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Was 1971 the Yr ‘Music Modified Every thing’?

Was 1971 the Year ‘Music Changed Everything’?

Everything changed with the music of 1971. No, wait. It was 1973. Check if – 1974 was the year, except it was music, film, and television but only in Los Angeles.

If you’re writing a book or adapting one for television, you could do worse than picking a specific year as your organizational principle. This is especially true when you’re dealing with the tumultuous early 70s, when pop culture went up in flames and then regularly rose again.

The last to take on this challenge are the makers of “1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything”, based on the David Hepworth book “Never a Dull Moment: 1971 – The Year That Rock Exploded”. The eight-part documentary series, which was fully released on Apple TV + last week, offers plenty of evidence that their human subjects are as convinced of the premise as they usually are. “Music said something,” says Chrissie Hynde of the opening credits; “We created the 21st century in 1971,” says David Bowie.

But as difficult as it may be to avoid boomer bias – after all, a sense of generational self-esteem is anchored in the premise – it is perhaps even more difficult to limit the scope of such efforts to a single year: Did the music of 1971? really change things than ’72? What would 1969 say about that? How can you even start making the case?

“Sometimes you have to make a bold statement,” said Asif Kapadia, the series’ overall director and one of the executive producers, on a video call from London. “Our research revealed something amazing about this particular moment when it comes after the 60s, when it comes as a turning point in relation to the 70s.”

The series brings together so many captivating clips and stringing together so much recent history that it is hard to deny the results whether you buy the premise or not.

In 1971 Marvin Gaye transformed the protest song with the sublime “What’s Going On”; the Rolling Stones pounded on their raw classic “Exile on Main St”. (and copious amounts of heroin) in a rented villa in the south of France; Aretha Franklin showed her public solidarity with the imprisoned black activist Angela Davis; and David Bowie wrote the book on rock ‘n’ roll androgyny.

It was also a remarkable coming-out year for female artists. Carole King, who split from husband and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin in 1968, released Tapestry in 1971 and Joni Mitchell released Blue after her relationship with Graham Nash ended. These weren’t just great albums; there were also personal expressions of independence, resounding screams of defiance and vulnerability in a world that was still often male.

But life just doesn’t organize itself in 12 month periods, even if books and TV series dictate it. No project of this kind could provide the right context without spending time, for example with the Manson family massacre and the Altamont, California disaster in which four people died in a free concert with the Rolling Stones headline – two events from 1969, which signaled the end of the flower power era. The Kent state shootings of 1970 were another such trailblazer that helped set the table for the mood and music to come.

Even if it digresses from 1971, this is top notch cultural history with a killer beat. Sometimes you bend the rules a little.

Think Bowie, who has the last word on the series. The Man Who Sold the World was released in 1970 in the United States, but in 1971 in Bowie’s native England. He recorded the majority of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” which is the highlight of the series, in 1971, but the album was released in 1972. Similarly, the Stones recorded most of “Exile” in this mansion in ’71, but they ended it in ’72, the year the album was released.

“We had a very basic rule that it had to have a very strong footprint in 1971,” said Danielle Peck, the series producer who directed four of the episodes. “It could start in 1969 and end two years later. But most of the event had to be felt in ’71 because we had to have a way to filter out all of these amazing stories. “

Of course, you can remove any ambiguity by adopting subjectivity. Pointing out that he turned 21 in 1971 – and that we probably all consider this personal milestone special – Hepworth doubles in his book: “There is an important difference between me and 1971,” he writes. “The difference is this. I am right.”

At least he thinks he’s right. When Ronald Brownstein, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, decided to celebrate a year, he chose 1974 and decided to include music, film and television. He also limited his geographic focus to the entertainment hub, Los Angeles, which was much more sleepy then than it is now.

The resulting book “Rock Me on the Water: 1974 – The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics” is a strong argument. Brownstein saw ’74 as the end of an era.

“Losing LA’s cultural supremacy has made a far greater change in American life,” he writes. “The most memorable works of Los Angeles in the early 1970s – from ‘Chinatown’ to ‘All in the Family’ to Jackson Browne’s great album ‘Late for the Sky’ – emerged from the collision of 1960s optimism with growing cynicism and pessimism of the 70s. “

But let’s play the devil’s advocate for a moment with “1971”. What if Hepworth’s Certainty is Justified? What if 1971 is really the be-all and end-all of rock and pop, and not just a year of a lot of cool music coming out? What if “I’m right” isn’t arrogance but accuracy?

A list of 1971 publications is certainly daunting. In addition to those already mentioned, there was Black Sabbath’s “Master of Reality”; Cans “Tago Mago”; the “LA Woman” of the Doors; Aretha Franklin’s “Aretha Live at Fillmore West”; “Led-Zeppelin IV”; John Lennon’s “Imagine”; Bill Withers “Just As I Am”; and Sly and the Family Stones “There’s a Riot Goin ‘On” to start with.

Not bad, says 1972. But look here: Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon”; Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly”; Lou Reed’s “Transformer”; the Staple Singers’ Be Altitude: Respect Yourself and so on.

Quality is in the ear of the beholder – only the writer Andrew Grant Jackson has depicted the meaning of the years 1965 and 1973 in book length – and to his credit, “1971” is aware of this. At best, it avoids the album checklist game that takes up the source book in favor of a decisive cultural history.

It shows the uprising in the prison in Attica and his statements about racial incarceration discrepancies and the conditions of detention in general. It deals with the obscenity allegations made by the British government against Oz, an underground magazine that sparked outrage when 20 teenagers published a special “schoolchildren” issue. (Among the publication’s loudest defenders: John Lennon and Yoko Ono.)

It was a time of social upheaval, not just great music. But they were encouraged by the music, by the empowerment of women and African American and gender warriors. Was 1971 the gold standard for pop, rock and soul? Any answer would be steeped in subjectivity. But it was absolutely a step out of the 60s into a hectic new era, difficult to define but rich in conflict and opportunity.

“I’m sure different people have different arguments,” Kapadia said, “but our point was that at that moment, with the end of the Beatles and the start of other artists, something special happened, who then create what we see now can. “was the music of the future.”

When you see 1971, it’s probably best not to worry if it was “the year music changed everything”. Perhaps it is enough just to appreciate the era and its soundtrack without checking the title.

Now let’s take a look at which albums came out in 1975.

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Health

U.S. Covid instances lowest in a 12 months as Memorial Day journey picks up

U.S. Covid cases lowest in a year as Memorial Day travel picks up

A crowd of travelers check in for their flights at LAX on Friday, May 28, 2021.

Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

The U.S. has reported the lowest number of Covid-19 cases in more than a year, as the nation’s airports over Memorial Day weekend experienced the largest number of travelers since the pandemic began.

The 11,976 new cases reported on May 29 were the lowest since March 23, 2020, when 11,238 new cases were reported, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The seven-day average of 21,007 is the lowest since March 31 of last year, when it was 19,363.

Friday also saw the TSA report the highest number of travelers since the pandemic began, with more than 1.9 million people taking to the skies for the long weekend. At the same point last year, the TSA counted just 327,000 passengers at its checkpoints.

The World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The U.S. reported 1,147 Covid cases that day. The pandemic would go on to infect more than 33 million people in the U.S. and kill nearly 600,000 people.

Within a week of the WHO declaration, daily TSA travel numbers dropped from 1.7 million to 620,000. By March 25, the number was at 203,000. Since March 11, 2021, the daily number of fliers has remained above 1 million.

More than 60% of U.S. adults have at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, while 40.5% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. President Biden announced earlier this month that his administration is aiming to increase the number of adults with at least one dose to 70% by July 4. He also said he wants 160 million American adults fully vaccinated by the same date.

“If we succeed in this effort,” Biden said during his announcement, “then Americans will have taken a serious step toward a return to normal.”

The CDC recently said fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most settings, though masks are still required on airplanes, buses, trains and public transportation. Cities across the country are lifting restrictions on indoor dining and gatherings as cases fall and vaccinations increase.

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has repeatedly said that he wants to see daily case numbers drop below 10,000 before a broad relaxation of safety measures takes place.

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Business

Olympic Pin Buying and selling Is One other Casualty of Covid This 12 months

Olympic Pin Trading Is Another Casualty of Covid This Year

A few years ago, Bud Kling had three rooms added to his house in the Pacific Palisades in California. The builders used extra concrete along with a reinforcing metal beam — and not because Mr. Kling was expecting a crowd. The rooms weren’t for people. They were designed to house and showcase his 30,000-strong collection of Olympic pins, the colorful and endlessly varied souvenirs that have been bought and traded at the Games for decades.

Even when the builders were finished, Mr. Kling, a 74-year-old tennis coach, still had far more pins than he could fit in his home. He also owns about 100,000 “trading pins” — multiples of the same pin that can be swapped — and he hauls some of them to the Games. His stash is stacked in his garage and in rented storage space.

“I have a very patient wife,” said Mr. Kling, unnecessarily.

When organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced that the 2020 Games would be delayed for a year and, in March, that no overseas spectators would be allowed into the country, few were as despondent as Mr. Kling and other hard-core Olympic pin traders. To them, the Games are only partly about sports. For every minute they spend watching competition, they spend one minute — maybe two — trading pins, either in impromptu scrums outside venues or at designated trading centers.

The collapse of the pin trading market will hardly register in the ledger of losses incurred by the Tokyo Games, an enterprise that the country’s organizers say will cost more than $15 billion. About $3 billion of that stems from renegotiating contracts caused by the yearlong delay. But stuffing the national coffers hasn’t been the point of hosting since the price tag for throwing the world’s largest gathering started to soar more than a decade ago. Countries vie for the Games hoping for the ultimate look-at-me moment, a slick, multiweek advertisement aimed at the entire planet.

Tokyo will get a healthy portion of self-promotion if the Games go ahead, which organizers vow will happen despite national polls suggesting that an overwhelming number of people in Japan — who are contending with a prolonged fourth virus wave — would prefer another delay or outright cancellation.

For Olympics goers around the world, these Games will be remembered as the party they had to skip. That includes about 250 pin traders, people who plan their lives around the two-year interval between the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Never heard of Olympic pins? They are a portable, wearable bit of promotion and branding for athletic delegations, national Olympics committees, corporate sponsors, news media outlets and cities bidding for the Games. (The New York Times makes its own pins and gives a couple dozen to reporters covering events.)

To the unmoved, the pins are the kind of $7 memento you toss in a drawer, or a wastepaper basket, as soon as you return from the Games. Thousands of people buy pins, and many spontaneously trade them once they see a trading hive outside a venue. Host countries cater to both casual and ardent fans by producing vast quantities of pins, which are sold at souvenir shops.

Japan was prepared for pin-crazed crowds. The country’s organizers have made 600 different officially licensed pins, a spokesman at the Games said, and there are 12 souvenir stores set up around Tokyo. Now, demand for this bounty is an open question. It’s not just that Japanese fans will be the only ones admitted to the Games. Trading is such a hands-on, face-to-face activity that there are worries that it might be discouraged — or even banned.

The press office at the Games would not comment other than to send along a “playbook,” published in February, outlining safety protocols. Pin trading wasn’t mentioned, but one of the principles stated that attendees should “keep physical interactions with others to a minimum” and “avoid closed spaces and crowds where possible.” That makes pin trading all but impossible.

For years, Coca-Cola, a longtime Olympic sponsor, has built pin trading centers on the grounds of the Games. A spokeswoman said there would be pin-related promotions, including a chance to acquire pins representing Japan’s 47 prefectures. Whether the company will open and host a pin trading center in Tokyo, the spokeswoman said, is still under evaluation.

For years, Mr. Kling has been recruited by Coca-Cola to help oversee and manage its pin trading centers, a volunteer position that has made him the unofficial pin czar of the Games. Among his many roles is to enforce etiquette and unwritten rules. That means ensuring that tables are shared fairly, counterfeit pins are weeded out and newcomers aren’t overcharged.

“Occasionally I’ll hear an older guy tell a kid, ‘My pin is much bigger, so you need to trade me two for it,’” he said. “We don’t want anyone grinding down an 8-year-old.”

Some are in it for the money. There are more than 80,000 eBay listings for Olympic pins. These speculators had a golden moment in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, when, for reasons that nobody ever explained, the organizers failed to produce enough pins. A trading frenzy ensued. A few people earned $40,000 in a few days. The pin economy had a tulip mania moment.

“Guy I know made a down payment on his house with money he earned in Nagano,” said Sid Marantz, a pin trader who has been to 17 Olympics and is another regular volunteer at Coca-Cola pin trading centers.

At 76, Mr. Marantz is retired from a family business that sold food ingredients, like salt and sugar. He got his hands on his first pin when his parents took him to the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He was a huge fan of Rafer Johnson, an all-rounder out of U.C.L.A. who won gold in the decathlon that year.

“I was just swept away by the whole thing,” he said.

He attended his next Games in Montreal in 1976 on a tour with Track & Field News, to which he subscribed. That was the first time, he said, that spectators got involved in pin trading on a large scale.

It’s an affordable hobby, at least in Mr. Marantz’s practiced hands. He estimates his whole collection has cost him about $10,000. That’s in large part because after the 1996 Games in Atlanta, he and three friends learned about a warehouse in Colorado — home to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee — filled with 750,000 unsold pins. They chipped in $35,000 and bought the entire lot. Each kept about 40,000 pins, and they sold the rest to pin collectors around the world.

“We called it ‘the motherlode,’” he said of the acquisition. “It means I go to the Games with pins that effectively cost me nothing. That’s why I’ll trade with absolutely anyone.”

Beyond making new friends, pin trading is about the quest for obscure, hard-to-find treasures. These include pins from African delegations, because they tend to field small teams. (Burundi’s pins are especially prized; the country brought nine athletes to Rio in 2016.) Any country that has recently changed its name will find itself in the cross hairs of pin traders. That means you, North Macedonia, which will compete at its first Games since Greece compelled it to add “North” to its name.

The pins of Japanese media companies have been sought after ever since Nagano, because they are often adorned with cute cartoon mascots. This time around, though, not even this genre will be hot. Pins from Tokyo 2020 — yes, it’s keeping the name, never mind the actual date — are going to be worth next to nothing, Mr. Marantz predicts. Supply is going to swamp demand.

Both Mr. Marantz and Mr. Kling had purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of tickets to events in Tokyo, money that has since been refunded. Only recently have they begun to accept that they really won’t be heading to Japan in a few weeks. On Friday, Japan’s government extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and other prefectures until at least June 20.

“It’s like a boulder falling,” Mr. Kling said of being forced to skip the Games, “and hitting you in the head.”

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Entertainment

Overview: A Choreographer Seems to be Again on His Pandemic 12 months

Review: A Choreographer Looks Back on His Pandemic Year

Choreographer Stephen Petronio became veteran after founding his company in 1984 and since then creating a steady stream of dances. But when he first found out, Trisha Brown – he was the first male dancer in their company – gave him what every young dance artist needs. She rented him a place in the basement of her loft. “I had 5,000 square feet for $ 100 a month for many years,” he said during a virtual discussion at the Joyce Theater in April, “and that started my career.”

Now he’s dedicated to giving back: one way is to pay tribute to postmodern dance mentors like Brown by showcasing their early work on his company’s Bloodlines project. He also founded the Petronio Residency Center in Round Top, NY, which this year hosted bubble residencies for his company and other artists. All of this plays a prominent role in its new digital season, presented by the Joyce Theater, which runs through May 26th.

For “Pandemic Portraits”, a film, Petronio’s dancers talk about their experiences in bubbles; it’s not particularly revealing, you are grateful. A drone filmed performance of Brown’s “Group Primary Accumulation” (1973) shows four dancers on their backs moving together on a small bridge over a stream. The theme is clear in each one: the past year pushed Petronio and his dancers out of their element.

But didn’t we all feel that way? This program is less introspective than repetitive as it deals with now worn out ideas: isolation, longing for touch, longing for big movements. Sometimes it turns into sentimentality. Another challenge: in order to get the most out of the first three works, it helps to have a penchant for Elvis Presley.

Two versions of the duet “Are You Lonesome Tonight” are included, one in the film and the other for the stage; and Nicholas Sciscione, articulate and buttery, plays “Love Me Tender,” a solo created in 1993. The duets show Ryan Pliss and Mac Twining in the stage version, which was shot in the Hudson House, and Lloyd Knight with Sciscione in the film, which was also shot there as in nature.

To the “Lonesome” lyrics “Now the stage is bare and I stand there / With emptiness all around”, Knight and Sciscione, with bare chests, bend their heads back while water (from a waterfall?) Drips onto their faces. There’s a point where the capricious combination – the dancing and Presley’s voice – feels like lead. For me, it helped track down and watch the “Elvis Drunk” version of the song. It lightened the mood.

This program seems to come from a filmmaker’s point of view rather than a choreographer’s. The simple power of Brown’s “Accumulation,” a great piece of work in which dancers perform gestural movements on their backs and eventually rotate 360 ​​degrees, is diminished by the overhead shot. I got dizzy; The cast – including a male dancer for the first time – looks like ants.

Part of Petronio’s goal is to put postmodern dances alongside his own works. How was he influenced and shaped as an artist? In the premiere of “New Prayer for Now (Part 1)”, three men with bare chests and black panties repeat the tethered dancers from “Accumulation”. Although they are standing, their movement is contained; Her arms contract and straighten as her torso flexes and rotates, even as the choreographic flow pulls her to the ground.

While “New Prayer” develops, which is set to music by Monstah Black and the New York Youth Choir, other dancers join in, whose bodies grow together into physical sculptures. There are close-ups of hands on legs, back and shoulders. In other moments, dancers unravel like silk spools across the room.

In “Absentia,” a limited collaboration book about the company’s past year, Petronio writes, “I’ve taken steps all my adult life, but this simple act of getting together in the same room and doing what we do is just as joyful and enjoyable full of strength as I can remember. “

Petronio’s new work is, as the title suggests, the first step for a choreographer to find his way back to his craft. What will his next steps be? It’s hard to know about this program; it already feels like a time capsule.

Stephen Petronio Company

Until May 26th on joyce.org.

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Health

A whole bunch of Epidemiologists Anticipated Masks-Sporting in Public for at Least a 12 months

Hundreds of Epidemiologists Expected Mask-Wearing in Public for at Least a Year

When federal health officials said Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans would no longer have to wear masks in most locations, it came as a surprise to many in the public health sector. It was also in stark contrast to the views of a large majority of epidemiologists surveyed by the New York Times over the past two weeks.

In the informal poll, 80 percent said Americans were required to wear masks in indoor public spaces for at least another year. Only 5 percent said that people will no longer have to wear masks indoors by summer.

In large outdoor crowds, such as at a concert or protest, 88 percent of epidemiologists said it was necessary even for fully vaccinated people to wear masks.

“Unless vaccination rates rise to 80 or 90 percent in the next few months, we should wear masks in large indoor public spaces,” said Vivian Towe, program director at the Institute for Patient-Centered Results.

Responses came from 723 epidemiologists submitted between April 28 and May 10 before the Centers’ new guidelines for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey asked epidemiologists if they were in different sized groups outdoors and indoors with people whose vaccination status was unknown. The situations were in line with the new guidelines governing behavior in public places regardless of their size, where it is impossible to know the vaccination status of others.

Federal health officials have already said vaccinated people can be inside with other vaccinated people, and epidemiologists have largely agreed. However, the CDC’s new guidelines state that masks are no longer required for fully vaccinated individuals, regardless of the size of the congregation and whether they are indoors or outdoors, except in certain situations, such as in a doctor’s office or on public transit.

Epidemiologists are broadly very cautious about Covid-19 as they are trained to understand risks and prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Nearly three-quarters identified themselves as risk averse, and unlike many Americans, they’ve likely been able to work from home over the past year. But they are also trained as many of the academics at the CDC who developed the new policy, and about a third of those surveyed work in government, mostly at the state level.

They admitted that many Americans no longer want to wear masks – and that many have already stopped.

Wearing masks “will be a necessity, which is a very different question from the duration,” said Sophia K., epidemiologist at the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council. “I assume that most people will refuse to wear masks in public by the end of 2021, regardless of whether there is still a pandemic or not.”

Many epidemiologists echoed the CDC by saying that people who were fully vaccinated could congregate without taking precautions. However, the CDC went even further than the epidemiologists by giving vaccinated individuals OK to end masking in groups with an unknown number of unvaccinated individuals.

Updated

May 14, 2021, 11:24 a.m. ET

“Either you trust the vaccine or you don’t,” said Kristin Harrington, Ph.D. Student at Emory. “And if we trust the vaccine, it means that there is no limit to the number of people who can get vaccinated.”

Others recognized that political decisions are based on many goals, such as stimulating the economy and encouraging people to get vaccinated.

Most said, however, that wearing masks was still necessary for the time being as the number of Americans vaccinated has not yet reached a level that scientists believe is necessary to significantly slow the spread of the virus. By then, there are too many chances that vaccines that aren’t 100 percent effective will fail, they said.

“Crowded indoor and outdoor conditions require a mask until the community in Covid is much lower,” said Luther-King Fasehun, a doctor and doctor of epidemiology. Student at Temple University.

Sally Picciotto, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Berkeley, said the decision to stop wearing masks indoors was dependent on more people rolling up their sleeves to get the shot.

Respondents also said masks are important in protecting people at high risk and those who cannot be vaccinated, such as children or people with underlying health conditions, while the virus is still spreading.

“Until community transmission is lower, wearing masks will protect the entire community and the rest of the people in the room,” said Julia Raifman, an assistant including children, immunocompromised individuals, and Black and Latino communities affected by Covid- 19 more badly hit were professor of public health at Boston University.

A quarter of epidemiologists in the survey said that people would need to continue wearing masks indefinitely in certain settings, and some said they wanted to continue wearing them in places like airplanes or concert halls, or during the winter virus season.

“Heck, I can now wear a mask for any flu season,” said Allison Stewart, the senior epidemiologist for Williamson County and the Cities Health District in Texas. “Sure, it was nice not to have been sick for over a year.”

Alana Cilwick, epidemiologist for the Colorado Department of Public Health, said, “I plan to wear a mask indoors for the foreseeable future as the vaccine delay is great, especially in higher risk environments like the gym or on an airplane. ”

Only a fifth of epidemiologists said it was safe for fully vaccinated people to socialize indoors without masks in a group of unlimited size. A majority said that indoor gatherings should be limited to five or fewer households.

Even outside, where the coronavirus is spreading much less often, almost all epidemiologists said it was necessary to keep wearing masks en masse when people are around others whose vaccination status they do not know.

“Masks are the second most important vaccine prevention strategy,” said Professor Raifman.

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Health

Sophomore 12 months 2020: College students Wrestle With the Coronavirus Pandemic

Sophomore Year 2020: Students Struggle With the Coronavirus Pandemic

Before the pandemic, he would have said he was a kid on his way to a scholarship, maybe even to a college like Northwestern, where his father briefly studied before dropping out. When obsessed with the musical Hamilton in seventh grade, he read the Federalist Papers to see what they had to say. He played as Macbeth in a school production and liked it so much that he read other Shakespeare plays for fun. He never wanted to sound conceited, but in the past he would have said school came easily. At the same time, he found it all overwhelming at times. As a black teenager now approaching six feet, he was very much aware of what his mother’s – a PhD school administrator – expected were. – went against the expectations of the rest of the world. “To keep proving these stereotypes wrong,” he said, “it costs me a lot.”

And then, last spring, when the school closed its doors, he was left alone with thoughts that had been waiting for that very opportunity – for an enormous amount of time and space. These new thoughts flooded in, leaving little room for concern about Othello’s motivation or the subjunctive in French. More and more, when he was alone in his room there was only one voice, and that voice told Charles that no matter how promising his start was, that he would surely follow what he saw as his father’s downward slide felt. His fate was failure.

During the first few days of the school year, Charles’ laptop kept crashing during Zooms, which felt like a metaphor for what the year would bring: a big mess, a break, a technological headache he was left to solve. In the following weeks the days were empty and long; The more time that voice had, the louder it got and the harder it was to get out of it. Since he did all of his chores in his bedroom, it was easy to go back to sleep after his first grade if he made it to his first grade. “When I woke up, I could either a) get up and do what I had to do,” he said, trying to grasp his typical schedule, “or b) look at the time, be disappointed in myself, and go back to bed . “During distance learning, attendance was not included in a student’s final grade. However, Charles not only skipped class – he hardly gave any assignments. And suddenly there he was, no longer a kid getting A, but a kid who it had blown so early in the semester.

The voice in his head exhausted him so that Charles began to sleep more during the day. Sometimes the voice frightened him. His heart would start pounding and he would feel overwhelmed by a sense of an impending crisis: it was all over and there was nothing he could do about it. It was too late.

How could EK possibly get him out of the hole he was in? She had no idea how big it was already. At the beginning of October he decided to stay with Zoom after class when she offered to help all the students who were left behind. At least he could tell his mother that he had tried. He stayed and Sarah, a classmate everyone liked. She cheered and he played JV football, but they didn’t move in the same circles. She really was a smiley face – he considered her one of those people who were always happy.

When Sarah stayed After class to attend this additional help session with Ms. EK in early October, she was surprised to see Charles was there too. Charles, she had already learned, was smart. He often had an answer to everything Mrs. EK asked; In fact, the students had quickly come to rely on him to save them all from the silence that often hung in the air in their online classes. While talking to each other and Ms. EK that day, Charles and Sarah quickly found common ground and diagnosed their common problems: lack of motivation, loneliness, a feeling of hopelessness. Charles suggested that Sarah might need help, to which Sarah said, What about you?

During that conversation, Sarah told the first of many lies she would tell her teachers, mother, and herself over the coming months. OK, she would say, I’m ready to turn a new leaf. Now I’m really going to apply. But she still rarely made it to class. When her laptop died in the middle of a zoom, she decided that this was God’s way of telling her that she had done enough for the day. About six weeks into school, her mother, whose health was still shaky, whose mind was still foggy, looked at a mid-term academic assessment that landed in her email inbox and said, “What do all these NHIs mean?” Sarah said : “Huh, I don’t know”, as if she wanted to decipher one of the great bureaucratic secrets of her time, although she knew exactly what they stood for: not given up. She got used to piling up emails from teachers. “Just make sure you saw. … “” A reminder that your essay. … ”Everyone wanted something from her. Whoa, whoa, whoa. She would come back to them – someday.

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Health

After a Traumatizing Yr, Black Folks Flip to Remedy

After a Traumatizing Year, Black People Turn to Therapy

Dr. Lewis said that due to news media coverage of the George Floyd case and other high profile police shootings, some blacks experienced some form of “shared trauma” that sometimes led to heightened anxiety or nervousness.

“We are repeatedly inundated with these things,” he said, “and what I think exacerbates and exacerbates these problems is that black Americans in the United States are already having difficulties associated with the race already in their daily lives, too seem to be. “

Racism, economics, and parenting are sometimes topics of discussion for Str8 Mental, a virtual group that provides space for black men across the country to discuss issues that affect their lives, said Brad Edwards, the community organizer for Dear Fathers, a platform the stories about black tells fatherhood. Str8 Mental meets monthly and sessions with a minimum of 30 participants are led by two black male therapists.

“Often times, as blacks, because we haven’t been taught to open up and discuss what we’re up to, we often think that we are only concerned with these things,” said Mr. Edwards, who is Black. “These people really bond. They are purely strangers who come together, are an open, vulnerable and safe space and flow into one another. “

Mr Edwards said Str8 Mental started almost a year ago and emerged from the impact the pandemic had on the black community. “We created this to give the guys a chance to come in and start unpacking,” he said. “I think the conversations about therapy and therapists in the black community have become more and more frequent in recent years.” At least 700 men took part, he said.

A number of large pharmacy chains have recently entered the mental health market. Since January, CVS has added licensed clinical social workers trained in cognitive behavioral therapy in more than a dozen locations, and Walmart and Rite Aid are working to offer similar services.

Additionally, there is a growing chorus of celebrity voices advocating for mental health treatment, including actress Taraji P. Henson, who set up a foundation to help eradicate the stigma surrounding mental health issues in the black community.

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Business

There are extra causes this yr to verify your owners insurance coverage

There are more reasons this year to check your homeowners insurance

Floods are pouring down the road in Muhlenberg Township, Pennsylvania, following a severe storm last August.

Ben Hasty | MediaNews Group | Getty Images

Ongoing climate change and rising timber costs are two things to consider when insuring your homeowner.

Whether you live in an area exposed to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, hail, forest fires, or severe storms that are becoming increasingly common, it is important to know what types of weather-related damage your policy covers, excludes, or a separate one Fee levies (and probably higher) deductible for.

Add in current lumber prices – they’re up 67% already this year and 340% year over year – and the cost of repairing or replacing your home during severe weather may be far higher than expected.

“You could be a great financial success if you do not understand the policy you are purchasing,” said Spencer Houldin, president of Ericson Insurance Advisors.

With the warmer weather in the US, the likelihood of severe weather increases too. The tornado season is already underway, and the official hurricane season begins June 1st and lasts through November 30th. California and parts of the Southwest have drought conditions that are conducive to forest fires.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 22 different weather and climate catastrophe events valued at $ 1 billion last year in the United States. There were also 30 Atlantic storms named – a record – of which 12 landed in the United States

Depending on where you live and the typical weather for that area, your homeowners policy may provide coverage for some of the more location-specific events, and state law will often dictate what is required for the policies offered in your jurisdiction.

Here are some things to check in your policy.

Replacement costs

Standard policies usually repair or replace your home up to the amount for which it is insured. Or, you may have a clause that increases that replacement amount to 125% or 150% of your home coverage. Or there is no upper limit on the replacement cost.

“If you have a guaranteed reimbursement scheme, see if it is capped at 125% or 150% or not,” Houldin said. “In disaster-prone areas in particular, it is really important that you have adequate coverage.”

When evaluating the replacement cost of your policy, consider the higher cost (e.g. lumber) of rebuilding your home – especially if you took out the insurance some time ago.

Different damage, different deductibles

While many risks fall under the standard part of your policy, some weather-related events fall under a different part that has a different deductible.

If you live in a state on the east coast or the Gulf of Mexico, there is a good chance your homeowner insurance policy has a hurricane deductible. Likewise, in states more prone to wind-related events – that is, tornadoes – you are likely to have a wind deductible.

In either case, these amounts are typically between 1% and 5% (with a minimum of $ 500) depending on the specifics of your insurance contract. Some homeowners may opt for an even higher deductible if it is available. In general, the higher the deductible, the lower the premiums and vice versa.

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It is important to note that for these percentage deductibles, the amount is based on your insured value and not on the damage caused.

If your home is insured for $ 500,000 and you have a 5% hurricane deductible, you are responsible for covering the first $ 25,000 regardless of the total cost of the damage. This means that it is wise to have a plan to cover your stake after a disaster.

For example, Houldin knew a homeowner who had a 15% wind deductible – $ 150,000 – on a $ 1 million home. When strong winds tore the roof, the event caused damage of $ 110,000 – below the deductible.

In other words, the homeowner had to pay for the repairs out of pocket.

Also note that earthquakes aren’t covered by standard homeowner policies, even in quake-prone California (you’d need to get separate insurance). Typically there are also no other types of earth moving (i.e. landslides, sinkholes).

Flood risk

Homeowner policies generally exclude floods from coverage. However, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, just one inch of water in your home can cause damage up to $ 25,000 worth of damage. And every fourth flood insurance claim comes from outside a high-risk zone.

For insurance coverage, you need separate flood insurance either through the national flood insurance program of the federal government or through a private insurer. However, be aware that there are exclusions and limitations to coverage. It takes 30 days for the flood policy to take effect. The average annual cost is $ 734, although this can vary widely.

“If you are in a dangerous flood area, the mortgage lender requires flood insurance,” Houldin said. “If you’re in a safe zone, the lender says you don’t need it.”

While floods are a common aspect of natural disasters, less than 15% of homeowners have flood insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

If a homeowner is exposed to storm-related damage that is exposed but is in a federally declared disaster area, there may be government programs that can provide financial assistance, including FEMA grants and Small Business Administration loans. However, this help is not guaranteed and probably wouldn’t get you back on your feet quickly.

For example, after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which dropped as much as 60 inches of rain in some locations in Texas, the average FEMA grant for individuals was $ 7,000, while the average National Flood Insurance Program claim was more than $ 100,000.

If you are a tenant

Even if you don’t own your home, your finances are still at risk if a storm damages the house or building you live in. While the owner’s insurance covers the structure itself, you are responsible for your own property.

Tenant insurance is an option to cover your belongings. It can also cover the cost of living elsewhere if you cannot stay in your home after a storm or other insured event.

The national average for a policy with $ 40,000 personal property coverage, a $ 1,000 deductible, and $ 100,000 liability coverage is $ 197 per year, according to an Insurance.com rate analysis . $ 17 per month).

Protect your important documents

Long before a disaster strikes, important documents – like birth certificates, deeds, titles, and tax returns – should be kept securely in a waterproof location, and duplicates should be kept elsewhere with a trusted person, advises the IRS. You can also scan and save them online or on a flash drive.

Additionally, taking photos of the contents and condition of your home can make the insurance claims process easier if your home is damaged.

Categories
Politics

Threats towards members of Congress have greater than doubled this yr

Threats against members of Congress have more than doubled this year

A US Capitol Police patrol car drives past the fence on the east side of the US Capitol before President Joe Biden addresses the joint congressional session on Wednesday, April 28, 2021.

Bill Clark | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

The threats to federal lawmakers have more than doubled this year compared to last year, the U.S. Capitol Police said on Friday.

The law enforcement agency tasked with defending Congress reported a 107% increase in threats against members of the legislature compared to the same point in 2020.

“Given the unique threat environment we currently live in, the department is confident that the number of cases will continue to increase,” the agency said in a press release published online.

The report comes months after a crowd of former President Donald Trump supporters overwhelmed the police department and stormed the Capitol to prevent Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s victory.

The Justice Department has estimated that around 800 people were involved in the January 6 attack. More than 400 suspected rioters are currently being prosecuted and arrests continue. Steven Sund, who was in charge of police at the time of the riot, resigned on January 7th.

The release on Friday is in line with comments from lawmakers that the political atmosphere puts their security at greater risk.

In January, members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And other congressional officials requesting greater approval to use a Congressional Fund for security measures, citing heightened risks.

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Several lawmakers who backed Trump’s indictment have also increased their own security spending since the Jan. 6 attack, financial data show.

Police have previously said the threats are increasing.

In March, incumbent USCP chief Yogananda Pittman told Congress that threats against lawmakers had increased by more than 90% in the first two months of the year. Between 2017 and 2020 there was a 118.66% increase in threats and “directions of interest”.

The January 6 attack prompted the Capitol Police to seek additional funding from Congress. The police department has requested an increase in its budget for 2022 by 107 million US dollars over the budget for fiscal year 2021.

This call reflects changes to the post-uprising budget request. The original application before Jan. 6 called for a $ 36 million increase in funding from 2021.

In their press release, the police continued their efforts to get more funding. She agreed to the recommendations of the Agency’s Inspector General in April to increase her threat assessment staff and to set up a stand-alone vigilance station. Both proposals, the police department said, would “require resources and approval”.

“In her report, the [inspector general] suggests that the Department’s threat assessment division be similar to the United States Intelligence Service (USSS). In 2020, the USSS had approximately 8,000 cases with more than 100 agents and analysts. During the same period, the USCP, which has just over 30 agents and analysts, had approximately 9,000 cases, “the department said.

The Police Department added, “The USCP agrees that a standalone CCU would be valuable. However, to fully implement this recommendation, the department would need additional resources for new hires, training and vehicles, as well as approval from Congressional stakeholders.”

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Categories
Business

AstraZeneca’s vaccine has introduced in $275 million in gross sales to date this 12 months.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine has brought in $275 million in sales so far this year.

The vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, had sales of $ 275 million from approximately 68 million doses administered in the first three months of this year, AstraZeneca reported on Friday.

AstraZeneca announced the figure, largely from sales in Europe, when it reported its financial results for the first quarter. It offers the clearest overview yet of how much money is being made by one of the leading Covid vaccines.

AstraZeneca, which has pledged not to benefit from its vaccine during the pandemic, sold the shot to governments for several dollars a dose, which is cheaper than the other leading vaccines. The vaccine has been approved in at least 78 countries since December but is not approved in the United States.

The vaccine accounted for nearly 4 percent of AstraZeneca’s sales for the quarter. It was nowhere near the company’s biggest sales driver. By comparison, the company’s best-selling cancer drug Tagrisso had sales of more than $ 1.1 billion for the quarter.

AstraZeneca has announced that it will seek emergency approval to use its vaccine in the US, even though it has become clear that the doses are not needed. The Biden government announced this week that it will be making up to 60 million doses of its range of AstraZeneca shots available to the rest of the world pending a quality review.

If the company gets approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it could help build confidence in a vaccine whose reputation has been marred by concerns about a rare but serious clotting side effect. The FDA’s assessment process is considered the gold standard worldwide.

Johnson & Johnson, whose emergency vaccine was approved in late February, reported last week that its vaccine had sales of $ 100 million in the United States for the first three months of the year. The federal government pays the company $ 10 per dose. Like AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson is committed to selling its vaccine “at cost” during the pandemic – meaning it will not benefit from sales.

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines cost more, and neither company has announced that it will forego profits. Pfizer expects the vaccine to generate sales of around $ 15 billion this year. Moderna expects sales of 18.4 billion US dollars.

Both companies are expected to publish their first quarter results next week.