David R. Eastlake and Joshua A. Lesser Elected to Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas Positions – Yahoo Finance

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David R. Eastlake and Joshua A. Lesser, attorneys in the Houston office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, have been elected to positions in the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.

HOUSTON, July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- David R. Eastlake and Joshua A. Lesser, attorneys in the Houston office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, have been elected to positions in the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.

Eastlake was recently elected Secretary of the State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Law Section. Eastlake had previously been serving on the Bankruptcy Law Section's Executive Council as an At-Large member. Eastlake will continue to serve on the Executive Council in his new role as an Officer.

Lesser was elected Membership Liaison for the Bankruptcy Law Section's Young Lawyers Committee.

July 1, 2020, marks the start of their two-year term.

"We are proud of David and Josh for their involvement with the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas," said Shari L. Heyen, co-chair of the firm's Global Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice and co-managing shareholder of the Houston office. "Greenberg Traurig encourages attorneys to continuously grow in their legal field, while being active and giving back to the community."

"We are honored to serve in our newly elected positions in the Bankruptcy Law Section, which aligns and educates those with similar professional aspirations. We welcome the challenge and are grateful to the Bankruptcy Law Section and Greenberg Traurig for affording us this opportunity," Eastlake and Lesser said in a joint statement.

According to their website, the goal of the Bankruptcy Law Section is to provide an opportunity for all practitioners of bankruptcy law licensed in Texas to meet and exchange information and ideas on a regular basis, including practitioners in both the consumer and business bankruptcy arenas, for those who represent creditors and debtors, and those who live in any geographic region.

Eastlake is a Shareholder in the firm's Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice. He focuses his practice primarily on the representation of debtors in possession, official and ad hoc committees, significant creditors and secured lenders in complex Chapter 11 reorganization cases, Chapter 7 liquidations, out-of-court restructurings, and commercial and bankruptcy-related litigation matters. His representations have ranged across a wide array of industries, including energy, oil and gas, retail, manufacturing, real estate, financial services, health care, telecommunication and cable.

Lesser is an Associate in the firm's Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice. He has represented corporate debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, and committees at all stages of corporate debt restructurings, Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 sales and liquidations, and out-of-court workouts.

About Greenberg Traurig's Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice: Greenberg Traurig's internationally recognized Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice provides clients with deep insight and knowledge acquired over decades of advisory and litigation experience. The team has a broad and diverse range of experience developing creative and effective solutions to the highly complex issues that arise in connection with in- and out-of-court reorganizations, restructurings, workouts, liquidations, and distressed acquisitions and sales. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the firm's vast resources and invaluable business network, the team helps companies navigate challenging times and address the full range of issues that can arise in the course of their own restructurings or dealings with other companies in distress.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP Texas: Texas is important to Greenberg Traurig, LLP and part of its history. With more than 130 Texas lawyers in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Greenberg Traurig has deep roots in the Texas business, legal, and governmental communities. Greenberg Traurig Texas works with clients to address their interdisciplinary legal needs across the state utilizing the firm's global platform. The Texas attorneys are experienced in industries key to the state's future, including: aviation, chemicals, construction, education, energy and natural resources, financial institutions, health care, hedge funds, hospitality, infrastructure, insurance, media, medical devices, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, real estate, retail, sports, technology and software, telecommunications, transportation, and video games and esports.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has 2200 lawyers in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.

SOURCE Greenberg Traurig, LLP

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David R. Eastlake and Joshua A. Lesser Elected to Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas Positions - Yahoo Finance

On eve of bankruptcy, U.S. firms shower execs with bonuses – Reuters

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(Reuters) - Nearly a third of more than 40 large companies seeking U.S. bankruptcy protection during the coronavirus pandemic awarded bonuses to executives within a month of filing their cases, according to a Reuters analysis of securities filings and court records.

Under a 2005 bankruptcy law, companies are banned, with few exceptions, from paying executives retention bonuses while in bankruptcy. But the firms seized on a loophole by granting payouts before filing.

Six of the 14 companies that approved bonuses within a month of their filings cited business challenges executives faced during the pandemic in justifying the compensation.

Even more firms paid bonuses in the half-year period before their bankruptcies. Thirty-two of the 45 companies Reuters examined approved or paid bonuses within six months of filing. Nearly half authorized payouts within two months.

Eight companies, including J.C. Penney Co Inc and Hertz Global Holdings Inc, approved bonuses as few as five days before seeking bankruptcy protection. Hi-Crush Inc, a supplier of sand for oil-and-gas fracking, paid executive bonuses two days before its July 12 filing.

J.C. Penney - forced to temporarily close its 846 department stores and furlough about 78,000 of its 85,000 employees as the pandemic spread - approved nearly $10 million in payouts just before its May 15 filing. On Wednesday, the company said it would permanently close 152 stores and lay off 1,000 employees.

The company declined to comment for this story but said in an earlier statement that the bonuses aimed to retain a talented management team that had made progress on a turnaround before the pandemic.

The other companies declined to comment or did not respond. In filings, many said economic turmoil had rendered traditional compensation plans obsolete or that executives getting bonuses had forfeited other compensation.

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group in March temporarily closed all of its 67 stores and in April furloughed more than 11,000 employees. The company paid $4 million in bonuses to Chairman and Chief Executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck in February and more than $4 million to other executives in the weeks before its May 7 bankruptcy filing, court records show. Neiman Marcus drew scrutiny this week on a plan it proposed after filing for bankruptcy to pay additional bonuses to executives. The company declined to comment.

Hertz - which recently terminated more than 14,000 workers - paid senior executives bonuses of $1.5 million days before its May 22 bankruptcy, in part to recognize the uncertainty they faced from the pandemics impact on travel, the company said in a filing.

Whiting Petroleum Corp bestowed $14.6 million in extra compensation to executives days before its April 1 bankruptcy. Shale pioneer Chesapeake Energy Corp awarded $25 million to executives and lower-level employees in May, about eight weeks before filing bankruptcy. Both cited fallout from the pandemic and a Saudi-Russian oil price war, which they said rendered their incentive plans ineffective.

Reuters reviewed financial disclosures and court records from 45 companies that filed for bankruptcy between March 11, the day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and July 15. Using a database provided by BankruptcyData, a division of New Generation Research Inc, Reuters reviewed companies with publicly trade stock or debt and more than $50 million in liabilities.

Such bonuses have long spurred objections that companies are enriching executives while cutting jobs, stiffing creditors and wiping out stock investors. In March, creditors sued former Toys R Us executives and directors, accusing them of misdeeds that included paying management bonuses days before its 2017 bankruptcy. The retailer liquidated in 2018, terminating more than 31,000 people.

A lawyer for the executives and directors said the bonuses were justified, given the extra work and stress on management, and that Toys R Us had hoped to remain in business after restructuring.

In June, congressional Democrats responded to the pandemic-induced wave of bankruptcies by introducing legislation that would strengthen creditors rights to claw back bonuses. The bill - the latest iteration of a proposal that has long failed to gain traction - faces slim prospects in a Republican-controlled Senate, a Democratic aide said.

Firms paying pre-bankruptcy bonuses know they would face scrutiny in court on compensation proposed after their filings, said Clifford J. White III, director of the U.S. Trustee Program, a Justice Department division charged with monitoring bankruptcy proceedings. But the trustees have no power to halt bonuses paid even days before a companys bankruptcy filing, he said, allowing firms to escape the transparency and court review.

The 2005 legislation required executives and other corporate insiders to have a competing job offer in hand before receiving retention bonuses during bankruptcy, among other restrictions. That forced failing firms to devise new ways to pay the bonuses, according to some restructuring experts.

After the 2008 financial crisis, companies often proposed bonuses in bankruptcy court, casting them as incentive plans with goals executives must meet. Judges mostly approved the plans, ruling that the performance benchmarks put the compensation beyond the purview of the restrictions on retention bonuses. The plans, however, sparked objections from Justice Department monitors who called them retention bonuses in disguise, often with easy milestones.

Eventually, companies found they could avoid scrutiny altogether by approving bonuses before bankruptcy filings. Dozens of companies have approved such payouts in the last five years, said Brian Cumberland, an executive compensation expert at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal who advises companies undergoing financial restructurings.

Companies argue the bonuses are crucial to retaining executives whose departures could torpedo their businesses, ultimately leaving less money for creditors and employees. Now, some companies are bolstering those arguments by contending that their business would not have cratered without the economic turmoil of the pandemic.

The pre-bankruptcy payouts are needed, companies say, because potential stock awards are worthless and it would be impossible for executives to meet business targets that were crafted before the economic crisis. The bonuses ensure stability in leadership that is needed to hold faltering operations together, the firms contend.

Some specialists argue the bonuses are hard to justify for executives who may have few better job options in an economic crisis.

With double-digit unemployment, its a strange time to be paying out retention bonuses, said Adam Levitin, a professor specializing in bankruptcy at Georgetown Universitys law school.

J.C. Penney has not posted an annual profit since 2010 as it has struggled to grapple with the shift to online shopping and competition from discount retailers. The 118-year-old chain, at various points, employed more than 200,000 people and operated 1,600 stores, figures that have since been cut more than half.

On May 10, J.C. Penneys board approved compensation changes that paid top executives, including CEO Jill Soltau, nearly $10 million. On May 13, Soltau received a $1.7 million long-term incentive payment and a $4.5 million retention bonus, court filings show.

The annual pay of the companys median employee, a part-time hourly worker, was $11,482 in 2019, a company filing shows.

J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy two days after paying Soltaus bonuses. At a hearing the next day, a creditors lawyer argued the payouts were designed to thwart court review. The payouts were timed so that they didnt have to put it in front of you, said the lawyer, Kristopher Hansen, addressing U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones.

Jones - who is also overseeing the Whiting Petroleum, Chesapeake Energy and Neiman Marcus cases - told Reuters that such bonuses are always a concern in bankruptcy cases. That said, the adversarial process demands that parties put the issue before me before I can take action, he added, emphasizing he was speaking of general dynamics applicable to any case. A comment made in passing by a lawyer is not sufficient.

In its statement earlier this year, J.C. Penney said the bonuses were among a series of tough, prudent decisions taken to safeguard the firms future.

Dennis Marten - a shareholder who said he once worked at a J.C. Penney store - disagrees. He has appeared at court hearings pleading for an investigation of the companys leadership.

Shame on her for having the gall to get that money, he said of Soltau.

Reporting by Mike Spector and Jessica DiNapoli; Editing by Brian Thevenot

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On eve of bankruptcy, U.S. firms shower execs with bonuses - Reuters

The Sacklers Could Get Away With It – The New York Times

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The billionaire Sacklers who own Purdue Pharma, maker of the OxyContin painkiller that helped fuel Americas opioid epidemic, are among Americas richest families. And if they have their way, the federal court handling Purdues bankruptcy case will help them hold on to their wealth by releasing them from liability for the ravages caused by OxyContin.

The July 30 deadline for filing claims in Purdues bankruptcy proceedings potentially implicates not just claims against Purdue, but also claims against the Sacklers. The Sacklers may yet again benefit from expansive powers that bankruptcy courts exercise in complex cases.

So far, the bankruptcy court has granted injunctions stopping proceedings in several hundred lawsuits charging that Sackler family members directed the aggressive marketing campaign for OxyContin; it and other opioids have been implicated in the addictions of millions of patients and the deaths of several hundred thousand.

The Sacklers have offered $3 billion in the hope that the bankruptcy court will impose a global settlement of OxyContin litigation. Under this settlement, all claims against the Sacklers, even by families who lost loved ones to opioids, would be forever extinguished.

The Sacklers would walk away with an estimated several billion of OxyContin profits while leaving unresolved a crucial question asked by victims and their families: Did the Sacklers create and coordinate fraudulent marketing that helped make their best-selling drug a deadly national scourge? With that question left unanswered, many of those injured by OxyContin would feel victimized again.

In a bankruptcy filing, debts are forgiven discharged, in legal terms after debtors commit the full value of all of their assets (with the exception of certain types of property, like a primary home) to pay their creditors. That is not, however, what the Sacklers want, and indeed the members of the family have not filed for bankruptcy themselves.

What they propose instead is to be shielded from all OxyContin lawsuits, protecting their tremendous personal wealth from victims claims against them. Whats more, a full liability release would provide the Sacklers with more immunity than they could ever obtain in a personal bankruptcy filing, which would not protect them from legal action for fraud, willful and malicious personal injury, or from punitive damages.

Appallingly, legal experts expect the court to give the Sacklers what they want. The precedent is a 1985 case in which the A.H. Robins Company, the manufacturer of the Dalkon Shield contraceptive device, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Plaintiffs charged that members of the Robins family and others had fraudulently concealed evidence of the Dalkon Shields dangers. None had themselves filed for bankruptcy, but the court discharged all of them from liability.

The releases even went so far as to prohibit injured women from suing their doctors for medical malpractice claims. Other bankruptcy courts have since embraced this concept of a shield from liability for those who have not filed bankruptcy.

The Constitution vests only Congress with the power to enact bankruptcy law, the essence of which is prescribing by statute how much wealth a debtor must surrender to creditors in order to obtain a discharge. But Congress has never given a green light for the courts to create a liability discharge process for those like the Sacklers who have not submitted all of their assets to the control of a bankruptcy court by filing bankruptcy.

This extraordinary practice presents serious obstacles for those injured by OxyContin. If granted, it will be nearly impossible to get a full and transparent assessment of the Sacklers role in the opioid crisis without either the appointment of an independent examiner in the bankruptcy case or congressional investigations.

Allowing the bankruptcy court to impose a global OxyContin settlement may at first appear to be an efficient way to resolve litigation that could drag on for years. But the Sacklers will benefit from this expediency at the expense of victims.

At stake is whether there will ever be a fair assessment of responsibility for Americas deadly prescription drug epidemic. Protection from all OxyContin liability for the Sackler family would be an end-run around the reckoning that justice requires.

Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) is the author of Pharma: Greed, Lies and the Poisoning of America. Ralph Brubaker teaches bankruptcy law at the University of Illinois.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Unemployment is up in NC, but bankruptcies are down – so far – WRAL.com

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By Cullen Browder, WRAL anchor/reporter

Raleigh, N.C. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on North Carolina's economy:

WRAL Investigates found that those investments have paid off on at least one front so far personal bankruptcies are down in North Carolina. But that safety net could soon run out.

"We're seeing a big uptick in Chapter 11 filings, the corporate reorganizations," said Ciara Rogers with Campbell University's Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law.

Rogers, who studies bankruptcy trends in North Carolina, said many of those companies were already on shaky ground before the coronavirus. Big brands like GNC, Brooks Brothers and Chuck E. Cheese recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Small businesses are also feeling pinched, she said.

"Some restaurants have started to file," she said.

Despite the struggling economy, there hasn't been a spike in consumer bankruptcy cases yet.

WRAL Investigates went through bankruptcy cases across North Carolina from mid-March, when restaurants were first shut down, to the end of June. During that time, there were 2,612 bankruptcy filings in North Carolina, compared with 3,683 during the same period last year.

"A lot of that has to do with the various federal, state and local government programs that are still helping people get through," Rogers said.

Those programs include the federal mortgage protection program, the Paycheck Protection Program, extended unemployment benefits and the extra $600 a week in unemployment that is set to on Saturday.

Rogers predicted personal bankruptcies could explode later this year if some of those programs aren't extended.

Congress continues to debate plans to extend relief.

One proposal in the Senate would continue the $600-a-week aid package but reduce it based on the unemployment rate in individual states. Protection on federally backed mortgages is also set to expire in September unless lawmakers take action.

Rogers said she hopes people have been smart with their money.

"That [extra unemployment benefit] allowed people to hopefully plan ahead and allow them to stay afloat for a little longer than they otherwise would have been able to do," she said. "What I think we'll see toward the end of 2020 is interest rates will remain low, but credit may become more unavailable or difficult to get, and that's going to push more people into bankruptcy."

With no end in sight for the pandemic, she said people need to look for financial solutions now.

"Don't stick your head in the sand," she said. "Now is the time to make those tough decisions. Now is the time to see if this business model you've been using is working."

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The First REIT Bankruptcy Since 2009, A New Institutional Data Source, And Our Updated Sector Outlook – Seeking Alpha

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This article was coproduced with Williams Equity Research.

At iREIT, we are on the cutting edge when it comes to REIT research, and this article is just one example of how we are taking our platform to an all-new level. If utilized correctly, technology can become a powerful differentiator for unlocking value in real estate, and this article is one such example. We hope you enjoy the timely content and thoughtful research report.

Source

Per Bloomberg, CBL & Associates Properties, Inc (CBL) is filing for bankruptcy. That's no surprise to our subscribers as we've been deterring curious distressed REIT prospectors from investing in the name for several quarters.

Before discussing updates pertaining to CBL, well put the rarity of this event into context by briefly reviewing the bankruptcy of General Growth Partners ("GGP"). With CBL's filing finalized, these two firms are the only recent equity REIT bankruptcies in the modern era.

For those interested in an in-depth analysis of CBL, please see our previous article. We will not rehash all the details.

CBL and GGP combined excessive leverage with mall properties of mixed quality.

Source: Q1 Supplemental Filing

CBL's properties are self identified at 20%, 34%, and 26%, Tier 1, 2, and 3 caliber properties, respectively.

Here's a quick summary from WERs previous work:

GGP went on a massive buying spree in the 2000s resulting in $25 billion in debt. As leverage ratios entered the teens, a figure that is unheard of in today's market, the CEO was removed but remained the Chairman of the Board. There is a long list of corporate governance failures within GGP's story. In 2009 and in the midst of the greatest modern liquidity crunch, GGP missed a $900 loan payment backed by two Las Vegas properties. By the time that occurred, GGP's stock was down 98%. Bill Ackman of Pershing Square, a name many of us are familiar with, owned a 25% stake in GGP prior to its demise. The resulting bankruptcy was and still is the largest in real estate history.

This led to a recapitalization and dissection of GGP's massive asset base.

By February 2010, the "smart money" arrived in the form of a $2.625 billion equity investment by Brookfield (BAM). These assets would later become the bedrock of Brookfield Property REIT (BRP) and Brookfield Property Partners (BPY). Despite the bad news and much in part due do Brookfield's investment in the troubled firm, GGP's creditors were paid in full with even equity investors receiving a favorable recovery rate. This is as rare as GGP's bankruptcy itself.

Firms we follow and have investments in were intimately involved.

GGP stayed around in one form or another until it was acquired by Brookfield Property Partners in August of 2018. Before the final transaction, GGP's leverage remained elevated and issues cropped up as a result. Brookfield diversified out of the properties by selling large stakes to TIAA and the CBRE Group.

Our continued financial analysis of CBL indicated that it was "highly likely" that not one, but multiple covenants had been breached by early Q2 of 2020. Given the disdain for mall properties by the public and private markets, our deep understanding of the firm's financial situation, and a struggling high yield credit market, our certainty that CBL would not remain solvent was nearly absolute.

A few days after our piece was published to subscribers, CBL warned on June 5 that "its ability to continue as a going concern is in doubt."

This announcement is because CBL did not pay an $11.8 million interest payment due June 1. An already tough situation was made impossible with government lockdowns, heightened concern surrounding big box department stores, and an accelerated shift toward online shopping.

With nearly 50 J.C. Penny stores (OTCPK:JCPNQ) in its portfolio, a retailer that recently declared bankruptcy itself and cut another 1,000 jobs a few days ago, and the collection of 25%-30% of rent in both April and May, CBL's fate was sealed.

In the midst of an active redevelopment campaign and saddled with mid-quality mall assets, CBL never really had a chance once governments began shutting down their local economies.

Source: Seeking Alpha

Speculators betting on equity REITs' nearly impeccable track record of avoiding Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 watched as CBL absorbed an 80% loss year-to-date. Investors often confuse a low dollar price with lower principal risk, a 50% loss is a 50% loss whether the stock falls from $1,000 a share to $500 or $1.00 to $0.50. In WERs experience, many individual investors' largest losses are on low dollar value stocks.

While performing institutional operational and investment due diligence on a variety of managers, WER obtains exceedingly rare behind-the-scenes understanding of how top asset managers function. This includes discovering these firms' competitive advantages and evaluating their durability over time.

Wide Moat Publishing (parent company of iREIT and Dividend Kings) recently established a business relationship with Orbital Insight, a leader in geospatial data collection and analysis. This type of resource is often called the "secret weapon" of hedge funds and private equity firms.

We had Orbital Insight aggregate cellular data associated with 62 CBL properties. This is a well-established strategy among more sophisticated institutional investors that we now incorporate into our process to the benefit of our subscribers.

With that introduction, let's evaluate the data pertaining to CBL and incorporate that into our updated outlook on commercial real estate and REITs.

Source: Orbital Insight

Keep in mind this data is derived from CBL's 62 properties located primarily east of the Mississippi River but concentrated in more affordable markets which exclude the likes of Chicago, New York, and New Jersey. CBL also has significant exposure to Texas

Source: Orbital Insight

Despite the diversification across over a dozen states, CBL's foot traffic completely evaporated between late February and mid March. After decreasing approximately 90% over that quick period, foot traffic quickly recovered to down 25% year-to-date. The nearly real-time data showed a quick retreat to down 60%-plus from early June through July 18. Well explore that decline in more detail.

Source: Q1 Supplemental Filing

For context, CBL's portfolio of malls maintained approximately 90% occupancy at the end of Q1 2020, in line with Q1 2019's statistics and making that variable fixed for most of the period. To better evaluate the contributors to the sharp changes in foot traffic, we need to close in on where the most valuable properties are by sales per square foot.

Source: Q1 Supplemental Filing

Based on reporting by the NYT, all states where CBL has key assets were fully locked down as of April 30. Let us move to July 21 and see what has changed.

Source: NYT

Outside of Florida, Texas, and Michigan, all the states where CBL has meaningful exposure are reopened or reopening. Given the complexity and randomness associated with states' economic policies due to the coronavirus, it's necessary to identify how individual sectors are impacted.

Source: NYT

Using this more granular data, effectively all the states where CBL has properties are open for retail stores and restaurants. While the sharp drop in foot traffic at CBL's malls occurred alongside the onset of widespread state lockdowns, the recent decrease in visitation doesn't correlate well with this variable. Investors expecting a rapid recovery in CBL foot traffic strictly due to the easing of lockdowns are likely to be disappointed.

Source: Orbital Insight

Every region showed a recent collapse in visits to mall properties independent of local policies. Other factors, such as news coverage, infection rates, and treatment availability may be more important at this stage.

Source: Orbital Insight

We can rule out asset quality as foot traffic has been effectively identical across Grade A, B, and C properties.

Source: Orbital Insight

Foot traffic in the states CBL has exposure are down significantly across the board. California and New Jersey stand out with the heaviest decreases (>60%) with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis the next worst performing group (>47.5%). Coincidently or not, New Jersey has the highest mortality rate of any U.S. state (177 per 100,000 as of July 20th) with California leading the nation in total cases at 391,538 as of July 21.

While no definitive conclusion can be reached, it appears that the hard data on coronavirus infection and mortality rates is at least as important as government policy surrounding lockdowns. In fact, some of the states with the longest and harshest lockdown policies are among the worst performing even after the lockdowns are put in place. Logical arguments can be made on both sides, but as investors, our unemotional take is to remain skeptical about any one variable saving or destroying foot traffic at retail real estate.

What CBLs One Bright Spot Tells Us

Source: Orbital Insight

This chart is year-to-date with each column representing a week's worth of data. The rows are CBL's individual properties. The chart completely changes in the second week of March as blue goes to dark orange reflecting a major drop in foot traffic from Orbital Insights cellular geospatial data. That's not too surprising but let's zoom in on that one bright spot.

Source: Orbital Insight

Interestingly, CBL's outlet centers standout as the strongest performers. These properties experienced way above average visitation rates throughout June and the first week of July. These numbers collapsed again during the second week of July but fared much better than the enclosed properties.

This suggests two potential considerations: i) There's pent-up demand for physical retail shopping and ii) outlet centers, with much lower population densities and greater separation between shoppers, seem uniquely positioned to outperform while coronavirus fears still percolate society.

We will be using Orbital Insight research for a granular research report on Tanger Outlets (NYSE:SKT) and other mall REITs - stay tuned.

This article was previously published for iREIT on Alpha members.

Author's note: Brad Thomas is a Wall Street writer, which means he's not always right with his predictions or recommendations. Since that also applies to his grammar, please excuse any typos you may find. Also, this article is free: Written and distributed only to assist in research while providing a forum for second-level thinking.

We just launched iREIT Earnings Headquarters:

* Limited to first 100 new members * 2-week free trial * free REIT book *

Disclosure: I am/we are long SPG, SKT, BPYU. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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The First REIT Bankruptcy Since 2009, A New Institutional Data Source, And Our Updated Sector Outlook - Seeking Alpha

Flamingos in Abu Dhabi: are the birds thriving because humans backed off? – The National

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With reference to Anna Zacharias's report Abu Dhabi flamingos enjoy record breeding season as nature benefits from Covid-19 restrictions (July 21): this is probably due to the fact that people have not been disturbing the colony since March.

Janet Humphrey, Abu Dhabi

Parents in two minds over schools having pupils wear masks

With reference to Gillian Duncan's report Abu Dhabi pupils to wear masks as authorities set out new school rules (July 21): it is easier to just keep the children at home and homeschool them.

Saif Omar Al Suwaidi, Abu Dhabi

I think secretly parents are hoping online classes will continue. The stress of sending children to formal school as of now is way too high.

Monika Arora Agarwal, Dubai

Teachers will need all the luck trying to get the pupils under 10 to follow social distancing rules and wear masks for the entire day. I cannot picture these poor children playing at 1.5m spacing. I don't see how it can happen.

Aashiq Kumandan, Al Ain

UAE enters the history books for launching Mars probe

With reference to Sarwat Nasir's article UAE joins elite space race nations as Mars probe makes first contact (July 20): this is truly a spectacular feat all the more so given the challenging year it has been for the world. For such a young nation to launch this probe and embark on a 200-day journey to the Red Planet is the result of a great vision. It was wonderful to read about the UAE's leadership complimenting the young engineers and technical people for their contribution to accomplish this in such a short span. It is a historic occasion. It was wonderful to read about the UAEs leadership complimenting the young engineers and technical people for their contribution to accomplish this in such a short span. It is a historic occasion. Kudos to the UAE for making it happen.

K Ragavan, Bengaluru, India

A day's earnings for Jeff Bezos could help millions

With reference to the report Amazon's Jeff Bezos adds record $13bn to his wealth in one day (July 21): it is amazing to think that his one day's earnings can rescue a small country in these challenging times.

Mirey Kara Dantziguian, Beirut, Lebanon

Kanye West's meltdown is a red flag and should be taken seriously

With reference to the report Presidential run in jeopardy as Kanye West says wife tried to lock me up (July 21): this video is uncomfortable to watch. It is not to be taken lightly. His breakdown evidently shows him suffering from mental health issues. That he's having an episode so publicly is hurtful to watch. Hope he checks in to a hospital and gets the help he needs.

Amina Bashir, London, UK

Updated: July 22, 2020 02:47 PM

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Flamingos in Abu Dhabi: are the birds thriving because humans backed off? - The National

Wilkin: Never a Saratoga opening day like this one – Times Union

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Opening day at Saratoga. Nothing quite like it. Everything was in place Thursday for another spectacular summer season at the Spa.

Except for one thing. And, unless you have been vacationing on Mars for the past four months, you know what that is.

When racing began on Thursday for the 152nd time, the major players were in town. Mechanicville's Chad Brown was ready to defend his training title for the second straight summer. Todd Pletcher, who has won more training titles than anyone else, was also here.

The best jockey colony in the land was ready to rock and roll, too. The Ortiz brothers and Johnny Velazquez and Javier Castellano, too.

And, of course, the horses. The stars of the show every summer are the thoroughbreds and they never disappoint.

Back to what is missing. You know, now, right? Of course you do. People. All kinds of people.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the gates to the old Spa stayed shut to the masses. And, for the foreseeable future, that is the way it is going to stay. Not having fans at Saratoga seems absolutely, positively, unquestionably impossible. In the long and storied history of the Capital Region's horse park, spectators have never been told they could not come.

Even when there was the 1918 Spanish flue pandemic, people came to the races.

The coronavirus pandemic has shut down the Spa to the people. And, yes, spectators who have come here for years and years are disappointed. And frustrated. And mad. When Saratoga started on Thursday, the only way people who longed to be here could watch the races was on television.

That had to be weird for them. And, believe me, it was weird for everyone who was allowed to be on the grounds for the 10-race card. Trainers and jockeys and jockey valets and grooms and NYRA employees were all here. So was the media, to document such a historic event.

"It's the world we are living in now," jockey Manny Franco said a few days before the meet started. "Not seeing anyone in the grandstand? Weird."

The only sliver of silver lining in all of this is that at least the track is running. Look at all the events around the world that have been KO'd by COVID-19. The Olympics, for goodness sake, was called off.

Franco and five other riders came out of the jockeys' room 12 minutes before the start of the first race, scheduled to go off at 1:10 p.m. They all took the familiar route, taking a right out of the room and walking down the horse path to the paddock. On a normal day, they would all be besieged by young fans begging for an autograph.

That first race was a race that would have had the crowd roaring. Grit and Glory, ridden by apprentice Luis Cardenas, won the stretch duel by a neck over Franco's mount, Jerome Avenue. It gave trainer Linda Rice the first of her two wins on the afternoon. As ecstatic as she was for the win, there was also a twinge of sadness. She missed the fans who loyally come to Saratoga day after day, year after year.

"It's not the same without them," she said. "When I came in and saw the empty grandstand and all the picnic tables empty and no one there to share in all the excitement, that was pretty strange."

The roar would have been deafening with people in the house and longtime NYRA announcer John Imbriale, in his first full Saratoga season, would have been the catalyst for that. Instead, his solid-as-always call was heard by a smattering of people who were lined along the fence on the apron. All those were people who worked with the horses, along with other essential workers.

Very little cheering, except by those associated with the winner. A strange, surreal feeling. Sounds on the track: horses hooves on dirt and turf, jockeys chirping to their mounts. You don't hear that when the stands are full.

"It's the hand you are dealt with and you have to play it," Imbriale said before the card started. "If I can't get pumped up or excited about calling races at Saratoga, whether there are people here or not, I am missing the boat."

The emptiness also struck a chord with Saratoga's favorite son, Mechanicville's Brown. He won the co-featured Peter Pan with Country Grammer and might have a Travers horse on his hands. But he felt bad for those who could not be here. He's a local. He understands what this meet means to so many.

"It's been a tough day," Brown said. "Walking around ... I never thought I'd see that. It's definitely a bittersweet day when this beautiful place is empty where I grew up. Hopefully, this is the only year we have to do this."

I hear you, Chad. It was tough enough to do it on Thursday. Now we have to do it for 39 more days.

twilkin@timesunion.com 518-454-5415 @tjwilkin

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Wilkin: Never a Saratoga opening day like this one - Times Union

What Are Comets? – Time and Date

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Comets are small celestial bodies that orbit the Sun. Primarily made of dust and ice, they are thought to be remnants of the formation of the Solar System.

Comet PanSTARRS was visible in early 2013.

thinkstockphoto.com

Comets are thought to come from 2 places in the Solar System:

What are meteor showers?

One of the distinguishing features of a comet is that most of them develop a tail, known as a coma when they come close to the Sun.

Away from the Sun, comets are frozen celestial bodies that are hard to detect. However, as a comet comes closer to the Sun, the Suns heat and radiation vaporize its ice and dust. These vaporized gasses collect dust and stream from the center of the comet, just like a tail. This tail can be thousands of miles long.

While most comets passing by the Sun are hard to observe from Earth without specialized equipment, some comets are bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. A comets brightness is due to sunlight reflecting and refracting off the dust in the tail.

Comets usually have two tails, which point in different directions. The dust in the comet is responsible for one tail. This tail, also called the dust tail, tends to be broad and curved. The gasses in the comet make the other tail, called the plasma or the ion tail. This tail is thin and straight and tends to point directly away from the Sun.

What are asteroids?

A light year (light-year or lightyear) is a unit of distance and is defined by the International Astronomical Union as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during a Julian year. It is approximately equal to 10 trillion kilometers (6 trillion miles).

Topics: Astronomy, Comets, Asteroids

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Comets: Facts About The ‘Dirty Snowballs’ of Space | Space

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Comets are icy bodies in space that release gas or dust. They are often compared to dirty snowballs, though recent research has led some scientists to call them snowy dirtballs. Comets contain dust, ice, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane and more. Astronomers think comets are leftovers from the material that initially formed the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.

Some researchers think comets might have originally brought some of the water and organic molecules to Earth that now make up life here. To research this hypothesis, the Rosetta mission, which landed a probe on a comet on Nov. 12, 2014, is studying its nucleus and environment, observing how it changes as it approaches the sun.

Comets orbit the sun, but most are believed to inhabit in an area known as the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Occasionally a comet streaks through the inner solar system; some do so regularly, some only once every few centuries. Many people have never seen a comet, but those who have won't easily forget the celestial show.

The solid nucleus or core of a comet consists mostly of ice and dust coated with dark organic material, according to NASA, with the ice composed mainly of frozen water but perhaps other frozen substances as well, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. The nucleus may have a small rocky core.

As a comet gets closer to the sun, the ice on the surface of the nucleus begins turning into gas, forming a cloud known as the coma. Radiation from the sun pushes dust particles away from the coma, forming a dust tail, while charged particles from the sun convert some of the comet's gases into ions, forming an ion tail. Since comet tails are shaped by sunlight and the solar wind, they always point away from the sun. Comet tails may spray planets, as was the case in 2013 with Comet Siding Spring and Mars.

At first glance, comets and asteroids may appear very similar. The difference lies in the presence of the coma and tail. Sometimes, a comet may be misidentified as an asteroid before follow-up observations reveal the presence of either or both of these features.

The nuclei of most comets are thought to measure 10 miles (16 kilometers) or less. Some comets have comas that can reach nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km) wide, and some have tails reaching 100 million miles (160 million km) long.

We can see a number of comets with the naked eye when they pass close to the sun because their comas and tails reflect sunlight or even glow because of energy they absorb from the sun. However, most comets are too small or too faint to be seen without a telescope.

Comets leave a trail of debris behind them that can lead to meteor showers on Earth. For instance, the Perseid meteor shower occurs every year between August 9 and 13 when Earth passes through the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet.

Astronomers classify comets based on the durations of their orbits around the sun. Short-period comets need roughly 200 years or less to complete one orbit, long-period comets take more than 200 years, and single-apparition comets are not bound to the sun, on orbits that take them out of the solar system, according to NASA. Recently, scientists have also discovered comets in the main asteroid belt these main-belt comets might be a key source of water for the inner terrestrial planets.

Scientists think short-period comets, also known as periodic comets, originate from a disk-shaped band of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune's orbit, with gravitational interactions with the outer planets dragging these bodies inward, where they become active comets. Long-period comets are thought to come from the nearly spherical Oort Cloud even further out, which get slung inward by the gravitational pull of passing stars. In 2017, scientists found there may be seven times more big long-period comets than previously thought.

Some comets, called sun-grazers, smash right into the sun or get so close that they break up and evaporate. Some researchers are also concerned that comets may pose a threat to Earth as well.

In general, comets are named after their discoverer. For example, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 got its name because it was the ninth short-periodic comet discovered by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. Spacecraft have proven very effective at spotting comets as well, so the names of many comets incorporate the names of missions such as SOHO or WISE.

In antiquity, comets inspired both awe and alarm, "hairy stars" resembling fiery swords that appeared unpredictably in the sky. Often, comets seemed to be omens of doom the most ancient known mythology, the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh," described fire, brimstone, and flood with the arrival of a comet, and the Roman emperor Nero saved himself from the "curse of the comet" by having all possible successors to his throne executed. This fear was not just limited to the distant past in 1910, people in Chicago sealed their windows to protect themselves from what they thought was the comet's poisonous tail.

For centuries, scientists thought comets traveled in the Earth's atmosphere, but in 1577, observations made by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe revealed they actually traveled far beyond the moon. Isaac Newton later discovered that comets move in elliptical, oval-shaped orbits around the sun, and correctly predicted that they could return again and again.

Chinese astronomers kept extensive records on comets for centuries, including observations of Halley's Comet going back to at least 240 B.C., historic annals that have proven valuable resources for later astronomers.

A number of recent missions have ventured to comets. NASA's Deep Impact collided an impactor into Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 and recorded the dramatic explosion that revealed the interior composition and structure of the nucleus. In 2009, NASA announced samples the Stardust mission returned from Comet Wild 2 revealed a building block of life.

In 2014, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft entered orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Philae lander touched down on Nov 12, 2014. Among the Rosetta mission's many discoveries was the first detection of organic molecules on the surface of a comet; a strange song from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; the possibilities that the comet's odd shape may be due to it spinning apart, or resulting from two comets fusing together; and the fact that comets may possess hard, crispy outsides and cold but soft insides, just like fried ice cream. On Sept. 30, 2016, Rosetta intentionally crash-landed on the comet, ending its mission.

Halley's Comet is likely the most famous comet in the world, even depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry that chronicled the Battle of Hastings of 1066. It becomes visible to the naked eye every 76 years when it nears the sun. When Halley's Comet zoomed near Earth in 1986, five spacecraft flew past it and gathered unprecedented details, coming close enough to study its nucleus, which is normally concealed by the comet's coma. The roughly potato-shaped, 9-mile-long (15 km) comet contains equal parts ice and dust, with some 80 percent of the ice made of water and about 15 percent of it consisting of frozen carbon monoxide. Researchers believe other comets are chemically similar to Halley's Comet. The nucleus of Halley's Comet was unexpectedly extremely dark black its surface, and perhaps those of most others, is apparently covered with a black crust of dust over most of the ice, and it only releases gas when holes in this crust expose ice to the sun.

The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided spectacularly with Jupiter in 1994, with the giant planet's gravitational pull ripping the comet apart for at least 21 visible impacts. The largest collision created a fireball that rose about 1,800 miles (3,000 km) above the Jovian cloud tops as well as a giant dark spot more than 7,460 miles (12,000 km) across about the size of the Earth and was estimated to have exploded with the force of 6,000 gigatons of TNT.

A recent, highly visible comet was Hale-Bopp, which came within 122 million miles (197 million km) of Earth in 1997. Its unusually large nucleus gave off a great deal of dust and gas estimated at roughly 18 to 25 miles (30 to 40 km) across appeared bright to the naked eye.

Comet ISON was expected to give a spectacular show in 2013. However, the sun-grazer did not survive its close encounter with the sun and was destroyed in December.

Additional reporting by Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com contributor

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Comets: Facts About The 'Dirty Snowballs' of Space | Space

How to See Comet Neowise Before Its Gone – WIRED

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In late March, a team of astronomers working on a space telescope mission called Neowise discovered a comet booking it past the sun, 160 million miles away from Earth. The comet, officially known as C/2020 F3 but usually just referred to as Neowise, is a 3-mile-wide chunk of ice and dust on a 6,000-year loop around the solar system. Its just one of thousands of space rocks discovered with the Neowise telescope, but its trajectory means that for a few weeks this summer it will give observers in the northern hemisphere a rare cosmic light show.

This is the most impressive-looking comet that I have seen since the 1990s with Hale-Bopp, says George Hripcsak, an amateur astronomer in New York City. Hale-Bopp is a comet on a 2,500-year orbit around the sun that made its closest pass by Earth in 1997. It was visible to the naked eye for a year and a half, and famously inspired the mass suicide of the Heavens Gate cult. (Although comet Neowise isnt quite as bright as Hale-Bopp was, it also doesnt appear to have prompted any human sacrifices.)

The best time to catch a glimpse of Neowise was in early July, just after it made its closest approach to the sun and reached peak brightness. The comet has grown noticeably dimmer over the past few days as it moves away from the sun, but if you havent had a chance to check it out yet, its not too late. Neowise makes its closest approach to the Earth on Thursday, and if you live in the northern hemisphere youll still be able to see it with your naked eye for a few more days. We asked amateur astronomers for their best tips on how to go comet-spotting.

What to Look For

Like all comets, Neowise consists of a dense nucleus made of ice, dust, and ionized gas that form a brilliant double tail as they blow off the comet. The Neowise tail is huge; it covers as much sky as if you were to place 12 full moons side by side. Seeing a tail that long doesnt happen very often, says Hripcsak.

When to See Comet Neowise

If you want to spot the comet, the best time to go stargazing is about an hour after sunset. Depending on where you live, this will probably be around 10 pm. The comet will be visible for about an hour or so before it drops below the horizon. It needs to be dark enough for you to be able to pick out the entire Big Dipper, not just the handle, says Katherine Troche, an amateur astronomer in New York City. If you can get away from the streetlights, your visibility will improve, but you may still need binoculars as the comet will become less bright over the next few weeks.

How to Spot the Comet

Comet Neowise is visible from anywhere in the northern hemisphere. But the night sky is a pretty big space to search, so amateur and professional astronomers have built a number of apps to help you find celestial objects, including the comet, based on your location. If you want to stargaze like the pros, theres SkySafari 6 for iOS and Android phones, but itll set you back $20. Free apps include Celestrons SkyPortal.

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How to See Comet Neowise Before Its Gone - WIRED

How to best see the Comet NEOWISE right now – Los Angeles Times

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Design and illustrations by Micah Fluellen

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California mostly closed down again this week. The coronavirus has the state on the ropes, prompting the governor to roll back the opening of restaurants, gyms and salons for hard-hit areas. So where does that leave us? Outdoors, of course. Here are three things to do, starting with a spectacular fireball lighting up the sky right now.

1. Look for this comet in the night sky. Comets dont come streaking our way all that often, at least not bright ones you can see with the naked eye. Many get roasted when they pass close to the sun. That didnt happen to the Comet NEOWISE. Instead, the glowing beauty with a tail has been wowing watchers since early July. Space.com gives it props for emphatically ending a quarter-century drought of spectacular comets.

Last weekend, the comet was visible in the predawn hours. Now it has flipped into evening mode. So peel yourself away from binge-watching on Netflix and look up. If you miss it, this comet wont be back for about 7,000 years. Heres what you need to know to see it:

This photo illustration shows where you can find Comet NEOWISE in the night sky.

(Isaac Cabrera)

By the way, the comet is officially named C/2020 F3 and nicknamed NEOWISE after the acronym for the NASA space telescope (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) that discovered it on March 27.

Read the full story here.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

2. See a California condor in the wild. Mike Maxcy had a twinge of pride when he examined photos of the handful of California condors that recently swooped into Sequoia National Park for the first time in a half-century. Two of the birds had been hatched and raised at the L.A. Zoo. You get that full-circle feeling, said the zoos curator of birds, who IDd the condors by their wing tags.

Its been a wild ride for Maxcy and others who worked on the massive task of heading off extinction of North Americas largest bird for decades. He joined the zoo in 1987 when the last of less than 30 birds left in the wild were captured and brought in for an ambitious captive breeding program. The controversial idea was to raise chicks, train them to flourish in the wild and let them go. Miraculously, it worked.

Last year, the 1,000th chick was born in the wild at Zion National Park. But there were many bumps along the way. Early released birds were electrocuted on power lines; others died after eating carrion laced with lead from bullets (last year California banned hunters from using lead bullets) or drinking radiator fluid.

Now roughly 300 birds soar in Southern California, the Big Sur area, Arizona, southern Utah and Baja, Mexico. An additional 230 thrive in zoo breeding programs. One day, perhaps a condor will again sail over Yosemites Half Dome, as it does in a scene depicted on the flip side of California quarters.

Until then, Maxcy and the zoo continue to release condor chicks and run captive breeding programs to bring back other endangered species, such as the mountain yellow-legged frog native to the San Gabriel Mountains that surround Los Angeles. And the faraway Bali myna, which has been diminished by the pet trade in their native Indonesia. Just 100 exist in the wild, but about 1,000 flourish in zoos around the country. We are Noahs ark, Maxcy said. Its up to us to keep species thriving.

Here are places to look for California condors in the wild.

Let plants inspire your yoga poses at the Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar.

(Sherman Library & Gardens)

3. Outdoor yoga in the garden. Need to be rescued from your Zoom yoga rut? The Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar may help. The Central Garden provides the setting for outdoor yoga sessions on Wednesday evenings this summer that include breath work, Hatha yoga and a meditation practice. Class size is limited to allow plenty of room for social distancing. Participants should bring their own yoga mat, a small towel and water. And depending on which session you pick, you can get a glass of wine afterward. Upcoming classes are set for July 22 and July 29, and cost $25 ($20 for members). You must register in advance and wear a mask to class. Go to thesherman.org or call (949) 673-2261.

(Wong Maye-E / Associated Press)

Airports around the world have been pretty much stilled by the coronavirus outbreak. But some people in Singapore are booking rooms at the sprawling Changi Airport just to visit. Huh? With its butterfly and orchid gardens, custom-made airport fragrance and glass-domed mall housing the worlds tallest indoor waterfall, the experience is considered the gold standard of international airports a stark example of everything its austere American counterparts are not, L.A. Times staff writer David Pierson reports. And yes, your chances are good of having a butterfly land on you inside the garden where 1,000 of them flutter around freely. The airports indoor tropical retreats havent saved it from the harsh economic reality of a 99% drop-off in passengers since April. Still, theres something quirky and mildly appealing about kicking back at a 130-foot waterfall inside an airport.

Read the full story here.

(Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times)

Over the years, many people have asked me how to make the leap from day hikes to overnight backpacking trips. A million things go through my mind as I try to formulate an easy answer. Fortunately, trail guide Andrew Skurka has a simpler response. Writing on Outside.com, Skurka shares seven tips for planning a successful backpacking trip, starting with asking yourself a basic question: Why hiking instead of car camping? Then he gets you thinking about where you want to go, who you want to go with, which gear youll need on the trail, what food to bring, etc. He weaves in safety touches good for backpackers at all levels. Its a nice little read to help anyone get started and help me whittle down my million thoughts.

Shortly before the pandemic hit the U.S., I took a long train ride from L.A. to Seattle on the Coast Starlight. After leaving downtown, the train swept out to the coast toward Santa Barbara, where I imagined the oceans waves were in sync with the rocking train. About 20 hours later, I peered out the window at a thick forest of snowy trees as the train chugged into the Cascade Range, peak after peak whizzing by. Amtrak describes the route as 1,377 miles of sheer magnificence. I agree; it felt like a grand outdoors sampler. Private roomettes (good for social distancing) for two passengers on the Coast Starlight are on sale until Friday. One way tickets cost $432, or $216 each, which includes meals. Here are the details about how to book Amtraks fare sale.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was among the most visited national parks in 2019.

(National Park Service)

National parks racked up 327.5 million visitors in 2019, a 2.9% increase over the previous year. Whered we all go? Mostly to the 10 most visited parks in the U.S.

Among other National Park System sites, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in the Bay Area remained the most visited ahead of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs through North Carolina and Virginia.

Among the least visited (where you may escape big crowds) are Pinnacles National Park in Central California (177,224 visitors) and Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada (131,802 visitors).

What do you think? Keep the comments coming. Share anything thats on your mind. The Wild is written for you and delivered to your inbox for free. Drop us a line at TheWild@latimes.com.

Click here to view the web version of this newsletter and share with others. Im Mary Forgione and I write The Wild. Ive been exploring trails and open spaces in Southern California for four decades.

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How to best see the Comet NEOWISE right now - Los Angeles Times

Space objects defined: The differences between comets, meteors, and asteroids – RochesterFirst

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ROCHESTER, NY (WROC) One of the biggest science headlines of July 2020 has been the Neowise Comet that graced skies of the Northern Hemisphere for weeks on end. Lets dive into the difference between the flying objects we see in space here. We will go in alphabetical order.

ASTEROID:

This is an image of the asteroid Eros taken by NASA in 2000.

A rock material that revolves around the sun and remains in orbit. Think of an asteroid as a rock that hangs out with other asteroids in a large belt within the solar system inbetween Mars and Jupiter. You may recognize this from popular space movies such as Star Wars that frequently features asteroid belts or asteroid fields.

COMET:

This is a photo of comet Neowise from NASA. The comet was discovered in March 2020 and was visible most of July in Rochester.

No rock involved here, just a combination of ice, dust, and gas that is moving through space, often orbiting the sun. They originate from the creation of our solar system. A comet that is millions of miles away from earth can still be seen thanks to its tail. As it nears the sun, some of the material sheds off from the main ball of gas, dust and ice to make the tail that can extend sometimes for millions of miles.

METEOR/METEOROID/METEORITE:

A meteoroid heading toward earth turns into a meteor and will often burn up in the atmosphere, creating a shooting star.

An asteroid can break off into a meteoroid (picture above) that is just floating in space. This can happen if two asteroids run into each other. A meteoroid can also come from a comet. When a meteoroid enters earths atmosphere, it turns into a meteor. These meteor showers are common and can also be referred to shooting stars. If it gets all the way to the surface of the earth, it is a meteorite. Below is a list of common meteor showers that occur throughout the year from NASA.

Quadrantids December/JanuaryLyrids AprilPerseids AugustOrionids OctoberLeonids NovemberGeminids December

USEFUL MNEMONICS:

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Space objects defined: The differences between comets, meteors, and asteroids - RochesterFirst

Now visible in the evening, dark skies enhance chance to see Comet NEOWISE – KTVI Fox 2 St. Louis

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ST. LOUIS You dont have to be an early bird to catch a view of a once-in-a-lifetime comet. Stargazers in the northern hemisphere can now see the comet known as NEOWISE just after sunset.

Its really almost 20 years now since weve had a good, visible comet for us to look forward to. But that drought has really come to an end this year. NEOWISE is putting on a great show, said Will Snyder, the manager of the James. S. McDonnell Planetarium at the St. Louis Science Center.

Snyder is referring to Comet Hale-Boppin 1997. Why so few? Most comets dont survive their closest approach to the sun.

When were looking at a comet, you know, you think of it as that cosmic, dirty ice ball in the solar system. And, sometimes, it gets too close to the sun. It doesnt survive. It breaks up, Snyder said.

But NEOWISE survived and is now passing near Earth. Look northwest, right under the Big Dipper, about 45 minutes after sunset. While not needed, binoculars or a telescopewill offer a better view. This is the best time of the month to see the comet because we are approaching the new moon, meaning there is very little moonlight.

You do want to, obviously, give yourself the darkest sky possible, Snyder said. And when we dont have something like the moon shining back at us that definitely helps. But anytime you can get away from city lights or, even if you cant travel, just turning off lights that you might have around your property.

Comet NEOWISE isnt the only celestial body you can see just after sunset. Swing yourself to the east and youll see the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Theyre rising pretty much right after sunset right now in the eastern sky. So, almost 180 degrees from where you are looking for the comet. So, no matter where you look, you may see something cool.

Add to that, St. Louis is back in the path of the International Space Station and there will be several chances to see it pass by over the next several days.

And dont worry early risers; you can still catch a great showing by the planet Venus in the eastern sky before sunrise.

NEOWISE will make its closest approach to earth on July 22; after that, it will gradually fade. It wont be back for 6,800 years. Read more information from NASA here.

Track the International Space Station: spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings

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Now visible in the evening, dark skies enhance chance to see Comet NEOWISE - KTVI Fox 2 St. Louis

A Mars Mission Begins, a Comet Exits, and the Future of Planetary Science – The Planetary Society

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The United Arab Emirates Hope spacecraft has begun its journey to Mars. Well join a virtual launch party attended by mission leaders, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, National Air and Space Museum director Ellen Stofan and others. Comet NEOWISE is still putting on a show! Learn more about it from NEOWISE principal investigator Amy Mainzer, NASA planetary defense officer Lindley Johnson and JPL scientist Emily Kramer. Our own Casey Dreier provides an overview of three far-sighted white papers submitted as part of the new planetary science decadal survey.

Karl Schwarzschild solved the Einstein field equations for the geometry of empty space-time around a non-rotating, uncharged, axially-symmetric black hole with a quasi-spherical event horizon. Who first solved those equations with all those conditions except for a rotating black hole? (Phew.)

The winner will be revealed next week.

The Bond albedo is named after astronomer George Bond, who did not have a license to kill.

Mat Kaplan: This is Planetary Radio.

Speaker 2: [Foreign language 01:10:02]

Mat Kaplan: With that lift off from Japan, a new Hope began its journey to Mars. Welcome. I'm Mat Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. What a week it was for space fans. We'll celebrate the successful launch of the United Arab Emirates Mission to the red planet with members of the Hope Team, NASA administrator, Bridenstine, George Whitesides of Virgin Galactic, Ellen Stofan of the National Air and Space Museum and others.

Mat Kaplan: Then we'll hear from leaders of the mission that discovered Comet NEOWISE, including NEOWISE principal investigator, Amy Mainzer, and NASA planetary defense officer Lindley Johnson. Casey Dreier also had a big week. The Planetary Society's senior space policy advisor submitted three inspiring papers to the National Academy's, Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Casey will be here to tell us about them. We've got Bruce Bettes waiting for us with even more about how to see that comet and the other wonders lingering above us.

Mat Kaplan: Here are just two headlines from the July 17 edition of the downlink, brought to you each week by the Planetary Society. Remember that dark green substance on the moon's far side that was inaccurately described as gel-like? It turns out it's probably just glassy rock. But this find by China's U22 Rover is still intriguing. Apollo astronauts found the same sort of deposit on the near side. It might've been formed in the heat of a volcanic eruption or a meteor impact. By the way, by the time you hear this, it's possible that China's ambitious Mars Mission, Tianwen-1, may be on its way to Fourth Rock.

Mat Kaplan: Speaking of the moon and Mars, NASA has just relaxed planetary protection requirements for both bodies. The agency feared the old standards might've prevented eventual human exploration of the red planet. You can read more at planetary.org/downlink, where you'll also enjoy a beautiful image of Jupiter's moon, Europa, captured years ago by Voyager 2. It was Sunday afternoon, July 19th here on the California coast. I excused myself from my wife's socially distant birthday celebration so that I could join a different sort of party.

Mat Kaplan: The online event began about an hour before that launch of an H2 rocket from the coast of Japan. His Excellency, Yousef Al Otaiba, United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, opened the webcast.

His Excellency, Yousef Al Otaiba: Good afternoon from Washington. For those of you in the U.S., thank you for joining us on a Sunday afternoon, and thanks to all our friends watching from the UAE and around the world at this very late hour. Today, if all goes well, the UAE become the first Arab country to launch and interplanetary spacecraft. This day has been years in the making. Many of you are likely familiar with President John F. Kennedy's Moon Shot Speech. That speech inspired the American people to invest in space and space exploration, and ultimately land the first humans on the moon.

His Excellency, Yousef Al Otaiba: In 2014, we announced our own Moon Shot Initiative. Our leadership challenged Emirati scientists and engineers to build a space probe and launch it into orbit around Mars in time for our 50th anniversary. It makes me so proud to see friends and colleagues gathered here today, six years later, to watch that dream become reality.

Mat Kaplan: Also awaiting the launch of Hope was NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstein. Here's some of what he had to say.

Jim Bridenstine: Long before I was the NASA administrator even when I was in the House of Representatives, and you guys came to me and you said, Hey, look, we have this big ambition. We just started a new space agency as the United Arab Emirates and we're in fact going to go to Mars. And I remember thinking, Wow, that's a stretch. And you gave me the timeline and I remember thinking that this is going to be a very, very difficult challenge. I don't know that at the time I fully believed that we would be in this moment right now.

Jim Bridenstine: I just want to say, to start, congratulations. It has been, I know, not always easy. There's always challenges, this is space white. But what an amazing job the United Arab Emirates has done putting together this mission and getting to this point. We've already seen the United Arab Emirates launch its own domestically produced satellite that is providing remote sensing and imagery on the earth to understand our changing environment, KhalifaSat, which of course has been a great contributor to our understanding of our own planet.

Jim Bridenstine: You've already had your first astronaut on the international space station. You've got plans for more astronauts on the international space station. The United States of America is very, very excited about having another partner in human space flight. And, of course, our big project is to go to the moon. The United Arab Emirates of course has its own lunar mission that it's launching in 2022, which is going to be amazing. I think this is a great moment, not just for the United Arab Emirates but for the United States of America and, in fact, for all of the international partners that are involved in exploring space and sharing information.

Jim Bridenstine: All of us can do more when we work together. The United Arab Emirates is a shining example of what can be done when we do in fact work together, so we're grateful for the partnership. We look forward to the launch. Space is one of those areas that unites people. In the House of Representatives and then the Senate and the American politics, no surprise here, there are some times divisions. But when it comes to space exploration, it unites people. Republicans and Democrats alike come together and say, We need to explore space. We need to get the science and the data. They say, We need to make discoveries and we need to explore.

Jim Bridenstine: And it doesn't just bring together parties within the United States, it brings together nations of the world in a very unique way. I really believe space is an amazing tool of diplomacy. The relationship between Russia and the United States, it's not a secret that it is very strained here terrestrially. But here in November, just a few months, we're going to celebrate 20 years of living and working together in space on the international space station. That's an amazing accomplishment.

Jim Bridenstine: That goes back to 1975. 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz project, where we had Russians and Americans working together in space for the first time, then the Shuttle-Mir project, and now the International Space Station project. Look, when it comes to exploration and discovery, it transcends boundaries and it enables people to work together in ways that oftentimes is not easy. It keeps open a channel of communication, so I really do believe it is an amazing tool of diplomacy for all nations.

Mat Kaplan: The administrator of Bridenstein was followed by Mike Gold, acting associate administrator for International and Interagency Relations at NASA.

Mike Gold: Let me apologize in advance, this is where I offend all of the engineers. While the technical challenges that we face are certainly important, I believe that the policy, the legal frameworks, are of equal importance to the technology. While I'm extremely excited about the Hope launch, and again congratulations on everything that you and the team have done, one of the launches that I was most excited about was the launch of the United Arab Emirates into the United Nations committee on the peaceful uses of outer space.

Mike Gold: You sit next to us due to alphabetical order. The UAE and the United States are literally next to each other, which is only appropriate given that we are so close together on policy. New space agencies like yours, the emerging space agencies, it's so important that we come together with the traditional space agencies to create a safe, peaceful, and prosperous world for all of us. By tackling those policy issues, that's how we do so. UAE has been an incredible partner, not only to us but the entire world.

Mike Gold: It's what we're trying to accomplish with the Artemis Accords, looking at transparency, safety, interoperability, the public release of scientific data. It's all so important, and UAE has been a tremendous partner already there. We look forward to continuing that policy leadership together into the future. Your daughter, my son and children from all throughout the world will one day be standing on Mars together to create that peaceful and prosperous future for all of us.

Mat Kaplan: Mike Gold of NASA. Remember, this was all before the successful launch so you can understand the apprehension in the voice of Sarah Al Amiri. Sarah chairs the United Arab Emirates council of scientists and is minister of state for advanced sciences. But she's also a science lead for what is formerly known as the EMM, the Emirates Mars Mission. On August 1st, she will become president of the UAE Space Agency.

Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri: A collection of mixed feelings from being terrified, to being excited, to apprehensive, to I just can't explain the multitude of emotions at the moment, especially reflecting on the large chunk that this has taken from our lives. Everyone that has been on the mission, including our partners, this has been our every living breathing moment. It has been part of our household, part of our families, part of our workplaces constantly. You get to a point in the mission where there's no such thing as day and night and work days and work weeks and so on.

Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri: I think it's interesting in retrospect to see if this is going to create a void after launch, especially when the spacecraft is on here and its honest journey. Let's see what the journey has in store for us.

Mat Kaplan: The webinar was ably moderated by Talal Al Kaissi of the UAE Space Agency. I first met Talal when he was assigned to the UAE embassy in Washington. We were closing in on the launch when Talal introduced two more of the EMM Hope Mission team members.

Talal Al Kaissi: I'd like to now turn to two young engineers who actually worked on the project and have spent quite some time in Colorado with our knowledge partners, in the University of Colorado in Boulder. Both Heyam Al Blooshi, who is actually in Japan right now as you can see she's sideways on the screen and she's wearing the Emirates Mars Miss... There you go. Hoor Al Mazmi who's here with us in Abu Dhabi. Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences on the project? Maybe starting with you Heyam.

Heyam Al Blooshi: Hey, greetings everyone. My name is Heyam Al Blooshi I am an assembling technician and testing engineer at the UAE Space Agency, and I had the pleasure to work on the Emirates Mars probe and it was my first ever space mission. I feel that could touch on the point that space is a collaborative work, the collaboration between the UAE Space Agency the United Arab Emirates is what I mean, and the United States and also Japan, really enabled this mission to happen.

Heyam Al Blooshi: Knowledge transfer that I got from this mission is just amazing, building blocks for economic diversification, which is the main objective here. Thank you so much. I'm very excited for the launch.

Hoor Al Mazmi: My name is Hoor Al Mazmi. I'm a space science engineer at the UAE Space Agency and I'm part of the Emirates first mission science team. I worked on the science closure of the mission part of the science closure. I also got to work in Colorado. I got to do my master's while working, so I got to experience American culture again after my undergrad experience. That was nice and it was a great way for me to connect with scientists from all over the world through this experience. I wouldn't have been able to do this without the Emirates Mars Mission.

Talal Al Kaissi: I'd like to now turn into a very good friend of the UAE, Mr. George Whitesides, who was the CEO of Virgin Galactic until a few days ago when he now has the coolest name or coolest title in the space industry, the Chief Space Officer of Virgin Galactic to share his experience in dealing with the UAE through the partnership Virgin Galactic and [inaudible 00:12:44] investment company have. George.

George Whitesides: Hey Talal, and thank you for having us with you and everyone in the UAE space effort. It's such a great honor to be with you all and such an exciting moment. Yeah, so our relationship with UAE has been going on for now over a decade when we started a partnership around Virgin Galactic and its aspirations. It's just been such an incredible pleasure and, honestly, a joy to watch the growth of the UAE space sector as you pursue a very rational and logical series of steps to increase capacity within the country and to do real things as the administrator.

George Whitesides: Mike Gold said you really do a very well-planned agenda of real space activity. Our relationship on the Virgin Galactic side relates to potential growth of our business someday to the UAE. There has been a space port, or a potential space port, location identified in the UAE which has all the right parameters for a potential operation as well as now the new space legal framework that the UAE has created which enables those activities. And so that's what I mean about putting the blocks in place to really pursue a quite diverse range of activities from science as today to human space flight and educational capacity building.

George Whitesides: It's just been a joy to watch the growth, and to be a small part of that story has been terrific and we're grateful to you Talal for the role you play as a diplomat within the space community to connect us all to the different things that UAE is working on.

Mat Kaplan: I'll close our coverage of the beginning of the EMM Hope Mission with a historical perspective from an old friend of Planetary Radio. Ellen Stofan leads the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The planetary scientist is also a former chief scientist for NASA.

Ellen Stofan: For me, the ambassador touched on it in the beginning, this whole program, and I've known Talal for now quite a number of years, and really watched this probe come to life. It reminds me of another country 50 some years ago now that in eight and a half years made it from basically no space agency at all to sending people to the moon. That spirit of Apollo is what I have really watched happening in the UAE. They will get the same results that we got from Apollo, inspiring a generation to go out and do the impossible.

Ellen Stofan: When you consider the people, like Jeff Bezos for example, who were inspired by Apollo that's what's going to be happening in the UAE. Every school child is going to be watching Hope and saying, I want to be that first person to step on Mars.

Mat Kaplan: As you heard, if all goes well, Hope will be inserted into its orbit above Mars in February of 2021. The same month we'll see the arrival of China's Tianwen-1 and the Perseverance Rover from NASA. What? You still haven't seen Comet NEOWISE? Apologies to our many Southern hemisphere listeners who don't have this surprising visitor in the sky. As you'll hear, when we talk with Bruce, I was finally able to see the comet a few days ago. It's called NEO wise because it was discovered by that mission. That mission is led by principal investigator Amy Mainzer.

Mat Kaplan: Amy has moved from the jet propulsion lab to the University of Arizona, where she is a professor in the school's lunar and planetary laboratory. Here are excerpts from her participation in a NASA teleconference just days ago.

Amy Mainzer: This object was spotted in late March. On March 27th, we saw a series of images of it, and it was immediately obvious that it was pretty likely that this would be a comet based on the extended emission, sort of fuzz, that we saw surrounding the point like nucleus of the comet as it moved across the sky against the background stars. But when we first discover these objects, we know so very little about them. We just see that there's something moving.

Amy Mainzer: In this case, we were able to call some friends who were able to contribute follow-up observations of the comment and determined that it orbit would actually take it fairly close to the sun. Which immediately becomes pretty exciting for us because when something that's been frozen in deep space for a really long time gets close to the sun a lot of exciting things can happen.

Mat Kaplan: Amy Mainzer was joined in the telecom by her NEOWISE mission colleague, Emily Kramer. Emily is a co-investigator based at NASA JPL.

Emily Kramer: The comet is about three miles or five kilometers in diameter, which is reasonably large but roughly average-sized comet. We're getting these spectacular images showing the comet's broad dust tail and ion trail in some cases as well. You should be able to see those comets for another few weeks or so, depending on how bright it stays. Comets are notoriously difficult to predict what's going to happen to them. We're all quite excited to see how this comet progresses.

Emily Kramer: Because Comet NEOWISE is so bright, we're able to see it a lot more clearly than we do for many other comets. We're able to see it with a lot of different telescopes in different areas, and we're able to use different kinds of observations. We're able to spectroscopy as well as what we call photometry, which is measuring how bright an object is. We're also able to look at what we call it's morphology, which means the shape. Comet tails tend to have a different shape as they move around away from the sun, so by studying this nice bright tail we'll be able to get a better idea of what's going on in the comments tail and understand the physics of comets.

Amy Mainzer: I would add onto that too. That one of the reasons we study comets like this one, and why this one is so appreciated because it is so bright, is that we really would like to know a lot more about their composition as well as their internal structure and how crumbly they are. We care about this because in the unlikely, extremely unlikely, event that we would find a comet that is headed our way we would like to know something about its structure and composition so we have a better idea of how to push it out of the way.

Amy Mainzer: One of the things we're interested in learning is how crumbly or how strong the comet is on the inside. Is it fragmented on the inside? Does it break apart more easily when it gets heated up? One of the things we'll be studying as we look at the dust signature from the object is the sizes of the particles that are coming off of its surface and can we use that to understand the total mass of the object as well as how fast it's moving that mass by crumbling apart as it's being heated.

Mat Kaplan: A few of us got to ask questions during the Comet NEOWISE telecom. I asked Emily Kramer if the up close and personal observations of Comet 67P by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft have affected what we look for from a distance as other comets pass by.

Emily Kramer: It totally has reshaped our understanding of comments when we look at them from a distance. One of the really fascinating things that we discovered from the Rosetta Mission is that many comets have what we be call micro outburst, where they just let off a little bit of extra puffs of activity every now and then. When we're observing from the ground, we might miss these if we're not looking closely for them as most of the time the comets they were fairly [inaudible 00:20:08]. They don't do anything particularly interesting. They get brighter, or they get dimmer.

Emily Kramer: Sometimes they let off a bit of a puff of extra terabit of extra activity. But Rosetta has showed us that these smaller puffs happens pretty frequently, and so we're now able to see that. We're tracking these objects more closely and we're seeing a wider variety of activities than we had seen before.

Mat Kaplan: Also in the telecom was another old friend of our show. Lindley Johnson has led NASA's planetary defense office for years, and has the great title of Planetary Defense Officer. I asked Lindley about the status of plan for a dedicated space-based infrared telescope that will search for and characterize near-earth objects, those asteroids and comets that might threaten our planet.

Lindley Johnson: Thanks for the question, Mat. We do have funding now in our planetary defense program budget for a startup of a new space-based infrared telescope, a mission that we were calling the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission. We have funding this year that Congress designated for a startup work on the instrument development of about 35 million. There is a funding in fiscal year 21 as well, proposed for 21. Of course, the budget for 21 is still with Congress for appropriations, so we are hoping that their negotiations turn out well and we'll continue to have the funding available.

Mat Kaplan: I closed out my questions for all three of the telecom guests by asking if they had seen Comet NEOWISE with their own eyes.

Amy Mainzer: Yes. It's actually been a really big treat. I actually just went and looked at it a couple of nights ago and it was very low on the horizon, but I spotted it without binoculars. I was able to see it. It's really cool. I have to admit it's really, really fun to see something that we see in as space telescope and it looks like fuzzy dots when we first see it, of course. But there's really nothing quite like being able to see it with your own eyes and know that there really is something there and you know it's very tangible. That's pretty exciting. Plus, it's just beautiful. It's really fun to look at something like that.

Emily Kramer: I've gotten to go see it a couple times in the morning when it was just [inaudible 00:22:31] week. The first one was just from right near Pasadena. We had a fantastic view of it rising up over the mountains. It gave me chills to see that, knowing that our space telescope discovered that and that there's this object in space that we helped to find. That was really very exciting.

Lindley Johnson: I'm waiting for the cloudy skies down here in Florida to clear. In the evening, the last couple of evenings, we've had a big cloud bake of thunder storms in that part of the sky. I have my fingers crossed that here in the next week we'll have clear skies and I'll be able to see it off my front deck here in Florida.

Mat Kaplan: NASA's Lindley Johnson joined by NEOWISE principal investigator, Amy Mainzer, and NEOWISE co-investigator Emily Kramer for a conversation about Comet NEOWISE. A brief break and then I'll return with Casey Dreier.

Bill Nye: Where did we come from? Are we alone in the cosmos? These are the questions at the core of our existence. The secrets of the universe are out there waiting to be discovered. But to find them we have to go into space. We have to explore. This endeavor unites us. Space exploration truly brings out the best in us, encouraging people from all walks of life to work together to achieve a common goal, to know the cosmos and our place within it. This is why the Planetary Society exists.

Bill Nye: Our mission is to give you the power to advance space science and exploration. With your support we sponsor innovative space technologies, inspire curious minds, and advocate for our future in space. We are the Planetary Society. Join us.

Mat Kaplan: Did you hear Alan Stern's latest Planetary Radio appearance a couple of weeks ago? Then you may remember Alan's mentioned of a paper he was working on. The deadline for submitting that paper was Wednesday, July 15th. My colleague Casey Dreier was working toward the same drop dead. As you know, Casey is our senior space policy advisor and chief advocate at the Planetary Society. He also joins me to co-host our monthly space policy edition episodes. I was pretty sure when I read them that you'd also find these papers fascinating, so I invited Casey to join us for an overview.

Mat Kaplan: Casey, welcome back to the show. This is great timing for us to talk about this because we're all about what a huge week last week was. It was a big week for you too counting three papers that needed to be submitted. First of all, remind us of what the decadal survey process is all about and why you were a part of it.

Casey Dreier: The decadal survey is kind of a short hand for this, once every 10 years, right? Decadal, 10 years process that NASA requests from the National Academy Of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, this independent body in the United States whose job it is to give scientific advice to government. The decadal survey's process is done for every one of NASA's four major science divisions, planetary science, astrophysics, planetary science, and heliophysics. The planetary science decadal survey then, that just formally began in March, has the goal of delivering a final paper by the end of 2021 or early 2022, so it's a long process.

Casey Dreier: The one that we're in now was a very important report that was provided back in 2011, and it basically sets the priority of the entire field. It's meant to be a consensus document. You know it's never perfect but the idea is that the scientific community says in the next 10 years these are the biggest science questions that we could pursue in planetary science and then these are the missions that can help us answer those questions. It helps NASA, it helps the Congress, and helps it advocacy organizations like the Planetary Society and others to all get on the same page.

Casey Dreier: Someone really nicely referred to this to as the sword and shield of planetary science, sort of in the sense that we can use it to rally behind and advance and get new missions. The Europa clipper mission was a good example of this in the last decadal survey. And shield in that we can rally in defense in case budget cuts happen to say these are the most important priorities, these have to happen in the next decade to advance the science. It's a very impactful and very widely respected process and report.

Casey Dreier: It's technically nonbinding, so NASA doesn't have to follow the recommendations. But again, the heft and the weight and the value that everyone places upon it, that is what gives it the inherent respectability and influence that it has.

Mat Kaplan: My understanding is that a lot of submissions, as part of the decadal survey process, promote specific planetary science missions. In fact, we recently heard about one of these, an argument for a Pluto orbiter that came from Alan Stern and a team he put together just a couple of weeks ago. These three papers that we're going to talk about, you really are doing something very different with these it seems.

Casey Dreier: Yeah. As part of the decadal process, one aspect of it is to take community input, and they do this in the form of these formal paper submissions. And so we just had a deadline in July for science-focused papers to promote various individuals priority sciences and say, Make this argument, why is this science really important for the next 10 years? They also have papers for specific missions to achieve those science goals and then also broader state of the field input, just kind of general ideas.

Casey Dreier: The idea is that the committee that writes this final report for the next decadal survey reads through all of these and tries to represent or get a good sampling of what the community is feeling about these things. For the Planetary Society, we're a pro science organization but we're not a scientific organization. Right? I think Bruce is the only person among us who has a PhD in science. Emily has her master's in planetary science. But the organization itself wants to support the scientific community.

Casey Dreier: Our position that we submitted to the decadal survey, we submitted two official papers on behalf of the society signed by the board of directors. It stepped back a little bit from individual missions and tried to make a case about large themes, things that can help set that organizing principle for how do you prioritize from all of these incredible things we can do exploring the solar system? What ways can you try to prioritize these options to maximally return on excitement, potentially revolutionary science, to the basic survival of the human species?

Casey Dreier: That's what the society wanted to contribute with some of the submitting these ideas and thoughts and language to help these committees put together and ultimately, hopefully, influence the final outcome of the report to prioritize these aspects of space exploration that the society and its members really value.

Mat Kaplan: Well, let's tackle the first of these papers and themes that you took on, The Search for Life as a Guidepost to Scientific Revolution, which you're lead author of along with our CEO Bill Nye. And significantly this is co-signed, as is the next paper, by the society's entire board of directors. You point way back to the beginnings of the scientific revolution and say that it largely began with the application of physics beyond earth and that that's been followed by the application of chemistry and geology. Am I right in saying that basically you're saying it's now time for biology to take this leap?

Casey Dreier: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you look at the trend, which past results don't guarantee future returns, but if you look at the trend all of science is this realization that Carl Sagan called them the great demotions of humanity, right? Where we used to think we were the big shot, the whole universe revolved around us. Then we realized, Nope, no, we're actually just revolving around the sun. And, oh, well, the sun's not revolving around the center of the Milky Way and, oh, there's no center to the universe and so forth.

Casey Dreier: The idea of this kind of extending this trend, and this is a formulation I always enjoyed from Kevin Hand who you've had on the show, is formulation that we've learned in the course of the scientific history that what we defined on earth, what we discovered around us was actually laws that were universal, so physics and motions of things in the sky, the discovery of chemistry. Right? The fact that there are chemical molecules is floating around in space that through spectroscopy we can discover and see how those form and what they're doing out there.

Casey Dreier: Then further the discovery of geology, right? The motions of things on terrestrial planets or the alterations that happen to them when exposed to the surface was confirmed by sending planetary probes throughout the mid 20th century. And so if you take that trend line, well, everything else seems to apply out there in addition to here on earth and that big remaining question, the one science that we only have this data point of one for, is biology. Everything we've learned about the universe suggests that there's nothing special in terms of why biology exists on the earth and so there's a good chance that it's somewhere else out there.

Casey Dreier: That is functionally what we're arguing in this paper amounts to a scientific revolution waiting to happen. Everything we understand about biology, we're limited to the types of chemistry and structures and processes and metabolisms that exist from this one common descendant from an ancient, ancient ancestor here on earth. Now, is that a common form of these convergent factors in terms of evolution? Or if we discover living life somewhere else in the solar system, close enough in the sense that we could analyze it and understand it, would that give us fundamental insights into new ways to approach biology and we gain this out?

Casey Dreier: The maximal beneficial potential for this would be, oh, we understand biology and this opens up this whole new way of making medicines and applied biology. It can really fundamentally reduce human suffering, maybe. Maybe there's nothing out there. Or maybe there's something out there but it's not very interesting ultimately. Either way the total outcome, the total potential value, is so huge weighted towards that maximum potential that even the low likelihood of that incredible benefit should compel us to pursue that incredible benefit if it's there.

Casey Dreier: We should give ourselves the chance to discover this, all things being equal. That's the core of this paper. It's that the search for life, and unlike a lot of other areas of science in which scientific revolution happens unexpectedly through some fundamental breakthrough or new theory, the search for life is a guidepost. It tells us how to do it. Nothing fundamentally new has to happen for us to seriously look for life in our solar system and in solar systems beyond. Actually that's where the guideposts that's saying, Here, go this way.

Casey Dreier: If it's there, there could be something fundamentally revolutionary to our understanding of the cosmos and here's how to do it. Very few opportunities in science give us that.

Mat Kaplan: I like this line of sort of the central line that you have here, the search for life should be the unifying goal in the coming to KETO survey. You point to previous so-called discontinuities in scientific development, these big jumps. I mean, if you're looking at steady progress of science, suddenly there is this discontinuity, and you point toward the potential for this to happen in exobiology. It seems to be what you're talking about here. Do I have this right?

Casey Dreier: Yeah, that's absolutely true. I mean, because again we have this data point of one, right? The N equals 1 problem in terms of how we formulate our understanding of the laws of biology. We don't have a huge range to use that. What are we missing beyond the fact that maybe there's this weird quirks of biology that happened that are conditional to earth? If we double that, that N equals 2, you suddenly have a huge amount of new information and that's that discontinuity. We made this obviously very simplified graph, but just a way to think about it, where you have this kind of process of day in and day out science on these various fields.

Casey Dreier: We've been fortunate in humanity in the last few 100 years to have relatively steady growth of knowledge about the world around us, the natural world, through the application of science. Occasionally, yeah, when you find something like if you found life that wouldn't be this gradual accumulation of new knowledge. It would be a jump and that's where the discontinuity happens. It's like a step function in our scientific understanding of biology in the cosmos. That's really only possible through the pursuit of planetary science.

Casey Dreier: Because in order to fully get the value from that, to fully get the amount of knowledge from that, you have to be able to effectively eventually bring it back to earth or near-earth to study. You can do in-situ stuff, but ultimately you have to have very good sample return and very detailed studies of it, which is impossible with exoplanets and things that are just beyond earth because we just can't get to them. And so we have these habitable environments that we know of, right? They're just begging us to explore them with Europa and Enceladus and the ancient aspects of Mars and sub-surface of Mars. We might as well look.

Casey Dreier: That's where we say, for the decadal committee, not only we believe we're compelled to pursue this based on that potential however unlikely outcome of just massive societal benefit or just massive increases in knowledge, but it's a very useful way to organize the exploratory structure. Because the search for life is just so cross-cutting. There are so many different aspects of science involved in it. There's just a very useful way to organize the whole program with this big pursuit that we also know resonates with people, people get it, it's very clearly communicated. It's ambitious.

Casey Dreier: They talk about this idea of life as a planetary phenomenon. You can't dissociate the context of biology from the natural context in which it came from. And so to understand life as a planetary phenomenon, you have to understand planet. It allows you to prioritize and figure out what aspects of planetary science, geology, atmospheric science, formation, motion. All the aspects of planetary science still fit in this. But it's just a nice way to think of the program from a holistic perspective as opposed to pursuing bits and pieces of different questions here and there.

Mat Kaplan: Ambitious. Yes, it sure is an ambitious goal. But are we talking exclusively about big, expensive flagship missions? Cassini's and Curiosities and Perseverance?

Casey Dreier: Well, we hope not to be. The other aspect of this paper is we know that for the most part every life-focused mission that we've done in planetary science has been a flagship mission. That's unsustainable. You can't really pursue that because flagship missions really, if we're lucky, we get two in a decadal period. Right? They're just expensive multibillion dollar missions. We have to find ways to increase detection, the number of opportunities I should say, for potential detection. That means doing modest, midsize, even discovery style, bio-signature detection.

Casey Dreier: The point that we make is if you can do more small missions, you don't have to have this full suite of exquisitely sensitive life detecting instrumentation. You can focus on one or two bio-signatures. If you show a promising bio-signature, then you get that big mission that focuses on the life question. But we have to have a way to increase the number of opportunities to detect life in our solar system and, again, in solar systems beyond. You do that just by lowering the cost. I mean, ideally you do that by increasing the budget, which we've been doing over the last few years, but they have to go hand in hand.

Mat Kaplan: We could continue this segment with just discussion of this one paper, but there are two more that we want to mention. Let me say now, and we'll probably repeat again, you can read two of these papers @planetary.org. In fact, we'll put the direct link on the show page for this week's episode @planetary.org/radio. We'll get to that where you can find the third paper in a moment. Let's move on to the second one, Increasing the Scope of Planetary Defense Activities, Programs, Strategies, and Relevance in a Post COVID-19 World.

Mat Kaplan: Again, you served as a lead author, Bill Nye authored it with you. It's co-signed again by the society's board of directors. Okay, what are the parallels between the comprehensive planetary defense program you argue for here and the lessons of the COVID-19 panels?

Casey Dreier: This is something we've been talking about for a while as not just a learning opportunity but an opportunity to connect what can be a very abstract idea, which is being hit by a giant space rock for lack of a better term.

Mat Kaplan: Yeah, it's not. The dinosaurs would say it's not that abstract. But, okay.

Casey Dreier: Yeah. Well, they wouldn't say much of anything would they now?

Mat Kaplan: Oh, given the chance.

Casey Dreier: But the idea is, so pandemics have similarities to the situation we find ourselves in with near-earth objects that are potentially hazardous but are unlikely in the scale of one's lifetime to happen. But just because something is unlikely doesn't mean that it's impossible. Right now, obviously with the Coronavirus raging across the world and particularly here in the United States, no one would have predicted this six months ago, or maybe just about six months ago or a year ago, let's say.

Mat Kaplan: Eight months ago.

Casey Dreier: Eight months ago. This was a low probability high impact event. You have to have some sort of planning for those because low probability again does not mean zero. The ultimate, I would say, high impact event would be getting hit by a near-earth object and having that devastating As we've gone through many times on this show and on our website, the consequences are very dire for being hit by a particular large near-earth object people right now, I would say going through a low probability high impact event, this is the time to start talking about other ones.

Casey Dreier: Because it's very relevant to say the value of preparation for those are incredibly high. I drew a parallel in this paper using some early reporting, what's coming out of China and some of the other South Pacific Asian nations that particularly dealt with the SARS virus back in the early 2000s, that they had much more vigorous and prepared systems to deal with viral outbreaks because of similar experiences 20 years ago. You can debate various aspects of those responses but, overall the spread in a lot of those countries have been a lot less than countries that didn't have outbreaks of SARS in the early 2000s.

Casey Dreier: There's an opportunity, I think, that tells you that countries that have had these experiences where there was low probability high impact events are more amenable to putting up investments for similar types of preparation. The public we claim is more open to preparing for these types of events after they experience one. We can start to draw, again, these parallels to near-earth objects which again I should say already have very high levels of support when just pulling the public. It's often put as the first or second most important activity NASA could already be doing.

Casey Dreier: I would argue now that those are probably higher in terms of people's expectations. People in the United States are feeling more likely that a natural disaster is going to happen to them, so there's more uncertainty around these issues. And so there's more, again, political, I would say, willingness to begin to invigorating this program of planetary defense within NASA. Now we're talking to a science community in this paper. A lot of this is not up to the scientific community, but what we wanted to do was try to give them ways in which to frame this question for how they begin to talk about it within NASA and for NASA itself out to members of Congress and the White House.

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Liberty Media CEO Says We Will Give Fans What They Want: A Baseball Season – Benzinga

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The Major League Baseball season is back with many twists, but Atlanta Braves owner Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LSXMA) is committed to safely give "the fans what they want which is baseball," Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said on CNBC.

What To Know: It's very important for sports fans to see their beloved game "in the best way possible," Maffei said. The players and league got together and struck an agreement to develop a safe way to make a shortened 60 game season to happen.

"Baseball is exciting and I think it's in the national interest and in the interest of America to get it going," he said.

Why It's Important: Atlanta Braves first baseman and four-time All Star Freddie Freeman contracted the COVID-19 virus and experienced a high temperature of 104.5 degrees before recovering. He has since received medical clearance to play and is expected to be in the opening day lineup on Friday, Maffei said.

Other unnamed players also contracted the virus and are "recovering well" and the league deserves credit for implementing a series of protocols that may even make it safer for players to be on the field than at home.

What's Next: Demand for sports is "way up" as evidenced by impressive ratings for golf and Formula 1 events, Maffei said. Encouragingly, the league hasn't given up on the notion that fans will be able to return to stadiums this season.

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Pa. fight against wearing masks involves some key Republicans, and liberty – GoErie.com

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President Donald Trump seems to be changing his stance on masks, but it remains to be seen if some Republicans in Pennsylvania will follow his lead.

Before former Vice President Joe Biden delivered his most recent speech in Pennsylvania, a message was aired over the speakers.

"Please keep your masks on the entire time, which is now mandated by the state of Pennsylvania and the governor."

The group of roughly 50 people complied and also practiced social distancing at McGregor Industries, a metal working plant near Scranton.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was also wearing a mask at the Dunmore factory on July 9.

That same day, President Donald Trump sent his top surrogate, Vice President Mike Pence, to Pennsylvania.

When Air Force Two landed at the Lancaster Airport in Lititz, Pencewas wearing a mask. Hewas greeted by other Republican leaders, such as Congressman Lloyd Smucker, who were also wearing masks.

But most of the people in the crowd of Trump and Pence supporters were not wearing masks or standing at least 6 feet apart.

The president, who was in Washington, D.C., that day, had rarely worn a mask at that point.That changed two days later when he visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and wore a mask while visiting patients.

And it changed even more that Monday night when he posted a photo of himself wearing a mask.

"We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance," Trump tweeted on Monday. "There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!"

The president seems to be changing his stance on masks, but it remains to be seen if Republicans in Pennsylvania will follow his lead.

Some top-ranking Republicans in the state have been wearing masks for months, even if they haven't agreed with safety mandates from Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat from York County. That includes U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley who has been advocating for masks since March, and the new Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican from Lancaster County.

But former Speaker Mike Turzai, a Republican from Allegheny County, and dozens of other Republicans in the Legislature have been fighting the mask mandate.

How the Pennsylvania mask fight started

Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican from Lebanon County, takes credit for starting the mask debate in Pennsylvania.

"I kind of pioneered not wearing a mask," he said.

Diamond said he was the first state Republican lawmaker to publicly show that's he's not wearing a mask.

He has a few problems with wearing masks: They create suspicion that everyone has COVID-19;he thinks they're ineffective;and he thinks they're unfair to people with certain medical conditions.

"We're creating a society where we're all isolated from one another, and we assume everyone is dangerous and carrying a disease," Diamond said. "We're turning it into: Everyone is guilty until they're proven innocent."

Also, despite what numerous scientists and doctors say, he doesn't believemasks work.

He said science seemed to agree with him when the virus was first spreading across the U.S. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against masks.

That changed three months ago when the CDC recommended masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

But Diamond hasn't changed his mind.

"Reusable masks are problematic," he said. "They can get damp and collect bacteria if they're not properly cleaned. If you want to properly wear a mask, get a disposable mask. Too many people fiddle with them and end up touching their face more."

He said another reason he doesn't wear a mask is because he's supporting his fiancee, who has a medical condition that prevents her from wearing a mask. He said wearing a mask triggers her seizures; she recently had a severe seizure while wearing a mask to pick up her medical cannabis.

Wolf's mandate includes medical provisions, but most merchants don't allow customers inside their businesses without a mask, Diamond said.

"If we're going to exclude unmasked people with medical conditions from businesses, then let's knock out wheelchair ramps, too," he said.

Diamond believes the solution better than a mask mandate from the governor is forsymptomatic people to quarantine, and asymptomatic people "don't really need to."

Pennsylvania's recent wave of positive COVID-19 cases can be traced to more than just asymptomatic carriers of the disease, according to state health officials.

Diamond, who said he "hates close talkers" and always maintains "5 feet of personal space to begin with," does support social distancing, vigorous hand washing and sanitizing, and washing and changing clothes when coming home from public spaces.

But he does not support masks, and he disagrees with state education guidelines that will require masks in school this fall.

"Teachers have enough to do. Now, they have to be the mask police, too?" Diamond said.

Diamond thinks a happy medium is: "If you want to wear a mask, fine. I won't say anything bad about you. I choose not to wear one. Please don't say anything bad about me. I'm not going to force myself into your personal space."

How the mask fight continued

Republicans launched a political battle with Wolf over business shutdowns, saying it was a threat to livelihoods and personal freedoms.

Now, they're saying similar things about masks.

For some Republicans, the mask fight isn't about medicine. It's about mandates.

State Rep. Ryan Warner, a Republican from Fayette County, talked about liberty and freedom in a July 1 video on his Facebook page.

He said he agrees with wearing masks in many situations, but he doesn't think Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, M.D.,has a right to tell people to wear masks because she's not an elected official. Levine was appointed by Wolf.

"The decisions from the governor are unilateral, authoritarian decisions. It is not how we do things," Warner said.

Like Warner, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, a Republican from Centre County, said he doesn't dispute wearing a mask.

"What we're disputing is by using his emergency powers, this governor is dictating it to people," Corman said to the Associated Press. "We live in a free society. People can make decisions for themselves."

The state House and Senate recently voted to strip the governor's emergencypowers and give Pennsylvanians more of a say in how they want to be governed in times of crisis, including if they want to wear masks.

The Legislature previously tried to end the governor'semergency declaration without his consent, but a state Supreme Court ruling ended that effort.

Recently, the Legislature voted to change the state constitution and end the emergency declaration, and Wolf vetoed that plan.

"We believe the power of our commonwealth truly rests with the people," Cutler, House speaker, said. "Pennsylvania is not a dictatorship, and the voters should ultimately decide."

He said the legislative branch has tried to work with the governor and asked to join a bipartisan task force to manage the crisis.

"The governor turned us down, deciding instead to go it alone for months on end," Cutler said.

The case for masks

Pennsylvania Democrats, Republicans and health officials who advocate for masks point out they are not new in the commonwealth.

They have been used here for more than a centuryin surgeries, dentistry and other medicalsettings, industrial operations, veterinary care and more.

These uses have been met without protest, and masks have been trusted to do what they were designed to do provide a reliable barrier against contamination.

In the simplest terms, they are designed to keep people from getting sick.

Mask supporters say they are a needed tool in the currentpublic health crisis just like they were used to curtail deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic and shouldn't be used as political weapons.

"When we should be fighting this virus, we are fighting about masks," said Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who said he wears a mask every time he goes into public spaces.

He pointed out that it's not just Democratic governors who want state residents to wear masks.

"The governors of Alabama and Texas, and governors in very red states, are pleading for masks," Fetterman said. "They realize it's not a political statement. It's a tool until we get a vaccine."

When Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mask mandate last week, she said she knew the order would be hard to enforce.

"I always prefer personal responsibility over a government mandate, and yet I also know with all my heart that the numbers and the data over past few weeks are definitely trending in the wrong direction," she said.

At the time, Alabama had more than 58,000 positive cases and hospital intensive care units were overwhelmed.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week defended his mask mandate in a video message.

"Now, I know that many of all you are frustrated. Soam I," he said. "I know that many of you do not like the mask requirement. I dont either. It is the last thing that I wanted to do. Actually the next to the last. The last thing that any of us want is to lock Texas back down again.Each day the facts get worse. If we don't slow this disease quickly, our hospitals will get overrun, and I fear it will even inflict some of the people that I'm talking to right now."

Republican governors in Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio offered similar messages.

And former Republican governors in Pennsylvania say they support Wolf's mandate.

"All Pennsylvanians should heed the Wolf Administrations directives to wear a mask when out of the home," former Gov. Tom Ridge, an Erie native, said in a statement. "Like all Pennsylvanians, Gov. Wolf and Secretary Levine are hoping to avoid the COVID-19 spikes impacting other states so that we can get our economy back up and running as soon as possible. Wearing a mask is a simple, selfless act all of us should support."

His successor echoed that.

"Wearing your mask amounts to saying lets beat the virus now, not later when it might be too late,"former Gov. Mark Schweiker said in a statement.

About 100,000 Pennsylvanians have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 7,000 have died. More than 4,800, or 68%,of those deaths have been in nursing homes.

While many Pennsylvanians have been able to go outside and experience some kind of summer, even if it's a masked one, tens of thousands of nursing home patients are still living in isolation because of the continued spread of infection.

Levinesaid the coronavirus typically enters nursing homes through workers who are asymptomatic carriers of the disease. It's imperative that those workers and the people they come into contact with in public are wearing masks, she said.

As the health secretaryalways says, "Your mask protects me, and my mask protects you."

The nation's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, M.D., and the CDC say masks protect everyone.

That includes the growing number of Pennsylvanians in their 20s who are getting and spreading the disease.

Pollster and political analyst Terry Madonna, who usually refrains from taking a side in political issues, is taking a side in the mask debate.

"I am very, very supportive of wearing a mask in public," Madonna said. "I understand the cons in the issue. I understand the argument. But this is temporary, and it involves life and death. Wearing masks in public seems reasonable to me."

Candy Woodall is a reporter for the USA Today Network. She can be reached at 717-480-1783 or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.

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Pa. fight against wearing masks involves some key Republicans, and liberty - GoErie.com

Liberty’s Joshua Mack, Ralfs Rusins, and Elijah James rated among the top draft eligible players – A Sea of Red

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Libertys Joshua Mack, Ralfs Rusins, and Elijah James have been rated among the top draft eligible players at their respective positions for the 2021 NFL Draft, according to Phil Steele.

Mack was picked as the 67th best draft eligible running back. Mack finished the 2019 season with 792 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. For comparison, there were 16 running backs selected in the 2020 NFL Draft and 25 taken in 2019. The most taken in a single draft in the past decade was 30 in 2017.

Ralfs Rusins is rated the 59th best defensive tackle while Elijah James is ranked 86th among the defensive tackles. Rusins has become a stalwart for the Flames at nose guard. In 2019, he finished 4th on the team with 60 tackles while also adding 6.5 tackles for a loss and 2 sacks. Hes the top returning tackler on the team. James finished the 2019 season with 19 tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss and a QB hurry. His role is expected to increase significantly in 2020.

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Liberty's Joshua Mack, Ralfs Rusins, and Elijah James rated among the top draft eligible players - A Sea of Red

Liberty University files $10M defamation suit against NY Times: ‘Bigoted bunch of liars’ | TheHill – The Hill

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Liberty University announced that it has sued The New York Times for defamation, accusing the newspaper of being factually incorrect in reporting regarding students on campus testing positive for COVID-19 in late Marchduring the early stages of the pandemic.

The March 29 story in question from the Times, Liberty University Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too, reported that about 12 students "were sick with symptoms that suggested Covid-19," which the university vehemently calls false.

There was never an on-campus student diagnosed with COVID-19, Liberty, a private evangelical Christian school, said in the $10 million suit while filed Wednesday, accusing the Times of "clickbait."

"Not only are they a bigoted bunch of liars, and also [a] BuzzFeed-type clickbait publication now," Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. joined Fox News host Sean HannitySean Patrick HannityPress: Trump implodes on 'Fox News Sunday' Lawsuit accuses ex-Fox host Ed Henry of rape Liberty University files M defamation suit against NY Times: 'Bigoted bunch of liars' MORE while mocking the paper for photographing and publishing "No Trespassing" signs on campus.

"But they're also stupid, because they came on campus. We had 25, at least, 'No Trespassing' signs everywhere, and they were dumb enough to take pictures of the signs and publish them,"Falwellsaid.

"So we got warrants out for their arrest and they had to cut a deal with a local prosecutor to keep from going to jail," headded. "That's how dumb they are."

The lawsuit also alleges the paper misrepresented a doctor quoted in its reportand did not speakto Liberty University's physician.

"I think they got their information from a doctor who has a practice 10 miles away from Liberty, who had seen a few Liberty kids who had a cold and upper respiratory problem. And none of it was anything like COVID symptoms," Falwell explained. "He told the reporters to go and talk to our on-campus doctor at our clinic on campus, and they wouldn't do it. They didn't talk to us."

"We tried to get them to correct all the false headlines," he added. "They wouldn't do it. They actually doubled down and lied some more. And so we had no choice. They left us with no choice but to defend our reputation because it scared parents."

In its lawsuit, Liberty also says there are still no students who have tested positive for coronavirus.

We are confident that our story accurately portrayed the reopening of Liberty University and the public health concerns that the reopening raised, New York Times spokesman Ari Isaacman Bevacquatold The Hill in a Thursday morning email. We look forward to defending our work in court.

--Updated at 10:23 a.m.

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Liberty University files $10M defamation suit against NY Times: 'Bigoted bunch of liars' | TheHill - The Hill

How the Trump administration wins on life and religious liberty – Washington Examiner

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Last weeks Supreme Court decision in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania was a major victory for freedom of religion and conscience in the United States. It affirms that the Trump administration properly crafted an exemption that allows the Little Sisters, an order of nuns, to carry out its work caring for the elderly poor without being forced to violate the nuns' consciences.

It was just the latest example of aggressive work by President Trumps Department of Health and Human Services to protect First Amendment freedoms and then win on those issues in court.

From day one of the Trump administration, HHS has made it a priority to protect life and protect the rights of faith and conscience and we are delivering. The dispute in the Little Sisters case arose out of the Obama administrations regulation under the Affordable Care Act, which mandated that most employer-provided health insurance include all Food and Drug Administration-approved methods of contraception. The contraceptive mandate exempted a subset of religious groups, such as churches, but required compliance from most other religious organizations.

Nonexempt religious groups, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, were required to comply with the mandate by a so-called accommodation, requiring them to sign a document authorizing their insurer to provide contraceptive coverage. In other words, they still had to violate their conscience.

When Trump took office the following January, HHS began working on a way to ensure the contraceptive mandate did not unlawfully burden religious exercise. Our solution was straightforward: We broadened the original religious exemption and created a new exemption for employers with moral-based objections still a tiny fraction of Americas employers.

Last week, in a 72 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administrations actions. The court recognized that HHS followed the right procedures and had the legal authority to do what we did. It is remarkable that activists and activist judges forced this simple issue all the way up to our highest court.

Fighting to ensure nuns can carry out their work without having to cover contraception isnt the only place in which the Trump administrations efforts have stoked needlessly fierce legal battles. We are fighting similar battles over the implementation of Title X, which provides government funding for family planning services.

Last year, HHS implemented a new rule that no longer permitted Title X family planning services, funded with taxpayer dollars, to occur at the same location where abortions are provided as a method of family planning. Thats a commonsense step to enforce Congresss existing requirement that no Title X funds be used in programs in which abortion is a method of family planning.

The Title X rule also attracted a torrent of lawsuits but not particularly successful ones. Our Title X rule has now won victories twice at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, notoriously no friend to the Trump administration, first before a three-judge panel and then before a larger, en banc panel. The 9th Circuit actually had to lift several orders put in place by lower courts that attempted to block the implementation of the Title X rule nationwide.

The opposition to the commonsense implementation of the law Congress enacted is dizzying. A number of grantees dropped out of the Title X program altogether in protest (and their funds swiftly awarded to other providers) even as we have added new and important protections to the program for serving vulnerable women and children, such as strengthened requirements around reporting sexual abuse, molestation, and human trafficking.

One of the most important steps Trump has taken to protect religious freedom and the right to life is appointing hundreds of judges more than 200 at the latest count who faithfully interpret the Constitution as written. But the Little Sisters decision won support even from Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.

Every day at HHS, we work to protect the life and conscience rights of all people who need or provide healthcare and social services. It is a department-wide mission, and its just as important during health emergencies, such as the one were experiencing now.

During the coronavirus pandemic, HHSs Office for Civil Rights has been taking action to ensure that states and healthcare providers do not discriminate on the basis of disability in the allocation of medical care. Weve already had five states remove such discriminatory policies from their triage guidelines as a result of our work.

Efforts to protect life at all stages for all people dont always grab headlines in the way Supreme Court decisions do. But behind every court victory and every successful administrative reform are dedicated people working to protect our lives and freedoms as promised by the Constitution and protected by our laws.

That dedicated work is why we can say Trump is the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty president in American history.

Alex M. Azar II is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Originally posted here:

How the Trump administration wins on life and religious liberty - Washington Examiner

Things to do this weekend, from the Virtual Fleet Feet Liberty Mile to a Pandemic Art Show – NEXTpittsburgh

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Here are the events you need to know about this weekend in Pittsburgh: July 24-26. Know of a good event taking place soon? Email us here.

Friday, July 24: Virtual Pittsburgh Urban Farm Tour12 p.m.Take a virtual visit to the Mwanakuche Community Garden to see how Pittsburghs Somali Bantu community transformed a vacant one-acre site in Perry Hilltop into a thriving food growing space. Part of a citywide urban farm open house series, the online tour includes a live moderated Q&A.

Friday, July 24: Shakespeare in Performance Webinar with PICT Classic Theatre2 p.m.Something wicked this way comes: Become an armchair Bard scholar during this free webinar led by PICTs Artistic & Executive Director, Alan Stanford. Shakespeares intriguing and iconic villains will come to life during exclusive performances and discussions.

Friday, July 24: 30 Years of ADA: Pearls of Great Value2-3 p.m.Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act during this Virtual Town Hall hosted by Oakland For All: Beyond Accessible. Join community leaders, policymakers and stakeholders to discuss the landmark legislation, current accessibility issues and the impact of COVID-19 and find out how you can help increase opportunities for people with disabilities in our region.

Trio of Blues. Photo courtesy of The Frick Pittsburgh.

Friday, July 24: Trio of Blues with The Frick Pittsburgh7 p.m.Friday night will rock when The Fricks Summer Fridays series welcomes these veterans of the Chicago blues scene. Youll get up on your feet during the energetic online concert by Max Schang (guitar and vocals), Jim Spears (bass and vocals) and Steve McMurray (drums).

Friday, July 24: Beavers: The Directors Cut with Rangos Giant CinemaVarious timesCatch these remarkable rodents before they swim away July 26. Exploring one of natures greatest engineers, the film follows a family of beavers living in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Via the masterful IMAX camera, youll experience spectacular aerial wilderness scenes and rich aquatic habitats plus a remastered soundtrack with 12.1 surround-sound.

Saturday, July 25: Public Art Run on the North Side8-9 a.m.This new route hosted by Pittsburgh Running Tours will take you on a three-mile exploration of the striking murals and sculptures found on the North Side. Runners will stop and snap photos and learn about the history of locally-made public art.

Saturday, July 25: Virtual Fleet Feet Liberty MileVarious timesHow fast can you run one mile? P3Rs Virtual Fleet Feet Liberty Mile challenges participants to run their fastest mile before August 7. Everyone from Olympians to previous Liberty Mile champions to rookie runners will earn a first-ever finishers medal and shirt during the virtual event. While running anywhere trails, city streets or treadmills participants can keep it fun with P3R contests and activities.

Photo courtesy of P3R.

Saturday, July 25: Movement & Making with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Childrens Museum of Pittsburgh10 a.m.Budding performers are invited to create characters and tell stories using movement, household objects and imaginative thinking. Family members, pets and even toys are welcome to join the free workshop as kids dance their way through a mystery piece of music.

Saturday, July 25: Pittsburghs First Pandemic: The White Plague10 a.m.What was social distancing like in 1915 during the tuberculosis pandemic? Join Doors Open Pittsburgh Tour Curator Pam Gianni to learn about the white plague including social changes and unproven treatments that ravaged our region 100-plus years ago.

Saturday, July 25: Introduction to Enameling with Contemporary Craft10 a.m.-5 p.m.Discover the fascinating art of enameling during Contemporary Crafts first in-person workshop at its new Butler St. digs. Artist Joe Pillari will demonstrate techniques for applying powdered glass to metal, sifting and firing, decorative stenciling and more. Just want to watch? Be a fly on the wall as you observe the workshop from home through Zoom.

Saturday, July 25: Summer Sidewalk Sale at Gallery on Penn11 a.m.-3 p.m.Take a stroll along Penn Ave. to enjoy family activities, summer sales and one-of-a-kind merchandise and gifts during this free outdoor event hosted by Circles Greater Pittsburgh.

Saturday, July 25: Virtual Author Event with Frank Santoro2 3:30 p.m.Dont miss this free virtual event featuring artist Frank Santoro, who will talk about his latest graphic novel, Pittsburgh. Equal parts family drama, coming-of-age memoir and hometown homage, Santoros work examines his parents broken relationship.

Saturday, July 25: Pandemic Art Show and Grand Opening at Sanctuary7-10 p.m.Celebrate the grand opening (masks required) of Sanctuary during the gallerys first group exhibition. Works on view were created by local artists to grapple with and express their experiences with the pandemic.

Saturday, July 25: Knights of the Arcade Online Adventures9 p.m.Pour a stein of mead, sign onto your scrying device and gather round for this live online show packed with geeky humor, D&D drama, improv comedy and role-playing games.

Sunday, July 26: Yoga at the Frick Park Clay Tennis Courts7 a.m.Early birds should flock to this donation-based yoga class at the Frick Park Clay Tennis Courts. Hosted by the Frick Park Clay Court Tennis Club and Om Lounge, the outdoor workshop is open to all levels, and participants must wear a mask while not on their mat.

Photo courtesy of Frick Park Clay Court Tennis Club and Om Lounge.

Sunday, July 26: Bike the Burgh Glass & Steel City Tour10 a.m.-1 p.m.Di you know the South Side was once a national center for glass and steel production? Hope on a bike to explore the neighborhoods heritage, discover industrial remnants, traverse scenic river trails and take in magnificent views while riding over historic bridges.

Sunday, July 26: Taste of Lawrenceville To-Go at Bay4112-5:30 p.m.Ordering takeout is a great way to support your favorite local restaurants. During this food and beverage market, attendees can register for a one-hour time slot to grab takeout from various Lawrenceville small businesses and vendors.

Sunday, July 26: Art Meditation with Carnegie Museum of Art1 p.m.Set a slower pace during this guided art meditation led by Lydia Killian. Using CMOAs world-class collection as inspiration, the session will include visualization, breath awareness and noting techinques.

Sunday, July 26: She Kills Monsters: Virtual RealmsVarious timesYou have one more night to catch the first-ever internet play produced by University of Pittsburghs UP Stages company before the virtual curtain is lowered. Developed by 23 Pitt students, She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms is an online adaptation of the popular drama-comedy set in a real and imaginary game world written by Vietnamese American playwright Qui Nguyen.

For more events,go here. Know about an interesting event taking place in July?Email us here.

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Things to do this weekend, from the Virtual Fleet Feet Liberty Mile to a Pandemic Art Show - NEXTpittsburgh