#for the bar like montana has rules set down similar to the bar with no name in the comic (no fighting inside no matter what opposing team | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twopoppies · 4 years

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hello lovely gina! i just read mine would be you and LOVED it and i was wondering if you have any recommendations for similar fics? i love the length, the new york/big city atmosphere, and h & l as artists/writers. do you know of any fics that have similar elements ? thank you so much ily ❤️

Isn’t it just so great? I loved that fic, too. @crinkle-eyed-boo you have a fan!

As for your request... hm. OK, this is my Art Student Harry fic rec. You might find something there. Other than that, these are what come to mind.

This is the one you mentioned, for anyone who hasn’t read it yet.

Mine Would Be You by @crinkle-eyed-boo (E, 115K) Beautifully written, flawed characters and an emotionally engaging and ANGSTY plot. Super hot smut that made me cry like a fool. Banter, OT5 friendship, and the gritty realness of New York as a backdrop. Loved this one.

This one has them both as creatives, it’s a similar length, and it takes place in New York:

In Vogue by otpwhatever (M, 121K) This one is just….so much. The intensity of the characters, the crazy hot smut (oh god, the window scene), the FASHION, the angst (I had to take a walk around the block after reading it), the epic love story between two men who could rule the world if they could just figure their shit out. Loved it. Fashion magazine editors Louis and Harry. (Link is to a Dropbox download)

This one is mine, and although it takes place in London, they’re both artists:

gathered on wings by Brooklyn_Babylon / @twopoppies (E, 33K) This one is mine, so here’s the summary:

What Harry Styles wanted was to be taken seriously as an artist. What he needed was a new sugar daddy to pave the way. Louis Tomlinson is an artist who isn’t what Harry is looking for. Somehow he still manages to turn Harry’s world upside down.

This is another from the same author, Louis is an artist and it’s got that gritty NY vibe.

No Bunny But You by @crinkle-eyed-boo (E, 13K) Great banter and sexiness at a bar on New York’s Lower East Side.

This one is very New York, although neither are creative types. But read the tags because it’s about the events of 9/11. It’s SUCH a terrific fic though. Very much worth the read.

everything suspended by louisandthealien (M, 9K) This story couldn’t have taken place anywhere but New York City.

Louis is a writer, Harry’s an art student in this one:

just call me inspiration by @hereforlou (E, 52K) This author has steadily become a favorite of mine. I think this might have been the first fic of theirs I read. It’s beautifully written and contains some really great monologues about writing and art and creating and being ashamed of your creations. Link is to a download.

Louis is a poet, Harry is a photographer. Most of it is set in Montana

where your lips land by BriaMaria / @briannamarguerite (E, 12K) Ok, I’ve recommended this one a few times and I really do love it. Anyway, I love fics where the two of them are both artists of some sort (Louis is a poet in this one, Harry is a photographer) because it allows for another layer of understanding and connection and support. I particularly love the way Louis’ tattoos are woven into this story with layered meaning. And, as always, just beautiful writing.

Louis is a writer, Harry is an artist. This one takes place in London.

Little Technicolor Things by scary_crow (M, 72K) This is truly one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have ever read and it is an absolutely travesty that it’s not being talked about every day. This fic is gorgeous and poetic and romantic and heartbreaking and an explosion of metaphoric images and everything I never knew I needed but now that I have it I want to read it over and over and over.

Writer Louis, Musician Harry, London.

Make Your Words A Weapon by @helloamhere (E, 36K) I love everything this author writes. This one just really hit me hard for whatever reason. Maybe it’s the way they explore Louis’ anxiety and coping mechanisms and pain and the way he pushes people away and protects himself, but also wants someone to push back just a bit and love him despite all of that. And the way Harry is the perfect foil for all of it, while also feeling like a fully developed character himself. Yeah, it’s probably all of that. Plus soul marks!

#if you liked #my fic rec #larry fic rec #Anonymous

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microshiner · 5 years

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The problem with owning a van

At 1 PM on Sunday afternoon, I am sitting alone at a four-top table in the middle of a large buffet room. Soccer is on the TV in front of me and soccer is also on the TV behind me. I don’t know who is playing, or what the score is. I don’t have my glasses on, so I can barely see the screen. The room is fairly packed and full of conversation, although not in English, so despite all the activity I sit alone with my thoughts. I have three plates of food. What I would consider to be the main plate, the one I have been digging into the most fervently, is a mixture of lo mein noodles, sweet and sour something or other, wontons, french fries, onion rings, chicken nuggets, garlic bread, steamed mussels, and ice cold jumbo shrimp. I also have a large plate of salad. The third plate is a pool of sauce, mostly ketchup.

As cliché as this might sound, I am not in Vegas, and unfortunately, not hungover. But I am running on no sleep and walking with a severe limp, having trekked a good sixty or so miles back and forth across a festival site over the previous few days carrying everything from amplifiers to old wooden tables to dollies of Red Bull and Blue Moon.

Such is life in the summer months - full of festivals and constant events, keeping the bills paid while slowly draining the sanity. For many of them, I am fortunate enough to be on the press side of things, where my main responsibilities are observing the action and conducting a couple interviews along the way while keeping a steady stream of booze flowing in, because I heard a rumor once that alcohol helps prevent your ears from being damaged by loud music. It acts as a protective layer between the blasting speakers and your ear drum. I’ve got to look out for my health in these situations.

If I remember correctly, the guy that told me that felt it necessary to scream it at me from right in front of the stage as he was plugging his right ear with an index finger and holding a can of Coors Light in the other hand.

I was far from the media this weekend, though. More like a grunt laborer. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I did manage to score a couple vouchers for the food trucks. In the end, it was probably worth a few days of schlepping gear in and out of a Ford Econoline.

That’s the problem with owning a van. People are always wanting you to use it. I could make a monthly payment if I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to come up with an impromptu lie like, ‘Oh, yeah man, I won’t be able to help you move today because my van is actually missing the engine right now. Must have gotten stolen overnight or something. Sorry.’

One can only be so much of a workhorse. Two, however, can be just as good as four or five, as I learned last week from a band called You Knew Me When at Jagged Mountain Brewery in Denver. I was finishing off a long work day with a pint and had the chance to talk to the group before they took the stage (in this case, the corner of the tasting room) for a happy hour set and get the lowdown on how they make a living booking tours based around breweries and distilleries and what their music is all about. This two-piece has the sound and style of a full band, and then some.

The husband and wife duo of Cie (pronounced ‘See’) and Karisa Hoover hail from Nashville, the home of country, but they wanted to do something a little different. Cie comes from a heavy metal background, Karisa is about as close to the definition of an indie girl as you can find, and while their sound is certainly far closer to indie than metal, good metal to me wears its heart on its sleeve the way punk became known for, and with a glance at Cie’s lyric sheets, you will find plenty of heart.

Their live performances are full of that same heart. Heart, and booze. You Knew Me When traverses the region hitting primarily breweries and distilleries, sharing their craft music with hordes of craft guzzlers night after night and doing a fair amount of ‘sampling’ along the way. “We have a limit of two drinks before we play,” Karisa says. “I’m drinking kombucha right now so that I can adhere to that rule.” I think back to the time I’ve spent on the road and wonder why the hell I never of thought of that. So many sloppy performances could have been marginalized.

The two met while attending Belmont University in Nashville, Cie learning up on PR and marketing and Karisa studying music education. Together with their musical prowess, and following a wedding and several years together, they felt they had the necessary skill set to uproot from the shackles of everyday life and become a full-time touring band. The two did not start playing music together right away, but over time began to feel that their artistic juices could create one heck of a punch.

“I think it was really the creative drive,” Cie says. They decided, after putting together the band, to take a one year sabbatical from work and see what they could make happen musically.

“Three years later, here we are,” says Karisa with a laugh.

Traveling with only two people, both Cie and Karisa hold multiple instrumental duties. Cie sings, plays guitar, and handles foot percussion, while Karisa holds down the piano, ukulele, glockenspiel, cymbals and, oh yeah, does some singing herself. “When we started touring, we decided to just do the touring thing with just the two of us, so it was like, how can we create more of a cool sound with just the two people so that’s when we added the kick drum and she added some cymbals. We added stuff to fill out the sound as a duo.”

You Knew Me When is approaching their 100th brewery, quite an accomplishment. I haven’t even drank at that many breweries, let alone gigged. I just met these guys, but I am proud of them. They also have quite a few distilleries under their belt, with WildRye Distilling out of Bozeman, Montana being their favorite (also noted is Willie’s Distillery in Ennis,. Apparently, I need to visit Big Sky Country). They are doing it, and since I have no two drink rule on this particular night, I stop by State-38 Distilling on the way home to celebrate the band’s accomplishments.

To be honest, I have never tried locally made tequila here in Colorado, and I’ve been meaning to check these guys out for a while. Owner and Master Distiller Sean Smiley has built a solid reputation for his products- they are one of the few I’ve actually seen in the small, corner liquor store down the street from my house. Their tasting room boasts a wood-paneled bar and similar flooring, giving it a rustic finish that feels very Colorado appropriate.

“We’re a 100% agave distillery,” says lead distiller JT Tewinkle. They distill tequilas, obviously, but also a Blanco Agave Spirit and an agave-based vodka and a gin, both the world’s only. Add to that list North America’s only one-year aged Anejo and you’ve got yourself one of the most impressive menus in the country, let alone the 38th state which they call home.

It was during the aging process for the Anejo that Sean and JT came up with the concept and plans for their agave-based vodka and gin. “We started off with the Blanco and the Reposado, and then we were literally sitting on our heels for a year for the Anejo, so we had to start looking at other things we could do,” Tewinkle says. “There’s two rules with vodka - it has to be distilled at 190 proof or better, and it has to be filtered. So basically that means you can make vodka out of shoe leather if you (follow the rules).”

This is apparently the case with a lot of the mass-produced vodkas you see on the shelves at liquor stores and bars - when you read ‘distilled seven times,’ it often means that they started with garbage ingredients and had to distill it that many times just to get to 190 proof, meaning their bragging of a high number of distilling cycles is little more than a bad marketing ploy. “It’s a trick of the vodka industry,” Tewinkle informs me.

He and Smiley have known each other for twenty years. Smiley started the distillery and hired JT as his lead distiller almost immediately, confident in his knowledge of tequila and experience in the bar industry. “I’ve been a tequila guy my entire sixteen year career, so it was a very easy segue to learn how to make it. Plus, I have a chemical engineering background from college, so that didn’t hurt.”

I am lead into the distilling area behind the tasting room and poured a sample of the Reposado straight from the barrel. Their agave is 100% organic, right out of Jalisco, Mexico. All products are distilled and bottled in-house from agave to glass by the two themselves.

“I love distilling,” Tewinkle says. Smiley does as well, as I gathered from email correspondence, and it shows in their product line. I have yet to taste anything near what they are doing with their agave liquors. Back in the tasting room, I familiarize myself with a few more of their products. Not a bad cap to what has been a good day - nothing like a little craft agave to restore your sanity.

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clouddey14 · 3 years

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In depth explanation with Hong Kong 먹튀검증사이트목록

Caribbean Stud Poker is a gripping casino game based on the classic game of poker. The game’s popularity has been partially fuelled by its simple rules, fair odds along with its generous payouts. Perhaps the most attractive feature of this game is the fact that players can choose to place a progressive side bet. This pays 176-for-1, for a house edge of 7.46%. For all three wagers, the order in which the numbers are hit does not matter. Whenever a seven is hit, including on the come out roll, all bonus bets lose, the bonus board is reset, and new bonus bets may be placed. The winning player collects from each other player the value of the cards remaining in that player’s hand as follows: Consider using the casino’s pre-commitment facility to limit how much time or money you spend gambling.

Bingo has gone beyond a fundraising role and is often featured in bars and nightclubs as a social and entertainment event, attracting a loyal following of regular players. https://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/?query=스포츠중계 The first reference to the card game dates close to the 9th century, when the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Su E , refers to the family of Princess Tongchang's spouse as the Wei clan of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) who were playing the "leaf game" in 868. There’s no bluffing so don’t worry about bringing your ‘poker face’ to the table. Each player at the table along with the dealer is dealt five cards. And with the dealer needing an ace and a king to qualify, players don’t need to be poker whizzes to join the thrills at our tables. If you entered the Jackpot by placing your side bet and your hand qualifies for a payout, you win. The amount you win will be appropriate to your hand regardless of the strength of the Dealer’s hand.

Thus from the management’s perspective, the “price” it charges is the 10 percent it expects to collect from gamblers over time. The first American-manufactured (French) deck with this innovation was the Saladee's Patent, printed by Samuel Hart in 1864. In 1870, he and his cousins at Lawrence & Cohen followed up with the Squeezers, the first cards with indices that had a large diffusion. Most Americans think of card decks as 52 cards in four suits—hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. The exact percentage of casino patrons who have a gambling “problem” is not known.

Each segment is associated with a number. The wheel is spun by a dealer, and the winning segment is indicated by a pointer mounted on a flexible piece of rubber or leather, which also rubs against the pins to impart friction and slow the wheel down. Should the player stop the wheel, the segment at the top is the winner. Slot machines and gaming tables are arranged in a maze-like fashion so that wandering patrons are continuously enticed by more gambling options. In addition, there are some Montana establishments (such as some truck stops) that do not possess "on-sale" licenses but hold "grandfather" licenses allowing them to operate gaming machines.Among the most popular games in casinos are video poker games. Pull up a chair and learn How to Play Video Poker.

Sometimes a cut card is used. These guides contain a lot more than just the rules, too. The basic formula for the player's expected loss combines the amount of time played, the number of hands per hour, the average bet, and the house percentage.The Lowe-produced Bingo game had two versions, a 12-card set for $1.00 and a $2.00 set with 24 cards.

0-28-9-26-30-11-7-20-32-17-5-22-34-15-3-24-36-13-1-00-27-10-25-29-12-8-19-31-18-6-21-33-16-4-23-35-14-2 The stickman monitors the action at a table and decides when to give the shooter the dice, after which no more betting is allowed. Procedures are in place to monitor their actions at the table so every attempt is made to reduce the risk of cheating taking place.The dealer continues to deal from the shoe until coming to the plastic insert card, which indicates that it is time to reshuffle.

Therefore, not all players have equal chances to win or equal payoffs. For example, in traditional poker players bank their own games. On slots or video poker, the denomination is either painted on the machine's glass or displayed on a video screen.Gambling, the betting or staking of something of value, with consciousness of risk and hope of gain, on the outcome of a game, a contest, or an uncertain event whose result may be determined by chance or accident or have an unexpected result by reason of the bettor’s miscalculation.

This money should not be needed for basic living expenses, such as food etc. The minimum paying hand is a pair of tens, rather than a pair of Jacks. Strategy is similar between the two games, in spite of the very different full house and flush payouts. Casino design—regarded as a psychological exercise—is an intricate process that involves optimising floor plan, décor and atmospherics to encourage gambling. 우리카지노계열 Edward O. Thorp (the developer of card counting and an early hedge-fund pioneer) and Claude Shannon (a mathematician and electronic engineer best known for his contributions to information theory) built the first wearable computer to predict the landing of the ball in 1961.

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stephenmccull · 3 years

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Biden Boasts About Equitable Senior Vaccination Rate by Race Without Data to Back It Up

“There’s virtually no difference between white, Black, Hispanic, Asian American,” referring to vaccination rates among Americans 65 and up.

President Joe Biden, May 3

During May 3 remarks on the American Families Plan, President Joe Biden boasted that there was not much disparity in the vaccination rates for white Americans and Americans of color who are at least 65.

This story was produced in partnership with PolitiFact. It can be republished for free.

“And what’s happening now is all the talk about how people were not going to get shots, they were not going to be involved — look at what that was — we were told that was most likely to be among people over 65 years of age,” said Biden. “But now people over 65 years of age, over 80%, have now been vaccinated, and 66% fully vaccinated. And there’s virtually no difference between white, Black, Hispanic, Asian American.”

This isn’t the only time that Biden has made that claim.

He went even further on April 27 during remarks on the covid-19 response: “And, by the way, based on reported data, the proportion — the proportion of seniors who have been vaccinated is essentially equal between white and seniors of color. … As a matter of a fact, if I’m not mistaken, there are more Latinos and African American seniors that have been vaccinated, as a percentage, than white seniors.”

However, the national data that Biden keeps touting — vaccination statistics regarding both race and age — is not public. We asked the White House for the information underlying this claim, but officials did not provide specifics.

So, we moved on to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Spokesperson Chandra Zeikel told KHN-PolitiFact on May 6 that “unfortunately, we don’t have available a data breakdown of both racial demographics and age together.” Zeikel didn’t respond to a follow-up question asking when or if the CDC would be publishing this data, but current CDC vaccination data is broken down only by race/ethnicity and shows significant differences, with white Americans far outpacing the percentage of other groups getting a shot. It also shows that the rate of vaccinations among some groups, including Black and Latino Americans, does not match their share of the population, though new CDC data shows there has been some progress on this front in the past two weeks.

That made us wonder about the premise of Biden’s statement. We turned to experts for their take.

“As far as I know, there is no comprehensive publicly available data on vaccination rates by race/ethnicity and age,” Samantha Artiga, vice president and director of the racial equity and health policy program at KFF, wrote in an email. “As such, we are not able to assess whether there are racial disparities in vaccinations among people over 65 years of age.”

What about other state-level data or anecdotes that might support Biden’s claim? Let’s dive in and see.

A Small Number of States Report Both Age and Race Together

At least seven states track vaccination based on a combination of age and race, according to Artiga: Michigan, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas, Minnesota, Washington and Vermont. (Vermont tracks only two racial categories: non-Hispanic white and a combination of Black, Indigenous and people of color.)

The results from some of these states show that racial disparities do exist in the older age groups.

In Michigan, for instance, over 50% of non-Hispanic white people ages 65 to 74 had completed their vaccinations as of May 11. Other racial groups — non-Hispanic Black people; Asian American and Pacific Islanders; and Hispanics — all trailed by about 10 percentage points. The exception was the Native American and Alaska Natives category, which was within 4 percentage points of white people.

And as of May 11 in Kansas, the rate at which white people in that same age group were vaccinated was higher than the rates of Black people and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders.

In Vermont, for those 65 and up, about 79% of people of color had received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared with 85% of white people as of that date.

“With the exception of Vermont, which has the distinction of being the only state to target BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] populations by race explicitly, these are examples of states in which the numbers are not doing well in their equity efforts,” Dayna Bowen Matthew, dean of the George Washington University Law School and an expert in racial disparities in health care, wrote in an email.

Minnesota is one of the few states in which people of color are actually being vaccinated at higher rates than white people — with 93% of Asian/Pacific Islanders and 87.5% of Black/African Americans age 65 and over having received at least one shot, compared with 81.5% of white people as of May 11.

Some states are vaccinating similar percentages of their population of Black or Hispanic people, Matthew said, however that data does not distinguish by age group.

According to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccination Racial Gap tracker, New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon and Utah have vaccinated approximately the same percentage of Black Americans as are represented in each state’s population. Maine, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana and Missouri have achieved similar population-based rates for the Hispanic population.

KFF provides weekly updates on national and state race/ethnicity data of those who have received vaccinations, which have consistently shown that Black and Hispanic people are receiving smaller shares of vaccinations compared with their shares of the total population, while white people are receiving a higher share. The May 5 weekly update, for instance, found that based on the 42 states that share race/ethnicity data, the percentage of white people who have received at least one covid vaccine dose (39%) was roughly 1.5 times higher than the rates for Black (25%) and Hispanic people (27%). (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

It’s also important to note that data on race and ethnicity information has not been gathered for many people who have been vaccinated. As of May 3, the CDC reported that race and ethnicity were known for only 55% of all people who had received at least one vaccine dose. And three states, Montana, New Hampshire and Wyoming, don’t report race/ethnicity data at all.

How to Approach Vaccine Equity, Experts Say

Nneka Sederstrom, chief health equity officer at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, said that her state has done an “excellent job” vaccinating the 65-and-older population but that there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach communities of color.

We “will need more direct tactics to reach” those who haven’t yet been vaccinated, “and help address any issues of hesitancy due to lack of knowledge or systemic barriers,” Sederstrom wrote in an email.

Ensuring that vaccines are available at primary care providers is also important, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

“The truth of the matter is, the more vaccinators that we can get that are placed where people are every day, where it becomes a routine part of your life, such as going … into your doctor’s office for a regular visit, that’s a winner,” said Benjamin.

But, Dr. Uché Blackstock, founder of Advancing Health Equity, an organization that advocates to end bias and racism in health care, said she would set the bar for vaccine equity success higher than just an equally proportionate share of a certain racial/ethnic population receiving their vaccine doses.

“What success in vaccine equity would look like would be if Black people or Hispanic people were overrepresented in terms of vaccine received since they have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic,” said Blackstock. So even though Biden quotes these statistics that lack data behind them, if the evidence did support them, it would still not be enough, she said.

In fact, the CDC does describe vaccine equity in those terms: “preferential access and administration to those who have been most affected by COVID-19.”

Our Ruling

Biden has repeatedly claimed that vaccination rates among white people and people of color age 65 and older are virtually the same — or even higher among people of color.

No public national data from the CDC or another database has been released to support this assertion.

For the few states that do report data on age and race/ethnicity combined, the numbers suggest that, for the most part, obvious disparities persist in the vaccination rates for white seniors and seniors of color. In several states, vaccine administration rates are more proportional to the percentage of the Black and Hispanic populations, but the data covers all age groups. National data for all age groups also shows that rates of vaccinations for Black and Hispanic people lag behind that of white people.

Existing data paints one story on vaccine equity, while Biden’s words paint another.

Without data to back it up, we rate Biden’s statement False.

Sources:

The Associated Press, “AP Fact check: Biden overstates how many Americans immunized,” May 3, 2021

Bloomberg News, Covid-19 Racial Gap Tracker, accessed May 5, 2021

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Demographic Characteristics of People Receiving COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States,” accessed May 10, 2021

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “County-Level COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage and Social Vulnerability — United States, December 14, 2020-March 1, 2021,” March 26, 2021

Email exchange with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson Chandra Zeikel, May 6, 2021

Email exchange with White House administration official, May 6, 2021

Email interview with Manuel Pastor, director of the University of Southern California Equity Research Institute, May 5, 2021

Email interview with Nneka Sederstrom, chief health equity officer at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, May 5, 2021

Email interview with Samantha Artiga, vice president and director of the racial equity and health policy program at KFF, May 5-6, 2021

Kansas.gov, COVID-19 Demographics, accessed May 10, 2021

KFF, Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations Race/Ethnicity, May 5, 2021

Michigan.gov, COVID-19 vaccine dashboard, accessed May 10, 2021

Minnesota.gov, “Vaccine Data,” accessed May 10, 2021

NBC News, “Biden Hails Progress on Vaccine Equity, but Some Local Leaders Paint a Different Picture,” May 3, 2021

Phone/email interview with Dayna Bowen Matthew, dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, May 6-7, 2021

Phone interview with Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, May 6, 2021

Phone interview with Dr. Uché Blackstock, founder of Advancing Health Equity, May 6, 2021

Vermont.gov, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard, accessed May 10, 2021

White House, “Remarks by President Biden on the American Families Plan,” May 3, 2021

White House, “Remarks by President Biden on the COVID-19 Response,” April 27, 2021

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Biden Boasts About Equitable Senior Vaccination Rate by Race Without Data to Back It Up published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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certaincomputerartisan · 4 years

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Is Video Poker Considered A Slot Machine

Draw Poker Slot Machine Online

Free Online Poker Slot Machines

Video Poker Machine Used

Is Video Poker Considered A Slot Machines

(Redirected from Video Lottery Terminal)

# 1 Difference: Video Poker has More Strategy than Slots One key difference between slot machines and video poker is that the latter involves intricate strategy. You begin every video poker hand with 5 cards, and you decide what to keep and discard. Each decision you make has a long-term impact on pay back. The first video poker machines appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were produced - in the mid-1970s. Now we can bring you this classic Jacks or Better video poker with the look and feel of a real casino game on your device. What's more, just like in casino we have a slot machine within the reach.

A video lottery terminal (VLT), also sometimes known as a video gaming terminal, video slots, or the video lottery, is a type of electronic gambling machine. They are typically operated by a region's lottery, and situated at licensed establishments such as bars and restaurants.

VLTs typically feature a selection of multiple games, primarily video slot machines and Keno. Their exact operation depends on local law: many VLTs are stand-alone devices containing a random number generator. Each terminal is connected to a centralized computer system that allows the lottery jurisdiction to monitor gameplay and collect its share of revenue. The outcome of each wager on a VLT is random. VLT operators are not able to program the total amount wagered, or payouts, through the central computer system. A minimum percentage payout usually is written into that jurisdiction's law. That percentage is realized not by manipulation of the game, but by adjusting the expected overall payout.

In some jurisdictions, VLTs do not contain a random number generator, and display results from a fixed pool controlled by the central system (in similar fashion to scratch-off lottery tickets).

Canada[edit]

VLTs at a bar in Alberta.

VLT programs are operated in eight Canadian provinces, with the only major exceptions being British Columbia and Ontario. These machines are typically governed by the region's lottery and gaming boards, and are situated inside licensed establishments such as bars.[1] In several provinces, VLTs were deployed primarily to help counter illegal underground video gambling operations, while several (particularly those whose economies are reliant on natural resources) cited economic development as a factor in their use.[1]

VLTs were first popularized in Atlantic Canada, with New Brunswick becoming the first province to introduce them in 1990, and the other Atlantic provinces following suit in 1991. In New Brunswick, sites were initially limited to a maximum of five machines each, and they were later removed from locations that did not hold liquor licenses. Since 2002, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation has been fully responsible for all VLT operations in the province, rather than having their costs covered by private owner-operators. The ALC had already operated the VLT programs in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia since their launch, while Prince Edward Island transferred its VLTs to the ALC in 2003.[1] Quebec introduced VLTs in 1994.[1]

VLTs also began to appear in Western Canada in 1991, with Alberta trialling them during the Calgary Stampede and Klondike Days events before beginning a province-wide program the following year. Manitoba initially deployed them at rural locations only, but expanded them to Winnipeg in 1993, and the Assiniboia Downs race track.[1] Saskatchewan introduced VLTs in 1993, primarily to encourage business at establishments in smaller communities (which faced competition from out-of-province casinos, prior to the opening of several commercial and First Nations casinos in the province).[1] Saskatchewan's VLT program also includes games offering regional and province-wide progressive jackpots.[2]

To address problem gambling concerns, VLTs in Canada are typically equipped with features and restrictions as safeguards in comparison to a casino-style slot machine, including the display of a player's credits as a cash value rather than units of a denomination, on-screen display of the current time, maximum session lengths with mandatory cash-out after time expires, limits on hours of operation, no Stop button (to regulate the pace of play), wager limits, limits on the amount of cash that can be deposited during a single session, and problem gambling resources.[1] Some VLTs may also offer integrated account systems for tracking usage and setting limits on cash spent.[3] In 2012, Nova Scotia began to mandate that users enroll in an account card system known as My-Play in order to use VLTs. The government discontinued the scheme in 2014, citing its decision to allow players to register anonymously without personal information ('light' enrollment) as having defeated the purpose of the system—as many players only used the cards temporarily before disposing them. The government claimed it would save $200,000 a year by removing the system.[4][5]

Each province has imposed caps on the number of VLTs that may operate in their province, and Nova Scotia has enforced a moratorium on new VLT sites and attrition on existing sites outside of First Nations reservations (taking VLTs out of service permanently if a site closes or removes them). In the 2000s, Alberta reallocated some of its VLTs to increase the number allowed at specific sites, in effect reducing the total number of sites in operation. Some provinces also have regulations that allow individual municipalities to hold referendums to opt out of VLT operation in their communities.[1][3][6] In January 2017, Quebec announced that it would similarly re-allocate and cut its VLTs from 12,000 to under 10,000 over the next two years, including making the number of sites and machines present in a region proportional to population, and focus more on placing them in leisure venues such as billiard halls and bowling alleys to 'promote socialization and group entertainment'.[7]

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The Moncton, New Brunswick-based Spielo has been heavily involved in the VLT market; it was acquired in 2004 by GTECH Corporation, which was in turn acquired by Lottomatica of Italy, which then acquired and merged with IGT in 2015.[8] Alberta and the Atlantic Lottery both deployed modernizations to their VLT networks in the early-2010s, entering into supply deals with multiple gaming vendors, collectively including Aristocrat, and the present IGT (IGT, Spielo) and Scientific Games (Bally Technologies and WMS).[9]

United States[edit]

Lotteries in the U.S. were considering VLTs as early as 1981, when a planned experiment with 20 machines by the New York State Lottery was scrapped, after the Attorney General determined they would be illegal.[10] A similar plan by the New Jersey Lottery died in 1983 after ties between state officials and VLT manufacturers raised conflict of interest concerns.[11]

The first VLTs in the country were installed in late 1983 by Bellevue, Nebraska as part of its municipal lottery. Eleven other local lotteries in Nebraska followed suit, until the state banned the devices, effective 1985.[12]

South Dakota became on October 16, 1989, the first state to adopt VLTs. In a unique arrangement with private industry, the machines are owned by private companies but monitored by the South Dakota Lottery via a centralized computer system that assures the integrity of the games. South Dakota imposes a substantial tax on the net income (gross income minus player winnings) of the games. Beginning in 1992, four attempts were made to repeal South Dakota's video lottery; all were widely rejected by public votes. Most recently, in May 2006, petitions were filed containing over 21,000 signatures in order to place the issue on the November ballot; voters again agreed to keep video lottery, by a 66%-34% margin.

Other US jurisdictions which have had legal video lottery include Oregon, South Carolina (formerly), Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana and Illinois. Of these, Delaware, Rhode Island, and West Virginia formerly participated in a shared VLT game, Cashola.

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The U.S. Virgin Islands also has a legalized video lottery, managed by Southland Gaming of the Virgin Islands.[13] The local governments in St. Thomas and St. John use the funds generated by the video lottery to fund various government programs on the islands; primarily focusing on educational efforts.

Racinos[edit]

In 1990, West Virginia introduced the concept of racinos when it allowed MTR Gaming Group to add VLTs to Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester.

Racinos differ from traditional VLTs in that all video lottery games are played on a gaming machine.

Other states that have legalized VLTs in racinos are Delaware, Rhode Island, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Non-lottery[edit]

In Montana, VLT-type poker, keno and bingo machines are legal to operate in the private sector. Since the 1970s, Montana was the first state, other than Nevada and New Jersey, to legalize machine gaming.

Keno and Bingo machines were first introduced in Montana in 1975. Although subject to legal challenge, these machines were deemed legal in 1976 after the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of Treasure State Games, a private company that brought the first games of this type to the state. (See Justia.com - Treasure State Games v. State of Montana)

Unlike in other states, the gaming devices are not under the jurisdiction of the state lottery. In 2011 the state legislature added another class of games, so-called 'line games', to the list of approved games.

All establishments licensed for the on-premises consumption of alcohol within the state of Montana are allowed to operate such machines provided they have the correct permits. In addition, there are some Montana establishments (such as some truck stops) that do not possess 'on-sale' licenses but hold 'grandfather' licenses allowing them to operate gaming machines.

The maximum prize awarded on these machines is $800, with a maximum bet of $2 per hand. The legal age to gamble in Montana is 18, although people under the age of 21 cannot gamble in bars.

Types of Terminals that can be managed with our sCore, Server Based System are: Casino style Slot Machine that supports remote configuration and downloading of new games. Support of the Gaming Standard Association’s G2S protocol is required. Existing slot machines can also be connected with the use of SAS2G2S converter boards. Free Slots – Play 7780+ Free Online Casino Games. You’ve just discovered the biggest online, free slots library. Like thousands of slots players who use VegasSlotsOnline.com every day, you now have instant access to over 7780 free online slots that you can play right here. Slot machine server based. Yes Aria is server based. I believe their server and software is IGT (not 100% certain). How ever I believe it can service all slots that meet a minimum standard (no matter the manufacturer). That said they can NOT change the payback percentage while you are playing the game. Server-based slot machines have been in the works for most of the last decade, with technology evolving and systems making their way through gaming labs and state gaming boards for approval and licensing. Regulatory approval for new technology can be a lengthy process. And casinos have to weigh the capital outlay when adding any new product.

As in Louisiana, the games in Montana are not technically part of its lottery.

Class III video lottery[edit]

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Currently, only Oregon and South Dakota employ Class III gaming technology (incorporating a random number generator) into their VLT games. Oregon's VLT program was modeled upon those deployed in Canada.[1] The devices operated in Montana are also Class III machines, but as they are not connected to the Montana Lottery are technically not 'video lottery terminals'. This means that unlike any of the Class II states (which have a fixed number of winners, analogous to scratch cards), Oregon and South Dakota lottery players compete against a house edge rather than other lottery players.[citation needed] This is the same type of gaming offered in Nevada, Connecticut and Atlantic City, New Jersey as well as in the majority of tribal casinos. Currently, the state of Oregon offers its players a 91-95% payout on each of its games. South Dakota and Montana law specifies that payouts must be greater than 80%, although in reality actual payouts in these two jurisdictions are around 88-92%.[citation needed]

Most US jurisdictions do not allow VLTs and those that do have attracted the same criticism the Canadian provinces have. However, some non-players have expressed tolerance for the machines.

Other terminology[edit]

In certain jurisdictions, VLTs are known as video gaming devices (VGD) or video slot machines along with 'Video Gaming Terminal (VGT)'. Most VLTs are multi-game devices, allowing the players to select, from an on-screen menu, the game(s) they wish to play. They are also known as poker machines and fruit machines in some areas.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

^ abcdefghi'VLT Gaming in Canada'(.doc). Canadian Gaming Association. March 2006. Retrieved November 29, 2019.

^'Moose Jaw woman wins $1.2 million from VLT'. Regina Leader-Post. 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2019-11-30.

^ abDoucette, Keith (2011-03-25). 'New VLT moratorium to continue in Nova Scotia'. iPolitics. Retrieved 2019-11-30.

^'Province says My-Play system unsuccessful in helping gambling addicts'. Cape Breton Post. Retrieved 2019-12-02.

^'John Xidos calls province's My-Play figures 'far-fetched''. CBC News. August 26, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2019.

^'Provincial VLT revenues slow after four years of growth'. CBC News. March 21, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2019.

^'Quebec to slash number of video lottery terminals in low-income areas'. CBC News. 2017-01-03. Retrieved 2020-05-19.

^'Moncton gaming company cuts 67 jobs'. CBC News. 2015-04-22. Retrieved 2020-03-06.

^'Canadian lotteries infuse Nevada's slot industry with sales opportunities'. Las Vegas Review-Journal. 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2020-03-06.

^'Video lottery plan scrapped'. New York Times. via LexisNexis. September 11, 1981. p. B6. Retrieved 2012-06-02.(subscription required)

^Asher, James (March 6, 1983). 'Bets are off: Many say politics killed New Jersey's high hopes for video lottery'. Philadelphia Inquirer. via NewsBank. Retrieved 2012-06-02.(subscription required)

^Sutton Jr., William W. (March 17, 1985). 'A bet on video games pays off for one town'. Philadelphia Inquirer. via NewsBank. Retrieved 2012-06-02.(subscription required)

^Video lottery information page

External links[edit]

VLTs: Nova Scotia's Billion Dollar Gamble An investigative website on VLTs in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia prepared by University of King's College students.

Is Video Poker Considered A Slot Machines

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Video_lottery_terminal&oldid=960308409'

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boom-revue-60 · 5 years

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Partners, lovers, artists

Carla Knight-Braun and Larry Braun were sculptors. She a figurative artist, he was an automotive artist. Together they ran a molding company which was a sure bet for sculptors in Loveland. If you could produce quality molds, that was one less expense for the bronze artist. While quality was a priority, the many artists who came to Loveland to cast their bronze works knew they could bring their waxes and clays to Loveland for the messy step of moldmaking. It was a good business in Loveland, the artists felt secure in the array of Loveland moldmakers and their skills. It was also a good business for a couple with children, working on their own art. Carla's signature piece, the Rice Gatherer"? was one of the first sculptures to be placed in Benson Park where the sculpture show happens each August. The portrait of an Asian woman dressed in traditional, everyday attire is stunning. Her clear porcelain skin, smooth as ice, with hands outsreched sitting atop the other, as if preparing for communion. The piece is beautifully crafted buy extolls a moment of peace and mystery we feel for the Asians. The model was Mari (?) a Japanese nationlal married to Bobby (Booby is how she pronounced his name) a genuine American. They lived next to the Braun's. I remember the small version and how fascinated I was by the small grains of sand laying in her palm. It reminded me of a sculpture my mother's friend had and I was fascintated by it for years. Hers was a ceramic or porcelain portrait of an Asian man sitting on the floor ona grass matt counting rice. Lois always had real rice displayed in a straw basket and piled on the low table. Carla's Mari held little bronze uncooked rice. Carla was a free spirit. She was goodlooking like Linda Ronstadt. Dark hair, a round face, cheeks and nose. Always pleasant to see her face. She had a fashion conscience daughter. During those days bluejeans ruled and Carla took hints from Ellie and not only wore great jeans but she taught me how to fold an old boot-cut jean's ankles to look like skinny jeans. When I knew Carla and Larry they had been married for years, and besides Ellie, Carla and Larry had a son, Aaron who was a year older than my son. Larry Braun was an automotive artist, meaning his art depicted vintage cars, race car drivers and vingettes of the car racing world. Because of Larry I was able to attend the ConCourse de Elegance at Pebble Beach. I will remember that as the show of shows. The art - paintings, posters, bronze sculptures and the cars themselves were proof that cars were a work of art. The show was set up on the 18th Hole of the Pebble Beach golf course surrounded by white tents, elegant antique cars from a Rolls to a Bentley to a Mazeratti. People strolled along the beach with the Pacific in the background wearing long flowing black dresses, straw hats, scarfs and carrying the makings of a picnic complete with blankets in tow, champagne, and caviar. At the Pebble Beach Club House Richard (?) lifesize golfer was placed on the patio also overlooing the greens and Pacific Ocean. The show will last a lifetime in my mind but for Larry Braun this was just one of many yearly automotive art shows. This was how he made his living. The artists attending the show, except for Larry, had in one capacity or another worked in the auto industry. Many had started off designing cars or worked in the art department drawing story boards, recreating on canvas historic car events such as the Grand Prie in France (?). Larry's art was a young boy's dream. To detail, the bronze had exquisite detailing in the tires, chrome work, running board and most stunning were the hood ornaments. I left Pebble Beach with the knowledge and love of automotive art. It a part of history documenting man's favorite past-time --- driving.

Clyde Aspivig and Carol Guzman. Both are well-known landscape painters. He was from Montana when he moved to Loveland. He was your typical married man, two children, and a wife. I had heard about Clyde through Steve Elliott, another former Bozeman man, M.D./painter who followed Clyde to Loveland. No idea where Clyde's studio was in the beginning. I ran into his wife at sports events and pre-school events. I heard her talking one day in the bleachers about her 'famous' husband. I recognized the name and listened. She was new to town but came with an in-place air of superiority. That's what I remember about my first encounter with the name Aspevigs other than Steve mentioning Clyde. At that time his work was already well-known and had already been selling for big bucks for several years. I eventually became familiar with his work. It was, and still it magnificent. His talent lay in spectacular panoramic landscapes of the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Tetons, rivers and the snow covered mountains of the Western United States. And, really. No one did it better. I knew he was a prominent artist when I learned he had traded a landscape for a brand new (big SUV). At the time these vehicles sold for around $70,000 +. No one in Loveland was doing that kind of 2-dimensional work. The church on Grant & 3rd had already been turned into a living/work space by a guy who blew into town to get catch the art wave. Solveig's daughter, Inga, connected with him for a short time. Then he disappeared. Clyde and Carol moved into the church. My curiosity was piqued. I never connected to Clyde's wife but when you hear that the church is owned by Clyde and he's with Carol Guzman, well, I was curious. I didn't know Carol but the story was Carol met Clyde at a workshop and the rest is history. She was lovely, lively and a dedicated artist, friendly and outgoing. Whereas, Clyde, was none of the above. That's when I became familiar with them as a painting couple. They spent their days painting. No lunch breaks. Energy bars and immersion in the canvases in front of them. Carol's work was not on the level of Clyde's. Meaning her work was looser, more feminine and colorful and while she was a highly professional and sucessful artist, her work did not sell anywhere in clyde's range. If they weren't in the studio they were out painting plein air. In the early 2000's (2002-3?) they sold the church and like Steve Elliott, went back to Montana. I saw them in the early days of the Coor's Western Art Show & Sale. Clyde was a featured artist. I believe he did the poster about 2003-4. Carol was also in the show (?) when I ran into to them. Clyde was a happy man being back in Montana and his life with Carol. She was always a happy, smiling person and seemed perfectly happy living in rural, cold, snowy, isolated Montana. (look up the latest on them). Lori Acott & Adam Schultz. I knew Adam when he worked at a metal chasing, base shop in Loveland. He was young. Like real young. But, he had a houseful of kiddos. I was shocked. I remember his wife. She was pretty, long blonde hair, healthy looking and a devoted mom and wife. This was in the 1990's. Next encounter, Adam is a real grown man, sculpting large female sculptures. His art had a distinct look about it. The women were large, large breasted, hefty legs and bulging thighs and stomachs. They were enchanting and interesting. He had another side to him. He was fascinated with fantasy creatures such as horses, eagles, bats. He was doing quite well. I saw him at art fairs in the Denver area. He was selling and his booth created an immense interest from art enthusiasists. By this time, mid to late 2000's, he shared a booth with Lori Acott. A sculptor I was familiar with but didn't know well. She had a connection to Loveland because of her bronze art. Adam & Lori always shared a booth. So I knew they were an item. These two together formed a professional artist bond that enhanced both their personal lives and careers. Today they live in Red Cliff(?) above Fort Collins, and not only live and work in their state of the art studio but together they formed a monument moving and installation company (name?). They did this because the two of them sell enough large bronzes that it was the most financial alternative. They are on the road (how many days a year?) constantly, delivering their works to cities, or traveling to shows all over the country. Together they travel to Europe for workshops and tours of historic foundries. They are a modern day art partnership. Their lives are intertwined with art, work, study, business and promotion. They do it all....together. George and Cammie Lundeen. Like the other three couples, art was the ligtening rod that brought them together. It happened that George and Cammie had very similar styles from the get-go. Both were hyper-realistic bronze sculptors. George was already well-known by the time Cammie Crabtree moved to Loveland. She followed Denny Haskew or he followed her. (find that out) Afterall, Loveland was booming at the time with sculptors opening studios, sculptors moving to town to work in the industry. I may be wrong but I remember Cammie working at the Lundeen Studios on 4th Street. She was already quite accomplished. Her animals were and still remain the most emotionally attached and thoroughly soulful of any sculptor, still, today. Her life size portrait of two work horses "Moudie &" was the first work I saw of hers and it went straight to Benson Park. (find out sequence). Pretty soon there was talk that Cammie and George were an item. Then they were married. Just like that they were starting and contributing to a dynasty. George and Cammie made and still make a compelling force together. George has slowed down due to an eyesight problem (melecural degenerative?). But Cammie did, can and does manipulate clay in a way that makes even bronze and a French brown patina look soft in her creatures that undoubtedly shows the love and connection Cammie has to four-legged animals. George and Cammie married. The Fourth Street studio had an apartment where George lived, then with Cammie. And, in a couple of years moved to the west side of Loveland in a pastoral setting on the banks of the Big Thompson River. There they built a large home with a state-of-the-art barn, corral, and training arena. Cammie raised and trained horses. Known as an animal whisperer-type she took her standard poodle everywhere who was, by the way, lovely and well mannered. They had two (three?) children (?) who grew up riding horses, playing in the river, sharing a bucolic life-style at the Lundeen compound where Mark and his wife Liz Zimmerman Lundeen (yes, the daughter of Bob Zimmerman, founder of Art Castings) also built a house and raised their three children. The Fourth Street Studios were solid Lundeens: George, Cammie, Mark, Bets Lundeen (wife of Nils Lundeen, brother and accountant for the studios). George and Cammie are still married. The children are grown and living in Colorado (?). Cammie sculpts at home where she can take care of her animals and sculpt throughout the day. Her gentle touch with the heart of an animal is evident. George has always been a sculptor of people. There is no competition because each digs into a block of clay with different visions. George creates detail perfect men and women with clothes, costumes (the clown), couples enjoying a moment together, a solitary girl on a swing. Ben Franklin to children on a park bench are bronzes seen around the world in office buildings, street corners, the White House, parks and stadiums. Stopping for a visit to the Lundeen Studios/Gallery can be confusing. On display is George's work, Cammie's, Bet's, Mark's and their cousin (?). There is a signature finish to each of their works, I believe it runs in the family. Smooth, golden brown patinas, with occasional color for emphasis like in Cammies animals, the just born Painted-horse colt getting his first day's walking legs. The Lundeen style is unmistakeable. Cammie and George together are a powerhouse-couple. Other than sharing the same name, studio, home, and patinas their art, in its individual form, is headed for the history books. (G&C - approx 600 words) (look up other famous artists couples for fodder and interest)

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jakejamesjournalism · 5 years

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a list: the best posse cuts in hip-hip over the last 10 years.

Highlighting some of the best group efforts in rap. To qualify, the song must have been released after July of 2009 and feature at least 4 people. There are some incredible tracks with 3 rappers that had to be omitted...

10. Slippery- Migos ft Gucci Mane

It felt right that the list of best posse cuts started with raps premier posse. Migos, the most charismatic and star powered rap group this half of the decade shows why on Slippery, with the help of a rejuvenated Gucci Mane. Like all their best tracks, Quavo immediately sets the tone with his great ear for melody and unpredictable cadence. Offset seamlessly takes it from there making hilarious brags about his girl looking like a wildebeest before going into triple time about the usual suspects: Patek Phillipe, models, full throttles, and Gucci’d up collars. Takeoff ends the song sounding possessed after Gucci gives one of the most patient and introspective verses of his life. When it comes to posse cut trap rap, Slippery has all you’ve ever wanted in abundance.

9. All the Way Up (Remix)- Fat Joe, Jay Z, Remy Ma, French Montana & Infared

I’d venture to say this song got more mainstream airplay than any other track on this list. Released late May of 2016, this siren glaring club ready banger was synonymous with the summer of 2016. The song has more than most summer hits that come and go. Show-stopping verses from both Jay Z and Remy Ma make this remix a truly memorable affair. Jay Z understood the moment, realizing the magnitude of publicly addressing Lemonade on record for the first time. He brilliantly deflects the scathing aspects of the record and brushes it off as just another example of him getting money. His homage to Prince is among the most emotionally resonant rap bars he’s conjured up in years…all the more so since Jay actually owns the Prince catalog. I would love to see Jay relegate himself to an Andre 3000 type of role going forward, especially after he cemented his legacy with the late career gem 4:44. The second half of the song belongs to Remy Ma, who makes you feel every syllable in a verse so raw and emphatic you can’t help but feel all the rage spending “7 winters and 6 summers” on vacation can build up. South Bronx legend Fat Joe’s verse gives you a laugh and French relegated to the bridge is the perfect amount of him on this radio posse cut that offers far more than most in its class.

8. Big Beast- Killer Mike, Bun B, T.I & Trouble

There isn’t a track #1 on any hip-hop record in recent memory that just set the tone for what’s to come quite like ‘Big Beast.’ “Hardcore G-Shit! Homie I don’t play around!” A call to arms that is just the beginning. Listening at the time primarily out of my love for Definitive Jux. The track, produced entirely by El-P drew me in, especially the tempo flip after Trouble’s futuristic bridge. Futuristic or not, the song is a vivid portrait of street life in Atlanta. Full of Bun B’s wise man advice “Don’t leave till your ass get grown” and T.I’s full-bodied imagery, “A record full of felonies, searching for a better me/ But choppers go off in my hood like Iraq, Cuba, Tel Aviv.” For five minutes you inhabit that ATL street corner.

Killer Mike makes it clear, in order to make it in the streets of Atlanta; one must be a Big Beast. The socially conscious rap anthem served as an unforgettable reintroduction into Killer Mike, someone I’ll admit, I always associated with as an inferior extension of Outkast and the Goodie Mob. Here Michael Render demands to be heard. A singular vision with the power to resonate in an underground rap scene that happened to be dying for his perspective. With Big Beast, the El-P and Killer Mike creative flood gates officially opened. Lucky for us.

7. Really Doe- Danny Brown ft. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul & Earl Sweatshirt

Like all great posse tracks, the best verse shouldn’t be easy to agree on. The down played modest hook provided by Kendrick Lamar does a good job bridging what’s most important on the track. The verses. Every verse could be considered the best. A hilarious manic Danny Brown who is “rolling up with them vegetables.” Ab-Soul’s sixteen bars playfully bend his patent hardcore bars with socioeconomic realities, a verse that exemplifies all that’s ever made him a compelling emcee. Kendrick does his thing as per usual and Earl Sweatshirt doesn’t. In my favorite verse of the song, Earl ditches his cryptic and triple entendre tendencies for a more straight forward take a bat to your head approach. Aggressively honest and devoid of his usual wordplay techniques, Earl ponders “I’m at your house like, ‘Why you got your couch on my Chucks?’ Motherfucker.” The comic relief is there. Really Doe is lyrical labyrinth designated for the purist of rap fans. Four world class emcees each with a different flow, each on top of their game. Enjoy.

6. Move that Dope- Future ft. Pusha T, Pharrell Williams & Casino

Future’s creative 360 from emo auto-tuned heart throb to drugged up nihilist was complete here. His split from Ciara turned his heart cold and drove him into various chemical comfort zones. Chemical zones that acted as his muse, similar to Pusha T, who finds himself right at home on a track like this. He delivers some of the most expressive drug rap bars of the song, totally in tune with the general concept. Someone who is a stranger to the general concept of “moving dope” is Pharrell. Such songs aren’t usually up his alley, but Pharrell rapping on anything is usually a gift, and here is no exception. His personal alienation from dope moving proves to be totally irrelevant as he spends time in the cosmos “frequency: high, like a spaceship” and bringing to life his personal idiosyncrasies “The Gandalf hat and the weird ass clothes, that’s Commes des Garcon and the Buffalo.” Over menacing production from Mike-Will-Made-It, Future rings in his new sound and mantra with a group of A-list friends, one familiar with moving dope, the other familiar with constant reinvention. Here, Future handles the scales beautifully.

5. Zip That Chop That- Black Hippy

Revisiting ‘Zip that Chop That’ makes me once again yearn for the Black Hippy album that was always promised but never came. This overlooked early career gem was released in 2010, and provided a young white kid with his very first Kendrick Lamar exposure. Before Section.80 and Setbacks, ‘Zip That Chop That’ was all I knew. What’s amazing about Black Hippy is how easily they fall into their respected roles. Jay Rock comes on strong as the deep voice of reason, having the rest of the crews back no matter what Compton issue may erupt. Ab-Soul acts as the groups source of comic relief, while Schoolboy Q acts as the vice, the devil on the other shoulder. And then there’s a young Kendrick… his commentary on the plight of black Compton youth not yet legendary. Excelling in the tracks latter third, it takes three listens to realize Kendrick is the best rapper on the song. It’s no surprise success has came to the rap collective individually, but Zip That reminds us all some of their best material comes from them working together.

4. Oldie- Odd Future

The most influential group to any millennial ‘Left Brain’ hip hop listeners. After Bastard I wrote off Tyler as a creative but drama seeking iconoclast, I didn’t give much else released by the collective an ear. It wasn’t until Frank Ocean started to release music did I think to revisit odd future’s discography in a different light. Oldie is a song that makes me glad I revisited. Who is rapping is ultimately irrelevant, the chemistry between the worst rappers of the group and those who could be considered geniuses is uncanny. It creates a universal feeling of friendship and community that transcends skill level. This was taking putting your friends on to a whole new level. The talent lies in Tyler, Frank, and Earl, but for a long time the other members of the collective had roles inside the collective that held immense value to those who actually had talent. Tyler, Frank and Earl fed off the group, all of its flaws, for better or worse. Seeing how unwavering and passionate their belief is in their own vision, it’s clear that Odd Future was a talent incubator that ended up cultivating three of the most influential artists of the modern-day era.

3. Mercy- Kanye West, Pusha T, Big Sean & 2 Chainz

Turning the posse cut into high performance art was something Kanye spent a lot of the decade mastering. Quite frankly, from the G.O.O.D Friday roll-outs to the standout tracks on Cruel Summer to Ultralight Beam, this entire list could’ve been comprised of Kanye orchestrated posse cuts. Excluding Ultralight Beam, which I didn’t find qualifying enough to be featured on this list, Mercy is the most meticulously curated posse cut Kanye released. The lead single on a project Kanye wanted to use to emphasize the depth of his label, Mercy does exactly that. He put Pusha T and Big Sean in a position to spend the summer all over the radio, threw down a solid verse himself after an understated beat switch, all leading to the breakout performance of 2 Chainz, who’s rap career took off to stratospheric heights after his show stopping verse on Mercy. Kanye succeeded in putting all his boys on without compromising the artistry in the slightest bit. Most posse cuts will sacrifice a bit of innovation in order to focus more on the lyrics. An old school approach to keeping posse cuts and the spirit of rap as competition alive. Once again, Kanye refuses to play by those rules. Mercy is high performance art, lyrical rap, pitch-black club banger, and total team flex all in one.

2. 1 Train- Asap Rocky ft Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T

The sound of ‘1 Train’ actually sounds like a train ride. The production for this timeless epic rap track fits the narrative perfectly. The track provides a transient urban feeling mixed with unpredictable DJ premier like scratches and gritty lo-fi drums. It’s a beautiful canvas for hook-less rap music. It never tires, and neither do the emcees. Every rapper featured on this track has something relevant to say from Danny Brown’s hilarious “Weed a different color like a hood rat bra and panties” observation or Action Bronson “selling Susan Sarandon.” Asap’s impressive “Bag made of Goyard, cheffin’ like I’m Boyar-Dee, probably selling D in your local courtyard” line is an emphatic change of cadence. Big K.R.I.T declares himself a true artist on the songs final line and after delivering what could arguably be the tracks strongest verse, a true artist sounds like an understatement. Everyone rapping punches above their weight. The ULTIMATE posse cut.

1. Forever- Drake ft Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem

Released ten years ago in August, Forever did a great job living up to its namesake. From the Lebron starring music video to Drakes hook, Forever basically predicted the future. Three weeks later on another platinum record Lil Wayne raps “We gon’ be alright if we put Drake on every hook.” That era of hip hop officially started on this track. Finding himself on a track with three legends who all decided to bring above average verses, Drake holds his own by coming up with the first of a million ubiquitous hooks. His combination of rap skill, hook making and singing proved to be a tool set big enough to hang with the greats, even when they themselves brought their A-games. It also opened the door to the possibility that Drake himself could be a great one day. Personally, I think it still remains to be seen, but the hooks are still catchy, and the numbers don’t lie.

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jakejames09 · 5 years

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Raps Best Posse Cuts of the last 10 Years.

10. Slippery- Migos ft Gucci Mane

9. All the Way Up (Remix)- Fat Joe, Jay Z, Remy Ma, French Montana & Infared

8. Big Beast- Killer Mike, Bun B, T.I & Trouble

7. Really Doe- Danny Brown ft. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul & Earl Sweatshirt

6. Move that Dope- Future ft. Pusha T, Pharrell Williams & Casino

5. Zip That Chop That- Black Hippy

Revisiting ‘Zip that Chop That’ makes me once again yearn for the Black Hippy album that was always promised but never came. This overlooked early career gem was released in 2010, and provided a young white kid with his very first Kendrick Lamar exposure. Before Section.80 and Setbacks, ‘Zip That Chop That’ was all I knew. What’s amazing about Black Hippy is how easily they fall into their respected roles. Jay Rock comes on strong as the deep voice of reason, having the rest of the crews back no matter what Compton issue may erupt. Ab-Soul acts as the groups source of comic relief, while Schoolboy Q acts as the vice, the devil on the other shoulder. And then there’s a young Kendrick... his commentary on the plight of black Compton youth not yet legendary. Excelling in the tracks latter third, it takes three listens to realize Kendrick is the best rapper on the song. It’s no surprise success has came to the rap collective individually, but Zip That reminds us all some of their best material comes from them working together.

4. Oldie- Odd Future

3. Mercy- Kanye West, Pusha T, Big Sean & 2 Chainz

2. 1 Train- Asap Rocky ft Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T

1. Forever- Drake ft Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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'The biggest nightmare Perez ever possibly imagined'

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-biggest-nightmare-perez-ever-possibly-imagined/

'The biggest nightmare Perez ever possibly imagined'

DNC Chair Tom Perez has become the target of discontent in his party over his management in the lead up to 2020. | Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

2020 elections

Democratic lawmakers sound off on the party’s presidential free-for-all — and the dilution of their own power to choose a nominee.

Tom Perez isn’t facing blowback only over his management of his party’s unruly presidential primary field. He also has 280 constituents in Congress, some of whom are sounding off publicly.

The Democratic National Committee chairman is the face of presidential debate rules that will allow a meditation guru to take the stage next week while a red state Western governor watches on TV. Against that backdrop, a collection of Democratic lawmakers are still aggravated with Perez after he yielded to the party’s base last year and agreed to dilute their power as superdelegates — a problem Perez is still trying to defuse in private meetings with Democrats.

Story Continued Below

Perez, complained Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, has made Democratic members of Congress “second-class citizens in our convention.”

“As a result, I don’t think he has a reservoir of goodwill here among my colleagues in the Congress. And I think he’s lost a lot of stature,” Connolly added. “If you don’t have a reservoir of goodwill, no one’s going to back you up when you have disputes. … That puts him in a very exposed position that is one problem away from being terminal.”

Connolly’s irritation with party headquarters is more pointed than most but shared by a significant bloc of Democrats, according to interviews with more than a dozen House and Senate lawmakers, some of whom serve in party leadership or are close to party leaders. Several lawmakers said they felt shunned by the DNC and fret the party is headed toward a brutal election cycle with serious divisions over the best way to oust President Donald Trump.

Others were more forgiving, saying Perez and his team at the DNC are making the best of a no-win situation. Whichever side lawmakers fell on, they agreed that Perez’s job has become utterly thankless — and that he’ll be the prime target of the party’s anger if things take a turn for the worse.

“It’s got to be the biggest nightmare Perez ever possibly imagined,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Of the juggling act to determine which of the two dozen candidates qualified for the first debates, Durbin added: “I don’t think there’s any way to handle this well … at the end of it, I can bet that half of those [candidates] will be unhappy.”

The DNC defended its superdelegate changes and debate criteria by saying it gives “the grassroots a bigger voice and make our primaries and caucuses more accessible by reforming our party’s nominating process.”

“I, along with Chair Tom Perez, recognize the critical role our elected officials play in this process and will continue to engage all of them, including members of Congress, as we work to ensure our party continues to be the party of the people,” said Waikinya Clanton, senior adviser to the DNC.

Not far from anyone’s mind, of course, is the unceremonious ouster of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Florida lawmaker was pushed out ahead of the 2016 Democratic convention, a move orchestrated by many members of Congress. There is no similar desire to oust Perez at this point; in fact, many Democrats said they’re sympathetic to his plight.

“We’re family. We had a good fight. They won, we lost,” said former Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.), wholambasted the DNClast year over its change to superdelegates. Richmond is now co-chair of Joe Biden’s campaign. “But it was a family fight, and you move on.”

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worried, or that Perez is off the hook. Concern in the party falls into three categories: The culling of the field via polling and fundraising requirements; the refusal to dedicate a debate to the topic of climate change, an idea endorsed by many Democratic lawmakers; and thewatering downof superdelegates in response to grassroots activists.

With superdelegates now holding less sway over the nominee, the power of their endorsements dropped correspondingly.

“It was a mistake. I’ve been around long enough to see the Democratic Party and its nominating process go from [being] dominated by the political establishment to eliminating the political establishment to trying to come to the middle” after 2016, said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). The previous setup gave superdelegates a modest amount of influence over the process, he said, and “added some stability.”

Asked for his views of the DNC’s performance, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said he’s unlikely to attend next year’s convention in Wisconsin after speaking at the last four.

“I’m not going to be a delegate,” the Missouri lawmaker told POLITICO. “I mean, I can watch it on TV.”

Not all Democrats have hard feelings over the superdelegate showdown.

“There may have been some initial grumbling about the superdelegates process, but I think people recognize it’s strengthened our party,” added Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.). “It’s restored some of the public’s confidence in the way the DNC operates.”

But the changes have sparked new disputes, including over how to ensure the party’s historically large field produces a nominee who can beat Trump.

Some congressional Democrats aren’t bothered by the teeming roster of candidates; others worry the debate stage risks looking like a circus. Caught in the middle is Perez.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said the party is doing “about as well as they can given the very uniquely complex and somewhat baffling nature of the race.” And while Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said “there’s no way to satisfy everybody,” he warned the DNC against tactics that are too heavy-handed. The party set the bar for qualifying for the first debates at 65,000 individual donors and 1 percent in polls, numbers set to double for debates later in the year.

“The field will winnow. And I don’t think that it’s worth it for the DNC to be involved in the winnowing,” Schatz said. “I don’t find it concerning or alarming to have 20 people running for president. I think it’s great.”

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is the biggest loser under the current formula, and he’s complained loudly about missing the first debate. His lone congressional endorsee, however, wasn’t as worked up.

“I’d love him to be on the debate stage, but if in fact he didn’t meet the criteria that the DNC set up, that’s that,” said Montana Sen. Jon Tester, adding that it would be “crazy” for the party to tweak the rules in response to grumbling.

For other Democrats, it’s less about what the DNC is doing now and more that they feel Perez has done little to repair relationships with members of Congress that frayed during the superdelegates clash.

“To disenfranchise those who are really invested in this party … is not the right thing to do,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, who has not heard from Perez recently. Still, he believes Perez is doing a good job with the debates.

The DNC made Clanton a senior adviser for outreach to members about the 2020 election. Perez has also held private meetings with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and hosted a meeting open to the entire House Democratic Caucus about the changes to superdelegates. The DNC is also consulting with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus on how to engage communities of color.

The DNC’s vice chair, Rep. Grace Meng of New York, serves as the conduit between congressional Democrats and Perez. She told POLITICO that Perez has implemented several steps to strengthen the DNC’s relationship with House Democrats.

There are now weekly check-ins between the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to coordinate talking points. Meng circulates a monthly newsletter to lawmakers on developments at party headquarters. And the DNC now alerts lawmakers when committee leaders are holding events in their districts, something that hasn’t always happened in the past, she said.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley has spoken directly to Perez about making climate change a prominent topic in the debates after the DNC rejected requests for a climate-only debate. Merkley said Perez is working to assuage his concerns, “but it’s not like I have it in writing.”

Yet with Republicans feuding among themselves on a near-weekly basis, many Democrats are in no mood to air their own dirty laundry. “You think you’re going to talk about Democratic infighting [with] me?” said Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who nearly ran for president himself. “Wrong day, man.”

#Foreign #imagined'#Politics #possibly

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lisarprahl · 7 years

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Controllers Talk About the Paths They’ve Taken Toward SOX Compliance

As we approach the “sweet sixteen” of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act later this summer, corporate controllers provided some perspective on how SOX compliance efforts have changed with the times and what challenges they continue to face.

“I’ve seen quite a few SOX changes through the years and improvements to internal controls since the original COSO framework was launched in 1992,” said Cheryl Kerr, CPA, controller at Pursuit Collection, a Denver-based company that operates attractions, lodges and hotels, and sightseeing tours in Alaska, Montana, and western Canada. “Internal controls are necessary to mitigate risk and when they are well-designed, they give you peace of mind that your financials are correct. The framework provides a uniform model to promote efficient and effective controls.”

Download this Tech Brief from FloQast to learn how close management software can help controllers address their SOX compliance needs.

Compliance scramble

Brian Christensen, executive vice president of global internal audit and financial advisory at consulting firm Protiviti, said most companies at this point are doing a fairly good job of responding to the needs of the SOX requirements.

“I think we’ve gotten to the point where people understand and appreciate what’s there,” he said. “It’s now moving into how do we continue to improve the efficiencies?”

But back when SOX became law on July 30, 2002, Debbie Smith, PMP, corporate controller of Phoenix-based BeyondTrust, a provider of cybersecurity threat management software, remembers organizations scrambling to figure out how to become compliant.

“There was a lot of uncertainty and resistance. So, I would say the first several years most of the focus and effort was on compliance,” she said. “Probably three to five years post-enactment, organizations started to settle and get perspective. The tone was changing. Organizations were meeting the minimum needed for compliance and the environment started shifting into areas identified for efficiency and improvement, such as standardizing key processes and controls, reducing complexity, increasing documentation and training, and ensuring an effective control environment. Compliance became the result of that effort, not the driving force.”

AS 5 and SOX audits

To CPA David Lloyd, a significant SOX compliance development occurred in 2007 when Auditing Standard No. 5 was adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which was created as part of SOX.

AS 5, which is used by auditors when auditing internal controls over financial reporting, replaced Auditing Standard No. 2, which was considered “unduly expensive and inefficient.”

“Approaches were fairly stringent in the first few years [of SOX], but that relaxed quite a bit with AS 5,” said Lloyd, vice president, corporate financial controller, and treasurer of Greif Inc., a Delaware, Ohio-based company that produces and sells industrial packaging products and services. “AS 5 provided for a more top-down, risk-based approach to the SOX audit. AS 5 was designed to reduce costs by allowing auditors to focus on the most important issues and simplify their procedures.”

He also noted that the requirements that get passed along to companies through the PCAOB inspection process and the updated 2013 COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework have raised the bar in SOX compliance in recent years.

“Both have really added to the complexity and the level of effort required for compliance,” Lloyd said. “One recent example from the last few years is around key reports that are used in the operation of controls. There’s been more attention recently on documenting parameters, such as correct dates and correct entities, instead of just the testing of report logic.”

COSO framework’s impact

COSO’s original framework, released in 1992, satisfied the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules for implementing internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with SOX Section 404.

The core of the 1992 framework were the five components of internal controls: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring activities.

Although effective, the framework started to show its age, according to Kerr and others.

“The COSO framework was published and adopted as the uniform framework for internal controls. As companies began to migrate to a similar control framework, you saw consistencies in controls,” Kerr said. “We had that original COSO framework for many years before it was revised. It had become outdated and didn’t address significant business changes, particularly in the area of IT general controls and compliance. When they revised it in 2013, the framework became more robust and appropriate for today’s business climate.”

The 2013 COSO framework contains 17 principles that explain the concepts associated with the framework’s five main components—one of which, No. 11, is “selects and develops general controls over technology.”

And unlike the 1992 framework, the 2013 framework includes the concept of considering the potential for fraud risk when assessing the organization’s risk objectives.

“The 2013 COSO framework put some more onus on management in the area of fraud control in the revamped framework,” Kerr said. “So, you saw that big shift a few years ago to the new COSO framework, and companies had to identify their controls and map them to the new framework.”

Better collaboration

From an operational perspective, Kerr said one of the biggest changes she’s seen over the past 15 years, other than COSO’s influence over the framework, is the way businesses and auditors are working together to ensure the control framework is right-sized.

“You don’t want a proliferation of excessive controls that aren’t really providing any risk mitigation or a control framework that is too minimal,” she said.

“It’s all about right-sizing your control framework and identifying those controls that are key within the framework to prevent financial statement misrepresentation,” Kerr continued. “You used to hear a lot, ‘The auditors made me do it.’ Well, auditors aren’t making us do anything that we shouldn’t be doing. These are our controls and we own them, we design them, and we work with the auditors to ensure our framework mitigates our risk.”

She also noted that getting IT and business process people on the same page will result in a more aligned framework.

“What I’ve seen over the last few years is more collaboration where you’ll have both IT control owners and business process control owners in the same walk-through because the systems are so integrated with business processes,” Kerr said. “They’re really working together on the control framework and aren’t designing system controls in a vacuum from business process controls and not designing business process controls in a vacuum from system controls. Getting that to work has been a challenge, but when it does work well, it makes the entire process much smoother and more efficient.”

Key SOX challenges for controllers

“Other than the ever-emerging control requirements and technical compliance requirements of managing SOX, the biggest issues facing companies relate to the required time and cost implications it takes to comply, to assess controls on an ongoing basis, to manage a myriad of new issues related to acquisitions, and to manage the increased intensity around cybersecurity,” said Steve Rinaldi, CPA, U.S. corporate controller at InterSystems, a global health IT vendor based in Cambridge, Mass.

Indeed, many of those issues that Rinaldi mentioned were highlighted in Protiviti’s most recent SOX Compliance Survey.

Compliance costs: There was a slight downward trend in annual SOX compliance costs in fiscal year 2016 compared to the previous year, according to the survey. One reason is that most organizations have now completed implementation work in connection with the 2013 COSO framework—which typically costs between $50,000 and $100,000.

But that decrease in costs hasn’t been felt by all public companies. While more companies spend $500,000 or less annually on SOX compliance than in prior years, many are still spending more than $2 million.

“I think we’ve seen established companies that have gone through the SOX process year over year increase those efficiencies and move to a maturity level that gives them a better return and, in the end, maintain or lower the costs of the effort,” Christensen said. “However, those that are relatively early in their SOX journey still see there’s an opportunity to move up that maturity curve—move from more of an ad hoc state to a better-defined level. And I would expect that they would see those efficiencies somewhere in their near future.”

Compliance hours: Time spent on SOX compliance activities went up for most companies in FY 2016, and for two out of three of these companies, hours increased by more than 10 percent, according to the survey.

Cybersecurity: There was a fairly big jump in cybersecurity disclosures in FY 2016 (33%) compared to the prior year (20%). “I talk with a lot of audit committees and internal auditors about what’s on the macro-level lists that the C-suite and the boardroom are thinking about, and obviously, cyber the last year or two has been close to the top of the list,” Christensen said.

Future of SOX compliance

A big question moving forward, Christensen said, is: What will next-gen SOX look like?

“The topics that we’re seeing include the introduction of some robotic process automation. RPA is a hot topic, and I don’t think people have gone too far down that path, but there are tremendous opportunities and it’ll be part of the future,” he said.

“Some of the bigger advancements are going to come through automated techniques that are there, particularly with advancing technologies,” Christensen continued. “Big data sets and disparate data systems communicate and corroborate information, adding elements and things that you can get into the cloud and in the various cloud environments. That’s probably the next frontier of where SOX can go, but that’s probably two to three years away. But companies that are on the cutting edge around SOX are beginning to implement and experiment with these, as recently as today. So, that’s creating some excitement and interest in where SOX goes.”

Technology advancements in SOX compliance will be the focus of a future article, as these controllers talk about tech trends, automation, and the possibility of using artificial intelligence and blockchain in their compliance efforts.

Learn how close management software can help controllers and chief accounting officers achieve SOX compliance in this webinar from FloQast. You can read more about Going Concern’s partnership with FloQast here.

Image: iStock/shutter_m

The post Controllers Talk About the Paths They’ve Taken Toward SOX Compliance appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/controllers-sox-compliance-inchan-sponcon/

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newsvomit-blog · 7 years

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Washington state passes law protecting net neutrality

Net neutrality is dead at the federal level, but a push to revive it at the state level continues to gain traction.Washington on Monday became the first state to pass a law making it illegal for internet service providers to manipulate their networks for money.Dozens of other states are considering similar measures through legislation and lawsuits.Governors in Montana, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey and Vermont have all signed executive orders on the issue.”Internet service providers otherwise could limit what websites or apps you would be able to use,” Washington Gov.Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said at the signing on Monday.

“They could slow down your use and access unless you use their preferred apps or their chosen services.””We are here to say Washingtonians will be protected from throttling, from fast lanes, and they will be protected in preserving an open and accessible internet,” he added.There’s just one problem: The new rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission in December, in a 3-2 vote along party lines, pre-empt states from making their own net neutrality laws.The FCC’s new rules will officially go into effect on April 23, according to a notice published last month in the Federal Register.Washington’s law, which had bipartisan support, doesn’t take effect until June 6.Experts expect it could face legal challenges.”This is symbolic politics, because the states know it is illegal to do,” Roslyn Layton, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told .

“But they can put rules on the book and make it look like they’re doing something.”The FCC is already embroiled in a variety of lawsuits related to its rollback of net neutrality rules, including an effort from 21 state attorneys general to get a court to block the FCC’s move.Today we make history: Washington will be the first state in the nation to preserve the open internet with our own #NetNeutrality law.The open internet lives on for Washingtonians.pic.twitter.com/3wsmAycWLNLayton said there’s a reason why the policy making for internet regulation is at the federal level, and said she doesn’t see a practical solution coming from the states.”It is not practical to have 50 sets of internet rules.

It’s untenable,” she said.”Imagine if Amazon had to go to each state to set up a network.”Come April, and barring any major legal action, the internet will return to being classified as a Title I information service, giving internet service providers (ISPs) more leeway to create so-called internet fast and slow lanes, as long as they publicly disclose their practices.What could happen next is a bit murky.Experts agree it’s likely internet service providers could file a lawsuit against the states and the clash could play out in the courts.But “it does not seem clear how the courts will view these actions,” Michael Fauscette, chief research officer at G2 Crowd and a former analyst who has written on net neutrality, said.While the clock is ticking on net neutrality, advocates say the fight is far from over.

In fact, they’re hopeful and ready for an inevitable day in court.BREAKING! Washington just became the first state to enact its own #NetNeutrality law, but dozens of other states are considering defying the FCC.Sign the petition calling on your governor and state legislators to fight for the free and open Internet! https://t.co/SCT45RZghr pic.twitter.com/oAMNgGjXotEvan Greer, deputy director of Fight For the Future, a digital rights advocacy group, said she believes net neutrality supporters will come out victorious in a legal battle.”Ajit Pai, the former Verizon lawyer now in charge of the FCC, blatantly ignored the voices of tech experts — and millions of people from across the political spectrum — and instead based his rulemaking almost entirely on debunked studies funded by the telecom industry,” she wrote in an op-ed for .”His agency was also caught ignoring serious issues of fraud with the agency’s public comment process, despite the fact that 98 percent of the unique comments submitted opposed his plan.”Layton said different rules in the 50 states will be bad for consumers and for business.”The reason why we had the great internet success that we did [before the 2015 rules] is because we had one federal policy to get it going,” she said.

Source: NBC News.

Washington state passes law protecting net neutrality was originally published on NewsVomit

#neutrality #passes #protecting #state #washington

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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The FCC's net-neutrality protections are about to disappear — but backers are moving on multiple fronts to put them back in place (T, CMCSA)

The Federal Communications Commission's new rules that do away with its net-neutrality protections officially take effect in April.

Net neutrality supporters are pushing on multiple fronts to block the FCC's action or reinstate the protections it previously guaranteed.

It's unlikely they'll stop the FCC's new anti-net neutrality rules from taking effect next month, but longer term, they have a shot at bringing back protections the rules offered.

The Federal Communications Commission's new rules eliminating its net-neutrality protections are set to take effect next month, but supporters of an open internet aren't giving up hope they can be restored — possibly even right away.

State officials, public-interest groups, and internet activists have launched lawsuits and public campaigns to try to reinstate net-neutrality protections. There's little chance they'll succeed before the end of April, when the FCC's anti-net neutrality regulations go into force, legal experts say. But net neutrality proponents have a shot at bringing back the protections in the future either via the courts or Congress, according to the experts.

Net neutrality is the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally, that internet service providers such as AT&T and Comcast should be barred from blocking, slowing down, or speeding up access to particular sites and services. The FCC rules guaranteeing it were designed to protect internet users' ability to access the online services of their choice and to prevent broadband providers from giving an unfair advantage to their own sites and services or to those of their paid partners.

The FCC has had some form of net-neutrality protections in place essentially since 2005 and enacted its most recent rules in 2015 under the Obama administration. Despite widespread, bipartisan support for those protections, the Republican-dominated FCC voted along party lines in December to eliminate them. Since then, supporters of those rules have been pushing back against the FCC's move on multiple fronts.

Here's how activists are attempting to reinstate net neutrality:

Congressional Review Act

Net neutrality supporters are focusing their efforts in part on the Congressional Review Act, a once-obscure law that allows Congress to overturn regulations enacted by federal agencies within 60 days of when they take effect.

To block such regulations, both houses of Congress would need to pass a CRA resolution, and the president would have to sign it. But unlike most legislation, which requires a supermajority in the Senate to even be considered, the resolutions only need a majority vote in both houses to pass.

In the Senate, the CRA resolution that would overturn the FCC's anti-net neutrality rules is right at that threshold. It has has 50 cosponsors — just one shy of a majority.

This week, net-neutrality supporters organized an online protest using the hashtag #OneMoreVote to try to pressure at least one more senator to back the resolution. It's likely the movement will get that vote, said Ernesto Falcon, legislative counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has supported net neutrality.

Supporters have more work to do in the House, where its version of the CRA resolution only has 150 cosposonsors — 68 shy of the needed majority. But if the Senate passes the resolution, it could put pressure on the House to do the same, Falcon said.

With midterm elections coming up, Republicans might not want to be seen to be opposing net neutrality, he said. A recent University of Maryland poll recently found that not only does the vast majority of Americans in general support net neutrality, three out of four Republican voters do.

An FCC spokesperson declined to comment.

Broadband for America, an organization that includes Comcast, AT&T, and Charter Communications, attacked net-neutrality activists for trying nullify the FCC's new rules via the CRA.

Such a move would be a "rushed, short-circuited approval process, with no public comment or input whatsoever," Broadband for America said in a statement.

Prior to the FCC passing its new anti-net neutrality rules, millions of people submitted comments, the vast majority of which were in favor of keeping the open internet protections in place. The agency pushed through its repeal of net neutrality protections anyway.

Regardless, the CRA process remains a long shot. Even if net-neutrality backers can convince Congress to pass the CRA, it's doubtful President Trump would sign it, give that the anti-net neutrality rules were put in place at the direction of Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman Trump nominated.

Lawsuits

But net-neutrality backers are pursuing another avenue to reinstate the FCC's open internet rules — the courts.

In the wake of the FCC's December vote, supporters of net neutrality protections have filed a flurry of lawsuits to undo the agency's repeal of them. Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser; streaming video provider Vimeo; and a collection of public interest groups filed suit in December. Last week, the attorneys general of 23 states filed a separate suit.

The suit filed by the group of attorneys general revolves around the proper way to classify broadband service. The FCC has gone back and forth on the issue over the last 20 years. But in its 2015 rules, the agency redesignated broadband as a telecommunications service rather than an information service. That designation essentially gave the agency the authority the courts said it needed to undergird its net-neutrality protections.

But the move was vehemently opposed by telecommunications providers and many politicians, particularly antiregulatory Republicans. They thought the designation brought with it too many burdensome regulations on broadband companies and would depress their investment in building out their networks.

The states are going to assert that they have the right to protect their own consumers.

The issue of how to classify broadband will be something the courts "will have to struggle with," said Jim Speta, a law professor at Northwestern University.

"That question really gets to the heart of the disagreement in the FCC," he said.

The lawsuits will also contend with the question of whether individual states have the authority to pass laws that would offer net-neutrality protections within their borders, something several states have moved to do following the FCC's repeal of its own protections. It's not entirely clear how the courts will come down on the controversy.

While the courts usually side with the federal government in conflicts with the states, legal experts are split on whether in this instance the states have a legitimate case to make, Speta said.

"The states are going to assert that they have the right to protect their own consumers," said Falcon, the EFF lawyer.

The lawsuits likely won't be decided for more than a year, and broadband providers will likely be able to operate in a net-neutrality free world until then, legal experts said.

"We'll get to see how ISPs operate in a virtually unregulated environment," Falcon said.

An FCC representative said the agency wasn't concerned about the legal challenges to its anti-net neutrality rules.

"We have every reason to believe that the courts will uphold the FCC’s decision," the representative said.

State laws and orders

Supporters of net neutrality are also taking action inside particular states. Since the FCC's December vote, the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Montana have signed executive orders mandating ISPs with state contracts abide by net-neutrality rules. But those orders offer limited protections, because they don't apply to broadband providers that don't have state contracts.

Other states are looking to go farther. On Wednesday, Washington became the first state to pass a law requiring all ISPs within its borders to offer net-neutrality protections. Several other states, including California and Oregon, are considering similar laws.

As the lawsuits against the FCC make their way through the courts, states with their own net-neutrality laws will be able to guarantee their citizens those protections, at least until a court strikes down those laws.

"Washington and other states that are considering this are being proactive," said Marc Martin, an attorney with law firm Perkins Coie's communications practice.

But such state-level actions aren't a great way to offer net-neutrality protections, legal experts said.

"As a matter of policy, it's a bad idea to have the internet governed by lots of little state regulations," Speta said.

A federal net-neutrality law

The best way to guarantee net neutrality would be for Congress to pass a law codifying such protections, legal experts said. That way the protections couldn't be put in place or taken away at the whim of whichever party had a majority in the FCC.

Even if courts rule that states have the right to enforce net-neutrality protections within their borders, legal experts said it's sound policy to have a federal law in place.

"Ultimately, the solution has to come at the federal level," Falcon said.

What happens now?

Given the timing of the lawsuits and the uncertainty around the CRA process, the FCC rule overturning its net neutrality regulations will most likely take effect in April. The big broadband providers say that won't mater, because they actually support net neutrality, even if they didn't like the old rules. They've generally promised they won't slow down traffic, block websites, or create fast lanes and slow lanes online.

But several have said they want the freedom to give preference to certain kinds of internet traffic and some have already begun giving a leg up to their own sites and services in other ways. Regardless, thanks to the FCC's new rules, there's no way to ensure that they really will keep net-neutrality protections in place.

"That's all well and good to say that," Martin said. "But you can't enforce it — it's not a matter of law."

SEE ALSO: AT&T says it supports net neutrality and won't create internet 'fast lanes' — while pushing for the right to do just that

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everettwilkinson · 7 years

Text

Trump invisible in race to replace Chaffetz

With Kevin Robillard, Zach Montellaro, Daniel Strauss and Scott Bland

The following newsletter is an abridged version of Campaign Pro’s Morning Score. For an earlier morning read on exponentially more races — and for a more comprehensive aggregation of the day’s most important campaign news — sign up for Campaign Pro today. (http://www.politicopro.com/proinfo)

Story Continued Below

INVISIBLE MAN — “Trump invisible in race to replace Chaffetz,” by Campaign Pro’s Elena Schneider: “Down in Alabama, Sen. Luther Strange is trumpeting President Donald Trump’s endorsement in a blizzard of TV ads before his special election. In Montana, Donald Trump Jr. stumped for Rep. Greg Gianforte — twice. In Georgia, a handful of GOP candidates rushed to tie themselves to the president’s agenda, including one who stood in a swamp and promised to drain it in a TV ad.

But the first rule of Utah GOP politics in the age of Donald Trump, so far, is that you do not talk about Donald Trump. And that’s exactly what three Republicans are doing in the race for ex-Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s district, a heavily conservative, Mormon tract of Utah where contenders have praised some of Trump’s policies — but rarely say his name. … Trump’s popularity improved after the election, but Trump still lost the Utah primary to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by more than 50 points. And when Trump carried the state over Hillary Clinton, Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative alternative, came away with 20 percent of the electorate.” Full story here.

SINGLE ISSUE — “How does a progressive Democrat try to unseat a Republican? Step one: Don’t talk about single-payer healthcare,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Sarah D. Wire: “Congressional candidate Katie Hill was sitting around a kitchen table with a local activist group last spring when one of the attendees asked her a question: Will she have to ‘soft pedal’ her stance on any issues to unseat Republican Rep. Steve Knight in the 25th District? … After getting assurances that the video would only be available to a private group, Hill said one of the issues she can’t discuss directly is single-payer healthcare. ‘I shouldn’t go into the district and talk about single-payer, right? Like, that word by itself is going to be something that just immediately turns off a lot of people,’ Hill said. ‘But, if I talk about how we need to make sure that everybody has access to healthcare and that it’s affordable for everybody and how having a government option [is needed] at the very least, that is something people can really get behind. It’s more about the way we talk about things than being very far apart on issues.’”

— “The video … shows the delicate line some Democratic candidates are walking as the national party goes after the more than 30 seats it needs to win back control of the House. The idea of a single-payer healthcare system, in which the government pays for a base level of healthcare for all citizens, has been growing in popularity in party circles … Hill said in an interview that she believes the country will eventually have single-payer healthcare, but using the term puts off people in a district with a large number of conservative voters.” Full story.

2020 WATCH — “Castro launches political group ahead of possible 2020 run,” by Campaign Pro’s Scott Bland: “Former Obama Cabinet secretary Julián Castro has formed a new PAC as he steps up his political activity and considers a possible run for president in 2020. The new group is called ‘Opportunity First,’ a favorite catchphrase of Castro’s since his days as mayor of San Antonio, though it is also similar to President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ slogan. The group will support candidates for federal, state and local office and could finance other political activities for Castro, who has already lent a hand to several congressional and gubernatorial candidates around the country since the end of the Obama administration.” Full story.

Days until the 2017 election: 89.

Days until the 2018 election: 453.

Thanks for joining us! You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

DAILY ROLL TIDE — “Strange releases late ads touting Trump endorsement” by Campaign Pro’s Daniel Strauss: “Sen. Luther Strange’s campaign rolled out a late ad blitz highlighting President Donald Trump’s endorsement on Thursday morning, less than a week before the special Senate primaries in Alabama. … “President Trump says Luther Strange is the best conservative to pass our agenda,” says the narrator in Strange’s new 30-second television spot, while Trump’s tweet appears onscreen. “Tweeting, ‘Luther Strange has done a great job representing the great people of the great state of Alabama. He has my complete and total endorsement!'” … The radio ad focuses on Brooks, one of Strange’s top rivals in the primary. “Brooks keeps attacking our president,” the radio narrator says, before playing quotes of Brooks saying, “I don’t think you can trust Donald Trump with anything he says.”” Full story.

— “Contenders in Alabama GOP Senate race won’t defend McConnell against Trump,” by POLITICO’s Seung Min Kim: “President Donald Trump is eviscerating Sen. Mitch McConnell over the lagging Republican agenda, and none of the three main candidates in the increasingly nasty Senate GOP primary in this state are taking the majority leader’s side. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said in an interview on Thursday that he found it ‘baffling’ that Trump would go after McConnell yet endorse Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), which ‘helps ensure nothing will get done.’

But ‘no question’ that Trump’s criticism was fair, Brooks added: ‘Mitch McConnell, if he’s not gonna get the job done, needs to resign so someone else can try to get the job done.’ Even Strange, a member of McConnell’s rank and file, noted that he himself has also said, ‘Mitch, get back to work.'” Full story.

— A Cygnal/L2 poll released Thursday found Moore leading, per Campaign Pro’s Daniel Strauss: “Moore took 31 percent in the poll, followed by Strange with 23 percent. Brooks placed third with 18 percent, while a handful of other candidates were all in the single digits.” Full story.

— Phil Robertson endorses Roy Moore for Senate: Moore’s campaign announced the endorsement on Thursday. Earlier in the week he was endorsed by Chuck Norris. Per the campaign on Thursday: “Today the Judge Roy Moore for U.S. Senate campaign announced the endorsement of Duck Commander Phil Robertson. “I have been an admirer for some time of Judge Roy Moore. He judged with a good understanding of the constitution and the law, but he also understands natural law and who gave us our rights to begin with, Almighty God.”

RUNNING BUDDIES — “Pritzker announces state Rep. Stratton as running mate,” by the Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson: “Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker has picked new state Rep. Juliana Stratton to be his running mate for the 2018 nomination, the campaign announced Thursday. … The pick comes as Cook County Democratic Party leaders are set to hear from candidates for governor at their slating meetings Friday in advance of endorsing a ticket for the 2018 primary. Stratton was elected to the state representative post last year after forces supportive of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner backed then-Democratic Rep. Ken Dunkin for re-election. Dunkin was handily defeated in the 2016 Democratic primary.” Full story.

MAIN(E) EVENT: Paul LePage appears to be inching towards Senate run: Maine Gov. Paul LePage sounds increasingly like he’ll mount a 2018 challenge Sen. Angus King, the Maine Sun Journal writes, and said this week he’s discussed running with his wife. “During a radio interview Thursday, the governor indicated that the only declared major party challenger — state Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn — likely can’t win.

‘I don’t see it in the cards for him,’ LePage told friendly radio hosts during his weekly appearance on Portland’s WGAN. … The governor acknowledged on Bangor-based WVOM radio last week that it is ‘very, very hard to knock off an incumbent,’ which is why potentially competitive challengers are wary of taking on the assignment. Nonetheless, LePage said he is ‘really starting to discuss this with my wife,’ Ann. LePage, who is barred from seeking a third term as governor, claimed recently that he’s getting ever more pressure to jump into the contest.” Full story here.

— Iowa businesswoman will challenge Rep. Steve King: Businesswoman Leann Jacobsen announced on Thursday she’ll challenge GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th congressional district this cycle. In an announcement video, Jacobsen says that King is “a politician who is mostly interested in playing politics and getting headlines for himself.”

— Bolton endorses Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin: Ex-U.N. Ambassador John Bolton endorsed Republican Kevin Nicholson in the Wisconsin Senate primary on Thursday. Bolton has endorsed 11 candidates for office so far this cycle. Nicholson and others he’s endorsed receive funds from Bolton’s national security-focused PAC.

AD WATCH — Northam, Gillespie launch new ads: Campaign Pro’s Kevin Robillard reports, “Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam is up with his first television ad of the general election, a positive biographical spot. … The ad is running on broadcast and cable TV in the Norfolk, Charlottesville, Richmond and Roanoke markets as part of a $100,000 buy. Republican Ed Gillespie started airing ads earlier this month. Polls have shown Northam and Gillespie tied, or given Northam a small lead.” Gillespie released two new ads on Thursday, one focused on ethics reform and one focused on immigration. Read more here and here.

CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “These kind of deadlines create these expectations and then it becomes a crisis, and then somebody has to have failed.” — Trump ally Newt Gingrich, speaking to Fox News about why he thinks Republicans shouldn’t give themselves a deadline on tax reform.

Original Source link

from CapitalistHQ.com https://capitalisthq.com/trump-invisible-in-race-to-replace-chaffetz/

#TrumpNews #CapitalistHQ.com

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melindarowens · 7 years

Text

Trump invisible in race to replace Chaffetz

With Kevin Robillard, Zach Montellaro, Daniel Strauss and Scott Bland

Story Continued Below

Days until the 2017 election: 89.

Days until the 2018 election: 453.

Thanks for joining us! You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

Original Source link

source https://capitalisthq.com/trump-invisible-in-race-to-replace-chaffetz/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/08/trump-invisible-in-race-to-replace.html

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rickhorrow · 7 years

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15 to watch May 1 2017

Saturday marks the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby, held each May at Louisville’s historic Churchill Downs. Ahead of the Run for the Roses, the personal-finance website WalletHub released reports showcasing fun facts about the first leg of the Triple Crown and which states have the biggest gambling problems. (Nevada unsurprisingly was #1 on that list, followed by South Dakota and Montana.) Among the fun facts, WalletHub revealed that more than 127,000 Mint Juleps are served each year, and 522,000 beer cans consumed. Fashionable headgear is on display, as roughly 90% of female attendees embrace the time-honored tradition of wearing big hats at the race track. And last year, $192.6 million was wagered on the Derby, with $151.8 million paid on winning tickets. Historically, only 35 mounts have followed up a Derby victory with a win in the Triple Crown’s second leg, the Preakness Stakes. And a mere 12 have then sealed the deal in the Belmont Stakes. The chance to see history is nevertheless just one element of what makes the Kentucky Derby so special, along with its fan-friendly traditions and annual pomp and circumstance.

In tandem with the attendance-breaking NFL Draft – over 250,000 attended the event in Philadelphia – the NFLPA locked in a partnership with rideshare company Lyft for the upcoming season. The partnership launches with Lyft providing ride credits to rookies. Additionally, all active players will be eligible to receive $250 in ride credits, as well as the ability to earn additional credits through an ongoing social influencer promotion. Players will be able to redeem Lyft credits in 30 of 32 NFL cities. “This partnership will do so much for our players,” Ahmad Nassar, president of NFL Players Inc. said. “First and foremost, it allows players league-wide to have a consistent and safe option for rides. But more than that, Lyft will provide career and business opportunities for both active players and those transitioning to life after football.” With more and more players cutting their careers short due to the threat of concussions and other debilitating injury, long term career and financial planning have never been more critical, and the league will clearly benefit from the Lyft deal as well.

In related NFL news, NFL players, newly-minted rookies and veterans alike, can now own and commercialize their personal biometric data after the NFLPA struck a deal with human performance tracking company Whoop. Each player will be given a wrist-worn, custom-designed monitoring device called the Whoop Strap 2.0, which will capture information on sleep and recovery as well as other data. Under the deal, players will be able to sell their individual data through the NFLPA's group licensing program, in what is the first time a pro sports players association has partnered with a wearable tech company. “Every day, NFL players produce data that can translate into physiological and financial opportunities,” said Ahmad Nassar, president of NFL Players Inc. “We see partnering with Whoop as the first step in harnessing this exciting technology.” Biometric data has become central to the NFL Combine, leading into the Draft, and with sports fans embracing fitness trackers at record rates, it was inevitable that sports leagues would incorporate this technology into business strategies.

Even though MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred insists that nothing has been finalized, a group of investors led by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and including retired New York Yankees star Derek Jeter has reportedly agreed in principal to purchase the Miami Marlins. The deal, which is subject to approval by MLB, is understood to be worth upwards of $1.3 billion, with Bush set to become the Marlins’ controlling owner and Jeter likely to play an active role in the new ownership group. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson reports that “at least five investors” are involved in the group, although “the identity of those other investors was not immediately known” when news of the deal broke on Tuesday. Other bidders for the Marlins, who are being sold by owner Jeffrey Loria, a New York art dealer who purchased the team in 2002 for $158 million, including Tagg Romney, the son of one-time US presidential candidate and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and Quogue Capital founder Wayne Rothbaum. It is in MLB’s best interest to get this deal finalized ASAP, especially with the MLB All-Star Game coming to Miami in July. Look for closure by the end of May.

FIFA has confirmed that video replays will be used at the World Cup for the first time in 2018. The Associated Press writes that FIFA President Gianni Infantino told an audience in Santiago that “at the 2018 World Cup we will have video referees, because so far the results are very positive,” adding that "we are going to help the referee to not make any mistake, or commit less mistakes, and we are going to give a bit more of justice to football." In other FIFA news, according to the AP, FIFA Council member Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah of Kuwait is "resigning from his soccer roles under pressure from allegations in an American federal court that he bribed Asian officials.” As FIFA lurches toward next year’s World Cup in Russia, and in the wake of massive scandal it has weathered, timing is critical for soccer’s senior governing body to get its house in order, on both the performance and management sides.

Canton is finally receiving its centerpiece: a new four-star football-themed hotel. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, officials broke ground on the new hotel in the emerging Johnson Controls Pro Football Hall of Fame Village. The hotel is set to open during summer 2019, and is being designed by Dallas-based HKS Architects. Among the hotel's features are “four food and beverage options, including a farm-to-table restaurant, a Shula's Steakhouse and a lobby lounge; a grand lobby with a 40-foot-high ceilings; and 25,000 square feet of meeting space.” The new hotel is meant to be a selling point for Canton to land the 2019 NFL Draft, some of which could take place at the hotel itself. In addition to the football-themed hotel, the Hall of Fame Village is set to include “a youth sports complex, retail stores, what will be billed as the ‘world’s greatest sports bar’,” and an assisted living area for retired Hall of Famers. The Canton renovations are an important step in the NFL’s quest to be a year-round lifestyle brand, from the Super Bowl to the Draft, Hall of Fame, and beyond.

In golf, the PGA Tour and the LPGA are finalizing plans to stage a joint limited-field tournament in Hawaii at the start of the calendar year. Though nothing is yet set in stone, the combined men’s and women’s event could be held as soon as 2018 and would likely see tournament winners from the previous season on both circuits come together in an expansion of the PGA Tour’s existing Tournament of Champions, with official status ensuring both sets of players are competing for ranking points and prize money. “It would be an official event for them, and an official event for us,” Mike Whan, LPGA commissioner, told SportsPro in a wide-ranging interview last week. “You’d have both men and women playing the same course at same time on the same days with the same pin placements, but having two different leaderboards because both are actually trying to achieve official results.” With the team format at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans proving popular, look for both the men’s and women’s tours to continue to add variety to the mix in order to keep long time golf fans engaged and new fans intrigued.

While fan involvement in sports is always desirable, TV golf viewers will no longer have the same power to influence with the implementation of Decision 34-3/10 by the USGA and R&A. Effective immediately, a player will no longer be penalized when video evidence reveals things that could not reasonably be seen with the naked eye and/or when a player has made a reasonable judgment based on their knowledge at the time. The decision would prevent the same occurrence that affected golfer Lexi Thompson a few weeks ago at the LPGA ANA Inspiration, when she was penalized four strokes during her final round because a viewer at home emailed in about Thompson incorrectly replacing her ball on the green in the third round, costing her two penalty strokes for the incident and two more for signing an incorrect card. Yes, golf is a game of etiquette and honor, but it’s good to see that common sense has prevailed in this case, and judgements will henceforth be made by the proper rules judges and the ultimate authorities, the players themselves.

Tiger Woods has had a steep descent over the last few years, and that drop is only poised to continue after a fourth back surgery. According to Golfweek, “questions about the return of Bridgestone and TaylorMade” as Woods’ sponsors have arisen amidst a lengthy layoff from golf. Typically, endorsement contracts “run three or four years and pay a PGA Tour player a base sum to use a company’s equipment in exchange for the right to use his name and likeness in advertising.” However, aside from “in-store displays and advertisements,” the only visibility Woods has generated since playing last on the European Tour in February “has been for his course design business.” Woods signed a multiyear deal with TaylorMade before this season, but thus far in 2017 he has only played in two events. Several people “well-versed” in sport endorsement deals have echoed a similar sentiment: “They no longer see Woods as a golfer. He is now a brand.” Whether or not Woods’ brand value as a course designer and golf icon will replace companies’ exposure on his shirt and bag during live tournament rounds will become more apparent as his current deals mature and brands decide whether or not to re-up.

Quicken Loans Arena has officially been given approval for major renovations that could total up to $88 million. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cleveland City Council approved committing up to $88 million in funding for upgrades at the arena, which would create more space for dining, bars and public gathering. Cuyahoga County has “agreed to sell” bonds to finance the project, while the city's role starts in 2024, when it would begin contributing about $8 million a year “raised from admissions tax on events at The Q.” The Cavaliers are also chipping in to “sweeten the deal” through a series of promises. Among the ones laid out are: match dollar for dollar the amount of money that was committed to debt service on the project from the admissions tax if that exceeds the remaining amount that goes to the city, and to donate all admissions revenues from watch parties at The Q during the NBA Playoffs to help Habitat for Humanity. Public/private financing deals for new builds and renovations are never without controversy, and even though the new Cleveland deal has a “do-gooder” component, expect taxpayer backlash in the short term at least.

The hotly-contested race to land the New Orleans Pelicans’ D-League team has been narrowed down to six cities. According to the New Orleans Advocate, of the final cities vying to host the team, three are in Louisiana and the other three are out of state. Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and St. Tammany Parish are the Louisiana cities competing against Jackson, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida. No timetable has been set as to when a final city will be selected, as the D-League team won’t begin playing until the 2018-2019 season. Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry “pinpointed proximity as a primary benefit, and five of the six locations remaining are within a three-hour drive of New Orleans.” Only Shreveport (326 miles) is “beyond that threshold.” Each city has until June 7 to submit its official proposal if it wants to attract the team. The growth of NBA D-League teams holds two advantages for the NBA – growing talent for the future, and ever-widening teams’ fan bases and marketing footprints.

With Chicago only two hours away, University of Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman is looking toward the Windy City to boost the university’s bottom line. According to the Champaign News-Gazette, Whitman intends on marketing in Chicago as a primary way to increase both Illinois’ revenue and spending, both of which “rank in the bottom half of the Big Ten.” The challenge at Illinois is unique from many of its Big Ten counterparts because it cannot simply afford to outspend other universities such as Ohio State or Michigan. "When they have a problem, candidly they are able to throw money at it in a way that we can't,” said Whitman. “What we have to do is be better. We have to hire better people, we have to come up with a better plan and execute that plan in a better way than they do.” The collegiate arms race continues, and the Illini have their work cut out for them, as Chicago is an alumni hotbed for most of the Big Ten, and for nearby Notre Dame as well.

In a move to reduce the overall payout disparity between players, the French Open has announced that its prize money will be increased by 12% for this year’s tournament. According to the AFP, Roland Garros Director Guy Forget announced the increase for all players. The general allocation is set to increase from $35 million last year to $39 million this year. There is also a push to award players who take an early exit with more prize money; “players that are eliminated in the first round will take home $38,170, in increase of 33% on last year.” Second round departures will leave with 16% more money than last year. The new payout system explained by Forget is meant to “help the lower level players” instead of catering solely to dominant ones. At the same time, French Open singles winners will still make $109,000 more than they did in 2016, “with a total payout of $2.3 million.” This year’s tournament takes on heightened fan interest as Serena Williams is sidelined by pregnancy and Roger Federer is forgoing most of the clay court season leading up to Roland Garros. Stay tuned.

David Beckham’s push to bring an MLS team to Miami has been dragging on for years now, but he is now one step closer to making this a reality. According to the London Daily Mail, Beckham is “set to complete the funding team” for his proposed ownership of an MLS franchise after bringing Eldridge Industries Chair & CEO Todd Boehly on board. The investment banker, who was "part of an American consortium who were interested in buying" EPL club Tottenham Hotspur, “invested instead” in the Dodgers. Some MLS owners are understood to “resent Beckham being able to buy a franchise for a bargain” $25 million as part of his Galaxy player contract terms, when the overall MLS club ownership entry point is now approaching $193 million. Beckham’s push to attract a team has been dragging on for more than three years, with league owners and executives becoming increasingly frustrated. Look for Commissioner Don Garber to get more personally involved in the situation if it isn’t resolved soon.

LA 2024 Chair Casey Wasserman is optimistic about the odds of beating out Paris for the right to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. According to the Hollywood Reporter, NBC will not be able to help Los Angeles’s chances of landing the bid due to the IOC’s rules that “prohibit NBC’s involvement in the bidding process and also bar its voters from visiting the potential sites.” Despite that, Wasserman was keen to point out two major advantages that L.A. has over Paris: public support and infrastructure. Up to 88% of Los Angeles locals support the idea of hosting the Olympics, which many credit to the success of the 1984 Games in L.A., and a significant portion of the infrastructure needed to host the Olympics is already in place across the city. Wasserman’s team has “compiled a ‘beautiful 300-page technical plan’ as part of their pitch,” which will be reviewed before the IOC votes on September 13. If the international political scenario remains stable and the U.S. doesn’t find itself at odds with the rest of the world come September, look for L.A. to prevail.

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