Break out your warmest coats and best winter boots for an avalanche of snow activities!
By: Emily Whalen
The Pocono Mountains is the place to be for quality bonding time. From frolicking in the snow to splashing in the pool, a family vacation filled with lasting memories awaits!
Indulge in snow adventures, sweet treats, and activities for everyone at our family resorts as you discover the beauty of the Pocono Mountains this winter. Keep reading to find insider tips to maximize the family fun of your getaway.
Snow Activities
Events
Winter Treats
Museums
Waterparks
SNOW ACTIVITIES
Break out your warmest coats and best winter boots for an avalanche of snow activities! Whether you prefer gliding down the slopes or riding through the trails, you and your family are guaranteed to love winter outdoor adventure in the Pocono Mountains.
Skiing and snow tubing are popular pastimes when visiting the area.
Skiing and snow tubing are popular pastimes when visiting the area. Weather permitting, try snowshoeing and snowmobiling over the snow-covered landscape too. Ready to kick the adrenaline up a notch? Book a winter tour on an all-terrain vehicle.
Insider Tip: Guests staying at Pocono Mountain Villas and Woodloch Resort can enjoy a variety of outdoor activities on-site.
EVENTS
Savor the winter season like never before with Pocono Mountains’ events. The region takes advantage of the cooler temperatures and transforms the elements into fun for the whole family!
Bundle up for Wally Ice Fest in February or join the festivities at Shawnee Mountain, from Costume Carnival Day to Bigfoot Showshoe Race Day. Visitors to WinterFest in Downtown Stroudsburg can take an ice safari to view animal ice sculptures in front of local businesses.
Come take a socially distanced winter stroll through Downtown Stroudsburg and check out the Stroudsburg Ice Safari! All your favorite Safari animals will be crafted out of ice and displayed in front of businesses.
Insider Tip: Pocono Organics will have food, games, alpacas, and more at their first annual Winter Wonderland Festival in January. Still hungry? Sample seasonal local fare select weekends at The Main Street Farmers’ Market at The Cooperage.
WINTER TREATS
All that excitement and energy can sure work up an appetite. Gather round the table and refuel at one of the region’s restaurants. Stop by a deli café to warm up with hot sandwiches and hot chocolate or enjoy a meal at a family restaurant.
Looking for something sweet? Visit a Pocono Mountains bakery and treat yourselves to yummy desserts and pastries.
Insider Tip: Resort restaurants like B-Lux Grill & Bar and Graffiti Pizza offer delicious fare in a family-friendly atmosphere.
MUSEUMS
Take the family back in time to discover the antiquity and arts of the Pocono Mountains at one of our historical attractions and museums. Explore downtown gems and take in the beauty that has brought visitors to this area for generations.
Historical societies live and breathe the rich culture of the region at places like the Columns Museum. Visit the Dorflinger Glass Museum and see the nation’s largest public display of Dorflinger crystal.
Insider Tip: For a truly immersive experience, dig deeper into the past by staying at historic resorts like Skytop Lodge and The Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort.
WATERPARKS
Enjoy the winter from indoors where the weather is always 84 degrees. Whether you’re looking for excitement or relaxation, Pocono Mountains’ waterparks provide both for all members of the family.
Water slides, wave pools, and aquatic children’s obstacles are just a few attractions your family will discover. Let the indoor adventures begin!
Insider Tip: Book a stay at Camelback Lodge & Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark, Great Wolf Lodge, Kalahari Resorts and Conventions or Split Rock Resort & Golf Club to experience waterpark fun free with your trip!
Discover Pocono family resorts with activities, entertainment, and dining all under one roof! Find ways to save on accommodations with family packages too. Looking to plan a family reunion in the Pocono Mountains? Tell us what you’re looking for with a request for proposal, and we’ll assist you with your event planning needs!
Don’t forget to check out all our winter activities and trip ideas as well. You can also stay up-to-date with area snow conditions with the latest reports this winter in the Pocono Mountains.
Emily Whalen is the Communications Manager for the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau. A small town coffee shop connoisseur and lifelong lover of the mountains, she is excited to share tips to help visitors make the most of their stay in the Poconos.
The decades long search for the body of Jimmy Hoffa’s body may soon be coming to a close.
As reported by the NY Post, Frank Cappola, the son of the late mafia associate Paul Cappola Sr., told Fox Nation’s streaming service’s series “Riddle, The Search for James R. Hoffa” that he knows where the body was stashed. The son said that his father had a lot of respect for Hoffa, and that was why he is coming forth with the information. “My father said, ‘I want this man to go home to his family. He needs to go back home,’” Frank Cappola said.
The son said his father, Paul Cappola Sr., along with other members of the mob had put Hoffa’s body into a barrel, and then dumped the container with Hoffa’s body into a 12-foot hole and added more than a dozen containers on top of it before covering them all with dirt, buried Hoffa. “So they put [Hoffa] in head-first, and then they pushed the cover on top of him. And then they buried him,’’ Frank said. As reported on the show’s part 3 of the ongoing investigation released on Jan. 29, the location of the grave is just under a section of the Pulaski Skyway connecting Jersey City to Newark.
Since then, Fox Nation issued a new report, saying that using radar experts it had indeed located what seems to be a bunch of underground steel drums at the state-owned spot where Frank Cappola referred to. Fox Nation’s streaming show, said it hired a company specializing in ground-penetration technology and found numerous objects at the spot resembling barrels piled on top of one another. Now, it is up to law enforcement agents to follow up on the leads, and confirm whether or not the case can finally be closed.
Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975 has long been a topic of controversy and the mob was suspected for his murder. His body was never found, however, and the story had no conclusive ending. Hoffa had been a labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971. He became involved in organizes crime and in 1964 he was convicted of conspiracy, jury tampering, attempted bribery, as well as mail and wire fraud in two separate trials. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years. In 1971 he received commutation by President Richard Nixon. He disappeared in July 1975, was assumed and declared dead in 1982. The mystery and debates about Hoffa have become something of a legacy.
The spot that Frank Cappola named on the show, is just a few feet away from the Mafia associates’ former 87-acre landfill, which the FBI had searched extensively for Hoffa’s remains in 1975, finding nothing. The particular spot named, however, was never searched. The land is owned by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and is currently utilized as storage for empty dumpsters, “Fox Nation’’ said.
Frank Cappola, who suffered heart and lung issues, died after his interview, the show said. Frank had said that it was important to him to come forth with this information before he died.
The consequences of perpetuating minority student victimhood
By: Richard L. Cravatts
As the Maoist-like purges on university campuses continue, yet another faculty member has suffered the consequences of speaking words that may not be spoken and having views that are forbidden at universities where woke students, pretending to be supremely tolerant, indict others with their actual intolerance and join with faculty and administrators in suppressing views that they will not and cannot abide.
The latest victim is Charles Negy, an associate professor in the University of Central Florida’s Psychology Department. Negy’s thought-crime? In now-deleted tweets, Negy, who has taught at UCF for 22 years and presumably enjoys the protection oftenure, questioned one of the prevailing absolutes on university campuses: namely, that what is called “systemic racism” permeates and defines American society, and that even on university campuses—those places where the most enlightened and sensitive of all citizens reside—racism still shows itself in a dark undercurrent of bigotry, bias, and repressed hatred for non-white others.
The ubiquity of race obsession on campuses in the post-George Floyd age of Black Lives Matter has shown itself at schools other than UCF, as well. At Princeton University, as one noteworthy example, self-inflicted racial guilt was so prevalent that in September the University’s president, Christopher L. Eisgruber, published a self-flagellating open letter in which he bemoaned the fact that “[r]acism and the damage it does to people of color persist at Princeton” and that “racist assumptions” are “embedded in structures of the University itself.”
Negy rejected this notion and made the mistake of publicly questioning the idea that racism is so prevalent, so unrelenting that it defines all of our interactions and is the reason why, Negy mused, that Asians, as one visible example, thrive academically, economically, and socially while blacks do not.
“If Afr. [sic] Americans as a group,” Negy tweeted, “had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming ‘systematic racism’ exists?” What Negy suggested, of course, is heresy in the victim-centered culture of academia, where personal responsibility and initiative are discounted, and the oppression of the dominant white culture is assumed to be the principal impediment to the personal achievement of non-white groups.
White people, it is widely assumed, are “privileged” and control the culture and the levers of power; and black people struggle against these cultural and economic defenses at a fundamental disadvantage—all stemming from the country’s original sin of slavery. White people, because they are believed to be essentially racist just by virtue of being white, are implicitly racist, should experience white guilt, and must publicly acknowledge and atone for their racist inclinations.
Professor Negy challenged that notion, suggesting that decades of affirmative action, race-based preferences in hiring and college admissions, and set asides and other benefits of the welfare state have actually given black people advantages not shared with their white peers, that black people enjoy a type of privilege, too. “Black privilege is real,” Negy wrote in another now-deleted tweet. “Besides affirm. [sic] action, special scholarships and other set asides, being shielded from legitimate criticism is a privilege. But as a group, they’re missing out on much needed feedback.”
This was all too much for the sensitive and tolerant souls on the UCF campus, and a Change.org petition, which garnered some 30,000 signatures, was soon circulating in which Negy’s firing was demanded. UCF president Alexander Cartwright, who apparently was eager to satisfy the mob and fire the tenured professor for his offensive thoughts, did recognize that, as a public institution, UCF had to respect and honor Negy’s constitutional right to express any ideas he wished to, admitting in an interview that “The Constitution restricts our ability to fire him or any other University employee for expressing personal opinions about matters of public concern. This is the law.”
Any view which asks black people to be responsible for their own successes and failures, of course, contradicts the prevailing belief that blacks are perennial victims of white oppression and white privilege, that their social and economic failure is the result of systemic racism, and that their options in life are hobbled by the legacy of slavery, living in a racist country, and suffering because of a system of oppression that is both institutionalized and designed to maintain the status quo in which a white society benefits from and creates racial inequity. Negy challenged that orthodoxy.
“The first tweet was a sincere question,” he explained in responding to the criticisms of the original tweet. “When or how will we know when the U.S. has eradicated ‘systemic racism?’ What is the marker we will use for declaring systemic racism no longer exists?”
In defending the controversial comment about black privilege, Negy modified his language, but the sentiment was the same. “Perhaps I should not have used the word ‘privilege,’” he admitted. “I could have said there are advantages to being a minority in the U.S. But we’d simply be playing a game of words. The point is still the same, there are benefits/advantages/privileges to being black in the U.S..”
Negy suggested that the privilege he ascribes to blacks is different than the one commonly thought to be enjoyed by whites, that is, that white people have the privilege of power and being the dominant segment of American society, and thus retain power and control. Black privilege, Negy thinks, is a different type of advantage—the advantage inherent in the way that blacks are insulated from criticism and, as self-defined victims, do not have to take responsibility for their decisions and personal behavior. “The fact that people feel the need to protect African Americans from scrutiny and will vilify anyone who does–that is a privilege,” Negy observed. “All groups are of equal value and worth. African Americans are our equals. This country belongs to them as much as it does to any other group. But they are not above scrutiny.”
Negy’s experience—and the veritable inquisition he has endured as the administration marshaled considerable resources(including a 244-page investigative report) to force his resignation or build a case for his dismissal—is not, of course, unique, particularly in the Black Lives Matter era. At Harvard University, for example, one of the recent faculty targets was David Kane, Preceptor in Statistical Methods and Mathematics in the university’s Department of Government, who was the subject of condemnation for questioning some of the universally-accepted notions about race when some of his assiduous students uncovered racist posts he had allegedly written on his website EphBlog. over the course of several years under the pseudonym “David Dudley Field ’25.”
One of Kane’s posts noted that Williams alum Duncan Robinson (Kane is a 1988 graduate of Williams College) was a high-ranking NBA player this season. “Is the NBA prejudiced against white players?” it asked. “Would Robinson have been undrafted if he were Black?,” suggesting the existence of “Black Supremacy” in the NBA, echoing Negy’s controversial notion of “black privilege.”
Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D., is a Freedom Center Journalism Fellow in Academic Free Speech, President Emeritus of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, and author of Dispatches From the Campus War Against Israel and Jews.
Whatever your age or fitness level—even if you’ve never exercised a day in your life —there are steps you can take to make exercise less intimidating and painful and more fun and instinctive. Photo Credit: helpguide.org
Making exercise an enjoyable part of your everyday life may be easier than you think. These tips can show you how.
By: Lawrence Robinson, Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., & Melinda Smith, M.A.
Overcoming obstacles to exercising
If you’re having trouble beginning an exercise plan or following through, you’re not alone. Many of us struggle getting out of the sedentary rut, despite our best intentions.
You already know there are many great reasons to exercise—from improving energy, mood, sleep, and health to reducing anxiety, stress, and depression. And detailed exercise instructions and workout plans are just a click away. But if knowing how and why to exercise was enough, we’d all be in shape. Making exercise a habit takes more—you need the right mindset and a smart approach.
You already know there are many great reasons to exercise—from improving energy, mood, sleep, and health to reducing anxiety, stress, and depression
While practical concerns like a busy schedule or poor health can make exercise more challenging, for most of us, the biggest barriers are mental. Maybe it’s a lack of self-confidence that keeps you from taking positive steps, or your motivation quickly flames out, or you get easily discouraged and give up. We’ve all been there at some point.
Whatever your age or fitness level—even if you’ve never exercised a day in your life —there are steps you can take to make exercise less intimidating and painful and more fun and instinctive.
Ditch the all-or-nothing attitude. You don’t have to spend hours in a gym or force yourself into monotonous or painful activities you hate to experience the physical and emotional benefits of exercise. A little exercise is better than nothing. In fact, adding just modest amounts of physical activity to your weekly routine can have a profound effect on your mental and emotional health.
Be kind to yourself. Research shows that self-compassion increases the likelihood that you’ll succeed in any given endeavor. So, don’t beat yourself up about your body, your current fitness level, or your supposed lack of willpower. All that will do is demotivate you. Instead, look at your past mistakes and unhealthy choices as opportunities to learn and grow.
Check your expectations. You didn’t get out of shape overnight, and you’re not going to instantly transform your body either. Expecting too much, too soon only leads to frustration. Try not to be discouraged by what you can’t accomplish or how far you have to go to reach your fitness goals. Instead of obsessing over results, focus on consistency. While the improvements in mood and energy levels may happen quickly, the physical payoff will come in time.
Excuses for not exercising
Making excuses for not exercising? Whether it’s lack of time or energy, or fear of the gym, there are solutions.
Excuse 1: “I hate exercising.”
Solution: Many of us feel the same. If sweating in a gym or pounding a treadmill isn’t your idea of a great time, try to find an activity that you do enjoy—such as dancing—or pair physical activity with something more enjoyable. Take a walk at lunchtime through a scenic park, for example, walk laps of an air-conditioned mall while window shopping, walk, run, or bike with a friend, or listen to your favorite music while you move.
Excuse 2: “I’m too busy.”
Solution: Even the busiest of us can find free time in our day for activities that are important. It’s your decision to make exercise a priority. And don’t think you need a full hour for a good workout. Short 5-, 10-, or 15-minute bursts of activity can prove very effective—so, too, can squeezing all your exercise into a couple of sessions over the weekend. If you’re too busy during the week, get up and get moving during the weekend when you have more time.
Excuse 3: ”I’m too tired.”
Solution: It may sound counterintuitive, but physical activity is a powerful pick-me-up that actually reduces fatigue and boosts energy levels in the long run. With regular exercise, you’ll feel much more energized, refreshed, and alert at all times.
Excuse 4: “I’m too fat,” “I’m too old,” or “My health isn’t good enough.”
Solution: It’s never too late to start building your strength and physical fitness, even if you’re a senior or a self-confessed couch potato who has never exercised before. Very few health or weight problems rule exercise out of the question, so talk to your doctor about a safe routine.
Excuse 5: “Exercise is too difficult and painful.”
Solution: “No pain, no gain” is an outdated way of thinking about exercise. Exercise shouldn’t hurt. And you don’t have to push yourself until you’re soaked in sweat or every muscle aches to get results. You can build your strength and fitness by walking, swimming, or even playing golf, gardening, or cleaning the house.
Working on upper body strength can be achieved by doing pushups. Photo Credit: NBCNews.com
Excuse 6: “I’m not athletic.”
Solution: Still have nightmares from PE? You don’t have to be sporty or ultra-coordinated to get fit. Focus on easy ways to boost your activity level, like walking, swimming, or even working more around the house. Anything that gets you moving will work.
How much exercise do you need?
The key thing to remember about starting an exercise program is that something is always better than nothing. Going for a quick walk is better than sitting on the couch; one minute of activity will help you lose more weight than no activity at all. That said, the current recommendations for most adults is to reach at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. You’ll get there by exercising for 30 minutes, 5 times a week. Can’t find 30 minutes in your busy schedule? It’s okay to break things up. Two 15-minute workouts or three 10-minute workouts can be just as effective.
How hard do I need to exercise?
Whether an activity is low, moderate, or vigorous intensity varies according to your personal fitness level. As a general guideline, though:
Low-intensity activity: You can easily talk in full sentences, or sing.
Moderate intensity: You can speak in full sentences, but not sing.
Vigorous intensity: You are too breathless to speak in full sentences.
For most people, aiming for moderate intensity exercise is sufficient to improve your overall health. You should breathe a little heavier than normal, but not be out of breath. Your body should feel warmer as you move, but not overheated or sweating profusely. While everyone is different, don’t assume that training for a marathon is better than training for a 5K or 10K. There’s no need to overdo it.
For more on the types of exercise you should include and how hard you should work out, read Best Exercises for Health and Weight Loss.
Getting started safely
If you’ve never exercised before, or it’s been a significant amount of time since you’ve attempted any strenuous physical activity, keep the following health precautions in mind:
Health issues? Get medical clearance first. If you have health concerns such as limited mobility, heart disease, asthma, diabetes, or high blood pressure, talk with your doctor before you start to exercise.
Warm up. Warm up with dynamic stretches—active movements that warm and flex the muscles you’ll be using, such as leg kicks, walking lunges, or arm swings—and by doing a slower, easier version of the upcoming exercise. For example, if you’re going to run, warm up by walking. Or if you’re lifting weights, begin with a few light reps.
Lifting weights can build strength and stamina. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Cool down. After your workout, it’s important to take a few minutes to cool down and allow your heart rate to return to its resting rate. A light jog or walk after a run, for example, or some gentle stretches after strength exercises can also help prevent soreness and injuries.
Drink plenty of water. Your body performs best when it’s properly hydrated. Failing to drink enough water when you are exerting yourself over a prolonged period of time, especially in hot conditions, can be dangerous.
Listen to your body. If you feel pain or discomfort while working out, stop! If you feel better after a brief rest, you can slowly and gently resume your workout. But don’t try to power through pain. That’s a surefire recipe for injury.
How to make exercise a habit that sticks
There’s a reason so many New Year’s resolutions to get in shape crash and burn before February rolls around. And it’s not that you simply don’t have what it takes. Science shows us that there’s a right way to build habits that last. Follow these steps to make exercise one of them.
Start small and build momentum
A goal of exercising for 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week may sound good. But how likely are you to follow through? The more ambitious your goal, the more likely you are to fail, feel bad about it, and give up. It’s better to start with easy exercise goals you know you can achieve. As you meet them, you’ll build self-confidence and momentum. Then you can move on to more challenging goals.
Make it automatic with triggers
Triggers are one of the secrets to success when it comes to forming an exercise habit. In fact, research shows that the most consistent exercisers rely on them. Triggers are simply reminders—a time of day, place, or cue—that kick off an automatic reaction. They put your routine on autopilot, so there’s nothing to think about or decide on. The alarm clock goes off and you’re out the door for your walk. You leave work for the day and head straight to the gym. You spot your sneakers right by the bed and you’re up and running. Find ways to build them into your day to make exercise a no-brainer.
Reward yourself
People who exercise regularly tend to do so because of the rewards it brings to their lives, such as more energy, better sleep, and a greater sense of well-being. However, these tend to be long-term rewards. When you’re starting an exercise program, it’s important to give yourself immediate rewards when you successfully complete a workout or reach a new fitness goal. Choose something you look forward to, but don’t allow yourself to do until after exercise. It can be something as simple as having a hot bath or a favorite cup of coffee.
Choose activities that make you feel happy and confident
If your workout is unpleasant or makes you feel clumsy or inept, you’re unlikely to stick with it. Don’t choose activities like running or lifting weights at the gym just because you think that’s what you should do. Instead, pick activities that fit your lifestyle, abilities, and taste.
Set yourself up for success
Schedule it. You don’t attend meetings and appointments spontaneously, you schedule them. If you’re having trouble fitting exercise into your schedule, consider it an important appointment with yourself and mark it on your daily agenda.
Make it easy on yourself. Plan your workouts for the time of day when you’re most awake and energetic. If you’re not a morning person, for example, don’t undermine yourself by planning to exercise before work.
Remove obstacles. Plan ahead for anything that might get in the way of exercising. Do you tend to run out of time in the morning? Get your workout clothes out the night before so you’re ready to go as soon as you get up. Do you skip your evening workout if you go home first? Keep a gym bag in the car, so you can head out straight from work.
Hold yourself accountable. Commit to another person. If you’ve got a workout partner waiting, you’re less likely to skip out. Or ask a friend or family member to check in on your progress. Announcing your goals to your social group (either online or in person) can also help keep you on track.
Tips for making exercise more enjoyable
As previously noted, you are much more likely to stick with an exercise program that’s fun and rewarding. No amount of willpower is going to keep you going long-term with a workout you hate.
Think outside the gym
Does the thought of going to the gym fill you with dread? If you find the gym inconvenient, expensive, intimidating, or simply boring, that’s okay. There are many exercise alternatives to weight rooms and cardio equipment.
For many, simply getting outside makes all the difference. You may enjoy running outdoors, where you can enjoy alone time and nature, even if you hate treadmills.
Just about everyone can find a physical activity they enjoy. But you may need to think beyond the standard running, swimming, and biking options. Here are a few activities you may find fun:
horseback riding
ballroom dancing
rollerblading
hiking
paddle boarding
kayaking
gymnastics
martial arts
rock climbing
Zumba
Ultimate Frisbee
fencing
Make it a game
Activity-based video games such as those from Wii and Kinect can be a fun way to start moving. So-called “exergames” that are played standing up and moving around—simulating dancing, skateboarding, soccer, bowling, or tennis, for example—can burn at least as many calories as walking on a treadmill; some substantially more. Once you build up your confidence, try getting away from the TV screen and playing the real thing outside. Or use a smartphone app to keep your workouts fun and interesting—some immerse you in interactive stories to keep you motivated, such as running from hordes of zombies!
Pair it with something you enjoy
Getting on the exercise bike helps with building leg muscles. Photo Credit: Walmart
Think about activities that you enjoy and how you can incorporate them into an exercise routine. Watch TV as you ride a stationary bike, chat with a friend as you walk, take photographs on a scenic hike, walk the golf course instead of using a cart, or dance to music as you do household chores.
Make it social
Exercise can be a fun time to socialize with friends and working out with others can help keep you motivated. For those who enjoy company but dislike competition, a running club, water aerobics, or dance class may be the perfect thing. Others may find that a little healthy competition keeps the workout fun and exciting. You might seek out tennis partners, join an adult soccer league, find a regular pickup basketball game, or join a volleyball team.
Enlarged spaces in the brain that fill with fluid around small blood vessels may be a harbinger of impending dementia, a new Australian study suggests.
By: Steven Reinberg
Enlarged spaces in the brain that fill with fluid around small blood vessels may be a harbinger of impending dementia, a new Australian study suggests.
Typically, these so-called perivascular spaces help clear waste and toxins from the brain and might be linked with changes in the aging brain, researchers say.
“Dilated perivascular spaces, which are a common MRI finding, especially in the elderly, are not just an incidental finding,” said study author Dr. Matt Paradise, a psychiatrist and research fellow at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. “Instead, they should be taken seriously, and assessing their severity may be able to help clinicians and researchers better diagnose dementia and help predict the trajectory of people with cognitive decline.”
Paradise noted, however, that the study does not prove that enlarged perivascular spaces cause thinking and memory problems, only that there is an association.
“Dilated perivascular spaces may be a marker of the disease process, but not necessarily drive it,” he explained. ‘The underlying mechanisms for dilated perivascular spaces are complex and need unraveling.”
One neurologist agreed that relationship between these enlarged spaces and dementia is complicated.
“We all have perivascular spaces. They are natural, but they’re usually very small, so small that when we do pictures of the brain, we don’t usually see them,” explained Dr. Glenn Finney, a neurologist at the Geisinger Specialty Clinic in Wilkes Barre, Pa. “Some people have a few enlarged ones that are probably just normal.”
“But when we see a large amount of these extra spaces developing, that is when we start to suspect there’s probably something more going on in terms of brain health,” Finney added. “This is not something that happens to everybody.”
These spaces can enlarge when brain matter is lost or there is a build-up of materials that are normally cleared in those spaces, he explained.
“What we know is that we can see them more with age,” he said. “In some cases, we can see them associated with vascular damage in the brain.”
Finney doesn’t think that these enlarged spaces will be a diagnostic tool, and instead, “It’s really going to be a marker of risk. It’s not going to tell you if you have dementia, it’s not going to tell you if you’re going to get it. It’s just going to tell you that you may be at a little higher risk.”
Looking for connections
For the study, the researchers tested more than 400 people, average age 80. Participants were given tests of thinking and memory skills and assessed for dementia at the beginning of the study and every two years for eight years.
Also, the participants had MRI brain scans to look for enlarged perivascular spaces in two key areas of the brain at the start of the study and every two years for eight years.
The researchers compared the top 25% of those who had the largest number of enlarged perivascular spaces with those with fewer or no enlarged spaces.
They found that those with the most enlarged perivascular spaces were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia than those with fewer or no enlarged spaces.
In all, 24%, or 97 participants, developed dementia during the study. Of the 31 people with enlarged perivascular spaces in both areas of the brain that the researchers looked at, 39% developed dementia.
The people with severe enlargement of perivascular spaces in both areas of the brain were also more likely to have greater decline four years later on their overall scores of cognition than people with mild or no enlargement of spaces.
The results remain unchanged after the researchers took into account other factors that could affect scores on tests or the development of dementia, such as age, high blood pressure and diabetes.
They also accounted for other signs of disease in the small blood vessels in the brain, which can also be a risk of dementia.
The picture is actually more complex, Paradise said. “There may be differential effects for the two main regions where dilated perivascular spaces were measured, as this effect was not seen in all groups. This might be due to different mechanism of disease in those two areas. But broadly speaking, dilated perivascular spaces are a marker for disease of the microscopic blood vessels of the brain,” he said.
The report was published online Jan. 27 in the journal Neurology.
Health officials to vacate their posts since July include: the state’s chief nursing home regulator; Deputy Health Commissioner Brad Hutton; Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, medical director of epidemiology; and Dr. Jill Taylor, head of Wadsworth Center research lab. Photo Credit: Twitter
By: Benyamin Davidsons
Nine or more top health officials in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration have resigned, retired or been reassigned amid the novel Coronavirus and criticism against the administration policies. Still, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker has managed to hold on to his hat.
On Monday, the NY Times reported the departures, tying them to dissatisfaction with the state’s handling of the pandemic. The paper also said that sources were complaining that the policies set are put in place by Gov. Cuomo and his close aides, who are not health experts. “When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts,” Cuomo openly acknowledged on Friday. “Because I don’t. Because I don’t.”
As reported by the NY Post, Cuomo still continues to stand by Zucker, his top health expert, a Bronx native who became one of America’s youngest doctors at the age of 22 and continued on to attain board certification in six specialties/subspecialties , a JD from from Fordham Law School, a LL.M. from Columbia Law School and a postgraduate diploma from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Zucker, who joined the Department of Health in 2013, has also come under fire, with at least two Republican lawmakers calling for his resignation. The DOH’s infamous March 25 order for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients remains at the forefront of the controversy. Last week, Zucker also got scathed when Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation found that the Health Department downplayed the total number of nursing home deaths by withholding the number of residents who died after being sent to hospitals for COVID-19.
James’ report finally led Zucker to release the figures – saying that 12,743 residents have died of COVID-19 in NY nursing homes and hospitals as of Jan. 19. A day earlier, the official DOH number of nursing home deaths was 8,711, all of whom died in the nursing home facilities. On Friday, expressing frustration regarding James’ report, Cuomo broke out at a news conference asking, “But who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”
Health officials to vacate their posts since July include: the state’s chief nursing home regulator; Deputy Health Commissioner Brad Hutton; Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, medical director of epidemiology; and Dr. Jill Taylor, head of Wadsworth Center research lab in Albany. In a statement to the NY Times, Zucker said that the state was facing “an intense period of extraordinary stress and pressure and a different job than some signed onto.” He added that more recruits have “joined the agency with the talents necessary to confront this new challenge”. He noted that proof would be “in the performance numbers
In Democrat-run cities across America, teachers are demanding priority access to vaccines and refusing to return to their classrooms. The big fights are in Chicago, Montclair (New Jersey), and California, where the teachers are insisting on working only from home. Other school systems have only partial in-class teaching (e.g., Texas, Florida, and New York). Conservatives are reflexively pushing for a return to classroom teaching, but perhaps they should push in the other direction: let’s end public schools entirely.
Before I go any farther, I’d better apologize to those readers who are intelligent, dedicated teachers who do not think theirs is the hardest job in the world, that they receive the lowest salary of any employee ever, or that they are uniquely vulnerable to the Wuhan virus despite evidence that classrooms are not dangerous virus spreaders. This post is not about you. This post is about teachers who use their classrooms to indoctrinate the captive young people in their charge with leftist values.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is engaged in an epic battle with the teachers’ union to force them back into schools. So far, the teachers are winning with remote “learning” extended for at least two more days — and with the City having backed down from its threat to lock computer teaching access for those teachers who don’t return to their classrooms. In California, teachers’ unions are refusing to re-open schools until every single teacher is vaccinated.
The reason why teachers can take this stand is that they’re still getting their paychecks. While non-government workers are desperate to get back on the job so that they can buy food and shelter their families, teachers keep getting their paychecks even as students languish at home, isolated, alienated, depressed, and suicidal.
Conservatives rightly resent what’s happening. They support getting teachers back to work, but I’d like to suggest a different approach: shut down the public schools in these cities, give parents vouchers, and let the free market do its magic. Some parents might homeschool; some might do learning pods; some might reinvigorate parochial schools or other religious academies. The point is that parents would finally have a say in what their children are learning — and good teachers would find a broad variety of employment opportunities.
More than that, parents would have a say in preventing their students from being on the receiving end of leftist indoctrination. For example, parents might have a say about the content of Black Lives Matter week at the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The LAUSD has on its website a colorful five-page graphic talking about what students should be learning from February 1 through 5, which is the “week of action” for “black lives matter at schools.” It’s a dangerous thing to say nowadays, but I believe that all lives matter. I also believe that, if I say one race matters without mentioning the others, I am impliedly saying that the others don’t, which is a sentiment I cannot support. So, right off the bat, if my children were still in school, I would resent mightily having the BLM agenda — a purely Marxist concept that substitutes race for class — foisted on them.
It’s not just that, though. What’s being taught through the BLM curriculum is the whole panoply of hard-left thought, which substitutes illusory restorative justice for the rule of law, makes race (something over which people have no control) the single most important thing about the individual, pushes kids into becoming political activists, and — most disturbingly — advances the transgender myth.
People who believe they are the opposite of their biological sex or that they can change sex with the phases of the moon are every bit as mentally ill as anorexics or others with body dysmorphia. It’s a tragic condition that should be dealt with compassionately. It should not be foisted as reality on young children. That’s as bad as treating anorexics with diet pills and stomach-stapling.
Nevertheless, page three of the handout for the LAUSD says that Wednesday, February 3 is going to be “Trans-Affirming, Queer-Affirming, and Collective Value” day. Elementary classrooms are encouraged to do a “woke read aloud: They, She, He: Easy as ABC,” to explore “gender stereotypes through role-plays,” and to read It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A book about gender identity. (By the way, have you noticed that all so-called transgender men invariably traffic in hyper-feminine gender stereotypes, along the lines of Marilyn Monroe?)
This is not education; it’s indoctrination, and the teachers’ cowardice in the face of the Wuhan virus is the perfect opportunity to bring an end to this madness. Public schools have gotten too big and too political. If Democrats could use the Wuhan virus to upend America, conservatives should be able to use it to strike down a toxic system that employs too many people more interested in advocacy than in education.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that President Joe Biden “is totally on board with using reconciliation” to pass coronavirus relief and that using reconciliation “is what President Biden wants us to do, and that is what we’re doing.”
Schumer said, “Joe Biden is totally on board with using reconciliation. I’ve been talking to him every day. Our staffs have been talking multiple times a day.”
He later added, “Look, we’re moving forward under the reconciliation. That is what President Biden wants us to do, and that is what we’re doing.”
Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and turned into an online shopping behemoth, is stepping down as the company’s CEO, a role he’s had for nearly 30 years.
He’ll be replaced in the fall by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud-computing business. Bezos, 57, will then become the company’s executive chair.
In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he plans to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. And he said he’ll have more time for side projects: his space exploration company Blue Origin; the newspaper he owns, The Washington Post; and his charities.
Amazon is one of the last of the biggest tech giants to have a founder as CEO. Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin relinquished their executive positions in parent company Alphabet in 2019. Oracle’s Larry Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014. Bill Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000, kept a day-to-day role at the company until 2008 and served as its chairman until 2014. Gates left the board entirely last year to focus on philanthropy.
Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast and free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a more common sight in many living rooms.
As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents’ home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.
He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business — though at first he wasn’t sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his wife, MacKenzie, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle — a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.
While MacKenzie drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos’ Seattle garage on July 16, 1995. (AP)
- Newly confirmed Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses a welcome ceremony at the State Department, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 in Washington. (Carlos Barria/Pool via AP)
Edited by: Fern Sidman
In his first major interview as Secretary of State, Antony Blinken repeated his warning that Iran could be on course to get enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon within months, according to a report in the Independent of the UK. He added that if Iran continues to lift restraints from the nuclear deal, it could be “a matter of weeks”.
Speaking to NBC News, Blinken said the US would be willing to once again comply with the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran does the same, as was reported by the Independent of the UK. The new Secretary of State said that the US would then work on a “longer and stronger” deal with allies that could possibly include other issues such as Iran’s development of advanced missile technology and its deployment of armed groups throughout the Middle East, according to the report.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rejected allegations reportedly made by Blinken that Tehran could be months away from developing enough “fissile material” for a nuclear bomb. Photo Credit: AP
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Israel’s energy minister said it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior member of the Biden administration.
In a radio interview, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the Trump administration “seriously damaged Iran’s nuclear project and entire force build-up.”
“In terms of enrichment, they (Iranians) are in a situation of breaking out in around half a year if they do everything required,” he told public broadcaster Kan. “As for nuclear weaponry, the range is around one or two years.”
Reuters reported that Israel is wary of the Biden administration’s intent to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has long opposed the agreement, according to the Reuters report. Washington argues that the previous Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal backfired by prompting Iran to abandon caps on nuclear activities.
Last week, a VOA report indicated that Blinken had signaled that U.S. sanctions on Iran will remain in place for some time as Washington waits to see if Tehran verifiably stops violating a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers before potentially rejoining the deal that the Trump administration jettisoned.
VOA reported that week that Blinken said the U.S. is a “long way” from the point of fulfilling President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to rejoin the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if Iran resumes compliance with it.
The ministers of foreign affairs of France, Germany, the European Union, Iran, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as Chinese and Russian diplomats announcing the framework for a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program (Lausanne, April 2, 2015) – Photo Credit: Wikipedia
“Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts, and it would take some time, should it make a decision to do so, for it to come back into compliance, and (some time) for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations. So, we’re not there yet, to say the least,” Blinken said.
Biden has promised to offer Iran a “credible path back to diplomacy” if it returns to “strict compliance” with the JCPOA, in which it agreed to curb nuclear activities that could be diverted toward making nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief from world powers, as was reported by VOA.
Iran has been escalating its violations of JCPOA nuclear curbs since 2019 in retaliation for the 2018 withdrawal from the deal. Former President Trump unilaterally tightened U.S. sanctions against Tehran.
In his interview with the media over the weekend, Blinken did not offer a forthright response when asked if the release of detained Americans in Iran would be a part of any future negotiations.
He said: “Irrespective of… any deal, those Americans need to be released… We’re going to focus on making sure that they come home one way or another.”
Before his confirmation as Secretary of State, Blinken said that under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it would take Iran over a year to produce enough fissile material to make one weapon, as was reported by the Independent. During his Senate confirmation hearings last week, Blinken told lawmakers that it would now take “about three or four months, based at least on public reporting.”
The Independent reported that Iran began breaching the limits on the nuclear deal in 2019, a year after former President Trump withdrew the United States from the deal and began imposing sanctions on Tehran as part of a campaign of maximum pressure.
Iran has increased its production of fissile nuclear material, begun production of nuclear fuel enriched to 20 per cent purity, and ramped up its development of advanced centrifuges that can more efficiently process uranium ore for industrial or military purposes, as was reported by the Independent of the UK.
The report indicated that Iran said that it will not pursue nuclear weapons. Most western intelligence agencies say Iran abandoned a clandestine atomic arms program in 2003. But many non-proliferation experts have concluded Tehran is seeking to build up its nuclear technology capabilities with an eye toward quickly assembling nuclear weapons if it decided to in the future, as was reported by the UK paper.
According to a report on the Al Jazeera web site, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rejected allegations reportedly made by Blinken that Tehran could be months away from developing enough “fissile material” for a nuclear bomb.
Zarif rejected those comments in an interview with CNN on Monday. “I think that is a statement of concern that is more addressed to the public opinion than to reality,” the foreign minister said, as was reported by Al Jazeera.
“Iran does not seek a nuclear weapon. If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it some time ago, but we decided that nuclear weapons would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our ideological views.”
Blinken said he was basing his projections on “public reports” and said the timeline would get “more acute” if Iran lifts more nuclear deal restraints, according to a full transcript of the NBC News interview.
“Now, the fissile material is one thing. Having a weapon that they can actually detonate and use is another,” Blinken said, according to the readout.
Al Jazeera reported that Iran began to loosen compliance with the deal after Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against the Iranian government.
The Biden administration says it will remove punishing sanctions on Tehran if Iran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA, according to the Independent of the UK report, but the sequencing of a restoration of the deal remains unclear. Both Blinken and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have said that they would return to compliance with the deal, but only if the other does so first.
Iran has been trying to achieve a return to the 2015 deal by publicly pressuring the new Biden administration. It has seized the cargo ship of a US ally and imprisoned a US citizen on charges of espionage, according to The Times.
Iran has now said it will not renegotiate the deal and placed blame on the US for its unilateral withdrawal, as was reported by Al Jazeera.
“The nuclear accord is a multilateral international agreement ratified by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is non-negotiable and parties to it are clear and unchangeable,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by state media as saying on Saturday.
“The United States needs to come back into compliance and Iran will be ready – immediately – to respond,” Zarif said. He added that, “The timing is not the issue. The issue is whether the United States, whether the new administration, wants to follow the old failed policies of the Trump administration or not.”
The Independent of the UK reported that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Friday during a forum sponsored by the United States Institute for Peace that the Biden administration is looking at a faster restoration of the deal than previously advertised to manage the incoming threats from Iran.
Sullivan also reiterated that Iran is closer to building a bomb than when President Trump decided to leave the deal in May 2018, according to the report.
“We are going to have to address Iran’s other bad behavior, malign behavior, across the region, but from our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they move closer and closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon… And we would like to make sure that we reestablish some of the parameters and constraints around the program that have fallen away over the course of the past two years,” Sullivan said.
Biden has named people involved in Iran nuclear deal negotiations to key positions within his administration. That includes Robert Malley, his new Iran envoy, and Wendy Sherman, his nominee for deputy secretary of state, according to report in the Independent of the UK report.
Malley was the lead negotiator on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and is currently tasked with bringing the United States and Iran into compliance with the Iran deal abandoned by Trump, according to a profile on Wikipedia. Previously, Malley was President and CEO of the International Crisis Group, a Washington, D.C. non-profit committed to preventing wars. Prior to holding that title, as was reported on Wikipedia, he served at the National Security Council under Barack Obama from February 2014 until January 2017. In 2015, the Obama administration appointed Rob Malley as its “point man” on the Middle East, leading the Middle East desk of the National Security Council. In November 2015, Malley was named as President Obama’s new special ISIS advisor.
In a statement released on the Iranian Foreign Ministry website, spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh rejected any flexibility on the part of the Iranians to changing any part of the 2015 agreement that the U.S. withdrew from in 2018, as was reported on the World Israel News web site.
“The UN Security Council Resolution 2231 is a multilateral international agreement ratified by Security Council, and is in no way negotiable and the parties are clear and unchangeable,” Khatibzadeh said.
His remarks on additional parties to the deal were in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments on Friday that new talks with Tehran should include regional players like Saudi Arabia, according to the World Israel News report.
“The United States has withdrawn from this agreement and Europe has been unable to maintain it,” Khatibzadeh said, adding that if the U.S. and Europe wanted to revive and maintain the nuclear deal, the only way is for the U.S. to return to the same terms and remove all of its sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic under former President Trump.
WIN reported that Macron had tried to push a hard line with the Iranians, telling the Al Arabiya news website during a media briefing in Paris: “Dialogue with Iran will be rigorous, and they will need to include our allies in the region for a nuclear deal, and this includes Saudi Arabia.”
Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates want to be involved in any new talks with Iran, sharing Israel’s concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile program that was not included in the original nuclear deal, as well as Iranian support for terrorist groups in the region, according to the WIN report.
Khatibzadeh called on Macron to “exercise restraint and refrain from hasty and ill-considered positions.”
VOA News reported that U.S. administrations have long criticized Iran’s development of ballistic missiles, its support for Islamist militias engaged in conflicts with the U.S. and its allies, its detentions of Americans as bargaining chips for prisoner swaps, and its poor human rights record.
The U.S. military said it flew a B-52H bomber over the Middle East last week to “showcase its commitment” to the security of U.S. allies in the region who have felt threatened by Iran.
The Associated Press said flight tracking data showed the bomber flew over the Persian Gulf after taking off from a U.S. base in Louisiana. It was the sixth such overflight since November, when then-President Trump authorized the sorties to deter Iran from attacking the U.S. or its allies while Washington was consumed in political turmoil stemming from that month’s presidential election. The military exercise also was the first since Biden took office, signaling that his administration intends to continue them as a regular practice, according to the VOA report.
Elliott Abrams, Trump’s special representative for Iran who left office last week, told VOA Persian he believes Blinken was “realistic” in assessing no quick U.S. return to the JCPOA. (Independent of the UK, Reuters, Al Jazeera & World Israel News)
Experts have recommended that President Joe Biden appoint a “reality czar” to “tackle disinformation,” the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Technology columnist Kevin Roose’s piece examines how to combat disinformation in media, citing QAnon group chats, OAN reporting, and “YouTube videos alleging that the inauguration was a prerecorded hoax that had been filmed on a Hollywood soundstage.”
“Several experts I spoke with recommended that the Biden administration put together a cross-agency task force to tackle disinformation and domestic extremism, which would be led by something like a ‘reality czar,’” Roose wrote. “It sounds a little dystopian, I’ll grant. But let’s hear them out.”
The New York Times has amplified claims by “experts” who are calling for Joe Biden to appoint a “reality czar,” prompting critics to compare the idea to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984. https://t.co/7tT9fdvdvh
Government responses to domestic extremism and disinformation are spread across numerous agencies and create a lot of unnecessary overlap, experts reportedly told the Times. This overlap results in misinformation about prominent issues such as COVID-19 and election fraud, Stanford disinformation researcher Renée DiResta said.
Diresta suggested that a “centralized task force could coordinate a single, strategic response,” Roose reported.
“If each of them are doing it distinctly and independently, you run the risk of missing connections, both in terms of the content and in terms of the tactics that are used to execute on the campaigns,” DiResta told the Times.
DiResta suggested that such a task force could meet with tech platforms and help these platforms tackle issues with extremism and misinformation
NYTimes suggests the Biden administration needs to appoint a “reality czar” to deal with misinformation and extremism. https://t.co/jVNWNJ3e1C
“For example, it could formulate ‘safe harbor’ exemptions that would allow platforms to share data about QAnon and other conspiracy theory communities with researchers and government agencies without running afoul of privacy laws,” Roose wrote. “And it could become the tip of the spear for the federal government’s response to the reality crisis.”
Corporate media figures and outlets have previously suggested that Biden should also take an aggressive approach in combatting conservative media when he becomes President of the United States. Other media figures and Democrats have called for lists to be made of Trump’s supporters, suggesting that these lists will be used in the future to hold the president’s supporters accountable.
Biden’s advisors are also reportedly pushing him to create a post in the White House specifically to target and combat “ideologically inspired violent extremists.”
Harvard University Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy’s research director Joan Donovan also suggested to the Times that Biden should set up a “truth commission” to investigate how the Capitol Riot was planned and executed.
“There must be accountability for these actions,” Dr. Donovan said, the Times reported. “My fear is that we will get distracted as a society and focus too much on giving voice to the fringe groups that came out in droves for Trump.”
She also recommended the Biden administration require social media platforms to show more transparency into the inner workings of their black-box algorithms used to recommend content to users,
“We must open the hood on social media so that civil rights lawyers and real watchdog organizations can investigate human rights abuses enabled or amplified by technology,” Donovan told the Times.
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President Joe Biden signed three more executive orders Tuesday to reverse policies of the Trump administration, actions critics characterized as “reinstating incentives” for people to enter the country illegally.
The orders create a task force to end the “zero tolerance” policy that separated family members if an adult entered the country illegally with a child; “review” the Remain-in-Mexico policy which keeps migrant south of the border while immigrations are being heard – something Biden has vowed to end; and “streamline” the naturalization process while reviewing the public charge test.
“We are going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families . . . with no plan, none whatsoever to reunify the children who are still in custody and their parents,” Biden said in signing the orders.
However, former border officials and advocacy groups decried the moves, saying they encourage illegal immigration.
“With another stroke of a pen, Biden is doubling down on his open border strategies, encouraging illegal migration, and creating the next crisis to reach our borders,” former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan told Fox News. “Within two weeks of this new administration our borders are less secure, our country less safe, and the mission of our frontline personnel has become more dangerous.”
Additionally, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) President Dan Stein accused the White House of “ignoring, or exacerbating, the ‘pull factors’ over which it has full control.”
Leona is an intimate, insightful, and moving film that tells the story of a young Jewish woman from Mexico City who finds herself torn between her family and her forbidden love. It is the feature-length debut of Mexico City-based director Isaac Cherem. The film follows Ariela, played by the film’s co-writer Naian González Norvind – a third-generation performer of acclaimed Mexican acting ‘royalty’ – a member of a Conservative Syrian-Jewish community, as she falls in love with Iván (Christian Vázquez), a gentile.
Not only do her tight-knit family and friends reject her relationship with Iván, but they threaten to shun her altogether. Ripe with all the drama and interpersonal conflicts of a Jane Austen novel, watching her negotiate the labyrinth of familial pressure, religious precedent, and her own burgeoning sentiment is both painful and beautiful – there are no easy choices to be made and the viewer travels back and forth with her as she struggles with her heart to take the best path. Leona is a heartfelt, dramatic, and contemporary take on a timeless love story.
Leona, in Spanish with English sub-titles runs 95 minutes.
In this undated image provided St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Jared Isaacman pauses while speaking about his enthusiasm for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and his spaceflight called Inspiration4, in Memphis, Tenn. Isaacman, a billionaire who made a fortune in tech and fighter jets is buying an entire SpaceX flight and plans to take three people with him to circle the globe this year. Isaacman announced Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, that he aims to use the trip to raise more than $200 million for St. Jude. (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital via AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A U.S. billionaire who made a fortune in tech and fighter jets is buying an entire SpaceX flight and plans to take three “everyday” people with him to circle the globe this year.
Besides fulfilling his dream of flying in space, Jared Isaacman announced Monday that he aims to use the private trip to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, half coming from his own pockets.
A female health care worker for St. Jude already has been selected for the mission. Anyone donating to St. Jude in February will be entered into a random drawing for seat No. 3. The fourth seat will go to a business owner who uses Shift4 Payments, Isaacman’s credit card processing company in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit,” Isaacman, who turns 38 next week, told The Associated Press.
“I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way.”
He’s bought a Super Bowl ad to publicize the mission, dubbed Inspiration4 and targeted for an October launch from Florida. The other passengers aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule — what Isaacman calls a diverse group “from everyday walks of life” — will be announced next month. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk expects the flight to last two to four days.
Isaacman’s trip is the latest deal announced for private space travel — and it’s No. 1 on the runway for an orbital trip.
“This is an important milestone toward enabling access to space for everyone,” Musk said during a press conference Monday from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. While expensive, these initial private flights will drive down costs over time, he noted.
Last week, a Houston company revealed the names of three businessmen who are paying $55 million apiece to fly to the International Space Station next January aboard a SpaceX Dragon. And a Japanese businessman has a deal with SpaceX to fly to the moon. In the past, space tourists had to hitch rides to the space station on Russian rockets.
Isaacman would not divulge how much he’s paying SpaceX, except to say that the anticipated donation to St. Jude “vastly exceeds the cost of the mission.”
While a former NASA astronaut will accompany the three businessmen, Isaacman will serve as his own spacecraft commander. The appeal, he said, is learning all about SpaceX’s Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. The capsules are designed to fly autonomously, but a pilot can override the system in an emergency.
A “space geek” since kindergarten, Isaacman dropped out of high school when he was 16, got a GED certificate and started a business in his parents’ basement that became the genesis for Shift4. He set a speed record flying around the world in 2009 while raising money for the Make-A-Wish program, and later established Draken International, the world’s largest private fleet of fighter jets.
Isaacman’s $100 million commitment to St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, is the largest ever by a single individual and one of the largest overall.
“We’re pinching ourselves every single day,” said Rick Shadyac, president of St. Jude’s fundraising organization.
“We’re all going to get to know each other … really well before launch,” he said.
He’s acutely aware of the need for things to go well.
“If something does go wrong, it will set back every other person’s ambition to go and become a commercial astronaut,” he told the AP over the weekend from his home in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Isaacman said he signed with Musk’s company because it’s the clear leader in commercial spaceflight, with two astronaut flights already completed. Boeing has yet to fly astronauts to the space station for NASA. While Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin expect to start flying customers later this year, their craft will just briefly skim the surface of space.
Isaacman had put out spaceflight feelers for years. He traveled to Kazakhstan in 2008 to see a Russian Soyuz blast off with a tourist on board, then a few years later attended one of NASA’s last space shuttle launches. SpaceX invited him to the company’s second astronaut launch for NASA in November.
While Isaacman and wife, Monica, managed to keep his space trip hush-hush over the months, their daughters couldn’t. The girls, ages 7 and 4, overheard their parents discussing the flight last year and told their teachers, who called to ask if it was true dad was an astronaut.
“My wife said, ‘No, of course not, you know how these kids make things up.’ But I mean the reality is my kids weren’t that far off with that one.”
In the stock market, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. This seems to be true even for expert hedge funds in their investments and picks.
In January, hedge fund Melvin Capital lost 53 percent of its value, on a bet against Gamestop, the ailing video game retailer. Melvin ended January with just over $8 billion in assets, though it began the year with about $12.5 billion in assets, a source told the NY Post.
As reported by the Post, the hedge fund, which was founded by Gabe Plotkin in 2014, had gone all in against GameStop’s stock, which traded at under $5 five months ago. The stock, however, jumped 1,625 percent this month, to close at $325 on Friday, thanks to rookie retail investors, fueled by social media platform Reddit and online trading app Robinhood, who went on a buying frenzy for Gamestop’s stock. Melvin Capital’s loss is a reminder that on Wall Street, one man’s loss is another man’s gain.
On Sunday, Melville Capital received commitments from investors to help it out with cash in the last days of the month, as per the Post. Hedge funds Point72 Asset Management and Citadel gave Melvin Capital a $2.75 billion capital infusion, allowing the firm to close out its short position and post the hefty loss. “The fund’s portfolio liquidity is strong. Use of leverage is at the lowest level since Melvin Capital’s inception in 2014,” a source told the Post. In January, Citadel lost under 1 percent on its Melvin position in the flagship fund. In the past few days, many hedge funds have posted losses, leading to fears that some of the funds may need to shutter their doors. Several investors and fund managers say, however, that clients are learning to be patient with the losses helping them withstand January’s month’s heavy financial losses. The firms which won clients big gains in the past, and have a long and steady track record have confidence they can withstand a change in the tide.
Gamestop, a traditionally downtrodden stock, enjoyed impressive gains through the purchase of its stock by a wave of newbie investors who got their advice from chat forums like Reddit. In September, the stock was under $5 a share, but then Ryan Cohen, founder of Chewy.com, ttok on a 27 percent stake in Gamestop, saying the struggling mall retailer seemed ready for a turnabout. In January, GameStop added three new directors to its board. The stock soared with a crowd at its back, despite the fact that expert investors made the stock one of the most shorted stocks on the market.
In January, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his administration was canceling all contracts with the Trump Organization, including rights to operate the Wollman ice skating rink in Central Park, as well as three other popular attractions in NYC’s public parks. Recently, the city Parks Department followed through, issuing a competitive request seeking proposals from other companies who would like to manage the celebrated skating rink. Applications for the contract must be received by March 12.
As reported by the NY Post, the mayor justified this, saying that the former Republican President incited supporters who invaded the US Capitol building, and claimed that this alleged incitement violated city contract rules which prohibit criminal behavior by operators. On Sunday, De Blasio spokesman Bill Neidhart said that city lawyers already sent a letter to the Trump Organization notifying it of the “severed ties”. “Trump has been impeached from operating the ice rink,” Neidhardt said. “The RFP will determine who will take over Wollman Rink.”
Trump Organization has held the contract with the city for over three decades. In fact, in the 1980’s when then-Mayor Ed Koch undertook and botched the reconstruction of Wollman Rink, it was Trump, who swooped in and saved the project. Trump successfully rebuilt the multimillion-dollar project in time for the fall of 1986 within a new pricetag of less than $3 million. In addition to the Wollman rink, the Trump Organization has long operated three other major NYC park attractions including: Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in The Bronx, Lasker Rink at the northern end of Central Park, and the popular Central Park Carousel. The contracts, which are all being canceled, are worth a total of $45 million.
Eric Trump, the president’s son and a top executive for Trump Organization, says that the city’s move to cancel existing contracts is illegal, and vowed to fight it in a court of law.
“Yet another example of Mayor de Blasio’s incompetence and blatant disregard for the facts,” he said in a statement. “The City of New York has no legal right to end our contracts, and if they elect to proceed, they will owe The Trump Organization over $30 million. “This is nothing more than political discrimination, and we plan to fight vigorously,” Eric Trump said.
Parks Department spokeswoman Crystal Howard commented to say, “We are working on next steps to find a new concessionaire to operate Wollman Rink, and will have more to say soon.” The Trump Organization did not respond to a Post request for comment.
