More than 18 percent of American adults experience mental illness in a given year. It is among the top three causes of homelessness in the US as about 25 percent of America’s homeless suffers from mental illness. In San Francisco, one man is trying to make a difference using technology and a trumpet. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti has his story.
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Month: November 2017
Contestant from South Africa Wins Miss Universe Crown
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, who represented South Africa, won the Miss Universe crown Sunday.
The 22-year-old, who recently earned a business management degree, was crowned at The AXIS Theater at Planet Hollywood casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip. The runner-up was Miss Colombia Laura Gonzalez, while the second runner-up was Miss Jamaica Davina Bennett.
Ninety-two women from around the world participated in the decades-old competition. This year’s edition had the most contestants ever, including the first representatives in its history of Cambodia, Laos and Nepal.
Along with the title, Nel-Peters earned a yearlong salary, a luxury apartment in New York City for the duration of her reign and more prizes. She is the second woman from her home country to earn the crown.
Fans of the pageant submitted the questions that the final five contestants were asked during the competition.
When asked to name the most important issue women face in the workplace, Nel-Peters said the lack of equal pay.
“In some places, women get paid 75 percent of what men earn for doing the same job, working the same hours, and I do not believe that is right,” she said. “I think we should have equal work for equal pay for women all over the world.”
Nel-Peters is from the South African coastal community of Sedgefield in the Western Cape province. She helped develop a program to train women in self-defense in various situations after she was robbed at gunpoint a month after she was crowned as Miss South Africa.
Steve Harvey returned as the show’s host despite botching the 2015 Miss Universe crowning. On Sunday, he poked fun at his mistake throughout the night. Three days after people in the U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving, Harvey told the audience he is “grateful for the Oscars,” referring to the best-picture flub at this year’s Academy Awards.
Grammy-Award winner Fergie performed her new song “A Little Work” while the contestants walked down the stage wearing evening gowns. This year’s judges included YouTube star Lele Pons, former judge of “America’s Next Top Model” Jay Manuel and Wendy Fitzwilliam, the 1998 Miss Universe winner from Trinidad and Tobago.
President Donald Trump offended Hispanics when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his bid for the White House in 2015. At the time, he co-owned The Miss Universe Organization with NBCUniversal, but the network and the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision quickly cut ties with him, refusing to air the show. Trump sued both networks, eventually settling and selling off the entire pageant to talent management company WME/IMG.
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Veterans Key as Surge of States OK Medical Pot for PTSD
It was a telling setting for a decision on whether post-traumatic stress disorder patients could use medical marijuana.
Against the backdrop of the nation’s largest Veterans Day parade, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this month he’d sign legislation making New York the latest in a fast-rising tide of states to OK therapeutic pot as a PTSD treatment, though it’s illegal under federal law and doesn’t boast extensive, conclusive medical research.
Twenty-eight states plus the District of Columbia now include PTSD in their medical marijuana programs, a tally that has more than doubled in the last two years, according to data compiled by the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. A 29th state, Alaska, doesn’t incorporate PTSD in its medical marijuana program but allows everyone over 20 to buy pot legally.
The increase has come amid increasingly visible advocacy from veterans’ groups.
Retired Marine staff sergeant Mark DiPasquale says the drug freed him from the 17 opioids, anti-anxiety pills and other medications that were prescribed to him for migraines, post-traumatic stress and other injuries from service that included a hard helicopter landing in Iraq in 2005.
“I just felt like a zombie, and I wanted to hurt somebody,” says DiPasquale, a co-founder of the Rochester, New York-based Veterans Cannabis Collective Foundation. It aims to educate vets about the drug he pointedly calls by the scientific name cannabis.
DiPasquale pushed to extend New York’s nearly two-year-old medical marijuana program to include post-traumatic stress. He’d qualified because of other conditions but felt the drug ease his anxiety, sleeplessness and other PTSD symptoms and spur him to focus on wellness.
“Do I still have PTSD? Absolutely,” says DiPasquale, 42. But “I’m back to my old self. I love people again.”
Help for veterans
In a sign of how much the issue has taken hold among veterans, the 2.2-million-member American Legion began pressing the federal government this summer to let Department of Veterans Affairs doctors recommend medical marijuana where it’s legal . The Legion started advocating last year for easing federal constraints on medical pot research, a departure into drug policy for the nearly century-old organization.
“People ask, ‘Aren’t you the law-and-order group?’ Why, yes, we are,” Executive Director Verna Jones said at a Legion-arranged news conference early this month at the U.S. Capitol. But “when veterans come to us and say a particular treatment is working for them, we owe it to them to listen and to do scientific research required.”
Even Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin recently said “there may be some evidence that this (medical marijuana) is beginning to be helpful,” while noting that his agency is barred from helping patients get the illegal drug. (A few prescription drugs containing a synthetic version of a key chemical in marijuana do have federal approval to treat chemotherapy-related nausea.)
Medical marijuana first became legal in 1996 in California for a wide range of conditions; New Mexico in 2009 became the first state specifically to include PTSD patients. States have signed on in growing numbers particularly since 2014.
“It’s quite a sea change,” says Michael Krawitz, a disabled Air Force veteran who now runs Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, an Elliston, Virginia-based group that’s pursued the issue in many states.
Still, there remain questions and qualms _ some from veterans _ about advocating for medical marijuana as a treatment for PTSD.
It was stripped out of legislation that added six other diseases and syndromes to Georgia’s law that allows certain medical cannabis oils. The chairman of the New York Senate veterans’ affairs committee voted against adding PTSD to the state’s program, suggesting the drug might just mask their symptoms.
“The sooner we allow them to live and experience the kind of emotions we do, in an abstinence-based paradigm, the sooner that they are returning home,” said Sen. Thomas Croci, a Republican, former Navy intelligence officer and current reservist who served in Afghanistan.
The American Psychiatric Association says there’s not enough evidence now to support using pot to treat PTSD. The 82,000-member Vietnam Veterans of America group agrees.
“You wouldn’t have cancer treatments that aren’t approved done to yourself or your family members,” and marijuana should be subjected to the same scrutiny, says Dr. Thomas Berger, who heads VVA’s Veterans Health Council.
A federal science advisory panel’s recent assessment of two decades’ worth of studies found limited evidence that a synthetic chemical cousin of marijuana might help relieve PTSD, but also some data suggesting pot use could worsen symptoms.
Medical marijuana advocates note it’s been tough to get evidence when testing is complicated by pot’s legal status in the U.S.
A federally approved clinical trial of marijuana as a PTSD treatment for veterans is now underway in Phoenix, and results from the current phase could be ready to submit for publication in a couple of years, says one of the researchers, Dr. Suzanne Sisley.
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Dry Weekend Draws US Shoppers Even as Online Sales Boom
The driest Thanksgiving weekend in five years may have helped holiday shopping, despite an overall decline in foot traffic. But some shoppers just took notes in the hopes of finding an even better deal online.
That’s a consequence of Amazon continuing to squeeze prices, exacerbating the “showrooming” practice of people getting ideas at brick-and-mortar stores, then buying online.
Heather Just and husband Dominic of Rockford, Illinois, brought their twin 11-year-old boys and 13-year-old son to the giant Water Tower Place on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on Saturday to see “what their eyes get big about.”
The excursion was more recon mission than shopping spree. “We’re watching, we’re watching,” she told her sons, who focused their attention on a Nintendo Switch portable game console.
Amaz-ing prices
Amazon continues to beat prices at other retailers in many cases, according to marketing technology company Boomerang Commerce.
For example, it pointed out that Amazon cut prices on Beats Solo 3 wireless headphones. The Associated Press found them on Amazon selling for $200, $10 below BestBuy.com, and $40 below the Black Friday deal at Target.
But Walmart isn’t far behind in high-tech price matching. Following its purchase of Jet.com last year for $3.3 billion, the company can now quickly ratchet prices down on popular items using machine-learning algorithms, while maintaining profit margins on lesser-trafficked items.
The technology has set up Walmart and Amazon for a “clash of the titans” in online sales where consumer perceptions of prices are formed, according to Boomerang’s vice president of marketing, Gary Liu.
“You can’t compete in the same way you did before,” Liu said.
Online supplements offline
Steve Hagan, a general contractor from Richmond, Kentucky, said his 9-year-old son, Luke, and 8-year-old daughter, Lauren, used their own money and gift cards to buy toys on a Chicago shopping trip from the Star Wars and Bitty Baby brands. But he was keeping track of where Santa could digitally fill in the blanks.
“That baby doll may need some accessories and I had to ask Luke which Star Wars character he was getting and which one he already has,” said Hagan, adding that he’ll shop online later. “I’m taking notes.”
Lisa Stripling, of South Bend, Indiana, said her goal was to see what her 3 1/2-year-old grandson Max liked and buy it online.
“I used to do most of my shopping in stores and now it’s 75 percent online and 25 percent in the stores,” she said.
Weather cooperating
Rainfall from Thanksgiving through the weekend was the lowest since 2013, and snowfall was the lowest in over 20 years, boosting foot traffic to malls and restaurants, according to weather analytics firm Planalytics.
Cold, dry conditions in the populous northeast bolstered the holiday shopping spirit, because it “drives more people to apparel” as they bundle up, according to Planalytics president Scott Bernhardt.
Nationally, it was the warmest Black Friday weekend since 2001.
Despite the favorable conditions, foot traffic to stores nationwide for the Thanksgiving Day through Saturday fell 3.1 percent from a year ago, according to store visitation tracker RetailNext Inc. It partly blamed the creep of sales events into the first week of November for the decline, though foot traffic has fallen four years in a row.
Strong results
Daniel Ives, head of technology research for GBH Insights, said Amazon was posting stronger-than-expected sales, and at this pace, it could beat fourth-quarter sales estimates by 5 percent.
Jon Abt, co-president of Glenview, Illinois-based Abt Electronics, said sales from Friday through Sunday were up about 14 percent from a year ago, driven by higher-priced TVs from LG and Sony, video game consoles such as Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One S and smart speakers from Amazon, Google and Sonos.
A few management decisions have kept the 81-year-old single-location retailer thriving: Abt shuns doorbuster specials with limited-supply items that can run out and disappoint shoppers. It also has resisted the creep of sales starting earlier and earlier (the store is closed Thanksgiving Day).
And Abt says the store has more than 100 terminals to let people price-shop as much as they like, which the store will match.
“We invite people to use the internet if they want to,” Abt said. “If they’re not going to do it in here, they’re doing it at home.”
your ads here!UNICEF: Yemen Worst Place on Earth to Be a Child
UNICEF’s Middle East director is calling Yemen one of the worst places on Earth to be a child and urging all involved in the fighting to let humanitarian aid keep coming in.
Geert Cappelaere told reporters in Amman, Jordan, Sunday that UNICEF was able to get nearly 2 million doses of vaccines delivered to Sana’a airport Saturday, but that such success should not be a “one-off.”
Cappelaere said far more supplies are needed and that ships carrying food, chlorine tables for drinking water, and treatments for diarrhea and cholera are on their way to the port of Hodeida.
“More than 11 million Yemeni children are today in acute need of humanitarian assistance. That’s almost every single Yemeni boy and girl,” Cappelaere said. “To all parties and all those with a heart for children, please take your responsibility now.”
He was talking about the responsibility for all those involved in Yemen to stop fighting and stop what he calls the war on children.
“Today we estimate that every 10 minutes, a child in Yemen is dying from preventable diseases,” he said.
The Saudi-led coalition trying to drive out Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Sana’a promised last week to ease a blockade of the airport and Hodeida.
It shut down the facilities almost three weeks ago in response to a Houthi missile attack near the airport in Riyadh. The Saudis intercepted the missile.
Saudi Arabia blames the missile launch on Iran. Iran denies arming the Houthis.
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Does Cellphone-Sweeping ‘StingRay’ Technology Go Too Far?
New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas are among scores of police departments across the country quietly using a highly secretive technology developed for the military that can track the whereabouts of suspects by using the signals constantly emitted by their cellphones.
Civil liberties and privacy groups are increasingly raising objections to the suitcase-sized devices known as StingRays or cell site simulators that can sweep up cellphone data from an entire neighborhood by mimicking cell towers. Police can determine the location of a phone without the user even making a call or sending a text message. Some versions of the technology can even intercept texts and calls, or pull information stored on the phones.
Part of the problem, privacy experts say, is the devices can also collect data from anyone within a small radius of the person being tracked. And law enforcement goes to great lengths to conceal usage, in some cases, offering plea deals rather than divulging details on the StingRay.
“We can’t even tell how frequently they’re being used,” said attorney Jerome Greco, of the Legal Aid Society, which recently succeeded in blocking evidence collected with the device in a New York City murder case. “It makes it very difficult.”
At least 72 state and local law enforcement departments in 24 states plus 13 federal agencies use the devices, but further details are hard to come by because the departments that use them must take the unusual step of signing nondisclosure agreements overseen by the FBI.
An FBI spokeswoman said the agreements, which often involve the Harris Corporation, a defense contractor that makes the devices, are intended to prevent the release of sensitive law enforcement information to the general public. But the agreements don’t prevent an officer from telling prosecutors the technology was used in a case.
In New York, use of the technology was virtually unknown to the public until last year when the New York Civil Liberties Union forced the disclosure of records showing the NYPD used the devices more than 1,000 times since 2008. That included cases in which the technology helped catch suspects in kidnappings, rapes, robberies, assaults and murders. It has even helped find missing people.
But privacy experts say such gains come at too high a cost.
“We have a Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,” said Jennifer Lynch, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, referring to the protection against unreasonable search and seizure. “Our Founding Fathers decided when they wrote the Bill of Rights there had to be limits placed on government.”
Lawmakers in several states have introduced proposals ranging from warrant requirements to an outright ban on the technology; about a dozen states already have laws requiring warrants. Federal law enforcement said last year that it would be routinely required to get a search warrant before using the technology – a first effort to create a uniform legal standard for federal authorities.
And case law is slowly building. Two months ago, a Washington, D.C., appeals court overturned a conviction on a sex assault after judges ruled a violation of the Fourth Amendment because of evidence improperly collected from the simulator without a proper warrant.
In the New York murder case argued by the Legal Aid Society, a judge in Brooklyn last month ruled that the NYPD must have an eavesdropping warrant signed by a judge to use the device, a much higher bar than the “reasonable suspicion” standard that had previously been required.
“By its very nature, then, the use of a cell site simulator intrudes upon an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, acting as an instrument of eavesdropping and requires a separate warrant supported by probable cause,” wrote state Supreme Court Judge Martin Murphy.
New York City police officials disagreed with the ruling and disputed that a StingRay was even used in the case, even though there had been a court order to do so. Police officials also said they have since started requiring a higher stander of probable cause when applying for the devices.
Legal Aid Society’s Greco said he hoped the ruling will push the nation’s largest department into meeting the higher standard, and help judges better understand the intricacies of more cutting-edge surveillance.
“We’re hoping we can use this decision among other decisions being made across the country to show that this logic is right,” Greco said. “Part of an issue we’re facing with technology, the judges don’t understand it. It makes it easier if another judge has sat down and really thought about it.”
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For Cambodian Techies, US Tour Ends With Vision of Startup at Home
At home in Phnom Penh, the five techies knew of each other by reputation but had never met. After three weeks touring the United States, they’ve returned to Cambodia fired up about collaborating on a fintech startup.
“Before, when I thought about a million-dollar business, it was only a dream,” Sopheakmonkol Sok, 29, a co-founder and CEO of Codingate, a web and mobile developer, told VOA Khmer.
Langda Chea, founder and CEO of BookMeBus, a booking app for Cambodian bus, ferry and taxi travel, met Sopheakmonkol Sok while under the auspices of a U.S. State Department program called the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), which includes work on democracy, human rights, security, environment, international crime, economic growth and development.
Learned from other companies’ successes
The tech intensive “Accelerating Tech Entrepreneurship and SME Development” focused on small- and medium-sized enterprise growth in the tech sector. The Cambodians engaged with tech leaders in Washington, D.C.; Cleveland, Ohio; Raleigh, North Carolina; San Francisco and San Jose, California.
In Silicon Valley, they met with “a lot of successful companies, big and small,” Sok said. “So we saw how they operate and manage their businesses, and we learned from their success.”
Nicholas Geisinger, the IVLP program officer who oversaw the tech trip, said the program works when it encourages the cross-pollination of ideas among the exchange visitors and Americans.
“We [told] them about the development in our country,” Chea said, listing positives such as a fast, inexpensive internet infrastructure, an improving business environment, and the growth of an educated workforce “that show potential because it’s an advantage for us if they invest in Cambodia.”
“Ideas were originated with the U.S. embassy … and furthering economic development in Cambodia was one of their objectives. … That’s why we did a program on this topic,” Geisinger said.
It’s a bonus when the visitors learn “and have new ideas by talking with each other in this new environment,” Geisinger said. “That’s a huge win for the program, a win for the people of Cambodia and I can’t wait to see what they will do next.”
Chankiriroth Sim, founder and CEO of BanhJi, a fintech startup, told VOA Khmer that while the participants learned more about the U.S. tech scene on their tour, the “important thing is that we got to know each other better.”
Or as Rithy Thul, the founder of Smallworld, a collaborative co-working space, told VOA Khmer, the five learned “we can work together when we are back” in Cambodia.
Or can they? Each one has a tech business, so who will run their fintech collaboration, the details of which they’re not disclosing, other than to say it is in the payment space. That remains under discussion.
“The advantage is that, when we succeed, it can help Cambodia, it helps the next generation,” BookMeBus founder Chea said. “But I’m worried that if there are too many smart people in one group, it could be a disadvantage.”
Opportunity and support
After three weeks, Chea said he was impressed with how various levels of government in the U.S. — local, state and federal — support startups.
“The opportunities I see, including the cooperation between the government, the enterprises, and the incubation, which helps small business to understand its own business, to make it standardized in order to raise fund(s) or find investors,” Chea said.
For example, the Cambodians and local tech types discussed how local firms and city government can support each other at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation (MOCI).
It is the only operation of its kind in the U.S., said Siobhan Oat-Judge, a Pearson fellow in the department that “connects government agencies with startups to develop technology products that address civic challenges,” according to the MOCI website.
Helping startups to grow isn’t a one-way street, “the community as a whole gains from helping them since they bring solutions to problem. … It’s mutually beneficial,” Oat-Judge said.
“We are supporting startups, but we are also gaining from them because they are bringing in solutions for problems,” she added. “They are bringing new ideas, new technology that are helping us to improve the way we are doing things.”
Funding issues
It’s more difficult to obtain funding in Cambodia than it is in the U.S., said Visal In, co-founder of KhmerLoad, the first Cambodian tech startup backed by Silicon Valley investors.
For starters, there’s more U.S. money seeking potentially profitable ideas, something that In found when 500 Startups, a global venture capital based in San Francisco, invested $200,000 in his site.
“Some companies outside Cambodia totally depend on getting grants, and in Cambodia it would be difficult if we did that,” In said. For other companies outside Cambodia, “they can sustain themselves without profit, but because they have a good idea, they can be seeking outside funding for five or six years, the time it takes to become profitable. In Cambodia, that’s impossible.”
Kounila Keo, one of two female IVLP participants, said she would like to see the Cambodian government step up its support for startups.
Keo, a managing director at RedHill Asia and who was spotlighted by Forbes 30 under 30 Asia in 2017, said, “What I want to have in Cambodia in the future is a better and closer cooperation between the government and private companies in order to enhance the tech startup and tech entrepreneurship initiatives.”
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In Fukushima Cleanup, It’s Human Nature vs. Science
More than six years after a tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan has yet to reach consensus on what to do with a million tons of radioactive water, stored on site in around 900 large and densely packed tanks that could spill should another major earthquake or tsunami strike.
The stalemate is rooted in a fundamental conflict between science and human nature.
Experts advising the government have urged a gradual release into the Pacific Ocean. Treatment has removed all the radioactive elements except tritium, which they say is safe in small amounts. Conversely, if the tanks break, their contents could slosh out in an uncontrolled way.
Fishermen protest
Local fishermen are balking. The water, no matter how clean, has a dirty image for consumers, they say. Despite repeated tests showing most types of fish caught off Fukushima are safe to eat, diners remain hesitant. The fishermen fear any release would sound the death knell for their nascent and still fragile recovery.
“People would shun Fukushima fish again as soon as the water is released,” said Fumio Haga, a drag-net fisherman from Iwaki, a city about 50 kilometers (30 miles) down the coast from the nuclear plant.
And so the tanks remain.
March 11, 2011
Fall is high season for saury and flounder, among Fukushima’s signature fish. It was once a busy time of year when coastal fishermen were out every morning.
Then came March 11, 2011. A 9 magnitude offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people along Japan’s northeast coast. The quake and massive flooding knocked out power for the cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Three of the six reactors had partial meltdowns. Radiation spewed into the air, and highly contaminated water ran into the Pacific.
Today, only about half of the region’s 1,000 fishermen go out, and just twice a week because of reduced demand. They participate in a fish-testing program.
Lab technicians mince fish samples at Onahama port in Iwaki, pack them in a cup for inspection and record details such as who caught the fish and where. Packaged fish sold at supermarkets carry official “safe” stickers.
Only three kinds of fish passed the test when the experiment began in mid-2012, 15 months after the tsunami. Over time, that number has increased to about 100.
The fish meet what is believed to be the world’s most stringent requirement: less than half the radioactive cesium level allowed under Japan’s national standard and one-twelfth of the U.S. or EU limit, said Yoshiharu Nemoto, a senior researcher at the Onahama testing station.
That message isn’t reaching consumers. A survey by Japan’s Consumer Agency in October found that nearly half of Japanese weren’t aware of the tests, and that consumers are more likely to focus on alarming information about possible health impacts in extreme cases, rather than facts about radiation and safety standards.
Fewer Japanese consumers shun fish and other foods from Fukushima than before, but 1 in 5 still do, according to the survey. The coastal catch of 2,000 tons last year was 8 percent of pre-disaster levels. The deep-sea catch was half of what it used to be, though scientists say there is no contamination risk that far out.
Not yet psychologically ready
Naoya Sekiya, a University of Tokyo expert on disaster information and social psychology, said that the water from the nuclear plant shouldn’t be released until people are well-informed about the basic facts and psychologically ready.
“A release only based on scientific safety, without addressing the public’s concerns, cannot be tolerated in a democratic society,” he said. “A release when people are unprepared would only make things worse.”
He and consumer advocacy group representative Kikuko Tatsumi sit on a government expert panel that has been wrestling with the social impact of a release and what to do with the water for more than a year, with no sign of resolution.
More radioactive water
The amount of radioactive water at Fukushima is growing, by 150 tons a day.
The reactors are damaged beyond repair, but cooling water must be constantly pumped in to keep them from overheating. That water picks up radioactivity before leaking out of the damaged containment chambers and collecting in the basements.
There, the volume of contaminated water grows, because it mixes with groundwater that has seeped in through cracks in the reactor buildings. After treatment, 210 tons is reused as cooling water, and the remaining 150 tons is sent to tank storage. During heavy rains, the groundwater inflow increases significantly, adding to the volume.
Another government panel recommended last year that the utility, known as TEPCO, dilute the water up to about 50 times and release about 400 tons daily to the sea — a process that would take almost a decade to complete. Experts note that the release of radioactive tritium water is allowed at other nuclear plants.
Tritium water from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States was evaporated, but the amount was much smaller, and still required 10 years of preparation and three more years to complete.
A new chairman at TEPCO, Takashi Kawamura, caused an uproar in the fishing community in April when he expressed support for moving ahead with the release of the water.
The company quickly backpedaled, and now says it has no plans for an immediate release and can keep storing water through 2020. TEPCO says the decision should be made by the government, because the public doesn’t trust the utility.
“Our recovery effort up until now would immediately collapse to zero if the water is released,” Iwaki abalone farmer Yuichi Manome said.
Some experts have proposed moving the tanks to an intermediate storage area, or delaying the release until at least 2023, when half the tritium that was present at the time of the disaster will have disappeared naturally.
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After the Wildfires, California Winemakers Open for Business
Wildfires that swept through Northern California in early October killed 42 people, destroyed hundreds of homes, and caused an estimated $6 billion in damage to the region. The fires have also frozen an income stream the region relies on: tourism. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Researchers Seek More Ways to Treat Opioid Addiction
The United States is suffering through an unprecedented wave of opioid and prescription drug abuse. Every day, an average of 91 Americans die from an opioid-related overdose. A new study comparing two of the top medications for treating addiction found they were equally safe and effective in curtailing opioid use, relapse, treatment drop-out and overdose. Faith Lapidus reports.
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US Black Friday, Thanksgiving Online Sales Hit Record
Black Friday and Thanksgiving online sales in the United States surged to record highs as shoppers bagged deep discounts and bought more on their mobile devices, heralding a promising start to the key holiday season, according to retail analytics firms.
U.S. retailers raked in a record $7.9 billion in online sales on Black Friday and Thanksgiving, up 17.9 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which measures transactions at the largest 100 U.S. web retailers, Saturday.
Adobe said Cyber Monday is expected to drive $6.6 billion in internet sales, which would make it the largest U.S. online shopping day in history.
Traditional retailers prepared
In the run-up to the holiday weekend, traditional retailers invested heavily in improving their websites and bulking up delivery options, pre-empting a decline in visits to brick-and-mortar stores. Several chains tightened store inventories as well, to ward off any post-holiday liquidation that would weigh on profits.
TVs, laptops, toys and gaming consoles — particularly the PlayStation 4 — were among the most heavily discounted and the biggest sellers, according to retail analysts and consultants.
Commerce marketing firm Criteo said 40 percent of Black Friday online purchases were made on mobile phones, up from 29 percent last year.
No brick-and-mortar data yet
No brick-and-mortar sales data for Thanksgiving or Black Friday was immediately available, but Reuters reporters and industry analysts noted anecdotal signs of muted activity — fewer cars in mall parking lots, shoppers leaving stores without purchases in hand.
Stores offered heavy discounts, creative gimmicks and free gifts to draw bargain hunters out of their homes, but some shoppers said they were just browsing the merchandise, reserving their cash for internet purchases. There was little evidence of the delirious shopper frenzy customary of Black Fridays from past years.
Store traffic bucks predictions
However, retail research firm ShopperTrak said store traffic fell less than 1 percent on Black Friday, bucking industry predictions of a sharper decline.
“There has been a significant amount of debate surrounding the shifting importance of brick-and-mortar retail,” Brian Field, ShopperTrak’s senior director of advisory services, said.
“The fact that shopper visits remained intact on Black Friday illustrates that physical retail is still highly relevant and when done right, it is profitable.”
The National Retail Federation (NRF), which had predicted strong holiday sales helped by rising consumer confidence, said Friday that fair weather across much of the nation had also helped draw shoppers into stores.
The NRF, whose overall industry sales data is closely watched each year, is scheduled to release Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales numbers Tuesday.
U.S. consumer confidence has been strengthening over this past year, thanks to a labor market that is churning out jobs, rising home prices and stock markets that are hovering at record highs.
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Jackman: After ‘Logan,’ ‘It’s Time to Leave the Party’
“I know Aussies are not known for leaving the party at the right time but (after) 17 years, it’s time to leave the party,” Hugh Jackman quipped as he talked about his last time playing X-Men superhero Wolverine in this year’s gritty action hit Logan.
The Australian actor made his breakthrough as the gruff, clawed mutant Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men film and has since played the character eight times on screen. But with this year’s “Logan,” Jackman said he and the filmmakers took the biggest risk for his final performance as the mutant hero.
“This was not a given moneymaker,” Jackman said in an interview.
“People considered this to be the biggest risk, the most foolish risk ever taken, and I think people assume you’re just doing a sequel because it’s a moneymaker, but my experience from being within it is that it’s always felt like a risk and I think that’s to be embraced.”
A darker side
“Logan” was the first time Jackman, 49, played his character in an R-rated film, where he was allowed to embrace the darker, more tormented side of Wolverine.
In the film, an older, wearier Logan struggles with alcoholism as he rescues a young mutant girl and unwillingly aids her in her journey to get to safety, the two forging an unlikely friendship despite both their explosive tempers.
“This is a man whose life is centered on violence,” Jackman said. “It seemed very difficult thematically, not just in terms of graphic violence but the consequences of violence, it seemed impossible to make that as a PG-13 movie and really get into the thematic of that and on a serious level.”
Praise from critics
The film received strong praise from critics when it was released in March, grossing more than $600 million worldwide according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. Film studio 20th Century Fox is hoping Jackman’s new take on the character will give Logan a competitive edge in the upcoming awards season, which does not usually favor big-budget comic book films.
“It’s a great time for us as actors or creators of stories,” Jackman said. “I’m thrilled that the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, voters of the Oscars) is seeing that there are less boundaries in a way of what makes a really good film, and the genre shouldn’t dictate that.”
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On Monday, Who’s the Boss at Consumer Rights Agency?
Who’s the boss? That’s the awkward question after the departing head of a government agency charged with looking after consumer rights appointed a deputy to temporarily fill his spot. The White House then named its own interim leader.
One job, two people — and two very different views on how to do it.
The first pick is expected to continue the aggressive policing of banks and other lenders that have angered Republicans. The second, President Donald Trump’s choice, has called the agency a “joke,” an example of bureaucracy run amok, and is expected to dismantle much of what the agency has done.
So come Monday, who will be leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?
Both say law on their side
Senior Trump administration officials said Saturday that the law was on their side and they expect no trouble when Trump’s pick for temporary director of the CFPB shows up for work. Departing director Richard Cordray, an Obama appointee long criticized by Congressional Republicans as overzealous, had cited a different rule in saying the law was on his side.
In tendering his resignation Friday, Cordray elevated Leandra English, who was the agency’s chief of staff, into the deputy director position. Citing the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, he said English, an ally of his, would become acting director upon his departure.
Corday’s move was widely seen as an attempt to stop Trump from shaping the agency in the months ahead.
The White House cites the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. Administration officials on Saturday acknowledged that some other laws appear to clash with Vacancies Act, but said that in this case the president’s authority takes precedence.
Important, though temporary, job
Who prevails in the legal wrangling is seen as important even though this involves just a temporary posting. Getting a permanent replacement approved by the Senate could take months.
The president’s pick for temporary appointee, Mick Mulvaney, had been widely anticipated. Mulvaney, currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been an outspoken critic of the agency and is expected to pull back on many of Cordray’s actions in the six years since he was appointed.
Trump announced he was picking Mulvaney within a few hours of Cordray’s announcement Friday.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, has been a total disaster as run by the previous Administrations pick,” Trump tweeted Saturday from his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending a long Thanksgiving weekend. “Financial Institutions have been devastated and unable to properly serve the public. We will bring it back to life!”
The administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the White House’s thinking, called Trump’s appointment of an acting director a “routine move.” They said the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has already approved Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney and will issue a written legal opinion soon.
The clashing appointments raise the question: What happens when the two new heads show up and try to sit at the same desk and give orders?
One of the administration officials said Mulvaney was expected to start working Monday and that English was expected to also show up — but as deputy director.
Leandra English
English is a trusted lieutenant of Cordray’s who has helped investigate and punish financial companies in ways that many Republicans, Mulvaney in particular, think go too far. In his announcement Friday, Cordray highlighted English’s “in-depth” knowledge of the agency’s operations and its staff. Before joining the CFPB, English served at the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management.
“Leandra is a seasoned professional who has spent her career of public service focused on promoting smooth and efficient operations,” Cordray said in the statement.
Mick Mulvaney
Mulvaney was a South Carolina representative to the House before becoming head of the budget office. A founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, he was elected in 2010 as part of a tea party wave that brought many critics of the U.S. budget deficit to office. He has taken a hard line on federal spending matters, routinely voting against increasing the government’s borrowing cap and pressing for major cuts to benefit programs as the path to balancing the budget.
He also has been unsparing in his criticism of the CFPB. In a widely quoted comment, he once blasted the agency as “joke,” saying its lack of oversight by Congress and its far-reaching regulations had gone too far.
“The place is a wonderful example of how a bureaucracy will function if it has no accountability to anybody,” he told the Credit Union Times in 2014. “It turns up being a joke in a sick, sad kind of way.”
Congress weighs in
U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee and a longtime critic of Cordray, said Mulvaney would “fight not only to protect consumers from force, fraud, and deception but will protect them from government interference with competitive, innovative markets and help preserve their fundamental economic opportunities and liberties.”
Democrats have seized upon Mulvaney’s words in criticizing his appointment to the agency.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, issued a statement Saturday calling Mulvaney “unacceptable” to lead the CFPB because of his “noxious” views toward its mission to protect consumers.
“He was also the original co-sponsor of a bill to completely eliminate the Consumer Bureau,” she wrote, “and supported other legislation to harmfully roll back Wall Street reform.”
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Brazil President Has Angioplasty in 3 Arteries, Stent put in
Brazil’s President Michel Temer is recovering after undergoing a successful angioplasty in three coronary arteries.
The presidential palace said Saturday that at least one stent was implanted in the procedure late Friday. It said Temer was recuperating in a hospital in Sao Paulo.
The 77-year-old president was admitted to the hospital on Friday night to have a coronary catheter inserted. That’s typically a procedure to check for blockages in arteries.
Earlier this year, Temer was diagnosed with a partial coronary obstruction. His office had said he planned to treat it with aspirin and a low-fat diet.
Temer also underwent a urological exam on Friday. Last month, he had surgery to reduce the size of his prostate after doctors diagnosed a urological blockage.
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Bookmaker Taking No Bets on When Prince Harry Will Wed
A major London bookmaker has suspended betting on whether Prince Harry will marry American actress Meghan Markle in 2018 amid rumors an engagement may be announced soon.
Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said Friday that it seems an engagement announcement “is to be confirmed imminently.”
The bookmaker has stopped taking bets on a 2018 royal wedding after Markle was seen shopping in London this week.
The British press has reported that Markle has met in private with Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The couple has been dating for more than a year, and Harry has asked the press to grant them a certain amount of privacy.
Markle is believed to be in the process of moving to London.
Palace officials say they will not comment on the rumors.
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What’s On the Menu? Augmented Reality and 3-D Food Models
At Vino Levantino wine bar in New York City, the desserts are delicious but not always so straightforward.
“We have a few desserts that are not usual … or people (are) not familiar with them,” owner Haim Amit said. “Like we have the kadaif, I mean, not everyone knows what’s kadaif.”
Rather than explain the traditional Middle Eastern dessert to customers, Amit shows them.
Using the Kabaq augmented reality application on an iPad, he demonstrates how virtual, 3-D models of desserts can now be superimposed onto the tabletop in front of customers.
The 3-D models look incredibly realistic, not to mention mouthwatering.
How it works
“Humans are visual creatures,” Kabaq founder Alper Guler said. The tech startup is helping diners decide what to eat, and in the process, giving traditional menus a digital twist.
Guler and his team visit participating restaurants to capture 3-D images of their dishes. Using a portable, tabletop photo booth, they place dishes on a turntable inside.
“What we do is we turn the food every second and stop it, and capture from that angle,” Guler said. Cameras placed at varying heights capture all possible angles and the images are processed back at Kabaq offices to create 3-D models. Kabaq charges $99-$199 per month for their services.
Sales, fun increase
The technology is proving to be good for business.
Amit said that overall sales have increased about 22 percent since the business began using Kabaq in June.
“We’re helping restaurant owners to raise their check averages by selling more desserts,” said Guler, who likened Kabaq to a modern-day dessert cart.
“There’s a lot of really strong applications for visualizing the food and showing the customer what they’re going to get,” said Mike Cadoux, Kabaq’s head of sales and partnerships. “If I was going to get the $17 pasta, but I see the $28 steak and it looks amazing, and I go for the $28 steak, that’s a huge value add to so many restaurants up and down the street.”
But it’s also the opportunity for a unique dining experience that Amit says has customers noticeably excited.
“They don’t expect it and they really like it. They’re surprised that we come with something digital, it’s almost like a toy,” Amit said.
On a recent night, two 20-something customers took an immediate liking to the app.
“It’s like you have the whole plate in front of you, it’s amazing,” one said.
Foodies love the technology
3-D scanning technology, in which objects are captured from all sides, is turning out to be a good fit for foodies.
Artist Romain Rouffet used 3-D scanning to create a 3-D recipe for banoffee pie that users can zoom in and out of and view from all angles. The resulting video is potentially a sign of innovations to come.
“Augmented reality and 3-D viewing and these kinds of medium … are just integral to that next generation of experience,” Cadoux said.
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Startup Hopes to Show 3-D Versions of Menu Items
It’s not always easy to know what to order when dining out, especially with exotic or foreign cuisines. But a tech startup in New York is hoping to help, using augmented reality to bring restaurant menus to life. VOA’s Tina Trinh met with the founder of Kabaq
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Chinese Barber, Clients Swear by Eyelid Shave
Chinese street barber Xiong Gaowu deftly scrapes a straight razor along the inside of his customer’s eyelid.
“You should be gentle, very, very gentle,” said Xiong, who performs traditional eyelid shaves at his roadside location in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.
Customers swear by the practice of “blade wash eyes,” as it is known in Mandarin, saying they trust Xiong’s skill with the blade.
“No, it’s not dangerous,” said 68-year-old Zhang Tian. “My eyes feel refreshed after shaving and I feel comfortable.”
Xiong, 62, said he learned the technique in the 1980s and serves up to eight customers a week, charging 80 yuan ($12) per shave.
“It was difficult at the beginning, but it became a piece of cake afterwards,” he said.
Risk of infection
The technique appears to unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, said Qu Chao, an opthalmologist who works at a nearby hospital in Chengdu.
“Patients will feel their eyes are dry and uncomfortable when the glands are blocked,” she said. “When he is shaving, it is most likely that he is shaving the openings of these glands.”
She said there was a risk of infection if the equipment was not sterilized.
“If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can still see there is a space for this technique to survive,” Qusaid.
Onlookers unsure
While customers insisted their eyes felt better after a shave, onlookers cringed at the sight of Xiong wielding his razor.
“I am afraid to do it,” said He Yiting, 27, who winced as she watched.
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Head of Consumer Watchdog Names Successor, Trump Names Another
The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Friday and named his own successor, leading to an open conflict with President Donald Trump, who announced a different person as acting head of the agency later in the day.
That means there are now effectively two acting directors of the CFPB, when there should only be one.
Typically an acting director position would be filled according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. But Richard Cordray, along with his resignation, elevated Leandra English, who was the agency’s chief of staff, into the deputy director position.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, English would become acting director. Cordray, an Obama appointee, specifically cited the law when he moved English, a longtime CFPB employee and ally of his, into that position.
Trump appoints CFPB critic
Within a few hours, President Donald Trump announced his own acting director of the agency, Mick Mulvaney, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney had widely been expected to be Trump’s temporary pick for the bureau until a permanent one could be found.
Mulvaney is a long-time critic of the CFPB, and has wanted the agency’s authority significantly curtailed. So the difference between English and Mulvaney running the agency would be significant.
Senate confirmation needed
The person nominated to be director of the CFPB requires confirmation by the Senate, and it could be many weeks or months before the person would be able to step into the role permanently. Cordray’s move was aimed at allowing his favored successor to keep running the agency for as long as possible before a Trump appointee is confirmed by the Senate.
Cordray had announced earlier this month that he would resign by the end of this month. There is wide speculation that Cordray, a Democrat, is resigning in order to run for governor in his home state of Ohio.
What CFPB does
The CFPB was created as part of the laws passed following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage has been affected by new rules the agency put in place.
Cordray used that mandate aggressively as its first director, which often made him a target for the banking industry’s Washington lobbyists and congressional Republicans who believed Cordray was overreaching in his role, calling the CFPB a “rogue agency.”
As director, he also was able to extract billions of dollars in settlements from banks, debt collectors and other financial services companies for wrongdoing. When Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of phony accounts for its customers, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million, the agency’s largest penalty to date.
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Fighting Pollution, Plastics in Indonesia
Slowly but steadily, the consciousness about the need to protect and preserve the natural environment is rising all over the world. Grassroots initiatives get more coverage, and those involved in them say it feels good to be a part of a beneficial movement. VOA’s George Putic reports on two of the latest initiative in Indonesia.
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Trump Wants to End Welfare of Clinton Era
Overhauling welfare was one of the defining goals of Bill Clinton’s presidency, starting with a campaign promise to “end welfare as we know it,” continuing with a bitter policy fight and producing change that remains hotly debated 20 years later.
Now, President Donald Trump wants to put his stamp on the welfare system, apparently in favor of a more restrictive policy. He says “people are taking advantage of the system.”
Trump, who has been signaling interest in the issue for some time, said this past week that he wants to tackle the issue after the tax overhaul he is seeking by the end of the year. He said changes were “desperately needed in our country” and that his administration would soon offer plans.
Work on new policy begins
For now, the president has not offered details. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said more specifics were likely early next year. But the groundwork has begun at the White House and Trump has made his interest known to Republican lawmakers.
Paul Winfree, director of budget policy and deputy director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, told a recent gathering at the conservative Heritage Foundation that he and another staffer had been charged with “working on a major welfare reform proposal.” He said they have drafted an executive order on the topic that would outline administration principles and direct agencies to come up with recommendations.
“The president really wants to lead on this,” Winfree said. “He has delivered that message loud and clear to us. We’ve opened conversations with leadership in Congress to let them know that that is the direction we are heading.”
Trump said in October that welfare was “becoming a very, very big subject, and people are taking advantage of the system.”
Clinton’s campaign promise
Clinton ran in 1992 on a promise to change the system but struggled to get consensus on a bill, with Democrats divided and Republicans pushing aggressive changes. Four years later, he signed a law that replaced a federal entitlement with grants to the states, placed a time limit on how long families could get aid and required recipients to go to work eventually.
It has drawn criticism from some liberal quarters ever since. During her presidential campaign last year, Democrat Hillary Clinton faced activists who argued that the law fought for by her husband punished poor people.
No evidence of fraud
Kathryn Edin, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who has been studying welfare since the 1990s, said the law’s legacy has been to limit the cash assistance available to the very poor and has never become a “springboard to work.” She questioned what kinds of changes could be made, arguing that welfare benefits are minimal in many states and there is little evidence of fraud in other anti-poverty programs.
Still, Edin said that welfare has “never been popular even from its inception. It doesn’t sit well with Americans in general.”
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at Heritage, said he would like to see more work requirements for a range of anti-poverty programs and stronger marriage incentives, as well as strategies to improve results for social programs and to limit waste. He said while the administration could make some adjustments through executive order, legislation would be required for any major change.
“This is a good system,” he said. “We just need to make this system better.”
Administration officials have suggested they are eyeing anti-poverty programs. Trump’s initial 2018 budget proposal, outlined in March, sought to sharply reduce spending for Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies, among other programs.
Budget director Mick Mulvaney said this year, “If you are on food stamps and you are able-bodied, we need you to go to work.”
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Even in Amazon Era, Black Friday Shows Stores Are Alive
Retailers worked hard to attract shoppers to stores on Black Friday, offering in-person deals meant to counter the ease of shopping online.
A better economy helped, to be sure, but stores have also tried to improve the store experience and offer better service. They’ve also made a big push toward offering store pickup for online orders.
But online leader Amazon is still the first and only stop for many shoppers. So stores are getting creative with the deals.
Victor Moore said he arrived about two hours ahead of Best Buy’s 8 a.m. opening in Nashville and scored one of the about 14 “doorbuster” deals on a 55-inch Toshiba smart TV for $280, a $220 savings. Moore said he’s done some online shopping, but the allure of in-store-only deals drew him out from behind the computer.
“This is the first successful doorbuster that I’ve ever been a part of,” Moore said. “I’ve been in lines before, but never actually got the items that I was waiting for.”
Annette Peluffo usually avoids Black Friday and buys online. But a $250 gift card reward for buying an iPhone 8 plus at a Target store in Miami was hard to resist. She plans to use the money to buy toys for her nephews and nieces in the coming weeks. “I just came here for the iPhone. I am not going to any other store,” she said.
Not just one day
Still, Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. It has morphed from a single day when people got up early to score doorbusters into a whole month of deals. That has thinned out the crowds. And brick-and-mortar stores face plenty of challenges.
With the jobless rate at a 17-year-low of 4.1 percent and consumer confidence stronger than a year ago, analysts project healthy sales increases for November and December. The National Retail Federation trade group expects sales for that period to at least match last year’s rise of 3.6 percent and estimates online spending and other nonstore sales will rise 11 to 15 percent.
But analysts at management consultancy Bain & Company say Amazon is expected to take half of the holiday season’s sales growth.
Amazon said Friday that Thanksgiving continued to be one of its busiest shopping days, with orders through its app up over 50 percent from a year ago. Overall, online sales on Black Friday rose 18.4 percent to $640 million, from a year ago, as of Friday morning, said Adobe Analytics. Thanksgiving generated a total of $2.87 billion in online spending, up 18.3 percent from a year ago, the data firm said.
About 69 percent of Americans, or 164 million people, intend to shop at some point during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to a survey released by the NRF. It expected Black Friday to remain the busiest day, with about 115 million people planning to shop then.
“The consumer still likes to go to the stores,” said Charles O’Shea, Moody’s lead retail analyst. “I’ve seen a lot of traffic. Yes, there’s going to be a lot of online shopping. But I think the brick-and-mortar stores have done a nice job so far in attracting shoppers.”
That’s true of Karre Wagner, 20, a University of Minnesota student from St. Paul who was shopping at Mall of America in Bloomington with her boyfriend. She bought a Blu-ray player at the mall’s Best Buy store. She says she started holiday shopping on Black Friday, but she likes to go to the mall to shop.
Hands-on experience
“I like to see what I’m buying. I like to touch it, feel it, know exactly what I’m getting, and part of it is the experience,” she said. “I mean, sitting online is fine, but there’s just something about starting the holiday season with Black Friday.”
The shift to online buying is a major factor as industry analysts watch how the nation’s malls fare this holiday shopping season. The Mall of America in Minnesota says that 2,500 people were in line at the 5 a.m. opening Friday, in line with a year ago. Shoppers started queuing up as early as 5:45 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Jill Renslow, Mall of America’s executive vice president of business development, said stores like Nordstrom, Macy’s and Best Buy were crowded. She said the items that caught shoppers’ attention included voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo, nostalgic toys, clothing and shoes.
Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said customer counts were higher and business was better in the North and Northeast, even with fewer promotions from a year ago.
But much depends on whether people are buying or just looking, and if they’re buying things that aren’t on sale as well.
Chuck Boyd said he and his son arrived at 4 a.m. to be among the first five or six in line at Best Buy in Nashville to get one each of about 14 “doorbuster” deals. He said he prefers online shopping, but his son wanted a TV for his apartment at school, so Boyd came along to get one, too.
“I’d much rather do online,” Boyd said. “But this was the deal you could only do in the store.”
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