#coronavirus relief

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Three years after receiving a $700 million pandemic-era lifeline from the federal government, the struggling freight trucking company Yellow is filing for bankruptcy.

After monthslong negotiations between Yellow’s management and the Teamsters union broke down, the company shut its operations late last month, and said on Sunday that it was seeking bankruptcy protection so it could wind down its business in an “orderly” way.

“It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business,” the company’s chief executive, Darren Hawkins, said in a statement. Yellow filed a so-called Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The downfall of the 99-year-old company will lead to the loss of about 30,000 jobs and could have ripple effects across the nation’s supply chains. It also underscores the risks associated with government bailouts that are awarded during moments of economic panic.

Yellow, which formerly went by the name YRC Worldwide, received the $700 million loan during the summer of 2020 as the pandemic was paralyzing the U.S. economy. The loan was awarded as part of the $2.2 trillion pandemic-relief legislation that Congress passed that year, and Yellow received it on the grounds that its business was critical to national security because it shipped supplies to military bases. Government watchdogs have scrutinized the loan because of the company’s financial turmoil and close ties to the Trump administration, which awarded the loan.

Since then, Yellow changed its name and embarked on a restructuring plan to help revive its flagging business by consolidating its regional networks of trucking services under one brand. As of the end of March, Yellow’s outstanding debt was $1.5 billion, including about $730 million that it owed to the federal government. Yellow has paid approximately $66 million in interest on the loan, but it has repaid just $230 of the principal owed on the loan, which comes due next year.

The fate of the loan is not yet clear. The federal government assumed a 30% equity stake in Yellow in exchange for the loan. It could end up assuming or trying to sell off much of the company’s fleet of trucks and terminals. Yellow aims to sell “all or substantially all” of its assets, according to court documents. Mr. Hawkins said the company intended to pay back the government loan “in full.”

The White House declined to comment.

Yellow estimated that it has more than 100,000 creditors and more than $1 billion in liabilities, per court documents. Some of its largest unsecured creditors include Amazon, with a claim of more than $2 million, and Home Depot, which is owed nearly $1.7 million.

Yellow is the third-largest small-freight trucking company in a part of the industry known as “less than truckload” shipping. The industry has been under pressure over the last year from rising interest rates and higher fuel costs, while customers have been reluctant to accept higher prices.

Those forces collided with an ugly labor fight this year between Yellow and the Teamsters union over wages and other benefits. Those talks collapsed last month and union officials soon after warned workers that the company was shutting down.

After its bankruptcy filing, company officials placed much of the blame on the union, saying its members caused “irreparable harm” by halting its restructuring plan. Yellow employed about 23,000 union employees.

“We faced nine months of union intransigence, bullying and deliberately destructive tactics,” Mr. Hawkins said. The Teamsters union “was able to halt our business plan, literally driving our company out of business, despite every effort to work with them,” he added.

In late June, the company filed a lawsuit against the union, asserting it had caused more than $137 million in damages by blocking the restructuring plan.

The Teamsters union said that Yellow’s executives unjustly blamed the union for the demise of the company, which had been “plagued with financial trouble for nearly two decades,” officials said in a statement.

“Teamster families sacrificed billions of dollars in wages, benefits and retirement security to rescue Yellow,” said Sean O’Brien, the union’s general president. “The company blew through a $700 million government bailout.” Calling Yellow’s top executives “dysfunctional” and “greedy,” he blamed them for failing to “take responsibility for squandering all that cash.”

The bankruptcy could create temporary disruptions for companies that relied on Yellow and might prompt more consolidation in the industry. It could also lead to temporarily higher prices as businesses find new carriers for their freight.

“Those inflationary prices will certainly hurt the shippers and hurt the consumer to a certain extent,” said Tom Nightingale, chief executive of AFS Logistics, who suggested that prices would probably normalize within a few months.

In late July, Yellow began permanently laying off workers and ceased most of its operations in the United States and Canada, according to court documents. Yellow has retained a “core group” of about 1,650 employees to maintain limited operations and provide administrative work as it winds down. Yellow said it expected to pay about $3.4 million per week in employee wages to operate during bankruptcy, which “may decrease over time.” None of the remaining employees are union members, the company said.

The company also sought the authority to pay an estimated $22 million in compensation and benefit costs for current and former employees, including roughly $8.7 million in unpaid wages as of the date of filing.

Yellow had readily accessible funds of about $39 million when it filed for bankruptcy, which it said would be insufficient to cover its wind-down efforts, and it expected to receive special financing to help support the sale process and payment of wages.

Jack Atkins, a transportation analyst at the financial services firm Stephens, said that Yellow’s troubles had been mounting for years. In the wake of the financial crisis, Yellow engaged in a spree of acquisitions that it failed to successfully integrate, Mr. Atkins said. The demands of repaying that debt made it difficult for Yellow to reinvest in the company, allowing rivals to become more profitable.

“Yellow was struggling to keep its head above water and survive,” Mr. Atkins said. “It was harder and harder to be profitable enough to support the wage increases they needed.”

David P. Leibowitz, a Chicago bankruptcy lawyer who represents several trucking companies, said Yellow had found itself in a “perfect storm, and they have not managed that perfect storm very well.”

The company’s financial problems fueled concerns. It lost more than $100 million in 2019 and was being sued by the Justice Department over claims that it defrauded the federal government during a seven-year period. Last year it agreed to pay $6.85 million to settle the lawsuit.

Congressional oversight committees have scrutinized the company’s relationships with the Trump administration. President Donald J. Trump tapped Mr. Hawkins to serve on a coronavirus economic task force, and Yellow had financial backing from Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm with close ties to Trump administration officials.

Democrats on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis wrote in a report last year that top Trump administration officials had awarded Yellow the money over the objections of career officials at the Defense Department. The report noted that Yellow had been in close touch with Trump administration officials throughout the loan process and had discussed how the company employed Teamsters as its drivers.

In December 2020, Steven T. Mnuchin, then the Treasury secretary, defended the loan, arguing that had the company been shuttered, thousands of jobs would have been at risk and the military’s supply chain could have been disrupted. He predicted that the federal government would eventually turn a profit from the deal.

“Yellow had longstanding financial problems before the pandemic, was not essential to national security and thus should never have received a $700 million taxpayer bailout from the Treasury Department,” Representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas and a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission, said in a statement. “Years of poor financial management at Yellow has resulted in hard-working people losing their jobs.”

[powerexec]

Why Self-Employed Individuals Should Explore SETC and FFCRA Benefits

Why Self-Employed Small Business Owners Should Explore SETC and FFCRA Benefits As a self-employed small business owner, gig worker, or 1099 contractor, managing finances can often feel like walking a tightrope. Between fluctuating incomes, rising costs, and complex tax regulations, it’s easy to overlook potential benefits that could significantly ease your financial burden. Among these benefits,…

[agronayurveda]

Buy online #Cufhit Honey #Cough syrup at #AgronAyurveda.

Cufhit Honey Syrup is a Herbal cough syrup for fast relief from acute cough and #throat infection.

COD AVAILABLE

No side effect.

Shop Now - https://www.agronayurveda.com/Cufhit-Honey-Syrup

CALL - 8859000627

#Bulk#Stockist#Distributors#PCD#OTC#Offer#Best Deal

#coronavirus#coronavirus#awareness#stayhome

[lightdancer1]

This, BTW, was the previous time she was the only Dem to vote against a thing

And yes, this was the height of the pandemic, and yes she literally voted against relief for the pandemic at the same time as she made her career on the inability to add 600 and 1400 together. The media made a deliberate choice to make this particular Representative the face of the Progressive Caucus when it had other choices, like Rep. Sharice Davids, Rep. Lauren Underwood, or for that matter the former Speaker of the House to go for as the voices of same.

Anyone who defines Congress by virtue of the Representative of Instagram and Twitter has no business offering commentary on politics, as your views are worthless.

[communistkenobi]

this website has a list of pro-Palestinian organisations across Canada, I encourage any Canadians following me to get on the mailing list of your local association as they send out information about letters you can send parliament and provincial governments in protest of Canada’s support for Israel, as well as information about local pro-Palestine demonstrations. I found mine pretty easily by google searching Palestine support [my city]. There has been some local resistance from MPPs about the ongoing Palestinian genocide (such as Sarah Jama in Ontario). from my experience these associations send you information about how to support local politicians who are pro-Palestine, such as sending thank you letters to their offices

the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East is asking people to send a pre-drafted letter to Trudeau to push for a ceasefire and to denounce support for Israel. They haven’t met their target of 18k letters yet!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Universities secretly sold their students to online casinos

End-stage capitalism’s defining characteristic is making money rather than making things. Think of how Jack Welch destroyed GE by transforming it from a manufacturing company to a financial engineering shop:

https://the.ink/p/like-capitalism-itself-business-journalism

Hospitals are invoice-generating factories with a sideline in medicine. The electronic health record only incidentally records your health. Its primary purpose is to record your billing-codes:

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/physicians-spending-nearly-2-hours-a-day-on-ehr-tasks-outside-work.html

And universities? Ugh. Most universities now have more administrators than faculty:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/08/administrative-bloat-harms-teaching-and-learning/

Much of that “administration” comes down to begging alums for money to funnel into vast endowments, but heaven forfend those endowments would be used to cover payroll and other essentials, even in a pandemic emergency:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/reneemorad/2020/04/21/harvard-under-fire-for-accepting-nearly-9-million-in-coronavirus-relief-funds/

Nor are endowment funds available to pay the education workers who actually teach students, but can’t afford the rent, food, or family:

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/11/14/nearly-50000-university-of-california-graduate-student-employees-launch-open-ended-strike/

The point of the endowment is to increase the size of the endowment — not to improve educational outcomes or research. That’s why Harvard is “A hedge fund that has a university”:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-hedge-fund-that-has-a-university-1510615228

This is the overwhelming logic of capital: capital exists to increase capital, and the underlying mechanism for that increase is irrelevant. This was the reasoning behind the surreal bid to sell the .ORG nonprofit registry to a secretive hedge-fund.

The point of the .ORG registry is to host domain records for nonprofits; incidentally, this throws off some extra money that is turned into grants for public interest projects. The board decided to sell off .ORG so it could make more of these grants, despite the fact that this would compromise the mission of hosting .ORG domain records:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/org-domain-registry-sale-ethos-capital-rejected-stunning-victory-public-interest

Likewise, this was the reasoning of the Mountain Equipment Co-Op board when they decided to sell off the member-owned co-op (“the most trusted brand in Canada”) to a US private equity fund without consulting the members:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/16/spike-lee-joint/#casse-le-mec

The expand-capital-at-all-costs mindset is a virulent species of brain worms. It’s the basis for surreal movements like effective altruism, which encourages people who want to do good for the world to sell out to the most toxic industries on Earth, amass gigantic fortunes, and then, upon their death, donate them to causes that in some way remediate the harms they themselves wreaked:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earning_to_give

In his new book Survival of the Richest, Douglas Rushkoff calls this “The Mindset” — “I need to make vast amounts of money, no matter what the consequences, or I will not be able to afford to insulate myself from the consequences of how I made all that money”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Once you let people with The Mindset anywhere near your institution, they will take it over and turn it into a paperclip-maximizing killing machine, one that abandons and then betrays its mission to increase its profits, eventually killing its host. Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop:

https://doctorow.medium.com/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-will-eventually-stop-110ba9711133

That’s what’s happened to higher ed. It’s not just the payroll full of starving adjuncts, facilities workers, etc. It’s not just the way that universities join forces with textbook monopolists to gouge their students:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#textbook-abuses

Beyond academics having to rely on food-stamps, students going into lifetime debt to enrich predatory textbook monopolies, and the other horrors of financialized higher ed, there’s the special evil of college sports.

Like all finance-bro motivated reasoning, college sports are sold as a way to do well by doing good: “Look! We’re giving poor people a chance at a great education based on their physical prowess, and we’re racking up tons of money for the university!”

But — like all finance schemes — college sports is a self-licking ice-cream cone that destroys the lives of the people who generate value for it, even as it devours its host institution from within.

Did you know that until very recently, college athletes weren’t allowed to make a penny from their labor?

https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/06/in-unanimous-ruling-court-agrees-with-athletes-that-ncaa-violated-antitrust-laws/

Did you know that those same athletes experience lifelong brain injuries?

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2791303

Did you know that college sports are a cesspit of long-term, officially tolerated sexual abuse?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/30/ohio-state-michigan-doctors-sexual-abuse-college-football

Did you know that the highest paid public employee in many states is a football coach at a state college?

https://www.profootballnetwork.com/highest-paid-college-football-coaches-2022/

Did you know that college coaches conspired with the rich parents to steal sport-related admission slots from poor kids and give them to mediocre winners of the orifice-lottery?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varsity_Blues_scandal

In many universities — whether public or private — the sports program effectively runs the show. Take the University of New Hampshire: back in 2016, a university librarian named Robert Morin left his life’s savings to the school after 50 years of service. Morin lived frugally for that half century and amassed a personal fortune of $4m.

He believed so deeply in the university’s mission that he turned it all over to the school without any restrictions. Talk about earning to give! The university blew Morin’s gift on a new jumbotron for their sports stadium:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/16/university-to-buy-1-million-football-scoreboard-with-thrifty-librarians-money-outraging-critics/

The people who see universities as inconvenient adjuncts to exploitative sports teams know that there are still rivals within higher ed who think the point of the school is to educate students.

That’s why the universities that arranged to allow sports gambling websites to target the young people in their care did so in secret.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/caesars-sports-betting-universities-colleges.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSVUZAybfQMMmqBCdnr_EybEnj2XlaTONTixe1KEfDpSc-kHCILdlZsU-xS-aWN5MK_okQ_h2w-BSJAptVwys6NOiqagyHh8U-8i1T39kmNXER6w5-jvnKWDmIe5ymOTn-hvbbzH1XKzbg2lxIVpvvZY2d12t3yMDwKmVFfVnmYUrhYdXDZ54TT8KZiWY7bK_W1glZoLwPlyL4RI2WupZRTnQgdWfjrsCew5TAl7FJ2httSd-sJgPfYNKY9usakIoa8H8gr4OCmd3LYvPBpQ5RILck70Coqf9dPDE9RFVhqXegnp2EK4F

Writing for the New York Times, Anna Betts, Andrew Little, Elizabeth Sander, Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly and Walt Bogdanich reveal the extraordinary corruption and depravity of college administrators who colluded with sports book companies to bring gambling to campus.

Implicated in the scandal are such top schools as Michigan State, U Colorado Bolder, Louisiana State, Syracuse and Texas Christian Univeristy (mission: “to educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens”).

On the casino side, the major player is Caesar’s, which is only fitting — Caesar’s was driven to bankruptcy by private equity who managed to financialize a casino into ruin:

https://www.ft.com/content/a0ed27c6-a2d4-11e7-b797-b61809486fe2

Caesar’s offered universities millions of dollars for the right to directly sports betting to students. The MSU deal, brokered by university officials Paul Schager and Alan Haller, was worth $8.4m. That is to say, Caesar’s was asking the university to help it drain at least $8.4m from students’ bank accounts in order to turn a profit.

Louisiana State U did a similar deal with Caesar’s, and then embarked on a direct marketing campaign to sell sports gambling to students who were too young to legally place a bet.

LSU says this was a mistake. Cody Worsham, a university official who holds two offices — associate athletic director and chief brand officer (!!) — said that Caesar’s and LSU “share a commitment to responsible, age-appropriate marketing.”

Meanwhile, U Colorado Boulder struck a deal where it earned a $30 bounty every time a student went from non-gambler to gambler — in other words, Boulder didn’t make money by advertising gambling to students — it made money only if its students started gambling.

These student gambling programs are designed to keep children betting even if they lose money, with teaser offers that refund some losses if students keep placing bets.

This is obviously unsavory stuff. That’s why the architects of these programs went to enormous lengths to keep it secret. The state schools involved funneled their deals through private marketing agencies that were shielded from FOIA requests, specifically to prevent the public from learning how public universities were conducting their affairs.

As MSU executive associate athletic director Paul Schager put it: “With the multimedia rights holder, public institutions like Michigan State no longer have to disclose all those sponsorship deals. This helps with the sponsors being able to spend what they feel is appropriate without having the public or employees or stockholders question that investment.”

The deals themselves are far-reaching. As part of MSU’s Caesar’s deal, tailgate parties before big games would be “Caesarized,” with the casino providing ad-copy for the live announcers to read to attendees. As a figleaf, $25,000 of the millions that MSU received from Caesar’s was earmarked for gambling addiction education.

The deals weren’t just kept secret from the public — they were also hidden from top university oversight. At UC Bolder, the Board of Regents was informed of the deal mere hours before it was announced to the public.

These deals have only been running for a couple months and it’s too soon to chart the long-term harms they’ll create in the student body. But, the Times* notes, there is an one harm that surfaced almost immediately: student athletes are now subject to vicious abuse by their fellow students, who lose money they can’t afford when their peers lose a game.

[Image ID: A gaudy casino floor. In the foreground is a figure in college graduation robes giving a double thumbs-up. His head is a grinning skull with a mortarboard.]

[cognitivejustice]

How urban farming improves our cities

(some links, curated by yours truly)

[dailyanarchistposts]

A revolutionary “pessimistic” postscript in times of coronavirus

“The outbreak of the new strain of coronavirus (COVID-19), which has wrought havoc in China since the end of last year, has surged over borders and impacted the rest of the world, and with it, the imminent economic crisis has but further advanced. The world economy is in full-on crisis, the administrators of power are pending on immense financial relief, the bourgeoisie are beginning to close factories and lay off employees using the lucky pretext of the “quarantine” as excuse. The disaster is immanent. Nevertheless, it’s important to know that the monetary losses don’t signify the fall of the capitalist system. Capitalism will seek at every moment to restructure itself on the basis of austerity measures imposed on proletarians in order to palliate all the catastrophic consequences that it will bring along with it. And this is due to the fact that the “blows” that capitalism has been dealt due to these phenomena are simply losses in its rate of profit, but those losses don’t at all change its structure or its essence, meaning the social relations that allow it to remain standing: the commodity, value, the market, exploitation and wage labor. In fact, it’s in these structures that capitalism most reaffirms its necessities: sacrificing millions of human beings to the favor of economic interests, making the polarization between classes sharpen and revealing more forcefully in what position the dominant class is to be found, who will use all the efforts in their reach in order to preserve this state of things.

[…]

The ever-more contradictions heightened contradictions of this mode of production (crisis, war, pandemics, environmental destruction, pauperization, militarization), which exasperate our conditions of survival, won’t clear the way either mechanically or messianically for the end of capitalism. Or better said, such conditions, although they will be fundamental, won’t suffice. Because for capitalism to reach its end, it’s imperative for there to be a social force, antagonistic and revolutionary that manages to direct the destructive and subversive character towards something completely different from what we know and experience now.

If we want it or not, we can’t let a question as important as the revolution to drift aimlessly, to leave it to luck. It’s necessary to experience the resolution of this problem on the basis of the organization of tasks that can go on to present themselves, that’s to say, the grouping for the appropriation and defense of the most immediate necessities (not paying debts, rent, or taxes), but also, the rupture from all the dreams and mirages that carry us to manage the save miseries behind another facade.

[…]

It’s not necessary to wait for the dystopia or the hollywoodesque scenes of apocalypse, because these are already materially manifesting in different parts of the globe, and in fact they greatly surpass any attempt at representation by cinematic fiction.

The current pandemic of COVID-19 is one more stage in the degradation to which this society of commodity production brings us.

A stage before which it is reaffirmed that the true future only hangs from two strings:

Communist revolution or to perish in the twilight!”

Contra la Contra n.3 Collapse of the capitalist system? A few notes on current events. Mexico City March 2020

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Irene Yazzie can’t think of anyone who lives within 10 miles of her farm in the Navajo Nation who has drinking water flowing into their homes, hers included. In the far reaches of the reservation in Northeastern Arizona, near where the red-rock buttes of Monument Valley rise above the desert floor, indoor plumbing can feel like a luxury.

“I don’t know that people understand how hard of a life we have here,” said Yazzie, 71.

Help could be on the way if Congress approves a historic agreement reached between the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribes and the state of Arizona that would settle all of their outstanding water rights claims to the Colorado River Basin.

The deal, which all three tribes have now approved, marks a historic milestone for Indigenous nations that have fought for decades for their fair share of the water coursing through their ancestral lands.

Water claims with New Mexico and Utah had already been settled. Arizona had been the lone holdout. The 27,400-square-mile Navajo reservation, the nation’s largest, stretches across parts of all three states, with huge distances between towns and even individual homes.

While millions of people in the interior Southwest and Southern California draw from the Colorado River to sustain their cities and crops, Yazzie’s tribe has lacked pipelines connecting it to this precious — and overtaxed — waterway.

Several days a week, Yazzie or one of her two adult children makes the hour-long drive along bumpy dirt and gravel roads to reach a tribal community center that allows residents to pump water for a fee. Once back home, Yazzie has her son refill a cistern in the family’s yard.

“I’m always hauling water,” Yazzie said recently by phone.

Yazzie and her neighbors outside the Navajo hamlet of Dennehotso aren’t alone in living with water scarcity. An estimated 30% of households on the Navajo reservation don’t have indoor plumbing, and many who live in remote areas have to power their homes with generators because they’re also not connected to the power grid.

During a signing event in the tribal capital of Window Rock, Ariz., Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said the water agreement is especially meaningful for residents on the reservation who are forced to haul water simply to access a basic necessity of life. In some cases, residents share water supplies with relatives and friends, while others get relief from nonprofits that offer free water system installations.

While the deal has been a long time in the making, the effort to bring safe drinking water into tribal members’ homes has taken on a new urgency in recent years due to droughts caused by climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and the battle among Southwestern states to secure their share of water from the river basin.

The country’s volatile politics and the looming presidential election are also top of mind for Indigenous leaders. The tribes will need both congressional approval and a presidential signature before the new agreement can take effect.

Some tribal officials see the Democratic administration of President Biden as more favorable to water rights claims and the protection of ancestral lands than Biden’s predecessor and presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, though both as president have acted in support of expanding water access. In 2020, the Trump administration backed a deal between the Navajo Nation and Utah that settled all water rights claims in state and authorized about $220 million in federal funding to help build water infrastructure. Since Biden took office in 2021, his administration has directed hundreds of millions of dollars to Indigenous tribes for water projects.

In 2023, however, the majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to Navajo efforts to expand water access when it ruled that the federal government is not legally obligated to aid in the building of pipelines and other infrastructure to bring safe drinking water to reservation residents.

“Last year it was a hit to the belly that the (U.S. Supreme Court) was not going to help us,” Nygren said at the signing ceremony. “But now we have our own attorneys, water experts, hydrologists, and we can figure out how much water belongs to us.”

Under the finalized agreement, the Navajo will receive “a substantial amount of the Colorado River Upper Basin water, some Lower Basin water, all groundwater underlying the Navajo Nation, all surface water that reaches the Navajo Nation from the Little Colorado River, and all wash water that reaches the Nation south of the Hopi reservation,” according to the Navajo Nation Council.

The deal calls for the federal government to allocate $5 billion toward the building of critical infrastructure to link the territory’s surface water and groundwater sources to the communities that need them. It also gives the Navajo the flexibility to move Arizona water from the Colorado River’s upper basin to the lower basin and to divert water in New Mexico and Utah to Navajo communities in Arizona if that’s the closest source to those residents.

“Obviously, living on the Navajo reservation, we don’t have boundaries — this is just one piece of our homeland — so building out large infrastructure for water, sewer and electric lines, that’s huge,” said Joelynn Ashley, who chairs the Navajo Nation Water Rights Commission and represents areas that border the river.

Ashley said that while many Navajo have long depended on groundwater, contamination from uranium and arsenic, as well high salinity levels, make some of it unsafe to use. And some wells simply don’t yield enough water to meet demand.

“We just want to be able to use all of our water because we’ve got a lot of places where either water quantity or water quality is not there,” Ashley said.

Yazzie says the arrival of pipelines and water pouring from a tap in her home could not happen soon enough. She’s looking forward to the day when she doesn’t have to drive 16 miles each way to fill up on water for her family, as well as her 18 cows, 15 goats and two horses.

“It’s a hassle,” she said.

[meret118]

About three years ago, Soumya Rangarajan struggled day after day with exhaustion, headaches, and heart palpitations. As a frontline hospital doctor during the coronavirus pandemic, she first attributed her symptoms to the demands of an unprecedented health-care crisis.

But a social-media post got Rangarajan thinking about the possibility that she might actually be the victim of something more mundane: an iron deficiency. She requested a blood test from her doctor, and the results determined she had anemia, a condition caused by lower-than-normal levels of iron in the blood.

It was the first step toward relief, recalls Rangarajan, who is a geriatrician at the University of Michigan. Her symptoms, she adds, had made it so she “had difficulty getting through a full week at work.”

Although estimates vary, some research suggests that about a third of women of reproductive age in the United States may not get enough iron, which helps support various functions in the body. But despite the high prevalence of iron deficiency, it isn’t routinely screened for during annual health examinations.

“Women are only tested if they present to a health-care provider and are having symptoms,” says Angela Weyand, a pediatric hematologist at the University of Michigan. And although the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does recommend screening pregnant people for anemia—which can result in the body having too few healthy red blood cells—providers likely miss many patients who are iron-deficient but not anemic, Weyand says, because it requires other testing.

------

I'm shocked. I thought it was part of a standard blood test. There's no way it wouldn't be standard if it affected that many men.

ETA: I've been a vegetarian since I was 16, and have very fair skin. Maybe my doctors have normally ordered it because of that, because I know I've seen it on my blood test results.

[follow-up-news]

More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs that helped small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years. The numbers issued Tuesday by the U.S. Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than the office’s previous projections and underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs were to fraudsters, particularly during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. The inspector general’s report said “at least 17 percent of all COVID-EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors.” The fraud estimate for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is more than $136 billion, which represents 33 percent of the total money spent on that program, according to the report. The Paycheck Protection fraud estimate is $64 billion, the inspector general said.

[meandmybigmouth]

[mariacallous]

https://x.com/ozkaterji/status/1752739588055986188?s=46&t=WLunzndd86TYqPF2E217iQ

[amberjazmyn]

happy birthday dad!

𝓲𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓮 - happy birthday dad!

𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 - dad x jared, an emotional reunion between father and daughter, happy tears

𝓭𝓮𝓼𝓬𝓻𝓲𝓹𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 - jared padalecki's eldest daughter, pressley padalecki had been away at university in australia for the last three years and only now, three years later, was able to come home due to covid restrictions. and it was also her dad's birthday so, there was no way she'd miss out on surprising her old man for his 40th birthday. 

𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓻'𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓮 - the one-shot will be written in lowercase and flashbacks, if any, will be written in italics. 

masterlist

- - -

𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫  | 19th july 2022 | brisbane, queensland 

pressley padalecki was tearful, in an emotion she wasn't sure was joy, relief or sadness. joy, because she was finally able to get on that goddamn three-hour delayed delta flight back home to her home state of austin, texas specifically, from brisbane, queensland australia after four whole years, two of them being stuck there due to coronavirus (in 2020 and 2021). relief, because she was able to spend her father's birthday with him at home during a brief break from filming for his cw show walker and sadness because she felt awful that she had become so close to her roommates back at the university of queensland that she felt sick to her stomach that she was one of the very few international university students who were able to travel back home after the whole coronavirus, lockdown situation that the world had been circumnavigating the last couple of years after they had all graduated. however, the moment she finally sat down, alongside her best friend, alania, a fellow international student of the university of queensland in their first-class seats as pressley wore her old oversized supernatural cast hoodie that was for sure first given to her when she was just a wee toddler paired with white flared jeans and fluffy slides. she sighed in relief, with a smidge of joy and a smidge of sadness as she rested her head against the side of the first class cabin she and alania purchased as both girls listened intently to the aeroplanes safety instructions even though they knew nothing bad was actually going to happen. 

after all the safety instructions and usual announcements had been made, both girls settled back down in their seats, pressley reached for her wired earphones even though it wasn't totally illegal for her to use her airpods, and plugged them into her iphone and immediately went into her spotify premium.  pressing shuffle on her playlist, carry on wayward son by kansas and then drowning by her uncle jensen's band radio company and other songs that reminded pressley of her family back home in texas played in her earphones. whilst those songs would always make her cry (and absolutely, positively did on this flight) it also made her smile and be extremely grateful that the flight, although it was delayed by three hours and was an entire twenty-four-hour flight, they were finally on the plane and on their way home on american soil in texas. the overly exhausted texan girl seemed to fall asleep within minutes and it seemed to stay that way for the entire flight. even her fellow uni best friend, alania callahan, didn't want to disturb her twenty-year-old best friend as it seemed obvious from the tear stains on the padalecki girl's face, the slightly distressed wrinkles and scrunched-up nose that she shared with her dad that it revealed to the flight attendants as well as alania that this sleep was extremely needed. especially because she'd be surprising not just her dad for his birthday but also everyone else so, no one disturbed her until alania had to when the plane landed back home in austin, texas. 

pressley was in the deepest sleep, her earphones blasting jason manns, jensen ackles, rob benedict's version of the band's hit song wagon wheel when she felt herself being shaken awake. the girl jolted awake but softly fluttered her eyes open to see the prettiest female eyes, they were the blue eyes of her bestie, alania. rushing to take out her earphones, alania gestured for the girl to breathe and go slow as pressley listened and she took her time before alania spoke up. with the slightly exhausted smile from the blonde, alania took that cue to speak up so, she did. 

"hey little miss sleepy, sorry to wake you up honey but the flight attendants were wanting me to let you know that we've finally arrived back home in austin..." alania smiled at her bestie as that seemed to make pressley teary-eyed and on the verge of tears 

alania wasn't bothered by her bestie's emotional reaction since, it was quite normal for pressley to cry. and, it was also clear to alania that pressley had been waiting for the moment of hearing that she was finally home after being away from it for what had felt like an eternity, just like alania. 

alania let her best friend compose herself before pressley spoke up, "...we're home, alania?" pressley whimpered out as alania sweetly smiled 

"yeah, we're home press. we touched down around ten/fifteen minutes ago, we are currently the last ones from first class to deboard but the flight attendants are still waiting to deboard business and economy classes. so, the flight attendants said to me before waking you up that they aren't really in a rush to get us off but...wait, you never told me whos picking you up..." alania was knee deep in repeating what she was told to pressley when she remembered that she was never told who was picking pressley up as pressley smiled and giggled slightly through her tears

"...oh, yeah, sorry, i...um, i'm surprising my family, but my dad especially for his birthday. it's his 40th birthday today and walker is on a small break from filming before returning back for their newest season..." pressley giggled, smiling as she just imagined the reactions of her dad jared and her brothers and sister, tom, shep and odette along with the reactions from the rest of her walker family, colby, violet, keegan, kale, odette, jeff as well as her mom's reaction as well

seeing pressley's smile at what alania knew was her best friend's imaginings of how the padalecki girl's family would react to the surprise made alania smile even more. she had been friends with pressley and her family since they were basically in diapers after their parents met at an event for pressley's grandfather, gerald padalecki, who was the tax accountant at the same workplace as her grandfathe's at the time and since then, the padalecki's and callahan's had been the best of friends, that friendship continuing on in their children. 

"...so, if you're surprising the whole family, who's picking you up then?" alania giggled as the two girls grabbed their carry-on luggage and awkwardly shimmied out of the plane so they could then leave and truly be back on solid ground, not a plane's ground after what felt like a whole year of being in one 

"no one, alania, did you forget that we drove here and left my car in the parking garage the whole four years..." pressley trailed off as alania suddenly face palmed, remembering all of a sudden as the two girls giggled - glad that they had faith in the undercover parking at austin airport 

"...how did i forget that? we came together cause i stayed at your house overnight--i'm a fucking idiot!" alania chuckled as pressley shook her head and giggled at her childhood best friend

"come on alania! let's go home, it's time for us to surprise our families!" pressley smiled, holding her hand out for her best friend to grab which she did as the fellow blonde girl nodded her head with a smile and took her best friends hand with hers 

𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 | 19th july 2022 | dublin, ireland

pressley had just helped alania surprise her family and, it was the sweetest moment ever, especially when alania's parents gina and alexander basically pulled her into joining the family group hug and it only made her even more excited to surprise her own family, her dad most especially. with gina and alexander callahan's help and the help of alania, it was pressley's time to surprise her own family. and the first person to be surprised was genevieve, pressley's mum. 

so, after a couple of moments of gina, alania's mum, convincing genevieve to come outside to the front of the house on her own, gen made her way outside. and the look on both gen and pressley's faces when they saw each other was the sweetest in the world. 

alania filmed as pressley waited in anxious wait for her mum to come outside to the front of the house after gina sent what could be perceived as a suspicious text. pressley had just turned around to smile at alania and her phone when she heard her mum's voice...

"...pressley? what...what are you doing home?" genevieve's voice was shaky and tearful as pressley turned around and only just opened her arms for a hug when gen rushed over to pull her eldest daughter in for a hug 

"surprise mom!" pressley whispered as she started to giggle as she felt herself breathing properly again as she smiled into her mum's shoulder 

genevieve held her heart tightly as she moved out of the hug, one of her hands still holding pressley's, "you didn't tell us you'd be home for your dad's birthday!" she whispered, having an inkling as to that being the entire reason why pressley was surprising her whole family rather than just jared 

"because i wanted to surprise all of you, not just dad. he isn't that subtle when asking for birthday wishes mom," pressley giggles as does genevieve, alania, alexander and gina who are all filming from different angles because, you know, angles

"of course he isn't, he's never been subtle. oh, i'm so glad you're home, press! it's been way too long!" genevieve whispered, hugging her eldest child again 

"it really has! i'm just glad that alania and i had the opportunity to come home because so many other international, especially american, students at the uni are still stuck back in brisbane!" pressley explained as genevieve looked shocked as alania nodded her head in agreement, the girl stopped filming a moments earlier 

.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·.

a few minutes went by when, with the help of genevieve, alania, gina and alexander, pressley surprised her brothers, tom and shep at their soccer game that weirdly enough, their dad, who was sport crazy, wasn't attending because he was celebrating his birthday with his walker and supernatural family.

thankfully, the soccer coaches for tom and shep, another set of good friends of the padaecki family, recognised the surprise and that pressley had returned home and gave subtle head nods, letting the older sister know that she could surprise tom and shep. however, it seemed as if tom, the older of the two brothers, had noticed pressley just a minute or two quicker. 

"...pressley!" tom squeaked out, jumping from the wired fence he was sitting atop and rushing over to the other side of the soccer pitch to his older sister who stood smiling 

her speed picked up as she noticed the look on her brother's face, he was seconds from crying and as though his feet couldn't run fast enough to reach her so, she started to run towards him as well. finally, after what felt like the brother and sister had been running forever, they finally reached each other and tom and pressley padalecki collided with each other. 

jumping into his sister's arms, even though he was coming up to the age of being a teenager, at ten, he didn't care as it had been at least four or so years since he had last seen her that wasn't over the phone on facetime. 

"what are you doing home?" he sniffled with a small giggle as pressley smiled, pulling away and giving her brother a sweet kiss on the head 

"me and alania got lucky as two of very few international students who were able to come home and also, i couldn't resist surprising dad for his birthday, of course!" pressley giggled at the end, making tom giggle too, even with the tears dripping down his cheeks 

"do you need to go back to graduate?" tom then questioned as the laughter from the soccer team started occurring out of the blue - shep had finally realised where his older brother was and that his older sister was home

and, that was when another screech of pressley's name was heard, "pressley!" her heart almost exploded at how her younger brothers always got so excited and emotional when she came home as she turned around, waiting for her brother to run over to her 

similar to tom, shep started getting teary eyed as he ran because he felt like he couldn't run quick enough so, like she did with tom, pressley started to run over to shep.  thankfully though, pressley and shep didn't stray too far from tom who seemed like he was still in shock from this whole reunion thing. after shep and pressley hugged, they immediately pulled tom in as they had a group hug. 

"what are you doing here? i thought you couldn't get home because of covid?" shep chuckled, wiping off a tear from his cheek as pressley smiled, shaking her head 

"no, i was lucky, as was alania--" 

"--alania's home as well?!" shep squealed in even more excitement as pressley and tom giggled, pressley nodding her head 

"yes, she is! she's actually filming this whole thing!" pressley giggled as alania rushed over from a little bush that she had been filming behind, the brothers smiling as they rushed to give the girl a hug 

after the twins reunited with alania, they then chatted with their older sister a little bit more, wondering if odette, their younger sister and their dad knew only to find out pressley was surprising the whole family. 

.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·.

now that mom, tom and shep were surprised, the only two people that needed to be surprised were little sister odette and their dad jared. however, usually, dad would be the person to pick odette up after dancing, however, genevieve managed to convince her husband that she was going to pick up odette when really, it was actually going to be pressley and alania that were going to be picking odette up. thankfully, the dance studio that five-year-old gia danced at was the very same one that pressley and alania danced at so, they would be allowed to pick up odette instead of jared or genevieve since the two girls were very well known at the dance studio. 

and once again, alania was filming as the girls walked into the dance studio to pick up odette, who was around three when pressley first left for uni and was now five years old, nearly six. you would think that a young girl of odette's age, who hadn't seen their older sister since they were three, wouldn't remember them but, that couldn't be said for little odette padalecki...

...pressley had barely walked in when little odette screamed at the top of her lungs and ran over to her older sister. 

"pressley!!!" odette screamed, not even wanting to say goodbye to her dance teacher who smiled as they saw the reason why odette was screaming after they had registered the name that the girl had screamed out 

kneeling down to the ground with her arms wide open, pressley waited for her little sister to jump into her arms so she could pick her up and twirl her around, "odette!!!" pressley cheered, matching her sister's enthusiasm and excitement as she hugged odette as tightly as possible 

then, what odette said next made everyone coo in adorableness, "i missed you, pressley!" odette couldn't have been happier at the end of her dancing lesson, not so upset that it wasn't her daddy picking her up since she would see him later since she could tell that pressley wouldn't just surprise one person in the family 

"i missed you too, odette! you've gotten so big! when i last saw you, you were like, three! now you're five years old! in fact, you're nearly six!" pressley giggled as odette nodded her head in excitement, happy as ever that pressley remembered that she was no longer a little girl anymore but a big girl 

"i know! i'm glad you're home though, because it's daddy's birthday today! he's been wanting you to come home for agesss!" odette drawn out at the end as that got everyone giggling, including alania, who odette noticed shortly after 

"alania!" odette rushed over to the other brunette girl and gave her a hug 

and then, it was time for the all-important surprise. the main surprise, her dad jared! 

.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·.

it had been quickly decided that geneveive would tell the wives and husband of the other cast members from walker and supernatural, including misha, jeff pierre, violet brinson, danneel and jensen ackles, keegan allen, odette anable, molly hagan, kale culley, ashley reyes, alexander calvert, mitch pileggi and a few others. just so they knew that pressley was home surprising jared and that they could tell their kids as well. and this was so the last surprise was jared and then pressley's uncles and aunties. 

and, it worked out because they decided to go out to dinner for jared's birthday and immediately, genevieve wanted to take some group shots, some family shots and then during the shots of jared with his supernatural and walker castmates, pressley quickly slid in standing behind her dad with her arms around him. and this was the funniest thing because, jared just smiled, not hesitating to rest his hands over the top of the hands that were his daughter's, not that he knew that. which made genevieve giggle but managed to keep it quiet enough that jared didn't question it and the photos continued. that was until gen showed jared and the two tv show casts the photos. it didn't take the others long to realise that pressley had joined them for the photo and was the person with their arms around jared but kept quiet so their best friend could get surprised without it being ruined. 

and it wasn't because moments later, jared looked at the photo again. his eyes wide and then turned around to see his eldest daughter, pressley standing right behind him, with her best friend alania behind her filming the reunion. 

"pressley?! what on earth are you doing here?!" nicky's voice shook as he staggered up out of his seat at the restaurant and pulled his eldest in for a hug as pressley giggled 

"you aren't as subtle with your birthday wishes, like always!" pressley simply said as she hugged her dad as tightly as she could, feeling like she could finally breathe properly now that she was finally reunited with her whole family again 

pressley made everyone laugh with her comment as jared couldn't help but laugh at it either as he nodded his head in agreement, "i'm never subtle, pressley!" he mumbled as it was obvious to pressley that her dad could breathe properly again now that his family was back together again 

after one more tight squeeze, pressley then moved to her supernatural and walker families to give them hugs since it was clear they were also surprised, even though they noticed her in the background first. 

after jared had composed himself from the shock that was the surprise of his eldest daughter coming home after four years away in australia, he felt like he was ready to have an actual conversation with his daughter again. 

hugging her again, jared spoke up, "did you just get home today?" jared chuckled, wiping away a tear as pressley giggled 

"yeah, me and alania landed today, we were just two of very few that were allowed to leave, we'll still have to go back at some point for our graduation but, hopefully by then it'll be less restricted," pressley explained as jared nodded his head in understanding as he smiled at alania who he then stood up to give a hug to as she still filmed 

alania smiled, "hey jared, happy birthday!" jared gave her a kiss on the head which made alania blush slightly 

"hey alania, welcome back darlin' and thank you, it is a happy birthday," jared chuckled as alania smiled back with a head nod, understanding that it was easily his best birthday with all of his children home with him 

after a few more photos that had been taken outside of the father and daughter and everyone else, their group had finally picked out what they wanted to eat and ordered it. 

.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·.

after the fantastic birthday dinner and even more fantastic birthday cake for jared, videos and photos from the birthday was posted everywhere. including posts from her parents and uncles but, she still hadn't posted any but, because they had just come back home, pressley finally posted for her dad's birthday. just so those who didn't know the girl had come home (not that anyone did), wouldn't freak out thinking the girl had forgotten to post or acknowledge her father's 40th birthday.

liked by jaredpadalecki, genpadalecki, jensenackles, keeoone, alaniacallahan and 777k others

pressleypadalecki happy 40 daddy, you still look absolutely fire even though you're no longer in your twenties 🤍

view all 66k comments

jaredpadalecki you are never gonna let me live this down are you? 

jaredpadalecki seriously though pressley, thank you so much, this was the best birthday i could have ever dreamt of having 🤍

pressleypadalecki jaredpadalecki it was my pleasure dad, i'm glad i could give you your birthday wish 🤍

genpadaleckithe look on your father's face when he realised it was you in the photo, and not just some random person with their arms around him is always going to be priceless

pressleypadalecki genpadalecki i know! that was my fear as well that he'd turn around to tell me to get the heck off him but, he didn't! 

jensenackles i have to say pressley, how on earth are you going to top this birthday present? in all seriousness though, jared's reaction was priceless! 

pressleypadalecki jensenackles honestly uncle jensen, i have got no clue whatsoever so, i think i may need some help for the first time in forever! and, i know, i can't stop watching the video! 

keeoone i've never seen your dad so shocked before! you are for sure the queen of surprising people for their birthdays, lemme tell you that, pressley! 

pressleypadalecki keeoone thanks uncle keegs, i honestly haven't either! and thank you, thank you, however, i think i may start asking for help after this year! 

alaniacallahan lol, "you still look fire even though you're no longer in your twenties", what a slow burn that is for your old man, press! 

pressleypadalecki alaniacallahan hahaha, you know i had to do it, alania! 

misha jared's reaction was the best i had ever seen in ages! 

pressleypadalecki misha it really was! he was not expecting it at all! 

danneelackles512 your old man's reaction to you being home was the sweetest in the world! 

pressleypadalecki danneelackles512 i know, it was so adorable! 

violetbrinson what the fuck are you going to do for your dad's 41st next year?! there is no way you could top this! 

pressleypadalecki violetbrinson i have got no idea! and i agree, i don't know if i am able to top this! 

realashleyreyes the fbi couldn't have planned this any better and neither could the texas rangers!

pressleypadalecki realashleyreyes i agree aunty ash! 

padaleckifanalecki omg i'm gonna cry! i was so worried you had forgotten about your dad's birthday, press! you were just on your way to surprise him, i'm gonna cry! 

pressleypadalecki padaleckifanalecki don't cry, you'll make me cry! and don't worry, i'd never forget my dad's birthday because i was just on my way to surprise him! 

just as pressley thought she had the most perfect day surprising her dad and family for her dad's birthday, she never imagined she'd be talked about in an ew article about how she surprised her dad. but, she did and it happened and it was posted and she was obsessed over it for the next couple of days.

ew!

PRESSLEY PADALECKI, DAUGHTER OF SUPERNATURAL AND WALKER ACTOR JARED PADALECKI HAS COME HOME FROM UNIVERSITY IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA AFTER FOUR YEARS TO SURPRISE HER DAD FOR HIS 40th BIRTHDAY AT BIRTHDAY DINNER

SAMANTHA HIGHFIELD | EDITOR JULY 19, 2022 

pressley padalecki, the eldest daughter of supernatural and walker actor jared padalecki and wife geneveive padalecki, gave her father the biggest surprise and ultimately, the best birthday present ever for his 40th birthday. she surprised him during a birthday dinner for his birthday as the walker cast has a small break in the middle of their newest season. 

the twenty-year-old is a university student studying for a bachelor's degree in film and television all the way in brisbane, queensland, australia where she had been the last four years, two of them due to the coronavirus pandemic. it was mentioned in a video taken by pressley's family friend, alania callahan, who is a fellow film and television university student with pressley, that the two girls were two of very few given permission to fly home by the university of queensland for her dad's birthday which is what inspired her to surprise her father for this 40th birthday. 

pressley padalecki and her childhood best friend, alania callahan in brisbane, australia | pic: instagram/pressleypadalecki 

in pressley's instagram post for her dad's 40th birthday, she posts three photos. one of her with her father at a restaurant, a photo of her all dressed up for the dinner and then another photo of her at the airport, taken by alania callahan, who is a very well known friend to the entire padalecki family, not just pressley. and this is due to the relationship alania's parents has with pressley's grandfather, gerald padalecki, former tax accountant. 

her caption reads: "happy 40 daddy, you still look absolutely fire even though you're no longer in your twenties 🤍" which is a very simple caption for the padalecki girl as she is usually the one to write paragraphs for occasions like her family members' birthdays and days like mothers and fathers day. however, the eldest padalecki daughter didn't forget the little slow burn that she always gives her dad for every birthday post. this year mentioning that he is no longer in his twenties but still looks absolutely fire. but, it seems as though she wanted to keep it short, sweet and simple since she did surprise him at dinner in front of so many people after it was shown she had surprised the rest of her family. 

pressley violet padalecki is the eldest daughter of jared and genevieve padalecki, born in 2003. however, jared and genevieve didn't meet until season four of supernatural and pressley was actually the daughter of padalecki's former partner before he met genevieve. genevieve then shortly after adopted pressley just as the two married in 2010. pressley is the older sister to jared and genevieve's three other children, thomas colton, austin sheppard "shep" and odette elliot. at the beginning of little pressley's life, there were tons of rumours about how people had no idea that jared already had a child before meeting his now-wife. however, thankfully those rumours never lasted long to cause too much harm to the family. causing only a mild controversy, everyone cheered in the excitement that jared was already a father. then, when pressley was first introduced, everyone rejoiced that little pressley violet was healthy and then in 2010, pressley's parents got married in sun valley, idaho when she was only a few months old. 

pressley padalecki | pic: instagram/pressleypadalecki 

it had been four years since jared, genevieve, tom, shep and odette had seen their daughter and older sister and since the rest of the supernatural and walker family had seen their niece and cousin. as previously mentioned, pressley had been in queensland, australia studying at their university for a degree in film and television because she had always loved acting and performing. the university of queensland is also where her childhood best friend alania callahan studied with her. 

alania, who gave me permission to talk with her, said that she's been friends with pressley and the entire padalecki family ever since she could remember. because one day, during an event that gerald padalecki was hosting, both alania and pressley's parents were attending the event and met, hitting it off straight away with each other. so, since that day the padalecki's and callahan's met, the friendship continued and then moved on to their children, which is how pressley and alania's friendship became so strong. alania was also not one to hide or shy away from her love for her best friend's dad and his tv shows, supernatural and walker when i questioned her on their friendship and the families relationship. she explained that being friends with jared and genevieve padalecki feels like she has an extra set of parents, especially considering that jared and genevieve are the godparents of alania and alania's parents, gina and alexander callahan are the godparents of pressley, it only makes sense for alania to mention that to us in our conversation with her. 

in the comments of pressley's post for her dad's birthday, alania said quote, "lol, "you still look fire even though you're no longer in your twenties", what a slow burn that is for your old man, press!" which clearly indicates the love that alania not only has for her best friend pressley but also for her best friends dad jared. and pressley responded back saying quote, "hahaha, you know i had to do it, alania!" which clearly states that it's now become a tradition for pressley to roast her dad at least once during her birthday posts for her dad. which is the way that pressley shows love to her dad that's just special to the father and daughter. 

talking further with alania, she talked about her first memory with pressley padalecki at a supernatural convention back in 2012, in toronto, canada, saying quote: "i remember the first ever time i was present at a supernatural convention, it was back in 2012 in toronto, canda. it was near the end of the convention so some tears had been shed but a lot of laughs had occured and were being continued. the fan for the final question had been called up and suddenly, i just remembered bawling my eyes out. the fan had asked a question about asking for help but not knowing how and i just remember being so young [...] we, pressley and i, were seven and i remember just crying because someone who was so much older than me didn't know how to ask for help when i asked my own parents for help every single day...i then turned to my right and noticed that pressley was getting teary-eyed because she saw the way her dad reacted and of course, because her dad is jared padalecki and he's known to be an emotional person, pressley is also got that personality trait..."

continuing with a giggle, thinking she sounds insane which, i immediately tell her she doesn't, "...she's also crying and she just hugs me as we watch her dad and jensen just help this clearly nervous and troubled fan. telling them that they just did the very first thing but also the hardest thing. and that was acknowledging that they wanted help but didn't know how to ask for it. they then continued this answer for a little while longer and we were just sitting in our seats completely exhausted by the end of it because of how much little seven-year-old us had been crying. because whilst we were young we still had some understanding to why we were crying. i could tell how much this question had meant to both jared and pressley."

pressley padalecki and alania callahan in brisbane, australia | pic: instagram/pressleypadalecki 

alania then talked to me more about her friendship with pressley and the padalecki's which, if you guys are lucky, will be released publically soon. also mentioning that she is excited to go back to brisbane, queensland with pressley so they can graduate together and then come back home to focus on some musical auditions. she also mentioned however that she's glad to be coming back home with her best friend and glad to be spending time with her best friend's family after being away for so long due to the coronavirus pandemic. in which kept them from coming home a year earlier like supposed to, having to rely on facetime and phone calls to keep in touch. 

welcome home pressley and alania, congratulations on finishing your bachelor's degrees and we cannot wait to see you guys performing on stage very soon! 

and, of course, we cannot forget, the happiest 40th birthday to jared padalecki, we hope you had the best birthday ever and hope you enjoy the rest of the newest season of walker. 

for those wanting to catch-up on walker, check out the cw app or stan for this new upcoming season and the other seasons.  

- - - 

rewriting this was so much fun even though i know i could have done it better lol! i'm just glad to have written another thing after what feels like forever since the last one-shot. 

ok ily bye xx

wc; 5870

[wsknbfanaccnt]

I still have a few scenarios written from a few years ago so I thought why not post here lmfao

but damn I realized this one did not age well at all

im too lazy to proof read this

Panic Buying for Covid

Kuroko, Akashi, Midorima

Kuroko

You and Kuroko entered the grocery with a big list in hand. He pushed the cart while you took care of the stuff on the list.

“Okay, first things first. We need milk…” You ran off to the dairy section with Kuroko following behind you. The cold of the freezers made you shiver. You quickly lifted two half gallons of milk and ran away from the “North Pole”. You sighed in relief as warmth took over you. You looked around and realized Kuroko wasn’t there.

“What the… jeez, that was only two minutes and I already lost you. Tetsuya!!!” you called out, hoping that he was just near. You tried to search every inch of the store but found him nowhere. You leaned against an aisle in frustration.

“(F/N)-chan,”

“GAH! Tetsuya?! Where the hell were you?!” you shouted. His eyes seemed to widen a bit in fear.

“I was just in the bathroom. I told you but you already ran off…” he said calmly. You sighed.

“From now on, we’re doing this together, okay?”

“...alright then, (Y/N)-chan,”

Akashi

“Hey, Sei?”

“Yes, my empress?”

“Do you think we need to panic buy? It seems coronavirus is spreading really fast.”

“We can buy, but no need to panic buy. I can ask my servants to buy it for us, love,” Akashi said. You scoffed, but you trusted him anyways.

“Can I make a list at least? I want to help them at least a little bit…” you pouted. Akashi chuckled.

“If you insist, my empress. But whatever you do, do not go outside. That’s an order for your safety,” he demanded.

“Yessir~” you said and proceeded to make your list. The first thing you thought of, you wrote on your list.

~~

When you were finished, You called Akashi and gave him the list. He glanced at the top of your list.

Toilet paper.

Akashi called his servants and told them to shop for everything on your list. The moment they read it, they took off.

A few hours later, Akashi received a call.

“Hello?”

“Akashi-sama, we cannot find any toilet paper,”

“What?!”

“We went to 15 different stores with no luck,”

He looked at you and you started laughing, the boy sighing.

“Check again.”

“Yes, Akashi-sama,” then he slammed the end call button. He looked at you once again as you giggled, Akashi shaking his head with amusement

“Toilet paper. For goodness’ sake..."

Midorima

“You do it yourself, nanodayo,” He said after you asked him to panic buy with you.

“Shin-kun, you’re going to leave your own girlfriend in the dangers of the Coronavirus?” you said, with your cutest pout ever.

“It would be your fault, nanodayo. Not mine,” he said, turning away from you. You sighed. What would be something that would persuade him to go outside? You looked around, as if the answer was in front of you. Then, your eyes locked on Midorima’s lucky item; a pillow. It was right in front of you.

“Shin-kun~” you said. Midorima gave you a stern look.

“What is it this time, nanodayo?”

“What about your lucky items? Didn’t Oha Asa post a picture of the next months’ lucky items on their website?” you said teasingly. His eyes narrowed. Panic was racing in his head. He suddenly stood up, grabbed your wrist, and dragged you outside.

“Let’s go, nanodayo,” he said. Your plan worked!

“Wait, Shin-kun. I need to get my coat,” you chuckled, pulling the away. He released his grip and you got your coat.

~~~

When you arrived at the grocery, you saw that it was packed with people. You sighed and went in. Good luck to us... you thought. You squeezed through people and navigated inside the grocery with Midorima pushing the cart and tailing behind you. You managed to get everything on your list, so it was Midorima’s turn. The lucky item for tomorrow was toilet paper.

“Oh, that reminds me. We’re on our last roll. I forgot to put it in the list, hehe,” you smiled innocently at him. He responded with a “hmph”.

When you were in the toilet paper section, Midori-

“WHERE IS ALL THE TOILET PAPER, NANODAYO?!”

Calm down Mido-kun, you didn’t even let me finish.

As I was saying, he was horrified when he saw the shelves empty.

“I need it as my lucky item, nanodayo!!!” He yelled.

“You’re worried about that?! We literally don’t have any more toilet paper for our personal use and you’re screaming over that?” you yelled back, rather frustrated.

“But-“

“FINE! When we get home, I will give you a single sheet of toilet paper and keep the rest in a safe so that you don’t have access to it. Understand?!” you bellowed. You roughly took the cart from him and made your way to the cashier. There was complete silence from then on. He opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, and closed it again. This happened a couple of times.

When you got home, you stomped inside with the groceries, still toilet paperless. You broke the silence.

“Shintaro. Go outside and don’t come back until you find toilet paper. Got it?” you hissed, still mad. You handed him the car keys and he sighed, but went off.

A few hours passed and he still hasn’t come home. You became worried. What if he was harmed? What if there was an accident? It was already dark.

Suddenly, you heard a car park in front of the house. Midorima entered the house with his hands behind his back.

“Shin-kun, it's late...! What-“ he looked away as he blushed and handed you something that you never expected.

A bouquet of toilet paper. Literally.

“I-I d-didn’t k-know how to m-make i-it up to y-you s-so-“ you started laughing in disbelief.

“W-What’s so funny, n-nodayo?!” he said, pushing up his glasses to hide his embarrassment.

“You’re hilarious, you dork,” you said still laughing. You took the toilet paper from him and took his hands in yours. You stood on your tip toes and gave him a peck on the cheek.

“I forgive you~” You said. Midorima sighed in relief. You soon realized that he wasn’t holding anything else.

“Wait, Shin-kun! What about your lucky items?” you asked worriedly. He turned his head to the side

“I don’t need them because you’re my lucky item, nanodayo..."