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The Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one comfort woman, or ianfu in Japanese, for every 70 soldiers, according to documents reviewed by Kyodo News on Friday that shed new light on the wartime practice of forcing and coercing women into military brothels.

The documents were collected by the Cabinet Secretariat between April 2017 and March 2019. Of the 23 documents, 13 are classified dispatches from Japanese consulates in China to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo dated 1938, the year after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident that sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War.

One dispatch from the consul general of Jinan to the foreign minister reports that the Japanese invasion had caused a surge in prostitution in the area, with a head count of 101 geisha from mainland Japan, 110 comfort women from mainland Japan, and 228 comfort women from the Korean Peninsula, which had been annexed in 1910.

The dispatch says that as Japanese forces had made further advances, at least 500 comfort women must be concentrated here by the end of April.

It also notes that 186 women had ridden south in military vehicles after the occupation of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province.

Another dispatch from the consul general of Qingdao in Shandong province notes that the Imperial Army had asked for one woman to accommodate every 70 soldiers, while the Navy had requested 150 more comfort women and geisha.

The documents lend weight to the landmark 1993 apology statement by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono that accepted blame for the Japanese militarys involvement in recruiting comfort women, in many cases against their own will, and apologized to them.

Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor at Kanto Gakuin University, said the documents proved that the military had an active hand in gathering women.

They were sounding out the Foreign Ministry through the consulates, he said.

The exact number of comfort women remains unknown, with estimates ranging from 20,000 to hundreds of thousands. The women were recruited from mainland Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and other countries.

The issue continues to be a source of friction between Japan and South Korea, with activists setting up statues symbolizing the victims at home and abroad in an effort to raise awareness.

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Wartime documents shed light on role of Japanese government and military in recruiting 'comfort women' - The Japan Times

MACON, Ga. A tool shed caught on fire in Lizella on Thursday night.

According to Captain Ron Smith with the Macon-Bibb Fire Department, a call came in just before 8 p.m. about a shed on fire.

It happened in the 5600 block of Fulton Mill Road. Smith says there was a heavy fire when crews got there.

No one was inside the shed during the fire and no one was hurt.

Smith says the fire is under investigation and investigators will know more information once they comb through the scene Friday morning.

The fire got put out. So, there are no injuries," Smith said. "We consider that a win."

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Tool shed fire breaks out in Lizella - 13WMAZ.com

Aerial view of Aspen, Colorado

When the yachts go south and it becomes less of a feat to get a reservation at the East Hampton Grill or other local haunts, the residential brokers in the Hamptons have to come up with creative ways to network and keep their pipeline of business flowing.

Some globetrot to chase down clients. Others meet with potential clients in Manhattan. And many keep contractors on track.

The fall is kind of a breather, but its also really a time to set yourself up for the winter and spring, said Brown Harris Stevens agent Christopher Burnside.

And different brokers, of course, take different approaches to doing that.

Douglas Ellimans Enzo Morabito said he attends events like Art Basel in Miami Beach which takes place every December (hes going this year) and the Super Bowl in February, which is when buyers start to come out again.

In this business, business and social are the same things, said Morabito.

Last year at Art Basel, he ran into a fellow Elliman agent with a Florida client hunting for a newly built waterfront house in the Hamptons. Morabito suggested his listing at 611 Dune Road in Westhampton and the deal closed for $6.7 million in February, he said.

Meanwhile, top East End agent Susan Breitenbach, of the Corcoran Group, is also a regular at Art Basel and an advertiser there. You definitely see a lot of Hamptons people there, said Breitenbach, who also relocates her 67-foot powerboat from Sag Harbor to Miami Beach in the winter.

Breitenbach often gets referrals from Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber, better known as the the Jills. The duo who recently teamed up with Judy Zeder are at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, which shares a corporate parent (Realogy) with Corcoran. Corcoran, which opened a new Miami Beach office in September, also sends her leads.

At press time, Breitenbach was nearing a closing with one of those buyers on a Sagaponack property. She said she also spends a week every February on a boat in St. Barts chartered by clients. Im on the phone the whole time, but so are they, so its okay, she said.

BHS Burnside who in the summer zips clients around in his 42-foot motorboat, which he uses to check out estates from the water also usually goes to Florida in the winter. He bounces between borrowed condos in Palm Beach and Miami and spends weekends with customers who are also friends.

But now, with the Hamptons market seeing a slow off-season, those trips have taken on added importance. Burnsides 10-year-old daughter, Amelia, a competitive equestrian, will train this winter in the wealthy village of Wellington, which is thick with potential East End buyers.

For the month of December, while Amelia works on her jumping, Burnside will, for the first time, work out of BHS Palm Beach office. By then, he hopes to have a Florida real estate license so that he can also list Palm Bach houses owned by Hamptons homeowners. It seems like there is a lot of money in the horse world, said Burnside, who was tapped by developer David Walentas to market 12 new-construction spec homes on the site of his Two Trees Farm, another equestrian spot, in Bridgehampton. (Those homes sold, but hes still marketing the original farm, which is on the market for about $18 million.)

Corcorans Gary DePersia, meanwhile, turns his attention to Aspen in the winter, making frequent trips there and buying ads in Aspen and Aspen Peak magazines and on a popular weather app. And the advertising seems to pay off: While having dinner at the restaurant Betula Aspen last year, a woman recognized me and said, Do you know about my property in Sag Harbor? I might want to discuss listing it with you, he said.

DePersia got the listing, which he said is currently on the market. He declined to disclose the address, but in November he had five Sag Harbor properties listed on his web page.

Among them was the $12.9 million 14 Seaponack Drive, which he appears to have picked up this year. According to online records, the new-construction home in the North Haven section came on the market in 2017 for about $17 million with Saunders & Associates, which is currently sharing the listing with Corcoran.

But DePersia, a long-time skier, bristles at suggestions that he chases clients to the Rocky Mountains. It just turns out that a lot of my clientele happens to be there, he said. Connections happen organically.

Local yokels

When DePersia first came to Hamptons to windsurf in the 1980s, many owners boarded up their houses at the end of the summer season. Thats obviously not the case anymore for most second-home owners on the East End.

And annual events like the Hamptons International Film Festival and Winterfest a weeks-long festival of music, food, arts, wine and entertainment throughout the North and South Forks are a big draw.

But outside of those events, the hubbub and deal volume fall off.

In 2018, the fourth quarter was, not surprisingly, the slowest of the year on the South Fork, with 360 deals, according to market data from Elliman. By comparison, the second quarter was the most active, with 601 deals.

But brokers say theres been a bit more activity this fall than usual as cautious buyers finally commit to purchasing houses theyve been circling for months.

There are definitely usually fewer showings at this time of the year, said Saunders Terry Cohen. But were doing more deals this off-season than during the season.

That may be because average listing prices are down about 20 percent from the spring to $1.38 million from $1.73 million, according to Ellimans third-quarter market report. Average sales prices were also down for the year through September a fact agents attributed to both fears of a pending recession and the recent federal tax overhaul that capped state and local tax (SALT) deductions at $10,000 a year, which made buyers hesitant to take on big-ticket second-home properties.

Not helping matters is that some of the Hamptons venues like Starr Boggs in Westhampton Beach, the Inlet Seafood Restaurant in Montauk and the Beacon and Le Bilboquet in Sag Harbor, places brokers flock to in order to hobnob and generate deals in the summer close up shop in the off-season.

But increasingly, some establishments Pierres in Bridgehampton, the Palm in East Hampton and East Hampton Grill, to name a few stay open throughout the winter.

Ellimans Morabito and his team meet at Sag Harbors American Hotel once a week for breakfast. I always get leads there, said Morabito.

For some, Hamptons venue hours are not as crucial in the winter.

BHS Burnside said he also heads into Manhattan in the off-season for meetings at the firms main Midtown office, where he meets with firm principals once a month.

He said he recently met with Will Zeckendorf, an owner of Terra Holdings, the firms parent company. Zeckendorf, Burnside said, is closely following the firms conversion of Southamptons former post office into a BHS office. (Burnside oversaw the recent expansion of BHS Bridgehampton office and is involved in this project as well.)

Hal Zwick, a commercial agent with Town & Country Real Estate, said he, too, takes more Manhattan meetings in the off-season.

Negotiations with his clients particularly owners of bars and restaurants, many of which are offshoots of New York City restaurants require multi-day trips to Manhattan about every six weeks. I stayed at the W Union Square right after they opened, back in the early 2000s, and have not stayed at another hotel since, said Zwick.

Venue owners who often have to wait months for the state to approve a liquor license generally need to lock down a space by the late fall to start the approval process, Zwick said. And there are a number of deadlines to meet in order to be up and running by Memorial Day, he said.

But outside of bars and restaurants, retail leasing is weak on the East End. A decade ago, retailers were looking for 10-year leases. Today they want one-year pop-ups, which landlords wont agree to until March, when their other options run out, Zwick said: Its been difficult to do business out here. Thats a fact.

Keeping busy

In the old days aka the 1990s resales were the properties du jour in the Hamptons. But those resales often needed renovations. That dynamic led to a rush to buy in the fall, leaving enough time for off-season construction so homes could be ready by summer, said Aspasia Comnas, the BHS executive director who manages the firms nine North and South Fork offices.

Art Basel is a popular event for Hamptons brokers.

But with the rise of new-construction homes, that autumn deal bump has dissipated, Comnas said.

On the plus side, new-construction home closings can happen much closer to the start of the season. You no longer have the same pressure to close that you used to, she said. Deals are more evenly distributed throughout the year.

Construction of spec homes has, however, produced a new kind of off-season work for brokers: unofficially project-managing to ensure that properties are ready to market during the critical spring window.

BHS Burnside is currently keeping tabs on the under-construction 33 Bellows Court in Southampton Village, which is listed for about $4 million. Marketing materials for the property are not yet ready, but hes pushing to make sure its photo-ready by February.

Another property hell be prepping for the market is 1127 Noyac Path in Water Mill, a spec house listed for $5.2 million or $350,000 for the summer. The house was completed in August, an unfavorable month to enter the rental market, so Burnside decided to move into it himself in November. A cocktail-fueled open house may be held there in the spring, to lure buyers or renters, but is not likely before then.

Event-style showings are an effective in-season tool, he said. An August gathering that included an art show drew about 100 people to 54 Old Sag Harbor Road, a six-bedroom listed for about $4.7 million. But, he said, in the off-season potential buyers (and renters) usually just come to the East End to check out houses for the day.

For years, renters booked summer homes in the previous fall. After the 2008 crash, they began hunting more aggressively for deals, which meant waiting till the last minute.

Now, however, brokers say theyre seeing more long-term planning. Some of that demand is being driven by those looking to rent while theyre constructing Hamptons homes, according to Saunders Cohen.

In early November, Corcorans DePersia was on the verge of closing three summer leases, including one for a full season for a house in Bridgehampton to be rented by a guy in his 40s from Manhattan with an extended family, he said.

Still, the pace of deals is undoubtedly slower than usual. [But] if youre just going to be working all the time it kind of defeats the whole point of enjoying the beauty of the Hamptons anyway, Burnside said.

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Jet-setting to follow the money - The Real Deal

The decision came during the third continuation of a public hearing initially sparked when property owners requested improvements to the ditch system. The redetermination of benefits does not mean the improvements will be made.

Ditch viewers hired by the joint ditch authority conduct the redetermination of benefits by evaluating the parcels deemed to benefit from the ditch system. Their work then leads to a reevaluation of how much landowners on the system are taxed.

Redetermination brings it into current day values, said Nobles County Ditch Systems Coordinator Brad Harberts, noting that benefits have not been examined since the systems were constructed a century ago.

A hearing on improvements to JD13 is now scheduled for April 9. Thats also the date landowners will meet to continue discussion on proposed improvements to JD9, which is also located in eastern Nobles and western Jackson counties.

Landowners on both systems are seeking improvements to include increasing tile diameter to improve capacity of the system.

Some of the tile is cracked a lot of it is 100 years old, Harberts said. Over the years, private tile has been hooked on, and everything is over capacity.

Next Friday, the Nobles and Jackson joint ditch authority will meet yet again, this time for the continuation of a hearing on Judicial Ditch 24.

Meanwhile, Nobles County has hired viewers to work on redetermination of benefits on six smaller ditch systems County Ditches 2, 4, 5, 6, 30 and the Bigelow branch channel, said Harberts.

Once the viewing has been done on those, then well need to go to a public hearing, he added.

A lot of the work of the viewers is done in the late fall through early spring, before crops impede the view of the landscape.

They physically go out and drive the landscape and see what way the water breaks, Harberts said.

CD30 is the youngest of the ditch systems to go through a redetermination of benefits. It was constructed in 1970. The rest are all about 100 years old.

As redetermination of benefits take place on some systems, Harberts said other ditch systems are slated for clean-out this winter. Nobles County received nearly $54,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for damages to ditch systems from flooding.

Harberts said the FEMA money will target sediment removal on County Ditch 4 and Judicial Ditches 8, 9, 11B, 12 and 76.

Read more here:
Joint Ditch Authority approves redetermination of benefits on JD13 - The Globe

Earlier this year, an NPR investigation with WAMU and Oregon Public Broadcasting found deep problems in how school districts report restraint and seclusion. Following that investigation, NPR reached out to educators about their experiences with these practices.

Brent McGinn spent a year early in his career working with students who could sometimes hurt themselves.

The special education teacher recalls a student who would sometimes hit his head on the tile floor, full force. When that happened, McGinn faced a tough decision. "If I put a pad between that kid and the tile, it's going to soften it, but it's not going to stop him from full-force hitting his head into something," he says. "Whereas restraint would."

Restraint and seclusion in schools can mean anything from holding or using restraints on a student to isolating them in a separate room or space. According to federal guidance, these methods are meant to be a last resort, when students are believed to be a danger to themselves or others. These practices are most often used on students with disabilities or special needs.

In situations where students or staff are in danger, McGinn says, "restraints and seclusion can be a useful tool to keep people safe."

But that can leave educators in a tough spot. Many told NPR that using restraint and seclusion is one of the worst parts of their job; they say these methods can be mentally and physically painful for both them and their students.

"I would lock myself in the bathroom at work and cry, and I know that I wasn't the only one," says D, who spent a year working as a teaching assistant at a private school for students with autism. (D uses they/them pronouns. We aren't using their full name, or identifying where they worked, because they fear retaliation from their former employer.)

But McGinn, who currently works in Phoenix, says if teachers don't have the option to use restraint and seclusion, "you're backing them into a corner."

Parents with children who have been secluded or restrained have said the experience was traumatic. But that isn't always the case one Oregon elementary schooler said he once had an aide whose restraint techniques helped him calm down.

Still, a 2009 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog, found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and even death when restraint and seclusion were used on school children.

I would lock myself in the bathroom at work and cry, and I know that I wasn't the only one.

D, a former teaching assistant at a school for students with autism

Many states prohibit the use of seclusion or restraint as punishment or discipline. And though there are federal guidelines around the use of these methods in schools, there are no federal laws. Past efforts to restrict the use of restraints and ban the use of seclusion nationwide have failed in Congress.

The definitions vary in different states and school districts, as do the rules around how educators can use these methods. In Massachusetts, for example, prone restraint holding a student face-down on the ground is only allowed in very specific situations. Other states ban the practice altogether. Arkansas puts limits on the size of seclusion rooms, while Oklahoma advises, but does not require, that students be permitted bathroom breaks and water during seclusion.

Some states also rely on a student's past behavior to determine the practices they use. Records like individualized education programs (IEPs) and behavior intervention plans (BIPs) sometimes spell out if and when restraint or seclusion may be used on a particular child.

"I just never felt fully comfortable or prepared"

D says they avoided restraining students as much as possible, though other educators in their school did regularly use restraint.

There's a tension within me of knowing that if I am to restrain a student, then I'm essentially putting forth a situation that's going to create trauma for that student.

Ben Travis, a social and emotional learning specialist

"Even though I received the training for [restraint], I just never felt fully comfortable or prepared to do that," they tell NPR. They say restraint crossed a physical boundary that they weren't comfortable with. "It just seems strange to be so imposing on somebody else's body."

Ben Travis, a social and emotional learning specialist in Fort Worth, Texas, says, "There's a tension within me of knowing that if I am to restrain a student, then I'm essentially putting forth a situation that's going to create trauma for that student." He says the decision to restrain students is not always as clear-cut as some training or school officials make it out to be.

Travis says he also doesn't believe in leaving students in isolation for extended periods of time he says he doesn't see it as an effective tool and he doesn't want to create, or recreate, trauma for them.

"I haven't seen that create good results," he says, either in student behavior or their relationships with educators.

"Most students don't respond well to ... getting grabbed," says A, who works as a teaching assistant at a private school. (We aren't using his full name, or identifying where he works, because he fears retaliation from his employer.) A works with young adults on the autism spectrum who are mostly nonverbal, and says he tries to avoid secluding his students.

"I know they don't want to go into the room," he says, "so I'll do anything else."

It takes a toll

I've been punched in the face more times than I could remember. I've been hit in the head with chairs.

A, a teaching assistant at a private school

Educators tell NPR that restraint and seclusion can take a physical and emotional toll on them.

"It's a rare day where you don't get hurt at all," A says.

"I've been punched in the face more times than I could remember. I've been hit in the head with chairs."

Many educators say their restraint and seclusion training which is often provided by schools focuses on de-escalation, in order to avoid situations where someone could get hurt.

David Roy, a dean at a public charter school in Ohio, says it's important to remember that student behavior is a form of communication: "You should do everything you can to try to de-escalate the situation before you escalate it by having to put someone in a restrictive hold, or seclude them in a different part of the building."

Roy says his school only allows a small number of certified staff, including administrators, to seclude or restrain students. And in his opinion, it's safer and more productive that way.

"We want teachers to focus on the instruction side of things. And we don't want to have a large number of people who can run the risk of doing it wrong," Roy says. "It can be really upsetting if you have to put a child into the hold."

K taught English as a second language at an elementary school in the Midwest last year. (We aren't using her full name, or identifying where she works, because she fears retaliation from her school district.) She says she wishes more staff in her school had been trained so they knew how to de-escalate situations, and when, exactly, restraint or seclusion was really warranted.

K says sometimes administrators and other teachers would call her in to use these methods not as a last resort, but as a way to gain control of chaotic situations.

"A lot of times, it was used ... as a management tool," K says, when teachers were "overwhelmed in the moment." She says she wasn't always comfortable using restraint or seclusion in situations when they could have been avoided.

Reporting troubles

Many educators are also responsible for documenting incidents of restraint and seclusion, and they say that recordkeeping isn't always straightforward.

Most of the teachers who spoke to NPR say they tried to note every instance of seclusion and restraint through official school channels. They say the documentation protected them from possible lawsuits or other misunderstandings, and it helped them keep track of student behavior so they could learn what did and didn't work.

In Texas, a statute allows parents to ask that their child's special education classroom include video equipment, making some of that documentation automatic. "That, at least, gives another set of eyes that can be present," says Ben Travis, in Forth Worth. "And that's, in my opinion, positive."

But sometimes, documentation falls through the cracks.

In most states, schools are required to tell parents when a child is restrained or secluded, but that doesn't always happen. Parents in one Washington state school district said school officials rarely notified them when their children had been restrained.

A, the private school teaching assistant, says he is "in crisis" restraining or secluding students for hours every day. And while major incidents involving many adults are documented, sometimes routine restraints involving one or two adults holding a student aren't noted.

Even when there are enough staff and resources available, whether or not to report incidents isn't always an easy call.

K, who taught English as a second language, says her school only required that she report a seclusion when a student was left alone in a room with the door held shut by an adult. (Many states have similar policies.) She didn't have to report the times when students were left alone and the door wasn't held shut. K says she would write down these instances for her own records.

Similarly, A says he and his colleagues don't often document seclusions unless the door to the room is closed. He says that enables the school to report lower numbers of seclusions than they otherwise would.

Reporting troubles don't just happen on the local level. A recent analysis from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that several districts underreport cases of restraint and seclusion to the U.S. Department of Education.

Federal officials now say there is no way of knowing how often these methods are used in schools.

It's also hard to know the price teachers pay.

"When you're done, it's exhausting," D says. "It's sad."

"It takes a toll on us," says A. "There's no one to really talk to."

And he says that isn't good for students either.

"If your mental health isn't OK, how can you be of maximum service with students that really need your help?"

Nicole Cohen edited this story.

More here:
Teacher Experiences Of Restraint And Seclusion - NPR

Arabella Proffer

CLEVELAND, Ohio Not a week goes by when someone doesnt ask Cleveland artist Arabella Proffer to come look at their restroom.

No, shes not getting into bathroom design or doubling as a plumber.

Word has gotten out that the Cleveland painter undertook an unusual new project: documenting the most interesting restrooms of Cleveland.

Her new book, aptly titled The Restrooms of Cleveland will be released this week. Proffer will celebrate the launch with a party at Judds City Tavern, 10323 Madison Avenue, from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.

Arabella Proffer

Proffer, a pop-surrealist graduate of the California Institute of the Arts

who has shown in Germany, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Santa Fe and Buffalo in the last year, never intended for her project to become a book.

I was at 78th Street Studios about three years ago and just started posting photos from all these really un-remodeled 60s bathrooms. I shared them on Instagram and got a good response to started sharing more and more.

People took notice.

All of these people who dont even live in Cleveland were like you should do a book, and I was like haha. I had not intention of doing anything with it.

Arabella Proffer: Hotz Cafe

A friend changed her mind.

In 2017, Dott Schneider was doing a story about my Gurls drawings for Scene magazine, about a show I had in Germany. During the interview, she said lets go and look at bathrooms. In the piece, she wrote that I was going to be doing a book about bathrooms. I said I guess I have to follow up now.

The result is a full-color 9-by-6 , 83-page photo book of non-stop in your face thrills of interior design and restrooms stuck in time.

More than 400 pictures document 80 of Clevelands most interesting toilets. They include bars, theaters, warehouses, grocery stores, dental offices, auto garages, utility buildings, private clubs, pinball arcades, museums, schools, breweries, retirement homes, churches, furniture stores and coffee shops.

Once word got out, the bathroom invitations started coming. I was even invited into a few private homes, she says.

Arabella Proffer: LCC

I could have kept going and going, this could have been a 300-page Taschen-style book.

Does Proffer have a favorite restroom?

The tile work at Stone Mad is pretty amazing. And Lorain Community College has these restrooms that look like those at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Arabella Proffer: Mahall's

Judds will be serving specialty cocktails at the party, and Proffer plans to get a toilet roll shaped cake, too. Bonus: Judds restrooms are actually in the book.

The mens is very cool, its covered in comic book pages, she says. The womens room has lots of tchotchkes.

Arabella Proffer

More here:
New book goes behind closed doors to explore 'The Restrooms of Cleveland' - cleveland.com

Artists Dick Notkin and Phoebe Toland moved to the Key Peninsula five years ago from Helena, Montana. They sat down one afternoon last month to talk about their work and about what it is like for two busy artists to share a life.

We really understand the artistic need to create and so we are very supportive, and we arent jealous of each others studio time. And we understand that if your passion is to be an artist, it is a full-time job, Notkin said.

The couple first crossed paths when Toland was in graduate school at the University of Montana and Notkin was teaching, but they were in different departments and were barely aware of each other. It wasnt until years later that they were re-introduced by a mutual friend. I didnt even recognize him, said Toland.

They moved here largely to be closer to Tolands sister, sculptor Tip Toland, and her husband. Tips career was taking off, and we realized that if we didnt move closer, we wouldnt see them very often, Toland said. They were also ready to leave the brutal winters and summers that increasingly brought the threat of forest fires.

They found a house that fit their requirements: It had to have enough studio space for both of them and be a walkable distance from Tip. The brown shag carpet throughout, they think, kept the place on the market for a few years, but that was easily removed. They converted the multi-car garage and lower floor of the house into studio spaces.

If an artist cant say what they feel in their art, then what the hell is the point?

The two have much in common. Both knew they would be artists from early childhood. They were raised in urban areas but have spent adulthood in rural locations. Their art is deeply influenced by the world that surrounds them. And, Notkin said, We are both left-handed Scorpios.

But as they talked about their work, the differences became apparent. Toland is primarily a painter and printmaker, and also creates wood and paper sculptures that sometimes hearken back to her combined graduate degree in painting and theater arts. Her images are often abstract. Notkin works in clay. His work is tightly controlled and detailed, with a high degree of craftsmanship.

All my work is so intuitive. I have no idea what it will become until that last moment. Dick needs to know right off the bat what he will be completing, Toland said.

Toland came from a creative family. Her father was a writer for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and then wrote books and plays; her mother was talented in needlecraft and quilting. My sister Tip was gifted in terms of drawing people, but I was more interested in design, more abstract pictures. We had our own very separate means of expression, she said.

After undergraduate work at the Rochester Institute of Technology and graduate school in Montana, Toland returned to the east coast where she worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for several years. It was there that I fell in love with paper, she said. She turns paper into both sculptures and multidimensional collages that incorporate woodblock prints. You have to like the whole process if you dont like all the steps you probably wont do it because it is all so labor intensive, she said.

Although I am an abstract artist, all my work has a thematic basis, she said. Toland tends to work in series, and is currently focused on gardens. The pieces are a way of expressing my love of gardens and gardening but they also stand in for the earth and feeling of concern and apprehension of climate change.

Toland acknowledges a sense of crowdedness, a bit of foreboding apparent in much of her recent work, especially in the last few years. Her other works were influenced by the development taking place where she lived in Helena. Another installation was inspired by her father and Notkins, who both died in the same year.

Notkin, though he has lived in expansive spaces all of his adult life, said his work is not affected by where his studio is located. From the time he was a student his work has expressed his feelings about war, technology and the environment. I work out of a political landscape. If an artist cant say what they feel in their art, then what the hell is the point? he said. His father, of Jewish descent, fought in WWII, and though he was proud to have fought against Hitler, he also described that time as the worst in his life. Notkin came of age in the years of the Vietnam War. Friends served, and of those who survived, he said, most came back damaged. I think my opposition to war continues to be justified, he said.

Notkin knew from the time he was in kindergarten that he wanted to be an artist. He went to the Kansas City Art Institute to study painting, but after he was introduced to clay in a sculpture class, he knew he had found his medium. He loved the detail he saw in the extensive ceramics collection at the Kansas City Art Museum and in the pieces he saw at home as he grew up his father was an immigration lawyer and his many Chinese clients gave him artwork as gifts.

Notkin is perhaps best known for his unglazed ceramic teapots inspired by16th century Chinese Yixing wares. He is a master and innovator in the slip-casting technique, which uses molds and liquid clay, allowing him to work in series, adding highly detailed images that make each pot unique. He has created more than 350 pots, most of which are in private and public collections.

Notkins tiles serve as another avenue for expressing his alarm. He creates each from clay, using finely detailed images such as skulls, dice, buildings, ears and barbed wire. Each original tile takes about four days, depending on the detail, he said. Then he creates a press mold that allows him to create copies. He now has hundreds of tile molds to draw from. Some tiles are glazed in color. Others are fired in sawdust, which causes the value of the tile to vary from light to dark. The tiles are then sorted and stored by color and value to be used to create murals. Two well-known murals, both using hundreds of tiles, are a portrait of George W. Bush titled All Nations Have Their Moment of Foolishness and The Gift, an image of the Hiroshima bomb.

Notkins work has been shown all over the world and is in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has received many awards for his work and was featured in a PBS Craft in America Landscape documentary.

Both Notkin and Toland continue to work full tilt. Notkins father once asked how he was planning for retirement. He replied, I dont have any extra money to put away. And besides, what will I do? Pick up some hobby like maybe ceramic art?

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Phoebe Toland and Dick Notkin - Artists Share a Life - Keypennews

If you are looking to create the perfect website or share and access information from any device, then SharePoint is the best solution. Representing the ever-growing SAAS (Software as a Service) market, SharePoint has been proven unstoppable because of its scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. This collaborative system will not only automate your workflow processes but also empower your professional team to work as a cohesive unit.

According to https://blog.virtosoftware.com/how-to-add-web-part-in-sharepoint/, SharePoint has a lot more to offer than its basic features. After all, its main goal is to free users from limitations that come with sharing tools. Thanks to its constant evolution, an array of new SharePoint features have been introduced. If you are specific with your requirements, you will enjoy the best SharePoint web parts of 2020. They include:

New tile web part

Promoting better visibility, the new tiles web part on SharePoint makes it easy to view all of your selected content. Whether it is a blog post or an announcement, you can find them all in one area. Thus, you will not have to spend hours looking for the information that you want to find. The news layout, as well as the type of news that you want to read, can be configured to suit preferences. Want to select specific news items? The property filter will work wonders.

Quick links web part

This web part is designed for the sole purpose of defining menu items, personal links and the customization of your SharePoint presentation. Even better is the fact that it can be used with SharePoint versions of 2010, 203 and 2016. While the web part embraces new advancements, it also modifies previous SharePoint versions.

Tiles web part

In comparison to the new tile web part that is all about better visibility, the tile web part focuses on good navigation. It makes it easy to include everything you want in a single homepage without having to create multiple pages. Even with all the information that is included on the homepage, the tile web part ensures that navigation remains easy. In other words, it promotes better functionality. https://blog.virtosoftware.com/how-to-add-web-part-in-sharepoint/ states that this web part can customize your page, configure its tiles, have a backdrop and still maintain its flawlessness.

Chart web part

Your presentation can be more appealing ad distinctive if you incorporate the use of charts. Just as the name suggests, the chart web part will let you represent your data using an array of charts. These include pie charts, donut charts, horizontal charts, vertical charts and much more. Using a convenient filter option, you can type in the name of the chart that you want to use and get started. Needless to say, charts will elevate your page by adding great visualization elements.

Image menu carousel web part

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words and SharePoints image menu carousel is the true representation of that. While SharePoint already contains a picture library, this new web part will go the extra mile to display the title of the image and offer a short description. It also allows you to choose the number of images that you want to display, the rotation speed and the number of words that can be displayed alongside every image.

Hero web part

If you want to add a compelling design element to your page, Hero is the perfect web part for you. Here, there are no limitations whatsoever. This web part enables you to display multiple items on your page. It makes it easy to draw attention to every element on the page because of the use of links, text captions, colors, and images. If you want your page to stand out, the background color or image option will do.

List search web part

The list search web part will read your SharePoint collection of lists. No matter where your list is located, this web part will locate, identify and read it. In instances where you want to include the number of lists in your page, click on this web part and they will be displayed. Additionally, this list search option also comes with sorting and filtering options.There you go! The best SharePoint web parts that will be useful in 2020 and beyond! Microsoft has shared a sneak peek of these web parts as they are intended to elevate your experience with SharePoint. These web parts are the beginning of software revolution like no other. They will create reliability and deliver an enhanced hybrid experience. No matter what you want to do, these web parts can be customized according to your needs. For more information, consult https://blog.virtosoftware.com/how-to-add-web-part-in-sharepoint/.

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The Best SharePoint Web Parts of 2020 - 1redDrop

As the 21st century teeters between its teens and its twenties, its a perfect time to take stock of an eventful decade. Over the next week, well be exploring the forces that have shaped the design world over the past 10 years. Next up, BOH contributor Sophie Donelson weighs in on the home-related trends, aesthetics and ideas that mattered most.

Going Full KondoWith her seminal 2014 book, Marie Kondo delivered a new framework for assessing the blossoming stuff-piles in our homes. All at once, everyone from your assistant to your sister-in-law was dog-earing The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and wondering: Does it spark joy? (Dumpy cardigan sweater: no. Vintage matchbook: yes, actually.) So vast was its reachand powerful its proselytizersthat for a while, you could divide your friend group into those who were Kondo-ing and those who were keto-ing. And only one group gained it all back a month later. Combining notes of minimalism, a dash of wellness, and a bingeable Netflix special, Kondos movement is the ur-trend of the last decade, wrapping up everything we felt about home into a tidy, joy-sparking package.

Chip & Joanna-fication The TV-famous Texan couple has exerted a colossal influence on mass American design tastes, even after Fixer Uppers five-year run ended in 2018. Lets just say this: There are small towns in Kentucky that estimate losing 20 barns a year thanks to barnwood thieves. Fueled by the markets obsession with modern farmhouse style, the bandits pocket up to $2 a plank, but all we have to show for it is another replicant kitchen to post on Houzz. You could argue that the popularity of rough-hewn materials is a paean to our countrys agrarian roots, or a defiant revolt against an era of facial recognition and robot overlords. Or you could hope for more color and less shiplap in 2020.

Millennial PinkIt was the summer of 2016 when The Cut ran an article about a particular pink, a hue somewhere between a Band-Aid and a newborn piglet, that seemed to be everywhere that millennials were. Or, at least everywhere people were marketing to millennials, from the interiors of the trendy womens co-working chain The Wing to the branding of bucket-bag designer Mansur Gavriel and cult beauty brand Glossier. The color had both newness and sophisticationnot easy for a pink. And though not everyone could wear it, its application on items from KitchenAid mixers to key fobs made it hard to avoid at home. In the future, it may be considered the avocado green or harvest yellow of the 2010s, but at least it had a point of view.

Madeline WeinribCourtesy of Madeline Weinrib

Suzani & IkatLets get one thing straight: Ethnic textiles arent a fad. Theyre a woven manifestation of generations of culture and meaning. From a Western design world perspective however, these two patterns were downright daring when they entered the collective want-list via Elle Decor during the heady, global-glam Margaret Russell years (she helmed the title from 2000 to 2010), with textile designer Madeline Weinrib leading the charge. At the time, both motifs were unquestionably daring (again, by Western standards). Over the past decade, they became part of the mainstream, and today you can browse 22,000 ikat pillows on Etsy.

Hygge Propelled by the tongue-twisting word itself (say it with me: HYOO-guh), the benevolent cultural appropriation of the Danish art of coziness took morning shows and the gift-book market by storm. Or did it? This trendlet was a nonstarter. Dont be mistaken: Our curiosity was real! If Scandinavians could find comfort and warmth in a season with low-single-digit daylight hours, then maybe we could pull through a morose February indoors. But it turned out hygge wasnt just chunky knits and candlesits soul rests on the fellowship of friends, communal cooking, nature walks and even board games ... Its a way of life, not a quick trip to West Elm. This hard-core relaxing turned out to be better suited for a nation of socialized medical care, maybe not for those of us still hustlin.

Instagramming Your Shoes on Tile or TerrazzoIts the decor equivalent of Instagramming your eggs benedict: an overhead shot looking down at chic shoes on to-die-for tilework. Who among us isnt guilty of posting an #ihavethisthingwithfloors pic? (Not even when you were in Italy? Really?) Over the past decade, as Instagram tightened its stranglehold on our collective consciousness, cute hashtags suddenly had the power to drive trends and move the marketthe folks in Carrera must have lost their marble(s) when they realized how much free media they were getting. But honestly, tile and natural stone are cool and the digital universes adoption of chic flooring was perfectly timed to our recovery from a collective Beni Ourain hangover that just. wouldnt. quit. Marble has delighted for a millennia. The 2010s proved it has another millennia left in it.

PinterestBest worst thing ever. Or worst best? It depends on who you ask. Opened up to the hoi polloi in 2011 as a catalog of ideas, the board enjoyed a hockey-stick curve of popularity thanks to rabid wedding planners and, quickly thereafter, bloggers. To design professionals, it became part blessing and part curse. Magazine publishers panicked: So, were going to pay for a photography team, stylist and writerand then youre just going to publish our images for free? Plenty of decorators reviled it for being reductive and simplistic. Others recognized the game-changing power of offering a visual encyclopedia to the masses. Charlotte Moss told the BOH podcast recently that before Pinterest, clients had no way to articulate what styles they enjoyed. A pin board changed that. And lots more, thats for sure.

The Brand Formerly Known as Restoration Hardware It might just be the story of the decade. In 2010, the store that was then called Restoration Hardware began its transformation from listless trinket vendor to upscale lifestyle juggernaut. The name change followed six years later and with it the democratization of Belgian linen and the return of a glamorous, intoxicatingly scented retail gallery experience. But lets not forget the missteps: the desk that looked like a riveted vintage airplane; the knockoffs; and the 17-pound, 3,000-page 2014 catalog, signaling both the rebirth of catalogs and the death of god knows how many trees. (Take that, September issue!) RH rounds out the decade as one of the best-known home brands ... even if everyone still calls it Resto. In the words of the proverbial would-be client: Why would I hire a designer when I could just walk into RH and get it all done for me? Disruptive is an overused term, but it applies here.

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Sophie Donelson speaks and writes about the connection between people and their homes. She presents frequently to audiences in and beyond the design community; recent venues include the Design Influencers Conference, 92nd Street Y, the Dallas Womans Club, and the BOH Future of Home conference. She was previously editor in chief of House Beautiful and has been a guest expert on the Today Show and Good Morning America. In 2017, Sophie published the best-selling Style Secrets: What Every Room Needs.

Homepage photo: The Wing in SoHo, awash in millennial pink | Tory Williams Photography, courtesy of The Wing

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8 design ideas that defined the decade - Business of Home

The Redmond parks and recreation department updated the city council on the status of the Redmond Senior Center (RSC) at its Dec. 3 regular meeting.

In January, council adopted the facilities strategic management plan that identified RSCs mid-life improvements. The city identified RSC in the six-year capital investment program (CIP) for renovation and set aside $15 million for this work. Mid-life repairs and maintenance included the exterior envelope and mechanical systems.

In May, two stucco panels fell off the back exterior corner of the building, near the loading dock. The city contracted a structural engineering firm (KPG) in June for further assessment and inspectors confirmed extensive structural damage to the exterior walls and substantial impact on both the lateral and gravity systems. This evaluation and at the recommendation of the consultant (Swenson Say Faget), the city closed and vacated the RSC on Sept. 5 to allow for the ongoing investigation of the building interior, exterior and roof.

RSC programs

Carrie Hite, Redmond parks and recreation director, updated council on the centers activity relocations and the next steps.

The timeline of the relocations began in September, right after the closure. Parks staff relocated programs, rentals and events to alternate locations with the goal to mitigate the impact customers and visitors, according to Hite. Senior activities are being held at City Hall in various rooms, the Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village (RCCMV), the Old Fire House Teen Center, the Public Safety Building, the art studio at Grass Lawn Park and St. Jude Catholic Church. The city has been able to continue most of the services for seniors at these various locations. The lunch program is held every Thursday at City Hall Bytes Cafe. Seniors are also encouraged to visit Bellevue and Kirklands food programs every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Come January 2020, Hite said staff will start transporting seniors from City Hall to RCCMV. The parks and recreation department continues to communicate and update seniors every Wednesday via snail mail, email and fliers that are located at every program relocation.

Building findings and repairs

In October, the citys construction team contracted with HDR Engineering, Inc. to further evaluate the internal and external integrity of the building, roof, roof structure and framing and sheathing integrity. HDRs work also included a cost estimate for renovations and a recommendation based on their experience and expertise. A final report was submitted to the city on Nov. 25.

HDRs investigation found extensive water damage in the exterior walls of the building. The damage was from outdated and poor construction. The damage was not evident without multiple investigation openings cut into the tile, stucco, roof and interior walls. According to Eric Dawson, senior engineer for the city, the roof and interior wall structures were not damaged. The water intrusion came from wall penetrations (windows, vents, doors, trims) and caused damage to the structural stud walls and plywood sheathing behind the stucco and tile.

The consultant determined that the building should no be occupied until all structural repairs can be made to the entire building. At this point, partial repairs to the building are not an option. The consultant also determined the cost of the structural repairs combined with the cost of the renovation that is already programmed in the 2014-24 CIP. Dawson said the cost of the structural repairs is about $4 million to $5 million. Combined with the CIP renovation project, the total will be about $20 million to repair the building. The estimated cost to demolish and rebuild a new center is about $21 million.

Possible options

The council was left with three possible options to consider.

The first option is to allocate additional funds and continue with the improvement plan, including structural integrity. This would be the renovation project of the current building. Option two is to allocate additional funds, demolish and rebuild. Several options are under the demolish and rebuild option like finding a senior center that is similar to RSC (same square footage and spot, except out of the critical area), or look at the community centers report that the council adopted last year or look into a senior/community center with partnership opportunities. The last option is to demolish the center and absorb the programs in the current facilities. Hite said its estimated the center will re-open in two and a half years if renovated and three years if the center is demolished and rebuilt.

Many of the councilmembers including Hank Myers, Steve Fields, and Angela Birney agreed with the rebuild option for the center.

Next steps

Parks staff will be working with a senior advisory committee and the recreation community stakeholder group to explore options to move forward. Staff will schedule another update with council in the first quarter of the new year to discuss policy direction for the RSC.

For more information, go to the council meeting agenda item online at http://www.redmond.gov/council.

Exterior of the facility. Stephanie Quiroz/staff photo

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Redmond Senior Center estimated to re-open in two and a half to three years - Redmond Reporter