WILD WEATHER USA

'I Heard Popping And Houses Blowing Up': Unprecedented Wildfires Rage On West Coast

September 9, 202012:06 PM ET

BILL CHAPPELL

Firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck Wednesday at the Bear Fire in Oroville, Calif. The 2020 fire season is off to a staggering start, far outpacing last year.

Josh Edelson /AFP via Getty ImagesFIRENADO 

Updated at 1:45 p.m. ET

Intense wildfires are ravaging large swaths of the West Coast, prompting thousands of people to flee parts of Oregon and forcing power outages in California, where fires have already burned a record of more than 2.3 million acres this year. Fires are burning from Washington state to Southern California.

In southern Oregon, people in parts of Medford, Talent and nearby communities were ordered to evacuate the area immediately Tuesday, with officials citing the imminent threat of fast-moving fires. The entire town of Phoenix — which has several thousand people — was told to leave.

"I heard popping and houses blowing up and on fire," Bear Creek Mobile Home Park resident Edward Hancock said as he described the scene just outside Ashland to reporter April Ehrlich of Jefferson Public Radio. Hancock and several neighbors eventually made it to a temporary evacuation center at the county fairgrounds.

This park in Talent, Oregon, is where a lot of Latino families live. My friend's home is in this shot. I'm devastated. I hope he's ok. My heart hurts.

I also live near here and there's a good chance my house is gone. pic.twitter.com/f3NBeKjN5A

— April Ehrlich (@AprilEhrlich) September 9, 2020

Ehrlich, who lives in Talent, said she fled her house and went to a friend's place in Medford – only to have that area also fall under evacuation orders. Early Wednesday, she said via Twitter that "there's a good chance my house is gone."

Deputies in Clackamas County, southeast of Portland, spent the night going door to door to make sure residents knew they had to get out, the county sheriff's office said. One fire in the area was sparked "when an RV pulling a Jeep south was emitting sparks and caught fire. The RV pulled over and it started the brush fire," the sheriff's office said.

Hwy 213 and S Spangler Rd. This fire is moving southwest. #clackamaswildfires #fire #alert pic.twitter.com/msbOvIPw1S

— Clackamas Sheriff (@ClackCoSheriff) September 9, 2020

"We're in an unprecedented fire event," Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said, urging people to follow evacuation orders to "try to reduce your smoke exposure – and take care of each other."

Across the region, 15 new large wildfires were reported on Monday alone, the National Interagency Fire Center said. That makes at least 87 large fires, which have burned more than 2.7 million acres. Even in places where flames haven't reached, massive amounts of smoke have filled the sky, making it difficult to breathe.

"Foresters and meteorologists say they're seeing unprecedented fire behavior, with blazes traveling dozens of miles in just hours," Raquel Maria Dillon of NPR member station KQED reported.

"Near Big Sur, flames jumped a containment line and overtook more than a dozen firefighters Tuesday," Dillon said. "One is in critical condition. On the other side of the state in the Sierra Nevada, military helicopters rescued hundreds of backpackers and campers."

A community of forest homes lies in ruins Tuesday in the Meadow Lakes area after the Creek Fire swept through near Shaver Lake, Calif.

David McNew/Getty Images

The 2020 fire season is off to a staggering start, far outpacing last year. By the end of the first week of September 2019, California had seen fewer than 5,000 fires, which burned nearly 118,000 acres. By the same point this year, the state recorded more than 7,600 fires and roughly 2.3 million acres burned, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

The fires have been stoked by a recent heat wave and propelled by strong winds. In many places, even a small blaze can find plentiful fuel — dry timber, grass and brush — officials said, pleading with people to avoid any activities that could create a spark or flame.

On Sept. 8, 2020, the #GOESWest 🛰️ focused in on the #OregonFires and #CaliforniaFires. We can not only see all the smoke they produce, but by combining Fire Temperature RGB with this GeoColor imagery, we can see the reddish glow of the hot spots where they originate. pic.twitter.com/RIBB5gOELf

— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) September 9, 2020

A blast of cold air may reduce the risks in some inland areas, but along the coast, it's adding to the problems.

"Strong winds on the western side of the winter storm have brought dangerous and life-threatening fire weather conditions to large portions of [the] western U.S.," the National Weather Service said, "from the desert Southwest, through the Great Basin, much of California into the Pacific Northwest."

The dangerous winds could start to diminish across the coastal area by Thursday, the weather service said.

A critical or elevated fire weather threat persists in many of those places, with red flag warnings along most of the Western coastline and nearby areas on Wednesday.

Smoke from the fires caused eerie orange and hazy skies in San Francisco, the Bay Area and nearby regions Wednesday morning, repeating scenes that have been recorded as far north as Bellingham, Wash., earlier this week.

good morning, hell pic.twitter.com/5PpkARmukL

— brian wickman (@wickman) September 9, 2020

Many of the largest fires are burning along the Cascade mountain range or, further south, along the Sierra Nevada mountains. But smoke from those fires is now shrouding communities along the coast in haze, as wind patterns funnel the smoke to the west and south.

"There's an elongated low pressure system along the West Coast driving this," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

For weeks, parts of the Inland Northwest have been seeing consistently smoky skies. But thanks to the shift in the winds, many of those regions are now seeing blue skies.

"An amazing sight after at least a month of near steady dense smoke and haze," NPR's Kirk Siegler said, posting an image of the sky in Boise, Idaho, Tuesday.

This. An amazing sight after at least a month of near steady dense smoke and haze. The 70 + mph wildfire stoking and alarming winds that preceded it? Not so much. pic.twitter.com/SBpa7VASvU

— Kirk Siegler (@KirkSiegler) September 8, 2020

Pacific Gas & Electric has shut off power in parts of Northern and central California in hopes of reducing the chance that its power lines could trigger a wildfire.

"PG&E's shutoffs have affected 170,000 homes and businesses from California wine country to the Sierra Nevada mountains," KQED's Lily Jamali reported.

Such extreme measures are a last resort, the utility said.

"PG&E set up 50 community resource centers for customers, especially those needing power for medical equipment," Jamali said. "But the utility has shut down three of them so far because of the fires ravaging the state."

The U.S. Forest Service has closed campgrounds in all national forests in California, citing the deadly risks of "extreme fire behavior" and firefighting resources that are already stretched thin.

 

Deutsche Bank Hires Barr Friend to Raise Its Game in Washington

Greg Farrell, Steven Arons, Christian Berthelsen and Tom Schoenberg, Bloomberg News

Robert Kimmitt , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, whose global operation is under the microscope of U.S. lawmakers and criminal investigators, has enlisted an old friend of U.S. Attorney General William Barr to help the bank navigate the political waters in Washington.

The decision came from Frankfurt, where the bank’s supervisory board led by chairman Paul Achleitner has retained Robert Kimmitt, according to people familiar with the matter. Kimmitt, 72, is a lawyer and former U.S. ambassador to Germany whose friendship with Barr dates to the 1980s.

Kimmitt’s precise role isn’t clear even to many executives within the bank. The view from Frankfurt, some of the people said, is that the bank’s senior leadership brought him on earlier this year to bolster its presence in the U.S. capital, where, in addition to the criminal inquiries, Democratic lawmakers are scrutinizing the bank’s relationship with one its highest-profile clients, President Donald Trump.

The view from the U.S. side of the business has been murkier. When Kimmitt was hired, many top executives in the U.S. weren’t immediately informed of his role, according to other people familiar with the matter. Lawyers representing the bank in U.S. Justice Department investigations have been dealing directly with line prosecutors in several long-running investigations. In at least one of those investigations, the department has relayed almost no information in years, these people said.

Kimmitt, now a special counsel at WilmerHale, declined to comment through his firm. In a statement, the bank said, “No one at WilmerHale has been retained to interact with the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with resolving any investigations of the bank.” The Justice Department declined to comment.

Still, some senior executives in Germany hope that Kimmitt’s longstanding relationship with Barr could help clear up a log-jam of Justice Department investigations, according to people familiar with the matter. Bank leaders are aware that if Trump is not re-elected in November, any settlement with a future Justice Department is likely to be tougher than what might be available this year, they said. Politically appointed prosecutors may also have incentive to wrap up the cases before they’re replaced, the people said.

Years of mounting legal problems have stunted Deutsche Bank’s shares. After the bank resolved several cases with regulators, its chief executive officer, Christian Sewing, promised to improve internal controls and regulatory compliance operations that failed to pick up suspicious activities. The bank has also said that it’s cooperating with ongoing investigations.

The bank is cooperating with a Justice Department investigation of Danske Bank A/S and Swedbank AB, both of which acknowledged compliance failures for serving as a conduit for tens of billions of dollars in suspicious transactions. Deutsche Bank, which handled the bulk of those transactions as a correspondent bank, paid New York banking regulators $150 million for lax oversight.

The bank is also aiding U.S. investigations into whether it played a role in a suspected conspiracy to rig the price of Treasury securities, and an inquiry into the bank’s hiring of people related to prominent foreign authorities including China, according to its most recent annual filing.

Another legal threat is a lengthy criminal probe into how wealthy Russians moved $10 billion into the U.S. financial system using so-called mirror trades in Moscow and London, most of it facilitated by Deutsche Bank. The bank has settled that matter with U.S. and U.K. regulators and acknowledged compliance lapses, leaving the Justice Department’s inquiry hanging.

Kimmitt has close connections to both Deutsche Bank and the Justice Department. He and Achleitner have held senior positions in the American Council on Germany, a nonprofit founded after World War II to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Germany. In 2017, Kimmitt emceed a special council dinner honoring Achleitner.

The friendship between Kimmitt and Barr dates goes back to the presidential campaign of the late George Bush in 1988, when they were responsible for vetting potential running mates for the vice president. More recently, Kimmitt remarked publicly that Barr had sought his counsel while deciding whether to run the Justice Department under Trump.

More:

• Deutsche Bank’s U.S. Unit Kept Danske’s Shady Billions Flowing
• How ‘Mirror Trades’ Moved Billions From Russia: QuickTake Q&A
• Deutsche Bank’s 1MDB Probe Adds to Lengthy Legal Issues List
• Deutsche Bank’s Running Tab of Investigations (Graphic)

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

 

23andMe COVID-19 Study Findings Published

September 9, 2020 By 23andMe under 23andMe Research

This week 23andMe scientists published findings from the first four months of our COVID-19 study using data from more than a million research participants that found both genetic and non-genetic associations for susceptibility and severity to COVID-19.

The findings will be shared with researchers around the world as part of what has become an unprecedented effort among scientists looking for new treatments for the virus. Part of 23andMe’s motivation for this study was to leverage our unique research model to quickly find insights that could be shared with others working toward treatments. 

Because the intent was to quickly make this data available, many of these findings have been shared in the months since the study began. 

Genetic Associations with COVID-19

But the publication this week also includes data strengthening an association between severe respiratory complications and a specific variant in the gene cluster in chromosome 3. This region includes several different genes (SLC6A20, LZFTL1, CCR9, CXCR6, XCR1, and FYCO1). Some play a role in the immune response to infection in the lungs. The gene SLC6A20, may play a role in the expression of the ACE2 protein which in turn could lead to greater viral uptake.

Along with this genetic association, 23andMe’s researchers found strong evidence for the role of the ABO blood group for both the severity and susceptibility to COVID-19. Our findings, which were shared previously, underscore the role of blood type in COVID-19 infections, specifically that blood type O might be protective against the virus. The significance of this association may be related to the role of blood clotting complications in cases of people with COVID-19.

Non-Genetic Associations for COVID-19

23andMe’s research also revealed many non-genetic associations that replicated other studies including the finding that Black and Latino populations have been hit much harder than white communities.

For Latinos, the higher rates of hospitalization were consistent with higher rates of infection, according to 23andMe’s data. But for Blacks, the risk of hospitalization was disproportionately high and remained that way when adjusted for socioeconomic factors as well as age, sex, and for several underlying health conditions like type 2 diabetes or hypertension.

Our data showed that Blacks were 83 percent more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to European respondents after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, body mass index, and a pre-existing condition.

23andMe’s researchers also found other risk factors for hospitalization noting that men required hospitalization more often than women. The same for those who were older and poorer.

In addition, 23andMe found that certain underlying chronic health conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes significantly increased the risk for hospitalization for COVID-19. Being overweight increased the risk for hospitalization by about 34 percent over those with normal body mass index. 

We’re All in This Together

This pandemic impacts all humanity, and as such it has fueled an unprecedented level of scientific collaboration across the globe. 23andMe and its team of scientists, researchers, and engineers chose to become part of this effort early on, engaging the 23andMe research platform to quickly recruit research participants and study this novel disease.

In less than four months more than a million 23andMe customers consented to participate, of those more than 15,000 had tested positive for COVID-19, with 1,100 of them suffering symptoms that required hospitalizations. Through their participation, and during a highly compressed timeline, our researchers were able to make new findings, replicate others, and contribute to the larger effort by other researchers who are searching for treatments. (23andMe is still recruiting individuals who have been hospitalized for COVID-19. You can find out more here.) 

We are now sharing these findings through a full-set of de-identified summary statistics that will be made available to qualified investigators. Those investigators will have to enter into an agreement with 23andMe to protect participant confidentiality. Interested investigators should visit the following: https://research.23andme.com/covid19-dataset-access/ 

---

*23andMe’s COVID-19 study is made possible through the participation of more than a million of our customers who consented to answer survey questions for this research. But this study also involves the hard work of a core team of our health researchers, program/product managers, data scientists, engineers, and geneticists. Among them are: Michelle Agee, Amanda Altman, Stella Aslibekyan, Adam Auton, Jess Bielenberg, Adrian Chubb, Daniella Coker, Raffaello d’Amore, Scott Dvorak, Alison Fitch, Scott Hadly, Pooja Gandhi, Andy Kill, Trung Le, John Matthews, Jennifer McCreight, Taylor Morrow, Sungmin Park, Jeff Pollard, Anjali Shastri, Janie Shelton, Teresa Filshtein Sonmez, Jason Tan, Lindsey Tran, Cat Weldon, Chelsea Ye, Yiwen Zheng

Bob Woodward just dropped another bombshell on Trump – here are the 5 most devastating details

 September 9, 2020 By Brad Reed

Watergate reporter Bob Woodward’s new book is coming out next week — and the leaked excerpts in it contain multiple damaging bombshells for President Donald Trump.

The new book, entitled “Rage,” contains multiple revelations on a wide variety of topics ranging from the president’s handling of the novel coronavirus to his relationship with the American military to his strange affection for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Below are the five most damning details of Woodward’s new book.

1.) Trump said that he knew the novel coronavirus was five times more deadly than the seasonal flu — then admitted to playing it down in public.

Audio recordings show that Trump told Woodward in early February that COVID-19 spread through the air and was much more deadly than the flu. Despite this, he continued to downplay its significance in multiple public statements.

Just over a month after that, Trump admitted to Woodward that he deliberately downplayed the virus because he didn’t want to create a “panic.”

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said on March 19th, shortly after he declared a national emergency. “I still like playing it down.”

2.) Trump gushes over Kim Jong-un in lurid detail.

In the book, Trump tells Woodward that he finds the North Korean dictator to be “far beyond smart,” while also boasting that Kim “tells me everything,” including a detailed account of how he killed his own uncle.

The president also cited Kim to disparage former President Barack Obama, whom Kim reportedly described as an “assh*le.”

3.) Trump ranted about his own generals being “p*ssies.”

The president was apparently unhappy with the way that America’s military brass placed a premium on maintaining the country’s alliances with other nations, which the president said constrained his ability to cut trade deals.

“My f*cking generals are a bunch of p*ssies,” the president ranted. “They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.”

4.) Trump’s own former Director of National Intelligence suspected that the president may have been blackmailed by Russia.

Former DNI Dan Coats found himself puzzled by the president’s adoration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and came to believe that the only plausible explanation was some form of blackmail.

“[Coats] continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump,” Woodward wrote. “How else to explain the president’s behavior? Coats could see no other explanation.”

5.) Trump brushed off centuries worth of oppression against Black Americans by boasting about the low unemployment level before the pandemic hit.

In June, in the middle of national protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Woodward asked Trump if he felt the need to understand the experience of being Black in the United States.

“No,” Trump replied. “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Woodward pressed Trump about this by recounting the history of Black people in America, but the president refused to hear it and instead called Black Americans ungrateful of his supposed efforts to get them jobs.

“I’ve done a tremendous amount for the Black community,” he told Woodward. “And, honestly, I’m not feeling any love.”

 

'I Am Greta' Director Nathan Grossman on Greta Thunberg's Extraordinary Year

 9/4/2020 by Scott Roxborough

Courtesy of Tiff; ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

The documentary follows the teenage climate change activist from her school strikes in Sweden to being named Time's Person of the Year in 2019.

Nathan Grossman had no idea what he was in for.

Back in August 2018, the Swedish documentarian heard from a friend about a teenager who had decided to stage a protest — a "school strike" — in front of the Swedish Parliament, demanding action on climate change.

"I thought it would be a three-week shoot," he recalls, "that this teenage girl, this Greta Thunberg, would be a story of a few minutes in a short, arty film about child activists."

The job turned into a full year of shooting, with Grossman struggling to keep up with Greta, as this shy, 15-year-old student with Asperger's became the global face of the climate change movement. Grossman's documentary, I Am Greta, is with her every step of the way, from that first day on the parliament steps with her homemade sign — Skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate) — to her meetings with world leaders, addressing the U.N., and becoming, in 2019, Time magazine's Person of the Year.

Along the way, Grossman also depicts a rarely-seen side of the activist, how the teenage girl from Sweden deals with the stress of nonstop travel, constant public scrutiny, and the growing online vitriol of right-wing pundits. 

Grossman spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film's world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 4, about his amazing year with Greta, what the press has gotten wrong about the teen activist and why he thinks, despite it knocking climate change off the media agenda, the coronavirus pandemic could revitalize the environmentalist movement.

How did you first come in contact with Greta Thunberg? 

I have a friend who's a screenwriter, and he wrote to me that he knew about this school kid interested in climate change, this Greta Thunberg, who was going to stage a school strike in front of the Parliament buildings in Stockholm. It seemed interesting. I'm an environmentalist filmmaker, and I was interested in how children were reacting to the issue. On that first August morning when we started filming, I connected very quickly with Greta. We had the same take on the issues, and I was very impressed, from the beginning, by how very straightforward she was, how she was able to directly formulate and express the problems.

Did you have any idea that little school protest would turn into a global movement? 

Never. I thought it would be a three-week shoot. And that this teenage girl, this Greta Thunberg, would be a story of a few minutes in a short, arty film about child activists. She'd be one of many characters, many different child activists. If you look at the beginning of the film, you can see how we shot it, using tripods, very artsy-style, lots of headroom, static framing. Then suddenly things took off and we were in a meeting with Greta and Emmanuel Macron. 

How did your perspective on Greta change during the course of the shooting?

When I first started shooting, she was very shy — it's hard to express because a lot of how she is comes from her diagnosis, from Asperger's. She is very specific about what she wants to talk about and what she doesn't want to talk about. Initially, our conversations were very focused on environmental issues, the topics we had in common. The rest she didn't want to discuss. But as we started to get to know each other — and she got older too — she started to open up. I think you can see that in the film. 

How do you think she changed in the course of that incredible year? 

I don't think she changed her ideals. She still remains true to her ideas and her cause. But from very early on I wanted to get into her inner monolog, to understand how she sees the world. That's the perspective film has, and that perspective changes as she changes. The year wasn't just about positive hype. It was a very tough year, very heavy and very frustrating for Greta. We see how the world may be ready to hear her message but it is not ready to act on her message. It shows the frustration and pain that has been part of this year for her.

What do you think the media has gotten wrong about Greta Thunberg?

I think maybe you have gotten wrong how she's not in this for the fame, she was never in this to become Time Person of the Year. She's deeply worried about this issue of climate change. I think the media had trouble framing this kind of obsessive activism. It was hard to explain to readers sometimes. That's where I think film is better, because it gives so many dimensions. 

Once when we were shooting I asked Greta if there was anything she was worried about regarding the film, and she said "I'm a bit worried that I won't recognize myself in it." She felt sometimes she didn't recognize herself in the stories about her, that showed her as a one-dimensional icon. So I was so happy when I showed her the movie, and she said she recognized herself, that she recognized that year in her life. 

We get a glimpse of her family life in your movie, in particular her relationship with her father, which I found very touching. 

Her family's support has always been very important to her. Greta has always been very open and frank about the fact that she comes from a privileged family and that, of course, it is much easier if you come from that background to be able to make the sacrifices she talks about. But I think it's been important too, it has meant she has not been funded by anyone, she paid her own train tickets, paid her own way. On the other hand, this conspiracy theory that it's her family that's been orchestrating her, telling her what to do, the film shows how ridiculous this is. I didn't intend this at the start, but her father is almost a figure of comic relief in the film. I shot this movie from Greta's perspective — I didn't do any interviews with her father, and he doesn't get a voice-over — and from the perspective of a 15-year-old girl, your father can be a bit of a joke. But I hope that's one part of the movie that everyone can recognize in themselves: that relationship of being a teen and having a father, of wanting to do your own thing but still needing your parents.

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the issue of climate change off the public agenda. Do you fear this film is coming out too late? 

Actually, I think the experience of this pandemic could help the climate change movement. Greta is taking the pandemic seriously. She listens to the scientists and knows we need to have medical expertise to fight this pandemic. But for a lot of people in the climate movement, the reaction to this crisis, where suddenly billions in funding came from everywhere, compared to the climate issue [which has been] been on the agenda for 40-50 years and the answer was always: "we don't have the funds – let's take another meeting," it just seems hypocritical. I think people will remember this. There will be a day when this pandemic will be over and our response will show the young people that the world had the ability to act. That when we wanted to, we had the billions to spend. And if we want to, we can spend them now on the climate. 

The film ends on a bittersweet note. Greta helped spark this movement, but we are still a long way from her goal. 

Whenever you see progress, it is bittersweet. You are happy you have come this far but there's this bitterness about how much further you need to go. The end of the movie shows that doubleness as well. What Greta has created is, in itself, not enough. It's not enough to have people marching in the streets. I think she feels she has made an impact but, not just for her but for the entire young generation, that is not enough. Every month, every year that passes without radical change, it gets worse. There is more CO2 in the air, it becomes harder for us to change course. 

What do you hope audiences take from I Am Greta?

My main goal of the movie is to get people to see the world from the perspective of Greta Thunberg. She's maybe 4 feet, 11 inches tall. I'm closer to 6 foot 3. But I scrunched down to get that perspective, to shoot the world the way she sees it. I hope people come away from the film with a deeper understanding of her as a person. And that it maybe will say to people who are a little bit different, that we need you guys, not just to speak out on climate change but on all of the aspects of this hypocritical world. If Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was Climate Change 1.0, just getting people to realize that climate change exists, maybe this movie can be Climate Change 2.0., the one to get people to start taking action. We have to start listening to this little girl, Greta. And we should be as scared as she is.

I Am Greta premieres in the U.S. on Hulu on Nov. 13.

Meredith Corp. Weighs Split of Publishing, Local TV Business

 9/9/2020 by Alex Weprin


Ben Gabbe/Getty Images
Meredith Corp.'s Tom Harty

The company is asking shareholders to vote on a charter amendment allowing for a "tax efficient" separation of its businesses.

Meredith Corp. is proposing an amendment to its corporate charter that would allow for the company to split its national media business and its local media business, though the company is emphasizing that no such split is imminent.

The company's national media division includes its publishing unit, which produces magazine titles like People, Entertainment Weekly, Better Homes & Gardens, Travel + Leisure, and Martha Stewart Living, among many others.

Its local TV business includes 18 TV stations across 13 states, including the CBS affiliates in Atlanta, St. Louis and Phoenix, and Fox affiliates in Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon.

In a statement announcing the amendment, the Des Moines, Iowa-based company said it "is not in response to any specific conversations or events. Instead, the Company believes it is a prudent step to increase the number of options available."

Meredith Corp. added that there is no timeline for or assurance of any split, though it stressed any separation would be "tax efficient" and would preserve the rights of shareholders.

"In order to maximize the flexibility of our Board and senior management to optimize transaction structure and tax efficiency and maintain the status quo voting rights of our shareholders regardless of transaction structure should the Board and senior management determine that a transaction is in the interest of shareholders, we are seeking a clarifying amendment to our Restated Articles of Incorporation," the proposal reads.

A separation, if it comes to fruition, would continue a more than decade-long trend of media companies splitting their print/publishing and television brands. In 2013 Rupert Murdoch split his company News Corp. in two, separating its U.S. TV businesses into 21st Century Fox. In 2015, Gannett spun off its local TV business into TEGNA, while keeping its legacy TV newspaper business. Likewise, in 2014 Tribune split its local TV and newspaper business into Tribune Publishing and Tribune Media.

TV Station Giants to Benefit From Record Political Ads in 2020, Analyst Says

 9/9/2020 by Georg Szalai

Getty Images


Joe Biden on day 4 of the Democratic National Convention 2020.


Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's record August fundraising means "both campaigns are tracking towards record fundraising and advertising spending," says Guggenheim's Curry Baker.

Election season is on track to bring in record political advertising spending, with big broadcast TV station groups, such as Nexstar, Gray and Tegna, among the key beneficiaries, according to an analyst report.

Guggenheim Securities analyst Curry Baker on Wednesday forecast "a record political cycle in 2020 with total political advertising expected to exceed $10 billion." He mentioned ad prognosticator GroupM's forecast along those lines, which compares with the $8.7 billion recorded during the 2018 mid-term elections.

Local TV stations are benefitting from this, the analyst said, writing: "We believe political spending on local TV could top $3.2 billion, a 20 percent-plus increase from 2018, the previous record cycle."

One key driver of latest momentum was Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's record August fundraising. "Last week, the Biden campaign announced it raised $365 million during the month of August, setting a one-month record, previously held by President Obama – $193 million in September 2008)," the analyst explained. "Looking back to August 2016, Hillary Clinton raised $143 million and then-candidate Trump raised $90 million. The good news for broadcast TV is that Biden is spending heavily on traditional advertising."

For example, in early August, the Biden campaign unveiled a $280 million fall advertising blitz, including $220 million allocated for TV, which Baker said was "a record political advertising buy."

President Donald Trump's campaign at the end of July had $300 million of cash and had raised $1.1 billion, with August numbers not yet available, the Guggenheim analyst noted. "Recent reports are saying the President's campaign is looking to accelerate fundraising efforts, presumably due to Biden's huge August haul, and the President is considering spending $100 million of his own money over the next two months," he said, concluding: "Our bottom-line takeaway is that both campaigns are tracking towards record fundraising and advertising spending with two months left until the election."

Looking at competitive states for the presidential election, as well as key Senate and gubernatorial races, Baker's takeaways are two-fold: "All data to date supports a robust 2020 political cycle; and we believe the pure-play local TV stations groups (Nexstar, Gray, Tegna) are best positioned to benefit from the 2020 presidential cycle." He said Nexstar remains his top stock pick among local TV broadcasters, followed by Gray.

With Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, but the future being in play Baker also argued that "the current state of all the races shows a dead heat for control," with six Senate contests considered a toss-up and another six being close. "The top 10 Senate races have raised $465 million (through the end of June or July), on pace to meet, and possibly exceed, $612 million from the top 10 Senate campaigns in 2018 and already ahead of the $383 million raised by top Senate campaigns in 2016," the analyst said. "We expect fierce spending, both by campaigns and third parties, on Senate seats over the [next] two months."

Baker's bullish commentary on local TV groups comes after Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, had said in a report last week that TV station firms' political ad revenue had been "negatively impacted" by COVID-19 during the second quarter, but a "huge second half" of the year was "looming." It added: "Fresh off the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, political advertising is ramping up for U.S. TV broadcasters as limitations due to COVID-19 are expected to boost TV's take of the important revenue segment."


GEORG SZALAI

Naomi Osaka said she cried watching messages of thanks from the parents of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery after her latest US Open win

Meredith Cash
7 hours ago THE INSIDER

Naomi Osaka has kept the spotlight on police brutality during the US Open by wearing masks bearing the names of high-profile victims of gun violence. Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Sports

Naomi Osaka has kept the spotlight on police brutality in the United States by wearing masks printed with the names of high-profile victims of gun violence during each round of this year's US Open.

So far, she's donned masks bearing the names of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery.

After her quarterfinal victory Tuesday, Osaka watched video messages of Martin's mother and Arbery's father thanking the two-time Grand Slam champion for raising awareness about violence against Black people.

Though she was smiling and composed during the broadcast, Osaka later revealed that she "cried so much" once she was off camera.

"It was really emotional," Osaka said during a post-match press conference. "At first I was a bit in shock, but now that I'm here and I took the time I'm really grateful and I'm really humbled."

Naomi Osaka has been absolutely clinical on the court during her run through the 2020 US Open, but her off-court activism has taken an emotional toll.

The 22-year-old tennis superstar has kept the spotlight on police brutality and gun violence in the United States by wearing masks printed with the names of high-profile victims during each round of the New York-based major.

Through the quarterfinals of the tournament, she's donned masks dedicated to Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery.

Naomi Osaka wears a custom-made mask bearing Trayvon Martin's name. Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

After Osaka's 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Shelby Rogers Tuesday evening, ESPN played video messages from Sybrina Fulton and Marcus Arbery — the mother of Trayvon Martin and the father of Ahmaud Arbery, respectively.


At 17 years old, Martin was shot and killed by self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman while walking home from a local convenience store on February 26, 2012. Eight years later, Arbery — a 25 year old Black man — was hunted down by white vigilantes while he was jogging in his neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia.

In short clips aired on Tuesday night's broadcast, the pair thanked the two-time Grand Slam champion for her commitment to bringing attention to their slain sons and the gun violence that continues to plague the country.

Naomi Osaka dons a mask bearing Breonna Taylor's name. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

"I just want to say thank you to Naomi Osaka for representing Trayvon Martin on your customized mask," Fulton said. "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Continue to do well. Continue to kick butt at the US Open. Thank you."

"Naomi, I just want to tell you thank you for the support of my family," Arbery added. "And God bless you for what you're doing."

—Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) September 9, 2020

Osaka smiled and kept her composure while watching the clips and reacting on camera. She commended both Fulton and Arbery for their continued strength in the wake of their familial tragedies and told the interviewer that it "means a lot" to hear from them both.

"I feel like I'm a vessel at this point in order to spread awareness," Osaka said on the broadcast. "It's not gonna dull the pain, but hopefully I can help with anything that they need."

But in a tweet sent out later in the evening, Osaka said that she became extremely emotional once they stopped filming.

"I tried to hold it in on set but after watching these back I cried so much," she wrote.

—NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) September 9, 2020

The 2018 US Open champion — whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese — echoed similar sentiments in her post-match press conference. She said she was "just trying really hard not to cry" while on camera and described Fulton's and Arbery's messages as "surreal" and "extremely touching."

"I feel like what I'm doing is nothing — it's a speck of what I could be doing," Osaka told reporters.

"It was really emotional. At first I was a bit in shock, but now that I'm here and I took the time I'm really grateful and I'm really humbled."
—US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2020

Osaka has said she will continue to wear the masks throughout the US Open. She'll return to Arthur Ashe Stadium Thursday to take on 28th seed Jennifer Brady for a trip to the final.

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Naomi Osaka Wins Thanks From Black Victims’ Families For Wearing Masks With Their Names At U.S. Open

Carlie Porterfield

Forbes Staff
Business
I cover breaking news

TOPLINE 

Naomi Osaka, the tennis champion working her way through the rounds of the U.S. Open, received a heartfelt surprise Tuesday night when the parents of Travyvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery thanked her for wearing face masks with their names and those of other Black victims of violence before and after her matches in a bid to draw attention to police brutality and racism in the U.S.

Naomi Osaka wears a mask with the name of George Floyd on it on Tuesday at the U.S. Open in New York ... [+] GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Throughout the U.S. Open, Osaka has worn face masks emblazoned with the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin, Black people who died either at the hands of the police or in violent struggles with whites believed to be motivated by racism.

On Tuesday night, broadcaster ESPN showed Osaka pre-recorded messages from parents of two of the people whose names Osaka wore.Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, thanked her for representing her son and other victims on her masks, saying “we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Continue to do well, continue to kick butt at the U.S. Open.” 

“Naomi, I just want to tell you thank you for the support for my family and God bless you for what you’re doing,” Ahmaud Arbery Sr., Arbery’s father, told her. “My family really, really appreciates that.”

“It means a lot,” Osaka, who was born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, said in response to the videos. “They’re so strong. I’m not sure what I would be able to do if I was in their position. I feel like I’m a vessel at this point to spread awareness. It’s not going to dull the pain, but hopefully I can help with anything that they need.”

Later on Twitter, Osaka said she was moved to tears by the video messages—and that she prepared seven masks to wear with seven names, one for each round of the U.S. Open if she progresses to the finals.

KEY BACKGROUND

Osaka is no stranger to advocating for causes she believes in, both on and off the court. In August, she announced she would forgo the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open tournament to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. “If I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a step in the right direction,” Osaka said. The entire tournament later followed her lead and paused play for an entire day. “As a sport, tennis is taking a stand against racial inequality and social injustice,” the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour said in a statement.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“I tried to hold it in on set but after watching these back I cried so much,” Osaka shared later on Twitter. “The strength and the character both of these parents have is beyond me. Love you both, thank you.”

FURTHER READING

Naomi Osaka Drops Out Of Tennis Tournament Semifinal To Protest Police Brutality (Forbes)

Naomi Osaka Is The Highest-Paid Female Athlete Ever, Topping Serena Williams (Forbes)

Naomi Osaka’s Powerful Tribute to Victims of Police Violence
By Hannah Gold THE CUT

Photo: Getty Images

Last month, Japanese tennis champion Naomi Osaka, the highest-paid female athlete in the world, effectively shut down the Women’s Tennis Association for a couple days by announcing she would strike alongside other professional sports players in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since then, Osaka has continued her activism for victims of police brutality on the court by wearing a series of face masks emblazoned with the names of Black men and women who have been killed by cops and armed vigilantes. Osaka brought seven masks with seven different names to the tournament, prepared to wear one for each match. So far she has worn five: Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Trayvon Martin.

What Naomi Osaka is doing at the US Open this year is powerful. pic.twitter.com/SqMMF1qRk5— Lynn V 😷 (@lynnv378) September 7, 2020

After winning her U.S. Open quarterfinals match on Tuesday, Osaka appeared on ESPN, where she was surprised with a video message from the mother of Trayvon Martin and the father of Ahmaud Arbery. Martin was 17 when he was murdered by neighborhood-watch coordinator George Zimmerman in 2012; Arbery, 25, was jogging in his neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, earlier this year when two white men in a pickup truck chased him down and shot him dead. Three suspects have been charged in connection with Arbery’s murder.

Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, said in the video message, “I just want to say thank you to Naomi Osaka for representing Trayvon Martin on your customized mask, and also for Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Continue to do well. Continue to kick butt at the U.S. Open.” Marcus Arbery Sr. said in a separate message, “God bless you for what you’re doing and you supporting our family with my son. My family really, really appreciates that.”

Osaka, visibly moved upon seeing the videos, responded first by saying, “It means a lot … They’re so strong. I’m not sure what I would be able to do if I was in their position. I feel like I’m a vessel, at this point, in order to spread awareness, and it’s not going to dull the pain, but hopefully I can help with anything they need.” Later, in a news conference, Osaka reflected again on that moment, saying, “I was just trying really hard not to cry. It’s extremely touching that they would feel touched by what I’m doing.