Tommy Wiita
Updated: August 31, 2020 05:10 PM
Created: August 31, 2020 05:00 PM
A Little Canada woman has been sentenced in relation to leaving her three children alone in an apartment deemed unfit for human habitation in March.
Court records indicate Stormie Marie Gysbers, 27, pleaded not guilty to charges consisting of felony child endangerment and gross misdemeanor neglect of a child in October 2019. Then in February, Gysbers entered a plea deal in pleading guilty to felony child endangerment, dismissing the second charge.
September 01, 2020 at 05:00AM
https://kstp.com/minnesota-news/little-canada-woman-who-left-children-alone-in-apartment-unfit-for-inhabitation-sentenced-august-31-2020/5846680/
Little Canada woman who left children alone in apartment 'unfit for inhabitation' sentenced - KSTP
We’re all getting used to face masks, either wearing them or figuring out who we’re looking at. They can even trip up those of us who are experts in faces.
“Actually, I just had an experience today,” said Marlene Behrmann, a cognitive neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University who has spent decades studying the science of facial recognition.
She went to meet a colleague outside the hospital where they collaborate, and didn’t realize the person was sitting right in front of her, wearing a mask. In fairness, “She’s cut her hair very short,” Dr. Behrmann said.
Scientists have some ideas about why masks make recognizing others’ faces difficult, based on studying the brains of average people, as well as people who struggle to recognize anyone at all. But even when everyone around us is incognito, we still have ways to find each other.
“We use face recognition in every aspect of our social interaction,” said Erez Freud, a psychologist with the Centre for Vision Research at York University in Toronto. In the faces of others, we find clues about their personality, gender and emotions. “This is something very fundamental to our perception. And suddenly, faces do not look the same,” Dr. Freud said.
That’s why Dr. Freud and co-authors decided to study how masks impair people’s facial recognition skills. They recruited nearly 500 adults to complete a common face memory task online. Participants viewed unfamiliar faces and then tried to recognize them under increasingly difficult conditions. Half the participants saw faces with surgical-style masks covering their mouths and noses.
People scored substantially worse on the test when faces were masked. The authors posted their findings, which have not yet completed peer review, online last month.
Authors at the University of Stirling in Scotland posted a similar study in June that also has not yet been through peer review. In that study, 138 adults completed online face-matching tests. When the scientists superimposed masks onto the faces, people performed worse — even when the faces belonged to familiar celebrities.
In Dr. Freud’s study, 13 percent of participants struggled so much to recognize masked faces that they may as well have suffered from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. Without masks, only 3.5 percent scored that low.
In the general population, prosopagnosia may affect about one in 50 people. Some have face blindness their whole lives; others develop it suddenly after trauma to the brain.
Just because you’re tripped up by face masks doesn’t mean you have true face blindness. Still, “People have got a little sense of what it means to be affected,” Dr. Behrmann said.
She added that for most adults, face recognition is an extremely sophisticated process that happens almost instantaneously. That’s especially true when we see people we know well. “Because it’s so good, it’s sometimes hard to get a window in to understand how it works,” she said. So scientists have gained much of their understanding of face recognition by studying people with prosopagnosia.
Other studies have tested people without face blindness. Researchers have challenged subjects’ powers of recognition by presenting faces upside-down, or faces entirely obscured except for one feature, or half-and-half creations of celebrities, such as George Clooney’s mouth and nose fused with Robin Williams’s eyes.
One of the main takeaways has been that facial recognition happens holistically, or all at once. We don’t scrutinize people’s features piecemeal. Rather, we take in the entire face in a glance. When half the face is hidden by a mask, the process suffers.
But all is not lost. Research has shown that out of all facial features, we rely most on the eyes to recognize people. Even if we struggle to know who we’re looking at when only their eyes are visible, we may still pick up information about a person’s identity and emotions. “A lot of information is conveyed by the eye region,” said Richard Cook, a psychologist at Birkbeck, University of London. “We’ve still got access to that information.”
“We also use other cues, and we can fall back on some of those other cues if they are helpful,” Dr. Behrmann said. For example, we might recognize people by the way they walk or talk, or by their facial hair or hairstyle (except for Dr. Behrmann’s recently trimmed colleague). Prosopagnosics may rely on these external cues already.
The observer’s culture may matter, too. In what researchers call the “head scarf effect,” study participants from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, where women often cover their hair, outperformed British and American participants at identifying faces when only the eyes, nose and mouth were showing.
In some Asian countries, wearing masks in public to protect against viruses was commonplace before Covid-19. Might people in those parts of the world be more comfortable recognizing each other with their faces covered?
“It is indeed an interesting point,” said Katsumi Watanabe, a cognitive scientist at Waseda University in Tokyo.
There is a paucity of research directly addressing the question, but earlier studies have hinted at cultural differences in how people read emotions. “Western Caucasian people tend to decode facial expressions based on the mouth region, while Eastern Asian tend to use the information from the eye region,” Dr. Watanabe said.
That might make it easier for people in a country such as Japan to get used to interacting while masked, Dr. Watanabe speculated.
People who are very young today might experience negative long-term effects, though. Babies and toddlers who are surrounded by masks may not get the chance to fine-tune their holistic understanding of faces, Dr. Cook said. “If there is some sort of lasting effect, I think it’ll be seen in young kids that are growing up now.” He wonders whether their powers of facial recognition, like a second language learned later in life, might always carry a bit of an accent.
For now, Dr. Cook said, adults are having a hard time. In his work with other researchers who study prosopagnosics, “We’re hearing that people who do perform normally are struggling, and people who usually struggle are struggling even more.”
That also means a lot of people are newly appreciating their power of facial recognition, Dr. Cook said. “They’re realizing what it’s like to not be able to take it for granted.”
A logo is displayed next to a gas turbine at the General Electric Co. (GE) energy plant in Greenville, South Carolina, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. General Electric Co. is scheduled to release earnings figures on January 20.
General Electric has a bumpy road ahead and won't be seeing a "V-shaped" recovery, JPMorgan analyst Stephen Tusa said in a note Monday.
The ailing industrial giant beat Wall Street revenue expectations for its second quarter, but its stock has since lost ground. JPMorgan previously had a $5 target on the stock, but with its estimates falling again, it pulled its target completely, saying "we see little equity value here."
"For GE, we see a company that continues to contend with its past, unable to move forward, with a mosaic of negative signals suggesting no quick turn, and a continued defensive approach in its communications," the note said.
Jesse Little places 10th at Daytona International Speedway, secures first career top-10 finish
Jesse Little finished 10th in the Wawa 250 Powered By Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on Friday to secure his first career top-10 finish.
The top-10 finish for Little, his second of the year, added 27 points to his season total. Little now sits at No. 16 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings with 384 points.
Little started in 21st position.
Friday’s race was the first of Little’s career at Daytona International Speedway.
The Sherrills Ford, North Carolina native began the race three spots behind his career mark of 17.7, but finished 10 places ahead of his career average of 20.
Little battled against 37 other drivers on the way to his 10th-place finish. The race endured eight cautions and 28 caution laps. Prior to the checkered flag there were nine lead changes.
Justin Haley earned the victory in the race, and Gray Gaulding followed in second. Chase Briscoe placed third, Riley Herbst secured fourth, and Harrison Burton rounded out the top five.
After Haley won Stage 1, AJ Allmendinger drove the No. 16 car to victory in Stage 2.
The season crept past its midpoint Sunday during a sun-washed day in Fenway Park. The Nationals lost, again, dropping their record to a languishing 12-19. They are the second-worst team in the National League. They have a 26 percent chance to reach the postseason, according to fivethirtyeight.com.
Though it took just 31 games to arrive in the middle of this complicated season and the end of August, the journey was laborious. Davey Martinez recently mentioned over the weekend that “it feels like we played 175 games already. It’s just one of those weird years.”
And yet, their fate is unclear. The expanded postseason leaves room for a mediocre team to think it can participate. Growing the playoffs to 16 teams total, eight per league, is on pace to allow half the field to be teams with a .500 record -- or worse. So, the Nationals are still hanging around, even if their play suggests it’s time to worry about next year.
“Well, obviously I think we’d love to win more,” Trea Turner said Saturday. “But, I always go back to, are we in games? I feel like we are. Every night we’re in the game.”
The environment has been a season-long challenge. Adam Eaton mentioned the oddness of no fans in the stands. Aníbal Sánchez brought it up, too. However, that’s the common reality across the sport. What appears lacking most days for the Nationals is something they had in spades last season: energy.
They look flat. Still. Earlier in the season, Martinez said they appeared to not be having fun. That remains the case after dropping yet another three-game series over the weekend. The Nationals have lost seven of 10. Their problems are spread out: the back half of the starting rotation is ineffective; the bullpen is limited; outside of Trea Turner and Juan Soto, the offense is lacking. Combined, they appear a team more on the middling 2018 course than the revelatory 2019 one.
“We have a lot of the core leaders and veterans back from last year,” Sean Doolittle said. “This team never panicked. We never panicked last year, even when we were 19-31 and all that stuff in May. As rough as things are right now, guys aren’t panicking. Guys are continuing to come every day committed to their routines, and ready to work every single day. I think guys have handled all of the challenges of this season -- the unique circumstances we’re all dealing with -- I think guys have handled them in a really professional way and continue to go about their business.”
Eight games come this week against National League East Division teams. First, three in Philadelphia. Then four in Atlanta, which includes a double-header Friday. September is loaded with games against divisional teams. Of the remaining 29 games, 25 are against the NL East.
Which, again, circles back to the possibilities yet to be derailed by poor play. The Nationals are just six games out of first place in the division. Their not-out-of-it position is just another wonky layer in this bizarre season. In a 162-game season, the Nationals would be 32-51 with a for sale sign out front of Nationals Park as the trade deadline approached. Yet, they are in touch with a stunted rotation and dissipating lineup depth.
“These guys get it,” Martinez said. “They understand we’ve been here before, but we only have a month left. Not by any means are we out of it. They know that. Like I said, we just got to get on a stretch here where we win two out of three games, win three out of four games, then go from there. Focus on the here and now. Focus on today.”
“Today” shows a team 25th in offensive fWAR despite Turner and Soto being tied for the major-league lead in average. The pitching staff is 17th in fWAR. The team’s run differential is better than seven teams with a better winning percentage. That’s strange, and reflective of generally bad baseball as opposed to a severe talent gap.
They have four weeks to go. The trade deadline is Monday at 4 p.m. A lightning-bolt move is not expected. The batch on hand will have to dig them out or head home defeated, hoping next year is normal, with fans, a full schedule, a clearance of the residue from 2020. Because this is not sufficient the year after winning the World Series, all injuries and madness aside.
Stay connected to the Nationals with the MyTeams app. Click here to download for comprehensive coverage of your teams.
Molly Boyer knew she was taking a chance when she opened her GROW Hair Studio in June -not long after stay-at-home orders were lifted. Many of her clients were following her to the small Brookside East salon in Kansas City, Missouri, but she didn't know how many would feel safe.
P.T. Campbell was one of them. But visiting with him on his first time back in Boyer's chair, he said the sign-in for contact tracing purposes, the temperature check, the mask were all fine.
“She’s taught me pretty well over the years so I can kind of (do my hair) at home,” he says, holding tight to the side of the mask as she navigates a razor around his ear. “But it just never looks as good.”
Laura Ziegler
Molly Boyer will trim P.T. Campbell's beard and neck around the mask, but she doesn't let him release the maks and doesn't touch the hair below it.
Campbell is not alone. A call out on social media and a random, unscientific sample of salon-goers reveals that of those who are choosing to go to a salon now that they’ve reopened are not bothered, and in fact are relieved, that salons have rigorous health and safety precautions in place.
It is difficult to talk about the salon experience as essential against the backdrop of millions of coronavirus cases.
But the small businesses have been adversely affected and the industry as a whole has a dramatic impact on the economy.
Salon Today, the industry’s primary journal about the business of beauty, estimates the ticket for the average salon client is $92 dollars. Industry experts estimate clients tend to visit an average of every six to eight weeks.
As of 2018, there were more than 1.2 million salon and spa businesses nationwide with annual sales of more than $62 billion.
Safe social distancing is impossible during a salon or spa experience, but here is how some owners and customers are doing their best.
Laura Ziegler
P.T. Campbell followed Molly Boyer to her new salon. He's OK with pandemic restrictions.
A new place
At Boyer's GROW Hair Studio, Campbell, 28, admits he was long overdue for a salon visit.
"Yeah, it’s getting bushy,” he chuckles. “I haven’t cut it in a long time.”
Campbell says the 12 weeks of the shutdown was the longest he has ever waited between cuts.
But it’s not just the grooming he missed. He and Boyer are friends, and they've missed connecting. It’s nice to talk with her about day to day things. She asks about his dog.
“How old is she now?” Boyer inquires while she snipps the top of his head. He shares the details of their recent trip to the dog park.
“To me, these visits are one of the things that I missed the most about the shut down," Campbell explains.
Laura Ziegler
It's a jovial atmosphere as clients at Joyce Williams Salon in Lees Summit catch up. Williams' regular clients all know one another, and they know her, which provides a community experience for all of them.
Missing the comradery
Uneeda Robinson, who says she doesn’t reveal her age to anybody, is draped in a wide, grey cape and sitting under a dome dryer.
She’s been coming to Joyce Williams Salon, in Lees Summit, Missouri, for six or seven years.
“As far as with Covid, it’s the distance, how we have to be spaced out,” she says.
Williams has a tiny salon – there is one wash bowl, one chair and two dryers. One of the dryers has a piece of paper on the seat asking that no one sit there.
“We don’t get that comradery like we used to,” Robinson says.
When she is working on clients, Williams wears a face mask and protective goggles. A plastic shield covers both which can muddle conversation.
"It's still rewarding because I get a chance to work, and I enjoy seeing each of the clients every week," she says.
But as the bell on the door handle rings with another client, the regulars engage in a jovial gossip session, howling with laughter. They try to social distance as they share pictures on their phones.
Extending her head back up into the dryer, Robinson says even with the restrictions, she’s glad to be back.
“When (Miss Joyce) is in there massaging your scalp, (which) I like my scalp scratched, to get in there and get that blood flowing,” she says with gusto. “Covid can’t touch that! “
Laura Ziegler
Paul Wrablica was back at Bijin Salon and Spa for his weekly massage the week it opened at the end of May. He's gotten used to having a massage with a mask on.
Just as serene
Bijin Salon and Spa in Prairie Village, Kansas, with 35 stylists, 15 aestheticians and massage therapists, and a handful of nail technicians, has made a massive investment in pandemic-related safety measures.
A huge arc of plexi-glass protects the receptionists. A long plastic sheet hangs between customers and the nail technician giving a manicure or pedicure.
The stylists' chairs are already six feet apart but manager Connie Suss says they are still trying to put clients in every other one. “We even added a pricey new air filtration system,” she says.
A filtration device hums in the waiting area downstairs where Paul Wrablica comes for a massage. Even with the fan, you can hear the new age music that is piped into the dimly lit space, accented with the warm glow of a faux fireplace.
“It’s serene,” Wrablica whispers. “Little by little everybody’s getting comfortable with what’s going on, especially having a massage with a mask on. I’m not getting my face massaged just my body.”
He says while going to a bar is out, he feels the spa experience almost has returned to pre-pandemic standards.
Hoping people obey
Laura Ziegler
Bridget Moss is releived by the safety measures Raushan Clark is taking as she welcomes clients back to her salon.
Bridget Moss’s face suggests she’s somewhere far away as Rashaun Clark runs her extraordinarily long fingernails through Mosses hair.
Moss, 37, hasn’t been in for a hair cut since February. It’s her first time at Clarks new Love Over Hair Studio at 56th and Troost.
“I had some anxiety about coming back,” she says. "But once I got here and saw all the safety measures she was taking, I was OK."
She’s growing out her grey hair, but other than that, isn't sure what to do.
“Do you want to go back to the bob, or are you still growing it out?” Clark asks.
“I don’t know exactly what I want, so just chop a bunch off,” says Moss.
Like others, Moss says one of the perks of being back in the salon is hearing about her friend's life, her family, even seeing her young girls who are playing in the back.
For Moss, during this nether-world between isolation and some semblance of what life once was, being here is comforting.
“It’s a way to take care of yourself,” she says. "I just hope everyone continues to obey the rules so we can actually get back to what was once normal.”
NEW YORK — Back in April, an on-schedule U.S. Open simply did not seem possible.
The coronavirus was at its peak in New York; a building on the tournament grounds housing indoor tennis courts was converted to a field hospital.
The pandemic was locking down much of society, including sports. Wimbledon was canceled for the first time in 75 years, the French Open was postponed, and the U.S. Tennis Association said it was considering “the possibility” of changing its dates, too.
On Monday, the last day of August, the 2020 U.S. Open will, indeed, begin — as scheduled, albeit without any spectators, and with one player dropped from the field because he tested positive for COVID-19.
Benoit Paire, a Frenchman who was seeded 17th, was replaced in the draw Sunday, a striking reminder of the circumstances surrounding this attempt to ensure that the Grand Slam show goes on.
There are many other reminders, such as the plastic signs propped up around the quieter-than-usual grounds, making a mix of requests and commands.
“Keep us all safe. Please wear a mask & keep your distance.”
“Unless you are eating, please wear your mask in the dining area.”
“We’re Back! But hugging isn’t. Some ways to say hello: virtual hugs; quick elbow taps. Please avoid: hugs; fist bumps.”
“Help us keep the bubble safe. Let us know if you witness unhealthy behavior,” with a phone number to call.
Merchandise shops are filled with empty shelves and undressed mannequins. Instead of a main plaza filled with fans eating and drinking and comparing purchases and talking about tennis, there is a space for players to hang out, with a putting green, basketball hoop, and giant chess board among the outdoor diversions offered.
“When you’re walking to and from practice — you have to get somewhere for a certain time — it’s nice. You know that there’s no one around, that you’re not going to get stopped,” said Andy Murray, who won the first of his three Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows in 2012. “Yeah, it’s very quiet and very relaxed.”
Then Murray described his thoughts during his trek to the locker room after a practice session last week.
“I was like, ’Wow, this is pretty sad, because usually this place is just filled with energy and atmosphere, like before the tournament starts,” he said. “Now it’s tennis players and their teams walking around with masks on. It’s just all very different and a little bit sad.”
When play begins Monday morning in Arthur Ashe Stadium — where many seats are covered by pieces of cloth with messages like “New York Tough” and “Black Lives Matter” — 2016 runner-up Karolina Pliskova, the top-seeded woman, will play Anhelina Kalinina in the opening match.
That distinction was not earned by virtue of being ranked No. 1, but because the women who hold the first two WTA spots, Ash Barty and Simona Halep, chose not to participate because of the pandemic.
In all, six of the top eight women are missing, including 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu.
If the women’s event seems unpredictable as can be — even with Serena Williams and her 23 Grand Slam singles trophies in the bracket — and it is hard to know just how well anyone will deal with lack of competition this year, the overwhelming favorite for the men’s championship is Novak Djokovic.
He is scheduled to begin Monday’s night session in Ashe against Damir Dzumhur, followed by two-time major champion Naomi Osaka — who pulled out of the Western & Southern Open final with an injured left hamstring — against Misaki Doi.
“I always love playing in New York. I think I’m not the only one who shares the opinion that this is probably the most exciting, energetic, dynamic, explosive tennis court that we have in the sport,” Djokovic said. “It is strange to see empty stands.”
Rafael Nadal, last year’s champion, didn’t want to travel, while Roger Federer ended his 2020 season after two knee operations.
Djokovic is ranked and seeded No. 1, is 23-0 in 2020 and is coming off a title at the Western & Southern Open on Saturday.
He has won five of the past seven Grand Slam trophies to raise his total to 17, three shy of Federer’s record for men, two behind Nadal.
“You can sense that around the site there is a certain tension ... because everyone is obviously being careful,” Djokovic said, “but at the same time, everyone needs to pay attention and follow the protocols and restrictions that are in place.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Back in April, an on-schedule U.S. Open simply did not seem possible.
The coronavirus was at its peak in New York; a building on the tournament grounds housing indoor tennis courts was converted to a field hospital.
The pandemic was locking down much of society, including sports. Wimbledon was canceled for the first time in 75 years, the French Open was postponed, and the U.S. Tennis Association said it was considering “the possibility” of changing its dates, too.
Benoit Paire, a Frenchman who was seeded 17th, was replaced in the draw Sunday, a striking reminder of the circumstances surrounding this attempt to ensure that the Grand Slam show goes on.
There are many other reminders, such as the plastic signs propped up around the quieter-than-usual grounds, making a mix of requests and commands.
“Keep us all safe. Please wear a mask & keep your distance.”
“Unless you are eating, please wear your mask in the dining area.”
“We’re Back! But hugging isn’t. Some ways to say hello: virtual hugs; quick elbow taps. Please avoid: hugs; fist bumps.”
“Help us keep the bubble safe. Let us know if you witness unhealthy behavior,” with a phone number to call.
Merchandise shops are filled with empty shelves and undressed mannequins. Instead of a main plaza filled with fans eating and drinking and comparing purchases and talking about tennis, there is a space for players to hang out, with a putting green, basketball hoop, and giant chess board among the outdoor diversions offered.
“When you’re walking to and from practice — you have to get somewhere for a certain time — it’s nice. You know that there’s no one around, that you’re not going to get stopped,” said Andy Murray, who won the first of his three Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows in 2012. “Yeah, it’s very quiet and very relaxed.”
Then Murray described his thoughts during his trek to the locker room after a practice session last week.
“I was like, ’Wow, this is pretty sad, because usually this place is just filled with energy and atmosphere, like before the tournament starts,” he said. “Now it’s tennis players and their teams walking around with masks on. It’s just all very different and a little bit sad.”
ADVERTISEMENT
When play begins Monday morning in Arthur Ashe Stadium — where many seats are covered by pieces of cloth with messages like “New York Tough” and “Black Lives Matter” — 2016 runner-up Karolina Pliskova, the top-seeded woman, will play Anhelina Kalinina in the opening match.
That distinction was not earned by virtue of being ranked No. 1, but because the women who hold the first two WTA spots, Ash Barty and Simona Halep, chose not to participate because of the pandemic.
In all, six of the top eight women are missing, including 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu.
If the women’s event seems unpredictable as can be — even with Serena Williams and her 23 Grand Slam singles trophies in the bracket — and it is hard to know just how well anyone will deal with lack of competition this year, the overwhelming favorite for the men’s championship is Novak Djokovic.
He is scheduled to begin Monday’s night session in Ashe against Damir Dzumhur, followed by two-time major champion Naomi Osaka — who pulled out of the Western & Southern Open final with an injured left hamstring — against Misaki Doi.
“I always love playing in New York. I think I’m not the only one who shares the opinion that this is probably the most exciting, energetic, dynamic, explosive tennis court that we have in the sport,” Djokovic said. “It is strange to see empty stands.”
Rafael Nadal, last year’s champion, didn’t want to travel, while Roger Federer ended his 2020 season after two knee operations.
He has won five of the past seven Grand Slam trophies to raise his total to 17, three shy of Federer’s record for men, two behind Nadal.
“You can sense that around the site there is a certain tension ... because everyone is obviously being careful,” Djokovic said, “but at the same time, everyone needs to pay attention and follow the protocols and restrictions that are in place.”
___
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A Vermont maple supplier puts a sparkly twist on breakfast.
Runamok Maple in Fairfax is releasing its newest edition product called Sparkle Syrup.
“It’s been a really rough year and people needed something that’s just a little goofy and a little bit fun,” said co-owner Laura Sorkin.
Sorkin says the shimmery substance is made of pearlescent mica, an edible FDA-approved glitter.
Sorkin says her husband came up with the idea after seeing something similar in beer. After about two months of perfecting the formula, it was time to get to work.
Director of Operations Zak Hayward says on production day, 10 bottles got filled every 15 seconds.
“We just had to adapt the process to a degree to make sure we weren’t -- like I said -- getting glitter into our equipment so we’re actually adding the sparkle after we’re filling,” Hayward said.
The Runamok team says they created the sparkle syrup to boost morale during the pandemic but also to boost sales.
“Our web sales-- I would say-- doubled in the spring but all of our wholesale accounts for things like gift stores and mom-and-pop stores just absolutely bottomed out,” she said. “So between the two of them, we’re somewhere in the middle.”
Earlier this year, they weren’t sure how production would be affected, as the pandemic hit right at the start of sugaring season. Sorkin says the Vermont maple industry isn’t currently struggling, but the pandemic is still sparking a lot of creativity.
“It’s really great, actually, to see because we sort of knew all along that maple has a lot of potential to go in a lot of different directions and now I think just having other companies do it is broadening people’s tastes,” Sorkin said.
Sparkle Syrup will be available starting September 1 until they run out.
Editor’s Note: The United Arab Emirates has emerged as an important regional power in the Middle East, and its military has achieved a high degree of proficiency. This skill worries some observers, who note the UAE’s interventions in Libya and Yemen and warn that this may work against U.S. interests. Kenneth Pollack of the American Enterprise Institute and Brig. Gen. (ret.) Joseph W. Rank argue for why the increase in the UAE’s military capabilities benefits the United States and offer guidelines for working with allies whose interests overlap with, but don’t match, those of the United States.
Daniel Byman
***
Even with all the other, much bigger problems facing the United States and the world, some American policymakers and experts are taking time to warn about the supposed danger of the growing military capabilities of the United Arab Emirates and its willingness to use them. In particular, the Emirati interventions in the Yemeni and Libyan civil wars have elicited numerous criticisms about what they are doing there and why. From our perspective, having a capable partner is a pretty good problem to have.
That’s because it reflects a big, and mostly positive, change from the past and an important lesson for the future. In coming years, if the United States is going to try to do less in the Middle East, it is going to have to count on its regional allies more. The new “problem” of Emirati military prowess should be seen as an important test case for how the United States should address the changing security dynamics in the region. This will require the United States to better prioritize its interests and recognize that allies like the UAE will often go their own way.
The two of us have been doing considerable work on the Emirati military in recent years, and we see the growth of its capabilities—and Abu Dhabi’s concomitant willingness to use them—as a real potential asset, rather than as a liability, as others have claimed. Rank was the senior U.S. defense attaché in the UAE from 2015 to 2017, as well as in Yemen, Lebanon, and Jordan, and ended a 30-plus-year military career as acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy. Pollack is a former CIA Persian Gulf military analyst who recently finished a major study of UAE military capabilities that involved dozens of interviews with Emirati and Western military officers highly familiar with the UAE armed forces.
The Growth and Limits of Emirati Military Power
Over the past two decades, with Emirati ambition and American assistance, the UAE has developed impressive military capabilities—remarkable by the relatively low standards of the Arab world. The small Emirati special operations forces are first rate, able to conduct both kinetic assaults and more sophisticated training and advisory missions. The UAE’s helicopter force is outstanding, both for fire support and for air lift, and some units have even outperformed comparable American units in demanding training exercises. Likewise, the Emirati Air Force has a small cadre of world-class planes and competent pilots—bolstered by joint terminal air controllers (JTACs) trained to NATO standards—that together give them the ability to conduct deliberate and dynamic strike missions with considerable accuracy. Even elements of the larger UAE Land Forces have demonstrated aggressiveness, the capability to integrate fire and maneuver, and an ability to employ the UAE’s world-class tanks, artillery, and other weapons systems in combined arms teams.
The improvement in the UAE’s logistical capabilities has been less visible, but perhaps more impressive. Few militaries—and still fewer Arab militaries—have been able to deploy and sustain forces hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their homeland, in combat in harsh, desert conditions. The Emirates have now demonstrated this capability in Yemen, in the horn of Africa and even in Libya.
Although large numbers of Western expatriates provide training, planning, and strategic oversight of these missions, most of the heavy lifting is increasingly done by Emiratis themselves. That has been especially true in Yemen and Libya, where Emiratis have done the bulk of the fighting, the bulk of the tactical planning and command, and the bulk of the logistical support. In truth, there aren’t many NATO countries that could do what the UAE did for nearly five years in Yemen.
Of course, there are still important limitations on Emirati capabilities, and challenges that will need to be overcome if the UAE’s armed forces are going to continue to improve. Right now, only a small number of Emirati personnel and formations have reached the highest levels of effectiveness. It is hard to know for certain, but probably no more than three to four brigades’ worth of ground troops and 100 to 150 Air Force pilots make up the sharp tip of the Emirati spear. The rest of the force is more uneven, and some of it is still in need of further investment. The Emirati Navy is a good example of this, although to its credit it has deployed for years to provide support in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea to UAE forces ashore. Nonetheless, they have been unable to meaningfully prevent Iranian support to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and attacks on Emirati oil exports in the Gulf—although, frankly, that would be hard for the most capable navies, including that of the United States. Moreover, these threats have galvanized Abu Dhabi to start investing more significantly in their naval forces.
Thus, as capable as the UAE military is, the Emirati armed forces are not prepared to sustain large-scale attrition campaigns for many years, as the United States did in Iraq and Afghanistan. They could mount a formidable defense against Iranian aggression, particularly since Iran has little capability to project conventional forces across the Gulf beyond firing missiles and sending drones. But if U.S. air and naval forces were ever withdrawn and the Iranians were able to put a large land force on the southern side of the Gulf, that would pose a major challenge for the UAE’s armed forces.
Nevertheless, the UAE military can strike and destroy targets thousands of miles from its bases. It can deploy small but capable formations for everything from quick special forces assaults to somewhat larger (brigade-sized) mechanized operations and conduct the full-spectrum of fire support to missions of such size.
Be Careful What You Wish For
These new capabilities have opened doors for the UAE to advance its national security goals. Having served alongside U.S. forces in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Syria at Washington’s request, Abu Dhabi has since intervened against American wishes (albeit with U.S. support) in Yemen alongside the Saudis, as well as in the horn of Africa, and now in Libya. Where once the United States was grateful to have the UAE participate in conflicts serving its interests, Washington now has friction with Abu Dhabi because they have learned much from fighting beside U.S. forces and are now employing their capability to act without U.S. assistance.
This is what we would consider a good problem. Exactly the kind of problem that the United States has long wanted to have.
For decades, the United States has bemoaned the military weakness of its Gulf Arab allies, which have required American military forces to help defend them against external threats. Although the U.S. military commitment to the Gulf has always been much smaller and cheaper than most Americans realize, two consecutive administrations have now sought to diminish that presence further. But disengagement from the Middle East risks allowing Iran and all manner of violent extremist groups to fill the vacuum if the United States’ Arab partners aren’t strong enough to do so themselves.
That’s part of why the United States has consistently asked the UAE and other Arab states to build their military capabilities and why we should continue to do so in the future.
Differences of Opinion
Although it would be nice if U.S. allies never took any action without asking permission first, that’s hardly realistic. The key is to recognize what would constitute a true problem for U.S. interests, as opposed to what should be seen as policy divergences that are outweighed by the benefits of finally having Arab partners with some meaningful military capability to shoulder some of the burden. Especially in the Middle East, where the United States wants to do less, and is (unfortunately) doing less and less to defend the interests of its allies, those allies are likely to find new ways to protect their interests themselves.
Allies going their own ways at times is inevitable, especially if the United States continues to try to decrease its role in the region. For instance, though many U.S. national security experts believe that the Saudi-Emirati intervention in Yemen was a losing proposition and a mistake, the Saudis and Emiratis saw the Houthi takeover of Sana’a and Aden as a threat to their security interests in two ways: They feared the Houthis (and their Iranian allies) would interdict shipping in the Red Sea and launch missile and drone attacks across the border with impunity (which they have since done). Moreover, the intervention was partly the outcome of America’s own unwillingness to address the expansion of Iranian aggression and proxy warfare across the region. If the United States wasn’t going to stop Tehran and its allies, U.S. allies felt they had to do so themselves with their partially U.S.-enabled military capability.
Like it or not, this situation will probably recur and multiply in the future. Thus, it is critical that the United States develop a more pragmatic approach to such actions by its Arab allies, and a better method of gauging how to shape its responses.
To that end, we believe that the United States should assess a foreign intervention by one of its Arab allies, including the UAE, based on four fundamental criteria:
Does the intervention contravene U.S. vital interests? Obviously, the United States does not want its allies taking actions that are detrimental to critical American interests. But that’s where the emphasis should lie. The Emirati interventions in Yemen, the horn of Africa and Libya were not necessarily in accordance with U.S. policy toward those regions, but they did not undermine vital American interests there. Moreover, since U.S. policy objectives and commitments in all three cases were hardly central to U.S. regional interests, it is hard to argue that Abu Dhabi was threatening important American objectives to which it had committed significant resources. And that is what the standard should be: How important is the issue to the United States and how hard is the United States working to move the situation in a different direction? Where the answers to those questions are, “not significantly,” as they were in all three of these cases, Washington should certainly raise its concerns with its partners but be ready to accept that their interests will not always align. However, if one of our regional partners were ever to take an action that would threaten a vital U.S. interest, one where the United States had invested significantly—such as using force against another U.S. partner or ally in the region—the American reaction should be of a different order of magnitude altogether.
Do elements of the U.S. partners’ military intervention violate American laws? The Saudi and Emirati intervention in Yemen triggered disputes over several U.S. laws. In particular, some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) aircraft were believed to have dropped American cluster munitions in ways that resulted in civilian casualties. Likewise, they were providing U.S.-manufactured equipment (or equipment that contained American parts and technology) to Yemeni militias without explicit U.S. permission, which is required by law. In the former case, U.S. laws created useful leverage to convince both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to adopt American procedures for minimizing civilian damage from air strikes, something that has ultimately proved beneficial to both of them. In the latter case, the United States objected to the likely transfer of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs)—essentially armored “battle taxis”—to Yemeni militias. The MRAPs are not state of the art technology, nor are they powerful weapons that will change the balance of power in Yemen. Although the U.S. government needs to respect all of its laws, there are some that it should make a greater effort to enforce with its allies than others, and when it comes to situations like these, the United States should focus on the spirit of those laws more than the letter. In this case, the law is meant to prevent American technology from falling into enemy hands and prevent American weapons from being used to cause large-scale death and mayhem. Putting a shoulder into those cases that contravene the spirit of the U.S. law—like the cluster munitions issue—gives the United States greater influence when it does so, especially if it puts less emphasis on those that don’t, like the MRAPs.
Does the Arab partners’ military intervention violate the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and its four major tenets: military necessity, distinction between military and civilian targets, proportionality, and unnecessary suffering/humanity? In this brief post we cannot fully evaluate if the Saudis and Emiratis violated the LOAC in Yemen. As we know from our own experience, this is no simple matter and must be drilled and trained into both commanders and troops on the ground, particularly when the enemy has little to no regard for the LOAC. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia welcomed U.S. assistance to help them do better. This conflict has also proved even more challenging than most because the Houthis, like Hezbollah and Hamas, often intentionally use civilian sites to launch attacks to increase the likelihood that their opponents might make the mistake of striking civilian targets.
No surprises. Although the United States will not always know how or when specifically its GCC partners decide to use their newly acquired military capabilities, it should expect to be informed well in advance when its partners plan to embark on new campaigns or in new regions where they may seek to employ their military. They should let the United States know well beforehand if they are going to intervene somewhere, but Washington should not expect them to vet every operation they plan to conduct once they are engaged. For its part, the United States should recognize that just because it is being informed does not mean it should necessarily expect partner states to alter their plans if Washington does not approve of them, as long as they meet the preceding three criteria. Allies and partners don’t always agree, but they should not surprise each other—and that goes both ways.
The past two U.S. administrations have seemed intent on disengaging from the Middle East even as the region sinks deeper into conflict and strife. This is a risky and arguably flawed policy, one that has already contributed to the rise of the Islamic State, prolonged conflict in Syria and Libya, mass refugee flows into Europe and the populist movements they inspired, and worsening conflict among the three regional coalitions led by Iran, Turkey-Qatar, and Saudi Arabia-UAE. Yet if Washington is determined to pursue this course, then it is imperative that it bring its policies into alignment with its (diminishing) commitment of resources. This will mean continuing to build up the military capabilities of its regional allies as it has the UAE while devising a workable framework with them for the use of their militaries like the criteria described above. Doing so will be imperative not only to minimize misunderstandings between the United States and its partners, but also to minimize the risks to the United States’s enduring interests in the region.
In 1877, Susan B. Anthony took a train to the Hinsdale County Courthouse in Lake City to campaign for women’s suffrage.
“There was such a crowd of people who showed up to that event, she couldn't hold it inside the courthouse. She had to host it on the steps so that everyone could hear her speak, and apparently it was so inspiring that the very next day, the men and women in that town formed a local suffrage association,” Rosset told Colorado Matters. “Ms. Anthony, who was traveling from upstate New York, was less than thrilled with the rough and rowdy crowds in Colorado's mining towns. So she vowed never to come back.”
Wikimedia CommonsThe Winks Panorama, or Winks Lodge, was constructed in 1928.
One of the country’s only African American resorts
One of the most impressive buildings included in the Colorado Historical Foundation’s story project is Winks Lodge, a social and cultural hub in Gilpin County which entertained such notable jazz musicians and literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance as Count Basie, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington and Zora Neal Hurston.
Before and after performing in Denver, they often made the long drive to Winks to escape the oppression of the city and enjoy the fresh mountain air.
Winks was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Winks is located in Lincoln Hills, one of just three vacation resorts in the country which catered to African Americans at that time and the only one west of the Mississippi. In the 1920s and through the 50s, due to segregation, there were few places Black families could vacation where they felt comfortable. Lincoln Hills was a destination in the Green Book, the trusted travel guide Blacks used on road trips to find a safe haven.
The Lincoln Hills Development Company got its start in 1922 when two Black entrepreneurs bought 100 acres in Gilpin County from a white developer and divided it into parcels of 25 by 100 feet. The starting price for a plot of land was forty dollars. It took $5 down and five dollars a month to secure a spot.
“It was our American Dream, a mountain place available to us where we felt safe and comfortable,” said Gary Jackson, a Denver County Court judge who was one month old when his family first brought him to Lincoln Hills. “When I was a child I did what any kid does, throwing rocks in the stream and shooting my BB gun. It was where I studied for the Bar and invited 70 people out for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.”
Jackson’s grandfather, William Pitts, was one of the first to build at Lincoln HIlls when he bought four lots in the 1920s. In a letter he wrote to Lincoln Hills Incorporated, he told them that the $40 price tag made him suspicious that the land was “inferior to others, but to my great surprise, I found it to be the most beautiful mountain subdivision that I have ever visited.”
“Back in those years we couldn’t go to Estes Park, Glenwood Springs, or the Broadmoor. You could drive in but you couldn’t be served,” Jackson said. “This was before 1954. Colorado wasn’t any different in terms of de facto segregation.”
“My grandfather, when he first bought the land, he wanted it to be a country club for Black people. That was his plan and that’s why he built more than one cabin up there. And then of course Winks went up and built his cabin, and he’s the one that had lodges for rent and for people to come up and stay at his lodge and he’s the one that had the place for the music and dance and so forth, but our little cabin, we went up just for enjoyment to spend the night and stay up there on the weekend,” said Nancelia Scott-Jackson, Gary Jackson’s 95-year-old mother. “Lincoln Hills was a second home to us.”
In 1927, a summer camp for African American girls was added at Lincoln Hills, run by the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the Denver YWCA. Named Camp Nizhoni, for the Navajo word “beautiful,” the girls would spend a week or two at camp participating in outdoor adventures that were denied them elsewhere. Scott-Jackson was a camp participant.
Courtesy of Wanda FrazierNalani Benson Wortham learns archery at Lincoln Hills through the Heart to Hand after-school program.
Camp Nzoni is still thriving, although it was closed this summer due to COVID-19. Nalani Benson Wortham, 14, previously attended the camp as part of an after-school program called “Heart and Hand.” One of her favorite activities is horseback riding, but she also likes the history of Lincoln Hills.
“The history behind it definitely, just to see how far we’ve come because at the time, that was one of the very few places that Black people could go, and now we’re allowed pretty much anywhere,” Benson Wortham said.
She joined the conversation on Colorado Matters and asked Scott-Jackson what advice she’d give about how to deal with discrimination or racism.
“You just stand up for your right and be who you are. Don’t let anyone say you can’t do something or you can’t go here. Always be yourself, and for one thing, always vote. I never missed the vote even for the school board,” Scott-Jackson said. “Do the things that you want to do. If you can’t get through the door, go through the window. Be sure and keep your dreams, always do what you dream of being and just be who you are. And always tell your history.”
Ken Lund/Wikimedia CommonsThe historic Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado.
Durango's Strater Hotel
When the Colorado Historical Foundation called Durango’s Rod Barker to let him know that his family hotel was in the Green Book, he couldn’t believe it.
“That was a wonderful discovery for me,” Barker told Colorado Matters.
Barker’s grandfather bought the Strater Hotel in 1926, but it was his father who registered it in the Green Book.
“Apparently my dad put the hotel in the book in 1962 as a place welcoming Blacks in their travel,” Barker said. “I can only imagine how difficult it might have been for a black person or a person of color coming to rural Colorado because it may not have felt so welcoming all the way around.”
One of the rooms at the Strater Hotel is named after a Black entrepreneur named Frank Fitchue, whose heroic actions in 1883 saved the First National Bank from robbers who wanted to steal $30,000 in gold and cash.
“One night a local gang of thugs decided they were going to rob the bank and were pressuring Frank to let them in,” Barker said. “His life was actually in danger from this group, but instead of acquiescing, he just simply told the president of the bank about the plan and they arranged to have law enforcement there. When he opened the door to let them in, they had a different welcome than they were expecting.”
Historic LGBTQ Colorado Buildings
The Colorado Historical Foundation grant money will also go toward identifying important LGBTQ sites.
“One of the most significant historic events happened at the Boulder County Courthouse where the County Clerk Clela Rorex issued the first same-sex marriage license in the United States in 1975,” Rosset said.
When the research project is finished, Rosset says the hope is for the History Colorado State Historical Fund to publish a modern Green Book with the Office of Colorado Tourism for history road trips.
Banks, a gauge for the broader economy, have signaled they anticipate a longer, deeper recession than they first expected in the spring.
Photo: Peter Foley/Bloomberg News
The coronavirus threw the U.S. banking system into extreme gyrations.
The normally unexciting quarterly industry report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., released last week, showed in stark detail how the pandemic is ensnaring banks big and small.
Profits tumbled as the banks put aside billions for loan losses. Margins hit an all-time low. Fee income hit a record high. Customers flooded banks with more deposits than they had ever seen, so much so that the nation’s safety net for bank failures fell below a legal limit.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What long-term impact will the pandemic have on the banking industry? Join the conversation below.
The banks, a gauge for the broader economy, have signaled they anticipate a longer, deeper recession than they first expected in the spring. Though much of the economy has held up relatively well, the banks say government stimulus and other temporary reprieves have likely delayed the pain, not overcome it. Many lenders are bracing for a wave of defaults.
The turmoil has made it hard to see how banks will grow profits, one reason shares have failed to rally along with the market.
“The banks have been flooded by cash and it’s hard to know what to do with it,” said Brian Foran, an analyst at Autonomous Research. “That narrative is not an attractive investment story.”
Profits
Net income for the banking industry as a whole plunged 70% from a year before to $18.78 billion, according to the FDIC report. It was up slightly from the first quarter, but both periods represent the lowest quarterly income since early 2010. The profits are skewed by the big four banks, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of AmericaCorp.,CitigroupInc. and Wells Fargo & Co., which make up roughly half the drop. The FDIC said the 4,624 community banks in its data actually posted an aggregate increase in net income of $202.5 million.
Provisions
Profits were sunk by increased credit loss provisions, money the banks stash aside to deal with potential future loan trouble. The banks parked away $62 billion in the second quarter, on top of $53 billion in the first quarter.
The banks were also implementing new accounting standards that forced more provisions up front. The FDIC said the 253 banks that used the new standards in the second quarter accounted for 90% of provisions. That figure was again driven by the big four banks, which combined for $33 billion—JPMorgan alone had $10.5 billion. Actual losses remained at an average of just 0.57% of loans, but the provisions brace them for more.
Margins
Banks were whacked with the lowest lending margin in the history of the FDIC’s data, which goes back to 1984. The average net interest margin, the difference between what the banks make on loans and pay out on deposits, shrank to 2.81% compared with 3.39% a year ago. The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to near zero in March, and emergency cuts hit income faster than the banks could reduce their deposit costs.
Fee income
With the Fed expected to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future, banks will need to increase fees or find other ways to replace some of that income. In the second quarter, revenue from non-lending operations increased 7% for the industry, hitting a new record. It was boosted by investment banking, mortgage fees and by smaller banks selling loans.
Deposits
For the second quarter in a row, deposits increased by more than $1 trillion. There has been $2.4 trillion added in six months, five times any other six-month period, and roughly equal to the deposits of the entire industry in 1984. The big four banks have taken in $900 billion of the year’s gains.
Corporate customers have loaded up with cash to backstop their businesses through a long slowdown. Consumers with nowhere to go have slowed spending and received stimulus checks and increased unemployment assistance.
The surge was so quick that the FDIC insurance fund fell to just 1.3% of all deposits, breaching its legal requirement of holding enough to cover 1.35% of all deposits.
The agency expects the deposits to normalize and said the fund would self-correct.
Corrections & Amplifications
JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have taken in $900 billion in deposits in 2020. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said $900 million. (Corrected on Aug. 30)
Photo: Ramsey County. Stormie Marie Gysbers
Tommy Wiita
