8/12/2016 @ 11:45 PM - Now that Hillary Clinton has released her 2015 tax returns, and her running mate, Tim Kaine, has released a decade of his returns, the Twilight Zone that is Donald Trumps tax return release position has gotten even more shadowy. There are two key lessons in this. For a start, Trump continues to assert that he will not, cannot or should not release his returns while they are under audit. This has always been a bad argument, legally and factually. But logic never quiets Trump and team. Indeed, Trumps in-house legal adviser, Michael Cohen, has recently repeated the fallacies, claiming it would be malpractice” to advise Trump to release his returns while they are being audited. Yet the...
8/12/2016 @ 11:39 PM - Republican presidential nominee returns to rhetoric that the election will be rigged in favour of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton Donald Trump has stepped up his argument that the presidential election will be rigged in favour of Hillary Clinton, claiming that the only way he can lose Pennsylvania is 'if cheating goes on'. Whereas Trump regularly cited opinion polls when he was winning the Republican primaries, his poor showing in recent national surveys has left him sowing doubt about the integrity of the process, even before a vote is cast. Continue reading...
8/12/2016 @ 11:06 PM - Magic will happen. A formal lease has finally been inked for a magic and culinary-filled event space along Midtown Manhattan's Billionaire's Row being curated and produced by Neil Patrick Harris - in collaboration with the producers of events that include 'Queen of the Night,' The Post has learned. Broker Alex Picken of Picken Real Estate confirmed...
8/12/2016 @ 11:05 PM - Joseph Schooling brought home gold for his home country of Singapore Friday night, but the historic moment was made even sweeter as he beat his idol, Michael Phelps. Phelps, who has picked up 22 gold medals so far in his career, met Schooling back in 2008 in Singapore, when the now-rival swimmer was 13 years old. Schooling led throughout the 100-meter butterfly and Phelps couldn't catch up. Schooling finished the race in 50.39 seconds. SEE ALSO: Katie Ledecky met Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan as a kid Phelps's 51.14s swim let him tie for silver with South Africa's Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. No bronze medal...
8/12/2016 @ 10:15 PM - Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said Friday that his charitable contributions are negligible,” bordering on almost nonexistent.” The former New Mexico governor made the comments to CNN in Las Vegas after addressing a gathering of the Asian American Journalists Association. Earlier in the day, Hillary Clintons campaign announced that Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, donated close to 10% of their adjusted gross income to charity in 2015. And according to CNNs calculation, the couple paid an effective tax rate of 30.6%. My charitable contributions would be negligible I mean just, really almost nonexistent,” Johnson told CNN, as he stressed that his wealth does not even approach Hillary Clintons.” Pressed on what percentage of his...
8/12/2016 @ 9:30 PM - The Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling” began to play Bill Clintons cue to get off the stage. But the former president, addressing a gathering of the Asian American Journalists Association here at the Caesars Palace hotel, wouldnt budge, insisting over the music that he wanted to take one more question. Let me answer it real quick and Ill go,” Clinton said. They want me to go, I would stay.” The questioner identified himself as a Democrat who loved Clinton as president and is supporting his wife, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election. But, he wanted to know: Why should Americans trust the Democratic nominee when she lied about her emails? Wait a...
8/12/2016 @ 9:30 PM - The hacker calling themselves Guccifer 2.0” is claiming credit for the Friday night release of personal cell phone numbers and private email addresses of Democratic House members. The data posted to their WordPress blog file also contains the contact information for staff members and campaign aides. In the trove of information released on Friday Guccifer 2.0” also uploaded files to the blog post that contains login information to subscription services used by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, including Lexis-Nexis and Washington newspapers. In a statement, DCCC Press Secretary Meredith Kelly said: As previously noted, the DCCC has been the target of a cybersecurity incident, and we are cooperating with federal law enforcement in their ongoing...
8/12/2016 @ 8:45 PM - The Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling” began to play Bill Clintons cue to get off the stage. But the former president, addressing a gathering of the Asian American Journalists Association here at the Caesars Palace hotel, wouldnt budge, insisting over the music that he wanted to take one more question. Let me answer it real quick and Ill go,” Clinton said. They want me to go, I would stay.” The questioner identified himself as a Democrat who loved Clinton as president and is supporting his wife, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election. But, he wanted to know: Why should Americans trust the Democratic nominee when she lied about her emails? Wait a...
8/12/2016 @ 8:15 PM - Donald Trump declared Friday that theres only one way he could lose the state of Pennsylvania: if hes cheated out of it. Were going to watch Pennsylvania. Go down to certain areas and watch and study and make sure other people dont come in and vote five times,” he said at a rally in Altoona, Pennsylvania. If you do that, were not going to lose. The only way we can lose, in my opinion I really mean this, Pennsylvania is if cheating goes on.” Trump said that Republican leaders in the state are very concerned” about the possibility of cheating adding that we have to call up law enforcement, and we have to have...
8/12/2016 @ 7:07 PM - Donald Trump burns protester: 'Go home to mom! And your mother is voting for Trump!' try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Donald Trump had a stinging remark for a protester who disrupted his event in Pennsylvania on Friday. "Here's another one," the Republican presidential nominee said when the demonstrator started making some noise. SEE ALSO: Donald Trump just got hit with another wave of brutal polls from swing states The billionaire added: "Go home to mom! And your mother is voting for Trump! She's voting for Trump! It's true, it's true." Earlier in the event, other protesters held up signs that...
8/12/2016 @ 6:15 PM - MPAA chairman Chris Dodd praised the latest move by the White House to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even as the future of the massive trade pact is clouded by opposition in the presidential race. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump oppose the TPP, an agreement between 11 countries and the United States that essentially creates... Read more »
8/12/2016 @ 6:09 PM - Reality stars the Kardashians have emerged as unlikely fans of Modernist architecture , with Kris Jenner revealing on their TV show that she's reading a book about "Le Courvoisier, which is an architect" (+ movie). (more…)
8/12/2016 @ 6:00 PM - Bill and Hillary Clinton get paid a lot of money to talk. The Democratic power couple earned just over $6.7 million in speaking fees last year, according to their 2015 tax returns released on Friday. Its their top money-making activity by far. Over 60% of the Clintons $10.6 million income comes from speeches. The Clintons are millionaires, thanks to big businesses paying them sizable sums to speak at corporate events. Its a great way to make money, but it also comes with questions about whether the Clintons are too tied to corporate cash. The 2015 tax documents from the Clintons dont specify which businesses paid Bill and Hillary to speak. In the past, Wall...
8/12/2016 @ 5:01 PM - Donald Trump just got hit with another wave of brutal polls from swing states try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} The polls are getting worse for Donald Trump . On Friday, NBC News/The Wall Street Journal/Marist released polls for the traditional swing states of Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, and Virginia. Those polls found Trump to be facing long odds in three of the four, while he remained behind Hillary Clinton by a sizable gap in the other. Trump was trailing Clinton by 5 points in Florida, 9 points in North Carolina, 13 points in Virginia, and 14 points in Colorado among registered voters polled by...
8/12/2016 @ 4:45 PM - The last time Connecticut voted for a Republican presidential candidate, Americans were listening to music on cassette tapes and most cell phones were the size of shoe boxes. Yet Donald Trumps campaign spokesman insists they believe he has a chance to turn Connecticut red for the first time since 1988, and thats why he is holding weekend rally there on Saturday. Veteran Republicans, however, see Trumps Fairfield, Connecticut, campaign stop as a fools errand a prime example of what many worry is a political operation that takes Trumps proclivity for defying convention a step too far. Trump has spent most of his campaign time in real battleground states: Florida, Virginia, Iowa and Pennsylvania. But with the...
8/12/2016 @ 4:30 PM - These past three weeks have been tough for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Thats reflected in the new Time magazine cover featuring an orange Trump melting down. Trumps campaign has been unconventional since the get-go which has resulted in a number of standout magazine and tabloid newspaper covers. Here are some of the most memorable so far: Time Magazine, Aug. 22 Time magazines latest cover features a dripping Trump with a single-word headline: Meltdown.” The story featured in the magazine breaks down all of the missteps of Trumps campaign in the weeks after the Republican National Convention. The New Yorker, Aug. 22 ...
8/12/2016 @ 4:17 PM - From Luxury Listings NYC: Indie music producer Darius Van Arman has purchased a townhouse in the controversial development at 8 Downing Street in Clinton Hill for $2.3 million. The development, which also includes 4 Downing Street, was previously the site of the famous 'Broken Angel House,' where the artist Arthur Wood transformed an abandoned building into a livable piece of art for himself, his late wife and their children. After a fire in 2006, Wood was … [more]
8/12/2016 @ 4:00 PM - Words can change meaning over time especially when they are spoken by politicians. Just ask Bill Clinton to define is.” Literally” was once used, exclusively, to introduce or punctuate a point meant to be taken in literal terms. But by 2013, enough people were using it interchangeably with metaphorically” that even leading grammar pedants threw up their hands (literally?), and the Merriam-Webster and Cambridge dictionaries expanded their definitions. Donald Trump has, throughout his campaign, tested the pliability of rhetoric and language, sometimes to underline an affirmative point, but more often of late and in particular on Friday morning as a tool for walking back damaging (or straight-up false) assertions. On Wednesday, the Republican nominee...
8/12/2016 @ 3:30 PM - (flyer via Friends and Lovers) When America is faced with what seems to be an endless stream of police brutality, discrimination, and gentrification toward black and brown individuals, sharing an article for the fifth time can start to feel fruitless. Those of us who continue to see this kind of gut-wrenching news on our social media feeds can start to wonder what exactly we can do to help. Well, tonight there's a tangible way to make some sort of a difference: Crown Heights bar and venue Friends and Lovers is throwing a big ol' dance party with performances, DJ sets, and raffles to benefit the NYC chapter of Black Lives...
8/12/2016 @ 3:15 PM - Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus introduced Donald Trump at a Friday afternoon rally, a show of unity with the GOP nominee as he struggles in the polls. Priebus talked up his partys nominee and slammed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Were in a battle for freedom in this country. Donald Trump is going to help protect our country,” Priebus told a boisterous Erie, Pennsylvania crowd. Look at the choice weve got. Hillary Clinton has a problem with lying. She lied. She lied. And she lied over and over and over again.” Such appearances by a party chair are not unusual in a presidential campaign, but this one stands out in an election cycle with Trump lagging...
8/12/2016 @ 3:07 PM - If you spend much time on right-wing media, you might have heard that Hillary Clinton suffers from seizures, dementia, Parkinson's disease , and possibly even tongue cancer . As David Weigel writes in the Washington Post , Sean Hannity has spent all week dredging up debunked rumors about Clinton's health, giving special attention to a photo of her stumbling as she climbs a set of outdoor stairs while wearing heels in February. Donald Trump nodded to the rumors at a rally last weekend, saying, 'Honestly I don't think she's all there.' Photos of 'leaked' medical records describing Clinton's 'subcortical vascular dementia' and 'complex partial seizures' are circulating online; as Snopes points out...
8/12/2016 @ 3:01 PM - John Lamparski/WireImage TV host Elisabeth Hasselbeck and her husband, ex-jock Tim , have finally sold their Greenwich, CT, home for $4.56 million. Theyre moving south to a $2 million brick house in a Nashville, TN, suburb, Variety reports. The Hasselbecks Colonial-style home in the heart of Greenwich sits on 1.5 level acres and features a pool, playhouses, covered porch, and entertainment terraces. Inside, the seven-bedroom, 7,600-square-foot house has high ceilings and custom millwork, front-to-back entry hall, marble fireplaces, and a mahogany library. The master suite has a fireplace, sitting room, and his-and-her walk-in closets. There's also a third-floor playroom with guest quarters. The house originally went on the market in...
8/12/2016 @ 2:36 PM - Clinton still leads Trump by more than 5 percentage points, according to the poll.
8/12/2016 @ 2:32 PM - Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax return Friday, issuing a challenge to rival Donald Trump to do the same 'He has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years,' Clinton said in a statement issued by campaign spokesperson Jennifer Palmieri Friday. 'What is he trying to hide?' According to their joint return, the Clintons made $10.6 million in 2015, significantly less than the nearly $28 million they made the year before when the former secretary of state was still doing paid speaking engagements. In 2015, the Clintons paid $3.24 million in federal income taxes, amounting to effective tax rate as 34%, according to the Clinton campaign....
8/12/2016 @ 2:31 PM - The Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, spent much of his pre-politics career as a fair housing attorney, spending nearly 20 years fighting for fair housing, and it looks like he plans to continue that fight if he becomes vice president. Here, in Kaine's own words, is the Democrats' plan to ensure fair housing for all.
8/12/2016 @ 2:02 PM - Voice actor Billy West is a hit on Twitter as he repeats some of the businessman''s most memorable comments - in the voice of Zapp Brannigan The prolific voice actor Billy West, who played more than 100 characters on Matt Groening's cult classic sci-fi comedy cartoon Futurama, has lent the voice of Zapp Brannigan to a real-world figure almost as audacious as the pant-less spaceship captain: Donald Trump . Zapp presents...Famous Quotations from Donald J Trump #MakeAmericaBrannigan pic.twitter.com/kbaV8rIkwK Continue reading...
8/12/2016 @ 2:00 PM - (Credit: Reuters/Eric Miller) The Movement for Black Lives released its much-anticipated platform on Aug. 1. The document thoroughly details demands across a wide variety of issues, each of which is accompanied by concrete strategies for achieving these goals. Perhaps the most subversive part of the platform is its scathing critique of what it describes as the U.S. empire,” and its call for international solidarity and coordinated direct actions with liberation movements around the world. Here the movement proposes some of its most progressive, even revolutionary, ideas. America is an empire that uses war to expand territory and power,” the Movement for Black Lives states clearly. American wars are unjust, destructive to Black communities globally and...
8/12/2016 @ 1:59 PM - Democratic president candidate Hillary Clinton releases her tax returns, adding to the pressure on her Republican rival Donald Trump to do the same.
8/12/2016 @ 1:46 PM - Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump can look forward to a presidential salary of $400,000 if they win in November.
8/12/2016 @ 1:45 PM - This is what a full-blown panic looks like. More than 75 Republicans, including former lawmakers and senior White House officials, have added their names to a letter urging the Republican National Committee to abandon Donald Trump, the Washington Post reports . Their argument is strategic: Trump is hurtling toward a devastating loss in the presidential race and the party should do what it can now to salvage its Congressional majorities by dedicating all of its resources to them instead. But it's also the latest in a series of brutal assessments of Trump's candidacy from GOP elders, who in the letter cite their nominee's "divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity" and point to his habit of "deliberately...
8/12/2016 @ 1:45 PM - Bill and Hillary Clinton get paid a lot of money to talk. The Democratic power couple earned just over $6.7 million in speaking fees last year, according to their 2015 tax returns released on Friday. Its their top money-making activity by far. Over 60% of the Clintons $10.6 million income comes from speeches. The Clintons are millionaires, thanks to big businesses paying them sizable sums to speak at corporate events. Its a great way to make money, but it also comes with questions about whether the Clintons are too tied to corporate cash. The 2015 tax documents from the Clintons dont specify which businesses paid Bill and Hillary to speak. In the past, Wall...
8/12/2016 @ 1:45 PM - Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is bluntly warning that his partys chances of hanging onto its majority in the Senate this fall are very dicey.” Speaking at a local Chamber of Commerce event in Middletown, Kentucky on Thursday, McConnell, in video posted by a local news outlet CN/2, didnt specifically link the partys diminishing standing to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trumps slide in both national polls and those in key battleground states. But the GOP leader said the challenging landscape for Republicans in 2016 was because they are defending more seats than the Democrats. Its very dicey,” McConnell said. We have, we meaning Senate Republicans have 24 members up. Our Democratic friends only...
8/12/2016 @ 1:18 PM - Sean Hannity, Donald Trump (Credit: Jeff Malet, maletphoto.com/Reuters/Brendan McDermid/Photo montage by Salon) In a May post on his website , Fox News personality Sean Hannity falsely claimed that in 1991 now-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump sent his private jet to retrieve 200 stranded” Gulf War veterans from Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. According to the erroneous report - which the Trump campaign has confirmed” - Mr. Trump did indeed send his plane to make two trips from North Carolina to Miami, Florida to transport over 200 Gulf War Marines back home.” Nudged by reader mail, Washington Post fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, looked deeper into the suspicious” anecdote and found that the plane -...
8/12/2016 @ 12:57 PM - Poll: Trump barely inching out Clinton in South Carolina try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Is a red state on the brink of voting blue? We're looking at you, South Carolina. With the presidential election looming, a new poll is predicting an upset could happen in the state. Right now, according to that poll, Donald Trump is barely inching out Hillary Clinton . That same poll also showed the two rivals have nearly equal ratings when it comes to favorability. This is a big deal because the last time South Carolina went Democrat was in 1976. More from Newsy: National Presidential Polls Are...
8/12/2016 @ 12:55 PM - Hugh Grant has very nice things to say about Donald Trump: 'I won't hear a word against him' try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Hugh Grant revealed a surprising fondness for Donald Trump on Thursday's after-show of Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live." A caller asked Grant, who was on the show promoting his new movie "Florence Foster Jenkins," which is worse: Donald Trump or Brexit? Grant then explained that Trump had appeared in his 2002 movie "Two Weeks Notice," and had made quite the impression on the actor. "He was very charming to me and made me a member of his golf club afterward, so I won't...
8/12/2016 @ 12:45 PM - Hillary Clinton has opened up commanding leads over Donald Trump in several critical battleground states, including North Carolina and Colorado, according to a new poll Friday. Clinton leads Trump 46%-32% in Colorado, 44%-39% in Florida, 48%-39% in North Carolina and 46%-33% in Virginia, according to new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls. The results represent increasing margins for Clinton in each of those four states, compared with polling conducted before the conventions and all the leads are outside each polls margin of sampling error. The polls also tested four-way matchups including Gary Johnson and Jill Stein and found that the margin between Clinton and Trump holds when the third party candidates are included. The polls were conducted between...
8/12/2016 @ 12:44 PM - Skender Foundation Board of Directors: Justin Brown, Mark Skender, Joe Skender, Cheryl Skender, Brian Skender, Jerry Ball, Jeff Skender. (Nicholas James Photography ©2016) Skender Foundation held its annual fundraiser, Summer Eclipse , July 21 at Fremont Chicago. The summer gala brought in more than 500 industry pros and raised a total of $483,000 for this year's charity partner and primary benefactor Bunker Labs , a national non-profit organization built by military veteran entrepreneurs to empower other military veterans as leaders in innovation. A donation of $30,000 of the money raised by sponsors and attendees will go to Bunker Labs, while the rest will be dispersed to various other charities dedicated...
8/12/2016 @ 12:41 PM - From the Los Angeles website: Limp Bizkit is keeping up with the Kardashians. Fred Durst, lead singer of America's premier rap metal band and of no relation to the Durst Organization, recently traded his Hollywood Hills home for a $1.6 million pad in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Hidden Hills, The Real Deal has learned. [more] … [more]
8/12/2016 @ 12:37 PM - Democratic presidential nominee Clinton paid 34.2 pct federal tax rate in 2015 try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton paid an effective federal tax rate of 34.2 percent last year and a combined federal, state and local effective tax rate of 43.2 percent, her campaign said on Friday. Clinton's running mate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with his wife, Anne Holton, paid a federal effective tax rate of 20.3 percent in 2015, the campaign said. "Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to set the standard for financial transparency," Clinton campaign aide Jennifer Palmieri said in a...
8/12/2016 @ 12:15 PM - Your move, Mr. Trump. After hammering Donald Trump on the campaign trail for refusing to reveal his tax returns, Hillary Clinton released her latest federal income tax return Friday, showing she and Bill paid roughly a third of their multi-million dollar income to Uncle Sam. The Clintons pulled in $10.6 million in 2015, much less than the nearly $28 million they made the year before. Their tax return showed that they paid $3.24 million in federal income taxes. That means their effective tax rate a measure of their income tax burden was 30.6% based on their adjusted gross income. Thats on par with their 32% effective rate in 2014. The campaign...
8/12/2016 @ 12:00 PM - World Heritage Corb: French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier 's humble hosiery factory in France was one of the first buildings designed with proportions based on his innovative Modulor system, and has recently been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List (+ slideshow). (more…)
8/12/2016 @ 12:00 PM - This guy is 'the next Warren Buffett' try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Some phenomena happen so rarely that we'll wait years to see them, like the reappearance of Halley's Comet or the Detroit Lions winning their first Super Bowl. In the same vein, there are some visionaries who come along only once every few generations, leaving such a huge mark on business and popular culture, it's hard to imagine they could ever be matched. Think Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett. In the business world, Buffett - affectionately known as the Oracle of Omaha - is one of the biggest names in the 21st century, with an unerring, almost...
8/12/2016 @ 11:40 AM - On Thursday, the New York Times and USA Today parent company Gannett requested that the New York State Supreme Court unseal records from Donald Trump's contentious 1990 divorce with Ivana Trump. During one deposition, Ivana reportedly accused Trump of sexual assault . The divorce ended in a settlement agreement, and Ivana has endorsed Donald's candidacy, denying that he ever assaulted her. Read more...
8/12/2016 @ 11:30 AM - [ Downpour photo from yesterday by Derek Berg ] High marks for Thursday Kitchen on East Ninth Street ( Gothamist ... previously ) Rivington House co-owner, Slate Property Group, facing new scrutiny ( The Lo-Down ) Operators of Vintage Thrift, a nonprofit that funnels its funds into organizations for low-income Lower East Siders, needs new warehouse space - soon ( DNAinfo ) NYC Best Pizza listicle includes Joe's on East 14th Street ( Gothamist ) "The Lost Arcade" - a documentary on the legendary Chinatown Fair arcade on Mott Street - opens today at the Metrograph on Ludlow Street ( Official website ) Another report on...
8/12/2016 @ 11:26 AM - LeBron James stuns many by accepting a 3-year, $100 million deal with the Cavs try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} So much for The Decision 3.0. LeBron James has re-signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract worth $100 million. The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar announced the news in a video for Bleacher Report's Undefeated , which you can watch above. James, 31, became an unrestricted free agent this summer after leading his hometown team to a shocking comeback victory in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. Though an eventual new contract with the Cavaliers was always a formality, it's still surprising to many...
8/12/2016 @ 11:01 AM - The dominant center of MC Architecture Studio's Black Door House in Christchurch, New Zealand uses elements of modern art sculpture in its striking design. Here, angled walls along the back have floor-to-ceiling glazing on each floor with a mix of different window pane sizes. Above head, a winged roof hangs out providing shade and emphasizing the building's unique form. These irregular forms reflect the uneven curves of the hills, valley and shoreline visible from its numerous windows. A tall black modern doorway provides a dramatic entrance to the property. The deep black contrasts nicely with light exterior walls and vertical wood paneling that lines a curved wall and leads you to...
8/12/2016 @ 10:55 AM - Simone Manuel; Michael Phelps (Credit: AP/Martin Meissner/Michael Sohn) Its actually quite simple - you make a mistake, like everybody does - and then other people point out that error and so you say youre sorry and then you fix it . And yet every day, millions of individuals and institutions and presidential candidates suffer from a debilitating condition called Inability to Apologize. So lets give a modest round of applause this week to San Joses The Mercury News, for at least hitting the bar of appropriate responsiveness after screwing up its initial coverage of Thursdays historic night for the U.S. Olympic swim team. It was an unprecedented evening. 31-year-old Michael Phelps, competing in his fifth...
8/12/2016 @ 10:54 AM - The GOP has weathered tough elections only to rapidly emerge stronger - but can it survive if the millions Trump has brought into the fold go back into hiding? As the Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want boomed over loudspeakers after Donald Trump's rally in Kissimmee, Florida, on Thursday night, an elderly spectator walked by the media enclosure. 'Traitor! Traitor! You're guilty of treason, all of you!' he shouted, before giving journalists the middle finger . 'Up yours! Pack your bags and get out of here!' He was far from alone in asserting that Trump's recent mishaps - clashing with the parents of a fallen US army captain, hinting at the...
8/12/2016 @ 10:31 AM - (Flyer via Escaping Time”) Governors Island is more than just another out-of-the-way-ish New York City nook. After years of abandonment, the islands only recently embarked on a steady climb towards reclamation and it remains largely stuck in the past, having missed out on years of the progress seen by the rest of the city while interned as an exclusive home for military officers, then a coast guard haven, before it was abandoned altogether in 1996, left to hang in an off-limits sort of limbo, with nature serving as its only developer. Fresh off the ferry, you might be only 800 yards from Lower Manhattan, but as you make your way inland, the Manhattan skyline starts to disappear, obscured by...
8/12/2016 @ 10:14 AM - Writer Tory Newmyer (@ torynewmyer ) is filling in for Geoff Colvin this week. This is what a full-blown panic looks like. More than 75 Republicans, including former lawmakers and senior White House officials, have added their names to a letter urging the Republican National Committee to abandon Donald Trump , the Washington Post reports . Their argument is strategic: Trump is hurtling toward a devastating loss in the presidential race and the party should do what it can now to salvage its Congressional majorities by dedicating all of its resources to them instead. But it's also the latest in a series of brutal assessments of Trump's candidacy from GOP elders, who in the...
8/12/2016 @ 10:05 AM - Friday Feedback This is Erin Griffith filling in for Dan Primack while he's on vacation. New York is melting, Dan returns next week, and the deals news is as slow as a Friday in August. In other words, time for some Friday Feedback. [ts_bullet_primary] First up is my column on AngelList's three billion-dollar exits: Kevin writes: Down the line, AngelList will have some massive unicorn power law returns where syndicates played at attractive entry points. However, if we estimate that the AL syndicate for Cruise was the Series A near a $100 million valuation, the syndicate for Dollar Shave Club was at a $500...
8/12/2016 @ 10:00 AM - Donald Trump has had quite a week, making jokes about Hillary Clinton's potential murder before declaring that she and Barack Obama are the co-founders of the Islamic State. He said it , and then he said it again the next morning, and now he says it was sarcasm. 'Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) 'the founder' of ISIS, & MVP,' he tweeted this morning . 'THEY DON'T GET SARCASM?' Read more...
8/12/2016 @ 9:59 AM - Telling an emotional story is a good way to help a listing stand out from the rest. As this one proves.
8/12/2016 @ 9:52 AM - Jerry Seinfeld reveals the joke he wrote for Obama, plans to bring 'Comedians in Cars' to TV try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Jerry Seinfeld was just as surprised as everybody else to hear that his Crackle series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee , was nominated for an Emmy alongside Last Week Tonight With John Oliver , The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live! "I feel like Lewis and Clark here paddling down the river to find the new world, and I can't believe I've found it," he says of the Sony-produced show in which he interviews comedy heavyweights including...
8/12/2016 @ 9:45 AM - I was a brand-new lawyer at a small firm in Richmond, Virginia. And fresh out of law school, as the rookie on the team, the pro-bono cases came to me. Thats how I met Lorraine. She was a young African-American woman. As she sat across the table, she told me how she had just graduated college, found a job, and was trying to move out of her parents home and start a life of her own. Lorraine saw an apartment advertised in the newspaper, called the number and arranged to meet the landlord. But as soon as he saw her in person, he said, Sorry, we just rented the place.” Something didnt feel right. So...
8/12/2016 @ 9:31 AM - This post originally appeared on tBL member Joshua Lyon's blog Joshua Lyons Marketing Blog and is republished with permission. Find out how to syndicate your content with theBrokerList. Competition for search engine results is undoubtedly intense. It is vital to any brand or business to rank well on search engines, especially Google. Other than blog writing and other search engine optimization practices, what else can you or your business do to rank well? Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a great way to increase traffic to your website and generate leads. Follow along as I divulge the basics of PPC and the benefits of implementation. What is PPC? PPC advertising is essentially buying a highly...
8/12/2016 @ 9:03 AM - (credit: Gage Skidmore ) Donald Trump's controversial luxury golf resort in Aberdeenshire has a chequered history of putting its neighbours' noses out of joint, but this time, it's flouted the UK's data laws by failing-possibly for years-to register with the Information Commissioner's Office. The Guardian found that the £30 million resort in north-east Scotland hadn't been registered under the Data Protection Act, "despite operating an extensive CCTV system and handling data on thousands of golfers and guests, its staff, and suppliers," potentially putting Trump's golf resort at risk of being found guilty of a criminal offence and fined. However, just as the ICO was preparing...
8/12/2016 @ 9:01 AM - If you're a broker and you're not already using home staging, maybe you should be. Staging homes and apartments for viewings by prospective buyers has become a big business, and more and more members of the industry are getting in the game. Nationwide, 96 percent of brokers who work with buyers believe that staging a home that is listed for sale has an impact on a buyer's view of the home, according to a 2015 survey by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). They have good reason to believe that – the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that on average, a staged home will sell 17 percent higher than a comparable home that isn't...
8/12/2016 @ 9:00 AM - Alex Wong/Getty Images After galvanizing voters for months on the presidential primary trail, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is pursuing a little R&R by buying a $575,000 vacation home on the Champlain Islands in Vermont. Of course, the Internet reacted in predictable fashion. Cries arose about the socialist politician-the champion of the little guy, the share-the-wealth candidate-purchasing a third house in North Hero, VT . (Sanders also owns homes in Washington, DC, and Burlington, VT .) One Reddit poster said, 'No one should be able to afford 3 homes, especially at that price, as a politician.' Another wrote, 'What a dirty capitalist!' Cut Sanders some slack, trolls! The senator's modest summer digs on Lake Champlain...
8/12/2016 @ 8:59 AM - Weekly applications for unemployment slip WASHINGTON - Slightly fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a sign that layoffs are low and employers are probably adding new jobs. The Labor Department said that weekly unemployment aid applications declined 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 266,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 3,000 to 262,750. Applications are a proxy for layoffs and are at historically low levels. That suggests employers are confident enough in the economy to hold onto their staffs. At the same time, hiring has picked up: Employers added the most jobs in eight months in June and hiring was also healthy in July. The unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in both months....
8/12/2016 @ 8:44 AM - Barbra Streisand performs 'The Sound of Music' classic with Jamie Foxx: Watch try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Barbara Streisand's return to her hometown of Brooklyn Thursday night (Aug. 11) was like buttah, as the living legend invited a few special guests to join her on the stage. In a hits-filled set that included a preview of her forthcoming 35th studio album, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, Streisand added a little extra star power teaming up with Jamie Foxx and Broadway veteran Patrick Wilson , who took the stage for a duet of "Loving You." Barbra Streisand to Perform at LGBT-Focused...
8/12/2016 @ 8:41 AM - Republican nominee retracts repeated comments about Obama being founder of Isis and mocks Clinton's mental stamina while twice getting day wrong; four dead as Thailand hit by explosions; Michael Phelps wins fourth gold in Rio Donald Trump has tweeted a retraction of comments he has made repeatedly this week claiming Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the co-founders of Isis. 'Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) 'the founder' of ISIS, & MVP,' he tweeted at 3.26am on Friday. 'THEY DON'T GET SARCASM?' In Florida on Thursday night, the Republican candidate implied Clinton lacks mental stamina , and twice got the day wrong. 'Look, what happens, she gives a short...
8/12/2016 @ 8:29 AM - Donald Trump can't seem to decide if he really thinks Barack Obama founded ISIS try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} After three days of saying President Barack Obama was the literal founder of the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS, Donald Trump on Friday claimed he was just being sarcastic - a bizarre end to yet another controversy surrounding the Republican presidential nominee. Trump first said Obama was the literal founder of ISIS Wednesday night during a rally in Florida . "ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS, okay?" Trump said. "He's...
8/12/2016 @ 8:29 AM - Donald Trump: Calling President Obama the founder of ISIS was 'sarcasm' try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} After three days of saying President Barack Obama was the literal founder of the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS, Donald Trump on Friday claimed he was just being sarcastic. Trump first said Obama was the literal founder of ISIS Wednesday night during a rally in Florida . "ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS, okay?" Trump said. "He's the founder. He founded ISIS." On Thursday, multiple conservative media figures attempted to give...
8/12/2016 @ 8:15 AM - It was a night of triumph and history for the United States in two of the Olympics showcase sports at the Rio Games. Swimmers Michael Phelps and Simone Manuel stole the show at the pool Thursday night, and superstar gymnast Simone Biles became the fourth straight American woman to win gold in the individual all-around event and she has opportunities to earn more next week. Manuel entered the history books in multiple ways at once to start with, by becoming the first African-American female swimmer to win an individual Olympics event. The way in which the Stanford swimmer took gold in the womens 100-meter freestyle made for some Olympics magic, too: She and Canadas Penny...
8/12/2016 @ 8:00 AM - In a less volatile election cycle, the notion that Democrats would be on offense in red states like Utah, Arizona and Georgia would suggest the presidential race was effectively over. No one is willing to make that kind of bet in a race that has defied all political norms. But as Donald Trumps downward spiral continues in round after round of battleground polls, and the Hillary Clinton campaign has begun to dabble in ruby-red states, Democrats are clearly feeling bullish. Some are now openly mulling the possibility of a Clinton blowout in November. Even Trump acknowledged Thursday that his campaign was having a tremendous problem in Utah,” a reliably Republican state where Mitt Romney won more than 70%...
8/12/2016 @ 8:00 AM - Donald Trump (Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer) Ever since Ronald Reagan enticed many traditionally Democratic white working class voters over to the Republican Party political observers have been intensely interested in what makes this particular faction tick. Indeed, one might even call it an obsession. There have been different ways of looking at this group over the years. The so-called Reagan Democrats were studied like a lost Amazonian tribe for decades, most famously by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg who focused on one county in Michigan and found that these voters believed the Democratic party didnt care about their needs and instead were working on behalf of people of color, feminists, poor people and those who refused to...
8/12/2016 @ 7:58 AM - Hillary Clinton (Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik) Donald Trump has made this election, like everything else, about Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton, happily skewering him as he blows up his campaign with ruinous attacks on fellow Republicans and myriad others, has zero problems with this. But critics on the left do, because by playing it safe Clinton is sending troubling if unsurprising signals about the agenda she will set as president, and also missing a historic opportunity to crush the Republican Party in a moment of acute vulnerability. Instead of aggressively making the case that Trump represents the worst of Republican greed and bigotry, she is inviting their leaders and donors to join her campaign en masse. 'Hes...
8/12/2016 @ 7:45 AM - In a less volatile election cycle, the notion that Democrats would be on offense in red states like Utah, Arizona and Georgia would suggest the presidential race was effectively over. No one is willing to make that kind of bet in a race that has defied all political norms. But as Donald Trumps downward spiral continues in round after round of battleground polls, and the Hillary Clinton campaign has begun to dabble in ruby-red states, Democrats are clearly feeling bullish. Some are now openly mulling the possibility of a Clinton blowout in November. Even Trump acknowledged Thursday that his campaign was having a tremendous problem in Utah,” a reliably Republican state where Mitt Romney won more than 70%...
8/12/2016 @ 7:45 AM - Donald Trump on Friday attempted to walk back the widely criticized false claim he repeatedly made over the last two days that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were co-founders” of ISIS saying he was being sarcastic. Trump tweeted Friday morning that the media was missing his sarcasm. Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) the founder” of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DONT GET SARCASM?” Trump wrote. The tweet was the first move by Trump to moderate his comments, which he had repeated multiple times since he featured them in a speech Wednesday night and which came under fire from the Clinton campaign and many Democrats. Media outlets...
8/12/2016 @ 7:30 AM - Donald Trump on Friday attempted to walk back the widely criticized false claim he repeatedly made over the last two days that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were co-founders” of ISIS saying he was being sarcastic. Trump tweeted Friday morning that the media was missing his sarcasm. Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) the founder” of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DONT GET SARCASM?” Trump wrote. The tweet was the first move by Trump to moderate his comments, which he had repeated multiple times since he featured them in a speech Wednesday night and which came under fire from the Clinton campaign and many Democrats. Media outlets...
8/12/2016 @ 7:01 AM - Regulatory filings show owner could flip dying Atlantic City casino at the expense of thousands of employees who accuse him of purposely withholding benefits Most people lose money at the Trump Taj Mahal - that's the way casinos work. But if you're investor Carl Icahn, billionaire owner of Atlantic City's decaying but still opulent, elephant-fronted Taj, you have some odds in your favor. Icahn bought Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump's troubled New Jersey casino operations out of bankruptcy in March. Now he says striking workers have made it impossible to turn around a property that has lost him $100m and he will close the casino after the Labor day holiday on 5 September. Regulatory filings...
8/12/2016 @ 7:00 AM - Andy Warhol once said that in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. My 15 minutes arrived in the summer of 2014, when I found out that I was going to be a contestant on ABC's Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. I got the call that I'd been picked for the show while I was at work. After quietly freaking out in my office for a good half hour, the panic started to set in. What if I embarrass myself on national television? What if my mind goes blank onstage? What if I completely waste my one-time shot at fame and fortune? I knew that a lot of what would...
8/12/2016 @ 6:30 AM - In the eyes of Italian musician Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo, the rise of Donald Trump in America is reminiscent of the reign of Silvio Berlusconi the Italian billionaire tycoon, who served as Italys prime minister for a total of nine years, with his latest term ending in 2011. You know, we used to have Berlusconi in Italy and to me, Trump looks like a blonde Berlusconi,” Rifo, who is the founder of electro-dance punk formation, The Bloody Beetroots, told CNN. The Republican presidential nominee and the Italian media mogul turned politician are both known for their larger than life personalities, their skills in capturing the attention of the press and shaping narratives in the media. As...
8/12/2016 @ 6:15 AM - Donald Trump suggests US citizens could be sent to Guantánamo Bay try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Donald Trump , the Republican presidential nominee, indicated he may push for Americans suspected of terrorism to be tried in military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Miami Herald reported on Thursday. The proposal would require an act of Congress, as under US law it's illegal to try US citizens at military commissions, the Herald noted. "I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine," Trump told the newspaper in an interview. "I know that they want to try them in our regular...
8/12/2016 @ 6:00 AM - realtor.com When we see a listing with 11 bedrooms, were like luxury lab rats. Our minds are trained to look for the seven- or eight-digit price tag. Take Donald Trump s former Beverly Hills, CA, home. Listed this week , the 11-bedroom home on Rodeo Drive is selling for $30 million. Typical. But wait! The most-clicked home on realtor.com® this week comes with 11 bedrooms, but it isnt a million-dollar mansion. In fact, this Illinois house is listed for just a tick above $100,000. How is this even possible ? Well, its a former church, so youll have to get used to the stained-glass windows in your living room....
8/12/2016 @ 6:00 AM - In a less volatile election cycle, the notion that Democrats would be on offense in red states like Utah, Arizona and Georgia would suggest the presidential race was effectively over. No one is willing to make that kind of bet in a race that has defied all political norms. But as Donald Trumps downward spiral continues in round after round of battleground polls, and the Hillary Clinton campaign has begun to dabble in ruby-red states, Democrats are clearly feeling bullish. Some are now openly mulling the possibility of a Clinton blowout in November. Even Trump acknowledged Thursday that his campaign was having a tremendous problem in Utah,” a reliably Republican state where Mitt Romney won more than 70%...
8/12/2016 @ 6:00 AM - While nearly half have changed their minds about backing the Republican presidential nominee , many say they will still vote for the 'orange buffoon' Do the outrageous things Donald Trump says - from insinuating Hillary Clinton should be assassinated for her support of gun control to calling on Russia to hack Clinton's emails - change the minds of people who had planned to vote for him? Yes, actually - at least some of them. In the middle of primary season in February, the Guardian called for secret Trump voters to contact us and tell us why they were voting for Trump on the sly. More than 100 reached out - from yoga teachers...
8/12/2016 @ 6:00 AM - Jeb Bush; Ted Cruz; Marco Rubio (Credit: AP/Reuters/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Julie Jacobson/Jim Bourg) One of the phrases of the 2016 presidential race that will linger in campaign lore for years is the belief that the Republican Party's slate of 17 candidates constituted a 'deep bench.' And ever since 16 of those candidates were wiped out by the tangerine-colored menace that is Donald Trump, members of the Never Trump forces have bemoaned that the party base picked the one guy who cannot beat the historically unpopular Hillary Clinton. What if they had picked Ted Cruz? Or Marco Rubio? Or Jeb Bush? Ah, then we would have a race! This is...
8/12/2016 @ 6:00 AM - Polls show Hillary Clinton is leading among white, college-educated voters - a demographic group that has consistently voted Republican for decades. But Donald Trump has pushed many over to Clinton.
8/12/2016 @ 5:58 AM - Hillary Clinton (Credit: Reuters/Chris Keane) Heading into Hillary Clintons' big economic speech on Thursday, there was some concern among progressive groups that the Democratic presidential nominee was going to use the opportunity to nudge her policy agenda towards the center. She'd secured the nomination and no longer had to worry about Bernie Sanders' challenge from the left, and her campaign was in the middle of a high-profile push to recruit Republican defectors away from GOP nominee Donald Trump, which left open the possibility that she might start moderating for the general election. Well, Hillary's speech seems to have put those concerns to rest. At least for the moment. She also put together an...
8/12/2016 @ 5:31 AM - Built as a horse stable in 1878, this unusual Capitol Hill house also spent time as an organ factory before becoming a private residence. Through all its transformations, its winsome details have been maintained. Samuel S. Waters bought the stable in 1897 and converted it to an organ factory. He built organs there until his […]
8/12/2016 @ 5:30 AM - Barn, Nikolo-Lenivets, Kaluga District, Russia, 2006. Image © Yuri Grigoryan Yuri Grigoryan founded Project Meganom in 1999 in Moscow with his partners Alexandra Pavlova, Iliya Kuleshov, and Pavel Ivanchikov. Together, the group all graduated from Moscow 's Architectural Institute, MArchI in 1991, the year of the Soviet Union's collapse, and then practiced at the studio of Moscow architect Alexander Larin. Today Project Meganom is headed by Grigoryan, Iliya Kuleshov, Artem Staborovsky, and Elena Uglovskaya, and keeps in close contact with the theoretical side of architecture: Grigoryan teaches at his alma mater and until recently he was the Director of Education at Strelka Institute , founded in 2009 under...
8/12/2016 @ 5:01 AM - The Tony Award winner rents a one-bedroom with his wife, Nicolette Robinson, an actor and singer.
8/12/2016 @ 5:00 AM - Poll: Support is growing for the trade deal that has sparked a contentious debate in the campaign try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership - the landmark trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim nations - is growing in the US as it's been lambasted by Republican nominee Donald Trump and disavowed by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton , a new poll showed. The poll, released Thursday by Morning Consult , found that 35% of those surveyed support the deal, compared with just 26% when the firm last polled Americans on the deal in March. Opposition has shrunk over that time span from 29% to 22%. In the Thursday poll,...
8/12/2016 @ 5:00 AM - CARL ICAHN: Hillary's economic plan is a 'mishmash of contradictions' try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Carl Icahn does not like Hillary Clinton 's ideas for American business. The hedge fund billionaire took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with the Democratic presidential candidate's economic proposals. After reiterating his support for Republican candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday after a speech outlining his economic plan in Detroit, Icahn tweeted his disapproval for the Democratic rival after Clinton's own economic speech, also in Detroit. Click through images of Hillary Clinton's DNC speech: "Hillary's speech was a mishmash of contradictions," said Icahn. He also...
8/12/2016 @ 4:59 AM - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the BB&T Center, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Credit: AP) This article originally appeared on AlterNet . Donald Trump has said some pretty outrageous things. So outrageous that several conservative pundits have disavowed or refused to support the Republican candidate in his election campaign against Hillary Clinton. Of course, the craziest aspect of hardline conservatives refusing to support Trump is that they themselves are guilty of engaging in some pretty off-the-wall rhetoric. Here's a rundown of the craziest conservative voices who (somehow) find Donald Trump too insane to handle. 1....
8/12/2016 @ 4:16 AM - The PokeSpot, serving the increasingly popular ( in NYC ) Hawaiian raw-fish salad, opens to the public today on Fourth Avenue and 12th Street, the corner space that previously housed the Subway (sandwich shop) until late January. You can find their menu here . Or here... Previously on EV Grieve: The PokeSpot set for former Subway (sandwich shop) space on 4th Avenue
8/12/2016 @ 3:13 AM - Federal judges cannot expunge convictions from peoples criminal records even when it prevents those who have been rehabilitated from getting jobs, and Congress should consider granting the judiciary that power, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York overturned a May 2015 ruling that expunge d the records of a 2001 conviction of a woman who spent years struggling to hold down jobs because of it. Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier called the situation unfortunate” for the woman, known in court records as Jane Doe, and noted Congress has occasionally let judges give one-time criminal defendants a clean bill of health. It might consider doing so...
8/12/2016 @ 1:45 AM - In 13 prior Summer Games and three appearances by lone athletes at the Winter Olympics Fiji was oh-fer. No medals. Not since becoming an IOC member in the 1950s. Well, get the trophy case ready because the mens rugby sevens team is bringing home gold. Sure, there are other rugby titles already on the Fiji resume, but to win the first gold medal ever handed out for rugby is an overwhelmingly special moment for the rugby-crazed nation. I was just thankful to the lord for blessing us and giving us an opportunity to win in a mega-sport arena like the Olympics,” captain Osea Kolinisau told reporters at a news conference that began...
