thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Amy Coney Barrett Was Trustee At Private School With Anti-Gay Policies

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Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren’t welcome in the classroom.
The policies that discriminated against LGBTQ people and their children were in place for years at Trinity Schools Inc., both before Barrett joined the board in 2015 and during the time she served.
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The three schools, in Indiana, Minnesota and Virginia, are affiliated with People of Praise, an insular community rooted in its own interpretation of the Bible, of which Barrett and her husband have been longtime members. At least three of the couple’s seven children have attended the Trinity School at Greenlawn, in South Bend, Indiana.
The AP spoke with more than two dozen people who attended or worked at Trinity Schools, or former members of People of Praise. They said the community’s teachings have been consistent for decades: Homosexuality is an abomination against God, sex should occur only within marriage and marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Interviewees told the AP that Trinity’s leadership communicated anti-LGBTQ policies and positions in meetings, one-on-one conversations, enrollment agreements, employment agreements, handbooks and written policies — including those in place when Barrett was an active member of the board.
“Trinity Schools does not unlawfully discriminate with respect to race, color, gender, national origin, age, disability, or other legally protected classifications under applicable law, with respect to the administration of its programs,” said Jon Balsbaugh, president of Trinity Schools Inc., which runs the three campuses, in an email.
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The actions are probably legal, experts said. Scholars said the school’s and organization’s teachings on homosexuality and treatment of LGBTQ people are harsher than those of the mainstream Catholic church.
Conservative supporters of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett sing a song about their joy at her nomination, outside the confirmation hearing being done by the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Oct. 15, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Barrett’s views on whether LGBTQ people should have the same constitutional rights as other Americans became a focus last week in her Senate confirmation hearing. But her longtime membership in People of Praise and her leadership position at Trinity Schools were not discussed, even though most of the people the AP spoke with said her deep and decades-long involvement in the community signals she would be hostile to gay rights if confirmed.
Suzanne B. Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies sexuality and gender law, said private schools have wide legal latitude to set admissions criteria. And, she said, Trinity probably isn’t covered by recent Supreme Court rulings outlawing employment discrimination against LGBTQ people because of its affiliation with a religious community. But, she added, cases addressing those questions are likely to come before the high court in the near future, and Barrett’s past oversight of Trinity’s discriminatory policies raises concerns.
“When any member of the judiciary affiliates themselves with an institution that is committed to discrimination on any ground, it is important to look more closely at how that affects the individual’s ability to give all cases a fair hearing,” Goldberg said.
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The AP sent detailed questions for Barrett to the White House press office. Rather than providing direct answers, White House spokesman Judd Deere instead accused AP of attacking the nominee.
“Because Democrats and the media are unable to attack Judge Barrett’s sterling qualifications, they have instead turned to pathetic personal attacks on her children’s Christian school, even though the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed that religious schools are protected by the First Amendment,” Deere said in an email.
Nearly all the people interviewed for this story are gay or said they have gay family members. They used words such as “terrified,” “petrified” and “frightening” to describe the prospect of Barrett on the high court. Some of them know Barrett, have mutual friends with her or even have been in her home dozens of times. They describe her as “nice” or “a kind person,” but told the AP they feared others would suffer if Barrett tries to implement People of Praise’s views on homosexuality on the Supreme Court.
About half of the people asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation against themselves or their families from other members of People of Praise, or because they had not come out to everyone in their lives. Among those interviewed were people who attended all three of its schools and who had been active in several of its 22 branches. Their experiences stretched back as far as the 1970s, and as recently as 2020.
NOT WELCOME
Tom Henry was a senior at Trinity School in Eagan, Minnesota, serving as a student ambassador, providing tours to prospective families, when Barrett was an active member of the board.
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In early 2017, a lesbian parent asked him whether Trinity was open to gay people and expressed concern about how her child would be treated.
Henry, who is gay, said he didn’t know what to say. He had been instructed not to answer questions about People of Praise or Trinity’s “politics.”
The next day, Henry recalled, he asked the school’s then-headmaster, Jon Balsbaugh, how he should have answered. Henry said Balsbaugh pulled a document out of his desk drawer that condemned gay marriage, and explained it was a new policy from People of Praise that was going into the handbook.
“He looked me right in the eye and said, the next time that happens, you tell them they would not be welcome here,” Henry recounted. “And he said to me that trans families, gay families, gay students, trans students would not feel welcome at Trinity Schools. And then he said, ‘Do we understand each other?’ And I said, yes. And I left. And then I quit the student ambassadors that day.”
Students head into class for the first time on Jan. 14, 2008 at Trinity School at River Ridge's campus in Eagan, Minn. Dawn Villella / Pioneer Press via AP
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Balsbaugh, who has since been promoted to president of Trinity Schools Inc., says his recollection of the conversation “differs considerably,” but declined to give details. He said it is likely he shared the school’s guidelines that at that time “had long been published in the parent handbook.”
Balsbaugh told the AP in an email that Barrett was not involved in the formulation or passage of any policies pertaining to homosexuality. He said Barrett served on the Trinity board from July 2015 to March 2017, and denied that the school’s leadership considered or formulated any new policy related to homosexuality during that time. He didn’t say whether the policy as described by Henry was ever adopted.
The school’s parent handbook says the board is the highest decision-making body, responsible for hiring the president and developing “broad institutional polices.”
THE COMMUNITY
People of Praise is not a church but is a community in which people sign a “covenant” pledging love and service to fellow community members and to God. It has 1,700 members and grew out of the Catholic charismatic movement rooted in Pentecostalism that began in the late 1960s. It emphasizes a personal relationship with Jesus and can include baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues and prophecy, according to former members, experts who have studied the movement, and its own publications. Most members are Roman Catholic.
Barrett has declined to say whether she is still an active member.
More than half of the people AP interviewed were involved with Trinity or People of Praise within the last decade. The AP verified the identities of everyone interviewed for this story through posts on the People of Praise and Trinity websites, published athletics results, school and membership directories, past listed addresses, or through other people verified by the AP as Trinity alumni or former members.
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SCHOOL POLICIES
Multiple people who spoke with the AP detailed how Trinity’s leadership articulated and put in place policies that effectively barred gay families and employees.
A 2018-19 enrollment agreement obtained by the AP says “the only proper place for human sexual activity is marriage, where marriage is a legal and committed relationship between one man and one woman.” It goes on to say that activities such as “fornication, pornography, adultery and homosexual acts, and advocating or modeling any of these behaviors” are at odds with the school’s core beliefs.
In 2014, the year before Barrett joined the board, the school’s trustees voted to limit admissions to the children of legally married couples or single parents. At the time, gay marriage was not legal in Indiana or Virginia. The wording was softened slightly after the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, though it still explicitly opposes LBGTQ relationships.
“The reason was not any desire to judge or punish, but to avoid potential confusion for our students regarding our consistent position that sexual activity is meant to be only within marriage, understood as the union of one man and one woman,” Balsbaugh said.
Balsbaugh said families and students don’t have to agree with the school’s positions, but it’s important that parents “understand and be able to support the culture that we are establishing.”
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In addition to the written policies, school administrators made clear verbally they did not want to admit children of gay families, multiple people told the AP.
This 1990s image provided by Mary Belton, right, shows her with her mother Camellia Pisegna. Mary Belton via AP
One described a faculty meeting at the Trinity School in Minnesota, where Balsbaugh, who was then headmaster, said in response to a question that people who subscribed to a religion other than Christianity would be welcome at the school because they were still “seeking truth.” Children of gay couples, on the other hand, would not be accepted, “because their life is so contrary to our beliefs, and essentially that it was a choice,” the person recalled Balsbaugh saying.
Balsbaugh said his recollection of the faculty meeting differed, but declined to give details. He denied this was the position of Trinity Schools, but declined to say whether children of gay couples would be admitted. He instead highlighted the school’s harassment policy against bullying or other abuse “based upon a student’s sex, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality or perceived sexuality.”
“Such behaviors are considered major violations of our code of conduct for students and faculty alike,” the policy states.
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A faculty employment agreement in place for the 2014-15 school year, obtained by the AP, states that “Blatant sexual immorality (for example, fornication, adultery, homosexual acts, etc.) has no place in the culture of Trinity Schools.”
Several people told the AP they were unaware of any openly gay employees and said it was understood that they were not welcome. One gay man spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of being ousted from his position at the school.
Balsbaugh told the AP many religious schools and faith-based groups have similar faculty agreements. He would not say whether the school has any LGBTQ teachers.
SCHOOL TEACHINGS
Many former students described a controlling and repressive environment where even a friendly hug could earn a detention. Michael Leehan spent six years at Trinity School in Minnesota, graduating in 2015. Leehan, who is gay and had come out to his friends at school, recalled being reprimanded by a dean for hugging a platonic male friend.
“I don’t know how else to describe it. He just got a kind of a mean look in his eye and venom in his voice,” Leehan said, recalling that the dean told him, “Don’t do that stuff here.” Leehan remembered a surge of anger — “the feeling of I’m dirty, in the context of this school.”
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Several former students of varying ages who attend all three Trinity schools separately described being taught a vivid reading from Dante’s “Inferno” that depicts the eternal suffering of Sodomites condemned to hell for their sins. Four of them said teachers made clear the passage referred to gay men who were rightly suffering in hell. Some more recent graduates of the Minnesota school, however, said their teacher did not dwell on the passage.
Balsbaugh said Trinity teaches Dante “as a work of imaginative literature, not as a collection of moral or theological statements.”
Cara Wood, 28, attended Trinity School at Meadow View in Falls Church, a Virginia suburb of the nation’s capital, and recalled the only time the school addressed homosexuality was when students read the “Inferno” and learned about gay men being in hell. Wood, who is bisexual, graduated in 2010.
“They called it sexual preference rather than ... sexual orientation and typically we just wouldn’t address it at all,” Wood told the AP.
This 2009 photo provided by Cara Wood shows her on the fist day of her last year of high school at Trinity School at Meadow View in Falls Church, Va. Wood Family via AP
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During her confirmation hearing last week, Barrett also framed sexuality as a “preference.” That wording is rejected by LGBTQ advocates because it suggests sexual orientation is a choice.
“I have no agenda, and I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and would not ever discriminate on the basis of sexual preference,” Barrett said during the Oct. 13 hearing.
After some Democratic senators seized on her use of the term, Barrett apologized, saying she “did not mean any offense or to make any statement by that.”
Andrea Turpin-King transferred to the South Bend school in 1990, in the middle of her 7th grade year, after her father was struck and killed by a drunken driver after leaving a well-known gay bar. Her mother hoped she could get a fresh start after she was bullied at another school. The teachers at Trinity were told about what had happened, she said.
Turpin-King recalled that during 9th grade one of her teachers told the class that all gay people go to hell.
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“When she said that, all I could picture was my dad’s face, and all I could think about was how much I missed his hugs,” Turpin-King told the AP. “And so, I said, I don’t think that’s true. And she said that I was going to go to hell, too.”
Turpin-King said: “It felt like a request for me to disavow my father’s humanity. Even in death. And I couldn’t do that.”
LIFE IN PEOPLE OF PRAISE
Many former members told the AP they struggled to reconcile People of Praise’s and Trinity Schools’ religious teachings with their sexual identity, and suffered fear, anxiety and trauma. Many felt they had to leave, even at the risk of being shunned by friends and family.
One 2015 Trinity graduate who grew up in People of Praise recalled members requesting that the community pray that their gay loved ones would “recover” from their homosexuality.
Another Trinity graduate, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because his parents are still in People of Praise and his sexuality remains a sensitive topic for them, was forced to undergo conversion therapy after Trinity administrators learned he was gay at age 16. He also recounted being counseled by a senior People of Praise leader that same-sex attraction was “changeable” with treatment and prayer. The widely discredited practice has been condemned by mental health organizations and LGBTQ advocacy groups as pseudoscientific, unethical and psychologically harmful.
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People of Praise spokesman Sean Connolly said the group had no knowledge of LGBTQ youths being referred for conversion therapy.
“People of Praise neither advocates for nor pays for such programs,” he said.
While some former members said they knew of no explicit People of Praise teaching against gay members, or said gay members could remain as long as they never acted on their sexual desires, most of those who spoke with the AP said it was clear gay people were not welcome.
Asked directly if a married same-sex couple or someone who is openly gay would be welcome within the community, Connolly responded, “People of Praise holds the standard Christian teaching, based on the New Testament, that sexual activity is meant for marriage, understood as the union of a man and a woman.”
Camellia Pisegna’s family was expelled from the community they had been a part of for 15 years in South Bend when she came out as a lesbian around 1990, she and others told the AP. Pisegna’s children were shunned, even from lifelong friends. Even now, Pisegna said, no one has apologized, even though she still lives in the area.
“Any one of these hundreds of people could very easily find me,” Pisegna said. “But that’s never happened in 30 years.”
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This 2013 image provided by Mary Belton, left, shows her with her mother Camellia Pisegna. Pisegna's family was expelled from the People of Praise community they had been a part of for 15 years in South Bend, Ind., when she came out as a lesbian around 1990. Mary Belton via AP
Connolly said that account of what happened was “not accurate,” though he declined to provide details “out of respect for all parties involved.”
“We believe that harassing or persecuting gays and lesbians is contrary to the Gospel and that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect,” Connolly said in an email.
Massimo Faggioli, a theology professor at Villanova University, said some of the community’s teachings are more in keeping with pre-1960s Catholicism than the modern church.
“It comes from a very literalist reading of scripture,” Faggioli said. “It’s no longer the official language used by the official teaching of the Catholic Church. It’s no longer used by the pope. It’s no longer used by official documents that still have a negative view of same-sex marriage.”
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“Even John Paul II, even Pope Benedict, who had more conservative views on these things, they were very careful in never sounding (like) homophobes,” Faggioli said.
LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS
Barrett, in her hearing last week, refused to say whether she agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which in 2003 struck down state laws criminalizing sex acts between those of the same gender. She also repeatedly refused to say whether she agreed with the high court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 5-to-4 decision in 2015 that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Barrett stressed that she did not intend to signal any opinion one way or another. If confirmed, she insisted, she would keep an open mind about how she might rule in any future cases.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett leaves after testifying on the third day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. AP
Barrett’s position on gay rights is particularly crucial after two of the high court’s conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, this month wrote a dissenting opinion that appeared to call for the court to reconsider its 2015 same-sex marriage decision. Both Thomas and Alito were in the minority in that decision, as was deceased Justice Antonin Scalia, whose judicial philosophy Barrett has said mirrors her own.
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Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group that opposes Barrett’s confirmation, said his group fears “a far-right Supreme Court that could undermine the rights of marginalized communities and the LGBTQ community for decades.”
“Our love is valid, our love is equal, and our rights must be,” David said.
Turpin-King said she has briefly met Barrett, and they share mutual friends. Some of her husband’s family members are still members of the People of Praise community, and she loves and respects them. Many of Trinity’s teachers were wonderful to her. But the thought of Barrett sitting on the Supreme Court scares her.
“I am deeply concerned about my queer friends. I’m concerned about my own children,” Turpin-King said. “From what I experienced in People of Praise, as a student of one of their schools, everyone needs to be petrified, frankly.”
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Follow Smith at http://twitter.com/MRSmithAP and AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Trump Maintains Bank Account In China, New York Times Reveals

President Donald Trump maintains a bank account in China after years of pursuing business deals in the nation , The New York Times reported Tuesday , the latest revelation in the newspaper ’ s series on his tax returns .
The Times noted that Trump maintains just three foreign bank accounts — the one in China and two in Britain and Ireland that are largely used by the companies that operate his golf resorts in Scotland and Ireland .
The account in China , which had not been previously reported , is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management and as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president ’ s public financial disclosure paperwork .
The company paid $ 188,561 in taxes to China from 2013 to 2015 , the Times added , although it reported only a few thousand dollars in income to the Internal Revenue Service ( reporting overseas income is required by law ) .
Alan Garten , a lawyer for the Trump Organization , confirmed that Trump held a Chinese bank account and told the Times it was opened “ with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had opened an office in China to explore hotel deals , but it had remained inactive since 2015 and the bank account had “ never been used for any other purpose.
” The revelations would seem to undercut efforts by both Trump and top Republican lawmakers who have spent months trying to use similar information about Hunter Biden , Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ’ s son , to paint the former vice president and his family as too “ soft ” on China .
The GOP has long made false assertions about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including his work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company , in an effort to smear the Biden family and claim he “ cashed in ” on his father ’ s tenure in the Obama White House .
The article is the latest in a series of New York Times reports based on copies of two decades worth of Trump ’ s tax returns , which the president has refused to release for the entirety of his first term in office .
The documents , which were provided to the Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , include details that Trump paid just $ 750 in personal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017 and none at all in 10 of the 15 years before that .
The returns also revealed that Trump personally holds $ 421 million in debt , with loans largely coming due in the next four years .
He is also facing an audit by the IRS that could leave him liable for more than $ 100 million in repayments and penalties .

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President Donald Trump maintains a bank account in China after years of pursuing business deals in the nation, The New York Times reported Tuesday, the latest revelation in the newspaper’s series on his tax returns.
The Times noted that Trump maintains just three foreign bank accounts — the one in China and two in Britain and Ireland that are largely used by the companies that operate his golf resorts in Scotland and Ireland. The account in China, which had not been previously reported, is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management and as such doesn’t appear on the president’s public financial disclosure paperwork.
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The company paid $188,561 in taxes to China from 2013 to 2015, the Times added, although it reported only a few thousand dollars in income to the Internal Revenue Service (reporting overseas income is required by law).
Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, confirmed that Trump held a Chinese bank account and told the Times it was opened “with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes.” He said the Trump Organization had opened an office in China to explore hotel deals, but it had remained inactive since 2015 and the bank account had “never been used for any other purpose.”
The revelations would seem to undercut efforts by both Trump and top Republican lawmakers who have spent months trying to use similar information about Hunter Biden, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, to paint the former vice president and his family as too “soft” on China.
The GOP has long made false assertions about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, including his work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, in an effort to smear the Biden family and claim he “cashed in” on his father’s tenure in the Obama White House.
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“He’s like a vacuum cleaner — he follows his father around collecting,” Trump said recently about Hunter Biden’s work abroad. “What a disgrace. It’s a crime family.”
There is no evidence that either Biden has engaged in wrongdoing.
The article is the latest in a series of New York Times reports based on copies of two decades worth of Trump’s tax returns, which the president has refused to release for the entirety of his first term in office. The documents, which were provided to the Times by someone with legal access to them, include details that Trump paid just $750 in personal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017 and none at all in 10 of the 15 years before that.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Parents Of Color Speak Out After Sen. Kamala Harris’s Name Is Mocked

HuffPost spoke to several Americans about their journeys with their own names and how it influenced how they named their @ @ @ @ @ the importance of upholding traditions .
Others talked about the weight of their names and @ @ @ @ @ how likely someone was to be profiled at an airport or overlooked for a job @ @ @ @ @ moment when they faced their own Perdue , when they were dismissed or taunted because @ @ @ @

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After Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia butchered and mocked Sen. Kamala Harris’ name at one of President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies last week, people of color recoiled in unpleasant familiarity.
“Ka-MA-la, KA-ma-la, Kamala-mala-mala. I don’t know, whatever,” Perdue said of the Democratic vice presidential nominee at Friday evening’s rally in Macon, Georgia, drawing laughs from the crowd.
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Democrats, including Harris’ spokesperson, responded to Perdue’s remarks as “incredibly racist,” noting that Perdue had worked with Harris for more than three years in the Senate. Perdue’s spokesperson John Burke tweeted that the senator “simply mispronounced” Harris’ name and “didn’t mean anything by it.”
The incident sparked an online movement, which included Democratic lawmakers and celebrities, sharing the origins and meaning behind their names with the #MyNameIs hashtag.
For parents, in particular, many shared the tug of war they experienced when it came to naming their children ― on the one hand, wanting to honor their racial and ethnic background and, on the other, facing the worry that their children would be mocked like Harris if their names were deemed difficult to pronounce, even in the slightest way.
“Monolingualism, in general in the United States, is taken as a given, and anything that’s outside of that is deemed ‘ethnic.’ This really shows how myopic this awareness is in the U.S.,” said Mariam Durrani, an assistant professor of anthropology at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
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Durrani, who gave birth to her daughter in 2009, said she was aware of how her Muslim daughter with Pakistani roots would be perceived in the U.S., so it was important for her to find a name that was both meaningful and easy to pronounce. She settled on Nadine Noor, a harmonious alliteration that translates to hope and light, respectively.
HuffPost spoke to several Americans about their journeys with their own names and how it influenced how they named their children. Some spoke about the importance of upholding traditions. Others talked about the weight of their names and its ties to slavery or how likely someone was to be profiled at an airport or overlooked for a job. Nearly everyone recalled a moment when they faced their own Perdue, when they were dismissed or taunted because of their names.
These interviews were condensed and edited for clarity.
Dieu Tran, 35, Washington, D.C., Consultant
Daughter: Lê Valkyrie, 2
When Tran was picking out names for her baby, she would write down options on a sheet of paper and pass it to her husband, a white American, to pronounce. It was her way of gauging how her child’s name would be said by non-Vietnamese people.
“It was really important to me that the baby would have a Vietnamese name. But I understand that Vietnamese is such a tonal language, like the inflection up and down, and it would be really difficult for a Western tongue to pronounce,” Tran told HuffPost.
Accents are used to denote six distinctive tones in the Vietnamese language, which often gets lost when written in English ― like Tran’s name, which she has since adapted without the accents. Still, Tran wanted to make sure her child represented her Vietnamese side in some way. The parents settled on a Vietnamese first name, Lê, (pronounced LAY) and a Nordic middle name, Valkyrie.
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Naming your child “is very personal and very powerful because it is who you are. And I had my share of horrible names stories too after moving here,” she said, adding that she felt triggered by Perdue’s mocking of Harris’ name and doesn’t believe that he just misspoke.
Dieu Tran with her husband and 2 year-old daughter, Lé Valkyrie. Photo provided by Dieu Tran
Denny Vrandečić, 42, California, Technology
Daughter: Leyla, 6
Neither Vrandečić nor his wife uses their real name. It wasn’t much of a choice. Vrandečić, who is Croatian and was born and raised in Germany, was born Zdenko, and his wife, who is from Uzbekistan and goes by Kamara, was born Qamarniso. After they moved to the U.S., they found it nearly impossible to navigate their lives with real names. So their nicknames stuck.
When they had their daughter in 2014, they didn’t want her to go through what they went through and were forced to adopt a nickname.
“Who knows where Leyla will be [when she grows up]. We didn’t want a name that only works in the U.S., that only works in Germany or that only works in Uzbekistan. We wanted something that would work in all of those cultures and is pronounced the same in all those different languages,” said Vrandečić.
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Umaima Jafri, 37, Ohio, Mom
Daughters: Hafsah, 13, And Sumayyah, 9
Sons: Sauleh, 11, And Shuayb, 7
Umaima Jafri remembers when her husband wrote about 50 names on the whiteboard in the delivery room and asked each nurse to vote on the names. Jafri vehemently was against it. She didn’t have the easiest name herself, and she was often taunted by other children calling her “yo mama.”
Jafri wanted to make sure her children had meaningful names that stemmed from the Islamic faith, even if it meant working with letters that didn’t exist in the English language. She said her sons had more trouble than her daughters, with most struggling to pronounce the h in Sauleh and the vowels in Shuayb (pronounced shoe-abe.)
Umaima Jafri, a 37-year-old mother, with her four children. Photo provided by Umaima Jafri
“It’s a tug of war that you have internally with yourself, like, should I just shorten it for somebody and make it easy on them, or should I actually teach everybody consciously, every single person you meet?” Jafri said. She said she still feels guilty that she sometimes gives a different name when she goes to Starbucks.
Still, she hopes she’s able to instill the confidence in her children ― and in herself ― to be proud of their names wherever they go.
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Manoucheka Williams, 42, Texas, Mom
Sons: Jaylen, 15, Kevin, 14, Jonathan, 11, And Cameron, 7
Manoucheka Williams never forgot the pauses teachers took before attempting to pronounce her name. It was a silence that causes her anxiety until this day. She remembers classmates turning around and staring at her. It was a routine that happened at the beginning of each school year.
“My name has always been one of anxiety for me. It was like I couldn’t sleep the night before the first day of school because I dreaded the teachers having to call my name,” Williams told HuffPost.
After she graduated from high school and from Florida State with a degree in mechanical engineering, the problem didn’t stop. A recruiter once told her that they skipped her résumé the first time around because the individual couldn’t figure out how to pronounce her name correctly.
“I always loved my name, but I just always felt like people used it to devalue me because some people wouldn’t even attempt it or if they said it wrong and I would correct them they wouldn’t even respond or try to make a correction,” she said.
Manoucheka Williams and her husband and sons. Photo provided by Manoucheka Williams
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As a young Black woman in engineering surrounded by older white men, she was constantly asked if she had a nickname or an abbreviation they could use instead.
“I wanted my kids to have normal American names. No crazy spellings. I wanted people to be able to see their name and, number one, not form any judgments or any stereotypes about them,” she said.
“We are going to be adding little Black boys who will grow up to be Black men in this country that we are living in, and we were never blind to the plight of the Black man in this country. So I felt like giving them a name that removes any kind of stigma was already giving them a step up,” she added.
Shireen Soliman, 50, New York, Educator And Artist
Daughter: Daleelah, 19
Son: Yaseen, 17
Despite the fact that Shireen Soliman gave careful thought to spelling her daughter’s name with two ee’s, people still pronounce it “Delilah.” But that’s not her name. Daleelah, which emphasizes the long “e” sound, translates to a guide in Arabic and that’s what she wanted her daughter to grow up to be: a leader and a guide.
A New York-based educator who meets and teaches a wide range of people, she always makes it a point to call students by their names the right way. She’s frustrated when others don’t give her or her kids the same courtesy.
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Shireen Soliman, a New York educator, with her two children. Photo provided by Shireen Soliman
“It’s like they’re adapting your name to what makes them more comfortable. So it’s a little bit of this small way that you move in the world is kind of an act of revolt or revolution or resistance to say, ‘No, this is my name.’” Soliman told HuffPost.
“It’s that colonial mindset or that imperialist mindset that says, ’You will adapt to my superior culture, my superior name, my superior language. You will be the one to adapt, rather than a mutual honor and respect,” she added.
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, 37, Pennsylvania, Author
Sons: Issa, 11, And Adam, 6
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow remembers when she was a grade-school teacher and some students mocked other students’ names or teachers forced nicknames onto students whose names they couldn’t pronounce.
“A child’s name is sacred in some ways. It’s precious to them, and it’s important for them, and so we should value them and make an effort as educators to say their names to learn them and to honor them,” Thompkins-Bigelow said.
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As a Black American, Thompkins-Bigelow recognizes that for many people, including members of her own family who were descendants of enslaved people, they were stripped of their names.
Which is why she published “Your Name Is a Song,” a children’s book dedicated to honoring African American names, Latino names, Middle Eastern names and other cultural names from people of color.
“When we diminish aspects of people’s culture or people’s identity, then we’re diminishing them,” said Thompkins-Bigelow. “We think those kinds of things are small, but they end up adding up and becoming huge things.
Yasmine Badaoui, 27, Michigan, Writer And Poet
Sons: Hasan Wolfgang, 6, And Mehdi Aristotle, 4
A few things stuck out during Yasmine Badaoui’s pregnancy. Like when she was pregnant with her first child and realized that her baby moved the most when they listened to Mozart. For her second child, she realized that she enjoyed reading a lot of philosophy, both Arab and non-Arab philosophers.
“I always knew my children would have Arabic names so they’ll always know where they come from regardless of people if they’re able to pronounce them or not,” Badaoui said.
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Yasmine Badaoui and her two sons, Hasan Wolfgang and Mehdi Aristotle. Photo provided by Yasmine Badaoui
Incorporating two of those themes, Badaoui named her first son Hasan Wolfgang and her second son Mehdi Aristotle. She says it couldn’t be more perfect.
Her sons have already come home and asked her why people don’t say their names the way she does, and Badaoui has tried to explain to them that even when people don’t get it right, their name is their own.
“Right now, they don’t see themselves as ‘other.’ It’s just unfortunate, and when they grow older, other people are going to make them feel like they’re not a part of this country. But they’re going to have the tools to be able to tell them otherwise,” she said.
Deanna Othman, 38, Illinois, Freelance Journalist And Teacher
Daughters: Sumaya, 16, And Asmaa, 15
Sons: Yousuf, 10, And Hamza, 4
When Deanna Othman was pregnant, she knew that no matter what she named her kids, people were going to give them a hard time as Palestinian Muslim Americans. It’s why she decided right away that she was going to name them whatever she wanted.
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“I believe that regardless of how easy it is for people to pronounce a name, if they see it as foreign, they still will not even make an effort to pronounce it,” Othman told HuffPost. She said her name is a case in point. Despite how it’s spelled, people still call her Diana or Dina.
Still, she said she was upset when she heard Harris’ name ridiculed without any consequence. Especially when a person’s name, with all its characteristics and challenges, with it being a source of inspiration and pride, is callously brushed off as a joke on a national platform.
Deanna Othman and her family during Eid in 2019. Photo provided by Deanna Othman
Yasmine Ederer, 34, North Carolina, Mom And Student
Sons: Majeed, 14, Rasheed, 11, And Justice, 5
There wasn’t too much Yasmine Ederer wanted in her children’s names. She wanted them to be influenced by the Islamic faith and she wanted them to be easy to say.
Ederer and her four siblings have rhyming names, and she started off doing the same with her first two sons. But when pregnant with her third son, she couldn’t find a rhyming name that she liked, let alone one in Arabic that would be easy for those who didn’t speak the language.
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Then it dawned on her that a Muslim-influenced name didn’t have to be in Arabic. After all, “justice” was a concept emphasized in the Islamic faith and understandable to English speakers as well.
“Everybody can easily understand what it is and how it’s spelled and what it means,” she said, making it all the more fitting for an American Muslim son. Still, she says some Arab Muslims try to translate his name into Arabic while non-Muslims expect her to have given a ‘foreign’ name to her sons.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-20--Officer Involved In Breonna Taylor Killing: ‘It’s Not A Race Thing’

Jonathan Mattingly , one of the Louisville , Kentucky , police officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in March , said in an interview that the killing was “ not a race thing.
” “ This is not relatable to a George Floyd .
This is nothing like it , ” Mattingly , who is white , told ABC News and the Louisville Courier Journal in a taped interview released Tuesday .
“ It ’ s not Ahmaud Arbery .
It ’ s nothing like it .
It ’ s not a race thing , like people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s not.
” “ This is a point where we were doing our job , we returned fire .
This is not us going hunting somebody down , this is not kneeling on a neck .
This is nothing like that , ” Mattingly added , referring to the murders of George Floyd , a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis , who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes in May ; and Ahmaud Arbery , a Black man who was pursued and shot dead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mattingly was one of three officers who executed a search warrant in the early hours of March 13 at the apartment of 26-year-old Taylor , a Black medical technician , who was asleep with her boyfriend .
The warrant was for a narcotics investigation not involving Taylor or her boyfriend .
The three officers , who were white , fired more than 20 shots , several of which hit Taylor , killing her .
Her boyfriend , who said he didn ’ t hear police announce their presence before breaking in , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the leg as the plainclothes officers entered the home .
Last month , protests erupted nationwide after none of the officers was charged with Taylor ’ s killing .
One of the cops , former Det .
Brett Hankison , was charged with “ wanton endangerment ” — notably , for shots fired into neighboring apartments , not in Taylor ’ s .
Hankison was fired in June after months of widespread protests .
Mattingly and officer Myles Cosgrove have been placed on administrative leave , are still employed by the force and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Mattingly emailed his fellow officers in the days before charges were announced , insisting that he and the other officers involved in Taylor ’ s killing “ did the legal , moral and ethical thing that night , ” and complaining that “ the good guys are demonized.
” In that email , he also tried to brush away racism , saying : “ police DO NOT CARE if you are black , white , Hispanic , Asian .
”

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Jonathan Mattingly, one of the Louisville, Kentucky, police officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in March, said in an interview that the killing was “not a race thing.”
“This is not relatable to a George Floyd. This is nothing like it,” Mattingly, who is white, told ABC News and the Louisville Courier Journal in a taped interview released Tuesday. “It’s not Ahmaud Arbery. It’s nothing like it. It’s not a race thing, like people try to make it to be. It’s not.”
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“This is a point where we were doing our job, we returned fire. This is not us going hunting somebody down, this is not kneeling on a neck. This is nothing like that,” Mattingly added, referring to the murders of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes in May; and Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was pursued and shot dead by white men in Georgia in February.
EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Mattingly, officer who carried out search warrant at Breonna Taylor’s apartment, speaks out exclusively to @ABC and @courierjournal, telling @michaelstrahan: “It’s not a race thing like people want to try to make it to be.” https://t.co/BFDU2V6yMI pic.twitter.com/SKvypZkICo — ABC News (@ABC) October 20, 2020
Mattingly was one of three officers who executed a search warrant in the early hours of March 13 at the apartment of 26-year-old Taylor, a Black medical technician, who was asleep with her boyfriend. The warrant was for a narcotics investigation not involving Taylor or her boyfriend.
The three officers, who were white, fired more than 20 shots, several of which hit Taylor, killing her. Her boyfriend, who said he didn’t hear police announce their presence before breaking in, is accused of shooting Mattingly once in the leg as the plainclothes officers entered the home.
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Last month, protests erupted nationwide after none of the officers was charged with Taylor’s killing. One of the cops, former Det. Brett Hankison, was charged with “wanton endangerment” — notably, for shots fired into neighboring apartments, not in Taylor’s.
Hankison was fired in June after months of widespread protests. Mattingly and officer Myles Cosgrove have been placed on administrative leave, are still employed by the force and are not facing charges.
In September, Mattingly emailed his fellow officers in the days before charges were announced, insisting that he and the other officers involved in Taylor’s killing “did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night,” and complaining that “the good guys are demonized.”
In that email, he also tried to brush away racism, saying: “police DO NOT CARE if you are black, white, Hispanic, Asian.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--‘The Debt Is Like A Mountain’: How Online Lenders Prey On Small Businesses

Larbie needed cash to pay for materials and workers .
So she turned to online lenders who promised quick , easy financing .
Most just asked her how much money she needed , without stating interest rates or time frames for paying off the loan .
One offered the cash she needed in exchange for a portion of her sales receipts .
The total cost would be $ 39,200 to borrow $ 28,000 .
She took the money , and soon the lender began deducting daily payments from her bank account .
She spent six months repaying the advance .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ’ ’ Larbie said .
“ It ’ s an obstacle you have to fight to get over.
” The Responsible Business Lending Coalition , which includes for-profit online lenders such as LendingClub and Funding Circle , is pressing state and federal legislators to pass laws requiring lenders to disclose the price and terms of their loans in ways any business owner can understand .
It says lenders are taking advantage of small businesses by obscuring the details of their loans and irresponsibly lending to borrowers who may not be able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s demands have special urgency now .
The survey also showed that Black- and Hispanic-owned firms were more likely to apply through online lenders than white-owned firms .
Systemic racism and the lack of access to traditional lending from banks and credit unions “ makes our community more vulnerable to other forms of financing , ’ ’ said Anthony Gaddy , president and CEO of the UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce , which is a member of the Responsible Business Lending Coalition .
He decries online lenders for preying on minority-owned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Larbie and her husband make financial decisions for Pearlorm Construction on their own .
She turned to online lenders after Bank of America and other banks rejected her application because her business was then less than two years old .
( Banks often require that businesses have at least two years of operating history to qualify for a loan . )
For instance , the “ annual ” aspect of an “ annual percentage rate ” makes the financing of shorter-term lending products look deceptively high because the APR is what you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a year , not a few weeks or months , said Scott Talbott , senior vice president of governmental affairs for the Electronic Transactions Association , a trade group that lobbies on behalf of hundreds of fintech and credit card companies .
Talbott is concerned about any law requiring APR disclosure for business lenders .
Instead , he favors a “ total cost of capital ” figure that tells borrowers exactly what they ’ ll pay in principal and any fees for financing .
( Like what Larbie got . )
HuffPost ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ focuses on the impact of business on society and the environment and is funded by Porticus .
It is part of the “ This New World ” series .
All content is editorially independent , with no influence or input from Porticus .
If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series , send an email to thisnewworld @ huffpost.com .

. Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/HuffPost; Photo: Getty
Natasha Larbie, who owns a construction firm with her husband in Katy, Texas, a Houston suburb, ran into the kind of cash flow problem that many small businesses face. Pearlorm Construction signed several contracts last year for new jobs but wouldn’t get paid until those jobs were done, perhaps months later.
Larbie needed cash to pay for materials and workers. So she turned to online lenders who promised quick, easy financing. Most just asked her how much money she needed, without stating interest rates or time frames for paying off the loan. One offered the cash she needed in exchange for a portion of her sales receipts. The total cost would be $39,200 to borrow $28,000. She took the money, and soon the lender began deducting daily payments from her bank account. She spent six months repaying the advance. “The debt is like a mountain,’’ Larbie said. “It’s an obstacle you have to fight to get over.”
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While loans for consumers face strict rules regarding transparent terms and fees, business financing is a virtual Wild West. Online lenders have proliferated in recent years, some of them advertising fast money and ensnaring small businesses in costly loans they don’t understand. There’s enough frustration with online lending that even some online lenders say it’s time to rein it in.
An unusual coalition of business lenders and small-business advocates has been pushing to change the industry.
The Responsible Business Lending Coalition, which includes for-profit online lenders such as LendingClub and Funding Circle, is pressing state and federal legislators to pass laws requiring lenders to disclose the price and terms of their loans in ways any business owner can understand. It says lenders are taking advantage of small businesses by obscuring the details of their loans and irresponsibly lending to borrowers who may not be able to pay them back. The coalition’s demands have special urgency now.
The coronavirus pandemic has threatened the existence of millions of small businesses. More than 1 in 5 business owners went under from February to April. That problem was especially acute for Black- and Latinx-owned businesses, with Black-owned businesses failing at more than double the rate of white-owned businesses.
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Many small firms lack the financial resources and access to credit that big companies enjoy. And right now, banks are making it harder for almost anyone to get a loan. As the pandemic-hobbled economy grinds on and banks cut access to credit, the prospects for small businesses get worse, even though they account for nearly half of all private sector jobs.
“For-profit companies are pushing for more regulation because it is good for profits.” - Armen Meyer, vice president of regulatory strategy at LendingClub
“It’s clearer than ever that if we don’t meet the responsible capital needs of our businesses, the businesses won’t make it and the employees won’t make it,” said Gwendy Brown, vice president of research and policy at the Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit lender that provides low-cost capital to small businesses and a founding member of the Responsible Business Lending Coalition.
The growth of unscrupulous online lending filled a credit void left after the 2008 financial crisis. In the six years following the crisis, bank loans to small businesses dropped 20%, according to a 2014 working paper released by Harvard Business School.
As lending from banks fell, alternative lenders and financial technology (“fintech”) companies with sophisticated algorithms sprung up online. Their online applications were easier to submit and they provided money fast, some of them promising loans in less than an hour. The growth was so pronounced that by 2018, one-third of small businesses had applied for a loan from an online lender.
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Some fintech companies use automation to streamline the lending process and lower their costs. Other online lenders simply operate as brokers that shop borrowers around to different lenders. But the Opportunity Fund warned in a 2016 report that most alternative lenders “are peddling short-term and high-cost products that subject borrowers to opaque and often draconian terms, steep repayment obligations, and astonishingly high annual interest rates.”
Although online lenders offer a variety of loans to borrowers with good and bad credit, they tend to market themselves toward those with lower credit scores. In fact, they’re nearly as likely to approve loans for applicants with lower credit scores as those with high scores, a 2019 Federal Reserve survey found.
The survey also showed that Black- and Hispanic-owned firms were more likely to apply through online lenders than white-owned firms. Systemic racism and the lack of access to traditional lending from banks and credit unions “makes our community more vulnerable to other forms of financing,’’ said Anthony Gaddy, president and CEO of the UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce, which is a member of the Responsible Business Lending Coalition. He decries online lenders for preying on minority-owned businesses.
Financial tech companies have made the loan approval process fast and easy, and they often approve financing when banks won't. courtneyk via Getty Images
The idea for the Responsible Business Lending Coalition started percolating in 2014. LendingClub was losing business to unscrupulous competitors offering more expensive products to confused borrowers who didn’t understand the terms of their loans, according to the company’s director of public policy and regulatory, Louis Caditz-Peck. He was growing increasingly concerned about the issue of predatory lending.
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Caditz-Peck and Eric Weaver, then head of the Opportunity Fund, drew up a document they called the Small Business Borrowers Bill of Rights. It stated that borrowers have the right to transparent pricing and terms and to responsible underwriting — meaning lenders should assess the ability of a borrower to repay the loan, not just hand them cash and start deducting large payments from their bank accounts without regard to the impact on their businesses.
The next year, the two launched the coalition. Its members now include 65 lending companies that promise to adhere to the bill of rights, as well as more than 35 business groups and advocates pledging support for the document. The coalition is also lobbying for laws that would require other companies to follow similar guidelines.
“For-profit companies are pushing for more regulation because it is good for profits,’’ said Armen Meyer, vice president of regulatory strategy at LendingClub. “The more we are transparent with [customers], the better choices they can make, and the better products win.”
“It’s difficult to win on lower prices,” said Caditz-Peck, “if the competition doesn’t transparently disclose their price.”
One of the biggest bones the coalition has to pick with the lending industry is the lack of disclosure of a loan’s annual percentage rate (APR) ― a calculation of all the fees and interest to be paid, which helps borrowers understand the full cost of a loan and compare the costs of different financing products.
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The federal Truth in Lending Act of 1968 requires lenders to report APRs for consumer loans but not for business loans, under the assumption that business borrowers are more sophisticated than consumers.
However, that is often not the case. “We know the vast majority of small businesses are quite small,’’ said Joyce Klein, director of the Business Ownership Initiative at the nonprofit Aspen Institute, a founding member of the coalition. “Many of them do not have in-house CFOs. They have limited capacity to purchase outside expertise.”
Like so many small-business owners, Larbie and her husband make financial decisions for Pearlorm Construction on their own. She turned to online lenders after Bank of America and other banks rejected her application because her business was then less than two years old. (Banks often require that businesses have at least two years of operating history to qualify for a loan.)
She got a type of loan often called a merchant cash advance, in which the borrower sells a portion of future sales for a set dollar amount, paid off as a percentage of sales. The payments are deducted sometimes daily or weekly from the borrower’s bank account, so that the lender gets paid before anyone else.
“If you really need the money, you feel like you don’t have any choice.” - Natasha Larbie, co-owner of Pearlorm Construction
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Since those loans don’t have a set time frame and may last for only a few months, the lenders typically don’t report an APR. That makes it hard for the borrower to compare these loans against other options.
Depending on the speed of repayment, the effective APR on a merchant cash advance may exceed 80% or even rise to the triple digits. When the Opportunity Fund calculated APRs for online alternative loans like these in 2016, the average was 94%. The highest reached 358%. (Traditional bank loans and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration typically have APRs under 15%.) The average monthly loan payments were nearly double the profits available to the owner of the business.
Larbie’s agreement for a cash advance of $28,000 allowed her lender to take 15% of her monthly sales from her bank account, up to $39,200.
“If you really need the money, you feel like you don’t have any choice,” she said.
Some online lenders, such as LendingClub, disclose APRs and other terms online, often touting their lowest possible rate upfront and including the full range of APRs in a footnote. Some lenders won’t even disclose that.
This summer, the coalition and other lenders successfully pushed for the passage of a New York state law that requires online lenders to clearly disclose the cost of small-business loans (it is still waiting for the governor’s signature). The coalition estimated that more complete financing disclosures, including APRs, will save businesses in the state $369 million to $1.78 billion annually.
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The win follows a similar law written by California state Sen. Steve Glazer (D), who was inspired by the coalition’s bill of rights. His measure passed the California legislature in 2018, despite opposition from some alternative lenders and merchant cash advance companies. It hasn’t been implemented yet.
These state laws can improve transparency and reduce deceptive advertising, said Michael Barr, director of the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law and Policy, who advised the coalition in its early days.
But they don’t address everything the coalition wanted, including requiring online lenders to underwrite borrowers to ensure their loans can be paid back without destroying the borrower’s business.
Many in the industry, including PayPal — which is not a member of the Coalition — argue in public documents that borrowers frequently don’t understand APRs and how to calculate them, so they are not useful. (PayPal did not respond to a request for comment.)
For instance, the “annual” aspect of an “annual percentage rate” makes the financing of shorter-term lending products look deceptively high because the APR is what you’d pay if the credit lasted a year, not a few weeks or months, said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of governmental affairs for the Electronic Transactions Association, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of hundreds of fintech and credit card companies. Talbott is concerned about any law requiring APR disclosure for business lenders. Instead, he favors a “total cost of capital” figure that tells borrowers exactly what they’ll pay in principal and any fees for financing. (Like what Larbie got.)
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Still, the Responsible Business Lending Coalition is pushing a bill in the U.S. House that would force business lenders nationally to disclose APRs, fees and terms for business loans. It’s sponsored by Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee.
“I’m hopeful this is the beginning of a process that will lead to federal legislation that looks out for the interest of small businesses,’’ Barr said. “[The coalition] has made progress. I do think there’s a lot more work to do.”
Greater transparency and standardized reporting practices might have helped Larbie understand exactly what she was getting into. If her lender had been required to give her an APR, she might have figured out it was cheaper to borrow on a credit card. Months after paying off the loan she took out last year and another from 2018, Larbie still gets text messages and phone calls, sometimes daily, from brokers and lenders she’s never heard of asking her if she needs money.
She regrets her decision to take out a merchant cash advance, which she said was confusing and expensive. “But if you’re desperate,” she said, “there are repercussions.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified Michael Barr.
HuffPost’s “Work In Progress” series focuses on the impact of business on society and the environment and is funded by Porticus. It is part of the “This New World” series. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from Porticus. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Dolly Parton Reduces Stephen Colbert To Tears With Haunting A Cappella Performance

Stephen Colbert struggled to keep it together as country music legend Dolly Parton broke into song during Tuesday night ’ s “ Late Show.
” Parton delivered an a cappella rendition of “ Bury Me Beneath The Willow ” that had Colbert reaching for the tissues .
“ Are you crying ?
” she asked in the midst of the song , before delivering another verse , then stopping to let Colbert compose himself .
“ I ’ d better hush before you cry yourself to death and can ’ t finish your show.
” Thrown off by his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Like a lot of Americans , I ’ m under a lot of stress right now , Dolly , ” Colbert said through both the laughs and the tears .
“ You got under my tripwire right there , I ’ ll tell you right there , that was pretty beautiful.
” After he gathered his wits , Colbert said : “ Isn ’ t it funny that sometimes there ’ s nothing happier than crying ?
” “ It cleanses your soul , ” Parton said .
“ I think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that ’ s what tears are for.
” The moment happens about five and a half minutes into the interview : Parton , 74 , has been busier than ever despite the pandemic .
She ’ s released a new album of Christmas tunes called “ A Holly Dolly Christmas , ” featuring both standards as well as tracks penned by Parton .
The Christmas movie “ Dolly Parton ’ s Christmas on the Square , ” will debut on Netflix next month .
The streaming video service is also currently featuring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Here I Am.
” To cap it all off , Parton will publish the book “ Dolly Parton , Songteller : My Life in Lyrics , ” which highlights 175 of the more than 3,000 songs she ’ s written , in November .
Parton gave Colbert a preview in the clip above and discussed her favorite songs below :

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Stephen Colbert struggled to keep it together as country music legend Dolly Parton broke into song during the “Late Show.”
Parton delivered an a cappella rendition of “Bury Me Beneath The Willow” that had Colbert reaching for the tissues.
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“Are you crying?” she asked in the midst of the song, before delivering another verse, then stopping to let Colbert compose himself. “I’d better hush before you cry yourself to death and can’t finish your show.”
Thrown off by his own reaction, Colbert laughed as he cried.
“Like a lot of Americans, I’m under a lot of stress right now, Dolly,” Colbert said through both the laughs and the tears. “You got under my tripwire right there, I’ll tell you right there, that was pretty beautiful.”
After he gathered his wits, Colbert said: “Isn’t it funny that sometimes there’s nothing happier than crying?”
“It cleanses your soul,” Parton said. “I think water is good to wash it out, that’s what tears are for.”
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The moment happens about five and a half minutes into the interview:
Parton, 74, has been busier than ever despite the pandemic. She’s released a new album of Christmas tunes called “A Holly Dolly Christmas,” featuring both standards as well as tracks penned by Parton. The Christmas movie “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square,” will debut on Netflix next month. The streaming video service is also currently featuring the documentary, “Dolly Parton: Here I Am.”
To cap it all off, Parton will publish the book “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics,” which highlights 175 of the more than 3,000 songs she’s written, in November. Parton gave Colbert a preview in the clip above and discussed her favorite songs below:


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Stephen Colbert Points Out The Huge Flaw In Trump’s New Campaign Slogan

President Donald Trump tried to update his campaign slogan at a rally this week and it didn ’ t exactly @ @ @ @ @ “ Late Show ” host Stephen Colbert pointed out , the new spin on his @ @ @ @ @ admission of failure .
Trump claimed his administration built the “ greatest ” economy and @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Y ’ know it ’ s ‘ make America great again , ’ @ @ @ @ @ his slogan , then updating it : “ I say ‘ make America great again @ @ @ @ @ again.
’ ” Colbert noted the flaw with the phrase .
“ You know that @ @ @ @ @ add is really just admitting that you screwed up something so bad you had to @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ That ’ s not that comforting.
” See more of Colbert ’ @ @ @ @

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President Donald Trump tried to update his campaign slogan at a rally this week and it didn’t exactly go very well. As “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert pointed out, the new spin on his famous phrase is basically an admission of failure.
Trump claimed his administration built the “greatest” economy and will now do so again.
“Y’know it’s ‘make America great again,’” Trump said, quoting his slogan, then updating it: “I say ‘make America great again, again, again, again.’”
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Colbert noted the flaw with the phrase.
“You know that every ‘again’ you add is really just admitting that you screwed up something so bad you had to fix it,” Colbert said. “That’s not that comforting.”
See more of Colbert’s monologue below:


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Epsilon Strengthens Into A Hurricane As It Approaches Bermuda

MIAMI ( AP ) — Epsilon has strengthened into a hurricane , the 10th of the Atlantic season , as @ @ @ @ @ .
Epsilon is expected to make its closest approach to the island on Thursday night @ @ @ @ @ risk of a direct impact , according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center .
A @ @ @ @ @ effect for Bermuda and residents have been urged to closely monitor the storm .
The @ @ @ @ @ had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph late Tuesday .
The storm was located about @ @ @ @ @ as of 11 p.m. EDT and it was moving northwest at 13 mph .
This @ @ @ @ @ has had so many storms that the Hurricane Center has turned to the Greek alphabet @ @ @ @ @ out of official names .
Epsilon also represents a record for the earliest 26th named @ @ @ @ @ storm on Nov. 22 in 2005 , according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil @ @

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MIAMI (AP) — Epsilon has strengthened into a hurricane, the 10th of the Atlantic season, as it approaches Bermuda on Thursday.
Epsilon is expected to make its closest approach to the island on Thursday night, and there is a risk of a direct impact, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Bermuda and residents have been urged to closely monitor the storm.
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11 PM AST Tuesday, October 20 Key Messages for Hurricane #Epsilon. Tropical storm conditions are possible on Bermuda beginning Thursday. https://t.co/22MmuRtUyj pic.twitter.com/owzBtcSrjr — National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 21, 2020
The Miami-based hurricane center said Epsilon had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph late Tuesday. The storm was located about 545 miles east-southeast of Bermuda as of 11 p.m. EDT and it was moving northwest at 13 mph.
This year’s hurricane season has had so many storms that the Hurricane Center has turned to the Greek alphabet for storm names after running out of official names.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Trevor Noah Performs Trump's Dance Moves And It's A Sight To Behold

Trevor Noah busted a move Donald Trump-style to celebrate the possibility that the president might leave the country .
At the crowded campaign rallies Trump ’ s been holding around the country , he ’ s taken to performing a little dance that has been lighting up social media .
“ Unlike the country he ’ s supposed to be running , Trump is having a blast right now .
He ’ s got his job , he ’ s got his health and he gets to throw parties with his friends .
Hell , he ’ s even been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whatever this was supposed to be , ” Noah said on “ The Daily Show ” Tuesday night .
“ This is all of the classic bad dance moves back to back , ” he added .
Noah also couldn ’ t help but break out the moves himself when he revealed that Trump threatened to leave the country if he loses the election .
Watch his response at the end of “ The Daily Show ” segment below : Trump isn ’ t wrong about people being tired of this pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ realize is , unlike the rest of us , he can actually do something about it .
pic.twitter.com/8zX6bVmOgN — The Daily Show ( @ TheDailyShow ) October 21 , 2020

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Trevor Noah busted a move Donald Trump-style to celebrate the possibility that the president might leave the country.
At the crowded campaign rallies Trump’s been holding around the country, he’s taken to performing a little dance that has been lighting up social media.
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“Unlike the country he’s supposed to be running, Trump is having a blast right now. He’s got his job, he’s got his health and he gets to throw parties with his friends. Hell, he’s even been breaking out some dance moves. Or whatever this was supposed to be,” Noah said on “The Daily Show” Tuesday night.
“This is all of the classic bad dance moves back to back,” he added.
Noah also couldn’t help but break out the moves himself when he revealed that Trump threatened to leave the country if he loses the election.
Watch his response at the end of “The Daily Show” segment below:
Trump isn’t wrong about people being tired of this pandemic, but what he doesn't seem to realize is, unlike the rest of us, he can actually do something about it. pic.twitter.com/8zX6bVmOgN — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 21, 2020


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--Jimmy Kimmel Roasts New Presidential Debate Rule: Like 'Zoom Kindergarten'

Jimmy Kimmel is not optimistic about the second presidential debate .
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates on Monday announced @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden would each be muted while the other is @ @ @ @ @ the final televised debate on Thursday .
The move was made after a roundly criticized @ @ @ @ @ by constant interruptions , mostly from Trump .
Trump has complained the rule change is @ @ @ @ @ Biden and Trump will be muted during the two-minute answer period , so this one @ @ @ @ @ another senior citizen ‘ Bumfights ’ video , ” Kimmel said Tuesday on “ Jimmy @ @ @ @ @ the mics ― it ’ s the same strategy my daughter ’ s teacher uses @ @ @ @ @ he added .
“ Would a mute button even work on Donald Trump ?
I @ @ @ @ @ off his microphone he ’ ll just pull another one out of his hair or @ @ @ @ @ on “ Jimmy Kimmel Live ” below .

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Jimmy Kimmel is not optimistic about the second presidential debate.
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates on Monday announced that the microphones of President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden would each be muted while the other is delivering responses to questions in the final televised debate on Thursday. The move was made after a roundly criticized, off-the-rails first debate marked by constant interruptions, mostly from Trump.
Trump has complained the rule change is “very unfair.”
“Biden and Trump will be muted during the two-minute answer period, so this one doesn’t turn into another senior citizen ‘Bumfights’ video,” Kimmel said Tuesday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
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“Muting the mics ― it’s the same strategy my daughter’s teacher uses for Zoom kindergarten,” he added. “Would a mute button even work on Donald Trump? I feel like if you turn off his microphone he’ll just pull another one out of his hair or something.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-20--Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Plays 'Among Us’ On Twitch, Breaks The Internet

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( D-N.Y. ) was the talk of the Internet on Tuesday night as she live-streamed popular online game Among Us on Twitch , playing alongside Twitch and YouTube personalities like Pokimane , Jack Septic Eye and Hasanabi .
She even got fellow Democratic congresswoman and member of “ The Squad ” Ilhan Omar of Minnesota in on the fun .
Ocasio-Cortez , who took to Twitch as a way to encourage young Americans to vote in the upcoming election , had asked her Twitter followers on Monday if anyone was keen to play Among Us with her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She said she ’ d never played the multiplayer game before but that it looked like “ a lot of fun.
” Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote ?
( I ’ ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun ) — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( @ AOC ) October 19 , 2020 Omar , as well as several gaming personalities , promptly expressed their interest — and just before 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday , they joined Ocasio-Cortez on Twitch to play @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the congresswoman ’ s livestream quickly became the night ’ s most-watched stream on Twitch with more than 400,000 viewers .
Social media was abuzz with comments by excited youngsters ( and their parents ) as they watched and marveled at Ocasio-Cortez ’ s gaming prowess ― and her ability to connect with young people .
Rep. Rashida Tlaib ( D-Mich. ) , another Squad member , said her sons enjoyed watching her colleagues duke it out online .
“ They think this is the coolest thing ever & are trying to convince @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she wrote .
My two boys watching @ AOC & @ IlhanMN on Twitch playing Among Us .
They think this is the coolest thing ever & are trying to convince me to get with the program .
https : //t.co/4MssdBltWg pic.twitter.com/JOgBiur6P3 — Rashida Tlaib ( @ RashidaTlaib ) October 21 , 2020 It is 11pm , I have a massive computational biology assignment due , and yet here I am , watching AOC and Ilhan Omar play Among Us .
I have no regrets pic.twitter.com/mHdFs3ZIMX — Aidan Place ( @ AidanJPlace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plays Among Us on Twitch to 400k viewers , I 'm thinking back to the tech hearing where a member of Congress did n't understand how spam filters worked .
Hot take , I know , but we should elect more young people !
— Amanda Litman ( @ amandalitman ) October 21 , 2020 One of my kids just ran down the stairs , yelling , `` AOC is playing Among Us on Twitch , to get out the vote !
! ''
She is so smart about this stuff , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emilynussbaum ) October 21 , 2020 My daughter and a bunch of her friends are watching @ AOC play a popular game on @ Twitch .
My daughter : `` She ’ s starting her presidential campaign already .
Millennial + GenZ vote secured ! ''
😂 pic.twitter.com/RI98Hyttft — Edan Clay 🇺🇸 ( @ EdanClay ) October 21 , 2020 Seeing AOC so comfortable on stream and updating her games is melting my brain .
After years of watching senators and house reps barely comprehend the internet , I feel like I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Young ( @ shindags ) October 21 , 2020

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was the talk of the Internet on Tuesday night as she live-streamed popular online game Among Us on Twitch, playing alongside Twitch and YouTube personalities like Pokimane, Jack Septic Eye and Hasanabi.
She even got fellow Democratic congresswoman and member of “The Squad” Ilhan Omar of Minnesota in on the fun.
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Ocasio-Cortez, who took to Twitch as a way to encourage young Americans to vote in the upcoming election, had asked her Twitter followers on Monday if anyone was keen to play Among Us with her “to get out the vote.”
She said she’d never played the multiplayer game before but that it looked like “a lot of fun.”
Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote? (I’ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun) — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 19, 2020
Omar, as well as several gaming personalities, promptly expressed their interest — and just before 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday, they joined Ocasio-Cortez on Twitch to play the game.
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As Newsweek noted, the congresswoman’s livestream quickly became the night’s most-watched stream on Twitch with more than 400,000 viewers.
Social media was abuzz with comments by excited youngsters (and their parents) as they watched and marveled at Ocasio-Cortez’s gaming prowess ― and her ability to connect with young people.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), another Squad member, said her sons enjoyed watching her colleagues duke it out online.
“They think this is the coolest thing ever & are trying to convince me to get with the program,” she wrote.
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My two boys watching @AOC & @IlhanMN on Twitch playing Among Us. They think this is the coolest thing ever & are trying to convince me to get with the program. https://t.co/4MssdBltWg pic.twitter.com/JOgBiur6P3 — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) October 21, 2020
Things I want in a representative:
1. Ability to understand my age group and our interests.
2. Aversion to harming others. @AOC @IlhanMN #amongus #vote pic.twitter.com/LNRfEFIi2u — Alexis Sabol, MSN, RN (@alexissabol) October 21, 2020
It is 11pm, I have a massive computational biology assignment due, and yet here I am, watching AOC and Ilhan Omar play Among Us. I have no regrets pic.twitter.com/mHdFs3ZIMX — Aidan Place (@AidanJPlace) October 21, 2020
watching @AOC play among us made my day. pic.twitter.com/n7mCb8VJsx — connor | AG6 is coming (@sweetenerconnor) October 21, 2020
As AOC plays Among Us on Twitch to 400k viewers, I'm thinking back to the tech hearing where a member of Congress didn't understand how spam filters worked.
Hot take, I know, but we should elect more young people! — Amanda Litman (@amandalitman) October 21, 2020
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Watching @AOC play Among Us is so wholesome 💙 pic.twitter.com/Lq6HTgiLC8 — Sarah Taylor (@sarahtaylor551) October 21, 2020
One of my kids just ran down the stairs, yelling, "AOC is playing Among Us on Twitch, to get out the vote!!" She is so smart about this stuff, I love it. — Gremliny Nussboo (@emilynussbaum) October 21, 2020
My daughter and a bunch of her friends are watching @AOC play a popular game on @Twitch.
My daughter: "She’s starting her presidential campaign already. Millennial + GenZ vote secured!" 😂 pic.twitter.com/RI98Hyttft — Edan Clay 🇺🇸 (@EdanClay) October 21, 2020
Watching AOC play Among Us with Poki and Toast gives me life pic.twitter.com/AXhMkHlcsP — JOSIAH (@neojosiah) October 21, 2020
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@AOC is making my thirteen year old so happy rn! Thank @AOC
Go vote, people! pic.twitter.com/veUimHEwSN — Margarida M Barroso (@barrosolab) October 21, 2020


thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--State Attorneys General Blast DOJ's Purdue Pharma Settlement: A 'Mirage Of Justice'

“ This settlement provides a mere mirage of justice for the victims of Purdue ’ s callous misconduct , ” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong ( D ) said in a statement .
“ The federal government had the power here to put the Sacklers in jail , and they didn ’ t .
Instead , they took fines and penalties that [ Purdue ] likely will never fully pay.
” The settlement also requires Purdue to become a public benefit company that will be owned by a trust and “ function entirely in the public interest , ” according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department .
Any profits Purdue yields by selling OxyContin and other drugs must be directed toward “ state and local opioid abatement programs , ” the DOJ said .
Attorneys representing states , families , Native American tribes and other entities suing Purdue say using proceeds from OxyContin sales to curb addiction to that very drug is bizarre and inappropriate , and that Purdue should instead be sold to a private buyer .
“ The Sacklers ’ proposal to cloak the OxyContin business in public ownership compromises the proper roles of the private @ @ @ @ @ @ @ general wrote in their letter .
“ Thousands of Americans have died , and it is a top priority of every State to enforce the law against the perpetrators whose misconduct caused the opioid crisis .
The last business our States should protect with special public status is this opioid company.
” ‘ Allows Billionaires To Keep Their Billions ’ The settlement also leaves the Sacklers ’ vast wealth largely untouched , as they have reportedly moved as much as $ 13 billion out of the company in recent years and into offshore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fallout from thousands of lawsuits .
The settlement also requires Purdue to make a direct payment to the government of $ 225 million as part of the $ 2 billion criminal forfeiture .
The Justice Department said it ’ s willing to give Purdue credit for the remaining $ 1.775 billion based on the money it is expected to funnel to state and local governments as a public interest company .
“ Purdue Pharma is as responsible for creating this crisis as any company and the Sacklers as any family , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force the Sacklers to take meaningful responsibility for their actions .
A real agreement to resolve these cases would force the Sacklers to pay more and would provide funding to help pay for the treatment and programs people need to get well.
” Though the DOJ stated in its announcement that the Sacklers have not been released from any potential criminal liability , several state attorneys general expressed skepticism that the family would ever be held accountable .
“ While our country continues to recover from the pain and destruction left by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempted to evade responsibility and lowball the millions of victims of the opioid crisis , ” New York Attorney General Letitia James ( D ) said in a statement .
“ Today ’ s deal doesn ’ t account for the hundreds of thousands of deaths or millions of addictions caused by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family .
Instead , it allows billionaires to keep their billions without any accounting for how much they really made.
” Some experts said Wednesday ’ s announcement was similar to Purdue ’ s 2007 settlement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company of deceiving doctors about OxyContin ’ s addiction risks .
The company ended up only paying a modest fine of $ 600 million while Purdue executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanors .
The Trump administration has been pushing to finalize a deal with Purdue ahead of the Nov. 3 election , hoping voters see the settlement as a win against Big Pharma , multiple lawyers familiar with the matter told The New Yorker earlier this year .
“ The timing of this agreement mere weeks before the election raises serious questions about whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ best interest of the American public , ” Tong said in his statement .

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The Department of Justice announced a multi-billion-dollar settlement with Purdue Pharma on Wednesday, following a years-long investigation into the drug manufacturer accused of sparking the nationwide opioid crisis.
But several state attorneys general say federal prosecutors let the Sacklers, the family who owns Purdue Pharma and made billions of dollars exploiting opioid dependence, off the hook and failed to deliver justice.
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“This settlement provides a mere mirage of justice for the victims of Purdue’s callous misconduct,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) said in a statement. “The federal government had the power here to put the Sacklers in jail, and they didn’t. Instead, they took fines and penalties that [Purdue] likely will never fully pay.”
As part of the $8.3 billion settlement, Purdue pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and violating federal anti-kickback laws by paying doctors to write more prescriptions for OxyContin, a painkiller Purdue manufactures.
The settlement also requires Purdue to become a public benefit company that will be owned by a trust and “function entirely in the public interest,” according to a statement issued by the Justice Department. Any profits Purdue yields by selling OxyContin and other drugs must be directed toward “state and local opioid abatement programs,” the DOJ said.
Attorneys representing states, families, Native American tribes and other entities suing Purdue say using proceeds from OxyContin sales to curb addiction to that very drug is bizarre and inappropriate, and that Purdue should instead be sold to a private buyer.
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In a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General William Barr last week, a group of 25 state attorneys general spoke out against a potential settlement with Purdue, specifically its then-rumored transformation into a public benefit company.
“The Sacklers’ proposal to cloak the OxyContin business in public ownership compromises the proper roles of the private sector and government,” the attorneys general wrote in their letter. “Thousands of Americans have died, and it is a top priority of every State to enforce the law against the perpetrators whose misconduct caused the opioid crisis. The last business our States should protect with special public status is this opioid company.”
‘Allows Billionaires To Keep Their Billions’
The settlement also leaves the Sacklers’ vast wealth largely untouched, as they have reportedly moved as much as $13 billion out of the company in recent years and into offshore bank accounts in anticipation of the financial fallout from thousands of lawsuits.
And that $8 billion settlement? Purdue probably won’t pay much of it.
Here’s why: the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2019. Though the settlement includes a $3.54 billion criminal fine, that bankruptcy status means the money likely won’t be fully collected, The Associated Press reported.
The settlement also requires Purdue to make a direct payment to the government of $225 million as part of the $2 billion criminal forfeiture. The Justice Department said it’s willing to give Purdue credit for the remaining $1.775 billion based on the money it is expected to funnel to state and local governments as a public interest company.
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Purdue has also agreed to pay $2.8 billion in civil penalties. Separately, the Sacklers will pay $225 million in civil damages, according to the DOJ.
“I cannot support this deal,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (D) said in a statement Wednesday. “The opioid epidemic is a scourge leaving addiction, death and sorrow in its wake.”
“Purdue Pharma is as responsible for creating this crisis as any company and the Sacklers as any family,” he continued. “This settlement does not force the Sacklers to take meaningful responsibility for their actions. A real agreement to resolve these cases would force the Sacklers to pay more and would provide funding to help pay for the treatment and programs people need to get well.”
Though the DOJ stated in its announcement that the Sacklers have not been released from any potential criminal liability, several state attorneys general expressed skepticism that the family would ever be held accountable.
“While our country continues to recover from the pain and destruction left by the Sacklers’ greed, this family has attempted to evade responsibility and lowball the millions of victims of the opioid crisis,” New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said in a statement. “Today’s deal doesn’t account for the hundreds of thousands of deaths or millions of addictions caused by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. Instead, it allows billionaires to keep their billions without any accounting for how much they really made.”
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‘DOJ Failed’
Some experts said Wednesday’s announcement was similar to Purdue’s 2007 settlement with Virginia prosecutors who had accused the company of deceiving doctors about OxyContin’s addiction risks. The company ended up only paying a modest fine of $600 million while Purdue executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.
Fining a corporation instead of sending its executives to jail is essentially granting “expensive licenses for criminal misconduct,” then-Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) said at the time, according to The New Yorker.
The Trump administration has been pushing to finalize a deal with Purdue ahead of the Nov. 3 election, hoping voters see the settlement as a win against Big Pharma, multiple lawyers familiar with the matter told The New Yorker earlier this year.
“The timing of this agreement mere weeks before the election raises serious questions about whether DOJ political leadership was negotiating in the best interest of the American public,” Tong said in his statement.
“DOJ failed,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) tweeted Wednesday. “Justice in this case requires exposing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable, not rushing a settlement to beat an election.”
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-10-21--What The New CDC Definition Of A COVID-19 'Close Contact' Means For You

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released another new COVID-19 guideline , this time as it pertains to those who are considered in “ close contact ” with someone who is infected with the coronavirus .
The CDC previously defined close contact as being within 6 feet of someone infected with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes or more .
The updated guidance now defines close contact as being within 6 feet of someone with the virus for a cumulative total of 15 minutes ( or more ) over a 24-hour period .
The updated guidance came along with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the virus in a Vermont prison .
Health experts found a prison employee was infected with COVID-19 in August after 22 interactions with people who ended up testing positive for the virus later on .
The interactions totaled 17 minutes over the course of the employee ’ s shift , and at least one of the asymptomatic individuals infected the employee .
The report stated that the prison worker wore protective gear , including a cloth face mask .
The infected individuals also wore masks during most of their interactions , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not .
Those interactions took place in a prison cell doorway and a recreation room .
So , aside from this being somewhat alarming ( like everything involving COVID-19 ) , what exactly does this new definition mean for us in general ?
Below is a quick breakdown .
The 15-minute mark isn ’ t the be-all , end-all for a COVID-19 infection .
Don ’ t think of this timing as a strict countdown , like Cinderella before midnight .
The coronavirus can still be transmitted in a shorter or longer amount @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of exposure are what matters here , according to Amesh Adalja , a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and an infectious disease expert .
“ There was nothing ever ‘ magical ’ about 15 minutes , that was just what the epidemiology was showing when most transmission occurred , ” Adalja told HuffPost .
“ There are instances where a person has multiple contacts that are less than 15 minutes over a course of a day .
That puts them at significant risk for contracting the virus.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ biggest effect on areas like schools and offices .
The pool of individuals considered close contacts will get a lot bigger with this new guidance ― especially when you consider interactions in schools and businesses , Caitlin Rivers , an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security , told The Washington Post .
“ It ’ s easy to accumulate 15 minutes in small increments when you spend all day together — a few minutes at the water cooler , a few minutes in the elevator , and so on , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this will result in many more people being identified as close contacts.
” Adalja noted that it may be a challenge for workplaces to figure out how this fits in to their day-to-day function .
You don ’ t want people to be overly worried and disrupt workflow as a result , and you also don ’ t want to dismiss it and put people at risk .
“ I think that is going to be difficult trying to operationalize this , ” he said .
“ Because the goal is not to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be able to have only those people who are actually at significant risk self-quarantine .
So the challenge is going to be taking that new guidance and determining how it applies to an individual person.
” This can impact contact tracing as well .
The new guidance certainly adds a challenge to tracing COVID-19 exposure .
The increase of the pool means there ’ s more people to contact and , depending on their level of exposure , more people to request to isolate or quarantine .
“ Hopefully the CDC provides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health departments to help them implement this so that when their contact tracers are doing these types of investigations , they have a clear way of learning how to delineate who is a significant exposure versus someone who is not , ” Adalja said .
Most of all , this underscores the fact that everyone should wear a damn mask .
We keep hearing this advice for a reason : Face masks are essential .
Data has repeatedly shown that wearing one can significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19 , and their use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well .
Experts are still learning about COVID-19 .
The information in this story is what was known or available as of publication , but guidance can change as scientists discover more about the virus .
Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations .

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released another new COVID-19 guideline, this time as it pertains to those who are considered in “close contact” with someone who is infected with the coronavirus.
The CDC previously defined close contact as being within 6 feet of someone infected with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes or more. The updated guidance now defines close contact as being within 6 feet of someone with the virus for a cumulative total of 15 minutes (or more) over a 24-hour period.
Advertisement
The updated guidance came along with a report on Wednesday that examined cases of the virus in a Vermont prison. Health experts found a prison employee was infected with COVID-19 in August after 22 interactions with people who ended up testing positive for the virus later on. The interactions totaled 17 minutes over the course of the employee’s shift, and at least one of the asymptomatic individuals infected the employee.
The report stated that the prison worker wore protective gear, including a cloth face mask. The infected individuals also wore masks during most of their interactions, but there were several incidents where they did not. Those interactions took place in a prison cell doorway and a recreation room.
So, aside from this being somewhat alarming (like everything involving COVID-19), what exactly does this new definition mean for us in general? Below is a quick breakdown.
The 15-minute mark isn’t the be-all, end-all for a COVID-19 infection.
Don’t think of this timing as a strict countdown, like Cinderella before midnight. The coronavirus can still be transmitted in a shorter or longer amount of time. The amount or intensity of exposure is what matters here, according to Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and an infectious disease expert.
Advertisement
“There was nothing ever ‘magical’ about 15 minutes, that was just what the epidemiology was showing when most transmission occurred,” Adalja told HuffPost. “There are instances where a person has multiple contacts that are less than 15 minutes over a course of a day. That puts them at significant risk for contracting the virus.”
The new definition will have the biggest effect on areas like schools and offices.
The pool of individuals considered close contacts will get a lot bigger with this new guidance ― especially when you consider interactions in schools and businesses, Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Washington Post.
“It’s easy to accumulate 15 minutes in small increments when you spend all day together — a few minutes at the water cooler, a few minutes in the elevator, and so on,” Rivers said. “I expect this will result in many more people being identified as close contacts.” Adalja noted that it may be a challenge for workplaces to figure out how this fits in to their day-to-day function. You don’t want people to be overly worried and disrupt workflow as a result, and you also don’t want to dismiss it and put people at risk. “I think that is going to be difficult trying to operationalize this,” he said. “Because the goal is not to have a self-quarantine reflexively. You want to be able to have only those people who are actually at significant risk self-quarantine. So the challenge is going to be taking that new guidance and determining how it applies to an individual person.”
This can impact contact tracing as well.
The new guidance certainly adds a challenge to tracing COVID-19 exposure. The increase of the pool means there’s more people to contact and, depending on their level of exposure, more people to request to isolate or quarantine.
Advertisement
“Hopefully the CDC provides further technical guidance to state and local health departments to help them implement this so that when their contact tracers are doing these types of investigations, they have a clear way of learning how to delineate who is a significant exposure versus someone who is not,” Adalja said.
Most of all, this underscores the fact that everyone should wear a damn mask.
We keep hearing this advice for a reason: Face masks are essential. Data has repeatedly shown that wearing one can significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19, and their use is applicable to this new guidance as well.
“If you’re wearing a face covering, that’s not really considered a significant exposure,” Adalja said. In other words, if you’re around someone who is sick and you’re both wearing masks, it’s less of a risk ― the 15-minute mark aside.
“This emphasizes social distancing and face coverings and the need to do that,” along with avoiding larger crowds and practicing good hand hygeine, Adalja added.
Experts are still learning about COVID-19. The information in this story is what was known or available as of publication, but guidance can change as scientists discover more about the virus. Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations.