huffpost--2020-04-20--10 Years After Deepwater Horizon, The U.S. Is Even More At Risk Of A Major Oil Spill

Lee Celano / Reuters Oil is burned off the surface of the water near the source of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 19 , 2010 .
The catastrophic event killed 11 workers and , over 87 days , unleashed a torrent of more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico ― the largest oil spill in U.S. history .
An estimated 1 million birds and countless marine animals perished .
Oil washed up along more than 1,300 miles of coastline in Texas , Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama and Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot changed after the catastrophic incident .
The Obama administration divided the Minerals Management Service , a scandal-plagued federal agency that both issued offshore leases and policed drilling operations , into three separate agencies to avoid conflicts of interest .
The oil industry created the Marine Well Containment Company , an independent nonprofit that has equipment at the ready to respond to future deepwater well incidents and contain the flow of gushing oil .
And in 2016 , the Interior Department ’ s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement finalized major offshore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of whether we ’ re any better off ― my concern is we ’ re actually headed towards the exact same type of circumstances that were in place ” at the time of the Deepwater disaster , Elizabeth Johnson Klein , the Interior Department ’ s associate deputy secretary under Obama , told HuffPost .
“ I don ’ t feel good about it.
” The Trump administration ’ s “ energy dominance ” agenda has put pressure on industry to develop in new , riskier and more expensive areas , Klein said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ costs , safety is typically one of the first things to take a back seat .
Then there ’ s the industry-tied political leaders at Trump ’ s Interior Department , who Klein says “ have not demonstrated that they ’ ve learned lessons from Deepwater Horizon.
” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is a former oil and gas lobbyist whose clients included Halliburton , the oil services giant that in 2014 agreed to a $ 1.1 billion settlement for its role in the 2010 blowout .
Scott Angelle , the director of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a former board member of oil and gas pipeline company Sunoco Logistics Partners LP who , during his brief stint as lieutenant governor of Louisiana , led the state ’ s push to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf that the Obama administration put in place after Deepwater Horizon .
With little regard for climate change and other environmental impacts , the Trump administration has sought to transform the U.S. into the world ’ s leading fossil fuel behemoth .
In January 2018 , it rolled out a controversial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ― roughly 90 % of the U.S .
Outer Continental Shelf ― available for oil and gas leasing , including large swaths of the Arctic , Atlantic and Pacific Oceans .
In its proposal , Trump ’ s Interior Department cited Obama-era safety regulations put in place after Deepwater Horizon , noting that while offshore oil and gas production “ will never be totally risk-free ” the agency “ has made , and is continuing to make , substantial reforms to improve the safety.
” Those changes , it said , included rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ losing control of a well , as happened in the Deepwater disaster .
The administration then turned around and gutted the very safeguards it highlighted to make its case for expanded drilling , arguing that the regulations were burdensome on offshore producers .
It weakened the Production Safety Systems Rule , loosening notification and certification rules for fossil fuel companies and scrapping a requirement that offshore equipment be designed to withstand the most extreme weather and pressure conditions .
And it overhauled the Well Control Rule , a monitoring regulation that took effect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintenance of blowout preventers , devices designed to automatically seal a well and stop an uncontrolled release of oil and gas .
The Trump rollback eased inspection and oversight requirements .
With fewer safeguards in place , the administration has plowed ahead with offshore leasing .
Last month , as the deadly coronavirus pandemic gripped the nation , Interior offered at auction 78 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas producers .
The lease sale brought in approximately $ 93 million for just shy of 400,000 acres , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 .
“ As I see it , the essential lesson from Deepwater Horizon is that industry and government should be putting their greatest energies into preventing operational accidents , blowouts and releases , ” Donald Boesch , a professor of marine science at the University of Maryland who served on the bipartisan commission that investigated the causes of the Deepwater Horizon , wrote in a recent piece published in The Conversation .
“ Yet the Trump administration emphasizes increasing production and reducing regulations .
This undermines safety improvements made over the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what ?
” Mark Davis , director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy at Tulane University , said during a call with reporters last week .
The underlying issue prior to Deepwater Horizon and still today is that the federal government has a “ financial stake in the success ” of offshore fossil fuel development , he said .
Extracting oil is driven by policy rather than data .
The next one could be far more catastrophic — perhaps on par with the ongoing Taylor oil spill , which began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ripped through the Gulf of Mexico and triggered submarine mudslides that toppled a Taylor Energy platform 11 miles off the coast of Louisiana .
At least 25 wells were damaged , and oil has been leaking from the site for the last 15 years .
A federal government study published in June 2019 and co-authored by McDonald estimated that as much as 4,500 gallons of oil is leaking from the site each day ― a figure orders of magnitude higher than Taylor ’ s estimates .

Oil is burned off the surface of the water near the source of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 19, 2010. Lee Celano / Reuters
On the evening of April 20, 2010 ― 10 years ago today ― BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded while the fossil fuel giant was drilling an exploratory well off the coast of Louisiana, nearly a mile below the ocean surface.
The catastrophic event killed 11 workers and, over 87 days, unleashed a torrent of more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico ― the largest oil spill in U.S. history. An estimated 1 million birds and countless marine animals perished. Oil washed up along more than 1,300 miles of coastline in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, devastating local economies.
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In the weeks after the blowout, President Barack Obama likened the spill to “an epidemic ― one that we will be fighting for months and even years.” He vowed to hold responsible parties accountable and implement whatever regulatory reforms were needed to prevent similar disasters.
Indeed, a lot changed after the catastrophic incident. The Obama administration divided the Minerals Management Service, a scandal-plagued federal agency that both issued offshore leases and policed drilling operations, into three separate agencies to avoid conflicts of interest. The oil industry created the Marine Well Containment Company, an independent nonprofit that has equipment at the ready to respond to future deepwater well incidents and contain the flow of gushing oil. And in 2016, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement finalized major offshore drilling safety regulations.
But a decade after Deepwater, experts and environmental advocates warn that the U.S. remains woefully unprepared for a major spill ― and is perhaps even more at risk of one due to the Trump administration’s relentless push to expand offshore drilling and gut environmental regulations.
“The question of whether we’re any better off ― my concern is we’re actually headed towards the exact same type of circumstances that were in place” at the time of the Deepwater disaster, Elizabeth Johnson Klein, the Interior Department’s associate deputy secretary under Obama, told HuffPost. “I don’t feel good about it.”
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In this handout from NASA, an oil slick from the sunk Deepwater Horizon drilling platform is seen April 25, 2010, off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. NASA via Getty Images
The Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda has put pressure on industry to develop in new, riskier and more expensive areas, Klein said. When companies are forced to cut costs, safety is typically one of the first things to take a back seat. Then there’s the industry-tied political leaders at Trump’s Interior Department, who Klein says “have not demonstrated that they’ve learned lessons from Deepwater Horizon.”
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is a former oil and gas lobbyist whose clients included Halliburton, the oil services giant that in 2014 agreed to a $1.1 billion settlement for its role in the 2010 blowout. Scott Angelle, the director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, is a former board member of oil and gas pipeline company Sunoco Logistics Partners LP who, during his brief stint as lieutenant governor of Louisiana, led the state’s push to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf that the Obama administration put in place after Deepwater Horizon.
Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and President Donald Trump during a rally in Colorado on Feb. 20. Michael Ciaglo via Getty Images
With little regard for climate change and other environmental impacts, the Trump administration has sought to transform the U.S. into the world’s leading fossil fuel behemoth. In January 2018, it rolled out a controversial plan to make nearly all U.S. waters ― roughly 90% of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf ― available for oil and gas leasing, including large swaths of the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In its proposal, Trump’s Interior Department cited Obama-era safety regulations put in place after Deepwater Horizon, noting that while offshore oil and gas production “will never be totally risk-free” the agency “has made, and is continuing to make, substantial reforms to improve the safety.” Those changes, it said, included rules to reduce the risk of a rig losing control of a well, as happened in the Deepwater disaster.
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The administration then turned around and gutted the very safeguards it highlighted to make its case for expanded drilling, arguing that the regulations were burdensome on offshore producers. It weakened the Production Safety Systems Rule, loosening notification and certification rules for fossil fuel companies and scrapping a requirement that offshore equipment be designed to withstand the most extreme weather and pressure conditions. And it overhauled the Well Control Rule, a monitoring regulation that took effect in 2016 and required additional inspection and maintenance of blowout preventers, devices designed to automatically seal a well and stop an uncontrolled release of oil and gas. The Trump rollback eased inspection and oversight requirements.
“Today’s final rule puts safety first, both public and environmental safety, in a common sense way,” Bernhardt said in a statement at the time.
An oil-covered brown pelican tries to climb over an oil containment boom near Grand Isle, Louisiana on June 5, 2010. Sean Gardner / Reuters
With fewer safeguards in place, the administration has plowed ahead with offshore leasing. Last month, as the deadly coronavirus pandemic gripped the nation, Interior offered at auction 78 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas producers. The lease sale brought in approximately $93 million for just shy of 400,000 acres, the smallest total for an offshore auction since 2016.
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“As I see it, the essential lesson from Deepwater Horizon is that industry and government should be putting their greatest energies into preventing operational accidents, blowouts and releases,” Donald Boesch, a professor of marine science at the University of Maryland who served on the bipartisan commission that investigated the causes of the Deepwater Horizon, wrote in a recent piece published in The Conversation. “Yet the Trump administration emphasizes increasing production and reducing regulations. This undermines safety improvements made over the past 10 years.”
The seven-member oil spill commission concluded in a 2011 report that a “culture of complacency” by both industry and government led to the Deepwater disaster. And while industry often says that offshore drilling has never been safer, others see things quite differently.
“Never safer than what?” Mark Davis, director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy at Tulane University, said during a call with reporters last week. The underlying issue prior to Deepwater Horizon and still today is that the federal government has a “financial stake in the success” of offshore fossil fuel development, he said. Extracting oil is driven by policy rather than data.
“It was policy to believe that bad things wouldn’t happen, and it was policy that you don’t waste time planning for things that aren’t going to happen,” Davis said.
“Until we get our policies and legal architecture in line with the risks we are running, we are going to be very vulnerable,” he added.
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Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 21, 2010. Handout . / Reuters
Last week, ahead of the 10-year anniversary of Deepwater Horizon, ocean advocacy group Oceana published a report that documented the many economic and environmental impacts of the spill and concluded that “the poor safety culture and lack of oversight that led to the BP disaster persist.”
“If anything, another disaster is more likely, because the industry is drilling deeper and farther offshore, which increases the likelihood of a spill and makes responding to a spill more difficult,” the report stated.
“Indeed, Deepwater Horizon is not the worst-case scenario,” Ian MacDonald, an oceanography professor at Florida State University, said on a call with reporters last week.
The next one could be far more catastrophic — perhaps on par with the ongoing Taylor oil spill, which began in September 2004, after Hurricane Ivan ripped through the Gulf of Mexico and triggered submarine mudslides that toppled a Taylor Energy platform 11 miles off the coast of Louisiana. At least 25 wells were damaged, and oil has been leaking from the site for the last 15 years. A federal government study published in June 2019 and co-authored by McDonald estimated that as much as 4,500 gallons of oil is leaking from the site each day ― a figure orders of magnitude higher than Taylor’s estimates.
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McDonald warned this could be the future of deep ocean oil spills. Subsea landslides are not unusual in the Gulf of Mexico, and are often the result of earthquakes. More than 50% of the oil produced in the Gulf is from platforms at depths greater than 1,000 meters, McDonald said.


huffpost--2020-04-30--Better With Age: The Holland Taylor Story

She gave me advice I didn ’ t need .
She said , “ Take that job !
” I said , “ I ’ m way ahead of you , lady.
” I just always think of Sarah being in all of Ryan ’ s shows , so it never occurred to me that I would do a Ryan Murphy show .
I wouldn ’ t want to be in a show that Sarah was in .
That wouldn ’ t be right .
That wouldn ’ t feel comfortable to me .
Then this came up and he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a one-off thing that we ’ re doing .
We ’ re creating the part for you .
It ’ s going to be wonderful.
” He ’ s a great storyteller , but more than that , he just has a feel for people and what they can do that maybe they don ’ t even know .
And he wasn ’ t lying .
It ’ s a wonderful role .
It ’ s actually one of my most favorite roles .
When I got that part , I had done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Practice , ” and when I got the one that had the extraordinary scene that was so attention-getting , I lived in a house up on Hollyridge [ in Los Angeles ] .
The scripts would be delivered , sort of thrown over the gate .
I got home very late one night , and the script had come at 2 in the morning .
Well , who could resist ?
I immediately opened it to read what would be next for that character , and I read these shearing scenes that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call up somebody because it was a scene in which I actually said , I think the word was “ blow job , ” but they had to change it to “ fellatio.
” “ I gave the greatest blow job known to mankind ” was the original line .
My mind was so blown .
I thought , “ I ’ ve got to call up somebody.
” Of course everybody was asleep , so I called an actress friend in London .
It was early morning for her .
I said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m going to do on national television !
” I think that was possibly right after I did a show for Norman Lear , which was one of the things I ’ m proudest of , called “ The Powers That Be.
” It was a satire about government and Washington , and it had an incredible cast .
John Forsythe was the senator , and I was his wife .
It was not a success , as satires so often aren ’ t .
It wasn ’ t promoted well and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what they had and they canceled it .
The people who saw it were rabidly crazy about it , and working for Norman was certainly one of the highlights of my career .
It really should run on the Comedy Channel .
It ’ s in some basement at NBC .
And I ’ ve often said to Norman , “ Norman , get it out !
” Very few shows disappear like that , and I don ’ t know why it did .
I wasn ’ t ever instructed in it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spoke to a dialect person on Ryan ’ s recommendation who gave me some defining lines for it because I don ’ t have a perfect mid-Atlantic accent .
But my parents were very well-spoken and very well-educated .
I received a very good education on the East Coast and I was , as a young person , a very big reader of fine literature .
I think I just come by it by exposure .
In fact , I have to try to get rid of some of it for certain roles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ director say , “ You ’ re too formal.
” And I do have a formal way of speaking .
It ’ s probably my generation .
I ’ ve been around a long time , and I was brought up when people behaved a certain way and spoke a certain way .
And , as I say , my parents were very well-spoken .

Holland Taylor is known for her imperious composure. Over her five-decade career, she has been cast almost exclusively in roles that demand significant degrees of sass and brass, which she somehow delivers without showboating. Any tally of Taylor’s highlights would feel incomplete, but here goes: “Bosom Buddies,” “Romancing the Stone,” “To Die For,” “The Practice,” “Legally Blonde,” “The L Word,” “Two and a Half Men” and a number of acclaimed stage parts, including a play she wrote about former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.
It was only a matter of time before Taylor landed in a Ryan Murphy show, considering that most female characters in Murphy’s oeuvre ooze sass and brass. Plus, she’s in a relationship with the “American Horror Story” maestro’s longtime muse Sarah Paulson.
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That’s where “Hollywood” comes in. Murphy’s seven-episode Netflix series, which premieres May 1, is set during the 1940s when the titular industry was still largely segregated. Queer people had to conceal their sexuality, and people of color were considered unbankable. Fusing fact and rosy fiction, “Hollywood” charts the development of a movie based on British actor Peg Entwistle, who in 1932 took her own life by jumping off the Hollywood sign.
Taylor plays Ellen Kincaid, an articulate, open-minded talent manager in a town run by obstinate blowhards. Ellen champions the Entwistle film even though it’s written by — gasp! — a Black man (Jeremy Pope). She also witnesses the early days of Rock Hudson’s career as agents mold the young upstart (Jake Picking) into the era’s notion of an archetypal leading lad (toned, white, heterosexual). Taylor’s other co-stars include Darren Criss, Jim Parsons, Laura Harrier, Dylan McDermott and a scene-stealing Patti LuPone.
When I got on the phone with Taylor earlier this month, she couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the series. Her career, unlike those of many other women in Hollywood, has aged exceptionally well. She won her first Emmy at 56 and has since received six more nominations. Now 77, Taylor works steadily, no longer hustling for gigs the way she did three decades ago (see: “Saved by the Bell: The College Years” and “Cop and a Half”). But she’s also concerned about the coronavirus and its implications for her ability to work in the near future. In the meantime, she’s quarantining with a new puppy and trying to figure out how to operate her vacuum cleaner.
During a lively conversation, Taylor and I discussed “Hollywood,” pandemic fears, meeting Hudson, LuPone’s on-set musical performances, the arc of her own career, and the time she was forbidden from saying “blow job” on TV.
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Holland Taylor in an episode of "Hollywood." Netflix
What have you been doing to compensate during the quarantine? Have you been watching or reading anything that’s provided a decent distraction?
Well, I’ve not been watching so many things. It’s funny how much busyness is created around this. I mean, I’m down to a system now, but the first weeks were just figuring out how to get food properly since I’m not supposed to go into stores because of my age, and also how to take care of my garden and my house. It’s an education. And I literally did not know how to work my vacuum cleaner, which literally almost ran me over and dragged me out of the house. My housekeeper who comes for three hours a week, she’s a tiny little woman. I don’t know how she runs this thing and I’m terrified of it. Then Sarah got a puppy.
Yes. That’s between bouts of being really depressed and wondering how long this will go on. Also, we can’t work. When the go-back-to-work notice comes, it’s not going to be for actors at all. In a movie, you’re cheek by jowl with about a hundred people all the time. How are they going to do that? So it might really be a long time before we’re back at work, and that makes me really terribly, terribly sad. I wasn’t planning on spending this time in my life not being able to work.
Has the dog been a fun diversion at least?
Oh, she’s wonderful. Sarah really picked a winner. She’s 6 months old. She weighs about 6 or 7 pounds. She’s part papillon, we think, and part, I don’t know, she has this spaniel face. I must say, Sarah is much better at it than I am. The last dog I had was a rescue who had really been hurt in her little life. She was very afraid, and nobody could walk her but me and nobody could take care of her but me. This is a very healthy, well-rounded, aggressive little dog. It’s a wonderful contrast to the really dark mystery that we’re living in. In the midst of all this sunshine, we’re actually living in a cloud of fear and disinformation and insane chaos coming from the top.
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Tom Hanks, Holland Taylor and Peter Scolari in the "Bosom Buddies" pilot. ABC Photo Archives via Getty Images
Just think: You have this tiny creature who has no idea what’s going on. He doesn’t know who the president is.
No. A state devoutly to be missed. People talk about, “Well, this is the perfect time to pick up some big project, Holland.” And maybe I will turn my hand to something, but I have not been able to turn away from it as much as I would like to.
Sarah and I do watch some things, and we had “Hollywood” to watch, actually, which was great fun. And now her show just started, “Mrs. America,” and I want to watch that because I remember when she was making it. She does not want to watch herself, but she seems to have a wonderful role in it. All those actresses had the most wonderful time together. They all were friends and they were shooting these big scenes together and they were all hanging out and having big dinner parties. It was really enviable because the fact is actors really do have a good time together.
Sarah is a longtime company player within the Ryan Murphy universe. Did she give you any advice on working with him? He’s known for running fairly kinetic sets.
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She gave me advice I didn’t need. She said, “Take that job!” I said, “I’m way ahead of you, lady.” I just always think of Sarah being in all of Ryan’s shows, so it never occurred to me that I would do a Ryan Murphy show. I wouldn’t want to be in a show that Sarah was in. That wouldn’t be right. That wouldn’t feel comfortable to me. Then this came up and he said, “No, this is a one-off thing that we’re doing. We’re creating the part for you. It’s going to be wonderful.” He’s a great storyteller, but more than that, he just has a feel for people and what they can do that maybe they don’t even know. And he wasn’t lying. It’s a wonderful role. It’s actually one of my most favorite roles.
As the rare female power player in the ’40s, how did you want Ellen to look and sound?
I had a very specific image for her, a very specific kind of voice for her and a very specific body for her. Not that anyone would ever notice these things, but I had a definite feeling when I was playing her of who she was. I really liked her. She’s somebody I would love to know and somebody really congenial and smart and wise, and a person with real character and substance. You don’t often play parts like that. There was one point where we talked about making 10 episodes, and [Netflix] said seven. And I wish to God we had three more to make. We all were so sad when it was over.
Holland Taylor, Dustin Diamond, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Anne Tremko in an episode of "Saved by the Bell: The College Years." NBC via Getty Images
The show takes place before your time in Hollywood, but have you often interacted with the same sort of cutthroat, self-aggrandizing producers and executives depicted?
Oh, absolutely. I’ve worked a gamut.
Norman Lear, I’ve known him for many, many years, and you couldn’t find a bigger mogul than that — and he is a kind and civilized gentleman who has the most impeccable manners and graciousness. I’m sure he’s had to do plenty of tough things, and I’m sure he’s had to fire some people. But he is not a person who is capable of demeaning someone or attacking someone or vilifying them in some personal way.
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And yet I’ve worked with the absolute other side of the coin. I’ve worked for people who were absolutely monstrously cruel and also tremendously talented. Believe me, both types are everywhere.
This is a show about image-making. At the time, actors’ personas were created in boardrooms. It’s a different era now, but have you ever been asked to alter your voice or appearance in a way that made you feel uncomfortable or manipulated?
I have not been, but then I was brought up in such a way so that my particular style would have been the desirable one to emulate. Do you know what I mean? I don’t know what it would have been like had I been told my manner would not fly. I think it would have been very hard.
On the other hand, it’s like finishing school. There’s nothing wrong with that in the sense that you want to be polished. In the ’30s and ’40s, Hollywood learned from Europe the finer ways to behave and good manners in the deepest sense. The real motive of fine manners is not to demean people or make people feel of a different class, but quite the opposite: to make people feel comfortable in thoughtful surroundings. And we’re still a young country. We certainly learned a lot in the ’40s and ’50s from Hollywood.
From left: Holland Taylor in "Ann," "The Practice" and "Bosom Buddies." Katie Mulligan for HuffPost
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Have you ever wished you could hear what casting directors or producers say about you after you leave an audition?
I wouldn’t because it can be very rough. When a casting director would say, “She just doesn’t have a feel for this role, she really can’t play this kind of part,” that doesn’t mean she isn’t a great actress. But you don’t need to actually hear those assessments, because actors are using their own bodies, their voices, their sensibilities, their manner. Finding an actor lacking is something they don’t need to know the details of. It’s too hard. Actors are necessarily pretty sensitive. Why wouldn’t they be?
Did you ever cross paths with Rock Hudson before he died of AIDS in 1985?
Yes, I did. I met Rock Hudson a couple of times. He was a very nice guy and, of course, met a pretty tragic end. In his heyday, he was such a glorious creature. And you can really understand why he had such an enormous appeal. In the Doris Day movies, he has a lot of charm. I don’t think acting was something that was a deep experience for him, but it’s something he got the feel for. There was a case of somebody who was really created by [Hollywood agent] Henry Willson.
"The Practice" co-stars Michael Badalucco and Holland Taylor at the Emmys on Sept. 12, 1999. Scott Nelson via Getty Images
Do you think the same type of carefully calculated star-making that’s seen on the show still happens today in Hollywood?
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I certainly know a lot of managers are really hands-on. I’m thinking of an actress I know who’s very, very smart intellectually who was very guided by a manager who said, “You have to dress a certain way in public. You don’t wear jeans. You don’t hang out. You dress up. You are always on.” And other managers wouldn’t even dream of messing at that level.
But I think that, back in those days, when there was really no way that the public would really know anything about an actor, it was very different. They really could have created a whole illusion of a persona — not to deceive the public, but rather to just make a great star image. And you can’t create an illusion anymore.
We are far savvier and more information-driven when it comes to public figures.
Yeah. There’s just too much access.
Surely you had met Patti LuPone before this series?
Oh, I’ve met her many times and I’ve been backstage a number of times to congratulate her. It was really wild to work with her. I remember our first day of work, I said, “I just can’t believe this.” She breaks into song constantly. She is a musical person and she comments on things in song, just in jest. She’s humming something as she’s walking down the corridor or when she’s in the makeup chair. My head was constantly whipping around saying, “What’s Patti LuPone singing over there?” When she’s in the trailer next to mine and I hear her warming up and I’m speaking on the phone with somebody, I’ll say, “Patti LuPone is warming up next door. Sorry, I got distracted.”
Holland Taylor and Charlie Sheen in an episode of "Two and a Half Men." CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images
Give me an example of something Patti sang.
She’ll do a whole number from “Evita” if she gets in a certain mood, and you just sit there with your jaw going slack. She does “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” full out. The whole deal. All of it. And what’s more, she did it in a very jazzy, scatty kind of way once when we were all in a van. Of course everybody whipped their phone out and recorded her. Also, she has tremendous performance energy. She loves to be on. She’s really fabulous and also a consummate professional. She would always know her lines before anybody and always very, very on point. She’s like a Marine commander.
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It seems like you’ve had the opposite experience from a lot of women in Hollywood. You spent quite some time taking whatever came your way, but your roles have grown richer and more plentiful as the years go by. Was there a specific point when you realized that you no longer had to hustle the way you maybe once did?
I hustled when I was very young because I did not go to Yale or Juilliard, so I had no society when I came to New York. I knew no one. I just came blind and I had no idea what to do or how to make my way. And I was lucky. I had small roles in a number of off-Broadway shows and a number of Broadway shows. I worked fairly steadily, but it is true that I’ve gotten some really fantastic roles later in my career.
I did a number of character roles in movies like “Romancing the Stone.” I would’ve thought they would’ve led to something, but then I went through a period where I didn’t get any roles in New York. Certainly, when David Kelley put me in “The Practice” in that very, very, very, very striking role, that was really groundbreaking for its time. I mean, it’s nothing now, the kinds of things that character did, but in the day it was really stunning.
In terms of her sexual liberation?
Sexual liberation, and also the combination of her being a really good, smart judge and a difficult judge who could really singe your hair in a courtroom. That was fun to play. To put that in combination with a woman who was also having a dalliance with her clerk, who then had the nerve to sue her for firing him and tried to say the affair was at her instigation when it was not. He was the one who was hooked on her. I mean, it was a great reverse story, and it really gave the woman so much more credit and power and agency.
When I got that part, I had done a couple of smaller scenes in “The Practice,” and when I got the one that had the extraordinary scene that was so attention-getting, I lived in a house up on Hollyridge [in Los Angeles]. The scripts would be delivered, sort of thrown over the gate. I got home very late one night, and the script had come at 2 in the morning. Well, who could resist? I immediately opened it to read what would be next for that character, and I read these shearing scenes that were so stunning. I wanted to call up somebody because it was a scene in which I actually said, I think the word was “blow job,” but they had to change it to “fellatio.” “I gave the greatest blow job known to mankind” was the original line. My mind was so blown. I thought, “I’ve got to call up somebody.” Of course everybody was asleep, so I called an actress friend in London. It was early morning for her. I said, “Listen to what I’m going to do on national television!”
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Holland Taylor during the opening-night curtain call for "Ann" at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York. Walter McBride via Getty Images
And you won an Emmy for the role. That had to be a turning point in your career.
That was a big thing. And of course I wrote my play, “Ann,” which did have much success in New York. PBS is going to be broadcasting that nationally in June, which is very, very exciting. And then to play the Great Leader in the new “Bill & Ted” movie that’s coming out sometime this summer. It’s like horseshit at the rodeo. I’m really going great guns here. At my age, it’s really a treat. I was getting ready to do “Ann” again at the Pasadena Playhouse, and by God, I will do “Ann” again because I want to do it one last time. But we can’t do that until it’s safe to do it.
Talk about range right there: “Ann” and “Bill & Ted.”
Yes, well, if you don’t have range when you’re my age, you better quit.
That is good advice, actually. I’m at the age where the first time I remember seeing you onscreen was “Saved by the Bell.” Now, looking back on it, I don’t think there’s a less Holland Taylor role than “Saved by the Bell.”
Oh my god, I couldn’t agree with you more. I had to work. I just simply had to have a job.
It was a paycheck.
I’ve always supported myself since I arrived in New York right out of school, and never had any source of income other than what I made from acting. So I took the job.
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I think that was possibly right after I did a show for Norman Lear, which was one of the things I’m proudest of, called “The Powers That Be.” It was a satire about government and Washington, and it had an incredible cast. John Forsythe was the senator, and I was his wife. It was not a success, as satires so often aren’t. It wasn’t promoted well and the network actually really didn’t know what they had and they canceled it. The people who saw it were rabidly crazy about it, and working for Norman was certainly one of the highlights of my career. It really should run on the Comedy Channel. It’s in some basement at NBC. And I’ve often said to Norman, “Norman, get it out!” Very few shows disappear like that, and I don’t know why it did.
Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor at the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Feb. 9, 2020. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Going back to the David E. Kelley connection, he is married to Michelle Pfeiffer, whose mom you played in “One Fine Day.” But you and Michelle are only 15 years apart. Did the two of you talk about that at the time?
No. In fact, I never even thought of that because I think it’s so often been true. Even when I was young, I never played young people. And now that I’m old, I play roles that are absurd at my age to play. Even Ellen Kincaid, in actuality, was written as though she were 50 or 55 or so, although I’m sure I don’t look it. But no, I didn’t think about that.
But that is why I got that role in “The Practice.” I remember David telling me that there was a moment where I was making clear that I found George [Clooney, Pfeiffer’s romantic interest in “One Fine Day”] very attractive. David said, “You could give Michelle a run for her money going after George.” He was very flattering, and that’s really why he thought of me when he thought of this judge who would be legitimate as a judge but also kind of a racy woman behind the scenes.
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Playing Michelle Pfeiffer’s mother is nice work if you can get it. And now I’ve played Julianne Moore’s mother [in “Gloria Bell”]. I’ve played Nicole Kidman’s mother [in “To Die For”]. I’ve played a number of fabulous people’s mothers.
In “Hollywood,” your character teaches a group of aspiring actresses how to speak with the mid-Atlantic affectation that was popular at the time. When people talk about your own speaking voice, they tend to see it as a sort of modern mid-Atlantic intonation. Are you conscious of that?
I wasn’t ever instructed in it formally, and in fact, I spoke to a dialect person on Ryan’s recommendation who gave me some defining lines for it because I don’t have a perfect mid-Atlantic accent. But my parents were very well-spoken and very well-educated. I received a very good education on the East Coast and I was, as a young person, a very big reader of fine literature. I think I just come by it by exposure. In fact, I have to try to get rid of some of it for certain roles. I’ve even had a director say, “You’re too formal.” And I do have a formal way of speaking. It’s probably my generation. I’ve been around a long time, and I was brought up when people behaved a certain way and spoke a certain way. And, as I say, my parents were very well-spoken.


huffpost--2020-04-30--Drew Barrymore Talks About Seeming 'Out Of Touch' As A Privileged Mom

“ It ’ s not always easy when your children don ’ t see you as the teacher and more as the punching bag parent at that moment , ” she said .
“ You ’ re searching for every piece of leverage to get them to do their schoolwork .
That ’ s not a dynamic I thought I ’ d be in.
” “ I already have so many expectations on myself , ” she said .
“ I was like , if I ’ m not following the hourly chart , why don ’ t we just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
My biggest challenge was ... what a failure I felt like .
I was failing as a parent , a teacher , a mom , a caretaker .
I felt like I was failing on every single cylinder , so that first week of school was the hardest week of all of this.
” “ Homeschooling is getting better , much better , ” she said .
“ It ’ s actually become a pleasure .
My kids ’ rooms look like classrooms now , and we ’ re getting into the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I consider myself lucky every single second and I shan ’ t complain.
” “ The thing for me that made the situation the most real and devastating was the closing of schools , because I ’ m someone writing on my blog about how important school is to me after a lifetime of no school and what a traditional parent I am , ironically , ” she said .
“ But if that ’ s my reality , I ’ m in a very privileged sector.
” “ When things were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ You should do it this way , you should do it that way.
’ My advice is just , screw all of that and do it the way that works for you , ” she said .
“ Everybody ’ s values and economics and traditions and expectations and dynamics and challenges ― they ’ re all different .
So there can ’ t be this one size fits all.
” “ But that ’ s for parents who are able to maintain some level of job , ” Barrymore said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ case , then this is totally out of touch .
That ’ s why I ’ m trying every week to do as much as I can to raise money for families and food banks and contribute what I can.
” “ When I compare myself to corporations and billionaires , I feel incredibly ineffective , and I don ’ t even know if I will make a dent , ” she continued .
“ But it ’ s better than sitting idle and feeling terrible and helpless .
I think the best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , spiritually , emotionally difficult time is to put one foot in front of the other and do little things , to know something seemingly little can still make such a big difference.
” Barrymore is trying to instill this philanthropic spirit in her daughters .
The Flower Beauty founder said she makes an effort to include them in the process of giving back and talk about the differences people can make — and the importance of doing it throughout the year , rather than just around holidays .
She ’ s also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a condescending “ people are needy ” way .
“ I try to take it as that this is something we should do , and ultimately , I think it ’ s the only sane thing to do in times like these ― try to reach out and think beyond yourself if you ’ re in a position to do so , ” she said .
“ I always say to my daughters , ‘ The more you have , the more you have to give.
’ I ’ m very bullish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being a giver , not a taker.
” “ This is an extraordinary time for siblings , ” she said .
“ The connection that I see with my daughters right now , it took all these years to build up to it , but I always told them , ’ You are what each other has in this world.
’ And right now , whether they can articulate it or not , I know they feel it.
” “ I didn ’ t have parents , and it was fine .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it wasn ’ t fine , ” she said .
“ I just so idealize that sibling relationship .
You ’ re going to see everything at the same time , and you may not see it the same way whatsoever .
But that connection to another person , that type of relationship is just something that , if I was going to be a parent , I was somehow gon na accomplish that for them .
Seeing this time with them is just proof that siblings are just so awesome .
”

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Drew Barrymore is very open about her experience as a parent in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The “Santa Clarita Diet” star has two daughters ― 7-year-old Olive and 6-year-old Frankie ― with her ex-husband, Will Kopelman. When schools shifted to at-home learning, the famous mom found herself navigating some new and surprising challenges.
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“That first week, I honestly didn’t think I was gonna make it. Week one was nuts,” she told HuffPost while promoting her work with Baby2Baby and Shutterfly to help deliver emergency bundles with basic essentials to families affected by the global crisis.
“It’s not always easy when your children don’t see you as the teacher and more as the punching bag parent at that moment,” she said. “You’re searching for every piece of leverage to get them to do their schoolwork. That’s not a dynamic I thought I’d be in.”
Like many parents, Barrymore felt pressured by the Pinterest-perfect homeschool schedules and organization charts that felt ubiquitous in the early days of social distancing.
“I already have so many expectations on myself,” she said. “I was like, if I’m not following the hourly chart, why don’t we just pile on the self-deprecation a little more? My biggest challenge was ... what a failure I felt like. I was failing as a parent, a teacher, a mom, a caretaker. I felt like I was failing on every single cylinder, so that first week of school was the hardest week of all of this.”
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Stefanie Keenan via Getty Images Drew Barrymore and her daughters at the Baby2Baby Holiday Party presented By The Honest Company on December 13, 2014, in Los Angeles.
Still, the Golden Globe winner and her daughters got through that initial transition shock and developed good systems for their family.
“Homeschooling is getting better, much better,” she said. “It’s actually become a pleasure. My kids’ rooms look like classrooms now, and we’re getting into the joy of it. And the rest, I consider myself lucky every single second and I shan’t complain.”
Barrymore was quick to acknowledge her good fortune as a celebrity parent who doesn’t have to worry about finances, resources and job security right now.
“The thing for me that made the situation the most real and devastating was the closing of schools, because I’m someone writing on my blog about how important school is to me after a lifetime of no school and what a traditional parent I am, ironically,” she said. “But if that’s my reality, I’m in a very privileged sector.”
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The actor’s candor about her privilege comes after she told the “Today” show earlier this month that she “cried every day” while trying to homeschool her daughters ― and received some backlash from commenters with little sympathy for wealthy celebrities.
Barrymore acknowledged the range of circumstances parents are facing across the country, adding that she believes the best thing to do is find what systems work for you. Expert advice can be helpful, but parents know their families best.
“When things were first starting, it was like, ‘You should do it this way, you should do it that way.’ My advice is just, screw all of that and do it the way that works for you,” she said. “Everybody’s values and economics and traditions and expectations and dynamics and challenges ― they’re all different. So there can’t be this one size fits all.”
As time goes on, the actor said she’s heartened to see how much more accustomed she’s become to the situation and how much less intimidating it feels as her family adapts and thrives.
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“But that’s for parents who are able to maintain some level of job,” Barrymore said. “If that’s not the case, then this is totally out of touch. That’s why I’m trying every week to do as much as I can to raise money for families and food banks and contribute what I can.”
“When I compare myself to corporations and billionaires, I feel incredibly ineffective, and I don’t even know if I will make a dent,” she continued. “But it’s better than sitting idle and feeling terrible and helpless. I think the best way to get out of any psychologically, spiritually, emotionally difficult time is to put one foot in front of the other and do little things, to know something seemingly little can still make such a big difference.”
Barrymore is trying to instill this philanthropic spirit in her daughters. The Flower Beauty founder said she makes an effort to include them in the process of giving back and talk about the differences people can make — and the importance of doing it throughout the year, rather than just around holidays. She’s also mindful about seeming self-aggrandizing or framing philanthropy in a condescending “people are needy” way.
“I try to take it as that this is something we should do, and ultimately, I think it’s the only sane thing to do in times like these ― try to reach out and think beyond yourself if you’re in a position to do so,” she said. “I always say to my daughters, ‘The more you have, the more you have to give.’ I’m very bullish with them on the philanthropic mindset and being a giver, not a taker.”
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Beyond homeschooling and philanthropic lessons, Barrymore has enjoyed observing Frankie and Olive as they navigate their new normal together.
“This is an extraordinary time for siblings,” she said. “The connection that I see with my daughters right now, it took all these years to build up to it, but I always told them, ’You are what each other has in this world.’ And right now, whether they can articulate it or not, I know they feel it.”
“That is one of my greatest life’s missions accomplished, because that is exactly why I had them ― for each other, not for me,” she continued, adding that she is also a “greedy lucky recipient” of their love and energy as well.
Barrymore said she is in awe of her daughters’ dynamic in part because she felt she never had that close sibling experience in her rocky childhood.
“I didn’t have parents, and it was fine. I didn’t have siblings, and it wasn’t fine,” she said. “I just so idealize that sibling relationship. You’re going to see everything at the same time, and you may not see it the same way whatsoever. But that connection to another person, that type of relationship is just something that, if I was going to be a parent, I was somehow gonna accomplish that for them. Seeing this time with them is just proof that siblings are just so awesome.”


huffpost--2020-06-19--Trump Sets The Stage For Mayhem At Tulsa Rally

“ Any protesters , anarchists , agitators , looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand , you will not be treated like you have been in New York , Seattle , or Minneapolis , ” he wrote .
“ It will be a much different scene !
” The threat against protesters , most of whom will be out demonstrating against systemic racism and police brutality , is another indication of Trump ’ s stance on the First Amendment .
While he has claimed he ’ s being censored by social media companies , he has also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s presided over federal forces shutting down protests .
He ’ s said some journalists should be executed , according to an upcoming book by former aide John Bolton .
And In 2016 , Trump said he ’ d like to punch a protester in the face and told supporters to knock out anyone that tried to throw tomatoes .
Meanwhile , his supporters have repeatedly indicated that they ’ re listening and ready to follow orders .
Tensions were always going to be high at the rally , given the nationwide movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place the Trump campaign picked for his return to mass events .
Trump rescheduled the campaign event “ out of respect ” for Juneteenth , the day commemorating Black emancipation from slavery .
He ’ s faced fierce criticism for holding the rally , originally slated for Juneteenth , in Tulsa , the site of a racist massacre in 1921 when white mobs torched a prosperous Black neighborhood and killed as many as 300 Black residents .
But moving the rally forward a day doesn ’ t remove the threat , and Tulsa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Bynum , the city ’ s mayor , issued an executive order Thursday declaring a civil emergency ahead of the rally and said law enforcement had information “ that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other States are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally.
” Some 250 soldiers with the Oklahoma Army National Guard have been activated to provide security at the event , The Associated Press reported .
Nicholas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Randall Thom , right , on the racial policies of President Donald Trump outside the BOK Center in Tulsa , Oklahoma , on Friday .
Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday .
In recent weeks , Trump has repeatedly railed against what he calls “ lowlifes , ” “ thugs ” and “ hoodlums ” ― escalating tensions at a time when much of the nation is crying out for racial justice and suffering from the economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the Trump administration ’ s botched response .
That Trump took to Twitter on Juneteenth to specifically call out “ protesters , ” who have overwhelmingly remained peaceful in the face of violent police crackdowns , shines a clear light on how he views the ongoing unrest : not as a growing movement for equality but rather some Democratic plot to take him down .
It is unclear how the scene Trump is warning of Saturday in Tulsa would be different from what has played out across the country since George Floyd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Minneapolis police late last month .
In many American cities , including those the president mentioned in his Friday tweet , police have responded to anti-racism protesters with tear gas , rubber bullets , violence and arrests .
Later that day , law enforcement officers ― at the Trump administration ’ s direction ― violently cleared protesters from in front of the White House using tear gas so that Trump could walk to a nearby church and pose for a photo while awkwardly holding up a Bible .
The crackdown came a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been rushed to an underground bunker at the White House over the weekend to ensure his safety as protests raged outside .
Apparently outraged by coverage depicting him in hiding , Trump told aides he wanted to be seen outside , a source told CNN after the violent episode .
“ What he was meaning is violent protesters , anarchists , looters ― the kind of lawlessness that we saw play out before President Trump came in with the National Guard and calmed our streets with law and order , ” White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ briefing .

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President Donald Trump is all but cheering for violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.
A day ahead of his big rally in the Sooner State, his first since COVID-19 and protests against racism gripped the nation, Trump took to Twitter to pick a fight with American citizens.
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” he wrote. “It will be a much different scene!”
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Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
The threat against protesters, most of whom will be out demonstrating against systemic racism and police brutality, is another indication of Trump’s stance on the First Amendment. While he has claimed he’s being censored by social media companies, he has also advocated against free expression. He’s presided over federal forces shutting down protests. He’s said some journalists should be executed, according to an upcoming book by former aide John Bolton. And In 2016, Trump said he’d like to punch a protester in the face and told supporters to knock out anyone that tried to throw tomatoes. Meanwhile, his supporters have repeatedly indicated that they’re listening and ready to follow orders.
His tweet indicated that Saturday’s rally, which will have 19,000 attendees indoors and numerous protesters, could be the scene of a violent confrontation. And he’s fanning the flames.
Tensions were always going to be high at the rally, given the nationwide movement against racism and the particular date and place the Trump campaign picked for his return to mass events.
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Trump rescheduled the campaign event “out of respect” for Juneteenth, the day commemorating Black emancipation from slavery. He’s faced fierce criticism for holding the rally, originally slated for Juneteenth, in Tulsa, the site of a racist massacre in 1921 when white mobs torched a prosperous Black neighborhood and killed as many as 300 Black residents.
But moving the rally forward a day doesn’t remove the threat, and Tulsa is preparing for potential conflict. G.T. Bynum, the city’s mayor, issued an executive order Thursday declaring a civil emergency ahead of the rally and said law enforcement had information “that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other States are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally.” Some 250 soldiers with the Oklahoma Army National Guard have been activated to provide security at the event, The Associated Press reported.
Nicholas Winford, left, debates Trump supporter Randall Thom, right, on the racial policies of President Donald Trump outside the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday. Win McNamee via Getty Images
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly railed against what he calls “lowlifes,” “thugs” and “hoodlums” ― escalating tensions at a time when much of the nation is crying out for racial justice and suffering from the economic fallout of a pandemic made far worse by the Trump administration’s botched response. That Trump took to Twitter on Juneteenth to specifically call out “protesters,” who have overwhelmingly remained peaceful in the face of violent police crackdowns, shines a clear light on how he views the ongoing unrest: not as a growing movement for equality but rather some Democratic plot to take him down.
It is unclear how the scene Trump is warning of Saturday in Tulsa would be different from what has played out across the country since George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by Minneapolis police late last month. In many American cities, including those the president mentioned in his Friday tweet, police have responded to anti-racism protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, violence and arrests.
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The crackdowns haven’t been enough to satisfy Trump, who has a long history of inciting violence and making racist comments. In a June 1 video call with the nation’s governors, Trump dismissed state leaders as “weak” and called for greater use of force.
“You have to dominate,” he said. “If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”
Police officers violently clear protesters from near the White House on June 1 so the president can stage a photo-op near a church. JOSE LUIS MAGANA via Getty Images
Later that day, law enforcement officers ― at the Trump administration’s direction ― violently cleared protesters from in front of the White House using tear gas so that Trump could walk to a nearby church and pose for a photo while awkwardly holding up a Bible. The crackdown came a day after media reports that Trump had been rushed to an underground bunker at the White House over the weekend to ensure his safety as protests raged outside. Apparently outraged by coverage depicting him in hiding, Trump told aides he wanted to be seen outside, a source told CNN after the violent episode.
Along with condemning Trump’s appearance in Tulsa during the Juneteenth celebration, Black community leaders have voiced fears that it will end with violence. “We’re all terribly concerned,” the Rev. Ray Owens, pastor of the historically black Metropolitan Baptist Church, told The Associated Press.
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White House officials defended Trump’s inflammatory tweet on Friday.
“What he was meaning is violent protesters, anarchists, looters ― the kind of lawlessness that we saw play out before President Trump came in with the National Guard and calmed our streets with law and order,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a briefing.
McEnany’s response ignores Trump’s use of “any protesters” in his tweet, not to mention his ongoing support for aggressive military action to quash demonstration, and advocacy for violence among his supporters.
“The Trump rally this weekend is going to be a massive, angry gathering, a response to the protests, and from what I’ve seen covering the rallies there’s a real, real opportunity for violence and bloodshed,” Jared Yates Sexton, an author and associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University, wrote in a Twitter post Friday.
The American Civil Liberties Union responded to Trump’s hostile post by promising to take legal action against him or any mayor or police department that attacks protesters.
“You WILL be held accountable,” the civil rights organization wrote on Twitter.
Andy Campbell contributed to this report.


huffpost--2020-06-18--Welcome To The Weird Summer Of Parenting During COVID-19

Since March , Jennifer Gottsch , her husband and their 7-year-old son have not seen much of anyone , aside from her sister , brother-in-law and their 3-year-old .
The two families live about six blocks apart in California , and pretty early on in their state ’ s coronavirus lockdown , they decided to “ integrate ” their little bubbles .
None of the adults goes to work outside their homes .
( Gottsch and her husband work in the hospitality sector , and both were furloughed . )
They ’ re mindful of limiting trips out of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen their mom in months .
They ’ re hosting get-togethers or letting their kids go to sports practice , all of which Gottsch has learned “ via word of mouth ( texting ) and a bit of social media , ” the 40-year-old told HuffPost .
“ I think most are hesitant to broadcast via social media at this point .
I ’ ve expressed to those friends that I totally understand the need to branch out , but that we ’ re just not ‘ there ’ yet.
” Welcome to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — in the absence of any kind of official guidance about what is safe for children and families — parents are making widely varying decisions about how much to let their kids out into the world , even among families facing the exact same circumstances and using the exact same information .
Sure , people have always parented differently and the temptation to judge others ’ decisions has always been there .
( See Amy Poehler ’ s excellent anti-mom-shaming motto : “ Good for her , not for me !
” ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic — and the patchwork national reopening — feel deeper , more visceral .
What does it mean if you ’ ve spent months trying to cram in full workdays without a babysitter , because you ’ re trying to minimize exposure , while your BFF is taking her kids to day camp and hosting outdoor dinner parties ?
“ This is such a tough choice for everybody , ” said Karina Ostoich Sheehan , 44 , a Pennsylvania-based mom of four kids who also happens to be a school psychologist .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their children out of the house much more this summer ( wearing masks and sticking largely to small get-togethers with families they know and trust ) because they believe the mental health benefits outweigh the potential risks .
Yet Ostoich Sheehan has asked her older kids not to document any of it on social media , not because she fears any kind of judgment , but because she doesn ’ t want them making friends feel bad .
Sofia Aldaz , a 31-year-old mom of a 5-year-old girl in Texas , has also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expected and often coming to very different conclusions than her parent friends .
She ’ s been allowing her daughter , who was growing extremely lonely , to have playdates for a while now , but only after she “ interrogates ” the other parents , she joked .
“ At first I was nervous to even bring up the topic since we ’ ve been so strict and vocal about social distancing from the beginning .
I didn ’ t want to seem like I wasn ’ t practicing what I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has had some potentially awkward talks , like the time she approached one mom about a playdate — spelling out the precautions she and her husband have taken themselves — and the mom flat-out declined .
But fortunately , the families she has spoken with have all been respectful of each other , even when they ’ ve ultimately come to opposite answers about what they ’ re comfortable with .
“ They were all very open and honest — I ’ m assuming !
— about their current situations , ” Aldaz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is happening in the summer , so it ’ s basically a lower-stakes preview of what parents will likely face in the fall .
Many schools are likely to reopen , and parents are going to continue to make varying decisions about what they should do .
Case in point : there have been several early polls in various parts of the country asking parents how they plan to handle the question of “ to send to school or not.
” And the results so far ?
Totally and completely mixed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus .
The information in this story is what was known or available as of press time , but it ’ s possible guidance around COVID-19 could change as scientists discover more about the virus .
Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations .

Anchalee Yates/EyeEm via Getty Images Parents are making their own choices about what's safe and what's not for their kids this summer — and trying not to judge others making very different decisions.
Since March, Jennifer Gottsch, her husband and their 7-year-old son have not seen much of anyone, aside from her sister, brother-in-law and their 3-year-old. The two families live about six blocks apart in California, and pretty early on in their state’s coronavirus lockdown, they decided to “integrate” their little bubbles. None of the adults goes to work outside their homes. (Gottsch and her husband work in the hospitality sector, and both were furloughed.) They’re mindful of limiting trips out of the house. The sisters haven’t seen their mom in months.
But over the past few weeks, Gottsch has noticed many of her friends and acquaintances are breaking out.
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They’re hosting get-togethers or letting their kids go to sports practice, all of which Gottsch has learned “via word of mouth (texting) and a bit of social media,” the 40-year-old told HuffPost. “I think most are hesitant to broadcast via social media at this point. I’ve expressed to those friends that I totally understand the need to branch out, but that we’re just not ‘there’ yet.”
Welcome to the weird summer of 2020, when — in the absence of any kind of official guidance about what is safe for children and families — parents are making widely varying decisions about how much to let their kids out into the world, even among families facing the exact same circumstances and using the exact same information.
Sure, people have always parented differently and the temptation to judge others’ decisions has always been there. (See Amy Poehler’s excellent anti-mom-shaming motto: “Good for her, not for me!”) But our disagreements now during the COVID-19 pandemic — and the patchwork national reopening — feel deeper, more visceral.
What does it mean if you’ve spent months trying to cram in full workdays without a babysitter, because you’re trying to minimize exposure, while your BFF is taking her kids to day camp and hosting outdoor dinner parties?
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How do the coronavirus decisions other families make impact our own?
And how can we slog through this big mess together with our compassion intact?
“This is such a tough choice for everybody,” said Karina Ostoich Sheehan, 44, a Pennsylvania-based mom of four kids who also happens to be a school psychologist. She and her husband recently decided to let their children out of the house much more this summer (wearing masks and sticking largely to small get-togethers with families they know and trust) because they believe the mental health benefits outweigh the potential risks.
Yet Ostoich Sheehan has asked her older kids not to document any of it on social media, not because she fears any kind of judgment, but because she doesn’t want them making friends feel bad.
“We’re in uncharted territory here, and everyone is going to make different decisions. I really respect each decision families make for themselves,” she said.
Sofia Aldaz, a 31-year-old mom of a 5-year-old girl in Texas, has also found herself facing parenting choices she never expected and often coming to very different conclusions than her parent friends. She’s been allowing her daughter, who was growing extremely lonely, to have playdates for a while now, but only after she “interrogates” the other parents, she joked.
“At first I was nervous to even bring up the topic since we’ve been so strict and vocal about social distancing from the beginning. I didn’t want to seem like I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching,” Aldaz said. She has had some potentially awkward talks, like the time she approached one mom about a playdate — spelling out the precautions she and her husband have taken themselves — and the mom flat-out declined.
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But fortunately, the families she has spoken with have all been respectful of each other, even when they’ve ultimately come to opposite answers about what they’re comfortable with. “They were all very open and honest — I’m assuming! — about their current situations,” Aldaz said.
Of course, all of this is happening in the summer, so it’s basically a lower-stakes preview of what parents will likely face in the fall. Many schools are likely to reopen, and parents are going to continue to make varying decisions about what they should do.
Case in point: there have been several early polls in various parts of the country asking parents how they plan to handle the question of “to send to school or not.” And the results so far? Totally and completely mixed.


huffpost--2020-06-19--Kate Middleton Makes Her First Public Appearance Since March Lockdown

Kate Middleton stepped out for her first public engagement on Thursday , visiting a store near Anmer Hall , where her family has been isolating because of the coronavirus pandemic .
The Duchess of Cambridge stopped by Fakenham Garden Centre , where she met with owners Martin and Jennie Turner to talk about how the pandemic has affected their business .
The royal also spoke with the owners and staff members about how they are reopening safely as lockdown regulations ease up for nonessential stores .
The group practiced social distancing during the visit , staying 6 feet apart from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mask .
The Duchess of Cambridge arrives for a visit Thursday at Fakenham Garden Centre in Norfolk , England , where she met the owners and staff .
The garden center is near the duchess 's Anmer Hall home .
A keen gardener , the duchess wanted to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the family-run independent business , which first opened in 1984 .
While the Duchess of Cambridge has kept busy with engagements and interviews over video , the last time she stepped out for a public appearance was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ London Ambulance Centre in Croydon , England , alongside Prince William .
The Duke of Cambridge made his first public appearance Tuesday when he spoke with the staff at the ambulance station at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King ’ s Lynn , England , about their experience dealing with COVID-19 .
He thanked crew members for their work , talked about their mental health and also joked that he was worried about his eating habits in quarantine .
“ I ’ m worried about the waistline of the nation as well with all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , according to People .
“ I ’ ve done a lot of baking at home .
Chocolate goes down very well.
” The duke ’ s sweet tooth was apparent again on Friday , when he stepped out for his second public appearance since lockdown .
William paid a visit to Smiths the Bakers , a local bakery that ’ s been around for 50 years , to hear about the staff ’ s coronavirus experience and return to normal , as well as to pick up some goodies .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the duke ’ s 38th birthday on Sunday .
Other members of the royal family have also been emerging from lockdown .
Princess Anne visited the Duke of Gloucester Barracks earlier this week , and Prince Charles and Camilla , Duchess of Cornwall , stopped by the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to thank the staff .

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Kate Middleton stepped out for her first public engagement on Thursday, visiting a store near Anmer Hall, where her family has been isolating because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Duchess of Cambridge stopped by Fakenham Garden Centre, where she met with owners Martin and Jennie Turner to talk about how the pandemic has affected their business.
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The royal also spoke with the owners and staff members about how they are reopening safely as lockdown regulations ease up for nonessential stores. The group practiced social distancing during the visit, staying 6 feet apart from each other, though no one wore a mask.
The Duchess of Cambridge arrives for a visit Thursday at Fakenham Garden Centre in Norfolk, England, where she met the owners and staff. WPA Pool via Getty Images
The garden center is near the duchess's Anmer Hall home. A keen gardener, the duchess wanted to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the family-run independent business, which first opened in 1984. WPA Pool via Getty Images
While the Duchess of Cambridge has kept busy with engagements and interviews over video, the last time she stepped out for a public appearance was in March during a visit to the London Ambulance Centre in Croydon, England, alongside Prince William.
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The Duke of Cambridge made his first public appearance Tuesday when he spoke with the staff at the ambulance station at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, England, about their experience dealing with COVID-19.
He thanked crew members for their work, talked about their mental health and also joked that he was worried about his eating habits in quarantine.
“I’m worried about the waistline of the nation as well with all the chocolate and cakes,” he said, according to People. “I’ve done a lot of baking at home. Chocolate goes down very well.”
Prince William meets paramedic staff while maintaining social distancing during a visit to the ambulance station in King's Lynn, England, on Tuesday. WPA Pool via Getty Images
The duke’s sweet tooth was apparent again on Friday, when he stepped out for his second public appearance since lockdown.
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William paid a visit to Smiths the Bakers, a local bakery that’s been around for 50 years, to hear about the staff’s coronavirus experience and return to normal, as well as to pick up some goodies. The bakery also whipped up a cake for the duke’s 38th birthday on Sunday.
William speaks to staff member Ted Bartram during a Friday visit to Smiths the Bakers in King's Lynn. AARON CHOWN via Getty Images
William is presented with a birthday cake by shop owner Paul Brandon (right). AARON CHOWN via Getty Images
Other members of the royal family have also been emerging from lockdown. Princess Anne visited the Duke of Gloucester Barracks earlier this week, and Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, stopped by the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to thank the staff.


huffpost--2020-04-10--Driving A Bus Through A Pandemic

Driving A Bus Through A Pandemic

While many drivers sympathize with riders who still rely on buses to get to work or the store ― or just have nowhere else to go ― some drivers said they didn ’ t understand why so many buses were still on the road .
They have no idea how many of their fellow drivers have been infected because the public transit authority , King County Metro , won ’ t say .
And drivers are frustrated with what they see as a lack of clear direction from management about how to protect themselves , when to stay home , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they take time off .
Nathan Vass is a veteran Metro driver who recently decided to take unpaid time off because he thinks he may have been exposed to the coronavirus .
He said that his route , which is one of the busiest in the city , has remained crowded through the pandemic — an observation confirmed by Metro ’ s ridership statistics , which show that buses serving lower-income areas , like the one Vass drives , have seen much lower reductions than commuter and suburban routes .
Metro will not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
According to King County Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer , releasing illness numbers “ could lead to individuals being identified and could cause other spaces to be mistakenly seen as being without risk , ” and might cause drivers not to seek needed medical care .
A driver for Community Transit , an agency that serves the suburbs north of Seattle , died of COVID-19 last month ; so far , the agency has confirmed 10 cases among its drivers .
Kahu Pene is one of those drivers .
He was securing a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ droplets from the passenger ’ s mouth on his face .
“ I am in the at-risk category — I ’ m over 60 — but I don ’ t have any underlying health issues , ” he said .
Nonetheless , he ’ s now in self-isolation , just in case .
“ I think it ’ s just a contradiction — they have all these signs at work that say we ’ re supposed to maintain all this social distance , and yet we have to act as normal when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a driver who is starting a new route this week after three weeks off , is disturbed by the fact that drivers are only given one pair of latex gloves per day when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises discarding gloves every time they are taken off .
Recently , he said , he had to pick up a dirty shirt off the bus floor and return it to Metro ’ s lost and found , which forced him to decide between using up his only pair of gloves for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon as possible and preserving his gloves for the last part of his shift .
Drivers also worry that they ’ ll have to burn through all their paid time off to deal with a crisis no one anticipated .
Metro ’ s policy differs by seniority and for part-time and full-time drivers , but in general , drivers are required to use up all their paid sick , vacation and other paid leave before they can qualify for other types of paid time off , including paid administrative leave , which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 24 .
County employees are also allowed to donate to , and draw from , a “ pool ” of sick and vacation time .
Until this week , Monroe , who has asthma and uses an inhaler , was among them .
Although taking time off will mean using up all her sick , vacation and comp time , she decided that driving was no longer worth the risk .
Moore said Metro ’ s policies could encourage drivers to show up sick .
“ It feels like if they had our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying to make some sort of concessions , ” she said .
“ I ’ d like to go back to work as soon as it feels safe , but I don ’ t know when that will be.
” Vass , the driver who is staying home because he fears he was exposed to the virus , said he feels “ weird talking about driving people around , and transit in general , as something that ’ s problematic .
I was picking up people who were visibly ill , and normally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but now I do find myself reacting out of anxiety and fear .
‘ Oh , no , does this person have the virus ?
Am I going to give this person the virus because they ’ re vulnerable ?
‘ ’ ’

SEATTLE ― Driving a city bus has always had its hazards. Until recently, exposure to a deadly pandemic was not among them. But as most workers are staying home to avoid exposure to the coronavirus, bus drivers remain on the front lines, transporting strangers around the city in what one driver referred to as “rolling petri dishes.”
With protective equipment such as masks and gloves in short supply, drivers say they have no way of knowing whether they’ve been exposed. Every interaction with a rider, another driver said, is a potential opportunity for infection: “Everybody’s got a gun now, but we don’t know who has bullets.”
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In Seattle, where the first U.S. cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, were detected in February, conversations with nearly a dozen bus drivers revealed widespread anxiety about driver and passenger safety.
While many drivers sympathize with riders who still rely on buses to get to work or the store ― or just have nowhere else to go ― some drivers said they didn’t understand why so many buses were still on the road. They have no idea how many of their fellow drivers have been infected because the public transit authority, King County Metro, won’t say. And drivers are frustrated with what they see as a lack of clear direction from management about how to protect themselves, when to stay home, and how they will be compensated if they take time off.
Nathan Vass is a veteran Metro driver who recently decided to take unpaid time off because he thinks he may have been exposed to the coronavirus. He said that his route, which is one of the busiest in the city, has remained crowded through the pandemic — an observation confirmed by Metro’s ridership statistics, which show that buses serving lower-income areas, like the one Vass drives, have seen much lower reductions than commuter and suburban routes.
A King County Metro bus driver pilots a bus down a quiet 3rd Avenue, the city’s main bus corridor, when rush hour would normally begin before COVID-19 plagued the area, on April 8, 2020. Grant Hindsley for HuffPost
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Vass said he’s not sure what’s worse: Failing to serve people who rely on transit by shutting the buses down, or allowing the virus to spread unchecked by keeping them in service.
“If we’re going to continue allowing transit, we have to be OK with the fact that we’re spreading the virus as well,” said Vass, who recently published a book chronicling his experiences as a bus driver. “Transit is just not conducive to restricting the transmission of viruses.”
Metro, like other transit systems across the country, has reduced service dramatically during the pandemic. But drivers in Seattle — unlike, for example, in Vancouver, Canada, where the bus agency recently closed off every second row of seats — have been offered limited official options for enforcing social distance.
A recorded message, which is only in English, instructs riders to sit six feet apart, but that’s an impossible standard to achieve on the more crowded routes. And even if riders do sit six feet apart, the coronavirus lingers on surfaces, so if an infected person sneezes on a handrail or touches a seat with dirty hands, they can still infect the next person who sits there.
At the same time, Metro has officially designated bus drivers “first responders” and instructed all drivers who don’t show COVID-19 symptoms to keep showing up for work, even if they think they’ve been exposed to the virus.
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“That is the opposite of everything we’ve been told, from CDC on down,” said Audrey Monroe, who has driven for Metro for almost four years. “It seems wild to me that that’s their policy when we know that you can have no symptoms and still be shedding the virus.”
Metro will not say how many drivers have been infected. According to King County Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer, releasing illness numbers “could lead to individuals being identified and could cause other spaces to be mistakenly seen as being without risk,” and might cause drivers not to seek needed medical care. A driver for Community Transit, an agency that serves the suburbs north of Seattle, died of COVID-19 last month; so far, the agency has confirmed 10 cases among its drivers.
One Metro driver, who asked to remain anonymous because she was concerned about retaliation for speaking with the press, said she suspects the agency is concealing the number of cases to avoid alarming drivers and riders.
“We have three or four times more drivers” than suburban Community Transit, she said, “and I do not believe in a million years that we don’t have exponentially more” cases. “I believe public transit should have been shut down because we are transporting this disease and we are extending the curve” of infections, she said.
In Seattle, as in many other cities, transit agencies have suspended fare collection and have recently cordoned off the front sections of buses or trains with caution tape to protect drivers, but elderly riders and those with wheelchairs, canes or walkers can still board on the front.
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“I’ve had to get out of my seat and help people [secure their] wheelchairs, which puts me in really close proximity to people,” driver Jeremy Une said. Une drives several of the routes that remain crowded, including one that goes through a busy hospital complex. “Some operators are feeling that even that little bit of contact is too much,” he said.
Kahu Pene is one of those drivers. He was securing a rider’s wheelchair when he felt droplets from the passenger’s mouth on his face. “I am in the at-risk category — I’m over 60 — but I don’t have any underlying health issues,” he said. Nonetheless, he’s now in self-isolation, just in case. “I think it’s just a contradiction — they have all these signs at work that say we’re supposed to maintain all this social distance, and yet we have to act as normal when it comes to ADA riders.”
Struggling To Stay Safe
Several drivers said they’ve received conflicting information about how to protect themselves. Currently, drivers get bottles of Purell, cans of alcohol-based wipes, and one pair of latex gloves per day. So far, Metro has not advised drivers to wear masks, although many have been doing so anyway, and Switzer, the Metro spokesperson, said Thursday that the agency has ordered 154,000 surgical masks and expects to receive a first shipment “soon.”
Some drivers said they feel unprotected and under-informed. “I wipe down my bus every time I get an opportunity,” said David Reuter, who has been driving since late last year. “But it’s a confined space, and the virus can live in the air. So that doesn’t feel super safe.”
King County Metro bus driver Sam Smith says his routes are quieter and take less time, but there are still far too many people riding for him to feel safe. Grant Hindsley for HuffPost
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Monroe said she had been trying to arrive at the bus base early to thoroughly disinfect her space. But recently, she said, she had to pick up a bus mid-route, swapping out with another driver with passengers on the bus. “I didn’t have 10 minutes to wipe everything down. I just drove until we got to the layover, and I could wipe it down then.”
In general, Monroe said, she thinks Metro has been “chasing” the pandemic. She said that when she was driving, she was “honestly kind of terrified most days” about bringing the virus home and “spreading it around without knowing.”
Sam Smith, a driver who is starting a new route this week after three weeks off, is disturbed by the fact that drivers are only given one pair of latex gloves per day when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises discarding gloves every time they are taken off. Recently, he said, he had to pick up a dirty shirt off the bus floor and return it to Metro’s lost and found, which forced him to decide between using up his only pair of gloves for the day or washing his hands as soon as possible and preserving his gloves for the last part of his shift.
“Normally, stuff like that is just gross, and the worst thing you’re worried about is bedbugs,” he said. “Now it’s bedbugs and coronavirus.”
Deciding Whether To Stay Home
Drivers also worry that they’ll have to burn through all their paid time off to deal with a crisis no one anticipated. Metro’s policy differs by seniority and for part-time and full-time drivers, but in general, drivers are required to use up all their paid sick, vacation and other paid leave before they can qualify for other types of paid time off, including paid administrative leave, which is currently available for work scheduled through April 24. County employees are also allowed to donate to, and draw from, a “pool” of sick and vacation time.
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Some drivers said they planned to keep driving even if they believed they were exposed because they couldn’t afford to risk losing their income or using up sick time they might need later.
King County Metro bus driver Audrey Monroe poses for a portrait at a bus stop in Capitol Hill in Seattle on April 8, 2020. Monroe, like many other drivers, has chosen to take personal time off instead of risking exposure to the novel coronavirus. Grant Hindsley for HuffPost
Until this week, Monroe, who has asthma and uses an inhaler, was among them. Although taking time off will mean using up all her sick, vacation and comp time, she decided that driving was no longer worth the risk. Moore said Metro’s policies could encourage drivers to show up sick. “It feels like if they had our health in mind, they would be trying to make some sort of concessions,” she said. “I’d like to go back to work as soon as it feels safe, but I don’t know when that will be.”
Beyond their own fears about contracting the virus, drivers say they miss the camaraderie and daily contact they used to have with their regular riders now that many are no longer taking the bus, and those who do are cordoned off into the back.
Vass, the driver who is staying home because he fears he was exposed to the virus, said he feels “weird talking about driving people around, and transit in general, as something that’s problematic. I was picking up people who were visibly ill, and normally that never would have concerned me, but now I do find myself reacting out of anxiety and fear. ‘Oh, no, does this person have the virus? Am I going to give this person the virus because they’re vulnerable?‘’’
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“I don’t like being in that headspace,” he continued. “I fear that virus fear is affecting my judgment.”
Keeping The Buses Running
While ridership has plummeted overall, drivers said they have noticed a dramatic uptick in the number of riders who appear to be homeless, including “non-destination riders” — people who ride the bus from end to end, sometimes all day. There are many possible explanations for this increase — several drivers thought it was because the buses are now free — but one likely reason is that homeless people have fewer places to go during the day now that libraries, day centers, and community centers are closed.
A King County Metro bus drives down 3rd Ave in downtown Seattle during what is usually rush hour. Grant Hindsley for HuffPost
“It’s sort of like it’s one in the morning all the time” on his route, Vass said, with few commuters or riders traveling to appointments. Last month, he said, “I was primarily transporting people who were just riding back and forth. I just feel awful for them — they’ve been thrown out on the street and their options are so minimal.” But, he added, “Once that population has the virus, you’ve just lost the whole city.”
Drivers are also aware that many people rely on their services. Une believes Metro has an obligation to keep the buses running.
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“I’m taking people to work,” he said, including medical workers and people who provide essential services such as grocery store employees. “If we were to shut down, it would shut down a lot more than just transit, and I don’t think we can afford to do that.”


huffpost--2020-04-10--12 Amazing Photos You Missed This Week

12 Amazing Photos You Missed This Week

We ’ re highlighting exceptional photos from around the world for the week of April 4 to April 10 .
@ @ @ @ @ Above : A bald eagle sits near its nest while the “ super pink moon @ @ @ @ @ at Chatfield State Park in Littleton , Colorado , on April 7 , 2020 .

We’re highlighting exceptional photos from around the world for the week of April 4 to April 10. Check them out below.
Above: A bald eagle sits near its nest while the “super pink moon” rises in the distance at Chatfield State Park in Littleton, Colorado, on April 7, 2020.