Posted: Jan. 14, 2020 2:31 pm

HANNIBAL | A Hannibal husband and wife team has helped preserve the legacy of Laura Hawkins Frazer Samuel Clemens' childhood sweetheart and the inspiration for his literary character, Becky Thatcher through more than a decade of research and restoration work at the two-story home at 210 North Fifth Street which was her final residence.

By the time Nora Creason and Don Metcalf began restoration efforts in 2008, the home's entire interior had been gutted; water, termites and other neglect also took their toll. But the husband and wife team spent more than a decade researching the architecture and stories surrounding the home built in 1895, bringing together Victorian artwork, fixtures, historic reproductions like hand-pressed wallpaper and restoring details to bring the home as close as possible to its state when Frazier lived there. Throughout the process, the couple discovered rare insights into Frazer's life and a friendship with Clemens that endured for decades.

Creason remembered the beginning of the restoration when 20 fellow members from Friends of Historic Hannibal came out for a barn raising to remove the asbestos tile that covered the exterior walls. ShecommendedBobYapp for getting everyone together for the project, and Metcalf said members of the Marion County Historical Society and local contractors helped to expose the original exterior during the barn-raising.

Creason and Metcalf searched for photographs of the home, but few existed to guide their way. But they did have a video account of the interior's contents from 1999 by local auctioneer Dale DeLa-Porte, and Metcalf found several architectural clueslike paint lines and a thin strip of tin atop a square area originally thought to be a window. During her travels to antique shows across the country, Creason found a tin facade the right size with an opening for an oval stained glass window.

Creason and Metcalf recalled the condition of the home before the years of restoration work brought the first floor and exterior back to a period-correct appearance.

Everything was stripped off out of this house, Creason said.

There were big holes in the hallway, and the mantles were gone, Metcalf said. We had to do a lot.

Metcalffoundstampings in the gutter pipes and the last name Garner behind intricately-designed wallpaper Larry Garner installed Metcalf marveled at the pride in craftsmanship the names exhibited, and Creason said it reflected the generations of Hannibal residents who lived and worked in the historic home.

As the physical restoration of the home progressed, Creason and Metcalf discovered plenty of stories through photographs, letters and postcards shared by Frazer'sdescendant, Boxwell Hawkins. She reached out to Hawkins, who provided copies of historic artifacts that weren't seen anywhere else.He even gave me a copy of his years' work of genealogy and family archives, which was very, very helpful, Creason said. In the family archives, several family members have letters between Laura and (Samuel) in their own personal possessions. They were copied for posterity in the family archives, and he gave me a copy of all of that.

In 1902, Clemens accepted an invitation by Mrs. John Garth to speak at Garth Mansion. He later spoke at Rockcliffe (Cruikshank) Mansion,and Frazer was in attendance at both events.

Rhonda Hall remembered a story told to her by her grandmother, Daisy Myrtle Lankford Brown, about Clemens meeting Joe Douglas following the event at Rockcliffe Mansion. But Clemens' portrayal of Douglas as the villian Injun Joe had caused some local residents to believe the fictitious details painting him in a negative light. She said Douglas started the bustling African-American neighborhood known as Douglasville, by purchasing tracts of land near his home behind Rockcliffe Mansion with his earnings.

On his way from home from his engagement at Rockcliffe Mansion, he stopped and he spoke with Injun Joe. They chitchatted and they talked for a while and they visited with each other, Hall said. And (Douglas) asked (Clemens), 'why have you done this to me?' And he jokingly and half-heartedly asked the question why. And (Clemens) said, 'I'm so sorry, but you made for a good story.' Douglas told Clemens that some people in town thought he was like his character, pointing out look how much I've accomplished. Hall said after their discussion, Clemens stopped using Injun Joe's name in many of his writings.

After those speeches in Hannibal, Clemens ties to Hannibal and to Frazier remained strong, evidenced in one of the letters in Hawkins' genealogy.

He gave her a list of nameschildhood friends and some schoolmasters and asked her if she would cross out the names of those who were no longer living, Creason said. Because what he was planning, he wanted a reunion of all of his old friends, Laura and the people who were composite characters in his books. And unfortunately, he died in 1910, and that didn't happen.

Frazer served as Matron at the Home of the Friendless a local orphanage for 28 years, before the former Helm mansion was demolished. W.B. Pettibone commissioned the home in memory of his wife, Laura Jones Pettibone. But for reasons that are not entirely clear today, Frazer was not retained as matron after the orphanage was relocated to North Levering Avenue.

She died the day after Christmas in 1928, and she was buried with her husband, James Frazier. The inscription on her gravestone reads Becky Thatcher under Laura H.

As Metcalf and Creason move forward with restoration work upstairs, they are enthusiastic for the chance to open the home for events and share it as both a museum about Frazier's life and artwork from the Victorian era. The couple plans to have the home fully restored this year.

Read the original here:
Becky Thatcher home preserved - Hannibal.net

Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County staff and contractors are added the finishing touches to the Mackenzie Family Boys and Girls Club facility located in Sun Prairie ahead of tomorrows Grand Opening event.

The new facility, over 20,000 square feet, will offer residents access to licensed after-school programming that includes transportation, and a full-time day care facility. The building features a new gym, performance spaces, playrooms, classrooms, a technology zone, art room, several preschool classrooms, additional offices for staff and areas for students to learn about the trades.

We want this club to be known as a country club for kids, said Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

The organization began construction on the facility on the 2.69 acre site, formerly a church, about a year ago. The organization partnered with Operation Fresh Start for the demolition.

At 10:00 am Wednesday, the McKenzie Family Boys & Girls Club in Sun Prairie will open its doors to the public for the first time.

Well give a couple of keys to key donors that were very instrumental in pulling this off, Johnson said.

One of those key donors is the McKenzie family, who gave $1 million in support of the new facility and its operations. Boys and Girls Club named the facility after the for their generous contribution. Visitors to the new facility will see a painting of the family, known for their development of multi-family homes, above a plaque dedicated in their honor in the main hall in addition to other pieces of artwork created by local students throughout the building.

After remarks from stakeholders and local community leaders, residents will have an opportunity to tour the new facility and enter some of the play areas and preschool classroom.

This is ten years in the making that the city of Sun Prairie has been asking for us to build a facility, and now its coming to fruition, Johnson said.

He also said the organization has raised over $2 million dollars in about a year for this $3 million dollar project. The McKenzie Family Boys & Girls Club will have the capacity to serve up to 200 kids in Sun Prairie.

We still are looking for donors to sponsor rooms so the building will be completely debt free, Johnson said.

The process has been quite an exciting adventure for the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County. Johnson said the organization held town hall meetings and individual tours, as pastors, businesses and community leaders offered their support toward the project.

It will be the largest dedicated space for after school programming and preschool programming for kids in Sun Prairie, he said.

The McKenzie Family Boys & Girls Club in Sun Prairie will serve as a licensed preschool facility with certified teachers to work with kids. Children who participate in programming will also receive tutoring and other academic resources in addition to full course meals each day.

We want kids to come in here. We want it to be bright. We want it to be clean. We want them to take care of it. We want them to know that this community cares about them and loves them. Thats why weve invested so many resources into the facility, Johnson said.

The community will also have access to use the space on certain days and throughout the weekend. Johnson said the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County will continue to serve as a model for community involvement.

I think we do it better than anybody. We have the largest public/ private partnership in the school district in Madison and in Verona. We put over a thousand kids in college. We have over 40 tutors that we pay thats in the classroom helping low-income kids graduate and go to college. Were the only organization that has staff at Madison College, Edgewood College and UW-Madison helping kids persist and go through high school, he said.

Johnson said the organization plans to build a strong board at the Mackenzie family facility and increase access to these programs in Sun Prairie. Community members will be able to begin enrolling their children in programs that will start Feb. 1.

Original post:
McKenzie Family Boys and Girls Club Set to Open Wednesday - madison365.com

Health

Many parts of Oregon remain at risk of high radon an odorless, tasteless and invisible gas. It is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that comes up from the ground and is drawn into buildings, where it can build up to dangerous levels.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that radon is responsible for more than 20,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the United States. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. after cigarette smoking, and the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.

"Every homeowner should test their home for radon every two to five years," says Curtis Cude, Radon Awareness Program manager at the Oregon Health Authority. "The best time to test is during the heating season, when the windows and doors are closed up tight."

Many test kits are priced between $15 and $25 and can be found in most hardware stores. Radon problems can be fixed by qualified contractors for a cost similar to that of common home repairs, such as painting or having a new water heater installed.

The Radon Awareness Program collects radon test data from test kit manufacturers in an effort to understand which areas of the state have the potential for high radon levels and to identify areas where educational outreach efforts need to be focused. The program is offering a free radon test kit to residents whose homes are inZIP codeswith fewer than 20 radon test results. Residents can send an email toradon.program@dhsoha.state.or.usto receive instructions on how to get a free test kit, which will be provided while supplies last.

There will be an opportunity to attend a free educational event to learn about radon, areas of concern, health effects and community resources. For details about the eventvisit the Northwest Radon Coalition website.

For more information on which areas of the state are at moderate to high risk of having elevated radon levels, radon testing and mitigation, or to order a test kit online, contact the Radon Awareness Program at radon.program@dhsoha.state.or.usor visithttp://www.healthoregon.org/radon.

Community / Community Billboard

More here:
Winter is the best time to test homes for radon gas - KTVZ

Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 19912011: A significant exhibition at Museum of Modern Arts contemporary arts center By Clare Hurley 13 January 2020

Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 19912011: An exhibition at MoMA PS1, in Queens, New York, November 3, 2019March 1, 2020

A major exhibition at MoMA PS1, the Museum of Modern Arts contemporary art center in Queens, New York, examines more than 20 years of US military operations in the Middle East. Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 19912011 shows the potential of artists to deepen our understanding of significant events through their work.

Important aspects of the onslaught against Iraq are addressed: that the war was launched on the basis of lies about weapons of mass destruction resulting in the death, injury and displacement of millions of Iraqis, as well as tens of thousands of US troops and the decimation of the country as part of American imperialisms drive to establish control of the oil-rich region.

Organized by MoMA PS1s chief curator Peter Eleey, and curator Ruba Katrib, the large-scale group exhibition of 250 works by over 80 artists/collectives fills MoMA PS1, a nearly 125,000-square-foot facility.

The show features many works by Iraqi artists who are less well-known to audiences outside of the region, as well as by Kuwaiti artists, Iraqi-American and artists of Iraqi descent living in various countries, American and other internationally recognized artists who responded to the Gulf Wars in their work at the time or in the years since. Much of the work, particularly by the Iraqi artists, is of interest and represents an advance in terms of a serious artistic approach to world historical events.

However, the exhibition overall demonstrates the still limited ability of artists, despite their sincere intentions, to respond to events such as the Gulf Wars in a way that deepens our understanding in an affecting and aesthetically compelling manner. This weakness derives from several interrelated causes, not least of which has been the art worlds decades-long lack of support for artists seeking to address issues other than their personal identities in their work.

No less important is an underdeveloped historical and political consciousness, not unique to artists, that has hindered them from understanding the reasons behind the reasons for the eruption of American imperialism in the Middle East that began in 1990. Coupled with the prevailing practices of conceptual art, the result is too often superficial or one-sided artwork that is not up to the challenge of a topic of such magnitude.

There is a wide variety of media included: paintings, works on paper, handmade books, sculpture, photography, video and multimedia installations. They touch on many aspects of the Gulf Wars in both direct and indirect ways. The apocalyptic images of the burning Kuwaiti oil fields are among the more immediately recognizable. Set on fire in August 1991 by the retreating Iraqi military in the face of advancing US coalition forces, the 10 month-long firestorm caused enormous economic and environmental damage.

The firestorms appear in several pieces. The video Behind the Sun by Monira Al Qadiris (Kuwaiti, born 1983) projects them at a huge scale on a gallery wall; Susan Criles (American, born 1942) Field of Fire (1991) is a semi-abstract work of thickly applied black and orange paint-stick on paper; while Tarek Al-Ghousseins (Kuwaiti and Palestinian, born 1962) GW series includes multiple images of the flame geysers in the distinctive, small square format of Polaroids.

Saddam Husseins invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 came in response to the Gulf emirates sabotage of the oil-dependent Iraqi economy in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 with a likely green light from the US. But one learns relatively little of the significance of the oil fields set on fire by the retreating Baathist forces from the work. Whatever the immediate circumstances, the source of the destruction and mayhem in the Middle East is Western imperialism, led by the United States.

President George H.W. Bushs administrations launched Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. In the course of six weeks the savage aerial bombardment virtually destroyed Iraqs military, killing or wounding hundreds of thousands of soldiers, as well as laying waste to the countrys infrastructure. Al Qadiris video footage, on the other hand, is overlaid with a soundtrack of Arabic religious poetry that describes scenes from nature sourced from old television programs.

Other aspects of the conflict are dealt with obliquely. The Embargo sculptures by Nuha Al-Radi (Iraqi, 19412004) at first just seem whimsical, made from painted rocks, bits of wood and rusted metal canisters fashioned to resemble people. However, they reflect the impact of the decade of UN Security Councils sanctions under the Clinton administration that further crippled the Iraqi economy, restricting access to the most commonplace materials, even pencils. More importantly, the sanctions resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, many of them children, due to malnutrition, lack of medical supplies and diseases from lack of clean water.

So too, the many instances of Dafatir (artist notebooks) reflect the embargo in that without access to art supplies, many artists chronicled their experiences in pen/ink on paper or cardboard. Dia al-Azzawis (Iraqi-British, born 1939) War Diary No. 1. (1991) and Rafa Nasiris (Iraqi, 19402013) War Diary (No 2, Its a Dirty War, 1991) and Seven Days in Baghdad (2007) are haunting, the latter in particular with red and black handprints urgently demanding our attention.

Other work such as that by Himat M. Ali (Iraqi, born 1960) addresses the destruction of Baghdads famed book-market, Al Mutanabbi Street (2003). Al-Azzawi s Book of Shame: Destruction of the Iraq Museum (2003) reflects the despoiling of what was once the most advanced cultural centers in the Middle East.

Another compelling piece is a wall-sized array of small portraits by Hanaa Malallah (Iraqi and British, born 1958) She/He Has No Picture (2019). The haunting faces of mostly women and children initially appear to be painted, but on closer inspection turn out to be collaged out of burnt canvas. They commemorate the victims of the Al Amiriyah bombing on February 13, 1991, in which 408 civilians were killed by a US precision smart bomb strike on a shelter. The title refers to the brass plaques that stand in for those victims who remained unidentified.

These are among the more successful works in the exhibition. However, they hardly come close, or even attempt to encompass the full scope of the Gulf Wars. Objectively, making art about any war is a challengedoes the artist depict wars brutality by showing the intensity of human suffering or the magnitude of physical destruction? Does one focus on the callousness, criminality or stupidity of those responsible for launching the war or show the everyday life of those subjected to occupation? What of the troops tasked with carrying out these missions, some of whom do so with sadistic impunity while others are economic conscripts who may have little ideological commitment to the mission? And then there are aspects particular to these wars, which were sold to the public by an unprecedented level of propaganda disseminated through a relentless media blitz by the imperialist powers.

Unfortunately, most of the work in the Theater of Operations exhibition takes up one or the other of these topics, but without adding much scope or insight. The media campaign was the subject of several artworks. Thomas Hirschhorns (Swiss, born 1957) Necklace CNN (2002) is an oversized bling sculpture of the CNN logo hung on a wall, telling us nothing beyond the obvious.

Several of the videos merely perpetuate the mind-numbing effect that they purport to critique. Dara Birnbaums (US, born 1946) Transmission Tower: Sentinel (1992) and Michel Auders (US, born France 1945) Gulf War TV War, 1991 (edited 2017) crosscut news footage of politicians and news anchors explaining events in such a way as to make them even less comprehensible than the original barrage of propaganda.

Deep Dish TVs Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots Response to War and Occupation (2004) includes a lot of valuable video footage, particularly of day-to-day interactions between US troops and ordinary Iraqis under the occupation, and of the international mass demonstrations before the war which were the largest anti-war protests in history. But the videos are displayed on 12 continuously playing monitors, again making them nearly impossible to absorb.

And while informational overkill is the subject of Rachel Khedooris (Australian, Iraqi-Jewish, born 1964) Untitled (Iraq Book Project, 2008-2010), an installation of 70 volumes reproducing every article that included the words Iraq, Iraqi or Baghdad in any news source from 2003 to 2009in order to suggest the indigestible magnitude of information about the war, raising questions about the representation of violencewhat comes across is that the artists themselves cannot make sense of what they perceive, so they merely reproduce it uncut, unedited, raw.

The pieces by artists experiencing the war at a distancewhether American, European or Iraqis in exiletended to be less interesting. These artists fall into two groups. One includes artists like British-American printmaker Sue Coe (born 1951), whose work has always taken the form of cartoons protesting an assortment of progressive causes: cruelty to animals, industrial food production, apartheid, AIDS and numerous others. Included in this show, her prints lampoon Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George W Bush, as well as point to the connection of the war to the oil and gas industry in MOBILize/the Gulf and Shells Exxon (both 1990). Although Coes work is often compared to the prints of Kthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) who created searing images of the impact of World War I, particularly on women and children, Coes work is far less profound in both form and content.

Other well-established artists like the American minimalist sculptor Richard Serra (American, born 1938) and Fernando Botero (Colombian, born 1932) registered their outrage, shared by many around the world, at the exposure of the torture at Abu Ghraib. Luc Tuymans (Belgian, born 1958) painted a close-up of Condoleezza Rice emphasizing her mouth, and by implication, her lies to justify the invasion of Iraq on the assertion that Hussein had acquired nuclear weapons. As Secretary of State, Rice declared famously that we dont want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. These artists, not necessarily considered political, responded to particular events each in his own distinctive style.

The situation of these artists, who did not witness the Gulf Wars or events in the region first-hand, has by necessity meant that they drew on news images for their sources. Often these have become recognizable images in their own right, such as the hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib; many have appeared in ways to manipulate public perceptions.

However, seeing something with ones own eyes does not in and of itself lead to an unbiased or valuable interpretation. This is particularly evident in the work of painter Steve Mumford (American, born 1960). A master of realistic oil painting, as well as watercolor, Mumfords monumentally scaled Dying Soldier (2009), shows a team of medics working valiantly to save an oversized soldier on the operating table who looks dead. The unmistakable message is that the US military occupation is, most likely, a lost cause.

Mumford is one of the few American artists to have consistently made the Iraq War a central subject of his work. While claiming to be neutral, Mumford continues to solidarize himself with the occupiers more than the occupiedit is noticeable that he rarely depicts Iraqis other than as abject, humiliated prisoners. Mumford says, I wanted to distill something essential about the drama of war, beyond right and wrong. These arent anti-war paintings. They arent political. Im not trying to address the morality of the war or George Bushs foreign policy agenda. I went to Iraq because I wanted to know what being in a war zone was like, and paint about it from my own subjective experience.

We have previously reviewed Mumfords work, and have little to add. US soldiers have been fighting wars for decades in the Middle East and Central Asia in the interests of the oil companies, defense contractors and Wall Street financial institutions. The vast number of American troops who have been killed, wounded or left suffering with PTSD or other disabilities, with incalculable effects on their families and communities, are also victims of imperialisms insatiable greed and ruthlessness.

But Mumfords non-political approach only encourages those who claim that support for Americas heroes does not mean support for Americas wars. In fact, the two go hand in hand. The US military has been carrying out a criminal, murderous occupation of Iraq, or attempting to, since March 2003. It is responsible for massive war crimes, including the barbarism in Abu Ghraib and the decimation of Fallujah and other centers of opposition. American operations in Iraq, as the WSWS has noted, amount to sociocidethe deliberate and systematic murder of an entire society.

The photographs by Judith Jay Ross (American, born 1946), on the other hand, communicate the impact of the war on the soldiers without serving as an apology for US imperialism. Taken in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the 1990s, these modest, informal portraits reflect the increasing enlistment of working class families in the military, as well as another series taken of the variety of people who took part in anti-war protests in 2003.

Although the work in Theater of Operations often falls short of the greatest artwork about warsuch as Francisco de Goyas etchings Disasters of War (1810-20); Eugne Delacroixs Massacre at Chios (1824); Kthe Kollwitzs many prints like The Widow II (1922); Otto Dixs 1932 triptych The War; and Pablo Picassos Guernica (1937)it is a step forward. Events are impelling the artists toward treating the neo-colonial Gulf Wars with the complexity and emotional immediacy that art can offer, while suggesting the need for a political perspective to put an end to war altogether.

2019 has been a year of mass social upheaval. We need you to help the WSWS and ICFI make 2020 the year of international socialist revival. We must expand our work and our influence in the international working class. If you agree, donate today. Thank you.

Link:
Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 19912011: A significant exhibition at Museum of Modern Art's contemporary arts center - World Socialist Web Site

In an era defined by online shopping and falling real incomes, the high street can seem like a morass of zombie companies, hauling their carcasses from one sales season to the next until someone puts them out of their misery. One honourable exception is Games Workshop, a company that makes its money by selling zombies instead, alongside wizards, space orcs and all other accessories for the dedicated fantasy gamer.

Had you invested 1,000 in the firms shares at the end of 2009, you would now be sitting on a pot of more than 25,000. The company is the best performing FTSE250 retailer of the past decade and second best performer overall. So whats going on in those dungeons? What lessons can this impressive operator teach the rest of the high street?

Founded in London in the mid-1970s by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson who would later became famous for co-authoring the Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books Games Workshop evolved quickly in its first few years of existence. It went from manufacturing and distributing traditional board games to focusing on fantasy fare, above all Dungeons & Dragons, the cult role-playing game from America that would define the whole genre.

The company soon launched the White Dwarf magazine, which became a bible for fantasy gamers, and moved into manufacturing miniatures for wargaming under its Citadel Miniatures brand. It soon began to build its business around these miniatures and, to a lesser extent, the Warhammer tabletop fantasy game, which launched in 1983. By the mid-1980s, White Dwarf had stopped covering Dungeons & Dragons and other peoples games to solely concentrate on the Games Workshop universe.

This narrow focus has essentially continued up to the present day. It is key to understanding the business. To investors and retail staff alike, the company has long referred to its strategy as total global domination. It barely acknowledges the existence of competing games or miniatures, perhaps with good reason; it has no real competitors who can match its vertical integration in the marketplace.

Most other wargames manufactures are just cottage industries with no presence on the high street: the next most successful achieves less than 2% of Games Workshops 257 million turnover. The companys stores stock only its own products, though it is more than happy to sell them elsewhere: 47% of sales come from third-party retailers, while a further 19% are online.

Games Workshops share price

Staff have regularly described the company as making the best fantasy miniatures in the world. Where most big Western retailers outsource manufacturing to contractors on the other side of the world, the firm makes almost everything at its own factory in Nottingham in the English Midlands, also the place of the company headquarters.

Games Workshop now has 500 stores worldwide a fifth of them major outlets, while the rest are one-vendor operations like the one pictured below. Most of the bigger stores are in the UK, Europe and Australia, and total global domination has no room for passengers: loss-making stores are quickly reorganised to make a profit, or closed. There are also a smattering of stores in North America and Asia, though the company has never achieved critical mass in those markets like it has in the UK.

It is clear from my own research that stores function at least as much as clubhouses devoted to the hobby: collecting, painting and occasionally even gaming with the miniatures. Fans and customers obsess over both these figures and the complex fictional worlds in which the games are set.

Everything is built around two settings one fantasy and one science fiction. You could legitimately accuse them of being derivative of the pop culture over the past half-century or so. But they function as fully realised, complex worlds complete with spin-off novels, comics, card games, computer games, and even a film though Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie was hardly a classic. The logic is to give the dedicated fan so much to consume that there is no need, or indeed very much time, to bother with anything else.

One potential threat to this close relationship with customers in the past was the companys approach to defending its intellectual property. Its legal department long had a reputation for zero tolerance, attracting heavy criticism, for example, for taking action to prevent an author from selling a book about space marines. My sense is that the company has become much less litigious since Kevin Rountree took over as CEO in 2015.

Buying into the Games Workshop hobby is not cheap, it should be said. You can easily pay over 50 for just a dozen plastic figures, for instance, plus another 25 for paints and brushes. This attracts regular gripes from both fans and the press, and is presumably integral to the companys surging share price and mainly strong financial results.

Yet steep prices are only viable if the product is good enough. The company has regularly rebooted and reinvented its own games and worlds over the years, though arguably they can never be well enough tested to satisfy competitive gamers. The complexity of each game system and the need to bring out new versions to sell more models tends to mean that one strategy becomes too dominant.

The company has also innovated in other ways recently, for example, formulating revolutionary new paints and painting techniques to make it easier for the customers to get great results with their figures.

Can the success story continue? There seems every reason to assume that it can. It might even benefit from the mounting concerns around the carbon emissions from video gaming, and the need to transition to low-carbon computing.

Though Games Workshop certainly makes money from branded video games, being anchored in physical products and stores that offer a communal experience could be a good place to be in years to come. So long as you can save your prized miniature collection from extreme weather events, Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar will continue to be playable in a post-carbon economy. For a company that has done so well out of dystopian fiction, that would arguably be a fitting turn of events.

Read more:
The secret of Games Workshop's success? A little strategy they call total global domination - The Conversation UK

Affordable housing organization and national home builder partner on white paper to examine solutions for the affordable housing crisis

MARYVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Clayton, a national home builder of site-built and off-site built homes, and Next Step Network, a national, non-profit housing organization, have released a white paper, "Off-Site Built Homes: An Evolving Industry that Meets Today's Affordable Housing Needs."The research paper explores the current challenges surrounding affordable housingon a local and national scale, and how innovations within the home building landscape are altering construction processes and housing design in new ways. Specifically, it focuses on the various ways off-site built homes (including manufactured, modular and CrossMod homes) can provide an attainable, quality housing solution with many of the same features and aesthetics found in traditional housing.

Todays off-site built homes offer beautiful, stylish floor plans at an attainable price range for homeowners of all walks of life.

"The affordable housing crisis has kept homeownership from becoming a reality for many hardworking people across America," said Stacey Epperson, president and founder of Next Step. "Clayton and Next Step are partnering to challenge common misconceptions around manufactured homes and educate the public about the modern off-site built housing industry. Today's off-site built homes offer stylish, new floor plans at an attainable price range with even more opportunity to appraise, zone, finance and appreciate similarly to site-built homes."

"At Clayton we believe 'to whom much is given, much will be required,'" said Kevin Clayton, CEO of Clayton. "The modern off-site built housing industry is poised to innovate the entire housing market through its efficient and sustainable home building practices, while adopting the best design features and building materials from traditional site-built homes. Together, we have an unbelievable opportunity to help more families than ever before achieve the dream of attainable homeownership in America."

As the number of today's homes for sale has not kept pace with household growth according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, many markets have become more competitive driving up prices, creating bidding wars and pushing attainable homeownership out of reach for many. Modern off-site built homeshave become both a smart investment for home buyers and a means to drive the housing industry forward, challenge norms and democratize housing for more individuals and families across America.

Read or download the full white paperand access the infographic, "An Honest Look at Manufactured Housing Today." The organizations have previously released a white paper together titled Shedding the Stigma: The Value of Manufactured Homesin 2018.

Key Findings:

About ClaytonFounded in 1956, Clayton is committed to opening doors to a better life and building happyness through homeownership. The company is a diverse home builder committed to quality and durability, offering traditional site-built homes and off-site built housing including modular homes, manufactured homes, CrossMod homes, tiny homes, college dormitories, military barracks and apartments. All Clayton Built homes are proudly designed, engineered and assembled in America. In 2019, Clayton delivered over 51,000 homes to families across America. Clayton is a Berkshire Hathaway company. For more information, visit claytonhomes.com.

Story continues

About Next StepNetwork, Inc.Next Step Network, Inc. is a national, nonprofit housing intermediary that works to promote expanded use of factory-built housing as a viable solution to address housing affordability. Our organization mobilizes a national network of mission-driven nonprofits, leaders in the manufactured housing industry and lending institutions serving home buyers and homeowners in their communities. Next Step's system Manufactured Housing Done Right connects responsible financing, comprehensive homebuyer education and delivery of high-quality, ENERGY STAR manufactured homes at scale, creating a model that brings more value to the homeowners andcommunities. Learn more atnextstepus.org.

Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media ContactChristina Honkonen615-260-4595Christina@hlstrategy.com

Clayton logo (PRNewsfoto/Clayton)

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clayton-and-next-step-publish-report-on-the-evolution-of-off-site-built-housing-300986038.html

SOURCE Clayton

Excerpt from:
Clayton and Next Step Publish Report on the Evolution of Off-Site Built Housing - Yahoo Finance

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Yesterday I indulged in a prediction not just about housing in the next year, but about housing in the coming decade. My argument is that when put together, anger about housing prices, socialist activism, and an incurious media and academia will lead to so much incremental regulation that, in effect, government will be running all rental housing in the country by 2030. Why is this happening? How do housing activists end up believing that the government must intervene dramatically in the housing economy?And whats the real solution to housing inflation?

A leading reason why were skidding toward government control of housing is because housing policy has been inappropriately saddled as the cause and the solution of various social ills. One of the best examples of this addled thinking is the battle over single-family housing. Lately, its in fashion to call single-family zoning racist. There is no doubt that in most American cities, many neighborhoods were deliberately set up to exclude African American families. This is something that is extensively documented by theMapping Prejudice Project, a collaborative effort by the University of Minnesota and Augsburg University.

But ramblers are not racist, people are. And when I talked with a planner in Minneapolis, the objective of their significant zoning changes were not to abolish a typology,but to expand possible housing supply.As Ive also pointed out, zoning not only segregates uses but also people. This is why zoning lent itself to a racist use and to the proliferation of costly commutes from home to work, work to shopping, and between anything and everything people want to do. Its far more accurate to blame zoning pushing apart uses like housing and commercial for climate change than to blame one zone, single-family, for racism. Yet, in this case, the association has stuck.

As Ive also said before,what is racist is the overregulation of housing production because that makes all housing scarce and therefore expensive. When that happens, higher costs disproportionately impact people of color since they are disproportionately in poverty. The real civil rights issue isnt gentrification from housing production or a zone, but local governments that boost equity in single-family homes and raises rents in multifamily housing through onerous regulation; the resulting inflation means money being siphoned from poor peopleinto the accounts of wealthy, and mostly white homeowners. What would help is not abolishing single-family zoning butgetting rid of zoning all together.

The assumption that one government housing policy created something bad like racism then leads to thinking that by government taking action against that policy will lead to fixing that problem. Single-family zones created racist outcomes like segregation, so then abolition of those zones will end racism. We see this in complaints aboutthe ratio of blacks to whites changing in some neighborhoods. This has to be stopped, were told, by limiting new housing in those neighborhoods to stop gentrification. But it turns out, that people move out of neighborhoods for lots of reasons, and redevelopment of older ethnic neighborhoodsis beneficial for everyone.

This thinking in the left about housing applies to multifamily rental housing too. The book Evicted suggests that, Eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty. So a person can be fine at the end of one month, evicted at the end of the next, and then pushed into poverty. It isnt a job loss combined with a big medical bill that leads to lack of payment of rent then eviction; it is the eviction itself that is the cause of poverty. Eviction isnt just one of the results of economic hardship it is the cause of the hardship therefore we shouldnt allow eviction, or tenant screening, or increases in rent. Government can make all the right decisions about where people should live and what they should pay.That will eliminate poverty!

When housing policy causes and solves all problems, then it is easy to see why theNational Economic and Social Rights Initiative says,It is the governments obligation to guarantee that everyone can exercise this right to live in security, peace, and dignity. This right must be provided to all persons irrespective of income or access to economic resources. Establishing housing as a right, like speech, means the government must act to be sure it is protected, something that a market, they argue, cant do. But freighting housing policy this way overpromises and underdelivers.

And keep in mind that socialists want to hand the same government institutions that created racist policies in the first place not just in housing but policing to take control of rental housing. That only makes sense if the socialists control the government.

Perhaps theyd be right about housing policy if somehow the production of housing was beyond the control of the government. In a place where, for example, food production was limited and entirely dependent on the weather, it might make sense to ration food. But that is simply not the case with housing. The production of housing is, ironically, something government can control. The only reason why housing is problematic in the United States is because there isnt enough of it being produced, something that is due to the imposition of limits on producing it by government.

Government can solvehousing problems with housing policy, specifically limiting how much it requires from those who produce and manage housing. Rather than expecting government to own and operate all housing, rationing it to people who need it through a bureaucracy in hopes of curing societys ills, activists should be urging government to do less, and get out of the way of seller and buyer. In those cases where a person truly doesnt have the means to pay rent, then we ought tosubsidize that persons ability to pay rent with cash. In a government manufactured housing crisis stoked by activism, the last thing we need is the government to take over housing.Tomorrow Ill post about how we can stop this.

Read more from the original source:
Prediction For 2030: Government Can Help Housing By Doing Less - Forbes

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) and Kinsale Capital Group (NASDAQ:KNSL) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Progressive pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Kinsale Capital Group pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Progressive pays out 9.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kinsale Capital Group pays out 17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Progressive has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Kinsale Capital Group has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Progressive is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Progressive and Kinsale Capital Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

Progressive presently has a consensus price target of $80.77, indicating a potential upside of 8.78%. Kinsale Capital Group has a consensus price target of $102.00, indicating a potential downside of 3.66%. Given Progressives higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Progressive is more favorable than Kinsale Capital Group.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Progressive and Kinsale Capital Groups gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Progressive has higher revenue and earnings than Kinsale Capital Group. Progressive is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kinsale Capital Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.7% of Progressive shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.7% of Kinsale Capital Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Progressive shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.3% of Kinsale Capital Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Progressive and Kinsale Capital Groups net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Volatility and Risk

Progressive has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kinsale Capital Group has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Progressive beats Kinsale Capital Group on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Progressive

The Progressive Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides personal and commercial auto insurance, residential property insurance, and other specialty property-casualty insurance and related services primarily in the United States. Its Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos, and recreational and other vehicles. This segment's products include personal auto insurance; and special lines products, including insurance for motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, watercrafts, and snowmobiles. The company's Commercial Lines segment provides primary liability, physical damage, and other auto-related insurance for autos, vans, pick-up trucks, and dump trucks used by small businesses; tractors, trailers, and straight trucks primarily used by regional general freight and expeditor-type businesses, and non-fleet long-haul operators; dump trucks, log trucks, and garbage trucks used by dirt, sand and gravel, logging, and coal-type businesses; tow trucks and wreckers used in towing services and gas/service station businesses; and non-fleet taxis, black-car services, and airport taxis. Its Property segment provides residential property insurance for homes, condos, manufactured homes, and renters, as well as offers personal umbrella insurance, and primary and excess flood insurance. The company also offers policy issuance and claims adjusting services; home, condominium, renters, and other insurance; and general liability and business owner's policies, and workers' compensation insurance. In addition, it offers reinsurance services. The Progressive Corporation sells its products and services through independent insurance agencies, as well as directly on Internet, and mobile devices, and over the phone. The company was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio.

About Kinsale Capital Group

Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. provides as a casualty and property insurance products in the United States. Its commercial lines offerings include construction, small business, energy, excess and general casualty, life sciences, allied health, health care, commercial property, environmental, public entity, inland marine, and commercial insurance, as well as product, professional, and management liability insurance; and homeowners insurance. The company markets and sells insurance products through a network of independent insurance brokers. Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.

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Originally posted here:
Contrasting Progressive (NYSE:PGR) and Kinsale Capital Group (NYSE:KNSL) - Riverton Roll

Patrick McCarty

970.888.2294

david.mccarty@pauldavis.com

With recent severe, freezing, and wet weather, plus fluctuating indoor and outdoor temperatures, Paul Davis Restoration of Fort Collins, a leading provider of fire and water damage clean up and restoration services is providing consumers with the following tips for recognizing and removing ice dams from homes and businesses, and damage mitigation.

Ice dams can form when a roof that is warmer than the eaves causes snow on the roof to melt, the water to flow down to the colder eaves, and re-freeze. As this cycle repeats, ice can back up or dam under shingles, allowing water to accumulate behind it. The water can leak through the roof and cause serious damage to walls, insulation, ceilings, and painted surfaces inside the home or office that may only get worse over time. However, there are some relatively simple steps one can take to prevent ice dams:

Ice dams are caused by the interaction of many factors:

Ice and snowmelt at 35F. Liquid water freezes at 32F. Minor temperature differentials can lead to major problems.Layered roof systems such as shakes or shingles do not keep outstanding water. They require a continuous, uninterrupted slope to shed water.

Attics are warmer than the outside air because heat leaks from the heated portion of the structure up into the attic. Heavy snow cover effectively insulates the attic from cold outside air, allowing the temperature to rise even higher.When an ice dam forms and as layer after layer of meltwater refreezes, the ice dam can grow with liquid water pooling behind it under the snow. Soon, this water is deep enough to seep between shingles and into the attic or wall cavities. Ice dams are sometimes one to two feet thick. Secondary ice dams often form around vents and skylights.

One of the best methods of protection against ice dams is a properly designed cold roof. Minimizing heat gain in the attic while maximizing attic ventilation with outside air is one of the best ways to reach this goal. Attics can gain heat in two main ways with conduction due to inadequate insulation; and convection caused by warm air leaking through gaps, usually around plumbing, wiring, ducts, and vents. Try to reduce the conductive heat gain by increasing the insulation levels in the structure.

Convective heat gain can be minimized by meticulously caulking and sealing even the smallest penetrations through the ceiling, as well as carefully installing gaskets around attic entrances. Although some heat gain is inevitable, when the attic ventilation is adequate, the temperature will not reach levels that cause extensive melting. A cold roof is easy to achieve with properly designed new construction. Reaching the same goal in older homes may be both difficult and expensive.

Proper insulation is the key attic spaces need to be kept cool so that the roof stays cold. Ideally, attics should have 12 of insulation.Seal areas where heat can escape into the attic. Likely spots include areas around chimneys, around electrical components such as junction boxes and ceiling fans, plumbing vents, and any other passages through the attic floor.Ventilation Less important than insulation but still a factor in preventing ice dams, proper ventilation will allow any heat that does enter the attic to exit the space and be replaced by cold outside air.There are a few ways to mitigate ice dams. However, it is recommended that you call a professional. On serious ice dams that are presenting leaks, technicians will break up the ice first, so that the necessary repair work can be performed immediately. In an ice-dammed area that has been leaking, repairing any water damage would come first. Shoring up the area with added flashing and ice and water shield underlayment is recommended before reapplying the shingles. Also, a heat cable system can be installed into the gutter and also clipped onto the shingles over the soffit. If an ice dam has already caused damage to the home or commercial building, it is critical to have the entire structure inspected by a restoration professional who is certified from The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, Restoration Certification (IICRC).

Unfortunately, obvious damage may be just the tip of the iceberg. The worst effects of ice dams are often hidden, caused by moisture trapped inside walls or floors. This damage is seldom discovered until months after all the snow has melted. The property owner may rarely make the connection between the damage found and their ice dam of the previous winter. Besides the cost of restoration, hidden damage can make future ice damming more severe, waste energy, and even create serious health risks for building occupants. Visit the local office website atfort-collins.pauldavis.com.

For more than 50 years, Paul Davis Restoration Inc. has restored residential and commercial properties damaged by fire, water, mold, storms, and disasters. The experts at Paul Davis understand the complex process of recovering from property damage and provide complete services; there is no need for the expense and confusion of hiring multiple contractors. Paul Davis is a one-stop-shop for disaster damage and restoration. Paul Davis Restoration has more than 300 independently owned franchises in the United States and Canada. The professionals at Paul Davis are certified in emergency restoration, reconstruction, and remodeling. For more information, visit the website at http://www.pauldavis.com.

The rest is here:
Paul Davis offers tips to recognize and prevent ice dams on structures and damage mitigation - North Forty News

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Las Vegas Kitchen & Bathroom Remodeling Company Is the Place to Look for Remodeling Contractor in Las Vegas and Henderson Nevada - Press Release -...