text:
1200 BC: The world's first industrial action … rescuing the past for the future
Contending for the living
Red Pepper, April-May 2013
The city of Luxor in southern Egypt made the headlines in Britain at the end of February, when 19 tourists were killed in a hot air balloon accident. That tragedy will compound the woes of Egypt's tourist industry, once a major source of employment and foreign currency, now languishing as foreign visitors are driven away by (misconceived and exaggerated) fears of instability and violence.
Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes, the principal capital of the Egyptian New Kingdom (1550-1050 BC), is studded with colossal carved temples and richly decorated tombs. But the most revealing and moving of its many ruins may be the least spectacular. Known as Deir el Medinah, these are the low-lying remains of the workers' village, home to the artisans who built the tombs and temples. Their small, sturdy domestic units are laid out on a grid pattern. Here lived stonemasons, tomb painters, carpenters, ropemakers, porters. Scattered among the excavated foundations are mini-pyramids and entrances to underground burial vaults, small in scale but decorated with as much care, as much wealth of colour and detail, as the royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings. These workers had their own visions of an afterlife, a better life. And they had a sense of their own value.
This is the site of history's first recorded strike. The workers were paid in grain, from which they made bread and beer, the staples of the Nile Valley diet. In about 1200 BC, the state treasury, drained by Rameses III's imperial wars, failed to meet its commitments. The workers downed tools and staged a sit-in at the construction site of the Pharaoh's mortuary temple. Perhaps surprisingly, they won the dispute. Their leverage was their masters' fear of dying without the proper funerary arrangements, entering the afterlife under-equipped. The Egyptian cult of the dead, for once, benefited the living.
What are we to make of this episode from remote antiquity? Walter Benjamin, in his prophetic final essay, "Theses on the Philosophy of History", written in 1940, distinguished between two opposing approaches to the past: "historicism" and "historical materialism". For the former time is linear, uniform, cumulative. "Its method is additive: it offers a mass of facts, in order to fill up a homogeneous and empty time." In contrast, the historical materialist "records the constellation in which his own epoch comes into contact with that of an earlier one." The job of the historical materialist is not to reproduce but "to explode the continuum of history."
Benjamin asks: "With whom does the writer of historicism actually empathize?" "The answer," he insists, "is irrefutably with the victor." History becomes a "triumphal procession in which today's rulers tread over those who are sprawled underfoot. The spoils are, as was ever the case, carried along in the triumphal procession. They are known as the cultural heritage." In contrast, for the historical materialist, "the cultural heritage is part and parcel of a lineage which he cannot contemplate without horror. It owes its existence not only to the toil of the great geniuses, who created it, but also to the nameless drudgery of its contemporaries. There has never been a document of civilisation which is not simultaneously one of barbarism."
There's no better illustration of that ringing dictum than the art of ancient Egypt, the product of a brutally stratified society governed by a religion of state power, personified in a god-man ruler. Yet long after the system that oppressed them crumbled, the work of the artisans of Deir el Medinah remains vital, colourful, rhythmic and refined; it excels at grand effects but also in delicate naturalistic detail. Whether in the vast vaults of the Valley of the Kings or in the humble tombs of Deir el Medinah itself, the afterlife is depicted as a better version of this life, furnished in abundance with the good things of this life: food, drink, flowers, birds, song, dance, family. Ancient Egyptian art remains alien, at times weird. But it's also recognisably human; it leaps across chasms to forge a connection.
On the left we see ourselves as makers of the future fully engaged with the present. We look ahead, not behind, and we resent the charge that we are "wed to out-moded doctrines" and in particular that we have failed to adapt to the changes of the last thirty years. But we should not be ashamed of being "conservative" in defending rights won in previous generations or communities threatened by "development". Capitalism's disregard for the future, its bias in favour of the short-term, is notoriously reckless. But it;s equally reckless in its disregard for the past, unless that past can be packaged for consumption or the transmission of propaganda. In either case, the past is not allowed to stand independently, to speak with a voice of its own. And to demand from us some accountability.
Benjamin says our task is "to brush history against the grain." An example of this in our own moment is the 23 year campaign for justice for those killed at Hillsborough. Though justice itself has yet to be done, much of the truth has now been established. This was achieved only because the families and their supporters defied the massed chorus telling them their quest was futile, emotion-driven or vindictive. Their sense of duty to the dead was not diverted by appeals to pragmatism and the virtues of adjustment, of "living in the present". As a result, they succeeded in recovering a suppressed history which, in turn, becomes an active element in our present and future.
In Spain, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory aims to document the fate of Franco's victims and to excavate and identify their bodies, including the tens of thousands dumped in mass graves. To do this, the Association has had to defy the "pact of oblivion" that smoothed the transition to democracy by shielding members of the old regime from accountability. In this case, a sense of obligation to the dead, to those who were on the losing side, was not a "backward-looking" indulgence: it was a social necessity. We can't decipher the present without examining its foundations in the battles of the past, acknowledging losses as well as gains.
The Palestinian insistence on recognition of the Nakba – characterised by pro-Israel commentators as a vain desire to recoup a lost battle – is in fact a necessary engagement with the realities of the present: the ongoing impact of the Nakba in the policies of dispossession and ethnic cleansing. At the same time, it's a steadfast insistence on a future of self-determination.
Despite their brief victory, the workers of Deir el Medinah never escaped their state of impoverished servitude. They were on the "losing side" in the march of history. Nonetheless, in their art and in their action, the workers of Deir el Medinah remind us, in Benjamin's words, that the "fine and spiritual … are present in the class struggle as something other than mere booty, which falls to the victor. They are present as confidence, as courage, as humour, as cunning, as steadfastness in this struggle, and they reach far back into the mists of time. They will, ever and anon, call every victory which has ever been won by the rulers into question."


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One of the greatest riders in history announced his retirement earlier today. After more than 20 years at the World championship level, Max Biaggi leaves the sport of motorcycle roadracing with a total of 6 World championships to his credit, including 4 straight 250 GP championships and 2 WSB championships.
Biaggi's career saw him battle in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class with the likes of Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi. Never a premier class champion, Biaggi nevertheless recorded 15 race wins and 3 runner-up positions in the championship, including once to Mick Doohan and twice to Valentino Rossi. Biaggi switched to WSB in 2007, winning his first race on a Suzuki.
Biaggi would eventually win 2 WSB titles for Aprilia, including 1 in 2010 and his current championship in 2012 . . . securing the latter by a narrow half-point over Tom Sykes (Kawasaki).
Biaggi was known for his incredibly smooth riding style, so much so that he sometimes astounded rookies following him in practice for the first time. The 41-year-old Biaggi maintained this high level until his final race this year.
Biaggi also became known for his clashes with Italian countryman Valentino Rossi, who knocked Biaggi off his pedestal in the premier class and frequently battled with him – both on the track and off.
He is an interesting personality who will surely be missed and remembered.

subset: commoncrawl


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Happiness is only real when shared
"The strangely fascinating hero of Jon Krakauer's strangely fascinating book Into the Wild is a young man who starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness in the summer of 1992. That is the starting point of a narrative that seeks to find out why we should care.
An electrician who had picked him up four miles out of Fairbanks pressed a pair of rubber boots and two sandwiches on the dangerously underequipped but charming hitchhiker, who would vouchsafe no name but Alex. His parents had named him Christopher McCandless, but in his travels he preferred the invented identity Alexander Supertramp. Alex shouldered his backpack—containing little more than books and rice—and his .22-caliber rifle and walked into the forest, to live off the land or die trying. It was April, still winter in Alaska.
Coming upon the impassable Toklat River, he gave up the idea of walking the 300 miles from Mount McKinley to the Bering Sea, Mr. Krakauer writes, and took up residence in a rusting Fairbanks city bus that had been fitted out as a crude shelter. He then entered on what he called, in a manifesto scrawled on a piece of plywood, 'the climactic battle to kill the false being within.'
Somehow McCandless grubbed a living from the snows—gathering last year's rose hips and wizened berries, shooting squirrels, ptarmigans, porcupines and finally, in June, with his puny little .22, a moose. He tried to smoke the meat, but his moose quickly spoiled.
By late summer, McCandless's incompetence and overconfidence had caught up with him. The hunters who found his rotting corpse in September also found this note:
'S O S. I need your help. I am injured, near death and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?'
Dying at the age of 24, he had resumed his real name.
"What was with this guy? Why should we care if he had no better sense than this? (The reactions of most Alaskans who read about his death ranged from annoyance to indignation.) And what 'false being'? He kept journals, and in between silences would jabber out his 'philosophy' for hours, but the Supertramp's ideas are never lucid enough to give us a clue.
And yet, as Mr. Krakauer picks through the adventures and sorrows of Chris McCandless's brief life, the story becomes painfully moving. Mr. Krakauer's elegantly constructed narrative takes us from the ghoulish moment of the hunters' discovery back through McCandless's childhood, the gregarious effusions and icy withdrawals that characterized his coming of age, and, in meticulous detail, the two years of restless roaming that led him to Alaska. The more we learn about him, the more mysterious McCandless becomes, and the more intriguing.
Wherever he went, McCandless sought out the detritus of the society of privilege whose child he was—the son of accomplished, prosperous parents (his father was an outstanding scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). McCandless detested the world of accomplishment and prosperity. When he graduated from Emory University (with a grade point average not far short of a perfect 4), he gave his inheritance of more than $24,000 to charity and, without a word to anyone, hit the road. What is fantasy in a Tom Waits song was McCandless's notion of the good life.
If the world no longer offered the sort of wilderness that freely killed those who braved its dangers, then McCandless would create a wilderness within, discarding the rudimentary protections of modern life—matches, maps, even warm clothing. 'In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita,' Mr. Krakauer writes. Hardly eating, never letting his anguished family know where he was, nearly dying of thirst in the Mojave Desert, canoeing a storm-racked Gulf of California, setting fire to the last of his money, he vowed, as he wrote to an acquaintance, 'to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.'
"Mr. Krakauer, a contributing editor at Outside magazine, tracks down virtually everyone who knew McCandless in his two years of wandering. As their memories reconstruct Alexander Supertramp, an image of the young anchorite begins to emerge, so vivid at times that it dazzles, at others so mystifying that one wants to scream. The people who meet him love him, while the reader longs to kick him in the pants. An 81-year-old man whom Mr. Krakauer calls Ronald A. Franz loved McCandless so much he begged to adopt him as a grandson.
'We'll talk about it when I get back from Alaska, Ron,' McCandless replied. The author adds: 'He had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy.'
After he had slipped away, McCandless wrote Franz an insolent letter admonishing him to live as he, the Supertramp, saw fit: 'If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.'
'Astoundingly,' Mr. Krakauer writes, 'the 81-year-old man took the brash 24-year-old vagabond's advice to heart. Franz placed his furniture and most of his other possessions in a storage locker, bought a GMC Duravan and . . . sat out in the desert, day after day after day, awaiting his young friend's return.'
"McCandless's passion was all for the struggle within himself, a half-blind inner seeking for he knew not what—some sort of transcendence through renunciation. The reader never comes to make sense of his spiritual craving, but its very impalpability makes it familiar. Do we not all thirst for something we cannot define? Does McCandless's fanatical determination to find it make him a saint, a holy fool or just plain nuts?
The one weakness of Mr. Krakauer's attempt to understand Chris McCandless lies in an inadequate consideration of psychiatric illness. Indeed, he says straight out, 'McCandless wasn't mentally ill.' But in a long and engaging aside about his own youthful daring of death, Mr. Krakauer lets us know that he himself has sought out risks that most of us would call insane.
Did McCandless want to die in Alaska? That is Mr. Krakauer's ultimate question, and the whole book can be seen as a quest for a compassionate answer. Mr. Krakauer's antihero conforms to no familiar type. His contradictions, in retrospect, do not illumine but rather obscure his character. In death, he passes beyond the reach of mortal comprehension.
Christopher McCandless's life and his death may have been meaningless, absurd, even reprehensible, but by the end of Into the Wild, you care for him deeply."
–Thomas McNamee, The New York Times, March 3, 1996


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Researchers have studied viruses as agents of disease in humans, domestic animals and plants, but a study of plant viruses in the wild may point to a more cooperative, benevolent role of the microbe, according to a Penn State virologist.
"Most of these wild plants have viruses," said Marilyn Roossinck, professor of plant pathology and environmental microbiology and biology, who has examined more than 7,000 individual plants for viruses. "But they don't have any of the symptoms that we usually see in crop plants with viruses." Most of the viruses Roossinck studied are new viruses, although they are related to viruses that have been examined in crops. According to the researcher, about half of the viruses that infect wild plants tend to be continually present in the plant — persistent.
The viruses get passed from plants to their offspring through the seeds. Researchers are still trying to uncover exactly what viruses are doing in the plants. Since the viruses are found so often, they may be playing some role in the life of the plant, according to Roossinck.
In fact, studies indicate that viruses can be beneficial to some plants, making them hardier and helping them survive extreme temperatures and drought, said Roossinck, who reported on her research today (Feb. 17) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"When most people think of viruses, they think of serious diseases and death, such as the AIDS virus," Roossinck said.
However, on a research trip in Costa Rica, a biodiversity hot spot in Central America, she noticed that unmanaged wild plants looked healthier than managed agricultural fields.
During her research, Roossinck observed that most of the approximately 10,000 species of wild plants at the study site appeared healthy. The wild plants she studied included Fabaceae, an abundant family of plants related to beans. However, commercial crops — melons, oranges, pineapple and aloe — that were growing near the site were not as healthy.
"When I went to the forest, the wild plants looked healthy and gorgeous," Roossinck said. "Then, I went 10 kilometers away and the plants in the agricultural field were not looking so healthy. In the forest the plants are full of microbes: viruses, fungi and bacteria, whereas in crops farmers try to eliminate the microbes. Perhaps there is a connection."
Indeed, one plant virus that was found frequently in the forest was also found in nearby melon crops. In the melons it was causing severe disease, while in the wild plants there were no symptoms. Analyzing the viruses suggested that they were moving from the crops into the wild plants, but somehow the wild plants remained healthy.
Roossinck said she is curious about how the wild plants avoid disease, and if there is a way this can be used in agriculture.


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Many popular JS/CSS frameworks are offered via Google's Libraries API (jQuery, Dojo, MooTools etc.). Yahoo also hosts it's own YUI toolkit, as do many others.
Do any high volume/traffic sites actually rely on these externally-hosted resources (without hosting their own copies)? It seems like a great service to leverage, although in my experience I've often encountered these libraries packaged along with the projects I've worked on.
What's the most common practice here? Moreover, is it safe and reliable (based on experience) to use these externally?


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After a century's ban, Switzerland has legalised the production of absinthe - the emerald-green liquor which was said to have caused the madness of many throughout the 1900s, one of whom was the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. The beverage is prepared by macerating a cornucopia of spices and herbs such as aniseed, fennel, hyssop, lemon balm, angelica, star anise, dittany, juniper, nutmeg, veronica and wormwood oil in alcohol. It is hardly surprising that, upon abuse and on a long-term basis, such a mixture of chemicals should have an undesirable effect on our system. Nevertheless, at the dawn of the 21st century, a greater understanding of absinthe's claimed toxicity is surfacing and fingers are pointing at thujone, a terpenoid found in wormwood oil. Besides lending absinthe its particular flavour, thujone has the ability to bind to receptors in our brain - gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptors or GABAA receptors - which can bring on a number of brain disorders.
Towards the end of the 18th century, Switzerland was the major producer of absinthe but its abuse spread fast around the rest of Europe and North America. Like opium, it became popular amongst artists and writers probably because of its antidepressant qualities and its ability to provoke hallucinations, besides the popular misbelief that the concoction had aphrodisiac attributes. The beverage became an icon of the Bohemian style of life and, in Paris, the end of afternoon apéritif was commonly known as l'heure verte. Strangely enough, though absinthe was dubbed la fée verte, in Switzerland it was - and still is - called la bleue. By the end of the 19th century, hoards of criminal acts and psychic disorders were blamed on the abusive intake of absinthe and, by 1910, it was banned altogether in most European countries and America. Despite this, Switzerland has continued to produce the liquor illegally and it has always been possible to find some through the friend of a friend of someone who knows of a hidden distillery.
The symptoms brought on by an exaggerated consumption of absinthe came to be known as 'absinthism', which may not be so far removed from its cousin 'alcoholism'. Absinthism was associated with gastrointestinal problems, auditory and visual hallucinations, epilepsy, brain damage, an increased risk of psychiatric illnesses and suicide. However, in time it has become apparent that the effects of ethanol - found in greater quantities than wormwood oil in absinthe - are just as damaging and that no doubt the combination of wormwood oil, or its toxic component thujone, coupled with ethanol is to blame.
The ban of absinthe by the authorities
What is it that makes thujone toxic to our system? GABAA receptors are scattered all over our brain on the surface of postsynaptic neurons. Their ligands - the GABA neurotransmitters - are natural inhibitors of nerve impulses; without them neurons go haywire and signals are fired off unhindered. When GABA binds to its receptor, what it does is trigger off an electric signal which is relayed down the length of the neuron. If any thujone is present however, it will bind to the GABAA receptor and stop transmission, causing convulsions. In fact, it is now known that many natural or synthetic convulsive agents block GABA-mediated inhibition.
How is this electric signal relayed? GABAA receptors are pentamers of three kinds of subunits: two alphas, two betas and a gamma, and besides playing the role of receptor, they are also ion channels. Each subunit has an extracellular domain that carries a number of loops which form the GABAA receptor site. Further down are the transmembrane regions which are arranged as alpha helical rods. The binding of GABA to the receptor site results in a rearrangement of the alpha helical rods which open up to form a channel through which ions can pass.
How this conformational change occurs is not clear yet, but researchers think that when GABA binds to the loops, these take on a slightly different structure causing them to bend over and couple with specific domains in the transmembrane region. In turn, this particular coupling brings on structural changes to the alpha helices which open out to form a pore. Such a mechanistic interpretation of neurotransmission seems sensible from an energy point of view since the process is fast and reversible. Any greater structure movement would be too demanding.
GABA opens up the channel. What does thujone do? The opening of the channel is probably prevented so that the ions cannot flow through. Hence the message is not sent off and nerve impulse transmission is not constrained.
Wormwood oil has been used for millennia as a means of alleviating digestive pains caused by gastrointestinal worms. It is also used as an insect repellent. How does it work? There are great chances that the active ingredient of wormwood oil - thujone - is toxic in the same way to insects and worms as it is to humans, and that they too are subjected to convulsive fits when thujone binds to the brain GABA receptors. A number of inherited mutations within the GABA receptors are associated with human diseases and, not surprisingly, GABA receptors are the site of action of many drugs of current clinical importance. So a keener understanding of their function is essential. We already know that the alpha and beta subunits are essential for ligand binding, and the beta subunit is not only important for ligand recognition but also has a role in the 'loop-transmembrane' coupling process.
Regrettably, perhaps, as the ban on absinthe is being raised and the accusative finger on its toxicity lowered, some historians believe that a nation's folklore will suffer. In the past 100 years - like anything banned - absinthe had become a forbidden fruit and many tales were told around the dinner table as one sipped an illegal 'bleue'. And a forbidden fruit you pluck from a tree is far tastier than the one you pick from a bowl.
1Snapshot issue March 2005


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In my growing collection of vintage pattern company flyers are some lovely glimpses of the sewing world's advice column equivalent (rotten sentence, I know, but I'm sleepy, so just go with it.)
These little articles were one page features called "Adventures in Sewing" by Marian Corey, author of the 1951 "McCall's Complete Book of Dressmaking".
Here is one from McCall's Style News, September 1947 edition. (you can find a pdf for the whole edition in my etsy shop).
My head is on backwards, but let's talk about marking our patterns, shall we? |
Stay tuned for more yet to come, including another Mail Call post, and a sneak peak at the whole suitcase full of sewing loot I brought back with me.
And now, to sleep.


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Nicole Collection
Plastic 5LB Oblong Steam table pan lids combine the strength, durability and economy of aluminum foil. Keeps food warm and secure. Makes reheating and transportation convenient. Minimizes spills and leakages. Economical and recyclable.
- TYPE: Plastic Clear Lids
- SHAPE: Rectangle
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text:
The Upanishads, Part 1 (SBE01), by Max Müller, [1879], at sacred-texts.com
1. Let the women who are with child move away 1!
2. Verily, from the beginning he (the self) is in man as a germ, which is called seed.
3. This (seed), which is strength gathered from all the limbs of the body, he (the man) bears as self in his self (body). When he commits the seed to the woman, then he (the father) causes it to be born. That is his first birth. (1)
4. That seed becomes the self of the woman, as
if one of her own limbs. Therefore it does not injure her.
5. She nourishes his (her husband's) self (the son) within her. (2) She who nourishes, is to be nourished.
6. The woman bears the germ. He (the father) elevates the child even before the birth, and immediately after 1.
7. When he thus elevates the child both before and after his birth, he really elevates his own self,
8. For the continuation of these worlds (men). For thus are these worlds continued.
9. This is his second birth. (3)
10. He (the son), being his self, is then placed in his stead for (the performance of) all good works.
11. But his other self (the father), having done all he has to do, and having reached the full measure of his life, departs.
12. And departing from hence he is born again. That is his third birth.
13. And this has been declared by a Rishi (Rv. IV, 27, 1): (4)
14. 'While dwelling in the womb, I discovered all the births of these Devas. A hundred iron strongholds kept me, but I escaped quickly down like a falcon.'
15. Vâmadeva, lying in the womb, has thus declared this. (5)
And having this knowledge he stepped forth, after this dissolution of the body, and having obtained all his desires in that heavenly world, became immortal, yea, he became immortal. (6)
243:1 Some MSS. begin this adhyâya with the sentence apakrâmantu garbhinyah, may the women who are with child walk away! It is counted as a paragraph.
244:1 By nourishing the mother, and by performing certain ceremonies both before and after the birth of a child.


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Asustek has shipped its Google TV streaming device called Cube, which will become available starting this week for $US139.99.
Originally called the "Qube," the product is shaped like a cube, and attracted attention for its small size when originally announced at the International CES in January this year. Beyond streaming movies from Google Play and Netflix, users can also watch their own stored movies from the 50GB of free cloud storage provided with the device.
An Acer spokeswoman said via email that the product is available through online retailers like Amazon.com, Newegg and others. Newegg has listed the product as shipping on April 25.
The Cube joins a growing market of TVs, set-top boxes and streaming devices trying to unite broadcast and Internet content. Other Google TV products include Vizio's Co-Star, LG's 3D LED smart TV models, Sony's Internet Player, Netgear's NeoTV Prime and Hisense's Pulse. Other TV companion boxes include Roku, Apple's Apple TV and Western Digital's WDTV. Intel is releasing a streaming device later this year that the company claims will get rid of the cable box.
Asus' Cube runs on Google TV software, which is based on Android and provides the underlying code to unite broadcast and Internet content. Asus has incorporated its own interface through which users view social media feeds, surf the Internet, and browse or search for a program.
Included with the Cube is a two-sided remote control with a mini-keyboard on one side and standard buttons like on/off, sound and volume on the other. The remote has motion-sensing capabilities for gaming and a microphone that allows users to search for a program or launch an application through voice commands.
Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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Today, the Commission released an Order that will provide meaningful relief to millions of Americans who have borne the financial burden of unjust and unreasonable interstate inmate calling service (ICS) rates. These reforms are the right thing to do. Our actions will increase inmates' ability to stay in contact with their families and loved ones—including the 2.7 million children with an incarcerated parent. That increased contact reduces recidivism, which benefits all of us through safer communities and by reducing the expense of incarcerating the re-offenders. In fact, one study notes that a 1% reduction in recidivism would lead to $250 million in annual cost savings.
The ICS rates that spurred us to act are high. In one case, the cost of a 15-minute call is $17.50—about $1.15 per minute. The Order we released today is a major step toward fulfilling our statutory obligation to ensure that rates for all consumers are just, reasonable and fair.
Let's take a look at the reforms:
- The Order requires that all ICS providers' interstate rates and charges be cost-based. This applies not only to the rates for making a call, but to other charges like fees for establishing, maintaining, or funding an ICS account.
- The Order also adopts interim caps for interstate inmate calling rates. The caps are $.21 per minute for interstate debit and prepaid calls, and $.25 per minute for interstate collect calls. No provider can charge rates above these caps without getting a waiver from us first.
- The Order adopts interim "safe harbor" rate levels—$.12 per minute for interstate debit and prepaid calls, and $.14 per minute for interstate collect calls. ICS providers can utilize the safe harbor and receive the benefit of a presumption that their rates are cost-based.
- The Order also takes action to help deaf and hard of hearing inmates and their families. Specifically, the Order prohibits any special charges from being assessed on calls made using teletypewriter (TTY) equipment or other technologies used to access Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS).
- At the same time, the Order ensures that security measures, a critical part of ICS calling, remain robust, and allows security costs to be recovered through ICS rates. The Order leaves critical decisions about security to correctional facilities and ICS providers.
- The Order also adopts robust enforcement measures, including an annual certification that rates are cost-based and the possibility of enforcement action and refunds.
We aren't done, though. To decide whether additional reforms are needed, we will be collecting data from ICS providers on their costs, rates, and usage. And in an accompanying Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we seek comment on extending the reforms we adopt for interstate ICS calling to intrastate services, further refining ICS rates, adopting permanent rate caps, and a variety of other issues related to our commitment to ensure that ICS providers continue to provide secure calling at rates that are just, reasonable, and fair.
In a separate Declaratory Ruling and Order, also released today, the Bureau addressed a petition from an ICS provider on the permissibility of blocking calls to call routing services; such services may provide a means for consumers to stay in touch with incarcerated loved ones. The provider asked us to agree that a few narrow exceptions to the Commission's general "no blocking" policy for telephone services applied here. The Declaratory Ruling and Order denies the petition, and in our Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we seek comment on call blocking, including whether we need to take further steps to prevent unreasonable practices while enabling providers to implement measures to protect security and public safety.
While our work continues, inmates and their families should start to experience the benefits of our reforms later this year—the new rules will become effective 90 days after we publish the Order in the Federal Register. We look forward to reviewing the responses to our Further Notice and continuing our work to ensure that ICS rates and practices are just, reasonable, and fair.


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- Bob Vila TV Shows >
- Basement Finishing and Family Space > Episode 8: Basement Carpet, Storage, and Closet Design
Basement Remodeling Update and Installing Subfloor to Prevent Water Damage
Project: Basement Finishing and Family Space, Episode 8, Part 1
Bob is back in the nearly completed basement family room in Melrose, MA. The new space has progressed from a dingy, damp lower level to a finished family room. He reviews the basement finishing system from Owens Corning that completes the room with walls, ceiling, and doors. To keep the space moisture and mold-free, Basement Systems has installed perimeter drainage and now a dehumidifier designed to remove water from the air at lower temperatures. An interlocking basement floor system is also installed to protect against water seepage and rot from contact between water-conducting concrete and organic flooring materials. The interlocking floor panels are attached to the floor, covered with padding, and topped with carpet tiles arranged to create a unique pattern. Easy-to-assemble, plywood-based Slide-Lok cabinets are configured and assembled to bring storage and work-surface space to the basement. These customizable storage units have adjustable plastic feet that keep them off of the floor and accommodate uneven floors. Upstairs, California Closets has inventoried the clothing and designed a storage layout with a hanging wall, shoe display, shelving, bureaus, vanity, and makeup space. Chimneys are repaired and relined with flexible, stainless-steel liners, and a remote-controlled, programmable gas fireplace insert is installed in the living room.
- Part 1: Basement Remodeling Update and Installing Subfloor to Prevent Water Damage
- Bob recaps the work done so far in the basement remodeling project. The Owens Corning Basement Finishing System has provided the walls and the ceiling for the new basement family room. One of the most important facets of this project is preventing moisture from causing damage in the basement. Bob talks with Larry Janesky of Basement Systems Inc., about the equipment being put in place to prevent moisture damage. An underlayment is being put on the floor to prevent water transfer. The underlayment is a plastic interlocking subfloor made specifically for basements. Organic material, like wood, should not come into contact with the concrete subfloor because water vapor rises up through the concrete and can create problems with mold. Traditionally, people remodel basements by putting visqueen down on the concrete, laying down pressure-treated 2x4's, insulating in between the boards, and then laying down a plywood subfloor. The ThermalDry inorganic underlayment is a better solution as it has tracks to allow some air circulation. With a traditional subfloor, water vapor condenses into water underneath the visqueen then transfers to the wood and organic materials in the subfloor, causing mold and rot. Plumbing leaks can also result in a wet subfloor, causing the plywood to buckle and mold to grow. ThermalDry underlayment is quick to install, which saves time and money. The panels lock together with teeth and a shiplap design to stop the water vapor. The tiles allow for a little expansion and contraction and take up only a half-inch of the basement's ceiling height. This underlayment system costs about the same amount as the traditional method but, unlike traditional subfloors, does not require replacement after a water episode. If there is a water problem, the tiles can be lifted up, dried, and put back in place once the water issue is addressed. On a flat floor, the tiles will lay flat and the perimeter tiles will be secured to the floor. The completed floor will be made up of three layers: the underlayment, the pad, and the carpet. These multiple layers will minimize any sound from the rigid plastic coming into contact with the concrete slab. The Melrose home has a wavy basement floor, so extra fasteners will be put in to hold the underlayment down. A dehumidification system will be put in the basement to draw water out of the air before it becomes a problem. It's important to use a dehumidifier designed specifically for basements as most dehumidifiers are rated for 80 degree temperatures and basements typically are much cooler than this. In this project, the dehumidifier installed was a SaniDry Basement Air System which has air filtration built in and is Energy Star rated.
- Part 2: Carpeting the Basement and Organizing the Home
- Part 3: Repairing the Chimneys, Installing a Gas Fireplace Insert and Completed Cabinets in the Basement Family Room


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The real business in Congress all revolves around voting. While this is quite obvious, since it is a legislative body of members who vote the interests of their constituents, voting however sometimes gets lost in the glamour of hearings and legislative minutiae.
Except of course, when the vote is close.
The party that has the majority of the votes organizes both Houses of Congress. I have noted previously that in the House this means much more than in the Senate. The majority party in the House holds near absolute sway over everything. The majority of the Senate is not so lucky, unless of course they hold a 60 vote majority, which rarely is the case. The current majority in the House is 33 votes in favor of the Democrats, while in the Senate, it is one vote. The Democrats in the House have a reasonable but by no means rock solid majority and in the Senate, it is extremely precarious. In such an environment every single vote becomes very, very important.
First however, some procedural comments. Voting takes place in a finely orchestrated legislative process that is full of arcane and ancient precedents and many mechanisms to get around the rules. The House and the Senate operate somewhat in the same manner though the House rules are much more defined and structured. The House, of course, has 435 members and if it operated under the same rules as the Senate, most would agree, absolutely nothing could get done. The role of the Senate is distinctly different, since it is designed to be more collegial and deliberative, much like it's ancient ancestor the House of Lords in England. (Note: Regular voters did not elect Senators until 1913 and the 17th Amendment to the Constitution). The House of Representatives was designed to be the much more representative of smaller groups of voters, not states, and is commonly known as "The Peoples Chamber."
One critical distinction between the two chambers is time. The Senate does not have a limitation on the amount of time a member can speak. The House has a one-hour limit and this limit is frequently avoided at all costs as 435 times one hour would be more than 50 days of debate on a measure. The Senate accommodates members who want to talk; the House rigidly cuts people off.
The House gets around the one-hour entitlement in a number of ways, but the main way is to dissolve themselves into a giant committee called the Committee of the Whole. Most work on amendments takes place in this committee, which is subject to committee rules versus normal full house rules. Once they are done with amending a bill, the House "rises" out of the Committee of the Whole and then resumes its regular business as the full House of Representatives.
The Senate has no need for such theater; they plow through legislation with countless speeches and amendments for days and days.
Another factor that significantly affects business in the House vs. the Senate are the procedures to proposed amendments. The House keeps a very close reign on amendments to legislation on the floor. They not only deal with them in the Committee of the Whole, but they also severely limit the number of them in most cases. Before most measures come to the floor of the House, the House Rules Committee will determine the procedures that will apply to the bill, particularly any amendments that can be debated and voted. The committee will create a "rule" (normally designated as a House Resolution or HRES). Then when it comes to the floor, the rule is voted on, and then the regular bill is brought up. Debate then takes place according to the special rule for the bill. Minority amendments usually are greatly restricted if any are allowed at all. Most, but not all, measures proceed in this manner which is called a "closed rule". Some bills, particularly the 13 appropriations bills, are not as restricted (though they could be) and are often afforded an "open rule" where anyone can propose an amendment when the bill is in the Committee of the Whole. The Senate does not have such mechanisms although there can be times even in the Senate when amendments are restricted.
There is an intermediate vote in both Chambers that can be important. In the House, before the bill comes up for a final vote, usually the minority requests a motion to recommit the bill back to the committee, usually with instructions, which is the last attempt to either kill the bill or amend the bill further. A vote to recommit almost always fails as it merely requires a simple majority. The Senate has a more profound preliminary measure called cloture, which is a vote to end debate on the bill and to vote on final passage. This famous procedure requires a majority to pass, meaning that even if a bill has a majority of support in the Senate, it really needs 60 votes to get a vote on the floor.
Of course, I am have been referring to the cases where legislation is considered to be somewhat controversial. Many bills go to the floor of both the House and the Senate under the Suspension of the Rules, and the measure is passed, often with by voice vote (no recorded, roll call vote).
There are many different permutations of the rules in both chambers and over the past 200 years, they have been challenged and adopted into every conceivable scenario. There are ways for the minority party in the House to slow things down and embarrass the all-powerful majority party.
Voting is a high art in Congress. With so many votes on a specific measure, including the rule (in the House), motions, amendments and final passage, things can get confusing. If a member doesn't really want to go on record, opposing or supporting a measure, he or she may vote for a procedural measure, perhaps to recommit, or a substitute amendment. Of course that means the bill probably is dead, but that may be a satisfactory outcome for the member. They may also vote for an amendment that significantly changes the nature of the bill and perhaps was a better alternative, but against the bill itself. There are many different permutations of this; all of it is based on political considerations of the member or Senator. So you can get members saying "I voted for the bill, before I voted against it," and the statement would be accurate.
There is a position in both parties in both chambers that lives in this world of legislative procedure and its most important element – voting. This position is the Whip. This position is by far the most interesting for me. The party Whip's job is to mobilize the party members to vote…appropriately. They have to know where everyone is; they have to know how to get people to the floor to vote and to vote the right way to vote on hundreds of different votes. The Whip is the one always counting the votes before they are cast and twisting arms, and cajoling recalcitrant members to vote or to change their vote. The Whip knows were everyone is and probably a lot more. It is not a position for a feint hearted or a person with poor detail skills. The Whip is the person to go to for an accurate gauge of rank-and file opinion within the party.
The Whip position, interestingly, is a really a 20th Century creation in the U.S. Congress and it started only at the turn of the last century. The idea of the position is much older and of course comes from the British House of Commons. The name comes from fox hunting and the person who is responsible for keeping the fox hounds in the pack and hunting for the fox.
Of course the title "Whip" is purely metaphorical. No one is whipping anyone, no bones are crushed. The position is responsible for shepherding the members voting. It has been compared to "herding cats." In fact, Sen. Trent Lott, the Senate Republican Whip, even wrote a book with that title.
The vote counting in Congress, or any Parliamentary assembly, is where all the drama resides. Otherwise, proceedings are really quite dull. Occasionally, Hollywood will present a Congress or Parliament in a movie, and it is the vote counting that provides the tension and suspense. For those interested in such movies – you may want to check out the recent movie "Amazing Grace" which records William Wilberforce's vote whipping to get the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade in the 19th Century. Or there is a favorite Simpson's episode where the Simpson family does the vote whipping on a measure in Congress. Finally there is a darker BBC series about the Chief Tory Whip in Parliament called The House of Cards, though this is purely fictional (Whips are not normally as ruthless). British Whips have much more ammunition to use when whipping than American ones.
Whips normally get the job (the vote) done for the party, or if they are in the minority, they do a valiant delaying effort. There will be members, however, that do not heed them. It can happen, particularly in the Senate. You can see this today. The Democrats control both chambers but passage of the "Democratic program" (particularly on the war in Iraq) has been extremely difficult.
Voting is sacred to many members of Congress. It really is the only reason why they are there. It is not uncommon to see and hear of members and august Senators running through the halls to cast their vote in time. This to me is appropriate, and illustrates the significance and importance they accord to our fair democracy.


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Home / Cruises, walks, expeditions / CeutaMelilla
The certificated confirms the skills sufficient to sail the yacht 24 m in light and dark hours at a distance from a sheltered port up to 20 sea miles.
There are places in 1team
First captain's level
theoretical and practical course followed by an international licence
Classes are taught by experienced instructors certified by International Yacht Training.
Hanse 445 (2012)
Having received the International Bareboat Skipper Certificate, you can independently charter a yacht on a charter and operate it in the waters of any country.
There are places in 2teams
4-day course with ISSA Yacht Crew License
This is a certificate of excellence for those candidates who wish to train to become an active crew member on a power or sailing yacht. It includes Introduction to Boating for power and sail yachts.
More details
Five stage regatta during mild Cyprus winter. Each stage is a 4-day sailing experience: training session on the first day, and three days of competitive racing.
Seychelles is one of the most beautiful places in the Indian Ocean. Here you will have the chance to see wonderful paradise places with your own eyes.
Take the course and get your international Bareboat skipper sail licence! This is a basic course that does not require any basic skills. Bareboat skipper sail training


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Last year at the NAMM Show, we brought you 10-year-old drumming sensation Isiah Ulysses. Great as Ulysses is, he must now make way for the younger generation. Behold Jonah Rocks.
Jonah, you see, is five. Yes, you read correctly: he's five.
Check out the video below in which Jonah absolutely rules System Of A Down's Toxicity. Stunning? You bet. His fills, timing, control, ghost notes - the kid's unreal. And look at that smile, too. That's the smile of a drummer who knows he's hot. This guy is going to have his pick of bands to play with. By like, next week.
In other words, Taylor Hawkins, Josh Freese, Chad Smith...Jonah Rocks is coming for you, and there's nothing you can do about it.


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Advertisement |
Greg Anderson (born 5 April 1961) is a Canadian actor who lives in Woodstock, New Brunswick, with his wife and son. He was born in Chatham Head, New Brunswick. Although an established stage actor, he is best known for his roles on television shows such as Stargate SG-1, Tru Calling, and The X-Files.
In 2006, he played Günter Guillaume in the Canadian premiere of Michael Frayn's play Democracy. A very reclusive person. Is said to have disappeared from the business.


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Knowledge vs. perception
30 December 2003
Hope you had a good Christmas break. Holidays don't mean rest to me, they just mean I'm reduced to browsing the Web at 56kb, instead of using work's 2Mb line.
Whilst downloading web pages at 57,344 bits per second, I came across a stunning installation by artist Olafur Eliasson at the Tate Modern in London. In reading more about the installation one quote from the artist struck a chord with me:
"I think there is often a discrepancy between the experience of seeing and the knowledge or expectation of what we are seeing."
One of the basic tenets of postmodernism is that someone's perception of what they see/touch/hear is influenced by everything else that they have perceived up to that point. In a more specific sense, because I have read the Lord of the Rings books my perception of the final instalment in the movie franchise will differ vastly to someone who hasn't read them (incidentally, because I hated the books I couldn't fully enjoy the movies).
Believe it or not, this has interesting ramifications for the current state of web site design.
If you're reading this article chances are that you have an interest in web design; if not, what are you doing here!?!?! You'll probably be familiar with a whole host of other sites that critique and praise the latest and greatest in web design. However, you are a privileged individual, in that you have the know-how to construct a web site – you know the machinations that go on while Hotmail delivers the latest PayPal fraud spam to your web browser. Most people don't.
Given your privileged knowledge, can you speak objectively when saying this web site is better than that web site? This is particularly true if you're a fervent XHTML/CSS devotee such as myself. Not only are we privileged, we're the privileged of the privileged. But this experience can cloud our judgement. Are we saying that the web site is good, or are we saying that the web site is just good XHTML/CSS?
End users don't really care whether they're viewing bloated tables or slim CSS, they just know it looks good, looks bad, loads fast, loads slow. The question is, do we strip away our knowledge or add to theirs? I'd like to think it's somewhere inbetween. So, while we're celebrating the next XHTML/CSS showpiece, just check to make sure that what we're really celebrating is a good site. We don't want to turn out like those self-congratulatory Flash-ers.
Matt Burris commented on 30 December 2003 @ 15:37
That's a question I've asked myself once. I've reviewed PC games for years, I play them everyday, and over the years I go through stages. These stages can be best categorized as excited, jaded, maturity, and excitement all over again.
When wading through web design for so long, you tend to get jaded, and you develop a particular mindset, in my opinion. This has the unfortunate side effect of not being able to truly appreciate the things that needs to be appreciated, such as a flawed website that looks good and loads fast, yet may not support web standards and uses CSS.
I also agree with you about it should be in between. It's all about balance, sharing our knowledge and passion, while respecting that the other party may not share it, and just want to enjoy it.
The people who should be congratulated are those that try to make the web a better place, whether they do it intentionally or not. If it's a good looking site, then that's just extra brownie points.
Erik Sagen commented on 3 January 2004 @ 04:04
I agree with your opinions and Matt's comment as well.
Making the web a better place should be first priority over anything else. It harkens back to the old saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Sure, the Microsoft site might be a clean, good looking site (or to some it could be quite the opposite), but delving further into their code you realize that it isn't semantically correct or ready for the future.
I was just showing a client of mine the advantages of CSS (last night in fact). I loaded up Wordpad and essentially showed them step by step how a web site "should be" constructed, semantically of course. Utilizing your divs, headers and paragraph tags. Then after showing them the bare bones HTML document, I then proceeded to attach a style sheet and again, step-by-step showed them how the style sheet essentially improved upon the bare-bones code by "styling" it.
To make a longer story shorter, they were amazed at how it worked and most importantly why it's imperative that web designers (coders and programmers) utilize semantically correct markup.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's good to know I am not alone, there are the Men in Blue, the Zeldmans and the Meyers paving the way towards a better web future.
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Facebook launches New feature for business users
Facebook Inc rolled out features Wednesday that enable businesses to privately communicate with customers through messages as part of the social networking company's push to make its Messenger app a stand-alone platform.
Businesses can now include a "send message" button in ads that appear in Newsfeed that allow Facebook users to click a button and send messages, which are private. If users post a comment on a business' Facebook page, then the business can privately message that person
The features are part of Facebook's efforts to convince more small and medium-sized businesses – especially those in emerging markets, such as India, Brazil and Indonesia – to advertise on its platform.
By giving them direct access to customers, the world's largest social network hopes to show that advertising on Facebook directly leads to increased sales.
To encourage quick responses, Facebook will award "very responsive to messages" badges on business pages that respond to 90 percent of messages and respond on average within five minutes. People will, however, still be able to block private messages from businesses.
The features will be especially valuable in southeast Asia, Facebook wrote in a blog post. About twice as many Thai and Singaporean users use Facebook messages to communicate with businesses each month and most Southeast Asia users follow some company pages.
Facebook hosts more than 40 million active small and medium business pages, it said, with more than 1 billion page visits each month.


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How can I automatically count the number of lines of code "Input" existing inside all the notebook files contained in a specified folder?
I know there is the issue of considering or not the automatic line breakings as new lines. But considering the purpose of this exercise (statistically convince that the amount of developed work on Mathematica justifies keeping a license), I'm not searching for exact values.


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My commuting/cyclocross bike (a Surly Crosscheck) has a problem.
If I tighten the quick release skewer to a normal level, sort of firm to close it, then if I step on the pedals hard at some point, the rear wheel basically comes right out of the dropouts.
To keep the wheel actually in the frame, I have to cinch the quick release down hard enough that I get a bit concerned about ever opening it again. The springs get mangled.
This is a somewhat recent development and appears to be getting worse. Any ideas?


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District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser's cellphone rang earlier this week from an unfamiliar number: It was the White House calling to say President Donald Trump wanted to talk.
The president congratulated Washington's mayor on $876 million in federal coronavirus relief going to the Washington-area Metro system — money that was welcome but not under the mayor's jurisdiction, instead going to a regional transportation authority.
Bowser used the moment to remind Trump that the District — a city of 700,000 people that includes more than 150,000 federal workers— got $700 million less in coronavirus relief money than each of the 50 states because it was classified as a territory at Senate Republicans' insistence in the first round of federal relief passed by Congress.
As a candidate, Trump spoke warmly of the nation's capital and said he wanted "whatever is best" for its residents. But over the course of his more than three years in office a disconnect between the president and District of Columbia has emerged. The public differences have only become more stark during the pandemic.
"It is very important that the District is made whole, and that the District gets what it's owed," Bowser said this week after her talk with Trump.
Aides to the Mayor said Trump told Bowser her concerns were on his radar, but he made no commitments. Similarly, Trump told her the issue would be addressed when she initially complained about the matter during a White House conference call with governors in late March.
The White House declined to comment.
The pace of reopening after the coronavirus threat shut down activity around the nation also has been a point of contention between Washington and the White House.
While the Trump administration has been pushing state and local governments to speed up reopening, Bowser insisted until recently that local infection numbers didn't justify any relaxation of her stay-home order.
The District is easing its stay-at-home order next week, one of the last jurisdictions to begin reopening. But city and public health officials warn that the nation's capital will likely take months to fully come back to life.
City officials said it remains unclear if students will be able to return to a physical classrooms in the fall. The guarded approach stands in sharp contrast with comments from Trump, who on Friday demanded that state and local leaders allow houses of worship to reopen "right now."
Hours earlier, Bowser stressed it was crucial for residents to remain vigilant. Houses of worship will be allowed to hold gatherings of up to 10 people in the District's first phase of the reopening.
And just after Trump spoke, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said D.C., along with Chicago and Los Angeles, had experienced a long plateau in infections that administration officials were closely monitoring.
The capital city's coronavirus death rate is higher than all but four states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
"There is a disconnect," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's non-voting delegate in the U.S. House. "The White House is looking at the economy and the money, and the mayor is looking at the science first."
Bowser acknowledges the different approaches, but plays down any conflict with the Oval Office.
She stresses that the city's reopening plan is based in part on White House task force guidelines and Washington has consulted with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government's top epidemiologist. The mayor added that she's been in contact with administration officials, as have other city representatives.
"We want everything open," Bowser said. "And the way to get everything open is to have a measured and phased approach."
It wasn't too long ago that Trump courted city leaders.
In 2014, as his company was developing a hotel at the historic Old Post Office building leased from the federal government, Trump donated $5,000 to Bowser's DC Proud Inaugural Committee. Two of Trump's children — Ivanka and Eric — gave $2,000 each to the mayor's campaign after she defeated the city's incumbent mayor in the primary that year.
After emerging as the GOP frontrunner in 2016, Trump said in a "Meet the Press" interview that he'd "certainly look at" a decades-long push by District leaders to gain statehood.
"I would like to do whatever is good for the District of Columbia because I love the people," Trump said.
But earlier this month, Trump told the New York Post, "D.C. will never be a state."
"Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen?" added Trump, alluding to the city's history of voting overwhelmingly for Democrats.
Neither has Trump embraced life in Washington like some of his recent predecessors.
Barack and Michelle Obama enjoyed a string of date nights at city restaurants. Bill Clinton jogged on the National Mall. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter won over some residents by enrolling their daughter, Amy, at a D.C. public school.
Trump's outings in the area have centered on dinners at his own hotel and trips to his golf club in Northern Virginia. His infrequent forays elsewhere in the District have courted controversy.
Earlier this month, he decided to hold a Fox News virtual town hall at the Lincoln Memorial. While other presidents have held events on the steps of the memorial, Trump got a federal waiver to sit at the marbled feet of the sixteenth president, generating some grumbling.
In October, Trump attended a World Series game at the Washington Nationals' stadium. When he appeared on ballpark video screens, the D.C. crowd showered him with boos.
Democrats and District activists also complain that the Trump administration has yet to reimburse the city for more than $7 million in security costs related to the 2017 inauguration and additional costs for Trump's bulked-up Fourth of July celebration in Washington.
"Whether it's not paying for the inauguration or his Fourth of July event to shorting D.C. residents in coronavirus relief, he's been clear in his attitude," said Bo Shuff, executive director of the statehood advocacy group DC Vote. "He just doesn't care about the people of D.C."
Republished with permission from the Associated Press.