Faith-based maternity homes ‘create a haven’ in states with strict abortion laws

• October 6, 2023

Anna Claire Vollers | (TNS) Stateline.org

CHILTON COUNTY, Ala. — At the end of a gravel road that runs through a wooded property in Chilton County, Alabama, a plain white two-story house sits overlooking a small pond.

Outside the house, everything is tranquil: The swings on the new playground nearby are quiet, the pond is still, the rocking chairs lined up on the covered front porch rest vacant.

Inside, the house is a hive of activity on a sunny morning in mid-September. Volunteers mop floors and carry plastic tubs of supplies to the upstairs bedrooms while contractors install stair railings and touch up paint in the hallways.

In the middle of it all is Ashley Liveoak, executive director of an anti-abortion pregnancy resource center in nearby Clanton, a small town known mainly for its peach farms, nestled along Interstate 65 between Birmingham and Montgomery.

Liveoak’s center has been renovating the 11-bedroom house to open it this month as a maternity home, a type of group housing for pregnant and new single mothers. She named the home Selah’s Oasis. Selah is a Hebrew word found in the Bible, at the end of verses in the Psalms, usually interpreted to mean rest, pause or reset.

“Just because abortion is now illegal in the state of Alabama, people think we’ve won,” said Liveoak, whose Christian-based pregnancy resource center offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting classes, Bible study, baby supplies and other services for pregnant women, while counseling against abortion.

“That was a great victory that God provided, but there’s still work to be done,” she said. “And the next step for us is offering maternity housing to these women who need it.”

Many states with the nation’s strictest anti-abortion laws, such as Alabama, also tend to be states where families face high maternal and infant mortality rates, high rates of poverty, and poor access to obstetrical providers, health insurance and child care.

In places where the social safety net is threadbare, maternity homes can offer a soft place to land.

And their numbers are growing.

“In the last 12 months we’ve seen a 21% increase in new maternity homes opening. As far as I can find, that is the largest concentrated jump in numbers that we’ve ever seen,” said Valerie Harkins, director of the Maternity Housing Coalition, a nonprofit that provides support to maternity home operators. It’s part of Heartbeat International, a network that trains and equips pregnancy resource centers around the world in how to dissuade people from having abortions.

Harkins said she initially assumed the rise in numbers of maternity homes was due to new state abortion restrictions. The increase was particularly marked in the Midwest. But after talking with maternity home operators around the country, she said, the reality is less clear-cut.

Many told her their expansion has had less to do with lack of abortion access and more to do with addressing the waves of crises —a shortage of affordable housing and child care, paychecks shrunken by inflation — that have hit parents particularly hard since the pandemic.

“Our moms find that it’s difficult to find a job that pays a livable wage, impossible to find a home they can afford and impossible to find child care, never mind child care that’s affordable,” said Harkins. “This is where these maternity homes are stepping in. Many are expanding with services that haven’t broadly existed in the past.”

As conservative state lawmakers look for ways to support pregnant women after championing anti-abortion legislation, some have turned to pregnancy resource centers, many of them Christian-based, funneling public dollars toward them and, in some cases, to the maternity homes they operate.

But critics caution that the free help maternity homes provide comes with strings attached.

They usually require residents to participate in classes and multi-step programs and obey house rules around curfews and cellphone use. They also may require residents to attend Bible study or church services to continue living there.

Andrea Swartzendruber is a public health researcher and epidemiologist at the University of Georgia who studies crisis pregnancy centers. She has noticed a rise in maternity homes aligned with pregnancy centers too.

“Some of the concerns have always been around who gets housing and how they are using it,” she said. “I worry they use the opportunity of attaining housing to potentially coerce people into childbirth.”

‘God will provide’

Each bedroom at Selah’s Oasis is named after a name given to God, such as “Adonai” or “El Shaddai.” Local churches and community groups decorated the bedrooms, providing furniture, baby supplies and art. A welcome basket sits at the foot of the bed in each bedroom, filled with items such as blankets, diaper bags, mugs, toiletries, books and a Bible.

Communal living spaces include a classroom, a large kitchen, a laundry room and a living room with computer stations. All the funding for Selah’s Oasis comes from private donations, Liveoak said.

“We do not use federal grants because a lot of times they try to put stipulations on sharing the gospel, and we are not willing to sacrifice that in order to have funds,” she said. “But God has been faithful. We still need some monthly financial support, but I believe God will provide it.”

Earlier this year, Alabama lawmakers attempted to pass a state tax credit that might have helped pregnancy resource centers like hers. It passed the House but stalled in the Senate; supporters expect it to be brought back in next year’s session. The credit was similar to ones recently passed in Mississippi and Louisiana, which use millions in taxpayer dollars to subsidize tax breaks for people and corporations that donate to pregnancy resource centers.

Aside from tax credits, at least 18 states directly fund pregnancy resource centers through state grants and by funneling federal welfare dollars to them, according to Equity Forward, a research and watchdog group focused on reproductive rights.

States including Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas have directed public money toward nonprofit maternity homes directed by anti-abortion pregnancy centers. State regulations vary when it comes to prohibiting organizations from having religious discussions with pregnant clients.

Swartzendruber, the University of Georgia researcher, said she’s concerned about state reliance on programs that don’t offer clients the full scope of reproductive options. She worries that women in need of assistance might base decisions about remaining pregnant — which could impact their health, career and finances — on being able to access stable housing.

“This is about who gets housing and who doesn’t,” she said. “Will [maternity homes] turn away people who need help but aren’t aligned with the crisis pregnancy center’s anti-abortion goals?”

Maternity homes differ from domestic violence shelters, which typically offer emergency housing for a short period of time. Maternity homes often are structured to allow a pregnant woman to live at the home during and after her pregnancy, in some cases for months or even years after the baby is born. Some allow a pregnant person’s other children to live there with her.

They also tend to be lightly regulated, aside from having to follow typical building codes and local ordinances. In states such as Alabama, if the pregnant residents and new moms are over 18, the maternity home does not have to be registered with the state’s family services agency.

In Georgia last year, lawmakers passed a law designed to make it easier to open maternity homes. Supported by the anti-abortion Georgia Life Alliance, the law created a new category of homes for pregnant women over age 18, calling them “maternity supportive housing residences” and exempting them from the kind of state regulation that governs maternity homes for pregnant teens.

“All we’re attempting to do is create a haven for pregnant ladies who need a safe place to go, have their child, have an opportunity to bond with their child, have an opportunity to build an offramp back into communities so they can be productive and happy citizens,” said Republican state Sen. Randy Robertson, who sponsored the bill, in an address to the state House’s Health and Human Services committee.

More to come

At Heartbeat International’s annual Pregnancy Help Conference this year, maternity housing was one of the main programming topics, according to Heartbeat International’s news outlet, Pregnancy Help News.

About 450 maternity homes currently operate in the United States, according to the Maternity Housing Coalition. Harkins said about 180 of those are affiliated with Heartbeat International.

“What we’re finding with housing is that this is the next chapter” for pregnancy resource organizations, she said. “After we see [a client] through her pregnancy, what does it look like as she’s raising and loving that child, if that’s what she’s chosen? While other affiliates are on the front lines working on more immediate crises, maternity homes are working on the long-term, perpetual crisis.”

Liveoak said she received training and advice on launching her maternity home at Heartbeat International conferences, from how to set up the client intake process to how to structure the application and other forms. A consultant from a maternity home in Texas even came out to meet with her and her board.

Liveoak said the need for pregnancy services in her area, and especially for housing, has been overwhelming. Her resource center typically serves about 400 clients per year but had already reached that number by September. She expects to see 500-600 clients by the end of the year.

Selah’s Oasis will open with four residents. Liveoak employs a “house mom” who stays with the residents each night, as well as an activities coordinator and a case manager. Residents must be at least 19 years old and are required to participate in parenting and pregnancy classes, as well as attend church services each Wednesday and Sunday at a local church. The house has a curfew. A local organization donated an SUV to transport residents to doctor’s appointments, work and other places.

Harkins expects to see the number of maternity homes continue to increase because they fill an urgent need — especially for women who are struggling to stay sober, have aged out of foster care or are fleeing domestic violence.

“There’s this picture of [a maternity home resident] as a down-on-her-luck woman who can pull herself up by her bootstraps and live a happy life, just her and her baby,” said Harkins. But that image doesn’t account for the economic, educational, psychological and emotional barriers many of these women face, she said.

“Those that are providing housing for them are doing the hard work every day that often goes overlooked.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2023 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump lawyers seek to halt civil fraud suit in New York

• October 6, 2023

By Michael R. Sisak | Associated Press

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a New York appeals court Friday to halt his Manhattan civil fraud trial while they fight a court ruling that calls for dissolving companies that control some of the former president’s most prized assets, including Trump Tower.

Trump’s lawyers asked the state’s intermediate appellate court to suspend the trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit and prevent Judge Arthur Engoron from enforcing his ruling of last week, which revokes the Republican frontrunner’s business licenses and puts a court-appointed receiver in charge of his companies.

Engoron “clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos (his) decision has wrought,” Trump lawyers Clifford Robert, Michael Farina and Michael Madaio wrote in a 41-page appellate brief filed as the non-jury trial entered its fifth day of testimony.

Taking Trump’s companies “will unquestionably inflict severe and irreparable harm,” not only on Trump and other defendants, but employees and others “who depend on the affected entities for their livelihoods,” Trump’s lawyers argued.

The companies are “suspended in uncertainty and ostensibly can no longer pay their employees,” and the status of any New York bank accounts or property they maintain is unclear, they wrote.

The appellate court last week rejected the defense’s last-minute effort to delay the trial just days before it began. On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers dropped a lawsuit they filed against Engoron as part of that challenge.

The appellate court was to hear oral arguments in the appeal Friday afternoon, hours after the trial wrapped up for the week.

James’ office said it was willing to discuss delaying enforcement of Engoron’s ruling until after the trial and a decision on six remaining claims in her lawsuit against Trump and other defendants. But, only if the trial proceeds as scheduled, Senior Assistant Solicitor General Dennis Fan wrote in a letter to the appellate court.

Fan argued against “upending an ongoing trial midstream,” noting the extensive court planning and security resources expended for Trump’s attendance, special arrangements for press and public access, and the impact a delay would have on witnesses who’ve cleared schedules to testify.

“The defendants can continue to try to delay and stall, but the evidence is clear, and our case is strong. We are confident justice will prevail,” James said.Engoron ruled last week that Trump committed years of fraud as he built the real estate empire that vaulted him to fame and the White House.

The judge, ruling on the top claim in James’ lawsuit, found that Trump routinely deceived banks, insurers and others by exaggerating the value of assets on his annual financial statements, which were used in making deals and securing loans.

Trump has denied wrongdoing, arguing that some of his assets are worth far more than what’s listed on the statements.

Back in court Friday, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified that values he assigned to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida — as much as $739 million in 2018 — were based on the false premise that it could be sold as a private residence. Such use is prohibited by Trump’s 2002 agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“Were you aware that Mr. Trump had deeded away his right to use the property for any other purpose than a social club?” state lawyer Andrew Amer asked.”I was not aware,” said McConney, who’s also a defendant in this case.

Barring a stay, the trial will resume Tuesday with Trump’s longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg on the witness stand. Weisselberg, a defendant, oversaw Trump’s dealmaking, was involved in securing loans and supervised McConney’s work on the financial statements. He left jail in April after serving about 100 days for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks.

As the trial was unfolding this week, Engoron issued an order Thursday setting procedures for enforcing his ruling. He gave both sides until Oct. 26 to submit names of potential receivers and gave Trump and other defendants seven days to provide a court-appointed monitor, retired federal judge Barbara Jones, with a list of all entities covered by the ruling.

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He also ordered the defendants to give Jones advance notice of any application for new business licenses in any jurisdiction and any attempts to create new entities to “hold or acquire the assets” of a company that’s being dissolved under the ruling.

Trump’s lawyers argued that Engoron had “no rationale or legal authority” to impose what they described as “the corporate death penalty.” They also rapped the judge for not being clear in explaining the real world effects of his decision.

At a pretrial hearing on Sept. 26, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise pressed Engoron to clarify whether his ruling meant Trump would be required simply to close up some corporate entities or if he’d be forced to relinquish some of his most prized assets.

Engoron said he wasn’t “prepared to issue a ruling right now.”

“Perhaps most alarming is (the court’s) incomprehension of the sweeping and significant consequences of its own ruling,” Trump’s lawyers said in their appeal Friday, describing Engoron’s ruling as an “overbroad directive that sows confusion and chaos in its implementation.”

​ Orange County Register 

Rams WR Cooper Kupp expected to make season debut vs. Eagles

• October 6, 2023

THOUSAND OAKS — Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp is expected to make his season debut in Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles, head coach Sean McVay said Friday.

McVay added that there could be unforeseen setbacks, but Kupp is feeling healthy and has looked like himself since beginning to practice on Wednesday.

“You can’t ever really simulate the game in these practice settings, especially once you get a quarter of the way into the season,” McVay said. “But he’s very comfortable, he’s so conscientious, he looks like he’s moving around really well. Seeing good things between he and Matthew with a lot of their non-verbal communication. Just having his presence out there is definitely a boost. So I’m really happy for him.”

Kupp missed the first four games of the season with a hamstring pull suffered at the beginning of training camp and then aggravated by a setback in the final week of the preseason. He flew to see a specialist in Minnesota because there were elements of his injury that weren’t acting like a typical soft-tissue pull.

But nothing new arose, and the Rams made the decision to put Kupp on injured reserve for at least the first four weeks of the season, allowing him the time and patience to heal on his body’s schedule and not dictated by the NFL’s.

“That was always in the back of his mind because he’s such a conscientious guy and you feel obligated,” McVay said. “I think there was a benefit of just the overall time to have a good rehabilitation program that was structured towards just building the overall strength and trying to eliminate some of the, whether it’s the sensations or the things that weren’t in alignment when the muscle strain, whatever that was, he’s feeling good now and I think the time was beneficial for that.”

Sunday would be Kupp’s first game since he suffered a season-ending high ankle sprain in Week 9 last year. That injury required off-season surgery that limited Kupp during OTAs. But he had looked like his old self during the first week of training camp, making acrobatic catches that left defensive backs hanging their heads.

The Rams will be monitoring and communicating with Kupp during the game Sunday to see how much of a workload he is capable of taking on rather than entering the game with a set number of snaps that he can play.

“That’ll be something we want to be careful about, but it’ll be a lot of that communication in terms of how he’s feeling as well because he has such a good ability to do that with myself and the rest of our coaches,” McVay said. “The beauty of it is with him being out, there’s been a lot of guys that have stepped up and we’ve been able to develop some depth and guys have earned the right to get out on the field and contribute.”

Noteboom out Sunday

The Rams have some good and bad news along the offensive line entering Sunday. We’ll start with the bad, regardless of your preference, because we already teased it above.

Right guard Joe Noteboom (groin) will be out against the Eagles, McVay said. Kevin Dotson will continue to fill in at right guard, as he did last week when Noteboom played left tackle.

But the Rams are expected to get their starting left tackle, Alaric Jackson, back on Sunday after he was a limited participant in practice on Friday. Jackson missed the Week 4 win over the Colts with a hamstring injury, but he’s progressed enough that he can return. Rookie Warren McClendon will serve as his backup, McVay added.

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​ Orange County Register 

Bezos vs. Musk: Launch of Amazon test satellites latest salvo in billionaire duel

• October 6, 2023

In the battle of space-minded billionaires, Elon Musk has paved the way with SpaceX as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has had to play catchup with his company Blue Origin. The first launch of a pair of satellites for Amazon set for Friday could prove to be both a boon for the future of Blue Origin and also give Musk some serious competition for one of SpaceX’s money-making ventures.

The duo of test internet-providing satellites are the first for Amazon’s Project Kuiper. The Project Kuiper Protoflight is scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 with a two-hour launch window that opens at 2 p.m.

Space Launch Delta 45 forecasts an 70% chance of favorable weather conditions for launch, and 85% in the event of a 24-hour delay.

Amazon has plans to launch 3,236 of the satellites, with the majority flying from Cape Canaveral on either Bezos’ Blue Origin New Glenn rockets or ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rockets, which will use Blue Origin engines on their first stage.

While Bezos retired from his role of president and CEO of Amazon in 2021, he has remained executive chairman of the board, helping steer its decisions, including where pieces of what the company has said would be a $10 billion overall investment in the program.

Included in that is $120 million to construct a satellite processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center’s former Shuttle Landing Facility set to begin operations by 2025.

The megaconstellation will be a direct competitor for SpaceX’s Starlink, which to date has launched more than 5,200 of its satellites, and garnered more than 1 million internet-service subscribers through the end of 2022. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, that’s far less than the projected 20 million the company expected when Starlink was being pitched to investors.

Amazon to set up $120 million Space Coast shop in competition with SpaceX’s Starlink

“They are going full steam ahead with deploying their constellations,” said Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who keeps detailed accounts of satellites in space. He notes the low-Earth orbit currently is approaching 8,000 satellites, the majority of which are from SpaceX, which sent up its first Starlink in 2019, when there were less than 2,000 in orbit.

There could be between 10,000 and 20,000 by the end of this decade and close to 100,000 by 2040, he said noting there are plans for similar satellite constellations from the Chinese, Russia and other private companies including OneWeb.

“What those timescales really are is hard to say,” he said. “It depends on funding. It depends on how profitable these things end up being.”

Blue Origin wins NASA contract to join SpaceX for moon landings

The launch is the latest game of catchup for Bezos’ companies, which have lost out to SpaceX on several fronts. including a lucrative Department of Defense launch contract that passed over Blue Origin’s New Glenn. NASA also chose SpaceX’s Starship to be the initial human landing system for the Artemis III mission that aims to return humans to the moon, although NASA eventually tapped Blue Origin to pursue a second commercial lander.

Musk has used social media to rib Bezos at every turn while Bezos has gone to court to battle government agency choices when SpaceX comes out on top.

“Turns out [Bezos] retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX,” Musk posted at one point on Twitter, now X.

Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021

When Amazon announced it would pursue Project Kuiper, Musk tweeted at Bezos that he was a copycat with the help of an emoji.

Amazon, though, with its built-in customer base could reap the benefits of providing what it touts will be “fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world.” And while SpaceX has a head start, delays in its next-generation Starship have also meant delays in its deployment plans for bigger Starlink satellites.

One of the issues facing Amazon’s plans, though, are deadlines set by the Federal Communications Commission, which require Amazon to have at least half of the total constellation in orbit by July 31, 2026, and the entire string deployed by July 30, 2029.

The decision by Amazon to contract with ULA, Blue Origin and Arianespace with its Ariane 6 rocket, all of which remain in development and have yet to make it off the launch pad, has delayed timelines to the point that reaching the FCC milestones could prove impossible. The FCC has not indicated it would allow any sort of extension on the initial license.

Amazon has kept under wraps details about the prototype satellites, named Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2, including how many will be able to launch in each of the heavy-lift rockets.

“Competition often makes things mysterious and exciting,” ULA CEO and President Tory Bruno said this week about the lack of detail on the payloads and launch timeline for this initial Atlas V launch.

Amazon has eight more Atlas V launches that can begin taking up more starting in 2024.

But Atlas V rockets can carry only between 18,000 and 41,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit depending on how many solid rocket boosters it uses. Steve Metayer, Amazon’s vice president of Kuiper production operations, said Atlas V launches will be capable of taking up a couple dozen per launch.

So after all of the Atlas V launches, that’s less than 200 with likely only two years and change left among its other rocket contracts to get a further 1,400 into orbit before the midpoint deadline.

Vulcan Centaur can carry up to 60,000 pounds to low Earth orbit, so it will be able to get more in space. It could be ready to fly before the end of the year. Still, Amazon has to sign off on its test satellites, then ramp up production, ship them to Florida for final fueling and prep, and rely on ULA’s Atlas launches until Vulcan is ready to taken them up as well.

Blue Origin and Arianespace have yet to announce when they will try their two rockets’ first launches.

All three of the heavy lift rockets were supposed to be up and running already, some as early as 2020, but all have faced delays.

Amazon taps Blue Origin, ULA to launch thousands of satellites from Space Coast

One Amazon shareholder, Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery last month against Bezos and the rest of the Amazon board of directors, saying Bezos’ ongoing and public feud with Musk drove the decision to ignore SpaceX as a potential ride to space for its satellites.

“The Amazon Board knowingly abdicated its fiduciary duties and acted in bad faith,” the lawsuit states, citing the lower cost of SpaceX compared to other rocket companies that can routinely hit $100 million per launch as well as the pace with which it’s already launching.

SpaceX has managed 70 launches so far this year alone from its Florida and California pads including dozens for its own Starlink satellites. Musk has said he has no issue working with competitors, having launched OneWeb satellites for instance after that company’s plans to launch on Russian rockets fell through due to the invasion of Ukraine.

In the end, after ULA’s nine Atlas V launches are complete, the remaining contracts with Blue Origin, ULA and Arianespace, the terms of which have not been revealed, is the largest procurement of launches at one time ever made — up to 83 — according to Amazon, and Bezos will be benefiting from nearly 80% of those.

​ Orange County Register 

‘Loki’ review: Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan joins the Marvel series in a chaotic Season 2

• October 6, 2023

Nina Metz | Chicago Tribune

Just two years and three months after “Loki” first premiered on Disney+ — a mere 27 months! — the Marvel series is back for a second season. If you’re detecting sarcasm, there’s the irony that a show about time has really stretched the boundaries of a reasonable gap between seasons.

Those more dedicated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe might not see it that way, but it feels like a blunder. The first season built so much momentum, with Tom Hiddleston’s endlessly entertaining Loki, the Norse god of mischief, getting a taste of his own medicine down in the bowels of the Orwellian-sounding Time Variance Authority, before teaming up with Owen Wilson’s laconic TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius to … honestly? Don’t even recall.

But the fate of the universe is at stake! And Jonathan Majors’ Kang, the agent of chaos also known as He Who Remains, is somehow at the root of it all.

Majors, you may recall, is in the midst of some real world problems of his own. Earlier this year, the actor was charged with assaulting and harassing his then-girlfriend, and the court case is ongoing. He’s also been accused of acting violently or abusively in other workplace settings. All of which casts a pall over his appearance here. Even his performance — primarily as one of the character’s variants, a nutty professor type named Victor Timely — feels like something pulled from a bag of tricks left over from a Saturday morning cartoon, full of clunky choices and a halting delivery. “We don’t need him,” a character says at one point. “Maybe we never did.” It’s a line that works as commentary on Majors’ presence, as if the series were all but (unintentionally) acknowledging the obvious.

The six-episode season picks up where the story left off, with Loki running for his life through the halls of the TVA where he’s pursued by Mobius, who doesn’t seem to recognize the guy. That’s because Loki is time-slipping and we’re in the past, before he and Mobius became acquainted.

Owen Wilson, left, as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Season 2 of “Loki.” The fate of the Time Variance Authority hangs in the balance and these two might just be its saviors. (Gareth Gatrell/Marvel Studios/Disney+/TNS)

Finally, Loki gets Mobius to call off the dogs and listen. A war is coming, he warns. And it all comes down to He Who Remains.

Mobius: “Is that what you’re calling him or is that his name?”

Loki: “That’s how I was introduced.”

Mobius: “Pretty arrogant. It’s like calling yourself Last Man Standing.”

Wilson underplays everything, regardless of the project, and it works here to give the series some ballast. I especially like a quieter moment between the pair, sitting down for a slice of Key lime pie and considering their options. What show couldn’t stand to pause things for a bit of pie?

Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) joins the cast as Ouroboros, nicknamed OB, who is the TVA equivalent of the I.T. department. There’s a clever bit where he, Loki and Mobius play around with ways — mid-time slippage — to resolve Loki’s problem.

But they ultimately have bigger issues at hand, namely a battle for the soul of the TVA, which is on the verge of collapse. Entire timelines will vanish and people will die (a proposition more abstract than meaningful, despite many heartfelt speeches to the contrary) and there are considerable worries about the temporal look, whatever that is. If you suddenly feel like you’re failing a physics class, welcome to the club. But Quan’s a terrific addition to the cast, frantically running around the TVA shouting jargon and attempting to rig a fix. You half expect him to borrow a line from another franchise altogether: “I’m giving her all she’s got, captain!”

It’s probably best to approach “Loki” as pure action-adventure, never mind the story. (Spoiler: There is no story.) It’s a series of set pieces, some better than others. When Loki and Mobius go to a movie premiere, the sight of Hiddleston looking dapper in a tux offers a flicker of the James Bond that he might have been.

They travel through different time branches (sparingly) and we get just the tiniest taste of them (Mobius really) noodling around during a sojourn to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago to gather up Victor Timely and bring him back to the TVA so that his aura can be scanned in order to get the blast doors open. Bravo to the ensemble for saying these lines with a straight face.

If there’s a thematic thread to “Loki” I wish writer Eric Martin had pursued with some vigor, it’s this: The TVA’s workers have all been kidnapped from their respective time branches, their memories wiped to better function as drones. Buried in there is maybe a critique of the heavy hand of capitalism, but the show moves on from it, lickety split. Nothing to see here, folks!

The retro-futuristic production design (from Kasra Farahani) is the show’s calling card, with bulky computers, rotary phones, reel-to-reel machines and pneumatic tubes. There’s even an Automat at the TVA. Love that detail. Costume designer Christine Wada has dressed the TVA’s office workers in a shirt-and-tie combo that features an endless collar that subtly extends on both sides to blend into the shoulder. It’s a fascinating garment!

If emo Loki is a bit of a drag — “Stop trying to be a hero,” someone tells him, “you’re a villain. You’re good at it. Do that” — Hiddleston gives the whole thing the patina of class. Even so, he’s not given much character motivation. Loki apparently has feelings about the fate those many unseen people who exist on all those different time branches. Visually, those branches are represented on a large screen in the control center, looking like a diagram of veins and arteries.

Too bad there’s no heart.

———

‘LOKI’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-14

How to watch: Disney+

———

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Travel: Mammoth Lake’s rustic alpine hideaways are perfect for fall

• October 6, 2023

Summer’s hot and crowded days have passed, and many of us are seeking relaxing fall escapes into nature. Here’s a tip: head east over California’s mighty Sierra Nevada to Mono County and the Mammoth Lakes region for a big dose of high elevation mountain scenery—think rushing streams, dense forest, serene lakes and fall color.

Autumn is an ideal time to visit the eastern Sierra. Crowds are light, temperatures are cooler and, even better, the region’s aspen forests provide a dazzling, albeit brief, display of fall color. (Find the latest details on those hues and a map of where colors are nearing peak display at https://californiafallcolor.com/.)

One of the best ways to immerse oneself in Mammoth’s abundant natural splendor is to overnight in a rustic cabin and live like a pioneer — 21st century-style.

There are many cabin choices in Mammoth, from historic lakeside cabins in the dense woods to more modern tiny homes set in mountain meadows. I recently spent two nights at the Alpenhof Lodge, located near Mammoth’s Village complex, and another two nights at the Double Eagle Resort & Spa at the base of 10,908-foot Carson Peak on the June Lake loop.

After a week of cabin life, I can attest that there’s no better place to plunk yourself down and bathe in nature than a cozy wooden house in the woods. Here are some of the best rustic cabin options in the Mammoth region to try out this fall:

Cabins at Mammoth Lakes

After an unhurried, day-long drive from the Bay Area over the Sierra’s dramatically steep and scenic Sonora Pass, we arrived at Mammoth Lake’s Alpine-style Alpenhof Lodge, whose entrance is embellished by an oversized Willkommen in German-style lettering.

We stayed in one of the lodge’s two-bedroom cabins, equipped with a small kitchen and fireplace and set in a woodsy setting alongside the main lodge. While not in the deep woods, the Alpenhof is in an ideal location right across from the Mammoth Village, where resort-style restaurants, bars and shops beckon, and a free open-air trolley, equipped with a bike trailer, can transport you to the world-famous Mammoth Mountain bike park and to the spectacular Mammoth Lakes Basin for picnics, fishing, hikes, mountain bike and horseback rides, and refreshing lake swims.

Mammoth Village boasts restaurants, bars and shops, as well as a free open-air trolley, equipped with a bike trailer, that can transport you to the Mammoth Mountain bike park. (Ben Davidson Photography)

Just across the street from the lodge is the paved Lakes Basin multi-use path that winds five miles up into the mountains. It’s perfect for walks, runs and road and mountain bike rides. (Class 1 e-mountain bikes are also allowed on the path and are a popular choice with cyclists.)

Enjoy the Alpenhof’s lively Clocktower cellar bar, whose multiple craft brew taps and whiskey selection are popular with the locals, and Petra’s, an excellent bistro and wine bar. Details: alpenhof-lodge.com

Mammoth Mountain Chalets, right next to the Mammoth Mountain Main Lodge, has numerous hiking and biking trails right from your doorstep — and a nearby shuttle takes explorers to Reds Meadow and Yosemite National Park. Each cabin has a private deck and a wood-burning stove. Details: mmchalets.com

Historic Tamarack Lodge and Resort is the grande dame of Mammoth Lakes Basin and oozes charm with its cabins and a rustic main lodge set on the shore of pristine Twin Lakes. Its popular, upscale Lakefront Restaurant has attracted visitors for decades. Details: mammothmountain.com

Several rustic, historic lodges also can be found in the Mammoth region. Secluded Crystal Crag Lodge, set at 9,000 feet on the shore of Lake Mary has drawn visitors here for almost a hundred years. That’s in large part thanks to the lodge’s incredible setting: a trout-filled lake, the pure mountain air and the countless tree-lined hiking and biking trails on the edge of the High Sierra backcountry. These rustic cabins are very popular and often booked a year in advance. Details: crystalcrag.com

Cabin choices abound at Mammoth, which offers historic retreats and rustic cabins, such as the secluded, century-old Crystal Crag Lodge on the shore of Lake Mary. (Courtesy Ben Davidson Photography)

The Wildyrie Lodge on Lake Mamie offers lakeside cottages with full kitchens, bathrooms and spacious sun decks with barbecues. Built in 1928, Wildyrie was one of the first hunting and fishing lodges in the Eastern Sierra. It also served as a local post office and general store. Details: wildyrielodge.com

Lake George’s Woods Lodge has rustic cabins with full kitchens and fireplaces, and many have dramatic views of the stunning scenery surrounding the property. Details: woodslodgemammoth.com

Lake George’s Woods Lodge has rustic cabins with full kitchens and fireplaces, and many offer dramatic views as well. (Ben Davidson Photography)

Sierra Meadows Ranch offers tiny home-style cabins with one bedroom and one bath and set in a scenic, wide-open meadow on the outskirts of town. Each cabin offers a full kitchen, living room and a private bedroom with queen bed, bunk beds and a sleeper sofa. Details: sierrameadowsranch.com/lodging

Just south of the town of Mammoth Lakes, Convict Lake’s cabins, each named after local fish species and landmarks are set in an aspen forest. This is one of the top spots in the region for lakeside fall color. Details: convictlake.com

Cabins at June Lake

The Double Eagle Resort & Spa is just 12 miles from the eastern entrance to Yosemite Park  and 22 miles northeast from Mammoth Lakes. The resort’s 16 cabins offer charming, rustic luxury in an aspen and pine forest.

Many are set by a trout-filled pond and a rushing creek at the base of Carson Peak, a steep-sided Sierra edifice of almost surreal beauty. Horsetail Falls, perched midway on the peak, was a torrent of snowmelt, flowing like a burst water main out of a granite wall, when I was there. Wagon wheels and old mining equipment decorate the grounds, which also houses a spa, indoor pool and the excellent Eagle’s Landing restaurant. Details: doubleeagle.com

Silver Lake Resort, just a few miles from the town of June Lake on the June Lake Loop, was established in 1916 and is one of the premier destinations for trout fishing in the Sierra. Some 17 cabins offer the perfect retreat for anglers, hikers and outdoor lovers. Details: silverlakeresort.net/cabins

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The dining scene

Alpenhof Lodge, Tamarack Lodge, Double Eagle Resort and Sierra Meadows Ranch have restaurants on property. You might also want to treat yourself to some of the many excellent restaurants and brewpubs in Mammoth Lakes. Here are some suggestions:

Set at the busy intersection of Minaret and Lake Mary Road, the spacious Mammoth Brewing Company brewery and pub offers a wide menu including ale-battered fish and chips, barbecue chicken flatbread pizzas, crispy chicken and jalapeno griddle cakes, hearty pub salads and fried chicken sandwiches with sriracha cabbage slaw. Check out details and the menu at mammothbrewingco.com.

The spacious Mammoth Brewing Company offers a beer garden and a wide menu of tasty pub fare. (Ben Davidson Photography)

Dos Alas Cafe & Lounge favors “Cubarican” dishes such as sandwiches with roasted garlic pork and ham and cheese, as well as Spanish pollo en escabeche (pickled chicken). It’s located at Sierra Meadows Ranch. Find details and peek at the menu at dosalascafe.com.

And the Warming Hut offers classic comfort food in an airy setting in Mammoth Lakes. Try the Chicken n’ Waffle for breakfast, the Cubano sandwich for lunch or the flatiron steak for dinner. Take a look at the menu at thewarminghutmammoth.com.

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What mobile clinics in Dollar General parking lots say about health care in rural America

• October 6, 2023

Sarah Jane Tribble | (TNS) KFF Health News

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — On a hot July morning, customers at the Dollar General along a two-lane highway northwest of Nashville didn’t seem to notice signs of the chain store’s foray into mobile health care, particularly in rural America.

A woman lifted a child from the back of an SUV and walked into the store. A dog barked from a black pickup truck before its owner returned with cases of soda. Another woman checked her hair in a convertible’s rearview mirror before shopping.

Each went right by a sign exclaiming “Quick, Easy Health Visits,” with an image of a mobile clinic.

Just after 10 a.m., registered nurse Kimberly French arrived to work at the DocGo mobile clinic parked in the store’s lot. She checked her schedule.

“We don’t have any appointments so far today, but that could change,” French said. “Last night we didn’t have any appointments and three or four people showed up all at one time.”

Registered Nurse Kimberly French works 10-hour shifts at the DocGo mobile clinic partnered with Dollar General. She says the pilot is “just getting off the ground” and the operation needs to gain the trust of the community. (Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News/TNS)

Dollar General, the nation’s largest retailer by number of stores, with more than 19,000, partnered with New York-based mobile medical services company DocGo to test whether they could draw more customers and tackle persistent health inequities.

Deploying mobile clinics to fill care gaps in underserved areas isn’t a new idea. But pairing them with Dollar General’s ubiquitous small-town presence has been heralded by investment analysts and some rural health experts as a way to ease the health care drought in rural America.

Dollar General’s latest annual report notes that about 80% of the company’s stores are in towns with populations of fewer than 20,000 — precisely where medical professionals are scarce.

Catering to those who want urgent or primary care, the mobile clinics take private insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare. The company’s website says DocGo’s self-pay rates start at $69 for patients without insurance or who are out of network. DocGo officials said Tennessee patients may be charged different rates but declined to provide details.

On the ground in Tennessee, primary care doctors and patients are skeptical.

“Honestly, they don’t really grasp, I don’t think, what they’re getting into,” said Brent Staton, a family medicine doctor and the leader of the Cumberland Center for Healthcare Innovation, a statewide organization that helps small-town family care doctors coordinate care and negotiate with insurers, including Medicare.

Michelle Green manages the popular Sweet Charlotte grill about 10 miles south of Dollar General’s most rural test site. Green, who was handing out hamburgers and hand-cut fries during a Saturday rush, said she hadn’t heard of the mobile clinic. She said with a shrug that Dollar General and health care clinics “don’t go together.”

“I wouldn’t want to go to a health care clinic in a parking lot; that’s just me,” Green said, adding that someone might go if “you’re sick and you can’t go anywhere else.”

Bumps in the Road

The Clarksville-area pilot, which launched last fall, is in a federally designated primary care shortage area for low-income residents.

Dollar General, the nation’s largest retailer by number of stores, with more than 19,000, has partnered with New York-based mobile medical services company DocGo. The clinic rotates between three Dollar General pilot sites each week in the Clarksville, Tennessee, area. (Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News/TNS)

About 1,000 patients have been seen in the company’s clinics, either at Dollar General sites or community pop-up events, and some became repeat visitors, according to DocGo. Payment is taken outside on a mobile device and, once inside, patients meet with an on-site staff member, like French, and connect via telehealth on an iPad screen with a physician assistant or nurse practitioner.

The clinic rotates between three Dollar General pilot sites each week. The stores are in the Clarksville area and, early this summer, the van stopped going to the most rural site, near Cumberland Furnace, because of low utilization, according to company leaders. DocGo moved that location’s time slot to busy Fort Campbell Boulevard in Clarksville.

“We do try for months in a given area to see where it makes sense and where it doesn’t,” former DocGo CEO Anthony Capone said in a July interview. “Our goal is to align the supply we have with the demand of the local community.”

Capone, though, said he thought the pilot would work in rural areas when insurers are signed on to refer their members to the mobile clinic. DocGo recently announced a deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee.

Capone abruptly resigned on Sept. 15 after the Albany Times Union reported he lied about having a graduate degree.

Dollar General stores have a “tremendous opportunity” to have “a major impact on health there and really bond themselves as a member of the community,” said Tom Campanella, the healthcare executive-in-residence at Baldwin Wallace University, who has managed mobile clinics in rural places.

William “Bubba” Murphy says he’s a fan of “the little clinic on wheels” parked outside of his local Dollar General. “We don’t have to go to town and fight all that traffic.” (Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News/TNS)

Near tiny Cumberland Furnace, south of Clarksville, William “Bubba” Murphy stopped on his way into a Dollar General, paused to wave and holler hello to friends getting out of their cars, and shared that multiple family members — his sister-in-law, nephew, and niece’s boyfriend — used and liked “the little clinic on wheels.”

“We don’t have to go to town and fight all that traffic,” he said. “They come to us. That’s a wonderful thing. It helps a lot of people.”

Over on busy Fort Campbell Boulevard in Clarksville, Marina Woolever, a mother of three, said she might use the clinic if she didn’t have insurance. Natural health professional Nichole Clemmer glanced toward the clinic and called it a “ploy” to make more money.

Jefferies lead equity analyst Corey Tarlowe, who follows discount retailers, said the clinics will help “democratize” access to health care and simultaneously boost traffic to Dollar General stores.

With its rapid growth in recent years, Dollar General has faced accusations that its stores kill off local grocery stores and other businesses, reduce employment, and contribute to the creation of food deserts. More recently, the U.S. Labor Department said the chain “continues to discount safety” for employees as it has piled up more than $21 million in federal fines.

Crystal Luce, senior director of public relations for Dollar General, said the company believes each new store provides “positive economic benefits,” including new jobs, low-cost products, and its literacy foundation. On the federal fines, Luce said Dollar General is “committed to providing a safe work environment for its associates and shopping experience for its customers.” The company declined to provide an interview.

The DocGo pilot, she wrote, is intended to “complement” the DG Wellbeing initiative, which is a corporatewide push. Dollar General wants to increase “access to basic health care products and, ultimately, services over time, particularly in rural America,” Luce wrote.

States away, DocGo is under fire for a no-bid contract to provide housing, busing, and other services for asylum-seekers in New York. State Attorney General Letitia James is investigating complaints levied by migrants under the company’s care. In August, DocGo officials said claims aired by sources in a New York Times article that first reported the problems were “not reflective of the overall scope and quality” of the services the company has provided.

The company’s pilot with Dollar General is “supported with funding from the state of Tennessee,” DocGo’s Capone said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call. The Dollar General partnership is cited in quarterly grant reports DocGo’s Rapid Reliable Testing LLC submitted to the state, according to records KFF Health News obtained through public information requests.

In the grant filing, DocGo listed Dollar General along with other organizations as “trusted messengers” in building vaccine awareness.

Dollar General declined to respond to a question about its involvement in the grant. Instead, Luce stated, “We continue to test and learn through the DocGo pilot.”

‘Relational Care’

The goal of the $2.4 million grant, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and distributed by the Tennessee Department of Health, is to administer COVID-19 vaccines. In a written response provided by DocGo’s marketing director, Amanda Shell Jennings, the company said, “Dollar General has no involvement with the TN Department of Health grant funding or allocations.”

The grant covers storage and maintenance of COVID-19 vaccines on the DocGo mobile clinics, Jennings’ statement said, adding that, as of September, DocGo has held 41 vaccine events and provided 66 vaccines to rural Tennesseans.

Lulu West, 72, was visiting a friend at the Historic Cumberland Furnace Iron Museum when she stopped to consider the mobile clinic. West said she would rather go to her primary care doctor.

“When you say mobile clinic outside a Dollar General it just kind of has a connotation that you may not be comfortable with. You know what I mean?” she said.

Carlo Pike is a doctor who owns a small practice in Clarksville, Tennessee. He says practicing family medicine is about making sure patients know he cares “about what happens to them after they leave the clinic.” (Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News/TNS)

That kind of response doesn’t surprise Carlo Pike, a doctor who for years has practiced family medicine in Clarksville. He said he’s not worried about the competition because providing primary care is about developing relationships.

“If I can do this relationship right,” Pike said, “maybe we can keep you from getting a [blood] sugar of 500 [mg/dL] or from Grandpa climbing up a ladder and trying to fix something he has no business with and falling off and breaking his leg.”

Staton said the Cumberland Center for Healthcare Innovation, his accountable care organization, has saved Medicare and Medicare Advantage companies more than $100 million by focusing on preventive care and reducing hospitalizations and emergency visits for patients.

“We’re just small rural primary care docs doing our jobs with a process that works,” Staton said. In another interview, Staton called it “relational care.”

DocGo surveyed its patients and found that 19% of them did not have a primary care physician or hadn’t seen theirs in more than a year. In the written responses Jennings provided, DocGo said it follows up with every patient after the initial visit, offers telemedicine support between visits, and provides ongoing preventive care on a regular schedule.

But despite its outreach, DocGo struggled to get a foothold in rural Cumberland Furnace.

Lottie Stokes, the president of the community center in Cumberland Furnace, said DocGo’s team had “called and asked to come down here.” Stokes said she would rather use the local emergency medical technicians and firefighters, who she knows are “legit.”

Her father-in-law, Bobby Stokes, who’s nearly 80 years old, said he used the mobile clinic before it moved locations.

His wife couldn’t breathe. They pulled into the parking lot and climbed onto the van.

“We wasn’t in there five minutes,” he said. “They done the blood pressure test and what they need to do and put her in the car and said, ‘Get her to the hospital, to the emergency room.’”

The DocGo staff, he said, did not ask for payment: “Nothing.”

“They were more concerned with her than they were with I guess getting their money,” he said, adding that his wife is doing well now. “They told me to get there, and I took them at their word. My car runs fast.”

____

KFF Health News correspondent Brett Kelman contributed to this report.

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Southern California News Group Boys Athlete of the Week: Taylor Bell, JSerra

• October 6, 2023

JSerra water polo player Taylor Bell is the Southern California News Group’s High School Boys Athlete of the Week for Sept. 24-Oct. 1 after he received 41.67% of the vote at the deadline Thursday.

Palos Verdes’ Ryan Rakowski (football) finished second with 20.83% of the vote, and Great Oak’s Amari Delk (football) finished third (16.67%).

Congratulations to all of the candidates for this week’s honor.

To read more about Taylor, click here.

The SCNG Athlete of the Week winners are announced online each Friday morning during the school year.

About the poll: The Southern California News Group includes the Orange County Register, L.A. Daily News, Press-Enterprise, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Pasadena-Star News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun, Daily Bulletin and Redlands Daily Facts.

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