Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Bridges and police department renovations/new equipment on the way

While the 2022-2023 budget proposal was not voted on after its July 25 workshop, that evening did have several projects approved, that will push forward.

1. Bridge and Culvert Structure Repairs

Plant City City Manager Bill McDaniel will finalize engineering work orders for services for bridge and culvert repairs in the amounts of $139,285.60 and $117,163.27 respectively.

The city owns 37 bridge or culvert structures that require periodic inspection and maintenance, repair, or replacement.

After comprehensive inspections and engineering evaluations were conducted in 2020, it was determined that repairs to the following five structures need to, and will be scheduled for completion.

The structures are located at:

East Cherry Street over the drainage canal: spall and crack repair details and direction for object marker placement

East Calhoun Street over the Eastside Canal: spall and crack repair details, embankment restoration details, and bank erosion control installation details

Risk Street over the Westside Canal: spall and crack repair details, embankment restoration details, and bank erosion control installation details

North Crystal Terrace over the drainage canal: spall repair details, embankment restoration details and direction for object marker replacement

Sydney Road over Sparkman Branch

Utilizing the citys ongoing contracts for engineering services, staff has developed work orders with Burgess and Niple, Inc. to provide services to the project.

One work order provides for design, permitting, and construction phase services for minor structural and bank stabilization advancements.

The second work order provides the same services plus additional geotechnical investigations and significant structural design at the Sydney Road location.

The Sydney Road culvert crossing needs significant reconstruction of the upstream headwall system and portions of the downstream headwall, as well as other repairs.

Scope of Services

Task 1: Data Collection and Site Investigation

The consultant will perform data collection, field exploration, and site investigation to collect the information needed to prepare construction repair details and permit documentation, including surveying.

Environmental- The consultant will perform a field investigation at two locations, the bridge at East Calhoun Street over Eastside Canal and Risk Street over Westside Canal, to document existing environmental conditions and perform field flagging of wetland and other surface water limits for subsequent survey location.

Survey- The consultant will perform survey tasks in accordance with all applicable statutes, manuals, guidelines, standards, handbooks, procedures, and current design memoranda.

Survey services will include horizontal and vertical project control, along with established reference points

The consultant will develop a preliminary Engineers Estimate of Probable Construction Cost.

Task 2: Design, Construction Details, Permitting, Utility Coordination Phase

Task 3: Preparation of Bid Specifications

Task 4: Bidding Assistance and Award Review

Task 5: Post Design Services

2. Police Department Flooring Replacement

McDaniel is now authorized to go forward with a job order with Commercial Interiors Inc., for the Police Department Flooring replacement project, for $236,580.83.

The Plant City Police Department building is approximately 55,000 square feet with a combination of different flooring types including carpet, tile, and vinyl composition tile.

Approximately 16,000 square feet has been replaced, and the remaining 39,000 square feet of existing flooring is worn and needs to be replaced.

There is $221,870 available in the CIT Fund for the project. A budget adjustment for $15,000 is included in the agenda.

3. Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program Fiscal Year 2022 Local Solicitation Funds

A resolution now authorizes the proposed use of grant funds through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program Fiscal Year 2022 Local Solicitation.

The federal government allocated $15,525 to the Plant City Police Department under the grant program. The grant is non-matching and formula-base, meaning the funds are already allocated to the city for law enforcement purposes.

The police department vetted the proposed uses and specific conditions to ensure grant requirements are met. The grant also requires a 3% allocation of $508.40 for the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

The police department will now be able to use the funds for a message sign to enhance law enforcement capabilities and services in the community.

SpeedAlert 18 Combined Radar and Message Sign:

ATS five trailer mounted with 90-watt-solar assist

All features activated perpetually (Bluetooth- dating imaging)

Two years of TraffiCloud web services to all six apps (remote management-imaging, data, alerts, mapping and premier care warranty)

Red/blue flashing strobes

The SpeedAlert 18 combines radar feedback with variable messaging for maximum versatility to resolve speed complaints, slow speeding, or sharing timely notifications.

It compiles traffic data, volume, speed, and time, as well as provides feedback by displaying certain messages (Slow Down or Have a Nice Day) or dedicated messages (Flood Warning or Amber Alert).

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City repairs and remodeling projects approved - Plant City Observer

Much ink has been spilled over Gov. Ron DeSantis installation of a competent and conscientious State Attorney for Hillsborough County, where I have spent most of my adult life attempting to improve our justice system.

Unfortunately, no publication has explained the constitutional provisions that not only allowed, but required, DeSantis to suspend State Attorney Andrew Warren and replace him with Judge Susan Lopez. This decision was not made lightly, or even suddenly, and the Governor, myself, and our law enforcement partners provided an hour of detailed explanation earlier this month.

Unfortunately, the content of our remarks, as opposed to Warrens complaints, received scant coverage.

Article IV of the State Constitution, Section 1(a), states that the Governor shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed

This provision is not a mere suggestion or best practice; it is an affirmative and binding command in the very first sentence of our foundational document controlling our government, including the office of Governor.

Article IV, Section 7(a), states that the Governor may suspend from office any state officer not subject to impeachment, any county officer, for malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony, and may fill the office by appointment for the period of suspension.

Warren easily met several of these criteria.

Just this summer, Warrens office turned the Fish Hawk Kidnapper loose on bond after failing to move for pretrial detention. This man has been charged with incidents involving actual or potential child victims in Fish Hawk, Lake City and Alabama.

Despite repeated requests from my office and other officials, Warren failed to provide even the courtesy of directly returning a call of another elected official, instead sending staffers to attempt to mollify me in my attempt to advocate for my constituents to be protected from violent crimes against children.

In another recent incident, Warren agreed to no jail time, and dismissal after a short interval of good behavior, for a young man who shot one of my constituents in the back of the head, execution style, to scare him. As shown by centuries of penological studies, if dangerous persons are not deterred, confined, punished and rehabilitated, then they will reoffend.

Contrary to the commentary in your publication, the Governor has not improved his already high political standing or advanced any further ambition by sacking Warren, who as the liberals rightly note in otherwise pervasively erroneous analysis was elected by the popular vote of Hillsborough County, the Soros manipulation and slim margin in a blue wave election notwithstanding.

As for the suggestion that an elected official may, once elected, derelict his duty with impunity, we need not venture far back into history to see seriatim efforts from the left to undermine Donald Trump, a duly elected Republican President. Even more recently, protesters called for the removal of Supreme Court Justices, who are insulated from popular opinion by constitutional design, while decrying the removal of Warren, who is not.

Warren announced his refusal to prosecute serious crimes against small businesses, law-abiding citizens, women, the unborn, and even young children. Warrens six-year record of soft on crime prosecution dedication to lawlessness. Nor is mere talk insufficient to justify the suspension.

Under our constitution, elected officials include legislators, who draft the laws; the Governor, who signs our laws; State Attorneys, who (are supposed to) file charges; and judges, who adjudicate cases. All of them do only three things: they read, write, and speak.

Warren failed to perform those critical tasks consistent with his constitutional oath.

Warren thereby perpetrated constitutional fraud upon the people of Hillsborough County and breached the social compact enshrined in Article IV of our state constitution. By attempting to exercise an extraconstitutional veto over state law, despite being elected by a narrow margin in Hillsborough County only, Warren disenfranchised millions of Floridians and their legislators from across the state, who are also duly elected.

Warren abdicated his role, violated the separation of powers, and left his constituents unprotected from violent crime.

Unfortunately, a popular election is necessary but not sufficient for continuance in office, which requires an official to perform the duties he swore to perform.

If Warren thinks he knows how to make law better than the Legislature and the Governor, he should run for the state House, instead of remaining absent from the courthouse.

I doubt he would fare very well in south Hillsborough County, where he has undermined my efforts to keep the community safe.

___

Michael Beltran is the state Representative for House District 57, which covers southeast Hillsborough County.

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Michael Beltran: Sacking Andrew Warren was right, and constitutional. Here's why - Andrew Warren - Florida Politics

With a stellar lineup, DJ set and free shots, Kickback is seriously kicking it back this weekend with a comedy party you won't want to miss.

The event will take place tomorrow August 20 on Saint-Laurent where hosts and Kickback creators, Eva Alexopoulos and Micah will guide you along an experience filled with laughs, high energy and good music. Oh, and of course, free shots!

After starting Kickback over two years ago, Eva and Micah have merged the worlds of comedy and music creating a space where nobody is really a stranger. "I should warn you of our family tradition," Alexopoulos told MTL Blog. "Before every show, Micah, my partner, and I buy everyone a shot which we take together to kick off the show."

"Our signature shot symbolizes having a shared experience with people you would have considered 'strangers' at the beginning of the show. We don't believe in strangers, they're just friends you haven't met yet." Free shot and new friends? A total win-win.

The lineup includes an array of talented comics who have been featured on Netflix, Just For Laughs and Zoofest. You'll be able to get your laugh on all night long with performances by Amer Rez, Tom Murphy, Sarah Warren, Masson Terry, Logan Brown and Abby Stonehouse.

Guest DJ Nicky Raizins will also be performing for some added flair to the night.

Kickback has also partnered with Prohibition, allowing you to get your hands on a few giveaways. The event is BYOB + BYOW (that stands for "bring your own weed," as you can light up in the venue for some added giggles if you roll like that).

Doors for Kickback VOL. 11 open at 8:00 p.m and the show officially kicks off at 9:00 p.m.

Price: Tickets range from $21.59 to $32.09

When: August 20, 2022, at 8:00 p.m. (show starts at 9:00 p.m.)

Address: 3655, boul. Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC

Tickets

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

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This Montreal Comedy Party Is Closing Out The Summer With Free Shots & A Hilarious Lineup - MTL Blog

Its been a long time between drinks: Paspaleys White Luncheon in 2019.Credit:Kara Rosenlund

Winning has also enlisted three of Oatleys former crewmen, who have effectively jumped ship from the Wild Oats family to join their old rivals, including sailing superstar and tactician, Iain Murray.

Winning says: Sailing is a pretty small world. Its not unusual for crews to change, for sailors to go on different boats throughout their career, but theres no bad blood in that, its just the way it is.

Winnings good friend, Nicky Oatley, concurs, saying the family has nothing but love for the big fella, the term of endearment she uses for Murray, an Americas Cup and Sydney to Hobart veteran.

Nicky Oatley says the family has nothing but love for the big fella, Iain Murray.

Meanwhile, the race to the champagne bar on Hamilton Island this year is shaping up to be an interesting one too. A gaggle of Sydneys red carpet regulars is en route including Kate Waterhouse and Luke Ricketson, Deborah Symond and Ned ONeil, Nadia Fairfax and former US InStyle editor Laura Brown, who is spending time in her homeland following her all-star wedding.

No doubt theyll be match-fit for the hectic round of cocktail parties and banquets culminating in the exclusive Paspaley White Luncheon on Friday, when millions of dollars worth of South Sea pearls will be unveiled.

Lachlan Murdochs award-winning Istros, a 1954 classic superyacht heading for Hamilton Island.Credit:Boat International/Guillaume Plisson

PS also hears one eye-catching boat, not competing, is also steaming its way to Hamilton Island, in the form of Lachlan and Sarah Murdochs newly acquired classic cruiser Istros.

No word on who will be on board, though Murdoch jetted back into Sydney on Wednesday, and is a keen yachtie himself.

Feted as the darlings of Sydney hospitality since opening Palm Beachs Boathouse in 2008, only to then weather one of the industrys biggest storms, Andrew and Pip Goldsmith have quietly left the business that has become one of the hottest players in town.

The Boathouses original owners, Andrew and Pip Goldsmith.

Their exit comes three years after the Boathouse Group dining empire collapsed owing 500 creditors a staggering $21.5 million. The group eventually fought its way back and under new ownership continued to expand, opening the historic Manly Pavilion site in a multimillion-dollar deal earlier this year and lodging plans for an ambitious new project in Dural, where landscaper-turned-restaurateur Andrew Goldsmith grew up.

In August 2019, it emerged Sydney property developer brothers Ben and Jono Isaac had become part owners of parent company Palm Group Holdings, in a syndicate with Sydneys Sorensen family, and which previously included Pip Goldsmiths father, former trade minister Andrew Robb and his wife Maureen, though they appear to have left the business last year according to ASIC records.

The syndicate stepped in to save the chain of popular seaside eateries after mounting debts and a wind-up action by the Australian Tax Office forced original owners Andrew and Pip Goldsmith to look for outside investors.

Ben and Jono Isaac in 2019 when they stepped in to save the Boathouse group of restaurants. Credit:Nick Moir

Andrew Goldsmith declared himself bankrupt in May 2020 but remained in a senior management position with the group, telling PS a year ago: It has been a challenging two years for the hospitality industry. However, in the same breath, we are excited to have something positive for our team to work on.

In a joint statement to their customers, the Goldsmiths said: Our words and appreciation for our guests, supporters, friends and families, will never be enough. And to all of the team members we have worked alongside you were our inspiration and we are lucky to have shared the journey with so many of you.

Clearly, cactus was never going to cut it when it came to creating a floral tribute inspired by the one and only Kylie Minogue, one of 15 installations paying homage to trailblazing women unveiled yesterday at the Royal Botanic Gardens Calyx greenhouse.

The floral tribute to Kylie Minogue at The Calyx in the Royal Botanic Gardens.Credit:Wolter Peeters

The tributes are part of the international Fleurs de Villes installation, which has been held around the world since 2015, and is now making its debut in Sydney.

The Jenny Kee tribute installation at The Calyx in the Royal Botanic Gardens.Credit:Wolter Peeters

For Kylie, the team at Don de LAmour Bespoke Blooms fashioned the tribute out of delicate vanda orchids, tiki fern, Singapore orchids and pieris.

Other tributes in the show, which runs until August 28, include Carla Zampatti (Lisianthus, staticespray, chrysanthemums and sago), Jenny Kee (Geraldton waxflowers, banksias, Cymbidium orchids and wattle), Olivia Newton-John (blanca roses, statice, double tulips and carnations), Nicole Kidman (Banksia coccinea, magnolia and Cymbidium orchids), Ash Barty (Geraldton waxflower, kangaroo paw, daisies and octagon flowers) and Nancy Bird Walton (Everlasting daisies, cordyline, Spanish moss and delphiniums).

Finishing touches being applied to the Nancy Bird Walton floral tribute on show at The Calyx in the Royal Botanic Gardens.Credit:Wolter Peeters

The recently installed US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, has fast become Sydneys most coveted dinner party guest.

Ambassador Caroline Kennedy greets the press at Sydney International Airport in July before taking up her post.Credit:Brook Mitchell

On Monday, Kennedy met University of NSW leaders, researchers and students at the Randwick campus and attended the graduation ceremony of her friend and alumna Dr Melissa Chiu.

Art collector Danny Goldberg. Credit:NIC WALKER

Chiu is director of the Smithsonians Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which includes international modern and contemporary art, based in Washington DC.

Her friends, leading Sydney art collector and executive chairman of private equity firm Dakota Capital, Danny Goldberg and wife Lisa, hosted an intimate dinner at their Vaucluse home afterwards, at which Kennedy was among the guests.

PS hears guests were particularly enamoured with Kennedy confirming that she was the inspiration for Neil Diamonds Sweet Caroline, which the showman wrote after seeing a photograph of her when she was a nine-year-old girl.

Endless charity committees, gala dinners, red carpets, boutique openings, a month on the Amalfi ... life in Sydneys pointy end sounds exhausting. So, who could blame the Real Housewives of Vaucluse for wanting to let off a bit of steam?

The real housewives of Vaucluse from left: Marly Boyd, Alina Barlow, Sarah Carroll, Terry Biviano, Maree Andrews, Sophie CurtisCredit:Instagram

Thats precisely what they did when party planner Maree Andrews threw her fancy dress Dark, Dangerous and Decadent themed 40th last weekend in the carport at Darling Points Swifts mansion, which she had ambitiously renamed Chateau M for the dimly lit, Eyes Wide Shut soire.

The gals clearly pulled out all the stops as a fleet of limos disgorged the society types wearing lacy lingerie, diamonds, heels and not much else on a particularly chilly night. Bizarrely, their husbands turned up in blazers and chinos.

Andrews herself appeared to be channelling both Cher and Celine Dion in her homage to the Rankin Sisters, while veteran social fixture Barbara Coombs had clearly been busy plucking chooks for her giant feathered wings she flapped about in.

No wonder the neighbours were hot on the phone to PS wondering what the likes of Russian heiress and Sydney FC owner Alina Barlow, in a racy onesie, retired WAG Terry Biviano, in her Cirque du Soleil cast-off, Sophie Curtis, wearing a glorified lace hanky, and PS regular, Double Bay eyebrow technician Kristin Rio Fisher, stuffed into a rubber dress, were getting up to inside. Bow chikka wow wow.

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Installation image of Joyce Campbell's The Sunken City at Bartley & Company Art.

Photography today is, like clouds of digital vapour, literally everywhere. Yet predictions that such ubiquity might lead to a mass watering down of the photograph and photographers value have, you could say, evaporated.

This weekend - just as photo-sharing app BeReal spreads virally to phones, setting a new radical visual culture low bar - Wellington events demonstrate that photography, in a myriad of physical formats, has never been better cared for as a fine art.

At Te Papa all of daylight Saturday and at a clutch of surrounding galleries Sunday, the festival Photobook/NZ is providing one of the best visual art public programmes of the year. Associated are an interesting suite of photography exhibitions across galleries. Included are Russ Flatts bold response to Christian homophobia, Hell Bent at The Engine Room at Massey University, new Mori photobooks by fine art students and grads, M Wai R at Photospace and Peter Hannken in the Bowen Galleries window.

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Work (L-to-R) by Gavin Hipkins, Peter Peryer and Edith Amituanai in It's Personal at Webb's.

READ MORE:* Culture in the capital: The best museums and galleries to explore in Wellington* Te Hkoi Toi: Stop making sense with abstract relief* Te Hkoi Toi: Cruel boundaries

A contemporary counter to snap-happy ubiquity is the work of the late Peter Peryer. With such keen care and formal focus he found both gorgeousness and surreal humour in mundanity. Taking up digital colour photography in his 60s, Peryer proved with a camera phone that a critical passionate eye for the way objects vibrate in space was still something worth selling, beyond Instagram.

A small survey exhibition of colour photographs from his last 12 years, 2006-2018 at Hamish McKay Gallery in Jessie St puts it beyond doubt. These are prints made in editions ranging between 10 and 25 by the photographer before he died. There will be no more. There are familiar stone warm classics - the rose, the meat carcass, the dropped melted ice cream cone - mixed in with what to me are the lesser known. A remarkable, gently animated camellia from Peryers last year, has all the structural intrigue of the Fibonnaci golden spiral.

supplied

Peter Peryer's Ice Cream 2007 at Hamish McKay Gallery.

Together they demonstrate Peryers mix with the eye of exactness and adventure, with a love of pattern in finding new geometric lines on the disappearing picture plane, and a late blooming appreciation for the complexity of colour. Peryer is not afraid to push for refinement with even the most banal of objects. While his flowers reveal new worlds, his orange pumpkin - surely destined for a hipster eatery close by - is a step too far for even me.

With pathos Peryer draws us into scenes which often speak to me obliquely to our sometimes unsettled cultural relationship with the world. Take Newell Oamaru. I teeter woozily on a landing at the top of a steep old domestic staircase before a wooden picket gate. Im taken off my feet by a churning spatial arrangement of clashing floral carpet and wallpaper-clad walls and ceiling - tripping on the precipice before I risk descend into some mixed-up colonial hell.

Like a partner suite, a set of Peryers earlier black and white hits (the dead cow! The sand shark!) are at Webbs auction house galleries on Marion St as part of Its Personal, a generous selection of work from photography collectors, former ad man Howard Grieve and photographer Gabrielle McKone (a Photobook/NZ organiser). In surveying the range of contemporary photography its a show the envy of any public gallery. Indeed, no work is for sale, and its curated by ex City Gallery senior curator Robert Leonard.

CHESKA BROWN/Supplied

A wall of Yvonne Todd's work in It's Personal at Webb's.

Its Personal is testament to the special long-game role the major private collector has had for photography over the decades. In that way theres public good also mixed into their collecting habits. The show is marked by its diversity of approaches and formats, and a mix of surprises (the quiet poetic 80s polaroids of Janet Bayly) and more familiar works.

McKone and Grieve have also clearly had an eye for keeping up with some artists practice. A big wall of Yvonne Todds provides a strong Gothic-suburban mini survey. Often Todds portraits have a pregnant power (in one self-portrait, literally) in making you question darkly what behind the studied pose a person has done, or theyre likely to do when they walk away in the future.

Joyce Campbell provides remarkable meditations on our relationship to the mysterious unseen in the environment through the radical employment of historical photographic technology at Webbs, in photobooks at the festival and in a stunning new installation at Bartley and Company The Sunken City. Its an exhibition notable for how the internal underwater architectural abstraction of her big photographs (akin to big modernist painting) are in quiet dialogue with a more didactic but very eloquent words in a handmade book on display, and wonderful prints if Piranesi from the 18th century of futuristic prisons, of moving cogs, chains and staircases from the artists own collection.

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Work by Joyce Campbell in It's Personal at Webb's.

In this majestic but oblique conversation between mental interiors, Im drawn into considering the prisons our economic systems place on our expectations of being able to enact positive change. And the way Campbells moving shards suggest we have the mechanisms within us to make those shifts. As Campbell writes, with the global economy in a medically induced coma, we contemplated restarting the machine piecing it all back together.

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Te Hkoi Toi: Finding the fine art in photography - Stuff

The most important takeaway from this week's saga involving a state legislator, quoting an infamous Nazi to make some sort of point, had little to do with the politician himself.

Instead, the glowing upside came from the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute. The museum not only delivered a necessary and authoritative response to state Rep. Jim Lucas' provocative Facebook post, but it also beautifully fulfilled a prime facet of the facility's mission education.

Lucas initially insisted he was trying to educate others when he posted a quotation often attributed to Joseph Goebbels "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." The Goebbels quote goes on to claim "the State" must repress dissent and shield the people from the consequences of its lie, because "truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

The Republican legislator from Seymour displayed the quote from Goebbels Nazi Germany's propaganda minister under Adolf Hitler on Monday on Lucas' Facebook page. Later, after criticism on social media and from Chad Harmon, his Democratic opponent in race for the Indiana House's 69th District seat, Lucas pulled the Goebbels quote and replaced it with a quote from "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin. Lucas added a lengthy explanation, asserting he was "only attempting to educate people on how evil can begin and the possible depth of that dark path it can lead to, that history shows can know no end."

Lucas seems drawn to stirring controversy, often through inflammatory social media comments. He once posted a meme on Facebook, widely criticized as racist. Republican House Speaker Todd Huston called it "unacceptable" and removed Lucas from two interim House study committees and demoted him from vice chair of another committee to merely a member.

In this week's incident, the CANDLES museum made clear that Lucas' social media post was dangerously wrong-headed. A museum statement pointed out that Lucas' post "included a link to the site with Goebbels' name and 'The Jewish Question.'" The statement added, "We are shocked and horrified that an Indiana lawmaker would make such a statement about Hitler's chief architect and purveyor of hate speech, ultimately leading to the murder of over 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. Hate propaganda was the driving force behind the Holocaust, and these seeds of hate have been, and are being planted, today in the United States." It also rightly called on Huston to condemn Lucas' actions.

At some point, Lucas must have understood the gravity of his irresponsibility. On Thursday, he traveled to Terre Haute and visited the museum and education center. The latter part of its name proved valuable.

Education is a powerful tool.

A news release from CANDLES said, "It was a positive visit, and we shared a great conversation about the importance of Holocaust education in Indiana." Troy Fears, the museum's executive director, had addressed that subject in February while testifying to the Indiana General Assembly against an awful piece of legislation that CANDLES rightly asserted would have discouraged Indiana teachers from educating students on the Holocaust.

In the wake of Thursday's museum visit by Lucas, the museum statement said it had a better understanding of what happened and sensed an opportunity "to build stronger communities through conversations like we had today."

Along with casting typical blame on the media and critics for "hysteria" over his post, Lucas also seemed to be moved by his visit. "I spent over 2 hours touring, discussing and learning about the museum's history and purpose," he wrote, again on Facebook. "If you've never been there, I can't recommend it enough. To see and learn about the personal history of Eva Kor is truly an incredible experience."

That is 100% true. The museum on South Third Street offers a powerful message on the life and efforts of its late founder, Eva Kor, the Holocaust survivor who made Terre Haute her adopted home and educated the world in the process.

Let us hope the experience in Terre Haute causes Lucas to end his reliance on insensitivity to attract attention to his opinions. Hoosiers would be much better served.

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Tribune-Star Editorial: CANDLES again sheds light on darkness of hate speech - Terre Haute Tribune Star

Blend Labs ceo Nima Ghamsari (Illustration by Kevin Cifuentes for The Real Deal with Getty Images, Blend)

A digital mortgage firm has cut another sizable chunk of its workers in its second major round of layoffs this year.

Blend Labs eliminated 220 jobs in August, HousingWire reported. On top of 200 jobs cut in April, the company has chopped approximately 25 percent of its workforce this year.

The company said it expects to save $60 million annually after the two rounds of layoffs, though the impact wont be felt until next year.

Were operating the company prudently as if the mortgage industry origination volumes will remain at or near historic low levels through 2025, CEO Nima Ghamsari said this week in an earnings call.

The latest layoffs come as the California-based company reported a massive loss in the second quarter. After posting a $73.5 million loss in the first quarter, Blend upped that to a $478.4 million loss in the second quarter. The loss was largely attributed to a $392 million impairment stemming from an update to the value of Title365, acquired last year.

Blend reported $31.9 million in revenue during the second quarter, down from $38.7 million in the previous quarter. To generate more revenue, the company said it plans on prioritizing products with a quicker return on investment and raising prices per transaction.

The digital lending platform was founded in 2012 and went public last July, sporting a valuation of $4 billion. But the company hasnt been immune to the mortgage market downturn spurred on by rising rates.

Applications for home loans last week fell another 2 percent from the previous week, bringing demand to its lowest level since 2000, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rates were sent upwards in recent months after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in an effort to slow down inflation.

Mortgage companies have been bearing the brunt of the destruction brought on by the reduction in demand. Sprout Mortgage went out of business, costing more than 300 employees their jobs. Texas-based First Guaranty Mortgage essentially shut down.

Other companies have significantly reduced their mortgage arms, with cuts from firms including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Mr. Cooper, Tomo, Homelight, Keller Williams, Movement Mortgage and Better.com.

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Digital mortgage firm Blend loses $478M, sheds more of workforce - The Real Deal

A recent interview at CarBuzz with Mike Sweers, executive chief engineer for the Toyota Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, and 4Runner programs at Toyota Motor North America, gives us some insight into Toyotas thinking not only on electric trucks, but electric vehicles in general. While I know the answers wont please BEV fanatics, there is some logic to the companys slow approach to EVs.

The short answer is that Toyota doesnt want to dive head first into the segment if it cant do the truck justice. the article says in the beginning. The long answer is a bit more complex than that, and after discussing everything from the next-gen Tacoma to how the brand sees the 4Runner taking the fight to the Ford Bronco, we discovered that the future of Toyotas approach to electrification is a fascinating one.

While automotive media has seen several electric product announcements and a commitment to electrification in the next five years from Toyota, Sweers says we shouldnt assume that means it is going all-in on fully-electric vehicles. Were taking a balanced approach to electrification, he told CarBuzz, whether its PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), BEV (battery electric vehicle), fuel cell, traditional hybrid series or parallel systems were taking a balanced approach. There isnt one offering that meets every customers needs.

Toyotas overall approach seems to be variety and diversity in its offerings. Toyota should be able to make the required changes as each sector demands them by maintaining a wide range of alternatives and powertrain solutions.

The article goes on to explain how Toyota applies this way of thinking to the truck segment. Instead of focusing only on the middle of the bell curve like most EV trucks right now, Toyota wants its electric offerings to reach out into the long tail of owner needs.

Sweers explains that with a gasoline or diesel pickup truck, you can carry an extra 10 gallons of fuel, so if you get stranded somewhere, youll have enough to reach a gas station. However, what do you do when your batteries run out? Its not like you take out the AAs and swap batteries while keeping going on foot with an EV.

Urban owners who dont get out deep into the backcountry would be happy with an electric Toyota truck, but theyd find themselves unable to do the most truck-like things you can do in a gas-powered pickup truck. This can lead to disappointment, and thats bad for Toyotas overall image and relevancy in the truck market.

One of the big takeaways was that Sweer thinks infrastructure is the big thing that needs to change before Toyota will offer a Tundra EV or any other EV truck or truck-based SUV.

Right now, we have the wild west out there. Teslas gone its own way, and its great until you have to charge your Tesla at a different supplier, Sweers told them. We have different connections, we have different safety features, we have different charging rates, we have different ways to get into the charging stations. Just finding a charging station that actually works is a difficult situation.

While I know some EV cheerleaders will try to dispute this, CarBuzz isnt the only publication that can claim to have seen the limits of infrastructure. Weve seen all sorts of truck testing and cross-country trips that didnt go great for people. Sometimes, theres a technical problem and you cant continue on your journey at all. Other times (especially towing), the time spent at charging stations along the way can be grueling.

Toyotas executive does make some great points in the interview. We cant just handwave and tell people that the EV experience is problem-free and limitation-free. While a Tesla sedan or crossover can do almost everything a gas-powered car can do, were not talking about sedans and crossovers, and were not talking about Tesla. If Toyota released a Tundra EV today, there are many things the gas Tundra would be able to do that the EV version wouldnt.

In some ways, this is reminiscent of the Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday adage in the industry. A lot of people will buy a vehicle because they see the manufacturer win races on TV, but those same people arent going to take their car out racing in most cases. Its also true that premium vehicles help a brand have a better image, and this helps sell the vehicles on the bottom end. The old saying on that goes, Corvettes sell Cavaliers.

A similar phenomenon could be very real for trucks. A person might go out and buy a pickup truck with plans to commute in it, and maybe go to Home Depot once or twice a month. But, they probably have aspirations of taking it on adventures at some point. They can probably see themselves heading out to Moab for some off-roading, or they probably think theyll get a boat or a travel trailer. Having a vehicle thats great for commuting, but might not be good for those long-tail adventures could derail the sale.

On top of this, Id add the impact of battery supplies, new legislation that will make it hard to get the tax credit, and several other factors that are going to challenge EVs this decade.

While the early worm can and does get eaten by the bird, that doesnt mean it doesnt pay to be the early bird. Tesla proves that out in spades. So, its probably unwise for Toyota to be the last to offer at least some electric trucks.

When it comes to infrastructure, we also have a bit of a chicken and egg problem. If there are no EV drivers, there will be no infrastructure built to support them. So, saying theres no infrastructure may be a little bit dishonest. To get there, youve got to offer some EVs to stimulate the market and get infrastructure to be a thing for the later adopters. Toyota might think other manufacturers can do all of that stimulating, but it could cost it customers while its behind the curve.

An electric Tacoma, if offered in real numbers, could do this, but Fords approach with the F-150 Lightning shows that you dont necessarily have to start small.

Featured image by Toyota.

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Interview Sheds Light On Toyotas Thinking About EVs - CleanTechnica

Lewis Hamilton has opened up about his 2021 world title heartache and his efforts to return Mercedes to competitive ways after a difficult start to the 2022 season.

Hamilton was on course for a record-breaking eighth world title at last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when a late Safety Car, and controversial restart, turned the race on its head.

Running old, Hard tyres as the race restarted for one lap, Hamilton was overhauled by Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, who had pitted to switch to the Soft compound rubber.

Having reacted graciously to the defeat post-race, the Briton subsequently took a break from social media, returning shortly before Mercedes' 2022 car launch and pre-season testing.

Then, as the W13 took to the track, it quickly became clear that it would not be a front-running machine or one Hamilton could fight back with.

In an interview for Viaplay, Hamilton was asked about the 'double blow' of missing out on the 2021 title and returning in 2022 with an uncompetitive car.

"It was definitely tough," said Hamilton, speaking to former teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

"My winter was a lot of self-reflection... I was surrounded by my family, that was the most beautiful thing. My family really, really reacted and all came around me.

"I wasn't on my phone, I wasn't on social media... I was just playing with the kids, building snowmen. We were playing in the water, playing in the waves.

"I continued to train, because that was kind of healthy for my mindset, and a lot of thinking, kind of, 'What do I want to do next? How do I want to take this?'

"Then, to turn the negative into a positive and be like, 'Okay, I'm gonna come back and fight', and then to not have the ability to be able to fight back, and regain what I had fought for last year, has definitely been tough."

Kovalainen pointed out that Hamilton has never looked frustrated or desperate so far this season, prompting further self-reflection from the 37-year-old.

"I think it's definitely not been perfect. I've definitely not been perfect in the background," Hamilton commented.

"I definitely would say it's been a struggle, particularly off the end of last year, so it's been a real kind of odd kind of growth process.

"I've tried a lot of things with the car and experiments, and it's often caught us out. I've struggled with feeling comfortable in the car this year.

"To finally be in a place where that's not the case... I'm in a more kind of leading position with the car now, rather than it leading me. It's been good."

He added: "I think also there's people in our team that have been here for many, many years, even before our success, and then there's people that are new to the team, who have been here only with the wins, so this is a new experience for them also.

"I think for anybody, it's a good experience to have. The adversity only makes you stronger. It's the failures, I think, that truly make us strong."

Originally posted here:
Hamilton sheds fresh light on how he recovered from 'double blow' - Racingnews365.com

Theres only a week left until Saints Row releases. Yes, after almost a decade in hibernation, the high-flying tongue-in-cheek crime simulator is back with lengthy tales to tell as well.

On Monday, publisher Deep Silver released a fresh trailer for Saints Row that goes into the story. Set in a fictional city in the American southwest called Santo Ileso, this car-jacking adventure is about a group of up-and-comers looking to make a name for their gang, The Saints, as is the tradition in these games. Therell be rival organizations to take down and a villain thats rocking one mean mustache.

Watch the new Saints Row trailer for yourself below. There arent any glaring spoilers, so dont worry about seeing too much of the plot before launch. Plus, this isnt quite something driven by its narrative.

The humor is still intact, even if its nowhere near as silly as Saints Row 4 was. Yeah, its a shame that this one wont be about fighting-off aliens as the president of the United States again.

Saints Row releases Aug. 23, 2022, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store. It was originally coming out In February but got hit with a six-month delay.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Saints Row trailer sheds light on the story - For The Win