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  • Culture Watch: Jo Freeman’s Review of Constance Baker Motley, One Woman’s Fight for Civil Rights and Equal Justice Under Law

    Jack Greenberg, CBM, Thurgood MarshallReview by Jo Freeman

    Constance Baker Motley: One Woman’s Fight for Civil Rights and Equal Justice under Law

    By Gary L. Ford, Jr.
    Published by University of Alabama Press, 2017,  viii, 164 pp.

    Photo, right: NAACP Attorneys Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley and Thurgood Marshall;  Jack Greenberg, left, replaced Marshall as chief counsel of the NAACP Inc. Fund when Marshall became a federal appeals court judge in 1961.  (Credit: NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund, Inc.)

    Constance Baker Motley was the first black woman to be appointed as a federal judge.  But it was what she did before becoming a judge that warrants this biography.  For twenty years she was on the front line of the legal assault on segregation, arguing dozens of cases as the only female attorney on the staff of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (aka Inc. Fund)

    Born in Connecticut in 1921, Connie Baker was the ninth of 12 children of West Indian immigrants.  A top student, she decided at an early age that she wanted to be a lawyer, but couldn’t find the money for college, let alone law school.  That problem was solved when she impressed the first of two important male mentors, a white philanthropist who paid her way through private college and Columbia Law School.

    Her second mentor was Thurgood Marshall, who hired her as a law clerk while she was still a student.  After law school he put her on the Inc. Fund staff, where she stayed for twenty years.

    The other important man in her life was her husband, Joel Motley Jr. whom she met in law school and married soon after graduation.  He was way ahead of his time in being a supportive husband and active father married to a woman in an important job who traveled a great deal.

    This was most fortunate, because her boss, Thurgood Marshall, frequently sent her South to argue cases in the federal district courts.  He thought women were less likely to be physically attacked than the men.  In the South CBM was constantly surrounded by bodyguards, and still had some scary experiences.  She also had to live and work within its segregated society while fighting it in court. 

    In those days the South’s segregated institutions provided few places for traveling blacks to sleep at night so they often stayed in private homes.  For this, it was handy to have a local member of the NAACP.  The few black attorneys in the Southern states often were CBM’s hosts, as well as co-counsel in order to meet the requirement that a member of a state’s bar be on the case.  Either the author or the Inc. Fund didn’t seem to know about The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide for black travelers to places where they could eat, sleep and shop.  

  • How Hurricane Responders Track People Whose Lives Depend on Power: Registries of Medically Fragile Residents

    House w/HELP painted on roof in Puerto Rican Mountains

    Photo: While conducting search and rescue in the mountains of Puerto Rico a CBP Air and Marine Operations Black Hawk located this home a half mile from a peak with HELP painted its roof; US Customs and Border Protection 

    In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, large swaths of Florida went without power for days. Sweaty and frustrating for millions, the lack of electricity could have been deadly for tens of thousands of mostly elderly Floridians who rely on home health equipment such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators, motorized wheelchairs and dialysis machines.

    But in much of the state, first responders and public health officials knew exactly where the most vulnerable residents lived and what their medical needs were.

    That’s because Florida, like a handful of other hurricane-prone states, requires counties to create registries of residents who are most vulnerable to severe storms and the prolonged power outages that follow them. Some states also maintain their own databases of medically fragile residents.

    As the US population ages and more people opt for home health care services instead of lengthy hospital and nursing home stays, the number of Americans who rely on the electrical grid to power life-sustaining home devices is soaring.

    That fact, combined with climatologists’ predictions that the number of major storms is likely to increase, puts an increasing number of Americans at risk when the power goes out.

    Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast in 2012, caused prolonged power losses for millions of residents in 17 states and sent hundreds of medically fragile people to hospital emergency departments to plug in their devices. At the same time, people with life-threatening injuries were crowding the same hospitals, creating chaos and death.

    That’s when the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to help states locate and care for electricity-dependent residents during natural disasters. Using Medicare claims data, the agency created a database of people who use home medical equipment paid for by the federal insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

    Since its launch in 2015, emPOWER [Editor’s Note: Please know that there are many entities with the name — or variation of this name — for other businesses but this is a government service.] has been used by health officials in 43 states, five territories and three cities to plan for the emergency needs of 3.8 million people with medical devices, according to HHS. Most recently it was used in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to locate and evacuate dialysis patients following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

    Local Registries

    When Hurricane Irma hit, in September, it caused one of the nation’s largest power outages ever measured. More than 16 million people lost power in the Southeast, about 7 million of them in Florida.

    Eight people died in a sweltering nursing home after the storm knocked out its air conditioning system, and Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, later issued an emergency ruling requiring all Florida nursing homes to have backup power systems.

    In Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, public health preparedness director Ryan Pedigo said specialized medical shelters with generators ran smoothly despite widespread power outages.

  • Masterpiece’s The Durrells+Season Two; Enjoy Reading Gerald’s Triology

    It was a dark and stormy night — in Corfu, of all places! A spooky séance in wild weather is just one of the many adventures, along with otter breeding, a cricket showdown, and the multi-generational search for romance, on The Durrells in Corfu, Season 2, airing on MASTERPIECE in six endearing new episodes starring Keeley Hawes (Wives and Daughters, The Hollow Crown), Sundays October 15 – November 19, 2017 on PBS at the special time of 8pm ET.

    Season 1 enchanted critics, with USA Today discovering “wit and charm in abundance,” The LA Daily News marveling at “an unpredictable, amusing family dynamic most shows would kill for,” and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calling the series “as warm and pleasant as its picturesque setting.” The new season has already garnered lavish praise.

    During the recent UK broadcast, The Telegraph (London) was delighted to find that “Corfu was still sun-drenched, the titular family of lovable eccentrics remained in perpetual chaos and … the tone was, as before, one of warm nostalgia and deep, abiding silliness.” And The Guardian (London) hailed Season 2 as “sweet, and charming, and pretty, and funny…. [It’s] that rather nice thing: Sunday night family drama entertainment.”

    Inspired by the beloved memoirs of Gerald Durrell, The Durrells in Corfu features Hawes as Louisa Durrell, the harried widowed mother of a brood of recalcitrant children (this season ages 12 to 22). Louisa moves the floundering family from England to Corfu in the mid 1930s to recharge their lives — hers included.

    Milo Parker plays Gerry, the wildlife-obsessed youngest, who later penned his reminiscences of the family’s unusual exploits. Daisy Waterstone is the man-mad teen, Margo, this season trying to kindle romance with a monk. Callum Woodhouse is the hunter-turned-distiller-turned-fashion-photographer, Leslie. And Josh O’Connor is literary Larry, who in real life went on to make a name for himself as the bohemian novelist Lawrence Durrell.

    Also back this season is the family’s guardian angel on the island, the ever-resourceful Spiro, played by Alexis Georgoulis. Yorgos Karamihos returns as Gerry’s fellow fauna fanatic, Dr. Theo Stephanides. And screen legend Leslie Caron (An American in Paris, Gigi) reprises her cameo role as the island’s redoubtable Countess Mavrodaki.

    The Durrells in Corfu, Season Two finds the family in dire financial straits, as usual. They have a new landlady, Vasilia, an island beauty who holds a mysterious grudge against Louisa and insists on prompt payment of the rent. Desperate to come up with the cash, Louisa embarks on a bold strategy: sell homemade British delicacies at the village market. The locals are just beginning to develop a taste for scotch eggs and spotted dick, when Vasilia engineers a public health crisis.

    Meanwhile, Louisa is being courted by handsome British ex-pat Hugh (Daniel Lapaine, Zero Dark Thirty), who has an olive press, drives a red MG, and wants to sweep her back to England. Margo and Larry also get romantic partners, as do Gerry’s otters. The plot thickens when Louisa’s dead husband gets back in touch, and an international incident threatens when the expats and Greeks organize a “friendly” cricket match.Gerald Durrell and friend

    And then there’s Leslie, who makes a very special delivery.

    The Durrells in Corfu, Season Two is a Sid Gentle Films Ltd/MASTERPIECE co-production, based on the Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell. It is written by Simon Nye, directed by Steve Barron and Edward Hall and produced by Christopher Hall. 

    More About the Durrells: https://www.durrell.org/wildlife/the-durrells/; photograph from the Durrell Wildlife website

    Gerald Durrell’s wife chats about his 

  • FDA Approves New Treatment for Certain Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancers

    Verzenio

    The US Food and Drug Administration today approved Verzenio (abemaciclib) to treat adult patients who have hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after taking therapy that alters a patient’s hormones (endocrine therapy).Verzeniois approved to be given in combination with an endocrine therapy, called fulvestrant, after the cancer had grown on endocrine therapy. It is also approved to be given on its own,if patients were previously treated with endocrine therapy and chemotherapy after the cancer had spread (metastasized).

    “Verzenio provides a new targeted treatment option for certain patients with breast cancer who are not responding to treatment, and unlike other drugs in the class, it can be given as a stand-alone treatment to patients who were previously treated with endocrine therapy and chemotherapy,” said Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence and acting director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

    Verzenioworks by blocking certain molecules (known as cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6), involved in promoting the growth of cancer cells. There are two other drugs in this class that are approved for certain patients with breast cancer, palbociclib approved in February 2015 andribociclib approved in March 2017.

    Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health estimates approximately 252,710 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and 40,610 will die of the disease. Approximately 72 percent of patients with breast cancer have tumors that are HR-positive and HER2-negative.

    The safety and efficacy of Verzenio in combination with fulvestrant were studied in a randomized trial of 669 patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that had progressed after treatment with endocrine therapy and who had not received chemotherapy once the cancer had metastasized. The study measured the length of time tumors did not grow after treatment (progression-free survival). The median progression-free survival for patients taking Verzenio with fulvestrant was 16.4 months compared to 9.3 months for patients taking a placebo with fulvestrant.

    The safety and efficacy of Verzenio as a stand-alone treatment were studied in a single-arm trial of 132 patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that had progressed after treatment with endocrine therapy and chemotherapy after the cancer metastasized. The study measured the percent of patients whose tumors completely or partially shrank after treatment (objective response rate). In the study, 19.7 percent of patients taking Verzenio experienced complete or partial shrinkage of their tumors for a median 8.6 months.

    Common side effects of Verzenio include diarrhea, low levels of certain white blood cells (neutropenia and leukopenia), nausea, abdominal pain, infections, fatigue, low levels of red blood cells (anemia), decreased appetite,vomitingand headache.

    Serious side effects of Verzenio include diarrhea, neutropenia, elevated liver blood tests and blood clots (deep venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism). Women who are pregnant should not take Verzenio because it may cause harm to a developing fetus.

    The FDA granted this application Priority Review and Breakthrough Therapydesignations.

    The FDA granted the approval of Verzenio to Eli Lilly and Company.

    The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

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  • Elaine Soloway’s Rookie Widow and Transplant Series: The Hat; This Roommate Feels Familiar; Woof

     

    The Hat The Hat

    The hat cost $35, more than I had hoped to spend. But this straw Fedora that I found at a stall at The Grove had the advantage of an adjustable interior band, which could be pulled tighter, making it smaller. This feature — devised by the Chinese manufacturer — created a hat that would fit my teensy head.
     
    So, I sprung for it. I had been seeking such a hat for weeks. I was worried that my constant baseball cap wearing was thinning my hair. Although a Google search denied baseball caps as the culprits, the fact that I had been wearing them daily against Los Angeles’ strong sun, pointed to those canvas covers as guilty parties.
     
    “We all lose some hair as we get older,” my daughter, Faith, who has a luscious head of dark brown hair, said.
     
    “But, you can’t see it on your head,” I said. “With my gray hair, my scalp shows all of the empty places.”
     
    I figured that the straw hat, with a weave that allows air to flow through, would not create the heat generated by a baseball cap. Perhaps, my disappearing shoots would magically reappear.
     
    So although the Fedora was purchased as sort of a prescription, I soon found that it was bringing me other benefits: people were stopping me on the street, or calling out from cars with, “Hey, I like your hat!”
     
    With each salute, I’d preen like a beauty queen, which reminded me of my husband Tommy and his Stetson. I can’t remember where we bought it, but it’s easy for me to recall my late husband’s adoration of that hat. Normally, he was a baseball cap kind of guy, and we had upper closet shelves full of imprinted varieties to confirm that. There were dozens hawking colleges, towns, golf courses, and museums.
     
    When we met in 1996, Tommy was already losing his hair. He often told this silly joke: I have wavy hair; it’s waving me goodbye. Those in earshot would groan, but that didn’t stop him from repeating it whenever he got the chance. And because I found him to be so compatible, so endearing, I’d grin, no matter the number of reruns.
     
    After we married in 1998, and he continued to lose his hair, I urged him to shave it all off. “It’s sexy,” I would say.  What I kept to myself was, Please stop with the comb-overs.
     
    Tommy saved his beloved Stetson for evenings out and he would pair it with a leather jacket. This combo pleased him so much, that whenever he’d don this outfit, he’d spend a few minutes sashaying in front of the open hall closet doors.
     
    After Tommy died, and before I left the house we lived in together, I had an estate sale. “Estate” is really a misnomer. The home we shared was a modest three-bedroom, two-story, with a large backyard and front porch. I’m not sure why you need to know that;  it’s just that I like to resurrect that image whenever I find an opening.
     
    Anyway, now that I’ve made both of us sad with that picture of lost domesticity, here’s another teary tidbit: I included all of my husband’s clothing in that sale, including his Stetson. I don’t know why I did that;  why couldn’t I have held on to the Stetson? I have his ashes, his watch, his wedding ring, and his wallet. I could’ve added the Stetson to the mini-memorial I’ve set up on my nightstand. But, you’re right; maybe it would’ve been too much.
     
    When I leave the house now and place my Fedora upon my evidently smaller than normal head, I don’t do the cute dance Tommy used to do.  But, I do admit to a bit of showing off in front of the round mirror in my entry hall.  I have to do some adjusting before my exit, for although the hat fits width-wise, it is somewhat tall, so I squish it down a bit to look just so.
     
    Of course, I wish I could have Tommy on my arm with his Stetson. We’d be an adorable pair;  each hat covering up our steady hair loss. But, that’s not to be, so I’ll wear my straw and tip it to my guy who taught me how to stylishly wear a hat.

  • Congressional Hearings, Bill Passed & Introduced: Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, Needs of Children Considered, Extending Maternal, Infant & Early Childhood Home Visiting Program

    On September 19, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved S. 1848, the Trafficking Victims Protection (TVPA) Reauthorization Act, sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). The current TVPA (P.L. 113-4) is set to expire at the end of September. Child Soldiers Intl

    The logo of Child Soldiers International

    The bill would modify the criteria for determining whether a country meets the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, extend the authorization for programs to combat trafficking in persons (including the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons within the Department of State), and urge the president to work with the private sector to “explore, develop, and use technology” to strengthen federal law enforcement’s ability to end trafficking and criminal networks.

    The measure contains provisions to develop child protection strategies in Watch List countries, prevent the use of child soldiers, and support the integration of anti-trafficking interventions at multinational development banks.

    On September 19, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on S. 1693, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017, sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). Also known as SESTA, the bill proposes to eliminate criminal immunity for internet platforms that “knowingly” facilitate sex trafficking.

    The legislation stems from long term efforts to stop internet companies, such as Backpage.com, from facilitating sex trafficking (see The Source, 1/13/17). Sponsors of the bill argued that internet companies should be held liable for trafficking content posted by third parties, while witnesses opposed to the measure contended that SESTA could increase liability for internet platforms, such as Google and Facebook, that act in good faith.

    The following witnesses testified:

    • Xavier Becerra, attorney general, State of California, former Member of Congress;
    • Eric Goldman, professor, Santa Clara University of Law;
    • *Abigail Slater, general counsel, Internet Association; and
    • Yiota Souras, senior vice president and general counsel, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

    Excertps from Abigail Slater’s statement:

    Engineers at companies including Google have worked with Thorn and the Hovde Foundation to develop a tool called Spotlight, which harnesses artificial intelligence to comb through millions of ads online and flag potential child victims. This tool is now used by law enforcement in all 50 states, and agencies using it have seen a 60% reduction in their investigation time. In a single year, Spotlight helped identify over 6,000 victims and 2,000 traffickers. With advances in machine learning technology, we can continue to improve this technology and make it even more broadly available.

    In May 2016, Facebook hosted over 75 engineers from across the industry, including Microsoft and Google, as well as from child safety NGOs, such as NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), Thorn (Tech Innovation to Fight Child Sexual Exploitation), and InHope (Internet Association for Internet Hotlines), for the first-ever cross-industry child safety hackathon to develop tools and products that enhance child online safety. The 2017 hackathon expanded in scope and reach, and one of the prototypes that came out of the hackathon is a tool that will enable people to match known photos of missing children against online trafficking ads.

    The Thorn Technology Task Force, which includes 20 technology companies ranging from Microsoft to Snap, is creating networks of digital defenders to develop new strategies to fight their adaptive adversaries.

    Twilio and Salesforce Foundation partnered with Polaris and Thorn to develop the Internet Association for Internet Hotlines, which allows victims to text the shortcode “BeFree” for a discreet and time-efficient way to access the hotline.

    Amazon Web Services powers a number of tools, such as the Federation for Internet Alerts, which provide life-saving child abduction alerts as well as facial recognition technology that aids police in the fight against sex trafficking.

    Match Group is working with THORN to pilot new technology that would use THORN data to automatically detect users who attempt use Match Group sites to disseminate information associated with known sex traffickers and remove them from the sites. These are just a few of many examples that grow by the day. Recognizing the role technology plays in providing solutions is key to understanding why a narrow, targeted approach is the only way to truly achieve our goals: undermining companies’ incentives to experiment and participate in the innovation that targets criminal activity will only undermine our fight against trafficking.

  • CBO’s Preliminary Analysis of Legislation That Would Replace Subsidies for Health Care With Block Grants

    stethoscope

    At the request of the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, the Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have analyzed the direct spending and revenue effects of legislation sponsored by Senators Graham, Cassidy, Heller, and Johnson that would replace certain federal subsidies for health care with block grants to states. Specifically, the agencies analyzed H.R. 1628, an amendment in the nature of a substitute [LYN17744], posted on September 25, 2017, on Senator Cassidy’s website.1

    In the short time available, rather than provide the point estimates that are typical in such analyses, the agencies have been able to assess only whether any reductions in the deficit stemming from the legislation as a whole (and from its two titles individually) would exceed certain thresholds and to qualitatively assess its effects on health insurance coverage and market stability.

    Over the 2017–2026 period, CBO and JCT estimate, the legislation would reduce the on-budget deficit by at least $133 billion, the projected savings from the House-passed reconciliation bill. (The effects on the deficit were estimated relative to CBO’s March 2016 baseline, as has been done for all legislation related to the 2017 budget resolution.) Those savings would occur mainly because, under the legislation, outlays from new block grants between 2020 and 2026 would be smaller than the reduction in net federal subsidies for health insurance. Funding would shift away from states that expanded eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and toward states that did not.

    The number of people with comprehensive health insurance that covers high-cost medical events would be reduced by millions compared with the baseline projections for each year during the decade, CBO and JCT estimate. That number could vary widely depending on how states implemented the legislation, although the direction of the effect is clear. The reduction in the number of insured people relative to the number under current law would result from three main causes. First, enrollment in Medicaid would be substantially lower because of large reductions in federal funding for that program. Second, enrollment in nongroup coverage would be lower because of reductions in subsidies for it. Third, enrollment in all types of health insurance would be lower because penalties for not having insurance would be repealed. Those losses in coverage would be partly offset by enrollment in new programs established by states using the block grants and by somewhat higher enrollment in employment-based insurance. Many of the new programs would probably cover people with characteristics similar to those of people made eligible for Medicaid by the ACA.

    The decrease in the number of insured people would be particularly large starting in 2020, when the legislation would make major changes to federal funding for Medicaid and the nongroup market. CBO and JCT expect that market disruptions and other implementation problems would accompany the transition to the block grants created by the legislation — despite the availability of funding specifically designated to assist with that transition — given the short time for planning and making changes between now and then.

    CBO and JCT would need at least several weeks to provide point estimates of the effects on the deficit, health insurance coverage, and premiums. During that time, the agencies would gather and analyze more information about states’ potential uses of the block grants and the extent to which states might modify rules governing the nongroup market.

  • The Anatomy of Estate Sales, a Weekend Ritual as Common for Some as Going to a Religious Service

    engraving advertising an estate sale

    by Jean Hubbell Asher

    The thrill of the hunt, beating the system, however one defines it, tag sale fever abounds in the New York suburbs and, for that matter, around the country whether on the scene or over the Internet. By any name, be it tag sale, garage sale, yard sale,  they’re all means of getting rid of things you no longer want or need. It’s like cleaning house and getting paid for it. These are high energy events: quick decisions, brisk sales, in and out and on to the next sale. For the faithful, sales are not only a part of their vocabulary but, indeed, an essential part of the fabric of their lives.  It becomes a weekend ritual as common for some as going to a religious service.

    Portrait of Jan Gildemeester engraved after his portrait by Adriaan de Lelie; frontispiece of his estate sale catalog of 1800 (thus the crying cherubs); date of sale: June 11, 1800, Wikimedia Commons

    An estate sale is the crown jewel of tag sales. It is the sale of an owner’s belongings at the owner’s house, managed and run by a professional estate sale company. These companies generally have a bottom line and accept only those sales which make sense financially. In essence, their pre-screening of a sale means that it will be a quality sale.

    All my adult life I have been going to every variation of a tag sale. It is how I have furnished my house; helped with my children’s various residences; bought and sold to various dealers; found pieces for my decorating clients; done my Christmas shopping. As a buyer standing in line waiting, waiting, waiting for my number to be called, I am a bit breathless in anticipation; what treasures lurk may behind the closed door?

    As a consumer, though, the real dynamics of an estate sale eluded me until I started working, many years ago, for Canning & Watson, a long-established estate sale company based in Darien, Ct.  Being immersed in these sales for a two-day period provides an unique vantage point for seeing a sale in its totality. The behind the scenes stories of these sales are funny and sad, profound and trivial. Every estate sale company would have their stories to tell but these are the stories that I know.

    The door to the sale opens at 9 am but by 8 am the action has already begun. Most estate sales are in the high rent districts with manicured lawns and, when they emerge, manicured people. Early in the morning on the day of a sale, the neighborhood serenity is assaulted by a crowd of 100 or more people milling about with drivers of cars and vans jostling for parking spaces. The neighbors are probably reassured by the presence of a policeman directing traffic but less than pleased with this particular crowd who clearly are not from the neighborhood.

    The majority of the early crowd consist of dealers whose lifeline is finding salable merchandise. For some, their car is more like a home filled with yesterday’s trash and stash. These few have probably slept in their cars to gain early access to sale. Their bed heads betray them. The other sale regulars are in ‘get up and go’ garb: a bit ragtag, all body types and in every conceivable mode of dress,  propelled by a sense of urgency  to get to the sale early.  The few in the crowd who are more carefully dressed are most likely to be neighbors or friends of the owner. 

     The common denominator of this melting pot is an intense desire to buy.  In all likelihood, the dealers have several pieces in mind while the retail buyer is more apt to be interested in a specific piece for their house. The neophytes (neighbors and friends of the owner who have never been to an estate sale) are rather stunned to find this assemblage of informed and, shall we say, eager buyers. It becomes very obvious that most of the early crowd have studied the ads and know what to expect from this sale. 

    The ads for the sale are in the local newspapers and Antiques and the Arts Weekly, affectionately known as The Bee. This journal is the dealer’s Bible for all things relating to antiques including several pages of ads dedicated to professionally run estate sales. There are usually quite a few sales scheduled for the same day and starting time, which present an obvious quandary for the faithful tag sale goer. The urgency of the prose used in the ads is to create a ‘can’t-miss’ mentality while accurately reflecting the merchandise for sale. In addition to the featured merchandise paired with photos in The Bee, the ads list the particulars: date, time, general directions and, in the case of professional sales, their system for giving out numbers. 

    Canning & Watson had come up with a relatively simple solution to this problem: a four hour call in period for pre-sale numbers on a first come, first serve basis. This has dramatically reduced the frayed nerves of the early crowd as they exchange their pre-sale numbers for the official numbers handed out at 8 am the day of the sale. This is a rather civilized system in stark contrast to the pandemonium of earlier years, when Canning & Watson, along with most estate sale firms, left the inner workings of a pre-sale number system to the wit or whims of the first person on the scene. 

  • Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia; What they Wore, Who They Traded With and What They Ate and Drank

    Gold Plaque of Mounted Scythian

     At the British Museum this autumn, an exhibit of an ancient culture that was buried in the Siberian permafrost for thousands of years. The BP exhibition Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia will reveal the history of these powerful nomadic tribes who thrived in a vast landscape stretching from southern Russia to China and the northern Black Sea.

    Gold plaque of a mounted Scythian. Black Sea region, c. 400–350 BC. © The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, 2017. Photo: V Terebenin

    The Scythians were exceptional horsemen and warriors, and feared adversaries and neighbors of the ancient Greeks, Assyrians and Persians between 900 and 200 BC. This exhibition will tell their story through archaeological discoveries and perfectly preserved objects frozen in time.

    This will be the first major exhibition to explore the Scythians in the UK in 40 years. Many of the objects on display date back over 2,500 years. They are exceptionally well preserved as they come from burial mounds in the high Altai mountains of southern Siberia, where the frozen ground prevented them from deteriorating.

    Over 200 objects will reveal all aspects of Scythian life, including a major loan in collaboration with the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and other generous loans from the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ashmolean Museum and the Royal Collection. Some are star pieces which are displayed in the permanent galleries and Treasury of the State Hermitage Museum and others have never been loaned to the UK before.

    Objects preserved by the permafrost include multi-colored textiles, fur-lined garments and accessories, unique horse headgear and tattooed human remains. Tattooing was common among the Scythians and incredible examples were preserved in the frozen tombs. This art shows natural and mythical animals with heavily contorted bodies, often in close combat, and we have examples of exceptionally well-preserved early tattooed remains on loan from the State Hermitage Museum.

  • Graham-Cassidy & Women: Capped Program with Limited Federal Financing, Pre-Exisitng Conditions’ Higher Premiums, Permit States to Waive Maternity Care, Abortion Ban, No Medicaid Reimbursements for Planned Parenthood

     A doula with a newborn and mother; Creative Commons Newborn with doula and mother

    Kaiser Family Foundation News, Sept. 22, 2017

    The bill would:

    1. Permit states to waive requirements for coverage of maternity care and preventive services in the individual market. The ACA requires all individual plans to cover ten categories of essential health benefits (EHB), including maternity care, mental health, and prescription drugs. It also requires all private plans to cover preventive services, such as contraceptives and mammograms, without cost sharing.
    • The Graham-Cassidy proposal would allow states to waive these requirements. If states eliminate the requirement for maternity coverage, plans on the individual market would be allowed to exclude coverage for these services, as many did before the ACA. Some states have separate requirements to cover maternity services, but most do not. This would create a patchwork of requirements that vary across the country, and women in some states may not be able to purchase a plan that covers maternity care.
    • The proposal would also allow states to waive the preventive services requirement, including no-cost coverage for contraceptives in the individual market, but employer-based plans would still be required to cover these services as well as maternity care.
    1. Ban all Marketplace plans from covering abortion and bar small employers from receiving tax credits if their plans cover abortion. The ACA allows states to choose whether to ban all plans in their Marketplaces from covering abortion beyond Hyde limitations. As of September 2017, 26 states have enacted laws limiting or banning coverage of abortion in ACA Marketplaces.
    • Under the Graham-Cassidy bill, the Marketplaces would remain in effect until 2020, but all Marketplace plans would be prohibited from covering abortion beyond Hyde restrictions. This would take away authority from the states to decide whether to ban abortion coverage, and would be in direct conflict with existing state policies in California and New York that require plans to cover abortion.
    • Small employers would be disqualified from receiving federal tax credits if their plans include abortion coverage beyond Hyde limitations.
    • Health Savings Account (HSA) funds would be prohibited from being used to pay for either abortion services or premiums for plans that include abortion coverage beyond Hyde.

    All of these policies would require women to shoulder the full cost of abortion services –even in cases when the pregnancy is a threat to their health, in cases of certain fetal demise or severe fetal anomaly.

    1. Prohibit Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursements for one year.Federal law already bars federal dollars from being used to pay for abortions other than those to terminate pregnancies that are a result of rape, incest, or a threat to the pregnant woman’s life.
    • The Graham-Cassidy proposal would ban Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursement for non-abortion services, including family planning care and STI services. While the bill only bars funding for one year, this cut would effectively eliminate a significant share of revenues to Planned Parenthood and result in many clinic closures across the country.
    • It would increase funds to Community Health Centers (CHCs), but there is no requirement for CHCs to use these funds for reproductive care. In addition, CHCs may not have the capacity to fill the gap in care that would arise by the loss of Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider.
    1. Allow states to permit insurers to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions. The ACA prohibits insurers from varying premiums based on health status.
    • The Graham-Cassidy bill would allow states to waive the prohibition on health status rating as part of its block grant program. In states that waive this protection, insurers would be permitted to check applicants’ health status at the time of the first application, and again at the time of renewal, and raise premiums accordingly. This would have the effect of raising premiums for people with pre-existing conditions such as pregnancy, prior C-section, or clinical depression.
    • While insurers would not be permitted to turn applicants down, many people with pre-existing conditions would no longer be able to afford health insurance. Because women are more likely than men to have a pre-existing medical condition, they could be disproportionately disadvantaged in states that choose to waive the ban on health status rating.
    1. Eliminate the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and restructure the program from an entitlement to a capped program with limited federal financing. The ACA allowed states to extend Medicaid eligibility to most individuals with incomes up to 138% of poverty, expanding coverage to many low-income women who do not have children and low-income parents.
    • The Graham-Cassidy bill would end the Medicaid expansion and ban states from extending Medicaid coverage to women and men who do not have children. This would effectively make Medicaid coverage available only to women who become pregnant or are very poor with children.
    • The loss of federal financing would also potentially force some states to roll back eligibility for parents to the very low levels that were in place before the ACA. This means some new mothers would likely lose Medicaid after the 60-day post-partum period.
    • Beginning in 2020, the proposal would convert federal Medicaid funding from an open-ended matching system to a “per enrollee cap” unless states opt for a “block grant.” This would shift responsibility to states to finance the program at current levels. In particular, family planning services would lose its enhanced federal match of 90%, potentially leaving states with less incentive to cover the more effective (but expensive) methods of contraception like IUDs.
    If enacted, the Graham-Cassidy bill would have a considerable impact on women, particularly low-income women who rely on subsidies and those who are on Medicaid. Given the gains that women have made in access to meaningful and affordable coverage, they have much at stake in the current debate over the future of our nation’s private and public insurance programs.