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writingfulfillment · 6 years

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Five Headcanons That Will Change How You View Harry Potter

1. Black Hermione

When reading the books for the first time, some fans imagined Hermione as a black girl while others pictured her as white. The movies came out before I was old enough to read the books, so I imagined her as she was cast: a white girl. However, I think that the idea fits very well as do many other fans. Some prefer the other version, it just depends on how you pictured her. On twitter, Rowling said that she loved the idea of a black Hermione. I’ve read the whole series twice since hearing about this and there is no mention of her skin tone. Only that she had prominent teeth, curly/frizzy hair and was extremely intelligent. There is a lot more meaning behind her persecution as a Muggle-born when you imagine her as black. Her main bully in this area is Draco Malfoy; a rich, white boy from an ancient family. He frequently makes snide comments about her appearance and calls her “Mudblood”. This then implies that the Malfoy’s were racist. Knowing all of the other terrible things that they’ve done and believe in, it’s not much of a stretch.

In the fourth book at the Yule Ball, Hermione is literally unrecognizable, even to her two best friends. She straightens her hair and has shrunk down her front teeth noticeably. And for the first time, Harry realizes that she’s beautiful. In this world we’ve been brought up to believe that European standards of beauty are the only ones. They treasure light skin and straight hair; opposite to what people of African descent possess. It is sad but true to say that many Black women strive to adhere to these standards that exclude them entirely. It makes a lot of sense that a young black Hermione striving to look beautiful would spend hours painstakingly straightening her hair. And why almost no one recognized her when she had finished. She later states that it was fun for a special occasion, but way too much work for an everyday practice. I love her even more for embracing her wild but beautiful hair and her suggested ethnicity.

2. House Elves Are A Metaphor For Oppressed Women

Some fans hypothesize that the House Elves in Harry Potter are a metaphor for the social limitations of Women. The House Elves are considered to be lesser beings, even though they posses a similar kind of magic to wizards. They are enslaved and receive no pay, let alone benefits or health care. They are meant to stay in the Wizard’s home and perform their domestic duty. This sounds too close for comfort to the job description of women in our society. Fortunately, we’ve gotten past the point of considering women as property of their husbands and fathers, so it’s not subtle slavery any more. But it’s still semi-acceptable for a man to discipline his wife when she displeases him. House Elves are severely punished when they make mistakes. But the issue of equal pay is still very pertinent today. The Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was introduced by Suffragette Alice Paul in 1923, but it was not passed by congress or ratified until 1972. This granted Women all of the same civil rights as men. And yet, in 2013 women earned only 78 cents for every dollar that a man working the same job earned.

By the fourth book there is however, there is one payed House Elf; Dumbledore employs Dobby at Hogwarts. This leads to the discovery that all of the food, fires and laundry are taken care of by the House Elves. This horrifies Hermione and she refuses to eat for a while before deciding to organize the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Their goals are to secure wages and sick leave for the House Elves for a start, but she has larger plans for the future which involve changing the laws about the magic that House Elves are allowed to use. I don’t think that it was mistake that J.K. made the proprietor of this organization a woman, even though, it was Harry who freed Dobby. J.K. was a single mother and she struggled to get welfare and a job for many years. She is very familiar with the struggles of modern women and she advocates their rights.

One unexpected struggle that Hermione faced was that she not only needed to convert her fellow wizards and witches to S.P.E.W., but most of the House Elves did not want to be freed. Some women vehemently argued against the Suffrage movement and still today, some women are still against their own rights. For example the women who are against Feminism. (Not the extreme version, just the belief that women are entirely equal to men and are entitled to all of the same things.) The Elves were content with the way that they were living and they did not want to change. Largely for fear of being ostracized. The way that you appear socially is often very important to women, as well as tradition. The House Elves felt very loyal to their masters and had no desire to desert them. Some women feel that they have a duty to their husbands and they are afraid to disappoint or leave them. Rowling also has personal experience with this as her first husband was abusive.

3. The Room of Requirement Was Made By Hufflepuff

The origin of the Room of Requirement is very debatable. Some speculate that it is the collective magical conscious of Hogwarts itself manifested in a room. My favorite theory is that it was created by Helga Hufflepuff. If Slytherin created a secret chamber, who’s to say that the other founders didn’t? It provides the seeker with all that they might be seeking, except for perishable items, and even then it created a passage to Hogsmeade for Neville. It has housed several secret gatherings that we know about and many that we don’t. One thing is for sure, it has been used by teachers and students alike for generations both when they knew what it was, and when they didn’t. This doesn’t fit Ravenclaw’s or Gryffindor’s MO. If Rowena had made a secret room, it would have been full of books. If Godric had made one, it would have probably been full of dangerous things and likely would’ve had a dragon.

All of the founders had criteria for what sort of students they would accept into their house. But Helga just said that she would take all the rest. I have feeling that she was a very maternal character and that she just wanted a wholesome environment for the children to learn in. The fluid nature of the Room of Requirement fits in with this. It adapts to the needs of the user and can accommodate for almost anything. I also feel that Hufflepuff is a very undervalued house and that Helga was much cleverer than most people give her credit for. She was the peacemaker, the glue of the original four, she was both powerful and peaceful. It make a lot of sense that she would have created the Room of Requirement because it embodies her fluid and caregiving nature.

4. No One Has Only One House.

In the series, everyone is placed in a house and they remain there forever. In the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore says to Snape, “You know, I sometimes think that we sort too soon.” And I am fervently with him. All you can amount to as a person is not determined by 11 years old. I also think that only having four houses is too limited. There are very few people who can qualify as a true Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. I theorize that most people have a primary and a secondary house and that there is a way to easily get into Gryffindor. The original trio is a prime example of this. In my opinion, Harry’s secondary house is Slytherin. He is cunning, determined and ambitious. (Gryfferin) All things that Slytherin prizes and are not inherently evil. Hermione’s is clearly Ravenclaw. She loves books and holds the pursuit of knowledge to be the most worthy act. (Gryffinclaw) Ron’s is Hufflepuff. He doesn't really fit into the other two, and he’s a sweetheart.(Gryffinpuff) (House Names*)

The reason that they are all in Gryffindor is because they asked. And that’s a very brave thing for an 11 year old to do. Harry asked because he was afraid that he would be in Slytherin. Hermione asked because she had already decided that it was the best for her. (She says so in the Great Hall.) And Ron, although he didn’t always get along with them, wanted to be with his family.Because of these choices, they made the path that they wanted to take. And they all would’ve had very different stories if they hadn’t been in Gryffindor together. They had some innate qualities already embedded in them as children, but they could have changed given the circumstances. I think that Neville is a great example of this. He chose Gryffindor not because he was brave, but because he wanted to be. In choosing this, he set his path and eventually he was brave. He became a true Gryffindor. He fought alongside Harry in the Department of Mysteries, he lead on Dumbledore’s Army and he pulled out Godric Gryffindor’s sword out of the sorting hat and destroyed the final Horcrux. All because of a choice. A desire, some potential that a little boy had.

But this sorting does not stop these children from changing their decision or their characteristics later. There are two excellent examples of this in the Slytherin House. Regulus Black became a Death Eater and made many poor choices in his youth. But he later decided that he had been wrong and he died trying to correct his mistake. Tell me, does that not sound like something a Gryffindor would do? Another is of course Severus Snape, the bravest man that Harry Potter ever knew. And he was a proud Slytherin. His choices in his youth also could have derailed his life, but he had a good heart that even he didn’t realize was there. He fought and died for the son of the woman that he loved unrequitedly. Again, this level of bravery and loyalty is that of a Gryffindor. The sorting can capture much of these young wizards’ and witches’ essential characteristics, but it cannot, however, account for the nature of their hearts and the change that can be wrought in them.

5. Peter Pettigrew v.s. Neville Longbottom

There are two characters that are completely vital to the story that are incredibly undervalued. These two mirror each other in a curious way, as do their choices. Peter Pettigrew and Neville Longbottom had very similar beginnings. A small, round boy with no particular talents with friends much greater than himself. Who chose Gryffindor House because it was what he aspired to be. This description perfectly fits both of them. Like Harry and Voldemort, what made the difference was not what they were given, but what they did with it. Their choices showed who the truly were. Peter’s case is much sadder than Neville’s. He made many wrong choices. He more fear in his heart and lust for power than Neville did. The reason that Neville didn’t given in was because of his parents. Even though they couldn’t raise him anymore after their torture, they still had a great impact on his life. Voldemort himself offered for Neville to join him, but he vehemently denied him, because of his parents.

Peter always like to be next to the greats (such as James, Sirius and Remus) because he knew that he wasn’t one. When Voldemort’s rise began, he saw it the same way. He was beyond selfish and he gave up the lives of his friends to the favor of his new great. Neville always knew that he wasn’t great, but he aspired to be. He worked incredibly hard to try and make his parents proud. He knew that he had to be good and try to save as many lives as possible because of the lives that were as good as lost. Both of these boys were put in Gryffindor because they asked, although neither embodied the qualities that Godric prized. And one of them grew into a true Gryffindor and other waned into nothing.

Peter Pettigrew was important because he brought Voldemort back and allowed Harry to escape the Malfoy’s Manor. Neville could have been the prophecy child and he raised an army and slew Nagini. Both of these boys choices made them into what they were; although they could have turned out very differently. The one that lusted after fame died in ambiguity, the one who just wanted to be brave lived on as a hero.

*Primary + Secondary = Name

Gryffindor+Ravenclaw= Gryffinclaw

Gryffindor+Hufflepuff= Gryffinpuff

Gryffindor+Slytherin= Gryfferin

Ravenclaw+Gryffindor= Ravendor

Ravenclaw+Hufflepuff= Ravenpuff

Ravenclaw+Slytherin= Raverin

Hufflepuff+Gryffindor= Huffledor

Hufflepuff+Ravenclaw= Huffleclaw

Hufflepuff+Slytherin= Hufflerin

Slytherin+Gryffindor= Slytherdor

Slytherin+Ravenclaw= Slytherclaw

Slytherin+Hufflepuff= Slytherpuff

(If you were wondering, I’m a Gryffinclaw. Comment down below which of these houses you identify with.)

#harry potter #black hermione #neville longbottom #house elves #hogwarts houses #gryffinclaw #headcanon

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swedna · 4 years

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Bluechip financial counters such as Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and State Bank of India lifted the markets on Friday as analysts turn positive on the sector. That apart, August Futures and Options (F&O) series, which ended on August 27, saw strong participation from banking sector underlying optimism in the space.

According to global brokerage UBS, the economy is recovering gradually, as suggested by high frequency data, lowering the risks of bad loan formation. "The recent capital infusion (over US$10bn) in some banks/non-banking financial companies (NBFC) would be additional cushion. We cut our FY21/FY22 estimates for GNPL formation from 7%/5% to 4%/5% of loans. Bank stocks are down 12-62% YTD and have underperformed the broader markets. We think the sector’s downside risks are limited," they said in a recent report.

As regards the F&O expiry, IIFL Securities said in an August 28 reprot that Bank Nifty index outperformed the Nifty index by a whopping 5 per cent, reversing the underperformance of the previous series, with both the indices closing 9 per cent/4 per cent higher. Long gamma positions were the flavour of the series as the option writers ran for cover on account of a sharp delta move in the Bank Nifty index. According to their analysis, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank saw the highest rollovers -- among private peers - at 97 per cent each. ICICI Bank saw rollover of 95 per cent; HDFC Bank (94 per cent); Axis Bank (91 per cent); and Federal Bank (70 per cent).

Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda saw highest rollover in the PSB space at 96 per cent, followed by SBI at 94 per cent; Canara Bank at 83 per cent; and Punjab National Bank at 63 per cent.

"The Bank Nifty saw significant fresh open interest (OI) addition on August 27. While August series saw closure of 0.23 million shares, September series added almost 0.7 million shares in the last sessions. The roll spread in the banking index has remained negative despite continued recovery. We believe it will also witness some pressure during the settlement as short rollover is likely to be seen," cautioned analysts at ICICI Securities. On Friday, Nifty PSU Bank index surged 5 per cent in the intra-day trade today to hit a high of 1,604 level. Nifty Bank, on the othe rhand, rallied 3.5 per cent, hitting a 10-week high of 24,439. Nifty Private Bank index hit a high of 13,428 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), up 3.5 per cent in the intra-day trade. In comparison, the benchmark Nifty50 hit a high of 11,686 on the NSE, up nearly a per cent.

Private Banks surge On Friday, Axis Bank jumped 8 per cent on the BSE with a combined 35.69 million shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report. The stock was ruling nearly 7 per cent higher on the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex at 11:41 am and was the top gainer on the index.

UBS, in a report dated August 27, revised the target price on the stock from Rs 600 to Rs 650 with a 'Buy call as it believes the bank has favourable loan mix changes, may gains from its physical and digital networks, and has lower credit cost. Management’s strategy is likely to support its asset quality, in their view.

"We estimate ROE of 8 per cent/12 per cent in FY21/FY22 due to high asset quality risks and a slowing loan book, but we expect ROE to bounce back to about 15% in FY23-FY24. Since its recent share price correction, we consider valuation reasonable. Among the Indian banks we cover, we continue to prefer Axis Bank as we think its retail franchise is strong and valuation inexpensive," it said in the report.

That apart, IndusInd Bank surged another 6 per cent today, after rallying nearly 10 per cent on Thursday. UBS has upgraded the stock from 'Sell' to 'Buy' and has increased the target price from Rs 360 to Rs 650. "Recent regulatory relief could help ease the NPL burden for INDUSIND and mitigate the tail risks of accelerated defaults in the near term. The recent capital infusion of Rs 3300 crore further strengthens the capital buffer. On top of this, we think liquidity risks have reduced as the wholesale funding market is flush with liquidity. Although we expect INDUSIND’s business model to change, resulting in lower return ratios (ROA) than past cycles, we think the current valuation (1.0x FY21E P/BV) appears inexpensive and prices in most negatives," the report said.

The brokerage has also raised target price of ICICI Bank from Rs 480 to Rs 520, with a 'Buy' call on the back of its strong retail franchise and moderate asset quality risks. "Since its recent share price correction, we consider valuations reasonable. We also believe it is well positioned to gain retail market share due to its strong digital footprint. With moderate asset quality risks versus peers, strong retail liability franchise and digital footprint, and strong employee morale in management, we expect ICICI Bank to trade at a premium to its five-year average multiple," it said.

Analysts at IDBI Capital also initiated coverage of the stock with a 'Buy' call and target price fixed at Rs 460.

"ICICI Bank is well prepared among its peers to weather the COVID-19 storm with highest PCR (at 75 per cent), highest Covid-19 provisions (1.3 per cent of advances), and higher home loan portfolio (31 per cent of advances). Strong liability franchise and higher Tier I capital ratio will advantage bank when the economy growth recovers. We expect credit growth for the bank to remain higher than the banking industry led by market share gain. We expect loan growth and margin to improve, thus resulting into 50bps YoY improvement in ROA over FY20- FY22E to 1.3 per cent," it said in an August 27 report. While the uncertainty over the impact of Covid-19 would weigh on the valuation in the near term but we expect ICICIB to emerge stronger given strength in its business model, they said.

Other private banks such as Federal Bank advanced 9 per cent on the BSE, RBL Bank (5.6 per cent), IDFC First Bank (5.1 per cent), and HDFC Bank (1.1 per cent).

Public Banks outrun private peers

Among PSBs, Canara Bank surged 8.4 per cent, Bank of Baroda (7 per cent), Bank of India (6.6 per cent), SBI (4 per cent), and PNB (4.8 per cent).

"Recent regulatory guidelines on restructuring and current account operations are positive for SBI, in our view. SBI is well capitalised compared with peer SOE banks; SBI had a provisioning coverage ratio (PCR) of 86.3 per cent as of June 2020... The banking business (excluding subsidiaries) is trading at a historically low valuation (0.3x FY21E P/BV), which we believe prices in most negatives. We believe current valuation is inexpensive and could fuel a re-rating," said UBS in its recent report. The brokerage has upgraded the stock from 'Sell' to 'Buy' and has assigned a target price of Rs 260 from Rs 160.

Those at JM Financial, on the other hand, believe that the thesis of SBI stock price tracking overall domestic economic trajectory continues to play out. Besides, lower moratorium levels, reasonable capital buffers, sudued risks from YES Bank stake, and cheap valuations make it an attractive pick.

"Despite the 43 per cent rally since lows, we believe the core banking franchise still remains undervalued (at 0.43x /0.42x FY21E/FY22E BVPS, considering a 20% holdco discount for listed subs). We believe any further semblance of normalcy in the macro-economic environment could see reflecting in greater valuations for SBI," they said in a reprot dated August August 27. They have 'Buy' call on the stock with a revised target price of Rs 300 from Rs 230.

#Bluechip

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we-pay-for-everything · 6 years

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Harry Potter Book Review - Part 1

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - 8/10

This book is adorable. The first time I read it I was surprised by how sassy Harry was and how undervalued Hermione was. I had previously only watched the movies that overrate Hermione and realized that it wasn't until PoA that she was considered a true best friend of Harry. I actually really relate to little Hermione which is weird considering my opinion of her in the last three books. This book is just good fun and does a really good job of introducing the Harry Potter world. I confess I get goose bumps when reading the first chapter: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!".

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 7/10

I enjoyed this book more when I read it for the first time and remembered the movie with fondness, because I thought that the diary was awesome. I remembered how cool that moment when Tom Riddle revealed himself was. "Tom Marvolo Riddle, I am Lord Voldemort".

However, upon re-reading it... it's not very exciting, but it's not a disappointment after the first book. It continues to explore the universe - Voldemort, the first horcrux, Ginny, Dumbledore's inability to run a school, etc. It's a bit boring in parts though which is why I rate it lower than the first book.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 9.5/10

The first time I read this book I thought "400 pages of nothing happening!". I considered GoF to be the first book that was genuinely exciting. The second time I read it though? It was amazing. PoA introduces a lot to the story. Sirius's arrival brings with him a deeper understanding of Azkaban (where future characters are) and the corruptness of the Ministry of Magic, dementors, Lupin, the patronus Lupin teaches Harry, werewolves, animagi, the Marauders' Map, the story of the Marauders, and Sirius Black himself.

This time around, I loved how Harry parallels Sirius throughout the book. Both want revenge for the people who lead to James and Lily's deaths. Harry thinks Sirius did the unthinkable in betraying his best friend and wants revenge for it. Meanwhile, Sirius thinks the same of Peter. Sirius was victim of a huge injustice because no one gave him a trial and he spent 12 years in Azkaban, and Harry is a victim of injustice because he grew up with the Dursleys and is discredited constantly.

Sirius Black is my favorite HP character by far and, at the moment, is only surpassed by Angel (BtVS/AtS) in terms of fictional characters. Because we read the books from Harry's perspective, Sirius is a very important element of the series. Harry and Sirius's connection becomes a beautiful and warm thread that connects books 4 to 5. I love it when Sirius offers Harry a home and how excited Harry is; I love to re-read the last paragraph of PoA, when Harry reads Sirius's letter and finds out that Sirius: bought Harry the Firebolt, remembered to sign the Hogsmeade permission slip, left Ron with a new owl, visited Harry first thing when he was out of prison. Sirius also tells Harry that he will write and keep in touch, and Harry describes himself feeling as if he had just drank a warm butterbeer - I feel the same way.

Plus, Harry is adorable when he tells the Dursleys that he has a felon godfather who likes to check in on Harry to see if he's doing fine. It's sweet how Harry had just met Sirius and was already certain of his loyalty and devotion. I guess that's what happens when you buy a teenager a Firebolt! I imagine that's like buying a 16 year old, who just got his driver's license, a Ferrari.

I have to admit that I hate the time turner and that it creates a lot of problems in the universe (why didn't the Death Eaters use it?) but the story is very tightly written and works out wonderfully in book 3.

#harry potter #harry potter book review #ps #cos #poa #part 1

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ijournalnews · 4 years

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Coronavirus Live Updates: Officials Say C.D.C. Errors Caused Testing Delays

Contamination at C.D.C. labs resulted in delayed coronavirus tests.

Federal officials acknowledged on Saturday that sloppy laboratory practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caused contamination that rendered the nation’s first coronavirus tests ineffective.Two of the three C.D.C. laboratories in Atlanta that created the coronavirus test kits violated their own manufacturing standards, resulting in the agency sending tests that did not work properly to nearly all of the 100 state and local public health labs, according to the Food and Drug Administration.“C.D.C. did not manufacture its test consistent with its own protocol,” Stephanie Caccomo, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said in a statement on Saturday.Problems ranged from researchers entering and exiting the coronavirus laboratories without changing their coats, to test ingredients being assembled in the same room where researchers were working on positive coronavirus samples, the F.D.A. said. Those practices made the tests sent to public health labs unusable because they were contaminated with the coronavirus, and produced some inconclusive results.The F.D.A. confirmed its conclusions late this week after several media outlets requested public disclosure of its inquiry, which is part of a larger federal investigation into the C.D.C. lab irregularities by the Department of Health and Human Services.Forced to suspend the launch of a nationwide detection program for the coronavirus for a month, the C.D.C. lost credibility as the nation’s leading public health agency and the country lost ground in ways that continue to haunt grieving families, the sick and the worried well from one state to the next.To this day, the C.D.C.’s singular failure symbolizes how unprepared the federal government was in the early days to combat a fast-spreading outbreak of a new virus, and it also highlights the glaring inability at the onset to establish a systematic testing policy that would have revealed the still unknown rates of infection in many regions of the country. The blunders are posing new problems as some states with few cases agitate to reopen and others remain in virtual lockdown with cases and deaths still climbing.Doctors are scrambling to handle an unanticipated crisis as a surge in Covid-19 patients with kidney failure has led to shortages of machines, supplies and staff required for emergency dialysis.Evidence is mounting that in addition to respiratory complications, the coronavirus is also shutting down some patients’ kidneys, posing yet another series of life-and-death calculations for doctors, who were already dealing with a shortage of ventilators.It is not yet known whether the kidneys are a major target of the virus, or whether they’re just one of many organs that can fail as the virus overwhelms the body.Kidney specialists now estimate that 20 percent to 40 percent of patients in intensive care suffered kidney failure and needed emergency dialysis. Outside of New York, the growing demand for kidney treatments is becoming a major burden on hospitals in emerging hot spots like Boston, Chicago, New Orleans and Detroit.Not only are there few spare machines, fluids and other supplies needed for the dialysis regimen are also running short. The number of trained nurses on hand to provide the treatment has also been limited.Hospitals said they have called on the federal government to help prioritize equipment, supplies and personnel for the areas of the country that most need it, adding that manufacturers had not been fully responsive to the higher demand.As soon as the clock ticked past 5 p.m. on Friday, signaling the reopening of beaches in Jacksonville, Fla., people flocked to the shoreline in droves, evidence of Floridians’ desire for fresh, salty air after more than two weeks under a stay-at-home order.Photographs showed people walking dogs, carrying flip flops and soaking up the sun at beaches in Duval County, which first ordered people to stay off the sand in March. On Friday and Saturday, people reveled in the opportunity to dive through waves again.Some people criticized the sudden rush to the shore, saying the crowded beaches risked spreading the virus further. Friday was one of the deadliest days for the coronavirus in Florida, where more than 730 people have died and at least 25,000 have been infected. On Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida’s public schools would remain shut for the remainder of the academic year.Mayors in the county warned that the beaches were only reopening for activities deemed “essential,” a list that included fishing, surfing and taking care of pets.“Just to be clear, this is an opportunity for people to come out to the beach and exercise a couple of times a day,” Mayor Charlie Latham of Jacksonville Beach said at a news conference with other local mayors. “It’s not a sunbathing opportunity.”Organized group activities, such as picnics and team sports, will still be prohibited, and park restrooms will be closed. Beaches will open from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.“This can be the beginning of the pathway back to normal life,” Mayor Lenny Curry of Jacksonville said in a video address on Thursday, when he announced the reopening. He and other officials pleaded with residents to be careful and patient, and some warned that the privilege could be revoked if proper safety guidelines were not followed.Asked about crowded Florida beaches, Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator, indicated she would defer to county health officials.“I’d have to link that with a specific county and look at their case rates,” she said at a White House news briefing. “If the county health directors believe that that’s appropriate for their county, then I’m not going to second-judge an individual’s approach to this.”Mr. Trump chimed in, saying: “Many of the counties, as you know, are really free of this horrible enemy. So we’re opening up. You’ll be seeing a lot of this country start to open up fairly quickly.”On Saturday, Mr. DeSantis, under pressure from the AARP, also ordered state health officials to release the names of nursing homes and other long-term care centers where staff members and residents have tested positive for the virus.The list revealed that more than 300 homes for older people in Florida have confirmed cases, as the pandemic has continued to ravage nursing homes nationwide.At a news conference, Mr. DeSantis said it was “necessary for public health” to disclose the names of the homes. “I don’t want to be in a situation where the families don’t know,” he said.With the death toll from the pandemic already surpassing 34,000 Americans and unemployment soaring to levels not seen since the Great Depression, Republicans increasingly believe that elevating China as an archenemy culpable for the spread of the virus, and harnessing America’s growing animosity toward Beijing, may be the best way to salvage a difficult election.President Trump’s own campaign aides have endorsed the strategy, releasing an attack ad last week depicting former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, as soft on China. The ad relied heavily on images of people of Asian descent, including former Gov. Gary Locke of Washington, who is Chinese-American, and it was widely viewed as fanning the flames of xenophobia.But there is a potential impediment to the G.O.P. plan — the leader of the party himself.Eager to continue trade talks, uneasy about further rattling the markets and hungry to protect his relationship with President Xi Jinping at a moment when the United States is relying on China’s manufacturers for lifesaving medical supplies, Mr. Trump has repeatedly muddied Republican efforts to fault China.It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump’s conflicted messaging on China will hurt him with voters, who have repeatedly seen the president argue both sides of issues without suffering the harm that another politician would. And while Mr. Trump’s team knows that his own words will be used against him, they believe they can contrast his history favorably with that of Mr. Biden.From the cashier to the emergency room nurse to the drugstore pharmacist to the home health aide taking the bus to check on her older client, the soldier on the front lines of the current national emergency is most likely a woman.One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential, according to a New York Times analysis of census data crossed with the federal government’s essential worker guidelines. Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else.The work they do has often been underpaid and undervalued — an unseen labor force that keeps the country running and takes care of those most in need, whether or not there is a pandemic.Women make up nearly nine out of 10 nurses and nursing assistants, most respiratory therapists, the majority of pharmacists and the overwhelming majority of pharmacy aides and technicians. More than two-thirds of the workers at grocery store checkouts and fast food counters are women.In his first trip from Washington in over a month, Vice President Mike Pence delivered the Air Force Academy’s commencement address in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday.He and his aides have been pushing the Trump administration to reopen the country, and this trip was seen as an attempt to demonstrate that certain old routines can soon start up again.“We gather at a time of national crisis, as the coronavirus epidemic impacts our nation and the wider world,” Mr. Pence told the graduating class of senior cadets who will be commissioned as second lieutenants.The small, somber graduation reflected the moment of crisis the country is in: There were no spectators or family in attendance, and cadets sat eight feet apart from one another as Mr. Pence spoke. They also did not march onstage to receive their diplomas, as they did when President Trump spoke at the ceremony last year.When Mr. Pence, who did not wear a face mask, arrived on the tarmac in Colorado Springs, he was greeted by Gov. Jared Polis, whose face mask featured a pattern of the Colorado state flag. The two men did not shake hands.“We will get through this,” Mr. Pence told the cadets in his speech. “You’ll also inspire confidence that we will prevail against the invisible enemy in our time.”Mr. Pence is expected to resume a semi-regular travel schedule in the coming weeks.

Researchers say testing needs to triple for the U.S. to reopen safely, as Cuomo says testing is critical.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York acknowledged on Saturday that hospitalizations in his state had begun to decrease, but added that the state’s economy could not fully reopen without more widespread testing, which would require both supplies and an operational capacity that the health system does not currently have.“We are barely stabilizing our public health system right now,” Mr. Cuomo said at his daily briefing. “The first priority is life and death and public health. We’re not at a point where we’re going to be reopening anything immediately.”As Mr. Cuomo and other governors consider easing social distancing restrictions, new estimates by researchers at Harvard University suggest that the United States cannot safely reopen unless it conducts more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering over the next month.An average of 146,000 people per day have been tested for the coronavirus nationally so far this month, according to the Covid Tracking Project. To reopen the United States by mid-May, the number of daily tests performed between now and then should be 500,000 to 700,000, according to the Harvard estimates.That level of testing would be needed to identify the majority of people who are infected and isolate them from people who are healthy, according to the researchers. About 20 percent of those tested so far have been positive for the virus, a rate that the researchers say is too high.“If you have a very high positive rate, it means that there are probably a good number of people out there who have the disease who you haven’t tested,” said Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “You want to drive the positive rate down, because the fundamental element of keeping our economy open is making sure you’re identifying as many infected people as possible and isolating them.”At least 100 people gathered on the statehouse grounds in Austin to call for the reopening of the state and the country, riding a wave of similar protests at statehouses and in city streets this past week.The urgency of the rally was reduced somewhat by an announcement from Gov. Greg Abbott that he was already acting on plans to reopen the state. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, said he was starting a “phased-in” approach to reopen the state economy, including lifting some restrictions in the coming days on medical procedures unrelated to the virus, retail shopping and public access to state parks.With more than 22 million unemployment claims nationwide in the past four weeks, some conservatives have begun voicing displeasure with the moribund economy.As businesses have been shuttered in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 34,000 people in the United States, a common theme has emerged uniting the various protests around a shared desire to return to work.The protests have been encouraged by President Trump, but polls show that most Americans support restrictions meant to combat the virus.Similar demonstrations were also held in other far-flung corners of the country on Saturday, with groups rallying in Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and Annapolis, Md.At around noon, protesters in Annapolis, many wearing masks, some waving signs and others in their cars honking their horns, moved through the streets to loudly call on Gov. Larry Hogan to reopen businesses.In Bloomfield, Wis., many protesters waved flags and held up signs in support of Mr. Trump, openly defying orders by Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin to stay home.The debate over how soon to loosen restrictions on businesses and workers has moved from the hands of health experts to become an increasingly political fight over costs to the economy, which Mr. Trump sees as crucial to his re-election.Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a potential vice-presidential pick, has stirred Republican fears that her growing popularity will help Democrats carry the battleground state of Michigan in November, whether or not she is on the ticket. Referring to the raucous rally that snarled traffic in Lansing, Mich., on Wednesday, she said, “It felt a lot more like a political rally than a statement about the stay-home order.”At his daily briefing on Saturday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York warned that politicizing people’s frustrations would be costly.“It is as a tumultuous a time as we have ever seen,” Mr. Cuomo said. “But in the midst of this, there is no time for politics. How does this situation get worse and get worse quickly? If you politicize all that emotion. We cannot go there.”The border between the United States and Canada will remain closed for another 30 days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday.As with a previous agreement that came into effect last month, people whose travel is deemed essential — a group that includes health care workers — will still be allowed to cross. Trucks, airplanes, trains and ships will also continue to carry freight between the two countries.The extension of the border closing came as the Pentagon announced that it would prolong a national and international travel ban, stopping military units from deploying overseas and returning until June 30. The original ban was set to expire in mid-May.The Harry S. Truman, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with more than 4,000 people aboard, was scheduled to return from the Middle East for weeks, but is stuck off the eastern coast of the United States. Marines from the Seventh Marine Regiment, who were deployed to Kuwait and set to return home at the end of the month, are similarly left waiting for flights to be rescheduled.

Some officials are allowing craft stores to reopen.

Craft stores, which some Americans have turned to for cloth coverings and materials for face masks, are getting approval to reopen in some parts of the country.Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, said this week that he was extending the state’s stay-at-home orders until May 26, but he eased restrictions on certain businesses, including arts and crafts stores, which can now offer curbside pickup of materials for masks and other forms of personal protective equipment. The stores are required to operate with the minimum number of workers needed to sell the materials.In Dallas, county commissioners voted on Thursday to allow craft-store chains like Michaels and Hobby Lobby to reopen. Stores that sell fabric are now deemed essential there, and can sell cloth coverings, masks and materials for home schooling. Earlier this month, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins asked residents to report craft stores and other businesses that remained opened in violation of state orders.The decisions come after weeks of heated back-and-forth between local governments and stores such as Sears, Kmart, Guitar Center and Joann Fabric and Craft Stores that have said they offer essential services for customers stuck at home during the pandemic and should be open for business. Earlier this month, the arts-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby was accused of defying stay-at-home orders in at least four states, prompting officials to send cease-and-desist letters and close stores.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging people to wear basic cloth masks when they cannot practice social distancing. Because of widespread shortages, Americans have flocked to D.I.Y. solutions, often making their own masks with needle, thread and strips of cotton.

Slaughterhouses struggle to keep up meat production as the virus spreads in factories.

As meat production has waned and meatpackers have fallen sick with the coronavirus at alarming rates, slaughterhouses are emerging as a weak point in the nation’s food supply chain.The number of cattle slaughtered this past week dropped nearly 22 percent from the same period a year ago, while hog slaughter was down 6 percent, according to the Department of Agriculture. The decline is partly driven by the shutdown of restaurants and hotels, but plant closings have also caused a major disruption, leaving many ranchers with nowhere to send their animals.As of Thursday, the Smithfield pork factory in Sioux Falls, S.D., had become the nation’s single largest coronavirus “hot spot.” Its employees now make up about 44 percent of the diagnoses in South Dakota.Despite warnings from executives that the country could be approaching a meat shortage, state and federal regulators have sent mixed signals to the industry about how to deal with the crisis.In the 1980s and ’90s, major meat producers in the U.S. gradually began buying out competitors and building up massive plants that could slaughter more than a million animals a year, increasingly concentrating the industry in a few states where animal feed is grown, like Iowa and South Dakota.As the virus has spread quickly in some of these plants, executives fear it may be difficult for factories to remain open and profitable while taking measures to protect workers.Democrats sent the Trump administration a compromise offer late Friday evening in an effort to break an impasse over replenishing funds for a new loan program, created as a way to help businesses weather the pandemic. The program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program because it provides forgivable loans for small businesses that use most of the funds to maintain their payroll, stopped accepting applications on Thursday as lawmakers remained at odds over how to move forward.Democrats had blocked an effort to increase the amount of funding because they insisted on additional conditions that would ensure more small businesses had access to the funds and more money for localities and state governments.The offer, according to a senior Democratic aide, would include $150 billion for states and local governments, prioritizing need and establishing new pots of money for cities, counties and towns. The offer also outlines stipulations to the aid program, more money for testing and hospitals and additional funds for the small business program, which was created as part of the $2 trillion stimulus package that President Trump signed into law last month. Republicans initially resisted those requests, but have begun to acknowledge that such a compromise may be needed. It is unclear how different the offer is from what Democrats initially proposed this month.Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Mr. Trump said funding for the program was “fully drained.”“Lawmakers must stop blocking these funds and replenish the program without delay,” he added.Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, has privately conferred with Democrats over ways to break the impasse, leaving some Republicans wary that Mr. Mnuchin may acquiesce too much to Democrats in an effort to replenish the program, which has left millions of small businesses without relief. With Congress not expected to return to Washington until May 4, any legislation would require unanimous agreement from all 100 senators — meaning that any compromise Mr. Mnuchin wrangles with Democrats will have to win the approval of Republicans in both chambers.Apprehensive about Mr. Mnuchin’s willingness to offer concessions to Democrats in previous stimulus negotiations, Republicans are warily watching the talks over replenishing a small-business loan program.

The Census Bureau is scrambling to figure out how to count Americans.

Slammed by a pandemic, the Census Bureau postponed crucial portions of the count for the third time in a month, pushing final population totals and even reapportionment of Congress far into 2021.The unprecedented delay buys time for census strategists to try to figure out how a head count built around engaging the public — through advertising, crowd-drawing events and knocking on millions of doors — can succeed in a nation locked down by the coronavirus pandemic.The obstacles are enormous and the cost of failure would be large. Most critically, the task of counting those who were already hardest to count — chiefly minorities, the poor, children and those who were born elsewhere — keeps getting harder.Strategists are betting that the virus’s grip will weaken enough by mid-August to safely deploy hundreds of thousands of temporary field workers to track down the millions who still have not sent in forms. Without the success of that exercise — known in census-speak by the acronym NRFU (“ner-foo”), for nonresponse follow-up — the census will be compromised.Experts say that effort, which is set to run through October, is likely to be the diciest aspect of the entire reboot. The census is supposed to be a snapshot of the nation at the beginning of April; the door-knocking was originally supposed to begin in May. But by autumn, the national mosaic will have reshuffled.“The farther you get from April 1, the less accurate the data is,” said Jeri Green, a veteran Census Bureau employee who now is the senior adviser on the census for the National Urban League. “In some communities people may be one stimulus check from getting off someone’s couch. Weddings are coming up. People are going to move out of their parents’ homes.”Even as it scrambles to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the United States, the Trump administration is pushing forward with its immigration enforcement agenda, deporting thousands of people to their home countries, including some who are sick with the virus.Deportations also have risen sharply for children and teenagers traveling without their parents — long considered so vulnerable that they have almost never faced expedited deportations, until now.The Trump administration closed the border to all but essential travel last month, warning that migrants could bring the coronavirus into the United States. But Guatemalan officials said this week that the United States has been exporting the virus to their country.Dozens of Guatemalans who have been deported since late March have tested positive, according to the authorities there. A team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control traveled to Guatemala this week “to review and validate” the tests.“When you send kids back without any precautions,” said Michelle Brané, of the Women’s Refugee Commission, an advocacy group, “you create a situation in which traffickers, smugglers and people who want to take advantage of them are literally waiting for them in these border towns.”Are face masks going to become like condoms — ubiquitous, sometimes fashionable, promoted with public service announcements? They should be, one virus researcher says, if early indications are correct in suggesting that the coronavirus is often spread by people who feel healthy and show no symptoms.“Face masks are a barrier method that might also need to be worn consistently and correctly to prevent transmission of this virus,” David O’Connor, who studies viral disease at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in an email.He said it was time to “normalize face masks, and fast.”States are now following that guidance, as New Yorkers now walk behind their own personal barriers. A population known for big mouths pulled on a newly essential accessory and ventured into a landscape that changed yet again on Friday when, as of 8 p.m., a new order from the governor mandated the wearing of masks in public.As part of his latest measures to contain the coronavirus, which has killed more than 12,000 people in the state and infected more than 200,000, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo rolled out the executive order this week.Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are requiring that masks be worn in stores; likewise in Los Angeles and some surrounding California counties. New York’s order is the most expansive, requiring face coverings anywhere in the state where two people might come within two yards of each other, though for now, there is no fine for disobeying.“Nobody likes it, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” said Amanda Neville, 43, inside her wine store in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.In the United States, President Trump’s mercurial messages have been widely contrasted with the detailed briefings by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. Elsewhere in the world, leaders have also taken approaches that run the gamut.Here are highlights from the five leaders The Times examined.Prime Minister Boris JohnsonIn one of his first news conferences about the virus, Mr. Johnson mentioned a “clear plan” for Britain to contain it but detailed few concrete measures. He also talked about the values of “herd immunity,” suggesting that allowing many people to be exposed to the virus would help build immunity. Days later, he reversed course, putting the nation on lockdown and ordering Britons to stay at home.Chancellor Angela MerkelMs. Merkel shocked some during one of her earliest news briefings on the outbreak when she outlined a stark possibility: In a worst-case situation, she said, up to 70 percent of the German population could become infected. At a time when other leaders were hoping to lessen the blow in their messaging, she stood out. But her frankness preserved the trust of Germans.President Rodrigo DuterteIn the Philippines, the pandemic is Mr. Duterte’s latest reason to greenlight extrajudicial killings. More than 5,000 people have been killed in his war on drugs. Initially dismissive of the coronavirus, Mr. Duterte later introduced stringent measures, including a lockdown. Critics have accused him of pursuing his often-stated ambition of imposing martial law. He threatened those who considered breaking the lockdown, instructing the police and military to “shoot them dead.”

The how, when, what and why on masks.

Starting at 8 p.m. on Friday, people in New York must wear masks or other coverings when social distancing is not possible, including on mass transit, to prevent the spread of the virus. But everyone should be wearing masks when out in public, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here’s everything you need to know.Reporting was contributed by Reed Abelson, Ian Austen, Karen Barrow, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Emily Cochrane, Michael Corkery, Caitlin Dickerson, Manny Fernandez, Sheri Fink, Trip Gabriel, Robert Gebeloff, James Gorman, Annie Karni, Nicholas Kulish, Sarah Lyall, Jonathan Martin, Zach Montague, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Kwame Opam, Keith Collins, Rick Rojas, Campbell Robertson, Giovanni Russonello, Kirk Semple, Katie Thomas, Michael D. Shear, Michael Wilson, Michael Wines, Patricia Mazzei and David Yaffe-Bellany. Source link Read the full article

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weekinethereum · 7 years

Text

April 30, 2017

Ethereum News and Links

Top

Irrational Exuberance. Despite Ether's big price spike this week, it strikes me as undervalued. But tokens? At writing, Gnosis market cap is 800 million, but was over $1 billion a few hours ago. Augur and Golem both at 185 million. While price run ups weren't uniform across Ethereum tokens, there was plenty of exuberance lower on the market cap list as well.

Ethereum Name Service relaunches May 4th

Coindesk published a few articles on the UN using Ethereum: Jordanian dinar distribution to 10,000 people using Parity, 7 UN agencies investigating blockchain projects (including an RFI)

Videos are out from most of the Rice Business and Blockchain conference.

Protocol

What's the latest on Swarm

Yoichi: Ten Ethereum-Related Projects You could Take

Extend ERC20 by adding mint and burn?

Stuff for developers

uPort AppManager: Create an identity for your app and begin building trust with users

Why ERC20 is a checkbook

Rinkeby testnet faucet now gives triple the testnet ether

How long should it take to confirm your transaction given gas price and gas used.

Ecosystem

Innogy's Carsten Stoecker announced that hundreds of Slock.it's Share&Charge are live in Germany

Using Share&Charge in the wild

LemonMail: decentralized email using Ethereum and IPFS, live on testnet

Ron Bernstein: Not everything is a token

Interviews

Arthur Falls does an Ether Review with Swarm City

Software Engineering Daily talks to AdChain's Mike Goldin

Omar Bham (Crypt0) in Status's Contributor series

Rune Christensen talks Maker

Project Updates

ICONOMI Q1 financial report

What’s new in Golem v0.5

Gnosis post-sale "the Road Ahead"

Token Sales

Video of Mel Gelderman discussing TokenCard

Sold out 12.5m in minutes.

CoFound.it publishes draft business plan

General

Parity released a Bitcoin client sponsored by bitmain leading some Bitcoin maximalists to claim it was an attack by Ethereum on bitcoin

If so, it was so secret that Vitalik didn't know

Sam Cassatt: Is Season Valley Season 4 about Ethereum?

Amanda Gutterman: Let's build a new internet

The Etherian's latest issue

Dates of note

[For ongoing sales, check previous week]

May 2 -- E4ROW sale begins

May 4 -- Ethereum Name Service relaunches

May 17 -- Aragon sale begins

May 19 -- Storj sale begins

May 19 -- ConsenSys Ethereal Summit in Brooklyn

May 25 - William Mougayar's Token Summit at NYU

May 30 -- Bancor Network sale begins

June 1 -- Mysterium sale begins

Bias transparency: if you host a blockchain conference and don't use Ticketleap, I'm much less likely to include your conference, unless you have a good reason as to why we're not a good fit. But I doubt there is one, because we're likely a great fit. /shamelessplug

[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. I havepassed the CFA exams, but this is not investment advice. If you're interested in what I do, you can find my investing thesis and token sale appreciation strategies in previous newsletters.]

Errors or additions: [first name] @ticketleap.com

The link for sharing

Here's the link if you'd like to be ever so kind as to share this issue: http://www.weekinethereum.com/post/160233722088/april-30-2017 Follow me on Twitter @evan_van_ness

This newsletter is supported by Status.im. But in case you still want to send Ether (or tokens?): 0x96d4F0E75ae86e4c46cD8e9D4AE2F2309bD6Ec45

#ethereum #blockchain

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stephenmccull · 4 years

Text

Florida’s Cautionary Tale: How Gutting and Muzzling Public Health Fueled COVID Fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On a sweltering July morning, Rose Wilson struggled to breathe as she sat in her bed, the light from her computer illuminating her face and the oxygen tubes in her nose.

Wilson, a retiree who worked as a public health department nurse supervisor in Duval County for 35 years, had just been diagnosed with COVID-19-induced pneumonia. She had a telemedicine appointment with her doctor.

Staring back from her screen was Dr. Rogers Cain, who runs a tidy little family medical clinic a couple of blocks from the Trout River in north Jacksonville, a predominantly Black area where the coronavirus is running roughshod. Wilson, 81, was one of Cain’s patients who’d tested positive — he had seven other COVID patients that morning before noon. Three of her grown children had contracted the virus, too.

“It started as a drip, drip, drip in May,” said Cain, his voice muffled by his mask. “Now it’s more like a faucet running.”

Cain and Wilson are nervous. Over the past two decades, both watched as the county health department was gutted of money and people, hampering Duval’s ability to respond to outbreaks, including a small cluster of tuberculosis cases in 2012. And now they face the menace of COVID-19 in a city once slated to host this week’s Republican National Convention, in one of the states leading the latest U.S. surge.

Florida is both a microcosm and a cautionary tale for America. As the nation starved the public health system intended to protect communities against disease, staffing and funding fell faster and further in the Sunshine State, leaving it especially unprepared for the worst health crisis in a century.

Although Florida’s population grew by 2.4 million since 2010 to make it the nation’s third-most-populous state, a joint investigation by KHN and The Associated Press has found, the state slashed its local health departments’ staffing — from 12,422 full-time equivalent workers to 9,125 in 2019, the latest data available.

According to an analysis of state data, the state-run local health departments spent 41% less per resident in 2019 than in 2010, dropping from $57 to $34 after adjusting for inflation. Departments nationwide have also cut spending, but by less than half as much ― an average of 18%, according to data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Even before the pandemic hit, that meant fewer investigators to track, trace and contain diseases such as hepatitis. It meant fewer public health nurses to teach people how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS or the flu. When the wave of COVID-19 inundated Florida, the state was caught flat-footed when it mattered most, its main lines of defense eviscerated.

Now, confirmed cases have soared past 588,000 and deaths have risen to more than 10,000. Concerns over the virus prompted Republicans to cancel plans for an in-person convention in Jacksonville, opting for a pared-down version in North Carolina.

Health experts blame the funding cuts on the Great Recession and choices by a series of governors who wanted to move publicly funded state services to for-profit companies.

And when the pandemic took hold, they say, residents got mixed messages about prevention strategies like wearing masks from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other political leaders. Voices within the health departments were muzzled.

“The reality, unfortunately, is people are going to die because of the irresponsibility of the decisions being made by the people crafting the budgets,” said Ron Bialek, president of the Public Health Foundation, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., offering tools and training. “Public health can’t help us get out of this situation without our elected officials giving us the resources.”

State officials neither answered specific, repeated questions from KHN and The Associated Press about changes in public health funding, nor made staffers available for deeper explanations.

Dr. Leslie Beitsch, a former deputy secretary of Florida’s state health department, said failing to prepare for a foreseeable disaster “is governmental malpractice.” The nation’s pandemic response is only as good as the weakest link, he said. Since the virus respects no borders, other states feel the ripples of Florida’s failings.

Those failings are clear in Duval County, which had employed the equivalent of 852 full-time workers and spent $91 per person in 2008 but in 2019 had only 422 workers and spent just $34 per resident, according to the KHN-AP analysis of state data. That’s less than the typical list price of a single COVID test. Former county health director Dr. Jeff Goldhagen said the county’s team has been “dismantled to the extent that it could not really manage an outbreak.”

Yet it must.

Cain’s private north Jacksonville medical clinic alone has had about 60 confirmed COVID cases and eight deaths. “We are all on fire right now,” he said. “You have to have a fire department that is adequately equipped to put out the fire. ”

Dwindling Budgets

Florida faced similar shortcomings around the time of the last great pandemic, the 1918 flu. Back then, according to a 1924 state report, public health workers faced too many demands and their efforts were “to some extent scattered and transitory.” The state could have used at least three more district health officers, the report said: “It is a source of regret and a matter of grave concern to public health workers that the funds available are not sufficient.”

County-based health departments began in 1930, providing more robust services closer to home. About 50 years later, legislation created state-administered primary care programs in which county health departments provided low-income Floridians with the type of basic health care and treatment most people now get at private doctors’ offices.

The 1990s saw a move toward privatization, particularly as Medicaid managed care took hold, said a 2004 paper in the Florida Public Health Review. Still, per-person spending on local public health rose until the late 1990s, when adjusted for inflation to 2019 dollars, peaking at $59.

Wilson, the retired public health nurse stricken with COVID-19, recalled how Duval County’s department started feeling the financial pain during former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration in the early 2000s and kept losing nurses and other staff until they were “very, very short.”

Beitsch, who worked for the state health department in the 1990s, said the downward trend continued under former Republican governors Charlie Crist and Rick Scott, fueled by a growing belief in shrinking government that flourished in many states. Florida’s leaders exerted more control over public health, Beitsch said, and “the amount of local autonomy has been diminishing with successive administrations.”

The recession that began in late 2007 sparked public health reductions across the nation that were especially harsh in Florida. By 2011, budget cuts and lack of money were the most frequently cited challenges in a Florida public health workforce survey, which pointed to growing needs. In the following years, the state had some of the nation’s highest rates of heart disease and diabetes.

Squeezed departments struggled and sometimes stumbled. A report from the state health department’s inspector general for the 2018-19 fiscal year, for example, found a series of lost and inconsistent shipments of lab specimens from county health departments to the state lab — not long before the pandemic would make labs more important than ever.

As governor, Scott presided over the state from 2011 to 2019, when funding and staffing dropped most. Now a U.S. senator, he said through a spokesperson that he was unapologetic for health department cuts, which he characterized as a move toward “making government more efficient” without endangering public health.

“I’m sure that he had no problem with the cuts that were being made,” said Patrick Bernet, an associate professor in health administration at Florida Atlantic University. “To put it all on him is not fair because a bunch of little henchmen from the counties had to vote that way. … We keep voting in people who undervalue public health.”

Democratic state Sen. Janet Cruz, a legislator who has represented the Tampa region for a dozen years and sat on health care committees, said she watched lawmakers systematically cut money for health departments. When she questioned it, she said, some colleagues claimed the need wasn’t as great because the state was moving toward private family health care centers. “Public health in Florida has been wholly underfunded,” she said.

Some places have suffered more than others. Departments serving at least half a million residents spent $29 per person in 2019 on average, compared with $90 per person in departments serving 50,000 or fewer — a difference starker than the typical gap between larger and smaller departments nationally, according to an KHN-AP analysis. Experts can’t say exactly why the gap is wider in Florida, which has a state-run system, but point to politics and historical decisions about budgets.

Duval County’s health department spending was the equivalent of $34 per person, down 63% since 2008. Typically, about 22 workers, or 5% of the total staff, have been dedicated to preparing for and tracking disease outbreaks.

But when the pandemic hit, many there and elsewhere were diverted to fight the coronavirus, leaving little time for their typical duties such as mosquito abatement and tracking sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis.

“Current events demonstrate how bad a decision” the deep cuts to public health were, said Dr. Marissa Levine, a professor of public health and family medicine at the University of South Florida. “It’s really come back to haunt us.”

Mixed and Muzzled Messages

The pandemic caught fire in Florida this summer as the state’s rapid reopening allowed people to flock to beaches, Disney World, movie theaters and bars.

The state has had more than half a million confirmed cases ― among them, players and workers for baseball’s Miami Marlins ― and 35,000 hospitalizations, yet DeSantis still hasn’t issued a mask mandate. Some local governments have. Jacksonville adopted one in late June, and about a week later Republican Mayor Lenny Curry announced he and his family were self-quarantining because he’d been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus.

Chad Neilsen, director of infection prevention at the University of Florida-Jacksonville, lauded the mayor for the mask requirement, saying, “We know that masking works.” But he pointed out that other counties have different rules and that the inconsistent messaging breeds confusion.

St. Johns County began requiring masks in late July but only in county facilities. And DeSantis has appeared in public without a mask numerous times, including at an Aug. 13 coronavirus update briefing during which some other speakers wore them.

“One voice is so critical during a pandemic,” said Dr. Jonathan Kantor, a Jacksonville epidemiologist and dermatologist. “We have to have one voice, and consistent leadership that is modeling behavior if we want to get people to change their behaviors.”

Instead, experts in Florida said, public health workers have been silenced or told by top state officials what to say. For example, The Palm Beach Post reported that state leaders told school boards they needed health department approval to keep schools closed, then instructed health directors not to give it.

“All the communication is directed by the state, and localities are very limited in what they can do,” said Levine, the University of South Florida professor. “Anything to do with a mandate, there’s resistance to do at a state level. This includes the hot debate on masks. The locals have to extend the state messaging.” Local health officials “are being told bluntly: ‘Shut up,’” Bernet said. “They literally cannot speak.”

Beitsch, who now chairs the department of behavioral sciences and social medicine at Florida State University, said such limitations ― and similar mixed messages and silencing of medical experts at the national level ― fuels the politicization of public health and undermining of science.

“People think they should be listening to politicians and state legislative leaders about their health care. They’re not listening to health experts and the epidemiologists who say if you just wear a mask and if you just wash your hands, we can really, really reduce the spread of the virus,” said Cruz, the state senator. “People are confused, and they think this is a hoax and it’s nothing more than the flu.”

Meanwhile, the COVID caseload continues to rise, surpassing 25,000 in Duval County, with minorities stricken disproportionately, as elsewhere in the nation. In a county that’s 29% Black and 60% white, Black residents with COVID have been hospitalized at more than double the rate of white residents. Rates are also high for Floridians grouped together as “other,” including Native American, Asian and multiracial residents.

Duval County’s overall caseload is rising so fast that Goldhagen, the former health department director, said the agency has given up on contact tracing, which means trying to curb the virus by identifying and warning people who have been exposed.

“It’s impossible,” Goldhagen said. “Dismantling the system was a complete disregard for the health and well-being of the citizens of Florida.”

With an unequipped public health system, Wilson, the retired public health nurse, said it falls to everyone to lead Jacksonville, and Florida, out of the coronavirus crisis.

“My hope is that everybody begins to take this virus seriously, and wear their mask and stay social distancing. It can work if we do that,” said Wilson, whose condition has improved. “So, that’s my hope. Eventually there will be a vaccine that will curtail this virus. But until then, it’s up to us to help do that. And if we’re not serious about it, then we’re doomed.”

This story is a collaboration between KHN and The Associated Press.

Methodology

Spending and staffing data for Florida’s local health departments is from the Florida Department of Health. Florida Atlantic University professor Patrick Bernet provided additional state data on staffing by program area. KHN-AP adjusted spending data for inflation using the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ state and local government deflator.

COVID-19 data by race is from the Florida Department of Health. KHN-AP calculated rates per 10,000 people using data on race, regardless of ethnicity, from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey. Statewide COVID-19 cases per day are from Johns Hopkins University.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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headcanonsandmore · 5 years

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Do you ever feel like Ron might be super insecure about being Harry’s friend not just because he gets so much attention, while he is always overlooked, but also because he probably at some point thought “maybe I’m just his friend because I’m literally the first kid he met that didn’t treat him like complete rubbish” because I feel that’s something he would definitely question about their friendship.

Oh, just rip out my heart, why don’t you?….

Of bl**dy course Ron would have thought this at some points (no doubt during GOF and DH)!

Because Ron undervalues himself constantly throughout the series, and it’s so upsetting to see him never realise just how important he is to people!

Through all the books, the only time anyone ever actually tells him just how important he is, is when Harry tells him so in DH after he destroys the locket. Like, Harry and Hermione would be, if not dead, then incredibly miserable. But Ron never really believes that until the last book, and even then it’s not explicitly stated by Harry.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry into some ice-cream…. my poor ginger baby… you’re too wonderful for this world….

(Thanks for the ask, anon)

#ask #anon #I'm not crying YOU'RE crying #ron weasley #ron weasley defense squad #ron weasley defence squad #ron weasley defence/defense squad #ron weasley appreciation #ron weasley appreciation post #harry and hermione love ron SO MUCH you guys and it's beautiful!#tw: self-esteem issues #tw: self-doubt #tw: self loathing

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years

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Florida’s Cautionary Tale: How Gutting and Muzzling Public Health Fueled COVID Fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On a sweltering July morning, Rose Wilson struggled to breathe as she sat in her bed, the light from her computer illuminating her face and the oxygen tubes in her nose.

“It started as a drip, drip, drip in May,” said Cain, his voice muffled by his mask. “Now it’s more like a faucet running.”

Health experts blame the funding cuts on the Great Recession and choices by a series of governors who wanted to move publicly funded state services to for-profit companies.

State officials neither answered specific, repeated questions from KHN and The Associated Press about changes in public health funding, nor made staffers available for deeper explanations.

Yet it must.

Dwindling Budgets

Mixed and Muzzled Messages

The pandemic caught fire in Florida this summer as the state’s rapid reopening allowed people to flock to beaches, Disney World, movie theaters and bars.

“It’s impossible,” Goldhagen said. “Dismantling the system was a complete disregard for the health and well-being of the citizens of Florida.”

With an unequipped public health system, Wilson, the retired public health nurse, said it falls to everyone to lead Jacksonville, and Florida, out of the coronavirus crisis.

This story is a collaboration between KHN and The Associated Press.

Methodology

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Florida’s Cautionary Tale: How Gutting and Muzzling Public Health Fueled COVID Fire published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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dinafbrownil · 4 years

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Florida’s Cautionary Tale: How Gutting and Muzzling Public Health Fueled COVID Fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On a sweltering July morning, Rose Wilson struggled to breathe as she sat in her bed, the light from her computer illuminating her face and the oxygen tubes in her nose.

“It started as a drip, drip, drip in May,” said Cain, his voice muffled by his mask. “Now it’s more like a faucet running.”

Health experts blame the funding cuts on the Great Recession and choices by a series of governors who wanted to move publicly funded state services to for-profit companies.

State officials neither answered specific, repeated questions from KHN and The Associated Press about changes in public health funding, nor made staffers available for deeper explanations.

Yet it must.

Dwindling Budgets

Mixed and Muzzled Messages

The pandemic caught fire in Florida this summer as the state’s rapid reopening allowed people to flock to beaches, Disney World, movie theaters and bars.

“It’s impossible,” Goldhagen said. “Dismantling the system was a complete disregard for the health and well-being of the citizens of Florida.”

With an unequipped public health system, Wilson, the retired public health nurse, said it falls to everyone to lead Jacksonville, and Florida, out of the coronavirus crisis.

This story is a collaboration between KHN and The Associated Press.

Methodology

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/floridas-cautionary-tale-how-starving-and-muzzling-public-health-fueled-covid-fire/

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mikemortgage · 5 years

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Hostility in the oilpatch: Unsolicited takeovers the new normal in undervalued sector

CALGARY — Hostile takeovers were once a rarity in Calgary’s tight-knit oilpatch.

But as company valuations have fallen sharply over the past year, Shane Fildes, BMO Capital Markets managing director and head of global energy, has been involved in three such deals in the past year alone.

BMO acted as the financial adviser to Velvet Energy Ltd. in its unsolicited $120-million bid for Iron Bridge Resources Inc., and Ensign Energy Services Inc. in its $947-million bid for Trinidad Drilling. BMO also acted as financial adviser to MEG Energy Corp. which successfully resisted Husky Energy Inc.’s $6.4-billion offer.

“That is a trend that we don’t often see. It’s not a common transaction structure in energy land. Typically, the market deals with those bid-ask spreads before they get too wide,” Fildes said.

Read our enter Dealmakers 2019 series

The number of hostile bids in 2018 could be a signal of an coming uptick in energy mergers and acquisitions.

“We like that as a signal that potentially we have hit the bottom of the activity cycle,” Fildes said.

Investment bankers and other dealmakers are hoping for more deals to be struck in 2019 after a precipitous drop in 2018. There were 98 mergers and acquisition transactions in the Canadian energy sector last year, a 21 per cent drop from the 124 announced in 2017, according to FP Data.

Shane Fildes, global head of energy for BMO.

The value of M&A deals fell 15 per cent to $46.7 billion, from $54.73 billion, data shows. Meanwhile, equity financings in the oilpatch plunged 88.7 per cent to $1.3 billion, from $11.5 billion in 2017.

The downturn in the number of deals came despite institutional investors looking to invest in bigger and better capitalized companies.

“I think the other dynamic is on the investor side, with some of the changes in the money management industry, people are really looking at the companies with scale and liquidity,” said Trevor Gardner, co-head of Canadian energy at RBC Capital Markets.

“Investors are looking for bigger companies and management and boards get that,” he said.

Despite investor appetite for consolidation in the sector, there are various reasons for the dizzying fall in the number of transactions over the past year, including volatile commodity prices, anemic capital markets, regulatory and pipeline uncertainty in Canada and investor attitudes that have cooled toward the country’s oil and gas sector in favour of U.S. energy companies.

There were also multiple examples of companies watching their share prices drop sharply, as investors were displeased by the management’s decision to pursue a merger.

When Baytex Energy Corp. announced its $2.8-billion merger with Raging River Exploration Inc. in June, both companies’ shares fell sharply. Raging River shares fell 10 per cent that day and Baytex contracted 15 per cent.

Similarly, when NuVista Energy Ltd. announced in August it would pay $625 million for some of Cenovus Energy Inc.’s Montney formation assets, the acquirer’s stock dropped 10 per cent.

BMO Capital Markets acted as financial adviser to MEG Energy Corp. which resisted Husky Energy Inc.’s $6.4-billion offer.

“The negative reactions, quite frankly were outsized,” Fildes said. “The market cap change dwarfed the deal they were doing and you say that math doesn’t really make sense.”

As a result, Fildes said that some companies chose to sit on the sidelines in 2018 as they watched their peers get punished in the market after announcing transactions. “There was definitely an element at the end of 2018 where the thought was, ‘Why would we force something into a market that’s negative?’”

Part of the problem, GMP FirstEnergy director, research Bob Fitzmartyn says, is that long-only institutional investors that would normally invest in Canadian oil names when their share prices drop were either “out of bullets,” or deliberately chose to sit on the sidelines as companies’ valuations slid.

“The need to see some kind of immediate accretion characteristic seems more pronounced now than in years past,” Fitzmartyn said. “Market perspective is certainly in that camp right now.”

That investor sentiment continues to persist in the early stages in 2019 and that could lead to another slow year for deal flow.

“I could see a reason why it would still be challenging because of all kinds of uncertainty, including (Ottawa’s legislation to change energy regulatory processes) Bill C-69 and the (federal and Alberta) elections,” he said.

Gardner and Kent Ferguson, co-head of Canadian energy at RBC Capital Markets, believe that while 2018 was a slow year for deals in the oil and gas sector, there were several very active players within the industry, including financial sponsors and private equity companies.

Kent Ferguson, left, and Trevor Gardner, right, co-heads of Canadian energy at RBC Capital Markets.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, for example, was a major dealmaker in the energy sector in 2018, buying up renewable energy assets from pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. and providing funding for Wolf Midstream Inc. to buy pipeline assets from MEG Energy and a stake in a CO2 sequestration from Enhance Energy Inc.

“In a relatively quiet M&A year, those kinds of asset sales were among the bigger deals out there,” Ferguson said.

Enbridge also sold its Canadian natural gas gathering pipelines and processing facilities to Toronto-based Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP for $4.3 billion.

Gardner said many of those transactions were “quite well received” in the market.

“The phrase you hear from investors a lot is: ‘I’m supportive of consolidation if it ticks all the boxes,’” Gardner said, adding that some deals were welcomed by investors in 2018.

Deals where investors could clearly see the new company would be able to reduce costs and boost cash flow, in addition to being a larger entity with improved scale, were typically rewarded.

While private equity players continue to raise and deploy capital in the sector – including New York-based KKR & Co Inc.’s funding of a new $1.15-billion Calgary-based natural gas midstream venture — it’s unclear whether broader M&A activity in the domestic oilpatch will rebound.

BMO’s Fildes thinks increased financing activity is a necessary precursor to more M&A transactions — and he has yet to see a meaningful uptick in capital availability in either the debt or equity markets for the domestic energy sector.

“The ability of M&A to happen is somewhat tied to equity and debt markets. We haven’t seen a lot of greenshoots on that,” Fildes said.

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: geoffreymorgan

FP Dealmakers tables, including our full ranking for common share equity deals and our tables for preferred equity, structured products and government debt, as well as information about how we crunched the numbers, are available online at financialpost.com/fpstreet

from Financial Post http://bit.ly/2MHRSSC via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

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maldenreads · 7 years

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Malden Reads is pleased to announce the book selection for 2018, the eighth year of Malden’s popular “One City, One Book” program—The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The novel debuted at the top of The New York Times young adult bestseller list, recently won the Boston Globe Horn Book award, is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and landed on the long list for the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in our Stars, states, “Angie Thomas has written a stunning, brilliant, gut-wrenching novel that will be remembered as a classic of our time.”

The Hate U Give tells the story of 16-year old Starr Carter, who straddles two worlds. She lives with her family in an urban black neighborhood that wrestles with problems of gang violence, drug addiction and poverty, while attending a private school 40 minutes away in a predominantly white, wealthy community. In the opening chapter, she leaves a party in her neighborhood with Khalil, a childhood friend. They are pulled over while driving and, although neither has done anything wrong, the situation unravels and Khalil is shot and killed by the police officer. Starr is the only witness.

Publishers Weekly writes, “Though Thomas’s story is heartbreakingly topical, its greatest strength is in its authentic depiction of a teenage girl, her loving family, and her attempts to reconcile what she knows to be true about their lives with the way those lives are depicted—and completely undervalued—by society at large.” Kirkus reviews writes, “With smooth but powerful prose delivered in Starr’s natural, emphatic voice, finely nuanced characters, and intricate and realistic relationship dynamics, this novel will have readers rooting for Starr and opening their hearts to her friends and family.”

Author Angie Thomas

Author Angie Thomas is a young African American woman who holds a BFA in creative writing. She is a former teen rapper, who was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi. This is her first novel. The Hate U Give is currently in production as a feature length movie.

“It’s great to be able to share and discuss a book across generations,” says Sean Walsh, an English and drama teacher at Malden High School, who was one of the individuals who proposed the book to the Malden Reads selection committee. “This is currently a very popular book with teens, but it’s also a riveting and enriching read for adults.”

The Malden Reads selection process was a thoughtful, deliberative and cooperative one. This is the second time in eight years that a young adult novel was chosen as the main book selection. (The first was in 2013 with The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie.)

The committee wrestled with choosing a book with such sensitive and potentially divisive subject matter. But ultimately the engaging readability, the strength of the story and authenticity of the writing won the day. There was eventual consensus among the group that this year’s book can provide a springboard for thoughtful and civil dialogue in the community on topics that are nationally and locally important. The Hate U Give sensitively deals with many topics, not only the difficult issue of racial profiling and police brutality, but today’s adolescent world, racial and economic inequality, addiction, the role of social media, the complexity of family relationships, overcoming adversity, and what it takes to stand up for what one believes in.

The group reached out to the Police Chief Kevin Molis of the Malden Police Department before choosing the book to offer the opportunity for any input or concerns. Malden Reads wanted to assure the police force, whose leadership has always shown great support for the One City, One Book program, that this choice was not reflective of particular concerns with the city’s force, but that it offered opportunities to engage in constructive dialogue on what has become a national issue. The Police Chief was understanding of the choice and is open to participation in upcoming programming.

“The two-fold mission of Malden Reads is to promote reading and build community,” says Linda Zalk, a founding member of the Malden Reads committee. “So our goal is to facilitate constructive dialog and discussion that ultimately makes us a stronger community.”

Programming related to The Hate U Give will begin in February 2018. Opportunities for conversation on the book and related themes will be offered through book discussions, film screenings and special presentations. In addition, Malden Reads will continue to host fun and inclusive events that build community, such as dinners at local restaurants, a free night at Boda Borg and stargazing on Waitt’s Mount. Companion books for younger readers will be announced soon, sparking a range of programming for children and families about what it’s like to “stand in someone else’s shoes.” Malden Reads will continue to outreach local groups to collaborate with and co-host events.

Books will be available for purchase through The Book Oasis, an independent bookstore in Stoneham, as well as at the Malden Pops Up Gallery Gift Shop in Malden beginning November 16 at 480 Main St. The Malden Public Library will have copies for borrowing in various formats. The book selection committee will also provide a companion list of other suggested readings that will help to enrich the discussion of the book’s topics and themes.

The Malden Reads committee looks forward to deepening connections in the Malden community in 2018. For more information about Malden Reads, visit www.maldenreads.org. To contact the committee or be added to the email list, please email [email protected].

(Click to enjoy a retrospective slideshow of select images from Malden Reads.)

Eda Daniel & Maya Cohen promote Year 3 of the program.

The Malden Reads switchbox is on the corner of Route 60 (Eastern Ave.) and Route 99 (Broadway).

Preparing soup at the Stone Soup service event for Year 1 of the program.

Preparing bread for the Stone Soup meal.

A family enjoys storytelling before the stargazing event in Year 6 (Book choice: “The Martian” by Andy Weir.)

Sunny and Rowan Marcus pose with the 2015 book selection.

Students from MHS drama club at the Opening Celebration in 2012.

Students at the Ferryway School skype with companion book author, Joseph Bruchac in Year 3 of the program.

The Senior Center book club has read every Malden Reads selection.

Discussing “The Soloist” in Year 1 of the program.

Reading the Pre-K companion for 2017, “The Peace Book” by Todd Parr.

At the Opening Celebration in 2015.

Students from the Immigrant Learning Center participate in the Opening Celebration for 2012, “Outcasts United” by Warren St. John.

Liam Schwab and Ron Cox perform a skit based on the Year 6 book “The Martian” and companion book “Cosmic.”

The late Joseph Firecrow performed flute and storytelling at the Opening Celebration in 2014.

At the gourmet Gala Dinner in 2014.

A friendship circle dance for Year 3, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie.

Family drumming event at the library in 2014.

City Councillors and Malden Reads representative pose with the 2017 choice, “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman.

At El Potro Mexican restaurant for one of the many Community Dinners, a restaurant dining series.

The Parade of Community Organizations at the Malden Reads Jamboree in 2014.

Young students pose with companion book author Cammie McGovern in 2017.

Malden Reads announces 2018 selection Malden Reads is pleased to announce the book selection for 2018, the eighth year of Malden’s popular “One City, One Book” program—

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