#trouble thinking that minority families can be happy or living in the suburbs and still be realistic and compelling | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

musicprincess655 · 4 years

Link

Atsushi’s never seen Ranpo so excited. Well, not since the last time Fukuzawa brought him candy, anyway.

“What’s taking so long?” Ranpo whines. Atsushi ignores him, or tries to, because he’s trying to make sure they have everything before they leave so they don’t have to come back. “Poe-kun wouldn’t make me wait like this.”

“Then why don’t you take Poe-kun with you?” Atsushi suggests.

“Great idea!” Ranpo says. “Hey Poe-kun!”

Atsushi will never understand how Poe manages to look like a deer in headlights when most of his face isn’t even visible.

“Just go with Atsushi,” Poe says, hands wringing together. Ah. So it’s one of his especially anxious days. No wonder Fukuzawa had paired Atsushi and Ranpo up instead.

“But you’re way smarter than Atsushi!” Ranpo protests.

“Hey!” Atsushi complains. He’s mostly used to it now, though. He’s known Ranpo since Fukuzawa found Atsushi wandering the streets six years ago and took him in. Ranpo can be a bit of an acquired taste, but Atsushi’s had a lot of time to get used to him.

“I’ll hang out with you when you get back,” Poe says.

“Promise?”

“Yes?”

On paper, Poe and Ranpo shouldn’t work at all. Ranpo is pushy where Poe is timid, loud and demanding where Poe would rather just fade into the background, but somehow, they balance each other instead of drowning each other out.

“Atsushi-kun, move it!” Ranpo demands. “I want to get this over with so I can hang out with Poe-kun.”

“You were so excited to go on a case a minute ago,” Atsushi sighs. “Don’t you want to investigate a murder?”

They’re not the police. They don’t even have all that much power, really. They’re just a detective agency, and they might not be able to throw people in jail, but they can give people answers. Here in the Lost Town, the suburb of people only just barely allowed to stay within No. 6’s walls, sometimes answers are the best people can ask for.

“You two need to get going.” Fukuzawa himself has emerged from his office. “The body won’t be here that much longer. Someone will pick it up to dispose of it soon.”

They’re not the police, and that’s why they do what they do. A murder in the Lost Town won’t get more than a cursory look. All the detective agency can do is fill in the gaps as best they can.

Theoretically, Atsushi doesn’t need to be going at all. Ranpo is a good enough detective that the rest of the agency combined can’t match him, although Poe is the best at trying. There’s just the minor problem that Ranpo gets lost in the maze of side streets that make up the Lost Town.

So Atsushi is a glorified babysitter.

“Atsushi-kun.” Fukuzawa beckons Atsushi over. “This is a weird one.”

“You said that before,” Atsushi replies. “What does that mean?”

“It means be careful,” Fukuzawa says. “I can’t tell without looking, but I think this one might even give Ranpo trouble. And anything that can give Ranpo trouble is bad news.”

“I won’t get caught up in some weird gang,” Atsushi promises, and then amends, “again.”

“No, I think you know better by now,” Fukuzawa agrees. “What I mean is…if the answers in this case are dangerous, don’t get too close. Don’t look too hard at the biggest lies.”

“The ones No. 6 tells us?”

“Careful who you say that to.”

Atsushi wants to keep pushing, but the pinched look on Fukuzawa’s face stops him. It’s a look Fukuzawa only gets on occasion, when he’s had a few too many whiskeys and opens up an old file with the name “Dazai Osamu” on it.

Atsushi’s only looked in that file once, when he was thirteen and still too curious to know when he wasn’t allowed places. He’d only seen a few things before Fukuzawa had ripped the file away from him, sending Atsushi cowering from his glare. Fukuzawa had softened, then, and that was the first time he’d told Atsushi what had become the only real rule at the detective agency.

Don’t look too hard at the biggest lies.

Atsushi doesn’t know why a suicide victim from eleven years ago would cause this reaction in Fukuzawa, but he’s learned better than to question it.

“And be patient with Ranpo,” Fukuzawa continues. “He’s getting frustrated because Poe can’t go out with him much lately, but I’d rather keep Poe out of sight until the rumors about the Guild die down.”

“Do you think they’re true?” Atsushi asks.

“I think whether they’re true or not, I respect that Poe wants to wait them out,” Fukuzawa says. “Keep Ranpo on track, you’ll be fine.”

“Will do.”

Fukuzawa gives Atsushi’s hair one affectionate ruffle and sends him on his way.

Ranpo is more obnoxious than usual today, and Atsushi tries to be understanding. He knows it must suck to have to leave Poe behind so much lately, and Ranpo has never been the most patient to begin with. Still, after three unintended detours, Atsushi is about ready to make this a double homicide investigation.

“Finally! A body!”

“This is why Fukuzawa-san doesn’t let you talk to customers,” Atsushi says. Ranpo ignores him. “What do you think?”

“I think there’s not much here,” Ranpo says. “It looks like an old person just keeled over and died.”

“We should at least look for an ID,” Atsushi says. “We can tell their family.”

“Hm. Gross,” Ranpo says as he watches Atsushi pick up the wrist. Atsushi rolls his eyes, but taps the wristband on. Everyone in No. 6 wears one. It’s the only way to interact with a lot of the technology, the only way to get into some buildings, and it holds all of a person’s information. This will tell them who the body used to belong to.

“Well that’s…weird,” Atsushi says. Ranpo leans over his shoulder.

The woman in the photo is young, barely older than Atsushi. The body her wristband is attached to is shriveled and aged.

“Maybe she’s wearing someone else’s wristband,” Atsushi suggests.

“Same clothes as the person in the photo,” Ranpo points out. “It’s a strange coincidence, if it is one.”

“Fair point.” Atsushi squints at the back of her neck. There’s a discolored mark. He pulls down the collar of her coat, and a dead wasp falls out.

Ranpo whistles.

“That’s one hell of an allergic reaction,” he says.

“You think an allergic reaction could do this?” Atsushi asks. He’s never heard of anything that could make someone age sixty years in a few hours.

“I don’t know what could do this, but Yosano might,” Ranpo says. “We could ask her.”

“That might be our best bet,” Atsushi says. “At least we know who the victim was. She’s probably not even a missing person case yet. They only found her body a few hours ago.”

“If her family comes looking for her, we have something to tell them,” Ranpo agrees. He’s probably noticed more than Atsushi has, probably has a million theories whirling around in his brain. He’s a fantastic detective, but he’s not infallible, and there is such a thing as too weird for him.

Not that Atsushi ever thought he would see a case that was too weird for Ranpo, but still.

“Maybe No. 6 knows something about this,” Atsushi muses. There’s a cleanup crew coming, which means it’s time for Atsushi and Ranpo to make themselves scarce.

“Someone’s trying to get himself arrested,” Ranpo teases, which is a very Ranpo way of expressing concern. Atsushi lets the subject drop in favor of something new.

“Do you think the Guild really is back?” Atsushi asks as they leave the body.

“I think Poe-kun worries too much,” Ranpo says, but he’s gone a little more serious. “I don’t think they’re here for him, anyway. But they’re here.”

“How long?”

“At least a few weeks,” Ranpo says. “I think they might be recruiting again.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Ranpo shrugs. “It’s not easy to live outside all of the habitable areas, even with all the money they have. If they can snatch up new members to help the cause, why not?”

The Guild has always been part true and part fairy tale, at least to Atsushi. He wouldn’t believe in them at all, a group that rejects the six remaining habitable zones on Earth to fly over the ocean in a blimp, wouldn’t believe they were anything more than propaganda directly from the leaders of No. 6, but because Poe used to be a member, he knows they’re all too real, and not at all the fairy tale they seem.

Poe doesn’t like to talk about his time in the Guild, and Atsushi doesn’t like to ask, doesn’t like to watch Poe’s face go even paler and his shoulders hunch in on themselves. Ranpo might know more, but even with his close relationship to Poe, he might not. What he does know, however, he keeps to himself.

The walk back to the detective agency is much quicker. Ranpo is less likely to wander off when Poe is involved, which is why Poe is the usual assigned Ranpo-wrangler. Atsushi is about to follow Ranpo up the stairs when he spots a familiar face.

“Lucy-chan!”

She raises her hand in greeting.

“Go have fun with your girlfriend,” Ranpo says with a sly smile. “I’ll cover for you.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Atsushi says. “But thanks.”

Lucy is nearly the same height as Atsushi, even now that they’re both grown. They’d lost contact for over a year while Atsushi was on the streets, and it wasn’t until he’d been with Fukuzawa for months that they finally met again.

“I have something to tell you,” she says instead of a greeting. Her cheeks are flushed pink with excitement. “Something amazing happened.”

“You’re not getting kicked out of Chronos?” Atsushi guesses. It’s the only thing he can think of that would make her so happy. And he’d be happy for her. She’d get to stay in a life of luxury, and after the hard life she’s had, she deserves that.

“Even better,” Lucy says breathlessly. “I have an offer to join the Guild.”

Atsushi freezes. At least now he knows all the rumors about the Guild being here are true. He has more pressing issues now, though.

“You’re taking them up on it?” he asks. “Lucy-chan, they’re dangerous.”

“They’re different,” Lucy insists. “All they’re trying to do is live freely from all the city-states. What’s so dangerous about that?”

“They have to steal from the city-states to survive,” Atsushi says. “They’re basically terrorists.”

“You’re only scared of them because No. 6 wants you to be scared of them,” Lucy scoffs. “They don’t take so much that it kills a city-state. They’re just outside of No. 6’s control. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to get away from No. 6?”

“But joining the Guild?” Atsushi asks. No matter what Lucy says, Poe wouldn’t be this scared of the Guild if they were really such a Robin Hood kind of organization, stealing only what they need to remain free of the control of the city-states.

“You could come with me,” Lucy offers. “They said if I have friends that can help, they can come. You’re a detective, I’m sure they’d take you too. We could escape from No. 6 together.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Atsushi starts hesitantly, but Lucy barrels on, undaunted.

“They’re doing a tour of the city-states to find new members, and they’ll let us all out to explore,” she continues. “We’d get to see the rest of the world. We’d never get that chance if we stayed here. Come with me.”

Atsushi is curious about the rest of this world he lives in, he’ll admit to that. The offer of travelling around the world, beholden to none of the city-states, is tempting. But then he thinks about Fukuzawa, that pinched look he gets at the idea of Dazai Osamu, but also the soft look of pride he sometimes directs Atsushi’s way. He thinks of Tanizaki Junichirou and his sister Naomi, his two closest friends after Lucy. He thinks of Kunikida, gruff but affectionate under all of it, and Yosano, the doctor with a sadistic streak and a snappy attitude to match, and Ranpo and Poe, and he already knows his answer.

“I can’t,” he tells Lucy. “I have people here I can’t leave. I want to stay.”

“You could be free of No. 6,” Lucy says, clearly disappointed. “Think about it. The Moby Dick leaves tomorrow morning.”

“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Even if he intends to let her leave without him, she’s still his oldest friend. The thought of losing her so soon hurts desperately.

“You have until then to decide,” she says. She fidgets with her hands, and looks at him cautiously, searching for something in his face. He can’t tell if what she finds encourages her, but she continues with all the confidence she didn’t have when they were twelve. “If you won’t come with me, can I have something else to remember you by?”

“What do you want?” Atsushi asks.

“A kiss,” she replies. Her cheeks have gone ruddy, but she stands her ground.

“Lucy-chan…” Atsushi trails off as he tries to figure out what he wants to say. He likes Lucy, might even love her, but not in the kind of way where he’ll be giving her kisses. “You’ve never kissed anyone before, right?”

“Neither have you,” she shoots back hotly.

“That’s my point,” he says. “Shouldn’t a first kiss be special? Do you really want it to be because you’re leaving?”

“That’s not special enough for you?” she snaps, but she’s already losing steam. She has more confidence than when they were kids, but not by much. “Are you saying no?”

“I’m saying no,” he says. “Do you maybe want a hug?”

“We’re not kids anymore,” she complains, but she falls into his arms anyway.

He holds her close, the only good thing in his life for so long. Even if neither of them will ever lose the scars from the orphanage, even if they’ll always have those shared memories hanging between them, Atsushi is going to miss her terribly.

“I still hope you’ll change your mind,” Lucy says when they part. “We’re going to No. 5 next. It’s by the sea. It’s supposed to be beautiful.”

“I hope you’re happy there,” Atsushi tells her. “I hope you’re happy everywhere you go.”

“The worst part about you is you mean it,” Lucy says. “Goodbye, Nakajima Atsushi. It’s been a pleasure to have known you.”

“Goodbye, Lucy Maud Montgomery,” Atsushi says, just to mimic her. “I hope you have a long, happy life.”

Lucy waves just once as she leaves, and while Atsushi is sad to see her go, he doesn’t regret not going with her. He’s built a life for himself here in the Lost Town, surrounded by people he cares about, people who care about him. He’s not giving that up.

Atsushi almost shrieks when something lands on his shoulder. His eyes can strain just far enough to see a rat sitting there.

“Start running,” the rat says, in a voice that is deeper, but just as rough and scratchy as it is in Atsushi’s memories.

“Akutagawa?”

#shin soukoku #sskk #akuatsu #atsuaku #bungou stray dogs #bsd #my writing #systasis #no. 6 au

10 notes · View notes

theagencyrp · 6 years

Photo

[[LOADING FILE]]

>>:// [[ACCESS GRANTED]]

ALIAS: AGENT MONROE NAME: [[REDACTED]] POSITION: FIELD OPERATIVE ACCESS LEVEL: ONE

>>:// [[AGENT MONROE INTEL]]

>> Agent Monroe prefers to have blonde hair when possible, despite not being naturally blonde. >> Top Proficiencies: Stealth; Interpersonal Skills; Reconnaissance >> Peer Evaluation: Agent Monroe’s personality on missions has been compared to New England weather: If you don’t like it, wait five minutes; it’ll change. In the bunker, while not an unpleasant person, she is not as deliberately charming. >> Agent Monroe has been known to do impressions of founders and other agents with mixed responses.

>>:// [[AGENT MONROE IS TAKEN]]

Faceclaim: Samara Weaving

>>:// ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS CODENAME: MONROE >>:// DECRYPTING >>:// TEMPORARY ACCESS GRANTED

Character’s real name: Anna Daphne Miller

First choice FC: Samara Weaving

Second choice FC: Skyler Samuels

Character gender and pronouns: CisFemale, She/Her

Character age: 25

Please list at least two reasons why the Agency looked to recruit your character:

Drama Queen: Anna’s experience with theatre (and party crashing) taught her how to read people and situations and to have a very malleable outward persona. Not only can she shift her apparent personality drastically, she can do so rapidly, allowing her to blend into different environments as she moves through them and gain people’s trust as she goes. Studying theatre also required her to study movement, so even though she had no experience with hand-to-hand combat prior to being recruited, she was physically fit and flexible, leaving her in a good position to learn.

Behind the Scenes: Anna also learned valuable skills from her involvement in the technical theatre. Just as she knows how to bring attention to herself, she also knows how to send it away and direct it elsewhere. She is resourceful, attentive to detail, good at working within a team, and focused under pressure. Additionally, she has no trouble walking around oddly shaped spaces littered with obstacles in absolute darkness.

Anna Daphne Miller was born to Christine Miller, a museum curator, on December 21, 1992. Anna grew up as a latchkey kid in a nice suburb in Western Massachusetts. Christine always loved reading to Anna, who inherited her mother’s love of books and ended up spending a lot of her spare time at the local library. At school, she was focused and excited to learn and on weekends she loved going to the museum with her mother.

She had her first experience with theatre at the age of ten. Her fifth-grade class spent the spring preparing to put on (a significantly shortened version of) Peter Pan. Anna was assigned to play one of the extra lost boys her teacher had invented so there would be enough rolls for everyone, but despite having only half of one line, she was instantly hooked. When Anna started middle school, she quickly found more opportunities to participate, and it quickly became her primary extracurricular. In ninth grade, when she didn’t get into the fall play (it was a small cast and seniors got priority), she was crushed until Christine suggested she could still be involved by joining the crew. She loved it, and soon she was choosing to be backstage almost as often as she was on stage.

Anna did well enough in her other classes, with particularly strong marks in English, but her true passion was theatre. Still Christine insisted she go to college somewhere where she could study a range of subjects, wanting Anna to receive a well-rounded education. She was accepted to a liberal arts college in the Midwest with a good theatre program, satisfying both women. Everything seemed to be going perfectly.

Christine died in a car accident about a month after Anna graduated high-school. She was able to defer her enrollment a year, and took that year to get her mother’s affairs, and herself, back in order. When she did start college, she was fine. She made friends, got good grades, and quickly declared a major in theatre and a minor in literature. Still she did her best to avoid coming home, staying on campus or with friends whenever she could, and she began to lose touch with the people she’d grown up around.

Her junior year, she and her friends started crashing parties. Maybe it was spurred on by a need for adventure, maybe it was a lack of parental guidance, maybe she’d started to realize that theatre wasn’t enough for her any more, or maybe it was just a desire for something that wasn’t dining hall food, she couldn’t tell you. They started small, sneaking through the cocktail parties of on-campus weddings to grab hors d’oeuvres, but soon enough, they wanted more. They started going off campus, going thrift shopping to match dress codes. At the time, it seemed silly and harmless. Occasionally one of them would get caught, get sent out with a light scolding and a “kids these days,” since they weren’t actually causing any trouble. Sooner or later they each had a similar story.

Except for Anna. Anna never got caught. Her friends would tease that she’d called in advance, bribed the host for a real invite. She would just roll her eyes and tease back, “No. I’m just good at this.”

It was winter break her senior year when she broke her perfect record. She was staying with one of her friends, Megan, who lived on a street lined with houses that were practically mansions. Someone new had just moved in down the road, Megan explained, and they were throwing a big, fancy holiday party. “We should go,” said Megan, knowing Anna wouldn’t object. Then she added, “And we should take something, so that everyone believes us when we get back.”

Megan got spotted within fifteen minutes of getting there, cover blown by a mutual neighbor, but Anna stayed. Eventually, she found an opportunity to sneak further into the house unnoticed and was able to snatch a monogrammed hand towel and hide it in her purse. She returned to the party for a few minutes, and once it wouldn’t have been suspicious, left and made her way back to Megan’s house. She thought she’d pulled the whole adventure off unnoticed, and it was true, she hadn’t been noticed yet. However, she had failed to recognize the security cameras tucked into the sconces in the hallways.

The next day, the host of the party stopped by Megan’s house, but asked to see Anna. He was an older gentleman, polite and amused, and only requested that Anna return the hand towel, which Anna was more than happy to do. He didn’t tell Megan’s parents, and he didn’t call the police, he assured Anna. What he didn’t tell her, was that he’d made a different call entirely.

Anna thought that was the end of it. She went back to school and continued life as normal, not realizing she was being watched. It wasn’t until spring break that it came up again. She was reading in the campus library when someone she’d never seen before approached her. They knew all about her and about the holiday party too. Apparently, they were a friend, she could hear the italics in their speech, of the gracious host, they explained. Then they made her an offer.

She started training as soon as she graduated. At first, she felt out of place; her background felt so different from everyone else around her. She wasn’t a science genius or an experienced fighter. Still, she persisted, because she knew she wouldn’t get an opportunity so perfect again: it was everything she loved about theatre, and yet, so much more. She learned what she needed to, practiced as much as she could, and graduated training feeling like she’d found a new purpose and maybe a new family as well.

Character personality:

Pros: Determined, Passionate, Resourceful, Playful

Cons: Impatient, blunt, abrasive

Anna is happy and friendly, she’s just not always the best at expressing that. She spends her assignments constantly pretending to be people she isn’t, so when she’s back at the bunker, she prefers to be as honest as she can. It’s how she shows that she trusts people, but it can come off insensitive or critical sometimes. She doesn’t mean to hurt anyone; she cares a lot about those around her, considering the agency her family. She truly wants to be helpful, she just doesn’t have the patience to “sugar coat” anything; it feels like lying to her, and she does her best to leave the lies outside the bunker.

That being said, she loves to make people happy whenever possible, especially by making them laugh. She’ll do whatever she can: funny faces, bad puns, melodramatic responses. If it’s safe and she thinks it’ll make a friend’s day at all better, she’ll do it, no matter how ridiculous.

Anna is persistent. She’ll try to do whatever it takes to complete a mission or accomplish a goal, and she hates feeling like she’s being held back or unnecessarily made to wait.

OTHER:

Her favorite suit (she has a few for different situations/dress codes) is a midnight blue evening gown. The skirt is tear away, in case she has to fight, and makes a rather effective shield.

She has a solo room as she appreciates having a space where she can just get away from people. Besides her bed, its main features are a simple vanity (with plenty of drawers), a couple of bookshelves filled with her ever growing collection of books and movies, and a flat screen TV with a DVD/Blu-Ray player and a fancy sound system.

While she doesn’t have a favorite, the most important book in Anna’s collection is a copy of The Hobbit. It was one of the first books her mother read to her growing up, and they read it again together many times. This copy is particularly special: Her mother wrote a letter (equal parts heartfelt and cheesy) on the title page and gave it to Anna as a graduation gift (at the time, she teased that it was just because she didn’t want Anna stealing her copy to take to college). Anna keeps it in her bedside table, rather than on the shelf, because she likes to read the letter before she goes to sleep sometimes.

Her skin care routine isn’t insane, but she does have one.

She wears reading glasses when reading for extended periods of time.

She sings in the shower.

She likes tea (especially anything with jasmine).

She doesn’t bleach her own hair. She tried it once in high school, and it went badly. Really badly. There are photos. She won’t share them.

She picked up some ballroom dancing in college and is happy to teach anyone who want to learn, mostly because she wants someone to practice with.

She has a pretty serious sweet tooth, and a particular weakness for anything with dark chocolate.

She hates needles.

She’s very close to her mentor, as they provided the guidance and reassurance she’d been so sorely lacking since her mother died.

#monroe #field #one #taken

1 note · View note

kacydeneen · 6 years

Text

'Trump Democrats' Give GOP Hope for a Midterm Win in Minn.

For much of her life, Jacqueline Koski considered herself a Democrat. The Minnesotan almost always backed the party down the ballot. She voted for President Barack Obama twice. During the 2016 primary she threw her support behind U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders, an independent vying for the Democratic nomination.

But after Hillary Clinton won the nomination, the 52-year-old store owner started to rethink her longtime political allegiances. She was tired of what she saw as a cloud of controversy trailing the Clintons. And while she didn't like Donald Trump much either, she deemed him the lesser of two evils.

How US Birthright Citizenship Emerged, Endured

"We really didn't vote for Trump," Koski explained. "We voted against Hillary."

This year, Koski once again found herself facing a difficult choice in a heated campaign. She lives in Duluth, a port city on Lake Superior in the heart of one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Fact Check: Trump Off Track on Birthright Citizenship

Up for grabs is Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District, where Democrat Joe Radinovich and Republican Pete Stauber are jockeying to succeed outgoing Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan. The race is seen as one of the GOP's best and only hopes for flipping a seat held by Democrats this year and has attracted national headlines, along with more than $7 million in spending from outside groups.

Whether voters like Koski swing back to Democrats or stick with the GOP this November could have consequences that go beyond who represents the district's residents.

Ben & Jerry's Unveils Pecan Resist Flavor Ahead of Midterms

This article, part 6 in a series, examines one of the key battleground races for control of the House of Representatives in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Carried by grassroots momentum, Democrats must take 23 seats from Republicans to win the balance of power. They are contending with Republicans' experience and organization, and an outspoken but polarizing president.

The Eighth District covers a vast swath of rural northeastern Minnesota that stretches from the Canadian border through the iron ore deposits of the Iron Range to the Twin Cities' northern suburbs. Strong labor ties forged through the mining and shipping industries rendered the region reliably blue for most of the past seven decades. But Trump and his message of economic populism struck a chord. He won the district by about 15 points in 2016.

Nolan, the Democratic congressman, managed to eke out a victory that year, but the president's landslide win put the already-targeted seat on the radar of national election handicappers, who predicted the midterms would deliver another tight race. Nolan's decision not to seek another term promised to make it even closer.

"The Iron Range used to be solidly Democrat," said David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University in St. Paul. "Now, it's become 'Trump Democrats.'"

This year's race pits Radinovich, a 32-year-old former state legislator and Nolan campaign manager, against Stauber, a 52-year-old county commissioner, retired police officer and minor league hockey player. Skip Sandman, an independent candidate who ran for the seat as the Green Party nominee in 2014, is also on the ballot.

As in many swing districts nationwide, the economy, health care and trade have been the subject of intense debate.

Both candidates have pledged to keep Medicare and Social Security intact — positions crucial for winning over the district's sizable aging population — and voiced support for Trump's steel tariffs, which helped raise the price on local iron ore and steel.

But they diverge on other key issues, like health care and the Trump tax cuts, both of which Stauber supports.

"He's got really good business sense and he's propelling it with his administration," Stauber said of the president's performance on jobs and the economy in a recent debate hosted by Minnesota Public Radio.

Democrats believe those issues give them an edge. Radinovich's embrace of progressive policies, like a "Medicare for All"-type system and a $15 minimum wage, helped him sail through a five-way primary, and he has criticized Trump's tax cuts as overwhelmingly helping the rich, not the district's voters. Just last week, the pro-Democrat House Majority PAC announced a six-figure TV ad buy hitting Stauber on health care costs and claims that the GOP's proposals would raise prices for seniors.

Stauber, who has criticized the Affordable Care Act, says he would not roll back protections for pre-existing conditions. He often cites his own experience raising a child with Down Syndrome, which is considered a pre-existing condition by insurance companies.

"Health care, the economy, social security, all of these issues are still at the forefront of this election," said Tamara Jones, a 41-year-old Democratic operative in Duluth. "I think people are looking for someone who can solve these problems."

But the race has taken a deeply personal turn. Republican-allied groups ran TV ads hitting Radinovich over past traffic tickets and a drug paraphernalia arrest when he was 18. Radinovich, whose campaign did not agree to an interview for this article, responded to those attacks in a heartfelt video in which he opened up about losing his mother in a murder-suicide committed by another relative when he was a teen.

"These millionaires and billionaires and Washington special interests flooding our airwaves with negative ads want you to believe we should be forever defined by our mistakes, by our lowest moments, by our struggles," Radinovich said in the video. "What I know is my struggles have made me stronger and given me a deeper understanding of what community's about and what's at stake in this election."

Democrats have countered with attacks on Stauber's integrity, accusing him of flouting the law and county ethics policy by using his government account to communicate with the National Republican Congressional Committee. The Minnesota arm of the Democratic Party this week won a judge's order, making those exchanges public.

The onslaught of ads, most of which are attacks on Radinovich, appears to have left a mark on voters. A recent New York Times/Siena poll showed Stauber leading by double digits, a major shift from a month before, when the two were running neck-and-neck.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the race from a toss-up to leaning toward vote Republican. Cook only rates two other seats currently held by Democrats as toss-up or better for Republicans: one in Pennsylvania where court-mandated redistricting will likely benefit Democrats statewide, the other a toss-up race along Minnesota's southern border.

In the Eighth District, Democrats hope an energized base and advantages in the state's gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races (both Senate seats are up for a vote due to former Sen. Al Franken's resignation last year) will lift them to victory, despite the odds.

"I think this will be a referendum on this administration," Jones said. "The Democrats are fired up to win. They're out knocking doors. They've got a field program."

But if it does indeed come down to a referendum on the administration, the president himself may be a trump card for Stauber. While his approval ratings have plummeted statewide, Trump's numbers remain strong across Northern Minnesota.

He drew large crowds at his two campaign stops in Minnesota this year, including one in Duluth to stump for Stauber. Other White House surrogates, including Vice President Mike Pence and Lara Trump, have also come to the GOP nominee's aid.

"The popularity of President Trump in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District is as intense, if not more, than on election night," Stauber, whose campaign did not agree to interview requests, told The New York Times. "He's fighting for our way of life, mining, manufacturing timber harvesting, low unemployment."

Whether support for Trump in the district translates into a win for Stauber will be closely watched by political strategists, and not just because of what's at stake on Nov. 6. The results in the Eighth and across Minnesota might also forecast what's to come in the 2020 presidential race, according to Schultz.

"Is 2016 an indictment of Clinton in the upper Midwest or a sign that an area that used to be pretty reliable for the Democrats — and the state that's been the most reliable state in the country for the Democratic presidential candidates — is changing?" said Schultz, who wrote a book on presidential swing states.

Koski, the swing voter, has few regrets about her support for Trump. She's happy with the economy and fed up with what she sees as personal attacks against the president coming from Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

Koski also sided with Republicans during the Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanuagh, whom she believes faced unfair and politically motivated allegations of sexual assault.

Still, deciding which congressional candidate to support this year wasn't easy. While she was drawn to Stauber's experience, she had reservations over his response to a long-running personal issue she's had with officials in the county involving deaths in her family and a custody dispute.

And while she worries Radinovich's policy positions are "reckless," she didn't appreciate the GOP "kicking a dead horse" by attacking the Democrat over traffic fines.

"More often than not people have trouble paying their bills," Koski said. "More people are going to relate to Joe on that."

In the end, she decided to continue her Republican streak and support Stauber over Radinovich. But even more than seeing her candidate win, Koski is ready for the heated midterm fight to be over.

"It's no doubt that this is a really important race," she said. "When you can cut tension with a knife between neighbors because of lawn signs, it's insane."

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. 'Trump Democrats' Give GOP Hope for a Midterm Win in Minn. published first on Miami News

0 notes

heliosfinance · 7 years

Text

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth

[Hey guys!! I have SUCH a great post for you today, and one that I am beyond honored to be able to feature as our friend “comes out” here to share his incredible journey with us. If you only read one article today, I hope this one is it. Please pass it on afterwards!]

********

My goal is to save one reader’s life out there with this story about drugs, death, and the ten-year prison sentence I survived. My name is Billy B. from Wealth Well Done, and this is how I survived prison and accidentally found my path to wealth.

My nightmare began on a summer-school morning in 2002. I was a normal 21-year-old college student who stumbled to class with a drug hangover.

As I walked home, I called a friend who had partied with me the night before. His roommate answered the phone.

“He’s dead! He’s dead!” He yelled, “You have to get out of there now!”

I dropped the phone. I heard his voice yelling at me. “The police are here and they’re looking for you!”

I ran out of my apartment not knowing what to do. The police were already in the hallway looking for me. They stopped me as I tried to walk past them.

I felt their handcuffs slide on my wrists. I said in shock, “But my friend was OK when he left?”

“You’re in a lot of trouble kid,” they said, as they walked me to their squad car. I remember staring out the window as they drove me to jail. This wasn’t supposed to happen to good kids like us, but it was happening to me. As I walked into my first jail cell, I broke down and cried into my pillow so the other inmates wouldn’t hear me crying.

Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance

My friend walked home and died in his sleep that night. The following day I was arrested and charged with, “Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance” for the death of my friend.

I sat in jail for a year going through the trial. The police only had to prove that I had provided some of the drugs we used that night, and I had done that. I never meant to harm anyone. We never thought we could die. It was a harsh awakening to what can happen when you choose to make risky, dangerous decisions with your life.

Eventually, for my first time in serious trouble, I was sentenced to ten years in prison for what I thought was just “innocent and fun” partying.

[You can read the entire story of that night here, as well as my court case and the entire 10 year journey of getting through prison. Bookmark it for later – I think you’ll get something out of it.]

10 Years of Prison

The hardest part about being sentenced to prison was figuring out what I was supposed to do next. Was I supposed to wallow in shame and depression for the rest of my life? Or was it OK for me to forgive myself and fight for a second chance?

I struggled with these questions during my first year of incarceration. I eventually decided that it was OK to forgive myself for the mistakes I’d made. It was an accident; I wasn’t a bad person. I decided to take my future into my own hands, and even though I was going to be in prison for the next ten years, I chose to make fighting for my second chance my next mission and purpose in life.

I stayed sane in a prison by falling in love with writing. Writing daily journals allowed me to mentally escape the concrete-blocks and razor-wire-fences surrounding me. Writing set me free to explore the landscapes in my imagination, and the spiritual forces creating my reality. Rather than being defined by the prison I was in, I let my new self-exploration and self-education define who I was becoming.

I started to dream about becoming a great writer. That dream gave me a challenge to work at every day. I kept very detailed notes about the adventures I experienced in prison. My prison journals now total over 3,000 pages. I publish these journals at my other blog: PurposePages.com. The Purpose Pages tells the story of how I built my character to become the person I am today.

Recapturing My Freedom

On August 21st, 2012, I was finally released from the prison that had held me captive for 3,650 days. (There was no good-time or parole offered in the state of Wisconsin so I had to do every day of the ten years) My loving and supportive friends and family picked me up at the front gates and drove me home to Minnesota where I started my new life.

This is a picture of me the morning I was released:

My transition back into the free-world felt incredible. But it was scary and challenging at the same time. It felt amazing to do anything I wanted, at any time. Even the simple things like cooking my own meal, at a time I decided, were stunningly beautiful. But I also felt like an alien as I adjusted to a new society I hadn’t interacted with in ten years.

I went to prison when I was a 21 year old kid. I was now a 31-year-old man who had forgotten how to do normal things like drive a car, and create an email address.

The technological advances I encountered were stunning. I hadn’t seen the internet in a decade. I had never touched a smart phone. I had no concept of what social media was. I had only heard about these things from new inmates arriving to prison to begin their 5, 10, 30 year, or life, sentences. They’d try to explain what had happened in the free world since I’d left, but the concepts were so foreign that I could never fully understand them.

Getting Back On My Feet

As I re-entered the free world, I was faced with the challenge of starting my life over as an adult with no job skills, work-history, or network of people to ask for help.

But rather than being discouraged by the skills I didn’t have, I tried to focus on the skills I did have. While in prison, I had learned to communicate and be friends with every race, economic-class, and personality-type you will find in America.

I had grown up in the white, educated suburbs, so I felt comfortable in these privileged environments. But in prison, I had learned to make the street-smart decisions that determined life or death among minority groups. Another one of my strengths: I didn’t have any fear. After all, what’s left to be afraid of once you’ve survived 10 years in prison? Nothing! I was ready to live!

Six days after being released from prison, I returned to college to finish my senior year. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA. But I knew proving my “classroom intelligence” was the easy part. The hard part was going to prove that I was “street smart” enough to will my dreams into existence once I encountered the challenges in the real world.

I got my first job stacking magazines on shelves at big-box retail stores and I made $9.25 an hour. It wasn’t a lot of money, but I was proud that I had just gotten a job. I continued interviewing for better jobs. At one of these interviews, a business-owner offered me some advice that would change my life:

“I can give you a job.” he said. “But I can see you have natural people and sales skills. You also have the ambition and fearlessness to be an entrepreneur. If you’d like, I can teach you how to start your own business. You can work from home and sell my products, and anything else, you’d like.”

In prison, I spent my time training my mind to spot opportunities. I instantly saw a cool one. So in 2014, I started my first business. I went door-to-door introducing myself to businesses, and I asked them if they could use my company for their branded apparel needs (t-shirts, jackets, hats, etc). I heard a lot of “No’s,” but I started to get some, “Yes’s” too. By the end of my first year, I was amazed that I’d sold $180,000 worth of product. I was now profitable enough that I could start saving money.

Accidentally Building Wealth

I saved every dollar I made in my first two years. I had learned in prison that happiness is not dependent on needing a lot of money. Happiness is found when you have the time to explore the dreams of your soul, and then executing plans to turn those dreams into your reality.

Money didn’t exist in prison, and I loved not having to worry, or think, about it. But I found very quickly that money mattered in the free world. You needed money to live, or you’d quickly be heading back to prison.

That realization motivated me to save $40,000 in my first two years of freedom. In 2013, I met my wife and we had a wedding in my parent’s living room for under $1K. We bought our first house with the remaining $39K we had so we could start our own life together. We continued to save aggressively because I one day dreamed of returning to a life where money didn’t matter. I wanted to spend my life thinking, studying, writing, and developing my own philosophies on what the meaning and purpose of a great life is just like I had done in prison.

My journey to wealth really happened on accident. I was so focused on building my new life, that I didn’t realize that my saving and investing habits were making me rich along the way. I am still amazed that I have only been out of prison for 5 years and I am worth around a quarter-million dollars with holdings in cash, stocks, and real-estate.

The truth is: If I can still fight for my dreams with a smile on my face, after all the crap I’ve been through in life, then anyone can do it if they try hard enough!

This is the day we bought our first investment property:

The Drug Epidemic Is Real

I recently read a New York Times article stating that drug-overdose deaths are the highest they’ve ever been in America. 1-in-3 American’s have a criminal record. All families have felt the nightmare of drug-abuse and incarceration in some way. I realize I can do something about this. I can help fight against this problem.

The first step I am taking to achieve this goal is to publish my first novel, “Spark” at, Wealth Well Done, and give it away for free for a limited time. You can get it here.

I wrote “Spark” with the famous young-adult novelist, Gary Paulsen. (Author of 180+ books, including, “Hatchet” which sold millions of copies.) Gary heard about me when I was in prison, and once he read my writing he asked to be my friend and writing mentor. I wrote the novel “Spark” as a practice story for him to teach me how to write better. You can imagine how ecstatic I was the day I got a letter from a famous author in my prison cell, asking me to call him at his home to talk about writing! Even though I was in prison, it was one of the best days of my life.

“Spark” is the story of a kid in serious trouble. He meets a successful businessman who survived his own troubled life in prison. It is a mentoring story about what I would say to my troubled teenage-self if I could meet him today. My dream is to become a great novelist who can inspire people to live more awesome lives.

In conclusion, please share this story. Together we can save at least one person’s life out there. There is a drug and prison epidemic happening in America right now. We can do something about it.

I’ll be responding to all comments below. Contact me with questions and ways I can help. The more we talk about overcoming the prisons we all find ourselves in – whether financial, emotional, or physical prisons – the better we can make this world.

******* Billy B. is the blogger behind WealthWellDone.com, and is on a mission to help re-define wealth. The wealthiest person is NOT the person with the most money. The wealthiest person is the individual who best masters their mind, compounds their cash, and PURSUES THEIR PURPOSE IN LIFE. You can find him on Twitter @WealthWellDone as well as on Facebook.

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

0 notes

fesahaawit · 7 years

Text

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth

********

My nightmare began on a summer-school morning in 2002. I was a normal 21-year-old college student who stumbled to class with a drug hangover.

As I walked home, I called a friend who had partied with me the night before. His roommate answered the phone.

“He’s dead! He’s dead!” He yelled, “You have to get out of there now!”

I dropped the phone. I heard his voice yelling at me. “The police are here and they’re looking for you!”

I ran out of my apartment not knowing what to do. The police were already in the hallway looking for me. They stopped me as I tried to walk past them.

I felt their handcuffs slide on my wrists. I said in shock, “But my friend was OK when he left?”

Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance

My friend walked home and died in his sleep that night. The following day I was arrested and charged with, “Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance” for the death of my friend.

Eventually, for my first time in serious trouble, I was sentenced to ten years in prison for what I thought was just “innocent and fun” partying.

10 Years of Prison

Recapturing My Freedom

This is a picture of me the morning I was released:

I went to prison when I was a 21 year old kid. I was now a 31-year-old man who had forgotten how to do normal things like drive a car, and create an email address.

Getting Back On My Feet

As I re-entered the free world, I was faced with the challenge of starting my life over as an adult with no job skills, work-history, or network of people to ask for help.

Accidentally Building Wealth

The truth is: If I can still fight for my dreams with a smile on my face, after all the crap I’ve been through in life, then anyone can do it if they try hard enough!

This is the day we bought our first investment property:

The Drug Epidemic Is Real

The first step I am taking to achieve this goal is to publish my first novel, “Spark” at, Wealth Well Done, and give it away for free for a limited time. You can get it here.

In conclusion, please share this story. Together we can save at least one person’s life out there. There is a drug and prison epidemic happening in America right now. We can do something about it.

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

0 notes

heliosfinance · 7 years

Text

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth

********

My nightmare began on a summer-school morning in 2002. I was a normal 21-year-old college student who stumbled to class with a drug hangover.

As I walked home, I called a friend who had partied with me the night before. His roommate answered the phone.

“He’s dead! He’s dead!” He yelled, “You have to get out of there now!”

I dropped the phone. I heard his voice yelling at me. “The police are here and they’re looking for you!”

I ran out of my apartment not knowing what to do. The police were already in the hallway looking for me. They stopped me as I tried to walk past them.

I felt their handcuffs slide on my wrists. I said in shock, “But my friend was OK when he left?”

Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance

My friend walked home and died in his sleep that night. The following day I was arrested and charged with, “Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance” for the death of my friend.

Eventually, for my first time in serious trouble, I was sentenced to ten years in prison for what I thought was just “innocent and fun” partying.

10 Years of Prison

Recapturing My Freedom

This is a picture of me the morning I was released:

I went to prison when I was a 21 year old kid. I was now a 31-year-old man who had forgotten how to do normal things like drive a car, and create an email address.

Getting Back On My Feet

As I re-entered the free world, I was faced with the challenge of starting my life over as an adult with no job skills, work-history, or network of people to ask for help.

Accidentally Building Wealth

The truth is: If I can still fight for my dreams with a smile on my face, after all the crap I’ve been through in life, then anyone can do it if they try hard enough!

This is the day we bought our first investment property:

The Drug Epidemic Is Real

The first step I am taking to achieve this goal is to publish my first novel, “Spark” at, Wealth Well Done, and give it away for free for a limited time. You can get it here.

In conclusion, please share this story. Together we can save at least one person’s life out there. There is a drug and prison epidemic happening in America right now. We can do something about it.

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

0 notes

fesahaawit · 7 years

Text

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth

********

My nightmare began on a summer-school morning in 2002. I was a normal 21-year-old college student who stumbled to class with a drug hangover.

As I walked home, I called a friend who had partied with me the night before. His roommate answered the phone.

“He’s dead! He’s dead!” He yelled, “You have to get out of there now!”

I dropped the phone. I heard his voice yelling at me. “The police are here and they’re looking for you!”

I ran out of my apartment not knowing what to do. The police were already in the hallway looking for me. They stopped me as I tried to walk past them.

I felt their handcuffs slide on my wrists. I said in shock, “But my friend was OK when he left?”

Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance

My friend walked home and died in his sleep that night. The following day I was arrested and charged with, “Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance” for the death of my friend.

Eventually, for my first time in serious trouble, I was sentenced to ten years in prison for what I thought was just “innocent and fun” partying.

10 Years of Prison

Recapturing My Freedom

This is a picture of me the morning I was released:

I went to prison when I was a 21 year old kid. I was now a 31-year-old man who had forgotten how to do normal things like drive a car, and create an email address.

Getting Back On My Feet

As I re-entered the free world, I was faced with the challenge of starting my life over as an adult with no job skills, work-history, or network of people to ask for help.

Accidentally Building Wealth

The truth is: If I can still fight for my dreams with a smile on my face, after all the crap I’ve been through in life, then anyone can do it if they try hard enough!

This is the day we bought our first investment property:

The Drug Epidemic Is Real

The first step I am taking to achieve this goal is to publish my first novel, “Spark” at, Wealth Well Done, and give it away for free for a limited time. You can get it here.

In conclusion, please share this story. Together we can save at least one person’s life out there. There is a drug and prison epidemic happening in America right now. We can do something about it.

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

0 notes

heliosfinance · 7 years

Text

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth

********

My nightmare began on a summer-school morning in 2002. I was a normal 21-year-old college student who stumbled to class with a drug hangover.

As I walked home, I called a friend who had partied with me the night before. His roommate answered the phone.

“He’s dead! He’s dead!” He yelled, “You have to get out of there now!”

I dropped the phone. I heard his voice yelling at me. “The police are here and they’re looking for you!”

I ran out of my apartment not knowing what to do. The police were already in the hallway looking for me. They stopped me as I tried to walk past them.

I felt their handcuffs slide on my wrists. I said in shock, “But my friend was OK when he left?”

Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance

My friend walked home and died in his sleep that night. The following day I was arrested and charged with, “Reckless Homicide By Delivery of a Controlled Substance” for the death of my friend.

Eventually, for my first time in serious trouble, I was sentenced to ten years in prison for what I thought was just “innocent and fun” partying.

10 Years of Prison

Recapturing My Freedom

This is a picture of me the morning I was released:

I went to prison when I was a 21 year old kid. I was now a 31-year-old man who had forgotten how to do normal things like drive a car, and create an email address.

Getting Back On My Feet

As I re-entered the free world, I was faced with the challenge of starting my life over as an adult with no job skills, work-history, or network of people to ask for help.

Accidentally Building Wealth

The truth is: If I can still fight for my dreams with a smile on my face, after all the crap I’ve been through in life, then anyone can do it if they try hard enough!

This is the day we bought our first investment property:

The Drug Epidemic Is Real

The first step I am taking to achieve this goal is to publish my first novel, “Spark” at, Wealth Well Done, and give it away for free for a limited time. You can get it here.

In conclusion, please share this story. Together we can save at least one person’s life out there. There is a drug and prison epidemic happening in America right now. We can do something about it.

How I Survived Prison And Accidentally Found My Path to Wealth published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

0 notes