tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608505916354539122024-02-18T21:18:42.971-08:00Business and Community PartnersBAC Partners, brianlbanks@gmail.com, provides research,strategy and technical assistancebrian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.comBlogger3019125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-40125066988244071462021-04-16T23:46:00.001-07:002021-04-16T23:46:48.610-07:00Crowdfunding<br><a href="http://brianlbanks.blogspot.com/2021/04/crowdfunding.html">http://brianlbanks.blogspot.com/2021/04/crowdfunding.html</a>brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-12493931036203435132021-04-16T23:26:00.001-07:002021-04-16T23:26:08.235-07:00Protests in Chicago<br><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/us/chicago-police-shooting-protests.html?referringSource=articleShare">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/us/chicago-police-shooting-protests.html?referringSource=articleShare</a>brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-23765343911939045712021-04-16T23:24:00.001-07:002021-04-16T23:24:36.965-07:00Chicago police shooting protest<br><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/us/chicago-police-shooting-protests.html?referringSource=articleShare">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/us/chicago-police-shooting-protests.html?referringSource=articleShare</a>brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-32818723084159250622019-04-25T09:39:00.001-07:002019-04-25T09:39:49.094-07:00<table border="0" width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr> <td width="600" colspan="2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYzBNpxu67AwcXOOu9o8z4GvIrOhNUbomyo6mpsGJ4C2vKalVMxirx5MteJBAXu78RcmE9soG4LlXt4A-N7cH0S1vg9x7bvIEQe9nY8M9kCkpc6zaLt0p70BQDyrZdOSA_fid45MmQ8cY/s1600/dottedline600-789143.gif"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYzBNpxu67AwcXOOu9o8z4GvIrOhNUbomyo6mpsGJ4C2vKalVMxirx5MteJBAXu78RcmE9soG4LlXt4A-N7cH0S1vg9x7bvIEQe9nY8M9kCkpc6zaLt0p70BQDyrZdOSA_fid45MmQ8cY/s320/dottedline600-789143.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6683872730374620226" /></a></td> </tr><br><tr><td width="600" colspan="2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCUk4no9VOHzCCAU6oSz1TVKb5ZfCRr9DKS3P9oSGegw9QCT7DGisJvIKp3SWdgIpo0nzAGsv6m6YZpMwGgD8UEM5KL0KuaVQ2N7bsDonhyphenhyphenolEW05hDnodtwTLiQ-JvMlsj0mcyhcYuJl/s1600/tmobilespace-791464.gif"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCUk4no9VOHzCCAU6oSz1TVKb5ZfCRr9DKS3P9oSGegw9QCT7DGisJvIKp3SWdgIpo0nzAGsv6m6YZpMwGgD8UEM5KL0KuaVQ2N7bsDonhyphenhyphenolEW05hDnodtwTLiQ-JvMlsj0mcyhcYuJl/s320/tmobilespace-791464.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6683872735966112562" /></a></td></tr><tr><tr><td colspan="1" align="left"> 13 days 1 hours 21 minutes 57 seconds until Taxes, $2.8k, phone/tablet/laptop, website click link to download live countdown https://fncd.net/v?id=YmmfRlp</td></tr> <TR> <TD width=350 colSpan=1> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCUk4no9VOHzCCAU6oSz1TVKb5ZfCRr9DKS3P9oSGegw9QCT7DGisJvIKp3SWdgIpo0nzAGsv6m6YZpMwGgD8UEM5KL0KuaVQ2N7bsDonhyphenhyphenolEW05hDnodtwTLiQ-JvMlsj0mcyhcYuJl/s1600/tmobilespace-791464.gif"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCUk4no9VOHzCCAU6oSz1TVKb5ZfCRr9DKS3P9oSGegw9QCT7DGisJvIKp3SWdgIpo0nzAGsv6m6YZpMwGgD8UEM5KL0KuaVQ2N7bsDonhyphenhyphenolEW05hDnodtwTLiQ-JvMlsj0mcyhcYuJl/s320/tmobilespace-791464.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6683872735966112562" /></a> </TD> </TR> <TR> </TR> <td width="240" bgcolor="#f2f2f2"> </td> </tr><tr><td width="600" colspan="2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAhIMi1m0XYtWILrcDR6VgUnxDRkpqg2KS1Ci-OeqIBdXVoup8Qy_DZR83d9CW6coMMoM49csyeNFschmYmq-7XI2-2BC5CYwWy-PLeN9Gnuxy5R8UtI30SVotgRNrh7kbYecsol-mk4KX/s1600/footer-793566.gif"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAhIMi1m0XYtWILrcDR6VgUnxDRkpqg2KS1Ci-OeqIBdXVoup8Qy_DZR83d9CW6coMMoM49csyeNFschmYmq-7XI2-2BC5CYwWy-PLeN9Gnuxy5R8UtI30SVotgRNrh7kbYecsol-mk4KX/s320/footer-793566.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6683872743722289234" /></a></td></tr></tr><tr><td width="600" colspan="2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCUk4no9VOHzCCAU6oSz1TVKb5ZfCRr9DKS3P9oSGegw9QCT7DGisJvIKp3SWdgIpo0nzAGsv6m6YZpMwGgD8UEM5KL0KuaVQ2N7bsDonhyphenhyphenolEW05hDnodtwTLiQ-JvMlsj0mcyhcYuJl/s1600/tmobilespace-791464.gif"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCUk4no9VOHzCCAU6oSz1TVKb5ZfCRr9DKS3P9oSGegw9QCT7DGisJvIKp3SWdgIpo0nzAGsv6m6YZpMwGgD8UEM5KL0KuaVQ2N7bsDonhyphenhyphenolEW05hDnodtwTLiQ-JvMlsj0mcyhcYuJl/s320/tmobilespace-791464.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6683872735966112562" /></a></td></tr></table>brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-52102298580777214692019-04-25T09:24:00.001-07:002019-04-25T09:24:11.299-07:00Counting down to Taxes, $2.8k, phone/tablet/laptop, website<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaCGaLXt2K3wRVG3vYxEYyW3udQU3q9zWf8PCzNlzp-_-kaVJXpCTEYu_8Wzz-nmr0xj0Nkp4d4KIZmeDgjZ2t3g00DUos5vybvYZhjO7mqMwi6L3rBRYdSfVtBs73mcIaI-ry7kMfL7VP/s1600/screenshot-751965.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaCGaLXt2K3wRVG3vYxEYyW3udQU3q9zWf8PCzNlzp-_-kaVJXpCTEYu_8Wzz-nmr0xj0Nkp4d4KIZmeDgjZ2t3g00DUos5vybvYZhjO7mqMwi6L3rBRYdSfVtBs73mcIaI-ry7kMfL7VP/s320/screenshot-751965.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6683868704340559394" /></a></p><p dir="ltr"> 13 days 1 hours 36 minutes 13 seconds until Taxes, $2.8k, phone/tablet/laptop, website <br> click link to download live countdown<br> <a href="https://fncd.net/v?id=YmmfRlp">https://fncd.net/v?id=YmmfRlp</a></p> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-88571561514769000372019-04-10T16:10:00.001-07:002019-04-10T16:10:13.867-07:00Counting down to Taxes, $2.8k, phone/tablet/laptop, website<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBAiELVlPKjKk8bbJX9wgwpjTcQOWjTNTRwJJu9rxhzXW47YeidjHcgDUwX5Z64l6b3N5QiX1wPhHtXHAjnTufpqDaClh_XfkAM7JoJd1Iv3EOMLe7mmXAGyHUEo4ZS-uK49Y8WjVCd4j/s1600/screenshot-713918.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBAiELVlPKjKk8bbJX9wgwpjTcQOWjTNTRwJJu9rxhzXW47YeidjHcgDUwX5Z64l6b3N5QiX1wPhHtXHAjnTufpqDaClh_XfkAM7JoJd1Iv3EOMLe7mmXAGyHUEo4ZS-uK49Y8WjVCd4j/s320/screenshot-713918.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6678407058895713138" /></a></p><p dir="ltr"> 27 days 18 hours 50 minutes 21 seconds until Taxes, $2.8k, phone/tablet/laptop, website <br> click link to download live countdown<br> <a href="https://fncd.net/v?id=ydXQWXq">https://fncd.net/v?id=ydXQWXq</a></p> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-67489835382290819162019-04-04T09:32:00.000-07:002019-04-04T09:33:02.172-07:00Counting down to Rent<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePMZK7RQ0SWhS-q-9QQiFy6ad85rlP1kw-1S2vdzQNK6gXaIRwgcN-No5Z5EKaMBCfvIyF3ZwJzIUkrax74t_1GtAnjsNIrkTNCGYVwHmkmvy6cEtxmRvhxnAc9yGZe-MHsN5Iyf7q6tA/s1600/screenshot-782250.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePMZK7RQ0SWhS-q-9QQiFy6ad85rlP1kw-1S2vdzQNK6gXaIRwgcN-No5Z5EKaMBCfvIyF3ZwJzIUkrax74t_1GtAnjsNIrkTNCGYVwHmkmvy6cEtxmRvhxnAc9yGZe-MHsN5Iyf7q6tA/s320/screenshot-782250.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6676078193384401154" /></a></p><p dir="ltr"> 1 days 5 hours 28 minutes 32 seconds until Rent<br> click link to download live countdown<br> <a href="https://fncd.net/v?id=ZBVfL5n">https://fncd.net/v?id=ZBVfL5n</a></p> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-91090021844315835792018-12-10T10:06:00.001-08:002018-12-10T10:06:05.732-08:005 key social impact opportunities.
https://ellisjones.com.au/disciplines/social-impact-disciplines/social-impact-opportunities-2017/brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-9223678934396292522018-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:002018-12-08T09:58:19.389-08:00Mayor Rahm Emanuel Showers City Employees With $481 Million in Overtime, Extra Pay, Cash Benefits<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2018/12/07/mayor-rahm-emanuel-showers-city-employees-with-481-million-in-overtime-extra-pay-cash-benefits/">https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2018/12/07/mayor-rahm-emanuel-showers-city-employees-with-481-million-in-overtime-extra-pay-cash-benefits/</a></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-90420436274870918922018-12-06T01:19:00.001-08:002018-12-06T01:19:55.056-08:00Lyfties Chicagohttps://take.lyft.com/thelyftieawards/chicago/brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-36377845335285370742018-10-28T07:37:00.001-07:002018-10-28T07:37:46.187-07:00Uber’s Secret Restaurant Empire - Bloomberg<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-24/uber-s-secret-empire-of-virtual-restaurants">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-24/uber-s-secret-empire-of-virtual-restaurants</a></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-39346037244226044102018-10-28T06:48:00.001-07:002018-10-28T06:48:28.548-07:00Why Chicago's Rebound Is in So Much Trouble<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-10/why-chicago-s-rebound-is-in-so-much-trouble">https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-10/why-chicago-s-rebound-is-in-so-much-trouble</a></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-18984817233378196962018-10-04T14:41:00.001-07:002018-10-04T14:42:40.916-07:00The rise and the reckoning: Inside Brett Kavanaugh’s circles of influence <p dir="ltr"> The rise and the reckoning: Inside Brett Kavanaugh’s circles of influence <u>How</u> Brett Kavanaugh has talked about his younger years Facing sexual assault allegations, Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh is expected to confront questions about his past at a Sept. 27 Senate hearing. (Video: Monica Akhtar/Photo: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post) By Marc Fisher , Ann E. Marimow and Michael Kranish October 4 at 2:44 PM He would be, in the words of his prep school’s motto, a man for others. At an age when most young people struggle to figure out their path forward, he knew he would devote his life to public service. Brett M. Kavanaugh was destined for something big. The people around him knew it, too. Through the years, Kavanaugh, 53, a federal appellate judge since 2006, has been rich in friends, loyal and true. Teachers, parents, classmates, colleagues — they made it their business to buff and defend Kavanaugh’s reputation. They cheered him on as he climbed the ladder of legal success. And they rallied around him when he tripped on the way up. That turned out to be a job that extended over four decades, because as bright and kind and wise as friends say Kavanaugh is, he has also left behind a trail of people who say that his reckless behavior raises serious questions about his judgment and veracity. CONTENT FROM RED HAT Their idea could change medicine. But they had to wait for technology to catch up.   Read More  The story of President Trump’s embattled choice for the Supreme Court is a classic Washington tale of a young man who grew up surrounded by people in high places, keenly aware of protecting his image. He told a friend in college that he didn’t plan to buy stocks as an adult because he had to avoid conflicts if he wanted to follow in his mother’s footsteps as a judge. Kavanaugh’s story is also one of the power and insularity of wealth. He grew up in an idyll of country clubs and beach retreats, private schools and public prominence. The only child of a lobbyist and a judge, he had parents who pushed him hard, teachers who assured him that he faced no limits, and friends whose families knew the art of making problems go away quietly. That Kavanaugh would achieve greatness seemed certain. Some of his classmates called him “The Genius.” They liked him because he was smart and fun. Women found him thoughtful and empathetic. Men said he was a guy’s guy — a walking encyclopedia of sports, a good pal, always up for a beer. But again and again as he rose to the pinnacle of official Washington, Kavanaugh has given those charged with examining his life and character reason to pause and dig deeper. This time, as he faces the Senate vote that will determine whether he will spend the rest of his working life at the apex of American democracy or in permanent disgrace, he is up against devastating allegations that he was a nasty, belligerent drinker who, according to his chief accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, pinned her to a bed and held his hand over her mouth when she tried to stop his sexual assault when they were in high school. Once again, schoolmates, friends, family members and co-workers have rushed to his defense. “After law school, Brett started on a path of high-profile jobs, and we were rooting for him all along,” said Tom Kane, a Georgetown Prep classmate and friend. “Between 1998 and 2004, I lost my father, my mother and my sister, and he was always there for me. He has a fricking conscience and a soul unlike what people say.” This story about Kavanaugh’s rise — and how his upbringing amid Washington’s political and social elite has helped protect him from his missteps — is based on dozens of interviews with friends, classmates, co-workers and mentors, including some who think he has been grievously wronged in the confirmation process and others who think he is unfit to serve. When the American Bar Association first considered Kavanaugh’s nomination to a judgeship, the committee assigned to check him out ended up talking to more than twice as many lawyers and judges as many investigations required. Some of those who spoke to the ABA in 2006 raised concerns about Kavanaugh’s lack of experience. Some warned about his temperament. He “dissembled,” one lawyer said. He was described as “insulated,” “immovable,” “very stubborn and frustrating to deal with.” Kavanaugh pushed back, bolstered by his tight network. Supporters were always offering his name when sterling positions opened up, singing his praises to those making decisions about clerkships, law firm jobs, White House appointments and judgeships. When it came time for Kavanaugh to marry after years of playing the field, it was the president of the United States who encouraged him to do so. Kavanaugh, like fellow Yale alumnus George W. Bush, settled down with a strong woman from a modest West Texas background. Bush, who held a sit-down dinner for the couple in the Rose Garden, called their marriage “the first lifetime appointment I arranged for Brett.” Fourteen years later, Bush would get on the phone to rally senators to try to save Kavanaugh’s troubled nomination. Now, as Kavanaugh’s suitability to serve on the nation’s highest court is considered by the Senate, and especially by three Republicans who delayed jumping on board their party’s express train to confirmation, the judge faces the most severe test of what looks to outsiders like a charmed life. This moment — an excruciating mix of careful inquiry into his legal opinions and voracious inspection of his adolescent behavior, all taking place amid a searing national struggle involving truth, trust, political polarization and sexual mores — has left Kavanaugh’s community deeply, perhaps irrevocably, divided. Some have fixed on hazy but painful recollections of ugly nights in the 1980s — a bar fight, groping attempts to get somewhere with women, perhaps worse. Others slot those same stories into memories of a debauched but too-common scene of cloistered young men learning how far was too far, even as they prepared to run the world. No one who hung out with Kavanaugh during Beach Week on the Maryland shore or at Demery’s bar in New Haven, Conn., knew their partying would become the stuff of congressional debates and national polls, or that the president would conclude that their friend “did have difficulty as a young man with drink.” Any definitive version of what happened between Kavanaugh and Ford 36 years ago seems lost to history. More than most people, by virtue of where and how he grew up, Kavanaugh knew he would someday be called to account for himself. He did not, however, expect to be asked to answer for the ways and mores of the place and time that shaped him, as he has described the current inquiry to friends. Yet here he is, in a humiliatingly intimate and public job interview that has turned into a historic reckoning, for Kavanaugh and for his country. 'We had something to prove' Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) points to Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook entry during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 27. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) There are so many automatic advantages that come from attending the 229-year-old Georgetown Preparatory School, set back from busy Rockville Pike in North Bethesda, Md., on a verdant campus larger and more stately than those of most universities. There is the intimacy of small classes and the lesson drummed in by Jesuits at the Catholic school that the boys are expected to excel and to serve. There is the continuing pride in single-sex education, the unfashionable idea that wisdom and power are unlocked by channeling adolescent energy into studies. The boys, in the 1980s perhaps even more than in decades before and after, believed that their hard work bought them enough slack that they could get away with hard partying. “We did everything to the max,” said one of Kavanaugh’s classmates, who, like many of his peers, spoke on the condition of anonymity because, as he put it, “Brett doesn’t want us putting ourselves out there right now.” Many of the boys at Prep came from families accustomed to gaining and holding influence. Kavanaugh’s father, Edward Kavanaugh, was president of what was then the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, the kind of Washington job in which building connections to powerful people justified the $4.57 million in compensation he earned in 2005, according to tax returns. His mother, Martha Kavanaugh, was a prosecutor who became a circuit judge in Montgomery County. Perhaps the greatest privilege the boys gained at Prep was one another. Some graduates came to view the school as a troubled, morally questionable symbol of a snobby elite; others cherish the place as a foundry for men of character and achievement. But most bonded over the idea that they were the elect who owed one another a permanent duty. Many also shared a sense that they were looked down upon. Even as much of the outside world viewed them as part of a narcissistic elite, they grew up hearing that theirs was a lesser private school, academically no match against St. Albans, Sidwell Friends or St. Anselm’s. “We had something to prove,” one of Kavanaugh’s classmates said. “We were supposedly the dumb jocks, the party guys.” Since graduation, the men of the Class of 1983 have supported those among them who have faced difficulties. They took classmate Mark Judge to his cancer treatments and helped him when he had other problems, several classmates said. They assisted another classmate who fell behind with mortgage payments. Since Kavanaugh was nominated, members of the class — some from his inner circle, some who’d never been close — have created a support network that has fended off reporters, offered guidance to favored journalists and batted down false rumors, all with frequent consultation with their former schoolmate. They had done this before. Judge, a good friend of Kavanaugh’s in high school, became a freelance writer and in his books, which include two memoirs, he described an alcohol-saturated adolescence. A central character in Judge’s account was named “Bart O’Kavanaugh.” Kavanaugh was nicknamed Bart in high school. Years before his Supreme Court nomination, Kavanaugh’s supporters pressed Judge to limit or mask his revelations of bad behavior, three Prep classmates said. At Prep, as at almost every stage of his life, the impressions people formed of Kavanaugh were consistently inconsistent. Kavanaugh and other football players were at the center of Prep’s social universe. Matt Brown, a classmate who was decidedly not part of the in crowd, remembered Kavanaugh standing out among the popular boys because he was so nice. Many football players let their gridiron celebrity “get to their heads and they wouldn’t really interact with you,” said Brown, now an alcohol and drug counselor in Portland, Maine. Not Kavanaugh: “He was a guy who would still talk to you in the hallways and would acknowledge your existence.” Classmate William Fishburne recalled Kavanaugh as an academic standout, a popular jock. But he also recalled a different side of Kavanaugh. Fishburne was short and heard more than his share of short jokes on campus. He was also a star in high school debate, and he said Kavanaugh “liked to call me a master debater,” but he’d say it in such a way that others heard “masturbator” — the kind of schoolyard teasing that brought easy laughs, but also humiliated the recipient. “The whole group there did not treat me well,” Fishburne said. “Brett was a jerk.” A consistent conservative At Yale College and Yale Law School, as at Prep, there are classmates who say Kavanaugh was a big drinker who became nasty and belligerent when he got drunk and classmates who say he drank heavily but never seemed out of control. The two portraits seem irreconcilable, yet both could be true. “Brett was a sloppy drunk, and I know because I drank with him,” said Elizabeth M. Swisher, a friend who is now a professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “He’d end up slurring his words, stumbling. . . . It’s not credible for him to say that he has had no memory lapses in the nights that he drank to excess.” But Chris Dudley, a close friend who played basketball at Yale and later in the National Basketball Association, painted an opposite picture. “I went out with him all the time. He never blacked out,” Dudley said. “Brett drank and I drank. Did he get inebriated sometimes? Yes. Did I? Yes. Just like every other college kid in America.” Just as there are women who say Kavanaugh was clumsy or rough when he made drunken passes at them, there are women who say he was charmingly awkward and reticent in such moments. Even as classmates remain divided over his behavior when drinking, they agree that he was a consistent conservative on a liberal campus. As a first-year law student in 1987, Kavanaugh aligned himself with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a conservative who moved the Supreme Court to the right. “In class after class, I stood with Rehnquist. That often meant . . . that I stood alone,” Kavanaugh said in a speech last year. “Some things don’t change.” Kavanaugh soon joined the Federalist Society, a Washington-based group that has played a key role in recruiting, grooming and supporting strongly conservative judges — including Kavanaugh. In the years to come, he would appear nearly 50 times before Federalist Society audiences on campuses and at gatherings of lawyers, according to data he gave the Judiciary Committee. As Kavanaugh became active in the society’s Yale chapter, Leonard Leo got involved with the group at Cornell. The two soon formed a bond that would prove powerfully important. Both men were originalists, subscribers to the idea that the Constitution and statutes should be interpreted by their original meaning and text. In Washington, Leo, who emerged as a leader of the Federalist Society, became the keeper of a list of influential conservative judges from which Republican presidents have chosen court nominees. Leo was also, as ever, one of Kavanaugh’s most avid boosters. A Starr protege Independent counsel Ken Starr, center, talks with deputy independent counsel John Bates, left, and aide Brett Kavanaugh in Washington. (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images) After law school, Kavanaugh clerked for two federal judges, lining himself up for a coveted clerkship at the Supreme Court. But before Justice Anthony M. Kennedy hired him, Kavanaugh caught the eye of another prominent conservative who would prove to be a vital mentor. Like Kavanaugh, Kenneth W. Starr was a staunch conservative who would be accused of excessive partisanship in a job that required a fair and neutral temperament. But what drew Starr, an independent counsel appointed to investigate allegations against President Bill Clinton in 1994, to hire Kavanaugh three times was the same mix of attributes that had attracted so many people before him: He considered the young lawyer an unusually likable guy who was brilliant and closely aligned with Starr’s philosophy. In 1992, when Starr was U.S. solicitor general, the federal government’s lawyer in the Supreme Court, he interviewed Kavanaugh and hired him as a fellow in his office. From there, Starr lent a hand as Kavanaugh sought the Kennedy clerkship. Starr kept a close eye on his protege and a few years later recruited him to join the independent counsel’s office, first to investigate the death of White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster and later, after Kavanaugh had left the office, to come back and lay out the reasons the president should be impeached for lying about his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky. As Starr and his deputies discussed how to handle the questioning of the president, some wondered whether Clinton should be cut some slack out of respect for his office. On the night of Aug. 15, 1998, Kavanaugh answered with an impassioned memo: “I am strongly opposed to giving the President any ‘break’ in the questioning. . . . The President has disgraced his Office, the legal system, and the American people by having sex with a 22-year-old intern and turning her life into a shambles.” Kavanaugh offered 10 questions to ask the president, including: “If Monica Lewinsky says that you inserted a cigar into her vagina while you were in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?” The next morning, said Robert J. Bittman, then Starr’s deputy, Kavanaugh expressed remorse about some of the tone of his assessment of Clinton, but not about the questions. Kavanaugh’s next assignment was to write a section of the report to Congress laying out the grounds for impeaching the president. “This was not a man on a mission, this was a legal document of great potential moment that needed to be very carefully crafted, so I was looking to one of the office’s most talented lawyers,” Starr said in an interview last summer. The bond between Kavanaugh and Starr was mutual. Starr had been bitter about being passed over by President George H.W. Bush for a Supreme Court nomination, but when he heard that Trump had nominated his protege for the high court, Starr said it brought “tears to my eyes. Tears of joy.” A network of supporters Kavanaugh, left, a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) hold a news conference in 2006 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Kavanaugh’s rise was swift and deliberate. At every step, his friends pitched in. Starr, Leo and others recommended him, spread the word, helped knock down critics. In 2003, when Alberto R. Gonzales, then the U.S. attorney general, advanced Kavanaugh’s name to the White House for nomination as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, it was Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’s chief of staff, who initially recommended the move. “I thought — correctly! — that Brett would make a great judge, given his A+ level smarts, collegial demeanor, commitment to public service, compassion,” Sampson said in an email. The chain of connections was echt-Washington: Kavanaugh and Sampson had worked together on the nomination of another judge, John Bates, and Kavanaugh and Bates had worked together in the independent counsel’s office. “I went and made the case to Judge Gonzales,” Sampson said, “and then Gonzales made the case to President Bush and he agreed.” When the American Bar Association knocked down its rating of Kavanaugh from “well qualified” to merely “qualified,” and Democrats blocked his nomination to the D.C. Circuit, his friends rallied once more. More than two years after he was first chosen, he won a spot on the bench by a nearly party-line vote in the Senate. On the bench, Kavanaugh extended his network. Other judges began to cite his rulings frequently. He is among the top appellate judges nationally to send his law clerks on to clerkships in the chambers of Supreme Court justices. At Harvard Law School, where Kavanaugh taught for a decade before this week’s announcement that his class has been canceled, he invited students to dinners and encouraged them to stay in touch. Colleen Roh Sinzdak, a 2010 graduate, said Kavanaugh helped her get a Supreme Court clerkship even though she has been a lifelong Democrat. After the court upheld Trump’s travel ban earlier this year, Sinzdak felt crushed. She was surprised that night to receive a sympathetic email from Kavanaugh, who probably disagreed with her on the issue, encouraging her to keep her chin up. “That meant a lot,” she said. 'A tough process' Last week, on the day before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the allegations against him, Kavanaugh spent hours behind closed doors in his courthouse office, writing an angry, emotional defense of who he is. He struggled to deliver the speech even in practice runs, according to a person familiar with the sessions. His opening remarks were searing, partisan and accusatory; his delivery, by turns outraged, weepy and righteous. When Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) questioned Kavanaugh, the judge initially came across as courteous and diplomatic. But when she asked whether he had ever blacked out after a night of heavy drinking, Kavanaugh pounced with his own question. “I don’t know,” he snapped. “Have you?” During breaks in his testimony, Kavanaugh regularly huddled with White House counsel Donald McGahn and other advisers in a small meeting space behind the hearing room. But after the heated exchange with Klobuchar, Kavanaugh took a moment to reflect. His family and friends were out there in the hearing room. With everything on the line, he had to make his own way. Just before the hearing resumed, he told his advisers that he wanted to apologize to the senator, said a person familiar with the discussion. “Sorry I did that,” he told Klobuchar when the hearing resumed. “This is a tough process.” That night, Kavanaugh, emotionally spent, his future very much up in the air, retreated to safe ground. He spent the evening with those who would understand, the ones who had been there at every step, including, of course, his buddies from Prep. Amy Brittain, Emma Brown, Alice Crites, Amy Gardner, Shane Harris, Joe Heim, Michael E. Miller, Robert O’Harrow, Susan Svrluga and Dan Zak contributed to this report. Local politics email alerts Important breaking news alerts about D.C.-area politicians and governments. E-mail Address Sign up By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy 858 Comments  Share on FacebookShare   Share on TwitterTweet Share via Email Marc Fisher Marc Fisher, a senior editor, writes about most anything. He has been The Washington Post’s enterprise editor, local columnist and Berlin bureau chief, and he has covered politics, education, pop culture and much else in three decades on the Metro, Style, National and Foreign desks. Follow Ann E. Marimow Ann Marimow covers legal affairs for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2005 and has covered state government and politics in California, New Hampshire and Maryland. Follow Michael Kranish Michael Kranish is a national political investigative reporter for The Washington Post. He is the co-author of The Post’s biography "Trump Revealed," as well as biographies of John F. Kerry and Mitt Romney. He previously was the deputy chief of the Washington Bureau of the Boston Globe. Follow The story must be told. Your subscription supports journalism that matters. Try 1 month for $1 PAID PROMOTED STORIES Help Shape The Future Of Parkinson’s Research. Participate In A Trial. The Michael J. 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brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-45547712536503128512018-09-28T13:08:00.001-07:002018-09-28T13:08:08.917-07:00https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/iraq-baghdad-university-times-higher-education-ranking-2019brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-60553131753605665522018-09-28T12:19:00.001-07:002018-09-28T12:19:14.547-07:00http://freakonomics.com/podcast/sports-ep-3/brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-28003029632836878402018-03-20T15:01:00.001-07:002018-03-20T15:01:58.057-07:00<div dir="ltr">#NowPlaying on @RealJazzSXM: I'm listening to A Spanish Song by Chick Corea/Steve Gadd.</div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-67133382438101312712018-01-21T10:33:00.001-08:002018-01-21T10:33:36.328-08:00The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Thought - Bloomberg<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwja6YG0MtUjIScLyk-JpBhaq08rfV-t4AzIVN-ivNnvtxWTL9uZWlCb7dIOhxuwtdvCyu7R_j1uTDXIvDey_klw1DJv6Qq941pc2tbEfwhNi5WTLgKZx1I1a7uWxctgpjUd0wr4Du94A4/s1600/RePaper-716332.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwja6YG0MtUjIScLyk-JpBhaq08rfV-t4AzIVN-ivNnvtxWTL9uZWlCb7dIOhxuwtdvCyu7R_j1uTDXIvDey_klw1DJv6Qq941pc2tbEfwhNi5WTLgKZx1I1a7uWxctgpjUd0wr4Du94A4/s320/RePaper-716332.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6513573955603402626" /></a></p><div dir="ltr">My comments for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-18/the-fall-of-travis-kalanick-was-a-lot-weirder-and-darker-than-you-thought">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-18/the-fall-of-travis-kalanick-was-a-lot-weirder-and-darker-than-you-thought</a><br> (via @RePaperApp)</div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-10672382010968888762018-01-01T19:49:00.001-08:002018-01-01T19:49:54.437-08:00<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.getnugget.co/emotional-agility-book-summary/">https://www.getnugget.co/emotional-agility-book-summary/</a></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-55984717119848802542018-01-01T14:50:00.001-08:002018-01-01T14:50:21.423-08:00Emailing three-laws-of-performance-summary.pdfbrian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-56172983980965472212017-11-26T15:48:00.000-08:002017-11-26T15:49:06.721-08:00<div dir="ltr"><a href="http://digg.com/video/why-long-distance-relationships-are-good">http://digg.com/video/why-long-distance-relationships-are-good</a></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-19019948398230742872017-10-15T13:15:00.001-07:002017-10-15T13:15:16.705-07:00Plant aims to build new futurePlant aims to build new future<br>Congregants launch robotics training, facility<br>Trista Bonds talks with robotics apprentice Thomas Phelps. Bonds sees a path to salvation in modern industry. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune ) <br>By Manya Brachear Pashman Chicago Tribune<br>Trista Bonds, a robotics engineer, once felt a twinge of guilt for helping companies replace factory workers with machines. Living on Chicago's South Side, where industries have come and gone, she saw the debilitating effects of unemployment firsthand — drug abuse, poverty and crime.<br>So when the pastor of Bonds' 20,000-member congregation asked people in the pews to help empower the community, she embarked on a 10-year journey of recompense.<br>Last week, Bonds and other members of Apostolic Church of God in the Woodlawn neighborhood opened a manufacturing plant on the campus of Chicago State University on the Far South Side, staffed by 25 newly trained and certified apprentices.<br>The social enterprise, dubbed BSD Industries — Building Self Determination — last month began training an additional 40-plus students to hire at its own factory or help place in manufacturing jobs elsewhere.<br>"There's so much opportunity here for everyone who wants it — everyone who is willing to get down in the trenches and fight for it," said Bonds, who moved to Chicago in 2004 and joined Apostolic three years later. She believes that preparing people for modern industry is a path to salvation for downtrodden neighborhoods and their residents.<br>While the plant — which manufactures plastic forks, knives and spoons — provides a future in plastics, it also gives trainees hands-on experience in robotics to help them land jobs in factories across the country. The education is free.<br>"I have a passion for industrialization," said Bonds, pointing to the Industrial Revolution as a turning point for the nation. "I think it's the way to empower communities."<br>Demand for the program was evident from the start. When the church last year offered the first 40 training slots to people in the pews, 196 candidates applied. Since then, 25 have graduated and started their apprenticeships. Another 40 started robotics courses last month that will eventually prepare them to do computer-assisted design, program software and run machinery. The program hopes to produce up to 120 professionals a year.<br>Bonds credits her pastor, the Rev. Byron Brazier, for bringing the project to fruition.<br>The church backed the initiative by giving $100,000 to the Arthur M. Brazier Foundation, the factory's owner. It also received $500,000 from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as part of a three-year initiative to invest in the city's struggling South and West sides.<br>The Chicago Housing Authority also provided a $2 million grant to assist with job training and development for residents and voucher holders, as a way to "help them on their road to self-sufficiency," a CHA spokesman said.<br>"BSD industries is a win-win — it will provide critical job skills training for today while supporting a strong future for manufacturing on the South Side of Chicago," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.<br>Brazier also recruited an initial customer base to help turn a profit in the first year. Registered as an LC3, the tax code for social enterprises that redistribute their profits, BSD appeals to socially conscious companies and institutions, Brazier said. Customers include the University of Chicago.<br>Brazier said the enterprise is also looking into a new product line to help meet its social investment goals through 2019.<br>By the end of 2018, Brazier said, BSD intends to give more than $2 million to five elementary schools and one high school in Woodlawn and to fully fund the safety initiative of 1Woodlawn, the pastor's communitywide effort to redevelop the neighborhood.<br>The 1Woodlawn effort is the sequel to a development effort started by Brazier's father, Bishop Arthur Brazier, who, along with other developers in the 1990s, purchased properties along 63rd Street at a discount with the intention of building new housing and spurring retail development. The housing market crash largely halted that effort. Many of the parcels serve as church parking lots.<br>Over the years, Apostolic also expanded its church on 63rd Street and Dorchester Avenue to accommodate its growing membership.<br>But after his father retired in 2008, the Rev. Brazier announced a different approach from the pulpit.<br>"I wasn't going to invest in any more buildings. I was going to invest in people," Brazier said.<br>For Bonds, the shift coincided with her own reassessment of her priorities.<br>"I always kept God in my life and I always put him at the forefront," she said, "so whatever decisions and whatever directions I go in, I always try to make sure it's directed and guided by my faith."<br>She came to Chicago in 2004; among her employers was Grantek Systems Integration, which specializes in optimizing manufacturing operations.<br>While visiting a plant in Michigan to learn about a new kind of robotics technology, she asked the technicians where they got their training.<br>They pointed her to Focus: Hope in Detroit, an initiative launched by a priest and a nun after the 1967 riots that provides job training and jobs in one of the city's most blighted neighborhoods. She imagined a similar endeavor would work in Chicago and heard Brazier's declaration as an invitation to pitch the idea.<br>"Its origination takes place from people of faith who have a desire to support others that find themselves in difficult situations," Brazier said. "There are things we can do that have looked impossible ... that are being done at this time."<br>Wesley Mack, 54, grew up in the Englewood neighborhood. He considers himself lucky to have escaped the neighborhood and built a lucrative career in construction. But he also fought a drug addiction.<br>A Narcotics Anonymous meeting led him to Apostolic 17 years ago, he said. He returned the following Sunday and has been sitting in the same front pew ever since. Not long after he was seriously injured on a job site, the church announced BSD was accepting applications. He saw an opportunity to make a change for himself, but also for those he left behind. He hopes to return to Englewood and recruit others to give it a try.<br>"It's a chance to start over," he said. "They're trying to show the people in the neighborhood I grew up in (that) it's another way. A lot of people got stuck there. Hopefully I can give them another chance."<br><a href="mailto:mbrachear@chicagotribune.com">mbrachear@chicagotribune.com</a><br>Twitter @TribSeeker brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-48129754958895581612017-09-12T07:56:00.001-07:002017-09-12T07:56:27.470-07:00What Ta-Nehisi Coates gets wrong about leftists<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOigzJmRsE9KPD33AxVyhIs5bfKkv4RtV0pcfr0cXYs3qTWAZQ7MDAUgWW8rOXotsvYIHFwRqyIzNrxa6HkCjCRs9A9VfTVQ2JEyCWREGuP_j6v4FtDSvdYlW7Za7FotZnPhsUgKYlMBS/s1600/RePaper-787471.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOigzJmRsE9KPD33AxVyhIs5bfKkv4RtV0pcfr0cXYs3qTWAZQ7MDAUgWW8rOXotsvYIHFwRqyIzNrxa6HkCjCRs9A9VfTVQ2JEyCWREGuP_j6v4FtDSvdYlW7Za7FotZnPhsUgKYlMBS/s320/RePaper-787471.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6464905836340467858" /></a></p><div dir="auto">My comments for <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/723853/what-tanehisi-coates-gets-wrong-about-leftists">http://theweek.com/articles/723853/what-tanehisi-coates-gets-wrong-about-leftists</a><br>(via @RePaperApp)</div> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-76062702116443619502017-09-04T05:59:00.001-07:002017-09-04T05:59:14.103-07:00Obama Foundation puts new spin on South Side Short videos released on social media highlight communities, not president<div dir="ltr">Obama: Short videos released on social media highlight communities, not president <a href="http://ow.ly/icwZ30eTzPS">ow.ly/icwZ30eTzPS</a> Using social media to benefit all <a href="http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI4ZyXUVAAE188D.jpg">http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI4ZyXUVAAE188D.jpg</a><br> <a href="https://twitter.com/blbanks/status/904688930586595328">https://twitter.com/blbanks/status/904688930586595328</a></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Obama Foundation puts new spin on South Side<br>Short videos released on social media highlight communities, not president<br>Margo Strotter, second from right, works at her Bronzeville restaurant, Ain't She Sweet Cafe, on Thursday. She took part in an Obama Foundation video about the South Side. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune ) <br>By Lolly Bowean Chicago Tribune<br>It's only a 58-second video, but for Jahmal Cole, it was a chance to change some minds.<br>So in the short clip now circulating on social media, Cole boasts about the long legacy of African-American homeownership, block clubs and neighborhood activism in Chatham — the South Side community he calls home.<br>"What you always hear about the South Side … all you hear about is the violence," said Cole, who runs the nonprofit organization My Block, My Hood, My City that takes teenagers to tour neighborhoods across the city. "But we have great architecture, great food, great culture. People need to see that. They need to see people on the ground getting it done. A limited mindset is what's holding our community back."<br>As plans to construct the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park are being sketched out, the Obama Foundation still has to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the construction, obtain city permits, select contractors and hire staff. It has to win favor from a community that has an inherent distrust of large, outside institutions.<br>But the organization also has to tackle a larger issue: the national and international perception of the South Side at a time when the city is being branded by President Donald Trump as a center of violence, poverty and strife.<br>Indeed, in Woodlawn, the community just west of where the center's campus will be located, per capita yearly income is $18,900 and the unemployment rate is 1.5 times the rest of Chicago, according to census data. Along with other communities on the South and West sides, it has experienced a disproportionate amount of violence.<br>Yet, foundation leaders say, media coverage and the national conversation has overshadowed success stories.<br>Recently, the foundation released a series of short videos on its Twitter and Instagram pages that pushes back at that narrative and presents a different story. For some, the move illustrates one of the tougher challenges the organization faces, and that is convincing outsiders to not only travel farther south than most of the popular tourist attractions, but to stay and patronize the rest of the community.<br>"(The foundation seems) to be trying to see beyond just President Barack Obama and see the whole community," said Benjamin Hufbauer, a professor at the University of Louisville who is an expert on presidential libraries and museums. "That's somewhat different than how other presidential centers have engaged the public."<br>The video series is also unusual because rather than spotlight the president, which is what nearly all the other centers do with their social media pages, this effort highlights ordinary residents, he said.<br>"The center will probably have a certain amount of spin and will brand Obama in a certain way — all presidential centers do," he said. "But Chicago is a complicated and tough city — the residents there probably wouldn't accept a center that is just PR or ego boosting. There has to be more there."<br>The social media push comes about two years after the foundation's chair, Martin Nesbitt, told a group of civic leaders and elected officials that the city needed to get its house in order before the center is constructed. By deciding to place the center in the midst of a low-income, African-American community, the president and first lady wanted it to have an impact by bringing money and jobs. But with the world watching, Chicago needs to demonstrate it can fix its own problems, Nesbitt said at the time.<br>The release of the short videos came just before officials announced the creation of a new nonprofit charged with helping spur economic development in the nearby neighborhoods of Woodlawn, South Shore and Washington Park.<br>Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and advertising executive Sherman Wright were selected to lead a 25-member committee made up of community activists, business owners, University of Chicago executives and clergy. The group was organized, in part, by the Chicago Community Trust.<br>But the videos do something different than spur community development, said Pepper Miller, a Chicago-based marketing consultant who is not affiliated with the foundation. They highlight a segment of the community that often feels overlooked while at the same time promoting the area as ripe for investment, she said.<br>"From my view, it looks strategic, it seems intentional. But it's much-needed," she said of what she sees as a rebranding effort. "The black community has always embraced Obama. This seems like a way to try to include us and think about the way he can have a bigger impact."<br>When he was president, Obama couldn't focus specifically on Chicago's black community, Miller said. But with this social media push, his foundation's staff can promote and make sure diverse voices are included in the overall vision and gains of the center, she said.<br>"The Obama Center is not just for Chicago, it is a national and global destination, so the entire community has to be viewed as attractive," she said. "This strategy can work if they are consistent with the message. There has to be a long-term message that builds momentum and reveals a whole other side that people outside don't see."<br>Michael Strautmanis, the vice president for civic engagement with the Obama Foundation, says the new messaging is neither an attempt to recast the South Side or create allies among stakeholders in the community. Rather, it's the foundation's way of using its platform as a megaphone for others who have been organizing years before the center was even launched.<br>"The prevailing narrative is inaccurate and incomplete," he said in a recent interview. "It paints the people as doing nothing and not caring about their lives or their destinies. It was important for us to give voice to the people we've met and talked to and use their stories to shed light."<br>The videos simply allow South Siders to speak up for themselves, he said.<br>"This is part of what the president has said he wants to do in the next stages of his career," he said. "He knows he can use his platform to inspire people to help create solutions to our problems and be the solution. These are the people who are doing that here, now."<br>Residents didn't get paid to participate in the videos. It took only hours to tape them and edit them into minute-long packages, both the participants and foundation officials said. The clips take the foundation's nearly 1 million viewers into Pilsen, Englewood and the Grand Boulevard section of Bronzeville — areas that are miles away from where the center will be located.<br>Emile Cambry, who runs the nonprofit tech incubator Blue 1647 in Pilsen, said he got an email inviting him to be profiled. He thought it was an exciting way to reach a new audience.<br>"Chicago has gotten a bad rap nationally," he said. "When you talk to outsiders, they don't know about all the good people who are combating the negative. I always say there are a lot of creative people here doing work, and we just need our platforms elevated."<br>Since the clip was released by the foundation, Cambry said he has seen the response.<br>"It's the most viral video we've ever had," he said. "More people are getting to hear my story and see the space. I'd like to think they see the authenticity of what we do and our reasons."<br>With the development of the center, change is going to come to Bronzeville, said Margo Strotter, the owner of Ain't She Sweet Cafe. She wanted to tell her story to spur the type of investment she made 11 years ago.<br>"I've always been about providing jobs for people in the neighborhood — hiring folks like me that grew up on the South Side and found it difficult to find work," she said.<br>"That's what we think the center will do: bring jobs to a place that needs them," she said. "They approached me to tape, and I'm on board," she said.<br>In Cole's clip, he walks down a residential block and the camera captures him among the handsome brick bungalows set back from the glowing, manicured lawns. Like the others who were profiled, he never refers to Obama and doesn't talk about the center at all. He talks quickly about the work his organization does and his motivations.<br>"The video not only highlighted me, but the community," he said. "My followers went up by a few hundred people and I got words from people all over the world."<br>But there's another reason besides changing the minds of outsiders that Cole is excited about the videos, he said.<br>"This is good for us here too — to see these videos," he said. "It's a good look … it reminds us what we already have."<br><a href="mailto:lbowean@chicagotribune.com">lbowean@chicagotribune.com</a><br></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-11530154676455850312017-08-19T10:35:00.001-07:002017-08-19T10:35:47.309-07:00How 22 words started a $17-million-a-year blog<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Ehu3WmSQrDkvgAE9ZEqN4LTDcz5GkP9p1cSG_O4rYN3P1EbVPbmP3yCRKa4iAxx8eJ7MzaY1_hnp-jEHPkuSDXxdhjZlA4aC9r0U6gQyN3_u1Eetn9oI31zqhUvp5-n0AiUhwa3JB62X/s1600/shared_image-747310.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Ehu3WmSQrDkvgAE9ZEqN4LTDcz5GkP9p1cSG_O4rYN3P1EbVPbmP3yCRKa4iAxx8eJ7MzaY1_hnp-jEHPkuSDXxdhjZlA4aC9r0U6gQyN3_u1Eetn9oI31zqhUvp5-n0AiUhwa3JB62X/s320/shared_image-747310.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6456040854253064786" /></a></p><div dir="ltr">I thought you would be interested in this article I found on MSN from CNBC: </div><span> </span><p dir="ltr">How 22 words started a $17-million-a-year blog </p><span> </span><p dir="ltr">Source - CNBC</p><span> </span><p dir="ltr">"When I first started [the blog], it was really just to have fun," says Abraham Piper, the founder of viral publishing website 22 Words.</p><span> </span><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://a.msn.com/r/2/AAqhAFA?m=en-us&a=1">http://a.msn.com/r/2/AAqhAFA?m=en-us&a=1</a></p><span> </span><p dir="ltr">Shared via MSN News app. Get the app here. <br> <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/msnapps">https://www.msn.com/en-us/msnapps</a> </p><span> </span><p dir="ltr">Image © Provided by CNBC</p><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660850591635453912.post-52765823849028192152017-05-27T20:37:00.001-07:002017-05-27T20:37:15.193-07:00NPR On Budget Cuts: The Sneaky Messaging That Is Great For Trump | Crooks and Liars<div dir="ltr"><a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2017/05/npr-budget-cuts-sneaky-messaging-great">http://crooksandliars.com/2017/05/npr-budget-cuts-sneaky-messaging-great</a></div><span> </span> brian bankshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870868932450305891noreply@blogger.com0