Miranda has been in the North Texas area since she graduated from Oklahoma Christian University in 2014. She reported and did design for a daily newspaper in Grayson County before she transitioned to a managing editor role for three weekly newspapers in Collin County. She joined Community Impact Newspaper in 2017 covering Tarrant County news, and is now back in Collin County as the editor of the McKinney edition.
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MÁLAGA, Spain — At midday on Sunday, there were 31 patients inside the main coronavirus treatment center in Málaga, the city with the fastest-rising infection rate in southern Spain. At 12.15 p.m., the 32nd arrived in an ambulance. Half an hour later came number 33.
The garbage can by the door overflowed with masks and blue surgical gloves. Relatives hovered in silence outside — one of them in tears, another feeling a pang of déjà-vu.
“My brother-in-law had the virus in the spring,” said Julia Bautista, a 58-year-old retired office administrator waiting for news on Sunday of her 91-year-old father.
“Here we go again,” she added.
If Italy was the harbinger of the first wave of Europe’s coronavirus pandemic in February, Spain is the portent of its second.
France is also surging, as are parts of Eastern Europe, and cases are ticking up in Germany, Greece, Italy and Belgium, too, but in the past week, Spain has recorded the most new cases on the continent by far — more than 53,000. With 114 new infections per 100,000 people in that time, the virus is spreading faster in Spain than in the United States, more than twice as fast as in France, about eight times the rate in Italy and Britain, and ten times the pace in Germany.
Spain was already one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, and now has about 440,000 cases and more than 29,000 deaths. But after one of the world’s most stringent lockdowns, which did check the virus’s spread, it then enjoyed one of the most rapid reopenings. The return of nightlife and group activities — far faster than most of its European neighbors — has contributed to the epidemic’s resurgence.
Enjoying the beach in Torremolinos.Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
Now, as other Europeans mull how to restart their economies while still protecting human life, the Spanish have become an early bellwether for how a second wave might happen, how hard it might hit, and how it could be contained.
“Perhaps Spain is the canary in the coal mine,” said Prof. Antoni Trilla, an epidemiologist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, a research group. “Many countries may follow us — but hopefully not at the same speed or with the same number of cases that we are facing.”
To be sure, doctors and politicians are not as terrified by Spain’s second wave as they were by its first. The mortality rate is roughly half the rate at the height of crisis — falling to 6.6 percent from the 12 percent peak in May.
The median age of sufferers has dropped to around 37 from 60. Asymptomatic cases account for more than 50 percent of positive results, which is partly due to a fourfold rise in testing. And the health institutions feel much better prepared.
“We have experience now,” said Dr. María del Mar Vázquez, the medical director of the hospital in Málaga where Ms. Bautista’s father was being treated.
“We have a much bigger stock of equipment, we have protocols in place, we are more prepared,” Dr. Vázquez said. “The hospitals will be full — but we are ready.”
Yet part of the hospital is still a building site — contractors have yet to finish a renovation of the wing of the hospital that deals with coronavirus patients. No one expected the second wave for at least another month.
And epidemiologists aren’t certain why it arrived so soon.
Explanations include a rise in large family gatherings; the return of tourism in cities like Málaga; the decision to return responsibility for combating the virus to local authorities at the end of the nationwide lockdown, and a lack of adequate housing and health care for migrants.
Newlyweds in Málaga on Friday.Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
The surge has also been blamed on the revival of nightlife, which was reinstated earlier and with looser restrictions than in many other parts of Europe.
“We have this cultural factor related to our rich social life,” said Ildefenso Hernández, a former director-general of public health for the Spanish Government. “People are close. They like to get to know each other.”
For several weeks in places like Málaga, nightclubs and discos were allowed to open until as late as 5 a.m., as regional politicians attempted to revive an economy dependent on tourists and partygoers. Revelers were allowed only to dance around a table with friends, rather than mixing with strangers — but the rules were not always observed.
The venue was quickly closed, all nightclubs were ordered to shut two weeks later, and bars must now shut by 1 a.m. But critics fear the restrictions are still far too lax.
As beds continued to fill up in Málaga’s hospitals this weekend, residents were still cramming into bars along certain beach fronts until well past midnight. In some bars, the tables were tightly packed together — far closer than the current rules of two meters, or about six feet, allow.
Cleaning the streets in downtown Málaga.Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
At closing time, drinkers spilled out onto the beaches and pontoons, mostly without wearing masks. There they congregated in groups of more than 20 — a normal sight during any other Spanish summer, but far larger than the gatherings of 10 or fewer now allowed by law.
Some were teenagers who said they had recently recovered from a mild form of the virus, and who now therefore considered themselves immune. Others felt the pandemic restrictions were an overreaction.
“I don’t think covid is real,” said Victor Bermúdez, a 23-year-old shop assistant at an early morning gathering on a pontoon jutting into the Mediterranean. “Well, yes, it’s real — but it’s not as serious as they say. It’s all a plan to kill the poor and boost the rich.”
During the lockdown, the central government set a clear agenda from Madrid. But with the lifting of the state of emergency at the end of June, certain powers were returned to each of Spain’s 17 regional governments, leading to a disjointed and confused approach.
When regions attempted to enforce restrictions on local life, some of their decisions were struck down by local judges, who argued that only the central Parliament had the power to introduce such measures.
“We don’t have the legal tools that guarantee us the ability to take decisions,” said Juan Manuel Moreno, the president of the regional government in Andalusia, the region in which Málaga lies.
Checking temperatures outside a cinema.Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
The debate has also become the latest proxy for a bitter conflict over the Spanish Constitution that has been brewing for more than four decades. For federalists and Catalan separatists, for example, the debacle highlights how power was never properly devolved after the death in 1975 of the dictator Francisco Franco. For Spanish nationalists, it instead shows how the process of decentralization has already gone too far.
There are a few basic things to consider. Does it have at least two layers? Good. If you hold it up to the light, can you see through it? Bad. Can you blow a candle out through your mask? Bad. Do you feel mostly OK wearing it for hours at a time? Good. The most important thing, after finding a mask that fits well without gapping, is to find a mask that you will wear. Spend some time picking out your mask, and find something that works with your personal style. You should be wearing it whenever you’re out in public for the foreseeable future. Read more: What’s the Best Material for a Mask?
What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
In the beginning, the coronavirus seemed like it was primarily a respiratory illness — many patients had fever and chills, were weak and tired, and coughed a lot, though some people don’t show many symptoms at all. Those who seemed sickest had pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome and received supplemental oxygen. By now, doctors have identified many more symptoms and syndromes. In April, the C.D.C. added to the list of early signs sore throat, fever, chills and muscle aches. Gastrointestinal upset, such as diarrhea and nausea, has also been observed. Another telltale sign of infection may be a sudden, profound diminution of one’s sense of smell and taste. Teenagers and young adults in some cases have developed painful red and purple lesions on their fingers and toes — nicknamed “Covid toe” — but few other serious symptoms.
Why does standing six feet away from others help?
The coronavirus spreads primarily through droplets from your mouth and nose, especially when you cough or sneeze. The C.D.C., one of the organizations using that measure, bases its recommendation of six feet on the idea that most large droplets that people expel when they cough or sneeze will fall to the ground within six feet. But six feet has never been a magic number that guarantees complete protection. Sneezes, for instance, can launch droplets a lot farther than six feet, according to a recent study. It's a rule of thumb: You should be safest standing six feet apart outside, especially when it's windy. But keep a mask on at all times, even when you think you’re far enough apart.
I have antibodies. Am I now immune?
As of right now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been frightening accounts of people suffering what seems to be a second bout of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may last in the body only two to three months, which may seem worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It may be possible to get the coronavirus again, but it’s highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or make people sicker the second time.
I’m a small-business owner. Can I get relief?
The stimulus bills enacted in March offer help for the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for aid are businesses and nonprofit organizations with fewer than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some industries are also eligible. The help being offered, which is being managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But lots of folks have not yet seen payouts. Even those who have received help are confused: The rules are draconian, and some are stuck sitting on money they don’t know how to use. Many small-business owners are getting less than they expected or not hearing anything at all.
What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work?
“There is a kind of war going on to show what kind of political system is better,” said Nacho Calle, the editor of Maldita, a prominent fact-checking service.The decentralized approach has led to a piecemeal system of tracking and tracing potential coronavirus victims. Some regions employ several thousand trackers to trace people who might have come into contact with infected people, while other regions hired only a few dozen — slowing the rate at which potential patients are told to enter quarantine.
And even in regions with large numbers of trackers, like Andalusia, health workers on the ground report that the process is still too slow and understaffed in certain locations.
Francisca Morente, a nurse in a clinic west of Málaga, was one of hundreds of local nurses seconded this summer to work as a tracker because of staff shortages at her district’s official tracing unit.
But even now, Ms. Morente is one of just five trackers working at her clinic — not enough to make the hundreds of daily calls that a proper tracing service requires. And even once she manages to track down potential coronavirus patients, those patients still currently need to wait a week until their tests are processed, because of bottlenecks at local laboratories.
“We need more trackers and more resources,” she said. “We need a designated tracker unit in every clinic, instead of this temporary system that we have at the moment.”
Local police telling people to put their masks on outside a bar.Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
A lack of institutional support for undocumented migrants has also contributed to the second wave, according to some experts. Some recent outbreaks began among foreign farmhands living in cramped communal accommodations.
Barred from seeking unemployment benefits and lacking formal labor contracts, undocumented migrants cannot easily take time off work if they are sick. Nor can they afford the kinds of homes that would allow them to easily self-isolate.
“If I have to quarantine, then I cannot work,” said María Perea, a 50-year-old Colombian cleaner waiting on Monday for the results of a coronavirus test. “And if I cannot work, then I have no money.”
But in general, doctors say that Spain is in a far stronger position to fight the virus than it was in March.
National coordination is improving — the central government last week agreed a deal to deploy 2,000 soldiers as contact tracers. Testing speeds are accelerating — in Málaga, the biggest hospital can process tests within a single morning, thanks to the recent purchase of a series of robots. Across the road, a makeshift hospital built in a rush in April stands empty, ready for a rise in cases.
“It’s not like the first wave,” said Carmen Cerezo, 38, a train attendant waiting outside the Málaga hospital while her father was tested for coronavirus inside.
“We’re calmer now,” she said.
A closed nightclub in Málaga. For several weeks after Spain lifted its lockdown, nightclubs and discos were allowed to stay open until 5 a.m.Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
Two of the most valuable and popular public companies – Apple and Tesla – completed stock splits on Monday. Wondering what that entails? And what, if anything, it means for your investments?
Let's start with how the process of a corporate stock split works.
When a company splits its stock, its total value doesn't change; it just ends up with more stocks, each at a cheaper cost.
Here's a food metaphor: If you ask the guy at the pizzeria to cut each slice in your large pie in half, you'll still go home with the same amount of pizza. You just have more, smaller slices now.
Companies typically say they're splitting their stocks to make them affordable to more people.
But, is that reality? It's more of a way to grab headlines and bring in money, said certified financial planner Douglas Boneparth, founder and president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York.
"This was done as a marketing tool to get smaller investors to invest in the stock," Boneparth said. "The actual mechanics of the company are the same."
And therefore, so are your chances of making a profit on either Tesla or Apple, experts say.
"People ultimately want to know, 'What does this mean for my bottom line?'" Boneparth said. "The answer is: nothing."
Apple is splitting each of its stocks into four, and Tesla five.
Still, people can seduced by the suddenly lower prices.
Not so fast, experts say.
Just because you can buy the stock now doesn't mean you're getting more value than you could before the split, said Stacy Francis, a CFP and president and CEO of Francis Financial.
If you can buy one Apple stock after the split, for example, remember that that singular stock is now one-fourth the value of what it would have been worth before the split — and why you paid one-fourth the price.
This was done as a marketing tool to get smaller investors to invest in the stock.
Douglas Boneparth
founder and president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York
The math is, of course, the same if you already owned the stock when the split occurred.
"A two-for-one stock split means that for every share of the stock you owned before the split, now you own two," Francis said. "While you have two shares instead of one, the value of each share is half."
History tells us that a company's performance is unpredictable in the wake of its split.
Tesla and Apple stock were up on Monday, but that doesn't mean much, said Allan Roth, founder of financial advisory firm Wealth Logic.
"In the long-run, [they] will be driven by the fundamentals of the companies and the splits will have no bearing on long-term performance," Roth said.
Here's more evidence that stock splits are more about headlines than your bottom line: These days you don't even need to be able to buy a company's entire stock to own it, and go along for its ride of ups and downs.
Many brokerage firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab allow people to buy portions of a stock, known as fractional shares, Boneparth said, further showing that "stock splits mean absolutely nothing."
The idea that the process allows more people to buy the stock is, he said, "a moot point when fractional stocks exist." Before Monday, he said, "U.S. investors could have bought fractional shares of Tesla or Apple for $5 or $10."
After my first experience of Theater for One — back in pre-pandemic days, when it meant sharing a small booth with an actor who performed a short play for you — I imagined it as what speed dating would be if you fell in love with everyone you met. Sitting that close to an actor’s face, hearing a story I could not avoid being part of because no one else was there to hear it, I was instantly drawn into the uncanny, enraptured collaboration of theater, with its roots in campfire tales and community bonding and a parent’s hushed voice at bedtime.
So when I learned that Theater for One was returning for six Thursdays this summer, in socially distanced form online, I worried that its contract with the audience would be broken. I’d attended enough Zoom meetings to know that “eye contact” had become metaphorical, a digital illusion mediated in both directions by the computer’s camera. How often I’d tried to wink or wave at a colleague, only to realize I was signaling 40 people indiscriminately — and reaching none.
But Theater for One, the brainchild of the scenic designer Christine Jones, turns out to be more adaptable than I thought. In “Here We Are,” its first online project, it has found workarounds for some of Zoom’s most alienating aspects, in the process creating not just a substitute version of the earlier experience but, in some ways, a moving improvement on it.
Its theatrical core is unchanged. Just as in Times Square or Zuccotti Park or any other location where T41 (as it is abbreviated) used to perform in person, you begin by getting in line — only now the line is virtual. Prompts like “What space are you creating in your heart today?” open conversations among anonymous theatergoers in the queue, who type answers that show up and disappear like fireflies on the screen. (Those answers are far more revealing than they would be in real life.) After a while, when a slot opens, you are whisked into a private space, not knowing whom or what you will see there; the assignations are random.
Mahira Kakkar expresses gratitude to Representative John Lewis in “Thank You Letter,” by Jaclyn Backhaus.Credit...Cherie B. Tay
I caught four of the eight “microplays,” averaging about seven minutes each, that T41 commissioned for “Here We Are.” (The other four include works by Lynn Nottage and Carmelita Tropicana.) In honor of the centennial of ratification of the 19th Amendment, and in support of Black Lives Matter, all were written, directed, designed and performed by people of color, most of them women. The monologues are variously witty, worshipful, angry and determined as they take on subjects as widespread as writer’s block, political action, foster care and suffrage itself.
If no single theme unites them, they do share, as the omnibus title suggests, an intense feeling of the immediate present. In Jaclyn Backhaus’s “Thank You Letter,” a South Asian woman played by Mahira Kakkar writes to Representative John Lewis shortly after his death in July, in gratitude for his lesser-known work on immigration. And in Regina Taylor’s “Vote! (the black album),” Taylor plays a Black woman planning to honor her forebears, who dressed in their Sunday best to cast their ballots, by putting on a mask to mail hers.
The pandemic is a given in all the plays but generally takes second place to other concerns. In Lydia R. Diamond’s “whiterly negotiations,” directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, a “crazy-ish Black woman writer” played by Nikkole Salter vents on Zoom about a white editor’s microaggressions. But neither her dudgeon nor the Zoom itself turn out to be what they first seem; in a code-switching coda, Diamond suggests just how confusing our world’s new terrain can be.
Nikkole Salter in “whiterly negotiations” by Lydia R. Diamond, as a writer dealing with her editor’s microaggressions.Credit...Cherie B. Tay
Part of the cleverness — and effectiveness — of “whiterly negotiations” comes from not knowing who you, the viewer, alone in a virtual space with Salter, are meant to be in the story. If you are white, as I am, you might wonder whether you are standing in for the white editor, which is uncomfortable but eye-opening. If you are Black you might think you are a friend listening for the umpteenth time to the character’s spiel. One thing you can’t ever feel, because Salter looks right at you, is that you are a disinterested bystander.
That dynamic more or less informs all four plays I saw. In “Vote!” I felt like both a generalized ear and, because Taylor is such a compelling actor, the specific recipient of her intended message. (She is beautifully directed by Taylor Reynolds.) In “Thank You Letter,” Kakkar’s character immediately enlists you in her story by thanking you for listening. “Hi I don’t know you but I’m going to talk if it’s okay?!” she says. “I come from a long line of nontalkers.”
The conflict I have often felt between being an observer and a participant in the stories I go to the theater to see is intensified and finally obviated by T41’s approach. You have to be both, at least in part so as not to seem rude to the actor, who is being both for you. I felt this most acutely in Stacey Rose’s “Thank You for Coming. Take Care,” directed (like “Thank You Letter”) by Candis C. Jones. Patrice Bell plays a woman serving a long sentence in prison; I played, and you will too if you see it, a foster parent who has been raising the woman’s daughter for two years and now hopes to adopt her.
Patrice Bell as an inmate whose daughter is in foster care in Stacey Rose’s “Thank You for Coming. Take Care.”Credit...Cherie B. Tay
“You don’t look anything like I expected,” Bell’s character says at the start. “Like your hair, I thought it’d be” — and here the script instructs her to describe a kind of hair that’s “opposite to” whatever yours is. “I thought it’d be blond” is what she said to me.
“Thank You for Coming,” so specific and evenhanded, would have been a heartbreaker in any format. But especially now, in moments like that, enhanced by terrific acting, you feel seen in a way that has been too often absent these six months — and maybe longer. Intimacy in the live theater is always touch-and-go. On display alone in our homes, we are much more seen than usual.
Seen and sometimes implicated. After all, everyone is part of everyone else’s story. In our isolation, it can be hard to remember that. From its title on, “Here We Are” is not about to let us forget.
Theater for One: Here We Are
Performances each Thursday through Sept. 24; theatreforone.com.
New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine is shedding light on the development of the brain's immune defenses -- and how those defenses respond to strokes that strike one in 4,000 babies in the first month of life.
The brain's frontline defenders are immune cells known as microglia. These cells make up 10%-15% of all cells found in the brain. But their origins have been hotly debated. UVA's Chia-Yi "Alex" Kuan, MD, PhD, has discovered that many were previously white blood cells known as monocytes. During brain development -- and in response to infant strokes -- the monocytes undergo an amazing conversion into troops to defend the brain.
"Most people believe that blood monocytes only come into the brain after injury to provoke damage, and then they either die or leave the brain. Some even say monocytes and microglia live in parallel universes," said Kuan, of UVA's Department of Neuroscience and its Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG). "But our results showed that many microglial cells actually come from the blood monocytes, both in normal development and after newborn brain injury."
The Brain's Immune Defenders
The finding is the latest from UVA's Department of Neuroscience and BIG center, which have in recent years revolutionized our understanding of the brain's relationship with the immune system. To explore the origins of the brain's immune defenses, Kuan and his colleagues developed an innovative new lab model that should greatly benefit future research. That model allowed his team to trace the origins of microglia in the brains of lab mice.
The researchers found that many monocytes transform into microglia over the course of brain development. This was a surprise -- prior to UVA's discovery, scientists widely believed that microglia do not come from the blood monocytes. But Kuan's team used a process called "fate mapping" to reveal the microglia's secret origins.
In addition, Kuan's team found that monocytes rush to the rescue during neonatal stroke. Neonatal strokes are interruptions of blood flow to the baby's brain in the first 28 days after birth. Such strokes have a wide variety of causes, from blood clots to developmental abnormalities. Common symptoms include seizures and extreme sleepiness, though in some cases there are no symptoms until much later in life, when children can develop speech difficulties and balance problems.
In such strokes, Kuan found, there is an initial rush of monocytes, which then gradually become more like microglia. This lasts at least 62 days after the brain injury. Some of these monocytes are ultimately reprogrammed to join the brain's defense forces, the UVA researchers determined.
"But do monocyte-descended microglia continue to impair brain development in infants that suffered from newborn stroke, leading to neurological deficits? Can we target these disguised monocytes to improve the outcomes of newborn brain injury?" said researcher Hong-Ru Chen, PhD, the first author of the new study. "These are fascinating questions that beg for more research."
Monday caps off a strange and stressful legislative session in California, complicated by the coronavirus pandemic that kept lawmakers out of the Capitol for weeks at a time.
Lawmakers have less than 24 hours to vote on some of the most substantive and controversial bills of the session. Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled he is open to calling a special legislative session, giving lawmakers more time to pass bills, but only if it’s absolutely necessary.
Here’s a look at some of the notable bills to keep an eye on.
Housing
Evictions are currently on hold in California, but that moratorium is set to expire this week. Newsom and legislative leaders announced a deal on AB 3088 late Friday that would pause evictions through January 31 as a result of unpaid rent during the first six months of the pandemic. To be eligible for the protections, renters would have to fill out documents certifying they were impacted by COVID-19 and pay at least 25 percent of their rent starting in September. No missed rent payments would be forgiven; landlords could recoup any unpaid sums in small claims court starting in March.
Evictions not related to unpaid rent — as a result of nuisance complaints or the owner remodeling, for example — could restart when the current eviction moratorium ends September 2. The legislation would also offer some foreclosure protections for small landlords.
Another bill, SB 1079, would block corporations from buying bundles of foreclosed homes. Instead, the homes would have to be sold individually, which could give individual homeowners a better chance at buying the foreclosed properties. Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley who authored the bill, argues “the corporate takeover of housing was, and continues to be, devastating for low- and moderate-income families.”
Police Reform
As a summer filled with civil unrest sparked by the killing of George Floyd draws to a close, advocates for police reform are watching California’s Democrat-dominated Legislature for signs of progress. Some proposals have already stalled and law enforcement groups are trying to pump the breaks on a handful of others, citing the need for more time and debate.
SB 731 would lay out a process for stripping the badges from officers convicted of certain crimes or fired for misconduct. California is one of only a handful of states that does not have a similar law on the books.
AB 1506 would require a state prosecutor to investigate any police killings of unarmed civilians, removing the duty from local district attorneys. Following a passionate debate Sunday, the Senate approved the measure, which now only needs a procedural vote in the Assembly before heading to Newsom’s desk.
Racial Justice and Equality
And there’s appetite among lawmakers for racial reforms in other areas, too.
A bill to create a reparations task force, which would study and recommend some type of compensation for African-Americans and descendants of slaves, got final approval Sunday night and is heading to Newsom’s desk.
AB 979 would require public companies headquartered in California to have at least one board member from an under-represented community — based on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation and identity — by the end of next year. Lawmakers sent it to Newsom late Sunday night.
Lawmakers are also considering two proposals aimed at making juries more diverse and representative of their communities. Sen. Scott Wiener is sponsoring SB 592, which would require courts to draw potential jurors from a list of California tax filers, rather than registered voters and licensed drivers.
AB 3070 would make it more difficult for attorneys to strike people from juries through peremptory challenge, a mechanism Sen. Scott Wiener argued bars “entire black and brown communities” from participating on juries. However, the bill failed to garner a majority of votes Sunday and could be in trouble in Monday’s remaining hours.
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5 things to know: Local cafe decides 'to pull the plug and call it a day' - Sacramento Business Journal
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Feline Good Social Club, Long Beach’s first cat cafe, will reopen its doors Tuesday, Sept. 1, with new social-distancing measures to provide a safe experience with the cats, the cafe announced last week.
The cafe was forced to close in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The cafe, on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Third Street, has been rearranged into nine seating areas for guests to enjoy 50-minute sessions. All sessions begin on the hour, with the final session at 5 p.m.; capacity has been reduced to 18 guests per session.
The cafe opened its doors last year. Since then, the cafe has placed more than 80 cats into permanent homes.
“During quarantine, we have continued to adopt out cats remotely,” the cafe’s owner, Pam Leslie, said in a statement. “But we are very ready to get back to the lounge and spend quality time with our special customers and playful feline friends.”
The cafe currently has around 30 cats — including 10 kittens — that will be available for adoption. The cats are brought in by the cafe’s own partner rescue group, Long Beach Feline, a nonprofit dedicated to sheltering homeless or abused cats.
“We do a lot of good here,” Leslie said. “For cats and people; especially during this time when we are all looking for safe places where we can have some fun and relax a bit.”
The cafe said it plans to have fun activities and special goodies on its the reopening day. Guests can either walk up on the hour or reserve a spot through Feline Good Social Club’s Facebook page, facebook.com/Felinegoodsocialclub.
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Even though Tesla's stock traded around 5% higher at $470 a share Monday, that's still roughly $1,800 cheaper than where it was trading on Friday. The company announced the stock split earlier this month, making shares more affordable for average investors.
The split will not change the value of investors' total holdings of the company. It will just grow the number of shares making up their portfolios. Tesla(TSLA) stockholders are getting four shares for each share they held last week.
Tesla continues to be a big target of short sellers -- investors who borrow the stock and sell it with the hopes of eventually buying it back at a lower price.
Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, likes to point out (correctly, so far) that analysts have been consistently wrong and that Wall Street keeps raising its earnings forecasts and price targets on the stock.
Tesla may also get a further boost if it is finally added to the blue-chip S&P 500 index(INX) -- a move that could soon happen now that the company has posted a consistent run of profitable quarters.
Apple(AAPL) also started trading Monday after its stock split with shares now about $400 cheaper after its 4-1 split. Apple stock is now trading around $128 per share, after gaining 3% Monday. That's compared to about $500 last week.
--CNN Business' Paul R. La Monica and David Goldman contributed to this report.
The Scarsdale location opened its doors on August 18, and it marks an important step forward for LIBC in its expansion throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. In a move coordinated by Mr. Stern, as well as LIBC co-founders Randy Narod and Joe Anzalone, the LIBC location in Scarsdale offers authentic, hand-rolled bagels, which are baked fresh on-site 365 days a year. The location sports a multifaceted menu specializing in breakfast and lunch options, pastries and baked goods, salads, sandwiches, wraps and panini, among other items. Further, LIBC offers catering services for any size occasion, including corporate or private affairs, school functions or sporting events.
Boasting a new logo, corporate branding and an updated website, the LIBC in Scarsdale combines quality products, a service-minded staff and an exemplary location to stand out in the fast casual restaurant space within the region. Located at 365 Central Park Avenue, the LIBC in Scarsdale is the first of three new franchise locations under Mr. Stern's ownership, with an additional store under construction in Eastchester, New York, and a third location to open in the near future.
A longtime associate of LIBC, Mr. Stern's experience in food service was limited prior to this venture. He was introduced to Mr. Narod by a mutual friend, and was initially hired to fill a counter position. His dedication and hard work paid off, propelling him to a managerial position soon thereafter. Upon learning of LIBC's franchising opportunities, Mr. Stern spearheaded the expansion into the Westchester market.
"Opening an LIBC franchise was a no-brainer," said Mr. Stern adding, "Once I learned the ins-and-outs of the business and experienced the hands-on support of the entire team firsthand, I realized that this was the smartest decision I could have made. At only 30 years old, I am now the owner and operator of my own business, and my career path is set with LIBC, and that offers financial security." Notably, the average LIBC unit averages in excess of $2.1 million in revenue annually.
LIBC aims to ensure customer satisfaction at the Scarsdale location with on-site training and management support, a training module encapsulating all of the restaurant's acclaimed recipes, and assistance from key LIBC team members to oversee operations in its first weeks. LIBC also adheres to current regulations and mandates to keep its customers, employees and community as healthy and safe as possible. For hours, location information, deals and the full menu, please visit https://libc.com/locations/scarsdale/.
Reinvigorating markets around Long Island since 2001, LIBC remains committed to creating additional franchise locations throughout the Northeastern United States. Equipped with a top-tier real estate division seeking prime business locations, a reputable construction and design company, a franchise quality assurance team, and a proven track record, LIBC plans to bring the flavors of Long Island to diverse communities while laying the foundation for potential restauranteurs to discover their own success. For those interested in opening their own franchise and joining LIBC, please visit https://libcfranchise.com/ or contact Stuart Levenberg at [email protected].
"cafe" - Google News
August 31, 2020 at 09:05PM
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Long Island Bagel Café Announces First Franchise Location in Greater Westchester Region - PRNewswire
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Miami Beach has seen a lot of ups and downs. But though hurricanes and economic upticks and downturns, one thing was certain: David's Cafe, where you could get a cafecito at the ventanita, lunch at the counter, or even a fancy dinner at the restaurant's dining room.
Now, after 42 years, David's Cafe Cafecito will close after service today.
"It is with a heavy heart that I must deliver this message to you all and by far one of the hardest decisions we have had to make for our family business. My loving parents began writing this beautiful story back in 1977 in their pursuit of the American dream and after 42 years we have had a few chapters written, but unfortunately with this global Pandemic we tried to the best of our abilities to hang on. Sadly, this chapter has been written for us and we will be closing our doors. I want to let everyone know this is the end of our chapter here at David’s Café Cafecito, but the story is far from over. From the bottom of our hearts we want to thank all of our community for showing us so much love and support during the years and especially during these challenging times. We want to thank all our amazing staff for all their hard work."
Gonzalez invited one and all to the café at Ninth Street and Alton Road to "stop on by to say goodbye for now. Make sure to follow us on social media to see what is happening in the future."
In a phone conversation with New Times, Gonzalez says he made the decision after he realized he couldn't make the numbers work.
"We looked for some relief in the way of government grants. We did get PPP money — and that went to help pay our employees — but we were still a day late and a dollar short," he says. "It just didn't make sense to keep taking a gamble on the future when I'm convinced that we are not going to have any semblance of normalcy until at least February of next year. Keeping David's open would only make it worse for my family."
Gonzalez, who grew up at the café his parents, Alfredo and Maria Gonzalez, opened in 1977, says even before COVID-19, the face of Miami Beach was changing.
"I'm 46 years old. I spent 42 years in Miami Beach, and the city has to do something to preserve the mom-and-pop restaurants," he says. "They have to understand that one of the reasons we're internationally known is because our city is such a diverse melting pot. People love that."
Gonzalez says the most difficult part of deciding to close was calling his mother.
"The restaurant, to me, was a tribute and a legacy to my mother and father. They came from nothing and they built a name for themselves on Miami Beach. It killed me to call my mom. I'm a grown man and my heart broke. It beyond frustrates me that it had to come to this."
He says the buzz among his fellow small business owners on Alton Road isn't good.
"I know everything is frustrating. We're in the middle of a pandemic. We have to learn as we go, but I still feel that nobody is really doing anything to help small businesses."
So, after 42 years and various iterations, David's Cafe will serve its last cafecito tomorrow evening.
"I'm overwhelmed. I've tried everything. That's it. We're maxed out. I had to tell my seven-year-old son we were closing and it was horrible."
Still, Gonzalez is optimistic he can revive David's Cafe in the future.
"Eventually, it's going to get better," he says. "Miami will come back. And so will we. I'm open to anything, but it's gotta make sense."
The 2020 champagne harvest is underway with a promising output but champagne producers have agreed to throw out much of the harvest to keep the prices high to compensate for the drop in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic. CNN's Melissa Bell explains.
A "Trump 2020 Cruise Rally in Portland," started earlier in nearby Clackamas, Oregon, where a large group of Trump supporters and cars gathered, CNN affiliate KOIN reported. Video footage from KOIN showed pickup trucks with American flags, "Thin Blue Line" flags and Trump 2020 flags prominently displayed on the vehicles.
After the rally, a line of cars, motorcycles and trucks made its way along the "Trump 2020 cruise rally route" which appeared to include the downtown Portland area, according to an image on a Facebook advertisement of the event.
Portland police were aware of the rally and tried to keep the caravan out of the downtown area, Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at a news conference Sunday, but a group of the vehicles were able to "come into the downtown core."
The police tweeted Saturday that there had been "some instances of violence between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators."
Videos posted by a New York Times reporter showed fights breaking out between Trump supporters and the protesters.
A man riding in the bed of a passing black pickup truck displaying a blue "Oregon for Trump" flag and an American flag can be seen pointing and firing a paintball gun at the protesters standing on the corner.
Riders in the black truck can be seen releasing some form of spray.
And as a green pickup truck passes, someone riding in its bed can be seen spraying something toward protesters. Passengers in that green truck duck as the other protesters toss something at them.
The victim
The man who died was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group that has clashed with protesters in the past, according to New York Times reporter Mike Baker.
Trump tweeted "Rest In Peace" about the man.
What one witness said
Justin Dunlap, who witnessed the shooting and captured some of it on his Facebook live stream, said he "didn't hear much lead up to it."
"I heard like three seconds of yelling and saw a guy spray bear mace," Dunlap told CNN. "The victim sprayed mace and launched it right into the other guy."
CNN has not confirmed if the victim is the person who sprayed mace.
"I've watched the video 100 times, slow-mo and on my TV, and still don't know where the shots actually came from," Dunlap said.
Dunlap said he has been documenting the unrest in Portland since shortly after the George Floyd protests.
"I was in the wrong place at the right time," he said."I'm just a citizen journalist. I just want people to know what is going on out here."
Before the shooting, Dunlap said he saw people who were part of the Trump supporters parade launch mace from the back of their vehicles to protesters walking down the street.
What officials said
President Donald Trump and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler sparred in the wake of the shooting, Trump on Twitter and the mayor on camera at a press conference.
"Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his City during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should go on forever. Wrong! Portland will never recover with a fool for a Mayor....," Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon.
Wheeler slammed Trump at the press conference.
"It's you who have created the hate and the division," Wheeler said.
"The tragedy of last night cannot be repeated," Wheeler said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what your politics are -- we have to all stop the violence."
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown also blasted Trump in a statement Sunday afternoon, saying he "has encouraged division and stoked violence."
"It happened in Kenosha. And now, unfortunately, it is happening in Portland, Oregon."
"But despite the President's jeers and tweets, this is a matter of life and death. Whether it's his completely incompetent response to the pandemic, where nearly 200,000 have died, or his outright encouragement of violence in our streets: it should be clear to everyone by now that no one is truly safe with Donald Trump as President," Brown said.
CNN's Hollie Silverman, Alta Spells, Holly Yan, Amanda Jackson, Chuck Johnston, Jon Passantino and Josh Campbell contributed to this report.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler addresses a fatal shooting tied to protests during a press conference at City Hall in Portland, Ore., Aug. 30, 2020. One person was shot and killed as a pro-Trump car caravan rolled through town the previous evening.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
The morning after a man was fatally shot amid conflicts between pro-Trump demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and other leaders wasted little time Sunday blaming President Donald Trump for inciting hatred and violence.
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“Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence?” Wheeler said in an afternoon press conference. “It’s you who have created the hate and the division.”
Saying that it has long been his “greatest fear” that someone would die as a result of growing unrest in the city, Wheeler urged calm from both Portlanders who have been protesting racial injustice, and people on Twitter who he said have been threatening to “seek retribution” for the killing.
“The tragedy of last night cannot be repeated,” Wheeler said. “All of us must take a stance against violence. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your politics are.”
It was not clear Sunday afternoon whether the shooting was directly tied to conflicts between racial justice protesters and a caravan of Trump supporters and right-wing groups that made their way to downtown Portland. Neither Wheeler nor Police Chief Chuck Lovell, who appeared beside him at the news conference, offered new details about the man’s identity or what led to the shooting.
But there are some indications the victim might have been downtown because of the pro-Trump demonstration. Those grew stronger Sunday, when Joey Gibson, the leader of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, told the Associated Press the man was “a good friend and supporter.”
Official sources have not publicized the name of the victim, though several news outlets have identified him as Jay Bishop. A fundraiser has been set up by Stephen Bishop, seeking money for funeral costs. The fundraising plea tied Bishop’s death to groups that rode through Portland Saturday, mentioning “Patriots.” By 5:00 Sunday afternoon, donations had more than doubled the $10,000 goal.
With his remarks, Wheeler continued a war of words that local leaders and the president have engaged in for months regarding the unrest in the city. He was far from the only Oregon Democrat who cast Saturday’s shooting as a symptom of division the president has sown while in office. Both Gov. Kate Brown and Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury issued statements similarly focused on Trump.
“Last night — stoked by a president who has gone out of his way to demonize this city and encourage vigilantism in service to white supremacy and his own fragile ego — armed participants of a pro-Trump caravan terrorized downtown Portland, driving their vehicles and shooting paintballs and pepper spray directly at community members and journalists,” Kafoury said in a statement. “They came to create confrontation and were able to do so.”
Since 2016, far-right organizations have held rallies in Portland that often culminate in brawls. Saturday night’s rally included pro-Trump supporters using mace and paintball guns against racial justice demonstrators. Leaders of a coalition of left-leaning civil rights groups said Sunday the behavior of the pro-Trump supporters was a result of years of failed, hands-off leadership by Wheeler, who they said should resign.
“The lack of leadership that has existed with the city and the mayor’s office has allowed this to fester and allowed these groups to be able to come in and feel like they can do whatever they want,” said Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center. “The videos last night of trucks and cars driving through at full speed, trying to run people over, shooting people from the back of their cabs with paintball guns, suggest the city is not taking those groups seriously enough and that we can’t trust law enforcement to protect us or keep us safe.”
At Sunday’s afternoon press conference, Wheeler said voters would hold both him and the president accountable. But neither Wheeler nor Lovell offered a specific plan for preventing Saturday’s shooting from setting off more violence, though they both acknowledged that possibility.
“Today we need to decide who we are and where we want to go from here,” Wheeler said. “Don’t let this be the spark that sets off an acceleration of hostilities in our beautiful city. Those are not our values.”
As Lovell and Wheeler spoke to reporters, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty issued a statement again calling on Wheeler to give her day-to-day control over the Portland police. Under Portland’s unique commission form of government, individual City Council members serve as day-to-day managers over a portfolio of city departments. Wheeler, like most mayors, has kept the police bureau for himself.
Hardesty says Wheeler has lost control of the police.
“My office is working on a 30, 60 and 90 day plan to transition PPB leadership to my portfolio, and I stand ready for the Mayor to ask me to serve as Police Commissioner,” she wrote in a statement. " ... We need clear & unambiguous leadership to drive us to a more just future, with lived experience to direct needed urgent changes. I am ready to be that leader. We cannot continue to have a police force that shows up a minute late because their leadership is not showing up at all.”
Asked about the statement, Wheeler repeated what he has said in the past: That he will maintain oversight of the police bureau in the short term, but that “everything’s on the table” if he survives a re-election bid this November.
Activists who have been involved in the nightly racial justice protests say they’ve been concerned someone would get killed for a couple of weeks now. They’re also upset that they have to grapple with that possibility and the fact that it came to fruition.
“I think the bigger thing here is how did we get here?” asked Mac Smiff, a Portland-based activist and editor-in-chief of We Out Here magazine. “Why are we in a situation where there are armed people running around downtown causing altercations and why are we surprised that someone died in the process?”
Smiff said he’s still unpacking everything that happened Saturday night. He’s not just referring to someone getting shot but he also cites the indifference he saw from police officers who stood by and watched as pro-Trump demonstrators drove their trucks through a group of BLM counterprotesters.
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“See? We told you to get out of the street,” Smiff said one officer quipped on the loud speaker.
“I think we’re at a precipice here,” Smiff said. “We have a killing now and it’s the opposite of the killing that happened in Kenosha.”
His hope is that Saturday’s killing leads people to think twice about engaging in violence but, he acknowledges, people have to be prepared for the possibility that things will continue to escalate.
Escalation has been the trend.
This weekend’s clash between Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters follows another set of dueling demonstrations one week ago. City leaders opted not to send police into the fray when demonstrators clashed on Aug. 22. Wheeler and Lovell explained that Portland officers worried about wading into large, violent crowds to address individual law-breakers. They also said city police officers have been spread too thin by three months of nightly protests for racial justice and against police violence.
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell looks on as Mayor Ted Wheeler addresses a fatal shooting tied to protests during a press conference at City Hall in Portland, Ore., Aug. 30, 2020. One person was shot and killed as a pro-Trump car caravan rolled through town the previous evening.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Lovell said again Sunday that the police bureau was strained and thus struggled to have enough officers to guard against protest chaos. He said bureau officials had tried to keep the Trump caravan out of downtown, and thus away from the racial justice protest.
“We tried to take precautionary measures to keep them out of the downtown area. The goal was to keep them on I-5,” he said. “But later, a group of those vehicles was able to come into the downtown core.”
Reporters for OPB witnessed police initially diverting vehicles in the caravan away from accessing downtown via the Morrison Bridge, but officers eventually stopped doing so.
Activists for greater civilian oversight of police have repeatedly accused the police bureau of protecting conservative groups such as Patriot Prayer.
In an unusual news conference Wednesday, Wheeler issued a sort of mea culpa, saying he had been trying to find a balance between protecting peaceful protesters and a small group committing vandalism and violence at the nightly racial justice rallies - and doing so essentially by himself.
Wheeler promised a new approach and held meetings on Thursday and Friday with police leaders and representatives of downtown business owners.
The activists who called for his resignation Sunday said they did not believe the mayor is capable of handling Portland’s current crises or making long-term strides toward racial equity.
“I’ll put it very bluntly: I do not think Mayor Wheeler is equipped from any standpoint to address or confront the complexity of this situation,” Singh said. “We need to remove the leadership that is preventing us from having these conversations. ...
“This was absolutely predictable, this type of violence.”
The coalition calling for Wheeler’s resignation also includes the Coalition of American-Islamic Relations, the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the political action group Next Up Oregon and PDX Resistance.
Meanwhile, Wheeler was also the subject of a storm of tweets from the president Sunday.
“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing,” Trump wrote Sunday morning. “The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer.The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!”
Wheeler addressed the president by name several times during his Sunday afternoon news conference, and offered to work with him to reduce the chance of violence: “Wouldn’t that be a message?” he said. “Donald Trump and Ted Wheeler working together to help move this country forward. Why don’t we try that?”
Trump was apparently watching. In real time, the president responded on Twitter: “Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his City during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should go on forever. Wrong! Portland will never recover with a fool for a Mayor.”
On Friday, Wheeler issued an open letter to Trump demanding that the president stay away from Portland: “We don’t need your politics of division and demagoguery. Portlanders are onto you,” he wrote. “... We know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection.”
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown echoed Wheeler’s criticisms of the president Sunday:
“For the last several years, and escalating in recent months, President Trump has encouraged division and stoked violence. It happened in Charlottesville. It happened in Kenosha. And now, unfortunately, it is happening in Portland, Oregon,” the governor said in a written statement. “But despite the President’s jeers and tweets, this is a matter of life and death. Whether it’s his completely incompetent response to the pandemic, where nearly 200,000 have died, or his outright encouragement of violence in our streets: it should be clear to everyone by now that no one is truly safe with Donald Trump as President.”
In the past, Wheeler has asked Brown to send in National Guard for assistance with policing demonstrations but has been rebuffed. He suggested Sunday he would not do so again if tensions continue to mount in the city. The governor’s office did not respond to questions about whether Brown would be more willing to deploy National Guard troops in light of Saturday’s shooting.
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