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New AI Tool Helps Detect Hard-to-Diagnose Heart Disease HealthITAnalytics.com The Link Lonk
Mykolaiv, Ukraine (CNN)Battered by intense shelling, peppered with gunfire and then ... everything goes quiet. Along Ukraine's strategic Black Sea coast, Russian forces are playing a strange game, testing defenses, spilling blood and raising tensions but failing to drive home any significant gains.
URBANA, Ill. – The Illinois women's tennis team stayed perfect at home with a hard-fought 4-2 victory over Cornell on Sunday (February 27) afternoon in Atkins Tennis Center.
The Illini moved to 7-3 on the season, including owning a 6-0 mark in home matches.
"Credit to Cornell, I thought they played really well and thought they were a great team," said head coach Evan Clark. "They gave us everything we could handle. Credit to our kids down the stretch. Ashley being really tough to get the clinching point and being in really tough situations, but overall, I think it was a great match for our team. To be put in that situation, I think it is going to pay off down the road."
The junior duo of Ashley Yeah and Josie Frazier got the Illini going in doubles with a 6-0 blanking on court two, before sophomore Kate Duong and freshman Megan Heuser sealed the doubles point with a 6-2 victory on court one.
Frazier then put the first singles point on the board with a 6-0, 6-4 win on court three, before Cornell (0-7) tied things up with back-to-back singles wins on courts six and one.
Freshman Kasia Treiber – returning to the singles lineup after almost a month – then earned a come-from-behind 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win on court five to put the Illini one point from victory.
Yeah and Heuser – the final two Illini on court – continued to battle into the third set, with Yeah earning the clinching point with a 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 win after breaking the serve of Cornell's Katherine Nguyen in the final game of the set, while Heuser's match went unfinished.
Next Up
Illinois next heads on the road for its final two nonconference matches of the regular season, first traveling to Lawrence, Kan., to take on Kansas at 5 p.m. CT on Friday (March 4), before taking on No. 3 Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., on Sunday (March 6) at 12 p.m. CT.
For more Fighting Illini women's tennis news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniWTennis on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.
Illinois 4, Cornell 2
Doubles
1. Kate Duong/Megan Heuser (ILL) def. Maria Adiaconitei/Lauren Stein (CORNELL) 6-2
2. Josie Frazier/Ashley Yeah (ILL) def. Jenny Wong/Alexandra Savu (CORNELL) 6-0
3. Emily Casati/Kasia Treiber (ILL) vs. Valerie Ho/Katherine Nguyen (CORNELL) 4-2, unfinished
Order of Finish: 2,1
Singles
1. Lan Mi (CORNELL) def. Kate Duong (ILL) 7-5, 6-4
2. Ashley Yeah (ILL) def. Katherine Nguyen (CORNELL) 6-1, 2-6, 7-5
3. Josie Frazier (ILL) def. Maria Adiaconitei (CORNELL) 6-0, 6-4
4. Megan Heuser (ILL) vs. Lauren Stein (CORNELL) 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 2-4, unfinished
5. Kasia Treiber (ILL) def. Valerie Ho (CORNELL) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
6. Jenny Wong (CORNELL) def. Kida Ferrari (ILL) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
Order of Finish: 3,6,1,5,2
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With the match tied 4-4, the Blue's Cristiana DeAgazio (Winchester, Mass.) held off Sonya Khudyakov at No. 6 singles 7-5, 6-4 to give the home team its fifth point.
Wellesley (1-1) began the day by winning two of three doubles matches. DeAgazio, a sophomore, and senior Michelle Shen (Dallas, Texas) earned the first victory with an 8-2 win over Nitya Subramaniam (Bridgewater, N.J.) and Brooke Bauer (Butler, Penn.) on the third court. In the No. 1 doubles, sophomores Annissa Mu (Saratoga, Calif.) and Melinda Alviar (Indianapolis, Ind.) went down to the wire with Alex Mednikova (Belle Mead, N.J.) and Rani Jones (New Market, Md.) with the Blue hanging on to a 8-7, 7-5 victory.
Rensselaer's duo of Krisia Flores Gonzalez (Sugar Land, Texas) and Lorna Flores Gonzalez (Sugar Land, Texas) defeated Michaela Markwart (Hanover, Mass.) and Libby Chang (San Marino, Calif.) by a score of 8-4.
Mu kicked off the singles with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Lorna Flores Gonzalez in the No. 2 match. Following was a big win for Jones over Chang by a score of 6-1, 6-2. The No. 1 singles match between Mednikova and Markwart was a tight one with Mednikova earning a 7-5, 7-6 win for the Engineers. In the No. 5 matchup, Alviar picked up a 6-1, 6-4 win over Bauer, but the Engineers tied it as Subramaniam defeated Shen in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 13-11.
DOUBLES
Melinda Alviar / Annissa Mu (WEL) def. Alex Mednikova / Rani Jones (RPIWT): 8-7 (7-5)
K. Flores Gonzalez / L. Flores Gonzalez (RPIWT) def. Michaela Markwart / Libby Chang (WEL): 8-4
Cristiana DeAgazio / Michelle Shen (WEL) def. Nitya Subramaniam / Brooke Bauer (RPIWT): 8-2
SINGLES
Alex Mednikova (RPIWT) def. Michaela Markwart (WEL): 7-5, 7-6 (4-0)
Annissa Mu (WEL) def. L. Flores Gonzalez (RPIWT): 6-1, 6-4
Rani Jones (RPIWT) def. Libby Chang (WEL): 6-1, 6-2
Nitya Subramaniam (RPIWT) def. Michelle Shen (WEL): 3-6, 6-2, 13-11
Melinda Alviar (WEL) def. Brooke Bauer (RPIWT): 6-1, 6-4
Cristiana DeAgazio (WEL) def. Sonya Khudyakov (RPIWT): 7-5, 6-4
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Stealth Hunter: Biden’s tangled business dealings are becoming hard to ignore The Guardian The Link Lonk
NHLWhile the National Hockey League’s regular season has continued as planned, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has weighed heavy on the minds of many of its players, past and present. Among them is former NHL and Washington Capitals forward Dmitri Khristich, who is currently in Ukraine.
TSN’s Gord Miller recently shared a message from the Kyiv, Ukraine native, who sent a message as Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, sits as the current target of the Russian invasion.
“We are fighting hard, doing our best. We need you to tell the Russian people what is really going on. All they hear is propaganda and lies”.
The man 3rd from the left in the photo is former NHL player Dmitri Kristich. He called today from Ukraine asking us to pass on a message: “We are fighting hard, doing our best. We need you to tell the Russian people what is really going on. All they hear is propaganda and lies.” pic.twitter.com/HhGYiS9zyn
— Gord Miller (@GMillerTSN) February 26, 2022
Khristich, who played a total of 419 games with the Capitals over seven seasons in two stins (1990-95, 2000-02) and compiled 300 – 140 goals, 160 assists – points, was drafted by the team in 1988.
Perhaps one of the more notable player to don the sweater number 8 prior to current number holder and team captain Alex Ovechkin, who spoke recently on the invasion with the media, Khristich also played stints with the Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, and Toronto Maple Leafs, and is the all-time leading scorer in Goals (259), Assists (337), and Points (596) among Ukrainian NHL players.
Khristich was born in Kiev, U.S.S.R (now Ukraine) on July 23, 1969. He played for the Kiev Sokol Club in his home city from the 1985-86 season through the first part of the 1990-91 season, six seasons in all. He began his playing career with Kiev Sokol when he was only 16-years old.
He was drafted in the sixth-round of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft , with the 120th overall pick. At the time the Caps drafted him, he was considered a raw talent. However, he progressed with Kiev Sokol and took on greater responsibility as time passed.
He represented the Soviet Union in the World Junior Championships in 1989 and scored six goals and added two assists. He also represented the Soviet Union in the World Championships in 1990 and had two goals and three assists in seven games as the Soviet team earned a gold medal.
Originally, Khristich did not wish to defect to the United States. But by 1990, Soviet teams needed cash and, thus, released Khristich to the Capitals and he joined the team on December 11, 1990.
By Michael Fleetwood
MORE READING:
Catching Up With Dmitri Khristich, the Other Number 8
Capitals Alumni Profile: Dmitri Khristich
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “furious” that his invasion of Ukraine hasn’t been “easy” after Russian troops have been unable to take even one major city in three days of fighting, according to a member of the European Union Parliament who said he was citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.
“Putin is furious, he thought that the whole war would be easy and everything would be done in 1-4 days,” tweeted Riho Terras, who is also the former defense chief of NATO member Estonia, said in a lengthy thread on Twitter.
“The Russians are in shock of the fierce resistance they have encountered,” Terras said. He claimed the report shows they don’t have a “tactical plan” to take a Ukraine that is fighting back, stating that the entire invasion plan relied on “sowing panic among civilians and armed forces and forcing [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to flee.”
Terras posted an image of what appeared to be an intelligence report written in Russian that said, “Putin is raging. He was sure it would be a cake walk.”
US Defense officials also said Saturday that Russian forces are growing increasingly frustrated by the strength of the Ukrainian resistance. Ordinary civilians have joined with Ukrainian forces, making Molotov cocktails, blocking roads and even shooting at the tires of Russian vehicles to impede their progress.
Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with the Post’s live coverage.
Terras, citing the intelligence report, said the Russian military has enough rockets only for three or four days, and with the new sanctions imposed will not be able to replace their depleted weapons. “There are not enough weapons,” the intel report said in two different spots.
“If Ukraine manages to hold the Russians off for 10 days, then the Russians will have to enter negotiations,” Terras wrote, noting that the war is costing $20 billion a day. “Because they have no money, weapons, or resources.”
According to Terras, Putin was holed up in his “lair in the Urals,” and brought Russian oligarchs with him so they couldn’t flee the country.
The frustration for Russian troops on the ground could be seen as Ukrainians delighted Saturday in mocking them to their faces, and posting videos of it online.
This included images of destroyed Russian tanks in the northern part of the country, some appearing to show that the military equipment was in bad condition even before the fighting started.
One viral clip showed Ukrainians mocking Russian soldiers stuck on the side of the road outside Kyiv next to tanks that ran out of gas. “Can I tow you back to Russia?” a Ukrainian man in the video offered.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday shared an image of Russian soldiers captured invading the country and urged their families to “take your men home.”
“Mothers, wives, daughters of Russian soldiers! Take your men home,” Kuleba wrote in a translated tweet.
“They came to a foreign land to kill innocent people, to destroy our homes. Your power is lying. The people of Ukraine meet them with weapons, not flowers. Demand from the authorities to stop the war of conquest, save your loved ones!”
Social media services, including Facebook and Twitter, were blocked or had restricted access inside Russia. Reporters inside the country said Twitter was slow and they had difficult sending news posts. Social media companies including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta and Twitter said they would block Russian state media from advertising and would limit recommendations to posts from their channels.
Separately, RIA news agency said the country may seize funds of foreigners and foreign companies inside Russia in retaliation for sanctions and seizures by the US and allies against Russia and individual Russians, including Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
The US and allies have threatened to take the sanctions further and kick Russia out of the major system for global financial transactions, called SWIFT, a move that would further hamper Russia’s economy.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, also said Moscow does not rule out nationalizing the assets of companies registered in the United States, European Union and other “unfriendly jurisdictions.”
Medvedev also threatened that Moscow could restore the death penalty after a quarter-century because Russia was removed from Europe’s top human rights organization.
“We are being driven out of everywhere, punished and threatened, but we don’t feel scared,” Medvedev said in a post on a Russian social media site, mocking the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies as an attempt to vindicate their past “shameful decisions, like a cowardly retreat from Afghanistan.”
He also threatened that Russia could pull out of a nuclear arms control treaty with the US signed in 2010 that sets strict limits on both country’s arsenals, and even to cut diplomatic ties with Western countries.
“There is no particular need in maintaining diplomatic relations,” Medvedev said. “We may look at each other in binoculars and gunsights.”
Russia’s state communications watchdog also issued warnings to independent media outlets that they will face closure if they distribute information about the fighting that deviates from the official line.
Additional reporting by Callie Patteson
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In Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final appearance in Charlottesville, Virginia basketball — on the back of an incendiary performance by senior guard Kihei Clark — gave the coach a farewell to remember, with a nail-biting finish ultimately not going the Cavaliers’ way. After leading by as many as five in the first half, the size and speed of the Blue Devils (24-4, 14-3 ACC) were simply too much to overcome, even in front of what was by far the best home crowd Virginia has seen all season. Clark would lead the Cavaliers (17-11, 11-7 ACC) in scoring with 25 points, while sophomore guard Jeremy Roach led Duke with 15.
After Duke won the tip, both teams struggled to score offensively until Clark hit a three with just over four minutes gone to put the Cavaliers up 7-2 and nearly take the top off of John Paul Jones Arena. On the other side, Duke scored a couple of times in the paint, but beginning ice-cold from beyond the arc did not bode well for the Blue Devils overall. With 14:46 remaining, the teams regrouped for the first media timeout with Virginia holding a three-point advantage.
Clark then took it upon himself to be the offense for the Cavaliers, hitting two more shots from deep — eclipsing the number of three-pointers made by the entire team during the first matchup against Duke — to push the Cavaliers’ lead to 13-9. After a drought by both teams, however, Duke took the lead with a jumper by sophomore guard Jeremy Roach and maintained a 15-13 advantage with 8:31 left in the first half.
Duke would stretch the lead to as many as four points, but despite a scoring drought, Virginia was easily in striking distance. And tonight, the Cavaliers had a not-so-secret weapon — Clark. In Virginia’s last home game against Krzyzewski, the senior made sure Duke would never forget him, as three more threes in a span of just two minutes gave him 18 points for the half — all of which came from three — and Virginia a 22-17 lead with 4:32 remaining after the Blue Devils called a timeout to regroup. Coach Tony Bennett was extremely impressed with Clark’s ability to keep the Cavaliers in the game.
“[Kihei] kept us in it offensively,” Bennett said. “Kihei was really all we had pretty much early … but yeah, that was quite a first-half shooting performance.”
After a quick 6-0 run by Duke to regain the lead, a shot clock-beating jumper by sophomore guard Reece Beekman made the score 24-23 to reclaim the lead. The Blue Devils would finish the half with the upper hand, however, as freshman forward Paolo Banchero scored with four seconds remaining in the half, bringing Duke to a 30-25 lead heading into the intermission. Clark scored 72 percent of the team’s points in the first half, so for the Cavaliers to pull out a win in the second half, other players would have to step up in the face of a top-10 Duke team.
Having more balanced scoring was evidently a priority for Virginia coming out of halftime, as buckets from Beekman and senior forward Jayden Gardner forced Krzyzewski to call a quick timeout just 1:25 into the second half. The Blue Devils would then extend their lead to as many as six before ultimately holding a 37-32 lead with 15:50 remaining.
A tough swing for the Cavaliers resulted in an old-fashioned three-point play from junior forward Wendell Moore to keep Duke up five, but excellent defense from Beekman paired with the re-emergence of a mid-range shot from Gardner kept Virginia in the game at the second media timeout.
The Blue Devils were able to keep the Cavaliers just out of reach for much of the middle of the second half. Just when Virginia cut the lead to 45-42 — with the home crowd at the loudest it had been all half — Roach was able to silence the crowd with a layup, and Duke held a 49-42 lead with 8:02 remaining, tying its largest of the game up to that point. Would the Cavaliers have a final push left in them?
The answer after just two more minutes of play seemed to be yes. Beekman — no stranger to hitting big threes against Duke — cut the lead to 52-49, causing the Blue Devils to call a timeout with just under six minutes remaining. After cutting the lead to just one, Virginia had a couple of chances to take the lead — and should have had one more if not for a tough loose ball foul against Gardner — but could not find the bottom of the net, leaving the score 52-51 with 3:48 remaining.
Freshman forward A.J. Griffin hit a massive three to put Duke up four, but junior guard Armaan Franklin answered with a floater of his own. The teams would again trade three for two before Bennett called a timeout with the Blue Devils up 58-55. A questionable jump ball call gave Duke another chance to boost their lead, but Virginia’s defense held up. The very next possession, however, Virginia turned the ball over, leading to a Blue Devil runout to make the score 62-57.
A quick two by Gardner cut the lead to three, and with 25 seconds left, Duke called timeout. If Virginia could get a stop defensively, it would have a chance to tie with the last shot. Unfortunately, Virginia was fouled and freshman guard Trevor Keels making one of two shots was enough to ice the game, as Duke would survive a layup by Clark by making two more shots from the foul line to put the game out of reach and win 65-61.
“One thing Duke did today was when they had a breakdown they made us pay,” Bennett said. “That’s what good teams do.”
While not ideal for Virginia’s NCAA tournament hopes, a loss to a quality team like the Blue Devils is certainly not a deal-breaker. In order to have a shot at getting an at-large bid, however, winning the last two games of the regular season is suddenly more important than ever. The Cavaliers are now officially in just-keep-winning mode for a shot at getting a ticket to the Big Dance.
The Cavaliers will stay at home this weekend, as Florida State comes to Charlottesville Saturday. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
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Since you were a kid, you’ve known that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Perhaps it’s news to you that four consecutive “rights” will feel wrong, uncomfortable, and yet you’ll end up moving in the right direction once again.
Huh?
Four right turns on any city block and you’ll be heading in the original direction once more. Yes, you go in a circle. Yes, it may seem like it’s taking longer to get where you’re going. Yes, it may seem like others are flying by you. And yet.
You’re back moving toward a destination that matters.
The same applies when you’ve set an intention toward healthy changes in your habits. Decluttering your habits of overindulging, avoiding, self-medicating, controlling others, or even cluttering your home and workspaces. You set an intention to change and then, inevitably, something blocks your way forward.
A heated argument leaves you angry, hurt, and craving—something, anything other than the healthy options.
A poorly performing initiative at work leaves you riddled with doubt and “forgetting” to turn back toward your career goals.
An obstacle or upset becomes a slip, which becomes a slide, which becomes a spiral.
You think about your past missteps, present situation, and future (negative) prospects FAR too much.
You wait for renewed willpower to magically descend on you from Mount Motivation. It doesn’t.
You blame others, the world, and yourself (again with the thinking).
What are you not doing? Turning right.
Ever missed your destination on a busy city street? You just know you need to go around the block. You don’t need to ponder it. No need for reviewing all your past trips around city blocks. No sense in wondering how future block-lapping might go. You just turn right. And then you do it again, and again, and again.
Because you kept the intention of heading in your desired direction to a destination that mattered bold and beautiful in your present moment experience. Here's where mindfulness becomes helpful: you are so aware of what is happening in a given moment—and you're doing so without labels, bias, distortion, and negative judgments—that you show up to action based on your original, healthy intention.
Turning right is a simple action of alignment with intention.
As someone who has "been around the block" many times, you've learned that you just turned right and accepted you’d need to do it four times to head back toward where you’re going.
Turning right is a disciplined action in the present moment.
It is discipline because you do the intended, healthy, higher-aiming habit action without thinking about it much, or even if you are thinking, the thoughts don’t matter. Again, here's where mindfulness practice is crucial. Mindfulness helps you learn to "see" thoughts as they occur without being "lost" in them, without "being" them. The feelings or “motivation” to act doesn’t matter either. Your mind and body could be screaming “no!” and yet you turn right.
Right because it’s what you intended to do from a place of clarity, growth, compassion, and presence.
Right because it resonates with a clear vision of the relationships, career, and vitality you need to create, connect, lead, and make a lasting mark.
Right because when you turn right with enough consistency you end up living with character.
Right because it just plain matters.
Soon, perhaps today, you will face an obstacle to a growth intention in your personal or professional life. Will you overthink, bemoan, blame, or honk your horn in various self or other destructive, reactive habitual ways?
Or will you just turn right (do your growth-change action)? Then do it a second time (do another action that supports the first). Then do a third action, then a fourth. Do these actions without waiting to “feel like it” or without needing to dream up great “reasons” for doing them.
Oops! You skipped a workout, binged two-thirds of a pizza, and just sat down to binge some Netflix. You are amid a bad habit trigger-fest. Take a slow, deep breath.
And turn right.
Nike had it “right” years ago. Just do it. Turn right already. Do it four times and then pause.
How does it feel to just turn right?
Right, right? Right. Right on!
The Link Lonk
Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com
With a new year came new attempts to return to work as we knew it pre-pandemic — together again back in the office. Despite the new year, return-to-work efforts continue to crash into the same old roadblocks. Although many companies launched a post-Delta full-court press to get their employees back into the office this winter, one back-to-work mandate after another crashed and burned.
No matter which side of the employee/employer dynamic you find yourself on, you’d be wise to plan to wait for a return to office life.
Learn: Want To Work From Home? These Are the Hottest Remote Jobs Right Now Find: Small Business Owners Say Remote Work Made Them Better Team Leaders
Since the original shutdowns of 2020, businesses have been trapped in an endless and expensive cycle of building up to a return to the office, only to be stymied by new coronavirus strains, new shutdowns and new employee mutinies.
In chronicling just how futile mandatory return-to-office directives have become, the New York Times told the story of DocuSign. The company tried not one, not two, but four times to force its 7,000-strong workforce back to the office. Delay after delay after delay sowed confusion and resentment among its already anxious employees, distracted the company from its business agenda and wasted countless dollars.
Far from an outlier, the story of DocuSign is par for the course.
“It will make more sense for businesses to wait due to the pandemic,” said Tim Connon, founder of Paramount Quote Insurance Advisors. “The Omicron variant has shifted the field for people and, until more information is known about COVID and its variants, it makes more sense to wait and stay out of contact with workers. I think it will be at least another year before workers return to the office.”
The biggest return-to-work obstacle is, of course, the virus and its endless parade of new Greek alphabet variants. There are still 130,000 infections and 2,000 COVID deaths per day. The pandemic is far from over and, according to Fortune, premature office openings are part of a dangerous new complacency that could extend the national suffering even more.
There is simply no indication that the pandemic will end any time soon, and it’s almost impossible to find a single credible expert who is on record as saying that Omicron will be the last variant.
“Vaccines are not 100% protection against the virus; and, if people put their guards down, the restrictions might start all over again,” said Connor Brown, founder of After School Finance. “As a business owner, I believe it is more effective if we wait a little longer before going back to the office.
“If your company survived the pandemic by working in a remote setting, why go back to an onsite work setting? When you go back, you are just putting your employees at risk, which will also put your operations in danger. When your operations suffer, your productivity will be lessened. You might not be able to meet deadlines with your clients, thus negatively impacting your reputation in the business world. That being the case, instead of increasing profit, it will be the other way around. Now, would you want to go back to an onsite work setting?”
When trying to command workers back to the office after they’ve tasted the freedom of working from anywhere, employers would be wise to consider the very real potential of a mutiny.
“It’s not even exclusively about COVID,” said Juan Dominguez, CEO of The Dominguez Firm in Los Angeles. “Many employees have grown comfortable with remote and hybrid settings, and some even consider that flexibility to be a dealbreaker when deciding whether to remain in their jobs or not. Companies will definitely face some pushback from at least a few workers, should they decide to go back to the office.”
Amazon employees went public against the idea of going back to the office when the company announced its intentions to return to on-site work. Google employees threatened to quit if they were required to return — and in a lot of cases, they wouldn’t have had a choice. Many simply moved away once they began working remotely and had no intention of ever returning.
The corporate world took heed as Google and Amazon workers publicly rebuffed their bosses. Post-Great Resignation, it was naive to expect remote employees to come back home once they had tasted life outside the nest. Other tech giants took note of how quickly a simmer became a boil and wisely elected not to stir the same pot among their own fragile workforces.
Zillow, Twitter, Meta, Lyft, Microsoft and Dropbox all shelved plans for mandatory returns, and some of them are now letting their employees work remotely indefinitely. Lyft employees can keep working from home through 2022, pushing back its February 2022 deadline by almost a full year.
“You need to understand that we are now in the era of the employees,” said Burak Ozdemir, founder of Alarm Journal. “They’ve already tasted a different way of working and a different way of getting their job done — and most of them liked it. Therefore, the power now lies in their hands. Companies will have to adapt to the demands of their employees or else they’ll lose their top talents. And since the name of the game is retaining top workers, winning simply means letting your people work remotely.”
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With New York’s moratorium on residential foreclosures no longer in effect, thousands of New York homeowners are at risk of losing their homes and many fear an impending foreclosure crisis in the Bronx.
At the end of 2020, 11.8% (533,313) of New York state homeowners were delinquent on their mortgages, according to census data. That rate was higher than 3.8% in January 2009, at the height of the Great Recession, and the 2.2% rate in January 2020 — prior to the onset of COVID-19.
“The impact of COVID is worse than what we saw during the Great Recession,” said Alexis Lorenzo, director of Bronx Legal Services’ Foreclosure Prevention Unit. “A lot of people are worried about being booted from their home. I have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I know the crisis is large.”
To avoid foreclosure and the dangers of foreclosure rescue scammers, Loreonzo encouraged homeowners to apply for the first in the nation $539 million Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), which launched in New York Jan. 3 through the American Rescue Plan Act. HAF will provide financial assistance for homeowners who have experienced a significant reduction or loss of income due to COVID-19, are behind on taxes, water or sewage bills, or have been unable to remain current with their mortgage payments.
Each household will have to provide proof of their loss of income and, if approved, will be given a maximum of $50,000; they must be at least 30 days behind on payments. Roughly, 8,000 New York state homeowners applied on the first day and since then, thousands have followed suit, according to Lorenzo. As of Feb. 14, 27,944 applications have been filed statewide for HAF.
“Without this program I don’t know how homeowners will be able to get bailed out,” Lorenzo said. “COVID has ravaged communities in the Bronx.”
Bronx Legal Services helps clients apply for loan modifications, which is when they work with the bank to adjust the length of the loan, switch from an adjustable-rate to a fixed-rate mortgage or lower the interest rate.
She added that only the courts can make homeowners leave, not the bank.
“Just because they got a letter doesn’t mean they have to leave in 30 days,” she said. “My advice is to get help and assistance.”
Lorenzo said since the courts are so backlogged because of the pandemic, the real impact of the foreclosure crisis won’t be seen for a few months.
As homeowners facing foreclosure look for help, Lorenzo said they need to be aware of scammers. She said that anyone that calls to offer assistance or knocks on their door should not be trusted. Too often, con artists target low-income neighborhoods, seniors, people of color and non-English speaking families. The scammer will do their research, know the homeowner is in foreclosure and have a “rescue plan.”
They tell the homeowner that a way to keep their home is to sign the deed over to them and a year later the scammer will sell the home back to them — that does not happen.
“The scammers do their homework, and they know who is in crisis,” she said.
The reality of the foreclosure crisis hits home for one Bronx resident, who didn’t want to provide his real name due to the stigma of his financial situation.
Due to severe health issues, the resident, who has been living in his Co-op City apartment since 1994, has been unable to work over the last decade and has been rolling through his savings to make ends meet. During the pandemic, he ran out of money and is three years behind on co-op fees and his mortgage.
The Co-op City resident, who is 62, came to Bronx Legal Services, and they helped him apply for loan modification, which has not yet been processed. In the meantime, he’s getting letters from his bank threatening foreclosure actions, even though they are barred from doing so because he has a pending loan modification application. the client has also applied for the HAF, but has not received it.
“Things are pretty tough,” the client said. “I’m worried about foreclosure.”
He applied for the loan modification Dec. 3, 2021, but the bank replied saying nothing was submitted. Then they asked for an additional form. Finally, on Jan.13, all of the correct forms were sent. Yet, the bank is requesting the same documents again, according to the Co-op City resident.
Michael Corcoran, a lawyer at Bronx Legal Services, said he has spoken with people from the bank and hopefully the homeowner’s issue is resolved soon.
“This is all too common when homeowners are seeking assistance,” Corcoran said. “I personally think it’s in the mortgage servicer’s best interest to work with us.”
With just an $812 a month mortgage, the Co-op City resident knows he could pay it if he was granted the loan modification. Needless to say, he’s stressed and angry while his living situation remains in limbo.
“I can’t sleep. I’m lucky if I get a few hours a night,” he said. “I don’t want to have to leave and get a single room apartment in the Bronx, which would cost me more than I pay for my mortgage.”
Reach Jason Cohen at jcohen@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4598. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes.
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Extraordinary FL women: Two sisters stronger than most men, and it's hard to believe they're gone Florida Phoenix The Link Lonk
The headline of Jessie Diggins’ blog post of January 13 was “You Can Do Hard Things.” It’s a fascinating and lengthy account of her days leading up to the Olympics, where she won her second and third Olympic medals in cross-country skiing.
Here’s how she describes her plan to intentionally subject herself to intense discomfort right before the Olympics:
I had to make the choice, over and over and over again, to keep moving forward, one stumbling, painful step at a time. I routinely race hard enough that I can’t feel parts (or all) of my legs. When I collapse in the snow after a race where I’ve given it my all, I feel like I’m floating while the world is spinning around me, and I have to hold onto the snow to keep from sliding sideways. Sometimes my vision tints yellow or pink, even when my glasses are clear. My greatest strength in ski racing has always been knowing how to pull more from my body than is reasonable. So when I say that the final climb in this tour was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done…I really mean it.
And that’s exactly why I wanted to do it. Half of my training plan leading into the Olympics included a lot of racing in order to get the physical fitness boost that I’m accustomed to after recovering from the Tour. The other half was the mental toughness boost that can only be earned the extremely hard way. The first time you feel that kind of pain cannot be the one time in your life that it really matters, or you won’t know what to do with it; how to move through it, how to feel it without being consumed by it.
We all know what happened next. Early in the Olympics, she won a bronze in the women’s sprint free. Near the end of the Olympics, she won a silver medal in the women’s 30-kilometer mass start. Across all of sports, very few athletes compete in both sprints as well as long-distance events; they require completely different training and body types.
“To have a medal in the sprint and the 30 km are the ultimate bookends for me. I have been trying to be a good all-around athlete my whole life, so this has been really cool,” Diggins said. As the Wall Street Journal put it, this accomplishment was like if Usain Bolt followed up his 100-meter dash with the Olympic marathon. Too hard, too crazy to believe, right?
You probably also know that Diggins had food poisoning just 30 hours before the 30-kilometer race.
Diggins goes out of her way to acknowledge that she has struggled with an eating disorder in the past and that “the amount of pressure placed on my shoulders has not been easy and has been building for four years.” She is neither superhuman nor invincible.
That said, she has one strength that anyone can embrace: she is willing to do hard things.
You may not win an Olympic medal or be the best in the world at anything. You cannot control how hard someone else competes or whether luck shifts in your favor.
But you can decide to do hard things. You can learn from Diggins and actually seek out such challenges.
The Link Lonk
JACKSONVILLE – Mike Caldwell likes one thing above all about his new situation.
Yes, the Jaguars' defense must improve in many ways.
And yes, forcing turnovers is among the ways.
But when the Jaguars' new defensive coordinator studied how the unit played this past season, he said one trait stood out from the rest – and that trait made him optimistic moving forward.
"The one thing when I turn on the film watching them is they play hard," Caldwell said last week during his first meeting with local media since being named coordinator. "They really do. From the front guys to the linebacker to the secondary, they play hard. If you're a true football player, that's something you're going to do. You're going to play hard.
"Now, it's this coaching staff's job to get them to play hard, play the right way and play the Jags' way. That's our job, to get it done."
Caldwell added, "If you have the effort and way they played hard, that's something you can take and you can build on and you can run with."
Caldwell, the inside linebackers coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the last three seasons, coached the last decade under Buccaneers coordinator Todd Bowles. The Buccaneers under Bowles played aggressively and creatively, a trait Head Coach Doug Pederson said he believes Caldwell will bring to the Jaguars.
The Buccaneers ranked fifth in the NFL in turnovers forced each of the past two seasons.
"We were together 10 years, sitting in the meeting rooms together 10 years and understand when you're watching film what you're looking for, breaking it down, understanding, developing a game plan to attack the offense," Caldwell said of Bowles. "You sit in there for 10 years, something is bound to rub off."
The Jaguars this past season ranked 28th in points allowed and 20th in yards allowed. They created a league-low nine takeaways, something Caldwell said will be a focus moving forward – and an area where aggression could be a major factor.
"Turnovers are such an important part of the game," Caldwell said. "Every defense is going to work it, but you have to work it a certain way. You have to stress getting the ball out, stress the different types of coverages you're going to play. It goes back to attacking – affecting the quarterback.
"When you affect the quarterback and speed his processes, that enables you a chance to break on the ball and get a pick, or break on the ball and knock it down, or get a ball tip and get a turnover."
Caldwell last week addressed multiple positions on the Jaguars' defense, including edge rusher. The Jaguars in 2021 ranked 27th in the NFL with 32 sacks. Edge defender Josh Allen led the team with 7.5 sacks and edge defender K'Lavon Chaisson registered one. Chaisson played in at least 43 percent of snaps in the first five games of the season, playing in more than 40 percent four games after that. "I look at ability, someone that can make plays and someone that can process," Caldwell said of Allen and Chaisson. "We talked about going back to keeping it simple. If you've got a guy that has this skill set that does this real well, let him do this. If he's better going forward, let him go forward. If he needs to go back, we'll let him go back with every blue moon. But if he's going forward, let him get after the quarterback and let him go."
QUOTABLE I
Caldwell on Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack: "I spoke with him [Thursday]. I could see it through the phone that he's eager and ready to go. You could hear the passion in the voice. He said, 'I want to win.' That's what we're about here. We're trying to get guys in the best position so they can go out there and win games."
QUOTABLE II
Caldwell on the Jaguars' secondary: "I think there's a good mix back there. There are guys that have played, they have young guys with talent, and I think there's an opportunity for a lot of growth back there with the veteran guys being able to grow, learn this system, and keep honing their skills and teaching the young guys how to do it. When you do that and you build that accountability in a room, then that's when the defense takes off."
The Biden administration said it is still debating on Tuesday morning what package of sanctions to unleash against Vladimir V. Putin, his friends and Russia’s financial system. But all the early indications suggested that officials planned to leave some in reserve in hopes of preventing a far larger attack on Ukraine that could cause tens of thousands of casualties.
Early Tuesday morning, Jon Finer, Mr. Biden’s deputy national security adviser, said that Russia’s forces had begun to move into Ukraine, declaring on CNN that “an invasion is an invasion, and that is what is underway.”
The choice of the word “invasion” was significant. That was the trigger for sanctions, and Mr. Biden angered the Ukrainian leadership when he suggested in a news conference that there might be lesser penalties for a “minor incursion.” Now that Mr. Putin has ordered forces into Eastern Ukraine, the administration, in its choice of words, is making clear that there is nothing minor about the operation.
But that still leaves open the question of how to calibrate the sanctions — because so far there have been no mass casualties. Mr. Finer quickly indicated that the administration could hold back some of its promised punishments in the hopes of deterring further, far more violent aggression by Mr. Putin aimed at taking the rest of the country.
“We’ve always envisioned waves of sanctions that would unfold over time in response to steps Russia actually takes not just statements that they make,” Mr. Finer said. “We’ve always said we’re going to watch the situation on the ground and have a swift and severe response.”
Overnight, Mr. Biden and his aides were consulting with allies, so that their response would be coordinated. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson pointed toward the direction they were leaning when he told Parliament on Tuesday that “this is the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do and we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed along side the United States and European Union if the situation escalates still further.”
It is one of those situations where Mr. Biden has no truly good choices. If his response seems too mild, he will send the message to Mr. Putin that the world is not going to make him pay a big price for sending troops into the Russian-speaking eastern part of the country — replicating what happened when the Russian leader annexed Crimea in 2014. If he implements all of the sanctions, Mr. Putin may conclude that there is nothing left to keep him from attacking the rest of the country.
Mr. Biden discussed this dilemma at a news conference in January. He said that if an attack was “something significantly short of a significant invasion” he would impose sanctions, but only to the point that European allies go along. And several of those allies have more at stake, including their gas supplies. “I got to make sure everybody is on the same page as we move along,’’ Mr. Biden said.
That was the news conference where he used the phrase “minor incursions,” and then had to backtrack, promising sanctions if one Russian soldier goes into Ukraine. But his words were revealing about how he thinks about the problem. If “there’s Russian forces crossing the border, killing Ukrainian fighter, et cetera — I think that changes everything.”
Mr. Biden also said during that news conference that “the most important thing to do: Big nations can’t bluff,” a phrase that now leaves him open to criticism after saying for weeks that even one soldier crossing the border into Ukraine would trigger an entire barrage of sanctions against Russia.
PepsiCo lit up the internet six months ago when it announced that alcohol-fueled Hard Mountain Dew was in the works, with fans clamoring for a version of the drink they had been DIY-ing for years and critics likening it to the fall of civilization.
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Kids Who Made Their Parents Laugh Hard BuzzFeed The Link LonkElden Ring is set to release worldwide on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and last generation consoles this week but how difficult is the game from the makers of Dark Souls?
From Software’s latest offering promises an open world map, plenty of boss battles, and a genuine feeling of freedom as you explore the world, both on foot and with your trusty horse.
From Soft have released some genuinely challenging games throughout their lifespan, including the Dark Souls, along with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Bloodborne, and Demon’s Souls.
These all have punishing difficulty spikes, relentless boss battles, and enemies that can kill you with one swipe of their monstrous arm.
Elden Ring promises more of the same, but in a vastly different way; this time, you’ll be discovering monsters yourself, as you explore the beautiful world that the developers have created.
You’ll be bidding to become the Elden Lord, and to do so, you’ll have to beat the biggest bosses in the game.
It’s promises to offer a very different challenge to the likes of Dark Souls.
As per PlayStation Lifestyle, From Software have confirmed that the game is a remarkably challenging experience, but one that is not designed to crush the spirits of those playing it!
Yasuhiro Kitao is a producer on the game, and he has confirmed as much, insisting that the developers have made player comfort a key theme, as they do not want to add unnecessary stress for those who have bought a copy of the game.
Per the website, he has confirmed that enemies are “so strong”, but also revealed that the introduction of the horses you can ride are designed to reduce the stress of crossing the map.
Read more: What are the minimum system requirements for Elden Ring on PC?
Kitao also says that the day and night cycle won’t change the placement of enemies or the way in which they behave. You won’t have to alter your strategies depending on whether the sun is up or down, and that again is designed to give you, the player, a less stressful experience.
However, that vast map also features a variety of checkpoints; you can respawn near the location in which you die so you can pretty much immediately retry those battles in which you meet your maker.
It’s very likely that’ll happen a fair few times throughout the game, but you won’t have the inconvenience of needing to schlepp your way across the map to meet the monster that killed you again.
In a nutshell, Elden Ring isn’t easy. But it certainly isn’t going to be as hard as Dark Souls was.
News Now - Sport News The Link Lonk[unable to retrieve full-text content]
‘I'm hard to kill, I guess’: North Alabama man describes surviving a widow-maker heart attack WAAY The Link Lonk
President Paul Kagame has described the passing of renowned American physician and philanthropist, Dr. Paul Farmer, as a very sad moment not just for him but also the country and the world.
Through a series of tweet, President Kagame mourned Dr. Farmer, the co-founder of Partners in Health, an international non-government organisation that heavily invested in healthcare in Rwanda over the past two decades or so, and was the Chancellor and founder of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), among other health initiatives he supported or funded.
“It is hard to find the words to express the sad news of the passing of Paul Farmer – the person, the Doctor, the philanthropist. He combined many things hard to find in one person.”
“The weight of his loss is in many ways personal, to the country of Rwanda (which he loved and to which he contributed so much during its reconstruction), to my family and to myself. I know there are many who feel this way in Africa and beyond. My deepest condolences to Didi, his wife, their children, family and friends.” President Kagame tweeted, who is currently in Senegal.
It is hard to find the words to express the sad news of the passing of Paul Farmer – the person, the Doctor, the philanthropist. He combined many things hard to find in one person.
— Paul Kagame (@PaulKagame) February 21, 2022
The First Daughter, Ange Kagame also joined other mourners, describing Dr. Farmer as a special human being who impacted the lives of many and meant so much for her family. Partners in Health announced on Monday that Prof. Farmer died peacefully in his bed in Rwanda. Details of the cause of death are yet to be revealed.
You’ll rarely(IF EVER) meet a human being as special, kind and impactful as Paul was. He meant sooo much to my family & I. This is a devastating loss. Thinking of Didi & his wonderful children ❤️🙏🏾 https://t.co/1VVZKJqFca
— AIKN (@AngeKagame) February 21, 2022
