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Politics

LeBron James advisor exhausted from Me Too, Black Lives Matter

LeBron James advisor exhausted from Me Too, Black Lives Matter

NBA player LeBron James and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles, California.

Chelsea Lauren | FilmMagic | Getty Images

Longtime white advisor to black NBA superstar LeBron James was caught on tape telling an ESPN white reporter, “I’m exhausted. I have nothing left between Me Too and Black Lives Matter, ”revealed a report on Sunday.

Communications expert Adam Mendelsohn’s outspoken comments – referring to catchphrases used for the movements aimed at reducing sexual violence against women and police murders and brutality against blacks – came during a taped phone call he made last summer with the NBA Reporter Rachel. from ESPN had Nichols, the New York Times reported.

Mendelsohn apologized for these specific comments in an email to CNBC after being asked about them on Sunday.

Nichols, who is white, had complained to Mendelsohn during that July 2020 call about a black reporter, Maria Taylor, getting the pre-game NBA final hosting spot from her sports cable TV network had, a spot Nichols expected her to, The Times reported.

Nichols on this tape implied that Taylor received this gig to the detriment of Nichols because Taylor is black – and because ESPN was under pressure to have more racial diversity in its lineup of on-air talent.

In his initial comments on the Black Lives Matter and Me Too statements, Mendelsohn told CNBC, “I made a stupid, negligent comment rooted in privilege and I am truly sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have said it or even thought it,” Mendelsohn said in an email.

“I am working to support these movements and I know that the people affected by these problems are never exhausted or left with nothing. I must continue to review my privilege and work to be a better ally.”

Nichols apparently did not know that the conversation was being recorded by a video camera broadcasting images and audio from her hotel room at a resort in Walt Disney World, Florida. Walt Disney Company is the majority owner of ESPN.

The video from the camera she used to appear on the network’s shows was fed into ESPN’s control room in Bristol, Connecticut. A tape of the call later circulated within ESPN and was leaked.

Mendelsohn has been an advisor to James for over ten years. Last year he co-founded James’ Black Vote Promotion Group More Than A Vote and is a senior advisor to the group.

The More Than a Vote website notes that the group was launched “amid the protests against Black Lives Matter following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Our goal: energy, education and protection of black voters. “

Taylor joined More Than a Vote last summer and recorded videos as a member of the group supporting the group’s efforts.

Mendelsohn is also a Senior Advisor at the private equity firm TPG, where he previously worked as Managing Director for Global Communications. Previously, he was Deputy Chief of Staff to then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Times reported that the video of the call lasted more than 20 minutes, with “continuous talk”. The newspaper only put two audio snippets online, which together last 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

Anthony Davis # 3 of the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James # 23 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Quinn Cook # 28 of the Los Angeles Lakers kneel down during the National Anthem with VOTE shirts before the start of the game against the Denver Nuggets in Game Three of the Western Conference Finals during the 2020 NBA Playoffs at the AdventHealth Arena at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on September 22, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Mike Ehrmann | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images

The Times article stated that “many employees were outraged when they saw the video” because they believed that Nichols “reflected a common criticism used by white workers in many workplaces of non-white colleagues Denigrate – that Taylor was only offered the job of hosting because of her race, not because she was the best person for the job. “

And The Times reported that ESPN staff had also said Nichols made Taylor’s job difficult because Taylor had to deal with Mendelsohn to get interviews with people in professional basketball.

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Last May, The Times reported, the stars of ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” discussed whether they would refuse to appear in protest against changes to production they believed were made in Nichols’s favor .

These changes included Nichols becoming the game’s main reporter, which in turn resulted in three colored side reporters being given fewer tasks.

The bomb report comes weeks before Taylor’s contract with ESPN expires.

The New York Post reported last week that Taylor turned down a contract proposal last year that would have increased her current annual salary from $ 1 million to nearly $ 5 million a year. Taylor reportedly held out after significantly more money.

The Post also reported that ESPN’s current offering to Taylor is valued at $ 2-3 million per year. The lower amount reflects a move by the network to cut salaries across the board, according to The Post.

Nichols called Mendelsohn on July 13, 2020 to request an interview with James and another Lakers player, Anthony Davis, who is another client of James’ agent, Rich Paul. Mendelsohn is also an adviser to Black Paul.

Nichols also took the time on the same call to ask Mendelsohn’s advice on how to deal with the situation at ESPN, and was denied the assignment, which went to Taylor.

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world – she reports on football, she reports on basketball,” said Nichols during the phone call with Mendelsohn, whose audio was posted online by The Times.

“If you have to give her more to do because you are feeling pressure because of your shitty long-term record in terms of diversity – which, by the way, I know personally from the female side – then just do it. Just find it somewhere else. You won’t find it from me or take my thing away. “

She also noted that the assignment to moderate coverage of the NBA finals “is written in my contract,” the newspaper reported.

After Nichols said she was planning to wait for ESPN’s next move, Mendelsohn paused, then said, “I don’t know. I am exhausted. I have nothing left between Me Too and Black Lives Matter. “

Nichols laughed at that, as the tape reveals.

Mendelsohn then suggested to Nichols that the situation be so that ESPN played two women, Nichols and Taylor, against each other.

“About the fact that it is just so very white men that they turn two women against each other to compete for the one point that they dangle over them,” said Mendelsohn.

“A broader discussion of all the points that should be considered.”

Nichols then said on the tape, “There’s not just one place at the table for a minority of the version we’re trying to try this week.”

Mendelsohn replied, “If you think about it, this is exactly the problem we’ve been talking about for a long time, which is white men – it’s an example of the one black person on the boardroom … you don’t? Not having a black woman in a prominent position and feeling, OK, all the work is done. “

“And you certainly can’t say, ‘Okay, we have a white woman, we have a woman in a critical place, and now that we’re going to put a black woman in the same place,” he said.

“The question is, what other seats do white men sit in?”

The Times reported that he told the paper for its article, “I will share what I believed then and what I still believe to be true. Maria [Taylor] earned and earned the position, and Rachel [Nichols] must respect it. “

“Maria deserved it because of her job, and ESPN realized that, like many people and companies in America, she needs to change on purpose,” said Mendelsohn.

“Just because Maria got the job doesn’t mean Rachel shouldn’t get what she deserves. Rachel and Maria shouldn’t be forced into a zero-sum game by ESPN, and Rachel had to challenge them. “

The Times reported that Mendelsohn did not answer follow-up questions about the taped call.

In his statement to CNBC, Mendelsohn said, “I’ll reiterate what I believe advised Rachel on the call and told the Times. Maria deserved and deserved the position and Rachel had to respect her. If Rachel wanted to challenge ESPN, she needed” to focus on their overall culture. “

ESPN has declined to say if an employee has been disciplined in connection with the case.

The Times reported that the only known person known to have been punished was a black digital video producer who was suspended for two weeks without pay after telling ESPN Human Resources that they were sending the video to Taylor had sent.

Josh Krulewitz, spokesman for ESPN, declined to speak to CNBC, but cited statements he had given the Times for its article.

“A diverse group of executives thoroughly and fairly examined all facts related to the incident and then handled the situation appropriately,” said Krulewitz.

“We pride ourselves on the coverage we continue to produce and our focus will continue to be on Maria, Rachel and the rest of the talented team that collectively serve NBA fans.”

Krulewitz also told the newspaper that ESPN emphasizes diversity, inclusion and equity, and that the company “arguably has the most diverse talented professionals in the sports media business, including those behind the scenes”.

Categories
Politics

Black Lives Matter leaders met with Biden White Home officers on police reform

Black Lives Matter leaders met with Biden White House officials on police reform

Protesters gather near the White House before a group attempted to tear down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square on June 22, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Black Lives Matter leaders met with members of President Joe Biden’s team as the White House and lawmakers negotiated the details of a possible police reform deal.

In a statement first broadcast to CNBC, Black Lives Matter said the leaders recently met with White House officials to discuss their agenda. The activist group is not satisfied with what has happened since the discussion, namely with proposals to give police departments more money.

“Black Lives Matter executives met with White House officials earlier this year to discuss our policy agenda, and while we appreciate the opportunity to speak with them, we are surprised by their lack of progress on issues that are black-minded People, the same communities, matter. ” who supported Biden-Harris so much in last year’s election, “the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation told CNBC in an email on Tuesday.

It is unclear when the meeting took place or which officials from both sides attended the meeting. Politico reported in May that the BLM had yet to meet with the Biden White House. The Washington Post reported late last year that Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, wrote a letter to Biden and Kamala Harris about a possible meeting.

Black Lives Matter press representatives responded to requests for additional comments. The White House has not responded to requests for comment.

Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., One of the lawmakers working on police reform, told NBC News that the negotiations had encountered some obstacles due to power struggles between law enforcement groups.

“I worry that it might prevent us from coming to an agreement. And you know what a really sad statement I think about the profession that they would actually prevent reforms and refuse to modernize,” she said.

The meeting and its aftermath suggest that Black Lives Matter and the Biden team are heading for a stalemate. It’s also a sign that Black Lives Matter may not have as much impact at the Biden White House as the group hoped.

Black Lives Matter, created after George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 in the murder of the unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, is calling for a reduction in police spending. For years the group has inspired and organized large protests against brutality against blacks.

Last year, Black Lives Matter’s group and motto gained popularity and relevance after police murdered George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other black Americans as protests erupted across the country.

Biden won the 2020 election with the overwhelming support of black voters.

The president recently said that states could raise $ 350 billion in stimulus funds to bolster police forces. Biden has also announced a series of measures his government is taking to curb the rise in crime and gun violence.

This didn’t go well with Black Lives Matter or activists calling for the defunding of police departments.

“And now we see the president arguing for increased spending on the police force instead of investing in housing, education, climate protection and health care,” Black Lives Matter said in a statement to CNBC. “This is no time to go back to the dangerous scare days of the 1990s when more police officers were deployed in our neighborhoods rather than services that improve lives and keep black communities safe.”

Categories
Health

Does It Matter if I Skip My Second Dose of Covid Vaccine?

Does It Matter if I Skip My Second Dose of Covid Vaccine?

It’s also not clear how long the protection of the first dose lasts without the surge of a second dose, said Dr. Fauci during a press conference at the White House in April.

Updated

April 29, 2021, 6:12 p.m. ET

“We were and still are concerned that if you look at the level of protection after a dose, you can say it’s 80 percent, but it’s a little weak 80 percent,” said Dr. Fauci. He said there was concern that more contagious variants that continue to spread around the globe might partially dodge after just one dose of vaccine-induced antibodies. “You’re in a weak zone if you don’t get the full effect of two doses,” he said.

Breakthrough infections after vaccination, while rare, do occur. A recent study of 250 people in Israel who were infected with the Pfizer vaccine after partial vaccination – between two weeks after the first dose and one week after the second dose – showed that they infected disproportionately with B.1.1.7 variant were first identified in Great Britain. The same study found that a group of 149 people infected after the second dose of vaccine developed eight infections with B.1.351 (the variant first identified in South Africa) between the seventh and 13th day after the second dose. No breakthrough infections with the South African variant were observed 14 days after the second dose. Although it was a small sample, the result suggested that full vaccination would provide more protection against the variants, said Adi Stern, the study’s lead author, a professor at Tel Aviv University’s Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research .

Another study showing the benefits of full vaccination looked at a group of 91,134 patients previously seen by doctors at the Houston Methodist Hospital system and followed them between December and April. Most were not vaccinated, but 4.5 percent were partially immunized and 25.4 percent were fully immunized. There were 225 deaths from Covid-19 in the group and 219 (97 percent) were among the unvaccinated. However, five deaths (2.2 percent) occurred in the partially immunized. Only one person (0.004 percent) died in the fully immunized group. In this study, full vaccination was protected 96 times from hospitalization and 98.7 percent from death from Covid-19. However, the partially vaccinated were only 77 percent protected from hospitalization and 64 percent from fatal Covid-19.

The study’s lead author, Saad B. Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, said he started the research with a “neutral” view of the benefits of two doses over a single dose. But he is now convinced that the benefits of a second dose matter.

“Given the data from our study and other evidence, it doesn’t make sense for people to skip their second dose,” said Dr. Omer. “When it comes to preventing death from vaccines, the jar is 64 percent full, but wouldn’t you rather have it almost 100 percent full for a result as drastic and irreversible as death?”

Aside from the obvious health risks, skipping the second dose can also make your life more complicated if you’re traveling or visiting facilities that require proof of vaccination. “You are not considered fully vaccinated,” said Dr. Brownstein. “It can have an impact on getting back to normal. If your vaccination record or card does not show full status, there may be certain things you cannot do. You may not be able to get on a plane. “

Categories
Business

For the Financial system, the Current Doesn’t Matter. It’s All In regards to the Close to Future.

For the Economy, the Present Doesn’t Matter. It’s All About the Near Future.

It is generally considered bad journalistic practice to start an article this way, but it has to be said: the new job numbers that the Department of Labor released on Friday morning don’t matter.

These numbers can sometimes be unimportant as any economic report is only part of the story and is subject to error rates and future revisions.

But in this case, it’s more than that. This job report doesn’t matter because the economy is at an important turning point. What matters is not what has happened in the last few weeks, but where things will end in a few weeks.

The report that 379,000 jobs were created in February and the unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent is good news. It’s a better result than January and better than forecasters expected.

But the economy is still in a deep hole, with nine million fewer jobs than a year ago, or around 12 million fewer than where we would be if employment growth had continued before the pandemic last year.

Think of a simple model of today’s economy as follows: A huge, complicated assembly line was shut down for a year and is now coming back online. Different stations on the assembly line come back at different speeds. The number of end products currently rolling off the line is less important than the details of the progress (or not) all of these various stations are making towards full capacity.

In normal times, the total employment growth reported on Friday would be a blockbuster number. However, continuing to create jobs at this rate would still mean a two-year return to pre-pandemic employment levels. The question is whether job creation will accelerate in the coming months as more Americans get vaccinated and return to normal behavior, especially when it comes to travel and entertainment.

A worrying sign of the new employment figures: State and local governments appear to be cutting jobs en masse. They cut a total of 83,000 jobs, around 69,000 of them in the education sector.

Will many of these jobs return when schools are at full capacity by fall? The Senate Biden Pandemic bailout plan provides for $ 130 billion to reopen schools safely and another $ 350 billion to support broader state and local budgets. If that money proves appropriate for the job, the February downsizing could turn out to be a temporary slip up.

Updated

March 5, 2021, 7:20 p.m. ET

In February, some of the sectors most directly affected by the pandemic saw huge job gains, particularly a 355,000 increase in leisure and hospitality jobs, largely related to restaurant jobs.

That’s good news, but restaurant employment is still 16 percent below last February’s level, a two million job hole. Widespread vaccination that allows people to return to restaurants safely is the only way those jobs can return.

This week’s news that Merck will help manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is bigger business for unemployed waiters and line chefs than the 286,000 bars and restaurant jobs added in February.

The longer-term effects of the crisis remain bleak. The rise in employment in February was entirely due to the layoffs – the number of these temporarily unemployed workers fell by 517,000. The number of permanent job losers remained constant at an astronomical level – 2.2 million more than a year ago.

That raises questions about which jobs destroyed during the pandemic will return. Are there certain behavior patterns and business models that have disappeared forever? And what will the people who once worked in these companies do now?

That is the hardest question for the future. It’s easy to describe the way back for jobs in schools and restaurants. However, real economic health means these 2.2 million people are returning to the ranks of the workforce too, and that could take more than just a shot in the arm.

Categories
Health

‘Model would not matter. Get the primary vaccine out there,’ Dr. Vin Gupta says

‘Brand doesn't matter. Get the first vaccine available,' Dr. Vin Gupta says

The intensive care unit and the pulmonologist Dr. Vin Gupta told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that patients should stop weighing the pros and cons of the Covid vaccine and still get the first shot in the arms as soon as possible, a new Israeli study that shows that the Pfizer vaccine will actually stop the spread of Covid.

“People say maybe I want the Pfizer vaccine instead of Johnson & Johnson or another,” said Gupta, a professor at the Department of Health Metrics and Assessment at the University of Washington, during an interview Monday evening. “That’s the wrong way to think about it. The brand here doesn’t matter. Get the first vaccine available.”

Gupta tweeted a photo of the lungs of a Covid patient who died of life support. The lungs developed holes that were once lung tissue, and Gupta said the vaccines can prevent this type of severe progression of the virus.

“This right-sided image is severe pneumonia that requires life support,” Gupta said. “All vaccines in the pipeline or approved prevent this, regardless of the variant.”

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the United States has exceeded 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, and that’s twice as many as any other nation. In fact, the US has recorded an average of one death per minute over the past year.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris honored the lives lost on Monday with a moment of silence and a candle-lighting ceremony in the White House. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also ordered Biden to lower the state flags to half the staff for the next five days. The bells at Washington National Cathedral rang 500 times in memory of the Americans killed by Covid.

The grim milestone of the pandemic comes when virus numbers improve. According to Johns Hopkins, the average daily cases are 69,986, a 52% decrease in this month alone. The average daily deaths are 1,872, the lowest since December 2. Hospital admissions are down 41% this month alone, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

However, Gupta told host Shepard Smith that people shouldn’t give up their vigilance when it comes to the virus.

“I think right now we have to be very careful how we feel about this good news,” said Gupta. “We still have to be vigilant, but yeah, that’s really good news, bright at the end of the tunnel, hopefully by midsummer.”

The highly transmittable new Covid variants have surfaced in several places in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The British variant was found in 44 states, the South African variant in 10 states and the Brazilian variant in 4 states.

Gupta noted that the US doesn’t have the sequencing technology to understand the “true spread” of the variants and is another reason for Americans to remain vigilant against the virus.

Categories
Health

The SAT is Dropping its Essay Part, Topic Matter Exams Throughout Pandemic

The SAT is Dropping its Essay Section, Subject Matter Tests During Pandemic

The college board, which administers the entrance exam for the SAT college and whose business has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, announced Tuesday that it will be removing the optional essay section from the SAT and stop running subject tests in the United States.

“The pandemic accelerated a process already underway on the college board to simplify our work and reduce the demands on students,” the organization said in a statement, adding that it will continue to develop a version of the SAT test, that can be managed digitally. something that quickly tried a home version last year and failed after the pandemic closed test centers.

The board did not set a timeframe for the launch of a digital version of the SAT that could be managed in test centers by live proctors, but said it would provide more information in April.

The changes to the SAT are due to the fact that more universities are dropping the requirement for students to take the test, as well as its competitors, the ACT. This trend is partly due to equity concerns that have received a boost during the pandemic.

College Board critics said the decision was almost certainly due to financial considerations. The SAT has historically represented a significant portion of the College Board’s annual revenue of more than $ 1 billion.

“The SAT and specialist exams die of products when they take their last breaths, and I am sure that the costs of managing them are considerable,” says Jon Boeckenstedt, The vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University said in an email.

At the same time, he said, the college board would likely try to use the elimination of subject exams to persuade elite high schools to offer more advanced courses, the tests of which the college board also manages to polish their student credentials. However, since AP tests must be taken at the end of a student’s junior year or earlier in order for their results to be taken into account in admission decisions, more focus on AP results in the admissions process would likely only increase the pressure on students.

“Overall, it’s good for the college board and probably not that good for the students,” said Boeckenstedt. “In other words, par for the course.”

Indeed, in its announcement, the board said that AP courses provide “abundant and varied opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills,” and that AP’s “expanded reach and widespread availability for low-income students and students of color “no longer require the subject exams.

David Coleman, the chief executive officer of the college board, said the organization’s goal is not to get more students into AP courses and tests, but to eliminate redundant exams, reducing the burden on students applying for college , will be reduced.

“Anything that can reduce and avoid unnecessary fears is of great value to us,” he said.

Categories
Entertainment

There’s Dance All Over, No Matter The place You Look

There’s Dance All Over, No Matter Where You Look

Live dancing may largely be put on hold, but there is still beauty and catharsis outside the theater, in the movements we encounter every day. We asked four photographers to show us how people physically navigate a world where awareness of our bodies – how much space we occupy, whether we are six feet from our neighbor – has become the norm.

Camilo Fuentealba staked New York’s hottest club – Costco – in addition to local businesses in town where locals shop for essentials. “I decided to investigate how we move in these routine places and how we move to document the daily rituals we must attend to survive,” he said.

“During the quarantine, supermarkets, along with a handful of other places, were the center of the universe, a holdover from reality. They were the only walls in which we were allowed – sometimes forced – to be around strangers. “

Jillian Freyer photographed her sister and mother’s quarantine in the backyard of her mother’s Connecticut home. “I am drawn to the fragments between the productions,” she said, “when people are open and vulnerable and move between the moments with ease.”

“The way we move around has changed over the past year. Indoor spaces look claustrophobic and our outdoor spaces aren’t big enough. Backyards and gardens have been reinvented into hideaways,” she said. “We have become resourceful and grateful for the places we occupy and with them.”

“Those otherwise little moments when the laundry is hung up, hugged, and moved around in the backyard – they suddenly have to be something more significant.”

Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet stationed himself in Manhattan’s touristy areas during the holidays. “I enjoy capturing those fractions of a second of movement,” she said. “At some point, reality in photography can suddenly become surreal.”

Noah Sahady captured the harmony of climbers and nature in the San Bernardino National Forest: Climbing, he said, takes him to environments where loneliness doesn’t feel so out of place.

“I think there is so much nuance, beauty, and tension in the movement of climbing, especially in the intricacies of how hands and fingers can interact with rock,” he said, “or to complement the environment, but also to deteriorate it.”