SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Earlier this month, California’s Republican gubernatorial candidates debated each in front of an Orange County audience. Gov. Jerry Brown, who is running for re-election this year, declined an invitation to the forum. Consequently, the hosts of the debate — longtime critics of Brown — placed a skeleton on the stage in his place.
Exactly one year ago today on May 30, 2013, I published my first post for HuffPost Teen.
The year following it has been an absolutely magical journey.
It’s always hard to put into words and explain how something has inexplicably changed your life and shifted your mountains, but that is what HuffPost Teen has done for me. HPT has allowed me to share my thoughts with the world, create discussions about things that really matter to me, and broaden my writing into different forms and styles. For example, I told my story in pieces like “Goodbye to 16” and imparted advice in a few of my school-related How-To’s. I talked politics in “The Backwardness of ENDA Opposition” and argued why teen voices are important and worthwhile.
HPT has given me a safe haven where I can talk about things that truly matter to me, and it’s a place where I feel my voice not only belongs, but matters. It’s hard to find a community that values teenage voices and creates a place that fosters communication and thought specifically geared towards upcoming adults, but that’s exactly what HuffPost Teen is for me.
Furthermore, HPT has opened my horizons and given me so many wonderful experiences.
In the last year, Taylor Swift read and tweeted about my piece, “Why I Dedicate My Life to Childhood Cancer.” As a HUGE Swiftie, I just about died when Taylor called me a “true inspiration,” but it doesn’t escape me that this would never have happened if HPT hadn’t given me the opportunity to share my dreams with the rest of the world. In the aftermath of Taylor’s tweet, doctors, parents of children with cancer, other teens, and even Ronan’s parents themselves reached out to me on Twitter, opening discussions that forever rocked my world. People told me how my story inspired them and how wonderful it was to see drive and passion in a young person. Honestly? All I’ve ever wanted to do with my writing was reach other people, inspire them, and make a change. HPT allowed me to do that.
In the last year, my writing opportunities expanded. For example, I was recently asked to write a piece for Education Week Teacher and the Center for Teaching Quality. I wrote about how teachers, while they’re often under-valued, are the most inspiring and life-changing people I’ve ever met.
In the last year, I’ve communicated with so many other people and especially teens across the nation and across the world, and I think that this is perhaps the best gift HPT has given me. I’ve met other teens who are also passionate about their dreams. I’ve talked to teens who called me a “role model” and people who can’t wait to see what I do when I grow up.
HuffPost Teen has given me a community of bloggers full of people I wish I could meet in real life. They are teens who are a lot like me, which I can’t find just anywhere. They are teens who are driven and passionate, who aren’t afraid to talk about what really matter to them, who have a penchant for writing and Twitter, who fangirl with me, who help me in my time of need. They’ve helped me open up and be the person I really am, and they take my quirks in stride. We care for and about each other and celebrate each other’s victories, no matter how minute. They’re people who get me, and I love that. HuffPost Teen has given me the room I need to grow and thrive.
So in light of my extreme thanks to HPT, I went around and asked a few of my HPT friends to tell me, in 140 characters or less (or thereabouts), why they love HPT and how it’s changed their lives.
Blogging has not only made me write more but also exposed me to a community of ambitious, interesting teens. The bloggers are beyond unique.
— Morgan Levy
Being a HP teen has given me a voice. I’m so glad to have an outlet to share my political and cultural thoughts. Thanks HP Teen!
— Garrett deGraffenreid
Blogging for HPT has improved my writing skills and, more importantly, helped me to create amazing, dependable friendships that I cherish.
— Jackson Barnett
HuffPost Teen has helped mold me into a more informed and articulate person. Being able to speak clearly about how I feel is so important!
— Allison Lantagne
HuffPost Teen has given me a multitude of friends, inspirations, and ideas. It has expanded my journalistic prospects, as well as giving me a place to call home in an ever-dizzying media world.
— Kami Baker
HuffPost Teen encourages, values, and responds to teenage voices with respect. And emojis. I’m grateful for the way we celebrate ideas that might otherwise be ignored, overlooked or disparaged.
— Celeste Yim
Huffington Post has given me the confidence in pursuing my dreams of writing professionally. They showed how much my true potential is.
— Erin Whitten
Being a HPT blogger has taught me being ambitious & courageous are attributes within yourself that shouldn’t be put down, but celebrated.
— Haley Pereyo
Huffington Post has helped me realize that what I say does matter, and that I truly am capable of making things happen with my words.
— Camryn Garrett
HuffPost Teen has given me the opportunity to share my thought and proven to me that my writing matters, that other people care about what I have to say. Blogging for HPT boosted my passion for and commitment to writing.
— Tara Subramaniam
Huffington Post, even though I have not been able to blog yet, has given me an incredibly intelligent group of friends that I can talk to no matter what. Y’all are seriously some of the first people I talk to if I have an issue.
— Jillian Kinder
On behalf of myself and my HuffPost Teen blogging friends, thank you. Here’s to more laughs, jokes, ideas, and memories to come.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton would be a very effective president if she decides to run.
Obama says in a television interview that he and Clinton are “buddies” and he’s long admired her.
They fought in the long-running 2008 primary for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Obama says she couldn’t have been more effective and loyal as his secretary of state.
The president says he’s been blessed to have her work for him, along with Vice President Joe Biden and his chief of staff Denis McDonough.
The president’s comments are in an interview taped Thursday, the same day he and Clinton had a private lunch at the White House. His interview was broadcast Friday on the talk show “Live! With Kelly and Michael.”
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Traveling back in time sounds fun and all, but there’s one, er, reality that Hollywood movies seem to forget: Your ass would still have to get a job.
Fortunately for the aspiring time travelers among us, there were some pretty sweet gigs if you did get back to the 19th century or whatever. We’re talking ice cutters and funeral clowns, people. (Note: If you go back in time, don’t get a job as the groom of the stool or a urinatore.)
So just in case you’re befriended by a zany scientist who wants to toss you back in time, we’ve created a quiz to figure out exactly what job you need to get once there.
It’s been a rough ride for homeowners and many investors since 2006 when it seemed that the good times would never end. But they did. The millions of foreclosures have done a lot to put a damper on the American Dream. The younger generations are no longer set on buying that first home. Many of them are living with their parents because they can’t even afford rent.
Investors have stepped up over the past six or more years, accounting annually for more than 30 percent of all home purchases. Some of that buying has been in blocks of hundreds or thousands of homes by major investors like the Blackstone Group. One recent headline tells us that the percentage of purchases by investors rose to 42 percent in one month. As long as the foreclosures keep coming there will be investor participation, but the competition for good houses has heated up. That competition is bringing higher prices, thus the media articles about a “market recovery.”
It’s weak, even if we can call it a recovery at all. There is still a large hole which the first time buyers used to fill. Just tracking prices isn’t working like it has in past markets. This is a new situation, and old statistical models may be misleading. The multiple strategies used by investors have all worked really well over the past few years:
• Wholesaling: Investors use location and negotiation skills to locate properties at deep discounts and then quickly sell them to other investors who wouldn’t have found them on their own. The sale can also be to a retail buyer, but there’s far less of that activity in current markets.
• Fix & Flip: The investor buys a distressed property and does renovation and repairs, many times selling them within three months or so to a rental property investor or possibly a retail customer.
• Rental Investors: These people buy homes with the long-term goal of renting them out for positive monthly cash flow over expenses, and a profit from appreciation at sale in the future.
All of these strategies are still working, but they’re mostly just contributing to the movement of Americans from homeownership to tenant status. This may be the future, at least for the next five to ten years until the economy has a chance to improve and unemployment decreases. It’s been a nice ride for real estate investors, and it’s not over. However, if we consider the dream of homeownership wounded but not dead, things will turn around at some point and buyers will be back. However, they may want to buy but still be hampered by their credit, lack of down payment cash, employment uncertainty, or student debt.
Even long-term rental property investors must have an exit strategy, and it’s in that exit strategy that investors may be able to help renters move back to ownership. The goals of both parties are aligned, as the buyers will be taking the home off the books of the investor when they want to liquidate the investment. Perhaps there’s a way to increase the number of potential buyers for that investment property by making it easier for them to buy.
Rent-to-own or lease-purchase arrangements have been around for a long time. A buyer who may not be ready to purchase but would like to do so can lease the home with an option to buy at some point in the future. They may need to build a down payment, or improve their credit. There are a number of benefits for the investor in this type of arrangement:
1. The tenant buyer really wants to own the home, so they’ll take better care of it.
2. The lease agreement may be structured with the tenant buyer paying some of the repairs and maintenance, definitely not part of a regular lease.
3. In many cases the tenant buyer will pay a higher rent, increasing cash flow.
A rental home investor with a plan to sell a home five to eight years in the future, perhaps to buy a more expensive rental or invest elsewhere, normally would just follow their plan and list it for sale. They’re already marketing the home for tenants, but now could take a different approach. How about helping a strapped tenant who wants to own but has a few hurdles to jump? Instead of just marketing for a tenant, changing the marketing approach to locating tenants who want to own could work for both sides.
The investor gets a three to five-year lease-purchase agreement providing the tenant with the option to buy on or before the lease expires. The timing of the expiration is when the investor wants to sell. The price is set to provide the desired profit for the investor. The tenant buyer has a plan with a due date, and they can begin to move toward ownership, taking great care of the home. It’s really no big change for the investor, just a different marketing approach. Should the tenant not exercise their option to buy, the investor is just fine, as they can list the home for sale as they would have anyway. It’s a win-win and may help bring back the dream.
NBC News President Deborah Turness took a modest, humble route in applauding the network for its interview with Edward Snowden on Wednesday.
Just kidding!
In an email to staffers, Turness called the interview “the greatest scoop of recent times.” She thanked the entire news team for its “incredible team effort” and said that the outcome was “a proud moment” for NBC News.
“It was revelatory, it was fascinating, but more than that it was an event,” she wrote. “It was that rare thing – a special moment that needed to be seen live, not on DVR. It really mattered.”
NBC News host Brian Williams sat down with Snowden for his first interview on American television this week. It was a rather groundbreaking nab for NBC News as Snowden has held back from making any major media appearances in the year since he released the confidential NSA documents.
Read the full memo, which was obtained by The Huffington Post, below:
Dear All,
Last night was a proud moment for NBC News. Brian’s exclusive interview with Edward Snowden was the greatest scoop of recent times. It’s already provoking reaction at the highest levels and may yet change the course of the Edward Snowden story.
Brian’s unique talents as an interviewer yielded a conversation that was not only captivating to watch, but consequential in its content. Thanks to Brian’s questioning Edward Snowden was transformed from a remote, vague figure into a man with a mission and a philosophy that can finally be understood by our audience.
As a small group of us sat in an edit room on the 5th floor at 4am last Wednesday to watch the interview come in live, we knew we had something special. But last night those 5 hours of material were crafted into a stunning hour of network TV.
It was revelatory, it was fascinating, but more than that it was an event. It was that rare thing – a special moment that needed to be seen live, not on DVR. It really mattered.
And, it seems America agrees. We attracted nearly 6 million total viewers and won both the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. The audience grew over the hour, with the second half of the broadcast attracting more viewers. And throughout the hour thousands took part in a conversation on social media, debating whether Snowden is a #traitor or a #patriot. At NBCNews.com, our engaging coverage has drawn over 6 million page views and over 1 million video streams, with a huge spike when Brian anchored an hour-long livestream conversation following the broadcast. The webcast showcased the best of NBC News — with Brian joined by Pete Williams, Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, Michael Leiter, and Michael McFaul offering expert analysis, and Kevin Tibbles in the field highlighting the voice of the people. Brian was in his element yet again, drawing out the best of our brilliant team.
The reaction has been swift and powerful. From Secretary Kerry’s strident “man up and come home” response, to the release just this afternoon of a previously withheld NSA document — the ripple effect will continue for a long time to come.
I am so grateful to each and every person who played their part in getting us from “Let’s go after Snowden” to last night’s outcome. It was, from start to finish, an incredible team effort. From the early relationship building to the complicated logistics of travel and production (much of it secretive), and then through the forensic process of editing over four hours of material into one hour, checking every fact, and working to advance the story. The entire project was a tremendous display of collaboration across editorial, investigative, Nightly, primetime, digital, standards, legal, marketing, communications, and so many others.
My special thanks go out to Richard Esposito who masterminded the project, with the support of Matthew Cole, and the investigative unit. To Alex Wallace and Janet Klein who worked so closely with Brian to make it happen. To Madeleine Haeringer who oversaw the complicated effort of constructing a multi-camera shoot in a hotel room across from the Kremlin. To Justin Balding, Tim Sandler and their army of editors and producers who spent many sleepless nights perfecting every frame of footage. And to the promos team who not only created a fantastically dramatic campaign, but also helped craft the sensational open for the broadcast. Richard Greenberg was across every word and comma. And Greg Gittrich lead the powerful digital charge to ensure the story reached every platform and set social media alight. There were so many people involved and it was the most spectacular team effort I have seen.
We should all be so very proud.
I look forward to the next big prize!
Deborah
Christianity is at its best when it offers a way to see and understand the most profound human conditions: joy, love, fellowship, reconciliation. This week before Pentecost offers a view of a nearly universal heartache — the pain of being left.
Jesus had returned from the dead, through the miracle at the heart of the church, and was talking to his disciples. They think, hope, that he is back to stay. “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” they ask. They think they may be on the verge of an even greater victory.
They are let down, hard. Rather than leading them, Jesus leaves them. They never see him again. They are left looking up toward heaven. There is something so stark and universal about that image, that picture of the people who were left. It is the family gathered in the kitchen after a cruel and sudden death, the woman at an airport sitting in her car after someone she loves has flown off, the stifled heartbreak when a child leaves home. There is a quietness suffused with deep sadness in those moments.
To the disciples, it must have been crushing to see Jesus go. Think of Peter — he had left his wife, his job, everything, to follow someone he had just met, and the experience had transformed him. He had spent years following Jesus through the desert, hanging on every word, sharing great and terrible days, and then he was left there, looking up to a blank sky. His feelings must have been complex as he remembered not only the victories but the mistakes such as his denial of Jesus during his trial. Haven’t we all had that moment when someone has left by death or choice and we are left broken and confused?
Perhaps that is what this week is — that time of brokenness. At one level, it is odd that the Holy Spirit did not appear as Jesus left. Instead, God constructed this story so that there was this gap, this time of bereft people left behind after Jesus leaves but before Pentecost and the arrival of that Holy Spirit.
It might be that it is exactly that brokenness that allows the Holy Spirit in. A mistake of modern Christianity is often that we present ourselves as people who are perfect, unblemished. It is simply not true. We are broken, often by are own mistakes. We have been left, and sometimes we were the ones who left. The church is a gathering of the unperfected, and an honesty about those broken places may well be what we need the most. There has been, and will come, a time when we look up and wonder what just happened. What Christianity offers is the hope of something better beyond that moment.
Tuesday morning, I logged into a chat room full of refugees of the since shuttered PUAHate forum once frequented by University of California-Santa Barbara shooter Elliott Rodger. And I stayed there, silently watching them, for 8 hours. Here’s what I learned.
PUAHate, as other outlets have discussed, is an offshoot of the Pick Up Artist community populated by men (and, allegedly, women) who believe Pick Up Artistry to be a sham waste of money not because women are more than “targets” and “prey,” but because women are fucking hopeless cunts who can’t be convinced to give nice guys a chance. Women, argue PUAHaters, will only go out with good looking alpha males and would never look twice at anyone who isn’t a musclebound dreamboat with a six-figure income, and most men will never be those things, and so the world is against them and life is unfair. From an observer’s perspective, PUAHate is a group of self-pitying babies who believe they’re entitled to women who are much more attractive than they are.
I’m rather disappointed in the way some of the tech we have today has evolved. I was convinced as a kid by the time I was a grownup we would have flying cars and hovercraft motorcycles like Return of the Jedi’s speeder bikes. So far, neither of those things are commercially available for normal folk to buy.
Flying cars are being worked on (though they generally look like airplanes), and now a company has a sort of hoverbike in the works too. It might not speed through the forests of Endor, but the vehicle promises to fly about 10 feet above the ground, and speeds up to 45mph.
The dual-person hovercraft is called the Aero-X and is made by Aerofex, who showed off a large, but functional prototype of an earlier design a couple of years back.
It’s designed to be ridden like a motorcycle and uses a pair of ducted rotors to provide lift. The device is in the design stage at this time and its makers hope to put it into production by 2017, with an estimated price of $85,000(USD). You can secure a place in line by putting down a $5,000 deposit now.
[via The World’s Best Ever via Laughing Squid]
The new Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch closely resembles its predecessor, the Galaxy Gear, and in fact most users might not be aware from its UI that it’s actually running a different OS than the older gadget – Tizen, vs. Android. Samsung previously revealed that it would be bringing Tizen to the older Gear, too, and today it has begun that rollout (via SamMobile), offering old… Read More
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