adversaries know that we will use our deterrence capabilities when our national interests are at stake. It is time to enhance our deterrence reputation.

Lt. Gen. PR Kumar retired from the post of Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of the Indian Army. As DGMO he was responsible for the entire operational planning, preparation and execution of plans and border management. After his retirement he has been writing for numerous Think Tanks on international and national strategic issues and on security related aspects. He also delivers talks in Armed Forces and Educational institutions.

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East Ladakh LAC Standoff: Winter is Coming - News Intervention

The Best Movies to Stream This Weekend in Seattle: July 30-Aug 2, 2020 – TheStranger.com

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This week brings the brand-new Kerry Washington-produced ACLU documentary The Fight, the last chance to stream Sean Baker's brilliant iPhone-rendered Tangerine, and more opportunities to see ongoing films like Romola Garai's feminist horror Amulet. Plus, Saturday marks the beginning of a new month, which will bring with it lots of new releases on Netflix, Hulu, and other national streaming platforms. Read on for all of our top picks for this weekend streaming through local theaters and national platforms. Longing for the big(ger) screen? Check out our guide to drive-in movie theaters in the Seattle area, or check out our guide to streamable shows that received Emmy nominations this week.

A Girl MissingWhen the nephew of a home-care nurse is arrested for kidnapping the daughter of the family she has long worked for, the woman's relationship with her employers is (understandably) threatened. Available via SIFFOpening Friday

The FightFivecivil rights attorneys fight for justice on behalf ofa migrant mother separated from her child, a transgender soldier at risk of losing his career, and basic reproductive and voting rights that face threats from the Trump administration. This Kerry Washington-produced documentary will absolutely give you a new sense of appreciation for the ACLU. Available via Northwest Film Forum and SIFFOpening Friday

HUMP! Greatest Hits - Volume 1The HUMP! team is bringing back some fan-favorite amateur porn shorts from years past in the first of several volumes of streamable compilations.Available via The StrangerFriday only

Lake Michigan MonsterCraving a quick bite of campy horror? This H.P. Lovecraft- and Mystery Science Theatre 3000-inspired romp follows Captain Seafield and hiscrew as they plot revenge against a sea monster that prowls the waters of their native Lake Michigan. Available via Grand IllusionOpening Friday

Rebuilding ParadiseThe November 2018 firestorm that devastated Paradise, California, killed 85 people, displaced 50,000 residents, and destroyed 95% of local structures, making it the worst fire in California history.Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard shows the community members who worked to rebuild the city in the aftermath. Available via Grand IllusionOpening Friday

Strange Storytelling Hour DreamscapesStorytellers recount peculiar tales and bizarre happenings based on their own experiences in this multi-episode series co-presented by the North Bend Film Festival. For this round, local comic and wizardly ex-Mormon Emmett Montgomery will tell tales revolving around the surreal happenings that "bend the senses and open the mind." Available via Northwest Film ForumThursday only

I Am Not Your NegroSixteen years after Lumumba, Raoul Peck, who is Haitian, has directed I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary about one of the greatest writers of 20th-century America, James Baldwin. Now, it's easy to make a great film about Baldwin, because, like Muhammad Ali, there's tons of cool footage of his public and private moments, and, also like Ali, he had a fascinating face: the odd shape of his head, the triangle of hair that defined his forehead, and his froggy eyes. Just show him doing his thing and your film will do just fine. But Peck blended footage of Baldwin with dusky and dreamy images of contemporary America. These images say: Ain't a damn thing changed from the days of Baldwin and the Civil Rights Movement. But they say this with a very deep insight about the nature of time. CHARLES MUDEDE Available via Grand Illusion and Ark Lodge

John Lewis: Good TroubleThe late civil rights activist and Georgia congressman John Lewis fought for voting rights, gun control, healthcare reform, and immigration over the course of his long career. Using archival footage and interviews from his late years, Dawn Porter's documentary Good Trouble explores Lewis's childhood, his 1957 meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and his lasting legacy on social justice movements of the present. Available via Ark Lodge, Northwest Film Forum, SIFF, and elsewhere

Keepers of the Dream: Seattle Women Black PanthersFollowing its Oakland progenitors, Seattle was one of the first cities to form a branch of the Black Panther Party. Scored by SassyBlack, this series of fiveshort documentaries, produced by Patricia Boiko and Tajuan LaBee, serves as an introduction to the courageous actions of women Black Panther activists, from Frances Dixon to Phyllis Noble Mobley. Available via Seattle Channel

Miss JuneteenthChanning Godfrey Peoples's debut feature centers around the fictional Miss Juneteenth pageant, an annual competition that awards the winner a scholarship to a historically black college or university of her choice. In a twist on the standard rivalries that drive the pageant genre (thinkMiss Congeniality and Drop Dead Gorgeous), the longtime winner in this case, Turquoise Jones, sees who she deems a more worthy winner in her daughter, Kai. "Instead of just depicting the myriad ways black women carry their communities, the movie goes further to explore how these women and black girls support each other in a world that often fails them," wroteLovia Gyarkye for the New York Times. Available via Northwest Film Forum

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I AmThe rise of the prolific Nobel-winning author Toni Morrison dishes on her life busting up the white male literary hegemony in Timothy Greenfield-Sanders's documentary, with appearances by Hilton Als, Oprah Winfrey, Russell Banks, and Angela Davis, among others. BOBBY ROBERTS Available via PBS

Whose Streets?Most of us remember scrolling through news about the Ferguson protests on Twitter in 2014, but Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis directorial debut Whose Streets? fills in the blanks of the story, offering a humanizing, much-needed portrait of those involved. Dedicated to Michael Brown, the film captures the aftermath of the shooting of the unarmed 18-year-oldby a white police officer, while the Black young man had his hands in the airusing unflinching interviews with the still-grieving Ferguson residents whove seen their community unify against police brutality. JENNI MOOREAvailable via Northwest Film Forum and Ark Lodge

See also: Our resistance roundup for more anti-racism resources.

Being John MalkovichIt took writer Charlie Kaufman about a decade to get this movie off the ground due to the necessity of having Malkovich in a central role. Malkovich loved the script. He even wanted to produce it, but he wouldn't be in it. Kaufman refused to make the film with anyone else, and Malkovich eventually came around to the idea that a film about an unemployed puppeteer who discovers a portal into John Malkovich's brain wouldnt be the end of his career. Also: Its so difficult to separate the character of Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) from the picture of David Foster Wallace on the back of A Supposedly Fun Thing Ill Never Do Again. This movie will never not secretly be the story of David Foster Wallace finding a portal into John Malkovich's brain. That's just the situation.Available via NetflixStarting Friday

Black is KingDo any other words beyond "A Film by Beyonc" need to be written in order to prompt folks to make the most of that Disney+ subscription this weekend? The question isn't "Will this rule all pop-culture discussion for the next week." The question is probably "Will this break every record that Hamilton only just set last month?"Available via Disney+Premiering Friday

Child's PlayMuch like Freddy and Jason before him, Chucky survived the artificial extension of his celluloid lifespan by descending into self-aware, gloryhallastoopid self-parody as the sequels stacked up. But Chucky also shares with those two titans of horror a (comparatively) more low-key introduction1988's Childs Play introduced the idea that a doll could get possessed and kill the living shit out of you with way more seriousness than the premise ever deserved. Thanks to horror veteran Tom Holland's solid direction and Brad Dourif's sheer force of will, Chucky embodies a successful perversion of innocence that isn't just smirky and smug, it's also legitimately scary.Available via HuluStarting Saturday

Deep Blue Sea 3At long last, our national nightmare is concluded. No longer will we as a people have to live under the knowledge that a complete Deep Blue Sea trilogy eludes our grasp. This weekend, the saga concludes! And in grand style, as a sunken island town watched over by an "eminent marine biologist" (Tania Raymonde of LOST) is unduly terrorized by genetically enhanced bull sharks who seek to mate with Great Whites to become the most ultimate of all killer fish. Ponder this, dear reader: Is any other movie premiering this weekend going to have sex-crazed homicidal genetic freak sharks wreaking havoc underneath a rickety town made almost entirely out of houses on stilts stuck in the water? No. The answer to that question is No.Available via Amazon Prime Video

Idiocracy: Extended VersionIn 2006, 20th Century Fox looked at Mike Judges follow-up to Office Space and decided whatever Idiocracy was, it wasnt good enough for theatrical distribution. They abandoned it in a couple theaters for a week, stuck it on DVD, and called it good. But the film not only found an audience on home video, that audience spent the next decade proselytizing on its behalf. Idiocracy was no longer a sloppy-yet-satisfying satire of our cultures inability to handle progressit was a prophetic vision of how access to all the information in the world doesnt matter if the people accessing it dont give a fuck about reading. Except now, on the other side of the shit-smeared, Trumpian looking glass, Idiocracy seems quaint more than anything. A lot of the jokes still land, yeah. But the belly-laughs are a little more sour and sad than you might remember. For example: Terry Crews was, in retrospect, playing this role a little too well. Damn.Available via HBO MaxStarting Saturday

I'll Be Gone in the DarkThis weekend sees the finale of HBO's new documentary series, based on the late Michelle McNamara's true-crime book about her life, and her fixation on figuring out the Golden State Killer's identity and bringing him to justice. Directed by Liz Garbus, and using interviews, archival footage, and police files, all narrated using original recordings of McNamara and actor Amy Ryan reading from her book, the series alternates between examining the effect this hunt had on McNamara, and the effect the Killer himself had on California communities in the '70s and '80s.Available via HBO MaxStarting Sunday

InceptionCelebrate this movie's 10th birthday (it's been a decade since it came out? Damn.) by giving it a spin now that it's been added to Amazon Prime. Inception's surreal, jarring visuals are nothing short of breathtaking; when paired with Nolan's gorgeous, visceral soundscapes (BRAMMMMM), they're riveting to discover and impossible to forget.Available via Amazon Prime VideoStarting Sunday

In My SkinInKayleigh Llewellyn's semi-autobiographical BBC series, a teenage girl spins a more socially acceptable homelife to her friends at school, when in reality she's forced to behave beyond her years in dealing with a bipolar mom and an alcoholic dad. Available via Hulu

Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'HooleBefore Zack Snyder was allowed to turn the DC Universe into an objectivist nightmare starring Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg, he was given the keys to a children's book series about warmongering owls with abs and knives strapped to their feet. Maybe the books didn't have the abs and knife-feet, but the movie does, and that's why Zack Snyder is a "visionary." If you're thinking this Ga'Hoole thing sounds like film executives with too much money saw Snyder's adaptation of 300 and thought "What if this, but owls?" you are correct. That's what this is. If you don't have any drugs this weekend but want to feel like you've smoked something dangerous and are now utterly lost and bewildered in an incomprehensible visual wilderness, stream this.Available via HuluStarting Saturday

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the WorldThe year is 1805 and Napoleon is running roughshod over Europe. The only thing stopping France from infecting the whole of the continent is the tiny island of England, which may be lacking in ground forces, but kicks ass on the high seas. Master and Commander may not be sexy, but it's extremely realistic, filling its ship with lashings, maggot-filled food, dirty stinking sailors, and the occasional goat. It's also the last great film by Australian writer/director Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society, Fearless).Available via HuluStarting Saturday

Muppets NowKermit the Frog and his beloved puppet friends of Jim Hensons '70s-bred comedy show will enjoy yet another incarnation on Disney+ for their first "unscripted" series, wherein backstage stalwart Scooter uploads the digitized segments of each episode so theyll be available to stream.In this new format, folks of all ages"can enjoy it and believe it connects directly to their own sensibility, a quality that the overly adult, straining-to-be-edgyThe Muppetslacked," as one Vulture review puts it. Available via Disney+Premiering Friday

The Shadow of ViolenceWith a screenplay based onColin Barrett's novella Calm with Horsesand a leading role fromThe Killing of a Sacred Deer'sBarry Keoghan,Nick Rowland's gritty feature debut follows an ex-boxer in an Irish coastal town who joins a crime family after killing an opponent in the ring. Available via VODPremiering Friday

SummerlandIFC Films continues to bring the indie goods to VOD, this week premiering Summerland, Olivier Award-winning director Jessica Swale's debut film, set during World War II, about a reclusive English writer (Gemma Arterton) who ends up becoming an adoptive mother to a boy who escaped the London bombings, while also finding herself falling in love with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, like, you know, everyone does when they're around Gugu Mbatha-Raw.Available via IFCPremiering Friday

Top GunMuch in the same way Die Hard's status as a Christmas movie started as a cute observation that came to swallow it whole, Top Gun's innate gayness was once just a knowing, winking in-joke among film dorks, but now has become the aspect that defines Tony Scott's glistening, teeth-clacking ad for the US Navy. You can try to watch it as it was presumably intended it be seen in the repressed-yet-beefy heart of the Reagan '80s. But those abs! Those butts! ("I want butts!") The volleyball game. 30 years of time has reframed Top Gun entirely, and unlike Die Hard's redefinition, this glossy, fetish-friendly framework has helped make the film more entertaining. We may not be getting Tom Cruise's Maverick sequel this year like we were hoping, but being able to take the highway to the Danger Zone whenever we want is a nice consolation.Available via Amazon Prime Video, HuluStarting Saturday

The Umbrella Academy Season 2Netflix premieres the second season of their superhero dramedy based on the stylish, punchy comic written by My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way and drawn by Brazilian artist Gabriel B. Lovers swoon, time-space gets ripped apart, and theres a lot of shooting and punching; The Umbrella Academy captures the same heightened sensation offered by My Chemical Romances music: operatic melodrama, given life by gleeful riffs and catchy hooks.Available via NetflixPremiering Friday

100 Years of Olympic Films: 19122012In acknowledgment of the 2020 Olympics, which would have kicked off in Tokyo this week, the Criterion Collection is streaming its monumental collection100 Years of Olympic Filmson their streaming platform, the Criterion Channel.The collection includes 53 films and covers 41 editions of the Olympic Games, from Stockholm in 1912 to London in 2012. Need help deciding what to watch? Every week, The Stranger's Chase Burns writes about key films and moments from the collection. Available via Criterion Channel

Ai Weiwei: Yours TrulyChinese contemporary artistAi Weiwei, who's known for his bold public criticisms of the Chinese government's stance on democracy and human rights, was a force behind the portrait exhibition @Large, which depicted images of prisoners from all over the worldfrom Nelson Mandela to Chelsea Manningon the exterior of Alcatraz Island, and also featured an inmate letter-writing project. This documentary explores the exhibition's process from start to finish. Available via Northwest Film ForumThursday-Friday

All I Can SayBlind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon recorded himself on his Hi8 video camera for the better half of the '90s, all the way up to the hours preceding his death at the age of 28. The hundreds of hours of footage show everything from his creative process to the birth of his daughter to his struggles with addiction to the rising power of the internet. This film, released in 2019, compiles key moments of that footage into a video diary. Available via Scarecrow Video and Northwest Film ForumThursday-Friday

Csar and RosalieIn Claude Sautet's classic romantic drama Csar et Rosalie, two men (the wealthyCsar and David, an old flame) battle for the affections of a beautiful, recently divorced lady (played by Isabelle Huppert in her first film role).Available via Ark LodgeThursday-Friday

Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those ThingsFrom her 1934 performance at the Apollo Theatre when she was just 15 years old to her late career, Leslie Woodhead's documentary celebrates the life of the iconic jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald through rare interviews and images. Available via SIFFThursday only

Fantastic FungiAt its worst,Fantastic Fungigets too woo-woo wacky for its own good (when the films discussion turns to magic mushrooms, the visuals turn into what is, as far as I can tell, a psychedelic screensaver from Windows 95), but at its best, the doc pairs fantastic time-lapse imagery with a good dose of actual, mind-blowing science. Affable, passionate mushroom researcher Paul Stamets is joined by talking heads Michael Pollan, Andrew Weil, and narrator Brie Larson to examine everything from massive fungal networks that carry signals between disparate, distant plants to the psychological benefits of psilocybin. Its an uneven trip, but a good one. ERIK HENRIKSEN Available via Ark LodgeThursday-Friday

Guest of HonorA father (David Thewlis) and daughter (Laysla De Oliveira) unravel their intertwined secrets in this 2019 time-weaving thriller from director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter).Luke Wilson plays a priest who kind of solves everything for everyone. Way to go, Luke! Available via Grand IllusionThursday only

RunnerWhen he was just eight years old,Guor Mading Maker (later known asGuor Marial) fled war-torn Sudan to seek safety in the US, where he went from running track in high school to qualifying for the 2012 Olympics. As a means of taking ownership over his new life and condemning the acts of violence in his birth country, he refused to represent Sudan and instead ran independently. This documentary depicts the athlete's journey, including areunion with his parents after a 20-year separation. Available via SIFFThursday only

TangerineGood movies can sometimes give off a huma feeling that the energy and chemistry on screen can't be constrained by the edges of the frame.Tangerinefits this description and then some, creating a kinetic rush with enough spillover juice to light up LA for a year. While chock-full of innovations both welcome (a story about transgender characters, played by transgender performers) and potentially eye-strainingly worrisome (the movie was shot entirely on tricked-out, stabilized iPhones), the main takeaway is just how alive it seems.ANDREW WRIGHT Available via Northwest Film ForumThursday-Friday

Americana KamikazeNYC'sinterdisciplinary performance group Temporary Distortion blends theater, film, and installation to freakily contort Japanese ghost stories and horror (aka J-Horror) through an American musical tradition. In a 2009 New York Times review of the play, Jon Weiss wrote, "Hard-core horror fans should take notice, because with Hollywoods rarely risking something truly upsetting anymore, preferring funny zombies and by-the-numbers remakes, you might have to go to the theater to see death performed live to really test your limits." Available via On the Boards

AmuletSeeking refuge in London from an ambiguous foreign conflict, an ex-soldier (played by Alec Secreanu ofGods Own Country) finds room and board as a repairman in the decrepit estate of a mysterious young woman and her dying mother, who stays locked in a room in the attic and may or may not be possessed by an evil spirit.Romola Garai (Atonement) classifies her directorial debut as "feminist horror." Available via Northwest Film Forum and Grand Illusion

Bloody Nose, Empty PocketsThere are only 18 hours left until the Roaring '20s, a dive bar off the Vegas Strip, closes for goodand its regulars hold out until the bitter end. "It's less a portrait of a long goodbye to a drinking establishment than it is an exploration of the community that calls such places home and their fellow barflies familyand what happens when you take away that collective space after the very last call," reads a Rolling Stone review. If you're not already pining to reclaim your spot at your favorite watering hole, this'll change that. Available via SIFF

Helmut Newton: The Bad and the BeautifulA quick flip through a retrospective of Helmut Newton's work will reveal thelegendary photographer's core subject: subversive and provocative portrayals of mostly-naked ladies, many of whom (Catherine Deneuve, Grace Jones, Charlotte Rampling, Isabella Rossellini) are famous.Gero von Boehm's documentary examines the artist's influences and features some of his home movies. Available via SIFF

Her Effortless Brilliance: A Celebration of Lynn Shelton Through Film and MusicAcclaimed Seattle director Lynn Shelton died too soon, and the grief felt by her fans, collaborators, and loved ones comes through in this documentary by Shelton's longtime friendMegan Griffiths. It's free to watch on YouTube and features a star-studded lineup of appearances, including Emily Blunt, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark and Jay Duplass, Jeff Garlin, Joshua Leonard, Sean Nelson, Michaela Watkins, and Reese Witherspoon, as well as live music from her partner Marc Maron, Andrew Bird, Ben Gibbard, Laura Veirs, and Tomo Nakayama. Available via YouTube

The InfiltratorsIn this docu-thriller, two young immigrants purposely get themselves thrown into a shady for-profit detention center to dismantle the corrupt organization from the inside. Their detainers don't know that they're members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of radical DREAMers who are on a mission to stop unjust deportations. Available via Northwest Film Forum

My Darling VivianJohnny Cash's first wife, Vivian Liberto (for whom the country singer wrote his famous song I Walk the Line), has long been obscured in stories of Cash's life (see: 2005'sWalk the Line, in which she's played briefly by Ginnifer Goodwin).Matt Riddlehoover's documentary, featuring interviews with Cash's children and archival footage of Liberto, reframes her narrative. Available via Scarecrow Video

Now I'm FineSean Nelson wrote, "Ahamefule J. Oluo, of Stranger Genius Award winning band Industrial Revelation, remounts his autobiographical odyssey, a harrowing, hilarious personal story punctuated by astoundingly strong songs, brilliantly arranged and performed by several of the most talented musicians in Seattle." Originally staged at On the Boards, Now I'm Fine received rave reviews during its recent New York run, and will now be screened online.Available via On the Boards

Police BeatPolice Beat, a fictional film I made with the director Robinson Devor (we also madeZoo), is also a documentary about a Seattle that's recovering from the dot-com crash of 2000 (a crash that sent Amazon's shares falling from nearly $100 apiece to $6they're now around $2,400), and entering its first construction boom of the 21st century (between 2005 and 2008).The hero of my film, the police officer Z (played by the beautiful but sadly late Pape Sidy Niang), could actually afford a little Seattle house on his salary (around $45,000). The median price of houses in 2003 was a lot (about $300,000) but not out of reach for a middle-class immigrant with a stable job.Lastly, the film is a documentary about Seattle's beautiful and virid parks. How I love them all and wanted to film them all: Volunteer Park, Freeway Park, the Washington Park, Madison Park, the parks on either side of the Montlake Cut. So green,so urban, so natural. CHARLES MUDEDE Available via The Stranger

Skate KitchenIf Crystal Moselle's new HBO seriesBetty has you hungry for more scenes of womxn landing tricks on their skateboards and displaying acts of friendship in its purest form, you should watch its 2018 feature-length predecessorSkate Kitchen, which has all the same actors playing the same characters. It centers onCamille (Rachelle Vinberg), an introverted skater from Long Island who falls for the mysterious Devon (Jaden Smith) just as she's falling out with her mom and making friends with a new group of gals rightly hellbent on reclaiming kickflips from the boys who overcrowd the NYC skate scene. Available via Northwest Film Forum

SPLIFF 2019 & 2020A new vibe of stoner entertainment is emergingwitness the rise of Broad City, High Maintenance, and basically every TV show created on Viceland. And, most importantly, The Stranger presents SPLIFF, your new favorite film festival created by the stoned for the stoned. Because we can no longer congregate in person, we're rescreening the 2019 and 2020 festivals (the latter of which is hosted by Betty Wetter and Cookie Couture) online! Got some weed on hand? Check it out from the comfort of your home. All contributions received will be shared with the filmmakers.Available via The Stranger

2020 Sundance Film Festival Short Film TourSee six short films selected from this year's Sundance Film Festival, including Malaysian director Diffan Sina Norman's "Benevolent Ba," about a devout woman's path to sacrificial slaughter, andAshley Williams's "Meats," about a pregnant vegan's newfangled craving for meat. Available via Northwest Film Forum

The TobacconistA man named Franz walks into a Vienna tobacco shop frequented by Sigmund Freud et voila: a historically inspired fictional friendship is born. When Franz falls for music-hall dancer Anezka, he seeks advice from the renownedpsychoanalyst, whoadmits that he, too, is baffled by the opposite sex. This film, which is being wide-released online, is based off of Robert Seethaler's bestselling novel. Available via Scarecrow Video

Tijuana JacksonRegina Hall stans, unite!Romany Malco'sdebut feature features the Support the Girls star as the love interest ofTijuana Jackson (aka TJ, played by Malco), a man determined to move beyond his checkered past and live out his dream of becoming a world-renowned motivational speaker. Available via Grand Illusion

Widow of SilenceDeep within the powder keg of Kashmir, a beleaguered Muslim half-widow repeatedly makes the hazardous trek to the nearest government center to try to claim the death certificate of her long-missing husband. Her attempts to move on, however, are stymied by a society where, to quote one of the wormier bureaucrats, its the responsibility of the people to keep their government happy. Writer/director Praveen Morchhales film isnt exactly subtle about its message, beginning with the image of an elderly woman literally tied to a chair. Thankfully, though, much of the thematic heavy-handedness is leavened by an expert use of framing, Shilpi Marwahas clear-eyed lead performance, and a final moment of irony thats keen enough to shave with. ANDREW WRIGHT Available via SIFF

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The Best Movies to Stream This Weekend in Seattle: July 30-Aug 2, 2020 - TheStranger.com

China has won control of the South China Sea. Now we wait for Beijing’s next move – ABC News

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Was it a confrontation on the high seas, or just a routine but unplanned interaction between warships sailing in international waters?

There are varying accounts within defence circles over just how stern a recent encounter in the South China Sea was between the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N).

On Thursday the ABC revealed an Australian Defence Force Joint Task Group had traversed the hotly contested waters last week, en route to the Philippine Sea for training exercises with the US and Japanese navies.

The Defence Department still won't even formally confirm that the five Australian warships interacted with the Chinese military but has insisted that "unplanned interactions with foreign warships throughout the deployment were conducted in a safe and professional manner".

According to one senior official the Chinese were "exceedingly polite" as they reminded the Australians they were coming close to the Spratly Islands which have been heavily fortified by China in recent times.

It's by no means the first time the ADF has been challenged by the Chinese in the area, but the encounter comes during a period of escalating security and diplomatic tensions between Australia and its largest economic partner.

Now Australia has dramatically raised the stakes in its already troubled relationship with China by backing the United States in formally declaring Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea to be illegal.

In a letter to the United Nations, Australia's permanent mission rejected the Chinese Communist Party's claims to disputed islands in the crucial trading waters, calling them "inconsistent" with international law.

Australian National University International law expert Professor Donald Rothwell believes the move is significant and will prompt a furious response from Beijing.

"I think what will be interesting to see is whether China will take a more assertive position in terms of physically challenging the rights of Australian warships in particular as they pass through the South China Sea," Professor Rothwell tells the ABC.

Richard McGregor, a senior fellow with The Lowy Institute, says the stakes are already high in the strategic and highly militarised corridor.

"You can absolutely be sure that any time Australian ships are in the South China Sea, they will be tracked by the Chinese," he told Radio National on Thursday.

"I don't think confrontation is the right word, but they will be hailed, they'll be asked what they are doing there and [asked] to explain themselves."

For the past few years defence officials have watched with increasing nervousness as Beijing has steadily built up weapons and runways on its disputed islands in the South China Sea, while also constructing artificial outposts for military purposes.

Unlike the United States, Australia does not conduct Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) to challenge territorial claims in the South China Sea, meaning the RAN takes care to stay outside the 12 nautical mile limits imposed around Chinese claimed territory.

Australia, however, continues to assert its right of freedom of navigation and overflight in the region by regularly flying and sailing military assets through the crucial trading zone.

On Tuesday evening as HMAS Canberra, and four other Australian warships were conducting military drills in the Philippine Sea, the US Defence Secretary Mark Esper was promising a record number of FONOPS against China would continue.

"We want to deter against coercive behaviour by the Chinese in the South China Sea," he told the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"I am concerned that while the United States and our partners focus on supporting one another during these challenging times, the Chinese Communist Party continues to engage in systematic rule breaking, coercion and other malign activities."

Far from slowing China's activities, this year's coronavirus pandemic has had the effect of giving cover to the People's Liberation Army as it keeps up the rapid tempo of its territorial expansion in the region.

It's now widely accepted in Australia and across this region that Beijing has essentially established military control over the vast South China Sea, and efforts to challenge their authority may even work to enforce that view.

Secretary Esper has nevertheless warned that the United States will continue to conduct FONOPS in defiance of Beijing's territorial claims.

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"In 2019 we conducted the greatest number of Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea in the 40-year history of the FONOPS program, and we will keep up the pace this year," he said.

In Canberra it's no secret the Americans would dearly love their Australian allies to also conduct FONOPS, but there is no appetite within the Federal Government to do so.

Instead the ADF is committed to building up regional partnerships and remains hopeful that Australia will soon be invited to re-join the Malabar military exercises involving the US, India and Japan.

Top officials believe there are "very positive signs" an invitation will soon be formally issued, but in the meantime the so-called Quad looked to be on display last week as the United States conducted simultaneous exercises with Australia and Japan, and separately with India.

Now attention is turning to how soon Beijing could move to establish an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the disputed territory to monitor and control foreign aircraft.

Reports from China suggest planning for an ADIZ in the South China Sea are well advanced, similar to the one Beijing announced for the East China Sea in 2010, and then introduced in 2013.

In the meantime, there are growing concerns that the increasing presence of the US Navy in the region is heightening tensions that could spark actual conflict.

"Generally speaking the chances of some kind of conflict in the South China Sea are rising," Richard McGregor says.

And when the world's two largest superpowers are facing off in this region, the Australian Defence Force is acutely aware that a small miscalculation could have enormous consequences.

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China has won control of the South China Sea. Now we wait for Beijing's next move - ABC News

Flags of Convenience in Merchant Shipping – Sea News

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Seaborne trade continues to expand, bringing benefits for consumers across the world through competitive freight costs. Thanks to the growing efficiency of shipping as a mode of transport and increased economic liberalisation, the prospects for the industrys further growth continue to be strong. As per the international law, every merchant ship must be registered with a country, known as its flag state. That country has jurisdiction over the vessel and is responsible for inspecting that it is safe to sail and to check on the crews working conditions.

Flags of Convenience or FOC: A flag of convenience ship is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of ownership. Open registries, sometimes referred to as flags of convenience, have been disputed at times owing to a number of reasons including wages of seafarers and safety of the vessels. Vessels registered under flags of convenience can often cut operating costs or avoid the regulations of the owners country. To achieve that, a ship owner will find a country with an open registry, or a nation that allows registration of vessels owned by foreign entities. For workers onboard, this can mean, very low wages at times.

A look at some contentious advantages of an FOC: Foreign corporations can register a ship without being established in the territory. Where a company is required to be formed in the State, there are low formation costs. Besides, the beneficial ownership of the ship may remain anonymous. Lastly, FOC offers low taxation and other fiscal incentives

Why FOCs Attract: Many shipping companies deem the regulations of non-FOCs as unattractive, which is why they lean towards a country which has regulations and laws which benefit the company and its operation. Some claim that the corporations which sail under a foreign flag do so simply to avoid cumbersome regulations and laws which impede seamless trade.

The Cruise Lines International Association explains the reason behind the fact that 90% of the cruise liners register their ships under a foreign flags due to the capabilities of the flag to deliver the services needed; representation and reputation of the flag in the international shipping community; the performance of the flag state, which dictates how a ship is prioritized by port states; the pool of seafarers able to meet the need of the flag; and the flags fees/charges and taxes.

Leading FOCs across the World: Ship registration is the process of documenting a ships given nationality. The nationality of a ship allows it to travel internationally wherever citizens of that nation are authorized to travel. The registration is almost like the passport for the ship, itself. Panama now has the largest registry in the world, followed by Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Hong Kong and Singapore. By last year, almost three quarters of the worlds fleet was registered under a flag of a country other than its own. Panama, a small nation of just three million, has the largest shipping fleet in the world, greater than those of the US and China combined. Thanks to its location and slender shape, Panama enjoys a position as the guardian of one of the worlds most important marine trade routes, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The Checks and Balances:

Shipping is the life blood of the global economy. Without shipping, intercontinental trade, the bulk transport of raw materials, and the import/export of affordable food and manufactured goods would simply not be possible. There are over 50,000 merchant ships trading internationally, transporting every kind of cargo. The world fleet is registered in over 150 nations, and manned by over a million seafarers of virtually every nationality. Ship registration or flag state system has been in practice since the beginning of business conducted over the seas. It was originally used to control ships ferrying cargo among European countries and to ensure that ships were built locally and using local crews. Today it is used to document ships for ownership in order to provide definitive evidence of nationality for international treaty purposes.

Geneva Convention on the High Seas of 1958 and subsequently the United Nations Convention on Conditions for Registration of Ships in 1986 lay down regulations which state that a flag state be linked to its ships either by having an economic stake in the ownership of its ships or by providing mariners to crew the ships. National or closed registries typically require that a ship be owned and constructed by national interests, and at least partially crewed by its citizens. Open registries do not have such requirements; some offer on-line registration, sometimes guaranteeing completion in less than a day. However, some registries make it more difficult for industry stakeholders and the public to hold ship owners to account.

(References: ICS, Crew-center, ITF Global, BBC, SAFETY4SEA, HG.Org)

Sea News Feature, July 29

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Flags of Convenience in Merchant Shipping - Sea News

In 17 years of writing recipes, I’d never used this ingredient until now – Detroit Free Press

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Darlene Zimmerman, Henry Ford Health System Published 1:49 p.m. ET July 30, 2020

Italian Chopped Salad(Photo: Darlene Zimmerman)

Celebrate the taste of summer this week and enjoy our Italian Chopped Salad. Crisp Romaine lettuce, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and radicchio are drizzled with a simple, classic, homemade Italian dressing.

I must admit, after 17 years of writing this column I dont think Ive created a recipe that called for radicchio. My apologies to this striking, leafy vegetable.

Pronounced rah-DEE-kee-oh, this red-leafed lettuce is most often used as a salad green. Two common varieties of radicchio that youll likely find in the grocery store are Verona and Treviso.

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Radicchio di Verona has burgundy-colored leaves with bright white ribs or veins and grows in a small, round, loose head of lettuce. Treviso radicchio is narrow and elongated with more tightly compacted leaves, similar to endive. The leaves range in color from pink to dark red.

No matter the shape, all radicchios have firm yet tender, almost velvety leaves with a bitter flavor. Combining radicchio with sweeter, more delicate lettuces helps to balance the bitterness. This bitter lettuce also mellows a bit when grilled, roasted or sauteed in olive oil.

Radicchio provides a nice dose of vitamin K. Aside from playing a crucial role in blood clotting, studies suggest food sources of vitamin K promotes bone health. Radicchio also supplies lutein and zeaxanthin, two beneficial phytonutrients that may protect eyes from age-related macular degeneration.

When selecting radicchio, look for heads with crisp, brightly-colored leaves free of bruises and brown spots. Avoid very large heads as they can be tough and extremely bitter. Refrigerate in a plastic bag and use within a week.

Darlene Zimmerman is a registered dietitian in Henry Ford Hospitals Heart & Vascular Institute. For questions about todays recipe, call 313-972-1920.

Italian Chopped Salad(Photo: Darlene Zimmerman)

Serves: 6 (1 cups per serving) / Prep time: 10 minutes / Total time: 15 minutes

3 tablespoons golden balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 small clove garlic, peeled and minced

teaspoon salt

teaspoon black pepper

7 cups chopped Romaine lettuce

2 cups chopped radicchio

1 can (14.5 ounces) chick peas, drained and rinsed

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes

1 cup diced cucumber

cup thinly sliced red onion

In a container with a tight-fitting lid, combine vinegar, oil, sugar, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Shake well and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine lettuce, radicchio, chick peas, tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. Pour dressing over salad, toss to combine and serve immediately.

Created and tested by Darlene Zimmerman, MS, RD, for Heart Smart.

130 calories (35% from fat), 5 grams fat (1 gram sat. fat, 0 grams trans fat), 19 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams protein, 173 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 59 mg calcium, 4 grams fiber. Food exchanges: 3 vegetable, 1 fat.

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In 17 years of writing recipes, I'd never used this ingredient until now - Detroit Free Press

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing looking for a drama-free weekend at Silverstone – The Checkered Flag

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Aston Martin Red Bull Racing are looking to leave the dramas from the Hungaroring as the Formula One World Championship heads to its fourth race of the season at Silverstone. Where the circuit is set for a double header including its 70th anniversary Formula One race.

Last time out in Budapest, Max Verstappen got into trouble during the out lap which saw his RB16 collide with the barriers causing damage to the car which was remarkably fixed before lights out. Max crossed the line in a rewarding second place, and is looking to put this behind him as they head to the Milton Keynes-based teams home race.

Ive watched the video back of the mechanics working on my car on the grid and it was crazy what they achieved but it was cool to see that they all knew exactly how to operate and what to do, even in such an unexpected situation. Without them I would not have even started the race,said Verstappen.

The Dutchman continued: Im looking forward to the next triple header and Silverstone is a really nice track to drive. The corners at Silverstone are insanely fast and Copse is flat out! Maggots is also flat out in seventh gear which is already crazy, especially in qualifying as you dont even tap the brake anymore, you just downshift. Obviously it can rain at Silverstone, even though it is summer in the UK (laughs) but I like those conditions and maybe we wouldnt mind the rain as it could mix things up.

Alexander Albon is looking for another good performance from the RB16 at Silverstone, having finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in fifth place, he is hoping the performance and reliability will only improve at Silverstone. Albon has Daniel Ricciardos former engineer Simon Rennie back on pit wall acting as his race engineer from this weekend. A move which hopes to speed up the 24-year-olds development.

Albon added, We know the areas we need to work on and with Silverstone being a home race close to the factory, thats good news. I think we can hopefully get a good result there, historically its been a pretty good track for the Team, and its one I really enjoy driving.

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Aston Martin Red Bull Racing looking for a drama-free weekend at Silverstone - The Checkered Flag

Kevin Pillar offers frank assessment of struggling Boston Red Sox: The time for making excuses is over’ – MassLive.com

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BOSTON -- Red Sox outfielder Kevin Pillar hasnt been in Boston long, but it appears that hes already trying to light a fire under his new teammates.

After Boston lost its fourth consecutive game Tuesday night, Pillar offered a frank assessment of the 2020 Red Sox. As Boston heads on the road for the first time after a 1-4 homestand, Pillar hopes the club will stop being distracted by the unusualness of playing in front of no fans and practicing social distancing at the ballpark.

Theres nothing normal about whats going on, Pillar said. Its going to take some guys to adjust a little bit. Now that weve gone once through the rotation, most of our pitchers have gotten in games, most of our hitters have played the field and gotten at-bats, the time for making excuses is over. This is baseball in 2020. Weve got to figure out a way to make the best of it.

The Red Sox limped to a 38-43 home record and 2019 and their Fenway woes have continued early in 2020. Since thrashing the Orioles on Opening Day, the club has not led in any of the last four games and has been outscored 29-13.

Other than strong outings from Nathan Eovaldi, Zack Godley and Phillips Valdez, Bostons pitching staff has struggled mightily through the first five games of the year. Some of the clubs hitters, including Andrew Benintendi (1-for-16), Xander Bogaerts (3-for-18), Michael Chavis (0-for-9) and Rafael Devers (4-for-21), have gotten off to cold starts as well.

Pillar, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and RBI on Tuesday, is off to a blistering start, hitting .583 with a homer and five RBIs in three games. The longtime Blue Jay has never called Fenway Park home before this season but is familiar enough with the ballpark to know how much is lacking without fans in the stands.

I think getting out on the road might be good for this team, Pillar said. I dont think anyones feeling sorry for ourselves. I dont think anyone is too overly concerned about our start. This was definitely a wake-up call for us needing to come out offensively and put some runs across. Do little things better on the basepaths. Play a little cleaner defense and hopefully well turn it around on the road.

Without fans, Pillar said, the Red Sox must find ways to bring energy from within the dugout during games. That has been a tall task over the last four games, during all of which the club has trailed by at least four runs by the middle of the fifth inning.

With five out of 60 regular season games already behind them, the Red Sox are already feeling a sense of urgency as they embark on their first road trip. Their seven-game trip to face the Mets, Yankees and Rays is a daunting challenge for a club that doesnt appear to be firing on any cylinders at the moment.

Ultimately, weve just got to go out there and play a little bit better, Pillar said. Maybe score some runs early and everyone starts to feel good. When you get down in some games pretty early and hit some balls hard and theyre not falling, the natural tendency is to feel sorry for yourself and try a little bit harder. I think we just need to relax overall as a team and not try to carry the team individually.

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Boston Red Sox starting pitching posts 7.45 ERA first turn through; Chaim Bloom has little time for patience with 8% of schedule already complete

Who makes Boston Red Sox lineup? Ron Roenicke says, Im not being told to do anything, which is nice

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Kevin Pillar offers frank assessment of struggling Boston Red Sox: The time for making excuses is over' - MassLive.com

(Exclusive) FIRST ALERT: Tracking storms in the Midlands and watching Isaias as it heads toward the US – BuzzFeedzz

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The latest tropical storm ease ideas and you'll see it right here in the middle portion of your screen with sustained winds miles an hour and it's moving to the north west at twenty miles-an-hour over his spaniel will likely reverse over some warm water and intensify strengthening into a category one storm over the next day so you see the forecasts how about this the official forecast track has a category one hurricane as we go through late tomorrow night into saturday you go sunday's forecast right there sunday afternoon goes monday so we're mainly looking at a forecast between late sunday night into monday where we could feel some impact some parts of south carolina and you'll notice that we are in that cone of uncertainty so there's an equal chance at the center red-line could to the east that will be better news for us if it goes farther to the west though sometime sunday monday that brings more problems for us even here in the mid of south carolina at the euro energy fs models together the euro is in red defenses in black we're looking at equalized the pressure here and what you see the center of the storm you'll notice as we go on a saturday afternoon both systems a pretty good job right over the bahamas once we go past saturday things start to change a little bit with the ga fest to move mainly to the kinda speeding up they're going into monday morning right over north carolina by that point the euro two o'clock in the morning monday is still to our south okay just the of jacksonville but still getting pretty close to our coast as we go into the latter part of the day on monday into early tuesday so that's why we're still hinting at mainly a monday event for us but the alert day could change high pressure offshore going to be steering these ideas toward us also trough of low pressure toward the east coast I should say this travel pressure also be kind of pushing it a little bit so it won't necessarily move all gambling, you know, what I mean so we're watching this pretty closely for you all the next couple days tropical storm force winds could be felt as early as even sunday like sunday for parts of the state especially for the eastern part of the area toward the coast you see these but these colors here long and east of I ninety five about a ten percent chance of seeing symbols as we go into your monday and then looking at monday with the rain some tropical downpours are possible even as far west even as the upstate depending on the track the storm here in according to this model so we have a couple more days to really find the forecast but let's just be whether aware some things could change now fortunate radar we are tracking showers and thunderstorms lexington and counties toward colombia the fair grounds bluff estates atlas road and I seventy seven so more showers and storms that tracking mainly in the shower department over visibility zeal and some more thunderstorms tracking that will likely move toward a king county maybe parts of lexington county as we look ahead and forecast over the next couple of hours so there's a lot that's going been talking a lot the day and I will be the next few days I might be here this weekend you see the ten day forecast here with high temperatures the next several days the mid-nineties ninety five or sunday that alert posted mainly for monday we're going to keep an eye out on the forecast if you do have interests along the coast in a low country and even the grand strand be whether we're too how about next week you'll see temperatures rising from the upper eighties back into the low nineties by tuesday?

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(Exclusive) FIRST ALERT: Tracking storms in the Midlands and watching Isaias as it heads toward the US - BuzzFeedzz

‘A lot of unknowns’: Grand Forks heads back to school in flurry of COVID prep – Grand Forks Herald

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"There are a lot of unknowns, he said. The administration has come up with different ideas, different things, but for us, we really don't know. We don't know what it's going to look like.

Community leaders around the country racing to beat the school bell have been untangling that problem all summer. It is, at first glance, hopelessly complex. Bisenius points out that his classroom at Red River High School is about 25 by 30 feet. How is he supposed to keep more than two dozen kids distanced?

And then what happens, say, if one of my students comes down with it, or gets diagnosed with it? Or I come down with it? What's going to happen to my kids? he asked. Do I suddenly go to quarantine and then everything's done online?

Many things are still unclear about the coming school year in Grand Forks, starting with the date school begins. It was initially slated for Aug. 26 and 27 a staggered start, with students from kindergarten up to ninth grade starting on one day, and grades 10 and above the next. But administrators are mulling a plan to bump that back to Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.

Grand Forks school leaders havent finalized detailed reopening plans, either, though a committee of administrators, principals, school nurses and other staff have been working out the thorny questions of reopening. The plan is expected to be discussed by the School Board leaders at its July 28 meeting.

The full extent of the districts planning isnt available yet. But both a draft document obtained in a public information request and interviews with school leaders paint a picture of a district scrambling to answer as many questions as it can.

Catherine Gillach, an assistant superintendent in the Grand Forks School District, said theres no uniform answer on how classes will social distance, for example furniture could be moved to make space for students desks, or maybe the class could get relocated to a new space. Jody Thompson, another associate superintendent, said that in the case of a teacher or student testing positive, the district plans to follow the lead of public health leaders and contact tracers, even shutting down, if necessary.

Ive been in district administration for 25-plus years, either at the school or the district level. This is the most complex process Ive been involved in trying to plan for, Thompson said. Its just been a daunting task to try to plan for every possible scenario, knowing that we probably wont think of every possible scenario until we get up and running.

But our team has certainly worked through multiple scenarios on how to make this transition back to face-to-face learning, he said.

Despite that confidence, the virus is hard to rely on. Just because cases are down one month says little about the next.

"In North Dakota, we thought things were getting better. There was a time, three or four weeks ago, when we only saw 17 active cases in Grand Forks," School Board President Amber Flynn said. "I think at this point, any decision that we make is going to be the best decision out of the worst (options)."

Given all the difficulties of reopening, one might be forgiven for wondering: why go back to in-person classes at all?

Flynn argues that its not quite so simple. Besides education, school provides a valuable caretaking service for parents who are essential workers, single parents and the like. It also provides mental health or special educational resources to kids in even more families. She mentions concerns for impoverished students who rely on school meals.

"(A lot of school service) exists to help support students in a holistic way, not just academically, Flynn said. You have a student, for example, who's deaf or blind. They need specialized services to learn."

But even as the district stages a defense against coronavirus, its caught in a public relations battle for parents confidence exceptionally important as families make the choice of whether to home-school children, which would in turn affect state per-pupil funding. Though she said shed never judge any parent who made the decision, Flynn pleaded with families to consider the effects of pulling a student out of class.

If the states not providing us with any additional funds to navigate COVID, and parents take their kids out of the school to home school them I think people don't understand the implications of doing that, Flynn said.

But some parents may need convincing. In a survey earlier this month of more than 3,000 Grand Forks parents, more than 8% said they do not intend to send their student back for in-person instruction, with nearly 5% more indicating their child will likely need accommodations for a medical condition. Nearly 2 in 3 parents said they have at least some concerns about kids going back to class.

The same goes for educators. Leaders with the Grand Forks Education Association the union that represents local teachers declined to comment for this report, citing ongoing talks with district leaders. But according to a district survey of 1,000 Grand Forks school staff, nearly 1 in 5 expressed a lack of confidence that the school will be prepared to safely reopen next month. After reading a primer on the districts plans, more than 70% said they still have at least some concerns about returning to class.

The plan district leaders are drawing together, though, is a far-reaching attempt to address those concerns. Teachers and parents who said they might not return or need health accommodations will get a call from the district to help explore and address concerns. And school leaders are drawing up a detailed plan to help them manage whatever comes next.

A planning document, labeled a draft at the top in large red text, was provided to the Herald on Wednesday after a public information request. It shows ongoing plans and safety procedures to answer thorny back-to-school questions.

A section labeled expected safety procedures includes roughly two dozen bullet points, and describes kids being screened at home by parents daily, with anyone showing a high fever or two of nine other symptoms excluded from school. The plan says masks will be mandated in communal spaces and close groups with a few exceptions for medical or personal needs. Desks will be physically distanced, and staff and students will use hand sanitizer whenever they enter or leave a classroom. School supplies and snacks wont be shared.

The document also describes planning thats still in process. School leaders still appear to be untangling how to manage student pick-up and drop-off, as well as foot traffic within buildings. One part of the plan proposes student cohorts might stay in a classroom and teachers travel from room to room. Another describes ongoing planning for safer breakfast and lunch schedules.

Were confident that were going to create a safe learning environment for all of our staff and students, Thompson, the assistant superintendent, said. However, parents will still have some options if they have a child thats got some medical conditions, or maybe somebody thats in the household that has a pre-existing medical condition. Were obviously going to work with families that have those types of situations, and be as flexible and accommodating as we can.

The Herald obtained the document after making a public information request for a set of documents dozens of pages long described by school leaders in a July 13 School Board meeting. That request was denied, and the shorter draft document was provided to the Herald instead. On Thursday, administrators expected a more detailed document to be made available within the next several business days.

Sharing the contents of all those working notes prematurely would likely cause our community great and unnecessary confusion and consternation, Gillach wrote in an email. ... (The draft) however provides a more clear and understandable picture than the working docs requested.

And in a matter of weeks, the preparation will be over, and the time to head back to the classroom will have come. Jade Brown, a special education teacher in Grand Forks, said shes putting her faith in the administration

This is just time that we put our trust in our leaders and move forward, she said. ... I just think, as teachers, we have to be willing to adapt with what's thrown at us.

Excerpt from:

'A lot of unknowns': Grand Forks heads back to school in flurry of COVID prep - Grand Forks Herald

Stacey Abrams’s Record Is Not as Progressive as She Wants You to Think – Jacobin magazine

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US political discourse has a habit of elevating figures without knowing anything about them. Barack Obama became president with nary a discussion of his ties to finance, thanks to his speeches and charm. Beto ORourke, a centrist, business-friendly Democrat, was briefly a top contender for president on the back of his youth and mastery of viral videos. And then theres Stacey Abrams.

For the past two years, Abrams has been a leading recipient of this hopscotching swarm of liberal adoration, moving like ORourke, from losing a high-profile statewide race to becoming one of the leading Democratic officeholders in the country, despite no longer holding any office. Abrams has been floated as everything from a future president to a future attorney general.

She delivered the partys official State of the Union response in 2019, and her every public utterance tends to set off a flurry of fevered speculation about the exact shape of her political future. The subject of countless glossy profiles, Abrams has been one of the more high-profile names on Joe Bidens vice presidential short list, and was even briefly floated as a possible appointee to the late John Lewiss House seat.

And yet despite an accomplished political career spanning four years as deputy city attorney in Atlanta, ten years in the Georgia House of Representatives, and eight of those as the House minority leader, virtually none of the discussion has invoked her actual record. Far from the unapologetic progressive shes been depicted as in left-leaning media, Abramss time as a policymaker in Georgia reveals her politics to resemble nothing but the centrism of the man whose running mate she has campaigned to be.

Abrams grew up in Mississippi, one of six children raised by a librarian mother and dockworker father, whose undiagnosed dyslexia in the 1950s was mistaken for ignorance by his school, which forced him to memorize his way through college. Once a politician, Abrams would tell a story of making the forty-mile trip on Christmas to pick her father up from the shipyard where he worked, finding him trembling in the cold on the side of the highway. He had given his coat to a homeless man.

In her childhood, the Abrams family was part of what her mother described as the genteel poor, which Abrams explained meant we had no money, but we watched PBS and read books. My parents did what we called visiting poverty a lot, she later joked to attendees at an event hosted by the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce. We didnt live there, but we had a really nice summer home.

Seeing their power and water cut off wasnt unusual for the family, and on those occasions Abramss mother would have her kids volunteer at the local homeless shelter. Things didnt get much better when they moved to Georgia in Abramss mid-teens, at which point her parents became Methodist ministers a decision, she has said, guaranteeing that they would be permanently poor. The Abramss were civil rights activists, beaten, imprisoned, and kicked off buses for asserting their basic rights. In Mississippi, both had been active in registering voters, hardly a risk-free affair at the time.

Abrams and her siblings were saved by public education, she said in 2018 during a brutal Democratic primary for governor that saw her and her opponent battle over who was most progressive. Speaking to the LaGrange-Troup Chamber three years before that, however, Abrams ascribed her and her siblings success to something different: the values of cooperation, competitiveness, and accountability, imbued by their parents. The first part of leadership is to co-operate, she said.

As a student at Atlantas Spelman College, Abrams followed her parents into the world of activism, helping found the two-hundred-member-strong Students for African-American Empowerment. The group made headlines for running a voter registration drive, and really made headlines when they burned the Georgia flag in the middle of a protest, turning Abrams into a target for racist abuse. Im used to stuff like that, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. When I was in the tenth grade, I had a police escort because my dad spoke out against the KKK.

My parents never told us there was anything we couldnt do, so between the six of us, we decided to try and do all of it, Abrams later said. That applied not just to her prolific private-sector work later in her career, but the bewildering array of causes she got involved in through college and, later, at Yale Law School, including several different Democratic campaigns, the transition team of 1993 Atlanta mayor-elect Bill Campbell, the platter of local bodies whose boards she sat on, and the several romantic suspense novels she published under a pen name.

In November 1999, Abrams joined Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, one of Atlantas largest and oldest law firms, whose clients included the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, and a host of the countrys biggest companies. It was a somewhat surprising choice: at the time, Sutherland had established a national reputation as the go-to firm for state and local governments fighting progressive challenges to racial disparities in their school systems.

The firm had produced legal advice for Palm Beach County justifying the end of busing, was hired by Missouri and Phoenix to fight legal challenges to unequal school funding, and one of its senior partners was a high-profile figure inveighing against traditional solutions to desegregation, later claiming in one mock trial that inner city school systems had all the funding they needed, but were simply not spending it properly. In one particularly notorious case, New York state hired the firm to resist a lawsuit brought by an advocacy group seeking to correct funding disparities between New York City and its suburbs. Sutherland lost the case, only adding to the outrage when it left the state a bill worth millions of dollars in fees and expenses something of a habit for the firm.

Abramss work for the firm focused on a different area. As she would later disclose, her three years at the firm were spent securing tax exemptions for clients, including universities, hospitals, and foundations, and providing them with legal advice and strategies on tax. Sutherlands recent activities suggest what kind of work that meant: just a year before Abrams joined, it had led a lobbying battle on behalf of businesses against the Clinton Treasurys attempts to clamp down on corporate tax evasion.

This corporate work seemingly began to infuse Abramss politics. In a Christian Science Monitor op-ed from the time, Abrams proposed one idea to bridge the divide in education access and quality that exemplified the style of entrepreneurial social justice that would characterize her later political career: IPO-Funded Educational Trusts (IFETs).

IFETs would be a series of privately and competitively managed investment funds overseen by a board of public and private advisers that would take a small percentage of the proceeds from companies initial public offerings (IPOs), invest them in the stock market, and have the Department of Education pour the proceeds into subsidies for charter schools or local equivalents. In this way, IPOs, which fuel the entrepreneurial engines of American prosperity, would guarantee a social inheritance for impoverished kids, she wrote.

Sometimes, however, the interests of business and social justice didnt mix as well. In 2005, as deputy city attorney of Atlanta, Abrams drafted and became a leading proponent of an anti-panhandling ordinance at the behest of the mayor and city businesses, who worried begging would drive away tourism and conferences. The measure banned all panhandling after dark and levied punishment of up to thirty days in jail and even a $1,000 fine for a third strike. Abrams had explicitly modelled it on ordinances passed in cities like Fort Lauderdale, limiting the ban to a specific section of the city so it could survive the same kinds of court challenges those measures had withstood.

Abrams almost sold the ban as a progressive measure. It was a kinder, gentler version of the citys existing Draconian law, she said, true only because of its cruelty at the time, allowing police to arrest people on a first offense. It would direct the truly needy, she said, into the center of the city where a new round-the-clock shelter had just opened; then all that would be left would be the con artists, she explained, ready to be swept up by police.

Religious officials and advocates for the homeless werent convinced. Joe Beasley, the Rainbow/PUSH coalitions Southern regional director, called it a mean, cold, calculated move. One homeless shelter operator termed it a Negro removal policy, given that many of the citys panhandlers were black.

It was a travesty said one former council person. He was one of several arrested the day the council approved the law 12-3, part of the more than two-hundred-strong crowd that had packed into city hall to fight and, eventually, protest its enactment. Many wore red T-shirts with the name of Martin Luther King Jr fitting, since the southern boundary of the ban zone was the citys Martin Luther King Jr Drive, and the council had extended it to the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site in the eleventh hour.

When Abrams ran for governor in 2018, she had cause to brand herself an unflinching progressive. Abrams resisted and spoke out against the US Rights socially regressive policies. She denounced the GOPs Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act in 2010, which sought to criminalize sex-selective abortions, and pushed an anti-vasectomy bill to highlight the hypocrisy of the states largely male, Republican legislature trying to restrict abortion rights. She also voted against a Republican bill to expand the right to carry guns in bars, churches, college campuses, and government buildings.

As anti-immigrant sentiment became increasingly central to the GOP, Abrams stood against it. She fought bills to force employers to verify new hires immigration status and to make all official state businesses and related forms be conducted in English, and condemned Gov. Nathan Deals decision to appoint the spokesman for the far-right Americans for Immigration Control to an immigration panel.

Yet she also opposed them on conservative, pro-business grounds: she worried what impact the verification bill would have on the bottom line of the state at a time of economic downturn, while the English language bill would put Georgia at an economic disadvantage, and warned it drains our tax base because people that work and pay taxes into the state coffers wouldnt be able to contribute anymore. If were seen not as anti-illegal, but anti-legal, businesses that are looking to relocate will look past Georgia, she warned.

Though Abrams has stopped just short of running on single payer, she was firmly in the Obama consensus on the issue of health care. Despite firm resistance from Georgias GOP-dominated government, Abrams was a major proponent of expanding Medicaid, making it a top priority for House Democrats and introducing and reintroducing a bill to do so in 2016 and 2017, arguing that it would aid the hundreds of thousands of Georgians in public health care no-mans-land too poor to afford private care, but earning too much to qualify for the program create jobs, and provide much-needed federal funding for the states ailing hospitals.

Despite taking a trip to Israel with other Georgia lawmakers early in her career, Abrams voted against a 2017 bill forcing companies competing for state contracts to pledge they werent taking part in a boycott against Israel, earning her the ire of a prominent local developer. Abrams carefully triangulated on the issue: she penned an op-ed reiterating her support for Israel, rejecting the demonization and delegitimization of Israel represented by the BDS narrative and campaign, noting her repeated attendance at American Israel Public Affairs Committee conferences, and rooting her opposition in concerns around potentially hurting future boycotts similar to those of the Civil Rights and Anti-Apartheid Movements.

She was a critic of austerity, lamenting the sorry level of Georgias government worker salaries, criticizing the changes wrought by Bill Clintons 1996 welfare reform bill, and assailing the states punitive treatment of the poor, including drug tests for welfare. To that end, Abrams was instrumental in derailing Republicans 2011 tax reform plans, pitched to voters as a tax cut. Abrams helped embarrass GOP leadership into abandoning the plans by reading out data provided by the Georgia State University Fiscal Research Center, which showed they were poised to increase taxes on middle-income Georgians while slashing them for the rich.

The effort capped years of Abrams speaking out against Republican efforts to cut property taxes, as well as a regressive plan to reinstate a grocery tax. She stressed that the resulting budget hole from tax cuts would mean the elimination of vital programs like Meals on Wheels. (Though conservative rhetoric kept creeping into her comments, as when she chided the GOP for its lack of transparency: That is not only no way to run a democracy, that is no way to run a business, she said.)

But Abramss time in the House was perhaps most notable, and certainly most controversial, for the times she chose to work with Republicans. Abrams became House minority leader at a difficult time. The Democrats were already at a historic nadir of political influence in the state, with fewer Georgians than ever identifying with the party, largely thanks to an exodus of rural, white voters into the arms of the GOP. After dominating the state as late as the beginning of the new millennium, by 2010 the party had lost the last statewide office it had clung to, and fundraising had all but dried up, overwhelmingly flowing into the GOPs coffers.

By the time Abrams had ascended to leadership in 2010, the Democrats had lost the governors office for the third time and held just eighty-five of the state House and Senates 236 seats, with nine of the partys legislators defecting to the GOP after the 2010 election, including the newly elected chairman of the House Democrats. Republicans were ultimately just one seat shy of a 120-vote House supermajority.

In such a weak position, Abrams made repeatedly clear she saw her role primarily as one of working with Republicans. We should, first and foremost, compromise where we can, she later said, stressing it would be the only way the Democrats could have an impact.

Or as she told Governing magazine upon being named their 2014 Public Official of the Year: My fundamental philosophy is that my first job is to cooperate and collaborate with the other side whenever I can.

That approach first ignited controversy when newly elected governor Nathan Deal announced plans to cut the states lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship in 2011. The pride of Georgia politics since it was championed and enacted by former governor Zell Miller in 1993, HOPE had helped 1.3 million students attend college for free or with a substantially reduced debt over eighteen years.

Deal wanted to raise the grade point average (GPA) for students to qualify, take HOPE out of the business of paying for books and remedial classes, and be less forgiving to students whose grades fell and wanted a second shot at the scholarship. He also wanted to steeply cut pre-K programs, in one of four states with a universal pre-K program.

Abrams lined up behind the plan. Deal announced the cuts with Abrams and the Republican House speaker by his side, allowing him to claim he was working in a bipartisan fashion to save the program. We as Democrats as the party that created HOPE, support any process that preserves HOPE, she said.

Deal had included two of the provisions shed requested, including a low-interest student loan program for kids who couldnt meet the 3.0 GPA and extra money for technical college students taking remedial classes. By supporting the legislation, we were able to insert several key changes that will protect working families and at-risk students, Abrams explained. With her backing, the bill easily cleared the House 152-22.

Senate Democrats, for their part, said they were blindsided. As high school and college students chanted Shame on you! and Kill the bill! outside the state Capitol, a dozen Democrats in the upper chamber unveiled a counter-proposal, this one upping the amount the scholarship received from the lottery. But with Republican dominance, the bill was dead on arrival.

It was an ideal study of Abramss political approach in action. By backing Deals plan, Abrams got a seat at the table, allowing her to soften the cuts. This was also why Deal scaled back his plans to cut the states pre-K program, she claimed though an outcry from parents over the unpopular idea played some role, too.

Instead of slashing teachers salaries by 30 percent, Deals new plan would cut them by 10 percent; and pre-K classes would see their funding reduced to 94 percent of what they were getting. For the minority party to be able to come to the table and get real tangible results, thats what we were looking for and thats what we want, she said, after standing by Deal at a news conference in which he announced the cuts. Fortunately for Abrams, education cuts wouldnt be the last issue she and the states GOP could collaborate on. Both also happened to be equally enthusiastic proponents of charter schools.

From 2012 on, a statewide to-and-fro ensued over the states authority over education funding. When Deal proposed a constitutional amendment giving the state the power to create charters, even to the point of overruling local bodies, Democrats, following Abramss lead, bitterly opposed it, defeating it in the House.

But Abrams didnt oppose it because of the many well-known problems with charter schools. Her only objections were the unprecedented, unchecked power it delivered to the state government, and the lack of money to pay for it. She instead backed an alternative proposal that allowed the state government the same power, while checking its influence over local school decisions.

After Republicans agreed to make sure local school systems wouldnt be on the hook financially for the cost of any newly approved charter, Abrams let her caucus vote freely for the measure. Despite Senate Democrats opposition, it passed, and voters later approved it with 58 percent of the vote.

Abrams continued flirting with similarly far-reaching measures. In 2013, when the Republican majority whip proposed a controversial bill allowing parents to vote on converting their local schools to charters and even firing their principals, she didnt dismiss it, saying the ethos is good, which is to increase engagement. Two years later, when Deal proposed a constitutional amendment creating a statewide Opportunity School District that could take over, close, or turn failing schools into charters, Abrams called it an interesting idea that has shown some promise in some areas.

While Senate Democrats put forward a counter-proposal to add health clinics and counselors to failing schools, Abrams went with Deal on a fact-finding mission to Louisiana, where a similar idea had been trialed after Hurricane Katrina, with disastrous results a trip paid for by a pro-charter group.

Though Abrams and her caucus ultimately came out in opposition, eleven of sixty Democrats defected, crucial votes that made up for nine Republicans who had gotten cold feet, giving the measure the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. The measure ultimately had to be stopped by Georgians themselves, who voted it down in November 2016.

In the face of opposition from voters, Deal and the GOP simply decided to circumvent them, this time with Abramss full support. The start of the following year, Republicans pushed a bill allowing schools deemed unacceptable by the state to come under the authority of a chief turnaround officer (CTO), who could fire staff, remove schools from local board authority, let parents enroll their kids somewhere else, or, naturally, convert them to charters.

With a few morsels thrown to Democrats deleting language for vouchers to send kids to private schools, and inserting language that promised some unspecified action on child poverty, though without actually committing any money Abrams endorsed it, calling it a step in the right direction and urging her party to back it. Columbuss Ledger-Enquirer called her its most influential backer on the Democratic side. It sailed through the House 138-37, over the objections of half the Democratic caucus and even some conservative Republicans, and despite the opposition of the Georgia Federation of Teachers and the state NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Critics called it a backdoor to Deals original amendment. Abrams, in an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it a testing ground for what works and the empirical results necessary for smart policy changes. It was, again, only in the Senate that Democrats resisted, with all of the party leadership voting against and more than two-thirds of the party overall voting it down. Teachers will be fired, warned Sen. Vincent Fort, the Democratic whip, who called the $2.2 million Deal belatedly inserted to turn around failing schools a pittance.

Its insufficient to simply be the party of opposition, Abrams had said two years earlier, outlining an alternative to the typical, adversarial approach taken by minority parties. My first job is to work together with the majority party.

The CTO legislation was the fruit of this approach, and the worst fears of its critics were only averted because of a series of unrelated events: opposition from the state school superintendent, a whistleblower investigation over allegations of discrimination and conflict of interest surrounding the man appointed to the office, and repeated slashing of its budget thanks to a lack of enthusiasm from Deals Republican successor who, incidentally, had beaten Abrams for the position. The marginally less Republican state legislature finally eliminated the position at the end of June this year.

For the political press, Abramss willingness to work with the state GOP is a marker of her political skills and seriousness. But it rubbed some fellow Democrats the wrong way, such as Fort, who in 2014 complained she probably meets with Republican leadership more than Senate Democratic leadership.

Abramss collaborative philosophy continued right up to the gubernatorial run that made her a household name. In 2017, Republicans, backed by a coalition of business groups like the Georgia Bankers Association and the state Chamber of Commerce, pushed a bill that sought to undo a 2014 Georgia Supreme Court ruling allowing a failed banks board of directors and officers to be held liable for its recklessness and negligence, itself a response to the rash of racist, predatory lending that has plagued the state and its capital for decades.

The bill became a flashpoint in the following years primary contest, when Abrams was running as an unabashed progressive seeking to win the governors office by inspiring a massive turnout of nonwhite voters. Her rival, fellow State Rep. Stacey Evans, had delivered the Democratic speech against the measure on the House floor; Abrams, on whom that task would typically have fallen thanks to her leadership status, instead had walked over to Evans and briefly spoke with her when she was done talking. Evans later claimed Abrams had asked her if the bill was really that bad, and that she replied that it was; Abrams denied thats how the conversation had gone.

Whatever the case, Abrams went back and voted with Republicans to pass the bill. Bottom line, the bill would allow for the same kind of abuses in subprime banking that we saw in the 90s and 2000s, and would have given even less accountability for bank officers and directors, Fort, who had spent decades fighting predatory lending in Georgia and backed Evans in the race, told the Intercept in 2018. He and State Rep. Spencer Frye recalled for the outlet how the bill had been pushed by a swarm of bank lobbying groups groups that, incidentally, had given generously to Abrams, along with employees of the states finance industry.

Yet Abrams didnt always take this approach, even on some losing issues. One need only look at her and her caucuss doomed but ardent resistance to GOP redistricting, an issue that happened to directly threaten their political power.

When Republicans rolled out a redistricting plan in 2011 creating seven more mostly minority districts, and potentially purging white Democrats by pitting them either against black Democrats in those districts or Republicans in GOP-voting districts, Abrams went on the offensive. Calling it a craven and cynical misappropriation of the Voting Rights Act, she accused Republicans of trying to re-segregate Georgia. With the GOPs maps, she warned, the number of white Democrats in the House would fall from twenty-two to only ten.

In stark contrast to her passive opposition to and even support of some of Deals education bills, Abrams emailed her caucus urging them to stay united against these plans. There certainly are some folks Im going to have to coax a little bit, but any individual members success at the expense of the Democratic caucus and millions of Georgians is not worth the sacrifice, she wrote. It is in the Democratic nature to say we stick together, lest we all fall.

So intent was Abrams on stopping it, that she had threatened to primary any Democrats who voted for the new maps, the Journal-Constitution later reported. The role of a caucus leader is to protect the ideals and policies of our constituents, she told the paper. I can see no justification for any member to put his or her personal interests above our constituents and vote for a map that decimates the Democratic caucus and creates a Republican super-majority. There were some things, Abrams suggested, that it was more important to go down fighting on principle, than to be complicit in.

Fighting a losing battle, Abrams and House Democrats nonetheless put forward their own alternative map and unsuccessfully voted against the GOPs proposal. Accusing Republicans of acting as bullies, Abrams vowed to challenge it in court if they won approval from Obamas justice department, which they did.

It was from around this time that Abrams recast herself as a voting rights advocate, something that would remain at the core of her political identity to the present day. The turnaround was unexpected for political observers in the state. In 2011, Abrams had voted with Republicans to roll back the states 2008-era expansion of early voting, reducing it from forty-five to twenty-one days, something groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for American Progress had cited as examples of voter suppression at the time, and which the NAACP had warned would disproportionately affect voters of color, given that 60 percent of black voters in 2008 had cast their ballots in the early period.

Now, Abrams became a member of American Values First, a Democrat-led organization connected to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee that looked to combat countrywide GOP voter suppression, including the kind of early voting restrictions she had helped impose on her state. She traveled to Washington to hold a closed-door forum with legislators about boosting voter turnout, and sponsored bills creating one-time and online voter registration.

Yet even after her apparent conversion, Abramss penchant for collaborating with the opposition could send these goals crashing into a wall. In 2015, Republicans passed a redistricting plan that gerrymandered two GOP-held districts on the road to turning blue, funneling more white voters into them. Its passage followed a familiar pattern: while Senate Democrats opposed the plan, it sailed through the House with unanimous approval.

When the NAACP and Eric Holders National Democratic Redistricting Foundation challenged the new maps in court in 2017, three Republican legislators behind it testified under oath that Abrams had given her nod to the changes. Several Democrats told the Intercept and the Journal-Constitution that Abrams had backed the bill and ordered Democrats to vote for it. Abrams, for her part, claimed she had been misled by its author.

Whatever had happened, Abramss support helped undermine the ultimately doomed legal challenge. And neither version was particularly flattering: Abrams had either consciously helped Republicans disenfranchise voters of color, or she had been tricked into it, the GOP successfully using her yearning for compromise against her.

This wouldnt be the last time Abramss voting-rights advocacy would embroil her in controversy. The other involved a theme that runs though her entire career: the mixing of her public service and private enterprise. Abramss extensive business career shouldnt have been a surprise. After all, Abrams has long considered Ayn Rands libertarian Bible Atlas Shrugged one of her favorite books. She does so not because of its selfishness theory, which she rejects, she once said, but because when we stop celebrating innovation and genius and thought and creativity then we run very real risks as humans.

Im a tax attorney romance novelist politician and a serial reluctant entrepreneur, Abrams once said. That is a reality show waiting to happen. It was also a potential scandal waiting to happen. Even after leaving Sutherland in 2003 to become an Atlanta deputy city attorney and, eventually, a state representative, Abrams never left the private sector behind.

She started a company that produced bottled water for infants, served on the Womens Advisory Board for the Moore Financial Group, was chief operating officer (COO) for a tech firm she founded, cofounded and served as senior VP of a financial services firm, and was the CEO and COO of two separate consulting companies that specialized in public infrastructure projects potentially conflict-laden business for someone serving as the minority leader in the state house.

This is exactly what happened with NOWaccount Network Corporation, the financial services firm Abrams cofounded in 2010, just prior to becoming minority leader. For years, and unbeknownst to her fellow Democrats, as Abrams worked with the Deal government on a host of controversial issues, the firm from which she drew a yearly executives salary of $60,000 and held a minority stake in was benefiting from contracts with the state government, and depended in large part on millions of dollars in federal business loans passed by Congress that year, ones that Abrams admitted she had seen as a business opportunity for the firm. Emails later showed state officials were frustrated with NOWaccounts work, and that in the midst of this clash, Abramss cofounder at one point threatened to engage the legislature.

You should be aware that Stacey Abrams is a co-founder and SVP in the company, read one intra-government email about the conflict. (I expect she is smart enough not to weigh in, but [her co-founder] is otherwise well-connected).

Abrams also remained CEO of Third Sector Development, a nonprofit consultancy she founded back in 1998. It was Third Sector, or more specifically, its subsidiary the New Georgia Project (NGP), that was at the center of one of the more high-profile scandals in Abramss career, when Georgias then-secretary of state (and now governor) Brian Kemp targeted it with a trumped up investigation into voter fraud.

Kemp was your typical hard-right Republican using the playbook the GOP had developed against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now(ACORN) under Obama: jumping on a handful of cases of voter registration fraud to allege vast voter fraud, which could in turn be used to justify voter suppression efforts.

Kemps chief investigator soon made publicly clear that nothing actually suggested the NGP had deliberately aimed to commit registration fraud, and, contrary to Kemps initial alarmist announcement, announced they had only found twenty-five forgeries in the 85,000 applications the organization collected, around 0.03 percent.

The brouhaha, which lasted into 2017, distracted from the actual legitimate concerns with the project, which by 2014 had catapulted Abrams into national attention and given her adoring coverage. Pledging to submit 120,000 voter applications for the 2014 election, the NGP raised $3.6 million from major donors like George Soros, with Abrams pocketing $177,500 as CEO. But its results fell short of the monumental outcomes these figures heralded.

According to Abrams herself, the NGP managed to add only 46,000 new voters to the rolls. In fact, the Constitution-Journal reported, around 53,000 fewer voters were registered in 2014 than four years prior, and voter turnout fell six points between those years, to a dire 34 percent.

Despite an endorsement from former governor Zell Miller and name recognition she was the daughter of a former senator Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn went down in flames that year by eight points, as did gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter, grandson of former president Jimmy Carter.

As early as June 2014, one Savannah State University student paid by the nonprofit to register voters had raised the alarm to a local TV station, questioning if it was a legitimate business after he was told to direct people to a polling station that didnt exist, among other irregularities. A host of Democratic officials, and staffers and activists who had worked with the NGP aired their concerns over the organization with Atlanta alt-weekly Creative Loafing, which included a lack of transparency.

Two NGP staffers accidentally tried recruiting county election office staffers, the outlet reported, unwittingly confessing to them that the nonprofit required them to meet a quota to stay employed creating an incentive for exactly the kind of application forgeries that Kemp later exploited for his own ends. [The NGP] underperformed what was done in 2010, one former Abrams staffer complained to the magazine. Absolutely nothing was done in 2010. Its hard to grasp how unsuccessful her effort was, given the amount of money raised.

Around half of the gargantuan amount of money raised went to Field Strategies, a Washington DC-based consultancy favored by the Democratic Party and Obamas campaigns. Nunns family, which had used its influence in the state to secure donations for the organization, reportedly wanted answers. The following year, after the controversy had peaked, Abrams scaled her compensation back to $85,000.

This wasnt the last time Abramss extracurricular activities would get her in trouble. In 2016, it would come out that all the while, Abrams had been collecting $5,000 a month from the Nunn campaign for six months work, a fact obscured by Abramss decision to have the money paid to a company registered under her sisters name, which, she later said, she simply forgot to disclose on her annual financial paperwork.

Had it been known at the time, the revelation would have been a legal headache for a nonprofit whose work was meant to be nonpartisan, already made complicated by the fact that Abrams was personal friends with Nunn and sat on the board of a volunteer organization she ran.

There are many ways to evaluate a politician: their rhetoric, their ideas and policy plans, and where they get their money from, to name a few. But whether its Pete Buttigieg, Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders, one of the surest ways to do so is to look at what theyve actually done with the responsibilities of elected office.

Unfortunately for the public, coverage of Abrams has been all but devoid of discussion about the most crucial of factors. Ironically, liberal-leaning media has tended to mirror the terms of right-wing attacks on Abrams which both portray her as a far-left firebrand, based almost entirely on her rhetoric.

At only forty-six years old, and with a powerful national profile, Stacey Abrams will be around for a long time. Shes said her plan is to become president by 2040, and theres more than a good chance shell mount another run for governor. If shes going to wield power someday, voters may as well know something about how shes used it.

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Stacey Abrams's Record Is Not as Progressive as She Wants You to Think - Jacobin magazine

Harvard Law Professor Analyzes Hingham Firefighters’ Refusal To Remove So-Called ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flags From Trucks – wgbh.org

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Firefighters in Hingham, Mass., are continuing to display a version of the American flag black and white with a blue stripe on their fire trucks. The firefighters say it's there to show support for the police, but their bosses say it's an inappropriate political statement and it has to come down. All Things Considered host Arun Rath spoke with Noah Feldman, a professor of law at Harvard Law School, on Wednesday about the controversy. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Arun Rath: And first, to give people some background, because in case you're not familiar, this flag that has the blue stripe in it, the supporters say that it's supposed to show support for the police. Right now in our current context, its also come up as is being shown in opposition to Black Lives Matter and that movement. And there were apparently some complaints from some citizens in Hingham along those lines. It sounds like it might be established law, but give us the foundation here.

First, do employers have the right to limit these kind of political displays in the workplace? And does it make a difference if we're talking about a private business or, say, the firefighters?

Noah Feldman: Well, first of all, it can make a difference. Certainly, a private employer can decide what flag will be displayed in the workplace. But that's because a private employer is also not governed by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

Government is a different matter. Government is governed by the First Amendment, and government can't limit citizens' free speech. So that's why this becomes sort of interesting and even a little bit complicated from a constitutional perspective.

The thing to keep in mind here is that if private citizens who were serving the government wanted to speak on their own, they would have some capacity to do so without being told what to say by the government. But because in this case, the flags that they're flying are on firetrucks, which are government property, it's almost certainly the case under existing law that if the town's executive say you have to take the flags down, that they are obligated to take the flags down.

Rath: And is there precedent in case law that supports that from the past?

Feldman: In general, the precedent here is a principle called government speech. The government is entitled, when it's speaking through its official channels, to say whatever it wants. It can express any point of view that it chooses. It can promote a view. It can argue against a view. The government can run public service announcements telling you to go out to vote. The government can have a holiday called Columbus Day, which some people don't like because, you know, [what was] originally intended to say nice things about Italian Americans is now construed by some to be, you know, papering over of a history of invasion and imperialism and even genocide. But the government is still entitled to do it.

And similarly, the government can decide what messages will or won't be conveyed on its property, including its firetrucks. So that's the general principle here.

Rath: And is there total clarity when it comes to saying what counts as political speech? It may be clear in a case like this, but are there other displays that would be considered nonpolitical and therefore, OK?

Feldman: Well, here it does get a little bit trickier because, you know, if the town of Hingham suddenly wanted to fly flags from its firetruck saying 'Vote Democrat' or 'Vote Republican,' it could be the case that it would be crossing a line that's very well established in American politics namely, that local governments and the federal government are not supposed to themselves express preferences that are partisan political. So that that would be a circumstance which might be relevant.

But broadly speaking, there isn't, other than a town policy here, a general constitutional principle that says that a town or a city couldn't say something that was political in its own right. So, you know, having Columbus Day is political. The state of Massachusetts does it. And that's OK. So what's going on here is that in Hingham, the town says it has a policy of not allowing political speech. But it doesn't have to have that policy to be able to choose what flag it flies.

Arun: Well, I was going to ask about that, because we've seen it in other areas where local governments are actually endorsing, even promoting political speech I think of New York City, where the city painted Black Lives Matter in front of Trump Tower. But that's OK because that's their policy?

Feldman: Exactly. That's their policy. And that's what they want to express.

Now, what Hingham says is that they have a written policy that says no political speech. And I suppose if the firefighters wanted to go to court and challenge an order for them to take down the flags, what their best argument would be would be to say, 'Well, you say that this is a political policy, a policy of no political speech. But this isn't political speech.' And then ask the court to determine the meaning of Hinghams policies. That would be different from a constitutional argument. It would just be saying, 'Hey, we don't think you're applying your own policy correctly.'

Rath: And where could this potentially go legally from here? Could the firefighters union challenge this policy?

Feldman: You know, I suppose they could. The firefighters don't have an individual right to fly any flags that they want from the firetrucks. And so far as I can tell, at least in the news stories that I've read, they haven't asserted that they have such a right. On the other hand, they have said, 'Well, gee, none of us have found it in our hearts to take down the flag.' So they're engaged right now in a kind of, I would say, gentle civil disobedience with respect to these flags.

If they were really pushed, I suppose they could go to court and ask the court to say that the town was not correctly enforcing its own policy. I think a court would be pretty skeptical of that because in general, courts like to be deferential to government officials who are reasonably enforcing their own policy. And I think they probably would say that a flag with a message is almost inherently something political and therefore up to the town to determine whether or not they can fly or not.

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Harvard Law Professor Analyzes Hingham Firefighters' Refusal To Remove So-Called 'Thin Blue Line' Flags From Trucks - wgbh.org

Sedative found in body of Kyoto ALS patient who sought medically assisted suicide – The Japan Times

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A sedative was detected in the body of a terminally ill Kyoto woman who was allegedly killed by two doctors with her consent, investigative sources said Saturday.

The Kyoto Prefectural Police believe the two doctors, both men, were paid to inject barbiturate sedatives into her gastric fistula, a device used to guide food directly to the stomach.

According to medical sources, the sedative is used to treat epilepsy patients and is not sold on the market. The drug, which has strong side effects and causes dependence syndrome, can suppress breathing and lead to death if injected in large quantities. It is used by suicide-support groups in Europe and the United States.

A prescription is required to buy the drug but doctors can obtain it easily, the sources said. The sedative comes in two varieties, one that takes immediate effect and another that works gradually. The former has been used to conduct euthanasia and capital punishment in the United States. Both come in multiple forms ranging from tablets and powders to injectable solutions and are used often by doctors to induce deep sleep, for example.

Investigative sources said Yuri Hayashi, 51, who had the progressive neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrigs disease, used a gastric fistula.

The two doctors, Yoshikazu Okubo, who runs a clinic in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, and Naoki Yamamoto, a doctor in Tokyo, were arrested Thursday on suspicion of assisting death by administering Hayashi a lethal drug with her consent.

The doctors allegedly got together in the city of Kyoto on the day of her death last November and visited Hayashi at her condominium by pretending to be her acquaintances.

They left about five to 10 minutes later, and the caretaker found Hayashi unconscious soon after. She was transported to a hospital, where she died.

The police opened an investigation after an unfamiliar substance was found in her body. The police believe the doctors made thorough preparations on the day she died so they could leave the scene quickly.

The two were school acquaintances. Yamamoto is suspecgted of writing an electronic book about technology that can be used to let people die without signs of foul play, and the police are investigating the details, including how the book was published.

ALS is an uncurable disease that causes gradual paralysis. There are about 10,000 ALS patients in Japan.

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Sedative found in body of Kyoto ALS patient who sought medically assisted suicide - The Japan Times

Northwell Health to Advance Health Care Innovation Amid COVID-19 Pandemic at Constellation Forum – Business Wire

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NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Northwell Health will host its third annual Constellation Forum virtually on Thursday, August 6 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This years Forum will focus on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as it has highlighted the increased demands on health care innovation and on those who bring it to life. All are welcome to register for the free event at http://www.ConstellationForum.com

The Constellation Forum will explore what can be learned from efforts today in order to prepare whatever comes next. Northwells President and CEO, Michael Dowling, and an influential group of leaders, including Eric Schmidt, Former CEO & Chairman of Google and Co-Founder of Schmidt Futures; Joaquin Duato, Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee from Johnson & Johnson; Kevin Lobo, Chief Executive Officer of Stryker; Ann Lamont, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT; Cori Bargmann, Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; Stanley Bergman, Chairman of the Board & CEO of Henry Schein; Geoffrey Ling, Founding Director of DARPA Biological Technologies Office and Chief Executive Officer of On Demand Pharmaceuticals and, Kevin Tracey, President and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research will come together to share insights, best practices and the challenges facing health care amid this unprecedented time in order to collectively advance health care innovation.

To recognize Governor Andrew Cuomo for his leadership during this crisis, he will be presented with an honorary degree and provide remarks.

Northwell Health has been at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, treating more patients than any other health system globally and is working vigorously to overcome its challenges, said Mr. Dowling. This Forum gives us the chance to further enhance collaboration and accelerate changes within health care to benefit not only our patients but also patients around the world.

For more information about the program, speakers, and to register your virtual attendance, please visit http://www.constellationforum.com.

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York States largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, nearly 800 outpatient facilities and more than 14,200 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 72,000 employees 17,000-plus nurses and 4,500 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners are working to change health care for the better. Were making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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Northwell Health to Advance Health Care Innovation Amid COVID-19 Pandemic at Constellation Forum - Business Wire

Pandemic Pushes Americans Toward ‘Medicare for All’, but Would It Destroy Healthcare? – CBN News

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With millions of Americans losing their jobs due to lockdowns, and their health insurance as a result, many are reconsidering who should pay the bill if they get sick. The answer might give momentum to Democrats pushing "Medicare for All."

The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world is changing attitudes about adopting a socialist model for health care coverage in America.A recent survey by "One Poll" shows more than 75 percent of Americans say now is the time to experiment with universal healthcare and 76 percent think those who catch COVID-19 should get free treatment.

It's not just Democratic socialists who "feel the Bern" on this issue 74 percent of Republicans, and 84 percent of Democrats polled agree universal healthcare is needed in response to the pandemic.Michael Cannon with the Cato Institute says while this growing support of universal healthcare isn't surprising, the question remains how do you do it."Even though a lot of people associate government funding or government control with universal healthcare, government doesn't make healthcare more universal. It makes healthcare less universal," he argues.

He adds, just look at the handling of the pandemic:

Insurance professional Den Bishop wrote The Voter's Guide to Healthcare: A Non-partisan, Candid, and Relevant Look at Politics and Healthcare in America.He says Sen. Bernie Sanders was smart to brand his program "Medicare for All.""If you as a politician want to get yourself kicked out of office, you just talk about cutting Medicare. It is a very popular program," Bishop said.

But if every American had Medicare it would crash the system. Hospital capacity would nosedive. That's because hospitals lose 10 percent on Medicare coverage. Private insurance pays 241 percent of what Medicare pays for the exact same services, making it possible for hospitals to stay afloat and make money.

Bishop also points to Obamacare as an example. More people have healthcare because of the program, but it costs taxpayers $10,000 per person, per year for a total $737 billion in 2019.Bishop says, "It did provide some additional protections, it did provide additional coverage those are good things but it did it in a very financially inefficient way."The "One Poll" also found 65 percent of Americans fear the financial burden they'll face if they get infected likely a symptom of healthcare costs growing faster than wages."Americans don't have the savings cushion to fall back on because government has been taxing them to fund all sorts of things including healthcare programs that drive up the cost of healthcare," Cannon says.

And Bishop says studies show nearly 100 million Americans are underinsured."If we lose sensitivity to that, then I believe the government will take over all of healthcare and we'll have to deal with the ramifications of that system," he says.There's no question healthcare will be a top issue as voters elect a president this fall.

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Pandemic Pushes Americans Toward 'Medicare for All', but Would It Destroy Healthcare? - CBN News

Avera Health To Expand Pilot Program To Bring Virtual Mental Health Care To Rural Law Enforcement Today’s KCCR 1240-AM Pierre, South Dakota -…

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(KCCR) Avera health is expanding a pilot program that will bring virtual mental health crisis care to law enforcement agencies in rural areas of South Dakota. A one million dollar gift from the Leona and Harry Helmsley Charitable Trust will help outfit law enforcement and court service officers in 23 counties with tablets to access the Avera eCARE system. Helmsley Trustee Walter Panzirer says the program will be another tool for law enforcement

Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson says the program could be a model for other states

Butte County is one of the original four pilot counties and Sheriff Fred Lamphere says they have seen the benefits of fast access to mental health professionals

The pilot program will run through June of 2021. Lyman County is one of 18 counties to take part in the program for law enforcement with counties in the Fourth Judicial Circuit using the pilot program for court services and probation purposes.

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Avera Health To Expand Pilot Program To Bring Virtual Mental Health Care To Rural Law Enforcement Today's KCCR 1240-AM Pierre, South Dakota -...

Opinion: We Must Rescue Health Insurance for Small Businesses and Their Workers – NJ Spotlight

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Joel C. Cantor and Margaret Koller

New Jersey has successfully flattened the curve in the growth of coronavirus cases, but the prospect of a second wave cant be ignored, and cautious consumers may not return to dining out or shopping locally anytime soon.

Small employers are at the cross-currents of pandemic-driven forces. Many small businesses rely on face-to-face interactions, and few have deep pockets to weather shutdowns and stalled demand. The revenue freefall that businesses have experienced over the last five months makes sustaining payments for health insurance coverage challenging if not impossible. Yet, at a time when we are all vulnerable to a dangerous virus with no vaccine and limited treatment options, the idea of going without health coverage can be terrifying.

To address growing challenges in small group health insurance, the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy convened a virtual expert panel on July 16. Drawing on perspectives from the insurance industry, small business, and public affairs, the forum shed light on the causes of our troubled market and possible solutions. The discussion was informed by analysis and policy recommendations provided in the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institutes recently released white paper on options for the small group market. You can view the entire forum here. What follows is our take on the upshot of this discussion.

The small group health insurance market has inherent challenges. Coverage for small businesses has high administrative costs and the small group market is vulnerable to adverse risk selection. Groups with older and sicker workers have much greater demand for coverage than those with young and healthy workforces. These forces contribute to keeping small group premiums high. High premiums, in turn, encourage firms with lower-risk workers to drop out of the market, leading to an unvirtuous cycle of declining enrollment and rising premiums. Without policy measures to stabilize the market, it has a propensity toward adverse selection death spirals, insurance jargon that is self-explanatory.

To understand the current state of New Jersey small group health insurance, and to think about policies to rescue our market, we need to provide a bit of history. The chart below shows trends in the number of people covered in New Jerseys individual (sometimes also called non-group) and small-group markets. The trends are clear. The two lines crossed in the first quarter of 2020, for the first time, with more people covered individually than in small groups. At its peak, in 2005, nearly 1 million people were covered by small group health insurance in the Garden State. Today enrollment is less than a third of that level.

In the period before 2014, New Jerseys small group insurance market was declining by about 10,000 covered lives per quarter, largely because of fast-rising premiums compounded by lingering effects of the 2007-2009 Great Recession. There was an inflection point in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act created the subsidized individual market and expanded Medicaid eligibility, establishing more affordable options for some workers in small firms. The ACA also changed regulations to protect consumers and help ensure stable and affordable individual market coverage, but some of these regulations contributed to the decline in small group coverage.

The continuing downward trend in small group coverage cannot be explained by the ACA alone. A proliferation of alternatives to standard, state-regulated plans (shown in the chart) has emerged, causing a complex dynamic that may be undermining prices and enrollment in state-regulated small group plans. The alternative plans vary greatly in design and structure, and some have weaker consumer protections than our standard market. The Trump administration has promoted some alternatives, arguably to destabilize the ACA. While New Jersey regulators have curbed some of the most questionable types of plans, others continue to attract enrollment in our state.

Alternative plan types available here are governed by different state and federal laws, regulated by different agencies, have different rules for what must be covered, are taxed differently, and have different reporting and disclosure requirements. The market for small business health coverage in New Jersey is rife with complexity and opacity. No market could function well under these conditions, even for employers who are committed to offering coverage.

Achieving stable and affordable small group coverage is a difficult challenge in need of greater attention. Risk pooling is key to affordability. Ensuring that insurance pools include a significant share of young and healthy members keeps premiums down. However, when the market is as fragmented as it is today in New Jersey, public policies to broaden risk pools can create losers (and political opposition) from employers who have benefited from defection to less regulated or less taxed plans.

Because some kinds of alternative plans are not required to publish enrollment or cost data, we do not have a good sense of how much these plans lead to market fragmentation, contribute to rising costs, or erode enrollment in standard plans. An essential first step to improve the market is to require that all entities authorized to sell coverage to small businesses, including the providers of alternative plans, report their enrollment, premiums, and other data to state health insurance regulators. After that, working toward leveling the playing field among options available to small businesses is essential.

Aside from leveling the playing field to ensure broad risk pools and fair competition among plans, another way to tackle affordability is to directly subsidize premiums for those with incomes too low to afford coverage. The ACA does this in the individual market for people without access to employer-paid coverage. Still, small businesses with mainly low-wage workers can face daunting affordability barriers. While the ACA had a narrowly fashioned tax credit for small groups, it was insufficient. At a time of ballooning federal budget deficits and starkly declining state revenues, thinking about a robust, long-term subsidy strategy for small business coverage will likely be off the table for the time being.

Under some circumstances, however, it may be possible to tap federally funded individual insurance subsidies for the benefit of low-wage employees of small businesses. New federal regulations permit Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs), allowing small employers to help pay individual coverage premiums for employees. ICHRA rules are complex and make it difficult for workers with employer contributions for coverage to access federal tax credits. However, if the goal is maximizing access to affordable coverage, through whatever mechanisms feasible, then breaking down the barrier between individual and small group coverage may be a worthy experiment.

New Jersey lawmakers are looking to bolster subsidies for coverage, but these would be likely directed to people who buy their own plans, not through an employer. Currently, there is hotly debated legislation pending, that would impose a 2.75% premium tax on insurers, raising an estimated $300 million. If the bill passes, some of the resulting revenue would be used to draw down federal matching dollars to buy reinsurance which, in turn, will lower premiums in the individual coverage market. Some of the new revenue could also be used to expand direct subsidies for people buying their own coverage.

The state takeover of responsibility from the federal government for the ACA health insurance exchange may present other opportunities to leverage more affordable small group coverage. For one, federal law permits merging the individual and small group risk pools, tying small-group premiums to those for individual coverage. In an analysis we did in 2011, such a merger did not appear wise for New Jersey. But times have changed, and this option should be revisited.

One could be forgiven for thinking that the policy options for rescuing the small group health insurance market seem extraordinarily complex or would operate mainly at the margins. True enough. Private employer-sponsored health insurance has worked reasonably well in this country for larger employers with broad risk pools (although large-group coverage is proving difficult to sustain during the pandemic and many have argued that it has not done a good job of cost containment). But clearly, the private insurance model is much more difficult to sustain for small businesses.

The nation has debated broader, government-sponsored coverage, which would obviate the need to address the questions raised in this commentary. We may be approaching a turning point in the national dialogue on how to address coverage gaps. If so, the conversation must include ways to address the serious problems in the market for private coverage for workers of small firms.

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Opinion: We Must Rescue Health Insurance for Small Businesses and Their Workers - NJ Spotlight

Letter: Take it from health care professionals, masks work | INFORUM – INFORUM

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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been urged to protect themselves, their neighbors, and their loved ones amidst the worst global health crisis in generations. After months of physical distancing and staying at home, infections and deaths began to decline across our country.

But in the weeks since states began reopening, some steps that were critical to the progress made were abandoned too quickly. We are now watching in real-time as a dramatic uptick in COVID-19 cases is erasing hard-won gains. In some states, hospitals are at or nearing their ICU capacity and shortages of personal protective equipment and testing supplies continue to pose a threat to health care workers and patients alike.

While North Dakota is not a high spread state, we want to do everything possible to keep it that way. This is why as physicians, nurses, long term care administrators, hospital and health system leaders, we urge North Dakotans to take the simple steps we know will help stop the spread of the virus: wearing a face mask, maintaining physical distancing, and washing hands. We are not powerless in this public health crisis, and we can defeat it in the same way we defeated previous threats to public healthby allowing science and evidence to shape our decisions and inform our actions.

There is a growing body of evidence that face masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19. One study shows the infection rate among employees at Mass General Brigham hospitals dropped significantly once all workers were required to wear face masks. Another study in Missouri shows that wearing a face mask prevented the spread of infection from two hair stylists to their customers.

Despite claims otherwise, the prolonged use of face masks when properly worn does not cause CO2 intoxication, oxygen deficiency, or any other harm to the wearer. Surgeons operate for hours wearing them. They don't have problems. For those who have been waiting for more data before accepting the practice, these findings make it clear: Masks work.

The toll of this pandemic is staggering, and it will take months, perhaps years, to truly understand its impact on our country and our way of life. But what is certain and what the science and evidence tell us - is that COVID-19 is not behind us. Your actions are critical to stop the spread of COVID-19. We must remain vigilant and continue to take steps to mitigate the spread of the virus to protect each other and our loved ones.

To those of you who are doing your part in helping turn the tide of this pandemic thank you. There is only one way we will get through this together.

Blasl is president of the North Dakota Hospital Association, Koebele is executive director of the North Dakota Medical Association, Johnson is president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, and Peterson is president of the North Dakota Long Term Care Association.

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Letter: Take it from health care professionals, masks work | INFORUM - INFORUM

Princeton Health Care Center confirms 38 active cases – WBOY.com

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PRINCETON, WV (WVNS) 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 30, 2020: Princeton Health Care Center (PHCC) added new details concerning the outbreak of COVID-19 at their facility. There are 38 active cases according to Administrator Stefanie Compton. Additionally there are seven people who are displaying symptoms but had negative results on recent tests.

All confirmed and suspected residents are being isolated in designated COVID-19 areas. There are 46 people who have tested positive at PHCC since March.

Testing is being done at the facility with the help of Princeton Rescue Squad. This is the fourth round of mass testing. They are now expecting to complete testing on Friday, July 31. Results are expected to be back in three to five days. Another round of testing is planned for the first week of August.

4:45 p.m. Wednesday, July 29, 2020: During Gov. Jim Justices COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Secretary Bill Crouch attributed the outbreak at Princeton Health Care Center to travel to Myrtle Beach. This was identified through contact tracing, according to Sec. Crouch.

Gov. Justice reiterated Sec. Crouchs statement during the question and answer segment of the briefing.

Leaders at the facility responded to those allegations. Administrator Stephanie Compton stated the facility was not informed about that by health officials.

We understand per a media release that it has been determined that our COVID outbreak is related to travel to the Myrtle Beach area. That information has not been given to PHCC by any health officials. After an employee tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in July, our team requested assistance and mass testing from local and state health officials on and before July 7, 2020. We were denied such testing per local and state health officials. We were also told in writing, by a Regional Epidemiologist At this time our outbreak guideline does not recommend to do the repeat testing of staff and residents and the state lab would not be able to handle those specimens. Our team called other labs to try to secure mass testing as well. We were unable to do the testing on our own because the labs in our area/state were back logged and they at that time did not have the supplies that were needed.

Compton also addressed a death at the nursing home being COVID-19 related. She said they were not officially informed of that by any health agency. Compton did say in a release on Tuesday afternoon that a person who died at the home did test positive for the illness.

In our efforts to be open and transparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are very saddened to report that a resident of Princeton Health Care Center who tested positive for COVID-19 has passed away. However, it was not just a loss of a resident, it was the loss of a member of our PHCC family.

2:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 29, 2020: Princeton Health Care Center is conducting mass testing of staff and residents following a surge of cases reported at the facility. This is the fourth round of testing being done there. Officials said it is expected to be done by Thursday, July 30.

Administrators said 42 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 since March. There are five people who are displaying symptoms but have tested negative. All those who are symptomatic and those with confirmed cases are being isolated to designated care areas.

Visitation for residents at the facility is suspended. The staff encourages family members to stay in touch with their loved one through window visits, Skype video conferencing, phone calls and written communication.

ORIGINAL STORY 3:22 p.m. July 27, 2020: The West Virginia National Guard has been called in to help with an outbreak of COVID-19 at a nursing home in Mercer County.

There is a total of 31 active cases at the Princeton Health Care Center. According to the Mercer County Health Department, 12 patients and 19 employees tested positive. Those individuals were identified and isolated, and contact tracing is being done.

WV Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch confirmed a total of 279 people at the nursing home were tested last week. They are still waiting for the results of 54 tests.

Governor Jim Justice said the WV National Guard was called in to help the nursing home with testing and cleaning. The DHHR was also called in to provide additional resources to the nursing home. Right now, admissions and re-admissions are on hold.

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Axne introduces bill eliminating taxes on federal aid for health care providers – KMAland

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(Washington, D.C.) -- A bill from Iowa Third District Congresswoman Cindy Axne would eliminate taxes on federal aid received by health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Axne -- along with Florida Republican Representative and retired Army Surgeon Neal Dunn -- introduced the Eliminating the Provider Relief Fund Tax Penalties Act of 2020 Wednesday. Axne says aid distributed to health care providers through the Provider Relief Fund earlier this year were subject to taxes for some hospitals.

"Some of the people who are receiving these funds -- and this applies to some hospitals in Iowa -- through the CARES Act will see that funding being taxed," said Axne. "The American Medical Association estimates that could mean 20% or more of the aid they received wouldn't be available to help put a nursing shift or a bed, it would go to taxes. We've got to put this toward health care and not towards taxes."

Axne says the PRF was designed to provide critical resources to health care providers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and that those funds should not be taxed, as well.

"We appropriated $175 billion in Congress that was meant to help our health care providers stay fully staffed and equipped so we could make sure that we're fighting this pandemic," said Axne. "It's critical that every single dollar goes to assistance with our health care providers and goes as far as possible."

Calling it common sense legislation, Axne says the loophole was created by the PRF rules not lining up with how grants are taxed for health care providers.

"I spent a decade in state government actually dealing with these kinds of things where policy on top of policy can create unintended outcomes," said Axne. "It's good policy to make sure that we make sure we get the hospitals this money and make sure that our health care providers in Iowa can help the people in our state. At the same time, these underlying rules and policies within these departments sometimes contradict what we're trying to do on a legal level."

The bill has the backing of a number of health care groups, incluing the American College of Physicians, the Federation of American Hospitals and the American Medical Association.

"When you have that kind of support from the people who are actually on the ground utilizing the funds and implementing the services, there's a tendency for lawmakers to realize that this is something that's necessary because the subject-matter experts are agreeing with it," said Axne. "This isn't a political move. This is common sense. I think we're going to get a lot of traction."

In addition to eliminating taxes on funds received from the PRF, the bill would guarantee that expenses attributable to the PRF were also tax deductible. Axne made her comments on KMA's Morning Line program Wednesday. You can hear the full interview below.

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Axne introduces bill eliminating taxes on federal aid for health care providers - KMAland