Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalThere is life after addiction. Most people recover
The U.S. faces an unprecedented surge of drug deaths, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting another grim milestone this week.
In a single 12-month period, fatal overdoses claimed 101,623 lives.
But researchers and drug policy experts say the grim toll obscures an important and hopeful fact: Most Americans who experience alcohol and drug addiction survive.
They recover and go on to live full and healthy lives.
"This is really good news I think and something to share and be hopeful about," said Dr. John Kelly, who teaches addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School and heads the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/15/1071282194/addiction-substance-recovery-treatment
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My adopted daughter and her partner are two. They should not be penalized for recovering!
Reframed' revisits Marilyn Monroe's life and legacy, from an all-women point of view
The year 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe, one of cinema's most iconic, examined and enduring sex symbols. To commemorate the occasion, CNN is rolling out the new four-part documentary series, Reframed: Marilyn Monroe, which takes a very different, and original, approach to its subject.
During her career, and for decades after her death, Marilyn was objectified, scrutinized and judged — mostly by male writers, biographers and historians. The 1973 book, Marilyn: A Biography, paired a skeevy, sexist essay by Norman Mailer with pictures of the actress taken by photographer Lawrence Schiller.
Schiller does appear in Reframed, but here he's talking about Monroe's acute awareness of the camera — how she posed, what images she selected and how she used them to enhance and leverage her own celebrity status.
But most of the time, the voices we hear in this new documentary are female. Actor Jessica Chastain narrates, and an all-women editorial team headed by Sam Starbuck reexamines Marilyn's movies, marriages and career moves from her point of view. And we hear from women film critics and historians, including the always informative Alicia Malone from Turner Classic Movies.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1072768298/reframed-marilyn-monroes-documentary-review
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Cannot wait for this. The older I get, the more I appreciate her. She was smarter than people gave her credit for, and way savvy. And I don't think most men got her at all.
School District That Suspended Rape Accuser Has Dark History
When news broke that a 15-year-old student at Hawthorne Academy in North Carolina had been suspended after reporting an alleged sexual assault to her school, the country was shocked. Other students in her school district were not.
For years, students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District have brought forward horrifying allegations of sexual assault—being assaulted in the woods, raped in school bathrooms, groped on school buses—and claimed administrators and resource officers discouraged them from reporting the attacks. They have filed lawsuits, hosted town halls, and initiated federal investigations. Now they are taking to the street.
“[The district is] more focused on their reputation and money and how people perceive them… than they are about the actual students,” said Serena Evans, a former CMS student who claims she was sexually assaulted at school in 2016.
“We’re hoping that this becomes… an actual movement where it goes nationwide, where other schools and other school districts start talking about this stuff and taking it seriously.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, CMS Superintendent Earnest Winston said the district “takes allegations of misconduct seriously and all school-based staff are required to take annual training on how to report such allegations.” He said the school could not comment on specific allegations involving alleged misconduct, personnel matters, or student discipline.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/north-carolina-school-district-that-suspended-a-15-year-old-rape-accuser-has-a-disturbing-history?ref=home
Pro-Trump Media Is in Meltdown Mode Over New Oath Keeper Indictments
Pro-Trump media and lawmakers have, for months, been faithfully regurgitating the line that the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol can’t have been an attempted coup or insurrection, because none of the hundreds of people arrested had been charged with sedition or insurrection.
But a federal indictment unsealed Thursday put a pin in that narrative—or at least, you’d think it would. Ten members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia, and their leader Stewart Rhodes, were hit with a stunning sedition conspiracy indictment alleging that they stockpiled weapons, engaged in paramilitary training, and even discussed a plot to transport high-powered guns across from their hotel in Virginia across the Potomac for Jan. 6, all with the goal of blocking then President-elect Joe Biden from taking office.
Pro-Trump media and lawmakers have, for months, been faithfully regurgitating the line that the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol can’t have been an attempted coup or insurrection, because none of the hundreds of people arrested had been charged with sedition or insurrection.
But a federal indictment unsealed Thursday put a pin in that narrative—or at least, you’d think it would. Ten members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia, and their leader Stewart Rhodes, were hit with a stunning sedition conspiracy indictment alleging that they stockpiled weapons, engaged in paramilitary training, and even discussed a plot to transport high-powered guns across from their hotel in Virginia across the Potomac for Jan. 6, all with the goal of blocking then President-elect Joe Biden from taking office.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgdayj/oath-keeper-stewart-rhodes-sedition-conspiracy-indictment
Sweden's parents paid to watch ill kids
With three children in preschool, branding manager Jeremy Cothran was prepared for colds, bugs or Covid-19 to affect his family at some point over the winter. But the run-up to Christmas was even worse than he expected.
“We had a rotating carousel of sick kids who had either fever or norovirus,” says the 41-year-old, who works for a recruitment tech company in Stockholm. “The illness eventually culminated in night-time vomiting and early trips to our building’s laundry facilities to wash clothes and linens.”
However, some of the pressure on his family was eased thanks to a policy called Vård av Barn (usually shortened to ‘VAB’). It loosely translates to “care of child”, and gives parents the right to take paid time off to look after their children if they get sick. This means that Swedish parents, unlike many around the world, don’t have to scramble to find relatives or friends to help, take holiday or unpaid leave or simply try and carry on working from home while their children are ill.
“It’s a huge safety net,” says Cothran, who’s originally from the US. He and his wife, a chief marketing officer, took nine VAB days between them during their children’s latest sickness spell. “We have no other family support whatsoever in Sweden, [so] we have a hard time dealing with shocks to our family system. Without VAB there’s no way we would both be able to manage career, family life and our own mental health simultaneously.”
Alongside Sweden’s more famous family-friendly policies such as parental leave and subsidised childcare, VAB is increasingly being used by Swedish businesses as a tool for attracting and retaining international talent like Cothran. But, similarly to other employee wellbeing initiatives such as unlimited holiday or mandatory exercise slots, VAB brings challenges as well as benefits, including concerns it could stunt parents’ careers if they take it too often.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220107-vard-av-barn-the-swedish-parents-paid-to-care-for-sick-kids
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American companies (and RepubliQans) are too cheesy to even think of this!
Fucke This: Swedish Village Decides to change its name
The residents of the Swedish village of 'Fucke' have decided to change its name after they became fed up with being censored when writing about their lives of Facebook.
Found on Sweden's High Coast, the small hamlet is made up of just 11 properties.
It sits on the banks of Fuckesjön ('Fucke Lake') and is within walking distance of another small settlement - 'Hump' - found on the banks of Humpsjön ('Hump Lake').
According to the Institute for Language and Folklore, the earliest records of Fucke date back to 1547, where it is described as being 'by a lake, situated very high up on a hillside with very steep fields'.
But despite its historic roots, homeowners in Fucke are fed up - especially with their posts being censored by Facebook when they try to write about their village on social media, or when they try to sell things online.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10402925/Fucke-Swedish-village-decides-change-name.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
The sci-fi genre offering radical hope for living better
Alexandra Rowland didn't mean to spark a new artistic genre. In 2017, however, the fantasy author had a moment of inspiration. She had been contemplating the rise of grimdark – the subgenre of fantasy fiction typified by George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (the inspiration for the TV series Game of Thrones) – which emphasises the flaws in human nature, and focuses on our capacity for cruelty.
But what could describe literature that instead focuses on our capacity for good? "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on," she wrote in a short post on Tumblr. The post soon went viral – and by 2019 the term had entered the Collins English Dictionary, defined as "a literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity".
Various works of fiction – including the Lord of the Rings and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series – have now been labelled as examples of hopepunk, along with a slew of contemporary writers.
"Cautionary tales are very important," says Becky Chambers, one of the leading authors associated with the hopepunk movement, who has won a much-coveted Hugo Award for her sci-fi Wayfarer series. "But if that is all that you have, you risk nihilism."
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220113-the-sci-fi-genre-offering-radical-hope-for-living-better
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A body can only take so much dystopia........
US fugitive who faked death found alive in Glasgow
An American fugitive believed to have faked his own death is facing extradition after being arrested in hospital in Glasgow.
Nicholas Rossi, 34, was wanted by Interpol and faces a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.
He was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December with Covid-19 - where he used the alias Arthur Knight.
Police Scotland said he was detained under an international arrest warrant.
Authorities in the US have confirmed that Mr Rossi was also known as Nicholas Alahverdian in the state of Rhode Island where he was involved in local politics and was a critic of the state's child welfare system.
Mr Rossi told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.
A memorial posted online declared him a "warrior that fought on the front lines for two decades" for children's rights and said his ashes had been scattered at sea.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-59988720
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Read further. What a lovely person. NOT!!!!
US judge reassigned after reversing sex assault conviction
An Illinois judge who came under fire after overturning a man's sexual assault conviction has been removed from adjudicating criminal cases.
Last year, Adams County Judge Robert Adrian found Drew Clinton, 18, guilty of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old.
Mr Clinton faced a minimum of four years in prison, but this month Judge Adrian said the 148 days spent in jail by Clinton was "plenty of punishment".
The judge has been assigned to civil cases, the Herald-Whig newspaper said.
Judge Adrian's reversal during a January sentencing hearing drew immediate backlash from advocates for sexual assault survivors and the 16-year-old girl who reported the assault.
"He made me seem like I fought for nothing and that I put my word out there for no reason," the girl told local station WGEM-TV. "I immediately had to leave the courtroom and go to the bathroom. I was crying."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59999099
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Update to the story I posted yesterday. Go to the site and read the last line of the story. It should make you laugh. I certainly did. Short of being thrown off the bench entirely......
Two weeks without mail: Investigation launched into Emporia post office
A United States representative is launching an investigation into ongoing mail delays at an Emporia post office after some residents say they haven’t received any pieces of mail in two weeks.
Brenda Drumgoole, an Emporia resident on Farmer Street, said her mailbox has been empty since Tuesday. She said she relies on mail deliveries and is concerned that bills won’t get to her on time for payment.
“If we don’t get them paid, we get our bills cut off,” Drumgoole said.
Martha Dodd-Slippy, another Emporia resident, said mail has been missing at her job as well and that she is “frustrated.”
“It should not have happened like this,” she said. “The first complaint should have been investigated,” she said.
Congressman Donald McEachin (D-VA 4th District) said his office launched an investigation to find out why the mail issues are happening. He said the postmaster, Trenise Bell, came to Emporia from Fredericksburg about one year ago. Since then, complaints have been piling up.
https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-representative-launches-investigation-into-emporia-post-office-amid-ongoing-mail-delays/
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Thanks, DeJoy.
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
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