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Column: 'Blue Highways' author William Least Heat-Moon on the art of traveling in place

A after visiting every U.S. county in the lower 48, William Least Heat-Moon is the master of the topographical journey. Now 80, he takes another trip through his new novel — into the imperfect history of American democracy.




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Mystery author Charles Finch gets stoned, masters Steely Dan and becomes a "candle guy"

In our latest quarantine diary, Charles Finch contemplates Kierkegaard, watches "Love Is Blind," gets the Led out and develops a candle habit.




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Tomie dePaola, beloved children's author and illustrator of 'Strega Nona,' dies at 85

DePaola wrote or illustrated more than 270 children's books, sold nearly 25 million copies and had his books translated into more than 20 languages.




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L.A. author Kathryn Scanlan on whether we're still 'The Dominant Animal'

Kathryn Scanlan, taut new story collection, "The Dominant Animal," probes power relationships in uncertain times. She talks about L.A. and COVID-19.




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Author Fanny Singer and chef Alice Waters talk food and family with L.A. Times Book Club

In a virtual meet-up, "Almost Home" author Fanny Singer and mother and famed chef Alice Waters join book club readers April 21 for a kitchen conversation.




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Ross Thomas, the criminally neglected spy-caper author behind "Briarpatch"

Ross Thomas delivered 25 novels populated by colorful, chameleonic characters. Among them: "Briarpatch," now a USA Network series.




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What authors are reading, hearing and watching in quarantine

Authors like Lionel Shriver, Alexander McCall Smith, Laura Lippman and Steph Cha are under coronavirus quarantine too. Here's what they're reading.




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Q&A: Author Cynthia Ozick will spend her 92nd birthday 'contemplating mayhem'

Cynthia Ozick, essayist and acclaimed novelist, shelters from coronavirus and discusses anti-Semitism, the Spanish flu and longevity.




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Review: Queer authors reinvent the artist biography as revisionist memoir

Jenn Shapland's "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers" and Mark Doty's "What Is the Grass," about Walt Whitman, are hybrid memoir-biographies.




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Cooking in quarantine: 'Always Home' author Fanny Singer retreats to Alice Waters' kitchen

Fanny Singer's stories and recipes, 'Always Home,' show life growing up in the orbit of her mother, farm-to-table chef Alice Waters.




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Watch the L.A. Times Book Club's virtual meet-up with author Fanny Singer and chef Alice Waters

'Always Home' author Fanny Singer worries more about running out of garlic than toilet paper.




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'Station Eleven' author Emily St. John Mandel joins the L.A. Times Book Club May 19

Emily St. John Mandel chronicles a global pandemic and financial crisis in her novels, 'Station Eleven' and 'The Glass Hotel.'




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Author Dennis Lehane inks a deal for Westchester home

After putting his Playa del Rey home on the market, writer Dennis Lehane has purchased a Westchester house three miles away for $2.395 million.




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Tax Authority reduces aliyah tax breaks


The Israeli Tax Authority (ITA) has found a controversial backdoor way of retroactively reducing the ten-year Israeli tax exemption for foreign income of olim (new immigrants) in the tenth year.




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Elon Musk should be held in contempt for unauthorized tweet about Tesla, SEC says

Tesla Inc.




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California sues Trump over revoking state's authority to set car emissions standards

California's unique authority to set its own tailpipe emissions standards has made the state an environmental leader and irked the Trump administration.




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California sues Trump again for revoking state's authority to limit auto emissions

California has joined other states in filing a second lawsuit against the administration for revoking the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.




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'Author in Chief': Two centuries of presidential books

Bloomington resident Craig Fehrman explored the history of U.S presidents' campaign books and memoirs for his first book, "Author in Chief."

      




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America Authorizes Its First Covid-19 Diagnostic Tests Using At-Home Collection of Saliva

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued an emergency use authorization for the first at-home Covid-19 test that uses saliva samples, the agency said in a news release. Rutgers University's RUCDR Infinite Biologics lab received an amended emergency authorization late Thursday. With the test, people can collect their own saliva at home and send their saliva samples to a lab for results... "Authorizing additional diagnostic tests with the option of at-home sample collection will continue to increase patient access to testing for COVID-19. This provides an additional option for the easy, safe and convenient collection of samples required for testing without traveling to a doctor's office, hospital or testing site," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn said in the FDA's press release on Friday... The test remains prescription only.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




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Coronavirus: US authorises use of anti-viral drug Remdesivir

The Food and Drug Administration authorises emergency use of the experimental anti-viral drug.




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‘Free, Melania,’ an unauthorized biography of Melania Trump, set to hit shelves this December

The tome will be written by CNN's East Wing correspondent, Kate Bennett.




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Meet David Bowles, author of They Call Me Güero

David Bowles is an award-winning writer and poet, reviewer and translator, elected to the Texas Institute of Letters in 2017. He teaches children’s and young adult literature at the University of Texas Rio Grande. Living in Texas on the border of the United States and Mexico with his family, he not only embraces his Mexican-American heritage, he explores it in his writing.




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AT#75 - Authors of "Europe From a Backpack"

Authors of "Europe From a Backpack"




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AT#256 - Travel to the West Bank / Palestinian National Authority

The Amateur Traveler talks to Matthew Long from LandLopers.com about his trip to the West Bank or the Palestinian Authority. Mathew did day trips into this emerging state from Jerusalem and tells us about visiting Jericho and Bethlehem, the city of David. The Dead Sea was a well known highlight while Hisham’s Palace proved to be an unexpected highlight. The area boasts monuments dating back to the Jewish patriarch’s such as Rachel’s Tomb, where childless woman come to pray, and the ruins of the community of Qumran, where the dead sea scrolls were found. Do you know what you should skip doing the morning before you go to the Dead Sea? Matthew will tell you.





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GoDaddy – “unauthorized individual” had access to login info

Web hosting behemoth GoDaddy just filed a data breach notification with the US state of California.




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CBD News: Statement from Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the occasion of the High Level Roundtable on Local and Regional Authorities, IUCN World Conservation Congress, Barcelona, 7 October 2008.




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CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the XVI Consultative Group Meeting and the XVI General Authority Meeting of the Plan of Action for the Protection of the Marine Env




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CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Second Inter-American Meeting of Ministers and High Level Authorities on Sustainable Development, 17 November 2010, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic




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CBD News: Statement by Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Third Meeting on the Implementation of the Plan of Action on Sub-National Governments, Cities and Other Local Authorities for Biodiversity, Nagoya,




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CBD Press Release: Managing biodiversity data from local government: Guidance for local authorities on publishing through the GBIF network, helping preserve knowledge about biodiversity




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CBD News: The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and the National Biodiversity Authority are hosting an International Biodiversity Film Festival and Forum in Hyderabad as part of COP-11 in association with CMS Environment. The festi




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CBD News: Statement by the CBD Executive Secretary on the occasion of the 20th Session of the International Seabed Authority Assembly, 14 to 25 July 2014, Kingston, Jamaica




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CBD News: Statement by the CBD Executive Secretary on the occasion of the 21st Session of the International Seabed Authority, 13 to 24 July 2015, Kingston, Jamaica




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Interview with mathematician and book author Kit Yates

"In his new book--The Math of Life & Death: 7 Mathematical Principles that Shape Our Lives--mathematician Kit Yates makes complex mathematical concepts easily accessible to anyone, and which can improve decision making in an increasingly quantitative society. In this Q&A, Yates discusses why math is relevant to everyday life." See "Mathematician Kit Yates on Anti Vaxxer Movement, Air Travel Germs and Samoa's Measles Outbreak," by Meredith Wold Schizer, Newsweek, December 23, 2019.




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Iran Crisis: How Far Does Trump’s Authority Go?

10 January 2020

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri

Dean, Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs; Director, US and the Americas Programme
The legal and political boundaries of presidential power are being redefined, but the president may still be attentive to some constraints.

2020-01-10-Trump.jpg

Donald Trump arrives for a rally in Toledo, Ohio on 9 January. Photo: Getty Images.

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution affirming its authority under the War Powers Resolution Act, and reminding the president, the American people and the world that when it comes to the use of military force, Congress must be taken into account. 

President Donald Trump replied by retweeting John Bolton, his former national security advisor, who tweeted that the War Powers Act was ‘unconstitutional’, effectively dismissing Congressional efforts to rein in the president.

This round of legal Twitter diplomacy came days after the president tweeted that ‘legal notice (to Congress) is not required, but it is given nevertheless’ and that ‘should Iran strike any US person or target, the United States will quickly and fully strike back, and perhaps in a disproportionate manner.’ 

President Trump’s overt attacks on Congressional authority and disregard for the law are not normal for a US president, but legal constraints over the president’s authority to use military force have been eroding for several years.

In 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, requiring the president to report to Congress and acquire Congressional approval for continued overseas troop deployments. But Congressional authority over the use of military force has continued to diminish, especially since the 9/11 attacks. 

Now, Congress is pushing back – a resolution similar to that passed by the House is likely to be voted on by the Senate soon. Given the intense frustration of some senators over the president’s handling of the current conflict, this resolution may pass, though the president is still likely to veto. 

The bigger problem, of which this is one part, is the expansion of executive authority, and it predates this presidency. Many argue that executive power is greatest on matters of foreign policy, and that in this domain the US president is unconstrained. As partisanship has increased and the demands on Congress have made it harder for its members to cultivate foreign policy expertise, the power of the president has grown.

So the fact that Congress is taking active steps to check the president’s power not only on the question of impeachment, but also on foreign policy, is significant, even if the law is not likely to restrain President Trump. But Congress is also playing a long game. And its growing determination to assert its authority matters not only for this presidency, but also for the future.

Political constraints

In the short term, other constraints matter more. Even if President Trump rejects legal restraints – and shuns diplomatic pressure that might have mattered to other presidents – he is not impervious to political restraint.

Already there are signs that Trump listens to his key Republican allies in Congress. When Senator Lindsay Graham pushed back against the president’s threat to attack cultural heritage sites in Iran, and the Pentagon failed to shore up the president’s threat, the president changed his position. The threats also provoked an overwhelming response in Europe, and across the Middle East, but the president has shown that he is willing to disregard international admonishment. Not so for domestic allies.

Nor is this the first time that Senator Graham’s views have mattered. When the president announced his decision to pull troops from northeast Syria, effectively abandoning the Kurds, a key partner to the US in its fight against ISIS, Senator Graham and Senator Mitch McConnell pushed back and it mattered. 

Public opinion also matters to the president, especially Republican public opinion, and this is likely to affect the president’s next steps. Recent polls suggest that Americans feel less safe as a result of the killing of General Qassem Soleimani by a considerable margin of 55% to 24%.

But the same survey also shows that a majority of Americans support the decision to kill Soleimani. Already Vice President Mike Pence has spoken at a rally in Ohio designed to bolster support for this Presidential action.  

So what might change public opinion and will this alter the president’s future steps?

Americans are very reluctant to support further deployments of troops overseas. President Trump knows this and he has consistently stated that he seeks to pull US troops out of the Middle East.

In fact, the opposite has happened. And once again, the decision to kill General Soleimani is pulling the US further into the Middle East and putting into stark light the inconsistency of Trump’s foreign policy ambitions. In recent days, the United States has committed to sending thousands of troops to the region.

Continued US troop deployments may not play well with Trump’s base, though they currently support his Iran policy. But absent an obvious justification, this could change, so it is not surprising that this has become a rallying point for Vice President Pence.

An even greater political risk, and one that will matter to the president, is the risk to US military personnel and civilians overseas. Public support for the killing of Soleimani and increased US presence in the region is bound to dissipate if Americans are killed.

But it isn’t clear how the president will respond, and already the death of one American in the militia attack on 27 December seems to have been a critical factor in Trump’s decision to authorize the assassination of General Soleimani.  

So far, Iran’s response appears to be calibrated to avoid this kind of public backlash, and keep the door open to some sort of managed resolution of the current crisis.

But the considerable risk of miscalculation and mistakes has already been born out. A week after the killing of Soleimani, the world is tuning in to the tragic news that a civilian airliner departing Iran for Ukraine appears to have been accidentally shot down by an Iranian missile, resulting in the deaths of all 176 people on board, including 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians.

Whether the US president is constrained is a critical question for Americans, for US democracy and for the rest of the world. Trump is different, but he is not unconstrained. Steps taken by Congress along with diplomatic and political pressure mean he is still operating within boundaries. But it is clear that these boundaries are being redefined.




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A Profile of U.S. Children with Unauthorized Immigrant Parents

Growing up with unauthorized immigrant parents puts children—nearly 80 percent of whom were born in the United States—at a disadvantage, with lower preschool enrollment, reduced socioeconomic progress, and higher rates of linguistic isolation and poverty. This fact sheet examines the number, characteristics, and socioeconomic status of children, both U.S.-citizen and noncitizen, who have unauthorized immigrant parents.




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How Many Unauthorized Immigrants Graduate from U.S. High Schools Annually?

A high school diploma has been a core requirement of proposed DREAM Act legislation and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Yet a fresh estimate of the number of unauthorized immigrants graduating annually from U.S. high schools has long been missing from the debate. This fact sheet provides up-to-date estimates for the United States and top 15 states, estimating 98,000 such students graduate yearly.




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A Tightening Grip Abroad: Authoritarian Regimes Target Their Emigrant and Diaspora Communities

Authoritarian states have long attempted to restrict citizens’ movement. But what happens when their reach extends beyond their borders? The October 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi brought into sharp relief the long arm of these regimes in reaching citizens abroad. This phenomenon, “transnational authoritarianism,” further shows that the relationship between migration and authoritarianism is becoming more complex.




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ADA Board authorizes two national searches for editors of JADA, JADA Open

The ADA Board of Trustees has authorized the searches for the next editor of The Journal of the American Dental Association and the founding editor of JADA Open, a new peer-reviewed, open-access journal spanning basic and clinical sciences to advance research in oral health.




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ADA antibiotics guideline authors to discuss C. diff infections in dentistry during Peggy Lillis Foundation conference

Two of the authors of the American Dental Association's antibiotics guideline will discuss C. diff infections and antibiotic stewardship in dentistry April 21 as part of a free, online conference organized by the Peggy Lillis Foundation.




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Protecting the DREAM: The Potential Impact of Different Legislative Scenarios for Unauthorized Youth

With the Trump administration having announced the end of the DACA program, Congress is facing growing calls to protect unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. This fact sheet examines DREAM Act bills introduced in Congress as of mid-2017, offering estimates of who might earn conditional legal status—and ultimately legal permanent residence—based on educational, professional, and other requirements in the legislation.




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Differing DREAMs: Estimating the Unauthorized Populations That Could Benefit under Different Legalization Bills

2017 saw the introduction of several bills—two of them by Senate Republicans in the weeks following the Trump administration’s announcement that it would terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program—that would provide a pathway to conditional and then legal permanent residence to unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children, if they meet a range of educational, professional, and other criteria.




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Settling In: A Profile of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population in the United States

This fact sheet and accompanying interactive data tools provide characteristics of the estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, using a unique MPI methodology that assigns legal status to U.S. Census Bureau data. The fact sheet and tools offer statistics on these immigrants’ origins, U.S. destinations, educational attainment, English proficiency, employment, income, home ownership, and more.




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Basin-wide environmental watering strategy / Murray‒Darling Basin Authority.




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Review of the Basin-wide environmental watering strategy : Office of Science and Knowledge / Murray‒Darling Basin Authority.




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Interim technical report : project 3.1 : lower cost, more effective 3D seismic exploration for hard rock environments : seismic exploration for mineral deposits case study summary table / authors: Milovan Urosevic, Andrej Bona.

"This document is intended to summarise the current state, understanding and the use of seismic reflection method for mineral exploration. Its primary objective is to provide a point of reference, based on actual case studies, for mineral explorers interested in the application of seismic methods to their project. It provides summary information (including the purpose of the survey, acquisition methods, geometry and cost, processing procedures and key findings) that are intended to provide the reader with an objective means of assessing the cost effectiveness of the technique with respect to exploration objectives. It is also aimed at exchange of information between DETCRC sponsors, affiliates and researchers. Finally we hope that this table will help in shaping future research efforts and direction within Project 3.1, regarding the application of seismic for mineral exploration.This is only initial work and it is hoped that it will evolve into a document or a catalogue that will be extensively used by the mineral industry to achieve their exploration objectives in more efficient and effective way" -- Executive summary.




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2018-21 strategic workforce plan / Australian Maritime Safety Authority.




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Diversity and inclusion plan 2019-2022 / Australian Maritime Safety Authority.




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Winx : the authorised biography / Andrew Rule.

Race horses -- Australia -- History.