Hasta La Gadget!

Built for users who need a laptop that can handle everyday tasks, the new Lenovo Ideapad 300 Series sports a 17.3-inch 1600 x 900 HD+ LED-backlit display, a 2.30GHz Intel Core i5-6200U dual-core processor, an Intel HD Graphics 520, an 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM and a 1TB 5400rpm hard drive.

Not only that, the system also has a built-in webcam, a SuperMulti DVD Drive, a 4-in-1 media card reader, 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x HDMI output port, a 4-cell lithium battery and built-in speakers (w/ Dolby Audio technology).

Running on Windows 10 Home OS, the Ideapad 300 Series provides WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity. The Lenovo Ideapad 300 Series is currently available for pre-order for just $609. [Product Page]

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HBO has a rape problem.

The network has been criticized numerous times, for shows that rely heavily on rape and sexual violence against women like “The News Room,” “The Night Of,” and, of course, “Game Of Thrones.” It’s “Game of Thrones,” the gritty fantasy-drama based on George R.R. Martin’s series of novels that has probably drawn the most ire for its gratuitous sexual violence against women ― including main characters like Sansa Stark and Cersei Lannister. 

On Saturday, during a Television Critics Association summer Q&A, several reporters asked Casey Bloys (HBO’s new President of Programming) to give an explanation for the cable network’s strange and disturbing trend of rape and sexual assault against women on its shows, including the upcoming sci-fi Western “Westworld.” 

Bloys’s answers were beyond cringeworthy. According to Buzzfeed, he mumbled something about the violence on HBO being “indiscriminate” and “not specific to women,” and that “men are castrated” and that “we’re going to kill everybody.”

He did finally concede, after being grilled for several minutes, that “the criticism is valid.” 

One would hope, especially in light of past criticisms of HBO’s over-reliance on rape as a plot point, that its head of programming would have a more thoughtful and nuanced response to some very necessary ― and frequently asked ― questions. But as the television landscape suggests, with shows including “Downton Abbey,” “Top of the Lake,” “The Americans,” “House of Cards,” and even “Scandal” using rape as a plot device, the rape plot has become so pervasive that it’s almost a given in a prestige drama. 

Perhaps more frustrating than this pervasiveness and Bloys’s inability to speak to that, is the fact that his only explanation was to compare violence against men on HBO shows to sexual violence against women. Let’s not. The two are very different things. Why? Because the violence against women is usually gendered and sexualized, with the women, as Guardian writer Noah Berlatsky puts it, “always vulnerable and unheroic.” (We can debate the danger of desensitizing audiences to violence on the big and small screens, but that’s a separate conversation.) 

An over-reliance on rape plots is simply a symptom of lazy storytelling. So often, when a TV show wants to give a female character a tragic backstory, or put her on the path to redemption, or punish her, it uses rape to achieve that end.

We’ve seen it on “Orange is the New Black” with Pennsatucky, “Scandal” with Mellie, and of course on “Game of Thrones” with Cersei. Rape scenes are used for shock value, and they’re often filmed, disgustingly, in a way that sexualizes the victim. Scenes in which women are raped or murdered (or both) are almost never filmed from the woman’s point of view. 

Of course, rape can be depicted effectively ― season one of Netflix’s “Jessica Jones” for example, has a compelling and nuanced approach to rape.” The writers of the show managed to devote an entire season to exploring the impact and trauma of villain Kilgrave’s physical and mental violation of Jones without ever actually showing her rape. If a Marvel show can figure out how to tackle rape, others shows should be able to follow suit.  

Surely, there are things other than rape that can be used to build and broaden female characters. Surely, we can get past a point where writers willfully perpetuate rape culture by actually debating whether scenes involving blatant rape (as in the case of Cersei and Jamie) are actually scenes of consensual sex.

What happened at Saturday’s TCA Q&A was incredibly important. The persistence of the reporters and the vague responses from Casey Bloys, are the epitome of HBO’s (and so many other TV networks’) rape problem.

We need to keep asking questions of those in positions of power at these studios, and, hopefully, the people behind these shows will not just try to hedge with half-baked answers, but actually start making some changes. 

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Staying in college and persisting to degree completion is challenging for many students. However, it’s particularly difficult for students who also are parents. These students are an important and growing segment of today’s college population at just under 5 million, representing more than 26 percent of all undergraduates according to research by Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). The overwhelming majority are women (71 percent) and 43 percent are single mothers. They are more likely than students without children, to have low incomes, with 88 percent having incomes at or below 200 percent of poverty.

It’s not surprising given these demographic characteristics, that financial issues, family burdens, and lack of affordable child care are the main reasons these parents leave or stop out of college. The complexity of juggling classes and coursework, competing family obligations and what often are unpredictable work schedules, can quickly overwhelm these students if they don’t have appropriate support systems. In its research, the IWPR found that public benefits such as cash and nutrition assistance that would help make college more affordable for these parents are often underutilized, and recommends that improving access to these programs could help these students meet their financial needs while progressing towards their degree. It also recommends that colleges and universities develop more student and campus support programs that acknowledge the multiple demands in students’ lives, and help move toward more family friendly campus support and financial aid policies.

One notable example of such a program is Texas Woman’s University’s Student Pioneers Also Raising Kids (SPARK). The program began in 2005 in response to the need to find affordable housing options for single parents, although soon expanded to include all student parents. Importantly, it is a student organization, run by students and driven by their needs, priorities and interests. One of their most popular initiatives is their Holiday Gift program which helps families afford holiday gifts. Over 1,000 students have been served. “This initiative really helped to anchor the program in our University as it receives widespread campus and community support,” said Ms. Amy O’Keefe, Executive Director of Campus Alliance for Resource Education and former program director. “Each child has an identified need, as well as a want – which is a great financial literacy lesson as well.”

While the program does do not have a formal financial education program at this time, it is something it plans to include in the future as part of the overall financial wellness strategy the University is developing. The University does offer an emergency fund for parents with children which is coordinated with the counseling, housing and financial aid offices, and is considering adding a financial education requirement to be eligible to receive these funds. The program has offered workshops that help students manage their finances such as Raising Cash Conscious Kids. According to Ms. O’Keefe, student parents who might not be interested in or don’t think they have time to attend a workshop on money management are very interested in finding ways to teach their children about money. In turn, they come away with important money lessons for themselves.

Another successful initiative is their Annual Child Care and Employment Fair. Finding affordable child care is one of the biggest issues for these parents, particularly those who have or will be locating to the area. More recently, the program has partnered with its counseling center, as many of these mostly women are older and more likely to have experienced trauma or other life events for which counseling may provide some assistance. Workshops are offered on dealing with trauma, dating, disciplining children, grief and loss, as well has how to cope with multiple roles and responsibilities. They also teamed up the academic support center to help these students create a “roadmap of success” which provides students with an opportunity to make sure they are majoring in the right area, have a good idea of what they want to get out of their college experience, and where they see themselves in the future.

The most successful events are the ones that involve the children along with their parents. Recent examples include a book club, which provides parents and children with certificates based on the numbers of books they read, and a St. Patrick’s Day event, which included story time, crafts (assisted by older children), and a picnic. These programs help increase engagement on campus and provide tangible connections between the family and school. Utilizing community resources as also been key. State and community partners come to campus to provide workshops or events on state assistance programs and even how to install child safety seating correctly.

Ms. O’Keefe offered some recommendations for success for other colleges and universities interested in starting a similar program:

• Develop a succession plan, especially if one or more of your strong leaders are set to graduate. Try to diversify the group with young as well as older parents or parents with older children. It brings a better synergy and younger students really appreciate the insights of students who have been parenting for a while. Also, include a mix of commuter as well as residential students
• Make a plan on how to identify who your parents are. With federal privacy restrictions, there is not an easy way to identify which of students may be parents, so you have to be creative. Be visible and use students at new student or commuter orientation; advertize your events, capitalize on social media channels such as Facebook, and establish relations with key administrative offices or academic programs that these students are more likely to enroll in such as family sciences and education.
• Use campus contacts to help you recruit students, such as “meet-and-greets” in residence halls, and present to faculty and academic advisors who may know of students with children.
• Work closely with admissions staff who may know of students who have inquired about quality child care or who may be relocating to the area.

This is just one example of the kind of programs that some colleges and universities are using to help student parents transition to college education. Ensuring that student parents stay in school and complete their degree requires a commitment and an array of interconnecting resources including help with the financial aid process, affordable child care and housing, links to community and health resources, outreach and mentoring, and academic support services. Let’s hope other institutions of higher education follow suit so that more student parents can reap the rewards of a college education for themselves and their families.

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WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has a Donald Trump problem. Or maybe he’s fine with all this, because he wants Trump to be president.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has a habit of saying outlandish and offensive things, making personal attacks against anyone who crosses him and promoting policies anathema to mainstream Republicans like Ryan.

And every time Trump does one of those things, Ryan must confront whether to go along with him or renounce him. He often opts for the latter, and usually has to do so repeatedly.

But there’s one thing Ryan ― who presents himself as the high-minded steward of conservative policy and a reluctant leader who wants what’s best for the House and America ― won’t renounce, and that’s Trump himself. Because Ryan wants Trump to be the next president.

Ryan has plenty of company here, including other party bigwigs like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and virtually every GOP governor and member of Congress. But the Speaker of the House is a constitutional position that puts Ryan third in the line of presidential succession, and he’s the highest-ranking elected Republican official in America, so his actions merit more scrutiny.

Here are nine times Ryan said Trump was wrong:

July 31: The Khan Family

In 2004, Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan died at age 27 protecting his fellow troops and nearby civilians from a bomber in Iraq, actions for which he was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star. Last week, his father, Khizr Khan, addressed the Democratic National Convention alongside the late captain’s mother, Ghazala, and delivered an emotional rebuke to Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies.

Trump predictably responded by attacking the Khans, and hasn’t let up. Ryan’s office issued a statement condemning insults against Muslims and Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration, but he didn’t mention Trump by name and didn’t back away from Ryan’s endorsement of the businessman to be president. 

July 15: Anti-Semitism

When Trump posted an image of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton featuring a Star of David (an image later discovered to have been created by white supremacists) to Twitter, Ryan called it “anti-Semitic.” He also blamed Trump campaign staffers for the tweet, without actually knowing who published it. “He’s got to clean this up,” Ryan said of the campaign, but not of Trump himself, whom Ryan wants to be president.

July 5: Saddam Hussein

When Trump praised the late Iraqi dictator ― “You know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good.” ― Ryan responded by saying, “He was one of the 20th century’s most-evil people.” He did not say Trump shouldn’t be president because Trump believes Hussein had admirable qualities.

June 17: Judge Curiel

When Trump said federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel is unfit to preside over the ongoing Trump University lawsuit because of his Mexican heritage, Ryan didn’t mince any words. 

“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said. “I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.” But Ryan did not say that Trump would be unacceptable as president because he made those racist claims.

July 16: No ‘Blank Check’ For Trump

Weeks after endorsing Trump to be president of the United States, Ryan suggested there’s a limit to what he’ll tolerate from the candidate.

In a sit-down interview in his ceremonial Capitol Hill office on Thursday, Ryan told The Huffington Post that Trump does not have “a blank check” with his endorsement. “I don’t know what that line is,” Ryan said, “but right now, I want to make sure that we win the White House.”

Ryan may or may not know at this point what that line is, but it evidently lies beyond personal attacks against the parents of a dead solider, because Ryan still recommends Americans elect Trump president.

June 14: Orlando

Trump’s first reaction to the massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida was to congratulate himself for predicting terrorism would happen. He then went on to re-emphasize his proposed Muslim ban, and to insinuate that President Barack Obama is involved with international terrorists.

“I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s interest. I do not think it is reflective of our principles, not just as a party but as a country,” Ryan said. Presumably, Ryan believes a President Trump is in his party’s and our country’s interest, because he didn’t say otherwise or rescind his endorsement.

March 17: Riots

“I think you’d have riots.” That’s what Trump predicted would happen if he narrowly lost the GOP nomination on the floor of the Republican National Convention. It was a plausible idea, considering Trump encouraged violent behavior by supporters on other occasions. 

“Nobody should say such things in my opinion because to even address or hint at violence is unacceptable,” Ryan said in response. Even so, Ryan endorsed Trump less than two months later because he wants Trump to become the president. 

March 1: The Ku Klux Klan

Trump’s pussyfooting around with white supremacists has been a recurring theme of his campaign, and perhaps the best example is his reluctance to fully reject the endorsement for his candidacy offered by former KKK leader David Duke.

This wasn’t good enough for Ryan. “If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games,” he said. “They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.” What is good enough for Ryan is Trump as president of the United States.

December 8: The Muslim Ban

One of the hallmarks of Trump’s campaign is his pledge to enforce a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

Ryan disagrees. “Freedom of religion’s a fundamental constitutional principle,” he said. “It’s a founding principle of this country.” Having Trump as president, even though he demonstrably does not believe in that fundamental constitutional principle, remains Ryan’s strong preference.

Every Day

Ryan correctly identifies these as the worst things Trump says and does, and his denouncements are clear and unambiguous. And yet Ryan endorsed Trump to be president. 

“House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead Donald Trump can help us make it a reality,” Ryan wrote in his hometown newspaper when he endorsed the candidate on June 2.

Ryan hesitated at first to back Trump’s White House bid, and said he needed to see a change in tone and substance before he would extend his support. Trump didn’t do any of the things Ryan indicated he needed Trump to do to win his support. Ryan endorsed him anyway, because he thinks Trump should become the president. 

How could it be that Ryan rejects those things for which Trump is now best known, but still advises voters to support him at the polls?Ryan is clearly communicating his preferences through his actions. 

Trump isn’t a Democrat, for starters. And more specifically, Trump isn’t Hillary Clinton, the bête noire of the Republican Party for decades.

Then there’s Ryan’s gamble that Trump will go along with what Ryan really cares about: carrying out the House GOP agenda of cutting taxes and shrinking the social safety net and other federal programs.

“Yes, I’m the head of the legislative branch as Speaker of the House. I’m also a high-ranking Republican official. If I lead a schism in our party, then I am guaranteeing that a liberal progressive becomes president,” Ryan said at a news conference June 23. “The last thing I want to do is help Hillary Clinton become president of the United States.”

Much has been made of the political bind Ryan is in because of Trump’s nomination. But, in the end, it’s quite simple. Whatever their disagreements, there remains one opinion in which Ryan and Trump are in complete accord: That Donald Trump is the best candidate for president of the United States. HuffPost will update this article if that fact changes.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.

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WASHINGTON ― Key federal programs to create a vaccine against the Zika virus will run out of money this month if Congress doesn’t authorize new spending, the Obama administration said Monday.

Congress is on vacation until after Labor Day, and leaders of the House and Senate both said Friday that there was no reason for Congress to rush back, citing reports that $384 million remains available to fight the mosquito-borne virus.

The offices of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) both pointed to those reports after news that four people had contracted Zika from mosquitoes in Florida. Those were the first cases of local transmission of the virus in the continental United States, and health officials Monday said there were at least 10 more cases.

President Barack Obama asked for $1.9 billion to fight Zika in February. Congress did not deliver, and failed to pass a $1.1 billion measure before going on recess last month after Republicans added riders about contraception, the Confederate flag, Obamacare and the Clean Water Act.

The reason the administration has any money to target Zika is because it transferred $589 million from the effort to keep Ebola contained in the spring. Republicans took solace from recent news that only $204 million of that had been earmarked for urgent projects so far.

But according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the impression that there is plenty of cash on hand is misleading.

In particular, two of the most important efforts by the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, aimed at developing Zika vaccines actually will run out of cash soon.

“NIH is on track to exhaust their redirected resources in August and without additional funding will no longer have any resources available to spend on critical vaccine development efforts,” an OMB spokesperson said in a statement. “That is why we wanted Congress to act before it left for vacation until September, so there would be no lost momentum in this critical work.”

The statement noted that BARDA, which is key to the effort to develop faster and better diagnostic tools, and to developing new vaccines, runs out of money this month.

“These are the tools we need to fight the Zika challenge, and we’ll be stymied when the funding runs out,” the OMB statement said.

Some cash will remain available for other efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those agencies are expected to announce a slew of grants this month “to expand epidemiology and laboratory capacity and new resources to help states with birth registries for babies born with mothers that has Zika,” according to the statement.

With Zika now spreading in the U.S. mainland, expenses are likely to escalate. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) appealed to the CDC Monday to activate its rapid response team to help stem the virus. The CDC also warned that men and women who have visited the South Florida area should refrain from attempting to conceive children for at least eight weeks.

With the emerging news, the administration again called for lawmakers to make more money available.

“We are working hard on this response, and need Congress to act so we are able to do everything we can,” the OMB spokesperson said.

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