Month: December 2020

Categories
Health

New 12 months’s Eve at Dwelling

New Year's Eve at Home

Along with so many things, the pandemic has destroyed many Go to New Years traditions – no mad clubs, no personal ball drops, no kissing strangers at midnight, not even the annual party that you reluctantly went to year after year.

But before you leave the night completely behind and climb to bed at 11 a.m., here are a number of ways to ring in the new year.

This year the crystal ball will still fall from One Times Square, the confetti will still fall, and “Auld Lang Syne” will still play – it’s just that Times Square itself isn’t crowded with people.

“Many of the popular New Year’s Eve trademarks will be in Times Square,” said TJ Witham, a spokesman for the Times Square Alliance, a neighborhood nonprofit that helps orchestrate the night’s celebrations. “That said, the event will be specifically for television and online audiences, and public revelers won’t be in Times Square.”

A live stream of the event will begin at 6 p.m. Eastern on timessquarenyc.org, or you will be able to watch it on most networks. The planned special performances and musical performances include Gloria Gaynor performing her signature song “I Will Survive”.

According to the organizers, the celebrations of the night will recognize those Americans who will get us through the pandemic – Essential, frontline and rescue workers. Some of these staff will be the official special guests of the event – an honor given each year to those who represent “public service, resilience and the human spirit”.

The honor usually involves joining the New York City Mayor on stage to count down the last 60 seconds of the year. This time, the guests see the ball fall from a private, physically distant viewing area.

Do you have a New Years wish? Send yours to the Times Square Alliance virtual wall at timessquarenyc.org or on social media with #ConfettiWish. Around 100,000 of these hopes and dreams are printed on colored confetti that falls over Times Square around midnight.

Just because you can’t personally see the ball fall doesn’t mean that your personalized avatar can’t take your place.

The Times Square Alliance and its partners have organized a free, virtual Times Square experience. Once you’ve created your avatar, take a selfie with the crystal ball, view digital art along Times Square, take the elevator to the One Times Square observation deck, and play games like dancing or weightlessness. You can also collect celebratory confetti to amaze your avatar and an augmented reality fireworks show will appear on your screen at midnight.

To join the party, visit nye2021.com on your phone or tablet, or download the free NYE app.

Just because you’re stuck at home doesn’t mean you can’t travel the world and celebrate the New Year in different time zones.

Kick off at 6am New Zealand on Wednesday December 30th with fireworks from the Sky Tower in Auckland. Then Go to Seoul, South Korea where the Weverse Entertainment app is broadcasting a live concert on New Years Eve 2021 featuring BTS, GFRIEND and other K-pop bands. The show starts at 7:30 a.m. Eastern, and ticket prices range from $ 48 to $ 72 Singapore, or $ 36 to $ 54.

If you want fireworks again, a midnight light show starts at 10 p.m. East in Rio de Janeiro on Copacabana Beach. If you haven’t had enough virtual travel yet, Make your way to Vienna on Friday January 1st for a broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert at 9 p.m. Eastern on PBS.

Categories
Politics

Pete Buttigieg donors scored contracts from South Bend when he was mayor

Pete Buttigieg donors scored contracts from South Bend when he was mayor

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s candidate for Secretary of Transportation, reacts to his nomination as Biden looks on during a press conference on December 16, 2020 at Biden’s interim headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA .

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden’s election as Secretary of Transportation and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, received presidential campaign donations from executives of companies that had public works contracts with the city while he was running it.

A CNBC review of dozens of the city’s infrastructure contracts during his second term as mayor from 2016-2020 shows that under Buttigieg, some of the city’s spending went to contractors who would later become donors to his presidential campaign, which he launched in 2019.

If approved by the US Senate, Buttigieg, as head of the Department of Transportation, would be responsible for driving the incoming administration’s infrastructure proposals forward.

Buttigieg is 38 years old and is considered a rising star in the National Democratic Party. His role as transport secretary could strengthen him if he aspires to a higher office again.

Several of the contractors produced new roads, bridges and buildings for the city. South Bend’s latest budget is over $ 350 million. The Department of Transportation will start the new year with a budget of over $ 80 billion. Buttigieg proposed a $ 1 trillion infrastructure plan when he ran for president.

Data from the bipartisan Center for Responsive Politics shows Buttigieg raised nearly $ 100 million during his presidential campaign. About $ 2 million came from real estate donors.

A report from the Center for Public Integrity and progressive media company The Young Turks shows that Buttigieg received similar contributions from city entrepreneurs when he first ran for mayor in 2011. In this case, potential contractors gave something to his political organization, and they then received funding agreements from the city after submitting competitive bids. These offers were then approved by the Public Works Authority.

The Buttigieg team answers

After CNBC finalized most of the contracts and resulting contributions to the Biden transition team, a Buttigieg spokesperson sent CNBC a detailed response. The representative declined to be included in this story.

The spokesman said Buttigieg was not involved in the projects while noting that the companies did business with the city before Buttigieg became mayor. The spokesman also said leaders have run other Democratic presidential campaigns in the past, including Bidens, Hillary Clintons and Barack Obamas. Some also gave up to Republicans.

“Pete avoided delving into who got those contracts for that very reason. And I’d also like to point out that on Pete’s first day as mayor, he put in place a code of ethics and signed a responsible bidder regulation in 2018 to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are preserved efficiently spent by responsible contractors, “said the Buttigieg spokesman.

The spokesman noted that Buttigieg signed an executive order in 2012 that stipulated that any government employee, including himself, would not knowingly solicit or receive gifts or favors from any person who has a business relationship or seeks business from a city authority.

“You link to contracts that have been approved by the Board of Public Works, which meets in public, does its business in public and approves those contracts through an open and transparent procurement process that goes through a bidding process, and as I said earlier – has little involvement from the mayor, “said the representative.

CNBC provided the City of South Bend with details of most of the contracts approved by the Board of Public Works and the executives who later contributed to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. A spokesman defended the company.

“Each of these firms is highly regarded and has a local reputation for providing quality services to the city and residents of South Bend,” Mayor’s press secretary Caleb Bauer told CNBC. “Each of these contracts also went through a professional procurement process, which is public and transparent, before being approved by the public works agency, which is governed by state law.”

Still, some Democrats expect Republicans to make a big deal out of the contributions Buttigieg has received from contractors.

“He’s been charged with conflicts of interest, and if the Republicans hold the Senate, he’s going to go through a very, very tough ratification process,” said veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf.

Companies and contracts

In 2017, construction company Walsh & Kelly signed a $ 600,000 contract with South Bend for a future Courtyard Marriott hotel. Two years later, the company received contracts valued at just over $ 2.4 million from South Bend. The hotel opened in 2018.

Walsh & Kelly President Kevin Kelly contributed $ 2,700 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, according to CRP data. This is almost the maximum contribution a person can legally make to a campaign.

Walsh & Kelly did not return comments-seeking calls.

Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott, gave Buttigieg’s campaign the maximum amount of $ 2,800, records show.

A Marriott spokeswoman defended Sorenson’s donation to Buttigieg’s political organization.

“Arne Sorenson personally supported Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign because his wife and children were inspired by his campaign,” Elynsey Price, a spokesman for the hotel chain, told CNBC. “Whatever was going on near or in relation to the South Bend hotels would have been the responsibility of our franchisees or owners, not Marriott.”

South Bend real estate development firm JSK Hospitality closed one of its largest deals in 2018 when a subsidiary of the company bought the former College Football Hall of Fame building in town for over $ 525,000, according to the South Bend Tribune. The CEO, AJ Patel, gave $ 1,000 to the Buttigieg campaign. The Courtyard Marriott is part of the company’s hotel portfolio.

CNBC was unable to leave a message on JSK Hospitality’s general voicemail box on Tuesday because the voicemail was full. The same was true of Patel’s line. Instead, CNBC left a message for the company’s CFO, who didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, the city reached an agreement with Epoch Architecture to build a new fire station in South Bend. The company agreed to make payments from the city of over $ 280,000 for the project. The director of the engineering and architecture firm, Kyle Copelin, later gave $ 500 to the Buttigieg campaign, records show.

Copelin did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, the city signed at least three contracts with Jones Petrie Rafinski, an architecture and engineering firm with offices in South Bend. The company had over $ 200,000 worth of business with the city that year. Two years later, the company’s vice president David Rafinski donated $ 500 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. His company also had other contracts with South Bend in 2019.

Rafinski told CNBC that he has no interaction with Buttigieg’s executive team while his company works for South Bend.

“We have been a customer of South Bend since Pete was in high school,” said Rafinski. “The work we do is done through the Board of Public Works. We had no interaction with Pete at all with our work. It was all through the Board of Public Works.” Rafinski said he supported Buttigieg’s presidential campaign because he believed the former mayor’s “compassion” was needed in national politics.

South Bend also signed a consultancy agreement with the Canadian company Stantec in 2017. The order was valued at over $ 105,000. The agreement with the design and engineering firm appeared to go through the nearby Chicago offices. Later, Michael Toolis, who is a Stantec vice president according to LinkedIn, gave $ 2,000 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. Toolis was once employed by VOA Associates, a Midwestern design firm that previously worked at the University of Notre Dame. VOA was taken over by Stantec in 2016.

“The company does not allow political contributions to candidates on its behalf,” Stantec spokeswoman Laura Leopold replied in a one-line email to questions from CNBC.

American Structurepoint, an engineering firm headquartered in Indianapolis, won at least seven $ 300,000 contracts in 2018 for consulting and other services for South Bend. Greg Henneke, the senior executive vice president, gave Buttigieg’s presidential campaign $ 2,700 a year later.

Both Stantec and American Structurepoint had contracts with the city in 2019.

An American Structurepoint spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Categories
Business

Small Donations Aiming to Make a Massive Splash

Small Donations Aiming to Make a Big Splash

Brett Howell, program manager at Coca-Cola in Atlanta, found a way to use his small family trust to solve big-impact environmental problems.

He was one of the leaders of a 2019 project to clean up Henderson Island, an atoll in the South Pacific with the world’s highest concentration of plastic pollution. The island, a United Nations World Historic Site, is uninhabited but is in the middle of a current that carries sea debris.

Mr. Howell also began working with other organizations to find out how to prevent the plastic from filling the beach again.

“I came up with it because I know a lot about it and I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “Plastic pollution in the ocean is a visual picture of climate change.”

The issue of climate change seems too overwhelming for an individual to have much impact. Sure, people can recycle, maybe call back the thermostat to save heat. But even governments with unlimited resources struggle to take meaningful steps.

However, some smaller foundations, like the Howell Conservation Fund, are trying to challenge this narrative and focus their energies and resources on a small area of ​​the environment in the hopes that it will have a significant impact.

“Philanthropy is so much more than money,” said Henry Berman, executive director of Exponent Philanthropy, who works with small foundations. “Relationships, expertise, bringing people together – these are all pieces of the puzzle to make things work. You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Mike Bloomberg for it to work. “

Howell contributed just 10 percent of the $ 300,000 operation 2019 – the return trip that year was canceled. But he brought together people with more money and different levels of expertise.

“If you’re hyper-focused, you can hit over your weight,” he said.

Several principles combine these small foundations in their efforts to slow climate change or make a difference in a local ecosystem.

It’s not surprising to believe in and talk about the science behind climate change. However, these smaller foundations have often found that they have a role to play in bringing together other interested groups of all sizes.

The Campbell Foundation, based in Baltimore, has focused on the ill health of Chesapeake Bay for over 20 years. Last year around 200 organizations received $ 18 million in grants, but it also regularly brings together diverse interests related to the waterway, including farmers, fishermen and conservationists. A big problem was the drainage of chicken waste into the water.

“I go around meeting people,” said Sarah Campbell, president of the foundation her father founded. “That kind of effort to hear all sides really matters.

“I say it’s not just about conservation,” she added. “It’s about the benefits of a healthy environment for people.”

As the only American on the expedition to Henderson Island, Mr. Howell had to do something similar. “You have to bring very different groups together,” he said.

Economy & Economy

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Dec. Dec. 23, 2020 at 8:59 p.m. ET

Other members of the expedition team focused on research to understand where the plastic came from and how some of it can be recycled. And some focused on figuring out how plastic overwhelmed an untouched island.

Some smaller environmental organizations are also trying to educate people outside of environmental circles. Ms. Campbell admits that her group’s efforts did not necessarily improve the Chesapeake Bay areas, but she shows that it could have been much worse without an educational effort.

“There are a lot of stressors in the bay,” she said. “But it would be worse if we hadn’t been there. It’s not an empty area in Chesapeake Bay. It’s a vibrant region with lots of people. “

And foundations that are very knowledgeable about and caring about a particular topic can raise it with local and state government officials. The Virginia Environmental Endowment grew out of a legal settlement over a pollutant that was illegally dumped into the James River in the 1970s. This pollutant stopped fishing on the river for over a decade.

Joseph H. Maroon, the foundation’s executive director, said she used her grants to highlight what other nonprofit groups were doing. It also uses its resources to campaign for environmental issues in the state, especially for the waterways.

“We weren’t afraid to deal with public policy issues,” said Maroon.

Foundations can also push for change at large publicly traded companies by investing assets and then filing applications to become a company shareholder.

“Small foundations are often the featured shareholders on shareholder advocacy proposals,” said Sada Geuss, investment manager at Trillium Asset Management, which has a shareholder advocacy department that works with clients to prepare these motions.

Ms. Geuss said typical areas are filings aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and updating the types of chemicals a company uses. The Trillium Foundation’s customers were named a few years ago in response to requests to urge Home Depot to sell more sustainable wood and stop using plants associated with the decline of bee colonies on crops, she said .

“For some of these smaller organizations you can talk to your donors about this commitment,” said Ms. Geuss. “You can hang your hat on it. We saw them talk about how they can make their impact on fundraisers. “

If the shareholder promotions are successful, they can have a significant impact – think how much wood and how many plants Home Depot is selling. The money that is used in such campaigns could otherwise have been in a foundation.

Even foundations that do not want to be part of a shareholder motion can take steps to ensure that their investments are in line with their values. These steps can be as direct as investing in clean energy companies, or more indirect, like investing in companies that make products that help other companies become more efficient.

Foundations can be selective in the types of fixed income investments they buy, paying special attention to what the proceeds from the sale of those bonds are used for.

“Our fossil fuel analyst always reminds us that the transition will be financed through debt,” said Ms. Geuss. “We can focus more and more on green bonds and sustainable bonds to increase impact.”

Beth Renner, director of philanthropic services at Wells Fargo Private Bank, said her group reached out to clients to discuss these options before clients asked about them. One thing a foundation of any size can do is make the most of “5 and 95,” Ms. Renner said. Foundations must grant at least 5 percent of their assets each year, but they can just as strategically think about the 95 percent of their invested assets.

“How do the assets that are in investment help fuel the mission and focus?” She said. “It’s more popular in philanthropy right now.”

The Edwards Mother Earth Foundation in Seattle has followed this strategy for years. With a net worth of $ 35 million, grants totaling approximately $ 2 million annually. However, the foundation, which is focused on slowing climate change, has a portfolio of public and private investments in areas such as clean technology and sustainable agriculture.

“There are 150 family members who are committed to impact investing,” said Bruce Reed, the foundation’s operations director. “We’ve placed bets on some early-stage clean tech companies that we won’t know for a decade or 15 years if they’ll work.”

Mr Howell said he could work inside Coca-Cola to push for the use of a trash trap that collects plastic waste before it gets into the ocean. One was installed in a river in Atlanta last fall.

“I went to my boss at Coca-Cola and they let me run with it,” he said. The lesson was: “Don’t be afraid to start something new.”

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World News

How Canada Has Grow to be a Pilgrimage Web site for ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Followers

How Canada Has Become a Pilgrimage Site for 'Schitt's Creek' Fans

GOODWOOD, Ontario – Joe Toby was recently walking a young couple through his workshop when the man sprinkled rose petals on the concrete floor and fell to one knee.

It turned out that the woman was a huge Schitt’s Creek fan and excited to get into the building, which also doubled as a mechanic’s shop on the series, he said.

“And here I thought it was just my workshop,” said Mr. Toby, a retired machine builder who uses the space to build custom beds for disabled children. “I think it’s special.”

“Schitt’s Creek” is a satire about a fabulously wealthy family who lose all their money and are forced to settle in a town the patriarch bought as a joke because of his name. She’s a cult hit for her quirky humor, haute couture costume design, and the fictional city’s improbable embrace of gay love. It won a record of nine Emmys awards, including one for best comedy.

Nowhere is its sudden popularity more felt than in Goodwood, a sleepy commuter village 28 miles north of Toronto that was filmed over six seasons.

The hamlet feels like a postcard from ancient times, with historic houses in less than a dozen streets and farmland on either side. The last census counted 663 residents – mostly retirees and young professionals with families who commute to work.

Prior to Schitt’s Creek, Goodwood’s notoriety was much more pedestrian – potatoes grown on nearby farms and the surrounding gravel pits, which produce the raw material for building highways and downtown buildings.

Now it has become a place of pilgrimage for fans who call themselves “Schittheads” who arrive in droves at the hamlet’s main intersection to snap selfies in front of the buildings that served as the backdrop for the series. Some arrive in character, disguised as Moira, the dramatic matriarch who named her precious wigs like children, or Alexis, the celebrity daughter. They spend money in the local bakery and general store, but also look in windows, clog parking lots and in some cases go into houses, locals say.

“You’re rude,” said Sheila Owen, whose house doubled for the house of the minor character “Ronnie”. “They come and expect us to be the same people depicted on the show – that we are hicks who are stupid.”

This feeling is not general. Eleanor Todd, 87, got dressed with her granddaughter to stroll into the now famous corner and, like all tourists, take photos. It’s the busiest intersection since Goodwood’s glory days when there were two hotels, four general stores, an ice skating arena, and both a cobbler and tailor. That was in 1885.

“I get a kick out of it,” said Ms. Todd, a former schoolteacher who wrote and self-published the hamlet’s definitive story, Burrs and Blackberries from Goodwood.

The development of the hamlet was severely restricted because it is located on an ecologically sensitive land, the Oak Ridges Moraine. As a result, it has retained its quaint smallness and avoided the spread that affects so many cities in southern Ontario. According to their location manager Geoffrey Smither, this attracted the makers of “Schitt’s Creek”, Eugene and Dan Levy.

“They liked that feeling – this is the city, there is the country,” said Mr. Smither, who toured 28 small towns looking for the perfect setting for the show. “None of them come and go like Goodwood.”

When he appeared before the local councilors to apply for filming permission, they burst out laughing and agreed.

“It would put us on the map,” said Bev Northeast, a former longtime town councilor who lives in Goodwood.

According to the locals, fans showed up in 2016, a year after the show premiered on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster, but really got kicked up after Netflix recorded “Schitt’s Creek” in 2017. By the summer of 2019, two chartered buses arrived at the intersection and spilled people in matching T-shirts and lanyards with the words “SchittCon” on them. (This is short for “Schitt’s Creek” Convention.)

But nobody was prepared for the flood of fans who descended after “Schitt’s Creek” swept the Emmys in September.

So many people flocked to the local Annina bakery that the owner, Marco Cassano, hired two security guards to control the crowd. Since Annie Murphy – who plays Alexis, the celebrity daughter with the heart of gold – told talk show host Seth Meyers about the bakery’s delicious butter tarts that night, he has received orders from the USA.

“It means I’ve stayed open across Covid and kept most of my staff,” said Mr. Cassano, who oversaw the crew over five seasons.

Across the street, Mr. Toby was inspired by the crowd of Schittheads asking for tours of his workshop to build a donation box on the front door. He raised $ 270 for the local hospital and historic center over one weekend, he said.

“I was the best kept secret in Goodwood for years,” said Toby, 75, a natural storyteller who loves to keep court. “Nobody knew what I was doing here.”

He knows some of his neighbors think differently, and that’s in part because of the pandemic. In the window of the building across the street, a residence that has been converted into a café for the series, a handwritten message is taped into a window: “Please stay away from the property during a pandemic, we are immunocompromised.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, the show’s co-creator Dan Levy asked fans to stay away. “The cities we filmed Schitt’s Creek in were so beautiful and accommodating to us,” he tweeted. “Please show them the same respect. Visiting the moment is a threat to the health and safety of residents. “

That did not hold up the pilgrimage any more than the rising layers of snow.

Marilyn Leonard owns the building that was Goodwood’s general store for more than a century. In “Schitt’s Creek” it was transformed into the hipster “Rose Apothecary”, who sold body milk and cat hair scarves. Ms. Leonard decided to close it permanently last month.

“It’s too revealing for me,” said Ms. Leonard, 74, who plans to convert the space into a gallery for appointments only. “I have to stay away from people.”

The motel that served as the backdrop for the family’s new residence in the series is not in Goodwood, but in Mono, about 50 miles west. One day so many people crowded around the motel that the owner called the police.

“At least 100 cars an hour tried to get in,” said Jesse Tipping, pointing out that his motel, which has been out of service for years, has received dozens of satirical reviews on Google Maps. “At some point I saw someone on the roof. They stole numbers from the doors and took the welcome mats. “

Mr Tipping, who is currently selling the motel, said he asked Dan Levy about selling paraphernalia on the property. However, the show has signed an exclusive merchandise deal with ITV Studios in London.

That means no one at Goodwood gets rich from sudden fame. Plans to do a “Schitt’s Creek” tour with the Local Heritage Railroad were thwarted by the pandemic. Dave Barton, the mayor of Uxbridge Township, which also includes Goodwood, admitted that the 145-year-old yellow-brick town hall, which had not held a council for nearly 50 years, would be the perfect place for a guided tour. Unfortunately, the community sold the building a year ago to a couple who are converting it into a private home.

“Nobody expected ‘Schitt’s Creek’ to be the most famous Canadian show forever,” said Barton.

Categories
Business

Nancye Radmin, Pioneer of Plus-Dimension Trend, Is Useless at 82

Nancye Radmin, Pioneer of Plus-Size Fashion, Is Dead at 82

Nancye Radmin, a plus-size fashion pioneer who ran an upscale chain of stores for two decades, the Forgotten Woman who served a group of women otherwise overlooked by high fashion, died at her home on December 8th in Lakeland She was 82 years old.

The death was confirmed by her son, Brett Radmin.

For most of her life, Ms. Radmin hovered around a size 8, preferring to wear fine fabrics like cashmere and jacquard. But by her second pregnancy in 1976, she had gained 80 pounds and was 16 years old. When looking for new clothes in her favorite Manhattan stores, she was shocked to find that there were only polyester pants and boxy sweaters her size.

“Fat,” she told Newsweek in 1991, “was the F-word of fashion.”

“There was absolutely nothing stylish available,” she added. “I just knew I wasn’t the only fat woman in New York.”

With $ 10,000 borrowed from her husband, Ms. Radmin wanted to start her own business – a boutique stocked with the kind of high quality clothing she wanted to wear.

In 1977 she opened Forgotten Woman at 888 Lexington Avenue on the fashionable Upper East Side. The name of the store was indicative of their clientele, women who wore sizes larger than most fashion designers – and perhaps a culture they overlooked.

Prices were high: a Searle Persian lamb faux fur coat was $ 595 and a dazzling pink silk Kip Kirkendall gown was $ 1,850.

By 1991, it had 25 stores across the country with annual sales of $ 40 million.

“People forget that the older and taller women usually lead elegant social lives,” she told the New York Times in 1983. “She is the mother of the bride, she goes to formal dinners with her successful husband, and she can remove pearls.” and bright colors that could flood a little woman. “

Plus sizes generally start at size 14, and today the average size of US women’s clothing is between 14 and 16. The plus size market for women was valued at $ 9.8 billion in 2019, according to market research firm Statista.

In the late 1970s, the concept of plus size fashion was an anomaly. Still, Ms. Radmin’s shop spoke directly to the emerging idea of ​​body acceptance, a product of the women’s liberation movement of that decade.

“If you look at the fashion history of taller women, it was either invisible or ghettoized or incredibly grumpy,” said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, professor of history at the New School in New York, in a telephone interview. “The Forgotten Women as a business for attractive, high-end plus-size clothing at the time was a radically integrative concept from the perspective of fat women who deserved to see themselves as feminine, fashionable people who deserved a shopping spree to make excursion. “

Ms. Radmin reached out to Seventh Avenue makers, many of whom referred to her as “Crazy Nancye”, to have some of her favorite plus size clothes made.

She also urged designers to create more plus size clothing. Some, like Oscar de la Renta, were a little convincing, but even he created evening dresses for their stores, as did Geoffrey Beene, Bob Mackie and Pauline Trigère.

In the Forgotten Women boutiques there was a “Sugar Daddy Bar” where the male companions of the female buyers could have fun. It was filled with basket champagne, tea sandwiches, and miniature muffins. Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Roseanne Barr, Nell Carter and Tyne Daly have shopped there. Stores were strategically opened on shopping streets like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to show customers that they were just as authorized to spend money as their skinny counterparts.

“We wanted the customer to feel important and not embarrassed,” said Dane O’Neal, who worked in merchandising for the chain.

Nancye Jo Bullard was born on August 4, 1938 in Nashville to Joe and Jane (Johnson) Bullard. She grew up on her father’s farm in Cochran, Georgia, where he harvested peanuts and cotton. Her mother was a nurse.

Even as a child, Nancye was an entrepreneur, selling peanuts on the street corner to make extra money.

She attended Middle Georgia College (now Middle Georgia State University) but left to travel before graduating. She then worked as a secretary and moved to New York City in the late 1960s.

In 1967 she met Mack Radmin, a widower 23 years older who worked in the kosher meat business. She converted to Judaism for him (she grew up a Southern Baptist) and they married in 1968.

Ms. Radmin often called the early years of their marriage her “Barbie Doll Days” because she weighed 110 pounds, was a size 4, and spent a lot of time shopping and eating in Manhattan.

Mr. Radmin died in 1996. In addition to her son Brett, she survived another son, William Kyle Radmin; two sisters, Michelle Moody and Cheryle Janelli; and four grandchildren.

In 1989 Ms. Radmin sold part of the Forgotten Woman chain to venture capitalists. In 1998 the Forgotten Woman applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The remaining nine stores were closed by the end of the year.

By then, larger department stores had entered the plus-size market and started selling clothes in more sizes.

Frau Radmin didn’t think much of them. “I have no competition,” she told People magazine in 1988. “I only have copycats.”

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Health

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on nursing house rollout

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on nursing home rollout

West Virginia is well on its way to delivering Covid-19 vaccines in all long-term care facilities by the end of this year, Republican Governor Jim Justice told CNBC on Tuesday.

This would be a significant milestone in West Virginia’s efforts to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. Although less than 6% of the state’s coronavirus cases account for about 31% of all Covid-19 deaths in West Virginia, according to the COVID Tracking Project run by journalists from The Atlantic . The figures are based on the latest available data for the past week.

West Virginia began administering shots at its long-term care facilities last week after the Food and Drug Administration granted Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine limited approval. The state has since received doses of Moderna’s vaccine after it was approved for emergency use on Friday.

West Virginia administered approximately 8,100 doses of Pfizer BioNTech at 71 of its 214 long-term care facilities last week, according to Maj. Holli Nelson, a spokesman for the West Virginia National Guard. On average, about 80% of people in a facility wanted to be vaccinated, she told CNBC. Vaccinations are running this week for employees and residents of the remaining long-term care facilities, Nelson said.

In an interview on Squawk on the Street, Justice said West Virginia could start vaccinations in nursing homes earlier than many parts of the country because it relied on local pharmacies.

“Our great National Guard and all of our health officials came up with the idea of ​​basically recruiting all local pharmacies,” Justice said. He added that West Virginia may have given its first dose of vaccine in its long-term care facilities “before many states start”. Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines require two injections a few weeks apart.

Jim Justice, Governor of West Virginia.

Scott Halleran / Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have partnered with Walgreens, CVS and select other pharmacy chains to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. CVS and Walgreens started delivering footage at some facilities on Friday before starting a wider rollout in the US this week.

More than 40,000 long-term care facilities have selected CVS to provide vaccinations through on-site clinics, CNBC previously reported. Walgreens will provide vaccinations in approximately 35,000 long-term care facilities.

Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities were given priority by each state in their initial vaccine allocation plans. In West Virginia, in developing his own distribution plans, Justice “stated that his priority is to vaccinate residents and long-term care workers immediately,” West Virginia National Guard’s Maj .

“In our discussions, we opted for a slightly different approach than the plans used nationwide, as around 53-54% of our state’s pharmacies are not linked to the chain,” said Hoyer.

Long-term care facilities in the US are particularly hard hit by Covid-19 outbreaks. As the country’s epidemic worsened this fall, there was another spike in cases and deaths at the facilities. For this reason, the introduction of a vaccine comes at a critical time.

West Virginia is one of ten states where coronavirus cases are increasing on average by seven days, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Hospital admissions for Covid-19 patients also rose 8.4% in the past week. This is evident from the CNBC analysis of the data from the COVID tracking project.

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

Categories
Business

‘Field’ or Gem? A Scramble to Save Asia’s Modernist Buildings

‘Box’ or Gem? A Scramble to Save Asia’s Modernist Buildings

HONG KONG – When the General Post Office opened on the Hong Kong coastline in 1976, a local newspaper predicted that the modernist-style building “would certainly be as iconic” as its Victorian predecessor.

Not quite.

The building, with its white concrete facade, sharp angles and tinted glass, became an integral part of downtown Hong Kong. However, it was never included on the register of protected landmarks in the city. Now that Hong Kong officials were under pressure to generate revenue, the nearly 12-acre site, valued at over $ 5 billion, went up for sale this month.

Supporters of the building are trying to save it because whoever buys the land below has the right to demolish the post office.

“Some people in Hong Kong may think it’s just a white box,” said Charles Lai, an architect in Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, on an autumn afternoon outside the post office, where people were lining up to send packages.

“But actually, that simplified aesthetic is right where the value lies,” he added.

In cities across Asia, residents and design fans gather to rescue or document post-war buildings that officials believe are too new, too ugly, or too unimportant to save from demolition. Many of the buildings were urban buildings that served as the centers of civil life in the inner city. The campaigns are, so to speak, an attempt to preserve the collective memories stored in them.

The effort also reflects an aversion to the generic-looking malls and condos that have replaced modernist-style buildings in urban Asia, as well as the nostalgia of city dwellers watching their skylines change constantly.

Mr. Lai said the five-story Hong Kong Post Office building, designed by a government architect, was interesting because its shape defined the functions defined in it – a principle of the modernist movement that was popular in the 1920s-1970s. For example, customer floors have higher ceilings and larger windows than those for mail sorting machines.

“These are places that are part of people’s daily life. You don’t have to be very pretty to be meaningful, ”says Haider Kikabhoy. Those who lead historical walks in Hong Kong said about the city’s landmarks after the war.

For older buildings, authorities “usually focus on the rarity of the architecture, the design of the building, or the historical significance,” Kikabhoy said. “But there are many ways to understand history, and social history is just as important.”

In architecture, modernism expressed itself through “brutalism” and other styles that wanted to recall the conditions of the machine age and relied heavily on concrete as a material. The Barbican Center in London, which opened in 1982, is a classic example of the brutalist aesthetic – and was once voted the ugliest building in town.

In Asia, modernism influenced the design of landmarks like Tokyo’s Hotel Okura, which opened before the 1964 Olympics, and the dramatic curved concrete buildings designed by architect Leandro V. Locsin in the Philippines.

Some of the region’s modernist structures became instantly famous, while others had no following until recently. The interest seems to stem in part from a wider re-evaluation of brutalism in Europe and beyond, and the excitement of social media as people rediscover their unusual design features.

In some cases, buildings from the mid to late 20th century meet with public interest precisely because they are about to be demolished.

Since last year, two in Hong Kong – a 1967 office tower and a 1973 hotel – have been demolished, resulting in a reassessment of their architectural heritage.

In Thailand, ubiquitous symbols of whimsical modernist design – stand-alone cinemas – have almost been erased. Several hundred had shaped the landscape in its prime in the 1980s, said Philip Jablon, an independent researcher who wrote a book about it. The last one, La Scala, took place in Bangkok in July and made movie buffs lament the end of an era.

In Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, a decade-long project documenting dozens of modernist buildings, the majority were found to have been destroyed or modified during a construction wave funded by foreign developers, said Pen Sereypagna, a Phnom Penh architect involved in the research effort was.

About 30 of the buildings were designed by Kannodsche’s most famous architect Vann Molyvann, who studied modernism in Paris with students of Le Corbusier.

In some cases, interest in modernist buildings has translated into conservation victories.

That summer, a conglomerate agreed to keep the Hong Kong State Theater, a quirky 1952 film house, as part of a redevelopment project. (Mr Kikabhoy, who worked to save the building, is now a paid consultant for the New World Development conglomerate.)

In Singapore, the Urban Development Agency announced in October that it would propose a plan to preserve the Golden Mile Complex – a huge, mixed-use building completed in 1973 that Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas once praised as a “unique work” – as part of a redevelopment the location on which it is located.

While not every modernist building in Singapore should be saved, said Karen Tan, founder of local design consultancy Pocket Projects, the protection plan for the Golden Mile Complex is “an actual affirmation of the importance of such buildings to the country’s social society and cultural identity. “

Historically, she added, the urban development model of the city-state “is based on a very tabula rasa biased approach to be demolished and rebuilt”.

Hong Kong has occasionally agreed to keep modernist buildings in the city center. Among them are the Police Married Quarters, a 1951 building that housed once married police officers and their families, and The Murray, a 1969 government building with tiled grating rests on huge white arches.

However, saving the General Post website presents new challenges.

Hong Kong Development Minister Michael Wong described the website as “very valuable and very strategic”.

The place is politically sensitive because it’s in the heart of Hong Kong’s waterfront, near the People’s Liberation Army property, at a time when the Chinese government is cracking down on the territory’s pro-democracy movement and has enforced a national security law that will take effect over the summer .

Supporters of the building expect the buyer to be a mainland China developer who may not be inclined to preserve a relic of the territory’s British colonial days, which ended in 1997.

Katty Law, a prominent proponent of the city’s modernist architecture, said of the post office, “They are looking at the money side, the amount of floor space they can generate, and how much the developer can build. You’re not looking at the building. “

A planning letter demands that some postal facilities be included in every new building on the site. However, proponents say that the existing post office itself has value.

They appeal to the city’s antiques council to reverse the 2013 decision to exclude buildings built in 1970 or later from the examination of protection status. Buildings like the General Post Office could be designed for “adaptive reuse” in a manner that generates new revenue – just as the Murray became a luxury hotel and the Police Married Quarters turned into a tangle of upscale boutiques.

The Hong Kong Development Bureau said in a brief statement that the Advisory Council’s policy has not changed. So the post office building may be at dusk.

Mr. Lai, the Hong Kong architect, said he was not sure what to make of the government’s stance on the building.

“The government, intentionally or unintentionally, treats this as something that can be replaced,” he said. “They don’t really see it as a symbol or emblem that makes people think, ‘Are you doing this on purpose to erase colonial history, or just can’t see the value?'”

Categories
Politics

Jobless Advantages Are Set to Expire as Trump Resists Signing Aid Invoice

Jobless Benefits Are Set to Expire as Trump Resists Signing Relief Bill

Hicham Oumlil, a freelance fashion designer based in Brooklyn, said he and his wife, an interior designer on vacation, will both lose nearly $ 600 a week leaving the couple and their 7-year-old son with no source of income. After paying less than half of his monthly rent for the past three months, Mr Oumlil, 48, feared he would get deeper into debt if the Aid Act did not become law.

The second stimulus

Answers to your questions about the stimulus calculation

Updated December 23, 2020

Legislators agreed to a plan to provide $ 600 stimulus payments and distribute $ 300 federal unemployment benefits for 11 weeks. Here you can find out more about the bill and what’s in it for you.

    • Do I get another incentive payment? Individual adults with adjusted gross income on their 2019 tax returns of up to $ 75,000 per year would receive a payment of $ 600, and heads of household up to $ 112,500 and a couple (or someone whose spouse died in 2020) would receive up to to earn $ 150,000 per year Get double the amount. If they have dependent children, they will also receive $ 600 for each child. People with incomes just above this level would receive a partial payment that decreases by $ 5 for every $ 100 of income.
    • When could my payment arrive? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that he expected the first payments to be made before the end of the year. However, it will take a while for everyone to receive their money.
    • Does the agreement concern unemployment insurance? Legislators agreed to extend the length of time people can receive unemployment benefits and restart an additional federal benefit that is on top of the usual state benefits. But instead of $ 600 a week it would be $ 300. That would take until March 14th.
    • I am behind on my rent or expect to be soon. Do I get relief? The deal would provide $ 25 billion to be distributed through state and local governments to help backward tenants. In order to receive support, households would have to meet various conditions: the household income (for 2020) must not exceed 80 percent of the regional median income; At least one household member must be at risk of homelessness or residential instability. and individuals must be eligible for unemployment benefits or face direct or indirect financial difficulties due to the pandemic. The agreement states that priority will be given to support for lower-income families who have been unemployed for three months or more.

“Our livelihoods are shaken,” he said. “The government shows no leadership. I am impressed with what is currently going on in Congress. “

After House Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to unilaterally increase direct payments from $ 600 to $ 2,000 per adult, top Democrats are planning a roll-call vote on the Monday, when the entire House of Representatives is present Measure to hold. Legislators could also potentially approve an emergency funding bill to keep the government going.

“As the economy continues to stall, people are hanging by a thread and desperately need government relief so they can afford essentials like food, medicine, diapers, phone bills and housing,” said Massachusetts representative Richard E. Neal. the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “It is sneaky and cruel for the president to refuse to sign the law now and possibly end this brutal year by causing even more pain and suffering to families in need.”

The president’s implicit threat to reject the spending package enraged Republicans on Capitol Hill, who said Mr. Trump’s reprimand of the legislation took them by surprise after overwhelming support for the bill. (In fact, many of Mr. Trump’s complaints concerned measures in state funding laws that were in line with White House budget requests.)

The direct payments were kept at half the original $ 1,200, approved in March under the $ 2.2 trillion stimulus bill, in part to reflect Republican reluctance, more than 1 trillion US dollars, and there is little evidence that a majority of Republicans would support such an increase.

“I hope the president will look back at this and conclude that it is best to sign the bill,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt told reporters this week. “I think it would be to the president’s advantage if we talked about his performance rather than questioning decisions made late in the administration, but again, Congress has very little control over what the president can say.”

Categories
Health

US Will Require UK Vacationers to Have a Adverse Coronavirus Take a look at

U.S. to Require Negative Covid-19 Test for All Travelers From U.K.

People traveling immediately after their vacation may face uncertainties: many private testing clinics and laboratories are closed on Christmas Day, so testing within the 72-hour window can prove difficult, especially for PCR screening that is on Must be sent to a laboratory and can be done several days to process.

Updated

Apr. 26, 2020 at 6:29 am ET

The Rapid Antigen Test, a relatively new tool for detecting the virus, gives a result in about 30 minutes but is not as widely used, although cheaper. For example, Heathrow Airport charges passengers about $ 130 for 48-hour PCR results and about $ 60 for antigen testing with results within 45 minutes.

Both tests are offered at major UK airports – including Heathrow and Gatwick, the two main hubs in London, and Manchester Airport. However, passengers must register in advance. It was unclear how many would be able to source a test and get a trip result in time.

The introduction of new travel restrictions raised concerns that travelers to the US would flock to the airport, as Londoners did at train stations last Saturday when stricter domestic regulations were announced. But Heathrow staff on Friday described a normal, if quieter, flow of passengers typical of Christmas Day, with most apparently traveling on long-haul flights.

The coronavirus outbreak>

Things to know about testing

Confused by Coronavirus Testing Conditions? Let us help:

    • antibody: A protein produced by the immune system that can recognize and attach to certain types of viruses, bacteria or other invaders.
    • Antibody test / serology test: A test that detects antibodies specific to the coronavirus. About a week after the coronavirus infects the body, antibodies start appearing in the blood. Because antibodies take so long to develop, an antibody test cannot reliably diagnose an ongoing infection. However, it can identify people who have been exposed to the coronavirus in the past.
    • Antigen test: This test detects parts of coronavirus proteins called antigens. Antigen tests are quick and only take five minutes. However, they are less accurate than tests that detect genetic material from the virus.
    • Coronavirus: Any virus that belongs to the Orthocoronavirinae virus family. The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is known as SARS-CoV-2.
    • Covid19: The disease caused by the new coronavirus. The name stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019.
    • Isolation and quarantine: Isolation is separating people who know they have a contagious disease from those who are not sick. Quarantine refers to restricting the movement of people who have been exposed to a virus.
    • Nasopharyngeal smear: A long, flexible rod with a soft swab that is inserted deep into the nose to collect samples from the space where the nasal cavity meets the throat. Samples for coronavirus tests can also be obtained with swabs that do not go as deep into the nose – sometimes called nasal swabs – or with mouth or throat swabs.
    • Polymerase chain reaction (PCR): Scientists use PCR to make millions of copies of genetic material in a sample. With the help of PCR tests, researchers can detect the coronavirus even when it is scarce.
    • Viral load: The amount of virus in a person’s body. In people infected with the coronavirus, viral loads can peak before symptoms, if any.

Several airlines had already announced guidelines requiring proof of a negative test after New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo requested that passengers coming from London to John F. Kennedy International Airport must document a negative test result.

“We cannot allow history to repeat itself with this new variant,” Mr Cuomo wrote on Twitter.

Also on Thursday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said that passengers arriving at Newark Airport would require negative tests within 72 hours of departure to enter.

American travel requirements are less draconian than those of other countries in Europe and Asia, which excluded all travelers from the UK after the advent of the new coronavirus variant. Experts are skeptical that travel bans can stop the spread of the variant. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, said there was a good chance the variant was already in the country.

Categories
Entertainment

The Sexiest New Motion pictures Coming Out in 2021

The Sexiest New Movies Coming Out in 2021

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic may have delayed almost every blockbuster slated to release in 2020, but that just means we can look forward to even more movies in 2021 like No time to die, The woman in the window, and Mess walkingAmong other things, you can look forward to some new love stories coming to theaters and streaming services in 2021. While those release dates are likely to change, this is where you can find all the hot and heavy new movies with 2021 release dates that will definitely make you sweat.