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Jun 15

Here's What It's Like To Eat From Martha Stewart's New Delivery Service

Martha Stewart is the latest celebrity to jump on the meal delivery service bandwagon, and she’s bringing her beloved recipes with her. Stewart has partnered with Marley Spoon, a two-year-old meal delivery service company that operates in Europe, Australia and now the U.S. The new venture, named Martha & Marley Spoon, hopes to entice die-hard Martha fans to try their service by getting them one step closer to cooking like her.

The service works like most: pick a number of people you want to feed and a number of meals you want delivered. Each week you can choose from seven different recipes. Here’s where Martha & Marley Spoon hope to set themselves apart from the rest: One of the biggest complaints people have with meal plan services is that the recipes aren’t always well tested, but with Martha this is not an issue. Her recipes are spot on. The meals come out delicious, every time.

Here’s an example of what a week of recipes looks like:

We know, we want to eat them all, too.

Martha & Marley Spoon costs $10.25 a serving for the two-person plan and $8.90 per serving for the family box (which feeds two adults and two kids). They claim that those prices are competitive with doing the shopping yourself:

So now that you can cook up your Martha meal on your Martha tableset and truly channel this lifestyle guru, would you try it? Let us know in the comments below.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

What Does My Child Need to Know About Money When Traveling Abroad?

Posted in: Today's Chili

By Laura McMullen

When your child is traveling abroad without you, you won’t be there to help navigate foreign streets or translate menus. But you can help money matters run smoothly without leaving home. Whether your child is going abroad to study or to seek adventure, here’s how to make sure there’s access to secure credit and cash at a reasonable cost.

How to prepare for a smooth trip

Choose a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. Most credit card issuers charge a foreign transaction fee of about 3% of the purchase price every time you swipe the card abroad. The equivalent of $300 spent on meals, for example, means $9 in foreign transaction fees.

You and your child have a few options for accessing a card that doesn’t charge these fees. A college student could apply for a student credit card that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees. Co-signing could help your student get approved for these cards (though it’s important to understand that, as a co-signer, you’re on the hook for payments if your child should ever stop making them).

Another option is applying for a no foreign transaction fee credit card and adding your child as an authorized user. Your child will get a credit card with his or her name on it and be able to spend up to the credit limit, and you’ll be able to see what your child is spending. As the account owner, you’ll be responsible for making payments.

Whichever credit card your child leaves with, make sure it has an EMV chip — the rectangular chip that requires you to dip, not swipe, the card at a payment terminal. While this technology is newer for U.S. cardholders, in most parts of the world, it’s the standard for credit and debit purchases. Foreign merchants may not be able to process transactions without an EMV card.

Pack an extra card, too. A backup credit card can save your child loads of stress if the go-to card is lost or stolen. A debit card is also a must, because it can access cash at ATMs. Be sure to find out which ATMs can be used overseas without additional fees.

Alert bank and card companies. Contact the bank and describe where your child will be traveling and when. Otherwise, the bank may suspect your child’s foreign charges are fraudulent and suspend the card.

How to be smart and safe with money abroad

Keep a low profile. “It can be assumed that any major tourist zone — be it Plaza del Sol in Madrid or Times Square in New York — has someone looking to pick a pocket or snatch a bag of an unsuspecting tourist,” says Dru Simmons, international risk manager at Ohio State University’s Office of Financial Services.

Encourage your son or daughter to keep a low profile by practicing situational awareness — not calling attention to yourself and avoiding displays of cash, expensive jewelry, electronics or other “indicators of wealth,” Simmons says.

The U.S. State Department website has profiles of countries with information for visitors. The safety and security information details for each location provide a heads-up on what risks to expect when traveling and where. That page “often has information on prevalent scams, local hot spots for petty crime and guides to ATM usage,” Simmons says.

Divvy up cash and credit cards. Simmons suggests travelers stash credit cards and larger amounts of cash in an internal pocket or money belt and keep less valuable items, such as spending cash and transit cards, in a more accessible wallet or purse. With this arrangement, travelers who are pickpocketed or mugged will lose or hand over something relatively worthless. It’s a good idea to keep passport copies in a separate place.

Laura McMullen is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: lmcmullen@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @lauraemcmullen.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

The Wall Street Bailout Didn't End In 2008

Posted in: Today's Chili

The 2008 financial crisis was the most disruptive political event yet experienced in the 21st Century, but even for professional bank dorks, the material can get pretty dry. So it’s refreshing when authors can offer up strong character-driven narratives to make key elements of the crash accessible. With his first book, Chain of Title, journalist David Dayen joins Michael Lewis (The Big Short) and Andrew Ross Sorkin (Too Big To Fail) as a master of this technique. Dayen follows three homeowners — cancer nurse Lisa Epstein, car salesman Michael Redman and insurance fraud expert Lynn Szymoniak — as they struggle to fend off foreclosure. In the process, all three discover that their banks may be in bigger trouble than they are.

But where other writers have described the meltdown as a colossal mistake, a failure of ideology or a collective delusion, Dayen emphasizes another aspect of the crash: it was illegal. In doing so, he has produced what may be the most important book about the financial crisis to date.

By studying the documents in their own mortgage cases, Epstein, Szymoniak and Redman noticed some glaring irregularities. Signatures on key documents appeared forged. Official dates on those signatures were off by months or even years. Entire documents are clearly fabricated.

His protagonists had uncovered a nationwide scandal. Wall Street had fractured the legal foundations of the nation’s housing property system so deeply that banks were simply making up documentation in order to pursue foreclosures. They frequently couldn’t prove they had a legal right to foreclose, or even determine if they had a financial interest in doing so. Banks were misplacing mortgage payments, and in other cases, refusing to accept them. Sometimes they evicted homeowners even after they successfully completed bank-designed repayment plans.

Dayen’s characters meet different fates, but each navigates a maddening, Kafkaesque legal system. Some judges simply cannot believe that major, prestigious financial institutions are engaging in the behaviors that Szymoniak, Epstein and Redman document and detail. As banks and their agents threaten, cajole and harass them for years, Dayen successfully channels their emotional journeys into a narrative rhythm that at times resembles a spy thriller (no small feat for a tale of faulty mortgage papers).

Dayen has been covering this material for six years. The public briefly fixated on an aspect of his drama in the fall of 2010, when major banks declared foreclosure moratoriums to give them time to clear up what they described at the time as “paperwork errors.” The issue resurfaced again in the spring of 2011 when the CBS program 60 Minutes produced a Gerald Loeb-award winning segment on what was now known as the “robo-signing” problem. But then the issue faded from the headlines of most major publications. Dayen, one of only a handful of reporters who followed the foreclosure chaos after the initial flurry of media attention faded, prefers the term “foreclosure fraud.” He portrays it not as an isolated moment of consumer abuse, but an inevitable result of the mortgage securitization boom on Wall Street that wrecked financial markets in the fall of 2008. In the frenzy to pack home loans into bonds for sale to investors, banks cut a lot of corners. As loans were chopped up and sold from one financial house to the next, the necessary documents simply weren’t maintained or transferred. When families began defaulting, the banks couldn’t keep it together. So they cheated.

Chain of Title is a book about both finance and politics. While a few homeowners were able to leverage their legal position to save their homes, the federal government made a series of conscious decisions to defend the banks, not the borrowers. As a result, an enormous number of families were evicted who simply did not need to be forced out of their homes. The Obama administration first turned a blind eye to the problem in response and then insisted it was working to resolve it with loan work-out programs that turned out to be as bogus as the banks’ paperwork. The administration ultimately wiped away the banks’ fraud liability with a settlement that, Dayen details, offered paltry levels of restitution for the families they had wronged.

And the foreclosure mess never really went away. There were nearly 1.1 million homes in foreclosure in 2015, according to RealtyTrac data. That’s down from the peak of about 2.9 million in 2010, but up about two-thirds from the 717,522 recorded in 2006, the year the subprime mortgage market began its implosion.

The great foreclosure fraud epidemic that spread across America during the Obama years demonstrates that the bank bailouts were much more than a congressional vote taken in the fall of 2008. They were not a one-off rescue maneuver in which unpleasant but necessary measures were taken for the greater good. The bailouts were a decade of sustained policy spanning two administrations in which the rights and interests of working consumers were subjugated to the profits of a handful of Wall Street firms.

Because Chain of Title shows both the Bush and Obama administration policies siding with elites against consumers, it’s tempting to see the book as a narrative of the American political left. But the lessons Dayen draws from his tale could come straight from a conservative think-tank. Property rights are important, he argues, and the rule of law matters. But neither mean very much when the government refuses to enforce them for everyone.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

Paris Jackson's Tattoos Help Her Look Beyond Her 'Dark Past'

Posted in: Today's Chili

Paris Jackson doesn’t just see her tattoos as art, she considers them tools for healing.

The 18-year-old daughter of the late Michael Jackson posted photos of her extensive body ink on Instagram Tuesday, explaining their meaning to her followers.

“Today I can look at my inner forearms and see art that has meaning for me, I don’t see a dark past anymore,” the teenager wrote. “My scars and past of self-hatred have been covered by loving marks, creativity, ingenuity.. and depth.”

Paris added that, for her, the tattoos represent “strength” and offer proof that she’s a fighter.

“I’ll always keep fighting, and encouraging others to stay strong,” Paris wrote. “We all go through hell every now and then but it makes us the warriors of love we were meant to be. So to anyone struggling, it gets better. You’re not alone.”

the craftsmanship of tattoos will always be a controversy. some people like them, some people absolutely hate them. i appreciate art, i always have. especially when that art means something to me. today i can look at my inner forearms and see art that has meaning for me, i don’t see a dark past anymore. my scars and past of self-hatred have been covered by loving marks, creativity, ingenuity.. and depth. sure i will always carry my past with me, but i see ink as a way of changing for the better, always improving. they represent strength for me. i look back at my old self and then i look in the mirror, and i see a fighter looking back at me. i’ll always keep fighting, and encouraging others to stay strong. we all go through hell every now and then but it makes us the warriors of love we were meant to be. so to anyone struggling, it gets better. you’re not alone.
A photo posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on Jun 14, 2016 at 1:37pm PDT

Paris often posts photos of her tattoos on Instagram, some of which pay tribute to her late father and her grandmother, Katherine:

bart & lisa back at it again
A photo posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on Jun 12, 2016 at 12:49pm PDT

“Kǎisèlín” for Grandma Katherine, done by the ink goddess herself @thetattooprincess. Love you, G-Ma.
A photo posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on Apr 6, 2016 at 10:23pm PDT

“The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.” Never forget your roots, and always be proud of where you came from.
A photo posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on May 23, 2016 at 4:28pm PDT

“What if you could go back in time and take all those hours of pain and darkness and replace them with something better – with things that remind you of how beautiful the world can be?”
A photo posted by Paris-Michael K. Jackson (@parisjackson) on Jun 13, 2016 at 3:12pm PDT

Her brother, Prince, also has some ink of his own:

I did #princemichaeljackson tattoo #MichaelJacksonjr #MichaelJackson he is an amazing man. Much love .
A photo posted by Justin’s Dermagraphink Tattoo (@dermagraphink) on Apr 6, 2016 at 12:41pm PDT

If you — or someone you know — need help, please call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you are outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of international resources.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

Vice President Biden: Fix Your RAVE Act Law and Save Lives

Posted in: Today's Chili

Festival season is underway and sadly, we’ve already seen headlines about drug-related deaths.

This summer, there’s a unique opportunity to do something to help prevent these deaths: join DPA’s #SaferPartying campaign and partner organization DanceSafe in asking Vice President Biden to support Amending the RAVE Act.

The RAVE Act – or Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, its actual name – is legislation that holds event producers criminally and civilly responsible for drug use among their event attendees. Despite almost never being enforced, this law lurks in the background, scaring event producers (and their lawyers and insurers) from allowing anything that acknowledges or even hints at drug use at their events – even information and services designed to keep attendees safe.

What this means in practice is that when it comes to addressing drug use most event producers have relied heavily on enforcement tactics (i.e. keep drugs out) and medical response (i.e. be prepared for the worst case scenario when they get in anyway) rather than taking a harm reduction approach. A harm reduction approach requires that we pragmatically accept that some people will choose to use drugs no matter what, and that it’s far better to provide accurate, non-judgmental drug information about what they’re taking and build services for them at festivals that will help them avoid a visit to the medical tent – or morgue.

More and more people – including festival producers – are starting to see the sense of a harm reduction approach.

But unfortunately the RAVE Act still stands in the way, preventing many event producers from trying this approach, or going as far as they should.

Vice President Biden knows all about this law – he wrote it. And he has said that his intention was not to stop law-abiding event producers from holding safe events.

The summer of 2016 is the last summer he’ll be in office. That’s why it’s crucial that he hear from us now – he has one last opportunity to provide clarification on how this law should be enforced, and make it known that event producers who want to do everything they can to keep their attendees safe should not be punished.

DPA and DanceSafe are proud to be raising awareness together around this issue, and in support of Dede Goldsmith’s Amend the RAVE Act campaign. We invite you – whether as an individual or as part of an organization – to join us as we share seven different reasons for the next seven weeks about why Vice President Biden should Amend the RAVE Act.

Are you with us? Send a message directly to Vice President Biden and please share with your networks – the more he hears about this, the more likely it is he will be motivated to respond to our request.

Together, let’s make a huge leap forward this summer in making festivals safer for everyone.

Stefanie Jones is the director of audience development for the Drug Policy Alliance.

This piece first appeared on the Drug Policy Alliance Blog: http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/vice-president-biden-fix-your-rave-act-law-and-save-lives

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

Heartwarming Ad Shows Why Dads Are Superheroes To Their Kids

Posted in: Today's Chili

For little kids, parents are like real-life superheroes.

In honor of Father’s Day, BabyLeague asked kids to name which superheroes their dads embody and why. They compiled the adorable responses into a video called, “What My Dad Means To Me!”

The kids’ answers include, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Robin, Spiderman and more. And as for the descriptions, they say that their dads are “funny,” “creative” and “good at impersonations.”

As one adorable little boy explains, “My daddy is Superman because he takes care of my baby sister and my mommy, and he makes sure all the bad guys run away.”

The kids also note that their dads have superpowers like cooking, fixing cars and turning on the nightlight at bedtime.

So cute!

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

After Shooting, Orlando Chefs Provide Thousands Of Free Meals

Posted in: Today's Chili

Following Sunday’s mass shooting, the Orlando food community has come together to support the city.

Chefs, caterers and restaurants have been utilizing the private Facebook group Culinary Cares: In Support of Pulse Orlando to coordinate food donations, as well as to alert one another of places in the city which would benefit from their help in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Through the group — which was created by Kendra Lott, publisher of Edible Orlando magazine and her friend Gary Appelsies — thousands of meals have already been provided to people in Orlando.

Appelsies told The Huffington Post that the group is just a way for those in the food community to show their support for those dealing with tragedy.

“Food is comfort. Food brings people together. … Food nourishes the soul,” Appelsies told HuffPost. “People need to be nourished. People need something that’s going to bring them together.”

In addition to providing food, people have also donated water, utensils, catering trucks and other supplies. Restaurants, restaurant groups, caterers, food writers and others have joined the giving efforts with much of the donations going to individuals in the medical community, blood donors, grief counselors and victims’ loved ones, among other recipients.

Lott explained to HuffPost that an overwhelming number of people in the food community were interested in helping, and the group seemed like a perfect way to rally everyone within the culinary scene around a common cause.

“Because the culinary community works together so often, it was very natural for us to combine our efforts and share resources,” she said.

Alexia Gawlak of Swine & Sons, whose food donations went to victims’ families, told HuffPost that when she dropped off food, she was able to interact with residents.

“The most memorable thing is the conversations with the other volunteers,” Gawlak said. “Everyone you encounter, you’re hugging. Everyone’s saying thank you to everyone. … It was a great vibe from everyone volunteering. It was extremely cathartic as an Orlandoan.”

While many of the group members are still processing the tragedy that’s occurred, Lott says they’re committed to doing their part to be of assistance at this time.

“It’s still so soon that it’s almost inconceivable that this has happened,” Lott said. “But the one thing that we need to do every day is nourish ourselves and if there’s anything that this community can do to help people close to this tragedy to do that, then we will continue to do so.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

12 Ways to a Buzzworthy Instagram Account for Your Business

Posted in: Today's Chili

Instagram can be a powerful medium for your business. If you’re struggling to gain traction, here are some ways find the secret formula that works for your audience.

A. Track Your Photo Results

Successful social media campaigns follow a formula for posts and engagement. The results are tracked and the most popular posts are repeated in future campaigns. In addition to engaging with other accounts, you’ll want to work to discover which photos and hashtags you can use that gain the most attention. Track results for nature photos, behind-the-scenes shots, memes, etc. – Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

A. Test the “Bad” Instagram Stuff

To learn how to make the most of your marketing time and budget, try everything on Instagram to see if the platform works for your business. Spend $5 on Fiverr and artificially boost your followers. Do a free trial on Instagress to automatically follow accounts and like photos relevant to your niche. Try stuff, fail, and see what succeeds while investing minimal time and money on the platform. – Brett Farmiloe, Markitors

A. Automate and Have Fun

Rely on automation for targeted growth. Find an automation software that will “like” pictures from followers of profiles related to yours. One out of 10 of those “likes” will reciprocate. Explore their profile, say something, be social, and have fun. See what you can learn about followers willing to reciprocate your digital greeting. If possible, refine your targeting to reach more similar people. – Andrew Namminga, Andesign

A. Write Long-Form Content in Your Captions

Over the next 12 months, you’ll start to see more long-form writing on Instagram. Take a look at this Wired post as an example. This was posted exclusively to Instagram. As Instagram moves to an algorithm-driven feed, the engagement of your posts will matter more, and great story-telling will still get the most engagement. – Fan Bi, Blank Label

A. Connect With Influencers

Instagram has hundreds of millions of users. The fastest and easiest way to grow your following and connect with all of them is to associate your brand with the top influencers on Instagram. This is actively taking place with some of the top celebrities and brands in the world today. In this new world of mobile and selfies, it’s all about brand association. – Zac Johnson, How to Start a Blog

A. Include Relevant Hashtags

On Instagram, your biggest ally is the all-mighty hashtag (#). You can instantaneously improve the reach of your content just by including hashtags that are relevant to your content or niche market. Just don’t become one of those accounts that over do it. Stick to between 3-7 hashtags per post. – Stanley Meytin, True Film Production

A. Focus on a Theme

Post consistently so others don’t forget about you. The most successful Instagram accounts post at least once a day. Your account should also tell a story or remain consistent with a theme, and all your photos should relate to each other somehow. This should reflect what your brand is all about, showcase unique original content, and ultimately attract your target audience. – Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS

A. Understand Who Your Audience Is

We realized that our main audience on Instagram was our employees and potential future employees. With this knowledge, we began to feature the staff more, tag them in photos, and capture photos around the office. Friends of our current staff saw that we not only work hard but clearly have fun. Aspirational photos have allowed us to visually demonstrate what it’s like to work at our company. – David Ciccarelli, Voices.com

A. Plan Your Campaign

Are you looking to boost followers, convert leads/customers, or simply improve your reach? The goals you set will determine your entire approach. Properly planning your campaign, from your visuals to benchmarking your engagement/followers before you launch, will set you up for success in meeting said goals. Once you launch, use Facebook Ads and a tool like Iconosquare to measure. Then adjust accordingly. – Wesley Mathews, High Level Marketing

A. Set Up Conversion Tracking

Too often marketers use anecdotal evidence to confirm whether or not a particular marketing campaign worked or not. That may have been OK in the traditional world of newspapers and billboard ads, but with digital marketing — Facebook and Instagram in particular — conversion tracking is a prerequisite to making the most out of your limited time and budget. – Obinna Ekezie, Wakanow.com

A. Advertise Outside the Box

Don’t focus on advertising on similar pages to yours. Focus on finding what your audience likes and other pages they explore. Then, craft a personalized message for that specifically. Understand your audience more than you worry about your competition, and you will outpace everyone in marketing. – Pejman Ghadimi, Secret Entourage

A. Create Infographics and Mini-Presentation Videos

Instagram is just another vehicle for content-based marketing. Unless you’re a design business, this means you should use infographics to capture the information that a blog post, tweet or Facebook post otherwise would. Alternatively, you could post short videos that function as your company’s “elevator pitch.” – David Mainiero, InGenius Prep

These answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

Tampa Bay Rays Go All Out To Help Orlando Victims

Posted in: Today's Chili

Friday, #WeAreOrlando. https://t.co/dsKfZq8uHK pic.twitter.com/w5Nrzr32ti
— #VoteRays (@RaysBaseball) June 14, 2016

This Friday night, the Tampa Bay Rays’ annual Pride Night will go beyond the usual symbolic support of the local LGBT community.

Undoubtedly, the baseball game against the San Francisco Giants will be of secondary importance to many fans in attendance after Sunday’s devastating attack against the queer community in Orlando, Florida. A game will indeed happen and fans will cheer, but the night’s true stars will be the people donating blood and money around Tropicana Field to help the victims.

There will be time for pre-game dedications, remembrances and a moment of silence on Friday night, but fans will take it upon themselves to commit to real action. On Tuesday, the Rays announced a series of in-game initiatives for fans to tangibly show their support and help victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

The team is charging $5 for the remaining open seats to the game, and 100 percent of proceeds from those ticket sales will go to the Pulse Victims Fund. Additionally, the Pulse Victims Fund will receive proceeds from the Rays’ daily 50/50 raffle, as well as money from donation centers around the ballpark. To incentivize support for critical medical care needed for victims, fans donating blood at Tropicana Field via OneBlood will also get free tickets to a future Rays game.

A Rays spokesman wouldn’t disclose the amount of $5 tickets sold over the past day, but told The Huffington Post on Wednesday that the response has been “overwhelming.” To accommodate ticket demands, they’ve decided to open up the highest tier of seats, which are normally tarped off and not for sale — a move the team says they haven’t done since they last made the playoffs in 2013. That should free up about 10,000 more tickets for sale.

Equality Florida, a partner in the Rays’ annual Pride Night and organizers of the official GoFundMe campaign, announced on Tuesday that the Pulse Victims Fund had broken the previous GoFundMe donation record of $2 million. At the time of publication, over $4 million has been donated to the online fundraiser.

When reached for comment on Wednesday, Michael Farmer, Statewide Deputy Director of Development for Equality Florida, said he was previously unaware of the Rays’ “We Are Orlando” dedication and donations, but said they’ve been a partner organization with the Rays’ and their annual Pride Night.

“It’s amazing to hear,” a surprised Farmer said. “When you think about how many people were affected, we want to make sure to getting their lives back to whole.”

“It’s outstanding to see people thinking of any way they can help. The generosity of the Rays is in line with what many others are doing,” he added.

As Farmer noted, the Rays aren’t the only organization using their resources to assist victims. Disney announced on Tuesday that it’s donating $1 million to a support fund and providing free lodging for relatives and friends of victims. Even Chick-fil-A, a company that’s donated to anti-gay groups in the past and is famously closed on Sundays, saw local Orlando chain operators open their restaurants on Sunday to provide free food for those in line waiting to donate blood.

To the Orlando shooting victims, every person’s individual contribution can make a real difference. Hopefully come Friday, we’ll see an empathetic and enthusiastic sell-out crowd of over 41,000 people ready to donate as much as they can at Tropicana Field.

CrowdRise has listed a number of ways to help. Donate here or through the widget below.

Fundraising Websites – Crowdrise

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Jun 15

The President, a Muir & the Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite This Weekend?!

Posted in: Today's Chili

Wow!! The very thought fills me with ecstasy. They say time is circular, not linear, and the time has come around again for a President of the United States to be in Yosemite National Park at the same time as a descendant of John Muir who’s bringing forward the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers!

What are the odds that, 113 years after the fateful meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and conservationist John Muir under the watchful eyes of the real life Buffalo Soldiers, the stage could be set again for such a meeting in the paradise known as Yosemite? That meeting in 1903 spawned the greatest conservation effort on Earth, up to and including the establishment of the National Park Service, a special branch of government mandated to take care of the parks, historic monuments and battlefields we conserve.

Eerily, in 2016 when the agency celebrates its Centennial Anniversary, the conservation movement is on the verge of bridging a racial divide which has existed since its formation: The first United States President of African descent has protected more of our pristine lands and waters than any other (over 265 million acres) and is dedicated to “make sure the American people are able to enjoy the incredible national parks, the incredible beauty, the mountains, the oceans that have been one of the greatest gifts that we’ve ever received; to make sure that the whole world is able to pass on to future generations the God-given beauty of this planet.”

John Muir’s great-great-grandson Robert Hanna who is keenly hoping to reprise that historic moment in the park this Fathers’ Day weekend, is also striving to get the Buffalo Soldiers’ route into the park renamed “Buffalo Soldiers Memorial Highway.”

Robert Hanna, (l) with California Assemblyman Frank Bigelow introducing the Resolution to create the Buffalo Soldiers Highway.

“Can you imagine how our meeting could relight the fire of imagination, solutions, and togetherness that was lit by my great-great-grandfather and President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite over 100 years ago?” Hanna wrote to the President. He deferred to the First Family’s right to enjoy their vacation without interference.

Dedicated to carry on the conservation legacy of his great-great-grandfather, Hanna has focused for years on bridging the most persistent gap – the alienation of non-white Americans from our parks.

“We have to build a conservation movement that will last, especially to address our changing demographics and our changing climate,” says Hanna.

The Buffalo Soldiers patrolling Yosemite National Park near the turn of the 20th Century. NPS photo.

I am busily inserting myself into the President and First Family’s tour of national parks this weekend. I have not yet visited their other destination, Carlsbad Caverns so I am sublimating in the feelings of freedom and release I experience at their other stop – the heavenly realms of Yosemite National Park.

In a week when our national consciousness has been battered by the assault on our fellow citizens in the LGBT community; when a child met an ugly fate in a resort associated with the fulfillment of childhood dreams, and when the Commander in Chief of our great country has literally been accused of being a terrorist sympathizer by the presidential nominee of a major political party, my soul flies up to Yosemite.

My spirit recalls the joy of driving up the mountain with those expansive views spread out below me, and the appearance of enchanted Yosemite Valley taking my breath away as I emerge from the tunnel. El Capitan on one side rising into the sky and Half Dome on the other form a “gateway” that draws me into a magical world. It’s not an exaggeration to say I feel as if I’m entering a Garden of Eden.

If Robert Hanna and President Obama were to meet in Yosemite this weekend, I know our friend would be happy to deliver our Next100 Coalition’s request to President Obama, asking him to issue a Presidential Proclamation and a concerted conservation vision on the Centennial Anniversary of the Park Service. We are also asking him to appoint an Ombudsman who will have authority over all the federal land management agencies and help guide them to be more inclusive and representative of the diversity of the American people. (Given his soulful nature, I’m hoping our President will decide this is an enjoyable and meaningful way to ease back into civilian life.)

The gracious old Ahwahnee Hotel is one of the most romantic destinations for Frank and me. Now I cannot even trouble myself to learn the ‘new’ name. Ken Karst photo.

Our President will no doubt notice some changes in the park, including the removal of some of the most familiar and historic names. The Ahwahnee Hotel, my most beloved “grand dame” of all national park hotels, and multiple other sites in the park recently had their historic names removed as the result of a dispute between the park service and the former concessionaire, Delaware North Corporation Parks and Resorts. (In full disclosure, I served on an advisory board for DNC for several years near the turn of this century, and remain friends with the leadership.)

This unacceptable outcome makes me even more concerned about the future of our priceless National Park System now that a director’s order purposes to relax the rules that have limited the corporate presence in our parks for more than 100 years. But we’ve already suffered too much this week so I will leave that conversation for another time.

I hope President Obama gets to reconnect with our beloved ‘Buffalo Soldier’ Ranger Shelton on the trail in Yosemite after their meeting here in the White House a few years ago.

This Father’s Day weekend, I’m hanging with the First Family in Yosemite National Park. I hope a President and a Muir get together again and the Buffalo Soldiers come out of the shadows of history. I’m questing for all Americans to visit our national parks and forests or some undisturbed part of Nature, and in the whisper of the wind hear the subtle call that we are all children of one God. Whatever we conceive him or her to be one thing is indisputable: God is Love. Any action that lacks love for one’s fellowman and all life cannot lay claim to God. It’s just that simple to me.

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Hasta La Gadget!

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