EFTA00640144.pdf

From: To: Bcc: Subject: Date: Attachments: Inline-Images: Gregory Brown undisclosed-recipients:; jeevacation@gmail.com Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 07/28/2013 Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:10:45 +0000 Ike_&_Tina_Tumer bio_July_28,2013.pdf; Mexico Obesity_Rale_Higher Than_U.N. Report_Huff_Post July_9,_2013.pdf; The_Lut Decade_Was_One_a_Climate_Extremes_John_Liglit_Moyers_&_Company_July 16,_201i.pdf; Obamacare_To Cut Cost Of Health Coverage_By_Half_For_Many_New_Yorkers_Caroli ne_Humer_Retiters -July37,:2013.1xTf; Detroit_Bankrupt,_Revyn_Orr Asks_Federal_Judge_To Place City_Under_Chapter_9_Ba nkruptcy_Protection_Corey_WT1liams Huff Post 07 18- 13.pa; Images_of Detroit Today_Huff PosOuly_18,2-013Tpdt7; Super_Foods.docx; A_Tale_or_Two_Depressions,_dreeceic_US.docx image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png DEAR FRIEND No matter where you live in the industrialized world things are probably better than in Greece which is in the six year of a deep recession that has swept away a quarter of the country's gross domestic product, the kind of devastation usually seen only in times of war. In a country of n million people, the economy lost more than a million jobs as businesses shut their doors or shed staff. Unemployment has reached 27 percent—higher than the U.S. jobless rate during the Great Depression—and is expected to rise to 28 percent next year. Among the young, the figure is twice as high. Meanwhile, cuts to Greece's bloated public sector are dumping ever more people onto the job market. In July, 25,000 public workers, including teachers, janitors, ministry employees, and municipal police, found out they would face large-scale reshuffling and possible dismissal. An additional 15,000 public workers are slated to lose their jobs by the end of 2014. Greece's jobs crisis is a window into a wider emergency that threatens the future of Europe. Across the continent, a prolonged slump has disproportionately affected the young, with nearly one in four under the age of 25 out of work, according to the European Commission. (In the U.S., youth unemployment is 16.2 percent.) That understates the severity of the situation in Italy and Portugal, where youth unemployment rates have soared above 35 percent; Spain's is 53.2 percent, the second-highest after Greece, at 55.3 percent. European Union leaders have announced an initiative aimed at guaranteeing that all young people receive a job, apprenticeship, or more education within four months of joining the ranks of the unemployed. Governments have pledged C8 billion over two years to combat unemployment in Europe's worst-hit countries, and the European Investment Bank is offering Ci8 billion in loans to encourage hiring by small and midsize businesses. Such pledges of help come too late for many young Greeks who are already spending what should be the most productive years of their lives poring over notice boards and alternating long periods of unemployment with all-too-brief periods of work. Absent a rapid and dramatic economic turnaround, an entire generation in Southern Europe faces years, possibly decades, of dependency and EFTA00640144 disillusionment—with consequences that can't be measured in economic terms alone. Today's young Greeks feel powerless to do anything, as their promise exist between what was expected and what reality delivers especially when not too long ago, most young Greeks to take their place in the ranks of the world's richest countries. The 2004 Summer Olympics were presented to the country and to the world as a coming out party for a nation that had long been seen as one of Western Europe's stragglers. It didn't last. The global financial crisis revealed deep corruption in the Greek economy and an unwillingness on the part of its fellow European states to continue to prop it up. Greece quickly turned from success story to pariah. And for young Greeks Just when Greeks looking to launch careers and start families, the floor fell away. In Athens the crisis isn't conspicuous. Family networks have kept the majority of the afflicted from landing on the streets. Empty storefronts are common, but so are cafes doing a brisk—if reduced— trade. Time has yet to work its fingers into the cracks and weaknesses of the city's infrastructure. That said, it's unusual to walk more than a few blocks in central Athens without encountering a knot of riot police, lounging on a street corner with their plastic shields and body armor. Still on any given week the trash collectors strike, leaving garbage piled around the bins. The local police, facing possible job cuts, are demonstrating, crisscrossing the city center in convoys of cars and motorcycles, sirens blaring. Unable to get jobs in their chosen careers many college graduates end up waitressing, bartending, and tutoring to supplement what their parents are able to give them, with many moving back home with their parents. Studies of joblessness in the U.S. and Japan have shown that extended periods of unemployment in the early years of a worker's career can depress earnings for decades. Then there are the over qualified: An undergraduate degree in physics from the National University of Athens—a credential that's barely sufficient to get an entry-level job. (To cite one example, the government recently announced it will be laying off all university security guards, except those with a master's degree or a Ph.D.) For young Greek adults, the sense that their lives have been put on hold is palpable. Rare is the conversation that ends on a happy note. It's not only a financial crisis. It also has a severe psychological impact. People feel like they're losers, having watched their work slip away in the months following the crash. As a result many young educated Greeks are leaving. A study by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki last spring found that 120,000 professionals with advanced degrees had left the country since 2010. When young Greeks talk about another country, they might mention its weather, its culture, or its language. Almost certainly, they'll note its rate of unemployment. Greek society and the education system have done a dismal job preparing citizens to compete in a globalized, technology-driven economy. Up until the crisis, it was the dream of every parent to have their child become a doctor or a lawyer. Now the country has an excess of both. Meanwhile, with the public sector sweeping up many recent graduates, there was little incentive for universities to offer the technical skills companies now demand. The Greek government, prompted and assisted by the EU, has started to roll out measures intended to reduce youth unemployment, including training programs, grants for small businesses, and subsidies for companies that hire young people. But those policies are unlikely to do much as long as the economy continues to sink. "I admit there are structural problems in Greece," says Theodoros Ampat2oglou, governor of the Greek Manpower Employment Organization, the government agency in charge of tackling unemployment. "But the basic problem isn't matching labor supply and labor demand. The problem is that there's very little demand." There are signs that the economy is beginning, if not to turn around, at least to plummet at a less alarming rate. After years of bleeding budgets followed by the shock therapy of austerity, the government says it expects to take in more revenue than it spends this year, not counting payments on its loans. "The progress is significant, but it has been achieved with blood," says Aggelos Tsakanikas, research director at the Athens-based Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE). The EFTA00640145 Greek central bank forecasts the economy to start growing again in 2014. Some Greek analysts say 2012 marked the peak of the crisis, a year in which a Greek exit from the euro appeared plausible and roughly 30 percent of the country's top companies slashed salaries or cut working hours, according to a survey by the ICAP Group, a Greek business services firm. In 2012 the average take-home pay for a company director dropped from €105,000 to €63,000, managers' earnings plummeted from €55,000 to €29,000, and manual laborers' from €16,000 to O7,000. According to Alexandros Fourlis, managing director of Kariera.gr, a jobs site owned by Careerbuilder.com, firings still outpace hirings. But the gap is starting to close. In October 2012, after four years of decline, the number of job listings began to increase. At the height of the crisis, in January 2012, there were on average more than 33o applicants for every job posting on his site, compared with a little more than 8o in woo. For popular jobs not requiring specific skills, such as a bank teller, the number could reach as high as 11,00o. Today the average number of résumés a job listing receives is back down to about 160. "The picture is still negative," says Fourlis. "But it's vastly improving." Hopefully he is right because if the crisis continues, so will the exodus of the best and the brightest, draining the country of intellectual capital to enable it to compete in the global economy. PAInline image 2 Public health experts blame changes in lifestyle that have made Mexicans more obese than anywhere else on Earth except the United States. They attribute changes to powerful snack and soft drink industries, newly sedentary ways of living and a genetic heritage susceptible to diabetes, a chronic, life-threatening illness. According to a new report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization earlier this month, the United States is no longer the world's fattest developed nation. That honor goes to Mexico now, as nearly a third of Mexican adults (32.8 percent) are considered obese — people aged 20 and older whose body mass index (BMI) is 3o and above. That edges out the United States, where 31.8 percent of American adults are considered obese. Syria at 31.6 percent, is the third fattest among developed countries, while Venezuela and Libya are tied for fourth at 30.8 percent. Mexico's urban lifestyle and rising income levels coupled with malnourishment among the country's poor have helped it claim this unhealthy title. "The same people who are malnourished are the ones who are becoming obese," said Abelardo Avila, a physician with Mexico's National Nutrition Institute. "In the poor classes we have obese parents and malnourished children. The worst thing is the children are becoming programmed for obesity. It's a very serious epidemic." Diabetes kills an estimated mom people a year in Mexico —"or roughly equal to the deaths authorities say are caused by more than six years of the country's gangland wars," one writer noted. About 12 percent of the world's total population is obese, according to the U.N. report. The world's fattest nation overall is Nauru, a South Pacific island where a staggering 71.1 percent of its 10,00o inhabitants are obese. The U.N. report does not include data for American Samoa, which has been tabbed in the past as the world's fattest country. According to a 2010 World Health Organization report, nearly all of that Pacific island's inhabitants (95 percent) are considered overweight. On the other end of the scale is Japan, the thinnest developed country. Just 4.5 of Japanese adults are considered obese, the U.N. says. Prevalence of obesity among adults in developed countries (% obese) Rank Country Rate EFTA00640146 1 Mexico 32.8 2 United States 31.8 3 Syria 31.6 4 Venezuela 30.8 4 Libya 30.8 6 Trinidad & Tobago 30.0 7 Vanuatu 29.8 8 Iraq 29.4 8 Argentina 29.4 10 Turkey 29.3 11 Chile 29.1 12 Czech Republic 28.7 13 Lebanon 28.2 14 New Zealand 27.0 14 Slovenia 27.0 16 El Salvador 26.9 17 Malta 26.6 18 Panama 25.8 18 Antigua 25.8 20 Israel 25.5 21 Australia 25.1 21 Saint Vincent 25.1 22 Dominica 25.0 23 United Kingdom 24.9 23 Russia 24.9 25 Hungary 24.8 Source: United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization's 2013 State of Food and Agriculture Report EFTA00640147 By now you have heard that Congress has food stamps on the chopping block, when the House voted earlier this month to approve a food "Farm"bill that excludes food stamps altogether. From 1973 until this year, Congress authorized farm spending and food stamps in a single food bill, passed every five years. This union of unlikely bedfellows resulted from a standing bipartisan agreement between rural and urban representatives designed to ensure that both programs had enough votes to survive. It was one of those great compromises that now sadly seems like a relic of a wiser era. As of two weeks ago, the deal is off. Republicans have carved food stamps out of the food bill for the purpose of gutting the program as far as Democrats will let them. Put aside whether divorcing farm spending and food stamps is a good idea. (Ifs not, if you support either farm spending or food stamps. The Farm Bureau, National Farmers' Union, and other agricultural groups, not to mention every House Democrat and 12 House Republicans, recognized that the traditional agreement was good for all parties, and opposed the split.) More disturbing are the circumstances that led House Republicans to think they could get away with cutting food stamps, specifically, the popular demonization of the food stamps program and the low- income people who rely on it. Characterizing the poor as greedy and corrupt is a form of class warfare older than Marie Antoinette but unfortunately still prevalent today. A whole mythology has emerged: "they mostly use food stamps for cigarettes and booze," "I heard someone used food stamps for 10 big steaks," "they trade food stamps for cash and buy big-screen TVs." Because these stories get repeated, some people want or need to believe them, others don't want to get into an argument, and many are fortunate enough not to be exposed to food stamps in their daily lives, these myths not only become accepted as true, but come to define the food stamps program. Don't buy it. The error rate in the food stamps program is 3 percent, and percentage of benefits illegally converted to cash is 1 percent. Any incidence of over-payment or fraud is unacceptable and should be aggressively rooted out, but it just isn't accurate to say the food stamps program is defined by rampant abuse. Nor is the program primarily a handout for the unemployed or lazy; over 90 percent of funds go to the elderly, working families, or the seriously disabled. Most important is that any conversation about fraud, while legitimate, should be ancillary to a fundamental discussion of what the food stamps program is and does. Food stamps allow the poor to purchase food. The program is humane and effective, sometimes empowering people to rise out of poverty and sometimes literally saving lives. Far fewer people abuse food stamps than legitimately benefit from them. Cutting or eliminating this program because of limited fraud is like closing a school because a handful of students are cheating. You wouldn't think of it. Right now, the myths have the upper hand over the facts, which is why House Republicans felt emboldened to throw out a 40-year agreement and threaten the future of food stamps. Let's treat the food stamp program as what it really is -- an admittedly imperfect but successful and critically important component of a modern social safety net. Food stamps should be every conservative's favorite benefit program. It's a rare success story with a narrow mission, costs that link directly to impact, and a proven record of effectiveness. An April 2012 USDA report credited the program with singlehandedly reducing the prevalence of poverty by 4.4 percent from 2000 to 2009. Food stamps are the bottom layer of the social safety net. Even if you EFTA00640148 think government generally does too much, surely it can step in to prevent the elderly, poor, and sick from going hungry. A society that leaves these people to die is hardly a society at all. With 5o million Americans going to bed hungry each night, including more than 15 million children, the elimination of food stamps would be a disaster for them and further evidence that no one cares. Whether you believe Zimmerman's story or not and whether or not you believe that based on the law the jury's decision to acquit on all charges was the only decision possible under the existing legal perimeters — a tragedy happened and one of the reasons that both the death and people's outrage of the jury's decision — is because of Florida's "Stand Your Ground"law, which is seriously flawed. Any law that allows the survivor of a shooting to be acquitted of killing a teenager who was running away, based on the fact that there was reasonable doubt that the shooter was in fear of their life is a bad law. If it was the law when I was teenager, there were a number of occasions when I could have used that defense, having found myself in dicey circumstances. And because I didn't have a gun and the law on my side, I found ways to negotiate or extricate myself out of these types of tenuous and dangerous situations, avoiding the beatdowns. I seriously doubt Zimmerman needed to shoot Martin, even if teenager did attack him. And I seriously doubt Martin would have been shot if he hadn't been a black kid wearing the clothes of urban youth of his generation. In my heart of hearts like many others, I too think Zimmerman did something terribly wrong, and that this misdeed reflects a number of things that are terribly wrong in our culture. And along with the Economist Magazine's Editorial Board, I share the impulse to identify something in the criminal-justice system that, if fine-tuned, would have drilled down to the honest-to-god truth about the case and rendered perfect moral justice. But as the Economist Editorial says, it doesn't work that way. I think we know that, too. I keep hearing pendants on the national talk shows Monday Morning Quarterbacking the prosecutor's case and missed opportunities. And that if Zimmerman had been forced to take the stand the prosecutor might been able to trip him up, thus creating a different outcome. But this kind of power in prosecutors hands, who are often only interested in the win, I am definitely not in favor. Perhaps the prosecution could have pinned it on him were it harder and generally less effective to plead self-defense, but I'm mostly glad it's not, as I am that it would lead to more innocent people being convicted and incarcerated. But I am absolutely sure that both race and Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law had something to do with the reasons the Sanford police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, or to investigate Martin's death with all due care and zeal. As we all know, the problem with America's criminal-justice system is not that it affords defendants too many protections. Yet in Texas you can get away with shooting someone to death if they're running away with your property. That's insane, and it's easy to see how a law like that rigs the system in favor of people with a lot of property — a class that remains disproportionately white and male. However, on the whole, our criminal-justice system is so frightfully racist because it's too easy for prosecutors, not because it's too hard. Of course, in a racist society, rules that help defendants are going to help the most privileged defendants the most, and that's maddening. Even worse this process allows the victim to be demonized, as Martin was. But that shouldn't stop us from recognizing that the least privileged, the most oppressed, the most discriminated against, are far and away most likely to stand accused. But unlike the Economist Editorial, I believe that like many of our laws, Florida's "Stand Your Ground" statue is flawed and needs to be changed. THIS WEEK's READINGS EFTA00640149 Once one of great American industrial cities, last week Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy. The filing, which had been feared for months, put the city on an uncertain course that could mean laying off municipal employees, selling off assets, raising fees and scaling back basic services such as trash collection and snow plowing, which have already been slashed. The filing marked a turning point for city and state leaders, who must now confront the challenge of rebuilding Detroit's broken budget in as little as a year. 2,Inline image 1 See weblink: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013&7/18/detroit-bankruptcy-keyn-orr-federal- chapter-9 n 35i9L)go.html In the 1950s, its population grew to 1.8 million people, many of whom were lured by plentiful, well- paying auto jobs. Later that decade, Detroit began to decline as developers starting building suburbs that lured away workers and businesses.bbThen beginning in the late 1960s, auto companies began opening plants in other cities. Property values and tax revenue fell, and police couldn't control crime. In later years, the rise of autos imported from Japan started to cut the size of the U.S. auto industry. By the time the auto industry melted down in 2009, only a few factories from GM and Chrysler were left. GM is the only one with headquarters in Detroit, though it has huge research and testing centers with thousands of jobs outside the city.bDetroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. Today, the population struggles to stay above 700,000.bThe result is a metropolis where whole neighborhoods are practically deserted and basic services cut off in places. Looming over the crumbling landscape is a budget deficit believed to be more than $380 million and long-term debt that could be as much as $2o billion.bb In recent months, the city has relied on state-backed bond money to meet payroll for its 10,00o employees. 2,Inline image 2 Kevyn Orr, a bankruptcy expert hired by the state in March to stop the city's fiscal free-fall, said Detroit would continue paying its bills and employees.bbBut, said Michael Sweet, a bankruptcy attorney in Fox-Rothschild's San Francisco office, "they don't have to pay anyone they don't want to. And no one can sue them." Orr made the filing in federal bankruptcy court under Chapter 9, the bankruptcy system for cities and counties. He was unable to persuade a host of creditors, unions and pension boards to take pennies on the dollar to help with the city's massive financial restructuring. If the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment. On said Thursday that he "bent over backward" to work with creditors, rejecting criticism that he was too rigid. "Anybody who takes that position just hasn't been listening." The bankruptcy could last through summer or fall 2014, which coincides with the end of Orr's 18-month appointment, he said. ;;Inline image 3 A turnaround specialist, Orr represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring. He issued a warning early on in his tenure in Detroit that bankruptcy was a road he preferred to avoid. Some city workers and retirement systems filed lawsuits to prevent Snyder from approving Orr's bankruptcy request, said Detroit-area turnaround specialist James McTevia. They have argued that bankruptcy could change pension and retiree benefits, which are guaranteed under state law. Others are concerned that a bankrupt Detroit will cause businesses large and small to reconsider their operations in the city. But General Motors does not anticipate any impact to its daily operations, the automaker said Thursday in a statement. EFTA00640150 Detroit has more than double the population of the Northern California community of Stockton, Calif., which until Detroit had been the largest U.S. city ever to file for bankruptcy when it did so in June 2012. Before Detroit, the largest municipal bankruptcy filing had involved Jefferson County, Ala., which was more than $4 billion in debt when it filed in 2011. Another recent city to have filed for bankruptcy was San Bernardino, Calif., which took that route in August 2012 after learning it had a $46 million deficit. We have to truly ask ourselves how did this happen and try to do our best that it doesn't happen again.... And lets not blame anyone or any groups because it is too late and the only one who wants to hear an excuse is the person giving it. ****** In an article in the Huffington Post by John Light — The Last Decade Was One of Climate Extremes — Saying that the first decade of the 21st century contained nine of the to warmest years on record. A new report from the World Meteorological Organization compares the 2001-2010 decade with the 12 that came before it in a chart that makes it hard to argue that the planet isn't warming. IJInline image 3 World Meteorological Organization In addition to high temperatures, the decade saw several other milestones. It saw above-average precipitation, including one year — 2010 - that broke all previous records. It was also marked by dramatic climate and weather extremes such as the European heatwave of 2003, the 2010 floods in Pakistan, hurricane Katrina in the United States of America (USA), cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and long-term droughts in the Amazon Basin, Australia and East Africa. The report authors also make clear that, while the planet naturally goes through warming and cooling trends, the recent extremes are largely caused by human impact. The rapid changes that have occurred since the middle of the past century, however, have been caused largely by humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Other human activities also affect the climate system, including emissions of pollutants and other aerosols, and changes to the land surface, such as urbanization and deforestation. Since humans began burning fossil fuels on a large scale during the industrial revolution, the atmospheric levels of many chemicals that cause climate change have increased dramatically. IJInline image 4 2,Inline image 5 In a floodwaters fill the streets near downtown New Orleans, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Aug. 30, 2005. The effect is not just warmer weather; the changing climate has led to significant, disastrous events around the world. The report's authors write: While climate scientists believe that it is not yet possible to attribute individual extremes to climate change, they increasingly conclude that many recent events would have occurred in a different way — or would not have occurred at all — in the absence of climate change. For example, the likelihood of the 2003 European heatwave occurring was probably substantially increased by rising global temperatures. So as floods claim lives today in China, wildfires continue to rage in Nevada and Arizona and the droughts that caused them continue across the Midwest and West, one has to wonder, how much EFTA00640151 worse will this decade be? ****** Bad news for opponents and naysayers of Obamacare as Reuter's Caroline Humer wrote — Obamacare To Cut Cost Of Health Coverage By HairFor Many New Yorkers — as it appears that many New York state residents who buy health insurance next year will most likely see their premiums cut by half as President Barack Obama's healthcare law creates subsidies that may increase the number of people in this market by the hundreds of thousands. Information on the state's rates, which will figure in a national debate over whether "Obamacare" will make health insurance more affordable, was released on Wednesday by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The figures represent some of the biggest discounts seen among a handful of states that have disclosed price information for the plans, which will begin to be offered to consumers on Oct. 1. Additionally, California announced in May that rates would fall as much as 29 percent. The average premium of the most comprehensive health insurance plans in New York, known as "platinum" and "gold" plans, will fall 53 percent, the date released by Cuomo showed. The figure is based on rates approved for plans from 17 insurers, including the nation's largest, like UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc. When compared with the other less-expensive plans, such as the "silver" and "bronze" plans expected to make up most of the exchange market nationwide, the average decline in price from current rates in the individual market is even higher. New York's future pricing is largely influenced by its current market for individual plans, with health insurance more expensive than in much of the rest of the country. Only about 17,000 people buy insurance in New York's direct-pay market, a New York Department of Financial Services spokesman said. That number is expected to grow by 615,000 over the next few years and more than half are expected to receive government subsidies, according to Donna Frescatore, executive director of the New York Health Benefit Exchange. Another 450,000 people are expected to sign up for insurance on the exchange through small businesses, she said. There are 2.7 million uninsured people in New York. Starting in 2014, average premium prices for a mid-tier "silver" plan will range from $359 per month to $691 per month in New York City, according to information on the governor's website. Currently, premiums for individual health insurance in the city run from about $1,000 to $4500 a month, according to the state insurance website. With premium prices so high in the state, the current direct-pay individual market tends to pull in the very sick, since for people who expect rarely to need medical care, the premiums are not worthwhile. But as prices fall and subsidies are introduced, people who simply cannot afford health care are expected to sign up. "They historically had a harder time getting younger and healthier people to get into the market" because young, healthy people were charged essentially the same premiums as older, sicker people, said Dan Mendelson, chief executive officer of Avalere Health, a research firm in Washington D.C. Other states, like Washington and Oregon, have also announced rates that were lauded as being lower in 2014 and a boon for Obamacare. But rates for 2014 can be difficult to compare with 2013's because the new insurance plans may have more benefits than individual plans now cover, and because federal law bars insurers from turning away consumers because of prior health problems. When state-based exchanges begin selling insurance on Oct. 1, people earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, or about $94,200 for a family of four, can receive government subsidies to help defray the cost. New York's premium figures announced on Wednesday do not include these subsidies. Having suffered two strokes and received hundreds of thousands of healthcare over the past six years, and currently being un-insurable and one of the 5o million Americans without healthcare insurance, although my first choice would who have been national healthcare, similar to Canada, France, EFTA00640152 Germany, Australia and almost every other industrialized country, the fact that someone like me with a pre-existing conditions can now get health insurance under Obamacare, is possibly a life-saver. And the fact that it is lowering healthcare insurance prices is the icing on the cake.... And for Congressional Republicans to continue to try to delay and repeal it, is an assault on the 5o million people like me who require continuing healthcare and vigorous maintenance. Kudos to Obamacare THIS WEEK's HEALTH WATCH ;I'Inline image 1 THIS WEEK's QUOTE Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience. knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity. and worship without sacrifice. Mahatma Ghandi AMAZING YOUNG GENIUS This kid is determined to change the world, and it looks like he just may do it. Website: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540/vp/52207962#52207962 THIS WEEK's MUSIC This week I would like the share the music of Ike & Tina Turner who were an American musical duo composed of the husband-and-wife team of Ike Turner and Tina Turner. The duo started as an offshoot splinter act from Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm before the name changed to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. The duo was once considered "one of the hottest, most durable, and potentially most explosive of all R&B ensembles". Their early works including "A Fool in Love", "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "I Idolize You" and "River Deep - Mountain High" became high points in the development of soul music while their later works were cited for wildly interpretive re-arrangements of rock songs such as "I Want to Take You Higher" and "Proud Mary", the latter song for which they won a Grammy Award. They're also known for their often-ribald live performances, which were only matched by that of James Brown and the Famous Flames in terms of musical spectacle. The duo was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. 2Inline image 6 Ike Turner started his musical career in Memphis as a talent scout, moving to St. Louis in 1954 where his band, the Kings of Rhythm were, along with the Johnnie Johnson Trio led by Chuck Berry, one of the most popular live performing attractions to the St. Louis and neighboring East St. Louis nightlife. One night in 1957, while at Club Manhattan, another popular club in East St. Louis, he invited a young fan Ann Bullock to join him onstage. Ann finished out that night singing lead for Ike's band, marking the first time that a female singer had sung lead in the band's history. When the band's lead singer did EFTA00640153 not show up for the studio recording of "A Fool in Love," Ike asked her to sing the song as a "dummy track" and somehow it impressed the President of Sue Records and the record was released in the spring of 1960, reaching #2 R&B and #27 on the Billboard Hot too, selling over a million copies. By then Ike had given Ann the name Tina Turner and backing female trio The Ikettes. After a string of R&B hits and Ike and Tina becoming a couple, they move to Los Angeles in 1964. In 1966 their release of "River Deep - Mountain High", failed to chart successfully in the United States, reaching only #88. But the song was hugely successful in Europe where it peaked at #3 in the UK. This led to the Rolling Stones offering Ike and Tina a chance to be one of their opening acts on their fall tour in the United Kingdom that year, which they accepted. The duo took the opportunity afterwards to book themselves tours all over Europe and Australia where they attracted audiences. Following this, the band returned to the United States in demand despite not having a big hit. By 1968, they were performing and headlining in Las Vegas. By 1970 the Ike & Tina Turner Review had achieved mainstream success after being the opening act on the Rolling Stones' American Tour in November image 72,Inline image 8 By 1976, Ike Turner was so addicted to cocaine that he burned a hole in his nasal septum, leading to nosebleeds, in which he would relieve himself by using more cocaine. And during this time, Tina was introduced Tina to the teachings of Buddhism by a friend. And by 1978 they had split up. Both Tina and Ike went through some struggles in their careers following the split. But while Tina managed to make a living as a stage performer, Ike's cocaine addiction made him unequipped to perform. Tina managed to succeed in her career, using the concert successes from her opening gigs with Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones and several performances at New York's Ritz Theatre to parlay a singles- only, then three-album deal with Capitol Records. The release and subsequent success of Private Dancer resulted in what Ebony magazine later called "an amazing comeback". Tina's post- comeback career consisted of top-selling albums and record breaking concert tours. In 1988, Tina made history by performing in front of the largest paying audience (approximately 184,000) to see a solo performer at Maracand Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earning her a spot on the Guinness World Records. Following the end of her Twenty Four Seven Tour in 2000, Turner made another Guinness World Record by selling more concert tickets than any solo performer in history at the time. Ike behavior became increasingly erratic. In 1982, he was alleged to have shot a 49-year-old newspaper delivery man who he accused of assaulting his wife, Margaret Thomas. He was later found not guilty of the charge of assault. Ike Turner would mostly be convicted of drug offenses, culminating in a four-year sentence for cocaine possession in 1990. Sent to California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo, he completed 18 months of his prison sentence before being released from parole in September 1991. On December 12, 2007, Ike Turner was found dead at 11:38 am at his home in San Marcos, California. He was 76. His death was found by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office to be from a cocaine overdose, exacerbated by hypertensive cardiovascular disease and emphysema. Turner had been clean for over a decade prior but relapsed in 2004 after coming to an aid of a drug-addicted friend and returned to cocaine after he "smelt the fumes". Following news of her former partner's death, Tina Turner's personal spokeswoman released a statement that because the couple hadn't spoken to each other "in over 3o years" Tina refused to release a comment. Turner's funeral was held at the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, California. In February 2008, little over a month after Ike was buried, Tina came out of retirement and returned to the performing stage at the Grammy Awards performing alongside Beyonce. Later that October, at the age of 68, she launched a 95-date concert tour celebrating her 5oth anniversary in show business. The tour lasted until May of the following year, ending in England. In October 2007, just two months before Ike's death, a three-disc compilation, The Ike & Tina Turner Story:19604975, was released by Time-Lffe Music. EFTA00640154 The group was nominated three times for Grammy Awards. They were nominated and won Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group in 1971 for "Proud Mary" at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards. Tina herself received a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the 1969 song "Bold Soul Sister". The group also received a nomination for their 1961 recording "It's Gonna Work Out Fine". The group received a NAACP Image Award. Both Ike and Tina each received stars and were inducted individually onto the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Two of their songs, "River Deep - Mountain High" and "Proud Mary", were inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Tina received a solo star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986. 2,Inline image 9 I remember being dragged along by my dear friend Rudy Langlais in the late 1980s when he interviewed Ike Turner for a cover story in Spin Magazine and although we were both streetwise New Yorkers, he was truly scary as Ike truly let you know that he was a ticking time bomb, overdue to explode at a moment's notice. As for Tina, her soulful sound, non-stop dancing and those legs she is truly special and I send my best wishes and congratulations on her marriage last week... With this said, I invite everyone to enjoy the music of Ike & Tina Ike and Tina Turner — Proud Mary -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UyCb2FHt w Ike & Tina Turner — River Deep Mountain High -- http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=myCJa6agNVs & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck t/tAlicp8DI Ike & Tina Turner - Take You Higher -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxYBRb7FRgE Ike & Tina Turner - Sexy Ida -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz uu9vGUTA Ike & Tina Turner — Fool In Love -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v-R7Ek7sJiKJQ Ike & Tina Turner — Shake Your Tail Feather -- http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=dnwlHnvWH4Q Tina Turner — Son of a Preacher Man -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfVM3p_SQM Mick Jagger & Tina Turner — Brown Sugar -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5zpMIrWu8 PAUL McCARTNEY & TINA TURNER - Get Back -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb- 7oHObnpll Tina Turner Tina Turner Tina Turner Tina Turner - We Don't Need Another Hero -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YtXvGYexts - Private Dancer -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eGbPbD-jZw - Simply The Best -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp0XmN4-Rk - Proud Mary -- http: / /www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmH4Y1NdW Ag Beyonce And Tina Turner - Proud Mary -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoVrUxists8 I hope that you enjoy the Weekend's Offerings and wish you a great week.... Sincerely, Greg Brown EFTA00640155 Gregory Brawn Chairman & CEO CplobalCasi Panners. LI.0 EFTA00640156