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Tackling The Tough Issues Of Coaching Kids: The Let ‘Em Play vs. ‘Wussification’ Debate

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My favorite moment in televised youth sports fiction comes from the CBC series, “The Tournament.”

The TV series, imported from Canada to the United States — as both nations tried to kill air time during the 2004-05 NHL lockout — centers (being Canadian, maybe that should be ‘centres’) around a family in which the father is intensely pushing his 10-year-old son’s hockey career, while the mother is…not.

This moment (start at 2:45), as the son’s team gears up to play in its championship game, succinctly encapsulates what you might call the let-‘em-play vs. “wussification” debate: Should kids play for the love of the game, or should they be playing to win?

MOM: “Have a great game, OK! Just relax and have fun. I love you, baby!”

DAD (Rolls his eyes at his wife, grabs son and looks him straight in the eye): “Listen to me! You want to spend the rest of your life stacking air filters and alternators? There are people in this crowd that can change your life! Do NOT let them DOWN by having FUN!”

Yeah — two very different perspectives.

My first youth sports coaching experience was a second-grade basketball league in which score was not officially kept, everyone had equal playing time, and all participants got a trophy at season’s end.

It was glorious.

Those rules allowed me to concentrate on teaching and development without the pressure of worrying about whether parents were questioning my ability (or were like the hockey dad from “The Tournament”) because we weren’t “winning.” My goal was to start these second-graders (including my own son) down the road of a lifelong enjoyment of basketball, whether or not they even ended up playing on a high school team. The trophies were a nice touch to remind them of the fun they had.

From what I’ve subsequently learned, this attitude makes me, and I’m a paraphrasing, a Communist. I DID let my town DOWN by having FUN.

As the insatiable American market for bigger and better facilities serving more and younger travel teams shows, there are plenty of parents (and coaches) whose idea of youth sports development is playing to win, as often as possible, as early as possible. That’s because this is America, gosh darn it, and we’re all about competition and squeezing out those who can’t cut it.

Critics say that no-score, everybody-gets-a-trophy leagues can only lead to spoiled children never learning to handle losing and adversity, which is why people shoot up schools and offices. (I’m not paraphrasing — in 2009 I interviewed a college professor in Alabama who claimed just that.)

Never mind that this attitude is resulting not in better athletes, but in more physically and mentally burned-out sports kids. Additionally, this attitude is squeezing out not just casual and late-developing athletes, but also families who can’t afford the thousands of dollars of equipment, fees and hotel bills (with or without continental breakfasts) that is the price of admission, leaving the sports equipment industry itself fretting that, like the gun business, its model is based on a declining number of hardcore participants buying a lot of stuff. All this for the stated goal of a college athletic scholarship, which is hard to attain and often doesn’t even cover the full cost of school.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not completely opposed to keeping score. Most of the leagues I’ve coached in the last 10 years have done exactly that. I also understand that as kids get older, playing time is not doled out equally. My son, who got equal time on the court as a second grade basketball player, was mostly nailed to the bench as a high school football player — and he understood that’s how things go at that level.

I understand some of enmity at everybody-gets-a-trophy-leagues. Though in my case, with four kids, that’s based on where the heck I’m supposed to put all those awards! I can even understand putting a child in a travel league. If the child enjoys the sport, and the parents can swing the time and money to do it, then have a great time. Parents put their children in winner-take-all leagues for the same reason they choose one that’s less pressurized — because they love their children and want the best for them.

However, some parents could stand to love their kids a little less.

In my experience, though, regardless of whether or not you’re keeping score or playing a game just for fun, parents don’t need to worry about teaching their kids how to be competitive. In the second-grade league I coached, there was one group of people who always kept score — the kids themselves.

And they did that knowing despite who actually won the game, everyone would be taking home a trophy.

Friday Night Tykes is the latest reality hit that follows the passion and competitive spirit of teams in the Rookie division of the Texas Youth Football Association. Tune in to the Esquire Network to watch the premiere of season two on Jan. 20 at 10|9c.

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Tackling The Tough Issues Of Coaching Kids: The Let ‘Em Play vs. ‘Wussification’ Debate


Geopolitical Conflict Is World’s Top Economic Risk, Report Says

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LONDON (AP) — Following a year marked by the conflict in Ukraine and the rise of the Islamic State, geopolitical issues are considered to be the biggest threat to global stability over the coming decade, according to experts polled by the World Economic Forum.

In its 2015 Global Risks Report, published Thursday, the WEF found “interstate conflict with regional consequences” to be the top risk facing the world, ahead of extreme weather, the spread of infectious diseases, climate change and sky-high youth unemployment levels in some parts of the world.

“Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world again faces the risk of major conflict between states,” said Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, WEF’s lead economist.

She said the means to wage such conflict is broader than ever, whether through cyberattack, competition for resources or sanctions and other economic tools.

“Addressing all these possible triggers and seeking to return the world to a path of partnership, rather than competition, should be a priority for leaders as we enter 2015,” she said.

The report, now in its 10th year, helps set the tone for discussions at the annual WEF gathering in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, which starts next week.

Its findings illustrate a marked change from the recent past. Geopolitical concerns have been largely absent from WEF’s list of top risks for the past half-decade or so. A year ago, income inequality was considered to be the major concern. Now, that issue doesn’t even make it into the top 5.

However, Drzeniek-Hanouz said the repercussions from the global financial crisis of 2008-9 still remain and that it would be complacent to think that the economic risks facing the world have suddenly disappeared.

When asked to assess risks in terms of their potential impact, the nearly 900 experts surveyed by WEF found water crises as the greatest risk to the world. Another top risk identified was the spread of infectious diseases — unsurprising given the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

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Geopolitical Conflict Is World’s Top Economic Risk, Report Says

2014 World Economic Forum Called For A Solution To Youth Unemployment Problem

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As we gear up for this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, we’re looking back at some of the biggest issues talked about at last year’s conference.

Many of the world’s most influential thought leaders called for a new approach to tackle youth unemployment, an issue that leaves more than 200 million young people out of work world wide. Conference attendees like Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent and Education for Employment President and CEO James McAuliffe sat down with HuffPost Live last year to talk about the issue.

“What’s encouraging about this Davos is that the conversation has really moved on the issue of global youth employment, to just talking about challenge, raising awareness of the issue, to actually concretely talking about the potential solutions,” McAuliffe said in 2014. “I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

The World Economic Forum annual meeting will take place from January 21-24.

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2014 World Economic Forum Called For A Solution To Youth Unemployment Problem

Fewer People Are Having Trouble Paying Medical Bills, Thanks To Obamacare

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The number of Americans struggling to pay medical bills fell last year for the first time in nearly a decade — the latest sign that Obamacare is making health care more affordable.

Sixty-four million people, or approximately 35 percent of the U.S. population, said they had trouble paying bills or were stuck paying off medical debt in the past year, according to a new survey by the Commonwealth Fund released on Thursday. That was down from 75 million people, or 41 percent of the population, in 2012. This marks the first time that figure has fallen since 2005, when Commonwealth started keeping track.

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Commonwealth attributed the drop partly to expanded access to affordable health insurance made possible by Obamacare. The survey found that the number of uninsured Americans dropped to 29 million people last year, or 16 percent of the population, from 37 million, or 20 percent, in 2010.

The Commonwealth survey, which polled 6,027 U.S. adults in the second half of 2014, is in line with several other studies finding that the uninsured rate is falling.

“These declines are remarkable and unprecedented in the survey’s more than decade-long history,” Sara Collins, the lead author, said in a press release. “They indicate that the Affordable Care Act is beginning to help people afford the health care they need.”

As the chart from Commonwealth shows, the percentage of Americans reporting problems paying off medical bills or medical-related debt rose from 2005 to 2012. Rising health-care costs, stagnant income growth and the aggressiveness with which providers go after people who haven’t paid their bills all contributed to this growth, according to Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal.

The Affordable Care Act has reversed what had been a “deterioration” of the American health-care system, according to Blumenthal.

The survey also found that, for the first time since 2003, there has been a decline in the number of people putting off health care because of the cost. In 2012, a record 80 million people said they didn’t visit a doctor or clinic for a medical problem, didn’t fill a prescription, skipped a follow-up, treatment or test, or did not get needed specialist care, in order to avoid paying for it. That number fell to 66 million in 2014.

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Medical-bill debt, which is often expensive and unexpected, can significantly harm people’s credit ratings, as a recent study from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pointed out. Nearly 20 percent of credit reports are hurt by overdue medical bills.

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Fewer People Are Having Trouble Paying Medical Bills, Thanks To Obamacare

Elon Musk Is Supposedly Building A Hyperloop Test Track

Illinois lawyer to Gov. Rauner: Cut waste in prisons

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One southern Illinois lawyer, Joni Beth Bailey, has a message for the new governor as he looks to take the state in a new direction. She appreciates Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan so far, but wants to suggest how he can effect change in a particular area.

Dear Gov. Rauner:

I have voted for more Democrats than Republicans since I started voting, but I’m beginning to think my friend, Dan Bost, Congressman Bost’s brother, was correct years ago when he told me I was an “R” and just didn’t realize it.

I appreciate many things about your first few days in office:

Yes, everyone is going to have to sacrifice to pull off this enormous turn around.

Yes, it’s going to take time. Create reasonable expectations.

Yes, it starts with morals and ethics. The lobbyist revolving door is a revolting practice and clearly an invitation to unethical behavior. I applaud your approach….

I am emailing you with an observation about a tremendously wasteful practice that will not be pointed out to you by employees of the Department of Corrections because so many jobs (and so much overtime pay) depend on it:

Why are prisoners escorted hours away for hearings on procedural matters that take only a few minutes instead of using video teleconferencing?

Read the rest of Bailey’s message to Rauner at Reboot Illinois.

Speaking of the Department of Corrections, Scott Reeder of the Illinois News Network, has a take on the re-hiring of DoC policy advisor Xadrian McCraven. McCraven got his $111,000 job back after being fired from the Doc and the Department of Children and Family Services and a long arrest record. Get the scoop about McCraven’s situation from Reeder at Reboot Illinois.

NEXT ARTICLE: Illinois prison worker reinstated after firing, even with his own long arrest record

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Illinois lawyer to Gov. Rauner: Cut waste in prisons

Obama’s Free College Plan Is A Great Way To Give America A Raise

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Putting Obama’s free community college plan into action could cost $60 billion over the next decade. But the economic boost it provides could be even greater.

If enacted, the proposal will offer two tuition-free years of community college to students who maintain a C+ grade-point average and attend classes at least half-time. The federal government would cover 75 percent of the cost, with participating states covering the rest.

Studies find that community college investments pay themselves back to the government many times over and vastly raise students’ earning potential. Nationwide, community colleges are already a major part of the U.S. economy, contributing an estimated $809 billion in 2012, according to a study by the Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. On the local level, community colleges mean better jobs, higher wages and more spending power for graduates, as well as a larger skilled workforce for local employers.

“Rising levels of education yield a more skilled workforce, which is a crucial driver of economic growth,” Shai Reshef, founder and president of University of the People, a nonprofit online university, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. “I think Obama’s proposal is an effort to revive education as one of the drivers of economic growth, and this is a good thing.”

California, home to the largest community college system in the country, exemplifies the kinds of economic gains Obama’s plan could bring.

A recent analysis found that a 2 percent increase in people with an associate’s degree and a 1 percent increase in people with a bachelor’s degree would result in $20 billion in additional economic input, $1.2 billion in additional state and local tax revenues every year and 174,000 new jobs.

For every dollar spent on economic and workforce development programs at community colleges, there is a $12 increase in California’s business income and employee wages, according to the Foundation for California Community Colleges. Furthermore, the state receives a $4.5 net return for every dollar it invests to get students through college.

Community colleges have come to serve as an affordable stepping stone for California students who go on to pursue bachelor’s degrees. More than half of California State University graduates started at community colleges, as did nearly a third of University of California graduates. The state’s community colleges are major training centers for some of the most in-demand careers. Over 70 percent of the state’s nurses graduated from the system. It also provides credentials to 80 percent of the state’s firefighters, law enforcement officers and EMTs.

Though the state’s community colleges are the cheapest in the nation, severe budget cuts limited access to these opportunities and brought enrollment to an all-time low in 2013. Meanwhile, students have flocked to for-profit colleges, which offer less competition to get into courses and ply students with false promises about their graduates’ success rates. Nationally, the rate of default on student loans is higher at for-profit colleges than it is at public and private nonprofit institutions. The free community college plan could funnel students away from predatory institutions.

Maxwell Strachan contributed to this report.

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Obama’s Free College Plan Is A Great Way To Give America A Raise

12 Funny Signs That Laugh In The Face Of Winter

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We’re glad at least SOMEBODY appreciates all this cold weather.

Unless you’re one of the privileged few living where the sun still shines, you’ve probably been freezing these last couple weeks. Long gone are the early days of winter, when the chill was comfortable. Refreshing, even! Ha! These days it’s all brutal wind, bracing cold, and never-ending snow.

Because we still have weeks of winter ahead of us, it’s time to embrace the chill. The signs below have all decided to make the best of the cold weather and it’s about time that you did the same. The cold never bothered you anyway, right? Right?!

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12 Funny Signs That Laugh In The Face Of Winter


Amanda Peet Talks ‘Something’s Gotta Give,’ Diane Keaton’s ‘Great Body’

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Amanda Peet doesn’t understand why Diane Keaton doesn’t do more nude scenes.

The 69-year-old actress notably bared all in the 2003 film “Something’s Gotta Give,” starring both Peet and Jack Nicholson.

In a conversation with HuffPost Live on Thursday, Peet, who stars in HBO’s new series “Togetherness,” admitted that while the nude scene had to be “difficult” for the then-57-year-old star, she thinks Keaton “has a great body.”

“If I were Diane Keaton, I’d take my clothes off all the time!” Peet said.

Speaking about her time playing an on-screen love interest for Jack Nicholson, whom Peet also had to disrobe in front of — albeit only a bikini — the 43-year-old confessed to having been “terrified.”

Nicholson was daunting, “not in a ‘Shining’ way,” she explained, “but in a just, ‘You’re an icon and you’re standing right here and I’m looking up at you [kind of way].’ It’s that thing where there was a whole scroll going on in my brain the entire time: ‘Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up.'”

Watch more from Amanda Peet’s conversation with HuffPost Live here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

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Amanda Peet Talks ‘Something’s Gotta Give,’ Diane Keaton’s ‘Great Body’

Adorable Woodland Animal Pops Out Of Tree Trunk, Scares Us With Cuteness

2014 Record-Breaking Heat Is Bad for Business

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This post was co-authored by Forbes Tompkins.

It’s official: 2014 was the world’s hottest year on record. And it’s part of a decades-long trend. If you’re under 30 years old, global temperatures have been above average your whole life.

This long-running record heat contributes to an expensive “new normal” for global businesses and national economies, raising the cost due to shifting weather patterns and more extreme heat waves, storms and droughts that can be fueled by a changing climate. 2014 was not just the hottest year on record globally, but the world also experienced record-high seasonal temperatures in the summer and fall, and the second-warmest spring.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks report shows that leaders increasingly see these phenomena as a major drag on their bottom lines, ranking severe weather events and water crises among the top 10 likeliest global risks, and the risks expected to have the most impact in 2015.

Neeraj Sahai, president of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, put it this way in Fortune magazine: “The investment community–along with regulators–has woken up to this threat. It is demanding more information from companies about their exposure to climate events, as well as the prospective cost of their carbon emissions.”

This awakening has impact across the U.S. political spectrum. Former Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge-fund manager and Democratic donor joined together last year to oversee an important report on the economic impact of climate change, Risky Business: A Climate Risk Assessment for the United States. This report showed U.S. businesses and the economy were vulnerable to sea-level rise — with up to $106 billion worth of existing coastal property likely to be below sea level by 2050–and extreme heat, which is expected to threaten 50 to 70 percent of average annual crop yields in some states by 2100.

The signs of extreme temperatures in 2014 were clear and global. In Europe, the heat wasn’t simply record-breaking, it was made at least 35 times more likely by human-made climate change. In Brazil, the city of São Paulo had its historic drought. In the United States, record warmth amplified the effects of damaging drought in California, Arizona and Nevada.

This long-running warming trend comes at a time of increasing costly weather and climate events. From 1980 to 2014, there were 178 such events in the United States that each cost $1 billion or more, for a total of more than $1 trillion. These expensive events have increased worldwide over the same period, with seven of the 10 costliest years of weather and climate disasters occurring since 2000.

Multi-national corporations are counting the cost, as shown in a report from CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project), highlighting corporate climate risk disclosures from 2011-2013:

  • HP experienced a 7 percent decline in quarterly revenues in large part attributed to the 2011 floods in Thailand;
  • Gap, Inc. had higher material costs for cotton due to changes in precipitation and drought in China;
  • Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. found the potential change in weather, climate and water availability put2.5 billion of their cost of sales at risk.

In the face of these recognized climate risks, what can businesses and policy-makers do to make themselves, their customers and their communities more resilient?

Integrating climate adaptation into core strategic business planning is one practical step, as detailed in Adapting for a Green Economy, a report from the UN Global Compact, UN Environment Programme, Oxfam, and WRI. Some companies, like Coca-Cola, have identified core business inputs–such as water–that face increasing risk in a changing climate. The company is now requiring water assessments across more than 800 bottling plants and investing in communities to ensure long-term supplies of safe drinking water.

But businesses can do more than invest in adaptation. Their actions should match their rhetoric on environmental sustainability and climate resilience, and so far, that remains elusive. New research from Thomson Reuters Sustainability and BSD Consulting showed that greenhouse gas emissions by the world’s top 500 companies rose 3.1 percent from 2010 to 2013, well short of what scientists urged to limit the worst consequences of global warming.

Companies can benefit by reconciling the difference between climate risks and the actions needed to lessen those risks. To do that, traditional approaches won’t be enough. More companies should set emissions reduction targets in line with the best science. Business should also work to advance policies, especially through industry associations, that demonstrate that they are serious about hitting their emissions targets, since they can play a key role in keeping global mean temperatures below the 2 degree C (3.6 degree F) threshold.

Businesses–particularly consumer-facing businesses–can leverage their brands to engage customers, stakeholders and the public at large on climate change. Opponents have a long, successful history of styling climate action, including putting a price on carbon, as being bad for the economy or costing jobs. Yet, the sweeping New Climate Economy report shows this is simply incorrect, and that climate action can bring economic benefits. By urging governments and other stakeholders to enact responsible policies on climate, multi-national corporations can help shift public perception away from the false dichotomy of “environment vs. economy” and create the political conditions for progress.

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

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2014 Record-Breaking Heat Is Bad for Business

Millennials Are Redefining Success – Why the Rest of Us Should Pay Attention

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Sometimes stereotypes become so widely accepted that nobody takes a step back to actually examine the sweeping generalizations to see if they hold any truth. This is especially true of millennials.

From Time Magazine’s 2013 cover story, “The Me Me Me Generation,” to articles in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and features on The Today Show, the drumbeat pounded into our heads suggests GenYers are lazy, entitled, indebted and unreliable. That they are barreling towards being a lost generation, setting up a catastrophic situation for the economy generally.

It’s a worrisome picture that should make us all fear for what’s next.

Except, of course, for the fact that it’s not true.

Millennials have indeed racked up $1 trillion in student loan debt to become the most highly educated, highly indebted generation in history, and they’re handling their business a whole lot differently than their parents’ generation. This is causing many people who are stuck in the “there’s-a-right-way-to-do-things” mantra to spin out of control.

I recently had an interesting chat with Kate Holmes, a 31-year-old Certified Financial Planner and founder of Las Vegas-based Belmore Financial. A millennial herself, Holmes authored the newly released, free eBook The Millennial Next Door [Revealed]: How To Be Financially Successful in Your 20’s, in collaboration with personal finance community MoneyTips.com. It’s based on a survey of more than 500 millennials, nearly 300 of whom self-identified as successful millennials.

This landmark survey generated some fascinating results. An astounding 96 percent of successful millennials have already begun saving, with 35 percent accumulating $10,000 to $50,000 in various savings accounts and instruments. 59 percent regularly spend less than they earn, and 50 percent have saved enough to maintain their standard of living for at least three months. An impressive 89 percent have some college education, with 71 percent of them footing at least some of their own tuition fees. 91 percent consider themselves financially literate.

But the number that stood out most to Holmes, and shocked me: nearly 47 percent of successful millennials said that saving enough for retirement was their biggest financial concern.

I’ve spent a large portion of my career helping people prepare for retirement. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of people in their 50s and 60s have walked into my office without having a penny saved for their golden years. So to hear that young people in their 20s and early 30s are already looking that far down the road was eye opening.

“That was the most unexpected thing to me,” said Holmes. “I think they look at what their parents have done and said: ‘I don’t want to be in the same position when I’m that age. I don’t want to work in a job that sucks and that drains the life out of me.’ They are reimagining the whole concept of retirement. Rather than just saving 30 percent of their salary and then traveling the world when they are retired in their 70s, millennials want to enjoy their lives now, while keeping an eye on their future.”

Rethinking retirement was just the tip of an overall change in the way millennials are viewing success.

In the eBook, Chelsea Krost, a leading millennial voice and a TV and radio host, says the word “success” is defined differently by millennials than by older people: “success could mean being financially independent and debt free, working in a space that you are truly passionate about, or getting married and having children. A millennial has the flexibility and resources today to really create what they define as success.”

Holmes was quick to point out that what makes millennials so unique is often what gets them labeled lazy by older generations. They don’t want to be in an office from 9-5. They don’t want to work at times they find themselves to be the least productive. They want to set their own hours and are in a position with technology and the Internet to do exactly that. Eventually, they want to do more than just set their own schedules — they want to run their own businesses. According to a Bentley University study, 67 percent of millennials want to be entrepreneurs.

In order to follow that path, millennials need to be out of debt. They grew up in a terrible economic environment. They saw their parents had been faithful employees for decades and were suddenly out of jobs. They thought ‘we can do better.’

They looked at the piles of credit card debt their parents had from spending frivolously on expensive cars and big luxury items they didn’t really need — and have gone out of their way to avoid it — 60 percent of successful millennials have less than $15,000 in debt.

“I tell my clients to make sure they are always living below their means,” said Holmes. “Spend less than you make. Then you have more flexibility throughout your life. If you don’t have debt, you can start a business. You can make different financial decisions and life decisions. It gives you options and the ability to stay open to opportunities.”

The study also found that 87 percent of successful millennials set financial goals and are on track to meet at least some of them.

You really need to know what it costs to live. I think that goes back to figuring out what’s truly important to you. When I sit down with millennials, one of the best exercises is to not only know how much you’re spending, but what percentage of your income. When you realize you spend 20 percent of your take home pay on happy hour, you have to ask — is that really contributing to the life I want in the long term? For a lot of millennials, they find they can often be happier with less than they think.

Holmes wrote The Millennial Next Door to challenge our misconceptions by spotlighting her most successful peers. The eBook reveals the attributes and behaviors of those living comfortably today and shares their savings, investment and planning secrets for affording the lifestyle they want in the future. It may very well be we all have something to learn from this crowd.

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Millennials Are Redefining Success – Why the Rest of Us Should Pay Attention

Solar Jobs Report Shows Huge Growth

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WASHINGTON -– The solar industry reports job growth 20 times higher than the rest of the U.S. economy, according to a new analysis.

As of 2014, there were nearly 174,000 jobs in the solar industry, according to the report from the nonprofit Solar Foundation. That represents 86 percent employment growth since the organization began tracking job figures in 2010. By the end of 2015, companies said they expect to hire an additional 36,000 new solar workers.

The solar industry installed 7,200 megawatts of new solar power last year, the foundation said.

More than half of the solar industry jobs -– 55 percent -– involved installation, and 19 percent were in manufacturing. The report found those jobs pay an average of $20 to 24 an hour.

“We can very definitely say that these solar jobs are good, well-paying jobs, which I think is important,” Andrea Luecke, executive director of the Solar Foundation, said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “While the economy has improved since we started this census series in 2010, at the height of recession, there are still lots of people without college degrees looking for work. Solar provides that kind of work.”

The report found that 21.6 percent of workers in the solar industry were women. Latino workers made up 16.3 percent of the workforce, while Asian and Pacific islanders represented 7 percent. African-Americans made up 6 percent of solar staffers.

Luecke said the recent growth is largely due the surge in solar installations.

“The reason that installations are growing like gangbusters is because of cost reductions,” Luecke said, noting that the average price of solar panels has declined 64 percent since 2010.

Luecke said the foundation expects the trends to continue for at least the next two years.

“We can expect the census for 2015 and ’16 to show solid job growth,” Luecke said. But for 2017, “we’re not that bullish,” she said, largely due to the anticipated expiration of the investment tax credit — a 30 percent tax credit for residential solar. It’s unclear whether Congress will extend the credit.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz issued a statement praising the solar job figures, noting that one out of every 78 new jobs created in the U.S. last year was in solar energy.

“This diverse and vibrant workforce is vital to achieving the President’s goal of doubling electricity generation from renewable sources yet again by 2020,” said Moniz.

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Solar Jobs Report Shows Huge Growth

A Community Art Festival Honors MLK Jr., In The Spirit Of Corita Kent

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Corita Kent, the ex-nun-turned-artist who rose to fame in the 1960s, used graphic design and poster art to protest the Vietnam War and advocate for Amnesty International. At nearly the same time, Martin Luther King, Jr., as most of the world knows by now, led a monumentally significant movement to fight for civil rights and equality in the United States. Both were inspired by their own theologies, eventually influencing decades of activists with their individual modes of social action.

So it makes sense that the Pasadena Museum of California Art would take the opportunity to celebrate the giants in the same weekend. The art haven is staging the Kent-centric exhibition “Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent” this summer, presenting 30 years worth of the designer’s printmaking, posters, banners and pop-inspired advocacy. In anticipation of the show, and in tribute to Martin Luther King Day, the museum is staging a community arts festival aptly named “Get With The Action.”

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Sister Mathias (IHC choral director) leading Mary’s Day Parade, Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles 1964. Reproduction permission of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles.

The festival, including a procession, original art-making and a picnic with food trucks, will take place on Saturday, January 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at All Saints Church in Pasadena, California. Inspired by Kent’s own community arts festivals held in the 1960s — “Mary’s Days,” the procession will begin at All Saints Church and proceed to the public health organization Day One and finally the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

“‘Get With the Action: A Community Art Festival’ is a tribute to the contributions of both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sister Corita Kent, and their commitment to the Civil Rights Movement, the War On Poverty, and the Peace Movement,” the museum wrote in a press release for the event.

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a passion for the possible, 1969, Silkscreen print on paper, 23 1/8 x 12 inches, Collection: Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA. Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College.

Check out more information on the festival over at the PMCA website. For a preview of “Someday is Now,” check out the images below, and head over to our past coverage of the great ex-nun here.

  • X give a damn, 1968 Silkscreen print on paper 23 x 23 1/8 inches Corita Art Center, Los Angeles Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • E eye love, 1968 Silkscreen print on paper 23 x 23 inches Collection: Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA. Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College.

  • for eleanor, 1964 Serigraph on Pellon 30 x 36 inches Collection of the Associated Sulpicians of the United States. Courtesy the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA. Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College.

  • Immaculate Heart College Silkscreen Room. Courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles.

  • harness the sun, 1967 Silkscreen print on paper 20 ½ x 23 inches Corita Art Center, Los Angeles Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • left, 1967 Silkscreen print on paper 29 7/8 x 36 inches Corita Art Center, Los Angeles Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • mary does laugh, 1964 Silkscreen print on paper 29 ¾ x 39 ¼ inches Private Collection Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • someday is now, 1964 Silkscreen print on paper 24 x 35 7/8 inches Private Collection Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • stop the bombing, 1967 Silkscreen print on paper 15 ½ x 23 1/8 inches Corita Art Center, Los Angeles Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • the sure one, 1966 Silkscreen print on Pellon 29 3/4 x 36 inches Collection: Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA. Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College.

  • wet and wild, 1967 Silkscreen print on paper 18 1/8 x 23 inches Corita Art Center, Los Angeles Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

  • who came out of the water, 1966 Silkscreen print on paper 29 7/8 x 36 1/8 inches Collection of the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Gift of Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad in honor of Katherine L. Pohlad, class of 2013. Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College.

  • yobel, 1963 Silkscreen print on paper 30 5/8 x 25 5/8 inches Corita Art Center, Los Angeles Photograph by Arthur Evans, courtesy of the Tang Museum at Skidmore College

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A Community Art Festival Honors MLK Jr., In The Spirit Of Corita Kent

Will Andres Serrano Sue Over Theft of Piss Christ Copyright?

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This article originally appeared on artnet News.
by Brian Boucher

andre

Artist Andres Serrano recently discovered his controversial work Piss Christ was being sold by the Associated Press when it was notably pulled from the AP’s image-licensing bank over events related to the Charlie Hebdo attack. And he’s pissed.

“I was unaware that the image was sold by the AP since I never authorized them to do so,” Serrano confirmed to artnet News over email from Paris. “It’s something that I will have to look from a legal perspective.”

The incident arose initially in the aftermath of the massacre last week of cartoonists at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The AP was accused of hypocrisy for continuing to license Serrano’s controversial 1989 image while it opted not to distribute images of the covers of the French magazine’s cartoons. Some observers have branded the cartoons anti-Islam (see Accused of Charlie Hebdo Censorship, AP Removes Piss Christ Image).

ap

Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ before it was removed from the AP website.

Serrano’s work, which shows a crucifix submerged in the artist’s own urine, has raised the hackles of religious people ever since it was created (see Christians Pissed About Piss Christ, Again). And again, it’s inspiring ire.

Back in the public eye, the photograph has been at the heart of recent debates over whether it’s equally offensive to lampoon Christianity as it is to satirize Islam. Catholic League president Bill Donohue, in an interview with NewsMaxTV, told one reporter that while he wouldn’t support a Catholic murdering Serrano, if it happened, the act would be partly the artist’s own fault: speaking in the hypothetical, he said, “Had he exercised restraint, he wouldn’t be dead.”

Right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh sees hypocrisy on this issue at CNN, according to the transcript of a recent broadcast: “You can still find pictures of a crucified Jesus in a jar of urine, the famous work of art by Andres Serrano called Piss Christ. You can still find that at CNN. CNN still has a picture of that illustrious work of art posted. But they’re not gonna show potentially offensive images of the prophet.”

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Will Andres Serrano Sue Over Theft of Piss Christ Copyright?


‘People Spat At Me Every Day… This Book Made Me Feel I Was Not Alone’

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“I like to write about people who bloom where they’re planted,” says Lalita Tademy, a late-blooming author who didn’t publish her first book until her mid-50s, and only after it was seen and rejected by 13 agencies.

Tademy was used to rising from hostile soil. As a young girl, her family bought a plot of land in an all-white town in northern California. “Our potential neighbors were not pleased with the prospect of African-Americans living so close, and pooled their funds to buy the land back, adding in a profit for us, if we agreed not to move in,” she recalled. “My stubborn father built our house and we moved in anyway.”

After a successful but unfulfilling career as a tech executive, Tademy’s passion for genealogy led to the idea of writing fiction about the ancestors she’d been researching. Finally, after many rejections, “Cane River” was published. Two months later, Oprah chose it for her book club. That debut novel, and her second — both deeply-researched historical sagas — became New York Times bestsellers.

Tademy’s latest, “Citizens Creek,” is a similarly epic tale that focuses on a real-life slave with a gift for learning languages who was sold to a Creek Indian chief as a 10-year-old and who became the first black Creek chief after the Civil War.

At her home in the Bay Area, she spoke with The Huffington Post about her early days, her routines as a writer, the downsides of being an Oprah book club pick, and lessons she’s learned along her unconventional career as an author.

Is there a book that’s had an especially powerful influence on you?

This is hardly original, but it’s true: the book that had the earliest heaviest impact on me was “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Our family integrated a town in California called Castro Valley. I grew up in a place that did not want us there at all. People would spit at me every day when I went into school. There were death threats, they threatened to burn the house down. It was very, very tough.

I read “To Kill a Mockingbird” during this time, and the sheer humanity and pursuit of justice that Atticus Finch displayed in that book made me feel as if I was not alone.

It was this external character, this man that someone had created with such a sense of right and wrong, teaching his children to go against the tide, and him speaking up on other people’s behalf, that calmed me down.

To go back and read it now, it’s a little more sentimental than you would think, but it impacted me tremendously growing up.

Have you had any recent realizations about living a more fulfilling, satisfying life as an author?

The latest has revolved the promotion of my third historical novel — trying to balance the promotional aspects of that, which can be very interesting and of varying degrees of emotional satisfaction, and the satisfaction of being in a room by myself creating.

That’s a real dichotomy, something that I think a lot of creative people have to struggle with — the solo pursuit of creativity versus ‘coming out to play,’ coming out to promote, and which is the most satisfying of the two.

My latest big epiphany is that I won’t be chasing numbers as much as I am chasing my own personal satisfaction and a balance between promotion and creativity.

Oprah selected your first novel Cane River for her Book Club. The benefits of that are pretty clear, but there must have been some downsides to being fired out of a cannon, so to speak, with your first novel.

That’s very insightful. The success that came with my debut novel could not be repeated. It will never be repeated. And so with my second novel, what I found is that no matter what I was going to do, it would not be considered a success on the same scale.

I could live with that myself. The publishing industry was not nearly as kind. They wanted the same kinds of numbers. I had to come to the realization that what they considered “okay” was really a very, very successful launch of the second book.

With this third book, I’m no longer chasing after the Oprah kind of success. It just isn’t going to happen again. What I’m really looking for is people who want to read this book, who want to learn more about this country’s early history, about Native Americans and blacks.

sophia project

What’s your daily routine? How do you stay productive?

I have to have a great deal of discipline in order to write because it’s not my go-to thing. Many writers that I know love writing so much they can’t wait to dig in. For me, it’s a little bit of, “Okay, I know this is what my next three to four hours are to be. Do it. You have to do it.”

I have to start early in the morning or the day gets away from me. The only thing that can come between me and starting to write is exercise. Then I just write for hours. Even if I don’t have anything to say that I can figure out, I will stay stationary, hopefully writing.

What do you write if you don’t have anything to say?

I just start moving the fingers. And, very often, if it’s virgin page — which is terrifying to me to this day, even after three books — if it’s virgin page, I am in fear. I have to just start something. If I know a character, I will start with that character and say, “Today I got up, and I had to milk the cow,” or “I had to do this.” I’ll do a diary entry just to get in it. It’s not a scene, it is just to get started.

And sure enough, when you have enough of that and you’re making yourself sick with how banal it all is, something starts to happen, and there is a flow. It doesn’t necessarily mean you get to keep it all and it’s good, but ideas start to percolate.

Do you still only write by hand?

No, no. I wrote the first book by hand; I had worked for so long in business that as soon as the blinking cursor was on the computer, every ounce of creativity just went out of my head and I would want to do spreadsheets. I had to write by hand in order for me to be able to tell a story. Now I can’t even imagine trying to do it by hand.

sophia project

Can you give a sketch of your new novel for those who aren’t familiar?

“Citizens Creek” is my heart at the moment. It was inspired by a man who really lived in the early 1800s. The book is in two parts — it’s about this man, and the second part is about his granddaughter, also living in the 1800s and very early 1900s.

This man was born a slave and sold to a Creek Indian chief when he was 10 years old. As the slave of a chief, he was a Creek tribe member and was removed along with the rest of the tribe when the U.S. government wanted their land.

As you can imagine, Native Americans being moved off of their land in the 1830s was a very traumatic event, and then just imagine if you were the slave of one of those and you were also being moved off the land into what eventually became Oklahoma.

And this man had a gift for languages and really established his position within the tribe, rose to become the first black Creek Indian chief after the Civil War.

All of this was amazing to me. I didn’t even know such a thing was possible. He intrigued me so much, as did his granddaughter, who also had a very Creek way about her — both Creek and African — in Oklahoma. These two figures were on the one hand ordinary people, but on the other hand incredibly extraordinary people, but people whose voices were marginalized.

That’s really what I like to do when I write, to bring voices forward that haven’t necessarily been heard before and to look at history in a different way. I write multi-generational sagas, but I’m very much the anti-“Gone with the Wind.” I’m the opposite side. I want to show a different view of those very same events, but taken from the people who were living at the time.

You’ve said that writing your second novel was harder than writing your first. You had to go through the trial and error attempts all over again. Did you run into those same problems with your third book?

Yes, but they didn’t surprise me this time. When I sat down to write my second novel, I fully expected that I could learn from all of the painful lessons of trying to write the first novel for three very long years.

It did not happen. It was like starting from scratch. And with this book, it happened again.

When you are chasing a story, and when you’re trying to deliver a story, it really is not formulaic. As a matter of fact, I’ve come to the realization that if it feels too easy, it probably is because it has gone into a formulaic mode and you’re no longer as scared as you should be. You no longer are overreaching as much as you need to overreach, and it has gotten too easy, and the end result may suffer.

sophia project

You’ve written three historical novels set primarily in the 1800s. What are some aspects of the culture of that period that are particularly relevant to life today?

I like to write about people who bloom where they’re planted. They are people who, regardless of what they’re born into, figure out a way to bring themselves to life, their families to life, their communities to life. It’s that spirit and resilience that I admire so very deeply.

I have to tell you that I have started some novels and given up on them because the characters weren’t strong enough. They really were being crushed by their times. And that is not what fascinates me. It’s the people that have that spark and can influence.

It’s a man who was a slave but yet became the intermediary between the U.S. Government, that didn’t speak the Indian dialects, and his Creek tribe, who didn’t speak English. He had a great deal of power because he was the translator, and he was the one helping to negotiate their contracts.

That’s the kind of thing that I’m drawn to. I think that we can learn something from that today. Things are not going to necessarily be fair or to go your way, but you still have to figure out a way to navigate through it, and it can’t just be by complaining.

Transcription services by Tigerfish; now offering transcripts in two-hours guaranteed. Interview has been edited and condensed.

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‘People Spat At Me Every Day… This Book Made Me Feel I Was Not Alone’

Apparently, Spinach Artichoke Dip Is For Patriots. We Agree.

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Well, readers, this week was certainly one for the ages. Not only did we figure out that imitation crab is the hot dog of the sea, but we also found out that blue bacon exists (with the help of a little food dye) and Chipotle occasionally gives out free burritos. Oh, and sometimes dancing cows take over supermarkets. Life is really looking up.

But if life isn’t looking up, then you might be on Twitter. This week’s food Twitter took a restaurant to task for forgetting to award a doctorate when it was necessary (Mr. Pepper, really?!), declaring one coffee sign the “end of the world” and sounding off on mushroom smoothies. There were a few happy moments, but to see them, you’ll have to read on — bon apeTWEET!

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Apparently, Spinach Artichoke Dip Is For Patriots. We Agree.

Teens Take Politicians To Court Over Climate Change

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For politicians who fail to act on climate change, Kelsey Juliana has a few words.

“I want to remind them that we are their employer,” said Juliana, 18, a native of Eugene, Oregon, and freshman at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. “The government works for us. If you’re not doing your job, then I’m going to call you out on it.”

Those aren’t idle words, either. Juliana is a plaintiff in a potentially precedent-setting court case against Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) and the state. She and co-plaintiff Olivia Chernaik, 14, claim that their government isn’t doing enough to protect its current and future citizens from the devastating effects of climate change.

Pre-trial motions were filed in circuit court Jan. 9 and argument on the motions has been scheduled for March.

“This could be a landmark decision on the question: Does government, as trustee over our essential natural resources, have to protect it from carbon pollution and the impacts of climate disruption?” said Julia Olson, executive director of the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, and originator of a suite of youth-led lawsuits since 2011.

Several state and international cases remain in the pipeline, from New Mexico to the Netherlands. A federal lawsuit, which attracted the attention of industry leaders, was dismissed in December. Olson noted that she and her team of youth leaders are preparing another federal case.

The Oregon lawsuit is the furthest along, and the one to watch, experts say. Initially shot down by Lane County Circuit Court in 2011, the lawsuit gained fresh traction in June, when the Oregon Court of Appeals ordered the lower court to decide whether the atmosphere is a public trust that the state has a duty to protect. The appeals court ruling reversed the lower court’s finding that state decisions about natural resources are political matters outside the court’s authority.

An ancient legal principle underlies the plaintiffs’ arguments. Dating back to Roman civil law, the public trust doctrine states that governments must safeguard certain critical natural systems so current and future generations can benefit from them.

The motion filed on behalf of Juliana and Chernaik asks that Oregon be ordered to develop and implement a plan that will contribute to a global reduction in emissions necessary to “return atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350 ppm by the year 2100.” The state’s answer acknowledges the “serious threat” of climate change, yet argues a lack of legal basis to extend the public trust doctrine to the atmosphere.

“It’s going to take one brave, compassionate judge to speak on our behalf,” said Juliana, who spent the fall walking across the country in the Great March for Climate Action.

Oregon, interestingly, is predicted to be among U.S. states least affected by climate change. In fact, some say the Pacific Northwest will soon be welcoming great numbers of so-called climate refugees from places like drought-stricken California. Still, that’s not to say the region won’t experience some consequences of a changing climate, such as reductions in snow pack, surface water and salmon populations, noted Chris Winter, co-director of the Portland-based Crag Law Center, who is representing Juliana and Chernaik.

“The state has a judiciary obligation to these kids,” Winter said.

As this legal strategy gains momentum, science continues to shed light on the speed with which the climate is changing and the breadth of its toll. On Friday, the government announced that 2014 was the hottest year on record since at least 1880. A study published on Thursday further warned that the damage we’ve already done may render the planet a lot less hospitable for future generations.

“Eventually the youth will win as the situation becomes clearer, but it is a dangerous situation, because by the time the climate change becomes obvious it is hard to prevent much larger change in the next several decades,” James Hansen, often considered the world’s leading climate scientist, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.

In a 2013 scientific paper, which Hansen said provides the basis for the lawsuits, he concluded that the “continuation of high fossil fuel emissions would be an act of extraordinary witting intergenerational injustice. “

“Once the courts require the executive branch to have a plan for phasing down emissions consistent with what the science says is needed,” added Hansen, “that will make it clear that the Keystone pipeline and other unconventional fossil fuels make no sense.”

Olson called the controversial Keystone XL pipeline a “perfect example of elected leaders not acting as trustees.”

Juliana pointed to an accumulating chain of proposed fossil fuel export projects in the Pacific Northwest as further evidence. “For [Gov. Kitzhaber] to approve another plan would be going in the opposite direction,” said Juliana.

The governor made headlines this week for reportedly firing the chairwoman of the Oregon Transportation Commission after she rejected approval of state money for a controversial coal export project. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Kitty Piercy, mayor of Eugene, is among local leaders who support the teens and their national and international counterparts.

“They have a right to be concerned. Their future is in question,” Piercy told HuffPost. “We at all levels of government have an obligation to protect our children to ensure their survival and the survival of generations to come.”

Environmental law experts seem to agree. They aren’t overly optimistic for the plaintiffs’ success, however.

“For a state court to declare that the atmosphere is a public trust subject to control of the state government would be an unprecedented holding,” said Willy Jay, a lawyer with expertise in Supreme Court and environmental cases. He noted “substantial obstacles” to the plaintiffs, including the fact that the atmosphere can’t be contained within a single state “in the way that a riverbed, a beach or a vein of mineral resources is.”

“While I think it will be a tough legal transition for a lawsuit to force a state legislature to enact climate change legislation, a successful lawsuit might well provide ammunition for invalidating state statutes that promote climate change,” said Robin Craig, an environmental law professor at the University of Utah.

Successful or not, advocates said they hope the youths’ cases transform public discourse on the role of government in protecting the environment. Current U.S. environmental law is not cutting it, they argue, and regulators are continually influenced by the polluting corporations they are supposed to supervise.

“I’m paying them and they don’t seem to be seeing how their decisions are impacting me,” said Juliana. “They are speaking from their wallets and not from their hearts or heads.”

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Teens Take Politicians To Court Over Climate Change

The Top Ideas About Climate Change From 2014’s World Economic Forum

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As Ian Goldin of the Oxford Martin Commission pointed out last year, it’s a bit ironic to discuss climate change at Davos, a remote location in Switzerland that requires a tremendous carbon footprint to even get to. Nevertheless, the topic was a key focus of 2014’s World Economic Forum.

Climate change will likely be discussed again next week at 2015’s annual meeting in Davos, so we took a look back at what several key influencers like Goldin, as well as Jim Leape, director general of World Wildlife Fund, and Kumi Naidoo, international executive director of Greenpeace, said last year.

“On something pressing like this, citizens have to act, cities have to act, states have to ask and corporates have to act,” Goldin said last year. Climate change “is not something that’s waiting.”

The World Economic Forum annual meeting will take place from January 21-24.

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The Top Ideas About Climate Change From 2014’s World Economic Forum

Elon Musk Wants To Bring The Internet To Space

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Elon Musk wants to bring the Internet to space.

The billionaire CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX (who, mind you, also serves as chairman of SolarCity and is now working on the Hyperloop, a super-fast tubular transport system) launched a new project Friday aimed at building a satellite system to bring high-speed Internet to the whole planet. He announced the initiative at the ribbon-cutting of SpaceX’s new office in Seattle.

The new venture will be a branch of the private space travel company. The company plans to put hundreds of satellites into orbit around the Earth — circling the planet at about 750 miles above the surface, far closer than the typical communications satellites that soar at altitudes of 22,000 miles. The goal is to speed up data flows and deliver high-speed Internet to the more than 3 billion people who still have shoddy access to the Web, according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s Ashlee Vance, whose biography of Musk is due out in May.

“Our focus is on creating a global communications system that would be larger than anything that has been talked about to date,” Musk told Vance.

SpaceX did not respond to a request from The Huffington Post for comment on Saturday morning. Friday’s event was closed to media, though attendees tweeted photos and excerpts of Musk’s speech.

It’s unclear when the initiative will be completed, though Musk said it will take at least five years to roll out the first generation of satellites. The project could take up to 15 years to reach full capacity. But as with most of Musk’s endeavors, the ultimate ambitions are far loftier. Musk is laying the groundwork for the first interplanetary Internet.

Earlier this month, Musk said he aimed to unveil preliminary plans later this year for a colony on Mars. The network of satellites girdling Earth, providing high-speed Internet from Cleveland to Kampala, would eventually connect to the human outpost on the red planet, too.

“It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well,” Musk said. “I think this needs to be done, and I don’t see anyone else doing it.”

The project will cost between $10 billion and $15 billion, Musk said. But the revenues generated from the service will help fund the colonization of Mars.

To be sure, these are longterm plans. The company must first perfect its rockets, which will enable cheaper travel to and from the planet’s surface. SpaceX launched a supply ship to the International Space Station last Saturday, but the rocket — meant to be the world’s first reusable projectile — crash-landed on a floating seaborne platform.

A Vine video shows last week’s sloppy landing.

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Elon Musk Wants To Bring The Internet To Space

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