Daily Archives: April 3, 2017

Crackdown on Exploitation of Self-Employed Workers in the Gig … – IBB Solicitors (blog)

Posted: April 3, 2017 at 8:17 pm

Blog article 03rd April 2017

A review commissioned by Theresa May will crack down on firms that use self-employed workers to avoid paying sickness, pension and maternity benefits.

The review by Matthew Taylor, a former head of the Downing Street policy unit under Tony Blair and now head of the Royal Society of Arts, is expected to conclude later in the year that a growing number of firms are taking on supposedly self-employed workers for jobs previously carried out by salaried staff. Government sources have said the Prime Minister would back the reviews recommendations, which are expected to include much stricter rules around what constitutes genuine self-employment.

The review is understood to have found evidence of firms asking prospective staff to incorporate themselves as sole traders rather than being taken on the payroll. Such an arrangement allows companies to avoid paying statutory sick pay and maternity benefits or to contribute to their workers pensions under auto-enrolment.

Matthew Taylor said that focus in the report would be the issue of control. He said: If you are subject to control if as an individual in the relationship with the person whos hiring you, they control your work, they control the basis upon which you work, they control the content of your work that looks like the kind of relationship where the quid pro quo should be that you respect that persons employment rights and entitlements.

Mr Taylor said he believed that more industries would soon face workers who were no longer prepared to accept ever harsher conditions.

In the 21st century, a time when we have so much autonomy and choice and we expect control in our lives, we dont accept the idea of kind of wage slavery, the idea of people at work having no choice, no voice, no capacity to influence whats going on around them and I think people feel that doesnt really fit with the times, he said.

He added: We need a new deal for the self-employed, which is we need a fairer tax system but we also need stronger rights and we need to support self-employed people in providing better for themselves.

There is a growing recognition in government that there is an imbalance in the way the economy works. This needs to be addressed. It is a new era in workplace relations, said a government source.

The Chancellor has already attempted to implement one proposal in the Taylor review - the ill-fated rise in national insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed. Mr Taylor said that he regretted the decision to abandon the increase in NICs.

A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses welcomed the Taylor Review: Self-employment should be more clearly defined, so that there is no ambiguity for a self-employed person, employee, employer, or contractor.

A spokesman for the Confederation of British Industry offered a more guarded response: A flexible range of contract options is a key driver of strength in our economy. The CBI is participating in the Taylor Review process with the aim of ensuring employment law and practice is fit for the future, fair and flexible.

A landmark study of workers in the gig economy suggests firms are "having their cake and eating it" by treating workers like staff while avoiding the tax and regulations that typically relate to employing people on full-time contracts.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development survey found that although workers were classified as self-employed, many were concerned about the control which the businesses they worked for exerted over them.

"This is supported by the data, as just four in 10 - or 38% - gig economy workers say that they feel like their own boss, which raises the question of whether some are entitled to more employment rights," the report said.

It also found that 14% of respondents said they did gig work because they could not find alternative employment. The most common reason for taking on gig work was to boost income, which accounted for 32% of responses.

Our Employment team provides advice on the employment aspects of all major business decisions. For expert advice pleasecontact a member of the teamon 03456 381381 or email enquiries@ibblaw.co.uk.

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Martin Henry | House and land: between a rock and a hard place – Jamaica Gleaner

Posted: at 8:17 pm

When it comes to promises of house and land, Jamaican voters are going to have a hard time choosing between the Solid as a Rock Man and the Prosperity Man. Both have thrown down elaborate promises of finally fixing the historical injustices that have denied masses of Jamaicans access to land and owning a home.

'Phillips wants end to squatting, better housing solutions for Jamaicans', 'PM wants NHT to address historical land, housing issues', the headlines read.

Appointed to the presidency of the People's National Party by acclamation without contest, Dr Peter Phillips devoted a big chunk of his inaugural presidential address last Sunday to the problem of access to land and housing. "Today, the People's National Party that I lead is recommitting to confronting directly the root cause of poverty and inequality in Jamaica. To do this will require a direct assault on squatting. And once and for all, we will have to ensure that we get land into the hands of the landless. Government cyaan have land locked up when our people cyaan find place to build a home ... . The next PNP Government is determined to undertake the most ambitious land-titling project ever ... . Hand in hand with land titling goes housing, and it is our mission to ensure that all Jamaicans get the opportunity to live in affordable, decent housing."

On his part, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, while breaking ground for a mere 37 serviced lots, said that his Government intends to address traditional land and housing issues dating back to Emancipation. "Our history is such that at the abolition of slavery, the enslaved were not compensated ... . So what you had ... were people divorced from all the assets and endowments that would create a true country, a true community, a true society. It has been a struggle since then for our people to acquire the assets to build community, to build a society."

What a way Holness sound like Michael Manley! And Dr Phillips sound like Edward Seaga! Both of whom tried to fix the land and house problem from the inequities of history.

Holness is promising 4,000 'new housing solutions' from the National Housing Trust this year, which is now under the heavy manners of institutional review. The same sort of average number that the Trust has been able to provide annually for 40 years! The demand is like 20,000. Four thousand hardly a revolution. And that has been the problem with the fixes for the land and house hunger, running since Emancipation.

The plantocracy plotted and schemed to keep the ex-slaves out of land ownership so as to have a pool of landless cheap labour for the plantations. A pool that exists until today.

Trelawny landholders in a meeting in 1838, the year of 'Full Free', concluded that "the people will never be brought to a state of continuous labour while they are allowed to possess the large tracts of land now cultivated by them for provisions, which renders them perfectly independent of their employers".

Landlessness and wage slavery were a major cause of the Morant Bay Uprising.

I was surprised to learn when I researched the history of community development in St Ann for Walkerswood Caribbean Foods, along with the wages issue in urban centres and on the sugar estates that fuelled the 1938 Labour Uprising, there were 'land hunger' marches and protests in rural places like Walkerswood.

When Andrew Holness' political mentor, Edward Seaga, as minister of development and welfare, presented the Five-Year Independence Plan for 1963 to 1968 in the House of Representatives on July 24, 1963, he grounded the plan on that "turning point in history" in 1865 when the Government "turned its back on the people" rather than accepting that "it was part of its responsibilities to assume responsibility for some of the welfare of the people".

The plan presented a 'Land Reform Programme' and addressed housing. The projection then, in 1963, was for 165,000 units over the next decade, mostly in the low-income sector. That is, 16,500 units per annum. In the same ball park as demand is today, 54 years later. Against this demand, or need, the Government proposed to build 3,000 low-income houses per annum!

There would be "need for mortgage money in order to finance the development in housing production", the minister told Parliament.

The Michael Manley administration of the 1970s solved the problem of financing with the creation of the National Housing Trust in 1976.

Manley was perfectly clear about the operations of the Trust. In his Budget Speech that year on May 12, that famous 'No Turning Back' speech, he told the House, "The key to the Housing Trust money is that it is a savings scheme that permits for the first time an experiment that has already been tried in sugar. That is, where the payments for a house have no down payment and are fixed at a percentage of income so that you are not forced to strain as a poor person to pay ordinary mortgage charges, but it is worked out through time, that 20 per cent of your income goes to the payment, and at the end of the period, 20 years or whatever it is, that then becomes your house. It is a wage-related payment system that is releasing the poor ... to a new capacity to get into houses."

Manley, wrong on many things, but not this one, saw very clearly that if the money was "put into the mortgage bank" with standard mortgage arrangements, as the NHT quickly descended into, the first casualty would be that "it wipes out immediately all chances for the poor to have an income-related form of paying for their houses ... ."

Manley has been betrayed!

The fix for the land access and housing problem, whether by Apostle Andrew, now heading the Government or Apostle Peter, aspiring to do so, is not rocket science and requires no Big Committee running the risk of paralysis by analysis. What is required is Big Determination.

A few necessary, ground-level things must be done for land:

- Every parcel of land with uncontested occupancy (to be checked) must be titled to the undisturbed occupier/owner on a fast track to become capital and collateral.

- State lands must be released into the real estate market at affordable sizes and prices on a scale large enough to satisfy demand, change the dynamics of the artificial and controlled market, and realign prices to reality.

- The State must repossess abandoned lands, particularly in urban centres, and offer them for development.

The NHT must be forced to revert to its founding Manley Principle, functioning primarily as a financing institution in the manner Manley made crystal clear, fundamentally. With new-titled lands and lots of lots from former government lands, build-on-own-land will throw up multiple thousands of houses. Private developers, most of them small and non-traditional, must be competitively given NHT financing to build houses. Money going to those who can get units to market at the lowest prices in preset mortgage bands and who can do so within time frames set. Income penalties for budget and time overshoots and for building faults, with warranties for correction. A quality assurance inspectorate.

And who are these non-traditional 'developers'? Many small teams of professionals with competence in building and finance, little start-up companies across the country that may be able to put down only 20 or 30 units per year either as small schemes, part of larger schemes, or providing building services as NHT-approved contractors for BOL mortgagees. Entrepreneurship, job creation, housing, communities.

The price of housing must be driven down by a combination of downward adjustments in the cost of land, fees, and taxes, and by using cheaper methods and materials in construction. Government holds the power and the resources to reset the housing market.

Andrew and Peter, two leaders, two parties, one country, one people, moving to resolve the historical injustices and inequities of land and house, for the first time at last.

- Martin Henry is a university administrator. Email feedback to columns-medhen@gmail.com.

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Door of Oscar Wilde’s prison cell takes centre stage in Tate’s queer art celebration – PinkNews

Posted: at 8:16 pm

A woman poses with Oscar Wilde's Prison Door c.1883 (R) and an oil painting entitled 'Oscar Wilde', c.1881, by US artist Robert Harper, as part of the Queer British Art exhibition at the Tate Britain in London. (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

The door of Oscar Wildes Reading Gaol prison cell will go on display this week as part of an exhibition of Queer British Art.

TheTate BritainsQueer British Art exhibition opens on Wednesday, marking the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

The exhibition includes some of the most remarkable depictions of sexuality inworks from 1861 up until 1967, when homosexuality was still a crime.

The Tate explained: Many of the works that will be displayed were produced in a time when the terms gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans had little public recognition.

It presents work from the abolition of the death penalty for sodomy in 1861 to the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 a time of seismic shifts in gender and sexuality that found expression in the arts as artists and viewers explored their desires, experiences and sense of self.

Henry Scott Tuke, The Critics, 1927. Courtesy of Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum

At the centre of the exhibition are a number of items relating to Oscar Wilde.

The famous playwright and poet, who had a string of male lovers, was famously arrested and sent to Reading Gaol in 1895 for gross indecency with men, under the UKs historic anti-gay laws.

Wilde served two years behind bars in Reading Gaol, penned the work De Profundis from behind bars.

His time in prison was the basis for his final ever work The Ballad of Reading Gaol. a long poem that reflects on the harsh rhythms of his daily prison life.

The Tate exhibition pays tribute to Wilde, displaying the original prison door from his cell in Reading Gaol, along with a portrait that was gifted to him by his wife as a wedding present.

A release adds:The exhibition will illustrate the ways in which sexuality became publically defined through the work of sexologists such as Henry Havelock Ellis, campaigners such as Edward Carpenter and will also look at the high profile trials of Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe Hall. Objects on display will include the door from Wildes prison cell, Charles Buchels portrait of Radclyffe Hall and erotic drawings by Aubrey Beardsley.

Simeon Solomon, Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, 1864

Work from 1861 to 1967 by artists with diverse sexualities and gender identities will be showcased, and will range from covert images of same-sex desire such as Simeon Solomons Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene 1864 through to the open appreciation of queer culture in David Hockneys Going to be a Queen for Tonight 1960.

A highlight of the exhibition will be a section focusing on the Bloomsbury set and their contemporaries an artistic group famous for their bohemian attitude towards sexuality. The room will include intimate paintings of lovers, scenes of the homes artists shared with their partners and large commissions by artists such as Duncan Grant and Ethel Walker.

In contrast to the bleak outlook from the courtroom prior to 1967, queer culture was embraced by the British public in the form of theatre.

From music hall acts to costume design, British theatre provided a forum in which sexuality and gender expression could be openly explored. Striking examples on display will include photographs of performers such as Beatrix Lehmann, Berto Parsuka and Robert Helpmann by Angus McBean, who was jailed for his sexuality in 1942, alongside stage designs by Oliver Messel and Edward Burra.

Theatrical cards of music hall performers such as Vesta Tilley (whose act as Burlington Bertie had a large lesbian following) will also be featured, as well as a pink wig worn in Jimmy Slaters act A Perfect Lady from the 1920s.

Related:National Trust to explore the UKs hidden gay history

National Trust to explore the UKs hidden gay history

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Seeking cash to say a final farewell to sons on death row – BBC News

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BBC News
Seeking cash to say a final farewell to sons on death row
BBC News
After 30 years of death penalty abolition work, Bonowitz has seen the situation many times before. Often a church or a non-profit will step in to help defray the cost of visiting a family member before an execution. "None of these families have any ...

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LUCIFER (April Theses) – Red Dirt Report

Posted: at 8:16 pm

ROCKET MAN

OKLAHOMA CITY I was in the Florida panhandle, somewhere near Pensacola, and Im looking at a wall, like one would find in a mausoleum, and Im with an old friend named from my high school days named Peter, who is directing me to open up one of the top drawers.

In this is not a body of a deceased love one, but, rather, a large model of the Discovery One spacecraft as featured in Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Peter Hyams sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).

The "model" in my dream was a lot bigger than this one, but you get the idea. (Atomic City Models)

I pull the tray out and look at the model and wonder what this is all about.

I wake up and its 3:30 a.m. I sense that I need to rewatch 2010: The Year We Make Contact, with Roy Scheider (American Dr. Heywood Floyd) and Helen Mirren (Soviet Cmdr. Tanya Kirbuk).

This is the film where the Soviets approach Dr. Floyd about their plan to send an investigative team to Jupiter to find out what happened to Discovery before astronaut David Bowman disappeared.

Of course this film came out in 1984, in the midst of some very tense times between the U.S. and Russia. In the film, there is a serious issue developing in Central America between the American and Soviet militaries and war seems inevitable as the Soviet-led Alexei Leonov spacecraft, which includes Floyd, Curnow (John Lithgow) and Chandra (Bob Balaban) head to Jupiter and the mysteries of the large monolith and within Discovery and its onboard computer HAL 9000.

In that early morning darkness I watched the drama unfold, especially as they send a probe to check out signs of life under the icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa.

When they arrive at the LaGrange Point between Jupiter and the volcanic moon Io, they find Discovery spinning in place, like a clock (a sync with Saturn, perhaps?)

The Alexei Leonov approaches the "800-foot-long shipwreck," the Discovery. (MGM)

Watching the Discovery spinning like that as the Leonov approaches, and Jupiter and Io offer a colorful and somewhat menacing backdrop.

What is important to remember about 2010 is that despite serious disagreements (communism vs. capitalism, etc.) back on Earth, out around Jupiter, the Americans and Russians are actually working together (as some insiders say President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev were attempting to do, behind the scenes, with their respective space programs) to figure out what the monolith, Bowman and HAL are trying to tell humanity, which is caught up in what is essentially "tribal" warfare, as 2001 filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and 2001 novelist Arthur C. Clarke are saying about us in the "Dawn of Man" segment of the film - as the "bone" weapon turns into an orbiting "nuclear" weapon by the year 2001, as we noted in "Guns in the sky."

As it turns out, the message (something wonderful) was that the main monolith and billions of smaller monoliths are working inside the Jovian atmosphere to create a mini-sun called Lucifer (light-bringer) in an attempt to encourage evolution on the moon Europa.

As the 2001 wiki notes: The monoliths compressed gasses in the Jovian atmosphere, making nuclear fusion possible.

APRIL THESES

With the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is at its lowest point, I watched a little over an hour into 2010, before heading back to sleep for another hour or so. I was thinking about the film and how great it would be if our country and the Russians (and the Chinese and everyone else, for that matter) would put our petty, terrestrial differences aside and work together in a serious fashion in hopes of making new discoveries, especially as there seems to be an increased focus on outer space both here in the U.S. and in Russia, China, and with the Europeans. And puzzling "fast burst" cosmic signals being increasingly detected by receivers on Earth.

Rare and brief bursts of cosmic radio waves have puzzled astronomers since they were first detected nearly 10 years ago. Illustration similar to opening scenes of 2010: The Year We Make Contact. (The UK Daily Mail)

After watching more than half of 2010, I fell back asleep, experiencing dreams that were a little more pleasant this go-round, with "flying" taking place, a sensation that feels very real when I'm in my dream state.

But upon waking, and hearing that a deadly bomb blast today in the St. Petersburg, Russia "Metro" subway, killing more than 10 and injuring dozens more - on the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's arrival to Finland Station in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), when hereturned to Russia from exile in Switzerland on 3 April 1917 ahead of theOctober Revolution. What the Bolshevik leader returned with, his "April Theses," was like a "bomb" going off for the Russian proletariat, with Lenin writing (as featured in Pravda, the newspaper noted twice in the opening scenes of 2010), including nationalization of all lands, abolition of (czarist) police, army and bureaucracy, and much more for the revolutionary proletariat.

V.I. Lenin arrives in Petrograd on April 3, 1917, after living in exile in Switzerland. (Image via the BBC)

Red Dirt Report's Dust Devil Dreams section has been addressing "Cold War echoes" for at least three or four years now as tensions are as heightened as ever. Justin Raimondo suggests today that we may be heading to a replay of "World War I."

Writes Raimondo: "The end of the cold war did not eliminate the prospect of a conflict between these two nuclear-armed powers indeed, in retrospect, it may have increased the chances of a catastrophic collision."

Interestingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not in Moscow or at the Kremlin today, rather, he wasin St. Petersburg during the presumed terrorist bombing, taking part in the All-Russia Peoples Front media forum that opened on April 1st. And RT.com reports: "Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied earlier media speculation that President Putin was due to pass by the Sennaya Metro station around the time of the blast."

While discussing the bomb blast on her MSNBC program, host Andrea Mitchell said this of Putin: "St. Petersburg (aka "Leningrad") was his home base, where he got his start in the KGB."

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said very little about the attack.

Terrible. Terrible thing. Happening all over the world, Mr. Trump said when a reporter asked about the attack in St, Petersburg.

From the look of things, both Trump and Putin are going to continue being proverbial "bulls in the china shop" on the world stage. After all, look at America's hawkish, doltish Ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who said President Trump has basically put it on Haley to "beat up on Russia," since Trump has too much going on, like golfing.

"He's got a lot of things he's doing, but he is not stopping me from beating up on Russia," Haley blurted out on ABC's This Week program.

Do we need an American diplomat beating up on anyone?

I was thinking back on last night's dream and how the events in 2010 mirror what we're facing today, in certain respects. I then thought of the fact that a long-lost friend, "Peter," was with me in that strange dream last night as I entered the mausoleum and opened the door to reveal the Discovery ship model ... I realized that "Peter" was syncing with Russia's "Peter the Great," who saw to the creation of what would be "Saint Petersburg," the cultural capital of Russia and that large nation's second-biggest city.

The final line in (the very gnostic)2010: The Year We Make Contact, after Lucifer is born, Dr. Floyd sends a message to his son as he and the Soviet/American crew heads back to (a more peaceful) Earth, now with two suns

My dear Christopher, this is the last time I'll be able to speak to you for a long while. I'm trying to put into words what has happened. Maybe that's for historians to do sometime later. They will record that the next day, the President of the United States looked out of the White House window and the Premier of the Soviet Union looked out of the Kremlin window, and saw the new distant sun in the sky.

They read the message, and perhaps they learned something because they finally recalled their ships and their planes. I am going to sleep now. I will dream of you and your mother. I will sleep knowing that you are both safe, that the fear is over. We have seen the process of life take place. Maybe this is the way it happened on Earth millions of years ago. Maybe it's something completely different.

I still don't know really what the monolith is. I think it's many things. An embassy for an intelligence beyond ours. A shape of some kind for something that has no shape. Your children will be born in a world of two suns. They will never know a sky without them. You can tell them that you remember when there was a pitch black sky with no bright star, and people feared the night. You can tell them when we were alone, when we couldn't point to the light and say to ourselves - 'There is life out there.'

Someday, the children of the new sun will meet the children of the old. I think they will be our friends. You can tell your children of the day when everyone looked up and realized that we were only tenants of this world. We have been given a new lease and a warning from the landlord.

Indeed.

Lucifer and Ol' Sol, above the Giza Pyramids in 2010: The Year We Make Contact. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

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Author Ta-Nehisi Coates to speak Tuesday in Detroit – Detroit Free Press

Posted: at 8:16 pm

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates(Photo: Nina Subin/Marvel Comics via AP)

Like a literary superhero, Ta-Nehisi Coates is able to leap the huge stylistic divide between the intellectual commentary and mass-market comic books in a single bound.

He wona National Book Award in 2015 for"Between the World and Me," a best seller called "required reading" by Toni Morrison. He'sthe recipient of a MacArthur genius grant, and he's the mancalledthe single best writer on the subject of race in the United States" by the New York Observer.

Last year, the new "Black Panther" comics serieshe wrote was an immediate hit. The first issue sold a whopping 300,000 copies. The director of the upcoming "Black Panther" movie, Ryan Coogler, has said he has been influences by the vivid writing of Coates.

You can see Coates in person when the acclaimed author appears at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Detroit Mercy. He will be speaking at an event sponsored by several offices of thecollege, BlacDetroit magazine and the Michigan Chronicle.

The visit came about through the friendship between Coates and Roy Finkenbine, aUDMhistory professor.Coates,a national correspondent for Atlantic magazine, phoned Finkenbine whilehe was researching a 2014 article that became the George Polk Award-winning essay"The Case for Reparations."

In the piece, Coateswound up citing Finkenbine, who specializes in the topics ofslavery, abolition, the Civil Warand the Underground Railroad and also chairs the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission.

The two men have stayed in touch and corresponded by phone and e-mail. This week will be the first time they meet in person.

Finkenbine describes the Coates appearance as asignature occasion for the college. "The last time we probably had somebody of this intellectual importance speaking in Calihan Hall was Robert Frost in 1962. It doesnt come along that often. Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity;take advantage of it," he said in a UDMstory on the event.

In a Monday interview with the Free Press, Finkenbine said, "(Coates) hasbeen talked about, and I certainly agree with that, (as) the most original and important thinker on race today in America. He's not only increasingly well-known, but I think he's provoking a lot of Americans ...to think more deeply and talk about the issue ofrace."

UDMhad a "phenomenal student and faculty conversation" last week spurred by "Between the World and Me," according to Finkenbine. Thestanding-room-only gathering held in advance ofthe Coatesappearance is part of discussions that will continue after Tuesday's lecture, according to Finkenbine.

The book "Between the World and Me" (which is also the title of Coates' UDMtalk) is written as a letter to the author's teen son. It has been described as his precise, multilayered,bracingly honest thoughts on what it means to be black in America.

Coates continues to have an impact with his work for Atlantic. His January/February issue story, "My President Was Black," explored the the meaning of President Barack Obama's time in office. It generated buzz in cultural circles and on TV when Coates was a guest onNBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

This image released by Marvel Comics shows the cover of the "Black Panther," by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates lifelong love of comic books made him jump at the chance to write Marvels Black Panther, one of the first comic books heroes of color. His 11-book series is currently on sale. (Marvel Comics via AP)(Photo: AP)

Debuting this month is Coates' latest project for Marvel, "Black Panther & the Crew," which follows Black Panther, the king of a fictional African nation calledWakanda, and a team ofblack superheroes. Coates is cowriting the series with poet Yona Harvey.

Coates told the New York Times that he wants hiswork to be seen in some ways as a cohesivewhole. "What I want people to feel ultimately is that this is part of the entire oeuvre that I put together. I don't want it to be 'Ta-Nehisi Coates just took a break and did comics.' It is not a break for me."

The "Black Panther" movie slated for 2018 isn't being written by Coates, but its director, Ryan Coogler ("Creed"),told vulture.com that Coates' interpretation of Black Panther has influenced his image of the characterandwork on the new comic book series.The film will star Chadwick Boseman in the title role and Lupita Nyongo, Michael B. Jordanand Danai Gurira.

Coates often gets attention for the difficult issues he addresses. In March, at a Harvard conference calledUniversities and Slavery: Bound By History,he drewa warm reception with his thoughts on how colleges mustapproachtheir own legacy with slavery.

I think every single one of these universities needs to make reparations, Coates said according to the Huffington Post.I dont know how you conduct research that shows that your very existence is rooted in a great crime, and just say well, shrug and maybe at best say Im sorry and you walk away.

What will Coates talk about in Detroit? Something that should and will packan auditorium, it's safe to say.

Contact Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.

6:30 p.m. Tue. (doors at 5 p.m.)

University of Detroit Mercy

Calihan Hall, McNichols Campus

$10 (free to UDMstudents and staffers with ID), available at UDMwebsite

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6 Examples Of Billionaires Acting Like Supervillains – Benzinga

Posted: at 8:16 pm

As flying taxis transform Dubai into the Jetsons actual Orbit City and revelations abound of Obama-era CIA hacks, a common theme is emerging in contemporary society. The augury of artists is justified.

Now, as the worlds ultra-wealthy emulate supervillains with futuristic ventures and oft-unchecked ambition, the literary prophets are three for three in foresight.

Here are six occasions of elite billionaires presently flexing their super muscles.

The world is a giant Risk board for the former Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) CEO. Ellison bought out the Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012 and controls vast real estate in Malibu, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and Kyoto, Japan.

People of affluence are generally people of influence. But President Donald Trump, whose Big Brother policies have many dusting off copies of 1984, has taken the correlation to new heights. The man now boasts a deadly trio of money, prestige and power; not much more is required for world domination.

Whats more, Sportsnets Andrew Berkshire recently pointed to a striking resemblance between Trumps business practices and Lex Luthers.

On his quest to dominate the world with good-intention ventures promoting access to vaccinations, clean water and the like, the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder has used his influence to get people to do a number of crazy things, including consume toilet water.

The philanthropist may not have the character of a supervillain, but he sure has the house of one. His $125 million property is straight out of Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS)s Beauty and the Beast or Smart House.

The home features a high-tech sensor system to alter temperature and lighting, an in-wall sound system following listeners from room to room, underwater pool speakers, a trampoline room, a 200-guest reception hall, a 20-guest home theater, 24 bathrooms, six kitchens, a 2,100-square-foot library, a 900-square-foot activities building, a 1,900-square-foot guest house and several garages accommodating 23 cars.

In another Beast parallel, Gates even protects a favorite tree under 24-hour computer monitoring.

Nine years ago, the Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) co-founder invested $1.7 million in the Seasteading Institute to develop a libertarian utopia in the middle of the ocean. Thiel recently told the New York Times Co (NYSE: NYT) that the ideas no longer an immediate priority.

Thats still very far in the future, he said.

Hes also been known to push the limits of youth and immortality with interest in experimental parabiosis (youth blood transfusion), cryogenics (body freezing) and growth-hormone enhancements.

At the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) MARS conference earlier this month, the companys CEO channeled Iron Man as he piloted a massive, mechanical robot suit designed by South Koreas Hankook Mirae Technology.

In a side venture, Bezos is also poised to snatch up space real estate with Blue Origins luxurious tourism capsules.

The Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and SpaceX CEO launched Neuralink, an enterprise aiming to implant a neural lace in the human brain. Whats described as a digital layer above the cortex could, at its worst, serve as a welcome mat for brain hackers and, at its best, further distinguish the ultra-wealthy from everyone else.

Related Links:

25 Interesting Facts About Forbes' 25 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers

GOP Tax Plan Would Sacrifice Long-Term Debt For Quick Gains, Penn Wharton Analysis Shows _________ Image Credit: By J.J. at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Good News hosts transition expo – Hillsboro Times Gazette

Posted: at 8:15 pm

Good News Gathering Church hosted a Regional Training Expo on March 17.

A Regional Transition Expo was held at the Good News Gathering Church located in Hillsboro on March 17.

The Transition Expo was sponsored by Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities and the Region 14 Transition Council. There were 26 vendors/ businesses present that shared tips on how to train for and apply for a new career. Fifteen of the eighteen school districts located in Adams, Brown, Clinton, Fayette and Highland counties participated in the event. Over 200 eleventh and twelfth grade students with disabilities came dressed for success, prepared to meet local employers and education experts.

The students also attended three learning sessions on: What Not to Say/Wear; Work Ethic; and Personal Empowerment/Self-Advocacy.

Many thanks go to Kroger from Washington C.H. and Hillsboro for providing lunch that day for everyone in attendance. Also a thank you goes out to the Bright Local Schools Honor Society for helping serve and clean up lunch.

The Regional Transition Expo was such a success, it will become an annual event.

For more information or if you would like to be involved in the Expo next year, contact Amy Luttrell, 937-393-1904, ext. 2142.

Submitted by Amy Luttrell, Region 14/Hopewell Center.

Good News Gathering Church hosted a Regional Training Expo on March 17.

http://timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_Good-News-pic.jpgGood News Gathering Church hosted a Regional Training Expo on March 17.

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Vidya Balan: I detest calling Begum Jaan a film about women’s empowerment – Times of India

Posted: at 8:15 pm

Patriotism and feminism, the two dominant questions of Begum Jaan, are different things for different people, asserts the film's team - lead actor Vidya Balan, director Srijit Mukherji and producer Mahesh Bhatt.

DT: What is the criterion of a successful film - first weekend collection or long-term recall value? Srijit: The film should stay with you for years. Abhi there are lots of films that aren't box office successes at the time of release, and later they get cult classic status.

Vidya: But I have never understood how that happens! Theatre mein nahin gaye log, and you feel that the film has flopped. Hamari Adhuri Kahani, for example - people are writing about it to me every week on Twitter. And the film didn't do well.

Bhatt: Saraansh did 15 weeks - but it didn't make money. But people tell me ki humne apne bete ka naam Saransh rakha hai... Time is very merciless to mediocrity, it nurtures brilliance. Achha kaam waqt ke saath nikharta hai. It endures. Mediocrity doesn't linger. Ultimately, movies have to resonate in your consciousness.

DT: How do you define 'mature' cinema? Nowadays, it only means 'adult cinema', but does the Indian audience comprehend mature cinema, serious cinema? Or is it a given that the award-winning film will not run beyond three days in the hall? Each year, there is a high casualty rate of these risk-taking movies, like Miss Lovely and Gangs Of Wasseypur. So if we make mature cinema, and it mostly doesn't work, do we by default make 'immature' cinema to make it work? Bhatt: Any person who presumes himself to be a 'mature' filmmaker and makes a film, it's a bullshit film. There are certain filmmakers who begin with that position ki hum bade mature hain, humara content bada painful hai - muh kholne ke pehle they are in awe of themselves, ki main kamal ki baat bolne wala hoon. Kuch filmein aisi hoti hain joh indicate karti hain ki tumko kuch pata wata hai nahin, humne tum par bada upkaar kiya hai.

The unpretentious quality of Begum Jaan doesn't claim anything. It just goes out to tell the story in a very engaging way.

Srijit: This philosophy I have followed all my life in my Bengali films. So my Bengali films do well in the festival circuit and at the box office, and they get awards. And this balance is not conscious, because I have to clue what works, what mature cinema is.

Vidya : I think it is pretentious to assume that you know what mature cinema is. Bhatt saab made films that were labelled as art cinema. Many films that were labelled art films, they didn't touch you. They were too intellectual. But Bhatt saab's films touched you. That's why his films, even if they were not formulaic, they ended up doing business. I also think that films that do well connect with people.

Bhatt: Agar main iss intention se aaya hoon ki main tumhe impress karunga, tumse wah-wahi lootunga, log mujhe paise dein aur main unhe batunga main kitna kamal hoon - bewakoof hai kya audience?

DT: In the last two months, we have seen a massive number of women coming out on to the roads in the US. That is one kind of politically aware feminist perspective. How far is the gap (from that) in the mind frame of a Begum Jaan? Vidya: Begum Jaan is a lone soldier. She doesn't need collective reinforcement at all. At some point in the film, she tells these girls, go away, I will deal with this on my own. Change or empowerment is very, very personal. I detest calling Begum Jaan a film about women's empowerment. It's a very personal journey. You have to discover your own strength. There can be some triggers; that alters you. But Begum Jaan is far ahead in her understanding. I don't think she knew the word 'feminism' or cared for it even if she did. Because I have not seen a more consummate woman on screen. As long as it serves her purpose, she is servile with the raja, then she says, I can't help you anymore.

'Begum Jaan' doesnt need collective reinforcement at all: Vidya Balan

01:30

Srijit: Khoob ladi mardani woh toh Jhansi wali rani thi. Even when you compliment a woman for valour, you do it in masculine terms.

Vidya: She does it on her own terms. Woh apne liye sajti hai. She is not in the market anymore. She cannot be slut-shamed.

Srijit: She is intensely apolitical and individualistic. There is no interest in the revolution. She is not making a statement or changing the condition of women outside her kotha. Koi fark nahin padta usse. When people are celebrating 15th August, she is sitting glumly, saying that people spend festival time with their families, so it's a bad day for business.

Bhatt: She has come to terms with her desolate life. She is not frightened of it. Aur humne aisi aurtein dekhi hain, who are fiercely independent. But they are not compelled to organize it into a larger political expression.

DT: In an interview with Vidya that DT ran on August 15 (incidentally) last year, the question that got the interview discussed online was the point of 'Can a woman who runs a brothel be a feminist?' And she (Vidya) said of course she can be a feminist, and she had a track to it. Currently, in the same way that I can't decide what patriotism is for me - it is defined by the majority - are the women in this country being given a template of what empowered feminism is? Vidya: 'Empowered' and 'feminism' are much abused words today.

Bhatt: Hum kisi ki lobby pe depend nahin karenge to tell me what 'empowerment' and 'freedom' are, what the attributes of a free woman are.

DT: So the causes seem so sharply defined that we are all traitors to the cause if we don't subscribe to it whole-heartedly. I am not a patriot if I don't say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' three times a day. And you are not loyal to the feminist cause if you don't say those words. Srijit : A woman in a village in Rajasthan, a woman in Mumbai and a working woman in New York - the social coordinates of all these three causes are so different that there cannot be a standard set of parameters. It's relative. For a woman in a village, saying 'no' to her husband one night could be an act of feminism.

Vidya: Or not standing when the father-in-law enters the house. The struggles are different.

Srijit: So the feminism for Begum Jaan, who is the madam of a brothel... Life gives you certain coordinates, that this is where you belong, this is the language you speak, this is what happened in your childhood. What will you do to define feminism? Those sets of parameters uniquely define your feminism. You cannot seek a commonality with other parts of the world and other eras.

But Begum Jaan's feminism is giving these girls an atmosphere where at the end, when Begum Jaan asks them to leave, a girl cries and says, 'I don't get the freedom I get here even at my so-called home.' This is a very strong statement. So in this place, yes, we are catering to the male gaze, but we are catering to the male gaze on our own terms. And the exploitation that we face outside is much more. That might sound scandalous in the concept of a city. But for women who are being marginalized in an oppressive set-up, there, for them, this leash of freedom is huge. And that's where the dialogue comes from - 'It's my body, it's my house, it's my country, it's my rule'. She is what she is. But her socio-economic coordinates determine her parameters of feminism. Every woman's situation is kind of unique. Patriotism also - that is also a very unique scenario. Let's say a person who can't stand up (for the national anthem), what is patriotism for him? A person who is bound to a wheelchair, how will you determine if he is a patriot? The parameters need to allow for different human conditions - be it parameters of patriotism or of feminism.

DT: In an interview with Manoj Bajpayee for Gangs Of Wasseypur, I asked him, dikkat kya aayi role karne mein, and he said the 'haraamipan', the way Sardar Khan looks at the girl who comes to his house, he had to make a lot of effort for that. 'Woh expression nahin aata'. Sometimes the difficulty is in playing great martyrdom, sometimes the difficulty is in playing the other side - the grey side. Vidya: People ask me, how come you are okay with playing someone who seems like she's all black? I know there are dark corners inside me that I have to come face-to-face with, and that's why I am able to do it. And that's something freeing. Because I don't have illusions of who I am anymore. Or delusions.

I think I got what she was doing throughout. I watched the Bengali film (Srijit's Rajkahini, from which Begum Jaan is adapted). But the difficulty only came in the places where I had to be physically violent. I don't know how anybody can be physically violent. In one scene, I had to slap repeatedly. In the first few takes, I could not get it. Then Srijit told me, you are slapping her half-heartedly, but you are slapping nonetheless. But until I hear that thappad ki goonj... After the scene, I would go to the actor, kiss her on the forehead, hold her hand, ask for ice - do those things. Because I didn't have to do it once, I had to do it repeatedly with two-three different girls. If I didn't have to do it and had to ask someone to do it, it would have been easier. It was the only point of dissonance between Begum Jaan and me.

I know there are dark corners inside me: Vidya Balan

00:46

DT: For Humari Adhuri Kahani, you said women write to you saying that they could relate to it, but nobody would like to be Begum Jaan. Between playing the ideal role - the infinitely simpler and easier role - and this, which expression is more difficult? Vidya: I don't think I worry about anybody's reactions. What really fascinated me about Begum Jaan is that she is so unapologetically powerful, and that is not easy as a woman. I think as we are slowly entering routes and parts that are unknown to us, and we are seeing success, and we are tasting power, it is still very difficult to come to terms with it. You always feel the need to overcompensate. Power has been the preserve of men, or so we thought. So the moment you feel you are powerful, you are exuding a certain power, you feel you are trading your femininity. But Begum Jaan doesn't care about anything or anyone except her survival. No one scares her. She fears nothing.

To get into the mindspace of someone like that - people are asking me, chaudaa body language hai! There is no English equivalent of chaudaa, but yes, her body language is chaudaa because she appropriates that space!

'Begum Jaan' is unapologetically powerful: Vidya Balan

01:55

DT: By reflex, does Indian society get unsettled by the unapologetic display of power by a woman? Vidya: I do think so. I think people find it very difficult. Women themselves find it very difficult. Because of their deep conditioning, because we have always seen power as a male preserve, we find it difficult. It is seen as intimidating, alienating, when a woman exudes power, when she is comfortable in her skin exuding power.

DT: The majority of powerful women in politics in India - past or present - tend to be wielding positions of power when they are either single or widowed, as standalone individuals. Is there something to read into here? Vidya: Which is why I'm saying - does she stand alone because she is powerful... or is she powerful because she stands alone?

Srijit: It's a chicken and egg thing, really.

Vidya: It's so interesting. It was only after MGR passed away that Jayalalithaa became powerful. It was after Kanshi Ram that Mayawati became powerful.

DT: It's not been very different elsewhere in the neighbourhood either - Aung Saan Suu Kyi, Bandaranaike, the current political power centres in Bangladesh... Bhatt: My thesis is that only when you are completely powerless, your journey to power starts then. There is a rule of storytelling - it is not important for the hero to succeed, it is important for him to exhaust the limits of the possible. Once he has exhausted everything he can - and he dies - he is a great hero!

DT: Which is why Bose always makes for a great story; fight, struggle, and lose - and flamboyantly at that? Srijit: "...and flamboyantly at that..."

Vidya (to Srijit): But how happy you look! You reveal the Bengali in you (laughs)!

Srijit: Bose is the ultimate open-ended ending as well. Never tell a Bengali that Bose is no more. We don't know that yet! You don't often get lives like that to make a biopic (wistfully).

DT: Why don't you make a movie on him? It's been ages since Benegal's Forgotten Hero. Vidya: And I will play Lakshmi Swaminathan, that is decided.

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Freedom Caucus on track to write a health bill less popular than GOP’s last – Vox

Posted: at 8:14 pm

Negotiations over a Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare appear to have reignited with great fervor this week, with the White House and the conservative House Freedom Caucus in talks about a new health care plan.

The Washington Examiner gives a good sense of where the negotiations are and, if its right, suggests Republicans are on track to push a bill less popular than their first effort, the American Health Care Act:

Freedom Caucus members, whom Trump has blamed for the implosion of his first healthcare deal, want to see Obamacare's Title I insurance regulations dismantled in the GOP legislation. The Freedom Caucus source said White House officials "could get 216 for the [American Health Care Act] today if they included language to strip out the Title 1 insurance regs."

Title 1 is the heart of Obamacares coverage expansion. It runs 374 pages. It includes the requirement that insurers offer coverage to all Americans. It bars insurers from charging higher rates to people who are sicker or to women, a standard practice in the pre-Obamacare market. It outlaws lifetime limits on how much an insurer will pay before the Affordable Care Act, 55 percent of employer-sponsored plans had a cap on benefits, usually around $1 million or $2 million. It is also the part of the law that requires insurers to cover young adults up to age 26.

Title 1 includes the requirement that insurers cover 10 essential health benefits including maternity care and mental health services, and a mandate that all insurers cover preventive care without any cost to the patient. Title 1 also says that insurers have to provide consumers with easy-to-understand summaries of what their health plan actually covers.

The Freedom Caucus has indicated it wants to target two of these provisions specifically: essential health benefits and community rating, which is the requirement that insurers charge sick people the same prices as healthy people.

Getting rid of essential health benefits and community rating would almost certainly create a bill that is less popular and covers fewer people than the Republicans first proposal, which would have caused 24 million people to lose coverage. The change would allow insurers to once again charge sick people higher premiums than the healthy meaning premiums would often be too expensive for low-income Americans with preexisting conditions to afford.

This would also mean that insurers could stop covering services that tend to attract patients who use more medical care, like maternity coverage and mental health services. Before the essential health benefits requirement, just 12 percent of individual market plans covered maternity benefits, for example. Twenty-two states had mandates requiring the coverage of mental health treatment before Obamacare which meant 28 states didnt.

Republicans have argued that these essential health benefits drive up premiums, and they are right. Whenever insurers have to pay for more medical care, the cost of the health plan goes up. Obamacares defenders say these are the basic health benefits everyone should have access to, and it is worth spreading their costs across all people buying coverage.

Whether the Freedom Caucus keeps its aim on these two provisions or goes wider targeting lifetime limits, for example the winners and losers are already clear. People who are healthy would have something to gain with less insurance regulation. They would be able to buy skimpier plans that charge lower premiums but also offer fewer benefits.

But people who are sick and poor have a lot to lose. Their premiums would go up because of the return of individual rating, and their benefit packages would shrink because of the end of essential health benefits.

A bill that ends community rating and essential health benefits would almost certainly drive up the number of people who lose health coverage. Many Republican legislators were not okay with the coverage loss under the last bill, and certainly would not get on board with an increase.

About 17 percent of Americans supported the last Republican bill, the American Health Care Act. The ban on charging for preexisting conditions is one of Obamacares most popular provisions. By toying with eliminating it, Republicans are also toying with drafting an incredibly unpopular new plan.

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