tyb
GRZLY39 USMC C-560 had a busy day- departed MCAS Miramar for Aspen Colorado for a ground stop and then a fly-by at Flagstaff, AZ-Pulliam Airport and back to Miramar. NE to Pueblo, Colorado and on it's return leg now.
Prolly out of catalogs of Free Stuff by now
Seven Nobel Winners Sign Letter Opposing Shelton Fed Nomination
A group of more than 100 prominent economists, including seven Nobel Prize laureates, have signed a new open letter to U.S. senators urging them to reject President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. The letter is nearly identical to one published in August by former Federal Reserve officials and staffers. That version now has 70 signatories, including four former regional Fed presidents and a former Fed governor. Like its predecessor, it calls Shelton’s views on monetary policy and economics “so extreme and ill-considered as to be an unnecessary distraction from” the tasks facing the U.S. central bank as it deals with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Shelton declined to comment in an email.
The new letter’s 106 signatories include seven winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Robert E. Lucas and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago, Christopher Sims from Princeton University, Eric Maskin and Oliver Hart of Harvard University, Peter Diamond of MIT, and Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University. Diamond was nominated to serve on the Fed Board by President Barack Obama but withdrew in 2011 in the face of Republican opposition. Republican Senator Richard Shelby, who still sits on the Senate Banking Committee and voted to approve Shelton’s nomination, at the time said he didn’t think Diamond was qualified for the post. That committee advanced Shelton’s nomination on a party-line vote in July, and she now awaits approval by the full Senate. No vote has been scheduled for her or fellow nominee Christopher Waller, research director at the St. Louis Fed.
Shelton, an informal adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, has drawn significant criticism for policy views well outside the mainstream including a history of admiration for the gold standard and for being a political loyalist who might bend to Trump’s will. She appeared to abandon her advocacy for ultra-tight monetary policy when she emerged as a Fed candidate, publicly aligning herself with the president’s calls for lower interest rates. During her testimony at a February hearing, Shelton insisted that no one will tell her what to do.“I wish to emphasize my commitment to honor the constitutional authority of Congress to regulate the value of U.S. money,” she said. “I believe that the independence of the Federal Reserve is a vital aspect of its credibility with the public.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-02/seven-nobel-winners-sign-letter-opposing-shelton-fed-nomination
Sean Penn's Charity Has Performed 1 Million Coronavirus Tests In The U.S.
Here in Los Angeles, the main COVID-19 testing site is at Dodger Stadium. Well, it turns out, the charity that is organizing that massive testing effort as well as countless others across the U.S., CORE, was founded by Sean Penn a bit more than a decade ago after the devastating earthquake in Haiti that took 250,000 lives. Back then, the foundation was called J/P Haitian Relief Organization, and Penn mobilized a strong network of doctors, emergency workers, and government officials to take action. The organization is still embedded in Haiti today, but has now also expanded to take on the challenge of widespread COVID-19 testing. And CORE is succeeding.
Before CORE got into COVID-19 testing in Los Angeles, the city's testing sites were largely staffed with fire department personnel. Then CORE arrived and Los Angeles's testing centers were able to move to a volunteer model, thanks to Sean Penn. CORE stands for Community Organized Relief Effort. In a press conference with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Penn said:
"It seemed very sensible for us to relieve highly skilled first responders, in our case the Los Angeles Fire Department, from having to man these sites. We were able to take their training at the directing of Mayor Garcetti, and be able to pass the training on to our staff and volunteers. Which meant that each site we picked up, 20-25 firefighters were able to get back to their emergency response duties in the city of Los Angeles."
Public health experts have continually said that testing and tracing are critical to slowing and eventually stopping the spread of COVID-19. The CORE testing site at Dodger Stadium is funded in partnership with the Dodgers, Live Nation, Red Rock Entertainment, and the LAFD. Overall CORE is funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Jack Dorsey (who donated $10 million to CORE), The Hollywood Reporter, Airbnb, Music Heals, the Clinton Foundation, TIME, Creative Artists Agency, and Salesforce, to name just a few of the foundation's donors.
The site at Dodger Stadium is the largest in the U.S. It is three times the size of any other location in Los Angeles and has the ability to test 6,000 residents a day. Tests are free.
CORE was co-founded by Penn and Ann Lee. The organization has been at the forefront of relief efforts in Haiti, the Bahamas, and U.S. CORE also operates free COVID-19 testing sites across the U.S. with a specific focus on underserved communities, communities of color, essential workers, and first responders. The pandemic is the first instance of CORE acting locally. Ann Lee said that with the increase in cases in Los Angeles, she and Penn and their team knew it was time to bring CORE's mission to their own backyards. CORE isn't a large organization so it can adapt to create solutions – nothing about the pandemic is business as usual, so CORE's collaborative approach was the right one for Los Angeles and the U.S. By using mouth swabs instead of the nose swabs that require administration by a medical professional, CORE was able to get a number of sites up and running quickly. After all, if you know whether or not you are positive for the coronavirus, you can prevent the spread of it.
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/sean-penns-charity-has-performed-1-million-coronavirus-tests-in-the-u-s/
Was looking at commercial traffic over LA and saw these City Fire Agusta's over Dodger Stadium.