How to Put the Passion Back into Your Life – SWAAY

Self-care is not selfish.

What do you believe you deserve? That's a pretty loaded question, isn't it? In more than twenty years working as a women's life coach, I've asked it thousands of times, and I've received countless answers. The majority of responses I've received have been disheartening, and they've revealed a startling truth. Women - even very successful, accomplished women - doubt their deservingness.

Deservingness is not to be confused with entitlement. Entitlement is about believing you have a right to something. Deservingness is about how much you believe you're worth.

When you doubt your deservingness, what you're really uncertain about is whether or not you measure up. Are you good enough? (YES.) You've made some pretty big mistakes. Do those bad blunders make you a bad person? (NO.) Are you a good enough person to deserve good things? (YES. YOU ARE.)

Many women carry around a secret shame that impacts their feelings of self-worth and deservingness.

At some point in your life, someone told you there was something wrong with you. This is inevitable, of course, because there's something wrong with all of us, but it gets to dangerous and disempowering territory through repetition.

If even one person in your life tells you over and over again that there's something wrong with you, well, you can start to believe them. Being rejected or criticized hurts, and it has a cumulative effect. Imagine every criticism you've ever received is a tiny little pin that landed right in your heart. (Seriously bad visual, right? Wouldn't your heart look like a pincushion if that was the case?) Beyond hurting like hell, a heart full of pins holds you back and makes you play small. YOU ARE NOT SMALL. I want you to stop acting like you are.

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You'll sabotage, procrastinate, and excuse the good right out of your life if you don't believe you deserve it. Happily, you can raise your sense of deservingness, and deepen your feelings of personal worth. I'm going to show you how today. It's time to start believing in you again.

On the face of it, you'd think this advice would be obvious and unimpeachable. Of course you have to take care of yourself. The problem with this truth is that there are whole communities of people who will try to convince you that prioritizing your needs makes you a selfish person. (And who wants to be seen as selfish?)

I've never encountered a woman who hadn't heard some version of this self-care-is-selfish-nonsense. The thing is, these messages are about control, and they come from people who are happy to keep you down and disempowered. (Which makes it easier for them to manipulate you.) Do not fall for this line of hooey.

Self-care is not selfish. Self-neglect is selfish.

Self-neglect tells you that you don't matter. It asks you to stuff your wants and repress your emotions. When you chronically neglect yourself, eventually, you turn into a repressed, angry, self-doubting zombie (or banshee depending on your anger level). Nothing about self-neglect is attractive. I want you to stop doing it. TODAY.

We need you in top form. There is purpose in your life. To make good on it, you need to connect with your SELF. The most fundamental way to begin that process is to take care of your physical body. When I'm working with a client, we practice four physical care basics. (I practice these guys too. Religiously.)

Notice I said, "you need." These are non-negotiable requirements. If you're tempted to argue against your ability to practice them, please pause. I've heard every excuse known to woman. And I don't buy a single one of them. We're in a no-excuses zone now. You don't get to argue against yourself and also be empowered. It doesn't work that way. You have to choose.

If you haven't taken care of yourself in a long time, this topic can feel totally overwhelming. I understand, and I want you to do it anyway. Remember, I'm your coach. A loving boot-in-the-butt will sometimes be required in our relationship. Consider this my velvet tipped toe, making contact with that booty of yours.

Take a deep breath and start tackling your care basics. You DO have time. You are NOT selfish, and there's no wrong way to do this except not to do it at all. Practice makes powerful. SO PRACTICE!

Okay, time to up the ante a little bit. This next step is harder.

You can't think your way into believing in your own worth, but you can act your way there. As it turns out, keeping the commitments you make to yourself increases your feelings of worth and deservingness, and strengthens your confidence too.

Think about it. You make countless commitments every day. The trouble bis that most of them are for other people. When you don't have a strong sense of your own worth, you agree to most incoming requests. Which means you're probably way overcommitted.

When your calendar is crowded, and something's got to give, you're the one who usually goes. Because it's easiest to break commitments to you, right?

WRONG.

Every time you break a commitment to yourself, what you're really doing is showing yourself, through your own inaction, that you don't matter. NO! Bailing on yourself is like giving your hopes and dreams a big middle finger. (Please stop doing it.)

It's time to start following through FOR YOU. Don't panic. I'm not suggesting you stop doing things for other people. As a woman, you're a natural-born nurturer. Of course, you're going to do it for other people. I just want you to add yourself to the list of people-you-do-for.

The best way to get a handle on showing up for yourself is to start paying attention to what's going on when you don't. What causes you to cross yourself off your own list? When you bring your triggers into your awareness, you'll notice a pattern, which will give you the power to make changes.

Take things one choice at a time. Whenever possible, choose to follow through for you. Every time you do, you remove one of those tiny little heart pins and strengthen your sense of worth and deservingness.

Now for the hardest part

When you don't believe in your own deservingness, you become an earner. Meaning, you spend your time and energy earning love. This can show up in a lot of different ways. We'll talk about three of them here.

It gets worse. When you live as an earner, you attract users. (That's just as bad as it sounds.) There are unfortunately people in the world that will live at your expense without giving it a second thought. If you're willing to give it, they'll take it, and even talk themselves into believing they deserve what they're taking. These kind of people like to keep you small, scared, and doubting your deservingness. (Then you do whatever they want. Whenever they want you to.)

YOU MUST STAND UP FOR YOURSELF.

Start by catching yourself in the act of playing the earner. What and who triggers the earner response in you? What are you afraid of? What are you trying to prove? If you feel drained or bad about yourself after you're with a specific person or in a certain place, you need to think twice about being with that person or in that place.

I know this is easier said than done. It's possible the people who make you feel bad are co-workers or family members. It's not like you can just stop seeing them, right? If you find yourself in this position, there is only one path. You need to speak up for yourself. Stat.

For help, you can check out three of my other blogs. They'll show you how to stop living like a pleaser, set some boundaries, and say no like you mean it. Will you be uncomfortable? Yep. You will. Can you handle it? Yes. You can. Be willing to be uncomfortable. Speak up. Stand up. Stop accepting less than you deserve.

Every time you speak up for yourself, you remove another pin from your heart, raise your sense of deservingness and you deepen your own sense of worth. You also show other women what it looks like to know your worth and live like you know it. Which encourages them to do it too. (THAT is female power.)

You are good, and you deserve good things. You deserve acceptance, belonging, and love. There's no mistake in you, my sister. YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH. Just as you are.

My mission is your empowerment. That's why I'm here. If you haven't already joined my community, please do it by entering your email (www.kimberlyfulcher.com). Until we meet again, know that life is happening for you.

You've Got This!

Kim

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How to Put the Passion Back into Your Life - SWAAY

Comment How to be a modern leader We need tough and resilient leaders able to propel – Newsroom

Comment

Rob Campbell spoke to the NZ Leadership Programmes graduation ceremony earlier this month about what makes a good leader, including daring to challenge the status quo and toughing out the opposition to change.

The times we live in are turbulent. While that is true and important, it is equally true and important that we do not overstate this, still less use it as an excuse. Other generations and communities have faced wars and depressions, poverty and dislocation, oppression and disaster.

For most human beings, much of the time in our history, turbulence has been more common than the peace and tranquillity of which many of us fantasise.

It was the Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung ( a great leader with great faults) who spoke the phrase Great disorder. An excellent situation to stir his revolutionaries. I like to think that we can constructively take a similar view of our times and location. Great turbulence. An excellent situation might be our slogan, because within the turbulence of our time and place lies enormous opportunity a future in which we are freed from many problems by better technology, better understanding of the diversity of humanity and how to get the best out of it, and better ability for personal and cultural expression and respect than any previous time or place has ever had.

I want to be clear that for me leadership is not about maintaining the status quo. It is a foundation stone of my thinking on leadership that there are many things in our society which need to change to meet the goals of a better, fairer life.

To achieve this we will need daring leadership, so I want to talk a bit about what I think this means.

To me leadership is defined not so much by those designated as leaders but by all those who are active in change. Society changes because many of us take actions that is pretty much the definition of social change, many people acting in different ways. Sometimes those changes are clearly articulated by leaders. Other times they occur, no less rationally and effectively, without such obvious leadership. Karl Marx, the nineteenth century founder of communism, referred to revolutionary change as that old mole picking up on a line of Shakespeare, the seventeenth century playwright, who noted in Hamlet well said, old mole, canst work in the ground so fast about events being influenced by unseen forces like a mole burrowing away and surfacing unexpectedly. Its not hard to think of mole events in our day like the Arab Spring, Hong Kong Riots,#Me Too and more locally the terrorism attacks of March 15th. Each presented suddenly, even surprisingly, though one can readily see on reflection the conditions and preparations for the shock.

... they will be opposed and quite possibly vilified and attacked by the forces of the old system ... this is certain. I am aware of no structure of influence and power which simply recognised the need to change and stepped down. Some individuals may do that but all those who most benefitted from the old system will not give up without a fight.

This is not to say that individuals do not play a role and that we are at the mercy of unseen forces all the time. To make social change we do need people who stand out, who sense the potential for change, sense the way the winds of change are shifting, who can articulate the possibilities. Those are the leaders who are daring. They may be thought of as like a surfer who can pick the right wave, drive onto it at the right time, and ride it to the end.

The poet and rock star Bob Dylan wrote decades ago that we dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. That never meant that we dont need leaders to sense the shift and new direction, but that such leaders are not outside observers but active participants in the process. Not reporting on the change, but riding with it and encouraging others to do the same. Like the surfer they become part of the wave.

To be this sort of leader one needs to intimately understand the community or society in which one lives. Understand its strengths and limitations, divisions and points of unity, yearnings and anxieties. This leader needs also to be able to see more broadly, to see the big picture, to have good understanding of the forces of the past and the forces of potential adverse futures. Such a leader is well educated in the sense not so much of formal learning, though that may be required in today's world, as educated in the sense of holding the requisite wisdom to identify, frame and articulate in the language of those who must act.

This leader will be daring. Will be brave. Will be resilient. Wisdom and communication will not be enough. That is for two reasons. First, the leader is not only likely to be wrong and make mistakes but is certain to do so. The leader will fail and will need to change direction. They may need to experience rejection. They have to summon the personal strength to carry on. Second, they will be opposed and quite possibly vilified and attacked by the forces of the old system. Again this is certain. I am aware of no structure of influence and power which simply recognised the need to change and stepped down. Some individuals may do that but all those who most benefitted from the old system will not give up without a fight. Social structures are power structures. Social change is a transfer of power. Leaders have to be tough and resilient to see social change out.

This leader will also have to be full of aroha. Of love for those acting in the process of change. There are plenty of examples in history of leaders who were driven by negative emotions and who therefore had to use force not only against the old structure but also to coerce their own people to act. The results of this were never benign either in the process of change or in the aftermath of change. Given that here we are interested in change for the better, for good, we reject this concept of leadership. We need leaders who care about the people before, during and after the process of change.

... our larger businesses do not have great track records and this is very often a failure of leadership. This leadership is pretty much a self- appointed, self-referential and self- reverential elite.

This leader must also have humility. They must respect those who are active in the process of change with them. Often they must respect those who are giving up important things in the change.Most importantly they must have the ability to recognise when their leadership role is past. Just because you have an important leadership role in one process does not mean that you are the best leader in some other time, place or change. Arrogance can easily arise from a leadership role but it is the enemy of effective leadership. Part of your daring must be daring to stand aside when your job is done.

How do we cultivate people like this ? These qualities are not inherent in everyone. So we do need to identify young people who from their genetic inheritance, social and cultural experience and psychology have the potential to lead. These will not always be the people who look like the leaders within the old social structure the one that needs to change. They will not always be the people who most strongly promote themselves as leaders as these may often have strong personal ambition rather than a service-to-others motivation. But given the right exposures and opportunities these leaders, often quietly, will be become apparent to themselves and others. Well meaning older people who are not guardians of the past but enablers of the future will assist. When these young leaders do start to emerge we must encourage, educate and promote them. Processes like this programme are important in this. Our future leaders - those who will sense, define and lead us to the better future are here in our communities right now.

In my primary world of established business we typically have poor leadership. We have an abundance of people who are innovative and creative and who start new businesses. We have entrepreneurs who can grow businesses capable of competing with the best in the world. Of course we can always do with more of these people and embolden others to have a shot at changing some market or another.

But our larger businesses do not have great track records and this is very often a failure of leadership. This leadership is pretty much a self- appointed, self-referential and self- reverential elite. Like liking like with like effects. It is no surprise that such leadership excessively rewards itself and is reluctant to meet the needs of others, that it is slow to embrace or resistant to the diversity which is increasingly evident in our society, that it favours hierarchical, control structures of operation over devolution and empowerment, that it concerns itself with protection of the leadership over taking commercial risks, and favours posing and self congratulation over positive action where social change becomes unavoidable.

I am part of that world and even I find it frustrating. I can only imagine how it looks and feels from the outside. I strongly suspect that similar problems exist in the established political, administrative and social organisations.

What I can do is to illuminate some of the myriad faults in our business leadership. I can cajole and try to persuade. But these things are of limited effect when the self interest of those involved is so strongly in continuation of the game they are winning. Much more effective will be the voices and actions of a younger generation more aware of the big risks and opportunities, more attuned to the winds of change and courageous enough to challenge.

So tautoko katoa and lagolago atoatoa to your effort in being part of this leadership programme. I look forward to seeing you out there, pushing for change, fulfilling your potential and the potential of our communities. I will try not to get in the way.

Get it early This article was first published onNewsroom Proand included in Bernard Hickeys 8 Things morning email of the latest in-depth business and political analysis.Get it early bysubscribing noworstarting a 28-day free trial.

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Comment How to be a modern leader We need tough and resilient leaders able to propel - Newsroom

Looking back at 2019: What we can learn from the most powerful voices of the year – YourStory

All our lives, we have been listening to people tell us, Speak up and be heard. But, very few of us can gather the courage to be assertive when the need arises. Sometimes, we need short doses of inspiration to speak up or take up cudgels on behalf of those who have been wronged. Speaking up, when it is necessary, can do wonders for you and the world around us.

If 2018 was the year of Me Too, 2019 had more women across ages and countries speak up, putting the spotlight on several issues that demanded our attention.

Greta Thunberg, Charlize Theron, Jameela Jamil,Chanel Miller, Oprah Winfrey and Glenn Close.

Last August, Swedish student Greta Thunberg sat outside the Parliament in Stockholm with a hand-painted sign that said 'Skolstrejk fr Klimatet' (School strike for Climate) alone from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm for an entire school day. Her one-woman protest quickly went viral with students all over the world beginning to voice the impending doom of climate change.

At the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September, a defiant Thunberg accused world leaders of inaction on the issue.

Parts of her fiery speech went like this:

My message is that we'll be watching you.

This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

At the Golden Globe Awards presented in January this year, actor Glenn Close made a moving statement while accepting her award for her performance in The Wife. She said that her role in the movie was a reflection of her own life, where her mother took a backseat while her father moved forward in his career. The powerful feminist statement resonated with every woman in the audience and across the world.

She said, I feel what I've learned through this whole experience is that women, we're nurturers. That's what's expected of us. We have our children, we have our husbands, if we're lucky enough, and our partners, whoever. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say, 'I can do that and I should be allowed to do that.

In September this year, 27-year-old Chanel Miller came forward and told the world that she was Emily Doe, the young woman sexually assaulted by Stanford University student Brock Turner. At Glamour magazines annual Women of the Year Awards, Miller read out a poem addressing assault survivors everywhere.

In a moving poem, she said, I dont give a damn/What you were wearing/I dont give a damn how much you drank/I dont give a damn/If you danced with him earlier in the evening/If you texted him first/Or were the one to go back to his place./People may continue to come up with reasons why it happened/But the truth is, I dont give a damn.

But I do/give a damn/How youre doing/I give a damn about you being okay/I give a damn if youre being blamed for the hurt you were handed/If you're being made to believe youre deserving of pain.

Popular talk-show host and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey has always been a strong epitome for the cause of womens empowerment and social justice.

Her commencement speech for Colorado College was full of ruminations, practical insights and a powerful call to be you at all times.

Heres a part of what she said.

You have to pay attention to your life because it is speaking to you all the time. And the bumps in the road and the failures that pointed me in a new direction and led me to a path made clear that is what Im wishing for you today: Your own path made clear. And I know that there is a lot of anxiety, a lot about what the future holds and how much money youre gonna make. But your anxiety does not contribute one iota to your progress. Im here to tell you. It does the opposite. Look at how many times you worried and you were upset. And here you are today you made it and Im here to tell you that youre going to be more than okay. So take a deep breath with me right now and repeat this:Everything is always working out for me.I want to hear it.Everything is always working out for me.Thats my mantra. Make it yours. Everything is always working out for me because it is, and it has, and it will continue to be as you forge and discover your own path. But first, you do need a job.

Actor Jameela Jamil has always been in the forefront in the fight for healthy body image. At the 2019 MAKERS conference in February in California, she spoke about misogyny and the toxic masculinity that prevails our world.

She said, Women have the power to infiltrate misogyny in their own homes. It starts by never taking for granted how poisonous society can be to the male psyche, and protecting boys from the onslaught of misinformation everywhere, she said, Its as if men are recruited young and brainwashed, in order to be indoctrinated and manipulated into an oppressive patriarchal institution.

She added, This is a call to arms for the women who have boys growing up in their houses. We have a lot of work to undo. Mothers, sisters, and aunties, I implore you to take this little sponge, and render him sodden with humanity and an understanding of women. It will send him into this delusional world with an armour of empathy and self-assurance All you have to do is tell him the truth. Tell him what happened to us. Tell him our whole story.

Actor Charlize Theron made an impassioned speech as she accepted the Glamour 2019 Woman of the Year Award on November 11. One of the highlights of her acceptance speech was on empathy and the need to support different kinds of people with all our hearts.

She said, The point is we need to help the hard-hearted to empathise with others. Like sexual assault survivors, people living with AIDS, our trans community, children who are different or who have special needs. The women in this room tonight are putting themselves on the front line of the empathy battle, be it through storytelling, creating opportunities for those that need it most, or just unabashedly being yourself and telling other women we dont have to apologise for who and what we are.

Heres looking forward to more women shining even brighter in the next year, and throughout the next decade.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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Looking back at 2019: What we can learn from the most powerful voices of the year - YourStory

Strength and resilience – Royal Gazette

Heather Wood, Lifestyle Editor

Published Nov 25, 2019 at 8:00 am(Updated Nov 25, 2019 at 7:41 am)

Focusing on paint and canvas: Elizabeth Arnold opens new show at the Bermuda Society of Arts (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

Focusing on paint and canvas: Elizabeth Arnold opens new show at the Bermuda Society of Arts (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

As a child, Elizabeth Arnold watched as her grandfather carved exquisite armoires and chests out of cedar.

Something about the design aspect struck a chord, and art became a lifelong passion. Faces, a collection of her most recent work, is now on display at the Bermuda Society of Arts.

My art classes, those were the only classes that were ever important to me with most artists thats how it goes, the artist laughed. I just wanted to do it, dive in there and get it done.

That attitude didnt always sit well with teachers in Texas but, once she got interested in photography, Ms Arnold learnt the value of following instructions.

In my late teens, I got a job in a photographers studio, which landed me with another outlet for creativity, she said. Within photography, I did have to be very disciplined.

I couldnt break the rules; there was not much room for failure when photographing weddings and at the studio, I took to it really well.

In 1993, she moved to Bermuda where she established herself as a photographer and contemporary artist.

I photographed quite a few weddings, she said. I stuck with it until my fourth child and then put [my camera] down when I was six months pregnant.

Despite that she always kept [her] foot in the door, donating her photographic skills to her childrens schools.

I didnt pick up a paint brush, except for the murals in my children rooms, until 2010 when I bought a new camera. I picked up a brush and started a mixed-media approach, painting on photographs.

Beloved Lily, an ethereal life-size portrait of her eldest daughter, was accepted into the Charman Prize in 2011 and later used to illustrate childrens books.

Ms Arnolds 2016 Charman Prize painting, Spring, was acquired by the shows benefactor John Charman for his private collection a career highlight.

In the studio, I did a lot of restoration work on old photographs, but now, its all digital, she said. I decided to do away with photography and [focus on] paints and canvas. It was just easier.

Faces, her first solo show here, was inspired by the late American singer Mary Wells.

Although famous for helping to define the Motown sound in the 1960s, she was penniless when she died of throat cancer in 1992.

I admire her music and was really compelled to do something, Ms Arnold said. She sang so many songs for everybody and didnt get royalties. I felt it was such a shame.

Cleopatra, Amy Winehouse, Frida Kahlo, Wonder Woman and Nina Simone are the other faces featured in the exhibit.

The idea behind it was empowerment, Ms Arnold said.

Each face demonstrates feminine strength and resilience and was created using an inventive combination of media including paper, metal, acrylics, oils, metal, gold and silver leaf on wood cradle boards.

When I first moved here I had the opportunity to show with a small group of people who are now well-established artists, but this is my first solo show.

Ive had solo shows in Texas when I was young and felt like I wanted to dive in there again.

From my early photography days Ive always loved working with women the bride, the mother and child.

The show started with my idea of Mary Wells [and continued based] just on my own personal taste in music and who I work to.

Having not exhibited in a while, shes been happy with public response. This show was really challenging for me in a good way. Out of all the pieces I had the most fun on Wonder Woman because shes so light-hearted. Shes just fun; all the colours. Its been really well received. Im happy about that. The opening was a success.

Faces is on display in Studios A and B of the Bermuda Society of Arts until December 10. Part proceeds of the sale of the musical artists on display and Frida Kahlo, will go to cancer and health organisations on the island. For more information on the artist, Elizabeth Arnold, visit http://www.mixedmedializ.com

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Strength and resilience - Royal Gazette

Googles Ascension deal gave the company access to millions of medical records. Here are the pros and cons. – Vox.com

Google has been venturing into new areas of business and recently made huge news when it got access to the health records of millions of Americans through a partnership with the Ascension hospital network.

Both companies insist their goal is to provide better care to patients, but the program, code-named Nightingale, is already creating major privacy concerns. Just 48 hours after it was announced, federal regulators from the Department of Health and Human Services announced an investigation into whether the partnership violates HIPPA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

On this episode of the Reset podcast, Christina Farr, a tech and health reporter for CNBC, tells host Arielle Duhaime-Ross that this type of initiative isnt exactly new for Google.

Google has this history of walking into a new sector and and saying, Lets suck up as much data as we can, and well just use our engineering prowess to figure out what products and tools that we can build off the back of this data. And it seems like theyre going into health care with a similar intention.

So, what does this mean for the Americans whose health records were accessed by Google?

The first thing to know is that when it comes to medical records, its not always clear who owns the data, says Nicholas Tatonetti, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University.

It is often generally owned by the doctors, hospitals, and organizations that collect it. But it seems to be a patchwork of regulations and frameworks, which is why its valuable for these large efforts to bring data together.

For many Americans, that can be worrisome. But its important to know that the Google deal is actually routine. Its part of a how a lot of medical research is conducted today.

Using an example from his own research in which his team used similar types of databases to discover that two common drugs, an antibiotic and a heartburn medication, can lead to potentially dangerous heart arrhythmias when taken together Tatonetti says that everything Googles done so far was perfectly above board. But there is still room for improvement.

There is a feeling in the air about who has access to our data, how private [is it], and when is it being shared? When we are left out of that process, it feels a little like were being taken advantage of, even if its legal. And even if they are appropriately protecting our data, Im disappointed in these types of announcements [because] there isnt an engagement of the patient population in order to bring them into this process, especially when it comes to a giant tech company that has the type of position and an ability to interact and reach billions of people.

Still wondering how we should think about what Google is doing with these data and whether theres a way to avoid all of the mistrust? Listen to the entire conversation here.

Below, weve also shared a lightly edited transcript of Farrs conversation with Duhaime-Ross.

You can subscribe to Reset on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify.

This blew up because of various reports that some of this information was not anonymous that, in fact, it contained things about patients that you wouldnt necessarily want to share with a company like Google.

What kind of data was shared?

So the data that was shared was a bit of a mix. There were some cases where it was fully anonymized information, and that was simply to inform some of the analytics work that they were doing. In other cases, the companies came clean that they were sharing some personal health information which could have been potentially identifying. It could be all sorts of different things, including even just dates of service (when a patient went into the hospital).

We havent seen yet any clear evidence that patient names were shared in this process. But theres a reason to worry about Google having access to any identifying information, because if they combine that with any other data they have about us, anything could be identifiable.

We arent just talking about Google knowing peoples blood pressure, right? Were talking about Google knowing peoples HIV status or whether they have a mental health issue that requires medication.

Absolutely. The big fear here is that Google will start to learn more about our health conditions and [probably] already has quite a lot of that information.

Were sharing our health status with Google inadvertently all the time. And the idea that they could then touch our clinical records from when we go see our physicians at the hospital is just terrifying.

Adding to this is that Google has seen other issues with some of the health things that its done.

Only a few months ago, there was a lawsuit from a patient at the University of Chicago. And what came out is that Google was supposed to be making sure that information that was shared from the university to their servers was fully anonymous. But it turns out that some dates of service ... were actually shared with the company. So that led to a lawsuit.

Before that, there was a whole issue in the UK with DeepMind, one of their subsidiaries, having access to patient data.

This is all adding up to this picture that Google is not properly just managing this. I would like to see Google get out there and deny that and say, We would never target people based on their medical information, and just create some policies around this, and maybe even some public forums where people can ask questions of Google and get straight answers about how their health information is going to be used by the company.

What about Googles partner here? Why would they want to partner with a company like Google?

Ascension is a Catholic health system. They have lots of different hospitals and their own C suite that is looking for partnerships with tech companies, as are many other health systems. In the US, its quite common now to work with either one of the big three, whether its Microsoft, Amazon, or Google.

So, Ascension in theory would have wanted to have their brand associated with an innovative tech company like Google [be] very positive for them. I think they did see an opportunity to work with a big tech company on that and be viewed broadly as an innovative mover within the health care space.

What was Google trying to do with the data?

My sources have said that there were a few projects that were outlined with Ascension specifically. One of them was that they were looking to build a tool that could search through a medical record really easily. I also heard that they were looking at early detection of disease. So, for instance, if a patient is likely to have a condition called sepsis, which could lead to a fatal outcome, is there a way that they could look at these large-scale datasets and figure out whos most at risk and intervene earlier? And then once they had done that for something like sepsis, they could move on to other conditions.

Is it normal for a free company like Google to have access to this data, especially if its not anonymous?

These sorts of agreements are very common in the health care industry. Some folks in the wake of this news say that if these agreements didnt happen, health care would grind to a screeching halt. So we see these deals all the time. Typically it doesnt involve companies like Google, but it involves health care technology companies that you may be familiar with.

Optum, [for example], works with health systems regularly on large-scale data projects. And in these cases, they have to sign whats called a BAA (or business associate agreement), which allows for this data to be shared and can actually include some personally identifiable data.

Google is just latching on to a long history of these preexisting types of projects that we see every day but [that] rarely get reported on. When its Google, its a big deal. But when its not Google, people dont care quite as much.

It sounds like, because the name Google is tied to this, people are reacting really strongly.

Thats absolutely the case. This is standard practice. All sorts of health-privacy folks Ive spoken to have said these deals are routine now. I think there is still reason to criticize Google.

One piece where I would call them out is consent. There was no evidence here that Google did tell any of the patients or the physicians that they were doing this work. That only came out later, after the news exposing some of the details of the project. They could have chosen to do that. Did they have to? Maybe not. Some BAAs allow for this to be done without consent.

I hope that once the dust settles, we end up having much deeper discussions about what we expect when it comes to our health information, who should own it, who should access it, and in what circumstances should patients have the right to say no.

You alluded to a small number of Google employees who had access to this data.

Google hasnt disclosed yet exactly who those employees were, who had access to the data. They said that this small number of employees were closely monitored, implying that those employees were watched if they did have any access to the information.

At this point, we just have to trust them that those employees werent sharing this data or attempting to use it for any nefarious purpose, like selling the data, trying to use it for targeted advertising, or even just building tools off the back of Ascension datasets that they could try to sell down the line to other hospital systems.

We dont know that they did that. Google is asking a lot by just saying, Hey guys, a few people had access to this, but dont worry, we had it under control.

Its always fun when a large tech company like Google asks you to just trust them.

Exactly. As has been rightly pointed out, Google has been quite cavalier.

[The company] has this history of walking into a new sector and then saying, Lets suck up as much data as we can, and well just use our engineering prowess to figure out what products and tools that we can build off the back of this data. And it seems like theyre going into health care with a similar intention.

On the one hand, it could be a good thing, because this work does need to be done in health care and these large-scale analytics projects can be really important.

But on the other hand, you know, Google just hasnt instilled the public with a lot of confidence that theyre going to approach this with all the protections and the controls and just fundamentally do it in the right way.

To hear the potential positive aspects of Googles partnership with Ascension and its access to massive amounts of medical records, listen to the full episode and subscribe to Reset on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Googles Ascension deal gave the company access to millions of medical records. Here are the pros and cons. - Vox.com

See list of neighborhoods outside Ascension Parish that are part of 30-year sewer deal – The Advocate

The backers of a plan to consolidate sewer service in Ascension Parish say 29 neighborhoods outside the parish also will be part of the deal and pay its increased rates. The Ascension Parish Council would become their rate setting authority, replacing the Louisiana Public Service Commission.

WATSON Just down Cane Market Road from Watson Baptist Church, the residents of the Fountainbleau subdivision live in one of the most norther

Here they are by parish:

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East Baton Rouge

Beaver Creek, Beaver Creek on the Plains, Carriagewood Estates, Cloverhill, High Plains, Builders Center/Hobby Lobby, Hoo Shoo Too Lakes, Lake Beau Pre, Landing at Mallard Lakes, Mallard Crossing, Manchac Reserve, Pecue Lane Estates, Reserves at Jefferson Crossing, and Willowbrook/Old Jefferson.

Iberville

Oak Trace

Livingston

Cypress Point, Duff Village, Fountainbleau, Gray's Creek, Lakes at Juban Crossing, Old Mill Settlement, River Highlands No. 1, Settlement at Bayou Pierre, The Cove, The Crossing Apartments, Three River Islands, Village at Juban Lakes, Waterfront East and Waterfront West.

GONZALESAscension government advisers working on 30-year deal to transform parish sewer service say they made several changes to the propos

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See list of neighborhoods outside Ascension Parish that are part of 30-year sewer deal - The Advocate

Ascension Sacred Heart on track to open at least two new facilities in 2020 – Pensacola News Journal

Madison Arnold, Pensacola News Journal Published 6:00 a.m. CT Nov. 25, 2019

Ascension Sacred Heart is moving forward with a number of projects, two of which are scheduled to open in 2020, in an effort to move more services out into the community.

A new outpatient rehabilitation center is under construction at the intersection of Grande and Market Place driveswith an estimated finish in April. That project will be followed by the completion of an outpatient surgery and dermatology center, among other services, just off Summit Boulevard next November.

"We know that toprovide a patient-friendly, family-friendly experience that we need to be in the neighborhood, we need to be out in the community," saidDawn Rudolph, hospital president. "... With innovation and capabilities that we've been able to bring,more things can be done outside of the hospital."

Construction of the brand new Ascension Sacred Health outpatient service center on Summit Boulevard is underway on Friday.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

The $9.5 million rehabilitation center will be a 17,500-square-foot facility and offer physical, occupation and speech therapy. Currently, the hospital system offers those servicesat two locations one inSanta Rosa County andthe other along Davis Highway and Sorrento Road.

The surgical center will be quite a bit larger at 58,000 square feet and next to the hospital's Haven of Our Lady of Peace nursing home. The $19 million project will include six outpatient operating rooms, imaging equipment, the breast health center with mammography and a dermatology center.

When determining what services are needed and where in the community to put them, Ascension Sacred Heart staff look at data, including the number of homes in growing areas andpropensity and prevalence of particular diseases, Rudolph said.

"Those lenses allow us to know what is the highest and best used of our services and try to customize it as much as possible," Rudolph said. "How can we make it easy for people to get good health care? That's the bottom line."

Currently, the system is looking into opening a separate emergency room to accommodate growth in Beulah, although an exact timeline hasn't yet been finalized, said spokesman Mike Burke. A media release announcing the project in August said it's planned to be an $11 million,4,700-square-foot facility scheduled to open in late 2020.

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It will be constructed on Nine Mile Road, nearthe new Ascension Sacred Heart Health Center at Milestone, an outpatient medical facility that opened in March.

These facility expansions come on the heels of the hospital system's new $85 million Studer Family Children's Hospital in April opening. Now Ascension Sacred Heart is construction a $19 million pediatric intensive care unit and operating rooms onto the children's hospital, which is scheduled to be finished in January 2021.

Madison Arnold can be reached at marnold@pnj.com and 850-435-8522.

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Ascension Sacred Heart on track to open at least two new facilities in 2020 - Pensacola News Journal

Report: Kroger expands consumer healthcare in Tennessee – Chain Store Age

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The Kroger Co. is reportedly adding an array of new healthcare services for customers in Tennessee.

According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, the grocery giant is partnering with Ascension Saint Thomas Health, a Tennessee-based hospital and healthcare network, to expand the range of consumer healthcare services it provides in Tennessee. Ascension Saint Thomas Health operates 97 practice sites that provide access to over 500 physicians and advanced practitioners. Kroger operates 116 pharmacies and 40 consumer health clinics in the state.

As a result, Kroger will reportedly offer 32 additional specialty care services provided by Ascension Saint Thomas Health. The partnership is part of Kroger 360care, an initiative designed to provide broader, affordable access to hospital and healthcare network services to Kroger customers.

Collaborations and partnerships are key to transforming the way health care is delivered in America, Colleen Lindholz, president of Kroger Health, said in a news release. Our vision at Kroger Health is to help people live healthier lives. This partnership is a great example of our vision in action.

Kroger operates a total of 215 consumer health clinics in nine states. The retailer intends to partner with more hospital and healthcare networks through its 360care initiative in the future.

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Report: Kroger expands consumer healthcare in Tennessee - Chain Store Age

Ascension official: Failure to act on sewers could slow the parish’s growth – The Advocate

Thanks to a thriving economy, a high-performing public school system and a low crime rate, Ascension Parish is growing at an unprecedented rate. However, such rapid growth has recently presented challenges that threaten to slow, and even halt, the economic momentum we are currently experiencing.

Earlier this year, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality declared Bayou Manchac an impaired waterbody, and similar declarations for New River and Blind River are imminent without significant changes to the way raw sewage is processed in the parish. That is stalling permits for residential and commercial development.

This summer, Ascension Parish officials received a proposal from Ascension Sewer to invest over $215 million in the development and construction of wastewater collection and treatment facilities for the East Bank of Ascension Parish, offering coverage for the most populated areas in the parish. Structured as a public-private partnership, the proposal allows the parish to retain ownership and ultimate control of the sewer system as a public asset and proposes affordable and predictable sewer rates, comparable to nearby parishes.

A recent survey of the Ascension Chamber membership showed that 95% of the respondents supported the Ascension Sewer proposal to initiate the buildout of a parishwide wastewater treatment system. Of those same respondents, 65% identified the need to stop the continued contamination of our parish ditches and waterways as the primary reason to connect and modernize the parishs outdated and failing sewer treatment system.

If the parish does not move forward with Ascension Sewers proposal, we risk the continued contamination of the waterways where our children fish, swim and play. We risk forfeiting our local authority to a consent decree by state and federal departments such as the DEQ and EPA. We also face the risk of increased taxes to subsidize the increased project costs associated with state and federal buildout orders. Given these risks, the benefits of a partnership between the parish and Ascension Sewer are all too clear.

The Ascension Chamber is confident that the due diligence underway by independent experts in vetting the proposal will give our parish council members the confidence to move forward in voting in favor of this proposal on Nov. 21. We are in full support of Ascension Sewers proposal as this important infrastructure project will enhance economic development in the parish and, more importantly, will improve the quality of life for our residents in the decades to come.

Barker Dirmann

president, Ascension Parish Chamber of Commerce

Gonzales

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Ascension official: Failure to act on sewers could slow the parish's growth - The Advocate

Incoming Ascension Parish president wants to ‘put the brakes’ on Bernhard sewer deal – Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

Newly elected Ascension Parish President Clint Cointment is calling on the parish council to put off Thursdays scheduled vote on a new 30-year deal to finance, build and operate a $215 million regional sewer system.

The deala public private partnership between the parish and the privately owned Ascension Sewer LLC, which was created and is largely owned by Baton Rouge-based private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partnershas been in the works for nearly a year.

But Cointment says he and some of the newly elected members of the parish council have questions about the deal and dont think it should be approved by the outgoing council, which leaves office at the end of December

Were going to be the ones who have to work with this deal that was brokered with zero input from us, says Cointment, who finished first in the October primary with 42% of the vote and avoided a runoff after the second-place finisher dropped out. The process is broken. We should have some say in this deal. Its our turn.

Cointments concerns center on issues raised in a recently released report on the deal by E&Y that says rate payers will have little say over rate increases and suggests the parish is ceding much of its leverage and control to Ascension Sewer.

The report notes, for instance, that there is currently no detailed mechanism in the agreement for determining how rates are set or adjusted. and also that there is a high degree of uncertainty now as to how rate changes will be determined and proposed in the future.

We need to hit the pause button, Cointment says. We need to do our due diligence and look at this deal more closely.

But Ascension Parish Director of Infrastructure William Daniel, who has spearheaded the deal, says the outgoing council has been studying the proposal since May and a majority supports it. He argues that the multiple, disconnected systems that currently serve the parish are ineffective, causing public health issues and will ultimately need to be replaced anyway.

The long term prospect of not doing this deal is that starting in January, we would need to charge $90 a month to every household in the parish just to break even, best case scenario, Daniel says. Worse case, the feds could come in and order us to build a sewer system.

Daniel acknowledges rates will go up under the new plan but says they would anyway.

I think its a really, really good contract, he says.

Cointment says he understands something has to be done to address the problem in the rapidly growing parish and says the Ascension Sewer deal may be the best solution.

But we dont know yet and we shouldnt be in such a hurry to push it through, he says.

Ascension Sewers Jeff Baudier says he feels the company has been transparent and given the parish council all the time and information it needs, but he understands the concerns and wants to make sure everyone is comfortable with the deal.

Were not opposed to giving them more time, he says. Were going to follow the guidelines of the council as to how much time they need to fully consider the proposal.

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Incoming Ascension Parish president wants to 'put the brakes' on Bernhard sewer deal - Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

Halloween fun at the Ascension Council on Aging – The Advocate

The annual Council on Aging Halloween party was Oct. 25 at the Gonzales Senior Center. The music was provided by Route 61, and treats were given to the clients.

The rain dampened the day, but 26 seniors participated in the costume contest.

Volunteers from Canon Hospice, Accord Rehab, Francois Bend, Gonzales Home Health, Feliciana Home Health and Peoples Health judged the costume contest and provided door prizes.

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Winning the most creative division was Juanita Guillot; Stelle Menne, second; Ellen Riger, third; and Pay Mayers, fourth.

Mary Chauff won the prettiest category; Debra Danielson, Lucille Taylor, Wanda Torres and Ruth Kidd placing.

Elladee Chauvin won the funniest division, and placing were Lucille Blair, Mervin Young, Violet Patterson and Linda Francois.

In the scariest division, Frankie Tortorich was first, with other top winners including Mary Russell, Jeanette Richardson and Linda Lomas.

Carol Laparne was first in the sexiest division, with Gail Barter, Sam Bradford, Patsy Lafleur and Johnny Bradford finishing in the top spots.

In the most realistic category, Bertha Matherne won first; Ricky Wilson, second; Ann Jeanmaire, third; and Judy Lebourgeois, fourth.

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Halloween fun at the Ascension Council on Aging - The Advocate

Spartans season ends on the road at Ruston – Leesville Daily Leader

For the second straight week, Ruston knocked off a team from Ascension Parish. In the first round, they upset Dutchtown, 29-27. Hosting the Spartans in round two, they grinded out a 21-13 victory.

Back in 2016, East Ascension was a big underdog as they made the 240-mile trip up north to face Ruston in the playoffs. The long journey was well worth while as they captured a 38-14 victory.

Three years later, the fourth-seeded Spartans were back in Ruston, and once again, there was an upset. Unfortunately for East Ascension, they were on the wrong side of it this time around.

For the second straight week, Ruston knocked off a team from Ascension Parish. In the first round, they upset Dutchtown, 29-27. Hosting the Spartans in round two, they grinded out a 21-13 victory.

The winning formula against East Ascension was very similar to the one they used against Dutchtown. They got off to a hot start, they controlled the clock and they were tenacious against the pass.

To begin the game, Ruston took the lead when quarterback Jaden Procell threw a screen pass to Ketravion Hargrove, and he did the rest. Hargrove raced 69 yards for a score to give the Bearcats a 7-0 lead.

The Spartans responded late in the opening quarter. Ethan Bagwell broke loose for a 62-yard run that set them up inside the Ruston 5-yard line. Bagwell then finished off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run to tie the game.

Hargrove then struck again for the Bearcats. He got loose for 51 yards to get Ruston down to the East Ascension 18. He eventually scored on a two-yard run to regain a 14-7 lead for the Bearcats early in the second quarter.

Ruston seemed to have control of the game, but then they fumbled a punt and East Ascension recovered at the Bearcat 47. It gave way to a 15-yard touchdown hookup between Cameron Jones and Jyrin Johnson.

The Bearcats were able to block the extra point, allowing them to maintain a 14-13 lead at the half.

East Ascension had a chance to take the lead at the start of the third quarter as Ruston muffed another punt.

However, the Bearcats got the ball back when Jones was sacked and stripped. Ruston recovered the fumble at their own 24.

To begin the fourth quarter, it appeared that East Ascension was about to hold Ruston to a punt as they were facing a third-and-22, but Dontre Griffin was able to convert on a draw.

The Spartans were also guilty of a face mask penalty on the playgiving the Bearcats the ball at the East Ascension 5-yard line. Griffin then powered his way into the end zone to extend the Ruston lead to 21-13.

With less than three minutes left in the game, the East Ascension defense forced the Bearcats into a fourth-and-one at their own 44-yard line. Griffin again picked up a first down. This conversion allowed Ruston to bleed the clock and clinch the victory.

After rushing for 126 yards against Dutchtown, East Ascension did a great job of containing Hargrove. He rushed for just 67 yards on 17 carries. Fifty-one of those yards came on one run.

But Griffin stepped up as a great second option for Ruston. He piled up 81 yards and a score on 16 carries.

Ruston possessed the ball for 27 minutes.

Jones was only able to complete eight of 19 passes for just 66 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked four times.

The loss prevented the Spartans from reaching the state quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons. They finished with an overall record of 9-3.

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Spartans season ends on the road at Ruston - Leesville Daily Leader

PG&E Struggles to Find a Way Out of Bankruptcy – The New York Times

Robert Julian, a lawyer for the wildfire victims, said in bankruptcy court on Tuesday that PG&Es settlement with the insurance-claims holders had become the elephant in the room in the bankruptcy. The claims holders have not attended recent mediation sessions, he said.

We cant resolve this case because theyve taken all the cash, Mr. Julian said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has also come out against the deal with insurance-claim holders, calling it premature. If victims, PG&E and insurance-claim holders cannot come to an agreement, the State of California will present its own plan for resolution of these cases, lawyers for Mr. Newsom wrote in a recent legal filing.

Lawyers for insurance creditors have said their clients have given up a lot by agreeing to accept $11 billion for claims that originally totaled $20 billion. Any remorse that fire victims lawyers may feel for not moving more quickly and settling their claims is ultimately irrelevant to the bankruptcy courts decision about whether PG&E made the right call by settling with the insurance claim holders, the groups lawyers wrote in a Nov. 11 court filing.

Some California politicians are considering drastic measures. Sam Liccardo, the mayor of San Jose, has proposed turning PG&E into a customer-owned entity. All fire claims in bankruptcy would be paid in cash under that plan, according to Alan Gover, a lawyer who is working on it.

PG&E must emerge from bankruptcy by June in order to participate in a fund that California set up this year to shield the states largest utilities from future wildfire claims. If there is no settlement among PG&E, fire victims and other creditors by early next year, however, two other potentially lengthy trials are set to begin. These would decide the utilitys liability to fire victims with the help of a jury and expert witnesses.

While PG&E has repeatedly promised to pay all fire victim claims in full, bankruptcy experts say that troubled companies often find it difficult to do so, and that many victims are left with much less than they hoped for.

You kind of have to put in full in quotation marks, said Ralph Brubaker, a professor who specializes in bankruptcy at the University of Illinois College of Law.

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PG&E Struggles to Find a Way Out of Bankruptcy - The New York Times

11 biotechnology companies have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2019 – Axios

Eleven biopharmaceutical companies have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2019, the most in a single year within the past decade, according to a new series fromBioPharma Dive.

Why it matters: Its rare for biotechs to go under because they have so much access to extra funding. But more firms have hit dead ends.

Between the lines: The reasons for the biotech bankruptcies run the gamut, but in general, all of the companies burn cash at a high rate.

Why you'll hear about this again: "You're probably going to see more of these situations going forward, where a company is preclinical, went public and is left on their own and has to raise additional money from the public markets, and they flounder," the CEO of a bankrupt biotech firm told BioPharma Dive.

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11 biotechnology companies have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2019 - Axios

The Effects Of The Dean Foods Bankruptcy On Utah – Utah Public Radio

Dairy producer Dean Foods has filed for bankruptcy protection. In Utah, St. George Ice Cream is a division of Dean Foods and is the manufacturer of branded and private label ice cream products.

As one of the largest dairy producers in the United States, Dean Foods is over many popular brands that have more than likely made it to your kitchen table at one point. TruMoo, Friendlys, Land-O-Lakes and Dairy Pure are just a few brands that will bear the effect of this bankruptcy.

Kristi Spence, the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Dairy West says farmers will not see an immediate difference. As long as processing capacity stays the same, consumers do not need to worry that milk prices are going to go up.

The dairy industry remains strong," Spence said. "We see that overall dairy consumption continues to grow and when we think of dairy consumption its not just fluid milk consumption, its dairy in all of its forms. So cheese or yogurt or cottege cheese or sour cream, butter - all of those components relate to the overall dairy category and that remains strong.

Here in Utah, farmers whose milk goes to Dean Foods plants all go through their cooperatives first. Cooperatives are farmer-owned organizations, such as Dairy Farmers of America, that are the middle point between the farmer and the distributer.

The benefit of a system like that is that a farmer isnt scrambling to find a home for their milk on a daily basis. They know their milk is going to be collected and that it has an end home to go to, Spence said.

Dairy Farmers of America is currently considering buying Dean Foods.

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The Effects Of The Dean Foods Bankruptcy On Utah - Utah Public Radio

Bumble Bee is in talks to file for bankruptcy and sell itself – Los Angeles Times

Two years after Bumble Bee Foods pleaded guilty to price-fixing, the canned tuna producer is in talks with seafood industry peer FCF Fishery to buy it during a bankruptcy reorganization, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Taiwan-based FCF Fishery would act as a stalking-horse bidder in a Chapter 11 reorganization, which San Diego-based Bumble Bee could file as soon as this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private deliberations. A stalking-horse bid sets a floor for any other offers that emerge in a court-supervised sale. Talks could still fall apart and terms of any deal could change, they said.

Representatives for the companies declined to comment.

FCF Fishery, which calls itself the largest tuna supplier in the western Pacific, has discussed a bid for about $925 million made up of $275 million of equity and $650 million of debt, one of the people said. The proposal calls for paying down part of Bumble Bees existing first-lien debt.

Bumble Bee, the largest North American brand of packaged seafood, is beset with criminal fines and civil lawsuits stemming from a federal price-fixing case. It pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiring with Starkist Co. and Chicken of the Sea Inc. to fix and raise prices of canned tuna in the United States from 2011 through at least late 2013. The company also agreed to cooperate with the antitrust investigation.

Bumble Bee flagged its financial distress during the case, arguing that the $81.5-million fine initially contemplated could push it into insolvency. The U.S. Department of Justice agreed, cutting the amount to $25 million and giving Bumble Bee an installment plan over several years that required no more than $2 million upfront.

Former Chief Executive Christopher Lischewski pleaded not guilty to related criminal charges in 2018, and his trial in California federal court began Nov. 4. The hearings have featured testimony from cooperating witnesses that include executives from Bumble Bee and its competitors.

Starkist pleaded guilty to the price-fixing charges in 2018 and also agreed to cooperate. Chicken of the Sea, owned by Thai Union Group, received conditional leniency from the U.S. Department of Justice for its cooperation with the investigation and didnt have to pay fines.

Ronalds-Hannon and Doherty write for Bloomberg.

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Bumble Bee is in talks to file for bankruptcy and sell itself - Los Angeles Times

Its bankruptcy time for Michael Lichtenstein LLC in Williamsburg – The Real Deal

227 Grand Street in Williamsburg and Michael Lichtenstein of Heritage Equity Partners (Credit: Google Maps, Heritage Equity Partners)

Michael Lichtenstein has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at an apartment building in Williamsburg, but said he plans to withdraw the application shortly.

Lichtenstein, the president of Heritage Equity Partners and a frequent partner of developer Toby Moskovits, filed the claim for 227 Grand Avenue through the entity MY2011 Grand LLC. He did so independently of his partnership with Moskovits and his role at Heritage Equity Partners, he said.

Toby Moskovits

The property has between $10 million and $50 million worth of assets and $1 million to $10 million worth of liabilities on it, the filing states. It contains 41 residential units across five stories, with rents ranging from about $1,700 to $4,800 per month, according to StreetEasy.

Mark Frankel, an attorney for the LLC, declined to comment.

The bankruptcy filing, made Nov. 6, lists five creditors with unsecured claims on the property, the largest being the architect Karl Fischer at $50,000. Fischer passed away earlier this year, but his company Fischer + Makooi Architects remains active.

The other creditors on the property have claims of between $5,000 and $30,000. Lichtensteins LLC has a stake in the property worth $12.8 million, according to court documents.

S&B Monsey LLC, an entity linked to Moshe Dov Schweid, also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the same address on the same day, court documents show. That filing lists four creditors with about $250,000 in unsecured claims on the property and says that Schweids LLC has an interest in the building worth $13.2 million.

In 2017 Moskovits, Schweid and Lichtensteins LLC filed a lawsuit accusing Yoel Goldmans All Year Management of stealing funds from 227 Grand Street and operating the building without authorization. Lichtenstein said in a statement that he recently reached a settlement with Goldman over these accusations that should render the bankruptcy filings unnecessary.

I am pleased that we have come to an amicable out-of-court agreement with Yoel Goldman that settles all litigation related to a dispute over the property at 227 Grand, Lichtenstein said. We wish to express our appreciation to Mr. Goldman for working with us to resolve this in a friendly manner. As part of this settlement, all open litigation concerning this matter is being withdrawn.

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Its bankruptcy time for Michael Lichtenstein LLC in Williamsburg - The Real Deal

After Murray Energy Bankruptcy, What’s The Future Of Coal? – 90.5 WESA

President Trump came into office promising to save coal. And coal jobs.

Instead, Americas coal industry has continued to slide. The question now is how far will it go? An industry that once employed hundreds of thousands now has about 50,000 workers. Eight coal companies have declared bankruptcy in the last year.

For ourTrump on Earthpodcast, we talked about the state of coal with an expert on the topic.Taylor Kuykendallcovers the industry for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The latest coal company to declare bankruptcy is Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal company in the United States. Until recently, Murray had been doing a lot of expanding. When others were filing for bankruptcy, they were scooping up assets.

So why did Murray Energy file for bankruptcy?

They faced a lot of the same pressures that the rest of the coal industry did, Kuykendall explained. Competition from cheap, natural gas; decline in export demand; but most of all, there was a whole lot of debt on the companys balance sheet [about $8 billion dollars]. Ultimately, their lenders didnt want to keep giving them passes.

Bob Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, is a major ally of President Trump. Early on in Trumps presidency, Murrayhand-delivered a wish listof sorts to the new Energy Secretary, Rick Perry.

One of the first things the administration checked off that list was getting rid of the the Obama-eraStream Protection Rulethat would have restricted coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

Murray didnt get everything on his list. Kuykendall says even where Murray was successful, it hasnt really proven to move the needle as far as coals long-term or even medium-term prospects.

Weve seen a lot of coal plant retirements already, said Kuykendall. Those arent going to come back. And nobody is really building any new coal plants as a general rule. Power plants are getting older and less efficient or they require more investment to become more efficient. Meanwhile, theres tons of cheap up options right now. Natural gas is very cheap. Renewable energy is increasingly getting more into that space.

So has the coal industry plateaued or is it just on a steady trajectory to become less and less important to the American electric grid? And will it matter who wins the election in 2020?

I think its pretty safe to assume that, no matter who comes in, coal is going to continue to decline. Its just a matter of speed, Kuykendall said. I was just at a coal conference, and the consensus there was that coal country has more bankruptcies coming, whether its under Trump or not.

During the 2016 election, Trump talked about bringing back coal and ending the so-called war on coal. But with the industry so clearly on the decline, can he still use that kind of framing? Kuykendall says its going to be tough, partly because the average voter isnt going to be checking Trumps track record.

If you look at the numbers, he clearly did not bring back the coal industry, he said. Even before the [2016] election, when I talked to people in the mining industry, [they said] the war on coal language was divisive and not really effective.

Kuykendall will be watching to see how Trump plays coal going forward and whether he will continue to cater to the voter who wants to hear the message that coal is coming back or that something can be done.

For the miners no longer getting a paycheck, its hard to imagine theyd get much comfort from that.

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Fare Inspections and the Fourth Amendment – Montgomery County Sentinel

Courts are frequently called upon to apply the Fourth Amendments prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures to police procedures. Marylands Court of Special Appeals this week reviewed whether the use of fare inspections on a light rail train violated the Fourth Amendment in a case called Kenneth Carter v. State of Maryland.

The opinion indicates that Maryland Transit Authority police gathered on the platform of a Baltimore light rail station, for the purpose of doing a fare inspection to see if passengers had paid for their fare. There was no evidence of any signs posted in the stations that such fare sweeps may be done. Failure to pay the fare is a crime subject to a $50 fine. When the train pulled into the station, an officer entered each train and announced that each passenger had to show their ticket proving they had paid the fare.

Carter approached an officer and admitted he had no ticket, and was directed to another officer on the platform who obtained his identification. A record check showed a possible warrant outstanding for Carter, who then tried to flee and was tackled. During the melee the police found that Carter had a gun, and it turned out he was a convicted felon. At trial, defendants motion to suppress evidence because of an illegal detention was denied, and he was convicted of firearms offenses and resisting arrest.

The appellate Court noted that in determining whether an investigatory detention by police had occurred, it would look at such factors as the use or show of force or authority by the police so that a reasonable person would believe they were not free to leave or refuse to answer questions. Here, the appellate Court found that by announcing to all passengers that they could not leave the train until producing proof of fare payment, Carter had in fact been detained even before he admitted he had no ticket.

Since one of the officers at trial admitted that they used fare checks as a means of enforcing outstanding warrants, the appellate Court declared this police misconduct in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Therefore, the motion to suppress evidence should have been granted, and the convictions were reversed.

Thomas Patrick Ryan is a partner in the Rockville law firm of McCarthy Wilson, which specializes in civil litigation.

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Fare Inspections and the Fourth Amendment - Montgomery County Sentinel

Rights not violated when police took photos and fingerprints of detained teens: court – MLive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A five-year court battle over Grand Rapids police taking photos and fingerprints of teens not carrying identification finally appears to be done.

A sate Court of Appeals panel ruled this week that the Fourth Amendment rights of the teens was not violated when they were detained and officers, in separate incidents, took photos and fingerprints of the youth.

The cases have been in the courts since 2014, but the police encounters happened in August 2011 and May 2012.

They involved the 2011 stop of Denishio Johnson, then 15, after witnesses reported seeing him looking into vehicle windows as if he intended to steal items. Police found Johnson sitting under a tree and he told officers he was waiting for a friend to arrive on a bus.

He was detained in handcuffs for five or 10 minutes and then released.

The other incident happened in 2012 with the stop of teen Keyon Harrison near Lake Drive SE and East Fulton Street.

Grand Rapids police Capt. Curt VanderKooi saw the teen hand another boy what appeared to be a large model train engine. VanderKooi thought it was suspicious and detained the teen. Harrison told him he was simply returning the train following a school project.

In this weeks court ruling, the state Supreme Court asked the Court of Appeals to determine whether taking photos and fingerprints violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the teens, who were never charged with any crime.

The court panel noted that past case law allows for fingerprinting as there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in ones fingerprints.

The judges also said that attorneys for the teens had conceded that their clients were validly detained, a crucial point.

Because we conclude that the P&Ps (photos and prints) did not infringe on plaintiffs Fourth Amendment protections (given that, as plaintiffs concede, they were validly detained) we further conclude that plaintiffs have failed to satisfy their burden of demonstrating that the custom or policy at issue here, i.e., the photographing and printing of individuals during an investigatory stop based on reasonable suspicion but without probable cause, was unconstitutional, according to Thursdays opinion.

Grand Rapids police in 2017, prior to then-Chief David Rahinskys retirement, said they were no longer doing photos and prints as a routine matter and would only be used if someone showed highly suspicious" behavior.

Police said they wanted to improve and better align our services with community expectations with the change.

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Rights not violated when police took photos and fingerprints of detained teens: court - MLive.com