Singer Catherine Lawless features in a film about agoraphobia, showing at Headfest in Bedford.

Police officer and domestic violence survivor Sharon Baker features in a documentary by the Queen.

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“Get a rake and tend to your home. This is not rocket science."

The post Readers say those who ‘Leave the Leaves’ should make like a tree and get out of here appeared first on Boston.com.

Baseball always in season at the former home of Jack Barry

Norwich, England — Managers need to “foster a supportive culture between colleagues” to help workers returning from sick leave feel they’re being treated fairly, according to researchers from the University of East Anglia and Stockholm University.

Cleveland — Paid sick leave benefits employees and their employers, a review of 22 years of research has concluded.

Washington — Recently reintroduced legislation would allow certain workers to annually accrue up to 56 hours of job-protected paid sick leave.

Washington – Disabled veterans who have been newly hired to positions in the federal government could receive immediate access to sick leave as part of a proposed House bill.

Washington — The percentage of U.S. workers with paid time off increased 10% over a recent seven-year period, according to data released Aug. 29 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Washington – The Department of Labor should consider alternatives to its proposal that would require federal contractors to provide paid sick leave to their workers, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy wrote in an April 6 letter.

Washington — On the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 becoming law, the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau released three issue briefs on safe leave.

Hartford, CT — Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) has signed into law legislation that expands the state’s 13-year-old paid sick leave law.

San Francisco — Hourly employees in the supply chain sector “need support,” a software provider’s study of worker happiness shows.

Washington – The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent final rule banning methylene chloride for consumer use has advocacy groups and lawmakers concerned that continued commercial use of the hazardous chemical leaves workers at risk.

Historically, bakery product developers’ main goal when selecting appropriate leaveners for a specific application was simply to attain a specific desired outcome every single time. Consistency mattered.

Meat processors are increasingly turning to newer, higher speed packaging solu­tions that include dedicated interleav­ers and card dispensers that maximize throughput of raw bacon.

General Manager Clare Duwelius is headed to Unrivaled, the new women’s three-on-three basketball league started by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. And associate head coach Katie Smith is headed to Ohio State, where she’ll be the assistant coach for the women’s basketball team.

The president-elect recently affirmed that he supports legalizing marijuana for recreational use. His stance means cannabis could be a rare issue on which Trump carries a Biden policy forward.

Microsoft's Word program now recommends replacing the term "maternity leave" with more “inclusive” language.

An Illinois-based congregation has agreed to pay more than $1.4 million in order to disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church following litigation over who owned its property.

US President Joe Biden may take drastic actions before he resigns, Alexander Yakovenko, a member of the scientific council at the Security Council of the Russian Federation and former Russian Ambassador to the UK believes. "Biden and his administration are still in power as a lame duck. In December 2016, Barack Obama similarly decided to sharply aggravate relations with Russia by expelling 35 Russian diplomats. The same can be expected now, especially in Ukraine,” Yakovenko said. Trump will take up US foreign affairs before his inauguration while trying to push the current administration out of decision-making processes, Yakovenko suggested.

Many foreign companies, including oil and gas enterprises, are leaving the Russian market due to high risks associated with the sanctions war between Russia and the West. In addition, it will be too difficult for them to withdraw their income from Russia abroad, economist Marcel Salikhov believes. At the same time, oilfield service companies that used to work in Russia back during the days of the USSR, will stay in the country, he added, lenta.ru reports. It is up to company administrations to decide whether they want to leave the Russian market or not. The sanctions that were imposed on Russia following the military operation in Ukraine do not limit their participation in the Russian economy. Russia's response to Western sanctions may in one way or another affect the position of foreign companies in the country, especially with regard to strategic sectors of the economy. In addition, Putin banned foreign companies from withdrawing their funds abroad to parent companies. All this combined has tarnished the assets.

The losses that American, European and Japanese companies have suffered after they left the Russian market are evaluated at tens of billions of dollars, RIA Novosti reports. Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine to the present, foreign companies have lost a total of $70 billion. Companies of the fuel and energy complex have suffered the biggest losses. Many companies in this sector have deconsolidated and devalued Russian assets by ceasing to report the results of their activities in the country, they have not completely stopped working in Russia. For example, the UK-based BP, having made a number of statements about its decision to withdraw from Russian projects, was forced to retain shares in local assets. According to Putin's decree from August 5, shareholders from unfriendly countries will no longer be able to make transactions with shares in companies of strategic significane, fuel and energy companies and banks without the consent of the state. In its report for the first quarter of 2022, BP depreciated Russian assets in the amount of $25.5 billion, but it did not take practical steps to exit the projects.

Reckitt Benckiser, a British company that produces, among other things, Durex condoms, decided not to leave the Russian market, Baza Telegram channel said with a reference to an anonymous source. The UK-based company does not intend to either wrap up its business or transfer it to anyone. Former CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who left the company in September 2022, earlier spoke about Reckitt Benckiser's pullout from the Russian against the background of the crisis in Ukraine. Reckitt Benckiser manufactures and distributes a variety of products in more than 200 countries of the world. It is widely known for such brands as Vanish and Cilit Bang cleaning products, Nurofen pain reliever, Strepsils cough drops and Durex condoms.

[Domestic] :
Medical students will be allowed to take a leave of absence as long as the request is for personal reasons.   The education ministry revealed the decision on Tuesday after holding a closed-door meeting with the presidents of 40 universities that have medical schools.   Previously, medical students were ...

[more...]

We rely on our washing machine to wash our dirty laundry, but what if it's the cause of dirty clothes? Is there any recourse when our washing machine leaves stains on our clothes?

Halima Aden attends the premiere of Netflix's Travis Scott: Look Mom I Can Fly at Barker Hangar on Aug. 27, 2019, in Santa Monica, Calif.; Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images

For Halima Aden, the decision to walk away from a career as the world's first hijab-wearing supermodel was fairly clear cut. She's felt used for so long, she says — by the modeling industry and by UNICEF, the organization she was photographed by as a child in a refugee camp in Kenya and later served as an ambassador for.

Aden has been featured on the covers of Vogue, Elle and Allure magazines. And she walked the runway for Rihanna's Fenty Beauty and Kanye West's Yeezy.

She tells Morning Edition host Rachel Martin she wanted to be a role model for young girls while being true to herself, but she wasn't accomplishing either. Modeling, she realized, was in "direct conflict" with who she is.

"I'm not a cover girl, I'm Halima from Kakuma," she says. "I want to be the reason why girls have confidence within themselves, not the reason for their insecurity."

Aden was raised in the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya. She and her family moved to Minnesota in 2004 when she was 7.

It was there her journey as a model began, competing for Miss Minnesota USA in 2016, seeking a scholarship. She finished in the semifinals, and says from there, modeling "fell from the sky" into her lap.

Interview Highlights

You saw [modeling] not just as a chance to wear gorgeous clothes and to have your photo in magazines but also as a way to help people.

Growing up in America, not seeing representation, not seeing anybody who dressed like me look like me, it did make me feel like, wow, what's wrong with me, you know? And I'm sure if I had if I would have had representation growing up, I would have been so much more confident to wear my hijab, to be myself, to be authentic. But to be that person, to grow up and be on the cover of magazines, I've covered everything from Vogue to Allure, some of the biggest publications in fashion. And yet I still couldn't relate personally to my own image because that's not who I really am. That's not how I really dress. That's not how my hijab really looks. And, you know, fashion, it can be a very creative field, and I completely appreciate that. But my hijab was just getting spread so thin that I knew I had to give it all away, give it up. I'm not a cover girl. I am Halima from Kakuma. I want to be the reason why girls have confidence within themselves, not the reason for their insecurity.

When you say your hijab was being kind of styled out of existence, what passed for a hijab as you were walking down those runways?

Everything. Oh, my goodness. I had jeans at one point on my head as a hijab. I had Gucci pants styled as a turban. It just didn't even make sense, and I felt so far removed from the image itself.

During the pandemic you decided to walk away from fashion and UNICEF. Was it a complicated decision?

I'll be honest with you, the feelings that I've had towards the fashion industry and UNICEF, it was just multiplying as the years went on, so it was just festering. You know, because the fashion industry is very known to use these young girls and boys while their young, age 14 to like 24, I think is the average career of a model. And then they just replace them and move on to a newer model. And same with UNICEF. They've been photographing me and using me since the time I was a baby in a refugee camp. I remember getting those headshots taken and it made me feel, it's very dehumanizing. And so I wanted to show UNICEF, too. How does it feel to be used? It's not a good feeling. And so let's stop using people.

What are you going to do [next]?

For me right now, I don't know what's next. And that's OK. That's OK, because I'm young and I have time to figure it out. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful to the people that I've met. I'm grateful to the agents that I worked with. I'm grateful for the experiences I was able to have these last four years. But at the same time, I just am also grateful that I don't have to do that anymore because it was in direct conflict with who I am as an individual, as a human being.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The U.S. Supreme Court; Credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to lift a ban on evictions for tenants who have failed to pay all or some rent during the coronavirus pandemic.

By a 5-to-4 vote, the court left in place the nationwide moratorium on evictions put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and which was challenged by the Alabama Association of Realtors.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who cast the fifth and deciding vote, wrote in a concurring opinion that he voted not to end the eviction program only because it is set to expire on July 31, "and because those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution" of the funds that Congress appropriated to provide rental assistance to those in need because of the pandemic. He added, however, that in his view Congress would have to pass new and clearer legislation to extend the moratorium past July 31.

The Biden administration has said it does not plan to extend the moratorium any further.

Also voting to leave the program intact until July 31 were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Dissenting were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. They would have blocked the moratorium from continuing for another month.

The decision comes at a time when roughly 7 million American households say they are still behind on their rent. Many suffered job loss during the pandemic. And delays have stopped more than $46 billion in congressionally approved rental assistance from reaching many people facing eviction who need it.

Housing groups have been warning that pulling the CDC eviction protections away from people before that congressional aid can reach them would spark a wave of evictions that could otherwise be avoided.

Evictions often send families into a downward financial spiral. It can be very hard to find another place to live with an eviction on your record. People can end up living in their cars, motels when they can afford it or in homeless shelters. Research has found there's also a disparate impact on people of color.

During the pandemic, public health experts have warned — and research showed — that evictions result in more coronavirus cases because people end up living in more crowded situations, where they are more likely to catch or spread the disease.

At the outset of the pandemic, Congress adopted a limited, temporary moratorium on evictions. After Congress' moratorium lapsed last July, however, then-President Donald Trump asked the CDC to step in and issue a new eviction ban, which it did in September. In March, President Biden extended that ban, which was to expire at the end of June. Then on June 24, the Biden administration notified the Supreme Court that it had extended the moratorium until July 31. It also said that barring a rise in coronavirus cases, the "CDC does not plan to extend the Order further."

Landlords have long argued that the CDC order was an overreach and that the agency doesn't have the power to, in effect, take control over their own properties away from them.

A group of the nation's landlords challenged the eviction ban and on May 5, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the CDC has exceeded its authority. The judge, however, blocked her own decision from going into effect to give the government time to appeal. On June 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the stay, prompting the landlords to go to the Supreme Court.

Keeping the status quo in place "will prolong the severe financial burdens borne by landlords under the moratorium for the past nine months," the property owners said.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The lack of supportive policies for families in the United States, such as paid parental leave, has serious implications for health equity, as it affects families’ overall health and financial stability, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

There is a lot of confusion in cookie and cracker manufacturing today. Let’s focus on one of the major areas of confusion: leavening.

To successfully bake products requires an astute blend of art and science. A fundamental ingredient in the baking process is the leavening agent. Leavening contributes essential sensory characteristics to bakery products.

Leavening is a fundamental ingredient category in baking that performs some serious heavy lifting. Leavening agents help create the textural quality in many baked goods.

Industry suppliers offer new and updated leavening ingredients for the development of clean-label snacks and baked goods.

Leavening ingredients and leavening aides are important ingredients that help consistently create the textural qualities of various baked goods. And like every ingredient segment within bakery, leavening agents are subject to ongoing shopper trends.

Ingredient suppliers and bakery clients are discovering new products and ways to use existing ingredients. 

Leave behinds are low-cost items that you give to customers to promote your brand following service calls or that you give away during home shows and other events. Oftentimes, plumbers stumble with leave behinds because they select things they might like instead of what the customer values. Here are 17 great leave behinds that will build brand recall with consumers.

One of the most common things I see when I begin my work with a new contracting client is the resistance to train employees. 

For the past 30 years, I’ve been driven to be the best and do the best I can – in nearly any context, personally and professionally. Along the way, I’ve discovered various dimensions of growth that have helped me succeed. I want to pass them on, and share them, so they might help you.

Concerned stakeholders left out of dam breaching discussions with Administration.

The much-anticipated conclusion of "Justice Is Coming" delves into Trump's impact, vital political shifts, and the need for awareness. Explore Dr. Barbara Taber's influential insights and autobiographical book as her website garners 1.3M+ visitors.

A Riveting Tale of Honor, Mystery, and the Untamed Spirit of the Comanche

Dock Workers' Strike Could Further Slow Critical Supply Deliveries

A host of new content from the renowned Barbara Taber, Ed.D highlights Biden's big wins in two exclusive, audio-only presentations before the long-awaited podumentary arriving June 14, 2024.

Welcome to my September 2021 Favorites! Hey friends! Someone tell me where September went? It just seems to have flown by. My son’s volleyball has taken over my life and I’m loving every minute of it. It makes me so happy even if so much of my time is in the car driving. But it ... Read More about Catching Up with Org Junkie #18 ~ September 2021 Favorites: Fall Leaves, Organizing Magazine & Lula Rich

The post Catching Up with Org Junkie #18 ~ September 2021 Favorites: Fall Leaves, Organizing Magazine & Lula Rich appeared first on I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Harrison Siegel pointed us to this project with Maximiliano Isi and Will Farr on gravitational-wave analysis. The compare models using predictive evaluation, in particular leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO), as discussed here and here. Siegel writes: We discuss our implementation of the … Continue reading →

A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should have been denied permission to amend his complaint to add a new defendant to his Labor Law action. Case: Rowe v.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a group of injured police officers were obligated to repay the sick leave benefits they received while awaiting a determination of their eligibility…

A high school senior from Bangor, Maine, has decided that when the time comes, he will donate his brain to science. Fionn Parker-Cummings is the youngest person to donate his brain to the University of Pittsburgh National Sports Brain Bank. Researchers will check in with him every year for the rest of his life. Parker-Cummings said he hopes the contribution will advance traumatic brain injury research to protect players like NFL quarterbacks Drake Maye and Tua Tagovailoa, who have recently suffered concussions.