High-quality early care and education (ECE) is critical to positive child development and has the potential to generate economic returns, but the current financing structure of ECE leaves many children without access to high-quality services and does little to strengthen the ECE workforce, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The immersive Haus of Creep opens at ROW DTLA this weekend.; Credit: Courtesy of Just Fix It Productions

Christine Ziemba | LAist

Mexican Independence Day festivities. Art and music festivals from Glendale to Santa Monica. And the Halloween season begins.

Read the full article at LAist

Larry Mantle

I know these Presidential debates aren’t debates in the historical sense.  Regardless, I’m looking forward to seeing how both men do on a topic of immense complexity.  Is Mitt Romney going to be more forthcoming about what tax deductions he’d want cut to keep his tax reform plan from ballooning the deficit?  Will President Obama  give more detail about how he would improve the economy, short of a government stimulus that could never get through a GOP Congress?

I’ll be live tweeting during the debate.  Join me @AirTalk #debates.

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

Blowing snow on the Grapevine.; Credit: Photo by FrankBonilla.tv via Flickr Creative Commons

Jacob Margolis

We’ve spent a lot of time recently stressing out about bad weather here in Southern California. It’s been too hot, too dry and too smoky. So, we thought it'd be appropriate on Thanksgiving to give thanks to this latest storm, which should leave you feeling good.

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

Julio Osorio stands in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery near his mother's grave. (Emily Elena Dugdale/KPCC); Credit: Emily Elena Dugdale

Emily Elena Dugdale

The devastating Woolsey fire broke out one year ago. In Malibu, it wreaked havoc not only on hundreds of homeowners but also on the day laborers, housekeepers and gardeners who traveled to the city to work in its affluent neighborhoods.

 

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

Two tents in Hollywood erected beneath the 101 Freeway during a January rainstorm. (Matt Tinoco/KPCC)

Matt Tinoco

As the holiday season and its accompanying cold and rainy weather arrives in Southern California, tens of thousands of people will be living through it all outside. And those of us indoors, well, many of us want to help them. KPCC’s Matt Tinoco has this story on how you can help those living without shelter.

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

; Credit: /Dani Pendergast for NPR

Caitie Switalski | NPR

Friday, March 13, was the last time Alexandra Sullivan saw her fellow yearbook staffers in person.

"We were trying to get as many pictures of people as possible 'cause we knew we wouldn't be able to take any more," Sullivan, 18, says.

Like most U.S. public school students, Sullivan is learning from home now. And much like her lessons, her work on the yearbook continues.

Sullivan is the yearbook profiles editor at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She's one of 10 seniors who were also on staff two years ago, when a gunman opened fire at their school. Back then, she and her classmates had to adapt to an unimaginable tragedy. Now, they have to adapt again – this time, to the pandemic.

"This book has to get done and we'll do whatever we have to do to finish it," she says, "which is exactly how we approached the '18 book."

Senior Caitlynn Tibbetts, the yearbook's co-editor-in-chief, was also on staff when the shooting happened. She says there's a collective grief among seniors over what their class — which has already lost so much — is losing now. They won't be able to dance together at prom, or walk across the stage at graduation.

"This class especially has gotten screwed over so much through the past four years," Tibbetts, 18, says. "The last two months were supposed to be the best, and they were supposed to make up for everything that we've been through. And it's really hard on us to kind of just watch it all disappear."

Amid all the uncertainty, she says, one thing is clear: The yearbook must get done, and it must get to students.

High school yearbooks are like time capsules. They record theater productions, which teams went to state finals, who was voted most likely to succeed.

And when a news event makes history – leaving a mark on students and society – it's the yearbook's job to document it. At Stoneman Douglas, that's meant changing plans just weeks before the yearbook is due.

Yearbook advisor Sarah Lerner says, "Having done one under unthinkable circumstances before, I hate to say that we're kind of, you know, used to it, but, for the seniors on staff, we are."

Two years ago, after the shooting, the yearbook staff pivoted to include remembrances of the victims. Tibbetts and Sullivan stepped up to help write them, and anything else that was needed at the last minute, while other yearbook staffers took time to attend funerals.

This year, they're making room for two new spreads about the pandemic.

"One of them is more of a factual-based one, how it's affected our community, including businesses," Tibbetts explains. "The other spread is focused on the effect it's had on us personally, both with online schooling and especially with seniors."

Logistically, putting the yearbook together and writing the new sections has been a challenge. Unlike 2018, they can't be in the same room with each other to finish the design.

"We have to social distance and our parents wouldn't let us go out," Tibbetts says.

They mainly rely on a group chat with everyone on the staff. "It can get hectic," Tibbetts says, "especially when it's all happening at like 12 a.m."

Lerner and her students missed the original deadline to finish the book, on April 6. But the printer, Walsworth, says the company is being flexible with Stoneman Douglas and other yearbook staffs across the country. Lerner says she's aiming to get the book in by the end of April.

Once the printed copies come back, more than 1,200 books will somehow have to be distributed to students. Lerner has some ideas for how to do that safely.

However, there's one important yearbook tradition they may not be able to save.

"We may not actually get to sign books this year," Lerner says. And that's been hard to accept.

"As a teacher, I really like to get my students to sign my book, you know, and I like to sign theirs and I like to see the kids carrying them around at school."

Lerner says she's sad that might not happen this year. But at least this time, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School aren't on their own.

"Unlike the 2018 books, this situation is not unique to us," she says. "So there's comfort in knowing that all staffs are going through the same issue. It's not just us."

Copyright 2020 WLRN 91.3 FM. To see more, visit WLRN 91.3 FM.

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

4 awesome discoveries you probably didn't hear about this week -- Episode 31

4 awesome discoveries you probably didn't hear about this week -- Episode 32

A man decorates a bistro table outside his restaurant amid the coronavirus pandemic in Atlanta on April 27. As states reopen, some are allowing restaurants to add outdoor seating in streets and parking lots.; Credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Margaret J. Krauss | NPR

Small businesses are essential to cities and towns across the country. They create jobs, they create a sense of place — think of New York City without bodegas, Portland, Ore., without bike shops, or your town without its dance studio or hardware store — but they also create sales, income, and property tax revenues.

"[It's] super important that we make it very easy for people to keep their purchases local," said Karina Ricks, director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Cities like Pittsburgh must make it possible to return to the streets and shop without losing the safety of physical distancing, said Ricks. If only so many people are allowed into a store at one time, how can others line up outside? If restaurants operate at 25 percent capacity, where will expectant diners wait?

"It's going to require us to reimagine our streets," she said. "How much of our streets can we turn over?"

Many cities have already removed cars from streets to allow more people to walk and bike. They'll need even more space if people are allowed to go to shops and restaurants again, said Brent Toderian, the former chief planner for Vancouver, Canada who now leads his own company, TODERIAN UrbanWORKS.

"All of it requires more space between buildings, more life between buildings," he said. "If we try to do all that without inconveniencing the cars, we will fail."

In Tampa, Fla., officials will allow restaurants to add tables to streets in front of their establishments. In an Atlanta, Ga. suburb parking lots are the new dining room. Ricks wonders if one-way sidewalks could limit people's exposures to one another the way one-way aisles do in grocery stores. She said some Pittsburgh streets may open to cars only at certain times of the day, or speeds could be dramatically reduced. That way, street parking could be dedicated for walking, biking, or cafe tables while an adjacent travel lane for cars remains.

"I don't have the answers right now, but it's something that we're actively looking at," she said, citing a new city task force that will investigate the issue.

Public space always influences health outcomes and can produce health risks, said Keshia Pollack Porter, a professor at John Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. Whatever "normal" cities think they're returning to, this is a chance to evaluate how the public realm worked before, she said.

"We know that there are significant inequities," she said, pointing to pedestrian and cyclist fatalities that continue to rise, and communities that have lacked access to safe streets for decades.

In a post-pandemic world, with even fewer dollars for infrastructure and transportation, officials must be more careful than ever, said Toderian.

"Where we put our money based on our assumed narratives around what people will want to do — drive more, take public transit less — will create self-fulfilling prophecies," he said, and could exacerbate that other existential threat, climate change.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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

A rendering of he new stadium and complex to be built near the Forum in Inglewood was released by the Hollywood Park Land Company, Kroenke Group and Stockbridge Capital Group earlier this month.; Credit: Courtesy Hollywood Park Land Company

Ben Bergman

A measure that would allow an 80,000-seat NFL-caliber stadium to be built in Inglewood could be on that city’s ballot by this summer after developers submitted almost three times as many signatures than needed for a voter initiative.

“22,216 signatures were submitted to the city clerk today,” said Gerard McCallum, project manager with the Hollywood Park Land Company. “It was unbelievable. The response was more than we could have ever anticipated.”

Normally, before construction can begin on any project there has to be an environmental review, but that can take a long time and time is something in short supply for St. Louis Rams Owner Stan Kroenke and his plan to move the team to L.A.

“We would be going through another three year project process, and the current construction wouldn’t allow that,” said McCallum, referring to the redevelopment of 238 acres of the old Hollywood Park site that was permitted in 2009.

“If we were going to make any modifications, it would have to be approved this year,” said McCallum.

To speed things up, developers decided to bring the stadium project directly to Inglewood voters, which required 8,000 signatures.

Once the signatures are verified, Inglewood’s City Council will consider the measure, then developers hope a special election would take place before the start of the next NFL season.

McCallum says construction would begin whether the Rams or any other team decides to move here, though on Monday Kroenke made another move suggesting a return of the NFL to Los Angeles could be closer than it has been at any point during the last two decades, though not until after the 2015 season. From The St Louis Post-Dispatch:

Rams management sent a letter to regional officials on Monday afternoon. The letter said the team was converting its 30-year lease to an “annual tenancy,” effective April 1 and, “in the absence of intervening events,” extending through March 31, 2016.

The notice, which has long been expected, does two things:

• It allows owner Stan Kroenke to pull the team out of St. Louis as soon as 2016, because the Rams lease will now expire at the end of every season. The original lease was to expire in 2025.
• It also legally binds the Rams to play at the Edward Jones Dome next fall — a point on which many here were uncertain.

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

4 awesome discoveries you probably didn't hear about this week -- Episode 32

As you rush to buy something for your mom, con artists will be trying to make a dent in your wallet. Here are some common types of fraud to look out for not only this Mother's Day.

The post Scams to watch out for not just this Mother’s Day appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Source: Streetwise Reports   04/28/2020

As the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the move to telemedicine, two investment professionals are following CloudMD, a small cap rapidly expanding in Canada.

News Flash: On May 7, CloudMD announced that it is partnering with IDYA4 Corp. for it to resell the health technology firm's Livecare technology in the U.S.. Read more here.

News Flash: On May 4, CloudMD announced that it is partnering with Save-On-Foods grocery stores and Pure Integrative Pharmacy to pilot on demand, integrated virtual patient care through telemedicine kiosks placed in pharmacies' existing consult rooms. Read more here.

As people are avoiding going to doctor's offices and hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has taken off. Two investment professionals, Bruce Campbell and Keith Schaefer, have called CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (DOC:CSE; DOCRF:OTCQB; 6PH:FSE), a small-cap Canadian telemedicine firm, a top pick.

Bruce Campbell, founder and portfolio manager of Stonecastle Investment Management, spoke about CloudMD on April 27 on BNN:

"The first top pick is CloudMD Software, a technological medical play. We've tried to look at opportunities that are really going to be able to take advantage of Covid and this is one of the ones that we think is; what they do is telemedicine.

"The jumping off point for TeleHealth is here and I think CloudMD is the best pure-play TeleHealth stock right now." - Keith Schaefer

If you look back at a year ago, where everyone had to go to the doctor, and now all of the different provinces have opened up billing codes, so that now we don't have to go into a doctor's office. We can do a virtual doctor's visit and the doctor gets paid just like they do with an in-house appointment. Obviously with everything that has happened with this crisis, people really don't want to go into a doctor's office and they need a prescription renewal or something like that.

If you look at CloudMD's peers in the U.S., there is a company called Teladoc, which is a big U.S. company that does the same thing. Obviously, the size of the market is different, but the multiple it trades at is multiple times higher than where CloudMD is.

CloudMD is just starting to gain adoption. They started off here in BC, they have moved to Ontario, and they are going to be rolling out really across the country, so tons of opportunity for a company like this. They will probably change the way that we view our doctor and our healthcare visits going forward."

Keith Schaefer, editor and publisher of Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin, is also following CloudMD, and wrote:

"An entirely new—and highly profitable—industry is being borne out in 2020—TeleHealth. CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (DOC:CSE; DOCRF:OTCQB; 6PH:FSE) is my favorite way to play TeleHealth. It's growing quickly with over 100,000 patients registered on its app and over 3000 doctors in 8 provinces in its Electronic Medical Records—EMR—system. It has MULTIPLE revenue streams and it just moved into Canada's largest market—Ontario—setting up an even faster growth rate.

The recent spread of coronavirus is only accelerating this. Covid-19 has forever changed how we all will think about visiting a hospital or seeing our doctor. We really don't want to do that at all, if possible. It will have a very positive and long lasting impact on TeleHealth.

TeleHealth companies in Canada are getting paid more money for services than bricks-and-mortar clinics, and have a fraction of the costs. Doctors want more of it, patients want more of it, government wants more of it—and the Market REALLY wants more of it. Everybody wins here; there is no downside.

The rapid scale-up and profitability is key for investors.

CloudMD is established, growing quickly and trading at a fraction of its peers. The average multiple of competitors in the sector trade at 5-7x revenue, and CloudMD is trading way below that at 2.5x per revenue. But realize that the Canadian use of telemedicine is still just a fraction of where it is in the U.S—so the quick, early upside is even bigger.

The market desperately wants to own TeleHealth right now. I see CloudMD as the best way to do that in the junior sector (where the leverage is!).

For this stock to have a major run all that needs to happen is for institutional investors to wake-up to the fact that the company exists. That's happening now with the company entering the province of Ontario—which has 14.5 million people—over one-third of Canada's population.

CloudMD is a fully integrated health care company—kind of like a hospital-in-the-sky. They do have five bricks-and-mortar clinics, but they also own their own EMR—Electronic Medical Records—system that operates in eight provinces and is used by over 3,000 doctors and is supported by an in-house 25 person development team. They have their own CloudMD app—which has over 100,000 registered patients already.

The EMR gives CloudMD a recurring monthly revenue stream, which The Street loves. The app gives them high-margin fees from doctors, specialists and groups like massage therapists & counselors. These people are revenue, not costs. As I said, full hospital-in-the-sky. Multiple revenue sources with lower costs.

To schedule a virtual doctor's appointment all that a patient has to do is download the free CloudMD app and then arrange an appointment with one of the doctors. There is zero charge for the patient and they can see a doctor very quickly.

CloudMD can scale up the number of patients VERY quickly—and they are. Every aspect of healthcare that's very fractured and disjointed will now be in the one CloudMD ecosystem.
Everyone wins with this system. Patients, doctors, the medical system, society, even investors. Everyone.

Doctors who have signed up with CloudMD work remotely from home or wherever they are (like their winter home down south). The rapid scale-up potential excites me. CloudMD can add in unlimited number of doctors and patients—so it has a virtually unlimited ability to scale quickly with little incremental cost.

Profit margins are wide and there is no cap on the number of customers that can be handled.

After a patient has an appointment, CloudMD bills the government directly just like every bricks-and-mortar clinic in Canada does. CloudMD records 100% of the revenue and gets to keep 30% of the billing for every patient that is seen through telemedicine, which is actually 10% more than what a bricks-and-mortar clinic receives. That is because the governments are trying to push TeleHealth. The doctor gets the other 70% and doesn't have to deal with any headaches of commuting or running a business.

Without the overhead of a bricks-and-mortar clinic, AND more revenue, CloudMD will be much more profitable than traditional healthcare stocks. Faster scale, more cash flow. And they just entered Canada's largest market. This is the right stock in the right market at the right time. That's the great thing about this business model. It's very scalable, very easy, and it grows very quickly.

CloudMD has been growing its recurring SAAS (Software-as-a-Service) revenue by 30% YoY with its EMR system. But this year the company is expecting that doctor growth to be much much higher—with a new full time sales team and the coronavirus pandemic. SaaS revenue is highly lucrative!

The jumping off point for TeleHealth is here and I think CloudMD is the best pure-play TeleHealth stock right now."

Read Keith Schaefer's entire article here.

Watch Bruce Campbell of StoneCastle Investments share his top picks: CloudMD, Lightspeed and Viemed.

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Disclosure:
1) Keith Schaefer: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: CloudMD. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: CloudMD. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Additional disclosures are listed below.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with CloudMD. Please click here for more information. An affiliate of Streetwise Reports is conducting a digital media marketing campaign for this article on behalf of CloudMD. Please click here for more information.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of CloudMD, a company mentioned in this article.

Additional Disclosures

Keith Schaefer Disclosures:
CloudMD has reviewed and sponsored this article. The information in this newsletter does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of a corporation or entity, including U.S. Traded Securities or U.S. Quoted Securities, in the United States or to U.S. Persons. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption therefrom. Any public offering of securities in the United States may only be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the corporation or entity and its management as well as financial statements. No securities regulatory authority in the United States has either approved or disapproved of the contents of any newsletter.

Keith Schaefer is not registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"): as a "broker-dealer" under the Exchange Act, as an "investment adviser" under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, or in any other capacity. He is also not registered with any state securities commission or authority as a broker-dealer or investment advisor or in any other capacity.

Bruce Campbell, Stonecastle Investment Management:
A guest firm/affiliate holds a position in CloudMD. There is no guest position held, members of his household do not hold positions and CloudMD is not an investment banking client.

( Companies Mentioned: DOC:CSE; DOCRF:OTCQB; 6PH:FSE, )

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