‘Hunter’s conviction blows up Trump’s claim of two-tiered justice system’ — no, it doesn’t!

• June 13, 2024

“This shows our criminal justice system works!”

“No one is above the law, not even the son of a president!”

“So much for former President Donald Trump’s hollow cry of being persecuted by a two-tiered system of justice!”

This was the reaction of the liberal media following Hunter Biden’s conviction on gun charges.

Hold the confetti.

Given the array of serious crimes allegedly committed by Biden family members, Hunter’s gun conviction represents the equivalent of nailing Al Capone over unpaid parking tickets.

Allegations against the Bidens include illegal influence peddling and failing to register as a foreign agent. Last year, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said: “I want to go back to where we were in January when we started this investigation. This was the narrative: the President’s son’s laptop was Russian disinformation; Hunter Biden was a legitimate business guy, just like Jared Kushner; No Biden ever took money from China — that’s what Joe Biden said; No money ever changed hands while Joe Biden was Vice President; Joe knew nothing about his son’s dealings; And Joe never met with or spoke with any of the foreign nationals who had wired the family money.”

The only reasons Hunter stood trial, and now faces prosecution for tax charges, are because A) IRS whistleblowers came forward and alleged Hunter benefited from special treatment, and B) the sweetheart deal the Justice Department negotiated with Hunter’s defense lawyers blew up when the presiding judge refused to go along with it.

“It appears,” said lawyers for one of the IRS whistleblowers, “that if it weren’t for the courageous actions of these whistle-blowers, who had nothing to gain and everything to lose, Hunter Biden would never have been charged at all.”

Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee, said she would not “rubber stamp” the plea bargain given confusion over whether the deal applied only to the gun charges or included a resolution of the tax changes and/or whether the deal protected Hunter from any and all future charges.

As for special treatment, who foots the legal bill for Hunter’s primary defense lawyer Abby Lowell, the powerful A-lister whose past clients include big-name Democrats and Republicans? An IRS agent involved in the Hunter investigation testified before Congress that attorney Kevin Morris, also known as Hunter’s “sugar brother,” gave Hunter $5 million. Morris reportedly paid Hunter’s five-figure monthly rent for California homes; $875,000 for 11 of his paintings; $2 million in unpaid federal, state and local taxes; car payments on Hunter’s Porsche; accountants; other lawyers; travel expenses; child support payments; and payments to Hunter’s vendors and debtors.

President Joe Biden, after his son’s conviction, issued a statement that read in part:

“… I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”

Notice anything missing?

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Biden neglected to reiterate his previous statement that he would not pardon Hunter. Whether Joe Biden wins or loses the election, he immediately becomes a politically immune lame duck. But he won’t pardon his son? And, in the unlikely event Hunter gets jail time, father Joe won’t commute the sentence?

As to the supposedly nonexistent two-tiered judicial system, the FBI acquired the Hunter Biden laptop in December 2019 and did nothing for several months. But if not for the repair shop owner making a copy of its contents, the laptop might have remained buried. The copy ended up in the hands of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who forced its public disclosure and the damning evidence connecting Joe to Hunter’s business dealings.

Several whistleblowers said the DOJ and the IRS “slow-walked” the Hunter investigations. This allowed the statute of limitations to expire on some of the most serious charges.

Finally, the “no such thing as an anti-Trump two-tiered system of justice” crowd must explain the special counsel’s refusal to charge Joe Biden with illegal possession of classified documents, going as far back as when he served in the Senate. But Trump, for allegedly violating the same Espionage Act, remains on the hook.

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder.

​ Orange County Register 

16.5-acre cult settlement in West Hills’ rugged Box Canyon lists for $4.8M

• June 13, 2024

A fabled West Hills compound in rustic Box Canyon, once home to a cult leader and his barefooted followers in robes, is on the market for $4.8 million.

Set on 16.5 acres, the property branded “Xanadu” and promoted for its “boundless potential” boasts 4,000 square feet of living space across several modest houses and a lodge. Combined, they offer seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

It was here that Krishna Venta, a small-time criminal born Francis Hernan Pencovic, proclaimed himself the second coming of Jesus Christ and established his WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Love) Fountain religious sect in 1949. He predicted a global war and set out to gather 144,000 people to rebuild afterward.

In all, there were about 100 members who lived at the Fountain of the World.

Charles Manson and his inner circle of his clan often visited the commune in 1968 for food, shelter and worship. The story goes, the cult leader tried to take over but was asked to leave.

Unlike the Manson Family, Venta’s group was peaceful and dedicated to service. An article that appeared at LAist.com in 2018 described how they came to the aid of stranded motorists and disaster victims, including a deadly plane crash in Chatsworth that killed 35 of the 48 passengers and crew on board.

At the commune, followers lived and worked on grounds “so big that I have to show it in my Jeep — or as we call it, the Jurassic tour,” said co-listing agent Holly Hatch of Calabasas-based Holly and Chris Luxury Homes Group at Coldwell Banker Realty.

The oak-laden landscape features include a natural amphitheater, sandstone rock formations and caves, and a hidden waterfall.

Hatch, who shares the listing with Chris Johnson, said she has heard from potential buyers interested in turning the property into a yoga retreat, a music festival or even a Jewish camp.

“It’s a cool place, and the history is interesting,” she said.

The property was also the site of a double-suicide bombing in December 1958.

Venta and seven followers were killed in an explosion carried out by two disgruntled ex-cultists. The two men left recordings in which they accused Venta of fraud and having sex with their wives.

According to news reports, the blast also decimated a stone monastery and triggered a brush fire.

Still, much of the compound remains as it was.

“If you’re touring the property, you’ll see carvings in the staircase of (Venta’s) teachings,” said Hatch, although she couldn’t remember any off the top of her head during the brief phone conversation.

A bust of the slain leader is on display in a wall alcove in the lodge. It also has a tunnel, which leads from the pulpit.

Hatch said Venta used it to suddenly appear and disappear before his followers.

While some people find the history of the property fascinating, others are drawn by its tranquility.

As Hatch put it, “It’s similar to Topanga in that it feels like you’re far from L.A. even though you’re very close to it.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Rugby FC Los Angeles tries to advance the game

• June 13, 2024

TORRANCE — It’s not necessarily that rugby – or, specifically, Major League Rugby – is a tough sell in SoCal. But part of the challenge faced by Rugby FC Los Angeles in its inaugural season may have been the way the previous attempt to bring MLR to the region ended.

The L.A. Giltinis were named after a drink mix promoted by the team’s owner, Adam Gilchrist (Gilchrist … martini … get it?). They played in the Coliseum for two seasons, won the league’s championship in 2021 but were disqualified from the playoffs the next season over violations of salary cap regulations. Subsequently, they were expelled for “conduct detrimental to the league,” while the Austin team – also owned by Gilchrist – was booted for failing to cooperate with an investigation into player compensation violations.

Seems straightforward. But that likely left a sour taste in the mouths of those who had become supporters.

“I think a lot of the fans of that club were a bit bitter about that, so it was hard to kind of get people back on board,” said Tasman Smith, who played for the Giltinis and is now a member of Rugby FC L.A.

The new franchise, relocated from Atlanta after last season, seems to be building its clientele as it goes.

“You can definitely feel it building slightly,” Smith said. “I mean, if you compare like our first game (March 3 against Dallas), the turnout, compared to our game two weeks ago in San Diego in the Cali Cup, it was a massive growth. And yeah, lots more people out there, people smiling. It’s always good. But (with) a few more wins under our belt, that’s the best way to get fans is to start winning more.”

Rugby FC Los Angeles, the local franchise in Major League Rugby, practices Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Kinetca Soccer Center in Torrance. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

That’s been a challenge. RFCLA (4-8-1), which has won three of its last five but still needs a miracle to snag a playoff berth with three games left, will finish its home schedule at 3 p.m. Sunday against NOLA Gold at the track stadium at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

RFCLA has played some of its home games in the track facility and some in the main stadium in Carson. At this stage of development, playing there probably makes more sense than playing at the cavernous Coliseum. In the meantime, true to the spirit of the rugby culture – the essence of which boils down to beating the bejabbers out of their opponents on the field, without pads, and then joining them for beers afterward – the athletes have been trying to spread the word.

Cristian Rodriguez grew up here, played youth and club rugby here, and was also on the Giltinis roster. When that club was disbanded, he went to New York in a dispersal draft, played there in 2023, then stepped away to run a youth program in Hawaiian Gardens and take over as head rugby coach for Loyola Marymount’s club team.

Christian Rodriguez, left, plays for Rugby FC Los Angeles, the local franchise in Major League Rugby, during a practice Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Kinetca Soccer Center in Torrance.(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

And when Niall Saunders suffered an injury recently, Rodriguez was pulled back into the fray with his new hometown team.

“It wasn’t like I was sitting on the couch,” he said. “I’d been staying active just in case anything came up. I think the plan initially was to take a year off, and everybody knows how that goes.”

He’s been playing since he was 13, part of a SoCal rugby environment that is quietly percolating on the youth and club levels.

“Every year you go to the national championships for youth rugby, a couple of Southern California teams are there dominating,” he said. “It’s not big compared to soccer and football, but within rugby around the United States, it is big.”

Tapping into that rugby community, both youth and adult, is critical in spreading the word.

“When we go out to Saturday sessions at Belmont Shore, for example, or L.A. Rugby Club, it’s literally like a club day you’d see on a Saturday back home in Sydney,” said Smith, who was actually born in New York but grew up in Australia. “You talk to all the younger kids, all the parents and stuff, and try to get them on board as fans of the team and everything, get them to our games.

“Hopefully one day all those young kids will be playing in our academy and then hopefully playing for L.A. in the future.”

Rugby seems hard to comprehend for the novice or casual viewer, but there is this rule of thumb: The ball must be passed laterally or backward, with no screens, picks or blocks, and when a runner is down it’s placed on the ground and play continues almost immediately. If the ball is passed forward, it’s called a “knock-on” and there’s a change of possession.

Beyond that, it’s not that dissimilar to what we know as football – field position, and thus the kicking game, is important. Scoring a “try” (what we know as a touchdown) is worth five points and followed by a two-point conversion try. Drop kicks, for field goals, are worth three points. They play 15-on-15 for 80 minutes, two 40-minute halves, on a field that’s 20 yards wider and 10 yards larger than a U.S. football field, with no huddles and no shoulder pads.

Rugby FC Los Angeles, the local franchise in Major League Rugby, practices Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Kinetca Soccer Center in Torrance. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

Most football players could adapt to rugby, but not all. The 300-pound plus lineman need not apply.

“The anaerobic capacity of football players sometimes just doesn’t match what you get in rugby, because it’s just a full aerobic capacity and it’s just nonstop,” RFCLA coach Steve Brett said. “The football guys are playing 15 and 20 seconds and rugby, you can play for two minutes in a row.”

Stephen Brett is the head coach of Rugby FC Los Angeles, the local franchise in Major League Rugby. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

Wide receivers, tight ends, linebackers and defensive linemen would fit in, Brett said, and defensive backs as well. One of RFCLA’s players, Bruce Yun, was a defensive tackle and linebacker at Long Beach Wilson High, converted to rugby at Long Beach State and was a member of Belmont Shore RFC before the L.A. team signed him.

Rodriguez is not tall – when I suggested 5-foot-7, he cracked, “A little shorter but I appreciate that” – but added: “I’m out there sharing the field with a 6-6 guy. And then another guy who’s maybe 6-2 but also about 230, you know. So it’s for everybody and they all kind of do the same thing. Everybody catches, everybody passes, everybody runs and everybody tackles. Like there’s unique skills within the positions, but everybody’s on the field sharing the same goal to do the same thing. So it’s pretty fun.”

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The L.A. team had a short runway to get assembled and organized following the move from Atlanta.

“We had four weeks to set it up,” Brett said, and “didn’t get all the things that we wanted to put in place. But again, you know, we’ve built it over the last 4 or 5 months … The biggest thing that I wanted to do was just create a culture and create an environment. I mean, the cohesion comes on the backside of that on the field.”

Unlike L.A.’s last team in Major League Rugby, maybe this one will stay a while.

jalexander@scng.com

Rugby FC Los Angeles, the local franchise in Major League Rugby, practices Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at Kinetca Soccer Center in Torrance. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

​ Orange County Register 

Marina’s Quinn Hartman is the Orange County Boys Outstanding Competitor

• June 13, 2024

ORANGE COUNTY BOYS OUTSTANDING COMPETITOR 2023-24

This award recognizes an Orange County athlete who was a standout in multiple sports, a team leader and someone who also excelled in areas outside of sports.

Marina High School senior Quinn Hartman, the Orange County Register’s boys competitor of the year, in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Name: Quinn Hartman

School: Marina

Year: Senior

Sports: Cross country, soccer, baseball

Notable highlights: Quinn Hartman was the captain on three teams — cross country, soccer and baseball — at Marina this school year.

He received the CIF State Spirit of Sport award that annually goes to one male and one female recipient in California “who excel in the classroom, athletics, and are strong contributors to their schools and communities.”

Hartman had a 5.0 grade-point average and will begin attending Caltech in the fall.

He enjoyed being a three-sport team captain and credited cross country coach Emily Taylor, soccer coach Gabe Lucatero, baseball coach Andrew Bynum and Marina athletic director Nick Racklin for teaching him how to be an effective team captain.

“The team captains get to speak up and show where we need to improve,” he said. “I can talk about what worked and what did not work so well so that we can focus on those things in practice.”

He was president of the Marina Science National Honors Society, vice president of the school’s California Scholastic Federation and a member of the National Honors Society.

He said he could not have accomplished all of that on his own.

“I’ve had a lot of help from my parents, my siblings and all of the coaches and people at Marina and all of my teammates who have supported me,” Hartman said.

Hartman played his three sports every year since his freshman year.

“When the seasons overlap it can be a little challenging,” he said. “But what I’ve done during cross country season is train with my soccer teammates outside of school hours. Playing on travel teams in baseball and soccer helps me constantly improve so that when I get to soccer or baseball I’m ready to contribute and help the team win.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Medical debt could vanish from credit reports. What to do now

• June 13, 2024

By Lauren Schwahn | NerdWallet

The burden of medical debt may soon become much lighter for millions of Americans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule Tuesday that aims to remove medical bills from credit reports and prevent credit reporting agencies from sharing medical debt information with lenders. The rule would also forbid lenders from basing their lending decisions on medical information.

The proposal isn’t expected to be finalized until early 2025, and it could face challenges. Here’s what to watch out for and what you can do now to protect your credit.

Why this matters

“Medical bills on credit reports too often are inaccurate and have little to no predictive value when it comes to repaying other loans,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a press release Tuesday.

New safeguards could prevent medical debt from blocking consumers’ access to loans such as mortgages and could elevate credit scores.

Americans who have medical debt on their credit reports may see a 20-point bump in their credit scores on average, the CFPB says.

Beyond its effects on credit, the rule would provide protections that could impact consumers’ health and safety: It would prevent lenders from taking medical devices, such as wheelchairs, as collateral for loans or repossessing medical devices if a loan isn’t repaid.

How does this proposal differ from recent changes to medical debt reporting?

Currently, paid medical bills don’t appear on credit reports or affect credit scores. In April 2023, unpaid medical bills with a starting balance of less than $500 were removed from reports.

Also, as of July 2022, paid medical collections were erased from credit reports, and they are no longer reported by the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Despite the changes, a CFPB report found that more than 15 million Americans still had medical collections on their credit reports as of June 2023. People living in the South and low-income communities were disproportionately affected.

The new proposal would remove all medical bills from credit reports, including unpaid bills of any amount.

Would this rule apply retroactively?

Yes. If finalized, the rule would remove existing medical collections from credit reports and prevent credit reporting companies from sending medical information to lenders going forward.

Will there be exceptions to the rule?

The CFPB says there will be “very limited circumstances” where medical information could still be used in credit decisions, such as where disability income needs to be taken into account for loan consideration or to determine if someone is eligible for medical forbearance.

What to look out for next

The CFPB is accepting comments on the proposal through Aug. 12. The timeline will become clearer once feedback is addressed, but the rule is expected to be finalized early next year, a CFPB official said on Tuesday’s press call.

The 2024 election could also influence the fate of the proposal as well as similar consumer credit protections. A Biden administration fact sheet issued Tuesday cites a recent budget proposal from the Republican Study Committee that calls for defunding the CFPB.

What you can do now

Use AnnualCreditReport.com to check your credit reports for free. Make sure any medical debt information that appears is accurate and in line with the current reporting rules. Unpaid medical collections with an initial balance under $500 shouldn’t be on your reports and neither should paid collections.

If you spot an issue, dispute the error with the credit bureaus right away. Regardless of whether the CFPB’s proposal is finalized, it won’t forgive medical debt or stop medical debt from going to collections. Make a plan to deal with any medical debt you may have. Review your budget and seek help if needed. Your medical provider may be willing to work out a payment plan to help you better manage the bill.

Lauren Schwahn writes for NerdWallet. Email: lschwahn@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @lauren_schwahn.

The article Medical Debt Could Vanish From Credit Reports. What to Do Now originally appeared on NerdWallet.

​ Orange County Register 

Bye-bye cubicles and corner offices: Reserving a desk for the day is new work trend

• June 13, 2024

Dee DePass | (TNS) Star Tribune

Six weeks ago, the public relations firm Bellmont Partners reopened its renovated Edina, Minnesota, office with a catch: Not every employee would have a permanent desk.

Like an increasing number of employers wrestling with work-from-home trends, Bellmont adopted a musical-chairs-like seating system, albeit more high-tech, commonly called “hoteling.” Only 12 of Bellmont’s office workers have an assigned desk. Fifteen others who work mostly from home now use a new software app to reserve a desk for a day whenever they come into the office, which Bellmont requires only one day a week.

A little more than a month under the new system, and with a few tweaks, it’s been working, said Bellmont Partners co-owner Brian Bellmont. Making such a drastic change to the typical office setup, though, took a lot of preparation, including hiring a design consultant, polling staffers about their needs, tearing down walls and weighing various technology options.

More companies are considering switching to a hotel-desk model as they wrestle with hybrid work trends that lead to near-empty offices, wasted space and costly leases. Beyond Bellmont, local companies like law firm Maslon LLP and divisions within Thrivent, Thomson Reuters, Ameriprise and U.S. Bank are among those giving the reserve-a-desk concept a whirl.

Workplace experts caution that hoteling requires careful planning, and a botched transition can sink morale, produce angst and prompt costly turnover. To learn what helps and hurts when it comes to this new workplace trend, here’s what several experts have to say about best practices:

Because hoteling often involves space downsizing, packing up personal items and giving up individual turf, expect some backlash, experts warned.

“People don’t like change, so there will be resistance,” said Lisa Pool, a certified change leader and the workplace strategy leader at architecture and design firm Perkins&Will.

Workers will ask: “Where do I put my kid’s drawings? Or my partner’s picture? Or my favorite pen and pad?” That’s common, Pool said, because people enjoy personalizing their space and “like the predictability of sitting in the same place every day.”

Many employees worry hoteling means “they will spend all their time just trying to find a seat or trying to find their team,” Pool said. She added other concerns involve having to readjust workstations to certain ergonomic needs or individual preferences again and again. Desk hygiene and being stuck in a noisy or high-traffic area were other worries.

For all of those reasons, Pool said to “make sure you have a good variety of options for people to sit or work” and remember “to include them in the process.”

“Listen to them and understand their concerns,” Pool said. “If you just tell people that ‘You will do it!’ and you don’t tell them that it will benefit them, they will resist it. Help them imagine how they can work in the new environment and how they can be excited.”

Before any company tosses out all assigned desks, Bellmont said he would “really encourage leadership to listen to their teams” to understand what’s important to creating a productive and happy work environment.

Based on staff feedback, Bellmont didn’t just remodel. It also hired cleaners to disinfect the newly shared desks each night to ward off colds, crumbs and dirt. Some new additions included cubbyholes for each employee — so no one had to drag home their coffee mug, family photo or ergonomic keyboard each night — small conference rooms workers can reserve and private phone rooms.

“It’s a different model to get used to, certainly. And we totally get that,” Bellmont said.

Pool and human resource experts suggested company managers showcase the positives of not having an assigned seat. Employees can now easily change seats as they work on different projects and with different people, for example.

No one will feel permanently stuck at that desk by the freezing freight elevator shaft or bustling coffee klatch. And anyone needing a “heads-down” quiet day can book a secluded spot. Hoteling can also help office managers control their environments and make hybrid work spaces seem more vibrant and populated by having in-person staffers congregate around each other, Pool said.

“I have worked with companies who, before the pandemic, never would have considered it. Now they are like, ‘Yeah. Got to do it,’” she said. “If you have 400 people, but only 60 are coming in, optimizing office usage through hoteling is about creating energy and vitality and having people feel that energy in the space.”

At the Minneapolis-based developer Ryan Cos., “a lot of clients are looking at different ways to structure the workforce, and hoteling is clearly one of them,” said Ryan’s North Region President Tony Barranco. He said almost every company he’s worked with “is reimagining just how big they need to be and what space they should have.”

He added talking to those pioneering firms that already took the journey can provide useful tips and expertise.

Maslon partner and real estate attorney Jon Septer strongly recommended that office managers hire office architects and project managers with past experience guiding other clients through the change.

Maslon experimented with hoteling for the first time in January after downsizing and moving from a 50,000-square-foot office in Wells Fargo Center to about 35,000 square feet in Capella Tower in downtown Minneapolis.

At first, the idea of sharing desks and offices was a bizarre choice for a law firm, because most new attorneys expect a fancy personal office when they join a firm. It’s just part of the culture, Septer said. But the experts at Perkins&Will as well as a separate project-management firm surveyed Maslon’s partners about how often they actually came into the office and ultimately persuaded the firm to give it a try.

Still, Maslon treaded lightly, setting aside just seven hoteling offices for partners. It wasn’t enough. In the end, 17 people — 13 partners and four paralegals — opted for the flex desks. Now Maslon is leasing additional space to build 10 more hoteling offices and several more permanent offices for partners. Because planning for the move started during the pandemic, Maslon “had a hard time guessing” how much space to allocate to a floating-desk setup, Septer said.

Septer also suggested that other firms make sure their tenant leases include an option to add adjacent office space if hoteling doesn’t work and the business winds up needing permanent desks after all. Invest in personal lockers for employees and easy-to-use software, like the Zoom reservation system Maslon adopted.

“Those things really eased the transition,” Septer said.

Lastly, he advised companies to allow ample time to see if downsizing and hoteling are “really a good fit for us or do we really need to expand?”

“I really think this is a really tricky time for any company to be determining exactly how much space they need,” Septer said.

Barranco at Ryan also suggested companies be patient. Whatever hoteling planners are doing now, “expect it to change again,” Barranco said.

“People are going to need to be flexible and not be worried about making mistakes because the things that will change and happen are things that we are not even aware of,” Barranco said. “The pace at which the workplace and technology is evolving [is swift].”

The hoteling technology Bellmont chose was a big part of making the office transition work, said Account Strategies Director Katie Fitzpatrick.

“We have this Kadence app, and that has been an awesome tool. It provides a map of the office and lets you see where there is an open space, and who will be where,” she said. “If you want to be near a colleague who is working on a project you are working on, you can book that seat. And you can book it for a full day or in increments.”

The app-based system sends workers daily reminders about which desk they reserved on which days. Workers “check in” using the Kadence app each morning.

Fitzpatrick found she liked its flexibility. One day, she booked a desk near the kitchen and found it loud. Another day, she unknowingly booked a desk under the air-conditioning vent. Kadence let her change desks “on the spot.”

Andrew Fritz, whom Bellmont hired to help its redesign, used training videos so employees could easily learn the app.

Similar workplace management software — such as OfficeRnD, Skedda, EnvoyDesks, EMS Desk Booking and Tango — lets workers not only reserve a desk but also report problems to managers. That feature comes in handy if a desk is missing a cable, has a wobbly leg or if a previous worker forgot an item there, Fritz said.

Bellmont likes how the shift to hoteling didn’t break the bank, either.

“Small businesses are going to find that it’s not as expensive to embrace this approach as they think it is,” Bellmont said.

He spent roughly $15,000 on his office renovation and desk reservation system, including $1,400 for each conference room camera system and roughly $1,100 for the Kadence software. So far, employees aren’t complaining.

“We got a strong indication from our team that everybody would love their own office,” Bellmont said. “But this seems like a good compromise.”

©2024 StarTribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Hollywood’s A-listers are lining up behind Joe Biden. Will their support matter in November?

• June 13, 2024

By WILL WEISSERT (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Robert De Niro showed up outside a Manhattan courthouse to decry Donald Trump as his New York hush money trial was winding down, it sparked a life-imitates-art screaming match with a nearby group of the former president’s supporters.

“You are gangsters!” De Niro, who starred in “Goodfellas” and won an Oscar for “The Godfather Part II,” shouted at the Trump backers, who responded with obscenities.

There are plenty more Hollywood storylines still to come in the 2024 campaign: Celebrities are increasingly lending their star power to President Joe Biden, hoping to energize their fans to vote for him in November and to entice donors to pony up for his reelection effort.

On Saturday, A-listers George Clooney and Julia Roberts will team up with former President Barack Obama at a Biden fundraiser in Los Angeles, where the three will be interviewed by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. Roberts and Kimmel have already begun soliciting donations via text for Biden, who is skipping a weekend peace conference on Ukraine being held in Switzerland to attend the event.

Director Steven Spielberg is involved in storytelling efforts for the Democratic National Convention in August. Lenny Kravitz, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor have all performed for Biden donors.

Others who’ve sent fundraising emails, organized events or otherwise lent their support include Connie Britton of “The White Lotus” fame, singer-songwriter Carole King, “Bridgerton” creator Shonda Rhimes, singer Christina Aguilera, “The Equalizer” actress Queen Latifah and “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill, who turned up in the White House briefing room last month to personally praise the president.

And, in another instance blurring lines between real life and make-believe, during a fundraiser at the home of veteran actor Michael Douglas, Biden, the actual president, congratulated the star of the 1996 hit “The American President” on his fictional administration’s success.

Ballot box star power?

For all the celebrity supporters, though, there’s little expectation they can determine votes. Rather, they are seen as having the ability to inject excitement that helps energize supporters.

Lexi Underwood, whose credits include the streaming series “Little Fires Everywhere,” calls acting a “contact sport” that allows her to interact with the public and makes her determined to use her influence responsibly. She has participated in a recent virtual ”Students for Biden” event and traveled to Nevada to appear at campaign events focused on women’s health issues.

“I’m very fortunate to have certain eyes on me,” said Underwood, 20. “I feel really responsible to make sure that what I put out there, either people are being informed on things that they weren’t previously informed on, or that I’m motivating them to get out there and vote.”

Biden’s campaign says its chief focus is finding authentic and trusted messengers who can promote the president’s policy achievements and raise the alarm about GOP “extremism,” and that means deploying everyday supporters as well as famous ones. It has produced ads featuring a Pennsylvania union worker, a Black entrepreneur in Detroit and women adversely affected by strict abortion limits in Texas.

Fai Nelson, a human resources worker who attended a recent Vice President Kamala Harris event in Prince George’s County, Maryland, said celebrity voices can make a difference “if they can touch the audience.”

“It’s whether the message is relevant,” said Nelson, 42.

Lessons from last time

During the pandemic-era campaign of 2020, Biden’s campaign featured celebrities in scores of virtual events that showed the importance of staying flexible so that stars can present themselves in the most authentic ways.

Adrienne Elrod, who served as Biden’s 2020 director of surrogate strategy and operations, said famous Biden supporters often “will come forward with their own ideas” on how to help the campaign and what issues they’d like to focus on.

“We’ll oftentimes have ideas for them as well,” she said. “That’s why there’s always a very productive working relationship when we’re engaging these folks.”

De Niro has taken on an increasingly prominent role in Biden’s campaign. Before his confrontation with the Trump supporters, the actor held a press conference calling the former president a “clown.” He’s also attended Biden fundraisers and narrated a campaign ad accusing Trump of having “snapped” after he lost the 2020 election.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the former president’s campaign, said, “The only people in America who support Joe Biden’s failing campaign are elitist Hollywood celebrities,” adding that Trump “speaks for the forgotten men and women of this country.”

Trump has his own list of celebrity endorsers, which includes musicians Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, UFC CEO Dana White, media personality Caitlyn Jenner and actors Dennis Quaid and Jon Voight, as well as comedian Roseanne Barr.

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Elrod said other stars are anxious to follow De Niro’s lead for Biden but are waiting “until the moment can truly be maximized” before they get involved. She pointed to 2020, when Bruce Springsteen narrated a Biden ad featuring his song “My Hometown” just before the election.

“I think you’ll see more moments like this, when we’re using those voices strategically and effectively at the time that makes the most sense for us on the campaign,” said Elrod, who is a Biden campaign spokesperson this cycle.

David Schmid, an English professor at the University of Buffalo who studies popular culture, said celebrities can influence fans’ aspirations and what they consume. But their influence “over peoples’ voting habits has been really exaggerated,” he said.

That’s the case for Alex Dillion, a rising sophomore at American University in Washington who also attended the Harris event in Maryland. Asked which famous person might influence him politically, Dillion offered, “Maybe Obama.”

Taylor Swift Effect?

Schmid said one celebrity with outsized political influence might be Taylor Swift, who sent shockwaves even through the NFL last season. She endorsed Biden in 2020 and is being openly courted by the campaign this time on social media, and even in a press release that saluted her latest album.

Her touch isn’t a guarantee of victory, though. In 2018, Swift endorsed two Democratic candidates in Tennessee who lost. And Schmid said that even someone as famous as Swift “knows things are polarizing and they don’t want to take major risks” on candidates and contentious issues.

For all the Biden team’s work with celebrities, the president still tries to cultivate the image of someone in tune with ordinary people.

During a campaign swing through Saginaw, Michigan, the president visited a public golf course and met with community activist Coleman Hurley III and his son.

“The celebrities that have everything they want and they need, they may possibly be out of touch,” the older Hurley said later in a phone interview.

As for ordinary Americans, Hurley added, Biden needs to be able to “relate and see where they live … and then have a conversation about some of the different struggles or issues that we, or other Americans, face.”

​ Orange County Register 

Vampire Weekend delivers a terrific set of hits and humor at the Hollywood Bowl

• June 13, 2024

Midway through Vampire Weekend‘s night at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, singer-guitarist Ezra Koenig paused to remind, or perhaps inform, fans in the packed amphitheater of the night’s special theme.

“Now some of you may be aware, and some of you may not be, but it’s ska night at the Hollywood Bowl,” Koenig said, noting that opening acts the English Beat and Voodoo Glow Skulls are bands that had influenced his band from the start.

“So there’s actually a bit of ska in Vampire Weekend,” he continued. “It’s one of the 17 secret ingredients in our proprietary Vampire Weekend recipe.”

All of this – said quite seriously, but also with a sense of humor – served to introduce the next song in the set, a ska-tified version of Vampire Weekend’s own “Ottoman,” renamed “Skattoman” for the night.

In many ways that spoke to what makes Vampire Weekend such a delight on stage. For as sincerely as Vampire Weekend takes its music on the albums, there’s often a silly sense of fun that surfaces on stage to make memories ever more endearing. (This is a band, after all, who at Coachella this year  brought out both Paris Hilton and a guy dressed as Abraham Lincoln to play cornhole on stage with them.)

On Wednesday, the show opened intimately, with Koenig, bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson, alone on stage, playing stripped-down versions of “Holiday,” “Cousins,” and “Boston (Ladies of Cambridge,” early songs from its 2008 self-titled debut and 2010 sophomore release “Contra.”

A black banner emblazoned with the band’s name added to the no-frills nature of the opening songs, and wasn’t hard to imagine seeing Vampire Weekend like this as it stepped off the Columbia University campus where it was born in 2006 and into its earliest live gigs.

The two Chrises slipped behind the curtain, leaving Koenig alone to start the next song, “Ice Cream Piano.” As its gentle opening verse and chorus ended, the curtain dropped, and the full band kicked, seven musicians in all, rocketing the song to a thrillingly clamorous finish.

“Ice Cream Piano” was the first of nine songs played off Vampire Weekend’s strong new album, “Only God Was Above Us,” its fifth studio release, which arrived in April. More perhaps than any of the records that preceded it, “Only God” is a rock record, a fact underscored by the power of its songs alongside the more delicate indie pop of the early albums.

“Classical” and “Connect,” which followed “Ice Cream Piano,” still present Koenig’s high, delicate vocals, but beneath them the sound was fuller, thanks in part to addition on this tour of four touring musicians: Keyboardist Will Canzoneri, percussionist Garrett Ray, and multi-instrumentalists Colin Killalea, and Ray Suen.

Highlights early in the set included such earlier songs as “White Sky” and “Cape Cod Kwasa Kwasa,” both of which featured the interlocking Afropop influences that signaled a freshness in Vampire Weekend’s sound as it broke out 15 or so years ago. In contrast, “This Life” and “Sunflower,” both from 2019’s “Father of the Bride,” showed off an equally intricate guitar style, but one that marked the band’s shift to a more modern rock feel.

After “Oxford Comma,” one of the most charming songs in Vampire Weekend’s catalog, Koenig brought out Ariel Rechtshaid, the band’s longtime producer, to “bring some nasty tones” on electric guitar, which he, in fact, did. “Capricorn” and “Gen X Police” rocked as hard as anything Vampire Weekend plays, powered by Rechtshaid’s big riffs while allowing room for lovely bits of piano and bass to stand out on the latter.

While many of the fans around seemed to know and sing all the words to every new song – remarkably so, in fact – older fan favorites such as “Diane Young,” “A-Punk,” and “Harmony Hall,” stood out even more as the main set wound down. “Hope,” which closes the new album also closed the main set, its beautiful melody playing on as first Koenig, and then the rest of the band departed the stage, one by one, until only Baio was left to play the final refrain on bass.

The silly fun returned in full force for the encore, which opened with “Dangerous Knife (The Night is a Knife),” which Koenig wrote and sang for comedian-actor Tim Robinson’s very funny, very strange Netflix series “I Think You Should Leave.” It sounds like a Vampire Weekend song, more or less, until you notice that it references such topics as “sloppy steaks,” a bit from the show we won’t attempt to explain here, and other oddities from the mind of Robinson, who came out at the end of it.

Another ska version of a Vampire Weekend song popped up next, with “Giving Up the Gun” transformed into “Giving Up the Skun.”

Five years ago at the Bowl, the band took requests shouted out by fans during its encore, focusing mostly on its own songs, but including a bit of Thin Lizzy’s “Boys Are Back in Town,” too. On Wednesday, Koenig announced that this tour they’re taking only cover requests that really challenge the band.

Which the band was when confronted with shouts for Steely Dan, the Grateful Dead, and the B-52s. That produced, in the same order, a decent first verse of “Peg” before Koenig ran out of lyrics he knew, a solid chorus of “Touch of Grey,” and a hilarious attempt at “Rock Lobster,” its improvised lyrics a string of nonsense barked out in the style of B-52s’ singer Fred Schneider until Koenig finally reached a line he actually knew.

Then, as the clock ticked down to the Bowl’s 11 p.m. curfew, “Walcott,” Vampire Weekend’s traditional closer, set the crowd to dancing and singing along, happy, laughing, satisfied.

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​ Orange County Register