Summers bring with it fun days. The short and striking clothes, the bright hues, the outdoor activities, and all kinds of foods and drinks to try. All these make summers the best time of the year. If only the scorching heat

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Damian Lawlor celebrates the special place Clones has in the GAA and how Cavan-Monaghan this afternoon would have heralded the start of an Irish summer

Exclusive: 'As well as staggered working hours we need to stagger holidays,' says AA president Edmund King

Caleb Swanigan's 21 points and 16 rebounds led Portland to a semifinal victory over Memphis.

OM Italy organises an annual summer camp for children in Torre Pellice, where many hear the gospel for the first time.

Catherine, from the UK, joined an OM team in July to host a dental clinic and outreach for the residents of Pădureni.

Summer colours of Bosnia What do you get if you take 10 artists (professional and aspiring) from four different nationalities and put them in Bosnia with a pot of strong coffee, several tins of paint and 40 gypsy kids? You get this year’s Artslink team in Bihac, that’s what!

Lawrence Summers famously wrote, “there are idiots, look around” in an attack on the theory that markets are rational. What some have called “Summers’ Law” certainly applies to the markets’ response to the slide in the price of oil as it relates to stocks of renewable energy companies.

Reaction to the Chancellor's Summer Budget 2015 A radical budget with big surprises, as well as much of that was expected. A good budget for UK plc, with corporation tax rates to be reduced to 18% by 2020, the rates of VAT, incom...

Deputy Director-General of the Health Ministry Itamar Grotto insisted that despite improvements in coronavirus conditions around the country, we must be prepared for a second wave in summer.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers speaks with Reuters Chrystia Freeland about the European Union's chances for survival during a discussion at The University of Western Ontario.

No need to wait for the ice cream truck now.

B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 15 new coronavirus cases in the province on Saturday, bringing the current total to 2,330.

The decision to cancel San Diego Comic-Con 2020 surprised no one in light of COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait until 2021 to get a taste of that experience. The organizers announced (via Deadline) a Comic-Con @ Home event that will...

Both Carnival Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line aim to resume their cruises as early as this summer, despite recent COVID-19 outbreaks on dozens of cruise ships and travel restrictions that have yet to be lifted. 

The OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: Consequences of Inaction warns that by 2050, under a worst-case scenario, we could see a 10% biodiversity loss; 2.3 billion more people living in water-stressed areas; and a 50% increase in GHG emissions, primarily caused by a 70% growth in CO2 emissions from energy use.

The Summer Academy, a three-year project 2018-2020, provides training for policy makers and representatives of cultural and creative industries (CCIs). The first edition will take place 11-15 June 2018 in Trento and Bolzano, Italy. The final conference on Friday 15 June is open to local as well as to national and international stakeholders interested in the event themes, upon registration.

The School is organising specialised courses on socio-economic development and creating an international platform to exchange experiences and knowledge between public officers and practitioners from OECD member and non member countries that deals with cooperation and local development issues.

The Summer Academy, a three-year project 2018-2020, provides training for policy makers and representatives of cultural and creative industries (CCIs). The first edition will take place 11-15 June 2018 in Trento and Bolzano, Italy. The final conference on Friday 15 June is open to local as well as to national and international stakeholders interested in the event themes, upon registration.

The School is organising specialised courses on socio-economic development and creating an international platform to exchange experiences and knowledge between public officers and practitioners from OECD member and non member countries that deals with cooperation and local development issues.

The dividing line between beach and mountain people seems to involve their need for company

A summer office set-up reminds us that we don’t need gimmicks in the workplace to keep colleagues happy

The brilliant choreographer's contemporary take on the tragic love story finally arrives in London.

ALVISE CAGNAZZO IN ITALY: Aaron Ramsey has had his settling in period hampered by injury while Matthijs De Ligt found himself benched for their first match.

OLIVER HOLT - CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: With the coronavirus shutting down sport, there is now a worry over the survival of county cricket clubs due to the financial impact of the sport's shutdown.

Even though summer plans are being hampered due to the coronavirus pandemic, this model is still banking on the hopes that consumers will snatch up the gorgeous swimsuit looks she's selling.

The presenter, 42, looked radiant as she headed to the Global Radio studios in London on Saturday.

Halsey flaunts her fab figure in a white and red polka-dots bikini... two days after rescheduling 2020 summer tour due to coronavirus crisis

Branded as insipidly traditional and rather reluctant to keep up with the up-country changing currents, Kolkata has let itself be swept by a few Bollywood blockbusters. Summer holiday camps for kids and teenagers have taken the city by storm. Children are changing too, reports Kasturi Basu.

Summer ailments are quite common during the hot summer months. From heat rashes and sunburns to jaundice and food poisoning summer causes a host of health problems. In India, usually May and June are considered the hottest months of the year

With the summer heat dehydrating our bodies, it is necessary to eat foods packed with great amounts of micronutrients and macronutrients. In summers, we tend to sweat a lot making us feel dehydrated and also we experience low energy levels

With the summer season around the corner, India is already feeling the heat. And according to reports from researchers, the summer will bring additional discomfort - due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were some claims which said that the coronavirus may

Summer is here and it's time to bring some changes in your lifestyle like eating foods that keep your body hydrated and practicing an exercise regimen that will help keep you fit and healthy during the hotter months. The

The change in weather and the dust storm was witnessed in areas from Noida to Rajouri Garden in West Delhi.

School's nearly back in session, but the seven young lions at the Smithsonian's National Zoo have been working hard through the summer months!

The post Lion cub summer school: Instead of learning their ABCs, the National Zoo’s lion cubs are learning behaviors that will help animal care staff evaluate their health. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Now that we have a deal between Time Warner Cable and CBS, we can turn our Hollywood focus back on the movie industry.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, would you agree it's been an up and down summer at the box office?

Mark Lacter: It's been a flaky summer for Hollywood, Steve.  On the plus side, ticket revenue was up more than 10 percent, and attendance increased around six-and-a-half percent compared with last year (this covers the first week of May through Labor Day weekend).  The problem is that the studios and their investors spent huge amounts of money to make a lot of these movies, and they had to compete in a very crowded market - 23 big-budget films came out this summer, which is way higher than normal, and some of them never had a chance.

Julian: Some examples?

Lacter: Probably the biggest clunker was "The Lone Ranger," which could end up losing close to $200 million for Disney.  Another big disappointment was "White House Down," which was distributed by Sony and brought in only $140 million, which for a big-budget action film is really bad.  Even a film like "Pacific Rim," which did well at the box office, might still end up in the red because the production and marketing costs were so high.

Julian: And summer, of course, is the time when studios want to bring out these monster releases -

Lacter: - right, what they call "tent poles" - and in that category, the biggest winner was Disney's "Iron Man," which took in $1.2 billion.  Also having a great summer was "Monsters University" from Pixar, with $700 million.  You also had "Despicable Me 2" and "Fast and Furious 6," which might not be our cup of tea (speak for yourself, it takes me back to my police car days!), but did very well for Universal.  Eight of the top 12 films this summer were sequels - and yet, sequels were no guarantee of success (a number of them really struggled).  And, some non-blockbuster films found considerable success: "Now You See Me" from Lionsgate only cost $75 million to make.

Julian: So, in some ways, Hollywood was its usual unpredictable self.

Lacter: That's right - and don't expect any big changes in strategy when it comes to big-budget films.  The prospect of having huge success with one of these blockbusters is just too great, but perhaps more important is the fact that many of these films are financed by multiple groups of investors, and so the risk is spread around.  It's not like the old days when a studio bankrolled the whole thing.

Julian: Though, sounds like it's bad news for the city of Los Angeles: the "Man of Steel" sequel is going to be shot in Michigan?

Lacter: Mayor Garcetti has actually declared a state of emergency because the city keeps losing business to other states that offer big tax incentives to films - what's known as runaway production.  The truth is that business has been lost over the years, but L.A. is hardly in any danger of losing its spot as the center of entertainment.  And, you can see that with the L.A. County Board of Supervisors signing off on Disney's plan for a TV and movie production facility near Santa Clarita that will add more than a half-million square feet of studio space.

Julian: And, Universal's expanding, too.

Lacter: Earlier this year, Universal was given the approval to build more production facilities, and Paramount is planning an expansion, as well.  Now, these are all very ambitious projects - not the sort of investments that would be made if these studios were looking elsewhere to make movies and TV shows.  And, of course, they mean jobs - actually, employment levels in the entertainment industry have remained fairly steady going back the last decade.

Julian: Are there states that are pulling back their incentives?

Lacter: Yes, the state of North Carolina, which has been especially aggressive in using tax incentives to draw in movies and television going back to the 80s, is phasing out the giveaways because legislators have decided that the economic benefits aren't worth the tax revenues being lost.  And, other states with tax incentive programs are pulling back as well - they're finding that the payback is very difficult to measure.

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

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

Summer is a chance for children and youth to continue developing, but for those living in disadvantaged communities, summertime experiences can lead to worse health, social, emotional, academic, and safety outcomes, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

This is a public service campaign suggesting you save water...and suggesting some other things too. ; Credit: SFPUC

Friday's news is going to make you wait for it...when it comes to an explanation for the picture above.

The Wall Street Journal takes on pricing and other big-think policies that various authors claim are worsening the drought.

• Those higher food prices Jed wrote about yesterday? Alyssia Finley, assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com, says they're the fault of environmentalists, and higher food prices will be the way the rest of the country will pay for California's "green sanctimony." (WSJ)
• Economist Edward Lazear argues that "government-dictated prices, coupled with restrictions on the transfer of water, have made a bad situation much worse." He takes aim at the state's limitations on water transfers (lifted, he doesn't note; but he argues that pricing distorts the need for transfers anyway). He argues that public agencies that protect environmental conditions with water should pay for the privilege:

Although there may be good reasons to ensure that some fish and wildlife be protected, we should not pretend that this protection is costless. Agencies that divert water for environmental purposes should be required to budget explicitly for the lost revenue associated with the decision to divert it for this purpose, rather than allowing it to be sold at the market price for urban or agricultural use. (WSJ)

...and he argues that farmers, who might have to pay more for water on a more-open market, should get extra money to help them transition to the free market.

• Cato loves Lazear's arguments, and offers one amendment. Chris Edwards wants the federal government to get out of the water business, and in California, to hand over the Central Valley Project to the state. (Cato)
• In other business news, it's going to be a mixed bag for boat businesses at California recreation areas this summer. They're nervous in Tahoe, but overall expect to benefit from Folsom Lake's bad year. (TradeOnly Today)
• CNN gets into the Firehawk, which is a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter with a giant water tank on it. L.A. County owns a few. They're going to be busy this summer, thanks to the drought. (CNN)
• And finally, in a move that reminds me of the time I wanted to name this blog "Hot, Wet, Climate Action," the San Francisco Public Utility Commission has a new, sexy (or is it sexxy?) campaign to conserve water, with words like "QUICKIE" and "DOING IT" popping out of copy alongside minimalist pictures of pieces of water plumbing. My favorite is "DIRTY HANDS" with its faucet shot to look like a piece of anatomy. (SFPUC)

VIDEO: Get paid for doing it nice!

How has your community been affected by the drought (besides getting more suggestive ads about jiggling the toilet handle)? Share your story with a photo on Twitter or Instagram. Tag it #mydrought. For more details on our photo project, click here.

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

So—  We just had our big summer family reunion at a lake in Wisconsin.

You know what they say about family gatherings—  That you should never discuss religion or politics— And we don't plan to—  But because my older daughter Maddy has already started school back in LA and she doesn't want to fall behind in her homework—?  While everyone else is fishing or swimming or prepping the barbeque— Maddy needs to works on her collage. . . for U.S. History.

The theme? What does her generation think is the biggest problem facing the U.S. Right away, we're in crisis mode. We have to find an art store to procure poster paper, a glue stick, highlighters, scissors and three current periodicals.

I remind this L.A. teen that we are deep in the woods of Wisconsin -- Yelp says the nearest "craft supply" store is a "Ben Franklin on Wachookooheesha Lake" an hour away.

So instead we drive 20 minutes to "Trig's" grocery store—  "Oh, and can you pick up tortillas and cilantro?" my partner Charlie calls out.  "Sure!" I say.  "Cilantro!  That's what we came to Wisconsin for!"

Trig's has tortillas, but no cilantro. More importantly, there are no scissors, no highlighters. There are glue sticks, and envelopes we can glue together to make poster paper. There are of course plenty of periodicals. There's Musky Hunter Magazine, Catfish Insider, Log Cabin, Gun Dog Magazine and a glossy publication called Concealed Carry.  Which aside from guns, has a surprising amount of fashion—jeans and cargo shorts with many pockets for—  You know!

For a Blue State metropolitan girl like my 16 year old, this glimpse of the magazine tastes of rural Wisconsin is a fascinating sociological journey.  She reads eagerly from her trove to her boyfriend, safely back in land-locked Northridge—  Until I tell her to get off the phone because my GPS lady is now lost and taking us in circles.  "Harris Creek, Harris Lane, Harris Creek Lane, Harris Bog?" 
"Oh, we'll find it," she says breezily, continuing to chat about Musky Hunters.

 And I'm going, "Hey City Girl, this isn't the Galeria. We are seriously lost. In the back country. And all we've got to defend ourselves is a package of tortillas and Concealed Carry Magazine."  (hum the Deliverance theme)

Next week: Dog Fight.

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

No field trips. No game rooms. No teddy bears. These are some of the CDC's guidelines for reopening schools, childcare centers and day camps safely in places where coronavirus cases are on the decline.

The guidance, which also covers restaurants, churches and other public places, was obtained by The Associated Press, which reports that the White House tried to keep it from coming to light. The New York Times quoted Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, as being concerned that the guidelines were "overly prescriptive."

The CDC does not have authority to enforce its guidance, which is intended for public information only; the actual policy decisions are up to state and local governments. Schools are closed through the end of the school year throughout much of the country, with the exception of Montana, which welcomed a handful of students back this week. Child care protocols are different in different states.

But millions of parents need child care so they can work, and socialization and stimulation for children who have been confined to home by lockdowns for weeks on end. This is the guidance that summer camps and day cares have been waiting for to make decisions about reopening safely.

The guidance says that where coronavirus is spreading rapidly, child care should only serve the children of essential workers. This is the case today in much of the country, which the guidelines refer to as "Phase 1".

In Phase 2, programs can expand to serve all children with enhanced social distancing measures, and in Phase 3, with a lower risk, social distancing will continue.

Recommended measures include:

Handwashing;

Cloth masks for staff;

Regular disinfection of all surfaces;

Six-foot distance "if possible," head-to-toe positioning with bedding;

As much outdoor air as possible — open windows, fans;

Restricting mixing of groups;

Restricting visitors, and staggering dropoffs and pickups to reduce contact among parents;

Limiting sharing of materials like art supplies or toys. Disinfecting them in between use.;

Avoiding soft toys that can't be easily disinfected;

Not using common areas like dining halls or playgrounds if possible. If it is necessary, stagger visits and disinfect in between;

Adjust operations based on local health data;

Monitor absenteeism.

The guidelines also emphasize keeping attendance at such programs local, to limit children bringing the disease from high to low transmission areas.

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

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.

Using ???cool??? materials to construct roads and walkways is an effective way of lowering urban temperatures to make cities more comfortable in hot weather. According to a recent study, surface temperatures were reduced by 12??C and ambient temperatures were reduced by 1.9??C after cool pavements were installed in a city park in Greece.

Elderly people are at particular risk from the damaging health effects of hot summers in European Mediterranean cities, such as Athens, Barcelona and Lisbon, but in North African and Middle-Eastern Mediterranean cities, such as Tunis and Tel-Aviv, younger people are more vulnerable, a recent study concludes. This is particularly concerning, the researchers suggest, given the insufficient resources available to deal with this public health problem in some countries.

Operation IceBridge, NASA's airborne survey of polar ice, is flying in Greenland for the second time this year, to observe the impact of the summer melt season on the ice sheet. The IceBridge flights, which began on August 27 and will continue until September 16, are mostly repeats of lines that the team flew in early May, so that scientists can observe changes in ice elevation between the spring and late summer.

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Trefil, James, 1938- author

Researchers have shown that emissions from vehicles can react with emissions from urban trees and other plants, resulting in a decrease in air quality in cities in summer; this reduces the otherwise positive impacts of urban vegetation. The study, conducted in Berlin, showed that during a July heatwave, 20% of ozone concentrations were due to emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from vegetation interacting with other pollutants. To reduce this effect, lowering emissions of these other pollutants is crucial.

CAMERON Daddo was a household name in the early ’90s in Australia, but since returning after more than 25 years in Hollywood, he’s had to introduce himself again to audiences in his beloved home country.