Daily Archives: March 19, 2020

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) A local business is paying it forward to others in the community during the coronavirus pandemic.

Golden Rule Remodeling in Topeka bought $500 worth of gift cards from several local businesses like Dialogue Coffee House.

The owners, Matt and Sara Vincent, say they understand how difficult it is to be a business owner and especially right now with sales down due to the coronavirus.

They hope this small act of kindness will encourage others in the community to find a way to continue to support local businesses.

So thats all were doing is trying to encourage other people in the community to do the same thing and bring Topeka business, business when they need it, Matt Vincent said.

The company plans to give the gift cards to families who need them right now and other businesses they see doing good for others.

Continued here:

Local business paying it forward to others during COVID-19 - KSNT News

With the acquisition of North Texas Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. and Big Bear Air Conditioning and Heating, Trudela Partners has completed coverage of Collin, Denton, Dallas and Tarrant counties representing 75 percent of the DFW Metroplex.

DALLAS-FORT WORTH, Texas, March 19, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Coltala Holdings' HVAC acquisition platform Trudela Partners, a leading provider of residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and indoor environmental filtration technology, is pleased to announce the third and fourth additions to their portfolio in just the first quarter of 2020.

With the acquisition of North Texas Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. in Denton and Frisco-based Big Bear Air Conditioning and Heating, Trudela now serves four counties in the Metroplex with coverage of over 75 percent of the DFW geographic footprint.

Both companies provide quality residential service, installation and replacement, and are strong legacy brands with excellent reputations in the DFW market. With the expansion of territory and technicians, Trudela can provide rapid, world-class service anywhere in Dallas - Fort Worth.

"North Texas and Big Bear afford Trudela strategic access to the growing population in the northern corridor of the Metroplex," remarked Trudela CEO Paul Adams.

ABOUT NORTH TEXAS HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING

North Texas Heating and Air Conditioning was founded by Rodney Preston in 1996. He attributes his company's success to his "Golden Rule" philosophy of business. "When you treat customers as you would be treated, you inspire loyalty, generate repeat business, and get lots of referrals," he declared. As to why Preston chose Trudela he said, "Because they share our core commitment to treating people right."

Coltala CEO Ralph Manning commented, "It's gratifying to see the growth in Trudela and the high-quality DFW brands choosing to partner with us. These are truly businesses of significance."

ABOUT BIG BEAR AIR CONDITIONING AND HEATING

Diel Rojas started Big Bear Air Conditioning and Heating in 2006 after having worked for other HVAC companies. Recognizing that "there was something missing" when dealing with customers, he set about to provide service that was "a cut above the rest." On why Rojas chose Trudela he said, "Because I believe the Trudela team cares about the customer as much as I do."

Former naval intelligence officer and current Coltala Holdings president Edward Crawford added, "We are privileged and honored to serve in the homes of our local community especially during this coronavirus crisis. As more Americans are working from home and sheltering in place, healthful indoor air quality has never been more important."

ABOUT CORONAVIRUS-MITIGATING HVAC TECHNOLOGY

The Trudela HVAC companies employ a variety of whole-house filtering technologies, some of which capture pathogens as small as 0.1 microns (700 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair). While Trudela can make no claims of medical efficacy, validated tests have shown the technology to result in a greater than 99 percent reduction in airborne viruses similar to that causing Covid-19.

ABOUT TRUDELA . Trudela Partners is a DFW-based company specializing in home service repairs and maintenance. We focus on providing our customers with an exemplary customer experience through preventive maintenance and a first-time fix approach on service appointments. With over 70+ years in combined home services experience, the Trdela Partners team is committed to operating with honesty and integrity in everything we do and treating our customers like family.

The Trudela Executive Team includes Paul S. Adams, Chief Executive Officer overseeing all areas of the company's business including operations, sales, and marketing; Eric Shaw, COO with over 20 years of HR and operations experience in the manufacturing, retail, financial services and contracting industries; Mark Carlson, VP People and Culture with nearly 20 years of operational HR experience in building and leveraging Culture, Organizational Development, Talent Acquisition & Management, Succession Planning, Performance Management and Employee Relations.

Trudela Partners 8900 John Carpenter Freeway Dallas TX 75247

HVAC businesses interested in joining the Trudela team should contact Paul Adams at paul@trudela.com.

Story continues

LEARN-MORE LINKS

Coltala Holdings Building Businesses of Significance http://coltala.com/ Trudela Partners The Proven Home Service Professionals http://www.trudela.com/ North Texas Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. Your Local HVAC Experts https://www.nthac.com/ Big Bear Air Conditioning and Heating - Customer-centered, Up Front and Honest - https://www.bigbearair.com/

ABOUT COLTALA HOLDINGS::

Trudela is proud to be a member of the Coltala family of businesses. Coltala is committed to being conscientious stewards of company legacies and to working with you and your team to take your company to the next level. Coltala is actively seeking potential acquisition targets that share our passion for operational excellence, continuous improvement and authentic and principled business stewardship.

Businesses interested in joining the Coltala Family should contact Co-founders Ralph Manning and Edward Crawford at info@coltala.com

For more information, please follow Coltala Holdings on: LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/coltalagroup (Coltala Holdings) Twitter at https://twitter.com/coltalagroup (Coltala Holdings) ###

SOURCE Coltala Holdings

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Coltala Holdings' Trudela Partners Completes Third and Fourth HVAC Acquisitions in the First Quarter of 2020 - Yahoo Finance

So, when Mr. Isaacian couldnt set up a new router for his grandmother, he booked a technician through TaskRabbit who didnt need a how-to video or any additional language support. It was a fairly simple process, he said, though he did take this time to vet the TaskRabbit Tasker, such as checking how many tasks the person had completed and how reliable they were. He also had to make sure his grandmother knew to check in on the Tasker to ensure they werent taking advantage of her or deliberately wasting time to earn more money. But Mr. Isaacian said hed use TaskRabbit or a similar service again.

Its something that would take me a lot of time, but he handled it, Mr. Isaacian said.

However, there are some products Mr. Isaacian simply refuses to buy for his family, like a laptop or smart TV even if it comes with additional tech support. It might sound mean or heartless, but its a strategy that Mr. Santo Domingo also recommends.

Its like any relationship you have and its really a two-way street, Mr. Santo Domingo said. If you have a relative that just pesters you to no end, then like any other person youre going to end up maybe not picking up the phone quite as quickly. As long as your relative asks you nicely, its really like the golden rule. As an IT person or as your family IT person, if youre treated well, youll reciprocate.

If you really want to get someone a gadget, Mr. Santo Domingo recommends a product like a mesh Wi-Fi router like the Wirecutters pick, the Eero Pro + 2 Eero Beacons. Unlike other routers or even gadgets, you can reboot the system from anywhere even if youre not in the household where the product is, making it an easy product to serve as the go-to IT person for your loved one, if necessary. Or, if your recipient insists on some smart home gadgets, get a smart switch or smart plug to go with it, Mr. Santo Domingo said. Similar to a wireless mesh router, you can remotely turn it on and off again, which fixes more common problems than you may think.

A smart switch or plug can save you hours, Mr. Santo Domingo said. Instead of telling a relative to unplug or plug something back in, you can do that remotely with a smart plug. Sometimes, even though you tell a relative over the phone to do that, they may or may not do it.

And if you absolutely have to play the role of tech support, use whatever gadget your friends or family own to your advantage, Mr. Santo Domingo said. If theyre having trouble with a router, ask them to FaceTime or use Skype, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger to video chat and see for yourself what the issue might be and help guide them in the right direction.

At the end of the day however, Mr. Isaacian wishes tech companies and manufacturers made it easier to conduct a remote demo for his family or more important, made more video tutorials that arent in one language.

Read more:

So You Bought Someone a Gadget. Heres How Not to Become Their Tech Support. - The New York Times

It is one of lifes great injustices that America claims to be the birthplace of crosswords. Yes, the first Word-Cross puzzle ran in 1913 in the New York Worlds Fun supplement, instructing readers to fill in the small squares with words which agree with the following definitions, but the man responsible, Arthur Wynn, was born in Liverpool. Whats more, his idea wasnt original but based on similar word puzzles hed enjoyed in childrens newspapers before emigrating.

More grievous is that Americans dont even do proper crosswords, making do with the type this newspaper deems Quick. By proper I mean cryptic, the kind that separates true cruciverbalists from mere dabblers, invented in the UK in 1925. To me, the true crossword is the cryptic, its concise cousin an aberration. I have my own family to thank for my stringent criteria: my great-grandfather, Prebendary AF Ritchie, set them weekly for the Listener magazine. I still remember his own puzzle collection, published under the pseudonym Afrit, being brandished by my grandpa, who seemed to think I would be a natural successor to Afrits talents. Alas no.

But then I read Thinking Inside the Box and realised the richness of the American relationship to crosswords. Adrienne Raphel, an aficionado, mixes history with reportage from the crossword frontlines. She journeys to Stamford, Connecticut, for the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and takes a crossword-themed cruise to mark 75 years of New York Timess puzzles. Her writing is packed with the sort of beautifully observed details youd expect from a New Yorker contributor. At the ACPT, the reigning aesthetic was orthotics meets checkerboard. A snippet about competitive puzzlers preferring a lower case e because its quicker to scrawl than an E conveys the competitors dedication.

She has a stab at submitting her own puzzle to the NYTs crossword editor, Will Shortz. The chapter on her own compilation doubles as a useful social history. In the middle of the 20th century, the New York Times crossword became Americas version of BBC English. Being able to complete the crossword signalled that youd arrived in a certain echelon of education, and no matter your background, you could manoeuvre in a specific aspirational cultural milieu.

Raphel describes how the composer Stephen Sondheim tried and failed to convince Americans to up their crossword game. There are crossword puzzles and crossword puzzles, she quotes him saying in a 1968 New York magazine article. To call the composer of [an American] crossword an author may seem to be dignifying a gnat, he quipped, but cryptics were different, Raphel writes. Sondheim wrote several cryptics but the genre remained niche.

Although the book comes billed as equally suitable for crossword virgins as superfans, Raphel waits until chapter nine to confess she is average at best. Im a hunt-and-peck solver I admire cryptic crosswords from afar, like bonsai. She broadens her focus from American puzzle fans, dipping into the crosswords literary roots. Vladimir Nabokov thought in crosswords, publishing the first Russian puzzle in 1924 from Berlin while in France, Georges Perec created complex mots croiss. In Kirchstetten, Austria, WH Auden filled in conversational lulls by filling in puzzles. Back in the UK, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers and PG Wodehouse all liberally deployed crosswords as plot devices.

Raphels preoccupation with the American form and US crossword personalities means that she misses the opportunity to delve deeper into how Edward Powys Mathers invented the worlds toughest puzzle challenge for the Saturday Westminster Gazette. (He also established the tradition that cryptic setters use a pseudonym: his was Torquemada, the first Spanish grand inquisitor.) And she omits Afrit, my great-grandfather, and his golden rule of cryptic clueing - I need not mean what I say, but I must say what I mean from his 1949 book, Armchair Crosswords. (This newspapers own crossword editor, Hugh Stephenson, has said Afrit was one of the forces centrally involved in codifying the rules of the modern cryptic clue.) Raphel mentions only Ximenes Derrick Somerset Macnutt Torquemadas successor at the Observer. Yet Ximenes himself said he learned more from Afrit than Torquemada. But perhaps the ultimate rule is that summed up by Raphel: The resilient little puzzle can be whatever you need it to be. Combatant, interlocutor, punching bag, security blanket: the crossword is there for you.

Thinking Inside the Box is published by Robinson (RRP 18.99). To buy a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p over 15.

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Thinking Inside the Box by Adrienne Raphel review adventures with crosswords - The Guardian

LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, a political scientist at Princeton and the author of Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics, wrote me in an email:

Most Americans have a distorted definition of racism. We think of racism as person-to-person acts of prejudice like using a slur. Such behavior is racist, but racism is far more than that. We have baked racism into our political institutions and economic systems.

It is important, Stephens-Dougan argues, to ask people why they think black and Latino neighborhoods struggle with poor school and higher levels of crime. If ones answer, she continued, is that those neighborhoods are under-resourced because blacks and Latinos are less smart, less hardworking or less disciplined, etc., then that answer is racist.

Ryan Enos, a political scientist at Harvard, applies what he calls the Golden Rule of Intergroup Relations which means that if you would be upset if somebody did something to or said something about your own group, then it is bigotry if you say it about or do it to another group.

Ashley Jardina, a political scientist at Duke and the author of White Identity Politics, put it this way:

The use of these terms is complicated, messy, and without consensus. There are a number of important distinctions we can make. We think of racial prejudice as an individual-level sense of hostility, animus, set of negative stereotypes, or other negative attitudes that one person has toward members of a group by way of their race. We refer to a person as racist when they have some degree of racial prejudice. For most Americans, this is generally what they think of when they hear the term racism or racist. A racist is a person who uses racial slurs directed at racial out-groups and thinks their own racial group is superior.

Lets turn back to Darren Davis of Notre Dame. I asked Davis and other scholars whether Asian-American protests in New York City against the potential elimination of entrance exams as the sole determinant of entry into selective high schools like Stuyvesant or Bronx Science were racist. Likewise, is the opposition of well off suburbanites to affordable housing in their neighborhoods racist? Is the number of African-Americans in prison evidence of racism? And is white opposition to the decarceration movement, or to the prison abolition movement, racist?

Davis stresses that, in his view, not all racialized behavior and expressions stem from racial hatred or hating African Americans. He is cautious in his wording:

Ordinary citizens, without being racists themselves, may do and say things that are consistent with a racist ideology. It does not make the outcomes any less egregious or harmful. For instance, Asian-Americans protesting NYC school proposals is not necessarily racist in my opinion because I can see other motivations driving the support for higher standards not just beliefs about the inferiority of others.

Davis argues that the debate has become clouded, that even though individual and group motives may not be racist, the outcomes achieved can be identical to the ones that racists would seek:

My overall point is that we have forgotten what racism means. In doing so, we have focused attention on bigots and white nationalists and not held ordinary citizens accountable for beliefs that achieve the same ends.

Chloe Thurston, in turn, cited as specific examples

President Trumps or Steve Kings comments about certain types of immigrants being unassimilable or not sufficiently American and suggesting that other (e.g. white) immigrants do not have those characteristics.

While both Trump and King, an anti-immigrant congressman from Iowa, balk at the label racist, she continued, it is descriptively accurate and necessary from the standpoint of keeping track of the role and uses of racism in American society and politics.

Like Davis, Thurston sought to address the more difficult question of when it is legitimate to use that label for everyday behaviors.

Her answer:

People can participate in and perpetuate racist systems without necessarily subscribing to those beliefs. People can recognize something they participate in or contribute to as racist but decide its not disqualifying. And people can design racist policies and systems. These are distinctive manifestations of racism but not all of them require us to know whether a person is expressly motivated by racism.

Cindy Kam a political scientist at Vanderbilt, and a co-author with Camille Burge, a political scientist at Villanova, of Uncovering Reactions to the Racial Resentment Scale Across the Racial Divide added another element to the discussion: wariness about how the word is used in political and policy debates:

As a social scientist, I would entertain the possibility that peoples actions are guided by a variety of motivations, potentially including racial considerations but also values (i.e., a commitment to a free market; egalitarianism; moral conservatism); economic considerations; self-interest (concerns about my childs ability to get into a high school or my childs commute to a faraway school), or even factual beliefs.

Because of the wide variety of possible motivations, Kam wrote in her email, she would hesitate to label an action as racist unless racial considerations seem to be the only or the massively determinative consideration at play, based upon statistical modeling or carefully calibrated experiments.

Kam notes that she worries about excessive use of these labels because describing someone or some action as racist can easily escalate conflict beyond the point of return.

More:

How Racist Is Trumps Republican Party? - The New York Times

The Netherlands is currently in a state of semi-lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. On Sunday the government announced a string of new measures, including the closure of schools and daycare centres to all but the children of essential workers. Here are the answers to some of the new questions you may have:

Why are we not in total lockdown?The government does not consider it necessary at the moment, as long as the health service can cope. But it has not been ruled out at some point in the future.

Can I travel abroad?The government is recommending against all but essential travel and has imposed major restrictions on incoming travellers.

I am a freelancer and my income is drying up. Can I get help?The government is working on a scheme to top up freelancers income to the level of welfare benefits and will publish more information as soon as it is finalised.

I own a small business. Is there help for me?The government is working on a string of measures to help small firms.

I am an employee. What are my rights with regard to coronavirus?This article by lawyers at GMW outlines your rights as a worker.

Can I still go to the shops?Yes, unless you are showing any symptoms, but keep away from other shoppers. If you have symptoms, say home.

Why are non-food shops still open?Health minister Bruno Bruins has said other measures may still be taken at a later date. The decision to close cafes and bars was partly taken because so many were busy last weekend, not least with tourists from over the border in Belgium, where bars had been closed. Many shops are closing voluntarily.

Can my children play outside with other kids?Research appears to indicate that children are less seriously affected by the virus and virologists say there is no reason to stop children playing with each other, as long as they have no symptoms. But you should be aware there is a risk they will pick up the virus and spread it to others.

I am pregnant. Should I be worried?As far as we know, there is no increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects due to infection with this virus.

Can I go out for a walk or a run?Yes, providing you keep your distance from others and dont have any symptoms.

Can I walk my dog?Same as above.

Can I go to the hairdresser?Opinion is divided on this, but the golden rule, virologists say, is stay home if you have any symptoms both as hairdresser and client. And wash your hands regularly.

Can I celebrate my birthday?In general, any unnecessary gatherings should be postponed. In particular, avoid contact with the elderly who are the most susceptible.

Can I become infected from a package that Ive ordered?Coronaviruses spread through humans and animals. Acccording to the RIVM, they do not survive well outside the body, on cardboard, packaging material or other items. The chance that you will be infected by touching surfaces or products is very small but to be sure wash your hands afterwards.

Can the health service cope?Some hospitals are postponing non-emergency operations but at the moment there are no signs that hospitals are becoming overloaded. There are some 1,500 intensive care beds available in the Netherlands and plans to create a further 500 are underway.

Some hospitals have also cancelled leave in readiness for the expected rise in the number of cases requiring hospitalisation.

What are the best ways to protect myself?The Dutch public health institute RIVM and World Health Organisation say everyone should follow these instructions to prevent infection:

The RIVM says face masks should only be worn by medical staff. Most of the paper masks used by the general public are worthless and offer a false sense of security, officials say.

Can I get tested?Tests for coronavirus can only be requested via the local health board or a hospital and it takes around 24 hours for the test results to come through.

Testing is currently only being carried out on people who have worsening symptoms and have been in an at risk area or in contact with people who have coronavirus.

The RIVM has an interactive map showing where corona infections are being confirmed.

This article is based on expert views featured in the Volkskrant and NRC newspapers as well as the public health institute RIVM.

DutchNews.nl has been free for 13 years, but now we are asking our readers to help. Your donation will enable us to keep providing you with fair and accurate news and features about all things Dutch. Donate via Ideal, credit card or Paypal.

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Coronavirus in the Netherlands: more of your questions - DutchNews.nl

Andrew Yang was right and I knew it from the day I was first introduced to his campaign in February 2018. Id stumbled across an article in the New York Times entitled The Robots are Coming, featuring a new entrant into the 2020 presidential race.

Though I was still reeling from the outcome of the 2016 election, I found the articles title intriguing enough to continue reading and found therein a message that resonated on a level with me that I was not expecting.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Yang talked about how thousands of jobs had already been automated away, particularly across the Midwest, and how more job losses were on the way if immediate action was not taken. He pointed out, accurately, that people were suffering, feeling left behind and uncertain about their futures. I knew intimately the scenario he was describing.

I grew up in the small town of Portsmouth, Ohio in the late 70s and early 80s, and manufacturing was the backbone of our community. My grandfather worked at the atomic plant; my grandmother, the shoe factory; and when their jobs began to disappear, due to automation or being shipped overseas, so did their hope.

Making $16 to $20 per hour in those days meant a pretty decent living, and afforded our family the opportunity to maintain a relatively stable existence. In the absence of that income, everything faltered.

There were no comparable jobs available and unemployment income was merely a temporary stop-gap. Everything fell apart, not just for our family but many others in the community. We felt forgotten.

Yang talked about that human suffering and how people needed a lifeline then and now; how people need to feel like they have a chance to recover. Subsequently, he introduced the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 a month for every American to offer some measure of stability and reassurance while we faced the crisis ahead. He was offering a tangible solution, not just an idea. All I could think about was how that money would have made a world of difference to our family and so many others. I reached out to the campaign via email that day and never looked back.

Universal Basic Income, I later discovered, had been supported by many in the past, including Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who championed the idea just before he was assassinated in 1968, the year I was born. He saw it as the moral imperative of our time. Andrew picked up the torch. Under his campaign mantra of Humanity First, he carried it forward to the present day and brought it to the presidential debates. Andrew believed in giving Americans an economic floor to stand on.

As a minister, I thought about members of my congregation who were faced with the choice of paying for their rent or getting their medications and how an extra $1,000 a month would change the entire trajectory of their lives. Spiritually, it was akin to taking care of the least of these and following the golden rule.

Many dismissed the idea of UBI during Yangs campaign, which he suspended in February; some even laughed. Now hes being sought after by people across the political spectrum, including the current administration. His phone is ringing off the hook.

Andrew Yang endorses Joe Biden

The coronavirus pandemic is a human crisis of monumental proportion, the likes of which we have not seen before. All of humanity is being affected and the potential for losses both emotional and financial is tremendous. Our collective hope is being shaken and people need immediate help.

Suddenly the idea of putting cash directly into peoples hands, as UBI proposes, has caught on and is making sense to everyone. The notion that money is needed to keep us from falling off a cliff is the same message Yang was sharing two years ago. It makes sense in so many arenas: in the context of the threat of automation as well as an epidemic.

Votes were taken this week in Congress to pass a form of temporary Universal Basic Income for all Americans. Checks will begin going out in April. What began as a novel idea became an actionable proposal and I couldnt be more thrilled.

People are seeing today what I saw early in 2018 Andrew Yang was right. And our country is the better for it.

Rev. Wendy Hamilton is the former Director of Spiritual and Cultural Outreach for Andrew Yang for President 2020

Continue reading here:

As a minister who worked with Andrew Yang, I'm glad to see everyone finally admitting he was right - The Independent