Step aside, folks. Billy Eichner just won the Emmys with a special installment of “Billy On The Street,” featuring awards show host, Seth Meyers. After a lackluster first half hour, Eichner’s segment was a major high point for viewers. There were “Orange Is The New Black” jokes, “Judging Amy” jokes and someone thought Seth Meyers was Seth MacFarlane. Watch the whole thing here:
NEW YORK (AP) — A Russian tourist climbed to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge to take pictures for fun in the landmark’s second security breach in a month, authorities said Monday.
Yaroslav Kolchin was charged with reckless endangerment, trespassing and disorderly conduct. Police said they spotted the 24-year-old ascending a cable at about 12:15 p.m. Sunday. Authorities say the Moscow man reached the top of the tower, took pictures with his smartphone and was arrested as he descended.
He told police he did it for fun, according to a court complaint.
Prosecutors said his arrest required a “high allocation of resources.” He posed a danger to the high volume of pedestrians gathered who passed beneath him on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, they said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is launching a “full scale review” of security at the bridge but assured New Yorkers that they are being kept safe.
“You can hold me accountable and (Police) Commissioner (William) Bratton accountable,” the mayor said. “We are in the process of making changes in the way we protect the bridges that are our responsibility.”
The city is boosting security at the bridge — and the three other East River crossings under its jurisdiction — by authorizing additional police foot and scooter patrols, installing more signage marking restricted areas and enhancing physical barriers to deter climbers, according to an administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly on matters of security and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The NYPD and the Department of Transportation are also installing a network of cameras and sensors along the bridges’ towers, the official said.
A recent graduate from a Russian university, Kolchin works in advertising, he told his lawyer, Paul Liu, through a Russian translator. He was visiting New York with a tour group, but the group has returned to Russia.
Kolchin was being held on $5,000 bond after his arraignment Monday in Brooklyn and ordered to hand his passport over to prosecutors. Liu told Judge Raymond Rodriguez that Kolchin did not expect to make bail. The attorney declined to comment on the case to reporters.
Kolchin’s next hearing was scheduled for Aug. 29.
On July 22, two American flags were swiped from the bridge and replaced with white ones, prompting security concerns. Two German artists took credit for the stunt. Their comments and the case are still being investigated by police, who have not arrested anyone in the flag swap, New York Police Department spokesman Detective James Duffy said in an email.
___
Associated Press staff writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.
DAVID McFADDEN, Associated Press
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Cristobal has strengthened into a hurricane in the Atlantic.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as it moved north away from the Bahamas.
Before strengthening into a hurricane, the storm flooded several communities across the Caribbean and halted flights in the drenched Turks & Caicos Islands.
By Monday night, the hurricane was centered about 660 miles (1,065 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda and was tracking east at 2 mph (4 kph).
“Average is not good enough.” I couldn’t agree more with that statement from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about financial literacy. Yet average is what the United States is, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment’s (PISA) recently released financial literacy data. The PISA results show that, despite significant U.S. financial literacy programming, more than one in six U.S. students lacks baseline proficiency in financial literacy, and less than one in ten U.S. students is a top financial literacy performer. Our average performance places us well behind Shanghai, China; Australia; Estonia; Poland and Czech Republic, among others.
The release of PISA’s financial literacy data (an addition to established PISA assessments of reading, math and science) was a level-setting and thought-provoking milestone for financial education. Covering 29,000 students from 18 participating countries and economies, the survey provides an important baseline for financial literacy.
PISA’s study also brings financial capability to the forefront of the educational landscape and reflects a growing recognition that building financial capability is about more than teaching young people to make sound choices about money. Financial capability prepares students to apply what they know in practical ways so they can prosper in the real world. These are skills they’ll need for college and the workforce, and to become our future business leaders, entrepreneurs and consumers. Our communities and economy stand only to gain when our young people are better equipped to problem solve and think critically.
Pushing the U.S. past average to create a youth population and ultimately a workforce with the skills to weigh long- versus short-term outcomes, solve problems, and think critically and innovatively will require both expanding and improving existing efforts. At the PISA launch event, Andreas Schleicher, Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, said that “our economy rewards us for what we can do with what we know,” and I think this is an important insight. Based on the new data, the discussions at last month’s launch and PwC’s own experiences working to build financial capability, four key themes resonated with me to expand and increase the impact of financial education.
1. Recognize teachers are the linchpin.Teachers are the most common source of financial education, so it is essential to continue developing and refining programs that give them necessary training and resources. PwC’s financial literacy initiative, Earn Your Future, includes a heavy focus on teacher training and development. We host with Knowledge@Wharton High School intensive training seminars to help high school educators deepen their financial education knowledge and teaching skills so that they can take that learning back to their classrooms. These professional development experiences are designed to give teachers much-needed resources, like financial literacy lessons plans. We also aim to help educators incorporate financial literacy into existing curricula, particularly math, and the Common Core State Standards. Most teachers and schools have limited resources and little time for an “extra” subject, like financial literacy. Providing teachers with the tools to transmit these crucial life lessons to their students is central to boosting financial capability.
2. Look beyond the classroom to increase impact. One particularly troubling PISA finding was the linkage between financial literacy and socioeconomic status. Approximately 17 percent of the variation in the U.S. is correlated with socioeconomic status. U.S. students with at least one parent in a skilled occupation generally scored 56 points higher on the assessment than students whose parents have semi-skilled or elementary occupations.
Reaching all American youth requires broader collaborations and more nuanced programs. For example, despite findings that parental involvement in financial education is highly impactful, discussing money matters at the dinner table is taboo in many communities. Adjusting programming to address this and other cultural variations and working with families, religious institutions and community groups are important supplements to school-based financial education, particularly in underserved communities.
3. Equip our youth to make good choices as they pursue higher education and their careers. Alexander Gonzalez, president of California State University at Sacramento and my fellow panelist at the PISA launch, pointed out that 75 percent of the students at his institution receive financial aid. Forty-one percent of student loan borrowers are delinquent at some point during the first five years of repayment, and, according to the forthcoming Junior Achievement/PwC Millennial and College Planning 2014 study, nearly one quarter of students believe their student loans will be forgiven. Clearly, too few grasp the full burden of the loans they take on, and too many fail to land the jobs they need to pay their bills. We must improve students’ understanding of debt, interest and other basic financial principles so they can leverage — rather than be hindered by — their degrees and the accompanying debt.
We also need to correct the mismatch between the skills employers seek and the skills of our workforce. While many of our graduates struggle to find good jobs, our business leaders are scrambling to find qualified talent. Seventy percent of U.S. CEOs are concerned about the availability of key skill sets, up from 54 percent in 2013. Businesses can help by working with educators and school administrators to provide early guidance — well before the job interview process — on which majors, certifications and real world experiences employers value.
4. Businesses must be part of the solution. To solve a systemic problem, businesses need to be part of creating a systemic solution. When they apply their resources to leverage the extensive knowledge of teachers, school administrators and other members of the education community, businesses can replicate and scale leading practices. Business dollars and talent should also be sustainably connected with local endeavors to impact communities. By joining forces on financial education, we can drive the significant changes needed to push past average.
Shannon Schuyler is a Principal and Corporate Responsibility Leader at PwC, and President of the PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. To learn more about Earn Your Future, click here.
When Julia Louis-Dreyfus won the Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for a third year in a row, it was no surprise, but how she accepted it was.
When walking up to the stage to accept her award for “Veep,” Bryan Cranston grabbed her and went in for a kiss — and not just a little peck, either. The mustachioed Cranston kissed her Adrian Brody-Halle Berry style. It was so long that it took up three entire GIFs. Emmy for Best and Longest TV Kiss Ever? Yep.
The two presented an award together earlier in the night and joked about Cranston’s supporting role on “Seinfeld” way back in the day. If Walter White wants a kiss, he gets it.
A particularly intolerable meme continues to play out in the news media and online: Apparently U.S. history began on January 20, 2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated. In case you were unaware, President Obama is evidently the first president to take vacations; he’s the first president to play golf; he’s the first president to be photographed without a suit or tie; and he’s the first president to routinely use a teleprompter. If you believe any of that, then you’re a moron who needs to crack a good book — anything prior to the events of 2009 will do. There you’ll find that not only are Obama’s vacations and so forth in line with most previous presidents, but in terms of overall time off, he’s taken the fewest vacation days of any modern president other than Bill Clinton.
As reported today by The Daily Banter‘s Tommy Christopher and Michael Luciano, the latest round of outrage directed at the president has to do with his so-called “bad optics” — inappropriate, non-presidential behavior. In this latest case, Obama’s crazy decision to remain on vacation following the horrifying beheading of American journalist James Foley. A cursory check of AM talk radio, Fox News Channel and conservative Twitter reveals the usual double standard and historical amnesia we’ve seen over and over again.
So, in the interest of history and the obvious inability of Republican concern-trolls to actually do the research themselves, I decided to set the way-back machine to the beloved Ronald Reagan presidency. Here’s a series of harrowing events from the 1980s, along with the comparatively AWESOME optics from Reagan, the now-sainted chief executive. The photographs are all from the specified dates.
EVENT, October 10, 1981 — The funeral of assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
REAGAN OPTICS, October 10, 1981 — Reagan went horseback riding at Camp David.
EVENT, August 29, 1983 — Two Marines were killed and 14 wounded in Beirut.
REAGAN OPTICS, August 29, 1983 — Reagan remained on vacation at Rancho Del Cielo, California.
EVENT, September 1, 1983 — Reagan was still on vacation in California when the Soviets shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007.
REAGAN OPTICS, September 1, 1983 — According to Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace, as well as contemporaneous accounts, Reagan planned to remain on vacation until he was photographed horseback riding and was convinced to return to the White House.
The Washington Post, 9/4/83 — At this point, [Press Secretary Larry] Speakes was interrupted and asked if Reagan was going back to Washington. He ignored the question and read a statement on the Middle East. Asked again if Reagan was going back to Washington, Speakes answered, “There are no plans for the president to return to Washington earlier than anticipated.”
FOX NEWS CHANNEL’S CHRIS WALLACE: I was covering Ronald Reagan at that time. He was in Santa Barbara at his ranch when that happened, and quite frankly he didn’t want to leave. And his advisers realized how terrible this looked, and eventually persuaded him he had to fly back to Washington and had to give this speech to the nation, but it did take him four days.
EVENT, October 22, 1983 — The administration began planning its military incursion into Grenada.
REAGAN OPTICS, October 22, 1983 — Reagan remained on vacation at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Repeat: golf resort. Here are three strikingly presidential photos from Augusta — the golf resort! First, Reagan in his jammies being briefed on the Grenada plans, then, later hitting the links. Where were the Republicans of 2014 to scold him?
President Reagan was still on vacation at the GOLF! resort the next day when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed, killing 241 Marines.
EVENT, July 18, 1984 — 21 people were killed and 19 wounded when a gunman entered a San Ysidro, California McDonald’s and opened fire.
REAGAN OPTICS, July 21, 1984 — On the day when many of the gun massacre victims were to be buried, Reagan went horseback riding at Camp David.
EVENT, April 2, 1986 — Four Americans were killed in a terrorist attack at a TWA counter at the Athens Airport, Greece.
REAGAN OPTICS, April 4, 1986 — Two days later, here’s Reagan’s uber-presidential optics, while on vacation (!!) at Rancho Del Cielo:
EVENT, September 5, 1986 — The Pakistani military stormed the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73. Twenty-two people were killed, including two Americans, and 150 were injured.
REAGAN OPTICS, September 6, 1986 — Again, while on vacation at his California ranch, Reagan went horseback riding with the First Lady and was photographed with a “Just Say No” sign.
Presidential optics! Any questions?
Cross-posted at The Daily Banter.
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Microsoft has cut the price of its Surface 2 tablet hybrid by $100, leaving the consumer-facing device with a price tag as low as $349. That price, however, doesn’t include a keyboard attachment that is generally viewed as mandatory to use any Surface tablet. Other Surface 2 models, including the LTE-powered, higher-storage SKU have also received price reductions. The timing, as some… Read More
Captain America’s shield is as iconic as comic book superhero weapons get but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. Man at Arms: Reforged decided to give it an upgrade by turning the shield into throwing ninja stars. Captain America should definitely use them for his next movie.
The Emmys are starting momentarily and the list of nominations looks like it was regurgitated from two years ago. Mad Men again? Downton Abbey, yawn. Does anyone really watch Veep? I’m rooting for one of the smartest, most original, and consistently hilarious nominees in years: HBO’s Silicon Valley.
BlackBerry has been more than willing to tell you about most of the smartphones coming down its pipeline, but it hasn’t been very clear about when they’ll show up. There aren’t many mysteries left now, though: N4BB has posted a roadmap (below)…
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