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New Google ‘Rising Retail Categories’ tool exposes fast-growing product searches

This is the first time Google says it has provided this kind of data to the public.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.




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AT#37 - Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival




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AT#48 - Travel to San Diego, California

San Diego, California




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AT#230 - Travel to Portland, Oregon

The Amateur Traveler talks to Sean Keaner of the BootsNAll travel network about the city of Portland Oregon. Sean describes the independent character of the city that is expressed in its brew pubs, food carts and hip culture. It is also evident in the famous Powell’s bookstore. Portland has a reputation for being rainy but Sean tells us when to come to Portland, where to ride a bike and where to find some good Vegan food. If Vegan is not your style find out where to find a pork chop over 4 inches thick.




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AT#337 - Travel to Segovia and Toledo Spain

The Amateur Traveler talks to Photographer Ralph Velasco about two of his favorite cities in Spain, Toledo and Segovia. Both Toledo and Segovia are a short distance from Madrid and both offer interesting and historically significant cities with UNESCO World Heritage sites.




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AT#494 - Travel to San Diego, California

Hear about travel to San Diego as the Amateur Traveler talks to Mike from MikesRoadTrip.com about this beautiful city in Southern California.




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AT#693 Oregon Coast Road Trip

Hear about an Oregon Coast road trip as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jessica Baker from BoundlessBakers.com about a portion of their year and a half long road trip.




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Brexit Clouds TTIP Negotiations But May Not Scupper Deal

11 July 2016

Marianne Schneider-Petsinger

Senior Research Fellow, US and the Americas Programme
The British vote to leave the EU will slow progress on a transatlantic trade deal, but it also removes some UK sticking points from the process.

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A sign promoting the TTIP free trade agreement in Berlin. Photo by Getty Images.

With Britain’s decision to leave the EU, the clouds of uncertainty hanging over the proposed US-EU free trade deal (known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP) have become darker. The negotiations were formally launched three years ago and have stalled because of transatlantic differences (for instance over issues of investor protections and public procurement) as well as growing public opposition. For now, both the US and the EU negotiators are determined to weather the storm and continue talks when they meet in Brussels from 11-15 July.

The result of the UK’s EU referendum will blow a strong wind into the face of TTIP negotiators on three fronts. First, the Brexit vote will delay the TTIP talks as EU officials will focus their attention and political capital on the future UK-EU relationship. Once the UK government triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, both sides have two years to sort out the separation proceedings. Only after it has become clear what Britain’s relationship with the EU will look like will the European side stop navel-gazing. The TTIP negotiations will likely continue in the meantime, but will be put on the back-burner.

Second, any progress on TTIP will require clarity on what both sides are bringing to the negotiating table. But until the final nature of the UK-EU relationship is known, it will be difficult for the American side to assess exactly how valuable the access to the remaining EU market is. This raises the question of whether American negotiators will put forth their best offers if they don’t know what benefits they will obtain for making concessions.

Third, with Britain’s vote to leave the EU, TTIP has just lost one of its greatest cheerleaders. French and German officials are increasingly expressing concerns about TTIP. Within three days of the Brexit vote, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls dismissed the possibility of a US-EU trade deal, stating TTIP was against ‘EU interests’. In addition, 59 per cent of Germans oppose TTIP – up from 51 per cent – according to the most recent Eurobarometer survey. Britain’s voice for further trade liberalization will be sorely missed by American negotiators eager to strike a deal.

Despite the dark Brexit clouds on the TTIP horizon, there might be a silver lining. Britain’s decision to leave the EU could bring some benefits to the US-EU trade talks in two ways. First, financial services regulation might no longer be a sticking point in the TTIP negotiations. Given London’s role as a financial centre, the UK had insisted on including a financial services chapter in the trade deal. The US, however, has resisted this. The removal of this friction could help move the TTIP negotiations along.

Second, European trade negotiators will no longer have to address British fears that TTIP could put the National Health Service (NHS) at risk. Much of the TTIP-debate in Great Britain has focused on how this deal might impact the NHS. Opponents of TTIP have argued that including healthcare in the agreement could lead to privatization and ultimately the death of the NHS. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström spent resources and energy in correcting these misconceptions. UK withdrawal from the EU means that she can now focus on fighting other myths surrounding TTIP, which could potentially help advance the trade deal.

For now and the immediate future, Britain will remain a member of the EU and the European Commission will continue to negotiate trade deals on behalf of all 28 member states. Both the US and EU negotiators are committed to advancing the trade deal despite Brexit. The British decision to leave the EU has not weakened the case for TTIP. Speaking on the outcome of the EU referendum, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman said ‘the economic and strategic rationale for TTIP remains strong’. And his counterpart Cecilia Malmström went even further, saying that the British decision to leave the EU creates more of an impetus for TTIP to be finished this year.

Though this timeline is unlikely to be met, TTIP is likely to survive the British decision to leave the EU. However, Brexit is a serious blow that will probably push back the conclusion of TTIP by at least two years. Any deal will need to take into account the future nature of the UK-EU trade deal, which may not be known before 2018. Meanwhile, elections in Germany and France (two countries with strong public opposition to TTIP) will take place in 2017. On the other side of the Atlantic, the US presidential election adds yet another layer of uncertainty as the trade policy of the next administration remains unknown. When US and EU trade negotiators meet again this week, they should not be too worried about the Brexit storm but rather the changing climate for TTIP in France, Germany and the US.

To comment on this article, please contact Chatham House Feedback




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In Next Round of EU Negotiations, Britain Faces Familiar Pitfalls

31 January 2020

Thomas Raines

Director, Europe Programme

Professor Richard G Whitman

Associate Fellow, Europe Programme
Despite being free of the constraints and the theatre of a hung parliament, there is a risk that over the coming year the British government repeats too many of the mistakes of the withdrawal negotiations.

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The Elizabeth Tower remains under renovation on 31 January 2020. Photo: Getty Images.

Whether feared or longed for, Brexit day has arrived. It is positive for all sides that the process is thus far managed and ordered, with debts paid, rights guaranteed and borders still invisible on the island of Ireland. But in a difficult new phase of negotiations, as the UK and EU try to hammer out the terms of their relationship after 2020, Britain is at risk of repeating many of its mistakes from the withdrawal talks.

First, the government, through the negotiation timeline, has reduced its own room for manoeuvre. The failure of the initial withdrawal agreement and subsequent turbulent politics have reduced a planned 21-month transition to an 11-month one. Even though half the original negotiation time has been lost, 31 December 2020 remains in place and indeed has been written into UK law as the date the transition arrangement ends. Boris Johnson has followed Theresa May in investing symbolism and significance in an arbitrary date.

By promising not to extend negotiations, the UK is boxing itself in, creating domestic political barriers where it may well need flexibility. The familiar face of Michel Barnier, who proved adept in leading the withdrawal negotiations for the EU side, will be back in phase two to tell Britain the clock is ticking. This new timeline is intended to focus minds but more likely it will limit ambitions. 

Second, this government has continued the pattern of its predecessor in making no effort to manage public expectations about the consequences of Brexit. It is naïve to have followed the last years of British politics and expect an outbreak of sobriety and levelheadedness. The entrenched positions of each side have offered little political space or electoral incentive for realism.

During the 2020 transition period, the UK will lose the political rights of EU membership but it will retain the benefits and obligations. Most citizens and business will not be able to tell the difference. But a reckoning is inevitable. There will come a moment when the effects of this slow-motion political revolution – particularly in the hard form envisioned by Boris Johnson – become real, when the trade-offs and compromises, especially for business and the economy, will bite. The public deserve some realism about the price of sovereignty.

Third, there is a risk that government remains underprepared. While its headline goals are clear – at least in terms of what it does not want – the UK government will need thorough, realistic and coherent proposals on what it wants in every area of negotiations, and crucially develop a process by which to make political trade-offs between the demands of different sectors and issues. The government must also then prepare for their implementation in every area. This would be a huge challenge even if the final destination was already known, which it is not. 

Fourth, the continued uncertainty in the process means businesses and civil servants will again be left with little time to adapt to what will face them in January 2021 and must prepare for multiple outcomes.

‘Transition’ has always been a misleading term, since it implies clarity about the destination to which the UK–EU relationship will be transitioning. The government’s red lines for that future relationship provide a sketch: outside of the single market and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, with an independent trade policy and free movement ended.

But businesses and civil servants are not likely to know until very late in the process if the basis for future trade with the EU will be in the form of a free trade agreement, to be negotiated and implemented by the end of the year, or no trade deal at all. This last outcome is a realistic prospect.

Michel Barnier speaks in the European Parliament on 29 January. Photo: Getty Images.

During withdrawal negotiations, the extensions were both unlimited in number and required decisions only at the last moment. In this phase, the talks may only be extended once, and that decision must be taken six months from the final deadline. It is difficult to see circumstances in which Boris Johnson agrees to break a political promise and manifesto pledge when he still has six more months to achieve his desired outcome.

The UK, it is often noted, is already fully compliant with EU law and this shared starting point is often cited as a reason this negotiation will be simple, since the parties begin in alignment. But this novel negotiation will create new trade barriers in goods and services rather than remove them. Trade deals are often politically difficult since they create winners and losers. The Brexit negotiations, in terms of UK–EU trade at least, will generally create only different levels of losers, on both sides of the Channel.

That means difficult politics, challenging negotiations and hard compromises, another reason to expect some ugly politics along the way and accept that failure is a plausible outcome.

We do not yet know how Brexit will change Britain in the long term, whether a settled majority will ever come to view it as political folly or liberation, choice or inevitability. If its politically fragile union can withstand the pressures of the next few years, the UK may yet find a new stable position on the EU’s periphery and, after a period of economic adjustment, begin to address the many pressing domestic challenges which have suffered from neglect amid the all-consuming Brexit saga.

But whatever happens in this next chapter, the EU can no longer be an excuse for national problems. As the UK takes back control it also returns accountability. In the future, there will be no one else to credit or to blame.




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Negotiating With Terrorists




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Jamaica Olympic stars winless in Oregon

In-form American sprinter, Michael Rodgers, ran a world-leading 9.94 seconds and there were no Caribbean




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Bosnia and Herzegovina accedes to the Protocol. This will bring the number of Parties to 157




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CBD Press Release: Negotiations on An International Regime on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing to Continue in Montreal.




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CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Second International Colloquium on "Biodiversity - Theoretical and Practical Aspects", 3 December 2010, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.




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CBD News: After several years of international negotiations, the final operational design of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has been agreed.




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CBD News: Chairperson, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to address you at the 51st International Tropical Timber Council with good news late on a day you have spent in difficult negotiations.




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CBD News: The CHM Awards winners were announced at the CHM Award Ceremony held on 9 December 2016 at the margins of COP 13. In the "Existing National CHM" category, Mexico won the Gold Award, Australia the Silver Award, and Belgium the Bronze Aw




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CBD News: I would like to start by acknowledging and welcoming the good results of a successful 2016 United Nations Biodiversity Conference here in Cancun, Mexico, where, after arduous negotiations




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CBD News: Government officials, experts and activists from around the world gather in Nairobi this week to open talks on a global agreement to safeguard life on Earth, in all its forms. The 27-30 August meeting marks the official start of negotiations tow




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CBD News: Over the next five days, the Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) body on science will meet to lay the groundwork for negotiations to prepare the next year's UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China and achieve an ambitious and




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CBD News: Over 1000 delegates from more than 140 countries started negotiations today at FAO headquarters, Rome on the zero draft of a landmark post-2020 global biodiversity framework and targets for nature to 2030.




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CBD News: Governments advance in the preparation of a New UN Biodiversity Framework; Negotiations in Rome demonstrate engagement across government and society




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Capacity Theory with Local Rationality: The Strong Fekete-Szego Theorem on Curves

Robert Rumely, University of Georgia - AMS, 2013, 437 pp., Hardcover, ISBN-13: 978-1-4704-0980-7, List: US$119, All AMS Members: US$95.20, SURV/193

This book is devoted to the proof of a deep theorem in arithmetic geometry, the Fekete-Szegö theorem with local rationality conditions. The...




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Gregory McMichael worked in local law enforcement for over 30 years and previously investigated Ahmaud Arbery

Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis, were charged with murder and aggravated assault in relation to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in February.





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‘A Start Towards Victory’: Gregory and Travis McMichael Charged With Murder of Ahmaud Arbery

SAVANNAH—Gregory and Travis McMichael have been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault in connection with the February killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday. According to police, the white father and son, 64 and 34, chased Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, after he ran by Travis McMichael’s home in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick on Feb. 23. He was unarmed and jogging at the time. “This is a start towards victory,” Thea Brooks, Arbery’s aunt, told The Daily Beast on Thursday. “This only the beginning though, but this is what we were all hoping for.”The McMichaels said they believed Arbery was a burglar responsible for a series of break-ins in their neighborhood and that they pursued him in their pickup truck while armed with a shotgun and a .357 magnum. The GBI alleges the McMichaels confronted Arbery, and that Travis shot him. A local prosecutor previously indicated a third man, William Bryan, took part in the chase and filmed the incident.‘It’s Murder’: This Shooting of an Unarmed Black Man Is Roiling GeorgiaAt least two shots hit the 25-year-old, the Glynn County Coroner’s Office told The Daily Beast last week.Video that Brooks said depicted her nephew’s death elicited a furious reaction nationwide, and residents of the area protested the initial failure to prosecute a case on Tuesday.“It’s murder. It’s heartbreaking to even look at. The whole city has seen it,” Brooks told The Daily Beast after the video was released this week.The Georgia NAACP echoed her words in a Thursday response to the McMichaels’ arrest: “The murderers of Ahmaud Arbery have been arrested.”Gregory McMichael, a former cop and investigator with a local prosecutor’s office, previously told The Daily Beast he “never would have gone after someone for their color.” He also said the “closest version of the truth” about the incident was captured in a letter effectively clearing him and his son that was written by a prosecutor who recused himself from the case, George Barnhill. McMichael also admitted he had no direct evidence that Arbery was a thief. “But he’s the guy who’s there without permission,” he said from behind the closed front door of his son’s home.The owner of an unfinished home just down the street from Travis McMichael's home, Larry English, told The Daily Beast earlier this week that he had surveillance footage that appeared to show Arbery stopping to look at the foundation of his still-under-construction home. While Gregory McMichael claimed to police that Arbery had been caught on surveillance video, it was not immediately clear what video he was referring to. English told The Daily Beast he had no knowledge of the McMichaels seeing his surveillance footage. McMichael’s ties to law enforcement helped fuel a haze of suspicion around the killing from the beginning. Barnhill was one of two area prosecutors who looked into the incident before recusing themselves. A third prosecutor—District Attorney Tom Durden—sought a GBI probe ahead of the arrests this week.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.





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Negotiating the Barrier of Hypoglycemia in Diabetes

Philip E. Cryer
Jan 1, 2002; 15:
Articles




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Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus and Other Categories of Glucose Intolerance

National Diabetes Data Group
Dec 1, 1979; 28:1039-1057
Articles




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Health Care Expenditures Among Adults With Diabetes After Oregons Medicaid Expansion

OBJECTIVE

To compare trends in Medicaid expenditures among adults with diabetes who were newly eligible due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion to trends among those previously eligible.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Using Oregon Medicaid administrative data from 1 January 2014 to 30 September 2016, a retrospective cohort study was conducted with propensity score–matched Medicaid eligibility groups (newly and previously eligible). Outcome measures included total per-member per-month (PMPM) Medicaid expenditures and PMPM expenditures in the following 12 categories: inpatient visits, emergency department visits, primary care physician visits, specialist visits, prescription drugs, transportation services, tests, imaging and echography, procedures, durable medical equipment, evaluation and management, and other or unknown services.

RESULTS

Total PMPM Medicaid expenditures for newly eligible enrollees with diabetes were initially considerably lower compared with PMPM expenditures for matched previously eligible enrollees during the first postexpansion quarter (mean values $561 vs. $793 PMPM, P = 0.018). Within the first three postexpansion quarters, PMPM expenditures of the newly eligible increased to a similar but slightly lower level. Afterward, PMPM expenditures of both groups continued to increase steadily. Most of the overall PMPM expenditure increase among the newly eligible was due to rapidly increasing prescription drug expenditures.

CONCLUSIONS

Newly eligible Medicaid enrollees with diabetes had slightly lower PMPM expenditures than previously eligible Medicaid enrollees. The increase in PMPM prescription drug expenditures suggests greater access to treatment over time.




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Peacock protecting duck nest in patio area of Oregon bar

Employees at an Oregon restaurant said a peacock has taken on the role of protector for a mother duck and the eggs she laid in the closed patio area.




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Oregon Dental Association dentists, volunteers donate PPE to help emergency relief

Oregon Dental Association dentists, volunteers donate more than 600,000 pieces of PPE to help emergency relief efforts




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Oregon schools to furlough teachers, boost pay with stimulus




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Oregon schools to furlough teachers, boost pay with stimulus




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Oregon

Oregon is building on several efforts to improve how schools use technology, relying on local and federal money for support.




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Teacher of the Year in Oregon Fired

A special education teacher has been fired the year after winning Oregon's teacher of the year award.




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Achievement, Grad Rate Among Tribal Students of Concern in Oregon

New report on Oregon's tribal students show they start out behind, miss more school, and are more likely to drop out.




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Oregon

State of the States: Education highlights from latest governor's address before the legislature.




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Atlanta Official Resigns, But Loses Out on Post in Oregon

Atlanta's top school official has resigned and is fighting to keep a report investigating his background secret.




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Oregon

Gov. Kulongoski’s State of the State speech called broadly for more investment in Oregon’s education system, from preschool to graduate school, but included no specific dollar figures for K-12 schools.




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Oregon




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Oregon Educator Named Superintendent of the Year

Matthew Utterback, the superintendent of the North Clackamas district in Oregon, was named last week as the 2017 National Superintendent of the Year.




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Oregon Considers Ethnic Studies Standards

Oregon is the latest state to consider adding an ethnic studies curriculum.




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What Policymakers Got Right With Oregon's Student Success Act

Guest blogger Andy Saultz explains that clear goals, built-in local decisionmaking, flexibility, and community involvement are the keys to the Student Success Act's success.




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Oregon Governor Orders Release of School Performance Ratings

Gov. Kate Brown ordered the public release of annual school performance ratings last week after Oregon's biggest newspaper reported that a Brown appointee had delayed the release of the statistical rankings until after the high-stakes gubernatorial election Nov. 6.




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School Workers in Oregon Sue Union Over Window of Opportunity to Quit

Three Oregon school employees sued their union in federal court last week, arguing it's unfair that the teachers' union only lets members drop out and stop paying dues during the month of September.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Oregon

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Federal Appeals Court Upholds Oregon District's Pro-Transgender 'Safety Plan'

A federal appeals court rejected a multi-pronged challenge to a school district plan allowing transgender students to use restrooms and other facilities that match their gender identity.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Oregon

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Oregon schools to furlough teachers, boost pay with stimulus




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Former Oregon kicker Aidan Schneider details the day his passion for football died

It was subtle and unexpected move for Schneider, but it was the right one.




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Four-star, 6'8" offensive lineman Jonah Miller puts Oregon in top-6

Mario Cristobal loves his guys in the trenches