Kamasi Washington: “Leroy and Lanisha” live at World Cafe

Jazz You Too

I hate when good music means very expensive tickets – Kamasi Washington will be playing in a wonderful place not far from me, the prices are so high I don’t even consider dropping by… Too bad, he is one of those, well what are videos and recordings for anyway?
Bassist Miles Mosley, drummers Tony Austin and Ronald Bruner, Jr., vocalist Patrice Quinn, trombonist Ryan Porter, Jamael Dean on keys, Washington’s father, Rickey, on soprano sax and flute.

View original post

Advertisement

Let’s Listen To The Michigan Republicans

I am sort of a Democrat. Used to belong to NY State-only Liberal Party. Moved and became a Democrat. When I moved to Michigan, I registered to vote. Through “freedom of information” I got a permanent email from Michigan Republicans. I am a BERNIE supporter but know that the WITCH of Democrats, Ms. Wasserman is trying her best to bury BERNIE with SUPERDELEGATES. So I listen to Republicans.

Good Morning,

While Hillary is in Michigan today, don’t expect her to tell the truth.

Since the beginning of her political career, Hillary Clinton has lied over and over again for votes. Now, as she looks to secure the Democratic Party nomination, her compulsive lies are starting to catch up with her. We cannot trust Clinton in an age of such drastic instability and we need your help to defeat her.

From policy positions to her secret email server, or hiding the transcripts of her high dollar speeches, Clinton demonstrates that she will say anything to get elected. Hillary has switched her position on gay marriage in order to court the LGBT community, failed miserably to convince voters that “she is just like us” when she couldn’t even use the New York City subway, and has even changed her accent on occasion depending on where she was.

Hillary Clinton lied to the families of the four U.S. Citizens who died in Benghazi, telling them that the terrorist attack on the U.S. Compound was in response to a video. Later, while testifying in front of the Congressional panel investigating the events in Benghazi, Hillary asked “what difference at this point does it make” when asked why the compound was attacked.

Hillary Clinton is willing to say and do anything to protect her own interests, regardless of the impact it has on the United States. Help us defeat Hillary this November with a contribution of $50, $100, or more. Every donation is appreciated and will help secure a Republican victory this fall. Donate for a better future for America.

Ronna Romney McDaniel
Chairman, Michigan Republican Party

 

How to Save New York’s Overwhelmed Subways

A plan to help suffering New Yorkers
escape jam-packed cars and long delays.

New York’s transit system is bursting at the seams. People took nearly 1.8 billion rides on subways last year, the most in 68 years. Harried riders press together in a jumble of elbows and backpacks, and the mosh pits on many station platforms are so dense during rush hours that engineers slow to a crawl as a precaution in case people fall or get shoved onto the tracks.

Delays have increased significantly since 2012 because a system stretched to its limits cannot tolerate technical glitches or sick passengers. Many Brooklyn residents were shocked to hear recently that their commute would become more onerous with the L train tunnels under the East River scheduled to undergo major repairs to fix damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

The usual response by Albany, which controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has been to plead poverty, which means there is never enough money to keep up with a growing region. The M.T.A. has opened just one new subway station in the last 25 years, that one in September, even though the city’s population has increased 17 percent in that time.

But the real reason for this sorry state of affairs has been not poverty but an impoverished imagination and a dearth of political will. Enter a group of Democrats in the State Assembly with an ambitious plan, introduced in March, that could significantly improve the city’s transportation system if the rest of the Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo get behind it.

Called the Move NY Fair Plan, it would collect about $1.35 billion a year in new revenue through bridge tolls, congestion pricing and a per-mile surcharge on taxi rides in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. The money would help pay for more frequent service on existing train and bus lines and new service in parts of the city that are so far from subway lines that officials and residents refer to them as “transit deserts.”

 

Move NY, which is based on the ideas of Samuel Schwartz, a former city traffic commissioner, works by putting tolls on the four East River bridges — Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro — that are now free. Drivers would pay the same toll paid by people who use the Midtown Tunnel and the Battery Tunnel — $5.54 one way for people using E-ZPass. Cars that cross south of 60th Street from Upper Manhattan would also pay the toll. They could pay through E-ZPass or be sent a bill by mail with the help of cameras that photograph licenses plates. To reduce congestion, the M.T.A. would be allowed to charge different prices at different times of the day.

At the same time, the legislation would reduce existing tolls on outlying bridges like the Robert F. Kennedy and the Verrazano-Narrows, which serve areas where residents have far fewer mass transit options. Taxis and cars on app-based platforms like Uber and Lyft would be charged a per-mile fee for operating below 110th Street on the West Side and below 96th Street on the East Side, but they would be exempt from the new tolls.

The biggest chunk of the money from the new tolls and fees would enable the M.T.A. to borrow money for much-needed repairs and upgrades. For example, the authority would be able to more quickly replace its aging switching and signaling system with more reliable and efficient technology. That would allow it to run more trains, since it would be able to safely reduce the distance between them.

The agency would also be assured of the money needed to finish the second phase of the Second Avenue subway line up to 125th Street. The first section, 63rd to 96th Street, is expected to open by the end of this year. At some point in the future, the line is supposed to run all the way down to Hanover Square near Wall Street. But even before then, it will go a long way toward alleviating delays and congestion on the nearby Lexington Avenue line, the most crowded in the city.

Move NY would also give the M.T.A. the money and authority to establish new subway lines. One of the most promising proposals is for a line to connect the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn over existing rail tracks, parts of which are owned by CSX, Amtrak and the M.T.A. The 24-mile line, which supporters call the Triboro Rx, would stretch from Co-Op City in the northern Bronx to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, passing through Astoria, Jackson Heights, East New York and Midwood.

The Triboro Rx would serve many fast-growing neighborhoods, some of which have limited or no train service now. The Regional Plan Association, which first proposed the line in the 1990s, estimates it could cost $1 billion to $2 billion, serve an initial daily ridership of 100,000 people and help reduce the time it takes to get from the Bronx to Brooklyn by as much as half an hour, a big help to many lower-income residents. Assuming the line reduces travel times by 10 to 15 minutes for the average rider, that would add up to 65 hours a year per person, the association estimates.

Similarly, the plan includes a proposal to turn existing Long Island Rail Road tracks between the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and Rosedale in Queens into a new subway line. Much like the Triboro Rx, it would bring service to many neighborhoods that are miles from a subway station and would vastly reduce the cost and time it takes to travel between Brooklyn and Queens.

Finally, the legislation would set aside money for transit projects in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island. It would also create new bus service and reduce fares on express buses. And it would give money to neighborhood community boards to invest in local projects like bike lanes, bus depots, public plazas and station repairs.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

 

Writespiration – Drawn Towards the Sun

Myths of the Mirror

Last week I participated in Sacha Black’s Writespiration – It’s All in the Title.  She gave us a list of titles that she’d gathered from our WIPs the week before. We were instructed to pick one and write a story in less than 200 words. I chose the title Drawn towards the Sun. Here’s my story:

pixabay

Drawn Towards The Sun

I was afraid to open the door, afraid the light would burn my eyes after so many months in the burrow, attuned to its shadowy corners. The others crowded behind me, their eagerness pressing on my back. “Close your eyes,” I warned them and thumbed the latch.

My vision reduced to slits, I cracked the door. The sunlight burned, a white-hot flame searing my retinas. We gasped in unison and paused, breath locked in our chests. I eased the door open, slowly, wider, the heat tumbling down from above with…

View original post 107 more words

5 of Country’s Biggest Banks Are Still Too Big to Fail

 

ederal regulators concluded yesterday that five of the country’s biggest banks are still — literally — Too Big to Fail. Five US banks are officially large enough that any one of them could crash the economy again if they started to fail and weren’t bailed out. One of those banks was JPMorgan Chase. What was the reaction of JPM’s CEO, Jamie Dimon? He sent a note to his staff saying, “I want you all to know that you did an unbelievable job.”

“Unbelievable”? Yes, completely and totally unbelievable that JPM could help crash the economy, suck down a giant bailout, discover a London Whale that hid $6 billion in losses, get tagged by the FDIC and the Fed as Too Big to Fail, AND then pat each other on the back and say “heckuva job.” That is the definition of “unbelievable” in the real world — but it’s business as usual in the cozy world of Wall Street.

By Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth Warren’s Facebook Page

What are Supply Chain Superstars Looking for in an Employer?

This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management.

A few weeks ago, we offered an infographic that laid out key skills (hard skills + soft skills) that employers are looking for when hiring Supply Chain professionals. In that post, we condensed many discussions with hiring managers and senior directors in the field into key points of expertise that any Supply Chain professional should develop when building their career.

Today, we’re flipping the script to offer advice to companies and hiring managers, based on the scores of conversations our recruiters have every day with top candidates in the field, with the goal of answering the following question: what exactly are the high-achieving, high-performers within Supply Chain looking for in a prospective employer?

Companies that invest in developing talent in a field as strategically rich as Supply Chain can expect huge dividends. But hiring is a two-way street. In this market, (especially when Supply Chain professionals are in higher demand than ever) companies need to do all they can to appeal to top performers when hiring. They also need to do all they can to make sure that their best Supply Chain talent stays with the company for 5 years and beyond, growing into leadership roles internally instead of moving on after 18 months because of a lack of opportunity.

So what are Supply Chain superstars looking for? Conventional wisdom would hold that compensation is the most important factor when it comes to whether someone wants to work for a company, and stay at that company long-term. But surprisingly, our conversations with top candidates have shown us that modern Supply Chain professionals are more concerned with other factors, which our infographic outlines below:

Priorities for top candidates in the field come down to a few simple desires and goals beyond making money: Today’s leading Supply Chain professionals want to make an impact where they work. They want to add value. They want to grow and improve not only their own organizations, but their own understanding of the world and Supply Chain’s place within it.

As with the previous infographic in this series, this post is meant to condense complex points into an easily-digestible format. Dig into Argentus’ archives for further coverage of what companies can do to attract the best candidates in the field.

As a leading recruiter in the Supply Chain space, we’re happy to be connected with a number of these star performers. The recruitment business terms them “White whales,” “purple squirrels,” “unicorns” and other colourful terms. But whatever you call them, these candidates are the ones that truly move organizations into the future – hence why they’re in such high demand, and why companies need to do all they can to attract and retain them.

As Steve Jobs famously said, “a small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.” So there’s nothing more satisfying as a recruiter than placing an A+ player in a place where they’ll be poised to make a serious impact.

Thanks to the Argentus recruiters who provided their input for this article!

by Alexa Cheater