December 27, 2018

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Entertainment December 27, 2018

Today in Movie Culture: 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' VFX Breakdown, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' Lego Set and More

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Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

FX Breakdown of the Day:

Effects artists at Industrial Light & Magic break down their digital creation of the Millennium Falcon for Solo: A Star Wars Story:

FX Easter eggs of the day:

Speaking of digital effects, here’s Vulture with a look at some secret CGI work in movies such as Justice League and Brokeback Mountain:

Cosplay of the Day:

Speaking of DC movies, Aquaman may be ruling the box office lately but this Wonder Woman fan is ruling cosplay:

After a lot of hard work and dedication here is my cosplay of Wonder Woman. I hope you @GalGadot and @PattyJenks notice, as they are a true inspiration to me & to many women/men. Photographer…
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Business December 27, 2018

U.S. Stocks Come Back After Steep Losses During The Day

Specialist Stephen Naughton works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Richard Drew/AP


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Richard Drew/AP

U.S. market volatility continued on Thursday when markets managed to close up after sharp drops throughout the day, just one trading session after a record-setting rally pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by more than 1,000 points — its largest single-day point gain ever.

After spending much of the day in steeply negative territory, the Dow and S&P 500 made a comeback.

The Dow closed up nearly 260 points, a little more than 1 percent. The swing from its low point to its closing level was more than 870 points.

The S&P 500 closed up a little less than 1 percent, up about 20 points. At its lowest, the index was down nearly 3 percent.

The Nasdaq also closed up, about one-half of 1 percent. At its lowest, the index was also down nearly 3 percent.

Year to date, the Dow is down about 6.5 percent, the S&P 500 a bit more. The Nasdaq has fared a little better, with a loss of 4.6 percent on the year.

All three major indexes have closed down four out of the last six trading sessions. Markets have seen great turbulence in the past few weeks amid U.S.- China trade tensions, new signs of a softening in the global economy and a fourth interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year. Car and home sales have slumped while the 30-year mortgage rate hit a seven-year high in November.

Once again, the market is weighing conflicting signals. On the plus side, consumers did not hold back this holiday season. U.S. retail sales were up 5.1 percent over last year, according to a Mastercard SpendingPulse report.

But that didn’t stop the volatility. A report released Thursday morning from the Conference Board showed consumer confidence slid to its lowest point in five months.

“Expectations regarding job prospects and business conditions weakened, but still suggest that the economy will continue expanding at a solid pace in the short-term,” Lynn Franco, a senior director at the board, said.

“While consumers are ending 2018 on a strong note, back-to-back declines … are reflective of an increasing concern that the pace of economic growth will begin moderating in the first half of 2019,” Franco said.

On Wednesday, the Dow surged 1,086 points — nearly 5 percent — allowing investors to regain some of the steep losses suffered in recent trading sessions.

The broader market also did well on Wednesday, as measured by the S&P 500. It was also up nearly 5 percent.

Markets managed to hold a big chunk of those gains on Thursday, as investors refocused on the many market challenges as the clock runs out on 2018.

The markets have two more trading days left in the year.

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Health December 27, 2018

'WSJ' Report: Psychiatric Hospitals With Safety Violations Remain Accredited

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks to Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Armour about her investigation of how many psychiatric hospitals with troubling safety records continue to receive accreditation.



ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

At a psychiatric hospital in Atlanta, a 19-year-old patient died while being restrained by staff. It was deemed a homicide. At a similar facility in Dallas, a patient attacked a doctor who later died of his injuries. These psychiatric hospitals and more than a hundred others around the U.S. stayed fully accredited even after cases of patient abuse, sexual assault and other major violations. That’s the finding of an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, and reporter Stephanie Armour joins us now. Welcome.

STEPHANIE ARMOUR: Thanks for having me.

SHAPIRO: You looked at hundreds of pages of state inspection reports from psychiatric facilities all over the U.S. Tell us the pattern you found.

ARMOUR: Well, what I found with the analysis is that hospitals that have significant and serious violations were able, in many cases, to retain their full accreditation by a third-party accrediting organization. And what these hospitals then do is they use this accreditation – it comes with a gold seal of approval – on their websites, on brochures. And they use it to recruit new patients even at the same time that they are under federal investigation for these violations or even, in some cases, where the violations are so severe the federal government has cut them off from all Medicare funding.

SHAPIRO: Yeah. That was one of the things that really struck me in this story – is that in cases where the problems were so pervasive, the federal government said the hospital would no longer get Medicare money, still the hospital retained its accreditation.

ARMOUR: That’s correct. And we found examples where the hospital retained their accreditation even after they had lost all their Medicare funding. And you have to understand; for the federal government to cut off Medicare funding is a very, very rare occurrence because it generally means the hospital goes out of business. But what’s also really interesting about this is that the federal and state governments have largely farmed out safety oversight of psychiatric hospitals and actually all hospitals in the United States to these third-party accrediting organizations. They go in. They inspect a hospital. They certify the hospital, and that hospital is then able to get Medicare funding.

SHAPIRO: You write that one organization has a virtual monopoly on these inspections of psychiatric hospitals. It’s called the Joint Commission. They decide whether a hospital gets accredited or not. When you showed them your findings, how did they explain their decision to let hospitals keep accreditation even after these egregious lapses?

ARMOUR: Well, they say that their role is very much to work with a hospital that has problems to help them improve, that they are not a, quote, “regulator,” that they do not go in and punish a hospital. And they actually say that this process that they have allows hospitals to be much more forthcoming with them about potential problems.

SHAPIRO: Do you find that a reasonable explanation?

ARMOUR: Well, we did find that hospitals that – the Joint Commission said, look; hospitals tend to get better after a violation when they retain their accreditation. But we found in our analysis that the vast majority of hospitals actually went on to have further violations.

SHAPIRO: So if there’s more than a hundred psychiatric hospitals around the U.S. that have had egregious violations and yet still advertise this gold seal of approval, what does that mean for people who might be considering placing a loved one or themselves into a psychiatric hospital? What kind of guarantee can people have of safety?

ARMOUR: There is, I think, a concern that there’s a false sense of safety that hospitals are able to promote and advertise. You have to also understand that the Joint Commission, which inspects and reviews hospitals often in lieu of regular state inspections – all of their surveys and inspections are private, where – if a state survey is done, in most cases, someone who’s considering a hospital can go check it out to see what the problems have been. But the Joint Commission – thanks to a federal law, all of their inspections are private. So there’s very little information really that patients can get on what may be going on at a hospital.

SHAPIRO: Stephanie Armour is a health policy reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for joining us today.

ARMOUR: Sure. Thank you for having me.

Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports December 27, 2018

Adults Come Under Scrutiny After HS Wrestler Told To Cut His Dreadlocks Or Forfeit

A video still shows Buena Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson getting his hair cut on Dec. 19, in Buena, N.J., after referee Alan Maloney told Johnson he would forfeit the match if he did not have his dreadlocks cut.

Michael Frankel/SNJToday.com via AP


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Michael Frankel/SNJToday.com via AP

A week after a white referee told a black high school wrestler that he needed to cut off his dreadlocks or forfeit a match, the referee has been suspended. But people in town — and on social media — are asking why other adults didn’t do more to prevent what happened: A school official cut the student’s hair as the crowd watched and the clock ticked down.

In a video that has been viewed millions of times, Buena Regional High School junior Andrew Johnson is seen having his hair cut by the team trainer. Johnson won the match in overtime. But as the referee, Alan Maloney, raised Johnson’s hand as the winner, the young man looks utterly miserable.

Epitome of a team player ??

A referee wouldn’t allow Andrew Johnson of Buena @brhschiefs to wrestle with a cover over his dreadlocks. It was either an impromptu haircut, or a forfeit. Johnson chose the haircut, then won by sudden victory in OT to help spark Buena to a win. pic.twitter.com/f6JidKNKoI

— Mike Frankel (@MikeFrankelSNJ) December 20, 2018

A local sports reporter tweeted video of the incident, and outrage followed.

“This is not about hair. This is about race,” tweeted the ACLU of New Jersey. “How many different ways will people try to exclude Black people from public life without having to declare their bigotry? We’re so sorry this happened to you, Andrew. This was discrimination, and it’s not okay.”

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association said in a statement that it had suspended Maloney while the incident is investigated by the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.

Athletic association Executive Director Larry White said the incident had hit close to home: “[A]s an African-American and parent — as well as a former educator, coach, official and athlete — I clearly understand the issues at play, and probably better than most. The NJSIAA takes this matter very seriously, and I ask that everyone respect the investigatory process related to all parties involved.”

It turns out that it’s not the first time that Maloney has been investigated on charges of racist conduct. At a party in 2016, he allegedly called a black referee the N-word. Maloney told the South Jersey Courier-Post that he didn’t remember using the slur, but he believed the accounts of witnesses who said he did. The New Jersey Wrestling Officials Association initially decreed that Maloney would be suspended for a year, but he filed an appeal. The association’s ethics committee overturned the suspension, ruling that it didn’t have jurisdiction.

Johnson’s family released a statement through its attorney, Dominic Speziali, that offered a more detailed accounting of what it says happened at the Dec. 19 match. Referee Maloney was reportedly late to the meet and missed weigh-ins when “scholastic wrestling rules clearly state that referees are to inspect wrestlers’ appearance and determine any rules violations prior to the start of the meet, typically during weigh-ins. … When he did evaluate Andrew, he failed to raise any issues with the length of his hair or the need to wear a head covering.”

Maloney rejected the covering that Johnson wore over his hair, and then started the clock, giving the wrestler 90 seconds to cut his hair or forfeit the match. The family says, “Under duress but without any influence from the coaching staff or the athletic trainer, Andrew decided to have his hair cut rather than forfeit the match.”

The family added that it is supportive of Buena’s coaches and trainer: “The blame here rests primarily with the referee and those that permitted him to continue in that role despite clear evidence of what should be a disqualifying race-related transgression.”

Buena’s school superintendent released a statement outlining the incident and pledged continued support for its student-athletes. The Buena Regional Board of Education convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening, and as WHYY’s Darryl Murphy reports, it served as an occasion for community members to voice their displeasure:

“Rajhon White, a Buena alum, said the fact that the adults in the gym let that haircut happen reflects a larger problem with the culture of the community.

” ‘It was a direct correlation of what happens. It was Andrew being put in a situation where no one is standing up and fighting for him. You seen the video,’ he said. ‘Everyone is sitting there like, “Hmm, this is happening,” and that is exactly what is happening in these hallways.’

” ‘It’s not surprising,’ said Alison Arne of Buena Vista. ‘It was shocking to see Andrew Johnson’s hair being cut, but it definitely was not shocking that it was allowed to happen.’ “

The state’s department of education tweeted that it had met with the NJSIAA on Thursday morning “about protecting the rights of all student-athletes across New Jersey.”

The episode brought Johnson tweets of support from Olympic gold-medal-winning wrestler Jordan Burroughs and film director Ava DuVernay, among others.

“I don’t just wear locs. They are a part of me. A gift to me. They mean something to me,” DuVernay wrote. “So to watch this young man’s ordeal, wrecked me.”

Burroughs called the incident “sickening.”

“I’ve been wrestling for 25 years, at every level, and I have never once seen a person required to cut their hair during a match,” he wrote. “My opinion is that this was a combination of an abuse of power, racism, and just plain negligence. As heroic as it was for Andrew to step up in the midst of what was happening, it shouldn’t have got that far. The parents and coaches of the Buena wrestling team should have intervened. This young man should have been protected in this moment. I’m sure his hair was a strong part of his identity, and no single victory is worth succumbing to the pressure of unjust oppression and the unwarranted stripping of that identity.”

Johnson’s parents said the family had been moved by the outpouring of support, and that wrestling has taught their son resilience against adversity.

“As we move forward, we are comforted by both the strength of Andrew’s character and the support he’s received from the community,” they wrote. “We will do all that we can to make sure that no student-athlete is forced to endure what Andrew experienced.”

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