Six In The Morning Monday 29 April 2019

Sri Lanka attacks: Face coverings banned after Easter bloodshed

Sri Lanka has banned face coverings in public, following a spate of suicide attacks on Easter Sunday that killed at least 250 people and injured hundreds.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he was using an emergency law to impose the restriction from Monday.

Any face garment which “hinders identification” will be banned to ensure national security, his office said.

The niqab and burka – worn by Muslim women – were not specifically named.

The move is perceived as targeting the garments, however.

Sri Lanka remains on high alert eight days after Islamist attacks that hit churches and hotels.

Dozens of suspects have been arrested, but local officials warned that more militants remained at large.

US builds migrant tent city in Texas as Trump likens treatment to ‘Disneyland’

US border agency, which previously forced migrants to sleep under a bridge, says an influx of arrivals demands more shelter space

The US government has begun erecting tents close to the border with Mexico to house detained migrants – even as Donald Trump likened the treatment of undocumented families entering the US to “Disneyland” on Sunday.

Life at the foothills of the Franklin mountains in El Paso, Texas, has been rudely disrupted in the last few days by construction crews coming and going near the adjacent border patrol station.

The main frames of two large tents popped up last week. They are expected to hold up to 500 migrants amid a level of chaos at the border that has unfolded under the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

New technologies drive military spending: SIPRI

Military spending has surged across the globe, according to a new report published by SIPRI. With new advances in defense technologies, countries are spending more to gain an edge.

Global military spending reached $1.822 trillion (€1.632 trillion) in 2018, according to an annual report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday, marking a 2.6% increase.

The US is at the top of the list of biggest defense spenders, recording an increase of 4.6% compared to 2017. SIPRI researcher Nan Tian told DW that it represented the first increase of its kind “in the last seven years,” and it’s expected to grow substantially in the coming decades.

Man accused of being UAE spy ‘commits suicide’ in Turkish jail

A suspected United Arab Emirates spy who was detained by Turkish authorities 10 days ago has committed suicide in prison, a Turkish government source and state media said on Monday.

The suspect was found dead in Silivri prison, on the outskirts of Istanbul, state news agency Anadolu reported. A Turkish justice ministry source confirmed the report to AFP.

The man was taken into custody with another alleged spy as authorities probed whether they were tied to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October in Istanbul.

The suspect was later formally charged with “military and political” and “international espionage”, according to Anadolu.

As churches are demolished at home, Chinese Christians find religious freedom in Kenya

But migrants embracing God in highly Christian Nairobi are often unaware of the atheist Communist Party’s war on religion

Updated 0116 GMT (0916 HKT) April 29, 2019

Every Sunday morning in an affluent suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, the soaring song of Chinese hymns fills the empty corridors of a Monday-to-Friday office block.

Inside a small makeshift chapel, a kaleidoscopic congregation of Chinese migrants gather to pray. Among them are underwear importers, health workers and operators of the controversial new $3.8 billion Chinese-built railway that slices through Kenya, the country’s biggest infrastructure project since independence — and a sign of China’s growing investment and footprint on the continent.
Some have married Kenyans, others have Chinese children who speak Swahili as well as they do Mandarin.

White identity politics is about more than racism

A political scientist on the rise of white identity politics in America.

By 

When people talk about “identity politics,” it’s often assumed they’re referring to the politics of marginalized groups like African Americans, LGBTQ people, or any group that is organizing on the basis of a shared experience of injustice — and that’s a perfectly reasonable assumption.

Traditionally, identity has only really been a question for non-dominant groups in society. If you’re a member of the dominant group, your identity is taken for granted precisely because it’s not threatened. But the combination of demographic shifts and demagogic politicians has transformed the landscape of American politics. Now, white identity has been fully activated.

Rant of the Week: Bill Maher – Crime and No Punishment

In his New Rule segment of his HBO show “Real Time,” Bill Maher takes Special Counsel Robert Mueller to task for not holding Trump accountable for his crimes.

No one is above the law.

Not The Nerd Prom

White House Correspondent’s Association too craven and cowardly to schedule a Comedian lest they face a twit storm of criticism from Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio and his foul mouthed minority of yellow bellied, lily livered Bigots?

Don’t worry. Samantha Bee has you covered.

Red Carpet- Live!

I say we nuke them from orbit.

It’s the only way to be sure.

The Wall of Shame.

A musical number.

Awards.

In Memoriam.

Playground toys.

Let’s call a Spade a Playing Card with a shovel shaped symbol on it replacing earlier Spear iconography.

It’s funny because I say it is. You just don’t get it.

Uncanny Valley.

Rare. No Ketchup.

Not Mueller.

House

I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany

Puttin’ On The Ritz – Taco

Weapon Of Choice – Fatboy Slim

The Breakfast Club (Far Out)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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AP’s Today in History for April 28th

Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini killed; Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein born; Muhammad Ali refuses military induction during the Vietnam War; The first space tourist; ‘Tonight Show’ host Jay Leno born.

Breakfast Tune Eric Royer – Mr Spaceman

Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below

PhRMA Is Funding a Think Tank to Derail Medicare for All
Akela Lacy, The Intercept

SINCE 2009, Big Pharma has given a decent amount of money each year to the Third Way Foundation, the parent of the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank with ties to Democratic Party leadership. The giving wasn’t astronomical, ranging between $25,000 and $75,000, but in 2016, the health care debate in the Democratic Party got real, and the contributions swelled, as Sen. Bernie Sanders gave Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton a scare, running on Medicare for All as a signature issue.

According to tax records, PhRMA, or the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, upped its gift that year to $265,000. With Donald Trump in the White House, PPI’s haul in 2017 from the drugmakers was back to normal, at $50,000, bringing the total since Barack Obama was inaugurated to $615,000. Figures for 2018 aren’t yet available yet, but PhRMA has been getting its money’s worth from PPI, as the group plays a leading role in opposing the Democratic Party’s move toward single payer.

Three years after Sanders’s first run, public opinion has shifted overwhelmingly in support of Medicare for All. Yet in its latest report “A Radically Pragmatic Vision for Universal Health Care,” PPI has worked to cast a majoritarian position as the handiwork of some fringe leftists.

PhRMA, which depends heavily on government patents and money for research and development, has teamed up with other health care interest groups to try to crush the movement for a single-payer system, and spent $28 million on lobbying last year — but that’s only what it had to report. Gifts to groups like PPI don’t legally count as lobbying.

PhRMA is part of a coalition of insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies, and investor-owned hospitals in the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future strategizing to defeat Medicare for All. The Intercept reported in November that PAHCF pushed Democratic candidates to run on saving the Affordable Care Act rather than supporting Medicare for All. And Democratic leadership won’t get behind single payer, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi advocating instead to fix the ACA and arguing that we just can’t pay for a nationalized health care system.

Vendors Leave Progressive Challenger’s Primary Campaign Over ‘Galling’ DCCC Threat
Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams

The Democratic establishment is already taking steps to stop insurgent progressive challengers to the party’s incumbents.

Marie Newman, who is challenging Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) in the 2020 primary for the Illinois 3rd District, told Politico on Friday that a number of vendors have already dropped out of her campaign—the direct result of a rule put in place by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) banning consultants and other campaign mechanics from working with anyone running against a sitting Democrat.

“I’ve had four consultants leave the campaign,” Newman said. “We’ve now had two mail firms say that they couldn’t work with us because of the DCCC issue, and then a [communications] group, a compliance group and several pollsters.”

Per Politico:

Consultants who planned to work with Newman said that the DCCC delivered the warning in the nicest terms possible—but that it was a very clear threat to their ability to do business with the DCCC.

…Our Revolution delivered the committee a petition to rescind the rules with 30,000 signatures, but the DCCC is standing firm, an aide told Politico.

COLORADO DEMS TOOK ON THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY. NOW THE RECALLS ARE STARTING.
Aída Chávez, The Intercept

AFTER SEIZING UNIFIED control of the Colorado state government in November’s wave election, Democrats there did something unusual: They governed.

For decades, the oil and gas industry has had a stranglehold on Colorado politics, but the newly empowered Democrats unveiled a sweeping bill to rein in fracking. The industry spent millions to stop it, but Democrats muscled it through, and it was signed by Gov. Jared Polis, an independently wealthy Democrat who ran in opposition to the industry.

Now the industry is fighting back by threatening to recall state Rep. Rochelle Galindo, who was elected last year and represents Weld County, the state’s top oil and gas producer. Galindo is the first openly gay person or woman of color to hold her seat.

Recall efforts have also been launched against Polis, Rep. Meg Froelich and Sen. Jeff Bridges, but no official petitions have been approved. According to state law, a governor must be in office for at least six months before a recall can be petitioned. Polis opponents would have to obtain 630,000 signatures in 60 days to get a recall election on the next ballot, and the signatures can’t be collected until July.

It isn’t an empty threat, either. The last time Colorado Democrats held a trifecta of control, two Democratic lawmakers were successfully voted out of office in the state’s first-ever recall elections. Former Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron were ousted in an NRA-led effort for their support of tougher gun laws following the Sandy Hook and Aurora mass shootings. Those recalls have haunted Colorado politics since.

A single Weld County rancher, Steve Wells, is bankrolling the effort to push Galindo out of office. Wells, whose property has hundreds of oil and gas wells, has donated $100,000 to the Committee to Recall Rochelle Galindo through his company, according to filings with the Secretary of State’s office.

There was initially another recall effort against the freshman representative that has now been disbanded, pushed by Joe Neville, brother of Senate Minority Leader Patrick Neville; Weld County pastor Steven Grant, who called Galindo a “homosexual pervert”; and gun rights lobbyist Dudley Brown.

“The voters of House District 50 are not going to be intimidated by millionaires and special interests cutting six-figure checks to political operatives engaging in the divisive Washington-style politics Coloradans consistently reject,” Galindo said in a statement earlier this month. “People are free to disagree with the decisions I make at the state capitol, and they’re free to vote for someone else in 2020. I will fight every day for our community and our shared best interests, and even for the people who disagree with me.”

“The reality is, [the oil and gas industries] are not used to not getting their way,” Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, a sponsor of the legislation, told The Intercept. “Specifically, they get to say which bills pass and which ones fail, and that’s what led us to the point of where we are now. So they gave it all they got. They spent millions of dollars on TV ads and patch-through phone calls to members to make it feel like there was a groundswell of opposition.”

Fenberg added that the oil and gas industries held rallies at the Capitol, hired an army of lobbyists, and were part of creating an obstructionist atmosphere in the state Senate, in which Republican senators would ask for bills to be read “at length,” a parliamentary tactic used to slow legislation.

THE LARGEST GANG RAID IN NYC HISTORY SWEPT UP DOZENS OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO WEREN’T IN GANGS
Alice Speri, The Intercept

KRAIG LEWIS WAS living in Connecticut and was nine credits away from his MBA when the neighborhood he had spent his life trying to get away from came back to haunt him. Growing up in a mostly poor and at times violent section of the Bronx, Lewis had seen his share of illegal activity. Some of those behind the criminality — mostly low-level drug dealing — were his friends. Lewis hung out with them while also keeping focused on school. Education was his ticket to a different life, his mother always said, and no one could take that away from him.

She was wrong. Three years ago this week, helicopters and armored vehicles swarmed Lewis’s old neighborhood, and SWAT teams and some 700 officers with the NYPD and a host of federal law enforcement agencies knocked down doors at the Eastchester Gardens public housing project and nearby homes. At the same time, 40 miles and a world away, police showed up at the loft apartment Lewis shared with his girlfriend in the seaside city of Bridgeport. Lewis, who had no criminal record and had never been arrested before, was taken away in handcuffs while his 6-year-old son was asleep in his bed. Police drove Lewis to the local station and then back to the Bronx, to a police precinct where he saw dozens of his childhood friends, some for the first time in years.

Like 117 other defendants in the case, Lewis was originally given a court-appointed lawyer. At his first court appearance, in federal court in downtown Manhattan, a judge told Lewis and dozens of his co-defendants that they could face the death penalty, though depending on the specific counts each of them was charged with, they faced a maximum sentence of 20 years or life. Lewis’s bail was initially set at $1.5 million, but prosecutors appealed that and he was held without bail as a “danger to society.”

Lewis spent 22 months in jail before pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute marijuana and once having owned a gun. There was no physical evidence against him — just text messages he had exchanged with friends from his neighborhood, social media photos that showed him socializing with other co-defendants, and the word of an unnamed witness. Prosecutors offered him a 12-year deal, which he refused. By the time they came back and offered him five years, life at the Metropolitan Detention Center had taken its toll. One of his friends there had been stabbed, and Lewis wanted out. He accepted the five years but the judge in the case thought that was too much, calling what had happened to him an “injustice” and releasing him on time served.

Lewis is now a convicted felon, on federal probation, unable to get the financial aid he needs to finish his MBA. He’s back at his mother’s home in the Bronx, living in a tiny room that had belonged to his teenage sister, his law and business textbooks stacked against pastel blue walls covered in butterfly decals. He works odd jobs, delivering Uber Eats and signaling traffic at road construction sites. “This is where I have got to rebuild everything from scratch,” he told me during a recent interview. “I am trying to do legal things and I keep getting the door shut in my face; the illegal activities are wide open in front of me.”

“I worked so hard, I had a plan, and that’s what’s killing me,” he added. “Growing up, you always feared the word ‘felon,’ because it’s like, you get a felony, you can’t do anything in the world.”

“I feel like I’m just going back in a machine. I made it out of the machine, and they grabbed me, and put me back into the machine, and now I’m stuck in the machine.”

Something to think about over coffee prozac

Massachusetts 10-year-olds aim to save lives with 3D crosswalks
Ben Hooper, UPI

April 25 (UPI) — A pair of Massachusetts 10-year-olds are hoping to save lives with a crosswalk they designed to capture the attention of drivers with a 3D illusion.

Isa, a fourth grader at Brooks Elementary School in Medford, said she and her friend Eric came up with the idea for the 3D crosswalk when Eric’s brother had a close encounter with a car.

The kids took their idea to the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, a young people’s organization they belong to, and local artist Nate Swain was hired to put the idea into action in the driveway of the elementary school.

The crosswalk makes it appear to drivers as though the white lines are elevated from the ground.

“I love it. It looks amazing. Exactly how I pictured it and more,” Isa told CBS Boston. “When you’re walking across you can tell it’s painted, but what we hope is, when you’re driving down, you’ll see it as 3D, three dimensional. So it looks real.”

The city is planning to add similar crosswalks at the other three local elementary schools during the summer.

Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition

Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview EditionPondering the Punditsis an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

On Sunday mornings we present a preview of the guests on the morning talk shows so you can choose which ones to watch or some do something more worth your time on a Sunday morning.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads: Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ);

This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guests on Sunday’s “This Week” are: House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC); nominee to the Federal Reserve Board Stephen Moore; Dan Abrams; and Alan Dershowitz.

The roundtable guests are: Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ); ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd; “The View” Co-Host Meghan McCain; and Democratic Strategist Amanda Renteria.

Face the Nation: Host Margaret Brennan’s guests are: Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA); Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale; and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Her panel guests are: Lanhee Chen, the Hoover Institution; Jamal Simmons), Hill.TV; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; and Mark Landler, The New York Times.

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on this week’s “MTP” are: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI); and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

The panel guests are: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Robert Costa, The Washington Post; former Rep. Carlos Curbela (R-FL); and Peggy “Our Lady of the Magic Dolphins” Noonan, The Wall Street Journal.

State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: White House Liar Kellyanne Conway; and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA).

His panel guests are: Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D); Kirsten Powers<, USA Today; Republican strategist David Urban; and former Rep. Mia Love (R-NV).

Formula One 2019: Baku

Baku is the Capital of Azerbaijan and the largest City in the World below Sea Level. It is a Street Circuit and the 2nd longest track in Formula One. It’s a relatively recent expansion to the schedule having held its first race in 2017, just 2 years ago. Tires will run from C2 Hard to C4 Soft with Mediums adding 1.4 seconds per Lap and Hards 2.3. Most Teams will be running a 1 Stop except for Red Bull which seems prepped for 2.

Mercedes continues its string of good luck. After LeClerc and the Scuderia dominated practice he parked it quite heavily at the end of Q2 and will start no better than 9th if the car is in sufficiently good shape so as not to require a replacement chassis. Gasly of Red Bull will start from the pit after incuring a 5 position penalty for a gearbox replacement and then failing to report for a Steward’s inspection. Giovinazzi, also Maranello powered was penalized 10 spots. Kubica also parked in Qualifying and will start next to last.

Starting Grid-

Grid Driver Team Grid Driver Team
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 4 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda
5 Sergio Perez Racing Point BWT Mercedes 6 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda
7 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 8 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 10 Carlos Sainz McLaren Renault
11 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 12 Alexander Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 14 Lance Stroll Racing Point BWT Mercedes
15 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 16 Nico Hulkenberg Renault
17 George Russell Williams Mercedes 18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari
19 Robert Kubica Williams Mercedes 20 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing Honda

Don’t let the length fool you. The fast Laps are in the low 1:40s but there are not really many places to pass. On the other hand there are a lot of corners that collect cars so Yellows and Reds can easily effect the results. Mercedes is crushing the early Manufacturer’s Standings and the Driver’s Championship is a duel between Hamilton and Bottas.

Driver’s Standings

Position Driver Team Points Position Driver Team Points
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 68 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 62
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 39 4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 37
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 36 6 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing Honda 13
7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 12 8 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 8
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 8 10 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 6
11 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 6 2 Sergio Perez Racing Point BWT Mercedes 5
13 Alexander Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 3 14 Lance Stroll Racing Point BWT Mercedes 2
15 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1

Needless to say Maranello is very disappointed because they thought this was their year. It’s a bit too early to panic but if things continue as they have so far there could be major changes in Management even before the end of the season.

Six In The Morning Sunday 28 April 2019

Sri Lanka attacks: Children of the Easter Sunday carnage

One week ago many dozens of children were killed in Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday attacks. Dressed in their finest clothes for one of the most important church services of the year, this was the first generation in decades to grow up free of violence. Their stories – and the struggle for the surviving children to comprehend the carnage – take the island down a devastatingly familiar path.

When bubbly Sneha Savindri Fernando went along for the Easter Sunday service at St Sebastian’s church in Negombo, her mind was on something else entirely. She had spent weeks excitedly making plans for her 13th birthday – a day she would never get the chance to celebrate.

“She was like a little bird. She loved to dance. She danced to anything. If you asked her to dance, she would immediately jump into a sari or a long skirt and oblige,” her mother, Nirasha Fernando says. Sneha, Ms Fernando and their neighbours Gayani and Tyronne all left together in Tyronne’s auto-rickshaw.

Sri Lanka: churches shut as worshippers mourn one week after bombings

Cardinal Ranjith delivers televised sermon as bells ring out across the country

It was the first Sunday anyone could remember without a mass at St Sebastian’s.

A week since the bombings that killed at least 250 people, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Sri Lanka’s most senior Catholic, had ordered the country’s churches not to hold services until police could be sure they would not be attacked.

In a televised mass, Ranjith delivered a homily before members of the clergy and the country’s leaders in a small chapel at his Colombo residence – an extraordinary measure underlining the fear still gripping this nation of 21 million people.

‘This Is Our Jungle’Abysmal Conditions for Refugees in the Greek Islands

The European Union claims that the refugee pact with Turkey has been a success. Yet asylum-seeker camps on Greek islands in the Aegean have transformed into prisons. Thousands of migrants live there in horrific conditions.

By  and Socrates Baltagiannis (Photos)

Annick Toudji has found a bit of shelter in between some cardboard boxes, tarps and plastic bottles. It stinks of urine that has trickled in from the hillside above, past rickety tents and past the rocks where Toudji is about to build a fire. The acrid stench is a constant presence.

A tall and gaunt 33-year-old, Toudji is perched on a stump and cutting tomatoes with short, decisive blows into a pot. “This is our jungle,” she says. It is a jungle without electricity or toilets. Instead, it has rats, cockroaches and scabies.

Sudan’s protest leaders, army rulers agree on joint council

Sudan’s protest leaders and army rulers agreed Saturday to establish a joint civilian-military ruling council, a major breakthrough in talks between the two sides over demonstrators’ demands for a handover to civilian rule.

The agreement on the highly disputed issue came as thousands of protesters remain encamped outside the military headquarters since the army ousted longtime leader Omar al-Bashir on April 11, demanding that the army rulers step down.

“We agreed on a joint council between the civilian and the military,” one of the leaders of the protest campaign, Ahmed al-Rabia, who was involved in the talks, told AFP.

China is watching Western democracy eat itself

By Nic Robertson

Over the next few months, the world’s current and previous superpowers are set to undergo enormous self-harm.

The biggest victim could be democracy itself, and the biggest losers the approximately 4 billion people who live in its imperfect embrace.
As London and Washington convulse, China belches along, gobbling up cultures in a way that should alarm us all.

Pine room and a secret jewel: Japan’s abdication rituals

By Miwa Suzuki

Japan has waited more than two centuries for an emperor to abdicate, but the main ceremony to perform the ritual will take a mere 10 minutes.

The solemn rite will take place at precisely 5 p.m. on Tuesday in the 370-square-meter Matsu-no-Ma (Room of Pine), considered the most elegant hall in the sumptuous imperial palace.

It is the only room with wooden floors — made from Japanese zelkova trees — rather than carpet, and the walls are covered with fabric featuring raised pine-leaf motifs.

Health and Fitness News

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

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What To Cook

My go to web site for great recipes is Epicurious.com. They always have something that appeals to even the fussiest of palates. This week they created recipes that are better than take out and, probably, cheaper. Here are a few of their 51 recipes

Classic Smashed Cheeseburger

We’ve got the secret to cooking a burger that’s crispy on the outside, yet juicy on the inside: Freeze the patties for 15 minutes before cooking, then use two large griddle spatulas to smash them flat against the hottest skillet possible. Freezing the meat prevents it from cooking too quickly in the middle, which gives you time to get that deeply browned crust.

Chicken Teriyaki

Served with a bright, refreshing radish salad, these salty, sweet, and shatteringly crisp glazed thighs will satisfy all your classic chicken teriyaki cravings.

Easy General Tso’s Chicken

A lighter version of the iconic takeout dish, this spicy 22–minute recipe for General Tso’s Chicken is just as flavorful as the original. The Sriracha and tomato paste may not be authentic, but they give the dish a powerful umami boost.

Better-Than-Takeout Stir-Fried Udon

You can easily make this vegetarian—sub in 8 oz. shiitake or crimini mushrooms for the pork.

Ground Beef Tacos

Making a ground beef taco filling ain’t rocket science. You just cook ground meat with Tex-Mex seasonings. This recipe is a little spicy, but feel free to skip the serranos and substitute a packaged taco seasoning mixture for the spices, especially if you’re cooking for kids. Many taco seasoning mixes, such as Old El Paso and Ortega, come in your choice of spicy or mild.

Easy Fried Rice with Chicken and Broccolini

Fried rice is one of the fastest, easiest meals you can make, and a great way to use up leftovers. Our vegetable-packed version calls for freshly cooked broccolini, snow peas, edamame, and chicken, but feel free to substitute any quick-cooking or leftover vegetables and protein. The simple orange-soy sauce adds acidity, sweetness, and an umami punch.

Quick Sweet and Sour Chicken

Our take on this classic Chinese-American dish can be cooked in 22 minutes or less. So the next time you crave take-out, put down the phone and pick up a skillet.

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House

Dark All Day – Gunship featuring Tim Cappello and Indiana

Medellín – Madonna, Maluma

Psycho – Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign

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