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Theres something common in reactions to Ranbir Kapoors jeans, Brexit and Khan Market gang – ThePrint

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Danzig

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Among the many reactions to actor Rishi Kapoors cremation Thursday, one caught my attention. Ritu Rathaur, whocalls herself a Himachali Thakurian and Civilizational Hindu, criticised Ranbir Kapoor for wearing torn jeans to his fathers cremation.

Two things stand out. One is the obvious poor taste of the tweet and how it ignores that the Kapoor familywas asked by the authoritiesto go straight from the hospital to the crematorium in view of the lockdown, so obviously Ranbir couldnt change his clothes, even in the unlikely event that clothes were uppermost on his mind on the day his father died. The second is the word deracination.

Deracination means a removal or separation from ones native environment or culture, especially in terms of racial or ethnic identity, but the way it is used in India, it is less about race and far more about religion, language andclothes.

In India, if you dont engage with religion and religious customs (and particularly the majoritarian ones), you are called deracinated, because you obviously dont understand your culture and roots.

The use of the word in India assumes that anyone who is liberal, who speaks and thinks in English, who dresses in Western clothes and isnt concerned with a narrow and surface-level concept of Indianness, is deracinated. Anyone who talks about global issues and human rights instead of muscular nationalism is not in touch with real India. Never mind that there are many Indias, each of them equally real and valid the English-educated liberal elites Indianness doesnt get invalidated because of their privilege, and the white kurta-wearing funeral attendee isnt more desi than someone who wears jeans, ripped or not.

Also read: Loverboy, brat, troubled star, outspoken patriarch Rishi Kapoor was all of these and more

It is also a lazy pejorative because, as sociologist Shiv Visvanathan told ThePrint, When we in India talk about deracination, we are talking of a very superficial way of looking at a persons Indianness. Its a failure of our use of language, we didnt look at the root of the word before using it to describe someone who is just more cosmopolitan.

It is the same narrow logic that compelled many people, in June 2015, to make snarky comments aboutwhy Indians were celebratingwhen the US Supreme Court legalised gay marriage, and the same argument that is dredged up every four years when someone questions on social media why Indians care who becomes the US president. Because, you know, real Indians should only be concerned with what happens in our country.

It is also the same narrow logic behind Prime Minister Narendra Modis use of the term Khan Market gang to describe the capitals elite class, epitomised by the Nehru-Gandhi family, whose ideas of secularism and diversity, and cosmopolitan, outward-lookingways are at odds with the Rights obsession with the glories of our (Hindu) past.

In a 2017 article, the BJPs National General Secretary, Ram Madhav (who also, in 2019, criticised the pseudo-secular/liberal cartels of Khan Market), wrote that Indias native genius is rooted in its religio-social institutions like state, family, caste, guru and festival, adding that at the time of Independence, conflict arose between a colonised Nehru and a Gandhi more attached to native wisdom. Nehru sought to take the country in the direction of the ideas he had inherited from the colonial masters and from his personal experience in Europe. The crucial formative years after independence were thus dominated by a western liberal discourse that had very little Indian content, Madhav wrote.

Incidentally, after the BJPs victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Madhav took party workers out for a celebration to Khan Market.

R. Jagannathan, editorial director of Swarajya magazine, says a deracinated Indian is someone whose mind is almost entirely driven by the English language. He told ThePrint, When you think and express yourself in a regional language, you are far more rooted. Not that one can paint everyone with the same brush, but yes, someone who is mentally colonised by the English language is broadly what I would call deracinated. Of course, English is an Indian language, but it should be used only for looking outward. Forcing it as the language with which to look inwards, at regional issues, is problematic.

Also read: Time Modi & Amit Shah stop abusing Lutyens Delhi. They are the new power elite in Capital

In his book,The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and The Future of Politics, British writer and social commentator David Goodhart divides people into Somewheres (those who are deeply rooted in a certain ethnic, linguistic, religious, geographical community and geography, typically conservative, often not well-educated, and wedded to homogeneity) and Anywheres (urban, well-educated, well-travelled, at home anywhere in the world).

Goodhart uses these terms to explain, and justify, the demand for Brexit in the UK, citing the sense of threat to their identity that the Somewheres feel due to immigrants, despite the fact that they are in a majority over the Anywheres.

The terms can easily be transplanted to India, with the whole Hindu khatre mein hai narrative of the BJP. In India, the Anywheres are also in a minority, but they do hold some sway over public thought, be it in the media, in cinema, literature, big business or the civil services. And yes, they do need to confront the fact that there is a disenchantment with them that has led to Narendra Modis consecutive landslide electoral victories.

It is not enough to just call all the Somewheres bigots and cocoon oneself in a bubble. It is also not enough to call all the Anywheres deracinated and out of touch with reality and cocoon oneself in that bubble.

Also read: Why does the Right-wing want to occupy Delhis liberal hotspot Khan Market?

It is similar to the fear that the institutions of marriage and family are breaking down but why is every change seen as bad? Marriage as it stood, as a patriarchal construct,wasin need of a breakdown and overhaul to accommodate a changed gender dynamic. Familywasa very narrow idea, and the nuclear unit, and now live-in partners, are changing that and its a good thing. These upheavals are not threats. These are signs that something that needed to change is finally changing.

To go back to the attack on Ranbir Kapoors clothes, Visvanathan says that theKapoor family actually carries the tradition of the deracinated Indian, what with bringing to India the idea of Charlie Chaplin, the proletariat and clown, as the hero. Rishi Kapoor also always carried himself with ease, didnt take himself too seriously, and its the same with Ranbir. The Kapoors did not adhere to standard nationalist models,they brokestereotypes.

Views are personal.

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Theres something common in reactions to Ranbir Kapoors jeans, Brexit and Khan Market gang - ThePrint

Extending the Brexit transition period – Third Force News

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Danzig

Maria Fletcher says the UK Government must do the right thing and extend the Brexit transition period

30th April 2020 by TFN Guest

Having claimed to have got Brexit done on 31 January 2020, the Johnson Government was adamant that the post-Brexit transition period would end on 31 December 2020. As of today, it remains adamant of this but given the intervening and ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it is under increasing pressure to ask for a prolongation of the transition period for up to two years. The deadline for a joint EU-UK agreed extension is 30 June 2020.

In normal times, completing negotiations on the UKs future relationship with the EU - including UKs border, internal security, immigration, organisational infrastructure - in the 11 months set by the UK Government was a tall order. However, the enormity of the task became even clearer as negotiating approaches were published in February 2020 and the gulf between the UK and the EU positions on key issues (such as the so-called level playing field), fisheries and security cooperation became clear.

Since then, the outbreak and deadly spread of the coronavirus has ushered in extraordinary times. This led first, to the disruption and halting of negotiations. Then on 15 April to the agreed resumption of negotiations with three weekly rounds starting on 20 April, 11 May and 1 June. The negotiations are by now, inevitably, considerably behind the agreed schedule, and made much harder by the lack of in person contact. After the first round of resumed negotiations last week, it was clear that the sides remained far apart.

It may seem odd to be worrying about Brexit at this time of a pandemic but the two are connected.

A growing number of voices at home and abroad are putting pressure on the UK Government to secure an extension to avoid compounding the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic with a hugely disruptive and disorderly Brexit. As is looking increasingly likely, if a future EU-UK deal cannot be agreed by the end of the year, this puts another feared no-deal/cliff-edge scenario back on the table. And with the best will in the world, no other world leaders are in a position to negotiate a trade deal with the UK before the end of the year. As civil society battles to limit the huge crisis posed to the wellbeing of vulnerable groups by Covid-19, the potential harmful impacts of Brexit (loss of rights, legal remedies, connectivity, funding) post no-deal transition loom even larger for the sector and the individuals and groups they serve.

Maria Fletcher

An additional, unnecessary economic shock (and potential security crisis), causing further uncertainty, pain and worry for businesses, civil society and individuals is surely not the choice of a prudent or decent government. Yes, the UK Government may lose some face amongst some of its party-faithful. Yes, additional payments will need to be paid to the EU should an extension be secured - but that would still be a small price to pay given the probable alternative. The UK Governments outcomes are simply not attainable in the current extraordinary circumstances. A policy U-turn would be the sign of a strong, not weak, government.

The legal and procedural hurdles to an extension of the post-Brexit transition period are numerous indeed, but not insurmountable; the key will be having the requisite political will, and soon. As odd and disappointing as it might immediately seem to certain factions of the British press, Conservative Party and the wider electorate, it would be the act of a responsible and caring Government to seek an extension to the transition period.

Maria Fletcher is a senior law lecturer at the University of Glasgow and SULNE. She was writing on behalf of The Civil Society Brexit Project, find out more at http://www.civilsocietybrexit.scot

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Extending the Brexit transition period - Third Force News

How Kronborg Castle helped to inspire Shakespeare | Latest Brexit news and top stories – The New European

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Danzig

PUBLISHED: 21:49 29 April 2020 | UPDATED: 21:49 29 April 2020

Charlie Connelly

An aerial image of Kronborg Castle, Helsingr (Photo by Blom UK via Getty Images)

2010 Blom UK

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We all have little jobs around the house that weve planning to get around to for years in some cases. One of mine was going through a big box of old DVDs that needed sorting out and last week it took a global pandemic for me to finally sit cross-legged on the floor and get thoroughly stuck in at last.

In the middle of matching loose discs to their correct cases I came across one orphan with no identifying marks. Slipping it into the player I closed the drawer and pressed play, at which the television screen, from which I was sitting no more than four feet, was suddenly filled completely by my own stupid face. I reeled backwards and let out a yelp that brought my wife running in from the other room.

When this understandable alarm had diminished to manageable proportions I realised to my disappointment this wasnt some kind of time-travelling message from a future me assuring us of a post-virus world of greater European unity and a government with a philosophy based on kindness and tolerance. Instead it was a film Id presented for the BBC about 15 years ago on the subject of literary Denmark.

A prime-time series that profiled nice places to go seems even further off now than it ever did, but there it was on the screen so that kind of thing definitely happened in the olden days, a prelapsarian era when people didnt only leave their homes at will but went to places that werent the supermarket. Good times.

We sat and watched, taunted by the younger me driving around Zealand babbling about Hans Christian Andersen then parking my behind on Karen Blixens writing chair as if driving around, babbling and sitting on other peoples chairs was the most natural thing in the world.

One part of the film in particular invoked a particularly profound sense of yearning, especially this week marking the anniversary of Shakespeares birth and death. Kronborg Castle sits on a nipple of land on the eastern coast of Zealand, looking out across the resund strait towards the Swedish town of Helsingborg thats so close you can see traffic moving along the opposite shore. Its a perfect castle location at the narrowest point of the strait, and at the height of Danish military power in the late 16th century Frederick II had turned it into a formidable fortress that exacted lucrative tolls on all shipping going in and out of the Baltic Sea. Its a combination of beautiful Renaissance architectural flourishes turrets in three corners with ornate copper roofs that have gone bright green with age and a forbidding military structure of considerable size that from the water must look absolutely impregnable.

The reason I was there and babbling on screen was that Kronborg is also the setting for Hamlet. Helsingr, the Danish town that huddles behind its military protector, is the Elsinore of the play, estimated to have been written by the Bard at the dawn of the 17th century.

Watching myself wandering around the castle led me to a thought process free of social isolation to some of the Shakespeare locations Ive visited over the years. Theres the house in Stratford-upon-Avon in which he was born, of course, and visiting his grave inside the parish church was an experience I found more moving than I expected. Ordinarily both these sites of literary pilgrimage would be absolutely packed this week, but possibly for the first time since the Shakespeare revival started in earnest during the late 18th century they will be padlocked and deserted, empty like the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart described by Claudius to Laertes in Hamlet.

I thought too of some the productions Ive seen, from a magical rendering of A Midsummer Nights Dream in the perfect setting of Regents Park Open Air Theatre to an RSC production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Stratford-upon-Avon a couple of years ago that contained enough anti-Brexit asides to recruit the Bard firmly to the Remain cause.

And a Remainer he would certainly have been. Like every jobbing actor and playwright of the period worth their salt, Shakespeare worked with one eye permanently on the rest of Europe. The companies of the day earned as much of their corn touring abroad as they did treading the boards at home. There are frustratingly large gaps in what we know of Shakespeares life, long periods in which we have no idea where he was or what he was doing. Its likely that, certainly in his younger days, he spent chunks of that time trundling around the continent with a bunch of other actors in a cart loaded with props, costumes and bits of scenery.

English performers were hugely popular on the continent in Shakespeares day. Indeed the first theatre ever built in Poland, in Danzig around 1600, was designed specifically to accommodate English touring companies. It became part of a well-trodden circuit that encompassed what are now Czech and German lands, the Baltics and Scandinavia including Kronborg.

Well never know if Shakespeare actually showed up at Kronborg but the references in Hamlet have just enough detail to suggest detailed knowledge of the place, even if it wasnt the man himself who was able to provide it.

On the day I visited I was able to walk the outer ramparts where in the opening scene of Hamlet the ghost of the princes murdered father Claudius spooks the guards and sets in train the events of the play. I stood beneath the windows of the apartments constructed for the use of the royal family, where Claudius would have lingered and died. I poked my head into the chapel where Claudius prayed before confronting his queen and Hamlets mother Gertrude.

I strolled through the banqueting hall in which ancient tapestries hung, one of which could well have been the arras behind which Ophelias father Polonius met his end (watching the DVD confirmed that the poor old Polonius, eh? Stabbed in the arras line I introduced to the script was cut for the broadcast even though I delivered it perfectly after jumping out from behind what might have been the actual arras). And I walked through the courtyard with Karen, the woman then in charge of the annual performances of Hamlet that take place right there, in the open air, on the very spot Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote the play more than 400 years ago. Ghosts of some of the greatest actors in the world flit around here, soliloquising and dilly-dallying, making everything in the courtyard feel like a play within a play.

If we dont know whether Shakespeare actually visited Kronborg we can be sure that three people he knew very well definitely did. In 1586 the castle had just been extensively modernised by Frederick II and that year three English actors arrived, engaged for the summer to mark the fortresss rebirth at the request of the Danish ambassador to London. They were Will Kempe, George Bryan and Thomas Pope, known associates of Shakespeare, when all four were part of the Lord Chamberlains Men troupe, to the extent that the Bard even wrote roles with Kempe specifically in mind. Hence when he came to write Hamlet, modernising an ancient tale just after the castle itself had been modernised, and set it at Kronborg, Shakespeare had expert location knowledge to call on even if he hadnt seen the place for himself.

The annual performances at the castle have attracted some of the biggest names in the acting profession. Hamlet is a role to which every actor aspires, but the chance to play the prince in the intended setting of the play has proved intoxicating to leading men from many different countries. The first performance took place in 1816. It was two years after Britain and Denmark had signed a peace treaty towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and happened also to be the bicentenary of the playwrights death.

Danish soldiers garrisoned at Kronborg staged the play, with a young lieutenant named Nicolai Peter Nielsen in the title role who would go on to be one of Denmarks finest actors after he left the army. This was no knockabout version either: a special prologue was written for the occasion by the poet Adam Oehlenschlger that concluded, Here Hamlet is played; outside on the terrace path the spirit itself walks by.

The current tradition began in 1937, when the Old Vic company came over from London, a production directed by Tyrone Guthrie with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet and Viven Leigh as Ophelia (and an up and coming 23-year-old called Alec Guinness as Osric). The first night was washed out by rain and transferred to a nearby ballroom but the following evening the sun shone and 2,500 people witnessed a performance from Olivier that had the man from the Times declaring, When Hamlet came out it was indeed as if time had for the moment got out of step with reality.

The following year saw a German production starring the great German actor Gustaf Grndgens in a performance attended by Hermann Gring, who happened to be holidaying nearby on his yacht. But in 1939, as the shadow of war loomed over Europe, John Gielgud arrived to a fusillade of cannon and a brass band playing Its a Long Way to Tipperary with Fay Compton leaving her sick bed in London to play Ophelia.

Karen Blixen was in the audience. Between the acts, I went backstage on the Bastion and smoked a cigarette with Hamlet in his long cape, she wrote afterwards. The evening was so clear and full of stars I might have really entered Shakespeares world.

Since then a succession of household names have played the Dane at Elsinore including Richard Burton, Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, Simon Russell Beale and Jude Law. A BBC production was filmed there in 1964 to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeares birth, directed by Philip Saville with Christopher Plummer as Hamlet and Michael Caine as Horatio.

Companies from across Europe and beyond have staged Hamlet at Kronborg, above the dreadful summit of the cliff that beetles oer his base into the sea which is not, in truth, that dreadful a summit but hey, Shakespeare wasnt writing a documentary. The roster of Hamlets reminds us of better times, of European integration and the ability we take for granted to wander across continents. What better time to appreciate them than in the week marking the beginning and the end of the life of Shakespeare, the European?

They should still have left my arras joke in, though. Philistines.

Almost four years after its creation The New European goes from strength to strength across print and online, offering a pro-European perspective on Brexit and reporting on the political response to the coronavirus outbreak, climate change and international politics. But we can only rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press with your support. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.

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How Kronborg Castle helped to inspire Shakespeare | Latest Brexit news and top stories - The New European

Brexit: EU Trade Talks Could Collapse in June over Fishing, Regulations – Breitbart

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Danzig

Negotiating sources on both sides of the English Channel have admitted that UK-EU trade talks could collapse in June over fishing and regulations.

The British government revealed in February that if sufficient progress is not made on a trade deal with the EU by June, then Londons negotiators would pull out of talks and the government would spend the rest of the transition period preparing to move the UK onto World Trade Organization (WTO) terms with the bloc.

Following the two parties recommencing negotiations since the coronavirus, one British source told The Times:If they [the EU] continue to insist on their position on a so-called level playing field and on continuing the common fisheries policy, for example, we are never going to accept that.

The level playing field relates to the European Commissions position that the UK must continue to abide by regulations on the environment, taxation, and government subsidies so that Brexit Britain does not represent a competitive risk to the EU.

The EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said last week that the UK could not both refuse to extend the transition period and refuse to surrender on regulatory alignment and fishing. The EU demands that France and other member-states have continued access to Britains lucrative fishing waters.

Sources speaking to The Telegraph have said that the EU wants the existing conditions set out by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) maintained. EU fishermen currently have rights to access more than 60 per cent of all landings by weight in British waters. By fish, the quota varies, however, with the French getting 84 per cent of English Channel cod compared to the UKs paltry nine per cent.

The UKs source told the newspaper that unless the EU shifted on fishing demands, negotiations would be over by the summer.

There are some fundamentals that were not going to change, nor going to move on. Because they are not so much negotiating positions as theyre sort of what an independent state does, the source told The Telegraph.

An independent state has independent control over coastal waters what we are wanting now is an EU understanding that we are not going to subordinate our laws to them in any areas, they added.

The source said that if the EU does not submit to the UK sovereign rights, then preparing for a WTO relationship will become the primary focus of effort.

However, one of the governments senior ministers admitted that the UK is not working on any contingency arrangements for a WTO relationship, weakening the UKs negotiating hand in revealing that the government is not serious in preparing the country to be a fully independent nation.

Michael Gove had said on Monday:We dont have any plans to stand up operation Yellowhammer [government no-deal planning] again because we are confident we will secure an agreement.

Brussels interpretation of Mr Goves remarks was unsurprising, with one diplomat confident that the UK will blink first.

The diplomatic source told The Guardian:If No 10 doesnt change its negotiating approach, we will very likely be looking at a no-deal scenario. So we take this statement [on the positive chances of a deal by Michael Gove] as a welcome sign that the UK will change its negotiating stance.

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Brexit: EU Trade Talks Could Collapse in June over Fishing, Regulations - Breitbart

Government should stop grandstanding over Brexit | London Business News – London Loves Business

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Danzig

Extending the Brexit transition period would provide much needed reassurance to the economy, say leading tax and advisory firmBlickRothenberg.

David Hough, a business advisory partner at the firm said: It is disappointing that the Government are refusing to countenance extending the deadline for a trade deal beyond the current deadline of 31 December.

He added: Both the UK and the EU have more pressing concerns at this time and extending the Transition period,ideallyfor at least a year, would provide some much-needed reassurance to the economy, and just as importantly allow Government to focus on matters currently at hand.

The Government may well ultimately secure a good trade deal but now is not the time for grandstanding.Business needsreassurance now as it contemplates how to come out of the lock down.

Hough said: For the last few weeks business owners have been working out how to address the immediate challenges they were facing of generating short term cash flow and finding the best way to look after as many employees as they can.

He added: The risk of a second peak later in the year should not be discounted and the ability, and means, to negotiate a trade deal would be significantly impacted by this if the UK has allowed 1 July 2020, the date an extension has to be legislated, to pass.

Allowing for the time required for approvals by the UK and EU States that means that an extension needs to be agreed in principle by probably no later than the end of May.

Hough said: The reassurance that an extension would bring is important because certainty improves the quality of forecasting which makes lenders and investors more willing to part with their money, giving businesses the platform to trade with confidence rather than simply trading to survive.

This will be crucial in re-igniting the economy and to reduce the reliance on Government grants.

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Government should stop grandstanding over Brexit | London Business News - London Loves Business

Artists campaign against Bristol Spike Island eviction of Howard Silverman – The Guardian

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

A founding father of one of Europes largest artist studio complexes has expressed grief, anger and a sense of betrayal after being told he must leave the community he helped create almost half a century ago.

The contemporary artist Howard Silverman, 73, said his part in the development of Spike Island in Bristol had been his lifes work, and being given notice to vacate the studio he considered his spiritual home had devastated him.

Fellow studio holders and artists from around the world are backing Silvermans fight to overturn the decision, with some suggesting the organisation is intent on squeezing out older, established tenants in favour of younger ones.

The New York-born Silverman, regarded as a cornerstone of the Bristol art scene, said: I wake up in the morning stressed and depressed. It affects family, friends and colleagues.

Silverman, whose award-winning work includes installation, sculpture, painting, printmaking, video and digital imagery, is angry that, after spending 46 years at Spike Island and its predecessor organisation, the panel considering his bid to renew his lease had just 20 minutes to study it before debating and then making its decision.

He is also distressed that after his appeal was rejected he was served three months notice to vacate during the first days of the Covid-19 lockdown, which would have made packing up and leaving even more difficult. My studio is my spiritual home, he said. It has always been my laboratory and my launch pad. I will be lost without it.

Spike Island is the base for more than 70 artists, dozens of creative businesses and hundreds of fine art students.

It began in the 1970s as Artspace Bristol, founded by Silverman and a group of other idealistic, radical artists who sought out and administered affordable studio spaces in old industrial buildings.

In 1992, the organisation moved to its current home, a former tea-packing warehouse and rebranded as Spike Island. A trust was set up and last year introduced a system of lease reviews. Half of the six artists who have so far reapplied for their leases have been told they must leave.

The Spike Island artist Julian Claxton said the decision to evict Silverman was outrageous. He said Silverman remained a cutting edge artist but always had time to encourage and help others. Another artist aid he was the life and soul of the community, while a third said it was a mystery why he was being evicted.

Within 48 hours, more than 500 people including artists from all around the world had signed a petition protesting against the eviction.

A spokesman for Spike Island refused to speak about an individual case, but denied it was favouring younger artists. He said: The studio review process is a way to ensure that our artists studios are managed fairly. Our [studios] must be inclusive and accessible to all in order to support local artists from different backgrounds and at different career stages.

The Guardian has seen a letter dated 26 March after the coronavirus lockdown from Spike Island giving Silverman three months to leave from that day which would have involved planning the move during physical distancing. After he objected, Spike Island said the three months notice would begin after lockdown was lifted.

The spokesman said Spike Island was being incredibly flexible with artists who were being told to leave. He confirmed the review panel members were given 20 minutes to read submissions from tenants, adding: An extensive period of discussion then follows.

Artists campaign against Bristol Spike Island eviction of Howard Silverman - The Guardian

Staten Island Zoo to host virtual meet and greet with exotic animals: How to attend – SILive.com

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- While the Staten Island Zoo is closed to the public, zookeepers are looking for alternate ways for people enjoy the exotic animals that reside at the West Brighton facility.

On Tuesday, the New York Adventure Club will host a webinar with the Zoos education department staff for a virtual meet and greet with animals in their environment.

According to the club, the Staten Island Zoo is home to more than 1,100 animals, and more than 350 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates from six of the worlds seven continents.

The digital meet and greet will be with six animal guests, ranging from small mammals to reptiles. The exact animal lineup is subject to change based on animal health and well-being, according to organizers.

There will be an educational overview of each animal, including the story of how each one arrived at the Zoo. There also will be a question-and-answer session for those who tune in.

The webinar will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. For the best possible viewing experience, organizers suggest using the latest version of Google Chrome. Exact technical requirements and a webinar user guide will be shared via email upon registration.

A full replay will be available after the experience for all registered guests.

Admission is $10 per viewer. To register for the webinar, visit nyadventureclub.com. For more information on the Staten Island Zoo, visit StatenIslandZoo.org.

This isnt the first time New York Adventure Club and the Staten Island Zoo have joined forces to provide educational entertainment to animal lovers. The organizations previously hosted in-person events like a Behind-the-Scenes Interactive Animal Experience, allowing a group of guests to see the Zoo from the view of an employee.

Recently, the Advance/SILive.com got some face time with Pancakes, the baby sloth born at the Zoo in February. Pancakes is the third baby born to CC and Sid. She is joined by big sister, Waffles, and older brother, Dunkin.

Along with weekly educational programming, the Zoo also hosts an annual Rattlemania event, which allows guests to see alligator, gila monsters and cobra feedings with informative keeper talks.

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Staten Island Zoo to host virtual meet and greet with exotic animals: How to attend - SILive.com

TSB investigation into Island Queen III incident issues three concerns – The Kingston Whig-Standard

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

KINGSTON The Transportation Safety Board has issued three safety concerns following a long and tumultuous investigation into a local tourism boat hitting bottom in 2017.

The safety boards report was extensive, Hugh Mackenzie, general manager of the Kingston 1,000 Islands Cruises, said, explaining that the company saw a draft report and was able to provide feedback for the final one.

The report is exhaustive and we were heavily involved with discussions back-and-forth dealing with the Transportation Safety Boards inquiries, and were satisfied with the quality of the report. Were happy there were no recommendations coming out of the report in the context of our operation, but general concern that should be addressed by the industry at large.

On Aug. 8, 2017, at about 12:45 p.m., the Island Queen III, with 290 people on board, set sail for a three-hour cruise around the Thousand Islands. As it passed Fort Henry and Deadman Bay, the ship came across a sailing school and was forced slightly more north along its intended route. As it travelled between the mainland and Whiskey Island, navigating visually only, the ship hit bottom.

A rudder was left useless and the hull of the ship was breached, causing water to rush into a compartment below the main deck. The captain turned the ship back to its port and it arrived there 30 minutes later, with the water onboard having reached 1.4 metres deep.

No one was injured during the incident, but the company called the Transportation Safety Board as required. The board started its investigation the next day.

Everything seemingly went well until the board requested a copy of the ships passenger manifest and a list of crew members on other company vessels. As reported by Postmedia Network in July 2018, Mackenzie refused to hand over the information, claiming in court documents that the TSB was using the incident to perform an intrusive audit of its operations in the Thousand Islands.

The TSB issued a legal summons for Mackenzie to hand over the documents by Nov. 8, 2017, but instead, Mackenzie filed an application to the federal government asking for it to be declared unlawful.

As legal arguments were being prepared by both parties, the board applied for, and was granted, a warrant by a justice of the peace in Ottawa to seize the documents. RCMP seized the documents on March 6, 2018, but then the board was instructed by Ontario Superior Court Justice Graeme Mew to not use them after Mackenzie went to court and asked for the seizure to be declared abuse of process.

It is a particular concern when a government agency acts to undermine a legal process that it would be expected to engage in good faith, the judge said, explaining theyd have to wait until after the Federal Court process.

Four months later, the federal court disagreed with Mackenzie and found the TSBs search, seizure and request of documents were all justified.

As reported by Postmedia, Justice James OReilly wrote in his decision that the documents and information about passengers and staff were important because they were all witnesses of the event, potentially with relevant photos or video.

OReilly said, The investigators identified some safety issues that they brought to the attention of the tour operators, noting that the TSBs mandate allowed it to address broader, systemic safety concerns.

Those three safety concerns were highlighted in a news release sent out on Thursday, though theyre also directed to Transport Canada and the passenger vessel industry as a whole.

The first concern was about the availability of life-jackets for children and infants. For a vessel like the Island Queen III, it is required to carry a life-jacket for every person on board, and a childrens life-jacket for 10 per cent of the maximum complement or one for each child on board, whichever is greater.

On the day the Island Queen III hit bottom, it had 32 children and four infants onboard, but only 31 childrens life-jackets. There are no Transport Canada requirements for infant life-jackets. The TSB wrote that, The master and crew were unaware of the number of children and infants on board, as there was no procedure in place to determine and record these numbers.

Mackenzie explained that childrens life-jackets are for individuals 45 kilograms or lighter and that they do not weigh each of their passengers. On that day, they were above Transportation Canadas requirements for adult life-jackets because they always carry the ships capacity 307 though they rarely have more than 185 guests and crew members on board.

The board wrote that it is concerned that if Transport Canada doesnt provide requirements for infant life-jackets, or documenting how many children are on board, there remains a risk.

It is a conundrum that is not unique to us. These are (Transport Canada) regulations that relate to the full passenger industry, Mackenzie said. According to the pricing of our tickets, we had a number of people who were 12 or under on the vessel that day, but with no regard to what their weight was.

Another safety concern the board highlighted was that there wasnt a procedure in place on the day to evacuate the Island Queen IIIs passengers should there have been an abandon-ship signal. Transport Canada is responsible for overseeing compliance of the procedure but does not have a formal procedure to do so.

Until Transport Canada implements a formal validation and approval process for passenger vessel evacuation procedures, crews and passengers may not be prepared to evacuate safely in an emergency, the board wrote.

The final concern issued by the board is that crew members on vessels such as the Island Queen III are not required to be trained in passenger safety management: Until the crews of these vessels are required to take the appropriate passenger safety management training, there remains a risk that crew members will not be adequately prepared in emergencies.

The TSB said in its release that Kingston 1,000 Islands Cruises has taken steps regarding the concerns.

Since this incident, the operator of theIsland Queen III has undertaken a number of steps to improve safety by addressing some of the identified deficiencies, including changing how the pre-departure safety briefing is given to passengers, and having crew members demonstrate how to put on life-jackets, the release said. The company has also reviewed its safety management system and developed detailed evacuation procedures.

Mackenzie told the Whig-Standard that the investigation was an amazing learning experience.

I have to compliment Transportation Safety Board, Mackenzie said. Their investigation was exhaustive. They came here on a number of occasions, we had three-hour-long phone calls, they gave us the draft of the report eight months ago, I think, and we provided them with a 17-page commentary on their findings and they changed a number of the issues that they found.

scrosier@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StephattheWhig

Read the rest here:

TSB investigation into Island Queen III incident issues three concerns - The Kingston Whig-Standard

Coronavirus: Woman took son to Greek island to ‘protect him from COVID-19’ – Sky News

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

A woman who took her 11-year-old son to a Greek island to protect him from COVID-19 should not have done so, a UK judge said.

The boy's father wants judges in Greece and London to order he is returned to England.

He says the boy was taken from London to Paros, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, without his permission.

Mr Justice Mostyn, who oversaw a recent private hearing in London, said the man and woman are both Greek but had lived in London for more than two years.

Details of the dispute emerged on Friday in a ruling published by the judge overseeing family court litigation in London, but he said the family could not be identified in media reports.

He has adjourned the case and says a judge in Greece should hear evidence from the woman and make a decision.

The woman left London with her son on 20 March, three days before Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown, and travelled to her mother's home in Paros, Mr Justice Mostyn said in his ruling.

"She did so in the belief that she and (the boy) would be much safer from the virus there," he said.

"That may well have been a valid view, it being common knowledge that by virtue of pre-emptive action, Greece has a much lower rate of infection and mortality than this country.

"However that does not justify in the slightest what was a wrongful removal of (the boy) from the place of his habitual residence and, more importantly, from his father."

She had emailed her estranged husband's lawyers to explain why she left, Mr Justice Mostyn said.

"I do not intend to stay in Greece permanently," she had said.

"The main reason that I have come to Greece is that I am very afraid of the coronavirus and I want to do whatever I can to keep (my son and me) safe from it.

"The small Greek island where my mother lives, where (we) are now staying with her, is naturally isolated from the mainland and has its own medical facilities.

"It is absolutely safe for until now there were zero incidents of coronavirus contamination.

"I believe that it is a much safer place to be for us, given the numbers of people (who are) affected and die in London on a daily basis.

"I do not know exactly when we will return, but that is because the whole situation is moving so quickly and no-one knows what things will be like in two weeks let alone a month.

"When I arrived in Greece it was not in complete lockdown.

"Since we got here they have closed the borders and travelling is banned completely and I don't think that I could even return now to England if I wanted to - which I do not at this time as I believe staying in Greece gives (my son) a much better chance in this pandemic."

There have been 2,591 coronavirus cases confirmed in Greece, with none in Paros, while the UK had seen 177,454 cases and 27,510 deaths by Friday.

See more here:

Coronavirus: Woman took son to Greek island to 'protect him from COVID-19' - Sky News

Island COVID-19 confirmed cases rise to 19 – Martha’s Vineyard Times

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

Updated 5:00 pm

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the Island rose to 19 Thursday marking the third day in a row with a new confirmed case.

In their daily update, the Marthas Vineyard Hospital reported that a total of 413 patients had been tested for COVID-19. Of those 388 had negative results and six are pending results.

There are currently no COVID-19 hospitalizations at the hospital.

According to a report from the Islands boards of health, of the 19 confirmed cases, ten are female and nine are male. Seven of the cases are aged 50-59 years old, six cases are 60-69 years old, two are 30-39 years old, three are 20-29 years old, and one is 20 years old or younger.

In a press conference Thursday, Gov. Charlie Baker said the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide has plateaued.

We have, in fact, bent the curve, Baker said. We did, in fact, reduce the spread. We are now living with a plateau that Im sure all of us would like to see dip a little bit.

Baker stressed that now was not the time to let up.

Infectious disease specialists now believe this virus can go undetected for days and some people who test positive actually never show symptoms at all, he said, adding that efforts are focused on eliminating a scenario where the virus comes back.

Communications director Katrina Delgadillo confirmed that one of the confirmed COVID-19 patients transferred to Boston due to health complications has died due to medical complications not proven to be related to COVID-19.

That patient is one of three who have been transferred off-Island. Two COVID-19 patients were transported to Boston by helicopter and a third maternity patient was taken off-Island by ferry in a private vehicle. The two other COVID-19 transfers have been discharged, according to Delgadillo.

The hospital reported on Friday that it had one patient who was hospitalized. Hospital communications director Katrina Delgadillo told The Times the patient had been discharged on Saturday in stable condition.

On the state level Thursday, the Department of Public Health reported that 275,647 COVID-19 tests had been conducted, with 62,205 confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide.

A day after reporting its highest number of deaths in a day at 252, DPH reported Thursday 157 new deaths for a total of 3,562. The bulk of the states deaths, nearly two thirds, have been patients 80 or older and the average age of a hospitalized COVID-19 patient is 69. According to the state data, 6 percent of the confirmed cases are hospitalized.

Updated with current state COVID-19 numbers and Island boards of health statistics. Ed.

Excerpt from:

Island COVID-19 confirmed cases rise to 19 - Martha's Vineyard Times

This Tech Conference Is Being Held on an Animal Crossing Island – VICE

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

As our lives have become a seemingly endless series of work meetings on Zoom and FaceTime or WhatsApp catch-ups with friends, were all getting a bit sick of seeing peoples faces enclosed in a cold, almost lifeless, digital frame.

A tech worker from New York had a different idea for his tech conference, which he announced, in all seriousness, on April Fools' Day. The free conference is called Deserted Island DevOps and is happening on Thursday, entirely inside Animal Crossing, the Nintendo Switch hit game released in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Speakers are doing their talks on an island in Animal Crossing specifically built for the conference, and attendees can follow along in the game, on Twitch, or Zoom, as a fallback option.

Other than the unusual, and incredibly colorful and fun setting, the conference is very much like any other conference. The speakers avatars are standing behind a podium, their slides are being displayed next to them, and attendees sit in the audience. Crucially, the conference isn't about Animal Crossing, it's kind of a standard software development type conference. It just happens to be happening inside a video game.

The organizer, Austin Parker, said earlier this week that more than 1,000 people registered to virtually attend it.

Judging from the enthusiasm both speakers and attendees are showing, it seems like the idea was a success.

Ultimately, this is just another tech conference, but hosting it on Animal Crossing, as opposed to having people speak in front of their webcams in their home offices is a genius idea.

Read this article:

This Tech Conference Is Being Held on an Animal Crossing Island - VICE

VIRTUAL TOUR Island Farm: Going back in time to coastal farm life in the 1800s | The Coastland Times – The Coastland Times

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

Just north of Manteo on Roanoke Island lies a coastal farm replica, known as Island Farm. This unique farm was designed with its roots in mind.

In the late 1700s, the land where Island Farm rests now was deeded to members of the Etheridge family. Jesse, Tart and Adam III Etheridge began what would, at one point, cover over 400 acres of farmland.

The Etheridge family became well known on Roanoke Island for their agricultural dominance and wide swept, abundant fields of crops and livestock.

The site today showcases what the farm produced back in the mid-1800s. The Etheridge farm grew corn, peas and potatoes. It housed horses, sheep, oxen, pigs and chickens and would supply fish for the community.

The son of Adam Etheridge III, Adam Etheridge IV, married Francis Fanny Baum and built a large farmhouse on the property around 1845. The timber frame of the structure was built mainly from heart pine; the area on Roanoke Island where the homestead lies was commonly called Logtown during that time period.

Along with the growing of crops, the Etheridge farm would produce butter, milk, tea and more. A large windmill overlooks the farm from across the street today. At one point, a windmill on the farm was used to make cornmeal.

The Etheridge family had hired help for daily chores around the homestead, such as cooking, cleaning and working in the field. One cook, Crissy Bowser, lived on the farm until she was believed to be 100 years old.

Bowser worked as a cook from 1900 to 1910 and she continued to live on the farm until her death. She is buried at the foot of a large oak tree on the property.

A gravesite dedicated to the Etheridge family borders the farm and holds those that began the now historic site. Decedents are the only ones that can be buried alongside their ancestors there.

Island Farm features a blacksmith shop, which would not have been found on the farm, but would have been likely close by back in the 1800s. Looms are contained within the walls of the structures at Island Farm as well to demonstrate the intricate weavings that took place back then.

The farm now resides on 14 acres of land and still focuses heavily on agriculture and preserving the history of the Etheridge family. It was donated to Outer Banks Conservationists in 1997 by descendants.

In 2001, restoration to the Etheridge farmhouse began and it is now one of the only original structures on the property. In 2010, the farm was opened to the public.

To learn more, visit the Island Farm website at http://www.obcinc.org/vist-our-sites/island-farm.

READ ABOUT COMMUNITY NEWS HERE.

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VIRTUAL TOUR Island Farm: Going back in time to coastal farm life in the 1800s | The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

Car thieves flocking to Staten Island during pandemic, many of them repeat offenders – SILive.com

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Car thieves from Brooklyn and the Bronx consider Staten Island an easy target, and theyre traveling by any means necessary to get here.

Every time we catch someone, another two show up, a Staten Island law enforcement source said. This is what were dealing with every night.

A surge in grand larceny auto incidents over the past few weeks on Staten Island has mirrored crime statistics across the city, while most other crimes have fallen drastically amid a citywide shutdown to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Police responded to 20 incidents on Staten Island over a four-week period from March 29 to April 26 after responding to about 40 incidents over the first three months of the year. Last April, police investigated about a dozen incidents.

The NYPD has seen a 31% percent uptick in the five boroughs so far this year compared to the same period in 2019, as well as a recent surge of incidents.

According to a written statement from the NYPD, about half of the vehicles reported stolen so far this year have been recovered by police.

JOY RIDES, 7-ELEVEN SHOPPING SPREES

Sources say larceny suspects who reside outside Staten Island travel by train, bus and ferry in search of unlocked vehicles and potentially valuable possessions inside of them.

Typically, the suspects are teenagers and young adults traveling in groups, looking to jump in an unlocked vehicle and take it for a spin across New York City, police sources said.

In some cases, the license plate is flagged the next night crossing over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge back into Staten Island, where suspects use stolen vehicles to target other cars on the East and South shores.

Other times, the vehicle is tracked to a neighborhood in Brooklyn, where it has been dumped.

Items stolen from vehicles in recent months have included cash, cell phones, laptops and credit cards.

Theyll use a credit card to spend like $20 at 7-Eleven for a few sodas," one source said.

Some law enforcement experts have speculated the recent surge in stolen cars could be due in part to the citywide shutdown, leaving some suspects with less to do and more vehicles parked in driveways for extended periods of time.

There have been instances where individuals have targeted areas where cars appear to not be used," an NYPD spokeswoman said Thursday.

IT FEELS LIKE WERE GETTING LAUGHED AT

Earlier this month, three NYPD officers were congratulated by top brass for arrests involving a report of a stolen vehicle on the South Shore and several car break-ins.

But despite several vehicle recoveries and arrests, often the same defendants are spotted by police carrying out another vehicle-related theft days or, in some cases, hours later.

In January, a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, man was arrested and released three times in three weeks for allegedly stealing items from parked vehicles on Staten Island.

Evgeny Belov, 21, faces charges including petit larceny and unauthorized use of a vehicle; he is due in Richmond County Criminal Court on July 29, records show.

Leadership within the NYPD has pinned repeat offenders in part on bail reform laws, which now prohibit pretrial detention for most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies.

Last year, we were locking them up and putting them away," an officer on Staten Island recently told the Advance/SILive.com. This year, it feels like were getting laughed at."

Defense attorneys with the Legal Aid Society advocated for bail reform, and have stood in opposition to Cuomos recent push to roll it back.

A HOT BED

Suspects charged in connection with car thefts and other auto-related larcenies have told arresting officers that Staten Island has become a hot spot for thieves from neighborhoods outside the borough, including East New York and the Bronx, due to the abundance of unlocked cars parked on the street or in driveways.

But there also are Staten Islanders on the North Shore whom police have come to know as repeat offenders, a police source said.

Making things even harder for investigators is the current requirement to wear a face covering in public due to coronavirus, making it nearly impossible for officials to identify suspects captured on surveillance using stolen credit cards at gas stations or restaurants.

GLA TURNED HOMICIDE?

Police are investigating whether one or multiple suspects were inside a stolen SUV involved in a fatal crash Saturday night in Annadale.

The 2018 Lexus allegedly was traveling in the wrong direction when it slammed into a 2012 Ford SUV, killing a 32-year-old female and injuring a 35-year-old male.

Everything happened so fast, and [officers] were just focused on the girl," said a source familiar with investigation. The poor girl was ejected from the car.

The crash and a massive police search that followed sent what typically is a quiet neighborhood into a panic, as multiple neighbors reported seeing a suspect hopping fences to flee the scene.

As of Thursday, that investigation remained ongoing.

Coney Island Hospital Treated To Record-Breaking Meal Donation For Staff – BKLYNER

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

Healthcare workers at Coney Island Hospital were treated today to 500 meals from Nicks Lobster House.

The record-breaking donation, the largest the hospital has received during the virus, was made by local attorney and community advocate Priscilla Consolo. Consolo was treated by the staff in the emergency department in February, before the COVID-19 crisis had fully hit New York City. Council Member Mark Treyger and Ari Kagan worked with Consolo to organize the delivery of the food from Nicks Lobster House, which has served the community since 1955.

The manager and chef of the restaurant, Dimitrios Karousis, said that they have delivered thousands of meals each day to local hospitals, firehouses, and police precincts. Some of these meals have been donated by the restaurant, whereas others, like this one, have been provided by private donors. With everything theyve been doing for this city, our frontline workers deserve a good meal.

One of Consolos doctors was Dr. Mark Kindschuh, who was present today for the meal delivery, giving her the chance to thank him again, in person, for saving her life. Consolo had been hearing the reports about Coney Islands hospital being overwhelmed with the crisis. Her online fundraiser raised over $4,000.

Council Member Treyger commended the hospital for their courage. I am proud that my office was able to help coordinate this amazing showing of appreciation for our heroic medical professionals, he said. The healthcare workers at Coney Island Hospital have risked their own lives to save many others during this unprecedented public health crisis.

Original post:

Coney Island Hospital Treated To Record-Breaking Meal Donation For Staff - BKLYNER

Analysis: Staten Island has the highest rate of people tested in NYC for COVID-19 – SILive.com

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- About two months after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit Staten Island, the borough holds the highest rate of people tested in New York City.

A total of 6,170 per 100,000 residents have been tested in the borough, according to an analysis the Advance/SILIve.com conducted using the latest data available from the New York City Department of Health.

The Bronx is currently has the second highest rate of people tested in New York City with 5,289 people for every 100,000 residents, the analysis found.

Manhattan is the borough with the lowest rate of tests with 2,996 people tested per 100,000 residents, according to the analysis.

The data includes people tested at any facility currently offering a nasal swab for COVID-19, not only those who got tested at locations ran by New York State or the City.

In the month of April, Staten Island saw a huge jump in testing.

As of April 4, 6,230 Staten Islanders received a test for the coronavirus, while as of April 30, 29,382 people were tested overall representing a 372% increase.

Of all the people tested, 11,763 resulted positive so far, data from the citys health department shows.

Photos of the pandemic in NYC: Our lives changed forever

ZIP CODE BREAKDOWN

Zip code 10314, which includes Bulls Head, Castleton Corners, Graniteville, Meiers Corners, New Springville, Travis, Westerleigh and Willowbrook, has both the highest number of people tested with 5,753 and the largest population of positive cases with 2,328 in total.

Other heavily impacted areas are Annadale, Arden Heights, Eltingville, Greenridge and Huguenot, which comprise the 10312 zip code, with 1,346 total cases and 3,488 tests, second overall.

The map below uses colors to illustrate the number of cases in each zip code. Darker colors symbolize higher numbers.

Number of cases on Staten Island by zip codes as of Friday, April 30. (Staten Island Advance/Irene Spezzamonte)

Zip Code 10307 has the lowest number of cases and tests so far with 345 positives for the virus and 928 people receiving a test.

The map below uses colors to illustrate the number of tests in each zip code. Darker colors symbolize higher numbers.

Number of tests on Staten Island by zip codes as of Friday, April 30. (Staten Island Advance/Irene Spezzamonte)

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

Below are totals for the remaining zip codes:

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Analysis: Staten Island has the highest rate of people tested in NYC for COVID-19 - SILive.com

John Grisham Returns to Camino Island, This Time in Hurricane Season – The New York Times

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

Three years ago, John Grisham came up with a new formula for success. He ditched the lawyers to write an actual beach book, sand and all. This wouldnt be much of a departure for some authors, but coming from Grisham it was a delightful surprise all the more so because the sand was on the fictitious Camino Island, a Florida resort featuring one of the worlds great bookstores, stolen F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts, a colony of gossipy writers and a lot of languid vacation time. It also starred a woman, Mercer Mann, who put the book squarely in Reese Witherspoon country.

Anyone who enjoyed Camino Island came away hoping it was the start of a series. So readers may be glad to know that a sequel has arrived, although its tone isnt nearly as light. If Camino Winds is breezy, thats mostly because its plot involves a ferocious hurricane. This is a Camino book with elements of a more traditional Grisham thriller thrown in.

Mercer, who was a fledgling author in Camino Island, is now a literary and commercial success. The novel opens with a dinner party celebrating the end of her 34-stop book tour, which naturally brings her to Bruce Cables renowned Bay Books. With the authority of someone whos been doing whatever he likes for decades, Grisham has planted an extraordinary bookshop on Camino, with Bruce as the bon vivant who runs it.

Bruce is so passionate about his work that he often has flings with female writers who stop by. This is the kind of thing that could get Grisham into trouble if he had a pricklier following, but in Camino Winds it just adds to the gossipy atmosphere that hovers over the dinner party. We get full Southern hospitality in this early scene, from Bruces magazine quality table settings and candelabras to the menu to the chatter.

The biggest earner, who writes books about young vampires, is a bore about her movie. The ex-con is teased about his subject matter: Please, Bob, someone says. No more prison stories. After your last book I felt Id been gang-raped. (In this crowd, thats a compliment.) The brooding poet who never sells books is advised to write something raunchier under another name. The thriller writer who used to work as a high-powered lawyer tells fishing stories. And Mercers new two-book deal is envied but celebrated.

Then, with the literary chatter behind him, Grisham brings on the hurricane and the real story. Camino Island is hit hard and Nelson Kerr, the lawyer-turned-thriller writer, shows up dead.

Nelson had an unfinished book. Was he killed because of something that was in it? Want to guess?

Suddenly we find ourselves amid downed trees and heaps of wreckage, as Camino goes from island paradise to disaster area. In the midst of all this, Bruce, the prison writer Bob and Nick Sutton, a college kid who works summers in the bookstore, start their detective work. Nick is an entertaining character because he inhales crime novels and is thrilled to be able to start acting like a character in one. He starts saying things like Just what I suspected almost immediately.

Mercer fades into the background. And now were left with these three amigos, as Grisham calls them at one point, hunting down the bad guys (a phrase this book uses a lot). While Camino Island offered a sexy plot hook in the form of those Fitzgerald manuscripts, Camino Winds turns out to have a more serious, issue-oriented one. It has nothing to do with Camino or the bookstore and is more like the for-profit law school scam found in Grishams last legal thriller, The Rooster Bar.

Grisham knows how to tell stories like that. And to his credit, he doesnt entirely jettison the vacation mentality here, even if Camino itself is sidelined by disaster. Theres only so much time he can devote to having Bruce and his friends clear debris, after all, so over the course of the yearlong narrative he finds reasons to send them to hotels and meals elsewhere. But the island, the bookstore and the heroine were the first books main attractions, if only for their novelty in the Grishamverse. They are missed.

Camino Winds was intended as escapist entertainment, but its timing unavoidably gives it a different resonance. Camino Island will recover, but during most of the book its a shadow of its carefree old self. Tourists are gone and businesses are struggling. The story eventually involves many patients on life support. And Grisham, who is drawn to big issues but generally keeps politics out of his writing, uses the phrase pull a Trump to describe dodging liability by filing for bankruptcy. Come to think of it, Camino Winds is right for this moment after all.

John Grisham Returns to Camino Island, This Time in Hurricane Season - The New York Times

Naples, Marco Island beaches to reopen Thursday – Wink News

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

COLLIER COUNTY

Marco Island and Naples will open beaches on Thursday. Marco will also open its parks on Friday, just in time for the weekend.

In Naples, the city council voted Wednesday to reopen the beaches and city parks Thursday morning.

The pier will remain closed, as will some concessions.Parking lots will open with meters enforced.

Naples city parks will open under tier one of reopening, including restrooms as long as staff is able to accommodate cleaning.

Tennis and pickleball courts, as well as sports fields associated with parks, will also reopen.

Naples police and beach patrol will be out to enforce social distancing.

As long as COVID-19 cases continue to decline, the city is expected to ease into lifting restrictions, starting with the opening of beaches.

More than 50 people wrote into the city council ahead of Wednesdays meeting. Some are concerned that loosening restrictions will spread the virus, and others say businesses are barely hanging on, so the city should open up as soon as possible.

CITY OF NAPLES PRESS RELEASE:

The City of Naples City Council acted today by reopening the City beaches and parks beginning at dawn tomorrow, April 30, 2020. The details of the openings include:

The City of Naples beaches will be reopened to the public at dawn on April 30, 2020. Naples beaches and beach access points will reopen to the public with the following restrictions:

City parks will open pathways for walking with the following restrictions:

Every resident and visitor need to be responsible to continue practicing social distancing, limit your groups to 10 or less, wash your hands frequently, and stay at home as much as possible. The City will take action to restrict these public facilities again if the CDC guidelines are not followed.

Link:

Naples, Marco Island beaches to reopen Thursday - Wink News

Grand Island’s mayor wants to know how the feds will help, says city ‘has paid a price’ – Omaha World-Herald

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

If meatpacking plants are critical infrastructure that must remain open in a pandemic, then the federal government must supply more coronavirus testing for those essential workers, the mayor of hard-hit Grand Island said.

The federal government needs to provide the resources to assure the safety of the workers and, of course, thats testing, Grand Island Mayor Roger Steele said Thursday.

Meatpacking workers and plants have been deemed critical by President Donald Trump to keep Americas food supply well stocked, even as coronavirus outbreaks threaten workers health and plant operations. Trump signed an executive order Tuesday night invoking the Defense Production Act to keep meat and food production facilities open.

Roger Steele

So Steele wants to know: Whos going to test those workers and keep those plants up and running?

Steele, writing in a letter and speaking at his biweekly press conference Thursday, asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to visit Grand Island, home to a sprawling JBS USA beef plant, where more than 200 workers have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The president, by his stay-open order to JBS, is now responsible to make sure the workers at JBS are tested so we know that they are not infected by the virus when they enter the plant, said Steele, a registered Republican elected in 2018.

He said hed appreciate more answers and assistance from Perdue and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

I want Secretary Perdue to come to Grand Island so I can explain to him the problems we have faced with government orders that have failed to protect the people of Grand Island, Steele said.

With 1,042 cases, Hall County, where Grand Island is, has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Nebraska higher than the urban counties surrounding Lincoln and Omaha.

Over the past two days, the health department overseeing the three counties in the Grand Island area has reported 12 new coronavirus deaths, most of them residents of long-term care facilities. Thirty-seven people in that area have died in total.

I think Grand Island, during this ordeal, has paid a price, Steele said. Really, all weve received so far are just directions that our essential, critical infrastructure employers are to stay in business.

While the state has sent the Nebraska National Guard there several times to swab peoples noses for testing a testing site was up and running this week at the Fonner Park field house testing supplies and availability have been limited and sporadic, Steele said.

Indeed, the Central District Health Department reported Thursday afternoon that Fridays testing availability was already booked and that testing on Saturday wouldnt be possible after all.

The mayor has not called for the closure of the JBS plant, which, with 3,600 workers, is Grand Islands largest employer. He has toured the plant and thinks the managers there are doing their best to contain the outbreak.

The problem is not confined to JBS, either the virus has been spreading throughout the community and at other employers, Steele said. Last week, more than 125 residents and workers at long-term care facilities in the three-county area tested positive, the local health director said Wednesday, and that number has since risen.

I think JBS is doing everything it can to offer a safe facility, Steele said. But it requires 3,600 employees showing up during different shifts throughout the day, and theres really no in-place testing of those people, and they may be bringing the virus into the plant environment.

The community is working hard to fend off the virus, follow social distancing and hygiene guidelines and increase outreach to its multilingual residents, Steele said. Grand Island residents know the contagious virus is circulating, but many work jobs in meatpacking or manufacturing where working from home isnt possible.

I get feedback, Maybe you folks in Grand Island didnt get the memo, Steele said. No, we got the memo. Weve been working hard to educate the people of Grand Island. Were not sticking our heads in the sand.

As restrictions in other parts of the state begin to ease up, doctors from 16 different clinics and practices in Grand Island said they do not recommend attending religious services until Grand Islands infection rate begins to slow.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said worship services can resume May 4, with some social distancing requirements still in place.

In a letter, the Grand Island doctors said that they know people miss the opportunity to worship together in person but that now is not the time to relax any restrictions.

Physicians of the Grand Island medical community do not recommend resumption of religious gatherings May 4, they wrote. We do not believe congregants can be truly protected, even sitting six feet from other families, while Grand Islands community spread is still rising. Our families are too important.

Masks made by Ann Kane and her family.

Ann Kane and her family are producing masks. Everyone has a job.

Ann Kane and her family have made around 200 masks.

UNMC med student Nate Mattison works on his laptop at his apartment near downtown Omaha.

A bottle of Purell sits on a kitchen countertop as UNMC med student Nate Mattison works on his laptop. Mattison is one of a handful of UNMC students who have stepped up fill various nonprofit needs. Mattison has signed up to be a Big Brother and is currently waiting to be paired up.

Mattison is one of a handful of UNMC students who have stepped up to fill the needs of various nonprofits.

Matt Van Zante prints parts for face shields in his basement.

A 3D printer prints parts for face shields.

Matt Van Zante is among a group making face shields for personal protective equipment for medical personnel.

Matt Van Zante shows off one of the finished face shields he helped make.

Matt Van Zante shows off a finished face shield.

A 3D printer prints parts for face shields in Matt Van Zante's basement.

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Grand Island's mayor wants to know how the feds will help, says city 'has paid a price' - Omaha World-Herald

New confirmed case brings Island total to 18 – Martha’s Vineyard Times

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

Updated 4:30 pm

The number of confirmed cases on the Marthas Vineyard rose to 18 Wednesday, according to the Marthas Vineyard Hospital.

The hospital reported it has tested a total of 394 patients with 372 negative tests and four pending results. The hospital also reported zero hospitalizations on Wednesday.

According to a report from the Islands boards of health, of the 18 confirmed cases, ten are female and eight are male. Seven of the cases are aged 50-59 years old, six cases are 60-69 years old, two are 30-39 years old, two are 20-29 years old, and one is 20 years old or younger.

On the state level Wednesday, the Department of Public Health reported that 265,618 COVID-19 tests had been conducted, with 60,265 confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide.

DPH reported the highest number of deaths in a day with 252 new deaths for a total of 3,405. The bulk of the states deaths, nearly two thirds, have been patients 80 or older and the average age of a hospitalized COVID-19 patient is 69. According to the state data, 6 percent of the confirmed cases are hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control expanded its list of symptoms for the virus including cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and a new loss of taste or smell.

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New confirmed case brings Island total to 18 - Martha's Vineyard Times

ITV considers filming Love Island in Cornwall or cancelling series – The Guardian

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Danzig

ITV considered hosting this summers edition of Love Island in Cornwall rather than Mallorca, although it looks increasingly likely the series will be cancelled altogether.

The reality show, which has been vital to ITVs financial performance in recent years, has already been delayed from its traditional June start date owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

ITVs director of television, Kevin Lygo, said the production team had looked at filming Love Island in Cornwall later in the summer but had concerns that making it in the UK would not be the same show.

He told a virtual session of the Edinburgh television festival that a final decision on whether to cancel the programme, which employs around 200 staff, would be made in the coming weeks.

Lygo also suggested Love Island may not fit the national mood. What signal might it be sending out if were doing a show where everyone is crammed together, slavering over each other, while the rest of world has been told not to go near anyone in the park?

Were approaching the moment of is it feasible?, will Mallorca open its doors to hundreds of production people?, will there have to be quarantine?. We have to factor all that in. Well make a decision soon.

Lygo also said soap operas, which have already been broadcasting on a reduced schedule, would soon fall off air unless filming could resume. Emmerdale will run out of episodes at the end of May and Coronation Street in June.

He said Emmerdale had prepared a number of episodes that were just two people talking, which could theoretically be filmed in line with physical distancing rules if required.

He said the channel was learning from its forthcoming Isolation Stories strand of 15-minute dramas, in which actors and their families have been filmed in their houses with directors sat outside.

Lygo said a major issue was that insurers were refusing to cover the cost of production being halted if a cast or crew member catches coronavirus. This summer, trust me, theres going to be a lot of repeats on, he said.

Hit shows such as Britains Got Talent may also be axed owing to physical distancing rules, although the surprise hit The Masked Singer will film in the autumn even if an audience cannot be present.

Lygo said he was concerned that although TV audiences had shot up, the increase was mainly for daytime shows and news programmes rather than peak-time programming. You can see peoples habits are changing because they are discovering Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and storing things up.

Lygo was asked what audiences would be seeing on TV in early 2021, given television production has ground to a halt in recent months. He replied: They will be watching a repeat of Midsomer Murders, I can tell you that now in great confidence.

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ITV considers filming Love Island in Cornwall or cancelling series - The Guardian

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