Investigators dig up an unidentified murder victim, 45 years after she was buried, in an attempt to give her back her name. The exhumation leads to a series of unexpected revelations about who she was and why she may have been killed. Her case speaks to the complexity – and importance – of opening up cold cases. This Reveal story is one of thousands from the crisis of America’s unidentified dead.

To explore more reporting, visit revealnews.org or find us at fb.com/ThisIsReveal, on Twitter @reveal or Instagram @revealnews.

The number of women in U.S. prisons and jails has increased more than 700 percent since 1980. And for 25 years, Oklahoma has led the nation in locking up women. This week on Reveal, we look at the causes behind this spike.

To explore more reporting, visit revealnews.org or find us at fb.com/ThisIsReveal, on Twitter @reveal or Instagram @revealnews.

Beyond the planned border wall and limits on new refugees, the federal government wants tighter restrictions on immigration to this country. On this episode of Reveal, we examine efforts throughout the U.S. to deport migrants faster, detain them longer and prevent them from obtaining visas that might offer a path to legal residency.

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To explore more reporting, visit revealnews.org or find us at fb.com/ThisIsReveal, on Twitter @reveal or Instagram @revealnews.

This short film was produced by the Glassbreaker Films team at The Center for Investigative Reporting. Glassbreaker Films is an all-female group of filmmakers working to promote gender parity in investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking.

In the early hours of 2009, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer at the Fruitvale station in Oakland, California. The shooting was captured on cellphone video and made headlines nationwide, leading to a national conversation about police brutality. The officer who shot Grant was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served 11 months in prison out of a two-year sentence.

In the following years, as more police killings made the news, Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, decided to turn her pain and grief into a purpose. With Grant’s uncle, Cephus Johnson, she established The Oscar Grant Foundation, which led to a movement made up of mothers like her, whose sons were killed by police. She gathers with these women to help them find justice and ensure that their children are not forgotten. The number of members continues to grow steadily every year.

Watch the rest of The Aftermath series at: revealnews.org/theaftermath

Investigators dig up an unidentified murder victim, 45 years after she was buried, in an attempt to give her back her name. The exhumation leads to a series of unexpected revelations about who she was and why she may have been killed. Her case speaks to the complexity – and importance – of opening up cold cases. This Reveal story is one of thousands from the crisis of America’s unidentified dead.

Head over to revealnews.org for more of our reporting.

Follow us on Facebook at fb.com/ThisIsReveal and on Twitter @reveal.

And to see some of what you’re hearing, we’re also on Instagram @revealnews.

Wildfires raged across Northern California in October, burning through the state’s famed Napa and Sonoma wine regions. In all, more than 170 blazes ripped across an area the size of Maryland and Delaware combined. Scores awoke to flames at their doors, and 44 people were killed in the deadliest fire event in state history.

On this episode of Reveal, we team up with KQED to examine what led to delays in evacuations and why so many fire victims received no warnings at all. As wildfires grow more intense, are first responders keeping up?

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Head over to revealnews.org for more of our reporting.

Follow us on Facebook at fb.com/ThisIsReveal and on Twitter @reveal.

And to see some of what you’re hearing, we’re also on Instagram @revealnews.

President Donald Trump has pledged allegiance to what he calls America’s “energy dominance.” This is good news for the oil and gas industry. We examine what this means for Alaskan villagers coping with climate change, Native American artifacts in Utah and birds flying over the U.S.  

*
*To find out, we talk with a former Interior Department official who became a whistleblower after helping relocate Alaskan Native villages threatened by rising temperatures. We also examine the energy industry’s influence on the Trump administration and visit public lands in southeastern Utah, where parcels leased for oil and gas exploration contain sensitive Native American archeological sites.

Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

Investigators dig up an unidentified murder victim, 45 years after she was buried, in an attempt to give her back her name. The exhumation leads to a series of unexpected revelations about who she was and why she may have been killed. Her case speaks to the complexity – and importance – of opening up cold cases.

Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

Reveal received a secret recording of oil industry executives rejoicing over the “unprecedented access” they have to David Bernhardt, the No. 2 official at the Interior Department. President Donald Trump has nominated Bernhardt to the top slot at the department, following the resignation of Ryan Zinke, and Bernhardt’s confirmation hearings are this week.

Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

Presidential pardons grab the headlines each time Donald Trump grants clemency to a controversial person. We tell the untold story of a pardons system that is completely broken, leaving a backlog of 13,000 applications, and a pardon attorney’s office that’s being ignored by the White House.  

Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

As the House of Representatives continues its impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, we go back in time to the Nixon administration, when the threat of impeachment and a presidential pardon changed the course of history. We then examine the pardons system and learn why it has stopped functioning as originally intended.

Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

The census is approaching, but experts warn the count will be inaccurate. From the controversial citizenship question to a flawed online rollout, we look at why the census is struggling and whether efforts to save it will work.

Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

A series of "energy freedom" bills, which would allow customers to diversify energy generation and usage is before the Michigan Legislature. For this week's "Issues of the Environment," WEMU's David Fair talks with Ed Rivet, executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, about a new strategy to move the measures forward.

When Mohamedou Salahi arrived at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, in August of 2002, he was hopeful.  He knew why he had been detained: he had crossed paths with Al Qaeda operatives, and his cousin had once called him from Osama bin Laden’s phone.  But Salahi was no terrorist—he held no extremist views—and had no information of any plots. He trusted the American system of justice and thought the authorities would realize their mistake before long. 

He was wrong. 

Salahi spent fifteen years at Guantánamo, where he was subjected to some of the worst excesses of America’s war on terror; Donald Rumsfeld personally signed off on the orders for his torture.  And, under torture, Salahi confessed to everything—even though he had done nothing. “If they would have wanted him to confess to being on the grassy knoll for the J.F.K. assassination, I’m sure we could have got him to confess to that, too,” Mark Fallon, who led an investigation unit at Guantánamo, said.  

Ben Taub reported Mohamedou Salahi’s story for The New Yorker and tried to understand what had gone wrong in the fight against Al Qaeda. Salahi met Ben in Mauritania, because, when the U.S. released him, it was under the condition that Mauritania would withhold his passport. He would like to go abroad—he needs medical treatment, and he hopes to live in a democracy. But, for an innocent victim of Guantánamo, being released isn’t the same as being free. 

Senator Cory Booker burst onto the national scene about a decade ago, after serving as the mayor of the notoriously impoverished and dangerous city of Newark, New Jersey. To get that job, Booker challenged an entrenched establishment. “My political training comes from the roughest of rough campaigns,” he tells David Remnick. “You just won’t think it’s America, the kind of stuff we had to go up against. And it [was] such a great way to learn [that campaigning] has to be retail—grassroots. And so much of this, in those early primary states, is about that.”  

Booker spoke with Remnick about growing up black in a largely white area of New Jersey, where his parents had to fight to be able to buy a home; about his long relationship with the Kushner family, which started back when Jared Kushner’s father, Charles, was a leading Democratic donor; and why he’s proud to collaborate with even his direst political opponents on issues such as criminal-justice reform. “Donald Trump signed my bill,” Booker states. “I worked with him and his White House to pass a bill that liberated thousands of black people from prison” by retroactively reducing unjustly high sentences related to crack cocaine. “Tell that liberated person that Cory Booker should not deal with somebody that he fundamentally disagrees with.” 

Note: In this interview, Senator Booker asserts, “We now have more African-Americans in this country under criminal supervision than all the slaves in 1850.” The historical accuracy of this comparison has been challenged. More accurately, the number of African-American men under criminal supervision today has been compared to the number of African-American men enslaved in 1850. 

Last Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan informed President Trump of his intention to launch a military offensive in northeastern Syria, in an effort to eradicate the Kurdish militias there. Trump agreed to draw down American troops to clear the way for the Turkish army. Though Erdoğan regards those militias as terrorist groups, the Kurds have been close American allies in the battle against ISIS. Trump’s decision was met with harsh criticism by high-ranking Republicans, U.S. military officials, and others. Dexter Filkins joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how the incursion into Syria is affecting one of the most volatile regions in the world, and what it could mean for Trump’s Presidency.

For decades, conservative organizations have poured time, attention, and money into state politics, and today, Republicans control the governorships and state legislatures of twenty-one states. But in recent years, grassroots progressive movements have begun to close the gap. Democrats have seen victories in formerly Republican districts in Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maine. In two election cycles, Future Now, an organization that supports progressive candidates in state-level races, has helped flip three legislatures. Its co-founder and executive director, Daniel Squadron, joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how progressive voters can make their voices heard on the issues they care most about.

In August, India suspended the autonomy of the state of Kashmir, putting soldiers in its streets and banning foreign journalists from entering. Dexter Filkins, who was working on a story about Narendra Modi, would not be deterred from going. To evade the ban, he sought the help of an Indian journalist, Rana Ayyub. Ayyub had once gone undercover to reveal the ruling party’s ties to sectarian and extrajudicial violence against the Muslim minority. In a conversation recorded last week, Filkins and Ayyub tell the story of how they got into Kashmir and describe the repression and signs of torture that they observed there. Ayyub’s book “Gujarat Files,” about a massacre of Muslims in Gujarat, has made her a target of Hindu nationalists; one of the book’s translators was killed not long ago. She spoke frankly with Filkins about the emotional toll of living in fear of assassination.

This week, after two months of questioning seventeen former and current State Department and White House officials, the House Intelligence Committee released its report on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. What has the country learned with certainty about how the Administration tried to strong-arm the new President of Ukraine, and about the fictional counter-narrative being spun by the Republican Party? Susan B. Glasser joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the strengths and weaknesses in the Democrats’ case for the impeachment of the President.

Rachel Bitecofer, a political scientist at the Niskanen Center, in Washington, D.C., thinks that most pollsters and forecasters rely on outdated ideas about how candidates succeed. She argues that the outcome has far less to do with the candidates’ ideology than we think it does. Her perspective has been controversial, but in July, 2018, months before the midterm elections, her model predicted the Democratic victory in the House with an accuracy unmatched by conventional forecasters. And it suggests that Democrats should stop worrying about losing, and focus on firing up their voters.

Donald Trump never really stopped running for President. On the day of his inauguration, in 2017, he filed the paperwork to run for reëlection in 2020. As the Democrats have fought a historically long primary battle, Trump has been gearing up for the general election. In particular, his campaign will take place online—he has tapped his 2016 digital-media director, Brad Parscale, to run his 2020 campaign. Andrew Marantz, who profiled Parscale for The New Yorker, joins Eric Lach to discuss Parscale’s role in the Trump phenomenon and what to expect from an increasingly online reëlection campaign.

Reworking a cramped master bath for accessibility allows everyone room to move

Tuesday on Political Rewind , small businesses weather the storm during the coronavirus crisis. How are Georgia’s stores, bars, restaurants, cinemas and bookstores handling the current situation?

[many links may be NSFW]

In his inaugural food column, Beowulf Thorne included recipes for gingerbread pudding, Thai chicken curry, and vanilla poached pears, plus a photo of a naked blond man spread-eagled in a pan of paella. Eat your cereal with whipping cream, he advised readers, and ladle extra gravy onto your dinner plate. "Not only does being undernourished reduce your chances of getting lucky at that next orgy, it can make you much more susceptible to illness, and we'll have none of that," Wulf wrote.

"Get Fat, Don't Die," the first cooking column for people with AIDS, ran in every issue of Diseased Pariah News, the AIDS humor zine that Wulf started and edited from 1990 to 1999.

Some archival collections, while technically separate, produce more meaning when viewed in tandem. Although they are housed on opposite ends of the vault, I have always felt this way about the papers of Arion Stone and his friend Beowulf Thorne, who until his 1999 death was an editor of the AIDS humor zine Diseased Pariah News.

Vice: There's been a lot of response to the new DPN online archive. Why do you think people remember it so fondly?
Tom Ace: I think the impression that people got from our magazine is not something you forget.

What was your target audience?
Gay men like us who were living with HIV and AIDS at the time. Tom Shearer, in the first issue, wrote, "Our editorial policy does not include the concept that AIDS is a Wonderful Learning Opportunity and Spiritual Gift From Above. Or punishment for our Previous Badness."

Wulf used to say that the magazine was "A combination of Spy and Good Housekeeping, for the HIV set." From the start, DPN set out to be sensible. We saw AIDS as a disease, and our essential element was humor. We didn't seek advertising. I used to cite Mad and Consumer Reports as our two main inspirations.

A series of "energy freedom" bills, which would allow customers to diversify energy generation and usage is before the Michigan Legislature. For this week's "Issues of the Environment," WEMU's David Fair talks with Ed Rivet, executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, about a new strategy to move the measures forward.

For latest iOS: If I'm actively using my phone, DND doesn't seem to work -- this is annoying when I'm trying to get lost in a book, long article, etc. Is there a way to force all incoming texts to obey DND at all times?

There's been lots of advice for partner board games and group social meetups and work meetings online but I feel like I'm in the vacuumest vacuum in which I've ever been. I've been at a contract job for 2 months and just got an extension until 4/30. However, I spent last Thursday and Friday on furlough (no pay) and my contract has been paused (no pay) for the next 2-3 weeks.

I have a regular Wednesday evening happy hour that we've turned into a video party but beyond that I have no social interactions and no real reason to get out of bed.

I tend to be pretty bad at self-care anyway so reminders to cook or clean or exercise more may not work.

I'm totally OK with sleeping through it all. There are online classes I can do, partly-finished projects, lots of cleaning that I could do but I just need a kick in the butt.

Mainly I need motivation from fellow lazy people - just lazy people - to figure out how to start and how to keep going.

I use Google Photos on my Android phone to back up my photos and videos to the cloud. As I have been known to occasionaly loose my phone I really like this feature. But, I can't find an option to not download photos back to my phone. The result is that as soon as I enable backup&sync ALL my photos get downloaded and my storage is full. I would like to have only backup and no sync. Is there a solution for that besides using another app?

Cut for COVID-19 content. My parents live together at a medium-sized assisted-living facility in a nearby city. The facility has recently reported to us that one resident and three staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Yesterday, at a health check-in, my parents said they had each in the past few days had fleeting symptoms (one had a cough and the other had a sore throat.) Both feel fine now, but there are major concerns for their survival if they are positive due to age and health history. The health program that covers them had them both tested. We get the results in 2-5 days. If they test positive, they will be moved that same day to a nursing care facility in a different city that has been set up for COVID-19 quarantine, and will stay for 14 days minimum.

I am grateful that they have been tested, and trying to see the waiting period as a blessing. In the few days before they get their results, what, if anything should they/we do to prepare?

Logistically:
-I am hesitant to suggest they pack now, but would it be better to have them living out of suitcases for a few days than have to pack under pressure? (I could not get an answer as to how long they would be given to get ready.) I did suggest they make packing lists now.

-I am going to ask them to get all important contact/insurance/etc. information ready and send to me (I have some, not all.)

In terms of health:
-In theory they should receive all required medical treatment at the nursing facility, but I'm going to check in with them about getting refills of any prescriptions they might need in the next few weeks.

-The staff at the assisted living facility states they are following all required practices: not allowing visitors, serving residents food in their rooms, not running group activities, yet I learned that a. their staff have only been required to wear masks since Saturday (this could have been an access issue - but if so why can they suddenly get them now) and b. we received the comforting reassurance that the positive-testing members had not had direct contact with my parents. However, while they say they have been "monitoring" the staff that did have had direct contact with those three staff, and testing sending home anyone who has had symptoms, they have apparently not tested or sent home staff who were in direct contact with them but had no symptoms. They and would not explain why not, except to again reiterate that they have been following appropriate guidelines. This seems wildly irresponsible to me, except perhaps they simply cannot obtain enough tests, and/or those ill staff had direct contact with so many people that to lose them all means the place couldn't function? I find either possibility horrifying for different reasons.

Regardless, since finding this out I have insisted my parents stay in their rooms except when absolutely necessary, stay six feet away from others, have the staff knock and wait until they have masks on before they let anyone come in, (they each have one mask leftover from earlier health crises,) wipe down doorknobs and handles religiously, wipe down covers on the food trays, etc.

-My dad is in remission from leukemia but is otherwise in reasonable health for his age (early 70s.) My mom, mid 60s, has asthma and general respiratory issues. She also has numerous other conditions that may/may not be impacted is she were to contract COVID-19. Is there anything else they can do to reinforce their health and protect themselves over the next few days (and hopefully for the next however months until we can all stop living in daily fear?)

Emotionally:
We are all going to fall apart if they test positive. One or both of them would probably not survive. I am not panicking yet (again, trying to stay grateful for these next few days) but we need to be prepared for the worst.

My mom is the most practical and responds to serious issues with emotional openness. My dad is a very kind and loving person, but he in denial about mortality and refuses to engage with any discussion of end-of-life planning. I do not want to set them up to bicker and argue for the next few days, which is a real possibility of I push things.

Tomorrow we will have a video seder with them, my brother, and our partners. For Reasons, my parents many thousands of unorganized photographs are in storage at my brother's place, or I would suggest they get some out and enjoy/share some with us. What else can we do to make the most of this short time, and without stressing/panicking overly much, get us ready to accept whatever is coming?

I need help trying to find the font-family represented in this logo: PUNCH. Something very similar would be sufficient. Especially if it is a free font!Thanks for any suggestions!

Upstairs neighbors did something that resulted in a little water dripping from my ceiling. It appears to have gotten behind a wall outlet as well, and I'm now concerned as to whether it's safe to use. The outlet had a surge protector plugged in at the time of the water exposure, which I unplugged after I heard buzzing coming from the outlet. Since the outlet kept buzzing, I cut off all electricity to half of my home via the circuit breaker for about a day (the building is old, so multiple rooms - kitchen, bathroom, and 2 extra are all on the same 20 amp breaker). There has been no buzzing since I turned the breaker back on.

After a cursory observation my super stated I could use the outlet again after 36 hours, which I extended to around 60 to be safe. When I started plugging in the surge protector, however, I saw a blue spark; this freaked me out enough that I decided to leave it unplugged.

Questions:
1. Given the above, is there reason to believe the outlet is currently safe to use/will be safe to use in the near future?
2. If not, what are my next steps? Request that my super/landlord send in an electrician?
3. (Slightly unrelated) Is it possible to change the configuration of rooms to circuit breakers? I don't want to have to shut off half my home again if there's a problem in only one room, and I appear to have a spare 20 amp that isn't connected to anything. The super said it wasn't possible as it would require new wiring to be placed in the walls, etc. but I don't know how knowledgeable they are on the electrical front.

Thanks!

This is part of a series looking at pressing coronavirus questions of the week. We'd like to hear what you're curious about. Email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." More than 76,000 people in the U.S. have died because of COVID-19, and there have been 1.27 million confirmed cases across the country — and nearly 4 million worldwide. Though the virus continues to spread and sicken people, some states and countries are starting to reopen businesses and lift stay-at-home requirements. This week, we look at some of your questions as summer nears and restrictions are eased. Is it safe to swim in pools or lakes? Does the virus spread through the water? People are asking whether they should be concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus while swimming. Experts say water needn't be a cause for concern. The CDC says there is no evidence the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas or water

The Pan American Health Organization this week warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Haiti due to the coronavirus pandemic. Haiti has reported relatively few cases of COVID-19 but it shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the hemisphere. With the Dominican Republic under lockdown, thousands of laid off migrant workers have headed home to Haiti and presumably some of them are carrying the virus with them. "There is real danger of a large-scale outbreak followed by a humanitarian crisis in Haiti," said Carissa Etienne, the head of PAHO, in a briefing this week with reporters. She said Haiti's health-care system is ill-equipped to deal with an outbreak of a highly-infectious, potentially-fatal respiratory disease. And the measures used elsewhere to stem the spread of COVID-19 are impractical or impossible in Haiti. "It is extremely difficult to institute proper social distancing in Haiti," she said —

As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Because of that success, many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. But cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later

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

By the Amazing Facts Webmaster

Recently, I was at the grocery store picking up a few items. When I got to the cashier at the checkout line, I tried to engage her in conversation by asking a few simple questions. (I find it’s easier to share materials with people if you’ve broken the ice.) I asked if “things were crazy there lately,” and she said yes, commenting on how rapidly their recent shipment of toilet paper had disappeared.

As she was finishing up, she asked me if I needed a bag. I told her no and pulled mine out and set it on the counter. She said that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were not allowed to touch our bags and that I would have to bag my own groceries. After she told me this, the thought went through my mind that “she probably won’t take any material that I try to give to her.” So I bagged up my groceries and left without attempting to share any tracts or DVDs with her.^*

That left me wondering: “How do we share our faith during a lockdown?” 

Right now, if you knock on someone’s door, they're not likely to answer it. If you try to hand them a tract, they may not take it. Even having face-to-face Bible studies with people is more of a challenge now.

Yet, at this time, people are wondering what on earth is happening. They’re wondering what all of these rapid changes mean, and they want answers. As Christians who understand Bible prophecy, we have the answers that they need, but circumstances have made it more challenging to give those answers the way that we used to.

So here are a few ideas on ways that you can reach out to people and share your faith during the coronavirus lockdown: [PQ-HERE]

1. Use Your Phone!

One of the pastors at our church is continuing to have Bible studies with people but instead of going to their homes, he’s doing it over the phone. Also, many people who may not be Christians appreciate prayer and would not pass up an opportunity to pray with someone. Lots of people are out of work and don’t know what to do or where to turn—so give somebody a buzz and see what happens.

2. Use Social Media! 

Many more people are online now. If you have a social media account, instead of posting only cat videos, post something of substance that speaks to the times in an intelligent and informed way. Ask thought-provoking questions and see what kind of dialogue it generates. You may find many opportunities to share as others express their thoughts and concerns about the things that are happening right now.

3. Use Text Messages! 

Who doesn’t have a cell phone nowadays? I personally don’t have a smartphone, but texting still works on my “dumb” phone! Send Bible verses or inspirational quotes to people. And if you don’t have a cell phone, you can still send text messages if you have a Google Voice account, which is free.

4. Use Snail Mail! 

Although someone might not take a tract directly from your hand at this time, they would likely have no problem if they got it in the mail. Lots of people are stuck at home and, quite honestly, they’re bored! Send them something to read or watch. A friend of mine mentioned that they were looking up random names and addresses in the phone book and sending an uplifting card with a Bible tract in it. What a great idea! 

I felt inspired by that and, over the weekend, I hand-wrote a brief letter to several neighbors on a nearby street and placed a Final Events of Bible Prophecy and Kingdoms in Time DVD, as well as an 8 Amazing Steps to Optimize Your Health and Ancient Prophecies That Reveal the Future! Amazing Fact Tracts.

I hand-wrote the notes because people are more likely to open a handwritten envelope and to read a handwritten letter. If you choose to do this, you can put your name or just identify yourself as a friend or neighbor; it’s up to you, but it’s a great way to share with people while they’re under lockdown. (Here is a link to the letter that I sent out with the materials. Feel free to use and modify it as you see fit: Dear-Friend.pdf.)

How are you sharing your faith at this time? Please share your ideas in the comments below. Others might be inspired by what you’re doing! Just because we’re under lock-down doesn't mean that we can’t be about our Father’s business. Let’s be prayerful and look for creative ways to reach out to others.

*Just a note, I still should have offered her a resource and allowed her to decide if she wanted it or not. The next store I went to, instead of assuming that the cashier wouldn't take anything, I asked him if I could give him something. The young man said, “It depends on what it is.” I pulled a Final Events of Bible Prophecy DVD out of my purse, and he said, ‘Oh yeah! I'll take that.’ Praise the Lord! But what if I had not offered it?

Learn how to approach character design and get a better understanding of the powerful illustration tools in Adobe Fresco. In this course, instructor Renee di Cherri explains how to use this digital drawing and painting app—optimized for touch-based devices like the iPad—to bring your character to life. Learn how to use a mindmap to build your imagined world and guide the ideation process of creating your character and what they look like. Then discover how to sketch thumbnail drawings directly in Fresco and turn them into crisp linework with its vector brushes and painting tools. Finally, find out how to add color and final touches to your character, such as realistic fur and lighting, and use companion apps like Photoshop for the iPad to create variations on your character.

A reworked entry porch adds curb appeal and character to a no-frills facade

Dog-friendly flooring needs to be durable, easy to clean, and attractive too. Here's what you need to know if you have four on the floor

What do you miss when you miss church? Can we be saved if we don't attend church?

How much are you willing to endure to see your King? How far are you willing to go?

A days-long tense standoff between protesters and police is grinding on at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The numbers of protesters barricaded inside the school has dwindled to about 100, and their food supplies are rapidly depleting after police surrounded the campus on Sunday. The situation is growing so desperate for the remaining protesters that several of them unsuccessfully attempted to escape the police siege by climbing through sewer drains, according to local media . Police say they've arrested about 1,100 people in the past day. At a Tuesday news conference , officers accused the protesters of crimes such as taking part in riots and possessing dangerous weapons. Authorities have threatened to use live ammunition against the demonstrators, though they say that level of force is a last resort. Protesters are pleading for help. A video posted by protest leader Joshua Wong features a message from a masked woman who is identified as a student at Polytechnic University. "We have

Indian police have the unenviable task of enforcing the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown . But last weekend, they handed down a punishment more common in a middle-school classroom than a police station. Ten foreign tourists caught flouting India's coronavirus restrictions Saturday were made to write the phrase "I did not follow the rules of lockdown. I am very sorry" 500 times and submit the paper to police. The incident happened at a sandy beach along the Ganges River near Rishikesh, a tourist hub in northern India famous for yoga retreats and hippie hangouts. It's where the Beatles made a spiritual pilgrimage in 1968. An officer who answered the phone Monday at the Muni Ki Reti police station near Rishikesh confirmed details to NPR, but declined an interview. The tourists were reportedly from Israel, Mexico, Australia and Austria, and were walking along the river when Indian police intervened. Under India's lockdown, all nonessential outings are banned. Video shared online by

Die Lira fällt seit Wochen, die Devisenreserven des Landes sind fast schon aufgezehrt. Das könnte sogar zu einem Staatsbankrott führen. Zwei Länder könnten zwar als Retter einspringen – doch sie würden das Grundproblem der Türkei nicht beheben.

Fiddle debut! Sorry for the cat scratches A couple of tunes - "Elkins" by Jerry Holland, followed by "Dorrigo" by George Jackson

A standard fiddle tune on mandolin with backing guitar.

I've been working on a musical collaboration with a fellow musician friend of mine during these crazy coronavirus times, in hopes of generating something fun and creative while we have all this spare time not working or gigging. Here's the second song from that collaboration.

Vor zehn Jahren galt Adelaide noch als langweilig. Doch längst herrscht Aufbruchsstimmung in Südaustraliens größter Stadt. Eine wachsende Kreativszene, coole Läden und günstige Mieten ziehen viele junge Menschen an.

Das Emirat Schardscha setzt auf arabische Kultur statt Glitzer. Man pflegt die Tradition, was sich auch in der Architektur zeigt. Neubauten reißt man ab, um Häusern Platz zu machen, die an die Vergangenheit anknüpfen.